The next thing he knew a lizard was staring beadily down at him from its perch on his chest. Ritsu bolted upright for it to slip off in fright.

He blinked. "I... fell asleep?" His eyes went round and he twisted violently. "Akira!"

But Akira was sleeping beside him and from his outburst his friend grumbled and nestled deeper into his blankets. Ritsu sighed in relief and pushed himself to his feet. His foot kicked at something and he noticed water dew cacti gathered into a now toppled half pyramid. All of their needles were cut away until the plant was just bare skin.

Ritsu scowled as he bent down to scoop a couple of them up and most definitely wasn't thinking about the person who put them there as he sliced one in half and he most certainly wasn't thinking about the person when Akira's face lit up at the sight of water once he woke him up.

Now that he had the time to look around the small pocket of boulders, he was able to move Akira to a better area. He dug a little dip in the sand at the base of one of the boulders and let Akira gently lower into the cool earth beneath the shade.

He also went through their bags to take survey of their supplies. Most of their food was still there but their freshwater was lower than Ritsu thought it would be. They'd be okay if they smartly rationed out the water dew cacti but for how long was the question. A couple of days was doable but not weeks, and he didn't think they had weeks. Ritsu stared at Akira, who had fallen asleep again. He needed to find a way out of the situation as fast as possible.

When Suzume came back from her next trip, he ordered her to look after Akira while he tried to find out where the heck they were.

Ritsu buried his nose into the map and tinkered with the pocket sextant, pencil hanging from his parched lips and bags under his red eyes.

They should've found us by now. If they're not interfering maybe it means there's a way for us to survive. We just need to figure it out.

"Suzume-san..." Akira was awake again and pointing to his bag in the pile next to them and Suzume brought it over to him. He dug around in it before pulling out a tin. "Good, I didn't lose it."

He opened it and shook out a couple of sugar cubes which he offered to Suzume with a smile. "Here. Your blood sugar level has probably dropped."

Suzume held out a hand for him to tip it on and she watched him eat his own.

"Can you do me a favor and give some to Ri-chan?" he asked, handing her a few more.

"I can get my own." Ritsu was suddenly standing over them and he snatched the sugar cubes out of Suzume's hand, shoved them into his mouth and, chewing on them ravenously, went back to his maps.

"I know he's a bit course around the edges but I hope you won't hate him for it." Akira shivered and brought his blankets closer. "He just has a lot of... baggage."

Suzume watched him drop back into sleep.

The cry of a hawk above her got her attention and she rose to her feet. The bird was circling above something close by. Vultures began to swarm. Her eyes narrowed.

Ritsu found the answer hours later when the sun was lowering into the horizon and he leapt to his feet and jumped to Akira's side, jabbing a finger at a spot on the map. "An oasis! Just half a day away from here!"

"An oasis..." Akira smiled weakly, his skin a sickly gray and barely having the strength to form words. "That's great..."

"Let's get moving! We'll be out of here in a day, Akira!"

Suzume landed next to them with an armful of cacti and cactus pears. She cut into one of them to get to the water inside. She handed it to Ritsu who tipped the whole thing into Akira's dry mouth.

"You drink too." Akira demanded. "Suzume-san, give him some."

She handed him a cactus bowl of water.

"I'll get my own water, thanks."

"Ri-chan."

Ritsu drank.

"Anyway, we need to get going. I figured out our location and our destination." He shoved everything into his knapsack. "Scout out the direction south-west of here."

Suzume was having trouble with wrapping her turban around her head and she paused in her struggles to look to the south-west then at Ritsu. "Why?"

"There's an oasis that way."

She squinted in the direction he was talking about. A clear ringing reverberated through her body and she said slowly, "No there isn't."

"What?"

"There's no life in that direction. We shouldn't go that way."

"No." Ritsu shook his head, dust showering out of his hair. "I'm not listening to you." He went over to Akira. "Ready to go?"

Suzume watched him pull Akira onto his back and trudge past her. She steeled herself and ran to stand in their way.

"Move," Ritsu growled.

"There's no water in that direction."

"How in Ashura's name would you know?!"

Suzume gulped. "I don't know... but I know."

"This is ridiculous. Get out of my way!"

"Ri-chan."

"Don't talk, Akira."

"Let's... trust her..."

"Akira!" Ritsu was exasperated. "You're going to die if we don't find an oasis soon!"

"That's why," Akira smiled, "we should trust her."

"You could die," Ritsu's voice cracked.

"Hey, you were the one that said the Jonin were watching. If they thought we didn't have a chance, they'd have interfered."

"Did I say that out loud?" Ritsu grumbled.

Akira's clouded eyes met Suzume's and she jumped. "Suzume-san is a good person."

"Good or not that doesn't mean--!"

"Please..."

They stood still and silent where they were for agonizing seconds. Ritsu was taking everything in. If he had any fault, it was the failure to adapt. He reacted too slow, he relied too much on previous knowledge, established knowledge. That led them to be stuck in a genjutsu for a day, that led them into a nest of monsters.

Akira's weak breathing on his neck and his limp body on his back, the girl who was standing up to him in front. A girl who everyone's calling the Freak of Nature...

"Shit, fine. But if you die, I'll never forgive you!"

Akira smiled and nodded into his shoulder.

Ritsu grabbed the front of Suzume's shirt and glared down at her. "If you're wrong, I'll shove a cactus down your throat until it comes out of your ass, got it?"

He let her go and Suzume didn't waste any time leading them to where she sensed life.

The Freak wasn't using any maps or navigation instruments and yet she was confidently going forward. Sometimes she'd stop and scan everything around them like she was listening. However, the exhaustion must've been getting to her since her breathing became heavier and her feet were dragging.

Akira came in and out of consciousness and sometimes he told them to stop so he could throw up into the sand. There was so much blood mixed in it.

He and Suzume both were carrying dew cacti on their bodies like pack mules, and although the extra weight slowed them down, it was necessary. Akira kept complaining that they were giving him too much of the water but Ritsu lied about how they were drinking as much as they needed.

Speaking of which, he stared ahead at Suzume's back, has she been drinking water?

They got to an abandoned ghost town and Ritsu decided they should rest for a while. Gently lowering Akira into the shade of the dilapidated building, Ritsu fed him some mushed cactus pears and let him drink more water.

Suzume meanwhile had collapsed onto the ground on the other side of the room and was coughing between pants. She tugged her turban off so her skin, glistening with sweat, could get some air.

A sound of the slice of a knife and a bowl of water appeared in her vision. Ritsu was shoving it toward her. "Drink."

She stared dumbly at him. A thought crashed into his mind. 

"You forgot to drink?!" he exclaimed incredulously. "You literally forgot to drink water in the desert?!"

She didn't answer, but that was answer enough. Ritsu dropped the bowl for her to catch in a fumble and he walked back over to Akira.

She was an idiot. His face grew heavier. And a monster.

After almost an hour of rest, a sound outside made Ritsu seize up. He steeled himself, leaning down on his haunches to leap into action. "Bandits--"

A blur of movement and Suzume was at the door.

"Wait--" She caught his eye in the split second before disappearing. She was going to buy them time to run.

Ritsu immediately turned to Akira and shook him awake then pulled on their bags. "We're going to move."

Akira noticed Suzume's absence through his clouded eyes. "Where's..."

The telltale whooping of men sounded from the distance.

"She's going to stall them."

Akira's eyes deciphered the depth of that decision and his eyebrows knitted. "But she's tired, she won't be able to handle them."

Ritsu did one final knot on the last bag and pulled on a necklace of cactus. The noises of fighting blared at them from the distance. "This is bandit territory, we don't know how many there are."

"You can take them."

"I need to take care of you." He bent down and presented his back to Akira. "Get on."

He stayed put. "So we're just going to leave her?"

The sounds were getting more and more viscous.

"Akira, get on my back!"

"No," he said stubbornly.

Ritsu snapped around to face him, frustrated. "Akira--!" It was like the bandits were practically on the doorstep.

Ritsu decided to try and grab Akira and scoop him up, but he weakly struggled to push him away.

"You're going to reopen your wound!" Akira's hand was pressing against his face and he seized his wrist to move it away. "Just listen!"

"We're not abandoning her again, Ritsu!" Akira's outburst froze and silenced him.

His friend's fiery gaze gradually forced out something he hasn't felt in a while. It was complete and utter idiocy.

"Aw, fuck this!" The knapsacks thudded to the ground one after the other next to Akira. "Make sure to stay hidden, okay?"

He smiled proudly up at him, seeming to sink comfortably back. "Mm-hm."

Suzume was surrounded. Her breath was heavy and her movements sluggish. Sweat slipped into her eyes and the bandit's camels huffing and snorting as they circled her was getting muffled. She shook her head to shake away the dizziness and squinted her eyes.

The heaviness she felt in her early days in the Mansion was recurring. Her trained endurance was failing.

The tautness and release of an arrow pulled her back into the moment and she dodged the barrage of projectiles aimed at her. The peal of a thick rope being swung in circles reverberated and just as Suzume leapt to avoid more arrows, a lasso encircled her ankle and slammed her back to the ground.

Head spinning now, Suzume groped for her kunai, but her wrists were caught in more nooses and the rope was pulled taut, stretching her arms outward painfully.

She thrashed and the one holding her left arm immobile was jerked off his camel. Just as soon as it was free, it was caught again. Arrows lodged into her and soon she was pulled onto her knees. More and more ropes came and eventually her arms were strapped to her sides and her ankles tangled together.

Once she fell to the ground with a pitiful thump, cheers of celebration erupted into the air and the sound of men landing on the ground from their camels. They came over to look over their catch.

"This right 'ere will fetch a good price. Young and a shinobi to boot. We'll be rich, boys."

"Those rich folks will pay anything for a shinobi. Entertains themselves with 'em."

The men chuckled evilly and knowingly.

"We've been stalking you fer days," a bandit with a grizzly appearance said, kicking Suzume onto her back so she could see them huddling around her. "Finally managed to catch one of you alone."

"Every year they let out a bunch of youse for some training exercise. Nobody's ever been this lucky to find a pack in such a weakened state. Usually, we're the ones carted off to jail."

"Anyway, let's haul ass before the big 'uns come to help." He roughly lifted Suzume up and managed to get a better look. He frowned. "Hmm?" He narrowed his eyes and seized Suzume's face until her face felt like it was bending. "A... girl?"

A bandit whistled. "Rare, those."

"Which sells more, a girl 'un or a boy?"

"Idjit," a man slapped the other over the head. "A girl obviously."

"What should we do? Go after the poisoned one?"

Suzume's eyes blazed at these words and the hawk who'd been circling above them the entire time let out a cry and dived down toward them. It clawed out the eye of the bandit holding her and he let out a horrible screech of agony, clutching at his face.

In the chaos, Suzume had managed to get out of her bonds and sent out a flurry of kunai into at least six of them. The remaining few hurried back to their camels and re-equipped their ropes and bows.

Suzume wrenched out the arrow in her bad shoulder and threw it so it plucked a bandit off of his mount.

Suzume eyed the rest with hazy eyes and her breaths rattled in her ears. She hoped she bought enough time for the boys to escape, she won't let a single one catch up.

Slipping out a few shuriken, one flew out directed at the far right one and another followed it. The one thrown first ricocheted off the last so a sharp turn was applied on it. A poof and the shuriken grew ten times its size. A shriek and the men were ducking for their lives.

But it didn't hit as many as Suzume wanted and she was still outnumbered and more importantly exhausted. The men recovered themselves and ropes were swinging again and Suzume knew she wouldn't be able to escape this time around and so did the bandits. 

A rope swung...

... then shredded into pieces.

Suzume could see the kunai which zipped through the coils sink into the man's stomach. It was perfect precision.

Ritsu came flying in with a kick and another was thrown off his camel which snorted in surprise when the shinobi landed atop of it. He flipped when a cord of rope came swinging at his head and he caught it on another swing and pulled to bring the user up high into the sky. The poor bandit landed a mile away.

Ritsu glowered intimidatingly down at the rest of them. "Who else wants to jump over the moon?"

The men flinched away from him and, taking in their precarious situation, high tailed it out of there, picking up their injured.

Ritsu and Suzume watched them scamper away and Ritsu landed back on the ground off of the camel's back and he led the animal by the harness toward Suzume.

Without a word, he picked her up by the scruff of her shirt and unceremoniously flung her onto the camel. After getting her bearings, Suzume stared widely down at him.

"Don't think anything unnecessary. I only helped you because you were the only one who knew where we're supposed to go. It's too late to turn back now."

He urged the camel forward again and Suzume let him lead the camel back to Akira. Loading up their things, and placing the sickly but happy (Ritsu scowled, 'shut up, man') Akira between them on the back of the camel, Ritsu steered them onward per Suzume's instructions.

After a few more arduous hours, the sun was rising along with the silhouette of palm trees on the horizon. Ritsu took in a small inhale through his parched lips.

"An uncharted oasis..."

"I told you..." Akira giggled behind him.

"The dying one should keep quiet."

Waiting for them on the edge of the oasis, were medic nin, their Jonin captain, and Ryu the snake.

The medics couldn't wait until the kids got to them so they closed the gap themselves and stopped them midway. They swiftly tended to Akira and Ritsu while an uncomfortable Suzume shook them off and went to greet Ryu.

Sand swirled upward beside Baki and solidified into the grainy likeness of Gaara. The clone considered his old mentor's expression.

"There really was an oasis here," Baki whispered so only the clone could hear, "and the other one dried out a few months ago. How in the world did she know?"

They watched Suzume pet the snake which was now around her shoulders again.

"Does that mean she can pinpoint the locations of oases?" Baki thought aloud.

"I'm not sure," Gaara's clone said, now watching the medic nin freak out because holy shit this kid was holding a rattlesnake. "I've never been sure about things concerning our little sister."

Ritsu was the one who calmed down the medic nin and assured them the snake won't hurt Suzume, although in all intensive purposes didn't make sense.

The medics backed off, though reluctantly.

"We'll talk more at home." Gaara crumbled back to sand.

Baki collected himself and went to join the three genin. Akira was bandaged up, given an antidote, and resting against the base of a palm tree, woozy from exhaustion and pain killers. Ritsu was knelt beside him, fretting over him while Suzume stood to the side with her snake. As the medic bustled around, packing up their equipment behind him, Baki stopped in front of them and they all looked over at him.

How young they all were. Baki never got used to the way young shinobi held such a mature, soldier-like air about them. How many times had he seen the light in their eyes drain away as they entered the world much too early?

It was unnecessary. Blot out their existence and the world could carry on as it is. But they were there, existing, taking on a load until their knees buckled. No child should be living such a life. When he was their age, he promised himself if he ever did have children, he'd never let them be shinobi. But that didn't stop the millions who would.

Ritsu has managed to stay afloat if only for his crutch Akira, but once Akira crumbles when he is given a glimpse into their world, Baki could only hope they could support each other.

And Suzume... Baki never hated her. The first impression he got from her was how she was one of the few who might be able to detach herself from it all. She was strong, she endured so much as a child and yet she still managed to hold the laughter in her eyes. His kids had been drawn into the light they were missing it seemed.

But how much longer until she was snuffed out as well.

"I've never seen such a rickshaw wreck of an assessment as this one in my entire career," he said sternly now. "You three have horrible chemistry, the biggest egos, and hell all three of you left one or more people behind to potentially die in the desert alone. Do you know how idiotic that was?!"  

Ritsu and Akira flinched but didn't argue at Baki's tongue-lashing and Suzume stared down at her feet.

Baki reeled in his fatherly scolding and sighed, "But you got here. Together. Above all else, that's what matters."

"Congratulations. You're officially a team registered under the Sand village," he said with a wide grin. "Looking forward to working with you, Special Operations."