"That is about the size of it. If you can gather the teams that came to Suna to help with the investigation, they will be invaluable to whatever is being planned. This isn't going to be pretty reguardless of how we do this. And some of the ninja that are going to be captured will not be getting a trial." Hoshiwara hissed out that last bit, Tsunade couldn't understand what would have happened to make her react like that, but thought it better not to ask considering just her thinking about it was causing a angry corona of flame to start to form about her.
Kakashi had seen this reaction from her once before and decided to let her be since she wasn't attacking anyone and seemed to be in better control than the last time she had done this. "Hoshiwara, we'd better get back to Suna. The others will be waiting for the report, The Hokage can follow with the teams."
"Are you sure you're recovered enough to make another transport this soon?" Hoshiwara snapped out of her anger as she remembered what Kakashi looked like after that long distance transport. It had taken most of his Chakra to maintain the technique over the distance for the two of them.
"I will be fine, this won't be the first time I've made two long distance transports back to back." He reassured her, not liking the appraising look she gave him.
"Sit down. You're chakra hasn't caught up with you, no matter how you try to say otherwise." She grabbed him by the shoulder and with a swift pull she yanked him off balance and into a seated position on the floor. Kakashi regretted not having his Sharingan exposed for what happened next. Holding her hands into an unknown seal he watched as he could feel and see her chakra levels rise to unheard of levels outside of a Bijuu carrier. If that didn't shock him, he all but fainted when he felt the energy that was flowing off her like a flame start to leak into him, carefully replenishing his drained reserves. He was about to tell her that he was fine when he felt the energy seepage taper off and stop completely.
As he stood he watched her carefully, knowing that the Godiame was staring at them in shock. If he was completely honest with himself he would have said that he was just as shocked as the Godaime at this demonstration of her unspoken abilities. It was no wonder that Gaara trusted her to be able to handle the things she did. Her eyes opened and while she sagged a little as she released the technique, her eyes showed that she was not nearly as fatigued as something like that should have made her.
"Lets go Kakashi. I'm not going to explain that little trick now or ever. I just want to go back and get some sleep." Right now he was under her instruction and had to follow even though she was not his superior, he knew that if she did not return soon, there would be hell to pay, and most likely in the form of Gaara going ballistic over her time away from their combined watch.
Getting leave from Tsunade he stepped a little closer to the younger Kage and flashed through the seals to transport them back to the bunker outside of Suna.
As they returned both Sakura and Neiji noted that something was off with the Jounin. It wasn't until a long discussion later that they realized that the Jounin and left and returned in the same day with a passenger using a Chakra munching transport technique. Kakashi should have been collapsed on the floor from doing that. Instead he merely stayed put for a few moments to let his system recharge a little bit and then walked off to find Kankurou.
Hoshiwara nodded in greeting to the people she saw, but was heading in a bee line for Gaara's room. Rapping on the door she heard the frustrated sigh before the command to enter. The look of irritation was quickly replaced by one of surprise when he saw that it wasn't any of the others at the door. "You're back so soon? I wasn't expecting you or Kakashi to return till tomorrow."
Hoshiwara smiled as he stood up and pulled her into the room, pointedly shutting the door behind her before pulling her into a demanding kiss. When he finally released her he still had to keep one arm about her as she proved to be a bit unstable on her feet after his welcome. :I might just leave more often if you welcome me back like that!: she muttered playfully knowing that she'd be heard.
"How did the meeting with the Hokage go?" As they sat down he kept one arm about her. His thoughts on the other hand had taken a different bend. A note of pleasure had shot through him as he felt her surrender to that kiss. Her threat also left him feeling confused, but after a fast conference with Shukaku, he knew it to be a good confused and that she was warming up to the promise he had made earlier.
The feeling that shot through her as she realized that he was taking his promise to her seriously was that of pleased acceptance. "The meeting went well enough. Though Kakashi about got an earful from Tsunade about vanishing like he did and not telling her while he was 'dead'."
This caused the sand ninja to snort in amusement as he pictured the tall jounin getting yelled at by the medical ninja. "I take it then that they will be arriving in the next few days?"
Hoshiwara nodded before leaning against Gaara, causing him to look at her in surprise. As he watched though, all he saw was this woman that he had come to care for relax against him with a content sigh. He also saw that her eyes were starting to slip close and when they did and her breathing steadied into a sleeping pattern he laid her back in his bed and covering her up to prevent chill, left leaving only the desk lamp on.
Going out to the main room he looked at his sister and let her know that their friend was in his room sleeping. Whatever happened during the meeting she didn't feel the need to elaborate on, but it had worn her out for the short term. Finding the Jounin was the next thing on his agenda. If there had been a fight then the ninja would be the best person to ask for the details on.
As he looked through the bunker he soon found the elder ninja talking with Sakura, Naruto, Neiji and Hinata about what was coming up. Catching the eye of the Jounin was easy and passing along the message that he was wanted for a meeting equally easy. Kakashi excused himself from the group and asked them to discuss amongst themselves what the best spread of talents would be for this mission.
"What is it that you want to talk about?" Kakashi asked as soon as they were out of earshot of the remainder of the group.
"Something happened that was out of the ordinary today. Whatever it was it caused Hoshiwara to fall asleep while she was talking with me about the meeting with the Hokage. What happened Kakashi?"
As the jounin paused to gather his thoughts on what happened in the office that allowed him to come back with her today he could see that it was making for an impatient Kazekage. "I'm not sure how to best describe this. Somehow Hoshiwara knew that I did not have the Chakra reserves to make the return trip back. With very little effort on her part she yanked me down so that she could stand over me and putting her hands together in one of her strange seals she summoned more chakra than I see most of the Bijuu Carriers summon for a fight. In doing so she did something else, I don't know what and the excess chakra that was bleeding off her immediately started to fill my depleted reserves. I didn't have to say a word and somehow she knew when my reserves were at an acceptable level and she let the flow of energies fall off almost naturally. She stumbled as she cut off the flow of chakra, but from what both the Godaime and I could see, she didn't take any damage at all doing what she did. We returned to the bunker shortly after that."
Hearing the description of what happened Gaara nodded. "I see. Did she explain what she did?"
Kakashi shook his head in negative. "No, in fact she flat out told us that she would not explain what she did, now or ever."
That was all the younger ninja needed to know to seal his suspicions on what she did. "You are not to tell this to anyone else. But what she did was something only she is able to do. Something like a blood line limit to this world. Though she has assured me in the past that she is not alone in this ability back on her world. She did try to teach what she knew, but how she sees Chakra and explains it is very different from how we see and handle it. It didn't translate well enough to teach, and even though I know the how, and a little of the theory behind her abilities. I still can't do what she does when it comes to manuipulating Chakra."
Kakashi's eybrow rose at hearing this, but it did explain a lot for why the woman was the only one he had seen who could do what she had done just a few hours prior. He had seen Ninja who could absorb chakra by touch. He didn't see where this woman would have to touch anyone with the way her chakra flared out when she summoned it into the visible spectrum. But it sounded like she didn't absorb Chakra from people, instead she was something along the lines of a healer only healing the chakra levels like one transfuses blood.
Shaking his head he exited that line of thought. There would be time enough to ask her to possibly work with him to see if it was truely a bloodline limit later on. Right now they had to prepare the bunker for two more teams, the godaime and collect all the information they needed to plan this retake of Suna properly. From what he had understood, Gaara had made extremely efficiant use of each person's talants. Including Naruto's ability to literally be everywhere at once with his Shadow clone and transformation techniques. This, combined with two practiced Byakugen users and Sakura held in reserve in case someone was spotted, they had combed the city and collected a staggering amount of information. The meeting tonight would be extremely enlightening.
In the meantime Gaara had slipped away from the now introspective older ninja and made his way back to his room. The last thing he needed was her waking up in there wondering how she got there. "That is, if she is confused when she gets up." He muttered to himself before slipping silently into the room.
Turning to look at Hoshiwara he smiled slightly. She understood him, maybe not completely but, she seemed to have an easier time finding the emotions in him that were so often hidden than anyone else that he had grown up with. She was still asleep, curled up on her left side and facing the wall he could see that her breathing had stretched even farther than it had before. The fact that she hadn't awakened when he came in was a good indicator of just how much she put into refilling Kakashi's reserves.
Sitting on the bed the slight movement of the matress caused the woman to wake up and with a sleepy look that pushed her looks from beautiful to 'cute' she muttered softly. :I missed Kakashi's general briefing didn't I?:
He waited for her to finish stretching, firmly holding back his suddenly surging desire to touch her. She may have been wearing her robes but that did nothing to hide her figure when she stretched out on her side like a cat. As she sat up, looking more pulled together mentally, he started. "You only missed the general briefing. However there will be another briefing that will have everyone in the main room in a couple of hours. This will be the strategy meeting."
Hoshiwara nodded, her eyelids drooping a little again before she scooted over to Gaara and leaned against his back with her arms around his waist. She was glad that he thought to take the gourd off because this was actually very comfortable and it allowed her to feel the strong muscles in his back shifting and counterbalancing to account for the new weight it was supporting. :Mmmm warm.: Was all she said as she nuzzled him between his shoulderblades.
Both Gaara and Shukaaku were caught off guard by this display of affection but when they heard the lightly slurred sleepy tones that indicated that she was quite relaxed, both relaxed as well allowing for Gaara to enjoy the sensations as his sand armor quietly pulled away to the gourd at the door. Reaching behind him he pulled the woman around pleased that she had not frozen in surprise and once he had settled himself against the wall behind the bed he settled her into his lap and they both sat there till it was time for the meeting just relaxing.
Hours later into the full darkness of the night when the strategy meeting finally came to a close, Gaara and Hoshiwara were still talking about what had been planned out in the meeting. Nothing was locked down in cement yet, but many plans hinging on the unique abilities of the ninja that they planned for were made and readied. Other contingency plans were maid and it was hoped that they would not have to come into use, as they were not as certain to work. Kakashi was the one that suggested they all sleep for the night however, considering he and Hoshiwara were the ones that had traveled and used their abilities extensively that day, it was agreed on.
It was a few days later when the two teams from Konoha and their Godaime arrived at the coordinates of the bunker. Kakashi appeared before them and taking them two at a time leaving the Godaime for last he used the transport Jutsu to get them all in to the hidden caverns. Once everyone was assembled no time was wasted. The plans were laid out and with input from the new members of the group, hammered out and set.
While it took time to set up for the plan of attack. It was simple enough. Sneak into Suna just before false dawn and use the light of false dawn to track down and round up those that were known to be members of the splinter faction. As they were taken, they'd be stashed in the bunker with Kakashi and Hoshiwara standing guard. The prisoners would be severely questioned and not released. The answers to the questions would lead them eventually to the leaders of the faction.
Over the course of several days with these false dawn collections the bunker was quite packed with people. But the result was the same. They had finally gotten the name of the leader of the faction. Those that were in the bunker knew that the leader of the faction and the two that had almost forced themselves on Hoshiwara would not get a trial. They would only answer a few questions and then they would face the death penalty. Depending on their position in the faction they too knew they would possibly face that penalty. Gaara did not suffer betrayal lightly and it was becoming clear that Hoshiwara did not either.
The sweep of the city was thorough and exacting. If a husband was a member, but the wife had nothing to do with the faction then the wife knew nothing of where her husband disappeared to. Same with brothers, sisters, cousins and friends all over the city. The only time these innocents would know of what was to happen was when the trial was to commence or when the sentence was to be carried out.