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

Chapter 40

Minoko couldn't describe the immense relief she felt when she saw the familiar painted smirk enter her cell block. It was like a rubber band that had been squeezing her heart finally loosened. She could breathe. He was ok.

Now she just needed to figure out if Gaara was alive and then she would be able to relax fully.

"Kai-kun! You will not believe the craziness that happened during the exams!"

Minoko took another breath and pasted on a smile of her own, "Oh yeah? What, did you almost die or something?"

She could see Kankuro cringe and rub his chest a bit before he ploughed on, "Well, maybe. But that's not really the important part."

Minoko raised an unimpressed brow and deadpanned, "You nearly dying isn't important? What, was it killer samurai squirrels or something?"

"Killer...samurai squirrels? What?"

"I've seen it happen," she said with a nonchalant shrug, "So what actually happened?"

Kankuro awkwardly chuckled a bit and rubbed the back of his head, "Ah…a lot happened? It kinda went to the back of my mind honestly with everything else that happened."

"Why don't you start from the beginning?" she said as she settled into her usual place against the stone wall near the bars. The others in the cell had shifted at the turn in conversation and were paying attention as well. She wouldn't be surprised if the other cells on the floor were doing the same thing. Outside info was sparse as it was and this was looking to be an interesting bit of knowledge.

He started with arriving in Konoha and his first impressions of the village. Too green and friendly and soft for his tastes apparently. He moved on to the first stage of the exam and the trick behind it, then the Forest of Death. Seriously? That name was kind of moronic. And melodramatic.

She perked up slightly when he mentioned Gaara, who was apparently on his team. Along with his sister, who was probably the blonde girl in her dream bubble. It would explain why they were all together in the vision. It was strange that he never mentioned who his teammates were before, but she never really asked. Pity. She could have learned more about Gaara a lot sooner. But if Gaara was on his team, then it would be easier to figure out whether he was ok or not now.

His team got the fastest time in the forest thanks to Gaara and his sand. Minoko cringed at the manic tone that her first friend seemed to exhibit while getting the scrolls.

The preliminary rounds were fairly mundane, but intriguing nonetheless. It was interesting to hear about different fighting styles from different clans.

Kankuro skimmed over most of the training month but told her about how he and his team were informed that the exams were a cover for an invasion by Suna and Oto. She had never heard of Oto and made a mental note to ask more about it later. She felt horrified that the Kazekage would consider attacking one of their few allies. It didn't make sense!

Kankuro and his team were tasked with getting to a central location in the village and have Gaara release his beast to cause destruction. Minoko knew something went wrong with that plan since her dream bubble showed them in the woods instead of a village, but she was on the edge of her seat listening to this. Morbid curiosity and all.

The puppeteer went on about the final tournament and how he had to give up to conserve his strength and how things took a bad turn when Gaara was actually injured during his fight with the Uchiha. Minoko felt her heart skip when she heard that. How badly was he hurt before he had to fight the blonde kid?

Kankuro went on to describe them running from the village to recover before they would try to continue the plan and the pursuit team that followed them. He talked about his fight with the bug boy, Shino, and how he was injured and dangerously low on chakra thanks to the beetles the boy used. He managed to make his way to his teammates, even in his condition and found Temari roughed up, but not badly off. He expressed his shock at seeing Gaara laying unmoving only a few feet from the blonde boy, Naruto, and the Uchiha. He and Temari put up a front to try and intimidate the worn out Konoha shinobi, but Gaara surprisingly told them to back down and had them just leave. The last of Minoko's anxiety faded with the knowledge that Gaara was alive and made it out of that fight. He made it back. He was safe.

"And when we got back to Suna, we found out that the Kazekage had been dead for a long while and the sanin Orochimaru disguised himself as him to lead the charge against Konoha."

"Dead!? He's actually dead?" Minoko exclaimed. She heard several other expressing their delighted shock at the news.

"Yeah, has been for about a month probably."

Minoko felt her mind blank for a moment before her disjointed thoughts reorganized themselves. That might be why she had her dream bubbles again. Her chakra cuffs were keyed into the Kazekage's chakra. Only he could take them off. But with him dead, the cuffs lost some of their strength and allowed a trickle of chakra to flow through her coils. Not enough to allow her to use jutsu, but apparently enough for her passive kekkei genkai to work.

Kankuro continued talking about reparations and the political fallout from the lost invasion and the loss of their leader. Minoko paid attention peripherally while her mind raced. How would this change things?

…

Time passed in the usual pattern. Wake up, use the facilities, eat, train, eat, relax and play a game or read a book, eat, go to sleep. When Kankuro was assigned to the cells, time would go by faster. The others had taken a liking to the overconfident boy over the years and he talked with all of the prisoners on the floor and learned their stories. He bonded with others easily and was able to get people to open up with his non-judgmental personality. He treated them like individuals. Like people. It made a big difference in their lives when compared to the other guards that looked at them like a burden or animals.

Minoko would get the occasional dream bubble. Mostly about tedious things occurring in the cell. She was able to use it to her advantage in games or spars with her fellow prisoners. They started accusing her of cheating and she simply dared them to try and prove it. The good natured ribbing and look of defeat always brought a smile to her face.

Once in a while her dream bubble would show her something outside of her cell. Those were her favorite. Some were nonsensical and irrelevant to her day to day life. She didn't know most of the people in them. Every so often she would have one about Gaara. Those were her favorites. It seemed that something had changed in him. He was resembling her old friend more and more as time went by and less like the monster Suna created. He seemed almost…happy. He had a determined air to him. The visions focused mainly on his interactions with others in the village or on missions. It was slow going, but he seemed to be making progress.

Unfortunately she never had a dream bubble about her dad. She really wanted to see him, even if it was just in a vision. She missed him like a part of her heart was missing. She was forgetting his voice, his face, his quirks that used to make up her daily routine. It was sad and no amount of trying would help her recover those memories.

...

Two and a half years passed in this manner when she received a startling piece of new information.

"Gaara's going to be the new Kazekage!?"

"Yep" Kankuro said with lazy wave of his hand.

"I thought the title of Kazekage was inherited."

Kankuro quirked an eyebrow at her, "It is. Gaara was the son of the last Kazekage."

"What!? But that bastard wanted Gaara dead!"

Kankuro shrugged, "Didn't say he was a good father."

Kankuro moved to unlock her cell for their usual sparring session and she stepped out with her head still reeling. She automatically reacted when Kankuro threw a punch and blocked. She ducked and weaved between hits and occasionally threw a punch or tried to land a kick, but her mind wasn't in the game.

Gaara was going to become Kazekage.

"Come on Pretty-boy, you're slowing down."

"Shut up Mari."

Kankuro pauses with an incredulous look and almost got bruised ribs for his hesitation, "Mari? What the hell?"

Minoko dodged a kick aimed at her face and shrugged, "You're a puppeteer. Puppets are also called marionettes. Mari for short."

"That's lame dude."

Minoko sent an uppercut to his jaw that missed by centimeters, "And Pretty-boy is so original," she said with sarcasm dripping from her words.

"What? You're sixteen and your voice still hasn't gotten lower," he dodged a punch to the shoulder, "Your face is still soft," he barely missed the harsh kick to the gut, "And you have no facial hair," Minoko attempted a drop kick which he backflipped to avoid, "You could seriously pass as a girl."

Minoko felt her eye twitching in irritation and moved almost too fast for the eye to see and landed a hit to his solar plexus. Kankuro went flying and hit a wall. He grunted at the impact and paused to get his breath back. He coughed and looked at her while holding his chest, "The only redeeming factor you have is that strength. Glad you aren't a girl. You'd be scarier than Temari."

She could feel the other prisoners try not to laugh. They were somewhat used to the bickering and banter that happened between the two of them. That didn't stop Minoko's irritation at the situation. She knew that it was getting harder to hide her gender with her growing age, but she had hoped it wouldn't be obvious for a while longer. She bound her growing chest with strips of an old blanket that had worn out to a threadbare thinness with the help from the ladies in the cell, but it didn't help stop the basic points that Kankuro pointed out. She really was too feminine to pass as a boy for much longer.

She changed the subject as quickly as she could, "I bet your sister would just love to hear how you talk about her."

She saw Kankuro's eyes widen comically large as he scrambled to right himself, "You can't tell her anything I've said about her. Especially the sappy stuff or the scary stuff."

"Don't forget the 'freakishly barbaric' statement."

"And that! Come on man, guy code is sacred!"

Minoko rolled her eyes at his dramatic pleading, "Kankuro, I don't know how many times I've got to remind you before you remember. I'm in here for life. I'll probably never meet your sister in person."

"But if you ever did…"

"I'd spill everything. She and I would become close and torture you every day," she stated matter-of-factly.

His head dropped down in an over-the-top movement, "That's low Kai."

Less than a second later, his head snapped back up and she had a bad feeling at the gleam in his eye, "Though, it would be interesting if you two ended up together."

Minoko choked on air as the other prisoners hid their snickers poorly, "What the hell? Where did that come from!?"

Kankuro shrugged as he stood up and went to let her back into her cell, "Just saying. If my sister had to end up with someone, you're the only one I'd approve of at the moment."

Minoko stepped through the door and sweat dropped, "You must think highly of your sister to only approve of a convicted criminal for her lover…either that or really lowly of all other suitors." She said with sarcasm laced through every word.

"The last one. Even as a 'criminal' you're a good guy and a strong fighter. Perfect in order to keep up with Temari."

Seeing that he was somewhat serious about this Minoko slowly turned to him and eyed him curiously, "Uh, you do know that that's never going to happen…for several reasons…"

"What? What's wrong with my sister?"

"Nothing…but…uh…I've never met her." She said, grasping for a plausible reason.

"So? I talk about her all the time and you'd get to know her personally if you ever got out of here." She couldn't tell if he was being serious or was just amused at her reaction at this point.

"Well, that's not really the main reason." She hedged.

"Well then, what is it?"

She opted for telling a partial truth, "I'm kinda…" she paused, her hand gesturing idly as she tried to find the words to describe her predicament without giving anything away.

"Oh man, you're gay!"

Minoko's eyes snapped to his in disbelief and watched as he made a show of looking shocked.

"What? No! I'm not gay!" I'm a girl that likes guys…not gay.

"Well, if you're not gay, then what?"

Minoko shifted from foot to foot and mumbled, "I'm kind of…already…in love with someone…"

"WHAT!? And I'm just hearing this now?"

"…" Minoko blanked. What just came out of her mouth!? Out of all the things she could have said, that's what her brain came up with? While true, it wasn't what she meant to say. She doesn't think she's ever felt so betrayed by her own mind before.

"Wait, the only women here are old enough to be your mother…you're into cougars?"

Minoko spluttered, "Dude, no gross!"

"Then…?" Kankuro hesitated and looked very confused.

Minoko sighed and slumped slightly, putting her head in her hand, "I've known this person for years…they were my first friend really."

"Oh kami, it's me," horror laced in his voice as he backed away slowly.

"I'M NOT GAY!"

The boy raised his hands in surrender, "Ok, you're not gay, continue."

Minoko huffed in exasperation and slid to the floor to get into a comfortable position for this annoying conversation. This was entirely her fault. She had no one to blame but her traitorous brain, "I knew them before I came here."

"But you were, what, six when you got here?"

At her nod, he looked at her strangely "…it's been ten years dude, that's still kinda crazy…"

"Why do you think I never told you?" she drew her knees up, arms resting straight out on top of them, and had her head leaned back against the wall. "I know how strange it sounds, but back then, they were the only reason I stayed sane."

"Sane? What kind of childhood did you have?"

She turned a baleful look to him and she could practically see him sweatdrop when he realized how stupid his question was, "Other than when you were in here of course," he said, chuckling nervously.

Minoko paused for a moment to let him stew in his embarrassment, then sighed, "On top of missions from the previous Kazekage and unknowingly being manipulated by him, I also had some complicated secrets in my family," she held up a hand up to stop Kankuro from talking, "and no, I'm not telling you what those were."

Kankuro sat next to Minoko's cell with a sigh, "Ok, so this friend of yours kept you sane while you were dealing with complicated mystery crap and you ended up falling for said friend. Sound about right?"

She nodded solemnly, "…I'd do anything for them…even go to jail for life."

Kankuro's head snapped up to face Kai, eyes wide, "Hold on, you were supposed to kill your best friend!?"

At her hesitant nod, Kankuro gaped at her, "How do you know if they're still alive? If the Kazekage wanted someone dead, they were put six feet under before the week was out."

Seemingly realizing what he said, he sent an apologetic glance at her.

Minoko glanced at him from the corner of her eye, "I hear news of the outside world all the time from the guards talking. I hear my friend's name every-so-often, so I know that they somehow escaped death."

"Well, tell me who it is. I might know them."

"You do, and no."

"Why not? I could tell them where you are. Maybe even sneak them in for a visit," he said with a wink.

She ducked her head down, "They either think I'm dead or that I abandoned them," she said in a quiet voice, "I really don't want them to find me. I'm scared that they would hate me."

"But-"

"No! That's enough, I don't want to talk anymore."

She moved to lay down in a corner, her back facing him. She shouldn't be upset with him. He didn't do anything wrong. She just…couldn't think about him now. It was too much.

…

Kankuro sighed and laid his head back on the bars. Muni leaned on the wall next to him, startling him out of his thoughts.

"You know," the man said with a friendly smile and nodded toward Kai, "in the ten years since that kid's been here, that's the most he's spoken about his past. Even I haven't heard about that friend of his before."

Kankuro looked over at the sleeping lump of blankets, then back at Muni as he continued, "Kai must really trust you." Muni shrugged off the bars and left Kankuro with his thoughts and a small smile on his lips.

A/N: We're getting close to the end! Less than ten chapters to go. I should be able to get them out quickly now that I have a good momentum going. Let me know what you think!