Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Fishing was a rather profitable venture for villages and countries situated near the ocean. The Land of Waves was one such country, which was probably why almost a third of their society's workforce were fishermen. Kintaro, a tanned individual with spiky dark hair who held such a job, was currently plying his trade on a decently large vessel with a crew of men he worked with regularly. On a several day trip, they were dozens of miles away from the Land of Waves at this point in time, looking to haul in some deep water fish that you couldn't find closer to the coast. Rarity bred profit, after all.

The sun was hanging a little low in the sky, shining down on the relatively calm ocean with its fresh morning rays and creating a bright, but not unbearable glare off the surface of the cerulean sea. All well and good, but unfortunately for Kintaro, it didn't change the fact that he had nothing to do right now. He and his five crew mates were bound to be busy today at some point, but they weren't putting their backs into their daily business just yet. There was no need to rush, since the past four days had been quite bountiful.

So until the captain felt like calling them to action, Kintaro was leaning on the wooden railing of the ship, wondering why he hadn't brought anything to do on this trip for times like this. He'd been on enough voyages to expect this kind of thing, so it was kind of silly to be in this predicament. Maybe the bad situation with his wife had distracted him from diligent packing and preparation for the trip.

Dying of boredom and eager to find any sort of distraction, Kintaro turned his coal colored eyes towards one of his comrades on the deck, a lighter skinned fellow who hid his hair under a white bandana.

"Yuji, don't you have a deck of cards or something? All this waiting around is killing me."

His fellow fisherman kept his gaze on the water, likewise bored out of his skull. All the fish they had caught before had been salted for preservation, the sails didn't need adjusting, and there were no standing orders from the captain, other than to stay on deck and keep an eye out. He was just as bored as Kintaro was.

"I didn't think we'd actually have this much free time to ourselves, to be honest. I didn't bring anything to fill in this much downtime."

Kintaro sighed in frustration. "Figures. Can't believe I wish we were actually back home right now... my wife's been mad at me for weeks over the incident last month, and it would still be better than sitting around out here doing nothing."

Yuji shook his head as he stared out to sea, searching for anything interesting to hold his attention for more than a few seconds. "Well that's what you get for thinking you could use a watermelon for that kind of...thing..."

Sensing something off in the way his buddy petered off, Kintaro cast a curious look his way. "What's up? You sputtered out before mentioning the best part."

His fellow fisherman tried to block out the glare from the sun with his hand as he squinted at the horizon. "Look out that way, do you see that too?"

His interest piqued on this boring day, Kintaro looked up from his net hanging over the edge of the boat and followed Yuji's gaze out to sea. There was some sort of odd looking speck out there, but he just figured that it was another fishing vessel.

"Yeah, what about it? It's just another boat."

"Doesn't it look strange to you? Something's weird about it. You've got that old scope of your dad's right? Just give it a look, it could be interesting."

While doubting the potential for an exciting discovery, Kintaro nevertheless dug around in the pouch at his waist to withdraw the old telescope his dad had once carried while at sea. It had a large crack going down the middle of the lens, but it still got the job done, most of the time.

His hopes weren't high, however, as he used the instrument to get a better look at the silhouette on the horizon, Kintaro realized that Yuji was absolutely right. But this ship was more than just weird, it was unlike anything Kintaro had ever seen.

For one, though it was difficult to tell from this distance, the vessel appeared to be massive, no doubt dwarfing Kintaro's current ride by a ridiculous margin. That was notable enough on its own, yet it was by far the least interesting thing about it. Its design was unlike any ship he had ever seen sailing the waters, sporting torn, triplicate sails with complex rigging that each featured a golden beast that vaguely resembled some sort of winged reptile. The prow of the ship also carried such a visage, complete with golden maw. The sides of the ship's deck were armed with massive bow-like contraptions that Kintaro could only guess the purpose of, though he would have bet his money on them being weaponry.

He was just a fisherman with no experience in battle of any sort, but even so, Kintaro could tell this was a warship.

But even with that conclusion reached, confusion remained. The only nation that really possessed a navy of any respectable kind was the the Land of Water, but this mysterious warship sported no emblems or other descriptive marks to affiliate it with that nation. And even if it did belong to the them, why would it be all the way out here, in neutral waters near the Land of Waves?

Even more unnerving was the lack of movement on the ship. For such a large vessel, surely there was an equally large crew? Yet Kintaro couldn't see any movement at all, even with his telescope, and above all else, this worried him. He hoped they were just too far to discern something like that.

"What do you see, Kintaro? Even from here, I can tell that's no ordinary vessel."

Kintaro was startled out of his observations by the gravely voice of the fishing vessel's captain, a grizzled old man with dark eyes and graying hair, whose face sported a fair share of wrinkles and a scar on his left temple.

"I'm not sure, captain. I think it's a warship of some sort, but I can't see anyone moving around on the decks. The sails are torn too."

The old captain nodded warily, acknowledging the foreboding information presented to him. "Recently engaged in a battle of some sort, I suppose. Well, checking it out couldn't hurt. If it's full of injured soldiers, we can help 'em out and no doubt get on somebody's good side. If it's deserted, we can take the loot back home. We need any type of wealth we can get our hands on with the way the economy is right now..."

The small band of fishermen was indeed eager to investigate the strange ship and possibly secure some loot, though it was not lost on any of them that the inhabitants of the boat could be unfriendly. But considering the torn sails, they were confident they could outrun the mysterious vessel if it proved hostile. That being the case, the small crew was rather swift in angling their own craft in that direction.

The calm blue waters beneath their boat carried the band of fishermen swiftly towards their goal, and the closer they got, the more obvious the size of this unknown ship became in comparison to their own vessel. The captain, who had once served in the Land of Water's navy before retiring to the Land of Waves, whistled in amazement as the phantom ship drew closer.

"Unreal... I never imagined I would see a vessel that made even the Daimyo's flagship look puny. This thing could fit two of the Land of Water's biggest galleons inside of it."

The rest of the fishing crew knew little to nothing about warship classification by size; what they did know was that the ship looming over them was massive, and a larger ship meant more cargo space, which meant more loot.

Eager to board the vessel in question, the crew took almost all of their available rope and knotted a large gutting hook around the end, forming an amateur grappling hook. Of course, the sheer height of the mystery craft made tossing the hook by hand an impossible task, but thankfully one of the men had brought their crossbow from home. Not that pirates bothered fishing vessels very often, but it paid to be prepared.

After an impressive shot from Yuji, the hook was secured on the railing of their target, and the fishing crew began climbing the rope one by one, with only two of them staying behind to keep their own vessel in place as best they could.

Leading the foray into alien territory, Yuji reached the edge of the ship's railing before any of his fellow fishermen, including Kintaro, who was just behind him. That being in the case, he was the first one to peek over the edge, and his first words were not lost on his fellows behind him.

"H-holy fuck…"

Kintaro called up to his awestruck comrade. "What is it, Yuji? What do you see?"

Said comrade shook his head in disbelief as he finished climbing over the railing.

"I don't think I can put it into words. Just come see this for yourself."

Following his advice, Kintaro and the rest of the boarding party followed suit and climbed over the edge of the warship. As each one of them clambered over the railing, they were struck with silence at the altogether alien sight before them.

The deck of the warship was slick with recently spilled blood, clearly from the bodies of the slain soldiers scattered around the ship; but this was not what shocked them. The real cause of their awe was the identity of the soldiers, who were outfitted in equipment the fishermen had never seen before.

The dead men on the deck of the ship were covered head to toe in steel armor, thick metal plates covering every part of their bodies except for the joints, which were protected by some type of underlying metal mesh made of connected rings. Lying around the dead were strange, foreign weapons the men had never seen the likes of.

Sure, it was obvious that they were swords and polearms of some sort, similar to the weapons wielded by many warriors in the Nations, but these instruments of war were crafted in strange styles. The blades were long, straight, and double-edged, unlike the curved and single-edged katana or the Chokuto. The polearms were likewise alien in form. Instead of ending in a curved blade like the naginata, the wooden shafts of these foreign weapons ended in axe heads or metal tips similar but larger than arrowheads, and in cross formations. A few of the fallen warriors had crossbows much bigger than the one the fishermen had, and many others lied slain beside short shafts with spiked metal heads atop them.

Reining in their confusion and intrigue as best they could, the bewildered fishermen looked around the ship for signs of what had killed these alien warriors. Evidence of an intense battle was clear now that they were aboard the ship, as they laid eyes on ripped planks and shattered storage boxes among the bodies of the fallen. One of the metal warriors was pinned to the mast of the ship by a large steel bolt nearly six feet long through his gut, no doubt launched by a contraption similar to the ones on this very vessel. For all of his armor, it had been utterly insufficient against a projectile of that mass.

Some of the other warriors had their helms bashed in by blunt weapons, while the ones that died at the hands of bladed arms were mostly stab wounds in their exposed joints. Some had been killed by blows from behind, though whether this was from an exceptionally chaotic melee or outright betrayal was a mystery.

Some of the fishermen held less trepidation in their hearts than others, and were even bold enough to investigate the bodies closely. Lifting the snout-like helmets of some of the warriors to get a better understanding of who they might have been.

Those brave enough to do so examined the faces of the dead with serious and subdued gazes. While most of the faces of the fallen were undamaged, no doubt protected by their helmets, some sported jagged burns across their faces, as though they'd been directly scorched by bolts of lightning. Strangely, unlike the horrified or fearful expressions of the dead the ex-navy captain had seen during his tour of duty, the faces of these men and women were mostly that of determination and anger, although some had looks of regret frozen on their pale faces, as if they had failed to accomplish one last important task before the end of their lives.

Notably, there were no dead on the deck of the ship that looked different from these metal warriors. Everyone here appeared quite uniform, which was a little odd: the captain was well-aware that soldiers of such uniform appearance were generally on the same side. But if that was true, who had killed these fighters? Unfortunately, there was nothing present to hint at the answer.

Finished with their overall inspection of the carnage, the fishermen grouped together on the edge of the ship, feeling a little guilty about even thinking to strip these fallen warriors of their equipment for the sake of money. While it was an effect of the somber atmosphere mostly, it felt as though these soldiers had died defending their honor, and there could be no greater insult to them, whether they were foreign or not, to loot them after that.

But now that Kintaro had moved away from the destruction, he had a wider view of the now quiet battle ground, and he noticed that the dead bodies were more highly concentrated the closer they came to the captain's cabin. At first, he thought that it was merely a coincidence, but the more he looked at the carnage, the more likely it seemed that the number of dead in that location was either because they had been cornered… or had been defending something.

Kintaro pointed this out to his captain, who nodded somberly, his demeanor completely downtrodden as he was no doubt reminded of past battles and lost lives.

"Well, if we're gonna do anything on this cursed ship, we're gonna find out what these men and women died for. Let's look around."

Leading the way, the captain slowly covered the distance between himself and the captain's cabin, careful to avoid stepping on the rigid limbs of the dead. His crew followed likewise behind him, and they reached the open cabin within the minute, taking definite notice of the fallen iron clad soldier in the open doorway, with a metal bolt lodged in his throat. It was odd, because every other warrior of his same cloth had obviously been killed defending this room, yet this lone man had been struck down from inside.

Shaking the question from his mind, as there was no way he would ever know, the captain stepped over the fallen body and peeked into the dimly lit room. The torches along the walls had long since run out of fuel, and the only light available was the sparse sunlight that peeked through the open door.

After spending a few moments adjusting to the darkness, the captain and a handful of his crew stepped inside, eager to discover what so many had given their lives for.

The cabin itself was relatively small, and consequently, it did not take long for the venturing crew to lay eyes on yet another dead warrior, slumped against the wall opposite to the door, with a crossbow in one cold arm and a small box, no larger than an infant, cradled in the other.

The fishermen gingerly stepped over to the man, as if heavy footfalls would disturb his eternal slumber. Unlike the rest of the metal soldiers, this man bore no helmet, and so his grizzled, wrinkled face and frazzled old gray beard, marred with splotches of blood, were easily visible. The fallen soldier had a full head of wispy gray strands, likewise bloodstained, and a nasty gash across his forehead. Beside him was a metal helmet not unlike his comrades, slightly caved in from the force of a savage blow.

The crossbow in the man's cold and limp right hand was slack, and there was no ammunition in the device, making it obvious that this man had shot the other warrior in the doorway. Why he had killed one of his own was a mystery.

Pushing the question aside, Kintaro leaned down in front of the dead man before him. It just now occurred to him that none of the bodies aboard the ship were deteriorated too badly, meaning that they had not died all that long ago, especially taking the harsh ocean elements into account.

The older man must've been in his forties, or maybe even his early fifties. If anything, he had probably been a veteran, the commander of the soldiers aboard this dreary ship. His visage, while frozen in death, was a satisfied one. Like he had performed one final act of duty before his passing, knowing that he had somehow changed the course of fate.

Looking down to the man's steel-clad arms lined with gold, further reinforcing their conclusion about rank, Kintaro took notice of the small box cradled in the nook of the man's left arm. It had been noticeable when they first laid eyes on him, but now that they had seen nothing else of importance in the captain's cabin, it became painstakingly obvious to the fishing crew that this small container was what everyone here had died to protect.

Their interest piqued to insatiable levels, Kintaro attempted to grab the box and examine it, only to be met with far more resistance than he expected from a dead man. Not that the old warrior was actively resisting him, but he had a steel vice grip on the edge of the container. The rigor mortis effect of death only served to make the cold grip even stronger.

But still, with considerable prying, Kintaro extracted the box from the man's dead embrace, before placing the corpse's arm on his lap instead of limply at his side as a small homage to his ended life, whoever he might have been.

Finding it hard to see anything distinctive on the box in the dimness of the cabin, Kintaro took the object back outside onto the deck, where he and the rest of the crew would be able to examine the container with aid from the sun.

Placing it down in a small space unoccupied by a metal-clad corpse, the fishermen gathered around it. The box was very small, having foot by half a foot dimensions at the most. It was altogether plain, except for gold embroidery on the top. The golden lines wove in and out of each other intricately, forming an emblem that resembled some sort of lizard with wings, although none of the fishermen recognized such a thing aside from the similar design on the sails.

They also noticed that the box was really more of a chest of sorts. It lacked hinges, but was instead a two piece construction. There was a bottom section, naturally, and the top section was just barely a few centimeters wider on all sides, so that it would slide over the bottom section snugly.

After examining the box for a good minute, the captain spoke up, impatient with the current proceedings. "Well, are we gonna stare at this hunk of wood all day or open the damn thing?"

The majority of the crew nodded in agreement, although a few seemed a little nervous about the prospect of opening the container. After all, if the entire crew of this ghost ship had died to protect the thing, then surely it had other fail safes? Traps of some sort?

Nevertheless, the sheer curiosity of the whole situation overpowered the crew's trepidation, as Yuji, the burliest of the crew, picked up the box and attempted to open it. His muscles bulged as he tried to pry the box apart, veins making themselves prominent on his biceps, but despite all of his grunts of effort and annoyance, Yuji's attempt to open the mystery box failed completely.

"W-what the hell? I can't open the damn thing!"

A handful of Yuji's fellow crewmen snorted in derision, baffled and amused at the strongest of their number being unable to open a silly little box.

"What's the matter, Yuji? Can't get a grip with those meaty sausages you call fingers?"

The accused man glared at his fellows. "Oh yeah? Here, you try. I'm telling you, this thing is sealed shut or something!"

One of the other men accepted the challenge, and took the box into his own arms, only to be met with the same results. After suffering a bout of laughter at his own expense, he passed the object down to the next man, whose success was equally denied.

Soon the befuddling little thing had been passed around to the whole crew, and it was discovered that not a single one of them possessed the strength to open it. Many of them muttered among themselves, a little insulted at being too weak to pry open a box.

Consequently, the men started coming up with suggestions for opening the container, although the most common one was to smash it open, while the rest were almost too ridiculous to even consider. However, Kintaro, who had been silent in his own musings, suddenly spoke up with the most reasonable idea presented so far.

"What about Pozu, back in the town? Isn't he a retired ninja or something? Maybe he'll know how to open it."

Kintaro's fellow fishermen were soon nodding in agreement, as they voiced their support of the idea.

"Yeah, he's like a Jonin from the Hidden Waterfall, right? He's gotta have some tricks for this kind of crap!"

"And I heard he's some sort of a seal expert too. This thing seems sealed to me alright, I bet Pozu will be able to open it for sure!"

As it was decided that the contents of the box would have to be discovered later, the men prepared to return to their own ship. They wanted to do some sort of burial for the fallen warriors here, but they couldn't very well bury these men out here at sea, and they had no means of starting a fire to cremate the dead. They had no choice but to leave this ghost vessel and its corpses to the sea.

But before they left, the captain motioned for his men to check downstairs.

"I sure as hell ain't takin' anything off the dead, but if you find anything downstairs you can take in good conscience, as long as it'll fit on the boat, take it. Anything we can barter off back home will add some money to the town. We need every coin we can get."

A handful of the crew headed off to do just that; Kintaro decided he would rather go ahead and take the mysterious box back aboard their own ship. Using the ropes the fishermen had used to board this floating vessel of death to begin with, he lowered the precious item down to the men who had stayed on the ship, who would no doubt be shocked when they heard of their comrades' findings.

After the better part of an hour, the fishing crew was back aboard their own ship, now loaded down with extra cargo. The men had found extra supplies on the lower decks of the ship, including an armory full of backup gear for the soldiers who had manned the vessel. Now the fishermen were taking hundreds of pounds worth of alien steel armor and foreign weapons back to the mainland, in hopes of selling off the unique items to collectors or arms dealers for a decent price. Of course, more than a few of them were interested in keeping a helmet or mysterious weapon as a memento of what they had discovered here. They were reluctant to leave the ghost ship out at sea like this, but there was no way to bring it back with them, as they could never hope to tow it and the crew wasn't large enough to man such a vast warship, especially with the damaged sails.

So for now, they had to be content with what they had managed to salvage from the ship, and the crew eagerly examined their findings as they angled their vessel for home. All the while, Kintaro sat at the stern of the boat, the mysterious box cradled in his hands almost like the dead man he had taken it from. And although it may have been his own delusions, he felt as though he could feel a rhythmic thumping from within his treasure, shallow and weak.

Maybe the ordeal was getting to his head. But he couldn't shake the feeling that what they had discovered today would have much larger ramifications than any of them could ever know.

When one thought of the Hidden Sand, or indeed, the Land of Wind as a whole, three things came to mind before all others. It was hot, it was dry, and there was sand everywhere. Unfortunately, those three things heavily contributed to the dubious distinction of being the least hospitable place in the Elemental Nations. Even the people that lived in the Land of Wind generally didn't feel overly fond of the place, even if they didn't outright hate it. It was always a 'well, it certainly could be better' type of mentality.

Even Baki, Jonin level ninja and frequent counsel to the Kazekage himself, had difficulty thinking of positive aspects of the Hidden Sand Village. If he had not been born, raised, and trained in this very place, he probably wouldn't have been compelled to live there at all. Being raised somewhere from birth could somehow endear even a locale as undesirable as this one to a person: to an extent, at any rate.

Of course, Baki couldn't leave now even if he wanted to. He was too involved in the affairs of his home village to ever consider leaving for any reason at this point. In fact, the Kazekage trusted Baki so much that the high-level ninja had been chosen to personally train his children.

Not that such a task was in the cards for the immediate future, as things stood now. Sauntering along one of the desert village's many streets, surrounded by civilians and floundering merchants alike, Baki raised his gaze to the blinding sun above. Half of his face was covered of course, but he had been living here for so long that the bright ball of flaming light hardly affected him regardless.

The events of the week prior had very nearly been a catastrophe for the entirety of the Hidden Sand, and they had undeniably shifted the future course of the entire village.

All because of one boy. Albeit a very important boy, but still just one child.

It had been no secret to Baki or any of the Sand Jonin that Gaara was a Jinchuriki. Within the young boy was Shukaku, one of the legendary Tailed Beasts. It had also been no secret that Gaara had been nowhere near close to taming the monster, and with every passing year, the mere existence of the Kazekage's youngest son posed an ever greater threat to the village.

The rapidly escalating disaster that was the Kazekage's youngest son had reached a critical boiling point when Shukaku began emerging of its own accord, or maybe because Gaara had flat-out allowed it to. There head been a number of incidents involving the maiming of children and even an adult or two. With the Kazekage convinced that Gaara was a lost cause that would ultimately do far more harm than good, the decision to terminate him had been made, only somewhat begrudgingly and not because of any parental fondness.

Unfortunately, the Kazekage had vastly underestimated his son's strength. Yashamaru, an ANBU-level ninja, was now dead, and Gaara, in his emotional distress, had fled the village entirely and disappeared into the desert. The event had launched the upper echelon of the ninja village into turmoil; a dangerous Jinchuriki who was no doubt more than a little angry with them as a village was on the loose, and even worse for Baki, he was now down a pupil.

He had been chosen to train the Kazekage's three children, but now that one was missing, there was a rift in standard procedure. Shinobi were always supposed to be trained in groups of three, as this provided the basic groundwork for team based operations. Temari and Kankuro alone simply would not do. Of course there were a handful of Academy students Baki could have chosen to fill Gaara's position, but none of the sniveling brats were even near the skill level or potential that the Kazekage's two eldest children possessed. Not to mention that Baki's two soon-to-be pupils were more than a little agitated by Gaara's disappearance, and he doubted they would be pleased to be grouped with some weakling on top of all of that.

"Hey! Get back here you thieving little shit!"

Distracted from his musings by the shout of a furious merchant, Baki returned his one-eyed gaze to the streets before him. The words of anger had been more than enough to let the Jonin know what was going on, but it became even more obvious as he saw a young child dash into an alley, followed by a middle-aged man with a scraggly beard that looked unreasonably upset.

Almost no one reacted to the scene. Ever since the alliance with the Land of Fire had been signed a few years ago, the Hidden Sand had been buried in a financial rut. The Daimyo of the Wind Nation had cut back funding for the Shinobi village as part of the deal, and the result had been a slow, strangled descent into poverty and inefficacy. Seeing an angry merchant chasing down a hungry and desperate kid was a common sight these days.

While Baki may not have been the most emotional of men, it did pain him to see his home village reduced to such a state. But nevertheless, he had no time to intervene on the child's behalf, for Baki had an audience with the Kazekage, who was not one to keep waiting.

With this in mind, the Jonin prepared to double-time it to his destination, but a loud and tormented scream from the alley the child and merchant had disappeared into stopped him short. While a cry of despair and agony may not have been so peculiar had it come from the child… this cry of terror was clearly that of the man that had followed him.

Even most of the civilian villagers stopped going about their daily business at the sound. What could a child possibly have done to make a grown man scream like that?

It was a question that greatly interested Baki, and although he hated to be late to his meeting with the Kazekage, the experienced ninja decided that a brief investigation was worth his time.

Stepping into the alleyway, his silent footfalls muffled by his own training as well as the sand at his feet, Baki was met with a most interesting sight.

The child was leaning against the wall, face hidden behind long blond bangs as he heaved for breath, his limbs splayed out lifelessly to his side. At the child's feet was the man who had chased him, curled into the fetal position, quietly whimpering as his wide eyes stared off into nothingness.

While Baki was not afraid of this child, he was not one to take chances with some sort of unknown power. His most educated guess as to what had caused the merchant's condition was that he had been hit with some sort of Genjutsu. But using even the lowest level of Genjutsu was nearly impossible for a child as young as this one, who seemed to be little more than five or six.

Not to mention, the kid looked absolutely exhausted. Sure, he had been running away, but this looked more like someone who had run a marathon and was about to pass out. It seemed like too much exhaustion to have simply been the result of a brief chase with a merchant.

Hoping that the kid in tattered clothing would not turn on Baki in surprise, the Jonin cleared his throat loudly enough to get the child to acknowledge his presence. With any luck, he could convince the urchin that there was no cause for alarm.

Then again, the child did not seem prone to alarm anyway. Turning his gaze towards Baki with no sense of urgency whatsoever, the tiny blonde simply stared at him, still struggling to catch his breath, but not actually alarmed, as best as Baki could tell. Whether it was because he was too ignorant to know his situation or because he felt no danger from Baki was a mystery.

Now that they were looking at each other directly, Baki could see that the boy's long blond bangs only covered the right side of his face. It was curled to the side in a way that hid his right eye, yet kept his hair away from his nose and mouth. With his right being hidden, only one dark sapphire eye looked up to Baki, expressing an all-around lack of concern with the Jonin's presence, or any sort of emotion Baki would have expected considering the state of the only other adult here.

Getting right to the point, the Sand Jonin pointed to the still trembling man on the ground. He didn't really have time to beat around the bush, and it wasn't in his character anyway.

"What did you do to this man?"

The boy didn't answer immediately, instead choosing to lift a chunk of bread in one hand and take a feeble bite out of it. Presumably, this was the good he had pilfered from the now incapacitated merchant. He clearly struggled a bit to chew, but that just seemed to be due to his lack of energy. After a few moments, the urchin did manage to swallow, at which point he finally answered Baki's question.

"I dunno."

Tiredness aside, the young boy's voice was entirely relaxed and free of worry, leading the Jonin to question whether or not the child even understood the gravity of what he had done to another human being. Either way, Baki was not at all satisfied with this incredibly vague answer.

"You think I'm a fool, boy? You expect me to believe that you don't know how you reduced a man to this state?"

Unfortunately, the child's next answer was not any more informative than his first one. "Well, I just looked at him. With the other eye, not the one I'm looking at you with. The other one does bad things to bad people. Sometimes. Not always."

Certain the blonde in front of him was trying to making fun of him or joking around, and with little time to waste besides, Baki decided to throw away civility for the sake of this mini-interrogation. Drawing a kunai, he held it up for the boy to see. There was no way this kid didn't know more than he was letting on.

"You will tell me what you did to this man… or else food will be the least of your worries."

Now Baki had no intention of hurting this frail child, but he was quite surprised to see the boy's gaze fill with anger and defiance at the sight of a weapon. His voice went from relaxed and carefree to on-edge in a heartbeat. Despite being so young, he clearly understood the gravity of a threat to himself. Baki had no doubt this was due to constant belligerence or threats from people like the merchant he had mysteriously dispatched.

"Go away. I'm just trying to eat."

Irritated that he wasn't even able to intimidate a child properly, Baki inadvertently let a bit more venom than intended seep into his voice. "If you don't do as I say, brat..."

The urchin's single visible eye narrowed as he glared at the older man accosting him. To Baki, it honestly looked like the kid was going to attack, but surely he couldn't be that stupid? Even a homeless runt would be able to recognize the uniform of a ninja.

And yet, for a brief flicker of a moment, Baki felt a a strange sensation on his skin. He was chilled, and yet, he felt the temperature around him rise. He had no idea what was causing this sensation, but the Jonin did know it was unnatural. That's why he moved.

Baki stepped back in alarm as a burst of unnaturally colored azure flames erupted from the sand at his feet, blasting heated grains against the Jonin's flak jacket. It was only a brief flare, and as the small pillar of blue flame, which Baki now noticed was also tinged with green, died down and faded from existence, the Sand Jonin turned his gaze back to the boy, who had returned to eating what was left of his bread. The boy didn't seem alarmed in the slightest with what had just occurred.

"That happens too sometimes. Things catch on fire a lot around me. Usually when I'm mad. It's not really on purpose."

Baki furrowed his brow as he gazed at the child that had returned to a state of seeming calmness. Maybe the kid thought he had deterred Baki somehow. Pretty conceited on his part, but the blonde couldn't have possibly understood how large the gap between them was. That said, Baki was actually pretty impressed by this whole incident.

"You seem to have many abilities you can't properly explain, boy."

"Nah, it's just those two. There's nothing else. What does it mean to you anyway?"

Baki couldn't help but smirk to himself. What it meant was that this boy had a remarkably high degree of untapped potential. Whether he could properly explain them, the child had remarkable abilities, and the flame must have been manifested by chakra. That meant this kid's raw potential outpaced where many Genin twice his age would be, even if it was uncultivated. Frankly, this kid was exactly what he was looking for.

Naturally Baki didn't voice his true thoughts, though he believed he now had a good excuse to present to the Kazekage for being late to his meeting. "How long have you been living on these streets? Have you been a thieving urchin your whole life?"

"I don't know. Not forever. I used to live somewhere else."

Curious regarding this information, Baki asked for clarification. "And where was this 'somewhere else?'"

"I dunno… it had a big tree and a pretty waterfall. That's all I remember. It was pretty, but the people there were mean, so I left. People here are the same though."

Now Baki was intrigued even further. The boy's scant description sounded like another ninja village far from here. Not to mention that there was a vast, inhospitable desert in-between the Sand Village and the rest of the Elemental Nations. Had this child come here by himself?

"I know of the land that you speak of, and it is far from the Hidden Sand… who brought you here?"

The boy tentatively looked around the alley. Baki noticed that the child was deliberately cautious when he moved his head, as if to make absolutely sure he didn't accidentally flip his bangs the wrong way and expose his right eye.

"Some men let me follow them here when they came to sell stuff. I didn't really know them though, and they left a while ago. I stayed. Didn't wanna walk through the desert again."

"What about parents?"

Not at all bothered by the question or his answer to it, the blonde shrugged. "Don't know. I've been alone for a long time. Only the guy at the waterfall place took care of me for awhile. There's never been anyone else."

"You say that like you weren't actually born in that 'waterfall place'. Where exactly were you born, brat?"

"Not here. Not there either. So I don't know."

"Can't you describe it?"

"No. It's too long ago to remember."

With a bemused smirk, Baki turned back to the street, well aware that he had kept the Kazekage waiting for far too long already. Frankly, he needed to learn a lot more about this strange kid, but that could wait. He knew enough to value his potential as it was. That being the case, he briefly turned his one-eyed gaze back to the kid in the alley.

"If you wish for an end to your troubles regarding your hunger, loneliness, and lack of direction, I suggest you come with me."

A confused frown overtook the child's face. "You were going to hurt me. Why help now?"

"Your abilities and mystique are of interest to me."

Baki neglected to mention the child's suitable potential as a substitute for Gaara. There was no need to reveal that detail here.

The blond still seemed doubtful. "I don't think I want to come with you. You're not very friendly."

Well aware of that aspect of his character, Baki could offer no rebuttal to that accusation. However, he had an alternative answer: even though the Jonin wasn't completely sure that Temari and Kankuro would appreciate being used as persuasive tools.

"There are two young children around your age that are closely connected with me. I'm sure they'll be glad to accept you."

Of course, Baki was actually pretty doubtful about that. Kankuro wasn't overly social and Temari was still a little bitter about losing her actual little brother. She didn't understand at her age that Gaara never saw her as a sister in any way. Her immature mind couldn't comprehend Gaara's now even more amplified hate for just about everyone. That being the case, she was still convinced that she was missing out on something; there was just something about young girls and having little siblings that appealed to them. Baki hoped she would grow out of it quickly.

"I don't trust you, Cyclops."

Broken out of his thoughts, and more importantly realizing that the little brat had just addressed him as Cyclops, Baki aimed an irritable gaze at the urchin before him. On one hand, the kid might not be worth the trouble. But considering Gaara's absence, and the fact that Baki hadn't yet encountered another child with such high potential for the shinobi lifestyle, the experienced veteran knew the hassle was worth it.

"Well, I suppose if you're eager to live out on these sandy streets with the blazing sun hanging over your head for the rest of your life, you're welcome to stay where you are. If you're looking forward to dying face-down in the sand, amounting to nothing, decline my offer. Make whatever choice you wish."

Baki turned away from the child with a smirk, acting as if he were about to leave. He may not have been Konoha's legendary Ibiki Morino, but he knew his way around manipulative techniques. And just as he expected, Baki could hear the child behind him rise to his feet, although there was still reluctance in his movements.

"What do you want with a kid like me? You aren't doing this to be nice."

Baki was impressed with the lack of naiveté in this young child. He was smart beyond his years; or he at least possessed some more developed critical thinking skills than the rest of the five or six-year old kids in the village.

"No, I'm not doing this out of pity for you. In fact, I despise weaklings, and I don't really like kids. But even I can see that letting someone like you roam the streets until you died of starvation or a knife in your back would be a waste. You have the potential to…fill a special need for the Hidden Sand: a need for talented and powerful shinobi. Surely that's better than the way you live now?"

Baki made extra sure not to use the word 'replace' when he spoke. While this child really was nothing more than a potential replacement for Gaara, negative words like that would not entice him to come along quietly. He would most likely never match the potential a Jinchuriki like Gaara possessed, but out of all of the young children with the potential to be ninja Baki had seen in the village, this kid was the next best thing.

Not to mention that this child's special ability could have been a Kekkei Genkai, and if that were the case, it opened up the potential for a new breed in the Sand. something like that would definitely be an asset to the village, which currently had no clans to rival the Hyuuga or Uchiha in the Leaf or anywhere else for that matter.

The boy came to stand beside Baki, having already contemplated the situation at hand. "When you say it like that, I'd have to be stupid to say no."

"That you would. But if you are going to accompany me, there is one condition."

The child turned his half-veiled gaze to Baki, expectantly awaiting the next line.

"If you wish to accept my offer, then you will tell me the truth about what you did to the man who tried to hurt you. I must know how a child like you bested an adult, even a useless civilian, so easily. You reduced him to a whimpering, quivering ball in moments. Certainly you must know something more than what you told me."

The blond boy tensed for a moment, unwilling to reveal anything about himself that people tended to criticize and judge. But he knew he would be throwing away a perfect opportunity at advancing his quality of life if he did not answer this Jonin's question.

"I... really don't know. I'm telling you, it just happens sometimes, when I really need to hurt someone. Like I said, there was a man who kind of took care of me in the waterfall place; he said it could be the strongest weapon ever, but I don't know anything about that."

His interest piqued, Baki pressed for a real answer. "The strongest weapon ever? Didn't he say why?"

The boy cocked an eyebrow at Baki. "If I knew I would tell you, Cyclops. I'm just telling you what my... I dunno what to call him, what some other old ninja guy said to me once."

Baki was miffed to receive such an answer, but the young boy beside him seemed truly unable to shed any more light on on the subject. There would be time to investigate this strange phenomenon later, but for now, the Kazekage had been kept waiting long enough.

"Do you have a name, kid?"

"Not one that I can remember."

"I see. Well, we'll find one for you eventually. But for now, you and I both have places to be."

The boy said nothing. His own words had cast a curtain of discomfort over him. Instead, he merely stood silent as Baki placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, using a Body Flicker to transport them both to the Kazekage's tower.

To any of the civilian passerby on the road, the odd pair had simply faded out of existence; but compared to the daily struggle of the village's economic depression, it held no one's attention for more than a few moments. Life in the desert was hard enough without having to worry about scary ninja and dirty street urchins.

Chapter Text

Working with ninja while being a civilian yourself was an interesting experience few people could lay claim to. As far as shinobi circles were concerned, most of the people one worked with were ninja, even if their job was not specific to being a ninja. But this wasn't always the case, especially in the Hidden Sand. Considering their less than ideal economic situation, lots of people had left the village for greener pastures over the years, and that meant less potential candidates to become ninja. With the number of ninja going down, the Sand had few to waste on jobs shinobi weren't required for.

That was why the Kazekage's secretary, a bespectacled brunette with hazel eyes named Sohara, was not a ninja. Her family didn't have the means or the desire to trek across the desert to another country, so she had to find work around the village like many other civilians did. Thankfully, that was easy, since there was a ton of work to do, but not enough people to do it. Unfortunately, her impressive managerial skills had landed her an office job that kept her sequestered in a mostly bland sandstone chamber that served as the entrance to the Kazekage's personal room for work.

It was just a little too dull for the young woman's tastes. Aside from her wooden desk and a few tapestries, as well as the doors that led in and out, it was a pretty uninteresting space. The only thing that broke up the monotony was an open window that helped with some much needed circulation. The least the Kazekage could have done was put some more furniture in here. A potted plant maybe.

Sohara ignored the papers and forms on her desk for a moment to ponder whether or not the Kazekage would let her bring some of her own things in here. She had a picture or two she could hang up...

Before she could get too far into that line of thought, the secretary nearly jumped out of her chair as Baki's peerless Body Flicker skills planted him and his young charge smack in the center of the room.

Trying to calm her rapidly beating heart, Sohara snapped at the scary ninja before she really thought about it.

"Dammit, Baki, can you use the door?! What's the point of even teleporting in here like that?!"

Baki brushed some sand off of his person as the small blonde child next to him reeled in some sort of shock. He probably wasn't used to whatever Baki had just done. Said ninja didn't seem too concerned with the fright he had given Sohara.

"Technically, it's not teleporting. I just came in through the window."

Realizing that she had snapped at someone that usually gave her the creeps, Sohara tried to rebound into a greater degree of professionalism, though she didn't drop her gripe completely.

"W-well, the door is still a very viable and perfectly reasonable way to enter a room..."

"This is the top floor of the building. Entering through a window is much more efficient than climbing all those stairs."

Having shaken off the effects of Baki's nigh imperceptible speed, the small kid next to him agreed. "Yeah, he's kind of got a point. That was super fast."

Having never seen the boy next to Baki, and more importantly never seeing Baki with a kid in the first place, Sohara couldn't help but question exactly that. "So, uh, who is this?"

Unwilling to explain things to someone who didn't need to know, Baki ignored the question entirely.

"Someone you need to watch until I call for him. Do not let him out of your sight."

With that said, Baki brushed past the woman and pushed open the doors of the Kazekage's office, quickly closing the ornate slabs of wood behind him to maintain privacy within the room. Sure, there were plenty of seals to absorb sound and whatnot within the office, but closing the doors still seemed like a good idea.

Now that Baki was gone, the boy he had brought with him was at a loss. He had no clue how long this would take, and he was sure he could feel
the secretary's gaze on him, trying to peer through his long bangs that shielded his right eye from the world.

The young woman was indeed staring at him, but while he felt judgment, she was simply curious, sizing him up. She would hardly say she was 'close' to Baki, but she knew him well enough by now to know he wasn't very fond of kids. It was strange to see him with one of his own free will.

Of course, Sohara's analysis of her odd companion was rife with observations that troubled her. His brown and beige clothes, full of holes and tears and stained with who knows what, did little to hide a scrawny and malnourished figure. Long blonde hair, matted and unkempt, shielded half a face that was dirty and gaunt, despite the alert and cautious expression. As best as Sohara could tell, this kid seemed to have come right off the streets.

As the woman assessed the boy before her and said target of her gaze did his best to ignore it, the sandstone room was dominated by uncomfortable silence. The child shifted from foot to foot in his nervousness, doing his best to direct his half-veiled gaze anywhere but at the woman that was scrutinizing him. When the oblivious ditz finally noticed his discomfort, she decided that it would be better to try and put him at ease. If her assumption about his origins was right, it was no surprise that he was a little skittish under scrutiny.

"So, what's your name?"

She said it with a slight lilt in her voice, as one would expect while talking to a young child of five or six. Despite being that age, the boy she addressed cast the gaze of his one visible sapphire orb to the woman and glared at her. It wasn't overly intimidating, but the kid's distaste was still obvious.

"I don't know. Don't talk to me like that."

Perplexed by both his answer and the slight edge in his voice, the bespectacled secretary cocked an eyebrow at the young blond in front of her desk. Could she not find anyone nice, even in the form of a child? Well, he probably had understandable reasons for being a little prickly, so Sohara figured she would soldier on.

"Sorry… my name is Sohara. It's alright if you want to call me that."

The boy didn't make any response, but merely shifted his severe gaze away from the woman, seemingly uninterested in continuing the conversation.

While the reaction served to dishearten Sohara further, she was determined to make some sort of headway. This was actually the most interesting thing she'd been able to do all week.

"So, what are you doing with a creepy old guy like Baki? He's always saying how much he dislikes kids, so how come he's with you?"

When no response was forthcoming for several moments, Sohara pressed a little harder. "Pleeease? C'mon, you're much too cute to be acting like a grumpy old man: like Baki."

The mere thought of being similar to the mentioned Jonin seemed to drive an answer out of the boy. "He wants me to be a ninja or something. Don't know why he'd pick a kid off the streets for that though."

Sohara's brown eyes instantly took on the ridiculous watery gleam of pity and sadness. "Aw, I knew it! Is that why you're so thin? Hold on, I've got something for you!"

The nameless boy frowned as he watched Sohara rummage through her desk for something that he assumed was food. On one hand, he was certainly hungry, having not been filled overly much from the sole piece of bread he had stolen earlier. But on the other, he couldn't recall a single time an adult offered him food without some sort of ulterior motive that wasn't good for him.

"I don't really need it…"

Either not hearing his dissent or just ignoring it, Sohara finally located the bento she had brought to eat later that afternoon. Truth be told, she was already a little hungry herself, but she certainly wasn't the type of person to be stingy in a situation like this. She shoved the box towards the boy so quickly that her round glasses almost flew off of her face.

"Here! You need to eat this!"

The child actually leaned away from the proffered meal, which was surprising to the woman who offered it, for obvious reasons. If his body was any indication, he must have been starving.

"I don't want your lunch, lady. Stop it."

Deciding that maybe the kid was just shy or scared, Sohara decided to press on. "I'm not letting you out of my sight until I see you eat something! I could probably count your ribs if you didn't have a shirt on, and I probably shouldn't even count those tattered rags as a shirt in the first place!"

The two of them locked eyes, both willing their defiance in this matter to overcome their new acquaintance. If anyone had seen the moment, they simply would've thought that it was the world's most intense staring contest.

Baki knelt before the Kazekage, who had his hands intertwined underneath his chin and his elbows resting on his expensive marble desk. Without his usual hat atop his head, Rasa's mop of bloody red hair was clearly visible, framing the wrinkles around his aging eyes. Said wrinkles hadn't existed last year, but it was no surprise that the village leader had aged a little faster than usual with the way things had been going lately.

"You are late, Baki. I hope you have a good explanation for it."

The man's tone had a hint of irritability about it, which usually would have worried Baki. However, he was feeling very assured, confident that the Kazekage would overlook his tardiness when he presented his reasons.

"Yes Lord Kazekage, forgive me. But I believe you will be most interested in why I was late."

Raising an eyebrow at his Jonin subordinate's words, Rasa wondered what could be important enough to risk angering a Kage, especially a less than lenient one like himself. Still, he trusted Baki enough to hear him out.

"You'd better hope so. I have far too much paperwork to do today, and not enough time to waste on waiting around for scheduled meetings. So let's hear it."

Strangely, Baki almost seemed excited. In fact, it was obvious that the Sand Jonin was trying to suppress it. This was a rarity for the man, one which Rasa actually found a little unsettling.

"Lord Kazekage, I think I have found a solution to the village's most recent affliction. One that I discovered on the way here."

The redhead couldn't help but sigh as he was reminded of the village's 'most recent affliction'. It seemed to pertain to every aspect of his office, at this point. With Gaara's disappearance, many of the ninja that knew of the issue were worried about an angry Jinchuuriki returning in a few years to wreak havoc. It was a reasonable concern, considering the volatile state of his alienated son before the failed assassination attempt, never mind after it.

"If you are referring to what I think you are, than I truly doubt what you've found is really a solution."

If the Kazekage's disheartening words had any effect on Baki, it definitely didn't show. "Maybe not, Lord Kazekage. But I think what I've found -who I've found- may help alleviate the problem, and may be even more beneficial to the village than even having Gaara around to protect it."

Knowing that Baki was not even close to being a 'people person,' Rasa was actually quite interested in learning how someone had made such an impression on the Jonin.

"Your solution is a person? And you think he can somehow remedy our predicament? What could be better than having a Jinchuuriki to defend the village in these times of feeble military strength?"

"This child I have found, he has… promise. Potential to be a great shinobi, I can feel it! He's very young, and obviously has no experience in the shinobi arts, but even so his chakra is strong enough to manifest itself as an element. Beyond that, he has a strange special ability; it could be a Kekkei Genkai."

Rasa mulled over this analysis of the person Baki had found. He had labeled this person as a child, so the chakra manifestation was indeed impressive. However, what was most interesting to him was the mention of a Kekkei Genkai. It was well-known that one of the reasons the Sand was at a huge disadvantage should they ever go to war with the Leaf or any other village was that they lacked any powerful clan equal to that of the legendary Uchiha or Hyuuga. Sure, there were some small clans with bloodline traits within the Sand, but their abilities weren't powerful enough to truly set them apart from the rank and file.

"Wait: you said that perhaps this child has a Kekkei Genkai. You are not sure?"

Baki frowned, worried that the Kazekage would dismiss this whole thing if the child did not possess a bloodline trait. After all, the most promising thing about this boy, if he did indeed possess a Kekkei Genkai, was his ability to give birth to a powerful clan in the future, one that would bolster the village's strength immensely.

"He used some sort of ability unlike any jutsu I have seen to reduce a man in the streets into a near comatose state. I suppose it could have been a Genjutsu of some kind… but this child is no older than five or six. Even true shinobi prodigies have trouble grasping Genjutsu at that age, it just doesn't seem possible."

Rasa closed his eyes in deep thought, a state he maintained for many moments. When he finally opened them again, he wasted no time in speaking. "I would like to see this child for myself. Is he here?"

Baki nodded before moving towards the door to retrieve the child in question. "Yes, Lord Kazekage. I will bring him in imme-!"

The Jonin's words were cut off by a shriek from outside the office, probably from Sohara, judging by its overly annoying shrill pitch. It was unfortunate that the privacy seals around the office didn't block outside noises, though the reason this was the case was obvious.

With an irritable air about him, Baki shoved the door to the Kazekage's office open, eager to scold Sohara for being disruptive during a critical meeting; although the sight before him in the lobby may have justified the woman's reaction somewhat.

On the floor between Sohara's desk and the bare feet of the child Baki had rescued from the streets was an open bento box, its contents in a most unfortunate state. The food within -a rice ball, a meat bun, and a bowl of Miso soup with a lid on it- was completely engulfed in searing, radiant blue and green flames.

Seeing as how no one was making a move to stamp out the flame before it ignited something of actual importance, Baki cast a glare at the boy he knew was the cause of this. "Are you just going to let it burn, or are you going to put that out before you damage something?"

The addressed boy cocked an eyebrow at the man who had brought him here, momentarily unashamed. "I told her I didn't want any."

Sohara, clearly shaken, barely stuttered out an apology, though it was more to Baki than the kid who had crisped her lunch. "I'm s-s-sorry Baki... t-this is kinda my fault..."

Baki intensified his glare at the boy, ignoring Sohara completely. "Put it out. Now."

The accosted child glanced down at the burning bento box, little more than a pile of ashes at this point. "…I can't."

"What?"

What was visible of the child's face took on a noticeably downcast expression. "I can't put it out. I don't know how I started it. It was an accident, I didn't mean to burn her lunch. I'm sorry..."

Sohara seemed to calm down a little bit, as the boy who had reduced her lunch to something most definitely inedible did seem genuinely sorry about it. "I-i-it's fine… does that uh… happen regularly?"

At the mention of the frequency of these occurrences, the kid's mouth curved downward into a pained grimace. "You think I chose to be by myself?"

The boy's dejected response instantly turned Sohara's mood sullen. She realized immediately that she had asked a stupid question with an obvious answer.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean it like that. It was an accident! Actually, it's my fault for trying to force it on you, so I should be the one apologizing. Please don't feel sad."

She didn't expect her words to actually elicit any type of positive reaction from the boy, but surprisingly, his face was actually graced with a small, yet clearly grateful grin.

"If you say so... thank you, Sohara."

While Sohara beamed with joy at getting the boy to call her by name, the flames fizzled out as it ran out of bento to burn, solving that little crisis.

Feeling more than a little impatient, and no doubt aware that the Kazekage was feeling the same, Baki proceeded to usher the boy away from his moment of reconciliation, earning the Jonin a pout from the brunette who was ecstatic to see the somber boy smile, not that the expression persuaded Baki to let them share a few more moments.

Closing the door behind the two of them, Baki left Sohara to clean up the mess that had once been her lunch. Baki ushered the boy forward, making sure to push him to his knees in front of the esteemed Kazekage, which the kid seemed unwilling to do of his own accord.

After successfully getting into their positions of deference, many moments of silence filled the room. Baki could feel the Kazekage's critical gaze on his find, who had already grown bored enough to let his eyes roam. The sight of the Kazekage didn't seem to faze him at all.

After an even longer period of quiet, Baki himself grew somewhat nervous. The longer the Kazekage held his silence, the more he felt that he didn't approve of the Jonin's actions. But all silences must eventually come to an end, and perhaps it had seemed longer in his mind than it really was.

"This…boy? You think he has the potential to be something of worth?"

The tone of the Kazekage definitely had a disbelieving ring to it. But before Baki could try to assure him of this child's potential, the kid in question spoke for himself, with a small hint of distaste lacing his words.

"You trying to say something, gramps?"

Appalled, Baki barely refrained from outright punching this arrogant child. "You insolent brat! Do you have any idea who you're speaking to?!"

The blonde's one visible eye narrowed, genuinely considering the question at hand. "An old guy with a fancy desk and a rude attitude?"

Baki was about to lose his control and indeed smack the boy for his utmost disrespect, when a low chuckle from the Kazekage distracted the Sand Jonin from his anger. Extremely confused, Baki cast his half-veiled gaze over to his leader, whose mirth had already subsided.

"This child is either very foolish or very ignorant. Or a little of both perhaps…"

Baki felt a sudden spike of chakra from the boy next to him. It was of little consequence to a Jonin or Kage, but the sudden surge of anger-induced power was at least what one would expect of a Genin, which was impressive for a child of this age with no shinobi training. It was unfocused and therefore completely harmless, but with proper training Baki knew someone with this much raw potential could achieve great things.

"This wrinkled old dustbin is almost as fun as you are, Cyclops."

Rasa shook his head in amusement, willing to overlook the blatant disrespect because it was obvious the child didn't know any better. "I'm going to assume that you're just misinformed. Do you realize that I am the most powerful ninja in this village?"

The blond child didn't look impressed. "First I've heard of it."

"And how long have you been here?"

The six year old kid almost put some effort into figuring that out, but in the end he decided against it. "I wasn't really counting. Just trying to eat and all. But not that long, if you really want to know."

The village leader nodded knowingly, though he wondered if this child's brash attitude would serve him good or ill in the long run. "Well, that would explain your ignorance. I suppose you'll learn soon enough, under Baki's care."

The mentioned Jonin took note of the insinuation in the Kazekage's words. "So you are approving of him, Lord Kazekage?"

The red-haired Kage sighed tiredly, the weight of the world seemingly pressing down on his shoulders.

"I suppose I am. Even if he does not possess a Kekkei Genkai, you still need to find a third student to train alongside Temari and Kankuro. That being the case, it'd be better for you to take this child as a pupil as compared to the handful of other Academy children around here; at least this one seems to have greater than average potential."

Baki nodded in acknowledgement. "Thank you, Lord Kazekage. I have a feeling that this child will not disappoint us. If he is already at this level now, without any training or conditioning whatsoever, imagine what he could be in a few years…"

Rasa waved a hand in dismissal. "Yes, well, we are in great need of strong ninja now that our trump card has fled into the desert. Begin training him immediately… and I want you to discover whether or not this child has a Kekkei Genkai as soon as possible. It could shift the course of his future drastically."

Baki could see the boy beside him roll his eyes (or eye, in this case) as if he were displeased with the fact that two strangers he barely knew were dictating his future. Then again, although it was troublesome for the boy, any increase in quality of living was a step up from where he had been, and one he was willing to tolerate.

Having nothing else left to say, Baki rose to his feet and bowed to the Kazekage, who was eyeing a stack of papers on his desk with dread. This meeting had been a good distraction from the more menial of his tasks for the day, even though the original purpose of it had been shoved aside by Baki's stroke of luck.

Baki ushered his young charge out of the office, and the kid seemed more than happy to leave. Sohara was just stepping back into the room, having left it to dispose of the pile of ash that had been her lunch.

"Over already? Did it go well?"

Baki leveled a very rare smile in her direction, something that did the opposite of reassure her. "Yes, it very much did. Needless to say, I think you'll be seeing far more of this boy in the future."

While Sohara was completely ignorant as to the purpose of the meeting Baki had just conducted with the Kazekage and how it pertained to this child, she was very much glad to hear this news. She was the type of person to get unreasonably invested in things unreasonably quickly.

"Oh, that is good news! Uh, well... if you actually want to see me again, that is..."

With that last bit obviously pointed at the kid, it was he who had to offer a response. Normally, he would have said that he wasn't looking forward to it. But so far, Sohara had been kind to him. Even though he had far more negative experiences with adults than positive ones, he supposed it was alright to give this woman a chance based on a first impression.

"I'd like to, Sohara."

Nearly squealing with joy at the prospect of making a new friend, child though he was, Sohara was about to proclaim exactly such feelings, only to be cut off by Baki.

"Alright, don't get too excited. He and I are going to be busy for quite some time."

Far more eager to begin teaching his new charge than he would ever admit, Baki placed a hand on the kid's shoulder and used the Body Flicker technique to take the two of them out the window and to the marketplace. If this child was going to be a student of his, he'd have to be dressed in far better than the rags the Jonin had found him in.

As for Sohara, she simply crossed her arms in dismay.

"What's with ninja and ignoring doors?"

The private residence of the Kazekage was always quiet. There were no shouts of an irritable mother trying to calm her bickering children. There was no father congratulating his son on accomplishing something important. There were no kids laughing or arguing or anything of the sort. It was the home of an incomplete family, one with a comatose mother and a father who was rarely ever there, leaving his two remaining children alone to futilely attempt to stave off the oppressive silence that was always present.

It was all too easy to be swallowed by that silence, to let it drag you down and sap your will to do anything, and it didn't help that the house was so damn big. Too many big rooms, too few people to occupy them.

Temari was currently feeling engulfed by all that silence, as she sat in the mostly barren room that would have been Gaara's one day in the not so far future. The bed had no sheets, and the walls had no furnishings, since no one was sleeping in it yet, but either way, it would have been Gaara's when the siblings' shinobi training started.

Considering recent events, that was of course no longer the case. Temari hadn't really been given the real details of Gaara's disappearance seeing as how she was just a nine year old child, but she had at least been told that he was gone. That news had hit a lot harder than she would have thought. She had never even really met Gaara: their father kept him apart from his siblings in some other residence, and they were never told where it was and weren't allowed to visit. She'd asked her father on one of the very rare occasions he was home why this was, but his answer had been vague. Something about 'matters too complicated for a child to understand.'

But even though Temari had never really known Gaara, she had wanted to. The prospect of a little brother that wasn't close to her age like Kankuro had been kind of exciting. She and Kankuro were too close in age to have any sort of doting sibling relationship: but the gap between her and Gaara would have been big enough to have that. She'd actually been looking forward to it.

So hearing that something had happened to him had seriously crippled her mood for the past week or so. It was made even worse by the fact that their shinobi training was supposed to begin in just a few days, meaning she would have been meeting Gaara soon had things not turned out the way they did. Part of her knew it would have been prudent to prepare for that somehow, but she lacked the will to do so right now. Even knowing that Baki, the Jonin who more or less watched over them these past few years, would be ruining their relaxing day to day lives very soon, Temari couldn't even find it in her to make use of her last few days of relative tranquility. It just felt wrong considering that Gaara was out in the desert alone somewhere, possibly already dead.

On the other hand, Kankuro was handling the whole situation a lot better, considering the fact that he never wanted to be around Gaara for any reason anyway. He had told his slightly older sister that she was crazy thinking that any type of relationship even close to that of a sibling could be attained with their youngest kin. The redhead was nothing but trouble, according to him.

Those words had earned her younger brother a huge lump on the back of his head, but the more she dwelt on them, the more Temari wondered why
they had been said in the first place. She was a smart girl for her age, and she knew Gaara had been dangerous, but it only seemed that way because someone always threatened him first. If just one person had treated him kindly, he would have been fine, right?

Maybe if she had been allowed near him sooner, things would be different today. She understood that Gaara had been prone to some violent outbursts, but their life as shinobi was the opportunity Temari had been waiting for to try and reach out to Gaara, and now it had been snatched away by some cruel twist of fate. That was why she didn't feel like doing anything today, or the whole week for that matter. Unlike someone she knew, she just couldn't help but feel depressed.

Unfortunately, life always seemed keen on forcing people to action when it was the last thing they wanted to do.

"Temari, Kankuro! Come to the living room!"

Temari recognized the voice of their guardian and soon-to-be sensei, prompting her to inwardly groan as she rose from the barren bed in this house's one barren bedroom. Stepping out into the hallway to see more dark sandstone walls and floors, Temari bumped into Kankuro, who was likewise emerging from his room.

"You have any idea what he wants, Temari? I thought our training wasn't supposed to start for a few more days at least."

The eldest blond sibling shot an irritated glare at her brother. She was in a more terse mood than usual, but the question would have irritated her regardless.

"How would I know before you, idiot?"

Since her insult was relatively standard fare, the eight year old Kankuro wasn't fazed by it. "Just wondering if you were going to pretend to know everything, like always."

With no time to really get into a spat, Temari pointedly ignored his retort in favor of continuing down the hallway. Admittedly, they were on worse terms than usual, mostly because of the issue with Gaara. Their conflicting views on the matter had put them at greater odds than their typical fare.

Putting the possibility of a fight behind them for now, Kankuro followed his sister down the hallway and into the living room, a space that sported a few couches and chairs, but little else. Despite being fully capable of getting more, their father was a man of few possessions. He wasn't home enough to feel that such rooms had too much empty space.

Of more interest was Baki, who they had naturally been expecting to see. But who was with him was a different matter entirely.

They both offered looks of confusion, but Temari was the more vocal of the two. "What the heck is this?"

Baki watched as the Kazekage's two remaining children both ignored him completely and cast their critical gazes at the blonde kid beside him, who was strangely attempting to hide himself from the other children behind Baki's legs. This was unusual, because from what the Sand Jonin had seen of the boy's personality so far, he was brash and sarcastic… not like the shy and demure child cowering by the adult's side. Perhaps he was less comfortable around people of his own age? Even the past hour in the marketplace, the boy now clad in nicer clothes hadn't seemed nervous in the least.

Either way, Baki decided it would be best to explain the situation before any of the younger children here made their own assumptions about it. The experienced ninja motioned towards his charge, who was doing an excellent job of seemingly shrinking himself behind the older ninja's legs.

"Temari, Kankuro, this is… well, I don't know who he is, but I do know what he'll be. Starting today, he is the third member of your trainee team, and consequentially, he will be staying here with the two of you."

The reaction to this news was immediate, and much to Baki's displeasure, definitely negative in nature, although Temari was once again more vocal about it. "What?! You can't be serious! So what, Gaara disappears and you just go out and find a replacement, just like that?! How could you?!"

Kankuro backed his sister up, but more passively. "Yeah, we don't need some nameless squirt just to fill the gap. Temari and I can be a fine ninja team by ourselves."

The young blonde stranger in the home frowned and scooted even further behind Baki's legs, who was ready to reprimand his young charges. "Neither of you two children have any say in the matter. Lord Kazekage has decided that this child is the best candidate to fill Gaara's position on the team. Whether or not you want him here is irrelevant."

Kankuro just frowned and muttered under his breath, but Temari seethed with obvious anger. However, neither of them were willing to say something stupid in front of Baki, who waved the two children off.

"Now you can do whatever you like for the rest of the day. Training starts tomorrow, so enjoy this last lax day while you can."

The Kazekage's children were more than willing to leave their unwanted guest behind and return to their rooms, at which point the object of their dissatisfaction stepped out from behind Baki's legs, none too happy with the reception.

"They hate me. I haven't even talked yet and they hate me."

Baki sighed, already foreseeing a difficult road ahead. "They are both dealing with big changes right now. Hopefully they'll calm down in a week or so, but until then, you'll just have to weather their unhappiness."

The kid scowled, and a potted plant on a table in the room burst into vivid blue flames. The occurrence was so sudden that even Baki jumped a little, although the boy who had most likely caused the phenomenon barely twitched as he looked back at the burning plant.

"Sorry."

Baki grabbed the burning vegetation and looked out the window before tossing it out into the sand. If someone didn't smother it, the sand would at least ensure that nothing else caught fire.

With one final sigh of exasperation, Baki returned to the boy and steered him down the hallway of the residence. "Let's just go find you a room with very few flammable objects..."

Chapter Text

The biggest changes in life tended to happen very quickly and without much warning. One moment, you're using an ability you don't understand at all to fend off an angry merchant, and the next, you've been conscripted into shinobi service by some guy wearing loose bandages over half his face. No warning whatsoever.

Then you get whisked away to the leader of the village to be judged on some vague criteria, Cyclops takes you to the market for new threads, and you're told you get to live with two stranger kids who hate you. All of that had also happened very quickly and with very little warning.

As the young child who had been subjected to all of these sudden changes that day laid in a bed with soft sheets far too comfortable for his liking, he couldn't decide whether he was actually happy about any of it. He had no desire to become a ninja; he desired little more than food and maybe a friend or two. Not only that, but he was also going to be forced to work for people he didn't even know. That could hardly be counted as a good thing.

But on the other hand, the general quality of the urchin's life was bound to improve by leaps and bounds so long as he was under the Kazekage's roof. He had clothes that didn't have holes in them now, and shoes too. He'd gotten the chance to take a bath tonight, for the first time he could remember in ages. And he was sleeping in a bed with a roof over his head, instead of in an alley. Did all of that outweigh the cons of being a conscripted shinobi? In the books of a kid whose largest concerns in his short life had been survival, it probably should have.

Regardless of whether or not this was a good change, the current situation itself was something the street rat turned ninja trainee wasn't accustomed to in just a few hours. Last night he had been sleeping on the sandy ground of the village's alleyways, and now he was in a soft, fluffy bed. If anything, he was having far more trouble sleeping on this pile of feathers than his usual solid resting place.

Being unable to sleep left the young child with plenty of things to think about. The other kids in this place hated him, and he hadn't even burned anything yet, with the exception of that potted plant. He had just shown up, not even of his own accord, and instantly been rejected. He was kind of used to that by now, but usually other children were usually considerate enough to at least state their grievances. It was more like they usually couldn't help themselves. The other kids in this house with him hadn't really given a reason for hating him specifically, which made it even worse.

The blonde rolled onto his side and stared at an unfamiliar wall, part of an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar house, willing to let his right green eye be revealed to his surroundings since there was no one to harm with whatever mysterious ability it possessed. With no way of knowing how to control it or what it even truly did, hiding it was the best way to ensure accidents didn't happen. He probably could have used an eyepatch or something, but life as a street rat had been hard enough without having to deal with that all the time.

It was hard to sleep while thinking about everything that was going to happen from here on out. He really knew absolutely nothing about being a ninja at all. And first and foremost, that meant tomorrow was going to be far more trouble than he would have liked.

Sooner than anyone, even Baki, would have liked, the Sand Jonin and his would-be students found themselves out in the desert beyond the outskirts of the village. Fortunately, the four of them were out early enough to avoid the sun, so the temperature was at a somewhat comfortable level between the blistering heat of the day and the chilling cold of the night. It wouldn't last long, but Baki decided he might as well make the most of it.

Today was the first day of official training for the Kazekage's kids, as well as the urchin Baki had picked up yesterday. Oddly enough, Baki's primary focus was actually on the latter. While Temari and Kankuro hadn't been 'officially' trained in any capacity, they had been studying much of the Academy curriculum over the past few years, courtesy of the Kazekage and the fact that their effective guardian was an elite ninja.

So even though they were just barely of ages that would have been allowed for entering the Academy, the two siblings were actually beyond most of its curriculum. They knew nearly all of the basics a student would be taught at the Academy, and had even settled on what types of specializations they were interested in pursuing. While all of this still only placed them at the level of advanced Academy students, it was leaps and bounds ahead of where this nameless runt probably was. That said, Baki was still obligated to check.

"So… do you know anything at all about the shinobi arts?"

The blonde child, shorter than the other two under Baki's care, swished his long bangs to the side so he could look directly at the only adult present without his hair getting in the way. Naturally, he was very careful to keep the natural curtain shielding the right side of his face.

"I know that ninja can do a bunch of things that I can't. I shouldn't be here. I don't know anything about this kind of stuff."

Temari decided she needed to support that statement. "I agree, he's totally useless here…"

Although the kid had said the same himself, hearing the older girl's snide tone seemed to irritate him. Without any visible movement on his part, the street urchin seemingly ignited the small hand fan Temari was fiddling with, causing it to burst into alternating green and blue flames.

The oldest girl yelped as she tossed the burning object into the sand and stamped on it until the magnificent flames were extinguished. Fortunately, she was carrying two extra fans, but she shot the perpetrator of the act an ice-cold glare regardless.

Said child had his own snide little sneer to offer this time, something that didn't seem to belong on such a young child's face. "Guess I'm useful for something."

Temari took a menacing step towards the boy as Kankuro tried to hold back a snicker, admitting to himself that he actually kind of liked this kid. Fortunately, Baki decided to step in before anything got out of hand. "Since you claim to know nothing of shinobi arts… how did you do that? You started a fire without the use of any kind of jutsu, so far as I could tell."

The kid's brow furrowed as he was asked a familiar difficult question. A lot of people wondered how he did what he did, but he never had an answer for them.

"I don't know. I can't even do it on purpose. It only happens when I'm really angry or scared or something. I get this weird feeling inside of me... not a good one. It burns, but it's also cold. That feeling goes away when I burn something. I think it just burns stuff that's bothering me."

Baki cocked an eyebrow at the crispy remains of Temari's fan. He doubted the tool itself had been the source of irritation. "Have you ever lit a person on fire? Have you ever hurt anyone with this power of yours?"

The kid caught onto the reason for the question pretty quickly, as he had obviously not turned the only girl in the group of four into a matchstick even though she had been the one to irk him. "No, I've never done that. I don't really wanna hurt anyone, even if they're being a jerk… I don't know how it works, but I guess the fire can like, tell that I don't want to burn the person? If a person bothers me, usually something on them catches fire instead. Just to scare them, I guess."

Temari muttered something about a heart attack, but refrained from commenting on anything else that was said. Kankuro just mentally decided to stay on this kid's good side, lest he set fire to the avian puppet he was just beginning to build.

Baki contemplated how to best hone a skill even the wielder had no idea how to really use. What good was spontaneous combustion if you couldn't do it at will? Besides, the boy had mentioned that the energy he felt when he used this fire hurt him, so perhaps it was best to leave it be until more could be discovered. A technique that could backfire and injure the user needed to be understood before any sort of practice could begin.

"Dismaying though it is, we'll worry about your fiery powers later. That said, is it safe to assume you don't know why they are such strange colors either?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Cyclops."

"I feel that such an answer is one I'm going to be hearing very frequently with you. Tell me what you did to that man in the village yesterday. Even if you don't know what you did exactly, walk me through it."

The kid in question became noticeably more antsy as this question was posed to him. As for Temari and Kankuro, both of them were a little surprised to hear 'what you did to that man.' That was vague, but it certainly didn't sound good.

"I, uh... don't know, really. I've done it a few times to people, but what it does... I don't know. It happens when I really, really want to hurt someone. Only to people I hate. When it happens, people just start to freak out. Sometimes they yell and scream about stuff. Sometimes they just curl into a ball and cry. Sometimes they fall over and make weird movements. When it's over, my body always feels really bad. Sometimes I get sick. Sometimes my head just hurts a lot."

Though he remembered the boy's seeming exhaustion in the alley yesterday, Baki commented on this nonetheless. "You didn't say anything about feeling bad when I encountered you yesterday."

"You didn't ask."

Baki had to admit, he wasn't particularly fond of this boy's overall personality at this age. Too uppity and sharp for his tastes. Even so, his unhelpful explanation was of more concern. The way he described it, Baki couldn't quite tell what the kid's ability did to people. A psychotic break? Immense agony? All in all, it still sounded a lot like a genjutsu to him.

"You didn't tell me what you actually did to the man. Physically, I mean."

The small blonde pointed to the eye hidden behind his hair. "I looked him in the eyes with this one. That's why I hide it."

Baki narrowed his eyes as he contemplated this information. "You said this only happens when you really hate someone and want to hurt them. So why hide that eye?"

The small child shrugged. "Just in case. Because I don't really know how it works, I worry about hurting someone on accident..."

Baki inwardly admitted that maybe he was about to be a little too gung-ho to be safe, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Leaning down to the kid's level, Baki reached forward and brushed his hair aside fast enough that he couldn't resist, though the boy flinched nevertheless.

What Baki found greatly surprised him. Not because he found anything particularly noteworthy, but because he didn't. Granted, the boy's right eye was a different color than his left, being a deep forest green instead of an oceanic blue, but other than that, there was nothing to indicate that said eye was capable of anything special. Baki would have expected something akin to the Sharingan or the Byakugan. Of course, it wasn't like every dojutsu in existence had a unique eye to go with it, but he could think of more that did than ones that didn't.

This unfortunately made his job even harder. If there was a distinctive marking or pattern of some sort, it would be easier to investigate this power. If he paid a trip to the village archives now, he'd have nothing to go on but the boy's description of what it did. Not ideal, to say the least.

Baki took his hand away from the child in front of him as he rose back to his feet. The kid swiftly hid his right eye once again.

"I suppose further investigation into this will have to wait as well. No point in doing that out here in the desert, and on the time of others. That said, we may as well move onto a more general inquiry. I probably know the answer to this already, but do you know anything at all about the basic skills of a shinobi?"

The blonde actually contemplated this question for a moment. "Uh... they sneak around and stab people in the back? But like, not in a bad way."

Hearing this answer, Baki could only sigh. "Well, I suppose that's not entirely inaccurate..."

Temari crossed her arms and glared at the stranger in the group, quite clearly embittered about what he had done to her fan. She had spares, but it was the principle of the thing.

"So he doesn't know anything at all. If that's the case, why not just send him to the Academy instead of saddling him with us? It's not like he can do anything with us if he doesn't even know the most basic things."

Baki pinched the bridge of his nose, foreseeing a long and arduous road to form a team out of two bitter siblings and an estranged six-year old child. He was getting too old for this kind of thing, and he was actually still on the young side.

"Temari, despite your best efforts to rid yourself of your new teammate, he is not going anywhere. I need him to be at a satisfactory skill level by the time you and Kankuro are ready to be Genin. If I let him go through the Academy regimen, he'll be years behind the two of you. If I take it upon myself to teach him from the beginning, he'll be much closer to you two in skill level when the time comes to become a legitimate team."

The sandy blonde wanted to raise some kind of objection, anything to get rid of the unwanted eyesore in her midst, but she couldn't argue against Baki's logic or authority. There was no point in arguing anyway, because Baki was not a man to be swayed out of his decisions.

The child in question twirled his index finger around the longest lock of his stark blonde hair, pointedly ignoring the ill talk about him. Then again, he seemed quick to try and turn the conversation elsewhere.

"So, are we gonna do something or stand around and talk all day? The sun is going to be up soon, y'know."

Kankuro looked over his shoulder at the rising sun, and wondered once again why he had decided to wear black as his primary color. Dark colors absorbed a hell of a lot of sunlight.

"The kid's right. We've wasted away a good bit of the cool hour. We should start sooner than later."

Baki eyed the sun as well, inwardly cursing the daytime hours of the desert. Sweltering heat would be good for building stamina later on, but for a bunch of kids, hours of intense training in the heat would be more detrimental than anything else.

"I suppose that's a valid point. In that case, I will take him elsewhere to teach him the basics while you two practice on your own. I assume you both read the relevant sections in the books I provided for you last week?"

Being the type of ninja that never saw any reason to procrastinate, Baki had provided the two siblings with relevant reading on the ninja tools they were interested in even before he officially began training them. It was just the kind of teacher he was.

And while the required reading had been tedious and unwelcome, both Temari and Kankuro had done it: they knew better than to ignore valuable basic lessons and knowledge in favor of trying to figure things out themselves. Kankuro took it upon himself to say as much.

"Yeah, yeah, start to finish. We're not going to hurt ourselves trying out the basics with our tools."

"Glad to hear it. Begin familiarizing yourself with your tools then. Don't do anything that wasn't mentioned in the primer."

Temari huffed as she turned on her heel and stalked away from the others, looking to practice alone, since even weak wind jutsu had decent-sized areas of effect.

Kankuro had the same idea, so he turned to walk in a different direction, waving a hand over his shoulder as glanced at the pile of soot that had once been Temari's fan, blending with the sand. The image have him an idea.

"Have fun, Ashes. A lecture from Baki could take you to the grave."

The addressed child cocked an eyebrow after the would-be puppeteer. "If that's supposed to be a nickname, it should just be Ash, right?"

"Uh, sure?"

Baki placed his hand on the blonde's shoulder as he expressed his opinion on the matter. "You need a real name, not some silly gimmick given to you by Kankuro of all people."

The blond urchin leveled a frown at the older man. "Who gets to decide what is and isn't a real name?

Baki shook his head as he judged the worth of this conversation. "For a kid, you ask questions far too deep for your age. Call yourself what you want for now, I suppose. We'll discuss a name in greater detail when it's time to actually enter your identity in the books. Now, it's about time we start discussing chakra, and what it can do for you..."

'Ash' grimaced, well aware that a lecture was coming his way. Now he was kind of worried about being perceived as 'deep.' Did this mean Baki was going to feel even more inclined to drone on?

As the Jonin started saying something about physical and spiritual energy melding together, the blonde boy conscripted into shinobi service sighed.

This kind of sucked.

The trio of trainees, it being their first day 'officially' training or it being their first day learning anything at all about shinobi, were only to practice throughout the morning, to avoid the hottest part of the day. Throughout all of that time, Temari and Kankuro practiced the basics of their desired arts alone, as Baki and his amateur student had not returned to them at all. By the time all four of them had reunited in one spot, it was noon, and the sun had reached the pinnacle of both its height and heat.

Kankuro looked the new kid over, noting his undeniably 'mentally tortured to death by speech' expression. Knowing himself how Baki could get, he actually felt bad for him.

"Hey, Ash. Manage to survive the lecture? Or six lectures? Who knows how many there were."

The blond simply stared ahead, corpse-like. "Save me..."

Temari, on the other hand, crossed her arms as she looked curiously at Kankuro. "Did you just.. name him?"

Apparently her brother didn't find this as odd as she did. "Actually I did it earlier. He was fine with it. Why, is that weird?"

"Yes, Kankuro, it's weird. Unless you're a parent, naming other human beings is weird."

Brought out of his trance by being the topic of conversation, Ash turned his gaze on the only girl present. "You don't like it?"

Seeing the somewhat pensive expression on his face, and not entirely sure why it bothered her so much, Temari inexplicably sought to placate the boy. Not altogether untruthfully either.

"I-I guess it's kinda cute... and appropriate, obviously."

Baki muttered something about not encouraging silly nicknames, but his objection went unnoticed by the kids.

While pleased to receive Temari's praise in a certain regard, Ash didn't correctly interpret the second half of the comment, believing the girl was still irritated over the now incinerated fan from earlier.

"I'm sorry about your fan, you know... I would've put out the fire before it burned all the way, but I don't really know how to do that..."

Taken by surprise, Temari didn't know how to react at first. As the seemingly genuine apology registered in her mind, she tried her best to remain displeased with Ash's presence, but couldn't really help the slightest of smiles. It wasn't like she didn't have plenty of backup fans anyway. Those little hand-fans weren't hard to come by. It was the full-sized shinobi battle fans that Temari looked to wield in the future that were expensive.

"I uh… guess it's OK. Just learn how to put that crazy flame out, would you? You're gonna burn something important one of these days…"

Kankuro smirked as he braved his older sister's wrath. "Yeah, did you know Temari takes care of a bunch of flowers on her windowsill? Burn those, it could be an adventure."

Ash glanced between the two blood siblings as Temari bashed her younger brother over the head with her fist, saying something about spouting nonsense, although the obvious red on her face told that her personal flower garden was most likely very real.

It was an endearing sight. Sure, it was little more than an indignant young girl smacking her snickering little brother on the head, but it had the clear vibe of sibling intimacy, something Ash had never experienced before. He had always been on the outside looking in at such relationships. Just like he was now.

Neither of the two siblings noticed the sudden downcast look on Ash's face, but Baki could see the way the young child seemed to shrink in on himself as he witnessed the closeness that had always eluded him. The Jonin knew that it would be best to keep him distracted, until he could develop some sort of bond with someone around here, preferably his other two trainees. If there was one thing that Baki had learned from Gaara's case, it was that isolating a young child and denying him relationships with others led to... negative consequences.

He decided to break the one-sided tension in the group by asking about the details of the first day of training.

"So, how did things go with the two of you? Have you reaffirmed your desire to train with the tools you have chosen? It would be best to be absolutely sure of the art you wish to master at the very beginning of your training. It would be counter-productive to begin training in a certain art now only to learn that you would rather master a different one a little ways down the road."

Both siblings gave little incredulous glances at each other before directing the same look at their sensei, as if his question as to whether or not they were sure about their choice in ninja arts was ludicrous. The younger of the two was a bit more vocal about it though.

"Are you kidding? If I have to choose between waving a flimsy fan around or killing someone with a deadly war machine, the choice is obvious isn't it?"

The older sister placed her hands on her hips as she responded to Kankuro's subtle challenge. "Oh yeah, it's obvious alright. One of them doesn't require you to be a hermit that plays with dolls."

"They're not dolls, they're machines of war! And I don't have to be a hermit!"

"You already are a hermit! And you haven't even really gotten started yet!"

Baki cleared his throat to prevent the altercation from progressing any further, much to Ash's chagrin. He thought it was rather amusing.

"Anyway… I'm taking that to mean that you are both confident in the paths you have chosen. They both have very unique pros and cons. Although…"

The two siblings turned away from each other to face the veteran ninja. "What?"

"The two arts you have chosen leave a hole in the team's combat potential. The wind style Temari has chosen is best suited for long-range, while the art of puppetry that Kankuro has chosen is best suited for medium-range. So both of you will be at a disadvantage in close-quarters combat."

Kankuro seemed put off by this, realizing that he really would be in trouble if he ever came face to face with a taijutsu expert or some such, but Temari just shrugged it off.

"Well that's what Ash is here for, right? He can specialize in close quarters for the team."

Ash had been listening quietly all of this time, but he jerked his head and his eyes towards the girl who had, just a few hours ago, been itching to get rid of him.

"R-really? I mean... that means I'd be sticking around, you know..."

The older girl looked a little embarrassed to be looked at in such a hopeful manner, but she tried to play it off with another shrug.

"Well… it's not like you're going anywhere, right? You're gonna be part of this team no matter what, so you might as well fill in this gap in fighting potential Baki is talking about."

The older ninja grunted something about being called Sensei by his students, but none of the children paid it any mind. Ash was still too busy gawking at Temari, who was making an effort to avoid his stare.

"I... I can do that. I can definitely do that! You can count on me!"

The more vocal his gratitude became, the more red in the face Temari got, until she was literally inching towards the village, subtly expressing her desire to leave her awkwardness behind with a valid excuse.

"Y-yeah, sure… can we go already? It's getting hot out here!"

Although the question was asked, she didn't wait for an answer. Without waiting for anyone's reply, Temari retreated towards the village, kicking up desert sand in her effort to escape the little boy that had flustered her so easily.

The boys in the group watched her go, and Kankuro let out an exasperated sigh. "The first boy to make that girl blush and it's a six year-old kid. Nice job, Ash."

"Thanks?"

Kankuro turned his attention to Baki. "Anyway, if we're done, we can head back too, right? I wanna work on this puppet a little more."

Baki nodded sagely, perhaps trying to exude a bit more of a 'sensei' type persona. "I think we're done for the day. Well, at least you and Temari are. I'm gonna take Ash here aside to learn some chakra control exercises."

Kankuro looked to the child beside Baki with amazement. "He's that far already? Weren't you just teaching him the basics this morning?"

"He's a surprisingly quick learner. He actually understood the concept of chakra within the first few minutes of the lecture. And I mean chakra theory in itself, not just what it's used for."

Kankuro grimaced, imagining how likely Baki was to go into fine detail for a student who learned anything quickly. "So what did you spend the rest of the time teaching him?"

Ash cut in, likely trying to spare himself. "Please don't get him started again. None of it was interesting."

Baki looked down at his new student with disdain. "Those 'uninteresting' things are the fundamentals of being a skilled shinobi! You should be grateful that you are receiving such advanced teaching from a master such as myself instead of those lowly Chunin at the Academy!"

"I don't even know what a Chunin is. So how can I appreciate your 'advanced teaching?'"

The affronted Jonin glowered at the boy, and Kankuro decided it would be best to make his escape before he got roped into something nasty, scuttling off as the argument continued.

"Well, you'll appreciate it when you're far above the level of the other students your age! You'll make Genin far before any of them!"

"I never even wanted to be a ninja, so why would I care?"

"You little ingrate! I bet another lesson will fix that attitude!"

"Can this one be about giving good lectures?"

"You little-! I am a ninja of the highest caliber…"

The days that followed were a whirlwind of exercise and lessons for the newly christened addition to Baki's pupils. Being the street urchin he had been, Ash's body was far from healthy, and fixing that was top priority for his new teacher.

That being the case, Ash's pale skin had been sunburned quite nicely already, as he had spent many hours out in the sun getting his body in the shape it should be. Even though he'd been living on the streets before, he'd usually avoided any long amount of time in the sun when he could help it.

Thanks to all of that strenuous activity, the boy's appetite had returned as well, in full force. His famished state as a homeless runt combined with the new physical training regimen was enough for the young child to clean out the pantry in his new home with little delay. A lot of the weekly budget for the household was forcibly reallocated to restocking food stores.

Completely apart from his physical health, Ash's mental state was surprisingly sharp. He was ignorant of many things, which was not surprising considering his background, but he grasped most concepts with ease. Baki only had to spend a week to teach the child the most basic lessons of being a shinobi, something that usually took a few months with the standard Academy regimen. This startling progress was what Baki was relating to the Kazekage right now, as the child in question waited outside with Sohara once again. Hopefully he would refrain from incinerating her lunch this time.

"His progress is amazingly fast. I can only assume that he has a natural aptitude for learning, maybe even more potential for being a shinobi than I thought. I'll admit, I am impressed by him."

The red-headed leader of the Sand shuffled through some of the many papers on his desk as he contemplated what he was being told.

"Are you sure it is not merely because he is receiving direct tutelage from a skilled Jonin like you, Baki? It is no big surprise that he would advance more quickly than the Academy students, that being the case."

Naturally, Baki had already come to this conclusion, but he still couldn't attribute all of Ash's rapid learning to his advanced teaching.

"I'm sure that has something to do with it, but even so, I can't take all the credit. I can only assume he is just a quick learner. It is possible that his speed may slow to a normal rate when we get to more complicated lessons."

The Kazekage nodded. "That is a possibility. For now, let's just be glad that he is learning quickly. The faster he learns, the closer he will be to his teammates' skill level in the future. Speaking of which, how is he getting along? A team with an alienated member will be no good for anything."

Baki knew that this question was not about concern for the boy or his integration into the family unit. The Kazekage almost certainly didn't care on a personal level. He barely even inquired about his children. This was all practical.

"They got off to a rocky start, but I think those two are slowly warming up to him. However, I believe the boy is in better standing with Kankuro than with Temari; she's still bitter about Gaara. I get the feeling that it will take a bit more effort to earn her acceptance, as Kankuro never cared much for getting to know his younger sibling anyway."

This earned only another nod from the Kazekage. He never was a very expressive man, regardless of the topic at hand.

"I see. Hopefully that will work out soon. As far as this child goes, have you figured out anything about his natural abilities? Does he possess a Kekkei Genkai?"

Unfortunately, that was something Baki was still altogether unsure about. He didn't really have a straight answer for his leader. He had visited the village archives over the last few days and inquired about the powers Ash had described, but neither avenue of investigation had shed any light on the matter.

"I'm still not sure, Lord Kazekage. He himself does not even know what his power is. Even his description of how it works does not seem accurate."

"He described it?"

"According to him, he makes eye contact with his right eye, and if he utterly despises the person, they suffer some sort of seemingly mental or psychological damage. It sounds like Genjutsu to me, but until a few days ago he knew practically nothing about the shinobi arts."

"This right eye of his: is there anything special about it?"

"It's a different color than his left, but otherwise there are no special markings to indicate a dojutsu of some kind."

"I see. I will conduct my own investigations into the power being described as well. For now, there's little else to do but train him and see what we can learn..."

While it irked him to have to take the situation so slowly, Baki couldn't help but agree with the plan of action. There was so little to go on, they had little choice but to wait and see what else they could learn over time.

With little else to discuss on that front, Baki inquired about another matter.

"Lord Kazekage, it is my understanding that the scouts dispatched to locate Gaara returned earlier today. Did they find any trace of him?"

For the life of him, Baki knew it was extremely dangerous to have a wayward jinchuuriki on the loose who was likely holding a terrible grudge against the Hidden Sand Village. But he didn't really know what the point of finding the child was, considering that no one had ever managed to successfully kill him even within the village. Unless the Kazekage went himself, Baki didn't know if anyone could actually take Gaara down.

Either way, Rasa wasted no time in answering. "Nothing. His trail has long since been erased by the desert's winds."

Baki could sense an underlying disgruntlement with that statement, so he tried to alleviate it somewhat.

"A child his age has almost surely perished, alone in the desert with no supplies..."

Rasa's brow furrowed as he responded to this optimism. "Shukaku is the desert incarnate. So long as it resides within Gaara, he will not meet his demise amongst the sands."

Baki didn't really have much to say to that. Part of him wanted to ask what they were supposed to do, if they couldn't find Gaara and couldn't count on him conveniently dying of his own accord.

But what would be the point of that? If anyone was considering all of the options on that front, it was surely the Kazekage. And if Baki had some sort of role to play in dealing with the situation, then his leader would let him know.

That being the case, the half-veiled Jonin bowed low, preparing to make an exit. He did have other things to attend to, after all.

"Lord Kazekage, if you require nothing else of me..."

Rasa waved a hand dismissively.

"Go. Inform me if the situation with the boy changes."

The Sand Jonin bowed once again before turning on his heel and leaving the Kazekage's office. He pushed through the doors and immediately scanned the waiting room for any fire-related damage, wary after the last time.

Fortunately, Sohara hadn't done anything to cause Baki's young charge to burn something. The bespectacled brunette was at her desk, speaking animatedly with the blonde on the opposite side of it, seemingly appalled by something or other.

"But that's so terrible, to call you something like that! You don't want to be associated with burning stuff, right? Why not pick a nicer name, like… um… Jin?"

"No."

"Kyo?"

"No."

"Er… how about Ryu?"

"Absolutely not. Temari and Kankuro both like it, so it's fine."

Baki cleared his throat both to get the attention of the two conversationalists and make his presence known. It was actually convenient that this topic was at hand.

"Well, you had best settle on something. I told you before, a nickname is acceptable for your personal life, but you must have something respectable for official records."

Ash sighed, clearly frustrated with this ultimatum. He didn't really see what made a name respectable or not. Did it have to be traditional? Culturally appropriate? Only adults really seemed to care.

Picking up on his distaste, Sohara tried to put a bright spin on things. "Come on, you said Kankuro came up with the nickname, right? You don't really want to tell people you were named by another kid barely older than you are, do you?"

Ash's frown deepened even further. "Why would I introduce myself with a story about who named me?"

"Well, uh... I guess that would be a little weird..."

Seeing that the two of them were getting off track, Baki intervene once again. "Stay focused. You need to pick a name so Sohara can enter you into the village's records."

The small blonde shook his head in dismay. "It's not like I know a bunch of names to choose from."

Fortunately, Sohara had this part covered. Maintaining records was a major part of her job after all.

"Hang on, let me get something that might help..."

Leaning under her wooden desk for a moment, the brunette came back up with a fairly thick book with leather bindings.

"Here we are: this book is a record of all the shinobi that served our village for the last 50 years. I bet you can find a name in there."

Ash cocked an eyebrow at the book as Sohara plopped it down on her desk and opened it up.

"It's a big book, but that still seems kind of thin for fifty years..."

"Ah, well... there haven't been too many names to add in recent years, if you catch my drift..."

Naturally, the boy did not get her meaning. He was too new to the village overall to have any understanding of how far it had fallen over the past few years.

Instead, he put his hand on the page Sohara was currently on, stopping her from flipping any further. Since he couldn't see over the edge of the desk, he requested a little aid.

"Show me."

Taken aback by the bluntness, the Kazekage's secretary nevertheless turned the book around and stood it up so Ash could see. On the page was a number of names with accompanying data: ages, ranks, techniques, and stuff like that.

Ash perused the pages for a few seconds as he tried to spot anything he wouldn't mind being called by the people in charge, at least on the surface.

"Rōzeki."

For her part, Sohara was surprised that he had chosen one so swiftly. "A-are you sure? There's tons of other names you know, and this is something you'll be called your whole life..."

The short blonde stepped away from the desk, seemingly fine with the severity of Sohara's insinuation. "Only by people I don't really like."

As for Baki, he saw no issue. He was actually pleased that the predicamet had been resolved so quickly. He'd been worried about the situation becoming tedious.

"He's made his choice, Sohara. Write him down as Rōzeki, age...?"

He glanced at the boy next to him, clearly looking for an answer. He'd yet to ask this question.

Unfortunately for him, Ash's answer was not immediately forthcoming. "Uh...six? Maybe seven."

"Let's just say six."

Still a little put off by how quickly such a major decision had been made, Sohara nevertheless did as she was told, putting away the current book and beginning her search for a different one. After all, until Ash was an actual ninja, he couldn't be entered into the prior.

Now that the situation was resolved, Ash turned his attention to Baki and his meeting with the Kazekage.

"The old man have anything nice to say, Cyclops?"

Baki's eyebrow twitched as he tried to contain a scowl at the rude affront to both himself and the Kazekage. "He'd never have anything nice to say about a rude little upstart like you. Show some respect for once!"

"Why? He hasn't done anything except sit in that office and stare at papers every day. What's so respectable about that?"

"He protects the village!"

"From what, the scorpions? Nobody else is stupid enough to live in this place besides you sand people."

"You just insulted the entire village. Does your audacity know no bounds?"

"Cyclops, you and I both know I don't know what that word means."

"Ugh, evidently not..."

Sohara giggled over the exchange, perhaps a little too dense to realize that she had been insulted as well. As for Baki, he decided that it would be better for his sanity if he just ignored the boy's question and neglect mentioning anything that had been said in the meeting.

Instead, he began to usher the boy out of the room, actually opting to use the door this time. Sohara waved after them, but her only response was a half-hearted wave from Ash.

Well, it was better than she got on most days. For now, she just hoped those waves would get a little more enthusiastic in the future.

Unfortunately for Ash, he wasn't able to return home immediately after choosing a name for official records. Baki, being a man that believed in very little waste, figured there was still plenty of time left in the day to go on lecturing again.

From Ash's point of view, such lessons seemed to be in endless supply: chakra theory, the basics of ninjutsu, types of weapons, logic exercises, math... it seemed like Baki wanted to teach him all of the knowledge in the world.

It wasn't even that Ash didn't understand most of what was being taught: it was just tedious. What did a ninja need math for anyway?

Thankfully, such lessons did come to an end eventually, around the time the sun began sinking beneath the horizon. Figuring that even a smart kid could only handle so much knowledge in a short amount of time, Baki had seen fit to send the boy home for rest.

Naturally, the man didn't feel the need to accompany him on the trip. Apparently he trusted a six year old enough to navigate the village on his own. Granted, Ash had been doing that for some time in his brief life.

Besides, it had been long enough that he could memorize a route home.

No, the path to his new home wasn't unfamiliar to him: it was the experience of walking there.

Before, when he bore the appearance of a dirty, unkempt urchin, it was impossible to ignore the way people looked at him. Be it pity or disgust, or even just discomfort, people always looked at him with some sort of negative emotion.

It had never really bothered Ash: he hardly cared what strangers thought of him. But even so, being unnoticed by most people on the streets because he now appeared ordinary was an interesting experience. Admittedly, it was a nice sense or normalcy.

Better yet was being able to actually walk through the streets without thoughts of survival on his mind. Before, he was constantly vigilant regarding danger, sources of food, and a safe place to sleep. It was relaxing to forget about most of that, even if he did continue to check corners and his back at regular intervals. Old habits.

The evening was one of the few times when it was actually comfortable around the Hidden Sand, so Ash's walk home didn't occur with any urgency. Even so, he arrived at the place in good time, what with the lack of detours and all.

Honestly, the blonde was still surprised that this place was the Kazekage's personal residence. It was made of the same sandstone as every other house, shared the same street as plenty of other residences, and wasn't any bigger or better than any of the other houses around it.

Two uniform floors with a window for each room, and a small greenhouse on the roof. It was completely unremarkable. Then again, maybe that was the point: things that looked important tended to be targets.

With little to actually take note of on the outside of the building, the small blonde made his way towards the door, still a little unused to the idea of being able to enter a house without permission of any sort. It was weird for him, to be 'welcome' somewhere. Especially somewhere he didn't feel wholly welcome.

It wasn't that the resident children treated him badly at this point: both Temari and Kankuro had come to terms with the fact that he was going to be sticking around for the foreseeable future. And even if they still had some qualms with his presence and role in their life, it wasn't like he was someone they only had to interact with once every few days. He was a constant now: they saw him in the house, they saw him during training, and they saw him around the village as a whole.

Being testy and combative with someone you only saw occasionally was easy. Acting that was with someone you saw very frequently, and more often than not every day, was in and of itself exhausting, so the two blood siblings had already moved past that.

Of course, this wasn't to say they really treated him well either. His presence was... accepted, in regards to being inevitable and unavoidable. But they didn't embrace him either. He was mostly a shadow, being ignored by both siblings. To be fair, Ash wasn't sure if Kankuro was intentionally ignoring him: the slightly older boy spent most of his free time locked in his room. That being the case, he didn't spend that much time with Temari either. In the few times Ash had caught Kankuro outside of his room, he didn't seem particularly antagonistic. Still, he usually didn't bother talking to Ash outside of a few sentences either.

Stepping into the building, Ash saw that no one was in the living room, which was occupied by a couch and a lounge chair of sorts. On the far side, the blonde could see into the kitchen, which was likewise empty. Ash headed for that area, since he was pretty hungry after a long day of lectures. Perusing the cabinets for something he could eat, he turned his thoughts to the other sibling.

Unlike Kankuro, it was clear that Temari was actively trying to ignore his presence. She spoke to him very rarely, usually only when she had to ask him a question. Most of Ash's attempts to start a conversation with her were cut short. The older girl at least managed to be relatively polite about it, but somehow, she always had 'things' to do whenever Ash tried talking to her. She wasn't rude, but she clearly wasn't interested in fraternizing either. So basically, while the blonde's living situation had been vastly improved lately, he wasn't doing much better in the social department. It was still pretty lonely.

And of course, even though he had access to a lot more food, made evident by his search of the kitchen's stores, some things still hadn't changed: he didn't know how to cook. No one had ever taught him and he never had the chance to learn on his own. So while having access to more food, he surprisingly still ended up eating a lot of bread, because that didn't require any skill on his part. He had caught Temari cooking things a few times, but he had never worked up the courage to ask her to make something for him as well.

So he ripped a chunk of bread off a loaf and sat on the counter to eat it. Sure, there were seating options in the room right next to him, but he didn't feel like going over there. He chomped on his sparse meal for a few moments, most of his thoughts wandering to pointless places as he was distracted by eating. His peace didn't last long, however, since someone else walked into the joined rooms from the hallway that led to the bedrooms. It was Temari, her hair down since she didn't have anywhere to be.

Since he was impossible to miss, Temari of course noticed Ash's presence in the kitchen. But as usual, she didn't say anything to him even though she walked into the kitchen as well. Feeling awkward and out of place, Ash had half a mind to leave, but he couldn't muster the will to do so. Maybe she would actually speak to him if he stuck around long enough.

As Temari began rummaging through the cabinets herself, it didn't seem like she had any intention to do that, though Ash did notice her glancing at him every once in awhile. Or rather, she was looking at the bread he was eating. Ash didn't know why this was, but surprisingly, she made it known soon enough.

"We do have food other than bread, you know."

Surprised that she was actually initiating a conversation of her own accord, Ash didn't know how to respond at first. Ultimately though, he figured that he should just be honest.

"I don't really know how to make anything with all the other stuff."

Temari cocked an eyebrow at him, perhaps not realizing that most young children didn't actually have cooking skills. She had learned awhile ago since she and Kankuro were mostly left to care for themselves.

"Well, the least you could do is actually cut the bread instead of ripping chunks off like that. Shouldn't that be obvious at least?"

Glancing down at the half eaten loaf of bread he had consumed so far, the younger blonde's expression fell. "Sorry..."

Temari had intended to be cross and be done with it, but even as she tried to ignore the boy next to her and get back to finding her own dinner, she couldn't really do that. He looked so crestfallen, she felt like she'd kicked a puppy. Besides, the kid was just trying to eat in peace. Wasn't like he was trying to get on her nerves in any way.

Part of her felt that she wasn't obligated to be nice to him, but another part of her felt that she'd been unnecessarily antagonistic as of late. Truth be told, other than the incident with her fans, the newest member of their team had done his best to be unobtrusive. Considering that her ire was less about him personally and more about the situation surrounding his presence, maybe she'd been a little too harsh lately.

Didn't mean they had to be friends. But they could at least be somewhat amicable, living in the same house, right?

With a sigh, Temari kept her gaze fixed on the contents of the pantry as she made an offer. "I can make a little extra for dinner, but you get what you get. I don't want to hear any complaining about it, alright?"

Temari wasn't sure what kind of answer she was expecting. Truth be told, she didn't have a lot of experience being this nice, and it was kind of flustering. She felt kind of stupid doing it, and felt that she'd be perceived that way too. But it was clear Ash didn't feel that way about it. He looked ecstatic at the proposition, utterly shocked that it was being offered at all.

"O-of course! I'll like anything you make!"

Admittedly, Temari wasn't used to this level of enthusiasm or earnest gratitude. Kankuro was usually snide and the two of them bickered more often than anything else, so it was weird to have someone that was actually glad that she took care of them. Well, it wasn't like Kankuro wasn't appreciative, but he was a lot less vocal about it. They just had that kind of relationship right now.

"C-calm down, it's just chicken soup..."

"That's exciting though, I've never had chicken soup."

Being the target of an enthralled sapphire gaze that made her feel a little awkward, Temari ignored the implications of that statement: she didn't want to admit that it would elicit more than a little pity from her. Thinking of the homelessness this boy had recently been subjected to would only remind her of what state Gaara was probably in right now.

So instead, she grabbed the things she needed for some chicken soup and turned her back on him to find the stove, searching for some topic to distract herself from this weird dynamic she wasn't used to.

"Uh... Baki said you were getting a real name today, right? How'd that go?"

Mention of that occurrence put a mild frown on the boy's face. "It's Rōzeki. Sohara showed me a book with a bunch of names and that one was alright, I guess."

"Well yeah, it's not bad. You don't like it?"

"I still like Ash better."

Honestly curious, Temari peeked over her shoulder to glance at the boy. "Really? But Kankuro gave you that name, and it's just a nickname..."

Without missing a beat, the boy across from her leveled a gaze in her direction that made it clear neither of those things bothered him.

"But you said it was cute."

Honestly flabbergasted to hear this, Temari leveled an incredulous expression at him. "Tell me that's not the only reason you went along with it."

"Is it a bad reason? Don't people usually name stuff for reasons like that?"

Temari couldn't deny that he had a point. When people were naming things like pets or techniques, they usually picked something just because it sounded cool or cute. Even parents often named their kids things just because they liked the sound of it.

"OK, but that's just what I think. You should go by a name you like, not one I like."

Even still, her smaller blonde compatriot didn't seem too bothered. "What if I like it because you like it?"

Seeing that she wasn't going to win here, Temari sighed and turned her attention back to cooking. "Why do you care if I like it? We don't even know each other very well. And we're not close."

The boy behind her was silent for a moment as he contemplated this. But he did give an answer eventually. "I want you to like me. I've never had someone my age to call my friend. I thought maybe it could help us be close?"

Despite Ash not saying anything untoward, Temari found herself frowning at his explanation. Growing close with this boy... she still wasn't sure she wanted that. Though she had elected to be less standoffish today, he still had the dubious distinction of being 'Gaara's replacement' in her mind. She wasn't sure she could ever look at him and see anything more than that. And maybe it was childish to be bitter towards Ash for something outside of his control, but she couldn't help it. Temari had the capability to be civil, but Ash's presence still felt like a cruel affront to the family she could have had.

But these weren't things she could really out into words. At least not well enough, in her opinion. And she also didn't feel obligated to tell Ash any of this. Her misgivings about him were private.

Because of that, she didn't actually respond to the boy's statements, instead falling silent to cook dinner. Ash did not speak to her again in that time, perhaps having the social awareness to know that he shouldn't push his good fortune. Or maybe he was just feeling worried, considering that Temari had fallen silent after what he said.

Despite all this, Temari kept her promise, and provided Ash with a bowl of chicken soup when she was done making it. She didn't stick around to hear his gratitude or appraisal of her dish, awkwardly retreating back to her own bedroom with her meal in tow as soon as she could. As for Ash, though he was as bit disappointed to get the cold shoulder again, he decided to consider himself lucky today: this was definitely the nicest Temari had ever been to him, and even if it was brief, he would take the win and appreciate it for what it was.

Chapter Text

By the time Ash was nearing the end of his third week in a new home with new folks around, Temari and Kankuro had fully accepted his presence during training, but neither of them went out of their way to fraternize with him outside of that. When the three children returned home, they almost always went their separate ways and hardly ever saw each other before the next day of training forced them to.

The two actual siblings were perfectly okay with that, considering the fact that they had almost no similarities and usually ended up arguing before anything else. On the other hand, Ash felt like he was just as alone as he had been on the streets before. He spent every afternoon alone, occasionally incinerating small things like scrap paper or other garbage when his boredom became unbearable.

Even though he did that, he still had no clue how to command the blazing blue and green fire at will. When his emotions became potent enough to ignite something, the beautiful fire seemed to mock the very child that had summoned it, laughing at his inability to control the thing. And of course, there was the fact that every time the flames were created, Ash was met with a burning sensation in his body.

The core of the problem for the young ninja-to-be was really the fact that he was too timid to approach either of the other children in the house. The trepidation he felt at the mere thought of it was enough to prevent him from ever knocking on one of their doors. Ash already knew that they weren't necessarily fond of him… it was more like they tolerated his presence, and even a little begrudgingly at that.

So when burning miscellaneous objects at random intervals became as boring as sitting around was, Ash resorted to roaming the residence he had been forced to call his own, although he was happy to do so. Being the Kazekage's children, even though he hardly filled a fatherly role, Temari and Kankuro lived in a rather large and comfy place. Not only that, but they lived alone here; Baki dropped in from time to time (More so now that Ash was around to pose a fire hazard), but he lived elsewhere and didn't care much for what the kids did in their spare time outside of destroying the house or anything.

That being the case, Ash felt more isolated than ever as he waltzed through a building obviously meant for far more than three children alone. The vast place seemed emptier than it should have been, with a whole floor above the first completely devoid of human residence. Ash would have felt more comfortable in the small one room home of a peasant.

The young blonde investigated just about every room he came across, except the ones he knew belonged to the only other people in the house, and found them all as empty and dreary as the ones before them. Room after room of storage or dust and nothing interesting even in the slightest degree.

It was during one of these dull house exploration forays that Ash was returning to his favorite couch to mope. To return to that piece of furniture, he had to pass by Temari and Kankuro's rooms, which, if the past three weeks were anything to go by, were always closed off to him.

However, this time, he noticed that one of the forbidden doors in the hall was slightly ajar, either by mistake or because its occupant had left the room for some undoubtedly mundane purpose. As curiosity got the best of him, Ash realized it was most likely the prior, as Kankuro was still within his room at his desk, his back to the door, messing around with something in front of him that Ash couldn't see from his spying location.

It was this same curiosity that led Ash to stick his head in the doorway to get a better view, even though he would have been better off sneaking away while he was still undetected. But since he hadn't done that, and since he wasn't the sneaky ninja he was supposed to become just yet, Kankuro heard his door being pushed slightly open and whirled around to face the intruder.

The first thing the young blonde thought was that the older boy had been clocked in the face a few times, leading to some ugly bruises. But upon a few moments of observation, it became clear that what was on Kankuro's face was actually some weird purple stripes. The two children stared at each other in silence for a most certainly awkward amount of time, until the older broke the verbal stalemate.

"You're judging me, aren't you?"

Ash cocked his only visible eyebrow at the boy. "I'm actually just confused about what you're doing, more than judging you. So… what are you doing? Trying on makeup? Isn't that a girl thing?"

Kankuro was immediately filled with indignation. "I'll have you know that this is a part of my ninja art! It's customary for ninja who use puppets to do this kind of thing, you little twerp! Who are you to criticize me!?"

Instead of what the puppet enthusiast had expected, Ash seemed genuinely intrigued, in that way that only young kids could be. "That's pretty... interesting? I mean, I don't get it, but you must know what you're talking about since you wanna use puppets later and stuff. What kind of puppet are you gonna use anyway?"

Kankuro was genuinely surprised, since he had expected the little kid to think his choice in ninja arts was as weird as his sister did. "You uh… don't think this is strange? Or silly?"

Ash shook his head, making his long blonde bangs swish with the motion. "There are a bunch of ninja arts, right? I wouldn't call any of them weird, just different. I bet there are a lot of cool things you can do with puppets. I don't know what, but I guess you probably do."

Having someone other than himself appreciate the merits of puppetry, even if Ash knew absolutely nothing about it, was a nice change of pace for Kankuro. He was sure he would be ridiculed throughout his entire life for his style, but now things might be a little different. Ash even wanted to learn more about it. He was asking questions and everything.

"Well well, allow me to show you just what you can do with a good puppet! C'mere and I'll show you the one I'm working on now. He'll be able to do a bunch of cool stuff when I'm done with him!"

Ash balked at the thought of spending time with another person besides his lonely self. "B-but… are you sure?"

"What are you talking about? Sure I'm sure! You are literally the first person to realize how cool this all is. That's more than enough for me."

Ash beamed before dashing into the room. "Alright then, show me everything! I wanna see all the cool stuff your puppets can do!"

Said display consumed the final hours of the evening for the two boys, breaking down a huge obstacle in the unity of the team, and more importantly, the loneliness in the heart of its newest member.

By the end of the fourth week, Ash had almost learned the first year of standard Academy curriculum. His absurd learning speed was causing Baki to wonder if he truly did have a prodigy on his hands…though it was worth noting that the first year of curriculum wasn't actually anything terribly impressive. Mostly just the basic building blocks of ultimately become a shinobi. Lots of knowledge, but not a lot of practical skill.

Besides, the boy's physical development was slow. He had learned absolutely nothing in regards to controlling his flames, and he still had no useful information about his own special ability, leaving Baki frustrated to no end.

Fortunately, the kid did learn most of the simplest ninja traits quite easily. Molding chakra and using it to enhance his physical capabilities was already within his power, even though his young body's underdeveloped chakra coils meant his potency was very weak. He couldn't leap to the rooftops or sprint much faster than any other kid his age, but being able to enhance himself at all with chakra was a big milestone for a kid his age. So all in all, things were going better than expected, yet also worse.

The most important thing had been to identify the presence of a Kekkei Genkai in the child, but so far that had been fruitless. Baki had even gone to ask some of his colleagues in the village if they had ever heard of anything like Ash's ability, but no one had. The Jonin had no idea where else to turn to find information on it at this point.

But at least, if the kid's learning curve was consistent over the next few years, there was no doubt that he would catch up to his future teammates in time to form a Genin squad; given enough time he may have even surpassed the Kazekage's children, although that was purely speculation on Baki's part. After all, all three of his pupils were quick learners, even if it was in varying degrees. He was more worried that Ash's learning would slow to a snail's pace when his childish curiosity wore off in later years. He had made it no secret that he was against becoming a ninja at all, and only bore with it because of the advantageous deal involved.

This was the kind of thing Baki usually thought about as he taught these three little squirts to be kill-capable ninja. His reputation was on the line, and if the Kazekage was ever in a really foul mood, maybe his head would be too. He knew that Temari and Kankuro would likely be excellent shinobi regardless of his teaching effectiveness, but if Ash merely grew into a weak link because of his lack of motivation, it would be his fault as the teacher for producing such a flawed team…

"Ash, that throw was pathetic! Your kunai began dropping halfway to the target!"

Ash was practicing with various throwing weapons in the oasis the group of four was training in, but he wasn't putting much more than minimal effort into it. Half of anything that left his hand lost their velocity before reaching the target, another quarter missed entirely, and the final twenty-five percent of the weapons hit the furthest reaches of the bulls-eye painted on the tree Ash was aiming at.

"So did forty others, where have you been?"

Baki gritted his teeth, wondering where such a young child had gotten such a smart mouth. Was this the kind of thing living on the streets did to kids? "Kunai, shuriken, senbon, and the like are all very basic tools of a shinobi; you will never find anyone, not even a Genin, who can't use them properly. Do you want to be inferior to every other child in the Academy? Imagine the disgrace!"

Ash shrugged nonchalantly, the 'disgrace' clearly not fazing him. He was so used to being on the very bottom of the social spectrum that the idea of remaining there was hardly a motivator. That, and perhaps Baki wasn't very good at motivating speeches.

The Sand Jonin wouldn't have been above threatening the child, but he was afraid of how many things Ash would incinerate if he was pushed in that direction. He'd already gotten into the habit of using his nickname instead of Rōzeki, simply because the blonde got annoyed if he didn't. But surprisingly, one of the two older children took it upon themselves to remedy the situation, and it certainly wasn't who Baki had expected it to be.

"Let me see one, Ash. I'll show you how to do it."

The slightly younger blonde looked up at Temari, who had approached his training zone, in confusion, wondering why she would offer him help. Other than the one time she had cooked for him, she hadn't really gone out of her way to be nice. And even that time, she was really just letting him have her leftovers. Needless to say, the young blonde hadn't expected any sort of exceptional friendliness out of her at this point. Nevertheless, he was more than happy to hand the next kunai in his hand to her.

"H-here…"

Baki watched in fascination as Temari demonstrated the proper throwing motion to the boy, who actually seemed interested in doing it right now that she had shown him. Just like that, the kid was motivated, and all of a sudden he began seriously practicing what had been exemplified.

I'm not sure if I should feel insulted over him only being motivated by another child. What kind of teacher am I, unable to put a little spunk into a six or seven year old kid? Either way, this could prove useful…

The rest of the morning's training went exceptionally well after that, considering that Ash had decided to actually do his best, for what Baki believed was an attempt to impress his peers. Even at this young age, nothing motivated a boy like a girl…

Which was why, as the group walked through the village on the way back to the house once the day was done, Baki pulled the only girl in his team aside to tell her about the 'new' training regimen. He was not surprised when she exploded at him.

"What?! Why me?!"

Baki had expected Temari to react badly, but he had a plan. If she didn't accept his logical reasons, he'd just have to use his power as her sensei. "Obviously I'm not enough to motivate him. I'm sure you noticed that Ash's performance improved significantly after you stepped in. So you're going to take on the duty of motivating him to practice efficiently."

Temari scowled at the thought of such a job. "What am I, his babysitter? You're the sensei, why can't you teach him alone?!"

Baki must have been some sort of fortune-teller, because he had predicted this failure as well. "That's right; I am your sensei, so this is non-negotiable. And to prove that you're off to a terrible start...where is he?"

The two village natives looked around the street they were on, looking for the diminutive blond child that was nowhere to be seen among the crowd. It was ironic that he should disappear at such a moment, but irritating, nevertheless. Ironically enough, Kankuro had likewise disappeared, but neither individual questioned his absence at all, even as they voiced their disappointment in each other simultaneously.

"Well good job."

Ash cradled a rather large ball in his arms as he looked at the group of children that were playing on a street across from the one he was on. The ball had rolled down an alley when one of the kids playing with it landed a particularly bad kick. Apparently the children had lost sight of the thing, and had no idea some stranger six year-old had picked it up a whole street away.

Ash felt as though he should return it, but decided to alert his caretakers that he was going to do so first, to avoid confusing them and all. But as he looked around the street for them, Ash realized he had spent too much time standing around and thinking, and that he had lost his companions in the crowd.

That kind of thing usually worried little children, but Ash was so used to being alone at this point that he just shrugged nonchalantly and waltzed down the alley to return the ball that had mistakenly rolled his way.

Still, that carefree attitude shifted to nervousness as Ash approached the group of kids. As always, being around other children turned him into a bashful wreck. He couldn't care less what adults thought of him; it was the other people his age that he wanted to get along with, and never did, for one reason or another.

Sometimes it was because he was a dirty urchin. Kids that were better-off were either dragged away from him by their parents, or willingly avoided him. Sometimes it was something stupid, like his hair being too girly or some such. And sometimes it was just because young children could be the cruelest things alive.

But Ash figured his odds were a little better this time. He was dressed in far more decent clothes than he used to be, and he bathed regularly now that a bath was actually available to him, so the 'dirty urchin' excuse couldn't be used against him. And although his hair was still long, he was returning their lost plaything; should he be kind enough about it, the group of kids should have been more than willing to allow him a place in their number.

"Um… excuse me… this is your ball, right?"

The group of children, seven of them to be exact, all turned to eye the new arrival. There were four boys and three girls, all most likely within a year or two of Ash. The young blond noticed that they all had very dark hair, and mindlessly wondered if that was just a coincidence.

The oldest looking boy with jet black hair glared at Ash with distaste, although the reason why was unclear. "Yeah it is; what are you doing with it?"

Ash could already detect the accusatory and hostile tone he was being accosted with. This kid had some sort of problem with him already. "It rolled down this alley here, and bumped into my feet while I was walking… so I, er… came to give it back…"

For some reason, the boy didn't seem to believe it, but he just held out his hand for the obvious sign of 'give it.' Ash did so, tossing the ball towards the boy, who caught it and turned back to his friends without a word of thanks.

That irritated Ash a good bit, considering he could have just been spiteful and kept the thing to himself. Still, he wanted to be on their good side… "Um… I've seen kids play this game a few times. Could I join...?"

Ash could've sworn he heard the apparent leader of the group, that black-haired kid, snort as he held back a laugh. He turned to face Ash with a derisive sneer on his face. "What, you? No way, get out of here!"

Ash frowned as he was met with the familiar feeling of rejection, but unlike the times in the past, now it was laced with a fair deal of anger. "Why not? Your teams are uneven anyway! You need another player!"

"Yeah, but it sure isn't gonna be a yellow-headed weirdo like you!"

Ash had to seriously exert himself to avoid torching anything or anyone. "Seriously? What idiot would have a reason that stupid?"

The older boy stopped in his tracks to glare at the stranger that had insulted him. "What did you just call me?!"

Now suitably irritated and angry, Ash smirked cruelly at his fellow kid. "What, too dumb to even know what that means? I called you a moron! Do you know that one?"

The boy he was picking a fight with did indeed look ready to do just that, tossing aside the ball and punching a fist into the palm of his hand. "You're the only moron here, twerp! I'm a student at the ninja academy!"

Admittedly, Ash should have been worried about that. Baki had told him that his learning progress was remarkable or something, but it wasn't like the blonde had actually learned much of anything about fighting yet. Baki had taught him a few really basic moves, but he was a total novice. Still, he couldn't help but give into some feeling of bravado. He lacked the wisdom to know better.

"Yeah? So what? Come on, I can take you!"

The boy he had practically made mortal enemies with grinned even wider as some of his friends formed up around him. "You really are the stupid one here. There's way more of us than you."

While objectively able to read a bad situation even at his age, Ash didn't act scared or worried, mostly because he wasn't. The idea of thrashing these assholes, however unlikely that may have been, kind of excited him. Of course, there was also the very high possibility that they would beat him to a pulp, but he refused to entertain that idea.

"Bring it, I can take all of you. You're not the only one being taught how to kill around here!"

Before Ash could get into a situation that probably wouldn't have ended very well for him, the voice of a girl he recognized intervened on the escalating situation. "Gotta say, this isn't what I was expecting. I never would have thought that you would go out of your way to pick a fight."

Ash didn't know whether or not to be relieved at the fact that Temari had found him. She'd probably yell at him for getting lost and forcing her to come back and find him and waste her time. On one hand, he was kind of glad she had showed up, since the situation at hand obviously wasn't in his favor. And yet, on the illogical side of things, he was kind of disappointed he wouldn't get a chance to even try and beat up this brat and his cronies.

Honestly, he hadn't known before now that the prospect of a fight would excite him this much. Or maybe it was the idea of showing up people that thought they were better than him. He wasn't sure which was accurate.

Either way, Temari jabbed a finger at the other kids when Ash didn't give her an answer. "And you! What, were you seriously about to gang up on a six year old and beat him up? Do we need to relive the old days again?"

Ash wasn't sure what 'the old days' referred to, but by the expressions on the faces of his almost enemies, they hadn't been pleasant, and their leader was quick to sound the retreat.

"W-whatever! Let's get out of here guys! There's a better place to play down the street."

The troop of brats turned in unison to follow their leader, leaving Ash and Temari in the alley alone, with the latter letting out a disappointed sigh. "There's always something…"

Without uttering a word, the girl in the duo bopped Ash on the head, albeit rather lightly. The victim rubbed his head and glared up at the girl. "What was that for?!"

"Getting lost. What were you doing over here anyway?"

"I wasn't lost! I just…wanted to play with them for a while…"

The obvious pain at an all too familiar rejection caused that sympathy from weeks before to surface in Temari again. "Really? Because it really looked like you just wanted to fight when I showed up."

"Well I didn't plan on that. It was just such a stupid reason to say no..."

Temari shrugged, familiar with the situation. "Was it because you're blonde? That was the stupid reason why they harassed me all the time a couple of years ago."

Ash cocked an eyebrow at her. "What changed? He didn't say a word to you. He ran away pretty fast, actually..."

"Well, it takes a special group of idiots to pick on someone for a reason that dumb, but they were brave idiots back then. They used to pick on me."

"Used to?"

"I got fed up and punched his face in, of course. Worked wonders really."

"B-but I was gonna do that too! I was gonna punch his face in and you stopped me!"

Temari smiled, amused that he was irritated over this and more than a little surprised about it. "Hey, I didn't mean to. I didn't think you'd be so eager to fight a bunch of older kids. I mean, you're usually so shy... but you've got more guts than I gave you credit for. It's a pleasant surprise."

Ash cocked an eyebrow at her, confused as to whether he should actually be pleased with the assessment. "So are you just... really violent? I mean I figured you were kinda mean but..."

Naturally, Temari was offended. "Hey! It's not like I chose violence first you know! I tried other things!"

"Other things?"

At this desire for extrapolation, Temari's face reddened. "Y-y'know, other things... But I was young and all..."

"You're definitely still young and all."

"Younger. But even then I still didn't go picking seven on one fights with people older than me!"

This judgment on Ash's decision brought a defeated frown to the boy's face. She was kind of calling him stupid after all. "O-oh... I see..."

For the third time, the dejected look of the diminutive blonde elicited an unusual desire to fix the problem for Temari. She didn't know why, but maybe this was that sisterly instinct she'd never gotten a chance to exercise.

"Yeah, well… I did some stupid stuff when I was your age too... it's just a thing kids do."

"I can't see you ever doing something stupid."

The girl grimaced as she thought of how untrue that was. "Well, I did. Like I said, kids used to make fun of me for being blond too, and before I just started punching them over it, I tried to fix it."

"Uh... fix it?"

"Yep. Staying out in the sun usually darkens your skin, right? So I, uh… decided to go sit out on the roof of the house at noon, and I stayed up there for a few hours, hoping it would make my hair brown or something…I, uh... thought it would work the same way."

Ash, in his vast knowledge as a six year old, didn't understand that sun exposure actually bleached hair rather than darkened it. "Did it work?"

"I got a really, really bad sunburn that lasted for a week and a half, and Kankuro kept slapping me like the little twerp he is… I never did that again."

Ash tried his best to hold back his laughter, but the thought of this girl sitting on a roof for hours and pointing her head at the sun like some sort of flower was too much. Temari looked like she wanted to hit him all over again.

"Hey, don't laugh at me! I was trying to make you feel better, you know!"

"I'm laughing, right?"

"Yeah, at me!"

Ash quieted down after a few brief seconds, and a look of contemplation that looked a little too serious for his age overtook his features. "Thanks for that, but... why do you care anyway? You don't really like me that much."

With Ash outright confirming that he felt unwanted by her, Temari reconsidered whether or not she should try and explain her issue to him. Frankly, he did seem a lot more mature than most kids his age. Well, in some ways at least. And though she still had some hang ups, Temari couldn't deny that he genuinely seemed like a good kid who just wanted to fit in. Maybe she could at least give him the benefit of the doubt.

"It's not that I hate you or anything, it's just... you showed up at a really bad time…"

"What do you mean?"

Temari wondered if she should tell Ash about Gaara, but quickly decided that it wouldn't really hurt anything. "I had a little brother about your age, but he was kept away from Kankuro and me, so I never got a chance to know him. He was going to be the third member of our ninja team, so I was looking forward to getting to know him and be his big sister and all… but then he ran away a little while before you showed up…"

Ash stared at the girl intensely, taking in everything being said and measuring it very seriously. He felt like this was a pivotal conversation that needed to be handled with care. Still, he was silent, so Temari continued.

"And look, I know it's not your fault or anything, but… I feel like… like you came along just to rub things in. I lost my chance to be close with my little brother, and then someone who is nearly the exact same age as he was shows up to be the third member of the team. I just feel like the universe is mocking me. And I just... I don't know, it makes me upset. It's not like any of this happened because of you, but I can't help but think about it all whenever I look at you."

Ash closed his eyes as he seemed to focus on something very important. Then he nodded solemnly and looked up to the girl next to him. "Why not me?"

"H-huh?"

Ash stared right into Temari's eyes, to let her see his sincerity and know he was being completely serious. "You said that you were really happy to be a big sister, and you also said that your little brother was around my age. I'm not him, but… if it would make you happy, I could be your little brother instead."

Temari was stunned by the very much unexpected proposal. "A-are you kidding me?! You don't even like me, why would you want that?!"

"I never said I didn't like you. I just thought that you didn't like me."

The oldest child of the Kazekage frowned in consternation. To say this proposal was sudden was an understatement. "I… I don't know, this kind of thing is… I mean, we've barely known each other for more than a month, and it wasn't a really friendly month..."

Ash likewise frowned in thought for a moment. "Yeah, but you just said that was because of something else. You don't really hate me right?"

"Well, no..."

"And I think you could actually be pretty nice if you felt like it. We could just... I dunno, try it? We can stop later if you don't like it."

Faced with the somehow wise logic of a six year old, Temari couldn't deny that giving it a try wouldn't really hurt anything. It was true that she was still longing for that missed opportunity to be a big sister (not the kind she was with Kankuro, being barely older than him), and Ash actually did seem like a sweet kid when she was being fair to him.

She didn't know if that would make this experiment any less strange, but giving it a shot could be interesting, and she kind of owed it to her little blonde next to her after being a bit of a jerk for four weeks.

Temari nodded slowly, a little put off by the idea of what she was accepting. "A-alright… I guess… I guess we can try it? Just, d-don't make it weird, alright?"

Ash nodded, a glowing smile on his face at the prospect of something nicer between himself and the girl he'd probably be spending a large part of his life with. "I'll try. Um... should I call you Sis?"

Considering that she hadn't actually had a chance to be a sister in this type of dynamic, Temari wasn't sure if that was the kind of way a littler brother would normally address her. But as she prepared to give an answer, she found that it didn't really sound all that bad.

Chapter Text

"Are you ready for this?"

"I'm so ready."

"I don't think you are."

"Yeah? We'll see."

Ash and Kankuro, nine and ten years old respectively, give or take a few months, were standing on the edge of one of Suna's residential buildings, looking up at the lip of another building that was two stories higher.

"Alright, Ash, we got this. I'll use my chakra strings, you can use the ninja wire, and we'll use 'em to swing into that window over there. Should be a cinch."

Young Ash, not one to question his pseudo-siblings two years after his acceptance into the family unit, could only agree. Still, there was always some level of concern in him when it came to dangerous stunts, even if he himself enjoyed them. "Are you sure? I thought chakra strings were kinda weak physically... and you haven't been using them for all that long."

Kankuro had his hood thrown back, revealing his spiky brown hair as he glanced over at his daredevil companion. "What are you talkin' about, Ash? They can hold a puppet, I'm sure they can hold me, right? Right."

Ash nodded, deciding that if he was wrong, Kankuro would find out the hard way. "Right."

"Alright then, let's do this. And fast, before Temari finds out we are. You know how she gets."

The young blonde nodded again, readying himself for what was most certainly a stupid stunt the only other blond in his family would likely not condone. But she wasn't around to stop them, so what was the harm?

Ash mentally corrected himself rather quickly. What was the permanent harm? After all, he was leaping off of a building here...

The two boys readied their respective tools for this jump, all caution thrown to the wind their land was named after. Without a second thought, they ran towards the edge of their platform and leaped into the air, preparing to latch onto the lip of the roof above them halfway through the jump. Using chakra strings and ninja wire with kunai, they both managed to do so, and surprisingly, Kankuro's chakra strings held his weight all the way through the arc. The two of them landed feet first on the wall of the building they had been aiming for.

Kankuro was about to say something about accomplishing their little stunt, but before he could pat himself and his brother on the back, his strings broke from the strain. "Oh crap! Catch me!"

Ash reached a hand out to catch the black-clad boy, but the sudden addition of weight started topull his kunai anchors from the wall, and it was obvious that they were going to fall any moment now. In all honesty, Ash was not surprised things had turned out like this. "So if anyone asks, what are we gonna tell them?"

Kankuro tried to come up with a good excuse before he and Ash fell. It was only about twenty feet, so they would survive, being partial ninja and all. He wasn't too worried even if it hurt. "We were roughed up by a pack of older kids?"

"We tell Sis that and we'll look like huge wimps."

"Yeah, but then she would just hug you or something instead of beat you over the head."

Ash's face took on an expression much too wise for his age. "Hm, that is a fair point..."

That was all they managed to discuss before Ash's kunai finally gave way, but neither of them seemed too alarmed even as they fell towards the ground. They were so used to hurting themselves with stupid things like this that they mostly just made a joke out of it. Unfortunately, they also pulled stunts like this so often that they weren't surprised at all when a small gust of wind buffeted their free-fall, reducing their landing to little more than a plop on the dusty street.

The two boys craned their necks to look in the direction the wind had come from, and were, once again, not surprised to find the scowling visage of their older sister with a small fan in each hand. Neither of them said anything, knowing that words would likely only make their current situation worse.

That being said, Temari was more than happy to fill the silence, her eyebrow twitching the whole while. "You idiots... do you have any idea how stupid that entire stunt was?! What's wrong with you two, leaping off of a six story building like that?! I mean honestly-"

Kankuro sighed as he cut her off. "Just go ahead and hit us, Temari, at least spare us the lecture."

Not that she needed an invitation, but the eleven year old blond did just that.

---

"Somehow I feel as though Lady Chiyo did not teach you to use chakra strings for this purpose, Kankuro..."

Within the Kazekage's residence, Baki sat cross-legged in front of the two boys under his care, their older sister standing behind them with a look of irritation on her face. It seemed like the older her brothers got, the more foolish their little escapades became.

"Let's just say it was a good test of their strength, Sensei. Now I know they won't hold me up like that. Trial and error and all that, right?"

Baki looked over to Ash, who sat on the floor with a far smaller bump on his head. For some reason Baki had yet to understand, Temari always hit Ash much more softly than Kankuro. "And what about you Ash? You've usually got the best excuses between the two of you."

"Mistakes are the best way to learn something new, right, Cyclops? Next time I'll know to let Kankuro fall instead of going down with him."

Baki could've sworn that he saw a small tick mark forming on the puppeteer in training's forehead. For such a young child, Ash was a ruthless sibling. "Either way, that was definitely one of the more foolish stunts you two have pulled. Although I guess it's still better than terrorizing the populace like you usually do..."

The two boys shared a knowing look between themselves, easily recalling the multiple times they had been chased by angry merchants or housewives. They were really a menace around the village, if left to their own devices. Not that they ever really got in trouble, considering who they were. But if one of their own family got onto their case, that was a different story.

Which was why having their sister on their case was a fairly regular occurrence.

"Seriously, Ash, what would you have done if you ended up landing on your neck or something? If I hadn't been there to catch you, who knows what could have happened?"

Kankuro cast a deadpan look back at his sister. "What if I had landed on my neck, huh?"

"Tough luck, this whole idea of swinging from the rooftops was probably your stupid idea in the first place."

Ash nodded in agreement, leaving Kankuro to mutter something about how cold his siblings were. Baki could only inwardly sigh as he wondered how the three children before him had managed to create such a dynamic when approximately two years ago they were virtual strangers. "If the three of you are done bickering about this, there are more important matters to attend to. We've actually got a mission for you to prepare for, you know."

Ash couldn't help but grumble to himself, unwillingly reminded of the 'mission' he and his adopted siblings had been selected for sometime earlier that day. "I don't see why we have to go, Cyclops. None of us are even Genin yet, so we shouldn't have to do any missions at all, right?"

By this point, the Jonin was well accustomed to all of the young boy's complaining, having been subject to it from day one. It was extremely odd; Ash liked learning how to fight, and worked to improve his fighting skills without much outside motivation. But on the other hand, he completely detested the idea of being a servant to the Kazekage. In short, he enjoyed the skills that came with being a ninja but hated the politics.

That being said, no amount of grumbling would change Baki's mind on matters these days. "It will be a good experience for you. Besides, at the rate you've all been learning the shinobi arts, your days as students are numbered. You'd might as well get used to the squad dynamic now."

Temari leaned in behind Ash and placed her hands on his shoulders. "C'mon, Ash, it won't be so bad. At least we can all suffer together. Besides, if I have to put up with Kankuro and Baki no matter what, I'd at least rather have you there too. You wouldn't want to leave your big sister out in the desert with only those two for company, right?"

Any resistance Ash may have mentally put up crumbled at his sister's slightly pleading tone. Sure, even Ash knew she was just manipulating him, but he'd been putty in her hands for a long time now, so what was he going to do about it?

"Fine, fine... what are we doing anyway? I don't really want to do that D-rank crap... manual labor is civilian work."

"We're going out into the desert at evening tomorrow to look for a rather rare flower that only blooms at night around this time of year. I don't now why the client wants it and I don't really care: the village doesn't get nearly enough missions as it is, so we take what we can get."

Kankuro rolled his eyes, although he was glad to do something that didn't involve building a fence or towing blocks of sandstone. "Better than what most Genin do, though not by much..."

Baki wondered if his proteges would ever grow out of this rut of complaints and whining. For the sake of his sanity, he certainly hoped that they would.

---

The Kazekage's secretary sighed as she planted her forehead onto her desk, though she was careful to avoid damaging her glasses. "I can't believe Lord Kazekage is just dropping all of this paperwork into my lap... isn't this supposed to be his job?"

"Maybe, but that old dustbin probably gets lazy every once in awhile too, Sohara. C'mon, it's not like you really work or anything on regular days."

Sohara lifted her head just enough to glare at the new arrival through her brown bangs. "What do you know, Ash? You're too young to have really worked a day in your life. You don't know how grueling paperwork is, it's so bad that even the Kazekage has to give it to someone else sometimes, as you can see!"

Ash walked up to Sohara's desk and plopped his chin down on it, since he was the perfect height to do so. "All you ever do is sit at a desk, Sohara. You're gonna get fat or something."

"I hope you don't say that kind of thing to your sister, Ash."

"Not only would she never let that happen to herself, but I'd never be stupid enough to say something like that to her. I value my life quite a lot."

Sohara was too tired to laugh fully, but still smiled. "Well I sure hope so. Anyway, I haven't seen you in a while, so what brings you here? I mean, I'd understand if you wanted to drop in just to chat and all..."

"Don't kid yourself, Sohara, I'm here to ask you about something, that's all."

The stricken brunette stuck her lower lip out in a mock pout. "For someone so cute you sure can be cold sometimes... anyway, what's this question about? You know I don't know much about anything ninja related."

"Well I got dragged into some mission Cyclops is taking Sis and Kankuro on, and I was just wondering if you knew anything about it. I mean, most lower-rank missions come through you before you give 'em to the old guy, right?"

"Well sure, but... I don't usually pay much attention to them. What are you doing?"

Ash flipped his bangs to the side, giving Sohara a small glimpse of the eye he always kept hidden from everyone. Unfortunately, it was took quick to do anything for her curiosity. In the couple of years she had known the boy, she had never once seen his other eye. It made her wonder, without a doubt.

"We're going to look for some flower out in the desert, one that only blooms in the evening or something around this time of year. Sounds boring, but I couldn't get out of it."

Ash missed the gleam of interest in Sohara's eyes as he mentioned his upcoming task, because if he had noticed it, he probably would have cut his losses and made himself scarce.

"You mean the Moonglow mission?! Actually, I know exactly which one you're talking about, I read through it just this morning!"

Ash cocked an eyebrow at the young woman. "Why did you pay so much attention to that one? Is there something special about this flower?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact there is! Ah well... supposedly there is. There's this urban legend that if you give a fully bloomed Moonglow to the person you love, they'll reciprocate your feelings! Isn't that romantic?"

Ash, being the nine year-old child that he was, only had a deadpan stare to offer to his conversationalist companion. "OK, tone it down there, Sohara. Please leave fairy tale land and come back to reality. Who would need a special flower for something like that?"

Sohara planted her hands on her hips. "Plenty of people! You know, girls who don't have a lot of confidence when they want to confess to the guy the like, and vice versa and whatnot..."

"Are you talking about yourself here, Sohara?"

"Well, you know, maybe... I mean... kind of...you know what? Stop asking questions! I wish your sister had asked, she'd probably be much more appreciative..."

Ash began to turn and walk towards the door, more than ready to exit this particular situation. "I don't think so. Sis never pays attention to boys, she doesn't care about them."

Sohara shook her head as she watched the young boy take his leave, muttering to herself all the while. "Maybe because she has to spend all her time looking out for you, blockhead..."

By the time the next day rolled around, Ash wasn't feeling any more enthusiastic about his mission. There were many factors that rolled into that, not the least of which was the fact that he hated menial tasks. Literally anyone could go out and find a pretty flower at night. Aside from the servitude to stupid ideals and figureheads, the other part of being a ninja he wasn't looking forward to was wasting his life away doing minor things. He wanted to be called on for things that really mattered, though that may have been a little much for his current status.

But whatever his stance on the day's later assignment, the young blonde student had no choice but to prepare for it, although it was with no small amount of grumbling. Sitting cross-legged on the floor of the room he had long since claimed as his own (adjacent to his sister's of course), the Genin-to-be carelessly stuffed his backpack with things he deemed remotely useful. That included everything from water, to kunai, to bandages, to that little orange book he had swiped from a street vendor last week without anyone noticing. He hadn't read it yet, but got the distinct feeling that it would be better if no one knew he had it. Especially his sister.

Speaking of which, the girl poked her head through Ash's open doorway, not bothering to knock. "Ash, did you pack water?"

"Of course I did."

"And how about kunai?"

"What kind of ninja wouldn't pack those?"

"What about soldier pills, just in case? You never know..."

Ash turned to cast a deadpan stare at his adopted older sibling. "Soldier pills, Sis? We're hunting a flower, not a giant scorpion."

Temari frowned at his statement, somewhat put off by Ash's blatant dismissal of her overbearing concern. "Maybe I oughta double-check for you, just in case you missed something..."

Instantly remembering that suspicious orange booklet currently stowed away inside his bag, Ash tried to deflect his sister's efforts through any means necessary. It wouldn't do for her to find out that he had stolen something. "Temari, how am I supposed to grow into a capable ninja with you on over-watch all of the time? I've got everything I need, really."

Coming into the room fully, Temari placed her hands on her hips. "Really, Ash? Because you only ever call me by name when something's wrong."

Of course, Ash now realized that mistake. Under normal circumstances, he always referred to Temari with an affectionate moniker, instead of her name or anything else. Anytime he used her name while talking to her usually meant he was nervous or otherwise emotionally affected. "I'm nervous about the mission, Sis. You know how I get."

"I wouldn't call the way you're acting 'nervous.' It's more suspicious than anything else."

Running out of defensive lines, Ash nearly panicked, but managed to keep it off of his face. Thankfully, he didn't need to say anything. His only brother inadvertently saved him with a call for assistance from down the hall. "Hey! Have either of you two seen that poison smoke bomb I was working on for my puppet? I can't find it anywhere!"

Ash caught the look of incredulity on Temari's face before she stormed down the hall, forgetting about him completely. "Kankuro, are you serious?! You lost a bomb in the house?!"

The young ninja trainee tuned out the subsequent squabbling as he dug his book out of the bag and stuffed it into an inside pocket within his shirt instead. He may have only been nine, but he was well on his way to being a smooth criminal, as long as Temari didn't nip his bad habits in the bud...

It was funny, because Ash didn't even know what was in that orange book. Hell, he hadn't even read the title yet. But that wasn't going to stop him from keeping it a secret, at least until he found out if it was any good or not.

---

There really wasn't all that much preparation to do for a mission as simple as retrieving a flower, so roughly an hour after the trio of siblings had averted an impending disaster by finding Kankuro's bomb, they went to the rooftop of their home to wait out the rest of the day. There was an ample view of the surrounding village, mostly because the house was one of the tallest in the immediate area. Only the Kazekage tower commanded greater height, but Ash always made sure to turn his back to it. He hated the tall symbol of the village, for reasons his siblings had never quite understood.

Temari and Kankuro had always wanted to be ninja. It held meaning and purpose and merit for them. For Ash, being a ninja felt more like being a tool than anything else. Like all other students, Baki had taught the young child all of the proper mantras. 'The village before all. Absolute loyalty to one's Kage.' Something something sacrifice your life for one reason or another.

He hated all of it. The idea of servitude, of throwing your life away for something you didn't necessarily believe in, of your life being of less worth than a bunch of stupid buildings: Ash detested it all. He had not wanted to be a shinobi two years ago, and although he was close to reaching Genin level, he did not want to be a shinobi still.

The title of ninja only held two merits for him; one was, obviously, the skills that came with the job. He'd found over the past two years that he enjoyed the rush of combat, and the challenge of pushing himself past his limits. He enjoyed fighting in the purest sense and he appreciated that his ninja training made him better at it. And of course, more importantly, being a ninja meant staying close to his siblings as they became shinobi as well. If they became ninja and he didn't, they'd constantly be off on dangerous missions without him, possibly getting hurt or killed because he hadn't been at their side.

As much as he hated the subordinate details of being a ninja, Ash wasn't willing to let his misgivings lead to something like that.

His wayward thoughts kept Ash from joining in with whatever mindless conversation his siblings were having, which did not go entirely unnoticed by his sister. "Ash? Is something wrong? You look kinda down."

He didn't even bother looking in her direction, lest he accidentally catch sight of that accursed tower that was a symbol of his soon to be overlord. "I'm fine, Sis. Just tired and not all that excited for a scavenger hunt in the desert."

Temari frowned at him, well aware of Ash's lack of passion for the ninja life, but still expecting to look forward to the things to come more than he was. "C'mon, Ash, it's a flower that glows in the dark. We'll be out there for less than an hour, tops. And since it is an official mission, you'll even get paid a regular Genin's wages for participating. That's something to be excited about, right?"

Ash scowled, not at all excited about such a thing. "Whatever 'wages' a Genin gets around here is pathetic. With the state this village is in, we might not get anything at all. Not to mention that you two are the Kage's kids, so money is never an issue anyway. And then there's the fact that I didn't choose to come on my own."

Temari was about to lecture the diminutive child on being so pessimistic, but Kankuro grabbed her by the shoulder and made it clear that it was useless to even try. They both knew that their adopted little brother was far from pleased with the most prominent aspects of being a ninja, even though he wasn't even really a ninja yet. They could only wonder at how negative he would become as his career progressed.

With none of the children willing to speak further, they all descended into oppressive silence, the two older siblings worrying over the younger, and said child wondering if it would be safe to pull out that book to pass the time, but deciding against it.

It had been roughly five minutes or so when the trio's only female member couldn't take the silence anymore. "Ash, practice your taijustu with me."

"What? Why?"

"Because we could both use the practice and I'm sick of sitting around. Come on, it'd be better than staring off into the distance like you are, right?"

While Ash normally didn't frown on combat training, he wasn't all that eager to go at it right now. It wasn't like he and his sister would push it hard enough to actually achieve anything, so that made it pointless. Even so, he got to his feet, always desiring to please his older sister. "Why are we doing this though? You hardly ever practice your taijutsu anyways, Sis. I thought you were going to be a ninjutsu specialist."

Before Temari could offer her own answer, the voice of Baki came from behind the group, having arrived without any of them noticing. "It's critical for a ninja to be well-rounded, Ash. Even if you are a specialist in a certain area, you should have at least average skills befitting of your rank. A Jonin with incredible skill in ninjutsu but Chunin level taijutsu would be dead in no time. Well, it is unlikely that someone like that would ever have made Jonin rank in the first place."

The three kids turned to face their Sensei, Ash being the most vocal of the three of them. "That's great, Cyclops, but it doesn't help me get out of anything, so I'll pass."

It was standard fare for the young blonde boy, but his dismissal irked Baki anyway. It wasn't that Ash was lazy; in fact, his recently awakened passion for fighting had made him much better than most of his counterparts in the Academy. But his attitude wasn't conducive to progress at all. Even though he had no qualms practicing when it came to battle, he had no desire to use those skills for anything greater. Anytime someone mentioned service to the village he tuned them out completely.

Now Baki was not very passionate about a lot of things, but if there was one thing he hated, it was to see potential being wasted. It was actually more painful in Ash's case, because he wasn't fully wasting his potential, but he was just shy of making the most of it, which was actually worse. Baki hoped there would be some sort of life-changing event down the road that would change Ash's mind about a lot of things.

"It's unbecoming of a ninja to complain so much, Ash. I know being a dutiful ninja isn't at the top of your priorities, but you should still try your best. It's the least you could do for those of us that took you in."

The youngest member of the group said nothing in reply, but scowled nevertheless. Even at age nine, he was not naive. He knew he had been rescued off the streets only because he could potentially fill the hole Gaara's disappearance had caused. Had the redhead never left, Ash would have probably died already, left out there on the streets to starve. No one he had now as 'family' or 'friends' would have been there for him if fate had played out just a little differently.

Ash replaced his irritable countenance with a measured neutral look as he realized what he was thinking, mildly surprised to have thought it at all. This bitter swirl of thoughts tended to cloud his mind on a fairly regular basis, but it was very recent, in all honesty. Just a few months ago, he never would have thought such things. He didn't know if they manifested themselves now because he was stressed over his training, or bored, or for some other reason entirely, but it bothered the boy to no small extent. They all cared about him now: it shouldn't have really mattered to him how he had gotten where he was.

But not finding anything to say, Ash merely nodded, a neutral action that showed his understanding of Baki's words but did not reveal his stance on the matter. This infuriated the older Jonin, mostly because he hated answers that weren't really answers, and Ash excelled at that. "Well as long as you understand, I suppose we can move on. Let's just go over the mission before we leave."

With varying degrees of interest, the three kids turned their attention to their sensei. Temari was the most focused, while her two brothers were likely to tune out halfway through the briefing, or sooner.

"Now you two," Baki said while pointing to the older siblings, "have been on a few low-key missions with me before, even though you aren't officially ninja yet. Ash, this will be your first, but there will be little difficulties involved for you to worry about. Collecting this rare flower is only a high-ranked D mission after all. It is almost guaranteed that we won't encounter any danger out there, and the most difficult aspect of this mission will likely be fighting off your own boredom. All in all, it should be easy."

Ash crossed his arms and gave the Jonin a disapproving look. "Why'd you say that, Cyclops? Now you know it won't be."

"If you are suggesting that I have jinxed the mission with mere words, I assure you that such superstition is nonexistent. After all, as I said this is only a D-rank mission. Still, all missions are valuable missions, so we can't blow this off or treat it as unimportant, no matter how insignificant our task may seem. The client is willing to pay the village for this, and that's good enough for us. We need every ryo we can get these days."

The reference to the Sand's dire economic straits did nothing to lighten the moods of the kids under Baki's tutelage, but he wasn't one to mince words or hide undeniable facts. The Hidden Sand was the poorest of all the five Great Nations right now. There was no point in hiding that, as it was obvious in the day-to-day aspects of every villager's life, both civilian and shinobi.

But whether it was fact or not, it was best to not linger on such bitter things for very long, so Baki moved on with what little was left of this 'briefing.' "Well as you know, we're heading out in a few minutes to comb the desert's oases for a rare flower that only blooms in the evening around this time of year. I don't know what's so special about it besides the fact that it glows when in full bloom, but I don't care why the client wants it, only that he does. We must find it tonight, because this flower will begin to die as soon as the sun rises tomorrow morning. I don't expect it to be hard, but we do have a deadline, nevertheless. Any questions about what we're doing?"

Ash raised his hand, but Baki cut in before the boy could say anything. "Any questions that aren't 'do I have to come?'"

Defeated before he could even start, Ash lowered his hand. It was a shame that Baki knew him so well already.

"Well if that's the case, let's get a move on. Double check your gear one more time, and meet me at the gates."

Chapter Text

With nothing to hinder their progress, the group of ninja to be plus one found themselves in the desert an hour after their half-baked briefing on the roof, making their way towards the first oasis closest to the village's walls. After all, if a flower was going to bloom in the desert, it would likely need to be near a decent amount of water. Fortunately the first oasis was only about a mile away from the village, near the hidden exit to the emergency tunnels the civilians would use to evacuate during a crisis.

Being so close, it only took about fifteen minutes to arrive at the location, where all four members of the squad realized that their task would not be as easy as they had thought.

Ash walked slowly around the very edge of the small body of water that was the center of the oasis, scanning the sparse green around him for the faint glow of his objective in the evening light. The vegetation around him was covered in flecks of sand, and it occurred to the ninja-in-training that the flower he was looking for might be in the same condition or worse. The country wasn't called the Land of Wind for nothing, and it was possible that the flower in question could be completely covered in sand, blocking out its telltale glow. That could make things much more difficult for him and his team.

"I'm assuming no one has found it yet?"

There were three answers, and as expected, Temari, Kankuro, and Baki had all failed to locate the flower as well. Ash found it strange that Baki himself would help with a D-ranked mission, but assumed it had something to do with the fact that his private students could possibly fail. Failing a mission meant forfeiting the income, and that was something the village just couldn't afford, no matter what mission rank was in question.

After the group combed the entire patch of greenery and water from center to edge with no luck, Ash brought up his theory on the possible hindrances they might encounter with the sand.

"So, it occurred to me that this flower could be covered in sand or something. Or at least dusted enough to make it harder to pick out. Just a thought."

While he wasn't sure if his observation really made a difference, Ash was pleased to find that Baki agreed with the insight. "That's good, Ash; discovering possible obstacles to your mission early on is a trait all shinobi should excel in. Now we all know to be even more prudent in our search, especially as it gets darker. We'll have to be extra thorough."

Kankuro lightly slapped his little brother on the back. "Yeah, thanks, Ash. Now we have to be extra thorough."

Temari provided retribution on Ash's behalf, smacking the young puppeteer quite a bit harder than he himself had done to the youngest sibling. "Well at least he actually thought of something useful. I think that you really did do a great job, Ash. You thought of that before Baki even."

Said Jonin cleared his throat to interrupt the conversation, lest the children capitalize on the fact that, yes, Ash had thought of something important before he had. It would be best for his sanity if they forgot about it before they could hold it over his head like the little jackasses they were.

"Yes, well, now that we have established some of the difficulties we might encounter, we should move along to the next oasis. If the sand really has obscured the Moonglow, it will be harder to find the darker it gets. We have no time to waste."

With no disagreement on the kids' part, the group departed for the next oasis, although this one was several miles off, unlike the first. Not only was it farther off, but its distance from the village meant there was more open desert to traverse, which, even for Sand ninja, could be tricky. Moving at full speed on sand dunes was rather difficult, since it shifted under the smallest disturbances. You couldn't just use typical shinobi water walking techniques either: even if you could stick your feet to the grains of sand on the surface, that didn't stop them from sliding around thanks to the shifting sand underneath those grains.

There was a actually a technique used by the village to take advantage of this, allowing ninja to slide around intentionally less friction, but none of the children present on this mission had mastered such a technique yet. It was useful, but not high priority for ninja-in-training to focus on.

Therefore, their progress was slowed considerably, which was certainly not doing the group any favors as the sky grew darker. Nearly an hour of sliding, tripping, and grumbling separated them from the next oasis, where their luck was just as rotten as it had been the first time. A complete and thorough sweep of the small haven was met with no results, putting Ash into an even worse mood than he had been in the first place.

"This is such a stupid assignment... what are we supposed to do if there just isn't one of these flowers to find? What if there just aren't any this year?"

Feeling slightly discouraged himself, Baki found himself wondering the same thing. There was always a possibility that there just wouldn't be a flower to find. "That is a fair point, Ash, but we must be absolutely certain that is the case before writing off this mission as a failure."

Not one to be left out of the complaining, Kankuro found it necessary to say something himself. "And how many more of these places do we have to search? It's practically night already."

"There are two more oases that we must search, each even further than the last. By the time we're done, there will be about thirty miles between us and the village."

As soon as his words came to an end, a small bush near the water burst into alternating blue and green flames, no doubt a result of Ash's mounting frustration. Used to it by now, the only reaction from his three comrades was a gust of wind Temari used to splash the fluorescent flames with water before they burned down the whole oasis.

It was likely that Ash would inadvertently ignite more things as he grew more irritable, but seeing as there was nothing to burn in the open desert besides the clothing on their backs, Baki decided that a break was necessary, if only to keep all of their belongings safe in the long run. "Let's take a small break before continuing on to the next oasis. Ten minutes, and then we're moving again."

With all of the invitation he needed, Ash flung himself onto the sparse grass and heaved an awfully mighty sigh for a nine-year old kid. It didn't take too long for his siblings to join him on the ground, although they both opted for sitting cross-legged. Kankuro wasted no time in bringing out the small, foot long avian puppet he was constantly working on and expanding, which had been his hobby of choice since Ash had first met him. Temari on the other hand, decided that she would rather spend her ten minutes fretting over her youngest sibling. Despite her initial worries about the relationship they shared now, she had swiftly grown into it over the years.

"Are you feeling alright, Ash? You should drink some water before we start moving again."

"I'm not thirsty."

It was futile to try and brush Temari off with an excuse like that; now that Ash thought about it, it probably wasn't even worth the effort to resist his sister. If she got it into her head that there was something wrong, there was no swaying her. She deftly dug her hand into Ash's bag and withdrew one of the water-filled canteens within, shoving it into her youngest sibling's face with a stern look that left no room for argument.

Well aware that there was no way to get out of it, Ash took the canteen from his sister and made an obvious show of drinking it, just to make sure she got off his back. She would have been just as overbearing if he didn't drink enough. Of course, as he guzzled some of it down, the ninja in training couldn't help but realize that he had been rather thirsty, not that he would admit it. Apparently his sister just always knew what was best.

"I bet that was refreshing, wasn't it?"

Ash was not at all pleased to see the smug look of victory on Temari's face; perhaps he had let just a bit too much satisfaction show on his own. Either way, he crossed his arms and said nothing, ever unwilling to admit defeat.

If his denial bothered Temari in any way, it didn't show on her face at all. She was used to Ash's childish behavior, and found it more adorable than anything else. She could only find it in herself to smile at the boy. "Alright then, if that's the way you want to be about it. But how about everything else? You've been training hard but you're still younger than us. Are you tired?"

In all honesty, he did feel a little winded, and a bit sore from the running. Having to run on shifting sands was twice the work that running on any flat surface would be, since one had to constantly fight to keep their balance as well as move forward. But again, he wouldn't admit to feeling anything beyond fine. He hated showing weakness, especially in front of his sister, who always seemed to think he could be amazing and great and anything he wanted to be. To let down someone who had so much faith in him, even in something so small, felt very wrong.

"I'm fine, Sis. It was no problem."

A small frown made itself known on Temari's face, but it lasted only a moment before she returned to her usual smile. Oh, she was well aware that Ash was just putting up a front. He was a proud little squirt that didn't like being called out on his weaknesses. Besides his lack of motivation, it was probably his biggest personality flaw.

"So you're not feeling tired at all, huh? Not even a little bit?"

Ash shook his head defiantly, wondering why she bothered to ask when she definitely already knew the truth. "Not even a little bit."

If Ash had noticed the slightly devious look that came into his sister's eyes, he probably would have found some way to escape from her immediate reach. Unfortunately, he was making a point of looking away from her, so there was no way he could have known that she was about to make a move against him. She had subtly reached her hands to her brother's exposed sides before he could realize the 'danger' he was in.

In a dour mood, Ash did not expect an attack in the form of something as silly as what his sister decided to employ. Temari jammed her fingers into her little brother's sensitive ribs and began to tickle him mercilessly, taking advantage of what she knew was a weak spot for him.

"How about now, Ash? Feeling tired now? Hm?"

Absolutely refusing to laugh in the face of Temari's onslaught, Ash clenched his jaw as tight as he could to suppress his giggles, all the while trying to twist away from his sister's cruel fingers. He reached a hand out to Kankuro in hopes of being rescued, but the slightly older boy decided that right that moment would be a good time to remember Ash's smart-ass remark about letting him fall earlier that day, and abandoned the blonde to his fate. Even Baki looked on with an amused air about him, the heartless bastard.

Unable to get away from her but still refusing to surrender either way, Ash did his best to curl into a ball and block off Temari's access to his sides, but to no avail. She tortured him ruthlessly for almost a full minute, determined to make her little brother laugh, even if it was against his will. But unfortunately for her, Ash held on to the bitter end, surviving until Baki roused the three kids from their break to get back on the move. But even after convincing Temari to give it a rest, the older Jonin gave Ash a minute or two to catch his breath, showing that he was at least slightly more sympathetic than he appeared.

Ash rested his hands on his knees as he gave Temari the most powerful glare he could muster from behind his long bangs, and it may have been somewhat intimidating had he not been gasping for air as heavily as he was. "Sis... you... jerk...! What was that all about?!"

The group's only girl grinned sheepishly at him, perhaps realizing that she had taken it just a little too far, even if tickling the boy had been more or less harmless. "It's your fault for acting so sour all the time. I just wanted you to smile or laugh or something."

Ash tried to maintain his bitter countenance, but it was impossible to do so after such an explanation. Whether or not Temari's maneuver had been underhanded and torturous, she had playfully assaulted him only to try and cheer him up a little. And though he was loathe to admit it, Ash did actually feel a little less irritable now that it was all said and done. That being the case, he couldn't really resist giving his sister a big smile; after all, it was what she had wanted.

"Well geez, Sis. Just tell me a joke next time or something."

The older girl stuck her tongue out at the boy, an action that reminded Ash that no matter how mature Temari acted sometimes, she was still a kid, all the same as he was. "But Ash, that isn't nearly as fun as making you squirm."

Ash reciprocated his sister's immature action, aware that she was joking and only taking mock offense. The truth was that Temari just wasn't really all that good at jokes. She could be playful, but actual creative humor was not her strong suit.

Seeing that Ash was no longer a gasping heap on the ground, Baki ushered his proteges out of the oasis with haste, he himself not all that eager to be out until sometime in the morning. Unlike his pupils, he had to be up the next day far earlier, and for far more tedious work. Fortunately for his sanity, complaints were kept to a minimum on the way to the next oasis, which likely had something to do with the fact that Ash was in a better mood than he had been previously. The amount of influence Temari held over the boy never ceased to amaze Baki. Both Temari and Kankuro were Ash's siblings now, but the puppeteer in training did not hold the same sway over their adopted brother as his sister did.

With little to be said while traversing the desert's open dunes, the group of four arrived at the next oasis in silence, hoping they would find their objective there. This particular patch of liveliness among the desert was a fair bit larger than the last ones, sporting a wider area and a slightly more diverse selection of trees and shrubs, although only by one or two species. There where actually two spots of water in the middle of it all, although it had likely been one pool that had just accumulated enough sediment in the middle to make a little stretch of earth, separating the water into two bodies.

Without a word, the desert natives spread out and searched for the flower they sought. They each believed that this was better than having to hunt down house cats of any sort, but were vexed nevertheless, as the elusive plant was just as annoying to locate, if not more so, as it did not move or make sounds to give it away. For about fifteen minutes, their search was absolutely fruitless, much to everyone's chagrin. It occurred then to Temari, being a little more knowledgeable about flowers than the rest of her group, that they might be looking in the wrong places.

"Hey, Baki? Were you told what kind of flower this is? Like where it grows?"

Kankuro piped up from across the oasis before Baki could speak, although the Jonin was only mumbling about not being called Sensei. "It grows where there's grass and water right? Where else would you find a flower?"

"You idiot, flowers can bloom in more places than that, you know. Some only grow in certain conditions. There are some flowers that only grow in certain types of soil, and some actually bloom in the shade rather than in the sun. And there are a few that can actually grow and bloom completely underwater. This Moonglow thing might be growing somewhere we haven't looked."

Kankuro seemed to take no interest in any of this, since his most prominent interest involving plants was producing poisons. Baki saw the potential for Temari's knowledge in that regard as well, and Ash just saw it as his sister being as knowledgeable as always. "So, Sis, are you saying that we're wasting time here? That maybe this stupid flower isn't even growing in an oasis? Is there such a thing as flowers out in the desert?"

The girl rubbed her chin for a moment, clearly struggling to recall what she knew about straight up desert flowers. "Well there's a few, like Scorpion Weed. Or Sand Lillies, Sand Verbana... what's that other one? Um... oh, and Desert Fairy Dusters."

The boys of the group all cast Temari a questioning look, though only Kanakuro voiced the group opinion. "A Desert... Fairy Duster? Is that a real thing, Temari? Are you making that up just to try and sound smart? Because it's not really working."

The accosted girl placed her hands defiantly on her hips. "Of course it's real, you dope! I'll go find one for you right now and prove it!"

The mention of a second flower hunt drove Ash to intervene, not being all that eager to perform this dreaded task twice. "Maybe we should find the flower we're getting paid to find first."

His two older siblings looked like they wanted to make some sort of retort to their youngest brother, but Baki put an end to any squabbling before it could really get started. "Ash is right about that. It's already late enough as it is, and I imagine that we'd all like to get home sooner than later. The information on the Moonglow did not include anything beyond the fact that it blooms near ground water-sources. Apparently our library could use some updates."

There was a shared groan between Kankuro and Ash, who could already foresee having to trek to the final oasis for another sweep, one that would likely be as useless as the ones before it. Ash decided to verbalize his dissatisfaction.

"Really, Cyclops, can't you do it? You're way faster than us, and probably not as tired. It wouldn't even be hard to check on your own."

Temari frowned, not happy that her little brother was coming off as lazy. He should have known better than to ask Baki to do the work for them. The chances that he would say yes were pretty much nonexistent...

"Fine. I suppose you have a point, Ash."

"I do?"

Temari parroted the sentiment immediately. "He does?"

Apparently even Ash hadn't really thought Baki would accept his complaining, so it was no surprise that his siblings didn't either. They all knew that Baki was not a man to let them shirk their duties. Except for now, apparently.

"You're right in saying that I can move faster without you three, and as I said before, we'd all like to go home sooner rather than later. I'll use clones to help me search the final oasis alone. You all stay here and rest. I would let you go back to the village, but I fear you ignorant twerps might get lost on the way back."

Temari took more offense than the other two, who didn't listen to Baki all that much anyway. "Whoa, ignorant twerp?! Me? I could get back to the village with my eyes closed! Don't compare me to Kankuro, that's terrible!"

"Hey! What about Ash? You're being compared to him too!"

"But he's actually cute, so I don't mind as much."

Kankuro scowled and leaned over to whisper menacingly to the diminutive blonde boy beside him. "Enjoy it while you can, Ash. One day that whole 'cute littlest brother' thing is going to wear off."

"Don't count on it, Kankuro. I'll always be better looking than you."

Temari couldn't help but fan that flame. "Well, that's certainly true."

"Yeah, well you're not exactly the cutest girl in the village or anything!"

Baki sighed, deciding to make his exit before his pupils inevitably descended even further into one of their petty squabbles. He flickered away without a word, leaving all three children to their own devices, although they hardly noticed his departure, as busy as they were with their personal popularity contest.

"That's not true, Kankuro. I am definitely the cutest girl in the village. Right, Ash?"

Feeling like he had stepped on an armed explosive tag, Ash glanced at his sister's deceptively cheerful countenance, trying to gauge the amount of danger he'd be putting himself in if he dared say 'no.' In the end he decided to play it safe. "Of course you are, Sis. For sure."

An unforeseen frown descended upon his sister's face, almost like she had seen right through him. Then again, she probably had. "You're just saying that, aren't you? You don't really believe it, do you Ash?"

"Ah well, I didn't think I was supposed to think those things about my sister..."

"Of course you are, you dolt! You should always treat your sister like she's the prettiest girl in the world!"

Kankuro picked that moment to chime in. "I think playing into someone's delusions is generally considered a bad thing, Temari."

Temari scowled over at the hooded boy, wondering if Ash would intervene at all if she tried to strangle him. Maybe her favorite little brother would side with her and help bury the body?

Fortunately for Kankuro, there would not be a murder that night. Ash, in all of his mercy, decided to distract Temari for his brother's sake. It was the only reason he asked an odd question seemingly out of the blue. Truthfully, he just couldn't think of any other way to intervene in his siblings' squabble.

"Hey, Sis? If I were one of those desert flowers you mentioned earlier, which one would I be?"

Surprised not only by his sudden intervention, but by the question as well, Temari took a moment longer than usual to formulate an answer. "Well... it's hard to describe you with only a flower... but if I had to I'd definitely say Desert Bitterbush. It's as yellow as your hair and matches your pessimism perfectly."

He knew it was only a joke, but Ash frowned a little anyway. A joke like that couldn't have even been made if it wasn't at least partially true. "How about Kankuro? What kind of flower would he be?"

"Mmm... definitely Scorpion Weed."

It was obvious to Ash that Kankuro did not realize he had just been insulted, as the black-clad boy seemed happy to be associated with scorpions. "Yeah, Scorpion Weed is poisonous and dangerous or something right? And probably blood-red or black."

"Actually, it's light purple, smells awful, and gives you a terrible rash if you touch it. And of course, it is a weed."

Kankuro's scowl was ever more amplified by the paint that adorned his face, providing a few laughs at his expense by his siblings. "You two are always ganging up on me, seriously. So I'm a weed, but my blood sister is supposed to be some beautiful flower right? Typical."

The girl in question was about to respond with what was no doubt confirmation that she was indeed a wonderful flower, when something whizzed by her ear and stopped her short. It flew by and buried itself in the thin trunk of a palm tree, at which point Baki's three proteges realized that Temari had almost been skewered by a kunai.

There was a moment of paralysis among the children, a moment of shock in which they realized one of them had almost died, though they had all been laughing and joking a mere second ago. Each of them knew they should move, that they should hide behind something, or literally do anything besides sit there, but the fact that a life-or-death situation had just descended on them all so unexpectedly that it temporarily paralyzed the three children.

It took another kunai burying itself at Ash's feet to break the spell that had fallen over them, and whether they were officially ninja or not, what training the trio did have kicked in and they all leaped towards anything they could hide behind, a flurry of kunai and shuriken attempting to strike them as they moved. Each weapon missed by a decent margin, and it occurred to Ash that his family's assailant had rather poor aim.

Ash crouched behind a slightly upturned slab of sandstone that had been scoured by wind, gazing out into the darkness with displeasure clearly etched onto his childish face. "What was it that Cyclops said earlier? 'All in all it should be easy?' I told him that he had jinxed the mission."

From behind a palm tree to his right, Temari was trying her best to minimize the size her body behind cover that felt far too small. "Are you really going to complain even now?! Can we focus on the fact that someone just tried to kill us!?"

Kankuro had thrown himself to the ground behind a slight rise in the ground on Ash's left, braving a peek over the edge of his cover, only to drop his face back into the sand when another kunai nicked his hood. "H-holy crap, this is no joke..."

Strangely enough, Ash did not feel as scared or frightened as either of his siblings did. There was an underlying current of anger and indignation, seeing as how this assailant would have killed his sister if only he had possessed better aim. But beyond that, he felt no more riled or agitated than he usually did. Why this was the case, he did not know, but it did provide a certain amount of confidence. Their enemy couldn't be too skilled, if he couldn't even throw his weapons straight. Any elite would never have missed such an easy shot.

Of course, it was also possible that he had missed on purpose, perhaps to drive his team into a trap of sorts. But why waste time with such an elaborate scheme if three well-aimed kunai could have killed all three children far easier? Something about all of this didn't add up, but it was difficult to place what the problem was.

"You guys need to calm down. It was close, but he missed, and anyone with aim that bad isn't too much to be scared of."

There was a flare of annoyance from both siblings as they realized a kid even younger than they were was telling them what to do, but his words were true nevertheless. Besides, seeing their youngest sibling completely unfazed by the situation calmed them to some degree as well. Minus a bit of annoyance with herself for losing her cool, Temari noted that she felt incredibly proud of Ash, who she had always feared would crack under actual pressure considering his lack of motivation to be a good ninja in the first place.

"You're right, of course... we just need to calm down and take care of this slowly. We need some sort of plan."

Kankuro took a risk to glance back out at the darkness again. "He's over there, right? We could circle around him while one of us distracts him."

Temari glared out into the darkness as well, taking comfort in the fact that her opponent appeared to have rather terrible aim. "If he's smart, then he's moved already. We found out his position, or at least his general direction, when his first attacks missed us. Any ninja worth their salt would change positions after a failed ambush to remain hidden."

Ash narrowed his eyes at the scene of darkness before him, for once taking his role as a ninja-to-be very seriously. Ironically, he realized that there may have been some other merits to his shinobi training aside from outright combat. "Or, maybe he hasn't moved at all. Maybe he expects us to think that he'd move positions, and so stayed exactly where he is to throw us off."

Kankuro cast a confused gaze over at his brother, wondering when he had actually paid enough attention to ninja theory to think through such things. "Are you sure you aren't over-thinking this, Ash? You did just say that this guy was probably an amateur. Would he be smart enough to try something like that?"

Ash shrugged, eyes still focused on piercing the darkness. "I'm not even an actual ninja, and it's what I would have done."

It occurred to Temari that although Ash wasn't an exemplary student by any means, he had obvious potential for more than just fighting. Of course, this only made it worse that he didn't take the rest of his studies seriously. "Well, aren't you just turning into the perfect little strategist? So what do you think we should do?"

Ash was mildly surprised that his sister was effectively nominating him, the youngest, as leader in this situation. To him, the idea of faking out the enemy seemed perfectly obvious, and deserved little praise. But she seemed to have faith in his abilities at this point, and Kankuro wasn't saying anything to disagree, so Ash figured it really was up to him to lead right now. Or at least, to come up with ideas.

"Well if I could control my own flames, I'd just burn him out of his hiding place, but we all know how that's going right about now. Throwing our weapons blindly into the darkness probably won't work either, and it'd be a waste of tools we might need. Hmm... Sis, what's the strongest wind you can make?"

Temari grabbed a hold of the two small fans tucked into the sash at her hips at the mention of it, hoping whatever she could manage was enough for what Ash had in mind. "I can cut someone with it if I need to. It wouldn't kill anybody, but it'd hurt. Is that enough?"

Ash nodded, then turned to his brother. "Should be. How useful is that puppet of yours, Kankuro? What can it do?"

"I can control it well enough, but it's only got a few weapons right now: some senbon launchers and about twenty poison pellet bombs. I haven't added blades to the wings or feet yet, so that's all it can do right now."

Mentally adding his own abilities to the list, Ash tried to formulate some sort of plan that would take care of this situation without getting either of his siblings hurt. As far as he knew, their unknown enemy could be far more skilled than he seemed. Baki was much too far by this point to know that something was wrong, and would likely not be back for an hour or more. If anything was going to be done here, it would have to be at the hands of the Kazekage's children, if Ash could be included in that label.

"We need to get this guy out of cover in order to get a clear shot at him. We could try and force him out with Sis's wind alone, but it probably wouldn't work because he could hide behind one of the trees or something. Going over there to fight someone we can't see in close combat would be stupid too. We need another way to smoke him out, and if we put your abilities together, it should be easy."

Kankuro latched his chakra strings onto the vulture-like puppet he had created himself. It had a relatively small wingspan of two feet, but looked rather intimidating nevertheless. Ash imagined it would look even more so when the promised blades were added to it. "You know, Ash, last time I tried to tag team with Temari she broke this thing, so I'm not feeling so hot about this."

Ash did not allow his sister to make the indignant response she no doubt would, in case she accidentally spoke too loudly and compromised their position further than it already had been. "You won't have to put your puppet in the way of her attack. You're just gonna drop those poison pellets of yours onto the ground , and then Sis is going to spread them into the opposing area. If we're lucky, this guy can't hold his breath for very long."

It was a relatively simple plan, Ash had to admit, but for the most part it was safe, and it would likely serve its purpose well. Apparently his two siblings agreed, because they both moved to do as they had been instructed without dissent. Kankuro launched his puppet into the air, while he himself stayed safely hidden. Its flight was a little awkward, but could be attributed to the fact that Kankuro was still an amateur at his art at so young an age.

A handful of shuriken left the darkness from the opposite end of the oasis, aiming to strike the offending puppet from the sky before it could pull any tricks. Unfortunately, the weapons lacked the force needed to disable the vulture, and although it was hit three times, the puppet suffered little more than aesthetic damage.

Unhindered, Kankuro made some wide, airy gestures with his hands that further exemplified his lack of finesse in the art. He was not yet at a stage where he could manipulate his puppet with a twitch of his fingers. Still, he could command his creation all the same, and a small compartment on the underbelly of the bird slid open to drop nearly two dozen small, dark purple pellets to the ground, each of them about an inch wide. They couldn't hold as much poison as a decent sized bomb, but as they impacted the ground and burst into sizable plumes of hazardous gas, it was obvious that they didn't need to. There was plenty here for Temari to work with.

Taking her cue without a word, Temari swept her fans in a wide slash, creating a gust of wind that spread out before her in a wave. It wasn't a powerful gust, but it still pushed the majority of the poison gas in the center of the oasis into the area their enemy was supposedly hiding, spreading it across the field until it settled where it was needed.

There was no immediate coughing or gagging, or any other telltale sign that the target had been affected in any way, although it was obvious to assume that said target was holding his breath. For how long he could manage to do so, Ash didn't know. "How long until this gas fades away, Kankuro?"

"About a minute, I guess."

Ash frowned, not pleased to hear this information. He could hold his breath for a minute, and he was not even a Genin, or an adult with a sizable lung capacity. It would be smart to assume his foe could do the same.

"Is this gas flammable?"

His brother cast a confused look Ash's way, allowing his puppet to fly blindly for a moment. "I think there's a few elements in there that might be, but is that a good idea?"

Ash left the question unanswered, choosing to ask his own instead. "Does anybody have an explosive tag?"

It wasn't something pupils like them would usually have their hands on, especially in Ash and Kankuro's case, but the three of them were often given exceptions to the rules. They were expected to excel far before their Academy counterparts did, and as the most promising students in the village, were often allowed access to tools Academy students would never be allowed to handle; poison bombs and explosive tags were among them.

Ash had not brought any with him, mostly because his spontaneous combustion episodes could prove dangerous if he did. As for Kankuro, Baki didn't trust him with them yet, since he feared the boy would think to use them in some harebrained prank within the village. Fortunately, their ever responsible and reliable older sister was trustworthy enough to have access to such ordnance, and had brought a few along for this mission even though it had seemed earlier that day that they would be completely unnecessary. It would seem that she was always prepared, perhaps to a paranoid degree.

Temari wrapped the tag around a kunai, apparently finding no reason to disagree with the course of action Ash had mentioned. She merely waited for an approving nod from her brothers, telling her they were prepared for the oncoming blast, before activating the explosive and throwing it blindly into the purple smoke that was slowly beginning to dissipate. After all, if the gas was flammable, it didn't really matter where she threw the tag.

Kankuro remembered to recall his puppet just in time to escape the deafening blast that shook the ground beneath them. The bird barely escaped the scorching hot fireball that erupted skyward, creating a pillar of flame that may have been visible from the village walls, if one of the guards squinted hard enough. The fire raged for only a brief moment, until all of the poisonous gas that fed its growth had been consumed, at which points the flames dwindled down to a a few measly burning pieces of foliage.

The three children peeked out from behind their hiding places, eager to assess the damage they had caused. The targeted half of the oasis had been practically incinerated, with little more than charred stumps and vitrified sand left of what it used to be. Tiny fires burned on whatever vegetation had managed to survive the initial blast, and being the boys they were, Ash and Kankuro couldn't help but feel a little proud of themselves for being the authors of such destruction. Only Temari seemed to be displeased, and that probably had something to do with the annihilation of half of the oasis. She was a bit more attuned to nature, having a natural wind affinity and all.

There was no sign of whoever their mysterious assailant had been, much to Ash's relief. He figured it made sense; their opponent had not been all that skilled from what he had demonstrated, which had been nothing more than throwing a few weapons at them, and missing even then. He had probably not expected children as young as them to be smart enough to create an explosion with the poison gas, and being caught off guard when it came to explosives usually meant you were already dead. There were very few ninja who could outrun an infernal blast even if they saw it coming, never mind if they didn't.

"I don't regret blowing him up, but it'd be nice if some part of him had survived. Who knows what village he was from."

Kankuro looked disappointed in the lack of evidence as well. "Yeah, there could have at least been an arm or something, sheesh."

Temari cast a sickened glance in the puppeteer's direction. "Kankuro, that's disgusting. Stop being a bad influence."

Unfazed by the remark, Kankuro shrugged as he folded up his puppet and placed it in a rather large pocket in his black garb. He hadn't mastered the ability to seal them within a scroll quite yet. "Well I'm just saying, Temari. We're never gonna know what he wanted like this."

Ash looked around the destroyed area, firmly convinced his family was now out of danger. "Well the only thing that makes sense is the mission. There'd be no reason to kill us unless we were in the way of an objective. So maybe he was looking for that flower too."

"Man, I'm glad we got him first. I'd be ticked if I got killed over a stupid flower. You think Baki's on his way back now? There's no way he could have missed that explosion."

Temari was about to make some sort of retort about how that flower was worth more than Kankuro was, but the sudden eruption of the dirt beneath their feet demanded more attention. An arm shot out of the ground faster than any of the kids was prepared for, catching Ash right in the jaw with a solid uppercut. He was launched backwards before anyone could react, and it occurred to him, and his teammates, that they should not have been so sure of themselves.

The remaining children leaped away from their still very much alive enemy as he brought the rest of his body up from the ground, finally revealing himself to his foes. The first and most prominent aspect of this ninja was his headband, which identified him as a Leaf shinobi. He wore the standard uniform of a Leaf Chunin. His face was obscured by a mask, except for his eyes, which were a dull gray.

Shaking away the stars in his eyes, Ash got back to his feet and eyed their foe with contempt, and not just because of the swelling bruise on his jaw. A lot of Sand shinobi hated the Leaf village, blaming them as the cause for the past decade's financial crisis. Ash did not have a personal grudge against considering his lack of Sand Village origin, but with all the constant hate directed their way by those around him, it was still easy to feel inherently hostile.

So he dodged the explosion by going underground... I should've expected that.

Temari and Kankuro had drawn their respective weapons once again, more than a little irritated with this turn of events. Temari looked especially irate, although Ash imagined that had something to do with him getting stuck in the jaw. He only hoped such protectiveness wouldn't put her in harm's way.

There were no words exchanged between the two groups: all three of Baki's pupils knew the potential danger they faced. This middle-aged Chunin had shown no qualms about trying to kill them so far, and while they were all exceptional students, Ash wasn't sure if he and his siblings could handle this situation. Their best bet was just to survive until Baki arrived... he had no doubt seen the explosion they had caused, and was on his way to them even now. At least he hoped so.

Ash threw a mix of kunai and shuriken, his aim far better than it was a few years ago, but his opponent deflected each weapon with his own, not leaving an opening for either Temari or Kankuro. Before any of them could think of another move to make, the Leaf ninja leaped into action, hurling weapons at all three kids to distract them while he closed the distance between himself and Temari, no doubt aiming to take out the dangerous long-range fighter early on.

He used basic Leaf taijutsu, his heavy kicks and swings aiming to break bones or bruise organs, but they weren't nearly as fast as a Chunin's moves should be, and Temari managed to duck, swerve, and slide out of the way of almost every attack. It wasn't until he kicked up enough sand with a low attack to blind Temari that he managed to land a solid punch in the girl's gut, knocking the wind out of her and shoving her away from him entirely.

Taking advantage of Temari's now safe proximity from the enemy, Kankuro worked his mechanisms to fire a wave of senbon from his puppet's open beak. None of them were poisoned, but as any good shinobi knew, any damage was worth inflicting. Unfortunately, all of the dozens of senbon were neatly avoided, and it occurred to Ash that their enemy was apparently more skilled than he had let on, at least when it came to defense.

There was another exchange of thrown weapons, with nearly all of them dodged or deflected, although Ash caught the edge of a shuriken on his arm at one point. Temari recovered rather quickly and found her way back into the fight, but her presence made little difference; the Leaf ninja managed to dodge everything thrown at him, whether it was a hail of senbon from Kankuro, a gust of wind from Temari, or the decently proficient taijutsu attacks Ash used.

By the time there was another lull in the battle, Ash had grown increasingly frustrated with himself. While the execution of his melee attacks was solid, he still wasn't fast enough to actually hit his opponent. Aside from that, he did not have any unique skills like Kankuro or Temari. He was providing the least amount of assistance right now, and that made him a hindrance to his siblings, which he couldn't stand.

If only I could control those flames... there's no way he could dodge that. Then again, I still have another option...

Although it would undoubtedly end this fight, Ash wasn't eager to use his mysterious ocular ability. Over the years and due to constant investigation by Baki, Ash had a slightly better idea of how it worked, at least in a general sense. It was sort of like a genjutsu, an attack that targeted the mind. Literal psychological warfare. But exactly what type of damage it dealt to a foe was still a mystery, as Ash had not used it on anyone since coming under Baki's care. It clearly caused immense mental agony, but without knowing how exactly, there was no way to know for sure if it would work in this situation. At any rate, it was too risky for Ash to hedge his bets on it.

As the battle resumed between the four combatants, Ash briefly wondered what Baki was doing, and why he had not arrived to save his students yet. Things were going south fast, with none of the ninja trainees able to hit the Leaf ninja in the first place. That in itself struck Ash as strange; offensively, this Chunin was nothing special, but when he had to evade, his skills were almost Jonin level. Not to mention that he never blocked without a weapon. When Ash had tried to use taijutsu on him, he always chose to dodge rather than block, like he was afraid to take even the slightest hit.

Another thrown shuriken cut through the skin on his thigh, snapping Ash out of his musings. The Leaf ninja was closing in again, dodging the occasional gust of wind from Temari, or the swooping puppet of Kankuro's that had resorted to harrying the enemy for lack of senbon to fire. He made a straight beeline for Ash, which seemed like a poor strategy. As far as this man knew, Ash was the least dangerous individual on the battleground at the moment. It would have been wiser to eliminate Temari first, not that Ash wasn't glad to divert attention away from his sister.

The enemy shinobi took a kunai in each hand before leaping into the air to strike at Ash, his movements a little faster than the blonde had expected. He briefly thought of using a substitution, which he had learned recently, but he had no time to make the switch with his amateurish speed. That plan wasn't going to work, and just thinking about it had wasted valuable time. Ash was stuck between deciding to block or dodge, and his indecision would have cost him, had Temari not jumped in front of the attack to protect him.

At this point, time seemed to slow to a crawl. Maybe it was the sudden adrenaline rush, a second wave of it that only occurred because his sister was in severe danger. The only thing she had in her hands to block with right now were her small fans, which were not made to exchange blows with kunai. Even if she had been properly armed, there was no way Temari would be physically strong enough to deflect an attack from a grown man. She was tough, but she was only eleven.

With all of these factors taken into account, it was obvious that Temari was going to be injured or worse, killed. And while the thought of it did spur that inherent need to protect someone, there was a second emotion in Ash's heart that overshadowed it by far: rage. The idea of this man killing someone close to him filled the blonde with so much fury that he desired nothing more than to pulverize him with his hands. More than being determined to protect his sister, he was furious at the one that sought to take her from him.

This fury brought forth a familiar feeling: a searing heat that somehow chilled Ash's fingertips even though it burned. This was the feeling that overtook him when irate or agitated, but increased a hundredfold by a far more powerful emotion.

And yet, despite the massive surge in its potency, this sensation wasn't as wild or out of reach as it usually was. Maybe it was just a figment of his imagination, but Ash felt as though he could, for the first time ever, actually bend those mysterious flames to his will.

Perhaps it was just a feeling, and maybe he was about to doom his sister to certain death by trying something he wasn't certain of. But as that chilling burn surged through his body, Ash knew instinctively that this would work. He was too damn furious for his flames to dare disobey him at this moment, he was certain of it.

Willing his usually rampant flame to manifest at the precise moment he needed to protect his sister, Ash witnessed the beauty of his power firsthand, amplified all the more by the control he had over it. His maneuver was little more than a simple punch, an ugly and basic thing, yet it launched a plume of sapphire flame straight from his fist, illuminating the night sky as it flickered with tiny streaks of emerald.

The immediate temperature around the combatants fluctuated wildly, but the oddly uncomfortable combination of heat and chill made no difference in the destructive result of the attack. With no time to dodge or substitute to avoid it, the Leaf shinobi that had infuriated Ash could do nothing but take the pillar of flame head on.

With no means of saving himself in midair, the enemy was engulfed entirely by the unnatural flames, transforming from a deadly foe to a writhing heap in a mere moment. Though there were no screams, the sight of his flailing body was gruesome in and of itself, but Ash felt nothing but satisfaction from it. This was what the aggressor deserved for daring to strike at his family.

And yet, the lack of anguished cries was odd, and that lack was explained when the ninja's body burst into smoke, dispersing Ash's multicolored embers into the air.

A shadow clone?! The whole time it was only a clone?

Putting aside any questions or comments about the fire, the three pupils looked around the now devastated oasis for their enemy, convinced that he was still out there. However, the only thing they encountered was a reserved clapping as a lone figure emerged from what little vegetation was left in the place. All eyes turned to face him, and were all equally surprised to be met with Baki's rather proud expression.

"Very, very good, all of you. An exceptional performance indeed."

All of Ash's suspicions up to that point were then confirmed: this had all been some sort of test. There was no Moonglow to find because it didn't exist. Baki left them alone here so he could simulate an enemy attack while he was away, and the 'Leaf' ninja they had fought was just an altered shadow clone, hence why it always dodged attacks rather than blocked them. That was also why its aim had been so poor at the beginning of the encounter, as it had not aimed to actually kill any of them.

Apparently, Temari had already reached the same conclusion, as she was livid in moments. "Are you out of your mind?! You could have killed one of us! What if you had screwed up or one of us did something unexpected and one of your attacks hit us on accident?!"

Used to the blatant disrespect by now, Baki made no comment on Temari's outburst, instead choosing to speculate on the battle that had just occurred. "Your misgivings aside, the three of you did very well. The move with the impromptu explosion was clever, and very nearly caught me off guard. It seems you might have a bit more talent for the ninja arts than you think, Ash. And I assume that flame you ended my clone with was no accident."

Ash inwardly reached for the feeling he had experienced moments ago, noting that it didn't seem as distant as it once had. Still, as he tried to manifest a small candle light at his fingertip, the flame only managed to fluctuate wildly between its usual colors before sputtering out pathetically.

"It was on purpose, but... obviously it's still not something I completely control."

"Perhaps so, but this is the biggest breakthrough you've ever had with your mysterious abilities. What happened?"

Ash glanced over at Temari, not wanting to mention that the true source of his control had been fury rather than protectiveness. "Well, Sis was going to get hurt, I had to do something... I guess the bad situation just made it click or something."

Baki nodded, more than content to know that Ash had gained his first true modicum of control over his unique ability, and not caring too much about how he had done it. "Well, we'll talk about the things you all could have done better, but for the most part I am very impressed. In fact, I'd say you're all ready to graduate from Academy curriculum. That's good, because this year's graduating class is going to be testing for Genin rank soon. I see no reason why you three cannot participate."

Temari and Kankuro looked extremely pleased to hear that, although the same could not be said about Ash. Now that things were settled, he was back to normal. "Am I allowed to say no?"

"No."

With one last sigh, Ash made no more objections, although that may have been due to the proud smile his sister was giving him. That girl could turn him around whenever she wanted to, really.

With a bit more grumbling on the boys' part, the group of four departed from the annihilated oasis, but not before Ash accidentally stepped on something most peculiar. He glanced down at the ground, to discover that he had landed on a stem; a stem attached to a very unique, pale blue flower that glowed with an iridescent light. It was clearly uprooted, apparently blown out of the ground during some part of the fight, and Ash could tell it was the flower they had been 'sent' to retrieve, the one that was not supposed to be anything more than an excuse for a test from Baki.

He reached down and picked up the thing, its petals in surprisingly pristine condition. He didn't need this. It wasn't actually a mission. Still, it was absolutely beautiful, and very unique. Maybe that was what spurred him to call out to his family that had gotten a bit ahead of him. "Kankuro, you aren't going to like this; I just found the flower Temari is supposed to be."

Chapter Text

"Alright Ash, let's try it again!"

"The number of times we do this doesn't seem to be changing the outcome Cyclops…"

"Alright, let me reiterate. Try it again without your typical sass!"

A week after their trial by fire with Baki, the Kazekage's children plus one were training hard for the Genin exam that the regular Academy students would be taking soon, and that they themselves would be participating in for one final test.

Baki had already told them that he had no doubt they would ace it with no problems, not only because they were exceptional students, but because it was almost impossible to fail the exam in the first place. The Hidden Sand was short on just about everything these days, and that included combat ready ninja that could run missions to support the village economy.

That being the case, unless an Academy student was literally a hopeless case, just about everyone graduated to Genin. More Genin meant more available personnel for missions, and that equaled more money for the village.

Taking all of that into account, Ash didn't see why he and his two siblings had to prepare at all, especially in the sweltering heat of the sun. Today Baki had taken them out into the open desert at noon, and needless to say, none of the three children were very happy about this. In fact, Kankuro was even more vocal about his unhappiness than Ash was, and that was a rare occurrence indeed.

"Man, I'm sweatin' like a fat guy's pony over here!"

Temari, some distance away from him, made a disgusted face at the rather odd comparison. "Well whose fault is that for wearing a full black body suit, huh? And make sure you stay downwind of me."

"Right, because you've been sweating perfume this whole time."

As the two of them descended into petty bickering, Ash turned his attention back to his own problems, which included Baki's ceaseless heckling over his now partially tamed flames. In the week he had been practicing with them, Ash had been unable to muster an attack as powerful as the one he had used to dispatch Baki's clone in the oasis. In fact, he was struggling to muster anything that could possibly be considered an attack at all. Needless to say, this frustrated his sensei to no small extent.

"Are you even trying, Ash? The flames you're producing now can hardly be called flames at all!"

The objective of the blonde's current training was to successfully vitrify sand with his flames: to turn it into glass. That was a daunting prospect, as even skilled fire jutsu users had trouble producing fires that hot. But Baki was under the impression that Ash's unique flames were more powerful than regular chakra produced fires. Besides, even if he couldn't vitrify sand at this point, training to increase his firepower now would be beneficial later regardless.

Still, Ash was irritable, since he was having almost no success and suffering for nothing. The only good thing about his current predicament was that he didn't feel the heat as badly as his siblings did. That chilly feeling from his core often surfaced when he was trying to manifest his flames at will, though nowhere near as prominently as a week ago. Ash honestly didn't know why it happened, but since it was a boon in the harsh glare of the sun, he didn't rightly care about the specifics.

Of course, on the flip side, he also felt oddly warm from time to time, so when that happened it just made the heat worse.

Still, despite the lack of headway, Ash had actually learned a bit more about his flames in this past week. Probably more than he had ever known about it before. Though it had only been during a moment of crisis, now that he had finally grasped his flames and used them on command, Ash had an easier time of doing that. It was kind of like growing accustomed to a new skill or new knowledge. Not knowing how to do it was an insurmountable barrier to success, but once you managed to do it once, you know what to look for and how to do it, and each subsequent attempt came easier than the last.

He'd also learned a few other interesting things about them: they did consume chakra, like any ordinary jutsu, but oddly enough, Ash found that he didn't have to actually mold his chakra to produce his flames. That was something that one generally had to do in order to use elemental jutsu of any sort. If you just wanted to pump chakra into your legs for a jump, raw chakra would suffice, but for an elemental attack, you had to mold your chakra specifically into a form suited for the technique. The ease with which one could do so determined their 'elemental affinity'. Temari had a natural wind affinity because, for her, molding her chakra into the right form for wind techniques came easier to her than any of the other elements.

Point being, Ash did not actually have to mold his chakra into the right form for a fire jutsu to manifest his flames. It felt more like just... expelling raw chakra from his body. Which begged a lot of questions: were his flames actually fire at all? Did they look like fire, were actually something else entirely? That could have explained the strange colors and the fact that the 'flames' sometimes felt cold. But admittedly, Ash had no way of determining any of that. And in some ways, he supposed it didn't matter. Even with the widespread usage of chakra by the ninja world, its inner workings were still a mystery in many ways. Both researchers and warriors were discovering the new limits of chakra every single day.

For now, Ash figured he should save the academics for later. It would make more sense to focus on using the damn technique before investigating its inner workings. Still pretty new to the exact feeling of commanding this technique, Ash concentrated on the chakra amassed in his core, the engine that produced chakra through the combination of physical and spiritual energy. Drawing it out towards his fingertips, he couldn't help but acknowledge the near alien sensation of both chilling touch and searing heat as it moved throughout his body. That sensation was also something mysterious for him.

The blonde focused the opposing temperatures at his fingertips before slicing his hand through the air to create an arc of multi colored fire. As always, the display looked intimidating, but the flames crashed into the sandy ground with no more success than usual. The sand was still sand, and that meant the fires that had attacked them were still not hot enough.

Baki stroked his chin as he was once again met with disappointing results. For some reason, Ash's attacks were weaker than when he had first used his inherent ability at will. Clearly there was something else that had amplified his power, something that was not present in the current situation. So what had changed? Perhaps it was the belief that he had been in a life or death situation? A ninja could produce more power than usual when in dire straits, and when Baki had attacked his students, he had made sure to convince them that they were in a real combat situation.

But then again, he had assaulted Ash directly multiple times, and not once had he countered with his unnatural flames. In fact, when he had used them, he himself had been in no danger at all...

Baki cast a glance over at Temari, who was still arguing with Kankuro over something that was probably meaningless. When Ash had destroyed Baki's clone, it was Temari who had been in danger, rather than himself. In hindsight, it was obvious: Ash had managed to unleash something new in order to protect his beloved sister. Few things were more motivating than the need to protect a loved one, though this was admittedly just an assumption on Baki's part.

That being the case, Baki could have easily put Temari in a dangerous situation in order to have Ash unleash his maximum potential once more. But not only would that be cruel and maybe even turn his students bitterly against him, but such a training method would serve no purpose. Of course Ash could use his flames to the max when his sister was in danger: the idea was for him to be able to do that all of the time.

That being the case, it was time to try a different approach. "Ash, let's stop for now. You and I can take a break for a few minutes."

The two older siblings apparently heard this, because they turned to Baki with indignation, Temari voicing their unified misgivings. "Hey, what about us!?"

"The two of you have spent more time bickering than training, so you can both keep going."

Temari and Kankuro grumbled something to themselves, but obeyed Baki nevertheless, who took the opportunity to lead Ash over to a sand dune that was high enough to block out some of the sun's blistering heat. The two of them would have to crouch to be completely in the shade, but that was a small price to pay in exchange for any amount of relief from that accursed ball of fire in the sky.

"Ash, let me ask you a question. Do you know exactly what you were feeling when you unleashed those flames on my clone? Do you know what you were thinking?"

The diminutive blond shrugged as nonchalantly as always, though it was notably more evasive. "I don't know, Cyclops. It happened a little too fast. I felt a lot of different things and didn't have much time to think."

"Come on, Ash: surely there was something. What was happening when you felt your powers awaken?"

Ash glanced over at his sister, who was still bickering with Kankuro, instead of anything Baki would have preferred. He of course knew what the source of his sudden surge in control and power had been, but he didn't want to admit it. And yet, of all the people he could confide in, he supposed Baki was the best choice.

"You're expecting me to say it was to protect her, right? That I rose to the occasion out of determination to save my sister. But... that wasn't it. Not exactly. The moment I brought my flames under control, I wasn't striking to save Temari, I was doing it to punish the enemy. To kill him for trying to take something I valued away from me. I did it to protect Temari, but it was selfish. That's how I felt when I did it, Baki, and I hate it."

Not at all expecting this response, Baki was unsure of how to respond at first, though he eventually managed. "There's no need to be bothered, Ash. You still saved her just the same."

"But I saved her for my sake, not her own. My strength surfaced because I didn't want to lose something."

Baki peered at the sky for a moment, wondering how to handle a situation a bit out of his usual comfort zone. "I know it may seem strange coming from me, but... that selfishness is part of love. Everyone is afraid, and sometimes angered, by the thought of losing something they love. To be angry at someone trying to take something from you is only normal."

While Baki's words did console Ash somewhat, they weren't quite enough. "She deserves better than to be thought of that way."

"You're still a child, Ash; the selfish desire to keep things you love for your own benefit is something you will grow out of, if you strive for it. Besides, none of this means you don't truly love your siblings. Your fury at the thought of losing one of them proves just how important they are. When you're older the thought will make you no less angry. It will just be a different kind of anger, one that burns for their sake just as much as your own. Trust me on this."

It wasn't everyday that Baki stopped all of his shouting and complaining about complaining to speak to Ash so seriously, and the blonde couldn't help but take his words to heart. After all, Baki had been his age once too. Surely he knew about growing into a different kind of person.

"I will. Still though, without that anger, I don't really know how else to use my flames effectively..."

"It's enough to know you're making progress. Your powers are a mystery to all of us, Ash, only time and lots of practice will reveal their full potential. For now though, I think you've all had enough for one day. Now seems like a decently good time to head home."

"Couldn't agree more with you there, Cyclops."

---

The first priority for all three children when they returned home was to bathe. Unlike children in other places, kids in the Hidden Sand had no issue with baths because they hated the sweat and the stink as much as any adult. The desert was a hot place, so training at almost any time of the day resulted in a nasty, grimy feeling that no one wanted to keep for long. And that didn't even take all the dust and sand into account.

Once that was accomplished, the three children in question opted to sit about their living room, with Ash and Temari on the couch and Kankuro on a chair across from them. Discussing the upcoming exam was their current topic, but so far, only Temari was really taking it seriously. Kankuro was spending half of his attention fixing the damaged part of his puppet's skeleton, and Ash was completely lost in his own thoughts. The only girl in the trio was basically talking to herself.

"It'd be really nice if we knew what the exam was going to be. Some sort of mission would be easy for us, but if it was a written test, Kankuro would probably fail and hold everyone back..."

This little jab had only been made to pull Kankuro back into the conversation, and with no small amount of indignation, it did. "Hey, what are you saying!? There's no way I'd hold us back! You already know that it's almost impossible to fail the test for becoming Genin in the first place! They pass even amateurs these days, so strong pupils like us will have no problem. Even Ash could ace it and he's actively against even being a ninja!"

Kankuro and his sister turned to face Ash in order to hear his inevitable excuse on that matter, but the young boy wasn't paying any attention at all. With his head propped up by his hand, his gaze was locked on the opposite wall. He wasn't even blinking all that much.

Mildly concerned by the sight, Temari nudged the younger blonde until he finally turned his attention on her.

"Hm? What is it?"

"Ash, are you alright? Are you feeling OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about something."

Kankuro cocked an eyebrow at him as he polished out another scratch on his avian puppet. "Well that was some pretty deep thought there, Ash, especially for you. What's on your mind?"

Ash returned his gaze to the wall it had been on previously, wondering how to best word his previous thoughts. "I'm... trying to figure out what I'm passionate about, I guess."

For someone like Ash, who seemed dismally dispassionate about ninety percent of everything, Temari found this line of thought rather intriguing. "What you're passionate about? I'm not complaining, but why are you so interested so suddenly? Did something happen?"

The boy shrugged, unsure of how much he wanted to elaborate. "If by something, you mean the mock battle with Baki. I've just been trying to get a better handle on my own flames; I feel like emotion is probably the key to them somehow, but... I'm not sure how exactly. I mean, it's fire, so passion or energy or something just seems fitting, right?"

Of course Ash was aware that blinding rage had helped, but he was trying to convince himself that there was an alternative to just being angry.

As for Temari, she couldn't have possibly known what was really going through his mind. "Well I mean, there's gotta be some things... you've always really liked learning new ways to fight. And surely you're passionate about your family right?"

Ash's body noticeably stiffened at Temari's final suggestion, wondering how she could be so direct about matters she wasn't even fully aware of. The mock battle in the oasis had resulted in many uncertain feelings and thoughts for Ash, who had since been considering a painful truth he often refused to acknowledge. A truth that brought his feelings for his siblings into jeopardy.

Not that he was going to give such an answer to his sister. "Of course I am, come on. Did you even need to ask?"

"No, I just like hearing you say it."

Ash shook his head, amused by the sweeter side of his usually tough sister. "Well, about what you said regarding the exam, I don't think they're going to have a written test. I don't think the village cares that much about how smart the new Genin are. If they have at least enough skill to run missions, then they'll probably graduate. So the three of us don't really have to worry at all. We'll pass."

Kankuro nodded and looked down at his puppet again. "Yeah, Ash is right. Why are we even worrying? We're practically guaranteed to pass, so we might as well not even plan at all. Let's just relax."

Ash seemed to agree wholeheartedly with that plan, much to his older sister's displeasure. "How can you two be so lazy? No matter what the situation is, you should always plan for it!"

Her youngest brother shrugged, recalling something Baki had mentioned in a long-winded lecture once. "No plan ever works as intended, they all require adaptation throughout the course of the conflict. That being the case, why bother at all?"

Temari crossed her arms and glared at the boy, not put off by his excuse. "Ash, did you know that laziness is one of the things I hate most about people, especially people who are going to be ninja?"

Ash frowned as he glanced over at his sister. "Really? So are you saying you hate me for being lazy?"

"Now who's asking ridiculous questions? I'm just saying, if you can't be motivated as an actual ninja, can't you at least be motivated for me?"

Ash looked like he had taken a physical blow at that, his defenses crumbling entirely. "I-I suppose I could..."

Kankuro shook his head as he watched the exchange. Temari was still young, but she was still a girl, and that meant she was already good at manipulating others. His poor little brother never even had a chance. In fact, the young puppeteer would even call it an unfair advantage. As the only person that could pretty much convince Ash to do anything he didn't actually want to, Temari always had reinforcements at her side in their constant squabbles and minor points of contention.

---

With a conscious effort on his part, for the sake of his sister's happiness if nothing else, Ash spent the last week before the Genin exam actually preparing for what it might entail. This meant that he even studied a lot of the boring propaganda nonsense that could be on a written exam if there actually happened to be one, much to his own distaste.

But what he was certain there would be was some sort of skill assessment, so what he really wanted to do was get his flames under control.

Unfortunately, he had reached a wall of sorts in his progression on that front, which was frustrating since the entire thing seemed to be nothing but walls.

By now, he was fairly certain there was something personal, emotionally or psychologically speaking, that was holding him back from his full potential. Admittedly, Ash had no idea why this was. From a purely technical point of view, your emotional state shouldn't have had any impact on your ability to use chakra in any particular way. Outside of emotions like anger or fear driving one's adrenaline up, there should have been no psychological influence preventing Ash from doing what he wanted with his chakra.

But then, he had already acknowledged that the mechanics of his power was a mystery to him. He couldn't say with absolute certainty that there were no chakra-based techniques or abilities out there directly affected by one's emotional state. Unless he could confirm that his theory was outright wrong, there was no reason to blatantly assume emotion had nothing to do with it.

At any rate, Ash's current theory was that his emotional turmoil was preventing him from manifesting his flames properly. The good news was, he knew what this hang up was about. The bad news was, he had no idea what he could do about it.

The way he had felt about Temari's imminent demise in the oasis had raised some very unsettling questions for him. Baki had said that the emotion was normal, but that wasn't good enough for Ash. He had always believed that love was supposed to be completely selfless, completely about the other person. And yet what he had felt in regards to Temari possibly dying was all about himself.

On one hand, Ash felt that he may have been acting dramatic. His brain told him that Baki was right, that it was only normal to be infuriated by the thought of losing someone he cared about, even if it was in a selfish light. But his heart questioned why the source of his power hadn't been for Temari's sake rather than his own.

Wondering about the answer to that question had presented another very serious obstacle for Ash, in the sense that it unearthed a bitterness he had always refused to acknowledge.

In some small way, no matter how unwarranted and unfair, Ash hated his adopted family. He was angry with them, because he knew that their current love for him was a product of chance more than anything else. Had Gaara never disappeared, neither Temari nor Kankuro would have ever cared for him at all. A roll of the universal dice was the only reason they loved him now, and Ash hated to acknowledge that fact, and somewhat hated them because he knew it was the truth.

He wasn't an outright idiot; he knew that feeling was stupid and wrong and petty, but acknowledging all of those things didn't lessen the bitterness itself.

Because of this, Ash was scared to truly test the limits of his pyromancy. He couldn't help but wonder if his own anger and bitterness towards those he loved was more powerful than his actual love for them. If his training with these flames proved that to be true, he didn't know if he'd be able to live with himself.

And yet, Ash knew that the only way from here was forward. He could bury his issues, but they wouldn't disappear. And he couldn't begin to try solving the issue unless he figured out where he stood. That was why, on the last day before the exam, Ash was out in the desert's nearest oasis alone, with nothing but the occasional scorpion to disturb his efforts. Temari and Kankuro thought he was out in town doing his own thing, perhaps playing with that younger girl he got along with, Matsuri.

He'd deliberately allowed them to believe that. If he had revealed the truth of his current conflict to Temari, it was unlikely that she'd leave him to his own devices. And needless to say, her presence would only make his current struggle more difficult.

Digging his feet into the sand, Ash gathered the by now familiar feeling of fluctuating heat and cold in his body. He still had no clue why his flames were those two colors specifically, but he had deduced something about it over the past week: when he was in a better mood, the flames tended to be more green than blue. When he was in a bad mood, they tended to be more blue. The green made him warmer, while the blue was chilly. Unfortunately, the blue half of his flames had been the dominant one on display since he had begun training with them.

Oddly enough, when he managed to output one color almost entirely instead of a mixture of the two, the power seemed to be more formidable, even if it was almost completely blue. Technically speaking, Ash imagined that he could grow quite competent with his flames if he doubled down on the blue side and intentionally tried to use it that way... but even at his age, he could foresee why that could be a bad idea. Giving into negative emotions to an extent where you needed them to use your strength seemed like a recipe for disaster in the long run.

In an attempt to try and force some sort of headway, Ash did his best to focus on happy thoughts as he prepared to launch his next attack.

Aiming for a particular hill of sand in front of him, Ash punched his right hand forward, launching out the stored energy he had as he did so. The fire came out in a relative bolt, but its color was not what he wanted: it was still an uneven flux of forest green and ocean blue. It blasted his target with force, but the impact was completely without heat of any sort. He may as well have launched a gust of wind at the dune before him.

With a sigh, Ash berated himself for thinking it would be so easy. It wasn't like he could trick himself into not being emotionally distraught just by thinking about it. Still, now he had to wonder why his unevenly balanced flames did nothing in the heat department: or if they did, and he just wasn't picking up on it. Aiming for one of the nearby trees this time, he attacked that target as well, confident that he would fail to scorch it at all.

As Ash had predicted, the plume of flame hit with an explosive burst that blasted bark off of the tree, but it didn't set it alight. At this point, it was obvious that he would not be able to make the most of his ability until he settled the emotional crisis he was having in regards to his family. Concussive force was still useful, but it was clearly not as much as the blonde could be doing under ideal circumstances.

Sitting in the sand in a moment of frustration, Ash wondered how he could possibly be this unsure of himself.

He obviously loved his adopted siblings, but now that he allowed himself to truly ponder his situation, he was angry with them as well. By now Temari was his one and only big sister, but if Gaara had never disappeared, she would have never cared about him at all. Even if she and Kankuro had met him on the streets, they would have ignored him or shunned him just like anyone else. The fact that he had a loving family through the whims of fate alone just embittered the young boy to no end. Even after all this time, Ash still felt like a replacement. If Gaara had never left, he would have never been needed, and that pain released itself in anger towards the only viable targets.

Not even sure how he could go about fixing this emotional disparity, Ash launched another futile blast at the waters of the oasis before turning on his heel and heading to a home that was currently reminding him of something he hated.

---

The rest of that day consisted of no training whatsoever. Ash could think of no way to get around his conflicting emotions, and so he was not going to try. Late into the evening by now, he merely sat on the living room's couch as his sister packed everything she thought she and her brothers might need for the test tomorrow. Honestly, this all seemed like a waste of time to Ash. It was an exam to become the lowest rank of ninja there was; surely it wasn't going to be all that hard.

Still, Temari loved to be prepared, and her brother got the feeling that organizing things may have also been a stress reliever for her. That being the case, Ash never said anything about what he thought was unnecessary work on her part. And besides, he couldn't deny that it had its merits. She had been the only one to possess paper bombs during Baki's test, and those had proven very useful. Even so...

"Let's see... pills, holsters, bandages... extra kunai? Yeah, extra kunai."

Ash shook his head with a slight smile on his face, though he had to force it with what was currently on his mind. "You know, we should just make three mission ready bags to keep around so you don't have to do this every time, Sis. Don't you ever get tired of packing things?"

"Not really. I actually kind of like doing this every time. That way, I can make sure that you and Kankuro always have everything you need out there, and you're both less likely to get hurt."

Ash's smile grew slightly more genuine as his sister stuffed another obscure tool in one of her brother's bags. He still thought she was doing something unnecessary, but at least Temari was doing it because she worried about her brothers. It was moments like these that were trying to prove his stupid feelings of being a replacement wrong. "Speaking of Kankuro, where is he? I haven't seen him for most of the day."

Temari shrugged, focused on the task at hand. "He's probably in his room, tinkering with his puppet again. You know how antisocial he is. He's going to be alone for most of his life, you know?"

"Give him some credit, Sis. He's not all that bad."

"Oh c'mon, Ash. You're younger than he is and you already hang out with more girls than he does. Though I'm not so sure I like that idea..."

Ash frowned at her, having not foreseen this particular gripe on Temari's part. "Matsuri is only six, and I'm just a kid. What idea are you so unhappy about?"

Temari cocked an eyebrow at him, perhaps thinking his question was foolish. "Hey, I'm your big sister. It's my job to worry about how many girls you hang out with. I mean, a kid as cute as you is going to have girls all over him in no time, and I have to protect you from them."

"I'd really appreciate it if you didn't."

"That's too bad. I can't just ignore my duty as a sister."

Ash rolled his eyes, though he couldn't hold back another smile. "Seems more like simple jealousy to me..."

"Oh, shut up. You should be glad I care so much."

The two siblings fell into silence as Temari continued organizing bags and Ash went on to dwell on what she had said. Yes, he should have been glad that she cared so much. But that feeling of being second to another still persisted, and it kept him from being happy about his sister's affections in this moment. Honestly, it was ridiculous, but there was no helping it. The only way to settle things in a way that would satisfy him would be to ask.

"Temari?"

Knowing that Ash rarely ever used her actual name unless there was something wrong or he had something very important to say, Temari completely turned towards her brother to give him her undivided attention.

"What's wrong, Ash?"

"Nothing's wrong, I... I just need to ask you a question."

"You know you can ask me anything. Just tell me."

"Do you... do you miss your little brother?'

It was no surprise really that Temari misunderstood his question. "Well you're right in front of me, so I don't see how I could..."

"I mean your real brother, Temari. Gaara."

To be honest, Temari had expected a question similar to this at some point, but she hadn't expected it so suddenly. Just ten seconds ago they'd been joking together. "Before I answer that, we need to make something absolutely clear. Don't you dare ever imply ever again that you aren't my real brother. I won't forgive something like that, even coming from you."

Ash looked taken aback, but managed to nod his understanding of his sister's words. His clearly shocked reaction stung Temari more than she would have thought possible. He was actually surprised that she had opposed his notion so vehemently.

And that was downright, absolutely unacceptable. She wouldn't let that stand, not for another minute.

"Ash, make sure you remember everything I'm about to say for the rest of your life, alright? Because every word of it will always be true no matter what happens for as long as I live."

Temari's younger brother would have almost been taken aback by the gravitas from someone not much older than him, but he was too enraptured by how serious Temari was being. Whatever conviction she was about to reveal to him, it was something unshakeable.

"Alright... I do miss Gaara. I wonder about him a lot: if he's still out there, if I could have made him happy if he were still here with me and Kankuro, or how things would be if he had never left. I'll admit, I don't think about him every day like I use to... but I never forget about him, and it always hurts to know he's not here with me. I didn't get a chance to know him, but I'm still his big sister, and I still love him. That will never change."

Ash frowned, not hearing what he wanted even though he knew what he desired was selfish. "So, you wish he were still here..."

"Of course I do. But I know what you're thinking right now, and you're wrong: I wouldn't trade you for him. I don't want him back at the cost of losing you. Gaara's my little brother and I love him, but that's just as true for you. In fact, it's even more so for you, because I've lived with you and loved you for years now. You're both special to me in unique ways, and you're both my family. No matter what you think, I wouldn't trade you for anyone: not even Gaara."

Ash didn't seem fully convinced, perhaps picking out the fatal flaw in Temari's rhetoric. "B-but, you did say you wished Gaara were still here... and if he were, then I wouldn't be, so...?"

Temari tried to think of a way she could explain something even she didn't fully understand. She knew that without Gaara's disappearance, Ash never would have been a member of her family. And of course she wished Gaara were still here, but at the same time she didn't want to lose Ash, who was just as much her brother as Gaara or Kankuro. Actually, if she were honest with herself, she knew for a fact that there was one unshakeable truth to admit to both herself and Ash, though the admittance was painful in its own way.

"It's true, if Gaara had never disappeared, you never would have been a part of my family... and it's true that I wish Gaara had never left. But I'm also immensely happy that I have the chance to be your sister. I wouldn't trade the years I've had with you for anything in the whole world, even in exchange for the years I could have had with Gaara. And I know that doesn't make a lot of sense, because with the way things played out, I could definitely only have one or the other..."

Temari focused her gaze on the ceiling, taking a deep breath as she questioned the true nature of what she was about to say.

"Look, Ash... on one hand, this feels wrong for me to say. It makes me feel like a bad sister, or maybe just a bad person in general. But, it's the truth and there's no point in denying it. You're... more important to me than Gaara was. More important than he is now. I never even really got a chance to know him, and you've been my baby brother for years now. Wherever he is, I hope he can forgive me for saying this, but... if I had the chance to go back and choose what happened back then... I'd still choose for you to become part of my family. Even... even if it meant Gaara couldn't be."

Having admitted something that was, in a sense, absolutely terrible, Temari seemed to be distraught. And Ash, despite being so monumentally joyous to learn that he, the reluctantly adopted replacement, was more important to Temari than her own blood brother, also felt awful. It was his own stupidity that had forced Temari to admit something so cruel. He should have known without any doubt whatsoever how precious he was to her without having to hear it from her like this. He should have known that she would never have traded him for anything, even the potential future she could have had with the brother she had lost.

"Temari, I... I'm so sorry. I didn't... I didn't mean to force something like that out of you..."

Wiping away a few rogue tears she'd been unable to stop, the oldest daughter of the Kazekage smiled somewhat forlornly. "Don't apologize to me, Ash. That'd be the same as apologizing for ever being a part of my life. This is something I've known for a long time now... and it was worth admitting to explain how much you really mean to me. Like I said, I want you to always remember everything I just said; because no matter what, it will always be the truth."

A soft smile graced Ash's face as he searched his heart for the disarray that had been there before, only to find no trace of it whatsoever. He had been a fool, to question his family's love for him after all this time. The petty emotional failings of a child, it seemed. Well, although he couldn't pretend that he'd never do anything stupid again, Ash could at least convince himself that this was the last time he would be so foolish as to question an absolute.

Chapter Text

One would have expected an exam to take place early in the morning, but in the Hidden Sand, the most grueling time of the day was at noon, and that made it the perfect time to test the endurance and perseverance of aspiring ninja. This was a double-edged sword really: the desert at noon sucked, with that damned sun beating down. But on the other hand, Ash was not a morning person, and was glad to take the exam at noon rather than six or seven in the morning. Though honestly, he wouldn't have been all that bothered either way.

Ash couldn't remember a time he had felt this downright content before. The joy from his conversation with Temari the night before had readily carried over to the next day, filling him to the brim with a satisfaction he had never truly known before. Even in the years he had spent with his adopted siblings prior to now, he had never felt this content with life as a whole. Even when he was happy during those times, the bitterness had lurked in the shadows, hindering the joy he should have experienced every day.

With those asinine thoughts now purged from his mind forever, Ash had never felt so at peace with everything. He didn't even mind that today was the day he practically surrendered his existence to the Kazekage, though he was sure that distaste would come back later, when the high from Temari's admittance to him wore off a bit.

This likely temporary immunity to displeasure, irritation, or any kind of negative emotion at all even had Ash at the door to his home, armed and ready before either of his siblings. Not that he was looking forward to the life of a shionbi in and of itself, but he was blatantly ignoring everything he hated about the idea and focusing on the positives; being a ninja alongside his siblings meant he'd always be with them, would always be around to help protect them, and would get to experience all sorts of adventures with them.

Thinking of it like that, maybe the life of servitude and irrelevance wasn't as bad as he constantly told himself it would be.

Regardless of his stance on the matter, skewed as it may be due to his currently invincible good mood, both of Ash's siblings were surprised to find the blonde ready and waiting to go before they were. It was definitely a rarity when it came to anything ninja-related other than fighting.

Kankuro drew it up to Ash just wanting to get the test over with, but Temari found even that idea to be strange. Even knowing why he would be in a good mood, she didn't think it would affect his outlook on the Genin exam. He made it obvious how he felt about being a shinobi at least once a week, after all.

"It's, uh... unusual to see you this excited, Ash. Especially about something like this."

The boy hefted the pack of ninja supplies Temari had packed for him last night, trying to tone down his blatant enthusiasm. He was actually kind of embarrassed to be this giddy in general.

"I-it's nothing like that, Sis. But this is gonna happen no matter what right? Might as well roll with it."

Temari smiled as she saw through the flimsy excuse, but decided against teasing her fellow blonde over it. Besides, she was admittedly quite happy herself to see the effects of her words on him. She had never known that he had felt the way he did about Gaara and his place in her family. And while the admittance of choosing him over her lost blood brother still stung and likely always would, Temari was still glad she had brought what was likely a permanent satisfaction to Ash's life on this matter.

As for Kankuro, he was completely lost. He had no idea what had spurred this sudden change in demeanor from his little brother. It seemed so out of place that the possibility of a doppelganger actually seemed likely. Still, he was sharp enough to see that both of his siblings were in on whatever had sparked this shift, and the fact that they were both happy was enough to placate the budding puppeteer entirely.

"Ash, eager to become a ninja... never thought I'd see the day."

While staving off a frown entirely, Ash's mood obviously soured just slightly. "Don't get the wrong idea, Kankuro. I'm still not happy with the idea and I'm not looking forward to most of what it'll include. But, you two are determined to be ninja, and there's no way I'm going to be left out. I can find a solution for all the downsides later."

Kankuro shifted the strap of his backpack, eyeing the younger boy curiously. "What does that even mean? The things you hate about being a ninja pretty much define being a ninja."

"My point exactly."

Not eager to get into this for numerous reasons, Temari decided now was a good time to interject. "OK, Kankuro, let's not question good fortune. Ask too many questions and he'll turn into a downer again."

"I'm not a downer, I'm a man who values freedom."

His sister scoffed at the term 'man,' but let it slide in favor of ushering her brothers out the door and towards the first real step of their career as ninja, regardless of how much they were looking forward to it individually.

---

The spot where the exam was going to take place ended up being a good ten miles from the village's natural walls. That was because, unlike the Academy graduation exams in some other villages, there was an actual test to take that required space. Even a village that was low on ninja was going to make sure to test them properly, even if they were almost guaranteed to pass regardless of their performance. It was the principle of the thing really.

So, surrounded by nothing but scorching sand, twelve children, the Kazekage's kids included, stood in a rough circle around a female Chunin with dark red hair that drifted just over her the edge of her headband. Her bored, brown eyes made her look like she would rather be anywhere but in the middle of a desert administering a test that was, for all intents and purposes, pointless. Ash couldn't blame her for that one.

"All right you squirts: you all know why you're here, so I'm not going to explain that. It's almost impossible to screw this test up, but I wouldn't put it past some of you to do just that. Remember that if you turn out to be a hopeless case then it's very likely that you won't graduate. Any questions so far?"

One of the Academy students with dull brown-hair and equally dull eyes jabbed a finger at Ash and his siblings. "What are those three doing here, Izumi-Sensei? They aren't even part of our class! How could they be ready to graduate at all?! That dumb looking blonde kid's barely old enough to even start classes in the first place!"

Even had Ash been in a typical mood rather than his uplifted one, he still probably wouldn't have taken offense to such a plebeian insult. Still, something about it, and the person saying it, struck a distant chord of memory. Before he could extrapolate on the vague nostalgia, the proctor retorted in Ash's place.

"First of all, these three are Lord Kazekage's children, so I'd show them some respect if I were you. Secondly, they're here to take this test because they're good enough to do it, age and class participation notwithstanding. I'm willing to bet a year's salary they could throttle you with little trouble, so it might not be a good idea to tick them off. Still, if you want to pick a fight, at least have the damn courtesy to wait until the test starts."

The boy in question crossed his arms and shut his mouth, though he glared at Ash regardless. Said target of the glare couldn't shake the feeling that the guy seemed kind of familiar, but if he was, Ash didn't remember him at all.

Seeing that the fight had been settled before it had even started, Izumi went on to describe how things would take place. "Unlike what some of you may have been thinking, this test isn't going to be as simple as showing halfway decent aptitude for a basic technique. This is going to be a full-on team competition, in a game I'm sure a lot of you have played before: capture the flag."

Many of the present children shifted at the mention of the full team based competition, mostly because those from the Academy didn't have much experience in the matter. In this regard Ash and his siblings had a distinct advantage.

"Now, a lot of you are probably wondering how a game like that could possibly serve as a test for becoming a ninja. Well, if you think about it, this is more or less a simulation of an objective retrieval mission, as well as a point defense mission. And since there are four teams of three, and you must defend your own flag as well as steal the flags of the enemy, you will all be forced to deal with the Sand's very real problem of low manpower. Any of you with half a brain are probably aware that our village has a major shortage of shinobi personnel. Therefore, most of the missions you squirts run in the future will usually involve you being outnumbered or otherwise not having the proper number of shinobi for the job. So this test, with a three against nine free for all in which you must attack and defend, is designed to get you accustomed to performing well even with a numbers disadvantage. Questions?"

There wasn't a word from any of the students, so Izumi moved on to describing the test itself. "Each team of three will receive an object that is their flag. You may plant this flag anywhere within a five mile radius of this point, but once you plant it, it stays. That's the location you'll have to defend, so choose wisely. The objective is to acquire the flags of all opposing teams and return them to your own base, while also protecting your own. It's up to you to decide how to split up your team for both attack and defense. You may use all skills, tools, and tricks you know during the test so long as you don't kill or critically injure one of your opponents. Like I said, this village needs every shinobi it can get its hands on, so keep the injuries down to things that will heal. Finally, be aware that you can and probably will graduate even if you lose. So long as you aren't literally a downright hopeless, pointless case, where a civilian could probably beat you up, you'll likely pass. Watch out for heat exhaustion, poisonous scorpions, and try not to break your neck slipping on a sand dune or something. So, is everybody good?"

There was a collective nod from the twelve test-takers, and Izumi passed each group of three a scroll. "The object that will be your flag is sealed inside these scrolls, and will unseal itself when you open the scroll. When the scroll opens, your team will also be temporarily marked with a seal, which will allow me to know if you try to cheat by moving your own flag after deployment. The purpose of this exam is to defend a stationary objective, so that's that. Finally, you can begin attacking the other teams the moment your flag has been placed, and the test will last two hours, starting right now. Get to it!"

Scrolls in hand, three of the four teams immediately moved off to find a suitable location to plant their flags. However, Ash and his siblings stayed exactly where they were, prompting a confused glance from Izumi.

"Hey, didn't you three hear me? The test is starting, what are you standing around for?"

Ash hefted his team's scroll in his hand. "Are we not allowed to set up here? The center of the circle is an option, right?"

Izumi cocked an eyebrow at the trio. "Well it's not against the rules or anything, but why would you want to set up right smack in the middle of the circle? If the enemy deploys all around you, you'll be surrounded."

Temari took the scroll from Ash and unrolled it, unsealing a rather large clay figure that would likely take any of the test-takers two hands to carry. Theirs was shaped like a lizard. "We know this place pretty well. There's an oasis to the east where one of the teams will probably set up because there's water and shade. There's also a sandstone formation within a mile of that oasis that another one of the teams will set up at because it's easy to defend. Finally, there's a small cave past both of those points that the last -and smartest- team will probably set up in."

Kankuro grabbed a white sheet (not a common tool for most shinobi but very useful for Sand ninja) out of his bag and placed it over the team's flag. "So while the two teams that are basically right next to each other fight it out, we can sneak in from the side and flank them, or go around and deal with the other guys while they're distracted and then come back for them."

Finishing up the simple disguise, Ash began to spread sand over the sheet and the flag. It would look a little irregular, but the end product would be a sandy dune difficult to distinguish from the surroundings. "Besides, the open desert is the most difficult place to locate things, especially if they're well hidden. Even if the other teams thought to check the center of the field, they probably won't even remember where the center is since it looks just like everything else out here. Not to mention that they would never be able to tell that this dune we just created wasn't real unless they were right on top of it. We could almost leave it completely undefended like this, and not worry about its safety. Even if there's no guarantee the other teams will set up where we think they will, this is a much safer location than most of our other options."

Izumi was honestly a little impressed with the strategy being displayed here. It was all simple logic really, but inexperienced ninja often failed to employ something like that as frequently as they should. Then again, all three of these kids were younger than the average graduating age, so they obviously had to be more advanced than their Academy counterparts in one way or another.

"Well for your sake, I hope whoever is defending brought enough water to hold down the fort out here. But you kids seem to know what you're doing, so I'll leave you to it."

With that, Izumi flickered off of the field, leaving the Kazekage's kids alone to their test. The moment she was gone, Kankuro whipped out another white sheet for himself. "So I'm assuming that you guys want me to stay here and defend the flag, right?"

Temari nodded, glad he didn't need to be informed of the obvious decision. "Your puppet would allow you to hide while safely engaging anyone who gets too close. If anyone is going to stay on defense, it should be you. Ash and I will try to get the flags from the other teams."

Kankuro nodded reluctantly and wrapped the white sheet he had around his body, covering as much of his black outfit as he could. "Man, I'm glad that you brought this thing, Temari. I'd hate to think about sitting in the sand for too long decked out in black."

For obvious reasons, the older girl frowned. "Well when are you going to realize that black is literally the worst color for the desert? It absorbs a ton of heat and sticks out no matter where you are!"

The puppeteer scowled as he searched for a good spot to bury himself among the sand. "Yeah, yeah... I guess you have a point... but white is just so lame..."

"Well pick the lesser of two evils and stop complaining about it."

With nothing but grumbling to offer to her in response, Temari turned away from Kankuro and towards her youngest brother, who was waiting patiently for her. "Are you ready, Ash?"

The young boy adjusted one of straps from his pack, the fabric already guaranteeing more sweat along his shoulders. "As ready as I'll ever be. We're going to check out the oasis first though, right?"

"Right. It'd be stupid to just assume that the enemy planted their flag there, so we should scout out the places we thought of before actually forming a strategy. Winning this will be much harder if the other teams moved around though..."

"Then we'd better get moving. I know that the oasis is at least a mile from here, and we don't have all the time in the world."

"Unfortunately. Let's go then."

---

Because they had deployed their flag so quickly, Ash and Temari reached the oasis in question before the team that had indeed set up there was even ready to defend against an assault. The three twelve year-old kids, one girl and two guys, were huddled around their flag, which was a clay statue of a scorpion, likely discussing their strategy.

Ash lay flat on his belly alongside Temari, the two of them prone in the sand as they viewed the oasis from a distance. They took extra care to keep any of their bare skin off of the hot grains beneath them.

"So, Sis, do you think we should just take them now? I know the plan was to let them fight it out with one of the other teams, but... they're wide open. We could probably knock them out and take the flag in under a minute."

Temari raised a hand to shield her teal eyes from the sun. "Well it does look that way, but they could be faking it. They might be trying to make themselves look vulnerable just to draw someone out."

"Do you really think they're that smart? They look completely focused on talking. They could have at least sat back to back while they talked to keep an eye out. They're just amateurs, that's all. We should just knock them out now."

His sister seemed a little put off by the eagerness for battle. "I know you've got a knack for fighting and all, but you sure are ready to go at it today."

Ash did his best to sound neutral about it, not wanting to come off as too excited. "Technically these guys are the first people besides Baki I'll ever go up against that are along the lines of being ninja. I'm just curious is all."

"I'll take your word for it..."

Finished with their tangent, the two siblings turned their attention back to the situation at hand. The oasis team still wasn't done discussing whatever they were talking about. This was either because they were unable to agree on a course of action, or because they were waiting for someone to attack them. Ash couldn't be sure either way, but he doubted it was the latter.

"Why don't I just throw some fire at them to scare them off?"

Having been present during Ash's many failures in regards to getting said flames to be potent, Temari eyed him curiously. "I thought you were having trouble with that?"

Ash refrained from mentioning that Temari was the only reason he had managed to get his ability under control. Mostly because he hadn't tested them out since last night, so he didn't actually know if the emotional stability he had reached would actually improve their potency at all. For all he knew the reason his flames were so weak was something else entirely and they still wouldn't work.

And yet, he was completely confident at the moment. Despite his lack of concrete knowledge in regards to how his own ability worked, he was certain that his newfound emotional stability was the key to using it properly.

"I... sorted it out this past week. I could do it."

Temari turned the idea over in her mind once or twice. What Ash was suggesting was against the original plan, but it would also take advantage of an obvious opportunity. The enemy was unaware and unprepared, and taking them and their flag by surprise would be easy. "Alright, Ash, if you think you can do it, I believe you. Just try not to, y'know, actually set anyone on fire or anything."

Feeling far more spirited than usual, Ash rose to his feet. "Alright, Sis. I'll distract them and you go steal the flag. It'll be no problem."

His sister nodded to him before sidling off to the far right, preparing herself to rush in and snatch the prize once Ash began his diversion. She was counting on him to do his part, even though Ash had been experiencing several problems with his flames over the past two weeks. Strangely, that fact didn't cause Ash to feel nervous. In fact, knowing that his sister was trusting him so readily was uplifting.

Still, even though Ash had no doubt in his ability to produce only his positively correlated green flames now, he didn't know how strong they would be. He was a fair distance from the oasis: would his attacks even reach that far? Could he try and do it spontaneously, instead of launching the flames from his own limbs? He had only ever done that on accident, and didn't know if there was some way to do it intentionally with any real potency. Well, at any rate, the best thing to do right now was stick to what he actually thought would work.

Ash gathered that feeling of warmth in his core, preparing to draw it out through his arm and hands once enough of it had been mustered. There was a palm tree that was pretty close to the three kids huddled around their flag that would probably make for a good target. The Kazekage's adopted child noted with satisfaction that the physical sensation was completely warm, with no trace of the chill he had often experienced during his past attempts.

Ready to see the fruits of Temari's assurance to him last night, Ash launched a condensed fireball at his target, though it didn't keep its form for long. The sphere of gorgeous green flame lost its flawless form as it traveled, until it hit the targeted tree in a random smattering of tendrils. While this was a little disappointing in itself, Ash figured that this loss of form was because he was inexperienced with projecting this power with complete control. Besides, while the attack didn't hit with the same force it would have had it kept its shape, there was still a loud bang and a small explosion of bark and sand, which was more than enough to startle the enemy team.

Keeping up the assault, Ash launched more blasts of fire in the general direction of the enemy, though he made sure to aim far enough to the left or right to avoid actually hitting anyone. Like his first attack, each ball of flame dissipated into an indistinguishable blob before it made contact, but they caused the enemy to scatter regardless. The three members of the opposing team completely abandoned their flag as they ducked behind anything that could shield them from the purposely misguided green flames that were landing all around them in small explosions of scorched earth and wood.

None of them even thought to peek out from behind their cover to watch their flag, each of them too concerned with their own safety to care about the exam. This allowed Temari to move into the oasis completely unopposed. Ash made doubly sure to give his sister a wide berth as he attacked, watching with amusement as she leisurely waltzed towards the enemy flag and scooped it up in her arms. It was obviously heavy enough to require both limbs, but Temari managed to dash back to Ash's position easily enough, and before the enemy team even dared to stick their heads out to assess the situation, the two siblings had disappeared over a sand dune, effectively hiding them from sight.

The very first thing Temari after reaching relative concealment was to smile widely at her brother. "That was amazing, I had no idea you'd gotten so good with them already! And they were so pretty!"

Ash's more boyish side wasn't altogether pleased with his pyromancy being labeled as 'pretty', but he was able to ignore that entirely since it had brought such a pleased smile to his sister's face. Besides, the emerald tendrils of light were enrapturing, in their own way. Though he had to admit, even though he hadn't used that much, he could already feel a noticeable drain on his stamina. Well, aside from the fact that he was young and therefore had less chakra reserve than adults, maybe he shouldn't have been surprised that throwing chakra around in large waves was taxing. Hopefully, and efficiency issue like that was one that he could solve with further practice in time.

At any rate, he did have to respond to his sister. "W-well, I was kinda just flinging it at them randomly Sis..."

"It was still impressive, give yourself some credit. Still, before you let that go to your head, we should probably get this thing back to Kankuro."

Eyeing the clay scorpion and wondering why it had to be so heavy, Ash buried his joy at successfully controlling his latent flames and returned his focus to the exam. He'd have time to congratulate himself for the success later.

"Fair enough. We still have to get two more, after all."

"Well, we don't have to."

The smaller blonde eyed his sister with a smirk. "But we're going to aren't we?"

"Oh yeah, we're gonna crush these guys entirely. No mercy."

With a smile, Ash started to lead the way back to their only missing sibling. He almost forgot about this competitive side of Temari sometimes.

---

The difficulty of finding their own base on the return trip was a testament to how well the siblings had chosen their flag location. Ash and Temari had managed to get back to the general area, but it took Kankuro's avian puppet to lead them back to the exact spot their flag was planted.

When the mechanical crow alighted on a dune that was just a little too pointy to be natural, Kankuro rose out of another nearby pile, looking like some kind of desert monster from hell, with streams of sand flowing off of his outstretched arm. "Looks like you guys got one, huh?"

Ash lifted the sand covered sheet that hid his team's own flag as Temari slid the captured one in next to it. "Yep. Though I kind of wish we had gone for two."

Temari flattened out the sheet as much as she could and piled some more sand back onto it, once again concealing their prizes. "If we had gone for two, we both would have had to carry one, and that would have left us wide open to pursuers. It's safer to just go for one at a time."

Kankuro threw back his hood and wiped a substantial amount of sweat from his brow. "Yeah, but things would go a lot faster if you guys went for two. Do you have any idea how hot it gets just sitting under a pile of sand for nearly an hour? Can't one of you switch with me or something?"

The resident girl of the trio folded her arms and gave the puppeteer a look of both disdain and disbelief. "There is absolutely no way I'm doing that."

Kankuro shook his head as he turned to Ash instead. "Looks like you got volunteered, pal."

The diminutive blonde didn't even have time to shoot the idea down himself before Temari did it for him. "No way, you think I can condone that? Don't be ridiculous."

"Why not?! Why can I be buried but he can't?!"

Temari smirked and wrapped her arms around Ash's neck. "Because, this brother deserves better than that. He's too cute to bury alive in a sand dune."

Kankuro simply scowled and threw his hood back on, before reluctantly sinking back down into the sand. He knew there was no point in resisting. Besides, he really was the best choice for this. "Fine, fine, just hurry it up, would you? This is literal torture."

With a good-natured smile regarding her other brother's suffering, Temari led Ash back into the desert and towards where they believed the other teams were stationed. If things continued in the current fashion, Kankuro wouldn't have to stay where he was for much longer.

---

By the time they returned to the oasis where the previous skirmish took place, the opposing team that Ash and Temari had bested was gone. Whether they were attempting to track down their own flag or conspiring to steal another was unknown, but considering how difficult it had been for Ash and Temari to locate their own base, it was unlikely that they had to worry about their prize being recaptured.

Ash had half a mind to suggest a break in the now unoccupied oasis, but he knew that there was no time to take it easy. There was just under an hour left in the test, and if they utilized that time properly, he and Temari could capture both remaining enemy flags and return them to their base before the test was over. Still, whether or not there was enough time for that depended on whether or not the remaining teams were stationed where Ash and his sister thought they were. There wouldn't be enough time to track down both enemy teams, fight them, and steal their flags if they had set up in less conspicuous places.

With that in mind, the two siblings left the oasis behind without so much as a second glance at its appealing water and shade. Instead, they both headed for the sandstone formation they knew was nearby. An easily defensible position like that was almost guaranteed to be occupied, especially by amateurs who didn't know that stealth and unpredictability was oftentimes better than any physical fortification.

This suspicion was confirmed when the sound of fighting and yelling reached the ears of the two young children as they neared the place, which was comprised of a number of sandstone slabs half buried in sand. Obviously, two or maybe even three teams were fighting over the flag that was no doubt stationed here.

Ash and Temari moved behind one of the small red protrusions that marked a buried slab of sandstone, at which point the duo's male commented on the noise. "Sounds more like street fighting than a battle between ninja."

Temari peeked over the edge of their hiding place to witness a handful of Academy students engaged in a close quarters scuffle. She described it that way because it was hardly even legitimate fighting between most of them, though she did recognize that boy that had picked on Ash earlier wielding a kunai with some semblance of proficiency.

In truth, maybe the skills being displayed were normal for kids just about to graduate. It was just Baki's high expectations and harsh teaching methods that made average skills seem dismally pathetic in the eyes of his students.

"So, Sis, can you see the flag? Is it in the open?"

Temari scanned the 'battleground' for the objective, but couldn't see it among the struggling bodies of the enemy. "Nope. But it's got to be around here somewhere, or they wouldn't be fighting like this."

"It might be behind one of the other rocks. But someone will probably be guarding it."

"I think we can handle them together no problem."

Ash nodded his agreement, and the two of them crept around the outskirts of the battle area to avoid being spotted. They checked behind every piece of sandstone they could find, until they found not only their goal, but a pleasant surprise to go with it. As Ash and Temari rounded a rather large protrusion of red stone, they spotted not one flag, but two. Two clay statues of both a vulture and an ant. Apparently, one of the teams fighting here had lost their flag to the other, and now, with four of the combatants a little further out in the field, only one member from each of those two opposing teams was fighting over the flags themselves.

One girl with short brown hair and gray eyes was trying to defend her team's captures from a bland looking boy with longer black hair and glasses. It was rather one-sided though, as the girl was deflecting anything that came her way with small gusts of wind. Ash thought the display of wind-nature was actually rather sad, but then again, he witnessed his sister's prowess with the element all the time, so it really wasn't a fair contest.

The wind-style girl used one of her gusts to spray sand into her opponent's eyes, which his glasses were not completely capable of blocking. Stunned by the underhanded move, the boy could do nothing as his foe took advantage of his temporary blindness and planted a solid kick in his gut. The poor sod reeled backwards and landed flat in the sand, either too pained or too dispirited to get up again.

Being the victor, the brown-haired girl threw a fist into the air and congratulated herself, feeling like she was on top of the world, right up until she heard the sound of more potential opponents behind her. The brunette turned to face these new foes with a cocky grin on her face, but it quickly disappeared when she realized that it was two on one, and that her enemies were probably not as weak as the boy she had just bested.

Still, she was going to try, so she blasted a modest gust of wind at the younger children across from her, only for Temari to negate the attack with wind of her own with almost no trouble at all. At that point, the girl just raised her arms in surrender. "Crap, just take them. If it's that easy for you to stop my attacks I might as well not even try."

Temari frowned at her opponent, a bit disappointed in her lack of will to fight, even though it made her job easier. Kunoichi were often looked down on as being weaker or less capable of fighting, so when one of them gave up so easily, it only fueled the stereotype that she obviously detested. Still, she wasn't going to argue when it was an advantage for her and her own team. Besides, the girl was right: if all she had was wind of this low caliber in her arsenal, then fighting against Temari was really just a huge waste of time.

That being the case, the girl from the opposing team didn't try to stop the Sand siblings at all when they each scooped up one of the flags that was there and began to move off. Ash even patted her on the back before leaving. "You did the right thing. Surrender is preferable to humiliation, right?"

The girl scowled at the young boy's retreating form. He was probably being completely honest, and she had indeed surrendered, but there was no need to actually say it...

Leaving the small skirmish behind, even Temari couldn't resist a huge smile at how easy that had all been. Two flags without any fight at all? That was almost too good to be true. All they had to do now was head back to Kankuro and their own base and hold down the fort until the end of the test: and that was if any of the other teams even managed to find out where they were.

---

With all of the opposing teams either distracted or otherwise engaged, Ash and Temari made it back to Kankuro and their own flag without any incident whatsoever. In fact, by the time they laid their new captures alongside the other flags and hid them under the sand once again, there was only ten minutes left in the test. At this point, it was almost guaranteed that the trio of siblings was going to win.

Kankuro obviously believed this as well, because he didn't even bother to hide himself in the sand anymore, probably because the heat was driving him nuts. To his credit though, the puppeteer had been submerged in sand for nearly two hours, baking under the intense heat. For that reason, the boy had consumed all of his own water quite readily, and both Ash and Temari had to give him their spares to re-hydrate him. Neither of them really had a problem with this, since every Sand shinobi knew the dangers of dehydration quite well. The last thing they wanted was for Kankuro to have a stroke or something.

Having gulped all of the extra water down as well, Kankuro finally sat down in the sand, more than ready for the test to be over so he could go home and shower. "Man, I think that if we captured all of the other flags, they should just end the test right there. I'm so done with all of this."

Temari, being in possession of the fans that she was, used both of them to try and mitigate the severe heat of the afternoon desert as she sat across from her oldest brother. "Yeah, but I'm kind of disappointed really. I mean, we barely had a chance to show our skills. Everyone either ran off or just gave up when they saw us. Only Ash had a chance to do anything, and even then it was just shooting fire at some trees."

Kankuro shrugged as he hoisted his by now sandy white sheet over his head to help shield him from the brutal sun. "Yeah, well, you know how the normal kids feel about us, Temari. We're already the Kazekage's kids, and on top of that there's being related to Gaara..."

The mention of her absent blood-brother caused Temari to scowl. She hadn't expected the lost redhead to come up again this soon after she had admitted her preference for her current baby brother. She was still pained by the admittance both to him and herself, and being reminded that the entire village had despised Gaara when he was still around didn't do anything to make her feel less awful about emotionally rejecting him herself.

"They all conveniently forget that they were the ones who shunned him all the time. He was probably a nice kid at some point."

Ash said nothing on the matter, having never seen Gaara at all back when he was still a loner on the streets. On top of that, even though he had once disliked talking about him or hearing his siblings do the same, he was now bothered more by the fact that Temari probably didn't want to talk about him much anymore. Not after what she had admitted the previous night.

Even at his age, Ash was able to identify how objectively terrible it was for Temari to say such a thing. To say that, if she could turn back time and choose what happened that night, she would still have Gaara betrayed by his own and fleeing into the desert for a life of pain and loneliness. All so she could relive the time she had experienced with the adopted brother that had come into her life soon after.

And yet, the alternative was equally awful. If she had gone the other way and said that she would have preferred for Gaara to have been able to lead a happy life with her in the village, she'd have been condemning Ash to a painful and likely brief existence as a pathetic urchin with no family whatsoever.

In that light, there was no right answer; while the subject at hand was love, either choice was still abhorrent in its own way. It was a decision such as this that proved love to be twisted just as much as it was pure. Was there no limit to the pain one would wish on others if it was for the sake of their own love?

Ash may have delved deeper into such a convoluted idea, if only his thoughts weren't interrupted by the sound of soles crunching grains of sand under their weight. It was obvious what the source of said disturbance was.

"Someone's coming."

Thanks to his warning, both Temari and Kankuro managed to ready their weapons as three forms leaped over a small hill of sand: probably whichever team had emerged victorious from the skirmish earlier. Not surprisingly, it was that boy who seemed to have an issue with Ash in particular, as well as the girl with the modest wind-style skills and another boy who had his face completely wrapped in cloth. Contrary to what they should have done, this trio did not attack immediately. Instead, the annoying boy who was probably the leader jabbed a finger at Ash and his siblings to begin some completely unnecessary tirade.

"What, did you three really think you could just wait out the rest of the test like this with all four flags? You trying to make us look like idiots or something?!"

Ash leisurely got to his feet and dusted off some sand. He wasn't sure why this kid was so loudly angry all the time, but it honestly just struck the blonde as pathetic. "I'd say you're doing a fine job of that by yourself. You don't need our help."

Naturally, Ash's cavalier degradation didn't improve the brunette's mood. "You little sun-haired twerp! Do you have any idea who you're messing with!?"

Ash scratched the back of his head in thought, completely unperturbed by the boy's attitude and outright amused by his terrible attempt at an insult. "Actually, now that I think about it, I think I do. Aren't you that moron from a few years ago, with the inferiority complex about blondes? Wow, I seriously thought you were going to grow out of that."

The boy grit his teeth even further, cementing the notion that he was indeed the person Ash was thinking of. Honestly that made that incident over the stupid ball two years ago even more hilarious, because it meant he had been an Academy student even then, yet had still been frightened off by Temari's mere presence.

The wind-style girl next to this guy took a step forward. "Forget it, Shinji. Let's just fight them already. We can probably take them together."

"Yeah... yeah, we can take these freaks! You pampered snobs are no match for real ninja like us!"

Ash buried at least three scathing comebacks he could have made, because honestly it wasn't worth the breath. At the very least though, he was kind of looking forward to stomping this simpleton. He definitely wasn't holding the same petty grudge this kid was, but his attitude somehow made his face very grating. It was practically begging to be punched.

"Time's up, squirts! The exam is over!"

The six children in question all raised their gazes to the sudden entrance of the proctor, Izumi. She had chosen to stand atop the fake hill Ash and his siblings had created, where all four flags were hidden.

"Sorry, but that's time. Your chance to duke it out has passed. Good news is, you all passed, though for vastly different reasons..."

Shinji jabbed a finger at Ash again, an action he seemed to greatly favor for some reason. "How could they graduate?! They hardly did anything during this whole test! I didn't even see them out there in the field!"

Izumi sighed, wondering, not for the first time, if it was a good idea to pass nearly everyone every year. "That's precisely why they pass, Shinji. They acquired all three objectives effortlessly, only being spotted by one person, but then avoiding a fight besides. Accomplishing a mission without being seen and without ever putting yourself in danger is the whole purpose of a ninja. Besides, as far as tactics go, they crushed all of the other teams. Even though the majority of their plans were simple, they were effective, and employed flawlessly. The only reason you even found their base was because one of you managed to see them escape from the sandstone area. If it wasn't for that it would have taken you hours to find them."

Shinji clenched his fists in anger. "But they didn't do any fighting at all! How can you know if they're any good as ninja if they didn't even fight?!"

"Fighting is not the most important part of being a ninja, Shinji, especially here in the Hidden Sand where we like to avoid losing any of our shinobi if at all possible. What we value the most out here in the desert is tenacity, and these three displayed that more than any of the other teams. Besides, why are you complaining? You and your team still graduate. Your field skills were good enough to pass you."

Having nothing to say in return, Shinji fell silent, opting to glare to at those who had bested him. He seemed to do that a lot too.

Izumi continued on, ignoring the strange and seemingly unwarranted tension. "Alright, I have to go find out where the other two teams are and tell them that this gig is over. You all head back to the village, and drink some water while you're at it! It's hot as hell out here..."

Temari made sure to speak up before the Chunin proctor flickered away. "Hold on, what about our headbands?"

"Honestly, I don't know about you three. But I'm guessing whoever is in charge for you will present them."

With that, the woman flickered away, and Ash turned his back on everything that had transpired here. He was eager to get home and take a nap or something, since just existing in the desert was exhausting in and of itself. For a moment, he thought that Shinji was going to say something to him: but in the end, the boy wised up and kept his mouth shut, saying nothing at all as the Sand siblings left the field victorious, if only through cunning and wit.

---

As Izumi had predicted, the three children of the Kazekage received their headbands from Baki upon returning home. Naturally, this elicited different reactions from all of the children when it transpired. Temari had, naturally, been ecstatic, squeezing both Ash and Kankuro hard enough to hurt their spines. Kankuro had been a little too proud of himself for passing such an easy test, but Ash had to admit that he had probably had the hardest job out there, so he deserved a little praise.

As for Ash, he had been devoid of any real joy, having retreated to his room and his bed soon after receiving the mark. His favorable mood from the night prior had faded by the early evening, allowing him to evaluate his entrance into the shinobi life as clearly as he usually did.

This one small rectangle of metal, stitched to black cloth, identified him as a ninja. This identification did many things for him, and against him. It acted as his pass to the pleasures of the village, as he was now considered an adult in the eyes of the law, even though he was only nine. Not that his sister would ever allow him to drink or visit the darker streets of the village, but technically, and legally, he could.

It also put a huge target on him for any enemies of the Sand village. This headband would be the only excuse an enemy ninja needed to kill him, no matter how old he was. That was a lot to take in, especially for a child like him.

But it also gave him more respect. Even Genin, the lowest ranking ninja there were, had a lot of respect around the village. After all, in a place that was suffering low income and borderline poverty, it was hard to dislike the ones who made most of the money that went into the village coffers.

But more than anything else, Ash felt like this headband enslaved him. His life basically belonged to the Sand village now, even though he hadn't been born there. He had to obey the Kazekage's every order now. And he could never leave the village's service of his own free will, because he would be labeled a rogue ninja and hunted to the ends of the earth.

In short, he was now a slave that had no say in the course of his life, until he was discarded at the end of it when his usefulness was over.

Perhaps that was an overly negative way of viewing the situation, but for the most part it was true. He really did have little to no agency now, and the lack of independence truly embittered the young blonde. He detested the idea of being subservient to anyone, and he certainly didn't like that his life was now the quintessential property of the Kazekage.

But he had always known this was coming. It had been part of the deal for being a part of this family anyway. He never really had a choice in the matter, at least if he wanted to continue enjoying the Kazekage's good graces.

Of course, acknowledging that fact only made Ash even more irritable.

Still, he supposed there were some upsides. He would at least stay close to his siblings like this, and be able to aid them in dangerous situations that could cost them their lives. Those were some very big pros to an otherwise shitty situation.

If he viewed the scenario in such a light, Ash was sure that he could at least tolerate being a ninja. Eventually, at least.

For now, he was still irritated about the idea of his whole future being dictated by some old guy in long robes and a funny hat, so Ash placed his newly acquired headband onto his dresser and dug around under his bed for a certain object he hoped would take his mind off of things. Withdrawing the small orange book he had stolen earlier that year, the uninformed blonde read the title with curiosity.

Make-out Paradise, huh? I'm torn on whether that sounds nice or terrifying, but I guess there's only one way to find out.

Needless to say, it didn't take long for all thoughts of ninja and service to flee Ash's mind in favor of more interesting things. And needless to say, a certain author had earned himself a formidable foe in the form of the sister that would one day discover his crimes.

Chapter Text

"At this point I wouldn't be surprised if they unironically called capturing a stray cat a mission."

There was a unanimous nod of agreement to Ash's comment as the three children of the Kazekage walked down one of the dusty streets of the Hidden Sand, each of them carrying something their current D-rank missions required. The D-ranks were indeed plural for them, as each of the three young ninja had their own. In most cases, a team of new Genin would get D-rank missions to participate in as a whole, but Baki's recently graduated Genin did not operate this way. D-ranks were almost always missions from within the village itself, so there was no revenue to be earned: instead, most D-ranks in the Sand involved making repairs around the destitute village as cheaply as possible, which was why new ninja did it instead of hired laborers.

Since the village was almost always in a constant state of disrepair, there was always a whole slew of D-rank missions to undertake, so when a team like Baki's, which was comprised of already competent Genin, went to the Kazekage for missions, they each received their own to perform. After all, it didn't take three capable Genin to patch a hole in the roof of a building.

That being the case, the three of them were burdened with items relating to the day's respective tasks. Kankuro had a pile of broken puppet parts in his arms that needed to be recycled for some other use in the village. Temari had an overly large bag of fertilizer that was to be used for the indoor gardens the Sand used to grow some of its own food. Ash, on the other hand, had a squirming baby vulture in his hands, one that had apparently escaped from the intel division. He was being very careful to avoid its already dangerous talons.

"Catching stray birds isn't exactly what I wanted to do during my first three months as a Genin."

Kankuro cast a mild glare at his younger brother. "At least your mission let you jump around the rooftops and stuff to catch that thing. Mine was literally just sifting through broken puppets for spare parts."

"But don't you like taking apart puppets?"

"Well yeah, but... look, that's not the point! Your D-rank was at least a little more fun than mine."

Temari shifted the weight of the burden in her arms. "And besides, your mission is basically already over. All you have to do is get that bird back to the intel division and you'll be done. Kankuro and I still have to deliver this stuff and help out with it when we do. You're lucky."

Ash's catch flapped its tiny wings, but didn't get anywhere with its attempts to escape. "Am I really? It's barely past noon. Baki will expect me to go back to the old man for another mission, since I've got the time."

Temari sighed; her brother's annoyance with the ninja life was something that had grown quite prominent during the three months they had all been official Genin. At first, he had tried his best to be optimistic, but the dozens upon dozens of menial tasks he had been forced to shoulder since becoming a ninja had swiftly made him irritable and bitter about all of it.

"Ash, you know these D-ranks are important, even if they're boring. A lot of little things need to be done around the village to keep it running, and we just don't have the money to hire contract workers. Someone has to do these small jobs, and it can't be the Chunin and Jonin. They have a lot more important things to do."

The younger blond didn't look convinced, but then again, he spent a lot of his time scowling, so it was hard to tell when anything actually changed. "All ninja have more important things to do than this. Genin like us could be running C-rank missions that are worth actual money. Why doesn't the village have a civilian volunteer force or something? They're better suited to running errands than us."

"While that's not a bad idea, more Genin doesn't mean more missions. Just because the entire Academy class graduated doesn't mean the village is suddenly getting more jobs. For all we know there might not be any C-rank missions to run, or if there are, they're probably all taken by Chunin or something."

Kankuro stealthily pocketed a piece of puppetry in his arms that he thought might be useful for his own creations later on. "Yeah, since the Hidden Leaf keeps getting all of the real high-profile jobs, our Jonin probably don't have anything above B-ranks to run. So they get those, and the Chunin take the C-ranks, and us Genin get the crappy stuff at the bottom of the barrel."

Ash scowled up at the sun. He knew he was being pissed and angry all the time, but he really couldn't help it. He had at least envisioned being a ninja as following orders that could be exciting. As things were now he may as well have been a slave for manual labor. "I definitely didn't become a ninja for stuff like this. Any normal person could do these little odds and ends jobs. Why be a ninja at all if this is what they're gonna have us do?"

Knowing that there was no way to quell her youngest brother's grumbling, and not entirely disagreeing with it besides, Temari decided to drop the conversation, turning instead to Kankuro. "Hey, I heard that Lady Chiyo is going to call it quits soon. She was the one teaching you puppetry wasn't she? How's that going to work out?"

"I think her grandson was going to take the reins. He's already head of the puppeteer unit, and some say he's even better than Lady Chiyo was. Maybe he'll teach me?"

Ash cut in from the side, only mildly familiar with the renowned Sasori of the Red Sand. "Don't count on it. He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy with a lot of time on his hands, and if he's anything like you, he's anti-social."

"Well, Lady Chiyo didn't have a lot of time to spare either. C'mon, Ash, you know how it works: masters of certain arts are always busy, but they usually like taking on students who are really passionate about their knowledge. Maybe her grandson is looking for an apprentice to pass his knowledge to?"

"Isn't he a little young to be looking for someone to pass his knowledge to? If he weren't, he'd be retiring too."

Kankuro frowned at Ash, the purple makeup on his face increasing the potency of the look. "Do you have to bring the bad out in every situation? I mean, would it kill you to be positive for once?"

Temari nodded in agreement, always siding with anyone that tried to argue against Ash's pessimism. "He's right, Ash. It's no fun being around someone who's negative all the time. You need to perk up and look for the good in things."

Ash scowled at her as the vulture in his hands crapped on the ground in front of him, the stressful nature of its plight clearly too much to handle. "If you can find the good in this situation, I'll never complain about anything again."

"Well... alright, you can complain in this instance. Just keep that advice in mind for later! Girls don't like guys who complain all of the time!"

The three siblings came to an intersection, where each of them would separate to go and complete their assigned tasks. Ash made sure to get the last shot in before they separated. "I thought you wanted the girls to stay away from me?"

"That's not the point, don't take away the wrong things from my lessons!"

"Your lessons? Have you become that crotchety already?"

"Just shut up and take that bird back to the intel division before it craps on your shoes or something."

Glad to have gotten one over on his sister, Ash chalked this little conversation up to a victory as he strode away from his siblings, holding his captured bird a good distance from his feet.

---

Six months after becoming a Genin, Ash felt like the weight of his headband had increased tenfold. So far, being a ninja was not at all what he had hoped it would be, which may have been because he had performed one hundred and forty seven D-ranks in his career so far. And that didn't even include all of the little side-tasks Baki had him do that basically were D-rank missions, but not official.

More than ten dozen worthless, menial jobs that any half-competent oaf could perform. This was exactly why Ash had not wanted to be a ninja, and exactly why he was in a very bad mood today, as he sat on the roof of his family's residence. Under normal circumstances, it would be very hot up there, but since it was before noon, the heat was mild and bearable: plus they had an erected tarp up here to provide some shade. Still, the provided comfort didn't prevent Ash from glaring at everything.

He was alone up there, since his siblings were spending the day as any aspiring ninja should have been. Apparently Chiyo's grandson, Sasori, had decided to teach Kankuro a thing or two about puppetry in his spare time. In the short time Kankuro had been learning under the man, his own skills had increased tremendously, and the redheaded puppet master was basically a hero in his eyes. Why Sasori had decided to train a specific individual was a mystery, though it was also possible that the Kazekage had simply ordered it of him. Either way, no one could say for sure.

Temari was out practicing her wind style on her own, since there wasn't really a master wind user in the village to teach her, or if there was, they didn't have time. Ash was not training at all, because despite his usual desire to improve his fighting skills, the six months of manual labor had crushed his passion into a little sphere of pessimism and bitterness.

Truth be told, he hadn't actually done a lot of self-improvement since becoming a Genin. He just hardly felt motivated to do such a thing when his role in the village amounted to that of a construction worker.

"Ash! What the hell are you doing up here!?"

Not at all surprised that Baki had gone out of his way to interrupt Ash's solitude, the young blonde leveled a displeased gaze at the man that was his teacher, rapidly coming up with a fitting excuse.

"Training my ability to pick out specific sounds and identify their source among the loud atmosphere of the village. A very useful skill, wouldn't you say?"

Baki folded his arms, his displeased glare not diminishing. "Do you honestly expect me to buy that?"

"Can you say with one hundred percent certainty that I wasn't doing that?"

Amazed that Ash's intellect had grown so clever at such a young age, Baki shook his head in defeat. He honestly didn't think he ever really won these exchanges.

"I suppose I can't, even though I'm fairly certain you're just lazing around. That said, I have good news that might lift your spirits for once."

"That's suspicious. Are you sure this isn't the kind of good news that will only lift your spirits?"

"That depends. How would you classify a C-rank mission?"

Ash cocked an eyebrow at him, unwilling to immediately accept such a thing lest it be a cruel joke or a letdown altogether. "Do we at least get to leave the village?"

"We'll be going out of the Land of Wind altogether. Good enough for you?"

"So we'll get to leave the desert, right?"

"Round trip, this mission will likely take us a little under a week and a half. A fair amount of that time will be spent outside of our own country, and by extension, the desert."

Ash was on his feet in a flash, excited to leave the sandy terrain he despised so much, even for such a short time. He'd instantly pulled a complete turnaround from his usual attitude. "Yes, finally! When are we leaving!?"

"Today, if you prepare fast enough. Go find Temari and let her know. I'll find Kankuro, and if you're all ready by noon, we can leave then."

For the first time in a long time, Ash obeyed Baki without a single word of dissent. The Jonin couldn't deny that it was a little disconcerting that the young boy was so eager to get away from his home, but at least he was excited about something for once.

---

Ash hunted down his sister in no time at all, whisking her back to the house to prepare for their first C-rank mission. She was not originally happy to be interrupted while training, as she was apparently close to making some sort of breakthrough. However, Temari always found Ash's excitation infectious, since his enthusiasm had been curbed so severely by his Genin career. She was glad that her brother was eager to go on a mission, and she herself wasn't disliking the idea of leaving the Hidden Sand for a bit either.

So she was fine with putting her training aside and joining Ash in his excitement for something other than a dull D-rank. The two of them had packed all of the things their team would need by the time Baki showed up with an irritable Kankuro at his side.

"Man, why'd there have to be a mission now!? Sasori was about to show me something totally awesome! I really wanted to see the Iron Maiden!"

Ash tossed Kankuro's already packed bag at his face. "Sasori's got no social life, it's not like he's going anywhere. We, on the other hand, finally get to leave this place for once. Show some enthusiasm!"

"Oh, that's rich coming from you."

"Hey, I don't recall you or Sis ever getting excited for your D-rank sideshows. And on that note..."

Ash turned his attention to Baki now that they were all gathered. "You haven't given us any details on what this mission involves. Fill us in before I get my hopes up."

Baki nodded as he folded his arms, confirming Ash's suspicion of a low-key mission. "We're making an exchange of information with the Hidden Stone Village. We're going to meet a team of theirs in the neutral Land of Claws. We'll make the exchange, and then head back here. There should be no fighting whatsoever."

Kankuro cocked an eyebrow at the man. "Land of Claws? Is that even a real place?"

The young puppetry practitioner immediately regretted his words as his sister metaphorically pounced on him. "You idiot, the Land of Claws is one of the three buffer countries between us and the Land of Earth! It's literally right next to the Land of Rain. And let me guess, you don't know anything about the Land of Fangs either, do you?"

"Seriously, you're sure you're not making these up?"

Ash sighed, before stepping up and explaining the problem away for his brother, before Temari's disdain transformed into something physical. "Look, Kankuro, you know where the Land of Rain is, right? To its left is the Land of Claws, and to the left of that is the Land of Fangs. They're both neutral and have no hidden villages, but they serve as buffers between the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth, just like the Land of Rivers between us and the Land of Fire."

Everyone was surprised that Ash had known anything about this at all, considering his lack of motivation to learn things unrelated to combat, but for Temari and Baki, it was a pleasant surprise. Only Kankuro was miffed to know that Ash was more knowledgeable than him. Fortunately, he couldn't get a word in edgewise as Temari praised her littlest brother.

"Someone's been studying harder than he lets on..."

Ash frowned, not finding anything praiseworthy in knowledge he thought was common. "That was basic stuff, Sis. Everyone should know it."

Kankuro glared at the boy, who immediately donned an apologetic smile at his mistake. The idea had been to take the heat off of his older brother, but he had inadvertently made it worse, if Temari's glare in the puppeteer's direction was any indication.

"Oh you're right about that, Ash. Everyone should know this stuff. Right, Kankuro?"

"Your thinly veiled jabs really aren't necessary, Temari. I get it, I'll brush up on my map skills sometime."

Seeing that the little exchange was over, Baki coughed to get everyone's attention back on him. "Now look, even though we are making a somewhat diplomatic exchange on this mission, remember that we are not exactly friends with the Hidden Stone. They have a record of producing quite brazen shinobi, and chances are that the team they send will be older and more experienced than all of you. I don't think there will be any conflict with them, but try not to start anything regardless. Especially you two."

Baki ended his words with a glare at Ash and Kankuro, both of whom donned innocent smiles, though they looked more like smirks to Baki. "I'm serious, you brats..."

Temari grabbed her two brothers by their collars. "Don't worry, Sensei: if a fight breaks out between us, I guarantee it won't be because of these dolts. Right, guys?"

The two boys gave mock salutes as they answered simultaneously.

"Yes, ma'am!"

---

Never before had time flown for Ash the way it did as he traveled to the border of the Land of Claws. It was true that he would spend the majority of his time in The Land of Wind's accursed desert, but he was too hyped to get away from it for even a day to care. The mere idea of being in an environment that didn't consist of miles of sand was enough to put Ash in a good mood, which had been a rarity lately.

That was why the past two days of travel had not mitigated his excitement at all. Never mind the fact that he and his team still had a day's worth of travel to make before they got to the Land of Claws: no amount of sand in his shoes would get Ash down now. He was so excited, that when Baki suggested that they take a break in the shadow of a nearby dune, he was the only one who didn't want to do it.

"C'mon, we don't have time to waste sitting around here. We're almost to the Land of Claws, we might as well keep going. We could get there today!"

Kankuro knelt in the sand before pulling out his canteen and gulping down some water. "Calm down, Ash, we're only going to rest for a few minutes. The Land of Claws isn't going anywhere."

"Neither am I at the moment, which is the real problem."

Temari did some stretches in the shade of the dune as she questioned her brother. "Kankuro's right, Ash. We're only taking a break for a few minutes. What's so great about the Land of Claws that you want to get there so badly anyway?"

Seeing that there was no way to convince his siblings to give up their break, Ash slumped into the hill of sand beside him. "It's not that the Land of Claws is so great, it's just that any place that isn't here is amazing. I would go anywhere at all if it meant getting out of the Land of Wind."

Temari frowned at the boy, none too pleased to hear his response. The Land of Wind was her home, and as far as she was concerned, it was Ash's home too. The fact that he detested it so blatantly greatly stung.

Baki on the other hand, was disconcerted for another reason entirely. The starting point for any rogue shinobi was to become disillusioned with their home or their position in life. Ash was already questioning both of those, and that worried the Jonin to no small extent. Ash had the potential to be a very skilled shinobi, but he also had the potential to be a very dangerous rogue ninja. Quite literally, it was up to him and Ash's adopted siblings to keep him on the right path.

With that in mind, Baki decided it was to his advantage to get his team moving again, ordering them forward once more. The less time Ash had to dwell on his distaste with the Land of Wind, the better.

---

The Land of Claws was not the most beautiful of places. It was rather dull, compared to places like the Hidden Cloud or Waterfall. But the moment Ash set foot over its borders, he might as well have been in heaven.

"Holy crap, is that grass!? Yes, it is! Grass, and trees, and most importantly, there's no sand! This is what paradise must look like!"

While their own joy was a bit subdued, Kankuro and Temari shared Ash's feelings. The two of them had never been outside of the Land of Wind before either, and although they didn't share the same distaste for their home that Ash did, neither Genin could say that the change of scenery wasn't nice. The temperature had been growing slowly more tolerable as they neared the border of the Land of Claws, but now that they were officially there, it was nice to know that they were in a country that had an average temperature below eighty degrees.

And admittedly, the Kazekage's children had never seen an environment like this. Which was kind of sad to say: it was just a light forest, with dozens of trees and significant underbrush flanking both sides of an ordinary dirt road, but they had lived their whole lives in the desert, so they had literally never been to such a place. Technically, Ash had been in such an environment before, but it was so long ago that he didn't remember it at all. So to the kids, something as ordinary as a forest was actually an exciting new place.

Only Baki was unimpressed, but he was an experienced Jonin who had left the Land of Wind many times, so that was to be expected. "Don't get distracted. We still have to reach our meeting point with the Stone ninja on time. There's no time to waste dawdling! Enjoy the scenery as we move."

Ash wanted to spend a little longer just absorbing the unfamiliar environment, but he figured that he would have plenty of time for that along the way to the destination, so he joined his team in the treetops without dissent. "So how long is it supposed to take us to get to the meeting point, Cyclops?"

"About a day and a half."

"So, three days to get to the Land of Claws, a day and a half to get to the meeting point, and day and a half back to the border, and three days back to the Sand... nine days total, but only three of them are in the Land of Claws... that sucks."

Temari glared at him from his left, somewhat irritated that Ash once again blatantly disregarded his own home. "Ash, you should take what you can get. Three days is better than two, right?"

"Well I was hoping for more, but I guess you're right. Besides, if we get more C-ranks in the future, we'll probably get to leave the Land of Wind more often. There's really no point in complaining now."

Not missing that his perspective hadn't shifted in the slightest, Temari nevertheless considered his momentary optimism as a minor victory. "Optimism is the first step to real happiness, Ash. You should think that way more often."

"I'll take your word for it, Sis."

Temari couldn't tell if she was really getting through to her brother, because he honestly didn't seem to give her words much thought at all. Truth was, Temari had been expecting his attitude to grow a little worse after becoming a Genin, but he had spiraled further than she had assumed he would. She wouldn't have cared quite so much if his pessimism extended only to his career; she could deal with that, even if it grew tiresome from time to time.

But the negativity had been much more pervasive. Ash's demeanor had shifted for the worse in nearly all aspects of his life over the past few months. He didn't laugh or smile as much. He didn't pull nearly as many stupid stunts with Kankuro. He didn't even get excited about learning new fighting techniques any more.

Needless to say, Temari was not happy with the change. While Ash had never been the happy-go-lucky type of kid, he had at least known how to relax and enjoy life at some point not far in the past. His big sister missed his happier, more carefree self that cared most about having fun with his siblings and just enjoying the small things. And even though she wasn't sure how she would go about it yet, Temari was absolutely determined to bring that person back to the surface, for both her sake and everyone he would ever meet in life.

Chapter Text

The day and a half of travel through the Land of Claws went by unfortunately quickly for Baki's Genin team. They were on a tight schedule, so there was little time to enjoy the scenery that was so wonderfully different from the Hidden Sand. Ash personally hoped that Baki would allow them to take it easy after the mission itself was complete. Sure, they couldn't delay their return to the Sand for too long, but surely a day or two more would not harm the village's D-rank completion rate.

But for now, he did understand the need to reach the meeting point on time. They were a bunch of kids, and would probably be confronting Stone ninja that were much older than them. That would already leave a less than desirable impression, so there was no need to make matters worse by showing up late. Though now that he thought about it, Ash found it funny that his team had been sent on this mission at all. So since there was about ten minutes of travel left before they reached the crossroads that was their destination, Ash decided to question his sensei on the matter.

"Hey, Cyclops? I'm not complaining here, but why exactly are we going on this mission?"

The other three members of his troop cast curious looks at him, not expecting Ash to voice anything that sounded even remotely dissatisfied with leaving the Land of Wind for a while. Still, Baki was the one he had posed his question to, so it was Baki who answered. "Oh? Are you three not capable of delivering and receiving a sealed scroll or two?"

"Of course we are. But isn't the idea of meeting with any potentially hostile force to intimidate them? We may be making a few friendly ties with the Hidden Stone, but if they think we're weak because the village sent a bunch of kids to meet them, that could be pretty dangerous. Why didn't the old man send some Chunin for this, to keep up appearances if nothing else?"

Baki was genuinely impressed that Ash knew anything at all about the political nuances of a mission like this. He was even more impressed that the boy even cared, considering his lack of investment in the village as a whole. "It's a bit of a gamble on Lord Kazekage's part, really. On one hand, he's making a political jab at the Tsuchikage by sending Genin to perform a diplomatic mission, which is definitely insulting in its own way. The two of them have never been particularly close, so any time we do have an exchange like this, there's almost always partisan jabs at each side."

"How appropriately childish... isn't the old man worried that the Tsuchikage will get mad and do something reckless in retaliation? We couldn't afford a war caused by some petty insults."

"That's true, but the Stone isn't in the best economic state either. They've got more ninja than we do, but the Tsuchikage is more worried about increasing the stability of his own village than he is about attacking another just because its kage made an affront to his pride."

Feeling a little out of the loop and none too pleased about it, Temari decided to take part in the conversation as well. "What about the intimidation Ash was talking about? Won't they think we're lacking in manpower if kids as young as us are sent to meet with them?"

Baki mentally noted that his team was near their destination, but kept talking regardless. "Lord Kazekage hopes it will have the opposite effect. You three have not been Genin for long, but nevertheless you are some of the strongest ones in the village. You also have the highest potential to be far stronger. Lord Kazekage hopes that by showing off how strong even our low-ranking ninja are, he can maintain an image of strength when dealing with the Hidden Stone."

Kankuro cocked an eyebrow at the man. "Yeah, but if we're the only strong ones, doesn't that mean the Kazekage is just bluffing?"

"The enemy can only presume what they see, and if they only see you, they will have no reason to think the rest of our Genin are inferior: even if they are."

"Well yeah, but-"

Whatever counter Kankuro had planned on making, it was never heard, as a large explosion in the forest ahead drowned out his words. The blast was too far off to pose a threat to the Sand shinobi, but it still created a sizable plume of smoke that they could see from their current location. Besides, the explosion itself aside, they were close enough to hear the complaints of someone near it.

"Deidara, you idiot! Just because we got here early doesn't mean you should go and blow up half the forest!"

"Quit exaggerating, Kurotsuchi, it was hardly half! I'd need to use a bomb four times that size to do that!"

Ash cocked an eyebrow in the direction of the yelling. "I'm gonna take a guess here and say that was the Stone ninja we're supposed to be meeting. They sound fun."

Baki didn't quite agree with that sentiment, but had one of his own instead. "They don't sound as old as I thought they would either. Maybe the Tsuchikage thought to make the same move as our own?"

"Is politics between ninja villages entirely summed up by tricks and insults? No wonder none of us get along."

"Quit spouting nonsense and approach with caution. I don't want to startle whoever sets off explosions for fun over there."

With a collective nod from his team, Baki led the way to the site of the unexpected explosion, purposefully making noise to alert the ninja ahead to their presence. He had no idea how antsy this Stone ninja with the bombs was, but if he was anything like members of the Stone's Explosion Corps were rumored to be, then Baki didn't want to surprise him. Approaching him silently might get a bomb sent their way when they showed themselves, and Baki wasn't quite ready to get his Genin killed by a wayward blast.

Still, the Stone ninja were arguing with each other so loudly that it was likely that they did not hear the his team approach in the first place.

The fighting was so intense, that when Baki and his team landed in the forest clearing the Stone team was currently occupying, neither the short black haired nor the long blonde haired ninja noticed them at all. Only the big guy with the huge nose realized they were no longer alone.

"You guys, the Sand ninja are here. Stop fighting already, you're making us look bad."

The blonde Stone ninja clearly wasn't in the mood to stop fighting. "Piss off, Akatsuchi, I'm not stopping 'till Kurotsuchi admits how sublime that blast was!"

Confusion etched on her face, Temari leaned over and whispered to her brothers. "Why do I feel like these guys are problem children already?"

Both boys shrugged, content to watch the scene play out before them, which involved the dark haired Stone ninja punching her comrade in the face. "You piss off, Deidara! Do you want Akatsuchi to tell Gramps we made a bad impression on the Hidden Sand!?"

The boy named Deidara rubbed his face, half-obscured by his long hair, getting a little blood from his nose on the one red sleeve his uniform had. "What are we, five? Is Akatsuchi gonna go tattle to old man Tsuchikage, hm?"

He then turned to face the new arrivals. "I mean, geez, lighten up, Kurotsuchi: they're just a bunch of kids, yeah."

Kankuro leaned towards Ash to whisper something to him, but said it a little more loudly than he intended. "Which one of these two is the girl and the guy? I can't tell who's who."

The rotund Stone ninja barely managed to hold back a chuckle as he and his comrades overheard the remark. The other two looked quite irate over the gender confusion, but fortunately for Kankuro, Ash knew how to diffuse situations like this with relative ease. Since it was obvious that they had already been heard, he made no effort to whisper. "The blonde one's voice is too deep to be a girl, and the black haired one is too cute in the face to be a guy. Geez, Kankuro, if you get things confused that easily, your romantic future is pretty bleak."

"Hey, I was just joking, I could tell!"

Both Ash and Temari leveled a disbelieving glance at him, neither opting to point it out with words.

With Kankuro's momentary lapse in judgment overshadowed by Ash's subtle rescue, the dark-haired girl named Kurotsuchi smiled widely. "Well, at least someone around here knows how to talk about girls. Take notes, Deidara."

Her accosted teammate smirked back at her. "You should be mad that he had to refer to your face to tell you were a girl."

"W-what?! You bastard, you wanna die?!"

Baki sighed, feeling the full brunt of being the oldest individual here. These Stone ninja looked to be around fourteen or fifteen, but their maturity level was not much different from his own team. In fact, he'd almost say it was even lower. "Look, I deal with enough squabbling from my own team. Do you have the intel our villages agreed upon or not?"

The large guy, who appeared to have some semblance of professionalism, withdrew a sealed red scroll from a pouch on his back. "We have it, but the Tsuchikage has some new terms to discuss, so I can't hand it over right away."

Baki's face contorted into a scowl, not at all pleased with the news. "Did your kage not think to discuss these terms with Lord Kazekage before sending you? I am in no position to agree to new conditions on behalf of my village."

"These terms aren't about anything absolutely pivotal. Still, it'd be better to discuss them alone."

Suspicious, Baki glanced back at his Genin team. "Stay here and stay ready. Don't let your guard down."

Akatsuchi turned to his own comrades. "You guys stay here too, okay?"

The blonde Stone ninja crossed his arms, clearly in a rebellious mood, or perhaps just possessing an outright rebellious personality. "Who the hell made you the leader, hm?"

Kurotsuchi glared at him, placing her hands on her hips. "Gramps did, dumbass. Duh."

"Urk... fine, whatever. I don't care. We can wait here with the sand squirts, yeah."

Content that their respective teammates would behave themselves, Baki and Akatsuchi moved a ways off to discuss what they needed to, leaving Ash and his siblings to awkwardly eye the two older Stone ninja across from them. Temari had to admit that the blonde kinda looked like an older version of Ash, what with the long bangs covering one eye and all. That being said, she wasn't very happy with the comparison.

"Ash, theoretically speaking, how long would you grow your hair out before cutting it?"

"Not much longer than it is right now, I guess. Why?"

From across the small clearing, Deidara shook a fist at her, apparently not dense enough to miss the implication. "Yeah, you got a problem with my hair, hm!?"

"So what if I do? I just want my brother to actually look like a man when he's older."

Not one to aid Deidara when he was getting ribbed, Kurotsuchi couldn't help but laugh. "Wow, getting owned even by a girl that young? Don't you have anything to say for yourself, Deidara?"

"Hey, you're the one who said you liked my hair like this, aren't you?!"

"W-what are you talking about? I never said anything like that!"

"Yes you did! Seriously, just last week-"

The two red-clad ninja quickly descended into another squabble, much to Ash's own amusement, though Temari and Kankuro looked more dismayed than anything else. "You know Sis, these Stone ninja kinda remind me of you and Kankuro when you guys fight."

Temari scowled at the comparison. She wasn't like this Kurotsuchi girl, right? "Oh please, we're nothing like that-"

"And maybe if you'd spend more time paying attention to the people around you and less time on your precious art, you'd realize that there are some things more important than perfecting your hobby!"

Temari's scowl deepened as she heard Kurotsuchi speak words that sounded awfully similar to the kind she said when she was yelling at Kankuro about being too anti-social and working on puppets all the time. Far too similar...

Ash noticed that Deidara had dropped his little speech quips as his own voice gained intensity. What had started out as a squabble was escalating rather quickly. "Who the hell are you to tell me what my priorities should be? It's not like you would understand how important art is to an artist, right?!"

His siblings looking on with confusion, Ash realized that the solution to this problem was only obvious to him. Now it wasn't really his job to intervene in other people's problems, especially foreign ninja, but he kind of liked these Stone shinobi from a first impression point of view, so he'd make an exception this time. Besides, he had no idea how long Baki was going to be, and he didn't want to spend the entire time they were standing here listening to these two argue. That would just be irritating.

"Hey, if you two would stop yelling for a second, I have something to say to you."

Kurotsuchi and Deidara turned to face him simultaneously, both irritated to have been interrupted mid-rant. "What?!"

Temari leaned towards her brother to whisper in his ear. "Ash, what are you doing?"

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. So, you two Stone ninja: you guys willing to hear a little life advice?"

Naturally, the idea of receiving wisdom from a prepubescent child didn't sit well with the prideful Deidara. "What?! Hell no, you're just a kid!"

Ash cocked an unimpressed eyebrow at his blonde counterpart. "Yeah, but you're just a teenager."

With nothing to really refute that, Deidara fell silent, racking his brain for some sort of comeback as Kurotsuchi carried the conversation forward. "I don't know what you could possibly have to say considering you met us a whole five minutes ago, but what the heck, give it a shot."

"Five minutes was more than enough to read your relationship like a book."

Kurotsuchi folded her arms, a little irked that the life advice Ash wanted to give was apparently relationship advice. "What's with blonde boys and being cocky, anyway? You really think you can know anything about us just you saw us squabbling for a few minutes?"

"Well, I'm not saying I can read your minds or anything, or that I know everything. But feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about this: you're mad that your friend here spends so more time on his hobby-"

"It's not a hobby, it's art, yeah!"

"OK, more time on his 'art' than you. I mean, if that's not it, you shouldn't really care how much time he puts into it, right?"

Kurotsuchi wanted to say something to deny it, but she had to admit that this stranger wasn't off the mark. "W-well... sure, I guess..."

Ash turned his attention to his fellow, older blonde. "What do you do with the art you make? Is it on public display or something?"

"Of course not! There's no point in showing it to the masses that won't even appreciate its beauty, hm! And besides, why would I care what a bunch of uncultured people that know nothing about art think about my creations? There's no point at all in showing it to them!"

Ash nodded sagely, an action distinctly odd for someone so young. Maybe it was just that he was unraveling the problem in his head. Of course, if he was wrong, he would look like an idiot. But hey, he'd probably never see these guys again, and anything was better than listening to them screeching until Baki got back.

"I see. Does he ever show his art to you, Kurotsuchi?"

Immediately catching onto what Ash was saying, Kurotsuchi began to blush. "W-well... anytime he makes something new, he always shows me first before anyone else... if he shows anyone else at all..."

"So an artist shares something important to him with you. Something that he actively feels like is too good to bother showing to most people. Arrogance aside, you sound pretty important to this artist."

The two Stone ninja fell silent as they stared at Ash for a brief moment, before turning to stare at each other instead. Honestly, everyone in the area was surprised that this situation had occurred at all: who expected to get relationship counseling from a stranger while on a mission, and a kid no less? Either way, Kurotsuchi seemed more focused on her blonde teammate than anything else.

"D-Deidara... is that really the reason...?"

Said blonde now seemed a bit sheepish himself. "Well yeah, I mean, that's what I meant to say, hm. Geez, Kurotsuchi, you're so dense."

"Me?! You're the one that couldn't tell that a girl was into you!"

"Well that girl was the one that couldn't realize I was into her!"

Ash shook his head as the two started arguing again, though the tone was a lot different this time. Mission failed successfully, he supposed. "Personally, I think they were both kind of dense."

Temari looked at her youngest brother in disbelief, wondering where he had attained such a good grasp on relationships and romance at his extremely young age. More importantly, she was confused as to why the relationship of two strangers had even mattered enough to him to intervene on their behalf. Either way, she was pleasantly surprised by both his understanding and investment on the matter. It was a bit odd, but it was nice to see him actually care about something.

Kankuro, on the other hand, was pleased by the revelation for an entirely different reason. "So, Ash, you're going to be my future wingman for dates, right?"

"Sorry, Kankuro, but I'd only be able to set you up with a girl that already liked you. After all, if we were just meeting someone and the two of us were together, the girl would fall for me first, obviously."

"What?! What is it with you and Temari always putting me down?!"

"You just make it too easy, is all."

Having returned to their previous state of arguing and observing said argument, the ninja in the clearing did not wait very long for the return of their comrades. Baki and Akatsuchi made it back to their teammates with little delay, having apparently concluded their business. Baki's arrival brought Temari's focus back on the mission, more so than her brothers at any rate. "So, Sensei, what happened? What kind of deal did they try to make?"

While normally it would be none of their business, Baki decided it would be best to involve his students as much as possible. It was a learning experience, after all. "This exchange of data was made to foster some semblance of friendliness between the Sand and Stone. However, the Tsuchikage decided that some of the information he had promised about his Explosion Corps was too sensitive to share so early. Because this information was withheld, the Tsuchikage agreed to let us withdraw some of our own as well. We won't learn anything about the Explosion Corps, and they won't learn anything about our puppeteer unit. That's all."

Ash cocked a curious eyebrow at the man. "Wasn't it a little early to exchange military information like that anyway? Our puppet techniques are one of the village's most closely guarded secrets, why try and share it so readily?"

"That's just how bad the situation in the Hidden Sand is right now. Of the five great shinobi villages, we are currently the most vulnerable. We need to make strong allies quickly, even if it means taking some risks."

Kankuro eyed the Stone ninja that were discussing the exchange that had taken place with their own comrade. "So was this all? Is this mission over?"

Baki smirked as he pocketed the scroll he had received from Akatsuchi. "Of course it isn't over. We still have to get this scroll safely back to our village, don't we?"

Ash turned to his brother, his expression deadpan. "So yes, it's basically over."

"Yep."

Baki felt that every day he trained his students, he lost slightly more faith in them. What kind of ninja was he training? "Don't get lenient, you fools! Just because the risk of interception is low doesn't mean you should dismiss the possibility entirely!"

Temari, being the most responsible of the three children, took Baki's side in an instant. "That's right, you two. You should always be prepared for any possibility, whether or not it's probably going to happen."

Ash was too used to getting ganged up on to be mad about it, so he simply shrugged. "Sis, aren't you ever worried that you're becoming too much like Cyclops of all people? I mean, do you really want him to be your role model?"

"Well I... I mean... I'm not really becoming like him, am I?"

Both of her brothers nodded.

"Oh man, really? Is it really that bad?"

Another nod from both of them cemented the look of horror on Temari's face. "I... I'm becoming like Baki... oh..."

Baki scowled as he received the brunt of his students' disdain. Getting any real respect out of the boys had always been difficult, but at least Temari had usually respected him as her Sensei, if nothing else. Now those brothers of hers were turning even her against him. "Let's just get going before the three of you manage to deprive me of my already faltering sanity."

Baki leaped into the trees, his students sharing a smile between themselves before getting ready to follow their sensei.

"Hey, wait just a second!"

The Sand Genin turned to cast curious looks at Kurotsuchi, who was approaching them from across the clearing. All three of them tensed up a little, prepared for the worst, even though at this point Ash did not think she would do anything against them. Still, ninja from different villages weren't often engaging each other in any casual manner. Being wary was just natural. That was probably why Temari spoke up for all of them.

"What is it?"

Kurotsuchi stopped in front of Ash, a cheerful smile on her face. "OK, I gotta know: you really figured that out about us in like, five minutes? Was it that obvious?"

The young blonde from the Sand smirked. "The romantic tension between the two of you was practically suffocating me."

The older girl speaking to him frowned, though it was just because she could sense the hint of mockery. "Psh, alright, wise guy. Don't get too full of yourself, or I'll get second thoughts about thanking you for your impromptu therapy session. I hate to admit it, but me and Deidara probably would have taken another six months to acknowledge our feelings if left to our own devices... which is why I was wondering, would you mind staying in touch with me? I might need more advice on how to interpret that oaf's nonsense in the future."

To this, Ash cocked a genuinely confused eyebrow. "You... want to stay in touch with a nine year old Genin from another village over your romantic life? I mean, I'm not totally against the idea as objectively weird as it is, but isn't there someone in your village-"

"I was considered the most love-savvy girl in my graduating class."

"...we'll keep in touch."

With a smile, Kurotsuchi leaned down suddenly and placed a chaste kiss on Ash's cheek. For her, seemingly nothing of note at all. "Awesome. Thanks, squirt! Just address it to 'Kurotsuchi' and I should get any letters just fine. I mean, the intel division will definitely investigate any letters, but we should expect that for correspondence between ninja villages. Who should I address letters to if I send something your way?"

Though he was a little stunned by the sudden kiss, innocent though it may have been, Ash managed to give an answer. "Uh... it'll have to be addressed to 'Rōzeki' to actually reach me through official channels. But, uh, you can call me 'Ash' in the letter. That's what I go by with my friends."

"Friends, huh? Aren't you cheeky?"

Identifying her shameless grin, Ash smirked back in a similar manner. "Says the girl asking to be pen pals after like, five minutes."

"Kurotsuchi, we need to get going! We've got a long trip back to the Hidden Stone!"

With the conversation interrupted by her teammates, Kurotsuchi got back to her feet and turned on her heel, offering a wave before walking away. "Alright, fair enough. Nice meeting ya, Ash. Talk to you one of these days, alright?"

As the girl turned and returned to her team (and her new boyfriend), Kankuro and Temari stood silently in dumbfounded awe, while Ash gave a weak wave of his own in return. This wasn't exactly how he had expected to make his first friend outside of the Hidden Sand, but he certainly wasn't going to complain about it. None of the kids said anything at all until Baki returned to them.

"What the hell are you all doing? Hurry up!"

Without a word, Ash leaped into the trees, his siblings by his sides. They stayed silent for nearly a full minute as they hopped through the trees, until Kankuro finally took note of his brother's expression, which was very grating for the slightly older boy. It was no secret as to why his younger brother looked so pleased with himself. Kankuro couldn't help but feel irritated about it.

"Wipe that smug look off your face!"

Despite the demand, that smug look stayed cemented on Ash's face for at least another thirty minutes. Nothing either of his siblings could say could change that: not Kankuro's irritation at his brother getting a kiss from an older girl, or Temari's irritation for... well, the exact same thing.

---

The trip back to the Sand went by much more quickly than Ash would have liked. Leaving the Land of Claws, and its wonderful lack of sand, had been painful, especially since the return trip felt so much shorter than the original. Before he knew it, Ash was back in the daily routine of performing boring D-ranks and hating the sun. It had only been a week since the mission to the Land of Claws, and already he was growing sick of his home again.

For now though, Ash had managed to evade both work and training, and was sitting in one of the village's many indoor cafes: with the damned sun outside, there were very few outdoor establishments. Ash was not here to eat however, but rather to dodge Baki as he read Make-Out Paradise, which he had taken quite a liking to. He was too young to find pleasure in the perverted nature of the book, but aside from that, it did have a good plot, and the romance was very well-written. Contrary to popular belief, the book was not solely smut, though it did contain a fair amount of it.

Still, Ash wasn't really aware of the perverse reputation of the book he was reading: if he were, he probably would not have been perusing it with young Matsuri hovering right over his shoulder, reading it along with him.

"Ash, why do men and women touch each other like that? Couldn't they just say 'I love you?"

Ash flipped a page, cocking an eyebrow at the in-depth detail this section of the story was going into even as he answered the younger, short-haired brunette at his side. "I think it's because words can be said by anyone, and they aren't always true. It's probably special when you let someone touch you in a way you wouldn't let anyone else. But uh, don't quote me on that."

Matsuri peeked out at the boy she had considered the coolest role model to ever live for the past year or so. "So... they do it because they don't believe the other person when they say 'I love you'?"

Ash lowered the book for a moment as he thought about it. "I guess that might actually be true for some couples... but I don't think it's like that for people that really love and understand each other. At least, I hope not. But then, what do I know anyway? I'm nine."

Having lowered his copy of Make-Out Paradise, Ash could see that he was getting a number of disdainful looks from the other patrons in the establishment. He wasn't quite sure why they cared, but he got the feeling it was because of the book he was reading, especially when there was a little kid like Matsuri reading it with him. On one hand, Ash didn't really care about their opinion, but on the other, he knew that his reputation affected his siblings and the Kazekage as well. He was heavily associated with them, so if he earned a poor reputation, theirs would decline as well.

With that in mind, Ash marked the page he was on and tucked the orange book into an inner pocket of his clothing. "Let's talk about something else, Matsuri. You don't really plan on joining the Academy when you're old enough, do you?"

The small girl nodded, a cheerful and enthused smile plastered on her face. "Uh-huh. I'm gonna be a ninja just like you, Ash!"

Ash found that ironic, considering the fact that he despised being a ninja. That being true, he didn't really want to push that same career path on Matsuri. "Being a ninja isn't all that great, Matsuri. It's boring, and you have to do whatever other people tell you to do. It's really terrible."

"It's not terrible! You protect people and go on adventures with people you care about, and make new friends! That's all really good, right?"

The slightly older blonde cocked an eyebrow at the girl. "Who told you that garbage? I don't believe any of it for a second."

"Big sister Temari told me, after you guys got back from your mission."

Though he was still disgruntled about his own situation, Ash couldn't resist a smile at the mention of his sister brainwashing poor Matsuri here. If Temari had sunk her optimistic claws into the brown-haired girl, she was already too far gone for Ash change her beliefs. Temari had a way of beating her beliefs into you until it was impossible to deny them, though Ash was sure Matsuri had suffered no physical damage from his big sister. At this point there was no reason to counter Matsuri's words: besides, she was just a child, what point was there in debating the merits of shinobi life with her?

"Well if Sis said it, it must be true. You still have over a year before you're old enough to attend the Academy though, so enjoy being a kid while you can, Matsuri. You definitely don't get to later on."

"Is that why you're never happy, Ash? I haven't seen you really smile in a long time..."

While he would have normally brushed them off, Matsuri's words hit Ash much harder than he had expected them to. Never happy? Surely he was truly happy every once in awhile, or at the very least, he was pleased... or was he really losing all ability to smile or laugh? There was no reason Matsuri would lie to him, so his condition must have been real.

Unwilling to think of it any longer, Ash folded his arms behind his head and leaned back in his chair. "Don't be ridiculous, Matsuri. I'm happy right now, spending time with you. See?"

He smiled at his petite companion, genuinely pleased to see the joyous reaction he received from her. For now, the feeling was enough to put his unease to rest.

---

Weeks passed slowly in the Hidden Sand, especially since the scenery and routine never changed. In places like the Land of Fire, one could look at the trees and tell what season it was by the color of the leaves. In the Sand, you could only tell the time of year through a calendar, or if it rained twice in three months instead of once.

The terrible routine of D-rank missions and training didn't help either. Doing the same thing every day caused them all to blend together, and Ash felt like he wasn't even aging. The limbo his life was in right now made it feel like he was going to be stuck as a laboring Genin forever. Even now, as he had miraculously worked up the motivation to train out in the oasis he had claimed today, Ash found it hard to focus on improving anything at all.

His flames had grown slightly more condensed since he had first learned to use them, increasing their explosive power, but beyond that, Ash had made little progress with his abilities. If anything, he would admit that he was backsliding a little.

The mission to the Land of Claws had raised Ash's spirits for a brief period, but returning home had quickly reversed the effect. Fully aware that the potency of his flames depended on his emotional state of being, Ash was finding it increasingly difficult to fuel his powers with anything positive. Every day he practiced with his flames, more blue leaked into his attacks, unable to be repressed even by force. The soul crushing weight of literally beyond ten dozen D-rank missions in under a year had sapped away at his ability to be happy.

No matter how he tried to rationalize or accept the fact that he was nothing more than a labor slave to the Hidden Sand, Ash was always met with failure. He knew the many menial tasks he was assigned actually helped keep the village together, and he knew the village was receiving very few higher-level missions, never mind the fact that those were all taken by more experienced shinobi.

Ash knew his position in life right now was only logical, but that did nothing to make him hate it any less. In fact, his bitterness was twofold; not only had he not chosen this life for himself, having been essentially conscripted into service, but now that he was being forced to be a ninja he was literally wasting his life away carrying out repair jobs and catching stray birds. It was insulting on top of unjust. If he were going to be forced into a life of servitude, the least the Kazekage could have done was command him to carry out tasks with some actual meaning to them.

"Ash!"

The sound of Temari's voice from behind him cut Ash's training and thoughts short. Burying his hands in his pockets on reflex, the young shinobi turned to face his sister as she approached him from the edge of the oasis. For some reason he felt as though hiding his hands would also hide their inability to procure emerald flame.

"Hey, Sis. How'd you know I was out here?"

"Matsuri's friend Yukata said she saw you leaving the village. I'm surprised though, since you haven't really done a lot of voluntary training these past few months..."

"I figured I should try and keep my skills sharp to some extent, even if I apparently won't need them anytime soon. So what do you need?"

Temari planted a hand on her hip, naturally displeased with the words of choice. "Do I have to need something to come see how my little brother is doing?"

Ash leveled a suspicious glance at her. "No, but are you saying that you don't have any other reason at all?"

Defeated, Temari sighed as she withdrew a small scroll from the satchel at her hip. "Of course I have other reasons, but that wasn't really the point... anyway, a member of the Intel Corps stopped me on the way here and said this message came in for you. It was brought here by a hawk from the Hidden Stone, so they did check the scroll for traps, and they read through its contents for security reasons. Sorry if you feel like your privacy has been violated."

Ash held his hand out, and Temari tossed the scroll to him. To be honest, he was not angry for the precautions. It was unusual for shinobi from different villages to communicate like this unless they were plotting something or going rogue. Not to mention that the Hidden Stone and Sand fought each other quite vehemently during the first and second Great Ninja Wars.

"It's fine. I know that they need to check for risks. Besides, I doubt Kurotsuchi said anything unnecessary in this."

"You actually remember her name?"

"Of course I do, she kissed me. And she was pretty cute."

Still a little miffed about an older girl smooching on her brother, Temari crossed her arms and scowled. "Don't remind me... what does it say, anyway?"

Ash gave her a sly look, naturally not answering the question in a manner Temari desired. "Don't be rude, Sis, this letter isn't addressed to you."

"Don't give me that! As your big sister, it's my job to make sure nothing bad happens to you, especially in a case like this! A suspicious girl like that writing letters to a young boy like you? She... she could be a predator or something!"

"Well she did seem pretty into me at the end there..."

Temari's fearsome countenance intensified tenfold. "Ash! I'm serious here! I don't trust that Ku..Kuro... whatever her name is, I don't trust her at all!"

Ash rolled his eyes as he opened up the scroll that was addressed to him. "Sis, if Kurotsuchi really bothers you that much, I'll let you read this when I'm done, alright?"

"Fine, hurry up and read it then."

Having pacified his sister for now, Ash scanned the words on the parchment, noting that Kurotsuchi's handwriting had a peculiar slant to it: or maybe that was just her sloppy penmanship.

Hey, squirt! I've got no idea if this is getting to you. I mean, I can't really know until I get a message back, but I addressed it the way you told me to. Anyway, I'm not gonna talk about anything important in this message, since I don't even know if you'll get it. If you do though, you can just give your response to the hawk I sent, and it'll come back to the Stone without a problem. I know it's kinda hypocritical for me to say this, but don't take forever to get back to me, alright? This was mostly just to establish whether or not this whole thing was gonna work out. Anyway, get back to me! Deidara's already driving me nuts and I need your wisdom!

Finished reading the message, Ash tossed it back to Temari, who read it over with a harsh glare. "Are your child predator senses tingling, Sis?"

Temari's expression was reduced to a small frown as she decided that there was nothing to be concerned about. She rolled up the scroll and passed it back to her brother. "No, you jerk, they aren't. Geez, I was just worried..."

"I think you were just jealous."

"Shut up. Do you want to hear the other reason I'm here or not?"

Ash pocketed Kurotsuchi's message, already wondering how often he'd be able to communicate with her. "Depends; is it the kind of thing I'll actually be happy to hear?"

"We're getting another mission, as a team. It's officially a C-rank, but Sensei said that it's more like a B-rank."

While Ash normally would have been excited to receive another mission above D-rank, the idea of a B-ranked mission worried him, whether it was official or not. "They're going to send Genin on what's unofficially a B-rank mission? Shouldn't Chunin be attending to it?"

"We aren't the only ones going. A whole team of Jonin is going too, Baki included, and there'll be two Chunin squads as well."

Ash calculated the numbers in his head. Ranks aside, there were fourteen ninja being sent on a single mission. It was extremely obvious that something big was going down. "If they're sending that many Jonin, it sounds like we're gonna be a bit out of our depth, Sis."

"We're really just going as backup, and even then, only as a last resort."

"Somehow I get the feeling that last resort is gonna be necessary..."

Temari turned to head back to the village, motioning for Ash to follow her. "Well, with where we're going, it wouldn't be a surprise."

"And where would that be?"

"Well you of all people should be happy: the Land of Water's about as different from here as you can get."

Temari's somber jest aside, Ash's couldn't help but feel some fear at the mention of it. The Bloody Mist was not exactly his top vacation destination.

Chapter Text

"Lord Kazekage, do you really think it wise to send them? This is a real combat mission that will likely involve combat between Jonin. They are skilled for Genin, but they will only be dead weight in such a battle..."

Kneeling before the Kazekage, Baki couldn't help but question his leader's decision to send his children and Baki's pupils on a dangerous mission that they were certainly not prepared for. He had told Temari the basic gist of things already, if only so she could find her brothers and prepare, but even now, Baki was trying to exempt his team from this mission to the Land of Water. He feared for their safety in the battle to come.

The Kazekage's face was a mask of indifference, though whether he was forcing it or not was unknown. "We simply do not have enough shinobi to spare, Baki. With our limited number of experienced personnel, even dangerous missions like this one must sometimes be filled with whoever we can spare. You already know our state of affairs, so why do you even ask this of me?"

Unfortunately, Baki did know quite well that the Kazekage's words were true. The dire economic state of the village for several years now had naturally caused many of their people to leave for more profitable lands. The gradually decreasing population over the years had naturally lowered the number of civilians choosing to become shinobi, to such an extent that the Hidden Sand had been losing shinobi through battle and desertion faster than they had been gaining them through each year's graduating classes.

Naturally, less shinobi meant less available personnel for missions, which were the most critical means of monetary gain in this time of crisis. And naturally, even the new shinobi they received annually took time to reach the level of Chunin or Jonin, if they were ever that good to begin with.

Which meant that Jonin were extremely valuable, and losing even one of them was a major blow to the village's economic income, since the missions they could undertake were obviously the most profitable. The Kazekage had to carefully distribute the deployment of his Jonin, even on extremely risky missions.

Seeing that Baki understood his position in this situation, the Kazekage continued with the explanation of why his children were being deployed at all. "As you know, this mission will be extremely dangerous. I must send a large number of shinobi, but if I send nothing but Jonin our casualties will be nothing but Jonin. I must send Chunin, and even they are more valuable at their current level of skill than any of the village's Genin. A mix of all three ranks will mitigate the truly grave casualties we incur."

Not for the first time, Baki wished the Wind Daimyo hand never signed that accursed deal with the Land of Fire. Every day it seemed to put more Sand shinobi in compromising positions. "I suppose that it is logistically accurate to say that Genin are more disposable than their more experienced counterparts..."

That last remark earned the Jonin a glare from his leader. "No, not disposable. It is true that losing a team of Genin will be less crippling to our economy than a team of Chunin, but my children are not pawns: Karura would never forgive me for throwing their lives away so carelessly. What happened with Gaara was already failure enough."

The mention of the Kazekage's wife caused Baki's body to stiffen. Very rarely was Temari and Kankuro's mother mentioned, not after she had slipped into the coma she had been in since giving birth to Gaara.

With Baki himself choosing to say nothing, the Kazekage clarified his intention to send his children on this dangerous assignment. "I am sending your Genin team on this mission because I believe your team will survive. My children are no pushovers, and Rōzeki is not to be underestimated either. If there are any Genin in this village who could actually prove useful on a high-ranking mission, it's those three. They are not experienced, but they are strong regardless. If they survive, this will help them grow as shinobi. Moreover, I trust your judgment in ensuring they don't go over their heads in the heat of battle."

Hearing that the Kazekage trusted Baki on something so important, the half-masked Jonin felt both honored and concerned. Obviously, if anything did happen to his team, there would be extremely dire consequences. Of course, it wasn't like Baki wouldn't try to protect them for its own merits as well. By now he would certainly do his best to protect those three simply because they were important to him.

Having not really put Baki's fears to rest, the Kazekage nevertheless ended the conversation the Jonin had brought up. Truthfully, there was really nothing more to discuss. "Gather your team and rendezvous with the other shinobi assigned to this mission at the village gate. The Jonin who is leading this mission will explain the situation there."

Nodding his affirmation with no small amount of unease, Baki rose to this feet and stepped out of the Kazekage's office, leaving the scarlet haired village leader to silently ponder his own decisions.

---

Fortunately, gathering his three students did not take Baki very long. Though he had not been able to tell her the specifics, not knowing them himself, Temari had taken it upon herself to inform her brothers of the situation so they could all be prepared when Baki came back for them. They had been waiting for their teacher at the foot of their own home, armed far more heavily than they had ever been for any other occasion. Baki had tried to avoid revealing the dangerous nature of the mission to Temari when he told her about it earlier, but apparently she had been able to read the mood.

Without a word on anyone's part, the team and its sensei quickly headed towards the village's main gate, which in reality was not a gate at all, but rather a large cleft in the cliffs that surrounded the Hidden Sand. Baki's team arrived at the same time the last squad of Chunin did, so the Jonin commander was able to brief all fourteen ninja at the same time.

"For those of you who haven't been told already, we're deploying to the Land of Water on a search and rescue combat mission, to save a unit that sent a distress call a few hours ago when a diplomatic mission turned hostile. Our primary objective is to find anyone still alive and extract them, but one shinobi in particular is to be saved no matter what, if she's still alive at all: Pakura of the Scorch style. She's the last remaining user of the Scorch style here in the Sand, and an incredibly valuable military asset. Before all else, we have to make sure she gets back here alive."

With the Jonin's commanding voice coming to a temporary halt, Ash asked a question. He had half a mind to raise his hand or something, but technically, they were all adults here, so he quelled the need very quickly. "Sir? Do we have an estimate on the strength of the enemy for this operation? I'm assuming we're outnumbered, but how badly?"

Almost every ninja save his siblings cocked an eyebrow at the boy, but since he had asked a sensible question, none sought to reprimand him for speaking. Their Jonin commander was quick to relay the information that had been asked for. "The SOS we received estimated roughly forty enemy shinobi in the area, but we would do well to assume that number has grown since then. Also, Pakura relayed that one of the infamous Seven Ninja Swordsmen was mentioned as reinforcements for the enemy. We will likely have to deal with him as well."

Before anyone could comment on this, Ash spoke up once more. "Am I right in assuming that even though we are told to avoid casualties at all costs, that this Pakura's life should take precedence over my own on the battlefield?"

"That is correct for all of us. We cannot lose one of the few Kekkei Genkai wielders the village has left. If we ever hope to revive the Scorch style here, we need Pakura alive, even if it means one of us has to die for her. I hope you're not voicing dissent?"

With no other questions to ask, Ash shrugged his backpack of weapons and tools into a more comfortable position on his shoulders. "I was simply clarifying the rules of engagement, sir. Better to know now than when we get there."

With a nod of satisfaction on his part, the Jonin commander turned towards the village entrance. "Very well. Time is of the essence, so we're moving out right now. We'll discuss our exact strategy when we arrive. It'll take days to get to the Land of Water even at top speed, and the longer we take to arrive, the higher the chance of our comrades being slain. They can only evade the enemy for so long. Follow me, and prepare for a long run!"

---

Pakura wished she could say she was surprised. She honestly wished she was an optimist, who would have expected a diplomatic mission to the Hidden Mist to run smoothly. Unfortunately, she was not. She was a realist, and she had been expecting a trap with every step she had taken into the Land of Water. This suspicion was the only reason she had survived the Mist ambush in the first place.

When she and the three Chunin who had accompanied her came to the dismal valley that was their designated meeting point with the Mist ninja they were supposed to negotiate with, Pakura had ordered her comrades to stay behind at the valley's entrance, so that they could assist her if there really was a trap in place. Going into the meeting place alone, the green and orange haired Sand kunoichi grew ever more suspicious as heavy mist began to spread rapidly throughout the narrow passage of land. The Land of Water was known for natural heavy mist, but any shinobi who had ever heard of the Hidden Mist village knew that said mist could easily be the setup for an ambush.

When her brown eyes finally spotted a Mist ninja waiting for her in the center of the valley, Pakura was almost certain she was going to be attacked. The man's smile was far too forced, and though he tried to hide it, he looked at the Sand Jonin with contempt and hatred, rather than the acceptance of a foreign envoy.

Still, she played her part, shaking the man's hand and exchanging a few words of pleasantries and wishes for better relations between the Mist and Sand. It was at this point that the Mist ninja suggested that Pakura take the lead down the valley, and if she needed a final reason to prepare for the worst, that was it. No one in their right mind would walk in front of someone who could possibly kill them.

Yet she did. Pakura was an experienced shinobi who was hailed as a hero in the Hidden Sand for her exploits against the Hidden Stone in years past, yet she was going to put herself in an impossibly compromising position that was practically guaranteed to get her killed.

In fact, the trap was so obvious at this point, that Pakura was not surprised in the least when the Mist ninja stabbed a kunai into her clone's bare back, right into its spine. Pakura had created a shadow clone of herself the moment mist had descended upon the valley, sending it forward into the enemy trap instead. The enemy had apparently not been able to tell the difference, because even as her clone failed to bleed, the Mist ninja who had stabbed it shouted in victory, beginning to rant about the grudge of the Hidden Mist against the Hidden Sand.

Pakura was not eager to listen to all of what the man had to say, especially as she was supposed to be 'dying' rather than watching the fiasco from the cover of the mist and rocks in the valley. Having been betrayed by the man who was supposed to help her establish some semblance of rocky peace with the Hidden Mist, Pakura felt no remorse as she made a handsign that ordered her damaged shadow clone to self-destruct.

This was a very complex technique, since causing a shadow clone to explode was not quite as easy as making any other clone do the same, but Pakura had spent many years honing this jutsu, and the man who stood next to her clone was doomed. In a blast of Pakura's crimson Scorch style flames, the enemy ninja was killed instantly, his body mummified by the intense heat of the blast. While not one who found pleasure in death, Pakura could not say this man did not deserve his fate, for trying to kill her in such an underhanded manner as he had.

Unfortunately, her use of chakra revealed Pakura's location to the enemy, and a veritable storm of kunai and shuriken came her way before the dust and debris from her explosion had even cleared. Her reflexes allowed Pakura to somersault out of harm's way, but upon landing she found herself faced with several squads of Mist shinobi appearing to confront her. They were all at least Chunin rank, and well over a dozen of them had shown their face already, with many more likely hiding in the mist.

"You're gonna pay for that, you desert bitch."

Sure that she could handle a group of Chunin, whether she was outnumbered or not, Pakura did not seem worried about this situation in the slightest. "Me? Aren't you the ones who tried to stab me in the back? If anyone is going to pay, it's all of you."

Unbeknownst to her, one of the Mist shinobi Pakura was talking to happened to be the brother of the man she had just killed, and he was far angrier than his comrades. Grabbing a kunai from his holster, he charged Pakura alone, blinded by rage. "I'm gonna kill you! I'm gonna kill you right now!"

One of his comrades from behind tried to stop him, but to no avail. "Saizo, don't be stupid! Wait for Raiga to get here!"

Heedless of the warning, Saizo rushed Pakura head on, his mind empty of everything except driving his blade into the kunoichi's guts. The far more experienced Jonin hardly reacted at all, not concerned in the slightest over such a foolish attack. Losing your cool was almost always fatal for a shinobi, but against a skilled Jonin, losing focus was practically asking to die.

The man didn't even think to throw some shuriken at her or something, instead coming into melee range as quickly as possible. He wanted to feel the blood of this woman on his hands, and he wanted to feel it now. That bloodlust blinded him to any strategic thought, or concern for his own safety.

Jabbing his kunai forward in a vain attempt to kill a far more skilled opponent, Saizo quickly found himself in a hopeless situation as Pakura sidestepped his attack, leaving him wide open for a counter. The famed kunoichi grabbed her foe's outstretched wrist as he sailed past her, choosing only to plant her fist in his stomach. While appearing to be nothing more than a physical blow, Saizo soon felt an agonizing burning sensation in his organs, as Pakura's Scorch style almost instantaneously killed him from the inside out.

Pakura's jutsu killed the Mist ninja long before he could manage to scream, but the sight of bubbling blood and melted flesh leaking out of a new hole in the man's torso galvanized the other enemy ninja to action, rather than scaring them off. Well, it seemed they weren't cowards, at the very least.

"D-damn it... why are we just standing around?! Let's get her already!"

The shinobi's words spurred on another wave of projectiles, prompting Pakura to quickly heft Saizo's lifeless corpse in front of her, using it as a makeshift shield. The sickly sound of weapons piercing the man's charred flesh did nothing to improve the moods of Pakura's enemies, and as she tossed the body aside, the Sand Jonin found several of her foes rushing forward to attack her in close range, though they were not going about it as foolishly as Saizo had.

With two enemies splitting off on either side of her, and two more coming down the middle with one leaping over the other, Pakura was on the receiving end of a simple, but effective blitz.

Drawing a kunai in each hand, she leaped above the enemies on the ground, intercepting the one in midair as their weapons clashed together. Kicking the enemy shinobi away, Pakura tossed her kunai at two of the enemies below, both opponents dodging the attack rather than blocking. This left only one of the assailants to immediately threaten Pakura, one that didn't remain such for long. A quick plume of the crimson Scorch style dispatched the airborne Mist ninja before he could think of a way to evade. That was why mid-air movement was always risky.

The Mist ninja found herself dead before her charred corpse hit the ground, something Pakura counted as a mercy, all things considered. But despite dealing with the first wave, the kunoichi from the Sand had no time to analyze the situation again, as a storm of kunai armed with paper bombs came at her out of the mist. Knowing that she would be unable to evade the blast of so many tags with her own speed, Pakura turned and threw a shuriken into the air behind her, quickly forming the hand signs she would need to switch places with the projectile.

Pakura's substitution moved her several dozen feet away from the paper bomb explosion, and more importantly, made it look as though she had been caught in the blast. Using both the mist and the residual noise of the explosion, Pakura retreated away from the enemy and towards the entrance to the valley where her Chunin squad mates were waiting. She could have contacted them ahead of time via radio, but there was no need to risk alerting the enemy to her survival.

Taking extra effort to make sure her footsteps made no sound, Pakura made it back to her comrades without incident, all of whom were nervously awaiting her arrival among some large boulders after hearing the explosion echo off the walls of the valley.

"Pakura! What happened?"

"We're leaving. The negotiations were short."

One of the younger Sand Chunin rose to his feet as he reached into his weapon holster, indignation evident on his face. "Those backstabbing scum!"

Pakura grabbed the man's shoulder and pushed him back into a kneeling position. "We're far outnumbered, and apparently Raiga Kurosuki is leading their force. Trying to fight is tantamount to suicide."

His anger subdued by the logic in Pakura's words, the Chunin nodded in understanding, ashamed that he had let his emotions get the best of him. Having placated the brash man, Pakura turned to the one member of her squad who served as their link to the Hidden Sand. He was specially trained for long range mental communication.

"Can you establish a connection with the missions operator in the village?"

Forming a hand sign to focus his chakra, the communications shinobi tried to contact his home village for assistance. His face contorted in focus and mild pain for a few moments, but when he released his sign, only dismay crossed the man's face. "I can't make a connection. Something is interfering with the jutsu."

Pakura's expression turned sour, having hoped that this exact obstacle would not surface. "The Hidden Mist jutsu is laced with chakra: it might be interfering with your own. If that's the case, we need to get away from this immediate area. Stick close to me and watch your backs."

---

Standing over the empty crater his Mist comrades had created with dozens of paper bombs, Raiga Kurosuki, an ANBU mask obscuring his face, glared into the mist around him. His intense grip on the twin lightning blades, Kiba, would have crushed the hilt of any normal sword. For reasons the shinobi around him couldn't understand, Raiga was very angry.

"Master Raiga, what's the matter? We got the Sand kunoichi. What else is there?"

Though a mask obscured his face, the ninja who had posed this question could feel Raiga's furious glare on him. "Do you see a corpse here?"

"W-what?"

"Do you see a corpse here?! I don't see a dead kunoichi, I see an empty crater! She escaped, and you've all been standing around here doing nothing! Who knows how far she's gotten?!"

The ninja Raiga was personally accosting took a step back. "W-well, we figured the blast would-"

Unwilling to entertain any excuses, Raiga swung one of his blades at the man's neck, decapitating him with disgusting ease. Kiba's edge stayed completely clean of blood even as the dead ninja's jugular began to spray blood into the air: its keen edge was rarely dirtied by blood, since it passed through human flesh so swiftly.

As the betrayed shinobi's head and corpse crumpled to the ground, expression of surprise still etched on his face, Raiga turned to the rest of the ninja around him. "What are you waiting for?! Find that kunoichi! Do not let her leave the Land of Water alive!"

With all the incentive they needed laying dead on the ground at Raiga's feet, the three dozen Mist Chunin and Jonin scattered in all directions, determined to hunt down and kill Pakura and any of her allies, lest they incur Raiga's wrath as well.

---

After roughly an hour of retreating towards the Land of Water's borders, Pakura stopped her team at the edge of a sparse copse of trees in the Mist countryside, ready to try and contact the Hidden Sand once more. It had started raining a short while ago, and not for the first time, Pakura regretted her choice of clothing. Her backless black top may have kept her cool in the desert, but in the rain, it only served to provide the cold water with easier access to her skin.

Still, as an experienced Jonin, Pakura was more than capable of ignoring the cold, instead looking to her communications officer as he attempted to contact the Hidden Sand once more. His expression was strained, but that was to be expected from a long-range telepathic communication. That skill set was immensely rare to start with, and it wasn't easy even for the most experienced practitioners.

"It's rough... but I think I can make the connection..."

After a few more moments of concentration, the shinobi held his hand out towards Pakura. "Captain, I have them. I don't know how long I can hold the connection though."

Reaching for his hand, Pakura decided to ignore the man's doubt, instead closing her eyes so she could focus on the mental conversation about to take place. With their concern over preserving their shinobi, the Hidden Sand had long since developed an emergency response system: any squad that deployed on a high risk mission had a shinobi with specialized communicative jutsu who could contact the village in an emergency. Of course, the shinobi capable of doing that were rare, so what exactly got counted as a 'high risk mission' tended to only be the most daunting or risky of prospects.

It was for this reason that at least one shinobi skilled in this art was always available at the village proper, and why one of them spoke to Pakura the moment he could sense the Jonin's mental presence. Pakura's communications squad member had already relayed the mission and squad details, so there was no need for Pakura to identify herself at all.

Captain Pakura, please relay the nature of your emergency.

Her ultimate goal being to acquire reinforcements, and knowing that they would be few in number no matter what, Pakura tried to make the situation sound as dire as possible. The worse things seemed, the better for her and her subordinates. Though admittedly, she didn't have to do much exaggerating for this situation to sound really bad.

The negotiations with the Hidden Mist were a complete failure. I was ambushed by a Mist ninja on the way to the village: my squad managed to escape without casualties, but we're being hunted by a far superior force and need reinforcements as soon as possible.

The ninja on the other end of the telepathic link sounded completely calm as he spoke to her. After all, he wasn't the one in danger.

What is the approximate size of the enemy force?

It's impossible to tell exactly how many were hiding in the mist, but I would estimate the strength of the enemy to be around forty shinobi. However, the enemy mentioned one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen was coming to reinforce them as well.

While he still did not sound alarmed, the Sand ninja Pakura was talking with seemed to recognize the danger presented with the name of the Ninja Swordsmen. They were a force not to be trifled with.

Understood. We'll send the appropriate amount of reinforcements. What is your squad's location?

Pakura was glad that she could answer this question the way she could. The Land of Water was essentially a bundle of islands, but they also owned a piece of the main continent's southeast peninsula, which bordered the Land of Fire. Pakura was grateful that her squad had been ambushed before reaching further into the Land of Water; retreating from one of its many islands would have been much more difficult than retreating from the small piece of the mainland they owned.

We're nearing the border between the Land of Water and Fire, advancing across the southeast peninsula. I plan to egress approximately around the Subuku Cliffs area.

Acknowledged. Stay in contact if you can; reinforcements are on the way.

Severing the connection to the Hidden Sand, Pakura faced her squad once again. "Help is on the way, but we all know how far the Hidden Sand is from here. It'll be days before they arrive, and until then, we're on our own. Our safest bet is to cross into the Land of Fire; a force of Mist shinobi as large as our pursuers would never come very far into another country's territory, for obvious reasons. Still, they'll definitely try to cut us off before we make it there, so stay alert."

With a nod from all of her men, Pakura's endangered squad rose to their feet once more. The only thing left for them to do right now was run, hide, and survive.

---

Having departed the Hidden Sand as soon as possible, and moving as quickly as they could besides, the unit of Sand shinobi that had been dispatched to rescue Pakura's squad had already crossed the border into the Land of Rivers by late evening on the day they had left. The moon had already taken its place in the cloudy skies above, but the night did not signify rest for the ninja of the Hidden Sand.

There was actually no intention of resting on the way to the Land of Water. The plan was to cross the Land of Rivers that night, and to cover as much distance as they could before morning in the Land of Fire, at which point they would move more slowly and carefully, to avoid being detected by any patrolling Hidden Leaf ninja. While they were a small force, the Hidden Leaf would likely take the Sand's presence in the Land of Fire as an act of aggression, and the last thing anyone needed was another conflict. This time of slow advance would be the only real rest the unit received, even though they would still be moving.

Once darkness had settled over the land once again, they would increase their speed as much as possible, using the cover of night to cross the Land of Fire as quickly as they could manage. If everything went according to plan, the unit would arrive at the border between the Land of Fire and Water in just two days. Given, this breakneck speed would exhaust them all, but it was better to arrive tired than to not arrive in time. Besides, everyone had brought an excess of high potency soldier pills, both to keep them going and give them the strength they needed to fight when they arrived at the scene of battle. Sure, they would all crash from the boost later, but hopefully it would only be after they were out of danger.

Leaping through the trees of the Land of Rivers as quickly as he could manage, Ash surprisingly found himself very calm in the face of the danger before them. Of course, that may have been because the battle was still a short time away, but Ash figured he would have at least been a little nervous, considering that he could and would probably die. He had no illusions about the fight ahead: he and his siblings were going to be far outclassed by the enemy. One enemy Jonin could easily kill all three of them without batting an eye, and that would be that.

He honestly had no idea why they had been sent on a mission such as this, but as the thought of being expendable further cemented itself in Ash's mind, he was suddenly reminded of his overall distaste for both his career and the village that career served.

But his fatigue surprisingly helped Ash's anger subside. He was literally too tired to be angry, and this allowed the voice of reason to come through, at least to an extent.

I suppose I won't really be throwing my life away for the village... this mission is to save someone else, so if I think about it that way, it isn't so bad... I might be willing to risk myself for another person. That's a little different than a cluster of buildings in the middle of the desert. Though it still would have been nice to have a choice in the matter.

As if Baki could sense the mounting discontent in Ash's mind, he shouted back at his team, who were bringing up the rear of the entire unit. "How are the three of you doing? Can you keep going?"

Distracted from his disgruntled thoughts, Ash eyed the man ahead of them with a cocked eyebrow. What was the point of asking them if they were tired? First of all, of course they were. Just speaking anatomically, kids like them didn't have the stamina of the adults they were traveling with, even if they supported their bodies with chakra. Second, no matter how tired they were, Ash and his siblings had no choice but to keep going. They were on a mission, and they were shinobi. They had to perform just as well as the comrades with them, and could receive no special treatment because of their age or rank.

For these reasons, Ash decided that complaining about the situation was pointless, as it would change nothing about it regardless. "I can keep going."

Kankuro was apparently too focused on breathing properly to answer verbally, so he simply nodded his head, while Temari seemed to be in the best shape out of all of them. "There's no point in asking that, Sensei. We can't afford to slow down the unit, and we have to arrive to help our comrades as soon as we can. We aren't stopping."

Baki was pleasantly surprised that his students were handling this so well, but was also a little surprised that Temari appeared to be in such good shape compared to her brothers. "Temari, you don't seem to be very winded. If anything, your breathing seems almost completely regular."

While Temari didn't want to brag, she couldn't resist explaining herself now that she had been called out. "Well it gets hard to breathe after you push yourself for awhile, so I'm using my Wind Style to get as much air in my lungs as possible. It only takes a tiny bit of chakra, and it's really working wonders. My legs still hurt, but I feel like I could keep going for hours."

At this, Kankuro wheezed at her from the side. "So... unfair..."

Temari couldn't resist a cheeky smile at the reactions she was getting. Irritating Kankuro was always fun, and she could see the faint smile on Ash's face, showing that he was more impressed with his sister than jealous of her. Baki on the other hand stared at her blankly, a number of questions running through his mind.

I can't believe this! In all of my years as a wind-style user, how could I not have thought of this?! How did a young child utilize such an obvious technique before me?! Before anyone?! Do any of the other wind-style users in the village think to do this?!

Ash smirked at the flabbergasted look on Baki's face. "You alright there, Cyclops? Something rubbing you the wrong way?"

Not falling prey to Ash's obvious attempt to provoke him, Baki faced forward once again. He was a little mad to have been shown up by Temari just now, but as he began using her technique for himself, he couldn't deny that it was pretty effective.

---

"It looks safe to me."

Pakura resisted the urge to accost the Chunin next to her for making such a foolish comment. Indeed, the Subuku Cliffs that marked the border between the Land of Water and Fire looked clear, even from their position under the rain-soaked bushes at the edge of a forest the Sand shinobi had chosen for cover. As best as Pakura could see, there were no enemies occupying the open ground between her squad and these cliffs, but she knew better than to make assumptions. Making an assumption on the field was just asking to die.

"It may be possible that the enemy hasn't reached this point yet, but no country leaves their border unguarded. Even if our pursuers aren't here, there are enemy patrols that have probably been informed of the situation. The chances of this being another trap are very high."

One of the Chunin cast a sideways glance at her, a little irritated with his captain. For the life of him, he couldn't stand how slowly she chose to take things all the time. "So what are we going to do then? Just sit here? We have to cross the border, you said so yourself!"

While Pakura knew that the stressful nature of this situation was straining her men's nerves, she herself was growing quite irritated with them. This was no time for anyone to lose their cool. "Yes, I did, and yes, we do. But running straight towards the border across a barren field is not the way to reach safety. For all you know, the distance between us and the border could be lined with explosives, yet you want to rush straight in. Would you rather reach the Land of Fire safely or in pieces?"

Unable to dispute her words, the Sand Chunin fell silent, cursing the day he was selected for this mission. He was glad to be under a capable leader like Pakura, but he would have preferred to not be out of the Land of Wind at all.

Seeing that no one else had any objections to raise, Pakura decided to lay out her plan. "It's clear that the enemy planned to betray us from the very beginning, so even though they wanted to destroy us back at the valley, they probably placed a backup unit at the border in case we managed to escape. If we try to cross into the Land of Fire and get intercepted by the border guard, we'll get flanked by our pursuers from behind. We won't stand a chance if we don't find a way to distract the enemies ahead of us. We need to draw their forces to a decoy, which will create an opening in the line for us to escape through. If we create clones and send them forward here, the enemy will focus on them until they discover the trick, and that may give us enough time to escape."

"But Captain, normal clones can't fight or take hits. The moment an attack passes through them, the enemy will be onto us."

"All the more reason for our clones to make doubly sure they evade any and all attacks for as long as possible. I would send a shadow clone, but we can't afford to needlessly waste energy. If this plan fails, we'll need all of the chakra we can get to fight. That said, if anyone has a clever idea, I'm open to suggestions."

When no one else spoke up, Pakura extracted herself from the bushes they were hiding under and rose to her knees, forming the necessary hand-sign for making a standard clone. "Then let's go. The longer we wait to do this, the more likely it is that the enemy behind us will catch up. We don't have time to stand around."

Pakura's squad quickly followed its captain's example, and soon enough, four clones of the Sand shinobi stood ready to distract the enemy for their creators. Pakura spoke to all of them at once. "Wait here for ten minutes, then rush the border. If you're intercepted by enemies, do your best to avoid any and all attacks. Distract them for as long as possible. Understood?"

The four clones gave a collective nod, which was about the extent of their communicative ability. Certain that they would do as they had been told, Pakura lead her squad further down the line of trees they hid in, staying parallel to the border. Hopefully any Mist ninja in the section they were heading to would move to intercept the clones once they made their move. Any shinobi with half a brain would stay at their post in case something went wrong, but the Hidden Mist's training methods tended to produce overly bloodthirsty fighters, always itching to kill. They wouldn't want to pass up the chance to gut their hated enemies.

Once Pakura and her men had moved far enough away from the area their clones would be drawing attention to, they simply hid in the outskirts of the woods, waiting for the doppelgangers to follow their orders before making a break for it. Having spent a good part of the ten minute waiting time just reaching their position, the four shinobi did not have to wait long, as they soon heard the blast of an explosive tag in the distant area they had abandoned.

Taking this to mean that the clones had begun their diversion, Pakura waited another thirty seconds, waiting for any shinobi in their area to hopefully abandon their posts and investigate the disturbance. Still, if she waited too long, the trick would be discovered, so Pakura did not waste more than a minute before motioning her squad forward.

There was a rather large expanse of open ground between them and the cliffs on the opposite side of the forest, but they had no choice but to simply cross it as quickly as possible, and reduce how long they were exposed. Sprinting at top speed allowed the four ninja to pass the open area in under a minute, but even though she should have counted it as luck, Pakura was immediately suspicious of how smoothly things were going. The plan had been to divert the border guard to another area, but Pakura didn't think it would actually work this well.

Upon reaching the foot of the cliffs that separated the Lands of Fire and Water, Pakura brought her men to a halt, much to their own chagrin. Salvation seemed so close, and here there captain was, preventing them from reaching it.

"Captain, why are we stopping?! The enemy has probably already seen through our diversion, we have to move!"

"Yeah, the border is right up there, what are we standing around for?"

Pakura refused to answer these questions as she tried to determine what was making her feel uneasy. Something wasn't right here, but she couldn't quite tell what it was. There was something in the air, something that was making the hair on her arms stand on end...

As a loud blast of thunder echoed throughout the rainy skies, Pakura suddenly realized what felt amiss in the air. "Everyone, dodge!"

Taking her own words to heart, Pakura was halfway through a backwards leap before anyone in her squad was thinking to do the same. They all followed her lead, leaping away from their position as soon as they had processed Pakura's warning, but one of them was just a second too slow, as a bolt of chakra-laced lightning struck him from the cliffs above.

The attack was so powerful, that the unfortunate victim was killed instantly by the heat, not even allowing him enough time to scream as his body slumped to the ground in a charred, sizzling heap.

Skidding to a stop, Pakura glared up at the cliff where the bolt had originated from, laying eyes on the person she had expected: Raiga Kurosuki, one of his blades still smoking with residual heat. He was also not alone, as Pakura spotted two squads of Mist ninja flanking the Ninja Swordsman on both sides. Based on their uniforms, a few of them appeared to be Jonin, much to Pakura's dismay.

Damn, guess I underestimated them...

While his expression was hidden behind his ANBU mask, Raiga's contempt for the foreign shinobi below him was obvious in his voice. "So, did you really think a cheap trick would throw me off? Is your opinion of Mist shinobi truly so low? I'm almost insulted, to think that you would disregard me as your enemy so easily. If only you had been as overconfident as your comrades... that last attack would have killed all four of you had it struck."

The two surviving members of Pakura's squad looked up at the enemy in fear. They were outnumbered and outclassed, and they had just watched one of their comrades die right before their eyes. To say they were scared was a bit of an understatement.

Seeing this, Pakura was quick to rally them, as best as her abilities could manage. "Don't freak out just yet, you two. If you don't stay calm, you're guaranteed to die. If you focus, there's at least a chance that you'll get out of this alive. I'll do what I can to get us out of this, but I need you to do your parts as well."

While her words were not completely assuring, Pakura nevertheless spoke the truth, so the two men with her steeled themselves as well as they could, facing the enemy above them with whatever courage they could muster.

This act of resistance seemed to disgust Raiga even further. "Little fish like you standing up to a shark like me... does no one know their place anymore? Heh... allow me to fix that." Raiga turned his gaze on to Pakura. "Bow before me and beg for your life, and I may let you live: I've never seen how a desert bitch like you grovels."

The accosted kunoichi smirked up at the large man that looked down on her, seemingly unbothered by his bravado or his insults. "I really don't think that's going to happen."

"Oh? Are you so foolish as to resist me with your paltry numbers? Do you really think you can escape us?"

Pakura formed a sphere of her crimson Scorch style chakra in her right hand. "I do. Trust me, I don't pick fights I can't win."

Her reply earned a spurt of malicious laughter from the only Mist Swordsman present. "Is that so? I will admit, you vermin certainly are amusing. Well then, if you are so eager to entertain me, so be it! Show me the extent of your petty resistance!"

With that, Raiga raised the twin blades Kiba once more, preparing to launch another lightning style attack. Pakura charged her own jutsu to meet it, speaking to her surviving squad-mates as she did so, while also making a communication hand-sign with her free hand. "The moment these attacks collide, we break east, got it!?"

With a simultaneous nod from her men, Pakura unleashed her Scorch-style attack as Raiga cast another bolt of lightning at her. The collision of these jutsu created a blast that covered the area in smoke, and the threatened Sand shinobi were on the retreat immediately, sprinting to the west under the smoke's cover, just as Pakura had said they would with her silent communication a few moments ago.

Misdirecting the enemy with her words probably wouldn't buy much time, but at this point, Pakura was willing to try anything to survive this accursed situation.

Damn, I hope these reinforcements have a sense of urgency!