The Life and Times of the Kazekage's Assistant
Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto. This story is inspired by a novel by Lauren Weisberger. I do, however, own Imamura Tsubasa, Tenchi Hoshiro, Suzuki Sorachi, Sendo Kanoka, and Kawasaki Tazuna, any other Ocs and the plot.
Author's Note: I don't know why is a common response when someone asks you why you've done or haven't done something. There are so many instances in which we look back and regret doing or not doing something, and we are not exactly sure why. If only we could do things differently. Can you think of a time when this was the case for you? If so, hang on to that memory as you read through this chapter.
Chapter Nine: Don't Know Why
I had just finished meeting with the feudal lords that had claimed their towns were suffering due to the lack of crops and was now getting back to Suna. I had gone alone for the most part (not counting some genin ninja that accompanied me by order of the Kazekage). I had written a contract in which the Kazekage had looked over, approved of, and signed. I had then taken said agreement to the feudal lords so each could sign and discuss it. Things had passed over relatively easy, the feudal lords were more than happy to accept help from Suna and I assured them that we would send our aid (meaning our surplus crops and some willing farm workers) to them by the end of the month. I was very much pleased with myself to have gotten it all out of the way. I smiled as Suna came into view. I had only been working for about four months and was now in the month of December. The Sakura Festival was to be at the end of December. It was a wonderful time of the year in which gifts were exchanged and cheer was spread. I was very much excited for the event and wanted desperately to get back to the office in order to get my plans going for the celebration.
I smiled brightly as my identification card was checked by a cute guard shinobi at the gate of my village. I tried to get a glance at his nametag but I was interrupted by (who would guess it?) my walkie-talkie sounding. I hadn't even spent but only a few minutes in Sand and I was getting called to business. "Moshi, moshi," I said into the walkie. I hadn't bothered to check the caller ID but I figured it was who it always was.
"Hn," was the reply. I almost dropped the walkie from shock. My boss barely called me on it. How did he know I had just entered Sand at this moment? "Imamura," he said with a soft voice, "Are you in Sand yet?"
"Hai," I replied back to him, "I just got approved past the guard shinobi a minute ago and I'm walking toward Sand Castle now. Did you need anything, Kazekage-sama?"
"Hn. I need you to meet me at the location of where the Sakura Festival is to be held," he said quietly, "I want to get it set up soon."
"I will meet you there shortly," I responded as I began to collect my thoughts. I thanked my escort shinobi and then ran back to Sand Castle for a quick change.
I was glad that I had worn my chic black, short dress kimono with fishnets and tall black boots (not the ugly ninja boots from before but new ninja boots that were made to be sleek, chic, and mission ready). It was bit colder that day; cold in Suna being around twenty degrees less than the norm. Cold weather in Suna wasn't very common and so it usually caught Sand Villagers by surprise. It was the beginning of December and the Sakura Festival was slowly creeping its way closer so my boss and I had headed out to help set it up. I had pulled together a committee to set up the festival and things were coming out nicely as I observed a sturdy concession stand. The woman I had appointed as leader of the committee had informed me that they were working on a steady pace but wouldn't be able to finish within the week's time, which would mean cutting it undeniably close. The agreement between the council and the Kazekage had been that he would help out with the setting up of the festival and he would give a speech. I had written the speech ahead of time in order to get it out of the way. Speeches were my strong point and I could write a five page long speech under thirty minutes without faltering (including the time it took me to proofread it and look for any awkward sentences, spelling or grammar errors). It was an impeccable record I had bragged over many a time to Sorachi and Hoshiro. I appreciated the fact that they never got tired of my bragging about speeches. They understood my strong desire to be a council member.
I have to admit that I was very happy to be getting out of the office and now I had an excuse for Temari is she decided to heckle me with tasks that Matsuri should be doing. Although my boss seemed a bit confused on where he out to be helping out, I could tell he was glad to get away from the office as well. He was always filling out paperwork or doing some type of Kazekage business. He scarcely came out of his office and so I figured he'd be glad to get out of there when he could.
"Kazekage-sama," I called to him as he observed one of the blankets that had been made. It was a warm fleece blanket with little tassels on the ends and a pink sakura tree as the design. He turned to me and nodded, waiting for me. "We are assigned to set up the main entrance. It's the white picket gate… the really big one… Are you ready?"
"I am," he replied as he followed me to the area where the white gate was to be placed. It was a large gateway that stretched out long enough to fit at least twenty people comfortably between it. Fake vines with pink flowers were intertwined within the pickets of it, giving it certain fresh beauty to it.
First was to set up the sides of the entrance. The sides were about the height of two of me standing straight. I willed the chakra to my hands in order to give myself a better hold on the side but I was struggling with it, and then my phone began to bleat. I checked the caller ID: Temari. I attempted to use one hand to sustain the side and the other to answer the call but lost balance with my gate. I dropped the walkie-talkie, gritted my teeth hoping it didn't break or it wouldn't go to voicemail, and began to tumble toward the ground. I was soon straightened by some unseen force, that is, until I saw the unseen force. Gaara's sand had saved me from crashing into the ground and eating dirt. I smiled sheepishly at him, a little embarrassed that I couldn't even lift a single gate piece. I gasped loudly as I realized that my walkie-talkie was still bleating. I began to do a balancing act again when Gaara picked it up and answered. I bit my lip, making it bleed. I prayed that Temari wouldn't kill me later for having her brother answer.
"Hn, who is it," asked Gaara, clearly not bothering to check the caller ID or realize that it was the person who always called me for every little thing. "Temari," he said into the walkie, "My assistant and I are very busy… Don't call again unless it's an emergency." I heard the click of the phone and nearly cringed. I looked up to see that Gaara's thumb had been on the 'end signal' button. The click had come from him! The moment was diary worthy. Without saying anything to me, he guided some sand from his gourd to set up the part of the main entrance that I was supposed to set up. His sand also lifted up the top part of the main gate and fastened it tightly in its place. After finishing up the main gate single handedly, Gaara turned to me with an amused smile. He had done all the work.
"Arigato Gaara-sama," I murmured, feeling a bit embarrassed that I had used his name. I should have said Kazekage-sama because that was more proper, him being my boss and all.
He gave me a nod and then asked, "Is there anything else we can do to help?"
"We have to set up some posters and hand out flyers to advertise the event," I said as we walked toward the concession stands. There was a stack of flyers waiting for us and the posters were neatly leaning against the concession stand next to a bucket of glue and a brush. I grabbed all of the objects in one swoop, doing a balancing act as I encircled my arms around it all.
"Need help?" he asked with the same amused smile. I shook my head no but some of the flyers began to slip around in my hands and the posters were wobbling along with the bucket and brush. "Here," he said as he took the bucket and brush from my hands. Our hands grazed one another and I could feel myself beginning to turn red but I willed myself to calm down. "I'll carry these." It was too late. His voice sealed the deal because I could feel a blush spreading across my cheeks. For fear of looking stupid I just nodded. I was sure that if I tried to speak it would come out as some indistinct garbled mess.
My boss and I walked into the heart of Suna; the place where I often struggled to survive as I fetched objects of Temari's desire. We headed to the great Noh Theater first to put up posters and hand out flyers. I dropped off some flyers with the people in the ticket booths and asked them to hand them out to every person that bought a ticket. They had agreed once I let them know the Kazekage would appreciate it if they did so. I also asked them if it was alright to put some posters up in which I got cleared for. I happily walked back out of the theater and nodded to Gaara. He gave me a return nod and pulled out the brush from the glue bucket. I grabbed a poster from the pile, unrolled it and stretched it out so Gaara could glue the back of it. He pressed the brush to it and then said, "Stick it now." I stuck the poster to the wall of the theater and straightened it properly.
"Perfect," I murmured after admiring the work as we gathered up our stuff to move on to the next place.
The Upper Dunes Shopping District was taken care of over the next few hours. There had been a lot of ground to cover there (it stretched out so far I swear that it took up a quarter of Suna). The Palm's, short for the Desert Palm shopping center, was the last one on the list seeing as we covered all the other main shopping areas.
Gaara held up a poster as I glued the back of it so he could stick it to the wall. Somehow I had managed to glue my hands to the poster and got it stuck. I began to try to shake my hands loose but was having a hard time doing it inconspicuously. "Did your hands get stuck?" he asked me as he peered over at me from above the poster. I nodded sheepishly. The entertained smile played about his lips as he came on my side of the poster. He pulled the poster by the corners, prying it loose from my hands. I found my hands free as Gaara let it drop to the ground. A small wind blew and I found my hair blowing in my face. I brushed my bangs out from my eyes and I could feel myself starting to giggle as I noticed something about my boss. "What's so funny?" he asked me as his eyes scanned the area for anything that would trigger my giggles.
"Gomen," I said to him, still smiling, "I shouldn't laugh… It's just that the wind blew a piece of paper in your hair."
"Hn…" I pointed at the debris as he dunked his hand in his hair to brush it out. He must have had some residual glue on his hands because his hand got stuck in his hair. He winced slightly as he tugged some of his red hair and then sighed when his hand wouldn't come out.
"Here," I murmured as I drew closer to him, "Let me help you." I got rid of the piece of paper first because it was the cause of all the trouble to begin with. I then managed to carefully remove his hand from his head without pulling too much of his hair out. I began to pull my hand down when I tugged something heavy. His hand was attached to mine! Of all the most embarrassing things to happen to me I would have to put this high up on the list (right next to being caught breathing into my walkie-talkie like a retarded child)! "Ano…Our… hands are stuck…"
"Then we should get them unstuck, shouldn't we?" he mused as he attempted to pull his hand from mine but the glue was strong. "What's in this glue," he mumbled as he sighed heavily. "Any way we can get it off?" I shrugged. How the hell was I supposed to know the answer to that stupid question? I wasn't an expert in glue! "I guess it's not too bad… Of all the assistants it's fortunate I'm stuck to you." That was a compliment! Oh sweet joy, a compliment! He was happy to be stuck to me and not Matsuri or Kanoka. I'm almost positive that if he were stuck to Matsuri she'd try to rape him and Kanoka would just be dead weight because he'd kill her after hearing all her annoying gossip about Temari's models or Kankuro's stupid puppet Karasu.
"We can rub some sand on our hands and that should get rid of the glue," I suggested to him. I had gotten my hands stuck together before as a child when playing with glue. After crying like a baby my mother had taken me outside to the children's playground where there was sand. She stuck my hands into the sand and had me rub my hands together. They were unstuck within a few minutes.
"My gourd is back at the office," he said uneasily as he glanced toward Sand Castle's direction. "We'll just have to go back and get it." His slight hesitation vanished as his lips twitched upward. He was amused again. He was always just so amused with me and I couldn't hate that look he gave me all the time. In fact it was quite the contrary; I loved it. "You don't mind, do you?"
This caught me off guard. He was asking me if I would be embarrassed over having my hand stuck to his and having to walk to his office while avoiding Matsuri's and Kanoka's evil glaring while him and I tried to get our hands unstuck from one another. "I don't mind," I told him confidently as I cocked my eyebrow, "Do you?" Hah! Here was the moment of truth. How shy was my boss?
"Hn, I don't," he replied as he looked out toward Sand Castle, "Let's get going so we can finish up with the posters."
No one could ever imagine how grateful I was that Temari or Kankuro weren't in the assistant's suite when Gaara and I walked in with our hands glued together. Kanoka was gone as well. All that was there was little Matsuri, busy with daydreams of her and my boss. I wondered if it would appear to her we were holding hands. That would make her little bitch face pull into a scowl, adding to my favorite memories list. I nearly threw my head back in laughter as the desired affect occurred. Matsuri looked up from her doodles, eyes growing wide; she saw what was taking place. Gaara and I had walked into the assistant's suite hand in hand (okay, okay, hand stuck to hand… but I can pretend can't I?).
"Matsuri don't just sit there with your mouth open… don't you have some work to do?" asked Gaara as he gave her a side glance. She still seemed to be in shock but she nodded all the same as Gaara and I entered his office. "Imamura-san," he said to me once we were in his office, "Close the blinds please… I rather not have Matsuri staring at us."
"Hai, Kazekage-sama," I said to him as I did as I was told. I had begun to pull the blinds down when I caught Matsuri staring in through the French doors. I couldn't help but stick my tongue out at her as I pulled the blinds down. It was funny to burst her bubble since she so frequently would burst mine when given the chance.
Gaara must have seen me stick my tongue out at her because when I looked up at him he was smiling a bit. I could feel myself blushing as he nudged me to walk toward his desk with him. He grabbed his gourd with his free hand and uncorked it. Sand began to pour out from it and floated over to our hands. The grains of sand got in between our fingers, slowly pulling our hands free. I was relieved to have my own hand back to myself but then again I didn't mind it connected to his either. "We can go back to the posters now," he murmured as he placed the cork back on his gourd and swung it around his back. He probably didn't want any more mishaps. Again, I felt very much embarrassed and was wondering if he was as flustered as I was at the moment (but I doubted it).
I was relieved that things between my boss and I had begun to simmer down. There was hardly any chatter about what had happened to us only about an hour or so ago. It put a smile on my face to know that maybe my life wasn't so screwed up, but then I laughed as I thought, yes it is. I looked at my boss through the corner of my eyes to find him gazing at me. I wasn't used to a persistent stare like his. Usually when people were caught in their staring they either made a comment to cover it up or quickly looked away to not be rude. Gaara did neither; he just stared with his small grin of amusement.
"Imamura-san," he finally said after many moments of incessant staring.
"Hai?" I asked him, my heart beat sounded as if it was in my head right between my ears.
"Do you have plans of attending the Sakura Festival," he inquired coolly as he attached a poster to the surface of the Coconut Hut's front window, "Are you going with friends?"
"I suppose," I replied, not being able to help the fact that a small blush was creeping onto my face like a crawling spider, "I don't have a date… if that's what you mean… I was going to go with my two friends but they like each other and I kind of wanted them to spend some alone time together… I was going to bail last minute." To this, he gave me a nod. I almost felt like I had given him too much information. He didn't need to know about my stupid plan to get Sorachi and Hoshiro together. "Are you going with any friends?" I couldn't help but ask him as I scratched the tip of my nose. A strand of my hair had been brushing against it for some time and I couldn't handle the tickle. Gaara wasn't really known for having a lot of friends but I figured he had some besides his siblings.
He shook his head no. "I'll be attending with Kankuro and Temari. They have dates. I'd like it if you attended with us," he said quietly to me as he gazed deeply into my eyes, trying to read me like a book. Was he trying to ask me or was he just being polite? I couldn't tell with him. He was impossible for me to read at times. "After all you are my assistant and you should be there in case anything goes wrong."
Hah! Figures! That's all I'm ever desired for by all in that stupid Sand Castle; for saving the day, for doing all the work, for covering for someone, for fixing things, for cleaning up everyone else's messes. I tried to keep myself from frowning but it was hard. "Well if I don't get a date I'll attend with you and your siblings."
"And their dates," he murmured to me as he grabbed the bucket of glue. I followed his lead and picked up the remaining posters; two. We walked over to the office next door; the vet's office. I grimaced as I remembered Temari's damn cat, little Chinatsu-chan. I would have strangled that cat but that damn feline probably would have bled everywhere…
"Who are Kankuro and Temari's dates?" I asked my boss, trying to switch my mind onto something other than Temari's demon cat from Hell.
"Kankuro is attending with his assistant, Kanoka." That wasn't really surprising. I did recall one afternoon that I walked by Kanoka's room and I heard her saying something to the extent of black extenuating Kankuro's muscles. Then I heard him saying something like, you have no idea. I couldn't stop shuddering the whole day. Sometimes… things were just too creepy for my taste. "My sister is going with a Leaf Village shinobi… Nara Shikamaru."
I nodded to him. I had met Shikamaru once or twice when I had spent some time in Konohagakure. He was a lazy ass but he was genius; a total contradiction in himself. "That's troublesome," I said as a joke but Gaara just nodded, not getting it. I suppose he was referring to his sister having a date as troublesome. I couldn't understand how any guy could date Temari. She was the demanding bitch of Sunagakure. I shrugged thinking that if any guy could handle dating Temari, it would be Shikamaru. He was too busy staring at clouds to give a, excuse my Japanese, shit about Temari's officious domineering personality.
"So who is your date, if you don't mind me asking Kazekage-sama?" I asked him, biting at my cheek like a gnawing rat. I didn't care if it was an inappropriate thing to inquire after; I wanted to know… badly. I was praying to Kami that he wasn't going with Matsuri.
"Matsuri had wanted to attend with me," he said softly in his amazing voice. I felt my heart just gasp because I wasn't going to let him see me gasp. My heart had done it for me anyhow. That damn ticker of mine was doing suicidal poundings against my chest as he grew quiet. "I told her I would be attending with you." My heart nearly leapt for joy and flew out my throat (which would have been disgusting because it would have flown right on out and landed on Gaara). "That way we can oversee everything and make sure the festival is going according to plan?"
I nearly laughed at him. He always wanted to make sure things were going along properly and running smoothly. "Don't you ever just enjoy something?" I asked him as he stuck another poster on the wall. I waved at one of the receptionists in the vet's office. She had assured me many times that Chinatsu hadn't given me rabies (and sometimes I wish she did give me rabies because that why I could infect Matsuri and Temari with them… If I went down, I would drag them with me). Sabaku no Gaara shrugged. Was it possible that he didn't know how to enjoy himself? I wondered if he had ever really enjoyed himself as we walked over across to Suna's Club (it doesn't sound so regal and snotty… it would be if we were back in the Upper Dunes Shopping District. We were in the Palm's at the moment). I looked up expectantly at my boss as he posted the last poster (our time together would soon be over as soon as it was stuck on the wall). I still wanted to ask him my question. "Kazekage-sama… if I'm not out of line here… Would it be too much to ask you to be my date instead of me just tagging along after you and your siblings, and their dates?" is what I wanted to ask him but I didn't; I chickened out. If Matsuri had the guts to ask him for the date, why didn't I?
As I walked to my room in Sand Castle (I had the rest of the evening off), I felt as empty as a bowl of ramen after eating. I was displeased with myself for the moment; not a good feeling. I entered my room, threw my bag down, and changed into something more comfortable (but still chic… Tazuna had picked me out some surprisingly fashionable relaxation clothes), and then went out onto the balcony. It was evening time already and I had had quite an unsatisfying day. As I gazed out to Suna's bright desert stars, I sighed heavily (so heavily that my hands felt the hot air escape from my mouth). I glanced over to my next door neighbor's balcony; Gaara's terrace. I could see a light on in the room and I knew he was in there. I wondered what he was doing at the moment… but I forced my eyes to look away from his room. I didn't want Matsuri or Kanoka catching me staring over there (though they probably did it often, if not all the time), and then later blackmail me about it. I sighed again, but this time not so deeply, asking myself why I didn't have the guts to ask Gaara to be my date. Why didn't I ask? Well the answer was actually very simple… I don't know why.
Author's Note: Staring at a few pictures of Gaara helped me to produce this chapter and allowed for me to be more inspired. Sometimes I wonder if perhaps I should kick Tsubasa out of the story and insert myself into it instead. Just kidding!