Long time no see everyone. This time I have no excuses to offer for having this chapter up so late. Nine months it took me to update this and during that time I received reviews and messages from many of you asking about the story's status. I'm sorry for keeping you all waiting for so long, yes there was some laziness that prevented me from working on this but the main reason was I got into another manga/anime series.

During the summer, a college friend of mine introduced me to the series Attack on Titan. I'm sure some of you are fans. To be honest I was a little skeptical at first, but she insisted that I give it a shot. So I did and I was freaking blown away. After the first episode I became addicted, once I had watched all the episodes, I went on to read the manga chapters and fell even deeper into the series. My favorite character is Armin Arlert; I don't care what anyone says he's dope. People like to poke fun at him because he's physically weak, but what people don't seem to realize is that he's a genius and a great manipulator. Oh yeah I posted an Armin X Annie one shot a month ago. So if anyone's interested in the series or the pairing please give it a read. At the moment I am planning the sequel while balancing this story and another.

Well I'm getting off topic, so I'll stop there for now. Getting back to Jinchuriki Bonds, again I apologize. Before we get to the chapter at hand I'd like to say that I did work hard on this for you guys so I really do hope you like it. Chapter 9 isn't going to be what you expected, It's only 6,553 words which is a little bit compared to the 13,000 word chapters I usually write for this fic, but there's going to be a nice author's note at the end of the chapter with some good news so stay tuned.

Okay now I'm done. Onto the chap!

Read & Review!

Chapter 9: Revelations

"Report!" Were the demanding words of an irritated young woman. The whole day had been uneventful, they hadn't made any progress in their search and it was really starting to bother her. For the last few weeks she had been stressed to the max and things weren't getting any better. There was too much going on at the moment; she and the rest of the ninja world were still dealing with the aftermath of the Fourth shinobi war. The losses they had suffered were heavy and since all the nations were still recovering there resources were limited.

Currently the blonde was sitting behind a desk in the Kazekage's office. Impatiently she tapped her fingers on the wooden table as she stared tiredly at the shinobi before her. If she had to guess she'd say he was a few years younger than she was. He was obviously a genin or beginning chunin, she could tell that much from his awkward posture and nervous sweating. Am I really that intimidating? She wondered.

When he didn't show any signs of answering she sighed. "Sometime today please."

Gulping, the ninja fixed his stance and bowed respectfully. "L-Lady Temari, I am reluctant to report that we didn't find anything useful during our expedition."

"Nothing?" she repeated with a raised brow. "Didn't the Raikage deploy some of his shinobi to assist you with the search?"

The inexperienced ninja could hear the irritation in her voice and was hesitant about continuing, but he did nonetheless. "Y-Yes he did and while they were helpful we still couldn't find any traces of Lord Kazekage or Naruto Uzumaki of Konoha. We looked all along the borders of the Land of lightning yet there was nothing to be found. We even deployed one of our units to explore the Land of frost and the Lands of Hot water but we still came up empty handed."

Temari banged her fist hard on the desk leaving a noticeable dent. "Damn it! We've been searching constantly for the past month and still no traces of them!"

Things were not looking good. Suna had been without it's Kazekage for over a month now and the village is in desperate need of his presence. The feudal lord of the wind country was absolutely useless. There was no wonder that Suna was considered to be the weakest village of the five great nations. All the man did was make excuses for his incompetence. The country was short on food as well as other supplies. The only people who didn't have to worry about gathering provisions were the wealthy.

Then there was also the matter of military force. The aftermath of the war was the loss of thousands of shinobi from each nation. Then there were the injured, those who hadn't perished were being tended to in hospitals.

One good thing she was able to take away from all this chaos was peace. Ever since the war began and ceased, the five great nations have stayed united as one.

During this time the Tsuchikage had discharged several units of his ANBU black ops to aid in the search for her younger brother and Naruto. The ANBU were usually preserved for assassination and torture missions, but Onoki insisted that this was a special case. Currently his ninja were searching the Mountain's Graveyard which was the Akatsuki's former hideout.

The Mizukage had also been of great help. While she hadn't sent any of her reinforcements to help with the search, she did send a few advanced medical ninja to help heal the wounded. Fortunately Kirigakure had suffered the least amount of losses so they were capable of lending a few helping hands. Mei Terumi had also been writing Temari constantly asking for updates on the village's status as well the whereabouts of Gaara.

Of course the Hokage had done her share as well. After all her surrogate grandson was also missing and she was obviously worried sick about the knucklehead. For the past month she had been keeping in contact with Temari faithfully. Shikamaru, Sakura, and Kakashi had been visiting frequently to give updates as well as a few other Konoha shinobi she was familiar with. Lady Tsunade had also been dispatching her shinobi, only difference was instead of sending out a few units of shinobi, she deployed large divisions for this search. Going to such extremes wasn't uncharacteristic for the busty Hokage, when things were serious she didn't waste time procrastinating.

At last the five great nations had been truly united for the first time in history. It was truly sad that two of the young men responsible for this were missing in action. The words her little brother spoke before the start of the war began to echo in her head.

"There are no enemies here, because we have all suffered at the hands of the Akatsuki! So there is no Sand, no Stone, no Leaf, no Mist and no Cloud!"

"There are only shinobi!"

A small smile surfaced on the wind mistress's face. If only you were here now Gaara to see what you help create.

"Um… Lady Temari?"

"Huh?" Temari snapped out of her thought's to see the messenger shinobi staring at her confusedly.

"Are you alright? You seem to have spaced out for a moment."

Shaking her head calmly her usual prudent demeanor returned. Coughing she cleared her throat. "Forget it it's nothing. Anyways is there anything else you have to share?"

Her sudden inquiry caught the young man off guard. His body language changed instead of being formal and a little timid, he seemed thoughtful and uncomfortable. Now he was finding his feet to be very interesting.

Being the perceptive women that she was Temari was immediately able to catch on. "If you have important information to contribute I suggest you spit it out. Withholding info can hinder the little progress the alliance has made so far. Don't worry… I won't berate you no matter how ridiculous you think it may be."

Surprisingly enough her words did ease his mind. He didn't feel that much more confident, but at least he regained some of his comfort. "Alright," he started while making eye contact with her once again. "A week ago, a sub-division that I was placed in found some shinobi corpses in a forest north of the border of Lightning."

"What were you doing north of the border?" Temari asked. As far as she knew there were no battles that took place in that region. As a matter a fact, if they had went north of the border that was almost five miles away from the battle zone.

"Originally we hadn't planned on going there since the Raikage's orders were to stay within the borders. The commander of our group and a few other higher ranking shinobi suggested that we continue forward, which I thought was strange."

Temari nodded her agreement. "That is strange, to completely disregard the Raikage's orders without fear of the consequences. Do you know the name of your commander?"

The messenger shinobi furrowed his brows as he tried to recall the man's name but seemed to have a little bit of trouble. After a few seconds of thought the name began to return to him. "If I remember correctly… His name was Hitoshi… He's a cloud ninja my lady."

Temari's green eyes became focused. "Hitoshi huh…? I'll be sure to remember that name." there was something terribly wrong with this situation and she was glad that it was brought to her attention. For now there wasn't much she could do, because to anyone else this was irrelevant information, but for her it was a start. "Tell me how many corpses were found as well as the villages they belonged to?"

The messenger nodded and continued on. "There were five corpses found in total. Three of them were Sand shinobi while the other two belonged to the Leaf."

"You mean to tell me that only five ordinary ninja were placed in one unit during the biggest war in the history of the shinobi world?!"

This news disturbed her. Initially she expected to hear about some strange footprints or something along those lines. Why was there a unit that far out from the border? Who ordered them to go out there at such a crucial time? Things weren't adding up at all. Why were there only Suna and Konoha shinobi? She found that awfully suspicious.

The young man noticed that Temari was thinking hard about the info she had just received, but there still more he had to tell her. "Actually my lady, that isn't the most shocking thing I have to tell you."

Temari's eyes narrowed with apprehension. "What else is there?" she asked fearfully. Truthfully she didn't want to know so she could avoid the additional stress, but since she was in charge until her brother was found she had no choice. She had to know.

With an intense look in his eyes he said, "On the faces of the dead shinobi we found masks. ANBU masks to be precise."

Almost instantly Temari's jaw dropped. "ANBU masks?" she repeated. Right now she was fighting the urge to jump out of her seat. Good thing she was pretty good at keeping her composure. She had to remain professional regardless of the circumstances.

"Yes, I'm actually surprised that you haven't received a report about this sooner Lady Temari. Hitoshi said that he would talk to the Raikage and I assumed that he would then in turn fill you in…"

The blonde girl shook her head while biting the tip of her thumb. "No…I didn't receive any message of the sort." She was going to have to set up a meeting with the council as well as Kankuro and Baki.

All shinobi, new or old were aware of the basic rules during the war. ANBU masks were strictly prohibited. Gaara and the rest of the Kage had decided on this during a meeting they had a few days before the start of the war. The premise of the rule was to establish trust within the countries. In a normal war it didn't matter if one decided to wear there ANBU material, however this time was different. Finally after generations of war among each other, the five great nations had banded together to take on one common enemy.

There were to be no secrets or disguises among comrades, yet there some who didn't follow that rule.

There was something fishy going on and Temari didn't like it. Someone or maybe some people were making decisions behind the backs of the alliance. For some odd reason she had a feeling that this case was somehow connected to the disappearance of her brother and Naruto. Tightening her fists with vigor and she grinned like the sadist she was.

"Now we are getting somewhere," she said with satisfaction laced in her voice.

"Huh?"

Ignoring the perplexing look on his face she stood up and walked around her brother's desk to stand face to face with the young male. "State your name," she demanded.

"Ryo," he bowed respectively.

Temari smirked, "Well Ryo, for now on you will be reporting directly to me on all your findings. I will also be giving you missions until this whole thing is straightened out." The wind mistress had a few plans to get to the bottom of this 'predicament.'

Ryo stared back, completely astonished with the words that had left the woman's mouth. "I-I don't mean to come off as ungrateful my lady, but why me? There are much more talented shinobi to pick from in our village. I mean I myself only became a chunin a few months ago."

I knew it.

Ticking her tongue in disagreement Temari replied. "Special skills aren't required for this job. What I need is someone I can trust and has an eye for detail. You seem like a trust worthy guy who believes in justice which makes you perfect for this assignment. So Ryo… are you up for the job?" she asked with the most charming smile she could muster.

He stood there silently while he gazed back at her. His heart felt like it was beating excessively. He didn't know rather he should be happy or nervous that the Kazekage's sister would put her faith in a guy like him. Well he knew one thing for sure. There was no way he was going to turn down such an offer.

"I would be honored, Lady Temari…"

Temari chuckled, "Good to hear," she replied before making her way back around the desk. Still grinning the sandy blonde sat down in her desk. Calmly she placed her elbows on the table before intertwining her fingers and leaning forward. "There are some rats within the alliance. I'm going to need your help to flush them out!" she exclaimed.

Ryo's eyes popped in shock of her declaration. "You think there are traitors among us?"

Temari nodded, "Correct."

"And you want me to help you find them?" he asked

"Precisely"

"And you are basing your course of action on the information that I had just given you?"

"That's right, but I'm also following my gut instincts and they haven't failed me yet," she replied casually. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that there were traitors among them. The only problem was that now that she knew this she had to limit herself to the amount of people she could talk to about business concerning the village as well as the alliance. "Anyways I have another question for you. Who in the village do you trust the most?"

Unlike her other question this one was fairly easy, it didn't take much thought for him to give an answer.

"Maki," he smiled.

Temari's interest was roused after hearing the name. Maki… That name sounds familiar. As a matter of fact she participated in our mission to rescue Gaara during his capture. If I remember correctly she was a student of Pakura while she was still alive. From what I heard she did a superb job on the sealing team. She had only talked to the girl a few times but she seemed to be trustworthy. The blonde looked back at Ryo to see that he was now lost in thought himself. He had this silly smile on this face and a tinted blush on his cheeks. Oh I see so he has a thing for her? Well I guess I'll be doing him a favor then.

Nodding Temari continued her briefing, "Very well, tomorrow morning I want the two of you to depart for the Land of lightning. Your expedition will take place north of the border. Your mission will be to look for clues that relate to what you found last time. I have a feeling that those corpses are connected to my brother's disappearance."

"B-But my lady," he hesitated while looking at her questionably. "Won't we be trespassing if we go without permission from the Raikage?"

Temari waved carelessly, "Don't worry about that, I'll have everything taken care of before you get there. Anyways that's all for now, you're dismissed."

Ryo bowed respectively before turning to leave. On the outside he seemed to be calm and complacent but on the inside he was beyond excited. He was going to finally be paired with Maki his crush. The best part was that they were going to be all alone. It was almost too good to be true.

"Oh yeah I almost forgot"

He was about to open the door and exit when he heard the mistresses voice. Reluctantly he loosened his grip on the knob and turned back to face the proud woman that he had come to respect and admire of the years. "Yes Lady Temari."

"You will be having company."

The blonde looked back at him with a stone face. "Matsuri, Sari, Yukata, and Ittetsu will also be tagging along. This is considered to be an A rank mission, it's far too dangerous for you two to go alone."

As soon as those words left her mouth Ryo wanted to scream his disapproval but opted not to since he valued his life dearly. Instead he decided to take a more gentle approach to change her mind. He knew it would be difficult, but he had to try. This might be his only chance to be alone with Maki. "That won't be necessary my lady, I'm sure Maki and I can manage."

"I don't remember asking you for your opinion… It's an order so follow it obediently!" She growled which caused the young man to bristle.

Noticing his sudden change in demeanor she quickly relaxed herself. The last thing she needed was to lose control of her emotions at such a time. "I apologize for lashing out at you Ryo."

"No it's okay I understand. I was out of line," he replied.

Temari sighed, "Trust me Ryo this is for the best. If you two go out there alone there's a possibility you will be ambushed, that being said it's best to increase your numbers."

"Of course," he replied respectively. Still there was something bothering him. Why did she pick those four to go with them? Surely she could have thought of more capable shinobi to assist them on this mission. The four she mentioned were good, but they weren't really skilled enough to be considered reinforcements. Regardless he would follow his orders without complaint. "Thank you Lady Temari, if that is all I will take my leave."

He had made his way to the door and had it half way open when she called out to him one last time.

"Ryo"

Said male turned his head to spare the woman a glance.

"For the next couple of weeks I'll make sure that you and Maki spend plenty of time together on missions. That's a promise," she smirked knowingly. The boy blushed heavily before quickly making his long awaited exit.

As soon as the door shut Temari hunched over the table and took a deep exhale. It had been a long day and it still wasn't over. There was much to do and with this new development her workload just increased even more. Right now the shinobi world was temporarily at peace, but the nations were still scrambling for several reasons. Obviously the absence of Gaara and Naruto was having a negative effect on morale. Yet there was nothing that could really be done in a situation like this.

As a temporary leader of a village there was only so much she could do. She was barely getting used to the role and she was the best person for the job because of her high level of intelligence and strength. "Why me…?" she grumbled in a muffled voice.

Complicated, yeah that was a good word to describe how things had been for her lately. Never did she imagine that Gaara had it this rough. A pile of paper work, making plans, annoying council meetings, all of it was a major pain in her ass. To think I actually thought being a Kage would be a cool job, but now I see the awful truth…

"Because you're the only one who qualifies genius," said an irritatingly familiar voice from behind her.

Temari sighed before spinning around in her chair to address the new arrival. "Kankuro, I had a feeling you were ear hustling," she stated while observing her younger brother who was perched on the window seal of the Kazekage office. Per normal he wore his usual black outfit, only this time he didn't have the hood on or the face paint. That was a bad sign. Whenever Kankuro wasn't wearing his face paint it usually meant that he had been slacking off and neglecting his duties. "So brother," she started dangerously. "I hope you've been being productive lately. If not I might have to send you flying across the village."

For a moment the brunette sweat dropped before chuckling and hopping of the seal. Yawning, he walked around to the front of her desk. "No need to get violent Temari. For your information I have been pretty damn busy myself."

Temari looked at him questionably. "Busy doing what?"

"I'll tell you about it in a minute, but first I want to talk about the conversation you just had with that chunin," he remarked.

Rubbing her forehead, she went back to burying her head in documents. "What about it?" She asked as she started to read over the mission list that she had created. It was good that she had a talent for multi-tasking or she might have accidently given an A rank mission to a genin.

"You aren't seriously going to send that group out on their own are you? Because if your suspicions are correct than there's a good chance there going to get themselves killed out there."

Temari didn't answer immediately as her eyes were still glued to the paper in front of her. The woman hummed to herself while casually tapping her fingers on her desk. "Well…This is the job they chose so it can't be helped."

Kankuro's eye's bulged. "Are you being serious right now?" He knew his sister could be heartless at times, hell all three of them rarely showed mercy or sympathy when it came to their jobs as shinobi but this was just absurd. She was practically sending them to their deaths.

"Couldn't be more serious. Death is expected in this line of work, I'd thought you'd understand this better than anyone," she stated carelessly while writing her signature down on the finished document. Temari was so engrossed in her work that she didn't snap out of it till her younger brother slammed his hands down on the desk.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he shouted with fury.

Not intimidated in the slightest, she glared back at him intensely. Slowly she started to reach for her battle fan which was positioned only a few feet away and Kankuro mimicked these actions by starting to unravel his crow puppet. The tension in the room was nothing to laugh about. Two siblings at war was actually the furthest thing from humor, especially when they are both highly ranked jonin. Over the years they had fought countlessly and Temari would usually emerge the victor.

However things were different now, Kankuro had gotten stronger and wiser with age. Ever since his near death battle with Sasori he had become sharper and more careful. No longer did he fall for her playful taunts and tricks. She was smarter than him that much was obvious, but he was a crafty engineer with critical field vision. He also had more puppets at his disposal, including Sasori's puppet body. Beating him wouldn't be as easy as it was when they were still kids.

"You sure you want to challenge me?" she asked in a low voice that was filled with warning. Her hand was now placed firmly at the top of her large fan.

Pulling over his hood, the puppet master placed his bandaged crow on the floor with a dull thud. "Couldn't be surer," he replied confidently.

They stared each other down for a while without even moving an inch. The way things were looking, they were about to turn their little brother's office into a construction site. Just when it looked like all hell was going to break lose something weird happened. Temari erupted with uncontrollable laughter. Hunching over her desk she began to pound the wood violently with her fist as she continued to laugh her ass off.

Kankuro could only watch the skeptical with irritation. What the hell is she laughing about? He wondered while glaring at his older sister. Quietly he continued to watch her as tears were starting to roll down her cheeks. Eventually the puppet master became fed up with her behavior. Enough is enough.

"Why the fuck are you laughing?" he yelled.

Finally after about a minute of chuckling in hysterics Temari wiped a tear from her eyes and sighed peacefully. "Ah, I really needed that," she said before glancing up at Kankuro who was boiling with anger. "Sorry about that, I've just been so stressed out lately and I needed a laugh so I baited you into a fight. You just looked so damn serious that I couldn't control myself," she giggled but covered her mouth so she wouldn't burst into another fit of laughter. "Come on Kankuro, did you really think I was going to send those six inexperienced shinobi out on their own?!"

"My god you're immature," he muttered under his breath but Temari still caught wind of his rude remark.

Immediately her facial expression went from joyful to pissed off bitch mode. Incredulously she gaped, "I'm immature, are you freaking kidding me?" she asked with an intense glare. Abruptly she stood up and leaned over the table so their faces were only inches apart. "I can count on one hand, how many times I've screwed with you. You on the other hand annoy me on a regular basis, hell I can't even begin to estimate how many times you pulled pranks on me. You stupid jackass!" she shouted which caused the brunette to sweat drop and take a few steps back.

She was right and he knew it. From the time they could walk he'd constantly do things to bug her to no end. From whoopee cushions to drawing mustaches on her face while she was sleeping, he did it all. In the end all of his pranks and jokes ended with him getting a black eye and busted lip courtesy of the eldest sand sibling. Deflating, he raised his hands submissively. "You're right Temari, I am always messing with you and for that I'm sorry. Maybe I should start taking things more seriously."

Visually the blondes face relaxed and she slowly eased back into her chair. "It's okay," she grinned. "I was also out of line I shouldn't get too worked up I suppose." She had been on edge lately and she needed a way to release all her stress and frustration. Still that didn't excuse her of her actions. Other than Gaara, she was the most level headed ninja in the sand village. Ninety percent of the time her emotions were always under control. However her clown of a brother was the only one who could make her loose her temper.

"I understand," he smiled while shoving his hands in his pockets. "You've been under a lot of pressure lately and I'm sure I haven't been much help. But tell me, who are you going to have command your group tomorrow?"

"I'm glad you asked," she smirked.

"Temari…" Suddenly Kankuro started to feel uncomfortable. He didn't like where this conversation was going and that look on her face screamed mischief. Shit!

"That's right little brother… You will be accompanying them to the Land of lightning."

Kankuro shook his head disapprovingly. "Hell no, fuck that I'm not going to baby sit those runts."

Still smirking, Temari raised a brow. "What's wrong Kankuro? Only a few moments ago were you bitching about me sending them out without protection. I thought you'd be happy with this arrangement."

"Well yeah that's because I didn't want them to die an unnecessary death! That doesn't mean I wanted to volunteer for this shit!" He all but yelled. Now he knew what she was doing. She was getting her revenge for all the stupid things he did over the years. His childish pranks, scaring off her dates, and goofing off was all being paid back with one stupid mission. She thinks she so clever, well I'm not going down without a fight. "Look I'm not going and there's nothing you can say to change my mind."

Temari frowned at his words but her emerald eyes appeared sincere. "Please Kankuro. You just got done listening to the conversation I had with Ryo, so you know what's going on. There are traitors among us so there aren't many people I can trust right now."

He sighed, "Okay I get that, but if that's the case than why not send Baki? He's way more reliable than me anyway."

"It's true that Baki is a lot more reliable not to mention responsible, however at the moment I need him here."

"Why?" he asked.

The older sibling shook her head and ticked her tongue. "I can't believe I have to explain this to you." Annoyed she ran a hand through her thick blond hair. In an instant she removed all four of the bands that held up her pony tails and her long hair came flowing down her back and shoulders. She was ready to call it a day, all she needed to do was go back home and write a few letters which would only take her about ten minutes. Once she was done with that she would finally be able to get some well-deserved rest. "The reason I'm keeping Baki behind is because he has the greatest military mind in our village. Yes we sand siblings have a great deal of experience for our age considering we were at a jonin level when we were barely even teenagers. Nonetheless, he now has two wars underneath his belt as well as ANBU experience. If the village is under attack we are going to need his strategic skills."

Kankuro grunted with frustration but did not refute her. He knew what she was saying was true and also very logical, but still he didn't want to leave the village. His hesitance didn't come from laziness. Just like his sister he was suspicious of the things going on in Suna and wanted to stick around if anything went wrong. "But why me?"

"It's because you're a dependable ninja when it comes to protecting your comrades," she replied solemnly without making eye contact with her brother. She rarely gave him compliments so felt a little strange doing it now. "Any other experienced Sand shinobi would let them perish if it came down to their safety and completing the mission. With you in command I now you'll watch them carefully."

The puppet master couldn't help but smile at his sister's words. Temari was always constantly praising Gaara which was understandable since he had accomplished a lot. He went from being a lonely sociopathic killer to a proud and righteous leader with countless admirers. He was also proud of his little brother and he always let him know that, but this was the first time his sister ever acknowledged his skills as a leader.

"Enough flattery Temari, it doesn't suit you," he smirked. Grabbing crow he quickly raveled it up in seconds before strapping it back on to his person. Taking his hood off, he made eye contact with her. "I'll do it."

The wind mistress emerald eyes sparkled in delight, "Thanks brother I appreciate this and I promise I'll return the favor. Your team will be leaving at dawn tomorrow, so be at the gate at least an hour before then."

"Gotcha," Kankuro grumbled in mock salute. He actually had a date tonight, but it looked like he was going to have to cancel if he wanted to get enough sleep to be ready for this mission. Oh well, he thought while heading for the window. He placed his foot on the seal and was ready to exit when he remembered something. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you about my findings."

Temari swiveled around in her office chair to face her departing brother. With interest she asked, "What do you have?"

Removing his foot from the ledge of the window he turned around to face her, "You remember Masanori right?"

The blonde nodded, "Of course. He was the one of the first people to teach you about puppet master jutsu. He was also one of the few people who treated Gaara like he was a human being when he was a child. What about him?"

"Well during the war, he vanished without a trace," he replied.

Temari shrugged, "Well that probably means he was killed in battle. Nothing suspicious there." In reality she didn't really care for Masanori. Ever since she was a little girl there was something about him that unnerved her. Though he seemed polite and caring there were times that she would catch him looking at Gaara with disdain. To her he was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"Let me finish," he admonished her sternly. "Masanori was placed in the first division under Darui. There was a small number of sand ninja placed in that unit, so he obviously stood out."

Temari groaned, "Can't you just get to the point."

"I will if you can shut up for two seconds!"

"Sorry"

"Forget it," he said before rolling his eyes. "Anyways when Obito Uchiha appeared to wreak havoc on the coast he was there fighting the white Zetsu army." Kankuro paused expecting his sister to interrupt him again but was happy to see her waiting patiently for him to continue. "His sudden disappearance sparked my interest. Like you, I thought he may have just perished in battle, but I had this nagging feeling that it was something else. So I investigated."

"And you found?' she questioned.

He smirked perversely, "I found a cute little sand ninja named Amaya who had been fighting alongside him. She said he had started acting strange once the enemy had been defeated by Darui and the InoShikaCho trio. Though everything was settled he was paranoid. Once they got back to the camp she looked for him and he was nowhere to be found. No one had seen or heard him from after that."

"So that's how it is?" she growled through clenched teeth. Suddenly she cocked back her leg and kicked a hole into her baby brother's desk.

Frightened by her random mood swing, Kankuro jumped back. "What the hell! Temari what's gotten into you?!"

"That bastard," she seethed. The anxiety within her was starting to become too much to contain. All of her emotions were on the verge of coming forth. "He's responsible for Gaara's disappearance!"

The brunette eyes widened in shock. "Are you sure of this?" He was having a hard time believing such a thing. If anything it sounded outright absurd. The man had been so friendly to him that it was actually hard to believe. But then again his sister was rarely wrong when it came to things like this.

"I'm fucking positive Kankuro! That man always hated our little brother. He just acted like he cared so he could get Gaara to drop his guard around him."

Suddenly the puppet master had a realization. "Wasn't Gaara responsible for the death of his baby brother Kazuki?"

"Exactly!" Temari exclaimed. It had been a long time since she had gotten this worked up about something. Even Kankuro couldn't piss her off this much and he was very talented in the field. "Still even before then, he could barely tolerate being in the same presence as him, he was just like all the other villagers. The death of Kazuki just pushed him over the edge. He masked his true feelings well but I could always see through him."

Kankuro shook his head in disbelief as he tried to process this information. Not only was Masanori a liar but he had been after vengeance all along. If he really thought about it, he should have seen this sooner. Ever since the preparations for the war began he had been missing at the council meetings. He may have been young compared to all the other geezers on the council, but that didn't mean he was any less important.

"I-I should have killed him a long time ago…"

Sighing, the young man placed a comforting hand on his sister's shoulder. "No," he disagreed gravely. "If you did that you would be punished despite your speculation and reason."

A small tear started to roll down Temari's cheek as her body began to shake convulsively. Her tough exterior was finally melting away. "B-But…If… I did…G-Gaara would…S-Still be here!" she cried. The wind mistress broke down and began to weep.

Without a doubt she was one of the toughest and strongest women in the shinobi world. One could argue she was only a few jutsu away from being on the level of a Kage. Her taijutsu had also come a long way. Despite all of these facts, Temari of Sunagakure was still a woman with emotions. At long last the three of them had built a solid relationship as siblings and Gaara had finally gained acceptance and then this happens.

This caused Kankuro to do something that was completely out of the norm for a guy like him. Kneeling down, he gently wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. Placing one hand on her head he gently stroked her hair. If he had to guess he got this soft side from his mother. "Shhh…I know you're in pain right now, but I'm here and always will be," he whispered soothingly. The way she was shaking in his arms made him feel a pain within his chest. Never in his life had he seen her so vulnerable. "Gaara is out there somewhere and he's alive. Our little brother is the Kazekage of the Sand and one of the most powerful shinobi on the planet. Do you really think someone like Masanori can harm him?" he asked with a smile.

"No… but-

"Hey!" he interrupted sharply. "I don't want to hear about any butts…Unless we're talking about the Mizukage's of course."

Temari couldn't help but laugh in between sobs. "You're such a freaking perv…"

"I know," he murmured contently as his prideful sister started to relax in his embrace.

"Kankuro…Do you really think… he's okay?"

Kankuro smirked with unbridled confidence, "No, I know he's okay. Besides he's got Naruto with him and he shares an even stronger bond with Gaara than we do and we're his siblings. Those two will look after each other, of that I have no doubt. He'll return to us I promise"

After a few minutes had passed, Temari had finally calmed down. Who knew that he could be so caring? she thought to herself. The truth was she hadn't cried like that since her mother died. "Thank you brother, this means a lot to me."

Kankuro shrugged, "Don't mention it."

As he continued to hold her, his bleak eyes traveled to the open window of the office. Gazing out into the blazing sun that was setting over the village he began to think.

Gaara…I know you're out there somewhere. I don't know what kind of situation you've got yourself into but I hope you are okay. You've never been away from Suna this long and right now the village needs you more than ever. Temari is worried sick about you and so am I.

I promised her that you would return to us, so don't make me a liar in front of our doting big sister. Come back home soon little brother, your presence is missed dearly…

To be continued…

That was a nice heartwarming ending between siblings. I hope you all enjoyed it though the chapter was revolved around the Narutoverse, but we will be jumping back into the Rosario + Vampire World next chapter which is sooner than you think. Remember in the author note at the beginning of the chap I said I had a surprise? Well I do and it's a double update for the month of February! Originally this chapter had reached over 17,000 words and I was planning on posting it just like that, but I thought it would be smarter to do it this way. It wasn't supposed to be that long in the first place! I just kept writing and writing and things got out of hand lol. At any rate, chapter 10 is a little over 10, 000 words (Which is the new average chapter length I am aiming for) and it will be posted sometime next week.

While I have you I'm going to explain a few things to you readers. Since the start of this story I think a lot of you have been under the impression that Naruto is the first protagonist and Gaara is the second, but in actuality it's the other way around. When I first decided to write this fic, Gaara was going to travel to the Rosario Verse solo. I had wanted to do a fic about Gaara since he hardly gets any love in crossovers and he still has plenty of character growth in my opinion, while Naruto doesn't but that's just my two cents on the matter. Don't fret both characters will get equal treatment. (I'm not one of those author's who play's favorites...)

I don't want to go on a rant here, but why in the hell is Naruto always the only one who is crossing over to another world? I mean we all love Naruto and I get that he's the main character, but come on he's overused. Whenever I read a Naruto crossover I see Naruto going to these following series. Bleach, One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist, Dragon ball Z etc. And it doesn't matter which one because he always has his own harem and god like powers. Everyone is free to write what they want I'm just curious is all. Is it because he had a bad childhood that fans think he should be rewarded with beautiful girls and divine abilities, because if we use that logic than Gaara, Sasuke, Itachi, and Neji should also be given harems. Right?

Sorry I've been stressed out a little bit lately and needed to vent. I hope I didn't offend anyone and if I did I'm too tired to care right now.

When I read Naruto and Gaara at the monster academy I was very disappointed, so I thought maybe I can do a better job with the same characters and it was perfect since Naruto happens to be my second fav character. He is after the Kazekage of course. I mean no disrespect to the author because I'm not the kind of guy who trashes other people's work but I just think he could have been a little more descriptive and original.

Again no disrespect.

There's probably some stuff I forgot to mention, but its 5 o clock in the morning and I haven't slept in two days so I'm going to catch up on some sleep since spring semester starts on Wednesday.

Till next time! Toto out ;)