I do not own Naruto

Gaara was, as usual, going through paperwork. Though his attention was a bit distracted at the moment. He had received a message that Hotaru had entered the oasis where Giji's deserted hut had been found. They would wait until she too reached the hut to try to determine if retrieving a bounty wasn't her true objective. Tsunade had raised some good points during her meeting with Temari, and had come to speak to this bounty hunter when she was brought in.

She has been around a while after all, Gaara thought to himself, signing off on a mission request.

The Hokage was actually in the guest suite at the moment, hiding from the desert heat and, he knew, her own pile of paper work that Shizune refused to let her leave without. For all her 'wisdom of age', she had yet to realize that putting off paper work only made the pile larger. Sifting through said files, the Kazekage came across an envelope bearing no name. He sighed.

Probably from one of those greedy groups thinking I'd shred it without opening it if they said who it was...

Gaara's eyes narrowed when he pulled out a blank rectangle of paper. Narrowed eyes quickly widened as both familiar and strange seals suddenly appeared on the paper. Gaara flung the paper as best as he could from himself, his shield of sand barely covering him in time to protect him from the blast of the strange exploding note.

Gaara let the sand shield partially fall away, and his jade eyes flashed with anger. His office was in shambles, and a good deal of his paper work charred. His door burst open, revealing a set of guards.

"Gaara-sama, are you hurt?"

"No." Gaara allowed the sand to flow back into the gourd beside his desk before hefting it onto his back and buckling into place. He quickly recounted the cause of the explosion before leaving. Before it was hastily masked, he had sensed chakra rapidly leaving the area. Transporting himself in short bursts, he went in the direction he sensed it go. He quickly reached the gates, and saw a man in a trade mark, red and black patterned robe. He appeared right before the man, who skidded to a halt.

"You!" Gaara said, sending his sand to restrain Giji Kouken.

"Ah, so you survived again. What a pity." And with that, Giji disappeared in a swirl of smoke.

Gaara cursed emphatically as his sand closed on nothingness. He took a few minutes to calm himself. Even though he had gained the respect of his people, and most no longer saw him as the monster he used to be, he always had to make sure everyone knew he had control of himself. When Chiyo-Baasama had sacrificed life to restore his, the binding between his soul and Shukaku's had pulled the demon back to him. However, the technique used had a safeguard; so long as he maintained control of himself, Gaara could utilize a good amount of the demon's chakra while Shukaku lay dormant. Despite this, Gaara knew the demon was always there, waiting for him to lose it...

He shook those thoughts from his head as he landed back in front of his building. Squads were rushing in and out, until an ANBU noticed him.

"Gaara-sama, we sent word to your siblings about this incident. However, the investigation squads have been unable to recover any clues as to who-"

"It was Giji Kouken. He used jutsu to disappear before I could restrain him."

"Gaara." Tsunade approached him, looking relieved. "I was told you were unhurt, but I want you to describe the explosive tag to me. I heard recently from Water that their Kage too received an exploding tag. He is recovering, but I think we should send notices to everyone to have their mail scanned. Is there a place we can talk?"

Gaara nodded curtly. "I have an office in the ANBU headquarters as well. We won't be disturbed there."

As she sped through the desert, Temari's thoughts were focused on her little brother. It had taken years for either her or Kankurou to truly think of him as such, tentatively starting on that day Naruto had literally knocked some sense into him. As Gaara strove to become someone his people could respect, Temari and Kankurou had found him more than worthy of the title of Kazekage, and she and her other brother backed him up through and through. Now she was worried about him, something she never would have thought would happen that morning Gaara lost control in Konoha. This was the third attempt on him in the past couple months. Well, third serious attack. Factions who remembered the old days with bitterness were still after him, and being carefully rooted out. However, the newest ones were worrying. First a sabotage, then poison. The poison might have worked if Chiyo's brother hadn't been visiting that day. Now some sort of explosives. Temari shook her head. Gaara hadn't been the only one targeted either. Several other Kages had sent reports of similar happenings. Glancing at her brother, she was sure the look on his face was similar to hers.

She sighed, and glanced back at the bounty hunter, ANBU fanned out behind her. Hotaru wasn't slowing them down too much, actually, she was maintaining a good pace. However, it was a pace usually only kept up by well disciplined ninjas. A small frown pulled Temari's lips as she looked back ahead, to the slowly growing cliffs where Suna was. She could feel the slight tingle between her shoulder blades, the feeling she got at a faint sense of a stranger's chakra. It could only be coming from the girl, but she had never seen anything about ninja training in her records. The hidden villages kept close track of bounty hunters with ninja training, weary of spies who may be using the guise of a bounty hunter to roam freely between villages and countries.

Kankurou had indeed been thinking the same things as his sister, and the frowning glance she had cast back to the stranger who followed wasn't lost on him. Even if it was only a trace amount, the girl had worked chakra into her system without visibly molding it. Temari hadn't been joking when she said the girl was an enigma.

As they approached the gates, Kankurou flung out an arm to indicate, mostly to the bounty hunter, to stop. He and Temari lifted their sigils to prove their identities, and everyone was quickly admitted. Before Hotaru followed, she picked something off the ground.

"Did one of you drop this?" she asked, holding up a scroll.

"No, but I think I should take it." Temari said, eyeing the seal on the scroll suspiciously. They then proceeded toward the building Gaara's office was at.

"Where is Gaara? Is he alright?" Kankurou demanded of the ninja he saw exiting the Kazekage's office. He noticed one of the reinforced windows was blown out, and charred furniture that had been removed sat by the door.

"Gaara sustained no injuries sir. He and Tsunade-sama are in the ANBU quarters right now."

Temari glanced at the ANBU still flanking Yozora Hotaru. Kankurou looked too. If she was intimidated by being surrounded by some of Sand's top ninjas, she wasn't showing it. Her stoic features remained calm, almost unconcerned, as they led her to where two of the strongest nations' leaders were sitting.

Always too damn sure of themselves, those bounty hunter, Kankurou thought as they swept into the building.

Temari glanced around at each of the ANBU. "You are dismissed. We can handle the girl, and I'm sure she isn't going to try anything in ANBU headquarters."

"Only if you like the idea of suicide..." Hotaru muttered to no one in particular.

Ignoring her, the ninja left, and Temari and Kankurou took places on either side of her as they made their way to the thick doors with the symbol of Suna carved into them. Masked ANBU held places on either side of the door, along with a few of the elite jounin. Temari cracked the door, and Kankurou heard Gaara tell her to enter. Temari looked at the guards.

"Hotaru, I'd like to please ask you to sit there while we report in." She gestured to a bench by the door, and turned to the guards. "If she needs something see to it." Temari dropped her voice so only the guards would hear. "Watch her. That's the hunter, and she may be more than what she seems."

Next time: ...she heard yelling and arguing, but it didn't last long...she would not reveal what she did not want if she could help it...anger boiled from somewhere in Hotaru...

Reviews welcome, and thanks for submissions.