Part Fifty-Two: Meeting in Sand
A month later…
"Gaara's dead," muttered Kankurou as he motioned for them to sit down.
Yassa and Arcin collapsed into the chairs around the giant table. "Are you sure?" asked Arcin.
He nodded grimly. "They found his body…or, at least, we think it was his."
"What…do you mean?"
"Trust me, you don't want to know," he replied. He leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes, overcome with grief. Gaara and Temari had been his only real friends, and now they were both dead.
He looked back over at the two girls and then asked, "What're you going to do now?"
They exchanged glances.
"We're going after Tara."
"Still?"
Yassa nodded. "We can't give up just like that…and the fact that we've managed to elude Tetsu so far has been a good sign…"
"How'd you do it?"
"We faked our deaths," replied Arcin carefully. She looked around the room, adjusting her new robes carefully, tucking her shorter hair behind her ear. "It wasn't easy, but we managed."
"So now you're going to risk everything and keep going after Tara?" he asked.
"We don't have much of a choice," replied Yassa. "One of our sisters is in trouble and the other one was trying to kill us. We have to do what we have to do."
He nodded and stood up. "I understand. Thanks for meeting with me."
They also stood up, Yassa rubbing her throat, replacing the jutsu she'd been using again. They followed him to the door, where they put on their black goggles and wrapped their faces again. They shook his hand.
"Can I expect to see you guys again? You know, for an update?" Kankurou asked softly, looking at Arcin in particular.
She smiled, though he couldn't see it. "No, you can't."
He nodded. "I expected as much. If you guys need anything…the Sand Village will help you. Just contact us."
They nodded and turned, disappearing into the sandstorm outside of the small house.
Kankurou turned and looked back inside. Without Baki, Gaara, and Temari, there was nothing left for him to come home to. Even so…Karasu and Kuroari needed to be repaired. They had been lying on his workbench for nearly the entire month. It had taken him a lot of time to return to where the twins had died to get the parts back.
He closed the door, feeling sick.
He wasn't sure he'd ever see those girls again.
Note: And this concludes Here We Stand (the first season, doh!). My version of Shippuden should be airing sometime…eventually hahaha….I hope you liked it, though it didn't really wrap up much :(
