Note: this chapter is basically an adapted version of episodes 4-7 of Naruto Shippuuden, in which Gaara fights and ends up being captured by Deidara. I worked Temari into the story, wrote it from her point of view and more or less made it a prelude for my crossover with Jim Henson's Labyrinth. It's a dreadfully serious chapter, but I promise: the next chapters are more humerous. I hope you enjoy.

"GAARA! GET OUT AND GET THE HELL LOST!"

Positively fuming, Temari grabbed her fan, blew her youngest brother out of her bedroom and slammed the door shut in the process. She heard an annoyed "never mind!" coming from the other side.

She knew her anger was unreasonable. Gaara had knocked and walked into her room, without waiting for an answer, while she was getting ready for bed, but he didn't even see anything embarrassing. His mistake was just really badly timed.
She had just come back from a long and tiring mission, which hadn't gone particularly well. Naturally she was cranky as balls and the fact that she already had a bit of a short fuse to begin with didn't help.

"Geez…" Temari sighed as she calmed down slightly and figured she owed her brother an apology. However, when she had opened the door and looked out in the hallway Gaara was nowhere to be seen. She decided that they'd talk in the morning, there was no use finding him now: it was too late and she was too tired. She got into bed and fell asleep quite swiftly.

However, Temari wasn't fated to rest for very long, because she got woken up by noise that came from outside. At first she thought it was storming, but it wasn't like any storm she'd ever heard. Muffled, but obviously excited voices and fevered footsteps sounded through her ceiling. She dressed herself and, through the balcony, got up on the roof, where she found, among others, Kankuro and Baki. The latter was occupied handing out orders and running around to arrange things himself. Kankuro just stood there, staring up at the sky.

"What's going on?" Temari asked her brother.

"Some lunatic is attacking the village by himself," he answered, pointing up, "Gaara is fighting him. It looks like he's got the situation under control, but the guy is pretty strong."

From where Temari stood, it looked like the attacker wasn't able to lay a finger on Gaara, which was usually the case. He moved about on an enormous white bird. She couldn't see him well, because they fought high above the buildings, but every now and then the bluish moonlight would show that Gaara's opponent had a blond ponytail and that he wore a black cloak with red shapes on it. She heard him laugh smugly, as if he was the one in control. This idiot was obviously too full of himself.

"He uses bombs," Kankuro continued to explain, "You know, just before you arrived, Gaara crushed the bloke's arm and I don't think he even winced. Can you believe…"

His voice trailed off when a gigantic white pear-shaped... thing appeared in the sky in between Gaara and his opponent. The colossus started falling and Baki commanded everyone to retreat. Temari and Kankuro knew it was no good. If this was a bomb, there would be absolutely nothing left of the village after it's detonation.

But right before the bomb went off, Gaara had managed to shield the entire village with sand from the desert. The explosion was blinding and deafening, but the damage was minimal. That is, the village was safe, but something happened up there that had taken its toll on Gaara. He succeeded in dumping the enormous amount of sand back in the desert, but after doing so he dropped from the sky and no one could prevent him being captured by the cloaked figure.

The bastard turned right around and headed for the village's gates.

"He's trying to leave?!" Kankuro roared, incredulously, "I won't let the son of a bitch get away."

Temari was aware of nothing around her, beside the guy on the bird and her brother's rage. Baki argued with her brother as he ran off, but Temari had no idea what was being said, she just followed Kankuro. It took a while before she noticed that he was now yelling at her.

"What is it?!" she yelled back.

"You have got to stay in the village! You're in no state to fight."

"Don't talk such bullcrap, Kankuro! Of course I'm coming."

"It's no good to argue!"

"I will not sta-"

"Dammit, Temari, listen to me!" Kankuro cut her off, "I'm not gonna to lose you, too!"

"Shit!"

Temari was back in her room. She had found that her brother was right after all: she was dizzy with fatigue and had almost run out of chakra. Fighting would probably have been fatal and would certainly not have helped her find her youngest brother.

Through meditation Temari managed to fall asleep until dawn, but as soon as it was getting lighter out, she got up and joined the umpteenth search party to set out after Gaara and his kidnapper. She was out all day until a messenger came up to her to inform her that Kankuro had been found unconscious in the desert. He had a high fever and seemed to be mortally ill.

At once Temari dashed back to the village, where she found him writhing and moaning and surrounded by medical-nin who looked clueless. They understood that he had been poisoned, but even the legendary Chiyo-baasama could find no antidote.

Temari stayed by Kankuro's side until the sun set. By that time she was she had become a wreck and the medical-nin insisted that she would take some rest. Reluctantly she went up to her bedroom, where she plumped down on the edge of her bed and buried her face in her hands, feeling utterly desperate. She was too terrified for her brother's fate to cry.

Suddenly she heard tapping on her glass balcony door. When she looked, she only saw a crow that was flapping in place, as if it was looking for a landing spot. But then it turned into a man, someone who wore a black cloak with red shapes.

"Bastard!" Temari exclaimed, seized her fan and tramped toward the window, prepared to give the blonde aho a good beating. Perhaps he would even tell her where and why he took her brother.

Except it wasn't who she expected it to be.

Temari slowed down her pace to a near halt, as most of her anger turned into doubt. This man had a whole different feel. He was a dark figure and stood quite still, but somehow his presence wasn't at all less prominent then that of the conceited bomber. Temari knew that it was because, presently, he wanted to be seen.