Part 29 Wilting Petal
The dazzling sun crept through the windows lighting up the room and everything in it. I opened my eyes, I could still feel his arms around me and his soft breathing, he must enjoy sleep now that he had no fear of the Shukaku. I felt strange and jittery, I felt weak my breathing was shallow. I carefully got out of the bed, I stumbled over to the bathroom, I clutched at the sink looking in the mirror I looked as pale as a ghost. I tried to take deep slow breaths, I looked down at my hands and gritted my teeth. The unfortunate thing is using the stars chakra had somewhat sped up my aging process but different in the parts of my body. My hair had always had 2 white streaks since I was exposed to it at the mere age of 3. I could see the veins in my hands showing more a sure sign of aging, I turned them over to see more cracked wrinkles there. I knew that I was weakening in strength and I had always known that I may not even see my 20th birthday. I collapsed on to the floor the room spinning, I heard Gaara run over to where I was. I hauled myself up shakily, I didn't want to show weakness to him. He lifted me in to his arms and laid me down ever so gently on to the bed.
"Keitii-"
"I'm fine." I let out a deep sigh then pushed myself back up.
"Do you want me to go get someone?"
"I said I'm fine!" I didn't mean to do it but I yelled, he looked taken a back. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be I just don't want you going to Konoha if you're not okay."
"Look there isn't anything anyone can do I'll be fine, I promise." I put one finger under his chin and kissed him softly, hoping that it would put his fears to rest.
"There's something you're not telling me." I looked in to those cyan eyes, "I care about you Keitii-han so please tell me."
"I use the signature jutsus of Hoshigakure which means I use the stars chakra and that has side effects on a lot of people but inevitably shortens their life depending on how much they've trained with it. Unluckily it means that I would be lucky to see 20." He stiffened not knowing what to think.
"When you come back from Konoha I will get you some medical attention, I'm sure there's something that can be done." He lifted me on to his lap and stroked my hair. I didn't want to leave the safety of his arms but I knew that I had a mission and I didn't want to hold people up, I slid off his lap,
"Look I have to go I've stayed as long as possible, you can see me off if you like." I collected my things together and Kotaro flew beside me. We walked down the steps together and through the village, people bowed when they saw us pass, well to Gaara not to me really although they did look questioningly at me. As we ascended the steps to the walls I could see the teams, Temari and Kankuro growing larger. I jumped the last few steps and landed next to Temari,
"Finally thought Kotaro had eaten you or something." Kankuro looked at Gaara in a way in which I knew he suspected us.
"Well we better not wait all day then," said Sai, incidentally he was so pale I was surprised that the sun hadn't burnt him to a smouldering pile of ash or rather I hoped. I turned around to say goodbye to Gaara but before I could utter a word he kissed me long and passionately, it blew me off my feet more than any sandstorm could and made me go weak at the knees more than alcohol.
I heard gasps from people, we broke apart after a few moments. We turned around to see Kankuro with the most dropped jaw I have ever seen, I swear I could see spirits floating from the underworld it had gone that far down. Temari was beaming, Sakura smirked and Naruto first gobsmacked gave us a thumbs up. The rest of the teams were pretty much along the lines of surprised and gobsmacked, I could see two young female guards looking as though they would very much like to rip me limb from limb, they were glaring at me and Gaara noticed all the reactions which seemed to please him.
"What didn't you think I knew how to handle having a girlfriend?" Kankuro walked up to him beaming and patted him on the shoulder.
"Yeah my little brother! Gets it all from me."
"Actually the only thing I learnt from you was not t treat women like sex toys." Kankuro spluttered. "And yes I do know a lot of things and now I hope the first stages of the chunin exams go smoothly." He turned towards me, "Keitii-han I promise I'll be there as soon as I can and be careful."
"Yeah I will and don't over work yourself." I stood on my tip toes to kiss him quickly, then all too soon we parted and he was out of sight. Naruto and Sakura hurried up to me as I was still dreamily reminiscing the time I'd spent with him.
"So Keitii can I be best man at your wedding?"
"Huh? Don't ask me ask Gaara."
"I guess this means that you'll have the whole of Suna at your command as well, first Hoshikage's daughter and now well future Kazekage's wife how romantic." Sakura was smiling at me in a sweet way.
"Keitii-chan does this mean you're my soon to be sexy sister in law?"
"Kankuro shut up you raving idiot!" Temari punched him on top of his head sending him crashing to the ground.
"Why must you treat me like this onee-chan."
"Because you're a colossal perverted imbecile nii-san, anyway at least it's one wedding to look forward to this year." I froze.
"Th-this year?"
"Why yes usually the Kazekage will marry someone within a year and seeing as Gaara is 16 in a couple of weeks you can both legally get married providing you have consent of your guardians neither of which you have." I thought hard, well this was fine seeing as I only had a few years maximum left anyway. The desert wind whipped my hair about my face, I was going to get married it had always been a daunting word and so far off that I never thought I'd get there. I would be able to get married now after all! A warm bubble of happiness swelled inside me, Temari saw my grin. We continued onwards across the desert.
The journey was relatively uneventful with Naruto and Sai insulting each others man parts, Sakura punched Sai at one point which sent him flying, needless to say I almost wet myself at that point Sai tried insulting me and I don't really need to say that he came off worse. Kankuro and Temari were arguing about wedding arrangements, it looked like they were beyond my control, I mean Gaara hadn't even proposed yet sheesh. The sensei's chatted among themselves and also turned their attention on me at one point happily reminiscing about their loves etc. which I found highly disturbing. As we got closer we approached the outskirts of the forest from here we all concentrated our chakras so that we would be there by midday which was easy seeing as we were all fully fledged shinobi and above. As the sun rose up to its highest point we reached the massive gates of Konoha. The village looked the same size as Suna maybe a bit bigger but it was gigantic compared to Hoshigakure. The guards nodded us through and we walked through the village, everything here was different to Suna or Hoshigakure and in the distance there was a massive cliff face that had four heads carved in to it.
"Sakura who are those heads of?"
"You don't know?"
"No, Hoshigakure isn't a big village and I never went to Konoha."
"Well those are the heads of all the Hokage and Naruto's father Yondaime is up there as well."
"That's pretty cool." We walked straight through the village, various members of the teams broke off to go meet some people or their family only Temari, Kankuro, Naruto, Sakura, Sai, their leader and I carried on towards the big beautiful building which I assumed must be the Hokage manor being the biggest building around. We entered through the gates and climbed the stair cases (of which there were many) up to the highest floor, the corridors we long and carpeted in green suede. We drew to a halt outside a big wooden door, Sakura stepped forward and knocked.
"Come in," a woman's voice said. Sakura pushed the door and we entered in to the Hokage's office. I had never met or even heard of a female Kage before. She looked a pleasant enough woman. We all bowed, she had an air of power about her and in any case I was in her employ till the chunin exams finished.
"Tsunade-sama we have information and we have three from Suna that you requested."
"Thank you Sakura we shall discuss it this evening team Kakashi you may leave I know you all need rest."
"Thank you Tsunade-sama," Sakura said and they all exited leaving Temari, Kankuro and myself.
"As you know the chunin exams are tomorrow and the Akatsuki are on the move once again," I tried to remain expressionless, "Due to this we cannot afford to have fatalities in the Chunin exams this is why I have asked for three from Suna and each other village has brought three as well in total making about 18. You will be working as you are no doubt aware with the Konoha military police and also with the ANBU to ensure the safety of everyone." she turned towards Kankuro and Temari. "Temari, Kankuro you will be working with the Konoha military police and I am sorry but you are unfamiliar." She considered me for a moment. "You have a look of the ex-Hoshikage about you and you resemble his wife as well."
"That's because I am Yanagi Keitii and I ran away after we were attacked and I am now part of Sunagakure." She nodded.
"I have heard about you through your mother you're highly skilled I believe working with the ANBU, you will report to this office at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning, you may leave and Keitii I am sorry about your parents."
"Thank you Tsunade-sama." We all exited. I wondered if Makaiko had got my letter yet and I hoped that she'd told Hiroaki her of course charming brother that I was taken, mind you would that even stop him? I doubted it, oh well maybe I could put some kind of restraining order on him. Kankuro and Temari muttered something about seeing some people in the village, they strode away from me and I wondered what I could do to pass the time.
I walked down the high street Kotaro flapping at my side, suddenly a massive dog hurtled out of nowhere wagging its tail at me. I am not joking this thing was bloody huge! Kotaro squawked and I grabbed him out of the air and put him safely in my bag. A boy with a hooded jacket was riding the monster, and no not in a sexual way dunno what you were thinking. He noticed me then grinned down and jumped off of the dog.
"Hey erm sorry about that didn't see you I'm Kiba and this is Akamaru."
"Erm, hi that dog isn't a fucking dog it's a bloody beast!" He narrowed his eyes and I grinned at him.
"You're from Suna but you look a bit old for the chunin exams."
"That's because I've come here from Suna to give Konoha extra security."
"Ah I see so you must know Gaara then, most of the teams of my age were in the same exams as him, strange guy and quite scary. I heard that he had a run in with the Akatsuki."
"Well I actually come from Hoshigakure but I moved to Sunagakure and yeah you could say that I know him seeing as he's my other half." He gaped.
"Wow."
"Kiba-kun don't go that fast I can't keep up." A young girl came in to view she had dark blue hair and strange eyes just like another from one of the other teams.
"Hinata-chan thought you'd been eaten or something." When he talked i noticed extra long canines he obviously didn't just have this dog as a pet. "Hey meet erm..."
"Yanagi Keitii." She seemed like that kind of quiet person you usually see in a corner by themselves, she wore a massively over sized jacket then I reminded myself that I had more money than sense anyway. Suddenly something or should I say someone dropped out of the sky and landed in front of me knocking Hinata unconscious. The silver haired neko was standing there. Hang on a blue ninja Rasta monkeying second!
"Bonjour!" She happily exclaimed.
"Makaiko-san!" I exclaimed, completely thrown off course by her appearance. No she couldn't be here, she was an S-rank! Was she off her silver haired cat eared rocker?
"Got your letter," She pulled out the scroll I'd sent her, "Also, even if you are taken, my brother will still try go to with bed you. It just makes it more of a challenge that you've got a guy in your life." I grinned at her just as I had suspected of the darling Hiroaki, "Gaara will beat him to a pulp if he tries."
"The majority of women he goes after do that already." She sighed at the thought over her over sexed brother. "Bloody idiot."
"Apparently, I have to-"
"I'm being the bridesmaid! The head one!" She cried, pointing a finger into the air, wow but as we all no reading minds is just plain stupid tch you people.
"How did you know I was going to say we were marrying this year?" I asked.
"I didn't, I was reminding you. Congrats by the way. I'll bring rice to throw at you. Coincidentally, because the Americans throw rice at weddings, would you like me to throw a hamburger at you as we're in Japan?" She knew that I loathed fast food. I wrinkled my face in disgust.
"No thanks."
"I'll bring one, don't worry." She said seriously.
"I don't like how serious you're being." I said nervously.
"This is a serious request," She said. "Will you marry Gaara within the next thirty days?" God why was everyone so pushy jeez!
"Why?"
"I have thirty days left."
"For what?" I asked blankly.
"To live, dumbass!" She yelled, then my stomach shot through the ground and I remembered that talk we'd had as young kids and it was this year that she would meet her end by Deidara's hands. "Good Lord!"
"I'm an atheist-"
"I know!" She knew my view on religions, mind you her God is a jug of milk theory is no better personally I think God is a paedophile watching everyone all the time it's like his own porn channels 24/7. We began arguing for a while as good friends do and then we were fine afterwards.
"By the way, I'm staying with you for a few days. Then I'm heading back off to Deidara, we've made up now." She beamed at me.
"Where have I heard that name before?" I'd forgotten Kiba and Hinata were there. He was fanning the unconscious Hinata and his dog, his man beast of a dog, was lying down next to him. I thought fast,
"Err, nowhere!" I said frantically, I don't know why I even bother half the time!
"No, I'm sure Naruto said it to me. Not too long ago. Deidara...Deidara...?" Makaiko seemed to realise the connection.
"Deidara is my boyfriend. We live in the Village Hidden in Clouds. Nice to meet you." She held out her hand.
"Ah I can't remember. Must not have been that important. Hi, I'm Kiba."
"Hikari."
"Didn't she call you Makaiko?"
"I have many names."
"What would you like me to call you?"
"Makaiko." She stated simply, it was too long a story to explain and would most likely get her, me and the whole of Suna in trouble.
"Then why did you introduce yourself as Hikari?"
"Don't try reasoning with her." I said, dragging her away before anyone was seriously mentally or physically injured. "You won't win and you'll be hopelessly confused by the end of it."