Colonello had to admit, he was having fun for the first time in years. The girls were all like little ducklings...and yes, he did call them that after the first week... during training. Not only that, but they treated him with more respect than most did when they saw his tiny form.

Ryohei was like a hidden goldmine when it came to his training...the boy positively thrived under Colonello's strict regimen and he only needed a brief bit of training to figure out how to use his Maximum Cannon. The real issue was getting the idiot to stop and let his muscles rest, but once he did...damn, the boy was a powerhouse!

Hinata and Haku, he didn't mess with most of the time because they kept to the training regimen Fon left behind and their lessons with Shamal.

It was Nozomi he spent the bulk of his time with, when he wasn't giving Ryohei personal instruction.

The girl only needed a little encouragement to flourish. While she was a decent shot with her crossbow (and he fully agreed it was safer to give her that rather than a real gun when he saw how she handled it... the fact it made her look like a mini Daniela Vongola was perfect coincidence) she was a natural sharpshooter when it came to sniping.

As Fon had warned him, Nozomi simply didn't have the mentality to use a hand gun, let alone the arm strength just yet to handle the recoil. She could barely keep up with the small shotgun he had brought with him.

However once she settled into her spot with a sniper's rifle and went into her meditative state, she was very good at hitting targets from far away. It was almost cathartic for her, and if he didn't know for a fact she hated violence he would almost worry for the students at her school, considering her past history of bullying.

It took him far too long to realize he had slowly harmonized with Nozomi. In fact she was the one to figure it out first, and he only cottoned on when she hugged him close and told him "welcome home".

It was nice. Like a hot bath after a hard battle, where you could simply drop your weapons and just relax knowing you were welcomes and home.

There was only one thing keeping him from seeing if Nozomi could handle Lal as well, and that was Iemitsu.

He could fully understand now why Fon wanted to keep that braying jackass far, far from sweet little Nozomi. He didn't deserve a girl like her.

Later that summer...

"So where are we going, kora?" asked Colonello from Nozomi's shoulder.

"Sunagakure. Gaara-nii said he had a surprise for me when I got there, and I need to pick up the scrolls Tsunade sent for Haku and Hinata anyway."

"Where's Sunagakure?"

"The Elemental Nations. It's the one closest to Japan and it's where Mama came from. She wasn't happy when Fon told her that I had a kekkei genkai and Iemitsu put a seal on it that nearly killed me rather than train it properly," said Nozomi, as if that explained everything.

Nana was from Suna, and she was from a shinobi family. The idea of sealing a kekkei genkai that wasn't immediately dangerous and just needed training was abhorrent to her. Learning Iemitsu had done so and that her daughter had nearly died removing that seal had made her furious. If it wasn't for the fact the idiot would figure out that Nana knew what he had done, or that something had changed, Nana wouldn't have hesitated to divorce the bastard.

As it was, the second he did find out or he tried to use her daughter for his benefit she was going to slap the papers on him so fast it would make his head spin.

It was only the fact she had no idea where to deliver the papers that kept her from making it all legal. She didn't need his consent considering he had left her alone for years at a time and put her daughter's health and well being at risk with his actions. The fact Fon could easily provide proof the man was cheating on her had only made it easier.

Colonello looked confused.

"So why aren't Hinata and Haku coming then?"

"Because Hinata is unofficially on exile and acting as my 'contact' with her village for certain items and supplies which Fon helped her to get, and Haku is staying here to make sure her family doesn't try anything to get her back. Besides, someone has to keep up I-Pin's training while Fon is absent and Kyouya simply isn't suited for it," said Nozomi. The light pause before she said his name was all the indication that she liked him as more than a friend.

Colonello grinned at that. It was adorable watching the little bunny courting the big bad wolf. Fortunately Kyouya had ignored him as a 'sniping carnivore' outside to tell Colonello to keep all practice outside the city limits. He didn't really tolerate guns of any sort around, and he barely accepted Nozomi's crossbow.

Kyouya was slowly edging towards Nozomi as a potentially worthy girlfriend. He was already quietly drifting on the outskirts of her Sky as a Cloud. Being able to move freely while having someone like Nozomi bandage him up without a word of complaint was something all Clouds dreamed of.

"So what's a kekkei genkai?"

"It means bloodline limit. Basically a gift that follows a certain bloodline," said Haku. "For example..."

Haku created a mirror of pure ice.

"This is Hyoton, or Ice Release. It is a special trait that is passed down mostly through my bloodline and it is likely it will pass down to any children I have. It allows me to create ice out of almost nothing, though it's easier around cold weather and water."

"Byakugan!"

Colonello twitched at the way Hinata's eyes bulged out a bit, with the viens showing. That was really creepy.

"Hinata's gift is called a doujutsu, which is primarily an occular bloodline limit. Her particular one is called Byakugan and allows her to see the chakra networks or in your case the pressure points on the human body. It also allows her to see the world with something akin to X-Ray vision within a certain distance," said Haku.

"Unfortunately her clan is full of snobs who think it's perfectly acceptable to practice limited inbreeding and even brand over half their number with a seal that will torture or even kill them outright," said Nozomi. "It's why Hinata is on unofficial exile... they didn't like the fact she has a crush on the village pariah or that she actually has a heart despite being the heirress. As long as she's here on an official assignment they can't legally remove her status as heirress...however it means she can't go back unless certain factors are removed."

Colonello was silent. It was clear that the subject hurt Hinata, that she was banned from going home because of a bunch of idiots.

"Will they care that you're bringing Ryohei and Takeshi with you?"

"I'm pretty much a celebrity in Suna, because I was able to calm Gaara down to the point he doesn't go on massacres anymore. That and I was able to get Shukaku to quit killing everyone in sight so long as they got him very, very drunk instead," said Nozomi with a shrug. Seeing the look he was giving her, she winced. "It's easier to see than explain."

"What about sniping?"

"Let me put it this way...did Haku or Hinata make a big deal about your combat training or hold back from the lethal attacks you taught them?"

"Surprisingly no," said Colonello.

"There's your answer."

Which really wasn't an answer at all, and it was clear she had been taking lessons from Fon about being cryptic as hell.

What surprised them all was the fact Kyouya was going with them. He said nothing, but took up roost near the crow's nest without a word.

Nozomi blushed a bit, but kept quiet. Fon had told her that Guardians tended to be a bit...clingy...during the first few months. The fact he was leaving his territory was Kyouya's way of being 'clingy' without actually having to interact with the lot of them unless he had to.

Besides, he wanted to have some fun being up psuedo-carnivores rather than dealing with the lot of 'pretend carnivores' that made up Namimori. He was bored!

Colonello noticed the ease Nozomi had on the ship and how much happier she was leaving Namimori. Then again there was a lot of bad blood between her and the people who lived there.

It was a relatively boring ride, though he had to raise an eyebrow at the way Nozomi seemed to positively perk up the second she saw the shoreline.

Near the docks was a teen roughly the same age as Kyouya or Ryohei with a shock of red hair and was that a gourd on his back?

Closer inspection revealed jade green eyes with almost panda-like or possibly raccoon markings around his eyes. From what Colonello could tell the kid had been sleep deprived often enough to make the markings pretty much permanent. He wore desert-appropriate clothing, with predominantly reddish-brown coloring and he had a familiar headband around the sash of his gourd, except with an hourglass shape as opposed to the odd stylised leaf Hinata had, or the squiggles that Haku had.

However the thing that struck most about "Gaara" was the sense of 'bloodlust' that he had only ever felt around Viper... or Mammon as they insisted they call them... partner Belphegor.

Unlike the Varia's bloody Storm officer, Gaara's bloodlust seemed to have been tempered. That and he didn't 'feel' like a Storm to Colonello's senses. It was closer to what Nozomi's flames felt like, but not quite.

From what limited information Nozomi had shared and the way the people reacted to her presence, he suspected that she had managed to resonate with Gaara's flames to the point that whatever it was that made him go psycho and kill indiscriminately calmed down. Not to the point he was harmless...the boy had spilt too much blood too freely for that, but enough that he wasn't at risk of going into complete Discord and causing untold amounts of death and destruction anymore.

It was likely these people didn't have a clue what had been going on with the kid, if they failed to recognize the signs. Though it did make him wonder why the kid looked like he was sleep deprived regularly for his eyes to have permanent bags under them.

Colonello recognized the protective glint in Gaara's eyes though. He had found a reason to live and would happily slaughter anyone that harmed his 'little sister'.

If that boy wasn't a Guardian, he came pretty damn close to it that it made no difference in the long run.

Colonello found the entire village odd...at least until he realized it was filled with almost militaristic fighters. Fighters more like Fon than people like Lal or Colonello himself, but a decidedly military mindset regardless.

Oddly he felt himself relaxing. It was easy to get along with these...shinobi, considering he was a former military man himself.

He found himself grinning when he saw the obstacle courses they had their children go through while training. It was something well above any civilian playground, but it was perfectly on par with something he would use himself!

The shinobi apparently respected him quite a bit when he asked to go through it at least once and had a grand old time with it.

At the very least they seemed to treat him like a 'jounin' after that.

With Nozomi

"So they made you Jounin?" asked Nozomi.

"I found out I'm in the lead as the next Kazekage. Which means I need to have a certain number of high ranked missions to be taken seriously as a leader. Hence why they made me jounin... it's easier to get the harder missions with a higher rank," said Gaara. His expression turned mischievous. "And that's before you get into the fact Temari has a secret boyfriend from Konoha."

"Do tell!" said Nozomi with great glee. It was about time she had ammo on her big sister.

Gaara smirked.

"I have it on good authority she's been hanging around the Nara heir regularly while on diplomatic missions to Konoha. Kankuro on the other hand doesn't really interact with anyone because he's always in his workshop."

"Makes me wonder what sort of fun he'll have with Colonello's expertise when it comes to long range attacks and explosives," said Nozomi grinning.

They met up with Colonello and the others over dinner...and Nozomi had to hold back her amusement when she found out what a busy boy Hibari had been.

The shinobi had humored him for 'sparring matches' and it didn't take long for them to realize he was high chunin to low jounin in skill level when it came to fighting. More than a few of the bored ninja actually offered to 'play' with him to see where their skill level stood up to him.

Kyouya was a very happy Cloud, because he had a lot of skilled opponents who were closer to carnivores than the herbivores he was forced to deal with on a daily basis. Takeshi on the other hand found himself having to improve rapidly when he challenged a few of the shinobi who used swords.

Sure, they didn't use any particular style, but they still forced him to improve and think on his feet when he sparred with them.