I'm pleased to announce that Konoha is no longer embroiled in a civil war. As the Seventh Hokage I would like to continue the diplomatic alliance with Suna…

Sincerely,

Uchiha Madara

Gaara cackled maniacally as he read the missive from Konoha before turning his attention to the frightened messenger who was failing considerably at putting up a brave front. Uchiha Madara - the man behind Akatsuki, the man who bore ultimate responsibility for his first death, the man who had killed him, the man whose minions poisoned his brother, murdered several of his shinobi, and threatened his village - had taken control of Konoha and wanted to establish diplomatic relations with Suna. Like Hell. This meant war.

Even though the demon had been removed, Temari swore she felt remnants of Shukaku as sand swirled around the room while Gaara perused the scroll from Konoha. Using the life saving skills she'd gained in her brother's more unstable youth, she diverted the sands and snatched the scroll before it could be completely destroyed. Unlike the Kazekage who stopped reading after the first two sentences, Temari read the entire scroll twice before speaking to her brothers, "I think we should do it."

She wasn't surprised when both of her more impulsive siblings screamed their unified response "What?"

"If you read the entire scroll it gives us priority in setting the terms of the agreement. I'm really not that thrilled with the idea of working with that man, but we do have a certain advantage here and it would be foolish not to use it."

"He took Shuka-"

"You're much better off without it. I'm sorry you had to die to get rid if it, but let's be realistic."

"Sasori poisoned me and Deidara tried to destroy the village."

"We've upgraded our defenses to include air attacks and fine tuned our evacuation procedures. If it were more than two people that night we really would have been screwed since everyone was standing around gawking," Temari stated logically. "That fight with Sasori forced you to see your own weaknesses and develop a ways to overcome them. Besides that incident sparked the medical exchange between Konoha and Suna or did you forget about Sakura and Naruto who still live in Konoha?"

'They can come live here." Gaara stated matter of factly as though it would end the discussion.

"You've been trying to get them to move for the past few years and each time they refuse saying 'No matter what we will stay and do what we can to help the citizens of Konoha.' They're not going to come now just because you want to kill Madara. If anything they'll fight you with everything they have to prevent a war so innocent people won't get involved."

"So what, we're just supposed to be friends even though he tried to end the lives of your brothers?" Kankuro yelled angrily.

"No, I'm saying we beat him at his own game. Read the scroll carefully. It says he is willing to make goodwill efforts to show his sincerity before we make our final decision."

"So?"

"So? We live in a desert. He has a Mist and a Grass ninja," Temari smiled wickedly as she imagined several new oases (and tourist dollars) their hard work and chakra could bring to their barren country.