Sand Siblings

Part 14

This pestered Yuudai, who wasn't known for their perfectly calm attitude. The way he completely destroyed his sister's living room when he found out about his brother's death was enough proof of that.
"What? We're saying that we know where the shipwreck could be! Why not?" he growled, taking a step forward. Reina put a hand on his shoulder, her grip soothing yet powerful, and Yuudai knew that she wouldn't hesitate to dislocate his arm if he lost it. So, he took a deep, calming breath and stood up straight and composed, just as the captain swung around.

They both expected him to shout at them but, to their shock, he looked sad.
"You don't understand. Lord Kazekage gave us a week to complete this mission, including travel time. We should be returning to Suna. We are going against his orders right now. We cannot search for more than a few extra days. One or two. But... This place you want us to go to is far off our allowed range. It would take too long and Kazekage-sama will be infuriated even more. I want to find the shipwreck as much as you do but... we have to trust that our leader knows what he is doing. He does what is best for the village."

"Trust him? But he...! His own children...! He...- Ack!" Yuudai cursed under his breath and yanked his shoulder out of his sister's grip. She looked taken aback and gasped in surprise.
"Yuudai! I'm sorry... It's the stress. I'll fix it for you. Thank you very much for your time, captain. We understand." she bowed and pulled her brother out of the room.

Once outside, she dropped her fake, professional mask and let her angered eyes burn a hole in Yuudai's face. He was the only person who knew that, other than keeping her cool, acting was another thing Reina was phenomenal at. It was what balanced them and kept them out of trouble for so many years.
"Yuudai! You cannot talk about Kazekage-sama in that way in front of them! They don't know that he was the one who planned it all!" she hissed, popping the man's shoulder back into place.
He grunted in pain but otherwise looked as if he was completely used to this.
"Exactly! Why don't we tell them all? That fool deserves-..."
"You mustn't act like a child! I know that you are upset about what happened to our brother, so am I! But if Kazekage-sama knew about it he would kill us! And it could endanger the whole village if we are all turned against him! The leader of a ninja village must be respected, or else everything will be chaotic. Even if he is a fraud."

"Who is a fraud?"

The siblings gasped and swung towards Baki, who was walking slowly towards them and leaned against the cabin outer wall. Doing this made the cloth covering half of his face reveal his second eye, so that Reina and Yuudai could see the suspicion in them.
"It's nothing. Nothing important." replied the woman, clearing her face of all emotion. Baki frowned.
"Whenever you lie, you make your face unnaturally blank, Reina-san. And both you and your brother are trained enough to know that words like 'fraud' shouldn't get thrown around lightly. I could stop snooping and mind my business but... anything that might have to do with the prosperity of my village is my business."

Reina and Yuudai exchanged a long look and then they both sighed at the same time. The two related jonins each grabbed one of Baki's arms and tugged him to the back of the boat, which was empty, since it was supposed to be Reina and Yuudai's work post.
They weren't too sure how to explain things to the man, especially after discovering how much secret affection he once had for his students who had died in the accident.
Which, of course, was never really an accident.

After a few seconds of thoughts, Reina placed a hand on the man's shoulder and looked him in the eye, praying that above anything he wouldn't hate her for this.
"Baki-san... The Kazekage ordered our brother to sink the ship..."

Kankuro barely remembered his dream when he woke up, but, after a few seconds of blinking back the fuzzy blanket in his mind, it came back to him. It was such a strange, horrible dream. But the word the puppet-nin thought defined it the best was 'stupid'.