This is just some short clips on what they do when they're back at home. Just something interesting. A filer chapter to say.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

'Thinking'

'Kyuubi talking'

"Talking"

/Naruto talking to Kyuubi/

"Jutsu's"

Chapter Nine: A Normal Life At Home

The next day, the sun was barely rising over the houses when Sana blinked her sleepy eyes opened. She yawned and stretched out like a cat. She then laid in her bed, thinking about what she should do today. 'If I train today, it'll one, give me something to do, and two, Naruto would be happy.' She smiled to herself. She loved making her older brother happy and proud. Now that she knew what she could do today, she got up out of bed and went over to her dresser at the other side of her small room. She took out a pair of clean black shorts and a light green tank-top, and her undergarments, and decided to go take a shower.

It had been a few days since she last had a full shower. Whenever she was on the road, she would sometimes stop by a river at night and wash her face and arms and legs to get rid of the dirt. But now, it felt nice with the warm water running through her scalp and down her body.

With her long hair, it took a little longer to shower than she would have liked. 'Maybe I should get a haircut...' She thought when she turned the water off and squeezed the excess water out of her brown hair. But, then she quickly disregarded that thought, feeling a little offended for thinking such a thought. 'I like my hair a little too much... And besides, I won't ever go back to short hair. Too many bad memories.' She shuddered at the thought of her father and when she was a little girl, her father had grabbed her by her shoulder length hair and cut it to where her hair was just below her ears. Rather short for a girl.

She dried herself off quickly and dressed in her attire. She toweled her hair off as much as she could before finding a brush in the cabinet of the bathroom and quickly brushed all of the tangles out. Once it was nice and smooth, still wet, she smiled at her own reflection. Before leaving, she grabbed her pj's and left to drop them off in her room.

The living room was quiet when she entered it. Everyone else was still asleep and would be for another two or three hours. Sana was an early riser and always has been. The only one that was up, but of course at work, was Gaara, but that was because he never slept. (I think he still has the tailed-beast in him)

Sana quickly downed a bowl of cereal, and stole a small piece of her birthday cake, and headed out.

The perfect place to train was Gaara' personal training field. When you were Kagekage, you had your own private field and you had to have some kind of relationship with the leader of the village to used it. Since he was her Uncle, she was granted permission. Lucky for her, the field was not a long walk from the house, so it only took her a few minutes.

The private field was about as big as four football fields smashed together. It had a few trees clumped together, giving one part of the field a forest-y look. Another part of the field, was all grass and had a few scattered trees. The other side, that took up a lot of space, was a sandy hallow. Since they lived in the desert, they had to get used to fighting in it. At the entrance of the area, was a small stand with a few different buttons. One of the village's nin had made up a great training method if you were by yourself. All you had to do was press any of the five buttons, and then you could start training.

How that worked, was which ever button you choose, like take Moving Targets for example, puppets, curtsey of Kankuro, would pop up out of the ground, from the trees, and somehow from the sky, and would attack you. All you had to do, was well, attack it back. The longer you trained, the harder the puppets got, until you called 'Enough'. Then, it'll all go away. The longest she had ever gone was a mere three hours, but after that, she was beyond exhausted. Naruto was close to meeting the record of seven hours and thirty-one minutes, who was won by none other than Gaara. He had made it to seven hours and twenty minutes. Eleven more minutes!

Sana rolled her shoulders back and walked over to the post. She took a minute to decided what she wanted to do; Moving Targets where all she had to do was use Tai-jutsu or All, where she could use everything she knew. Knowing that she needed to challenge herself, she chose all, one button that you didn't know what to expect.

She walked to the center of the clearing and took a deep, calming breath. She pulled a kunai out of her pouch and took to a fighting stance. She closed her eyes and counted to ten silently in her head. After she reached her destined number, she waited for a minute, keeping her eyes closed, and could picture the clearing around her as if she had her eyes opened. She could hear the soft wind blowing and the tree's rustling it's leaves. She could hear a few birds chirping and a rabbit hopping through the small forest, somehow surviving on its own. Then, she heard just what she was listening for.

A kunai came out of nowhere and was about to his the small of her back when she deflected it with her own weapon, without the need to open her eyes. Naruto had always taught her that it was good to train with your eyes closed so that you had a sixth sense for hearing things that normal humans couldn't hear. It took her many months to master this technique, and she still wasn't good at it, but she was getting better.

A few more knives came all around her, all aiming for a spot hard to block. But, Sana managed to deflect every one of them.

This took all of ten seconds and when she opened her eyes, she was met by an army of puppets, all coming to attack her. She smiled to herself and got ready.

Her hand as fast as a cheetah, dug into her pouch on her left hip and pulled out a Dark star. She opened it to it's fullest and spun around, giving it some speed before releasing it with a great force. She didn't even stop to see how many the weapon was taking out as she did a few hand signs and whispered, "Taiyo Kirisame," (Solar Drizzle)

It was like a rain was gently falling from the heavens, only, instead of rain, it was fire. Chakra Fire. The puppets in front of her, getting ready to take a swing at her with swords, were set on fire from the Drizzle. Sana back-flipped and did another hand sign, taking out at least ten more puppets.

She back-flipped and landed on a puppet and destroyed it with her raw powerful fist in two seconds flat and went onto the next enemy.

She continued her task and when the carved wood was about to surround her, she did another set of hand signs and yelled, "Taiyo no sutoraiki, yogan no torunedo!" (Solar Strike, tornado of lava) On the ground right below the enemies, the ground started to quake, though that didn't stop them from continuing their task. A second later,the ground tore opened and the Sun's rays seemed to spill into it. With the light being shown in, a flicker of orange escaped through the crack, and then another. Before you could even blink, more started to jump out and then started to form a tall, wide twister, all made from burning lava.

Puppets closest to the tornado were instantly reduced to ash and the ones close to those were caught on fire. Sana gave a small nod before turning her attention else where, seeing that that part of the clearing was being taken care of since the tornado would start moving around the clearing.

For the next several minutes, she fought using only Taijutsu. Whenever she thought it was needed, she used some ninjutsu. Like, take now for instant. The puppets had started to thin out very easily, thanks to the Solar tornado, so now coming was the next level of puppets. Just now, she was fighting level two, now she was onto level four. Level four puppets were a lot harder to defeat and they could do more.

"Taiyo no kage!" (Solar Shadow) As soon as she was done with the last hand sign, the sun started to get darken as clouds started to cover it. From behind the clouds, a ray of sunlight shot downwards, plummeting the ground. Instead of it being the golden color it was supposed to be, it was a dark, black color. The sound of crackling lightning reached her ears as the beam started to move in a straight line, obliterating puppets along with leaving a path behind it.

Sana punched and kicked a nearby puppet in the stomach and heard the wood split as she was on to her next set.

The sun was high in the sky by the time the whole clearing was filled with broken puppets. She had completed her training for now and was left dripping with sweat. She wiped some salty water off of her forehead and leaned back.

"Wow, I sure worked up an appetite!" She grinned as her stomach rumbled rather loudly. She shaded her eyes from the sun and looked around for no apparent reason. The landscape was empty, just like how it was when she had got here. She shrugged and turned around, wondering if she should go home and eat or go somewhere to take a breather and get some tea.

As she was walking out of the training area, she didn't slow her pace down as she sensed something and right when it was about to hit her in the shoulder, she teleported from the spot and reappeared a few steps from where she was just standing, a kunai in hand.

"Who's there?" She called, but she had a wild guess. She didn't lower her stance as the person came into view, carefully watching her.

"You've been here for a few hours," Gaara commented, as calm as ever. On his back was his gourd, which was something different since he only wore it whenever he went out of the village, the village was under attack, or he was training.

"Yup," Sana smiled, though still not letting her stance go. "Thought it would be nice to train for a while."

Gaara nodded and without a warning, the sand under Sana's feet formed so that it was sinking her. Quick sand. Be stood there, watching with a calm expression, not even worried that he was about to kill his sibling.

But, quick as Sana was, she had formed a substitution jutsu right before the clone was swallowed whole. She stood on a tree, many yards from where she was just standing, smiling.

Gaara didn't even have to turn around as his form turned to sand and the wind started to blow it away. Sana bit her lip, hating it when he did that when he would train with her. She looked around, and when she heard a rustle to her right, threw two kunai at the noise, only to find that it was the leaves of a tree falling. Though, she didn't relax. She brought out another kunai and then front-flipped off the tree, landing on her feet with ease.

She backed up against the tree, still having no idea where the Kazekage had disappeared too.

As her eyes slowly scanned the ground for any slight movement, she narrowed her eyes. "Ah, c'mon! You're taking too long!" She whined like a normal fourteen year old. And right when she let her guard down a little to talk, Gaara was behind her, kunai at her throat.

"You need to remember to be as patient. If you are not, then it'll be a quick death," he advised.

Sana nodded. Even though their training seemed over with, since Gaara flung the kunai away and lowered his hands from around her, Sana smirked and with the kunai in her hand, swung around and was about to aim for her Uncles throat when Gaara caught her wrist. He held on tight and with his other hand, shoved her away and watched as she had lost her footing in the air, but she quickly recovered and found her footing on the grassy floor. Right when her foot couched down, she ran at him with speed that normal ninja wouldn't want to deal with. She started to throw punches and kicks and whenever she could, kunai at him.

Gaara deflected everything thrown at him, without the need of his sand. He barely had to raise a hand.

Growing a bit frustrated that she hadn't even managed a hit, Sana back-flipped twice away from him and started to do hand signs. "Taiyo Furea!" (Solar Flare) It was like the Sun had started to glow brighter and brighter, blinding everything in sight except for the user of the jutsu.

The One-tails jinchuriki managed to shift the sand to shield his eyes even before the jutsu was completed. Sana frowned at this, but tried to use this as her advantage, however she was going to do it.

'I love sparring with him, but it's so unfair! He thinks of everything before I'm even done with it!' She thought and as she was running towards him, did another hand sign, this one being one she used earlier; the Solar Shadow.

Gaara had to use more sand to protect himself from this particular jutsu. He had seen this one give three-degree burns on people who were not careful. This was not a jutsu to let off very easily, and this was one of her stronger ones. He uncrossed his arms and in a fast motion, brought up the sand just in time to block the rays.

As soon as he brought the sand down, he was close to get a face full of fist, but his hand protected him just as quickly. He heard Sana curse as he took a step back and the sand lowered. "Getting a bit better, I see." He quietly praised.

Sana agreed with a new set of hand signs. "Fenikkusufurawa!" (Phoenix Flower) A big ball of flame, giving the shape of a beautiful bird filled the sky. Gaara looked up, distracted by the new jutsu, though his sand was on edge, wondering what to do. As the Phoenix came flying down, almost like a meteor from space, Sana had teleported from her spot, giving attention to Gaara.

Before Gaara knew it, his attention left the bird still falling down towards him as his sand blocked an attack from the back, then the left, and the side. Sana was trying to get a score in before her jutsu came tumbling down.

As fast as he could, Gaara turned his attention back towards the sky, already feeling it's heat off of the Phoenix. He heard the screech from the fire ball just as it poofed away, almost like the fire was being extinguished by water. He was a bit confused and then returned his attention back to his partner, wondering if it all were a distraction.

Sana smirked, knowing that her Uncle wouldn't say it, but that he was wondering what was going to happen. "New jutsu and this time, I made it up. Enjoy!" She smiled an innocent smile before teleporting away from the area just in time for Gaara to notice something had changed.

The sand formed an rock-solid shield around him as the jutsu reappeared, but this time, instead of the Phoenix, it took the form of a lily. If you knew Sana very well, you would know the lily was her favorite, a tiger lily. They were about the size of a baseball and were everywhere, all coming at him with an amazing speed. Right when they were close enough, they exploded on impact. The whole training field went up like the Fourth of July.

Sana was all the way across the clearing, taking a breather. She was sitting down, her arms out behind her as she panted and watched the scene take place. "I... must have at least... gotten some damage..." She panted. She was beginning to run thin on her chakra and was wanting to at least get a scratch on Gaara to show that she did it.

"Sorry, better try next time," a soft voice sounded by her ear, nearly sending the girl jumping a foot into the air.

Sana took to standing, starring in amazement that Gaara was standing behind her, a little ruffled form the thing that just took place. And then she saw it, lighting her face up like the sun was shining down upon her and her only. The slightest of scratch, about an inch, maybe half an inch long, was on his cheek. It didn't bleed, but it wasn't healing up either.

"No... I did it..." Sana breathed. Gaara raised an eyebrow before feeling the tiny sting on his cheek. "I finally did it!" She suddenly squealed and threw herself at him, hugging him tight. "I finally, after all this time, managed to get a scratch on you! I knew this jutsu would work!"

Gaara sighed and rolled his eyes. "Oh geez," he mumbled.

XxxxX

The two sat down at the little ramen shop, Kimball's Ramen, to have a little celebration that Sana finally managed to make a scratch on the un-scratch-able Gaara. Never before, through all of her sparring matches had she managed to do any harm to him. He was one of the toughest opponents she's faced. Naruto would some times get a few scratches, but she could never tell if he did that on purpose or what. It was still a mystery for her to figure out.

They ordered a normal bowel of ramen and talked as they waited for it to come out. Well, Sana did the most talking.

"Finally, I finally got you!" She exclaimed again, getting an amused look form the ramen shop owner. Sana's eyes were still bright and cheery. Her wounds were already gone, thanks to the chakra stored inside of her from Kyuubi and she was feeling her chakra slowly coming back. "I can't wait to tell Naruto that my jutsu worked! He kept telling me that it wouldn't, but YES!"

Gaara smiled to her happiness. "So, how did you come up with that jutsu?" He asked out of curiosity. He didn't know all of her jutsu's but was slowly learning them.

Sana smiled, "Well, after me and Naruto visited Princess Yukie in the Land of Snow, I heard all about how Naruto was able to use rainbow chakra. We even went to the battle field for old memories and such. When I caught sight of all the flowers and how beautiful they were, I was thinking of some kind of flower jutsu. And since Tiger lilies have always been my favorite, that's the image I had for it." She smiled, "Well, it took a while for me to come up with a unique jutsu I could call my own and how to make the jutsu work and make it up.

"It took a month to practice it until I got it down, but that was only that. I knew I was missing something to complete it." The owner of the shop handed them their bowls of ramen. They both opened their chopsticks as she continued her explanation. "Well, I came up with the phoenix as we were traveling. I was actually talking with Kyuubi about random stuff and I happened to get on the topic of fire." She paused and took a bite of the noodles. After she chewed and swallowed, wiping her mouth on a napkin, she said, "Kyuubi mentioned something about a bird. I got curious and we had just started to talk about it from there."

Gaara nodded. "How long did this whole process take?"

"Over three months," Sana sagged her shoulders like in disappointment. But, then her mood enlightened, "But, they really paid off. I was having a bit trouble with the phoenix turning out in a perfect image. Naruto showed me a few tricks like how he learned how to do his Rasengan." She took another bite.

After a good meal of ramen, the two continued to sit at the little restaurant/cafe thing and just talk. Gaara had already paid for the meal but they liked the spot to just talk.

"Have you thought of any new ones of late?" He asked.

Sana shook her head. "I have given some thought, but none of them would work out." She shrugged, "And if I do think of any, it'll be something to do with the moon. I'm still pretty weak with it since we always fight during the day. But, I'm still trying to think of something."

Gaara nodded. He was just about to suggest talking to Temari about giving an idea about a jutsu when a boy came running up to them. He was one of the well-known locals who was a gentleman. He had black hair that was kept short with his blue eyes. He had freckles, but was slowly growing out of them wince he was fifteen.

"Kazekage," he formally bowed to Gaara when he reached them. Gaara nodded his head in greeting. The teen turned to Sana and his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "Sana," he gave a slight bow to her since she was related to Gaara.

"Hey, Tristan," Sana smiled real big. "How have you been?" They were great friends and every time Sana was in the village, she would hang out with him and some of the other kids when she wasn't training or with family.

Tristan gave a nervous smile, "Uh, g-good. How 'bout you?"

"Awesome! I finally succeeded today with the spar!"

Tristan apparently knew what she was talking about and looked over to the Kazekage and saw the small scratch. His nervousness slightly faded as he smiled, "Sweet! Congrats, Sana!" Then he turned back to her and the nervousness came back. He didn't look her straight in the eye as he said, "So uh, S-Sana... I know it was your birthday yesterday, and I never got anytime to wish you a happy birthday..." he swallowed and then looked her straight in the eye. "So, do you wanna have dinner with me as my present to you?"

Gaara raised an eyebrow but stayed quiet.

Sana looked astound, but also amused. She looked over to Gaara in silent permission. He nodded and she looked back. "Alright!"

Tristan's eye brightened up in excitement and he said, "I'll be by your house at seven!" He leaned forward and peaked her cheek in a goodbye and bowed to Gaara before running back the way he had came.

Sana's face became a light shade of pink and then her face melted.

Gaara, along with the owner of the shop, were amused by the affection.

XxxxX

"So, I wanna full back story of your life, parents, and grandparents, I wanna know where you plan on taking her, for how long and everything you will be doing," Naruto said, as he sat on the couch, with Kankuro, sharpening his already sharp knives. Kankuro was making sure his puppets were all good and making sure all of the secret, hidden weapons and poison were showing.

Tristan gulped as he sat on the chair right across from them, un-noticeably messing with the couch. It was five after seven and he was waiting for Sana to finish getting ready so he could take her out to dinner. "W-well, I decided that we're g-going to that new restaurant that op-opened near Kimball's Ramen. Uh... maybe a few hours at most?" A bead of sweat trickled down his temple from his nervousness. "And I was thinking that we'd uh... have ice cream or something after we e-eat."

Kankuro raised an eyebrow, "What about your back story?" Out of pure amusement, he swished around the poison in the bottle before setting it in the puppet's rightful place.

Tristan's eyes widened a bit. "W-well, uh... My mom is a medic ninja and works in the hospital. My dad uh... is a Chunin and works as a t-teacher. I don't know much about my grandparents because they both died a long time a-ago." He didn't know what to think was scarier, fighting a Tailed Beast, or just making small talk with these two.

Naruto nodded and continued sharpening his knife. "What makes you so special to date my sister?"

"W-well, I don't know about me b-being special... but, I find Sana to be fun and out-going. She's smart, beautiful, and is talented."

Naruto heard Sana and Temari exiting Sana's room with his sharp hearing and smiled at the boy. "Good answer. But, just so you know, if you hurt Sana,"

"By words or by physical," Kankuro added, looking up with a serious look.

"We will hunt you down and take you out." Naruto said and pointed his knife in the direction of the teenager. "No thoughts about it. You better take care of her or else." At that moment, Sana entered the room with Temari behind her. Naruto lowered his knife before they could see and changed his voice of one that was friendly, and not at all threatening. "And that's what we expect from you." He and Kankuro stood up from the couch all smiling.

Tristan felt his face pale from the threat. It wasn't like he was going to do anything like that, but, oi.

"Tristan?" Sana asked, snapping him out of his state of shock.

He looked up and his eyes almost bulged out of his head. He quickly stood up and was amazed. Instead of Sana wearing her normal ninja outfit, which was all he ever saw her in, she was wearing a cute sun dress. It was plain with spaghetti straps and went down to her knees. No ruffles or frilly like normal girls would like on their dress. Her's was a light yellow color, the color of dandelions and had small white flowers that blended in nicely with the dress. She was wearing black high heels -about an inch off the ground- and she had a small blue purse slung over her shoulder. Her hair was slightly curled and was hanging down. A single white clip held her bangs out of her face.

"Wow..." He breathed, speechless by the girl in front of him. She still looked the same, but she also didn't. One thing he was happy about, her make-up was light and natural to where he couldn't really tell that she was wearing any.

Sana bit her lip and smiled, "Do I look okay?" She asked, a bit nervous.

All he could do was nod his head.

"You look beautiful," Temari said and hugged her tight.

Naruto nodded, "If I weren't your brother, I wouldn't have known who you were. You look amazing, Sana," when Sana finished her hug with her sister, she hugged her brother. He kissed her on the forehead before he released her.

Kankuro nodded and was too, speechless.

Sana smiled, her cheeks slightly pink. She walked over to Tristan who snapped back into character and smiled at her. He lightly kissed her cheek in greeting and slipped his hand into hers.

"Have fun you two," Kankuro said. "And don't forget," he looked at Tristan who's eyes panicked a bit, "She better be back before nine-thirty."

Tristan nodded. "Alright." He looked at his date and asked, "You ready?"

Sana was about to nod when Temari suddenly said, "Wait!" They looked at her to see her grabbing something from the kitchen, "Pictures!" She said and turned the electronic and came back. She smiled real big as she got the two situated for a picture. "Now, smile!" Both teens smiled as they stood next to each other. Temari clicked the button and then said, "Don't move! We need one more!" She sounded so excited that she ended up taking three more.

"Can we leave please?" Sana begged, tired of smiling. She felt a little embarrassed. It wasn't like she was going to prom or getting married.

"Oh, right, sorry," Temari quickly turned the camera off and set it aside. "Have fun you two!"

As the two were leaving, Naruto called out, "And don't forget, Tristan, about that little talk we had!" He didn't get to see what kind of reaction the boy had, but knew he must have froze up a bit.

Once they were outside and the door was closed, Sana looked curiously to her date, "What kind of talk did you have?"

Tristan didn't answer right away as he felt a little nervous, "Uh... nothing important." He said. He started to lead her to the little restaurant.

XxxxX

"Naruto, do you think you could lead a mission today?" Gaara asked without looking up from a report that was just sent in. He had called Naruto up here just a few minutes ago, and the shinobi instantly appeared without a delay. "All of the squad leaders are already on missions or just got back and there's one squad that needs to get out. The mission is only a C-rank mission and shouldn't take to long. A day, two at most?"

The blond smiled as he leaned against the window ledge behind the Kazekage. "Sure, s'not like I have anything better to do. What kind of mission?"

"Someone reported a missing dog in the small village of Kono. The dog was sighted a few times but no one was able to catch it. They fear it will run out into the desert and die if not attended to immediately."

"Alright, sounds easy enough. What team?"

"Team Two. They should be waiting by the entrance of the Sand in a few minutes." Gaara said. He finally looked up and handed his brother a scroll containing all of the information he needed like who the dog belonged to and what the dog's name was.

Naruto took the scroll and slipped it into his back pouch. "Team two, eh? Haven't been on a mission with them for a while. Well, see you around." And he poofed away with a wave.

He appeared near the entrance and spotted the three leaning against the wall, looking bored out of their minds. One of them was rather small, the smallest of the bunch. He had snow white hair that was pulled back into a pony tail and was wearing the custom Sand wardrobe; tan shirt and pants with a vest on. His head band was tied onto his right leg and he had a beanie covering his hair. His bangs hung into his eyes, shielding his blue orbs from the sunlight and from other people. He was leaning on the wall, his arms across his chest in a patient wait. His name was Chris Lor. Personality, rather quiet and didn't like to talk. He was smart and good with paper bombs and other bombs.

Sitting on the ground next to him was Jenni Heraloc. She was a pretty blond that was cut at her ears. Though, her bangs were well past her eyes. She was rather pale even though she lived in the desert and had blue eyes. She was wearing something similar to her teammate but her head band was tied around her neck. Holding her hair back and out of her eyes was a clip with the symbol of the Sand. Her personality was loud and talkative. She was very friendly and could be rather mean if she wanted to.

And last but not least, was the other female on the team. She was pacing in front of the two like she always did, even if they had just got there. Pacing helped her think. Her name was Lyla Locca. She had brown hair that went to her shoulders, but she always had it tired up into a low pony tail. She wore a simple black shirt with a vest over it and tan pants. She never really cared about her appearances so she never tired. Her hand band was around her forehead and that was about it. Her personality was smart and good at stratizing. She was quiet and nice.

Together, these three made Team Two. There leader was Rena Kimiko. Naruto didn't really know a lot about her except that she was beautiful and strong. Almost like Tsunade.

"Hello!" Naruto poofed next to the group, scaring Jenni into a standing position.

"Oh, my goodness!" She exclaimed. "Why do you always have to do that, Naruto-sensi?" She frowned upon him with her arms crossed.

"Oh, will you quiet down?" Lyla rolled her eyes and stopped from pacing.

Naruto smiled. "Sorry, no can do, Jenni." He looked among the squad and clapped his hands together, "So, are we ready to do this mission or what?" He looked over to Chris who opened his eyes, not that he could see anyways, and pushed off from the wall. He nodded his head and kept quiet.

Jenni stuck her tongue at her female team mate before looking at Naruto and nodded, "Oh, sure. Chasing down dogs is so worth it." Her voice was full of sarcasm.

Lyla shook her head, "It is, it helps us move up into the world and then we can get higher missions." She nodded to Naruto to confirm that she was also ready to go.

"Well, I wish we could get something higher than a C-rank mission for once! I'm tired of there being no action!"

They left the village and started at a slow pace of running. Well, slow for Naruto who was used to running a lot faster. He listened to the Genin argue back and forth about one being tired of all the D-rank and C-rank missions. They reminded him of how he acted when he and his team, Team Seven always got low missions.

"You know, sometimes it's better to have low ranks in missions," Naruto thoughtfully said when there was a brief pause. The two females looked at him, waiting for an explanation. "When you get higher and higher up the line, you'll never know who could die on the mission."

Jenni bit her lip, never considering that option. "But still, I want to be on a mission that's higher!"

The eldest of the group smiled. "Have I ever told you about the time when me and my old squad went on a mission that was supposed to be a C-rank when it was really a B or A-rank?" They looked at him, even Chris, with a shocked expression. "I take that as a no." He smiled and then began his tale on his escorting mission to the Land of Waves.

XxxxX

Naruto waited with the owner of the pet outside her home. She was sitting on the porch with redden eyes as she cried. "I don't know what could have made the dog run away!" She balled. She pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and dabbed away her tears. "I've always been good to him and loved him and gave him the good food!"

He listened to her. He had been for the last twenty minutes. "It's alright, ma'am. My squad will find them before you know it," 'Or so I hope...' He thought with a sigh. He heard Kyuubi chuckle but kept quiet. "But, maybe it's something else. A lot of dog's like to run away –,"

"Not him!" The lady cut in and shook her head. "This is the first time he has ever done it!"

"Well, maybe it could be of something that's different." Naruto suggested, keeping his patience.

The lady paused in her crying and thought about it. "Well... I haven't really changed anything."

"Nothing that you can remember?"

She thought again. "Well... I have cut down taking him on walks because my mother has gotten sick." She looked up at him with sad eyes, "Do you think that's the reason why?"

"Could be," Naruto shrugged. "Maybe he missed the longer walks and wanted to say something about it. So, he ran away."

After about ten more minutes of talking, Naruto heard his squad walking over to them. On a leash and in Lyla's hand was a small, all brown dog who looked happily as he waged his tail.

"Kilo!" The lady yelled and rushed to her feet. No sooner were Team Two within a few yards from the house, the lady ran at them and hugged the dog tightly. "I'm so sorry, boy! I will take you on longer walks!" The dog licked her cheek happily.

Lyla let the leash go and looked over to Naruto with that can-we-leave look. Naruto nodded and after talking with the lady, was paid the normal amount, and the group was off, back to the village.

"Man, that was a short mission." Jenni commented. "Why is it always shorter with you, Naruto-sensi, than it is with our normal sensi?"

He shrugged, "I dunno. I guess Gaara gives me the easy ones because he knows I don't like to be gone that long?" He shrugged. Naruto didn't really care much if he had a long mission or a short one. As long as he got one, that's all that mattered. He had grown up wince he was at the Leaf.

"Let's get back home," Naruto suggested and they continued on.

XxxxX

Till next time! Man, I ended it horribly. It feels like it's missing something... Eh, oh well. Hope y'all enjoyed something simple and fun. Kind of like what happens to the two when they're back home, yeah? ^^ And, if you were wondering, Sana's date went well. I don't know how to add that... so yeah.

Happy that I finally showed some of Sana's power? I hoped it was interesting and didn't suck. I was trying to come up with some amazing ones, but that's rather hard. :/ The Solar Shadow is in curtsy of my sister. :)

And this chapter reminded my, on the date, of the song, Cleaning this gun by Rodney Adkins! Country song! 3

Elemental Dragon Swordman: Thank you very much! ^^ The birthday party took a little while to plan out; trying to make it fun and heart warming at the same time. :)