Why I chose Lee to be the mentor of these three I don't honestly know. Just so yas people know, I am not ignorent about the deaths of Orochimaru and... wait... no... I won't believe that Jiraiya is dead until Masashi Kishimoto draws his dead body. So that Jiraiya is alive in my story is my way of saying that JIRAIYA IS STILL ALLLIIIVVVEEE!!

Team Lee

Seventeen year old Mitarashi Kusanada sighed, her mother had gone out. Again. Got drunk at a bar. Again. And was now waking up to a hang over. Again. She probably wouldn't be well enough to see her off.

Inner Kusanada: It's not like she'll want to anyway...

And Kusanada will be gone for two whole months. Keiko was ecstatic, Suna was her original home after all, and most of her family lived there. Kusanada, on the other hand, really didn't have much of a family, her mother pretty much ignored her, with good reason. Her father had been a S-class criminal after all. And Anko had once said that she looked exactly like him. Which caused many people extreme uneasiness.

Around six in the morning Kusanada had her bags packed and all the essentials for three days camping (or maybe two and a half, the three of them were very fast) and a few days worth of cloths. Though they'd probably have to buy more clothes while they were there. Apparently the three of them were staying with the Kazekage, who was, conveniently, Keiko's father.

Sighing again, she pulled on her backpack and secured it on the front. Deciding that her mother would figure it out, Kusanada didn't bother with a note, she left into the cool morning air towards the gate where she and her teammates were suppose to meet up.

Nawaki, Keiko, and herself kept themselves at Jonin level, despite the fact that the three of them were offered to join the ANBU black ops. They were known as the third generation of "Prodigal Three" and were quite proud of this title.

"Kusanda!" Kusanda turned around and saw a tall man wearing a green jumpsuit and orange leg warmers running towards her with remarkable speed. "Lee-sensei," She said warmly, the golden-eyed girl practiced in the Lotus series martial arts, and spent a lot of her time with her sensei, and often his son, Liang. Cute little fellow.

"I will accompany you to the gates to see my youthful students off! Seeing as it will be quite some time before I see any of you again," He seemed almost dejected at this very thought. Lee-sensei was very devoted to his students, and was proud that his team gained such a high title so early in their lives. "Thank you Lee-sensei," Kusanada said, bowing respectfully. As much as she liked her sensei, she didn't sprout any proclamations of youth, that was pretty much were she drew the line.

The two of them walked to Konoha's gates together, chatting about their lessons, how Suna training differed from Konoha, and so on and so forth. It wasn't surprising that red headed Sabaku Keiko was there first. She stood impatiently as she waited for her two teammates to show so that they could get going. It had been a few months since she had last seen her mother, father, and little brother. As well as her two cousins, Haku, and Kimiko.

"Kusa, Lee-sensei," Keiko called out in a way of greeting. They returned the greeting and stood to wait for their final and lone male teammate. They didn't have to wait for long, a perverted fool he can sometimes be, he was not incompetent, he knew how to take things seriously... sometimes.

"Sorry," He said apologetically, "Just had to suffer through mom's lecture about respect and responsibility, you'd think I was seven instead of seventeen..." Kusanada laughed, "I don't blame her, seeing as you got yourself caught at the women's bath house-" He shook his head, "Whatever, lets get going if we want to get there sometime this week..."

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"Hurry up!" Kusanada called back to her two teammates, she was far faster then either of them. "We're suppose to pace ourselves Madam Snake-face," Nawaki hollered back irritably. The large, white-haired boy was slower then both of them, and was several feet behind Keiko, who tried to stay in the exact middle. "Why?" She yelled, "Let's see if we can get there in just two days."

"Crazy bitch,"

"Don't call Kusanada a bitch!"

"I didn't mean it Keiko,"

"Just don't!"

"Will both of you put a lid on it?"

"Why don't you just tell us to shut the fuck up Kusanada? It works better,"

"Probably only for illiterate morons such as yourself Nawaki,"

"Can we refrain from name calling please?"

"I'm hardly illiterate, women."

"Writing smut hardly counts."

The three of them continued on like this for several hours before they decided to stop for a short break. After an hour, they started off again, and restarted their constant bickering. Listening to them, you would never guess that the three of them were actually pretty close, or that Kusanada and Nawaki weren't actually aggressive, cold people.

"We wasted a whole hour!"

"A hour well spent, if your planning on ploughing on through the night."

"Will you two please stop fighting!?"

"Alright, alright, don't start crying Kei-kei."

"Don't call me Kei-kei Nawaki!!"

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Nawaki sighed, neither Kusanada nor Keiko were the aggressive type of kunoichi, like the two Obito had to put up with, but they could still be hard to get along with. They reached the edge of the desert, and stopped for a bit before setting off across the sea of sand. A couple hours in, Nawaki couldn't help but speculate the difference between Fire Country and Wind Country. It was night, so they had the stars to guide them, and it was surprisingly chilly, but Nawaki was surprisingly good at adapting to many climates. The three of them were very much used to the desert heat, they preferred it to the frozen wastelands of Snow Country.

Keiko and Kusanada, both being Tai-jutsu specialists, Keiko with the soft fist and Kusanada with the lotus, were both considerably faster then he was. But he kept up a steady pace, determined not to be the one to slow them down. They ran single file, in the forest, Kusanada took lead, in the desert Keiko would. But during battle Nawaki would take lead and direct them however he could.

The three of them were lucky, they came across no sandstorms on their trip across the desert, or any deadly creature. Nawaki almost wished that they did, it sure would have made the trip far more interesting, they compromised with this by bickering constantly with each other, mostly to fill the dead silence that the dark desert offered. They stopped and rested for a couple of hours, they were still quite a ways from Suna, and the sun was beginning to rise up over the horizon.

"Are we there yet?" Nawaki whined mockingly, hoping to infuriate one of the girls into a conversation, they were quiet for a while and the toad ninja was almost desperately bored.

"A few more hours," Keiko's tired voice answered, they always push themselves to the absolutely limit whenever they head to Suna. Even Kusa was slowing down. Nawaki was proud that despite being the slowest on the team, he had the most stamina and could go longer then either of them.

A while later, Nawaki could see Suna rising up from the horizon, they still had another hour to go, but with their goal so close, they sped up, now non-verbally challenging each other.

"Suna up ahead! Starting to slow down Kusa."

"Your ability to point out the obvious definitely makes me see why people think that you'd make a good Hokage."

"Sticks and stones Kusa."

"Shut it toad boy,"

"Same to you Madam Snake Face."

"Name calling bad!"

They approached the intimidating wall that surrounded the village. Keiko waved at a few ninja on the wall and, since the three of them were unmistakable, even from a distance, the many ninja waved back.

Fifteen minutes later, they stopped outside one of the massive gates. They were greeted by Keiko's aunt and uncle, Lord Kazekage was in a meeting, and won't be out for several hours. And her mother was teaching at the academy at the moment and won't be available for a while. Nawaki could sense his teammates disappointment, "Cheer up Keiko, that gives us enough time to get cleaned up and get settled," He said tactfully. She nodded, and the five of them headed towards the Kazekage's tower.

"It's nice that you three will be here for a whole two months!" Temari (who should be at the same meeting as Gaara) said, draping an arm around the redhead's shoulder, "And maybe you'll bring Gaara out of his grouchy mood," Kankuro (who should also be at the same meeting as Gaara) said, adjusting his long clan robes he was now forced to wear. They were a white instead of black, he wasn't wearing his bunraku outfit, or facepaints.

Nawaki always liked Suna, it wasn't as colorful as Konoha, but he liked the basic structure of the village, it was like a maze that he always enjoyed exploring. And plenty could be said about the night life, though the girls here were considerably tougher then the Leaf Village. That's alright, he liked tough.

They reached the tower (easily the tallest building in the village) and walked inside out of the insanely hot sun. Nawaki often wondered how people could live with this heat every day of their lives. It was no wonder that a lot of sand shinobi were grouchy, uptight assholes. Not that he would say that to any of their faces...

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Keiko shouldn't have been surprised that her father and mother were busy, but she had been hoping that they would have been able to get away long enough to see her. Aunt Temari's husband wasn't able to get out of the council meeting, and Uncle Kankuro's wife Hanabi, also was teaching at the academy.

The red head Leaf Jonin was about to ask about her cousins and her little brother, when the door to the Kazekage's tower flew opened, and three young genin ran out as fast as their legs could carry them.

"I never thought that I'd see the day when we weren't even allowed inside the tower!"

"It's twice as sad for me, I live there!."

"What a drag, why did we even bother?"

The three twelve year olds skidded to a stop right in front of them. Two of them looked stricken as they stared up at their parents.

Kankuro crossed his arms and stared down at his daughter with a raised eyebrow, "Matsuri just told me that you didn't turn up for training, care to explain Kimiko?" Most people mistook Kimiko as a boy at first glance because she wore the same bunraku outfit and facepaints as her father did. Not many people actually knew what she really looked like. Her puppets, Kurasu and Kiroari sat heavily on her back. Kimiko's pale lilac eyes looked almost guilty, something only her father could make her do.

"We had other things on our minds," She said coolly. Temari shook her head, "Haku?" She addressed a boy who was a spitting image of his father, except with bright blond hair and green eyes.

"Eh, too troublesome."

The final boy, a dark bluish haired boy with pale eyes, shrugged carelessly after his cousin's predictable response. Keiko smiled and leaned over to hug her younger brother. "Arashi!" He wiggled out of her grip, "Eww! Sister germs!" Kimiko giggled, "Nice to see ya Keiko! It's been a while!" The young puppet master, not being the touchy feely type, didn't bother with a hug, just a light punch on the shoulder. Haku shrugged and yawned, "How long you gonna be here?" he asked. The red head smiled, "Two whole months! I really must thank Lord Hokage again when I get home." Arashi tried hard not to smile, as aloof as he tried to act, he adored his older sister.

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A few hours later, Keiko, her friends, and her family (excluding her father and her Uncle Shikamaru) were sitting down for dinner at the Sabaku compound. Her Uncle Kankuro (who was a surprisingly good cook) prepared the meal. As proof of the Sabaku wealth that they had sea food, something that is extremely hard to come by in the desert, and therefor is extremely expensive. Yet despite their wealth, there was no servants or cooks. This had been complained about plenty by Kimiko.

They finished the meal laughing and joking with each other. Keiko loved Suna, strangely enough, she always felt more at home in this harsh climate then she did back in the more prosperous environment of Fire Country. They were just cleaning up (Haku, Arashi, and Kimiko disappeared mysteriously) when the door opened and her father staggered inside.

She was about to greet him, when he pointed accusingly at his guilty faced siblings, "You! You two were suppose to be at that meeting! If I have to sit there for hours and listen to people drone on and on than you should too!" He moved irritably forwards, letting a tired looking man with black hair inside. Uncle Shikamaru always looked tired, but right now, he looked ready to collapse.

Gaara finally noticed his daughter, "Keiko, it's good your here. I would have much preferred to have greeted you then sit at that meeting. Speaking of which, the council wondered why our Sabaku Clan Leader and our Sand Ambassador wasn't there," he gave the other two sand siblings a vindicative glare, the two exchanged another guilty look, but didn't say anything.

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That night, Kankuro and Temari stood on rooftop of Kankuro's home. It was a much finer night then it usually was, and the sky was perfectly clear, the stars glittering brightly in the dark, slightly windy sky.

"Who knew we would get this far," Kankuro remarked, eyes tracing the constellations in the sky. Temari smiled, not needing to ask what he meant, "Yeah, such a big difference from the young punks we were to-"

"-the old punks were are now," Kankuro interrupted her playfully, grinning at her. Temari lightly whacked him in the back of the head. Some things change, others don't.

Kankuro chuckled, but leaned against the railing, now looking down at the village. Temari, however, looked at him. When he was younger, his likeness to the father they both hated was a shock to most. Now it was absolutely stunning. A living replica of the Fourth Kazekage, Temari had heard more then one council member walk away commenting on how it seemed that the Fourth Kazekage was back in the council.

As of most shinobi, Kankuro had found it hard to switch from the action filled life of a ninja, to the less exciting, but no less dangerous, life of politics. When he finally accepted that he was rightfully a Clan Leader, he decided to join the council. But not without regret. He was no longer allowed on missions, his depression was evident the first few years of accepting his position. He devoted most of his time training his daughter, who early showed signs of being able to use chakra strings, and as a result, adored her.

But she, Temari, was able to travel to other countries and saw action far more often then either of her brothers. She could sense their warrior's longing for action when she reported her missions. She actually felt sorry for both of them.

Shikamaru, never being one for action, was... not happy exactly, but content with his life in the council. He gave excellent advice, and made good friends with Temari's sensei, Baki. Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara's old sensei was singularly the most politically powerful person in Suna, and had incredible influence. Temari admired him greatly because he was able to stay Baki even though he too had sunk into the poisonous waters of politics.

When she had Haku (Shikamaru named him, he said he got the name from one of the stories Naruto told him) she was delighted with the boy's intellgents. But slightly dismayed when the baby showed signs of inheriting his fathers personality. Looks like that laziness was was heredy after all...

Fierce Kimiko was born a month later, screaming at the top of her tiny lungs. Though looking exceptionally like her mother, she too had her father's personality. Rough, insolent, and a bit of a bully, but nontheless talented, she was a mirror image of Kankuro.

Arashi born two months after, he also had Hyuuga features. Though he didn't seem to be able to use the Byakugan in any way. Unlike his older sister, Keiko, who proved able to use it when she was a mere four years old. The Hyuuga's wanted to raise her in Konoha, to cultivate that gift that the girl had. Temari was slightly amused that her young niece was probably the only redheaded in the Hyuuga compound.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a slight rustling below them, a sound like a window being opened as quietly as possible.

"Oh, looks like our dear innocent children are sneaking out," Kankuro observed dryly, as three dark shapes ran off into the night, sniggering slightly, proud of their cleverness.

"Should we go after them?" Temari turned and saw Shikamaru ambling lazily towards them. "Nah, Matsuri will be sure to have them up early tomorrow. And she'll make them suffer for skipping training today, add a loss of a good nights sleep, and they should get what they deserve." The Sand ambassador said with a nasty grin.

"Suna love eh?"

Omg, this is shorter then the other ones have been DX ah well, I have a lot of other fics to take care of... I planned of making Kusanada a lot sweeter then I portrayed her, but she turned out with a bit of Orochimaru harshness... and it can be noted that there is not much inner voice on the two kunoichi...

And just to point out, I chose the name Kusanada for Orochimaru's daughter because I just happen to read the story of Susano when he fought the dragon, whose name as Yamata no Orochi. And for those who don't know the myth... will have to read it somewhere else, because I don't feel like explaining it. Anyway, the name of the maiden that Susano eventually took as his own was named Kusanada-hime (rice paddy princess) which makes a whole lot of sense... really...

Next up, Team Matsuri! ('bout time I had a kunoichi sensei don't ya think?)