Kankuro had his hands shoved into his pants pockets and he was playing with his tongue in uncertainty. He glanced over at Suzume who was walking beside him holding an umbrella to keep her cool. Her face was as empty of emotion as it always was.

That morning, Temari had pushed Suzume toward Kankuro instructing him to spend a day with her.

"Out of the three of us, you're the most expressional," she had whispered secretively in his ear. "You have to instruct her about emotions."

"How the hell do I do that?"

"Figure something out!"

Kankuro sighed, violently messing up his brown hair. "If anything I should be grateful you didn't decide to teach her, spiked Temari," he grumbled under his breath. "You'd defeat Gaara in a rage match any day. I'm glad you won't be able to taint Suzume with your sadistic personality."

"Did you say something, Kankuro-sama?"

"Nothing at all," he took a sweeping gaze of the village around him, hoping to find a clue in the midst of the bustling area on how to go about completing this impossible task. "Do you want to watch a film?"

Suzume's frown deepened in thought. "Wouldn't that be a waste of money?"

"Don't say that, jan," Kankuro grabbed her hand and practically dragged her over to the cinema.

"But you're simply sitting in a dark room watching pixels move."

"Haven't you ever wanted to watch a movie reel when you were on the streets?"

"No," Suzume's heels were digging up a trench as she couldn't fight with Kankuro's strength as he pulled. "I wanted to eat."

They reached the front of the movie theater. "Okay, if you're worried about the money think of it as a learning experience," Kankuro instructed as he scanned the names of the movies on the bulletin board. "I want you to keep track of every emotion that the actors are conveying to the audience and report to me afterwards."

He realized something and turned apologetically to his sister. "Sorry, I acted like a shinobi captain, jan."

Suzume shook her head. "No need for apologies. I'll try my best."

Kankuro smiled and returned to trying to pick out a movie. He reluctantly chose a romance film as that would probably have a lot of emotional scenes and the fact that it was on at that very moment came into play as well. Once they got inside, he grabbed some popcorn, a drink, and candy then headed to the theater room.

"Fujikaze Yukie is acting as the main protagonist in this one," a girl in front of the pair whispered to her friend. "The movie was ranked four stars."

"Whoa... it must be good. I'm going to cry so much."

"I brought tissues just in case."

Kankuro looked over at Suzume and she was chomping on the popcorn, not interested at all. The lights dimmed down and the curtain opened to reveal the screen. The camera began to roll and Kankuro's eyes began to droop. He saw the opening credits before he fell into a deep sleep.

Where... where am I?

Everything was silky, dark, and fragile. It was like a pool of water during a late night. He lifted a hand and reached out. His touch created ripples on the surface but he didn't feel any wetness.

This is a dream.

Kankuro lifted his gaze and it landed on a figure a couple of feet away.

Who...

The boy looked to be about Temari's age and he had raven hair and ebony eyes that reminded Kankuro of Suzume. Kankuro squinted, trying to make out more but something was keeping him from doing so. It was static-y around the boy's silhouette and if he didn't concentrate enough, it was like the teen wasn't there at all.

The boy was staring at him, as if sizing him up. Kankuro didn't feel cocky or confident as he usually should have in the face of a stranger that looked like he wanted a fight. No. He felt nervous and uneasy but he wasn't sure why.

The guy seemed to be done speculating him and closed his eyes, appearing to have made a heart wrenching decision. He inhaled and then exhaled as if letting something go. He opened his eyes again and stared daggers at Kankuro. He said something and before Kankuro could respond, the guy vanished.

"Kankuro-sama..."

"Hmm?" Kankuro's eyelids fluttered, somewhat registering that the lights were on and rudely awakening him.

Somebody shook him. "Kankuro-sama."

The male brunette remembered something and his eyes opened with a snap and he hopped onto his feet. "I'm awake! I'm awake!"

He was yelling at an empty theater. He stood stock still, trying to process everything.

"The movie is over, Kankuro-sama," Suzume said up to him.

Kankuro sat back down into his seat and ran a hand through his hair. "Ugh... What the hell was that...?"

Even right then, the dream was slipping away. If he wasn't careful it would seem like it didn't occur at all. He didn't know why it was so important to remember it, he just knew it was.

"Suzume," he said urgently. "Do you have a pen?"

Suzume handed one over to him and he placed the tip of it onto his arm, letting his instincts lead his hand in jotting down what was important. Suzume watched.

After he was done, he retracted the pen and observed his work.

She is the world itself. Nurture her with love and compassion if you don't want to see her crumble.

"What does that mean?" Kankuro wracked his head.

"That's the dialogue from the movie," Suzume said.

Kankuro twisted around violently to face her. "What?!"

"That's what the main protagonist's teacher told her husband," Suzume elaborated. "It was something of a big deal. Everyone was sobbing. I think it was because the teacher was a father figure to her and he was letting the girl go."

"Really?" Kankuro played with his tongue. He felt like something was missing.

"We should go, Kankuro-sama," Suzume stood from her seat. "The janitor is sending hostility our way."

"Right..."

. . . .

They were walking back to the mansion as Suzume relayed all the information she had gathered about the movie to Kankuro. He listened as intently as he could while still brooding over what his dream could've meant. If he thought about it logically, it wouldn't have meant anything. It could've been something his subconscious generated as he was listening to the movie play. But if that were the case, who had that guy been? Kankuro had never met him before and dreams usually use past knowledge. He doubted he could create a character like that on his own.

"What I didn't understand was why he got angry when it was the truth," Suzume was saying.

"It was because it was the truth that he got angry," Kankuro explained. "He hated that part of him and it enraged him when it was brought up."

The little girl contemplated on that. "And also, why were they sad when she fell ill? Everyone dies, she was just going a bit sooner."

Kankuro found himself paused in the middle of the empty road. Something was screaming at him from inside. Something telling him to run before it was too late.

"Kankuro-sama?" Suzume called worriedly.

He gazed at her and he couldn't stop it. He couldn't stop this indescribable and unreasonable fear enveloping him and that fear being conveyed on his face. Suzume's eyes widened.

"Are you okay?"

Kankuro lowered his head and gazed blindly at the words written on his arm. They just augmented that nonsensical sense of distress. He clenched his fists. "It's because she fell ill that they were sad..."

Suzume listened to him quietly, patiently.

"It's because she was going a bit sooner that they were sad," Kankuro attempted to steady his breathing. "Who wouldn't be sad to see their loved one die before it was their natural time? People shouldn't have their lives cut short, whatever the reason."

Why was he so sad? This didn't make any sense.

"When people love others, they're selfish. They want them to live whatever the cost. Even if it costs their own life."

"But, if they're selfish, wouldn't they want to live themselves?"

Kankuro reclaimed his composure, breathing regularly. He unclenched his hands. "When you love someone, their lives overrule your own."

Kankuro's eyes enlarged when he felt someone's arms around him. He saw the umbrella that had been cast aside on the side of the street.

"Suzume?"

She didn't reply, but tightened her hold on him. Kankuro's mouth perked into a small smile and he lifted his arms to return the embrace, but before he could.

"Suzume!?" he exclaimed in alarm as Suzume's arms fell to her sides weakly and she slumped all her weight onto him.

He kneeled down and when he flipped her over in his grip, he saw that her eyes had turned all swirly and her head was wobbly. "Sha...de..."

Kankuro's worry dissipated and he scoffed, smiling amusedly. She had just fainted because of the direct sunlight. He adjusted his sitting position in order to cast his shadow over her head. "You little brat... worrying me like that..."

He glided his fingers over her forehead to move some stray hairs out of her face. She scrunched up her face at his touch.

"Kankuro-sama..."

Kankuro smiled down at her.

_ _ _

Temari rubbed her eyes and checked the clock. It was already past midnight. Her eyes slid over to see three stacks of paper and files. She sighed and considered finishing the next morning.

There was a knock on her door and she muttered an absentminded 'come in'. Gaara appeared in the doorway.

"Gaara," she greeted in surprise. He rarely ever comes in to visit her in her room. "Did you need something?"

Gaara shook his head. "Suzume was worried about you, so we came by."

Temari then noticed a pair of eyes peering over Gaara's shoulder. She couldn't help but feel a bit pleased, but then that pleasure morphed into ill intentions.

She got up from her desk and walked over to Gaara. She placed her hands on his shoulders and Gaara felt her nails dig into his clothes and skin. He looked up and confirmed that he shouldn't have walked willingly into the lion's cave.

Temari smiled frighteningly. "You'll help me, won't you, ototo?"

"Of course..."

Temari nodded and turned her attention on Suzume. "Why don't you wake up Kankuro, Suzume? We might as well have the whole family here."

A few minutes later, a disgruntled Kankuro was yawning in the middle of Temari's floor. "I wanna sleep!"

A bunch of papers attacked Kankuro in the face and he toppled over backwards. "After you finish those," Temari told him.

"I don't wanna~" Kankuro wormed his way over to Temari's bed. "I'm not like Gaara and Suzume~ I don't have magical powers to keep me awake~"

"Gosh, you're such a whiny kid," Temari said as he crawled into bed and hugged the sheets and pillow to his chest. "And Suzume was so excited about serving us some revitalizing tea and snacks."

Kankuro slowly sat back up and glared over his shoulder at his sister. "Smartass."

"Just hurry up and finish the paperwork," Temari straightened out her papers. "While you were complaining, Gaara finished half of his."

"Yeah, yeah," Kankuro leaned against the wall that the bed was propped up against, pulling one knee up and the other folded sideways while flipping through his papers.

Temari was reading through a couple of reports. A bunch of people were petitioning against the new educational reform based on the Konoha curriculum, a few teachers want to end the student's tradition of targeting and killing street animals after they graduated from the academy as a sort of coming of age ceremony, and one of the children's parents were suing because they believe the person who raped their daughter is a teacher in the school.

She didn't give any of the news a second glance. It wasn't as bad as it was back when she was still a student, this was nothing compared to then. Conspiracies, murder, kidnappings, bombings, they happened every other week and her father had been trapped in his office trying everything to fix up this hovel of a village all the while attempting to keep his own son under strict surveillance. Temari had, at the time, barely seen her father and since they lost their mother, she was the one watching over Kankuro and herself. She had watched their family fall apart and she was the one who had to keep it together.

Temari's eyes strayed over to fixate on Gaara, who was speeding through the files exceptionally. Back then, she only worried about her and Kankuro's wellbeing, completely disregarding Gaara's existence and had even been relieved that their uncle had been taking care of him. She thought that if she somehow reached out to her littlest brother, that things might have been different. That their father would be alive, that they would've been a happy family, even if their mother had passed.

The blonde regretted forsaking Gaara, more so now that he proved to be such a caring, albeit stoic, young man.

"Hey, Gaara," Temari whispered.

Gaara heard and he looked up at her. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry."

"It's not a problem really. I'm glad to help with your-"

"No, that's not why I'm apologizing."

Gaara's invisible eyebrows creased. "Then, why..."

"Just... sorry."

Gaara didn't question her further.

Suzume was standing outside the door. Her hands were occupied with the tray full of drinks and onigiri that she had no idea how to turn the knob. Hisoka was by her feet, looking up at her like she was saying, 'what now?'. When she was contemplating how to open the door, it opened by itself and Temari was smiling down at her.

"Thanks," Temari emptied Suzume of the tray and went back inside the room.

"Temari-sama," Suzume said quickly.

"Yeah?"

"How did you... I mean..."

Temari grinned and, after handing the tray to Kankuro, went over to flick her little sister on the head. Suzume rubbed the spot and looked up at her.

"Hey, did you grow?" Temari asked, measuring the top of Suzume's head.

"Um... I don't know..."

Temari's grin broadened. "Oh, I see. It's because you're not looking down anymore."

Suzume's lips parted as she looked up at the blonde, there was nothing she could say to that.

"Suzume!" Kankuro yelled behind Temari. "These are delicious, jan!"

"Oi, Kankuro!" Temari marched up to her brother. "Save some for us too!"

Hisoka crawled into Gaara's lap, and the redhead slid a hand down its back as the blue cat purred. Temari handed him a cup of tea and she noticed that Suzume was still standing in the doorway.

She laughed. "What're you doing standing there idiotically?"

Kankuro patted the space of bed next to him, his mouth filled with rice. "You can just relax. We'll be done in no time."

Suzume nodded and went over to sit beside Kankuro on the bed.