Chapter 7

Naruto was poking Sasuke and frowning.

Sasuke was glaring at Naruto.

Ronpoa was laughing her head off.

"What, Naruto? What do you want?" Sasuke asked Naruto finally. He was truly being a pain is the ass.

"Ano, Sasuke, do you want another war with the sand? No! The sand have been very faithful and helped us whenever we needed them. Both you and me would probably be dead by now if it weren't for them. Besides, you want to go back to your wife and live a happy peaceful life, don't you? For that we can't cause any trouble for the sand right now."

"If we don't kill her, she'll kill us, Naruto baka."

"If we do kill her, Konoha's in trouble, Sasuke baka."

Ronpoa was still laughing her head off.

Sasuke randomly shot two Shuriken's at her, one of which hurt her shoulder.

"Shut the fuck up, we're trying to think here." He told her.

"Heh." Naruto smiled.

"Naruto! You go to the village of sand, contact Gaara." Sasuke ordered him.

"Since when are you the boss here?! You go contact Gaara yourself! I'll bet you'd kill her while we're gone anyway!" Naruto yelled and pointed at Sasuke, mumbling something that sounded a lot like "besides I bet you're gonna show off when we get here damn you Sasuke always making me look bad..."

"Look, Naruto-baka, Gaara hates me, Gaara likes you. He'll kill me if I come talk to him, He'll be super friendly to you if that's possible. Therefore, you go, I stay and make sure this Ronpoa girl doesn't escape. That is, unless you want to have it my way and kill this person right here, right now."

"Ah." Naruto said and frowned. "Fine... I'll go..." he sighed and sped off. Sasuke tied Ronpoa with both chakra strings and rope. He would feel it if she broke free, and he very much doubted he couldn't defeat her if she did.

Three days later, Naruto and Gaara appeared where Sasuke and Ronpoa have been earlier.

"That was quick." Ronpoa commented. It had taken her quite a while to get from the sand to Konoha and back, and this place was even further. Even a jounin like Naruto can't make it one way in less than a week. Of course, the way back they had transferred on Gaara's sand.

"I have my methods of transportation." He told her. "Jiraya taught me some fancy transporting technique just these past few months!" he told Sasuke. "For emergency situations only." He finished. Sasuke sighed. He shouldn't have said the last part; if Gaara and Ronpoa were smart, they'd understand this meant that he had almost no chakra left from using this technique or it wouldn't have been only for emergency. Baka Naruto.

"Ronpoa, go home. Your brother is waiting for you." Gaara told her. The sand broke Sasuke's strings and ropes and Ronpoa fled.

"We don't want war, Gaara." Naruto told him.

"Too bad." Replied Gaara. "I should have won you guys years and years back. And now I now I can!" As Gaara said that the sand was chasing Naruto and Sasuke around. They were dodging with the speed they had gained over the years, but it seemed the sand had also gained speed.

Naruto used Harem, and all the sexy girls threw kunais. Naruto knew little of this but Gaara and the sands only weakness was sexy girls- well, what, all the girls were afraid of him and couldn't touch him because of the sand. Gaara got a nosebleed, and the sand leaked blood as well. Naruto and Sasuke both blinked, and then Sasuke used his blazing fire to set Gaara's blood on fire.

Naruto and Sasuke were winning, and they didn't even use any fancy techniques yet. Heh.

But the sand was grasping onto Naruto's neck, and Sasuke's chest. They were both grasping for breath. Gaara was just slow motioning a fist when Temari arrived.

"Gaara, what are you doing? Leave those two alone." Gaara turned to his sister and gave her a rather mean look. He was younger than her in quite a bit, but that never stopped him from threatening her every other day. Temari was frightened for a second, then shook her head and remembered that Gaara would never hurt her. He had proved it before, on missions. His sand automatically protected her if someone wanted to hurt her, almost as much as it did Gaara (though Gaara always was first to be protected, but there was usually enough sand for them both.). She breathed in deeply, however, before she explained herself to Gaara.

"Gaara, please. These two have done nothing wrong, and we have an alliance with the hidden village of leaf. We don't want to break that alliance, so far it's only done us good."

"Temari... I..." Gaara begun. "Fine." He said and walked away. 'I don't want to hurt my sister. She's... the only one I've got right now.' He thought as Temari hugged him and they both 'hitched a ride' on the sand.

The first time Temari hugged Gaara, Gaara couldn't be any happier. She was the first (and still only) person that ever hugged him. But now, Gaara wanted to be hugged by another female... someone who loved him like... like... like Temari loved her boyfriend from the sand. At first Gaara hated Temari's boyfriend and tried to kill him, because he didn't like sharing Temari. But he came to realize that Temari would be very very sad without him. So he let them be. He grew used to seeing them together.

((writers mid-note: to all those who want me to do a pairing that includes Gaara in it, do say so. I want it too, but I just... can't bring myself to do it. HE'S MINE GODDAMNIT!!))

Hinata was making a new ointment. She had already made 17 since Sasuke left (it took a lot of time and precision to make each one.). She had been on two B ranked missions, as well, and 10 C and D ranked missions. She had been to the Hokage 4 times already, asking when Sasuke will be back. All the other teams that have left with Sasuke had returned last month.

Hinata was worried. She asked the Hokage to send a search team to help them. She wanted to be on the search team, but Tsunade said no and didn't budge or explain herself.

The team was, eventually, sent, and Hinata was waiting. Alone.

Training.

She trained like her life depended on it. she wanted to be strong enough for Sasuke when he returned, or strong enough to survive if he didn't return. This thought scared her. Even if he didn't return, she was still Uchiha Hinata. She would have to restore his clan for him, she knew. She didn't like the thought.

She had thought about her position all day long. Sasuke had married her only as a tool, she knew it from the moment she heard him talk to her father. He would have taken anybody; he didn't love her especially because of who she was.

But he didn't hate her because of who she was, either.

So maybe it was better this way. No one else would have taken her, probably. She would be stuck in an organized marriage by the Hyuuga, marrying a distant family member, or would have gotten married to some rich old dude that payed a great amount of money to the Hyuuga in order to be one. That was how the Hyuuga had become so rich in the first place.

Maybe she wouldn't have even gotten married; maybe she would have been sent on an A rank mission as a chuunin hoping she would die, or even have an assassin after her.

This scared her greatly. At least she knew that with the Uchiha she was safe from that horrible fate. And she was married to the most popular and wanted man in Konoha.

And he said he loved her.

But did he?

And so Hinata would train, and train, and train, to please her husband when he got home. Trained and made ointments for him.

She even stopped thinking about the fact that Naruto was with him.

And about the fact that they both might be dead.

end chapter 7

Another useless, annoying short chapter. I wanted to put a fight here but it didn't work out cuz Gaara would have had to die but I like Gaara too much (I'm too merciful). I wanted to put more Hinata here but that didn't work out either, cuz there's not much to say about her.

SO this is the result. I hate it I'll rewrite it when I rewrite chapter 1 and every other chapter I don't like. Hehe. For now though you have to live with it cuz it get's the plot going. I rewrote it like 5 times already, that's why it took me so long. At least I managed to get Temari in!