Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Masashi Kishimoto. The author does not gain any monetary benefit from this.
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'It wasn't worth it.' Kankurou thought. Their mission had been a complete failure, only serving to implicate their village. From what he had heard, they had been betrayed by the sound. Any plan that they had settled prior to the exams had been discarded.
He stood warily, hiding behind a tree and attempting to catch his breath. His puppet had been badly damaged. It was an irritating fact, since his puppet had taken a good month to build and another to insert all its assorted devices and weapons. Konoha had some astoundingly good ninjas, he reflected, and it had been an absolutely disastrous idea to attack them. How his father had been conned into taking action was beyond him.
Kankurou heard the leaves rustle unnaturally and, upon recognizing Temari's fan, called her down. He was relieved for her arrival, but worried at the fact that she had seemed surprised when she heard him. For Temari to be so deeply engrossed in thought to the point where she had not noticed him meant that there was trouble.
What the trouble was, he found out just a few minutes later when they arrived at the place where Gaara had been fighting. As they sped through the air, Kankurou had got progressively more alarmed at the severely depleted state of Gaara's chakra. He had never seen such a weak Gaara before. Even when Gaara had taken on a whole squad at once, it had been the six fully grown Jounins lying on the floor.
The puppeteer glanced at the blonde boy with fear and respect. To have Gaara sprawled flat on the ground with barely any chakra left was a commendable achievement. The two of them had readied for a fight immediately – Gaara, the boy who was by himself a line of the Sunagakure defense, had to be protected at all costs.
He had seen the Uchiha boy fight before and knew that it was unlikely to be an easy fight, despite the fact that there were two of them. Temari had almost made the first move when Gaara stopped the fight from proceeding. Kankurou's mouth fell open at the command, but obeyed accordingly.
It hadn't been worth it. A mission they had gained nothing from and almost lost everything to. The sand was now more vulnerable than it had been in the first place and the extremely weakened Gaara was a large gaping whole to the security of the village. Kankurou slung his injured brother's arm over his shoulder and helped him up. It was the first time in several years that his hand actually touched Gaara's bare skin. He frowned at the severity of the situation as the three of them flew through the woods.
"Temari, Kankurou… I apologise." A hoarse voice had said to him then. Kankurou had almost dropped Gaara then, and he exchanged shocked looks with an equally stunned Temari. He looked down at his younger brother's unguarded expression and smiled.
'Perhaps it was worth it after all.'