Temari was riffling through papers and papers, digging through the pile of folders on her desk and running a hand through her hair with every groan that slipped through her lips.

She still didn't know what could make an innovative good in their trade. Their weapons weren't all that exceptional and forget about any type of agriculture.

Suzume gave her a note from a civilian kid the other day that suggested the advertisement of cactus juice. It was complete with a slogan and everything.

Cactus Juice! It'll quench ya! Nothing's quenchier! It's the quenchiest!

Yeah, no.

What was she doing?

Temari abruptly stopped her movements like a puppet who lost its strings. She slowly lowered the papers in her hands onto the desk and let out one more groan before her head joined the papers.

She was losing herself in the work she invested in, putting her brain and body into overdrive and autopilot until time became nothing more than an afterthought.

"This isn't going anywhere," she muttered to the quiet in the room.

It was at a time like this Temari finally acknowledged the ache in her bones, the strain in her muscles and the pleas of her brain. She closed her eyes until everything fell away and she could feel the hands caressing her hair, massaging her scalp, until her nose filled with the lost smell of Desert Willow and the sound of soft humming floated to her ears.

A knock on her door chased away the image and Temari shifted her head to the side to see Suzume coming into her room.

"Gaara-sama went on a mission," Suzume informed her while setting a warm cup of Honey-lemon tea in front of her face.

"A mission?" Temari's eyebrows knitted in confusion. Then wasn't she and Kankuro supposed to be with him? Oh. Temari sat up straight, staring at the cup of tea. The regular troops...

"Temari ne-san," Suzume said as the older girl lifted the cup to her lips. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Shouldn't you?"

"I'm on my sleeping cycle."

Somewhere in the hazes of Temari's brain registered the blatant lie her sister just slipped out, but Temari was too tired to care.

"Did something happen with you and Gaara-sama?"

(Did it? Or have we always had that 'something' happening?)

"No," Temari said easily. "It's nothing."

"Okay."

Temari didn't know when Suzume left the room, she just knew that when she looked up, she wasn't there anymore.

She knew it wasn't Suzume's fault. It wasn't at all. But she couldn't help but blame her. Temari even found herself hoping Suzume was actually a spy. That way Gaara could learn she and Kankuro were on his side. She's had enough of losing family.

In a spurt of unexpected energy, Temari stood from her seat and rushed out of her room.

What the hell are you thinking?! She reproached herself. So it's okay to sacrifice Suzume to gain a brother? Is that all your care for Suzume amounts to?

Her little sister was outside with the post as a companion. Sweat was glistening off of her from the light provided by the moon and her chest was heaving in a way that couldn't be safe.

As Temari watched, Suzume threw a sad punch at the wooden post and her fist stayed on the surface until it slid off and her arm rested at her side. She closed the gap between her and the post and rested her forehead on it, her eyebrows gathered together and her bottom lip quivered, until tears collected at the edge of the girl's eyes.

Temari opened her mouth to say something then found she didn't know what to say. What was she supposed to say?

Give up and come inside! or Just keep trying! were completely empty and preposterous.

She closed her mouth as Suzume wiped away her tears and returned to her meaningless effort.

Suzume is family.

_

Where was that book?

Temari scanned the living room, waded through Kankuro's chaotic room and skimmed through Gaara's organized bookshelf to end up in the first floor corridor with empty hands. She crossed her arms and considered the idea she might have left it at the Institute.

She walked down the hall and knocked on Suzume's door. "Suzume," she let herself in, "have you seen—"

Suzume was fast asleep in her chair, hugging a pillow close to her chest and her head lolling to the side. Temari went over and picked her up to lay her down in bed. After pulling the covers over Suzume, she turned back to turn off the desk lamp when she saw it.

Her book was on the table open three quarters of the way and bookmarks were sticking every which way. She picked it up and flipped through the pages, her eyes getting wider and wider as she went. There were notes in the margins talking about the theory the page was describing, solving some questions even she wasn't able to solve.

The creak of the bed from Suzume's restless sleep made Temari look around at her. She closed the book slowly and skimmed a finger down the spine. "This is a Jonin level text..."

Tucking the book under her arm, she started to go through Suzume's notes, her books, her files. According to the dates marking the corner of the page, Suzume finished the entirety of the Chunin class material two months ago.

Another rustle of the bed and Temari turned the light off and exited the room silently.

_ _ _

"Thank you for having me on your team! I'll try my best!" Suzume said as she bowed down to the group of kids.

After throwing her scornful looks, they turned to each other. "We're winning this time."

Temari was spectating the proceedings when a coworker came up to her. She tried to scooch away but he stuck to her like Velcro.

"I guess everybody has their uses," he said. "Even your runt of a sister."

"Are you picking a fight?" Temari said in a leveled but hazardous tone, refusing to look over at him.

"I don't mean offense." He laughed in a sickly sweet way. "But it's all good and well if you advocate teamwork, putting it into practice is another thing."

The player at bat kept aiming the hit toward Suzume, getting easy runs.

"Using Suzume-chan as a way to encourage the students has worked beautifully," the scumbag smiled when the students on Suzume's team moved over to cover her area of the field. "Look at how well they adapt."

The sound of metal hitting leather hurled the baseball into the air to never be seen again.

"And at the prospect of having her on their team makes them work harder. Like I said, even Suzume-chan has her uses."

Temari watched Suzume running around on the field. She ran after each ball like it was the last inning of the game. At one point, she was about to catch a fly ball when her teammate pushed her to the side to catch it himself.

"That isn't teamwork."

"Pardon?"

Temari's cold eyes finally landed on the asshat and the words she said promised an excruciatingly painful death if he spoke one more word to her. "Teamwork at the cost of someone else isn't teamwork."

. . .

The three of them decided Suzume was safe while she was at school and at home, but they noticed she left the house more often these days. Her part time jobs came and went; they knew about it, she knew they knew about it, but she never brought it up and it wasn't in any way harming her so they left it be. But they weren't sure if she ever went somewhere else that might not be so safe, especially since they knew about the middle aged men and women tacked onto her everywhere she goes.

If Gaara was protective of Suzume before, it was nothing compared to how he was after the incident. Though, like Suzume always was, she was pretty oblivious to his levelling up in what could be considered a sister complex as Kankuro and Temari often exaggerated. It didn't help when they went over every other possibility other than her being an infiltrator or assassin, such as: the stalker shinobi were looking for an opening to kidnap Suzume to threaten them or she could be part of an experiment and they're watching closely to see if they need to take her back to the lab. This was just a crack theory but since Gaara was born out of these same experiments, it hit him more close to home than the other two—also a reason why he won't stop worrying every second of the fucking day.

He just about exploded when Suzume vanished within the school. Luckily, someone told them Suzume was escorted to meet the Honored Siblings (under stressful conditions including but not limited to: heart palpitations, immense sweat secretions, wobbly knees, etc. caused by three infamous shinobi including the jinchuuriki with a murder reputation cornering him at a dead end).

Temari thought it was good that he was taking a break by going on a life endangering mission outside the village. It'll help relax him.

It was Temari's job to tail Suzume today and what she saw wasn't all that surprising.

Suzume went straight to the archives to return some scrolls and books then borrowed more to replace them. Her bulking bag filled with animal feed couldn't handle the extra occupants and Suzume came ready with a tote bag.

As she walked, animals came to her, almost like they were seeking her out. She spent more than an hour feeding the strays and giving them a refreshing drink of water before she went to what appeared to be her next stop.

Temari followed her into the gym and saw her ducking into a booth where people can watch the practice and training happening on the ground floor. Temari slipped in after and Suzume was so immersed in observing and writing down notes the kunoichi didn't even need to try getting in undetected.

Suzume became lost in her studies and Temari almost thought she would have to break her mission to remind her sister the sun was going down soon when Suzume literally jumped out of her trance, checked the watch on her wrist, pulled on her backpack and shouldered her tote bag to trip out of the observatory.

Temari only revealed herself when Suzume came out of the supermarket hefting a huge load of groceries on top of her already animal food and book laden self.

Suzume was surprised to feel someone taking the groceries out of her hands and only relaxed when she saw that it was Temari and not someone trying to steal her food.

"Hey, kid," Temari greeted.

"Temari ne-san," Suzume rolled her tender shoulder. "Thank you."

"Anytime."

They fell into step and went back home in comfortable silence. Temari and Suzume were putting away the groceries when Temari spoke.

"I'm training you starting tomorrow."

Suzume's head whipped around to look at her with impossibly wide eyes and a slack jaw like she didn't believe what she heard. A smile spread onto her face and excitement bubbled around her. "Okay."

. . .

"After a bit of deliberation," Temari was saying, "I've found the perfect form of technique for you."

They were standing in the training room where the bamboo flooring underneath their feet created ridges on their skin and the high ceilings trapped the stuffy, hot air from outside. Suzume had to dab the sweat on her brow every few minutes.

"Defensive fighting," her sister announced, shoving a helmet onto Suzume's head and securing it carefully.

Suzume lifted her arms so Temari could slip a chest and torso guard onto her.

"Your opponent will make a move and you have to find a way to deflect it then immobilize them," Temari explained, handing Suzume arm and leg armor. "Your priority is making an opening for you to get away. Don't even think about defeating them. Retreating is a form of victory in and of itself."

"It is?" Suzume cocked her head to the side in question.

"In this situation, sure," Temari said. "In this training I'll move slowly and increase my speed each time we practice so you can get the hang of it."

The brunette nodded once in answer and the girls shifted into their fighting positions. Temari began to move her fist slowly toward Suzume's face.

"What would you do to either dodge, block, or deflect this?" Temari asked as Suzume's lips thinned as she thought.

"If it's the first move shouldn't I assume it's a feint?"

"Depends. Do you think your opponent will think they need to feint?"

"No," Suzume replied immediately.

The shinobi nodded in approval. "Everyone thinks you're weak, which you are," Temari's fist was getting closer. "We can use that to our advantage. So, what would you do?"

"Deflect it and move to the side."

"Okay, try it out."

Suzume pushed as hard as she can on the outside of Temari's right wrist and as soon as she could reach it, secured the motion by pushing against the back of her shoulder. Temari swiftly shifted her weight onto her right foot and swung with her left. She stopped the back kick a centimeter away from Suzume's nose and she heard Suzume suck in a little breath of surprise.

"It's a start," she told her, relaxing into a standing position. "Let's use that quick mind of yours to your benefit. Learn to make fast and smart decisions. Luckily, for now, you're only sparring with the first years. After sparring with me, they'll be gnats in comparison."

Suzume nodded eagerly.

They only stopped practicing five hours later when Kankuro intervened. Temari wasn't the least bit exhausted and neglected to realize Suzume didn't have a stamina level that could even compare.

After taking a shower and Kankuro giving her a massage by his insistence, Suzume felt much better. Kankuro's massage could be charged for. He told her he'd learned therapy massaging to lessen the tension in his and Temari's muscles when he was little.

She was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner with Temari drinking coffee and collecting her thoughts while sitting at the counter.

"Ah, Temari ne-san!" Suzume said cheerfully, dragging out a bag of something that hijacked all other smells in the room. It was a nice smell, but very strong. Temari had to cover her nose with her hand. "I found these at the bazaar the other day! Very high quality spices!"

Temari coughed. "That's great."

"I think I'll make curry with this soon." Suzume lugged the bag over to the pantry and, after resting it against the wall, opened it and scooped out a cupful. "I should go back soon. They had an excellent array of herbs too. But the spices! You should've seen the line!"

Temari's eyes went out of focus as she watched Suzume poured the cup of spices into a separate container. She stared as the reddish brown powder waterfall into an empty, plastic pool.

She jumped to her feet and her chair fell back with a loud clatter. "That's it, Suzume!"

At her outburst, Suzume lurched in surprise and fumbled with the container of spices before securing it in her hands and sighing in relief.

Temari twirled her sister around and placed her hands on her shoulders, her eyes were setting off fireworks. "Spices!"

Suzume blinked twice. "Spices?"

Temari seized the container of spice out of her hands and prodded it with her finger. "Spices! Trade! ECONOMY!"

Suzume became worried and rescued the spice from out of her sister's grasp to place it safely on the counter.

"Can you take me to the bazaar now?" The kunoichi obviously didn't need an answer since she was pushing Suzume to the mudroom and shoving her umbrella into her hands even when the sun long since sunk.

"Now?" Suzume scrabbled into her sandals as her sister dragged her outside. "But it's closed. It's almost midnight."

She almost collided into Temari when she paused stone still in the street. "Oh, that's right! Dang it!"

Suzume was heading back to the house when she felt a hand wrap around her wrist. "We're breaking and entering."

"Eh?"

Suzume reeled forward as Temari sprinted straight into the village dragging her sister by the arm.

Long story short, Temari invited herself into the spice maker's house and Suzume stood there apologizing while Temari talked about business opportunities and the weight of the whole village's future that rested in his hands all while he was in his pajamas.