Chapter 3

The mission

With Gaara

"It's an 'S' ranked mission" Naruto told me, great now that meant I have to send an extremely talented jounin like Baki-sensei or I have to go. To be honest I was kind of hoping I went, I've spent too long in Suna I can actually tell you the exact number of tiles there are on all the ceilings, how many squares there are on the toilet paper and a few other things I'm not proud of. (Mostly stuff like "who is sixty years old, and still hot. In fact I was so bored one time I actually ranked them in order of who's hottest. That's it; I'm taking this mission!).

"I'm requesting you, and only you, from Suna to accompany me on this mission" Naruto carried on. "But I'm not allowed to tell you about it till after you've accepted, and once you have, I think it'd be best you see this to the end" from his face I could tell that was a warning and not some friendly advice. His hands were by his side and he was staring me straight in the eyes, he kind of reminded me of my teddy I just let the guy's play with; haunting and piecing your soul.

I knew from that look what the mission was about. I'd seen this face before, when ever we talked about a certain threat. I may have been able to get out of their line of fire, but that didn't mean Naruto wasn't still smack-dab in the middle of the blaze. I was hoping what was coming next was something else then what I thought it was, and that Naruto's serious face was just over something else his really serious about, like ramen, being Hokage or that he found a new love in yoga! But no matter how much I wished, I still knew what was coming next.

"It's about Akatsuki…" he announced, although I knew he was going to mention it, just hearing him saying the word's made it feel like some one had just shoved sand paper into my ear drums. I sighed and tried to maintain my smile I had kept since my friends had walked in, which was easier said than done, I felt my mouth might float off my face and drop to the floor.

"What about them?" I asked, "did they all, some how, get maimed by some huge, fuzzy squirrel which killed them after eating their flesh while they watched, or what?" (hey, a guy could hope it'd be that easy to get rid of them) only a small smile had crept onto Naruto's face at my remark.

"No Gaara" he said, his smile fading quickly. "We've just discovered a lead to Akatsuki's current plan of action" his eyes darted around the room, to the door and at the windows. I guess he was taking his responsibility as 'S' rank messenger quite serious. At least it was like all the other 'S' rank messengers I've sent before; getting all excited, thinking they can fly out the building, then returning next week after their mission with half an arm, a lost ear and only one testicle. After his little 'examination check' he stuck his face next to mine and gave me that same serious face he gave me a minute ago. "We're asking for your help, and yours alone, we don't know how strong these guys are, so we were kind of hoping we could ask some one with Hokage level skills".

He stared at me as if begging for my help. I was about to say yes when some thing suspicious crept into my mind.

"If you need some one with Hokage level skills…" I said "can't you just get your Hokage to do this for you? After all she is the one who ordered this mission, isn't she?" he looked at me like a child who had just made an 'accident' on the rug and then blamed it on the dog.

"Well Gaara…" He started, I could see he was trying to persuade himself to tell me the truth "thing is, Tsunade doesn't know about this…" he looked at his feet shamefully.

"OooKay… so err Naruto, what made you… do that?" I looked at him casually, trying hard not to blow my cool. It wasn't like Naruto to do something like this. If the Hokage ever heard about this, it might affect his becoming Hokage. There must be a reason as to why he didn't tell Tsunade. Knowing Naruto it was properly something good like 'My Granny wanted me to bring Akatsuki some cookies, but Tsunade loves my Granny's cookies and would then kill Akatsuki for them'. Wow at the top of my head, that's all I could come up with to help Naruto's defence maybe I should go back to hardcore-ninja-badass or something.

"Well you see, Gaara…" Naruto said snapping me back into reality. "…Tsunade has spread out a warning about Sasuke to the village a few days ago. It said," He put his best Tsunade look alike face (which was surprisingly good, he looked a lot like her, which kind of made me wonder why Naruto was so good at looking like a fifty year old, huge breasted woman…) "Sasuke Uchiha 'S' rank criminal, if encountered, escape immediately. If captured, please terminate immediately, 75,000 Ryo will be rewarded to whoever does so' or some other crap like that" he said ruining his impression, I was liking it too, it was kind of turning me on… wow…I really AM a freak.

"So, what does that Uchiha dude have to do with Akatsuki?" I asked, I made no attempt to hide the confusion on my face.

"Well, because Orochimaru took Sasuke, we might be able to pin point their location if we find and capture at least one Akatsuki member, you know, because Orochimaru used to belong to Akatsuki as well" he described to me, just seeing him imagine and tell me the idea, I could see the fire in his eyes start to burn. I guess finding his old comrade is really important to him.

"Oh and the reason you don't want the Hokage to know is because she'll just have it ordered to have Sasuke killed, right?" I asked "But as it even occurred to you that you might not be able convince or even capture him Naruto, he trained with one of the Sannin, remember?" I almost screamed at him at this point, I may be powerful, but even I wouldn't dare fight someone who trained under a Sannin. And I'm a Kazekage, what could a jounin like Naruto do?

"Yeah but you forget Gaara…" He argued, "…I trained under Jiraiya, a sannin and the sensei of the fourth Hokage" Naruto stared off into the distance as if he were a super hero.

"Yeah well my daddy used to be the fourth Kazekage!" I yelled.

"…What?" Naruto asked, his eyes so wide I could of used them as basketball hoops.

"Sorry, I thought we were doing that 'my daddy's better then your daddy' thing…" I said, although I didn't even like my dad, I still stood by his strength.

"Err, we're not Gaara," he stated, we stared at each other for a few minutes till some one finally opened their mouth "So you up for it or not? Please Gaara we could really use your help?" he finally wanted my answer. I thought about what I should do, this was a serious offence, if Tsunade found out, it might jeopardise the treaty. But I had to think about my people, I know what Akatsuki are searching for, and if they do obtain Naruto's kyuubithen nothing good could come of this, but if I get taken out during this mission, then that leaves Suna leaderless and open for attack. But we don't know what Akatsuki's intentions are, it might mean having to attack all the great villages, and seeing as though Suna is one of the major ones it might be targeted first. That and a lot more things went flying around my head. But one thing hit me right between the eyes. That 75,000 Ryo. To me, that was reason enough.

"I'm in" I said. I extended my hand and he took it. "So does the money come in cash or cheque?"

We both laughed like crazy for what seemed like five minutes till eventually everything calmed down.

"Ahaha… No seriously, do I get it straight away or is there a two week wait?"…

With Ino

"That stupid, red headed, sand fetish loving Bustard!" I screamed as I threw my suitcase at the couch (Hey I'm angry not nuts, if I threw it at the window and broke the glass that douche bag would properly shoot sand out his ass and into my face!), then I kicked a vase that the hotel had put there for decoration (so I get a little ass-sand in my face, it's not like I wont cut his balls off and feed it to his make-up wearing brother!).

Twenty minutes of yelling and six complaints from the honeymooners downstairs later I had finally calmed myself down. I went to the fridge to fetch a cold bottle of water, knowing that nut job, if I properly drank it I'd find out it's a horse's urine mixed with toilet water he found in the toilet at some fat guy's house.

I thought about going against it, putting on my jacket and heading down to the street corner to try some of the ramen from that Naruto's noodle house or what ever he called it thing. I thought that'd just be another long walk. I opened the fridge hoping it wasn't what I'd thought it was going to be…

But when I looked inside I saw, three pints of chocolate milk, a cake that said "welcome to Suna!" and a bottle of red wine next to it, I've been in a Suna hotel before and this is never the stuff you'd get, it'd usually be a bottle of water, a mouldy crumpet that looked like it had ants growing on it (heck once I even saw a colony of them! I'm starting to think they not as dumb as they lead on! ONE WAS HANDING OUT THE 10 COMANDMENTS!) And also the hotel assistant would leave a half eaten piece of fried chicken. I guess Gaara isn't that bad a guy, to have our rooms this pimped out, after all it couldn't be the hotel manager he asked me if I also do doubles, gave me a wink, slapped my ass and sent me to a dirty room with a nervous virgin. I need to sort out my outfit if people are going to think I'm a prostitute, again!

I picked up a glass from the top shelf and took out one of the pitchers of chocolate milk, just as I was closing the door I noticed a picture in the fridge, from behind where the milk used to be. It was a picture of the Kazekage standing in front of Suna's front gate with his older brother and sister it said "Welcome to Suna" in sand, how it had it stick to the paper I'll never know, but it was kind of sweet for him to send me this greeting card (even though he properly sent one to Naruto and Lee) he had one of the goofiest smiles on his face, but not stupid goofy, kind of a cute, handsome smile, he looked really happy in his picture, smiling with his arms around Kankuro and Temari. Suddenly I thought back to the chuunin exams, I remember how Gaara always had an angry expression on his face and was constantly thinking about killing, then my mind raced back to the meeting room from this morning, how he constantly smiled that goofy-cute smile of his and I actually heard his laugh this time, it was kind of like a child's one that wasn't laughing at you, or insulting you. It was the kind that infected you and made you smile as well (although I didn't let him see it, still pretty angry with the Kazekage for that dumb-ass prank!).

I then remembered what he looked like in the chuunin exams as well; he looks different now as well, his hairs longer and brighter, his face has some more colour in it, his eyes were the same colour, a deep sea green, I have to admit, they actually are kind of handsome as well and his torso is more defined, I could swear he had a six pack! Kind of makes me miss when he only wore the fishnets and I can tell by his trousers his also grown into his body a li-

Oh my god was I just perving on the Kazekage? I blushed; if I had had these thoughts during the chuunin exams I most likely would jump off a bridge with either a safe or a hippo tied to my leg!

But now I got to hand it to him, the rumours about him being cute were absolutely one hundred percent true… I started staring at the picture for a while with quite a dopey smile on my face accompanied by a blush until I was interrupted by a knock on the door. I quickly put the greeting card under a cushion in case it was the hotel manager who came to apologise for the whole 'thinking I'm a prostitute' thing, catch me blushing at the picture then think I'm one of the Kazekage's groupies, apparently the Kazekage takes hiding from his groupies very seriously (another one of the rumours I've heard).

I smoothed down my clothes, checked my hair in the mirror next to the door, then opened it… No one was there. I looked down one side of the hall way and didn't notice anything, then I looked the other and noticed something rushing towards me, I quickly dove to the left of the door with my back against the wall so as not to be hit. I prayed to good it wasn't some homicidal maniac looking for a hot, sexy hostage, which he can then take advantage of…

At least I was wrong, suddenly the Kazekage rushed through on a dinning kart, but he wasn't exactly pushing it, he was surfing on it? He was wearing the same hat he wore earlier (the beanie hat with the 'wind' kanji on the front) a black top over a fishnet shirt and some surf shorts, I guess the Kazekage was really getting into the whole surfing thing.

He jumped off when the kart was in the middle of my room, and brought it to a sharp stop, he started laughing once he was off an gave me a goofy smile, like the one on the greeting card. One thing I didn't notice while he was dinner kart surfing was that he was wearing pink sunglasses with red hearts on the sides; strangely they kind of suited him.

"What the hell are you doing!" I yelled, I've only met the Kazekage twice since I've been here, and so far his freaked me out, given me chocolate milk and almost killed me with a dinning kart!

"Ahaha! Aww Com'on Ino you've never been surfing before? Jeeze I swear every girl from your village has a stick up their ass 24/7, well either that or a…" he mumbled off then looked at me with a cute smile on his face, as if he was pulling it on purpose.

I took my sandal off and hit him hard round the face; I knew what he was saying under his breath! I left a huge red mark in the middle of his face and left a crack in his left glasses lens. He dropped to the clutching his face, after a little screaming and kicking the floor later he got up, and held his nose while staring at the ceiling, guess I gave him a nose bleed, well his coming here wont be a complete waste, at least I had some fun.

"HEY! Is that what you do to the guy who brought you an apology tray of desserts?" he said, he didn't seem angry, actually quite the opposite, he still had the goofy smile he entered with.

"A tray of apolo-what?" I looked at him quizzically, maintaining my angry stare "what the hell did you come for Kazekage-sama?"

"I just came to say sorry for the whole teddy bear incident" he to nodded towards the dinner kart, I noticed it had several silver, lidded plates on it and a few drinks as well. "I brought you a little apology gift, and you thank me by slapping me in the face with a shoe! Jeeze now I'm going to have to make myself some sand nose plugs! And they hurt! At least they're better then a sandy butt plug, funny story, I needed to fart during a council meeting, but you know they've all got sour faces for that kind of stuff, so I… well you know" he made himself some nose plugs using his sand and lifted up two of the lidded plates.

I couldn't believe my eyes, sitting right in front of me was a lasagne and some honey-roasted lamb! He lifted up the rest of them and told me what they were as he did so…

"Here we also have small, roasted potatoes and a salad you know, because I figured girls want to take care of their figure and keep the guys happy, or girls happy, I'm not here to judge" I giggled at that last bit then let him continue "and for desert we have chocolate mousse, banana-toffee pie with…" he lifted the last one to show a bag of 'Kanter's fried chicken' family bucket size too. "KFC, because you know, in case your not one of those posh eating pricks like the guys from the council" he took a chicken leg out, threw it in the air, caught it in his mouth, slid it out and showed me the bare bone, no meat and he also ate the skin, talk about gross!

"Thanks Kazekage-sama, but err why? You know, did you do the same to Naruto and Lee?" I asked. I got to say, this took me by complete surprise, I didn't expect the Kazekage to do something like this.

"Because I'm sorry for what happened this morning, with the whole man eating teddy, seriously why was you so freaked out? Were your parents killed by some fluffy teddy or pillow or something?" The Kazekage said he took off his glasses so I could see his eyes, now that I looked at them closely now, they reminded me of the sea; rebellious but at the same time soothing with a kind of strength behind them.

"What I'm trying to say, Ino, is that I'm sorry" he smiled at me apologetically, I was still touched but it was hard to take him seriously with the sand up his nose. I thought the least I could do was give him a tissue to use instead of that sand.

"Come here" I said he looked at me confused but followed. I took him to the kitchen and reached into the top cupboard, it was a little too high, so I had to stand on the counter, I saw the tissues at the back of the top cupboard (seriously who puts them there?).

"Err Ino, two things" Gaara said "one what are you doing? You looking for another sandal in there, because I think they'll be at the front door where you left them and number two… I can see up your skirt" He turned away and stared at his feet in shame, but that wasn't as bad as what I did. My face went bright red and then my leg slipped off the counter, I fell off the counter, I thought I was going to break my head open and die, I shut my eyes waiting for some sort of pain. But It didn't come, I didn't fill like I was falling anymore, I felt… safe.

I opened my eyes and saw the Kazekage looming over me staring at me with concern in his sea green eyes, I just stared at his eyes oblivious to what he was saying until his words finally sunk in.

"HEY INO! Are you all right? All I did was say I could see up your skirt, I never did, and I didn't say I liked your black and red frilly thong" he still looked concerned, and how did he know what underwear I had on if he wasn't looking? But I didn't care at that point, I just felt safe in his grip, it turned out the Kazekage had caught me before I hot the floor.

"Err, yeah…fine… Ino good…I mean I'm okay, tissues got the I, I mean I got the tissues" why was a bumbling my words? And why is my face hot, and my hands are sweaty. I took out his sand plugs, I was still staring into his eyes, but I managed to take them out and stick a little tissue in there to stop the bleeding. As I put the last one in he grabbed my hand gently, not harming me at all, I could feel his warmth flow into me as he stared at me back, it wasn't a weird, it felt soft on my face, I could smell his aroma from this close, he smelled just like the beach, like the sand boiling on a hot day after the wave had just ran itself through it's cracks.

"Thanks Ino, but you know, you could of just asked for me to get them for you. Instead of saying 'come here' then sexually attacking me" he smiled at me softly, got me back to my feet, took a small potato from the dinner kart, threw it in to air and caught it in his mouth again. He went towards the door. "Oh by the way Naruto's invited me to go to Konoha for a few days, of coarse my brother will be playing Kazekage whilst I'm gone, so that'll give me a few days in Konoha to play around I guess, we leave tomorrow, outside the main gate, see you there" he was about to leave before he said "oh and I'll be walking behind you, and the deserts kind of windy so if you want to wear a skirt and a thong again, I've got no objections" I threw a pillow at him on that last note it hit him in the face playfully. It wasn't meant to hurt him. I giggled and said;

"Just don't make porno dolls that look like me tonight, and make sure their also not made of sand either, okay?" he laughed at what I said, he had a handsome laugh, it made me feel fuzzy inside. "Good night Kazekage-sama".

"Please, call me Gaara, Kazekage make me sound old, and frankly my golden nuggets are anything but that" he smiled at me cheekily.

I giggled at that last comment. "Okay, good night… Gaara" I gave him a wink and my best 'come hither' smile and closed the door, I noticed before it was completely his face had turned a deep red and his nosebleed had started again.

I put my back on the closed door, and remembered how he held me, I wondered if he'll do that again…

I went back to the dinner kart and ate the dinner Gaara had made for me.