Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter 10

The next two weeks flew by. The first week was spent doing D-rank missions- aka chores- around the village. Minoko had to babysit (which was honestly really awkward considering she was only four), go shopping for the elderly, retrieve the same lost gecko at least six times, and sweep out shops that had sand piled high inside. The last one she found extra annoying because Gaara could have just willed it out of the building. But nooooo, the shop keepers wouldn't allow Gaara inside their shop... period... so she was stuck doing unnecessary manual labor. Now that she thought about it, he wasn't allowed near the children either...or the elderly...or lost pets...

Minoko hung her head as she realized that, while she and Gaara were a team of sorts, they never really did those missions together. He would follow her to the mission locations, get kicked out of wherever they were, then wait for her outside until she was finished. Her hands balled up when thinking about those complete assho-!

Breathe, Minoko, breathe. She thought to herself, No bad words, no bad words. Don't say them, don't think them, just breathe.She sighed deeply and rubbed her temples in agitation.

The second week was better. Yashamaru, seeing how things were going in the village, apparently requested low C-rank missions for them outside the village. Minoko was thankful for that. Gaara might be sweet and could ignore the blatant idiocy of the villagers, but she was coming this close to hurting the next person that disrespected her friend.

Her dad was a bit nervous when she mentioned the C-ranks outside the village. She would be gone for a few days at a time because of them. He took the day off from his job to get her some camping equipment and rations so that she would be better prepared for her missions. If he hugged her a little tighter before she left each time, she never mentioned it.

They were able to complete two C-ranks during that second week. The first was to go to a neighboring village in Kaze no Kuni and help them exterminate a large nest of horned desert vipers that had taken up residence on the outskirts. One child had mistakenly stumbled upon it while playing and paid for it with his life. Normally people could be easily treated with anti-venom, but apparently the child didn't want to have his friends think he was a sissy, so he didn't tell an adult until it was too late. Regardless, the low toxicity of the vipers was the reason it was a low C-rank. It would have even been a D-rank had it not been a full day's journey to that village.

They went on their second C-rank two days after they returned from the first. It dealt with going to the border between Kaze no Kuni and Kawa no Kuni to gather medicinal herbs for the hospital. Again, it was only a C-rank because of the travel distance.

They returned from that mission the day before. Going into week three, Minoko suspected that they would do another long-distance-D-rank-that's-disguised-as-a-C-rank soon.

She sighed as she reclined in the shade of the boulder of her usual training ground when she felt a small prickle in the back of her skull. Knowing it was a dream bubble (she could never bring herself to call it the Kami no Me) she let herself sink into it.

Minoko stared straight ahead on in shock. It was supposed to be a simple mission! How could something like this happen!? She watched as Gaara looked at her in horror. Minoko looked down and saw the tip of a katana poking through her chest, blood slowly pooling at her feet. Looking back up at Gaara, she saw his face morph into one of pure rage, his eyes a haunting yellow. Her vision became fuzzy and the last thing she could see was Yashamaru-sensei running towards her as Gaara slammed her assailant into a strange rock formation.

Minoko gasped for breath as she sat up quickly, eyes wide and a bit wild. It took her several deep breaths to calm her racing heart. What the hell? Did she just die!?

"-ko. Minoko!" she heard her name being called. It was only then that she noticed a small hand rubbing gentle circles into her back. She took one more steadying breath before looking into concerned sea foam eyes. Beautiful sea foam eyes. Not yellow.

Minoko just barely resisted the urge to hug Gaara, knowing that it would only worry him more, "I'm fine. Sorry."

"What happened? You looked like you were having your dream bubble, then you just...panicked. I tried calling your name, but you didn't respond for a while."

"Sorry," she said again, trying to get her heart to slow back down, "it was just...a bit shocking."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

Minoko hesitated. She didn't want to worry him needlessly. If she told him that she was going to be skewered like a shish kabob, he'd never let her out of his sight.

As childish as it might sound, she didn't want the constant surveillance to ruin her surprise for him. His birthday was next week and she was able to find him the perfect present! Plus her daddy said that he would help her decorate their living room so that they could have a small birthday party for him. If Gaara was always hovering over her in worry, he'd figure it out!

So Minoko schooled her features and smiled reassuringly, "Don't worry. It probably won't happen for a long time. It just surprised me."

Gaara searched her face for a moment, a worried crease furrowed between his non-existent eyebrows. He didn't believe her for even one second, but let it go when he saw that she didn't want to talk about it, "Alright. Come on, we need to go to your place and grab your stuff. We're going out again."

Minoko noticed Gaara's pack sitting beside them, "Already? We just got back yesterday."

Gaara shrugged, so she did as well and stood up, the adrenaline from earlier finally wearing off enough for her to breathe easily. As long as they got back within five days, she should have enough time to get everything prepared. They quickly dropped by her place long enough for her to grab her gear and leave a note for her dad.

It's probably fine, she thought as she greeted her sensei at the gate. Despite her best efforts, the images in the dream bubble weighed heavily on her mind. She stubbornly refused to let it bug her though. She had an official mission to complete, then an unofficial one when they came back. She'd worry about it after Gaara's birthday. She didn't lie to Gaara either. The dream bubble most likely wouldn't happen for a while…right?

They all turned to leave and Minoko took a quick look back at Suna when they topped the first dune and gave a small smile, Yeah, it's probably going to be fine.

A/N: Dun, dun, duuuuun! Let the mission...begin!

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