A/N: Its been a minute since I've written anything but I suddenly remembered this whole thing existed. So based on my readings I came to the conclusion there is not enough NaruTema fan fiction so I took it into my own hands. That being said if this is your kinda thing I put some of my favorite stories in this group at the bottom and I would highly recommend reading them. Alright well lets roll.

I don't own Naruto

For all the great examples of figurative speech quite a few fall flat. For example if I had my cake, why can't Ieat it too? That isn't fair. It's my cake. I'll do what I want with my cake.

Thats how I see it. Or I would, if had any cake. Unfortunately there is no cake here, only sand, sand, and even more sand. Wait what is that? That doesnt look like sand. Way to... orange to be sand. Hey wait that looks like... a person. No, what was I thinking. A person? All the way out here? Yeah right.

But it was a person. Well a few people actually, and technically speaking but also unknown to most a giant fox monster but that isn't important. What is important, however, is the aforementioned group of people. They appeared to be getting closer very quickly.

Yes, the group seemed to be moving very quickly. And for everyone in the village that was good news. That meant the ninja the hired were finally here. But these weren't Suna nin, in fact by the looks of things this little group was from Konoha.

'Oh well,' thought the village leader ,'I had heard of the Daiymo outsourcing a good number of jobs to the Leaf. I should go and greet them.'

He stood at the edge of the village waiting for the foreign ninja to arrive. Unfortunately for his ears, the openness of the desert allows the winds to carry sound very well. Not like the orange clad catastrophe needed its aid.

The old man stood tall as he listened to the fool speak.

"Say Sasuke are you looking forward to the exotic women of Suna or are guys more your thing?"

Old as he was the man could enjoy a good joke and it only grew harder to avoid laughing when said joke's owner flew the rest of the distance to the village courtesy of a fist from the same joke's target.

Once the 'Orange Idiot' as the young kunoichi of the group called him recovered the rest of the team reached the man they presumed to be the mayor of the small desert town. No sooner than they arrived the oldest stepped forward to exchange words. Though the older man's words came forth first.

"Hello there travellers what brings you here on such a nice day?" It was obvious why they were here in his mind but he had to make sure.

"We are here on the request of your country's Daiymo to rid you of your bandit problem. My name is Kakashi and these are my students." This last sentence was accompanied by a sweep of the masked man's arm towards the three younger ninja.

As the old man scanned the three in question they spoke up.

"Hi I'm Sakura." Simple but to the point.

"Name's Sasuke" Borderline rude and but yet it was clear he meant no disrespect.

"And I'm Naruto Uzumaki. You'd better remember that name 'cause one day I'm gonna be the next Hokage." Well. that was certainly several decibels louder and much more enthusiastic than the other two but at least he was ambitious.

"Ah yes, we've been expecting you all. If you'll follow me I can show you where you'll be staying and answer any questions you have once we arrive."

As they were led to a nicely maintained inn they passed the results of several bandit raids. For example the nearly every house showed some level of damage from broken windows and kicked in doors to empty lots with large scorch marks left where housing once sat. Once they passed the cemetery they could see several fresh graves and quite a few new widows and orphans crying over them. The scene was grim, but the presence of ninja was certainly morale boosting.

Once they arrived at their reserved rooms they were given a quick briefing on the situation. Now was the time to gather information and piece together the puzzle.

"So then, uhh, sorry I still don't know your name." Kakashi said as scratched at the back of his neck and gave a nervous looking eye smile.

"No worries. You can call me Souchi."

"Alright then Mr. Souchi, what exactly is happening here?" Asked the cyclops.

Souchi gave a deep sigh and a sad smile as he prepared to give the one eyed ninja his answer. "Well that is a hard question to answer Kakashi but i suppose it began a few months ago. A town nearby was completely destroyed by a group of ex-samurai. However it seems that those lives weren't enough for the savages and they have now moved east onto us. Our village is the last stop before one reaches Sunagakure and our spring is very important, which means it is patroled by the local men. Mostly in order to keep it clean and prevent someone from bathing in our only water source." There was a short pause as Souchi collected his thoughts.

After gathering everything together and shaking his head he spoke again,"Unfortunately those patrols have stopped and we have been forced to collect the little rain water or pay high prices for our own right. The same ex-samurai have taken our spring and attacked our village ruthlessly. They have claimed several lives. And now we arrive at our current state. Hiring help from ninjas."

"I see," Kakashi said with a grunt of understanding ," That changes things then." This earned him a confused glare that he promptly shrugged off. "If you tell me where the spring is we can go there tomorrow and take care of the problem. I'll leave half of the team here to help the recovery and keep an eye on things too."

Souchi smiled brightly and nodded before drawing a quick map to the spring and standing. He shook Kakashi's hand and walked towards the door. He was about to leave when he remembered one last detail. He turned his head back and caught the lazy ninjas attention before he spoke.

"I've heard stories of their leader, Panko, that describe him as a very violent and strong man. Be careful with him, Kakashi."

They stood and held eye contact for a few seconds before Kakashi gave the old man a quick nod. Once Souchi was gone he readied himself for bed and read a few chapters from his newest book, Icha Icha: Forbidden Love.

Tommorow was going to be a long day of kicking ass and forgetting names. Oh well, such is the life of a ninja.

A/N: Okay so that is the first chapter and I happen to be VERY tired. But O' dear reader I haven't forgotten my promise to you. If you enjoy Naruto and his fellow blonde Temari like I do and think I'm a bit too slow or my story isn't up to your standards I suggest to you Desert Flower by NXSE and/or A Song of Love and Politics By Dragon1990 you can thank me later.

Anyways like I said I'm tired(I'm finishing this at 1:46 in the morning and it won't be up until probably noon because the few people that followed/favorited need to sleep so that their beautiful minds can stay sharp and attentive instead of testing my newest exploit in the early hours of the day.)it is time I retire to my bed. Until next time(probably tomorow at 1:46 am) good night and good morning.