Gotta make you understand

"What do you want?" Sakura asked, as snarkily as she could manage. "Not happy with just the leg, are you?"

Kankuro winced. "Actually... about that." He lowered his puppet into one of the seats in the room. "I'm not sure exactly what happened to Gaara. He seems a little weaker, but he can sleep now. He's stopped killing people whenever he gets the chance as well. I'm not sure what happened, but I know you three did it." He was standing awkwardly. "I finally have a brother. After spending most of my life with a murderous maniac, I finally have a part of my family back." His voice was a little rough. "But you've lost a leg. I- I think I can help you."

"You can regenerate limbs?" Sakura's eyebrow was raised in disbelief.

Kankuro shook his head. "Not even slightly. But I can use puppets better than most. I might be able to help you learn to move a prosthetic that's a little more versatile than a peg."

Sakura regarded the sand ninja. She didn't really need to learn to use prosthetics, given that all would be repaired at the start of the loop. However, the chance to learn from a Suna puppet master was an opportunity that very few outside the Hidden Village of Sand were ever offered.

She nodded. "If it'll help regain my mobility, then I don't see why not."

Kankuro smiled. "We'll start when you get discharged. I'll source the prosthetic while you're here."

---

"Hey, Blondie!" Temari yelled. "That attempt at wind release back in the forest was pitiful. I'm gonna teach you how to do it better, okay?"

Naruto blinked, considering her words for a moment. Coming to a decision, he shrugged. "Sure! That seems fun."

"Ah, thank fuck. You already know not to ask dumb questions. Come on!" She grabbed him by the collar and began to drag him off, leaving a thoroughly confused Hinata behind.

"That leaves us, I believe." Hinata jumped, not having had the Byakygan activated, as Gaara spoke up from behind her. "Strange. I did not think it possible to conceal oneself around the holder of a Byakugan."

"I don't think I should be telling you anything about that." She narrowed her eyes. "Especially considering what you did to Sakura."

Gaara nodded. "Yes, apologies about that. In my defence, I hadn't slept for over a year, and the voice in my head was screaming at me to kill the; and I quote, 'uppity bitch who dared cut you.' Kankuro is helping her out currently."

Hinata eyed him warily. "Why?"

Gaara shrugged. "You've helped me. I'm not sure how you worked it out, but you did. I have no idea why you helped me, but you have shown me more kindness than most." An odd look crossed his face. "It made me remember some... choice memories from my younger years. Kankuro and Temari have much to offer your... friends?"

"Paramours. It's a little complicated." Polycules were hard enough to explain without the recent memory of attempted homicide.

"Paramours, then." The red-headed man seemed as unconcerned with it as he did most things. "I do not have as much to offer you, but I'm sure we can discover some way for me to be of help."

Hinata nodded slowly. "I'd prefer it if you didn't touch me with the sand."

"That's understandable. Shall we?"

---

"That just isn't fair."

"I lost my leg, Kankuro."

"You sure about that? Seems to me like you're doing just fine."

Kankuro pouted as Sakura landed lightly in front of him. She had just jumped through a basic tree race, something that every aspiring ninja in Konoha had enjoyed doing as children. There were three basic rules. No using jutsu, don't touch the ground, and get there first.

"Control's always been my strong suit. It's not exactly a shock that I'm good at using chakra threads." Sakura punctuated her point by wrapping a thread around a kunai and idly waving it about.

Kankuro pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Yeah, I figured you'd be able to make the threads. Pull things maybe. Not start flipping through treetops on the first day!"

"You're making it sound like I was somersaulting or something." Sakura dropped the kunai while attempting to throw it from thread to thread. "Oops." She bent over to pick it up.

"There was at least one flip." Kankuro flicked one of his own threads down to pass her the kunai. Sakura grabbed it sheepishly, straightening back up.

"I was excited." Reaching out with a few threads, she wriggled her toes. She might not be able to feel the dirt underfoot, but she could sure as hell pretend she could. "So, what's the next step?"

"What do you mean next step? You're already fully mobile."

Sakura laughed. "Right. That makes us even for the leg. But you mentioned that Temari and Gaara are training Naruto and Hinata, and we've barely started on real training."

"They're just generally helping, not divulging the most secret techniques of our village."

"I gave you guys a functional Jinchuriki, you can teach me how to throw some puppets around!"

Kankuro's face reddened under his face paint. "This is a highly complex technique. It's far more involved than just throwing things around!"

"Well, if you taught me how to use puppets, maybe I wouldn't make mistakes like that!" Sakura crossed her arms in a huff.

Kankuro's mouth hung open. He tried to start his sentence a few times, but eventually sighed in defeat. "Fine. I'm going to need a promise that you won't use any of this against the hidden sand village, though."

"Only if they haven't started anything with me or mine."

"I guess that's as good as I'm going to get." Kankuro pulled a small doll out from under his robes. "Sit down and disconnect from your leg. Let's run through a basic marionette set."

---

"So what's the deal with the demon energy thing?" Temari asked idly.

Naruto was flat on his back from Temari's most recent gust of wind. "He was sealed in me when I was born. I've only just started actually using his chakra reliably though."

Temari played with the end of her fan, waiting for Naruto to stand back up. "You've had it all your life, and you're still sane? How'd that happen?"

Heaving himself to a sitting position, Naruto looked at her thoughtfully. "Not sure. I was only told I had him in me when I became a genin. Didn't even hear his voice until really recently."

"How do you deal with him yelling at you to kill everyone?"

Naruto shrugged. "He doesn't really do that. He helped me get together with Sakura, and he gives advice on how to use his power every now and then."

Temari groaned. "You're telling me my brother could've had a wingman instead of a psycho raccoon trapped in his head?"

"Maybe? Some weird stuff had to happen for him to do any of that." Naruto sat there for a few more seconds, jumping up as he shot a burst of wind at Temari, hoping to catch her by surprise. Temari smirked, unfolding her fan, and cancelled it out with a gust of her own, knocking him back onto his ass.

A long-suffering sigh was Naruto's response. "Is this really the best way to train me?"

"Don't question my techniques, they're the ancient traditions of the sand village."

"Can you at least point them somewhere else? Let me look at how you do it?" Naruto had a tone of pleading in his voice that only someone who'd spent three hours being knocked on his ass could.

"No. It's motivation to do well." Temari readied her fan. "Now stand up before I motivate you to."

Naruto started to move, slowly getting to his feet. "Motivation, huh? So if I give you motivation to stop doing this, we can do some actual training?"

Temari eyed him warily. "What kinda motivation are yo-" She was cut off as a red-cloaked Naruto slammed into her, knocking her over.

She looked up at him. "We just keep ending up like this, don't we?"

"Maybe you should stop trying to knock me over, then."

"I didn't say that was a bad thing."

Naruto looked down at her. "You enjoy being on your back?"

"Maybe I do when you're the one putting me there." Naruto flared his aura with a growl, enveloping a large amount of the blonde girl’s skin in his caressing aura.

Temari let out a long breath in response. "Harder."

Naruto glared at her, then very carefully pulled his aura back. "No."

"What?"

"You'll get that if you're good. Actually train me, and we can do dinner." He stood, walking away from Temari.

"Ugh. Fine." She got up as well. "I hate this slow-burn shit. Don't you dare try to make this some rose-filled snooze-fest."

"If you liked it, it wouldn't be a real punishment, would it?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm serious though, don't you dare try and make this some 'moonlit night under the stars' bullshit."

"I know a good ramen stand, will that work?"

"Do they have a vegetable ramen?"

"A couple, actually."

"Sounds as good as any other option." Temari readied her fan. "Watch closely now."

---

"You asked her out?" Hinata asked in disbelief. She'd spent her day working on awareness under pressure with Gaara. His omnidirectional method of attacking was excellent dodging practice.

"Yeah. I'm not really sure what happened, the fox cloak kinda took over." Naruto was trying to keep a balloon afloat with bursts of wind chakra.

Hinata watched the balloon float up and down for a while. Finally, she spoke up. "Do you want to go through with it?"

Naruto caught the balloon, looking over to Hinata. "I don't see a reason not to."

"If it goes well, I won't need to worry about losing my leg next time." Sakura interjected.

"I guess..." Hinata was looking away from both her partners.

"And it's not like we need to worry about her betraying us or anything, she'd need to fall in love with Naruto to actually make it in."

Naruto gave Hinata a concerned look. "Everything okay 'Nata?"

Hinata was silent for a moment. "I'm fine."

Sakura looked over. "You can tell us if something's up. You know that, right?"

"I just- I need to think about it for a while. Have fun tonight, Naruto." She stood, leaving the apartment.

"I should... go after her, right?" Naruto looked to Sakura for confirmation.

Sakura was still looking at the door with a troubled expression. "Normally, yes. If I ever storm out on you, definitely come after to ask me what's wrong. With Hinata... I don't know. I think she genuinely needs space to think. Go meet Temari. We'll see how Hinata is feeling tomorrow."

With one more troubled look out the door, Naruto returned to floating the balloon in the air.

---

"You're joking." Temari was staring at Naruto, noodles frozen halfway to her mouth.

Naruto laughed. "Completely serious."

The blond sand nin shook her head in disbelief. "Fucking hell. You stole a scroll of forbidden jutsu and learned something that'd kill anyone short of a jounin. As a genin! Because you couldn't use clones? And people still thought you weren't some kind of prodigy?"

"Even now, most don't think I'm that good. Compared to Sasuke at least."

"Blondie, lemme tell you something." Temari finally brought the noodles to her mouth, slurping them up. After she'd chewed and swallowed, she continued. "I've spent my whole life trying to keep up with Gaara. He was able to kill jounin before he graduated from the academy. While I'm nowhere near his abilities, I'm a hell of a lot better than most chunin, and some jounin. The fact that you can beat me says just how fucking good you are."

Naruto idly stirred the contents of his bowl. "Sure, but I couldn't even touch you without Kurama's help."

A few broth droplets flicked off the end of Temari's chopsticks as she whipped them up to point at Naruto. "You had to learn to use that power though, right? And it's one you can rely on. Ninja aren't samurai, we don't have some code of honour that defines what is and is not okay. We use what works, and what we can trust not to fail. You beat me fair and square out there."

Naruto sighed. "I guess so. Though I wouldn't have gotten that far withou-" He cut himself off before he mentioned the loop.

Temari's interest was peaked, however. "Without what?"

Naruto shuffled awkwardly. "Nothing."

Temari raised her eyebrows. "C'mon Blondie, I'm showing you the super secret techniques of sand village. You can spill whatever little training method you've got worked out."

Naruto stared at her. He didn't need to worry about a bad response, even if she got mad about the loop he had until the next reset to bring her around. His worry was with Hinata. She'd been uncomfortable with the mention of Temari. If she didn't want the sand ninja in the loop, and Naruto brought her in anyway, it'd be a massive betrayal. But still...

He didn't have a reason to bring Temari in. He'd only really met her this loop. She wasn't going through some intense amount of pain as a by-product of Naruto's actions. If he left this until the next reset, he wouldn't have the burning motivation to get her into the loop. He, in fact, might never encounter a reason to bring her in. He wouldn't hate her, there'd just be such a disconnect that he may be unable to fall in love on his end. He sighed, leaning back into his chair. He wouldn't sleep with her until Hinata gave the go-ahead. That didn't mean he couldn't tell her.

"Okay, it's like this." He slowly laid out everything behind the loop. Temari, seemingly a little amused, peppered him with questions. By the time the conversation wrapped up, the duo found themselves outside Ichiraku.

"You know," Temari said with a bemused smile, "I was already planning to fuck you. Spinning that sort of bullshit would just make me pissed off at the end of the month once we didn't loop back."

Naruto nodded. "I know. That's why I'm not bullshitting you. Look. How do you think we knew where the **** Sage was? How do you think we knew he could seal Gaara? How do you think I went from being unable to even form a clone to being able to do an s-rank shape transformation technique in only a few months? How do you think I know that the sand village is going to invade at the end of the month?"

Temari froze. "What. Did you say?"

Seeing the response, Naruto elaborated. "The sand village is going to invade. Orochimaru is impersonating the Kazekage and coordinating the attack. Gaara, if he hadn't been sealed, would end up on a rampage, becoming a danger to both sides."

"Why aren't you trying to stop it?" Temari's confusion seemed to be outweighing her skepticism.

"Because it's a loop. I don't know how to get out of it, but it's all undone at the end of the month."

Temari seemed to realise something. "So, that means. At the end of the month. I-if I don't fall in love with you. I go back to how Gaara was before he was sealed. Every day a living terror." She had a thousand-yard stare. Her breath started coming faster and faster, until eventually she was taking massive, gulping gasps as quickly as her diaphragm could manage. Naruto scooped her up as carefully as he could, leaping up onto the closest rooftop. He lay her against the chimney and leant down to bring his face even to hers.

"Temari, I'm here. You're fine. Try and breath with me." Naruto began taking slow, deep breaths. Something in Temari seemed to attach to that, and her breathing began slowing down, eventually matching with Naruto's and calming to a regular rate.

Temari's face had a light sheen of sweat, and some tears trickled down her face as she looked at Naruto with panicked eyes. "I can't go back to that, Naruto. I can't."

Naruto sat down next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "And you won't. We've got the whole month to work through this."

The moon was full and bright, blotting out the dimmer stars with its brilliance. Temari choked out a laugh as she looked up at the sky "Fuck. I told you, I hate this slow-burn shit. No heartfelt confessions. No starry nights. In and out. No feelings." She tilted her head to look at Naruto. They stared at each other for a long moment. Finally, she moved in for a kiss. It was a calm affair, full of comfort rather than passion. Her face was still wet with tears, and she sniffled as she moved away.

"So, where do we want to do this?" Her hand moved to the top of her robe, beginning to pull it down.

Naruto stopped her, however. "Temari, you have my word that by the end of the month, you'll be in here with us. Happy, safe, and secure. Becoming strong enough to beat Gaara on your own. But I need to talk to Hinata about all this first."

Temari stiffened. "D-does she not want me in? Is it because of what we did to Sakura?"

Naruto shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. She was worried after I mentioned this date, but didn't want to say why. Maybe it's not related. Maybe it is. But you're going to be in here with us for an awful long time. It'll be best to start the relationship off right."

Temari stared out at Konoha "So what do we do now?" She asked.

"Cuddle?" Temari snorted, but snuggled in a little closer. The two talked for a long while before heading off to their own places.

---

Hinata pivoted to avoid Gaara's attack, but was so lost in thought that she missed the patch of sand that she stepped onto. It burst up around her, coating her body and holding for a moment. Gaara, impassive as ever, stared at her as he let the sand trickled away.

"You're off today. Talk about it." His tone was one of cold command.

The Hyuga girl shook her head. "You don't want to hear about it."

"Correct." Gaara's tone remained even. "However, if you don't talk it through you'll be off for the rest of the day. I'd prefer not to waste time."

Hinata wasn't sure why she'd expected the man to be delicate in how he talked. He'd spent his entire life unable to make friends with his peers, mostly on account of the homicide. "It's about Temari."

"You're not happy about the date?"

"It's not that. Well, it is a little. We've only just met Temari, and Naruto's already dating her. I knew that there'd be more people in the relationship, but I thought I'd get to know them first." She brought her arms up to hug herself. "It just doesn't make me feel special."

"Hinata, I am in as special a situation as you are likely to find. Believe me, it's awful." Gaara's sand shifted into a small bench, which he sat on. "So, some perspective. A lot of people aim for situations that aren't very special. Like chunin. Or being in a relationship. Or gainful employment. What matters, what is truly special, is how you get to that situation. What it means to you now. And what you do with it in the future. The way you and Naruto met is different from him and my sister. The way you'll treat the relationship is different." He looked up to meet Hinata's eyes. "You are your own person. And Naruto is not so callous as to refuse to take that into account. Besides. She only has until the end of the month to get in."

Hinata struggled to hide her reaction with every fibre of her being. "What do you mean?"

"Temari knows about the loop. She told Kankuro and I about it last night."

"Does that mean she and Naruto?" Hinata trailed off at the end of the question.

Gaara shook his head. "No. I believe you were the reason he didn't."

"Oh."

"May I make a request?" Hinata nodded. "While Kankuro and I do not have the capability to be romantically attracted to Naruto, Temari is not the same. If given the chance to enter the loop, she may be able to break free of the fear that I instil in her. Come the next start of the loop, I shall revert to my previous self. Please. Do not condemn my sister to the same fate."