It's after the war. All of the Hidden Villages are at peace with one another. Matsuri is on the cliffs surrounding Suna, watching the sun set. The darkness of the sky bringing the moon and stars into sight. She hasn't seen the sun set or rise in a long time. Not ever since she got to be a Genin and started preparing with Mikoshi and Yukata as a team for the Chunin exams.
It's a thanks to them that she has been able to come out of her shell more and make new friends, like Sari. Yukata introduced the two and all three young women have become incredibly close in the last couple of years. Matsuri's heart and mind are at war, not with each other, but with a choice she has been thinking in the half-year since the war has ended. Part of her wants to go through with it the other not so much.
"Matsuri." A deep voice calls out. She recognizes it but that doesn't stop her whole body from tensing, reaching for her rope javelin ready to attack any unseen enemy.
She turns and sees the turban covering his head, a sheet hiding the left side of his face, the right one for the entire world to see with two distinct red markings. "Master Baki." She calls out to him, very little of the tension leaving her body as she calms down a little.
He is still sporting a never-ending cooled expression on his face making it hard for anyone to try and decipher what he is feeling. He has told her in the past in the past that she can just call him Baki, but he is the person who has taught Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari. In her eyes that makes him a master if he trained the Kazekage and his siblings, molding them in to the Shinobi they are today. He has given up a long time ago to try and get her to stop. "What are you doing up here?" He asks.
"I was watching the sunset." She replies, head down before she looks back up at the moon and stars with a wishful look. Baki knows how to read people, training the previous Kazekage's kids has helped him. How the oldest two feared their youngest brother but at the same time wanted to be their for him, help him and show him that they care. As sad as it was to lose Rasa, a part of Baki is glad he is gone. He let the elder two be siblings but never let them to even try be siblings to Gaara. And Gaara, wanting to get to know his siblings but never being able to as they would be separated, eventually Kankuro and Temari would go out; sometimes with Gaara sometimes without as Gaara was seen as nothing but a weapon not a human. Baki stares intently at the brunette. He can tell she is still the same shy girl deep down inside. "I was also thinking." She confides after a moment.
"Thinking about what?"
"Are you serious?" Kankuro falls to the floor of the storage room where he keeps his puppets. His headdress is back in his bedroom, so his face and hair are visible for anyone to see. He looks up at Sari in shock.
"I'm afraid so." Sari looks down at Salamander. All three of Kankuro's most powerful puppets that Sasori himself made were damaged greatly in the war and are still in need of repairs. Kankuro looks at her light-brown eyes that can be mistaken for hazel; the sadness is evident in them.
"But why?" Kankuro wonders. Why would Matsuri do this? And why now?
"She has been thinking about this for a while. Ever since the war ended. It bugged her for a while until she confided in Yukata, Mikoshi, and I one night. Every night I wondered if she would do it, but then I'd see her the next day. Honestly I for got about these last three months."
Kankuro pushes himself up and looks at Sari, going to her side to look at Salamader trying busy himself and not think about what he has just been informed about. "Do you think she'll actually go through with it?" He asks his companion after a moment of silence, focusing on Salamader's head, then his entire body; deciding that he is going to put in some new screws and replace some of Salamander's legs.
Sari is unscrewing on the pretty damaged legs, stopping to stare at the moonlit sky with a heavy sigh parting her lips. "I honestly do. She's been thinking about it more recently and I've never seen her think about something like this for this long without acting upon it."
Except kissing Gaara. Kankuro thinks. Despite being one of his brother's fangirls, Matsuri was his student at one point so he isn't that surprised that Matsuri started crushing on Gaara, unlike some of the other girls who were only crushing on him because of his powers as a ninja and/or the Kazekage. He can't exactly pinpoint when Matsuri started crushing on his little brother, but after she was kidnapped by those Celestial creeps they stopped running through the trees to take a little walk when Matsuri and tripped and landed straight on Gaara, their lips just meters away. Matsuri turned redder than Sakura's dress and Gaara's hair combined. That night when Matsuri was asleep, Temari and he explained the whole situation to their brother who blushed himself. Kankuro and Temari teased him for days.
Then Gaara started training to become Kazekage (it was up to the three siblings after their father was murdered and Gaara was the only one who wanted to become their leader) so she put on a team with whom Kankuro can say was probably the first of Gaara's fangirls, Yukata, roping Matsuri into the bunch. Although, a lot of them have calmed down after the war and has stopped chasing Gaara around and are enjoying the peace, realizing that Gaara has other things to worry about then getting a girlfriend.
"What are you looking at?" Kankuro wonders as he follows Sari's line of sight with his own. He sees a familiar turban-clad head on one of the cliffs next to a smaller figure.
"Looks like Matsuri is finally confiding in someone else about her plans." Sari breathes out, tears welling in her eyes.
Shifting from foot-to-foot Kankuro is wondering what to do. He hasn't exactly had to deal with girls crying all that much. Temari isn't much of a crier and all of the others he's seen have calmed themselves down or someone else took care of it. All he can think to do is to gently pat her back as the tears come out. He wants to reassure her, but how can he reassure that Matsuri won't do what they already know she is.
Later that night when all of the citizens of Suna are sound asleep expect for those keeping watch for people entering and exiting the village, Matsuri is in her small apartment, sitting in the windowsill looking at the moon. Observing of how it shines over all of Suna and makes the hidden village feel as if it is not in the desert but in some sort of fairy tale destination.
All of the rock-formed buildings look darker. The cold breeze blowing her fringe out of her face. Has far as she can remember, the Wind Release village has never been cold. She welcomes it compared to the humidity and heat that it usually carries.
Pushing herself out of the sill and back inside, the young woman goes back to her room and pulls out her suitcase. She uses a special jutsu she's learned to make all of her suitcases smaller. She only has two, not much but it'll do. Her land lord already knows she is leaving and she has sold all of her furniture so the next renter or her land lord has to worry about where to put it. If anything, she is surprised she was even able to get rid of her furniture over the last six months with rousing attention.
She has already given Baki her tan flak jacket and Suna forehead guard when they were on the cliff. She did plan on stopping by Sari's or Yukata's prior to leaving to give the items to one of them, but Sari was helping Kankuro and she had been unsure of how long they'd be in his workshop. Yukata was with Mikoshi trying to figure out if they should compete in the upcoming Chunin exams (both already vaguely aware that they might be the only duo their) or if she should petition Gaara into promoting all of the Genin into becoming Chunin since they were also a part of the war and worked alongside higher classes ninja.
Putting her now mini suitcases into the small pocket on her shirt, laying her keys on the counter separating the kitchen area from the living area, Matsuri walks out her apartment door. Body on autopilot walking the familiar halls, eventually to the streets, as she wonders if she is doing the right thing. Should she be doing this? She doesn't have any family left but she does have friends. Then again she always been a more forgettable person. After being kidnapped by those people who wanted Gaara, her classmates praised the then new instructors of Suna's new ninja academy while they told her how weak she possibly was and asked why she wasn't left in the Leaf. Why Gaara was still putting up with her as student, his lone student.
Even after she started coming out of her shell all eyes would go to her friends. She doesn't resent them, not in the slightest, they will tell people her part in helping put on missions. The people would smile at her she'll smile back, then her friends get dragged off to talk more about their assignments no one bothering to ask about her perspective on the matter.
She has yearned to feel wanted, to be a part of something for so long that when Yukata and Sari gushing about Gaara she couldn't help but join in (still being his only student at the time). She eventually lost herself in pretending to being a huge fangirl over her sensei the last few years or so that she would come exhausted and sleep instantly and not waking up until the early morning hours or the sun already being in the sky.
She haults to a stop in front of the Kazekage Tower. The lights are off in Gaara's off and Matsuri feels a rush of relief wash over her. She isn't sure what she would do if Gaara had still been in his office, possibly overlooking the village and seeing her as the only person out who isn't on duty. At least he's learning to take breaks and rest.
She continues on her way at a slow pace. She told her three closest friends about her plans after thinking about it for two months. Their have been times in the past where she's thought about just running off and leaving everything behind, but she didn't want to worry anyone by doing. So she steadily started making her arrangements, making sure nothing meets anyone's ears. Until she was ready for everyone to know.
Coming to the gates Matsuri starts running at full force. She knows that her fellow Shinobi on duty will use their binoculars and spot her as she is already far in the distance. With Baki out she knows they won't sound the alarm, after all they aren't at war anymore. What could they possibly tell Gaara? That she's going rouge? Ha! Baki will most likely tell Gaara the truth. And Sari will tell Kankuro because Matsuri is sure that her friend has turned from a Gaara fangirl into a Kankuro one with how much time she's spending with the middle sibling and not bothering to see their newest Kazekage.
As she runs, Matsuri looks back at her only home, a tear slipping from her eye. It's too late for her to turn back, she has to do this. Has to see it through otherwise she might live in a world of what if's and what might have been's. She's just glad that Baki understood after trying to talk her out of it for a few minutes, seeing her as a grown person rather than the shy little girl who didn't want anything to do with weapons.
Once Suna is out of sight Matsuri turns her head back around, her trained eyes adjusting to the utter darkness in front of her as she makes her way out of the desert and to the forest.
A/N: I apologize for any errors, most of this was written on my phone. Anyway, hope you enjoyed.