AN: Well. Apparently Kankurou has taken over my brain. Not that it's, y'know, a bad thing... Anyhow, I guess this could be considered a prequel of sorts to my earlier Kankurou fic.
Kankurou likes cats. He likes them quite a bit, actually. He enjoys watching them hunt, watching them play, and generally just watching them.
He watches the feral cats roaming the streets of Sunagakure, and the occasional house cat sitting on the high walls that divide the houses and streets.
Kankurou's been watching cats since he was pretty little, before Gaara even. He likes to think that he's learned a few things from them.
How to savor a fight, for one thing. Shinobi are taught to win at all costs, to end the battle quickly. After all, you never know how many more enemies might be waiting in the shadows. Kankurou knows this, and agrees with it. He's just added a little something extra.
The way he sees it, killing every enemy you run across is kind of dumb. He prefers to leave a few opponents alive, but not from any misguided sense of mercy. Oh no.
His favorite fights are the ones where he utterly crushes and humiliates his opponent, then lets them go. That way, in twenty years when the weather turns cold or damp, a knee will twinge, or an arm will ache, and that shinobi will think back to the day Kankurou won. And he'll never forget. That's the kind of victory Kankurou prefers.
From the cats, he's also learnt patience. The kind of patience that requires you to out-sit, out-wit and generally out-wait your enemy.
Granted, that was mostly from watching two neighboring cats sit and stare at each other until they walked away simultaneously. Apparently it was a draw. (Kankurou liked watching cats, he never said anything about actually understanding them.)
After he's watched a few of those staring matches, and after he's actually started to figure them out, he finds himself applying what he'd learned to the people around him. Much to his surprise, it works. During Gaara's quiet campaign to become Kazekage, Kankurou finds himself watching the politicians, and knowing which way they'll lean.
Once Gaara is appointed Kazekage, he places Kankurou on the roster of diplomatic couriers, much to Kankurou's horror. He's no fucking diplomat!
Later on, Gaara quietly explains. He's patient, he's perceptive and he can be utterly ruthless when necessary.
Kankurou's impressed. He didn't think Gaara had noticed that much. Maybe this whole diplomat thing won't be that bad.
Gaara then sweetens the deal by mentioning that as a courier and not a full diplomat, he won't be expected to adhere to the same standards of behaviour.
That settles it for Kankurou. He doesn't have to give up swearing? (Most of the time, anyway...) He likes that idea. He likes it a great deal.
As he sets out for his first mission, he thinks about the cats that helped him to this point.
Yeah. He likes cats. Dogs, he's not so fond of. Sneaky little bastards...
Notes: Reviews and concrit will be squeed over, obnoxiously so.