MHJ: PLEASE WATCH NARUTO SHIPPUDEN 182 [Gaara's Bond] (FILLER) BEFORE READING THIS CHAPTER. Otherwise, you will be very confused.

Rasuization - Hahaa yeah aren't they adorable? xD Aww thanks :) I'm glad you're liking the story! ^^ and npp~~


Previously...

Kyoko grinned. "Well, as long as you understand that, good luck today. Though I wonder why you're being sent out again when you just got back last night."

"We don't know either," Yaoki admitted.

"I heard Nobu-sama recommended us for this mission," Korobi interjected.

At the mention of Nobu, Kyoko's eyebrows shot up before she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Really? That's odd..." She brushed her suspicion off after a moment and glanced over her shoulder, scanning the area for Gaara. Catching sight of the redhead making his way over with Temari and Kankuro dogging his steps, she broke out with a grin and turned fully, waving her entire arm as she shouted, "Hey guys!"

"Kyoko," Gaara said once he was within Kyoko's hearing range. He stopped before them, crossing his arms. "You didn't have to come send me off."

"I'm still your senior," Kyoko teased in return. "You can't boss me around until you hit a higher rank than me."

"How can she be so casual with Gaara-sama?" Yaoki whispered to Korobi. The other puppet master just shrugged.

Rolling his eyes, Gaara turned to the two rookies.

They tried not to shiver under his gaze.

"Yaoki and Korobi?" the redhead said calmly.

"Y-yes, sir," the two exclaimed.

"I-I'm Yaoki," Yaoki said. He pointed over at his partner. "That's Korobi."

"H-hello," the other puppet master said weakly.

Gaara nodded. "Let's move out."

"Good luck, Gaara!" Kyoko chirped, waving as the three moved toward the entrance.

The redhead waved back a little awkwardly, but Kyoko grinned anyways, satisfied with the response. When the three disappeared from the village boundaries, Kyoko turned to face Temari and Kankuro. "Shall we look for your mom's contract today?"

Temari grinned. "If you're up for it."

"Of course!" Kyoko chirped, throwing an arm around her fellow wind-user. Glancing at Kankuro as they all started heading back, she asked, "What are you doing today, Kankuro-baka?"

"I'll be working on my new puppet, Kyoko-gaki," the puppet master replied smoothly.

"If you ask me, you're both morons," Temari sighed.

Chapter 11: Gaara's Bond

"Respect your fellow human being, treat them fairly, disagree with them honestly, enjoy their friendship, explore your thoughts about one another candidly, work together for a common goal and help one another achieve it." — Bill Bradley

Temari's head snapped up when the door opened, relief flooding her eyes while her face remained stone-cold. "Good, you're here."

Brow furrowed slightly, Kyoko closed the door behind her, glancing around at the weary-looking council members. "Yeah, what's up? Not that I'm complaining or anything, but I thought I was off today."

"Yes, change of plans," Kotone said impatiently. Usually strong and proud, today she looked jaded and old. "We need you to head out immediately after Gaara's team."

Kyoko blinked in surprise before frowning, automatically shifting her body into a more alert stance as she registered the importance of the situation. "Why? What happened?"

Temari took that moment to jump in. Crossing her arms, she said coldly, "Nobu secretly sent an assassination troop after Gaara."

Kyoko's eyes widened. "What?" Her eyes snapped toward Nobu's spot, finding empty space in place of the sneering fifty-year-old, before returning to Temari. "An assassination troop? Why, that little—" remembering at the last minute that she was in the presence of the village council, she clamped her mouth shut, letting out a frustrated growl instead as she flexed her tense fingers out of anger.

Temari sighed and turned to the council. "Why would he jeopardize the alliance so soon after it was fixed?"

"Stubborn old coot's too blinded by his hate for Gaara," one of the other councilmen sighed.

'I'd like to blind him with something else,' Kyoko thought furiously, mind flooding with images of kunai and other small blades.

"He's been suspended of Senior duties," Yura quickly assured them, making calming motions with his hands at Kyoko, who was visibly seething. "You two are close to Gaara so we need you to head out for some damage control. You know, collect bodies if necessary and talk through any resulting problems with the Leaf team."

Temari sighed and turned to Kyoko. "Gaara's had a whole day's head start so we'd better move fast."

Kyoko closed her eyes and took a deep breath before nodding, still fuming but recomposed enough to think straight. "Let's go."


Gaara sighed as the rendezvous point with Leaf finally came into view. The genin he was assigned really were rookies. They had been forced to take several detours when confronted with terrain that could have been crossed easily with chakra to the feet, but neither genin had mastered even that juvenile technique. He couldn't even use his sand to assist them since they flinched at the mere sight of his golden weapon.

It was his hope that they hadn't made the Leaf team wait too long.

As they approached the river, a loud obnoxious voice could be heard. "They're late? What jerks!"

With a start, Gaara realized that he recognized the voice.

"Those guys in the Sand Village," Uzumaki Naruto continued obliviously, "you can never tell what they're thinking. They're sort of scary. If they expect to be friends with the Leaf Village, they should be more prompt."

Despite knowing that the blonde was referring to him, Gaara repressed all thoughts that weren't about the mission. Keeping it professional, he stepped out onto the river. "Sorry we're late."

Naruto jumped while his teammates—the pink-haired girl and Uchiha—stared in shock. Only the silver-haired leader seemed unaffected by Gaara's appearance.

"G-G-Gaara?" Naruto gasped, whirling around to face the redhead.

Gaara kept his face as clear as ever, giving no indication that Naruto was someone who had made a huge impact on his life.

"Oh, don't worry, Gaara. You're right on time," Kakashi said, trying to soothe the tense atmosphere. His eyes curled into crescents as he presumably smiled beneath his mask. "We got here a little early, that's all."

"No," Gaara disagreed, sensing the disturbance in the water as his subordinates, unable to walk on water yet, no doubt walked right into the river.

"Pardon us," Yaoki said sheepishly.

"Sorry," Korobi added.

The two were waist-deep in the river, wading across with their puppet cases held over their heads.

"We were a little late," Gaara said. Then, still rather unfamiliar with the action, he bowed slightly. "My apologies."

Straightening up, he felt a small flare of pride at the surprised expressions on the Leaf shinobi's faces.

Suddenly, Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly and he swooped down, grabbing a rock and tossing it up at Gaara's face. Unperturbed, the redhead hardly blinked as sand predictably swept the rock aside.

Exasperated, the silver-haired jonin pulled on Naruto's ear, extracting a yelp of pain from the blonde. "What are you doing, Naruto?"

"Eh, just a way of greeting him," Naruto replied sheepishly with a wince. He pointed at Gaara without looking away from his sensei. "Throwing rocks can't hurt No Brows anyway, right?" He looked back at Gaara, noticing that he was suddenly standing alone. "Huh? Where are the other two?"

Gaara glanced back.

The two genin were suddenly back on the other side of the river, cowering behind some bushes.

"H-he made Gaara-sama use his Ultimate Defense," Yaoki squeaked.

"How scary is that?" Korobi added fearfully.

Pulling away from Kakashi, Naruto stared at the two Sand genin as he rubbed his ear. "What's with them? They're such wimps." Glancing back at Gaara, he suddenly asked, "Say, why aren't Makeup Dude and Fan Lady with you?"

At that, the pink-haired girl pulled on Naruto's other ear. "You mean, Kankuro and Temari."

Slightly amused at Naruto's way of referring to his siblings, Gaara replied, "I'm currently enlisted under the regular forces." Glancing back at the rookies again, he continued, "Let me introduce you to my subordinates, Yaoki and Korobi."

Each genin raised a hand in response to their name.

The jonin took up his team's introductions. "I'm Hatake Kakashi, the one in charge of this mission. This is Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke."

"Hello!" Yaoki called.

Korobi waved. "Pleased to meet you!"

Gaara faced the Leaf team, mentally sighing again. "They're still rookies. Please be patient with them."


"Oi, Kyoko, wake up already!" Temari snapped, shaking the black-haired kunoichi by her shoulders.

Groaning, Kyoko sat up, looking rather haggard as she ran a hand down her face exhaustedly. "Alright, alright, I'm up."

"Finally," Temari sighed. "Hurry, we need to get a move on. Gaara's probably met up with the Leaf team already."

Yawning, Kyoko nodded, still a little sluggish from spending the previous day steering her sand sled. "Okay, can you pack up my stuff while I summon my pack?"

Temari nodded. As Kyoko moved to get out of her sleeping bag, Temari caught her shoulder. "Oh, and sorry for making you use so much chakra now—"

Kyoko waved it off. "No big deal. How else are we going to catch up to Gaara?"


Standing high up in the trees where there was a good view of the mountain they were targeting, Gaara and Kakashi's teams faced each other.

"Now that we've joined up," Kakashi started. "Gaara's team will approach from the western side of the mountain. My Team 7 will approach from the east, and we'll simultaneously attack the bandits who are based at the summit. The assault will commence at midnight. Does that sound okay?"

Gaara nodded, but Naruto didn't seem satisfied.

"There's no need to wait that long," the blonde grumbled, hands folded casually behind his head. "We can take out those bandits by ourselves!"

"The bandits are made up of rogue ninja," Kakashi told him patiently. "Word has it that chunin-class ninja are among them."

"He's right, Naruto," Sakura exclaimed. "You might end up putting us all in danger!"

Pouting at the repercussions he was receiving, Naruto muttered, "Fine, I got it."

Slightly amused, Gaara cut in, "We'll go with your strategy." He then hesitated, wondering if he should bring up something that had been bothering him for a while. Deciding not to jeopardize the mission, he added, "There's something I need to discuss with you." With that, he jumped down, hearing Kakashi follow.

"Yes?" the jonin asked once they were on the forest floor.

"I'm being followed," Gaara said bluntly.

Kakashi's only visible eyebrow rose. "Someone's tracking you?"

Gaara nodded, glancing off in the direction of Suna. "Yes. Hopefully there's no interference, but I thought you should know."

"You seem to have someone in mind," Kakashi said calmly after a second.

'Nobu,' Gaara thought darkly despite having no evidence, though he responded with, "The higher-ups of my village hate me." He turned back to Kakashi. "I may cause you trouble, but—"

"That's fine with me," Kakashi cut in. Gaara looked up in shock, but Kakashi just smiled, his eye curving again. "This mission will only be meaningful if the Leaf and Sand villages tighten their bonds. The more problems we face together, the stronger our bond will become."

Speechless, Gaara looked down, hiding the confusion in his eyes. Why was a stranger from an enemy-turned-ally village being so kind towards him? Recognizing that the conversation was over, Kakashi turned and leapt back up.

"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura," he called. "We're leaving now."

"Hai," the genin called back, leaping off.

Naruto paused before he left, grinning down at Gaara. "Don't be late this time, Gaara!"

With that, he leapt after his team. Surprised by the blonde's friendly attitude towards him, Gaara shook his head and jumped back up to the branch, facing his own team. "We're leaving, too."

He leapt forward, hearing the two genin fall into step several yards behind him. Despite the distance, he could hear them whispering perfectly.

"I had heard rumors that Gaara-sama had changed," Yaoki whispered. "But...the Ultimate Defense... Countless ninja have become victims of his wrath."

Korobi shivered. "I hope nothing goes wrong."

At that moment, a familiar whistling sound caught Gaara's attention and he stopped, whipping around.

Korobi and Yaoki, probably thinking he was glaring at them, yelped and stopped on a branch. As the whistling sound that neither genin noticed grew louder to Gaara's tuned ears, he sent out a massive stream of sand. The two rookies screamed, shielding themselves with their arms, but the stream of sand jetted between them, knocking several projectiles out of the air.

As they finally realized what was going on, they turned as well.

"A foe?" Korobi gasped.

"Is it the bandits?" Yaoki guessed.

"They're assassins," Gaara corrected, a glare settled deep in his face as he faced something he hadn't since Saniiro's death. "Their target is me."


They had only been traveling for a minute or two before Kakashi lifted a hand, bringing his team to a halt.

"What's wrong, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.

Ignoring the blonde, Kakashi looked straight past his team. "How long do you intend to tail us? Show yourself!"

"Huh?" Naruto asked, confused.

An unseen voice chuckled. "No wonder they call you Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye. I thought I had hid my presence. Please continue on your way." Amongst the leaves of a branch, a shinobi appeared, a blue oni mask covering his face. Several other shinobi with varying types of similar masks blurred into view around them. "We have no intention of interfering with the missions of allied nations."

Kakashi frowned. "An allied nation? Do you belong to the Sand Village?"

Stepping out into the open, the blue-masked one nodded. "Please think of us as...auditors."

Naruto frowned, still confused. "Auditors?"

"As in inspectors," Sakura explained. "They're probably here to observe the outcome of this mission from behind the scene."

"And they need to wear masks for that?" Naruto asked dubiously, crossing his arms as he eyed the blue-masked one. "I don't trust them."

"Actually," Kakashi suddenly said. "They don't trust Gaara. Isn't that it?"

The blue-masked one was silent for a moment. "To the Sand Village, Gaara-sama's power... Rather, because we are the Sand Village, Gaara-sama's power poses a serious threat to us. You've seen Gaara-sama's jutsu. Don't you agree that it is a power that shouldn't exist?" From the looks on the genin's faces, it was clear that they had realized the Suna shinobi's true intentions. "It's not a bad proposition for the Leaf Village either. After all, your neighboring village will have one less powerful weapon."

"How cruel," Sakura whispered. "He's a ninja from your village."

Blue Mask nearly scoffed. "You understand, don't you? Gaara-sama is a serious threat to both our villages and cannot continue to exist!"

At that, Naruto charged, landing a punch right in the center of Blue Mask's face, cracking the mask in the process. Without a word, the blonde leapt off, no doubt to find Gaara. Immediately, the other Suna shinobi sent kunai at him, only for all the projectiles to be countered by Sasuke, allowing Naruto to escape.

Back on his feet, Blue Mask roared, "Don't let them go!"

"Surely there are those who are sympathetic towards Gaara among the Sand Village," Kakashi said, resting a hand on Blue Mask's shoulder. Blue sparks crackled along his fingers. "You people weren't able to accept Gaara, and I can understand your point. But don't jump to the conclusion that we feel the same way."

Lightning erupted.


"What's wrong?" Temari demanded when Areno stopped, looking around, confused.

"I think they've split up here," Kyoko said grimly, her dingo nodding in confirmation. "Half the assassination squad went after Gaara and the other half seems to have gone after the Leaf team."

Sighing, Temari pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, okay, looks like we're going to have to split up as well. I'll go after the half targeting Gaara and you find the ones tailing the Leaf team."

Kyoko nodded, digging a nail into the bite on her thumb, causing a little blood to surface again. She slammed her hand on the ground, summoning another adult dingo. "Kosa, lead Temari to Gaara."

"Hai, Kyoko-sama," the male dingo said, quickly picking up Gaara's scent.

"Good luck," Temari called as she followed the dingo.

"You too!" Kyoko shouted after her. Turning to Areno, she nodded. "Come on, let's find the others."


Gaara's position was already compromised by the time Temari found him. The shield of sand cocooning him was wrapped in glowing chakra strings, dampened by water from the puppets dancing around him. Cracks were appearing in the sand armor covering his face.

"Gaara!" Temari screamed in alarm. With a burst of chakra, she was in front of him, arms splayed out as she glared at the white-masked leader. "Oi, I'm here by order of the Suna Council. Your mission has been terminated! Cease your attack at once and return to Suna!"

The other assassins surrounding them hesitated at this, but White Mask seemed unconvinced.

"Oh?" he said, his puppets still dancing. "And do you have proof of this termination?"

"Yea—" Temari started, her hand going to her sash. Upon feeling nothing tucked into the sash, she froze. 'Shit, Kyoko's carrying it.'

White Mask smirked behind his mask. "I didn't think so. Out of the way, Temari-sama or you'll be treated as a traitor of Suna."

Scowling, Temari grabbed her fan. "Guess there's no choice but to physically knock some sense into you guys."

Suddenly, an orange blur shot up from below, slicing through White Mask's chakra threads. Nothing to control them anymore, the two puppets surrounding Gaara collapsed to the forest floor.

"What?" White Mask snarled, looking around.

There was a brief rustle of leaves before a barrage of Naruto's leapt from the treetops, attacking the first assassins they encountered. In the midst of the confusion, Gaara leapt to safety.

"Gaara!" the symphony of Naruto's cried. "We've come to rescue you!"

White Mask snarled at his men, "Those are just shadow clones! Don't be unnerved; only one of them is real!"

"He's not alone!" a voice suddenly cried from a lower branch.

"Yeah, we're not going to run anymore," another voice added. "Gaara-sama is our friend!"

Shocked, Temari and Gaara looked down, spotting Yaoki and Korobi wielding ordinary sticks as they whacked several assassins over the head with them.

"Gaara-sama, we're sorry we ran off without you!" Yaoki shouted, struggling with an assassin.

Pushed back to back with Yaoki, Korobi cried out, "We're going to fight too! Alongside you!"

Despite their eagerness to help Gaara, none of the three genin stood a chance to the assassination squad. Naruto's shadow clones were easily being picked off one by one while Yaoki and Korobi were quickly being overwhelmed.

"Temari," Gaara suddenly said quietly. His sister looked up, seeing him clench his fist, squeezing the water out of a small handful of sand. "It would be...okay to attack these people?"

Even now, he was thinking of the assassins as people of his own village rather than enemies. Temari grinned widely. "Go for it, Gaara. Just try not to kill them."

Wordlessly, Gaara looked down at the white-masked leader standing several branches below and jumped.

"Damn small fries," the man was muttering, watching his men take down the three genin.

Landing behind him, Gaara straightened.

"The higher-ups have taken my power lightly," the redhead mused, drawing the man's attention. The look in his eyes sharpened into a glare as he lifted his fist. "It'll take more than this to kill me." His fist opened, revealing a tiny ball of sand no bigger than a dango. Without warning, the little ball shot out with surprising force, throwing White Mask into a tree several yards away.

In astonished awe, Temari watched as Gaara—barely moving his body at all—directed the little ball of sand around, easily taking out other members of the assassination squad with single hits.

'His control is phenomenal,' she thought amazedly, having never seen him exhibit such fine control. 'He can even maneuver such a tiny ball of sand with perfect accuracy...'

"This is more than enough for you guys," Gaara said monotonously to the fallen assassins as he brought the ball of sand back to him.

Naruto grinned as the ball floated past him. "Show off." Suddenly the blonde pointed over at Temari. "Oi, Gaara, you missed one."

Temari's eyebrow twitched. "I'm his sister, you twit."


Meanwhile, Kyoko found her part of the job much easier.

Cringing at the sound of battle up ahead, Kyoko sighed. "That must be the team."

Her dingo nodded in confirmation.

"This is bad; they've already started to fight," Kyoko muttered, worried. "Areno, quick, we need to stop them. Get their attention as best as you can."

Areno nodded, starting to bark as loudly as he could as they broke into the clearing, where the Leaf were fighting. Kyoko landed beside her dingo, eyes sweeping the field briefly. There was a silver-haired jonin steadily taking down members of the assassination squad while his two genin were having a little more trouble.

"Hey!" Kyoko screamed, waving her arms. "Stop the fight!"

With Areno barking and Kyoko shouting for attention, the fight was quickly ceased as everyone directed their attention on the new arrivals.

Spotting the blue-masked sub-leader she'd been debriefed on, Kyoko jabbed a finger in his direction. "You there! Call off your team! Your mission's been canceled!"

From the corner of her eyes, Kyoko saw the two Leaf genin exchange a glance. The silver-haired jonin calmly released the assassin he'd trapped in a headlock.

"Don't relax yet," Blue Mask barked to his men. Looking back down at Kyoko, he asked suspiciously, "Do you have proof?"

Pooling chakra in her feet, Kyoko propelled herself up, bouncing off several branches until she landed before Blue Mask.

"Here," she said, thrusting a small scroll into the sub-leader's hand. "Your mission wasn't even a legal one. Nobu assigned it without the rest of the Council's knowledge."

Scanning the scroll, Blue Mask sighed. "I see." Turning to his men, he hollered, "The mission has been terminated. Cease all attacks and gather the wounded."

As the other assassins began helping their injured teammates up, Kyoko turned to the three Leaf shinobi and bowed. "My apologies for this mishap."

"Ah, well," the silver-haired Leaf jonin chirped, not even breathing hard. "The more troubles our villages face together, the better our alliance will be. I'm Hatake Kakashi, by the way. This is Sasuke and Sakura."

The two genin nodded as their names were called. Kyoko stared owlishly at the black-haired genin, stunned for a moment with his handsome looks. Unbeknownst to her, Sakura had caught her staring and narrowed her eyes in annoyance.

Shaking herself back into reality, Kyoko sheepishly looked back at Kakashi and smiled. "I'm Kyoko. I know we've already prolonged your mission, but could you accompany us to rejoin the other half of the squad? My partner will be able to explain the situation and hopefully patch over any rough spots this may have caused."

"It's no trouble at all," Kakashi replied. "One of my team seems to have gone after Gaara anyway."

"That baka," Sakura sighed.

Looking down at her dingo still loyally waiting at the forest floor, Kyoko shouted, "Areno, can you lead us to the others?"

The dingo nodded.

Blue Mask sighed just then, turning his back to Kyoko as he mused, "How could the Council just cancel this mission? Suna would be so much safer without that monster around."

Anger flooded Kyoko's mind.

"Haven't you heard the rumors?" she snapped as she kicked the man right off the branch. "Gaara's changed, you moron!"

Sakura watched as Kyoko seethed. "Ano, Kakashi-sensei, are all Sand kunoichi this…"

"Annoying?" Sasuke offered nonchalantly, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"I was thinking more like 'aggressive'?" Sakura amended, recalling Temari's ruthless attitude as well.

Kakashi chuckled. "Come on, let's meet back up with Naruto."


Kyoko stopped at the edge of a clearing, widened eyes gazing upon the other half of the assassination squad, all of whom were resting and nursing wounds. "Whoa. Temari, what happened with your group?"

Temari looked up from where she had been utilizing what little medical jutsu she knew on an assassin whose ribs had cracked. "Well, you had the termination notice so they didn't believe me. Gaara took them all out." Catching sight of Kakashi, she got up and leapt over, no doubt to explain the situation.

"Wow," Kyoko breathed, looking over at Gaara with a blinding grin. "Gaara, you're amazing."

Blue Mask leapt down to where White Mask was lying, conversing with the leader quietly.

A blonde orange-clad ninja waved down at them. "Oi, Kakashi-sensei! You should've seen Gaara! He took everyone out in like five seconds flat! With this tiny little ball of sand too!"

Meanwhile, Kyoko waved Gaara over, throwing her arm around his shoulders after he landed on her branch, much to the surprise to the two Leaf genin still standing with her. "Awesome job handling the situation, Gaara. No one's dead, and it doesn't look like anyone has any major injuries. This is going to earn you major brownie points with the Council."

Gaara nodded, making no move to shrug Kyoko's arm off. "So it was Nobu who ordered the mission?"

"Yeah, illegally; he's been suspended," Kyoko said, grinning wickedly. She glanced around, remembering that Gaara hadn't left the village alone. "Where're Yaoki and Korobi? They didn't give you much trouble, did they?"

Wordlessly, Gaara pointed below, where the two rookies were cowering in the bushes again.

"Hey, you two, why're you hiding?" Kyoko called down.

Having been spotted, the two genin stood up, shamefaced as they hopped up to Kyoko's level.

"S-sorry, Kyoko-senpai," Yaoki said in shame.

Korobi fidgeted with his hands. "We abandoned our comrade again."

"Eh?" Kyoko exclaimed. She sighed exasperatedly, running her bandaged hand through her bangs. "After all I did to knock that principle into you?"

At that moment, Gaara interrupted. "No, they came back for me."

Kyoko blinked. "They did?"

Yaoki and Korobi smiled.

"D-did we get away?" Korobi asked worriedly, glancing back at the direction they'd come from.

Yaoki was quiet, brow furrowed as he contemplated something that had been bothering him. "Back there...didn't Gaara-sama...did he tell us to get away?"

As realization hit him as well, Korobi frowned solemnly.

"Oi, are you alright?" a voice suddenly called down.

The two rookies looked up to see Naruto.

"Where's Gaara?" the Leaf genin asked.

In shame, the rookies looked down, unable to meet Naruto's clear blue eyes.

Naruto's eyes widened as realization hit him. "You guys...did you abandon your friend?"

At the word 'abandon', the two Sand genin flinched.

Clicking his tongue with frustration, Naruto leapt off without another word.

Korobi looked up at Naruto's disappearing back. "Friend…?" He glanced at Yaoki. "You, me...and Gaara-sama?"

"Going back to help Gaara is asking to be killed by the assassination squad," Yaoki muttered. "But if we stay here, Kyoko-senpai will somehow find out and kill us anyway for abandoning a comrade."

"If we're going to die either way," Korobi mused, suddenly determined. "Then let's die in battle, fighting for a friend."

"It was all thanks to Naruto," Yaoki said, looking up at the blonde.

"EH?"

Temari and Kakashi dropped their conversation as they glanced over at Kyoko, who was pointing up at Naruto in shock.

"You're Uzumaki Naruto?" she gasped, blanching.

The Leaf team shifted, surprised that this stranger already knew one of their teammates.

"Huh?" the orange-clad blonde said, looking at her weirdly. "Yeah, dattebayo. Why?"

Kyoko stared at him. "Somehow, I imagined you to be...more...impressive-looking...and less of a loud-mouthed idiot." Ignoring Naruto's indignant squawk, she leaned towards Gaara, whispering, "This is the kid who inspired you to change?"

Unnoticed by anyone else, Kakashi's eyebrows rose in surprise when Gaara nodded in response.

"The Leaf are just full of surprises," Kyoko mused, glancing back up at Naruto. "Thanks, kid!"

"Thanks? For what? Who are you anyway?" Naruto called back, confused, but Kyoko had already moved her attention away.

"Well, anyways," Temari said, shaking her head in amusement at Kyoko's antics as she turned back to Kakashi. "I hope the alliance hasn't been compromised."

Kakashi waved his hand. "No, it's fine. If anything, the alliance is stronger. Will you two be staying to help the mission?"

Kyoko perked up. "Can we?"

"No," Temari said firmly, rolling her eyes when Kyoko visibly deflated, disappointed. "This isn't our mission. Our mission is to help the assassination squad home." Turning to face Kyoko, she asked, "Think you can summon your sand sled for the injured?"

"Sure," Kyoko grumbled, already biting her thumb. "I'll get the pack."

As he watched the two Sand kunoichi get things ready for their trip home, Kakashi smiled behind his mask. Gaara had definitely come a long way from how he was during the Chunin Exams. With people so willing to help him now, his path would doubtlessly become easier. Turning his single eye to Naruto, where he was loudly conversing with the quiet Gaara, Kakashi pondered the blonde's strange effect on people.

"Well," a rough female voice cut into his thoughts. Temari smiled and extended a hand. "It was nice meeting you formally."

"You too," Kakashi replied breezily.

"We're glad we're allies now," Sakura chirped, Sasuke grunting in agreement when she elbowed him.

"Us too," Temari replied politely.

"Temari, time to go," Kyoko called up from the ground.

"We'll be taking off now, Gaara," the blonde kunoichi said. "Good luck on your mission."

"See you later, Gaara!" Kyoko shouted as Temari leapt down to join her. Her icy eyes met Naruto's, and she grinned. "Thanks again, Uzumaki Naruto."

"For what?" the blonde shouted, frustrated that he didn't know why she was thanking him.

Kyoko just laughed and turned to the pack of dingoes hooked up to her sled. "Come on guys, let's go home!"


MHJ: Look who's on time today! ^_^ I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter~ Even if most if it was just rewriting the episode ^.^; Anyways, thank you to everyone who's been reviewing! I love reading you guys' thoughts about my writing. If you haven't been reviewing, feel free to leave me a little blurb about what you thought! :) Oh, and if you've noticed from the stuff way up at the top, I've responded to a reviewer there. Up until now, I had no way of responding to anonymous reviewers, so from now on, anonymous reviews will be responded to before each chapter. Okay, next chapter will (hopefully) be up in about a week. Ja~