"The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them." –Ernest Hemingway

Escaping the constant watch of the siblings was extremely difficult, especially with the fact that Gaara was always awake. Everything had to be planned out perfectly because if I were to screw up just once, there was no way I would be able to stop the attacks on my sister.

First and foremost, Kankuro had to be asleep. Dead asleep. That was the easiest part of the entire operation. He was naturally a heavy sleeper, so the second I heard the soft snoring, I wiggled my way out from under his arm, slipped on my clothes, and carefully shut the bedroom door behind me.

The next part was a bit trickier. I had to sneak around Gaara, who seemed like a statue as he bent over the map of Kirigakure. It seemed as if I was waiting for hours in the darkness of the hallway, watching him like he was my prey. Finally, his legs moved in a way I was expecting for a long time. With a quick glance around, he left the map for only a few minutes while he used the bathroom.

I took this opportunity to slip away from my hiding spot and slip my Courier Nin backpack over my shoulders, grabbing the map in the process. The front door was nearly silent as I skidded out.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

I froze in my steps, my hand still on the doorknob. This was my very first self-given solo mission and I'd already messed it up. Worst Shinobi ever.

"I'm going to Kirigakure," I told Temari as I turned around. She stood glaring at me, her arms crossed over her chest. It was hard to take her seriously, though, as I looked upon her messed up sleep hair and her pajamas.

"Its two o'clock in the damned morning. Can't this wait until the sun is up so we can come with you? Don't you realize how dangerous it is to go alone?"

I shook my head slowly. "No, it can't wait. And I don't want anyone to come with me. Serisu is after me and only me. I'm not going to let her continue to hurt everyone else because of whatever problem she has with me. In all reality, this has nothing to do with any of you."

Slowly, her hands fell from her chest and her palms rested on my shoulders. "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. How can you say it has nothing to do with the rest of us? She's Kankuro's crazy ex-girlfriend, so it involves him automatically. And Gaara and I are involved simply because he's involved and because you're her target."

I stared at her for a short amount of time before twisting my upper body away from her. Her hands fell and I started to walk, ignoring her threats that they would follow me. I didn't doubt it for a second.

()()()

The first thing you realize when you're following a map that has been drawn on by your boyfriend and his brother is that you're going to get lost and that is a proven fact. Lines that were once signifying roads become red veins covering the piece of paper. Pictures of buildings start to look like odd shapes. And nothing truly looks like a river like it is supposed to.

Also, when you find yourself in a misty forest, seeing is nearly impossible and the damp air makes you feel like your hair is dripping wet. I will tell you, that is a very unpleasant feeling.

I continued on, though, feeling my way for trees and squinting as hard as possible to see. All the blurred trees started to look the same and the sound of running water came from all around me. I had no idea where it was actually coming from.

After a long while, I had to sit down to wipe my dry eyes with the back of my hands. I honestly had no idea how long I'd been travelling. I knew it was more than two days. That was an entire trip from Sunagakure to Konohagakure. I must've been making good tracks to have gotten so close to my target village.

My stomach rumbled loudly and I sighed. The only thing I had packed to feed myself was a bundle of protein bars and I was quickly running out of those. My head pounded with a hunger headache, so I had no choice to eat one more. That would hold me until the next day. It had to.

As I searched through my backpack for another bar, I wondered if the siblings were on my trail and if they were, I wondered how close they were. I hoped they were close at all. I hoped they didn't come after me. But if I knew Kankuro as well as I thought I did, he was the first to announce that they would be coming after me.

That wasn't a good thing. I wanted to do this alone, not only for myself, but also for my family. I was tired of relying on my family to get the things I needed. Moving to Sunagakure with Kyan was my first step toward actual independence. I wanted more of it and saving Kyan by myself was the only way I would achieve it.

A senbon landed hard in the ground right in front of my left foot and I heard a hushed, "Shit!" coming from above me. I glanced up to see a shadowed figure on a branch, glaring down at me.

Without hesitation, I grabbed my backpack and slung it over my shoulder. As I ran through the mist, I could hear the person chasing after me, breaking twigs along their way. They weren't very stealthy at all.

I forced myself to a stop as soon as I reached a wide river. There was no other way I could get across other than to jump in and swim for my life. So I did, backpack and all.

The water was horribly freezing as I flailed across. I'd never been a strong swimmer, but my time running around to deliver packages had strengthened my legs to the point where I could push myself far once my feet touched the bottom. But that only worked for a short time. As I went further into the river, the ground went lower and I found that I wasn't tall enough to reach the bottom.

As hard as I tried, I knew I was screwed when the person who was chasing me tackled me into the water. They'd been running on top of the water like I'd seen many of the Shinobi do before. I could never truly get the hang of it, though.

I struggled to hold the person under the water and get my own head above the waves to breathe. However, they were much, much stronger than me.

Through the dizziness I was suffering and the water splashing onto my face, I was slightly able to see the person's face. It was a man, no doubt, with a face covered with facial hair. There was a small scar across his left eye, as if he had been attacked by a small animal like a raccoon.

His strong hands grasped around my waist and pulled me deep under the water. I inhaled a mouthful of liquid and attempted to cough it out, only to make myself suffer worse. So I did the only thing I could do: grab the kunai knife attached to my thigh and dug it deep into his shoulder.

My lungs burned painfully with lack of air and the intake of freezing water. My arms and legs began to grow numb and when the man grabbed a fistful of my hair, I had no strength to fight him off.

When the darkness finally came, it made me feel nice. A sleepy kind of nice. It reminded me of a rainy day I'd spent with Kankuro back in Konohagakure so long ago. It was so cold in the house and the rest of my family was out. Kankuro and I spent the entire day wrapped in blankets, drifting in and out of sleep.

I'm glad that was my last thought before I slipped away.