SUMMARY: Sari takes an interest in Ittetsu, Ittetsu tries to impress Sari, and Matsuri goes House hunting – plot is evened out amongst Team 5
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I own my dog
Matsuri, Sari, & Ittetsu
CHAPTER 4: House Hunters and Tightening Bonds
"Matsuri?"
The brown haired kunoichi opened her eyes to see an angry looking guy leaning over her. She blinked, confused. Who was he, exactly?
"Matsuri!" he said irritably. "GET UP!"
Matsuri woke up all the way, sitting up. "Geez. You didn't have to wake me up so rudely! And who are you, anyway?"
The man with the spiky brown hair closed his eyes, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance. "It's me, KANKURO!"
Matsuri blinked in surprise. "Uh… oh. I didn't recognize you with out your make-up-"
"FACE PAINT!" Kankuro yelled, putting his hands to his head and storming out. Once he was gone Matsuri got up and got dressed. Gaara had a medic-nin stop by the night before to properly bandage and inspect her ankle. The medic-nin had also given her crutches, so she wouldn't have to put weight on the injured foot. Gaara had been right about one thing, no missions for a while.
Sighing, she shuffled out of the Kazekage residence with the crutches and headed to the training field.
…K~S
Sari and Ittetsu sat on opposite sides of the training field. Sari wondered why Ittetsu acted so weird the night before. Pushing that out of her mind, she stood up and picked a kunai from her weapons holster. There were some kunai practice logs in the clearing, and it didn't hurt to practice her throwing.
She threw one after a moment, her aim good. A perfect shot. Smiling, she walked back to get it, hoping it was still as sharp as she'd had it that morning.
"Good throw."
Sari jumped. A little too close behind her was Ittetsu. He wore an expression of indifference. Sari handed the Kunai to him. "Want to try?"
Ittetsu's mouth twitched, and nodded, taking the kunai and stepping back. Sari watched as Ittetsu judged his angle, and with a quick flick of his wrist shot the kunai perfectly in the center. It lodged deep with a muted thud.
"You're good." Sari murmured, pushing back a twig of jealousy. She was okay with Matsuri being a star, but she'd wanted to be good at something, anything, that Ittetsu wasn't good at already.
"Thanks." He murmured, dislodging the kunai and handing it back to her.
"What else can you do?" Sari asked, sliding the knife back in her holster.
Ittetsu thought about it for a moment before putting up a stance. "Taijustsu. Are you any good?"
Sari shook her head. Ittetsu chuckled and moved from his stance. "I'm not brag-worthy good, but I know some moves."
"What about Ninjutsu?" Sari asked.
"I'm not extremely good." Ittetsu explained. "I've only remembered one or two hand signs, and my chakra isn't…." he sighed, shrugging. "I don't know."
"Not controlled enough?" Sari offered. Ittetsu blushed, nodding. "Well, that's why we are in these squads, to improve our skills."
"Yeah, if only Hayate-Sensei would actually help us to improve." Ittetsu muttered.
"Well, it doesn't just have to be Hayate who's helping us out." Sari pointed out. "We can help each other."
Ittetsu blushed again, looking down at his feet. "Sure. I'll help you with taijustsu, and you can help me with chakra control."
"Okay okay." Sari said, smiling brightly.
Ittetsu smiled back, right as Matsuri walked into the training area, looking slightly surprised to see Ittetsu, the stubborn one, and Sari, the peppy one, smiling at each other.
"Um…" Matsuri said. She watched as the two pivoted a little bit away from each other and blush. "Oi, Sari. Do you mind if I talk to you?"
Sari blinked, glancing at Ittetsu for a nano-second, and nodded. The two kunoichi walked out, leaving Ittetsu to stand alone, unaware of the mysterious person eyeing him from afar.
…K~S
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Sari asked. It was weird seeing Matsuri laboring over crutches, her ankle tied up in gauze.
"Well, I have to leave my house, but I…" Matsuri pursed her lips. This was her only weakness. Only herself, Gaara, and a few council members who'd covered her parents knew it. "I don't have any other family." Matsuri ducked her head. "And you're the closest friend I've got right now."
"So," Sari began, smiling softly. "You would like to stay at my house with myself and my parents?"
"I'll pay for my own food and stuff, I just need-"
"I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind supporting you, Matsuri." Sari said, putting a thin arm around her friend. "And we'd love to have you."
Matsuri's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Uh… Sari! You're too peppy!"
Sari blinked, not sure if Matsuri meant it as an insult or if she was complementing, or just stating a fact.
"Don't think too hard on it, Sari." Matsuri said, giving her friend a wary smile.
…K~S
Ittetsu opened an eye as he saw her walk back to the training field.
"Hey, Sari. What did Matsuri want?"
Sari blinked. "Oh. Uh, nothing much." She smiled that cute smile. Her brown eyes warm. "So, do you think you could teach me some taijustsu?"
Ittetsu raised an eyebrow. "Don't you think we should conserve our energy for training with Hayate-Sensei?"
Sari shook her head. "Please, Ittetsu?"
The boy blushed, but nodded. "Alright, sure. Lets start off with something easy."
Ittetsu dropped back into stance. "Watch me now."
Sari's eyes went playful, her smile flirty. "Oh, I will."
Ittetsu blushed at the sound of her voice, but shook his head and kicked out with a leg, bringing it down, and swung the other leg around while punching out. "Simple enough?" He inquired.
Sari nodded. She dropped into the stance he'd used in one fluid movement. Kicking out a foot, she leaned her body down after, swinging her hips in a very sensual, but powerful way, and punched out.
Ittetsu swallowed hard as she punched, her hair falling slightly out of place, her eyes smiling.
Before he had time to recover, she stepped back into a casual stance, facing him with knowing eyes.
"How was that?" she asked, clasping her hands together.
It took Ittetsu a while to answer before finally he nodded. "G-good. That was good. Great, even." He went back to his starting stance. "How about this?" he pushed up off the ground, swinging his leg out and to the opposite side. He leaned back; punching upward, and then did a flip in the air, and finally landed in a crouch on his feet.
Sari looked at him with half closed eyes. She jumped up, performing step after step with grace and divine ability.
When her feet touched the ground, instead of being a stiff, Ittetsu clapped his hands. Sari giggled, bowing low, but in such away that he could see down the collar of her shirt. Ittetsu looked up, blushing hard. When Sari stood up, he was relieved.
"I've got to go. But I'll be back." She announce, twirling around.
Ittetsu started, frowning. "What? But what if the Sensei comes? I don't want to be around him alone!"
Sari looked back, her eyes flirting again. "Come on, be a man. I've got stuff to take care of. I'll be back. And if he comes, make up a good excuse for me, 'kay?"
Ittetsu didn't reply, he just watched her leave, and most likely with a very idiotic look on his face.
"What…." He whispered, "Just happened?"
…K~S
Matsuri sat at the small, but elegant wooden table in the kitchen of Sari's home. Sari's mother Kashike, sat across from her, sipping tea from an expensive looking cup.
"Are you sure it's okay I stay here?" Matsuri asked Kashike.
The woman smiled. "Tsuchino and I would love to have you. We have a spare bedroom, right next to Sari's bedroom. You'd have to share a bathroom with the whole family. Sari will show you where it is."
Matsuri smiled. "Are you and your husband both ninja?"
Kashike smiled, nodding. "We are both Jonin."
Matsuri perked up. "I want to be a Jonin one day. Do you have any students?"
Kashike shook her head. "Of course, we aren't as young as we once were… we don't have the patients for students."
Matsuri nodded. "I understand. I'd always feel bad whenever I couldn't perform a task Gaara… er, I mean Lord Kazekage," she frowned. It was still weird calling him Kazekage. "Set out for me."
Sari's mother perked up. "That's right. You're our Lord Kazekage's old student. I'm glad that you're in Sari's team." Kashike sighed, looking down at her hands. "You see, a long time ago, there was a terrible mix up in our family."
Matsuri raised an eyebrow. "What type of mix up?" she asked.
Kashike's face paled. "Er… well, my sister, my twin sister, conceived almost the exact time I did. Her child was to be named Sari, same as my own. We both wanted the name; it can be translated to 'Sand village', and we both wanted our daughters to be named after Suna." Kashike took another sip from her cup. "Sari and Sari… they both looked exactly identical! We could never bring them to meet each other, because they looked so much alike!"
"That must be horrible." Matsuri said. She didn't have any cousins, but if she did, she'd spend all the time she could with them. "But… but how does this other Sari effect our Sari?"
"Well, one day, my sister and I decided that we would bring them to meet each other. And when it was time to go home, well, we took home the wrong children." She sighed, folding her hands. "My sister and her husband live a life out side of the ninja world in a small village apart from this one. They didn't believe my Sari when she said she wasn't their true child, and so she lived for a few years without ninja training. She grew soft, and learned to depend on others. My sisters' child, on the other hand, was trained under fine tutors, but the year before she had to start the ninja academy, my sister discovered the truth, that our daughters had swapped places. We reunited with our daughters, only my niece, the other Sari, wasn't so willing to leave." Kashike shook her head. "The other Sari is a manipulative flirt. Nothing but trouble."
Matsuri frowned, touching the metal chopsticks on the table, placed for mainly decoration. "What are the chances that I'd ever meet the other Sari?"
Kashike put a pretty finger to her chin. "Probably never, if you're lucky."
Matsuri smiled. "Good. She really sounds like someone not to mess with."
Sari's mother nodded. "She was able to deceive my husband and I, two jonin, for about 2 years. She isn't to trust."
…K~S
Sari walked back from walking Matsuri to her house. She thought it was sort of sweet how Matsuri really needed a place, but was so quick to offer to leave. Maybe they'd get to become really close friends, now that they'd be under the same roof. And Matsuri really did have a lot of nice bones in her, if only she'd loosen up a little.
On the way to the training field, she bumped into a girl with long dark brown hair and eyes. Startled by the familiar face, she spun around, but the girl, if she was there in the first place, disappeared. Sari shivered, feeling as if anyone were about to stab her in the back.
Hunching forward slightly, she moved faster to the training field. Was it really her? Was it the other Sari?
O…M…Q(Oh my Que): Anyway… did anyone realize that Kashike and Tsuchino were victims of little 6-year-old Gaara? Probably not. Though one of them, Kashike, I think, is a guy, but many people think he's a she, so… too bad. And bonds were tightened! Ittetsu to… Sari… or Sari? And Sari to Matsuri, and the other way around. Too bad we don't have any Hayate Tanaka action happening, I just don't like trying to think of having to write for him- his character is so uninteresting, even though I call him the Crazy-Butt Jonin. I guess I just haven't found any inspiration for him. Oh, and my dog's name is Que-la (the –la comes from a book): maybe I'll make Hayate's character like my dog… I think I could make that work – Keomi~Sage