Please note that I don't own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden …..

This takes during the time skip between Naruto and Naruto Shippuden

"Come on Slowpokes!" Temari yelled to her younger brothers. "I think we're almost there."

Kankuro rolled his eyes. One week had passed since the siblings had left the village hidden in the sand and they were just getting to their destination.Pathetic.He had quickly discovered that grumbling to his sister would lead to getting verbally abused or attacked in his sleep, usually both. The last week hadn't been fun for him. Gaara followed the two, thinking about their mission.

-FLASHBACK-

Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari stood facing their mentor, waiting for instruction. Each knew very little only that they were about to get an important mission.

"You three listen carefully," their mentor, Baki, instructed, wondering if they were listening. "I assume you know about the land of Aliea, right?"

Kankuro looked puzzled. "Isn't Aliea the name of that place where instead of shinobi, they have warriors known as nicks?"

Temari gave her brother a reproachful look while Gaara calmly corrected, "They are called Knights." Kankuro cowered under his older sister's glare.

"Oh right."

Baki sighed and cleared his throat, recalling the siblings attention, "yes, Kankuro you are correct. Anyway the nation of Aliea would like to make an alliance with Suna." Temari's mouth dropped open. Kankuro started mumbling and stuttering gibberish. Gaara was the only one to not react instead he asked the question the other two were incapable of asking in their current states.

"Why us and why now?" his steady gaze fixed on Baki.

"Well, apparently a rumour has reached them that the shinobi are land hungry and are about to attack the neighbouring countries." Gaara's eyes widened while his older siblings tensed, wide eyed and speechless.

"That's right. The council chose you to travel to Aliea as representatives of the village hidden in the sand."

-End Flash Back-

"I guess this is it." Temari's uncertain voice interrupted Gaara's daze as they entered a clearing cut in half by a calm stream.

"Finally, that took way too long." Kankuro collapsed onto the ground, taking off his puppets.

"Come on Konkuro you can't be that lazy, we've only been travelling a week. Try to be more "Shinobi-like"" Temari scolded, kicking his foot.

"Ow! That hurt! We've been running all day, I think we need a break," Kankuro retorted, grinning mischievously while reaching up. "Even you need to sit, right Gaara?" Moving quickly enough to dodge Gaara's sand shield he grabbed both of his siblings' arms and pulled them down beside him. "See isn't that better, so when do we meet up with these "knights'?" Kankuro asked after they all had finished laughing or in Gaara's case slightly smirking.

"Most likely Tomorrow or the day after," Temari commented as she got up and brushed off her clothes. "So, we had better be ready to show them how calm and collected Shinobi are." Kankuro choked back a laugh, knowing that in this state I was better to agree with Temari then laugh. Gaara gazed unblinking at his brother wondering how he had managed to pull him down. Even Gaara didn't have enough control over his sand yet to stop it from automatically protecting him. Hmmm could it be Konkuro's getting stronger? Gaara was perplexed. "Gaara, you have to remember that these people don't understand the shinobi way. So don't kill them!" Temari was STILL going on and on about what behaviour would conceive their new allies that Suna wasn't filled with uncivilized, land-grabbing brutes.

"Are you sure?" Gaara asked suddenly, which was rare for him since he barely spoke.

"Am I sure about what? Manners?" Temari looked at Kankuro who shrugged, suggesting that he didn't know what Gaara was talking about either.

"About the knights coming tomorrow" Gaara glared at Temari. Not many can look Gaara straight in the eyes when he glares at you, Temari is no exception.

"W-Why do you ask?" Temari stuttered, flinching.

"Hey Sis, I think we got here late not early." Kankuro was staring past her as he spoke.

"Are you the ninjas we've been waiting for?" The young shinobi turned to see a group of men standing on the other side of the stream looking, for lack of a better word, shocked.

Well you can't blame the warriors of Aliea for being shocked. They were expecting tough, battle scarred ninja. Instead they find: a girl with four spiky ponytails sticking out of her head, a boy wearing all black and had strange purple markings on his face, and lastly a pale, sickly looking boy carrying a large gourd almost larger the him with strange eyes that had thick, dark circles around them.

"Who wants to know," Kankuro stood up and grabbed his wrapped up puppet.

Temari, after glaring at both her younger brothers for not warning her sooner, gave the warriors a small smile, "Hi, are you the knights from Aliea?" Kankuro rolled his eyes while Gaara's large blue-green eyes took in the group in front of them.

There were about 6 knights in total not including the two hidden lookouts disguised in the tree behind the sand shinobi. All were in their 30s, some even balding. They all wore heavy, metal armor from head to foot.

Kankuro couldn't resist smirking as he noticed the armor. Idiots, do they really think they might be superior to Shinobi? They are weighed down by metal with minimum range of motion.

A large man stepped from among his comrades and said, "Yes we are. I am Joshua of Treebank, commander of the 15th battle squad. I was sent to escort the ninja from the Land of the Wind to the Castle. Are you the delegates?"

Temari nodded and replied, "We are shinobi from Sunagakure; The Village Hidden in the Sand. It's nice to meet you my name is Temari." She elbows Konkuro painfully in the ribs and glares pointedly at Gaara.

Kankuro winced and said, "I'm Kankuro," Temari continued to glare at Gaara to no effect, Kankuro sighed and shrugged. "And that's Gaara, he doesn't talk much." The middle child looked back and forth between Temari and Gaara and gulped. Kankuro's jaw dropped when a smug smile dawned on Temari's face and Gaara reluctantly faced the knights, who at watched the silence uneasily.

"Hi." Gaara's monotone voice seemed to puzzle the knights for they just stared at the strange 13 year old.

….

Joshua of Treebank was the first to regain his composure, "Well, it's nice to meet ninja from our new ally." He smiled but it was strained and fake. "You must understand that were expecting someone a little…." He stopped there, unsure how to continue without disrespecting them. I mean come on they were ninjas after all even if they are just kids.

"Older," Gaara answered staring at the Knight.

Man, this kid is weird."Yes, we thought a ninja village would send a top level ninja to show us the strength of the nation, not 3 children."

Temari looked at her younger brothers, worried that Gaara would ignore her previous instructions or Kankuro would say something stupid, and spook up quickly, "A village can only be great if its children learn from their elders. We're not children, we are Genin of the Village Hidden in the Sand and we are to understand your culture to report back to the village council in order to understand whether or not there is a hidden motive behind your alliance proposal. That is our mission and we will not fail. Is that good enough for you?"

Silence followed Temari's speech.

First Chapter revamped 25/07/13!