Shrugging off the feeling Kakashi moved closer. Kohana while wary managed not to step back as he neared her. Kakashi looked over at Sai and something silent passed between them. Kohana looked from her prince to the white haired guy known as Kakashi. She continued to stare at him as he was doing to her.

"You have a question?" Kakashi asked looking down at this girl who seemed way too thin now that he had gotten a closer look. Poor girl, there was no telling what Danzo had put her through. She seemed somehow familiar. If only he could remember...

"Are you old?"

Kakashi fell to the ground in shock, laying there twitching as Sai chuckled. Kohana looked from one to the other again in concern.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" she asked Sai as she watched him poke Kakashi with a stick.

Sai looked towards her and smiled, "Of course not. Kakashi is just a little sensitive about his age it would seem."

At that Kakashi jumped up, "I am not. What makes you think I'm old?"

"I heard that as you get older your hair starts to turn white or gray, and..."

"It's quite alright, Kohana. It's a natural assumption considering but if I'm not mistaken Kakashi was born with that hair color."

Kakashi smiled, a little sweat drop appearing, "Being hidden away has affected your social skills."

At this Sai smiled at Kohana, "Don't worry, Princess. Up until recently my social skills weren't the best either. I used to be much worse, trust me."

Kakashi mumbled under his breath, "What do you mean 'used to be'?"

"So," Kohana started, "We are headed to this place called Suna, right?"

Kakashi and Sai both looked to her.

"What am I going to do once we get there?"

Kakashi looked to Sai who looked at the both of them and smiled confidently, "I have no idea."

Kohana looked dismayed and Kakashi looked shocked.

"You are taking her to Suna and don't even know what to do once we get there? What if we have to bring her back to Konoha?" Kakashi asked missing Kohana's eyes widening.

"Naruto is friends with the Kazekage, correct? Then, we shall speak with him when we get there and explain the situation. Gaara is not so coldblooded these days. Kohana...don't wander off."

Kohana stopped in her tracks and looked back over her shoulder at the two guys discussing her as if she wasn't there. She stared at them a moment before looking back in front of her.

"I will make one thing clear. No matter what anyone says or does, I will not go back to Lord Danzo. Ever."

Sai and Kakashi moved to her then. Both seemingly searching for something to say. She turned to face them and Kakashi did the only thing he could think of. He ruffled her hair. Kohana looked up at him in surprise and found the two of them smiling. Slowly she touched her hair.

"You messed my hair up," she whispered real quiet.

"Uh... I didn't... I mean..." Kakashi sputtered thinking guys were so much easier to talk to.

"It was a gesture to reassure you, Kohana." Sai explained.

"Thank you," she said and threw her arms around the two of them. Surprised at first the two looked at each other before returning her hug.

"We should head back soon or Naruto will come traipsing through this forest looking for us."

Kohana wiped her eyes and nodded. The three of them headed back to the camp.

As Kakashi walked ahead into camp he was smacked in the face with a ladle.

"Kakashi?" Kohana asked and knelt down beside him, revealing an on alert Sai behind her.

"Perverts!" Sakura growled and pinned her sights on Sai. He was next to go down as he dodged a cup only to be smacked in the back of the head with a frying pan.

"What gives, Sakura?" Naruto asked from a distance having been subject to her anger tantrums before he knew distance was key. Sakura walked over to a confused Kohana and led her away from the boys on the ground. Kohana looking over her shoulder in worry at them.

"I apologize for those two idiots," Sakura said.

"Are they going to be okay?" Kohana asked.

An angry Sakura clenched a fist in the air threateningly, "They will be fine. The next time you need to bathe let me know and I will show you the way."

Kohana though confused by it all nodded her head. Why would she tell this woman the next time she needed to bathe? Was she expected to tell this strangely pink haired woman every time she was going to take a bath? That was odd. Kohana looked around at their camping ground. So that's what her "father" looked like. He was currently snoring as he hugged onto some kind of pack.

"If you don't mind me asking, Kohana, how old are you?"

Kohana looked around for help from Sai. Sakura narrowed her eyes at the two twitching bodies laying on the forest floor.

Looking back at Sakura Kohana decided to answer honestly, "I'm not sure."

Sakura laughed, "I understand. Shouldn't ask a woman's age or weight. At least not in front of the guys. Well, you look to be around our age so we will leave it at that."

Kohana narrowed her eyes but couldn't tell if Sakura was making fun of her or not. She did just beat up the two guys who said they would help her stay out of Danzo's clutches. Though the two of them seemed to be playing up her attack on them by continuing to twitch. Was that a natural reaction? Was she supposed to attack people who left and then returned? She took the plate of fish Sakura offered her and stared at the fire. This was so confusing and there was another question plaguing her.

"Sakura..."

Sakura stopped munching on a piece of fish to look at her curiously.

"What's a 'pervert'?"

Instantly both Kakashi and Sai were up and redirecting her to her bed roll.

"Oh, don't worry about that."

"It can all be explained in the morning."

"Yes, the morning. You don't have to worry about anything, Kohana."

"Go ahead and get some rest."

"In fact, I'll take the first watch," Kakashi said and Sai started to argue with him but Kakashi took off before he got the chance. Leaving a red-haired girl looking at Sai, curiosity plain on her face.

"Look at that moon, I better assist Kakashi on the watch," Sai said and he too disappeared.

It wasn't until the next morning that she was able to find out what it meant when Sakura pulled her to the side and explained it. Kohana let out a laugh before covering her mouth. Kakashi and Sai... perverts!

"Do what?!" Danzo roared, "When? How?"

Two shinobi, sweating bullets, stood at attention as Danzo raged at them.

"Yesterday morning, Sir. We noticed the captive trying to escape and..."

Danzo threw a kunai into the speakers throat. As he tried to gasp for air they could hear blood gurgling. Danzo watched the man clutching his throat before his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the ground. Without blinking an eye, Danzo motioned to his guards who removed the body without question. Danzo turned to the other shinobi still standing and could feel the fear radiating from the man.

"We have already established that she had escaped. Why didn't you inform me immediately?"

"I know, Lord Danzo, that you are an important shinobi and I did not want to bother you with the small details. We felt sure that we would recapture the girl."

Danzo stood and moved around to the front of his desk, sitting on it.

"And how is it that you failed to recapture the girl? To my understanding, she escaped during the day. How did one little blind girl manage to escape from two healthy, full grown shinobi?"

Gulping visibly, the standing shinobi could feel Danzo's killer intent so that the next words rushed out of him, "I think she had help."

This seemed to distract Danzo momentarily as he considered it. The man let himself relax a moment in relief when Danzo turned to stare at the wall.

"Had help you say? Who could have gotten so close to my base without detection..." Danzo mulled it over a few moments, "Anbu... no... it had to be... SAI!"

Without looking Danzo instantly reached out and gripped the remaining man's throat squeezing the life from him as the man struggled to loosen his grip.

"Damn..." Danzo said and looked at the body he held in his hands as if he didn't realize he had done it. Tossing it to the side he walked back around to the back of his desk and sat. Regaining control of his anger, "Jin! Put together a squad of four, then go find Sai. Under no circumstances do you report back to me until you find him. If the girl is with them, reclaim her. Go."

"Are we there?" Kohana asked as they stopped. She had to put the cloth back over her eyes as the day had brightened. She noticed as well that the weather became much warmer and the ground beneath her feet had become softer.

"We are indeed," Sage said happily, "I see the kaze-"

"HEY GAARA!" Naruto shouted, waving his hand high in the air. Sakura elbowed him causing him to grin sheepishly. Gaara on the other hand nodded to the group and they entered the passage that would lead them to the city.

Sai moved closer to Kohana to talk with her. Naruto looked slyly at the two walking ahead of them and inched over to Sakura.

"Psst, Sakura, I think Sai likes the merchant's daughter."

Sakura looked over to where he was looking.

"For once you might actually be right," Sakura whispered back.

Kakashi walked beside the merchant as the merchant spoke of all the different goods he could pick up in Suna as Sai and Kohana spoke.

"We're not exactly sure how we're going to incorporate you into Suna yet, but we plan to speak with the Kazekage while we are here. He should be able to offer some assistance."

"The Kazekage?"

"Yes, you heard Naruto saying hello to him. His name is Gaara."

"Oh," she mouthed before, "I didn't hear anyone close by. Was he at the top of the ravine?"

"Suna is a desert and Gaara uses sand. He can use it to float way above ground. Gaara will want to meet with us from the Hidden Leaf now that our mission is complete so once Kakashi and I can speak with him alone we can explain the situation."

Kohana felt fear begin to grip her, "If I can stay in Suna, that means..."

"I will have to return to Konoha. There is no other way around it, Kohana. You will be safer here than in Konoha. Gaara will be able to protect you."

"What if I don't want another prince?" she asked.

Sai smiled and took her hand in his, "Then, he can be your desert knight, Princess. Don't worry so much."

Behind them about 15 feet was Naruto and Sakura gasping when Sai took Kohana's hand.

"He does like her!" Sakura whispered excitedly.

"What's he saying? I can't make it out," Naruto strained to hear.

"Won't it look suspicious to the other two if I do not go with Sage?"

Sai smirked and leaned in closer to her ear, "Don't worry about that, Princess. I've been working on that since we left."

Confused, Kohana tilted her head towards him, "How?"

"By doing little things in front of them that would make them assume that I am interested in you."

This did little to enable her to understand, "I don't understand. Interested in me?"

"Just like the prince in the storybook, Kohana."

"You mean..." she asked and blushed prettily.

Behind them Sakura and Naruto were going nuts trying to get close enough to them without being obvious eavesdroppers.

"She's blushing! He's asked her out," Sakura said and smiled.

"Way to go Sai!" Naruto hollered out causing Sai and Kohana to turn towards their direction just as Sakura sent him flying with a kick.

"Baka!"

Sai laughed and took Kohana's hand in his to lead her further into the city. Kakashi and the merchant looked from one couple to the next.

"Young love," Sage said as he looked on at Sai and Kohana.

Kakashi was quick to change his mind, "More than likely not. Sai is probably just..."

"Not those two. The two behind us. Reminds me of my wife and I when we first started dating."

Sakura's jaw dropped at that, "No way! Never going to happen," before stomping away to hopefully find Temari.

"Oh, yea, it's destined to happen," Sage said happily as he looked back to see Naruto against a wall twitching. Kakashi raised an eye brow at that.

"Well, thank you very much for escorting us to Suna. I hope to see Konoha again soon," the man said and shook Kakashi's hand.

"We look forward to having you back. Thank you."

Kakashi waited for Naruto to join him and the two caught up with Sai and Kohana.

"Sai, Naruto and I will go on to meet with the Kazekage. We will meet up with the two of you later at the hotel."

Sai nodded and they split ways again.

"When will I get to meet with the Kazekage?"

"After the initial meeting. Once Kakashi can get Gaara alone he will explain, until then we will wait at the hotel. More than likely it will be night fall before we can meet with him."

"Thank you so much, Sai, for coming to my rescue."

Sai smiled, "You're welcome, Princess."