Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Three again ❯ Chapter ten: the Plant man ( Chapter 10 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Three Again

Chapter ten: the Plant man

By this time Neji, Sasuke, and Naruto had woken up. Their reaction to Shokubutsu was the same as Gaara's ("You look like a plant!"). Then the four and Itachi huddled together while Shokubutsu stared at them. Then they smiled up at him in the sweet loving way that only kids can do and makes adults break out in sweat.

Shokubutsu stared at the four kids while Itachi sat on the bed, smiling from ear to ear at them. In a matter of.... a few seconds, they had him tied and gagged on the floor. He had no idea how they did it, in fact neither does shieka, which is why she skipped a bit.

"E-tough-ee?" Neji asked looking up at the oldest Uchiha. "Why do all your friends want you to take them home?"

"I think they are directionally challenged," Itachi said, nodding knowingly.

"Where does this guy live?" Naruto asked, sitting on top of Shokubutsu.

"I do not know," Itachi told him sadly.

"Hey, mister, where do you live?" Gaara asked him.

"He's a plant, stupid! Plants don't talk," Sasuke said.

"I'm not stupid! You are!" Gaara shouted back. "He talked-ed before!"

"Nu-uh!" Sasuke said.

"Ya-huh!" Gaara said.

"Nu-uh!" Sasuke said.

"Ya-huh!" Gaara said.

"Nu-uh!" Sasuke said.

"Ya-huh!" Gaara said.

"Nu-uh!" Sasuke said.

"Ya-huh!" Gaara said.

"Nu-uh!" Sasuke said.

"Ya-huh!" Gaara said.

"Nu-uh!" Sasuke said.

"Ya-huh!" Gaara said.

(Phoenix: good god, she's found the copy and paste button)

"MMMMNNNNNPPPPHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" Shokubutsu said.

"Mmnohumnsmendisknconsaicnonksald!" Shokubutsu said.

"Envndivnslivnxkdmnsohvbkjhf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Shokubutsu said.

"See, I told you he can't talk!" Sasuke said, ignoring the muffled screaming under Naruto.

"He talked-ed before!" Gaara insisted on the verge of tears. He glomped Itachi's leg. "He did right?!"

"Maybe he's like a pawwot!" Neji offered. "He can only say a few things."

"A Pawwot Plant?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah!" they all said.

Shokubutsu finally got his mouth free of the gag. "I am Shizukani Shokubutsu, missing nin of the Shinobi Village, Hidding in the Grass (guess on this one) one of the nine members of the Atasuki. I will not be put under this kind of ridicule!"

"...God bless you," Gaara said, not understanding a word the guy had said.

GLARE!!!

SMILE!!!

"Where does mister live?" Naruto asked tugging on Itachi's coat.

"He's a plant," Neji pointed out.

"Plants live in the dirt," Sasuke said suddenly.

"Tewari has a garden out back!" Gaara said.

"How do you know?" Sasuke demanded.

"Cause it's my house!" Gaara said.

"Nu-uh! It's Kank-whoa's house!" Sasuke said.

Gaara straighten up. "It's Kank-whoa's house, but everything from the key hole down is mine!!" he said threateningly.

"We should bury him before he dies!" Itachi said suddenly, smacking his fist in his hand like he just came up with the most brilliant plan.

KABOOOOOMM!!!!!!!

Temari and Kankurou jumped and ran outside to see what the source of the explosion was. They threw open the door and looked out. Behind them, Itachi led Gaara, Naruto, Neji and Sasuke, who were dragging the tied up and regagged Shokubutsu down the stairs.

Step. Bump. "Ow." Shokubutsu said.

Step. bump. "Ow." Shokubutsu said.

Step. Bump. "Ow." Shokubutsu said.

Step. Bump. "Ow." Shokubutsu said. (Shieka: I think Temari and Kankurou are deaf Phoenix: I think they just got used to it.)

Itachi helped the kids drag their burden through the kitchen and out the back door. Finding nothing wrong with anything outside, Temari and Kankurou returned to the house just as the five snuck back up stairs.

Temari stepped outside with a watering jug thing to water her plants. She had never been able to grow plants back in Sunaga, due to the weather, but here she could and here she did. She bought bunches of books on how to take care of them and such and as it turns out she was really good at it. Her garden spit forth-brilliant colors of blue, pink, white, purple, red, green, and yellow. She stepped out to water them now, and noticed, angrily, that someone had pulled some of them out. in the bare place was now a man up to his shoulders in dirt.

..........Pause............

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Temari screamed at the top of her lungs, dropped the water jug thing and ran into the house.

"No! Wait! Come back!" Shokubutsu called after her. "Dig me out first! Please?!?!" he looked hopefully slash longingly at the house, but no one came out. He sighed and tried to shift his position. The water jug had fallen near him and the water was now seeping into the ground around him. Wiggle Wiggle. 'This feels kind of good...'

After what felt like months and months of searching (half a day) the officials of Konoha found Itachi at the Sand house. Due to the previous unpleasant encounter, Kankurou made them wait outside, but when he went upstairs they came in anyway. And you know how people like this are. They have to go through everything around them without making it look like they ventured in to actually look at something.

"Hey! I said to wait outside!" Kankurou said when he came back down.

"Boy, this house was lent to you by Hokage. It is still the property of Konoha and available to anyone who wishes to venture in," said the one that had called Gaara a monster.

Kankurou glared at them as Itachi came down with the four boys hanging on his cloak begging him to stay. When he saw the officials he smiled at them and gave a cheerful "Hello!" then put his shoes on. Gaara, hanging on to him around his legs, looked up and saw the officials glaring down at him. Instantly, he let go of Itachi and backed away to Kankurou, who willingly picked him up. Itachi turned when Gaara let go.

"What's wrong, Gaara-kun?" Itachi asked, concerned.

"He's just a monster," one of the officials said. "It's no one's concern if it gets upset."

Kankurou's glared deepened and even Itachi frowned. Hey, he was crazy, not stupid.

"Gaara is not a monster," Kankurou said in a low, calm and deadly voice that he learned from Gaara (when he was older). "Any of you who says otherwise again will get a free trip to their grave."

"You aren't allowed to fight with the Konoha officials, sand," they replied, breaking in sweat anyway. "Any fighting gets you sent back to Sunaga, who I'm sure would welcome you with open arms."

The room suddenly grew cold and dark, cutting the officials off in their arguementive taunting. They saw a red sun setting before them that brought shivers to their bodies. Suddenly it felt as though a thousand fiery needles were shooting through their bodies. When it was over they were back in the Sand's living room with Itachi standing before them, Sharingan activated. Itachi turned and said good-bye to the boys and led the men outside.

"Bye E-touch-ee!!" the kids called after him. He turned, smiling and waved back.

Kankurou watched the three boys run back up stairs to his room, and then down at Gaara. Slumping down on the sofa he gave a long sigh. Gaara snuggled up to him, but didn't say anything. Temari came in a few minutes later and found them there. She mouthed to Kankurou 'what's wrong?' and Kankurou just gave her a look like 'you don't want to know'. She sat next to him and leaned down to look at Gaara.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi," he mumbled.

"What's wrong?" she asked reaching over and rubbing his back.

"I'm not a monster." Gaara said.

"Course you're not!" Temari said.

"Why did they call me a monster?" he asked.

"Who?" Temari asked.

"The Konoha officials came for Itachi," Kankurou explained.

Temari frowned. "Damnit, why can't they just leave it alone?" she demanded no one in particular.

Kankurou shrugged. "I don't know," he replied as Gaara moved to squeeze in between his siblings.

"Why do they call me a monster?" Gaara asked again.

"..." Temari and Kankurou looked across at each other. "A long time ago, before you were born, someone put a monster inside you to make you stronger," Temari told him.

"Why?" Gaara asked.

"Cause he was a jerk," Kankurou said.

"Some people are scared of the demon cause they think that it will hurt everyone," Temari finished.

"I wont let it hurt anyone," Gaara insisted.

"We know, but some people don't understand that," Temari said. "But you know what? Who cares about those people? Kankurou and I don't care about the demon anymore, and Naruto doesn't care and neither do your other friends (actually they don't know about it but that's a mute point right now), and Tsunade-sama doesn't care either. We all love you lots!" She squeezed Gaara tight and he hugged back. Kankurou paused for a moment then hugged both of them.

"Ack!!" Gaara cried as he was crushed between them. Kankurou laughed and let them go.

"Oh, hey, uh, Kankurou?" Temari said looking up at him. "There's...there's a--a man in my garden out back," she said pointing towards the back door.

"What?" Kankurou asked.

"It's E-touch-ee's friend!" Gaara said looking up at both of them. "He's a plant so we buried him before he died!"

"...." 'Oh, god not again....'

"I wanna go somewhere!" Gaara said suddenly.

"Oh, where you wanna go?" Temari asked.

"To see what sharks look like!" Gaara said, throwing his arms up in the air, like 'of course!'.

"And I want you to go," he said to Kankurou, "and you," he said to Temari, "and 'Kamaru, and Itachi!"

"What about the other kids? Can't they come?" Temari asked.

"Duh!" Gaara and Kankurou said in unison.

'Ok, yeah I deserved that.' "Ok, then," Temari sat back in thought. "Where can we go to see sharks?"

"The fish store?" Kankurou suggested.

Temari covered Gaara's ears so he couldn't here. "Kankurou, he's three, seeing a dead shark would like traumatize him for life!"

"Oh, right..." Kankurou and Temari sat back and thought about it for a while.

"What has happened to our great power?" an Atasuki member demanded pounding their fist into the wall.

"This is unacceptable!" another shouted.

"We will all go to retrieve Itachi," said the member who sat in a corner, to quiet them down. "We set off tomorrow."