I am very glad that so many people are following and reviewing this fanfiction! All my thanks to vash3055, randilynnbaby18, dragonsfae, Carola21, Stephehh, nejiten3, Uchiha Misaki, Hollowcapy, Azu-susi-chan, The dark side of the loonatics, xDancingWithTheWindx, rinnie21, AliceTheEvil-GoodBunny, LazyStudent, emosaku, Someone-more, Sakuraseeker2792, . .you, and noof altalei! I hope you will continue enjoying this fanfiction. And yes, I will update every two weeks or so, I am starting my senior year of college and I will have plenty of senior projects, seminars, exams, plus finding a job. I am sorry I cannot update sooner than that, but I want to try and kept the time between updates consistent and I have to take into account everything else I will have to do. Enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 4: Long time no see!

The shinobis tensed as they heard a second scream. They had yet to encounter anyone, whoever arrived before them had cleaned the area thoughtfully, but they could still hear sounds of battle from further inside the building.

"Neji, can you locate where the screams came from?" asked Kakashi.

"I see several groups of people," replied Neji. "One east of us, five peoples that seems to be fighting, one further east, someone is running toward the group of five with three people after him or her, one just west of us, two people, it might be where the screams came from... And it looks like that Asuma-sensei found two of the women."

"I hate when the buildings are built to cut communication devices," grumble the silver hair man. "The group of two is the closest to here right? Sai, go take care of that, it should not take long. The rest of us will go see the other groups."


Sai ran through the hallways following the screams. 'One of the kunoichis must have got him good' he thought 'He might be a leader for her to be this malicious to him; I better hurry before she kills him.' As he was entering the room, he saw two kunais flying in his direction, which he swiftly deviated. However, he did not notice the third kunai entering his shoulder as his attention was focused on the woman who had thrown them. Pink hair and green eyes. Impossible.

"Ugly," he said, disbelieving his own eyes.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING UGLY!" shouted the woman, throwing a couple of kunais at him just for the hell of it.

This time he dodged them but his eyes never left her. He had been sad that she left, not as much as Naruto or even Sasuke, although he tried to hide it, but still. She had changed, he decided. Her hair was long now, as long as when she was young from what he had seen on pictures. Her outfit had changed too: a simple light pink kimono top with a green obi and green knee length pants. But her outburst told him that inside she was still the Ugly he knew.

"What are you doing here Ugly?" asked.

"What do you think? I am teaching this guy a lesson!" she exclaimed pointing at the man behind her.

He was in a bad shape, which did explain the screams they heard.

"And you?" asked the kunoichi.

"We were sent by Tsunade-sama to help rescue six kunoichis and two children who might be fighting over a hundred ninjas."

"There were hardly a hundred people here, I would say about fifty or so. We already sent Akari-chan and Keiko-chan back to Konoha with Hinata."

"We also are to bring some of the attackers back for questioning."

"Take this one; he is the leader of this branch. Who else is here?"

"We are all here."

"What do you mean 'all'?" she asked suddenly pale.

"Kurenai-sensei, Inuzuka, and Aburame left the group a little before arriving here, they must have intercepted Hinata-san. Asuma-sensei, Gai-sensei, Lee, Akimichi, Nara, and Kankuro went south; Hyuuga said that they had met two of the Kunoichis…"

"Probably Ino and Tenten."

"Then I separated from the other group to investigate on the screaming. Kakashi-sensei, Dickless, Uchiha, Hyuuga, and the Kazekage went to help in the two last groups fighting."

Sai noticed she was considerably paler now. He wondered if it had something to do with her injuries: scratches on her face and legs and a deep cut on her stomach that she seemed to have healed. But soon enough she snapped out of it, like she had remember something important. He briefly pondered if she had any connection to the children the old woman mentioned before quickly dismissing the thought. It was Ugly they were talking about. He quickly called a few of his painting to guard the man, not that he would be able to go anywhere the state he was in, and followed the ex-teammate as she rushed outside of the room.


'WHO ARE YOU CALLING UGLY?' The scream resonated all the way to Temari as she was finishing off one of the four shinobis she was fighting. She briefly wondered who was the unfortunate soul that would soon be receiving the wrath of an angry Sakura, before focusing on her opponents. It would normally not take long but she had been hurt during the battle, a kunai in her leg and several large cuts on her arms. She was preparing her next attack when she felt a familiar presence coming her way. It distracted her long enough for one of her assailants to get behind her and try to stab her. He never got to finish his move as sand suddenly surrounded him and soon crushed him to death. Temari slowly turned her head to where the sand was coming from, both happy and anxious to see the person standing in the doorway.

"Gaara," she whispered as her brother and Neji Hyuuga jumped next to her, prepared for battle.

A few minutes later, the fight was over, the three remaining enemies defeated, and silence fell on the group, each lost in their own thoughts. Gaara was staring at his sister, taking in the fact that she was indeed here. She had not changed much, her hair was still in her usual four tails, but she was now wearing a sand colored kimono instead of black with a forest green obi. She looked fine, beside the few injuries that were not life-threatening, but kept looking nervously at him. It was not like her, he frowned. Had he done something? Did it have something to do with the reason of her departure? Was it about the …. children? As much as he did not really want to think about it, it was a possibility. And Matsuri? Was she here too? He decided to let her speak first.

Temari was nervous, she wanted to say something; she was happy to see her brother but at the same time did not understand what he was doing here. And if Neji Hyuuga was here, did it mean that Shikamaru too was… She interrupted her thoughts and turned to the Kazekage.

"It has been as long time Gaara," she started. "How have you been?"

"Good," answered the sand shinobi. "And you?"

"Busy as of late, especially with these idiots attacking us more and more often. How is the village? I am surprised to see you here."

"The village is good. I split my time between Suna and Konoha to reinforce our relationship."

"That's great news," she exclaimed. "So what are you doing here exactly?"

"The Hokage sent us on a rescue mission. She said there might be more than a hundred ninjas."

"This place is apparently not their headquarters, just a branch. Nothing we could not handle, but thanks for coming."

"It's normal."

Neji looked at the siblings quietly. He wanted to ask if Tenten and Hinata were here too, but did not know how. It had been so long, they might not be traveling together anymore. Suddenly, Temari turned toward the door, her hand on her fan. She could feel Sakura coming her way but she was followed by an unfamiliar chakra.

"Do you know one of them?" Asked Neji, his Byakugan activated.

"Yes, the one running head."

"We know the one following this person. It is Sai, from Team 7."

She remembered him now. She had not met him very often, just enough to know that he was in Sakura's team and that he kept calling her … Ugly. That did exclaim the shout from earlier.

"The first one is Sakura Haruno."

Both shinobis nodded. The presence had felt familiar, but they could not be sure. The three ninjas waited for the two to join them and a few seconds later, the cherry blossom and the painter appeared in the room. Sakura let out a small smile as she recognized the two shinobis with Temari.

"It has been a long time, Neji-san, Kazekage-sama," she said bowing slightly.

Both of them returned her greetings and she asked Temari to sit down while she took care of her leg.

"So what is the situation?" asked the sand kunoichi.

"Well, from what the idiot over here told me, the group headed by Asuma found Ino and Tenten, Kurenai's team should have joined Hinata and the kids and brought them back to Konoha, and since I don't see Naruto, Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke here, I'm guessing they are taking care of the ninjas Matsuri was fighting," explained the medic.

The three shinobis tensed at the mentioned of the names. They were indeed all here and apparently indeed the ones they were supposed to be rescuing. The women traveling with their children.

"That's good. What now?" continued the wind mistress.

"We meet up and head to Konoha. We have what we were looking for," answered the pink hair ninja. "Sai has sent a painting to Asuma to set the meeting place at the South entrance. We will just need to pick Matsuri up and go."

"Sounds good to me! Which direction?"

The four ninjas looked at the Hyuuga prodigy who started running down a hallway and followed him.


Matsuri was running, trying to find a bigger space where she could use her weapon to its maximum potential. She tensed as she felt three more presences catching up with her assailants. She was however surprised to hear battle sounds and screams from behind her. She turned around and cautiously went back to see what was happening. Her attackers laid defeated on the ground and three shinobis were standing in their place. They looked familiar to the young sand ninja, especially the blond one, but she could only see their back. The black hair shinobi abruptly turned and threw a kunai in her direction. She dodged it but smiled as she got a good look at their face: she indeed knew them!

"It has been too long Naruto-san, Kakashi-san, Uchiha-san," she said smiling.

The three shinobis looked at the woman who just greeted them. 'She looks familiar', thought Naruto, 'I am sure I have already meet her.' Suddenly he remembered. They had met several times and he had seen a picture of her on Gaara's desk. She looked older now with her longer brown hair and her new outfit, a light brown shirt with a red jacket, red belt and light brown pants, but it was definitely her!

"Hey! Long time no see Matsuri!' exclaimed the leaf shinobi.

The two other ninjas tensed at the name. Matsuri was one of the kunoichis that had left four years earlier! What was she doing here? And where were the others? Their thoughts were interrupted when they felt five familiar presences running in their direction, including a very very familiar one they had not felt in years.


So, what do you guys think? Let me know!