Salt in the Wound

“That girl,” I panted, my hands on my knees, I looked up through my hair into her eyes, “will never give up.” Temari stood in front of me with her hands stuck to her hips, an air of smugness around her.

“What’s wrong Ishi? Having a problem keeping up?” With that said she took her open fan and sent another series of slicing winds at me. There was no where to run so I was reduced to covering my face with my arms. I could feel the stinging of the thin cuts that tore into my arms, a small inconvenience. When the burst was over I ran towards her, my shuriken between my fingers aimed towards her chest. I threw them at her, smiling when she crouched, fan spread above her head. I could see her grin from under the fan as I slid on the ground, turning my leg to flip my momentum so that I slid around her. My speed had excelled, by the time she realized I was behind her, her legs had already been kicked out from under her.

“I have no problem keeping up with you Temari.” I couldn’t help but snort with laughter at the look on her face as she sat wide legged in the sand.

“I didn’t even see you!” She said with wonder. Hopping up she ran towards me, grabbing my shoulders. “You are making excellent progress!” She clapped a hand to her own chest and turned away from me, “I’m so proud of myself,” she whispered with a sense of childish wonder around her.

“Temari?” A foreign voice called out, his voice cracking with disbelief. I turned on my heel to acknowledge our visitor and came eye to eye with a very bored but amused face. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail and he wore the vest of a Chuunin. His arm doted the headband from a village I wasn’t familiar with. Temari swung around, her face hardening as she crossed her arms to her chest.

“What do I owe this pleasure?” She asked stubbornly, opening one eye and staring him down with it. The man took a hand to his head and laughed nervously.

“Uh-well, Lady Tsunade sent me. Rumors are flying around Konoha pretty bad and I guess I’m supposed to look into it. Something about the alliance or whatever.” Temari opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by approaching loud voices.

“You didn’t have to come if you didn’t want to!” The louder of the two yelled.

“I never said I didn’t want to come,” someone said through gritted teeth, “I said I didn’t want to be around you! Besides, I had no choice but to come!” A couple came into view, one with pink hair and the other with yellow. The girl brought her fist down on the boy’s head, a strangled yell escaping his mouth. Temari, the boy, and I turned to watch them argue until they stopped, realizing they had an audience. The girl blushed furiously while the boy looked around in confusion.

“Naruto! Get up!” The girl said with an angry tremor on her forehead. The boy hopped up and laughed loudly, crossing his arms with a nervous grin set in.

“Rumors so bad you needed backup?” Temari turned towards the closest boy, her eyebrows raised.

“Hey don’t look at me like that, it wasn’t my idea to bring them.” Temari turned towards me and forced a smile on to her lips.

“Would you mind telling Gaara we have company from the leaf village?” Her face held a slight grimace, as if she was trying to tell me something without saying it out loud. “Make it fast.” I nodded and without a glance back sped off towards the Kazekage’s office.

“Come in.” Gaara said loudly, he sounded tired and frustrated. I didn’t blame him, I thought, not with all that paperwork. Stacks of papers surrounded him on his desk, he looked up at me and sighed, pushing away the closest one to him. “What do you need?” The endless work was getting to him, his usual pin straight posture was slumped over in his seat, not to mention that usual cool voice held a hint of exhaustion to it.

“Temari sent me, she told me to tell you we have visitors from the…tree village? Oh no wait, uh…” I closed my eyes trying to remember the name of their village. “Ah, it was the leaf village. There were three of them. They said they were here because of some alliance.” I smiled inwardly, proud of myself for not entirely forgetting.

Gaara perked up in his seat, a flash of concern went across his face before it went back to stone. “Hm. Thank you Ishiko. Would you care to take me to them?” Nodding, I opened the door and had him follow me out.

“What alliance are they speaking of?” I asked as we walked out of the main wing and into the light of day.

“The alliance between Suna and Konoha I’m assuming. A sort of peace treaty between the two villages, although I don’t understand what would be questionable about it.” He said serenely, his voice mixing in with the light breeze. I nodded and continued to stare ahead of me, trying not to get consumed by that awkward feeling that lurked behind me. We walked for a bit more in strange silence before they four shinobi walked towards us. My eyes cut towards Gaara, he looked as worried as he could, more than I had ever seen. He had enough on his palette to deal with, trouble with a neighboring village was the last thing he needed.

“Gaara!” The yellow hair boy yelled, waving his arms around frantically. I caught Temari shooting him a look for his blatant lack of respect, but he didn’t seem to notice. Turning to look at Gaara I noticed a small smirk playing at his lips. Oh boy, Gaara had fan boys, I thought with a smile. The boy laughed loudly and ran up to us, he skidded towards us with a defensive stance. “I’ve been practicing and getting stronger, I bet I could even take you now!”

“Hm. You couldn’t.” Gaara said lowly, looking at the boy through upturned eyes, his head tilted upwards smugly. The boy smirked and crossed his arms, closing one eye and peering out the other.

“We’ll see bout that.” Was all he said. His bright blue eyes turned towards me, finally realizing I was standing right there. “Who are you?” He said bluntly.

I almost snorted at his incompetence. “Who are you?” I asked back. His eyes widened and he grinned like a fox. Out of the corner of my eye I caught the rest of the group behind him shaking their heads and sighing. “Don’t you know? I’m Naruto Uzumaki of the Hidden Leaf Village!” He pointed at me and puffed his chest out.

This guy was really something.

I was so taken aback I couldn’t say much but nod. “Okay, Naruto.” The pink girl took a step upwards, grabbing the boy by the collar.

“Just stop talking!” She growled, yanking him to the ground. Her green eyes turned sweetly towards my own. “Excuse him, Naruto has an ego too big for his body. I’m Sakura and that boy back there is Shikamaru.” My eyes traveled towards the boy who stood awfully close to Temari, his eyes scanning the village suspiciously.

“My name is Ishiko.” I smiled lightly at her manners. A nice change of pace.

“What brings you to Suna?” Gaara said suddenly, cutting the quiet.

“The Hokage sent us here. “ Shikamaru looked into Gaara’s eyes with a nervous glow. “Rumors have been going around Konoha that Suna has some sort of weapon we don’t know about.” His eyes narrowed at Gaara and I could feel the tension rush through me. “Just coming to check up on you, Kazekage.” Temari turned towards the boy with anger on her face.

“Are you questioning our treaty? We have no such thing and don’t talk to him like that. Shika…” Her face saddened and his returned to that bored, careless air.

“I’m just following orders Temari. If it’s alright with you Kazekage, may we stay here for a week or so.” His eyebrow raised and his hands tightened around his crossed arms.

Gaara never looked away from him, but the intense rage was rolling off him in silent waves. Never less, his face remained complacent. “You are welcome here as long as you like. Feel free to look around but I promise you, you will find nothing out of place.”