It's Pichu. I'm so happy with the feedback I've received!

Thanks to:
My beta-reader MidnightCherryBlossoms whom despite being lazy to beta-read for me, she still did it anyway :D
WeirdsBestFriend
katarauchiha653719
CRdragonPyro
 XxRikela-chanxX

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters you recognize here except those that don't appear on Naru Wiki.

This story will not have any relation to Naruto's dream of achieving Sasuke Uchiha's return or deafeating Orochimaru. This happens a little bit after the Rescue Gaara arc. Thought you should know.

Cerulean eyes alight with wariness rested upon the person in front of a blazing fire. Naruto watched Kohaku as she diligently fed firewood that he himself had found earlier into the flames.

They were alone.

Kakashi and Sakura had gone to a nearby town to grab some supplies before turning in for the night for the remaining two days of journeying. They had decided not to lodge in an inn; opting to slumber underneath the clear night sky. Naruto and Kohaku were presently in an awkward situation, with Kohaku being ever-so-silent and Naruto still cynical and distrusting of the young kunoichi.

Deciding to stretch his partly-stiff legs, Naruto stood up, accidentally knocking Kohaku's bag over, tipping out its contents. "Oh damn it," he muttered, "Sorry, I'll just pick it u-,"

He stopped halfway when he saw a gleaming white object. He stooped over to pick it up, but Kohaku reacted quickly and snatched her bag up and possessively zipped it, not letting Naruto take a closer inspection of curiosity on the foreign object.

Kohaku noticed Naruto giving her another strange look.

"What was that white thing anyway?" Naruto asked curiously.

Kohaku looked at him, the usual impassive expression on her face. "Nothing that you should be aware of."

"C'mon! Just tell me. I won't laugh or anything."

"It is nothing that you should know of."

"Well, if I want to know, that means I should know."

Kohaku scrutinised the blonde. "Uzumaki-kun."

A slightly excited look flashed across said person's face. "Uh-huh?"

Kohaku shook her head.

"What?"

"Mind your own business."

The girl's words lit Naruto's short fuse, making him seethe quietly with anger. In normal circumstances, Naruto would've jumped at her and start beating some sense into her, but he had never done that to a girl before as well as something in his reasonable consciousness told him not to do so.

Forcing his facial muscles to morph a smile, he pretended that her blunt words of rejection had been nothing. "Is this how you normally talk to people?"

"What do you mean?" a quizzical look descended onto her face, "Does one have to have a certain pattern of speech in order socialise properly?"

"When one thinks he is supposed to have a certain pattern of speech," Naruto thought in annoyance with the plastic smile still on his face, "Normal people wouldn't talk to him. Man, she's way more annoying than Sai! Talk about obnoxious!"

"Well, no," Naruto replied, "It's just that you speak like you're from a different era and you're kind of rude,"

"Rude?" she echoed. Instead of what would have to have been an insulted expression, her face remained impassive.

"Rude, as in, no one will want to talk to you if you keep on telling people to 'mind their own business'," he said as he air-quoted the last few words.

"I always find it effective to repel people with that sentence. I dislike it when people—," her eyes rested momentarily albeit pointedly upon Naruto, "—want to know things that do not concern them,"

Naruto gritted his teeth while clenching his fist. Sensing Naruto would remain silent, Kohaku turned away. "If there is nothing else you would like to discuss, I will retire to my sleeping bag for the night," she said as she started walking around the camp-fire towards her sleeping bag, "I trust that you will not disturb me,"

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto waved his hand with a peeved expression.

"That was a statement, not a question," she finished before slipping off her shoes and into her sleeping bag. The bag that Naruto wanted so much to take a look in was placed beside the sleeping girl's head.

Within the space of five minutes, the experienced shinobi could tell that his temporary teammate was deeply fast asleep by the rhythmic rising and falling of her chest as well as her evenly spaced breathing.

"Now we shall see," Naruto gleefully thought as he slowly advanced towards the unsuspecting girl, to her jealously guarded bag.

Naruto was reaching his hand out, over Kohaku's head and towards the bag, when a force knocked him over, sending him flying onto the ground. It all happened so fast - even for Naruto - that when Naruto opened his eyes from blinking, he came face-to-face with a deadly-looking Kohaku who had the cold blade of a kunai pressed against the tender flesh of his throat.

"Holy fuck," Naruto gasped.

"I thought we agreed that you would not disturb me," Kohaku said frostily.

Kakashi and Sakura had been walking back in the duration of the other two's conversation, and had reached the camp-site. The jounin's visible eye widened in horror when he saw his long-time student and new subordinate glaring at each other, the latter having a kunai against the former's throat.

Quickly, he dropped the supplies he had been holding and ran to break the two apart. Sakura gasped in shock, hurrying over to check on her friend for visible scars and wounds.

"Naruto! Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Sakura asked worriedly, feeling the skin and carefully examining it.

Naruto groaned, sitting up as he rubbed his back. "She's strong for a genin," he mumbled.

Kakashi gave Kohaku a pointed look. "Would you care to explain?"

A defiant look appeared on the girl's face as she pocketed her kunai and started her explanation for the near-assassination of Naruto. "When I specifically warned Uzumaki-kun to not disturb me — which included my belongings — I never expected him to throw away his dignity and degrade himself to a level where only common thieves familiarize themselves with,"

Kakashi nodded in understanding before turning to Naruto. "Your justification of the situation?"

Naruto sulked. "If she weren't colder than the Land of Snow, I wouldn't have to do so. I tried asking nicely, but she absolutely refused!"

Kakashi sighed into his hand. "Well Naruto, haven't I told you before? No means no,"

"But you know how curious I am!" he whined childishly, "I can't not know!"

Kakashi turned to Kohaku again. "What did he want to see that you so vehemently refuse to show?"

Kohaku beckoned him to bend down, and she quickly whispered into his ear. Understanding glinted in his eye as he listened to what she had to say.

Kakashi straightened up again. "Naruto, I assume that you will bear no ill-will towards Kohaku in this matter. After all, you are at fault here. Kohaku has agreed to reveal what she is carrying when she thinks that the time is right,"

Kohaku's head snapped up. "I never said that!"

"How can I not bear ill-will!?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi smiled, but an ominous atmosphere loomed over him as he directed the smile to both Kohaku and Naruto. "You did Kohaku, remember?" he said, "And you can not bear ill-will towards her,"

And awkward silence passed by as Kohaku and Naruto stood in front of each other; Kohaku with her hands on her hips, giving a cold glare and Naruto with his arms folded across his chest, his trademark sulky look on his face.

Sakura laughed nervously at the staring competition, and Kakashi clapped his hands together. "Alright! Break it up you two! It's time to turn in. We're starting early tomorrow," he ordered, "The rendezvous has changed. The Sunagakure party is going to meet us in the big maze city, Meikyuu no Suna, on the way to their village as they have taken a bandit eradication mission. They're killing two birds with one stone that way,"

The two glaring teens mumbled incoherent responses before turning their backs on each other and taking to their sleeping bags; Kohaku on one side of the fire and Naruto completely on the other side. Kakashi swore he had heard the young girl threaten to asphyxiate the older boy if he came near to her during her second bout of sleep and sighed.

"This is going to be a problem..." Kakashi whispered to himself as he rolled out his own bag, "I wonder how Tenzou managed to get Naruto and Sai make peace..."

xxxxx

A blonde woman stood alone in a patch of sandy desert, resting her hand on an oversized fan spread out beside her. She wiped a speck of blood off her face. "Hey, Gaara. Though you'd make a shorter job of those bandits," she said as she grinned at a previously unnoticed figure stepping out of the shadows of a large rock.

A redheaded teen with a prominent red tattoo of the kanji 'Love' tattooed on the left corner of his forehead cocked his head slightly. "Temari. Where's Kankuro?"

"I'm mighty glad you insisted on coming with us," a deeper voice said. Temari and Gaara turned to see an entirely black-garbed person with lines of purple face paint on his face.

"Kankuro," the two acknowledged his presence.

Kankuro surveyed the bodies that lay littered on the ground around their feet. "Man, if it were only Temari and me..." he shook his head with a slight shudder, "I can't believe we have grown this weak,"

Gaara looked at his older brother condescendingly. "It's Temari and I," he corrected, "And despite the fact that our military forces have grown weak, we, the shinobi of Sunagakure, will become stronger than ever. That is why we have Naruto to help us,"

Temari chuckled half-heartedly. "Guess the kid's going to be a great help,"

Gaara turned around. "Let's find shelter to stay in for the night. We will depart for Meikyuu no Suna at dawn,"

xxxxx

Kohaku had been awake for a span of time when the others finally got up at dawn. The kunoichi was sitting down as she watched to others pack up, having already gotten a headstart on packing when she'd woken up an hour ago.

"Good morning, Kohaku!" Sakura greeted cheerfully as she passed by the idle girl.

Hazel-brown eyes looked up. "I prefer Shishimiya,"

A nerve tweaked at the medic's temple. She plastered another smile onto her face. "I'll just stick to Kohaku anyway,"

Kohaku looked away disinterestedly. "If it is your intention to be familiar with me, go ahead,"

Naruto overheard the girls' exchange. "Sakura-chan, just leave her alone," he muttered, "She doesn't like people,"

Kohaku picked up her bag. "Kakashi-nii, will we be leaving for the city soon?"

Kakashi looked up from checking his bag. "Yep. Just pick up that pouch over there. Those are yours,"

The auburn-haired girl looked at the medicinal kit on the flat rock. She picked it up and dropped it into her bag. "Thank you. I will be waiting over there,"

As she was walking away from the camp-site, Kohaku felt the wind picking up. She looked up from her path and into the sky. Her eyes widened. "Take cover!" she yelled down to where her teammates were.

The three who were busy with preparations looked up, alarmed by Kohaku's broken cool facade. "What's wrong?" Kakashi yelled back, alarmed by the girl's urgent tone.

"Just take a hard grip onto each other's hands!"

Confusedly, the older shinobi quickly did so. Just then, Naruto noticed a strange cloud of dust accompanied by a strong gale of wind near them. "Oh God," Naruto gasped, "Shishimiya! Come here quick!"

"Kohaku!" Kakashi shouted, "There's a sandstorm heading this way! Hurry up and take hold of someone's hand!"

"I will be fine!" the girl shouted back, "Just find me in Meikyuu no Suna!" And the dusty storm swallowed the girl up before devouring Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura.

Reviews and criticism are greatly appreciated!

PS Meikyuu no Suna literally means Maze of Sand. It's just a made up city I made.

Luv, Pichuzilla