Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Runaways ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

Runaways

 

A Temari Story

 

Chapter Two

 

At dawn the next day, Temari shook Kankuro awake and the three siblings pressed on. They didn't' pass anyone all morning and Temari couldn't help but feel thankful; people would mean trouble.

 

Around midday they came upon a small oasis. Kankuro threw himself down on the yellow-green sprigs of grass. Temari pulled Gaara over to the small pool of water and sat him down. She tore a strip of cloth off of her blanket, dipped it in the cool water, and began to gently rub the dried blood off of her brother's face.

 

“I'm hungry,” Kankuro shouted, “Let's eat!”

 

“Shh!” Temari hissed, scanning the horizon to make sure nobody was coming. Kankuro took that as an affirmative assent and dove into his bag.

 

“Wait!” Temari cried, snatching the sack away from the boy. “You can't eat it all now,” she lectured, “It's about five days until we reach the next village. This food has to last us until then.” The blonde girl took out a kunai and used it to cut the loaf of bread into five equal pieces. She handed Kankuro the piece that had a bite in it and wrapped up the remaining parts in the waxed paper from the stall, placing it back in her little brother's sack. “Eat it sparingly,” she warned the boy as he began to wolf down his share, “That's all you get for today. We'll save the fruit for later.” She took her own and Gaara's loaf and did the same, handing the six year old his day's worth of food.

 

While the boys were occupied with their meal, Temari took the opportunity to dump the old water out of the canteens, wash them, and refill them. She retrieved the strip of cloth that she used to clean Gaara off with and tried to scrub the blood out, but the coarse grey material still sported a brown stain. Temari sighed, wrung the fabric out, and put it back in her bag.

 

“Let's go,” she said, standing up.

 

The three set off again.

 

 

It had been three long days without a change. The sun beat down endlessly on the three children, causing sweat to flow down their foreheads, into their eyes, and drip off their noses. The sand met the sky in a harsh, flat line a million miles away. Temari's eyes were starting to ache from flatness. No body said anything; even Kankuro was too tired to open his mouth to complain. And they still had two more days.

 

Temari wondered by what miracle they had not been caught yet. They were supposedly being hunted down by the best of the best from Suna, but after the initial attack they had not crossed the path of another human being. With each step, she became more and more tense.

 

They heard it long before they saw it; an old cart, driven by an old man with an old team of horses. The hair was hot and motionless and sounds traveled quickly over the sands in such conditions. Temari's initial reaction to the approaching stranger was to hide her brothers, but there was nowhere to go. Temari slipped her hand into the pouch around her leg and gripped a kunai. Kankuro kept shooting sidelong glances at his sister, looking for some sort of direction or instruction, but she kept her eyes forward, and so he had to do the same. Gaara didn't look like he noticed anything out of the ordinary.

 

Half an hour later, the cart came rattling up beside the three siblings. The skinny man leaned over the edge of his wooden box-on-wheels and squinted his small eyes at the children.

 

“You kids headin' fer the village?” he asked, his voice thin and shaky. Temari stared up at him for a moment and nodded. “Well then, why don' y' kids hop in th' back an' I'll take y' with me?”

 

Temari's throat felt dry. She could feel Kankuro's eyes burning a hole in the side of her head. He was tired, they all were, and the water and food was getting low. If there was one thing they needed, it was a break.

 

But what if it was a trap? What if the old man was really a disguised jounin? Would she be playing right into her father's hands and letting Gaara fall into the snare?

 

Gaara looked up at his sister. He looked like he was about to collapse.

 

“Okay,” Temari said to the old man. She picked Gaara up and put him in the back of the cart and then jumped up beside him. Kankuro hopped up beside his sister and rested his head on her shoulder and almost immediately fell asleep. Temari pulled Gaara into her lap and hugged him closer to her chest.

 

 

“Hey, girl,” the old man hissed, “Wake up.”

 

Temari's eyes fluttered open. She figured she must have fallen asleep only a few minutes after Kankuro had. Gaara was still pretending to sleep. The girl pushed herself off of the rough wooden floor of the cart and scuttled over to the edge where the man stood.

 

“What is it? Shouldn't we be there by now?” she asked confused.

 

“Now, listen here,” the man leaned in closer. Temari could sense Gaara's eyes on the back of her head. “I know who y' three kids are and a purtty good idea of why y' are running. Them ninjas back in Suna, they told every'un that y' three ran away for some cock and bull reason, and that if any'un was to come acrost y' we was to take y' to the closest village and hand y' over to them.”

 

Temari felt the blood rush out of her face. That was why they weren't being followed; they had laid traps in every settlement in the country knowing that the children would end up in one of them. They had probably hoped that the children would wear themselves out on the journey and not be able to fight back.

 

“Pay attention, girl, I ain't done talkin' yet,” the old man continued, “Y'll take as much food an' water as y' can from my cart and get out of the country. Now, I've got a sister that lives down that way—” he pointed northwest “—that'll take y' three in for a spell. Tell 'er that Suoh sent y'.”

 

Temari nodded her head, her eyes as wide as saucers. She crawled over to the cart's cargo and began to stuff the three bags full of food. Once she was done, she shook Kankuro and Gaara (who had gone back to “sleep”) awake and told them to get up. She crawled over the edge of the cart and helped her brothers get down.

 

“Thank you,” she said to the old man, tears almost rolling out of her eyes. She felt like an idiot; she should have known there would be jounin waiting for them. She had nearly handed Gaara to them.

 

The old man smiled at them and got back up on the front of the cart. “Y' three hurry up and don' dilly dally. Y' take care of them young'uns, missy.”

 

“I will,” Temari promised.

 

 

Suoh's sister's house was a day and a half away. Temari had pushed her brother's and herself to their breaking point; they had only stopped twice during the journey. When they finally reached the small hut, Temari barely had enough strength to knock on the door.

 

An elderly woman swung the door open with a surprised expression barely visible through the many lines on her face.

 

“Suoh sent us,” Temari wheezed.

 

“Oh, goodness, y' three come on in,” the old woman exclaimed, stepping aside to let the children pass, “Y' look dead on yer feet.” She ushered them over to a small, scrubbed wood table and gave them all cups of fresh, cold, water and insisted on cooking something. “It's what women do in times of need,” she explained as she stirred a pot of stew over an old stove.

 

The three siblings ate in silence as the woman, Misa, went into the bathroom and began to run a bath. They definitely needed a good scrubbing, Temari concluded, looking at her filthy brothers and her own grime-smeared skin.

 

Misa insisted that Temari be the first to bathe. Too tired to argue, the girl went into the bathroom and peeled off the sand-streaked and sweat-drenched clothing that was clinging to her like a second skin. Misa collected the siblings' clothes to wash them out and handed each an old and worn outfit.

 

“Those used to belong to my kids,” Misa explained nostalgically, “Bin nearly fifty years since they've bin worn.”

 

Temari thanked the woman and changed into the clean garments. Gaara was next in line for the bath. Temari had offered to help him, but he insisted that he was not a child and could bathe himself.

 

“Temari,” Kankuro whispered to get his sister's attention.

 

“What is it?” she asked.

 

“Why are we running away from home?” he asked in a small voice.

 

The girl didn't say anything at first. She wanted to tell somebody; she felt like she had a burden on her shoulders, but she didn't want to scare her brother. But the way that Kankuro was staring at his sister, she knew he wouldn't stop until he got his answer.

 

“Some one is after Gaara,” she whispered back to her younger brother, “But you have to promise to never tell him, no matter what.”

 

“But if some one is after him, couldn't father stop him?” Temari didn't answer. “No!” the boy hissed, “Father is trying to kill Gaara? Why?”

 

“I don't know,” Temari answered truthfully, “But he's our little brother and we have to protect him. Promise?” She held out her pinky finger.

 

Without hesitation, Kankuro hooked his pinky finger around Temari's and said, “Promise.”

 

***

 

Three days later, Temari insisted that they leave Misa, just incase the jounin were on their trail. Misa could see in Temari's eyes that it would be futile to argue with the nine year old, and so she drew a rough map on a small scroll.

 

“Y' follow this map,” Misa said, handing it to Temari, “It'll take y' straight to Konoha. They're friendly folk there, my husband grew up in that village. Some'un'll help y' three there.”

 

Temari thanked Misa for taking them in before setting off on what she hoped was the last leg of the journey.