Thirteen

Kankuro crunched through the snow along the shore. The weather had turned fiercely cold, but the day was bright and sunny and the water in the harbor was calm. Miri, Naruto, and Koyuki were standing on one of the remaining docks and Takahashi was nearby, keeping watch. Naruto was talking and waving his arms around. Judging by the animated gestures he was making, Kankuro guessed that he was describing the fight with Nejibana and his men. Kankuro snorted when he saw both women duck to avoid a particularly enthusiastic round of arm waving.

"Idiot," he muttered. "It wasn't that much of a fight."

They had made short work of the fugitives. Nejibana and his men had been no match for the combined power of two annoyed jinchuuriki, one medical-nin with an earth shattering punch, and one pissed off puppeteer with a small army at his command.

Kankuro came to a stop beside Sakura. She did not notice the puppeteer beside her. She was watching the trio on the docks with a small smile on her face. When her fingers drifted up to her lips, Kankuro chuckled.

"Looks like you two didn't waste any time."

Sakura jumped in surprise, her cheeks reddening from more than just the cold. "Kankuro! What are you doing? What did you say?"

The Sand shinobi grinned. "He might have taken a good long time to admit it, but it looks like you didn't waste any time getting to the good stuff."

"I don't know what you are talking about…" Sakura saw the look on his face, and smacked him hard enough to knock him backwards several steps. "That's not…we didn't…it's not your business!"

"So you didn't then." Kankuro shook his head. "Idiots." He saw Sakura raise her fist and threw both hands up in surrender. "Yeah, yeah I get it. But you know, it would help you get rid of some of that pent up tension."

Sakura's knuckles cracked ominously.

"Just saying." Kankuro gestured at a boat as a change of subject. "Everything's finally loaded. We should get going before the tides, winds or weather changes, or some other crazy shit happens. Again. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but as usual the council was way off in their ranking for this mission."

Sakura's expression grew worried. "What are you going to recommend to Gaara-sama and Ebizo-jii-sama? You know Koyuki-sama had nothing to do with Nejibana. This wasn't her fault and her people shouldn't have to pay for it."

"Don't worry. The Hokage will get a copy of the report, which will be heavily modified by our council and the daimyo." Kankuro made a face to show what he thought about that. "But for what it's worth, I'm going to recommend that we help her."

"You can fix the machine?"

"That's not the problem. It needs to be recharged and Koyuki-sama does not have the resources she needs for that right now. She needs to explore other options for charging that machine, then once things are up and running she will be able to make use of the resources currently under the ice." Kankuro paused a moment. "Okay, it'll probably be redacted out of the report and if anyone asks you never heard it from me. Ebizo-jii-sama is interested in modifying the machine to use in Suna, so we will be interested in helping her out now, regardless of any internal power struggles she is experiencing."

Sakura frowned. "Modify it for what?"

"What works for snow might work for sand. Being able to convert desert into arable land would help Suna."

"Oh. That's a good idea."

"Yeah." Kankuro frowned at the group on the dock. Naruto was jumping up and down, making the dock creak. "What the hell is he doing? If we are late because that idiot breaks it…" He raised his voice. "C'mon Miri, less gossip, more good-byes!"

Miri waved at Kankuro and then ushered the others off the dock. "Is everything and everyone stowed away to your satisfaction?"

"Yeah." Kankuro turned his frown to the outline of Shanshouo's bulk on the deck of the boat. The puppet had been too damaged to be returned to miniature form.

"Excellent. We should be on our way then." Miri bowed to Koyuki. "Koyuki-sama I hope to see you again, but next time, please do share all the details with the Kazekage and Hokage from the start. It will save time, money…and lives." Her voice was low, but stern.

Koyuki's eyes went wide and she began to stammer out an apology.

Takahashi stepped forward. "Do not blame Koyuki-sama. It was the only way to find out his true intentions. We weren't sure whom we could trust."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

"Koyuki-sama had suspicions about Nejibana, but was not sure who was loyal to her. Getting us involved was a way to get him to make a move," Kankuro answered. "Didn't it seem odd that she had invited you guys for security?"

Naruto shrugged. "She's a friend."

Kankuro rolled his eyes. "Idiot. She wanted to see if Nejibana would try anything when he heard you were coming." He scowled at Koyuki. "And he almost got away with it."

"We didn't know you'd bring…her. It was just supposed to be Uzumaki-san and Haruno-san," Takahashi said. "We assumed that Ebizo-jii-sama would be the one to…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, and you know the old saying about assuming things," Kankuro said.

"We do apologize," Koyuki said. "But it was the best way to expose him."

"I hope that you will also extend these apologies to Miyako's family," Miri said.

"I didn't mean for her to…"

"Of course not," Miri said. "So that is the end of that." She turned so she could hug Sakura and Naruto. "You need to come and visit soon. Fair winds and safe journey to you." She bowed to Koyuki once more and left.

"Humph." Kankuro bowed as well. "You'll hear from the Kazekage soon. And you guys…" a large grin split his face. "Enjoy that long boat ride home." He winked and slapped Naruto on the shoulder. "Remember what I said." He dodged a punch from Sakura turned and marched off to catch up with Miri.

Koyuki and Takahashi said their good-byes.

"We should get to our boat," Sakura said.

"Yeah." Naruto felt a blush creep over his face at the thought of Kankuro's last words. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to think of what to say next. "Uh, Sakura…"

"I don't know how you ended up talking to him or what he said to you."

"Well, I really wasn't…"

"And I don't want to know." Sakura chuckled and touched his cheek. "But I am glad that he said it."

"Yeah, me too…and she helped as well."

"She? You mean Miri?"

"No, the gobi. She told me some stuff."

Sakura shook her head. "How did you end up talking to…her about us?"

"I wasn't. I mean I was, about how to find my way back, but it made me realize that I needed to just do something."

"Oh. I see, I think. Maybe." Sakura took his hand. "C'mon, let's go we can talk about it more during the trip home."

"Yeah." Naruto swallowed. "Uh, talk?"

Sakura's grin was oddly similar to certain puppeteer's. "Yeah, to start. Then we'll just have to…find our way to the good stuff."

Naruto grinned back. "Yeah. Believe it!"

END

AN: A big thanks to Tammy for her support of every single chapter!