"Are you ready, Kankuro?"

The man that Gaara, the 5th Kazekage of the Hidden Sand Village, was addressing seemed not to be paying much attention. The younger brother simply watched as the older one continued to look at the scene in front of them, seemingly amazed by what the man was seeing in front of him. After a few moments of him not responding, Gaara allowed himself to look towards the sights as well.

The view of the Village Hidden in the Leaves on its afternoon truly was captivating, or at least it was this day. Since the last time they had both been to the village, five years ago, it seemed to have only grown. In addition to everything that was there before, a few skyscrapers were beginning to be built, and there were entire tracts of forest that had never been there before. These new trees were the source of all of the fallen leaves that he could faintly see across the village, decorating the streets and floating about the air. From their position on top of the wall, he couldn't see any individuals below him, but he could still faintly hear the sounds of civilians and villagers. Laughing. Playing. Talking. A bit of arguing. Some orders. But, mostly innocent people…

Being completely ignorant of their approach.

Gaara's eyes continued to scan the village, and the two other guards that had been brought with him caught his feelings, and sat down as well. It was weird that there wasn't much security on the Konohagakure wall today. It was even stranger that the group of uninvited travellers had been able to sit still for so long. And upon their travels to this village, they hadn't seen a single ninja, and even in their enemy's village, no one had even detected them.

The Kazekage looked to this right, and then looked to his left. The view of the village below was beautiful, but he correctly assumed that eventually someone would be competent enough to do their jobs, and detect them. That was, if they hadn't been detected already.

And so, Gaara simply tapped his brother on the shoulder. The Puppet master shivered, and then turned around.

"Ah? …Oh. Sorry. Sorry I was just-."

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Gaara asked. His voice was informal, as it always was with his brother, but still commanded a bit of respect.

Kankuro nodded.

"Very. We… don't see leaves colour like that in Sunagakure. Matter of fact we don't see 'em at all."

"I know." Gaara looked around again, as Kankuro finally stood up and prepared himself to move with his Kage. The younger man then furrowed his brows, and frowned.

"…We also don't see an entire village full of traitors in Sunagakure either though, don't we?"

"Nope." Kankuro said.

He took a deep breath after this. Gaara continued.

"Let's go. The quicker we complete this mission, the quicker we go home."

"Right."

Gaara turned around to face the other two ninja that stood behind him, to make sure that they were ready to go. With a simple nod, both of them reassured their Kage that they were ready. After he turned back to the man standing in front of him, Gaara rushed forwards, and jumped off of the wall. Shortly, he could hear the other three that had come with him jump with him. Landing on a sheltered rooftop below, he prepared to jump again, before he heard a sudden cough behind him. He turned his head to see Kankuro again, and brought his brows together in slight annoyance.

"Hm?"

Kankuro took a deep breath, and then finally spoke again.

"Are… Are we really about to do this?"

While the other two members of the party said nothing, Gaara felt himself resisting the urge to place a hand over his face. He rolled his eyes.

"Yes," he stated, flatly. "…I thought you didn't have an issue with it…"

"No… I don't. I… I just…"

"You just… what?"

"Was just… checking it. I'm… I'm ready."

Gaara's eyes filled slightly with worry. But, reminded of his audience, he had to temper his feelings a bit more.

"If you're uncomfortable with this… then you can stay at the base camp."

"No. I'm your safeguard throughout everything else so clearly I'm going to guard you now. It's just… in his home, Gaara?"

Kankuro's face filled with a hint of guilt. Gaara's filled with the same emotion, but he was able to hide his emotions better, of course, with twenty years of being Kage under his belt, it had become easy to. He looked away from his brother once again, and he found himself being once again captivated by the multi-coloured leaves that flew around now.

The wind was strong today. Now that they were off the wall, the foreign, multi-coloured leaves that they had seen from far away went by their faces, and therefore played a beautiful scene in front of them. And those leaves made Gaara consider.

"...He is going to die in his own home…"

Gaara flinched as one of the leaves fell onto his face, and then simply flinched his cheek to get it off of him. Kankuro's eyes were still on him, expecting some sort of answer or reprieve. Something to take the guilt away from what he was going to do. At the best case scenario, an assurance that neither of them were about to do it.

But at the same time, he predicted that that would not happen. And this prediction turned out to be correct.

Another leaf came across Gaara's face, while another flew by Kankuro's. Gaara creased his brows more. This leaf had been orange. The same colour as the tracksuit of someone he used to know.

…For fuck's sake, Naruto. Do you control the leaves now too?

Gaara's face got dark suddenly, and he turned around and away from his older brother.

"…We don't have time to feel onus. And what we're doing… it'll end the war. In a day. Finally, after an entire decade of fighting. It will end. So let us just finish this. All he needs to do… is die. I've… we've been over this. I… told you about this…"

Gaara began to jump, and Kankuro and the other two who followed him were a flash behind. Kankuro gulped, and kept whatever else he had inside within him as he did so. After the third leap away from their previous position, his face had slowly returned to the stony one that he had been wearing before getting atop the leaf village's wall, and his brows narrowed. While a tinge of guilt clouded a corner of his mind, he had begun to try and believe Gaara's words. What we're doing… it'll end the war.

He had to believe that. It had to be true. Gaara had never seemed so sure of anything for the entire ten years that this tragedy had been going on. Why would he be so sure of something that wasn't at least mostly true? His brother was no fool. And this hadn't been something that had been thought up overnight. It had required planning, co-ordination, a draft, a rewrite of that draft. The hypothesis that Gaara held now had to be close to the truth at this point, why else would he make sure that he came himself? Why else would Kankuro be with him now, as he always was? If Gaara's plans and ideas weren't always right, or at least almost always right, then why would he have ever been able to become the Kazekage?

But even as he had been able to at least convince himself that what Gaara had said was true, he still couldn't help to become at least a bit cautious of the plan. There were so many avenues where they could go wrong. So many avenues where Gaara could be harmed. So many avenues where he could be wron-

No. This isn't me. Shut up, we'll be fine. Just… it's just one man.

One man. Kankuro looked up, through his purple paint and the leaves that flew into his face, and on the back of his little brother and Kazekage. The man who was to die today wasn't the man who had changed his little brother from the monster he once was into the hero that he was today, and that was a comfort. Neither of the two brothers would be able to live with themselves if they had killed him in such a cowardly way. But the man who was to die today would no doubt still impact the both of them nevertheless. This man… had grown close to the siblings, all three of them, before the war, and once fought alongside them, once fought under Gaara, as if he was a Sand Shinobi himself. This man… had an intellect that could destroy anyone's, his strategies in the war had been top-notch, and if the Hidden Sand didn't have such a great group of generals and fearless Shinobi, the war would've been over in minutes. The man who was about to die-.

"Another thing, Kankuro."

Kankuro looked a bit higher than he was before, and the back of Gaara's blood-red hair was his focus. The man couldn't turn around due to the fact that he was jumping, but his voice still radiated clearly and strong.

Kankuro nodded. "Hm?"

There was a pause, before Gaara spoke again, his speech heavy.

"You said that you asked him before this, and he said he didn't know where she is. Well… this time we'll make sure that he talks. He will have to know where she is."

Temari...

The older brother instantly gripped both of his fists. Gaara began to jump faster and farther, and Kankuro followed him as he did this. Both of the brothers were now showing their emotions plainly and clearly on their faces.

Both of them were angry, but also deadly determined. She had been missing for 10 years… and it was now time to find her.

Another jump. Gaara spoke.

"We'll first take out their sentries and defences, their tower is just up ahead. And then… we end this. The search, this war, everything."