"I what!" Yelled Ino furiously. "Yes, you have to protect the kazekage." Explained Tsunade calmly. "You will be with him 24/7 this job is around the clock protection of the kazekage." She further explained.
"So then why can't someone from their village do this then?" Ino asked as the veins in her temple bulged. "Because Ino, it is a great gesture of peace. If we ever hope of streangthening the relationship between the sand, and the leaf villages, then what better way than to send our shinobi to help none other than the kazekage himself?" Said Tsunade as she stared at Ino seriously, her chin resting gently on her balled up fists.
"Ok, fine then." Said Ino, as she began to calm down. "So then why me then, there are plenty of other ninja in the village right now." Ino asked. "Because you are the only one who is capable of taking on this mission!" Said Tsunade as she slammed her hand on her desk.
"What do you mean by that?" Ino questioned. "You'll see when he gets here." Said Tsunade as her lips curled into a smirk behind her fists as she layed he elbows on her desk. "So the old fart is coming here then?" Asked Ino. "What do you mean old fart?" Came a mans voice from behind her. "EEP!" Ino cried as she spun around to face whoever it was that had just come up behind her unannounced.
"G-G-Gaara?" "What are you doing here?" "Are you here to help me protect the Kazekage?" She asked all at once. "No Ino, I am the new Kazekage." Stated Garra nonchalantly. "So, are you coming?" Asked Gaara nonchalantly. "Yes Lord Kazekage." Ino said as she bowed down in front of him. "Ino Yamanaka!" Yelled Gaara harshly. "Y-Yes Lor-"
"From now on, I order you to call me Gaara." "Y-Y-Yes G-Gaara." Ino stuttered out. "Now, let's go. I want to make it at least halfway to Suna before sundown." He said as he turned around and started walking to the door.
After a few hours of walking, Ino was still energetic, and she was staring off into space, until she was suddenly knocked on to her butt after slamming her face into something hard, very hard. "Ow!" Ino whined as she rubbed the now red spot on her forehead. We are stopping here for now Ino. Said a very serious Gaara. "I can keep on going Lord Ka- I mean Garra." "We are stopping here for now Ino, that is an order." He said in a monotonous voice.
"Ok, but I only packed a one person tent, so I will just stand guard outside for tonight." Ino stated, her mood slowly but surely becoming worse. "I will stand guard, and you will take the tent." Said Gaara, his face not giving away any signs of emotion at all." The redheads ability to never let his emotions show annoyed Ino to no end. It was her job to be able to read people like a book, but not even she could read a blank book.
Knowing that there was no point in arguing, she simply set to work on putting up the tent. "Here let me help" Gaara said as he grabbed the mallet from Ino's hand, and began to strike the steak into the ground. And with three powerful swings, the steak was in the ground. "Gaara, if you don't mind me asking, why is that kanji on your forehead?" Ino, was surprised when Gaara accidentaly hit his thumb with the mallet. That in itself was not what had surprised Ino, what had surprised Ino, was that he didn't even flinch when the heavy mallet was brought down upon his thumb. "Here let me see that, said Ino, as she reached out to grab the young Kazekage's hand. But, the sand in his gourd prevented her from grabbing his hand, as it moved to protect it's master. "Sorry about my sand, it seems exited to see you actually." Explained Gaara as if the sand were a living thing. "Well, you can tell your sand to keep it's hands to itself." Said Ino jokingly.
Ino reached out, slowly this time, to tentatively grab Gaara's hand. And this time, the sand didn't interfere with her touch. Ino cupped Gaara's hand in her own soft ones, and she channeled her green chakra into his hand. It wasn't until she loosened her grip of his hand that she noticed how uncomfortable the young village leader was. "What?" Asked Ino, suddenly embarrassed by the awkward situation that they were just in. Gaara cleared his through roughly, "Perhaps it would be best if you were to get some rest. He stated matter-of-factly to her. If Gaara was still uncomfortable, he sure was good at hiding it, Ino was beginning to believe that not even her families kekkei-genkai would help her read the blank emotionless slate that was Gaara.
Gaara sat atop a tree as he stared down at the tent next to the fire, wondering how it was the he was feeling about the leaf konoichi. He had never had anyone ever reach out to touch him like that before. Anyone except for his mother. And so why did this girl, who knew about his past, decide to touch him anyways. And why had his sand let her touch him?
"Why me?" Ino whined as she got up out of her sleeping bag, and began to unzip the small tent that she had slept in. She crawled out of the tent and stretched, yawning and moaning and groaning as she did so. She turned around, and jumped back in shock wen she saw Gaara standing right behind her. "Hello Ino, good morning." Ino noticed that the dark bags under his sea-foam green eyes were even darker from what she could only guess was years of insomnia. Ino had quickly recovered from her shock, and she offered back a hello back to the tall redhead. "We should get going soon." Was all that Gaara said as he started to pack up Ino's tent for her.
The rest of the walk was silent, but this time, Gaara had been the one who was following Ino, as she skipped down the sandy path the stretched out for miles, before finally coming to a halt at Sunahagakure's great walls. And Gaara couldn't help but to stare at the once little girl, but now young woman skipping along merrily in front of him. Ino had grown her hair out in to a long ponytail that went all the way down to her lower back, and although her outfit was still purple, it had changed slightly from when he had last seen her at the chunin exams almost four years ago. She was now eighteen years old, and Gaara would be turning nineteen in a couple of weeks, and he couldn't help but think, that the girl in front of him was more beautiful. His eyes trailed all across her body, and he noticed that her skirt was a bit longer now, as it spilled out just over her knees, but it did not lack the same old showing of skin, as the skirt had slits that went up both sides of her hips, that stopped near the top of her thigh. And the amount of lower back and stomach showing was the same, but she no longer wore the bandages that used to wrap around and encase her lower body. So the toned feminine stomach muscles that she had developed were clearly visible if you were facing her. Gaara suddenly snapped out of his daze as he noticed the blonde girl in front of him stop and look up They had finally arrived at Suna.