The Sand Siblings sped through the desert in a beeline to the black market. They had traveled two hours already and had another to go.

The act of running was so mundane, the landscape is something she's seen before, and none of them were speaking so it let Temari think too much.

She couldn't help her thoughts from wandering to her father. The injustice at having this problem dumped onto them when it was because of their dad up and dying that the nation is such a mess. Out of all the times actual serious revolutionaries could pop up, it's after their dad died. Why couldn't they have made themselves his problem, not theirs? Because Temari knew that the rebels had a point. Which made everything more complicated. They couldn't take these guys down with a clear conscious.

Dad would've just did it without hesitation. After all, he wasn't the model of ethics and he didn't pretend otherwise. He also made some shitty decisions.

"Gaara."

"Yes?"

"What are you planning to do about them?" Temari might've been the one who had to answer that question. If her father taught her anything, it was to do the exact opposite of what she thought he would.

"It's simple," Gaara said, "I'll give them what they want. I would've done so earlier if I had only known about the problem. Ignorance brought us this situation."

"You make it sound so easy," Kankuro said.

"These sorts of things should come easy. But some people have other priorities. As the Kazekage, I am responsible for deciding what the village's priorities are and to make sure everybody else is working for them. And once I am Kazekage I will do my all in order to fix the wrongs we've committed as shinobi."

But that's the thing, isn't it? She would do the right things for the wrong reason. She knew she was right when she told Gaara she would make an excellent Kazekage, but not because she knew it was best for her village, but to spite her father. And she would've been fine with that.

They were now about a mile from the blackmarket and they could see the silhouettes of the buildings becoming more tangible in the darkness. The siblings run into Ritsu, who started explaining the situation to them when Temari recognized the Konoha shinobi on his back.

"Shikamaru!" She took a step forward and bent down to get a better look at his face. "Oi!" She lightly slapped his cheek, causing him to groan.

"You know him Temari-senpai?" Ritsu said.

"Yeah, he's her boy--"

"Kankuro, not now," Temari snapped and Kankuro raised his hands in a surrendering gesture.

"Alright, sorry."

Ritsu noticed the worried look in Temari's eyes and how she hadn't looked away from the Konoha shinobi and felt an emptiness in his stomach.

"Make sure to take care of him, Ritsu," Temari asked of him, and the way she asked made him rallying himself and he nodded earnestly.

"Of course, Temari-senpai."

"I'll go with you," Kankuro stepped up, "we can't afford to have both of you hurt. I know someplace nearby we can stay at for the time being."

"We'll continue with the mission. Thank you for the information, Ritsu," Gaara said, and then the pair left.

"Come on," Kankuro prompted as he pulled the Nara on his own back, "we should get to cover as soon as possible."

The buildings of the black market once only the size of his thumb grew big enough to curl up in, Gaara and Temari decided that they would wait an hour for Suzume and Akira to catch up, after that they would have to carry on without them. Luckily, both of them arrived about thirty minutes later and their superiors caught them up on the situation behind the sand dune they were hiding behind a mile from the closest building.

"Also," Gaara met Suzume's eyes. His sand floated into the air to depict an entire replica of the map in the rebel's office, "I suppose you can translate some of this."

Suzume recognized the map and then nodded, "I saw it myself in person."

Gaara's sand returned to his gourd as she continued. "There are twenty-four rebels stationed at the black market, and one of them is an ex-shinobi by the name of Sora."

"The one from the Ruby Silence incident?" Temari said, rage rising.

"Yes. They are planning to set off bombs that will tear down the town hall which will set off other bombs throughout the town. They want to murder the Councilman in front of the black market residents."

"As much as it would be great for that bastard to die, unfortunately, we need him alive, so looks like our plans don't coincide with theirs."

"We can expect them to be against us then?" Akira asked.

"We might try to ask them to cooperate, but we didn't leave the best impression on them," Gaara said.

"Worth a shot," Temari said, breaking out of her thoughts. "It would be less annoying if we didn't have to worry about them too."

"The rebels also had some information about the Councilman. He has ten capable rogues under his control, five of which are following him of their free will, the others are drugged and mentally unstable."

"Good to know," Temari nodded in appreciation to Suzume.

Just then, one of the seals sent out a signal, the special type of chakra being released telling them where Baki's location was in the black market.

Gaara's movements and expressions immediately became more attentive and stern. "This needs to be done fast. If we don't get to the Councilman before the rebels, as Baki said, we'll have a lot more than a substantial rebellion to deal with. Do what you can, Temari and I can take care of the rest."

"Hai, Gaara-sama," Suzume and Akira said.

Gaara stood. "We're heading straight for Baki."

The group entered the black market once again. It was just as they had left it. There were still a couple of stragglers in the streets despite the late night and though lights were still lit here and there, the shinobi were running over the rooftops in the otherwise overwhelming darkness, the town hall as large as it was clear in their sights, toward the seal that pulsed, calling them towards Baki.

Gaara skidded to a stop in his path. Everybody else followed his lead.

"What's the matter, Gaara?"

His eyes were on the ground. He was following something moving toward them from underneath. His sand furreled out and scooped them all into the air. A huge crack broke the ground that they had been standing upon just a moment before and now they watched it all crumble inwards, taking down two buildings with it. Screams from the residents pierced the air. Gaara's sand snaked into the buildings to grab anybody that was in the buildings and placed them far enough away so they could run. The commotion alerted everybody else around, so that people were scurrying out of the buildings and away from the shinobi who had materialized in their street.

"How kind," jeered a voice. Around five rogue shinobi circled below them in the middle of the sinkhole from which three separate tunnels spread. A woman grinned up at them, appearing to be the leader. The shinobi recognized her as Muna. "Maybe Suna's monster has finally been tamed. I'll finish the job and put you down."

A kunai flew to her face, she dodged, but only then noticed the bomb tag attached to the end. The woman was the only one to jump away as the explosion went off, the other four didn't move, appearing drunk and unaware of their surroundings and they were sent flying.

Muna's glee was quickly gone as she glared up at them while the other rogues sluggishly got back to their feet. "I was talking here."

"I'll be the one you're fighting," Suzume declared from her sand platform. "Gaara-sama, Temari-senpai, Akira-senpai, you should go find Baki-sensei and finish this mission."

"I'm staying too," Akira said and jumped to join Suzume on her platform.

"Bold words." A vein in Muna's forehead bulged. "How about you jump down from there first, girly?"

"Not yet," Suzume said, just so Akira and Gaara didn't do anything unnecessary. Gaara caught her quick hand signal to rise farther up into the sky.

Muna laughed. "How about we help the kids out?"

Two of the rogues shot up into the air, their movements big and uncontrolled, targeting the sand that held Suzume and Akira afloat.

Suzume's hands folded into seals. "Futon: Air Tangle."

Something invisible stopped the rogues in their momentum. They tried to break free but whatever it was tightened with every movement they made.

Enraged by their predicament, the rogues wildly and thoughtlessly forged forward regardless. They reached the sand platform and gripped the ankles of the children who dared to fight them.

Their hands were suddenly gripping air as the genin vanished and a log was there to replace them. The sand returned to Gaara. The two rogues mindlessly thrashed in their invisible binds appearing to be stuck in midair. Their struggles stopped, now frozen, unable to move a finger.

Suzume and Akira appeared on a nearby rooftop. Akira sent needles into the caught rogues' chakra points and soon they went limp, and their eyes drooped closed.

Suzume noticed her siblings' lingering and yelled up at them, "We'll catch up! Go ahead!"

Gaara and Temari forced themselves to turn away. They flew toward the city hall without another glance back.

Muna appeared in front of Suzume, brandishing a kunai prepared to sink into her head. "You won't be going anywhere."

Suzume narrowly dodged the blade by sinking down. Behind her was Akira who was already in the middle of swinging his tanto, aiming to cut off Muna's hand as she was in the middle of swinging her kunai.

Muna swiftly reused her damning momentum to aim downwards into a cartwheel. Her legs wrapped around Akira's forearm and neck and then twisted, making him release his grip on the tanto. Suzume seized the falling tanto and lunged at Muna's head.

Muna shot out needles from her mouth and Suzume was forced to use the tanto to deflect them while simultaneously Akira had stabbed Muna in the thigh, making her weaken her triangle hold on him enough for him to slip out.

Muna leapt back away from the pair of them, inspecting her leg. She grinned at her wound and then directed her grin toward the other two who had also been catching their breaths.

A clatter from their right brought their attention to the remaining two rogues who were clawing their way up to join the fight.

Temari and Gaara were a few meters away from the signaling seal when a blast of wind burst out of the ground and scattered pieces of the earth into the air to slice them to pieces until it was fine dust, and then swept away the sand around the perimeter of the now gaping hole in the ground slightly to the left of the seal they were following.

"I wonder who that could be," Temari said as Gaara directed them toward it.

Baki stood among the rubble, dusting off his clothes. He was glad to be in the fresh air away from the dizzying energy of the chakra metal.

"Baki!"

He lifted his head at the call and saw the two flying closer until they landed in front of him.

He nodded in approval. "You finally made it. How was your field trip?"

"Educational. The rebels planted bombs throughout the market and they're going for scorched earth. Also, there are a total of ten rogues, five are clear minded, while the other five are drugged shitless. That means there are two more than the ones who caught us during the alarms, Noboru, Muna, and the other S class."

"Noboru looks like he's the main guard for Saboten, so be careful." Baki looked around at the unconscious bodies around him, he had made sure not to hurt the drugged prisoners. "I'm going to take these people to safety before returning as back up. Saboten should be down that tunnel." He pointed to the one heading deeper down into the ground. "Remember, you have to catch him first."

"Who do you think we are?" Temari said, grinning confidently.

"Ritsu and Kankuro are protecting the Konoha shinobi in a tower 3 miles east and Suzume and Akira are fending off some rogues a few blocks down," Gaara told him.

"I'll head to Kankuro first," Baki said. "Now, go get him."

Gaara and Temari both nodded before speeding toward the city hall.

It took them half an hour to reach the watchtower, twice as slow since they had the Nara with them.

The abandoned watch tower consisted of one base level and a staircase that spiraled around the hollow inside up into the top floor which had a drop down ladder to the roof that was now just hanging on to the top three rungs, the rest a pile of firewood on the floor.

Ritsu helped him lower the shinobi off of his back and lay him down on the cleanest part of the floor.

"How do you know this guy, Kankuro-senpai?"

"Hm?" Kankuro looked away from the window where they could still see the bumps along the normally straight horizon which were the black market's buildings, and went to join them on the floor. "Oh, he kicked Temari's ass during the Chunin exams."

"This skinny guy did?!" Ritsu looked scandalized.

"All of his muscle went up here," Kankuro pointed to the Nara's head. "He's a nerd. A nerd enough to fuck people up."

Ritsu was close to pouting and Kankuro cracked a teasing grin. "The two of them really respect each other, jan."

"I see," Ritsu said moodily.

"Why do you like Temari so much anyway, Ritsu?"

"NAGH??!" he flinched, spluttering. "Wh-wh-what? Like Temari-senpai?! Me? Psh! No. No, no, no, no."

"Well, of course you also like Gaara and me, and who wouldn't, but Temari is definitely your bias."

"She's my role model, Kankuro-senpai," Ritsu admitted. "I may feel more comfortable like this but I guess sometimes I think it might just be cowardice that's keeping me from being myself."

"So that's why you want to be as scary as Temari?"

"Yes. Maybe even scarier."

Kankuro let out a loud laugh. "But I've also been noticing you eyeing Suzume too. Don't tell me you fell for my cute little sister's charms too."

Kankuro's laughter weakened as Ritsu didn't do or say anything in response to his joke. Ritsu felt Kankuro's aura grow threatening.

"You're serious?"

Ritsu finally spun around, desperate. "That's what it is isn't it, Kankuro-senpai? This is me liking her isn't it?"

"DON'T ASK ME???"

"Kankuro-senpai," Ritsu whined, "what should I do?"

But his superior was unrelenting. "You're not allowed to look at her anymore."

"We're on the same team!"

"My, how convenient."

"Kankuro-senpai!"

Kankuro finally broke into a smile. "It's good to be young. I remember when I had time to think about crushes."

"You're not all that old, Kankuro-senpai."

"You're still not allowed to look at Suzume anymore."

"Whatever you say, Kankuro-senpai."

Kankuro noticed a change. He rose to his feet and rushed to the window on the other side of the tower. Fire and dust was approaching from the opposite horizon.

Ritsu also went to look.

"The rebel army is here," Kankuro said.

What looked like two thousand people flooded past them. The genjutsu that Kankuro had placed on the tower hid it from sight and steered them around it without raising any suspicion.

A blast that disturbed the tower came from the black market and fire was licking the black, cloudy night sky. Kankuro and Ritsu ran to the other window to watch as, like fireflies, the rebel army, holding their torches as they thundered by on horses and camels, gathered toward it.

Kankuro winced. "That's going to be a pain."

Just then, he felt eyes. A gaze that exposed them down to their core. The rogues had found them.

Outside, the rebels exclaimed as a tower flickered into being next to them as the genjutsu broke forcefully.

"Ritsu, can you handle yourself?" Kankuro asked. By the looks of this, it was getting out of hand. Shikamaru was still passed out. The rogues' presences were approaching.

"Yes, sir," Ritsu answered.

"Good man," Kankuro gripped Ritsu's shoulder. "Don't risk your life."

Kankuro wasn't going to let his brother-in-law die. He wasn't about to let his sister down.

They were too strong, and there were too many. Suzume knew that she and Akira would both die if they stood their ground. So they ran. The two genin ran down into the underground passages, ran the opposite way from where they knew their superiors were located to at least lead some of the adversaries away from them. The rogues were laughing in glee as they chased the shinobi, throwing poorly aimed kunai and shuriken, enjoying the chase. Muna had all of the capability of killing them immediately, but she wanted to play with them more, not wanting to end this joy too soon.

She shrieked with laughter. "Run, kiddies!"

Suzume ran dragging Akira behind her, she kicked through doors and ran through rooms she couldn't care to pay too much attention to. The rogues were closing in, and they couldn't run forever.

The pair went through a room, empty except for a single coffin. The coffin began to glow green, and the green energy bubbled through the cracks and fell over the edge. A tree burst out of the coffin, flattening it, and collided with the walls and ceiling. The rogue shinobi were caught up in the roots and their screams followed Suzume and Akira. Suzume didn't look back and didn't stop, but was forced to when the roots and branches caught up to surround the two of them. 

But instead of wrapping around them like they did to the rogues, the roots evaded them. Suzume and Akira stood back to back as the tree reached out further and further, grew taller and taller. The rubble from the building was caught and tangled up in the branches, completely missing them.

Then the tree grew still and the creaking stopped. They panted, stayed put, until Suzume grabbed Akira and started to climb through the roots.

"Suzume-san," Akira managed out, trying not to trip over the roots. "What just happened?"

"I don't know." Suzume got to the top of a root to examine the extent of the tree. "But we have other things to think about. Let's find our way out."

Suzume didn't notice how her wounds were healing and how she felt rejuvenated compared to a minute ago, too occupied with the pounding adrenaline and getting them to safety.

As they got out of the underground, a rumble swept through the area. An explosion burst like a rupture to their right, the force from it almost strong enough to send them flying. The light from the flames burned in contrast to the darkness of the night and bathed the area in red. More and more explosions detonated around them. Soon enough the town was up in flames.

The fire's heat seared around them. The wind scattered embers. Suzume turned and saw the army of people coming from the horizon.

"The rebels," Akira said, "they're here."

"We need to find the others," Suzume said. The two of them jumped off the root of the tree just as the flames reached it.

Suzume couldn't help but look back at it as it was engulfed in fire. She ignored the unexplainable sadness at seeing it like that and charged on.

The black market emptied into a ghost town in a blink of an eye as the people found out that there were shinobi present. The illegal stock and the shifty merchants seemed to have been spirited away and the wind swept by through abandoned buildings.

The underground tunnel that Baki had sent them through came out into the center of the market where the town hall stood, and into an open, circular space underneath the building which resembled a fighting ring with spectator seats protected by a steel dome. Gaara and Temari slipped inside the dark ring after checking if the coast was clear. Once they were standing inside, the winds closed all the doors with a bang. Light flooded the area as the wicks along the walls were lit.

They turned their heads upward to see the Councilman and his men staring down at them from the main balcony beyond the dome. Only one of his rogues accompanied him by his side, red eyed and distant from the drugs, Noboru was asent, and the rest were the subordinates he kept under his name as his title in Suna, but none were skilled shinobi. Saboten sneered down at them in glee.

"Now I've got you where I want you."

"Councilman Saboten," Gaara's voice filled the room, "you are under arrest. Will you come quietly?"

"This chamber is where we had the most fun." Saboten ignored him as he dived into his reminiscence, basking in his soon to be victory. "Where I broke most of my toys. I never dared to dream that I would be able to do the same with Rasa's children!"

Seals emerged out of the walls. They glowed then water burst out from them in falls. When the flood of water crashed against the dome, the metal glowed to signify a perimeter seal around the building which kept the water from escaping. It wrapped around Gaara and Temari then they disappeared under the frothing water. It filled up until the third floor before the falls weakened and stopped. The surge of the agitated water calmed. Water continued to pour in from the seals at odd intervals, stirring the pool. The Councilman waited until the two shinobi swam out and stood above the glassy pool with chakra soles.

Gaara was thoroughly soaked. His skin clumped and fell away, his sand armor was weakened.

Laughter erupted at Gaara's appearance. "Like a waterlogged cat, how pathetic you look! Now there's nothing you can do! I've rendered you useless!"

There was a splash. Temari had stepped up and in front of her brother with a gleam in her eyes. "I'm enough to defeat the likes of you."

She slammed her fan down making ripples, "Futon: Guiding Gale," Temari said and the water parted away from the fan before scattering away violently like a swarm of insects, dropping the shinobi onto the ground once more and leaving the area around them dry. The force of the wave and the wind tore up the dome and washed over the Councilman, knocking him off his feet.

The waves continued to cling to the walls as the wind blocked them from going anywhere else. Temari reveled in her show of power.

Now with nothing between him and the siblings, Saboten spluttered and cowered in the face of the roaring, impatient wave. "Impossible!"

"You good, Gaara?" Temari said over her shoulder.

His sand was crawling up his skin again, solidifying, "I am. I'll support you from here."

Temari grinned then turned once more to smirk forebodingly at the Councilman. "You're in for it now, old man."

Her fan opened to reveal a deep purple mark on the paper. "Ichi no Hoshi."

"Stop them! Kill them!" the Councilman screamed.

The Councilman's men started raining kunai and shuriken with attached explosive tags. Sand rose up to intercept them, containing the explosions in their grasp.

Temari spun the fan around and the winds responded, shepherding the water, stirring it up, and sending it right back at the Councilman.

The shinobi spit out fire and evaporated the water before it could strike, however, the wind, sharp and invisible, which had accompanied the water, landed their attack, taking down everyone except the Councilman and his lifeless high ranking rogue.

Saboten grabbed a hold of the rogue's front and shook him, desperate. "Do something you useless piece of scum!"

The rogue's eyes widened and their veins pushed against the white surface in a fury red, his breath hissed through his gritted teeth, drool dribbled down the side of his mouth. He seized Saboten around the throat and lifted him into the air. Gaara and Temari were taken aback by the turning fangs of the Councilman's last standing shinobi.

Saboten struggled, looking fearfully down at his drugged slave as the rogue growled and snarled, unable it seems to form words but anger shook his body, his crazed eyes.

Sand coiled around the rogue, forcing their hands away from the Councilman, who dropped to the ground, then pinned their arms to their sides. It squeezed and squeezed until the sheer fear and lack of oxygen made him pass out, and Gaara dropped the rogue.

The Councilman gulped once the siblings' turned their bloodlust onto him.

"Your turn, Councilman," Gaara said, aiming his hand towards the man. "With you, I might not be so kind."

The Councilman shrieked as sand reached for him. It grabbed him, dragged him to the siblings' feet, where he struggled as the grains of sand enveloped him. Despite Gaara's underlying threat, he didn't do anything to the Councilman that he didn't do to the rogue. Once they knew the man was unconscious, Gaara retracted his sand away.

With the air damp and their clothes wet, the siblings looked down at the Councilman. The man who had been joyously in their way since the day their father died, who had threatened their family over and over, who's perverted sense of power had taken the village, the nation, and made it rot. Temari would have enjoyed killing him.

She launched seals around the room and they lifted the Councilman and the other shinobi up and circled around them.

"Councilman Saboten, you are now under arrest." Temari finished the jutsu and the seals locked tight around the man and his henchmen.

"We did it," Gaara breathed, looking his age in the relief and wonder in his expression.

Temari grinned at him. "Was there ever any doubt, Kazekage-sama?"

Gaara scowled. "Don't tease me."

"Alright, little bro," Temari settled back into business, "let's make sure our win stays a win. We should get out of here before any of the other rogues or revolutionaries show up."

Temari and Gaara started to look for a way out of the fighting ring. Gaara scattered his sand around and discovered a door from the main balcony that had stairs leading upward. They escorted their odd parade of floating prisoners up the staircase until they reached a door that opened into what looked like Saboten's residence. Out from there was the balcony that Temari and Kankuro had been led up to when they were trying to infiltrate the townhall. The two shinobi jumped off to land on the first floor where the tables that had been occupied by soldiers, shinobi, and rogues had been abandoned just as the half empty bottles and cups scattered around them had been.

The sealed bodies followed after them, drifting down to hover behind.

"It appears," a voice broke through, "that we are horribly late."

The shinobi turned to see that they have been joined by the revolutionaries who were just beyond the huge front door. Neha was posing dramatically with her foot up on a rock and her hands on her hips. Her chest was heaving, Shun and Taro were behind her, trying to catch their breaths.

"The revolutionaries are here!" Neha announced.

"You're too late, rebel," Temari said as Neha bent double to try to catch her breath. "Missed all the action."

"You kids are just too fast," Neha said after she'd calmed her breath. "But now that we're here, and ya took care of the trash for us, looks like you're going to have to square up. We've got a little surprise!"

A rumble from below alerted the shinobi.

"The bomb." Sand wrapped around the pair of them and their prisoners, and the rebels threw themselves into a ditch that looked like it' d been prepared prior, just as light burst and the bomb's force hit them like a wall. The townhall exploded and its debris landed in the fiery hell around them. Fire caught, dust swirled.

The sand slowly released its cover, revealing to Gaara and Temari the lack of walls and the expanse of the black market in ruins. The largest bomb at the townhall had set off all of the other bombs planted around the town and now the red of the earth surrounded them, the darkness of everything else compressed around it.

Numbness creeped into Gaara's and Temari's bodies, noticed too late by their owners until their limbs were almost too heavy to lift. Something had been in the air, lifted and spread by the explosion, and then inhaled into their lungs. The bombs had contained muscle paralyzers they hadn't built immunity to. Gaara's legs gave out and he sunk to his knees.

Next the ground began to swell and break until sacks of water, like pimples, broke from the pressure and flooded around them.

"More water," Gaara said in calm annoyance as the air thickened and steam rose when the water met the fire around them.

Needles punctured Temari's skin, and a couple more flew passed. The three rebels had poison blowpipes. Just as they were about to shoot another needle, Gaara's wet sand shot up to intercept it. Temari plucked the needle out and used it and a shuriken to pluck the blowpipes away from the rebels.

"What is it?" Gaara asked.

"I can't see." A pause. "Now I can't hear either."

Movement, and the rebels had launched themselves toward them, soaked to the bone in water. Two of them went for the two shinobi while the other went for the Councilman. Armed with chakra cuffs, Neha and Taro reached for the shinobi who were now heavy in body, half blind and half deaf, one of their weapons blunted.

The next second Neha and Taro were enveloped in sand. In one swift motion, Temari had pinned Shun who had been dragging the unconscious body of the Councilman away.

A lurch and Temari felt the woman slip from her grasp. She felt something slick coating her hands. Oil?

Shun sent a kick that Temari blocked.

Meanwhile, the sand was clumping down from their hold on the other two rebels because of how drenched they were, slowly releasing its pressure so that they could wiggle free. Neha lurched and managed to lock a cuff around on of Gaara's wrists, only for Gaara's form to crumple in on itself, revealing the sand clone as it collapsed.

"Tricks and illusions," Neha cursed, and took the chance to check on Shun who was having trouble with a blind, deaf, and numb shinobi. She smirked. "These kids are something else."

Neha and Taro ran to help Shun, and Temari found herself facing all three rebels alone. She pulled out her fan.

With a snap the fan opened an eye. "Ichi no hoshi."

The fan twirled and danced until wind came endlessly around its user. The three rebels had to dig in their feet as the wind tossed around them, pressing them, making it impossible to approach the shinobi or to run. The wind was drying the sand and the rebels, ripping away the water and the oil and lifting the sand up into the air to sting their eyes.

The sand stopped in the air, though the wind continued to howl.

With a shout, Temari heaved her fan up, directing the wind to blast upward. The rebels were picked up from their feet and into the cutting whirlwind. Blood splattered into the air and some painted Temari's skin, she grinned.

The sand moved. It flew like a ribbon to grab and bundle the three adults together, then pulled them out of the force of the whirlwind where they fell with a thud to the ground.

The whirlwind sunk back to the ground, gone. Temari felt her brother join her side. He grabbed her upper arm to support and lead her forward.

"I can walk," she said even knowing it wouldn't stop him.

Gaara knew she would've metabolized the numbing poison already just as he had, but it didn't look like her sight and hearing were back yet. He led her to where the rebels lay, bound by his sand, falling into unconsciousness. The area was cleared of debris, fire, and water after the whirlwind swept all of it away, but past the barren circumference lay destruction and heat. The sealed bodies of the Councilman and his people were scattered around the area, unharmed.

Gaara bent down to see that only the leader seemed to be at least a bit conscious. Where could they have gotten such poisons that could even affect shinobi?

"Let's join up with Baki and Kankuro," Temari said, waiting for some reply to come to indicate that Gaara agreed.

Gaara got to his feet and squeezed his sister's arm.

"Say something," Temari requested.

"Let's go. I'll carry everyone."

Temari's eyebrows creased, concentrating. "No... I still can't hear anything."

"It'll wear off..." came a voice and Gaara turned again to the rebels. Neha made bleary eye contact with him. "In an hour."

Gaara took hold of Temari's hand and faced it palm up to write this on her skin.

Temari laughed. "I'll believe it when it happens. Let's go. We need to get out of the area."

Footsteps and rustling. Gaara snapped around.

"What? What is it, Gaara?" Temari asked urgently.

"Stop right there," they ordered.

Nearby to Temari and Gaara but not near enough, Suzume and Akira were racing to their superiors. They had dove back into the underground chambers as the black smoke became too thick in the air. But the shinobi knew that the fire would spread and eventually follow them into the underground. The path led them further down into the ground until they reached a huge open space with cavities all along the walls like an oversized beehive. These caves and tunnels were shinobi made. From what Suzume could tell, the labyrinth took up the whole circumference of the black market. If there had been people meant to be stationed down there, they must have run once the explosion shook the earth and the smoke clouded the tight spaces, so once the tree stopped the rogues, there was nobody else who would stand in their way.

They were about to race across to the other side of the beehive when Suzume stopped. Akira knew why by the change in her expression, the tension in her body.

Out from the passageway they needed to go through to reach Gaara and Temari, came out Sora.

He sneered. "Hey, little mouse. Pleasure to see you again."

"Step away, Akira-senpai," Suzume ordered. Once Akira was out of the way, all of Suzume's attention was on the rogue.

She had a good look at him. Compared to how Suzume remembered him from the very first time she met him, he looked like he'd aged fifty years with wrinkles and gray skin. His eyes were yellow and it looked like he was having a hard time keeping them open. His blonde hair was trimmed into a buzzcut. He was covered in soot.

She knew she had changed too. She could do more than run now.

"You know, you're the one person I've been itching to kill," he was saying. "Because you ruined everything! You, a chakra less brat ruined our entire lives!"

"Rogue ninja Sora," Suzume ignored him, "I will only ask once. You are to be arrested and taken to the Blood Prison. Will you cooperate?"

He cracked his knuckles. Suzume dodged a line of kunai that shot past her.

"Is that answer enough for you?"

Suzume unsheathed her sword. "Yes."

She leapt to the side of the building and ricocheted off to fly toward Sora. He evaded her but Suzume bounced off the ground to stay close on his tail, unphased. She saw him make hand signs.

She threw her sword to disrupt him, he dodged, it nicked him, just barely missing cutting off his finger. The sword flew away.

"What an idiot!" Sora cackled.

Suzume jerked her arm back, the wires connecting her fingers to the sword pulled the weapon back toward her, nicking Sora once again but this time on the cheek.

Furious, he charged at her. She met him head on. They closed the gap, just an arms length away, when Suzume lithely leapt up and over Sora's head. She spun forward, momentum building, to strike at Sora's head. Her sword clashed with his kunai. He swung out, his strength overwhelming, and threw Suzume back.

She skidded across the ground, managed to roll onto her feet, and looked up to see senbon needles like drops of rain above her.

"Suzume-san!" Akira shouted.

"Doton! Mineral Egg!"

The needles were stopped short by the earth that chomped around to cover her. Suzume panted, sweat glistened on her face, her hands shook.

"I see you've learned something from that monster!" Sora's voice jeered from outside. "But you're nowhere near his level."

Solitary needles coated with chakra darted through Suzume's cover. Two managed to sink into her shoulder. Her heart was pounding out her ears. Outside her cover, the needles were joining into one giant blade, spinning until wind picked up.

"Futon! Great Spear!"

The spear pierced through the cover effortlessly, shattering it to revealing the figure of Suzume's impaled figure. Akira screamed. But just as Sora was starting to celebrate, the clone popped out of existence, and the needles all fell apart and clattered to the floor.

Sora searched around for Suzume's signature. "Where did you go..."

A handful of his needles flew around him of their own volition, sticking to the ceiling, floor, and walls. They sparked with electricity. Water swelled up from the ground, making mud that clung to his feet.

"Raiton: Static Air," came Suzume's voice.

The air around Sora charged with lightning, and one slight move shocked him, keeping him where he stood.

"Doton: Quagmire."

The mud bubbled and Sora started to sink. He tried to force his leg out, but it was stuck firmly. He smirked as his entire torso was swallowed. "Very good."

His head disappeared below the mud. The mud hardened.

Suzume and Akira didn't dare breathed, waiting.

After ten minutes, Suzume let out a breath.

"I'm going to have you suffer for a bit," Sora's voice wafted by.

Suddenly, Suzume couldn't breathe, the air was solid. Her fingers started to bend backward one by one until they ran out. Her arms twisted around on her shoulder until they ripped off of her entirely. Cracks ran through her skull and her eyes melted out of their sockets.

Akira watched from his hiding place as Sora crawled out of the ground and dusted himself off leisurely. Akira could see Suzume from where he was, staying dreadfully still. The rogue started to look around as he walked. He was looking for her. Akira stared hard at his teammate, panic welling up. She was stuck in a genjutsu.

He looked back over at the rogue. Sora was getting closer and closer to where Suzume was hidden.

Akira let out a breath. This was how he died.

Akira dashed out of his place and toward where he knew Suzume was, knowing that it was going to be a close shave. Just as Akira was reaching a hand to Suzume, Sora noticed and bolted toward them.

Contact. "Kai!"

Suzume came back to herself with a huge gulp of air.

"Suzume-san!"

Suzume shoved Akira to the side and the two of them rolled out of the way of a barrage of needles. Suzume pulled Akira into a tunnel.

"I'm sorry, Akira-senpai. I can handle it from here."

"Can you?" Akira said, extremely hesitant, but was forced to run away when Sora engaged Suzume in combat again.

Luckily, Sora only had eyes for her. When he swung a blow that threw her back, he hurried to close the gap once more. Back again in the middle of the cavity, Suzume met the attacks assuredly, her pulse quickening but not letting it get in the way of the fight. It was her chakra control that was evening the ground between them. A steady layer of chakra like armor protected her and sharpened her sword, unwavering and constant.

Frustrated, Sora's attacks grew more and more wild, though it threw Suzume off for a second, in the next she'd gotten accustomed to them. Sora stabbed forward, his arm stretching out, his stance unstable. An opening. Suzume didn't waste it.

A palm thrust struck Sora in the chest. It froze him. There on his chest was a seal tag drawn with seals meant to lock a person's muscles. Suzume flew back away from the rogue and then folded a succession of hand seals.

Her hands stopped at the Ram and she held them there.

"Fuinjutsu: Weaver's Loom."

Wires that had been wound around Suzume's body, hidden under her clothes, slithered out from her sleeves and shot around the area. They thickened from string to the thickness of a snake and a second later a tangle of thick wires were running through the area like a web. The points at which Suzume had landed while jumping around during the fight glowed, attaching the wires to the surfaces around them.

Sora tried to run but with a couple of flicks of Suzume's fingers the wires were at her beck and call. They all shifted, a dizzying frenzy of patterns as multiple groupings of wires pulsed in unison. Sora couldn't get any closer to her. He sliced at the wires only for his blade to shatter, he used an earth jutsu only for the wires to cut through it.

The wires closed in on him. Diamonds formed to encircle his ankles to the top of his head, all hovering and spinning. The lightning charging through them subsided as soon as they touched his skin. They latched onto him, keeping him from moving, forced to stand straight with his hands locked to his sides. The wires finished wrapping him up. Suzume didn't look away from his enraged glare until even his eyes were hidden. They both knew that this was how it ended.

"Doton: Sarcophagus."

Suzume slammed her hands onto the ground. It opened up to swallow the man, sliding him in as if at a funeral, and then sealed shut again.

Sweat glistened on Suzume's skin, her chest heaving with breaths, now loud in the quiet of the end of the battle.

"Suzume-san!" Akira was running to her. "You did it!"

Her legs shook and gave out, she caught herself before she could collapse entirely.

Akira called out again, in worry this time, and he sunk to her side to support her. She waved his worries away, telling him that it was just chakra depletion.

"What was that, Suzume-san?" Akira asked excitedly after leading her to a wall to lean on and pulling out a waterskin to give to her. As she drank, his hands glowed to heal and replenish her chakra.

"It's purely a seal jutsu," she explained, her fingers glowing and sharpening with chakra as she cut off the wires around her fingers. "It should hold him. But it takes a lot of chakra."

Suzume stared at the spot Sora had been buried, still unable to believe that it was over.

It was a jutsu that she developed for the sole purpose of defeating Sora. Developed in the name and memory of Jabari, all of her emotions for her friend fed into perfecting and mastering it. Gaara had overseen the progress, had guided her knowing that it was something she had to do, but once he saw the amount of chakra needed for the jutsu to be uncounterable, he had to warn her against using it altogether.

"The amount of chakra it takes would even take me out of the field for a day. It has the potential of permanently damaging your chakra points. It should be classified as a forbidden jutsu."

Suzume had been evading his eyes as he tried his best to convince her. She still evaded his eyes as she thought, and once she did meet his gaze, he knew he wouldn't win this argument.

"I'm only planning to use it once," was the only comfort she could give to her brother.

And she meant it. This jutsu was meant for Jabari. 

Now, she had to say goodbye forever, to her first real friend.

Suzume began to stand, making Akira stop his healing. "We should hurry and rendezvous with the others."

"Are we going to back up Gaara-sama and Temari-sama?"

Suzume pursed her lips. They both knew what she should do, whether she would decide to do it was another matter.

She stiffened. Akira noticed.

"What is it?"

Suzume looked down at the ground. It shook.

Her head snapped up. She pushed Akira down.

"Watch out!"