Chapter 4 - Chapter 4: Trial By Fire

"Are you ready for this?"

"I'm so ready."

"I don't think you are."

"Yeah? We'll see."

Ash and Kankuro, nine and ten years old respectively, were standing on the edge of a residential building in the Hidden Sand, looking up at the lip of another structure that was two stories higher.

"Alright, Ash, we got this. I'll use my chakra strings, you can use the ninja wire, and we'll use 'em to swing into that window over there. Should be a cinch."

Young Ash, not one to question his pseudo-siblings more than two years after his acceptance into the family unit, still wasted no time asking a question. There was always some level of concern in him when it came to dangerous stunts, even if he enjoyed them. "Are you sure? I thought chakra strings were kinda weak, physically... and you haven't been using them for all that long."

Kankuro had his hood thrown back, revealing his spiky brown hair as he glanced over at his daredevil companion. "Hey, which one of us actually uses this technique regularly, huh? If they can hold a puppet, I'm sure they can hold me, right? Right."

Ash nodded, deciding that if he was wrong, Kankuro would find out the hard way. "Right."

"Alright then, let's do this. And fast, before Temari finds out. You know how she gets."

The young blond nodded again, reaching around his simple white shirt and into the pockets of navy blue pants in search of his ninja wire and a kunai, readying himself for what was most certainly a stupid stunt the only other blonde in his family would likely not condone. But she wasn't around to stop them, so what was the harm?

Ash mentally corrected himself rather quickly. What was the permanent harm? After all, he was leaping off a building.

The two boys readied their respective tools for this jump, all caution thrown to the wind their land was named after. Without a second thought, they ran towards the edge of their platform and leaped into the air, preparing to latch onto the lip of the roof above them halfway through the jump. Using chakra strings and ninja wire with kunai, they both managed to do so, and surprisingly, Kankuro's chakra strings held his weight all the way through the arc. The two of them landed feet first on the wall of the building they had been aiming for.

Kankuro was about to say something about accomplishing their little stunt, but before he could pat himself and his brother on the back, his strings broke from the strain. "Oh crap! Catch me!"

Ash reached a hand out to catch the black-clad boy, but the sudden addition of weight started to pull his kunai anchors from the wall, and it was obvious that they were going to fall any moment now. In all honesty, Ash was not surprised things had turned out like this. "So if anyone asks, what are we gonna tell them?"

Kankuro tried to come up with a good excuse before he and Ash fell. It was only about twenty feet, so they would survive, being partial ninja and all. He wasn't too worried, even if it hurt. "We were roughed up by a pack of older kids?"

"We tell Temari that, and we'll look like huge wimps."

"Yeah, but she'll coddle you instead of getting angry."

"Until she finds out there's no older bullies to beat up for us. Then she'll be mad that we lied."

"Look, man, do you want to—!"

That was all they managed to discuss before Ash's kunai finally gave way, but neither of them seemed too alarmed even as they fell towards the ground. They were so used to hurting themselves with stupid things like this that they mostly just made a joke out of it. They also pulled stunts like this so often that they weren't surprised at all when a small gust of wind buffeted their free-fall, reducing their landing to a harmless plop on the dusty street.

The two boys craned their necks to look in the direction the wind had come from, and were, once again, not surprised to find the scowling visage of their older sister with a small fan in each hand. Neither of them said anything, knowing that words would likely only make their current situation worse.

Temari was more than happy to fill the silence, her eyebrow twitching the whole while. "You idiots... do you have any idea how stupid that entire stunt was?! What's wrong with you two, leaping off a six-story building like that?! I mean, honestly—!"

Kankuro sighed as he cut her off. "Just go ahead and hit us, Temari, at least spare us the lecture."

Though she needed no invitation, the eleven-year-old blonde did just that.

---

"Somehow I feel as though Lady Chiyo did not teach you to use chakra strings for this purpose, Kankuro..."

Within the Kazekage's residence, Baki sat cross-legged in front of the two boys under his care, their older sister standing behind them with a look of irritation on her face. It seemed like the older her brothers got, the more foolish their little escapades became.

"Let's just say it was a good test of their strength, Sensei. Now I know they won't hold me up like that. Trial and error and all that, right? Could be useful later."

Baki looked over to Ash, who sat on the floor with a far smaller bump on his head. Temari never smacked him anywhere near as hard as Kankuro, no matter what he got up to. "And what about you, Ash? You've usually got the best excuses between the two of you."

"Mistakes are the best way to learn something new, right, Cyclops? Next time, I'll know to let Kankuro fall instead of going down with him."

Baki could've sworn that he saw a small tick mark forming on the puppeteer-in-training's forehead. For such a young child, Ash was a ruthless sibling. "Either way, that was definitely one of the more foolish stunts you two have pulled. You're lucky Temari was there, or you may have broken something. Although I guess it's still better than terrorizing the populace like you usually do..."

The two boys shared a knowing look between themselves, easily recalling the multiple times they had been chased by angry merchants or housewives. They were really a menace around the village if left to their own devices. Not that they ever really got in trouble, considering who they were. But if one of their own family got onto their case, that was a different story.

Which was why having their sister on their case was a fairly regular occurrence.

"Yeah, Ash, what would you have done if you ended up landing on your neck or something? If I hadn't been there to catch you, who knows what could have happened?"

Kankuro cast a deadpan look back at his sister. "What if I had landed on my neck, huh?"

"Tough luck, this whole idea of swinging from the rooftops was probably your stupid idea in the first place."

Ash nodded in agreement, leaving Kankuro to mutter something about how cold his siblings were. Baki could only inwardly sigh as he wondered how the three children before him had managed to create such a dynamic when, approximately two years ago, they were virtual strangers. He was glad for it, but still curious. "If the three of you are done bickering about this, there are more important matters to attend to. We've actually got a mission for you to prepare for, you know."

Ash couldn't help but grumble to himself, unwillingly reminded of the 'mission' he and his adopted siblings had been selected for sometime earlier that day. "I don't see why we have to go, Cyclops. None of us are even Genin yet, so we shouldn't have to do any missions at all, right?"

By this point, the Jonin was well accustomed to all of the young boy's complaining, having been subject to it from day one. It was extremely odd to him; Ash liked learning how to fight and worked to improve his fighting skills without much outside motivation. But he also completely detested the idea of being a servant to the Kazekage. He enjoyed the skills that came with being a ninja, but hated the politics. His complicated feelings on the matter often caused a headache for Baki.

He was used to it, though, meaning no amount of grumbling would change Baki's mind on matters these days. "It will be a good experience for you. Besides, at the rate you've all been learning the shinobi arts, your days as students are numbered. You'd might as well get used to something like this now."

Temari leaned in behind Ash and placed her hands on his shoulders. "C'mon, Ash, it won't be so bad. At least we can all suffer together. Besides, if I have to put up with Kankuro and Baki no matter what, I'd at least rather have you there, too. You wouldn't want to leave your big sister out in the desert with only those two for company, right?"

Any resistance Ash may have mentally put up crumbled at his sister's slightly pleading tone. Sure, even Ash knew she was just manipulating him, but he'd been putty in her hands for a long time now, so what was he going to do about it?

"Fine, fine... what are we doing anyway? I don't really want to do that D-rank crap... manual labor is civilian work."

Baki silently thanked Temari for her influence. "We're going out into the desert tomorrow evening to look for a rather rare flower that only blooms at night around this time of year. I don't know why the client wants it, and I don't really care: the village doesn't get nearly enough missions as it is, so we take what we can get."

Kankuro rolled his eyes, although he was glad to do something that didn't involve building a fence or towing blocks of sandstone. "Better than what most Genin do, though not by much..."

Baki wondered if his proteges would ever grow out of this rut of complaints and whining. For the sake of his sanity, he certainly hoped that they would. Otherwise, he'd probably age faster than he already had, and he wasn't eager to look sixty when he was thirty-five.

---

The Kazekage's secretary sighed as she planted her forehead onto her desk, though she was careful to avoid damaging her glasses. "I can't believe Lord Kazekage is just dropping all of this paperwork into my lap... isn't this supposed to be his job?"

"Maybe, but that old dustbin probably gets lazy every once in awhile too, Sohara. C'mon, it's not like you really work or anything on regular days."

Sohara lifted her head just enough to glare at her only companion through her brown bangs. "What do you know, Ash? You're too young to have really worked a day in your life. You don't know how grueling paperwork is; it's so bad that even the Kazekage has to give it to someone else sometimes, as you can see!"

Ash walked up to Sohara's desk and plopped his chin down on it, since he was the perfect height to do so. "At least you get to sit around all day while you work. Though you might get fat if you never have to get up..."

Sohara glowered at the boy who'd come to visit her. He hadn't changed much over the years: he'd grown a little taller, and his lean body had filled out a bit once he was regularly eating enough food and getting good rest. But he'd maintained his long blond bangs in all this time, and still kept one eye hidden from the world. Although there had, as far as Sohara knew, been no unwanted accidents involving that eye, it seemed her little friend still wasn't comfortable taking any risks with it. He came to visit Sohara pretty often whenever he had downtime, which the secretary was grateful for, but he was also a little more rude than he used to be. She blamed Kankuro for that.

"Ash, you're not supposed to say things like that to girls. Hasn't Temari taught you that?"

"It hasn't come up, I guess? She tries not to talk to me about girls too much. Says it worries her for some reason."

Sohara smiled, admittedly understanding Temari's concerns. Ash was a cute kid. She imagined he'd have a lot of girls pining after him one day, and what big sister wanted that to happen? It really wasn't any different than brothers worrying about their sisters getting boyfriends. Still, Ash was surely too young for any of that to matter. Temari was just being paranoid.

"Oh, that's just a thing sisters do... don't worry about it, Ash. What brings you here today? I'm always glad to see you, but I thought you had something important to do today? Baki mentioned a mission this morning."

"Yeah, it's about that. But the mission isn't until the evening. Baki only said a little bit about it. I was kinda curious, so I came to ask you about it. Most lower-rank missions come through you before you give 'em to the old guy, right?"

"Well, sure, but... I don't usually pay much attention to them. What are you doing?"

Ash flipped his bangs to the side, giving Sohara a small glimpse of the eye he always kept hidden from everyone. The brief glimpse wasn't enough to determine any notable details, much to her chagrin. Neither Baki nor the Kazekage had ever told her anything about it.

"We're going to look for some flower out in the desert, one that only blooms in the evening or something around this time of year. Sounds boring, but I couldn't get out of it."

Ash missed the gleam of interest in Sohara's eyes as he mentioned his upcoming task, because if he had noticed it, he probably would have cut his losses and made himself scarce.

"You mean the Moonglow mission?! Actually, I know exactly which one you're talking about. I read through it just this morning!"

Ash cocked an eyebrow at the young woman. "Why did you pay so much attention to that one? Is there something special about this flower?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact there is! Ah well... supposedly there is. There's this urban legend that if you give a fully bloomed Moonglow to the person you love, they'll reciprocate your feelings! Isn't that romantic?"

Ash, being the nine-year-old child that he was, only had a deadpan stare to offer to his conversationalist companion. "Sounds silly. How would that work? What kind of person would even need something like that?"

Sohara planted her hands on her hips. "Plenty of people! You know, girls who don't have a lot of confidence when they want to confess to the guy they like, and vice versa and whatnot..."

"Oh, really? You didn't set up this mission for yourself, did you?"

"Of course not! I'll have you know that I have plenty of luck with men without needing a special flower!"

Ash raised an eyebrow as he smirked at her. "Just last week, you were crying to me about how your last date went bad. That doesn't sound like luck."

"Hey, you—!" Sohara folded her arms as she offered huff of annoyance. "You should have brought Temari to talk about this. I bet she'd actually appreciate it."

"I don't think so. Sis never pays attention to boys, she doesn't care about them."

"Maybe because she has to spend all her time looking out for you, blockhead..."

The young blond stuck his tongue out at her, and Sohara reciprocated in kind. Only after that did she actually manage to remember that she was three times Ash's age, and probably should have been acting more mature. Taking a deep breath, she adjusted her glasses on her nose.

"Anyway... what did you actually want to know about the mission?"

Ash glanced at the ceiling. "I dunno, anything, I guess. Baki didn't say a whole lot about the details. More than that, though, I guess I'm just curious to know why this mission is coming to us. Even real Genin get way simpler D-rank missions, right? But this flower hunting stuff sounds a little more complex."

Sohara couldn't deny that the blond had a point. Curious herself, she pulled a folder from her desk and flipped through it until she found the paperwork that detailed the mission in question. "You know, now that you mention it, there are a few weird details about this mission that don't really add up. It only just came in today, and missions that aren't urgent usually don't get assigned that quickly. The client's name is redacted, too, and the reward is... well, nonexistent, basically. It only covers the submission fee for a mission in the first place. That is super weird..."

"So... what does all of that mean?"

Sohara shook her head as she gazed at the confusing data. "I'm... not really sure. But this mission went through me, and the Kazekage signed off on it, and even Baki said nothing unusual when it was assigned to him. If those two don't see anything wrong with it, then it should be fine, right?"

Ash grumbled as he rolled his eyes. "Trusting a ninja is, like, a bad idea on its own, isn't it?"

"In some ways, I suppose... but hey, you're going to be a ninja, you know. So you can't look down on the whole profession like that. I know Baki is kind of scary, but he's reliable. Has he steered you wrong yet?"

Ash raised an eyebrow as he thought back to any incident he could remember over the past two years. "Do you really want me to answer that?"

Sighing, Sohara shut the mission folder and stored it back in her desk. "Feel however you want, Ash. But you still have to go on this mission, you know. It's not like I can do anything about it if all the actual ninja around here want to go through with it."

Ash pushed himself off the desk, his face a dramatic mask of exasperation. "Boo... and we aren't even getting paid a bunch? This stinks."

"What would someone your age even buy with that money? You live under the Kazekage's roof, so it's not like you're poor."

"Baki doesn't use that money to buy anything fun for us, you know. He says that kind of stuff is a waste. I could have at least gotten a book to read or something..."

"Oh... I didn't know it actually worked like that for you, though I guess it makes sense not to leave money in the hands of kids without supervision... tell you what, Ash. Do a good job on the mission, and I'll persuade Baki to reward you and your siblings for succeeding in their first real mission. How does that sound?"

The small blond boy looked dubiously. "Would Baki even listen to you?"

"Ah, well... probably not, honestly... fine, I'll buy you a book or something if you buckle down and do a good job! How about that?"

Finally, young Ash smiled. "Awesome. I guess I can do it, then. Better go home and get ready! Don't forget what you just promised, Sohara!"

Ash offered a wave as he headed for the door. Sohara waved back, her smile only dropping after the blond disappeared. She was already a little tight on money this month. How expensive was a good book, these days?

---

There really wasn't all that much preparation to do for a mission as simple as retrieving a flower, so when the day of the assignment came around, Ash and his siblings had plenty of time to themselves. It only took them an hour to pack their bags and double-check everything. When that was done, all three siblings moved to the rooftop of their house to wait for Baki's arrival. They had nothing to do but wait, and it was always easier to wait with a view. The Kazekage's personal residence was fairly tall, giving its inhabitants a good view of the surrounding village. Only the central government building commanded greater height, its enormous spherical shape serving as a focal point of interest for the entire village.

It was a stark reminder of who everyone worked for around here, and it was impossible to ignore. Even Ash, who intentionally sat with his back to the building, felt its looming presence and metaphorical weight, casting an irritable shadow over his heart that was more potent than usual: Ash generally managed to forget that he was going to be a real ninja one day. But now that Baki was forcing Ash into his first real mission, that impending reality was getting a bit difficult to ignore. He wasn't excited like Temari and Kankuro were.

Ash was young. Asking him to nail down a philosophy was difficult. But he could firmly assert a few things even at his age. He didn't like the idea of serving other people. He didn't see any reason to put the well-being of this village above himself. He didn't care about the things ninjas were supposed to care about.

The title of ninja only held two merits for him; one was the skills that came with the job. He'd found over the past two years that he enjoyed the rush of combat and the challenge of pushing himself past his limits. He enjoyed fighting in the purest sense, and he appreciated that his ninja training made him better at it. More importantly, being a ninja meant staying close to his siblings as they became shinobi as well. If they became ninja and he didn't, they'd constantly be off on dangerous missions without him, possibly getting hurt or killed because he hadn't been at their side.

That put him in quite a bind. He really wasn't happy about the future profession waiting for him, but it seemed to be one of the only ways to get other things that Ash wanted. He found it hard to feel happy or excited about the whole prospect, all things considered.

His wayward thoughts kept Ash from joining whatever mindless conversation his siblings were having, which did not go entirely unnoticed by his sister. "Ash? Is something wrong? You look kinda down."

He glanced back at his sister, noting her concerned frown. She was always worrying. "I'm fine. Just tired and not very excited for a scavenger hunt in the desert."

Temari's frown deepened. She was well aware of Ash's lack of passion for the ninja life, but she wasn't happy to accept it. He was going to be a ninja one day: she didn't want him being miserable about it for the rest of his life. "C'mon, Ash, it's a flower that glows in the dark. We'll be out there for less than an hour, tops. And since it is an official mission, you'll even get paid a regular Genin's wages for participating. That's something to be excited about, right?"

Unfortunately, her points didn't do anything to elevate Ash's mood. "I'm pretty sure Genin's wages around here are really awful. If we even get money for this one at all..."

Temari was about to lecture the diminutive child on being so pessimistic, but Kankuro grabbed her by the shoulder and shook his head: it was useless to even try. They both knew that their adopted little brother was far from pleased with the most prominent aspects of being a ninja, even though he wasn't even really a ninja yet. They also knew that nothing they ever said changed his perspective on it.

For a few minutes, Temari followed Kankuro's quiet advice, leaving Ash to his thoughts and making no attempts to take his mind elsewhere. But she wasn't able to keep that up for very long. It had only been about five minutes before Temari spoke to her baby brother again. "Ash, practice your taijustu with me."

"What? Why?"

"Because we could both use the practice, and I'm sick of sitting around. Come on, it'd be better than sitting around and moping, isn't it?"

While Ash normally didn't frown on combat training, he wasn't all that eager to go at it right now. It wasn't like he and his sister would push it hard enough to actually achieve anything, so that made it pointless. Even so, he got to his feet, always desiring to please his older sister. "Why are we doing this, though? You hardly ever practice your taijutsu anyway. I thought you were going to be a ninjutsu specialist."

Before Temari could offer her own answer, the voice of Baki came from behind the group, having arrived without any of them noticing. "It's critical for a ninja to be well-rounded, Ash. Even if you are a specialist in a certain area, you should have at least average skills befitting of your rank. A Jonin with incredible skill in ninjutsu but Chunin-level taijutsu would be dead in no time. Though it's unlikely that someone like that would ever have made Jonin rank in the first place."

The three kids turned to face their Sensei, Ash the most vocal of the three of them. "That's great, Cyclops, but it doesn't help me get out of anything, so I'll pass."

It was standard fare for the young blond boy, but his dismissal irked Baki anyway. It wasn't that Ash was lazy; in fact, his recently awakened passion for fighting had made him much better than most of his counterparts in the Academy. But his attitude wasn't conducive to progress at all. Even though he had no qualms practicing when it came to battle, he had no desire to use those skills for anything greater. Anytime someone mentioned service to the village, he tuned them out completely.

Baki was not very passionate about a lot of things, but if there was one thing he hated, it was to see potential being wasted. It was actually more painful in Ash's case, because he wasn't fully wasting his potential, but he was just shy of making the most of it, which was worse. Baki hoped there would be some sort of life-altering event down the road that would change Ash's mind about a lot of things.

"It's unbecoming of a ninja to complain so much, Ash. I know being a dutiful ninja isn't at the top of your priorities, but you should still try your best. It's the least you could do for those of us who took you in."

The youngest member of the group said nothing in reply, but his expression grew remarkably sour. Even at age nine, he was not naive. He knew he had been rescued off the streets only because he could potentially fill the hole Gaara's disappearance had caused. Had the redhead never left, Ash would have probably died already, left out there on the streets to starve. No one he had now as 'family' or 'friends' would have been there for him if fate had played out just a little differently. He was always quietly aware of that fact, but he didn't like being reminded of it.

Ash replaced his irritable countenance with a measured neutrality when he realized what he was thinking, mildly surprised to have thought it at all. This bitter swirl of thoughts tended to cloud his mind on a fairly regular basis, but it was very recent. Just a few months ago, he never would have thought such things. He didn't know if they manifested themselves now because he was stressed over his training, or bored, or for some other reason entirely, but it bothered the boy greatly. His siblings cared about him now: it shouldn't have really mattered to him how he'd gotten here.

Not finding anything to say, Ash merely nodded, a neutral action that showed his understanding of Baki's words but did not reveal his stance on the matter. This infuriated the older Jonin, mostly because he hated answers that weren't really answers, and Ash excelled at that. "Well, as long as you understand, I suppose we can move on. Let's just go over the mission before we leave."

With varying degrees of interest, the three kids turned their attention to their sensei. Temari was the most focused, while her two brothers were likely to tune out halfway through the briefing, or sooner.

"Now you two," Baki said while pointing to the older siblings, "have been on a few low-key missions with me before, even though you aren't officially ninja yet. Ash, this will be your first, but there will be little difficulty involved for you to worry about. Collecting this rare flower is only a high-ranked D mission after all. It is almost guaranteed that we won't encounter any danger out there, and the most difficult aspect of this mission will likely be fighting off your own boredom. All in all, it should be easy."

Ash crossed his arms and gave the Jonin a disapproving look. "Why'd you say that, Cyclops? Something is gonna go wrong for sure, now."

"If you are suggesting that I have jinxed the mission with mere words, I assure you that such superstition is nonexistent. After all, as I said, this is only a D-rank mission. Still, all missions are valuable experience and profit, so we can't blow this off or treat it as unimportant, no matter how insignificant our task may seem. The client is willing to pay the village for this, and that's good enough for us. We need every ryo we can get these days."

The reference to the Sand's dire economic straits did nothing to lighten the moods of the kids under Baki's tutelage, but he wasn't one to mince words or hide undeniable facts. The Hidden Sand was the poorest of the five Great Nations right now. There was no point in hiding that, as it was obvious in the day-to-day aspects of every villager's life, both civilian and shinobi. Ash thought back to the shady details Sohara had revealed about the mission, wondering if things were really as simple as Baki made it seem. Even the matter of payment seemed up for debate.

But he didn't ask any questions. Why complicate a situation he was already unhappy about?

Baki moved on with what little was left of his briefing. "As you know, we're heading out in a few minutes to comb the desert's oases for a rare flower that only blooms in the evening around this time of year. I don't know what's so special about it besides the fact that it glows when in full bloom, but I don't care why the client wants it—only that he does. We must find it tonight, because this flower will begin to wilt as soon as the sun rises tomorrow morning. I don't expect it to be hard, but we do have a deadline, nevertheless. Any questions about what we're doing?"

Ash raised his hand, but Baki cut in before the boy could say anything. "Any questions that aren't 'do I have to come?'"

Defeated before he could even start, Ash lowered his hand. It was a shame that Baki knew him so well already.

"If that's the case, let's get a move on. Double check your gear one more time, and meet me at the gates."

---

With nothing to hinder their progress, the group of aspiring ninja and their mentor found themselves in the desert an hour after their half-baked briefing on the roof, making their way towards the first oasis nearest to the village's walls. After all, if a flower was going to bloom in the desert, it would likely need to be near a decent amount of water. Fortunately, the first oasis was only about a mile away from the village, near the hidden exit to the emergency tunnels that the civilians would use to evacuate during a crisis.

Being so close, it didn't take long to reach this oasis where all four members of the squad realized that their task would not be as easy as they'd thought.

Ash walked slowly around the edge of the small body of water at the center of the oasis, scanning the sparse green around him for the faint glow of his objective in the evening light. The vegetation around him was covered in flecks of sand, and it occurred to the ninja-in-training that the flower he was looking for might be in the same condition or worse. The country wasn't called the Land of Wind for nothing, and it was possible that the target flower could be completely covered in sand, blocking out its telltale glow. That could make things much more difficult for him and his team.

"I'm assuming no one has found it yet?"

There were three answers, and as expected, Temari, Kankuro, and Baki had all failed to locate the flower as well. Ash found it strange that Baki himself would help with a D-ranked mission, but assumed it had something to do with the fact that his private students could possibly fail. Failing a mission meant forfeiting the income, and that was something the village just couldn't afford, no matter what mission rank was in question. Assuming, of course, that this mysterious mission actually had a reward involved.

After the group combed the entire patch of greenery and water from center to edge with no luck, Ash brought up his theory on the possible hindrances they might encounter with the sand.

"So, I realized this flower could be covered in sand or something. Or at least dusted enough to make it harder to pick out. Just a thought."

While he wasn't sure if his observation really made a difference, Ash was pleased to find that Baki agreed with the insight. "That's good, Ash; discovering possible obstacles to your mission early on is a trait all shinobi should excel in. Now we all know to be even more prudent in our search, especially as it gets darker. We'll have to be extra thorough."

Kankuro lightly slapped his little brother on the back. "Yeah, thanks, Ash. Now we have to be extra thorough."

Temari provided retribution on Ash's behalf, smacking the young puppeteer quite a bit harder than he'd actually done to the youngest sibling. "At least he actually thought of something useful. I think that you really did do a great job, Ash. You thought of that before Baki, even."

Said Jonin cleared his throat to interrupt the conversation, lest the children capitalize on the fact that, yes, Ash had thought of something important before he had. It would be best for his sanity if they forgot about it before they could hold it over his head like the little jackasses they were. "Yes, well, now that we have established some of the difficulties we might encounter, we should move along to the next oasis. If the sand really has obscured the Moonglow, it will be harder to find the darker it gets. We have no time to waste."

With no disagreement on the kids' part, the group departed for the next oasis, although this one was several miles off, unlike the first. Not only was it farther off, but its distance from the village meant there was more open desert to traverse, which, even for Sand ninja, could be tricky. Moving at full speed on sand dunes was rather difficult, since it shifted under the smallest disturbances. You couldn't just use typical shinobi water walking techniques either—even if you could stick your feet to the grains of sand on the surface, that didn't stop them from sliding around thanks to the shifting sand underneath those grains.

There was actually a technique used by the village to take advantage of this, allowing ninja to slide around intentionally with less friction, but none of the children present on this mission had mastered such a technique yet. It was useful, but not a high priority for ninja-in-training to focus on.

Therefore, their progress was slowed considerably, which was certainly not doing the group any favors as the sky grew darker. Nearly an hour of sliding, tripping, and grumbling separated them from the next oasis, where their luck was just as rotten as it had been the first time. A complete and thorough sweep of the small haven was met with no results, putting Ash in an even worse mood than he had been in the first place.

"This is such a stupid assignment... what are we supposed to do if there just isn't one of these flowers to find? What if there just aren't any this year?"

Surprisingly, Baki didn't outright reprimand his youngest student. "That is a fair point, Ash, but we must be absolutely certain that is the case before writing off this mission as a failure."

Not one to be left out of the complaining, Kankuro found it necessary to say something himself. "And how many more of these places do we have to search? It's practically night already."

"There are two more oases that we must search, each even further than the last. By the time we're done, there will be about thirty miles between us and the village."

The moment Baki finished speaking, a small bush near the water burst into alternating blue and green flames, a result of Ash's mounting frustration. Used to it by now, the only reaction from his three comrades was a gust of wind Temari used to splash the fluorescent flames with water before they burned down the whole oasis.

Ash likely would have inadvertently ignited more things as he grew more irritable, something Baki was well aware of. He was willing to make a small concession to avoid that issue. "Let's take a small break before continuing on to the next oasis. Ten minutes, and then we're moving again."

With all the invitation he needed, Ash flung himself onto a patch of rough, sparse grass and heaved a mighty sigh for a kid his age. It didn't take long for his siblings to join him on the ground, although they both opted for sitting cross-legged. Kankuro wasted no time in bringing out the small, foot-long avian puppet he was constantly working on and expanding, which had been his hobby of choice since Ash had first met him. Temari, on the other hand, decided that she would rather spend her ten minutes fretting over her youngest sibling. Despite her initial worries about the relationship they shared now, she had swiftly grown into it over the years.

"Are you feeling alright, Ash? You should drink some water before we start moving again."

"I'm not thirsty."

It was futile to try to brush Temari off with an excuse like that; now that Ash thought about it, it probably wasn't even worth the effort to resist his sister. If she got it into her head that there was something wrong, there was no swaying her. Temari deftly dug her hand into Ash's bag and withdrew one of the water-filled canteens within, shoving it into her youngest sibling's face with a stern look that left no room for argument.

Knowing there was no way to get out of it, Ash took the canteen from his sister and made an obvious show of drinking it, just to make sure she got off his back. She would have been just as overbearing if he didn't drink enough. Of course, as he guzzled some of it down, the ninja in training couldn't help but realize that he had been rather thirsty, not that he would admit it. Apparently, his sister just always knew what was best.

"I bet that was refreshing, wasn't it?"

Ash was not at all pleased to see the smug look of victory on Temari's face; perhaps he had let just a bit too much satisfaction show on his own. He crossed his arms and said nothing, unwilling to admit defeat.

If his denial bothered Temari in any way, it didn't show on her face at all. She was used to Ash's childish behavior and found it more adorable than anything else. She could only find it in herself to smile at the boy. "Alright then, if that's the way you want to be about it. But how about everything else? You've been training hard, but you're still younger than us. Are you tired?"

In all honesty, Ash did feel a little winded and a bit sore from the running. Having to run on shifting sands was twice the work that running on any flat surface would be, since one had to constantly fight to keep their balance as well as move forward. But he wouldn't admit to feeling anything beyond fine. He hated showing weakness, especially in front of his sister, who always seemed to think he could be amazing and great and anything he wanted to be. To let down someone who had so much faith in him, even in something so small, felt very wrong.

"I'm fine, Temari. It was no problem."

A small frown made itself known on Temari's face, but it lasted only a moment before she returned to her usual smile. Oh, she was well aware that Ash was just putting up a front. He was a proud little squirt who didn't like being called out on his weaknesses. Arguably one of his bigger personality flaws.

"So you're not feeling tired at all, huh? Not even a little bit?"

Ash shook his head defiantly, wondering why she bothered to ask when she definitely already knew the truth. "Not even a little bit."

If Ash had noticed the slightly devious look that came into his sister's eyes, he probably would have found some way to escape from her immediate reach. Unfortunately, he was making a point of looking away from her, so there was no way he could have known that she was about to make a move against him. She'd subtly reached her hands toward her brother's exposed sides before he could realize the 'danger' he was in.

In a dour mood, Ash did not expect an attack as silly as the one coming his way. Temari jammed her fingers into her little brother's sensitive ribs and began to tickle him mercilessly, taking advantage of what she knew was a weak spot for him.

"How about now, Ash? Feeling tired now? Hm?"

Absolutely refusing to laugh in the face of Temari's onslaught, Ash clenched his jaw as tight as he could to suppress his giggles, all the while trying to twist away from his sister's merciless fingers. He reached a hand out to Kankuro in hopes of being rescued, but the slightly older boy decided that this would be a good time to remember Ash's smart-ass remark about letting him fall earlier that day, and abandoned the blond to his fate. Even Baki looked on with an amused air about him, the heartless bastard.

Unable to get away from her but still refusing to surrender, Ash did his best to curl into a ball and block off Temari's access to his sides, but to no avail. She tortured him ruthlessly for almost a full minute, determined to make her little brother laugh, even if it was against his will. But unfortunately for her, Ash held on to the bitter end, surviving until Baki roused the three kids from their break to get back on the move. But even after convincing Temari to give it a rest, the older Jonin gave Ash a minute or two to catch his breath, showing that he was at least slightly more sympathetic than he appeared.

Ash rested his hands on his knees as he gave Temari the most powerful glare he could muster from behind his long bangs, and it may have been somewhat intimidating had he not been gasping for air as heavily as he was. "Sis... you... jerk...! What was that all about?!"

The group's only girl grinned sheepishly at him, perhaps realizing that she had taken it just a little too far, even if tickling the boy had been more or less harmless. "It's your fault for acting so sour all the time. I just wanted you to smile or laugh or something."

Ash tried to maintain his bitter countenance, but it was impossible to do after hearing that. Whether or not Temari's maneuver had been underhanded and torturous, she had playfully assaulted him only to try to cheer him up a little. And though he hated to admit it, Ash did actually feel a little less irritable now that it was all said and done. That being the case, he couldn't really resist giving his sister a big smile; after all, it was what she had wanted.

"Well, geez, Sis. Just tell me a joke next time or something."

The older girl stuck her tongue out at the boy, an action that reminded Ash that no matter how mature Temari acted sometimes, she was still a kid, all the same as he was. "But Ash, that isn't nearly as fun as making you squirm."

Ash reciprocated his sister's immature action, aware that she was joking and only taking mock offense. The truth was that Temari just wasn't really all that good at jokes. She could be playful, but actual creative humor was not her strong suit.

Seeing that Ash was no longer a gasping heap on the ground, Baki ushered his proteges out of the oasis with haste, he himself not all that eager to be out until sometime in the morning. Unlike his pupils, he had to be up the next day far earlier, and for far more tedious work. Fortunately for his sanity, complaints were kept to a minimum on the way to the next oasis—likely thanks to Ash being in a better mood than before. The amount of influence Temari held over the boy never ceased to amaze Baki. Both Temari and Kankuro treated the boy like their brother, but Temari seemed to hold more sway over Ash's emotions.

With little to be said while traversing the desert's open dunes, the group of four arrived at the next oasis in silence, hoping they would find their objective there. This particular patch of liveliness in the desert was a fair bit larger than the last ones, sporting a wider area and a slightly more diverse selection of trees and shrubs, although only by one or two species. There were actually two spots of water in the middle of it all, although it had likely been one pool that had just accumulated enough sediment in the middle to make a little stretch of earth, separating the water into two bodies.

Without a word, the desert natives spread out and searched for the flower they sought. They each believed this was better than having to hunt down house cats of any sort, but were vexed nevertheless, as the elusive plant was just as annoying to locate, if not more so, as it did not move or make sounds to give it away. For about fifteen minutes, their search was absolutely fruitless, much to everyone's chagrin. It occurred then to Temari, being a little more knowledgeable about flowers than the rest of her group, that they might be looking in the wrong places.

"Hey, Baki? Were you told what kind of flower this is? Like where it grows?"

Kankuro piped up from across the oasis before Baki could speak, although the Jonin was only mumbling about not being called Sensei. "It grows where there's grass and water, right? Where else would you find a flower?"

"You idiot, flowers can bloom in more places than that, you know. Some only grow in certain conditions. There are some flowers that only grow in certain types of soil, and some actually bloom in the shade rather than in the sun. And there are a few that can actually grow and bloom completely underwater. This Moonglow thing might be growing somewhere we haven't even thought to look."

Kankuro seemed to take no interest in any of this, since his most prominent interest involving plants was producing poisons. Baki saw the potential for Temari's knowledge in that regard as well, and Ash just saw it as his sister being as knowledgeable as always. "So, Sis, are you saying that we're wasting time here? That maybe this stupid flower isn't even growing in an oasis? Is there such a thing as flowers out in the desert?"

The girl rubbed her chin for a moment, clearly struggling to recall what she knew about desert flowers. "Well, there's a few, like Scorpion Weed. Or Sand Lillies, Sand Verbana... what's that other one? Um... oh, and Desert Fairy Dusters."

The boys of the group all cast Temari a questioning look, though only Kanakuro voiced the group opinion. "A Desert... Fairy Duster? Is that a real thing, Temari? Are you making that up just to try to sound smart? Because it's not really working."

The accosted girl placed her hands defiantly on her hips. "Of course it's real, you dope! I'll go find one for you right now and prove it!"

The mention of a second flower hunt drove Ash to intervene, not eager to perform this dreaded task twice and just for the hell of it. "Maybe we should find the flower we're getting paid to find first."

His two older siblings looked like they wanted to make some retort to their youngest brother, but Baki put an end to any squabbling before it could really get started. "Ash is right about that. It's already late enough as it is, and I imagine that we'd all like to get home sooner rather than later. The information on the Moonglow did not include anything beyond the fact that it blooms near groundwater sources. Apparently, our library could use some updates."

There was a shared groan between Kankuro and Ash, who could both already foresee having to trek to the final oasis for another sweep, one that would likely be as useless as the ones before it. Ash readily verbalized his dissatisfaction.

"Really, Cyclops, can't you do it? You're way faster than us, and probably not as tired. It wouldn't even be hard to check on your own."

Temari frowned, unhappy that Ash had even suggested such a thing. She knew he was tired, but this just came off as lazy. Besides, he should have known better than to ask Baki to do the work for them. The chances that he would say yes were pretty much nonexistent...

"Fine. I suppose you have a point, Ash."

"I do?"

Temari parroted the sentiment immediately. "He does?"

Even Ash hadn't really thought Baki would accept his complaining, so it was no surprise that his siblings didn't either. They all knew that Baki was not a man to let them shirk their duties. Except for now, apparently.

"You're right in saying that I can move faster without you three, and as I said before, we'd all like to go home sooner rather than later. I'll use clones to help me search the final oasis alone. You all stay here and rest. I would let you go back to the village, but I fear you ignorant twerps might get lost on the way back."

Temari took more offense than the other two, who didn't listen to Baki all that much anyway. "Whoa, ignorant twerp?! Me? I could get back to the village with my eyes closed! Don't compare me to Kankuro, that's terrible!"

"Hey! What about Ash? You're being compared to him, too!"

"But he's actually cute, so I don't mind as much."

Kankuro scowled and leaned over to whisper menacingly to the diminutive blonde boy beside him. "Enjoy it while you can, Ash. One day, that whole 'cute littlest brother' thing is going to wear off."

"Don't count on it, Kankuro. I'll always be better looking than you."

Temari couldn't help but fan that flame. "Well, that's certainly true..."

"Yeah, well, you're not exactly the cutest girl in the village or anything!"

Baki sighed, making his exit before his pupils inevitably descended even further into one of their petty squabbles. He flickered away without a word, leaving all three children to their own devices, though they hardly noticed his departure, as busy as they were with their personal popularity contest.

"That's not true, Kankuro. I am definitely the cutest girl in the village. Right, Ash?"

Feeling like he had stepped on an armed explosive tag, Ash glanced at his sister's deceptively cheerful countenance, trying to gauge the amount of danger he'd be putting himself in if he dared say 'no.' In the end, he decided to play it safe. "Of course you are, Sis. For sure."

An unforeseen frown descended upon his sister's face, almost like she had seen right through him. Then again, she probably had. "Why do I get the feeling you're just saying that? You're not lying, right, Ash?"

"Ah, well... I didn't think I was supposed to think those things about my sister..."

"Of course you are, you dolt! You should always treat your sister like she's the prettiest girl in the world!"

Kankuro picked that moment to chime in. "I think playing into someone's delusions is generally considered a bad thing, Temari."

Temari scowled over at the hooded boy, wondering if Ash would intervene at all if she tried to strangle him. Maybe her favorite little brother would side with her and help bury the body?

Fortunately for Kankuro, there would not be a murder that night. Ash, ever merciful, distracted Temari for his brother's sake. It was the only reason he asked an odd question seemingly out of the blue. Truthfully, he just couldn't think of any other way to intervene in his siblings' squabble.

"Hey, Temari? If I were one of those desert flowers you mentioned earlier, which one would I be?"

Surprised not only by his sudden intervention but by the question as well, Temari took a moment longer than usual to formulate an answer. "Well... it's hard to describe you with only a flower... but if I had to, I'd definitely say Desert Bitterbush. It's as yellow as your hair and matches your pessimism perfectly."

He knew it was only a joke, but Ash frowned a little anyway. A joke like that couldn't have even been made if it wasn't at least partially true. "How about Kankuro? What kind of flower would he be?"

"Mmm... definitely Scorpion Weed."

It was obvious to Ash that Kankuro did not realize he had just been insulted. "Yeah, Scorpion Weed is poisonous and dangerous or something, right? And probably blood-red or black."

"Actually, it's light purple, smells awful, and gives you a terrible rash if you touch it. And of course, it is a weed."

Kankuro's scowl was amplified by the paint that adorned his face, providing a few laughs at his expense from his siblings. "You two are always ganging up on me, seriously. So I'm a weed, but my blood sister is supposed to be some beautiful flower, right? Typical."

The girl in question was about to respond with what was no doubt confirmation that she was indeed a wonderful flower, when something whizzed by her ear and stopped her short. It flew by and buried itself in the thin trunk of a palm tree, at which point Baki's three proteges realized that Temari had almost been skewered by a kunai.

There was a moment of paralysis among the children, a second of shock in which they slowly realized one of them had almost died, though they had all been laughing and joking a mere second ago. Each of them knew they should move, that they should hide behind something, or literally do anything besides sit there, but the fact that a life-or-death situation had just descended on them all so unexpectedly temporarily paralyzed the three children.

It took another kunai burying itself at Ash's feet to break the spell that had fallen over them: whether they were officially ninja or not, the trio did have training, and it kicked in quickly, each of them leaping towards anything they could hide behind, a flurry of kunai and shuriken attempting to strike them as they moved. Though each weapon missed by a wide margin, everyone's nerves were instantly wound tight.

Ash crouched behind a slightly upturned slab of sandstone that had been scoured by wind, gazing out into the darkness with displeasure clearly etched onto his childish face. "What was it that Cyclops said earlier? 'All in all, it should be easy?' I told him that he had jinxed the mission."

From behind a palm tree to his right, Temari was trying her best to minimize the size of her body behind cover that felt far too small. "Are you really going to complain even now?! Can we focus on the fact that someone just tried to kill us!?"

Kankuro had thrown himself to the ground behind a slight rise in the sand on Ash's left, braving a peek over the edge of his cover, only to drop his face back into the sand when another kunai nicked his hood. "H-holy crap, this is no joke..."

Strangely enough, Ash did not feel as scared or frightened as either of his siblings appeared to be. There was an underlying current of anger and indignation, seeing as how this assailant would have killed his sister if only he had possessed better aim. But beyond that, he felt no more riled or agitated than he usually did. Why this was the case, he did not know, but it did provide a certain amount of confidence. Their enemy couldn't be too skilled if he couldn't even throw his weapons straight. Any elite would never have missed such an easy shot on an unsuspecting enemy.

Of course, it was also possible that he had missed on purpose, perhaps to drive Ash and his siblings into a trap of sorts. But why waste time with such an elaborate scheme if three well-aimed kunai could have killed all three children far more easily? Something about all of this didn't add up, but it was difficult to place what the problem was.

"You guys need to calm down. It was close, but he missed, and anyone with aim that bad isn't too much to be scared of."

There was a flare of annoyance from both siblings as they realized a kid even younger than they were was telling them what to do, but his words were true. Besides, seeing their youngest sibling relatively unfazed by the situation calmed them to some degree as well. Minus a bit of annoyance with herself for losing her cool, Temari noted that she felt incredibly proud of Ash, who she had always feared would crack under actual pressure, considering his lack of motivation to be a proper ninja in the first place.

"You're right... we just need to calm down and take care of this slowly. We need some sort of plan."

Kankuro took a risk to glance back out at the darkness again. "He's over there, right? Two of us could circle around while one distracts him."

Temari glared out into the darkness as well, finding some small comfort in the accuracy of Ash's observation: their foe did seem to have poor aim. "If he's smart, then he's moved already. We found out his position, or at least his general direction, when his first attacks missed us. Any ninja worth their salt would change positions after a failed ambush to remain hidden."

Ash narrowed his eyes at the scene of darkness before him, for once taking his role as a ninja-to-be very seriously. Ironically, he realized that there may have been some other merits to his shinobi training aside from outright combat. "Or, maybe he hasn't moved at all. Maybe he expects us to think that he'd move positions, and so stayed exactly where he is to throw us off."

Kankuro cast a confused gaze over at his brother, wondering when Ash had actually paid enough attention to ninja theory to think through such things. "Are you sure you aren't over-thinking this? You did just say that this guy was probably an amateur. Would he be smart enough to try something like that?"

Ash shrugged, eyes still focused on piercing the darkness. "Hey, I thought about it, and I'm not even a ninja yet."

It occurred to Temari that although Ash wasn't an exemplary student by any means, he had obvious potential for more than just fighting. Of course, this only made it worse that he didn't take the rest of his studies seriously. "Well, aren't you just turning into the perfect little strategist? So what do you think we should do?"

Ash was mildly surprised that his sister was effectively nominating him, the youngest, as leader in this situation. To him, the idea of faking out the enemy seemed perfectly obvious and deserved little praise. But she seemed to have faith in his abilities at this point, and Kankuro wasn't saying anything to disagree, so Ash figured it really was up to him to lead right now. Or at least, to come up with ideas.

"Well, if I could control my own flames, I'd just burn him out of his hiding place, but we all know how that's going right about now. Throwing our weapons blindly into the darkness probably won't work either, and it'd be a waste of tools we might need. Hmm... Temari, what's the strongest wind you can make?"

Temari grabbed a hold of the two small fans tucked into the sash at her hips, hoping whatever she could manage was enough for what Ash had in mind. "I can cut someone with it if I need to. It wouldn't kill anybody, but it'd hurt. Is that enough?"

Ash nodded, then turned to his brother. "Should be. How useful is that puppet of yours, Kankuro? What can it do?"

"I can control it well enough, but it's only got a few weapons right now: some senbon launchers and about twenty poison pellet bombs. I haven't added blades to the wings or feet yet, so that's all it can do right now."

Mentally adding his own abilities to the list, Ash tried to formulate some sort of plan that would take care of this situation without getting either of his siblings hurt. As far as he knew, their unknown enemy could be far more skilled than he seemed. Baki was much too far by this point to know that something was wrong and would likely not be back for an hour or more. If anything was going to be done here, it would have to be at the hands of the Kazekage's children and Ash.

"We need to get this guy out of cover to get a clear shot at him. We could try to force him out with Temari's wind, but it probably wouldn't work because he could hide behind something. Going over there to fight someone we can't see in close combat would be stupid, too. We need another way to smoke him out, and if we put your abilities together, it should be easy."

Kankuro latched his chakra strings onto the vulture-like puppet he had created himself. It had a relatively small wingspan of two feet, but looked rather intimidating nevertheless. Ash imagined it would look even more so when the promised blades were added to it. "You know, Ash, last time I tried to tag team with Temari, she broke this thing, so I'm not feeling so hot about this."

Ash didn't allow his sister to make the indignant response she no doubt would, in case she accidentally spoke too loudly and compromised their position further than it already was. "You won't have to put your puppet in the way of her attack. You're just gonna drop those poison pellets you mentioned on the ground, and then Temari is going to spread them toward the enemy. If we're lucky, this guy can't hold his breath for very long."

It was a relatively simple plan, Ash had to admit, but for the most part, it was safe, and it would likely serve its purpose well. Apparently, his two siblings agreed, because they both moved to do as they had been instructed without dissent. Kankuro launched his puppet into the air, while he himself stayed safely hidden. Its flight was a little awkward, but could be attributed to the fact that Kankuro was still an amateur at his art at so young an age.

A handful of shuriken left the darkness from the opposite end of the oasis, aiming to strike the offending puppet from the sky before it could pull any tricks. Fortunately, the weapons lacked the force needed to disable the vulture, and although it was hit three times, the puppet suffered nothing more than aesthetic damage.

Unhindered, Kankuro made some wide, airy gestures with his hands that further exemplified his lack of finesse in the art. He was not yet at a stage where he could manipulate his puppet with a twitch of his fingers. Still, he could command his creation all the same, and a small compartment on the underbelly of the bird slid open to drop nearly two dozen small, dark purple pellets to the ground. They couldn't hold as much poison as a decent-sized bomb, but as they impacted the ground and burst into sizable plumes of hazardous gas, it was obvious that they didn't need to. There was plenty here for Temari to work with.

Taking her cue without a word, Temari swept her fans in a wide slash, creating a gust of wind that spread out before her in a wave. It wasn't a powerful gust, but it still pushed the majority of the poison gas in the center of the oasis into the area their enemy was supposedly hiding.

There was no immediate coughing or gagging, or any other telltale sign that the target had been affected in any way, although it was obvious to assume that said target was holding his breath. For how long he could manage to do so, Ash didn't know. "How long until this gas fades away, Kankuro?"

"About a minute, I guess."

Ash frowned, not pleased to hear this information. He could hold his breath for a minute, and he was not even a Genin, or an adult with a sizable lung capacity. Their enemy could almost certainly do the same and more.

"Is this gas flammable?"

His brother cast a confused look Ash's way, allowing his puppet to fly blindly for a moment. "I think there are a few elements in there that might be, but is that a good idea?"

Ash left the question unanswered, choosing to ask his own instead. "Does anybody have an explosive tag?"

It wasn't something pupils like them would usually have their hands on, especially in Ash and Kankuro's case, but the three of them were often given exceptions to the rules. They were expected to excel far before their Academy counterparts did, and as the most promising students in the village, they were often allowed access to tools Academy students would never be allowed to handle; poison bombs and explosive tags were among them.

Ash had not brought any with him, mostly because his spontaneous combustion episodes could prove dangerous if he did. As for Kankuro, Baki didn't trust him with them yet, since he feared the boy would think to use them in some harebrained prank within the village. Fortunately, their ever-responsible and reliable older sister was trustworthy enough to have access to such ordnance and had brought a few along for this mission, even though it had seemed earlier that day that they would be completely unnecessary. It would seem that she was always prepared, perhaps to a paranoid degree.

Temari wrapped the tag around a kunai, finding no reason to disagree with Ash's suggestion. She merely waited for an approving nod from her brothers, telling her they were prepared for the oncoming blast, before activating the explosive and throwing it blindly into the purple smoke that was slowly beginning to dissipate. After all, if the gas was flammable, it didn't really matter where she threw the tag.

Kankuro remembered to recall his puppet just in time to escape the deafening blast that shook the ground beneath them. The bird barely escaped the scorching hot fireball that erupted skyward, creating a pillar of flame that may have been visible from the village walls, if one of the guards squinted hard enough. The fire raged for only a brief moment, until all of the poisonous gas that fed its growth had been consumed, at which point the flames dwindled down to a few measly burning pieces of foliage.

The three children peeked out from behind their hiding places, eager to assess the damage they'd caused. The targeted half of the oasis had been practically incinerated, with little more than charred stumps and vitrified sand left of what it used to be. Tiny fires burned on whatever vegetation had managed to survive the initial blast. Being the boys they were, Ash and Kankuro couldn't help but feel a little proud of themselves for being the authors of such destruction. Only Temari seemed to be displeased, which probably had something to do with the annihilation of half of the oasis. She was a bit more attuned to nature, having a natural wind affinity and all.

There was no sign of whoever their mysterious assailant had been, much to Ash's relief. He figured it made sense; their opponent had not been all that skilled from what he'd demonstrated, which had been nothing more than throwing a few weapons at them, and missing even then. He had probably not expected children as young as them to be smart enough to create an explosion with the poison gas, and being caught off guard when it came to explosives usually meant you were already dead. There were very few ninja who could outrun an infernal blast even if they saw it coming, never mind if they didn't.

"I don't regret blowing him up, but it'd be nice if some part of him had survived. Who knows what village he was from."

Kankuro looked disappointed in the lack of evidence as well. "Yeah, there could have at least been an arm or something, sheesh."

Temari cast a sickened glance in the puppeteer's direction. "Kankuro, that's disgusting. Stop being a bad influence."

Unfazed by the remark, Kankuro shrugged as he folded up his puppet and placed it in a rather large pocket in his black garb. He hadn't mastered the ability to seal them within a scroll quite yet. "I'm just saying, Temari. We're never gonna know what he wanted like this."

Ash looked around the destroyed area, firmly convinced his family was now out of danger. "Well the only thing that makes sense is the mission. There'd be no reason to kill us unless we were in the way of an objective. So maybe he was looking for that flower, too."

"Man, I'm glad we got him first. I'd be ticked if I got killed over a stupid flower. You think Baki's on his way back now? There's no way he could have missed that explosion."

Temari was about to make some sort of retort about how that flower was worth more than Kankuro was, but the sudden eruption of the dirt beneath their feet demanded more attention. An arm shot out of the ground faster than any of the kids was prepared for, catching Ash right in the jaw with a solid uppercut. He was launched backwards before anyone could react, and it occurred to him, and his teammates, that they should not have been so sure of themselves.

The remaining children leaped away from their still very much alive enemy as he brought the rest of his body up from the ground, finally revealing himself to his foes. The first and most prominent aspect of this ninja was his headband, which identified him as a Leaf shinobi. He wore the standard uniform of a Leaf Chunin. His face was obscured by a mask, except for his eyes, which were a dull gray.

Shaking away the stars in his eyes, Ash got back to his feet and eyed their foe with contempt, and not just because of the swelling bruise on his jaw. A lot of Sand shinobi hated the Leaf village, blaming them as the cause for the past decade's financial crisis. Ash did not have a personal grudge against the Leaf considering his lack of Sand Village origin, but with all the constant hate directed their way by those around him, it was still easy to feel inherently hostile.

So he dodged the explosion by going underground... I should've expected that.

Temari and Kankuro drew their respective weapons once again, more than a little irritated with this turn of events. Temari looked especially irate, although Ash imagined that had something to do with him getting stuck in the jaw. Hopefully, she'd stay calm and avoid doing anything reckless.

There were no words exchanged between the two groups: all three of Baki's pupils knew the potential danger they faced. This middle-aged Chunin had shown no qualms about trying to kill them so far, and while they were all exceptional students, Ash wasn't sure if he and his siblings could handle this situation. Their best bet was just to survive until Baki arrived... he had no doubt seen the explosion they had caused, and was on his way to them even now. At least he hoped so.

Ash threw a mix of kunai and shuriken, his aim far better than it was a few years ago, but his opponent deflected each weapon with his own, not leaving an opening for either Temari or Kankuro. Before any of them could think of another move to make, the Leaf ninja leaped into action, hurling weapons at all three kids to distract them while he closed the distance between himself and Temari, no doubt aiming to take out the dangerous long-range fighter early on.

He used basic Leaf taijutsu, his heavy kicks and swings aiming to break bones or bruise organs, but they weren't nearly as fast as a Chunin's moves should be, and Temari managed to duck, swerve, and slide out of the way of almost every attack. It wasn't until he kicked up enough sand with a low attack to blind Temari that he managed to land a solid punch in the girl's gut, knocking the wind out of her and shoving her away from him entirely.

Taking advantage of Temari's now safe proximity from the enemy, Kankuro worked his mechanisms to fire a wave of senbon from his puppet's open beak. None of them were poisoned, but any damage was worth inflicting. Unfortunately, all of the dozens of senbon were neatly avoided, and it occurred to Ash that their enemy was apparently more skilled than he had let on, at least when it came to defense.

There was another exchange of thrown weapons, with nearly all of them dodged or deflected, although Ash caught the edge of a shuriken on his arm at one point. Temari recovered rather quickly and found her way back into the fight, but her presence made little difference; the Leaf ninja managed to dodge everything thrown at him, whether it was a hail of senbon from Kankuro, a gust of wind from Temari, or the decently proficient taijutsu attacks Ash used.

By the time there was another lull in the battle, Ash had grown increasingly frustrated with himself. While the execution of his melee attacks was solid, he still wasn't fast enough to actually hit his opponent. Aside from that, he did not have any unique skills like Kankuro or Temari. He was providing the least amount of assistance right now, and that made him a hindrance to his siblings, which he couldn't stand.

If only I could control those flames... there's no way he could dodge that. Then again, I still have another option...

Although it would undoubtedly end this fight, Ash wasn't eager to use his mysterious ocular ability. Over the years and due to constant investigation by Baki, Ash had a slightly better idea of how it worked, at least in a general sense. It was sort of like a genjutsu, an attack that targeted the mind. Literal psychological warfare. But exactly what type of damage it dealt to a foe was still a mystery, as Ash had not used it on anyone since coming under Baki's care. It clearly caused immense mental agony, but without knowing how exactly, there was no way to know for sure if it would work in this situation. Even in this situation, it was too risky for Ash to hedge his bets on it.

As the battle resumed between the four combatants, Ash briefly wondered what Baki was doing, and why he had not arrived to save his students yet. Things were going south fast, with none of the ninja trainees able to hit the Leaf ninja in the first place. That in itself struck Ash as strange; offensively, this Chunin was nothing special, but when he had to evade, his skills were almost Jonin level. Not to mention that he never blocked without a weapon. When Ash had tried to use taijutsu on him, he always chose to dodge rather than block, like he was afraid to take even the slightest hit.

Another thrown shuriken cut through the skin on his thigh, snapping Ash out of his musings. The Leaf ninja was closing in again, dodging the occasional gust of wind from Temari, or the swooping puppet of Kankuro's that had resorted to harrying the enemy for lack of senbon to fire. He made a straight beeline for Ash, which seemed like a poor strategy. As far as this man knew, Ash was the least dangerous individual on the battleground at the moment. It would have been wiser to eliminate Temari first, not that Ash wasn't glad to divert attention away from his sister.

The enemy shinobi took a kunai in each hand before leaping into the air to strike at Ash, his movements a little faster than the blonde had expected. He briefly thought of using a substitution, which he had learned recently, but he had no time to make the switch with his amateurish speed. That plan wasn't going to work, and just thinking about it had wasted valuable time. Ash was stuck between deciding to block or dodge, and his indecision would have cost him, had Temari not jumped in front of the attack to protect him.

His perception of time seemed to slow to a crawl. Maybe it was the sudden adrenaline rush, a second wave of it that only occurred because his sister was in severe danger. The only thing she had in her hands to block with right now were her small fans, which were not made to exchange blows with kunai. Even if she had been properly armed, there was no way Temari would be physically strong enough to deflect an attack from a grown man. She was tough, but she was only eleven.

With all of these factors taken into account, it was obvious that Temari was going to be injured or killed. And while the thought of it did spur that inherent need to protect someone, there was a second emotion in Ash's heart that overshadowed it by far: rage. The idea of this man killing someone close to him filled the blond with so much fury that he desired nothing more than to pulverize him with his hands. More than being determined to protect his sister, he was furious at the one that sought to take her from him.

This fury brought forth a familiar feeling: a searing heat that somehow chilled Ash's fingertips and skin. This was the feeling that overtook him when irate or agitated, but increased a hundredfold by a far more powerful emotion. And yet, despite the massive surge in its potency, this sensation wasn't as wild or distant as it usually was. Maybe it was just a figment of his imagination, but Ash felt as though he could, maybe, for the first time ever, actually direct this feeling at a specific target.

Perhaps it was just a feeling, and maybe he was about to doom his sister to certain death by trying something he wasn't certain of. But as that chilling burn surged through his body, Ash knew instinctively that this would work. He was too damn furious for his flames to dare disobey him at this moment, he was certain of it.

Willing his usually rampant flame to manifest at the precise moment he needed to protect his sister, Ash witnessed the beauty of his power firsthand, amplified all the more by the control he had over it. His maneuver was little more than a simple punch, an ugly and basic thing, yet it launched a plume of sapphire flame straight from his fist, illuminating the night sky as it flickered with tiny streaks of emerald.

The immediate temperature around the combatants fluctuated wildly, but the oddly uncomfortable combination of heat and chill made no difference in the destructive result of the attack. With no time to dodge or substitute to avoid it, the Leaf shinobi who had infuriated Ash could do nothing but take the small pillar of flame head on.

With no means of saving himself in midair, the enemy was engulfed entirely by the unnatural flames, transforming from a deadly foe to a writhing heap in a mere moment. There were no screams, but the sight of his flailing body was gruesome enough. Ash felt nothing but satisfaction from it—this was what the aggressor deserved for daring to strike at his family.

And yet, the lack of anguished cries was odd... as well as fully explained when the ninja's body burst into smoke, dispersing Ash's multicolored embers into the air.

A shadow clone?! The whole time it was only a clone?

Putting aside any questions or comments about the fire, the three pupils looked around the now devastated oasis for their enemy, convinced that he was still out there. However, the only thing they encountered was a reserved clapping as a lone figure emerged from what little vegetation was left in the place. All eyes turned to face him, and were all equally surprised to be met with a truly rare expression on Baki's face: a proud smile.

"Very, very good, all of you. An exceptional performance indeed."

All of Ash's suspicions up to that point were then confirmed: this had all been some sort of test. There was no Moonglow to find because it didn't exist. Baki left them alone here so he could simulate an enemy attack while he was away, and the 'Leaf' ninja they had fought was just an altered shadow clone, hence why it always dodged attacks rather than blocked them. That was also why its aim had been so poor at the beginning of the encounter, as it had not aimed to actually kill any of them.

Apparently, Temari had already reached the same conclusion, as she was livid in moments. "Are you out of your mind?! You could have killed one of us! What if you had screwed up or one of us did something unexpected and one of your attacks hit us on accident?!"

Used to the blatant disrespect by now, Baki made no comment on Temari's outburst, instead choosing to speculate on the battle that had just occurred. "Your misgivings aside, the three of you did very well. The move with the impromptu explosion was clever, and very nearly caught me off guard. It seems you might have a bit more talent for the ninja arts than you think, Ash. And I assume that flame you ended my clone with was no accident."

Ash inwardly reached for the feeling he had experienced moments ago, noting that the feeling of control over his mysterious energies didn't seem quite as distant as it once had. Before, he'd always been able to feel it, not at all dissimilar from charka, but hadn't been able to really grab hold of the sensation and make it work, like having a word on the tip of the tongue but never being able to find it.

Still, as he tried to manifest a small candle light at his fingertip, the flame only managed to fluctuate wildly between its usual colors before sputtering out pathetically. Whatever happened tonight had brought him closer to his pyromancy than ever before, but he didn't know how exactly, or if it could be replicated.

"It was on purpose, but... not really something I planned. It just kinda happened."

"Perhaps so, but this is the biggest breakthrough you've ever had with your mysterious abilities. What happened?"

Ash glanced over at Temari, not wanting to mention that the true source of his control had been fury rather than protectiveness. "Well, Temari was going to get hurt, I had to do something... I guess the bad situation just made it click or something."

Baki nodded, more than content to know that Ash had gained his first true modicum of control over his unique ability, and not caring too much about how he had done it. "We'll talk about the things you all could have done better, but for the most part, I am very impressed. In fact, I'd say you're all ready to graduate from the Academy curriculum. That's good, because this year's graduating class is going to be testing for Genin rank soon. I see no reason why you three cannot participate."

Temari and Kankuro looked extremely pleased to hear that, although the same could not be said about Ash. Now that things were settled, he was back to normal. "Am I allowed to say no?"

"No."

With one last sigh, Ash made no more objections, although that may have been due to the proud smile his sister was giving him. That girl could turn him around whenever she wanted to, really.

With a bit more grumbling on the boys' part, the group of four departed from the annihilated oasis, but not before Ash accidentally stepped on something most peculiar. He glanced down at the ground, to discover that he had landed on a stem; a stem attached to a very unique, pale blue flower that glowed with an iridescent light. It was uprooted, apparently blown out of the ground during some part of the fight, and Ash could tell it was the flower they had been 'sent' to retrieve, the one that was not supposed to be anything more than an excuse for a test from Baki.

He reached down and picked up the thing, its petals in surprisingly pristine condition. He didn't need this. It wasn't actually a mission. Still, it was absolutely beautiful and very unique. Maybe that was what spurred him to call out to his family, who had gotten a bit ahead of him. "Kankuro, you aren't going to like this; I just found the flower Temari is supposed to be."