The Kazekage glanced up, eyeing first his brother's folded arms and self-satisfied expression and then glancing towards his sister leaning against the wall of his office. She seemed perhaps a little more hesitant than her brother, but her arms were equally folded and her face equally set.

"What is that?" Gaara demanded, returning his gaze to the thing on his desk.

"Yours," Temari informed him coolly, kicking off the wall and coming to stand next to the elder brother.

This puzzled Gaara. As his eyes knitted into a frown, his chair if anything drew ever so slightly away from the desk. "I don't recall ever having owned one of these."

"No," Kankurou agreed, cat-ear clad head nodding encouragingly for a reason the youngest sibling couldn't quite fathom, "But you do now. Happy Birthday, little brother."

"This is our present to you," Temari explained, waving at it with a pathetically cheerful smile.

"I see." Gaara stared at it motionlessly for another few moments before adding, "What does it do?"

His older siblings glanced at each other, apparently slightly at a loss for an explanation. Kankurou just shrugged. "Eats and shits mostly… oh and runs on a wheel a lot too," he drawled, turning back to his brother, "The basic aim is to keep it alive long enough so it can die of old age."

Temari winced at this rather frank explanation, and knelt down closer to the birthday gift in what appeared to be an effort to elaborate. "Well, you see," she began, vaguely waving her fingers at the top of the object. Gaara obediently trained his eyes back on his gift. It consisted of a small rectangular plastic tray, in a particularly vibrant shade of putrid lime green, over which someone had seen fit to attach an equally putrid-looking dome of yellow bars. Somewhere inside, in a mess of what appeared to be woodshavings, fitted a small ceramic bowl filled with a strange concoction of nuts and seeds, a small plastic wheel (bright red) and a tiny plastic creation in what appeared to be the shape of a little house. "This is a cage," she explained.

Kankurou rolled his eyes at that comment, taking a step back, scratching his neck and glancing up at the ceiling with an expression that clearly indicated that he wished they had never started this whole business. Even Temari, flailing slightly under the pressure of her youngest brother's blank stare, looked like she was starting to agree.

Gaara sighed. "I can tell it's a cage," he quipped coldly, "But I don't see its purpose. It's too small for the containment of criminals and, even if it weren't, I believe our current detention cells are much better … and more appropriately, furnished. Alternatively for the transportation of livestock…"

"Yes," Temari interrupted, "But you see, inside this cage lives... well…" She unhooked the clips that fastened the bars to their base and placed it carefully to one side. With a tentative finger she rustled some of the woodshavings in the plastic tray. Nothing unusual happened. She tried again and then, apparently exasperated, picked up the little plastic house and tossed it against the abandoned bar dome on the far side of the desk.

Revealed from beneath the plastic structure lay a large mound of what looked like cotton wool, except that cotton wool is rarely that bristly. It fell apart almost instantly and a small round pink nose emerged from its middle, followed by an apricot-coloured face with two jet-black eyes and pink oval shaped ears.

Gaara stared at it and then, expectantly, at his sister. "See," she concluded, waving her hand for pointless emphasis, "This is a hamster. He's your birthday present."

"Why?" Gaara demanded, frowning down again upon the little apricot face. It had extracted itself from the mound of cotton and now revealed itself to be attached to a little oval furry body in mostly the same shade of yellowy orange, except for one large white band around its middle broken up again by little apricot spots along the spine. It gazed up the perplexed face of its new owner for a few moments, before rocking back onto its haunches and cleaning its face. It was seated, Gaara noticed with another raised eyebrow, on the largest set of testicles, compared to overall body mass, he had ever seen. Not that it seemed perturbed that it might be squashing its own genitals; quite the reverse in fact. It seemed comfortable and quite unembarrassed. Gaara supposed it had to be. At that size they probably trailed along the ground after it as it walked. The Kazekage winced at the thought.

"Isn't it some kind of vermin?" he added, brows knitted at he stared at his siblings, "I believe the council and I just passed new waste disposal legislation precisely to reduce…"

"It's a pet, Gaara," his sister cried, standing up and rubbing her temples in irritation, "You take care of it, clean it out regularly and play with it and share a bond with it. It appreciates you because you feed it and you feel happy because it's cute and fluffy. That's all there is to it. We thought you might like one, as you don't leave the village as much now you're Kazekage, you have the time and it'll keep you company."

"Also, " Kankurou interjected, leaning across his sister to catch Gaara's eye, "They don't live very long, so if this whole thing doesn't work out it's not like we'll be stuck with it for years before it kicks the bucket." His sister turned and shot him a look that suggested Kankurou's projected life expectancy may have just dropped below the hamster's.

"I see," Gaara replied slowly. Then as if he was mulling over the words, "You care for it and form a bond with it." His siblings stared at him, as with an enormous degree of deliberation he put down the pen, which he was still holding from when Kankurou so rudely interrupted his paperwork, and gradually stretched a single index finger out towards his new … pet.

The hamster took one look at the approaching digit and rolled on its back in fright. Gaara withdrew, surprised, and it scurried back under its mound of cotton wool. The Kazekage looked up towards his sister for explanation.

"They do that with everyone at first," she responded, running a hand through her hair a little hesitantly, "It takes some time and patience to get them to trust you."

"I see," Gaara repeated for the umpteenth time that day. He sat back in his chair and folded his hands in his lap. "Just like the village."

"Ask Temari if you need anything," Kankurou added, taking a step back with a touch of relief in his voice now that the birthday present had apparently been accepted, "She used to have one when she was about seven, so she knows a bit about them. Do you remember that hamster?"

Gaara shook his head, his dark-ringed blue eyes widening with apparent surprise.

"Oh," Kankurou shrugged, "It figures. You were pretty young at the time. I just thought you might as you actually squashed it flat with your sand in a fit of rage. It was pretty horrible. Temari-nee-chan cried for a week."

Smack! Kankurou lurched forward, catching himself against the edge of the desk as the back of Temari's fan connected violently into his skull. The shock sent the little hamster tray skidding over the wooden surface, but – to the surprise of practically everyone present – a protective wall of sand almost immediately steadied it.

"Seriously," Temari snapped, readjusting the fan in its holster on her back, as the elder brother righted himself. He glared hot bloody murder at her and he rubbed the new bump on his head. "What is the matter with you today?" Temari hissed, "It's our little brother's birthday. Why are you being so morbid?"

"What?" Kankurou shot back, "It's what hamsters do. They look cute; stuff their faces; run on wheels and then die really quickly. Isn't it like two years or something?" Gaara stared at them impassively, apparently unperturbed. Down in the tray below, the cotton wool rustled and a little apricot face slowly started reemerge, but on the side of the wool facing the tray wall. It stretched a paw upwards and clearly a break out attempt was imminent.

"Just go fetch some water," Temari sighed, pulling a thin plastic bottle (bright blue) out of her pouch and handing it to the puppet-master, as she herself bent down to reassemble the cage before the hamster escaped. Kankurou snorted and left her to it.

"We'll leave him with you for a bit," she told Gaara, as she fitted the little house back over the cotton wool, "We thought you might like to… get to know him. I'm cooking dinner tonight though and we've brought some cake, so if you make it home before at a half-way decent time tonight Kankurou and I were hoping to have a bit of a celebration."

Gaara lent forward in an attempt to help her fasten the metal bars. "Thank you," he said slowly.

"You're welcome," Temari replied, grinning, "See you at home."

"No. I mean," he caught himself quickly, straightening up quickly from the cage, "That as well, but thank you… for my gift."

"Oh," Temari paused, looking up, "You're welcome."