For Nobara

Chapter 16: Make a Murderer Out of Me

Movement. A stealthy shadow travels through the sand structures of the Hidden Sand Village. He moves unnoticed. But as soon as he arrives at his destination, a large room barely lit by the single lantern at the corner of the room, he announces his presence just as he kneels in front of a robed man who remains seated behind a screen.

"The scroll...?"

The shadow bows then before he hands over what was asked of him as the female attendant scurries to deliver it without question. Then the robed man skims over the content with an expectant look on his face. But the further he reads on, his rimmed eyes gradually become darker.

The female attendant flinches the moment the man suddenly throws the scroll out of his sight in fury, but the shadow remains motionless. He knew the moment the letter was delivered that the man would not be happy with what it contains.

"Did he say anything else?"

"No, sir..."

The man's lips purse. A war is not something he wished. He had thought that there could have been another way, but the Wind Daimyō has already driven them to a corner that staying quiet is no longer an option.

"He has made his choice then..." he says darkly. "Prepare the sleeper agents in Konoha."

"Yes, Lord Kazekage." The shadow nods before raising his eyes slightly. "And the child...?"

The man's gaze pauses as his thoughts drift towards the one Baki brought a couple of days ago with him. It may have been foolish to be cautious of a mere foreign child in the beginning, but to think that he would receive news that the chūnin he planted would be found dead a few hours earlier.

He may have been careless to have assigned the task to a chūnin in the first place.

"I'm sure you already know, Yūra." The Kazekage turns away. "Now... take care of the rest."

.

When the sand-haired girl looks at the bustling streets, it feels like nothing has changed. In the day, the village can't have been more alive than it already is. The lively chatter, the eager vendors motivated to sellout their merchandise. The children don't even mind who they shove into as they run past people. They are only filled with giggles and laughter.

It's almost as if the economic decline isn't happening at all. But this only makes Temari wonder for how long such an illusion will last before they will finally feel it, just like for how long does she have to pretend that everything is fine with Nobara.

"Are you accusing her?" Temari demanded when Baki brought up the chūnin that was killed just yesterday. "You know she was with me! She couldn't have—"

"It isn't that simple, Temari," he answered her almost wearily. "Or the matter of whether she could or couldn't have."

She knows it too. She's well aware how the Sand Village worked. As children of the Kazekage, she had witnessed firsthand what lengths her father would go through for the sake of the village's safety.

But in her own judgement, she thought she needed no interrogation from the child because Nobara has already been through so much. Temari thought she was doing what was right, but had she really been too invested on taking care of her that she had failed to see the bigger picture?

Now, even if they're too busy for a bigger task, a chūnin is dead and it is no easy feat to let it pass. The fact that there wouldn't have been anyone to have the motivation to kill a shinobi in his own village is also something that is hard to refute. So even if it's not her, then someone with her.