On the whim of a stranger

A Kazekage needs his sleep.

Gaara was sleeping peacefully. And he enjoyed it. In fact, he was enjoying his sleep so much, he may have even thanked the Akatsuki if not for the fact that he could have- no, he did die. His dark eyes were slightly lighter but he guessed that he missed so much sleep (Around 16 years worth), it probably would never go away.

Now, like I said, he was enjoying his sleep so, what do you think he would do if someone, like Kankuro, entered his room (without permission), went up to him, and started poking his cheek in an attempt to wake him up. In an attempt to wake up a sleep deprived, originally-a-jinchuuriki, sand-wielding Kazekage up. Well, the following options for Gaara would be:

A) Wake Up

B) Growl to scare him away

C) Use a ton of sand to slap him away.

D) Go back to sleep

E) All of the above

Naturally, he chose E.

"Oi, Gaara." Kankuro whispered, his finger poking his brother's cheek.

"Grrr," Gaara growled in warning. Sadly, Kakuro didn't hear him.

"Gaara."Kankuro continued to poke his cheek. Nothing came from Gaara's mouth. "Ga-" Kankuro finally notice the creeping shadow below him growing bigger and bigger. He turned around to see sand filing in from the window, towering over him in the darkness.

*gulp

The sand flew straight at him, slamming him into the wall, knocking him out. Tips of Gaara's mouth twitched up a bit at the satisfying 'thump'. Taking in a deep breath, Gaara went back to sleep as the sand filed out in a neat fashion, through the window and onto the empty street it first came from without leaving a grain behind.

...

Kankuro and Temari were gonna kill him tomorrow.

Bah! Who cares? One of them was already knocked out against the wall. What is the worst that could possibly happen?

~~~~~

"AS A ROLEMODEL TO THE REST OF THIS VILLAGE, I EXPECT YOU TO SHOW MORE RESPECT TO YOUR ELDERS! MUCH LESS, YOUR OWN SIBLINGS! GAARA BLAH BLAH BLAH VILLAGE BLAH BLAH BLAH..."

Gaara sat calmly at his desk, half listening to Temari, who was walking back and forth while watching as his brother, who had a large bruise on his forehead stood there with a smug smirk on his lips. Gaara didn't understand what his brother was so angry about that he had to bring Temari in to lecture him.

After all, all he really did was knock him out for an hour or two. Sure, there was a bruise but didn't it fit the colour of his make-up? Sorry, face paint?

"Okay, Temari. I get it. I'm sorry."

Temari sighed. "You'd better be! Anyway, I'm done, Kankuro. You satisfied?"

With an exaggerated nod, Kankuro left the room, with that smug smirk still on his lips. As soon as the door clicked into place, Temari let out all of the laughter she had to suppress for the past few minutes. "You finally took my advice! He deserved it I tell you!" She slapped her brother in the back, causing him to jerk forward. "Did you see how smug he was? With that bruise on his face just screaming 'I got owned'!"

Gaara sighed. Was he really the only mature one here?

"Hey, you wanna prank him later? I've got some new face paints all the way from Kumogakure. It's called the 'Pretty in Pink' set which I think is the perfect colour for him, don't'cha think?" She placed her elbow on his shoulder, leaning back as she swiped her hand in front of her as if she could see a perfect picture. "I can just see it now. Sabaku no Kankuro, Princess of Suna."

Yep, he was definitely the only one.

She stood up, and pushed herself off Gaara before heading towards the door, apparently finished speaking with her brother. She stopped midstep, as if she just remembered something before placing her hand on one of her side pockets and pulling out a small envelope.

"Oh yeah, there was a letter you were supposed to receive earlier this morning."

She flicked it towards Gaara before walking out the door, trusting that he would catch it.

Sand flowed out of the gourd placed in the corner of the room, placed there in case of emergency, which it wasn't, and just barely caught the flying envelope just as it was nearing Gaara's unblinking eyes. The sand placed the envelope gently into his outstretched palm before seeping back into the gourd, to be used again should another flying envelope come across the Kazekage's path and he was too lazy to catch it with his hands.

Now that he had the envelope in his hand, he did the sensible thing and opened it. He assumed that this was another letter from some businessman who decided to try his luck advertising his goods to the Kazekage but he was so very wrong. Like the ninja before him, he skimmed through the contents, his eyes narrowing with each word. Then, when he finally reached the bottom of the paper, he found it unusually empty.

He flipped the paper over and over again, expecting to find out who wrote this... Unusual letter. He found no signature or even some organisational seal to tell him who wrote it.

And it ticked him off that someone was smart enough to not do that.

Either way, this was bad. Very, very bad. And Tsunade probably knew nothing about it.

Sighing once again, he took out a piece of paper and scribbled a small note in haste. He rolled it up, stood up from his chair, walked towards the door and passed it to the guard outside.

"Send this to Konoha. It's important. Use our fastest hawk."

The guard nodded and was about to run off but he halted his movement when the Kazekage spoke again.

"Oh, and ask Temari and Kankuro to prepare for a long trip. We're taking a visit to Konoha."