Uzumaki Naruto never had to knock on the Kabuto's door. The squeals of excited kids hanging off of the Hokage were always already loud enough to announce the man's arrival. Kabuto opened the door to Konoha's only orphanage and, sure enough, there stood the tall blond man wearing his more casual robes of office, two children were already hanging off of his neck and another two off of either bicep.

Shizune-san, who had come out of retirement to help the new Hokage until Naruto could appoint his own number one stood a bit further back, smiling but happy to let the kids clamber all over the Kage instead of her. She held a large shiny white paper bag in her arms.

"Hey, good afternoon, Kabuto-sensei!" Naruto said. "Sorry to come by unannounced, but I brought back some souvenirs for the kids from my trip to Mizugakure last week. I thought I'd give them to them now if that's alright."

"Ah, hello Hokage-sama," Kabuto said, smiling if a little wanly. "Of course you're welcome! Please won't you both come in? You know the children always love the gifts you bring them..."

I only wish Emi-san and I did too, Kabuto thought inwardly. Uzumaki-sama had a tendency to be rather martial about his toy choices for the children. The last round of gifts had all been wooden souvenir samurai swords from Iron Country. You'd think that a small wooden sword wouldn't be so tiresome, but give them to 23 boisterous kids of various sizes and ages, and what you got were two adult guardians with a lot of shin and knee injuries.

Despite the occasional inadvisable gifts for the kids though, it was wonderful that the Hokage found time to visit about once a month, and Kabuto did appreciate the increased funding they had begun to receive. Naruto had a natural charisma that made him good with children too, and often Hinata-san and their two children would join them as well. It was good for the kids to have a role model like the Seventh to look up to. After all, he had grown up an orphan too, and now he was their Hokage. It didn't get better than that.

An orphan as well, Kabuto would never dare say the same of himself. Kabuto had redeemed himself in many ways over the past decade since his time in the service of Orichimaru, and his own perverted quest for perfection. Regardless, those dark stretches in his past would always cast a shade on him. But he was here now. Thanks to the second chance he'd been granted, Kabuto had a precious gift that few men could claim, he knew he was on Earth doing exactly what he should be doing. And that was what mattered now.

Uzumaki had to squat and walk sideways, like a lame crab through the entranceway to avoid knocking any of his passengers against the door frame.

"Kids!" Kabuto scolded lightly. "What did I say about climbing out of the yard, and about jumping all over Hokage-sama?"

The lip of one of the little girls trembled defiantly. "But, the 'Okage said it's OK, and he's the boss of all of us which means he's the boss of you too, Sensei!"

Annoyed, Kabuto was nonetheless impressed by this bit of indisputable four year-old logic. Naruto laughed heartily and began setting the children down one by one.

"Hey, you must listen to Kabuto-sensei only going forward. He's the squad leader of the orphanage, OK?" Uzumaki said, winking at the girl, who saluted and smiled, and then ran off with the other three to tell the rest of the kid's about the 'Okage's arrival.

Kabuto turned his attention to Shizune as she entered the door.

"Please, Shizune-san, may I take that bag for you?" Kabuto asked.

"Yes, thank you," Shizune said, smiling as she handed the white bag to Kabuto.

Shizune smile turned a bit sheepish as she watched Kabuto subtly palpate the bag, curious to know what horror awaited him inside. She leaned over and whispered in his ear.

"Water pistols," she said.

"Haaah..." The cloud that had suddenly developed over Kabuto's head was nearly visible. Shizune gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"I'll advocate for candy again next time," she said, and Kabuto nodded. Truthfully 23 kids high on sugar wasn't much better, but it at least was a one-time assault.

The affable, warm voice of Emi, the older woman who cooked and helped Kabuto run the orphanage was heard from the direction of the kitchen.

"Aaaah! Is that the young man Uzumaki I hear? Come on in! I'll start some tea!"

Kabuto cringed a bit at Emi-san's chronically familiar nature. But that was the wonderful think about Emi-san. Anyone younger than she was became an honorary child or grandkid instantly, even if they were an adult.

"Emi-bachan," Naruto said. "Tea sounds great. If you don't mind, Kabuto-sensei, and I will have some in the office. I need to speak with him privately."

Surprised, Kabuto looked over at Naturo's face.

"Hey, I'm sorry to ask, but I have a job, and a favor to ask of you, Kabuto-sensei," Naturto said. "It's for a friend."

Slats of sunlight from the shades in Kabuto's office fell across the photograph of a woman's haggard face. She looked as if she would be a beauty had she not fallen on what must have been hard times. As she was in the photo, she looked like a shell.

Her eyes and cheeks were hallowed with undernourishment, her long black hair was matted and disheveled. A bruise was fading from blue to green on her forehead. Her eyes were closed in the photo, and from the angle and background, Kabuto could tell without any explanation that the picture had been taken from above while she was unconscious. Unconscious and lying on what looked like a metal surgery table.

"There are other photos in the folio," Uzumaki-sama said, with a sense of gravity that Kabuto-san rarely saw in the man except when he talked about the Village or business. "I'll warn you. They ain't easy to look at. If you accept, you can look at them once. But you can only keep this one," Naruto explained, tapping his finger on the photo in front of him. "The rest will be destroyed as my friend requested."

"If I accept this mission?" Kabuto asked. "I am sorry, Hokage-sama, but, as you know, I am no longer a shinobi."

Naruto nodded, eying the brown folio that his friend had passed on to him not so long ago. Gaara had received it from one of his personal couriers on Summoning Island just before they had left. That was when Gaara had shared the more complete story of the mystery woman from the desert - the cactus woman, as she was known in Konoha's rumor.

Naruto had sat back and listened closely to Gaara's story and his request. It was not like the man to ask for anything resembling a personal favor. What was curious to Naruto was that nothing about the woman's case seemed to be personal, at least as Gaara described it. Asking for the help of an expert in a case like this from an ally only made sense, especially given it exposed a potential risk in Grass to both of their nations.

Naruto suspected there was a dimension to this story that Gaara was not telling him, and that dimension was all about what made this woman and the need to know her identity personal to Gaara. But after seeing the photos, Uzumaki found he didn't have the stomach to press for any potentially embarrassing details from his friend.

Whatever this woman had suffered was all too real, all too serious. What it represented - the prospect that the Grass, a quasi-allied country was performing human experiments like this - was not only against the human rights charter of the Five, it also did not bode well for the peace they sought to maintain now after the Fourth Shinobi War.

There were rumblings from many of the unallied countries. Grass was not alone. The five nations were too strong, they said. From within the five nations, ironically, there were dissenters who rallied instead that the five nations were too weak. That in joining hands with one another, the Villages were becoming like toothless old hens in this time of peace, scurrying to consult one another over every squabble, when they ought to be standing apart as men.

Sometimes Naruto felt that the real job of he and his fellow Kages was actually holding the lid down on a boiling pot, so it didn't well up and burn all of them, the innocent in particular, he thought as he heard the sound of the children calling to one another outside.

And now his friend had fallen in an act of terrorism. Gaara, the very man who had entrusted him with this mission. Naruto had asked for assurance from Temari before he left Sunagakure that he would be updated on how Gaara recovered. Temari had simply nodded stiffly to him, and Naruto was grateful again for Shikamaru's engagement in that moment.

He could tell by Temari's expression how vulnerable she felt seeing her brother so undone. Temari was not going to share any more information than the bare minimum, and it was possible that what she would share may not be truthful. Not out of malice, but out of reflex, the type of reflex you return to when you're in a corner. Nara would have to bring Naruto the truth about his friend in her place, although he would have to be careful to respect the man's boundaries.

As it was, Naruto had heard third-hand already that Gaara was on the mend, even back in his own apartments. Naruto had sent word via their digital back channels that he would be contacting who Naruto referred to only as "the consultant", per Gaara's requested. Naruto could do nothing to heal his friend's wounds. Maybe he could at least help him solve this mystery.

"Why me, Hokage-sama?" Kabuto asked. "Why this mission?"

Naruto nodded. A Shinobi wouldn't have asked questions. But a man who had given up that life to serve these children was, in Naruto's opinion, entlted to them.

"It's because of your past, Kabuto-sensei," Naruto began.

Surprised, Gaara looked down and read the message again. Typed out in the angular font of the feed, it read:

SPECIAL CONSULTANT HAS IDENTIFIED LEAD. PARLEY REQUESTED ON SECURED LINE.

"Excuse me, Temari - are there any other messages like this one from Konoha?"

It was two days after Gaara's healing and he was back in his office again, sorting through the mountain of paperwork dubbed non-essential in his absence. Gaara chose not to make any fanfare or prior announcement about his complete return to work, simply choosing to arrive in his office at 5 am, before anyone else did except the night patrol. As people trickled in the news gradually spread from Sari his assistant to others that the Kazekage was back in his office today, apropos of nothing, looking - despite the rumors about his having been burned and dismembered - completely healthy and whole.

The lack of explanation on his part was diversionary. Suna's gossip mill would come to any number of conclusions about what exactly had happened to the Kazekage, and why it had apparently taken him so long to fully recover. He had asked Kankuro to fill the void with the suggestion that, rather than convalescing all this time, he had in fact been away on an important and secret engagement. In a way, he had. But that engagement had been a private struggle with his own body for survival. The Council Elders would demand an answer, and to them he'd tell the truth, that he'd been recovering. But knowing him and trusting in his abilities, he knew they would suspect the rumor was true. Thus he could save face without lying to him.

Gaara left his door open yesterday and today to allow those who found excuses to come in and communicate with Sari to catch a glimpse of him there at his desk. It would do morale good. Later today he would drop by the training grounds for a random inspection. It would be another boost for his people to see him there, and it would be a chance for him to illustrate to everyone that his skills were intact by asking the shinobi present to test themselves against his defenses.

He and Temari were still not really back on proper speaking terms, Gaara reflected as he watched his sister shuffle through the piles of paper that had collected on her own make-shift desk while he was away. They were both still upset with each other. Gaara at Temari's usurpation of his will, and she at his censure and at the admission of Aiynuur fully into the fold of life in the Hidden Village.

Gaara let his frustration with his older sister play out in his apparent indifference about the whole situation. Truthfully, Gaara hoped to make peace with her before she left in two days. In the mean time his inscrutability, and his aloofness both for Temari, and apparently for Aiynuur, he hoped would put his sister in her place, and undercut the concerns that she had that he was...compromised where the woman was concerned.

The woman, Aiynuur - figuring out what to do with her and quickly had been difficult to say the least. Understandably Aiynuur had not wanted to stay in the Bunker another night, and so she had spent yesterday and most of the night in the private infirmary, working out and memorizing the details of a back story for herself with Kankuro and the only other people they could consult - Migime and Hidarime. The two men from the Lookout were overjoyed to see the Kazekage in the flesh again, and they were also excited to meet the woman who they had watched over for so long.

It was Hidarime who turned out to be the best asset in their cover-up in a couple of ways. In addition to his more technical tendencies as a member of the Lookout, the man also indulged in writing a lot of creative fiction, which gave him a good mind for dissemblance. Given Aiynuur's natural abilities with plants, he suggested that she reenter the city as a plant biologist and as the daughter of a clan from the Flower Country.

Travel from Flower Country was as difficult as it was remote, and visitors were rare in Suna but not unheard of. The passion for flora that the native inhabitants of the Flower's island was well-known. Aiynuur would travel to Suna ostensibly to study the medical plants of the desert. Paperwork documenting that Sunagakure had been notified of her intentions and approved them in advance would have to be forged and backfilled, but that was possible. In the current climate with regular admission of registered foreigners within the City's walls, the request was not remarkable.

As a registered foreigner working on a humanitarian mission for her nation, Aiynuur would be granted an apartment in the Annex building near the barracks. The housing was modest, but gratefully for Aiynuur above ground. She would arrive with currency in hand to support herself, and an additional grant to support good relations with Flower Country could be made available if needed.

To help conceal her identity from the members of Ebisu's Team 9 and anyone else who might recognize her, Aiynuur agreed to wear something that covered her face public at all times. In a town full of shinobi such a practice was not uncommon. This narrative took care of many of the problems presented by her sudden appearance in the City; however, there was still the problem of a name. Here again, Hidarime was ready with an answer.

"Why not just Ai?" he asked. "I hope you don't mind it, Aiynuur-san, but Migime and I have already been calling you by that name already in private. Ai would only be a shortened version of the name you already have. Less confusing that way, yeah?"

"Sure that sounds fine, but why would I mind?" Aiynuur had asked.

"Love," Gaara introjected, before realizing that perhaps Hidarime had been apologizing for giving her a nickname without her permission. "It means love," he elaborated, compelled to complete the thought, but feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Oh, well, there's nothing wrong with that," Aiynuur smiled shyly. "Unless it's a strange name for some reason?" she asked, her gaze lingering for a moment on the character upon his brow.

"Of course not!" Hidarime responded loudly. "And this way we can keep calling you Ai-chan!" he continued, slapping Migime on the back.

"Hey now, don't be so familiar with her, Hidari!" Migime scolded.

In departing, Gaara had to explain to Aiynuur a truth that she thankfully already understood. From here on out, when they met in public, they would be strangers. In a way, they already were, he realized. She knew little to nothing of him, her true identity was a mystery even to her, and she had still left so much of her time at the Farm, as she called it, unspoken.

And yet, the denial of that intimacy that they did have stung. Nonetheless, it was so. It had to be. At least for now. If it bothered her too, Gaara couldn't say, she had smiled at him in understanding. And what was more told him she understood that his world was so much bigger than her problems. He surely had a lot of work to do. She was glad that he had the health now to do it.

So was he, and in that moment as he looked at her he felt again an emotion, and such gratitude for what she had done and that she had stayed when he asked. He would keep his promise. He would clear a path for her by discovering her history and routing out those that would seek her, absolutely. Gaara had still not forgotten about the scars her captors had left on her body. Whoever they were, wherever they were, if they had forgotten, they would soon be reminded.

And so with currency, supplies, and a plausibly beat up ruck sack in hand, Aiynuur left under cover of night with Kankuro. They were to stop by the Bunker so Aiynuur could pick up some of her few possessions there, and then walk out to a suitable distance and join up with the typical trail into Suna.

Ai would then arrive mid-morning at the Registry in town for processing and the Suna welcome tour given to all visiting foreigners. Gaara felt anxiety about the thought of Aiynuur making the journey back into the City by herself. He felt the urge to track her with the Eye of Sand. But she had agreed to this, and he would have to trust her or the new dynamic they had would not work. Regardless, he would breathe easier when he heard word that she was in the City from the Lookout team.

"Here," Temari's gruff voice interrupted Gaara's thoughts as she thrust a folder in his face.

"Thank you," he said, ignoring her rudeness as he collected it from her.

Inside the folder Gaara found just three other messages, all encoded and marked as from the Hokage's private feed. The first was a notification that the consultant - Kabuto - would be procured. The second a check-in that the consultant had entered the subject's "nation of origin", which in this case Gaara took to mean the Grass nation. The second to last was a report that the consultant had not filed their update on time, with a note regarding what would be done if they were not heard from again within the fail safe deadline.

And here in his hand was the fourth, proof that not only had Kabuto been able to report back, he had found something. Perhaps Kabuto had solved the mystery of Aiynuur's identity, or the truth about the place where she had been imprisoned. Would she be glad to know it? Gaara wondered. His time sick had crawled so slowly. He was only two days back in the real world and things seemed to be moving so fast. Gaara punched the com line on his new desk.

"Sari-san? Will you make arrangements with the Hokage's office? I'd like to schedule a time to discuss business with him on a secure line at his soonest convenience, please."

"Yes, Kazekage-sama," Sari said over the line. Gaara could hear the smile in her voice. His assistant was glad to have her boss back. Although, after hearing what had transpired between Sari and Aiynuur the night that Aiynuur had first showed up at his door, Gaara knew that Sari might be upset to know just what regaining his current health had entailed.

The phone rang on Gaara's desk. He picked up the receiver and heard Migime's calm voice on the other end, "Our visitor has arrived," he said simply.

"Understood. Thank you," was Gaara's reply. He hung up the phone and stood. Temari looked at him quizzically. They were no where near done. Her younger brother didn't particularly like paperwork, but he wasn't one to shirk a duty.

"Temari - you're starting a new life in two days," Gaara remarked.

Temari said nothing, the color in her face rising as she sensed correctly that Gaara wanted to find some sort of closure over their recent dispute. Was he about to demand an apology from her?

"Let me take you out to lunch," Gaara said instead.

"...Uh, alright," was Temari's reply.

Unlike Kankuro, she squabbled rarely with Gaara. So unstable as a child, as an adult it seemed as if Gaara always sought to overcompensate for the fear he believed people had of his emotions. Where other men brawled and blustered, Gaara was level headed and forgiving.

That's why Temari had found herself unable to get her footing on the cold shoulder he'd presented her with after their disagreement over what to do with the Grass woman. And now this, a total reversal in his mood! Why? But it was true, she was leaving soon. It would be stupid to hold onto what had happened. Perhaps she could even talk some sense into him over lunch.

"After lunch, I'm going to go to the main training grounds. Reassuring people with my presence is more important than catching up on this backlog right now," Gaara explained.

"They'll be glad to see you," Temari said, offering him a conciliatory nod.

"I'll be glad to see them too," Gaara smiled at her, a genuine smile. It felt good to be back. It felt good to be alive. He couldn't show anyone any indication that he knew Aiynuur at the moment, but with any luck, maybe he'd catch a glimpse of her on the street - his streets. He was back, and the person who helped him get there was finally becoming a part of his world.