By The Strings

20~ unwelcome feelings

The door creaked open to reveal a tired Temari, she perked up at the sight of me, "there you are! I've been trying to find you for an hour!" She whisper yelled scolding me.

I pushed past her and wrapped myself in her blanket. "Temari..." My face was still beet red, "I have a problem."

She panicked a bit unsure what it could be, "what's wrong?!" She proceeded to check my temperature with the back of her hand.

"I...I think."

"SPIT IT OUT ALREADY!"

I looked up at her, "I think I have feelings for Kankuro." I said honestly as I plopped onto my side.

The memory of the 'future' played over in my head, what if it was real?

Her jaw was dropped until it turned into a wide smile, she was about to milk this for everything she could. "What made you realize!" She sounded extremely encouraging about the whole thing.

A knock at the door made us both turn our heads, she pushed me down, and hushed me.

"Kankuro, what do you need?" She tried to sound normal but her voice still held a happiness.

"Is Masako in here? She isn't in her room. She kinda rushed out and I wanted to make sure she was okay." He sounded genuinely worried about me.

"Oh yeah, she just ate too much and her stomach is a bit upset, she's asleep just over there". I assume she pointed at me.

He lowered his voice as he spoke to Temari trying not to wake me.

"How is she? Since the whole Granny Chiyo thing that is." I could feel her emotions from here, she was trying so hard not to freak out.

"She's doing a lot better, maybe you should just ask her yourself," she teased her younger brother.

"I can't do that, it'd be weird. We don't get along very well." He laughed at the last part, he was probably thinking back to our first mission.

"Gah, you can always try! I'm not a messenger hawk!" She scolded loudly feeling used.

"I'll pass on that, I'm going to head to bed now. Don't stay up too late!" He scolded closing the door before she could protest.

I heard loud footsteps before she jumped on the bed crushing the air out of me, "I'm gonna have a sister-in-law!" She sang sure of it.

I laughed pushing her off of me, I and Kankuro get along better now but he makes it quite clear it's a one-sided interest. He only cares about his puppets like that.

"Ugh, I'm going to go plan the wedding, blue or purple? Or maybe red!" She cheered thinking about flowers.

"Temari, I'm not even sure if I see him like that..." I trailed off unsure of myself.

She wasn't taking no for an answer.

"Time will tell, but right now I would prefer to focus on the Akatsuki. I don't want to fall in love and risk hurting them or one of us dying." I admitted honestly making her sad, she was so excited for her brother.

"I remember when we were little, Kankuro used to be so afraid he'd never fall in love" she laughed to herself. "None of the girls really ever liked him, either because his brother was a monster or because his nose was too big, any small issue they could find they would use an excuse really."

It made me sad to hear all that, it sounds like he still thinks like that.

"I remember when he had a crush on this little blond girl, they were maybe nine?" She tried to remember but couldn't figure out the exact age, "when she rejected him he cried, she had said some rude crap to him so me being around 11 at the time I went and found her to beat her up!" She laughed loudly at the memory.

"But he was so upset because he thought no girls would fall for him, and when Gaara became Kazekage they all instantly fell in love with him and none with Kankuro." She frowned thinking about it.

"I'm sorry I'm rambling, it's just hearing how you like my brother I got so excited for him, you would probably be the first girl to actually care for him other than me..." She truly cared for her brothers and right now she was vulnerable.

"Can I ask you a question Temari?" I sat up and looked at her, thinking back to the memory there was something I wanted to know.

"Of course, you're my future sister-in-law!" She stuck out her tongue making fun of me.

"Why does Kankuro hate kids so much?" I furrowed my brows and listened intensely.

A heavy sigh escaped from her lips, "When we were kids..." She paused facing away from me. "They made Gaara a jinchuriki he was... For the lack of a better word, a monster. Our father only had him to make him a weapon to destroy the Leaf Village, it killed our mother during birth. He killed so many people as a child. Both me and Kankuro were scared of him for so long, he's become scared he will end up like our father so it's just been transformed into a strong hatred for children." She fidgeted with her hands remembering everything.

I gently grabbed her shoulder, "the past is in the past, Gaara is your brother and he loves you both dearly now." She smiled a little, "things have changed so much, I'm so grateful that I now understand him instead of loathing him." She said honestly.