Hiding in the desert was harder and required more skill compared to the easier task of getting lost in the desert. When a person can see to each horizon from every which way, they must be swallowed up by and join the horizons to become truly unreachable.

Such was the task Baki faced.

He was so focused on making sure no one knew where to find them that he went further than was necessary.

The merchants were catching their breaths. Baki was drenched in sweat and the strength in his legs failed and when he fell the impact shook at the presence of pain on his side.

The panic and shock from the events faded away into full on collapse as sobs rose up from the scattered group of merchants and hysterical words of despair or rage.

Baki was gripping his side where blood was seeping. Akira appeared and began to skillfully heal his wounds.  

"What are we supposed to do now?" one of the merchants came up to him inevitably and more flocked around. "All of our camels ran away in a panic."

"Oh my gosh, are you injured?" When Baki winced, the man clung to his face, digging his fingers into his skin. "No, no, no, you can't be injured."

"We're going to die!"

"I'll be better soon enough," Baki cut in, "and my students are capable enough while I'm temporarily disposed."

"Our goods, stolen, our supplies, gone," a certain mourning merchant sobbed nearby. "We have no way of living without our merchandise."

"Never mind that, we have no chance of making it to an oasis without camels."

"You still have us," Baki's gruff voice broke through and swept through the group to calm them.

"The Hidden Sand will recompense you for your stolen wares and mounts." He rose to his full height and hid a flinch, lending himself as a symbol of strength and reassurance. "For now, we should focus on getting to a town. Please rest for a bit while we do a headcount. We guarantee your safety above all else."

When the merchants settled down, Baki scanned the aftermath of the attack. No food and water like they said, except for the skins and bottles some probably had on their person. They'd have to set up something for shade. There were some patrons who needed immediate first aid. After his survey, he realized some of his students were missing.

He caught eyes with Akira and knew he should leave them be.

Ritsu found her hunched behind a cluster of rocks. He saw the glint of something shining off of the sun. In the same second he thought it was a blade, he realized it was a needle.

His sudden alarm died down and he lumbered over to his teammate.

Suzume knew he was approaching but either didn't care or couldn't react in time.

"Give me a shot." Ritsu seized the syringe, and while he was sliding down the wall to sit next to her, detached the needle to swap it with his own. She stared ahead as he located a vein on his arm and took the injection of tranquilizer.

He fidgeted in his spot, waiting for the chemical to spread. "You're on some weak stuff."

"Gaara-sama confiscated my stash," Suzume said with an empty voice. "It's not enough."

"Number one rule in mithridatism," Ritsu curled his fingers into a fist and then uncurled them, "never put your emotions into it."

Suzume curled up closer together. "I'm not."

"The hell you're not." Ritsu drew her arms away from their hold around her legs, pushed aside her shirt, and managed to see the damage in its entirety. What he'd never envy Suzume for was her high pain tolerance. It just meant she didn't care. "Instead of holing yourself away and relying on these fucking things, get Akira to fix your shit."

Ritsu shoved her arms aside and Suzume let them fall back down.

"Come on," he said through his teeth. He grabbed a fistful of her shirt and pulled her limp body up. "Get off your ass!"

When Suzume finally stood on her own two feet, she didn't have to go really far when Akira appeared out of nowhere to slowly lower her back down again.

After a quick exam, Akira's eyes blazed in an obvious healer's outrage. "Suzume-san, Ri-chan was right. You should've came straight to me, especially with these injuries... Are you listening to me, Suzume-san?"

Suzume's breathing quickened and shook. Then, she cried.

Ritsu and Akira looked on in surprise as she bawled like a child. It was pitiful, and Ritsu suddenly felt a stirring of anger inside of him, of hatred.

"Shut up. You're embarrassing yourself," he whispered in a tremor. "If you couldn't handle it, you shouldn't have been here in the first place! You fucking baby! Just go back to your crib and pacifier! Go back home and let the Sand Siblings coddle you in the safety of their status! Don't call yourself a shinobi again, spoiled brat!"

Suzume's cries died down and she was left sniffling. Ritsu, relieved after having his say, stomped away.

Akira had stayed silent during his friend's outburst, not feeling the need to stop him, but slightly thinking that he went a bit too far.

"Suzume-san," he said sternly now, "after I heal you, I'd like you to seriously think about heading back to the village ahead of us."  

Suzume saw and felt the lighting of a gentle glow and how it was sinking and mending her wounds. Was it an hour or more, she didn't know, but soon enough Akira rose and left her side.

The sounds of the bustling company of merchants were dull in the background. Occasionally, she'd catch a word or two said by members of her team until the sentence drifted away. The sun beyond the boundaries of the shadow she sat in made everything look too bright and fake.

For a second she wasn't aware of herself, of being a conscious, physical being.

She flexed the muscles in her legs, and in her arms. The pain was gone... Where did it go? Why did it leave so early?

It should've stayed.

She let herself go again.

If she reached over a bit, or looked to her left, Jabari would be there, she told herself, so she didn't do either of those things, and kept looking down and her hands like dead weight by her sides. He'd be pulling a hand through one of his sheep and talking animatedly about his next tapestry, or his thoughts on how tapestries can and cannot be used. He was adamant about how they shouldn't be just placed on a wall to view, but used as a blanket and worn and torn until patches were placed on top of the original. That was when, he said, that tapestries are used to their fullest.

Jabari's eyes flashed underneath her eyelids and she saw the hand she couldn't reach.

Suzume curled into herself again. "I'm so sorry..." she whimpered. "I'm so sorry I couldn't do anything. I couldn't do anything to protect you. I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry...!"

"Baa!"

Suzume snapped her head up to see a sheep in front of her. It bleated again and Suzume saw past it to the others crowded around her. The one who had shaken her out of her depression bounded away toward the horizon laid out in front of her and made another sound of concern.

Suzume's confusion sunk down when she realized. "He's gone."

The sheep bleated again, more urgently.

"He's gone," Suzume repeated, her heart twisting in her chest. "Please, just stop it."

All of the sheep started crying now and Suzume clung onto her clothes until they tore a little.

Then, she heard a sound, or felt a pulse, she didn't know which, but something was calling out.

She slowly got up and squinted into the distance from where it came, letting her feet inch forward uncertainly.

Her eyes going wide, she spun around to the sheep that were behind her now and said, "Stay," then raced into the desert alone.

When the boys found out about Suzume's absence, they reported it to Baki under the impression she left to head back to the village. Baki wasn't impressed. Rather, his eyebrows cinched and his mouth carved into a perpetual frown.

"I do not think what you said to Suzume was ill-advised, but sending her off without taking into account the danger she would be in was imbecilic. It doesn't look like she took any supplies and she wouldn't have a mount since all the camels were scared off. And how do you know whether or not she left on her free will or if she was captured? Under normal circumstances and only under my approval would members of this team be sent back to the village prematurely, understood?"

They nodded silently in understanding.

"Now, we have to locate Suzume before doing anything else..." Baki trailed off and strained his eyes off into the distance.

The boys followed his gaze and saw a silhouette solidifying among the heat waves, bobbing and warping with them. It appeared to be a band atop camels.

"Ready to engage!" Baki ordered and Ritsu immediately had a kunai in each hand. Akira ran toward the merchants to get them together to run.

"Wait..." Ritsu, whose eyes were better than Baki's, relaxed from his stance. "Isn't that..."

The closer the camels got, the more they were able to see how there was no one riding them except for one. And the person on that camel was too short to be an adult.

Baki sighed but had a smile on his face. "Go and help her, Ritsu."

Ritsu didn't hesitate to go to his teammate, and once he got close enough, he saw Suzume collapse and slip off her camel's back. He sped up and caught her just in time.

Ritsu quickly checked for her pulse and calmed when he found it. He supposed she was just catching up on her dead-as-a-log sleep.

The camels all crowded around the pair of them, along with a couple of other miscellaneous livestock, and Ritsu stood up with Suzume still in his arms. He whistled and the animals followed them to the camp where Baki and Akira were waiting.

"You did good, Miss Freak."

Getting back their camels and others raised the merchant's morales sky high and Baki had an easier time coordinating with them to prepare for their journey to the nearest town. They waited until nightfall for the constellations and a cooler temperature until they arrived at an oasis to stock up on water and gather their bearings. Akira was nursing an unconscious teammate all the while.

Suzume woke up to the rattling of a cart and she kept her eyes closed and curled up when a bolt of pain tore reality back into place and her eyes were open. What she saw was the knobby rings of the wood and the threads of the blanket on top of her.

Taking calming breaths, she steeled herself and pulled her heavy and stinging body up. Somebody had bandaged her torso, head, and hands. She dragged herself over to the side to prop her body against the side of the cart. She looked up at the sky to see the stars blinking down on her.

Her eyes were strangely dry and the inside of her chest hollow. She assumed it was the exhaustion. She knew she was thirsty but didn't have the strength or the motivation to ask for water.

She could hear the ocean and Jabari's voice.

But you have strength only I can imagine to think and try.

She fell into a restless sleep.

Suzume was awake when Ritsu went to her in the early morning. He crouched to her level and observed her dismal state. The light which had occupied her eyes during this mission was gone and from what he saw now, it was impossible to think it was ever there. She wasn't putting any effort into keeping herself up and her body was sinking and limp. Her lips were cracked and dry, her skin pallid from the nights she spent fighting against her scorching fever.

"Oi," he said crudely, "Baki-sensei wants to see you."

Her eyes slid to look at him. "Where are we headed?" Her voice was hoarse and scratchy.

"It'll take roughly two more weeks until we reach the trade town in the Nousa territory," he said as he brought out a skin of water. "You were out for four days."

He held out the water for Suzume to take and she stared at it. He was about to coerce her into drinking but it wasn't necessary when she pulled it out of his hand and drained it in one gulp.

She returned it and then struggled to her feet. The blood rushed to her head and her vision came in and out, but even as she was temporarily blind she walked on.

"You're welcome," Ritsu muttered and put away his skin then followed after Suzume.

Suzume limped decisively to where she saw Baki and Akira conversing with the merchants. As she approached, the merchants cleared away from her path and their gazes burned into her.

"Shinobi-kun," one of them came up to her and suddenly she saw slight concern in their wariness, "shouldn't you rest?"

"I've been called."

"But with your injuries... just a child..." The woman faltered and Suzume bowed her head uncertainly before continuing on her way.

When she was in front of Baki, she knelt and bowed her head.

"I suppose you know what you did wrong," he said from above.

"I apologize for my impulsive actions. I should've informed you before I went after the camels. I also apologize for not checking in with you immediately, Akira, as I had injuries which were dire cases. If I were to be incapacitated, I wouldn't have been any use to the mission. And... finally, I take full responsibility in failing to protect one of our patrons, Jabari of Shin, due to my incompetency. His death is on my hands."

"We carry the same fault as our peer," Ritsu assumed the same position and bowed his head, along with Akira on the other side of Suzume. "We presumed a superiority we didn't have and left a distraught comrade alone when they would be prone to risky action."

"I as well, didn't account for every merchant as we were rushing to safety. In my haste, I left two of our patrons behind in a dire situation that my already injured teammate had to deal with," Akira said. "The death of Jabari of Shin is on my hands as well."

"I'm glad you three know and address your faults," Baki said. Then there was a shifting and the kids looked up to see him on his knees and his face fallen in shame and sadness. "Seems like we all need to learn from this. I am sorry for not being there when you needed me. I should not have let my guard down. I assumed there wouldn't be any significant danger out here, and my assumptions led a wise and priceless person to be killed as a result. I have never been more proud of you all and more ashamed of myself."

He bowed his head.

"Would you accept the apology of this hopeless teacher?"

From then on, as they traveled, the three students trained.

"It's especially because we are under threat we must do this," Baki told Ritsu who questioned the sensibility of training when they should be focused on guarding. "This time, we're ready. And this training will help you all fight."

Suzume was assigned sleep deprivation training. Baki created bomb tags which had a considerably low amount of output and gave them to Suzume to attach to her person. Every time her chakra dipped lower than her standard, meaning she'd fallen asleep and her chakra had become more dormant, one of the tags would go off, shaking her awake. The less tags that went off, the more successful she'd be. There was a small explosion every minute.

For Ritsu, Baki planned a system where each of the people in their company would yell out an exercise for the young shinobi to do and he was to do it immediately without thinking. The amount of seconds it took for him to start, he'd have to multiply the amount of reps by two hundred and add it to the thousand he already had to do. Akira made him do the most push ups.

For Akira it was strength training. Weights were attached to his ankles, waist, and wrists. He also had a basket on his head that sacks of sand were tossed into, the amount growing each day. It came to the point when he made trenches in the ground as he walked. Ritsu sometimes hung off of him as a dead weight until Akira swore he'd make him into a bag of sand if he didn't stop.

Each day, the merchants all spectated around them in a circle as Baki taught his kids. What he was teaching them at that moment was endurance and balance.

The kids were all in a handstand and had a barrel on their feet, another added after every hour.

Ritsu had the most endurance but his balance needed work as the barrels shook from his swaying stance. Akira was average, but was the first to have a barrel fall. Suzume was the first to stop, having great balance but an even lesser amount of endurance.

The next day. Baki tossed Ritsu in the air, threw Ritsu like a bowling ball, and rolled Ritsu out like a rug. "Always land on your feet! No matter what injury you may have, or how scared you are, if you're not on your feet, you can't do anything! You'll be at the mercy of your enemy!"

While Ritsu was collapsed to the side, Akira stood in front of Baki in his place.

"I'm going to put some impact here and you'll have to do as I said."

Akira gulped and nodded, readying himself.

Baki struck his solar plexus and Akira almost immediately collapsed, clutching at his stomach and gasping for breath.

"When you're hit here, don't do what Akira is doing now. Stretch your back, expand your gut. You will train until you are familiar with the feeling and able to counteract it efficiently."

When Baki looked over, he saw birds circling Ritsu's head, Suzume tipping over from dozing off, and Akira twitching on the ground.

He sniffed.

A small explosion and Suzume jumped awake again.

The third day.

"For the next few days, on top of my assignments, you three must work together. Teach your specialties to each other," Baki instructed. "Today, I am turning over my job to you."

Ritsu was a fast learner.

"Wow, Ri-chan!" Akira clapped as his friend healed one of the merchant's injuries. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks, man." Then Ritsu's smile fell and his eyes moved over.

Suzume's hands were hovering over another person's gash and sweat slipped down her face. The chakra that pulsed in and out of her hands refused to sink into the other person's wound. The boys watched respectfully as she struggled with more than what appeared like the absence of compatibility as a healer.

"Suzume-san..."

"I can do it," she insisted. "I can."

She looked like she was going to cry again. Soon enough, she reached over to Akira and gently tugged him over with hushed pleas to heal the woman.

They let her skip a day of her sleep deprivation training.

It was Suzume's turn to teach.

She spun her sword around expertly a few times then returned into a relaxed stance. She looked over at them.

"Like this."

The boys stared blankly at her. It's no good, she runs on purely instinct.

"...Maybe you're not cut out for teaching," Ritsu said.

Suzume frowns and then spun the sword around again before settling back into the same position.  

She sheaths it.

"Let me help with recovery."

"What do you mean? Like healing?" Akira asked.

"No." Suzume disappeared and suddenly a hit sent Ritsu flying parallel to the ground. He didn't process this until he starting skidding through the sand. But before he could refocus himself, Suzume was right above him.

A kick sent him back to where Akira was standing, gawking.

"It's what Baki-sensei was teaching us before," Suzume said, standing back where she had been like nothing had happened between her last word. "If you can't dodge, block. If you can't do either, brace yourself and think about what to do next so you can react."

While Ritsu was getting back to his feet, a voice spoke by Akira's ear and he couldn't see Suzume in front of him anymore. "Your turn."

At the end of the session, she told them running away and losing your attacker is also recovery, so if there was a chance to run they should take it.  

Ritsu was grumbling about how she should recover a sense of holding back as he rubbed at a sore on his bottom.

For his specialty, Ritsu spent his time making exercise menus for them as he saw where they lacked and where they could hone. After they were looked over by Baki and approved by him, Ritsu gave them the menus to start when they arrived back home.  

"Kunoichi-san."

Suzume turned.

It was the merchant from that time. He was looking nervously at her with a kind smile.

They sat together on a cluster of boulders and he was peeling an apple for them to eat. "Had it in my pack to save for later," he'd winked.

The shaving of the apple and the soft winds against their skin made Suzume want to close her eyes. The sand scurried by their feet. There were distant sounds of the other merchants as they talked to alleviate the stark mood.

The merchant was a softer version of Baki. Smaller and not as harsh. He had dark skin and long eyelashes. When he pulled off his turban there were wisps of gray in his brown hair. When he smiled there were gaps where teeth once were. A mole hung above his mouth.

He offered a slice of the apple and Suzume accepted it with a bow.

"I'm sorry for running," the merchant told her, the simple words seeming to weigh on him.

"That was a smart decision." Her eyes were wide and dark and placed in his direction. "There wasn't anything you could've done in that situation. If you hadn't ran, you would've been in the way of Baki-sensei and we would have all died."

The man gulped, his smile faltering. "Even so... I do feel guilty. You two saved my life."

"It's... my job."

The merchant got to his feet and extended out a hand. "I'm salt merchant Musa. I have a small business in the Saboten territory, in the Port Town of Su-in. If you need anything, don't hesitate to contact me. Just send a hawk my way anytime."  

Suzume stood to accept his handshake and when she pulled her hand away found herself holding a business card.

"Cool, right?" the merchant said proudly. "I've been waiting to use that trick."

He patted her shoulder with a rough, dry hand.

"Do not blame yourself too much, kunoichi-san. Don't blame anyone. Just work harder from now on. I didn't know him, but the kid wouldn't have wanted you to suffer."

Suzume escorted him back to the main camp and parted ways at his tent. She went to her assigned place and sat in the sand. She reached into her pocket automatically for her string but found nothing but dust.

There was one more thing she had to do before she could return home.

They wouldn't let her in.

Despite being a motel, the Purple Satin was a place for reserved patrons only. There was tuile hanging over the doors, incense swaying in bronze bowls, people of relative status getting off their camels and being led inside by bellhops.

Her very existence there stuck out like a sore thumb. She looked worse than the stable hands that were leading the camels away to the stables. Torn clothes stained with old blood, sand and dust in her hair and clothes, those very clothes threadbare and torn.

People around her were sneering at her, they were yelling at her to leave. She looked down at her hands, dry and cracked with untended nails.

When one of the workers shoved her, she planted her feet to the ground and the man was the one to fall instead.

She looked at him as his face contorted in embarrassment. "I'm looking for someone," she said.

"Nobody here would meet with you." He jumped back onto his feet. "Get out of here, filthy beggar!"

"I'm a shinobi of the Sand."

They all laughed. "You, a shinobi?! What a joke!"

"Suzume-san!"

Her team was rushing toward her and, unlike her, were relatively clean and wearing simple but neat clothes as well as exasperated looks.

"We told you to wait!" Ritsu barked. "Of course they wouldn't let you in looking like a bandit."

"My appearance shouldn't change my status."

"You forgot your license and forehead protector, Suzume-san..."

Suzume frowned. "...I know."

"Liar," Ritsu said.

Meanwhile, Baki, who would look intimidating even in a clown costume, had spoken to the now fumbling manager and the workers were all in a panic to right their wrong.

"Do you realize we've been out in the desert for weeks and smelled like camel shit? That's you. Right now," Ritsu told her in the meanwhile. "You should shower before you meet with what's-his-face."

Suzume spotted something and before the boys could stop her, she strode over, borrowed the hose a worker was using, and sprayed herself down.

"Okay," Ritsu said, seeming to be able to accept this. "What now? Are you gonna strip in the mid-- don't!"

Suzume got a proper shower and changed like a respectable person after Ritsu and Akira practically dived on her.

The shinobi were escorted inside and given an unnecessary suite to wait in as the recruiter and his bodyguard were out at the moment.

It didn't take long for them to return and they were sent to the shinobi's residence where Suzume was sitting in the lounge. She stood when the men entered along with Baki who had let them in.

She bowed and they shook hands, the men attempting to exchange pleasantries. Akira came to drop off snacks and tea not that the conversation was going to be long.

Baki sat in the armchair between the two parties as Suzume started, "Jabari died on the way here and I'm here in his stead. I apologize."

A pause.

The recruiter ended up repeating, "Jabari-dono is dead?"

Suzume nodded.

"Well, then," the man shifted, putting his weight forward, "where are his works? They are worth immensely more now!"

Her eyes glazed over. "Bandits stole them."

The recruiter was visibly displeased. "What a shame."

Baki had risen from his seat even as the words were leaving the man's mouth. "I'm sorry, but we need to take our leave now." Ritsu and Akira were already out the door and Suzume was quick to follow. "Thank you for your time."

"If you recover any of them, contact us immediately," the recruiter sent after them.

The shinobi didn't make any action of acknowledgment except for the firm closing of the door.

The shinobi swept down the hall, Baki eyed Suzume's body language, rolled fists and tense shoulders.

"Suzume."

"I'm fine," she said. "I did what I came here to do. We should hurry back to the village."

The shinobi were heading to the flight of stairs leading down to the lobby when, "Excuse me," a woman in a suit and tie came up to them, her eyes staring at the door they just left behind. She bent down to whisper behind her hand, "If you're going to make a deal with that man, I'd advise against it. They're scammers and robbers. Don't trust them."

Baki and his team weren't all that surprised after what they'd just seen.

"We can arrest them," Ritsu proposed. "We don't have evidence but it'd be one hell of an inconvenience for them going through the process."

Suzume's shoulders slumped down away from their stiff posture, and she replied to the woman, "Thank you, but," her voice softened, "he was going to turn them down anyway."

In the midst of taking stock of their recent loot, the remaining bandits were carefully avoiding any interaction with the fuming and slightly crazed ex-shinobi, who was kicking boxes and tumbling around in the sand like a toddler having a tantrum.

To their relief, a large figure on camel back was coming toward them. She came to a halt and one of them took the reins as she made a beeline toward the one prick on the cactus.

"I ordered you not to kill!" she roared.

He whipped around to see who dared to talk to him but seeing the person made no difference. His bloodshot eyes squinted with the way he was pulling at his hair. "But it was her! The little mouse! The one I told you about!"

"You're not allowed to kill the children."

"That bitch is an exception!"

"There are no exceptions to my orders," the woman hissed.

"I can't just let her go like that!" He rubbed his head into the sand before popping back up again. "I'm going after them."

"You won't do a damn thing!" She knocked him to the ground and secured cuffs on him before he could register what was happening. "You're on house arrest from now on until we decide how to deal with you."

As the woman was gesturing for some of the bandits to come and escort Sora away, the man was thrashing around until his bonds cut into his skin.

"You need me!" he shrieked. "You know you do!"

"Get him something to do," the buff lady told one of the bandits. "Keep him busy. Maybe get him his therapist."

"Yes, ma'am."

Soon enough more people on camels arrived and went to her side.

One of them looked over at the ex-shinobi being loaded onto a cart while grumbling to himself.

"Sora is such a double edged sword, huh," the woman's right hand, a shorter woman with long hair tied into a tail said. "Kinda like we should, I don't know, let him go. Euphemism for kicking out."

"Sora is a loose shuriken, I can't throw him away anywhere on a whim just for him to hurt others. Just give me time to think."

"We don't have time for that. The Sand is the weakest it's ever been. We have to focus all our efforts or else we might waste the chance."

"You know, Shun, there were a lot of chances for me to stuff your mouth with scorpions but you don't see me doing it so often," the woman snarked.

"Good to see your mood has lifted," Shun crossed her arms. "And that was only one chance, ya missed it. Further proving my point."

"Usi," she implored to a round man, "tell her she's being a complete nag."

"You're being a complete nag," Usi said toward Shun, through an amused smile, then looked back at Neha, "but she's being a completely correct nag."

"Pity it doesn't go through her iron head," Shun scoffed.

"Neha, the Sand isn't going to wait for us to attack," the last of their group a short but muscular man piped up, "you're just being paranoid with all this extra stuff."

"Taro, if you're not on my side could you not speak, eh?" Neha pulled herself back onto her camel.

After exchanging a few looks and rolling some eyes, the others followed suit, riding after her.

Neha pulled up her camel in front of the crowd of her people and they all ceased their work to listen.

"I condemn anyone who kills out of rage and revenge. We do these raids to supply us with our needs and not out of bloodthirst. If anyone tolerates such actions, you should leave our cause this instant!"

Nobody moved.

Satisfied, Neha continued, "I expect you all to be back at the base before morning breaks. Usi is appointed your supervisor until I decide who your next leader will be." She then turned to the round man, "Try not to break their spirits with your sense of humor."

"I have no i-Neha what you're talking about." A wink and a much too pleased expression.

"There it is," Neha muttered under her breath with a small smile as the witnesses groaned around them. "Hut-hut!" was shouted and three out of four of the group bolted away on their camels.

"How was the undercover?" Taro asked from beside her. "Did you manage to talk with some shinobi?"

"Yea, actually." Neha grinned broadly. "I met an interesting young man who just about bit my head off while I was implying some- what was the word Five Stripe used- anarchy like things."

"What was the point of you doing that by the way?" Shun inquired. "The shinobi are all thoroughly brainwashed, not like you're going to find any recruits."

"That's where you're wrong," Neha said, "Five Stripe didn't report me immediately. Amazing, isn't it? I think it's partly because of the turmoil the Sand's politics is in at the moment."

"You mean that Gaara you talked about before?"

"The guy who made the Educational Reform?" Taro said in interest.

"Exactly our man. His work is making our efforts easier. Maybe we should have more hope in the new generation of shinobi."

"Not too much," Shun frowned.

Neha glanced at her and her amusement faded. "Not too much," she agreed solemnly.

At this point in time, the revolutionaries had a third of the country on their side and a rising rate in participants.

Their goals: to change the Sand or change without it.