Hey so this is the second chapter and also, I made a small error in my last story, It Started At A Rave (Rated M, and for good reason!). Kami, contrary to popular belief, does not mean God in Japanese. It means hair… so now that I have my facts straight:

Gami: Japanese for "God" often replaced by "Kami" which means "hair"

Kami: Japanese for hair, and is often confused with "Gami" which means "God".

well… umm… that's it for now… thank you for reading!

Sakura: oooo! My turn! My turn! Akemi-chan doesn't own Naruto or anything Naruto related! Just the plot to this fanfic!

Me: oh right! I forgot about the disclaimer. Thanks Sakura-chan! A reward for remembering! *Offers a red kimono with the Haruno circle on the back between the shoulder blades and a cherry blossom pattern on the front*

Sakura: Pretty! Arigato Akemi-chan! Can I wear it to the next festival in the story?

Akemi: I'll make sure you wear it in one of my chapters. But the readers will never know when! MUWAHAHAHAHA!

*Sakura joins the evil laughter and the two of them yuk it up while Akemi writes the story*

Sakura POV

I groaned when my alarm clock went off. Oh how I hated that incessant buzzing. Dragging my ass up I groggily made my way across my room to where it lay on my desk. I learned long ago to keep in away from me when I first wake up. I've lost too many alarm clocks and don't wish to buy another. Besides, I liked this one. It has a mini video camera that I can activate with chakra. Perfect if there's ever a midnight creeper in my house. I quickly deduced that I wasn't going to wake up properly without a shower, and quickly stripped and hopped in. While I didn't need one, I found that it's both soothing and a wonderful way to wake up the body. I sighed once as I ran a hand through my short, pink hair. In the profession of a medic, having long hair can be troublesome, but I still missed it.

Although, I mused, it would be perfect if I got into a fight. That jutsu… I quickly ran shampoo through my hair and started soaking in conditioner, pumping minute traces of chakra to speed up the hair growth process. When I washed out the conditioner it was down to the top of my thighs. A bit longer than I was aiming for, which was the small of my back (hey, perfect chakra control or not, I still slip up every so often if it's something unimportant like hair growth!) but it just meant that the range of the jutsu lengthened.

Hopping out, I got dressed in my usual attire, made my bed quickly, and threw last night's clothing into the dirty clothes hamper. I picked up my sand village headband and softly stroked the red cloth that the metal plate was attached to with a sentimental smile of the day I got it. I had been called back to Suna to help train some new medics that were to start working at their hospital. The day before I went back home, there was a small festival to thank Gami-sama for his blessing of letting us get Gaara's body back and a candle service for Chiyo-baa-san.

After I was called up in front of the village and the three siblings presented it to me. They called it a thank you. They told I helped to save Kankuro by removing the poison and give him the antidote and kept Chiyo-baa-san alive long enough for her to decide to give life back to Gaara. While there was a sacrifice, in their eyes I was an important factor in saving two precious people in the village. On that day, they gave me a gift beyond a headband. They made me a legal citizen of Sunagakure as well as Konohagakure.

Snapping out of my reverie, I carefully put my much-loved gift between two of my shirts, under my cloak, so I knew I wouldn't lose it or anything on the trip there. Grabbing my bag, I stopped by my kitchen to grab the food I made plus bottles of water and some protein shakes. As chalk-like as they taste, they would be good to save time when we were close to the Suna. Stopping once in front of my door, I put on my knee-high low-heeled boots and grabbed my sleeping bag and attached it to the top of my backpack. I ate a protein bar and had a shake I grabbed specifically for this morning's breakfast on the way to the gate. I threw wrapper and empty bottle away at a small garbage can inside Ichiraku, a common occurrence on the few times I had a mission and got to leave Konoha.

I got there at the same time as Sai. Naruto, like always, was first there.

"OHAIYO SAKURA!" Naruto shouted. I minced slightly at the loud tone.

"Quiet down dickless." Sai told him straight-faced. Naruto opened his mouth to yell something else but I cut him off before a single sound rolled off his tongue.

"He's right. You'll wake the whole village. Oh I told Kakashi that we'd be leaving three hours earlier than we were so he'd be here on time. When he gets here, Naruto, we'll holler 'You're late!' like usual but please do it quietly." Naruto nodded. Sai never got anywhere with him. I was practically Naruto's sister. We grew to love each other as siblings. He always listened to me… unless I said something about eating less ramen. Then he'll clamp his hands over his ears and yell "LALALALA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" like a child. It was actually rather amusing. Not even five seconds after I said it, a poof of smoke appeared in front of us.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto and I quietly yelled,

"So sorry, I would've been here earlier but I saw two hoodlums mugg-" He started, but, like always, Naruto and I cut him off.

"LIAR!" We both yelled (still quietly). My surrogate father smiled behind his mask.

"Shall we go then?" He said. He phrased it like a question, but we all knew it was a command. We walked through the gates and started walking. It was just barely light out, the sun was making beautiful pinks and yellows and oranges in the sky as it rose. I smiled at the beauty and sighed. Once the sky was light enough, we took to the trees, using tiny amounts of chakra in our feet to propel us from tree to tree. It was wordless until about noon when Naruto started to complain about needing food. We took a small break, eating the onigiri, or in my case a powerbar because eight peoples worth of onigiri would be just enough for them to make it to Suna, and sipping water until my boys and I were satisfied.

Once again running through the trees I was mentally going through different resting spots. With our pace, we'd be able to make it to the caves about an hour before it started to get dark, but if we kept going, we'd make it to the clearing next to the little river just before sundown. It's also the ideal spot to watch the sunset and refill our water bottles with fresh water, as well as get us even closer to our destination. Kakashi and I nodded at each other and I took point, just as we've done countless times before.

I led them miles past the caves; I could feel Naruto's worried look and a slight change in energy in Sai. He was wondering what exactly I was doing. Kakashi and I were the only ones at ease. I actually had miscalculated. We got to the meadow slightly earlier than I thought we would. It just gave us time to set up more though. I sent Sai to get firewood while Naruto and Kakashi pitched two tents, one for Naruto and me, one for Kakashi and Sai. It was an arrangement that worked perfectly for everyone.

The tents, I noted with satisfaction, were twist tents. They unfolded themselves, we staked them down, and in the morning took out the stakes and two people would take diagonal corners and twist in opposite directions to fold it back up. Easy, quick, big time saver. While they got to it I concentrated a tiny amount of chakra in my pinky finger and tapped it to the ground, making a small, campfire sized crater. When Sai came back I set up the wood and used the same technique I used to draw the poison out of Kankuro's body on the stick, drying it out until I was sure it would light easy. Kakashi took over from there while the others and I changed into our PJs. I added on a pair of shorts over my panties though. After everyone was stripped down, Naruto and Kakashi went to wash the clothes in the river while I made dinner and used Sai as my little errand boy while we made snide little remarks at each other. Despite how it seems to most people though, it's affectionate banter though.

After everyone was back, we ate and I used the metal tent poles I thought to bring to set up little drying racks for our clothes as they stayed next to the fire. I took first watch. We weren't expecting trouble but better to be safe than sorry. The clothes were dry by the end of my shift so when Kakashi took over, I folded them and put them in the respectable tents and went to bed. The next morning after eating, we did a teardown which went as smoothly as when it went up. And once again, at barely dawn, we were off. Gliding through the trees effortlessly. A team, regardless of our lack of one particular member. One I try not to think of too often. But
we will bring him home, Naruto and I. I swear it on my ninja way.