Desert Flower

A Needed Talk

Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro led Yuri and Yukina towards the Kazekage mansion. Temari showed Yuri and Yukina their rooms and helped them, get settled in. Then Temari turned to Gaara and Kankuro, who were standing by the doorway.

"Okay, you two can leave now."

"Why?" Kankuro asked. Gaara stayed silent.

"Um, I actually don't mind-" Yuri spoke. Temari walked over to them.

"This is girls' night only!" And she slammed the door in their faces.

"Women." Kankuro huffed, while Gaara blinked a little shocked by his sister's behavior. Temari turned back to Yuri and Yukina, who were sitting on their beds, and walked over to them.

"So, what's this about you having a sister now?" Temari asked Yuri. Yuri smiled.

"Well, I consider her one. Yukina's living with us and my parents adopted her." Yuri replied.

"So, what's your story?" Temari asked Yukina. Yukina looked over at Yuri, asking for something to write with.

"What's she doing?" Temari asked Yuri. Yuri grabbed into her bag and pulled out a notebook and pen, handing it to Yukina.

"Yukina can't talk. So, this helps her." Yuri told Temari and Yukina wrote.

"As you saw from the Chunin exams, I am from the Hidden Sound Village. My parents abandoned me. It was Orochimaru who found me in the streets before I starved to death and helped hone my ability. I didn't want to take part of the exams but was forced to."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Temari spoke, not sure of what to say.

"Yukina told me that if she returned back there, she would be killed. So, she's staying with me." Yuri told Temari.

"I must be nice having someone you can trust so easily." Temari told her. Yuri stared at Temari for a moment before she spoke.

"What happened to you? How come you stopped writing to me?"

"I have to put my village first. Father made us go through gruesome training so that we can be the elite shinobi. Emotions are a shinobi's weakness. They will only hold you back. It's one of the rules to shinobi. We are only a tool to fight." Temari said.

"That's a load of crap!" Yuri frowned. Temari's eyes widened a little.

"Not if you have people to protect. It makes you want to fight back stronger. There's nothing wrong with that." Yuri told her. "And I think you know that, otherwise, we wouldn't be sitting here right now, talking!" Temari stared at Yuri, silently, surprised by her outburst and she smiled, laughing softly.

"You really haven't changed at all since you left." Temari said.

"What do you mean?" Yuri asked.

"Tell me this, why did you want to be friends with me?" Temari asked her. "Most of the kids in the village was afraid to come close to me because my father was kazekage."

"And?" Yuri shrugged. "What does that have to do with it? Just because he's kazekage doesn't mean anything. He's just a village leader, that's all."

"There's your answer. You don't care. You don't care about people's status, whether they're a common or rich. You see them as an equal." Temari told her. "That's what I've always liked about you."

Yuri smiled. "This is nice, talking about this, getting it out. I thought you hated my guts back at the Chunin exams, maybe because I left."

"Like I said before, I'm sorry." Temari told her. "I was just following orders. We all were."