Hey everyone, I'm back. This chapter is a little different, you'll soon find out why. I won't make this a very regular thing, but it's nice to have a change of pace from time to time, makes reading a story feel less of a grind when it's not the same thing all the time.


Karasu is covered in blood thanks to Shikamaru. You'd think he could have been more considerate, doesn't he know how much work it is to do maintenance on these puppets? I guess I'll let it slide this time, it was thanks to him that we got out of the genjutsu, after all. Even so I'll have to clean them quickly, last thing I want is for my weapons to smell like blood. The smell of blood still reminds me of Gaara's sand I feared for so long. It's almost nauseating if you're too close to it, even when you're not targeted.

That kid, now he's staring up in the sky again, smoking a cigarette, looks like he's lost in thought. How can he be so focussed in battle and so detached immediately afterwards? I'll never understand him, in some ways he's even harder to read than that Shino who is completely impassive.

Those other two guys, that Kotetsu and Izumo, they're actually pretty impressive. I know Konoha has strong shinobi just like we do, but there's always this stereotype of them being emotionally weaker, more susceptible to losing sight of the objectives. After all it's a widely known fact that they have the highest number of missing nin in the world, and all their important figures have turned out to be morally self-righteous. Their so called will of fire, I would take my unquestioned loyalty for Suna over it any day of the week. They all have different things to fight for and to live for, but we all live and die for the same thing and in this we are more united. I suppose this is why I'm so surprised about the way this team works, they had no hesitation and no qualms about killing the enemy. If I had been stuck with that Naruto kid for this mission he'd probably have blabbered on about keeping them alive, like a little boy. Gaara may be impressed by that because it's so radically different to his nature, but I'm not, the only thing that Naruto has impressed me with is the effect he has on my brother.

"Hey Kankuro.." apparently Shikamaru has something to say. Looks like he's trying to find the right words to say it. This better not be about Temari again. I thought we sort of agreed not to talk about that.

"What?" It probably sounded meaner than I intended to. Whatever, I won't lose sleep over it.

"It's a drag, but thanks for saving me back there, I guess.." Jeez, even when he's thanking me he does it half-assed.

"Meh, don't think too much about it, we all did our part, as did you." It's true, I most probably couldn't have cancelled the genjutsu myself. That's why teamwork is important, at least we're good at that.

Izumo and one of the aristocrats are walking over. He seems to be the youngest of the group by far, I'd guess he's at least four or five years younger than Shikamaru. Dressed in the same white robe as the others and with his hair cut short.

"Kankuro, the civilians are wounded, we need to do something about this." Izumo tells me as he brushes his hair out of his face. I noticed he does that a lot, it's stupid if you ask me.

"Can they walk?" I know they can't, but I'm stalling so I can think of something.

"No, and it looks like that old geezer was killed in the-" Izumo is telling me about the annoying elder aristocrat, when he gets interrupted by the kid.

"I gracefully implore you to use the proper honorifics when addressing my most esteemed grandfather, now that he has passed away." The kid says as he slightly bows his head. Oh man, I don't like brats but this kid gets on my nerves already. What kind of way to talk is that?

Izumo is a bigger man than I am when it comes to this, he shrugs his shoulders and with a sigh continues his report.

"It seems the elder of the group was fatally hit by one of the kunai during the fight." Not exactly using honorifics but at least you could say he's a little more respectful. I don't see why we have to do this just because of some annoying brat.

"Also two others were wounded and won't be able to walk to Kusagakure." Kotetsu says as he approaches us, still carrying a massive mace over his shoulder that he summoned during the fight.

If it were up to me we would never have taken these guys along with us, but Gaara made it clear to me that I wasn't supposed to cause problems, and the others think it's important to escort them, so I agreed to their plan. I just think dragging these civilians along with us makes the mission unnecessarily complicated. At least when we get to Kusagakure we can dump them there and be done with it.

"Let's not forget, they could be attacked again so we need to guard them. Perhaps if we send someone ahead to Kusagakure?" Damn. Shikamaru is right, if we leave them here and have some Grass nin pick them up later they could have been attacked when they were unguarded. I'm the strongest here, but I'm expected at the rendezvous point with the contact person so I can't stay behind.

"I see, in that case I'll go up ahead and send for help, you guys stay here and keep an eye on them."

Kotetsu and Izumo nod. Almost at the same time as well. It's creepy.

Shikamaru starts yawning and stretching his arms. "In that case I'll go take a nap."

Oh no you don't. I slap him on the back of his head. I have to say it's gratifying to slap him when he gets lazy.

"You're coming with me, just out of spite. And that's an order." I tell him.

"Man, what a drag.." From his defeated expression I can tell he obviously sees I have a wicked grin on my face.

That felt good. I'll have to put up with him but I'm pretty sure he's even more unhappy about it than I am. He's easygoing and not actively looking for trouble, but something about him just rubs me the wrong way. It's no mystery to me what that certain something is, of course.

I just don't get it, it's not like they openly flirt or hold hands or anything disturbing like that, but we all know it, they know it, it's just unavoidable, for years we all knew it would come to this eventually. Gaara seems to be okay with whatever is going on between them too. In fact he said he respects him. I guess I just can't see it, nor can I see why Gaara feels that way.

Did they run into each other back when in the days when Gaara was still troubled? Something happened between them that I don't know about? That seems unlikely though, because after all, Shikamaru is alive right now, so that pretty much guarantees they didn't have a run in, Gaara would have crushed him.

We've been walking for a little while now. We have already entered the forest in which their hidden village is located, the scenery changed from wild tundra-like to a sort of archaic forest with trees that rise up to the sky. The trees are not as thick as in Fire nation, but at least three or four times higher with less branches. Which is more impressive to look at. However the lack of sturdy branches makes it harder to jump through the forest, and we're forced to walk on the ground.

This is boring, and Shikamaru's not very good company. He's just looking around at stuff, not even paying attention for dangers. He's just looking around like a tourist. I'll ask him about Gaara, since I want to know. After all why would Gaara respect him?

"Hey kid, how well do you know Gaara?" I can see he didn't expect a question like this coming. Playing with people like this, making them guess what's going on, it's so satisfying, in more than one way I'm a puppet master.

"Ehh.. I know him a little. Why do you ask?"

"No particular reason really, I was just wondering, did you ever fight Gaara?"

"No seriously, why do you ask? This is unlike you."

That little son of a.. he's not playing along like he's supposed to. No matter, there's some string to pull to make him say what I want to hear. I'll try to make it look like he's thinking too deeply about it. Since the kid is supposed to be so smart, this sort of thing probably happens more often to him.

"Jeez, I'm just making conversation, dude. No need to be so uptight." I can see it worked. He's got this sort of indifferent look about him now.

"I see, well, I didn't exactly fight him, but he did threaten to kill me." Not exactly, huh? That's strange. I better pry a little more.

"Yeah that sounds like Gaara, al right. What did you do? Bump into him by accident or something?"

"Something like that. But now that we're on the subject, how well do you know Gaara?" What the hell is that supposed to mean?

"He's my brother you know..." Yeah he just rubs me the wrong way this kid. Of course he knows, so what's he getting at?

"What I mean is, Gaara is different now compared to a few years ago, how do you deal with that?"

That's interesting, it's still a process that happened over the course of a few years, it's not like he changed overnight. Never really thought about it being difficult to adapt to Gaara's change.

"Well.. I suppose it's better now, but I still don't like kids because of him."

"Like that aristocrat's kid? I could see you were annoyed by him."

"Heh, yeah kids don't know much about the world, they are unpredictable, and are irrational."

"So they're harder for you to manipulate, is that it?" Damn, so he can see right through me, after all. This sucks.

"That's not really it, it's more their attitude. It's disproportionate, you know? Either extremely energetic, or angry, or polite, there's never normal kids in the world." Even though he hit the nail on the head, with the comment about manipulating, this is also true.

"Well, he just lost relatives of his, all things considered, I think he was pretty brave to do such a troublesome thing and point out you two were disrespectful."

Honestly I hadn't thought about it that way. Damn Konoha nin, they always make you feel bad with their moral superiority attitude. But he's right though, that actually must have been difficult for the little kid, and I didn't even notice it, he was actually a little brave to speak up to us. We must be pretty intimidating to a spoiled brat like him too.

And to add insult to injury, Shikamaru made me realize something other than what I wanted to know. He beat me at my own game and took over the conversation. Maybe that's what Gaara meant when he said he respected him, it's not the fighting ability, but it's how he understands people.

"Looks like you finally made it, but there's only two of you?" An unfamiliar third voice tells us.

It must be the contact person. Where is it coming from? There's no village here? Only trees. Oh, I see. Both Shikamaru and myself realize at the same time the village is not actually located on the ground, but it's up in the trees, and we look up.

It's a clever system, the trees are too thin to have branches strong enough to travel on, so we are forced to walk on the ground for a while, and so we don't notice the village overhead. Truly Kusagakure is also a hidden village.

The contact person is standing on a balcony next to a rope ladder which is probably the entrance to the village. It must be tough to get supplies into the village. He looks like most Grass nin do, light hair, a flack jacket, goggles and some sort of scarf hanging loosely around his neck.

I better do the talking, I'm the team leader. Just be careful not to insult any Grass nin and it should be alright.

"We ran into some trouble on the way here, and we also ran into political refugees, that two of us are guarding at the moment because these refugees are incapacitated. They require medical attention."

"Ah that is most unfortunate, but it will be taken care of. Why don't you come up here while you wait for them? You are after all, diplomatic guests, so I can allow entry to the village."

That's more like it. Maybe now this mission can finally start. I just have to remember they hadn't told us all the details for this mission they requested, we only learned of them because the Hokage told us, so these Grass nin probably don't trust us. That's fine, I'm used to that. It will be interesting to see how much details on the mission our contact person will give us. This should be a good indication of the situation.

Kusagakure has a certain aesthetic appeal to it, the small patches of light that shine through thick canopy of trees overhead, make the village feel vibrant and even protected from sight. Most houses are made mostly of wood, but it's hard to get a good grasp of how large the village is, since it extends in three dimensions. There's buildings above and below us as we follow the contact person over a few bridges. Shikamaru is trailing behind us with his hands in his pockets, smoking a cigarette and probably lost in his own little world.

"So you're from Suna and the kid over there is from Konoha, right?"

"Yeah, what about it? You know the Kazekage forwarded the mission to Konoha, don't you?"

"Yes, yes, that's right, but there was another group of travellers that passed by the village a few days ago. They also seemed to be a mixed group about your age, from various villages."

I'm not sure why I have to care but I might as well talk to him, I might get him to argue with me.

"Were they now? Where did they come from?"

"Hard to say, one of them was obviously from the Nation of Water, possibly from Kirigakure. The other I recognised as a missing nin."

"Oh? Is that so? Why didn't you capture him?"

"Well, we didn't even try to, Konoha hasn't ordered a death penalty on him, so we decided not to bother."

"Konoha, huh? How typical, always with their missing nin."

This did grab Shikamaru's attention, however. He actually seems more interested than I thought he would have been.

"What did he look like? Sort of pale and arrogant looking pretty boy with dark hair?" I understand immediately, he's describing that Sasuke kid from that mission three years ago. I guess it was a pretty big deal for them.

"Actually, yes that's a spot on description. Is he a friend of yours, or something?" The contact says, oblivious to the impact of this information. Shikamaru looks like he's in deep thought, yeah it was a pretty big event for Konoha, al right.

"When did they pass here exactly, and do you know where they were going to?" I suppose I can throw him a bone and ask a few helpful questions too. Truth be told it did always sit badly with me that we didn't succeed in that mission, I have my pride too. It's a little personal for me too.

"No more than a few days ago, they were heading to Earth nation. Maybe you'll find them there when you're on your mission. The one we are paying you for." He added that last part because he must think we consider Sasuke a bigger priority.

He's right, getting on Sasuke's trail isn't our mission. If we find him, then that'll be satisfying, but if we don't, so be it.

"Don't worry we'll do the B ranked mission that you paid us for. And no more." I add my own little emphasis, letting him know that we can drop the mission if it turns out we got more than we bargained for.

After waiting a little while in the village, Izumo and Kotetsu, and a bunch of miserable looking wounded aristocrats join us. Looks like nothing happened to them. While we were waiting, Shikamaru had been writing the report that would be sent to Konoha. I'm sure they'll forward a copy to Gaara about the situation, but we actually found out about the civil war in Rice field country a few months ago through our contacts.

We'll catch some sleep, and tomorrow we'll head towards Earth nation. It looks like Earth nation is involved in many things, and now Sasuke makes an appearance as well, things are looking interesting. We're bound to get a few exciting moments out of it. Shikamaru also seems to think so, he looks pretty nervous, staring at the roof of the forest and fidgeting with his lighter. Wonder what goes on in that head of his.


Alright, so in case you are unbelievably stupid and missed it, this was from Kankuro's perspective. I tried to make him somewhat clever but not quite the same level as Shikamaru, and rough around the edges. The big plot twist at the end is just because I liked the idea from chapter 1 of chasing and confronting Sasuke. Doing this from Kankuro's perspective is a novel idea, Sasuke's defection is always seen from people who have invested emotionally in him. Kankuro however doesn't care much for him and just considers this a failed mission of his. This is a different kind of motivation than what we usually see, so I thought it would be worthwhile to make this revelation in the Kankuro chapter. We'll see how it turns out, won't we? Next chapters will be more familiar from Shikamaru's perspective.