Disclaimer: As always, Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto, etc. Borrowing for purposes of entertainment.
Katagâ
- is "particle;" words left out when doing homework word counts for secondary school sadists (or so I thought)
-is a serviceable name for a collection of drabbles and one-shots lacking a unifying theme that could have yielded a more interesting title.
-are pieces written for the LiveJournal community 31days (which I started writing for late August '05), in response to daily themes, and other similar challenges.
-is wide-ranging; may be more exploratory in terms of style, theme, etc
-are all entries are listed at the bottom of this page; when a piece is added, the list is updated
The Wind Did Not Stir
August 30: I am known to night and horses and the desert
082205 11:24
He was known to night and horses and the desert. The night knew him well, because he did quite a lot of slinking after dark, even when off-duty. Of course, a ninja was never really off-duty, especially if that ninja's proximity to the Kazekage (aka the big honcho) was merely a few tiny permutations in his/her genetic code-or so he plagiarized from his sister. (She didn't know, of course, and what she didn't know wouldn't get him flayed.)
Kankuro was very dedicated to his brother. See, his brother wasn't that particular about genetics, so he had no qualms about creating a mini-oasis with a sibling's body fluids.
Now where was he? Horses, yes, horses. (It was getting harder and harder to latch on to a coherent thought. Inner monologues weren't that easy to follow when you have a healthy cocktail of poison cruising through your bloodstream and you keep drifting in and out of consciousness .) Now about horses. Horses couldn't stand him. They spit at him, they spit at his mother... No, those were camels; the filthy beasts turned out to be rabid after that shifty-eyed merchant who sold them to Kankuro trotted off with his money. Anyway, horses knew Kankuro well enough to run like hell whenever he came within a hundred paces near them. They knew he could rend them apart with his dummies' hands and chew them up with his own choppers for dinner.
Actually, his involvement with horses for the most part had been minimal. But the he-was-known-to-night-and-horses-etc bit sounded good, marauder-good, and decapitating your enemy's steed because you accidentally nicked yourself with your own poisoned darts and were too whoozy to distinguish where horse ended and man began ought to make you infamous, right?
Finally, the desert. Kankuro was born in the desert, grew up there, lived there-and that's no mean thing, you know? Desert life was tough life. As they say, you couldn't dawdle on a bed of roses out in the desert; there's not enough water to sprout a single seedling! (My, wasn't his humor irreverently good-natured today; it must be those neurotoxins. Kankuro didn't usually have much good-naturedness or flippancy in his nature. The sun tended to bake those out of ones system, if one's laid out in a village like Hidden Sand long enough.) No, the desert wasn't a kind mother-or any other relative for that matter. It was for the most part taciturn and relentless, harsh and extreme, bloodthirsty and cruel, super dry and very, very sandy.
And he would never let it-him-down.
Kankuro knew he was a mere grain of sand to night and horses and the desert. (He had his own pride, naturally, so you'd never hear him say that.)Still, the elders say a single grain of sand floating aimlessly could make a difference, could even vanquish an invading army.
Well. Lots and lots of those single grains of sand, anyway. They'd swirl around at high velocity and take on the form of Death. (The funnel-shaped kind.)
He was known to night and horses and the desert. Kankuro dreamed of this intro being uttered by his progeny. On glib desert nights, they'd gather around the fire and, with sinuous shadows augmenting voice and gesture, he would regale them with tales of his exploits, him the Kazekage's trusted brother and comrade. And they would listen, enthralled, shakened by such august company.
But first, Kankuro, that grain of sand known to night and horses and the desert, had to fly out of that dark hole invaginating his brain to protect his Kazekage.
His little brother.
If only he could will his muscles to contract.
If only the wind stirred, even a little.
082305 1227
1) The Wind Did Not Stir (Kankuro on Gaara / drabble - introspection / no pairing)
2) Fenestra (Gai on Lee / drabble - introspection / no pairing)
3) The Succubus (Sasuke / drabble / SasuSaku-ish)
4) Dandelion (Sakura / one-shot / SasuSaku)
5) Reverse Psychology (Sakura / one-shot / SasuSaku)
6) On Meeting the In-Laws and Other Causes of Wedding Night Jitters (Sasuke, Sakura / one-shot / SasuSaku)
7) The Exercise (Naruto, Hinata / one-shot / )
8) The Three Aspects Surface (Jiraiya & Tsunade / drabble / no pairing / AU - fantasy)
9) Songs to the Sun and Moon (Yondaime / drabble / no real pairing; hints of triangle / AU - fantasy-ish)
10) Pooh Bear On Happiness (Sasuke, Sakura / drabble / AU modern school)
11) His True Genius (Itachi / drabble / no pairing)
12) Waking (Gaara / one-shot / no pairing)
13) The Origin of the Good-Morning Reminder (Naruto, Hinata / drabble / NaruHina)
14) Drowning Fish (Tsunade / drabble / )
15) The Ramen Plan (Hinata / drabble)
16) His Harem (Shikamaru / drabble )
17) Closure (Sakura, Sasuke / one-shot / no pairing)
18) Shadowing Shadow (Shizune, Tsunade / drabble)
19) The Follower (random on Hinata, Neji / drabble)
20) Diffusivity (Team Kurenai / drabble )
21) Canine Loyalty (Naruto, Hinata, Kiba / drabble / NaruHina)
22) White Flags and Red Paint (Shikamaru, Ino / drabble / ShikaIno)
23) Return / Exchange (Sasuke, Sakura / one-shot )
24) It's Different (SasuSaku / one-shot)
25) Confectioners' Sugar (SasuSaku / one-shot)
26) On Bedmates and Drinking Partners (SasuSaku / one-shot)
27) It (sasusaku / drabble)
28) Expiation (Sasuke, Sakura / one-shot / AU - modern)
29) Thirty-one (and other milestones) (Sakura, Sasuke / one-shot / soft R?)
30) Superstition (Sasuke, Sakura, a few others / one-shot / R for lime and crude humor)
31) Operation: Uchiha Image Improvement (Sasuke, Sakura / one-shot / R for lime and crude humor)
32) Dinner Meetings in the Uchiha Household, On Why They're Ill-Advised (Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura / one shot / R for innuendo and crude humor)
33) Boundaries (Sasuke, Sakura, Ino / one-shot / R for language / AU modern)
34) Of Prophylaxis and Prophylactics (Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, others / one-shot / AU modern hospital)
35) Career Counseling in the Park (Sasuke, Sakura, others / one-shot / AU modern sort of office)
36) Intermission (Sasuke, Sakura/ one-shot / AU celebrity-fan)
37) I had many faults in my life (Sasuke, Sarada / drabble )
38) Shades of Red (Sasuke, Sarada / one-shot / warning: character death)
39) i don't know how to have a father (Sasuke, Sarada / drabble)
40) like a virgin (Sasuke, Sakura / drabble / R for non-graphic lemonine something)
41) chock it to placenta brain (Sasuke, Sakura / drabble)
42) Inheritance (Sasuke, Sakura, Sarada / one-shot)
43) Day Trip (Sasuke, Sakura, others mentioned / one-shot)
44) he waits until night to speak of the demons he houses (Sasuke, Sakura / canon compliant one-shot)
45) the way she looks at her brother makes him nervous (Sasuke, Sarada / canon compliant? in universe au? / one-shot / warning: character death)
46) crumpled on the bathroom floor ( Sasuke, Sakura, Sarada/ in-universe au / warning: grief, body horror, gore)