Ch. 18 Don's Birthday, A Surprising Return
Temari woke up early that morning feeling fully refreshed and happy. "Today's the day." She said excited. She hopped out of bed and dressed herself with one of her newest kimonos. She grabbed her ninja gear and locked her house up. She then began to walk to the village gates.
She saw some distance from her, someone familiar. "Good morning Rain, I trust you slept well." Temari said happily. "Yes I did, I trust the same for you." Rain replied. Temari looked around, "Where the hell is our ride? Gazu is supposed to bring us to Konaha today for Don's birthday celebration."
"Yeah, I wonder where he is, probably still sleeping, what a lazy ass. I don't get it, why are both guys in my squad lazy asses, it's hard to tell who's a bigger one, Don or Gazu." Rain said a bit angry. "Hey, guys!" Gazu yelled out to them as he was running toward them. "Sorry I'm late; I was giving my puppets their final tune ups, making sure we were all set for our journey ahead of us."
"I guess I'll let you slide this time Gazu." Rain said. "Ok, are we ready?" Gazu asked. The two ladies nodded at him. Gazu pulled out a scroll and summoned his chariot puppet. "Hop aboard ladies." Gazu said helping Temari and Rain aboard the chariot.
The three sand shinobi sped off through the gates into the desert. It was a few hours when they finally reached Konaha. "Wow, that was fast, it usually takes a couple of days to reach Konaha by foot." Temari said in surprise. "Yea, that's the reason why I was late, I was putting on the speed modifications on my chariot so we could get here in no time." Gazu replied.
They hopped off and Gazu retrieved his puppet. They walked to Hinata house, where they all had agreed to meet. They walked around back to find Hinata's yard all decorated with party decorations. "Hey guys, I'm glad you could make it." Hinata said. "Hey Hinata." Temari said.
"Hmmm, where's Naruto with that cake?" Hinata said. Just then Naruto came into the back yard with the cake in his hands. "Hey guys." He said happily. "Careful with that Naruto, that's Don's cake." Hinata said sternly. "Don't worry Hinata, I…" Naruto said and he tripped and the cake flew out of his hands. Gazu immediately reacted and caught the cake before it hit the ground.
"Nice catch Gazu." Rain said. "Thanks," he said panting "I'm just glad it's still in one piece." Gazu then placed the cake on the table. Rain helped Naruto up. Then all of a sudden a boy with bushy brows and black, mop top hair jumped over the house and landed smack dap in the middle of the lawn. "Am I late for the party?"
"Lee, nice to see you could make it." Neji said as he came out the house with more food. "Neji, you're here? This is going to be an awesome party!" Lee said excited. "I live here you idiot." Neji said to himself. Then Ten Ten walked around back. "Lee, I told you not to jump over the house like that, it's rude." Then she turned her attention to Neji, "Hey Neji, you ready to party until we can't anymore?" she said.
Neji smiled at her, "I could only expect that out of you and Lee." "Oh come on Neji, don't be a party pooper, you can dance with me, it'll be fun." She said winking at him. Neji turned a light shade of red. Naruto nudged him on the shoulder, "Heh, you go Neji, getting Ten Ten." He said chuckling.
"If you and Hinata weren't together, I'd kill you right now." Neji said in a dark tone, which Naruto then retreated back to where Hinata was. "Hey, Naruto, what's up man?" Shikamaru said as his team came walking in. "Hey Shikamaru." Naruto said walking toward him. Temari then football tackled Naruto sending him flying and hitting the fence. "Back off, he's mine!" she shouted at him.
Shikamaru just stood there in shock. Temari grabbed his arm and walked him to join the rest of the partiers. "Gosh, Temari is such a nut" Chouji leaned over to Ino and said. Ino nodded. Temari turned her head at him and glared. "What did you say fatty?" Chouji's face began to sweat. "Uh, nothing." He said frantically. Temari turned her attention to Shikamaru and joined Hinata and Don's squad.
Eventually everyone made it to the party including the ever bust Tsunade. They all partied and ate. Neji even got that dance out of TenTen with Lee's help. Tsunade just sat there drunk at one of the tables watching the young shinobi dance. "Happy Birthday Don." She said to herself.
Paired up were Rain and Gazu, Temari and Shikamaru, Neji and TenTen, and Naruto and Hinata. Finally the slow songs ended and they all just joked around and talked about Don. Telling funny stories and talking about their last adventures together.
"Hey Temari, can you tell us the story of what happened those long months that Don stayed with you guys at Suna?" Hinata asked. Temari looked a bit in surprise. "Um, sure Hinata." She said getting up on one of the tables. "Ok, you lousy leaf shinobi, it's story time so if you want to listen then come gather around!"
Seemed like everyone knew what the story was going to be about so they all took their seats and listened intently to Temari's story.
"Where to start, well I guess let's start at the beginning of The Outcast Ninja. Kankuro and I were returning home after coming here for some business when we spotted someone lying in the sand with buzzards flying overhead. They were about to swoop down and attack the poor soul so I whipped out my fan and blew them clear across the desert. Don't get me wrong, there buzzards are about three times the size of Chouji over there." Chouji's eyes widened and thought to himself, "Damn, that's a pretty big bird." "When Kankuro and I found the body, we saw it was Don, we weren't too far from home, so I had Kankuro drag him along with us."
"Yeah, literally." Kankuro interrupted. "Hey shut up Kankuro, I'm telling this story not you!" she barked at him, which then everyone chuckled. "Anyway, where was I?" Temari said and thought for a few moments, "Ah yeas." She said.
"Once we dragged his lazy ass back home we had to drag him to a hospital because he had a busted up head." Hinata then elbowed Naruto on the shoulder when Temari said that. "I went a visited him everyday for about a week, while he recovered. I eventually honored his request and enrolled him at our academy, which at the time I thought he was just begging for a death wish, but I did it anyway. I can remember his first day, I watched him as he was in his last hour class with Gazu, Baki-sensei threw a kunai at him and he kneed his old desk so hard that the wooden top flew up and blocked the kunai. Boy, how things got worse after that. Next thing I knew, he was getting in a fight with Gazu, which I might add was a work of beauty. Gazu ended up with a busted up head and looked like utter crap the next day." Everyone including Rain laughed at Gazu. "After that fight, I suppose things did get better. Baki-sensei offered to let Don fight for us in the chunin exams, ontop of that somehow he got this lug of a teammate, Gazu. Then we had that attack on Suna about a good week later. Thanks to my brothers, Gazu and Don's plan and myself, we were able to repel our attackers. The next day, my brother decided to let them graduate, which was more than unusual. It was a bit off for a while, after all, Don was an outsider and now he was the first outsider to actually become one of us." Temari paused for a bit and got her something to drink from talking so much and then walked back to her place where she had been telling her story.
"After he became a full-fledged sand shinobi, I helped him train and gain new techniques like his earth weapons that you saw him use during the exam, I taught him that. This leads us to our next important event in The Outcast Ninja, the search for the third member. Don and I were sparring and it eventually led to where he pretty much had me in a shadow possession. When I reacted to prevent myself from being beaten I accidentally swung my fan too hard and sent him flying quite a distance. He happened to crash land where Rain was meditating. By the time I had gotten there, Don had already made up in his mind that Rain was going to be his third squad member." Rain smiled remembering how happy she was that day. "It was funny to see how excited Rain was, we brought her to the academy and Don introduced her to Baki-sensei as his third squad member. She then ran out the academy screaming at the top of her lungs with joy. After that Baki-sensei whipped those three into shape in no time, which is why they all became chunin. It wasn't long before we headed back here for the chunin exams. After that he was just being a lazy ass more than usual, but you know, that's Don. Then…" she paused. "Then we received orders to help repel an enemy that served as a possible threat to Konaha. Sure, we thought then it was easy, until Don learned it was Kabuto. I guess, something snapped and well, we all know what happened after that." Temari said tilting her head down in sadness, which everyone else was doing as well.
Naruto held his drink up in the air. "To Don, The Outcast Ninja, to the ninja who we all knew and loved, the lazy ass who did what he could for those who he cared for." Everyone picked their heads up and stood up with smiles on their face and shouted in unison. "To Don!"
The party was over and everyone left except for the three sand shinobi. "Well, we should be heading back home; brother has an assignment for me tomorrow so I will need to get my rest." Temari said. "Bye Hinata, see you soon." Rain and Gazu said waving to her as they said goodbye. They got on Gazu's chariot and headed off to Suna.
"We're almost home." Gazu said pointing to the village gates off in the distance. Rain and Temari looked at the gates as well. "Thank God, I'm ready for some sleep."Rain said. Just then a huge explosion went off. "What the hell was that?" Temari said. "I don't know, but it doesn't look good!" he shouted and whipped his chariot horses to go faster.
They zoomed inside the village and saw Baki-sama standing near where the explosion went off. "Sensei, what happened here?" Gazu asked. "We're under attack; witnesses reported seeing a huge scorpion attacking villagers."
Gazu and Rain looked at each other shocked. "It's begun Rain." Gazu said. "Sensei, I need you to get everyone to safety. Rain and I will handle this." Baki-sama looked at him crazy, "But you aren't Don, and it's just the two of you." "Yeah Gazu, I can help." Temari said. "No Temari, I need you to help sensei, you guys are obviously forgetting who we are, we are squad seven, besides, I know just who to go see." Gazu said and he and Rain ran off.
As they were speeding off to find Dan, the village began to be overwhelmed by scorpions of many sizes. "Crap!" Gazu shouted. "There's only a small portion of the village left that isn't consumed by scorpions. Quickly, the Kazekage building is in that area, we must go defend it." "But what about Dan?" Rain asked. "He'll be there, I just know it.
The appeared behind the frontline of ninja that were defending Gaara's office building. Gazu and Rain turned to see Dan riding on his giant scorpion. "Well, well, if it isn't my two team mates, Rain and Gazu." Rain and Gazu glared at him. "Hardly. I'd suggest you stop now, or we will kill you." Gazu said angrily.
"Ha, stop? That's funny. I'm here to seek vengeance on this village for my ancestors defeat and especially you Gazu, for it was your family that lead to their defeat." He said having his scorpion attack him. Gazu and Rain jumped out of the way. Gazu summoned his swordsman puppet and attacked Dan.
"Careful Gazu, these scorpions must have pretty strong poison, if you get stung, you'll die." Rain said. "Thanks for the tip." Gazu said as he was struggling to hold off the scorpion's stinger. Gazu fiercely attacked the scorpion trying to cut off its stinger. Gazu jumped high in the air and chopped off the stinger and the scorpion crawled up in pain. Then an open circle was cleared of scorpions and Dan stepped in the open area. "Come Gazu, let's finish this." He said.
"Let's." Gazu replied. Gazu stepped into the open area and the two of them began to fight. Dan made a hand sign and turned his right arm into a scorpion claw and the other into a stinger. "Crap, how am I going to deal with this?" Gazu thought to himself. He jumped back and quickly summoned his shieldman.
Dan managed to keep blocking his swordsman's attack with his claw. Thankfully he had his shieldman to block the stinger when he was left vulnerable from his attack. "This guy is tough" Dan thought to himself, and then he looked over Gazu's shoulder at Rain who was helping fend off the attacking scorpions. "That's it." He then pushed Gazu back and threw small scorpions at Rain.
"Rain, watch out!" Gazu shouted. It looked like it would be too late for her to react. Rain turned to see the scorpion shurikin about to hit her. She closed her eyes, waiting to be hit when she heard the sound of squealing. She opened her eyes to see a dark hooded figure infront of her with two swords. She looked on the ground to see the scorpion shurikin cut into pieces.
The hooded figure made a hand sign and hundreds of explosions went off in the village vaporizing all the scorpions that had consumed the village. "You mess with my home and my teammates; you're going to die now." Dan turned around to see the hooded figure behind him. Dan swung his stinger at the figure and the figure jumped back and swung one of its swords, chopping the swinger off.
Dan screamed in pain. He then charged at the figure with his claw which too was quickly disposed of by the other sword. Dan fell to the ground with blood soaking the ground from his two lost limbs. "Just who are you?" he asked weakly. "I'm nobody, just an outcast." He said making a hand sign and causing an explosion to vaporize Dan's body.
Gazu and Rain stared at the figure in awe. They were speechless, unknowing of what to think. The figure walked up to Gazu and took off its hood while extending its hand to help Gazu up. "Need a hand buddy?"
Gazu stared at him like he had seen a ghost. "Don, is that you?" he asked. "In the flesh." He replied happily. "Don!" Rain shouted and she ran to him and hugged him. "Is it really you?" she asked happily with tears running down her face. "Yes, it's me Rain. Looks like we are one happy family again. Squad Seven reunited, am I right?" Don said laughing. The three of them began to laugh.
Temari came walking to the site when she saw the three of them in the distance. She stopped immediately in her tracks. "It's can't be. It can't be." She continuously said to herself while she ran to them. Don looked up and saw Temari running full speed ahead at him. Don opened his arms. "Temari!" he said happily and Temari tackled him so fast and so hard that they went skidding across the ground and tears went down her face.
"How, can this be, I can't believe it's you Don." Temari said lightly hitting his chest. "Well, it is me Temari." He said hugging her tightly, "I've missed you guys so much. It's great to be back." He said. The two of them got up and Gazu and Rain walked up to them.
"You bastard, don't ever scare me like that again!" she yelled and hit Don hard over the head with her metal fan. "Damn woman, I come back from the dead and you want to hit me for it? What the hell is wrong with you?" Don yelled. "And I don't even get a happy birthday form you. You're such a bitch Temari." He said sarcastically.
"Bitch? I'll kill you, you bastard!" she said tackling Don and the two of them wrestled on the ground kicking up sand as they did so. "I'm so happy Don is back, things are finally back to normal." Rain said happily. "Ha, you can say that again Rain." Gazu replied as they watched Don and Temari wrestle in the sand.
"Let's go get Sensei and Gaara; they will want to see this." Gazu said. Rain nodded and they ran off. They came back and Don and Temari were still wrestling. "So what Rain told me was true, Don, you are alive." Gaara said and the two sand shinobi stopped their fighting. Don looked up at Gaara upside down while Temari had his face pinned in the sand.
"You bet Gaara. It's nice to be back." He said getting up and brushing himself off. "Though before anything is done or anyone finds out, may I go home, I'm tired and I've had a long day and it's my birthday." He said in a tired tone. Temari hit him upside the head. "Baka, you are tired all the time you lazy ass."
"Well, I see no problem with that. We will talk about this tomorrow. Come see me when you wake up in the morning." Gaara said. Don nodded. Don and Temari began to walk to her house with Temari clung to his arm. They finally got home. "It feels so great to be home!" Don shouted. Temari watched Don as if he was a kid in a candy shop as he ran down the hallway and slid until he got to his bedroom door.
Temari walked to her room and took her shower as Don was doing. Don lay across his bed and Temari walked in and cuddled up next to him. "May I sleep with you tonight?" Temari asked in a shy tone. "Of course you can Temari." Don replied happily and he held her close in his arms and they fell asleep.