Disclaimer : This is Naruto fanfiction. As in, it's based off something that isn't mine. Naruto and co. belong to Kishimoto. Please don't hurt me.

Notes: This fic takes place just after the events in chapter 138 of the manga. For clarification, this is after the Sand siblings have returned to Suna – and right after Naruto has left to train with Jiraiya. ALSO – this fic is a genfic, so don't go looking for any real pairings or anything beyond possible small mentions.

This is also something of a plaything of mine. It's unbetaed, with chapters thrown out whenever I finish one. So let's see how this goes.

PROLOGUE

In the dark of night, sitting scrunched up in one corner of an abandoned shed, two young ninja sat over a scroll. It lay spread out before them, letters and symbols glowing faintly. It was the only light the two rather paranoid men had to go by.

"Are you sure this will work?" asked one, his voice a rusty squeak. He was quickly silenced by the other, who said nothing but performed several hand signs over the illuminated parchment. He then slammed one hand palm down onto the paper, and the whole thing flashed brightly, momentarily blinding both men.

When the light faded, it faded completely, leaving them in the dark once again. There was no noise for several moments but their own breathing, and hardly that – for both men held their breath in anticipation.

"That's it," the second finally said, rolling up the scroll. He pulled a small flashlight from his pocket, lighting up the area near his partner's feet. "The body-switch technique should be complete." He stood, listening for any movement other than their own and hearing none. "Good work, Kirin. He should be helpless now."

The first man, Kirin, stood as well, brushing dust from his pants. "We'll know for sure," he said, "once we get a look at Mina."

"Right."

It wasn't that long of a walk from the shed to their shared apartment, and they moved briskly, darting through the shadows cast by the full moon. There was no one about that time of night – not in this area of town, anyway. Really, they had very little to fear. A guilty conscience, however, can play havoc on a person's mind.

They entered through a back window, left unlocked for their return, and moved quickly and as one to the front kitchen. Kirin flipped on the light switch, revealing a large black cat lying caged upon the table.

The cat hardly seemed to mind that it was caged, and it turned to greet them, tilting back its head and giving a soft 'mew.' Both men stopped dead in their tracks. Kirin sputtered, while his room mate turned upon him with a hardened glare.

"I thought you said she'd be unconscious?"

The other man continued to sputter until he could find his voice. "Sh-she was supposed to be! Her and Gaara should have both lost consciousness at the same time in order for the switching technique to be successful…!"

--

Sabaku no Gaara sat at his usual place on the balcony just outside his room. He watched the moon in silence, as deep within him Shukaku stirred. He cringed, fighting another urge to simply let the monster loose. It was always the most difficult with the full moon. The demon's power was at its strongest then.

All at once his cringe became a choking gasp. Arms wrapped about himself as something painful and foreign shook his whole being. This wasn't Shukaku. It never hurt like this to let the demon free. His sand stirred around him, finding no cause of the danger and thus unable to block it.

If asked later, Gaara would have described the feeling as something akin to being torn from himself. As the feeling stopped, the world turned black, and he collapsed silently onto the balcony.

--

The two men watched the cat for several long moments more. It was becoming more and more aggravating, just watching her groom herself casually, not giving a damn about either of them.

"I don't understand, Kazu," Kirin muttered to his room mate. "I got everything it asked for…" A hair from each body. He had risked his life getting Gaara's hair from a shed sash. It had been red and everything. Very few citizens of the sand village had hair matching that color. And the other one…

He glanced over at the black cat again. She'd turned away from them, apparently more interested in a floating spec of dust just beyond her reach outside the cage bars. He'd collected one of her shed hairs. There was no doubt that it had been hers. Unless…

He paled suddenly. While collecting the hair he needed from Gaara's sash, he had been startled by a sound just outside the door. In the process, he'd lost the cat hair that he thought he'd tucked so safely into his wristband to take to Kazu immediately after. Looking down at the white sash, he'd seen another black hair and had been certain it was the one he'd just lost.

What if he'd been wrong?

"It must have been a faulty technique," he muttered, not willing to tell his friend of his mistake just yet. If he was lucky, that was all it really was. Just a false technique that never would have worked to begin with. It wouldn't be the first time.

Kazu snorted, still glaring at the cat. "You're a worthless excuse for a partner," he growled.

"Yeah… I know."

--

To the east, in the not so distant Country of Fire, two ninjas in green moved at top speed along the forest floor.

"Gai-sensei!" said the first, only slightly smaller than his companion but otherwise very similar in appearance. "I see our objective!"

"Nice work, Lee!" came the reply.

Leaning up against a log, just a few meters away, a girl sat with two boxed meals in her lap. Tenten had fallen into a light sleep an hour before, leaving it up to her team mates to get to their food before the animals did. Gai's shout snapped her awake rather abruptly, and she had to stop herself from shrieking in her newly wakened state as her two male companions came to a grinding halt just in front of her.

"You two are late," she muttered dryly, handing them each a box. They accepted them gratefully, dropping heavy packs to the ground and sitting on either side of her.

"We are?" Lee appeared genuinely confused. "I did not know we had a set schedule, Gai-sensei. I could have been faster."

Gai merely laughed. "We didn't, Lee. Tenten here merely likes to keep us on our toes."

Tenten rolled her eyes and stood up, heading for her bedroll just a few steps away. "Yeah, that's it. Hey, I'm going to bed. Try to keep it down, all right?"

"We will be quieter than mice!" came Lee's enthusiastic and already whispered reply. This just caused her to roll her eyes again. "We would not want to keep you from-"

The boy's voice immediately caught in his throat. His boxed meal fell from his hands as his eyes widened, and he fell to his side, shaking. The other two were immediately up and at his side, frantically asking him what was wrong.

Lee couldn't answer – could only feel himself being pulled apart. His arms wrapped about his middle as though he could hold it all in. He felt Gai's arms cover his own as he was pulled into the man's lap, his cries not quite reaching his ears.

Then everything was silent as he lost consciousness.