Gaara's peace cohort, now known as Team Zoe, are making their way to Iwakagure, or Stone Village.
After the success of their last Village visit, the team (composed now of the Sand Siblings, the DJs, Team 10, Team 7 including Sai, Hinata Hyuga, Tent...
The tea house was very nice inside. As expected, more oriental in decor than modern.
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The only thing that was unusual was that it was empty save for Onoki, his guards, his granddaughter, her father, and them.
A kage could rent out an entire house apparently, or maybe it was reserved for him.
The tea was brought in by some people who left immediately afterwards, and Kurotsuchi took over.
Tsunade was late, but surprisingly only by a few minutes, during which Gaara attempted to lighten the mood by asking how everyone was and about their health.
Onoki answered politely, but he was clearly not in the mood for pleasantries.
Momo nervously fiddled with her teacup, unusual for someone with such proper etiquette drilled into her.
Finally, Tsunade arrived, and Suzushi was with her, but he just stood by the wall.
"Sorry I'm late." Tsunade sat down.
Temari glanced at Gaara, and then she said, "All right, enough beating around the bush. What was it you wanted to talk to us about?"
Kankuro gave her a warning look about being rude, but she didn't seem to care.
"Right to the point as usual." Onoki nodded. "I'm surprised you brought your entire entourage, Lord Gaara. I expected fewer people."
"I thought you might like to meet them," Gaara said.
"Actually not all of them are here," Kitsuchi murmured to Onoki. "I count at least 4 missing."
Since Onoki had not specified, he couldn't really do anything about this. But they didn't think he liked it.
"Anyway--" He cleared his throat. "You've been busy helping the former Hokage. I understand it's going well."
"No complaints," Tsunade said, with a questioning look at Gaara like "what is this really about?"
"Yes, no complaints. The work is rewarding," Gaara said.
Dabi frowned at his tea. The tension in the air was bothering him. He'd seen fights start from points like this.
"I suppose I might as well get to the point." Onoki seemed to realize it was pointless to pretend. "I've given what we discussed several days ago some thought, Lord Gaara. If it's all right, I'd like to hear about it from your mentors."
That he called them mentors instead of teachers was not something that Shine or Wally would have recognized as a slight, but Temari suspected it might be implying they were not actually wise enough to be teachers.
