Nozomi looked up from her paperwork when she sensed the larger than normal magical signature approaching. It had taken her three months, but she had finally tracked down the last of the misplaced funds and the income of the village had shot up almost immediately afterword. The fact that they were now exporting healing potions to the other shinobi nations meant that they had practically cornered the market. Even with the five percent stipend to Konoha after the debacle with their previous Kazekage.
Nozomi didn't doubt for a second that had she not taken the reins, the amount of concessions to their allies would have been a lot higher. She shuddered to think of what Suna would have had to do to get back into the Leaf's good graces.
But the second the door opened, her face went from pleasant to extreme anger. She would have rather faced the chaos of untamed paperwork to the person standing before her.
"I am looking for a missing student of mine, and I was informed to ask for the interim leader of the village to make the mission request," said Dumbledore.
It took him a good ten minutes to realize that all the KI in the room was immediately focused on him. Neither of her assistants were even breathing hard.
Nozomi forced her anger to drop and placed a silent henge on herself. It wasn't much, but it would keep him from recognizing her immediately.
"And why would a magical come here to bother us? As long as this student of yours doesn't break the rules we set, we could care less about them," she said coolly.
"I'm afraid those that seek him would disagree. The Dark Lord Voldemort has recently returned, and he will send many people here to kill him."
"We don't cater to your Dark Lord, and he would have to pay us very well to even consider accepting a request. As for your student, we don't have any underage male magical users here aside from my assistants, who are shinobi first and magic student second. And I can't spare them to go to whatever school you have, so don't try to tempt them."
Nozomi watched with some joy as the myriad of angry emotions flashed through his face. She had spoken nothing but the truth. The only underage magic user that happened to be male that she knew of was Neville, and she didn't think the old man was looking for him.
At the very least if he was, she would happily send him on a wild goose chase deep into Kiri territory and hope for the worst. They were notoriously stab-happy whenever the subject of magicals were brought up. Apparently they were regarded with more disdain than those with bloodline limits there, which spoke volumes about how much they were hated.
She suspected that the majority of the anti-magical sentiment came from that particular direction, because the magicals would have gone there first since it was so similar to England and was closest to the harbors. It would certainly explain a lot...
"In any case, I need to find Harry Potter before he gets killed. His childish tantrums have been tolerated long enough," said Dumbledore firmly.
"I have no idea who this 'Harry Potter' is, but I did hear a few rumors that a boy with possible magical blood was last seen in Water country," she suggested sweetly.
Dumbledore, in a bid to get there as fast as possible to start the search, paid for a team of shinobi to take him to Water country. He made no mention of paying them to guard him, which was just as well.
Clearly he had realized that the Suna ninja (and the Konoha shinobi on loan) were not to happy to cater to his request, but would do it if only to get him far from their village.
Which was why she assigned Gaara with the note that if Dumbledore tried anything funny, he was allowed to use the jutsu she had forbidden him to use except on traitors or anyone outside the village and their allies.
After hearing that, Gaara's foul mood lessened enough for Temari to let loose a sigh of relief.
Dumbledore was surprised...and confused. He had heard rumors that Suna was one of the few shinobi villages that had accepted magicals and were making some headway into dispelling the damage Lucius and his family had done to their reputation in the shinobi lands.
But the welcome he received was as frosty as winter's chill, and just as friendly. Surprisingly, this attitude only seemed to extend towards him alone, and not to the small guard that had joined him from the Order.
Because of that, he told them to search the other major villages, started with Konoha.
The red head who walked beside him reminded him painfully of a younger male version of Lily Evans, only more dark. And he seemed to bear an unusual animosity towards him specifically.
Once they reached the borders of Water country, and he had sufficient directions to the Village of the Mist, he signed the mission scroll. He didn't noticed the look Gaara shot him.
Or how lucky he was that he hadn't tried to kidnap the boy...
"How long do you think it would take before someone kills him in there?" asked Temari over dinner.
Gaara seemed to be almost cheerful as he replied "With that stick and his looks, not long at all."
Kankuro seemed a bit freaked out by the expression on Gaara's face. He had thought it was horrifying to see Gaara looking murderous when he wasn't sleeping and a wall of sand heading your way...this was ten times worse in his opinion.
"So that was the infamous Dumbledore. I wonder why he kept referring to his errant student as Hari?"
"He seems to be under the strange impression that Nozomi is in fact male. He may not even be the person to place that perception spell on her in the first place...though that really begs the question as to who had..." said Gaara.
"I remember her remarking that very few people knew that she was a girl back in school...and that they didn't see it until she mentioned it..." said Temari.
"Who knew?" asked Gaara.
"Just two of her father's friends. Sirius was one I believe."
"And the other was that werewolf she directed to Konoha. Last I heard he was courting the Inuzuka matriarch," said Kankuro.
"So out of the entire European magical communities, only her parents and the three friends were aware that she was a female. Which considerably narrows the possibilities."
By the time they had returned to Suna, they found the other magicals waiting for them.
Apparently Dumbledore had been spotted in a lot of trouble, and was currently trying to negotiate a proper deal with the new Mizukage to find the missing boy.
Though it was fairly hard since there hadn't been even a word of a boy with magic and a white owl anywhere near Kiri.
"Sirius, I have a question to ask you..." said Nozomi.
Sirius looked up from his beer and at his goddaughter.
"What?"
"Do you know anyone who could have cast a perception spell before...that night?"
Sirius sat down his beer. He had been wondering when she would ask about that.
"I'm fairly certain Lily placed that spell on you."
Nozomi's heart nearly stopped.
"Mum? Why?"
"I asked her that same question when I learned of what she was looking up. Apparently Petunia had mentioned certain...rumors...surrounding her husband's tastes. From what I understand she didn't want to encourage those rumors or her husband's tastes, so she went along with the spell that made it seem like you were a boy. Considering the trouble he's in now, I think she was doing it to protect you."
"More like protect her reputation," snorted Nozomi.
"In any case, your mother only did it to protect you. And look at what was accomplished! You learned the truth about the old goat, you learned who you could actually trust, and you've managed to become one of the most powerful women in the Elemental Nations!"
"True. But that still doesn't mean I have to like being mistaken for a damn boy when I'm a girl!" she growled.
Sirius wisely kept his trap shut, and then decided to arrange an entire free day for his goddaughter where all her friends (he always counted Kiseki and Tsurara as friends and not maids) would have an entire girl's night out. If nothing else that would keep her from taking any bad days out on him!
Nozomi sighed with absolute relief. After the girl's night out, she had finally gotten down to reading the entire personnel files of all living shinobi in Suna. In the hope of an unbiased choice, she decided to allow anyone from a chunin to jounin, so long as they had participated at least once in the chunin exam and come out with good marks.
Gaara and Temari had taken the exam again when Suna hosted it (and Nozomi had cursed up a blue streak dealing with that paperwork!) and had come out as Chunin.
Kankuro had lost in the last round and his puppetry still needed a lot of work...which was why she chucked him to Granny Chiyo for extra training. It gave her an evil smile every time she passed by there and heard him swearing.
Shino had also passed the exam, as well as his old teammate Hinata. After an intense argument with Hiashi, Hinata was being transferred for six months to gain more experience. Nozomi could already see a marked improvement in her abilities.
As she read the files, marking those who could qualify to take the position and those who didn't, she slowly narrowed the field down to thirteen candidates. Since Gaara was among them, Nozomi politely removed herself from the voting.
It was a week later that she posted the news on the most used bulletin board.
"The candidates for the position of Kazekage are as follows: Gaara no Subaku...
These candidates have been selected based on mission performance, psyche profiles, skills assessment, improvement in their specified fields, crisis management, intelligence level and general popularity.
Please note that this is an unbiased election, and as such the poll will not be released until all votes have been tallied. Also, any attempts to bribe those counting the votes or harming a candidate will be dealt with strictly and result in a severe fine and reduce in mission pay. Civilians are on their own if they antagonize the candidates. You have been warned.
Interim Kazekage, Nozomi."
Gaara paused by the apartment once he heard the news. He was surprised he was even in the running after the way he used to act.
"Are you going to vote as well?"
"Since you are in the running, no. Like I said on the notice, this is going to be unbiased and as your girlfriend I don't want you to lose just because we're dating," she shook her head.
"How did I even make it into the poll?"
"My clones and I went through the chunin and jounin rosters systematically, choosing people based on how well they did during missions and such. And your last psych profile proved that you are in fact improving since you aren't threatening to kill anyone who annoys you. Not to mention how well you did the last time I dragged you to a noble's party because you were bored out of your mind," she teased.
"That was evil and you know it," he growled.
"So? It was what convinced the council to allow you onto the list! The fact that you were able to handle that situation without harming the nobles was a bigger deciding factor than you realize...and I may have mentioned that you helped me balance the books..."
"I only did that because you wouldn't spend a night out with me otherwise," complained Gaara.
Nozomi grinned. Temari had been floored when she had mentioned offhand that Gaara liked to cuddle with her...and then she told her about the old teddy bear that Gaara used to have. Which was why on his birthday she presented him with a bear the same size he was...to the laughter of Temari and Kankuro. Gaara took one look at the bear and fell in love.
Now if Nozomi wasn't around, he would curl up to it, to the amusement of Sirius who took his best pictures to date.
"So what happened to the old goat?"
"Last I heard the Mizukage got so pissed at him that she actually castrated him before throwing him out of Water. Apparently he got too pushy in the search...and he's been blacklisted from Iwa, Kumo and most of the smaller villages because of it."
"How the hell did he manage that?"
"You know the Mist's reputation among the other major villages, right?"
"They are known as the Bloody Mist because of their old graduation program and their bloodthirsty manner. What of it?"
"Well if Mist blacklisted him, then what would that signify to you as a village?"
Gaara thought about that. Being blacklisted from a very bloody village...wasn't actually a good thing. It could easily mean that you were doing crimes against nature and anything in between.
"It was possible the mission was too horrific even for them, and that sort of thing doesn't exactly go over well for the more friendlier villages..."
"His only hope would be Konoha, Kusa or Oto. And from the way Anko reacted to my description and the fact that we're allies with Kusa from my poison recipes..."
"His only option would be to deal with Orochimaru, who is the shinobi equivalent to their current Dark Lord. Barring that he would have to find the person on foot, and since the general attitude towards magicals has only started to improve..."
"Either Dumbledore quits and finally leaves me alone for a few more years, or he gets killed for pissing off the wrong person. Either way, he's not my problem anymore."
Gaara had been beyond amused at the reaction the other magicals had to the fact that Nozomi had sent their precious leader straight into a civil war hotzone that had yet to cool down.
This amusement only grew after they saw Hedwig (an owl they were very familiar with) land on her shoulder and nuzzle her in a very familiar way.
It took them some time to get over the fact that their boy-who-lived was in fact the girl-who-lived, and she had no intention of returning in this lifetime.
Nozomi had given them one final message to deliver should Dumbledore ever get back.
"I got rid of whatever connection I shared with Voldemort. As far as I am concerned, he is not my problem. He never was. I only considered him a major nuisance...whereas the headmaster was a major threat. Tell him next time he decides to place a child in a know pedophile's house, he should take a long hard look in the mirror first."
(A week after hearing the bit about Vernon's tastes, Nozomi had private investigators look into the rumors. She was very horrified to learn that they were in fact true. And she never complained about the spell her mother placed on her again. Though her hatred of the old goat increased greatly that she could kill him and never lose sleep over it.)
The two sat together on the couch watching an action flick that had caught Nozomi's interest. Nozomi had her head on his shoulder and Gaara was doing his best not to jar her too much. Their relationship was a series of hit and miss, especially since Nozomi had taken over the Kage's office to keep the paperwork from piling up and the village from running itself into the ground.
Some of the experiments she had uncovered had appalled the council as much as it did her.
The two spent the night just relaxing after a hellish day of paperwork.
