What is the fallout to the reveal that Suna Arashi is Hatake?
"A Hatake?" Danzo asks immediately, a light in his eye that Temari really, really doesn't like.
"A Hatake," agrees the dog in front of the Konoha delegation, "no question about it. He's got the right scent- I can smell the connection to the dog contract."
"Fuck off," says Meruban, "he's our summoner, not yours."
The pug rolls his eyes, which takes a moment- he has a lot of eye to roll, after all.
"Bloodline theft," Danzo says slowly, a horrid smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, "Suna stole one of our clan members. Tsk tsk."
"Stole?" Temari looks over at Arashi, who is staring across the table at the Konoha contingent with a complete blankness she's never seen before. She's seen a lot of different expressions on Arashi before- panic, pain, hiding pain, hiding panic, the occasional bout of happiness- but she's never seen anything like this. "Arashi is a member of Sunagakure."
"And what is... Arashi's.... clan name?" the Hokage asks, and Temari doesn't know how to answer. Arashi doesn't have a clan name. He's not part of a clan- Wind country isn't like Fire. Suna isn't like Konoha- most people don't have clan names and storied, fancy bloodline limits. Even Temari's family doesn't use a clan name, despite their slowly developing sand bloodline.
"He's a jounin of the village," Kankuro speaks up, seeing her freeze, "he's a Sunagakure shinobi."
"So, no clan name," Danzo muses, and the way that he and the Hokage meet eyes makes a chill go up Temari's spine. She knows that the Hokage has a reputation of kindness where Danzo is known as a cold predator, but they are most effective, most terrifying, when they are together.
Maybe Konoha has forgotten, but Suna hasn't forgotten Senju Tobirama's team and the bloody swathes they cut through the Elemental Countries.
"Subaku no Arashi," Arashi says, cutting through the heated stares, "is my full name. I'm an orphan."
"Almost definitely," says the dog unhelpfully, "there's no way a Hatake would leave their child with the enemy if they were alive to take you back."
The other Hatake, the one who summoned the dog, has been silent this whole time, staring at Arashi with one lazy grey eye.
Temari curses herself for referring to him as 'the other Hatake', like Arashi really is one of theirs.
"Hatake Arashi," Danzo says, like he's testing the taste of the name, "was stolen from our village as a baby, kept from his family and raised as a weapon for our enemies."
"Raised as a weapon?" Kankuro says, entirely disbelieving. Temari can understand- Arashi has never been impressive. He was a chuunin, and then a tokujo- entirely off the back of being Gaara's caretaker, as far as they knew- and the only remarkable thing about him -other than the fact that Gaara hadn't killed him- was his summoning contract and his distaste of the heat and the sand.
"All culminating in this invasion," Danzo finished, "turning him against his own family," he gestured at Hatake, who didn't react, "and his real home."
"You must admit," the Hokage adds smoothly, "this does not look good. Of course, we understand that there were... other factors..."
"Orochimaru," Arashi cuts in, "is your problem, not ours."
"He's been brainwashed," says Danzo, shaking his head, "he cannot even comprehend how he is othering his own blood, speaking in such a way."
Temari feels an intense sense of vertigo- Danzo's attitude has changed so quickly, going from cold and suspicious to playing on their emotions with a fluidity and ease that makes her think he hadn't truly felt either set of emotions.
"This invasion," Arashi continues, "is a Konoha problem, not ours."
"You are Konoha, young man," says Danzo, and the Sandaime hums in agreement.
"At the very least," the Hokage says, "we should be discussing what this means for our alliance. Obviously, considering the state of the Hatake clan, you must be allowed to return to Konoha."
It's too neat- Temari doesn't know what to say, but they can't take Arashi. They just can't- Dad's already dead, and Gaara's changed, and they can't take Arashi too. So what if someone took him? He's Suna now. He's a sand-nin. He wouldn't even know what to do with a tree!
They can't have Arashi.
There is a moment of silence in the room, and then a whirlwind of sands springs up, blasting the expensive, varnished meeting table back to blank, pale wood, stripping the wallpaper from the walls and breaking every window in the room.
The sand twines around Temari like a friendly cat, wraps around her hands, her feet, her waist. The sand wraps around Kankuro, too, and she can feel that he is there, that he is safe. She can feel it, like she's holding a chakra string that attaches to him- she'd had no inclination towards puppets, but she learned a little just by being around her brother.
The Hokage is surrounded by ANBU, Danzo is on his feet, and Hatake's hand is surrounded by a bright, electric light that lets out a sound like chirping birds.
It is, Temari realises, the same move that Uchiha had used to break Gaara's Ultimate Defence, but he isn't looking at Gaara. He's looking at Temari.
"No," says Gaara, sounding very calm. "We are going to leave now, until my sister calms down. We are taking Arashi with us."
His own sand- because, Temari realises, the sand that has blasted the room is not Gaara's- curls over the four of them- Arashi and Temari and her siblings- and then she feels the abrupt jitter and shift of Gaara's specialised sand shunshin, the one that always makes her nauseous.
Then, they are in their temporary lodging hoouse, the one that was issued to them at the start of the chuunin exam, and everyone is looking at her.
"Was that you?" Kankuro asks, "did you actually use the sand? Like Dad?"
"Temari!" Arashi chides, pulling her into a hug, "Are you alright? That was so much chakra!"
"I don't know," she chokes out, and hides her face in his flak jacket.
He's warm, and he smells like dust and sunlight in fur- the same scent he's always had, one that she always assumed was dingo, but maybe it's not? Maybe it's dog?
I can't sleep, do any of the various Arashis ever have trouble sleeping? How do they deal with it
Oh for sure R has insane anxiety, which often leads to insomnia. As he has no access to podcasts (my own insomnia remedy), he tends to lay on top of Ken while he purrs, and sometimes the slight movement and repetitive noise works kind of like a white noise machine.
At the very least, he gets kitty snuggles and has a lie down so he isnt as tired the next morning.
Suna Arashi also doesnt sleep but thats bc Gaara doesnt sleep so he's busy snorting and drinking every energy substance he can get to increase his waking hours as much as possible. He's down to 5 hours of sleep in 2 2.5 hour naps during the day when Gaara is at training. He would weep if provided a real bed and eight houra without needing to watch Gaara.
Baby Gaara is soo cute ! Can we have more of him pls ?
"Alright, kid, I'm going to be completely honest with you," Arashi said, squatting down in front of Gaara. The six year old did not look up from where he was slowly, methodically burying his toy paangolin in sand. His other toys, all desert creatures carved painstakingly from wood, stood in solemn rows to attend the funeral.
"Good," Gaara said, "I hate it when people lie. Mother does too."
"Right," Arashi agreed, looking at the sand nervously. It twitched and streamed through the air, finishing the pangolin toy's burial. "Anyway, so you father wants you to attend the state dinner tonight."
"No." Gaara said immediately.
"Can I at least tell you the details?"
"Fine," Gaara sighed, and threw a handful of sand on top of the pangolin, "we send you to the Pure Lands, Pangolin. The world is bad now."
"So, the dinner is with the Raikage, the head of Kumo. Your father, uncle, brother and sister will all be attending."
"I don't care."
"I know- but, your father has said that if I can get you to attend the dinner and not kill anybody, I'll get paid like I did an S-class mission."
"So?"
"So, if I have more money, I can buy you more daifuku. We could go camping, if you want."
Gaara sat still for a moment, clearly thinking.
"You hate camping," Gaara said slowly, "you say there's more sand out there."
"I do, don't I?" Arashi agreed, scrubbing a hand over his buzzed hair, "But I'll do it anyway."
The sand picked up one of the toys, a tiny wooden gila monster, and threw it down on top of the buried pangolin's grave.
"She's mourning the death of her husband," Gaara explained, and the sand made the gila monster figure thrash around. Gaara added a few tiny wails with his voice. "Why, why was he taken from me?!"
"Right. And how did Pangolin-san die?" Arashi asked, settling down the ground next to Gaara and accepting the elephant figure that his ward pressed into his hands.
"He died on the operating table," Gaara explained.
"What was the operation?"
"They were stealing his kidneys to make soup," the redhead said, and Arashi nodded.
"That'd do it," he agreed, "So, will you go to the dinner?"
Gaara froze again, thinking hard, and Arashi tried not to hold his breath. If he didn't succeed here, the consequences were far worse than he'd told Gaara, but he didn't want to put that pressure on the kid.
"Ye-es," he said eventually, "but I'm not wearing the blue shirt."
"That's fine," Arashi agreed quickly. "What about the green one?"
Gaara nodded, and Arashi looked down at the toy funeral.
"Right, so, what are we doing here?"
"Grave robbing," Gaara said solemnly, and Arashi nodded.
"Sure, sounds good," Arashi agreed, and moved his elephant figure over to Gaara, "let's go steal a body!"
Having a hyperfixation while being in a depressed episode is so fucking crazy. All Food tastes bad and I can’t bring myself to shower and reading for an assignment sounds like waterboarding but show me a good fic of Boo Boo Johnnykins and suddenly the world is sunny and for Boo Boo Johnnykins I won’t kill myself for another day
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