Chapter 18: Gaara's Wakeup Call

The first rays of sunlight broke through the misty clouds of Mizukari City as its citizens groggily got out of their homes to start a new day. Who can blame them? The last day of the Grand Festival was yesterday and it ended in a big bonanza.

Kankuro walked out of his and Gaara's bedroom to the kitchen, where he found Izuka making breakfast.

"Morning." he yawned as he took a seat on a nearby stool.

"Back at yah." replied Izuka as she flipped a pancake on the griddle.

"What are you making?" asked a suddenly interested Kankuro as he smelled the aroma of the delicious food on the stove.

"Pancakes, bacon, and eggs." replied Izuka as she poked at the sizzling bacon strips.

"Pancakes? Please tell me you're making each of our favorites." whined Kankuro.

"Don't I always." replied Izuka.

"Oh. Good point." answered Kankuro.

Ryu slithered into the room.

"Hey Ryu!" exclaimed Kankuro as the dragon crawled onto the stool next to him.

"'Ello Kankuro, I see you've healed from your wounds quite nicely." commented Ryu as she looked over Kankuro.

"Your master is quite a nurse." chuckled Kankuro as he awkwardly scratched his head.

Temari walked into the kitchen while towel drying her hair. She took the stool next to Ryu. She sniffed the air.

"You better be making my favorite." replied Temari.

"What else could I be making?" asked Izuka sarcastically. Temari gave her a frown.

Before Temari could make a retort, Ryu piped up. "Is Gaara still sleeping?"

"YES!" replied everyone else. Ryu chuckled.

"It's already 9:45 a.m." replied Ryu.

"Apparently, Gaara will take the opportunity to sleep in whenever he doesn't need to go to his job." replied Temari.

"Yeah, and whenever he wakes up, he has a serious case of bad bed head." laughed Kankuro. Ryu joined him in his laughter.

"By the way, it's your turn to wake him up." Temari said to Izuka.

Izuka only shrugged and turned off the stove. She walked over to Gaara's and Kankuro's room.

"Oh, this I got to see." replied Kankuro as he ran after Izuka. Ryu and Temari followed them.

"Explain to me again why it's a must see when it comes to waking up Gaara." asked Ryu as she crawled onto Temari's shoulders.

"Ma, Kankuro, and Izuka like to think of creative ways to wake up Gaara. The first few weeks of wake up duty were kind of boring, so the three of us decided to spice things up a little." answered Temari.

"Oh, poor Gaara, but I bet it makes for amazing YouTube videos." replied Ryu.

"Oh, it does." commented Temari.

The four walked into the bedroom to find Gaara still sleeping. He was lying on his bed like a gingerbread man would after coming out of an oven during holiday time.

"How is sleeping like that comfortable?" asked Ryu.

"When it comes to Gaara, he doesn't care about what position he is in. If he sleps, he's good." replied Kankuro as he got his video camera out of his backpack to video the wake-up call.

"Go ahead, Izuka." whispered Temari.

Izuka just nodded and looked around the room. Then a thought came to her. "Kankuro, do you still have those novelty drumsticks from the festival?"

Kankuro nodded and took the drumsticks out of his backpack. He handed them to Izuka.

"What are you going to do with them?" he asked.

"You'll see." said Izuka as she smirked.

Izuka walked over to Gaara's head with the drumsticks in hand. Then, her eyes changed color from her usual ice blue ones to bright pink.

(A/N: For the sake of my stories, the color pink will represent the element sound.)

A mischievous smirk crept onto Izuka's face as she started to bang the drumsticks together.

"FIREWORKS!" she yelled as she smacked the drumsticks together so fast that it sounded like fireworks being set off.

Gaara jumped out of bed and landed straight on his stomach on the ground. He looked up to give Izuka a tired, but annoying glare.

"You just had to use drumsticks this time." said Gaara in a defeated monotone.

Izuka leaned down closer to him. "Breakfast is ready."

Izuka stood back up and walked back to the kitchen. Gaara got up from his spot on the floor and looked at Kankuro, Temari, and Ryu, who were still in the room.

"Got enough footage?" asked Gaara as he pointed at Kankuro's video camera.

"Hell yeah!" exclaimed Kankuro as he put away his camera. He walked out of the bedroom for the kitchen, followed by Temari, Ryu, and finally Gaara, who was smoothing out his bed head.

When they reached the kitchen, Izuka was already preparing the plates.

"Ok. The blueberry pancakes are Kankuro's, the cinnamon pancakes are Temari's, the chocolate chip pancakes are Gaara's, the strawberry pancakes are Ryu's, and the buttermilk pancakes are mine. Any questions?" Izuka asked.

Everyone shook their heads no.

"Good. Let's eat." replied Izuka. Everyone said their thanks and started to stuff their mouths with pancakes.

"These are so good. Too bad they aren't waffles." replied Kankuro through a mouth of food.

"I would have made waffles, but the kitchen doesn't have a waffle iron." replied Izuka as she swallowed a bite of her buttermilk pancake.

"The Wind Daimyo has a lot of riches, but can't seem to equip his kitchens with waffle irons?" replied Kankuro.

"Ironic, isn't it?" replied Ryu as she clawed her way through her pancakes.

Everyone laughed at the irony.

Temari swallowed a piece of her eggs. "Let's finish up quickly. We have to meet up with Daisuke outside the city gates for our mission, remember?"

Everyone nodded their heads in acknowledgement.

"Yeah, yeah, we remember. Looks like I'm gonna have to wait a little longer to upload the video on YouTube." sighed Kankuro.

Gaara gave a small sigh of relief at that.

Then Ryu spoke again. "You know what that wakeup call reminded me of, "Wakeup Call" by Maroon 5."

"Oh yeah." said Temari. "The only thing is that Gaara is single and hasn't shot anyone."

"I would have shot Kankuro because he videotaped it." said Gaara in a cold monotone.

Kankuro ran straight for the bedroom, took up his camera, and erased the video.

While Kankuro was doing that, Gaara chuckled. Temari, Izuka, and Ryu looked at him like he was crazy. Then realization dawned on them. They soon joined him in his laughter.

"That was cold, Gaara." said Izuka in between giggles.

"I know, but it was well deserved." said Gaara.

End of chapter 18.

A/n: I like Maroon 5. Gaara played a joke on Kankuro. Kankuro deserved it. Sorry, if this chapter isn't as funny as my previous ones. I'm a bit tired today. Please review and visit my profile page and vote on my poll.