Confusion and incredulity
Temari was becoming increasingly certain that there was something deeply wrong with Konoha ninja.
It was a suspicion that most Suna nin had felt at one point or another, after all, sane people wouldn’t willingly live in Fire Country forests. What with the venomous wildlife, and the poisonous plant life, and the unending bloody sea of trees that made it impossible to see more than a few feet ahead. At least in the desert you could see the snakes and scorpions coming. Any Suna ninja with sense would question the sanity of Konoha nin.
But there was a line between suspicions and certainty, and as far as Temari was concerned they were over that line and accelerating. There was something deeply wrong with this village.
The first indications were around Gaara of course. Because most of the insanity in Temari’s life could in some way be related back to her youngest brother. The first indications were Gaara and those two Konoha genin, and the weird as fuck energy between the three of them. It was bizarre, and intense, she’d actually felt a little uncomfortable watching them all together, what with Gaara’s semi-murderous focus, and the Uchiha’s semi-deranged challenge, and the Uchiha’s blond teammate’s completely unassailable enthusiasm. They’d all been deeply intent on each other, in one way or another, and she wasn’t sure what to think about it. She’d almost be tempted to call it some sort of… attraction, except that Gaara was a certified homicidal maniac who liked to kill people while giggling to himself and normal people did not find that sort of thing attractive. Normal people in fact, found that kind of thing terrifying, or at least worrying.
But then, it was becoming increasingly clear that Konoha ninja were not normal people.
Konoha ninja were the sort of people who dressed up in bright green jumpsuits with orange legwarmers and shouted about youth. Or half beat their own family members to death while muttering about fate. Or kept actual bugs inside their bodies. Or had a training ground that was officially called the Forest of Death. And the worst thing was, not a single Konoha nin seemed unsettled by any of this.
Suffice it to say by the time the attack was due to start Temari was having significant reservations about the idea of trying to invade this village. Fighting crazy people was a bad idea, they didn’t know when to stop, it was impossible to predict their reactions, and you never knew just what horrors they might be prepared to unleash. And it anyone would know that for a fact it would be Temari, she was after all stuck on a team with Gaara, poster child for unstable homicidal maniacs with no impulse control. But of course, no-one listened to her, she warned them, they didn’t listen. In fact by the time she was done in the Forest of Death she really wasn’t sure why anyone would even want to invade Konoha. Not that there was any point in expressing that opinion. The Kazekage had given his orders, so they were invading this hellhole whatever anyone better informed might think about the subject.
Then of course, things started to get really weird, because even by ninja standards Konoha was fucked up, and escalation was the ninja way. So it turned out her father the Kazekage had been replaced several weeks ago by Orochimaru (incidentally a former Konoha ninja) who had managed to dress up in his skin and impersonate him, without anyone actually noticing. It was like one of Kankuro’s conspiracy theories, about the Sandaime Kazekage and the zombie puppet army, or the giant mind control rabbit that lives in the moon. Only in Konoha would shit like that turn out to actually be real.
By the time all of this had become clear of course the invasion was underway, and it was too late to back down, so she and Kankuro had taken the path of least resistance and followed Gaara, mostly as an excuse to avoid actually having to do anything, beyond making sure their brother didn’t wander off in the confusion. Gaara supervision duty generally covered a lot of questions along the lines of "and what were you doing during the fight", mostly because no-one else wanted to risk getting stuck with the job. It had seemed like a solid plan for avoiding trouble, right up until the blond idiot with the weird tension with Gaara had turned out to be the kyuubi jinchuuriki, and he and their brother had commenced a full-fledged bijjuu showdown. Because what this situation really needed was a pair of giant chakra monsters throwing down on the village outskirts.
She had, vaguely considered interfering. Gaara was her brother after all, and a part of her always felt the rather futile urge to try and keep him out of trouble. Not that she’d have been able to do much, and not that Gaara wasn’t a full fledged mass murderer perfectly capable of looking after himself, but still, family was family and it was the principle of the thing. Honestly she blamed Kankuro, if he wasn't such an absolute disaster, her default response to a little brother in trouble wouldn't be to grab him by the scruff of the neck and drag him home. It was the kind of response that would probably lead to Gaara sand coffining her one of these days, but it really was a difficult instinct to unlearn.
But then before she could act on the slightly self destructive impulse to intervene, she and Kankuro got ambushed by Konoha academy students, as if they needed more proof that Konoha was fucked up. Actual academy students, seriously, intervening in a jinchuuriki level fight. She could tell by the lack of headbands, and the blunted weapons on the two girls, although they did at least look close to graduating. Still, did Konoha nin just not learn self preservation in the academy? What on earth were those kids doing out here? How did they get the drop on her? What did they want? And why was the lighter haired girl watching Gaara and the other jinchuuriki battering at each other like it was the most adorable thing she’d seen in weeks? As for their aura. It was unsettling. There wasn’t even any real anger or killing intent in it, just sheer force of will, looking for a target. What did Konoha even feed these kids?
Then to cap off the bizarre experience that the last few weeks had been, that same lighter haired girl had turned a benevolently terrifying smile on Temari and given her a gentle kiss right before everything faded to black. “You’re cute.” She heard the girl giggle as she passed out. It was one of the more terrifying things Temari had heard all week, even including Gaara’s usual litany of horrifyingly graphic death threats.
When Temari woke up to see Gaara cuddling with the Konoha jinchuuriki she’d given up. There was just something deeply wrong with Konoha, and anyone who lived there. It was no wonder they’d gotten to Gaara. This place was crazy enough that he fitted right in. The following couple of hours only served to confirm her hypothesis, she’d heard stories from her fellow prisoners about the demon disguised as an academy student that had beaten the crap out of them after threatening to bite them to death, and the academy teacher that had summoned a giant octopus in the middle of the battle, and that one Hyuuga that had actually spontaneously combusted with rage when one of them got in between him and the Hyuuga clan elder whose head he’d been kicking in.
The sooner they all got out of this place and tried to forget all about it, the better as far as she was concerned. Fire country was no place for sensible people, and Gaara was crazy enough already, he did not need to be exposed to Konoha’s bad influences no matter how much he sulked about it.