[february and backstory catch-all/open]

[ninjasloveme]

Who: Gaara, open!
Where: Various places; primarily starting in Sunagakure and ending up in Konohagakure.
When: The first half of February. If otherwise, dates will be provided.
Notes: Gaara's holiday in Konoha, or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the jinchuuriki. Mingling, top-levels and threadjacking all welcome. If you're not sure if they have CR or what stage their CR is at, contact me and we can work it out! If you'd rather we did a backdated thread, just put up a date first.

[ 1. In which Gaara has specifically sought you out and this is either alarming or business as usual. ]

For politeness' sake, Gaara sent sealed messages to anyone he was invited to visit before he set off from Suna. Not only do those messages give ample warning, but the seals on them are formed out of just enough magnetised sand that they act as radar pings; he can sense where each scroll is to some degree of accuracy. He got lost in Konoha once, and almost started an international incident. This way is easier.

[ 2. In which you just run into him, which is either alarming or business as usual. ]

The benefit of arriving via official channels and through the seals and front gates rather than simply escaping Sunagakure in an adolescent rage like he used to is that he's not being pursued by special ops. Without that added level of paranoia, Gaara is free to wander around as he waits for his sand-seal messages to reach his friends. He has a few more presents to buy, after all. He never bothered to learn anyone's favourite foods, so he's now watching other shoppers to try to guess. Carrying everything from Suna would have been pointless, especially since he only heard about the celebration a week ago. Which is another bonus of being on official leave in somewhere other than Suna: he can use a small curl of sand to hold his bags without causing a mile-wide panic.

[ 3. Backstory wildcard! Pick a date, any date. ]

Comments

[highly_strung]

This had to be one of the more ridiculous stunts his father had pulled on him. Being diverted to Konoha on political matters was an irritating but necessary situation and not only had Kankuro been told mid-route that his stay would be longer than anticipated, but when he'd arrived he'd also been informed that his younger brother was currently visiting Konoha too, and Kankuro was to ensure that Gaara was 'behaving'. Kankuro assumed that by 'behaving' his father meant 'not murdering anyone', so Kankuro was well aware of his position in these proceedings; he just didn't see the point of it.

Gaara was seventeen years old, a jounin, and had been well behaved for quite some time now, but nevertheless Rasa seemed intent on keeping an eye on him - a figurative one, and sometimes a literal one - at all times, particularly when he was out of the village. This time that honor fell on Kankuro's shoulders.

He caught up with Gaara on the younger man's trek around the main street, and watched him picking at the stalls for a few moments before approaching him.

"Are you looking for something in particular, or are you just wastin' time..?" he asked, a reasonably genuine look of bored curiosity on his face.

[ninjasloveme]

Well-behaved was a comparative term, but if Gaara hadn't been quite as controlled as he could have been whilst the Lord Kazekage was watching, knowing that the uncertainty would mean one or both of his siblings would be conveniently released on assignment in his proximity... well. He'd finally learned something of manipulation.

So if he wasn't as surprised as he should have been, at least having Kankuro approach him of his own volition hadn't gotten old yet. He held up two fridge magnets in response to the question, one in the shape of dumplings, the other a hamburger, expression serious.

"I promised my genin I would bring them souvenirs. Which is better..?"

[highly_strung]

If Kankuro was in a better mood, he might have laughed at the image Gaara painted in that moment - a stoic expression, befuddlement over the very serious issue of fridge magnets. Neither really screamed 'souvenir' to Kankuro. If Gaara wanted a real souvenir, he should have gone with something that spoke of Konoha's damp air and its chilly temperature.. Kankuro had never liked cold places, a by-product of living in Suna, and because he lived in Suna everywhere was cold in comparison. Kankuro wondered if any souvenirs were themed after the way everyone in the Leaf seemed just a fraction too interested in other people's business, and grunted at the stall-keeper who was staring avidly at them from where he sat.

"So you're not playing in to this dumb Leaf holiday then, eh?" He gestured with a finger at the hamburger, a totally unbiased choice.

[ninjasloveme]

If Gaara's guilty flinch at Kankuro's comment was noticeable, a slight ripple in the sand over his cheeks as it moved to compensate, he didn't acknowledge it. The way it had been explained to him over a series of letters and excited motions by various people had left a strong enough impression that Gaara was, in fact, very much playing into the dumb Leaf holiday.

He made a noncommittal noise and turned to the stall-keeper to buy two hamburger magnets and a mochi one. The latter had been easier, since that particular genin would never stop talking about them. And if the other two got the same thing, they wouldn't try to compete over it. That was right... he thought. Maybe.

"I'm done. Did you need something?"

[thebestuchiha]

He was aware that there had to be a trick to the letter. Gaara, after all, wasn't the sort to send letters normally, and while amused that he had gotten one independent of the mission assigning arrangements, he knew there had to be some purpose to it.

Putting it out of his mind and pocketing it had been simple enough though, and he made his way off toward the gates so he could intercept the kid himself for once. Usually, he snuck in, so this would be a nicely novel situation, and he could do with a day off.

He hadn't had any real time to do that lately, and with his birthday so close, he knew he probably wouldn't get another one for a while. Stupid snowstorm had thrown everything off center.

Shaking away the thoughts, he lifted his hand in a small wave as the kid came into view. "Gaara."

[ninjasloveme]

"Lord Hokage," Gaara started, and then paused, considered for a moment, and lifted one hand in a slight return wave instead.

He might not have been as small as ten years ago, but he still had to look up at Obito as he approached. Not that it was a chore; he quietly treasured Obito's greetings, as always. "Thank you for taking the time to meet me."

[thebestuchiha]

"Hey, I may have mostly kept you to myself, but if you're gonna be here a while then I wanted to greet you right." He moved forward, hooking his arm around Gaara's shoulders to pull him along into the village. He'd never been afraid to do things like that once it stopped freaking Gaara out, and this time was no exception.

"How long are you staying this time?"

[ninjasloveme]

Privately, he thought that none of the ways Obito tended to greet him were the proper ones, but then he still didn't have many normal greetings to compare him to. There was the briefest of moments where Gaara's shoulders tensed under his arm and every shinobi in a mile radius could have easily had a sudden premonition of the phrase international incident, but it passed without comment and Gaara was quickly being led into the village proper. Years of Obito-brand accidental domestication well-spent. It was a novelty to be entering through the main gates this time.

"At least two weeks." Hopefully longer, if the paperwork went through for the intervillage dispatch. "Kankuro and Temari are here too."

5th

[gentledheart]

Hinata makes a point to be outside of the compound. It was easier than her family inevitably making him wait hours outside the white walls before telling her he was even there at all. No for this visit Hinata was in the market, working on gathering what she already knew she needed to make her gifts for her friends and family. She avoided making chocolate like the plague, having never quite developed the knack for melting it without burning it, and settled for making something she typically knew they would enjoy instead where she could.

That typically translated into something not sweet for Sasuke, something fairly sweet for Obito, and she still hadn't decided what she was doing for Naruto this year. And Gaara would be in Konoha so that meant she wanted to make him something he'd like or buy him something he'd like. Whichever came first and her friend was most receptive to in the end.

Gaara would find her picking through the produce stand at the market, selecting tomatoes for her gift to Sasuke. A shopping back from the bakery dangling from her arm full of day old bread and danish to make bread pudding for dessert later to pair with dinner. If it came out well she might consider making a smaller batch for Obito as his gift this year. It would mean braving the bakery closer to the beginning of the coming holiday, but she would have to suck it up and deal with it.

She looks up after placing a nice plump tomato into her small basket and smiles when she spots her friend. "Hello Gaara." Hinata greets with a small wave.

[ninjasloveme]

"Hinata," he returned the wave with an equally small smile. He had heard a fair amount about the Konoha celebration, but until he'd arrived in the village he hadn't realised the scope of it or the effort people were putting into their gifts. Hinata's bag and basket of ingredients was almost intimidating for that, but then the amount of effort she put into anything had the same effect. He'd expected it, honestly. Her attentiveness was that reliable.

Still, even he could make an educated guess on the intended target- no, recipient- of her most recent choice. The benefit of hiding out in Mikoto's kitchen every so often.

"Is that for Sasuke?"

[gentledheart]

"Mmhm," There's a definite warmth to the way she makes the sound as she places three more tomatoes in her basket with the first. She turns then and gives her red-headed friend her full attention.

If she wasn't mistaken he might have gained a little height since they'd last seen each other. It wasn't a great deal but she did have to tilt her head back just the slightest bit to fully meet his gaze. "Will you be staying for the holiday?"

[ninjasloveme]

"I've been cleared for a mission with Sasuke later this month. I'll be staying until then." Which, coincidentally, meant that he would be in Leaf for the duration of the holiday. If nothing else, following Fire country's festival calendar meant that his diplomatic abilities were getting a serious work-out as he planned his year around the other village. He had trained for worse causes.

Then he refocused his attention, and frowned. Something wasn't right.

"...shorter...?"

1!!!!

[awokentospring]

Lee hummed as he set about doing some last minute tidying up of his apartment. It was a sparse little thing but he was expecting a guest and he wanted things to be perfect. It wasn't just any guest he was hosting today after all. The son of the Kazekage was visiting and he was a friend of Lee's. And besides, it was also Lee's duty to keep any connections they had in other villages strong in these politically turbulent times. Lee liked to think he was a very dutiful ninja.

His weights all pushed into the corner of the room and his futon rolled up and set in the closet, the kotatsu was front and center with many fluffy pillows for seats. There was a hot pot of green tea ready (jasmine, the kind he usually pulled out for Neji's visits) and mikan were in a small bowl. Perfect. Or he hoped so. He did have a small home but he hoped Gaara wouldn't hold that against him. He was just a chunin after all; he salary alone couldn't get him any place nicer. Though now he wondered if he might have done better by inviting the Sunagakure nin to his parents house, but they weren't shinobi. They might not make the best impression.

Lee slapped his cheeks with his hands, snapping himself out of his fretting. No matter! It would be good enough! After all, a visit was more than just superficial things. It was about friendship! And bonding! And... stuff! Waiting was his worst skill but Lee determined to not stress the whole time. It had been some months since he had seen Gaara. He just wanted it to leave his friend with a good feeling when he returned home.

i can't deal with how cute that starter is

[ninjasloveme]

Lee was right about several things, one being that Gaara's expectations of the meeting would have been met if the room had been empty of everything but Lee himself. That wasn't to say that the effort would go unappreciated, more that Lee's exuberance tended to eclipse the other details of any encounter.

He knocked lightly, glad that the air was noticeably warmer the closer he stood to the door of the apartment. Even with the cold reaching Wind Country, he hadn't dressed warmly enough for the weather currently chilling Konoha and his sand armour was uncomfortably cold.

Lee is a dork ;w;

[awokentospring]

The light knock was soft but Lee heard it all the same. A huge grin spread across his face and Lee ran across the room to throw the door open.

"Gooooooooooooooooood morning, Gaara-san! I am so glad you could take time out of your day to visit me!" Then Lee stood back and thrust an arm out with flourish. "Please, make yourself at home! Allow me to offer you some tea!"

02/10?

[not_thedragon]

However alarming Gaara's first visit to Konoha had been, Sasuke's relationship with Suna's wayward scion had reached the point when he fully expected both visits and a kind of half-hearted, unsubtly-competitive jostling camraderie whenever he received notice that Gaara was going to be around. The seal itself was distinctive enough that he'd known as soon as he'd received it to expect the sender to follow it without too much delay.

It was a an unexpected uptick to his day after the failed attempt to find a sparring partner in Adela -- really, she needed to get a better sense of her limits, unless her bloodline didn't require much control -- and Sasuke found himself rather looking forward to the meeting, slowing his afternoon jog around the village to make his seal easier to track.

shur

[ninjasloveme]

The slowing wasn't necessary per se, but it certainly made the locating process easy. Out of a kind of half-baked formality, Gaara had waited until the seal had travelled nearly the entire way along the jogging route before making himself known.

Primarily because his method of 'making himself known' was a sand arm twisting up out of the ground in an attempt to trip Sasuke up, and it would have been rude not to wait until he was warmed up.

[not_thedragon]

And ah, there it was. Sasuke felt the flare of known, if not precisely familiar, chakra right as the arm wormed up out of the ground. There was no way to arrest his own momentum to avoid it, slow as he was moving, and so in a split-second redistribution of body weight he vaulted up and over the reaching limb, bridging the jump with one hand before landing lightly on top of a fence.

"Welcome back to Konoha," he said, addressing the air at large until Gaara decided to show his actual self.

BGS 11 - December - Lantern Festival

[mokutonno]

Another year and another lantern down. Tenzou sighed as he wandered back across the dunes, having sought a little privacy to light his own offering, and worked his way back to the Suna village proper.
He'd left behind the signs of his affiliation, happuri and uniform discarded in favour of a darkly patterned yukata and coat to ward off the chill of the desert evening. He still had a quiet hope in the legend but more than ever, he longed for the presence of his older sister, suddenly impatient for her arrival the next day and the brightness she'd bring to his mood instead of the heaviness he felt now.

Past the gates and into the almost deserted streets this far from the main market, the last thing Tenzou expected to stumble across was a child; unchaperoned and crouched over a lantern, it seemed to be struggling with it in some way. He cast a wary glance around for any locals, anxious in approaching if he was going to be chased off by a concerned guardian, but with no one in sight, he padded carefully closer, so as not to startle the small boy.

"Would you like some help with that?"

It was softly spoken, a smile on Tenzou's lips as his eyes flickered between the boy's back and the lantern, willing to help or at least get the child back to his carers before he retreated to the inn for the night.

[ninjasloveme]

This was the first year Gaara had ever heard of the festival, having been too young to go outside for three years and training for the other two, and although Yashamaru was busy and his father had left the moment his weapon instruction was over, before Gaara could even marshal the courage to ask about it, he'd nonetheless managed to find a lantern from one of the many stalls set up for the purpose, and carefully paint his message onto the paper.

The problem had started when he'd tried to light one of the matches he'd stolen along with it. Three had snapped before he'd realised the trick of striking the head against his gourd, and the fourth went out in the wind. The fifth, however, lit - and was promptly extinguished by a spout of sand as the small flame licked up towards his fingers.

Frustrated, he tried again and again, but was running out of matches as the sand got faster and faster... and then someone spoke to him and both matches and sand fell guiltily to the floor. This area was meant to be deserted! He'd been so careful. Quickly, he looked around, but it was just the teenager standing there. He hadn't accidentally offended someone, or scared another child.

There are foreign visitors here, Gaara. His father had said. Don't approach them.

"No. I'm sorry." He'd find somewhere else to keep trying. That would work, right?

[mokutonno]

Tenzou eyed the pile of used matches now that he was closer and edged round to the child's left; crouching with enough distance between them to, hopefully, not appear threatening and smiled a little brighter.
He wasn't usually one to push, especially with such a clear dismissal, but the small boy had a furtiveness surrounding him and the lantern that resonated oddly in Tenzou's chest and it urged him on.

"Okay, but..matches are tricky sometimes, so here, take mine. I don't need them anymore."

He reached for the small box tucked into the wide tie at his waist and offered them up to the boy, arm fully extended. There were no other lanterns for him to send up and the box was still almost full; there would be plenty of room for a few more attempts.

1- the 8th?

[heavenly_earth]

The message was simple enough, and the words froze the blood in his veins. Temari was visiting and she'd be in the village for the festival. That was enough to make his heart soar with a weightless joy. Their stolen moment in Kirigakure could hardly compare to the freedom of being able to spend time with her without the constant nagging worry of being caught. Although there had been some thrill in that, the potential consequences were sobering enough to merit reluctant caution.

Except this was not quite as simple as any of her usual visits- her brothers had come with her, and one of them was singling him out for a talk he'd known was coming, but had hoped would be much further down the line. While he was relatively sure he could handle Kankuro, Gaara was danger on an entirely different level than he was accustomed to facing.

So he'd taken to actively seeking out Temari's youngest brother through the Byakugan, and studiously avoiding him despite the request to meet. He'd claim preoccupation if asked, though he doubted it'd hold under scrutiny. Aware he was being tracked, Neji avoided his apartment and stayed in the compound to visit his father- a part of him guilty for using the man as a kind of scapegoat, but he assured himself it wasn't the only reason. There was the upcoming celebration to prepare for after all, and brothers or no, Neji had every intention of spending it with Temari.

And all things considered, he'd rather have this particular confrontation over before then.

[ninjasloveme]

There was only so long you could conveniently miss someone until even Gaara was aware he was being avoided, and he was usually happy to let people do so... except, when you were dating the Sand's Secret Weapon's sister, you didn't have the luxury of staying out of his way.

So when the evasion lessened just a fraction and one of his sandtraps outside the Hyuuga compound was disturbed, he moved quickly. Which meant, in practice, Neji suddenly coming face to face with a whirlwind of sand that coalesced into his future brother-in-law.

If he was honest, the first few people he'd done that to hadn't been Neji. But no one had to know that.

"Good afternoon," Gaara began. Too blandly. He was almost savagely glad he'd had a growth spurt recently, since it meant he didn't have to look up at Neji as he folded his arms.

[heavenly_earth]

Ambushed, Neji decided was the most accurate word for it. Gaara had only been waiting for him to leave the compound, predatory in the way he waited for his prey to venture out from safety- not a particularly heartening analogy for their first real meeting.

Gaara's face was a mask, but he'd anticipated little else. Neji blinked mild (very mild) surprise and straightened, leaned his weight back in a manner that suggested expectation.

"Sabaku-san," he greeted in a similar vein of neutrality while his heartbeat quickened. But he hadn't been in ANBU for a year to give himself away so easily now. "Were you looking for Hinata-sama?"

hmm the 13th! [mika is bad about staring wtf]

[ninjaindianajones]

The holiday was in full swing and Mika was in dire need of more ingredients for sweets. Almost everyone that had tried their confections was waiting for a treat. Tomorrow was very special as Mika planned to make the finest cakes for some very important people. They'd wanted to wait on giving these gifts and had tried to coordinate some time when a meeting was possible..

On entering the market they couldn't help noticing Gaara. His face seemed a little familiar, the facial markings were pretty distinctive and as Mika tried recalling why he stood out eye contact happened. Whoops. They weren't exactly subtle on looking and Mika could have turned and run off before he did anything but-- it was rude enough to stare, let alone run away after being caught. Besides it wasn't like staring was illegal! Mika might as well apologize. So they casually wandered over to the redhead.

"Ah, sorry I was looking at you, could have sworn I'd seen you before sir. You're from--" A quick look confirmed Mika's thoughts. "Suna?"