I was so happy to be going on my first solo mission in a long time. I was just a B Rank so I shouldn't have had any problems completing it. But things never seem to go as planned do they?

The first kunai sank deeply into my chest. If only I'd been so lucky with the next three. They passed all the way through my chest and exited my back.

I fell at the feet of the man who has done this to me. I saw his painted toenails, the black robe, red clouds. I looked to his face as I laid on the sand bleeding. Red eyes. He had red eyes.

"Uchiha Itachi." I gasped out, but he was already gone.

So now I drag my myself back toward Suna. Through the sand and the sun. I know I'll never make it back but I wish to die as close to home as possible.

It's near sunset now and I'm surprised I've lasted this long. I've managed to crawl far enough to see the walls of the village but it might as well be a million miles away. I barely have the strength left to move a finger.

I lay here in the fading light of day, well it might be that my vision is fading. I can't be sure. But that doesn't really matter does it? Does anything really matter?

Yes, yes something matters. What is it? It's hard to think. I-I remember a man and children. My husband, my children. How could I forget them? Kankuro, Ayame, Tatsuya, little Ronin. Oh I wish I could see them one last time.

But I am fading. Death will find me soon. My vision is growing blurry and it seems so dark.

There's a voice. It seems so far away. It calls to me. Where is it? Oh well it doesn't really matter. I just need to rest…yes rest…

"Tsukiko!" That voice again. It seems closer now but still it doesn't matter. It's too late for me.

"Tsukiko!" there are footsteps now along with the voice. Through my foggy eyes I see black sandals racing toward me. The owner of those sandals kneels beside me.

Gentle hands roll me onto my back. "Oh Tsukiko! No. Please no!" He whispers. His voice choked with tears. "Don't leave me!"

I open my eyes again and look up at him. Purple face paint. My Kankuro. His tears fall onto my face. "Ka-Kan." I cant even manage to say his name before I start coughing up blood.

"Don't try to talk. Save your strength."

Strength? I have none left my love. Can't you see it? I'm dieing. I wish I could manage to say this to him but all I can do is weakly shake my head.

"No Tsukiko you'll be fine. Just hold on." he pleads. "You'll be just fine."

"Liar." I murmur. "not fine." It's so hard to speak.

"Tsukiko!" he sobs.

I gather what little will power I have left to give him my final words. "Kankuro," I pause to cough up blood again. "I-I'm s-so sorry. I love you. Never," more blood, "never fo-forget that. Tell our b-babies that I lo-love them." I cough and blood spills over my lips again. I don't have much time left. "Take c-care of them for me. I love…" I lack the strength to finish telling him that I love him one last time.

Death's cold hands are upon me. I cannot escape this fate. Everything fades as the sun sets. Fading… fading… to… bla…ck…

She goes limp in my arms and I know she is gone, I could practically feel her spirit leave, but that doesn't stop me from wailing her name over and over as if she'll come back if I cry hard enough.

I cannot bring myself to accept her death. She can't be gone! She can't! I can't keep myself from crying out again. This is just too much to handle.

If it wasn't for all the blood she'd look like she was just sleeping. She looks so peaceful. I lay one final kiss across her slack unresponsive lips. Some of her former warmth still lingers. I taste her blood but beneath that is her normal sweet taste. Like sugar. How I'll miss that taste.

Somewhere far across the dunes I hear a mournful wolf howl. It's as if the wolf is mourning with me. I think it sounds like Tsukikage but in my grief I can't be sure.

I can see lights around the village. They're looking for me. I'm sure I worried Temari when I just ran out like that. But I could feel that something was wrong, terribly wrong.

So now I sit here hours later still cradling Tsukiko's cold body beneath the light of the full moon. She loved the full moon. At the mere thought I'm crying again. I don't know if I can stand this.

Suddenly I sense a presence behind me. An ominous shadow falls over me. "Admiring my handy work Sand jonin?"

I don't even have time to turn to the source of the voice before I feel the blade slice into my back and out through my chest. My blood sprays and mingles with Tsukiko's. Suddenly it's so hard to breathe and I slump over Tsukiko's body.

The owner of the voice now stands before me. I tilt my head up so I can the face of my attacker.

Red eyes. The sharingan. So it's Kiken's older brother. "Uchiha Itachi, w-why?"

"I have no need to answer a dieing desert rat like you."

I wish there was something I could do to pay him back for the pain he's caused but I find that I'm too weak to do much more than cough up blood. So I cough blood onto his painted toenails.

The Uchiha recoils then kicks me in the shoulder, sending me sprawling backward. I can feel the bone breaking. But it doesn't matter. I'm going to die anyway.

He walks toward me with his katana drawn. Perhaps he'll be merciful and end my suffering.

Through my blurry vision I think a see the sand shift beneath his feet. But why would sand move like that?

Suddenly he sinks into the sand up to his knees. Another pair of feet of feet have appeared. They stand between me and the Uchiha almost protectively

"Sabaku no Gaara." he growls as he pulls himself free.

"you will not touch my brother again."

There is the sound of an incredibly brief fight followed by "Sabaku Kyu!" and then "Sabaku Soso!" and suddenly I'm covered in blood that's neither mine nor Tsukiko's.

Gaara now kneels beside me covered in the blood of the Uchiha. Are those tears in his eyes? Surely not. Gaara doesn't cry. Not since he was small. It must be a trick of the moonlight and my fading vision.

But then he surprises me and lets out a pitiful sob. "K-Kankuro! Nii-chan! Don't go! Don't leave us! Think of your children!"

I struggle to breathe, "I-I am Ototo. But there's n-nothing that can save me now."

"Kankuro no!" Gaara's tears flow freely now. "you can't give up! Please!"

Gaara never says 'please' I can tell this is tearing him up inside. It's tearing me up inside too. Now I know how my Tsukiko felt.

"G-Gaara… take care of the children for us." I take another shaky breath. "Tell" I pause to cough up blood, "Tell them that we l-loved them. Don't let them for" more coughing and blood. "forget."

Gaara continues to plead with me. Doesn't he know I would stay if I could? Tsukiko told ME to take care of the children for her. I wish I had the strength to do it for her.

Everything seems darker now. And Gaara's voice seems to be getting farther away. This must be the end.

Suddenly it the darkness there is something bright. What's going on? The light it looks like…Tsukiko? It cant be. She lies d-dead beside me.

"Kankuro." she says. "it's time to let go of your pain."

Gaara's far away pleading continues. He can't see her. But I can. My love came to take me home.

"T-Tsukiko. My angel."

She kneels beside me. "it's time to let go."

She lays her ghostly lips across mine as I take my final breath and the world, the pain, everything fades away.