As Gently Falling Sand
Author's Note: This is an AU story focused primarily on Temari. I am posting this is to see how the audience will react. If I get enough feedback, I believe I shall continue.
Chapter One: Children of the Desert
Temari watched as Neji sat in the sitting area of the apartment she and her brothers shared. He had a difficult day training and had been somewhat injured when an enemy had shown up in the forest suddenly. Although he remained impassive in front of everyone else, he had no choice but to show her his injuries when they were in her apartment. His emotionless façade had not wavered as he stiffly sat down, but she could see that it caused him some pain.
"I will be fine," he assured her, pushing her hand away gently.
"Everyone says that," she remarked dryly, but left him to his own devices.
"I am merely…" he trailed off slightly and his brow crinkled as he sought the proper word. "Tired," he decided. "Injuries affect one more when one is tired. I will be fine. I think---"
He was going to stand up at that point, but the older female pushed him down. "If you do not care for yourself, I will have to do it for you."
It took a moment to steady his breathing, and then he resumed the same impassive façade as was normal for him. "What would happen without you?" he asked rhetorically as he eased himself into a comfortable lying down position.
"Your life would be far less complicated," she murmured almost inaudibly, but he seemed to have fallen asleep. The blonde female stepped out of the room to the outside area. The sun was setting in the sky, and she could see Kankuro and Gaara walking towards the building she was in. "Is it our fault," she thought to herself, "to have caused so much trouble to many people?"
It had begun almost a hundred years ago, when she was a child of nine. Suna had been a rich stop point in the desert, with exotic wares and powerful warriors. The once-humble town was then known as the Flower of the Desert, and so was targeted for raids by desert bandits. The Kazekage of Suna at the time had decided that they needed more powerful ninja to protect the trade routes and other such. The result was that he sealed a demon called Shukaku into his youngest son, Gaara.
The boy had grown under the shelter of his family until he was six, but the Kazekage and his advisors found it was difficult to control the boy. In an effort to eliminate the boy, they sent a man named Yashamaru to assassinate Gaara. The assassin failed miserably. Not only did he not achieve the goal, but also the demon within the young child was outraged enough to slaughter most of Suna. It had been a full moon that night and the shock of his uncle attempting to kill him caused Gaara to relinquish control over his body to the beast within.
After the massacre, the sands started falling over Suna, the Flower of the Desert, to hide it from view. The moon shone down on the blood-streaked buildings, which were starting to crumble under the weight of the sand. The only survivors were a few civilians who had fled and the Kazekage's children.
All of them, the few who had escaped the massacre of Suna, were condemned to wander under the moon as true children of the desert. The sand left Temari and her siblings outside of another desert town, and that was where she first realized how slowly they aged. They stayed there for three years and seemed to look the same as they had on the day of the massacre. The town could not understand why the three children were developing so slowly, so Temari privately joked that they were immortal to her siblings. In front of the outsiders, however, she was not as calm as she pretended to be when around her brothers. A few nights later, she gather her two brothers and left.
As they were walking through the desert that cold night, Kankuro wondered why they were leaving and said, "I do not understand."
Temari sighed, but did not stop. "I know, and I hope you will not have to." Although their bodies had stopped growing, their minds had not. Temari had the knowledge of a twelve-year-old and her understanding ability had been unusually high to begin with. "People are afraid of what they do not understand. We may need the protection of humans rather than that of desert at times, but there are other times when we must protect ourselves from humans. They could turn on us if they know what we are."
"What we are…" What were they? They were the remnants of a dead age and the reminder of folly, though few could remember the Flower of the Desert. Most considered it a mystery, how Suna had suddenly disappeared on that one night of the full moon. Some said that Suna had been swallowed into the sands and some said that Suna had been magically transferred to another place. There were a few rumors that a demon had massacred everyone before consuming the entire area, but those were few.
"I thought they were our friends," said Kankuro, far wiser and more articulate than he should have been at his supposed age of eight. "Why would they do this?"
Gaara put a hand to the tattoo over his brow, tracing the "love" kanji. "Fear is a powerful feeling. Those who claim to love us will turn on us when they discover we are not like them."
The children discovered how true it could be.
Temari paced in a corridor of the hospital. Neji had gotten worse, and so had been sent to the hospital, though he protested. To everyone else, it seemed that the blonde female was only being overly concerned for her friend, who was slightly more than that. It was lucky that so much could be explained by her relationship with the Hyuuga. It was often unnecessary for her to explain too much about why she reacted in certain ways. The Hyuuga Clan was a secretive group, so others only comforted her and told her how strong the boy was.
It somewhat annoyed her, but she took it all in stride. Against physical pain, he certainly was strong, but she was not quite sure of his mind. Telling him her secret was possible, but Kankuro had once done that, and they had been chased away very quickly. Unfortunately, the demon inside Gaara still did not take very well to being attacked, and it sufficed to say that town would have had a problem with getting enough men for patrols until they recruited more people. That had been approximately twenty-five years ago.
When the three had been wandered the desert for ten years after Suna disappeared, they had wondered what to do next. Staying away from other humans had gotten a bit irritating. If any of them were sighted, curious and sometimes well-meaning people would come to see who they were and why there were three children wandering the desert by themselves. It might have been easier to conceal themselves if they had split up, but the three needed each other.
Now with the knowledge of nineteen years, though still with a body of ten at most, she made plans of how they would be able to assimilate themselves into towns. "We should make friends with people when we move into human areas. Friends with enough standing to defend us if anything happens. And, we must be well-liked."
"I dislike people," said Gaara in a monotone. It was odd to hear the voice of a very young child speak the way he did.
"Well, do not let them hate you," remarked Temari. "Kankuro?"
Upon hearing his name, the older boy voiced his opinion. "I believe we should stay in the desert."
"Why?" wondered the girl.
"We can grow to become more powerful here. Just think about it… we have no need for food or water, and we are able to survive in the desert. We could spend out time training to become more powerful as we have for the last seven years."
So it was, that the three siblings spent another fifty years in the desert to learn things on their own. The outside world was dead to them, and to the outside world, the Flower of the Desert had become a mere legend rambled about by drunkards and fools. They discovered many things in the additional half a century spend in the sands. They looked to age only one year for every ten they lived, but could sense time the ordinary way. Their minds grew as fast as a normal human's even if their bodies were slow. Occasionally, someone would spot them. Gaara generally made quick work of anyone who could threaten their existence, as did Kankuro and Temari. They became known as the cursed children of the desert.
Sixty years after the fall of Suna, they began to live in towns. Before going, Temari, now with the appearance of fifteen-ish, instructed them on what to do. "When we enter a town, we are nomads from the desert. We wait and watch them. We grow a few relations while listening for rumors. We must establish close relations with respected people. Even if others dislike us, we can stay as long as we have someone powerful enough to defend our staying in the area." The three had finally gotten bored of living alone by themselves.
But the suggestions the eldest had made were merely possible ideas of youth. They did not consider the aggression of warriors, the competition of admirers, and the backstabbing of so-called friends. They had not expected to feel anything towards the outsiders they deceived. Relations were simpler to control when they were not involved with it, but Kankuro believed he had fallen in love with a kunoichi in one village and told her his secret. She attacked him immediately in disgust, and it had taken only a minute for Kankuro's puppets to kill the girl.
That incident destroyed any hopes the three had that any outsiders would accept them.
Naturally, they left that town after the occurrence. After a while of traveling through the desert areas, they decided to go see other parts of the world, but they always had to leave before the obviousness of how slowly they aged could come out.
"Temari?"
The interruption broke her train of thoughts, and she turned to look at the medic. It was another clear-eyed Hyuuga, but a female with dark blue hair. What was her name…
"He is all right, and I think you should go see him," suggested the Hyuuga girl timidly.
Temari sent her a thankful look and said, "Thank you, Hinata." The name had finally come to her. This female was the heiress to the Hyuuga Clan, one of the most ancient and noble clans in the town of Konoha, which was where they were. It was a valuable relation. Temari had sent Gaara to court the girl, realizing that his silence would be far more appealing to the shy heiress than Kankuro's brash flirtations.
"Neji," said Temari cheerfully. She was rather good at concealing her emotions after practicing how to keep them from her brothers for the many years in the desert.
"Temari," he replied.
"You made me a bit anxious," she remarked.
"I wonder who would attempt to kidnap you," he stated. It was a sort of question, nonetheless, which he expected her to have some response to.
She pretended not to understand and instead put a hand on his. "Get better soon."
"I am worried about Neji," admitted Hinata.
Gaara stared at her unblinkingly and then realized that she expected him to say something. "I am worried about Temari," he said after a few moments, imitating her form of speaking. He had always been the most socially awkward of the three siblings.
"So am I," sighed the female. "Who would try to hurt a nice person like her?" She had thought the sand-girl uncommonly pretty, which was a fact noted by many others as well. Then, she had found her personality to be equally well, though there was a sort of cold calculation that seemed to be in all three of the Desert Children.
The red-haired boy wore an unreadable expression on his face as he dropped all emotions. He knew who might have attempted the action against his sister and why. Their extended lives were quite unusual, and many desired immortality, or, at the very least, prolonged lives. Someone might have finally discovered that there were true remnants of Suna still around, and that they had lived far longer than possible. As for Temari being a nice person--- she was not. None of them were. There were many dreams broken when they allowed them to be formed including them and then abandoned the area, along with friends or closer. Children who had considered them companions and yearmates were long dead from aging and had to see their friends disappear.
Temari stepped back into the corridor at that moment. Gaara silently excused himself and left to speak with his sister.
It was too risky to speak out loud in a shinobi village, so they formed some hand seals quickly for non-verbal communication.
"Should I leave him now?" she asked in his mind. "He is injured."
Kankuro, from where he was, replied. "He should be all right in a week."
Gaara scowled at his older sister from where he stood next to her and said, "Why are you so interested in him? You have never acted this way about leaving."
There was a short pause as Temari and Gaara moved to a quieter area of the hospital to continue the mental conversation. Some people had sent them odd looks at their silent communication.
Temari spoke. "Imagine staying here and making lives for ourselves. We are about the right age to look the same for a long while."
"Temari, they will grow old around us," warned Gaara. The younger two were surprised that it was Temari who now suggested that they stay, after all her efforts in the past to protect them from outsiders with elaborate plans and back-up plans for surviving the way they had.
"It is not fair if we continue to lie to those we meet," whispered Temari.
Kankuro's tone was stern. "You might break a few hearts, but you will at least save your own." There was a short pause and then he added, "Listen to me." Temari looked up in surprise to see the puppeteer standing in front of her as well. "Do not think that you have feelings for him," he growled desperately as he shook her shoulders.
"And if I have?"
The other two were now stunned rather than surprised. "Temari!" shouted Gaara irately in their minds.
Kankuro signaled for the younger not to speak. "You will see everyone dying around you. Is that what you wish? How do you think he or others would feel? We are not normal! We are cursed children of the desert, the last remnants of a dead, mythical city. You might find another like us to spent life with, but not him. It is too difficult. Outsiders do not accept us."
There were only a few survivors from the Flower of the Desert, and the likelihood of finding another was rare. They had not met any so far, and it was possible that there were no others. Still, Temari could understand the memories of their pasts. She smiled wryly and shifted the fan on her back. The three passed themselves from town by claiming themselves as desert nomads now searching for something culturally valuable. The nomads were not kept track of as well, so it was simple to believe the tale. It was generally accepted, so it was allowed that the three would have some skill in fighting and carry the odd weapon and tool. None of them could show any of their real power in view of others for fear of seeming too suspicious, though.
Temari suddenly remembered something from long ago… a question her brothers asked her in the times they had depended on her for answers.
"What are we?" asked Kankuro. Although only one of them had spoken so far, it was obvious that the two had come up with the question together.
She had taken a few moments to contemplate the question before replying. "We are… wanderers."
"Elaborate," demanded Gaara.
"We were denied admittance to any of the hells, so we roam the earth."