Part 3 Family & Theft
The sand guards surrounded me, this Kazekage obviously meant all that he had said, I raised one eyebrow in amazement. Gaara or Kazekage-sama should I say, stood up from his chair with a smirk at my amazement. I crossed my arms in a pose of obvious defiance, I was not going to breakdown, what life did I have outside of here anyway?
"Right then, follow me and I will show you to where you will be, er, staying," he said all this and looked me straight in the eyes; I glared back with one of my most burning glares that my best friend new all too well. I smiled as I thought what she'd say in this situation, with her dry sarcastic ways.
I walked down the corridor with the guards surrounding me. I thought fleetingly that I could have probably overpowered them, but Gaara had some kind of chakra filled sand which was clearly a threat, it intrigued me. I saw the line of destruction Kotaro and I had done with our mission impossible and giggled. Gaara looked back and rolled his eyes with annoyance at me. I spotted Kankurou in a near by doorway, he smirked, so I stuck a finger up at him and my tongue out, he looked taken a back, serves him right, stupid cat suited freak.
The young Kazekage stopped at a near by door just diagonal from Kankurou's door. Great, now I get to live near cat man, could my life get any better. The door was opened and I was shoved in to my 'room' or as I like to refer to it, PRISON! I turned to look at Gaara; I was determined to keep my defiance up, so I ran and jumped on the bed and I put Kotaro on it so he'd bounce. Gaara looked at me in amusement, and then closed the door with a sigh; I heard the footsteps of the council members fading. I looked around my room, well it was more impressive than my old home of the Hoshikage's Manor, the young Kazekage really knew how to furnish a place. I fell back onto the fluffy pillows of my four poster bed, well at least I had Kotaro for company, I looked at him on my feet. Great, just great, I had an ancient obese bird to talk too, that really didn't have a connection with me. I sat and wondered why Kotaro had chosen me, why not some sand ninja? I looked around the room; the walls were made of sand, no shit Sherlock! I was in the Hidden Village of Sand, what else would it be made out of, idiot. I had a bathroom, well at least I wouldn't start stinking the room out or if the worst came to the worst, I could always drown myself. Yeh, I always look on the bright side of life don't I.
Then someone knocked upon the door, so that means I am allowed human company, thank Jashin. A woman came through the door, she had blonde hair in four bunches at the back of her head, she wore a dark navy blue kimono with a red waistband and she carried a huge fan on her back.
"Hello Keitii, I am Temari," how did she know my name?
"Er, right, who are you exactly?" I didn't feel stupid about being this forward; she was part of Suna, who had locked me away so I certainly didn't owe her anything,
"I am the Kazekage's sister and I live in the Kazekage Manor along with my brother Kankurou-"
"What, cat man?" she furrowed her eyebrows, "Well he looks like a cat in that stupid suit he wears,"
"I suppose," she said slowly as if she didn't quite get it, well you know what they say about blondes, "Anyway, do you want something to eat and drink?" hmm lets think on this, I have travelled miles across a scorching hot desert for weeks, also recovering from serious injuries,
"You bet, I am soooo hungry," I said as my stomach gave a loud rumble, Temari smiled and exited, as she did I could see a guard outside my door, stupid bastard. I didn't mean what I said about going away; I didn't have anywhere else to go, that's why I came here. Why do I always have to get myself into weird situations?
I had probably laid on my bed for about ten minutes of deathly boredom before I decided to do what my best friend Makaiko had taught me to do in these situations, make it into a fun game. So what could I make into a game, I knew what to do,
"Oi guard, ninja person!" wow, excellent phrasing there once again outdoing your own stupidity, "What rank mission is this, you must be a very weak or low down the ninja scale to be doing something as tedious and time wasting as this!" god I am good at annoying people because he turned around to look through the slot in my door and tell me to shut it or he'd give me something to whine about, I did an evil little grin, I knew how to crack a guy, "Well you know what they say about men with big egos, big ego small-" Temari came through the door, and as I always do, I said it in the wrong place and at the wrong time, "Cock," then I envisioned Makaiko (who incidentally seemed to be my conscience now a days) bashing me round the head shouting hentai, as she had done on other previous occasions,
"Keitii, please do not try to provoke the guards as that may anger Gaara who also lives near by your room,"
"I am not scared of that young Kazekage, why do you all fear him anywayz?" well they all seemed to be petrified of him even his sister and brother were over cautious,
"Well all I will say for now is it would be a deadly situation to be in," ooooooooookaaaaaaaaaaay, "You may go now" Temari said to the guard,
"Thank you Temari,"
"I will keep watch for now," she sat on the end of my bed with her back to the door.
I started wolfing down the food; you just don't appreciate food and water till you have gone without for days. Temari was looking at me in a puzzling way,
"Take a picture it'll last longer," Temari rolled her eyes and sighed at my child like behaviour, who was she calling child like!
"You are a surprising girl aren't you?" I was taken a back by her unusual comment,
"What do you mean?" I said, starting to get to one of my other aspects of confusion,
"Well apart from your confident and forward personality, you are very young to have travelled miles I believe, as Sunagakure is in the middle of the desert, you only look 16, that's a year younger than Kankurou and even he never travels that far alone, I didn't travel far on my own until now, I am the ambassador and travel to Konoha a lot, you must not have eaten for weeks unless you have a huge amount of chakra to speed up the journey," good grief how much could she tell about me, it was creepy, but she was doing what a ninja does, never asking for information without giving it first, I looked at her trying to think what to say,
"Yes I am 16 and have travelled many miles through forest and desert,"
"A forest is big so, your home village must be near Konoha if it's next to the forest next to the desert," she knew too much from reading in between the lines already, "Where do you come from and who exactly are you?"
"It is true my village is near Konoha, my village is, Hoshigakure," I did not particularly want to talk about my past,
"I have never entered as you don't trust outsiders much do you? I believe you are protective of that chakra filled star,"
"You know a lot,"
"Our villages are allies, so my father who was the fourth Kazekage visited it," her father knew my father, what are the chances of that? Does she already know who I am? No, I was being paranoid, as per usual; I blame genetics for my paranoia! "Iwagakure recently attacked didn't they? We sent our ninjas to help as soon as we could, the last we heard the Hoshikage's wife and son died and they couldn't find the daughter so she must have run," oh, she knew alright, mind you they wouldn't give me up because of the position I was in with Kotaro, I looked up, he had once again made my hair into a nest, why did I even bother doing my hair?
Temari gave a little cough to jerk me back to reality,
"Fine, I am the Hoshikage's daughter and I know you won't give me up with Kotaro choosing me and all," Kotaro looked at Temari with a 'yeh that's right' expression, he chirped, "And Kotaro is so cute and adorable aren't you baby?" so sue, soft cuddly birds are cute, even if they do have a weight problem,
"I thought as much you were, well this may complicate things, Gaara won't be too overjoyed," she said grimly, the Suna people are incredibly strange, and I have a best friend who is a demon for jashin's sakes,
"I have told you a lot about me so I want to know about why is everyone so afraid of the young Kazekage Gaara?"
"Well I suppose you'd better find out so you don't say things you shouldn't," finally I was getting somewhere in understanding this wonderful, but strange village, "Do you know the stories about the tailed beasts?"
"Yeh, ofcourse, everyone does but it's just a myth isn't it?"
"Well seen as your village is so small you wouldn't have one, but at birth the one tailed beast was sealed inside Gaara, but our mother died because of this, Gaara cannot sleep because the beast will take over him, only recently has he been able to control himself more, but the sand automatically protects him from any harm, Gaara was shunned by our village and feared by many as he killed and injured quite a few people, he was a human weapon, he was isolated, our father saw him as a danger to our village and tried to assassinate him." Wow, what an interesting guy he was, there is clearly more than meets the eye.
"He has never known love, or what love is, nor do I think he ever will, he can become unstable at times and does not tolerate things he thinks shouldn't be tolerable, but the Shukaku, which is the beast inside him gives him enormous chakra levels but the Shukaku is also very active within Gaara, this is why you must tread carefully," wow this village really was full of surprises.
"Your father never loved Gaara did he then?"
"No," well I probably could relate to a bit of how he felt by the sounds of his past, even the assassination in a weird way,
"You know what, you have told me all this, but I still am not scared of him, okay I respect him as he is the Kazekage, mind you I can relate to him in different ways I suppose, maybe that's why I am not scared,"
"Or maybe you just haven't seen him kill someone, which I am sad to say occurs alarmingly often when we get intruders," she closed the door and I could hear her and a guard talking outside the door and her footsteps fading.
I went over to the hole in my door and looked down the corridor and saw that there was a guard outside every room, I sidled over to my bed and laid down on it and closed my eyes to sleep.
I awoke in the morning, I slid out of bed and over to the window where I could see the sun rising, on the sandy horizon. I tilted my head to one side, something was missing, but what?
KOTARO! I ran outside and found all the guards collapsed on the floor, Kotaro was nowhere to be seen,
"KOTARO!" I yelled, a door opened to my left, and the weird cat man Kankurou walked out rubbing his eyes,
"What are you yelling about?"
"Kotaro, the bird, he is gone," Kankurou snapped his eyes open and looked up and down the corridor, I went over to one of the guards and smelt his breath, they'd been drugged with a sleeping plant we only grew in our village, that was odd, "He's been given a sleeping drug we used to grow in our village, he'll be out for hours," Kankurou grabbed my arm and pulled me towards a door at the end of the passage, he hammered on it,
"Kankurou, what do you want?" the young Kazekage Gaara said, his eyes slid over me,
"The bird, it's been taken and all the guards have been drugged,"
"Where are you going?" Gaara said, I had been running down the passage,
"To get Kotaro back,"
"You don't even know where the intruder took him,"
"The guards have been drugged with a sleeping drug that only grows in my old village, so I am going back to Hoshigakure to get him back,"
"So you are the Hoshikage's daughter then," Kankurou said, god he was slow on the uptake, Temari had clearly only told Gaara,
"You can't go running off by yourself, you alone will not get Kotaro back,"
"I have a huge amount of chakra, okay maybe not as much as you, but almost, why do you think they called it the Hidden Village of Star, because of that chakra filled star that fell," Gaara glared at me but I really didn't have time to care,
"We will come with you,"
"I don't need you, I am alone and have been for a while now and I only work alone," I snarled at them and sprinted down the corridor. I was going to get Kotaro back with or without them I didn't care.