Temari was pissed off. They'd reported the attempt at trying to isolate and trap the Sand kunoichi to the Suna Council. But they'd been under whelmed by the response.

"You'd think they were trying to get rid of us!" The blond grumbled as she packed for the trip to the ambush site.

"They are." Kankuro said with deliberate calm, yet he too was seething underneath.

Baki nodded as he stood, waiting for his students to ready themselves. He alone had risked sanction by joining them on this trip.

Gaara eyed the wind master speculatively. "Why are you helping?"

The older man shrugged dismissively. "Technically, you're still my students since none of you passed the chuunin exams".

The demon vessel snorted. "Like they were real exams anyway. It was an excuse to infiltrate the Leaf village."

Baki shook his head. "Nope, sorry. The exams were real enough, even if we were using them as a way inside. Gaara lost, Kankuro forfeited, and Temari's win was tainted."

None of the siblings liked hearing that.

"That Shadow bastard! I don't understand him!" Temari yelled as she ruthlessly shoved items almost randomly in her bag.

"You're dating him, I don't understand that!" Kankuro said snidely. "And I only forfeited to keep my puppets from being seen before the attacks. That's hardly a loss."

Gaara smirked. "I beat my match, Sasuke was down. Naruto was …unscheduled."

Baki grabbed Temari's pack from her and dumped it out on the floor. "Start over, genin."

If looks could kill, Baki would be dead.

The sibling's sensei wasn't even fazed. "If it had been a battle …wait …IT WAS A BATTLE." He pointed out callously. "Temari's win was no win at all. Kankuro's battle with the Aburame was a draw at best if not an out and out loss, and Gaara lost to his opponent, never mind whom it was he was supposed to fight."

Temari repacked her bag far more carefully this time, but still seething. "So, we all remain genins?"

Baki nodded. "You're all powerful, but if that was all that was necessary to becoming a chuunin there'd be no reason to have exams."

"You still haven't explained why you're coming with us." Gaara spoke up slowly. "Everyone else is trying their best to avoid us right now."

The wind master grinned. "I need to keep you alive. How else am I going to get an apology letter from you? Are you going to offer me a puppy too?"

Temari smirked and even Kankuro chuckled a bit at that.

Gaara glowered at them all. "Iko said that was a misunderstanding. I don't actually have to write letters to everyone, just make a master list and make amends where possible."

"I still want a letter. From you. Outlining every apology for every wrongdoing to me. That's the way you can make amends to me." Baki said with insufferable coolness.

Gaara looked appalled. "You sure you don't want a puppy?"

Baki just shook his head with a bland expression. "No. I want a letter. A nice looooong letter."

"Fuck." Was the red-head's only response.

o.o.o.o.o

'Temari' approached the meeting place mentioned in the letter-scroll. She looked like she was alone and unaware of the trap ahead. Reality did not match what was visible to the naked eye, however.

The Suna contingent wasn't sure if they were being watched now, or when they'd actually left their village. They hadn't sensed anyone. But they didn't take that to mean no one was watching.

'Temari' entered the bathhouse and looked around for her boyfriend. Gaara stood there looking like his kunoichi sister thanks to a henge jutsu. He appeared to be alone, however. He looked for traps, but didn't spot anything obvious.

A door opened with a soft sound and Gaara turned almost casually to look at the young man approaching him. A young man who looked like Shikamaru, but didn't move quite right. At one point Gaara had really, really wanted to kill Nara and had even watched him a bit. Especially after that battle with Temari. As such, he knew that this person ...didn't move quite right to be Shikamaru.

The boy moved forward with a welcoming smile. "Sweetheart!"

"If you try and kiss me, it ends now." Gaara said in his normal flat tone.

'Shikamaru' smiled widely at him and winked as dozens of trees suddenly surrounded him, trapping him in their branches.

Gaara ignored the genjutsu completely as deadly vines entombed him. The vines sprung vicious thorns, each bigger than a kunai. They each stabbed him. But the sand armor was surrounding him, and none drew blood at all.

"Why?" He asked without expression.

Kurenei sent wave after wave of illusion over him. Nightmares came at him from all sides. Monsters and demons swooped down from the skies to devour him whole. Land disappeared underneath his feet, leaving him falling into a dark void.

But Gaara simply did not react. He didn't bother to dispel the genjutsu, he just didn't give a rat's ass. These nightmares were NOTHING compared to the sand demon he hosted within his body. Shukaku tormented him constantly, these illusions were hardly even a nuisance to him.

Growing restless, Kurenei sent more and more 'monsters' after Gaara. But the young man was getting antsy. "Why?" He growled again, sending his sand toward her in a rush that left her pinned to the wall.

Her eyes narrowed on his and Gaara's eyes got big. "Genjutsu. You're not the trap. You're the distraction!"

With that, he hit her on the head with a vicious strike of chakra hardened sand, knocking her out cold.

He was out the door in an instant. Now that he was released from the REAL illusion, he could hear the sounds of battle all around him. Kurenei's mission had been to keep him unaware, to keep him occupied as the enemy attacked his family.

Gaara ran forward as he threw out his sand in the form of a protecting wall between his sister and sensei. Temari was currently using her fan to fight Baki, the two locked in a battle of winds that howled with rage. Baki had been holding her off, but it appeared Temari had gotten quite skilled in wind techniques and was actually making a good stand.

The red-head quickly located the blond man he felt to be responsible and performed the Sand Coffin technique. It worked, as evidenced by his sister stopping her attacks on Baki and turning a bright shade of red as the winds died down.

"If you don't want me to use the Desert Burial technique, cease now." Gaara yelled.

"He can't hear you in there." Baki huffed as he pointed toward the captured shinobi, completely entombed by the sand.

"Not him." Gaara nodded toward where Kankuro was sending wave after wave of puppet projectiles toward a circular blur. "Him."

They all watched a moment before Gaara sighed. "This is stupid."

With that, he released the blond man who slumped to the ground from lack of oxygen and sent his sand to capture the real focus of his anger.

The circular blur couldn't stop millions of grains of sand, no matter how good he was. The Hyuuga, since they all recognized the technique, came to a forced standstill as sand enveloped him from neck down. The sand hardened with chakra, making the man grunt and struggle to breath.

"You are Lord Hyuuga Hiashi?" Gaara asked coldly.

The other man nodded.

"You're not going to stop are you?" Gaara asked simply, his voice even.

Hiashi scowled, his eyes narrowed with murderous intent.

"Die." Gaara said and then killed him with his Desert Burial technique. He sighed with an almost actual regret. Why had the man taken his apologies to such an extreme? Couldn't he see Gaara was trying to change?

They all watched as Hiashi's body fell lifelessly to the ground.

Temari walked over to look down at him. "Hm. Almost anticlimatic. Couldn't you have dragged it out a bit? Maybe questioned him some?"

Gaara shrugged. "Why bother?"

Kankuro sighed heavily. "Well, we may be at war again."

Baki took a deep breath. "Depends."

"On what?" Temari asked, still embarrassed about being caught in the Yamanaka Mind Body Disturbance technique.

"Well, it depends on if this assassination attempt was sanctioned by the Hokage or not." He looked around a moment. "What are we going to do with the bodies? Leave them in the open?" Baki continued.

Gaara shook his head. "Body."

Temari shook her head back at him. "The one in the bathhouse. Blondie over there and this guy." She said as she kicked the dead man lightly.

Gaara shook his head again. "There's only one body."

Baki was staring at the mind jutsu user in wonder. "You didn't kill him?" He looked toward the bath house and even felt a faint pulse of chakra eminating from within. "Either of them?"

Gaara shrugged, a little embarrassed under the sudden scrutiny of his siblings and sensei.

"Well, well, well. It looks like your anger management techniques are paying off. You only killed the leader and not just everyone in your path." Baki said in soft amusement.

"We should still kill them." Kankuro said morosely. He was sore he hadn't been the one to pierce the Hyuuga 'gentle hands' technique with his projectile weapons.

"No. Let them go back to the Leaf village and tell them that I'm not a monster. Not anymore." Gaara surprised them all with this speech. "It was the whole point of my letters. Not to confess, but to show that I'm trying to change."

Temari looked down at the dead man. "I don't know how they'll react."

o.o.o.o.o

Tsunade was fuming. "What do you mean 'they took matters into their own hands!'"

Shizune didn't back away, although her Hokage's temper was fearsome even when she was in a good mood! "They left a note."

Tsunade yanked the note away from her assistant with a curse so inventive that even Kakashi had never heard it before.

The copy-ninja watched the Hokage as her face went cold with fury. She crumpled the note and threw it against the wall. "Damn them. I have a perfectly good plan to capture that red-headed monster, and they have to pull a stunt like this. If they kill him before I get my hands on him, I promise you they'll wish they were dead!"

o.o.o.o.o

uhm …no letters in this chapter, sorry. Baki will get one soon though, thanks to Turiya Foul whose review reminded me I hadn't done his letter yet!

For anyone wondering about the selection of Hiashi, Kurenei and Inoichi: simply put – Hinata and Ino and Gaara's comments about them. LOL