AN: Sorry it's been so long since the last update.
Anyway, it's rather short and is mostly a filler chapter. The next chapter will probably move on to the next arc and skip ahead the remaining time she's training with Jiraiya.
Lot's of surprises for then, one I wasn't too sure about until recently, but you'll have to wait till the next chapter of the one after it to find out what I mean.
A Quiet Thunder Arc.
Eternal Spiral.
Chapter 11: Kiyoshi's First Words (Jiraiya Must Die).
They spent more time in Suna then Naruto had thought they would.
It wasn't exactly a hot spot for traveling Konoha ninja. The alliance between the leaf and sand was still growing from it's shaky foundations after the chūnin exam the year before.
So she hardly had to worry about someone stumbling upon her, the twins, or Jiraiya. If one happened to be coming by Gaara warned her so she could stay inside and place a henge over herself in case she couldn't avoid being seen.
Sunagakure was also the leading village for wind chakra affinities, it was as common in Suna as fire was in Konoha.
Not surprisingly water was the least common, though it made Naruto wonder why wind was the least common in Konoha when there wasn't a lack of wind.
Maybe it was simply a coincidence that water was the rarest chakra one had in Suna, a desert were water was scarce.
The water Suna drank actually came from an underground well the ran miles and miles to find the large source of water used long before Gaara or his generation was even a thought in their great grandparents mind.
The point was, this allowed her to focus a bit more on her chakra nature. While Wind was her dominant affinity she also had minor affinities for water and new a couple fire ninjutsu's as well.
The fire jutsu's she knew were passed to her by Sasuke, though hers weren't as powerful since she had such a minor affinity for them and that was through hard work and effort.
The affinities she'd been born with were wind and water.
Gaara had allowed them to stay in a small home fit for a family of about four not far from his own family estate – which wasn't overly large or fancy but was one of the largest properties in terms of Sunagakure.
She had been in Suna for about six months now, and the twins had gotten bigger in this time and were now seven months old.
They'd begun to crawl all over the place a while ago, and learning words, or trying too anyways. They were both looking more and more like her and Sasuke each day.
Speaking of Sasuke, she regretfully hadn't seen him but once in the last seven months and that was when she'd met him outside Suna.
She knew Gaara couldn't allow Sasuke inside the village, and that he didn't trust him enough if he could allow it.
So, she'd gone to the village closest to Suna which was about twenty or so miles away – that was simply an estimate, it might have been a little more or less.
She herself had changed much, though her hair had grown longer but she'd decided to trim it a bit from where it nearly reached her ankles to where her calf's like it had been a year ago.
Many had asked why she kept her hair so long in the past, one such person having been Sakura who had an encounter with her hair being used against her by enemy ninja. Her answer was simple, she just liked her hair long, it made the resemblance to her mother more pronounced since the longer her hair got the more tame it became.
For her it was a connection to the mother she'd never known, from pictures her mother had kept her red hair at a similar length up until she died.
Despite having stayed in Suna as she had for so long, despite Ero-sennin's occasional whining, she still trained regularly. She had to continue to get stronger, to protect her family.
When she couldn't be with the twins, Temari had taken a liking to them and volunteered to watch them as long as she wasn't on a mission or busy.
Thankfully, she'd worked a way to train and keep an eye on the twins at the same time – she'd never been so happy she'd learned the shadow clone before now.
Usually the shadow clones trained while she trained on something none physical, like fūinjutsu, and made sure Nariko and Kiyoshi didn't get into trouble.
It wasn't easy at first, balancing the twins with training, but she'd gotten the hang of it since they were born in December.
"Naruto, you okay?" Temari asked, raising an eyebrow at the younger blonde.
Temari was one who'd taken the most interest in helping her hone her wind affinity, being a wind mistress herself.
She'd even gifted her with two bladed hand fan's which weren't really her style at first... but than she'd never used an weapon besides her mother's katana's – and that was still a work in progress – and kunai or shuriken.
Over the months Temari had taught her everything she knew of using a fan in battle, and Naruto would admit it made learning her wind affinity that much easier.
She was also learning she could channel her water affinity through it... though it was a lot harder to do. Especially in Suna.
Even then there were some Suiton techniques that didn't need large amounts of water to be nearby.
The moisture naturally around a person usually helped most water jutsu's, but it was easier when there was water nearby.
Since there wasn't a lot of water in Suna she didn't really do much with her second affinity.
It didn't mater to her though, her mother's main affinity had been water so she had an abundance of scrolls in Konoha hidden away that had come from her mother.
Some her mother had brought from Uzushio, others were creations of hers and others were just jutsu scrolls from Konoha. Her mother was a bit of a pack rat it seemed.
"Sorry, I got lot in thought," Naruto said, smiling. "What did you ask?"
"I asked you planned to take Nariko and Kiyoshi with you tomorrow to meet with Uchiha?"
Naruto was bothered by the fact Temari didn't use an all that nice tone when she said 'Uchiha', she knew Temari, like Gaara wasn't very fond of Sasuke. They both still held a grudge of sorts because of how much he'd hurt her in the past.
Naruto smiled lightly at her friend.
"I'm thinking of taking them with us," she said, knowing it was Temari who Gaara usually had escort her to the village she met Sasuke in. "Sasuke hasn't seen the twins in months."
Temari nodded, deciding to remain silent.
She saw how much Naruto seemed to love the dark haired avenger, and though she didn't completely approve she knew it was a lost cause to argue.
Not only did the Uchiha and Naruto have children together, but she could see Naruto's love was true.
It had to be to forgive him for everything he'd done.
"Alright, I'll be ready to go around ten, if that's alright," Temari said and Naruto nodded.
"It's fine. By the way, is Kankurō watching the twins currently..." Naruto trailed off and Temari chuckled.
"As far as I know he and a genin team are watching them," Temari said, closing her fan. "Come on, we'll head back now. You've come pretty far with that wind jutsu though.
Naruto said, "Thank you, I know I wouldn't have gotten this good using my fan's if not for you."
Temari nodded, watching as Naruto tucked the two hand fans into her dark blue sash The battle-like kimono she wore was very similar to the one Temari had begun to ware, but hers was a bit different.
Temari's was dark purple, which had a red sash, and she wore a pair of dark red fingerless gloves, similar in color to her sash. The similarities between kimono's was almost shocking at first glance.
The two girls walked comfortably towards the Sabaku home, talking about whatever came up along the way. Naruto found she enjoyed Suna, the heat wasn't all that bad.
She'd never had that much of a problem with heat waves, and a few had hit Konoha even though the place usually had pretty mild weather compared to other places.
The only really bad weather Suna truly had were wind storms, and the occasional really intense heat wave.
The best thing about Suna for her was the lack of glares turned on her – which while not as bad as when she was younger were still there in Konoha.
She had learned to live with it, but it was nice to go somewhere and not have to deal with it.
"We're home!" Temari called out once they entered, taking off their shoes and slipping on slippers for inside the home.
Naruto and Temari entered into the living area to find Kankurō in a corner, crouched almost in a fatal position with one of his puppets as a shield, while the genin team was long gone leaving Kankurō and Jiraiya with the rest of the job.
Naruto raised an eyebrow at the older boy in the corner who was muttering to himself about something or other.
"Kankurō, what are you doing?" Temari asked, and moments later Jiraiya entered with the twins and two women about mid twenties attached to his side.
Naruto and Temari both blinked and slowly narrowed their eyes at the older white haired man.
Kankurō chuckled bitterly in his corner, and said, "That's why I'm never babysitting again. It'll only get me in trouble."
Naruto almost didn't understand what he meant, but soon realized the boy must have lost the twins to Jiraiya, who'd disappeared with them somewhere.
"Shit," Jiraiya said, seeing the two girls home.
Kiyoshi giggled and echoed, "Shit."
Even though it was a bit mispronounced for, seeing as Kiyoshi was only seven months old, he still got the word out recognizable.
Naruto's eyes nearly glowed with her maternal rage.
Jiraiya gulped at the aura that surrounded his goddaughter, and the fact her long hair was standing up like nine-tails (much as he remembered Kushina's doing) told him he was in trouble.
"Ero-sennin!" Naruto nearly growled out. "Run."
Jiraiya chuckled nervously, placed one of the twins in either woman's arms beside him, and turned tail, running back to the door.
Temari sweat-dropped as Naruto ran after the toad sannin before she walked over to the confused girls and took the twins from them.
"You can go now," Temari said. "I'm sorry about Jiraiya-sama."
The two woman didn't say anything but left anyways. Turning around Temari saw that her brother had emerged from his corner, his puppet back on his back.
"Why were you in the corner, again?" she asked.
Kankurō blanched.
"Between Naurto's demonic spawn, and the three devils someone called genin... I'm never babysitting again."
Kankurō walked off, shuddering slightly and Temari blinked, frowning at her brother and wondering if he'd taken one too many knocks to the head.
"Wonder if Naru plans to leave Jiraiya alive?" she wondered, leaving the room with the twins.
It was doubtful she decided, that was Kiyoshi's first word after all.
