Kankuro woke up one day, to a cat using his face as a chair. Hisoka's tail flicked across his face and he couldn't help but get the feeling the feline was enjoying his annoyance.

He cleared his throat. "Hisoka, I would appreciate it if you removed your posterior from my face, jan."

The cat relented and he pulled himself up and out of his bed. The cat stuck close to his heels as he went into the hallway and headed toward the upstairs restroom. After washing up, he bumped into Gaara in the corridor, walking while flipping through a couple of papers.

"Good morning, Kankuro," his brother greeted.

"Mornin'," Kankuro replied, yawning widely.

"Oh." The pair turned to see Temari approaching them. "Everybody's here."

Suzume was currently out of commission because of her sleeping schedule. She was sound asleep and they expected her to wake up soon, the week was almost over.

"You guys ready for the first day of school?" Kankuro asked as the three of them headed down the hall.

"The dreaded September," Temari scowled. "I can't believe I'm going back to that prison."

"It's only for another year," Gaara said.

A resounding thud. The trio looked at each other in confusion before Temari went over and opened the door that led to Suzume's room.

The door opened to reveal Suzume on the floor cradling a huge, swollen bump on her head. The siblings all sweatdropped.

"Good morning, Suzume," they said.

Suzume sat up, her face as emotionless as ever. "Good morning."

They were eating breakfast, waiting for Suzume to finish washing up, when she stumbled into the dining room, looking paler than normal and a frantic spark in her eyes.

"Th-there's... there's a..." wheeze. "There's a *yokai in the house!"

"A yokai?" Kankuro kept chewing on his toast.

"He had this really scary mask on!" Suzume said shrilly. "And I didn't even notice he was behind me until he spoke!"

"A scary mask?" Temari contemplated on this. She and Gaara met eyes. "Could it be..."

"Pardon the intrusion."

Suzume jumped a mile and rushed over to hide behind Kankuro. The man that had materialized behind her wasn't perturbed by this reaction and his attention seemed to be on the shinobi.

"You've been summoned." That was all he said and vanished a second later.

The shinobi sprang into action, chugging down their milk and gulfing down whatever was left on their plates.

Suzume watched in silence as they rushed to their rooms and changed into their battle clothes. They haven't worn those since the day they met Suzume. Gathering in the hallway that led to the shinobi headquarters, they nodded to each other and then faced their little sister.

"Suzume," Kankuro placed his hands on her shoulders. "We're going to be gone for a while."

Suzume's mouth creased into a frown. "But you're coming back."

"But we're coming back," he echoed reassuringly. "Temari already contacted Baki, so he'll be coming by once in a while to check in on you. Don't let anyone in, we've turned on the extra protective seals around the house."

Suzume nodded.

"Hey," Kankuro grinned crookedly, "when we get back, how about you try smiling for a change?"

Suzume's eyebrows arched down in deliberation and then she forced her mouth into a sort of grimace.

Temari and Kankuro laughed and Gaara smiled faintly.

"Keep practicing, kid," Temari began to walk down the hall.

Gaara waved goodbye before joining the blonde.

Kankuro ruffled up her hair and Suzume watched as her siblings disappeared around a corner.

_ _ _

Kankuro never liked receiving missions unlike being on the mission itself. Before their father died, he was the one who assigned them whatever task he had in mind. Those had been a different sort of tension. Kankuro and Temari would stand beside Gaara as he glared at their father or else glared down at the floor. Sometimes, he didn't even bother showing up and just heard what the purpose of the mission was from Baki or them. His absences hadn't made the atmosphere any better.

But now that their father was dead, they were standing in front of three old geezers, members of the Council, and a couple of shinobi while they listened to their snide remarks and passing insults. Their father had had his faults, but at least he'd been blunt and straight to the point and had the decency to limit their torture for no more than five minutes.

Kankuro mentally groaned after he recognized the men. It's the senile dream team.

Baki was present, which was always a comfort, but for some reason Kankuro had the feeling he was brooding over something.

"Well, well," the leader of the Koyo clan jeered. "Didn't you take your precious time getting here, children?"

They kept silent, that's the best way to act in front of them.

"Konoha has sent us an urgent message," the Saboten leader said, fanning himself. "The last of the Uchiha has been abducted by Orochimaru."

Kankuro snapped his head up at these words. "What?" he said sharply.

"Yes," Saboten nodded. "And they specifically requested you three."

"Then we should go," Temari was already heading to the door.

"Wait just a moment, little girl," the Nousa leader halted her in her tracks. "We have a few worries to sort out before we decide to let you go."

Who's taking their precious time now? Kankuro felt his siblings unite with him in aggravation.

"Gaara," Nousa began, "we were all surprised when you came up to the Council and announce that you'll be the one responsible for changing the village for the better. You could imagine our astonishment and you and your kin seem to be keeping your promise." He spared a glance at Kankuro. "However..."

His mouth spread into a sneer, "...aren't you losing your touch?"

Under his shock, Kankuro felt his brother stiffen slightly.

In all the years being acquainted with these old men, despite all of their passive aggressive offences, they've never insulted Gaara's strength.

"The defeat in Konoha by an insignificant shinobi, not to mention the recent incident where this very mansion was occupied by terrorists. You let a man die because of your incompetence."

"Gaara was the one that broke the barrier!" Kankuro thundered. "He's the one that got through!"

"Yes, but that was not why the hostages were saved was it," Saboten spoke up. "You had to get out yourself."

"It was our sister that rescued us," Kankuro growled.

"Ah, yes," Saboten crinkled up his nose. "That Suzena girl."

"Her name is Suzume," he hissed. "And if you had the common sense to pull your head out of your ass for just a moment—"

"Don't sass me, young man—"

"The fact is," Gaara's commanding voice successfully interrupted, "you don't trust me with such a delicate matter such as this."

"Naturally," Koyo sniffed, brushing off the withering glare the other two were giving him. "With our relationship with Konoha as it is, a failure on this mission would greatly impact the village."

"And what is our mission," Gaara asked curtly.

The old man's forehead turned red and he cleared his throat obnoxiously as Temari and Kankuro smirked.

"You're to aid the team that the Hokage has sent to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke and bring them back to the Leaf alive."

"Does it mention anything about participating in the retrieval?"

"No."

"Where are they heading right now?"

"The forest on the border."

"As of this moment, if you send for another team, you'll fail the mission," Gaara said, causing the men to turn beet red and flare their nostrils. "But if you send us, we have a higher chance of making it on time."

Gaara let them do the calculations on their own and after no more than thirty seconds, they surrendered.

"Fine," Nousa hissed through his teeth.

The Sand Siblings turned their back on them and vanished in a flurry of sand.

_ _ _

The entire trip took half a day. The trees were a blur of green as they hurried to their targets, having already discussed battle strategy and organization. The lives of the Konoha genin were priority. They predicted that the jonins or medics would be following after the young team as soon as possible and deduced the entire mission would be finalized once the sun set.

The three of them split up to head to where they were needed. Kankuro went to assist the Inuzuka boy and Temari the Nara chunin. Gaara arrived to aid Lee.

He wasn't surprised to see the Konoha ninja thrown into action. Although, a nagging guilt and anxiety over the boy he mortally injured to the point that he wouldn't even be able to stand let alone be a shinobi again had haunted the back of Gaara's mind for the past few months. Even then, he remembered with painful clarity the moment he sealed the ninja's fate and took away his spirit in a squeeze of his hand.

Gaara was relieved and grateful that the ninja was back on his feet.

Now, as he observed the enemy, he couldn't ignore that familiar look in the man's eyes. He's seen it in the mirror. He's seen it in Uchiha Sasuke. He's seen it in a little girl.

Naruto was going after Sasuke and if Gaara was being reasonable, he wasn't aware of any scenario that could transpire to result in a peaceful ending. No matter how stubborn and hard headed Uzumaki Naruto was, Sasuke was lost.

All he could do, was defeat the foe in front of him and make it so that he wouldn't be able to interfere.

Gaara felt his chakra diminish as the strain of the high leveled jutsus drained him. Orochimaru's henchman kept slipping out of his grip like a slippery bar of soap and he couldn't help but let a drop of impatience leak into his mind. Temari and Kankuro should've been done by now.

He would've died had it not been for the enemy's illness. He was staring death in the face when the bone man stiffened, frozen forever with that expression of anguish.

The forest of bones stood cold and lifeless in a bed of coarse sand. The wind howled through, echoing off the white skeletons to create moans and sobs. When Gaara looked up at the man, stuck in mid swing, he thought he looked just like the graveyard he made for himself: cold, desolate, leaden.

Alone.

Where do I belong? The question that was painted clearly in each of their eyes. He'd found his way, two have lost theirs. What would become of the other?

He arrived at the Hidden Leaf supporting Lee. They were stopped by a team of medics and they hurriedly rushed Lee away, fussing over his injuries. When asked about his condition, Gaara just brushed off their concerns. Shukaku's chakra was healing his injuries and replenishing his energy every passing second. Instead, he asked for the statuses of his siblings and the Konoha shinobi. Akimichi Choji and Hyuga Neji were in critical condition but the others were fine. Naruto and Sasuke were yet to return.

"But never mind that," one of the male medics said sternly. "You should hurry over to the hospital. No matter what you say, we'll be looking you over."

Gaara opened his mouth to argue again but he was at present being pushed forward by the medic. "Go on, kid. We can't have you dying on us."

Gaara blinked. He'd never been treated like this before by a complete stranger. There was no wariness, only strict concern. When he had been to Konoha before, everyone avoided him like the plague.

"Hey, Gaara." Upon getting shoved into a hospital room, Gaara's eyes landed on his brother being prodded and pulled every which way by the medical staff with a grimace on his face.

Hearing Kankuro's greeting, the nurses and doctors' heads all whipped around and they immediately migrated over to the redhead, giving him the same treatment as Kankuro had undergone with much exclamations and muttered words about how battered he was. After they were wrapped from head to toe in bandages, Kankuro and Gaara were left alone. When Gaara confided in Kankuro about his confusion about their behavior around him, his brother burst out laughing.

"Maybe it's because you're not oozing bloodlust anymore, jan." Kankuro had a twinkle in his eyes. "You're not glaring at everything that moves either."

"I did that?" Gaara was positively flabbergasted.

"Constantly," Kankuro teased honestly.

Gaara sat in silent contemplation while Kankuro went over to his puppets that were resting on the wall.

"And Temari?" the puppeteer asked.

"Keeping the Nara chunin company while they wait for news on the surgeries and Uzumaki Naruto's arrival."

Kankuro turned with a grave face. "Only Uzumaki Naruto?"

Gaara nodded to which Kankuro heaved an exhale and then the room was silent again.

Fortunately, the operations on Hyuga and Akimichi were successful and they were out of the shadow of death and Uzumaki Naruto was returned and resting inside a ward. Temari joined her brothers outside of the hospital.

"Wait!" Just as they were about to leave, Shikamaru ran out of the building to stop them. Once he got to their side he looked at them in worry. "Shouldn't you stay for a day or two? Take your time to rest up."

"There's no need," Gaara answered shortly.

"Yeah," Temari said. "We have someone waiting for us at home too."

Shikamaru's eyebrows furrowed. "It's a three day's journey to the Sand. I don't know about Gaara but you two need rest. Whoever you're talking about can wait."

When all three of them were about to debate, Shikamaru cut them off. "This is part of your mission," he said with an infuriating smirk. "If you leave now, we'll tell your superiors you failed."

Kankuro clicked his tongue in irritation and Temari and Gaara closed their eyes for a moment.

"Fine," Temari scowled. "Where are we supposed to rest?"

"My family's estate," Shikamaru lazily pointed down the street.

"Oh, great. We have a babysitter," Kankuro glowered as the trio followed after Shikamaru.

Despite their complaints, once they got settled into their room Kankuro and Temari moaned a sound of relief once they washed and slipped into their comforters.

Gaara sat against the wall, wide awake.

The night passed and the next day, they were saying goodbye to Shikamaru at the Konoha gates.

"See you... Be careful going home," Shikamaru said, and they could tell he wanted to say something more. Perhaps, thank them for coming to save him and his friends, to show gratitude and how much it meant to him that they came.

"Yeah," Kankuro said plainly, although he offered a shaky smile.

Then the siblings began to walk side by side down the road. Temari looked over her shoulder with a smirk. "If anything happens again, we'll help out. Is that okay, crybaby?"

Shikamaru smiled crookedly and a cordiality was apparent in his eyes. "You talk too much. Because of that women are..."

His sentence trailed off and Temari gave him a toothy grin before all three of them vanished and they took to the trees.

_ _ _

The team reported in to the Counsel and delivered the scroll the Hokage had given them to pass on. Each word made Saboten's face grow more and more like a tomato. They were dismissed without a single word of praise and the family exited the mansion to go around to the back.

And there, sitting on the footstep of the back door with a blue cat purring on her lap and Konata baa-san by her side, playing cat's cradle with her, was Suzume.

Their soft, calculated footsteps became loud as their shinobi instincts were pushed aside and the sound attracted Suzume's attention. Her entire expression lit up at the sight of them and she pushed off her feet to run to them. When she was only a few feet in front of Gaara, her foot slipped on the sand at her feet and instead of a hug, the four of them landed on the ground in a disgruntled heap.

The cloud of sand cleared away and revealed the family. Kankuro's hood had fallen to the floor and one of Temari's ponytails was slipping off. Suzume's face was buried in Gaara's stomach. She dizzily lifted up her head, shaking the spots away from her vision. They began to laugh and after Suzume got her bearings, spread her mouth into her first true and beautiful smile.

They were pulled into the house by an excited Suzume, being told to wash up and change before they got to eat. Temari walked up to Konata baa-chan and asked about her presence and the grandma smiled kindly and patted a wrinkly hand on Temari's cheek.

"You didn't think I would leave Suzume alone in this huge house, did you?" she chuckled. "Besides, she's a sweetheart."

Once they got downstairs, out of their battle wear and into their house clothes, Hisoka began mewling up at Gaara, asking to be picked up. The smells of delicious food pulled them into the dining room to see the table stacked with dishes upon dishes.

It was louder than it usually was with Kankuro excitedly recounting his battle for Suzume and Temari yelling at him that they were eating when he described the particularly nasty part where he stabbed the trapped enemy inside his puppet. Gaara was quietly stuffing his face until he looked like a chipmunk and Konata, who had joined them, smiled warmly around and enjoying the ruckus.

Suzume fell asleep on Temari's shoulder when they moved into the living room (they had already escorted Konata baa-chan home). Kankuro carried her to her room and gently placed her in her bed. Hisoka was in her arms, hugged tightly to the girl's chest, but the cat didn't seem to mind. Then, the siblings went to go sleep, or in Gaara's case, do a bit of paperwork and thinking.

He pulled open a drawer and, lingering on the envelope that held the photo, reached into it and pulled out a file. He placed it on his desk and stared down at it.

                                                  TRANSFER INTO THE REGULAR TROOPS FORM

Gaara closed his eyes and returned the paper back into the drawer.

. . .

A series of crashes and echoing bangs and Gaara rushed into the kitchen to see Suzume buried in a pile of pots and pans. She sat up with a pot over her head. Gaara walked over, crouched down, and pulled the pot off.

"Good morning, Gaara-sama," she greeted.

"I've never seen a stranger way to wish someone a good morning." Gaara began to help her clean up.

Once they finished placing all the cooking utensils back in their places, Suzume tilted her head to side, looking up at Gaara. "Are you okay, Gaara-sama?"

He blinked at the question. She pointed at his face. "You look sad."

He did? Gaara gazed at his distorted reflection in the toaster. He looked the same as always.

Gaara was shocked to feel Suzume slip her hands in both of his and to turn around to meet eyes with her blazing ones. "It's never good to keep your feelings inside, Gaara-sama. It's what Temari told me."

Gaara's lips creased into a frown as Suzume cocked her head to the side again.

"Is there something you want?" Suzume asked seriously.

Something he wants? Gaara's mind went back to the registration form in his desk drawer.

"Maybe..." he said hesitantly.

Suzume's eyes sparkled, nodding encouragingly for Gaara to continue. Her arms began to swing, making their interlocked hands rock back and forth.

"Yeah... there is..."

A smile split Suzume's face. She's been doing that a lot lately. "Then I think you should tell Kankuro and Temari. They'll be supportive."

Gaara nodded and the rocking of their hands ceased and Suzume's hands left his. She returned to making breakfast.

_

Kankuro was surprised when Gaara told him he wanted to speak to him privately, but he agreed. With permission, they went beyond the borders of the village and into the desert. They stood on a rocky cliff and the sun was before them as it sunk into the horizon. Kankuro stared worriedly at Gaara's back as his brother watched the sunset.

"I've decided," Gaara began, "to join the regular troops."

This shocked Kankuro into silence, his mind trying to make sense of the words Gaara had spoken. Once he found his voice, he responded. "I don't want to have to say this, but..." Kankuro squeezed his eyes shut before opening them. "...the people only think of you as a 'frightening weapon.'"

"To separate from us," From the ones who can now understand and support you, "and to just go into the regular squad outta the blue like that... it'll be hard, man."

"The superiors don't think very much of you anyway," Kankuro continued. "When it comes to you, the majority of the village is embraced with fear."

There was a silence in which Kankuro waited with bated breath for his brother's answer. Kankuro was only concerned. Maybe the situation in the Leaf confused Gaara. Konoha shinobi were... different. They didn't grow up with the fear of the jinchuuriki, they didn't live with the belief that Gaara was a complete monster. No matter how wrong that belief had been, it will still be difficult to receive their acceptance.

When the quiet stretched, Kankuro opened his mouth to plead his case even more when Gaara finally spoke.

"I know." The way he said those words were heavy, weighed with regret and fatigue. "I know, but..." that one word seemed to feed more courage into Gaara's voice. "By just waiting, I get attacked by an even greater anguish."

Kankuro's lips parted as he listened intently.

"All one can do is create his own path through hard work to escape this path of loneliness. If I do that, someday..." Gaara looked up at the sunset, its warm hues that colored the sky reflected off his eyes. "Someday, I can be like him."

Kankuro knew full well who he was speaking of. Uzumaki Naruto.

"That's why I, as one of the Sand's shinobi, will aim to be Kazekage. To bond with and live for this village."

"Gaara..." Kankuro didn't laugh. He didn't refute his brother's words. The sincerity in Gaara's voice and the relationship and understanding between them would make laughter senseless.

"'Through hard work, I want to be accepted by everyone...'" The sun's dyes made the desert appear like the ocean, the orange waves flowing across the canvas. "That's what I thought when I looked at Uzumaki Naruto."

Gaara took a few steps forward, as if being pulled along toward the sun.

"Up until now, bonds with others have been nothing but an annoyance to the point I would want to kill. But seeing him fight so hard made me wonder what a bond really is. I think I understand a little now."

Kankuro stared in wonder at his brother. Everything that was coming out of his mouth, he wouldn't have believed it a few months ago.

"Suffering, sadness, hate, and even happiness... to be able to share it with another person..."

Kankuro's mouth spread into a proud smile.

"Uzumaki Naruto... when I fought him, I feel that is what he taught me," Gaara continued. "He experienced the same type of suffering as I and he taught me that you can change how you live your life. Someday, I want my existence to be necessary to others not as a weapon to be feared..."

Gaara finally turned around and faced Kankuro with a smile. "But as the Sand's Kazekage."

They stood looking into each other's eyes, a sort of understanding that wouldn't have been possible a couple of months prior passing through them without words. Kankuro smiled a bright closed eyed grin and closed the gap between them. He threw an arm around his brother's shoulders, making Gaara stumble.

"Then you just go for it, man!" Kankuro cheered. "We're right behind you!"

__________________________________________
*yokai-ghost, phantom, strange apparition) are a class of supernatural monsters and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "bewitching; attractive; calamity" and "apparition; mystery; suspicious".