Anime Ect.

Naruto: Sand Scares

"Pinocchio to Tornado, do you copy? Over." A voice whispered through Temari's earpiece, making her roll her eyes.

 "I never agreed on these nick-names, Kank-"

"Shhh!" He interrupted her, his loud hushing hurting her eardrum. "Don't use my real name, Temari!"

For a minute, she stayed quiet, her eye twitching over his over-the-top stupidity. Once she her composure, she forced herself to refocus on the task at hand. "Any sign of Gaara yet?"

"Negative. No signs of Sandman. He should be coming any second now. Over." Kankuro murmured lowly, refusing to give up his code-names. They had taken him far too long to come up with; of course he was going to use them!

With a deep breath, Temari did her best to calm her rising nerves. Once they did this, there was no going back.

They had came up with the plan that morning, right after Gaara had left to resume his duties as Kazekage. It had all started with a random cat that had almost made Kankuro cry.

A black cat had somehow had gotten into their house, and had jumped into Kankuro's food. He had fallen back, yelling, mumbling about how he was 'so freaking cursed now', making Temari whack him upside the head. This had somehow involved into a conversation about how Gaara would never be scared so easily. So what does Kankuro do to prove his 'manliness'?

Involve Temari in a scheme to scare the shit out of Gaara.

She didn't completely approve of the idea, but couldn't resist. Never before had she seen her brother lose his composure, so it was tempting to see him act like a younger brother for once instead of a solemn Kazekage.

At first, they had tried the usual things to sake him up: jump scares, costumes, and even using some of Kankuro's puppets to try and get a reaction out of their brother. All of them failed, receiving only a glance and a raised eyebrow from the Kazekage.

That was why she was currently hiding behind a corner of a hallway, waiting for Gaara to come and fall into their trap. Kankuro was on the other side, looking out for Gaara. Their trap was fairly simple and had taken them only ten minutes to set up. Still, Kankuro insisted that it would work, and, since she couldn't come with anything, Temari went along with it.

"Sandman has arrived! I repeat, Sandman has arrive!" Kankuro's voice echoed through Temari's earpiece, excited and nervous.

Gulping, Temari leaned her head far enough from behind her corner to see if it worked. Gaara turned around the corner with his usual patient gait, head bowed as he read through some papers. Thankfully, he didn't even notice the trigger on the floor.

Temari found that she couldn't breathe as she watched her brother activate the trap, the trigger letting out a small 'click' as his foot scuffed it. He paused, head still bowed, but now cocked to the side as he listened to the trigger's resounding.

 Suddenly, a scarecrow swung down from the ceiling. It was a foot taller than Gaara, with a carved pumpkin for a head. Kankuro had used some old clothes he took from Baki-sensei to dress it, smearing ketchup on as well to give it a bloody appearance. In the end, it had actually turned out quite well, and had passed the test run conducted by the two on some eight year-olds with flying colors.

Gaara didn't even glance at it.

Instead, he simply side-stepped around their scarecrow and continued as if nothing ever happened.

As the two watched him walk away, they couldn't help the depressed aura that now surrounded him. They had spent all day trying to get a reaction from him, and ended getting less of one somehow! It was as if he were made of ice, not sand.

Dragging his feet, Kankuro regrouped with Temari. "It's impossible!" He moaned, putting all of his body weight against the wall.

Temari merely nodded her head, not bothering to answer such a blatant statement. What else was there to say, anyway?

"Let's just call it quits and g-" Before he could say a word, a small 'thump' stopped him.

It was the scarecrow. The thing had been released from the strings holding it up, yet, despite there being nothing in it that was rigid, it had managed to stay standing, facing the opposite direction.

"H-hey, Kankuro, stop m-messing around and release the ch-chakra strings. Gaara's a-already gone." Temari stuttered out, her voice unable to go above a whisper.

 "That's... That's n-n-no-not m-m-m-me." Kankuro answered, his voice breaking at the end."

As they trembled in fear, the thing slowly turned it's head around, it's body not moving an inch. When it's head faced them head on, the mouth managed to stretch even wider.

"Wanna play~?"

Obviously, the two ran. They may have been experienced nin who have taken down entire organizations, but this... This was something else.

As they sprinted for the Kazekage's office, the scarecrow started to chase them, making their hearts pound even more.

"No! No! Bad scarecrow! Don't try and kill your Otou-san!" Kankuro yelled, crying. That only seemed to make it more excited, allowing it to gain a few feet. Being a very self-preserving person, Kankuro forcibly shoved himself in front of his sister, hoping that if the monster caught her first, he would be spared.

Of course Temari noticed what he was doing and shoved him back, making their sprint turn into a full on shoving war. Thankfully, the reached Gaara's office before anyone was sacrificed.The second they had entered, the rustling sound of it's movement had ceased, but there was always the chance that it could be waiting in the hallway to pounce.

"G-gaara! There's a monster trying to kill us!" Kankuro wailed, throwing himself in front of his younger brother's desk. "Use your Kazekage skills to kill it!"

When they had entered, Gaara's chair had been swiveled so they could only see a tuft of his hair. It started to swivel around a few seconds after Kankuro landed in front of the desk, gradually revealing more and more of their brother.

At first, everything seemed normal. The only strange thing was his hair: it seemed to be longer than normal, and shadowed his entire face as it was bowed downwards.

"Gaara?" Temari called out, hallway monster forgotten.

At the sound of her voice his head lifted, making both of their blood run cold. His normally composed face was stretched into a grin that ran all the way across his face. It was a demonic smile, having excessively pointed teeth and cracked lips.

There was only one logical option.

The two ran out the door, Kankuro leading the charge, to face the scarecrow. No matter how afraid they were of that monster, they knew their little brother could be a million times worse.

Gaara watched the two head out the door, his calm, passive eyes not matching his grin. Once they were completely out the door and their screams echoed through his window, he allowed his sand mask to drop.

Underneath it, his face was completely normal. There might have been a  mischievous twinkle in his eye and his mouth may have been tugged up slightly at the corners, but there was nothing threatening at all in his face.

 Listening to his older sibling's faint yells, Gaara allowed himself a faint chuckle of amusement. He hadn't planned on 'paying them back', so to speak, but couldn't stop himself when he saw that the scarecrow had been stuffed mainly with sand due to the lack of hay in their village. The mask had been a last minute thing, but turned out fairly well, in his opinion.

He spent the rest of the day filling out paperwork and remotely controlling the scarecrow to chase Temari and Kankuro, getting just a bit too much enjoyment out of their fear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's a little something for Halloween~! ^_^