Principle of Nature
Chapter 4
Make Your Impressions

A/N: Another note! … there will be OCs in this story. They are semi-relevant. Don't bitch at me about how I'm using OCs. Don't flame me about it. Just read the friggin' story and enjoy. I promise it's not going to be crappy just because I am using OCs.

xXx

Naruto,
Your shinobi have arrived. In fact, they just left my office. I didn't know the kunoichi you had mentioned was her. I am familiar with her, however. I believe you may have been wise to consider separating them. Even in my office, without his presence, she seemed out of it. I think despite the guard you sent for her, I will keep an eye on her dealings during her stay here.

As for your birthday, I am not stingy. I am busy. There is a difference. I forget once and you harp on about it for years? Give it up, you blond simpleton. Your present should arrive with this letter, and I'm only getting you anything because you are my friend. Not because you're a bothersome pest of a kage with too much of a fixation on that disgusting ramen dish.

Don't you ever claim I never gave you anything.
-Gaara

PS: You had better return the favor, idiot.

Naruto was laughing so hard he was red in the face by the time he finished reading the missive. Oh Gaara, you're so easy, he thought cheerfully, and dragged the small box the letter had come with closer.

xXx

Thankfully, Ino was already awake and dressed by the time Sai slipped through her window, and as such, was fully capable of verbally tearing him a new one. He just continued to smile at her the whole time, and finally told her that their escorts were waiting in the lounge of the team's suite.

She huffed and grumbled for a few more minutes before finally strapping on her visible weapons pouch and stalking out the door. Sai simply followed her rather than pretend he'd never been in her room, but she didn't particularly care what any of the stupid Suna residents thought. She was annoyed and hadn't had coffee yet.

Also, did Suna even have coffee? How will I survive two months without it?!

However, her fears were put to rest by a delightful smell that smacked her in the face as she entered the lounge from the connecting hall. She bypassed Kakashi, Kotetsu and two Suna nin, making a bee-line for the coffee pot set on a table in the far corner. Beside it, she noted distantly, sat a tray with fruit and some sort of pastry.

"You know, Sakura does the exact same thing," she heard Kakashi commenting idly somewhere behind her.

Only once she had her coffee, and had taken at least two delightful sips, did she turn to face the rest of the room with a smile. "Good morning!"

Kotetsu offered her a slight smile. "Good morning, Ino-san. These are our escorts." He nodded to the two nin who were waiting patiently.

Both bowed in unison as she gave them a once-over, and the older one - a man with a cloth covering the majority of his face and head - spoke up. "I am Baki of the sand, and I will be the escort of Sai-san and his guard," he said, then gestured toward the shorter male beside him. "This is Kami. He is to be the escort of you, Yamanaka-san, and your guard."

Ino's captain was nodding as the other fell silent. "It's nice to meet you both. Baki-san, I am to be Sai's guard, and Kakashi-san here will be accompanying Ino-san."

"Very good," Baki murmured, dark eyes focusing on Sai. "When you both are ready, I will escort you back to the Kazekage dome, where you will be working for the duration of your stay."

Sai and Kotetsu exchanged a look, the former speaking up. "We're ready," he replied, smiling widely at Baki. "I have read that it is polite to thank you for escorting us, Baki-san, so thank you."

The older nin took the odd statement in stride and turned, gesturing for the Konoha nin to precede him out the door. "Very well. Let's go."

Kotetsu hesitated, turning toward Kakashi and Ino. "Alright, I suppose we'll meet up later tonight. Do your best, Ino-san."

"I will. Good luck," Ino replied, waving at him as she sipped at her coffee.

The three filed out before Kakashi turned to smile at Ino through his mask. "Best eat quickly, so we can get going ourselves, Ino-chan."

The blonde nodded, pale eyes flickering over to the still silent Suna escort, before she reached for a strange fruit on the tray beside the coffee pot. She turned it over, brow furrowing as she eyed it, before focusing again on 'Kami'. "What is this?" she asked the blue-haired youth.

"A prickly pear," he replied, voice so soft that she almost didn't hear him. He held out a hand. "I'll show you."

Curiously, she tossed the pear to him, brows lifting as he took out a knife. From there, he peeled the skin off as he crossed the room, and held out the now naked fruit to her. "It's sweet. You'll like it."

She offered him a smile as she took it, careful not to be obvious about her poison check on the thing. "Thank you, Kami-san." Her chakra showed that it was clean, so she took a careful, curious bite.

It was sweet, she found, and grimaced as a bit of the juice dripped down her chin. She snagged a napkin from the tray, wiping her mouth, and quickly finished the fruit. Then she washed her hands in a nearby basin, grabbed some of the odd, square, crumbly pastry before turning to the men. "Alright, I'll eat this on the way. I take it we're going to the hospital?"

Kami nodded. "Yes. I will be bringing you there to arrange things with Asana-san, the head medic."

"Right then. Lead the way," she said, and bit into the pastry. She was delighted to find that it tasted like baked honey, with bits of some sort of nut.

The sapphire-haired boy nodded and turned away, leading them out of the building. They crossed through the open space that Ino supposed was a street, situated right outside of the visitor's hotel, and into a narrow alley between two squat stone structures. She vaguely recognized them as a store and possibly someone's home, though the fashion of their construction was quite a bit different than the places back home.

When they emerged from the alley, the kunoichi was pleasantly surprised to spy the familiar silhouette of the Suna hospital; their guide had brought them through a shortcut, apparently. She grinned and hurried to catch up with him. "So, Kami, right?"

Eyes only a few shades darker than his hair shifted to meet her own. "Yes. That is my name."

"Really? Like 'god'?" she asked as they walked up the three short stairs to the hospital.

He shrugged. "A spirit," he corrected mildly. "It is... a title, I suppose. Given to me by my fellows when I was a child."

Ino beamed at that. "Oh, that's nice." The door closed behind them and she glanced back at Kakashi. His nose was once again firmly buried in his little orange book. She refocused on Kami. "You said we're meeting someone, right?"

"Yeah," he hummed, gaze roving over the room. "Asana-san, the hospital director." He walked up to the check in desk, drawing the attention of the male secretary sitting there. "Where is Asana-san? Her morning appointment is here."

The man shook his head. "Pardon, but the appointment will have to wait a bit. Asana-sama is assisting with emergency surgery at the moment."

Kami frowned at that, but Ino spoke up. "That's alright! I can wait," she said, smiling at the man, and looked at her escort. The youth merely stepped away from the counter silently, apparently content to let her handle things, and so she returned her attention to the secretary. "Do you know how long Asana-san will be?"

In response, the man stood and reached over a cabinet, grabbing a clipboard off a wall covered with them, and peered at it. "Ah, well she's in with a team recently returned from a mission, and there are a few serious injuries, so probably anywhere between one to three hours."

The blonde sighed, but knew that she wouldn't be able to pull this 'Asana-san' away anytime soon. "Alright. Is there a place I can wait in the meantime?"

"You can wait in the worker's lounge upstairs. Second floor, hallway C, third door on the left from the stairwell. Labeled 'break room'," he provided.

She grinned, winking at him. "Thank you! You're a doll," she said flirtatiously.

He chuckled and held up his left hand, showing off a ring. "Sorry, sweetheart, but I'm attached."

"I bet the girls everywhere cried that day," she shot back, grinning. "Have a nice day, sweetheart!" He just grinned back and sat down.

She waved as she turned away, looking for the stairs, and hurried over to them once she spied the familiar sign. She smiled at Kami, who got the door for her, and jogged up the steps to the second floor. From there, it was relatively simple to track down the break room, and she slipped inside to find it empty.

"Aaah, peace. I wonder if I'm allowed to get a drink," she mused.

Kami nodded, walking over to the a small fridge set up in the corner. "Yes. Anyone allowed access to this room is welcome to the contents of the fridge, so long as they aren't labeled." As if to prove his point, he gestured toward a sign saying just that, hanging from a nail on the wall.

Ino sat at the long folding table set up in the middle of the room. It made sense; it was the desert, after all. "Great! Be a sweety and get me some water, please?" She grinned up at him when he blinked in her direction, and he moved to oblige.

Now she had to wait.

xXx

Dark eyes lifted as the door opened, and the man in chains smiled faintly. "Ani."

Itachi stopped before the bars and nodded back as the door clunked closed behind him. "Sasuke."

His little brother reached over to a small lump on his pillow, and picked it up. He tossed it easily between the bars, unsurprised when Itachi caught it. "I finished reading the book. It was boring."

"Hm." Dark eyes trailed over the younger male before Itachi shrugged. "I'll see if I'm allowed to bring another."

Another smile. "Thanks." Sasuke shifted in his seat on the floor, leaning back against his bunk. "So? How is everyone? Is Naruto still seeing that Hyuuga girl?"

Nodding, Itachi pulled up his usual stool and sat. "Yes. They are still dating."

A soft snort was the boy's response before he moved on. "And you? You're not wearing a ring, so I guess you and Sakura haven't tied the knot yet."

"No, not yet. She is... displeased with me at the moment." Itachi frowned at this, obviously upset about it.

Sasuke quirked a brow at him. "Really? Why? I thought you two were all candy clouds and sugarcane these days."

Itachi winced at the description, but he got the point. While he had missed his visit last week due to a mission, he hadn't really thought about how so much could change in just two weeks. Do I want to tell him, though? "Personal matters, mostly. I assume she'll get over it shortly." At least I hope so.

He eyed his brother briefly before asking the question that had been nagging him lately, ever since his brother's requests to see Sakura had become so numerous that Naruto hesitated to visit him at all. "Do you love her?"

A brief pause was the only evidence that spoke of Sasuke's surprise. Then he exhaled slowly, loudly. "Love? Sakura?" He only got a blank nod, and averted his gaze. "Maybe once, a little bit. When I was a little boy and she a little girl that had eyes only for me. Now? No."

He huffed, the sound not unlike a laugh. "That bridge, even if I wanted to cross it, has long since burned down."

Itachi's heart twisted at the emotion buried within that answer. At the same time, it chilled just a bit toward the other Uchiha. No, I can't tell him. He couldn't trust Sasuke with that news. "I have to go," he said, even as the door opened. "I'll see about another book."

"Yeah. Thanks."

xXx

Kankuro lifted his hand to knock on the door before him, but paused at a sharp exhale from within. He checked for chakra, but it was concealed. "Kazekage-sama, you can't be serious!" a familiar voice hissed. "This is ridiculous! You can't expect us to spill our secrets!"

There was silence for a beat, and a soft click, followed by a nervous rattle. Gaara spoke up, voice soft and unimpressed. "You will abide by the trade agreement."

Another click, another, sharper rattle. "I didn't agree to this, Kazekage-sama. None of us did. You cannot force us to do something so ludicrous. We are our own martial body, even if we are utilized by Sunagakure, and you are a fool if you think you can force the corps to reveal its secrets."

The eavesdropping jonin frowned sharply and reached for the handle, but paused when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head, startled to find a sand eye peering at him curiously. Kankuro waited.

"And you? Are you of the same opinion as Saru?" Gaara asked.

His older brother listened carefully for any noise at all, before finally catching a disinterested hum. "My opinion matters little, Kazekage-sama," a faintly feminine voice replied coolly. "Only the Troupe Master has the authority to make such a deal with you."

The other in the room made a choking sound as realization apparently dawned, and the eye faded to floating particles of sand. Kankuro opened the door, slipping in soundlessly, and let it click shut behind him.

Kumo and Saru both turned toward him. The tall, lithe woman smiled and hid her face behind her fan; Kankuro wondered if she hadn't already known he was there. The darkly tan, stocky male puffed up immediately, visibly annoyed. "Karasu!" he barked in his seldom used commander's voice. "Did you really make such a deal?"

Kankuro shrugged, remaining in his place before the door. "Yes. In return, we get their expertise in seals. I understand that, should the agreement continue in such a way that both villages are clearly benefitting, the Hokage will ensure that his Seals master spends some time here."

Dark grey eyes were snapping with hot fury as Saru took a step toward him. "How dare you! We may as well give them our backs to knife!" he snarled, and shoved past his Troupe leader.

Kankuro let him go, and looked at Kumo. "Amused enough yet?" he drawled.

She closed her fan with a sharp, sudden clack and tucked it away up her sleeve. "Of course, Karasu-sama," she murmured. "Was there anything else you needed?"

The Puppet Master quirked a brow and met his brother's gaze. "Do I need to assign someone else, Kazekage-sama?" he asked.

"No."

"Then yes, Kumo. I need a volunteer."

Her crimson-painted smile widened. "Well why didn't you say so?"

xXx

When Asana finally showed up, she wasn't alone. Ino stiffened when they both stepped through the door, and then she scrambled to her feet, utterly surprised. "Good morning, Kazekage-sama," she squeaked, and inwardly winced.

That was when Asana drew the kunoichi's attention with a soft scoff. "You are the mednin from Konoha?" she demanded a bit incredulously. "My grandchildren are older than you!"

Blue eyes narrowed, but Ino forced a her inner professional to the surface with a rough mental kick. "I am the mednin, yes. I assume you are Asana-san? I was told you were in surgery."

Asana rotated her jaw as she eyed the younger woman, and Ino took the beat of silence to glance over her once more. Close-cropped charcoal hair, a severe jaw line and straight nose. She wore scrubs, sandals, and her tawny eyes stared back at Ino as if the younger female were a dubious ally to be watched closely.

"Hmph," the woman announced. "Yes. A nin team returned from their mission, three of them injured." Those pale brown eyes narrowed assessingly. "The captain had been impaled. Tell me, do you know how to deal with an impaled wound near the lung, girl?"

Ino ignored the combined gazes of the men in the room, experiencing a bit of nostalgia. She could still remember the day Shizune-sensei had drilled that knowledge into her head. "Of course. You have to assess the total damage first. Has it pierced the lung? Is it obstructing the breathing? If so, it must be removed as carefully and quickly as possible, and the blood flow must be staunched.

"It's best to slow the flow with chakra while the foreign object is removed. Regeneration of the lung and clearing of the airway is essential. Both must be accomplished quickly. One must also make sure that too much blood does not get into the lung during the procedure, or it may cause problems later on. From there, you have to re-evaluate the critical damage. If it's necessary, work on regeneration of the flesh to seal the wound, and rebuild any destroyed tissue or bone."

The blonde shrugged. "After that, the patient can be stabilized and set aside to finish healing on their own, and you are free to move onto the next patient."

Asana was quiet for a moment, expression unreadable, before she turned her attention to the redhead beside her. "You were correct, Gaara-sama. She'll do."

Ino bit back her relieved sigh, stealing a quick glance toward the others in the room. Kakashi was reading again - no surprise there - and Kami appeared to be counting the knots in the wood grain of the table. She doubted either of them had been listening at all. Then Kakashi looked up from his orange book and smiled at her approvingly.

She smiled back and returned her attention to the others. "So? I believe we have business to discuss, Asana-san. We should get to that immediately, if you're able," she advised calmly.

The old woman quirked a brow, but nodded. "You are correct," she agreed. "Please take a seat and we will get started."

Ino smiled brightly. "Wonderful."

xXx

From the hospital break room, Gaara moved on back to the Kazekage Dome, to check on the Seal User. He was bemused to find the man with a pleased smile on his face while Baki and Kotetsu shook their heads at whatever it was he'd said.

Gaara was apparently not going to find out, though, because the four in the room turned toward him as he arrived in a swirl of sand that miraculously didn't get all over the place. The man that had gone to meet the Seal User bowed, smiling faintly. "Gaara-sama," the Suna ANBU captain greeted.

Giving the white-blond haired male a once over, the Kazekage returned the nod. "Santi," he murmured.

The older male turned back toward his guests. "If you would excuse me, Sai-san. I must speak with Gaara-sama for a moment."

"Of course," Sai agreed, smile still in place. "We have plenty of time."

The two stepped from the room, closing the door behind them, and started down the hall before Gaara spoke again. "I need your opinion on a poisons master. Who would be best suited to teach in Konoha?"

Santi gave him a startled look. "Teach?" he echoed, sun-bleached brows lifting. "I... well, perhaps the most suited to teaching would be Kankuro-sama... but I assume you wish to keep him based in Suna."

"You are correct," Gaara replied flatly, and stopped, turning toward the other male. "Someone else will go."

"Then I would suggest Matsumoto Takeo," Santi decided. "He will do."

The redhead thought of the sometimes excitable youth. The boy loved teaching, it was true, and hopefully with Kumo there, he would behave himself. Kumo had that effect on people. He could also send Temari along as the team captain. "Alright. Thank you," he said finally. "Good luck."

Santi bowed, and when he straightened, Gaara was vanishing behind a wall of sand. He smiled faintly before returning to the others. "So, where were we? Pigs, wasn't it?" He grinned at the fascinating Konoha lad.

xXx

Ridiculously long author's note- GO!

Still with me? Good! I'm glad. Sorry there wasn't any Sakura in this chapter. I'll make up for it next chapter, and you all know it. I love ItaSak far too much not to. Also, just fyi, I have NO IDEA WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT when it comes to medical techniques. I usually bullshit my way through that kind of thing with the occasional manual or details straight from Naruto.

So, that in mind, I'd like some feedback on this! Not just about the medical stuff, but about all of it! What do you guys think? Do you like it? Do you have suggestions? Comments? Questions? Please review!

I also wanna know if anyone out there knows ANYTHING about the desert. Not just the people, but the kinds of creatures and what-not. I COULD look it up, yeah, but... I prefer picking peoples brains. I learn better that way.

In other news, do I have any artists as readers? I'm looking for someone to draw me cover art for this story! If any of you are decent artists, or know one that would do it for free (because I'm a cheapo that way), please PM me! Or at least consider it. I'm willing to pay with a 10k word one-shot of any pairing! Any fandom, even, provided I'm comfortably familiar with it.

A few notes of content:
1) Yes, I have had prickly pears before. … it's been a while, though, which is why I didn't go into a lot of detail.
2) I have NO idea what the pastry Ino was eating is called. I've had it once, I think, and I found a picture of it by chance, with a list of ingredients but no name. Sorry. If anyone knows what it's called, lemme know?

3) OCs: in case you didn't peg them, they are Kami, Asana, Santi, Kumo and Takeo. You will learn more about them later on, I promise, especially Kumo and Takeo. Please don't let their presences scare you off! I haven't failed you guys yet, ne? Keep reading! This story is my baby.

That's it for now.