Ari's POV

"Make me a puppet!"

"What?" Kankuro asked. 

He'd brought us downstairs after Gaara made it clear we weren't invited to the party. Why Scarlette was, I have no idea. It seems unfair that she'd get to chat with Gaara of the Desert and my favorite Kunoichi in the entire anime world. But maybe I can understand. 

Ok, not really. I don't get it, even now.

Kankuro was currently lounging on the couch, his eyes closed against the overwhelming situation he'd been put in. Babysitting, as he put it. I knew all too well how much Kankuro disliked kids. That trait didn't change throughout the whole series, or as far as I'd gotten anyway. But I didn't see how he considered sitting with us in what I assumed was their living room babysitting. If I was right, he was fifteen at the time. We were fourteen. What difference does one year make, I ask you? To most people, it isn't an issue. To Kankuro, it was a an experience he'd rather do without.

"I said, turn me into a puppet," I said slowly, leaning down to look him in the eye, though with his closed the effect was greatly reduced. He cracked open one eye, took in how close we were, and shoved me away by pressing against my forehead. 

"No," he said flatly, scowling at me.

I crossed my arms over what Violet described as my "non-existent" chest and leveled a a glare at him. "Why not?" I whined. The pitiful noise that escaped my lips very much ruined whatever effect my glare had on him, though I wasn't ashamed of it.

He narrowed his eyes, linking his hands behind his head. "Why should I?" he shot back. "It's a stupid idea. And how do you even know I use puppets?"

"You have those kinds of fingers," I responded with a shrug, mentally berating myself for almost blowing our cover. Out of all the fanfics I'd read (and that was a lot at this point in my life) the ones I'd liked the best were those that had the OC just pretend like they were meant to be in the Naruto world, instead of trying to explain about the different universe or whatever. I was just hoping Violet and Scarlette agreed with me.

Speaking of Violet, she was walking around the living room, making awed faces at everything she saw. I also noticed that she kept lifting a hand to study it. I knew immediately why. We were anime, in every sense of the word. We looked how the Naruto characters did on TV. Thankfully, like this, my blue-violet hair didn't stand out nearly as much.

Kankuro, in response to my answer, flexed his fingers experimentally in front of his face. I laughed at that, then quickly slapped a hand over my mouth when he glared intensely at me. Pft, his glare had nothing on Gaara's, and that didn't effect me in the least. Fool was gonna have to try harder.

"And you should turn me into a puppet with chakra strings because it'll be fun!" I said, grabbing for his hand with both of my own. He instantly attempted to shake me off, but I had an iron-like grip and didn't plan on letting go until he agreed to my demands. 

"Fun for who?" he muttered, once again tugging, in vain, at his trapped hand. "Both of us!" I chirped, roughly pulling him to his feet while keeping my hold on his hand. 

"You're annoying me, brat!" he said lowly, baring his teeth in a snarl. I cocked an eyebrow, titling my head to the side. Did he think he was scary?

"You sound like Scarlette!" I pouted, dropping his hand. He quickly wiped it on the leg of his jumpsuit, his eyes narrowing in curiosity.

"Strict sister?" he asked. I nodded dejectedly, and Violet popped up beside me, adding, "She's thinks we're insane! And outta control!"

"I'm not disagreeing on those points," Kankuro said, rolling his eyes. Violet giggled and slapped his arm. "You're being mean Puppet Boy!"

Why she was laughing at that, I had absolutely no idea.

"Anyway," he said, backing up a step so that he wasn't in Violet's slapping-range. "I guess I can relate. Temari acts like she's a freaking Queen sometimes. I swear, if she wasn't afraid of Gaara, she had him so whi--" He blinked, realizing just what came out of his mouth. I didn't bother asking about his blunder, having heard their life stories before. But Violet's curiosity, once again, overrided her common sense, and she asked, "Why would your older sister be afraid of Gaara?"

"None of your damn business, brat," he snapped. Violet looked to me, and I subtly shook my head. Stop asking questions. She nodded almost imperceptibly and turned back to Kankuro with a radiant smile only she could pull off. "Sorry!" she chirped. "Didn't mean to upset you!" 

With that, she went back to examining every detail of the room, pausing by an open doorway that seemed to lead into a kitchen. She looked through the door, then shrugged and continued moving around the living room.

Kankuro sweat dropped, and I mentally cheered at the fact that that was possible in this world! All my problems were solved!

"She always like that?" he asked, leaning slightly closer to me as he lowered his voice. I frowned. "What do you mean?" I asked, honestly having no idea as to what he was talking about.

He sweat dropped again.

"Ah, never mind," he said, glancing towards the stairs. I could practically feel his desire for the others to come down and end our little playdate. 

I grinned. "Make me a puppet?" I asked, holding out my arms in what I somewhat considered to be a limp-puppet-pose, with my wrists slightly arched to give the illusion of being supported by strings. 

"You're gonna keep at this until I agree, aren't you?"

"Yup!"

He sighed and I watched as blue chakra briefly swirled around his outstretched fingers, before coalescing into semi-visible strings. Then altogether, they disappeared, and my body suddenly locked up, no longer obeying my commands.

He smirked, twitching his fingers. My arms slammed down at my sides, and I heard Violet gasp from wherever she was. I assumed she was behind me, as I couldn't see her anymore, and wasn't able to turn my head. "Happy now, kid?" he asked smugly.

I smiled brightly, very much wishing for the ability to nod vigorously. "This is awesome!" I exclaimed. "Make me do something! Please, please, please, please!"

For a third time a large droplet of sweat dropped from his head and he frowned uncertainly at me. He twitched two fingers and commanded me to walk over to my sister. She waved and grinned and I smiled in return. This was amazing!

Violet poked and prodded my limbs and joints, I guess just for the heck of it, giggling all the while. Then my body jerked backward and spun around towards Kankuro.

"You're weird, you know that?" he asked, hand perfectly still, partially raised to chest-height. I blinked and smiled sheepishly. "Scarlette tells me that all the time. Aunt and Uncle do too. I embrace it!"

"Aunt and Uncle?" he repeated, dropping his hand unconsciously. The motion sent me diving for the ground, and my chin collided painfully with the wood. 

"Ow," I muttered. "First my ass, now my chin. Floors hate me for some reason!"

"Sorry," Kankuro said, moving his fingers again. He had me pick myself up off the floor. I can't imagine why he didn't just help me. "That was my bad."

"No duh!" I said, pouting childishly. He shrugged as another apology, then with three twitching fingers had me dust myself off. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Hey, where'd Vi go--"

My unfinished question was answered when Violet appeared out of nowhere and glomped Kankuro from behind. He grunted in surprise the jutsu on my limbs fell away, causing me to fall to the floor again in surprise. 

"Kitty!" she shouted, burying her face in his back. I laughed, forgetting the bruise forming on my chin, and continued to laugh, eventually reaching the point where I was literally ROTFL. Ha, text language.

"Get this thing off me!" he shouted, trying, and failing, to pry Violet away from him.

And just at that moment, we all heard Temari's voice from the top of the stairs. "Kankuro! Tell me you didn't kill the kids yet!"

Violet wasn't prepared to move, and I couldn't stop laughing, so Temari, along with Scar, were treated to a very ridiculous sight. 

Scar froze behind Temari, her shoudlers drooping. She, just for a moment, locked eyes with me, shaking her head. Then she turned around and started back up the stairs.

"I suppose I'll just jump out the window," she said, raising a hand in goodbye. "Save myself the trouble of dealing with whatever this is."

"I might be right behind you," Temari said, raising a brow at her brother's predicament. 

"JUST GET THIS BRAT THE HELL OFF ME!!"

"Stop howling, Kitty!" Violet scolded, having another one of her... ah... freak out phases, as I heard Scarlette refer to them as.

I stopped laughing, holding my side as I rolled over to face Violet, who was still firmly hnaging onto Kankuro. He was on his hands and knees, glaring at my sister.

"I thought you hated cats," I deadpanned.

Violet's only response was to giggle.