"They're getting desperate."

"Just shows we're winning~."

On the dining table was a letter of notice that Temari had found in the mail. There was going to be a week-long session regarding what the letter stated as "issues around the structure of information flow through the ranks" which was stupidly broad but blatantly obvious that their end goal was to weaken the Kazekage clan's power. There hadn't been a week-long Council session since the Third Kazekage died. Such a pathetic last ditch effort to regain their control.

Temari was glad that it was Gaara that she managed to meet up with in their family roulette of "who was home". He was the best person to brainstorm with for this issue. The two of them would have to inform the others if they ran into them. Baki probably already knew about it, but seeing as their letter came the day before the session when they were usually informed two weeks prior, it was likely that his letter had been just as prompt.

"We're going to make them regret ever planning this sort of bullshit. Let's turn the tables on them, Gaara."

Temari was thrilled to see the same burning flame of spite in his eyes. "That's without saying."

Once Kankuro and Suzume returned home late that night, they found the other two in the living room with papers strewn across the floor and taped to the walls, books and scrolls scattered around in organized chaos. After managing to rip Gaara's attention away enough for him to tell them the situation, Kankuro's face warped into an evil grin.

"They seemed to have forgotten we have two insomniacs and two great cooks." He punched a fist into his palm. "We were born for this."

The morning found the whole family still awake. The sun's light crept through the house to land on the studying pair of Temari and Gaara who were gradually coaxed out of their concentration by the clatterings of pots and the whistling of kettles. When they walked into the kitchen, spiced and stifling steam enveloped around them. Kankuro and Suzume were engrossed in their work as Kankuro poured meat into a pot of boiling water while Suzume chopped up the vegetables at expert speed.

"Good morning," Temari and Gaara said, suddenly realizing how empty their stomachs were.

Suzume looked up, but her hands didn't stop as they scraped the cut vegetables into another boiling pot. "Good morning. We have breakfast ready for you."

They turned around to be confronted by their dining table in peril. No surface was clear of food and as they approached they heard the creaking of the table legs.

"It's like the New Years," Temari commented as they sat down and picked up their chopsticks, "and all the mothers on the block cooked for one household.

She couldn't see Gaara around the tower of rice that sat between them. She leaned around it to see him with cheeks filled with food.

Suzume and Kankuro joined them a few minutes later, having nothing left to do but wait for things to finish cooking.

They kept their aprons on as they too started eating.

"We'll be popping by every mealtime to drop off the food," Kankuro said as he wolfed down some rice and reached to grab a plate of beef. "Make sure to waft the mouthwatering smell in their general direction to shame their below par food."

Four days of the session passed with no incident.

Kankuro or Suzume would stop by every morning and every night to drop off the food to Temari and Gaara who along with the other council members were stuck there until the week was up.

If a council member leaves during a session they weren't allowed in again, so they usually ate while conversing and used the restroom inside the conference room. Assistants and family members were allowed to bring them food but there was no talking allowed. The only exception to this was the most senior of council members who went home each night to return in the morning, a servant or assistant taking their place to report back to them what had occurred in their absence. Substitutes could only be used once, but from the glimpse Kankuro had gotten when he was dropping off the food it looked like their family was doing the best physically, so they might not need to substitute them.

Other than cooking, the two were doing their paperwork at home and stepped out from time to time so Kankuro could discuss something with headquarters or so Suzume could meet up with her team which was being run by Ritsu while Baki was at the session. Most of the time Kankuro would be stuck to their house phone while Suzume finished paperwork in the kitchen.

Now, the two of them were laying across the furniture, waiting for the next round of food to be done cooking while reading the notes Gaara and Temari had left behind just in case something happened to require substituting one of them out.

Kankuro realized that this was the first time in a while that he had been alone with Suzume. He couldn't even remember the last time he had been. Was it... back at the Institute? Then it had been almost five months. Things had been so hectic lately. And with all of them preoccupied with office work, missions, training, researching, and hibernations, it was a blessing to get all five of them together once in a while. But Kankuro always thought one on one was nice too. It was slower, and closer.

Kankuro wondered whether anybody told Suzume about the festival yet. Once she had woken up from her sleep, she had been directly sent to another mission, and then arrived home to find out about the session. It was likely that nobody had had the time to tell her about it.

Looking away from the papers he hadn't been reading anyway, he saw Suzume sitting on the armchair diagonally from him, slouched over and mouthing the words she was reading with her eyebrows knitted.

He missed their walks home from the Institute, cooking dinner, training with her. He couldn't help but think that they may never be able to have such a laid back life again, because after Gaara becomes the Kazekage, their piles of work were only gonna get worse. Even when they'd been hanging out for four straight days, he had only noticed just now, and all that time was spent in a blur of work and food.

"Kazekage-sama is very busy with work, Kankuro-sama."

He felt like he was going to throw up.

No... It's not like that. It's completely different. He would make it up to her.

Kankuro opened his mouth to say something, but that was as far as he got.

The two siblings sensed it at the same time. Their skin jumped. They had gotten to their feet, alert, ready.

At the session, the commotion was not missed by members of the Council who were keen enough to perceive it. Gaara's eyes hardened and he knew Temari was aware of the situation as well since her face tightened. Baki, Sakyu, and a couple of the council members, Dorai, noticed as well.

The doors flew open. A shinobi ran into the courtroom to announce that unknown attackers were converging on the Kazekage personal quarters to the room at large.

"Their numbers are overwhelming," they said.

"Why are you reporting that to us?" Councilwoman Jaya lifted an eyebrow. "We can't do anything about it. Take care of it yourself."

The shinobi glowed red. "O-Of course, ma'am!" Then left the room just as abruptly as they had come.

"Shouldn't you go help, Gaara-sama?" Councilman Toge said with a barely controlled sneer. "They are your precious family."

"Thank you for your concern. But, I assure you, they can handle it." Gaara picked up where he left off, unable to control a bit of his attention that strayed in the direction of his home.

Suzume and Kankuro stood back to back as the enemies grew closer and closer. The traps they had set for intruders sprang outside. Screams of pain filled the air as the ones who survived continued their attack.

"This'll be a party, jan," Kankuro said with a grin. "Ready to kick ass, Suzu?"

"I hope they don't ruin the food," she said in serious concern.

Kankuro slumped a bit, "I'm sure the food will be fine."

They both readied themselves as the attackers flew in. There were at least fifty, most of average strength, a couple of concerning ones here and there.

Suzume blocked a spear and Kankuro had attached chakra strings around the furniture in the room so they flew around the living room, knocking attackers off of their feet.

The sofas got ripped in half, allowing their stuffing to clump to the floor. The cabinet had a heroic death after taking down seven people, the television burst into sparks after sacrificing its life to protect Kankuro from a barrage of shuriken.

Suzume and the armchair were flying around the room, perched on the side of it as she showered the room in kunai. She had to jump off when one of them took the chance to cut the armchair to pieces.

Only twenty were left now. The living room was still cramped. Kankuro and Suzume had resumed their back to back stance.

Kankuro took on twelve while the other eight were occupied by Suzume. Kankuro slammed a hand on the wall and it flickered with seals, all small and circular, and out from them swarmed tiny puppets with huge needles for teeth. They all cackled in a high pitched, unsettling way, and Kankuro sicced them on the enemies. Five went down while the rest struggled to kick the piranha dolls off of them.

Meanwhile, Suzume had slammed a foot down onto the floor and her own seal, twice as big as Kankuro's, tossed out a sword. She swiftly grabbed and sliced one of her enemies in one move.

As the enemy fell, another was right behind them.

Meeting their stone cold eyes, fear drained Suzume's body warmth, her breath caught.

Their hand was reaching out, the intruder she had taken down had not yet hit the floor.

Kankuro had felt it as well, and turned to watch as Suzume attempted to take a step away from the hand reaching out.

He redirected the puppets toward them.

Somehow, they both knew that being touched by that hand would be the end of everything.

Suzume desperately slammed another foot on the floor. A pair of fans catapulted out of the seal and hit the enemy square in the chin, throwing them back and off their rhythm.

The piranha puppets had reached them and they were now too preoccupied by them to focus on Suzume. She quickly aimed her sword and lunged.

She met the cold gaze one more time before they vanished. And like a cue, the rest of them were gone as well.

Suzume and Kankuro stood in the empty living room, catching their breaths. The puppets scuttled back into their seals and Suzume let her seal swallow her sword up again. It was a mess. The television sparked dispassionately on the floor, surrounded by the guts of the sofa and armchair, their upholstery foam covered the area like snow mixed in splinters and pieces of wood from the coffee table, cabinet, bookshelf and TV stand. The books had scattered around the room, pages from them ripped out and trampled. The picture frames had shattered, the glass shined like a pool's surface.

Kankuro looked over at Suzume's turned back. For once in his life, he was scared to speak.

Smoke started to furl into the living room from the kitchen and Suzume jumped and ran to stop the fire. Kankuro took this time to pick up their pictures covered in glass.

"They stole all of the food!" came his sister's distraught voice.

Gaara and Temari's next delivery consisted of take-out from the nearest food stalls.

The attack was written off as an assassination attempt on Kankuro's life as three of their family were preoccupied with the session, but there was no real attempt to look into the person responsible. Kankuro would later inform the others about the intruder who was targeting Suzume and thought it wise not to push too much to figure out who was responsible anyhow, at least publicly.

The living room was empty. Suzume had swept out all of the debris from the fight. All that they managed to salvage was a couple of books, her adoption form, and some of their pictures.

They didn't have the money to buy new furniture, but they weren't in a hurry to get some either way. Kankuro thought of the idea of using the wood lying around his workroom to repurpose some old furniture Suzume found in the basement. He could be found in the living room sawing and hammering and sewing. He'd already made a coffee table and a big bench with cushioned seats. If you looked close enough you could see that parts of them were limbs from failed puppets. The furniture could now be used for combat under Kankuro's use, with poison spiked blades lying in wait inside the woodwork.

Along with the weaponized furniture, Kankuro had also swiftly remade frames for their photos and Suzume's adoption form. They were placed on the mantle which had remained intact. With future plans for two armchairs, the living room was full again.

One night, when, for once, all four of them were home, all of the lights were off, except for Suzume's and Gaara's rooms the owners of which were awake. Suzume had left her desk to get a drink of water from the kitchen. Her chair faced diagonally away from the desk as she had turned it to get out. A breeze from the open window fluttered through her papers illuminated by a bright yellow lamp that was gazing down above her desk.

The scroll Sakyu had given her with the details about her offered apprenticeship lay in the scroll holder, a wired shelf attachment to the wall above her desk where she kept the most important scrolls, including the reference about the updated method to structure a report, her shinobi registration form with all of the important numbers she needed, and the scroll that she needed to send to management everytime she finished a mission in order for her to have a copy of her record in case she ever needed to clear things up.

Other than the creakings of the old house and the wind, everything was silent. Temari and Kankuro were both catching up on much needed sleep, both snoring vicariously.

A louder creaking than the ones from the pleasant house ran through the floors. A dark figure had landed into Gaara's hallway on the third floor from a window. The figure snuck carefully around, purposeful, as he headed past the staircase to the last door down the hall where light snuck through the cracks.

"Identify yourself."

The figure froze. Behind him was Suzume in her vulnerable gear of short sleeved civies. But her body and eyes made up for the lack of readiness.

Kunai flew at her and she ran around the walls and ceiling toward the intruder. She vanished and reappeared behind him, with a kick she had thrown him all the way to the end of the hall, away from Gaara's room. Suzume took hold of a sword from a seal on the wall and was on top of the intruder before he could get to his feet, the tip of the sword at his throat.

Her siblings all convened soon after, Gaara through his door and the other two from the staircase. They stayed about five paces away from their sister and the intruder.

Temari and Kankuro stuck close to Gaara as Temari said, "I'm sure you're aware of the repercussions of stepping into the home quarters of the Kazekage."

"What Kazekage?" The intruder spoke through a warped voice. A voice changer. "I don't see a Kazekage."

Gaara went around his siblings' protective guard, but his approach made the intruder seize up, so he stopped midway. "We won't hurt you. You can still get off with a light sentence if you cooperate."

The intruder quivered, whether from fear or fury they weren't sure. His breathing turned shallow, his breaths like rasps through his voice changer.

"I'll die before you get to lead this village, monster!" He pulled open his jacket to reveal his chest covered in explosive tags which lit and sparked instantly.

"Suzume!" Sand roared out and managed to wrap around the suicide bomber before the explosion went off. A fraction of the force still managed to escape and it sent clumps of sand flying and threw Suzume back.

They were all still while they caught their breath, looking at the remains of the assassin in their hallway. Splatters of blood and sand had gotten on Suzume and she saw the remains of the man by her feet. Temari finally went to go help Suzume up. There was a moment each sibling spent in the memories resurfaced by the death of the would-be assassin.

"Well... he was right," Kankuro said, making the others look over at him. "He died before you became Kazekage, Gaara."

Silence. Then, a bit of laughter slipped past Kankuro's mouth.

"Stop. No, stop it, don't laugh. It's not even that funny. This is serious, Kankuro," Temari said, trying and failing to keep up a straight face as her brother laughed until his stomach hurt.

"Of course it is," Kankuro seemed to have sobered up instantly, "Gaara is in danger, and I don't think the Council will have any complaints if I arrange a couple of things in light of this."

Temari noticed how pale Gaara had gotten. She casually moved to block his view of the blood by leaning into putting an arm on her hip.

"Should we stay at Baki's for the night?" she said. "I don't want to smell this while I sleep."

So in the middle of the night, Baki was rudely awakened by four kids who decided to barge into his already cramped apartment.

The next day, Kankuro dove into creating a bodyguard team for Gaara with the help of Councilman Yura. Establishing a bodyguard unit further solidifies Gaara's status as the successor of the Kazekage title, meaning that those against Gaara did everything they could to make the process hell for Kankuro. He took on the challenge with a fire in his eyes that made his eyebags look as dark as Gaara's. He couldn't return home for days.

Meanwhile, Temari had been called in front of the three councilmembers in charge of distributing out sensitive A-S missions for the week. Councilman Nousa, Toge, and Sakyu sat at the mission desk waiting for them.

When they entered, Temari didn't miss the silent greetings her sister and Sakyu gave to each other. Councilman Nousa who had been on good terms with both the tried, convicted, and later found dead Saboten and Councilman Koyo who was currently on suspension was just as fucked up as his convicted besties. Though they didn't manage to prove that he was also involved in the black market human trafficking, they know for a fact that he was involved. Temari knew that they had to weaken his power in some way and soon. However, it seemed as if he was laying low, and wasn't even bothering to look up at them. Councilman Toge was annoying but not worth wasting too much effort over, there was a huge chance that he will side with them once Gaara is made Kazekage because he was such a leech and only sides with those who are currently in power.

Councilman Sakyu however was on a completely different level. No matter how much Temari tried to focus on the other two her eyes would stray to the man. The bastard seemed to know what was bothering her but just smiled in a friendly way as Toge went on a long tangent about their mission.

On each side of her was Suzume and Ritsu. She had chosen them to be on her team this time around as Akira was being taught by Gaara at the moment, and Kankuro and Baki were both busy. It was a good chance to test their abilities as well. But right now, she was regretting choosing Suzume as Sakyu looked away from her to her sister who was listening closely to the mission details. It wasn't a perverted or murderous or loving gaze, a gaze that would give Temari a reason to punch the bastard's eyes out, but a protective and analyzing one. She didn't know why it bothered her so much.

Forget about it, she forced herself to direct her attention back on the other two councilmen. Right now, there was somebody else who needed her support more.

"...if everything goes well you'll be swimming in recommendations and respect," Toge was finishing up. He looked up from the papers to give Temari a smile that was too wide to be natural, almost like something was pulling at the sides of his mouth. "This will be a good chance for you to show everyone who the real Kazekage should be, eh?"

"You're right, sir."

He kept smiling, but it slowly fell off.

"Are you intending to appear," he crinkled his nose, "as such during the mission?"

Temari stepped forward to retort but Ritsu stopped her. "It's fine, Temari-senpai. I know our actions and image reflect the village's reputation."

Ritsu folded his hands into a seal and his appearance began to morph. He shrank, his hair pulled out of his scalp until it reached the middle of his back, his broad build curved and shrank until what stood in the boy's place was a girl. Ritsu tightened his shirt and belt and rolled up the hem of his pants. He then turned to Temari and Suzume and bowed.

"Please call me by my birth name for the duration of the mission. It's Rina."