25.

Temari freaked when she saw my hair, she lectured me! About hair! I got yelled at over my hairstyle!

So I politely waited till she was asleep then painted her hair such a nice, rich, pretty blue, then I waited and when she woke up I lectured her on bad hairstyles, even such a pretty blue was definitely not her color.

She glared at me but had to leave with Gaara on ninja stuff or something.

Mika popped in about an hour later and began training me on Samurai sword basics, just as she promised, course, Mika always keeps her word. After a tackle-hug and her petting my hair for a minutes we got to training.

Four hours after that I was exhausted but at least knew how to not accidentally cut something, or someone up. Then she had to got do ninja stuff and I was left alone.

Again.

So, sheathing my sword I went to the Kazekage offices to find Gaara.

When I peeked in the door I saw Gaara at his desk watching Kankuro try to get the blue out of Temari's hair.

My giggles gave away my position and Gaara locked eyes with me, raising one eyebrow questioningly.

I grinned and nodded, stepping into the room.

Temari glared at me and Kankuro tried to, but he was already on the edge of crying do to Temari's verbal abuse as he had tried to help her.

They both left.

Poor Kankuro. Maybe I'll make him some soup tonight.

So I went and sat across from Gaara, elbows propped on his desk, just staring at him, a hint of a smile on my face.

After a few minutes he raised his eyes to meet mine.

We sat like that for a few minutes, both of us just barely smiling, content, happy. But then that only lasted until all hell broke loose.

With a shattering of glass , an explosion, and a blur movement everything went dark. I thought I had been knocked out until I realized I could feel Gaara holding me tightly to him, inside his Sand bubble. His presence and protective arm where very comfortable, making me feel safe.

I sighed contentedly and then regretted it a few minutes later, struggling to escape him. While, Gaara, confused, only held me tighter.

"Can't….breath…crushing…..lungs" I gasped.

He loosened his grip and mumbled an apology into my ear, wrapping both arms around me comfortingly.

"he's still out there." I murmured.

I felt Gaara nod.

"so is it playtime?" I asked in an innocently sweet voice. Too innocent, especially for me. The trio's bad influence must really be getting to me.

Gaara rumbled an agreement and the sand bubble disintegrated.

I don't really know which of our abilities hit the guy first, just that one second he was standing there, and the next he was flying out the window.

"think he'll survive that?" I asked.

"hn."

So we went down in the street to try and find him, only when we got there something tried to blow us up and then two of the guys buddies could be seen carrying him of in the distance.

Gaara glowered at them for a few moments until they disappeared from sight.

"Assassins?" I asked.

Gaara nodded, confirming my suspicions.

"but why come after you now? You don't have Shukaku anymore."

"I'm still Kazekage."

"your also still Gaara, so there must be something more to this than just killing the Kazekage, that's a serious suicide mission"

" well, I am still Gaara, I still have a lot of enemies of my own."

I frowned and Agreed silently, with a sigh I grabbed his hand and took him back to his office.