Rasa took me to the ocean once. I couldn't help thinking how the waves of the sand and waves of the ocean were so similar. Only, one was forced silent and the other was wild in its madness. They clashed together, such a contrast yet a resemblance in how they cried.

It was horrifyingly beautiful. And so horrifyingly sad.

_ _ _

Suzume came early to school these days. She'd come right when the doors were open and only the school faculty were in the halls of the building. Whenever this happened, Temari asked her to open the classroom door for her and set up a few things.

After finishing the tasks her sister gave her, Suzume hastened to her seat and lifted the table top to reveal a letter taped underneath. She pulled it off and unfolded it to read:

Beware the remora.

Suzume pocketed the letter and pulled down the table to its original position. She sat down and rested her hand in the cradle she made with her arms on top of the table and fell asleep. Temari always woke her up before anybody else came in.

The notes have sporadic deliveries and came with sweets most of the time. The letter that came before this one had an attached bar of chocolate and a note telling her the sender was impressed how she was trying her best to get along with the others. Because of this she was so sure the person had to be Temari, but something told her it couldn't be. It was pathetic, but she hoped it wasn't her, because it meant there was someone out there besides Konata and her family that cared.

Other than the chocolate letters, the ones that lacked them were much more foreboding. They've been really informative though. Suzume's avoided a lot of situations due to these letters.

Suzume didn't seek out the writer. If they wanted to tell her who they were it was up to them.

Suzume was awoken by Temari a few minutes before the first student arrived and she spent the rest of the time studying a book about sword techniques as the room filled up with students.

After the usual morning salute, Temari started class.

"We'll begin the day with a getting-to-know-each-other activity," she said with jazz hands.

The class groaned.

"Again, Temari-sensei," somebody bellyached. "That's all we've been doing for a week."

"And we already know each other," another said. "We've known each other since our first year."

"Personally, I think we know too much about each other."

"Shouldn't we be studying for the graduation exam?" Toru said. "It's only a few weeks away."

The class grumbled their agreement and Temari raised a hand to silence them and everyone immediately ceased talking.

"This is important because the graduation exam is coming up." Temari placed her hand on her side and gave them a stern stare. "Whether you like it or not, the people in this class and the other two are the people you'll be growing old with. They're extended family you can hate all you like but they're still family, and you'll be forced to see and work with them for as long as you are a shinobi. This," she did a sweeping gesture across the room, "is all you'll know."

"Ew."

"Anyways, don't worry," Temari smiled, "at where you are now, I have no doubt everybody will pass."

"That's what teachers always say." Shiro looked unimpressed. "Do you really want to take responsibility for that statement if some of us fail?"

"You think I'd just flatter you kids?" Temari sauntered over to the door. "I guess you don't really know me all that well. Which leads me to the activity."

"She just used my question as a transition," Shiro said in indignation.

"The other two classes are waiting for us at the gym." Temari went through the door, "Follow me."

The students rose and filed into a line, trailing after their teacher. Suzume entered the gym after everyone else and saw the expansive area dotted with students as they intermingled with each other. She saw her sister join her brothers at the front of the room along with a teacher who taught third years. He wore a turban and the Sand shinobi uniform and he had a small stature and a slight five o'clock shadow. His face was friendly enough and judging from the way her siblings were acting around him, Suzume decided he was a good person. 

"Everybody," Kankuro called them to attention. "This is Mitra-sensei, I'm sure some of you have had him for Survival Training in the third year. He's going to be helping us with this activity today."

Mitra-sensei stepped up, "I'm going to be putting everybody into a genjutsu, don't worry, it won't hurt you. Once you're inside it, there's going to be another person there, talk to them. In order for you to break out of the genjutsu you must share something you wouldn't be able to say under normal circumstances. They won't be able to recognize you so you have your privacy."

"Can we not?" one of the students said.

Mitra's hands blurred as he cast the jutsu. "We most certainly can and will."

Suzume transported to the middle of the desert and the cracked earth and gravel under her feet felt smooth and cool. Once in a while a breeze would float by her and sand would patter against her skin on their passage.

There was no heat.

She's never been in a genjutsu before. She folded her hands into a release seal she's read about and tried to break out of the jutsu. Nothing happened.

Beep boop bop beep.

Suzume turned around to see a person standing across from her and marks were obscuring their features like they were scribbled over in pen. Words hung in the air beside them.

Mitra-sensei is a super genjutsu user. Students like us won't be able to break it.

Suzume opened her mouth to speak and what came out were those weird sounds and her words were being written in the middle of nothing.

Is he a Jonin?

No. Chunin. He's'a studyin' for the Jonin exam though. They lowered themselves to the ground and made themselves comfortable. Do ya want to go first? They asked, referencing the condition they needed to fulfill to get out.

No.

They laughed, which sounded like a garbled mixture of beeps and bops. You're very blunt. I suppose we'll be stuck in here forever then. I don't really want to leave anyhow.

Suzume just stared down at him.

They sweatdropped. You're not a very social person, are ya?

Suzume was displeased by their accurate speculation and flopped down to mimic the way they sat.

Eh, did I strike a nerve?

Suzume didn't say anything for a time, thinking deeply, and her partner waited nervously. She finally found something to say and her stare intensified. They jumped, W-w-w-what?

I like samurai, she announced.

The person seemed to be waiting for her to continue. Is...Is that your contribution?

Suzume nodded. That's right.

They ran a hand through their hair and chuckled under their breath. You're an ace, aren't ya?

When she didn't answer they shook their hands wildly, flustered. I mean, you seem really confident in yourself and none of the lows I know are like that, and—!

I'm not an ace, Suzume interjected.

They relaxed. Oh. They fidgeted nervously. And you're, uh, sure you're gonna do alright after graduation?

Yes.

How? How are you so sure? The person leaned in, hungry for answers. Even after everything.

Because I know my own worth.

They deflated into themselves. I know mine too. It couldn't fill a piggy bank.

I agree. Suzume saw them flinch. You dislike that I agree.

Kinda, they said to the ground.

If you don't respect yourself, why should I? The hazes of hot air around the desert landscape began to consume the false reality.

The haze spread until it swallowed up her and her partner and they were just blurry blobs. She saw them get to their feet and reach out to her. Wait—.

Suzume got to her feet as well. I was never a low. And soon you won't be one either.

What does that mean? If you're not an ace or a low...

All color and shape blurred together and Suzume could feel herself being pulled away. The person bolted toward her.

"Wait, I want to talk more!" For the first time, Suzume didn't hear beeping, but an actual voice. "What's your name?!"

But Suzume didn't get to answer. When she next opened her eyes, she was back in the gym and the sound of her partner's desperate cry still rang in her head.

The entire sixth year was uncomfortable and an awkward atmosphere hung around. None of them could look anybody else in the eye.

"I'd call that a success," Kankuro beamed.

The classes returned to their predictable, humdrum schedule after homeroom and it seemed like none of them could concentrate. Their subject teachers were giving them alarmed looks as they attempted to bring the class back to normalcy. The homeroom teachers decided that they put their students through enough mental strain and gave them free period for the rest of the week.

Suzume wasn't so affected which disappointed her siblings. When she explained why, they were very exasperated.

"You told your partner you liked samurai?" Kankuro couldn't seem to get his head wrapped around it. "That's it?"

"Yes."

"Suzume," Temari did an indignant scoff, "you were supposed to experience a deep, eye opening experience by looking into yourself. And admitting you like samurai isn't very deep!"

Suzume stared at the pair of them, thinking seriously. "I like the night time."

"What—"

"I like grocery shopping."

"Are you just going to keep trying—?"

"I like sleeping."

"You're missing the point."

Suzume's eyebrows knitted. "I don't understand what you want from me."

"Give up, Kankuro, Temari," Gaara advised as he read through a report. "It's a lost cause."

The pair of them sighed. 

_ _ _

Before the educational reform, the graduation requirements were passing a written exam of everything they've learned and a demonstration of their own physical prowess. Now, as a compromise, the written exam was still in play but instead of the demonstration, they were required to show their ability to perform two basic Justus: the Transformation and the Clone.

Suzume couldn't believe she was going to fail because the exam was changed to favor the students.

She folded her hands into the seals, "Hengei!"

Nothing happened.

She panted and glared down at her hands. What was the problem now?

She had a wing of the archives to herself. Dusty tomes were stacked into tall towers around her and the portal holes shed light that revealed the dust which floated along in the air.

Suzume knew the archives like it was her second home as a result of being in there constantly. The only part she hasn't stepped a foot in was the restricted area where only shinobi were allowed in.

Giving up on hands on practice for the time being, she strode over to the table where she'd left books open and scattered. She picked one up and flipped through it, her tongue sticking out slightly, while she scanned through the words.

The books said to start off trying to transform a small aspect of her appearance like the shape of her nose, the length of her fingernails, or the color of her eyes, but it didn't work, for some reason, her body refused to change.

Maybe she needed to find some way into the restricted part of the archives. There's bound to be answers in there. She's entertained the idea of doing so millions of times but always managed to talk herself out of it by reminding herself she'd be a shinobi soon anyway. But by the way things were looking, she might not get to be one.

"I'm doing it," she decided, a spark of insanity born of academic pressure burned into her eyes.

"Doing what, if I may?" asked a gentle voice. A thin man dressed in council robes with his gray hair tied into a ponytail and wrinkles set into his face was standing at the entrance to the wing.  

Suzume quickly turned about face and bowed. "Sakyu-sama."

"No need for that, Suzume," he chuckled, walking over to her. She stood respectfully out of the way as he looked through the books on the table. "Having trouble?"

"Yes, sir."

He hummed contemplatively. "Do you trust me, Suzume?"

"Depends."

As out of the ordinary as it was, Suzume somehow managed to become reading buddies with a high ranking councilor on the Kazekage's board of advisors. She met him when she was having a rough time during her time as a first year.

When Temari or the others couldn't help her with some Jonin level questions, she would turn to Sakyu (sometimes, even he wouldn't know how to answer or she wouldn't be able to understand what he was talking about). He was her teacher when she didn't have one and a great studying companion, although the time they had together was short since he was busy with work. She hasn't seen him for a while because of this.

"Before we adopted the Konoha curriculum, prospective Sand shinobi were expected to know the Transformation and Clone Jutsu so they did not test for it." Sakyu thumbed through the pages of a book. "Just because it's part of the exam doesn't mean you have to do it to pass."

Suzume just looked at him blankly and Sakyu hurried to explain, "The jutsu is convenient, yes, but shinobi have other ways to conceal their identity. The way they're handling the exam can be considered... a friendly suggestion."

Suzume's eyes widened. "I can show them anything else?"

"Not just anything," Sakyu pulled out a slip of paper a bit smaller than his hand and held it out for her to take. "It has to be spectacular."

She recognized what it was once she touched it. "This is... But I only have a month."

"No," Sakyu squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, "you have a whole month. You also have the skill. I have no doubt you can do this."

Suzume lowered her eyes back down to the paper and its daunting, empty surface. 

When everyone returned to school on Monday, they carried on like usual, studying and training, talking about what they'd spend their first paycheck on as real shinobi, adamantly avoiding any mention of the last getting-to-know-each-other activity.

Suzume was on her fifth sword techniques book when she was interrupted by Katsuo from class 6-1, the one who gave her that warning on her first day as a sixth year. He gave her an anxious smile and his hands couldn't seem to stop shaking.

"I hope I ain't botherin' ya, but I wanted to ask ya if ya can tutor me for the graduation exam."

Ah. "Biri..."

"Huh?"

She returned to her book. "Okay."

He had to process what he heard. "Hah?"

She looked up at him again. "I'll teach you."

Katsuo's mouth dropped open. "No way... I mean!" he bowed. "Thank you!"

Suzume noticed how his shaking increased with his sudden spike in emotion until his whole body trembled. She reached out and seized his hand, pulling it close to her face.

"Eh?" Poor Katsuo didn't know how to take this. "What-What're ya doing?"

She turned his hand every which way and bent his fingers, examining every little detail. Suzume released his hand and stood from her desk and gathered up her books in her hands.

"Um." Katsuo watched her swiftly leave the aisle and go down the steps toward the door.

She abruptly stopped and turned to him. "I'll see you after class in the lobby."

"Oh, okay." And she was gone.

Katsuo was waiting in the lobby as he was instructed and the school was silent with the absence of the few hundred students who filled its walls during the day.

He was trembling as he paced and rubbed his clammy hands together. He was casting glances down the hallway like he was expecting something to come charging at him.

The sound of the door opening made him whip around and gulp at the sight of Suzume striding over to him.

"Here." She gave him a small scrap of paper.

"Uh, thanks." Katsuo's lips pursed, discombobulated. "What is it?"

"You charge your chakra into it."

He chuckled nervously, fiddling with the paper. "Yeah, um, I'm, uh, ain't that good with," he cleared his throat, "that is to say, ain't the best with chakra control."

"I know."

Katsuo's head clunked forward. "Ya don't have to agree with me..."

"But it's the truth." Suzume tried to make eye contact but Katsuo kept fidgeting and glancing at everything but her. Her voice was a little smaller than usual. "I wanted to ask you if we can start b--"

"Yeah, yeah, we can start training right now if you want, but before I forget," Katsuo pocketed the paper and began to push her through the corridor, "Temari-sensei asked ya to get somethin' from the classroom. She said a student left somethin' in there by accident."

"What did they leave?"

"Dunno. Sensei said you'd know when ya see it."

Suzume noticed how his shaking was getting worse as they got closer to the classroom. They arrived at the class and Suzume opened the door and entered while scanning for the lost item. "I don't see anything."

Katsuo had remained outside in the hall. "Maybe it's near the desks.

She climbed the steps and looked through the rows. It was when she was almost at the top when she saw a kunai pouch discarded on the floor and she slipped into the row and ducked down to retrieve it.

A sharp click and the sound of running footsteps fading away made her hand freeze above the pouch. Her eyebrows gathered and her eyes glistened in a momentary lapse before she picked up the pouch and straightened to see the door shut tight.

The atmosphere shifted and Suzume kicked the tabletop in front of her to fly up and intercept the kunai aimed at her. The attackers leapt up and over her, spraying her with more projectiles. She threw herself to the side and she saw them land and come after her. She kicked a chair into one of them, successfully unbalancing them, slipped under the tables to the next row and did a back flip to avoid a blow to head.

They were all at the front of the lecture hall now and Suzume was surrounded on all sides.

The attackers were around her age and all had on black masks to cover their face. There was an instant where both parties sized each other up.

Suzume let out a breath and the moment of still restlessness passed when one of the four attackers swooped toward her. She ducked a swipe of a kunai and caught their arm to chuck their body up over her head and into their comrade.

Arms wrapped around her, immobilizing her, and another was charging toward her. She kicked the approaching one and used the motion to flip around and break out of the other's grasp. A kunai whizzed past her face and blood seeped through the cut on her cheek. The pair she put out of commission were up again.

They whipped out shuriken and they spiraled toward her. The projectiles passed through her and imbedded into wall and floor. The clone faded away.

The four looked frantically around for her and the windows suddenly popped open. A rushing wind roared passed and after it died, they ran over the windows to search for Suzume, but there was no sign of her.

_ _ _

The school was gathered for an assembly on Tuesday and all of their teachers and the schoolboard were up on the stage. The headmaster was there too, but everybody knew the real heads of the Institute were the Sand Siblings.

It was Gaara who spoke to them.

"I am sure you are all aware of the fate you have as soon as you enter your fourth year. If you're deemed an ace, you are considered the top of the class, if you are a low, you are considered inadequate and treated unjustly. We have lost many good people because of this."

"I am not an alumni of this school but I am also a product of its methods, and more than anything else, I've been a witness to its results. The suicides and the accidents that transpire here are not limited to this Institute, this perverted mentality has overarched into our professionals and have caused our numbers to fall without just cause."

"Yooo," one of the kids in the crowd muttered under his breath and he was looking at Gaara like he was talking about having dreams where he murdered them off one by one. "Where is he going with this?"

"As you are all aware, after the Konoha Crush, we adopted the Konoha curriculum, not because we owe Konoha, but because we owe it to ourselves. We can build strength and status without sacrificing our own." The crowd was hanging onto his every word, they were collectively holding their breaths. "And so, I'm announcing the end to the ace and low culture."

"We've decided that judgement will not be based on a preconceived definition of strength and worth, but on the right of every person to choose how much their perseverance and self judgement amounts to."

Near the end, the usually well-behaved mass of students rose into an untamable chatter until Gaara's voice was drowned out. Some of them were rambling amongst themselves while others were directing their outrage toward the school board. It was decisively shut down when Temari stepped forward with a withering glare and silence instantaneously fell. 

Gaara picked up where he left off. "Sixth years, the homeroom teachers will be speaking to each of you one on one. Everything will be confidential and you must remember we are your allies and we're only working for you. If we can't respect each other as humans and as equals, we have no hope to thrive as shinobi."

They dove right into it once everybody returned to class. The students were called to their respective homeroom teacher's office and spoken to. It was truly disconcerting to see fuming kids leave and then come back like they'd achieved true enlightenment. Of course, some were harder to convince, but they were greatly outnumbered and peer pressure was a bitch.

Toru came back just as tamed as the rest of them, "Shiro, you're next."

Shiro rose from her seat lethargically and ambled out.

Suzume was reading her sword book when a commotion out in the hall drew her attention.

"Ota! What're you—" Shiro's muffled and alert voice said.

"Move out of the fucking way!" Everybody in the class was prepared for the storm to come as the door flew open and Otaki barreled in. His eyes locked onto Suzume and he threw people out of his way to get to her.

He roughly grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled her onto her feet. Her book fell to the floor. Suzume eyes were wide in surprise as the boy gnashed his teeth down at her.

"You think you're really smart, huh?" he snarled. "So damn clever. Oh, now everybody can be a shinobi if they want to be. How fucking fantastic. But guess what? Not everybody is a hero like you, freak! Not everybody can magically get massive fucking skills like you did! You're just sending those naïve weaklings off to the battlefield to get killed!"

Shiro and Yuudai came from behind Otaki and tried to make him release her.

"If you've got a problem, talk to Kankuro-sen about it," Yuudai rationalized. "She's not the one who decided to—"

"She's the one who started it! Everything was fine before she came along! If she can do all this shit, she can do something to change it back!"

"You're being ridiculous, Ota!" Shiro said. "If you get in a fight this close to graduation, you'll be held back a year or worse!"

"Then that's what'll happen!"

"Otaki!" a new voice cut in and the class turned to see Kankuro filling the doorway. His expression was neutral but his gaze burned. Ota was frozen stiff. "I was expecting you in my office ten minutes ago. Come on."

"Che!" Otaki shoved Suzume back into her seat and to add insult to injury, punted Suzume's book with his foot so it rammed against the wall then slide into a sad pile on the floor.

He lumbered after Kankuro and everybody relaxed again. Shiro went to join Temari while Yuudai returned to his class. People were sending glances Suzume's way since she hadn't moved since she was thrown in her chair.

At some point, she finally left her seat to go pick up her book and didn't bother returning to her spot. When Shiro came to announce it was Suzume's turn, the girl was already gone.