Home Again!


Naruto

Finally, I was home! The shock was that practically all of my friends had become chunin while I was gone, and the Sand ninja my age had gone even further!

"By the way," I asked Sakura as we walked with Shikamaru and Temari, "where's Miyo? I haven't seen her yet around the village."

"You didn't know? She went off with Gaara to train in the Hidden Sand Village around the same time you left with Master Jiraiya. Although…she did say she was going to try to make it back either just before or just after you came home." She air-quoted and added, "Preferably after; I want to surprise him with how much I've changed."

I laughed. "That sounds just like her!" Then I got serious again. "Though, seriously…why'd she decide to train with Gaara?"

"You'll have to ask her yourself when you see her."

"Huh."

Temari spoke up. "Gaara did say something about it to me, though he was…brief."

I spun. "Yeah?"

"Something about how nobody was free to train her in the Leaf Village, and he wasn't going to be all that busy since practically every genin in the Sand Village was scared of him except for Matsuri."

"Well, Miyo is the only person I know who isn't completely terrified of the guy." Then I blinked. "Wait a minute – does that mean Miyo's a chunin, too?"

"She hasn't turned up for any of the exams. Every time somebody's asked him, Gaara has said she's not ready."

Oh.

Then Temari straightened up and looked past me, towards the entrance to the village. "Hey…do any of you see that?"

"Huh?"

We all turned to look.

Two figures were walking into the village. I squinted to try to get a better look. One of them was blank-faced, and wearing a blue sweatshirt and pink boots. Miyo? No, wait…that's Miyo's full-size ninja doll, What's-it's-name! That means…

The other figure was definitely taller, and also definitely female. She was wearing a streamlined pink outfit underneath a bright green cloak with big sleeves, and her purple hair was chopped short. I knew exactly who it was.

"Sis!" I started waving crazily at her.

The moment she saw me, she started running towards me– and she'd gotten fast! I barely had time to lift my arms before she pulled some move to catch them into her sleeves and we ended up hugging! "I missed you, too, Big Brother!"

Her doll finished walking up near us and just stood there.

Then she jumped backwards. "Hey, let's see which of us is taller now!"

"Huh? O-okay!" I turned my back on her, she spun around and thumped her heels against mine, and her doll stood on tiptoe and set its hands on our heads.

And where two years ago she'd been barely taller…we were near-exactly the same height, and the extra was on my side!

"By the way, Miyo," Sakura asked as we straightened ourselves out, "what's with the outfit?"

She swished her sleeves. "Do you like it? When I was in my sweatshirt, I was near to passing out, so I made this instead. I'm not going to wear the sweatshirt again until I've had a chance to tailor it for my new size."

You know…you seem to have gained some confidence. I cut a glance at Temari. And Gaara said she wasn't ready for the Chunin exams?

She made a face back at me. I almost understood the words she was thinking. Well, if Gaara said she wasn't ready, then she probably wasn't! You know the exams run at a different pace than just ordinary training!

Miyo

I waved as the two former-teammates left for a test-match. Having a friend in Gaara really felt good, and the fact that he'd been made Kazekage some point before I'd left made precious little difference. I would write to him whenever I got the chance.

In the meantime…I needed to update my ninja dolls' outfits – Naruto's clothes had changed, and I wonder who else has changed their style…


Gaara

Beaten…I managed to move the sand shield back to where I'd pulled the sand from in order to protect the village…there was just one thing left for me to do. …I need help…my cousin.

Miyo

Really late that night, Little Gaara frantically got my attention - sand to my arm like a knife again to wake me up, at least he picked my other arm - and his sand shaped into words: I'm in trouble! Get Lady Tsunade to send you out after me! Just the context told me that "I" meant "the real Gaara."

I didn't stop to think about what time it was – Lady Tsunade would be up anyway, trying to decide what missions to send which ninjas out on, even more so now that Naruto was back – I just threw my new curtain-cloak on and ran off to her office.

"Lady Hokage!"

Sure enough, she was flipping through some paperwork. "Hm? What is it, Miyo?"

"Um, you heard how Gaara and I have a way of communicating?"

"Yes, Shikamaru mentioned it after that mission where we had to help Gaara rescue his student."

"Well, I got a message: Gaara's in trouble!"

That got her attention. "What kind of trouble?"

"Okay, um…" I lifted Little Gaara and stared him in the face. "Okay, we'd made a deal that only the Hokage and myself would know what you can do. It'd be much easier if you gave the message yourself." Then I set him down on her desk and gave my best Lady Hokage impression. "Okay, Little Gaara, make your report."

He stood up – it was gratifying to see the surprise on her face – turned to face her, and bowed. Then his sand lifted up and formed shapes in the air. They weren't words, but images: a large bird with a figure on its back, a model of himself fighting the bird…then "he" retreated into his ultimate defense…which suddenly exploded! Little Gaara deliberately fell over, and the sand formed words again.

Lady Tsunade actually read the words, since they were backwards to me. "Ultimate Defense breached…Kazekage captured." Then she looked sternly at the doll. "I'm going to assume your falling over means that your original is unconscious. Who did this?"

He got up again, ran over to me, and looked back and forth between my sleeves. Then he dove into my right sleeve with his sand!

"Um, Gaara, what are you up to?"

His sand came out in the shape of a hand, holding – huh; he must have raided Itachi or Itachi's pal, because what came out was a small black cloak with red clouds on it. He moved the little cloak over to Lady Tsunade and dropped it in front of her.

As if it might bite her, she carefully picked it up. "This is the garb of the Akatsuki; where did you see this?"

"Itachi Uchiha and a friend of his. I don't know who Gaara raided to get that."

She was silent for a moment. Then she finally told me, giving the little cloak back, "Since this is their Kazekage we're talking about, the Sand Village will be sending for help soon. I can set up a squad to send out after Gaara so that it can be ready when the message arrives, but I won't send it out without help being officially asked for."

I saw the sense in that. I still didn't know how the Little-Gaara thing worked. "Whatever else you decide, Lady Hokage, I would like to request going along. Using Little Gaara, I can track the real Gaara down, and that would save us a lot of time."

"You're still a genin."

"So's Naruto, and that hasn't stopped him."

"You're also not Naruto."

"Lady Tsunade, I owe Gaara. Not the Kazekage, Gaara. He…he helped me stay sane for the two years Naruto was away from the village. He saved my life; I just want the chance to help save his."

Lady Tsunade studied me for a minute. Then she shuffled around a couple of papers on her desk and marked one. "So be it. Just don't expect to be team leader."

I sighed a laugh. "I never expect to be." Then I went off to get some sleep. I knew I would need it.


Sure enough, a Sand-Village-carrier-bird arrived the next morning.