Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters presented herein, all characters are property of their respective owners and I make no money from this story.
Prologue
The blue sky appeared endless overhead, and even the sun appeared never to move from its stationary spot in the sky. It just hung there like some kind of lamp, not too warm, but just enough that resting in the shade of the single large cherry blossom tree was comfortable. The tree in question sat in the centre of a large clearing that itself seemed to be endless in how far it stretch from horizon to horizon that disappeared into the haze caused by the heat.
The entity observing this looked up at the pink blossoms of the tree and wondered, briefly, if it meant anything. It decided not, it would report it all the same, these things held strange meanings in places such as this.
Suddenly it felt something change, a breeze picked up, allowing the blossoms on the tree to slowly spiral down as trees surrounded the clearing. It wondered whether to add some touches of its own but held back and allowed its own form to change, it was not here to exert its own sizable influence today after all. It looked over to a collection of trees surrounded in shadows and smiled pleasantly when a girl, looking unsure of herself, twin buns of hair on her head, wearing tight green pants and a pink sleeveless blouse that fluttered slightly in the light breeze, appeared at the edge of the clearing.
The girl looked at the entity and smiled softly before walking over.
Chapter One
Sunlight poured through the windows, illuminating the room brightly, revealing its beige walls and wooden flooring. The walls were covered in pieces of paper, pieces of red and yellow string connecting some of them together all over the wall. The place was small with a bedroom and bathroom, all other rooms combined together into one large central one, aside from the paper on the wall of the central room and a few clothes spread out haphazardly the place was nearly spotless.
The bedroom held only a small dresser and a double bed in which she lay, blond hair spilling out around her as she stretched and groaned from the intrusion of light into her few precious hours of sleep that she got a day.
"Fine, I'm up, I'm up" she declared to no one in particular before pushing the thin covers off of herself and standing up, completely naked as she staggered to her dresser and took a moment to glance in her mirror
Her lightly tanned skin shone in the bright white light of the sun, her deep azure eyes took in the sight of herself, stroking her smooth skin and fairly sizable breasts before glancing at the time and sucking her teeth. She quickly grabbed her scattered clothes and pulled them on, a pair of loose black trousers and a white button-up shirt, she decided to forgo her usual jacket and instead made her way to the living room to make herself something to eat before heading out for the day.
She stepped out into the bright light of the early morning and glanced around the town.
The light brown buildings, all roughly cylindrical in shape aside from the Kazekage's, which was itself a rough sphere, seemed to reflect little of the suns light despite its incessant brightness this morning. The cliffs surrounding the village did very little to stop the sunlight from making it uncomfortably warm for the forth day in a row, and even the ninjas wandering around the town, dressed in their usual blue and black uniforms and beige flak jackets, looked uncomfortable under the relentless assault of the sun.
She sighed quietly to herself and decided to get a move on, it would not be long before the Kazekage's children would be at their training grounds, and she needed to be there before then preferably. She started walking while trying not to look up to much due to the sun, passing various people as she moved, many smiling or waving at her as she replied in kind, not bothering to hide the paleness of her own skin when compared to those born and raised in this place.
The training ground was little more than an area outside of the cliffs area, all the better to make sure Gaara did not accidentally snap and kill someone, even with her there to try and reign the monotone girl in, not that Garaa's siblings didn't try to help when such a thing happened.
A sudden blast of wind caused her to duck down and cover her face to avoid being blasted by the sand sent her way by it, she stood and shook herself off, shaking out her hair as she looked towards her destination, seeing three people standing there, one facing her way with a guilty smile on her face while the other watched her approach with a look of cool patience, nearly absent of any expression at all. She walked over to the three people, ignoring the third for now as she walked up to them
"Thanks for that Temari-chan" she said to the first person who looked away with a small smile.
She was the eldest child of the Kazekage, with a personality to match most of the time, with blonde hair the same as hers in four ponytails, and mildly tanned skin with sharp green eyes. She was wearing her usual getup for the moment, which consisted of a light purple-coloured, off-the-shoulders garment that extended halfway down her thighs, which a scarlet sash tied around her waist. In addition she had fishnet over her shoulders and right calf and left thigh. Her headband was worn around her neck for now.
"I didn't know" Temari defended herself with her usual unimpressed expression and she stepped into Temari's personal space
"Really?" she asked and Temari blushed
"Of course Naruko-san" she said after a moments hesitation and Naruko hummed in thought before turning to the youngest of the three siblings
"Good morning Gaara-chan" she said as she gently hugged the red-haired girl, her hair the colour of blood with the single kanji for 'love' carved into her forehead, though it was gradually beginning to disappear now.
She was wearing a red shirt and beige trousers, over which a crimson coat sat, splitting apart a little ways down the middle along the seams of both the front and back, the usual ninja sandals completed the image. Over her shoulder was her gourde held in place by a white piece of cloth.
"Naruko" Gaara replied as though not caring, though a small smile on her face, little more than a twitching of the lips, gave her away somewhat.
"How are you?" Naruko asked Gaara with a warm smile as the other two siblings hung back a little
"I'm fine" she replied and Naruko hugged her briefly
"I'm sure you are, how's she being?" she then asked and the other two looked briefly confused
"Mother has…stopped asking for blood" Gaara replied and Naruko nodded as though satisfied
"That's very good Gaara-chan, now then, how has she been sleeping?" she then asked Temari, her expression loosing some of its softness as the turned to face her
"Better than usual" Temari confessed "her insomnia isn't gone, but it is going" she said and Naruko nodded
"That's fine as well, so how are you Temari-chan?" she then asked as she took a step back from Gaara to give her some space
"Fine, as usual, just restless" she said and Naruko chuckled softly
"I'm sure you are Temari-chan, though I doubt your brother shares it" she said and looked at Kankuro who shook his head
"I'm fine" he replied
Kankuro was the middle sibling and was wearing his usual black, baggy, full body suit with its red and yellow circle on the front with a back hood to cover his head, his forehead protector worn around his forehead, alongside his triangular face paint.
"You say that now" Naruko said with a small smile before turning back to Gaara
"Have you been training with them?" she asked and Gaara hesitated before nodding to the affirmative "doesn't look like it" Naruko said and she shook her head
"She was watching us, I don't think she feels like we'd be enough of a challenge" Temari said and Naruko laughed softly
"I'm sure she doesn't, though at least she hasn't tried to kill either of you for a while" she commented and both elder siblings looked nervous at that though agreeing with Naruko's statement
"Pretty sure that's thanks to you" Kankuro said as he prepared to start up with his puppets a little ways off from them
"Maybe" Naruko muttered as she gently patted Gaara's head who looked up at her for a moment, Naruko smiling at her before Gaara looked away again
"You're not her handler for nothing" Temari said and Naruko shrugged
"Gaara-chan isn't anyones to control as far as I'm concerned" she said
"Which is why neither myself nor Kankuro have a problem with you" Temari said and Naruko hummed softly in thought
"You can keep on believing that if you want" she said and Temari looked away from her while unfurling her fan "despite what you say in your sleep"
"I do not talk in my sleep" Temari denied heatedly and Naruko looked to Gaara who nodded "even you Gaara" Temari muttered and Naruko laughed before patting Temari's head who blushed and tried to brush her off
"Don't worry about it Temari-chan, me and Gaara-chan won't tell anyone will we?" she said and Gaara nodded
"Thanks" Temari muttered quietly to herself as both Naruko and Gaara moved away a little to sit on the hot sand, though Gaara suddenly moved her hand and her gourde popped open and the sand that flowed out of it formed shade above them
"Thank you" Naruko thanked Gaara while leaning over to kiss her cheek gently, brushing some sand out of her hair as she did so
Naruko closed her eyes for a moment and focused, she felt something inside of her shift and when she opened her eyes again she could feel Gaara sitting next to her. The girl appeared content with what was happening at the moment, Temari felt embarrassed and appeared to be muttering under her breath while Kankuro was calm. She blinked as the world appeared to blur slightly as the secondary effects of her ability made itself known, as suddenly all motions appeared to happen twice, one just ahead of the other as Temari moved through her usual katas.
Naruko blinked and released her control, allowing everything to go back to normal as she felt a small headache coming on, she brushed it off however and instead focused on Gaara just as the sand above her darted in front, blocking a strong breeze from striking her and she frowned as she turned back to look at Temari as the sand assumed its original position above her
"What was that?" she asked and Temari shrugged
"You weren't doing anything productive" she said and Naruko rolled her eyes "we're out here training and you don't seem to do anything" she said and Naruko shook her head
"I get paid for working as Gaara's handler, in case you hadn't noticed" she said "and after that fiasco with the water in one of the mines I was given quite a generous sum by the council" she said and Temari smirked while turning away.
Naruko darted forwards silently and swatted at Temari's behind, the girl letting out a startled scream before turning around, dropping her fan as she covered her ass. Her face bright red as she glared daggers at Naruko who was laughing so hard she was struggling to stand up, Kankuro was having to stifle his own laughter and even Gaara appeared to be smiling slightly at the sight of Temari loosing her cool for a few minutes
"Naruko" she growled lowly and Naruko made a placating motion with her hands
"Now now Imotou" Naruko said and Temari blushed even deeper before Naruko hugged her loosely "I'm sorry, I won't do it again" she said softly and Temari nodded, still blushing but no longer annoyed with Naruko
"I wish you wouldn't call me that" she muttered and Naruko laughed
"You don't seem to have a problem with it, it's not like Gaara-chan has a problem with it after all" she said and Temari sighed heavily before starting her practise back up "though now that I know your weakness I think I have the upper hand" she said and Temari looked at her with a raised eyebrow, hips cocked to one side while she looked at her
"Really?" she asked and Naruko nodded
"Any time you do something like that stunt earlier I can…what's the word? Spank you? And you can't get me back because Gaara-chan will protect me" she said with a sly grin at Temari's indignant expression
"Gaara can't always protect you" she eventually said threateningly and Naruko hid behind Gaara playfully
"I'll just have to sleep with her then won't I?" she said and Temari's eyes went wide
"You…" she trailed off as she put a hand over her mouth and Naruko laughed
"It's fine, it's fine, get on with training then, I'll just be sleeping over here"
After the siblings went back to their training Naruko lay back on the sand and thought about the past.
She had arrived in Suna a good few years back now, having travelled through the desert to reach her chosen destination after leaving Konoha, having had quite enough of living with the hatred of an entire village and trying to make some kind of difference to that outlook. So she had wound up in Suna, she had been greeted suspiciously at first but had been allowed entry after proving she was no longer a citizen of Konoha and had no officially ninja training and was carrying nothing but some survival stuff, money, and the clothes on her back.
She had proceeded to earn quite the reputation in the town after staying a few months. Her first port of call had been to speak to Gaara despite warnings to the contrary. Gaara had treated her as coldly as anyone else but thanks to her unique ability and her calm persistence, even when threatened by Gaara's sand, she had eventually earned a kind of acceptance by Gaara, a kind of 'I like you, I'll kill you last' kind of thing.
Then the water issues had arouse. Living in a desert was not the easiest thing in the world and water was always a major issue for many of the towns that existed inside of the desert to on the boundaries of it. After a particularly dry season left the aquifers running low there had been talks of the town, despite having little to no money to spare, having to buy water from the outside to carry on functioning well enough as a military power. Naruko had quickly discovered that the merchants that had offered to sell the water were actually taking it from a mine a few miles north of the village that had encountered an undiscovered stream flowing underground to a separate aquifer that was very far underground.
She had reported it and been awarded nominal citizenship for her effects, meaning she was, for all intents and purposes, a citizen of Suna and subject to both its laws and its protection via its military, allowing her to purchase property in the town, along with being granted a sizable sum of money for the saving of the town. The money was far less than they had been expecting to pay for the water, but was more than enough for Naruko to purchase her own home and furniture of go along with it.
Since then things had only improved, her ability gave her insight into the inner workings of the town and as such she was better able to help Gaara, and by proxy her two siblings, who had also come to view her as a close friend, nearly family. The ultimate test had come when Gaara had snapped after a particularly intense night and attempted to release the demon inside of her. As the village had prepared to be attacked from within once again Naruko had approached Gaara and hugged her before gently asking her to calm down.
After several minutes of her calmly embracing Gaara the young demon container had calmed down and a potential disaster had been averted thanks to her. She was named Gaara's Handler, a rather well paid job that simply required her to keep Gaara calm and stable, not that she was needed to do that. Not that they needed to know that.
It was after that that Gaara had appeared to fully accept her as one of the family, and as such now protected her as such.
When she next awoke the sun had moved past its high point and was beginning its gradual descent towards the horizon. She was still out in the desert with Gaara's sand shielding her, Gaara herself sitting off to one side and her two siblings were absent
"Afternoon" she muttered as she sat up, blinking when Gaara moved forwards and brushed sand out of her hair "thank you Gaara-chan" she said with a warm smile and Gaara nodded while sitting back
"They went back" she then said and Naruko nodded
"Left you here did they? Nice of them, well then, lets go back, no doubt they forgot that I was meant to be taking Temari out today as well" she said as she and Gaara both stood, the san above her flowing back into the gourde on Gaara's back before they made their way down the narrow gully towards the gates where two guards stood. Naruko glanced up to catch the eyes of the guards watching them from above, or more specifically, watching Gaara. She glared at them and they looked away as they both moved through the gates, neither guard making an attempt to move towards them.
Despite being Gaara's handler Naruko was not in control of her, and Gaara had killed on several occasions despite Naruko asking her not to, she only reduced the likelihood of Gaara going slightly mad and killing everyone in sight including the current Kazekage, which Naruko certainly did not need or want. She didn't even want to imagine the political shit-storm that would cause in the village despite the relatively clear line of succession for who was to fill the role next. It would be one of the Kazekage's children certainly, though many argued that none of them were fit for the role.
Naruko shook her head before seeing Temari standing the her arms crossed, looking put out for some reason
"Afternoon Temari-chan" Naruko greeted her
"Don't give me that, you were meant to be taking me out tonight" Temari said while jabbing a finger at Naruko who smirked
"You should've woken me up then" she said
"You should have got more sleep" Temari replied and Naruko chuckled softly before leaning in closer
"Is that you saying that you didn't want to wake me up?" she asked and Temari glared at her but didn't deny it
"Let's go" she said at length and Naruko chuckled softly before turning to Gaara
"I need to go and feed her" she said while gesturing back at Temari who hissed at her "can I trust you not to kill anyone tonight?" she asked and Gaara nodded
"Yes" she said simply and Naruko smiled while patting her on the head
"Okay then, I'll see you tomorrow Gaara-chan" she said before gently putting an arm around Temari who flushed and tried to pull away
"What're you doing?" she demanded and Naruko smiled softly
"Taking you out, I don't like the look some of those lads were giving you once Gaara was gone" she said and Temari flushed and pulled away, but allowed Naruko to take her hand "come on Imotou, lets get something to eat" she said and Temari nodded, looking down in embarrassment as Naruko led her to the usual small restaurant that they went to on nights like this.
Naruko sighed as she sat in her apartment, legs crossed as she slowed her breathing and began to relax.
She had just got home after having dinner with Temari before escorting her home, slightly tipsy as she was. They had spoke briefly and Temari had gone off to bed, Naruko had to admit that the girl appeared beautiful whether she was fighting, embarrassed, or just plain drunk.
She hadn't been like that at all when they first met several years ago though, none of them had been very relaxed at all when she had arrived and first made contact with Gaara. That had been a jarring and stressful few months while she attempted to locate a way to get herself into everyone's good books so they stopped eyeing her so suspiciously whenever she went to go and speak to their 'weapon'.
She had found it in the minds of several bankrupt miners who had thought it would be a good idea to screw over the entire village and leave an entire country befit of its military power. She had put a stop to that pretty quickly, ruining their chances at striking it rich quickly, last thing she knew they had moved on to Grass, though she had heard through the vine that they had not lasted long in there.
Since then she had come into contact with the siblings of said weapon often enough. Their fear of their sister was palpable even without her ability, they said very little and anything that was said was only done so to keep Gaara calm or attempt to influence whatever it was that she was going to do next, good or bad. She had even had the misfortune of meeting the Kazekage. He was a man with cold eyes and even colder manner. She hoped she never had to meet him again, especially after he had all but threatened her about trying to get close to Gaara. She had ignored him, just as she had ignored the Hokage in Konoha.
Both Temari and Kankuro refused to trust her an inch for several months, going so far as to move their training grounds away from their usual area, not that it bothered Naruko at all, she was more interested in helping Gaara after all. Although she had taken the time to place an Avatar inside of Temari in order to try and help her out with some of her biggest issues. Namely her sister and her father.
It had worked eventually and Temari had come to trust her and, by proxy, Kankuro had too. That trust had only deepened when she had prevented Gaara from turning simply by hugging her and asking her not to, that had really been the turning point and since then the bond had only deepened.
For Gaara, she came out of her shell a little and reforged the bonds she should've had with her brother and sister, though not before creating a bond with Naruko first. After that she had mellowed out and relaxed somewhat, killing very rarely if asked not to by Naruko, and even in general the survival rate went from zero to around four out of ten times, which was an incredible improvement given how she had been. The changes in Kankuro was far less marked, with his manner loosening up slightly, though that cocky attitude of his never quite went away, though it rarely surfaced around either herself or Temari.
Speaking of Temari she had also changed quite a bit from their first meeting. She had been cold and blunt, appearing to care about very little aside for herself or the missions she undertook. However in time that had dissipated, revealing a young woman uncertain about her own self-image and deeply concerned about Gaara and willing to go to the greatest extremes to protect her family, which eventually came to include Naruko, although their relationship was more than a little complicated in that regard. She, to, had loosened up and stopped being so hard on herself and had even begun to speak back to her father when matters concerned Gaara, earning her fathers ire but increasing her own self-confidence a thousand fold.
She had become a better person, though some things could never be changed. Like her inability to be honest to either herself or others about her feelings or reasons for her actions when of an uncomfortable or personal nature. Not that it bothered Naruko at all, she was used to dealing with people like her after all.
Naruko sighed to herself once again and relaxed even further, feeling herself beginning to drift off before she made it to her bed and was out like a light.
The landscape was the same as always, the entity though to itself, sand surrounding a small village with a pond in what passed for a park here. The sky never changed either, still a bright ball of white hovering over the landscape.
The entity wondered if it should bother inducing any changes tonight, but thought better of it, its mission was not to interfere in any other manner than was necessary for her targets continued improvement. She had no need to convince the subject that she was in a dream after all, that could always be saved for later after all.
The entity looked over to one of the buildings from where it was sitting, on a bench before the pool of water, the water appearing fresh and clear to her as she looked towards the Kazekage's residence just in time to see her subject exit the structure and walk over to her.
Temari was wearing far less than she usually did, the entity observed while wondering if it was because of the familiarity of the surroundings or because Temari's subconscious was beginning to realise that this place was not as real as it first appeared to be. Temari herself was dressed in black shorts and a beige top with mesh underneath it all.
"Naruko-chan" she greeted the entity with a smile as it smiled back, feeling itself change and shift in accordance to what Temari thought she should look like, her clothes shifting slightly as the most recent memory of her meeting Naruko was applied.
The entity was not Naruko, it knew that, it was a mimicry created by Naruko to facilitate this action, a copy with a set of instructions, it was not truly alive…it was pseudo-immortal it decided, not alive and therefore not able to die. But that was a philosophical idea at best, upon completion of its mission it would rejoin Naruko, or more specifically, vanish from the mind of Temari while giving all its memories and the like to Naruko. Which was roughly the same thing.
"Hello Temari" she replied without the honorific as it slipped into its role in this dream more firmly
"What're you doing here?" Temari asked without noting that anything was amiss, a common response for those inside of their dreams and not aware of it, the mind had the most impressive ability to adapt and accept events if allowed to
"I just wanted to talk" she replied to the girl with a smile as Temari sat on the bench next to her, their bodies pressing together, a far cry from how Temari was in the real world when with Naruko
"About what?" Temari asked after a few moments of silence while the entity sat back a bit more and looked up, wincing at the bright intensity of the sun
"About stuff" it replied "like what happened with me tonight" she said and Temari blushed a little
"I…"
"Why do you act like that Temari, you know I won't dislike you for being more honest" it said and Temari nodded
"Its how I am" she replied and the entity laughed softly while stroking its hand through Temari's soft hair
"Yeah, it is" she said with a soft voice that made Temari sigh
"I wish you'd stop calling me your little sister though" she said and the entity smiled at her again
"Why? Gaara doesn't hate it, and neither do you" she replied
"Because it feels uncomfortable"
"Because you like me?" the entity asked Temari softly and she blushed furiously but nodded a bit
"I do" she said "but I'm not sure…" she trailed off an the entity laughed again while gently kissing her forehead, making the young woman gasp and blush furiously though she didn't pull away from the entity as she did it
"It's fine, you don't have to explain right now" it said and Temari nodded
"Thanks" she muttered in response
"You itching for a new mission huh?" it then asked and Temari nodded while sighing
"I'm getting so annoyed just sitting in the village, Gaara's not going to go nuts on a basic mission like she used to" Temari said and the entity nodded while removing Temari's hair from its usual ponytails before continuing to run its hand through it, watching as Temari appeared to relax even more at its actions
"I know, but that doesn't mean the council's happy about it" it said and Temari sighed "besides you can't be that bored, you do a lot of training after all, and it's not like you couldn't go and get a boyfriend if you wanted either, for a bit of fun" it said and Temari frowned slightly
"I'm not improving as much as I used to, an anyway there aren't any guys with the guts to approach me, especially when Gaara's nearby" she said with a bit of bite and the entity laughed softly
"Well your personality certainly doesn't do you any favours either" it said and Temari pouted
"Well they should have more guts then, at least I've never failed a mission" she said
"Yeah sure, that bandit one was a close call though" it said and Temari blushed again
"I still succeeded" she defended herself
"Thanks to Gaara" it responded and Temari pouted
"Yeah…well"
"I'm only teasing Temari, besides which, are you not confident with your body?" it asked and Temari frowned and opened her mouth before shutting it again and thinking some more
"I don't know" she eventually replied "no guy has ever shown an interest, and besides I'm not meant to look pretty, I'm a ninja" she said an Naruko leaned down so their foreheads were pressed together and Temari had to look it in the eyes
"You are very beautiful Temari" she said seriously and Temari blushed and stuttered before going silent "very, very beautiful"
"What about Gaara?" she eventually said and the entity smiled while moving back to give her some space
"She's pretty in her own way, but I know she doesn't care about that" it replied and Temari nodded
"Suppose not" she muttered and the entity laughed once again
"Don't sound so disappointed Temari, she is your sister after all" it reminded her and Temari nodded
"Yeah, god I wish you'd say that more often" she muttered and the entity smiled softly at her
"I'm sure I will" it said and Temari nodded "anyway, what about the Chunin exams?" it asked and Temari scoffed
"I don't even know if we're being entered, the Kazekage's being secretive again" she complained with a growl
"You did insult him after all"
"He was being unfair to Gaara, I wasn't going to sit there and let him do that"
"I know, good girl" the entity said and gently hugged Temari to her while she sighed softly and rested her head on the shoulder of the entity
"I just hope Gaara carries on getting better, she really likes you" she said and it nodded
"I know, I like Gaara a lot as well"
"I'm sorry for being so harsh when we first met"
"I expected it so don't worry, I'd be suspicious as well, hell, the Kazekage still doesn't trust me"
"Miserable old bastard" she hissed
"He's the most powerful man in the village so I'd be careful about saying that to his face" it said though it still laughed softly at Temari's statement
"I'm not that bad" Temari retorted before sighing softly
"It'll get better soon Temari, don't worry"
"How can you know that? There's even talk that we'll end up allying with that new ninja town soon"
"Well, who knows? There are always snakes in the tall grass" it said cryptically and Temari looked at it strangely before yawning softly
"What?" she wondered to herself and the entity sighed before gently hugging Temari
"Sleep now" it said quietly as the scene around it began to darken and dissolve into the blackness
"No…" Temari whimpered but she was already exciting the dream and descending into sleep
"Sleep" it said again as the world vanished into the void and the entity sighed before allowing its form to dissipate again.
It had something to give its creator now, that rumour about Grass was especially interesting, it also needed permission to go through with one of its more radical ideas, it, like its creator, wanted what was best for Temari after all.
Naruko awoke to the sound of someone knocking on her front door. She yawned and stretched briefly before slipping on some clothes, even as the knocking became increasingly insistent until she opened the door, wincing at the bright early morning light
"Uzumaki-san" a Chunin said while standing in front of her
"What is it?" she asked while covering her mouth as another yawn escaped her
"The Kazekage has commanded your presence" he said sharply and Naruko nodded
"This is about Gaara I take it?"
"That is correct"
"Okay then" she said before stepping out of the house, locking it before walking towards the Kazekage's building, not bothering to look at the Chunin hanging slightly back. Another consequence of being Gaara's handler was the fact that many of the populace did not wish to annoy her, out of the, false, belief that she would have Gaara kill them for it, she almost found such an idea funny, but right now she was not in the best of moods, having not had anything to eat yet.
She quickly made it to the office and the secretary waved her in uninterestedly. The light brown walls and many windows glowed softly with the orange light, the building was technically the highest point in the village other that the cliff defences, with the office hosted on the first floor and the council chambers above that, the same as many other villages, or at least the same set up as Konoha, although their tower was significantly taller than this one. It felt a little cold as she entered the office.
She ignored the people for the moment as she glanced around the place, the area being almost totally sparse of any kind of identifying characteristic, there were not even any images of his family in the office. She had passed by the four statues of the previous Kazekage's outside, however they were a far cry from the faces carved into the mountain behind Konoha, though she preferred it that way, arrogance and pride killed more than any blade, she had found in her years of being around ninjas.
"You come at last Uzumaki-san" the Kazekage said in a gruff tone and she bowed to the man
"My apologies Kazekage-sama, I was unaware of this meeting until but five minutes ago" she said and he nodded
"Very well then, I wish you to tell me how Gaara is doing right now" he said and she nodded while ignoring the presence of the three siblings standing to one side of her as she faced the man.
She had attained a reputation for being professional when acting away from the siblings, a patient and calm individual who was impossible to shake regardless of events or words said. That had only helped her once she had been made Gaara's handler, her lack of emotional extremes made her very useful as she was somewhat the opposite to Gaara who tended to exhibit extreme rage
"As you wish Kazekage-sama. Over the past three weeks Gaara-san has shown a marked improvement in her ability to control her emotional outbursts, and has, on near eight of ten occasions, held back short on killing individuals when asked to by myself and on some occasions when requested by her siblings. She had also experienced no visible instabilities in her psyche over the past six months, as stated in my last report" she said in a clipped, professional tone
"So, she is stable now?" he asked carefully and she shook her head
"She still kills regardless of what I request, though I am unsure as to why, but her lack of psychotic episodes is certainly a good sign" she responded and the Kazekage nodded thoughtfully as Naruko stood at ease, hands clasped together behind her back as she waited for him. As much as she hated the man he was the Kazekage after all.
"Very well, you can have the mission" he then said, speaking to the siblings "you will go with them Uzumaki-san" he said and she nodded
"Of course Kazekage-sama" she said and he nodded and the four of them left his office and walked back outside before Naruko groaned and stretched
"Bastard" she muttered under her breath as she closed her eyes and felt something rejoin her for a moment, she blinked and smiled to herself as her Avatar reported back on last nights dreams from Temari
"Thank you Naruko-chan" Temari said to her and Naruko blinked
"For what? I only told the truth" she said and Temari looked at her suspiciously
"What about that thing last month?" she asked and Naruko sighed
"That was nothing more than her trying to defend me, I don't consider that an episode" she said and Temari nodded
"If you say so" she replied and Naruko nodded
"Well, I'm going to go and get something to eat before I die, come on Temari-chan" she said and Temari blinked before Naruko grinned and pulled her along while waving to the other two who walked off even as Temari tried to pull free
"What?" she asked as they walked into a small restaurant and sat down
"I want something to eat" Naruko replied and Temari growled at her
"I'm not going to sit here and watch you" she said sharply and Naruko smiled even as she spoke to the waitress
"I know that, I just wanted to talk about this mission with you" she said
"Why not Gaara or Kankuro?" she asked and Naruko looked at her
"Kankuro's awkward enough around me and I don't think Gaara-chan would give me a clear answer to my questions"
"Fair point" Temari muttered
"So, what's the mission?" she asked as her food arrived
"Usual hunting for bandits" Temari replied and Naruko nodded
"I see" she muttered even as she held out some food for Temari who blushed "go on" she urged her and Temari ate it quickly, blushing all the while
"Why do you do stuff like that?" she asked irritably and Naruko looked at her
"Because you look beautiful when you blush" she said and Temari blushed again while looking around
"Don't say that" she hissed and Naruko laughed
"You're so cute when you get embarrassed, don't worry Temari-chan, if you really don't like it I won't say it in public again" she said and Temari nodded, still blushing quite a lot from Naruko's compliment
This is the first of the collection I said I was going to do, this collection will be updated more or less daily for the next week or so. As I said initially, vote, and I will write the one you guys like the best.
At the end I may put a poll up on my blog to help me out.
Other than that, please do Review, it helps me a lot anyway, and have a nice day everyone.
