Sitting before the campfire was Moegi, a stick in hand, playing with the fire, amusing herself by poking at the burning woods, or probably because she was bored.
Udon rested on the opposite side, his face covered by the shadow cast by the evening sun, a weird perverted grin could be seen as he jotted down notes on a book, another great chapter was coming up, it was his destiny to surpass Jiraiya's legacy.
Turning her focus to her left was Konohamaru, standing a few feet away from the three of them, with beads of perspiration tracing down his face. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Konohamaru commanded as he slapped both palms together forming a tight and well-performed seal. A puff of smoke came and gone, yet nothing appeared before him, not even a tiniest of all sea-monkeys.
Konohamaru paused for a while before turning his head around to peek at his companions, relived at the fact that none of them were watching another of his failed act, disappointed by the fact that none of them expected him to succeed in the first place. Unable to hide his shame in failing to summon his monkey for the fourth time in a row, Konohamaru slowly crept behind the bush and just squatted there gloomily.
Last night as they camped at the edge of the forest to rest for the night, Konohamaru announced loudly that he would summon his monkey to pass a message to the Hokage since they had been out for so many days already. When Hanabi tried to stop him, stating that she wanted her movement to be kept a secret, Udon argued that unless they told someone about their whereabouts, they might be branded as Missing-nins, and that would only hinder their movement with ANBU dropping down on them. Hanabi was not visibly happy about it either, but did not protest any further.
Putting the thoughts behind him, Konohamaru tried for the fifth time, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
A small high-pitch coughing caught the attention of the four teenagers, realising that it came from the newly summoned cloud of white smoke, they watched as a miniature monkey with a pair of thick glasses walked out dizzily. Hanabi noted to herself that the monkey looked just like a miniature Udon.
"That took you long enough!" Konohamaru told the monkey.
"Hey, don't be mean," Moegi answered back as she picked up the little monkey, who appeared rather seasick for some reason, and threw the letter the monkey was carrying right at Konohamaru's face. (The monkey later told Moegi as she cuddled him lovingly in her arms, that it was called 'teleportation sickness' due to the incompetence of the summoner.)
Konohamaru opened the letter, and read out the two-word message from Godaime, "Take care."
"That's all?" Udon surprisingly voiced out, as Hanabi sighed in relief in knowing that at least Tsunade was not going to stop her.
x
It was the seventeen day of their journey, it would have been a lot faster if they had being using their chakra to boost their travelling speed. Suggested among themselves that since they were on a non-shinobi mission, it might be wiser to restrict their use of chakra if possible. The length of the journey also forced them into thinking more of the future ahead of them, their destination turned out to be further than they had initially believed in, conserving their energy and supplies were among the things they finally agreed upon. Lastly, despite the importance of Hanabi's unnamed quest, she was not in much of a hurry. It was obvious that her goal was there waiting for her, and it was not moving anywhere until her arrival.
A silent wave of chakra concentration washed over them, nearly sweeping the four of them off their feet. If they had been in a more populated region, this shockwave would have certainly caused quite a disturbance. Looking among one another, they dashed into a run, with Udon interestingly chose to run in the opposite direction, away from the source of the chakra impact, a wise choice in normal situation, he was caught by Moegi and dragged along.
They climbed a gentle slope and marvelled at the scene before them –a towering column of sand spiralling towards a female kunoichi wielding a naginata, a polearm with an elongated curved blade attached at one end of it. Neither fighters took no heed of their audiences, but warriors of their calibre would have surely noticed their presences already.
The kunoichi swept away the column of sand with ease, her naginata spinning at an incredible speed, she tornado-ed herself towards Gaara, her naginata aiming for his throat. A giant hand came out of nowhere, encasing the kunoichi in it enclosed fist. An upward swing was all it took for her to break out of the prison. The two of them paused for a while, obvious to their audiences that they were of equal match.
The kunoichi turned and smiled at the four teenagers with a deadly sense of serenity, then at Gaara. "Looks like we will have to postpone our duel, Gaara-kun."
Gaara said nothing, his arms still folded before his chest, but the sand around them were slowly retreating back into two small gourds he carried on either side of his hip. Gaara watched as his rival walked away from the battlefield, knowing that the battle had for now truly ended with the arrival of the teenagers, Gaara picked up his coat from the ground and dusted it before donning it. With his slick red hair combed to the back with the tattoo of 'love' on his forehead, the children recognised him instantly as Gaara of the Desert.
None of the teenagers knew Gaara well, they had merely heard of tales from their older friends –Gaara who fought against Team 8 during the Chuunin examination, and the same Gaara who fought along side-by-side with Uzumaki Naruto and his band of friends against Akatsuki. Now, Gaara dedicated his life into hunting down the remnants of Akatsuki.
The four of them panicked as they witnessed Gaara approaching them. "I recognise you, what is your name, Hyuuga?" Gaara greeted.
"I'm Hyuuga Hanabi."
"Hinata's younger sister, I have heard of you when I was still travelling with the two of them."
"The two of them?" Konohamaru asked, even more curiously as he noted of the change of expression on Hanabi's face.
"Hinata and Naruto, I was with them two years ago, the last we met was when we were at Raven Town, where we parted to give chase to different goals." Gaara paused, as if giving something an afterthought. "I recently revisited that place, it appears that Sakura has chosen to retire there."
"Sakura-nee?"
"She now opens a small restaurant, a decent place with a nice atmosphere. Give her a visit if you have spare time, Raven Town is close by."
Moegi nudged Udon with her elbow gently, prodding for his quick attention. "I don't remember the others saying the fearsome Gaara of the Desert is this talkative," Moegi whispered.
Gaara eyed Moegi with a rare expression of annoyance in his eyes. "You might want to wait for me to leave before you start talking behind my back."
Gaara's stare caused the kids (even Hanabi) to back out three steps, but to their dismay Moegi stood forward instead. "But it's true, Gaara-senpai!"
"'Senpai'?"
"You are certainly not what I imagined the Gaara of the Desert to be, Gaara-senpai! But you look so much cooler than I expected too!" Moegi continued while the remaining three kids remained horrified. Konohamaru was inching forward, desperately trying to pull Moegi back, but fearing as if any closer, he might be turned into sand.
Gaara scratched his cheek slightly, not sure what to say while avoiding a direct eye contact.
"Is the legendary cold-hearted demon-possessed elite Kazekage blushing?!" the three of them thought in unison, their bodies petrified more with surprise than anything else.
"People do change, eventually. Alright, enough about me, where are the four of you heading?" Gaara asked, an obvious attempt to divert the conversation topic away from him.
Their brave leader suddenly took charge of the situation, much to Hanabi's annoyance. "We are going to Lavender Town next, it's our next pitstop, and it's that way." Konohamaru pointed to the east, from where they came from.
"Konohamaru-kun," Moegi whispered. "Lavender Town is that way," she said as she pointed to the north. Turning to look at Udon for confirmation, she was taken aback to find him pointing south instead.
Hanabi remained quiet, though it was apparent she had a different idea of where Lavender Town was and remained looking sullenly at the general western direction. Even though the faint silhouette of the town could already being seen in a distance, the idea of actually reaching it sounded impossible.
Sighing to himself. "Come on then, I don't want to be accursed to be the last witness to see the four of you alive in one piece, I better get you guys to Lavender Town before something bad happened to you."
Momentarily surprised, the four of them looked at one another, confirming with one another of what they just heard. When the motion of infamous Gaara of the Desert escorting four teenagers to the nearest town finally settled into their brains, they noticed that Gaara had already walked quite a distance away from them. Panicking, they hurried after him.
x
They spent the next seven hours walking behind Gaara, at a pace comparable with Goidaime's summon beasts. Their pace upset Konohamaru enough for him to start complaining, until Moegi knocked some sense into him, reminding him that they should not trouble Gaara-senpai any more than they should have now that he had volunteered to guide them to Lavender Town out of sheer goodwill.
"Gaara-senpai?"
Gaara said nothing he walked on, shifting one foot in front of the other, dragging sand and dirt with his boots. When it became apparent to him that the girl would not continue her sentence until he acknowledged her presence, he threw back a single look over his shoulder, looking at Moegi, who strangely was not terrified of him as she should be.
"Gaara-senpai, who was that person that you were fighting with?"
"Yes, I'm curious as well," Konohamaru added, forgetting all about his fear of the demon-possessed Gaara.
"We have fought against one another for so long that her name is no longer of any importance…"
The four children looked up at the taller Jounin, they could not see his face since they were walking behind him, but what was this unsettling feeling among themselves, have they touched upon a touchy subject? One that should not have been spoken off? Just when they were not expecting Gaara to say anymore, he continued with his story.
"Just like I had taken away her only purpose of living, she had taken away those who I truly care about."
It was then Konohamaru vaguely remembered that Gaara of the Desert had siblings before, who too participated in the great showdown between their seniors and Akatsuki a few years ago. There were many casualties.
"That person is one of the last three surviving Akatsuki, and though we had our share of conflicts and differences, we are the same, when all come to an end, she becomes a part of my life, and the same could be said of me for her."
When they finally arrived at Lavender Town, Gaara turned and faced them with another bored look on his face, all signs of their previous conversation erased and forgotten. He narrowed his eyes, as if thinking about something.
"Well, in case you do decided to visit Sakura at Raven Town, it's that way," Gaara finally said it while pointing off in one direction, apparently deeply worried that they might get lost.
"You are not coming in with us, Gaara-senpai?" Moegi asked as Gaara walked away from the town's gate.
"I afraid not, I have an old friend to attend to," Gaara answered. "She has after all being very patient and waited all the way here."
The four of them appeared surprised, it was then that Hanabi noticed of a tall girl leaning against her naginata standing a distance away from them. How she managed to avoid detection from the four of them was amazing, but apparently, this Akatsuki had intended to finish their duel by today regardless of what.
"You are going to be alright, aren't you?" Udon asked in an unusually concerned tone. In the seven-hour walk, they had after all became somewhat acquainted.
Instead of a simple nod as they would have expected from Gaara of the Desert, he told them, "Only we alone could ease each other's sufferings."
Having noticing the four youngsters looking at her, the female Akatsuki strangely smiled and waved at them.
"Will he smile too? When I catch up to him, will he smile at me too? This dreadful feeling, is this what it is like to meet a high-level shinobi?"
Breaking the silence once more, Gaara looked upon Hanabi and smiled. "Go and look for Haruno Sakura, Hyuuga Hanabi, she may be able to persuade you otherwise."
"He knows?"
Realising that he had said too much, Gaara reassured them by pointing one thumb to his chest. "Do not worry, I am after all the invincible Gaara of the Desert, no harm will come upon me."
Before they knew it, the earth parted and sand engulfed the two fighters, transporting them to a far away battlefield, one that only the victor may escape from.
Even as the four of them were left alone, they stood solemnly by the gate, as if any moment Gaara might return. Moegi could not shake the feeling off her, she feared that it might be last time she would ever see her Gaara-senpai again.