Chapter 97 - Arc 6 - Onward, To Suna! - Shouting Jacks!

Lost like 4 patrons in the last day, always sad.
Mostly about that $300 goal. It seemed so close a few months ago but now I'm never sure I'll get to it.
It's not the biggest deal, I'm happy with where we are, but I would love to devote more of my time to this story.

For those that are here and continuing to support me, I see you. Thanks for the smile, and your support, this chapter's for you... Well they all are, technically.

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“It’s okay to be concerned, right?” Temari’s hands flicker, making lunch is nice, although it can be a little annoying at times since neither of her siblings are very helpful. She’s played big sister for so long that it just never clicked with any of them that sharing the burden might be more reasonable now that they’re older. People get stuck in their perspectives, and it takes a great shock to stir people up and make them rethink the rules that have always applied, and Temari is definitely experiencing a great shock. Not that she’s bringing that up right now, she can worry about chores later. It’s the first time she’s thought about their arrangements in a long time and she’s not wasting it like that, at least not at first. She side eyes her crazy brother when he doesn’t respond immediately Not Gaara, the other one, Kankuro’s crazy in his own right. It’s not the same type of crazy, but it’s still dorky, awkward, and crazy.

Even at a time like this when her world is exploding on itself and the physical laws of the universe suddenly seem doubtful, the younger boy is sitting at the table and fiddling with a freaking doll. It’s a big doll with wiring and it’s used for combat so it’s not wasted effort, but it’s still a doll and there are so many bigger things at play here than small tweaks to wood!

“Why would we be concerned?” Kankuro asks her, not taking his eyes away from where his handiwork is getting a wooden needle into place. His hands are gloved, his face is painted, he’s in the zone and nothing can ruin his mood.

Evidently, nothing includes Gaara, sitting on the living room couch while bouncing in place. His head and shoulders are swaying back and forth, side to side, like he’s a pendulum. He’s humming something, she’s pretty sure it’s a melody that Sakura girl’s handheld device made. She knows he hasn’t started playing her games, which means he heard it and is now associating it with her directly which is rather concerning! It’s like he’s singing a lullaby for someone and she’s scared to find out who!

None of that would be particularly concerning in a normal situation, kids gonna kid, but the girl who’s causing this is a rival ninja from another nation and absolutely, without question, does not have the best intentions for her brother in mind. Or, put into actual words; “I dunno, maybe because we have a whole betrayal planned soon that relies on Gaara, and he’s officially obsessed with some treehugger with a pretty face?”

“He’s made a friend, this is probably the best thing to ever happen.” Kankuro scoffs at her. “Screw the plan, if he’s just going to stop killing people because she said so, let’s defect.”

“You don’t mean that…” She trails, but thinking about it, there are worse outcomes than abandoning the plan. Gaara’s more important than their father, and Gaara is, well, docile right now. “You know whatever’s going on is just going to stop in the middle of nowhere. There’s no way she’s tamed Shukaku, she probably doesn’t even know about Shukaku. This is a random chance crush, and at some point she’s going to crush his feelings, and everyone in the vicinity is going to gruesomely die. Not sure if you’re aware of this but we are always in his vicinity. That’s us, we explode when she breaks his heart.”

“Maybe,” he shrugs as if his impending demise held up only by some random girl they know nothing about is a non-issue, “but I’m far more worried about that Naruto guy.”

“What about him?” she uses the back of her knife to slide the veggies into the pan, what few they can grow out here in the desert that is, “he seems harmless. Maybe even a little cute, in that energetic ball of wholesome kinda way. Wish he was Gaara’s friend instead of that chick. She gives me a bad feeling, something about her is off putting. I don’t want to say she’s a bad influence on Gaara of all people because, well, Gaara, but...” When Gaara started hanging around with her, she paid the girl some pity money to try and extend her life. She figured that if she was paid to put up with him, she’d act nicer and wouldn’t try to reject him and get killed too fast.

She kinda regrets that now, this is going way too ominously.

“Are you kidding? Her first words on seeing Gaara were to tell her Jonin sensei that they feel the same.” Kankuro points out, finally looking up from his doll to give her a dead stare. “There is no way that kid is normal. He’s totally the scary one. She’s just some dumb girl with the smell of blood to her.”

“I wonder if it’s the hair…” Temari wonders. “Gaara’s spent time around other redheads right?”

“Yes.” Kankuro grumbles, his momentarily broken concentration coming back as his hands jump to work. “She’s not even a natural redhead.”

“You can tell?” Temari asks him.

“I wear more make-up than she does, I can tell.” She shrugs at that, that’s definitely true. Kankuro probably knows more about cosmetics than she does. She won’t question his one area of expertise in life.

“Look, I don’t care what you think about it, this isn’t natural.” Temari throws her hand up and points it towards Gaara flat out and wide, as he starts singing along to the theme song of a TV show. Specifically, some children’s show. “That’s innocent even for a normal boy his age.”

“You’re complaining about good things.” Kankuro growls at her, “I for one am happy he hasn’t threatened to kill me this week.”

“That’s true… It has been very peaceful.” Is she overreacting? Their sensei’s going to be pissed, but her alliance is to Gaara, not her Sensei. Is this good? She’d feel better if she knew what the hell this was. Is it magic? A fluke? A crush? Did something in him snap, or did something mend? She’s spent so long struggling to breathe, now that there’s oxygen she’s shoved her face into the sand for fear of it.

But is it really oxygen, or is it a poison gas pretending to be benevolent? She can’t relax, not like this, things are too up in the air and no one seems to see it but her. They have a plan, but will she even survive reminding Gaara of that? That plan involves hurting the damn redheaded girl.

She should just lay low and keep her mouth shut. “We need eyes on her, but Gaara will notice them.”

“Just stay out of it. Our lives have always been based on chance, at least now we can see the dice,” Kankuro says in between clicks of his needle against the wood, “I like this more.”

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Ding

Ding

Ding

“Wake up time!” The clash of a metal bar on a hollowed out triangle of steel rings out through their apartment like hotel room. Their lodgings are crazy huge, but that doesn’t save any of them from a Kakashi with an eager attitude and an instrument of chaos. “You’ll miss breakfast if you’re not up in two minutes!”

Kakashi loves mornings, specifically because she hates mornings. It’s a chance to hurt her with his exuberant energy, and she’s happy Sasuke agrees with her on this universal truth. Mostly that Kakashi’s a dick.

“Oh boy, breakfast!” Naruto on the other hand, is way too energetic.

“Guh, noo, don’t add to it.” She groans, knowing damn well nothing she could ever say would stop Naruto’s morning shouting jacks. The one time of day when he’s not her brother, and is instead a horrific monster.

Shouting Jacks are a sign from the heavens that Lee and Naruto have to be secretly related, or maybe they were meant to be the same person and their soul got split in half somehow. It consists of starting a two-hundred jumping jack routine exactly twelve seconds after getting out of bed.

“Huh! Haah! Huh! Hah!” And of course, shouting.

Kakashi supports this with loud and exuberant praise, because he has a mean Guy impression and when he joins in he gets to watch her groan and cover her head with her pillow. It doesn’t help, it never does.

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Today’s the day.

An entire week has passed since they got here, and that means she has spent several days cooped up in her hotel room, wishing whatever jerks are targeting her would drop dead in just the right way for them to hear about it. Despite Naruto’s warning, she wanted to see if Suna has a dungeon! What kind of journey outside of Konoha is this where she doesn’t even find a dungeon? She didn’t have to go in, she just wanted to touch it, think about it, fantasize about its insides. She bet its got amber, or sandstone, and maybe even mummies! She’d love to cut down some mummies and loot a thousand pounds of magic bandages.

She bets there’s sand. But what if there’s not? It could be a snow dungeon meant to challenge the presumptions of the player and punish her for not preparing for a variety of scenarios!

She vibrates a little just thinking about it- “Wut?”

She does it again and - yep.

“Gaara, are you mimicking my body language?” She throws a hand out, and watches him do the same, she watches him vibrate, watches him breathe the same, he even mimics her wiggle! This is incredible. Could he be a Haruno? She’ll have to ask her father if he’s ever been to Suna, she could have an infidelity brother! Err, eh, her mom’d probably only beat him a little. Ninjas probably sleep with the enemy all the time, it’s not the same. Unless it is, do they not send married ninja on seduction missions?

Now she has so many questions to explore when she gets home!

“Your team respects you,” he says, “I feel like if I copy you, my team may do the same for me.”

“You mean your siblings?” She asks him, looking over to his much older sister and only kind of older brother obviously enough the two match gaze with her and clearly notice they’re talking about them. Yes, they’re all together, them and the team’s jerky looking Sensei.

They’re on their trek to Konoha now, and Sakura can’t help but be mad about it. She never got to do anything fun at all! Well, she rode a sand board a few times, that was awesome. Mostly because Gaara helped.

“They don’t consider me that way.” He answers with the mildest downtwitch of his lips. She’s found she has an easier time reading his expressions than most people’s, because they’re very similar to Sasuke’s. Muted, small, but very meaningful. Most people have so many excess involuntary expressions that even her mood chart isn’t always sure of, but Gaara and Sasuke are simple and nice.

“Have you asked?” Sakura asks him, looking back at them again, and getting an odd look back.

“No.” His answer sits there emboldened by the relative silence of the traveling group and filling her with doubts. Maybe they don’t see him that way, but maybe they do. He could have the totally wrong idea about their relationship, and she doesn’t even have the tools to help him. Her reputation system doesn’t tell her about the reputation of other people in relation to each-other, just how they feel about her. She’d totally use it for something like this, if she could… It’s something to think about trying to experiment with once in Konoha. Though, if she’s completely honest with herself, she is going to forget because the Chunin exams are going to start and who knows when she’ll have time for a project after that.