Hello, Heartache ~Uchiha Sasuke Love story~

Chapter 36: Unexpected Encounters

I had to say, we were lucky. We didn't meet with any form of trouble on our way to Sunakagure and I made sure to give a headache to Nii-san by reminding him that he kept telling me to keep my fringe up because he believed that we'd run into trouble when we were completely alright. Of course, it was for safety measures, but hey, who said I couldn't annoy my brother like the annoying little sister I strive to be?

Currently, Nii-san and I were following a Sand shinobi to the Kazekage's office. Once we reached huge wooden doors, the Sand shinobi knocked three times.

'Kazekage-sama,' he said, putting his face close to the door. 'Shinobis from the leaf have come to pass you a scroll.'

'I'm a Kunoichi ...' I mumbled, feeling slightly hurt. I saw Nii-san glance at me, not bothering to hide the amused look on his face.

'Come in,' came the familiar voice of Gaara from inside the room.

Okay, how do you greet a superior who you've known before he became your superior? Naruto just calls Gaara by his name, but that's Naruto. He was the one who changed Gaara to the cool and calm guy he currently was. I mean, I couldn't just go up to him and be all like, 'Yo, what up, Gaara? My man! How's being Kazekage? Aw, mate, I haven't seen you in while! How about you and I go grab a drink later?'

NO. Just, no.

When the Sand Shinobi opened the door to reveal Gaara behind his desk with a stack of papers in front of him, Nii-san and I entered the room while the Sand shinobi stood by the door.

'Hi,' I said, stupidly. I shot a glare at Nii-san when he tried hiding his laugh with a cough.

To my relief, Gaara's lip's curved into a faint smile. 'Makoto, how's Naruto?'

'He's doing great.' I said grinning, before I realized I was here for a mission. I cleared my throat awkwardly and pulled out the scroll from my bag and held it out for him to take. 'Hokage-sama asked us to pass this to you.'

He slowly took the scroll, a glint of amusement in his eyes, probably from my change in attitude. He opened the scroll and read through it before nodding. Grabbing a long sheet of parchment paper from under his desk, he dipped his brush into black ink and became writing for quite a while before rolling it up and securing the scroll with a blood red string.

'Please pass this to to the Hokage,' he said, passing the scroll to me.

I nodded, keeping the scroll gingerly into my bag.

***

The sky slowly turned orange as the sun began to set.

'We should call it day,' said Nii-san, putting down his bag.

We rested for about two hours in Suna before heading back to Konoha. Gaara, being the nice Kazekage he is, tried getting us to stay for the night to rest but we insisted it'd be best to get back sooner. We hadn't rest ever since.

'I'll go collect the water.' I said, putting my bag down as well and holding two empty containers.

'Alright,' said Nii-san, already starting to set up the tent. 'Be careful.'

'When am I never careful?' I joked, beginning to walk.

'Makoto,' Nii-said said, his voice slightly teasing. I turned around to see him tapping the right side of his forehead. 'Keep your fringe up.'

I sighed. 'But we haven't met an enemies or anything at all!'

'But this time, you're going to collect water, alone.' he replied. 'Better safe than sorry.'