One day, Suzume woke up and found a kitten on their doorstep.

Suzume tilted her head to the side, gazing down at the cat emotionlessly. It looked up at her in the same way, its golden eyes staring into her soul. It flicked its long tail and meowed at her.

"Suzume..." Temari didn't know how to react. "Why is there a cat on your head?"

Suzume rotated around to face her sister. Her face void of emotion contrasted deeply with the endearing way the cat was hanging on her head. Even as she watched, the blue kitten yawned and Temari couldn't help but have the word 'cute' pass through her thoughts.

"Her name is Hisoka," Suzume said.

"I didn't ask for its name! Moreover, you named it already?!"

Suzume detached the cat from her head and held it in her arms, looking up at Temari with sad eyes. "I'm not allowed to keep it, Temari-sama?"

Temari sagged a bit in defeat. "You can act adorable when you want to, can't you, Suzume..."

Suzume cocked her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

Suzume was often left alone in the house since the others had shinobi duties to attend to. Hisoka was the only living thing that kept her company. The little blue kitten would follow the stoic girl around, trotting after Suzume's feet as she cleaned the house or prepared dinner. The kitten became her best friend.

_

Temari attached her fan and it clicked in place. Kankuro shouldered his puppet and Gaara tied his gourd to his back. They were all donning on their weapons in the mudroom. The room itself was dark as the sun hadn't risen yet, but a light in the hallway was enough to let them see. They turned to their little sister.

"We'll see you tonight, Suzume," Kankuro said in farewell.

Suzume, who had crawled out of bed at four in the morning to be able to say goodbye, had messy hair and drooping eyes. She yawned and waved her hand lazily. "Bye... Be safe..."

Temari flicked her on the forehead. "Go back to sleep."

"Okay..." Kankuro opened the door and Gaara gave Suzume a little wave before the door closed behind the trio.

"And they're gone again..." Suzume mumbled as Hisoka padded up to her side, sat down, and meowed. Suzume looked down at her before going back to her room.

Suzume woke up again at seven and, slipping on her slippers, went to the kitchen to make herself some breakfast. She placed a saucer of milk onto the floor for Hisoka and went to fetch the toast that had popped out of the toaster. She sat herself down at the dining room table and bit into the buttered toast.

_

At the Sand Ninja Prep Institution for the Aspiring Shinobi, Gaara was finishing some paperwork when he noticed some of his coworkers were giving him strange looks. He was ignoring them, figuring they'd say something eventually. He discovered he was correct in that assumption when a teacher went up to him.

Gaara looked up to see a fidgeting man who was quite older than him, avoiding eye contact as he tried to form words.

"W-we heard..." he mumbled and Gaara strained to hear. "That y-you... and your siblings picked up a girl from the streets..."

"That is so," Gaara replied calmly.

This caused the teachers to begin muttering wildly and the man in front of Gaara cleared his throat.

"I-is she, um, okay?"

Gaara began to realize what was going on and his eyes darkened.

"I mean to say..." the man must've thought Gaara didn't understand. "Is she... you know... still alive?"

Gaara exhaled slowly, closing his eyes. He began to gather his papers and stack them neatly in a folder. He stood from his seat and the man stumbled back as Gaara pushed in his chair.

Gaara addressed the quivering man. "Excuse me. I need to turn this report in."

"Y-yeah..." the man said as he kept his eyes on Gaara.

The redhead disappeared around the doorway and the teachers all held their breath till his footsteps faded away. Once they were sure he was well away, the man heaved a relieved sigh and fell to the ground, panting.

"My heart! My heart was about to detonate!"

"You were so brave, Masaru-sensei!"

"Man..." Masaru popped up into a sitting position. "He's got the eyes of a devil, I tell you! Felt the soul being sucked out of me!"

"I'm still worried about that girl though," one of the other instructors expressed. "What would they want with a little, defenseless girl?"

"Nothing good, that's what!" responded another.

"Should we call the authorities?"

"And what?! Get killed by that monster?! No, thank you!"

"Just forget it. We have better things to do."

"You're right. Alright, people! Let's finish work and go home already."

_

"Gaara-sama!"

Gaara lifted his head to see Suzume running up to him, Hisoka at her heels.

"Suzume..." he responded weakly.

A moment later, she was struggling to pick up his gourd and it was being inched up Gaara's back and the redhead was stuck in a weird position as his sister continued the attempt.

"You really don't have to force yourself, Suzume," Gaara sweatdropped.

Gaara had his gourd retied properly back onto his back and Suzume was walking beside him, disappointed.

"It's fine," he reassured. "I'm used to carrying it."

"One day, I'll be able to pick it up," Suzume promised herself. "Without any help either. Kankuro-sama was showing off the other day too," Suzume recalled the other day when Kankuro lifted up the gourd as if it weighed nothing with a very smug look on his face. "I'll show him."

They walked in silence and Gaara stared at his sister from the corner of his eyes. "Suzume."

"Is something the matter, Gaara-sama?"

He kept quiet for so long, Suzume blinked at him in confusion. "What do you think when you look at me?"

"The first time I looked at you, I wondered why you didn't have eyebrows," his sister responded immediately.

Gaara took a while to process what she said. "That's not what I meant."

"Do you mean when I look at you now?" he nodded. "Arch enemy of the culinary arts," Suzume deadpanned.

Gaara felt like giving up. It wasn't exactly how he was expecting her to answer, but it was an answer all the same. There was no fear in Suzume. The fact that she was walking comfortably beside him was proof enough. It made him happy.

They arrived at the house and Gaara watched as Suzume tried to pick the lock by herself. She succeeded and turned excitedly to him. He nodded in acknowledgement and that made her even more pleased. Suzume left Gaara in the mudroom as she ran to help Temari set the table. Hisoka waited patiently while Gaara took off his shoes and the cat followed him as he went to wash up.

He stared at it as he was drying off his hands. He hung the towel up again before bending down. He lifted a hand above its head, hesitating. Animals usually didn't like him near, they'd bark or hiss at him whenever he was. He was expecting the cat to do the same, but it surprised him by closing the gap between its head and his hand. Gaara ran the hand down its back and it purred in delight.

"You take after your owner," he told the cat.

It opened its golden eyes to stare at him before meowing, agreeing with his words.

They both surpassed his expectations.

_ _ _

"Kankuro-sama."

"Hm?"

"This is really humiliating."

A tick mark appeared on Kankuro's head. "You're even more irritatingly straightforward than Gaara. And that's saying something, jan."

"I can't help it if it's the truth."

"Just hurry up and screw the lightbulb out."

Suzume was riding on top of Kankuro's shoulders, his hands on her legs to keep her steady. The blown out lightbulb squeaked as she untwisted it from its mechanics.

"Got it," Suzume said when the lightbulb finally came out.

"Good. Here," Kankuro lifted up a new lightbulb. Suzume grabbed it and Kankuro received the old bulb in exchange.

"We really need a ladder, Kankuro-sama."

"Yeah, yeah. Hurry it up."

Once Suzume finished installing the new light, Kankuro lowered her down to the floor and cracked his neck. "Yosh, we did it," Kankuro grabbed a tool box. "Now for the plumbing."

Suzume followed Kankuro downstairs. They passed by Kankuro's room and turned a corner to see a metal door to their right in a little built in part of the wall.

"Don't come in here without me, okay?" Kankuro removed the large plank that kept it closed and leaned it against the wall carefully. "I'm practically the only person who knows how to transverse this jungle."

Suzume nodded in answer as he pulled down a lever and gripped the handle of the door tightly. With many grunts of effort he opened the door out.

"What's the point of having a lock if it's that heavy?"

"Precautions, jan," Kankuro picked up the tool box again. "Shall we venture?"

Kankuro walked into the dark maintenance room ahead of Suzume and she was surprised to see that it was much larger than she had first supposed. Gears and rattling pipes twisted and turned in the space like an elaborate puzzle. The grilles underneath her creaked as she trailed after Kankuro, gawking up at the mechanisms. She ran into Kankuro's muscled back and stumbled back slightly, rubbing her nose.

Kankuro faced her with a smile. "Cool, huh?"

"It's overwhelming."

"Well, this room fuels the entire building, including the shinobi headquarters, so it should be overwhelming," Kankuro pointed at a large tank. It was four times as large as Suzume and had many signs that made it clear that it was a dangerous metal object.

"It's the gas tank. Never touch or go near it, jan," Kankuro started walking again. "Wouldn't want the whole house blowing up."

Suzume realized that Kankuro had already gone a few feet ahead and jogged to catch up. Kankuro finally halted and knelt down to open his tool box after they had walked for more than ten minutes.

Suzume watched as he took out a huge wrench and began tinkering with the workings. He looked so focused and sucked into his labor that Suzume couldn't help but feel moved. The hiss of the engine and the clattering of the metal increased their volume as the silence lengthened. Before Suzume knew it, Kankuro was wiping the sweat off his brow and turning to grin at her.

"Now comes your part."

"Huh?"

Kankuro pointed at a little crawl space through the pipes. "Inch in through there and tighten a few fastenings for me," he threw a smaller wrench than what he had been using at Suzume.

She caught it and stared down at it. Kankuro placed a hard hat on Suzume's head and switched on the flashlight that was attached to it. Suzume lifted up her eyes and looked at him from under the brim of the hat. The brunette flicked his head in the direction of the tunnel resembling space. "Go on."

Suzume set her resolve and, placing the wrench in her mouth, got onto her hands and knees to crawl through. Kankuro saw her foot disappearing into the shadows. "Easy does it... if you think you can't fit, don't try."

There were cobwebs everywhere. There was the scent of oil and rusted metal filled her nose, the clanging of the pipes as Suzume accidentally kicked it with her foot as she crawled echoed against the many surfaces. The dust flew into the air when she disturbed their dormancy and made her sneeze.

"Bless you!" she heard Kankuro say.

"Thank you," she replied.

"You see the large red pipe? You should be there by now," Kankuro's voice called.

Suzume peeked around and saw what Kankuro had described. "Yeah!"

"Tighten the valve on the bottom and loosen the one on the top!"

Suzume did so and steam came billowing out of the top, showing Kankuro that she did it correctly. "Good! Now, do you see the little gap between the blue and the yellow?"

Suzume saw the faded, gray blue and the peeling, mustard yellow pipe. "Yes."

"There should be a leak somewhere around there."

Suzume placed her hand down and made contact with something wet. "Found it."

After she finsihed the maintenance work, Suzume reappeared out of the tunnel. She pulled off the hat and panted, spent from the toil. She wiped the sweat off her face and noticed that Kankuro had his hand up, grinning in pride at her.

"Great job today, partner," he commended.

Suzume stared at his hand and Kankuro stubbornly kept it in the air. Suzume shifted the hard hat over to free one of her hands and lightly tapped Kankuro's palm in a dull high five.

"What was that?" Kankuro shook his head in mock disappointment. "Be more enthusiastic."

Suzume blinked before trying again. This time... it actually made a slapping sound. Suzume seemed to think this was enough enthusiasm and stood there silently. Kankuro suddenly burst out laughing and ruffled up Suzume's sweat soaked hair.

"Come on," Kankuro picked up his tool box, wrapped an arm around Suzume's shoulders, and led them back to the door. "Let's go hug Temari and Gaara. They'll love how sweaty we are."

Which was a lie.

"Stay away from me, Kankuro!" Temari was cursing colorfully as Kankuro chased her out of the house. "I swear I will make you wish you've never been conceived if you even as much as poke me!"

Meanwhile, Gaara was standing uncomfortably in front of a sweaty Suzume, whose face was blank but expectant with her arms spread apart, waiting for a hug.