Interlude: All Good Things Must Come to an End

Jiraiya had eventually decided that it was safe for Naruto to wonder around Suna as much as he wanted as long as he was in the company of the Sand Siblings. He’d gotten to spend a lot of time with them, and they had all gotten to know each other pretty well. Gaara was proving really trustworthy, much to Jiraiya’s relief. Even though he was slowly growing closer to his older brother and sister, he hadn’t given away Naruto’s secrets. This combined with what was arguably the best poker face on the planet, made him the ideal confidant for the Senju. Naruto was really glad to have someone his age he could actually TALK to about this stuff that would understand. It had really helped him a lot, and though Gaara didn't say much, he thought Shukaku's vessel was appreciative of that too.

“Pack up, Chibi! We’re leaving tomorrow.” Jiraiya told his student late one morning, two weeks after they’d arrived. The trail of Orochimaru’s servant had gone completely cold almost immediately after the Sannin’s presence had become well known, just as he feared it would. He’d stuck around this long hoping to find out if the man was still in the area and what he’d been up to, but unless the guy was in the Kazekage tower – the one place Jiraiya’s spy network was a little weak, there was no sign of him in Suna.

“Do we have to? I really like it here!” He’d been making progress with his wind affinity, and he and Temari had hammered out some decent fuuton jutsu. He thought he might be able to try combining what he’d learned with Ivy soon, and that would be REALLY badass, especially since his experiments with her and earth jutsu seemed to be working...sometimes.

On that note, Ivy snaked out from under his shirt and tried to throttle him for questioning Jiraiya’s new travel plans. She was obviously eager to leave, and willing to get violent about it. He managed to wrestle her back into place after only a few moments. She didn’t have the energy in this environment to put up much of a fight if he denied her anything but the chakra he was subconsciously exuding, which was her primary nourishment. He’d figured out how to keep her from drawing from his actual reserves once he’d gotten the Shodai’s necklace from his kaa-san, and it had been one of the most useful and practical discoveries since he'd gotten her!

“Yes. We’ve been here too long as it is.” The older man affirmed, greatly amused to see someone ELSE, especially NARUTO, get assaulted by that bitchy plant for once, “so you’d better see if you can drag Gaara away from Chiyo’s retreat and say goodbye to his pretty sister – women hate it when you leave them hanging.” He winked suggestively.

“Jeeze, you’ve such a pervert! I’m only 11 and she’s only 13!” He pointed out. “We’re not like that!”

“Hey, that’s not much of an age difference, and let me tell you, mature women have the advantage of experience! Also, at your age, the older ladies have more curves, which is ALWAYS a plus! Besides, she wouldn’t be spending all day, every day she's free, with you if she weren’t interested.”

Naruto sputtered incoherently, his cheeks tinged pink. “I’m telling Gaara you’re perv-ing on his sister! He’s going to have a Sabaku Soso with your name on it!”

“Hey now! I’m not the one who’s spent the past two weeks crawling all over the girl!” Jiraiya pointed out, not too keen on a Desert Funeral.

“She’s teaching me WIND jutsu, and we’ve been sparing! You said I should practice using my wind chakra, and I AM!” Naruto sputtered, “There’s nothing inappropriate going on!”

“Sure…that’s what you say, but you forget! I’m a man too, I know how we think!”

“I don’t think like that!” the boy wailed. He was young enough that he wasn’t quite sure yet that girls really didn’t have cooties, though Temari-chan was a bit less annoying than most kunoichi, and she could kick ass which was always a plus…an inexplicable blush crossed his cheeks, tinting the dark green markings on his face slightly purple where it touched them.

“Heh…my godson, the ladies man!” Comical tears dripped down the Sannin’s face, “I’m so proud! She’s the Kazekage’s daughter, you know! With her and Nina-chan, you’re almost collecting princesses!”

†

Temari and Kankuro let themselves into the visitor’s hotel room just in time to see Naruto kick his sensei in the shin with a touch of freakish strength.

“Er, are we interrupting something?” The older boy asked. His sister just snickered at the pervert’s yowl of pain.

“No.” Naruto grinned, coming over to join the siblings. “Come on, let’s go get Gaara! We have to have a going away ramen eating contest!”

“Going away?” Temari asked, sounding a little disappointed. “You’re leaving already?” He’d been such a good influence on Gaara-kun, and he was much more fun to spar with than Kankuro. Besides…he was a little less pathetic than most of the other men around the village. She had to be honest with herself…she’d miss him – at least a little, and deep down she was kind of afraid her little brother might revert back to his old self without the other boy around.

“Yeah. Ero-jiji says we have to leave tomorrow.” The blond leaf-nin led them out of the hotel and towards the retreat where Chiyo-baasan and her brother hid themselves away from the world – at least until Gaara had waltzed in and refused to be removed. To say he’d become obsessed with the art of seal making was like saying Tsunade sucked at gambling. He said he liked how orderly seals were and that they were interesting to study while everyone else was sleeping. He hadn’t learned enough to alter his Bijuu seal yet, but he was working on something simpler involving keeping ice cream cold in a scroll, and he’d been inking strange characters on a ramen bowl all week. Temari was afraid to ask.

Even though the old crone had promised to help him devise a way to strengthen his seal if he swore he’d leave her alone afterwards, Naruto was pretty sure she secretly liked his visits. As far as he could tell, the most exciting things that ever happened to the two geezers before they’d shown up were the pranks Chiyo-baasan pulled on her brother by making him think she’d died. Naruto had come to kind of like the old biddy, even if she had flown off the handle a bit after she’d learned that he was Tsunade’s son. He shuddered at the memory and made a mental note to get the story out of his mother later. Chiyo-baasama was carrying a pretty big chip around for the Slug Sannin.

They finally reached the building perched high in the rocks, and Naruto opened the door without bothering to knock – they wouldn’t answer anyway, and then instinctively ducked the book the old bag chucked at his head. Unfortunately, Kankuro didn’t have his dodging reflexes, and Temari’s hand on his collar was the only thing that saved the puppet-wielding genin a painful tumble back down the way they’d come. She rolled her eyes – boys were pathetic sometimes.

“Get out of my tower, BRAT, and take that slug-girl’s filthy son with you!” She screeched, pushing Gaara towards the exit. His expression didn’t change, but he allowed himself to be strong-armed to the door. Chiyo-sama just couldn’t get used to having visitors.

Naruto looked critically down at his clothes; he wasn’t dirty! He’d showered that morning, and just gotten his laundry back from the maid service the night before. Well, maybe a little sand around the cuffs…

“You’re fine, baka!” Temari cuffed him upside the head like she often did to her siblings – well, more Kankuro than Gaara, but her youngest brother had earned his first one just yesterday when he’d innocently asked her if all women felt the need to rage at men like harpies or if it were just her and Chiyo-baasama. He hadn’t quite gotten the hang of “tact” yet, but she was sure she’d be able to beat it into him eventually.

“I will return after lunch, Chiyo-sama.” Gaara stated, experience making him quickly close the door as he exited. The sound of miscellaneous objects thumping against the surface moments later proved his action prudent. His sand would have defended him effortlessly, but Kankuro had almost fallen to his death once already this morning, so he thought he’d spare the rest of the party the indignity of dodging various household goods.

Naruto rubbed his head where Temari had hit him and grinned at the other Jinchuuriki. “Kankuro’s treating me to ramen for my last day in Suna!”

“WHAT?! NO I’M NOT!” The black suited boy wailed.

Gaara’s face twitched into a slight frown, “You are leaving already?”

“Yeah, afraid so.” Naruto put his hands behind his head and started walking back down the way they’d come. He was pretty hungry. “We can write each other and stuff, though! You’ll have to keep me updated on the whole seal thing.” Seals were way too boring for him. He had enough complex studies with his medic texts.

The redhead slipped between his siblings to walk close beside his first and only real friend, “You will visit sometimes?”

“Of course! Suna and Konoha are allies, after all! I’m sure we’ll get to see lots of each other.” He gave the other boy a friendly slap on the back. “Besides, you probably won’t even miss me now that a few of the villagers are starting to get over their fears!”

Gaara stopped so suddenly at that, that Temari and Kankuro almost ran into him. It took Naruto a moment to realize they weren’t following him anymore, and he spun back to see what the problem was. Gaara’s head was down, and his messy bangs shadowed his eyes, “Hey-hey! What’s wrong?”

“Do not say that.” He slowly looked up, and there was more emotion on his face than Naruto had seen him display since his revelations following their fight. “I will never forget you and what you have done for me, even if I am Kazekage someday and all of Wind Country acknowledges my existence!”

Naruto’s attitude immediately changed to mirror his seriousness, and he nodded, extending his hand to the other boy, who tentatively took it. “I won’t forget you either. It’s a promise.” They shook on it, hands clasped firmly. “-and hey! You can become Kazekage, and maybe I’ll be Hokage, and Suna and Konoha can be even better allies!”

Gaara blinked, he hadn’t really meant to imply he wanted that position, “But—“

“Nope! We shook on it!” The blond grinned, the humorless demeanor slipping back into his more light-hearted one. “It’s the job of the strong to protect our precious people, and it’s having precious people that makes you strong! That’s why a Kage is the strongest ninja in a village, because everyone is precious to them! If we work hard, we’ll get everyone’s respect and together, we could easily become Kage!”

Gaara blinked as that idea settled into his head, “Hn…”

“Like everyone doesn’t respect you already, Naruto. It’s not like you have a furry little parasite like Gaara.” Kankuro rolled his eyes and shoved at the two of them to get them moving again, not seeing the look they shot each other. Temari sighed at the slight bought of roughhousing that ensued.

“You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you if you’re going to be Kazekage, Gaara!” His brother continued once the scuffle had ended, grinning at him and throwing an arm around his shoulder. Kankuro was happy to notice that the sand in Gaara's gourd didn’t even react that time. It was becoming more used to friendly contact, and the Jinchuuriki was getting much better at controlling its reactions.

The younger boy’s face remained stoic for a moment, then a very tiny wistful smile quirked one side of his lips. “Hn…but it will be worth it.” He murmured quietly.

Something had to be done about their father, after all. While Gaara was extremely confident in his ability to protect himself – his defeat at Naruto’s hands was a fluke of the Senju’s bloodline – his siblings were normal, fragile humans, and since they’d been getting along better, he’d been privy to their conversations about how difficult and dangerous they had found their recent missions. He had to agree with them. It looked like someone fairly high up was trying to quietly get the two older Kage’s children killed along with their formerly unstable little brother.

He hadn’t found the news shocking in the least - actually, he'd been a bit surprised that he hadn't NOTICED, but then, it wasn't exactly a new scenario for him. He was used to thinking of their father as someone willing to assassinate his children without dirtying his own hands. That said, Gaara would do everything in his power to protect his siblings from their father and whoever else was involved with this, if anyone. He wasn't about to lose any of the few precious people he'd managed to procure against the odds of his birth.

†

That night as Naruto was gathering his crap together that had somehow been strewn all around the hotel room despite the short length of their stay, Jiraiya called him over to stand in front of him while he settled on the bed. “Turn your head to the side, Brat, and hold still.”

“Why?” Naruto asked, curious.

“Because I’m your sensei, and I said so!” Jiraiya quipped, grabbing his jaw and tilting his face the way he wanted it until Naruto held it there himself. The sennin reached into his vest and pulled out the project he’d first started thinking about 8 years ago when Naruto had fallen out of a tree after being stung by bees. Before the kid could see what he was doing or lose patience with him, he jabbed one end of the seal covered hoop earring into his ear, quickly piercing the lobe and locking the hoop together.

“OW!! What the HELL!” Naruto squealed, jumping backwards.

Jiraiya frowned, “Get back here, Gaki, I’m not done yet!”

“No WAY! You just stuck a piece of metal through my ear!” He reached up to try to pull the thing out, but it almost seemed to slip through his fingers.

“It’s the tracking seal I’ve been working on for your mom, now let me put the cuff in and activate it so I can do mine!”

“What?!”

Jiraiya rolled his eyes, “Can’t you just trust me on this one? You hate it when I try to explain seals to you. You’d rather stick your nose in those medical texts of your mother’s!”

“That was before you started putting bits of metal through my body without my permission!”

“Hey, it was part of your deal with Tsunade-chan that you’d wear this once I figured it out, if she let you become a Konoha ninja, or have you forgotten?” The old man pointed out. "Now get back here."

Naruto’s eyes narrowed, “Not until you explain it to me!”

“Fine.” Jiraiya sighed and held out his palm, which held an ear cuff, carved intricately with seals and a short, dangling jewelry chain. “I put this in the top of your ear, like any other cuff, then I connect it to the hoop I just put in. That will attune the two. I wear an identical hoop – and give one to your mother – and they sort of connect us to your earrings.” He wasn’t about to go into the theory – it was one of his best pieces of seal work and the brilliance of it would be totally lost on his godson.

“If we want to know how you are, we just feel the hoop, putting a little chakra into it, and it will pulse with your heart beat to let us know how you’re doing. This can’t be tapped into like other tracking methods, and only the people these monitoring earrings are specially attuned to can use them. Even if someone else got a hold of mine or your Kaa-san’s, they wouldn’t be more than pretty pieces of jewelry to them.”

“That’s it?” Naruto narrowed his eyes, “it took you almost 8 years to come up with an individual specific heart monitor?”

The Sannin growled and lunged at his pupil, wrestling him to the bed and attaching the cuff, though he nearly lost a limb to Ivy in the process. “No, that’s not all! It will also give us a sense of what direction you’re located in, AND it can’t be ripped out or broken! It’s got its own little barrier once it’s activated. This way if you go blabbing your secrets to the wrong people and manage to get yourself grabbed by Akatsuki or the Snake Bastard, we’ll be able find you. Besides, it’s not like that’s the ONLY thing I was working on all these years! I’d have had it done much more quickly if I’d focused on it exclusively, Brat!”

Naruto sat up and glared at him petulantly while rubbing his now throbbing ear. He quickly activated a healing jutsu to seal off the tiny wounds. Cartilage piercings HURT, and he definitely didn’t want an infection. “Hey, even YOU admitted that Gaara was trustworthy. You know I don’t just go around singing out my secrets to random people on the street. We’ve already had that argument so it’s not fair to bring it up over and over!”

“I’ll bring it up as often as I think is necessary to keep you from risking yourself like that again! Even if you only tell other Jinchuuriki, that’s still six or seven other times you could be overheard or betrayed. I’m deadly serious about this.” The older man growled.

“I know, and I promised not to do it again! Jeeze. I’ll never live that down.” Naruto muttered.

“Not if it saves your life someday, you won’t.” Jiraiya agreed, “—but your mom and I will feel much better with this precaution in place.” He reached over and flicked at the hoop, causing Naruto to flinch away and scowl at him some more.

“It’s not going to spy on me or let you talk to me in my head or something stupid like that, is it?” He grumbled.

Jiraiya rolled his eyes, “Don’t be so paranoid, and give Kankuro back his freaky science fiction books. They're obviously giving you strange ideas.” He calmly exchanged his normal earring for one identical to the genin’s, then sent a pulse of chakra through the whole set-up which had been primed by Naruto’s blood when his ear had been pierced. A glance at the boy told him he didn’t feel a thing, but the Sannin could distinctly get a general sense of the kid’s well-being through the small bit of metal, almost like a tiny medic-nin’s diagnostic jutsu. It was a little more extensive than a ‘heart monitor’, but the brat didn’t need to know that. Learning that medic-jutsu and figuring out the seal sequence for a similar effect was actually what had taken him the most time on this thing!

Naruto was still pouting, so the older man scooted over to him and roughed up his hair, “Don’t be like that. If Akatsuki or someone nabs you, don’t you want us to be able to get you out before they can dig the fur-ball out of your belly?” He poked the kid in the stomach right over the seal making him squirm off the bed.

“Stop it!” Naruto straightened out his shirt and calmed Ivy down. She had gotten used to the sennin over the years, but he’d never be her favorite person, especially if he kept dragging her energy supply off to horrible places like this desert! Luckily for Jiraiya, she didn’t really want to move in this heat to punish him for touching her chakra source again.

“It’ll make your mom feel a lot better about you being a ninja if she can know when you’re hurt and quickly track you down to help if she needs to.” The old man pointed out gently, when Naruto showed no signs of coming out of his pout.

The kid sighed and reached up to itch at the new jewelry. “I guess, but It’s not fair that you guys can know when I’m safe, but I can’t keep track of you, and this feels like it’s just begging to get caught on things.” He pointed out.

“Well, now that I know how to do it, I might be able to make more of these things eventually. We might talk about getting your mom one, alright? As for getting caught on things, that chain is short for a reason, and that’s what the protections on it are for.”

“Well, okay. If you can make a copy for Kaa-san, can you make one for you too?” Naruto asked, looking up at his only real male role model.

Jiraiya felt weirdly touched, though the idea of a genin, even one as talented and battle-genius as his student was, someday needing to protect a Sannin of his caliber was kind of laughable. He wanted to flat out tell him ‘no’. It would be ridiculous and dangerous if Naruto thought he needed to come charging in every time Tsunade or he had a paper-cut, or were involved in a fight that was out of his league.

He could understand where the kid was coming from though. “We’ll see, but it’s the job of the adults to look after the kids – not the other way around – and sometimes things are necessary and you shouldn’t be poking your nose into them, so you hardly need to know about them. I’ll think about it, though, if it’ll make you feel better.”

“Thanks, Jiji. That means a lot of me.” Naruto grinned, and then reluctantly resumed packing. They’d be leaving really early in the morning because Jiraiya wanted to put some miles between them and Suna before the sun got too high and it got too hot to travel. He’d already had to say goodbye to his friends, though he had a feeling Gaara would see them off at the gates anyway. He wished he could keep track of them somehow too. It was too bad these earring things seemed so hard to make – it would be awesome if he could keep track of all of his precious people all the time. Losing someone close to him was his greatest fear – even more so than bees.

†

Long before the sun rose the next day, Naruto and Jiraiya cleaned out their room and checked out at the front desk before trekking their way through the quiet streets towards Suna’s main gate. At the Sannin’s side, Naruto let out a soft sigh that wasn’t missed by his godfather.

“Hey, cheer up, kiddo. You’ll see them again.” The older man reached over and affectionately ruffled the blond’s hair.

“I know, and I’m really excited to see Kaa-san and ‘Zune again… but these are the first really close friends my own age that I’ve ever met, and I’m pretty worried about them with all the weird stuff happening here.”

“Gaara will take care of them, and your girl’s a spit-fire! She can protect of herself.” Jiraiya pointed out. “She’d hit you if she knew you were talking like that.”

Naruto rolled his eyes, “She’s NOT my girl; she’s my friend! You can have girls that are just friends, you know!”

“Hmm….” Jiraiya, rubbed his chin, “Well, maybe until you hit puberty, but after that, it’s definitely impossible.” He grinned. “I’d bet you I’m right, but with your weird luck, you’d have to win the bet so it might turn you gay. I’m not risking it, because then I’d definitely have no one to pass my secret research techniques on to!”

“ERO-JIJI!”

“Hey, hey! I’m just kidding. Jeeze. Kids are so sensitive now’a’days.”

“Naruto.”

Jiraiya and the named genin both jumped at Gaara’s sudden voice out of the darkness. ‘Damn that kid is sneaky.’ The Sannin thought.

“Gaara! I thought I told you not to DO that!” Naruto gasped, grasping his shirt over his frantically beating heart. That damn sand teleportation jutsu was just plain cheating.

“Hn.” Shukaku’s Jinchuuriki apologized. “I wished to see you off.”

Jiraiya walked a few paces ahead to give them some space to say their goodbyes.

“Thanks, Gaara.” Naruto smiled at him, “I’m going to miss you, but we’ll definitely keep in touch.”

The other boy nodded, and rummaged around in the pouch at his waist for a moment before pulling out two items; a book, and an oddly painted bowl. “These are for you.”

“Huh? You got me something?” Naruto accepted the objects and looked them over closely. The book was actually hand-written and seemed to be filled with tons of low to high-level wind techniques in Temari’s sharp, confident scrawl.

“The bowl is from Kankuro and I. The book was made by Temari.”

“Hey! How cool! These are all the wind jutsu me and your sister have been talking about!” He flipped through the pages for a moment, scanning the names of each attack or defense. Temari had taught him some of them already, like Fuuton: Daitoppa, the Great Breakthrough technique that let you level most things with a huge blast of wind. Some of the stuff in there wasn’t very useful for someone without a fan, but still, it was a really precious gift from one ninja to another. It showed a lot of trust for Temari to give him a copy of one of Suna’s technique books, especially a technique book with her own special moves listed inside. “This is—Gaara, are you sure she meant for me to have this?”

“Hn. She said you would need all the help you could get to match her next time when she will have her new hand-to-hand battle fans.” She’d taken the chakra-conductive weapons discussion to heart and requisitioned a set of fan-shaped blades that very week.

“Wow…well, tell her thank you. I mean it. I’ll take really good care of it.” He fit action to words and slipped the small book carefully into his pack so it couldn’t be damaged by the blowing sands just outside the gate. With that done, he began to look over the bowl from Gaara and Kankuro. It was shaped like a ramen bowl, but the inside was covered in the extremely neat and precise symbols Naruto could already recognize as Gaara’s painting of fuuinjutsu. “Seals? What’s this do?” He asked, unable to fathom what you’d need a seal on a ramen bowl for.

“Boiling water.” The red-head answered. “I was distressed to realize instant ramen would not be practical rations on missions in the desert.”

Naruto gasped, hearts appearing in his eyes as he gazed raptly down at what was likely the coolest gift EVER. “You mean--?”

“Hn. My first original seal. Kankuro purchased the pottery. When you activate the array, you will instantly have hot water for noodles.”

Naruto almost felt like tearing up, but lunged at Gaara and gave him a big hug instead. Ivy crunched irritably between them, and Shukaku began whistling ‘My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.’ Gaara winced, but he was becoming used to it.

“I don’t know how to thank you! This—This is SO cool!!”

“Remember us when you use it.” Gaara said, not daring to mention in public like this the things he had to thank the other boy for, instead placing his own hand discreetly over his own navel, where Naruto’s seal was located on the other boy’s body.

“I will. I promise.” Naruto grinned hugely and wiped at his eyes. “Chiyo-baasan must be really proud of how far you’ve come with seals in such a short amount of time!”

Gaara decided not to reply to that one. He was fairly certain Chiyo-baasama wouldn’t be at all impressed with his first practical application of what she was teaching him, so he hadn’t exactly told her about this project.

He had to agree though, it was very ‘cool.’ He’d made two of them for himself, just in case one of them broke.

Seals were very useful.

†

“Whew!” Shizune climbed down the ramp from the ship onto the icy shore of Snow Country, absently adjusting her chakra output to keep her warmer while smoothing down her nice, toasty parka. An evil and slightly malicious smile curved her lips until she turned around to face her very uncomfortable looking mentor with her usual sweet expression planted firmly on her face, “Isn’t it beautiful, Tsunade-sama?”

The blonde Sannin stomped down after her, TonTon shivering miserably in her arms. “No. It’s cold.” She flatly stated, already starting to shiver slightly in the below freezing temperatures despite her equally warm manner of dress. “I said I was sorry! Don’t you think this is going a little too far?”

“Too far? Tsunade-sama, I’m ashamed of you. You said we could go ANYWHERE I wanted for the year to make up for you heartlessly leaving me all alone when you went to Konoha, cruelly not so much as scribbling down a note to let me know where everyone had gone! I was traumatized. This is only fair…and I LIKE winter. You don’t get to complain that we’re doing what I want to do for once. That was the deal.”

Tsunade whimpered, “but…it’s cold… I hate snow.”

“I know.” Shizune smiled in a disturbingly innocent manner. “Isn’t it wonderful? I don’t think they even have casinos here.”

Tsunade hadn’t ever realized her mild-mannered apprentice had such a fucking huge cruel streak… She made a mental note to never do anything like that again, or at least if she did, not to say anything to the tune of ‘What can I do to make it up to you?’ afterwards. She really should have known better.

The wind blew so hard against them that ice crystals stung her cheeks, and she had to glue her feet to the ground with chakra to keep from staggering. Trapped here, in the horrible land of eternal winter for a YEAR? Tsunade was sure she’d go insane within the WEEK. There was nothing to do but heal ice-fishermen, and nothing to see but endless stretches of snow and ice covered rocks. If she knew Shizune, and she did after all these years, no amount of whining was going to get them back to warmer climates, so she supposed she’d just have to suck it up. They’d be stuck here until moving back to Konoha since they had promised Jiraiya they wouldn’t move around so that he and Naruto could easily find them.

Even TonTon was giving her dirty looks over this one. It wasn’t fair that the pig blamed her for this predicament. This DEFINITELY wasn’t her idea! Grr. Stupid apprentices taking advantage of the kind-hearted and generous nature of their sensei to maliciously drag them to such god-forsaken places where there was literally nothing to do but shiver and work all day. She really did have the worst luck.

†

A/N: Well, there you have it. No more Suna for a while - that particular plot needs some more time to bake before it's ready to come out of the oven. ;) We're back to Konoha in the next chapter!  Thanks to everyone who let me know you were still out there and reading!  I really appreciate it. :)