It was completely likely that the exact number of steps Naiyuri and her escort took to get to the party was the same as the number of men staring at her by then. Truthfully, probably not even steps; more like every sound she made….A new head seemed to turn every time she opened her mouth.

Kankuro had picked her up not a second of a difference from the planned time. They had animatedly chatted the whole way there, about—no doubt…puppets. They talked about the styles, argued over where the best place to put a weapon was, and had came up with the idea of creating their own.

Along the way, they had gathered a whole group of men, hypnotized by the kunoichi's beauty. Kankuro was surprised to see that most of them were high ranking ninjas and were all invited to the party. Who knew Temari had so many pathetic friends? It's no wonder that she nags at people…

--

Naiyuri had topped off her short light green dress with her newly obtained hair pin. The hair pin that just happened to be the one Temari wanted (nobody knew it was stolen, of course). To put a long story short, Naiyuri looked beautiful.

Temari saw her brother enter—with a girl. He didn't lie after all… She walked towards him, "Excuse me."

"Hey Temari! This is Naiyuri. And Naiyuri, this is Temari, my sister." Kankuro introduced.

"Nice party," Naiyuri smiled and held out her hand.

"Thanks," Temari replied and reached out her hand too. Before they had the chance to shake, Temari noticed the people staring at them—well, Naiyuri. Temari couldn't help but to feel jealous. "You have a lot of admirers."

Naiyuri laughed (and didn't try to hide it, just what was happening to her?), "I guess they didn't see that I came with him." She poked Kankuro. "By the way, I didn't really have a present for you—"

"Oh, don't worry about it."

"No, no. Here," Naiyuri picked the jade pin out of her hair. No matter. It hadn't cost her anything in the first place…

"Wow…" Temari gasped. This pin—the one at Kayahara's! Temari smiled"Thank you…"


"Did you see her?"

"Yeah…"

"She's really pretty…"

"Uwah….I'm so jealous!"

When Gaara first heard these high-pitched whispers, he thought they meant Temari. It was her party… But he started to doubt it when he heard lines like:

"I'm going to ask her out."

"No way, man! I am!"

Shikamaru—you better act fast…Those guys beat you in rank, he had thought. But after a couple of unreasonably hard comments that Gaara couldn't understand (at 16 years of age, even the Kazekage didn't know all the sex slang…), he was forced to ask just who everyone was talking about…

"Excuse me, Kohan-san."

"Kazekage-sama!" the chuunin automatically bowed.

"No, no, that's not necessary. I just wanted to ask…" Gaara trailed off. His eyes followed a beautiful woman, who had just walked by, laughing—with Kankuro.

"Haha, even the Kazekage can't resist her."

"So that's who everyone was talking about…" Gaara was more astounded by the woman's familiarity than her beauty. Where have I..?

"Yeah, you heard? I think Temari-san is getting jealous…"

Gaara ran over the list of the appearances of the girl at the store in his mind. Brown hair, brown eyes….It was too general. This was an important matter and he was the Kazekage! He could've just walked over and demanded what the girl knew about Akatsuki. But something stopped him; maybe it was the fear of being wrong, or making a fool of himself…


Everything was well in the life of Keiko Sekizaki. She was finally being noticed by Gaara, as he was her date. Even if the whole reason he did it was out of pity, she decided to disregard it. In time, Gaara will realize what a great person she was and fall madly in love.

Though day-dreaming usually required one's full awareness, Keiko mastered the complete art of it and was able to daydream happily and also be conscious of what was going on around her. Caught in mid-thought (you really don't want to know what that thought was...), she noticed something was amiss. Not only was Gaara paying absolutely no attention to her all, he was staring at someone else; someone who he has never met before, or even talked to!

The girl, Naiyuri was the name, was flirting with every guy at the party, even Temari's Shikamaru. She never did anything to Gaara except ignore him; no way did she deserve her. Anyway, she had to go. A plan quickly formed in her head.

"Kohan!" Keiko hissed. "Come here!"

Annoyed, Kohan broke off his conversation with the stunningly gorgeous Naiyuri. "What?"

"Well, you see, that very girl you were talking to—" Keiko pointed at Naiyuri, "I've heard she's a total slut. Have you seen how many people she's hit on? Did you know that the only reason she's here is because Kankuro likes her? I'm guessing she seduced him. She's probably easy, too."

"How easy?" Kohan asked. He had a certain look on his face indicating…things.

"What a lost cause…" muttered Keiko. "At least Gaara-sama isn't like that…"

Keiko moved along stealthily, like a snake, grabbing random men and feeding them false information about how disgusting and slutty Naiyuri was, inventing more and more insults as she went along. For every guy she had managed to persuade away, it seemed two more joined the slut's crowd. She didn't understand, just what was so great about that girl?

She decided to take a break, oblivious to the fact that her efforts had almost no effect at all, and looked for Gaara instead, and found him busily talking to a council elder.

"Really, Gaara-sama, please send him home after the party."

"No, no Naruto is safe here," and being the quick thinker he is, added "We don't want other shinobi villages to think that we can't even protect one ninja."

"Fine, I understand, but are you sure he's capable of—"

"Gaara-sama?" Keiko tapped him, "Hello?" but Gaara didn't give any inclination that he noticed she was there.

"Fine, I'll be waiting for you over here. You know, all alone…"

Feeling an immense amount of boredom, Keiko grabbed the nearest cup to her, and poured its contents into her mouth. She paid no attention to the burning sensation as the liquid traveled down her throat. Time passed by quickly as with the draining of the substance.


There was only one topic at Temari's birthday bash, Naiyuri. Rumors of her spread like wildfire, ranging from good to bad. Temari had heard enough, if even one of the stories of the new girl and Kankuro were true—he was as good as dead.

"KANKURO!" Temari roared threateningly. Unlucky for Kankuro, Temari was standing right behind Keiko during one of her 'truth lectures' to the men of Suna. She was going to kill him. Sex before marriage. Unacceptable.

"Huh?" Kankuro turned from Naiyuri, "What, Temari? Oh yeah… Happy birthday, that's what you're mad about, right?"

"NO!"

"Uh, I'll be right back. I need to use the restroom." Naiyuri politely excused herself, just in time too.

"I SWEAR YOU…" Naiyuri blocked out the rest. She was here on a mission, no matter how many guys asked her out. It was now or never, and 'never' was never an option with Akatsuki—with Tsukiyomi. Naiyuri took a deep breath, Better to get this over with...

"Hey you! You! In the orange!" she called out. Oh god, my reputation will never be able to live this down…

"Huh?" A blonde-haired boy of fifteen turned in response.

"Hey, are you Naruto?" Naiyuri ran towards him. She carefully laid out her next words in her mind. She only had one shot at this, or the jinchuuriki would get suspicious.

"Uh, yeah…" the boy answered, suspicious already despite Naiyuri's effort to sound natural.

"So," Naiyuri kicked into her never-failing, irresistible, seducing voice. "How would you…like to...have a drink with me…?"

"I'm fifteen." Naruto replied, eyes narrowing.

"Um," Naiyuri coughed uncomfortably. "We don't have to have alcohol, let's just get some…orange juice."

"Are you mocking me?"

"No, I—" Naiyuri began.

"—'Cause I'm tired of this! I never get the girls…I bet one of the guys made you do this! Who was it? Geji-mayu? Neji? Kankuro? Gaara? Oh no—don't tell me…Sakura-chan?" Naruto cried in exasperation. "Aw…that's exactly what Sakura-chaaaaan would do, I can't believe her..."

"Uh…," Naiyuri had no idea what he was talking about, and could only pathetically make another attempt to 'lure' Naruto, "How about we get out of here? It's a lame party anyway… Let's go back to my hotel, I—um, have something I wanna show you…."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHH? You're flirting with me now? I can't believe Sakura-chan would go this far!"

"Right…let's just get out of here; I want us to be alone." Naiyuri gave another uncomfortable cough. She was going to have nightmares about this for weeks.

"What do you want to do alone?" asked Naruto innocently. Fifteen years of age, after all.

Naiyuri's mind wandered frantically until it rested on the perfect line. Something she had picked up on a favorite anime show of hers, Samurai Champloo. "There are only a few things a man and a woman can do alone together." Naiyuri said in her sexiest voice, swallowing her pride along with an overflowing amount of saliva (it was nervous work, anyone would).

"Ah…." Even Naruto's simple and innocent intelligence seemed to understand a hint as obvious as that. "NO, NO, NO! No way! I already have someone I like!" Naruto hysterically waved his arms, trying to explain to this crazy woman that his heart belonged to Sakura. "And…and…and...I…eh….ah…no, no, no, 'cause then Kakashi-sensei will...and, and, and...No, no…"

"Okay then…," sighed Naiyuri, much more from the relief that she now had a reason to discontinue what she was doing than the fact that she's just failed her first official mission in Akatsuki. "It'll be best if we both forgot about this incident…"

"Yeah…yeah, it would."


After becoming the Kazekage, Gaara made a habit of checking the outskirts of Sunagakure every few hours. On days he couldn't be at the tower, where he had a clear view of the entire village, he performed a special jutsu instead. He had developed this jutsu in his genin days along with the majority of his others. Back then, he still had to close an eye and concentrate his chakra. But at the level he is now, he improved the jutsu so much that his eyes could remain open, and the third eye outside was theoretically not limited to any distance.

Gaara quickly scanned the perimeters, only half-heartedly replying to the council elder. He appeared totally focused on the man, though his attention was miles away. "That's odd…"

"Hmm..? Yes, well I suppose putting Naruto-san in a cage is a bit strange…"

"Hn…" Gaara's half-hearted responses were now reduced to those of no heart. His mind was completely with his third eye, out towards the village borders.

At first he thought his usually flawless Daisan no Me was showing a glitch, since he had never moved the eye this far. It could've also been a possibility that the third eye was damaged in a way so that it showed a gray blob at the horizon of the setting sun, as unlikely as it is to seem so much like a cloud…

"Sir, could you excuse me? I have an errand to tend to…" Without waiting for an answer, Gaara prepared for Suna-Shunshin no Jutsu (Sand Body Flicker), and in seconds he appeared by his third eye.

"Oh, no…" Gaara barely mumbled. There was absolutely no problem with his jutsu.

...A storm cloud, it was a storm cloud filled with bickering thunder and lightning, flashing and roaring at one another...


When the kunoichi looked down, she saw that she had somehow drunk through countless numbers of cups, bottles, and glasses. God, I need to lie down. What kind of headache is this? At least there isn't anyone near Naiyuri now, she noted. But where has Gaara-sama gone? And where is everyone else?

Naiyuri, who sat in the very back with Kankuro, was still recovering from the shock of….ahem. Oh my god…oh my god, oh my god..., she kept repeating to herself, as she had for the past 20 minutes. Naruto had gathered everyone to the stage area, was he planning on announcing what she did?

"Ladies and gentlemen… May I have your attention please," Naruto said loud and clear into the microphone. Keiko looked up and noticed everyone sitting at the dinner tables, all facing towards the huge stage in the center of the party.

"Temari, since I couldn't find a good enough present for you… This is for you…"

Naruto cleared his throat and began; "Until the day I die! I'll spill my heart for you…! FOR YOU! Come on everyone! I know you know this song! Shikamaru, get up here! She's your girlfriend! UNTIL THE DAY I DIE! I'll SPILL MY HEART FOR YOU!"

Naiyuri sighed in relief. A child coughed. Everyone was silenced. Until…

"What the hell, Naruto? You SUCK!" a random voice called out from the crowd. Naruto disregarded it, and continued. Before long, the majority of the party's attendants were yelling, throwing tomatoes and a few—crying. It was horror to human ears, perhaps the evolution of the windpipe.

Naruto stepped off the stage and went straight onto a table, crushing expensive glassware in the process, all while singing the now infamous song by Story of the Year. He leapt from table to table, eventually stopping in front of Shikamaru, where he sat with Temari. "As the years go by… I race the clock with you…" he droned on.

Shikamaru leaned over to Temari. With his eyes still locked on Naruto, he whispered, "He's drunk…I swear I don't know him…"

Temari whispered back, "Could you please tell him to stop?"

"YOU REMIND ME OF THE TIMES WHEN I KNEW WHO I WAS―"

"OK, I'm thinking." Shikamaru's hands automatically formed into the familiar square shape.

"Now's not the time for that! We need to do something now! He could seriously hurt himself," Temari looked cautiously at Naruto, who had been so drenched with emotion that his eyes were closed and was swaying side to side.

"But still the second hand will catch us… LIKE IT ALWAYS D—"

A flash of bright light caused everyone to abruptly stop, including Naruto. The sky was rapidly filling up with gray clouds, like pieces of large, discolored cotton candy...


Gaara acted promptly and efficiently, as any Kazekage would. He informed all guards on duty to immediately send messages for the villagers to get home, to a safe shelter. He started creating little, storm-proof huts with his chakra-compressed sand and moved food into the huts.

No way was he going to let his village perish. No way was he going to let anyone in Suna suffer. He had promised himself that he would never let anyone die as long as he was Kazekage. Without this promise, how was he going to be respected by everyone?

In 15 minutes, he had set around 1000 huts, enough for only half the population. Gaara looked up into the sky, into the approaching clouds. Could he do this? Would he make it in time?

Gaara thought about the villagers, the children, who still had their futures ahead of them. Was he going to ruin everything for them? He thought of the young men and women of the village, the ones like him, who had dreams that needed to be realized and lives to live to the fullest—Gaara stopped himself.

With one last determined look at the sky, he got back to work.


Though the storm had the sufficient energy to wipe out all of Suna (and it mostly did, even with the Kazekage's efforts to stop it), it was miniscule compared to Naruto's so-called singing. It could be argued however, which did the most damage. Both gave everlasting memories, one that destroyed your home and one that destroyed your ears.

"Naiyuri!" Kankuro called out. "You did enough!" It was true; Naiyuri did help in the storm. She was able to create a water shield, so that the waves wouldn't hit the houses on the east side (rain, with sand dunes were bound to make waves). She made it almost possible to see that men and women were equal, well—almost. Still, it was a wonder whether she protected that part of the city out of generosity or simply because her hotel was on that side of town.

"Are you sure?" Naiyuri gasped for breath. She barely survived when an unnoticed wave snuck up behind her and knocked her off her feet.

The work that was done to help save Suna was hard, yet…fun. No crazy blonde guy to yell at her, anyway. Besides, it wasn't as if Kankuro could do much without her. A puppet may be able to save lives but it'll never be able to save buildings, but Naiyuri could do both.

This could make headlines, an Akatsuki saving lives...

Yeah, I'm sure. The storm's settling down now." Kankuro replied. "I'll walk you to your place. You might not like what you'll find though… We'll see if you need a place to stay for the night."

"Mm… Okay," Naiyuri smiled deviously. "You know, you owe me a lot. First, no free food! The dangos that were supposed to arrive never came. And second, just now, I had to help save Suna." She counted off. "And, you still didn't pay me yet for the lesson."

Kankuro sighed, "I'm offering you a place to sleep, remember?"

"Why else would I make sure this part of town is safe and water free? It's not like I use up chakra like that all the time. And I'm not sleeping with you," Naiyuri flashed her flirtatious smile.

"Hmph! You're too old for me anyways!" Kankuro defended.

"What? I'm only 17!" Naiyuri crossed her arms. "If I'm too old for you, then you'd be like—12!"

"YOU'RE 17! I'M 17! I thought you were some old lady using some kind of jutsu to make yourself look younger! Like the Hokage!" Kankuro wildly exclaimed.

"Excuse me?"

By the time they stopped bickering, they had already arrived at the hotel. The Four Star Hotel (it was not four stars, in case you were wondering) had only a few cracked windows and a beaten down roof. Nothing else was out of the ordinary—although the ground they walked on was a little dampened, and squished through Naiyuri's sandals… But otherwise, yes, the trash piled up on the ground was there on a daily basis.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow then?" Naiyuri turned around to Kankuro.

"No, I can't, I have to help Gaara build huts for the homeless, and something about not being able to do as much as he did when he was a jinchuuriken." He sighed. "Gaara's the only one in the family who's truly gifted with sand but I can do a little."

"The only part that wasn't destroyed is this side," he continued on. "That was... cool, by the way. The wave thing."

"Hah—good job on the compliment. This time, it actually sounded like one. And thanks, I learned it when I was eight." Naiyuri responded casually.

"So... Is water element your specialty then?" Kankuro asked.

"My…specialty?" Naiyuri frowned. She had never thought about things that way. She was always taught that she should master everything, fire, water, etc. "No," she shook her head. "I think earth is more of my department, but not sand though. I prefer moving large solid things than small bits altogether."

"I guess I've always liked ice, it can become hard like rock but unlike earth, it can grow larger." Naiyuri explained. "Although ice and water are very different, they considered the same type of class. Also, you must learn water before its sub-class, ice."

Naiyuri started walking up the stairs, but stopped. "I'll help you with the huts tomorrow, if you want it... Free."

"Thanks Nai," Kankuro smiled. "I was going to use my puppets instead of my weak ability to move sand. I can make them carry large bags of sand but the sand sometimes gets in their joints. It's such a hassle to clean."


As Naiyuri got closer and closer to her door, she sensed someone there. Great, what a way to end the day... She put her hand on her knob but instead of turning— "What, Deidara?"

"Where were you?" he angrily demanded.

"Out, duh," Naiyuri decided to use her annoyed voice. "You know, trying to 'lure' Naruto?"

"Oh," Deidara was silenced. He didn't really think she was going to do it. He had to admit, the plan was stupid. "Well? Did you succeed?"

"Do you see him here?" Naiyuri rolled her eyes. "He was too into this girl—" she snapped her fingers in an annoyed way, trying to remember her name—"Haruno Sakura."

Deidara snorted, "So that means you couldn't even beat a pathetic girl?"

Naiyuri shrugged "I'm too old for him anyway, he's just 15." She started for her room. After saving about an eighth of the city from flooding, she was hella tired.

"Hold it!" Deidara put an out a hand to stop the door from closing. "There was a specific reason why I came all this way and waited for you, yeah..."

"What 'all this way'?" Naiyuri snapped at him. "You couldn't have walked down a single hall way? You probably waited for me because you have no life or something!"

Deidara gave out a little chilling laugh. "No—Naiyuri, you think you're so smart. You want to know what happened today?" He was starting to get a little hysterical, even leaving out his ever so overused yeah's. "I'll tell you what happened! The Leader came here, demanding to know if we got Naruto or not!"

Naiyuri wasn't expecting that. "Oh."

"Oh? OH? Is that all you can say?" Deidara was shaking a fist in the air. "Oh isn't going to solve this problem 'cause you know what else he said? He said that every three days, we're going to have to go to the tree cave so Itachi can use the Tsukiyomi on us."

Deidara pounded his fist into the wall. "I don't want to go through that again." he said fiercely.

"Until we capture him you mean?" Naiyuri asked.

"Yeah, and if we don't get him in three weeks, we'll be sent away—" he paused. "To train. You know how humiliating that would be?" Deidara yelled at her.

Naiyuri blinked, just thinking of it was painful. "I'm sorry. I get it, I really get it now."

"Come on," she pulled Deidara's massive (massive, not fat) body into her room and sat on the floor. "We have to think of a plan."

By accident, Deidara's ring dropped on to the rug. "Here," Naiyuri picked it up and handed it back to him. "You know," she said, "We should switch rings, The Virgin should go to an actual virgin."

Deidara turned faintly pink. "I'm not a virgin!"

"Sure, sure," Naiyuri yawned. "Now, any bright ideas?"

"Yeah... No," Deidara replied. "Wait—I got it! You can ask Naruto if he wants any help getting Sakura. Then, you two could go shopping to get her a gift—" Deidara turned, "Are you even listening?"

Naiyuri was sprawled out on the floor, fast sleep, wet dress and all. Deidara sighed, so now I'm her babysitter too, yeah? He picked her up and took her to her bed.

And with one last glance at his sleeping comrade, he turned off the lights. "Night, Naiyuri."


A/N: EDIIIIIIITED! YEAH!

TaurenLeaf Primary – Um, sorry…? Well, I don't think any of you were waiting that eagerly... Anyway, it was much fun adding the word 'Duckie' into my Word dictionary and adding my favorite song! If you have time, please listen to it! XD!

TaurenLeaf Secondary – If she was here: some stupid and rude comment about—if not my (Primary's) writing….than my AN, cause that's just how mean she is

TaurenLeafEditor – I'M EDITOR. ENJOY THE FIC, IT'S VERY GOOD. IF YOU FIND MISTAKES, BLAME IT ON PRIMARY FOR NOT CHANGING IT WHEN I TOLD HER TO OR ME BECAUSE IT'S MY JOB.