Adopted: Book 1 Refracted Sand [REWRITING]

Adopted Ch. 4 Cat's Eye

One day, Suzume woke up and found a kitten on their doorstep.

Suzume tilted her head to the side, gazing down at the cat emotionlessly. It looked up at her in the same way, its golden eyes staring into her soul. It flicked its long tail and meowed at her.

"Suzume..." Temari didn't know how to react. "Why is there a cat on your head?"

Suzume rotated around to face her sister. Her face void of emotion contrasted deeply with the endearing way the cat was hanging on her head. Even as she watched, the blue kitten yawned and Temari couldn't help but have the word 'cute' pass through her thoughts.

"Her name is Hisoka," Suzume said.

"I didn't ask for its name! Moreover, you named it already?!"

Suzume detached the cat from her head and held it in her arms, looking up at Temari with sad eyes. "I'm not allowed to keep it, Temari-sama?"

Temari sagged a bit in defeat. "You can act adorable when you want to, can't you, Suzume..."

Suzume cocked her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

Suzume was often left alone in the house since the others had shinobi duties to attend to. Hisoka was the only living thing that kept her company. The little blue kitten would follow the stoic girl around, trotting after Suzume's feet as she cleaned the house or prepared dinner. The kitten became her best friend.

_

Temari attached her fan and it clicked in place. Kankuro shouldered his puppet and Gaara tied his gourd to his back. They were all donning on their weapons in the mudroom. The room itself was dark as the sun hadn't risen yet, but a light in the hallway was enough to let them see. They turned to their little sister.

"We'll see you tonight, Suzume," Kankuro said in farewell.

Suzume, who had crawled out of bed at four in the morning to be able to say goodbye, had messy hair and drooping eyes. She yawned and waved her hand lazily. "Bye... Be safe..."

Temari flicked her on the forehead. "Go back to sleep."

"Okay..." Kankuro opened the door and Gaara gave Suzume a little wave before the door closed behind the trio.

"And they're gone again..." Suzume mumbled as Hisoka padded up to her side, sat down, and meowed. Suzume looked down at her before going back to her room.

Suzume woke up again at seven and, slipping on her slippers, went to the kitchen to make herself some breakfast. She placed a saucer of milk onto the floor for Hisoka and went to fetch the toast that had popped out of the toaster. She sat herself down at the dining room table and bit into the buttered toast.

_

At the Sand Ninja Prep Institution for the Aspiring Shinobi, Gaara was finishing some paperwork when he noticed some of his coworkers were giving him strange looks. He was ignoring them, figuring they'd say something eventually. He discovered he was correct in that assumption when a teacher went up to him.

Gaara looked up to see a fidgeting man who was quite older than him, avoiding eye contact as he tried to form words.

"W-we heard..." he mumbled and Gaara strained to hear. "That y-you... and your siblings picked up a girl from the streets..."

"That is so," Gaara replied calmly.

This caused the teachers to begin muttering wildly and the man in front of Gaara cleared his throat.

"I-is she, um, okay?"

Gaara began to realize what was going on and his eyes darkened.

"I mean to say..." the man must've thought Gaara didn't understand. "Is she... you know... still alive?"