Disclaimer - I do NOT own Naruto or any Naruto Character.
(WARNING-RATED M- This chapter will contain sexual references and physical abuse. If you are sensible to these kind of things than don't read it!)
A/N - Fixed some mistakes.
Chapter 16 - Return to hell
The journey to return to Sunagakure no sato, was by far different from when the two sand nins went to Konoha. Instead of running and being there as fast as they could, they walked. It wasn't like they were late or anything, so they took their time travelling back home.
Everything seemed so light compared to when they came to the leaf village. Kaoru noticed how everything changed in her life, in less than a month. As they walked through the Hi no Kuni's forest, Kankuro spoke.
"Last time we passed through this place, you were a total bitch to me." he said laughting. Kaoru smiled too.
"Give me a break, I was in pain and hungry." she replied.
"You could have told me that you were hungry, I would have paid for food for you." Kankuro said glancing the kunoichi.
"It was complicated..." she paused, the continued, "Kankuro-kun, I know you paid the hospital bill." she said looking at the floor. Kankuro blushed a bit.
"It's normal I'm your superior, well I was your superior, don't wor-"
"Don't say to not worry about it. Because I do, I'm not a selfish person, and I don't like to be so dependent of someone. I just... wished that one time in my life I could do things by myself. So that's why I'm gonna pay you back the money you spent with the hospital bill, just don't tell my father about that. I want to do it by myself." Kaoru said.
"You don't have to worry about that, and I mean it. I paid for your bill, because I wanted to. It was not out of pitty if that's what you think. I know your family has many possessions, it's not like your poor." Kankuro said. Kaoru's heart twitched inside her.
'If only you knew the truth...'
"And I'm sure that if Gaara knew about me paying, he would agree with me, and he would probably order you to forget about the bill." Kankuro said smilling, he put an arm around Kaoru's shoulders, "That's what... friends do right?"
'Friends?', if there was something that Kaoru wasn't expecting from the puppeteers, it was that word, friends. Kaoru couldn't help but smile. Kankuro was her friend, suddenly going back to Suna wasn't so bad. She wouldn't be alone after all. Maybe she could even hide her friendship with Kankuro from her father, and have a secret friendship with him.
That night Kankuro let Kaoru sleep, while he stayed in watch. He didn't like to sleep outdoors, and the fact that the girl was sleeping with her head leaning against his arm was worth the lack of sleep.
The puppeteer felt like there was still so many things wrong with the girl, but the more time he spent with her, the more he realized that she was just as human as he was. The perfect Kaoru he always knew, was nothing but an image he constructed around the girl. She wasn't perfect at all, with everything she had been through, the psychological issues (OCD) she had, all those things were the opposite of her perfection. But for the puppeteer, that only made her more beautiful, he imperfections made her perfect.
The next day, Kaoru felt restless. Even thought she knew she had someone in Suna she could count on, the thought she would face her father again, was painful. How much she wanted to stay in Konoha with Kiba, where there were no problems.
Kankuro noticed the restlessness.
"Are you ok?" he asked. Kaoru nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just miss Kiba-kun that's all." it wasn't exactly the answer Kankuro wanted to hear, but he forcefully made a small smille. 'Anything for Kaoru.'
"How's your situation, I mean are you like...officially dating or something?", he asked trying not to sound too interested.
"Well, we never talked about it, but he said once that I was his girl... and the things we did, I think it made everything official." Kaoru said blushing madly.
'Things they made?'
Kankuro's heart stopped for a moment, they went that far?
"You guys... did.. hmm had... sex?", Kankuro asked. He didn't wanted to hear the answer, he really didn't. It would destroy him completly, like it destroyed him when Kiba told him that he had... "played" with her, but still he waited impatiently for the answer.
Kaoru blushed bright red, and nodded. Kankuro didn't say anything, and that made Kaoru feel uneasy.
"Does that make me a whore?" Kaoru asked. In what came to matters like sex and boyfriends, she was so naive.
"No it doesn't. If you like him it doesn't." Kankuro replied. He never saw the purple haired kunoichi as a whore, she was the last person in the world that could be compared to a whore.
"I really like him. He was my first..." Kaoru stopped talking lost in her own thoughts. If her father knew about Kiba, she was screwed. Even Kiba was in danger, the monster could use his diplomatic status to do something terrible to the dog-boy.
"Kankuro-kun don't tell anyone in the village about Kiba-kun, ok?"
The puppeteer agreed. Even with the peace treaty Suna still had an antique vision, and a female kunoichi being with an outer shinobi could look bad. Not only that but Kankuro wanted to distance himself as much as he could about Kaoru and Kiba's relationship.
Even though they walked the whole time, the journey to Suna seemed faster that it was before. Has they reached the desert they started to run, it was not pleasant to be in the desert. This time Kaoru ran next to Kankuro with no difficulties. Kankuro was an amazing runner in the desert, but Kaoru could keep up with him easily. When they were almost nearby the village Kaoru stopped. Kankuro saw the girl, and stopped too.
The girl opened her backpack and searched for something.
"What is it?" the puppeteer asked.
"In two hours we arrive. I have to get ready."
"Ready?" the puppet master asked, then he saw Kaoru taking off her gloves from her bag. She put them on.
Then she braid her hair, trying to make it as neatly as she could. In less than five minutes, the old Kaoru was back.
"Why are doing that? I thought yo-"
"This is not Konoha, Kankuro-kun. Here I have to keep my image, like you do yourself." Kaoru got that right.
Kankuro wasn't as mean as he made himself look like. But in Suna looking scary was something good, people would respect him better like that. They ran again, and after a couple of hours they finally arrived at the Hidden Village of the Sand.
The familiar smell of the village wasn't as good as Kaoru expected. Maybe because she was in a such a nice village before, the kunoichi thought that maybe Suna wouldn't look so bad. How wrong she was...
The anxiety level of her body, was at the peak. It was almost like she had an huge bubble in her chest that prevented her from breathing well.
Kaoru followed Kankuro through the Kazekage's mansion. As he walked through the hall, the shinobis around let him pass and bowed to him. All the horrible things Kaoru said to the puppeteer in the past, she knew that they were all lies. Kankuro was someone important in the village, and he was very respected.
The puppeteer knocked the Kazekage's door.
"It's me Gaara, I'm gonna enter." and so he did, letting the door opened for Kaoru to enter too.
The girl bowed to the red-hair.
"Kazekage-sama." she greated.
"You're back. I heard the mission was a failure." Gaara said. Kaoru was pretty sure he was only talking to Kankuro.
"Yeah, but it was their failure." Kankuro said with his casual tone. Gaara eye's went from Kankuro to Kaoru.
"About that incident, are you better?" he asked the girl.
"Yes, Kazekage-sama, the Hokage herself treated me." Kaoru politly replied. Kankuro smirked, she was cute when was so polite.
"Well then-"
A knock on the door cut Gaara.
"Come in."
"Kazekage-sama, I'm sorry to interrupt you but I have some documents to give you..." Kaoru froze when she heard the manly voice. Her lungs stopped her breathing, and her heart beat hard, so hard it hurt. She didn't felt prepared to face that man yet. It was too soon. She took a big deep breath and turned around.
The blond man, with the cold blue eyes looked at her. He didn't seemed surprised to see her, but he pretended anyway.
"Oh Kaoru you are back!" he said with an obvious fake smile. Kaoru gave a small fake smile too, and bowed her head.
"Yes, father." she couldn't look at him in the eyes. The last time Kaoru saw him, he had stabbed her. Knowing his daughter was going to another country far away, in a special mission for the Kazekage, he had seriously injured her and didn't even give her enough money to survive more than a few days.
Her father advanced and stood by her side, then he looked at the puppeteer.
"Kankuro-dono is good to see you again, I hope my Kaoru didn't give you any trouble." her father said with a terrible fake attitude, though only the kunoichi knew it was fake. She was the only person, that knew the real man he was.
"Not at all, Kurokaze-sama, she's amazing." he said. Kaoru blushed a bit, she hoped her father wouldn't take that in a wrong way.
"Even though" the puppeteer continued, "I think she looks better with her hair loose."
Kaoru's mind was in chaos. What the hell was the puppeteer thinking saying those things to her father. She was so screwed, her father was now going to beat her for sure. Her father didn't said anything. Kaoru just looked at the floor, she was trying not to burst in tears.
"Here's the payment for the mission, even if it was canceled, you both receive the promissed." Gaara gave an envelop to Kankuro and other to Kaoru. Kaoru knew that she wouldn't keep that envelop full of money, her father would take it all from her.
Her father gave Gaara the documents he was supposed to give. And after some burocratic crap, the Kazekage dismissed the kunoichi and her father.
"You have the next couple of days off to rest, Kaoru-san. You can go now." Gaara said.
"Thank you Kazekage-sama." Kaoru bowed to her leader than to Kankuro, "You too, Kankuro-dono."
Kankuro smiled and responded.
"I told you to quit with the -dono thing." he said, than he did the worst thing he could ever done. He kissed her head. Kaoru was now beyond alarmed. Her father just saw Kankuro kissing her, a guy kissing her head. Kaoru wasn't sure if she was going to bare what expecting her as soon as she got home.
Kankuro noticed the girl's face turned pale the moment he kissed her. Something was wrong with her, she didn't look at him, not even once in that office. Her eyes were filled with something he couldn't describe. Kankuro was good at finding what was behind someone's eyes but this time he was compeltly lost. Kaoru was fine several minutes before, why she was... Several minutes before... Kankuro looked at her father. Maybe he shouldn't kiss his daughter in front of him, but still it was an innocent kiss on the head. But, even if she was embarressed by that kiss... Kaoru looked now so scared, that was it... she was scared, that was the hidden emotion behind her eyes.
Kankuro watched as the girl and her father left the office. He had a bad feeling.
Kaoru walked silently next to her father when going home. While walking, people greeted her father with big smiles and kind words, as usual for them that man was a saint. If only she could ran away. If only she could go back to Konoha and stay there with Kiba forever... But if she ranaway, her father would definitly make her a missing-nin, and not even Konoha would be a refuge for her. And what a kunoichi with her chackra capabilities limited by her seals could do to survive in a world where shinobis were sent to hunt her because she had deserted her village? There was no escape from this inferno.
Soon both father an daughter arrived into their house. The man opened the door, an they both entered. Kyo, Kaoru's stepmother came to greet her husband, but stopped halfway when she saw Kaoru was there too. The older woman glared daggers to the kunoichi and Kaoru looked away. Glaring back would only make her father more mad.
"Kaoru I believe you have something for me." her father said. Kaoru nodded and gave him the envelop with the money she had earned from the mission. The man counted the money, Kaoru somehow hoped that he would be pleased with the amount of money that there was in there, and forgot about what happened with Kankuro. Her father looked at her and smirked.
"You actually made quite a fortune in that mission , good job Kaoru."
The girl was incredulous, her father gave her a compliment? Kaoru couldn't believe what she was hearing. The man smiled kindly to her and she couldn't help but smiling a bit too.
Then, something happen so fast she didn't understood in the moment. Her stepmother had grabbed her head and throwed it against the wall. A high pitch of pain came from the kunoichi's ear, which was bleeding. Her eardrum burst. She didn't realized she was also bleeding from the head in the same side of her injured ear. The Suna forehead protector was soaked in blood in the same side.
Kaoru's vision was blurry, she felt dizzy. She could only see shadows moving. Her father's words sounded like echoes.
"I wonder what kind of services you have done to receive these much money, did you fucked the Kazekage's brother?" Kaoru's vision, didn't permit the kunoichi seeing an incoming kick into her stomach. Kaoru screamed in pain. Then her father grabbed her by her hair.
"He said he liked your hair loose, I wonder what else he saw from you you filthy whore."
Kaoru was being dragged still by her hair through the house. She tried to stand up but she had no balance, because of her rupted eardrum. The man threw the kunoichi into her room, harshly on the floor. Then he spoke.
"Don't think I'm done with you, you little slut, you have no idea what I'm gonna do to you..."
To be continued...