Gaara and Temari are sitting at the dinning room table in the Nara house, Shinki and Shikadai going over to Boruto's for the night. "Is everything all right?" Temari asks her youngest brother. He looks down, trying to keep his worry from showing. "Don't worry about Shinki he can take care of himself, plus Hinata is their to keep them from trouble." She reassures.
Gaara's arms are crossed over his chest, hands gripping his upper arms. His head is in reality, partially, while the other part and his heart are somewhere else.
"This is about more than Shinki isn't it? You're thinking about her, aren't you?"
"It's been thirteen years since I've last seen her, since she herself went on a mission to the Land of Silence and didn't come back." Gaara answers. He remembers when he first went back to Suna after Naruto claimed to be his friend, after telling his siblings he didn't even see them as such. A few months later after word spread that Naruto was to leave with Jiraya, he and his siblings were asked to help teach some students at Suna's new Ninja Academy.
She looked so shy and quiet compared to her classmates, shyly raising her hand to ask Temari if it was necessary for everyone to chose a weapon for combat training, her hesitant reply about the students hurting each other when Kankuro inquired about it. He caught her dark eyes with his green sea-foam ones as he tried to explain what a weapon is to a ninja. His throat went dryer than the desert and he couldn't think of the right words to say, instead, he and his siblings recovered by telling them to choose their instructors. He kept in mind to not use the sand to trip the students who were putting her down, she would have to learn how to fight her own battles.
Gaara had closed his eyes not wanting to see who picked him, or rather, who didn't pick him. He was astonished when she approached him to be his student, his only student, as everyone else had chosen his siblings. Gaara was sure she would have picked Kankuro as her first choice, perhaps taking on the skills of a puppet master so she herself wouldn't have to fight; or Temari and using wind jutsu to blow her enemies away. He asked her to be sure that she wanted him, him a then-jinchuriki and labeled monster and weapon of the sand as her teacher. After she confirmed she wanted him, they moved on to weapons. She had looked at the three weapons left on the wooden table: a spiked club, a sword, and a rope javelin. She didn't seem to like the sword so she picked up the club, struggling to get a good grip on it. It made him wonder how she would do trying to hold a fan like Temari's. (He'd use his sister's actual fan, but he and Kankuro tried that once and she blew halfway out in the desert.)
After an hour of training they had called it a day in the early afternoon, what with it being the first day and all. She had decided to stay at the training grounds to practice with her new weapon, while Gaara went to go find his siblings. That's when he found them with an injured troop that was keeping post. Everything after that happened in a blur. He found out he was in danger, she'd been kidnapped and he and his siblings were assigned to go after her, finding Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru (he only remembers him because his shadow-control jutsu was impressive during the chunin exams, and the fact that Temari doesn't shut-up about when he's brought up. Given, it's not in praise, but still.) and some of their other Konoha friends.
When the issue was resolved he was certain at the moment they got back to Suna that she would inform him of changing her sensei, instead she continued to learn from him even after seeing him transform halfway into Shukaku. Eventually their relationship grew over time as he continued to teach her to the point that when they weren't in lessons anymore, that they would be called friends. Unfortunately he had risen in the ranks fairly quickly and became Kazekage at fifteen while she remained a genin.
The day he had been named Kazekage, he remembers standing on the balcony overlooking his home while everyone down below cheered. She was in the crowd below next in between Temari and Kankuro, her friends Sari and Yukata right behind her. A huge smile on her face, bringing a small one to his own. Then he was kidnapped and she was one of the first people he saw from his village when he woke-up. Her chunin exams, then the war. He'd been impressed with how she did in the exams he placed her in the same group as him, Temari, and Shikamaru. He was certain to not get either of them distracted so he sent her under his sister's and her lover's eyes while he went a different way.
The war eventually ended and peace had come to all the nations. (For a short while before Naruto and a makeshift team had to go to the moon to make sure it didn't crash into them before everything was actually said and done and they could say peace actually arrived.) They had reconnected and had gotten to see how much they changed, they became close friends again, Gaara didn't feel like her sensei anymore, nor her Kazekage just meeting with her to assign her missions. Eventually they fell in love. Two years after they became an official couple, Gaara received news about a disturbance in the Land of Silence. He had trouble coming up with who to send, he knows from past experience that even Shikamaru had trouble.
"I'll go." She told him quietly one night while she was helping him finish the days work late into the night. Gaara's sea-foam widen as he looks at her. He's about to protest when she places her finger on his lips. "I'll be fine, I can take Yukata and Mikoshi with me. We'll be back before you know it."
The trio leaves two night later. Yukata and Mikoshi are already in the warm desert air outside of Suna. Gaara and her are still in the gates, but still not within the city. "Are you sure?" He wonders. "It isn't too late to try and put together another team."
"We'll be fine. Don't worry so much, I'll be back before you know it." She kisses his and gives him a hug before running off to meet with her teammates, as she's halfway out the gates she turns and waves at him. He waves back until he can no longer see her, turning back and going back home, fearful of her safety.
A month passed and she and her team have sent no status reports of the success or need of help. He's about to call Temari in from her ambassador duties in Konoha and gather his brother from teaching his lessons to go after them when Yukata and Mikoshi stumble in through the gates. They're cut and badly bruised, eyes barely staying open hurting from the desert sun. The medics of the Land of Sand does everything they can to help with their open wounds, bruises, and dehydration, but the three Kage siblings are curious as to what happened to their missing team member and if they have any possible information. Luckily Sakura and Ino show up once they find out. Sakura informed the Sand Siblings that Yukata and Mikoshi did not give away any information nor do they have any that they could reports.
Hearing groans, all eyes turn to the now awakened Shinobi. "Where. . . . where are we?" Mikoshi wondered, grabbing his hand as he tried to sit-up.
"You're back in Suna." Sakura reassured them.
That's when they heard the crying of Yukata. That's when Yukata broke down and told them that they split-up, she and Mikoshi going one way while their member went another. Eventually the brown-eye young woman revealed that she met up with their missing leader later that night after they arrived in the Land of Silence village and split-up, they had been walking around and talking before getting ambushed; being knocked out and waking up chained in a cell. Some masked ninja had come in and taken her teammate out of the room, still unconscious, to another where Yukata's already tired mind and body was jolted awake by the screams of her teammate. There was no window so the kunoichi had no idea how long she was in her cell or how long she heard her friend screams. One day the screams stopped, two masked shinobi came in (Yukata cursed those masks as she could not tell if they were the same ones as before or not.) unchained her and led her outside the villages gates where Mikoshi was just thrown and was pushing himself up. They asked about their teammate, where she was.
"She's dead." Mikoshi finished for Yukata in the Suna hospital. Everyone in the room is stunned by the words, their cores freezing over making it hard for them to breathe.
Gaara excused himself. He feared the worst and it had come true. He had gone home and broke down their, not wanting to cry in front of his friends. He was Kazekage after all, he could not be seen as week. The years passed and his broken heart had not healed, he didn't like the thought (and still doesn't) of dating another person, his heart telling him it'd be a betrayal of his love for her. Seven years later to the day that he sent his lover on that rueful mission he met Shinki, taking the young boy under his wing and training him along with Kankuro. That night he met Shinki and put him to bed, Gaara had gone out on the balcony to overlook the stars that night, wondering if she had somehow guided Shinki to him. She and Shinki both lost their parents when they were young, she saw it while Shinki never knew his.
"Gaara," his older sister's voice snaps him out of his thoughts. "You know it's not your fault right? Even if you were somehow able to go with her, there's no telling if you would have prevented her death or ended up dead yourself. You know, I think she would love Shinki if she were here. Maybe even teaching him how not to be serious all the time, how to enjoy even the small things in life."
A small smile finds its way to Gaara's lips. He has to agree with Temari, she would love Shinki. If she were here and helping raise the young dark-green eye boy, Gaara can't help but wonder what Shinki would be like now. Would he be the same? Different? Only wishful thinking could try and know.
Halfway away from Konoha and any prying eyes, Inojin brings out his art scroll and uses his Super Beasts jutsu to summon some birds for them, large enough to ride and small enough to stay hidden and not rise any suspicion. They're halfway to the Land of Silence when they come upon a small Inn in the forest.
"We could stay in it for the night." Chocho suggests.
"We can't," Inojin counters. "Who in their right minds would allow four children to stay in their Inn when we don't know if the Inn is ninja friendly or would even let us stay for free. Shikadai, did you even think this far ahead? Your parents are the two best strategists of their generation, tell me you at least have some of their genes that aren't just looks."
Shikadai looks at the ground and thinks for a moment. Chocho is right, they do need a place to stay, but Inojin does bring up a good point about being penniless; not to mention that their are still some places that aren't ninja friendly. Their clans symbols are visible on them are are their bands indicating their genin.
Why didn't I think about bringing cloaks for us to disguise ourselves with? The young Nara wonders. Oh, right, he was in a hurry to save his dad he didn't think about that. Shikadai takes a deep breath as he tries to come up with a solution, Mitsuki going over to Inojin and calming down the young Yamanaka.
"Inojin," Shikadai speaks after a few moments of silence. "We will continue walking, then we will sleep under the trees and continue in the morning." Everyone nods at their unspoken leader, following him away from the Inn and into the surrounding forest.
Just before going home, Shinki, Sarada, and Boruto stop by Lightning Burger. he boys on one side of the booth they're sitting in, Sarada on the other. They all have half eaten burgers and half full sodas in front of them. "How far do you think they got?" Sarada asks, breaking their long silence since they reentered the village after waving their friends off.
"They could have been spotted, but Shikadai has his wind and shadow jutsus, Chocho has her expansion and butterfly, Mitsuki has his sage mode," Sarada is going to ignore the underlying bitterness she hears in Boruto's voice about their teammates sage mode. She often has to remind him that he was born with it and didn't choose to learn it. "And Inojin has his mind techniques and Super Beasts, they'll be fine." The blonde reassures.
"Even then, we can't be sure how long it'll be until they are discovered missing. We could say Team 10 was assigned a mission, but we really can't explain Mitsuki's if someone were to ask." Shinki states.
"What do you mean we can say they're on a mission? Dad's Hokage-"
"He means since that Shikamaru, your dad's adviser is currently missing and with Moegi out on her own mission then our friends parents won't have to worry since they don't know when Moegi is coming back. My dad told me that the mission she got sent on is going to take two-to-three weeks at least. But he is right, we have a problem if anyone is to ask about Mitsuki. We can't exactly say he ran away again."
They all sit for a moment and try to think of a way to make-up an excuse for Mitsuki, their minds drawing a blank. Boruto slumps in his chair a loud sigh escaping his lips, asking to change the topic. Sarada takes this opportunity to ask Shinki what some of his favorite things to do are, since she or Boruto don't know him that well despite Gaara being good friends with Naruto and Sakura.
"I like gardening and embroidering." The Kazekage's son shyly answers. "My dad has a fondness of cacti and has taught me a lot about gardening in general even with Suna not being the best place for a lot of plants. I kinda got into embroidery after practicing with Uncle Kankuro and his puppets after a while. He let me try and make my own puppet after a while; eventually a festival was coming up in Suna where a person can make something for someone they care about-similar to Konoha-but we can give to anyone we love, not just someone we're in love with. Or have an extreme infatuation for. So I learned a little and gave something to my dad, he put it up in his office."
Sarada comments on how sweet that is before noticing the time and informing the boys. They all head out, Boruto and Shinki walking Sarada home; she may be an Uchiha, have the Sharingan like her father, have her mother's temper and strength, but none of that means she still couldn't be in trouble when walking home by herself. Once they arrive and Sarada enters her home, Shinki and Boruto make their way to the Uzumaki household to keep up their alibi of the sleepovers.