Temari stepped outside to get the morning newspaper and saw the door wasn't closed properly. She clicked her tongue, grabbed the paper and slammed the already dying door behind her.

"Oi, Kankuro!" she stomped her foot in front of the two boys sitting in the dining room. "How many times have I told you to make sure you lock the door when you come back in late!?"

"Huh?!" Kankuro was quick to defend. "I locked it this time! I swear it on Gaara's absolute defense!"

"Then explain to me why the door was open!"

"Maybe there's a ghost in the house," Kankuro shrugged. "How am I supposed to know?!"

"See! You didn't lock it!"

"Why is that the only answer?!"

There was a little squeak of surprise, a tumbling, and then a bang against a door in the hallway. The three siblings glanced at each other before Gaara got to his feet and went over to the door that lead to the servant staircase and he wasn't surprised to see Suzume sitting on the floor and clutching at a huge bump on her head.

"Good morning, Suzume," Gaara greeted her.

Suzume lowered her hands and looked up at him. "Good morning, Gaara-sama."

He offered her a hand up and she accepted it.

"You need to be more careful when going down the stairs, Suzume," Kankuro frowned. "It's the sixth time this week that's happened."

"She's just naturally clumsy," Temari took a seat at the table, handing the newspaper to Gaara. "We can't do anything about it."

Suzume went to the kitchen and got some lemonade out. After placing the pitcher of lemonade down on the dining table she ran back to get some cups.

"I'll help you out," Kankuro said, following after her.

They brought out the glass cups together and the pair argued about who would pour the lemonade for everybody. An argument that Kankuro won. The male brunette served the drinks and Suzume made breakfast for herself and joined the others at the table.

"We have a meeting at the shinobi headquarters today," Temari informed Kankuro as her sister took a seat.

Kankuro kept back a moan of protest. "What's it about?"

"They didn't tell me," she answered. "And Gaara and the leftover shinobi are going to another meeting at the Institute."

"Sounds like it'll be about the education reform," Kankuro addressed his brother.

"Nothing is going to be solved," Gaara flipped a page in the newspaper. "It'll be people on one side yelling at people on the other. It's more of a way to lash out and relieve pent up stress than a meeting to settle any issues."

"But you're still going to it," the puppeteer smiled knowingly.

"Of course," Gaara met Kankuro's gaze. "It's enlightening."

"In what way?" Temari sniggered.

"You get to see what people support and how they react in certain situations."

"If Kankuro or I went there, we wouldn't be able to handle the massive amount of stupidity shoved into one room."

"But isn't it weird that they're doing both of these meetings at the same time?" Kankuro ran a hand through his hair. "They usually hold one at the beginning of the month and then another at the end."

Temari pondered on this as she gulped down her lemonade. "Should we ditch?"

"No can do," Kankuro smiled at his sister's rare immaturity. "Just imagine the rumors they would spread if any of us were absent."

"Can I go?"

They were all surprised to hear Suzume ask this question.

"Sure," Temari said. "You'll be bored as hell though."

"It doesn't matter. I want to go."

In the evening as the sun was setting, they got a sandstorm warning and right before they left for their meetings, the siblings ran around checking if there were any open windows and closing them.

"Travel safely, Gaara-sama!" Suzume waved after the redhead as he walked toward the Institute.

He gave her a little wave then headed down the road. When Suzume went back inside the house, her hands flew to her nose and she gagged.

"What's the matter, Suzume?" Temari asked when she saw the girl frozen in the hallway.

Suzume lifted up a teary eyed, scrunched up face. "It smells horrible!"

Temari blinked then took a huge whiff through her nose. "I don't smell anything."

"Really?" Suzume risked a sniff but regretted it immediately. "Can't you smell it, Temari-sama?!"

"No. I really don't smell anything," Temari became concerned. "Maybe it would be better if you stayed home after all. We'll just be down the hall, anyway."

Suzume didn't want to give up the chance to see a real shinobi meeting in action but the smell was just that strong that she couldn't help but agree. She was going to open up a window to get some fresh air when Temari kept her from doing so.

"Sorry, kid," she said apologetically. "We can't open up the windows because of the sandstorm, remember?"

After plugging her nose and saying goodbye to Temari and Kankuro, Suzume went back downstairs.

"Ah..." Suzume sighed, her voice at a weird pitch because of her pinched nose. "And I was going to work on observing emotions at the meeting."

Suzume found herself on the first floor and heard hissing. She followed the sound to see Hisoka in a defensive stance with the hair on her spine standing on end, snarling at the door leading to the basement.

"Hisoka?" Suzume's eyebrows furrowed. "What's the matter?"

She just kept hissing at the door. The girl considered the door and reached out for the doorknob. There was a crash of glass and Suzume flinched. She ran to the dining room to see a glass of lemonade shattered on the floor and she hurried to clean it. Throwing the shards in the trash bin, she was passing by the counter in the kitchen when she glimpsed a pile of folders and files scattered across the surface.

Suzume picked one up and flipped through it. "This is Kankuro-sama's."

She gathered up the papers in her arms and quickly ran to the staircase, heading to the Shinobi Headquarters. Hisoka saw her going up the stairs and stopped her hissing to follow.

.

"Where are they?!" Kankuro shook everything out of his bag looking for his files. "Did I leave it back at home?"

"If they're not in your bag, that's where they'd be," Temari's mouth creased into a frown.

"Do you think I'd have time to run back and get it?" Kankuro asked hopefully as people filed into the meeting room.

The door closed in finality. "Nope," Temari answered as her brother sulked.

"Do you know why they called us here?"

Temari caught the whisper and focused her hearing. Even as she sat in her seat, she could tell that every other shinobi was tentative and apprehensive. Was it possible that they weren't informed of the topic of the meeting either? Temari had just assumed they had been missing some material from the letter they had gotten a few days back. It happened from time to time when a childish shinobi wanted some way to get back at them.

"What's going on?" asked a somewhat vexed older ninja. "I took time out of my schedule to be here..."

"I have half a mind to just stand up and leave..."

"Now, now. Everybody calm..."

Kankuro stiffened next to her as the banter continued around them and she could tell he had figured it out too. None of them were aware of why they were sitting there.

The pair both saw a flash of blue and their eyes enlarged at the sight of Hisoka slithering between the shinobi's feet. Their eyes darted to the door to see it cracked open an inch and to see a bright, black eye peering at them through it.

"Su-"Kankuro clamped his mouth shut, making sure nobody was looking before mouthing to her. What are you doing here?

Suzume shifted around and Temari saw Kankuro's files in her sister's hands. She elbowed her brother. "Your papers. She brought your papers."

The puppeteer played with his tongue in uncertainty, glancing around at the stiff atmosphere around them. He slowly got to his feet, intending to walk quickly over to Suzume and quickly back. Kankuro wanted his little sister to retreat back into the safety of the Kazekage quarters as soon as possible. Something wasn't right about this meeting and he didn't like it.

Right at that moment when he separated from his chair, a man they had never seen or met before, stood up.

.

It was business as usual and just what Gaara had predicted.

"That doesn't make any flippin sense!" thundered a shinobi. "You're being ridiculous! Do you have a loose screw in your head or something!?"

"Excuse me! But this is for the good of the damn students in the damn Institute, you shitty selfish bastard!"

"Wasn't this supposed to be a discussion about increasing stationary supplies in the school?" somebody whispered to their friend nearby Gaara.

Good question.

Gaara calmly watched the two opposing sides growling at each other like dogs and cats in an alleyway. He was in the corner of the large room, a good distance away from the other shinobi and had a good view of the whole area. Furthermore, he could see the mansion from the window. He observed that the meeting room oddly had its curtains all drawn tightly closed resulting in Gaara's eyes concentrating more on the mansion than on the conference.

"Gaara."

The redhead ripped his gaze away from the mansion to see Baki standing next to him with his eyes glued on the Kazekage's building as well. "This whole setup is bothering me."

Other than the Institute and the shinobi headquarters, not a soul was out on the streets. The lights were all off and only the howling of the desert wind could be heard. Gaara's eyes lifted to look up at the sky. The moon was gone.

"The sandstorm hasn't hit," Gaara remarked.

Baki's eyes dilated and he hastily placed his hands on the windowsill, gazing out. "I forgot about that. You're right, it should've reached the village by now if we got a warning two hours ago."

Gaara blocked out the meaningless chatter of the assembly and narrowed his eyes at the shinobi headquarters, staring daggers at the curtains impeding his vision into the conference room. He blinked and leaned forward. For a split second a bright light radiated against the blacked out curtains.

Gaara bolted to his feet and his chair fell with a clatter, drawing everybody's attention. A ruby barrier rose around the perimeter of the mansion, climbing up from the ground to dome above the building.

"Nani?!" Baki exclaimed at the sight.

.

"Hai, hai," the guy who had stood smiled in a way that made Temari immediately take a disliking to him. A smile that made her think, Pervert. "I have something to say."

"Who the hell are you?" queried a chunin.

"I'm a regular citizen," the pervert answered, his bloodshot eyes shining with something ominous. "I don't have a chakra system, unlike you ninja."

"Why are you here?" a woman glared. "This is a meeting for shinobi only."

The man ignored her, "And that same chakra system is what's going to be your downfall."

"What nonsense is he talking about?"

A sudden weight landed hard on top of Temari's head and she was on her hands and knees before she knew it. It was like she was trapped under a sea of water, the ocean's weight crushing her as she sank deeper. She gritted her teeth and used all of her willpower to lift her head. The rest of the shinobi were in the same situation, all on their hands and knees and shuddering with the futile effort to stand. Except for one.

A long haired, blonde shinobi who was known to be a teacher at the Institute. He was standing perfectly nonchalantly in the corner of the room, juggling six shuriken in one hand and yawning widely all the while. Then there was a person sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room, their hands positioned in a hand seal, their eyes closed in meditation. The pervert was hopping around on the desks and chairs, whooping and hooting out incoherent words.

"What's going on?!" a male shinobi yelled in aggravation.

"Such unimaginative questions," the blond man smirked. "Can't you think of more educated queries?"

Temari's head began to spin and she closed her eyes tightly to calm the unexpected vertigo.

"He's sucking out our chakra..." Kankuro panted, referring to the cross legged shinobi. "This is a kinjutsu."

"Bingo!"

Kankuro recoiled when he saw the pervert's face upside down and right in his personal space.

"A forbidden jutsuuuuuu!" the pervert blared. "You're all going to die!"

"That is, unless you and your friends outside listen to what we say," the blond man sneered and he tossed something at the pervert.

"A lighter," a chunin snorted. "Are you going to set us on fire?"

"No," shadows fell onto the man's face. "We're going to blow you up. You and this whole building."

"Gas has been leaking into the building since last night," he continued. "And since the windows were closed a few hours ago, it's been trapped in here."

"Heehee," the pervert opened the cover of the lighter.

"I assume you all know where I'm going with this," the blond man smirked.

Temari and Kankuro's eyes flickered over to the door where they can see Suzume's eye fill with fear. While Kankuro tried to tell her to run with his gaze, Temari's mind flooded with different ways to get out of this. She had to think of a way to keep her brother and sister from being harmed, or more likely... she clenched her fists... being killed.

But she couldn't move. Her chakra was getting sucked out of her and her body was getting heavier and heavier.

"Why are you doing this?" somebody asked in the background.

"It's quite simple really. We just want money and insurance. Give us the dough and a safe journey out of here and we won't need to see any blood."

They were going to be blown to bits because of wads of paper? Screw that.

Think! She had to think. She glanced at the door again to see Suzume's eye. If she could at least get Suzume to Gaara.

"Your friends at the Institute should have gotten the hint by now. They'll be coming."

You just need to focus on staying safe, Suzume. Temari thought as the perverted man skipped past her. Don't do anything stupid, Suzume!

.

Suzume was shivering and she couldn't get enough oxygen into her lungs. Lifting a shaking hand she removed the clothespin from her nose, choosing breathing over keeping that foul smell out. She couldn't look away from Temari and Kankuro, she saw them groveling at the feet of those horrible men, struggling to even keep their heads up. Sometimes, they'd look over at her in fear. No. They weren't afraid of dying, they were afraid of what would happen to her. This revelation made her gawk at them, their eyes were telling her to run.

No. No. She didn't want to live if they weren't there with her. She wanted to help them, she didn't want them to die. She was frightened herself, so frightened that she almost thought that jutsu was affecting her too and making her limbs feel heavier.

"If they don't agree to those terms and you blow us up," a rather young chunin said. "Where does that leave you? You won't have gained anything and you'll be chased down by our anbu for the rest of your lives!"

"Then we'll commit suicide and blow up with you," the red eyed man cut in, playing dangerously with the lighter.

Suzume let out a little sound as she heard these words. These people were mad! Was money so important to them?!

"As if!" yelled a ninja, almost like he had read Suzume's thoughts.

"It's true~" the man smiled obscenely. "We'll all go down together, ne? Hehehe~"

"And if they don't hurry up and give it to us," the blonde man said. "You'll all die from chakra deprivation before you can explode."

Suzume's eyes traveled to the lighter in the bloodshot eyed man's hands. The main problem is the gas isn't it?

The gas tank was in the basement. That man probably made a hole in the tank to let the gas leak out. If she stopped the flow of gas to the tank, the house won't blow up. After the gas problem is gone, she was sure Kankuro and Temari could handle it. Convincing herself that everything was going to be okay and that she could do it, she exhaled out a composing breath. After giving herself a few seconds to prepare herself, Suzume bolted to the Kazekage's quarters with slow footsteps.

.

Gaara's sand was being thrown back again and again by the barrier keeping him from his siblings. He heard yelling and shouting in the background, something about a hostage situation and a demand for money.

Isn't that obvious? He wanted to yell at them as he raised his heavy arms to strike once more against the barrier. Not a single dent. Clicking his tongue in impatience, his non-existent eyebrows knitted together as he made a couple of hand signs and slammed his hands to the ground.

There was some sand in the mansion, if he did it right it just might work...

He lifted two fingers above his closed eye. "Optic nerve connected. Daisan no me*, open."

He became able to see inside the conference room and he wasted no time in searching for his sisters and brother. Once he located them and saw that they weren't in immediate danger, he analyzed the situation. Three enemies, one was focusing on a jutsu, no doubt the one holding the shinobi down and creating the protective field outside. The other was a normal civilian with a drug addiction and the other... Gaara was somewhat surprised. A teacher from the Institute. This was certainly a strange mix of people.

Wait. Gaara searched the room again, then one more time to really be sure. Suzume wasn't there...

Where...? Gaara gritted his teeth as he scanned the room a third time. Where?!

"Oi, Sora," the shinobi sitting on the ground said in a small voice. "There's something that shouldn't be here."

Gaara thought he'd been caught and hastily tried to dispel the jutsu.

"What?" the blond squawked.

"It's a little girl." Gaara's heart twisted inside his chest at the words. "She's heading downstairs."

"Only a little girl? Psh. Don't scare me like that, Sasahara. I'll go kill her off."

The blond man strolled passed Temari and Kankuro and Kankuro fell onto his face in an attempt to grab onto him. Gaara watched his brother use his remaining strength to lift up his head.

"Where do you think you're going?! Hey, Goldilocks!" Kankuro bellowed at him in dread.

"Oh?" the man turned to face him. "You seem to know this mouse."

"I'll kill you if you touch her!" Kankuro spat at him.

"That makes me even more excited to get my hands on her," a disgusting sneer split his face.

Gaara had to do something. Some of the sand in the room began to float upward in spirals. He had to do something. They gathered together and slithered toward the shinobi named Sasahara. He had to something. It was getting closer and closer. Or else they'll all die!

Sasahara's head snapped to the side and fixated on Gaara's third eye. Gaara urged the sand to move faster, it was right on top of the shinobi, roaring and about to chew up its prey. Sasahara sucked all the chakra out of a shinobi nearest him and used it to dissipate the sand. Gaara grunted as he was thrown backwards, clutching at his throbbing eye.

He'd been ousted out of the room.

.

It took everything in Suzume to keep her legs moving. Her limbs felt like the blood was sucked out of them, they felt like the bones and muscles were gone. They were like slabs of skin. Every movement caused a penalty of pain to spark through her nerves. Was it fear? Fear of death? Despite this, she kept moving. In the face of losing her brother and sister, she kept moving.

Panting, she steadied herself against the wall as she ran, keeping the tears back and focusing on one thing. Getting to the basement. She got to the next flight of stairs and her foot slipped over the corner of the first step. She tumbled down as she gritted her teeth and protected her head. Once she came to a halt at the bottom, she struggled to keep her eyes from spinning and get to her feet.

Stumbling like a newborn fawn, she burst through the door that led to the basement. She hurried past the other rooms to the end of the corridor and around the corner where a huge, heavy steel door took residence at the end. With trembling hands she grunted while she tried to lift the enormous plank that kept the door from opening. The cumbersome weight of the plank almost made her legs fail her as she lowered it to the ground. It made a echoing clattering when she dropped it, feeling impatient with her destination right in front of her. Suzume grasped the lever desperately and pulled down, using whatever muscle she had in her arms. It clicked after what seemed like a decade, telling her it was unlocked. Seizing the handle of the door, she pulled, praying for it to open. It didn't budge an inch.

"Ngh!" Was this it? Was this where she'll be stopped? Temari and Kankuro were going to die because she didn't have enough strength to open a door?!

.

"Oi, Sora," the shinobi sitting on the ground said in a small, almost feminine voice. "There's something that shouldn't be here."

"What?" the blond squawked.

"It's a little girl." A wave of cold washed through Kankuro's body. "She's heading downstairs."

"Only a little girl? Psh. Don't scare me like that, Sasahara. I'll go kill her off."

Without thinking, actually, no, only thinking of Suzume, Kankuro lunged out and tried to grab the man's feet. But he only succeeded in colliding with the floor with no strength to get back onto his knees. He used his arms to push himself up, watching the guy head towards the door, each step like a jab to his heart.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Kankuro bellowed at the retreating man. If he goes after Suzume, she won't stand a chance! "Hey! Goldilocks!"

"Oh?" the man turned to face him. "You seem to know this mouse."

"I'll kill you if you touch her!" Kankuro spat at him. Please, not Suzume. Not Suzume.

"That makes me even more excited to get my hands on her," a disgusting sneer split his face. "I'll take my time with her."

"Have a safe trip~" the guy with bloodshot eyes waved goodbye.

"No... stop..." Kankuro screamed. "STOP!"

The door closed behind the man.

Damn it. Damn it. Dammit, dammit, dammit! Kankuro squeezed his eyes shut, blood dripping down his lip as his teeth pierced through it, his fists shaking with the force he was clenching them.

"Kankuro," Temari's voice tapped against his aura of misery. "Kankuro, look."

Kankuro opened his eyes only for them to widen. The sand was moving, albeit only slightly, but they could tell. The pair who had lived with the redhead for over a decade could tell.

Gaara...

Their eyes were glued on the course the sand was taking, their hearts beating out of their chests in anticipation, both of them prepared to jump in once Gaara struck. He can do it. In just a few seconds, they'll be able to move, take down the enemy and go rescue Suzume.

With a swift movement, the cross legged shinobi noticed Gaara's third eye, sucked out all the chakra from out of a shinobi and deflected the sand. Everything fell apart in a shower of sand. Kankuro's hope had been shattered.

Kankuro's shoulders shook as the once animate grains of sand fell like rain drops back onto the floor. If only he could move! If only he could do something as simple as get onto his feet! At this rate...!

His little sister was going to die!

.

"Damn... it.... aaaaalllll!" Suzume firmly planted her feet on the floor, her fingers tightened over the handle, and with all her might, she pulled the door open.

Before she knew it, she was inside the room. The door slammed shut behind her in such a chillingly resolute way like it was saying that she'll never step over its threshold again. She shook the idea out of her head and ran forward. Her footfalls resounded through the pipe filled area and the clatter of the grilles drummed out a suspenseful beat. After centuries of running, she reached the gas tank and her eyes widened. As the suffocating, unscented gas levels rose and filled her nostrils, as the sound of gas wheezing and hissing as it escaped the chimneys of their pipes surrounded her, she gazed in amazement as she beheld the sight of the huge hole that had been blasted into the body of the towering tank.

Gulping, she focused on the task in front of her. Her eyes whipped around and her mind raced as she tried to remember what Kankuro did every time they came down there together.

"There's a valve that turns off the flow of gas to the tank..." Suzume muttered underneath her breath, bending down low and getting on her tippy toes searching for it. "Somewhere around here-"

A look of absolute despair contorted Suzume's face and she fell to her knees, the personification of hopelessness. Tears that she had been keeping dammed up poured out of her eyes as she reached out her hands at the broken tap. The valve had been ripped clean off.

"No, no, no, no..." Suzume picked up the metal faucet and tried desperately to put it back in its proper place. "Please, no."

Tears blinded her sight and she squeezed her eyes closed as she leaned forward, her head resting on the pipe in front of her.

Suzume's eyes snapped open. No. There was still something she can do. She forced herself to her feet and whipped around. Her last hope. It can work.

A sudden chill crawled up her spine like a snake, sweat glistened on her forehead and her heart was beating into her eardrums. She was petrified on the spot as she heard the door behind her slide open with mocking ease. Light from the hallway stretched into the dim room, making the shadows expand and reach out to grab Suzume.

"Moshimosh~" a singsong voice reached Suzume's ears. "Is this where you are, little mouse?"

Suzume covered her mouth to keep her speeded up breathing from alerting the enemy. She had managed to dive behind a large water pipe to hide from the shinobi just in the nick of time. Blood slid down her chin as her tooth pierced through her bottom lip.

"You're quite good at concealing your chakra. No matter how hard I try, I can't feel it," the man taunted as he came closer. "But I can smell your fear~ It smells delectable."

His eyes landed on the large light blue pipe and his mouth spread wider on his face. "Won't you show yourself to me, little mouse?"

Suzume was shaking like crazy. Her thoughts were a snowstorm inside her head.

The man stopped right behind the pipe. "Should I have introduced myself first? Cute, little mouse."

The young girl gripped the rusting valve next to her and turned it with the strength that the adrenaline charging through her granted her. The man cried out as a pipe let loose a roar of steam aimed right at his face. He stumbled back, clutching at his red face as a raging burn formed on his skin. He heard a pattering of footsteps and he forced an eye open, searching for the one who caused him this irritable pain.

He let loose a mad laugh. "Little rat knows the field! Fine, I'll play along! In return, if I catch you..." his eyes blazed with bloodlust. "... I get to kill you."

He heard the next attack rather than sense it. He jumped out of the way of another issuing of boiling hot steam. Suzume saw him dodge it and grunted as she turned on a series of blasting hot air. More than one pipe let lose its vapor as the ninja ran away from the area of attack. Suzume began to crawl through the tiny passage way and let out a squeak when a pipe was kicked into the air beside her.

She hurried down the passage as more and more pipes were demolished and threw herself out of the other end. She swiftly ran down the corridor and around a corner before she heard the man blast his way through where she had tumbled out of the small crawl hole. She skidded to a stop and waited until she turned the nozzle at the exact moment the man appeared around the corner. Water surged out of a pipe and hit the man right in the chest, throwing him hard against the wall.

Suzume wasted no time in running, or rather, stumbling away from the man's frustrated curses. Kankuro had told her where it was but never got to actually show it to her. All she had to rely on was her instincts and her prayers to find it.

"Where did you go you little rat?!" the shinobi's voice howled in vehemence.

Suzume sped up. The pipe filled room never felt as big as it did then. She could almost feel the distance between her and the man close as his laughter came nearer and nearer.

"At the end of the room. At the end of the room. At the end of the room," she chanted this mantra to herself to keep calm. "It's at the end of the room."

She halted abruptly when she noticed the floor had caved in in front of her. She panted, staring down at the dark and unknown drop.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Suzume saw the man's shadow dart closer and steeled herself. She threw herself forward and the air whooshed passed her body and she felt like she weighed nothing.

Crunch! She landed with that sound to greet her along with a lancing pain in her ankle. "Aaaaaaahhkk!" she screamed before biting her lip to cut it off.

She couldn't let this stop her. What would come of her stopping now was worse than this agony would ever be. Pretending like it wasn't broken she ran forward blindly, forcing her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She reached the back wall and looked up to see light above her. She climbed up the fortification of pipes.

There was a soft thud and she let herself have one glance to see the man had safely landed where she had dropped. His eyes fixated on her and her hands shook at his aura of murder. It was a blur as his hand whipped out and Suzume's right arm became useless. Warm blood spurted out of her shoulder where the kunai had split the tissue. Left with only her right arm and leg she reached out frantically and pulled herself out of the hole.

She lifted her head to see the most glorious object she'd ever laid her eyes on. It was a simple red lacquered, medium sized valve that was placed in the middle of a bunch of pipes of every size and color. It was calling out to her, telling her to hurry.

"There's a valve that turns everything off. The gas, the plumbing, and the electricity. Everything." Kankuro spoke in her head. "It's at the far end of the room and it's only to be used as a last resort."

Well, this was the last resort.

She ran and quickly turned the tap to the right. It had to be turned all the way for anything to happen. She had to make it! She had to!

A hand grabbed the back of her shirt and threw her to the ground. She gasped in pain as she felt a bone shatter where she landed. She barely had time to register this new torment before a shoe stomped on her ripped up left shoulder and put pressure on it.

A scream was pushed out of her as the pain amplified tenfold. It was too much. It was swallowing her whole.

"You want some more of that?" the man licked his lips, slathering them with saliva. "You want to be torn up again and again until you can't even remember your name?"

Suzume sobbed and shook her head in response. She was scared. Afraid. She didn't want this. She was a coward, how could she have even thought she had a chance against a full-grown shinobi.

"Wait a minute," the man stepped off her shoulder and seized her collar to lift her to his eyelevel. He scrutinized her then his eyes widened. "You don't even have a chakra system..."

He dropped her like she was a moldy rag. "A normal citizen...?"

Suzume used his momentary hesitation to gather her thoughts and catch her breath. She was disgusted with herself. How could she be so weak when her family needed her? When Kankuro and Temari are facing foes on their hands and knees without even a hint of fear for their own lives?

She drew up her fingers into her palm and clenched her fist. She had to do this. She glanced at the tap. Just one more push.

At that moment, many things happened. Dozens of pipes exploded in their area and water almost roaring with their jaws agape doused at the man in geysers upon geysers, biting and clawing at him. Suzume pushed herself to her feet and dashed toward the valve. Her hand wrapped around the wheel and she turned it.

A gust of hot steam immediately hit Suzume full force and she flew until she collided against a pipe. The air was knocked out of her, her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she collapsed onto the floor. More pipes issued out hot air continuously, a red emergency light flashed around the area, and a blaring alarm screamed around the unconscious young girl.

.

Without warning, all of the lights shut off and they were devoured in darkness. There was a yowl and a man's yell of surprise and pain and the weight lifted.

"What the hell happened?!" the perverted guy shouted in confusion, unexpectedly surrounded in pitch black. His eyes couldn't adjust to the sudden change of brightness to dark.

The smart ones made the next move. Kankuro lunged out, free from his invisible bonds and diving into action. He wrapped his hand around the silver lighter, making sure he was keeping it from being opened. He ripped it out of the man's hand and, using the momentum, forced the guy's arm behind his back and threw him face first into the ground. The puppeteer used his chakra strings to tie him up before he gagged him, keeping him from biting his tongue in an attempt at suicide.

Simultaneously, Temari pounced at the shinobi, doing a spin kick to viscously and instantaneously knock the man unconscious. She threw him at Kankuro who produced more strings and wrapped them around the airborne man expertly, spinning and raveling around him. The strings slowed the man's limp body down and stopped right in front of Kankuro before thudding to a fall at the puppeteer's feet.

The rest of the shinobi were either still in their places, unsure of what to do, or blasting open the windows to let the gas escape. The more aware ones ran out of the room to open the rest of the windows in the building, look for more enemies, or they were shaking the stunned shinobi out of their trance to join them.

Kankuro felt a heaviness land blithely on his shoulder and saw Hisoka perched there. She was undoubtedly the one who pounced on the shinobi to make him lose focus on the jutsu. But he couldn't focus on that now. With Temari at his side, he sprinted to find Suzume.

.

Drip, drip, drip, drip.

The man stood above the girl with a murderous gleam in his eyes. He was drenched with water and the red light glistened off of his damp skin. He bent down, grabbed a fistful of Suzume's hair, and lifted her up.

"What the fuck did you do, bitch?" he snarled. "WHAT THE FUCKIN HELL DID YOU DO?!"

A flash and he was lifting up a kunai high above his head, emitting a war cry as he prepared to stab through Suzume's skull.

Sand screeched and flew toward the man. It wrapped around his torso and crawled over his arms and legs. The situation was clear to him. It was a position that every member of the Sand village had nightmares over. His hand trembled violently and Suzume's hair slipped past his fingers. More sand gathered underneath Suzume and carefully lowered her to the floor. The kunai clattered to the ground, its owner succumbing to fear.

The man saw the green eyes, calm yet filled with a storm. They were hungry for a feast on blood. They were angry.

Footsteps, and Temari and Kankuro appeared. They absorbed the situation in front of them.

"Don't kill him, Gaara!" Temari called out to her brother. "He's not worth it!"

Gaara's invisible eyebrows knitted in effort and his raised hand slowly but surely lowered to his side. The sand retracted from the man and back into the gourd. Gaara reeled in the blood thirst as his siblings ran passed him to tie up the shinobi and check on Suzume.

"Suzume!" Temari reached her first. She lifted the girl into her lap and shook her shoulders. "Suzume, open your eyes!"

"Get a hold of yourself, Suzume!"

"Hurry! We need to get her a blood transfusion!"

_

"Anemia, fractured scapula, torn trapezius muscle, and shattered ankle," the doctor listed out the injuries as she placed each x-ray up for them to see. "Not to mention the head trauma. Other than that, only a few scrapes and bruises."

Suzume was trapped in the middle of three fiery gazes. "Sumimasen..."

"But there's nothing serious?" Kankuro inquired of the doctor after heaving a sigh.

"Young man," the doctor peered at Kankuro over her spectacles. "Do humans usually have anemia, fractured scapulas, torn trapezius muscles, and shattered ankles?"

"N-no," the puppeteer stammered.

"THEN IT'S ALL VERY SERIOUS!" the graying doctor screeched, making Kankuro and the others jump. "You should be ashamed of yourself for letting your sister get to this state!"

Kankuro transported to the gloomy corner, placing one hand on the wall and using it to lean forward, his head bowed. "Hai..." he said in a teary tone.

After a bit more scolding from the doctor, the siblings were left alone in Suzume's hospital room.

"Why did you go down to the basement?" Temari asked in exasperation. "Couldn't you tell we were telling you to run?"

"I was going to shut off the gas," Suzume answered with her usual poker face. "And even if I had run somewhere else, we were trapped in the barrier and the man would've found me anyway. The maze of pipes actually worked to my benefit."

"You were going to shut off the gas?" Gaara repeated.

Suzume nodded. "Then the house wouldn't explode."

Temari and Kankuro started to laugh. Suzume was looking between them in confusion. "Wh-what?"

"Suzume," Kankuro chuckled, wiping away a tear. "It doesn't work that way, jan."

"There was already a copious amount of gas in the building," Gaara explained when she looked to him for an explanation. "Even if you had turned off the flow of gas, the danger of the building exploding wouldn't have ceased. The gas would've remained in the air and without proper ventilation it would still be filled with explosive gas."

"So... if the valve hadn't been broken and if I had been able to turn it off... it wouldn't have mattered?"

"Not really."

Suzume let that sink in. Then she shrunk in absolute mortification and depression, all the color that had returned to her being replaced by a white, ashy pallor.

"B-b-but what saved us was the lights going off!" Kankuro said hurriedly. "And that was because of you, Suzume!"

"Yeah! We're alive aren't we?" Temari pitched in. "Nice job, kiddo."

Kankuro grinned and ruffled up Suzume's hair. As he removed his touch from her head, Suzume tackled him and clutched at his shirt with her uninjured arm, burying her face into his shirt.

"I was so scared!" she sobbed as Kankuro got over his shock at her sudden action. "I was so scared that you and Temari-sama would die!"

Temari and Gaara smiled softly as Kankuro gently ran a hand through his little sister's hair calmingly, letting her release all her anguishes through a sea of tears.

A few weeks later, Suzume was released from the hospital healthy and fixed up to perfection. Hisoka greeted her at the door, purring and rubbing her fur against her master's pale skin. The siblings had taken residence in an apartment right below Baki's. Since the Kazekage Mansion's plumbing, electricity, and gas were all wrecked, courtesy of Suzume, they and the rest of the shinobi were told to evade the area until it was completely safe to live and work there again. Baki had pulled some strings with his landlord in order to accommodate the siblings in his building with a low rent. Luckily, they had allowed Hisoka to live there as well.

Turns out, the people who attacked the mansion were old friends. Sora, the ex-teacher, had been in financial crisis and he'd been fired for in taking alcohol and drugs in front of the students. Sasahara had been deemed unfit to be shinobi despite his talent because of his continued interest in forbidden techniques and also the fact that he'd been declared mentally unstable since he was a child. The non-ninja of the group, well, he was self-explanatory. The three of them were so bitter and drug influenced that they decided that they would risk their lives to leave this hovel of a village with as much money as they could carry.

"That didn't work out so well for them, did it?" Kankuro commented as he simultaneously read the newspaper article over Gaara's shoulder and dried the dishes.

"All the more reason to avoid drugs and alcohol," Gaara said, scanning over the other headlines.

"Stop with the PSA already and focus on cleaning," Temari snapped at them as she threw a soapy glass cup at Kankuro, who frantically tried to keep it from shattering onto the tile floor. "Honestly. You two need to worry more about our rent coming up."

"How did you manage to get us jobs as dishwashers at a restaurant, anyhow?" Kankuro said after sighing in relief that he didn't drop the glass. "What with the economy as it is, it's hard to get part time jobs, jan."

"Konata baa-chan pulled some strings for me. Oi, Gaara!" Temari barked at her red haired brother, fangs bared. "Stop gawking at the paper and mop the floors!"

Gaara slowly turned around to face them, his eyes still on the paper, he was blinking slowly, looking like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He looked up at his siblings and showed them what he had been staring at. Their jaws dropped open.

The three shinobi spilled into the apartment, panting and disheveled from running all the way there. Suzume and Baki looked at them, eyes wide as they watched them catch their breath.

"Temari-sama, Gaara-sama, Kankuro-sama!" Suzume grabbed something on the plastic foldable table they'd found in an alleyway and hurried over to them in the doorway, almost tripping over her own feet in the process. She shoved something into their faces. "Look! Baki-sama is asking me to do the impossible!"

Temari plucked the envelope out of Suzume's hands and their eyes widened when they saw the seal of an elder seated in the Kazekage's counsellors that they had often seen on scrolls their father would receive. Temari opened the envelope quickly, unfolded the letter within, and read:

Dear Suzume,

I heard from Baki that you were the one who made it possible for the shinobi to escape from the hostage situation that transpired recently. My grandson and nephew were both at the counterfeit meeting and I am extremely grateful that someone of such uneducated background was there to risk their lives for them. I would like to express my gratitude by presenting you a meager token by the name of Citizen's Act of Bravery Award and a little currency in person at a huge award assembly,

We hope you accept,

Elder of the Saboten clan.

"It sounds like they just made up the award to have a party," Kankuro's exasperated smile twitched.

"I don't deserve such a huge honor!" Suzume said frenziedly after Temari finished reading.

Kankuro anime fell. "Suzume!" he jabbed a finger at the letter. "Did you even read this? He's just doing it for the press! And he's blatantly insulting you!"

"But I am from an uneducated background," Suzume argued.

"You're defending him?!"

"It was announced in the newspapers as well," Temari told her sister. "The ceremony is tomorrow."

"It's obvious the elders would've wanted a more heroic and well-known shinobi to have been the one to save the day," Gaara said as they migrated into the living area. "But then-"

"I stepped in," Baki said, his face all seriousness. "I like giving recognition to the people who deserve it. If I hadn't done anything, those old men would've used one of their family members to put all the honor and respect to."

"He even went as far as giving an anonymous interview with the press," Gaara said, flipping the paper over to show the aforementioned interview.

"I would've been okay with that, Baki-sama!" Suzume exclaimed. "I don't need recognition! If anything, Kankuro-sama, Temari-sama, and Gaara-sama should've gotten an award! They were the ones who caught the criminals!"

"Us? Get an award?" the kunoichi laughed, hugging her belly. "Those guys hate us, Suzume! We're less likely to get an award than a cactus!"

"Kankuro-sama!" Kankuro flinched when he was called. "You're on my side aren't you?! Isn't this clearly unprecedented?!"

"Um... I wouldn't say unprecedented..."

"No! It's completely unprecedented! I don't deserve an award! I was initially trying to do the wrong thing! It was-"

"I want you to accept it, Suzume."

Suzume's lips parted as she met her gaze with sea green eyes.

"I want you to accept it," Gaara repeated, his eyes conveying everything else without words.

Suzume's hands clenched into fists on her lap and she bowed her head. Her bottom lip was quivering and she was trying hard to keep her shoulders from shaking.

"Okay."

She always thought Gaara meant something else when he said to accept it. Something deeper. But she didn't follow through with his wishes. She could never accept it.

_____________________________________________
*daisan no me- third eye