Hi Everyone. I'm going to keep this brief because its like 12 AM and I could not come up with a title for this chapter so I went on a title generator site, typed in cactus, and laughed for about ten solid minutes at the headlines it generated for me. One of my favorites was: The people that want to start cactus but are afraid to get started. Go do that and you will understand where I'm mentally at right now. Anyway, please enjoy this chapter. I always look forward to hearing what you guys think, any and all questions, comments, or reviews are much appreciated. As mentioned in the last post, I am also taking drawing requests based on the story to post on my deviantart account with the same tag (ponchoninjax3). So, with that...ie sind das Essen und wir sind die Jäger!

After all the girls left in the morning, the house seemed oddly quiet. The place had always been big and empty, but after the party the silence was deafening. Hinata and Beki floated from room to room together trying to keep busy. After lunch they split off and did their own things. Beki went for a run and Hinata stayed home to read. When Beki got home, she walked in through the kitchen door and called out:

"I'm home!" but she got no response. "Hinata?" She called up the stairs.

Beki's heart beat a little faster. She listened hard. She heard a noise, something soft like crying. She closed and locked the door and jogged up the steps. She knocked on her friend's door.

"C-come in," Hinata said through sobs.

Beki walked in and saw Hinata curled up on her bed hugging her pillow, a letter open on the bed beside her.

"Oh Hina chan, what's wrong?" Beki climbed up on the bed next to her.

"Oh, it's just Naruto sent me a picture," Hinata handed it to Beki and wiped her eyes. "He's growing up without me."

He was cute, Beki had to admit. His eyes were a clear bright blue and he had a nice tan from his training. He had a big goofy grin on his face and Beki could see why Hinata loved him so much. The kid exuded joy.

"I know his training is very important, but I just," Hinata broke out into soft sobs. "I just miss him so much."

Beki curled up next to Hinata and held her in her arms as she cried.

"It's okay Hinata," Beki smiled gently. "He knows you love and miss him. And he loves and misses you."

"I know that Beki," Hinata's eyes were still wet but she was through the worst of her crying.

"I'm just so lonely Beki," Hinata said, planting her face into her friend's neck. "I'm so unbearably lonely."

Beki knew exactly how she felt. Being away from all the people you loved was excruciating. The best thing to do was to distract yourself. You had to surround yourself with things that reminded you of the person you loved, but in a good way so it didn't hurt.

"I have an idea," Beki said getting up from the bed. She walked over to Hinata's closet and pulled out the photo album she kept there. "Show me everything. Tell me everything about him and all the fun stuff you guys have done together."

Hinata looked unsure.

"Won't it be really boring for you?"

"No, he's important to you and you're important to me," Beki shrugged. "So by extension, he's important to me, too."

Hinata smiled and opened up the photo album.

"Why isn't he looking at the camera for these ones?" Beki asked, pointing to the first few pictures in the album.

Hinata turned bright red with embarrassment and her brows knit in frustration.

"You can't say a darn word," Hinata huffed. "He...he doesn't know I took these...these were from before we were together."

Beki tried every trick in her arsenal not to burst out laughing and failed.

"You were a stalker and a peeping tom! Look at him! He's shirtless doing chores! Was this taken from a roof?"

Hinata slammed the book shut and hung her head in shame.

"No, no, Hinata it's not like that. It's funny. I wouldn't tell a soul," Beki put her hand over her heart. "I swear on my dad's topknot."

Hinata watched her long and hard, then sighed and reopened the album. She went through each picture one by one, explaining the context and telling Beki their stories. Beki listened happily because it made Hinata happy. The night dragged on, they made tea, and they fell asleep about halfway through the album snuggled up under the blankets.

…

Beki woke up alone. Hinata had left a note by the bed saying that she had been deployed with her team at the last minute on a special mission and wouldn't be home for three days. She apologized profusely for leaving so suddenly and promised her that she would make it up when she got back.

Beki went out for a run, showered, and checked the fridge. They had been planning on going to market together today. Beki had a pretty good idea of what Hinata needed, so she started to write a list with the intent of taking care of it herself. She was just about to walk out the door when she caught her reflection in the glass of a picture on the wall. Beki was clean, but her hair was an absolute mess and her shirt looked like she had slept in it. Back home, she would have shrugged and walked out the door anyway, but Beki was in Konoha. As she was now, Beki was in no way a good representation of her village. She had grown so accustomed to living in Konoha sometimes she forgot she was supposed to put on a good show in the name of Getsu. She went back upstairs and changed into a simple heather gray day dress. Then she put on the tiniest bit of makeup and a pair of earrings. It was her one day off a week from training; her run earlier had just been for maintenance purposes.

Finally she got out the door and headed into town with her shopping bags in hand. It felt strange for the weight of the kanabo to be absent. She had grown so accustomed to its weight over her shoulders she felt naked without it. Regardless of her discomfort, it was a bright morning with hints of fall in the air. It hadn't even occurred to Beki how pretty Konoha would be in autumn. She was so excited to see all the colors the trees would turn.

Konohamaru was waiting for his friends to show up for training. There was a new technique he wanted to work on right away, but the other two said that they wanted to enjoy the nice day a bit beforehand. Konohamaru had been practicing knife forms when he saw Beki walk by. He almost didn't recognize her. For the last few weeks she had been this intimidating behemoth dressed for war with a monster sized kanabo over her shoulder. Today, she was in a light and flowy dress. Konohamaru had always thought she was pretty, but in a tough untouchable way. Today she was pretty in the way other girls were, but somehow because she was pretty the other way too, it made her prettier than girls that were just one or the other. He took a deep breath. Today seemed like as good a day as any.

Konohamaru had been sending her secret admirer notes since he met her that day at the school. He had been distracted at school thinking about her and when Iruka sensei confronted him about his lack of focus, Konohamaru told him about Beki and Iruka smiled a little. He told Konohamaru to tell Beki why he admired her. He couldn't get himself to do it in person, so that's how Konohamaru had started writing the notes. She was so cool and strong, like Naruto, but a girl. And really really pretty. Girls in Konoha weren't pretty in the way she was. Konohamaru wondered if other girls in Getsu were as pretty as her.

He had one more note for her. This one he was going to give her in person; it was time to tell her it had been him all along. Konohamaru knew he was young, but he was going to be Hokage one day. If she would wait for him to grow up a little he was sure that would be a good thing to wait for. Konohamaru went chasing after her.

"Beki nee san!" He yelled.

She looked over her shoulder at him and gave him a little smile.

"Hey buddeh," she said.

Konohamaru liked when she said stuff in a funny way like that. It made him feel special.

"You're wearing a dress today?" He blurted. Act cool Konohamaru, he thought. Build up to it. Be cool.

"Yeah," Beki chuckled. "All my other clothes were soaked with the blood of my enemies."

"You must have a lot of enemies," He said, thinking about how many clothes girls seem to have.

She laughed at that, adjusting her pace to match his so he could walk beside her.

"So what are you doing today, Konohamaru?" She asked. "Training to be Hokage?"

"Yes!" He clutched his shirt. "I am going to be the greatest Hokage, even better than my grandpa."

That won't be too hard, Beki thought as she remembered all the shady dealings the Third had been involved in. No need to kill the kid's buzz though. She smiled and nodded:

"You keep training and you will be," She commented. "It'll take a lot of hard group. There's no way you can get a job like that by just letting it fall in your lap."

Konohamaru thought for a moment. Beki was really strong and cool, and her dad was an important ambassador guy. Maybe Beki could grow up to be a kage and they could be kages together.

"Don't you want to be the kage of your village?" He looked up at her.

She shook her head gently.

"Naw kid, our village doesn't have a kage. We have a king that hands down all the orders," she explained. "Besides, that's a lot more work than I think I want on my plate. My dad is just the ambassador and he's always so busy I hardly get to see him."

Konohamaru thought about it. That was true. He never got to see his grandpa very much when he was Hokage.

"I think if we did have a kage my dad would do a good job of it," Beki thought aloud. "He cares about our people a lot, and he has a lot of experience as an ambassador. On the other hand, he doesn't have the right attitude for it. I'm just like him, so I don't either."

"What do you mean?" Konohamaru asked. He had seen Beki's dad. He definitely looked like the kind of person that could be a kage.

"To be a kage you have to be willing to put your village above everything and everyone else," Beki explained. "I don't think either of us would be very good at that. My dad sometimes gets in trouble with work because he takes care of me instead. I'm more important to him than his duties to the village."

Konohamaru thought for a while. He would have to figure that out when he was kage. He might just have to have his family work in the mansion with him so he could take care of them and the village.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out when your time comes Konohamaru," Beki read his thoughts. She was so cool, he thought.

She swiped her hand just over the tips of his hair.

"You had a haircut?" She asked.

"Yeah," He sighed. "Mom said I can't let it grow out and look shaggy like a homeless dog."

Beki laughed. She had a big loud laugh. He liked it. The other girls her age just kind of giggled behind their hands, so you could never really know if they thought what you said was funny.

"I like shaggy hair, though," Beki smiled. "We're shinobi, not businessmen. When you look too polished or too clean, you don't look like you can do dirty work. When my dad shaves and cuts his hair short he doesn't look as tough."

Konohamaru was not going to let his mom make him get a haircut again. He wanted to look rugged, too.

They were in town now and approaching the market. Beki started to look over her list. She held up a hand to press back her hair behind her ear while she read. She was super pretty when she focused like that. She moved her lips as she read over the list like she was whispering a secret or a spell. Konohamaru suddenly remembered the kiss she had planted on him when he had used sexy jutsu and he blushed. He remembered how soft her lips were and how she tasted like tangerines and he walked right into a sign in front of a shop, getting tangled in the frame.

"Oh crap Konohamaru," Beki cried out as she worked at the frame to turn him loose.

Konohamaru was so embarrassed. Beki was so collected and smooth and he had just gotten taken down by a shop sign. When he got back on his feet she chucked his chin and smiled at him.

"I can't tell you how many times I've eaten crap over the side of a bridge and fallen into rivers," She said, trying to soften the blow to his pride. "And I'm talking about since I've gotten to Konoha. I'm not including how many times I fell into the lake back home."

Now was as good a time as any. If he could be brave right now he would prove to himself he could someday be Hokage.

"Beki nee san-"

"Miss Tsukimori?" Someone said from behind Beki. She stood up and looked over her shoulder.

"Oh, Kazekage-sama," Konohamaru could hear a smile in her voice. Beki turned a little to face the Kazekage and Konohamaru got a look at him. He was about Naruto's height, but otherwise he was his complete opposite. Naruto had this kind of sunny, friendly vibe about him. This guy was just plain unsettling. He was dressed all in red, like he was drenched in blood. It didn't stop at his clothes, either. His hair was the same sanguine shade. The Kazekage was as pale as a ghost and had dark circles under his eyes that made him seem dangerously unapproachable. Konohamaru quickly felt his resolve deteriorating. He reached into his kunai pouch and took out the note for Beki. Quietly, he slipped it into her bag and run away.

"I think you lost your shadow," Gaara jerked his head gently in the direction Konohamaru was fleeing. "I hope I didn't scare him off."

"He was just embarrassed," Beki explained. "He walked right into the shop sign while he was talking to me. He's at that age where they aren't ready to laugh that stuff off yet."

"You sure you didn't walk him into it?" Gaara looked at her with a pokerface.

"You knock out a guy with a bag of flour once, and suddenly you're responsible for every misfortune," She smiled, hoping that was a joke. "Next you'll be blaming me when you stub your toe on your coffee table."

"Sorry, was I interrupting something?" Gaara asked, looking at her shopping bags.

"I was just heading into the market," Beki gestured. "I'm running solo for the next few days so I have to stock up on the essentials."

"You aren't buying contraband, are you?" He watched her with that same pokerface and her palms started sweating. Either he was a master of sarcasm or he was actually concerned she would be buying flour

"No, I'm not baking anytime in the near future," Beki pointed in the window of a nearby shop. "Like the poster says, I'm barred from purchasing flour in Konoha for the next five years. The poor orphans won't be getting any cupcakes this year."

He exhaled a little differently. Beki realized that was probably his version of a laugh.

"I'll walk with you," Gaara began walking slowly, so although it was posed as an offer it wasn't really optional. Damn, he's good, Beki thought. That's the sort of move her dad would pull to corner a politician that was dodging him all the time. For a moment that worried Beki. He wouldn't try to weasel information out of her because she was his age, would he? Other diplomats had tried that before, but they were usually old men who were very easy to outrun and/or make to look like pedophiles if they bothered you too much. But the Kazekage was her age. She couldn't just rip her dress and cry to make him go away. Well, she could, but he would never talk to her again. A brief wave of panic swept over Beki. She wanted him to talk to her. She wanted to be his friend. Please, she thought. Please don't ask me a bunch of probing questions.

The two began to walk from stall to stall. They would greet the shop keepers and then Beki would make her selections as they talked.

"So, you stay in Konoha even when your father travels back to Getsugakure." Gaara asked in his stating the facts sort of way.

Oh no, Beki thought. Here come the questions. It was fun while it lasted.

"I'm kind of a physical representation of an act of goodwill while I'm here," Beki explained.

"You're collateral on the deal," Gaara echoed.

It's common knowledge, our arrangement between the villages, Beki thought to herself. The Hokage or her father would have told him the same thing. She had to be careful not to be too evasive just as much as she needed to withhold critical intelligence.

"It's not so bad," Beki decided to turn the conversation in a positive direction. "The Hyuga Clan are hosting me while I'm here and they are very generous. I have to admit it's kind of refreshing to live in another village and experience their culture."

Seiichiro had trained her well. You never throw the people you have a contract with under the bus, or else no one will ever make contracts with you. Even though they were in the market in Konoha, Beki was constantly aware every word that came out her mouth might as well have come out of the mouth of the King.

"Do you miss your home?" He asked, casually holding Beki's bags for her while she tested a watermelon for freshness.

"Some days I miss it so much I get chest pains," She slapped the melon. "But my friends and I write each other all the time, and when my father is in Konoha we make a point of spending time together away from it all. What about you? Isn't it hard to leave your village when you're the Kazekage?"

He handed her bags back to her.

"Yes. I end up having to leave a lot of work unfinished and it tends to pile up even more while I'm away."

Beki had been referring to his friends and family, but Hinata had been drilling it into her just as much as Seiichiro to keep those blurty thoughts to herself.

"Your brother is head of security, right? That probably helps a lot with keeping track of what's going on while you're away." Beki commented. "Speaking of which, where's your shadow?"

"He's around here somewhere," Gaara glanced around as if by mentioning him Kankuro would suddenly appear. "When we're out of Suna he never lets me out of his sight."

Kankuro was watching them at that very moment. When Gaara had spotted Beki and told Kankuro to wait for a moment, he had instead scaled a nearby building and pulled out his binoculars. He was going to see with his own two eyes what this girl was doing to mix up his little brother so badly.

As Beki made her purchases and the bags began filling up, Gaara would wordlessly take them from her and carry them. They were attracting a lot of attention although they were both oblivious to it. The Kazekage and the Getsu ambassador's daughter out to market together was quite a sight, but they were so engrossed in their conversation they hardly noticed the outright gawking going on around them.

"You follow your father around on assignments to train as his successor?" Gaara asked.

Beki's chest tightened. Here it was, the motive behind everyone with an ounce of ambition ever talking to her. Positions were inherited in Getsugakure, a fact a kage would be well aware of. If things went sour with her father, a young kage would only have to wait until Seiichiro retired to reap the rewards of building a secret relationship with her behind her father's back. It was time to nip that idea in the bud.

"He would love that, but my mother made him promise their firstborn daughter become a Miko at the shrine she grew up in," Beki explained. "They didn't have any other children so I'm kind of on the hook for that."

The Kazekage considered that for a moment before responding:

"Do you have more training as a Miko or as an ambassador?"

She laughed softly.

"I can't say I'm especially proficient in either. I've seen my dad iron out some messy situations in meetings that I would just get up and run away from. I'm sad to say I've been just as clumsy in ceremonies they've had me help with at the shrine."

"I have to disagree with you," Gaara shook his head slightly. "Of course I can't speak for your proficiency as a miko in training, but you handled that flour mess better than a lot of dignitaries I've had the pleasure of working with would have. "

"Thank you," Beki smiled. "That's quite a compliment coming from the Kazekage."

The conversation was becoming a little too personal for Beki. She had just turned sixteen, and the idea of having to choose between the job she saw her father suffer in or a spartan life of solitude at the shrine turned her stomach. She looked around for inspiration on how to change the subject when the Yamanaka flower shop caught her eye:

" Oh! How's the little cactus doing?"

Gaara's eyes lit up at the mention of the cactus.

"Very well actually," He spoke with more emotion and enthusiasm than she had heard him use to date. "It has been responding well to its new environment. It's still young, but with the growth it's made I expect that it will bloom next spring. I'm excited to see what color blossoms it will have."

Beki smiled. She hadn't known Gaara long, but it was cute the way he nerded out about cactuses. She wondered what else he had in his life that he was so passionate about.

"Do you have other cactuses?" She asked. Wait, what's the plural of cactus, she thought. Is it cactuses or cacti? Gaara didn't seem to notice.

"Yes," Gaara's face cracked into the tiniest smile, and he began describing each of them and how long he had been tending them. She smiled at him the whole time, asking questions here and there to maintain the flow of the conversation. It was the most she openly had ever seen him speak since she had met him. They had been walking for quite some time and were almost to the Hyuga compound before he stopped himself, nearly out of breath.

"I just realized I talked about cactuses for about fifteen minutes," He looked down at the shopping bags in his hands, embarrassed.

"It's okay, you're really into them," Beki smiled. "It's cute."

Gaara looked at her in confusion.

"Liking cactuses is 'cute'?"

"It's more how you've devoted yourself to becoming an expert," Beki explained. "It's hard to put it into words, but you don't know what a person is really like until you hear them talk about something they're passionate about."

"So talking about something only I'm interested in is 'cute'?" He asked.

"Yes," Beki smiled, as if it made perfect sense. Gaara's mind was reeling. Normally when he tried to talk about cactuses with his brother or his sister, they humored him for a bit but quickly changed the subject. Yet here was this girl who barely knew him and genuinely seemed to like hearing him talk about them just to hear him talk. He didn't get many opportunities to engage in casual conversation, so it took him a moment to decide how to follow such a confounding statement.

"Well," He began. "What's something that you like?"

"Talking to people about what they like," She smiled evasively. Calling him cute had thrown him off, she could tell. The thing was, she still was unsure of his sense of humor. She decided how he handled a little playful teasing would be very telling in that regard.

The Kazekage eyed her suspiciously.

"Miss Tsukimori, what is something you are personally interested in?"

"Cactuses," Her lopsided grin widened.

Gaara was feeling frustrated, but in a way he'd never experienced before. Typically when he felt frustrated about something or someone, he simply detached himself from the situation and became aloof. With Beki, however, his frustration was due to the fact that he wanted to know more about her and she was holding out. Her resistance felt like a challenge, which only made him want to pry the information from of her more. There was one card he hated to use, but he knew she would be forced to cave under:

"Don't make me pull rank," He stared her down.

"Okay, fine," She groaned. With a sigh she looked up at him and said:

"Moon stuff."

He shot her a look that would have curdled milk, but all she did was smile until they reached the gate of the Hyuga compound. She reached for her bags but he held them out of reach, continuing to stare her down.

"Okay, fine. I pinky swear the next time I see you I'll tell you about something I really like, okay?" She said, holding up her pinky. He stared at her for a moment and then mimicked the gesture. She reached up and wrapped her pinky around his.

"We've sealed the deal," She held out her hands for the bags. "Now are you going to keep holding my groceries hostage?"

He handed them over and sighed.

"Thanks for the help, Kazekage-sama," Beki bowed as she started through the gate.

"You can call me Gaara," He said as she walked inside.

"Okay, I'll see you later, Gaara," She called out as she closed the gate.

Her heart was pounding in her chest. She hoped she had been a lot cooler than she had felt. For someone who looked and had the reputation of an absolute degenerate, he was the most awkwardly adorable boy she had ever met. He was like an 8 year old she just wanted to hug and enjoy all the little things with, like dragonflies and cactuses. She wanted to keep walking with him forever, talking until they had run out of words and ended up somewhere beautiful where no words were needed. She shook her head. Fifteen minutes ago she was worried he was jockeying for political position and now she was going on about how sweet he was. Beki was being stupid and she knew it.

She backed away from the gate but wasn't quite able to take her eyes off of it, as if subconsciously she was hoping he might come bursting inside. Instead, she saw him fly away on a cloud of sand, and the absurdity of the last hour's events dawned on her. The Kazekage had gone grocery shopping with her and then had walked her home with her bags. The man could fly, and he had carried her groceries with her for miles. Her heart soared. Maybe that meant he kind of liked her. Oh my god, she thought, of all times for Hinata to be out of town it has to be now. Who else could she trust to keep their mouth shut? She thought. Beki then remembered a certain unspeakable encounter in the woods and the pact it created. Neji, she smiled.