Sand Siblings

Part 6

"Keep moving!" shouted the squad leader through the rain.
It was so rare for it to rain, even if they were already out of the desert and into the forest. Yuudai groaned out loud as he felt the ache in his limbs. They hadn't stopped to rest even once in the last ten or so hours. It wasn't that bad, but he just wasn't used to be the traveling type. But, at least, at this rate, this took a day out of the searching. They would arrive sooner, and he hoped that he could start getting answers.

Still staring at the pouring rain outside, Temari let the thoughts sink in. Kankuro didn't come back. Her brother didn't come back.
"No. No, no, no! Please no! KANKURO! Where are you?" screamed the kunoichi into the darkness. The only reply that came was the storm, crashing and thundering.

Temari scrambled up to her feet and ran into the night, ignoring Gaara who called her back.

The girl let the rain soak her clothes and hair, as the drops of water slowly merged with her tears. She felt cold, terrified and extremely sick with worry. If she felt that way, how was Kankuro feeling right now, alone?
"Kankuro... Come back." She whispered into the void. "Idiot. Damn Idiot... COME BACK YOU IDIOT!"
She was too late.

Temari sank to her knees into the wet sand, sobbing into her hands. Her little brother was out there.
"Please, be alright. Alive." prayed the kunoichi. For this was all she could do for him. Pray.

She wanted to run after him, to find and bring him back safely. But she could hardly move. And she couldn't just leave Gaara here.
"Temari." She felt arms wrap around her torso, pull her to her feet and slowly drag her back into the shelter. The shelter that Kankuro had built to keep them safe, whilst he was somewhere out there.

Gaara placed his shaking sister back into a sitting position against the back of the cave. All the water from her hair, clothes and tears fell onto the dry sand.

Temari banged the back of her head onto the wall, crying out in pain. The pain in her heart.
She stared at the rocky ceiling for a few minutes, trying to force the helpless blank in her mind to turn into a solution. It didn't. She tried to calm herself by taking long, unsteady breaths. The kunoichi squeezed her eyes shut, mentally begging all of this to be just a horrible, horrible nightmare.

The sound of someone sitting down next to her drew her back into reality. Temari turned, trembling and saw her red headed brother. Her eyes widened in shock.
The jinchuuriki was fixating the moon, his wet hair plastered to the side of his pale face, his soaked clothes stuck to his skin. He, very obviously, looked extremely uncomfortable. He had just made himself vulnerable to make sure that she was safe.
"Gaara..." murmured the girl, her gaze not leaving the boy sitting beside her.

Her brother turned to look at her. His emotionless, cold eyes met her desperate, terrified ones. Temari let more tears leak down her cheeks.
"Oh, Gaara..." the kunoichi dropped her forehead onto the boy's thin shoulder. "I'm so sorry... I shouldn't have let him go."
She started crying onto her already soaking wet brother. She expected the jinchuuriki to push her away or yell at her for being weak. Instead, Gaara placed a shaky hand on her back, trying to comfort his sister. Something that he had never once done before.
Gaara honestly didn't really know what he was doing. He was just doing what he had seen his siblings do for each other before. If it helped his sister stop crying, he would do anything, because it unnerved him to see the usually tough kunoichi melt like this.

Temari gulped as her heart twinged in pain again. More tears spilled over. She threw both of her arms around her brother, pulling him close to her. She needed to be sure that he was here. That at least one of her brothers was safe. The red head let his sister hold him in her arms for a moment.
"Temari, I..." The kunoichi looked up at Gaara's blank face. "I can't breathe."
Widening her eyes, Temari let go of her brother.