Yashamaru had changed her and brought her and Kankuro to his house. Temari was still enraged, and even if her uncle was saying it was time for the nap, she couldn't sleep. Her senses were all on alert mode. But Kankuro needed his afternoon nap, and her uncle claimed that maybe she was acting up because she was indeed tired.

So Temari and Kankuro were put to bed in his guest room. Temari pretended to fall asleep. She waited until her uncle was busy in his office, and then she shook Kankuro. She wasn't sure if he had fallen asleep or was pretending too.

"Kankuro?" she whispered.

He looked at her with tired eyes. She could see he was struggling to stay awake. He wanted to support his sister and talk about what was coming next, but his baby body needed rest.

"What's the next plan? I think we exhausted every solution," he said so low that Temari had to focus to hear him. The words coming out of his mouth did not fit with the high-pitched voice of a two-year-old toddler.

"Shukaku, between his jinchuriki, where is he? His last one passed away, didn't it?"

After Rasa's death in their previous life, Kankuro had studied a little bit the story of the one-tail.

"He is supposed to be in a temple, in the middle of the desert. It's a pyramid, I think north of here?"

Temari recalled walking past one in a mission with Kankuro, Gaara and Baki. "That's what it was? Holy shit, I wonder if Gaara knew…"

She looked at the window. Her parents would go there tomorrow night? Or they'd go earlier now that Temari had thrown that massive tantrum. Temari wondered if her mother would submit to her father or change the side that she resides on.

"We must get to that temple. Wasn't Naruto and Killer B friends with their tailed beast? If we can't prevent Gaara from being sealed, we need to talk to Shukaku. Make sure he doesn't hurt our brother."

Kankuro rubbed his eye to keep himself awake. "How are we supposed to get there? No ninja will let us leave the village. It's too dangerous, we have bodies and chakra capacities of babies, Tem."

"Sometimes at night I practice my chakra control. I know where mother keeps her back-up fan. It's smaller than her main one, so I think I could use it. Maybe I can work it out, and we're small enough to fit both sitting on it."

She wasn't sure she had enough chakra to do it over and over, but it would help not to walk the entire way there. Or help if they got into some trouble.

"I wish I had my previous life's abilities with puppets so we could sneak out by the guards more easily," Kankuro admitted. "I'm far from substituting with them, I barely have enough motor control to semi-control puppets made of strings. So chakra invisible strings…"

Temari sighed. They still had to try. She looked at the window. It could be opened. She heard Yashamaru singing to himself in the living room. His voice would cover any noise they made on their way out.

Temari grabbed Kankuro by the hand and led him to her mother's secret spot. It was a trap behind their house. Inside, she hid plenty of ninja tools. Temari took the fan. It was bigger than what she remembered. Or maybe Temari was just that fucking small. It was the fan she had used when she started training. But right now, it was basically the size of Temari. If she wanted to walk with it, she'd need to tilt it to the side.

They went out of the secret spot.

"What's next? How do we leave the village without being spotted?" Temari whispered.

Kankuro's eyes widened. "Do you think the Anbu way is heavily guarded like in our previous life?"

Temari hesitated. The tunnel might seem like a good way out, but there were too many chances someone brought them back to the Kazekage. And Rasa was the last person Temari wanted to see at the moment. So, she shook her head.

"We hope we can get past the guards at the entrance." She then pushed Kankuro. "You're the tag."

If they pretended to be playing, no one would get attentive to what they were really doing. Kankuro followed her laughing. They approached the entrance soon, and Temari stopped him. She stared at the walls of sand surrounding the village.

"Tem, there's no way we can climb that thing, uh?"

"Don't even think about it. We are not strong enough to control the chakra into our feet yet. Besides, there's guards on top and you know it," Temari said, in her full big-sister mode. The walls were too vertical, to be climbed normally by hand.

She noticed her brother looking around, at the loud busy main street. He pointed out something. Temari frowned. She didn't see exactly what.

"The merchant from the village north. In this timeline, he already comes here once in a while? I guess we'll be playing hide and seek again."

Temari realized who he was talking about. She had noticed in her previous life that he came there every other week. They even had done a mission for him once. He was bringing some medicinal plants to Suna and other goods in exchange for vegetables and some ryo. If his schedule looked somewhat the same, he was waiting for the sun to set down a bit before leaving. Which meant quite soon, probably.

Kankuro ran towards the carriage the man had. It was filled with wooden boxes. Temari placed some of them to make a hole in which they'd hide. She then took the lightest box there was and placed it on top of their heads. She knew the man would put a blanket on it, to avoid the sand getting into the food. Kankuro was brilliant.

"I love hiding!" Kankuro said.

They were barely in place when the cart started moving. She could hear Kankuro's breath getting faster. He was nervous. She tried taking his hand without making noise.

The cart stopped moving. They were at the entrance of the village. The guards were doing a check-up. Temari knew they would. She tried her best not to make any sound.

"Identity cards, content of your carriage and the slip permission?" Temari almost made a noise by the surprise. The voice was so similar to Baki… She wondered if it was him.

Temari knew guards were examining the carriage, but it soon started to move again, and the children were unnoticed.

They waited a long time before uncovering themselves. They were lucky. Temari spotted the temple in the far distance, but minutes later, the carriage would have changed direction to head to the village.

"Time to get out, Kankuro," Temari whispered. They managed to jump off, unnoticed once more. Was the man blind or what? Either way, it was good that they weren't spotted once, so no one can try and take them back.

They walked for a little while, and Temari's legs were getting tired. She felt more tired than she ever felt since she woke up in her bed at three years old. She tried her flying fan jutsu, once, but she was quite exhausted, so it didn't make them go forward by a lot. But as she landed with her fan, she noticed at the distance someone was trying to catch up.

"Fuck. We're followed."

While they started running, their follower soon caught up.

"Temari! Kankuro! Stop!" Yashamaru. How did he know where they were? He grabbed Kankuro's arm. "Will you tell me why you are going by yourselves here?"

Yashamaru pointed at the pyramid in front of them. They were so close. Temari didn't want to go back to Suna when she was so close to her goal. They had to meet Shukaku.

"Pyramid," Kankuro said. Temari knew he wanted to say more, but he also needed to act like the age he presented. Which meant short sentences or words only, half pronounced most of the time.

Temari thought about it for a second. If there was one last person she could try to convince on helping her, it was her uncle.

"We want to visit Shukaku," Temari said. She tried keeping her head high, looking confident. The truth was, she had no idea on how to tame the one-tail. She didn't even know how to enter that pyramid, which was most likely filled with traps.

Yashamaru sighed. "I have a feeling I know why you fugued. I'm also scared of that beast being sealed into your brother. Or something wrong happening to my sister. Karura made her decision. I'm sorry kids, we're going back home."

"No!" Kankuro said, hands on his waist, refusing to move back. "We here, we try talk with Shukaku."

"We have to tell the one-tail not to hurt brother, not to kill anyone in the village," Temari added.

Yashamaru, as a good ninja, seemed troubled to be bossed around by children, toddlers. But he ended up nodding. "We have nothing to lose anymore. Let's do this for your mother and brother. If I die for my acts, at least I'll have died trying to protect all of you."

You'll die anyway testing Gaara because dad ordered it. So, you've chosen wisely today, Temari caught herself thinking.

Kankuro looked at the entrance, and with his uncle's help, they turned the traps off and the door opened. Temari and Kankuro each took one of their uncle's hands, seeking reassurance. It was dark inside. It looked like a maze, but they followed the sound. Shukaku was not very… quiet. He was already yelling at whoever was there to leave.

They approached the room he was stuck in. The entrance of the room was just tall enough for a human, the beast could not escape? Then Temari noticed his chained paws. Oh.

"Children? And who are you? You are not the Kazekage or his wife!"

Temari took a deep breath. "We're their children, this is his mom's brother."

The beast laughed. "Yeah? Well, leave."

Temari knew Shukaku was susceptible. She held her head up, trying not to sigh, and told, "I know you're the strong one-tail beast. I think you're very cool! Mommy and daddy want to seal you into my little brother who is not born yet. I didn't want to, but they don't listen to me because I'm too small."

"At least someone is on my side! Do you think I want to be sealed into a baby, uh?"

"It seems you don't have a choice," Yashamaru said. "They are right behind us. They'll be here by tomorrow if not today."

Temari decided she needed to continue her speech and not let Shukaku talk.

"Little brother isn't born yet, and it will take him a long time to figure out who you are, because human brains are not very smart at first. But I'm sure he'll learn to respect you. I'll try my best to show him that. That's my big sister's duty."

"Me too!" Kankuro said, firmly and proud.

Temari wanted the beast to know she respected him, to know she was an ally, even if she didn't really know what it would lead to. But she had to try.

"How do I know you are not lying and manipulating me?"

"Because we don't. We came here on our own, without father knowing, to prove we wanted your well-being. You and Gaara, my little brother."

Yashamaru frowned at Temari's words. He seemed disgusted by the name and its meaning. "Is that really his name?"

Temari realized her fuck-up. But it seemed to peak the one-tail interest, for some reason. Like he started to believe them.

"I'll make sure Gaara respects you, but I want you to respect him, and those he loves. I want you not to kill my mom when Gaara is born. I'll fight whoever calls you a monster. But please, don't kill anyone."

The beast was listening. "Thank you for your honesty. For telling me what is going on, and trusting me for some odd reasons. I won't forget it. I once lived in harmony with my first jinchuriki, I guess I can try to have it again. You know, your father tried to seal me inside the both of you, but we were not compatible. It doesn't mean I have to hate you."

Kankuro took a ball out of his pocket and sent it to Shukaku. Temari wondered why he had that, and why taking it out at this moment, but he sent it to Shukaku, and he started playing with them. It made Kankuro laugh. And Temari couldn't help but smile. She'd never imagine herself playing with a tail beast. But after all, Shukaku was the childish one out of the nine tailed beasts.

They laughed as they played, climbing on the beast, and throwing the ball at him. Until they heard the one-tail saying, "Stop! Someone is entering. Hide behind me!"