Chapter 4—The Sand
Temari descended the stairs to Kankuro's workroom. At the door she could hear the clicking of parts from within, and she took an extra moment to listen before knocking lightly.
"Yeah, what is it?"
Temari laughed a little to herself and opened the door. Kankuro looked up from the puppet on the table. "Oh, Temari. What's up?" The clicking started up again as he continued to work and Temari moved across from him to get a closer look.
"Gaara wants to see us," she said. Her hand wandered over a detached limb. "Hey… isn't this Black Ant?"
Kankuro was already laying his tools aside and cleaning up. "Yeah. He needed some adjustments." They left the workshop together, heading for the Kazekage's office.
"Some adjustments?" Temari repeated as they walked. "It was completely disassembled!"
"That's the best way to do it! Black Ant's one of my main puppets, I've got to be able to rely on him, so he's got to be perfect."
The door was standing open when they arrived, but the room was dark. Gaara was inside, his back to the doorway as he stared out of one of the small windows. It was dusk and the buildings were casting heavy shadows throughout the village.
"What are you standing around in the dark for?" Temari asked. She turned on the light as she and Kankuro entered, closing the door behind them.
Kankuro immediately made note of the gourd on Gaara's back. "What's going on," Kankuro asked seriously. It was unusual for him to wear it anymore unless he was expecting a battle.
Gaara half turned, a small scroll in his extended hand as answer to Kankuro's question. Temari took it and, when Gaara turned back to the window without elaborating, assumed they were meant to read it. She opened the scroll and read carefully, Kankuro looking over her shoulder.
The scroll contained a brief, decoded message from the Leaf Village.
Early May 1st, Lady Hokage left the village on routine business, due to return that evening. An hour before sundown, a team returning to the Leaf with an escort assignment saw the Hokage engaged in battle with the rogue ninja Orochimaru. Reinforcements were sent to the location but they were unable to locate either one.
"Why didn't the team stop and help her when they first saw her?" Kankuro wondered aloud. Gaara answered but did not turn to him.
"They were on an escort mission. It was either one jōnin with a team of genin and their assignment, or a team of jōnin escorting a very important contact or diplomat who could not be put at risk."
"Oh… yeah, I guess–"
"Shut up a minute; there's more," Temari said impatiently. She unrolled the scroll a little farther.
We currently have a team attempting to track them, but have yet to find any indication as to where either has gone. We advise the Sand to be alert in the event that the Hokage's disappearance is discovered before such time as we are able to find her, or find out what happened to her.
A tense, fragile silence fell over the three siblings. Temari's hands fell to her sides. She didn't even close the scroll, leaving the unraveled length of script hanging at her side. Both she and Kankuro jumped when they noticed the sand swirling around it. Temari dropped the scroll instinctively, jerking her hand back as if she'd been burned. She and Kankuro both took a step back.
The scroll had not fallen when Temari dropped it. It had drifted upward, carried by the churning sand that was now enveloping it so completely that the scroll could no longer be seen. The sand began to constrict and condense, pulling tighter and tighter together around it. Then Kankuro saw Gaara's fisted hand relax and the sand separated as it began streaming back into the gourd. As it went, pale dust poured out from the sand and accumulated on the floor in a small, neat pile – all that was left of the scroll.
After a moment of silence Gaara spoke again. "I want you to go to Konoha," he said quietly.
"Of course," Temari answered.
"We'll put a team together right away," Kankuro added, but Gaara shook his head.
"Just the two of you."
"What?" Temari said.
"Just the two of us?" Kankuro repeated. "Gaara, when you were captured by the Akatsuki they sent seven ninja to help us – everyone they had who wasn't already on a mission! The least we could do–"
"The most we can do," Gaara interrupted, finally turning to them. "Is send you two."
"What are you talking about?" Kankuro insisted. "We–"
"We can't spare any more."
Kankuro fell silent. Gaara continued. "Our village has only just begun to recover from the chaos resulting from the Akatsuki's attack and… my absence. Suspicions of traitors and people under the effects of enemy jutsu have arisen and we cannot risk the Leaf's safety, and by extension the Sand's, by sending anyone less than absolutely trustworthy. Keeping the Hokage's absence a secret is the most important part of this mission."
Temari's eyes slid to the little pile of dust briefly before focusing on Gaara again.
"If this is not resolved quickly and quietly, the Leaf – and their allies – could find themselves in the middle of another war."