Working with ninja while being a civilian yourself was an interesting experience few people could lay claim to. As far as shinobi circles were concerned, most of the people one worked with were ninja, even if their job was not specific to being a ninja. But this wasn't always the case, especially in the Hidden Sand. Considering their less-than-ideal economic situation, lots of people had left the village for greener pastures over the years, and that meant fewer potential candidates to become ninja. With the number of ninja going down, the Sand had few to waste on jobs shinobi weren't strictly required for.
That was why the Kazekage's secretary, a bespectacled brunette with hazel eyes named Sohara, was not a ninja. Her family didn't have the means or the desire to trek across the desert to another country, so she had to find work around the village like many other civilians. Fortunately, that was easy, since there was a ton of work to do and not enough people to do it. Unfortunately, her impressive managerial skills had landed her an office job that kept her sequestered in a bland sandstone chamber that served as the entrance to the Kazekage's personal room for work.
It was just a little too dull for the young woman's tastes. Aside from her wooden desk and a few tapestries, as well as the doors that led in and out, it was a pretty uninteresting space. The only thing that broke up the monotony was an open window that helped with some much-needed circulation. The least the Kazekage could have done was put some more furniture in here. A potted plant, maybe.
Sohara ignored the papers and forms on her desk for a moment to ponder whether or not the Kazekage would let her bring some of her own things in here. She had a picture or two she could hang up...
Before she could get too far into that line of thought, the brunette nearly jumped out of her white robe and her chair as Baki's peerless Body Flicker skills planted him and his young charge smack in the center of the room.
Trying to calm her rapidly beating heart, Sohara snapped at the scary ninja without hesitation. "Dammit, Baki, can you use the door?! What's the point of even teleporting in here like that?!"
Baki brushed some sand off his person as the small blonde child next to him reeled in shock, dazed by a speed he'd never traveled at before. The accosted Jonin showed no concern for Sohara's fright.
"Technically, it's not teleporting. I just came in through the window."
Realizing that she had snapped at someone who usually gave her the creeps, Sohara tried to rebound into a greater degree of professionalism, though she didn't drop her gripe completely.
"W-well, the door is still a very viable and perfectly reasonable way to enter a room if there isn't an emergency..."
"This is the top floor of the building. Entering through a window is much more efficient than climbing all those stairs."
Having shaken off the effects of Baki's nigh imperceptible speed, the small kid next to him agreed. "Yeah, he's kinda right. That was super fast."
Having never seen the boy next to Baki—and never seeing Baki with a kid in the first place—Sohara couldn't help but ask a question. "So, uh, who is this?"
Baki's response did not enlighten her. "Someone you need to watch until I call for him. Do not let him out of your sight."
Without waiting for agreement, Baki brushed past the brunette and pushed open the doors of the Kazekage's office, quickly closing the ornate slabs of wood behind him to maintain privacy. Sure, there were plenty of seals to absorb sound and whatnot within the office, but closing the doors was just prudent.
Now that Baki was gone, the boy he'd brought into this place was at a loss. He had no clue how long this would take, and he was sure he could feel
the secretary's gaze on him, trying to glean some information from his appearance.
Sohara did not notice the discomfort her staring caused. She was too busy entertaining a dozen theories. She would hardly say she was close to Baki, but she knew him well enough by now to know he wasn't very fond of kids. It was strange to see him with one of his own free will.
Though she was curious, Sohara's analysis of her young companion was quickly poisoned by troubling observations. His brown and beige clothes, full of holes and tears and stained with who knows what, did little to hide a scrawny and malnourished figure. Long blonde hair, matted and unkempt, shielded half a face that was dirty and gaunt, despite the alert and cautious expression. As best as Sohara could tell, this kid seemed to have been snatched right off the streets.
The air was thick with awkward tension as Baki's absence dragged on. The child shifted from foot to foot, doing his best to direct his half-veiled gaze anywhere but at the woman who was scrutinizing him. When the oblivious ditz finally noticed his discomfort, she decided that it would be better to try to put him at ease. If her assumption about his origins was right, it was no surprise that he was a little skittish under scrutiny.
"So, what's your name?"
She said this with a slight lilt in her voice, as one would expect while talking to a young child of five or six. Despite being that age, the boy she addressed cast the gaze of his one visible sapphire eye to the woman and glared at her.
"I don't know. Don't talk to me like that."
Perplexed by both his answer and the slight edge in his voice, Sohara cocked an eyebrow at the young blond from behind her glasses. Could she not find anyone nice, even in the form of a child? Well, this child probably had understandable reasons for being a little prickly, so Sohara cut him some slack.
"Sorry… my name is Sohara. It's alright if you want to call me that."
The boy didn't reply, merely shifting his severe gaze away from the woman, seemingly uninterested in continuing the conversation she'd initiated.
His cold shoulder was a little disheartening, but Sohara didn't give up. Ignoring all else, this situation was the most entertaining thing that had happened to her all week. Maybe all month.
"So, what are you doing with a creepy old guy like Baki? He's always saying how much he dislikes kids, so how come he's with you?"
When no response was forthcoming, Sohara pressed a little harder. "Pleeease? C'mon, you're much too cute to be acting like a grumpy old man like Baki."
The mere thought of being similar to the mentioned Jonin drove an answer out of the boy. "He wants me to be a ninja or something. Don't know why he picked me off the street."
Sohara's eyes welled up with tears almost instantly. "Oh, I knew it! That explains why you're so thin! You need to eat something right away! Hold on, let me find my lunch..."
The nameless boy frowned as he watched Sohara rummage through her desk for something. On one hand, he was hungry, having not been filled overly much from the sole piece of bread he had stolen earlier. But on the other hand, he couldn't recall a single time an adult offered him food without some sort of ulterior motive that wasn't good for him.
"I don't really need it…"
Ignoring his quiet rejection, Sohara finally located the bento she'd brought to eat later that afternoon. Truth be told, she was already a little hungry herself, but she certainly wasn't the type of person to be stingy in a situation like this. She shoved the box towards the boy so quickly that her round glasses almost flew off her face.
"Here! You need to eat this!"
The child actually leaned away from the proffered meal, surprising Sohara. Surely he was starving. How could he possibly reject food?
And yet, the blond did just that. "I don't want your lunch. Stop it."
Figuring the boy may have just been shy or scared, Sohara pressed on. "I'm not letting you out of my sight until I see you eat something! I could probably count your ribs if you didn't have a shirt on, and I probably shouldn't even count those tattered rags as a shirt in the first place!"
The two of them locked eyes, both willing their defiance to overcome the other. Within moments, the situation devolved into the world's most intense staring contest, its intensity marred only by the fact that one participant was a small child.
---
Unaware of the situation developing outside, Baki knelt before the Kazekage, who had his hands intertwined underneath his chin and his elbows resting on his expensive marble desk. Without his usual hat atop his head, Rasa's mop of bloody red hair was clearly visible, framing the wrinkles around his aging eyes. Said wrinkles hadn't existed last year, but it was no surprise that the village leader had aged a little faster than usual with the way things had been going lately.
"You are late, Baki. I hope you have a good explanation."
The man's tone had a hint of irritability about it, which usually would have been worrisome. But Baki was confident that the Kazekage would overlook his tardiness when he presented his reasons.
"Yes, Lord Kazekage, forgive me. But I believe you will be most interested in why I was late. In fact, it's relevant to the very reason you summoned me here."
Raising an eyebrow, Rasa wondered what could be important enough to risk angering a Kage, especially one as unforgiving as him. Still, he trusted Baki enough to hear him out. "You'd better hope so. I have far too much paperwork to do today, and not enough time to waste on waiting around for scheduled meetings. Let's hear how your tardiness relates to your most recent assignment."
Strangely, Baki almost seemed excited. It was so unlike the man that even Rasa found it a little unsettling. He wasn't used to hearing so much pep in Baki's voice.
"Lord Kazekage, you know already that I've been struggling to find a suitable replacement for Gaara before I take your children under my tutelage. I was originally coming here to confirm that no one from the Academy was up to the task, but along the way, I found someone promising."
Though he'd already known the subject of this meeting, Rasa still sighed when Gaara was brought up. The disappearance of his son was by far the biggest trouble the Hidden Sand had faced in recent years. Everyone who knew about it was worried that a Jinchuriki would one day return to wreak vengeance upon the village. Replacing Gaara as a ninja candidate to join his other children was, admittedly, a small concern next to all of that, but it was certainly the only thing anyone could affect right now. That said, he didn't share Baki's excitement.
"I sincerely doubt you've found someone who possibly lives up to Gaara's potential, especially by chance. Doubly so if they weren't even enrolled in the Academy."
If the Kazekage's disheartening words had any effect on Baki, it definitely didn't show. "I can hardly say how great his potential is so soon, my lord. But rest assured, he's more impressive than any of the brats at the Academy right now, and even though he cannot measure up to the Shukaku, he may have something else of even greater value to us."
Knowing that Baki was difficult to impress, Rasa was quite interested in learning how someone had made such an impression on the Jonin. "I must admit, you have my attention, Baki. What's so impressive about this person you've encountered? It's a rare day that you'd praise anyone like this. Especially someone who I presume is a child."
"He is indeed a child, my lord. He's even younger than Temari and Kankuro, but he has the potential to be a great shinobi, I can feel it! He undoubtedly has no experience with the shinobi arts, but despite this, his chakra is strong enough to manifest outside his body as an element, even without the aid of a jutsu. Beyond that, he has a strange special ability; it could be a bloodline ability."
Rasa mulled over this analysis of the child Baki had found. Elemental manifestation of chakra without the use of a jutsu was extraordinary for someone as young as Baki described. But what was most interesting to him was the mention of a bloodline ability. The Sand had long been lacking powerful clans with bloodline abilities to rival legendary groups like the Leaf's Hyuuga or Uchiha. It was arguably one of their biggest disadvantages on the world stage. The Sand had a few notable individuals with genetic powers, but they could always use more. That said, Baki's wording didn't inspire confidence.
"It could be a bloodline ability? You're not sure of this?"
Baki frowned, worried that the Kazekage would dismiss this whole thing if the child did not possess a bloodline trait. It was, after all, the most potentially valuable thing about this child. It would be a long-term investment, but if he did have a bloodline ability, that child could one day birth a powerful lineage for the Hidden Sand.
"He used some ability unlike any jutsu I've seen to reduce a man in the streets into a near comatose state. I suppose it could have been a Genjutsu of some kind… but this child is no older than five or six. Even true shinobi prodigies have trouble grasping Genjutsu at that age; it just doesn't seem possible. Besides, even the child himself claims to know nothing of how he did it."
Rasa closed his eyes in deep thought, a state he maintained for many moments. When he finally opened them again, he wasted no time. "I would like to see this child for myself. Did you bring him?"
Baki nodded before moving towards the door to retrieve the child in question. "Yes, Lord Kazekage. I will bring him in imme-!"
The Jonin's words were cut short by a shrill shriek from outside the office. The seals that dampened noise between the office and the lobby outside only worked one way.
Scowling, Baki shoved the door to the Kazekage's office open, eager to scold Sohara for disrupting a critical meeting—though the sight that greeted him may have justified the woman's reaction somewhat.
On the floor between Sohara's desk and the bare feet of the child Baki had rescued from the streets was an open bento box, its contents in a most unfortunate state. The food within—a rice ball, a meat bun, and a bowl of Miso soup with a lid on it—was completely engulfed in searing, radiant blue and green flames.
Seeing as how no one was making a move to stamp out the flame before it ignited something of actual importance, Baki cast a glare at the boy he knew was the cause of this. "Are you just going to let it burn, or are you going to put that out before you damage something?"
The addressed blond cocked an eyebrow at the man who had brought him here, momentarily unashamed. "I told her I didn't want it."
Sohara, clearly shaken, barely stuttered out an apology, though it was more to Baki than the kid who had crisped her lunch. "I'm s-s-sorry, Baki... t-this is kinda my fault..."
Baki intensified his glare at the boy, ignoring Sohara completely. "Put it out. Now."
The accosted child glanced down at the burning bento box, little more than a pile of ashes at this point. "…I can't."
"What?"
What was visible of the child's face took on a noticeably downcast expression. "I can't put it out. I don't know how I started it. It was an accident, I didn't mean to burn it. Sorry..."
Sohara calmed down a little, since the boy who had reduced her lunch to something most definitely inedible did seem genuinely sorry about it. "I-i-it's fine… does that uh… happen regularly?"
At the mention of the frequency of these occurrences, the kid's mouth curved downward into a pained grimace. "Yeah. It... happens a lot. That's why I'm alone."
The boy's dejected response instantly turned Sohara's mood sullen. She's asked a stupid question with an obvious answer. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It was an accident! Actually, it's my fault for trying to force it on you, so I should be the one apologizing. Please don't feel sad."
She didn't expect her words to actually elicit any type of positive reaction from the boy, but surprisingly, his face was actually graced with a small, yet clearly grateful grin. "If you say so... thank you, Sohara."
As Sohara beamed with joy at getting the boy to call her by name, the flames consuming her lunch finally fizzled out. There just wasn't anything left to burn.
Knowing the Kazekage was growing impatient, Baki ushered the street urchin away from his moment of reconciliation, earning the Jonin a pout from the brunette who was happy to finally see the boy smile. Her expression did not stop Baki's movements.
Closing the door behind the two of them, Baki left Sohara to clean up the mess that had once been her lunch. He pushed the boy forward, making sure to push him to his knees in front of the esteemed Kazekage. He doubted the child at his side would do that of his own accord.
After successfully getting into their positions of deference, the Kazekage's office was silent. Baki could feel his superior's critical gaze on his find, who had already grown bored enough to let his eyes roam. The sight of the Kazekage didn't seem to faze him at all. Baki doubted the boy had any understanding of his situation.
After a long period of quiet, Baki grew somewhat nervous. The longer the Kazekage held his silence, the more he felt that he didn't approve of the Jonin's actions. Thankfully, Rasa finally graced everyone with his voice.
"This puny child? You think he has the potential to be something of worth?"
Disbelief and a hint of disdain was evident in the man's voice. But before Baki could try to assure him of this child's potential, the kid in question spoke for himself, with a small hint of distaste lacing his words.
"What's that mean, gramps?"
Appalled, Baki barely refrained from outright punching this arrogant child. "You insolent brat! Do you have any idea who you're speaking to?!"
The blond's one visible eye narrowed, genuinely considering the question at hand. "Yeah. An ugly, old guy. And a jerk."
Baki was about to lose his control and smack the boy for his utmost disrespect when a low chuckle from the Kazekage distracted him. Extremely confused, Baki cast his half-veiled gaze over to his leader, whose mirth had already subsided.
"At least you've got fire, brat. That's more than Gaara ever showed. Still, such audacity; I'm not sure if you're brave or simply stupid."
Baki felt a sudden spike of chakra from the boy next to him. It was of little consequence to a Jonin or Kage, but the sudden surge of anger-induced power was at least what one might expect from a Genin, which was impressive for a child of this age with no shinobi training. It was unfocused, but with proper training, Baki knew someone with this much raw potential could achieve great things.
"This geezer makes you look nice, Cyclops."
Rasa shook his head in amusement, willing to overlook the blatant disrespect because it was obvious the child didn't know any better. Baki, on the other hand, extended no such grace. "You fool, this man is the most powerful ninja in the entire village! Show some respect!"
The blond child didn't look impressed. "Hmph. I don't care."
Rasa spoke up before Baki's fuse could shorten any further. "How long have you been in this village, boy?"
The six-year-old kid almost put some effort into figuring that out, but in the end, he decided against it. "I dunno. Wasn't counting. Not long, I think."
The village leader nodded knowingly, though he wondered if this child's brash attitude would serve him well or ill in the long run. "Well, that would explain your ignorance... Baki says you have a special power. Where does it come from?"
"Uh... my eye? Not this one, the other one."
Rasa lifted his chin toward the boy. "Show me."
At this, the blond child finally balked, losing the confidence he'd displayed until now. "But, um... it hurts people real bad. Sometimes. What if it hurts you?"
"Do as I say, boy. There is nothing a whelp like you can do to hurt me."
Irritated by the disdain, the mysterious child regained some ire, frowning as he shook his head to swing some of his dirty hair away from his right eye. The revealed orb stared right at the Kazekage, gracing the man with... nothing extraordinary whatsoever. The boy's hidden eye was a shocking bright green, like a pristine leaf basking in sunlight, but other than being a different color than the blue eye on his left, there seemed to be nothing special about it. At the very least, there was no obvious distinction of a dojutsu as one would see from something like the Sharingan. Not from a distance.
After a few moments of silence, the blond child squinted harder. "Do you feel bad yet, Gramps?"
Rasa's mouth flattened into a grim line. "Unfortunately not. Baki, are you certain this boy possesses some unique power?"
"Yes, Lord Kazekage. I saw it myself; a grown, healthy man chased him into an alley, and just moments later, he was curled up in a ball, whimpering like a frightened dog."
"Hmm... then it seems there is much to learn about this child. That will be a priority while he is under your care, Baki."
The Jonin held back a small smile. "So you are approving of him, Lord Kazekage?"
The red-haired Kage sighed tiredly, the weight of the world seemingly pressing down on his shoulders. "I suppose I am. The existence of a bloodline ability is yet to be determined, but even without it, I, too, can sense great potential in him. At any rate, he will certainly be a better fit in your new Genin team than anyone from the Academy: if you can beat some discipline into him."
Baki nodded in agreement. "Thank you, Lord Kazekage. I have a feeling that this child will not disappoint us. If he is already at this level now, without any training or conditioning whatsoever, imagine what he could be in a few years…"
Rasa waved a hand dismissively. "Yes, well, we are in great need of strong ninja now that our trump card has fled into the desert. Begin training him immediately. Waste no time determining the nature of his strange abilities, either. If it's a bloodline ability, that will change many things for his future."
The boy at Baki's side rolled his eyes, but said nothing. He was seemingly still aware that this whole situation, forced on him or not, was a potential step up from his usual quality of life.
With nothing else left to say, Baki rose to his feet and bowed to the Kazekage, who was eyeing a stack of papers on his desk with dread. This meeting had been a good distraction from the more menial of his tasks for the day, even though the original purpose of it had been shoved aside by Baki's stroke of luck.
Baki ushered his young charge out of the office, though the kid needed no prodding this time. He was plenty happy to leave. Sohara was just stepping back into the room, having left it to dispose of the pile of ash which had once been food.
"Over already? Did it go well?"
Baki leveled a very rare smile in her direction: so rare that it was disconcerting more than anything else. "Yes, it very much did. I think you'll be seeing far more of this boy in the future."
While Sohara was completely ignorant as to the purpose of the meeting Baki had just conducted with the Kazekage and how it pertained to this child, she was clearly happy to hear this. She was the type of person to get unreasonably invested in things unreasonably quickly.
"Oh, that is good news! Uh, well... if you actually want to see me again, that is..."
With that last bit obviously pointed at the kid, it was he who had to offer a response. Fortunately for the Kazekage's secretary, the blond seemed more amenable than before. She must have left a good impression on him.
"Yeah, I'd like that. I guess."
Nearly squealing with joy at the prospect of making a new friend, child though he was, Sohara was about to proclaim exactly such feelings, only to be cut off by Baki.
"Alright, don't get too excited. He and I are going to be busy for quite some time."
Far more eager to begin teaching his new charge than he would ever admit, Baki placed a hand on the kid's shoulder and used the Body Flicker technique to take the two of them out the window and to the marketplace. If this child was going to be a student of his, he'd have to be dressed in far better than the rags the Jonin had found him in.
As for Sohara, she simply crossed her arms in dismay. "Why did we even invest in a fancy door if no one is ever going to use it?"
---
The private residence of the Kazekage was always quiet. There were no shouts of an irritable mother trying to calm her bickering children. There was no father congratulating his son on accomplishing something important. There were no kids laughing or arguing or anything of the sort. It was the home of an incomplete family, one with a comatose mother and a father who was rarely ever there, leaving his two remaining children alone to stave off the oppressive silence that was always present.
It was all too easy to be swallowed by that silence, to let it drag you down and sap your will to do anything, and it didn't help that the house was so damn big. Too many big rooms, too few people to occupy them, especially when the family it belonged to was missing so many people. A mother, a father, a little brother... space for five was rarely occupied by more than two these days.
Temari was currently feeling engulfed by all the heavy silence as she sat in the mostly barren room that would have been Gaara's one day in the not so far future. The bed had no sheets, and the walls had no furnishings, since no one was sleeping in it yet, but it would have been Gaara's when the siblings' shinobi training started: when he was finally allowed to live with his real family instead of Uncle Yashamaru.
Such a thing would certainly never happen now. Temari hadn't really been given the real details of Gaara's disappearance; she was only nine, after all. But she had at least been told that he was gone. That news had hit a lot harder than she would have thought. She had never truly met Gaara. She'd seen him once when he was newly born, but the redhead had been quickly whisked away to live separately from his siblings. No one told her where he lived or why he had to live somewhere else. Very rarely, she'd seen him around the village over the years, but she'd never been allowed to talk to him. Her father had made it immensely clear that she would be heavily punished if she ever approached Gaara without permission. Even though she'd been dying to know more about her little brother, the eldest child of the Kazekage was fearful enough of her father to heed his wishes.
That was why she'd been so excited for the days to come. Her father had finally permitted his children to live and train together as ninja. Temari would get to meet her baby brother for real, and she could be the best sister anyone could ever ask for. Kankuro was technically her little brother already, but he and Temari were too close in age to have any sort of doting sibling relationship; the gap between her and Gaara would have been big enough to have that. Temari had been looking forward to it.
Having her hopes dashed with the news of Gaara's disappearance had soured Temari's mood for well over a week. Her shinobi training was supposed to begin in just a few days, meaning she would have been meeting Gaara soon had things not turned out the way they did. That acknowledgment clouded her mind and heart in shadow. Part of her knew it would have been prudent to prepare for that somehow, but she lacked the will to do so. Even knowing that Baki—the Jonin who more or less watched over them these past few years—would be ruining their relaxing day-to-day lives very soon, Temari couldn't even find it in her to make use of her last few days of relative tranquility. It just felt wrong considering that Gaara was out in the desert alone somewhere, possibly already dead.
It also infuriated her how much better Kankuro was handling the situation. He'd never wanted to be around Gaara anyway. He'd told his sister that she was crazy, thinking that any type of relationship even close to that of a sibling could be attained with their youngest kin. The redhead was nothing but trouble, according to him. He'd heard troubling rumors from other kids.
Those words had earned her younger brother a huge lump on the back of his head, but the more she dwelt on them, the more Temari wondered if there was some truth to them. She'd also heard the rumors; that Gaara was a monster, that he'd killed and hurt people. But surely, none of that could be true. And if it was true, then he'd definitely just been defending himself. If people just treated him better, none of this would have happened.
Convinced of that and lamenting the cruelty of fate, Temari had no will to do anything other than mope and brood. She hadn't even bothered putting her hair in the new style she liked these past few days. She didn't want to do anything at all. Unfortunately, the world wasn't content to allow that.
"Temari, Kankuro! Come to the living room!"
Temari recognized the voice of their guardian and soon-to-be sensei, prompting a groan as she rose from the barren bed in this house's one empty bedroom. Stepping out into the hallway to see more dark sandstone walls and floors, Temari bumped into Kankuro, who was emerging from his own room. His spiky brown hair was unkempt, and he was rubbing sleep out of his eyes.
"You have any idea what he wants, Temari? I thought our training wasn't supposed to start for a few more days at least."
The eldest blond sibling shot an irritated glare at her brother. She was in a more terse mood than usual, but the question would have irritated her regardless. "How would I know before you, idiot?"
Since her insult was relatively standard fare, the eight-year-old Kankuro wasn't fazed by it. "Just wondering if you were going to pretend to know everything, like always."
With no time to really get into a spat, Temari pointedly ignored his retort in favor of continuing down the hallway. Admittedly, they were on worse terms than usual, mostly because of the issue with Gaara. Their conflicting views on the matter had put them at greater odds than usual, transforming what used to be harmless spats into legitimate fights.
Putting the possibility of an argument behind them for now, Kankuro followed his sister down the hallway and into the living room, a space that sported a few couches and chairs, but little else. Despite being fully capable of getting more, their father was a man of few possessions. He wasn't home enough to feel that these rooms were too spartan.
Of more interest was Baki, whom they'd naturally been expecting to see. But who was with him was a different matter entirely.
Both siblings furrowed their brows, but Temari was the first to speak her mind. "What the heck is this?"
Baki watched as the Kazekage's two remaining children both ignored him completely and cast their critical gazes at the blonde kid beside him, who was strangely attempting to hide himself from Temari and Kankuro behind Baki's legs. This was unusual, because from what the Sand Jonin had seen of the boy's personality so far, he was fairly outgoing and brash… not like the shy and demure child cowering by the adult's side. Perhaps he was less comfortable around people of his own age? Even in the past hour in the marketplace, the boy now clad in nicer tan clothes hadn't seemed nervous in the least.
Baki decided it would be best to explain the situation before any of the younger children here made their own assumptions about it. The experienced ninja motioned towards his charge, who was doing an excellent job of shrinking himself behind the older ninja's legs.
"Temari, Kankuro, this is… well, I don't know who he is, but I do know what he'll be. Starting today, he is the third member of your ninja trainee team, and consequently, he will be staying here with the two of you from today onward."
The reaction to this news was immediate, and much to Baki's displeasure, overwhelmingly negative. Once again, Temari was once again more vocal about it. "What?! You can't be serious! So what, Gaara disappears, and you just go out and find a replacement, just like that?! How could you?!"
Kankuro backed his sister up, though not with as much passion. "Yeah, we don't need some nameless squirt just to fill the gap. Temari and I can be a fine ninja team by ourselves."
The young blonde stranger in the home frowned and scooted even further behind Baki's legs, who was ready to reprimand his young charges. "Neither of you two children have any say in the matter. Lord Kazekage has decided that this child is the best candidate to fill Gaara's position on the team. Whether or not you want him here is irrelevant."
Kankuro just frowned and muttered under his breath, but Temari grit her teeth in clear anger. However, neither of them was willing to say something stupid in front of Baki, who waved the two children off.
"Now, you can do whatever you like for the rest of the day. Training starts tomorrow, so enjoy this last lax day while you can."
The Kazekage's children were more than willing to leave their unwanted guest behind and return to their rooms, at which point the object of their dissatisfaction stepped out from behind Baki's legs, none too happy with the reception.
"They hate me. I haven't even talked yet, and they hate me."
Baki sighed, already foreseeing a difficult road ahead. "They are both dealing with big changes right now. Hopefully they'll calm down in a week or so, but until then, you'll just have to weather their unhappiness."
The kid scowled, and a potted plant on a table in the room burst into vivid blue flames. The occurrence was so sudden that even Baki jumped a little, although the boy who had most likely caused the phenomenon barely twitched as he looked back at the burning plant.
"Sorry."
Baki grabbed the burning vegetation and looked out the window before tossing it out into the sand. If someone didn't smother it, the sand would at least ensure that nothing else caught fire.
With one final sigh of exasperation, Baki returned to the boy and steered him down the hallway of the residence. "Let's just go find you a room with very few flammable objects..."