What the New Year Brings

This chapter is dedicated to michil93 and darkonex852.

michil93 because her friendly encouragement helped put my butt into gear and darkonex852 because for like a month the number of reviews was just dangling at 599 and I was like "C'mon! Just one more review and it'll be an even 600!" and her review helped push it over the threshold.

And thanks as always to all of you who also reviewed, faved, and alerted because I'm no less grateful to you. : )

Chapter 40-The First Long Journey Reaches Its End

"We're here, Sakura." Kakashi informs me.

I immediately stop scanning the pitch black horizon to my left for potential enemies (Kakashi's left side is his blind spot, after all) and focus my attention straight ahead instead, which is the direction Kakashi's gloved hand is currently pointing at. Squinting hard into the far distance I see...absolutely nothing. The horizon in front of me is as devoid of color and shape as the horizon I had been intently staring at to my left just a minute ago.

"Kakashi..." I start to say in a skeptical tone, "I don't see-" but before I can finish, my eyes catch about a half dozen or so golden lights rising up from the nothingness like half a dozen or so pinhead-sized suns slowly bobbing towards us and growing bigger.

As expected, Suna's watchmen had seen us coming long before we even arrived at the city's high, protective cliff walls, and the lights I'm seeing now are actually lit lanterns carried by the guards assigned to escort us in. And as I should have expected, Kakashi had seen them coming long before anyone else in the convoy had because the man has supersensitive everything: sight, smell, hearing...He may have one eye, one ear, and his nose covered most of the time by his hitai-ate and mask, but he isn't the one whose senses are at a disadvantage, it's ours.

I turn around in my seat to shoot Kakashi a dirty look.

"What?" he asks in confusion.

"I have a kink in my neck from staring out to my left this whole time, but you didn't really need me looking out for your 'blind spot,' did you? If anyone was approaching us, you would've sensed them long before any of us had, wouldn't you?" I ask in a low, dangerous tone.

Kakashi continues to look back at me with one wide eye, panicked now rather than surprised, then tells me in his most matter-of-fact sensei voice:

"Well, Sakura, the road of life is best experienced through teamwork," he says with a happy eye crease.

I look back at him with my own eyes wide and mouth agape.

"You're unbelievable, you know that?" I tell him while shaking my head disapprovingly at him.

"Yeah, but do you know how long I've been wanting to use that one?" he asks lightheartedly.

"You're absolutely hopeless." I mutter, turning back around in my seat to face forward again. "You'll be lucky if I don't chakra-punch 'the road of life' out of you once we're married." I say in an even lower voice.

"What did you say?" Kakashi asks worriedly behind me.

"Nothing." I smile quickly back at him and after seeing the wide-eyed, panicked look return to his eye, I turn around and continue to smile devilishly to myself.

At the front of the convoy, one of the guards has approached Yamato and taken our official scroll from the hokage from him. After reading through it quickly, the guard and Yamato exchange a few words, then with a wave of the guard's hand, the other guards proceed down the long line of people and camels, checking to make sure that everything is in order: that there aren't any explosives hidden in one of the many packs, that no one except the designated Konoha ninjas are carrying weapons, and that there aren't any suspicious looking people in the convoy.

Satisfied with their inspection, the guards wave us through and soon the haunches of our camels are moving slowly up and down beneath us once more.

In the dark of night, even the most familiar places take on a different appearance whether it be a well-known city or your own bedroom. Countless of times Kakashi, Naruto, Yamato, and I have passed through the long trench that leads into Suna, but tonight the unlit passage seems to stretch out endlessly before us, its high cliff walls looming dark and foreboding on either side of us, but even after reaching the canal's end with a mutual sigh of relief, the city is still not the same sun-baked one that we are all used to. Instead, the buildings cut globe-shaped silhouettes against the star-littered sky or else glow a dim blue-white from the pale light of the moon.

It is while riding through this eerie, altered version of Suna that it occurs to me: if Hiraku's engagement was still on, fireworks would've lit up the clear sky so that night could be easily mistaken for day, and all the citizens of Suna would've come out in the streets, each and every one of them eager to get a first glimpse of their new princess.

"It's not wise to walk in there under false pretenses." Kakashi had warned us, however. "It's better to be direct with our purpose and try to contain the damage as early as possible."

And so, it was decided that one of the messenger birds traveling with us would be sent ahead with a message to cancel all wedding-related festivities, and that we would explain when we arrived.

"We basically already told them that the wedding is off, so why don't we just head back home?" Naruto asked. "It just seems cruel to make Hiraku and Shinri still go there and explain why it's off."

"We're not trying to be cruel, Naruto," I explained to him, "But just like Kakashi and I will eventually have to suck it up and tell my parents about our relationship, Hiraku and Shinri have to do the same with Hiraku's fiance and her dad. It's not going to be easy and it's not going to be pretty, but it's the responsible and the right thing to do."

"And we can't just head back to Konoha anyway," Kakashi added, "Because our supplies are only meant to last as long as our arrival to Suna where they're going to replenish them for our trip back home. Besides, this far into our journey, it's more logical to continue on to Suna than it is to backtrack and try to find another village to do the same thing."

"Oh," was Naruto's reply.

In any event, this is the reason why only a few necessary guards came to meet us rather than a full-blown welcoming committee.

In a way, it's a relief. There's enough pressure on Hiraku and Shinri as there is, and to see the entire city celebrate a marriage that will not come to pass would've only made things more difficult for them, but at the same time, it's a bit sad not be greeted by cheers and smiling faces. Rather, the city continues to sleep, letting us quietly slip in like ghosts in the night.

Once the convoy reaches the center of the city, it's split into two. The first half consists of Team Kakashi, Madam Shijimi, Hiraku, and Shinri. The second half consists of everyone else left behind, mainly the servants and all the camels. One of the guards who escorted us through the city now leads the second half to their sleeping quarters or stables, while another guard leads the rest of us towards the administration building.

We in the first half look wearily and enviously at the second half. We, too, are exhausted from the long journey and want nothing more than to drag ourselves to our rooms and slip tiredly into bed, but unfortunately, being the Konoha escort team, we're obligated to check in and personally deliver Hiraku and Madam Shijimi to their awaiting party.

Once we're inside the administration building and standing just outside the main meeting room's door, our guard leaves us for a moment to formally announce our arrival before letting us in. When the door finally swings open, I barely catch a glimpse of the three-story high statues of the previous four kazekages through the opening before I see Naruto's bright blue eyes light up, see him dash inside the room without tact or decorum, and shout at the top of his lungs, "Hehehe! Gaara!"

Across the room, Gaara first looks embarrassed to be addressed so casually, but slowly a small smile lifts up the corners of his normally stoic mouth and he meets Naruto halfway across the room, albeit in a more dignified fashion, and the two hug like two brothers reunited.

Meanwhile, a young woman with intense, teal-colored eyes and sandy-blond hair swiftly makes her way across the room towards me.

"Glad you could make it. Took you long enough!" Temari says with a teasing smile, pulling me into a warm hug.

I smile and hug her back. "Long journey." I explain sheepishly.

I'm still trying to catch my breath from her tight embrace when Kankuro comes up from behind us, wraps his arms around the two of us, and officially turns our hug into a group one. I guess they're still really grateful that I saved Kankuro's life all those years ago...

When the two Sand Siblings finally release me and Naruto finally releases Gaara, Gaara looks around the room, meets all of our eyes, and tells us warmly and sincerely, "Welcome to Suna...all of you."

And finally we receive the welcome that we had hoped for, the one that we deserved.

To be continued...

~*~*~*~
Sorry it's so short. I had to break this chapter up into two because the second half just has too much going on and I'm still trying to make sense of it myself! Anyway, they finally made it to Suna! Woo-hoo!