chuunin_archive | Another Kank Drabble

Just doing my part for Kankurou's birthday celebration. I was going to write something more lighthearted, but it mutated on me - my apologies. Hope you enjoy!

Blood Runs Thicker
365 words
[Note: Any repetition is purposeful.]

Kankurou would not be taken lightly. Ever since his brother’s birth, he’d been pushed aside. He may have been the first son in the family, but that meant nothing if he was also the weakest; Gaara had been born a killer. Kankurou had been born a baby.

Kankurou wasn’t special. He had confidence with no backing, boasts left vulnerable in the face of his ineptitude. It wasn’t until he snagged a sausage from Temari’s plate with a mere twitch of the fingers that anyone thought the Kazekage’s oldest son would amount to anything. At six years old, Kankurou had proven himself to be talented, or to have potential at the very least. Two years later, his brother bore a mark on his forehead and blood on his hands. At six years old, Gaara had proven himself to be a monster.

Kankurou sometimes felt he couldn’t do anything right. He’d studied in school – perhaps not as hard as his more intellectual classmates, but he was of the opinion that experience was the best teacher. And he’d learned enough to know that his ambitions were not foolish. For some reason, though, that knowledge wasn’t enough to hold up his spirits when Temari walked by and, with a tweak at his hair, asked, amused, “Are you playing with your dolls again, Kank?” He tried to build his future with the sturdiest materials he could find: wooden joints and metal blades. For some reason, though, they seemed as flimsy as corn husks in the face of Gaara’s raging sand.

Kankurou wished he didn’t care. He had enough memories of annoyance, jealousy, and terror to fill up a hundred scrolls. There had been nights when he dreamed himself away from his siblings into a world of no attachments and woke with tears of longing stinging against his eyelashes. But as he stood before the most renowned puppetmaster in Suna, his only dream was to dye Karasu’s fingers with the man’s blood. Kankurou may not have been the Fourth Kazekage’s most talented son, but he would fight to the death to protect the boy who was.

Kankurou knew he was a few parts crazy. He figured it ran in the family.