Okay, no time for long explanations this time. Chapters a bit rushed, but I won't have a computer for the next few days, so I cut the chapter short and here's what I have so far. Thanks to everyone who read and everyone who reviewed, especially to the anonymous ones who I couldn't respond to personally. I hope everyone enjoys.

The Pride of Suna

by Legendary Legacy

A Naruto Fanfic

Standard Disclaimer still applies.

Note: As far as I know, very, very little about Ame and Kusa has been shown in the series yet, therefore I've had to create OCs to represent the leaders and other main people from the two countries. If I'm wrong, and the leaders of the countries have already been shown before, you'll just have to overlook it in this story. This is where the AU part of the story could come in, I guess.

----------

Chapter 8

The Kazekage flipped idly through a few files that littered his desk, outwardly appearing to be engrossed in his work. On the inside, however, his mind was on anything but paperwork.

His thoughts kept returning to the conversation he'd had the day before with Orochimaru and the plan that he had proposed to him. The Kazekage, of course, was never a very trusting person, no matter what the circumstance, and every fiber of his being warned him that Orochimaru was NOT someone to be trusted, ever.

Imagine: Wanting to use the upcoming Chunin Exams as a cover-up for his plot to destroy Konohagakure. Did he not realize that Suna was currently bound with them through a treaty? What would the rest of the shinobi world think of Suna if they were to break that treaty in such a way? They'd never be trusted by anyone else again.

But, on the other hand, everything that the legendary sannin had said seemed to make so much sense. Suna was currently struggling because that imbecile daimyo refused to use Suna's own shinobi for missions. He continued to push jobs off on Konoha as a way of saving himself money. But if Konoha were gone, it would leave the daimyo with no other alternative than to rely on him. Besides, even with this treaty of theirs, it wasn't as though Konoha had ever done anything of benefit for Suna anyway.

And, with Konoha out of the way and Orochimaru and Otogakure by his side, Suna would become the most dominant village in all the lands. No other country would dare stand before them with the sort of manpower that they both possessed.

He sighed, running his hand through his short hair. Orochimaru hadn't been very specific about how this invasion was going to work, except for the few hints concerning Gaara. He frowned, Gaara was nigh unstoppable, but he didn't believe that his son and a few extra soldiers could topple the greatest shinobi village in the land so easily. There had to be something more to the Snake Sannin's plan. But what?

A sharp knock on his office door brought his attention back to the present.

"What is it?" he barked.

"Lord Kazekage-sama," a voice answered from behind the closed door. "A messenger from Konoha has just arrived, requesting an audience with you."

His eyes narrowed. He wasn't one to believe in such absurd things as karma or twisted irony, but the timing was still a little too convenient for his liking.

"Show him in," he said after a brief pause.

The doors opened and a man in his twenties walked in. Judging by the sour look on his face, it was apparent that the man felt he was simply wasting his time in being here. He stiffly lowered himself into a respectable bow before speaking.

"Forgive the unannounced intrusion, Kazekage-sama," he greeted. "But I have come to you today by the will of Lord Hokage-sama."

"I assumed as much," the Kazekage replied curtly, not in any mood to carry out formalities at the moment. "And what is so urgent that Sarutobi-dono would seek out my assistance."

The man sighed, as though the mere effort of forming words was becoming a burden on him. "Several days ago, a young boy ran off from our village: One, Uzumaki Naruto. The boy has been a great nuisance upon our village for many years now, has no family and is not a qualified shinobi, but Hokage-sama has taken to looking after the boy for some time. I have been sent here today to ask if you might have any information on the boy or possibly on his whereabouts."

The Yondaime listened, thankful for his ability to remain completely emotionless at all times, for this was something that he hadn't expected in the slightest. "It seems a rather strange request to seek out help from neighboring lands to help search so thoroughly for a person whom you claim is nothing but a nuisance," he commented.

"Under normal circumstances, you would be all too correct, sir," the shinobi assured him. "But this boy holds a certain sentimental value to our Hokage-sama. Furthermore, the night that he escaped, he attempted to steal a very valuable object from the village. He is to stand trial for theft and possible treason against Konoha if he is found."

The Kazekage hid a smirk. Of course the man before him was lying, or at the least, not giving the full truth. The way he spoke made it sound like he'd been reading from a script, and as he already knew from Naruto himself, everyone in Konoha knew about the existence of the Kyubi inside him. No wonder the ninja looked like he didn't want to be here. He'd never attempt to bring the demon child back to their village unless it was a direct order from the Hokage. Though that did bring up some confusion, as he had believed that no one, much less the Sandaime himself, had any feelings for the boy back in Konoha.

He held in a small sigh, knowing that there was no other choice that he could make at the moment.

"Forgive me," he responded. "But I know of no one by the name Uzumaki Naruto."

The man actually grinned in relief at hearing that statement, and stood up to leave. "I see. In that case, I apologize for wasting your time, Kazekage-sama. I will take my leave now."

The Kazekage almost laughed as the man exited the room. He certainly did detest the poor boy. Hadn't even bothered to give a description of what Naruto looked like, and then to give up so easily. If everyone in Konoha felt that way about Naruto, it was no wonder why he left.

The fact that his own son suffered the same way in his own village escaped him.

The smirk reappeared on his face. Well it didn't matter now. If they were foolish enough to let something so potentially useful slip through their fingers, then they didn't deserve to have him back. This also gave him all new possibilities for the approaching invasion.

Assuming the boy didn't mind a chance at a little payback, that is.

----------

In the less than two weeks time that Naruto had been living in Suna, he'd discovered something very interesting about desert-life. No matter how damn hot the place got during the day, it could still get really damn cold at night. Still, the slight shivers that occurred every few minutes were a welcome change from suffering from dehydration every day like he had been.

The new climate-oriented clothes helped, too. While he was preparing to leave, he'd remembered Temari talking about the special clothing designed for desert travel, and decided to find some for himself. But as luck or fate would have it, all the outfits at the store were expensive, and he'd barely had enough for one of them.

Remarkably, he'd happened to find an outfit that looked almost exactly like his normal orange suit, but it turned out to be a size too small for him. He'd finally ended up with a set of light-blue pants, blue and orange shirt and new black mesh undershirt. It really was amazing how light and soft the outfit felt. If only it had a little more orange to it.

The blond was sitting out on a large dune, giving him quite a view of the landscape. Unfortunately, other than his team's own little campground, there wasn't anything to look at other than sand, which grew boring after the first eleven or twelve seconds. Laying his head back into his folded hands, he changed his attention to the sky. Maybe counting stars would be a little more interesting than counting grains of sand.

Maybe.

There was another nice thing about the wide open desert at night. Unlike Konoha, there was absolutely nothing to distract from or block out the night sky. It really was quite a sight to behold.

"Still awake, huh?"

Craning his neck around, Naruto spotted Temari kneeling down about a foot behind him.

"Nah," he answered with a wide grin. "I'm just too excited."

Temari chuckled, shifting her body over until she was sitting beside him rather than behind him. "I guess nobody on the team plans to sleep tonight."

Naruto slowly glanced around the camp. Gaara stood several meters away, staring out into the desert like an unmoving statue. Kankuro's silhouette could be seen through the thin lining of his tent, fiddling with Karasu. And sitting next to the small fire that had been built was Baki, staring into the dancing flames and lost deep in thought.

"Baki-sensei's been kind of distant since we left, hasn't he?" Naruto mentioned.

Temari nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he's barely said a word since we left Suna. Usually he'd be going over missions briefing or something..."

"Maybe he's just nervous?" Naruto guessed. "I'll bet it's not every day that you get a mission to stop a war like this."

Temari shrugged. She knew that wasn't the reason, Baki had been doing this sort of thing for years. But since she didn't know the reason, she didn't care too much.

"We'll be in Ame tomorrow, won't we?" Naruto asked.

Temari nodded. "Yep. Getting anxious?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "My first real chance to show what I can do. I wonder if I'll get to fight someone."

"You'd better hope not, this is a peace mission, remember?"

"I know," he pouted. "But I really wanna show off my new techniques that you've been teaching me."

Temari rolled her eyes. "You know, most shinobi don't go around 'showing off' their techniques to others."

"Well I'm not most shinobi," Naruto replied proudly.

Temari had to grin at that. "That, you certainly aren't."

Naruto chuckled lightly and a peaceful silence took over. He turned his attention back up to the night sky, and Temari lowered herself to her back in order to do the same.

Neither blond spoke, as neither felt the need to. For Naruto, just knowing that there was someone who didn't mind being around him like this was enough to bring him peace of mind.

For Temari, spending time in silence with someone was a norm, as the only people she was ever really around were her brothers and sensei. Gaara never spoke unless he was prompted by someone (sometimes not even then), and Baki was the same unless he was giving instructions. Kankuro never had anything to say to her unless it was something snide or sarcastic, which would lead to a short squabble that never lasted very long anyway.

But it didn't really matter to her. Temari was always one to judge real comfort in silence. It was one thing to be able to carry on a conversation with someone without feeling uncomfortable, but when you were able to sit in silence with someone without it making you feel awkward and in need of finding anything to talk about, that signified true peace with whoever you were with.

She turned her head toward Naruto, finding him looking as peaceful as she was feeling. She smiled. For some reason, whether it had been the glow of the moonlight, or those strange feline marks on his cheeks, or just the fact that he was finally starting to lose some of the barely hidden pain that had drifted across his face all too often since she first met him, Temari was beginning to notice that Naruto was...not all that bad looking. He still had a bit of a softer, baby face, but he was definitely far from ugly.

God, I'm not that lonely, am I? she wondered. He's two years younger than me, after all.

That's what she told herself, but even with that, it was easy to see that the boy's past had done a real job of forcing him to grow up faster than he should have. Just like Gaara. The same face that depicted an immature, loudmouthed child could also look a little bit too much the way Gaara used to look before he had killed off all his emotions. She knew that Naruto had been hated back in Konoha for reasons unknown, but unlike Gaara, Naruto was still at a point where he still seemed to care about other people and what they thought about him. That was what kept him looking for acceptance in people rather than closing himself off from everyone else like her brother.

Naruto chose that moment to turn his head slightly, and noticed Temari staring at him out of the corner of his eye. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Realizing that she'd been caught staring, even if it was unintentionally, Temari turned her face away before the blush became visible on her face. "Oh, I just...um, nothing," she mumbled evasively.

"Oh," he said casually. "I thought maybe I had something on my face." He took a closer look at the girl. "Hey, are you okay? Your face looks red; you don't have heatstroke or something, do you?"

Temari's blush worsened as she watched Naruto reach out to touch her forehead. Quickly she grabbed his hand with her own, trying to keep her distance as nonchalantly as possible. "Of course not! I live in the desert, I never get heatstroke."

"Okay, that's good then," he said, but his frown deepened. "But you do look a little red, you sure you're-"

"Yes, I'm fine! Really!" She was getting irritated at not being able to reign in her sudden burst of emotion. When the hell did she become so weak-willed? And why the hell did Naruto have to keep looking at her like that?

"Ne, Temari-neechan?"

"What?" she asked, still not able to look at his face.

"Can I have my hand back?"

Aghast, Temari looked down to see that she still had a very firm grip on the boy's hand. She dropped it like a venomous snake and immediately sprang to her feet. "Well, I'm off to bed now! We have a big day tomorrow so I suggest you do the same. Goodnight!"

"Good-" She was gone before he could even finish. "-night? ...Well, that was weird."

He wondered if he'd said something to upset her. But he really hadn't said anything before he noticed her looking at him. A lopsided grin appeared on his face; maybe she was staring at him because she thought he was attractive.

He chuckled bitterly. Yeah, that would be the day. As if a girl as smart, talented and beautiful as Temari would ever...

...Had he said beautiful?

Well...thinking about it now, sure she was pretty, and had one killer body-

"Ahh, damnit!" Naruto cursed as softly as possible and bopped himself over the head. "Now I'm thinking weird things about Temari-neechan. Stupid Gaara and his stupid jutsu!"

He gave a disheartened sigh. And besides, even if she was easily as pretty as any other girl he'd ever really known, Sakura included, and even if she was nice and smart and a really talented shinobi, it wasn't like he really even knew her that well. If there really was any sort of real attraction to her that hadn't been brought up by sort-of seeing her naked (even if it wasn't "her"), he knew that the only other reason for it was because she was the one and only girl his age that seemed to enjoy being around him and didn't treat him like a disease-infected rat. If any other girl ever acted that way around him besides Temari, he was certain he'd feel the exact same way about her, too.

And then, of course, the only reason that Temari didn't treat him like everyone else was...because she didn't know his secret yet. Baki and the Kazekage might have been the exceptions, but if Temari or either of the others learned that he had a blood-thirsty demon living inside him, well...

This was depressing. Slowly, he got to his feet and made his way back to his tent, hoping to lose his worries in the comfort of sleep. He just had to get his mind back on the mission and away from thoughts about Temari.

But sadly, it was near impossible to control your own dreams, and Naruto's night was spent with many visions of evil demon foxes and a young, blond kunoichi.

----------

The team was up and moving, much to both Naruto and Kankuro's chagrin, before the sun came up. They had been traveling for almost two days now and were nearing the edge of the desert, and Baki had informed them that if they made good time, they could be in Ame before sunrise. It turned out to be a rather difficult two hours for Temari. Being the only real morning person in the group, having to travel with a grumpy Naruto and Kankuro, a brooding Baki, and a normal Gaara certainly was trying on the nerves.

The desert was soon left behind and it wasn't long before a large forest came into view. As the sun began to rise over the horizon, the group began feeling a steady increase of raindrops. Naruto didn't really mind, though he quickly wished that he had brought an umbrella with him, because it only took about two minutes before he was soaked to the bone. He glanced at the others. Temari was using her giant fan as a substitute umbrella, Kankuro had pulled out a large rain hat over his black hood and kept his head bowed down.

Probably didn't want his make-up to run, Naruto surmised with a weak smirk.

Baki walked on unfazed, while Gaara formed a small roof of sand above him, though Naruto couldn't help but notice the small amount of strain on the red-heads face as he walked. Intrigued, he moved next to Temari.

"What's up with Gaara?" he whispered.

Temari glanced back nervously at her brother, but relaxed a bit in understanding. "Gaara doesn't like water. When his sand gets wet, it becomes harder for him to manipulate. He'll probably be grumpy for the rest of the day, so better give him his space."

"Gotcha," Naruto said with a nod.

They walked a few more steps when Temari became wary that Naruto was still walking extremely close to her; close enough that their arms began brushing together as they moved. She felt like it shouldn't have been such a big deal, but after the whole ordeal from the night before it was making her a bit flustered.

"Na-Naruto?" she said, mentally cursing herself for having the audacity to stutter. "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean that you...seem to be moving rather close to me, don't you think?"

Naruto blinked, then gave her a sheepish grin. "Oh, well it's just...it's dry under here. I didn't think you'd mind."

Temari turned stone-faced. She didn't know what she had been expecting, but now she just felt foolish for expecting whatever it was.

Temari did not like to feel foolish. Especially not two times in less than a day by the same person.

Giving the boy a small shove, she took a good amount of satisfaction in watching him slip on the wet ground and fall on his butt into a shallow puddle of muddy water. Springing back to his feet, Naruto glared at the kunoichi.

"What the heck was that for?" he demanded.

Temari just smirked and stuck her tongue out at him, then turned and walked on; satisfied that justice had been served.

Naruto's glare faded away. "Damn," he muttered. "Now my new clothes are muddy. At least the rain'll clean 'em, I guess."

He sighed, wondering if all women were as hard to figure out as Temari was.

God, he hoped not.

----------

Nine a.m. found Team Baki being welcomed into the modestly sized building of the lead shinobi of Ame.

And it had rained the entire time. Fortunately for Naruto, about twenty minutes of whining, pleading and bribing finally wore Temari down enough to allow him back under her fan provided he kept as much distance from her as possible, which gave him time to dry off before meeting with the Ame representatives.

As they entered the gates, they were greeted by a man and woman, both with long black hair and looking to be in their mid-twenties. They both held wide, black umbrellas over their heads and were dressed in dark gray cloaks over greenish-brown pants. A weapon was visible hanging from both of their waists; from the man's, a kodachi. From the woman's, a kusarigama.

"Greetings, I am Baki," the jounin began, speaking for the first time in hours. "My team and I have come in accordance with your leader to assist you and your conflict with Kusagakure."

"Well met," the woman said with a small bow. "My name is Yamane Kasumi. This," she gestured to the man next to her. "-is my brother, Kazuya. We welcome you to Ame and are very-"

"I trust that there will be more of you coming?" the man, Kazuya, interrupted.

The man's vicious tone caught the Suna nin by surprise.

"I'm afraid not," Baki told them. "We are all that have been sent."

Kazuya snorted in disgust. "How typical of one of the 'Big Five'. The strongest nations in the world, but when a lesser country asks for help with a war, they send in a jounin and four children." He didn't even acknowledge the glares he received from Naruto, Kankuro and Temari as he turned to walk away.

"Brother," Kasumi said sternly.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, taking a few steps forward. "So what if we're kids? Our team can handle anything!"

Kazuya paused in mid-step, then without warning flung his umbrella into the air.

"Yorozu-Hari no Ame!"

Naruto's eyes widened as the umbrella opened at the peak of its ascent, then began spewing out hundreds of long, thin needles in his direction. Thinking quicker than he'd ever thought before, he formed a set of seals and drove his fist into the ground.

"Tatsumaki Shouheki!"

A modest wind instantly kicked up around him. It wasn't nearly as fierce as the ones Temari had done, but it was enough to do the trick of keeping the needles away from him. His grin of triumph didn't last, however, as Kazuya blew right through the small twister and cracked him between the eyes with the sheath of his sword. He landed hard on his back at the feet of his teammates.

Kazuya snorted again, leveling a hard glare toward the fallen boy. "A word of advice, Greenhorn: Someone as weak as you shouldn't have such a big mouth. It could get you killed one day." With that, he turned and walked back into the village.

Naruto slowly sat up, rubbing his head and glaring daggers at the man's back. Temari knelt down next to him and examined his head.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," he answered distractedly. The blow to his pride had hurt more than the blow to his head.

"Please excuse my brother's actions," Kasumi said with another bow. "I'm afraid he's been under a lot of stress in the last few weeks."

"Apologies are not necessary," Baki said calmly.

Kasumi nodded. "Then if you will please follow me, we will brief you on your mission at Lord Masamuri-sama's mansion."

The team began following the girl when Naruto felt Baki's hand on his shoulder.

"Uzumaki," he said softly. "I realize that this is your first mission, but you can not provoke the people who employ us."

"But he's the one who started it," Naruto said defensively. "You heard him; he doesn't think we're good enough!"

"That may be the case, but we are still here to do their bidding. As long as this mission continues, we are their tools, and they are allowed to treat and implement us as they see fit. That is the life of a shinobi."

Naruto silently frowned. He did remember something like that being said back in Iruka-sensei's classes, but he still didn't like it. "Yeah well...even if we are just tools to them, we're still humans, too. They should at least treat us like we are."

Baki shook his head and began walking to catch up with the others. "You've still got a lot to learn, Uzumaki."

----------

Kazuya was half way back to the mansion when he became aware of a slight stinging in his arm. He absently reached up with his left hand to rub it, but was surprised to pull his hand away sticky with blood. He pulled at his sleeve and revealed a shallow, two inch long cut just below his shoulder.

"What is this?" he wondered aloud. "That greenhorn's jutsu wasn't strong enough to cut me, and I know he never touched me himself. But I didn't see any of his teammates move either...who the hell wounded me then?"

He stared at the cut for a few more seconds before he noticed his sister and the Suna ninja approaching behind him. Scowling, he skulked onward without giving any of them a second glance.

----------

At the same time that the Suna team arrived in Ame, Team Gai had also arrived in Kusa.

"This place is beautiful," Tenten said in awe as they glanced around at all the tall grasses and brightly colored flowers that covered the grounds that they were walking by.

"Yosh! This land is most certainly enjoying its own springtime of youth, is it not, Gai-sensei?"

"Indeed it is, Lee! And what say you, Neji? Doesn't the brilliant sight make you want to shout out in joy of being alive?"

"Meh," the prodigy grunted disinterestedly.

The group made their way through the lively village until they came upon the manor of the village leader. It wasn't anything compared in size to the Hokage's tower, but it was still the largest building in the village. At the entrance, they were met by an elderly man dressed in thick grey robes and supporting himself on a long oak walking stick.

"Welcome friends, welcome!" he greeted cheerfully. "So you are the lot who have come to assist us, are you?"

"Yes," Gai stated. "My youthful students and I have come to bring peace back to the lands of Kusa and Ame!"

"Wonderful! Takara-sama will be most pleased, I'm sure. I am Halek, minister and advisor to Takara-sama. If you would follow me, I will take you to him."

He led them into the manor, where they were greeted by a portly, balding man in regal purple robes. Halek moved next to the man and slowly crouched down into a sitting position. "Gentlemen, and lady, I present to you the daimyo of Kusagakure, Shigata Takara. Takara-sama, these are the shinobi of Konoha that you requested."

The daimyo gave a deep belly-laugh. "Excellent, I've been anxiously awaiting your arrival since yesterday. I felt for sure that you wouldn't make it here in time, but it seems I've worried for nothing, doesn't it?" He laughed loudly again. "Please my guests, make yourselves comfortable. I would love to offer up a banquet for all of you, but I'm afraid our time is quite limited, so we really must get down to business. Perhaps something to drink, though?"

Not waiting for a response, he clapped his hands loudly. "Mina-chan, some refreshment for our guests!"

"Yes sir!" a voice called back from another room.

"Such a good girl, she is," he said lovingly. "Now then, have a seat and we can begin."

"He's a lively one, isn't he?" Tenten muttered under her breath.

"He is filled with the passion of youth," Lee agreed.

"Right then," the large man said. He stopped and frowned when he saw that Neji had remained standing while everyone else had sat. "Something wrong, boy?"

Neji crossed his arms and gave the Kusa men an accusing glare. "Sorry sir, I just find it difficult to relax when there are so many armed men hiding in the same room as I."

Takara's eyes widened, as did Halek's. The daimyo chuckled lightly. "You're quite the observant one, aren't you, sonny? Well, if you already know they're here, I suppose they might as well come out and say 'hi'."

Two shinobi instantly fell from the corners of the ceiling, while three more moved out from behind the large pillars next to Takara. All of them gripped kunai in their hands and began to encircle the Konoha team.

Tenten and Lee jumped to their feet. "Wow, betrayed before we even get started," the kunoichi said duly. "That's a first."

"Attack!" Takara shouted.

The five shinobi did just that. The first didn't even get an opportunity to strike before being sent into the far-end wall by a fierce kick from Lee. The second one to attack the spandex-clad boy managed to swing his weapon twice before finding himself planted head-first into the ceiling courtesy of an uppercut.

At the same time, Neji was deftly avoiding the wild swings and stabs from two other attackers, before sending a chakra-enhanced palm thrust into one of their chests, and then into the others, leaving them both groaning in pain on the floor.

The final attacker targeted Tenten, who parried every strike he threw at her. The man reared back for an full-powered stab, and ended up with nothing but air as the girl flipped up and behind him, giving him a hard kick to the back. As he stumbled to the floor, she grabbed a handful of her own kunai and, with a flick of her wrists, pinned him to the ground.

The entire exchange took exactly eight seconds.

Gai beamed proudly at his team's display of skill. As expected of my youthful children.

Takara and Halek looked around at their fallen soldiers in shock. But as the three genin turned their attention back to them, their anger was dissolved as Takara broke into another fit of bellowous laughter.

"Brilliant!" he shouted happily. "Splendid! Supurb! I knew that calling on Konoha for help was the best choice!"

"Ano...?" Tenten said, scratching the side of her head in puzzlement.

"Please forgive me, my friends," Halek spoke. "But that was just to test your abilities. When I saw how young you three were, I thought the Hokage had gone mad, sending a group of hatchlings on a mission to prevent a war. But you've all shown that you're very capable of assisting our cause. Of course, those men that you fought were only genin, like yourselves, but I didn't expect them to fall so quickly. It seems their instructors are going to have to work them harder if they hope to succeed in the chunin exams. I hope there are no ill feelings for the trickery?"

The three genin looked uncertain. They glanced at Gai, to see what he was thinking. The jounin sat lost in thought for a few seconds, then flashed them his patented 'Nice-Guy Pose'. That was enough for Lee.

"If Gai-sensei still trusts them, then I shall trust them as well!"

Neither Tenten nor Neji were half as convinced, but arguing at this point wouldn't help anything, so they decided to go along with their teammates. Neji did, however, keep his Byakugan activated.

----------

"Allow us to explain the situation that we're now facing," Kasumi began once everyone had settled into the room. Except for Kazuya, the others were all seated at a small table in the center of the medium-sized coucil room. The Ame nin chose instead to stand off in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall and not really looking at anyone.

"'Scuse me," Kankuro raised his hand. "Shouldn't someone else be here for this?"

The Ame siblings glanced at each other, but Kazuya seemed to understand first. "Masamuri-sama."

Kasumi nodded in affirmation. "Masamuri-sama is incapacitated at the moment. The two of us have been assigned to brief you of your mission in his stead."

That seemed to satisfy Kankuro, and he sat back and made himself comfortable.

"Now," the kunoichi began again. "This whole problem started exactly three weeks ago…"

----------

"-Three weeks ago a few of my men, who were stationed in a small village along the border between us and Amegakure, came back to me with important news." Takara explained.

The members of Team Gai were knelt down before him again, listening intently, though remained prepared for any more 'tests' that might appear.

"Apparently, they had overheard an old man running around the village claiming to have discovered gold a few miles to the south of them. The men went to see for themselves, and after some searching, found the area that the man had described. They dug for a while, and ended up returning with close to a pound of pure gold. By their calculations, the vane of gold in that area could easily stretch for miles in all directions. Naturally, we immediately sent out workers to begin excavating it, but we ran into a problem…"

----------

"By the time our men got to the site to begin their digging, they found men from Kusa trying to do the same."

Baki sighed inwardly. He could already figure out what this was leading up to.

"The gold was discovered almost exactly on the boundry line between Ame and Kusa. Fighting quickly broke out between the two sides, and we've been at a stand-off over it since then," Kasumi continued.

"So this is all a big squabble over who should rightfully have the gold?" Kankuro asked.

"It's not some measly little squabble," Kazuya sneered. "It's a serious matter, though I wouldn't expect any of you to understand that."

"Brother," Kasumi said with a firm glare. Kazuya just huffed, but stayed silent.

"He is right, though," the girl said, turning back to the group. "That gold is very important to the land of Ame…"

----------

"The land of Kusa has been in a slump as of late," Halek informed them, taking up there the daimyo had left off. "Our main sources of income come from shinobi jobs and exporting vegetation to the lands of Suna, Iwa and even Kumo. However, missions have been few and far between in the last few months, and a longer-than-average winter season has put a hampering on our crops this year."

"If we had this gold," Takara continued. "We wouldn't have to worry about any further money problems for a very long time. However, it would seem that Ame desires it just as much as we."

"If that is the case," Lee said. "Then could you not simply split the gold with Ame? Surely there is enough that could keep both of your countries in high financial support?"

Takara chuckled. "Yes, we thought so too, and at first we believed that Ame would be willing to compromise as well, but…"

----------

"We arranged a peace meeting to discuss how we would divide the gold two weeks ago. There was a lot of tension, and we knew that Kusa didn't trust us to keep our word; their daimyo, Shigata Takara didn't even come to the negotiations. After some initial bickering, we eventually believed that we had come to an official agreement. But then things started going wrong."

"Like what?" Naruto questioned.

"Like one of their representatives suddenly dying," Kazuya said in a dry tone.

"What?" the blond boy said in shock.

"Yes," Kasumi confirmed. "Halfway through the meeting, one of the Kusa men suddenly began coughing blood, and fell over dead just seconds later."

"Was it some type of assassination?" Temari asked.

"No, not by any of our men, at least. But as you can imagine, Kusa believed otherwise. They called off all talks of peace and were ready to fight us for possession of the gold. Masamuri-sama did all he could to regain their trust, sending them peace offerings every day for the next five days. Kusa eventually relented, and agreed to meet again for more talk."

----------

"We met again one week after the first. I had already been fearful of an attack on my life before, so I stayed behind once again, but sent several of our most talented shinobi along with our mediators to ensure that another tragedy didn't happen."

"Did it?" Neji asked.

"In a sense, yes," the daimyo answered. "But this time it was the Amegakure leader Masamuri who was suddenly stricken with a sickness."

"Sickness?" Lee repeated.

"Maybe, though the general thought at the time was poison. Ame accused us of seeking vengence for what happened the week before, though I can assure you, just as I assured them, that none of my men had anything to do with it. Halek was there himself, and he's my right-hand man. He never would have allowed anything so wreckless to happen during such a delicate time."

The wisened, old man nodded at the statement. "Masamuri looked completely fine when he first showed up at the meeting, but shortly after arriving, I noticed he started to grow pale. His breathing became labored and he finally collapsed."

----------

"So did Masamuri-san-?"

"No, luckily," Kazuya said, cutting Temari off. "He's still alive, but he has yet to recover from the incident."

"Our medic-nins and doctors spent hours examining him, but found no traces of poison or even any sort of virus or disease in Masamuri-sama's body. They finally concluded that he had merely collapsed due to a build up of stress. We gave our apologies to Kusa for our accusations, and we have both agreed to give one more chance to a treaty."

----------

"And that is where we sit right now," Halek said. "Today will be our third meeting with Ame, and that is the reason that you have been hired."

"You want us to oversee the meeting with you?" Tenten guessed.

"Correct," the old man said. "We still can't rule out the possibility that this is all a big scheme by Ame to get all the gold for themselves. Unfortunately, there's also the possibility that there is another outside party who also knows about the treasure, and is using these meetings as a way to stir up dissention between our two countries for their own gain. Therefore, while this meeting is going on, we will need you four to be vigilant. You will be responsible for spotting anything even remotely suspicious that could lead to another assassination attempt. If this meeting doesn't go as planned, there will be no further peace talks, and we will have no choice but to use force against Ame."

"Yosh! Fear not, Takara-sama," Gai shouted with enthusiasm. "My bright, youthful students and I shall see to it that no war will befall your beautiful country, and if we fail, then we shall all run one thousand laps around your village!"

"Don't make promises for us!" Tenten berated him.

Takara laughed again. "Well I don't beleive something so strenuous will be necessary, but I'm most thankful that we have your support."

Halek stood back up, wobbling slightly with his cane. "We leave for the border in two hours. Please use this time to prepare yourselves."

----------

Team Baki had left the room, and made their way outside to see that the rain had finally stopped. Kankuro was the first to speak.

"So basically, the only reason we're really here is to be watch dogs."

"Correct," Baki said. "But there's something more to this mission than what we've been told."

"You think that they're keeping something from us?" Temari asked.

"Yes, though I don't know what it might be."

"It could be the work of another country, you know?" Kankuro added. "Both sides get attacked, war breaks out, whoever it is comes in and sweeps the whole place clean in the end."

Baki hummed softly. He turned to the other members of his team, who had yet to speak their opinions. He knew that Gaara wouldn't, but Naruto...

"Uzumaki?" The boy's head shot up at hearing his name. "Anything to add?"

Naruto rubbed his chin, looking to be deep in thought. "All I know for sure...is that Kazuya guy is a jerk and I'd love to punch him in the face! I don't trust him at all!"

Baki rolled his eyes. Not groundbreaking, but something that he might have come to expect from Naruto.

"We'll be leaving soon, so don't wander far," he told them. "We can't afford mistakes in this mission."

-----------

"Those kids look like they could be a problem."

"I'm not worried."

"Perhaps you should be. Who knows what the consequences could be if they did something to screw this up?"

"Yes, you don't have to remind me. I'm well aware of how delicate this is. Just stay on guard, give warning to the men, and be prepared to deal with them when the time comes."

"Of course."

End Chapter 8

----------

Yorozu Hari no Ame: Roughly translated to "Rain of Ten Thousand Needles"

Busy, busy busy. No time to chat this time. Next chapter out soon, already halfway written because I had to cut this chapter short. Won't be able to write for several days, but hope to have the next part out in two weeks time. Thanks all for reading, reviewing, and sticking with me to this point. Much love and peace to you all.

LL