Rain of Imperfection (Naruto Fanfic)

Fanfic Friday - Perfect Storm Contest

Rain couldn't wash the pain away.

Temari's teal eyes watched the rain pour down the window pain while she leaned up against the wall taking in everything which occurred over the last few months. The sudden monsoon did nothing to erase the painful feelings crashing around in her mind, but the yearly rain storm still hit Suna at just the right time. The funeral for the forth Kazekage ended up postponed, and thus no lectures about showing appropriate empathy for the man's death would come her way.

"I hate him." Temari's mouth pressed together tightly. "Wish I didn't have to wear mourning clothes for him, but it's an obligatory social custom." Her hands and teeth clenched together. "The man never acted like a real father, so why should I care that he's dead?"

The sound of the rain outside mingled with the sound of Kankuro fiddling with his puppets. His melodic voice made her head jolt slightly away from the window, and the downpour outside. "You know, you shouldn't beat yourself up over this."

"What are you talking about?"

"The fact neither one of us give a crap that man is dead." Kankuro's words came out with ease, as if he thought the whole thing through, but in reality he likely didn't think of the situation at all.

"Except we're expected to care, as we're his children. The only one they don't expect to care that he's dead is Gaara." Temari turned her head to fully look at her brother, and noticed that while he'd adorned the necessary black clothes for mourning, the young man still wore his cat eared cowl, and his face was still adorned with the purple makeup. "Gaara's the only one the expect to not care, as Gaara's..." The female ninja turned her head back to the window, her throat tightening. "That's why I'm angry."

The pain simply wouldn't go away with the down pouring rain.

"Do I though really want to let go of my anger like that?" Temari shuffled her feet, and let out a sigh. She felt nothing regarding the fact their father had died, and felt better now that the man no longer had his hands constantly wrapped around their throats, making them fear what would happen should they fail. What she felt was anger towards the fact the man never treated them like children, but instead always acted like the villages Kazekage, treating his own as pawns.

The worst case among the three was Gaara. The village expected only Gaara to show no emotion regarding their father's death, and that was because everyone in Suna came to think of the twelve year old as an emotionless psychopath who only thought of himself. In fact, Temari had the sickening feeling most of Suna would rather Gaara didn't show up at the funeral at all.

"Speaking of Gaara..." Temari's teal eyes scanned the room looking for the younger brother, a worry pounding in her chest. "Have you seen him?"

"Nope, and I don't care."

Heat from the sudden surge of anger rushed to her cheeks. "Excuse me?"

"Gaara can take care of himself. I'm not going to interfere with what he wants to do. It's not that I still fear getting killed by him, but that I don't see the point of doing anything, not unless he's like, I don't know. I can't think of a situation where I would need to boss him around, as I don't think he wants to go around killing things anymore, and that's really the only time I ever tried to boss him around."

"Boys!" Temari folded her arms across her chest, and the words felt sharp upon her tongue.

"Hey? What's that supposed to mean?"

The eldest of the siblings turned to chew out the eldest of her brothers, only for the sound of the door opening, and rain pouring in to be heard. Temari's head turned quickly to the entrance as the door slammed shut, only to see a rather bedraggled Gaara stepping into the room without his gourd of sand on his back. The boy looked at the ground where water dripped down on the floor, and his skin looked paler then usual. A rather guilty look flickered across the boy's eyes, something that wouldn't have occurred prior to the chunin exams.