A/N: DO NOT OWN NARUTO!

Chapter 4: Back in Action

Sakura watched her oldest son stare sleepily out the window while Rori slept on obliviously. Sei had woken as soon as the plane had landed and had been fighting sleep ever since. She'd handed him the facial wipes and a set of clean clothes. He'd hurriedly changed and cleaned up, his crimson hair falling into his eyes a little. Unlike his father, his hair didn't stick up everywhere. It was much more tame…and longer. Rori's hair, however, was as wild and untamed as his father's, sticking up in defiant spikes, no matter how long it grew. Sakura had finally given him a haircut a few months ago, because he'd complained his head was starting to hurt. She'd hoped the spikes would lay down if she let them grow long enough, but they never did…just like Gaara's.

She was getting antsy now, the closer they got to HQ. She knew Kakashi would be there to meet her…along with the rest of the team. She bared her teeth at the thought of seeing Matsuri and Inami again. She'd make sure to let them know exactly what she thought of them lying to her. Sei seemed to notice his mother's inner turmoil because, for the first time since he'd turned thirteen, he put his head in his mother's lap. Her eyes widened and she looked down at him. Rori's head was on one thigh and Sei's was on the other. Sakura smiled and stroked their hair, taking in the differences in length and texture.

Sei's hair was fine and silkly, like hers, whereas Rori's was thick and feathery soft, like Gaara's. She closed her eyes and waited for their car to arrive at HQ. As she waited, she thought about the numerous positions that were still open to her. She could no longer be a field agent, not with her children. But she could take up a desk job, like Shika had when he'd returned. Gaara was the only one that didn't have a desk job that was in their platoon. She knew he'd have one reserved for him when he returned and was able to work again. He was too valuable…in many ways…to let him go.

Sakura felt the car slowing down and then stop. She heard their driver get out and open the door for her. She gently woke her children and the four of them made their way to the large white building before them. Sakura held her children's hands, Sei nervously gripping her hand and Rori clutching to her in pure fright. At the door, the doorman scared Rori, who started crying, and Sakura had to pick him up. He buried his face in his mother's waist length pink hair and sniffled. She looked at the doorman and smiled gently. "It's good to see you again, Shino." she said quietly. She didn't know why Shino was here, but she was sure it wasn't because that was his job. As soon as the four of them were in, she noticed Shino disappear. She shook her head and rubbed Rori's back. Sei held onto her vest, not sure of what to do.

Someone bustled down the stairs and greeted them, much to Sei's disgust. It was an annoyingly loud blonde girl with faded brown eyes. She looked really nervous to see his mom. He glared at her. She was shoved aside by another blonde female with bright baby blue eyes. "Move it heifer…best friend coming through!" the blonde sniffed and then ushered Sakura and her small family up the stairs. Sei like this girl already. He looked back and narrowed his light emerald eyes on the girl, who gasped and blushed. He gave a disgusted grunt and kept a hold tight of his mother. He really didn't like that girl.

Sakura noticed Sei's distaste for the girl and chuckled. "I see Gaara's not the only man in my life that has an extreme distaste for Inami." he looked up at him mom and shook his head.

"She blushed at me. Do I look that much like dad?" he was torn between wanting her to say yes and wanting her to say no. She smirked and ruffled his hair.

"You got a lot of your dad's good qualities, but you are Sei…not Gaara. Your dad is the strong silent type, just like you, and he's an incredibly good judge of character. You get that from him too. Your temper, however, comes from me, my dear. As well as your sharp tongue and sarcastic personality. You are built like Gaara, however. That's probably why she was dumbstruck when we walked in. For her, who has no idea who you are and is dumb as they come, it would be hard not to see the differences between you two. Don't worry though…most of the people around here aren't that stupid."

"That's why she's regulated to getting people coffee." came a sharp voice that had Sakura turning with a grin. Standing there was her best friend from basics, Shikamaru. Sakura waved at him and looked down at Rori, who had fallen asleep while she held him.

"I'd give you a hug, but my son fell asleep after Shino terrified him." Shikamaru shook his head and sighed.

"Hugging is overrated. You and my wife would get along great…you both are hugging types." he said, as if it was distasteful to him. Sakura laughed and then cocked her head.

"When did you get married?" Shikamaru looked at his hand, where his wedding band was. Even after all this time, it still felt weird for him.

"Three years after you brought me home. I met her at the recovery ward. She is a POW/MIA advocate. She does public speaking, encouraging people not to give up hope on our POWs and MIAs." Sakura smiled, though it was a little strained. That was about the same time she'd come in and Matsuri had stopped her, saying that what they'd found was too harsh for her. When Sakura had insisted on entering, she'd callously described how Gaara's body had been found in a mass grave and how his once beautiful crimson hair was in patches where rats had eaten away at it. Inami had nodded, also up for some good gossip.

Sakura closed her eyes and fought the pain. It was all a lie…that wasn't the truth. Gaara was alive and she was going to get him. Sakura opened her eyes and found Shikamaru looking at her, his eyes worried. She tried to downplay it, but he knew better. "Sakura, I've know you since we were in diapers. What was with that look?" Sakura cleared her throat and stuttered a bit, but she knew she couldn't lie to Shika, so she handed her mother Rori, who whined a little, and told Sei to help his grandmother find a vending machine with granola bars. Sei nodded, understanding that his mom didn't want him or his grandma to hear this.

When Sakura was sure that they were out of earshot, she told Shikamaru everything. How she'd gotten pregnant while still an active agent, why she'd taken the eleven months off, how she'd come back, only to find out four years later she was pregnant again, how the kid caught in the cross fire had affected her, how she'd turned in her resignation and disappeared, how she'd seen the television broadcast and waited for the phone call, the six mile run into town, the fact she'd flow straight from Minnesota to D.C. non stop and then got on the first carrier out to find them, how she'd been devastated when they'd found everyone but Gaara, and how she'd showed up, two years ago, trying to find out if they ever found Gaara. She clammed up at that.

She noticed his eyes narrow, but she didn't have to tell him what had happened. He knew. "And you were greeted with Matsuri and Inami feeding you all kinds of lies, weren't you? I thought I heard Choji say he'd seen you on the monitors." she sighed and nodded, not needing to relive what they told her. She looked up and her eyes said everything. Shikamaru sighed and sat in the chair across from hers, his eyes angry. "Stupid bitches…they always were jealous of you. They couldn't hack it as real agents, so they decided to become military secretaries. I wish you'd come to one of us Sakura. We were making headway, even then. We'd tracked him to a location several times, but they always seemed to move him before we got there. We've got them pinned down this time, between the our forces and the Israeli forces. They can't move, so it's the best time to put our plan in action. It's why Kakashi called you here."

Sakura wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at him, her eyes serious. "I can't lose him, Shika. I've put up with a lot because I thought I'd never have him back. I just got divorced from a man that beat and degraded me in front of my children. I can't…" she shook her head and dabbed at her eyes once more. She blew her nose and excused herself to the bathroom to wash her face and hands. She came back to see Shika talking to a blonde woman with navy blue eyes. She noticed the woman kiss him and he blushed, telling her not to do that at work. Sakura smirked and snuck up on them.

"So, Shika, who's your friend?" she asked innocently. She noticed the ex-special forces radio man nearly jump out of his skin. He turned to her with a blush and was stuttering. Sakura laughed and held out her hand.

"Hi, I'm-" she was cut off by yelling. It was Sei, who was chasing after Rori, who had two granola bars and was giggling as he ran towards her.

"MOMMY!" the little eight year old screamed and barreled into her. Sei stopped a little ways away, his hands on his knees and panting.

"Momma, Rori took off with the granola as soon as grandma bought them. He ate his and has mine and yours!" her oldest son whined. Sakura laughed and picked her youngest son up and took a bite from the granola bar in his hand.

"Rori, what did I tell you about sharing?" Rori looked at his brother, then at Sakura, his eyes becoming big and watery.

"But I wanted to give mommy her granola first!" he said tearfully. Sei just sighed and ruffled his kid brother's hair.

"It's alright Rori, just give me my granola and I'm sure momma will let you feed her hers. She needs help anyway, since she's got her hands full." Rori's face brightened and he handed his big brother his granola. Sei was about to walk away when he noticed the blonde that had been talking to his mother staring at him, like she'd seen a ghost. He rolled his eyes and pointed at her nonchalantly.

"Is that another one that had some weird crush on dad?" he asked, as if this were a common occurrence. Sakura's eyes widened and she looked at the blonde, whose mouth was wide open.

"D-dad!?" she exclaimed, looking from Sakura to the boy and back. Sakura arched a brow and put her hand on her hip.

"Yes, the father of my children is Gaara…what's so surprising about that?" the blonde looked fit to be tied. She finally exploded when Shikamaru touched her.

"That good for nothing, closed lipped, raccoon eyed, PANDA!" she screamed and stomped her foot. Sakura looked surprised and both her kids looked frightened. Rori was hiding his face in Sakura's hair, a sniffle starting. Sei looked shocked that this girl would say such things about his dad in front of his mom. Sakura, for her part, was dumbfounded.

However, the only thing she could say when her mouth started working again was "Panda?" the blonde was fuming until she saw the dumbfounded expression on Sakura's face.

"OH! I'm so sorry! You have no idea who I am and I just went on ranting!" she blushed and bowed before offering her hand with a smiled.

"I'm Temari. Temari Nara. Gaara is my baby brother." it was Sakura's turn to be floored. She stared at Temari, who was just smiling.

"He…he never told me…he had…siblings…" Sakura said and looked at Shikamaru, who just arched a brow and shrugged. Temari sighed and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Truth be told, Gaara was never close to me or to our brother, Kankuro. Our father created a rift between us pretty early in life. It was only after coming back from basic that he even acknowledge us as family. He said he'd had enough of our father controlling our lives." Sakura gasped and took a step back.

"He…he said that? Those exact words?" Temari looked at her and nodded, a smile on her face.

"I don't know what changed his mind, but it was nice having my little brother back. Kankuro is only two years younger than me, Gaara is five years younger." Sakura hugged Rori to her, who nuzzled her neck and whimpered to her. She closed her eyes and smiled.

"So he did listen…" she said quietly, though it seemed both Shikamaru and Temari heard, because Temari made a questioning noise and Shikamaru arched a brow. Sakura smiled and rubbed Rori's back, soothing him.

"When Gaara and I were first starting to get close, I asked him if he hand any family. He told me that he didn't have any family worth mentioning. I told him that all family is important and he told me how his dad was constantly controlling every aspect of his life. I told him that sooner or later, he'd get tired of his father controlling his life. I had no idea he'd been talking about his relationship with his siblings." It was then that there was a shout.

"We need everyone here for the tactical meeting! Nara! Where are you dammit!" Sakura's eyes darkened and she put Rori on his feet and looked at Sei.

"Hold your brother's hand and both of you stay here. Mommy's going to clean up the workplace." Sakura's eyes frosted over and Shikamaru flinched, hiding behind his wife.

"Oh no…the femme fatale is back in action…" he muttered and waited for the screams of pain to start. Sakura walked around the edge of a cubical. They all heard what happened next.

"Oh, hey Sakura, when did you-" it was cut off by the obvious sound of a boot in the face as Sakura hissed something about cleaning up their language while she was here.

A few minutes later, a door was slammed open and chaos erupted. The person who'd cursed stuck his head around the wall and they could see the bright red boot print on the side of his face. His black eyes and brunette hair contrasted with what seemed to be a heavy blush on his cheeks, however, it was obvious they were some kind of birthmark as he walked up to them. He didn't even seem to notice the kids.

"What the hell has gotten into Sakura?" there was a shout and he was knocked over again, this time by a busty blonde with a nametag that said Tsunade. She stood over the brunette and glared.

"As long as you are in presence of my grandsons, you will not speak in such a manner, you hear me?" she growled and started pushing the two boys towards where their mother had gone. Shikamaru just sighed.

"So…that's where Sakura's violent temper came from." he sighed again and shook his head before offering his hand to the brunette on the floor. "You okay, Kiba?" the brunette was groaning and holding his face. The blonde with light blue eyes sighed and helped him up.

"She's not even back for twenty minutes and you've already pissed the Lt. off." everyone looked at her and she smirked, her eyes knowing. "That's right people. The Lt. is back and ready for action." they all groaned and several prayed they wouldn't be on the receiving end of her anger.