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- Chenoan

1. Peace

The world around me seemed to fly past me.

But I suppose that was normal when running roughly at fifty kilometres an hour.

I concentrated on where I was going. Today was my first mission as a Chunin and I wasn't going to stuff it up. My team mates followed closely behind me, their footsteps barely audible, their footsteps impossible to hear unless you were listening for those footsteps just like a ninja's should be. The world around me was nothing more than a yellow blur of desert, the only thing I let myself see was our destination a few kilometres away, Sunagakure.

As we neared the entrance to the desert city I saw our guide, a man in a full black body suit and purple face paint. As we slowed to a halt in front of him he walked up to meet us, his face showing a large, welcoming smile. I bowed deeply,

"We are the team from Mokuzaigakure (village of the wood), pleased to meet you," the man nodded, his smile having faded somewhat to a neutral expression. His eyes scanned the newcomers,

"I'm Kankuro, I'm a Junin in this village, pleased to meet you all," he said formally,

"I'm Yuri, these people are my team, Kaien and Ai"

"You have something to deliver I believe?"

"Uh…yes an envelope containing the peace treaty between our two villages"

"I see, would you prefer to give the treaty to me or to the Kazekage himself?"

"My orders were to deliver the treaty personally, sir"

"Sure, sure," Kankuro didn't seemed pleased with this idea, he seemed very irritable, he probably didn't want the job of being the guide to a bunch of young Mokuzai.

I followed silently, I could feel my team mates presence behind, their heads turning about in wonder, this was their first time in Sunagakure, mine also, but I managed to restrain myself. Kankuro walked fast, his stride long and difficult to keep up with with just my normal pace so I found myself half walking half jogging. I caught the attention of a few towns people, they giggled at my funny stride. Kaien and Ai had no trouble keeping up with Kankuro, both of them being at least one head taller than me, I was the shortest in the group, yet their leader, which must be a comical idea to anyone who looked on at this embarrassing moment. I could feel the town peoples eyes on us, their eyes on me in particular. A blush rose to my cheeks, impossible to suppress.

I looked up, attempting to hide the blush, I didn't expect that I would meet the eyes of a man up there. He stood looking down on our group from the tall building above us through a glass wall with a neutral expression on his face, his light aqua eyes seemed to stare right through me. My blush deepened in colour and I saw the corners of his mouth curve upwards before I snapped my head back down and looked straight in front of me at Kankuro's back.

The wind was picking up and it whipped a portion of sand against my bare legs painfully, I didn't wince, the pain was minimum, but it left a mark, I could feel it. We walked towards the large glass paned building where I was caught blushing by the aqua-eyed man just a moment ago, I prayed that I wouldn't meet that man while I was in there, even though it was a simple blush, it was something I could do without.

A woman looked up from the reception desk as the doors slid open, seeing Kankuro she looked back down calmly. Kankuro must visit the Kazekage often. We were led down a corridor where we took a left fifth door on the right, which led us down another corridor where we then took a left again which opened to a room that held a flight of stairs. If I had struggled so much to keep up in the corridors I would find it much more difficult on the stairs.

As I jogged up the several flights of stairs just behind Kankuro, we were led into one last corridor where we walked to the very end door. Engraved on a gold plate was the word "Kazekage." I breathed in, I had never met a kage or anyone of that high a rank other than the Mokuzaikage in my own village, the idea made me nervous. Kankuro knocked on the door,

"Enter," called a calm voice, and we did just that. Kankuro opened the door to show the Kazekage in all his glory, on seeing him my body stiffened.

His hair was a deep red, framed by the light that came in from the windows behind him, his skin was a pale peachy colour, his eyes were ringed in black and on his forehead, to one side, there was a black marking of the word "love," and his aqua eyes seemed to stare straight through me. He nodded,

"I am Gaara of the sand, pleased to meet you," she walked up to him and bowed deeply, no sign of embarrassment showed. Kaien and Ai followed suit, bowing synchronistically just as I had finished, as though they practiced it, maybe they did, I might have to ask them about that later,

"I am Yuri and these are my subordinates Kaien and Ai," Kaien flinched at the word "Subordinate" he still hadn't gotten used to the idea that I was his superior, "we have come from Mokuzai to deliver this treaty that will declare peace between our villages."

Reaching into my bag I pulled out an envelope, the brown seal of Mokuzai stood out on the white paper. The man with the Aqua eyes had an amused expression on his face as he took the envelope from my hands. Tearing open the letter he pulled out a pen and signed the treated without hesitation, he hand the treaty back to me and I took it, placing it carefully back into my bag. I smiled gently and bowed again,

"Thankyou for you co-operation, Gaara-sama, we will leave immediately," I was just about to turn and leave when he spoke,

"You cannot leave," he said coolly, he looked at my legs, "did you not feel the wind whipping the sand around? A sandstorm is coming," the welts on my legs suddenly began to throb slightly as I acknowledged their presence, I heard Kaien's deep voice whispering in my ear,

"Come to think of it, the villagers seemed to be packing up as we were walking passed," I looked behind Gaara and through the window, the stalls were emptied of all merchandise and the streets were scatter with may three or four rushing people, I looked up and in his Aqua eyes, they were such an odd colour, they were almost hypnotizing to look at, he looked back with that same placid expression,

"You will stay here tonight, your village will know there's a sandstorm, they know that when the wind picks up like this it means a sandstorm for our village." There was no arguing with him. I was desperate to leave the Kazekage's piercing gaze, but there was obviously no way.

He looked at me waiting for a response,

"It would appear there is no other option than to stay for a while"

"The storm will undoubtedly last a few days, you may stay in the guests quarters until it subsides," I bowed again,

"thank you Gaara-sama," he smiled at me, and I smiled in return, the action seeming natural, we were like that for a good minute before I realised Kaien and Ai staring at me in confusion, this must have seemed odd to them, for it usually takes me months to act this warmly towards anyone. I turned around to face Kankuro, who was also staring, but not at me, at Gaara, his face was set in such an odd expression, it was difficult to interpret.

I cleared my throat and Kankuro turned to me, using the same expression for me as he did Gaara. He cleared his throat and reverted back to a neutral expression,

"Uh, follow me, please, um…"

"Yuri," I reminded him.

To be continued...

By Chenoan

©All original Naruto characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto