A/N: Sorry for the delay. I've been working on a surprise for you all! A oneshot! le gasp! Who ever would've thought I could do something as short as that?! I decided I needed some completes, and this idea had been hanging in my head. I'm about halfway through, so look forward to it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or it's characters, but if I did they'd probably end up like this...

Chakra Depletion

I opened the door to see Temari and Kankurou looming over me. I made the motion to close the door, but Kankurou's foot blocked it, and forced it open.

"What do you two want?" I growled at them.

"We're forcing you to go to work," Temari stated smoothly as she grabbed my arm in a viselike grip, pulling me along.

"How many times do I have to tell you people?!" I shouted angrily. "I. DON'T. WORK! I'm a kid! A normal kid! Not a ninja!"

"No, you're not," Kankurou drawled lazily. He never was a morning person. "You're a freak like the rest of us: you're a ninja."

"Am not!"

"Look, Misa," Temari said as she pulled me around the corner down the street we were walking on. "Gaa-I mean, Kazekage's orders. You're a ninja whether you like it or not. And—" She pulled me around so that I faced her fierce stare "—and you're our friend, whether you like it or not. Now stop being a whiny bitch, and just come along."

I pouted, but didn't fight back anymore. It wasn't like I could fight the government. They dragged me into the Kazekage's office and threw me down into the hard chair. Sarafu was in there, a displeased look on her face, and Gaara stared at me from behind his desk, as impassive and cold as ever. I felt naked with the way he stare at me, and sunk in my chair, beet red.

"You know, disobeying your kage is considered an act of treason," Gaara spoke firmly. "And treason is punishable by death."

"Geez, what is with you people?" I sighed. "I quit, okay? Just leave me alone to my quiet and normal life!"

"You can't quit being a ninja unless you are injured to the point of uselessness, or death. It's a lifetime job."

"Well, I was useless to begin with, so I guess I'm good to go." I stood up., but Temari and Kankurou pushed me back down into the chair.

"Come on, Gaara," Sarafu said, frowning. "Forcing people to do stuff they dislike doesn't get anyone anywhere."

"Yes, but you don't dislike being a ninja, do you, Misa?" Gaara's sea foam eyes bore into mine, which left me feeling quite uncomfortable.

Everyone was looking at me now. What could I say that they wouldn't use against me? "Maybe."

"It's a great rush, isn't it?" Gaara continued without any emotion, but his words were smirking victoriously. "The adrenaline pumping through your veins. Not knowing whether you'll ever see daylight again. The joy of conquering an opponent. The pride in knowing that you just saved thousands of lives by ending one. These are the things a ninja lives for. That you live for. Tell me, truthfully, Misa. When ever you see children running, don't you just want to run past them, just to best them? And when your mother comes looking for you, don't you just want to hide stealthily in the shadows, just to see if she'll ever find you? And whenever you see an injured or bullied person, don't you just want to protect them?"

Was this guy a freaking psychic or something?

"Answer me, Misa."

"Maybe."

"Well, then, 'maybe' you'll be delighted to go on your next mission, but delighted or not, you're going anyway. Sarafu, why don't you brief your partner on this one."

"But you don't understand!" I tried desperately to stop this train from wrecking. "I'm completely useless! I'll only get us all killed!"

"You know, there is a way you can help us without being on the offensive," Sarafu said, squaring in on me, her hands on the arms of my chairs so that she trapped me. "You can help us! You can be a healer! Give us back the life we lose on the field!" Her eyes danced with hope, and searched mine for that same feeling.

"I'm not a doctor; I barely passed biology last year," I pleaded.

"We can teach you! There are plenty of medical ninja, here, in Suna! It's all about utilizing your chakra! Even I learned how to heal a simple cut or bruise! I'm sure that you'll catch on quick! I know you, Misa, you're a brilliant girl! I know you can do this. I know you."

And I knew Sarafu. And I knew that when she got this excited about something, she wouldn't let it go until she got her way. That's how she hooked Gaara.

"Alright," I sighed, and continued on before they could cheer, "BUT…on one condition: I won't go on this mission until I learn how to do something. I want to be able to help when I go."

"Yes!" Sarafu picked me up and twirled me in her arms. "Agreed! And I won't go until Misa goes!"

"You know we can't just put this off until later," Gaara sighed with annoyance. "Ugh…fine, whatever. I'll just send some Chuunin to do it or something. In the meanwhile, Sarafu, I want you to show Misa to Hiroto, our best healer. I want her to teach Misa."

"Yes, sir!" Sarafu mock-saluted Gaara, before shoving me out.

I hated my teacher with a fiery passion. For one, she was a cranky old lady who thought everyone should act the way she told them to, two: she not only made me train around the clock, but also decided to teach me some etiquette as well, three: she was extremely conservative, and I was very liberal, and four: her nose was flat and crooked like it had been broken many times, and I just couldn't seem to take my eyes off of it.

I was thinking of quitting when I had failed to save a flopping fish, gasping for air. It soon quieted and didn't flop around anymore.

"Put more effort into it!" Hiroto-sensei barked at me, smacking me against the back of the head. "You act like you don't want to save that fish's life!"

"I don't see what the point is, since he's not in the water, he'll just get back into this state," I muttered to myself, but Hiroto-sensei heard loud and clear.

She clouted me in the ear. "Don't you ever say anything of the sort!" I jumped when her voice held pure fury in it, and not her vexed, lecturing tone. "This is a life we're dealing with! This fish represents human life!" She walked over towards the fish and put her gnarled hands on its motionless side. The area where she touched glowed green for a moment before the fish began to wiggle around helplessly. "Medical Ninja have the power to save a ninja's life. You make one wrong move," she flicked her wrist slightly, and the soft green glow turned into a menacing red one; the fish stopped flopping as if it had been struck down, "and you could end a person's life. I won't let you even try to heal a scratch with that half-assed effort you're giving me. If you really want to become a medical ninja, you need to get serious!"

I stared at the lifeless fish.

"Tell me, Misa, what is your reason for becoming a medical ninja?"

"Actually, it wasn't really my idea," I said cautiously. "I was ordered to by the Kazekage."

"If you really didn't want to do this, you wouldn't be paying attention to everything I say," the old hag commented. "You really want to do this. I can tell you're trying, but you don't give it a 110 percent. Why is it you want to become a medical ninja?"

"Well…I want to be useful…" I said, noting the intricate scales of the fish. "I was abruptly dragged into this whole shinobi business, but I think…I might actually kind of like it. And I don't really have much of a life to go back to, and I've made friends in this world. I was only necessary as a container, but now that Sarafu has her own body…I'm afraid that they won't need me anymore, and I'll be left behind."

"Answer me honestly. If this fish had been Sarafu, lying on her deathbed, to what extent would you have gone to save her?"

I replied instantly and confidently. Finally, a question I knew the answer to. "I'd give her my soul if it was necessary."

"Good," Hiroto-sensei smiled. Actually smiled. "Now, just imagine every time you heal someone, that it is Sarafu. And I'll get the right amount of effort that I want out of you. Try again."

I looked at the fish reluctantly before I put both hands on its scaly side. I closed my eyes, and concentrated as I felt the chakra flow through my arms and into the fish. I continued going at it at a steady pace, imagining the little fish's gills breathing, and it flopping about in that hopeless way. 'Sorry, fish…you'll have to suffer a bit more…' I opened my eyes, and the fish was flopping about like a maniac. As cool as I tried to act, I couldn't help but smile broadly. I did it!

"Good, now let's try to fix the broken wing of one of our message carrier birds," Hiroto-sensei said with an exasperated sigh, and pulled me along to the aviary.

One month later...

"So, Misa, what have you learned so far?" Sarafu asked me over lunch at the Mikata, a sushi bar.

"Well, I can heal fractures and stop bleeding, as well as heal wounds about three inches deep, as long as they're not in any vital organs such as the heart or brain, or something like that," I said proudly as I plopped some tuna sashimi into my mouth. "Hiroto-sensei says that now that I've gotten serious about it, I'm progressing steadily." I left out the part about how I was still the slowest one of her students.

"Great, so you're ready to go on our next mission, then?"

"What?" I looked at her dumbly. "Already?"

"You seem to have 'learned how to do something,'" she quoted me with a devious smirk.

I pouted, my lower lip protruding, but I didn't deny anything. "Fine, I guess I can go on one, but it has to be a low-ranked mission."

"Heheh," Sarafu avoided my gaze nervously. "Sorry, but I already picked out our mission and it's a B-rank."

"What?!" I said a little too loudly and then lowered my voice. "I was thinking more along the lines of a D-rank mission."

"Oh, come on, you pansy," Sarafu teased, her tongue sticking out. "It's not like you're a genin or anything."

"That's because I haven't gone through the Academy yet," I pointed out.

"Well, you're in your own class, so you don't need some silly title, or anything!" Sarafu reasoned. "Besides, I was the Sorakage in my previous village before all of this! You have nothing to fear."

I rolled my eyes. "So, what type of mission is this?"

"It's just a simple recon mission. We got to go to Kyuushu city, here in the Wind Country, and just spy on this one group we believe is smuggling weapons to the enemy. After a couple of days, we come back and report what we've got. It's harmless."

"And why do I have the feeling that you're disappointed about that?" I cocked an eyebrow suspiciously.

"No, this is a nice easy mission to start you out on," Sarafu smiled unconvincingly. "But don't worry. Our next mission will probably be to take this organization down."

And so we left the next morning. It was only a half a day's walk to Kyuushu. The desert did not disappear, but it was more tightly packed than the desert in Suna. The organization we were supposed to check out was the shady band of exotic goods dealers. We found their hideout in a large hole in the sandy rock about twenty meters deep and 20 kilometers wide, full of warehouses. Small tunnels in the sides of the walls of the hole worked as passageways for trucks, carrying who knows what. In the desert, there wasn't much to hide behind, so we dug into the sand, placing an insulating blanket over ourselves, and watched through a pair of binoculars that Sarafu lent us.

We lay low for hours, and the smothering heat of the sand all around us made us sweat. Occaisionally, we saw a covered truck roll in through the tunnels, and a few men in dark grey uniforms would unload them into the warehouses, and then load the trucks with large wooden crates. Highly suspicious, but…

"We can't see anything from here," I whispered to Sarafu next to me. "From what I can tell, this just looks like a stopping point."

"Trucks come in, drop some stuff off, then leave with other stuff," Sarafu whispered back to me. "There's a definite exchange going on, but we can't leave without having substantial evidence."

"We need to see what's inside those boxes."

"Yes, we'll wait until nightfall, and then come back here and see what we can find. But for now, let's retreat back to the town and grab something to eat. I'm afraid my growling stomach might warn them."

I chuckled and nodded in agreement. I was starving as well.

We returned that night as planned. We tied the blankets around us this time, so we could keep the heat in. The desert grew fairly cold during the night. We crawled up to the ledge of the giant hole, and looked down in the deep darkness. I could make out warehouses in the shadows, but everything else to me was unseen.

"I see about ten guards," Sarafu whispered to me, her golden eyes flicking around. "Five to each warehouse. Though, there might be more inside."

I opened my mouth to say something, but she answered my question before I could even speak it. "I took in the Moon Dragon's body as well, remember? Dragons have very keen eyesight."

The light blue-haired wonder began to dig in her pack, and pulled out a long coil of rope, with a grappling hook attached to the end. She set it down, and then made a few hand seals. In the dark, I couldn't really see them, but I noticed the horse symbol when she was done, and she blew onto the sand at the ledge. I felt the temperature drop, and noticed that the sand she blew on froze solid. She then shoved the grappling hook into the frozen sand, and wiggled it a bit to make sure it was secure.

"Just as a precaution," Sarafu answered my unvoiced question again. "The sand here is tightly packed, but it can still give way if a heavy enough weight is on it." She tossed the rope down, and pulled on it once again to see if the hook budged any. It didn't. "I'll go down first. When you see the rope wave around to the side, you can come down next. Be sure to go down slowly."

I nodded.

"Alright then," Sarafu put her legs over the edge, facing me, and holding onto the side with her arms. Then she grabbed the rope, and walked down the ledge, slowly. Five minutes later, I saw the rope wave around.

After I had reached the bottom, we stuck to the walls, jogging silently towards the nearest warehouse. The sand muffled the sound of our feet, so that I could only hear the faint whisper of fabric. The first warehouse, upon closer look, had a giant red "A" painted on the side of it, and two guards facing us. They stood around lazily, looking around without really seeing anything. They had flashlights that they pointed around at things. One of them whirled it around in circles. Well, looks like we won't have to worry about them.

Of course, the door was guarded. Sarafu put her lips to her mouth (like she needed to tell me) and motioned for me to follow her. We got closer, but still far enough away. She knelt down, and I knelt down beside her. I could make out some more hand seals, and it looked like she was muttering something. I looked up and noticed two little glowing orbs, floating about in the distance by between Warehouse A and Warehouse B. The guards noticed too, and followed, as if in a haze.

"It's only an illusion," Sarafu said as she righted herself and trotted towards the now, unguarded door. "But it'll distract them for a while. We better make this quick, before they come back."

There was a large door, used for transporting cargo to truck and vise versa, and a smaller door next to it, which we went through. We walked inside, and luckily it was empty. The warehouse was full of unorganized stacks of crates and boxes.

"You take to the left, and I'll take to the right, and remember to be quiet," Sarafu ordered me quietly, before trotting lightly over to some boxes.

I walked over towards a small stack of crates, and opened one, prying it open with my kunai. At first, I found a bunch of paper scraps, but once I dug around a little, I found a large pile of kunai. Heart thumping in my head, I turned to the box next to it and pried it open. Shuriken. Delighted, I whipped out the camera Gaara had given me specifically for this mission, and snapped a picture of the weapons.

"Turn off the flash, you idiot!" I heard Sarafu's raspy whisper from behind.

"It's not like anyone's looking in through the windows," I whispered back. There weren't any windows.

Sarafu jogged over to me. "I found small bombs and exploding tags in those boxes over there. What about you?"

"I found shuriken and kunai."

"Looks like we found our evidence."

"This is going surprisingly fast. I didn't suspect we would only need one night."

"Me neither. I figured it would be more heavily guarded." Sarafu suddenly went rigged. "There coming back. My illusion ended. We need to leave, now."

Sarafu pulled me by the wrist, but then stopped when the door opened and light flooded in.

"Who's in there?" A deep male voice called out to us. The two guards that had run after the illusion had come back.

"Damn," Sarafu cursed, before she put her fingers to her lips, and blew hard. Mist, filtered ahead of her into a steamy fog. The guards made startled noises. Sarafu latched onto my wrist again, and pulled me along through the door. By that time, the guards were already following us, and shouted, "INTRUDER!"

As we ran towards the walls, I looked over my shoulder and saw that four more men had joined their ranks. I took out some shuriken and hurled it at them. I missed my initial target, but ended up hitting the guy behind them. He fell to the ground, crying out.

When I noticed we were running at the wall with full speed, I opened my mouth, but again, Sarafu answered before I could speak. "Screw the rope! We're gonna wall-climb. Concentrate the chakra to your feet."

I had about seven seconds to learn the wall-climbing jutsu, and I didn't do so well at first. Sarafu kept moving steadily, pulling me along with her. I had finally gotten the knack of it when we reached the ledge, and ran off into the desert. We got about five steps out, before Sarafu fell to her knees and collapsed.

"Wha! Sarafu!" I cried out, startled. I looked around for an arrow wound, but found none. Well, she hadn't been hit. I heard cries from down below. The guards would be here any second.

"I have no choice!" I cried frantically, and nervously made the hand symbols. "Summoning jutsu!"

With a whirl of sand, a giant golden dragon I recognized as Moregayo appeared before me. He took one look at me, then at Sarafu and said, "Get on."

Since that was my plan in the first place, I heaved Sarafu onto Moregayo's back (in a very uncomfortable position) and then hopped on myself. Moregayo launched into the air like a speeding rocket, and I nearly fell off. I'm pretty sure I did the same thing the first time.

'This is no time to reminisce, Misa!' I yelled at myself.

I leant over Sarafu, who lay on her back on my lap, and checked for any signs of injury. Finding none, I figured that whatever her ailment was, I could just attempt to heal her. I put my hands on her stomach, since it was closest to me, and watched as it began to glow green. I poured as much chakra into her as I could while still retaining my consciousness. When I felt like I had just ran a marathon, I stopped. She was still breathing, but still out cold.

"I will assume you want me to take you two back to Suna?" Moregayo said over the sound of the wind whistling past us.

"Yes, please."

I landed in Suna just as the sun was beginning to rise over the horizon. Moregayo dropped us off right by the gates, since that was the only ground area large enough to fit him, and I ran up to the city gates, carrying Sarafu on my back, still unconscious. The guard recognized me and Sarafu, and thankfully rushed us to the hospital meant specifically for ninjas.

Sarafu was rushed off to some room, and I was shooed away into the waiting lounge. About a half an hour later, Gaara arrived with the jounin I had sent to tell him the message. He was in his night clothes and bare feet. He probably ran here straight out of bed. I told him what happened immediately, but he put up his hand to silence me. "What's her condition?"

"I don't know," I said. The lounge was quiet, and bright, despite the darkness outside. I checked the clock: it was around four or so in the morning. "They just shoved me in here, and haven't told me anything since."

"Aa." He stood, arms crossed across his chest, and face completely stoic. Even with his hair messy and only in pajama pants, he still looked regal and composed.

It only took about five minutes before a nurse and doctor came to see us.

"It's alright," he smiled at us when he saw our stressed looks. "Sarafu's fine. She merely fainted from chakra depletion."

"Chakra depletion?!" I shouted a little too loudly, and it echoed in the empty hospital hallways. "Even I know that only two minor justsus such as wall-climbing and a fog are not that chakra consuming. Is she just not used to having her own body, or—?"

"It's not that," the doctor waved the idea away. "Umm…Lord Kazekage….Sarafu is pregnant."

My jaw dropped to the floor. I gaped at Gaara, but he remained unchanged. I was beginning to wonder if he had even heard, when the doctor continued on with his explanation.

"Creating a new life inside your body takes up quite a lot of chakra," the doctor watched Gaara carefully. "So Sarafu was already drained when she went on this mission, but I don't think she knew that. It only took these two simple jutsus to rid her of her remaining strength. The baby will constantly suck chakra out of Sarafu, especially in these first few months. If it hadn't been for Misa quickly transferring her chakra into the girl, she and her infant would have died."

I stood up a bit taller. Well, what do you know.

"But if it were any other situation, she could have killed her," I heard the familiar voice of Hiroto-sensei. The old lady walked in from behind the doctor. She smacked me across the head. "You know better than to just blindly pour your chakra into someone like that! If you aren't concentrating your chakra at the ailment, it could mess with the body's other organs and functions! If you hadn't have been aiming for her stomach, she really would have died! Jeez, looks like I'll need to teach you how to search for inner ailments of the body next, before you kill someone trying to heal them."

"Do you know what gender the baby is?" Gaara's voice interrupted my scolding.

"This early in the process, we can't tell," the doctor answered. "The baby is too underdeveloped to determine. In a few more month's time, when it has begun to take on a more discernable shape, we can tell you."

"Can we see her?"

"Certainly, but she's still sleeping, so try not to wake her," the doctor smiled kindly at us before showing us to her room.

The hospital had baby blue walls (coincidence?) with a midnight blue strip running along the middle. There was only one bed in the small room, and trays with unused instruments lying around it. Sarafu's platinum sky blue hair went well with the room, sprawled out around her. Her hair was so long that it poured over the edge of the bed like a foamy waterfall. Her golden eyes were covered by her lids, which made her look even more at peace. (Her eyes always reminded me of her father, and so I always saw a bit of conflict in those shining eyes.)

"When he said pregnant, did he mean like…I'm pregnant?" Sarafu's eyes fluttered open and her brows furrowed together.

"Sorry," Gaara brushed aside her bangs lovingly. "That's my fault."

"It's not like it's a bad thing," Sarafu smiled up at him. "I mean, I'm going to be a little worried when I'm on the field, you know, carrying another life inside me, but I think —"

"You're not going out on the field, Sarafu," Gaara said firmly, but his hand caressing her cheek was still soft. "Having a child is too stressful on your body, as we've just now seen. You'll be staying home until he is born."

"What?!" Sarafu exclaimed. "I'm a ninja! What am I supposed to do just lying around the house?"

"Taking care of yourself and our child," Gaara said, and then stopped when he heard a stifled laughter behind him. They both looked at me curiously.

"Sorry, it's just that you two act just like a married couple," I explained. "It was kind of funny. Anyway, Gaara, Sarafu is a workaholic, so she needs to e doing something to occupy herself without actually having to use chakra."

Gaara nodded. "Then she can file paperwork, or something. Let her do whatever she wants, but I want you with her at all times."

"Hey, you don't need to drag Misa into this!" Sarafu protested.

"No, no, it's alright, Sarafu," I waved her protests away. "I was planning on taking care of you in the first place. We'll consider it as part of my training as a medical ninja! And when the baby's born, I can be the nanny, during your missions! I'll be like the fairy godmother or something!" I smiled broadly, off in another universe.

Sarafu and Gaara exchanged looks before they both shrugged. "Sure," Sarafu said. "That's fine, but you don't need to compromise your job for me. I can handle myself."

"Not if this is her job," Gaara jutted in. "Misa, this will be your next mission: Protect and care for Sarafu and my child until he is born."

"Yes, sir!"

"You keep saying 'he', Gaara," Sarafu pouted. "What makes you so sure it's a guy?"

"I know my own sperm."

"That makes know sense! You can never know if its' gender until way later in the pregnancy!"

It was at this point I decided to leave. I wasn't included in this part of the conversation, so I thought it would be best to tell my mom we would be having one and a half new visitors.