In the Koyo territory, on the outskirts of the border was a pitstop town for travelers. The streets were lined with pubs and motels and storefronts with wares displayed and spilling onto the road, most either rusted or dilapidated in a certain way which would usually null their worth. Buildings were boarded up and collapsing, their inhabitants long gone. Dust and sand sullied the air and coated every surface.

Three figures emerged from this dust, their cloaks swelling in the breeze and their head scarves pulled high over their faces. They were heading toward the only place where life still dwelled-- a bar three stories tall with the sign declaring its name hanging from a single hinge, the ink too faded to make out its meaning. A couple of people on the street kept their eyes on them warily and, aware of how noisy it was going to get, quickly shuffled out of the area.

One of the smaller of the three broke away and pulled up a leg and swung it forward, blasting it inward, flying until it fell and slid across the floor. All eyes were drawn to where the figures were standing framed in the now wide doorway.

The kicker lowered their leg again and their companions were just as dumbfounded as the occupants of the bar.

"Was that really necessary?!" the tallest exclaimed. "Can't you walk through a door normally like every other person?!"

"It's too late for that now," the last of the three said, hastily and placating. "Let's get the job done."

"Alright," the tall one acquiesced and turned to the room at large. "We're looking for someone. If you aren't him, we won't have any problems. Just stay where you are while we sweep the area."

"Your authority?" the barkeep asked, going up to them stubbornly.

"Councilman Koyo and the Suna Council," as the tallest said this, all three pulled off their turbans to reveal their forehead protectors and as soon as they did, the room's atmosphere shifted and some of the customers shrunk back.

One particular man reacted severely and dashed deeper into the building. The smallest shinobi went after him in a blur.

Ritsu sighed and pressed a button on his radio, "Target is coming your way with Jackrabbit close on his tail."

"Roger," was the staticy reply.

"Let's hurry and catch up," Ritsu said turning to Akira.

"Wait a minute!" The barkeep stood in their way. "You lot owe me a door!"

"...Ah."

Out of the town and trailing forward deeper into the empty desert was the prey and the predator. Suzume's team was assigned the more uneventful part of the mission and her job was to lead the man into a trap they laid out ahead.

The two teams they were working with this time around was a tracking team who already pulled out having done their function and standing by just in case the others failed and they were needed again.

Suzume saw the signal and stopped her pursuit.

"Raiton: Thunder Spear!"

A strike of lightning charged up the air and came crashing down onto the man. Suzume squinted at the bright flash and it slowly faded away again until the desert was left dull once more.

"Why did we need to be here?" an annoyed voice complained. "I don't think we needed to bring this many people just to recover a deadbeat Genin rogue."

"It's justa be safe, Toru-kun!" responded his teammate.

"All you do is whine and whine and whine and whine..." said the other, the sentence went on and on long enough to feel Toru's agitation grow with each word.

"Shut the fuck up, Otaki!"   

Suzume's own team caught up by then and the three of them went to join their partners. The team was made up of Toru, Otaki, and Katsuo and are primarily also Special Operations.

Toru was technically a flunker back in his last year of schooling after he was barred from graduating because of an assault on a civilian and should've graduated in Ritsu's year, but through his familial connections he wasn't placed in the Remedial class and remained in the main building.

Otaki was one of the top students of the year and had hardly a good reputation among his peers, until Katsuo showed up. He was becoming a forgotten name, though he didn't really mind anymore.

Katsuo, against all expectations, was the ace of the team. He had been a mediocre student at best until he struck a gold mine with his natural affinity of lightning and eventually being considered one of the few ninjutsu experts in the Genin year. His arrival in Otaki's life had made a positive impact in the ex-bully's personality defects, becoming unexpected friends in the process.

As Katsuo and Otaki roped the unconscious Genin up, Toru stood to the side watching boredly. He looked up at the sound of their approaching footsteps and complete dislike came through on his face.

"Looks like you haven't changed, Toru," Ritsu said.

"And you've changed quite a bit," he replied, sneering. He was wearing his scarf as a turban. "Still going around looking like that? Didn't know you had the balls."

"Nice. How long have you been waiting to say that one?" Ritsu noticed Otaki and Katsuo gawking at him with stars in their eyes and shaking in excitement. "Uh..."

"We're the biggest fans," Katsuo said, shaking in excitement until little bolts of electricity zapped around his body. "I would shake ya hand, but--"

"That might not be the best idea," Ritsu grimaced. "It's nice to meet you anyway. I've heard about you too. Cool shtick you got there."

Katsuo brightened at the compliment and muttered out a string of incoherent sounds.

"How'd you get to be the best in the rank in under a year?" Otaki had stars in his eyes, "Do you have any training secrets?"

"Uh, not really."

"Fucking awesome," Otaki said in an awestruck voice.

Toru gagged and hit him upside the head. "Stop drooling over the weirdo."   

"The Jonin captains are coming," Akira informed them and everyone immediately stood at attention.

The three captains and the tracking and locating team landed in front of them. One of the captains walked up to the rogue and searched their person for their forehead protector and placed it upside down covering his eyes. They then briskly headed back to the village.

Before they split up into their formation, Otaki and Katsuo seemed to be eyeing Suzume nervously and were about to say something before Suzume left to provide support on the left flank and they were forced to take theirs on the right. None missed this interaction, but refrained from commenting on it.

The journey was uneventful and the teams arrived home a few hours later. They escorted their prisoner to the T&I building and the Jonin left their teams to fill out paperwork.

"Suzume-san!"

Suzume stopped in her tracks and turned, wide eyed, to see Katsuo and Otaki approaching her.

"I... we... I.... Ah...." Katsuo was having trouble finding the words, creating static electricity by rubbing his hands together.

"We'd like to say sorry," Otaki said for him, "sorry for tricking and attacking you."

"Really sorry," Katsuo reiterated earnestly. "We were in the wrong and hope ya can forgive us."

Suzume kept staring at them, her eyebrows high on her forehead before she nodded slowly.

Katsuo sighed in relief. "I also want'ta thank ya for discoverin' my hidden talent. It was because of ya I figured out I was a natural at the lightning affinity."

Suzume nodded again.

Katsuo was going to speak more but something interrupted him.

"Hey, you two!" Toru called as he strode over to them. "What're you doing? We need to do the post-mission meeting."

"Oh, we were just," Katsuo turned back to see Suzume gone, "talkin'..."

"What?" Toru said in agitation, peering over to see what he was looking at.

"Nothin' important," Katsuo said this time, smiling.

"A fucking dog!" Otaki burst out after having been in silent contemplation for a while, a smile splitting his face. "That's what it was!"

"Whatcha talkin' about?" Katsuo asked as Toru lifted an eyebrow.

"Doesn't her stare remind you of a dog?" Otaki said and after the realization dawned on the other two as well, his excitement at the revelation swelled. "Right?"

"Yeah... you're right...."

Otaki made the connection because of the way dogs looked at people. Expectant, curious, a bit confused, and overall innocent, as in unexplainably trusting. Of course, he didn't reach deeper to this sophisticated of an analysis, and only scraped the surface, though he was satisfied with that as he got the answer to a question which has been bothering him for a time.

"Let's talk over noodles," he said cheerfully now, placing an arm over each of his teammates' shoulders and leading them roughly away.

_ _ _

Gaara was back under the tree.

After camping in his room for a good amount of days, Suzume abandoned it to sleep under the tree after the graduation examination and slept for a week as she does. Worried, however, about how she walked toward it like she was possessed and then collapsed, the three siblings and an occasional Baki (he had to postpone the meeting between the team because of the sleeping) would go out and stare down at her as she slept.

"Is she dead?" Temari had asked once as she tilted her head down at Suzume.

"No, look, she's breathing," Kankuro responded.

"... she looks dead."

And so Gaara's suspicions of the tree were renewed.

It seemed like the surprises were never ending. When he thought there wasn't anything left, it just kept coming.

"And the only thing," Gaara whispered now, his piercing gaze slipping upward to the branches above him, "the only thing reappearing constantly is you."

The bells hanging here and there amongst the leaves chimed as a breeze flew through; the rustle of the leaves was a breath released. The fertile earth at the tree's feet was expanding outward and green grass peeked through as if it were intending to conquer the desert.

More animals than ever were gathering on the Kazekage grounds until Gaara wondered where they could've come from. It being the desert and all, animals do not tend to be so bold here, so what about this tree is summoning them there.

"But why would you call my sister?" Gaara's voice was spiked with intimidation and for a second he was surprised and had to remind himself he was speaking to a tree.

Closing and rubbing his eyes, Gaara calmed himself with a deep breath. He made a rash decision on the spot to an idea he'd been mulling over in his head for months; he was going to pay a visit.

His eyes opened to the glow of a sickly yellowish-green hue, his skin absorbing the color into his pigmentation until he felt the need to scrub it off. And in front of him was the hulking figure of the tea kettle demon, his back to the human and his tail wagging side to side in a lackadaisical rhythm; splashing into the water and then sluggishly being pulled out again.

"Shukaku." Gaara had visited the beast with a cool head only once after the Konoha Crush before beginning radio silence with him. Shukaku had been the source of his torment for all his life and visiting him in this place had been as easy as it was hard. The meeting had went as well as he expected, Shukaku had been livid, biting out how Gaara was never going to be a good person and how he'd make sure of it. Gaara wasn't really sure, at the time, why he'd went out of his way to speak to his childhood trauma. Now, he knew it was to really look at Shukaku for the first time and confirming to himself "ah, I survived the worst of it."

Shukaku was good on his word and every day and night afterwards, the headaches were worse than he'd ever experienced and the voices never stopped speaking. But, he didn't bend. He'd endure it. He wouldn't give in because this time, he controlled himself. Let his inner demons rage and riot and go through tantrum after tantrum. He wouldn't even acknowledge it. It just meant he was winning.

And as he stood before his beast again, Shukaku was ignoring him like a pouting child.

"You know something," Gaara began. When Shukaku didn't respond, he tried a different approach. "Why did you go silent? You said you'd make the pain I felt in the past nothing compared to the hell you'd give me from then on."

The beast made a huffing snort of contempt but still didn't speak.

"You would never shut up before and now you're not speaking at all," Gaara said this time, crossing his arms across his chest. "It's not like you get any visitors, so I'd think you'd like some company."

Shukaku's tail flopped down into the water mid-wag as he rose to the bait, unable to keep his mouth shut for long. "Hmmph. Who'd want to talk to a brat like you?"

"You. For the past thirteen years. Nonstop."

"I don't remember you being so talkative. You always shook when you were the size of my eye, and then after a while you were fun. You were so eager. Now you're so irritating."

"Aren't you referring to yourself?"  

Shukaku's whole body spun violently around so wave after wave of water swept passed. Gaara stood his ground as Shukaku roared into his face, his mouth opening twice the size of Gaara's body and teeth like blades embedded into gum. "Looks like you've forgotten fear because of a little calm! Don't forget, boy, who made you commit murder after murder! I will not be looked down upon by mere a child of man!"

"A mere child of man who is your cage."

Gaara stared into Shukaku's beady, golden eyes and, for a while, the tailed beast and boy studied each other. Shukaku then smiled, his mouth curling until his pearly teeth--green in the glow- was framed perfectly row by row.

And then, he spoke.

"Gaara." It was a woman's voice. "I've missed you."

Gaara couldn't help shrinking in on himself, his straight-backed demeanor bending under the discomfort and cowering.

When Shukaku noticed the reaction, his eyes alighted with sadistic cruelty. His body warped and twisted like a whirlpool until it shrunk down and then solidified again into the image of Gaara's mother.

Gentle indigo eyes and a kind face. She raised her hands. "Won't you give your mother a hug?"

"I will not play this game with you."

"But I love you, Gaara," the words slipped like poison, "with all my heart."

The words came so easily. "She never loved me."

Karura's face fell, as did her outstretched arms. "Is that so...?" Cracks skittered across her skin and dried sand showered down her form until it dwindled away to reveal the likeness of Rasa. "Just like me."

Gaara regarded his father in what appeared to be quiet indifference as Rasa approached him with that look.

"Well," Rasa said as he walked over, "I suppose, now, you have different fears."

The top of Rasa's head split until the halves became their own in the forms of Kankuro and Temari.

"Don't you think you've put too much trust in us," they said, their voices mixing disconcertingly. "After all, you were our monster for twelve years. You took away our mother, our uncle, our peace. You don't think we'd hate you?"

"They have every right to hate me." Gaara said, "but they're too kind."

"Humans can never be too kind for long."

Gaara braced himself for the next but Shukaku remained appearing as his two eldest siblings. "Why are you stalling?"

"Huh?" Shukaku's voice said from within his two siblings.

"I'm waiting to see my sister."

Temari lifted an eyebrow, looking at Gaara like he was crazy. "I'm right here. Hating you."

"I have more than one sister."

Both Kankuro and Temari's smirks fell like weights and their bodies were pulled upward and then twisted together, sand exploded outward until the cloud was contained into the bulking shape of Shukaku.

"Whatever..." he sulked, turning his back once more.

Gaara's voice stopped him before he could return to his lounging position. "Why won't you transform into Suzume? You're the originator of the Transformation jutsu, it's not that you can't..."

Shukaku's ear flicked and Gaara's lips parted in surprise. "You can't..." he whispered and then louder, "you can't transform into her? There are restrictions even for you?"

"But why?" Gaara persisted. "Is it you or her?"

"So many questions. Look at him, his eyes are sparkling." Shukaku sunk back down and relaxed. "What do you think?"

"It doesn't matter what I think. I need to know the truth."

"How about you ask her yourself?"

"Suzume doesn't know."

"Isn't that just what you think?" Shukaku grumbled wryly. "After all, the kid wouldn't be able to do the 'transformation jutsu', as you humans call it, either."

"What?"

Shukaku slowly rolled around so he could give Gaara a look. "Yeah... isn't that why she did something different during that- what was it again- graduation thing?"

Gaara's mouth creased into a frown. "She never said anything like that."

"Well, what do you expect, you two haven't been really talking in a while, or didn't you notice?"

"We've been talking."

"Oh, I see!" Shukaku let out a howl of laughter. "You haven't noticed!"

"What is it?" Gaara was getting irritated.

Shukaku finally brought his laughter under control and blinked his iridescent eyes. "Fine. I'll give you something to gnaw on."

He lowered his head to lay in front of Gaara and he growled out these words,

"Search the kid's room."

Shukaku roared before Gaara could respond and the sound vibrated inside of him.

It was when a leaf floated down onto his face Gaara realized he was back at looking at the revived snag.

"He..." Gaara gawked, "kicked me out."

Indignant, his footsteps landed slightly more heavily than usual as he headed back inside. "I should charge him rent..." he grumbled as he shut the door behind him.

Search the kid's room.

Gaara wouldn't do that, because Temari and Kankuro told him before that it was an invasion of privacy when he did it to them almost two years ago.

Search the kid's room.

He wouldn't do it. This is what Tailed Beasts do best. They whisper things, tempt you, corrupt you-- Gaara wouldn't succumb to it again.

But he found himself in front of the corridor leading into the first floor bedrooms. He found his feet sliding to lead him down the hall and his eyes fixated on the door of Suzume's room. Now that he's thought of it, he's never visited. Suzume had always come to him. The only glimpse he's had of it was when he let Hisoka in that one day.

He'd knock.

There was no answer. Then he'd crack the door open a bit.

Suzume wasn't there. Of course she wasn't, she was out on a mission.

He'd only look around, it's not like he'd find anything.

The bed was placed against the far wall underneath the portal window with the desk placed perpendicular on the left. The desk was messy, even as Gaara walked in papers slipped off the top onto the floor. The chair had the lingering presence of someone once occupying it as Suzume probably rushed away from her work to her mission.

Gaara went over to scoop up the papers and laid them back onto the table. Soiled bandages were curled up on the side along with the wide open first aid kit, books and scrolls with bookmarks and notes, a brush leaning against the side of an inkwell, the paint on its tip starting to dry and crust.

Clothes were thrown messily onto the bed and it was starting to take on that coldness his own bed had maintained.

His sense of nervousness at being here when the occupant was away was gone once an urge to clean up after his sister took over. He pushed in the chair and rinsed out the brush, then he picked up the book laid downward on its pages as well as the other books to close and pile them neatly. He rolled the scrolls back up and stacked them into a pyramid next to the book pile then moved on to the laundry on the bed.

His foot tapped against something sticking out from under the bed, he bent down to push it back in place. As he pushed, the sound of glasses knocking against each other made him stop, and he looked more carefully at the sliver the open lid revealed.

Bottles?

Search the kid's room.

Ignoring the sinking feeling in his stomach, Gaara lifted the lid away.

Gaara slammed down the box of bottles onto the table with an excessive amount of force and Suzume jumped.

Her brother crossed his arms over his chest. "Explain."

Suzume looked up at him, befuddled. "It's poison."

"For mithridatism," he finished for her. "You aren't supposed to be starting this until you're a Chunin."

"Gaara-sama, Temari, and Kankuro all did mithridatism when you were little kids."

"That was during a different time. That was during and after the Second Shinobi war. There was more at stake then."

"I'm a shinobi too."

"But are we in war, are you a Chunin?"

Suzume shrank in her seat. "No..."

"Mithridatism requires intensive supervision. Doing this without even telling anyone--"

"I told someone. It just wasn't you."

A twinge of pain rattled in his chest. "Who?"

"Sakyu-sama."

Gaara's arms unravelled and lowered to his sides. "How do you know him?"

"We met at the village archives and he's taught me a lot, he helped me."

"Just like he taught you about nature affinities?"

Gaara realized the truth of it just as he was letting it slip out of his mouth and for some reason, when Suzume's expression said everything as he once thought he only knew how it did, something was left bitter and hot inside him.

"Don't involve yourself with him anymore."

Suzume's eyes became frightened. "Why?"

"I don't want you associating with a person who would convince you to do something like this." He regarded the box of poison with a harsh expression.

Gaara saw something pinch Suzume's face. "It was my choice to start mithridatism. Sakyu-sama warned me about it too and he's making sure I'm not doing it wrong. I think he's a good person."

He frowned. "If you really insist on continuing, I will help you. I won't let a stranger be in charge of your well being. You're not--"

The phone began to ring and Gaara's attention immediately shifted, he missed the way Suzume clutched at the fabric of her pants when it did. He went over to the hall to pick it up. "Hello... Speaking."  

Suzume got up from her chair as well and gathered the poison in her arms. "I don't need your help, Gaara-sama. I have Sakyu-sama's help."

"Just a moment." Gaara placed a hand over the mouthpiece and leaned back into view of the dining room. "Suzume. We're not done." Garbled yelling recalled his focus and the phone reattached to his ear. "Yes. I'm headed down there now."

As soon as he dropped the phone, it rang again. "Hello? The shipment is due to arrive tomorrow. No... No... We've discussed this already."

Suzume was about to take the servant stairs when Gaara's voice made her freeze.

"Suzume." In a low, cold tone, Gaara spoke, his gaze burning the back of her head. "Leave those here."

When Gaara returned to the mansion late that night, after dealing with some business, all he found were the poisons abandoned on the table.