Scroll Three; Chapter Four:

For Old Times' Sake

"I just think it's a little screwed up, is all."

"Kyan, you know how Naruto is. It's for his own good."

The midday sun beat down on us unrelentingly as we traversed across the sandy desert. We had only been away from Suna for less than two hours and I had already gone through a flask and a half of water. Perspiration dampened my armpits and underneath my breasts, leaving dark stains on my clothing. Although Gaara had cast a shield of sand above me, I still felt the temperature's effects and wondered why it never seemed this hot within the village.

Swallowing the dry lump in my throat, I took another swing from the flask, earning myself a wary look from my redheaded companion. "If he finds out the real reason why he's been sent away to some island," I continued on, shaking my head slowly as I tightened the cap on the flask, "he'll flip out. You know he will. Then he'll come looking for everyone. Someone should have told him the truth."

Gaara didn't reply to that. Maybe he realized I was right (for once), or maybe he was just fed up with arguing his point. It had been the main topic of conversation since he mentioned it outside the village entrance, after all.

We kept a steady pace as we went, switching between a rapid sprint and a casual stroll when our Chakra lowered just above the fine line of dangerous levels. Sand storms kept at bay for the most part; the wind hadn't been too terrible, but when they riled up, Gaara hurried to provide a wall to keep us from harm's way.

It struck me as odd that we hadn't been attacked. Most roads leading between the villages were littered with rogue Shinobi and bandits just waiting for some poor soul to happen by. Even as the sun began to sink down toward a faraway crease of mountains, casting a fiery orange glow on the path before us, we hadn't encountered so much as a rattlesnake or a deer as we passed over the border. The scent of a hidden campfire wafted toward us at one point, but disappeared in a flash.

"We'll stop here," Gaara declared once the leaves of the gigantic trees blocked out the sight of the moon. Trunks surrounded us, creating an organic barrier.

My stomach began to protest painfully before I could say anything to him. Maneuvering through the desert and forest had taken up all my concentration, making me forget about the concept of hunger. Now that we were standing still, I could feel its wrath. "Good thing," I replied. "I could probably eat an entire horse."

"Somehow," Gaara muttered, kicking at a patch of grass, "I don't doubt that. What about the rations?"

"What rations?"

His gaze flashed to meet mine. "You didn't bring the rations?" Then, before I had a chance to defend my case, his eyes trailed toward a cluster of rocks and he whispered to himself, "Did I remind myself to remind you to bring the rations?"

Bewildered, I gave a nonchalant shrug. "Hey, don't worry about it. I'm sure we can find something to eat." It was strange witnessing Gaara being so absentminded. It was rare that he forgot tasks or minor details of things. Part of me wasn't surprised, though. The war must've thrown him off. We were all suffering from it.

Gaara figured our best opportunity at finding anything to eat would not be from the vegetation, but from the wildlife. I scrunched my nose at the idea, slightly put off by it. I'd never killed an animal before – humans, yes, but not animals – and the thought of ramming a kunai between the eyes of a helpless fox twisted my stomach. However, I knew it was necessary. It was either an animal, or we both went without food. The latter was almost as scary as war itself.

The darkness made our endeavor all the more difficult. With every rustle beside me or a few feet away, I readied myself to pounce, only to lower my weapon in disappointment when Gaara's voice muttered, "It's just me."

For hours, we searched. The animals of the forest must have known we were on the hunt because they refused to reveal themselves. All the while, my stomach grumbled louder and louder, and eventually, Gaara's stomach began to harmonize with mine. It didn't take much time for his sighs of frustrations to turn into self-chastising comments about how he should have remembered to tell me to bring rations.

"Stop blaming yourself," I hissed, wincing at my own tone. It wasn't as if I enjoyed snapping at him; it was the hunger talking now. "Everyone forgets things sometimes. It's really no big deal-"

Something whizzed by my head, just barely nicking my left ear. In an instant, my hands found my tachi and Gaara's sand poured from the opening of the gourd. Warm blood trickled from the wound, dripping off my skin and onto my shoulder. Between my jagged breathing and the soft shifting noises of the sand, the silence of the forest met us.

"Show yourself!" Gaara boomed, his voice bouncing off the trees. No reply came, so he resorted to delivering empty promises. "No harm will come to you if you make yourself known!"

Heart beating away in my ears, I strained to listen for any type of response. At my feet, I could feel the sand wrapping its way up toward my ankles, preparing itself to shoot up in front of me should another sly attack happen. It comforted me slightly, but my body remained tense. The darkness put the both of us at a serious disadvantage.

"You both have really grown."

The female voice seemingly came from nowhere and everywhere. Like the trees, it surrounded us, throwing us for a loop as to where the source was. The sand tightened around me, giving away Gaara's uneasiness. The voice continued.

"If I come out, do not harm me."

"You attacked us!" I spouted bitterly into the shadows. "Stop being such a coward and come out! We'll go easy on you!"

"Kyan," Gaara snarled dangerously. I heard the shuffling of his feet, but the sand remained sturdy around my legs. "If you show yourself, you have our word that we will not harm you."

Without thinking on it, I let out a huff of disappointment and irritation. I was more than ready to engage in a brawl. The combination of my hunger and irritation that this person was playing some sort of hide-and-seek game with us riled me. Instead of lashing out, however, I kept my calm – or attempted to, at least – and stayed quiet.

Whoever was speaking was only a few feet from us. A light flickered to life, revealing a heart-shaped face framed by a mane of wavy blonde hair. A bruise caressed her right eye, accenting the emerald shine about them. The match in her hands struggled to support the flame at first, but was strengthened in moments with a few hushed words from her mouth.

Once again, the sand tightened. I bit my lip, fighting the urge to let out a whimper of pain.

"Serisu?"

The name was like a slap to the face. I knew about her, about everything she did not only to Kankuro, but to my sister. The torture, the threats, the fact that she decided it would be a fantastic idea to try to poison Temari but got me instead. Ire boiled inside me, and if it hadn't been for Gaara's sand weighing me down, I would have lunged.

Serisu offered a crooked smile just before another trail of sand devoured her and pinned her relentlessly to a tree. The match fell to the ground, shrouding us in shade once more. She let out a cry of anguish as her head cracked against the wood. I couldn't help but wince at the noise. "You gave your word, Gaara!" she protested.

"Kyan, give us some light," Gaara ordered sharply.

I desperately searched the forest floor for the match, gasping once my fingers found it. Without food, my Chakra was suffering, but I managed to compile just enough to blow a puff of fire onto the frayed tip. Serisu's face became apparent again, sending another surge of hatred through me. My hands trembled.

"What the hell are you guys doing out here in the dark?" Serisu scolded, a hint of something I couldn't quite put my finger on behind her words. It reminded me vaguely of my mother when Haketa and I did something we knew was against the rules.

Gaara's features remained hard. "You're in no position to demand answers," he informed her. "I should be asking you the same. Why are you out here?"

Serisu's eyes traced his face. "You've grown so much, Gaara," she said dreamily. "I can see a lot of your brother in you now. And you." Her head turned to me. "If I didn't know any better, I would have mistaken you for your sister."

"Don't you dare speak about her," I snapped, tightening my grip on my tachi. "Gaara asked you a question. I suggest you answer it before we make you answer it."

Although she tried to contain her fear, Serisu's breathing came out unevenly. Sweat beaded her upper lip through the crisp October air, and there was a slight quiver throughout her body. "Just wandering," she said. I didn't want to believe that simple answer, but there was confidence in her words. "I don't...really have anywhere I can call home. I just move from village to village, except Sunagakure, for obvious reasons."

"Smart thinking," Gaara replied. "I'd have you incarcerated on sight."

"I don't doubt that at all." Underneath the sand, Serisu fidgeted and took in a deep breath. "Look, the only reason why I attacked you was because I can't see very well in the dark. Hell, I can't see very well period. I thought you were an enemy, and then I heard your voice. I'm not a threat, okay?"

Almost simultaneously, Gaara and I cast a sideways glance to each other, probably wondering the same thing: should we trust her? It made sense that she would want to fend off anything moving in the darkness, but we were both aware of how manipulative she could be. The sand loosened around her body, but remained in place.

"Y-You must know about the war, right?" Serisu went on. The more she spoke, the more frantic she sounded. "I mean, everyone knows about the war by now. A-And the Allied Shinobi Forces? You're both aware of that?"

Rolling my eyes, I replied, "Of course we are. Gaara's the Kazekage, for shit's sake."

She raised her brows, impressed. "The Kazekage," she repeated, her eyes boring into Gaara's. "I never would've guessed." Closing her eyes tightly, she shook her head, her hair flowing with her movements. "I-I'm getting side tracked here. If you're the Kazekage, then you must have information about the Alliance, right? Let me join. I can help."

I wanted to laugh at the sheer irony of it all. Serisu, who had caused my family problems for so many years, wanted to be on our side now. I pinched the bridge of my nose, wishing our attacker had been anyone else in the world besides her. "You can't possibly be buying this right now." I commented, turning to Gaara. His lack of responses had begun to worry me.

His eyes met mine briefly before he let out a heavy sigh. Using the sand to restrain her arms behind her back, Gaara pulled her from the tree and forced her into a walk in front of us. "I don't know yet," he answered gravely. Serisu led the trek back to our decided camp spot with guidance from the sand.

It felt like the ultimate betrayal. My chest tightened, my stomach fell, and my jaw dropped. My body reacted before my thoughts could process what had just taken place. I took a step in front of Gaara, my hand seizing his forearm. A menacing glower met my stare.

"Have you already forgotten the hell she put your brother through? Or my sister? Or me?"

"I'm fully aware of her convictions, Kyan, but this is war. We need all the help we can get. You need to understand that."

Gaara yanked his arm from my hand and turned his back to me as he pushed Serisu further. Teeth latched onto the side of my inner cheek, I followed behind begrudgingly.

Our claimed spot was a bit more difficult to find since we last stumbled upon it. Night had fully set in and with the leaves blocking out most of the moonlight, we nearly crossed over it without realizing it. Fortunately, Gaara had recognized the grassy hole he had formed earlier. Gathering broken branches and dry shrubbery, I engendered a fire using what little Chakra I had left.

I lowered myself to my knees on the opposite side of the fire from Gaara and Serisu, my body aching and my mind restless. My stomach still complained, a wave of nausea hitting me every now and then.

"You're starving," Serisu pointed out. The shadows that danced on her face from the fire gave her a mature look, as if she were ten years older than me instead of three. "You both are. I can tell by your sand, Gaara." He shot her an inquisitive glance, wordlessly telling her to explain. She must not have picked up on it. "I have food, you know. You're both more than welcome to have some. It's just...you'll have to let me go."

"I'd rather starve to death," I shot back.

"I have meat in my satchel," Serisu rushed to add, obviously trying to clear the air. "Cooked meat. You can still hold me, but my satchel is covered with sand right now."

Gaara hesitated before leaning toward her, revealing more of her scraped and bruised body by pulling back some sand. One hand on the hilt of my tachi, I tracked every move between the two – every twitch, every strand of hair that a gust of wind would push over, every rise and fall of their chests. After what felt like hours, Gaara's search provided something: a bundle of what appeared to be roasted duck, cooked just long enough to form it into a jerky.

"It isn't much," Serisu said, "so you'll have to share."

Splitting it down the middle as best he could, Gaara handed a me a half of the meat. I hugged my knees to my chest, turning my nose from it. "It's probably poisoned."

"Kyan."

"Gaara."

"Just eat it."

"No."

Serisu cleared her throat in the midst of our back and forth banter. "I give you my word that it isn't poisoned, Kyan. If it'll make you feel better, I'll take a bite of it first."

"Oh, so I can contract whatever diseases are in your face hole? I don't think so."

The girl seemed to give up with a halfhearted shrug and a yawn. Gaara, however, continued to urge the jerky to me, the spark in his eyes telling me to eat if I knew what was good for me. I doubted he would do anything to harm me, but forcing it down my throat was another story. With a grunt of defeat, I snatched it from his hand and chomped down on it, the savory taste of duck and pepper filling my mouth. It didn't take long at all for me to wolf it down, leaving me yearning for more.

For a while, we sat in silence around the fire, staring into it as if it held the meaning of life within its embers. Every so often, I was sneak a glimpse at Gaara to admire the empty expression written on his face or the soft, drawn out blink of his eyes. I could feel Serisu doing the same to me, though I refused to give her the time of day by returning it. I guessed she was probably comparing my features to Haketa's.

"There's something about you two," she said, the sudden sound of her voice causing a jolt to rack through me.

"What do you mean?"

Serisu narrowed her eyes, looking between the two of us. "Something...I don't know. I can't figure it out."

I turned back to the fire, uninterested in her opinion. "Don't strain yourself," I muttered sardonically, fighting back the urge to ask if she had any more food with her. The last thing I wanted was to take handouts from one of my least favorite people.

"Where are you guys headed anyway?"

"Konohagakure," Gaara answered automatically. "I need to speak with Lady Hokage, and Kyan has personal business to attend to."

At first, I'd forgotten all about my "personal business." Being less than ten feet from Serisu had forced my brain to go haywire, my thoughts shooting off in all directions without warning. The dread of telling my mother about my participation in the war hit like a fist to my stomach and I found myself not so hungry after all.

I prayed my mother wouldn't start crying. Yelling and throwing things and telling me that I'm making a mistake, I could handle, but the moment her eyes clouded with tears, I would lose it. That's how it always happened with everyone I loved. I couldn't bear seeing my sister cry, or Gaara, or Temari, or even Kankuro. It shattered my heart every single time, leaving a lingering sensation of helplessness that lasted for days, or often weeks.

Reminding myself that I still had time to prepare what to say to my mother, I pushed the thought from my mind and brought my attention back to Serisu, who had dozed off at some point during my hurricane of internal conflicts. Supported by a platform of sand, her head had settled on the grainy surface, her mess of blonde hair cascading down the side. A gentle snore rumbled from her mouth.

Gaara remained awake, though I could tell by the way his head lulled slightly to the side and his eyelids were beginning to droop that he was on the same path as she. "Hey," I whispered as not to wake our vile companion. "Go to sleep. I'll keep watch tonight."

He refused with a shake of his head and a series of rough blinking. "I'm fine. I'm used to not sleeping, remember?"

How could I have forgotten?

"You should get some sleep," he continued. "It'll be a long day tomorrow."

Gaara was probably right. Who was I kidding? Of course he was right; he was always right. But in that moment, the last thing I wanted to do was sleep. Both Haketa and I could have died because of the person snoring away next to me. How could I close my eyes and pretend she wasn't there?

"We'll deal with her soon," Gaara added in a whisper. It did little to soothe my anxiety, but it gave me closure to her fate.

With my tachi easily accessible on my right, I stretched out onto my back, casting a glance toward the blanket of leaves above me before my eyes slammed shut, the crackle of the fire singing me to sleep.