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A Season of Malcontent	By : katsuyo Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 1400 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
That�s just the way it is, people.
Leave me in peace already
to write the next chapter.
Please feel free to review
� it�s always nice to hear what you folks think�
Author�s note:
This is the third
installment for you little fiends to devour.
Chapter three contains a
spoiler from the Rescue Gaara Arc in Naruto II.
Okay � any sentence in Italics denotes the private thoughts of
a character.
Yes � some people need
reminding� annoying but necessary.
Also � any sentence
falling between brackets that look like this ( ) � is denoting Gaara�s private thoughts.
Kankuro is on his best behavior for once�
but that�s always subject to change.
Flower Meanings:
Rose thornless
� Love at first sight.
Purple Rose � fallen in
love at first sight.
Sterling roses are light
purple or lilac in color�
(courtesy
of 1-800 florals website)
Here is chapter three for
your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
Round three: Promises, promises�
The next day�
Ninja personnel scrambled
to get out of the way of the scowling figure stalking up the hallway. The
normally bubbly receptionist watched the approaching man and blanched, quickly
scurrying to the safety of the filing room.
It was a rarity to see
this side of the Kazekage but when it did rear its
ugly head � it usually meant that there was a major problem somewhere in the
village that required immediate attention.
Gaara gave the messenger hovering by his
door a cursory scowl before he gestured for the terrified man to follow him
into his office.
He sat down at his table
and held out his hand for the scroll the poor ninja had clutched in his
trembling hand. The kazekage growled at the man to
wait outside. The frightened man couldn�t get out of the room fast enough.
Gaara sighed. He silently cursed his
foul mood but it couldn�t be helped. The hospital was in dire need of a couple
of additional Medic nins �
at least until some of the teams came back from their missions.
There was a current
shortage at present due to a nasty virus doing the rounds. The Kazekage scoffed at this.
He thought Medic nins were made of stronger stuff!
The sand wielder sighed
sadly and reached across the battered desk for a blank scroll.
His hand brushed the
scroll that had just arrived. He should really read the delivered message
from the leaf village before he submitted a request of his own.
Gaara snapped open the seal and released
the breath he�d been holding in relief. He recognized his brother�s chicken
scratch anywhere� It was only Kankuro�s weekly report
� he could read it after he sent off this message to the Hokage.
The surly red-headed one
barked out a command for the messenger to come back in and the relieved ninja
set off for the leaf village. Gaara bowed his head
slightly and rubbed his tired eyes with his hands.
He was exhausted.
�He�d been over at the hospital since early this morning
trying to determine what they needed from their allies in terms of assistance.
He didn�t see why Tsunade wouldn�t honor his proposition. She still had his
brother at her beck and call for this mystery mission of hers. Gaara raised his head and glanced over at the scroll. He
couldn�t help but give a little smile trying to imagine what chaos his brother
had wreaked in the space of a week. The sand wielder picked up the scroll and
started to read�
Gaara,
Sheesh � I haven�t done anything wrong�
no need to yell at me. The young woman�s virtue is still intact� so far.
Gaara groaned at this� trust his brother
to make a lame ass joke.
(It wasn�t funny to joke
about stuff like that, Kankuro!)
I have made amends to Ino. I bought her flowers in way of apology�
He raised his non-existent
eyebrow at that one.
In
response to your question, O Mighty Kazekage�
(respectful
as always, eh brother?)
I have no idea when we
will be heading out on this mission. The Hokage wants
us to meet with her in two days to discuss the details.
(typical
Tsunade)
Yes, Yes � I will fill
you in then.
(excellent)
Give my love to Temari� if she receives a package from Shikamaru
� I don�t know anything about it.
The Kazekage
groaned� he could tell by that comment that Kankuro
had been up to no good again.
Kankuro
PS � I casually
mentioned to the Hokage yesterday that you having
some minor staffing issues over at the hospital and you were planning to send a
request for help soon. She�s going to send a team of four medic nins with an escort. They should
leave here tomorrow morning. I thought you would be interested to know that the
pink haired one has volunteered to go�
PPS � Don�t come crying
to me if you screw things up with Sakura� I have my own problems.
He wasn�t surprised that Kankuro had already been on the ball and sped up the
request on his behalf. His older sibling didn�t like to see the sand village
suffer anymore than he did � especially if they could prevent such a thing
happening.
Goodness knows � the
place went through enough of that under their father�s rule.
It was a relief to know
that the reinforcements were already on their way.
Gaara shook his head slightly and a
small wry smile ghosted on his lips briefly. He could feel his good humor
slowly returning.
He was beginning to think
his brother was a little touched in the head though. This matchmaking of his
involving Temari was going to get him killed or at
least land him in the hospital for an extended visit. Not to mention that
other issue regarding Shikamaru�s team-mate�
Gaara really didn�t know what game his
sibling was playing with the shrewish blonde. The problem was - Kankuro could never resist a challenge and that was it in a
nutshell. The Kazekage gave a deep heartfelt sigh at
that thought and then suddenly gave a sly little smile.
�He had a feeling though, that his cat hood-
wearing older brother had met his match this time around!
------------------------------
Ino sat down at one of the tables on
the patio outside of the coffee shop, waiting for Sakura. The medic nin was leaving tomorrow morning
for a mission in the sand village and the blonde kuniochi
was already going to miss her.
She knew she was being
unfair - her friend needed to go and help out� it just wasn�t an option for
Sakura to sit by and do nothing.
Gaaahhh! She really didn�t know who else
apart from Forehead Girl that she could candidly talk to about Kankuro.
Ino cradled her head in her hands and
sighed softly. She didn�t get a wink of sleep last night and it had been all
that sand nin�s fault!
How could I be even
remotely attracted to a man who prefers to hide his features under kabuki
makeup and a cat hood? He�s probably horribly disfigured and doesn�t want
anyone to see the scars.
The blonde felt her skin
flush scarlet over why she couldn�t sleep� Her dreams had been filled
with images conjured up by that little note of his.
Gahhh! The man was a pervert!
Ino shook her head slightly. It was
weird� even when she and Sakura had been crushing big time on Sasuke � she�d never felt this emotionally charged as she
did around the puppeteer.
Arrgh� The audacity of
the bastard. Who the hell does he think he is?
A little voice from deep
inside calmly answered the question for her.
Apart from being the
brother of the Kazekage - he�s a man who knows what
he wants in life and isn�t afraid to go after it.
You�re just running
scared because what he wants is you and he�s not going to take no for an
answer.
Ino slumped onto her hands again in
resignation. That voice was so right. She was scared of losing her heart
to a man like him. She�d never known anyone like Kankuro
� who was so determined to storm the walls she erected around her heart. She
also couldn�t deny that there was a definite mutual attraction between them
either.
The young woman was so
deeply in thought that she jumped slightly when she felt a small hand on her
shoulder. Ino looked up startled into the concerned
eyes of her pink-haired friend. To the blonde�s horror, she felt her eyes fill
up with tears and she shook her head slightly from side to side.
Sakura was worried about
her friend. She had never seen Ino like this before. Whatever
that was going on in her life was obviously turning her inside out emotionally.
The medic nin sat down at the table and held
her best friend�s hand. �Do you want to talk about it?� she asked.
Ino nodded in response to that gently
spoken question. Yes � surprisingly� she did want to talk about the
puppeteer to her dearest friend.
�I-I�m so confused. I
don�t know what I should do�� started the blonde.
�What�s confusing you?�
asked Sakura gently.
�Not what, Sakura� more
like a who.� replied Ino sadly.
The medic nin was shocked to see her friend
tied up in knots about a man� it was a novel first for her. Men were usually
tied up in knots for the blonde.
Ino could see her companion was
puzzled by how this all happened, so she hesitantly filled Sakura in on the
details.
The pink-haired ninja�s
eyes softened when Ino related what happened
yesterday at the flower shop and fished out a familiar white envelope from her
bag. The blonde blushed profusely as she watched her friend quietly read the
contents of the note and wistfully hand it back.
�Would it be such a bad
thing to be attracted to a man like him?� asked Sakura.
�I don�t even know what he
looks like under that disguise of his.� wailed the blonde.
�Does it really matter
what he looks like? I get the impression that so far, the kabuki make-up hasn�t
been a deterrent in terms of your attraction to the man.� replied the pink-haired
woman.
�No � it hasn�t� if
anything, it kinda adds to the mystery of the man
himself.� admitted Ino.
She sighed and was about
to cover her face again when Sakura gently took hold of one of her hands and
squeezed gently.
�Relax, Ino. I think it�s sweet that here�s the one man out there
who isn�t scared to face you and openly declare his intentions.� replied Sakura
and asked, �Ino, what are you really worried
about?�
The blonde�s eyes filled
up with tears again.
��I�m scared that he may break my heart.�
murmured Ino sadly to her friend.
Sakura�s response to that
made the young woman stop crying and gave the blonde some serious food for
thought.
�Ahh,
Ino � I don�t think you have anything to worry about
on that score. The last thing Kankuro would ever want
to do to you is break your heart because that would only cause his heart to
break more��
Ino couldn�t help but ask, �How do you
know that, Sakura?�
Sakura related to her
friend the incident outside the Hokage�s office. Ino was surprised that Kankuro had
gone to that much effort to garner an audience with Tsunade
to petition for medic nins to be sent to his brother,
the Kazekage - on the strength of a couple of
personal missives he received during the week from Gaara.
The pink-haired medic nin blushed softly and replied, �Besides - I�ve had a
chance to really talk to him and deep down, he�s a very caring man.� and then
Sakura softly added, �I remember when Gaara had been
taken by the Akatsuki. Kankuro
had chased after them by himself and almost died trying to get him back. He
begged Naruto to bring back his brother from his
hospital bed.�
Sakura pinned her
colleague with her green eyes. �Ino, having a man
who�s willing to protect everything you hold dear with his dying breath isn�t a
bad thing.�
�If anything, Ino - I�m rather envious that you have that kind of man
chasing after you.� concluded the pink-haired medic sadly.
Sakura looked immensely
relieved when the waitress finally came over and took their orders.
Ino glanced over at her friend and smiled.
The blonde secretly felt terrible � when you viewed it from that angle, Kankuro was a rare catch.
Sakura was right� she
shouldn�t complain when it was obvious her friend would dearly love a man in
her life who shared the puppeteer�s attributes.
Her pink-haired companion
was very insightful indeed.
------------------------------------
Kankuro had somehow made it back to his
room at the inn. The sand nin
couldn�t recall exactly how he managed to find his way back. He knew
that he should probably have a shower and clean up from training but his mind
and emotions were all churned up over that conversation.
He felt awful for
eavesdropping but truth be told, he�d felt gutted when he caught sight of Ino looking so defeated at that coffee shop. He couldn�t
help thinking at the time that he was solely responsible for putting her in
that state.
Kankuro had been contemplating his next
move when he saw a familiar pink-haired medical nin weaving her way over to the table.
It had been relatively
easy to secure a seat nearby where he wouldn�t be seen and he could listen in
without the two young women being aware of his presence.
It had been a very
enlightening discussion and the puppeteer couldn�t help but feel intensely
moved by Sakura�s passionate defense of him. He never realized that she had
been able to see that deeply under the layers and had caught a rare glimpse of
that part of him he kept hidden from everyone else except his family.
Kankuro smiled wryly to himself. He didn�t
know how he felt knowing that a woman had summed him up so neatly like that.
Sakura had been spot on about everything she said to Ino�
It had taken a week of not
seeing Ino to realize that for him, this wasn�t a
mere infatuation. What he felt for the blonde definitely went a lot
deeper emotionally than what one would feel for a crush.
He was pretty surprised
just how much Sakura got Ino to admit about her
feelings for him. Now he knew how she felt � there was no way he was
going to walk away from her without a fight.
He knew that he had his
work cut out for him, trying to win over Ino but it
was a risk he was willing to take.
Kankuro could now see why Gaara had held a secret torch for the pink-haired beauty
for so long.
She certainly was a
rare woman.
He just hoped that his
brother was smart enough to seize the opportunity given to him and take a
chance�
----------------------------
Sakura and Ino had spent a long time chatting at the coffee shop
before her pink-haired friend had to reluctantly say her goodbyes and head home
to get ready for her mission in the morning.
Ino walked home to her apartment,
thinking hard on Sakura�s words. Her friend had given her much food for
thought.
The blonde was momentarily
surprised to be staring up at the apartment building.
She couldn�t remember
walking here.
Ino secretly blamed it on being too
pre-occupied over trying to figure out her feelings for the puppeteer.
She sighed and walked up
the stairs to her apartment. Ino reached the floor
where her apartment was and walked down the long hallway to her door. As she
approached the entrance, she noticed something sitting on the floor. It was a
sterling rose. Ino picked up the delicate lilac
colored bloom and inhaled the delicate perfume. It still looked quite fresh,
which meant that the rose had not been sitting there too long.
It was obvious that Kankuro had been here. There was no point dwelling on how
he knew this was her apartment. The man was extremely resourceful � she saw
that in action yesterday.
How did he know that
these were her favorites? Can he see into her soul now?
Ino frowned slightly as a thought
crossed her mind and looked at the stem of the rose� it had no thorns. She felt
herself blushing bright red as she opened the door. Ino
trimmed the delicate stem on the rose and placed it in the middle of the
tulips.
The blonde kuniochi sat down at the table idly stroking the petals on
the flowers in the vase, a wistful smile etched on her soft lips.
It was a long time before Ino finally took herself off to bed.
Before she crawled under
the soft covers, she filled a bud vase with water for the rose to sit in on the
floor next to her bed while she slept. Ino snuggled
close to the side of the bed where the rose stood guard. Just as the arms of
sweet Morpheus embraced her, she couldn�t resist
reaching out and stroking the petals of the rose one last time.
The soft smile remained there on her lips for the remainder of the night�
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A Season of Malcontent