Suna finds itself preparing for the first holiday season after Gaara became Kazekage, and the plans were simple. Everyone would celebrate the holidays as the normally did, but with some guests from Konoha added into the mix. Instead another guest, o...
Gaara followed his older siblings out of the hospital, and noticed that neither Temari and Kankuro were in a good mood. Their moods remained down even after passing the front desk which was now mostly decorated for the coming holidays. The nurse who spoke to him earlier came up, and made a quick bow. "Lord Kazekage."
The red haired shinobi stopped, and turned to see what the woman wanted. Temari tensed up upon seeing the woman, and Kankuro's facial looks became rather dumbstruck. "Yes?"
The woman held out a piece of paper to the young Lord Kazekage. "In case you are able to visit the children in the children's ward, here is a list of them."
A smirk spread over Kankuro's face, and the tension in Temari's shoulders loosened up. The older of the two brother's rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh? Why didn't you tell us Gaara?"
"Lord Kazekage, Kankuro." Temari corrected the older of the two brothers.
"Lord Kazekage." A frown spread across the puppet master's face briefly, but then the toothy smile reappeared. "We'll make sure the Lord Kazekage is able to make a visit. I'm quite sure Temari and I can do something to make sure it's fit into his schedule. Right sis?"
"Oh, right." Something about Temari's voice said she was wasn't so sure about what Kankuro promised.
Gaara placed the paper into his sleeve. "Have a nice day."
The three then turned to leave the building, and Gaara thought for a moment another woman lectured the one making the request about bothering him for such trivial things. He followed closely on the heels of his two siblings to arrive at their home. They stepped into the silent halls, and Temari headed off in one direction while Kankuro tugged on his brother's robes. "Come on. Let's get something to eat Gaara."
The young shinobi followed his brother to the kitchen, and sat down while Kankuro began to pull cans out of the cupboard to prepare some kind of food while Gaara remained watching. Temari soon came into the room with a box, and she dropped the box onto the table. Her nose wrinkled up when she realized Kankuro was cooking something. "Did you have to let him cook?"
"The only thing I've ever made is kenchinjiru. I've only your word that it actually tastes good."
"But it is good."
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"Yeah... if you like vegetarian stuff."
Temari quickly elbowed the older of her two brothers in the ribs. Gaara instead turned his attention to the box, and his thin hands opened it up to reveal Christmas decorations. "What are these things? "
"Christmas decorations of course?" Kankuro blurted out getting him another elbow in the ribs from Temari.
"He means what are they for. I'm planning on decorating with them. People do at times come to the Kazekage's place of living, and those from Kohoha may be staying with us."
Gaara's eyes blinked a couple of times, and he remembered how the nurse had reminded him to avoid mistletoe. His mind couldn't quite fathom what that meant, but he knew that the girls she were referring to were the ones Temari called his "obnoxious fangirls". The red haired shinobi folded his arms as he remembered that there was something those girls wanted from him he'd yet to figure out, but he knew that Temari wanted that same thing from a certain someone.
"Do you need some mistletoe for Nara Shikamaru, Temari?" The words came out of his mouth unhindered. Kankuro's eyes widened in shock while Temari's lips pushed together into a pout of frustration. "What?"
The look of shock on the puppet master's face turned to horror as Temari stepped over to Gaara. "You seriously didn't little bro."
The tone of voice Kankuro used told the young Kazekage that he majorly messed up somehow. A few seconds later the palm of Temari's hand softly popped him on the back of the head. Instead of the sand reacting like it would two years ago, Gaara simply blinked a couple of times. "I did something wrong, didn't I?"
"Simple. Shikamaru and I don't have a thing for each other, got it?" Temari pulled her hand back."
"That means?"
A silence fell over the room, and Kankuro blinked a couple of times. "You've not figured that one out yet? That means..."
"You pervert!" Temari moved over to the older of the two brother's to cover his mouth with her hand. "Don't you tell him that!" The puppet master tried muttering something about it not being what she thought it was, but she continued to cover his mouth. "Oh no you don't! Don't say a word, as you'll say it in a manner that it will just come out wrong, and we don't want him getting the wrong ideas about this kind of thing."
Temari quickly let go of Kankuro's mouth, and butted her elbow into his gut. She walked over to Gaara, and quickly pulled him into a hug. A smile crossed her face. "Seriously, what am I going to do with you. The way you're so naive about this kind of thing is so cute! It makes me wish I got to spend more time with you when you were little, you know before all that stuff happened."
The young Kazekage's eyes blinked a couple of times. Gaara felt a slight warmth spread across his cheeks that he couldn't explain, but didn't take as a sign of discomfort. The hands of the red haired shinobi reached up though to try and loosen Temari's arm from holding him as tightly. "When can I see him?"
Temari's grip suddenly tightened, and Gaara's breath cut off. The jinchuriki found himself glad he was able to prevent himself from seeing this as an attack. Kankuro's face though despite the paint reminded him of the night their uncle died, and the look of anger and disappointment on that man's face. The puppet master's hands came up in a manner that indicated Gaara was to back off from the subject.
"Never! No way, not ever, what so ever! I'm not going to let you get hurt like that ever again! Got it Gaara? It's for your own good."
The young Kazekage looked at the ground. "What do I do at night?"
"What?" Kankuro blinked a couple of times in confusion.
Temari let out a sigh. "Remember. He's got insomnia, at least the vast majority of the time, when you know, he isn't severely injured. He goes and reads to you-know-who."
"Oh, yeah." The older of the two brother's let out a sigh. "I honestly don't know Gaara."
Their sister's voice brightened up. "I know. Where is that list that nurse gave you?"
Gaara blinked a couple of times as Temari finally let him go, and handed her the piece of paper.
"All right. It's only seven kids at this point. Two girls, and five boys. Do you think we can make simple toys for them, and keep Gaara busy until he goes to see them? You know, make them a toy for Christmas?"
"You know, if he does that all of the kids will want to get sent to the hospital next Christmas." A smirk broke out on Kankuro's face.
Temari however folded her arms across her chest as she glared at her brother. Gaara quickly said something that made his brother's facial features fall. "Even I know that's not funny."
"Eh... yeah. Well, we'd help you of course. I mean, I could take a break from my puppet making to make a few simple toys. They're actually good practice you know, non-weaponized puppets for training young ninja to use puppets. Not all of them should be puppets though. Temari and I can teach you to make these things to."
"But keep in mind the toy making is for night time, not during the day when you are taking care of your Kazekage duties, all right?" Gaara didn't need to answer the question for Temari to know he understood. His older sister quickly hugged him again, and began to ruffle his hair. "This is going to be fun I think."
