Disclaimer: For the last time! I don't own Naruto!
Chapter 20: Going Home
"Holy shit! What did you girls buy?" Kankuro yelled.
The puppet master pointed to the carts that were harnessed to three of the Suna horses and shouted more gibberish.
Kina walked out of the guesthouse and stared at her brother-in-law. "What are you shouting about, Kankuro?" she asked.
"I think he's complaining about the horses pulling so many carts," Gaara answered.
Temari and Temeki frowned at the still ranting shinobi. "We needed to buy some clothes for Temeki-chan," Temari explained.
"As well as some new weapons and other things," Temeki added, blushing a bit at the 'other things.' Why do girls have to use such tight chest bindings? she asked herself.
"But there are two extra carts than when we came here!" he yelled. "Not one…two!"
"We might've bought a few other things as well," Kina said, scratching her arm.
"Like what?"
"Oh, you know. A few essentials that we need back in Suna. A few bolts of cloth, some weapons, new scrolls, bodyarmorandtennewextradurableattackdummies," Kina said.
The purple face paint above Kankuro's right eye twitched a bit as he said; "Care to repeat that at a slower pace, Kina-chan?"
Kina laughed nervously and repeated herself. "A few bolts of cloth, some weapons, new scrolls, body armor and ten new extra durable attack dummies."
Naruto came up to the house just as Kina finished her sentence and whistled. "The ones that Iruka-sensei ordered for the Academy?" he asked.
Kina nodded and prayed that the boy would stop at that.
"Those suckers are heavy!" the blonde said, ignorant of Kina's prayer.
The twitch came again. "Heavy?" Kankuro asked.
"Yup! I helped bring them to the Academy, y'know! I don't know how you're supposed to attack in them, but since the body armor is for teaching the kids how to aim at moving targets, that's probably what the designer was going for."
"Body armor?" Gaara asked. "I thought you were talking about the attack dummies."
Kina closed her eyes and prayed really hard that Naruto would shut up.
"What? No!" Naruto was silent for a moment and Kina opened her eyes and sighed.
"Those dummies are easily ten times heavier!"
Great, Kina thought. Please don't let him mention the other thing in front of Kankuro!
"Kina-chan," the boy started. "Iruka-sensei sent me over here to see if you got the scrolls he ordered for you. They were supposed to be brought in this morning. He said something about them being really helpful with teaching kids."
"No, they haven't arrived yet," Kina said. Please don't arrive until after we've gone!
"That's not like Kotetsu-san and Itsumo-san," Naruto said. "They usually—hey! There they are!"
God was obviously not listening to any of Kina's prayers today.
"Kinabuhi-sama!" Kotetsu yelled, pulling a cart loaded with scrolls along with Itsumo. "Here are the scrolls you wanted!"
Kankuro looked at the cart filled with scrolls—some of which were taller than Kina herself—turned to his much beloved sister-in-law and promptly began shouting at her.
"Four carts is too much! The horses can't take the weight…what about the harnesses? They could easily break! Damn women buying every damn thing in sight…we have shops in Suna too, y'know…there's probably no room left for my stuff! Kinabuhi, why can't you have all of this delivered to Suna later?"
Kina waited until Kankuro's rant died down before starting a rant of her own.
"Four carts is not too much! The horses can too take the weight! They're Suna horses after all. The harnesses have been strengthened and reinforced. We damn women wouldn't have to buy every damn thing in sight if Suna had some decent shops! I packed your stuff in the original cart next to Gaara-kun's. There is no way I can have everything delivered to Suna in time for the new Academy semester and there is no damn way that I'm going to tolerate another shuriken throwing, psychopathic, sadistic, crazy eight year old trying to bury one in my ASS!"
"…"
"Um…you go Kina…?" Temeki cheered in a soft voice.
Kotetsu and Itsumo, used to the outbursts and temper of Tsunade, calmly ignored the shouting woman and harnessed the scroll cart to Kankuro's horse.
"Nightsmoke," he whimpered. "There's no way that I can ride him while he drags that thing behind him."
"So ride with Temeki," Kina said as she mounted Gaara's stallion Windrider. "She can't really ride that well anyway."
Both Kankuro and Temeki opened their mouths to object, but then Gaara gave them a cold glare.
"Yes, Kina-chan," they both said meekly.
Gaara mounted behind Kina and wrapped his arms around her waist. He waited as Temari got on her horse and laughed as Temeki and Kankuro argued over who should sit in front.
"You don't even know how to control a horse properly," Kankuro said.
"And I don't want to spend the entire trip with my arms holding onto your smelly, sweaty back," Temeki shot back.
"Either figure it out soon or both of you will end up walking and leading the carts," Gaara threatened.
Kankuro nodded and threw Temeki onto the saddle. He jumped onto the horse and sat behind her.
Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro each took the lead line of one of the harnessed horses while Naruto took the fourth.
When they got to Konoha's main gate, a small crowd of people was already gathered.
"There's Sakura," Kina said. "And Hinata, Neji, Tenten, Ino, Kiba, Chouji…Gaara-kun everyone's here to say goodbye!"
Temari frowned. "Everyone but Shikamaru," she corrected. She felt a bit hurt by that. The idiot probably forgot that I was leaving today.
"Mina-san!" Kina smiled. "You all came!"
"Of course," Ino said. "Thanks to you guys, this was one of the best Summer Festivals ever!"
"Yeah, right," Gaara muttered.
Hinata shook her head. "No!" she corrected. "Ino's telling the truth! You all made this Festival one to remember!"
"I mean," Kiba said. "How many times do you get to see the Kazekage tango?"
"Or be nice to almost everyone?" Tenten added.
"Not to mention watching you spend almost 30 ryou on a game to win a stuffed panda for Kina-chan," Chouji mentioned.
Gaara flushed at the reminder of that dumb panda.
"Seriously, that was the rattiest stuffed panda I've ever seen," Ino said.
"Hey!" Kina laughed. "I love my Mr. Panda Man!"
"We should get going soon," Kankuro sadly reminded. "We need to get past the forest before dark."
Gaara nodded and turned his horse toward the path. A loud whinny from behind them caused everyone to turn around.
Temari's eyes widened as Shikamaru came barreling down the street on top of a huge black stallion. "Oi! Stop running, you stupid horse! I said STOP!"
Shikamaru managed to get the horse under control and handed a scroll to Gaara. "The Hokage told me that you have to read this before you left," he informed Gaara.
Gaara took the scroll and began reading it.
Temari moved her horse next to Shikamaru's and smiled nervously. "I thought you forgot," she said.
Shikamaru shook his head and tightened his hold on the reigns when he felt the stallion's muscles tense beneath him. "Hokage-sama called me this morning," he explained. "I have a long term mission scheduled."
Temari's smiled dimmed a bit at the news. Long-term missions usually meant that any communication that the shinobi involved sent out was supposed to go to their home village only. Also, all messages were supposed to be outgoing. There was to be no paper trail that led to the shinobi.
She already had to deal with a long distance relationship with the Nara boy. She didn't know if she could handle being completely cut off from him.
Gaara and Kina had finished reading the scroll. He bit down on his thumb and placed his bloody thumbprint on a space next to the Hokage's insignia. He turned to Temari and interrupted the couple's conversation.
"I accept the terms," he said, giving the scroll to the other boy.
Shikamaru nodded and handed the scroll to Chouji. "Take that to the Hokage, Chouji. And take care of my spot for me."
"Naruto, give Shikamaru the lead line to the last cart," Gaara said.
"But Shika-kun has a mission!" Temari said, being extremely obtuse for once.
Shikamaru took the leather rope and smirked. "Troublesome woman," he said. "Suna is my mission."
"Nani?" she asked, dumbly.
"I'm to live there for half of the year. I'm Konoha's ambassador, so to speak," he explained. His gaze traveled to Temeki and paused for a moment before he looked up at the sky. "It's troublesome, but there are matters I have been ordered to keep an eye on. I'll be back in Konoha in the spring, but until then it seems that Suna will be my home."
"Oh," Temari said. "Where will you live?"
"In the Kazekage's Mansion," Gaara answered as he kicked his horse forward. He looked at his sister and her boyfriend for a long moment and waited for them to blush. "I trust that is acceptable?"
The two nodded and followed the Kazekage.
Kina smiled and snuggled into her husband. Everyone was silent for the first hour of the trip when Kina suddenly spoke.
"How long will it take before they start planning for their wedding?" Kina whispered.
"Hopefully they'll wait until after we have ours," Gaara answered.
Kina looked back at Gaara and gasped. "You mean we're not married?" she asked mockingly.
"You know we aren't, Kinabuhi."
"So are you asking me to marry you, Gaara?"
"…Hn."
Kina frowned and turned forward again. "As proposals go, that one sucked," she said.
Gaara sighed and turned Kina back towards him.
"Kinabuhi," he said, looking into her eyes. "Before I met you, I was a mess. Even after I met Naruto and fought him, I was a mess. I didn't know what to do. My old way of living was pointless and even though I had my brother and sister, something was missing. I was still lonely. I still didn't have something to come home to when missions were over. All I had was an empty room waiting for me."
Kina stayed silent as Gaara caught her hand in his and kissed the rings on her third finger.
"Then I met you and something changed. As I was getting to know you and finding out about you, I found something else. It was the something that was missing from before."
"A-and what was that?"
"Myself," he answered. "When I found you, I found myself. And in loving you, I learned to love myself. This sounds extremely ludicrous coming from me and if Naruto or Kankuro found out, they would tease me forever. But you are the missing part of me. You're what keeps me sane and you're what makes me laugh."
"I love you and I want you to be my wife. For real this time, not as a mission. Kinabuhi, will you marry me?"
Kina smiled up at Gaara and locked her arms around his neck. "Yes!" she yelled. "I love you, too! So much…"
Gaara smiled softly at the girl in his arms and lowered his head to kiss her.
Behind them, Temari accepted Shikamaru's handkerchief and wiped away her tears.
"You're going to tease him forever for this, aren't you?" she asked her boyfriend.
The shadow user smirked. "You bet," he replied. "Just don't expect me to sound so poetic and sappy when I ask you."
Temari's head came up and she stared as her boyfriend turned red as he realized what he said. "And are you going to ask me, Nara Shikamaru?"
"Ah…I…you see…"
She scowled and urged her horse forward to congratulate the couple. "Men!" she grumbled.
Kankuro was smiling softly at Kina and his brother when he heard a strange noise come from the girl in his arms.
"You're not crying are you?" he asked in shock.
Temeki hastily wiped the tears from her cheeks and coughed into her hand. "Of course not!" she scoffed. "I was just gagging at all of the drivel that Gaara was spewing."
Kankuro smirked and nodded slowly. "Uh-huh…sure you were."
Temeki straightened her spine and coldly replied, "If that's what I said I was doing, then that was what I was doing."
"I'm not arguing with you, Temeki-chan," Kankuro laughed. "I'm not arguing with you at all!"
Kina pulled away from Gaara and watched as Temeki somehow pushed Kankuro off of the horse.
"Temeki, teme!" the puppet master yelled. "I'm gonna get you back for that!"
Temeki laughed and yelled back. "Just you try, Kankuro-niisan! Just you try!"
Gaara sighed and Kina laughed. "That's your family?" she asked.
Gaara joined in her laughter and turned to look behind them. Temari was behind them followed by Shikamaru. The former looked slightly pissed, while the latter sported a blush that would put Hinata's best one to shame. Temeki proudly rode Nightshade while a dusty and cranky Kankuro walked a few paces behind her, muttering the whole time.
"That's our family, Kinabuhi," he corrected.
Kina nodded. "Yes," she agreed. "Our family."
A/N:
Done! Ha! Too sappy? Well, too bad! I like sappy endings!
I'm writing a sequel to this, so be sure to read it! It's gonna be called "Something To Come Home To" and will star Temeki in the lead! Yay!
Thanks to everyone who reviewed and who read this story! I had a blast writing it! Later!