Antidote Master

A Visit

Kankuro and I were finishing putting away the dishes when someone knocked on my door and we looked at each other in question.

"Temari?" Kankuro guessed and walked to the door with me in tow. Kankuro opened the door and was attacked by something in black.

"Kankuro! You're okay!" Temari yelled into his shoulder.

"T-Temari...I'm still sore." Kankuro said making her pull away.

"I'm just glad you're okay." She said then looked over to me making me flinch.

"What's this about my brother staying here for awhile?" She asked walking over to me, making me take a small step back.

"I..ugh...health..." I wasn't able to form a proper sentence with her looking at me like that.

"She needs to keep an eye on me, plus it would just be easier since I would have to come back once a week to get more medication." Kankuro answered for me. Temari turned to him and sighed.

"Fine..." She said and walked out of the house. The next thing I saw were several scrolls being thrown at Kankuro. "Here are you damn puppets and tools." I heard Temari voice fade away, and Kankuro shut the door. I sighed and slumped to the floor having all the strength leave my legs.

"Are you okay?" Kankuro asked looking down on me.

"Fine, just need some rest." I said taking a deep breath.

"Yumiko...are you afraid of Temari?" Kankuro asked and I looked up to him seeing him smirk down at me.

"W-well you try having her pin you to a wall with a kunai!" I yelled. "I swear she was going to kill me." I rubbed my neck from the memory.

"She won't kill you." Kankuro said holding out his hand which I took. "At least not with my life in your hands." He chuckled.

"Funny." I snarked and walked back to my table. "So she said something about puppets?" I asked opened up my books and flipping through them.

"Yeah. I build puppets then use them to fight. Uh... would it be okay for me to work on them here?" He asked looking around.

"Sure, if you can find a place. I don't care where the books go. You can use that table if you want." I pointed to the table we put him on with my finger not moving my eyes from the book.

"That reminds me, why do you have so many books? Can one person even read this many?" He asked as I heard him pick one up and quickly flip through it.

"I need books to study. Every book has different herbs and flowers. Different combinations and ways to use them, like mush, in a tea, liquid, solid, gas... All of the info is all in this house...somewhere." I said flipping the page and writing something down.

"What are you working on now?" Kankuro asked suddenly looking over my shoulder into the book I was writing in.

"A medication to help old people not be so sluggish." I said flipping the page.

"Why do you want to do that?" He asked.

"Maybe if they have more energy they won't be so quickly to throw away their lives for the younger generations." I said and closed the book and putting it down on a pile of others. I walked over to a different pile and saw the book I needed at the bottom. I bend down and pulled on it. All of the books came falling down and I braced myself for the impact that never came. I looked up to see that Kankuro had stopped the fall with this body.

"Can you at least try to be careful when I'm around?" He asked as he steadied the books.

"Hurry up and leave then so I don't have to be careful." I joked taking the book and walking back to the table as he steadied the books.

"So even you can joke." Kankuro teased.

"Everyone can joke, it just matters if they are funny or not." I said as I flipped the page in the book.

"See, you did it again." Kankuro said and I turned around to look at him.

"Did what again?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Took a simple statement and made it all serious." He said looking at me like he was disappointed.

"Well sorry." I said shrugging it off and turning around. "I'm not used to people joking around me." I admitted.

"You're not?" He asked walking over and leaning on the edge of the table. "What are you used to?"

"Books." I told him as I flipped another page and wrote something down. "Plants."

"What about friends? Any family?" He asked. I just shook my head.

"No friends and the closest thing I have to family are the Honored Siblings." I told him.

"What?! Ebizo-jisama and Lady Chiyo?" He asked surprised.

"Yeah. Both of my parents died of disease when I was really young. After that I spent all of my time into learning about medicine and poisons. It took me awhile but after half a year of going to their house everyday and begging to be taken on as an apprentice, they finally accepted me. I lived there till I was...14 and spent the next 4 years here studying alone." I explained as I wrote more in the book.

"So you're not a ninja?" Kankuro asked and that made me turn to him.

"What? no."

"But you know how to use chakra, so I just thought..." Kankuro said as I closed the book.

"I know how to use chakra to fix bones, heal wounds and stabilize the chakra path. I can't make a waterfall come out of my mouth." I said turning to him.

"See, another joke." Kankuro said pointing at me. I couldn't help the smile that came on my lips as I picked up the book and hit him with it.

"Come one lets go eat." Kankuro smiled and followed me into the kitchen.

I quickly made some soup as Kankuro moved some books around so we could sit at the table. "Sorry it's not much but it tastes really good." Kankuro looked at the muddy gray soup with a questionable look.

"I'm not going to die from this will I?" He asked as he picked up a spoon.

"No! Now eat, actually it's better for you than most food. The only down side it it's not very pretty." I said then took a bite. Kankuro shrugged then took a bite. I watched as a look of delight came over his face.

"Wow, this is actually really good." Kankuro said as he took another bite. I smiled and ate my meal.

Once we were done I washed the dishes and he put them away. "Alright medicine then bed." I said holding up a spoon full of his medication.

"But it's still early." He complained.

"Nope, Doctors orders." I told him and he sighed and took the spoon from me and put it in his mouth. He quickly swallowed it and I handed him a glass of water which he chugged down.

"I'm never going to get used to that stuff." He said as I put the dishes by the sink.

"Yeah well it's that or death." I told him stopping at my bedroom door. "Night." I said and opened my door.

"Yeah, night." I heard him say as I closed the door.