Temari woke up one morning and cracked her neck of all kinks that she managed to develop overnight. After washing up and changing into her casual clothes, the blonde kunoichi descended down to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. She found Gaara already there, sipping on his own brew and seeming to be thinking over something. At the sight of her, he reached into the cupboard, pulled out a mug, and poured the steaming coffee into it.

"Thanks, ototo," Temari said when he placed the cup on the counter top and pushed it over to her. "Your food may be hazardous to mankind but your coffee is another story."

"I don't know whether to be pleased or offended." Gaara replaced the pot back in the machine.

Kankuro, bleary eyed and scruffy, stumbled into the room. His siblings watched silently while he staggered to the cupboards, pulled out a bowl, poured his box of crushed cereal and mixed milk into it. Then, he chugged it down. He reemerged fully awake.

"That's still as disgusting as it was when we were kids," Temari commented, watching her brother wash the bowl and place it on the rack to dry. "Can't you eat it normally?"

"Too much effort and I'm a lazy person." Kankuro accepted a coffee from Gaara and leaned against the counter. He took a huge inhalation, appreciating the scent of the hot drink, then took a sip. "Aaah... nothing like boiled bean juice to wake you up in the morning, jan."

"Kankuro, once you finish that," Temari rinsed out her cup and poured in some orange juice. "Wake up Suzume."

"Os..." the puppeteer responded nonchalantly.

Gaara pulled open the refrigerator door and bent down to look into its contents. His sea green eyes slid over the empty shelves indifferently and passed by a bowl of unidentifiable substance without another glance. He closed the door and opened the one on top that revealed the interior of the freezer. He dug around for a moment before he pulled out an empty ice tray. He stared down at it.

Gaara was by the sink, filling in the trays, when Kankuro and Suzume entered.

"Good morning..." Suzume yawned widely, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, a huge bump throbbing on her head.

"Sheesh," Kankuro scowled, rubbing his sore neck. "I'm still amazed that you can trip over nothing like that."

"Gomenasai..."

"Suzume."

"Hai, Gaara-sama?"

"We're out of food."

"And Kankuro drank all the milk," Temari sighed. "The prices have skyrocketed recently. Damn economy needs to improve."

"I'll go out and buy some box bentos," Suzume offered.

"I'll come with," Temari said. "Last time you went to the market alone, they made you pay 12000 yen for a carton of eggs."

Suzume frowned. "They said they came from a rare species of chicken."

"Suzume, the moment someone tells you anything comes from something rare, you can call bullshit right then and there."

The two sisters ventured out into the village. Suzume had her umbrella in her hand and Temari, unfazed by the stares, stuck close. They went into the grocery store and dove into the aisles. Thankfully, the early morning granted them a relatively empty store and only two or three other people were in there besides the employees.

"Hey," Temari called, raising her voice so Suzume could hear from wherever she was, "do we need to stock up on toilet paper?" She considered the sale sign attached to the shelf filled with giant packs of toilet paper.

"Temari-sama, Kankuro-sama told me to limit your purchases of toilet paper," Suzume's voice said. "He said the linen closet couldn't handle another bunch."

This somewhat irked Temari but she ripped her eyes away from the sale sign all the same and went into the next aisle.

By the end of the shopping trip, their cart was filled with food and things they didn't even know they needed.

"Why can't we use this coupon?" Temari demanded of the frightened cashier.

"B-because you already used the other one, ma'am," he stumbled out a reply.

"But this one expires today too," Temari tapped the slip of paper aggressively. "Are you trying to rob us?"

"N-no! Not at all!"

Temari held out a hand and Suzume placed a small bag on it. Temari unzipped it and flipped it upside down so a pile of coupons rained down onto the counter. "Then accept these too."

The cashier let out a cry that sounded like a dying whale.

The noise of a cash register's chime and the sisters emerged back onto the streets with arms full of shopping bags.

"That was a satisfying buy," Temari said happily.

"Temari-sama," Suzume hurried to catch up to her sister, "did we just commit a crime?"

"Perhaps," she answered, grinning toothily.

Once they got back home, the boys joined them in filling up the cupboards, closets, and fridge. After, Kankuro and Gaara wandered away, intending to enjoy their vacation as much as possible. All the trio had to look forward to now was the ceremony for the graduating Institute students then their first year as instructors.

"Oi, Suzume."

"Hai, Temari-sama."

Temari stared at the girl blankly, struggling to find her words. "Suzume... y'see... um..."

Suzume blinked up at her, waiting. She had just been about to wipe down the floors and was on her knees, the bucket of cleaning solution by her side and a rag on her lap.

Temari crouched down to her level. Suzume's large eyes seemed to suck all speech from out of her mouth. Temari groaned and ran a hand through her hair. "Okay, we'll do this. Let's say there's this tadpole, okay? There's this tadpole and he has tadpole friends, and they're wiggling around in the shallows and say, another tadpole comes and begins to call his new friends-I don't know- Tadpole With Legs. Obviously, these tadpoles were the same as new tadpole and didn't have any signs of growing frog legs yet. But new tadpole still continues to call them Tadpoles With Legs. But this was wrong because they were all still tadpoles and well..." Temari paused. "Am I making sense?"

Suzume placed her forehead on Temari's forehead and stared seriously into her eyes. "You seem to have a fever... maybe you should lay down, Temari-sama, I'll go get the medicine."

When Suzume stood up to go, Temari latched onto her wrist. "Temari-sama?"

"Suzume, the heat from my face isn't caused by a fever!" Temari bellowed.

"Then-"

"It's nothing!" Temari blushed a deeper red. "Suzume, let me just say it bluntly: stop adding an honorific to our names! Frankly, it's getting uncomfortable and I don't understand why you're still doing it after all this time!"

Suzume's eyes widened significantly.

"Call Kankuro Kankuro and call me Temari!" her sister continued. "You're not below us in any way and we're not your superiors! You're our little sister!"

It was Suzume's turn to blush. "But-"

"Go on, call me Temari!"

Suzume opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water before she gulped and pressed her lips together. Exhaling, she said softly: "T-Temari..."

Temari nodded. "That sounds much better."

"Temari..." she repeated, testing it on her tongue. "Temari... ne-san?"

The blonde's eyes became little dots and she twirled around on her heel and sped away from the hall.

Temari was leaning against a wall, sorting out her thoughts when Kankuro emerged. He smirked. "Tadpole With Legs, huh?"

She threw him a glare.

"I've never seen you so flustered before."

"Cram it!" she snarled.

Much to Temari's dismay, her reaction to Suzume calling her ne-san caused the little girl to refrain from uttering it altogether, but the kunoichi would never admit that out loud. But it was very amusing to see Gaara's face twist in jealousy when Suzume began to call Kankuro and Temari without the honorific unlike him. And he would never bring himself to ask Suzume personally to stop and the other two weren't kind enough to do it for him. Temari found out that Suzume was the oblivious type that needed someone to directly tell her what they wanted or else she'd never figure it out.

One day, early in the morning, Temari shuffled into the living room to see something out of the corner of her eyes. Gaara was standing outside, staring fervently at the revived tree.

The three of them had tried to solve the secret of the tree ever since it came vibrantly back to life but made no headway.

And just as they were about to head back inside where Suzume was making dinner, Kankuro had made a remark that made the situation even more mysterious. Why hadn't the tree been removed from the Kazekage's prestigious grounds in the first place? What kept the previous Kazekages from uprooting the useless snag?

Temari stared at the back of her brother's head as Gaara kept as still as stone. She's been worried about him. Something told her he was keeping something from them. He's shown more interest in the tree than she or Kankuro did and she'd often see his eyes trailing Hisoka with a harsh suspicion that probably wasn't caused by an accident in his shoes. Even the way he looked at Suzume had changed slightly, like he was waiting for her to spontaneously combust.

Temari opened the newly installed French door that now led out to the backyard and exchanged her slippers for her shoes outside and went to join Gaara. He turned to look at her as she stood side to side with him, her eyes on the branches of the maple.

"You can't deny that it's beautiful." The tree rustled up at the compliment, the early morning breeze whistling by.

"Beauty can be an effective guise," Gaara replied.

Temari's lips creased into a frown and she looked over at him. "What danger can a tree impose?"

"Many," Gaara said, "and all unknown to me. Which is unsettling."

"Perhaps you're thinking too much about it?"

Gaara didn't answer and, for a while, the pair stood in silence.

"Gaara."

He turned his head to look at her. "Yes?"

"You know you can trust us, right?" she said this with a sharp gaze, an unwavering gaze. Gaara had no visible reaction, not that she was expecting any.

They shared a staring contest before Temari cracked a grin and began to laugh. Gaara's blank expression turned into that of confusion as his sister kept guffawing.

"Come on, ototo," she clapped him on the shoulder, "stop acting like a melancholy old man and get back inside."

Gaara's non-existent eyebrows arched down in irritation. "I was not-"

"Don't try to deny it," Temari abruptly began to drag him to the mansion and he stumbled over his feet. "You're an old philosopher trapped in a teenager's body. Try to act like a kid for a change."

"I could say the same for you and Kankuro."

Temari stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide as her jaw slackened. Gaara finally noticed that she wasn't walking anymore and paused in going back inside the building. He looked over at her standing vacantly behind him. "Temari?"

Then, a sad smile spread across his sister's face, "Yeah... yeah, I guess you could."

The next day, Temari woke up and went down the stairs into the kitchen to find her family gathered around the dining room table. A homemade cake sat in front of them with a candle in the middle.

"Happy birthday!" Suzume congratulated, her sparkling eyes and lightened expression replacing what would've been a smile.

Kankuro grinned. "You're an old grandma now, sis."

"Happy coming of age," Gaara said sincerely.

Temari blinked for a second, before smiling jovially. "Thanks."

She'd turned sixteen.

_ _ _

"HELLO? HELLO? CAN. YOU. HEAR. ME?"

Temari flinched and held the phone at bay. Once she was sure it was safe, she brought it back to her ear. "Suzume... you don't have to yell..."

"Oh, sorry."

The Sand village finally began to set up telephone lines, about time too, the other four Great Nations have had them for a year or longer now. They were really behind the times on the subject of technology. Not that they were ready to release these phones to the public yet, only the major industries were getting them installed. Hospitals and shinobi quarters mostly.

This was another reform that was finally executed after the Raid on Konoha and Kankuro wouldn't let anybody forget that he was the reason why. He'd been working on it for months now and Temari couldn't help but be proud, though, his boasting was making it extraordinarily hard for her to congratulate him.

They all had separate projects and a shared one. Temari was attempting to increase trade with the other nations, researching what they could produce to create demand. Gaara was working on creating more efficient defense and finding a way to keep the adobe buildings from eroding away so quickly. Kankuro had been working on modernizing their village in order to keep up with the other shinobi villages. And all three of them were working together to improve the shinobi education system.

Despite all of Temari's complaints about how much Kankuro was bragging, the siblings couldn't help but think that this was a step closer and allowed a little optimism to seep into their minds. Suzume had been ecstatic. She cooked them all a feast to celebrate the occasion. 

Temari smiled faintly as she twirled the telephone's cord around her finger and listened to her sister's voice through the speaker.

"Are you ready for the ceremony tomorrow, Temari?"

"Aa," she answered. "Most of the preparations are sorted out, but we'll still be a little late coming home."

"That's fine, I'll be waiting with Hisoka."

Temari was about to reply when Kankuro bulleted into the room, he stomped up to her. "Is that Suzume on the phone?!"

"Yeah..."

He ripped the receiver out of her hands. "Suzume!"

"H-hai!"

"Run down to my room and see if you can find a blue file!"

"A blue file?" the sound of Suzume's footsteps and a door opening and closing. "Ah, hai. There's one on your desk."

"Can you bring it to the Institute right now?! It's really important and we need it, but everybody's busy with something!"

"Okay, I'll do it," she said, determined.

"Thanks, Suzume. You're a lifesaver."

Suzume carefully put the receiver back down, tucked the file safely under her arm, and grabbed her umbrella. "Hisoka!" she called as she pulled on her shoes at the door. "I'm going out for a bit!"

She stepped outside and almost fell on her face when the door hit her from behind. She stumbled to her feet, spread open the umbrella over her head, and raced down the street. She began panting after a couple of seconds.

Suzume got to the Institute just as the sun began to set and she forced her jelly legs to jog to the door. Her foot caught something and she saw the ground coming closer. Having no instincts whatsoever to catch herself, her face hit the sand hard and she slid a few inches, the grains scratching up her skin.

As she was trying to make sense of what happened, derisive laughter reached her ears.

"That was hilarious!" Suzume felt people surrounding her. "You should've seen the look on your face!"

She used one arm to keep a tight hold on the file and reached for her umbrella with the other but someone else picked it up before she did. She looked up to see the Institute's students around her, one of them twirling her umbrella around and around.

"What are you doing on our territory, rat?" one of the kids with a patterned scarf around her neck said. "Shouldn't you be hiding in the mansion?"

Suzume slowly got to her feet being careful not to look them in the eye. "Please let me pass, I'm in a hurry," she tried to push past them but they roughly shoved her back, causing her to fall on her butt.

"Hm?" someone picked up the folder she had dropped. "What's this?"

Suzume panicked and lunged for the guy but his comrades acted immediately and grabbed each of her arms in a tight hold. "Give that back!"

They were surprised for a fraction of a second when delight split their faces. They'd never incited such a reaction from her before.

"Make me."

A punch to her gut made her gasp in pain and the people holding her arms let her fall to her knees. She hugged her stomach and coughed and wheezed sporadically. It felt worse than ever before. She didn't know if it was because they had gotten stronger from the training or because she'd gotten used to safety. Whatever it was, the fact was that she was still as weak as she had been before.

Somebody grabbed a fistful of her hair and lifted her head up. She was forced to look into a girl's brown, sadistic eyes. "You've gotten cockier lately. Just because you've somehow managed to gain the Kazekage kids' favor and a reward from one of the Council members doesn't mean you're any better."

"You're still that trash on the street that nobody wanted," Suzume's lip trembled as each word was emphasized by a prod to her head. "You. Got. That?"

"Suzume," Temari's voice echoed in her head. "If you ever find yourself in danger and we aren't around, run. Don't think about anything else and just get out of there."

But... Suzume's eyes strayed to the blue file. It's really important!

A shadow loomed over her and she looked up in time to see the scarf boy swing her umbrella. There was a huge snap and Suzume thudded onto the ground. She felt something warm trickle down her head. The halves of her umbrella were dropped in front of her and laughter filled her ears.

"What a weakling."

Suzume pulled herself up and groveled at their feet. "Please. Please give it back."

"Oh... is that how you convinced the Kazekage's children to take you in?" Suzume felt a pressure on her head, the boy was stomping on her head. "Well, guess what?"

She heard the sound of ripping and snapped her head up to see shreds of paper raining down.

"Life isn't that kind."

Something was clogging Suzume's throat and her fists clenched the sand underneath her. Her vision doubled as she gazed down at the pieces of paper in front of her. That had been Kankuro's... The file had been important to Kankuro... So why was she angry like it had been hers?

Suzume sprung to her feet and pounced on the student. He was so caught off guard that he allowed himself to be forced against a wall.

"You call yourself a shinobi!?" Suzume roared as her vision turned red. "You're the rat! You're the one who's trash! I may be weak, but I'll be a better person than you will ever be!"

"Get your hands off me!" Suzume was pried off and she grunted when she was thrown against the wall. "Damn bitch." He was striding up to her but before he could lay another hand on her something furry landed on his head. He cried out in agony as claws ripped at his face and he tried vainly to pull the animal off.

There was shrill twittering and the kids cried out as birds swooped around their heads, clawing at them. They all ran off, trying desperately to escape the animals.

Hisoka looked after them with cold eyes and her ear twitched like she was saying 'good riddance'. She turned and saw her master with her legs drawn up to her chest and her face buried in her knees. Hisoka's eyes softened and she went over to sit beside Suzume as she shivered.

Kankuro ran outside to see his sister crouched in the shadows of a building and hurried over to her. 

"What happened?!" he knelt down in front of her and couldn't miss the way Suzume seized up at his voice. Kankuro sucked in a sharp breath at the amount of blood pouring from her head. "How did you get that wound?!"

"I'm so sorry, Kankuro..." she said in such a small voice. "I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry..."

Kankuro then noticed the shredded pieces of paper scattered around the area.

"I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry..." she continued the mantra as tears ran down her face. "I'm so sorry...! I'm so sorry...! I couldn't do anything! I couldn't do anything!"

Kankuro's eyes were dangerous. His silence was resounding. Once Suzume was in the protection of Temari and Gaara, Kankuro went to work. He located every single one of the brats who tormented his sister, filed a report against them, went to consult their teachers, and, even if he had aimed for them to be forbidden to ever become a shinobi, all they made the culprits do was repeat a year in the Institute. He came back the very same night at three in the morning to see Suzume waiting for him at the backdoor, Gaara, Temari, and Hisoka at her side.

She ran up to him as soon as he came into view and Kankuro could only frown at the sight of the bandage around her head.

"Did you have to do more work?" Suzume asked worriedly, searching his face. "Were the papers that important?"

Kankuro gritted his teeth. Again with the papers. 

Suzume found herself in Kankuro's tight embrace. "You idiot..." Kankuro said. "You completely wonderful kid."

"Kankuro?"

"The papers weren't worth what you went through for them," Kankuro's hands quivered. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Back then, Suzume knew Kankuro was holding the tears in. It wasn't shinobi-like to cry. It wasn't shinobi-like to care. Those were weaknesses.

The next day at the Institute's graduation, the kids who had hurt Suzume never appeared. Suzume watched from Gaara's bedroom window with Hisoka as the powdered fireworks colored the sky and stray balloons floated upwards until they were swallowed up by the blue mass above them.

Hisoka purred as Suzume stroked her back and scratched the back of her ear.

"'You call yourself a shinobi...'" Suzume mumbled under her breath and sighed as she looked blindly down at Hisoka. "As if I know anything about being one."