Desert Flower

The Desert of Death

The next day, the festival had arrived. Yuri, Gaara, Kankuro, Temari and Yukina headed to the village square. The streets were crowded and filled with many concession stands with games and food.

"I don't get it. Why are we here? We haven't been to the festival in years." Kankuro murmured. "Don't you think we're a little too old for this? I mean, we're not little kids anymore."

"But that still doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves every now and then." Yuri smiled. "Although, some things do look a little different." She noticed that some of her favorite games weren't there. Where's the ring toss onto the bottles? It might have been rigged but it was still fun! At least the goldfish scooping was still there.

"Are you going to stand around all day?" Temari asked. Yuri blinked, snapping out of her thoughts. She grabbed Gaara's hand and quickly took off, leaving the others behind.

"Come on! Let's go over to the goldfish!" She exclaimed, excitedly.

"W-Wait!" Gaara protested, still little startled when Yuri grabbed his hand. Temari and Kankuro watched them leave, wandering what to do. Kankuro turned, looking at Yukina, seeing her stare at him, quietly.

"Want to go grab a bite to eat?" He asked her. Kankuro saw Yukina's eyes shine a little and she quickly nodded her head. Temari smiled and grabbed Yukina's hand.

"Great! Let's go!" She dragged Yukina away, walking over to the stands that had some grilled Teriyaki chicken.

"Hey, I asked her first." Kankuro grumbled, following them.

As they headed over to the goldfish catch, Gaara noticed some villagers eyeing him, warily, with fearful looks. Some quickly moved out of the way. The man that was watching over the stand smiled when he saw Yuri approach.

"Hey there little missy-" His eyes widen and his smile immediately dropped when he saw Gaara next to her.

"Get out of here!" He screamed. "You're scaring away all of my customers! Why did you have to come anyway!? Nobody wants you around!" Yuri's eyes widen in shock and her mouth dropped a bit before she narrowed her eyes.

"Hey!-" Yuri was about to go off on him until she saw Gaara walking away. She turned back to the man.

"You're a terrible old man!" Yuri shouted at him, furiously, and quickly chased after Gaara. "Gaara, wait!"

She caught up to him and Gaara stopped. "I knew that this was a bad idea." Gaara murmured, softly. "I'm sorry I ruined it for you."

"What? No! You didn't ruin anything. To tell you the truth, the festival wasn't as much fun like it used to be. I think I outgrew it." Yuri told him.

"What do you mean?" Gaara asked. Temari, Kankuro and Yukina quickly ran up to them.

"Hey! What happened? We saw you guys left all of a sudden. Did something happen?" Kankuro asked, looking at Gaara. Gaara avoided his gaze, silently looking away. "Did someone say something to you?"

"It's not important." Gaara spoke.

"I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!" Kankuro growled.

"Don't." Gaara quickly, stopped him. "I said it's not important. Forget about it."

"Gaara..." Temari murmured. "Maybe we should head back and forget about this whole thing."

"Hey, we shouldn't let one guy ruin our day. We can still have our own fun!" Yuri smiled, looking at them. Gaara, Temari and Kankuro looked at her confused.

"What do you mean?" Kankuro asked.

"Let's head outside the village. It's safer that way." She told them and walked away.