A/N: The password is just random letters that sound good together ... You'll understand when you see it.

Disclaimer: I still don't own the Naruto cast ...

Chapter Seven: First Mission

It had been a whole month since Shai had woken up in the hospital. She demanded to be released sooner than that, but the medical nin refused. They obviously didn't want her around Gaara anymore either as they kept making excuses to kick the three siblings out of the room every time they visited her.

She was back staying with the Gaara, Temari and Kankuro, courtesy of the Kazekage himself.

She had begun to notice thatKankuro was a deal quieter and more violent towards everyone else, and she was pretty depressed about it.She was beyond certain it was her fault for loosing her temper at the hospital at him.

Temari seemed normal, but anyone could tell she was more weary towards her brothers. She tended to stay out of their arguments a bit more than was usual for her. She especially stayed out of any argument with Gaara in it.

Gaara's temper had deminished to a small spark instead of the flames it had been before. He could control himself better and the casualties in his missions had gone down. A lot. He seemed to harbour a very soft spot for Shai and she enjoyed it more than she admitted to herself. He had also taken to kissing Shai whenever he could.

They had begun to make dinner, and Gaara volunteered to help cook it. Well, more along the lines of Temari and Kankuro running off to leave Gaara to help.

"Shai."

"Hai, Gaara-kun?" Answered Shai, whom was just starting to fry up the lobster for their supper.

They were having lobster stir-fry with lobster as a side dish.

"... This rice isn't cooking right." Gaara was trying to boil the rice, and didn't seem to be having much luck.The family was use to steaming the rice with a rice cooker, but it was broken, so they were forced to boil it.

Shai turned the heat down on the lobster and peeked over at Gaara.

"Why is it sticking?" Gaara held the spoon up, taking almost half the ricewith it.

Shai laughed while Gaara scowled at the rice.

"Here, let me show you…"

Shai rummaged through the drawer and found the salt. She showed him how much to add to keep it from sticking to the pot and the spoon.

After five minutes, Gaara finaly had the rice cooked. He scowled at it again before adding the half-spoon of butter and letting Shai stir some of the lobster into the pot.

The second Shai finished putting their dinner together, Gaara spun her around and gave her a breif kiss.

"Thanks."Gaara looked into her eyes before ghosting his lips against hers once more.

Shai smiledas a 'you'rewelcome' and she pecked him on the lips one more time before checking the rest of the lobster.

Gaara dumped the pot of stir-fry into a large bowl and took some plates out to the dining room. When he returned, both he and Shai did a second trip with the other lobster, chopsticks, glasses and a pitcher of juice.

"Come and eat it before it's gone!" Shai's voice rang through the house, amplified by the empty corridors.

Temari and Kankuro raced into the dining room and tripped over eachother in a race to get some food. Seeing how much had actually been made, they glared at Shai and Gaara.

Shai beamed at them; it was still funny to see them trip over eachother to get the last of the food. Which of course was actually just being put out.

The first thing Shai had noticed when they had brought her home was the dining room table; it was smaller at one end so it was more square than rectangular.

Shai sat with Temari across from her, Gaara and Kankuro on either side of her. The tension between the two was intense.

"So Temari, how is yourtraining going?" Asked Kankuro slyly as he reached for a second peice oflobster.

Temari grabbed the same piece as Kankuro and pulled on it, "Good. Yours?"

"Fine…" the piece the two were struggling over broke; the biggest piece going to Temari.

"Ha! I got a bigger piece than you!" Temari gloated.

Kankuro reached over and snatched the pieceoff Temari's plate, "No you didn't."

"Hey! That's mine! Give it!" Temari jumped up and tried to steal it back.

Gaara's sandreached over and took the piece, "Mine."

Temari and Kankuro fumed incredulously, "That's not fair!"

Gaara smirked andchewed onthe lobster thoughtfully.

Shai and Temari laughed at Gaara's actions, but Kankuro was bent on eating that lobster. Even if it meant eating it after Gaara had already swallowed it.

"Gaara! Give it to me!" Kankuro jumped over and tried to make Gaara puke out the lobster he just ate.

"Kankuro!" Temari, Shai and Gaara all said at the same time. Shai and Temari giggled at Kankuro.

"Fine." Kankuro growled andtook the piece of lobster that was on Gaara's plate. He waved it around before sitting down and stuffing it in his mouth.

Temari giggled andthrew a handful of rice at Kankuro. Kankuro returned the rice to Temari.

Temari threw rice at Shai. Shai threw rice at Kankuro and Gaara.

Kankuro threw rice at Gaara and Temari.

Gaara threw rice at all of them twice.

Temari fell backwards into Kankuro, who was about to face wash Temari in rice.

"Kankuro!" Temari whined, her eyes going all puppy-dog on him.

"What?"

Temari quickly face-washed Kankuro with her own rice.

After a while, they settled down and finished eating their dinner in a half-civilized manner.

Shai had just finished washing the dishes and started on getting the rice off the floor when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Shouted Shai from the kitchen. She quickly washed her hands and was at the door just as it opened.

"K-Kazekage-sama!" Shai blushed and bowed formally. She was gratefull that it was too dark to tell just what shade of red she had turned.

"I am here regarding your first mission." The Kazekage returned the bow and Shai directed her to the living room.

"I would also like to speak with my children, if you would get them for me?"

Shai blushed, and nodded.

"Yessir," She bowed again and padded down the hallways, summoning first Temari, then Kankuro and finally Gaara.

When they had all found seats around the table, The Kazekage produced a scroll for each of them. Gaara and Kankuro had thefattest scrolls while Shai and Temari had thin scrolls. Shai's was the very smallest though.

Temari was the first to ask the question on all of their minds.

"Do they contain our mission or are they the object of the mission?"

The Kazekage chuckled and nodded, "They contain each of your missions. They're slightly different from one another. I need you all to keep what you read confedential. This is very important, understand?"

All four children nodded and answered simulatiously, "Yes sir."

With that, the Kazekage got up, followed by Shai and his children, and left the house.


Shai sat on her bed, battling her consious on when to open the scroll from the Kazekage. She finally sighed and peeled the edge, checking for any traps. When she was satisfied that there wasn't anything that activated when opening the scroll, she opened it all the way.

She stared at the middle of the scroll. The symbol for Konoha Village was sitting there. She had to go to the Village hidden in the Leafs. She shook her head, rubbed her eyes and looked back at the symbol; it was still there.

Shai sighed when she realized that the scroll had three attached pictures and began to read the textleft of the Konoha Leaf symbol.


Tag-along Secondary Mission

You are to follow Subaku no Gaara and his siblings to the Konoha Village on the dawn of the next full moon. There you will make contact with Sayami Jiiru behind the building the Kazekage assigns you and Subaku no Gaara at sundown on the first day. Follow the instructions given on the scroll you next receive.

Your password is: Tesimera


Shai re-read the text before she turned to the rest of the scroll. There was very little text on the right, and it just told her that she should only be concerned for herself and Gaara. It also read that he was the most important ninja on their mission and thatshe should take precautions for herself. She sighed and flipped through the pictures.

The first picture was a simple overlay of Konoha. The second picture caught her attention; It was the picture of the ninja Sayami Jiiru.

His face was heavily scarred and looked like he'd been tortured more than once. His eyes were a bright blue and he was clearly blind in his right eye. He wore a blood-red thin jacket over a black fishnet shirt. His pants were black and loose-fitting, but the picture cut off at his knees. Over all of that, he wore a dark blue cloak, and his headprotector tied around his neck. She noted that he didn't wear a chuunin or jounin vest, and that his eyes carried something in them to make her weary of him. She couldn't tell what it was exactly, but she knew that he might cause trouble.

The third picture was another map of Konoha, but it had more details including major street names, and the locations of major tourist attractions like the cliff of Hokage's.

Shai sighed and rolled up the scroll again. She placed it in her dresser drawer, under a pair of pants, and curled up under her bedding. She wrestled with it for a while before drifting into a dreamless sleep.