Author's Note: Thank you to all who have reviewed, favorited, followed, or just read the story. Shout out to Varmint for being my amazing beta and putting up with all my craziness when it comes to the details of the story. I do not own anything other than the plotline of this story.

Road to Suna

"Alright minions, what's our cover?" Genma asked as he glanced back at the children.

They had traveled for almost two weeks through Fire Country and into Wind Country and were about to reach the gates of Suna. And for the past two weeks Anko and Genma had beaten the importance of knowing their covers into the heads of the genin.

"I'm Iori and 11 years old. I love fashion, and flowers. My brothers are meh." The girl stuck her tongue out in disgust, which made Genma nod at her acting skills. "My parents are civilians who wanted to expand our horizons by taking us to a new desolated desert and opening up a shop there." Ino's whole reply was cheeky yet tired, for she was worn out and in desperate need of a bath.

"Satoru. I hate you all." Shikamaru drawled while he watched the clouds go by from the back of the cart. Really, they had done this over a hundred times now. It was troublesome to have to repeat the same things over and over again.

"Satoshi. I'm the oldest and responsible for these two. I have a skin condition which is why I wear long sleeves." Shino replied, all the while he idly wondered if either of his teammates had already considered seppuku as a viable alternative. His bugs swarmed agitatedly at that line of thinking, apparently, they were not impressed by it.

"What's my name?" Genma asked as he steered the cart.

"Dad," was chorused by all three genin.

Genma could feel his eyebrow twitch just slightly, really these kids with their smartass answers. "Fine. What's our last name?"

"Kimura. We came from a civilian town on the outskirts of Fire Country." Ino answered, more than aware of the annoyance rolling off the two boys in the back of the wagon with her.

"Chickadees you should get some sleep. We'll get to Suna within two hours then we'll have a long night ahead of us with getting everything set up;" Anko told the kids with a smirk on her face, rather amused with their actions.

"Yes mom," Was the chorus of groans that came from the children, then they all laid down to get a quick nap before they arrived to Suna.

Konoha

Asuma was grumbling to himself as he walked up the steps to the Hokage's office. He liked his team, he really did. But there were times that the two boys made him want to throw them off a cliff. And of course, they had joined forces to pester him about getting a higher-ranking mission than the few D-ranks that they had been doing.

Taking a breath, and really wishing he could smoke inside, the Sarutobi knocked on the door. Once he was permitted, the man opened the door and walked into the office.

He moved to the middle of the room, and stood at attention in front of his father... His father... The same man that had made him leave Konoha all those years ago, so he could see what else there was to find in the world.

"Hokage-sama, I came to ask you if you possibly had any C-Rank missions that could be assigned to my team." Asuma said, eyes never straying as he looked directly into the face of the elder man.

"Why?" Questioned the Hokage, since most genin teams weren't sent on any C-Ranked missions until they had a bit more training under their belt. The exception had been with Genma's team, and that had been because, at the moment assigned, they had not had complete knowledge of all of the actors and variables involved.

"My two boys; the Inuzuka and Uzumaki..." Asuma sighed in exasperation, feeling just about ready to beg to get some relief from the little demons, "They've been pestering me to get one."

"Do you think they are ready?" The Hokage questioned with an analytical eye, truly scrutinizing the man that stood before him.

Quite frankly, it took all of Asuma's willpower to not groan in exasperation. But he squared his shoulders and looked back at the man with the most determination he could muster, "Yes."

"Fine," The elder shrugged with a soft smirk, not missing the way Asuma's body deflated at the simplicity of his answer, "Here you go." He handed over a mission briefing he had received earlier that day, then reached into his desk to grab his pipe.

Asuma took the file and immediately began to read it over, nodding to himself occasionally. Once he had finished, he glanced up to meet his father's gaze.

"Any questions?" The elder Sarutobi questioned.

"No, this mission looks pretty cut and dry." Asuma responded, eyes straying back towards the mission brief.

It was a simple C-Rank mission to the Land of Waves. They were to escort a bridge builder by the name of Tazuna. A straightforward and uncomplicated mission on paper. A good one for his team to start off on for real ninja missions. And he was sure they would like this one, seeing how it would give them the chance to travel. And because they'd feel like they were doing something real, Kiba and Naruto may just finally calm down and stop bothering him so much.

Forming some quick hand signs, Asuma disappeared from the office in a puff of smoke without any further words.

Training Grounds 6

"Our last match of the day will be between Sasuke and Hinata," Kurenai called out to the group before adding; "Good luck to the both of you."

Hinata could hear Ino's voice in her head, telling her to get better and stronger for herself, and to prove to everyone else that she could be strong. The blue-haired girl entered the ring with the black-haired boy.

The girl fell into a stance that she had known for most of her life, while the boy took a somewhat similar stance, except his hands were curled into fists. Then the match started. Pale eyes bulged out, a sign she was using her byakugan. And black eyes started to swirl with red, a sign the boy was using his sharingan.

The two met in the middle, Hinata taking a defensive strategy while Sasuke attacked her with an onslaught of punches and kicks. She could hear Ino's voice echoing around in her head telling her to get off her ass and prove them wrong. But she didn't think they were wrong, she truly thought was weak. She could barely keep up with the onslaught the boy had unleashed on her. The blue-haired girl wasn't strong; no, she wasn't Ino, or Sasuke, or even her younger sister. She was just meant to be a nobody.

"Why don't you just concede? You're weak and you won't win against me," Sasuke taunted, irritated that he had to fight someone so weak. If their training sessions were anything to go by, he was going to have to carry the weight of the entire team on his shoulders. He would get no help from either of them. He ignored the flinch he had invoked in his opponent as he kept attacking her.

Hinata could feel herself getting angry, not only at the words that he spoke; but at her entire situation. The girl felt rage at the words that she had heard from Sasuke, her father, her sister, and the whispers from those who thought she did not hear them. She was so sick and tired of hearing her inner demons voice their thoughts aloud. 'You can either be what everyone thinks you are, or you can get off your ass and do something about it.' Ino's voice echoed in her head, giving her strength.

Today would be the day that Hinata would prove someone wrong. Her eyebrows furrowed as she analyzed her opponent and realized he made a fatal mistake. In his thinking that she was too weak, he left open his chakra points.

Her fingers slammed in rapid succession into his points, and the Uchiha couldn't do anything about it even as he watched it happen. The match had ended in, seemingly, the blink of an eye. Sasuke was on the ground, trying to figure out where exactly he had messed up at, with Hinata standing near him breathing heavily.

Hokage's Office

Kakashi stood at attention and blinked his uncovered eye. When he had been summoned earlier today, he had not been expecting this to be the result.

"Well what do you say?" Hiruzen asked the copy nin as he placed his head on top of his folded hands.

"It's an honor Lord Hokage. May I ask, why me?" Kakashi countered as he bowed slightly.

"Because the bodyguards of the Hokage is meant to be a three-man cell. And with Genma now gone, we need another person to fill that spot. Who better than one who was trained by the Fourth?"

"Thank you, sir."

Kakashi couldn't believe that the Hokage had wanted to pull him from active ANBU duty to become a member of the Hokage Guard Unit. It was an honor of the highest degree, but he couldn't help the vicious little voice in the back of his head saying he didn't deserve it. He couldn't save his father from the rumors and guilt, he couldn't save Obito from being a self-sacrificing idiot, he killed Rin accidently, he didn't help Minato or Kushina when they needed him during the Nine-Tails attack... His whole life had been composed of one failure after another.

"Effectively immediately, you will be removed from active ANBU duty. Training with both Radiou and Iwashi will begin tomorrow. They will need to teach you your part in the Flying Thunder God Formation." Hiruzen informed him, bringing Kakashi out of his reverie, and effectively ended their meeting.

Suna

The heat was sweltering as the new family moved into their shop. Their home for the next month was located right above it. It was prime real-estate, in the heart of the village. Once they had finally unloaded the cart, which had taken them only two hours, they began to set up shop.

Leave it to Ino to get exasperated within the first five minutes though.

"No, that does not go there! You want the shop to flow seamlessly. Any underwear should be towards the back where the changing rooms are. Pants go over there, and shirts go over here! Don't even get me started on the color coding that has to happen!" Ino growled at Shikamaru when he kept mixing up where he was putting everything. It was like the boy didn't care! Thinking about it, she realized he probably didn't.

"Just go sit in the corner, I'll put everything where it needs to go." She ordered him as she grabbed the clothes in his hands before flitting off to start putting it in the right place.

Genma and Anko watched the entire interaction more than amused that the girl who was bossing the boys around. Shino at least had the sense to listen to her directions and put the things in the correct spot, so all she had to do was go through and arrange it in a way that suited every store she had ever been in.

"Alright kiddies, we're going to set-up the apartment. Princess you're in charge!" Anko jovially called out as she and Genma made their exit with the boxes marked for the apartment.

*-()-*

Seven hours later, the store was finally finished. Everything was in its proper place, and the boys had to admit that Ino did have a knack for organizing stores and keeping the ambiance feeling as if it were flowing comfortably. She had just finished up putting a few final touches on the mannequins that were displayed in the shop windows.

Shikamaru had taken to laying down on the floor in the middle of store, while Shino was sitting down on one of the chairs by the changing rooms. Both were hoping that she wouldn't ask for anymore help.

Ino had run both boys ragged today with her orders of what was supposed to be where in the store. Thankfully Genma and Anko had been spared from the blonde tyrant, she was more than happy to let the adults do their job of setting up the home above the shop.

"Come on minions, it's time to sleep." Genma murmured softly from the top of the stairs. He could see how tired they all were with as much work as they had done today.

Shino nodded his head and slowly got up from his chair. He dragged his feet over to where Shikamaru lay and pulled the other up to his feet.

"Come on Ino, let's go to sleep." Shikamaru tiredly drawled at the girl who was fiddling with the small jewelry selection they had.

"I'll be there in a bit!" She exclaimed a bit too cheerfully.

The truth was, she wasn't sure she could sleep. Lately her dreams had been plagued with the nightmares of their first mission. Each getting worse than the one before.

It would be like any other night for her, except instead of having a family member there to comfort her when she awoke screaming, it would be her team. And she didn't want to burden them with the guilt that had clawed its way into her gut.

The guilt that she had been so adamant as to defend that man. The guilt that if she hadn't been so blinded by willful ignorance, perhaps she wouldn't have subsequently been kidnapped, and almost gotten her team killed with a stupid, insane plan that had no way of working to begin with.

Shino furrowed his eyebrows, he could see the dark rings under her eyes and the sluggishness of her movements. It was a clear sign she was tired, but he wasn't sure why she was insisting on staying awake. Didn't she know that growing kids needed at least nine hours of sleep?

"Boys go upstairs, Anko will show you where your room is." Genma dismissed them, he had a hunch that Ino wouldn't want to talk about what was going on in front of them.

The older male moved out of the way to allow the two younger ones to pass by him, then he made his way down the stairs. Stopping on the second to last step, he took a seat and watched silently as Ino kept fiddling around with different objects.

"Ino, come here;" He uttered as he motioned for her to sit in the empty space by him.

Brown eyes tracked her movements, and noticed several things that seemed off about her. Her head hung low, her left cheek was hollowed out from biting the inside of it, and she seemed to shrink in on herself.

Genma felt his heart clench, she was hurting and he was at fault for it. If he had been paying closer attention, then perhaps, he could have avoided the entire fiasco with Orochimaru.

When the girl had finally sat down on the step beside him, he asked; "Are you having problems sleeping?"

Ino knew she couldn't lie to him, so she tried the next best thing, a half-truth; "I occasionally have nightmares. It's nothing too bad, I promise."

The look on his face told her that he wasn't fooled at all, and wanted the entire truth.

"Fine. I have nightmares every night. Is that what you wanted to know? Or did you want to know about how I imagine seeing your dead bodies over that field? Or how I can't even fight in my dreams, because they all end in the same way? How all I see is his face coming towards me, telling me about how he can't wait to start experimenting with me?!" She snarled out, angry at him for making her speak her worst nightmares aloud and even more so, at herself, for having the problems in the first place.

Genma swallowed the lump in his throat as he finally got a clue as to what she was going through, and found himself hating Orochimaru even more for what he put the kids through. The brunet lifted his arm from beside him and wrapped it around her shoulders.

He noticed immediately when she flinched at the contact. But relaxed when she realized, it wasn't her nightmare, it was her sensei. He pulled her to his chest and held her as the first tears started to fall.

The senbon enthusiast kept his arm wrapped around her shoulders as she cried against him. All he could do was hope that this would be enough for her. He heard Anko on the landing but didn't turn his head to look at her.

What she was doing became apparent enough when Ino's sobs tapered off and he could feel her breathing even out into shallow breaths. A sign that she was asleep.

With delicate movements, as to not jostle her too much, Genma picked her up, and nodded gratefully at Anko who held the door open for him to pass through.

When the two finally got the blonde into her bed roll, she hadn't moved at all, or woken up. Silently they left her room, and went into the living room.

"I used a genjutsu to put her to sleep. It should be a deep sleep that doesn't have nightmares. But I'll stay up and keep an eye on the kids tonight." Anko said as she picked up the coffee that had long grown cold while she had waited for Genma and Ino.

"Thanks, Anko, I forgot that the other two were having problems as well." Genma said honestly, and felt bad that he had forgotten that the boys were having their own problems in dealing with their first failed mission as well.

"Go to sleep baka," Anko told him with a snort. Just because the boys were keeping their problems hidden, didn't mean that they weren't there. But thankfully, she was more than adept at handling the nightmares that accompanied any run-in with her former teacher.

She only wished she had been there for the first mission. 'Oh, how I'd love to give you a taste of your own medicine Orochimaru.' She thought viciously as she watched Genma go into their shared room to retire for the night.

*-()-*

When Ino awoke next, she felt slightly better than she had in the past weeks. For once her dreams hadn't been plagued by nightmares conjured by her mind. She noticed then that the sun was already streaming into her room.

Once she was out of her bed, she crossed the room to her modest closet and began looking through the clothes that Iori would wear. The brunette decided to wear a modest summer dress. It was a dark blue color, with a light blue sash. It went down to her knees with capped sleeves and a slight v-neckline.

After she finished getting dressed, she went into the bathroom to finish getting ready. She wanted to do something different with her hair so she grabbed her brush and a few ribbons that matched the color of the sash. Ino parted her hair down the middle and split her hair over each shoulder.

She started on the left side and as she braided the hair, she worked the ribbon into it. The girl repeated the process to the right side, and soon had two braids, one over each shoulder, that had a light blue ribbon throughout each.

Then she proceeded to put in the contacts. She felt her eyes water at the uncomfortableness of the new weight. Blinking away the tears, she left the bathroom and went down the hall to the kitchen area.

Everyone else was already at the table eating breakfast by the time Ino had arrived. She took the only available seat left, in between Shino and Shikamaru. The latter offered a greeting by way of a grunt, while the former nodded his head towards her. She offered them both a smile as she placed some food on her plate.

Breakfast was a quite affair, until the kids had finished their breakfast. It was then that Genma decided to remove himself from the newspaper he had been reading. "One last time, what are your names?" He questioned them.

"Satoshi."

"Iori."

"Satori."

Anko decided now would be a good time to chime in, "Remember kids, that as soon as you leave here, you are those people. Think of it as a mask you have to wear while you're outside of this apartment. We can't afford to have any mistakes."

The three nodded their heads, even though they were anxious and worried about messing up, a bigger part of each of them was excited to see this new side of their missions.

Konoha (Training Ground 4)

Asuma could feel his eyebrow twitch. He had spent the past ten minutes trying to get Naruto and Kiba to shut up so he could tell them about the new mission. The only saving grace was that Sakura was sitting there trying to get them shut up as well.

"Come on Asuma-sensei! We're ready! We can handle a C-Rank mission, hell we could handle an A-Rank one!" Kiba shouted before being hit on the head by Sakura. "Owww, what the hell?!"

"Stupid! Shut up! Sensei is trying to tell us about our next mission. Geez, you two need to learn respect." Sakura shouted back at the boy while she waved her fist in his face.

"Enough! All of you sit down!" Asuma snapped at the group, slightly satisfied that they all looked reasonably ashamed of themselves.

Once the group was sitting down, the Jōnin began to explain to his team, "I talked to the Hokage, and he agreed to give us a C-Rank Mission. We will be escorting a man named Tazuna back to Wave Country so he can finish building his bridge. We leave tomorrow morning."

Naruto and Kiba both jumped up and started cheering loudly, which made Asuma just smile and shake his head. The kids were happy... But... Well, he couldn't help the nagging feeling that was slowly beginning to ebb its way into his gut. "Who wants to get ramen?" He questioned the group as they talked animatedly about finally getting a C-Rank.

Suna

Ino gritted her teeth as she felt Shino's eyes on the back of her head again. Ever since last night's incident, both Shikamaru and Shino had been watching her like hawks. It was driving the girl insane, and she knew that that she was dangerously close to losing her temper on the both of them.

Thankfully they had hit a lull in customers, surprisingly their first day had been met with lots of enthusiasm from the people of Suna. Apparently, they were happy about having a new clothing store.

"Mom, I'm going to go explore the city. I'll be back in a bit!" Ino told Anko, making sure to keep their cover intact.

"Alright sweetie, be careful;" Anko advised the younger girl, as she went to help the new customer that had just walked through the door.

As Ino walked towards the front of the store, she noticed both Shikamaru and Shino move to follow her. "Stay here!" She ordered both of them, feeling slightly bad that she had yelled at her teammates, but the girl needed a break.

Ino slipped out of the store and happily meandered down the street. She didn't have a specific destination in mind, but was more than happy that she wouldn't have to be around her two hovering "brothers" for a few minutes.

The brunette girl wandered through the town square and over to a town directory. She read over the signs thoughtfully, before deciding to go visit the botanical garden it boasted. Once she made sure she had the directions correct, she set off to find the garden.

-*()*-

Ino walked through the small greenhouse, taking in the native flowers. In her mind, she was repeating all of the information she knew about the flowers. She placed her fingers gently against the sepal, under the flower, and leaned down to get a better whiff of the smell.

"Careful now, that flower is poisonous;" a voice cautioned from behind her.

The girl turned her head to look at the newcomer. It was a boy about her age, in black baggy clothing, with a weird headdress and purple paint spread across his face.

"Oh, it is?" She questioned, pretending like she wasn't already aware of the fact.

"Yeah it is. Are you new to town? I don't think a pretty girl like you would have escaped my notice before now." The unknown boy told her, and smirked when a blush adorned her cheeks.

"Yes, I am. My family just moved here. We actually opened up that new clothing store!" Ino excitedly mentioned as she gestured with her hands.

"Be careful in here pretty girl, wouldn't want you to get hurt;" He warned her.

"Then perhaps, you should escort me around. You know, keep me safe;" She said as tilted her head to the side.

-*()*-

Ino returned to shop an hour later with a promise from the boy- apparently named Kankurō- to come by tomorrow to show her around the rest of the city.

The bell above the shop jingled, signaling her entrance into the store. Thankfully the store was just as busy as it had been before the lull that had allowed her escape. The young girl dove head first into helping customers that were running rampant.

For the next several hours, the Kimura family helped out all of customers that had come into the store. Once the bell chimed and signaled the exit of the last customer, Shikamaru collapsed onto one of the chairs by the changing rooms.

Both Shino and Ino snorted at their teammate, before they began to clean up the store. The silence had only lasted for a few minutes, before it was broken by Genma.

"So, princess, where did you go today?" He asked, as he started managing the cash register.

"I went to the botanical garden in town, and I met a boy there. He's a few years older than me. He said he'd stop by tomorrow to show me and my brothers around town tomorrow." She told him as she hung some clothes back onto the racks.

"Oh, and what was his name?" Anko asked as she started sweeping the floor.

"Kankurō."

Both Genma and Anko shared a look, but decided not to say anything else about the subject.

Once the store was cleaned, and everything back in its proper place, Shino turned to Anko and Genma and asked, "May I go explore?"

Both nodded their heads in consent, before Anko told him; "Be back in an hour. Dinner will be ready by then."

Shino nodded his head, and strolled out of the door and into the cool air of the night. The boy meandered down the streets, without much thought as to where he was going. He let his thoughts run as his body moved. As it seemed lately, his thoughts turned to their first mission, and guilt began to claw at his gut.

Guilt for not being able to do more. Guilt for not being able to protect his teammates from that homicidal maniac. Guilt for not being strong enough.

A shake of his head, kept his thoughts from going even darker; as he took in his surroundings. He looked around, and saw he was near Suna's Ninja Academy. Movement just barely in his peripheral vision to the right caught his eye. As he turned his head, he noticed a boy about his age.

The boy's red hair stood out in stark contrast to the muted browns of the buildings and dark of the night. What seemed to be the most interesting about him, thought, wasn't that. Instead, it was the giant gourd on his back.

The shadow that drew his eye in the first place, was creeping steadily up behind the boy. Shino realized that the boy didn't know. Didn't realize that the shadow coming up behind him, was there for one reason; to kill.

Before he could even think about it, he shouted to the kid. But it seems for naught, sand seeped out of the gourd and around the shadow, until it was completely covered.

In a flat voice, the boy intoned; "Sand coffin," and clenched his fist. The effect was immediate, the air began to reek of blood and the scream of who had been crushed by the sand.

The boy turned to look at his would-be savior, unsure as to if the other was actually trying to help, or just setting up another trap to try and kill him.

Shino could feel his kikaichū buzzing beneath his skin. Brought to life by the suffocating chakra of the other. He realized quickly, that he would be out of his own weight class, if the other should decide he was a threat.

However, it seemed as if his female teammate was rubbing off on him, and not any of the good characteristics either. He could feel the impulse to asks questions, and tried to hold his tongue.

"Who are you?" Shino asked, as he watched in fascination as the sand moved back into the gourd like it had a mind of its own.

He had been around Ino too much, it seemed.

"Gaara," was the reply from the red-headed boy with the kanji for love tattooed on his forehead.

Author's Note: And I'm leaving you there! And my lovely readers, you all have a choice to make!

Option A: Next Chapter is the Wave Arc featuring Team Asuma.

Option B: Next Chapter is a continuation of the Suna Mission, and I turn the Wave Arc into a one-shot.

Option C: Next Chapter is a continuation of the Suna Mission, and I just mention the Wave Arc, without getting into much detail about it.

Review or PM and let me know what you all would like to see! I promise, the next update isn't going to take months!