The two men taking a leisurely walk in Rain Country paused for a moment's rest in their travels, black cloaks rippling in the breeze, sun shining on bright red clouds.

"Itachi," a deep gravelly voice said. The man who spoke had sharp teeth and blue skin. Hoshigaki Kisame.

Uchiha Itachi didn't speak; but he did turn, acknowledging his comrade.

"...You have a brother, right?"

"Hn," Itachi said in return. That was as good as agreement.

"And if I recall, he's the kyuubi jinchuuriki's teammate, our next target."

The air started to heat up with irritated, latent chakra. Samehada complained, chakra rolling irritably. Heh. Heh. Itachi always gets bitchy when his brother's mentioned, Kisame thought. "What is your point, Kisame?"

"There are some interesting rumors coming out of Wave Country. Leader was pretty mad Gato was taken out. He had plans." Itachi just stared blankly at him. "Samehada says your brother has one of the Seven Swords of the Seven Swordsmen. Zabuza's old blade. Of course, Samehada also swears up and down your brother's name is Zakkusu." Kisame grinned, showing sharp sharp teeth.

"...It's a sword." Itachi paused in his walking. "Why are you telling me this?"

The tall man shrugged. "Just thought you might be interested to know."

"Kisame," Itachi said.

"Yeah?"

"...We're going to Konoha."

"Heh."

Cloud narrowed his eyes. He'd finally placed that western continent accent, that even-toned voice. "Nanaki? Is that you?"

Aerith held her hand to her mouth and gasped, "Red?"

The red-haired boy inclined his sandy head. "Yes. Where are we, Cloud?"

"What the hell is going on?" Temari blurted out, so beyond terror that she had come right back to some desperate kind of sanity, sans survival instinct. She honestly didn't care anymore if Gaara killed her. She just wanted the world to make sense again.

"Konohagakure," the blonde with the heavy makeup said to Gaara. "Elemental Countries. Long story, and we're just figuring it out ourselves." Turning to her teammate, the tiny one in the black silk and red embroidered cheongsam, she said. "We shouldn't talk here. We got a place we can go to talk this out?"

"I don't know, man; I'd say the Uchiha district but ANBU, you know? It'd be weird." The tiny one ran her fingers through her hair, messing up her pins. "They still keep an eye on that place. I didn't think about secure places to stay." She crossed her arms, bouncing on her heels, her massive sword on her back dwarfing her and inches from scraping the ground. Temari wielded a giant battle fan, but even she thought that was excessive.

The blonde scowled. "It's Konoha. How hard can it be?" Temari flinched back from her expression, but it didn't appear to bother either one of her teammates that the monster was showing its displeasure. "There has to be somewhere."

"A place to stay was in the briefing." The brown-haired kunoichi said.

"But is it secure, or is it Atsuko-sensei just being a bastard again?" The tiny one said. "'Underneath the underneath.' Heh. Counterintelligence sub-mission my ass. She's testing us."

Temari flinched. They were on to them. Should she come out now about the invasion and betray her village, or wait until Gaara did it? Which one would please him more?

"Counterintelligence?" Gaara growled. "Turks? Black Ops? Deepground?" he demanded. Kankuro looked like he was going to faint as Gaara took a step towards them, sand swirling aggressively around him, still half covering his body, tail lashing from side to side as a sandy mane of hair formed and raced down his back.

Temari didn't know what Turks or Deepground were, but black ops sounded like an ANBU connection.

"Nanaki, we're all ninja," the brown-haired one explained, her green eyes earnest, using that strange name for Gaara again. It was like a code word. Were they in collusion? "And right now, you can call me Aiko, her Sora, and her Hikaru," she said, pointing out her friends. "We'll explain in depth later. Just roll with it for now." Pseudonyms. That led credence to Temari's theory. Gaara was working with them, relaying sensitive information in code. How had they not seen this?

Gaara looked puzzled at that pronouncement. "Ninja. Wutai…" he said slowly, "Their influence was already starting to grow after your...departure." The monster—Sora—nodded. "They were very widespread by mine. That makes sense."

Departure? Temari wondered. Strange names? It was definitely code. They had met before. But how had Gaara done it right under their nose? And why the hostilities at first? Was Wutai the name for Sound?

"Wutai, huh? That explains a lot. The language, the fashion," Sora said. "Yuffie really did make it a new empire after the fall of Shin-Ra."

"I wonder how many years it's been?" Gaara mused. "At least a millennium. I saw Midgar completely regained by the wilds. After my time? I don't even know." He turned his head and looked around, taking in the village as they walked. "Enough to change the entire landscape. The Cataclysm."

Temari had no idea what that translated to. Unless Gaara meant the political landscape. Of course. What else could it be? Millennium was obviously code for another shorter period of time. Who was Yuffie? It was a conspiracy.

Aiko started. "That long?" she asked.

Gaara rumbled a laugh. "I have told you before, my species is quite a long lived one. I was barely a teenager when we met. Much as now, I suppose."

The assassination attempts failed. His 'species' was jinchuuriki. And he found it funny. But the rest really didn't make sense.

"We shouldn't be talking about this in the street," the blonde warned. They moved off, Gaara following a short distance behind them, looking calm and as easy as you please, deferring to the blonde's lead like it was nothing, with none of the aggression Temari was used to seeing from her younger brother.

Temari grabbed Kankuro's arm. "Should we follow? She asked, voice shaking.

Kankuro knocked off her hand. "How the hell should I know? How does he even know them?"

"I wish I knew. We weren't prepared for this. And you know about the attack on Konoha twelve years ago."

"Nine beats one," Kankuro said grimly.

Temari bit her lip. "You think that has anything to do with it? Should we go to Baki-sensei?"

"What's he going to do?" Kankuro said, "Run to his superiors? Tell the Kazekage that "Sorry, Gaara got cowed by the bigger monster, so the whole thing is off?"

"What's off?" A voice said brightly behind them. It was the black-haired girl, Hikaru. Temari and Kankuro blanched. How had she missed her? She leaned forward, crossing her arms, tapping her foot. "Seriously interested here, guys."

Kankuro uttered a very dirty string of words. Temari absolutely agreed.

"Yeah," Hikaru said, reaching up and grabbing them both by the backs of their necks, leading them forward with a surprising amount of strength. "Thought so. I think you should both come with us to have a nice, little talk." She pushed them forward where Gaara was waiting with his arms crossed and a stern look on his face.

Gaara's green eyes narrowed. "Don't dawdle again."

"Y-yes, Gaara-sama," Temari managed to get out.

They walked through Konohagakure for what seemed like hours, twisting through winding streets. It all blurred together for Temari; she was insensate with fear.

The building they were led to was a dusty, damaged ruin. It was a small traditional house. The windows were boarded up, it clearly had roof damage, and it was on a small parcel of land close to a training ground. The front door was sealed, so the the blonde bit her finger and pressed it against the seal.

The barrier dissipated, and the blonde opened the door.

"Ugh," Sora said. The house was covered in dust and cobwebs and was in dreadful need of maintenance.

"So much dust," Hikaru agreed, sneezing into Temari's hair as she pushed them forward into the house, slipping off her shoes with her feet so she wouldn't damage the tatami. "Man, this place must not have been touched in ages."

"It will do for now," Aiko said she turned to the Suna-nin. "Red? Or would that be Gaara?"

Gaara frowned. Temari shrank back, but all he said was "I have no preference."

"Atsuko gave us a dump," Hikaru complained, sucking in snot through her nose. Temari wrinkled her own nose in disgust. She had noble, beautiful features, but they certainly didn't match her manners.

"It was my parents'," Sora said, face impassive.

"What, seriously?" Hikaru said, craning her neck to look at Sora.

"Aa. They died that night. I wasn't supposed to be informed of my inheritance until I could handle the enemies my parents made. But needs apparently must," Sora said.

"Or this is Sensei's way of saying she expects us to become chuunin," Aiko mused. "'Underneath the underneath.'"

"That, too," Sora agreed. "We shouldn't disappoint."

"So," Hikaru said, drawing out the word. "Now that we're here, Gaara's siblings have something to tell us. And also, you owe me an explanation for how you know him because seriously, totally in the dark here."

Gaara inclined his head. "Cloud's group rescued me alongside Aerith from Shin-Ra's labs. I joined their organization later. I assume you must be his SOLDIER friend of which he spoke so highly."

Hikaru nodded stiffly, and then her eyes cut to Aiko. "You were in the labs?" There was something dark in the little kunoichi's voice.

"Not for long. Cloud and his team were very diligent in rescuing me," Aiko wrung her hands. Temari didn't recall Gaara ever being gone long enough for labs to come into the picture. The first bit of doubt creeped in, mingling with her fear, leaving her nothing but confused.

"Still, they took you? Damn it, Tseng, Cissnei, you promised!" she was clenching her fists so tightly her nails cut into her skin, and her palms bled freely. She laughed darkly. "Turks. Bunch of dirty filthy liars. I thought Cissnei distracted them. She probably led them right to us and laughed about it!"

Sora placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's all right. There's nothing to be done about it now. We're here. We're alive."

"Zack, I'm safe," Aiko said, pressing her lips to the other's forehead. "I'm here with you." She hugged the smaller girl, pulling her to her. Hikaru or whoever nodded, and then pasted a strained smile on her face. It was like her face was unused to smiling.

"And we still have other things to talk about, isn't that right, Temari?" Gaara said, crossing his arms and levelling a glare.

Temari froze at becoming the center of attention. All eyes were on her, even Kankuro's. Her heart raced, sweat formed on her head and dripped in her eyes; she was dead either way. The tension racked up as they didn't blink, just watched her with expectant, emotionless gazes, save Kankuro whose face showed pain and remorse. He had no intention of joining in, though. Plausible deniability. And then Sora narrowed her eyes, and her fingers twitched, and Temari lost her nerve.

"T-there's going to be an invasion," she blurted out. "Sand and Sound. During the exhibition matches in the chuunin exam."

"Things just got a hell of a lot more complicated," Sora said, face impassive, voice even.

Hikaru swore, loud and long, before pacing through the room twice and then doing… squats? Aiko nodded like it was what she expected, her face grim, but Sora, Sora just crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall, totally unaffected, and turned to Temari's brother. "Nanaki, did you know?"

Gaara shook his head. "No. I can only suspect I was the trump-card. My seal is unstable. Even now, it wouldn't take much for the one-tail to release itself if I lost even the slightest bit of concentration. He's noisy and spoilt, like a child, crying out for blood. I have no idea how I ever thought this thing was my mother. She was gentle and kind."

"Red?" Aiko ventured. "Do you think maybe healing techniques would work?"

Gaara shook his head. "I cannot sleep. My mind must remain guarded at all times. There is nothing to heal. If there is any solution to be found, it will be with more modern techniques."

"And none of us are seal masters," Sora said. "Damn."

"I can still try," Aiko said, her face determined. "With my limit."

"Do we go to someone else?" Hikaru asked, finished with her set of exercises, having climbed to the top of the sofa to sit. "A jounin? Atsuko-sensei or whatever? They can direct us to a seal master?"

"Do we trust them with it, more importantly," Aiko said. "We were assigned a secondary mission for exactly this. Reporting it is our mandate. If we don't, it could possibly be considered treason."

"So we report it in vague terms, then tell Atsuko-sensei we're handling it," Sora said. "She's given us lateral authority on this mission. We only need her for clearance."

"Which is freakin' bizarre as genin," Hikaru muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. "This is S-rank at the very least. Way outside our pay grade. A foreign invasion, man." She ruffled her fringe, then blew the hair out of her eyes, frowning in annoyance.

Aiko sighed. "I have a feeling it's because we also are responsible for more of the paperwork that way."

Hikaru nodded. "Learning experience my ass. But how do we explain that guy?" Hikaru said, jerking her thumb at Gaara. They seemed to have forgotten all about her and Kankuro. "And where we got our information from?"

"We actually still don't have all that much information. Temari, anything else to add?" Aiko asked, her green eyes glittering.

And just like that, the attention of the whole room was back on Temari.

"W-we were told only our section of it. No one was told the whole thing," she managed to get out as Gaara's killing intent spiked. "We were just supposed to keep him calm until the finals. His transformation was to be the signal to invade."

Gaara's killing intent spiked again as sand exploded from him, and then miraculously, he let out a few deep breaths, and calmed himself down, the sand settling in place around him, making him look half animal again. "A tool. That's all I ever was to you people, wasn't it?" He let out another breath that sounded almost like a sob. He growled and held his head at the temples, falling to his knees. "A father that constantly tried to kill me. An uncle that almost succeeded. Siblings that don't care whether I live or die so long as they do."

Kankuro flinched back, hard. Temari wasn't doing much better herself.

"I am not human," Gaara roared, his voice dual-layered. He fought to get control of himself. "I never was."

Aiko ignored the flailing sand that cut at her skin and face, kneeling down, gathering Gaara up in her arms. She glowed green, wind picking up in the room, rattling the furniture and paper screens. Both Sora and Hikaru stood at ready in taijutsu stances, kunai drawn, but they were letting Aiko do as she wished. The wind swirled around the room, pulsing before settling underneath Gaara's skin. After a long moment, Gaara calmed down, sagging into her lap as all the sand fell away. "I'm so tired," he murmured.

Just what was this kunoichi? Temari wondered. Was this strange technique why their biju was so calm?

"It'll make sense, Red," Aiko said, stroking his hair. "Both pieces of your lives are coming together. It's not an easy transition. Worse for you, I think." She pulled back, her brown hair falling in her eyes. "You all right now?" He nodded, and leaned into her touch, visibly relaxing.

It was unexpectedly tender, and Temari felt something pang in her heart. She did love her brother underneath all her fear, longing for the connection, and this strange girl just disarmed him so easily. She clutched at her chest, stunned to realize it was jealousy. Aiko could choke him or slit his throat if she wanted with little trouble. He left himself entirely vulnerable in a way he never did for them. Why did Gaara trust them so much? How did two foreign kunoichi gain his undying loyalty?

Sora relaxed, pocketing his kunai and continuing on as if nothing of import had happened. "Giving information in pieces is standard procedure of a terrorist cell. AVALANCHE did it all the time, as you recall."

"So we're back to what we need to do," Hikaru mused. She jerked her head at Kankuro. "Hey you, make-up guy. You've been quiet. What's your beef with Konoha?" She pointed at him.

Kankuro sputtered, "It's face paint!"

"Tomato, tomahto," Hikaru waved him away, then gave a lopsided grin. "Mmm, tomatoes."

Aiko said, "Vegetables aside—"

"It's a fruit!" Hikaru said, sing-song. She wiggled her finger. "You should know better."

Aiko rolled her eyes, but corrected herself. "Fruit aside, Konoha is one of the great five and an ally of Suna. Even allied with a village like Otogakure, you couldn't possibly think you'd win. It's not bragging; it's a simple run of the logistics, which make or break any army, even shinobi ones. Any invasion is almost guaranteed to fail. Sorry to say, Suna shinobi, but I think you're being played. Unless Kiri, Iwa, or Kumo join in, but that is highly doubtful, considering Kiri is in the aftermath of a civil war, Iwa is more interested in gathering power and seeing which way the wind falls, and Kumo is hesitant after not getting the war they wanted a decade ago."

"Nice pun," Hikaru said.

"The Wind Daimyo has been outsourcing missions to Fire," Kankuro said through gritted teeth.

"Ah," Sora made a noise of realisation. "Desperation."

"That would do it," Hikaru said.

"Considering the geographical make of Wind Country, much of their food must be imported. They're starving," Aiko said.

Temari turned her head, ashamed that these stupid foreign ninja had figured them out so easily.

"And proud," Gaara said.

"We have an alliance and plenty of food," Aiko pointed out.

"There are elements of Konoha I don't trust, just sayin'," Hikaru said, holding up her hands. "If I were Suna, I wouldn't necessarily trust us either. They ask for help, get a one-sided treaty. It's a rock and a hard place. No good answer." She tapped her chin. "Well, except not invading, but then again, we're back to Konohan goodwill."

"I agree with Hikaru," Sora said. "Konoha has too many secrets for me to trust. We'll inform Atsuko-sensei, but there's something about this whole thing that rubs me the wrong way. Something we're not getting."

"We'll tell her that with the report. She might have access to information we don't. What do we do with Gaara's siblings?" Aiko asked.

Sora blinked. "They're Gaara's siblings. We leave them alone."

As if it were that easy. "Don't they know too much?" Hikaru asked, fingering the hilt of her massive sword like she was just itching to use it. "We did talk about past stuff in front of 'em."

Temari felt the blood drain from her face. Kankuro looked like he was sick and tired of being talked around, instead of to. Or maybe he was also eyeing the sword.

"If they told on us, they'd be damning themselves. Even what little Temari has told us is enough to get her executed for treason. Kankuro, are you that cold?" Sora asked. "Would you be willing to lose your family?"

Kankuro clenched his jaw. He looked away. "No. I won't talk."

"We will keep you alive. We won't let this affect you. We aren't monsters," Sora said

Temari surprised everyone, including herself, when she burst into laughter. It was wild and uncontrolled, and as she doubled over clutching her stomach, Gaara looked at her like she was the one who was crazy. Kankuro took an involuntary step back. "It doesn't matter what we do," she said by way of explanation. "If they don't kill us, he will," she said, gesturing at Gaara. "We're already dead. What does it matter?"

She felt a hand on her back, turned, and jumped to see it was Gaara, looking at her with a strange mix of bemusement and compassion. That look, coming from him, from a face that looked so much like their mother was too much after constantly being in flight versus fight.

Her laughs turned into sobs, and she didn't notice Kankuro's wide eyes and aborted attempt to reach out as Gaara gathered her into a hug. She left damp spots against his shoulder as his sand reached up to cradle her, and she closed her eyes and waited for the end. Any moment his sand would crush her.

It never came. "You are alive, and as long as you are, you have freedom to make your own choices," Gaara said, green eyes filled with something that might be called warmth. "To some, this is a betrayal of the highest order. To others, this might be the very thing that saves our village. I trust them to find a way."

"I've never heard of them! How can you trust them!" Temari said, hitting his shoulder, having forgotten her fear entirely in her mania. "Over us! Why?"

Gaara just looked at her, expression unreadable. He just said, "I will no longer hurt you, physically or otherwise, so long as you make no attempts on my life."

"You never having heard of us just means we're that good at what we do!" Hikaru said cheerfully.

"Do you promise to keep quiet?" Sora said to her. Temari nodded. Her eyes skittered over to Kankuro, who also reaffirmed his decision by nodding. "Good. Keep yourselves safe. Act like nothing is wrong. I'm going to give Atsuko-sensei our report. We still have a week. Meet us at the training ground just outside this property tomorrow; that should be cleared for foreign nin to use, and we'll discuss details."

Umino Iruka hadn't actually seen Uzumaki Naruto in several months. He heard they had a long mission out of Konoha—his first—and then Hatake Kakashi, that irresponsible idiot, had nominated a genin team with less than six months of experience for the chuunin exams. Chuunin were squad leaders that led genin and other chuunin. None of them possibly had the leadership experience. Not in that little amount of time.

Hatake said they were ready. Sure, maybe he was only entering them for the experience, but people died in that exam all the time. Iruka didn't believe it and had been all too willing to test them. Only, he'd looked everywhere the past couple of days and hadn't been able to find Naruto or his team. It was like they were ghosts. He was about to give up when he saw short blond hair.

No, blonde hair, and soft rounded shoulders of a very familiar feminine form.

"NARUTO! You need to stop fooling around!" Iruka said, reaching for the shoulder of his sexy technique.

Before Iruka could touch him, Naruto whirled around and raised his arm, blocking his hand with his forearm, deflecting it easily, casting narrowed blue eyes on Iruka. "I'm sorry. Do I know you, chuunin-san?" said a polite, feminine voice.

Iruka stared. He'd swear up and down that was Naruto's sexy form, but…

Naruto didn't wear such heavy eye make-up. Naruto didn't have such a slender face in his sexy form. Also, he was wearing clothes—a battle dress of all things—and wasn't as busty. Or as tall as he made his sexy form. And his hair was short, rather than the pigtails Naruto added for "maximum sex appeal." And there were no lines on his face. They could be covered up by makeup or false skin, but Naruto had failed all his infiltration courses. Naruto was a good kid, but he liked being loud and the center of attention, and Iruka didn't think there had been enough time for even a legend like Copy-nin Kakashi to train Naruto to this level out of bad habits he'd had for ages. Not with how his scores had been in the Academy.

The girl's eyes widened, and she started backing away, palms up. What the—

"Sora-chan! You've found me a cute little chuunin! Good girl!" Iruka felt arms come up behind him, encircling his waist. He stiffened as he felt breasts against his back and a cheek rubbing against his. He turned red as she lifted him, but her grip was too tight for him to escape. Worrying, since he was a chuunin.

"Sensei, we've talked about this," the blonde girl who may or may not have been Naruto said with a long-suffering sigh. "Put it down," she commanded like one would a dog that was chewing on something they weren't supposed to, pointing to the ground. "Now." And Iruka was not an it.

"Aww, my dear little student, how you wound me!" her sensei said, but let him go, dropping him unceremoniously to the ground, but not before pinching his cheek and giving it a shake, making cooing noises.

Iruka turned, expecting to give Hatake Kakashi a piece of his mind for indulging Naruto's idiocy.

This was not Hatake. She looked nothing remotely like him.

A woman with clear grey eyes and long wavy white hair partially covering the left side of her face pouted back at him, her arms crossed under her generous assets. She wore sarashi from her waist up, easily visible through a short open kimono that reached about mid-thigh with a loosely tied haori over that. Both were sleeveless and gapped open, leaving the sarashi the only thing that protected her modesty. Her Konoha forehead protector was worn around the upper part of her bare left arm, and she had arm and leg guards with fingerless gloves that had metal plates for blocking weapons, pointing to a taijutsu specialist.

She wasn't wearing trousers, but a pair of very short shorts under the ensemble. Iruka politely kept from looking.

"Sensei," the girl said flatly. "You're stalking me."

The woman stuck her lip out even further and sniffled. "How did I end up with such a serious, uncute student? He was touching you. I had to defend your honour! Look at how much trouble you get into all by your lonesome!"

Iruka noticed she didn't deny the stalking charge.

"Ninja don't have honour," Sora said, palm over her face. "You just like messing with people."

"So uncute!" She said again in a huff. "I don't know what I did in a past life to deserve a team like you three!"

Sora just rolled her eyes. "I have no idea, but I'm going to guess it was being yourself," she said flatly.

Iruka had no idea who these two were, but something wasn't right. He'd never seen the jounin-sensei before, and while that wasn't so unusual, Sora would have at least had him during one of the academy rotations. He narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?" he asked, suspicion in his tone.

They ignored him completely.

"This is the path a teacher must walk," The woman said with a sigh, shaking her head. "With students that just don't care!"

"Yeah, well, you kind of remind me of a sandstorm, you sound so abrasive." Sora said.

The woman's eyebrows shot up. "Is that so? Surely I'm not that bad."

"You're worse." She scowled. "Still, regardless of your idiocy, you've kind of invaded my heart. It's just a talent of yours, I guess. Some grains of your personality aren't that bad." The blonde tilted her head. "Like maybe three."

"Just three?" The woman said flatly. "I love your faith in me."

"Well, maybe you should do something about it," Sora huffed.

"Well maybe I will!" said the jounin. "Ah, excuse me for a second, we left the cutie hanging~ Hi! I'm Atsuko!" She said, giving a short bow, head up. She cupped the back of her hand around her mouth and leaned in, saying sotto voce, "Counterintelligence Division."

"I've never heard of any division dedicated specifically to Counterintelligence," Iruka said, frowning. ANBU did, and T & I was specifically a part of the Intelligence sector, and they ran CI missions since it dealt in both, in which case she would have mentioned being part of Intelligence, but to claim to be a part of a made-up division...

"Exactly!" She sing-songed. "You may be seeing my students around. It's their first time out, and they aren't as stealthy or as practiced at keeping secrets as I am, so pay no mind, all right?"

Iruka blinked. She just tried to lie straight to his face, and poorly, too. If those were her "skills," her students' must be downright abysmal. "And you expect me to believe that?" Iruka said, crossing her arms.

"Ah, it seems I've been found out," she said, completely nonchalant. "Toodles!" And she and her student performed a body replacement, leaving Iruka facing two dummies with henohenomoheji faces.

Iruka blinked, and when they didn't disappear, he put his face in his hand, and then turned towards the path to the Hokage Tower.

"Now give me your proper report," Kakashi said, serious, once they'd entered the privacy seals of the training ground next to the old traditional house.

"I thought you weren't one for pranks, Atsuko-sensei." Cloud said, crossing his arms.

"There are three people that could possibly discover you based on familiarity. Umino, Ebisu, and Konohamaru. You've taken care of the last, I've just taken care of the first—don't give me that look, you know as well as I do his first stop will be the to the Hokage to report us and the Third will give him the cover more believably than I could. Avoid Ebisu at all costs."

"You're just getting back at the Hokage for all the paperwork, even if you passed most of it down to us."

Kakashi shot him a look, and then turned serious. "Now let me get this straight, make sure I interpreted the code correctly. Sand and Sound are invading?" he asked, voice all business.

"That's right, Sensei. During the exhibition matches of the chuunin exams, when they'll do the most damage. I heard it directly from the mouth of a Sand nin and his team." Kakashi shot him a sharp look. "Don't even think about it. It's not a lie. Telling us came with great personal risk to them. I want amnesty for them."

"And who are you to decide that?"

"You're the one that gave us lateral authority on this mission. It's what you get for being lazy. Besides, they're the Kazekage's kids."

Kakashi froze. "How in the world—"

Cloud shrugged. "The nine-tails is an effective threat. We don't have anything to fear from them. Of that I am certain. Let us handle them, please."

"The political implications," Kakashi said, thoughtful. "I don't know if you three did that on purpose, but for it to be them that told you…" He trailed off. "And you're absolutely sure this isn't some kind of ploy or cry for attention or a set-up?"

"All of us believe it's genuine. Besides, wasn't this the point of this little infiltration exercise? If it's gotten this far without our knowledge, I believe the protocols need to be reworked. It was only luck we found out."

"But an invasion...This could very well spark the next Shinobi World War. What I can't figure out is the timing. And why Sand would ally with Sound. Why Sound would even think about being a part of this."

"Sakura says they're a new village and not much is known about them."

"That's true enough. It's something we can find out later. I've got to take this to the Hokage right away."

"Any new orders?"

"No. Not outside the current parameters. We can't stop the exams. You're certain those three are on our side?"

"I'm certain they won't betray us, yes. Their jounin-sensei Baki is a different story."

Kakashi grimaced. "Baki. He's definitely a Suna loyalist. Then keep an eye on them, during the exam."

Cloud paused, thinking. "We shouldn't ask them to do anything that goes against their people. They risked a lot, believe it."

"We're shinobi, Naruto. In times like these, we can't afford to be naïve."

Cloud clenched his teeth. He understood that well enough. Still… "One more request; do you know any seal masters?"

Kakashi narrowed his visible eye, the other one still covered by his hair. "Why?"

"Do you?"

"There's Jiraiya-sama, but he's been out of the country for a long time."

"And there's no one else?" Cloud pressed.

"Not in Konoha. I was taught the basics by my own sensei and get by more than most. Everything else is made from publicly available seals. Why?"

"...No reason."

"I'm going to need something better than that, Naruto."

Cloud just stayed silent. He wouldn't give up Red. Not until he was certain Konoha wouldn't take advantage of him. Hell, even if he had to learn sealing from scratch himself. He looked after his own.

Nanaki was perched on the roof of Cloud's home, staring at the full moon when Aerith leapt up and sat down beside him.

"It gets easier with time," she offered. "Adjusting."

Nanaki hmmed. He'd lived a long, full life, watching the mortals around him age and wither and die. He knew how well time dulled things. He held up his hand to the moon, staring through his spread fingers. So strange, how they were familiar and yet not. Human fingers, instead of paws. He leaned forward and let his sand engulf him until he was his proper size and shape. He could do it with a transformation technique, but it didn't feel right somehow, not like his sand did. He curled up, putting his head into her lap as he did when he was a juvenile. "I know," he rumbled as she stroked his sandy ears.

Down below, Zack was poking Kankuro in the side while Temari performed her evening kata.

"So that is Cloud's SOLDIER," Nanaki observed as Kankuro started chasing him around with Karasu, Zack laughing madly like he was having the time of his life, jumping and dodging in an impromptu sparring session as Kankuro became angrier.

"Mine, too," Aerith offered.

"He is not what I expected," Nanaki said, whipping his tail. And it confused him.

Aerith knew exactly what he meant. "He was a shard, when he was with Cloud. How other people see us, how we see ourselves, is often different from how we really are."

"I suppose we all see things that way, through that veil."

"Yes. Do you worry about the future, Nanaki?" She asked, looking up.

"Right now, I am most uncertain," Nanaki confessed. Down below, Zack had caused Karasu to clip Temari, and now she was chasing after both of them, using a wind type jutsu that was carving up the front lawn.

"It's an uncertain time," Aerith agreed. "But I do believe we awoke for a reason." She continued scratching his ears. Nanaki let out a deep purr; his sand mimicked his nerves, like he could with his ocular technique.

"I wonder," was all he said.

And they continued looking at the full moon together, while laughter and exasperated shouts came from down below.

"I wonder," he repeated.