At The Medical Center
The hallway is narrow, the light harsh and the atmosphere sterile.
Baki searches ahead for the faces of his genin.
He's received a message to meet them at Konoha's medical center.
He is...concerned, but not overly anxious about their status.
Still he is surprised to find the reason they are there has more to do with the well-being of their Leaf counterparts than with their own health.
Interesting.
In The Hallway
He encounters Kankuro first.
Coarse and callow though the boy has always been, he's also been loyal to a fault.
He's not surprised to find him standing outside the door of the Inuzuka he assisted.
Gaara is a different matter altogether.
Never would he have expected to see him waiting, checking on the status of the boy he relieved.
Yet here he is, just as faithful as his brother.
On The Edge Of Seventeen
Eighteen.
She's almost eighteen.
The same age he was...
When she and Kankuro came into his keeping.
He remembers soft blond curls...
And look at her now.
His eyes trace up her legs, following the curve of her calf to a skirt that's much too short.
He hears the words she's speaking to the black-haired boy.
And Baki realizes Temari is all grown up in more ways than one.