"Well… This is it."

Genzi stood near the edge of the pier, staring at the colorful city's tall buildings in the distance. He had always loved Konoha; it was somehow just so appealing, the way the little streets accentuated the orange walls, and, in the distance, the stone memorial of the past Hokages.

He turned around to look at the four people standing quietly in a straight line. They were staring at the village the same way he was, their brows creased as they fell into deep thought.

"It's been a pleasure having you two with us. We've paid the Hokage and so I'm sure she'll have your payments ready, too," Genzi told them quietly. Temari smiled gratefully and Shikamaru nodded once. Otherwise they were as silent as the stars in the night sky.

After the moments of silence, however, Jerome squeaked his disapproval and let go of his mother's hand, rushing towards Temari and giving her a hug that barely reached past her belly. "I don't want you to go! It's not fair," he wept, burying his face into her black kimono.

Temari glanced at Shikamaru, and then kneeled down to be at eye-level with the small boy. He wiped his tears away.

"We'll meet again someday. I promise. Come visit Konoha sometime, and I'll come straight over from Suna. Shikamaru and I will hang out with you. Does that sound fair?" She poked his nose playfully, causing him to smile.

"Yeah."

She nodded, stood back up, and Aruki pulled him back into her arms. A couple of more goodbyes passed between the friends. They hugged, they thanked, and so on and so forth. Aruki caught Temari's eye and they both smiled.

"You were right, you know," Temari whispered, glancing at Shikamaru. "I guess we do have something going for us."

Aruki nodded knowingly. "He would take good care of you."

A minute later, the two Shinobi had begun their long walk across the docks, towards home.

"Oi, Shikamaru. Wait," Genzi called from behind, and Shikamaru stopped to listen. Genzi rushed towards him and held out his hand. In his palm was a small necklace.

"You're giving me the Heart of Gold?" Shikamaru asked, slightly bewildered.

Genzi smiled. "Yes, I am. I don't need it with me. None in my family are ninja. Besides, it's a dangerous heirloom, and to be honest, I no longer want any part of it. It's a shadowed memory for me now."

He dropped the necklace into Shikamaru's outstretched hand, and backed away. "Thanks for everything, Shikamaru. You're a life-saver, you know that?" He held out his hand again.

Shikamaru took it and they shook on their friendship one last time. Finally Shikamaru returned at Temari's side, and they watched as the Usura family boarded their vessel and sailed away.

"Genzi sure did give you two a good report," Tsunade said, resting her chin on two fists. "You should read his papers about each of you. He's thoroughly impressed with Konoha's ninja and he plans to continue calling on us for assistance in the future. I must say I'm surprised that you two did it so well."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," both ninja echoed each other, dipping their heads respectfully. They stood closer together than they had just weeks before, when the mission had just been issued. Tsunade seemed to notice it because she sat back and studied them for a long moment of silence.

Shikamaru tried to speak but she raised her right hand to silence him.

"The reason why I'm stunned you two did a fantastic job," Tsunade said with a smile, "is because you two argue more than cats and dogs do. Now that the mission is over, Shikamaru, you're standing up a bit more straight, Temari isn't hitting you every five seconds, and you both seem to have a greater respect for each other. I suppose the mission inside of the mission was a success."

Her smile widened as she watched the faces of the two youngsters.

"What? You sent just the two of us on purpose?" Temari was the first to ask, her hand now on a hip. Shikamaru pouted a lip and turned to look at Temari as if she was in a different light.

"Yes. Yes, I did," Tsunade admitted, sitting back into her chair, crossing her legs, and putting her arms behind her head. "It was actually a mutual agreement between Gaara and I. We want to work on our village's ties."

Shikamaru frowned. "So you both picked two candidates to represent each village, right?"

"Well, kind of. To be honest the point of putting you two together on that B-ranked mission was just because I like to mess around with you and I thought you two could need it. I just used the 'village ties' thing as an excuse…"

Temari looked aghast. "Okay, that's fine, but what does this all mean? Village ties? Are you and Gaara trying to reform the villages' alliance?"

"Bingo," Tsunade said sitting back up to start shifting through some papers on her desk.

There was a long pause in the conversation. But as Tsunade sorted through her paperwork, Shikamaru and Temari glanced sneakily at each other, unable to hide the goofy smiles on their faces. Neither of them thought it would happen so soon, but it was happening now.

Konohagakure and Sunagakure were allies again.

"But listen, you two are only allowed to know this right now. None of the other Chuunin know about it, not even Genin Naruto. Only you and the Jounins have been contacted about this. Don't look so excited, because this is a rocky road we're heading to. First of all, this means loads of more paperwork for you," she pointed at Temari, "and this means plenty of more missions for you," her finger was now pointing at Shikamaru a bit more accusingly. Shikamaru's posture immediately slumped, but Temari was still smiling. "There's still a lot of things to be done. And Shikamaru, since Temari is an ambassador and the sister of the Kazekage and you're her assigned guide, her must show her double the respect from now and tend to her requests."

"What, so now I'm a slave?" he groaned, slapping the top of his head as if he had a sudden headache. Temari just put an arm around him.

"Don't worry, Tsunade-sama, Shikamaru is going to enjoy tending to my whims. I'll make good use of him." She smiled evilly and Tsunade raised a brow.

"Well, then, you two are dismissed. I hope to see more of you around here, Temari," she said, nodding to her guest.

Shikamaru and Temari left the room right away, and Tsunade had a chance to sit back and think things through. Shizune entered the room, but Tsunade didn't really notice. She pulled out a blank sheet of paper, picked up her pen, and began to write.

"Dear Respected Kazekage… Temari is back from the mission and…"

Shizune quietly interrupted. "Umm, Hokage-sama…"

Tsunade stopped writing and looked up. "Yes, what is it?"

"Jiraiya, err… Well, Jiraiya has gotten drunk again and is on top of this building, right now, in the nude, raving about you again."

Tsunade rolled her eyes rather casually and stood up to head for her door. "I swear, one day I'm going to…"

"But he's not alone this time," Shizune interrupted.

Tsunade turned on her heels to look at her assistant, a bit confused. This was new. Jiraiya never had any company to get drunk with. "Who is it?"

Shizune bit her lip, but a small smile creased her lips. "It's Naruto."

Tsunade stared at her for the longest moment. "…He got Naruto drunk?

When Shizune nodded, Tsunade began to laugh and she walked back to her chair to pick it up. "Well, I'll be damned, we can't miss the show, can we? Come on, Shizune, I need to send a couple of messages around. I think Naruto's friends would love to see this, don't you think so?"

"But..." Shizune began. Tsunade shook her head.

"Don't worry, that'll be punishment enough for the poor kid. I'll deal with Jiraiya later."

Okay, finally the end.
Expect a sequel but don't expect it necessarily soon. In the meantime I'll be working on oneshots for your enjoyment!

A million thanks to my wonderful reviewers. You were some great support and I'll be sure to repay you folks with some more of my writing. It's because of your thoughts and criticism that I've become a little bit better of a writer out of this story.

See you all sometime later!

(P.S. - I mean... Come on. Naruto DRUNK. Isn't that just... Fun?)