Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any Naruto character.

Between purple and red

Chapter 2 - Blood & Tears

Kankuro watched the girl fall asleep as fast as possible. She sure looked tired. But even so, they were only traveling for a day, and she was already this tired. He had missions with her before, and he knew that despite of her many weird OCD habits, she was equally obsessive with the missions, every single detail was carefully planned by her.

It was strange that she didn't even ask for the mission scroll yet. And even stranger that she fell asleep without discussing who would do the first watch, while the other rested. Something was wrong... She was a weird girl, but not that weird.

'Maybe she's just having a bad day'

Once again his attention got caught by her hands. Kaoru wore black gloves, made of some kind of silky fabric. Not that he cared about her or what she did wear or not. But Kankuro always paid attention to people's hands. Maybe because he took care of his own so much, they were his main reason to be what he was. His skillful hands were what made him stand out from his brother's shadow. At least it was what he thought. Hands were the puppet master's main tool, and he took care of them preciously.

Kankuro kept watching the girl sleeping. He could see that Kaoru was deep in sleep. He stayed that way until it was morning.

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Kaoru woke up but kept her eyes closed. She wondered if it was all a dream, and she was still at home. She fcould feel cold wind in her face, maybe she had slept with her window open...

She shifted and her thought was broken when she felt the pain in her back. A small gasp came from her lungs, and she open her eyes. Sitting was hard, but she had to, to prevent her body from shaking in pain.

Across from her, stood Kankuro leaning against a tree. She saw the male Jonin, staring at her.

Then it hit her!

She had fallen asleep, without telling him anything. It was already morning, the sun was rising, which meant she slept all night.

"Did you enjoy your sleep?" sarcasm came from Kankuro. He was obviously pissed off.

"I apologize, Kankuro-dono," Kaoru responded bowing her head. She knew it was her fault. How could she be so careless?

"Whatever, I wouldn't sleep anyway. I don't like sleeping in the woods, where I can be attacked anytime," Kankuro answered with arrogance. He moved from the tree.

"I'm gonna take a piss."

"Kankuro-dono?" Kaoru asked, Kankuro stopped and said nothing, but she knew he was listening, "I was wondering if you could give me the information scroll, I still haven't read it."

Kankuro noticed the politeness in her words. She was feeling guilty, for sleeping all night, he mentally smirked. He threw at her the mission scroll and then left her sight, to go make his business.

Kaoru caught the scroll. She crossed her legs and opened the scroll and placed it neatly on top of them; the scroll contained the details of the mission, which were for the two sand-nin to assist the Hokage and fulfill her requests. Then she saw something else, that made her go berserk.

Kankuro came back and saw Kaoru's face red. Red with anger. He knew what was about and he rolled his eyes. Still he asked anyway.

"What?"

"What's this over here?" she said coming close and pointing at a certain part of the scroll.

"That is the order Gaara gave me." he simply stated.

"He order you to be my superior?" Kaoru asked almost yelling.

"No. Gaara made me his representative in Konoha." he smirked "Wait, you are right," a tone of irony in his voice "since I'm his representative in Konoha you will have to answer to me, so yeah I'm your superior!"

"There's no way I'm going to answer to you!" the purple haired girl spoke with a cold voice.

"You have to, if you deny my orders, then you're denying Gaara's... the Kazekage's orders." Kankuro said now with his typical evil grin.

Kaoru sighed frustrated. This mission was getting worse and worse. She wasn't even sure, if she would survive through it. If she wouldn't die by her infected wounds, she would probably die starving to death, and if she wouldn't die from that, since she knew how to at least hunt and fishing, she would die drowned by the other Jonin's massive ego.

She gave the scroll back to the puppet master and they gathered their stuff and started to run again. They wanted to reach the border to Hi no Kuni, that day.

They ran all the day, making very few short stops to rest. Kaoru was still in deep pain.

Running wasn't helping at all. The wounds wouldn't close. But she kept it together. She was used to hide her pain all of her life.

After almost 8 hours of running, Kankuro stopped. Kaoru stopped too. They were in a small village nearby Hi no Kuni's border.

"Why did you stop?" she asked.

"I'm hungry. Let's go eat." he turned to a small tea house. Kaoru was hungry too, but she wasn't going to eat. She had to save her money. Only when it would be absolutely necessary she would spend it. And this place looked expensive. She followed him to the tea house.

Kankuro sat in a small table in a corner of the small shop. His scrolls were leaning against the wall next to him. She sat in front of him. The waitress came and he order what he wanted, which was... a lot. Kaoru in the other hand said she didn't want anything.

Kankuro raised an eyebrow.

"Aren't you hungry? You don't eat for almost two days," he said remembering she only took a hyorogan.

"Why do you care?" Kaoru coldly replied. It wasn't her intention to be that cold, but she truly was hungry and she didn't want him to know it. It would be embarrassing if he knew she had almost no money.

"I care, because I don't want you to pass out. I don't want to carry your big ass to Konoha," he said clearly offended by the girl's coldness.

"I don't eat in long journeys." She lied. She stood up and went to the bathroom, to attend her injuries.

Which turned her mood down even more. The wounds looked worse by the day. Specially the last one. She would had to spent her money in healing medicine and bandages when she arrived Konoha. That was something absolutely necessary. After wrapping herself in bandages and put her clothes and making sure it looked perfect.

She looked herself at the bathroom mirror. She was really pale. Huge dark circles were under her blue eyes. Kaoru wasn't sure how she could last one more day like this. In pain and hungry. Her eyes started to tear up. She burst into tears. She let it all out. Keeping herself from crying would be worst. Kankuro would notice she was an emotional disaster, and would find the truth. Even though the sand-nin would care less about her. It would be embarrassing, and if her father knew someone else knew about what he did to his daughter, she was going to be in deep trouble.

Kaoru made a high and neat ponytail. Her hair was a little messy from the traveling and she didn't want it to look bad. Her father would bash her, if it wasn't perfect. She had to look perfect. Kaoru might not liked Kankuro, but he was her superior, and he was an important shinobi in Suna. She had to look properly in his presence. She washed her face and let her eyes dry from the tears. She had to rebuild her cold protective wall again.

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Kankuro saw the sand kunoichi coming back. Her hair was pulling in a perfect ponytail. Her face was still half covered by the purple bangs, but he could see a bit more of her features.

She sat down across him and she glared the food, then glared Kankuro, then she looked away.

"So besides obsessive compulsive you're also anorexic?" Kankuro joked. Kaoru gave him a deathly glare.

"Very funny. And you besides wearing make-up do you like to wear girl's clothes to match?" she replied. They always had this kind of relationship. It would be strange if they didn't insult each other.

"You know insulting me is like insulting the Kazekage," he said with a cocky grin.

"You only represent him, in Konoha. We're not there yet."

"So that means you will not insult me there?" his grin got wider.

"No. But if you stop offending me and my habits, I'll stop it too," Kaoru said, still glancing away. The smell of the food made her hunger grow, and her stomach was making noises. Thank God, Kankuro wasn't hearing them.

"That will never happen. You're too fun when I mock," he replied drinking his tea.

"I thought I was annoying," she murmured to herself, but he heard that.

"And you are. That's what makes you fun to mock." they stared each other for a moment. Then she broke the eye contact and got up.

"I'll wait for you outside" Kaoru said.

After exiting the tea shop she leaned against the small shop's wall. She closed her eyes letting out a high sigh. Kaoru's thoughts focused on the puppet master. Kankuro was always a moody guy, she knew he had a hard time because of his brother. But since Gaara became Kazekage, Kankuro was less reckless. He made his way to become Jonin, and he became quite respected among Suna shinobis. When Gaara was kidnapped by the Akatsuki, Kankuro went after the redheaded ignoring the fact he was going to face two Akatsuki members. He just wanted to save his little brother. Yes, Kankuro grew up a lot this last three years. Kaoru knew she had to respect him. Still, her pride wasn't broken yet and if she had to, she would slap the sand nin's face for insulting her.

A few minutes later they were going towards the Fire country's border.

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Neither had slept that night. Kaoru refused to repeat the night before. She was tired and felt weak, but her will was strong enough for her to endure. She would bear all the suffering till they arrive in Konoha. Kankuro, on the other hand didn't slept for unknown reasons. He himself found odd he didn't feel the need to sleep. Both Jonins barely talked through the time they rested.

Deciding it was a waste of time to be awake and rest the whole night, they decided to get back into travelling that night.

After a day of almost nonstop running, Kaoru could feel her body starting to give up.

'Only a bit more.'

Soon they reached Konoha, the sight of the Leaf's gates seemed like the gates of heaven. If Kaoru wasn't so stiff and self-controlled she would have kissed the ground.

When they passed through the gates, Kaoru followed Kankuro. It was her first time in the peaceful village. Kankuro had been there a few times, including that time their village attacked Konoha. She wasn't part of that though.

Kankuro went straight to a boy with a ponytail. The boy smirked and lazily came towards both sand-nins.

"Shikamaru," Kankuro called the boy. Kaoru noticed how laid back the boy was.

'Is he a chunin?'

"I thought Temari was coming too," Shikamaru spoke. He glared at the sand kunoichi.

"Kurokaze Kaoru, right?" he asked. She nodded.

"Nara Shikamaru," he introduced himself.

"He's Temari's boyfriend," Kankuro said.

"That again? No, I'm not her boyfriend. You guys should stop that, it's getting old." the boy yawned. Kaoru didn't took her eyes out of the deer-boy. Kankuro noticed how she was watching him, and raised an eyebrow. Not that he care or anything... But she was sort of staring awkwardly at him.

"Nara... your family has bond with deers, right?" Kaoru said. Shikamaru seemed surprised and nodded. Kaoru continued "Then you must be familiar with their seals, right?"

Kankuro mentally facepalmed himself. Of course she was staring at the guy because of his powers. Kaoru wasn't the type of girl who went after the boys. In fact, Kankuro was pretty sure, the purple haired girl wasn't even able to like someone, so surely she could care less about having a boyfriend or guys in general.

"I see you know a few things about my clan," Shikamaru responded.

"No, just about the seals your clan uses. Some of the best medical seals are from your clan," Kaoru complimented.

"Thanks. Now let me get you to the Hokage," Shikamaru gave them their personal permits, and they went to the Hokage's mansion.

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Tsunade read carefully the letter that Kankuro gave her. Then her attention went to the sand kunoichi. She stared at her normal face for a while, then she raised an eyebrow. Kaoru kept her fake normal expression, she knew Tsunade was a medical-nin, but she was sure she wouldn't discover her wounds. Her seals hidden in her back wouldn't let her.

"Are you ok?" Tsunade asked the girl with a concern in her voice. Kankuro frowned and also looked at Kaoru. Despite of the obvious signals that she was tired, she looked normal. She probably looked better than him.

Kaoru nodded, "I'm fine, Hokage-sama" she bowed. Tsunade glared a little bit more, she knew something was wrong with the girl, but she couldn't sense anything physically wrong.

"Well, the Kazekage said you are his representative Kankuro-san, so I don't want you to stay in some uncomfortable inn." she paused then continued, "I arranged a cosy place for you to stay for a month. I wanted you to be with someone you already knew, so you can be comfortable." she turned to the brunette that was next to her.

"Shizune go get them."

TO BE CONTINUED...

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