"Who does that woman think she is?" Aya yelled, her hands balled into fists.

"She's my mother."

Kiku sighed and sat in the nearest chair.

"Thanks for lying for me." she said quietly, flashing Aya a tiny smile.

Aya pulled a chair up beside her and smiled back.

"Well of course. That's what friends do, right? When some lady comes in demanding your paychecks all go to her and that I need to tell her exactly how much she's to be payed for your 'services'...isn't it expected that I lie? I mean, I still want you to get the money you work so hard for."

"Still...thanks."

"Well then you're very welcome. Just make sure you hide the other half of your paycheck. I'll make sure it goes to Emiko sensei to give to you instead of it being given to you directly. Then just save up till you can get out of there like you planned."

Kiku stood up and walked to the window. She stared out at the people walking past the hospital in the midday sun.

"You live by yourself, don't you, Aya-san? How is it?"

Aya sighed and followed her.

"Not by myself exactly. My older brother lives with me too so he pays half the rent. Makes things a little easier. The place is small though and costs a lot...but it has it's perks." She nudged Kiku's arm with her elbow gently.

"Why don't you ask the cousin you're always talking about...Okarina-san? She lives alone with her brothers too right? How does she like it?"

Kiku shrugged.

"I think she likes it well enough. She fights with her brother, Kei-kun, a lot...but Kenji-kun always breaks it up. He's the nice one of the two. I want to meet him some day...but I haven't heard from her in a while. I'm kind of worried."

In fact, it had been a few weeks since she'd heard anything back from her cousin. Last letter she'd gotten had talked about gaara's first fight in the chunin exams. He'd won like Kiku would have expected, but his opponent was in pretty bad shape. Still it was a miracle that he was alive at all. She figured her cousin knew him well enough because her words about Gaara seemed a bit harsher than usual...and she mentioned going with her friends to visit the opponent in the hospital.

'Lee was his name, wasn't it?' Kiku wondered silently. Since then her cousin hadn't sent any more letters. It was as if she didn't want to write about Gaara anymore. If he'd hurt her friend then maybe to some extent she hated him...and maybe she'd come to hate Kiku as well. Kiku shook her head to erase the thoughts. She refused to think like that. Okarina wasn't that kind of person. She would have just told Kiku if she was angry, not ignored her letters. Kiku was worried something horrible might have happened to her young cousin. Aya sensed her fear and wrapped an arm around the younger girl's shoulder.

"Well the Chunin exams are probably almost over by now." said Aya, softly. "Maybe she's just waiting for a big finale letter...or maybe the ninjas in charge of delivering the letters have more important things to do right now. You know that mail can get backed up sometimes because of that. I wouldn't worry about it too much."

Kiku nodded. In a village struggling to keep it's place in the ninja world, Sunagakure had moments of shortages of all kinds while the ninjas were sent to perform other tasks that the kazekage deemed to be more important. As much as she loved her village, that was one thing she never enjoyed.

"Yeah...you're probably right. Mail might just be backed up again."

The girls stood in silence for a while, just listening to the quiet sounds of the hospital in the background. Quiet sounds of slow footsteps and muffled voices soon turned to yells and the loud sound of running. Kiku looked out the window and saw the crowd rushing towards the hospital.

The door behind the girls flew open and the girls turned at the sound of Emiko's voice.

"Aya-chan, Kiku-chan...come with me we need everyone we can get. There was a failed attack on Konoha...our ninjas are in bad condition."

"Atack on Konoha? Why would the Kazekage...?" Kiku's question hung in the air, her eyes wide. She felt her heart beating insanely fast. She now knew why she never recieved Okarina's letters. The Kazekage must have shut down any communication between the villages.

'Could Okarina have been hurt in the attack? Could she be dead?'

That was all she could think about until another voice called her attention away.

"The Kazekage is dead!"

That was the first moment Kiku had seen her village on the verge of complete chaos.

A/N: Well things should be speeding up pretty soon. Gaara will make his reappearance in the story and I've got a lot planned for the next few chapters. Sorry for the short chapter. I just haven't had much time to write but I wanted to put up a new chapter whenever I could get the chance. ^^ I hope it's alright. I'm gonna try hard to make the next chapter longer.