"Ri! It's Ri!"

Three kids pounced on Ritsu and he stood steady to their weight as one hung onto his shoulders and the other two swung on his arms.

"Hey, you little rascals!" Ritsu spun around in place and made them shriek with laughter.

Akira stood watching from the doorway as the children disembarked from Ritsu and pushed him into the house.

"You never visit anymore!" The only girl, Naoko, pouted up at him, tugging on his arm. She had the same soft brown hair as Akira while she had inherited their father's blue eyes while Akira had his mother's golden brown.

"We missed you!" Hiraku said near Ritsu's other arm.

Hiraku and his brother Nitori were the only one out of the five siblings to inherit their father's curly black hair. Hiraku's bright blue eyes were only brighter because of his dark complexion and hair. Nitori had already relieved Ritsu of his things, hanging his coat on the rack and locking the door.

"I missed you guys too. I hope you've been behaving for your big brothers."

"Yeah, right," Akira sighed in a long suffering way.

"We have!" the three of them said indignantly.

"Alright, alright. Get off of him." Akira started to guide Ritsu down the hall. "Come on, let's hang out in my room."

"You always hog Ri, aniki!" The kids were following close to their feet and the group all fell into Akira's room. "Let us talk to him too."

"Maybe if you go get your chores done you can have more time to hang out with Ri-chan."

The kids all clambered out of the room.

Ritsu chuckled as he settled himself on the floor and Akira closed the door after his siblings with a tired sigh. "They've grown so much! How did that happen?"

"Kids grow fast," Akira said, sitting down across from him.

"This place hasn't changed much though. Oh, yeah." Ritsu handed him the parcel he'd brought. "From my parents."

"Your mum's basbousa! I've been craving these since forever! And your dad's homemade beer!" Akira suddenly grew quiet. "I hope the kids didn't hear. There wouldn't be a single bite left after they get to it."

"Not like you don't spoil them and let them have all of it anyway."

"You're right." Akira smiled. "It'll be nice to have the beer."

Ritsu had missed being over at Akira's. He'd grown up at their place just as much as his own home. He remembered helping Akira with chores so that they could go out and play sooner. Most had been regular house chores but then Akira started to do some odd end jobs like sewing the buttons onto shirts and painting doll faces for local businesses to make a few extra bucks. He remembered how annoyed he'd been when Akira had been better at sewing buttons than he had, and making heated bets about sewing the most buttons the quickest which he'd always lose. He'd bought Akira a lot of ice cream back in the day as a result.

"Hey," Ritsu said, spotting a sack filled with these same shirts and pulling one out, "I bet I can beat you now."

"When you're so out of practice?" Akira mocked, "You sure think highly of yourself, Ri-chan."

Ritsu's eye twitched. "I bet a pop!"

"You sure are frugal with how high your salary is, five stripe genin."

"Five pops!"

Akira already had a needle threaded and ready. "You're on."

Half an hour later, all of the shirts had buttons on them, Akira was five pops richer, and Ritsu had a bloody thumb. Akira skipped past Ritsu's defeated form to get the first aid kit down the hall.

"I told you you should've worn a thimble~" he teased.

"You can take your thimble and shove it right up your--"

"There are children around~"

Ritsu sat up and stuck his throbbing thumb into his mouth. "Damn it... I thought I would have it in the bag."

Akira came back with the kit and knelt down in front of him. He held out a hand and Ritsu begrudgingly placed his thumb on top. "Either way, thanks for helping. I've been procrastinating on that pile for awhile."

"You're still doing those jobs when you're already an official shinobi?"

"It can't hurt to have more money." Akira finished bandaging up Ritsu's thumb. He closed the kit and shoved it away into a corner of the room. "Come on. Let's get my winnings."

"You're enjoying this aren't you," Ritsu grumbled as he got up.

The two boys were walking back from the local convenience store with the ice cold popsicles in a plastic bag and eating one each. Once they got back the kids cheered and the ice cream was snatched up and eaten in an instant. They told the two older kids that they had finished all the chores and Ritsu was quickly claimed by them. Out in their backyard, Ritsu and Akira tossed the kids between the two of them in turns that only shinobi like them could do safely and played hide and seek until the sun set.

Akira ended the playtime by ordering the kids to wash up for dinner.

Back in the house, the kids were piled together in the restroom while they washed their hands and the shinobi went to wash theirs in the kitchen. Akira quickly set to work dishing out the curry and the rice he had prepared. Just as he set down the plates, the kids all filed in and sat in their places. Ritsu sat in his seat and saw Akira glance at the clock.

"We can wait," Nitori said stubbornly, noticing this also.

"Yeah!" the other two chorused.

Their stomachs growled in clear opposition.

Akira laughed. "Go ahead and eat. It looks like Hayato aniki is running a bit late."

Reluctantly, the kids started to eat. Akira and Ritsu followed their lead.

When their plates were empty, Ritsu helped the kids clean up their dishes while Akira started to pack up the curry into reusable containers to store in the fridge.

The door rattled and the children all yelled and swept out of the kitchen to attack the newcomer with Akira close behind.

"Welcome back, aniki," Akira said, relieved.

"Hey, Akira," said a tired voice. "What's for dinner?"

"Curry."

Ritsu finally caught up to the family in the entryway after finishing up the dishes. "Hayato-san, it's been a while."

The man looked up, stared for a second, before a smile cracked his face.

"Ri! I haven't seen you in forever!"

Hayato was an older version of Akira but in contrast he was weighed down by dark eyebags and a pallor that didn't suit his age. Now 25 years old, Hayato had only just come of age when their parents died, leaving behind their five children, three of which were no more than toddlers and infants. Hayato had refused to separate his family and took on the burden as family head and had been working at five jobs to pay for their house and food these past few years.

It had been too late for him to enroll as a shinobi and he didn't want to risk dying and leaving his family. And after much argument, Akira had convinced his older brother to let him enroll in the Institute instead. At seven years of age, Akira had joined the Institute only to struggle to keep up with everyone else.

"Are you staying the night?"

"Of course. I've been wanting to catch up with you, Hayato-san."

"Ri-chan brought some of his dad's beer."

"Brilliant!" Hayato took off his shoes and stepped forward with his three youngest siblings hanging off of him. "Let me just wash up and then I'll join you."

After the oldest finished his dinner, everybody went to the backyard. The adults sat drinking and talking while the kids ran around. Soon enough Hayato told the kids to go and sleep and he followed soon after saying that he's got work in the morning.

Hayato clasped Ritsu's hand. "Come visit more often alright? Or else I'll start to wonder if you think you're too good for us."

"I'll visit so much you'll get sick of me."

Alone together in the dark, the two shinobi started to talk shit about their colleagues and exchange gossip. After bad mouthing Toru who had been an asshole since they were young, and then talking about the recent seminar, they inevitably got to the topic of Suzume.

"How many crushes are you going to have at the same time, Ri-chan?" Akira lifted a hand to hide his shitty smile. "This is scandalous."

"Hey, I never said I liked the freak."

"You don't have to! You're so obvious."

"She's dangerous." Ritsu sobered. "Remember when she almost killed you?"

"Yeah, that was weird. But that was just once. She's saved my life numerous times."

"Yeah I don't know if that's enough."

"She saved Naoko that one time, and almost died saving me in our last mission. She also saved both of our lives and our careers in our graduation exam. And! She saved your grandma during the Razing of the Old District. So I think we should just let that little incident go."

Ritsu bit the rim of his cup and didn't want to meet Akira's eyes. "If you say so."

"Oh my gosh, Ri-chan, I just remembered," Akira said, sitting bolt upright as Ritsu filled his cup with more beer. "A tree saved our lives during the blackmarket mission. I totally forgot to tell you!"

"Maybe you should stop drinking."

"No, listen!" Akira dodged Ritsu's joking attempt to snatch his drink away. "Me and Suzume-san were being chased by rogues down in the underground and I thought we were done for. And then suddenly a tree burst alive all around us and wrapped its roots around the rogues but left us alone. It was crazy!"

"Are you sure it wasn't a genjutsu?"

"It was real. It burned down when the fire reached it. I was really bummed about it."

"Two trees coming to life in the desert? Is this going to be a thing now?"

"Don't know. But it's weird." Akira tapped a finger against his cup. "Maybe it's a ninjutsu? Like the first Hokage's wood style?"

"What? No way. Far as we know, the first Hokage is the only one who could perform wood style right? Do you think Konoha has a secret wood style specialist? Wait. But then, wouldn't that mean they'd have to be near enough to the Kazekage mansion to make that tree?"

"Hmm..." Akira crossed his arms. "That wouldn't make much sense huh. Would that mean someone from Suna had the wood style?"

"Dude, that would be sick. But I feel like the higher ups would tell us if that were the case."

"Not unless it's a state secret. Man, if we had a wood style specialist with how powerful Gaara-sama is we'd be almost unstoppable."

They fell into silence, caught up in their own tipsy thoughts.

"I'm starting to train with Kankuro senpai," Akira said in a careful and steady way.

Ritsu on the other hand wasn't going to hide his excitement and grinned broadly. "I saw it coming. I can't wait until we can both say we're apprentices of the Kazekage."

"Yeah, I never thought I'd come to this point. Hayato was ecstatic when I told him too. I'm not sure if I deserve it."

"I keep telling you, you underestimate yourself. Baki-sensei told you himself that you're the smartest in our team."

"Yeah, right. I had an average score throughout my whole Institute career."

"There are different types of intelligence."

"Well, why couldn't Baki-sensei be more specific then?"

"You have to figure it out yourself."

Akira took in a long breath. "Great."

With their conversation cut off, Ritsu stayed stock still, building himself up. He turned to his friend who was looking somewhere far away.

"By the way," he met eyes with Akira who turned at the sound of his voice, "Tomoe-ne said she saw Hayato-san at the hospital more than usual. Is everything okay?"

Akira smiled in defeat and shifted in his seat so that his legs were folded on top of the chair. "I thought it was about time you found out. Yeah, um," he kept smiling as he placed down his cup on the small table between them, "Hayato aniki has some health issues now, because he's overworked himself. He fainted last year. That's why I thought it would be a good idea to stay for one more year at the institute just in case you know? But it all worked out."

Ritsu's voice came out softer than usual, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't know how to bring it up. I also didn't really want to." Akira forced himself to meet Ritsu's eyes again.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you."

Akira shook his head, "Don't worry about it. You were dealing with your own issues."

The longer Akira smiled, the more Ritsu felt like shit.

He was always like that. Too understanding.

Though they had been childhood friends, they had drifted apart as Ritsu trained like mad after the incident. One time when they bumped into each other, Ritsu had asked what type of team he had been assigned. When Akira told him he had decided to stay one more year at the Institute, Ritsu had yelled at him, demanded that he go and take the graduation exam now, that feeling not ready was a coward's excuse. Akira had given him that same smile and told him he had no other choice. Frustrated, Ritsu had left without a goodbye.

He didn't see Akira again until the day he was given a new team. He hadn't expected Akira to be on the other side of that door. The higher ups knew they were friends and they usually didn't put friends on the same team. Akira didn't let the awkwardness hang for too long, didn't let Ritsu build up to apologize or say anything about their last meeting, striking up an engaging and warm greeting and luring him into a conversation that successfully trapped him. Then distractions in the form of their other teammate and their sensei arrived, just as Akira had been planning for. Soon enough, it had become too late for Ritsu to say anything at all.

"You were pretty intense back then," Akira said. "Training like there was a war going on."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

It. made. him. so. mad.

Ritsu slammed his cup down next to Akira's, grabbed a fistful of Akira's shirt and lifted him up into the air. "You can't just accept my apology just like that, you asshole!"

Akira blinked at him, wide eyed. "...Huh?"

"Do you know how much that was fucking me up? Do you know how long I've been meaning to do it? Do you know how nervous I was? And all you say is 'don't be'?! Are you fucking kidding me?! What do you take me for?"

"Alright, alright, Ri-chan! Be quiet or you'll wake everyone up!"

"What I did was idiotic, I was a prime grade jerk!"

"I got it, I got it! Now, be quiet."

"You deserve to punch me straight in the face for what I did! HIT ME!"

"What?! I'm not going to--"

"HIT! ME!"

The punch was enough to make Ritsu fly ten feet away. He landed on his back with a sting on his cheek and a smile on his face. He sat up to see Akira wearing a dumb look, his hand still in a fist.

"That's what you're supposed to do when you're upset." Ritsu rubbed his damaged cheek. "Kind of wimpy though."

Akira's expression returned to its exasperation. He rolled his eyes. "Please. I was holding back."

"I call bullshit. Hit me again with your full strength this time then."

"You wouldn't survive." Akira softened. He reached out a hand to pull Ritsu back onto his feet. "Idiot. I can't believe you sometimes."

Ritsu grinned. "Feel better right?"

"Yeah."

A few minutes later when the morning was just beginning to appear, the two boys were at the front door sending Ritsu off.

"Here, take these with you" Akira held out a box of fruit then a plastic bag, "and this, it's the soup container from last time."

"Thanks." Ritsu adjusted the box and the bag and started to leave. "See you at training."

"Be careful on your way back!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

Suzume hadn't appeared for a training session and Baki told the boys that she had started her sleeping cycle and wouldn't be able to join them for a few days.

"It's about time, too," Temari said absentmindedly as she sorted through files during Ritsu's apprenticeship at the headquarters. "She hasn't had a hibernation in a while. It'll be good for her."

When Ritsu first heard about Suzume's odd sleeping schedule, he didn't think much of it. He's learned to accept his teammate's oddities. But whenever Akira mentions anything that had happened during his last year in the Institute, like Suzume and her list of scandals, Ritsu was always taken aback and once again was reminded of why he didn't know about anything. Back then he was too desperate to really pay attention. He hadn't been in the right mindset to. He was too busy distracting himself with training and going out on as many missions as he could get, as if his life depended on it.

"How was the meeting with Konoha, Temari-senpai?"

Temari lifted a thoughtless peace sign. "Easy win."

So cool.

After completing his hours, Ritsu was heading home late at night. As he got near his apartment, he spotted something small huddled near the building. His pace quickened until he was in front of the little kid with curly black hair.

"Nitori?!" He bent down to the kid's level. "What are you doing so far away from home?"

Nitori raised his head so Ritsu could see the eyes that reminded him so much of Akira's. Their honey brown color was encircled by redness, still wet from crying and turning puffy.

"Ri... I didn't know where else I should go..."

"Come in." Ritsu grabbed the kid's arm to pull him onto his feet.

Ritsu unlocked his apartment door and let Nitori enter first. His parents and grandma were sleeping in their rooms and his older sister was at the hospital for her night shift, so the whole apartment was gentle in sleep.

A couple of clickty clack sounds of paws and his grandma's dog was wagging his tail at them.

"A," Nitori sniffed, "dog?"

"Yeah, her name's Saya. She's friendly."

Nitori raised a hand for Saya to sniff. The dog nudged his hand onto her head and Nitori's crying stopped as he pet Saya's fur. He wrapped his arms around her neck to bury his face in her neck. "I've always wanted a dog."

Ritsu kicked off his sandals before heading over to the kitchen to make some hot milk for his guest. "Come and sit."

Saya guided Nitori to their living room couch and laid her head on his lap for him to pet. Ritsu joined them and handed Nitori the warm milk then sat down across from him on the coffee table.

"So," he said, "how'd you end up on my doorstep?"

"Akira aniki got mad at me so I ran away."

"He got mad?" Ritsu never heard thought Akira could get mad at any of his little siblings. Or get mad in general.

"I enrolled in the Institute."

For a moment Ritsu didn't realize what he'd just said. Then his eyebrows snapped downwards and he did an odd lurch.

"Did Akira know?!"

Nitori shook his head. "I hid it from him. He didn't know until now." His face stiffened. "He told me that only he needed to be a shinobi and I told him he's just scared I might be better than him."

Ritsu's mouth dropped. He pulled a hand down his face, "Kid...."

"If I'm better than him I would get sent on more dangerous missions right? If I do then I can get enough money for Akira aniki to stop being a shinobi."

"Nitori," Ritsu started, "Akira wants you three to live normal, happy lives. If you become a shinobi it would mean that he did all of this for nothing."

"We're not happy!" Nitori's voice pierced through the quiet home. "We're not! Everytime Hayato aniki is working late and Akira aniki is gone on missions we're home alone and it's scary! What if Akira aniki doesn't come back one day? What if Hayato aniki gets too sick? I have to do something! If I don't then they'll die! And we'll be alone again!"

"Hey--hey." He leaned forward. "Listen to me. Do you think I'd let anything happen to Akira? I'm the best genin out there."

"Well," Nitori sniffed, "what if something happens to you first? You're not the best genin in Konoha. Or in the world."

Ritsu narrowed his eyes playfully. "When did you get so smart?"

"I bet I could beat you and be the best genin. I'll do it as soon as I graduate."

"I'll be glad to have another rival," Ritsu chuckled.

"You're okay with me joining the Institute, Ri?"

"I'm not happy about it, but if it's your choice I can't do anything."

Nitori didn't respond, instead staring down at Saya as he pet her. Eventually, Ritsu caught his whisper of, "Can I stay over?"

"Yeah," he glanced at the clock, "but I'm going to tell your brother you're here, got it?"

Nitori nodded.

Ritsu rose back up to his feet. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

"Yeah... yeah..." Ritsu said in response to Akira's panicked voice through his receiver. "Don't worry, he's here."

Near the post office just down the block, Ritsu stood inside a phone booth, one of the few set up around prime locations around the village, counting himself lucky that there wasn't the usual line you'd see during the day. The street lamps were flickering, some were completely blown out, the streets were empty. It felt like he was the only person alive. Then he rolled his eyes at how corny it sounded.

As a gift, Kankuro had installed a phone line in Akira's distant neighborhood and given his family their own phone. Kankuro had insisted it was for business purposes only to ensure clear communication, and didn't take the family's refusals for an answer.

"One day, everyone will have a phone in their house," Kankuro had said. "This is nothing."

Ritsu had been experiencing his gratefulness to the Sand Siblings once again as he waited for the line to connect.

Naoko had answered before handing it over to Akira once she realized who it was. As Ritsu explained the situation to his friend, he could still hear how panicked and stressed even in his silence.

"I'm so sorry, it must be a bother. I'll come get him right now."

"No. He's staying the night. I'll drop him off in the morning."

"But--"

"I'll keep him safe. You should stay at home and rest, Akira."

Ritsu could still hear his friend on the other side of the line. His controlled breaths slowly turned more harsh as time passed. Ritsu gave him time.

"I can't let him go to that awful place, Ri-chan, I just can't."

"I thought you said Gaara-sama and the rest have changed the system."

"Things don't change so easily. None of them should have to endure that."

"You did."

"So that they would never have to!" Akira seemed to catch himself, trying his hardest to swallow his emotions. Naoko and Hiraku were around after all.

Ritsu listened to his friend's uneven breathing. "I know."

"I just can't believe this."

"I know."

"Even if we were dirt poor I would never let him."

"I know. But you gotta admit that he had guts to do that behind your back."

Akira let out a breathy chuckle. "Yeah..."

"It won't be like last time. You had to go through it all alone. This time, Nitori has you and me."

"I still haven't agreed to this."

"He doesn't need your permission. He's doing this for you just like you did it for them."

A moment in silence.

"Ri-chan. Why did you decide to be a shinobi?"

Ritsu was suddenly hyper aware of how the cold phone warmed by his ear, how smooth the metal was as he leaned his forearm against the phone box, the buzz in the background of their call. "I did it because..." he said slowly, "I wanted to serve my village."

"You're one of the few then." Akira's voice was colder than Ritsu had ever heard it. "And yet they still treated you like trash."

Akira couldn't seem to calm himself down.

"Shinobi are supposed to die first," his friend said, " and I'm going to make as much money as I can before then."

Akira hung up before Ritsu could say anything else. But as Ritsu set the phone back in its place and opened the booth's door to step back out into the world, he thought that he wouldn't have been able to say anything anyway.

A few days passed, and it was time for Ritsu's once a month visit to the hospital. With a new plant in hand, he exited out of the stairwell on the psychiatric floor and went up to the desk.

"Ah, Ritsu," a nurse greeted him. "It's good to see you."

"How have you been?"

"Oh, the usual." They started to walk down the hall together once the receptionist signed Ritsu in. "There's somebody else visiting too, just so you know."

He paused. "...Who?"

Ritsu dashed down the hallway, his poor plant being thrashed about and dirt flying out. He skidded to a halt in front of the door and opened it to spill into the room. He tried his best to control his breathing as his wide eyes locked onto the person sitting with his former team.

"Temari-senpai..."

Temari was sitting on the picnic blanket in the middle of the room. The black haired woman, Ritsu's sensei, was gazing at Temari intently, her hand paused in the middle of drawing another circle. The other two weren't paying their visitor as much mind as one kept playing with their tea set while the other stared out a window.

Temari looked up at his arrival. "Hey, Ritsu. I was just talking with your team."

Ritsu wondered if he was hallucinating.

"Sit down with us."

Ritsu wandered forward and awkwardly knelt down, "Temari-senpai, what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to pay respects to Nawa-senpai." As she said this, Temari picked up a pencil that had been abandoned on the floor to draw a matrix along one of the sides of the drawn circle. "I'm not an expert at seals but I know enough to play along."

Ritsu held his breath as his sensei slowly looked down at the addition. "What do you mean?"

"It's a common exercise Suna seals shinobi use to practice their knowledge. Some use it as a game to compete with other experts. Drawing a circle is usually the first turn in the game."

"I've never heard of that before." Ritsu didn't dare look away from his sensei as she looked down at the paper.

Nawa moved, lifted her pen to the paper, and added another matrix.

Ritsu's bottom lip trembled.

"Fuck..."

Ritsu looked around to see Temari in a straight backed sitting position with a hand lifted to her lips in thought.

"She's definitely an expert," she muttered. "I don't even know some of these symbols."

Temari closed her tired eyes, covering them from the files she had been working on for a while now. They were reports and data regarding the recent increase in emigration among their younger populations. Apparently they were dissatisfied with their living conditions and were seeking something better elsewhere. The older generations were too attached to their culture and roots to think about abandoning the village even when it was in a great time of struggle, but it seems like the younger don't have any such sentiment to tie them down.

After resting her eyes for a good five minutes, Temari opened them and tried to refocus. It was about time to inform everybody else about the specifics of the matter but she didn't know what other conclusion they could come up with other than that change would take time. But by then, all of their people would have already left.

She tossed the files back onto her desk and leaned back into her chair.

Funny how they only started to care about what their people were thinking once it became a problem.

"These kids are real ballsy," she muttered down to the statistics, tapping a finger over one of the charts. Leaving your home is a difficult choice to make, and especially leaving a desert town. It didn't help that it was looked down upon to leave, everyone would start to think of you as a traitor. But they seem to think it was all worth it.

If the kids all left, the village would have no future.

After attempting multiple times to continue her work, Temari admitted defeat. She leaned further back into her chair, her head tilted back so that she was looking straight up at the ceiling. Her neck was so stiff.

Now without any distractions, her thoughts wandered back to earlier that day. When the nurse came into the private room instructing them to leave while she gave her patients their daily pills, Ritsu said that he should get going anyway and Temari followed his lead. The pair said farewell to his old team, then out in the hallway, Ritsu asked her if she had time for him to buy her a drink.

Out in the eatery where nobody else was around, Ritsu was standing in front of a vending machine as Temari waited on a nearby bench.

"Sorry I never had the time to come and pay a visit earlier." Temari accepted the drink Ritsu had bought her. "I was only able to stop by because I was making sure Ukai-sensei and the shinobi we rescued were settling in properly. They have a ward in this hospital."

"There's no need to apologize, senpai."

"Still, I thought I should introduce myself and inform them about your apprenticeship in person. And tell them not to worry about you anymore. They must be damn right proud of you now. First apprentice of the Fifth Kazekage. And you earned it. Don't let anybody say otherwise."

Ritsu didn't respond, making Temari turn to look questioningly at him.

He looked up at her with a maturity in his face that she wasn't ready for. "Do you think I'm working this hard to prove that they were wrong?"

Temari was caught off guard. "You weren't angry about how they treated you?"

"I never thought to be angry. This was the village they laid down their lives for, I would lay down my own life for. I just thought I didn't meet their expectations. We're shinobi, that's how it is. But," Ritsu thought of his team who had hardly been cared for after being decorated with honors. He thought of Akira, "we definitely deserve more. We aren't respected enough."

Ritsu's team was handled poorly.

Suna wasn't as sexist as Konoha who only ever thought females could be medics but they sure weren't as equal as the Mist, though the Mist usually works on whoever can kill the most people regardless of any gender or class.

The Kazekage's clan itself was not originally a patriarchy. The position of clan head always passed to the first born regardless of gender, but after only having first born males for the past four generations, women are in the process of losing their equal standing.

Having an all female team was a project in the making by an outspoken group during her father's time, in order to reassert their equality. They were finally accepted and a team was made.

Ritsu had been on the first all-female team.

They were sent on an A-rank mission even though they were still a standard three genin, one jounin team straight out of the Institute. As such, the team was captured by rogue shinobi except for Ritsu who had run to get reinforcements, but by the time they came and rescued the team, they had already been tortured to insanity.

They had been set up to fail.

Temari had been shocked by Ritsu's response. For her, she had no anger for her village but for the people running it to the ground. But she hadn't expected Ritsu to be so obedient after everything.

No.

Temari straightened up again in her seat, looking down at her papers.

Not obedient, loyal.

It made sense too since he was related to Konata-baa.

His experience, along with Akira's and Suzume's, painfully reminded Temari of their village's deep rooted failings. Each kid a result of the village's shortcomings. Before thinking of their people as traitors, Temari thought that the village itself had already failed their people.

She knew where all the problems came from. Before Suna was founded, there were only really two major shinobi clans in the desert during the all states warring period: the puppeteers and the wind weavers, two techniques that have a firm grasp on Suna's culture and practice to this day. Any other clans through time had either been incorporated into the two main powers or else died off due to the desert's ruthlessness. Reto the first Kazekage, from a clan nobody had heard of before then appeared one day and united all of the shinobi in the desert. Though it was a tight kept secret from the outside world until recently, Reto's clan had the kekkei genkai called Magnet Release as evidenced by the Third and the Fourth Kazekage both from the Kazekage clan.

The first two Kazekage focused too much on strengthening the power of their shinobi rather than anything else. Therefore, even if their village was recognized as a great nation, they were humorously lacking in everything else. Most of their occupants were shinobi who were specialized to fight and fight only, neglecting to fortify their economy and their infrastructure enough to last past their generations.

The Third, being the most powerful Kazekage armed with the most powerful shinobi finally began reformation, finishing the water system, inviting more merchants, fixing up and strengthening the infrastructure, and establishing greenhouses. But it wasn't enough. Their village had too many deep rooted problems.

Now they were poor, and children were dying on the streets or in combat because there was no way for their families to eat otherwise.

The poor being forced into becoming shinobi to have a decent life, the village failing both shinobi and civilians alike. At this point, what was there to die for?

That's why she needed to do something about it. She had to make sure the people they've neglected are taken care of, to ensure that they could provide them with everything they need to survive.

Things weren't going fast enough, she wasn't working hard enough. If she did better, then everything would be fixed. She needed to be better. She's already failed so many times.

Temari stood from her desk and left her room to get fresh air.

She could see her little sister sleeping under the tree through the sliding doors. No sun came through that side of the building anymore because Suzume's tree had grown big enough to envelop most of the backyard in shade. Good thing too. Ever since she went to the forest, every time she had her hibernation, flowers and moss would climb up onto her skin or even right out of it. With the tree, they were assured that nobody else saw. It didn't seem like even Suzume noticed when she woke up since the plants would disappear soon after.

Temari wished she could have the tapes back. She wanted to hear her mother's voice again. But Suzume stuck to her word and refused to give them up whenever Temari was weak enough to ask her. She had tried to find where Suzume had hid them but it seemed like Suzume knew the house even better than she did now, no doubt with Kankuro's help.

Kankuro had always been the one to understand the mansion the most. Whenever their father had time for them and weren't in a mood, the father and son would sneak around the hidden passageways and sometimes the other occupants of the house would hear their voices through the walls. Kankuro had kept these passageways a secret from Temari despite her proddings, taking pride in having something with their father that nobody else had. Temari had always thought it was unfair but never brought it up with Rasa out of spite.

But Kankuro ended up spilling the secret when one day an assassin had snuck into the mansion. Temari had woken up to Kankuro bursting out of her wall white faced and shaking her awake. He had pulled her into the passageway, holding her hand in a sweaty grip as they climbed and clambered through. Then he stopped somewhere and hunkered down with her as they heard their father killing whoever it was that had had the balls enough to attack their household.

It was only afterward that she found out the place they had ended up at was underground below the basement which led to a labyrinth that stretched even beyond the village's perimeter.

That was the night when their paternal grandmother had been killed. That was the night Kankuro moved into the room in the basement that was the center of all of the mansion's secret passages.

She had another headache.

The telephone rang. She answered.

"Yeah?"

"Could you come over here?" Kankuro's voice said. "That engineer I told you about agreed to consult us about the windmills."

"Shit, really?" Temari turned away from the sliding doors. "I'll be right there."

When Temari opened the door to the office, Kankuro was sitting across from a middle aged man with muscles the size of his head who was looking through the blueprints they had made. Temari softly closed the door behind her, and took a seat next to Kankuro. He didn't say anything to her, keeping a close eye on the engineer. If he was any more obvious about his anticipation he would be screaming at the top of his lungs.

"You're the one who thought of this?" The engineer said without looking up.

"Yes," Temari said.

"Hm." He placed the blueprints down on the table to cross his arms.

The siblings held their breath.

This man was the most talented, hardworking, and no nonsense engineer of the whole village. He had come from a long line of engineers who had supported the shinobi to this day. Paper engineers who worked in the seals department, environmental engineers that help the village defend against the desert, and mechanical engineers that build obstacle courses for them to train in.

This man was one of the most respected mechanical engineers of the day, though he didn't work on obstacle courses. He is responsible for their electric generators that provide them cold air during the day and heat at night, as well as Suna's printing press. If they wanted these windmills to succeed, they needed him on the job, sending the village years into the future.

But he never takes commissions, only working on his own plans and scorning other's for wasting his time with vision-less, talent-less blueprints and ideas. It was even a miracle that Kankuro managed to convince him to look at theirs.

The engineer nodded, coming to a decision. "I'll be a part of the team if it means these will be made in two years."

Temari let out a breath of relief, and Kankuro grinned.

"We would greatly appreciate it, sir," he said.

The engineer nodded again and rose from his seat. The two shinobi stood up as well. "You three have brought us great hope for the village. Thank you for your hard work."

"You're too kind, sir," Temari said.

He nodded as he left. "Contact me when everything is ready."

After he left, they waited a few seconds. Then Kankuro let out his excitement in a loud whoop!

"I can't believe this." Temari felt lightheaded. "This is really happening."

"With him leading the team, the windmills will be perfect!" Kankuro said. "This is going to change everything!"

"Hey," she came back down to earth, "don't celebrate yet. We still need to get the materials and land approved."

"We have to tell Gaara and Suzume. They'll be ecstatic."

"Alright, alright," Temari kicked Kankuro out the door, "let's get back to work."

Kankuro gave her the middle finger, and the two of them started to head back home to their desks full of paperwork. Once they entered the Kazekage quarters, they took a pit stop to the kitchen where Kankuro took the chance to check on Suzume with a quick glance out the sliding doors. Temari made coffee for the both of them.

As they drank, Kankuro asked, "How was your trip to Konoha?"

Temari sighed, feeling twice as tired as she had a moment earlier, the triumph of getting the windmill plan approved immediately gone. "I almost didn't leave there alive."

She hated the feeling of Konoha wagging their "forgiveness" around like Suna owed them. Suna avoided a war after the Konoha Crush because they found out that they were played by Orochimaru who as Konoha's rogue killed the Fourth Kazekage and then Konoha's Third Hokage. But Konoha still blamed Suna for the attack. Suna managed to pay them back by assisting in the chase after their Uchiha Rogue. This time around Suna still technically saved the Nara's only successor again so that was enough reason for them not to demand repercussions. In other words, they were on even footing again.

The amount of meetings she had to go to. The Fifth Hokage and the Nara's clan head were reasonable enough people though. But they had their hands full with their own politics to make things go smoothly. Their food didn't sit well with her either, it was too bland, not enough spices.

"The Fifth Hokage and the Nara clan gave you trouble?"

"No, but other officials wanted them to push for leverage against us. But in the end I managed to show them that we're even, and the Nara head agreed easily."

"So father-in-law helped a lot."

"He knew that there had been no harm but Konoha still needs to show that people can't mess with Konoha's noble clans," Temari said calmly as she threw a punch at Kankuro which he dropped to a squat in order to dodge. "I promised them that we would send Saboten for them to punish but," a vein throbbed near her eyebrow, "of course he wound up dead, so we went through another round of meetings. Some of them were accusing us of lying. Well, all in all, it worked out, but I still got a mouthful from our Councilmembers."

"Welcome home?"

"Yeah, home sweet fucking home." She finished up her cup to refill it. "I still haven't seen Gaara or Baki, I haven't talked to Suzume either since she's been asleep."

The phone rang.

Temari slammed her cup down to march her way to it with venom. "Ever since we've installed this bastard we've been busier than ever. I regret installing you, fucker!"

She picked up the receiver and in her most professional voice demanded, "What is it?"

Kankuro let out a small, tired laugh as he went to join her side.

"You're in a mood."

Temari's agitation chilled. "Baki?"

"So you're home right now? How about Gaara and Kankuro?"

"I'm here, Baki," Kankuro said, getting uncomfortably close to Temari to reach the receiver. Temari shoved his face away but he still managed to say, "Gaara's not here, but it's about time for him to stop by."

"Good, stay there, I'll be right over."

Gaara came home before Baki did. He came home through the backyard, checking in on Suzume before entering the house just as Baki arrived through the passageway that connects the living quarters and the headquarters.

"What's wrong, Baki?" Gaara said as they all took their seats at the dining table.

"I was delivering the Kazekage apprenticeship order to my assistant, Rabia, when she refused."

"Why?" Temari asked.

"She was the one who got the information on Saboten's money transfer, the leverage we used during the trial. She told me where she got the information from." Baki's eyebrows furrowed. "It was from Councilman Sakyu."

Temari wasn't surprised hearing that man's name again. What did surprise her was the fact that his existence had completely slipped her mind. It was like every time he appeared he did something that should completely stick in her mind but once he was out of sight he blended into the background.

Kankuro turned to their brother. "Gaara."

He was calm. "I'm keeping an eye on him. Don't worry." He spoke to Baki, "Rabia rejected the order?"

"She told me the guilt was too much to accept the apprenticeship."

"Tell her that we won't take no for an answer. She's proven herself by rejecting it."

"I'll tell her right away," Baki left as abruptly as he arrived. Kankuro also left to confront his pile of work.

Temari followed Gaara up the stairs toward their own rooms. She lost herself in thought as she stared at his back. It was strange. The village had failed all three of them too, yet here they were, working so hard to fix it.

"How has research been going, Temari?"

Temari stared at him. They had stopped at the landing of her floor. Her mind was flipping through every issue she was researching at the moment, unable to pinpoint which one he was talking about.

"About the emigrating citizens," he obliged.

"Ah. From what I gathered it's almost all young people leaving. At the rate we're going, there won't be any people younger than 30 left in the village in 10 years."

"Hm, that's a major concern." He looked down for a second, then a thought seemed to occur to him. "Perhaps we can try to plan a festival."

"What?" A festival seemed so odd amidst everything else. "Do you think that's really a priority?"

"Just as you said, shinobi and citizens aren't happy. Morale is an important thing. Let's remind everyone why they should be proud to be a part of Suna."

Temari took a moment to consider it.

"Alright. Let's try it."

Temari was once again running on caffeine. Her head was killing her and there was a twitch in her eyebrow that she wanted to stab.

After deciding with Gaara the night before that they would have a festival, she had stayed up to finish work in order to prepare for it.

As she gulped down a fourth cup of coffee, she opened the refrigerator to grab an onigiri. All of them were too busy to eat let alone make proper food. Luckily Konata-baa had stopped by with a whole stack of onigiri earlier that week, but even that stock is getting dangerously low.

Eating the onigiri in three ravenous bites, Temari just realized how hungry she'd been and was seriously considering another onigiri when Kankuro walked into the kitchen.

"Did I hear from Gaara right?" He had on a toothy grin. "We're having a festival?"

"Yeah." Temari was surprised to feel herself get excited at the mention of it.

"We gotta have a bunraku show!" Kankuro insisted as he poured himself a cup of coffee. "Man, we haven't had a festival in ages. Has Suzume ever been to a festival? We gotta take her."

"For sure." She imagined the four of them on the night of the festival, dressed in traditional clothes and completely taking over the food booths and games.

Eventually, the day passed by too soon as they had a habit of doing, and Temari was alone in the house with a sleeping Suzume. She decided to abandon her work to visit her sister outside. She wanted to ask her what she wanted at the festival to see if there was anything kids her age would expect to see, Kankuro had already made her swear to have a bunraku performance, but it looked like she had to wait a bit longer.

Nursing her headache, Temari made it downstairs and into the living room when she halted in her step.

Suzume was in the doorway, and staring up at her with molten gold eyes.

For a second, Temari didn't recognize her sister.

"Suzume..."

Her sister took each step toward her clumsily, putting too much of her weight on each foot and pausing for too long, like she didn't really know how to walk. When she almost fell forward, Temari ran to catch her.

Suzume's golden eyes shone up at her, so entrancing and otherworldly that she held her breath.

"Suzume?" she exhaled softly, searching for any sign of her sister past it.

Suzume lifted a hand to rest on Temari's cheek, and a cool tingling tamed her headache until it was completely gone.

Suzume's hand slipped off her face and she slumped into her hold, asleep again.

Temari lifted her up to gently lay her on their couch.

She stared at Suzume's stupid face. Her chest felt tight, her eyes were burning with something she couldn't quiet.

Temari reached out and pinched her sister's cheek. "Idiot."

We'll make sure to build the village into a place you'll be proud of. We'll do right by you.