Kiko Maris Hatake

The Tsuchikage and Gaara

"Author's note: So there's a chapter... It's not my best... I'm kinda having a writer's blok. I mean, I know what I want to happen, but it just won't come onto the paper right, you know? Anyway, that is infact a chapter, and it isn't getting any better. Though the story should be better soon, I just want some time, just a little, to pass before I go to the next part... Author's note end."

We were laughing and running, when we arrived at Iwagakure, where we stopped just outside to collect ourselves, before we went on inside the village. I led the way to the same room where I had been last time, the stone monument was still there and honestly it was really interesting. Otou-sensei seemed to agree as he walked around it and studied it.

"I like their idea." He commented amused. "That the kage can be anyone; that it isn't limited to anyone."

I smiled and nodded in agreement. "Me too, and a certain blonde would too."

He chuckled at me and opened the door out of the room, holding it open for me.

"So do you have any idea of where the Tsuchikage's office is? Last time I met him in there." I asked and pointed back at the room we just left, Otou-sensei wasn't late at taking the lead.

We walked down a few halls before Otou-sensei finally motioned towards a door, telling me that this was the one, and I didn't waste any time in opening the door and walking in, smiling under my mask, when Otou-sensei knocked on the open door before following me inside. The Tsuchikage looked up surprised when I walked in just like that, though he smiled when Otou-sensei knocked.

"Good to see you again, it's been a long time since you were able to go on missions, hasn't it?" He asked amused and pushed away the papers that he was working on. "So do tell me; did you break in once more or did you use the gate? Somehow I doubt that it was the gate you came in through."

"You'd be correct in doubting that." I told him and laid the scroll on his table, waiting for him to write an answer.

"I assumed as much." He told me with a chuckle and read through the scroll, before he got out some paper to write a note. "With all the rumors going around about you I almost expected it of you, you got quite the rumor mill running."

I do? I wonder what kind of rumors it is...

"Do any of the two of you know what this is about?" The Tsuchikage asked with a look at the scroll, when both I and Otou-sensei shook our heads he smiled warmly. "It's plan for the upcoming exchange program; to better the relationship between all of our villages we're going to exchange shinobi for a week at a time, all the kages are writing wishes down as to which shinobi we'd like to have for the exchange. Hopefully we can get a peace treaty going by the end off all of this."

With that he handed me the note, that he had just finished writing, and had to excuse himself, when there was a knock on the door. Which was just about the time that I and Otou-sensei left.

Only about two days later I was showing Otou-sensei how to break into Suna, he was commenting on how easily I break into highly guarded places, calling it a bit disturbing and quietly contemplation wither or not he should mention it to Tsunade. We made it into the office without any broken windows, mostly because Otou-sensei opened it before I could break it. Such a party pooper.

Inside the redhead, Gaara, sat, while calmly observing us enter his office. He gently took the scroll and read it through, before he nodded and quietly wrote down an answer, then he turned to us and held the paper towards me.

"Am I right to assume that you are Naruto's friend, the girl that was hit in the first chunin exam three years ago and who after the exam was chased by the examiner, who also was assumed dead only two weeks ago?" He asked as I took the paper and handed it to Otou-sensei.

I threw a questioning look at Otou-sensei, who shook his head with a smile.

"I should have known that you'd be the first to guess it, Gaara." Otou-sensei chuckled and continued, when Gaara looked at him with a puppy-like look in his eyes. "This is my daughter, Naruto's teammate and dear friend, Kiko Maris Hatake. She'll be 14 years old July and she's a genin."

"And she's the one that came here three years ago?" Gaara quietly asked with a quick look at Otou-sensei, before he turned to look at me.

"Apparently it's a principle." Otou-sensei chuckled once more and ruffled up my hair.

"She's quite young to have been doing this kind of mission for three years." Gaara commented and gave me a small smile, when I couldn't hold back a yawn. "Would you two care to spend the night?"

"We'd appreciate it." Otou-sensei answered with a closed eyed smile.

We actually ended up spending the night and it wasn't like the bird, but as me. We even ate there, Gaara's brother is weird, but his sister is nice. She put my hair up in two high ponytails the morning that we left and waved to me and Otou-sensei when it was time to go. I felt funny having my hair sat up like that, when I usually just let it hang, but I liked it. She even complimented my white hair that I hadn't been able to color since those meanie Anbus stole my bag with all my color and contacts and stuff. Anko liked my hair too, she also likes my eyes; she thinks that they're pretty. Well, Anko's words were badass and cool, but it's basically the same, right?

We were soon back in Konoha, quicker than I thought we would have been, the whole trip had seemed somehow shorter to me, but maybe that was just because we hadn't made any pit stops. Or at least not any as bad as the ones I had made, when I took this trip alone. It was so much more fun, when Otou-sensei was with me.