I'm so sorry this took me so long! My internet is still not working and with my boyfriend having a job and all it makes planning things difficult... Then when we do hang out, we tend to get distracted... ^/^

Chapter Four: Go Back Two Paces

Kankuro was unimpressed, to say the least. It wasn't like she was ugly or anything, but she wasn't the type his brother usually brought home. She was a few scant inches from being a midget, boney and about as flat as a ten year old boy.

All these fine Konoha kunoichi to pick from and he chose that one? It was disappointing. She was certainly not on level with his past girls.

Matsuri was Gaara's first girlfriend. After a year of trying to set them up together, he and Temari finally prevailed. It was like magic to Gaara's personality, he was almost a completely different person. She was a very cute, very sweet girl. Kankuro wasn't sure how it ended, he wasn't sure anyone was, Gaara never talked about it and it wasn't his place to ask Matsuri. A tragedy, really.

Temari and Kankuro were sure Gaara would be done after that, but he spurred everyone when two months later he brought home Yumi. They were ecstatic when he wasn't going to give up on happiness. Yumi was a stone-cold fox and knew it. She was nothing but trouble though and they were all happy to see her go. It was no secret either, she obviously thought she could do whatever she wanted because she was dating the Kazekage and Gaara let her know straight up. That didn't go over very well but Kankuro was quite proud.

After Yumi, Temari and Kankuro were a little less enthusiastic when and a little more suspicious. They really didn't take into consideration all the gold-digging whores. Kaya was the cross-eyed one, but she still had a rocking body and a great personality to match. But Kankuro could tell she annoyed his brother and wasn't very surprised when they ended.

Then there was Zuu, who could forget Zuu? Easily one of the hottest chicks in Suna, but a complete bitch. Why would a girl cheat on the most powerful man in the country? Because she thought she would get away with it, obviously. That punk was lucky Gaara didn't really care for her, or else he would have been dead.

But those were just the girls Gaara had brought home and even though Temari had thought he'd given up dating, Kankuro was quite sure his brother has had a few flings in-between and had no doubt they were smoking.

But Kankuro wasn't that shallow.

Maybe it was Emiko's personality Gaara had fallen for? She didn't look particularly nice, and she hadn't said one funny thing in the fifteen minutes since they'd arrived. Though maybe Gaara liked that, he wasn't exactly the most comical person on the planet, let alone the room.

The girl across from him had a nice enough face, even if she currently had a zit on her chin. A Hyuuga with acne, you didn't see that everyday. She was polite though, and had an appetite for someone so small, Kankuro could appreciate that.

"Are you enjoying dinner?" Temari asked, probably anxious to hear about the food she had spent two hours making and Kankuro still thought it sucked...

"Yes, thank you." She was a very impressive liar, Kankuro wasn't sure if that was a good thing or bad thing because quite frankly, Gaara didn't need another one of those. Speaking of him, he hadn't said a word since they arrived other then to introduce them, not to mention he was doing a fine job acting as if he didn't have a date a table.

"So, Emiko," Temari once again tried to start up conversation, "You're very young to be a Jonin. I wasn't even promoted 'til I was seventeen, you must be very talented."

Emiko nodded at the compliment,"Thanks, but it's nothing really, I had a really good teacher when I was younger..."she trailed off, as if wasn't something she really wanted to talk about.

"Oh, was it Iruka-sensei?" Temari jumped in, apparently not picking up the undertone or not caring. "I remember him when we helped out the academy a few years ago."

There was a short pause while Emiko cut another piece from her pork. "No, I didn't go to the academy."

"Where'd you train then?" Kankuro asked, suddenly interested in the budding conversation.

Emiko shrugged, "Just an alternative place, my uncle thought it was better suited for me." There was that tone again.

Temari took a sip of water before clearing her throat, "So how far from the main house are you?"

"Not far, my father was the brother of the clan leader." She answered and then took another bite.

Kankuro hesitated before asking, "Was?"

"Yes," Emiko stated calmly, "He died a few years, after my mother."

"Sorry." He apologized while returning to his food. He didn't like it when people asked about his family, so he wouldn't do the same.

"It's fine."

"Do you mind if I ask how?" Temari hesitantly asked, clearly sticking her nose in where it didn't belong.

"Temari," Gaara warned between bites, speaking for the first time since he'd sat down at the table.

"It's alright, Gaara." Emiko turned to her right to shoot him a reassuring smile before turning back to answer Temari smoothly. "He was killed actually, for the good of the clan and my mother died on a mission, I was so young I don't even remember her. All I really have to go off, are pictures and stories Neji tells me."

"I'm sorry about your parents. Is Neji your brother?" Temari asked. Kankuro looked at his sister, thinking to himself about the oddity of Temari's seemingly unending questions.

Emiko noticed after finishing the last of her food. "Yes, he's three years older than I am."

"Would you like more?" Temari kindly offered.

"No, no," she rejected. "I'm full, thank you."

A smart thing to say if she wanted to live long enough to eat another meal. Temari's cooking was extra terrible tonight, Kankuro had a pretty good guess as to why.

"Gaara, why don't you show her around the house while me and Kankuro clean up this mess and get dessert ready?"

"Hn." Was his boring reply, as he got up from the table, despite not having finished his meal. "Come on." He ushered Emiko behind him and she pushed in her own seat before following him.

Once they left the room Temari turned to Kankuro, "So, what do you think?"

Kankuro hummed thoughtfully for a minute before answering. "I think she's boring. Nice, but boring."

His sister wrinkled her nose and started clearing the table. "I think she's a big phony. Totally in it for his status, and a liar too." She finished before dumping half her plate in the garbage.

The Sabaku's temporary homestead was quaint, but a lot more modern than anything found in the Hyuuga manor.

They had real doors, which did a much better job keeping in sound than the sliding paper ones back home, and outlets everywhere. It was a wonder what people needed so many outlets for. While Emiko did have outlets in her house, every one of them were in use.

There were two floors and they were currently still on the first, which was divided into a living area, a kitchen that doubled into a dinning room, a guest bathroom and a laundry room. The living area was filled with modern furniture like a television, soft, dark carpet, a couch, a chair, and a coffee table that were black and tan with white accents.

The kitchen was big enough for a medium-sized round, wood table and four matching chairs, with a enough room in the cooking area to move around freely, that led to the small backyard.

Gaara didn't show her the laundry room but she got the hint. The tour was a pretty quiet one with Gaara doing the only talking which was just a monotonous, 'This is such-n-such', and 'blah, blah, blah'. Emiko didn't mind it at all, she welcomed the silence for a change in the night.

Once upstairs Gaara pretty much just got lazy and pointed to doors.

"You aren't going to show me your room?" She asked innocently. A person can learn a lot about someone from their room and Emiko would be more than happy to check out Gaara's.

"No, I'll save that a for later date..." Gaara trailed, no sign of innuendo found in his voice. Emiko was bored.

When they were done with the tour they found Temari and Kankuro putting out ice cream on the table, "You like ice cream, right?" Temari asked, taking out the spoons.

"Yeah, of course," Emiko smiled. "Do you have any chocolate sauce?" She asked, noticing the flavor was vanilla. Classic, yet boring.

"I think we might, help yourself." Emiko nodded and did help herself, because it appeared Gaara wasn't going to. She didn't really care that he wasn't very chivalrous. If anything, it only annoyed her because it looked bad for their relationship.

To Emiko's small joy, Temari found the chocolate sauce and poured it on her ice cream, stirring until the white-yellow color became a soft brown and dug in. To be honest, she was happy that the girl hadn't cooked desert too.

She could stomach the dinner with little ease, she had spent most of her life eating

glorified prison food after all. She could eat a horribly cooked home meal.

"Answer us this, Emiko, why are you dating our brother?" Gaara glared harshly at his sister and Emiko put the spoon full of ice cream down that was headed into her mouth. Kankuro looked just as interested.

"Well... If you really wanna know, I was just trying to please me uncle." Emiko admitted, stunning both siblings and making Gaara give her a questioning look. "You see, he's been trying to set me up for awhile and I'm not just not really feeling it, so when Gaara asked me out, I thought what a perfect way to satisfy him!" Emiko knew the best way to lie was to put a little truth in it to make it believable. "But he was so sweet and...-so charming!" She beamed, putting on a perfect act.

Kankuro snorted, "You're lying." Then took a bite of his own ice cream.

"No, I'm not." Emiko insisted, a little put off by his bluntness.

"Yes, you are. He hasn't done one charming thing to you all night. And as far as sweet, don't make me laugh!" Gaara just scowled at his brother while Emiko fought the urge to laugh with him. He was right though. "So tell us, why are you really dating him?"

Gaara took Emiko's hesitation and answered for her. "You really don't believe us?" Both his siblings shook their heads, now growing very suspicious. "We're not really dating. It's all an act, and apparently not a very good one."

"What?" Temari hissed. "What do you mean you're not really dating?" Emiko was surprised, too, by his confession. She'd thought he wasn't going to tell anyone?

"Like Emiko said before, her uncle kept setting her up on unwanted dates. I would please him enough to stop that. As I'm sure you guys have noticed those deranged girls stalking me... A girlfriend, especially a high-status Hyuuga jonin, will hopefully keep them at bay." Gaara finished.

There was a brief moment where no one said anything, just stared and took the information.

"Well, that's good." Kankuro chuckled. "I was afraid your taste in women was slipping even further."

A brunette eyebrow was raised. "What do you mean by that?" She wondered if she should be offened.

He put his hands out in front of him, "Nothing, nothing! Just that you didn't really seem that into him, so I figured he couldn't even tell that anymore... Not that he seemed all that into you either..."

"Yeah," Temari agreed. "You guys really need to work on that."

Emiko sighed, "I thought we were doing pretty good..."

"Maybe to people without eyes." Kankuro supplied.

"What exactly is it we need to do better on?" Gaaara asked.

"There's no attraction" Temari blurted. "You gotta act like you like each other! You just started dating, where's the passion?"

"Passion?" Emiko began eating her melting ice cream once more.

"You know, show some PDA, act like you want this forever. Like young lovers do." She laughed a bit.

Kankuro scoffed, "Most guys won't, though."

"Well then Emiko, this is a task for you."

"So you want me to be all over him?" Emiko resisted the urge to lick her empty bowl clean and looked back up.

"There's a difference between passion and being obnoxious teenagers." Kankuro added.

"Well, not by much when you are teenagers." Temari argued.

Emiko nodded, making a mental note to visit Sai tomorrow and see if he could help her research on this more. If there was anyone who could dissect something to make it make sense, it was Sai.

"You know what I mean Gaara, think of when you were with Matsuri, you guys were so cute." Emiko noticed Gaara visibly stiffen at the mention of the girl and Temari immediately changed the subject. "Anyway, just be more affectionate."

"Thank you, this is has been very helpful. But it's getting late and I've got to be somewhere important, early tomorrow."

"It's been very nice meeting you Emiko, and here's something I haven't said to one of Gaara's girlfriends in a long time, come back soon!" Temari and Kankuro shared a snicker while Gaara just glared at them and helped Emiko out the door.

It was silent for a few minutes as they walked and Emiko was just going over the night mentally. There were things they needed to work on, things she needed to work on. But that didn't excuse Gaara. After all, he was the one with experience, so this shouldn't be hard for him and she wanted to called his out on it.

"So did you plan to tell them the whole time?" Emiko asked once they were walking, hands together.

Gaara nodded, caught. "Yes, I wanted their opinions on the matter because I know how lowly they think of my girlfriends. So I knew they'd be looking for something wrong with you. We'll just have to try harder."

"Well... What about these ex-girlfriends of yours? How were you with them?" Emiko looked up at him then over stepped a pot-hole.

"My ex-girlfriend are just that, for a reason." Gaara answered tersely. "What about your ex-boyfriends?"

"I don't have any." Emiko said, like it didn't matter. At this Gaara looked down at her, as if surprised.

"None?"

"I thought I just made that clear, why does that surprise you?"

"You've been on all those dates, I assumed you kept a few for a while. Or even before your uncle started setting you up. Your brother told me you only started living with him recently, where did you stay before?"

"Remember how I said I didn't go to the academy? Where I trained was where I lived. It was like a camp, a little compound just outside the village. Having a boyfriend wasn't really an option."

"Very strict training?"

"You could say that."

This time when Gaara walked her to the gate, Emiko got on her toes and pulled his head down for a kiss of the cheek, and then playfully punched him in the gut for laughing at her height.

It was after ten o'clock by the time Emiko walked inside. Neji was still out to his dinner with his team so she expected the house to be empty, it was unsettling to see both her cats suspiciously lurking outside her open bedroom door down the hall.

With a quick activation of her Byakugan she was even more unsettled and confusedly walked towards her room with her guard raised at the familiarly menacing chakra.

What the hell was he doing here?

"I understand you've applied for a position in the ANBU Black Ops." Danzou stated as he turned away from the window and towards her, his one eye piercing into her as if trying to see threw her. Maybe he could. "May I ask why?"

Emiko swallowed as inconspicuously as possible, she couldn't show her fear, no matter how terrified she was of this man. He would only feed on it and find a way to make her suffer from it. She was pretty sure matters like wanna-be Anbu were on a Hokage need-to-know bases. What he was doing with information like that and so quickly, she would never know. Danzou always found a way of finding out anything and everything.

It was disturbing.

"You always wanted someone on the inside who was close to the Hokage, how much closer can you be than ANBU?" Emiko answered bravely. If she said something wrong, it would all be over. She had to play in his favor, and be believable too.

"I didn't assign you this mission. That woman is only using you to get to me, she shall not turn my own ninja against me." His paranoia always found a way to leak out.

"She won't, Danzou-sama. I am loyal only to you." Emiko added a bow, just for extra measure because she had forgotten to when she had entered, trying furiously to control her legs that begged to shake. She couldn't believe this man still had such an unsettling effect on her.

Danzou gave a curt nod, satisfied. At her answer or her respect out of fear, she would never know, and didn't really care either as long as it got him to leave. "Good," was his raspy reply. He then turned to leave but one thing prevented him from doing so. "And Emiko?" She looked back up towards him with an extremely emotionless face. If he saw her training was slipping, he'd just have to re-stall it.

"The sand will not gain access to the Byakugan." Emiko didn't even have time to be shocked or embarrassed, because by time she had registered what he said, he already was gone.

After that intrusion, Emiko doubted she would be sleeping much.