Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or anything other than my OCs.

Dear Gaara-sama,

She had started to write but that was the only thing written on her blank sheet of paper. Kori felt extremely pressured to write something but today there was an extra set of eyes focused on her letter. Her palms were sweaty and her mind couldn't focus on the letter. She glanced over her shoulder at a very curious Asahina.

Asahina, oblivious to her student's discomfort, continued to watch and wait. She had brought the letter since Danzo had left it with her but she was curious about her student's reply.

"Umm…" The Hyuga finally said, "Do you mind?"

"Oh come on." The redhead laughed, "Share your love life with me. I'm bored now that I'm on leave."

"L-Love life?" The usually unshaken kunoichi was stuttering and stammering as a girl in love would, "W-With G-Gaara-sama?! He's the Kazekage!"

"And you don't like the idea?" Asahina was always fast to tease about these things. It was her petty revenge for being easily embarrassed about her relationship with Kakashi, "Aren't you in love with him?"

"I-I don't hate it." The younger lady admitted, "B-But I don't think I should just easily throw around the word 'love' unless I mean it. I can't possibly be in love with someone I only see once or twice a year."

"Ahh." She hummed, "I suppose it would be difficult to have that sort of relationship with a foreign man. I mean, letters take a while to send back and forth too. How long is it before you get a response?"

"Two or three days? A week if he's busy." The dark-haired Hyuga murmured, the footsteps of her approaching brother sounded slightly angry. She counted down the seconds left until the door slid open, "Neji?"

"There's someone at the gate for you." Her brother practically growled, "Some man says he's got a letter for you and he'd like to deliver it personally."

Kori hurried out think that it might be a mission scroll and Asahina hurried out behind her. She blinked her white eyes at the pale-skinned Sai, his smile unfaltering, "Good morning."

"Good morning." He responded, handing her an envelope, "I have your letter from Sunagakure and a message from Danzo-sama."

"Danzo?" Asahina grumbled.

"Danzo-sama wanted to warn you about the dangers of conversing with a foreign power. As the Kazekage, he could be taking advantage of you." Sai said almost monotonously, "All messages to and from foreign countries are read by the Root. Please be cautious."

"Understood." Kori nodded, accepting the letter and keeping the warning in a mental note, "Thanks for coming."

"Yes, actually, it was Kyrie that was selected to come but I came on personal business with you."

That was a common thing in recent days.

"And what might you need from me? We've only seen each other once." She said but not unkindly.

"I've asked Kyrie about various things about how to interact with normal people." He said almost shyly, "And she recommended for me to have a conversation with you. Her exact words happened to be 'Talk to Kori. She makes you feel normal.' and then she shooed me away."

"Ahh… Well, I don't know about any of that but I wouldn't mind hanging out with you sometime." The kunoichi grinned, relieved that it wasn't a serious concern, "I've got someplace to be so I can't do anything right now but if you tell me where you live, I'll drop by and invite you out."

The Hyuga certainly didn't know what Sai was thinking but his eyes widened in surprise and he blurted, "I'm sorry. I think you have the wrong impression. I was just asking if we could be conversational friends not anything more."

"Uhh…" Kori glanced over her shoulder for some help, "I think I should apologize. Is it because I asked for your home address? I didn't mean anything by it. It was just because I don't know another way to contact you. I guess in the ANBU it's weird to ask for a home address?"

"No. No. No." Asahina rolled her eyes, "Kakashi was in the ANBU and his address is practically common knowledge."

Sai was clearly confused after his mistake, "I read in a book that when a person of the opposite gender asks for a home address it means that they'd like to get to know you on a much more physical level."

Asahina's eyebrow twitched and she cut her student off before she could speak, "Now look here, young man! I don't know what kind of books you're reading but you're going to end up like Kakashi if you don't read proper books! Read a more intellectual book!"

"Ahaha!" Kori grabbed her angering teacher, pulling her back to keep her from attacking Sai. She continued to laugh awkwardly as she pulled her mentor away with much trouble, "Sorry, Sai! I didn't mean it like that but I guess I'll just ask around for you when I'm not busy if you're uncomfortable! Excuse us!"

Kori left Neji to shoo away the pale-skinned shinobi while she dragged away her fuming teacher, "Ahahahaha! No one said anything about Kakashi-sensei, you know?"

"I said it!" Asahina shouted, "Kakashi is such a bad influence on everyone! That book is practically pornography! He's such a perverted old man!"

"You shouldn't badmouth someone who's not here!" The younger lady shouted to be heard over the insults, "Please calm down! Let's read this second letter instead, shall we?"

Eventually, Asahina was calmed, bribed into calming herself down actually.

Kori,

I wanted this letter to reach you before you replied. I have a pressing question for you. Do you want a cactus?

I trust your judgement,

Gaara

The Hyuga glanced up warily at the woman, who read the letter over her shoulder, "I need a match. And please, don't speak a word about this to anyone."

"You have my word." The rounding woman spoke solemnly, her fingers weaved into familiar signs. Silently, she blew out gentle flames onto the page.

Kori released the burning paper, watching the ashes fall to the floor, "Please don't tell Neji or Saizo."

"You should be more worried about me telling the higher ups like Kakashi."

"Kakashi-sensei knows."

Asahina's eyes widened in surprise. She thought Kakashi told her everything. Kori was her student not his so it was only fitting for him to tell her all the things they spoke about and she thought Kakashi spoke about everything. Who knew that he was casually keeping such a big secret?

Her heart nearly dropped into her stomach. What kind of secret messages were they sending back and forth? Was Danzo right to call her a traitor?

Asahina's green eyes shook as, from the ashes of the scorched paper, glass began to form, "What's going on?"

Kori glanced up from the forming glass, her eyes shifting about the room awkwardly, "It's a secret between me and Gaara-sama. This is a Sunagakure special technique for transponding wartime messages."

"Like our morse code?"

"It's nothing that fancy." Her eyes were turned back to the glass that was quickly forming letters.

If I were to borrow money from foreign countries to strengthen our shinobi forces, what would it look like to a foreign ninja?

Asahina was shocked. That was a dangerous question to be asking for more reasons than one. It was dangerous from both sides. Gaara could easily get in trouble for telling their own plans to a foreign shinobi and Kori, as the recipient, could be branded a traitor for receiving a message that hadn't been approved in the first place, "Kori!"

The Hyuga's eyes looked up just the slightest bit and for a moment, Asahina felt like she was looking into the eyes of a tigress before her meal, "Yes?"

"Does Kakashi know you talk about these kinds of things too?"

"Kakashi-sensei only saw it happen once." Her student muttered, "At that time, Gaara-sama was asking for advice on how to convince his people that he was no longer a monster. He spoke about a rebellion."

"Don't reply to those things." Asahina said sternly, "That's dangerous. You could get into serious trouble. All messages to and from foreign powers are read by our higher ups. Even if he can slip a message by, you cannot."

Kori's eyebrow went up as if she were challenging those words, "Is that so?"

Asahina grew pale. Her student was quite fearsome. She was so adamant about following the rules that Asahina had never imagined that Kori would do something like this away from prying eyes. Why did Kakashi forgive such a thing? "Did Kakashi try to stop you?"

"He warned me." The younger jonin admitted, "But I explained that this is just our way of discussing our deepest troubles. Kakashi-sensei had the utmost faith in me. He even offered to sneak my messages out by messenger dog."

Asahina gasped, "He will not be doing anything of the sort."

"Of course. It's not even necessary." Kori smiled just the smallest bit, "Regardless, I would never drag Kakashi-sensei into my mess. I would never drag you into it either and if you decided to turn me in, I wouldn't blame you."

"I swore that I wouldn't." She assured her student, "I trust you. I'm just concerned that you're putting yourself in danger. There's just one more thing."

"Yes?"

"Did he start this or did you?"

Kori paused, "I don't think anyone in particular started it. When he became the Kazekage, he told me 'Promotion or no promotion, we remain the same people we were before that meaningless change.' Before we returned, he showed me this technique saying that it was his special way of showing that he trusted me as a friend."

"How does that technique even work?"

She showed no hesitation when she replied, "I can't tell you. I promised not to tell anyone."

Asahina's eyes narrowed. It was easy enough to guess how the technique worked. When sand is exposed to high temperatures, it turns into glass but her measly fire surely wasn't enough. How did it so easily turn to glass? And how did Kori even know to burn this particular letter when she didn't burn any of the other ones? More importantly, how would her student send a reply without giving away the contents of the secret letter?

Her student turned back to the letter she had barely started writing and continued.

As usual you doubt me too much. When I said I would think of you in my last moments, those weren't polite words or even kind words. Those were my true feelings and I believe they're true. Although you are right, I can't be certain until I experience those last moments.

My future goals are quite embarrassing. Maybe I'll tell you someday. Other than that, what would you like to know?

As for directly wishing you a good night, I'd like to but I can't. So I'll just conclude with that and I'll request that you read it before you go to bed so that we can pretend that I said it.

Good night Gaara-sama,

Hyuga Kori

P.S. I don't know how to care for a cactus but if you would teach me, sure.

From a foreign standpoint, it would probably look like you're trying to start a fight. I remember that you mentioned that Sunagakure has trouble with funds due to your daimyo's budget cuts so I personally would just look it over and our Hokage might also skip it over since we're allies but other countries would not look so kindly upon it. I'm nobody important so I might be wrong. I'm sorry I can't be of any more help.

Asahina stood agape as her student so bluntly wrote the reply on the bottom of the sheet. Just when she was about to advise against that, her student began to weave the signs of a jutsu that were much too complex for her to follow with her naked eyes. Kakashi might have been able to follow but she certainly was not gifted with a sharingan so she could not.

Kori slammed her hand, glowing with chakra, over the last paragraph of her letter and the words began to melt away. It was growing clear like water and it faded away to nothing, leaving behind no traces of the very valuable response. Catching the curious gaze of her mentor, she smiled, "This one I can show you. It's a technique I learned out of a scroll."

Asahina waited patiently as her student folded away her letter and put it in an envelope. She watched on as the Hyuga wrote her name on a piece of paper and used the same technique on it. Slowly but surely the letters disappeared from the sheet and it became a blank piece of paper again.

"Light it up." Kori handed the seemingly blank page over to her mentor.

The paper went up in flames much like the last one but the difference here was that the ashes fell to the floor and left behind the trace of smokey letters.

Asahina could clearly read her student's name, "This is an old technique from Kirigakure! Where did you find such a scroll?"

"Yui lent it to me in exchange for teaching her the Summoning Technique."

Being pregnant really had taken all the joy out of teaching. Her students were all progressing too well without her and they had all developed bonds amongst each other and with Kakashi that she had missed out on.

"It's about time to get to the training grounds. Naruto and Tenzo-san must be waiting for you." Kori's fingers took on five very familiar hand signs, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique) Rokuro!"

The Hyuga made sure that her mentor was comfortably seated on the great white tiger in front of her before starting their short trip to the waterfalls.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Yui wandered the streets of Konoha after her daily sparring/training session with her fellow members of the Root. Only Sai was beside her. The pale-faced shinobi had just gotten done recounting his embarrassing mistake with Kori just that morning.

Yui thought nothing much of it. It was an understandable mistake. Kori knew nothing of Sai and she had asked him for a home address just to strike up a conversation. Then again, Sai had been the one to ask for that conversation so it wasn't completely Kori's fault.

"Kori is kind. She always keeps her promises." Yui assured the boy, "And she can always forgive. So despite your misunderstanding, I'm certain that she'll call for you."

"I hope so. She seems very good with people." Sai nodded, "I could learn a lot."

"More importantly, how is Naruto?"

The mood grew serious as it often did.

Sai's response was the usual, "He's the same as always."

"We both witnessed his demonic side." Yui warned him, "Don't let your guard down."

"I'm prepared. At any rate, I don't think Naruto is going to end up losing control again."

"You can't be certain." She said firmly, "There are others like him in the world."

"Hm?" Sai had always been sharp about the details of the shinobi world, "Are you talking about Suna's Kazekage?"

"I suppose I am."

"Isn't that the one who is sending letters to Kori?"

She nodded, "I don't think she knows Gaara's dangerous. I think I should tell her."

"He can't do her any harm if he's all the way in Sunagakure." Sai pointed out, "They only converse through letters."

"Who knows what kind of monstrous powers he has?" She was certain that Gaara had some sort of long-ranged battle abilities.

"Yui-chan!" Someone called out to them and the conversation came to a temporary close.

Yui's eyes narrowed on Inuzuka Kiba and his nin-dog as they approached her, "Kiba-kun. What do you know about Sabaku no Gaara?"

Kiba paused, his expression showing both confusion and uncertainty, "Nothing more than you. He's the Kazekage and he came here to participate in the Chunin Exams. He was a real freak back then. Oh and he sends letters to Kori. That's about it."

That's all anyone knows about the jinchuuriki of Sunagakure.

"If you're her best friend, tell her that he's more dangerous than he lets on." She warned, "If it comes from you, she'll believe you."

"What's with that all of a sudden?" He said as if he couldn't believe she was saying such a thing in the first place, "Kori can take care of herself. She knows him better than any of us."

"She's blinded by their friendship. She wouldn't be so close to him if she knew what kind of monster he's hiding."

"I think she knows." The dog lover grinned, "Kori's sharp and she's got good instincts. There's no way she would befriend someone who would put her or anyone around her in danger. Even if he was some sort of monster, I think Kori out of all people can handle it. She's probably got some sort of defense ready just in case."

"If that was the case, it would be fitting but I'll warn her once more." Yui said persistently, "I won't let her experience the same fear that overtook me."

"Is there something you know?" Kiba's brows furrowed, "Something he said about attacking her?"

She replied with, "Naruto is the same monstrous creature. Now I know why the people of this village shunned and feared him."

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about."

"It's better that way."

Kiba was left to stare in confusion as the pair of ANBU operatives continued on their way.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

"AH! HYUGA KORI?!" Naruto shrieked, staring at the jonin in awe and wonder, "You cut your hair? The flak jacket?! You're a jonin, right?!"

Kori smiled at the jinchuuriki and nodded, "It's been a long time since I've last seen you. You're much taller."

Naruto grinned right back, wiping at his nose sheepishly, "That's not all! I've done some major training!"

Her white eyes scanned his body from head to toe, "It looks like you have."

"Heh. Tell Kai I'm not far behind!"

"I'm sure he wouldn't believe me."

"Ahem." Asahina cleared her throat, "I hate to cut in but let's see how far you've come, Naruto."

"Roger!" Naruto's fingers crossed into his signature technique's only hand sign, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Asahina allowed herself to be surprised once more by the seemingly endless amount of chakra that Naruto was holding inside, "Alright. Start it up."

Grouping his clones into trios, Naruto demonstrated just how far he had come with infusing his chakra element with the Rasengan. The technique didn't last long. It broke almost immediately but it was much further than she had ever seen anyone get with a high level technique.

Kakashi, you've been training one hell of a ninja. I'm almost jealous.