A fist came flying at her face and Suzume flinched and closed her eyes shut. A flick to her forehead instead of a punch relaxed her tensed limbs and she reopened her eyes to see Temari with her arms crossed across her chest.

"And you're dead," the kunoichi noted. "Something on your mind, kid? You're distracted today."

Suzume shook her head hastily. "No. Nothing."

Temari hummed in contemplative scrutiny and Suzume couldn't make eye contact with her.

Although this is what she wanted, what she expected, she still harbored an incessant ache in her chest.

It was the third week of their weird living organization. Suzume's been doing all and anything domestic at Konata's place while attending training with the shinobi at the mansion. Suzume didn't get to see them much anymore. She didn't eat with them, or help Kankuro build his puppets, or do laundry with Temari, or stay up with Gaara and have his company during her active nights. Because that's the extent to how often she saw them before, what with their duties as shinobi and Institute teachers keeping them locked up in their rooms or out of the house for weeks on end. Now the only times she can see them was during her training sessions.

And she was spending that precious time thinking about useless things.

Since, well, she's still going to school...

A towel fluttered onto her head and broke her out of her thoughts.

She pulled it down to hang around her neck and looked curiously over at Temari's smiling face. "What is it?"

"Go take a shower," Temari told her while walking toward the exit of the sparring room. "Then meet me in the dining room."

"Why?" Suzume called after her but Temari just offered her a wave of her hand before walking away.

She frowned, wiping the sweat off her forehead.

After taking a shower as she was instructed, Suzume walked into the dining room with damp hair and her street clothes. "What's this about, Temari? I need to be back at Konata baa-sama's by ei—"

"Surprise!"

Suzume's words jumped right back into her throat and her eyes went round. Food was laid out on the table and the best silverware decked the light pink tablecloth. Her brothers, who she was told earlier that day was out on a mission, stood across from her with her sister.

She connected the dots. 

"I already told you," Suzume said halfheartedly, "You're not listening to me."

"What're you talking about? This is just a dinner with a family friend," Temari replied slyly. "See. We even brought out the fancy silverware. Since, you know, you're a guest."

"Gaara and I put in monumental amounts of effort into this," Kankuro exaggerated fatigue. "We had to clean up areas of the house you're not going to step foot in."

Temari draped an arm across Gaara's shoulders. "Gaara was excited about this, Suzume. You should've seen the look on his face when we were cooking."

The redhead sent her a glare, his face heating up. "What look?"

Suzume turned her head to the side and glared at the wall. "This isn't fair." She sighed and looked back at them, smiling in surrender. "Maybe just this once."

_ _ _

Suzume grunted when she landed hard on her back and her whole body quivered like a leaf. That was the sixtieth time that day.

"You've gotten better," Kankuro offered truthfully while she caught her breath. "Compared to when you first started half a year ago."

"It's not enough," she panted.

Kankuro and Gaara traded glances.

"Maybe you should take a break, Suzu," Kankuro advised.

"No, I'm fine." She rose to her feet and struggled into a fighting position. "One more time."

Gaara narrowed his eyes.

"Suzume," Kankuro tried again. "You're pushing yourself too hard, jan. Wait until Te-"

He wasn't able to finish his sentence since Suzume charged at him. He instinctively grabbed the fist coming at him and before he could lock her arm behind her back, she broke his grip.

Bloodlust clotted the air and Kankuro's hair stood on end. It wanted him dead. It wanted to swallow and feed on him. The source of the threat was there, in front of him. He had to get it away.

Without thinking, he clumsily caked chakra onto his fist and swung.

Just when he made contact, the glaze of fear that blinded his eyes rescinded and Kankuro couldn't stop his momentum in time.

Suzume was flung across the room, tumbling and spinning wildly and only coming to a stop when she collided against the wall. 

As they stared at her, Suzume's look of utter confusion faded into a wide smile. "I took you by surprise, right?" Her change in attitude made the shinobi's shock vanish. They gave her a calculating look. Blood slipped down Suzume's face from a gash on her forehead. "You didn't hold back that time, right?"

Kankuro's eyebrows drew together, standing in heated silence.

Gaara's sand had blanketed over him in the rush of unexpected events, but now it slid back into dormancy. He spared Kankuro a glance then shifted his attention onto Suzume.

Does she realize what just happened?

"I wasn't paying attention," Gaara said. "Can you describe what you did?"

Suzume wasn't dense. Gaara knew she sensed something off and Kankuro's blatantly grave face pretty much clued her in. And one thing's for sure, Gaara would never be not paying attention.

"I faked a punch but I knew Kankuro would grab it. When he did, I pretended to faint and once I felt his grip weaken I sent a kick to his head but it never hit him because he sent me flying back." She met Kankuro's eyes. "I'm sorry. Did I do something wrong?"

The puppeteer didn't respond.

"Do you remember anything out of place when you feigned unconsciousness?" Gaara inquired.

"No. I just relaxed my body and closed my eyes." Suzume said.

Gaara walked over to her and inspected the wound on her head. His sand carried the first aid kit to them and he treated his sister. Kankuro stood wordlessly where he was.

Later, Gaara would hear what Kankuro had to say. "It felt... old..." He stared at his little brother. "It felt like a tailed beast."

And Gaara, once he heard it aloud, could only agree.

_ _ _

It's been exactly a month since the day Kankuro blasted her away and ever since then she's been plagued by an incessantly burning headache. Soon, her entire body was blazing but her bones stone cold. Her brothers and sister told her she was suspended from any training until she felt better. Konata reacted oddly. As soon as she heard about the situation, she immediately asked for her date of birth.

Suzume told her she didn't remember the exact date and the old lady backed off, never mentioning the subject again, but warned her to stay inside the house.

One day, the pain abated and Suzume woke up to an empty building. She found a memo on the table telling her Konata stepped out to get groceries and a glass of medicine she was supposed to drink. She felt her temperature and self evaluated herself. She wasn't sick anymore. At least for now.

Gulping down the medicine, she went back upstairs to her borrowed room and grabbed her backpack full of animal food. Filling a bottle full of water, she shoved it into the bag and zoomed out the door.

During her days of illness, Konata and the others fed the street dog. But she needed to make sure it was gaining enough body weight. A sort of paranoid obsessiveness took shelter in her mind. This was why she didn't want to take in animals anymore, but something inside her couldn't face abandoning them, so she made herself a compromise, she'd give them water and food, that's all.

She'd owed so much more to this dog.

"Saya!" Suzume shouted as soon as she reached the alleyway. There was a clatter of trash bins and the shepherd came bounding out. Suzume raised her arms and it came flying into her. She fell over backwards and giggled as the dog attacked her face with a slobbery tongue.

"It's nice to see you too." Suzume sat up and the dog backed off, wagging her tail excitedly. "Let me see."

The dog obediently stayed still as the girl ran a hand along its body. The dipping and curving of bones were gone to be substituted for a satisfyingly decent amount of skin and fat.

Pleased, Suzume pulled out a flashlight and combed through the dog's fur, checking the skin underneath. Both the coat and the skin looked healthier. She moved on to the ears and finally the mouth.

Suzume pulled back and the dog still stood frozen. They shared a staring contest for a minute when Suzume barked and the dog lurched into action. It chased its tail round and round before coming to a sudden halt in a playful position, hindquarters up and front legs stretched out low to the ground.

"Ready for food, Saya?" Suzume reached into her bag and extracted out the bowls, water, kibble, and vegetables. "Make sure to eat the greens this time. You're too picky."

Saya waited excitedly for her to finish preparing the food, her tail whipping up a storm. After the dog finished eating, the pair sat peacefully against the wall of the alleyway and Suzume lulled the dog to sleep by slowly pulling a hand down her fur.

Suzume herself was nodding off to sleep then jerking awake again.

Suzume.

A warmth atop a sturdy body of fur, the lifting and lowering of rhythmic breaths. Trees were shivering overhead and a river was rushing passed.

Suzume.

Soft earth beneath her bare feet, her hands clutching at rough puzzles of bark as she maneuvered through branches.

Suzume!

A series of barks and growling jolted her from her sleep and Suzume lifted her blurry eyes to see Saya's hackles rustling up and down her back, her tail raised stiffly, and her ears erect and pointed forward.

"Saya—?"

A yelp of pain interrupted her and she could barely react as Saya was thrown against the wall and crumpled to a heap on the ground.

"Saya!"

A shadow fell onto her and she slowly looked up. Her eyes honed in on the gleaming metal guard of the headband wrapped around the accoster's head.

Suzume stiffened into a defensive position. Her heart drummed against her chest and her breaths grew shallow.

She was up against a shinobi who wasn't her sister or brothers.