A/N: Right to the chapter after these messages:

Ryushi: Ah gomen…but I thought that Gaara could only use sand in his gourd? He can add more sand, but it has to be added with his original sand. If not, that was a big mistake, on my half.

Arisa and tipg92: Thank you for staying with this fan fiction…hope you enjoy the next chapter!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Uh…" Sunome moaned. Waking up, she felt two things at once: the painful throbbing in her head and the cool metal against her wrists. Startled by the cool metal, she opened her eyes to see that she was in a cell. About to wonder how she got here, she remembered what had happened.

'That's right. After Gaara had left, two nins somehow sneaked into the house. I remember preparing a water clone when I blacked out. Sneaky bastards, I didn't even know there was one behind me' Sunome thought. 'How did they get behind me, anyhow?'

Thinking for a few moments, she shook the thought away and started pulling on the chains. As she pulled on the chains, another thought emerged: Temari. Panicking, she looked around in hopes that Temari was here.

"Temari!" Sunome shouted. Hearing no response, she grabbed the chains and pulled on them more. 'Maybe Temari is still unconscious. If that's the case, I'm going to have to break out of this cell and find her.' She thought, furiously pulling the chains. As she used her feet to push herself from the wall, she heard a weak laughter.

Stopping, she asked, "Who's there? Temari?"

Looking deeply inside the cell opposite to hers, she saw a dark figure stiffen.

"How do you know her?" the figure asked.

"Who? Temari? What business is it to you?" she asked, crossing her legs.

"None, just curious," he said.

Bored as she was, Sunome decided to tell. "I found her in the desert. I mean Gaara and I found her. She was like, half dead…so I revived her."

"Ga-Gaara?" he asked.

Sunome could almost feel him look at her. "Ye-yea. So?"

"Sabaku No Gaara is dead. How do you know him?"

"Why does everybody think he's dead? Anyway, I revived him too…I found him in another village and decided to help him."

As the figure nodded his head, Sunome grew curious.

"Where are we?"

"In the Hidden Village of Sand," he answered.

Standing, she shouted, "In the Sand village! Is Gaara here? Did you see him?"

"Whoa, whoa, I thought he was dead. So, no…I haven't seen him. And calm down. Jeez."

Sitting back down, she looked at the ground. Looking up, she asked, "Who are you? And why are you here anyway?"

She heard him scoff. "Kankurou. That's my name. And I'm here because I was tricked."

Feeling a light go off, she faintly remembered someone saying his name. Thinking intensely, she snapped her fingers, remembering.

"You're that no good brother of Temari and Gaara! You bastard! Sending your own sister to her death! You asshole, if I could get my hands on you…you…would…be…dead!" Sunome screamed, trying to pry herself out of the handcuffs.

Kankurou started laughing. "Looks like you can't though. And that's the both of us, so you better get used to it."

"You don't know that. Maybe you can't…but I can. Watch and learn."

Releasing a hidden kunai that was loosely tied to her clothing, she grabbed the blade with her feet.

'Mom always said to be prepared and to always carry a weapon. Thanks mom.' Sunome said to herself.

With that thought, she raised the kunai, with her feet, to her teeth. From there, she gave the kunai to her left hand. As she tried to stick the thick blade into the tiny hole of the right cuff, she found it was too large.

"Kuso, I'll have to try and break it."

Hoping to chip off the kunai so that it was small enough to fit in the tiny hole of the cuff, she raised her hand as high as she could, then threw it on the ground. The weapon was unbroken, so she reached the kunai with her feet, and tried again. After multiple times, she grew tired, but refused to give up. Kankurou, on the other hand, chuckled and enjoyed Sunome's useless efforts to try and break the knife.

Time passed, and Sunome was still trying to break the kunai. However, she was rather letting it drop onto the ground, then throwing it. Kankurou had also grown tired and bored.

"Here, I'll break it for you," he said.

Sunome looked up. "You're not cuffed?"

"Heh. No, I'm useless without my puppets."

Sunome nodded, "Ok, if you think you can break it, I'll try and throw it to you."

She would rather have fought to ask why he wouldn't help her before, but she had grown weak and tired. Grabbing the kunai once again in her teeth, she slowly moved left to right for more length. Letting go, the kunai hit the ground a few inches from Kankurou's cell. Kankurou easily grabbed it, then quickly got down to breaking the mini knife.

The task took three tries and Kankurou finally chipped the kunai off. Throwing the long, thin chip back to Sunome, he kept the blade to himself. Sunome luckily caught it between her teeth. Unfortunately, the chip also pricked the inside of her mouth as well. Ignoring the slight pain, she carefully grabbed the chip and started picking at the cuffs. In moments, the cuff opened. Smiling widely, she opened the handcuff on her left hand. Jumping up, she first stretched her body, twisting it in all directions.

"Yes! I'm free of those cuffs! Now I just have to get out of this cell in order to get Gaara," she said aloud.

"Good luck on that," scoffed Kankurou.

Sunome huffed. "You just wait. I got out of those cuffs and getting out of this cell will be just as easy."

'With my help,' Kankurou thought. Amused at how she was going to escape, he kept the thought to himself. 'Besides,' he thought, 'I can't wait to see when her hope diminishes.'

Sunome looked around, hoping to find any sources of water. In a corner, she found a bucket of cold water. Sunome smiled at her luck.

Preparing her jutsu, she Sunome whispered, "Mizu no Katana no Jutsu (Sword of Water)!"

Instantly, the water from the bucket flew toward Sunome's right hand. Forming a sword, it hardened after Sunome grabbed it.

She smiled at Kankurou, who wasn't smiling back. This made Sunome smile more, as she positioned the sword to cut the iron bars. Using her chakra, she swung the blade as hard as she could. Unfortunately, the blade failed to cut the bars. Confused, she tried to cut the bars again. Each time was as unsuccessful as the first. Becoming slightly angry, she knew time wasn't on her side. 'What if Temari is dead because of me?' she thought, as she swung the blade again. 'What if Gaara comes back to find that her sister and I are dead?'

Letting her thoughts roam her head, Sunome became angrier and more scared. She knew she had to be strong, but she was also scared if she was too late. Although her eyes were of anger, tears streamed down as she swung the sword again and again.

Finally, she broke down, letting the sword go and falling to her knees. The sword became a puddle of water as Sunome put her head down, her hands grasping the bars. Her hair fell toward her face so that you could only see the drop of tears falling onto the floor.

Kankurou smirked at the broken Sunome. He hated kids and finally he got to see one cry. But as she continued to cry, he started to feel a little bad. But just a little. Sighing he said, "Come on, it's not that bad. You gave it your best shot…but it just didn't work out."

He wasn't really good at helping others feel better, but he noticed that Sunome had stopped crying. After some time, the air grew heavy with silence and Kankurou smiled nervously.

Sunome slowly stood up, her hair still covering her face. Then swiftly sweeping her hair back, she smiled. Her eyes were still closed, but the tears had diminished. Kankurou cocked his head slightly. He could feel that Sunome's chakra had greatly increased.

Sunome pulled her head back, releasing a deep, throaty laugh. Her eyes were still closed as she sighed. Opening her eyes, she stared at the ceiling first. Then her piercing purple eyes set on Kankurou.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A/N: Hoped you enjoyed this chapter…sorry for the long wait. Hopefully the next one will be in a shorter time as I will be having a 6-day break. Bye for now!