The year finally ended and Gaara was exiting the Institute and heading back home. Temari and Kankuro already headed home after finishing their paperwork. They offered to wait with him but he had refused their offer, predicting that he'd be staying late. It appeared that he'd been right on that assumption as the sun had long since sunk into the horizon and the moon was high in the sky.

He usually refrained from walking around at night since it frightened the villagers more than him walking around during daylight. The redhead considered if he should just travel on the rooftops but that might make the situation worse. Maybe he should've accepted Kankuro or Temari's offer to wait for him after all.

Steeling himself, he left the shelter of the Institute's entrance and walked a bit faster and quieter than he usually did. He kept his eyes open and strained his ears, perhaps if he was able to dodge all the shinobi and civilians he would be able to keep from alarming them.

"Yo, Gaara!"

Gaara abruptly paused in the middle of the road to see Kankuro walking down the road toward him, a plastic bag at his side.

"Kankuro," Gaara was surprised to realize he was breathless and took in a deep, calming breath.

"Hey, man," Kankuro grinned. "I thought I'd be able to catch you."

Gaara's eyes lingered on the plastic bag. "Shopping? This late at night?"

"Uh, yeah," the puppeteer lifted up the bag. "Temari had an emergency."

Gaara's eyes widened and Kankuro waved his hands in a 'no' gesture. "She's not hurt or anything! Girl problems, y'know."

His brother gazed at him vacantly and Kankuro sweatdropped. "You don't know... well, it's nothing important." He pointed his thumb at the street leading home. "Shall we?"

The two brothers walked side by side and suddenly the night wasn't as daunting as it had been when Gaara had been alone.

"It feels great to be done with the intern part of the job, jan," Kankuro expressed as he stretched his arms. "Being at the Institute as a person with authority really made me sympathize with the teachers whose lives I made a living hell back when I was a student. If only the kids could be as nice as Suzume."

"We'll be returning as teachers next year," Gaara reminded him. "It's not over yet."

Kankuro ran a hand through his brown hair, making it more disheveled than ever. He gave Gaara a sideways grin. "God help us."

The brunette suddenly retracted his smile and whipped his face away, hiding it from Gaara. The redhead blinked, wondering what this sudden change in attitude meant. Kankuro cleared his throat and faced Gaara again with a dazzling smile. Gaara was downright confused.

"I've got to thank Suzume one of these days," Kankuro told him.

"Why?" Gaara decided to just go with it.

"Well..." his brother scratched the side of his cheek, still smiling nervously. "Because we're finally able to talk this easily to each other, jan."

Gaara's eyes enlarged at his words and had to bring himself out of his trance as he went to catch up to his brother who was picking the lock on the back door. It was true. Before Suzume and after his promise to change, Temari and Kankuro became less guarded around him. They didn't tense up whenever he addressed them or when he made an unexpected movement, the pair was even able to exchange a bit of conversation with him, albeit the banter had mostly been about work or missions. But whenever he'd been alone with either one of them, they would revert back to their uncomfortable, alert states. Gaara had yet to confide in them his reason for volunteering at the Institute. He begun to wonder if he'd ever be able to do so.

Then, there they were. Kankuro and Temari were completely normal around him now. Gaara was surprised. He didn't even notice. Was it possible that something like this could be continuous and unchanging for someone like him? He was filled with this warm feeling. He had gotten this far.

He couldn't deny it. Suzume had made everything easier. She'd quelled the remaining tension and gave them all something common to fight and work hard for. She was something they could all agree on. Suzume had indeed been a catalyst to lower the formidable hill he would've had to climb to even reach this point and he was unbelievably grateful.

Hisoka greeted them in place of Suzume when they entered the mudroom. The young girl was still in her strange once a week monthly slumber and the cat had taken to filling in her master's role. Its golden eyes gleamed in the dark and watched as Gaara untied his gourd from his back and Kankuro kick off his sandals to enter the house. Gaara shed off his coat and placed it on the hook then he shouldered his gourd and went after his brother and into the house with the blue cat at his heels.

Gaara had dropped off his gourd in his room on the top floor and changed into his more comfortable clothes when he was climbing down the stairs to see Hisoka waiting at the bottom of the flight. She gave him a meaningful look, almost too meaningful for a cat to have, and headed down the hall toward Suzume's room. Gaara followed after the cat and saw her waiting for him patiently in front of Suzume's door. He went up to Hisoka and opened the door enough for her to squeeze in. He watched from the crack as the cat padded up to the bed where a lump that was Suzume was sleeping and leapt up to be swallowed into the blankets. His sea green eyes kept staring at his sister's form rise up and down as she breathed.

Animal freak! The insult the kid had thrown at Suzume the other day unexpectedly rang into his head.

He closed the door again and decided to get a cup of water before going up to his room to finish some reports.

Snap! There was the distinctive sound of somebody accidentally stepping on a twig and bird silhouettes decorated the window's curtains as they flew off in alarm. Gaara was suddenly at the back door, flinging it open. There was nothing there. The snag and now his greenhouse were the only occupants of the Kazekage's garden. He scanned the whole area once more before deciding to head back inside.

Then he noticed something at his feet and bent down to pick it up. It was a plain, manila envelope that was slightly larger than 6x4 inches in size. There was no writing, no marks, and from running his hands over it, he deduced that it held one thin paper. It stared up at him as he stared back.

He grabbed the handle of the door and closed it as he went back inside, being careful to lock it, although, a lock was only a mere inconvenience to assassins and the like. As he walked, each step released a cloud of sand and the specks glided and stretched across the floor like a small breeze. It reached into all of the corners of the first floor, sneaking into rooms and climbing up the walls. Gaara ascended the stairs and his first few steps produced even more sand dust that rushed upstairs ahead of him and did the same to the flights above.

Once Gaara reached his room, his sand hadn't detected any foreign presences. He shut his windows and pulled the curtains over them. He made a few hand signs and activated a jutsu that kept anybody from seeing inside. Seating himself in front of his desk, he turned on his lamp and opened the envelope.

His eyes widened significantly and they glued onto the photo before him. A murder of crows took up most of the frame, their black feathers morphing together into what appeared to be a solid black abyss. They were all looking at the person behind the camera with threatening, beady eyes, their beaks open in a throaty caw. They were in the shadows of an alleyway, sewage and trash bins littered the ground, at least a dozen of rats were swarming near the crows' feet but the birds paid no mind. In fact, they looked almost cooperative. But what caught Gaara's attention was what was in the middle of this alarming phenomenon. A figure, hollow cheeks and dead, sunken eyes, matted brown hair and parched lips sat in the middle of the horde of crows. Those pupil less, black eyes were unmistakable.

Gaara let her name slip passed his lips in a breathy whisper. "Suzume..."

That night, Gaara wondered what the person who had sent that photo had been aiming for. They obviously wanted them to do something about Suzume. Did they want her kicked out of the mansion? Did they want them to kill her? Most likely the former. However he thought about it, that photo didn't amount to taking Suzume's life. But on the other hand, there were some awfully radical people out there.

Though, showing him the picture couldn't have been the intention. It was probably sent with Temari and Kankuro in mind. A random person on the street might have found the picture disturbing, but Gaara, while very incredulous, didn't have that much of a reaction toward it. He was the "monster" after all.

"The Monster took in a demon," Gaara muttered under his breath. In his own crude humor, he found it amusing.

He stayed locked up in his room staring at that photo, digging deeper into it, trying to sift out a few more hidden meanings. Kids probably found this scene first and then ran to get adults. The adults then contacted the shinobi while the news employees attempted to make a big deal out of it. Seeing as how Suzume wasn't seized by the ninja, she managed to escape but not before this photo was taken by a news reporter. The shinobi managed to silence the newspaper businesses and the adults, while the kids were harder to pledge to secrecy. But why? Why were they keeping this a secret? And why were they focusing on Suzume now?

That last question was easy to answer. Gaara turned the photo over and saw the date that it was taken on in one of the corners. It was after the Invasion of Konoha. Countless causalities and a declining economy was prioritized before Suzume and not to mention the death of the Kazekage. This is all assuming if a shinobi had sent the envelope.

He wondered if he should show this picture to Temari and Kankuro. But the possibility of the person acting in the immediate future was incredibly low and they appeared to be waiting for them to discard Suzume to take action. He decided not to show them, yet.

Now the question he's been pushing back to be able to reach a foundation first. Gaara picked the photo up from his desk and stared at the pixelated form of Suzume in the middle of the swarm of birds and rats. How was this conceivable?

Gaara stared into the dark eyes that was the epicenter of the dark, spiraling hole.

Who was Suzume really?

_ _ _

Temari cut out the yolk in her sunny side egg without missing a beat in the conversation. "Are you sure we have enough money for that?"

"I've been saving up, jan," Kankuro did the same to his egg.

"It's impractical, Kankuro," Temari lifted up the yolk with her chopsticks.

"Not during the night," the puppeteer reasoned, picking up the whites of his egg.

Suzume blinked in curiosity while the two exchanged food, Temari got the whites while Kankuro got the yolk. She looked at Gaara for an answer.

"They always do that," he replied to her silent question. "They've been doing it ever since they were kids."

"Come on, Temari," Kankuro pleaded. "You know how much I've wanted one."

The blond exhaled through her nose then addressed Gaara. "What do you think?"

"I don't see a problem," he said.

"Yes! See, Gaara agrees with me!"

"Alright," Temari smirked at his enthusiasm. "We'll stop by the department store in the afternoon."

After breakfast, Kankuro washed the dishes with gusto as he sang We Are the Champions at the top of his lungs. Gaara read the newspaper in the living room while Temari sat in the armchair next to him reading a book. Suzume was looking for Hisoka.

The cat had been nowhere to be seen in the morning and the girl was getting worried. Calling out the feline's name and looking through every room in the Kazekage's quarters, she saw no sign of the blue cat. Finally, she stepped out into the backyard and searched, biting the bottom of her lip in anxiety as the sun was quickly rising up into the sky as the morning coolness faded.

There was a meow and Suzume's head whipped around to see Hisoka perched on the branch of a tree. She sighed in relief before rushing over.

Suzume placed a hand on the tree. Hisoka was sitting elegantly on one of the limbs, gazing down apathetically with her golden eyes. The young girl looked up at the blue cat worriedly.

"Can't you get down by yourself?" Suzume considered the situation. "Hold on. I'll climb up."

Suzume reached up to grab one of the lower branches. The tips of her fingers skimmed the bark as she struggled to grasp it. Time went by and Hisoka's golden eyes watched the show, seeming to be tense with excitement. Suzume jumped up a few more times before she paused for a second, catching her breath and inspecting the branch. After a few more seconds of deliberating, Suzume appeared to have figured out what to do. The young girl steadied herself by placing her right hand and foot on the trunk of the plant. She took in a deep breath and pushed off the ground with her left foot, propelling herself up.

The moment her fingers wrapped around the branch and both of her hands were touching the wood her subconscious faded and her eyes went out of focus. At that moment, a huge earthquake tore throughout the world. Rolling wave after wave of tremors that caused a number of buildings to fall into ruin, burying its occupants and embracing the earth as gravity brought them down.

"Shit!" Kankuro cried out, grabbing onto the sink for dear life as the pans clattered and cabinets opened to puke out their glassware.

Gaara's sand had sprung into being, protecting his head in case the mansion should cave and he had willed it to cover Temari as well. He clenched his teeth, using his sand to keep from being tossed to and fro.

Temari threw herself to the side as the coffee table lunged out at her. It crashed into smithereens against the wall. She met Gaara's eyes for a split second, sharing a look of horror before they both had to brace themselves against another wave.

Suzume fell backward until she dropped like a limp doll onto the dusty ground, her eyes still glassy and unseeing and her mind and body comatose.

Then... everything stopped. The earth stilled. The girl's eyes stared up at the blue sky, the hue reflecting off her unseeing eyes. A shadow was suddenly cast over her but she couldn't register it, still in her dazed state. A man in a mask loomed over the girl, seriously scrutinizing her. He reached out a hand.

Hisoka pounced on the man's head, yowling crazily as she held on for dear life while the man whipped around trying to get her off. The masked man finally got a hold on the feline and threw it to the side vehemently. Hisoka landed gracefully on her feet and gave the man a malicious look, her gold eyes gleaming.

There was the sound of voices calling out and pounding footsteps that alerted the man to vanish. The dust was just settling when Temari opened the door and she and her brothers spilled out of it. Spotting Suzume on the ground, they rushed over to her.

Kankuro knelt down next to her and gently picked her up. "Suzume? Suzume!"

Gaara's eyes strayed off his little sister's limp form to see Hisoka sitting calmly to the side. They made eye contact and Gaara's non-existent eyebrows creased.

Suzume blinked and she saw Temari and Kankuro's worried expressions above her. She groaned, everything felt sore and her head was pounding.

"Suzume!" Temari said, calmed.

"What happened?" she asked in a quiet voice. She didn't attempt to sit up, she had a feeling she'd faint if she did.

"You were looking for Hisoka outside in the garden and a massive earthquake hit the area," Kankuro explained, recounting even before the earthquake to ensure that Suzume understood the entire scenario. "Did you hit your head?"

"I don't know, probably," she muttered. "Everything hurts."

"Let's get you inside," Temari said. "We'll make sure you're comfortable before we leave."

"Leave?" Suzume said in fear as Kankuro lifted her up in his arms gingerly.

Temari smiled at her gently. "The shinobi are going to be called to rescue people who were buried in rubble."

Suzume nodded slowly in understanding.

Temari, Kankuro, and Suzume headed back to the mansion but Gaara lingered. His eyes followed the cat as it went after Suzume. Had it been his imagination... or had that animal really smiled?

He ripped his eyes away then looked over at the snag. His eyes widened. A wind swept through the area and rustled through his red hair and the red leaves of the Japanese maple tree above him.

_

THE WORLD RIGGED TO EXPLODE! THE WORLDWIDE EARTHQUAKE! THE FIVE GREAT NATIONS IN RUINS! -were the exaggerated headlines on all of the major newspapers. In smaller news in the corner of the paper talked about the tree that came back to life in the Kazekage's backyard. Using their limited authority, the Sand Siblings managed to keep any shinobi other than themselves from getting to the tree.

A dozen houses and buildings had been reduced to rubble during the earthquake but surprisingly there weren't that many casualties and not a single death in the Sand. The real impact was how everyone was expecting that the apocalypse was right around the corner.

Suzume was stroking Hisoka's fur as she sat underneath the branches of the Japanese maple, reading the newspaper with Gaara and drinking some water. Temari was reading her book, her chin in her palm and her elbow propped up on their new kotatsu table. They were sitting on a cushion and the blanket of the kotatsu was keeping them warm as the sun was sinking into the horizon and the desert started to chill. Lanterns were hung on the branches of the tree and lit up the area nicely and a fire pit was close by, providing a bit of heat in the rapidly lowering temperature. The sound of the grill as Kankuro barbequed filled the area along with the musky scent of cooked meat.

"It's done!" Kankuro grinned, coming over to them with plates of barbeque. "Who's ready to dig in!?"

Stacks upon stacks of ribs, pork chops and T-bones towered over the trio, overwhelming them with the sheer amount of meat.

"How many cows had to die because of you, Kankuro?" Gaara asked, the side of his mouth twitching.

"Hm?" he looked over their gazes of hesitation. He grinned. "Ah, don't mind it. I have three stomachs."

Suzume opened up a can of cat food and offered it to Hisoka, who ate it gratefully. Kankuro passed over a pork chop to Gaara, smiling with a mouth full of food. Temari who had her hair let down from her ponytails struck up a conversation with Suzume, grinning at the stoic individual.

The crescent moon smiled down upon the happy family that night.