(A/N) As you voted, Why Suna Hates Team 7! I decided to put it up early for all those who are not up at 11:00 at night(or later, depending on timezone), and thus wait for the morning to read what I have posted.

Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno were understandably surprised when they found a small pink-haired six-year-old sitting quietly on a rock a few miles out from Suna. They were heading to Suna on a diplomatic mission, one that would require a lot of patience for politics, unfortunately.

Mebuki approached her cautiously. "Hello?"

The girl's attention turned to her. "Are you going to kill me?"

Mebuki took a step back, placing her very kunai free hands up where the girl could see them. "Of course not! What's your name sweetie?"

The girl blinked at her. "I have been called Experiment 7."

Mebuki traded hesitant glances with Kizashi. They knew that Orochimaru had been kicked out of the village for experimenting on people unethically, so it wasn't such a stretch to realize the child in front of them was most likely an experiment of Orochimaru's. "Um, would you be unhappy if we gave you a proper name? Not just a number?"

She blinked at them. "I don't see why not."

Mebuki thought for a while, eyes settling on the startling pink hair. "How about Sakura? Is that okay?"

She thought about it for a while, then nodded. "That will do. Sakura, is there a reason you selected that name?"

Mebuki smiled softly. "Your hair is the color of Sakura blossoms."

The newly named Sakura thought about that for a bit. "I like it. Thank you."

"Are you going anywhere?" Kizashi asked, curious.

Sakura shook her head. "Not really, why?"

Kizashi traded glances with his wife, and she nodded. "Well, we were wondering if you would like to come with us? It would be rather boring, and you'd mostly be by yourself during the day, as we have ninja things we need to do, but you'd have a roof over your head and food."

Sakura thought about it for a bit, then nodded. "Alright. I will come with you." She hopped down from the rock, landing awkwardly on the foot that had been under her, and on second glance, looked broken.

"Here, I'll carry you," Mebuki offered, handing her backpack to her husband, who voiced no complaints, just adjusted so he could carry both backpacks. She crouched down, putting her back to Sakura.

"You loop your arms around her neck, and she holds your legs, it's called piggyback," Kizashi explained quietly.

Mebuki allowed the girl to carefully wrap her arms around her neck, gently grabbing her legs to hoist her up onto her back. "See? How's that?"

Sakura nodded minutely, resting her head on Mebuki's shoulder. "It's okay. Thank you."

"It's no problem," Mebuki insisted. "Come on, we have to get to Suna. We have a mission to complete after all."

They reached Suna around midday the next day, having had to slow down for Sakura. They didn't mind, they had been a little ahead of schedule anyway, and could manage to slow down a bit.

"Are you the Chuunin from Konoha?" One of the gate guards asked, glancing at a schedule with a confused look on his face.

"Yes, we picked up an abandoned child on our way here," Mebuki explained, hoisting a sleeping Sakura a bit higher.

The gate guard looked dubious, but let them through. "The hospital is next to the Kage tower if you wish to visit it to get her looked at."

Kizashi nodded to the guard. "Thanks."

The guard nodded back and turned back to looking out across the desert.

They did visit the hospital first, to let a doctor give Sakura a check-up. He declared her healthy and healed up the broken ankle.

They stopped by their hotel next, dropping off their backpacks. Sakura was in little more than rags, it looked a bit like a hospital gown, to be honest, so they decided to get her proper clothing was the next thing on their to-do list. The political stuff didn't start until tomorrow, so they'd spend the day trying to get Sakura what she needed, and brief her on what was happening, and stuff like that.

"See anything you like? Mebuki asked, wandering with Sakura through a clothing store. Kizashi had cited hungry, and gone to get snacks.

Sakura tilted her head at the racks of pale clothing. "Is there anything darker?"

Mebuki, with her superior height, scanned a few other rows. "Uhm, I don't think so, we can find darker clothing back in Konoha if you'd like, but it appears you're stuck with desert colored clothing for now."

Sakura frowned slightly, but acquiesced, picking up a sandy brown t-shirt about her size. "I like this."

Mebuki smiled. "That's wonderful sweetie, why don't you pick out a couple of them, and then we can find some pants."

Sakura nodded, picking up a few more identical shirts, and a pale cream one. Pants were more basic, and she just picked out a few identical pairs in a more creamy brown. Shoes were easy, she just picked a sandy brown pair of boots that fit well and were very comfortable. Undergarments were easy as well.

Mebuki, having noticed Sakura's skin going a bit red already, bought some sunscreen as well, and a wide-brimmed hat. It would keep the sun off her face and skin.

Sakura changed after Mebuki purchased the clothes, and didn't seem too impressed with the hat. It was a bit big on her, but Mebuki insisted on the hat and on the sunscreen. Sakura gave in after a bit of nagging, and a little explaining that it would really hurt if she didn't wear them.

Kizashi cooed over her, and she stole the dango he'd gotten right from his hand, hiding behind Mebuki when he tried to take it back. She ate her treat happily, pausing only to offer a stick to Mebuki as thanks for the clothing. In her opinion, Kizashi asked for the food stealing, it was right there, also he was cooing over her, and that was annoying. It was yummy, even if she didn't actually know what it was.

"What was this?" Sakura asked abruptly, staring at the now empty plate of dango.

"Uh, Dango," Kizashi managed. He was gaping at her. This was a problem! She didn't know of dango!

Mebuki chuckled. "Now you've done it."

Kizashi ignored her, dragging Sakura off to get more dango. Sakura let herself be dragged off with a rather confused look at Mebuki. Mebuki sighed and followed her husband.

Kizashi dragged her back into the dango place, sat her down, and ordered all of the types of dango they had. Mebuki sat down next to him, clearly amused, and added a couple of orders of her favorite dango to that.

"What did they feed you anyway?" Kizashi sounded absolutely scandalized.

Sakura thought about it for a bit. "Stuff. Dunno what."

Kizashi looked even more scandalized. Mebuki patted him on the shoulder consolingly. "We can deal with it over time honey."

The dango arrived, and little more was said.

Sakura was pretty happy after they finished, her stomach was full, and it was full of really yummy food, nothing like the slop she'd gotten as an experiment. Logically, she'd known stuff like this existed, but she'd never thought she'd actually get to have some! Let alone an entire meal of it.

Kizashi disappeared again after their rather impromptu lunch, and Mebuki led Sakura towards a bookstore. "We might as well get you something to do. Do you like trivia books?"

Sakura looked confused, her nose scrunching up. "Trivia books?"

"Oh, well, I guess we'll have to see. Do you like puzzles?"

Sakura's confused expression didn't change.

Mebuki sighed. "Well, we'll have to see on that too. Alright," they had arrived at a specific shelf of books, "this one's called Sudoku." She showed Sakura a book with a nine by nine grid and a few numbers in it. "You have to put the numbers 1 through 9 into each box and line. Diagonals don't count."

Sakura stared at it, flipping it open to one of the sections. "There are numbers already there."

"Yes, you have to work with them. Like this spot here, the line and the box there need a 1, so you would put a 1 there. Understand?"

Sakura nodded hesitantly. "Sounds interesting enough."

Mebuki smiled, picking another one off the shelf. "Here, this one's a trivia book."

They continued that way, and ultimately, Sakura left with a sudoku book and a couple of trivia books about Suna. Plus an odd science fiction book that had caught her eye. Mebuki had gotten a couple of cute pencils and pens, with a couple of cute erasers and pencil toppers.

They met back up with Kizashi, who was holding a bag. A cute little backpack in the same sandy brown as Sakura's clothes and they helped her load everything but the sci-fi book into it, and place it on her back.

"Sakura, I have something else," Kizashi said, watching the small pink-haired girl look at him, confused.

He pulled a stuffed flamingo out from a pocket and handed it to her. "A flamingo stuffed animal!"