Gaara entered his room and it still surprised him every time. Everything was still neat and orderly but something was occupying his bed (which was unheard of), buried under blankets looking like a small, linen mountain.

For the past couple of days, Suzume had been camping out in his room and her presence made the room where he only thought as a supply closet/ office more personal and warm. He always liked it when Suzume accompanied him.  

He walked over and stared at the hill on his bed.

Kankuro came to him the same time Suzume intruded into his area. He looked distraught and blubbered to Gaara about 'saying the wrong things' and 'making Suzume upset' and 'oh my gosh I messed up.' After waiting for Kankuro to recover the ability to string coherent words together, Gaara managed to gather the situation.

Gaara pulled back the covers to unveil his little sister sitting criss crossed, hugging a pillow, and dozing. Even as he watched, she tipped over and landed with a soft thump onto the rest of the mattress.

"I think you should listen to Kankuro," Gaara had said. He came back up to his room after his talk with Kankuro to see Suzume sulking on his bed. "You shouldn't take it upon yourself to investigate the arson crime. It'll only impede it."

"...okay," Suzume sniffed and didn't say anymore.  

And now it's been a couple of days and Gaara was aware of what was going on in Suzume's head, because it was exactly what he had in his. They were trying to prove themselves, but Gaara was doing it for redemption over his guilt, Suzume, Gaara realized, was scared.

And regardless of every amazing, unexpected achievement she's accomplished, she puts almost no worth into herself, and this low self-confidence is putting into her mind how she needed to prove to them she was worth loving.

Love... love...  

"Love yourself..." Gaara whispered softly, almost like he was testing how the words sounded in the air. "Learn to love yourself, Suzume."

The one who gives is left empty and the one who hoards is lost.

He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, the scar on his forehead burned.

"Gaara-sa~ma," Suzume was awake and yawned his name as she stretched her limbs.

"You should get up." Gaara was at his closet, pulling on his standard tan uniform. "Today's the last day of school."  

Suzume nodded sleepily and swung her feet over the bed... and then proceeded to slump back into slumber on the floor.

Gaara cracked a small smile.

Gaara opened his eyes again, away from his memories, to the meeting he was sitting in. Temari sat to his left while Kankuro was at his right and the rest of the school board members flanked either side and the headmaster was at the head of the table, openly napping.

One thing they relinquished when being appointed as homeroom teachers and lecturers was the ability to decide how the teams were going to be divided up. The siblings had already flipped through the papers at the start of the meeting and the three of them knew the other two were dissatisfied by the team dynamics as well. Looks like everything was going as predicted.

When they got to Suzume's file however, Gaara's eyes widened slightly. He works quickly.

"I believe the academy student Suzume, can be double promoted into class Chunin," one of the new educators, bright eyed and young for his job, said. "We're low on Chunin as it is, ever since the Raid on Konoha last year."

"That is true," said another, looking impressed as he read through the stats on the fledgling shinobi. "It says here that she's already developed five original ninjutsu. That's quite a feat."

"She also has a history of great acts of courage when she was a civilian and during her training in the academy," the young educator beamed at the positive direction the conversation was going. "She was the one that prevented the terrorist group during the Ruby Silence and rescued a civilian in a house fire."

The other teachers were on the edge of their seats, uncomfortable. Ammon looked like he was bursting with opinions and was about to speak.

"However," the commanding voice snapped Ammon's mouth shut and drew every eye onto Gaara, "she lacks experience and professionalism."

"Suzume is also rash," Temari added. "She's unpredictable and has had trouble with cooperating with her fellow peers during mock drills and fitness tests."

"But promoting her may raise the morale of our numbers, especially after the recent failure in Konoha."

"It was not a failure," Temari said. "It was a dishonor on our part for betraying our alliance to the Leaf."

"The whole point of the new educational reform is to advocate teamwork and erase all forms of archaic ideas about sacrifice and individual power," Kankuro reminded them. "Promoting Suzume will only contradict our efforts. If anything she should be held back a year."

The newbie educator stuttered, "B-but isn't she your surrogate sister? I thought you would be pleased to promote her."

"Don't insult us," Temari said, causing him to flinch. "We're not so shallow."

"Y-yes. Forgive me." The young educator frowned. "But such wasted talent."

"We don't need to rush things," Gaara proceeded. "We are growing our defense steadily and hurrying things unnaturally will disrupt growth. Suzume will become a great asset to the village in time. But let us not forget, she is a twelve year old girl first and a shinobi second."

_ _ _

Suzume sat waiting for her name to be called.

The entire sixth year was in the main lecture hall where the ceiling domed over them and their homeroom teachers were standing in front of their jittery students. Temari was reading off a list and so far ten teams had already been established and left to meet with their Jonin captains. Temari told her last night that they were passing a lot of Genin this year to ensure that numbers in their ranks would grow. (Only a couple failed the exam because of attitude problems, including Otaki's old gang members who abandoned him after they found out he befriended a former low).

Temari would sometimes turn toward her brothers and discuss quietly about something or another before returning to her task. The hush of the big auditorium compacted them in as their teachers decided their futures.

"Suzume," Temari called her name.

Suzume stood and went down to her sister, intending to wait until her other two teammates were called but Temari had different ideas.

"Go to this room," she told her, handing her a note. "They're already waiting there."

Suzume glanced behind her at the already gossiping shinobi and granted Temari a quizzical look. Temari just went back to calling names and Suzume was left to follow directions. It led her to the Remedial building.

When she arrived at the classroom, she reached out for the sliding door in front of her but it slammed open for her with a burst of wind. Standing over her with a deep scowl was a wild looking person with dark skin and jet black hair pulled into a wolf-tail. Suzume's eyes widened slightly but she didn't mention anything as she opened her mouth to speak.

A tremulous groan interjected and the boy threw back his head and headed back into the classroom.

"It's a girl. And I was hoping it'd be an all-boys team."

Suzume was slightly bemused by the statement and edged into the room to see her other teammate.

A boy who was sitting down in one of the lecture seats had brown hair that hung innocently over his forehead in a soft fringe. He was wearing plain and appropriate clothes, basically textbook attire and was sitting properly. He smiled politely at her.

Suzume slid the door closed. "You're not sixth years."

"I'm your senior. I've been out on the field for a year," the wild one said.

"And I'm from the next class over," said the nice one. "I'm one of the flunkers."

"Only because you didn't even try to take the exam during our year."

"You know I wasn't confident last year, Ri-chan."

Ri-chan scoffed and returned his attention on Suzume. "And you didn't even need to take the test like we did. Ever since they changed the program the next generation has been spouting nonsense. Always something about teamwork and 'nakama'."

He placed his hand on his chest. "We had to fight our way to the top. And what do you need to do? Make clones and perform the transformation jutsu? Those are the basics! This village is taking a turn for the worst if they're letting amateurs out!"

"We're not amateurs," Suzume said, slightly put off by the way he was insulting her family's teaching.

He lifted an eyebrow and sauntered over to stand over her. "I hope you can back those claims up. From what I'm seeing, I bet you wouldn't last a second on the battlefield before you become another corpse on the ground."

The boy got to his feet. "Ri-chan!"

"Be quiet, Akira!" he threw over his shoulder. "I'm not about to let an incompetent onto our team only to hinder us."

The door rolled open and the trio looked up to see their team leader glowering past his nose at them.

Suzume's eyes grew sharper and her mouth sunk into a frown.

Baki stepped inside and didn't bother closing the door behind him. He coolly disregarded Suzume's scathing gaze and scanned each of the faces in the room.

"Potential," was his short analysis. "But immature."

Ri-chan snapped to attention, bowed sharply, then straightened up. "Sir, Ritsu, rank Genin at your service, sir. If I may be allowed to say something--"

"I'm your Jonin team leader Baki," the man said, cutting him off, "and I'll be seeing through the next few years of your training. State your name, age, and weaknesses. You start."

His finger landed on Akira and the boy quickly went to stand respectfully in front of him beside Ritsu. "I'm Akira, thirteen years old, I'm not confident in my abilities and can't work under pressure."

The finger rested on Ritsu. "My name is Ritsu, thirteen. I have no weaknesses but I know I can improve."

Next was Suzume who was slightly cowering back despite her impertinent stare. "Suzume, twelve, and my stats on genjutsu are low."

Baki didn't speak for a minute. "Akira is the only one who answered my question." He stared coldly down at Suzume and Ritsu. "You don't have any weaknesses?"

Ritsu kept himself from taking a step back at the amount of pressure that abruptly landed on him. Baki leaned forward to look him straight in the eye. "You're unstable. The recent incident with your former team hasn't ceased haunting your mind. Anxiety, anger, and frustration all plague you and you're trying to cover it up with a false front."

Ritsu bowed his head and clenched his fist, having no words to retort with. Akira cast him a worried glance.

Baki turned onto Suzume. "Just what I expected. Vague but adequate, enough to convince an average person."

Suzume didn't stand down as Baki looked past his nose at her. "But I'm not an average person."

"I asked you what your weaknesses are." Baki's voice made Suzume's hair stand on end. "If I wanted to know your stats I could've read it up!"

Suzume's eyebrows creased, her mouth set into a scowl and she stubbornly kept eye contact. "I don't believe you're qualified to label anybody's weaknesses, sir."

Baki scrutinized her, then drew back. "That remains to be seen."

The Genin stood in a line in front of Baki as he appraised them.

"As Ritsu mentioned before," Baki said, "Suna is in the process of improving our original mindsets. Teamwork, comradery. These are what is and should be important in a shinobi's training. The idea of sacrificing your team for the mission is no longer tolerated."

"But, sir," Ritsu interrupted, unable to keep quiet any longer, "nothing will be achieved if all we're doing is saving each other. Isn't the safety of our village greater than one death? Our job is to protect the village, not each other."

"I can understand why you think like that, Ritsu," Baki said. "The idea has been ingrained into your head, but believe me when I say this will be a step forward and not a step backward."

"Yes, sir." Ritsu looked unsatisfied.

"Tomorrow meet at the Demon Desert, before sunrise." He handed each of them a wooden seal. "These will allow you clearance to exit the main gate. Get there together or not at all."

Baki disappeared in a cloud of smoke and Ritsu was quick to release his complaints. "We have to work together?!" He threw his head back and groaned. "This doesn't make any sense. They should be testing our ability to take care of ourselves!"

"Now, calm down, Ri-chan," Akira tried to appease him. "I think this is a better way of doing things too."

"Can't you see, Akira?" Ritsu seethed. "One! That's all we need! Just one weak link and we'll all end up dead! This idiotic idea of supporting each other will only cause more casualties!"

"It's better than abandoning each other..." Akira said in a small voice.

Ritsu's anger abated as he realized what he'd just implied. "I'm not saying you're weak, Akira! It's—"

He twirled around to see nobody behind him. He whipped around looking for the girl but soon realized she was gone and has been gone. A tick mark throbbed onto his head. "That little..."

_ _ _

The three met in the murky darkness of the morning at the checkout point near the village entrance. The hollow moans of the desert swept through the crack in the defensive walls and Suzume stared into the darkness from whence the chilling gale came. The three of them finished up their forms and papers in silence and were soon walking down the stifling, claustrophobic passageway. The sand crunching under their feet and the rustling of their clothes were the only noises that echoed off the towering walls on either side of them.

Once they got out of the confinement of the exit and entrance of the village, they were presented with the expanse of the desert. They took the time to tighten their weapons to their person and check for the second time to be sure they have everything they needed. Akira pulled out a map and after a little determining and fiddling with the compass, he pointed slightly to the left of the east direction.  

They set forth in silence.