The shopping bag slipped out of Temari's hand and the groceries spilled out of it. Her hands began to shake as her heart caused havoc in her chest.

Suzume was face down in the middle of the backyard with the heat waves distorting the air around her like vengeful ghosts.

"SUZUME!" Temari found herself by Suzume's side in a single blink and she collapsed onto the blistering sand to pull her sister into her arms. "Oi, Suzume!"

Temari shook her sister's body to no avail. She should've been more attentive; should've been there for her. She raised a hand above her sister's mouth to see if any breaths would touch her skin.

"Come on...!" Temari growled when she could feel nothing. "Don't take her, mother! She can't leave yet!"

Temari frantically placed her ear on Suzume's chest to search for a heartbeat.

It was there.

"T-temari...?" called a croaky voice. "What's the matter?"

Temari snapped her head up to see Suzume peeking out at her from under her eyelids. The brunette slowly blinked at her astonished expression. "Temari?"

"Waa!" Suzume cried out as Temari dropped her unceremoniously back onto the sand.

"I get it," the blonde said insanely as she tottered wobbly over to the back door. "I totally get it. It's because I did something horrific in a past life or something. That's why I have brat siblings that always scare the crap out of me. I put this upon myself. I get it. I get it."

"Temari!" Suzume rushed to her feet, trying to calm her sister down. "I'm sorry! I was—"

The light left her eyes, her head began to spin and her knees buckled from under her. Temari was there in time to catch her before she fell. The blonde sighed as she pulled her sister's arm over her shoulders. "I got you."

Suzume smiled gratefully and apologetically up at her and the sisters got inside the coolness of the house. 

Temari forced Suzume to lay down on the couch and hunted down every fan in the house in order to surround her in mechanical air. After placing an ice pack on Suzume's forehead, the kunoichi fell into the armchair.

"Gonna tell me why you were trying to kill yourself?" Temari said dryly. "Or is this a new hobby you picked up while I wasn't looking?"

Suzume still felt like gravity was lopsided and her eyes still spun like pinwheels during a tornado. She took in deep breaths and didn't attempt to open her eyes to look at Temari for the fear that the simple motion might make her hurl out her intestines.

"It was my training." Suzume's voice was quiet. "Or I at least like to call it that. I'm trying to build up my tolerance for the heat. It's a slow process but I'm improving."

The whirring of the fans and the rustle of Suzume's hair captured Temari's mind. It was peaceful and calm. Her restless thoughts unraveled and disappeared, the muscles on her neck relaxed and she could feel her worries dissipate.

Suzume's breathing evened out and her lips parted as her body sunk into the couch. She'd fallen asleep.

Temari lips stretched into a thin line and she heaved another heavy sigh. She pulled herself to her feet and removed the ice pack.

Now that she was closer, she could more easily see the bruises splattered on Suzume's skin, the blisters on her feet and hands, and the sand caked into her fingernails. Temari's mouth creased into a frown and she turned off some of the fans until only one was left running. With Suzume's luck, even this much might cause her to catch a cold.

"Don't push yourself too hard, kid."

Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara always attempted to check on Suzume during the school days whenever their schedules allowed. Suzume had made them promise to treat her like any other student when they were in the institute and they've been keeping it up for the past few weeks. All three of them were class six teachers so they didn't really have a chance to talk to Suzume anyway since she was in class one.

She told them the little kids treated her fine but the teacher flat out ignored her. Didn't answer any of her questions, interrupted her when she was talking, and didn't pick on her during class even when she was the sole hand raised in a sea of uninterested students.

Suzume was given a modified schedule that was next to no one in the case of hectic. She was in her usual class when they were having lessons, studying, or sparring; but she'd be with the sixth years when they were playing the usual once a week sport where she'd always be the target of misfortune. But then there was the situation with her sleeping hours.

Gaara went with Suzume to compromise with the headmaster of the Institute about her strange sleeping timetable. The man was doubtful at first but who could argue with Gaara.

He agreed to let Suzume off for a week once a month but in return she had to help the janitor clean the school grounds on the days she didn't sleep.

The three shinobi have heard so many new taunts for Suzume ever since the information leaked.

The first day of her work with the janitor when Suzume didn't come back home even after midnight, they scoured the village looking for her.

She'd been caught after her job by the kids and punched until her whole face had swollen up. She'd managed to get to Konata baa-san's place before she fell unconscious.  

Suzume refused to tell them anything that had happened and didn't utter a sound when asked who hurt her. Even when she strongly declined the offer, at least one of them went to pick her up on her work days under the argument that school wasn't in session so it didn't apply to their promise.

Now that Suzume was in school it greatly affected her duties at home. Gaara almost had a heart attack when he caught Suzume teetering on the edge of the staircase after she'd succumbed to sleep while mopping. She'd be so busy in the morning making their breakfasts and bento that she'd neglect her own nutrition by forgetting to eat and make her own lunch. More often than not, Temari would find Suzume asleep at her desk, caught in the middle of writing a sentence on her homework. 

She was quite distraught when the three of them said they could begin to more evenly distribute the chores, but agreed after they said it'd quell their guilt and their worry that they would find her dead because she fell asleep while cooking on the stove. 

Now Suzume was in the infirmary, lying on the bed splattered with bruises and cuts. Damn, the little kids really packed a punch when they wanted to.

Somebody's head popped through the curtains, staring avidly at her. Suzume blinked back owlishly at the bodiless head. It was a girl. She was around her age and her hair was slightly darker than Suzume's that framed deep purple eyes. She had a bandage on her cheek and she grinned toothily at her.

"Hey!"

"Domo..."

"What're you in for?"

"Injuries."

The girl's head fell forward with a clunk. "Well... yeah, obviously."

The girl entered entirely and revealed a long skirt and a white tank top. She went over and Suzume had to hurriedly move her legs over before the stranger threw herself on the bed.

"My name is Shiro," Shiro held out a hand. "Nice to meet you!"

Suzume stared warily at the proffered hand and made no move to accept it. The girl stubbornly kept it out.

"Do you know how to shake hands?" Shiro asked after a while. "It's a way of greeting someone."

"Do you..." Suzume hesitated, "...know who I am?"

"Wow... you didn't look like you were full of yourself."

"That's not what I mean!" she hurriedly corrected. "I mean... do you?"

"You're that Suzume girl," Shiro tilted her head. "What of it?"

"N-nothing..."

Shiro grinned. "Wanna be friends?"

Suzume hesitated a moment more then looked down at the extended hand. She grasped it.

Temari glimpsed Suzume sitting alone on a bench during lunchtime and was just about to go over but a young girl beat her to it. She saw her sister's mouth spread into a shy smile as the girl fell onto the bench and placed an arm around her shoulders affectionately. Temari stood there stupidly, staring at the pair. But her mouth eventually spread into a relieved smile.

"I saw you hanging out with Shiro from class 6-3 today, Suzume," Temari told her, leaning against Suzume's doorframe.

Suzume looked up from her work to nod fondly in answer. "She's my friend."

"I'm happy for you," Temari said then left her sister to her studies.

_ _ _

The next morning, Temari went to check their mailbox. She was rifling through them when her yawn was cut off by the sight of a letter addressed to Gaara. Gaara never got mail. Her eyes narrowed at the realization there wasn't a return address either.

She sliced open the envelope and pulled out the paper within, snapping it open so her eyes could land on what she feared.

Angry, abrasive words were inked onto the parchment. Invective and foul language described the absolute hatred the sender had for Gaara, wishing him the worst deaths and calling him the filthiest names.

The paper was crushed by Temari's hand and she gritted her teeth until they whined from the strain.

"Temari?"

The kunoichi whirled around and stuffed the paper deep into her pocket. Gaara's eyes lingered on it then traveled back to her face.

"Gaara," Temari searched desperately for something to say. "Uh, good morning."

"Good morning," he replied.

"I got the newspaper for you," she tossed it to him and he caught it without a single thought. "I glanced over it. A lot of things have been happening."

"Is that so?" Gaara spared one more glance at the hand in her pocket. "We'd better be getting inside."

Temari nodded in agreement a bit too eagerly. "Yeah."

For the next few days, Temari went about religiously checking the mail in both Gaara's teacher box at the Institute along with their home mailbox and filtering through the mail and gathering the letters she deemed inappropriate to even grace her brother's eyes.

When one day, Temari and Kankuro were walking side by side through the Institute's hallways.

"Temari," Kankuro bent down to pick something up, "you dropped something, jan."

Temari froze in her tracks, processing his words, and whirled around to see him staring hard at the letter. "People sure have a lot of time on their hands."

Temari didn't know how to respond to this less than anticipated reaction and waited for Kankuro to continue talking as he walked over to her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few crumpled, unopened letters. "Great minds think alike."

Temari's mouth spread into a chilling smile. She's found an ally.  "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Kankuro's lips mirrored hers and an almost mad light twinkled in his eyes. "It might cause more trouble for Gaara though."

"He can handle it," Temari smoothed out the letters as much as she could. "If it'll shut these fuckers up, it'll be worth it."

So, for the next couple of weeks the oldest siblings stealthily committed crime after crime. Although, they were extraordinarily petty crimes.

They intercepted mail from Gaara's teacher box before it got to their brother and even went as far as sneaking into the post office after night fall to steal the ones headed to their house. The pair compared penmanship of as many people as possible and if they managed to trace them back to the letter, they invited themselves into the said person's personal information at the village's Information Bureau.

Then, they'd write a letter.

The senders were stunned to find the letter they had written to Gaara sitting on their desk at work or in their mail box along with an enclosed note. They would find themselves further mystified by the contents of the note:

You are my sunshine to my rainy day.

Okay.

I would like to share this wonderful recipe for coffeecake that I've been enjoying. Please try it out whenever you please.

I hope you have a fabulous lifetime ahead of you filled with daisies and unicorns.

I very much like your face.

Gaara found it odd when coworkers and random people on the streets began to give him, not so much looks of fear, but looks that would akin to being the neighborhood enigma.

Suzume was also confused as to why Temari and Kankuro would walk around with self-satisfied and delighted expressions whenever this would happen. And even Gaara couldn't miss the failed attempts at hiding their sniggers under their breath.

As time went on, the amount of hate mail the two seized became less and less until not a single one could be found. Temari and Kankuro shared a giddy high five and shit eating grins when they arrived on the doorstep of their house at two in the morning after an unfruitful trip to the post office.

Shadows that cast over them from above stopped them in their tracks and they lifted their eyes to see their youngest staring down at them. Oh, that's right. Suzume's on her not sleeping schedule.

Gaara carried Suzume as he jumped down back to the ground. He placed her back on her feet before placing his attention on the other two. He held out a hand and Suzume placed a stack of papers on it.

He recited the words on the parchment, "'I often find sand where sand should never be. Do you perhaps have a remedy for it?'"

Temari and Kankuro couldn't breathe under the pressure of keeping their laughter in as Gaara flipped through to find another interesting phrase.

"'No, I do not make my dark circles with my sister's makeup. I use my own makeup, thank you very much.'"

Even Suzume was having a hard time from bursting into laughter.

"'Datebayo.'"

Temari and Kankuro were completely defeated and they had to support each other while they laughed until tears spilled down their faces.

Gaara lowered the stack of letters and watched them lose their breath to their laughter. "Care to explain yourselves?"

The family ducked into their home and Temari and Kankuro recounted their adventures as illegal couriers. Suzume was quite enthralled throughout their little anecdotes and by the time they finished the sun was already rising on the horizon.

"Are you mad?" Temari asked Gaara now.

Gaara's eyes turned wistful as he stared at the letters strewn across the coffee table. "I guess it's better to be looked at differently. Everybody's still wary of me, if not in a dissimilar way. But," Gaara reached over and pulled out a certain letter, "why do I sound like a pretentious snob in most of these?"

"It suits you, jan," Kankuro smirked. "The character was made for you."

"Maybe in an alternate universe," Gaara chucked the letter at him.

"How did you get these back anyhow?" Temari accepted a cup of tea from Suzume.

"Some were given to me and some stolen away." Gaara was given a cup of tea. "Suzume caught me robbing a fellow teacher."

Kankuro got his tea and Suzume went to remove the clutter on the coffee table. "It was ingenious, your responses. Took the saying "kill them with kindness" to a whole other level."

"Right?! Right?!" Kankuro was spurred on by the compliment. "It was pretty great, right?! Ha-ha-ha!"

"Kami, it's only five o'clock in the morning and you still manage to be obnoxiously loud," Temari yawned. "I'm hitting the hay. Good thing today's a day off."

"Yeah," Kankuro rubbed his eyes. "I'd like some sleep too. We'll see you insomniacs later."

As the two of them were leaving they heard Suzume ask Gaara, "What's a datebayo?"

_ _ _

Gaara was back in his room and he sat down at his desk after filing away the letters Temari and Kankuro had written. He opened his closet and pulled out a box on the top shelf. When he opened it, it was filled to the brim with unopened envelopes addressed to Temari and Kankuro.

He gazed down at them for a second before he closed it and hid the box away again. "They didn't even notice."