Chapter 6: Reunion

Kai walked through Sunagakure with her partners. For some reason, Ukobi felt very uneasy. He kept glancing over his shoulder waiting for an attack to come. It did.

"Ambush!" Jason yelled. He grabbed Kai and Ukobi, trying to pull them behind a building as the sand flew in the wind surrounding them. As they ran, the three dropped to the ground for different reasons. Ukobi's feet flew out from under him, and Jason was slammed in the back by a large gust of wind, which felt like swords being pushed into his back. Kai was held fast by sand beneath her feet, and as she stood there, she looked around, seeing their attackers for the first time.

"Gaara-chan?" she whispered to herself. "Is it-?" Jason saw her face, and to him, her shock looked like fear.

"Raila! Run!" he shouted, and she did begin running, after a moment.

"Not that way!" Ukobi shouted, as she began running towards her attackers. She had startled the person controlling the sand that held her still, so she managed to break free. She couldn't believe her eyes, seeing the boy who had led the attack against her team. She burst through the boy and girl who stood to the right and left, a little forward, from the boy, and she wrapped her arms around him in a hug. Ukobi and the boy himself gasped in surprise. Jason, along with the boy's partners, merely watched what would happen, for it was clear to Jason that people didn't actually hug this boy. As the boy raised his arms beneath Kai's, all of the others gasped in fear and took a step back.

"She is dead," Ukobi whispered.

"You said it," the boy's male teammate agreed. Then, the boy that Kai had hugged actually hugged her back. The others relaxed, except for Jason and Ukobi.

"I wanted to kill you," the boy whispered in Kai's ear. "But something inside me stopped me." Suddenly, the boy's female teammate spoke.

"Who are you?" she asked Kai. "And how can you hug Gaara without him totally killing you?"

"Gaara-chan," Kai whispered again. "My sweet Gaara-chan." She put a hand on Gaara's head as she turned to face the girl. "You were only three then, so you would not remember me, but you knew me by name of Kai." Instant recognition of that name showed on the girl's face.

"Is that so, Kai?" the girl asked.

"Yes, Temari-san, it is me," Kai answered.

"You only look sixteen. How? I mean, you are eighteen, or supposed to be anyway." Kai laughed at Temari, and chose not to actually answer her questions. Instead, she turned back to Gaara. The other boy spoke.

"Still as disrespectful as you ever were," he said. Kai sighed and turned to him. Then she went up to him and hugged him too, but no sooner had she touched him then he had thrown her to the ground. Ukobi noticed this, for he made a remark.

"Are you gay?" he asked in English, not knowing the Japanese for what he wanted to say. Kai translated what Ukobi had asked, and when the other boy angrily shook his head, Ukobi continued. "Because, while I don't think Raila's totally hot, Kitty holds that place, I still wouldn't throw her to the ground if she decided to hug me for no apparent reason." Another translation, and then the boy answered Ukobi.

"I do not like her or trust her," the boy said.

"Then why did you complain for me not greeting you, Kankuro-kun?" Kai asked, sighing lightly.

"I only meant that you never answered Temari's question. I was not complaining, if that is what you thought. Not at all." Kankuro continued to glare at Kai, even when she had turned back to Gaara again.

"Are you sure you are not gay?" Ukobi asked, saying the question himself because he had caught the word for gay from Kai's translation earlier.

"I am sure," Kankuro answered, tight lipped.

"Then why do you wear make-up?" Kankuro sputtered in shock and anger.

"I-IT IS WAR PAINT, NOT-NOT MAKE-UP!" he finally managed to spit out. Ukobi shrugged his response, not understanding what Kankuro said, but assuming it was bad.

"Looks like make-up to me," he said.

"I cannot believe you have grown so much, my little Gaara-chan," Kai said, and at that, everyone grew silent in order to listen to what she said. She took her hands from each side of Gaara's face, which was where she had them, to his shoulders. Then, because she could see that he was becoming uncomfortable with her familiar contact, she took her hands off him completely. "Let us go home," she whispered. As she walked away with Gaara, Temari and Kankuro following closely behind, Ukobi spoke with Jason, returning to English.

"Dude," he said. "She acts like she's his mother."

"I think she is," Jason replied. "Remember the story?" Ukobi took a moment to comprehend this.

"NO WAY," he shouted. "SHE AND HE ARE ONLY A FEW YEARS APART, IF THAT." Suddenly, Gaara stopped, and turned to Ukobi. He looked at him like he was crazy, and then turned back to the path. As Ukobi looked at Gaara, though, he began to put the clues together, or so he thought.

"Evil glare, black eye make-up, tattoo that looks like blood, and everyone's afraid of him. DUDE! You are totally demon worshiper." The last phrase had been spoken in Japanese to Gaara.

"Word that you want is Satanist," Kai said absentmindedly, but Gaara stiffened in indignation.

"I am not Satanist," he said, barely loud enough for Ukobi to hear. "And never call me that again." Then, he walked away with the others, and Ukobi had no choice but to follow Jason as he followed the group.

* * *

At Gaara's home, later that night, Ukobi sat on the floor with his arms crossed. Earlier, he had listened to Kai asking Temari about Yashamaru, only understanding about half of what was said. Then, getting tired of that, he began asking Kankuro about Kai's childhood, trying to learn something about her. When he asked about her relationship to Gaara, the only thing Kankuro said was that she wasn't his birth mother, but she had always acted like she was. During that time, Gaara was with Master Baki doing no-one-knew-what. Now, though, Gaara and Baki had returned, and Gaara was on the roof, or at least, that was what Temari had said. Baki was in the other room, probably asleep.

"There is no way that I am sleeping in same house with Satanist who could kill me in his sleep," Ukobi said, his arms still crossed.

"Do not worry," Kankuro said as he helped Temari lay out sleeping mats for the guests. "Gaara does not sleep."

"That does not help!" Ukobi cried, jumping up. "That means that he is awake when I am asleep. That is worse."

"He stays on our roof," Temari said. "As long as you quit calling him Satanist, he will not hurt you."

"Okay," Ukobi said skeptically. He took his shirt off and pulled his pants halfway down before he remembered that Temari and Kai were still in the room. Blushing crimson, he jerked his pants back on and ran to the bathroom. Meanwhile, Jason took off the layers of his shirt and folded them neatly before putting them beside his pillow. He didn't take his pants off like Ukobi had started to. Ukobi returned from the bathroom with water in his hair and lay down on his sleeping mat.

"There is no way that I am going to sleep with sa- uh, Gaara here," he said. "I cannot. It is imposs-" His claims were interrupted by him snoring, having fallen sound asleep. Kai laughed at Ukobi as she followed Temari to her room. Then she spread out her mat, laid down on it, and tried to go to sleep.