After the pain

Disclaimer: I don’t wish I did so there!


Sonic Sonar: I understand, thank you for giving it a try and thank you for the compliment.

FireKitty: HEhehehe it is a good term.

Reemu-Chan:I've had problems like that with computers and such. I love your long reviews, I look forward to them. Now some of your questions I can't answer but let me assure you they will be answered most of which in the next 2or 3 chapters.
Gaara is still having his temper tantrum. (Hey I had to give you something)

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PATIANCE, I know it's been a while but summer if busy, come fall I will be updating much more often, Hope you can all bear with me.


Any way thank you all again and I hope you enjoy chapter 14.


* ** *** * * * * * * *

Chapter fourteen


Naruto’s day didn’t get any better once he was at the office.
On top of the blinding head ach, the first he had had in his entire life.
He was feeling guilty about Kakashi’s arm as well as for yelling at Temari the night before.

He knew he shouldn’t have acted the way he did with either of them, but adamantly refused to examine why he was acting the way he was.
He silently shook his head at his at his own stupidity for allowing some of his inner demons show as he continued to go through the paper work assigned to him.

When he had been a small child he had learned how to keep his true emotions and feelings carefully hidden, he couldn’t afford to show any weakness to the people around him. It had worked well for a while to keep him self invisible, until he couldn’t stand the loneliness and more.

That’s when the whole prankster bit had come into play, and it had also worked well to conceal how painful the villagers’ words and actions were.

The kitsune vessel suddenly gave him self a mental shake; he hadn’t brooded like this in years. Of course he hadn’t had a fight with someone like he had had with Temari in years either. Not that it was a real fight mind you, even if he had yelled at her.

He groaned, he never yelled at people not anymore at least.
He had grown out of the childish need to get every ones attention, he didn’t have too, he had friends and a lot of people who counted on him, the last thing he needed to do was let the past and all it’s skeletons out of the closet.
As soon as that thought surfaced he slammed the door on it.

A long sigh escaped without him noticing he knew how this whole thing had started; it was a really bad habit that he just couldn’t quite seem to get a hold on.

‘I really need to learn not to take things so personally.’

* * * * * * *

It didn’t take long for both Tsunade and Shizune to realize that Naruto wasn’t his usual sunny self.

As if his bandaged hands weren’t enough of a give away he was going through his paper work with a vengeance, as if it was an enemy he needed to get rid of a quickly as possible.
Shizune could barely keep up with him on the filing end of things.

Instead of his usual engaging smile, his face was a blank and expressionless mask.
This made it difficult for the two older women decide if he was in a bad mood, which he never was. Or if he wasn’t feeling well which should be impossible do to the demon inside of him.

They both watched him closely for a time as they tried to solve the mystery without actually talking to him seeing as he didn’t seem to be in the mood to chat.

Tsunade wished she could blame it on being love sick but he was acting too cold for that to be the case, as much as she wished otherwise.
His mood became quite clear when Tsunade received a letter from a village along the northern boarder of Fire country, the elder there was always more eager to deal with Naruto then any one else from Konoha, probably do to the fact that he was considered by many to be second in command of the ninja village.

The letter had stated that the elder was having difficulty with some trade negotiations with the next closest village which lay just across the boarder in Water country.
The man requested that if negotiations failed to precede soon that Tsunade send Naruto to assist.

Naruto’s reply upon hearing the letter read aloud shocked both women so much it left them both gaping at him.

“Tell them to grow a backbone and deal with it them fucking selves.” He then buried his nose back into the mission reports that he was filing.

Shizune turned worried eyes to her leader.
It was obvious now to both women that some thing was definitely amiss to put the young man in such a fowl mood.
His body language had changed slightly and was now yelling. ‘Don’t talk to me or I’ll bite your head off!’ And that was something that had never happened in all the time the Godame and her assistant had known him so they were both at a loss as to what to say or do.

Finally with a silent look of understanding between them, both ladies decided to give the brooding young man some space for the time being.
Even though Tsunade wanted to demand he tell her what was going on that instant, she had a feeling he wasn’t up to talking just then.

It was just about noon when the Hokage decided that she had had enough of the brooding silence that permeated her office and was about to interrogate Naruto within an inch of his life if she had to.

Lucky for him a knock sounded on the office door interrupting her plans.

Tsunade sighed, why was she always interrupted?

“Come.” She called.

Her hopes that this would be a quick diversion died when the head of the ANBU wearing his bear mask and long black robes strode through the door followed by three other masked ANBU.

Even though they wore their animal masks Tsunade immediately recognized Hyuga, Neji and Uchiha, Sasuke.
This was obviously about something very serious both the young geniuses were present.

She sighed in frustration, if it wasn’t one thing it was another.

**

Naruto felt the tension in the somberly uniformed ANBU caption even as he recognized Neji in his tiger mask and Sasuke as the hawk.
He suppressed a growl at the sight of the third ANBU with the deer mask.

‘That was the asshole who falsified his report.’

‘Ya well, since you already scared him shitless with that threat about Gaara I doubt you’ll have any more trouble with him.’

Pushing away from the small desk he occupied which sat in the corner of Tsunade’s office, Naruto got to his feet and moved to take his place behind and to Tsunade’s right, his hands clasped loosely behind his back.
He was ready to do her bidding but also to better witness the proceedings.

He could feel the ANBU commander’s eyes on him; the man was very tense for some reason.
Naruto was sure that they would find out the cause very soon.

“Hokage-Sama.” The bear masked figure bowed low. “Might I have a word with you in private?”

Both Naruto and Tsunade gave the man the same strange look, one eyebrow raised in query, though neither of them noticed.

“If you wanted to speak with me alone Caption, why pray tell are three of your men with you?” Tsunade asked curiosity clear in her voice.

“Although they have not yet been briefed, my men are permitted to hear this information, it is the reason they have accompanied me.” Was the deep voiced reply.

Tsunade resisted the urge to grind her teeth together.
It seemed like recently there had been a number of little indications that her Naruto wasn’t as well liked in certain circles as she had previously thought.

“If your men are to remain, then my protégé will as well.” She stated firmly.

The dark robbed man cleared his throat rather nervously as he reached inside his cloak and pulled out a scroll which he then handed over to her.

The Godame didn’t hide the puzzled look on her face as she took the document, it looked like a standard issue report scroll and she wondered why it hadn’t been with the others that came in earlier at morning.

She immediately broke the seal and opened it.
The questioning look quickly turned to a scowl as her eyes skimmed what was indeed a report from the previous night’s patrol.

Her light brown eyes flashed with anger as locked gazes with the masked man.

“You expect me to believe this?” She growled as she passed the scroll to Naruto.

The cloaked ANBU looked like he wanted to snatch the document away from the demon vessel but the Hokage’s glare held him in place.

“So just what were you planning on doing Caption?” Her voice was cold enough to freeze a man’s blood.

Meanwhile Naruto was starting to see red as he too skimmed through the report.

“Arrest him, at least until it can be confirmed either way. We can not afford to let an incident like this to damage our alliance……”

The Caption’s words were cut short when the scroll was crushed in Naruto’s white knuckled grip.
It was taking every ounce of the blonde’s will power not to put his fist through something.

“Even if I was the type to do this kind of thing,” He growled instead as he tried to keep a rein on his temper. “What makes you think I would be stupid enough to beat a woman who had been placed under my protection?”

Both Neji and Sasuke’s eyes widened behind their masks as they pieced together the conversation and realized that they had been brought along to arrest their friend.
The two ANBU exchanged discreet glances, silently communicating with each other before turning angry white and black eyes on the fourth member of their party, who by lack of reaction to the proceedings gave them both the feeling that he had something to do with the situation.

Although neither of the clan geniuses’ would ever speak of it or even admit it out loud, they both owed Uzumaki, Naruto for putting himself on the line for them.
And not just on missions either.
Their loyalty to him came before anything else.

“I believe I would like an explanation for all of this.” Neji stated in his smooth, almost quiet voice as he reached up and removed his mask.

“As would I.” Sasuke added, mirroring the Hyuga’s actions and removing the hawk carving from his face.

The ANBU leader turned in surprise and sputtered when he saw their uncovered faces, that along with speaking out of turn was a serious breech of conduct.

Their actions however helped sooth Naruto’s anger.
It told him that at least they weren’t going to be easily convinced that he was guilty.
The whole situation could not have happened on a worse day, he was already in one hell of a bad mood.

Tsunade took control of the situation as she slowly got to her feet, her very movement demanded attention.

“I would think you would be less inclined to jump to conclusions Caption, considering that there has already been one falsified report about my heir this week.” The Hokage voice was calm but stern.

She did not miss the Hyuga and Uchiha’s reactions, slight as they were to her revelation.

“Perhaps I am simply not bias Hokage-Sama.” The sneer was very evident in the Caption’s voice.

Tsunade gasped at the insinuation.
Naruto’s fists clenched, ready to pound the man within an inch of his life.

“I would really like an explanation Godame-Sama.” Sasuke interrupted the set down Tsunade had been about to deliver.

Instead she directed her next words to Naruto’s two friends.

“Two days ago a report from a night patrol stated that Naruto had chased a very distressed woman through the streets before capturing her and dragging her to his apartment, at least that’s the short version.”

“That’s preposterous.” Neji stated simply as he crossed his arms, his mask dangling from his left hand.

The Godame nodded her agreement. “Now this report states that he was seen beating the same woman last night in his apartment.” Again Tsunade didn’t bother going into the details. “Someone has been falsifying their reports.” She finished with a glare at the Caption for allowing such a thing.

“I wonder who that could be.” Naruto’s voice dripped of sarcasm as he fixed his hard blue eyes on the deer masked ANBU standing behind the Caption.

Two pairs of eyes, one black and one white followed the direction of his gaze to fix on the same man.
If looks could kill the man would have died a rather horrible and painful death.

“How do you know this report is false?” The cloaked Caption asked. “I have not seen you question the one whose conduct is in suspect, or has he already told you of this incident?”

Tsunade had to admit that the observation was fair.

“Naruto,’ she turned her light brown eyes to him. ‘You read the report, what do you have to day about it?”

‘Burn it along with the asshole who wrote it!’
The kitsune vessel really wished he could speak his thoughts, or better yet act on them but the more logical side of him came to the rescue again and he swallowed the retort.

The last thing Naruto wanted to do was relive any part of the previous night, it had been bringing up a hell of a lot of old memories.

Memories that he had been sure he had put behind him, sealed in a box and thrown into the dark depths of his mind in fact.
Now they seemed hell bent on resurfacing and it was all he could do to ignore their existence like now, it seemed that every word that was spoken was dredging up one thing after another.
But he pushed them aside yet again, he had to deal with this problem before he could put old ghosts to rest.

But where to start?
He couldn’t very well tell them the reason behind Temari’s tirade, that was private and up to her to disclose if and when she chose too.

Choosing his words carefully Naruto cleared his throat slightly.

“As you already know Hokage, my house guest has been having a difficult recovery.” He paused momentarily while Tsunade nodded.

“Last evening she became upset while we were having a discussion and quickly went into hysterics, that it where most of the yelling came from. She was very agitated and began pacing eventually I was able to get close to her but was forced to take her by the arms and give her a light shake in order to get her attention. Yes I did yell at her at one point but I did not, at any time strike her.”

Somehow Naruto was able to get through his narrative rather quickly and professionally with his voice at a normal level of volume.
If he wasn’t in such a bad mood he would have been proud of himself for keeping his cool during the whole thing.

“There you have it.” Tsunade announced in a breezy tone. “Nothing to worry about, I know that Temari-san has been distressed over some recent events, her behavior is not surprising.”

The fourth ANBU suddenly stepped forward and spoke for the first time.

“Surely your not going to believe his story so easily Hokage-Sama.” HE protested.

The young man didn’t seem to notice the four sets of eyes glaring at him, even though one belonged to the Godame herself.

“But you expect me to believe you version just because it’s on paper?” Her voice was dangerously low as she asked the question.

“It does appear to be one mans word against another.” Te Caption commented as he folded his arms thoughtfully.
His change in stance made it very clear that he was now reassessing the situation before him.

“But it does have a simple solution.” Sasuke stated after a brief silence.

“Indeed.” Neji agreed. “There is a third party involved in this affair, why not ask for her version.”

The two blood limit masters nodded in unison as they agreed with each other while the other members of the room seemed to blink at them in surprise.

“That is very true.” Tsunade finally nodded after realizing that it would indeed be the quickest way to end this discussion. As much as she would like to simply order the man who wrote the report be flogged she had to have proof before going to far.

“I will have someone fetch Temari-san at once.” She then rang for Shizune.

“Tsunade, I don’t think you should ask Temari to come here under the circumstances.” Naruto protested.

All eyes turned to him but he did his best to ignore the questioning looks he was getting, especially from his friends.

“She was very distressed last night; I don’t think it would be good to drag her across town for something like this.”

“Hn a convenient excuse.” The still masked, unnamed ANBU snorted.

“But he is right.” Tsunade thoughtfully tapped a finger on her chin. “The added stress would not be good for her recovery. I will go visit her instead.”

With that the Godame stepped around her desk just as Shizune walked through the door in response to her summons.

“Might I accompany you Hokage-Sama?” The ANBU Caption requested with a slight bow when Tsunade had finished giving instructions to Shizune.

The blonde woman considered him for a moment before replying.

“I think you should, it will resolve this issue much faster.”

The cloaked man bowed again as Tsunade turned to the other four men in the room.

“All of you remain here, we will return shortly.”

“Tsunade.” Naruto’s voice stopped her as she was moving towards the door.

Turning she gave him a questioning look.

“She’s not feeling well, try not to upset her again.”

The old medic-nin smiled slightly by way of reply before exiting the office with the black cloaked figure of the Caption trailing behind her.

Naruto waited for the door to close before he moved back to slump against the wall.
He hated to admit it, but he was relieved Temari wasn’t coming to the office. He just couldn’t face her yet.
Fore some reason her hurt just at the thought of her.

It wasn’t logical, he really wasn’t more then her temporary protector.
He knew she hadn’t meant any of the things she said and that none of it was directed at him, and yet a part of him was afraid that she did mean it.
So it still effected him, it really had nothing to do with him but he took it personally.

Closing his eyes momentarily he stuffed his sore hands into his pockets.
The whole situation was giving him one hell of a head ache.

Again.

The big shinobi’s body gave off the convincing image of being completely relaxed and calm as his golden lashes lifted in time to see both Neji and Sasuke making their way towards him.

They both had a very intense glint in their eyes as the rounded Tsunade’s desk and came to stand in front of him.

Naruto knew those looks, they wanted information.
He was about to get grilled for details.
Very subtly as was the Hyuga and Uchiha way of course.

The blonde inwardly groaned he was not in the mood to be friendly and chitchat with his buddies.

No one spoke for a few minuets as the two ANBU secured their animal masks to their belts.
All three purposely ignored the rooms’ fourth inhabitant.

The white eyes man was the first to break the silence.

“I was not aware that Sabuku NO Temari was in Konoha.” He commented softly as if starting a regular conversation.

“I saw her with you the other day; you didn’t say anything about her living with you.” Sasuke’s voice almost sounded accusing once you got past the blunt statement of his words.

‘Their off to a faster start then usual.’ Naruto mussed grumpily.

Not giving Naruto time to speak Neji cocked his head causing his long midnight hair to fall over his left shoulder.
“She’s living with you? Since when were you involved with Temari-san?”

Naruto’s mouth dropped.
This conversation, which he had yet to contribute to, had quickly turned from a not so subtle interrogation to a full blown gossip gathering fest.

“You two are involved?” The Uchiha’s eyebrows completely disappeared under his Hatai-ate. “When the hell were you going to tell me about this?”

Naruto was trying to recover from the near heart attack the two had given him; he never in a million years would have guessed that the two of them would jump to that kind of a conclusion, especially not so fast.

He quickly raised his bandaged hands to stop them from jumping to any more wacky conclusions.

‘These two can be worse then a bunch of women at a beauty salon.’ He marveled. ‘Their stoic day to day faces hide that fact very well.’

He knew of course that neither of his two friends would spread anything around.
But the duo would think nothing of discussing every detail of this conversation with each other later on.

IT was hard to believe that not very many people knew that the two geniuses were even friends let alone confidants.
They had been since Neji was ostracized from the Hyuga clan nearly four years before and taken up residence along with his wife in one of the small houses inside the massive Uchiha compound.

Naruto didn’t realize that his thoughts had wandered off until he heard Sasuke chuckle lightly.

“That much of a distraction is she?” He didn’t bother to hide his grin.

The Uchiha had been waiting for too many years for the chance to tease his friend about the woman in his life.

Despite his best efforts Naruto felt a flush creep up his face.

“You two are worse at jumping to conclusions then Sakura and Ino.” He told them.

At his words the straight faced Hyuga cracked a grin to match Sasuke’s.

“Enlighten us then. Just what conclusions have we jumped to?” He asked.
“We are not involved; she is simply staying with me until her brothers arrive.” Naruto muttered defensively.

Sasuke’s lips twitched, threatening to break into another grin.
“Are all the hotels full?” He asked his voice dripping with sarcastic innocence.

Naruto groaned as he realized that he should have started at the beginning.
Very quickly he explained how he had found Temari and some of the less private goings on since the return to Konoha.

Then because he didn’t wan t to talk about his house guest any more he had to tell the two ANBU who the perpetrators were.

“Akatsuki?” Neji’s eyes widened while Sasuke’s narrowed.

“Or an organization very similar.” Naruto confirmed.

“Just what we need.” The Uchiha muttered.

Neji tapped a knuckle against his chin deep in thought as Sasuke demanded to know why they hadn’t been notified and what was being done about this new threat.

The Hyuga finally spoke and his words caused both his companions to pause mid debate.

“I find it interesting that you found her Uzumaki.”

Naruto glared at him, taking the comment as an insult.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!” He growled.

The blondes headache had steadily gotten worse all day which only served to make him even shorter tempered then he had been that morning.

Neji either didn’t notice the hostility in the demon vessels body or chose to ignore it.

“If Temari-san’s attackers were in fact shinobi, and knowing the type of skill and power she has at her disposal they would have had to be to take her down.”

Naruto’s anger quickly turned to confusion, having no idea where the white eyed man was going with that train of thought.

Sasuke how ever seemed to immediately pick up the meaning.

“You’re right, if they had captured her to be tortured for information, why leave evidence behind.”

“Exactly, not only did they blatantly leave her body intact they didn’t make sure she was dead either.” Neji confirmed with a nod.

Naruto finally clued into what the two were thinking and found their reasoning was so blatantly obvious that he wondered why he, or for that matter Tsunade hadn’t thought of that before.
Of course these two weren’t considered geniuses for nothing.

“You think they left her there on purpose?” He asked, still a little unsure of the idea.

Both dark haired men nodded.

“You said you found her to the north east of Konoha.” Neji stated, Naruto nodded even though he knew he didn’t need to confirm it.

“As far away from her home land as you can go and still be in fire country.” Sasuke added.

“This was planned.” Naruto growled at the realization.

“It does seem likely.” Neji confirmed, “What could cause a rift between our two countries faster then the discovery of the body of the Kazkage’s sister on leaf land.”

“Indeed.” Sasuke agreed as Naruto was currently too angry to say anything else. “Although I doubt that it would be enough to start an all out war it would definitely cause a great deal of strain, but then with Gaara it’s hard to say he can still be a little unpredictable at times.” The Uchiha continued.

Then he turned back to Naruto “Has he been notified that Temari is safe?”

The fox vessel nodded. “As soon as we arrived, we should be hearing from him any time now.” The words were said through clenched teeth.

As if he wasn’t mad enough at the kunoichi's attackers to make them suffer a bit when he killed them.
Now, well as far as he was concerned. He planned on having them begging to go to hell before he let them die.

His thoughts of revenge however were interrupted when Neji posed another question.
“I wonder why we weren’t notified of her disappearance.” He mused.

“That is strange.” Sasuke agreed.

‘The two of them are on a roll.’ Naruto thought as he pushed back on the darker thoughts he had been entertaining and locked them away for later use.

Right now he was going to do something that always entertaining.


He was going interrupt the Hyuga and the Uchiha mid debate with something that neither one of them knew.
It always annoyed them when they were stopped mid roll.

“Actually, sand might not even be aware that she is missing.” He announced, trying to keep the smugness out of his voice.

The result was, as he expected rather funny.
Sasuke paused, his mouth already open to offer his theory while Neji seemed about to nod as he had been anticipating the Uchiha’s words.

Naruto managed to contain a smile at the picture the two of them made, which for once wasn’t all that hard.
He was still in a less then a good mood.

“Temari was on a personal training mission; they would have only been expecting her home sometime this last week.” He clarified, since his companions for the moment remained speechless.

It took a minuet but finally the two geniuses were able to collect themselves.

“That explains it then.” Neji concluded.

Then the threesome fell silent having nothing else to talk about until the Hokage returned seeing as Naruto was usually the one to start the conversations when they were in a group and he was not inclined to say any more then he already had.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Temari discovered that she had an answer to another one of her question as she toweled off her body7 after having a bath.
It had only been a matter of time before depression reared its ugly head and it looked like it had finally arrived.

She was definitely feeling depressed.

Even a soak in Naruto’s over sized bathtub hadn’t helped lift her spirits in the slightest.
She had felt fine when she first woke up, having had a very pleasant and restful sleep.
She had even lounged in bed for a time until the unexpected arrival of Naruto when he stopped to get cleaned up.

He had completely ignored her when she went to talk to him.
Then after his shower he had been quite rude, growling at her when she asked why he was bandaging his hands.

She had only been concerned about him.

As if that hadn’t been enough to stop her from making an attempt to apologize for acting crazy the night before.
He had then informed her that he wouldn’t see her at noon as he had something else to do and she would have to fend for herself.

Not that she really minded being left alone she was fully capable of making herself something to eat.
It was the way he said it, his tone of voice had convinced her that he must be mad at her.
Or at the very least now found her too disgusting to stay in her presence.

And now, a couple hours later she was even more convinced of that fact.
Not just one of them, both of them. He was mad at her for being so disgusting.

Then all her negative emotions seemed to snowball on her as she recited ever failure she had ever committed, until now she found herself well and truly depressed.

And all that was accomplished without once thinking about the reason for her melt down the previous evening.
She was completely avoiding the issue actually, if she didn’t think about it she wouldn’t have to acknowledge it.

The sand jonin stood staring at the fog shrouded mirror hanging on the wall; she didn’t bother to wipe the reflective glass clean.
She found the distorted image of her body depressing enough and didn’t want to have to look into her own eyes.

Couldn’t face the all too obvious fact that she was no longer the same person that she used to be, and that she could never go back to the way she was before.

Finally she turned away and concentrated on drying out her long thick hair.
It took a while and Temari seriously debated just cutting off the silky tresses that hung loose past her rear.

She couldn’t seem to remember why she had wanted long hair to begin with, cutting it definitely sounded like a good plan but after a perusal of the bathroom yielded no scissors or razors of any kind.
Not even a kunai carelessly left behind could be found so she let the matter drop.

She didn’t have the energy to try to find something that would do the job.
So instead she left her still damp hair hanging loose down her back, deciding that it was too much effort to dry it any more.

Wrapping her towel loosely around her body she slowly exited the bathroom and padded across the hall into the bedroom.
Since she wasn’t going any where and she wasn’t planning on seeing anyone either she opted to dress her self in one of the new kimono’s she had bought while shopping with Naruto.

She discarded the royal blue one which had a gold chain design on the cuffs and along the edges, it was entirely too cheery to wear on a day like this.
Another with a variety of purple swirls on it was also discarded.

‘Why did I even buy those stupid things?’ She asked herself in disgust.

Finally she found one that was solid black with only a thin white border.
The garment fit her mood perfectly.

Dropping the towel carelessly on the floor she shrugged into the long kimono.
Not bothering to put on any undergarments, it was just too much effort.

Once the sash was tied and her hair pulled out of the back she crawled back onto the unmade bed and curled up on top of the rumpled covers.
She suddenly felt tiered, worn out.
Even if it wasn’t quite noon yet, it had been a long day as far as she was concerned.

The first knock on the door was ignored, she had just gotten comfortable.

The second moments later had her sitting bolt upright.

‘Maybe it’s my brothers!’

“I’m coming!” Temari yelled as she scrambled off the bed.

She was just about to the bed room door when she realized that the thin kimono was all she wore.
Not that her brothers would notice but she want to greet them that way.

Quickly back tracking she untied her sash and donned underwear and a loose tank top before tying it back into place as she trotted into the living room.

She felt much better prepared now.
Her hand reached for the dead bolt when she once again paused, worry returned if it was in fact her siblings at the door she would have to explain what happened to her.

Fine golden brows furrowed as all the excitement of reuniting with her family died as suddenly as it had come.
Temari didn’t wasn’t to talk about any of that.

She had managed to avoid even thinking about anything connected with the ‘incident’ all morning and really had hoped to keep it that way.

Another knock startled her out of her stupor.

‘O well, I can’t tell them to go away now.’ Sighing in resignation she unlocked the door and swung it wide.

The people who greeted her made her heart stop, Instead of a redhead and a painted face she had a blonde Hokage and a bear masked ANBU staring back at her.
Temari tried to swallow the lump that suddenly seemed to be lodged in her throat.

‘They’ve finally come to question me.’ Her mind shrieked in alarm.

She wanted to talk to these people about her ordeal even less then with her brothers.
Actually it was a toss up she decided as she stared at her visitors.
Gaara and Kankuro freaking out verses strangers pretending to be compassionate.

“Temari-san?” Tsunade finally broke threw the awkward silence that had fallen; the girl in front of them looked like a bird who had looked into the eyes of a cobra.
Her eyes were wide and staring.

“May we come in for a moment my dear?”

Temari nodded her head and reluctantly stepped aside to allow the two unexpected visitors into the apartment.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * **** * *

Sorry for stopping here but please be assured that this is not intended to be a cliffhanger.

I am not going to be writing this particular conversation.

And if I wait to figure out what else to write it might be an even longer wait so here you go, enjoy. :)