I haven't written for this story in forever, so I've decided to bump up Matsuri, Ittetsu, and Sari's age by a year so I have the excuse to mess up the personalities. Recap from the last chapter: Sari has an identical counterpart who may or may not be back. Matsuri is living with Sari and Ittetsu is confused about where he stands with Sari. Also! Mild suggestive themes but not really.
What is happening now: Ittetsu and Sari are full of love/lust tension and Matsuri has a sweet for her sweet. Set a little after Shukaku removal.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto for obvious reasons
Chapter 5
Don't Mess With a Girl in Love
Matsuri woke up early in the morning, and despite the allures of the warm, soft bed she slept in, she jumped out eagerly and got dressed. She no longer wore her slightly color blind suit of teals and yellows and browns. Instead she wore a simple gray dress and shinobi jacket that fit her slim frame well. She tied her ninja headband loosely around her neck before breathing in the day smiling.
A year had passed since her first kiss and her second move out of an empty house – this time into a home full of warmth.
Matsuri ran out of the room and put her sandals on at the door. The home of which Sari lived was still in slumber, but Matsuri was very awake.
She jogged towards the Kazekage residence, riding a high of happiness. A year ago, she would have had to wait until the sun rose higher in the sky and for more good souls to come out before leaving her home on the bad side of Suna. But now the trip to her lovers abode was closer and safer, and she could see him before and after his Kazekage duties and would be too busy for her.
When she arrived at the tall sandy building that was the Kazekage residence she let herself in and headed straight to Gaara's room. Inside the room was dark and cool, refreshing since she'd run all that way to see him. Gaara rested but didn't sleep, in his bed. Since having the Shukaku removed he was free to doze off, yet old habits died hard, and he remained, for the most part, an insomniac.
However he lifted himself up when he sensed her, smiling a rare smile to Matsuri, his beloved.
Matsuri walked up to him, squatting beside him. They shared a sweet kiss in greeting and Gaara pulling Matsuri to sit next to him on the bed.
Matsuri hummed against his mouth before they broke apart, running her hand through his spiked red hair.
"How are you feeling?" she asked quietly, looking him in the eyes. He looked tired, but not very worn, so she was grateful.
"Fine. It will take a while for me to get back to functioning properly however." He looked down at his hands.
"But you will find a way," Matsuri said, her sureness in him soothing. "You still have your sand power, right?"
Gaara nodded. "I'll need to summon more chakra and get my stamina levels back up for that, but I'm sure it will come back."
Matsuri smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm glad." Matsuri murmured.
…K~S
Ittetsu grumbled to himself on the way to the practice field to meet up with his sensei and team. His face was still a little bruised from getting slugged in the face by Matsuri.
The sandy haired genin of the Sand had become significantly moody and stubborn in the year since becoming genin. Part of it had to do with his crazy jonin leader, Hayate. Hayate Sensei was as crazy as an un-fixed over hyper dog, and was always finding the excuse to throw stuff at him. Also, Matsuri was always using him as her slug puppet, and blindly hit him over the head whenever she felt the need to slug. There was also his part time job at his Uncle and Aunt's restaurant that gave him extra money but an extra thing to do after missions and training. Lastly there was her. Sari. The love of his life and his greatest weakness.
Just thinking about the pretty kunoichi filled him with confusion and regret. He remembered from a year ago how she'd mysteriously become the opposite of Sari and flirted openly with him. The next day she was back to indifference, her tiajustsu skills sucking and her love for him obscured to only simple looks that held something of love and confusion.
He ran a hand through his hair, accidentally knocking off his headband that was attacked to a blue gray bandana. He groaned, turning around to pick it up, and found himself face to face with none other than Sari.
Her shining dark brown eyes gazed into his, making his heart start up unevenly in his heart.
She stood with the headband in her hand, smiling kindly. Ittetsu quickly snapped up and took his headband back when Sari offered it.
"Thanks," Ittetsu mumbled, turning away a little to fasten the bandana.
Sari smiled. "It's funny: Matsuri got up before I did, and yet she is late," she laughed softly. "My parents, Matsuri and I stopped by your relatives restaurant yesterday." She added.
Ittetsu nodded. "My aunt mentioned it," he said. "I…" he looked up, pointing with an amused look on his face behind Sari. She turned around and laughed.
Their sensei and Matsuri raced to the practice field. Hayate was a tall, long-legged jonin, and Matsuri a slightly short, average limb-length genin, yet somehow Matsuri ran close behind Hayate, her eyes sharp and determined.
Ittetsu and Sari jumped back as the two raced passed them, raising a cloud of dust.
"I WON!" Matsuri shouted before flopping forward with her hands on her knees. She heaved heavily.
"Wrong, young kunoichi," Hayate Sensei said evenly. "I won by a foot."
Matsuri stood tall, crossing her slender arms across her chest. "Sore loser! I won, admit it!"
Hayate shook his head. "You can't win against a Jonin-"
"But I did!" Matsuri argued back, getting a little red.
Sari stood between Matsuri and her sensei smiling nervously. "Calm down you two." She turned to Kayate. "Do we have any missions?"
Hayate shrugged. "Not today. Today we are going to be practicing our jutsu."
Matsuri and Sari smiled at each other. Ittetsu groaned.
"I hate jutsu," Ittetsu moaned. Hayate threw dust at him. Ittetsu coughed, whipping the dust from his face. "I love jutsu!"
Hayate chuckled. "Sari, how is your Saboten Hari (Cactus needle) jutsu holding up?"
As answer, Sari shaped a few hand signs and attached chakra strings to cactus needles in a container that hung on her hip. They flew up and hung in the air dangerously poised so that with just the slightest twitch of her concentration would send them falling down. The needles were covered with poison, and with the chakra wires she'd learned how to make, the jutsu was impressive.
"Good job Sari," Matsuri said, smiling at her best friend.
Sari smiled and guided the needles back into their container.
Hayate nodded. "Good job indeed." He turned to Matsuri who stood waiting. "Matsuri?"
The short brown haired kunoichi smiled and focused her chakra to her robe javelin. A half year ago she found that she had wind element style chakra, so Gaara had Temari teach her how to mold that chakra into her weapon of choice.
Matsuri swung the javelin in a circle, focusing the wind in her chakra and shaped it into the swing of the javelin and pushed out, creating a spiral tunnel of wind that blew away a few trees as Matsuri steered the tunnel.
"Defense in an offense." She said, smiling.
"Excellent," Sari said happily.
"Needs work," Hayate murmured. Matsuri tried to jump on the jonin but he danced out of the way. "Ittetsu, show us your jutsu!" he exploded (not literally).
Ittetsu groaned again. Hayate threw a wooden staff at Ittetsu's head. Ittetsu stopped groaning and settled for sighing softly. Over the year Sari had helped him improve his chakra control, but he didn't have any imagination for creating jutsu and his family didn't have any special jutsu within it.
"Okay," he said softly. "I haven't figured it out yet, and-"
Hayate hit Ittetsu on the head with a hardback copy of Breaking Dawn. "You are supposed to have formulated a jutsu!" Hayate said, stating the obvious. "If Bella can figure out how to push her shield from her body to surround others like Edward and her vampire/human baby Renesmee, you can create a jutsu!"
Ittetsu rolled his eyes, which was rewarded by a hit on the head by a copy of Eclipse, also a hardback.
"Damn it, quit hitting me with Stephanie Meyers books!" Ittetsu grumbled.
"Why do you even have them?" Matsuri asked skeptically.
Hayate shrugged. "It's a good read," the crazy jonin said aloofly. "Anyway, you have by tomorrow to create a jutsu, Ittetsu, or I'm sending you back to the ninja academy for a month!"
Ittetsu screamed and Tobi-danced. "YOU CANT DO THAT!" Ittetsu said angrily.
Hayate laughed and got up in Ittetsu's face. "Guess what, I can!" Hayate hit Ittetsu on the head with a hardback copy of New Moon.
…K~S
Matsuri pretended not to notice Sari frowning at her noodles while she ate, but it was hard.
Sari had the 'Sad Face' of a half drowned puppy who Just wanted to be loved!
"M-Matsuri?" Sari began, barely noticing her friend cringe. Sari's father glanced at his wife and they both shared a shrug.
The shorthaired kunoichi sighed. "Yeah, Sari?"
Sari smiled a little. "Okay, okay. I know it's crazy, but we should try and help Ittetsu."
Sari's mother, Kashike looked at the two friends in interest. "You mean your crush, Sari?"
Sari went tomato red, had herself a spasm, and then calmed herself down. "I don't like him, mother." She said tightly. Sari's dad chuckled and forcefully directed his wife away from his daughter. "Thanks dad," Sari called.
Matsuri started eating again. "You should stop by the Cranky Mules house and help him out, Sari."
Sari glared at Matsuri, who was eating as if it were her last meal. "I don't want to do it alone. It's late and what would people think if we-"
But the cute Matsuri wasn't listening. She wanted to be elsewhere. "Here's an idea to help the kid. He has strong chakra, but it's not controlled well. So how about a chakra shield?"
Sari brightened instantly, because, of course, moody wasn't her style. "That's perfect. It will be easy to manage, and useful… but a chakra shield isn't original." Sari got gloomy again.
Matsuri rolled her eyes. "Since when has the mule been original?"
Sari giggled, instantly cheery again. Bowing she said, "You are very wise, Matsuri-sama."
"Of course I am," she laughed. "And who am I to not help out a fellow kunoichi in her fight for love?"
Sari had been smiling brightly throughout Matsuri's words, until she heard 'in love'. Luckily the wise Matsuri was quick and escaped through the kitchen and outside before Sari could harvest her anger.
Even if Matsuri loved fighting with Sari when the girl was fierce (a rare thing), she had places she really wanted to be.
…K~S
The room was nice and quiet, romantically candlelit. Kankuro had a mission he was attending and Temari was out late with some friends. Not that Matsuri didn't like Gaara's siblings, but it was just so much more easy being romantic without them busting in to harass their little brother, and her as well in the process.
Matsuri brought dessert and was coaxing her favorite redhead to try it.
"Common, it's yummy." Matsuri said, inching the tiny spoon dangerously close to Gaara's mouth. The rest of the pudding rested on a small table squat on the ground where they sat.
The dessert of the day was rice pudding.
"The Kazekage doesn't eat things classified under 'yummy', Matsuri." Gaara said, but not unkindly.
Matsuri rolled her eyes and pushed the spoon into her mouth thinking. "Well, you aren't the Kazekage now. You are Gaara, Matsuri's faithful boyfriend who is super cute and going to try the pudding!" her voice got a little scary, but not scary enough to sway the Kazekage of the Sand.
"Maybe dumplings, or-" Gaara started but a spoon has lodged itself between his lips and the foreign taste of rice pudding fell in his mouth.
Matsuri grinned. "Well? It's good, admit it!"
Gaara swallowed and downed it with some water. Finally he looked at Matsuri. "I don't like it."
Matsuri pouted, pushing the small table aside gently and then proceeded to getting in his face. "Gaara, that's not fair," she argued, slapping his chest lightly. He smiled softly, and wrapped her in his arms.
She smiled, in a second forgetting that she was embarrassed about being wrong, and leaned into him.
Gaara leaned back onto the ground, and Matsuri lay just over him. When their lips pressed together a nice warmth spread through them both. They rolled once, Gaara above Matsuri and his lips still on hers.
Gaara could taste the rice pudding on her mouth, but was glad that the signature Matsuri taste was still there. Otherwise he probably would break off the kiss. He couldn't ask her to brush her teeth.
So they continued to kiss until the sound of a door closing from the lower levels of the mansion sounded in their ears. Temari's random chatting with herself could be heard.
Matsuri rested her head on the ground and peaked up at her favorite person from the corner of her eyes. He looked a tad annoyed that his sister chose to come home early, but there was also resolve in his eyes.
She slid from under him and he leaned back to let her up. "I should go," she murmured.
Gaara's stare was now unreadable. "You can, but I doubt Temari would suspect, or mind, anything. We could go watch the skies."
Matsuri smiled and nodded. "That'd be nice."
…K~S
"OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY OH MY!" Sari wailed, turning away from the 'In a way, but not really, well, it depends on how you look at it' nude Ittetsu.
And because this would probably be an M rated fanfic if he was, he isn't, Sari just suspects he is.
Ittetsu grumbled, trying with a burning passion to control his freaking out as he swiftly pulled on some pants over his underwear and then a shirt.
"Oh my," Sari whispered. She was blushing and fanning herself.
"I wasn't really naked," Ittetsu mumbled, though he was as red as… something that is really red, and still screaming on the inside.
"Okay, okay." Sari said, trying to get the panic out of her system. "I, I came here to help you with your jutsu, and give you an idea… but you were asleep."
Ittetsu blinked. "Oh yeah. I figured Hayate was being crazy about the whole 'Send you back to the ninja academy' thing."
"I don't think so." Sari said. "Besides, I figured out the perfect jutsu for you!"
Ittetsu perked up a little. "Really. You did that for me?"
Sari faltered. She hadn't wanted to come alone, it was Matsuri's brilliant idea behind the jutsu, and she felt selfish.
"Yes, all for you." Then she put a finger in the slug/mule puppets face. "So you better work, okay, okay?"
Ittetsu gulped. "Okay, okay."
Sari frowned, "Um, hey, that's my random speech normalcy!"
"Sorry!" Ittetsu said, smiling. He was grasping that he'd get to spend the whole night with his crush.
How's that for a chapter after a month? I could have finished this 2 days early, but I was swept in by the power of True Grit 'Never doubt the Texas Ranger', Bleach '… (fighting, ya!)' and the Last Air Bender 'Yip yip!'. The Air Bender never gets old. Anyway, I'm going to end the chapter there. How was the chapter, did you like the lovey-dubby parts and were they appropriate? Next chapter, did Ittetsu figure out the jutsu, or not, and what ever happened to the other Sari? And I realized that readers might not get my 'Slug-Puppet' thing. In Naruto Shippuden episode 32 you get to see Ittetsu balling, and then Matsuri punches him on the head and then pushes him in the face, which inspired the slug puppet thing. How's that for creativity. Anyways, review so I get motivation, and keep on writing and or reading :) – Keomi~Sage for the Win! 'Yip yip!'