The cart jolted and rumbled and the people within it sat silently. They were crammed together, shoulders pushed against the others and bags shoved between their legs or else hugged to their chest on their lap. Breaths hung in the air. One of them fidgeted and rubbed their palms together for some sort of heat. Another, bulkier and taller, was taking on the perilous task of pouring a cup of hot tea from a thermos.

They passed it along to their comrades and everyone accepted it gratefully.

When the last received it, the wagon came to a lurching stop and the boiling tea went flying. With a gesture of a hand, sand engulfed it and the wet grains were tossed outside.

They heard their driver disembark and his footsteps coming around the wagon until light flooded in when he lifted the tarp and peeked in with his lamp. "We've arrived."

One by one, the group hopped off and the smallest looked off into the distance to see the lights of the town in the dense dark of the night.

A hand landed on her shoulder and she looked over to see a wrinkled face. She saw the question in his eyes, one she wasn't sure how to answer. She took in a deep breath and nodded.

The two of them turned to regard their comrades one last time before the group gradually split up into twos and threes and lost sight of each other.

She and her partner for the mission were headed into the lights.

The place was more crowded than the village but less organized than the bazaar by the port town. Instead of inviting smiles and clear calls to come visit their storefront, the market's inhabitants had ill intent leers and raspy voices throwing out shady comments.

The pair passed by loitering men brandishing knives and smoking something that smelled of skunk. They even glimpsed someone on their knees in front of another in the darkness of an alleyway. The taller then pulled the smaller away from the view as quickly as possible.

Suzume was disguised as an errand boy, dressed in simple but uniformed attire, her hair bunched up in a bushy tail not unlike Ritsu's, and makeup heavy on her face. Makeup placed to make her look more masculine, her cheeks more angular, her eyebrows bushier, and paint and prosthetic to create a nasty burn mark on her cheek indicating her servitude. Her voice range was lowered slightly.

The others didn't need the extra effort as they were all under their own hengei. Gaara was playing the unremarkable role of an old caretaker, sent with the errand boy to keep an eye on him and teach him the ways of the market. His back was bent over in a hunchback, his clothes draping off of him like the skin of an elephant. His face wrinkled and rough and dry, with red eyes with bags of coal under them.

They were the scouters of this mission. They needed to guarantee that the area was faithful to the research they did beforehand off of a few sketchy documents and maps. The buildings in the same alleyways, their escape routes had to be secured, and their objectives located.

The first two days were their responsibility, after their assurance, the next pair would enter on the third night, the last group on the third day. The moment the second dawn rose, they were the standby backup for the others as they work. Nobody was to draw attention, nobody was to act without everyone's say or without good reason. Failure to do so would mean retreating back and complete failure.

If all went as planned, they would be home in a week's time.

Suzume and Gaara wove through the people in the streets keeping their heads low and their presences weak. Suzume was fidgeting with her shirt as everyone's eyes seemed to be on them with a disconcertingly knowing look and every step she took seemed too suspicious.

Something collided with her in the packed street and her nose flooded with a sour smell. When she tried to pull away, a huge hand latched onto her upper arm roughly. Looking up, a man was grinding his rotting teeth at her.

"Whatcha doin' there, boy? Watch where your steppin'." It was like his voice was going through a grater in his throat.

Suzume stared up at him. Her mind going blank as to what she was supposed to do. She forgot herself for a moment and just stood there dumbly.

The man sneered. "What's that look? You starting something?" He tightened the hold on her arm and lifted her off the ground. "You should know better, slave."

"Sir, please don't hurt him."

Gaara had his head bowed low. Shame returned feeling and awareness back into Suzume at the sight of him.

"He's only a child," Gaara continued to beg. "Please show mercy."

The man cackled. "Now 'ere's someone who knows 'ow to act. You should teach the boy better, old bag."

"Yes, I will from now on," he replied.

"You can have him back then." He chucked Suzume onto the floor and she let herself fall with a grunt. Gaara kept his head down.

"Thank you, sir."

The man spit on Gaara before lumbering off again.

Gaara caught Suzume as she was rushing off in a rage. "Calm down," he ordered firmly.

"But--"

He forced her to look him in the eye. "You will calm down or I'll send you away. Do you understand?"

The restless fire in Suzume's gaze flickered in frustration. She closed her eyes and clamped her mouth shut.

The small alleyway had stained, peeling walls and one of garbage all piled on top of each other against it. The plastic bags rotting until their contents were able to spill out. The slave boy was seated on a footstep that lead up to a door that was barred with wrought iron, looking as if it hadn't been opened for decades. She was staring at the only light colored object in the garbage which was the shoe of a little girl who couldn't have been more than five-years-old.

Footsteps made Suzume's head pop up and she saw Gaara approaching her with a small, plastic bag in his hands. Suzume scooted over to make room for him and he sat down beside her.

He reached into the bag and pulled out a hard-boiled egg. He handed it to her and pulled out his own. They peeled their eggs and bit into them. They were cold.

"We thought this would be difficult for you," Gaara said as he placed the shell into the bag. "You're not compatible with this type of atmosphere. You become more antsy."

Suzume turned to him with bright eyes and said, "Is that why I was assigned with you?"

Gaara sat chewing for a bit before answering. "Strange how you think I'm the right person to keep you calm."

He rose to his feet once more, not giving Suzume a chance to reply. "Let's get to work."

On their grocery list was an inch of imported steel from the land of Iron which was only allowed to be sold by a certain company. Gaara only purchased an inch from a sketchy man down an alley and took a business card from the illegal supplier, while Suzume loitered around the other stalls. Down the street from the supplier was a formidable building with guards stationed in every nook and cranny. The symbol of the Sand was etched into the clay surface with a huge slash across it. The black market would switch between locations every few weeks and this time around they were using an abandoned station the Sand had built years ago.

Gaara eyeballed the entrance and in a single glance, managed to count how many guards there were, how many ways there were to enter, and how accurate the blueprint of the inside they had in their possession would match up compared to how the building looked on the outside.

After he was satisfied he gave the signal through a slight twitch of his fingers. Suzume slipped and while trying to catch herself, grabbed onto a vendor's table and pulled it down with her, their merchandise scattering across the ground.

"Fuck! Look what you did, you little shit!" As the vendor was approaching Suzume with a mallet in his grip, he tripped over Gaara's foot and went flying into his neighbor's stock.

Another highly charged curse word and more crashes, this continued until a riot was bulging in the street.

The two shinobi were concealed on the rooftop as they observed the street fight. Guards were swarming out of the main building to subdue the riot and Gaara's eyes examined each individual, until he locked sight on a particular one.

He placed a hand on Suzume's shoulder and pointed at the woman. Suzume took in her features and confirmed it with a nod to her brother.

They disappeared a moment later.

"Rogue Muna, first rank Jonin, title revoked after accepting an assassination mission on her own superior," Suzume recited. "One of the missing nin from the transfer of prisoners to the Blood Prison. This is good right, Gaara-sama?"

They were walking toward their reserved place for the night and the streets they were using were empty. Suzume had reapplied her makeup as it had gotten smeared. She really couldn't get used to how heavy her face felt.

"We've only confirmed the location of one of the missing nin. It's a significant lead, but it's also only the beginning. Don't let your guard down," Gaara said.

"But it's good?"

Gaara's expression relaxed, "It's good."

The inn was old and worn and Suzume could hear rats scampering around across the floor. As soon as they entered, the front desk was hardly any more than three paces from the door and the temperature didn't change compared to the outside. They could still see their breaths in the air from the frost of the desert night.

Two people entered behind them as Gaara was checking in and Suzume was distracted by the stuffed animal heads hanging on the wall beside her. She unconsciously sidled up closer to Gaara's side and tuned into the conflict he was currently having.

"We had a room to ourselves," he was saying in an obvious dissatisfaction.

"So did we."

Suzume recognized that voice. She slowly looked up to the women who had joined them and saw a person who she never expected to see here. It was the muscular, business woman Ritsu had warned her about back on the escort mission. Except now, she appeared more comfortable in her skin, wearing chainmail, a single pauldron on her right shoulder, and a curved blade wrapped in cloth tied to the side of her hip. Her affable personality was still there but now accompanied with an authoritative way she handles herself.

Suzume quickly looked away once the woman noticed her staring. She seemed to not think much of it and returned to confronting the innkeeper.

"We refuse to share a room," she said as she leaned in with an arm on the counter.

"Good luck trying to find a vacancy anywhere else," the old, lump of a woman said through gold teeth.

The muscular woman heaved a sigh. She turned to her companion and they switched to a different language amongst themselves. Gaara could see the moment when they accepted the situation. The taller woman turned to them.

"Sorry, old man. I hope you don't have a problem with us."

"No problem."

"Good."

The innkeeper slid over two keys across the countertop and the woman snatched up one of them while Gaara took claim of the other. The two women hefted up their things on their shoulders and led the way to their now shared room. Suzume caught Gaara's arm before he could follow.

"Gaara-sama," she whispered, "she was a client during the C-rank. She might recognize me."

He glanced over at the retreating backs of the two and thought quickly.

"We'll deal with it if the time comes. For now, just don't think about it."

Suzume nodded and the two of them hurried to catch up.

The group of four settled into the room meant for two. It was a small square decorated only with a rickety cabinet which had a melting candle and a dusty mirror on the wall above it. If Suzume stood to her full height then her head would scrape across the ceiling, as such the three adults had to bend down to keep from bumping their heads. The window was about a foot off the cracked, adobe floor and a single door leads to the smelly bathroom, which was opened and closed by a sticky cord of rope.

With all four of them squeezed in, there was hardly any room to swing their arms around. The muscular lady sat herself down in one corner of the room and they all followed her example. Suzume kept close to Gaara's side.

"Since we're going to be living together for a good while, why don't we introduce ourselves. I'm Noya and this is my friend Shiori."

"My name is Kichiro," Gaara stated. "This is Akio."

Suzume bowed her head in greeting.

"Nice to be acquainted with you," the companion, Shiori, said. She was slender, especially so compared to Noya, and had more feminine features than the latter. She had long eyelashes that reminded Suzume of a camel's and a long nose with a golden nose ring on her left nostril. Her silvery blonde hair peeked out from her headwrap. She wore leather gloves and also had a weapon concealed in her sash. From what Suzume could tell, it was a dagger.

Shiori caught Suzume staring and smiled kindly. Suzume's eyes darted down to the ground.

"Hey, kid," Shiori was saying, "want a sweetie?"

Suzume slowly looked back at the woman to see a bag of sugar candies extended out to her. She glanced at Gaara for permission and he nodded. She reached over and accepted the candy.

While Suzume ate the candy, her face brightened at the taste, unaware of the sad gaze Shiori had on her.

The adults started up conversation:

"We have merchandise to drop off," Noya said.

"We have merchandise to buy," Gaara replied. "Our household is looking for imported metal."

"Ah, that one, eh? The popular steel from the land of Iron." She nodded. "It's gonna be big, I feel it."

Gaara and the muscular woman fell into a conversation. Suzume meanwhile became aware of the stare the other woman had on her.

"Do you want to be free?" she asked suddenly, interrupting the other two's conversation and making Suzume look up.

"Shiori," Noya said warningly.

"Of course, I'd be extending the invitation to you as well, sir." Shiori met eyes now with Gaara. "We free slaves wherever we go. And it would be a piece of cake to get you two away from your master when you're so far from him already."

She was waiting for his reaction more than his answer. If he was antagonistic at all to the kid showing interest in the offer, than she'd be ready to swoop the kid out of his hands.

The pair looked to each other. The old man then bowed low, the kid following his lead.

"Thank you for the offer. But we serve a kind master and are loyal to him. Please don't mind us."

Shiori frowned, which was broken by a sigh of acceptance. "I can't say I agree with your decision but I respect it. You won't hear another word about it from me."

"And we promise not to reveal what you do to anybody."

"That would be appreciated," Noya said, relaxing.

Soon, they decided to get to bed, none of them bothered washing up, the candle was blown out, and Gaara closed his eyes to feign sleep. He couldn't take a break from his transformation and he can't contact the others as easily with outsiders so close by. He would've preferred the convenience of having a room to themselves, but now they'll have to deal with additional difficulties.

Suzume knew the women lied about their names, because they would call each other Neha and Shun when they spoke to each other in their language. They whispered lowly during the dead of night when they thought the other two were asleep, when really both were unnaturally awake.

"How could you break our cover so easily like that, Shun?" Neha asked. "I almost had a heart attack."

"I apologize, Neha. It's just that I got swept up in emotions because of the kid."

"You always did have a soft spot."

"Children should never be slaves."

Suzume would inform Gaara of what she could understand of the language she had studied it and he hadn't. From what she's gathered, the two really were here to sell off their merchandise, but had an extra errand to take care of when more of their people joined up with them.

Gaara was glad to hear that the strangers didn't suspect anything. Their suspicious activity was common enough with the people in these parts so he didn't think much of how they were acting just as sketchy as he and Suzume were. He eventually told Suzume not to tell him what they were talking about unless it was vital to their mission; she did end up hearing a familiar name in the stranger's talks but didn't tell her brother because of this.

What Gaara was worried about most was if he could keep up the transformation and still be in top condition should something happen. Suzume's disguise was also a problem. Her makeup needed to be applied everyday without their roommates noticing and neither of them were good enough to keep consistency.

He was considering moving to another inn. But that meant informing the others of their relocation, and this inn was deemed the most safe and appropriate for their operations, so moving would make things more complicated.

There was one last, pertinent task they had to do prior to the last day before the next team moved, then perhaps they should risk relocating.

Suzume scaled the main building of the black market, blending in with the shadows and the darkness of a new moon night, and skated around the sides, planting seals which sunk into the cooled adobe. The streets were dead if only for the drunks that stumbled through the alleys and puked. Nobody caught a glimpse of her as she dashed around placing the seals all around the town.

Gaara waited in the room, a clone of him disguised as Suzume as her disguise, Akio, lay sleeping next to him. At the signal, his clone started to cough heavily, waking up the other two. As he supported his clone and helped it to its feet, the women sat up in worry.

"Is he okay?" Shiori asked.

"Sorry to wake you two," Gaara said. "It's just a little fit. He had asthma as a kid and he's been complaining about the dust in the room. We'll be right back."

Gaara escorted his clone out of the room. Once he was far enough, the clone popped away, and he teleported to the alleyway around the side of the inn. He found Suzume there, sitting on a step with makeup on her lap and her hair in disarray.

"Gaara-sama," she said in distress, makeup smeared unprofessionally across her face, "I can't do it."

Gaara exhaled under his breath in relief, then went over to help his sister.

With Suzume's excursion out that night, the two of them were officially on standby. They had to be ready to backup the others should anything go wrong.

Three others joined the population of the black market that same night, but only showed their faces the next morning.

Temari was dressed affluently, a dress and sash, simple but stiff and made with high quality material; a substantially rich lady-in-waiting doing business for her mistress in her stead. Her face was pinched and simple, showing age, her black graying hair tied tight in a bun with a single silver ornament holding it in place.

Kankuro was taking on the role of a burly bodyguard hired to accompany the woman. A bamboo hat was on top of his mane of brown hair and scars like craters along any visible skin. Akira was disguised as a servant girl in patchy clothes and dark black hair tied in a long braid down his back.

Their part of the mission, infiltration.

After that, they were supposed to rendezvous with Gaara to prepare for the next team's arrival.

The three of them approached the most dominating building in the area. The town hall. The vandalized Sand insignia gradually became more and more damaged. Gaara and Suzume may not have mentioned this, but the slash wasn't the only act of disrespect that was done to the sign, although that would've been enough. There was also quick graffiti of curse words wishing death upon the Kazekage and other higher ups, obscenities, and surprisingly good pieces of art, although they too were highly inappropriate.

The shadow of the building met them as they reached the arch before the entrance. There was only half of the door left with bird shit that stained the surface of the building in drips.

The guards stopped them, easy to pull out their weapons to point them at the group. One held out a rusting sword and the other a chipped one, their faces just as equally worn out, not having washed in months.

"Whatcha here fer?" the older one asked, his breath foul.

Kankuro had already stepped forward to protect Temari, his arm held in front of her and glaring down at the man.

"We're here for a meeting with the Lord in charge," Temari said. "I was sent by Nakatsuka-sama about starting a business plan with him."

"He just left," answered the other guard. "He'll be back tomorrow."

"Don't be blabbing yer mouth, ass!" the older one said, kicking the man none too gently.

Temari pursed her lips, dissatisfied. "That won't do. We demand to see a person in charge."

"Lady, my mug is the only thing yer gonna see today. Not one person going by me if I don't know who you is."

"Don't do things you will regret, scum," Temari spat. "I'm not someone you should treat with such disdain."

"I don't think you know how this works, hag." That was when he noticed Akira with his young white skin, thin feminine body, and meek appearance. He licks his lips, then returns his gaze, now alight with lust, to Temari. "Why don't we make a deal?" He reached out and grabbed Akira's wrist to pull him closer. "This little missy will stay with me and you two can go in."

"Easy enough," Temari said.

"You escort our new friends," the old man ordered the other. "I'll be right back."

Temari and Kankuro passed through the gate without another glance back. The younger guard was obviously upset about missing out on the fun his partner would be having as he stomped his way through the building in front of them. There were many other guards lounging around, drinking, gambling, and fighting inside the dusty courtyard. Their escort stopped to talk to a group of his fellows and reached over to guzzle down some alcohol.

"Who're these two stiffs?" a man with a lazy eye asked.

"Some sort of messenger from some highflootin," their guard said, throwing down the glass bottle so it shattered. "Nkosi is having fun with their girly."

"Think he'd share?" The man who spoke up was a familiar face. He used to tease Kankuro when he was younger by throwing scorpions at him. He'd finally been arrested when it was found out he had murdered fellow shinobi.

The man saw Kankuro staring and raised an eyebrow. "You got a problem?"

Kankuro looked away.

"What do you think you're doing?" Temari said to their guard. "Hurry up and lead us."

"Alright, alright, you bitch" he said as his fellows whistled and laughed at Temari, "see you idiots later."

Crunching over the glass strewn on the ground, their guard led them up the stairs to the walkways up above with rooms all along the wall. Compared to the energy below them, there was no activity up where they were. All the doors were closed, the light from the torches flickered, and the only thing making noise were the buzzing bugs.

"There you are," their guard said, stopping in front of a door. "You wanted a person in charge. This is as good as you're going to get."

They watched him stumble away and disappear down the stairs.

"Something isn't right," Kankuro whispered.

Temari nodded. The air was warm yet stale. She was unsettled.

She knocked on the door. No answer. Again. No answer.

Temari opened the door and stepped inside. Something wet under her shoe.

"What the fuck," Kankuro said behind her.

The man was unrecognizable. His limbs were strewn throughout the room, blood was dripping from the ceiling, his head was on the desk and his torso sat in his seat.

From a quick examination, they knew that the man had been murdered recently, the room vacated by the culprit as they had stepped foot in the building.

There was a scroll in the man's mouth which Temari took after making sure there weren't any traps. On the scroll was a letter to...

"Councilman Saboten," Temari's eyes flew, "from the revolutionaries, declaring war."

"What a way to declare war," Kankuro said as Temari rolled up the scroll again and placed it back where she got it.

Both of them felt it and rushed out the door.

The person--the assassin-- jumped off the walkway and into the crowd of soldiers below, landed agilely and sprinted to the exit. The soldiers were all too intoxicated to notice but the rogue shinobi Kankuro had recognized from before was there in an instant. He grabbed the person and slammed them down. Before anyone else could do anything, the person started foaming at the mouth, and went limp.

When the rogue ninja looked over at the walkway again, Kankuro and Temari were gone.

The two of them appeared in front of Nkosi at the front of the building, grabbed him, and disappeared again.

The three of them caught their breath in an abandoned alleyway. Nkosi was looking at the pair of them in confusion.

He spoke in his gruff voice, "What happened?"

"The person in charge was murdered, and his assassin committed suicide," Temari told him. "The guy who trapped the assassin is an S class rogue. He might have caught on to us so we had to go. Sorry your effort was in vain."

Nkosi's features morphed until Akira stood before them. "So what do we do now?"

"We'll have to go to plan D," Kankuro said. "We'll meet up with Gaara before then."

Gaara was sitting in a makeshift bar and drug den that appeared to have been originally a hospital. The floors where white tiles would've been were only fragments of the tile, some of them scraped out and dumped in one corner of the space, the rest now a dirty brown and concrete showered in sand. Smoke from various weed and opium wafted into the air, clouding the area until the peopled huddle further away from him were only silhouettes and the overwhelming noise the people were making seemed detached from any source. As such, sound of people surrounded him but the people themselves seemed not to be there.

He had left Suzume at the inn. Their roommates had already left in the dead of night before even the shinobi did and Suzume had in her pocket the candy Shiori had left by her head before leaving.

Now he was waiting for Temari and Kankuro to rendezvous with him. A huge tankard of beer that Gaara had ordered sat on the table, relatively untouched if not for the fake swigs he took now and then.

Before Gaara had to leave for the rendezvous, he and Suzume talked, having some sort of comfort from being alone together again.

"When all of this is over," Gaara had said then, "I want to introduce you to someone."

"Uzumaki Naruto?"

His eyes widened. "How did you know?"

Suzume had given him a look. "Who else could it be?"

"Hey, old man." Gaara looked up now to see two men, one was sleazy looking with an underbite, and the other was round, both were in suits standing over him. "Are you our client?"

"I am," Gaara said. "You're late."

Kankuro grinned menacingly. "I don't think you should be accusing us of nothing."

These disguises meant that they had failed plans A-C. They hadn't been able to plant Akira at the enemy's headquarters, or been able to acquire any additional incriminating information. They both sat down.

"Sorry, old man," Temari spoke up from the low baritoned voice of her disguise. "Doesn't look like we can sell you anything."

"What do you mean?"

"There's a third party. Offered a nice deal. Unless you want to offer more."

An entrance of a third player. Gaara put on an angered expression, "Who are they?"

"Nobody you would know."

Not someone they calculated for. "My master demands your product."

"That's what we came here for. If you want to outbid, go ahead."

"Why don't we move to a separate location?" Gaara wanted to know the specifics, and he wasn't getting them here.

"Don't see why not." The three of them stood.

Alarms started to screech, making the three shinobi's hearts leap as their bodies grew sensitive to fight or flight.

The people around them grumbled and got out of their own seats to move for the door, disrupting the clouds of smoke.

"Another one of these?" Gaara overheard. "They've been really uptight recently."

They relaxed fractionally, understanding that this was a common occurrence.

Gaara was shunted and pulled along through the crowd. Once they left the clouds of the den and into the streets where they joined the river of people, he could hear others yelling instructions to the townsfolk, funneling them where they wanted them to be.

His eyes were sharply observing the yelling authorities. Kankuro and Temari had stuck close to his side, and just as they were about to teleport away, a heavy hand landed on Gaara's shoulder.

It was one of the rogue shinobi on their list. Noboru, the one who had almost caught the assassin alive back at the town hall. The heavy lidded man sneered down at him. The point of his kunai stayed firm against Gaara's back. "Nice face."

Kankuro and Temari also had at least an S class rogue on them. They allowed themselves to be pushed through to the front of the crowd.

It was a matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Gaara was forced to his knees in front of the town hall and his siblings were given the same rough treatment to his right. They exchanged looks as they were packed in with rogues and soldiers on all sides as well as the crowd of people. Two more were pushed down on the other side of Gaara, but his focus stayed on the old man walking out of the town hall.

His face was shadowed by a turban, but his hands were wrinkled and his back arched. He walked until he stood in front of them.

"Negate their jutsu."

"Yes, sir," Gaara's rogue said and roughly grabbed the top of Gaara's head. "Kai!"

Their disguises retreated back, showing their true faces underneath. Along with the release jutsu, the S class also blocked the siblings' chakra temporarily.

The man spread his arms out satisfactorily. "The Sand Siblings themselves, as well as the leader of the rebels. I've hit a gold mine, it seems."

"If we are to reveal ourselves, shouldn't you return the favor, Councilman?" Temari said.

He chuckled. "I suppose so, Temari-dono." He pulled back his turban to reveal himself. Councilman Saboten stood before them. His bald head looked even more lacking with his whole chin of hair. He was grinning so widely it was like his teeth would chip. He was about to speak when,

"Whoa, the Sand Siblings! Look, Shun! The Sand Siblings."

Gaara's attention as well as everybody else's shifted to the people to the left of him. He recognized them immediately. The muscular and feminine women he was forced to share a room with were now knelt beside him, goggling at him.

"I see them, Neha." Shun rolled her eyes. "They're right there. Hard to miss."

"Yo, old man," Neha said, excited, "you were Gaara of the Sand all along?"

Gaara stared at her a second longer. Then faced the Councilman again. "What a surprise, Councilman."

"Gaara of the Sand is ignoring me, Shun. Isn't that amazing?"

"Don't be smart, Gaara-dono," Saboten said, also electing to ignore the two women. "This was what you were after all along. Not only to retrieve the escaped rogues, but to find proof to sully my name."

"This would do more than sully your name," Kankuro said.

"Whoa, the Sand Siblings are trying to sully names!"

Gaara closed his eyes in an uncontrolled show of exasperation. The Councilman, as well, turned to the two women and walked over to stand in front of them. Neha kept a smile on her face.

"Ah yes. I have a present for the rebels." The old man held out a hand for a guard to place a sack on and he carelessly tipped it.

With a thud the head of the assassin fell to the ground in front of them. The smile fell off of Neha's face.

From beside her, Shun sucked in a shallow breath. "Usi..." Tears pooled in her eyes and she ripped her eyes away from her comrade to glare at the Councilman. "You monster...!"

"He gave you up before he died." He pouted mockingly. "Sad fellow."

"Liar!" she growled, rising and advancing on Saboten. A rogue that Gaara recognizes as Muna hits her hard enough to make her fall to the ground, barely missing the bloody head of her friend.

Shun's bottom lip trembled and a single sob broke through her. Neha had kept her eyes on the old Councilman the entire time, sturdy in her place.

"You poor things." The councilman relished in the sight of them, his eyes going from one face to the next. "All of your plans, falling apart in front of your eyes."

Neha finally spoke. "You wanna know how that feels?"

There was the thundering of hooves and wheels in the distance. The rogue shinobi all suddenly collapsed, hunched over, puking onto the floor.

Horses with their carts behind them were galloping and drawing closer. Gaara saw people aiming something toward them from on top of the carts. With a bang, clouds of black smoke furreled past them, the carts screeched to a halt, and someone seized Gaara and tossed him into the air. He landed on something creaky and wooden and heard both his sister and brother join him.

"Let's go, let's go!" someone yelled and the cart rattled forward, leaving behind the enraged shouts of the Councilman.

The carts stampeded through the streets. The only ones left to chase after were soldiers who could never hope to catch up. More smoke signals were shot as they went, obscuring them and adding to the chaos. Delighted laughter and whooping came from the rebels.

Suzume was close by. Gaara caught a glimpse of her through the smoke, leaping through the rooftops.

They make eye contact.

He shook his head.