Rock Lee
“Naruto-kun!” I called out to him as he walked towards Sakura and I, who stood side-by-side at Tsunade-sama’s door.

Naruto-kun waved happily to us, avoiding eye-contact with Sakura-chan. Hokage-sama’s door had been closed and locked, a note taped to its handle. Sakura and I had read it many times while we waited for everyone else to arrive. Naruto walked directly towards it and tore it off the handle, almost tearing it in half. He stared down at it, reading it slowly.

Naruto, Lee, Sakura, Shino –
Tsunade-sama had to go on an emergency meeting this morning with the elders. She can’t be here to tell you more about your mission. Therefore, I will be the one taking her place for the explanation. Meet me at the village gates.
KAKASHI

“What?!” Naruto exclaimed. “Granny-Tsunade’s gone? This just proves my point about her-”

“Naruto!” Sakura-chan hissed. “Don’t say such things.”

“Naruto-kun,” I said, trying to calm him down, smirking at his unneeded rage. “We will wait here for Shino-kun, then we will go see Kakashi about the mission.”

“Hang on,” Naruto stopped me, throwing his hands out in front of himself. “Shino is… late?”

There was a pause.

“Good point, Naruto,” Sakura said, nodding slowly.

Suddenly, a figure appeared behind us. Sakura and I slowly turned around. Naruto’s face was pale and grim, his eyes wide and his jaw dropped. Sakura and I screamed and jumped when we saw Shino standing before us, now. Something was terrifyingly different about him. Not only the fact that he didn’t have an atmosphere around him that resembled something between a thunderstorm and the fires of hell, but something else oddly abnormal: his sunglasses.

“Oh my god,” Sakura said, slowly. “Shino?!”

“What’s with the sunglasses?” Naruto asked, biting his lip to avoid bursting out in laughter, his eyes watering.

“What?” he asked, gravely serious. “You don’t like them?”

“Shino…” Naruto said, unable to contain himself any longer. “THEY’RE STARS!!!”

With that, Naruto, Sakura and I exploded into laughter. Our sides burned and tears swelled into our eyes. I usually wouldn’t laugh like that at someone, but the fact was that I wasn’t laughing at him; we were all laughing with him. He didn’t really laugh that much, but he cracked a smile and the atmosphere around him seemed to stay fixed in “amusement”. I didn’t know what was wrong with him, or what changed him. Some kind of odd mood-swing, since he had been in a horrid mood the day before. He closed his eyes and removed the rather odd pair of sunglasses and placed them aside, removing a normal pair from his natural-looking sunglasses and placed them on his face. He hid the rest of his face with the shadow of his hood, making him look like he usually did, but the atmosphere around him didn’t change.

“Now,” he said, his voice serious once more. “Why are we all standing here?”

Without a word, wiping my eyes, I handed him the note from Kakashi-san. He looked down to it, his eyes scanning it behind his dark sunglasses. He then handed it back to me wordlessly and nodded slowly. I took it from him and pocketed it into one of the pockets in my vest.

“Well then,” he shoved his hands into his pockets. “Let’s go.”

We made our way out of the Hokage’s mansion and into the streets of Konoha. We headed towards the village gates, as instructed. The atmosphere was hard to describe. We were all expecting something important and probably big, but yet there was a hint of enthusiasm as though something new was coming, or was happening. I also noticed that the bickering between Shino and Naruto had ended, though there seemed to be an uncomfortable tension between the two. It was as though one was relatively pleased with everything, and the other was still terrified. I was just glad that Sakura and I wouldn’t be in the middle of it all any longer.

We eventually made it to the gates where Kakashi leaned against one of the main pillars, one arm across his chest and the other holding a book up to his face. Naruto took the liberty to walk directly up to his former sensei, and place his hand rudely on the page that Kakashi’s eye was scanning, slowly. His expression remained the same as he slammed his book shut, Naruto’s hand still within its pages. Naruto shrieked and retracted his hand quickly.

“Hello, Naruto,” he said, calmly. “Sakura, Lee, Shino.”

“Hello, Kakashi-sensei,” Sakura greeted him at once, Naruto holding his hand tightly.

“I take it you got my note?” he asked, sliding his book into his pocket. “Good. Now, I’ll describe your mission to you.”

“We already know,” Naruto stopped him, glaring at him. “The stolen artefacts, the disturbances, the creepy road, we got it.”

“Naruto,” Kakashi sighed. “Shut up. I know. Anyway, it’s about a one day walk, and you’ll arrive at night. There’s a great building beside the road, and that’s where the artefacts have been stolen from. It’s deserted, but there’s a man who has watched over the main parts of it for a long time. You’ll probably hear more about your mission from him. Alright?”

“Hai,” we all said simultaneously.

“Good,” he smiled enthusiastically behind his mask. “Now then. Sakura Haruno, Uzumaki Naruto, Aburame Shino and Rock Lee; I, Hatake Kakashi, on behalf of the Fifth Hokage, assign you on this-”

“Alright!” we all stopped him at once. “We get it…”

He crossed his arms and his enthusiasm faded. Naruto and Sakura giggled while I chuckled slightly and Shino hid the shadow of a grin. Kakashi-san then smirked slightly and gestured for us to leave. Naruto, Shino, Sakura and I all jumped into the trees, Kakashi waving lazily behind us. We were about to embark on a mission like any other. Little did we know that it wouldn’t be like any other mission. In fact, this mission might have been one to change our lives forever…

Sabaku no Gaara
“Then I kissed him!” Zazu exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air.

“You actually got a kiss out of him?” Mellora asked, amazed.

“Yep!” Zazu said, proudly. “A good one, too.”

“So you told him everything?” Mellora pressed.

“Of course,” Zazu nodded. “For a kiss that good? Damn straight I told him. And I never go back on my word.”

Kinaru snorted, the bump on his back twitching.

Mellora, Zazu, Kinaru and I were all standing around downtown Konoha, the commotion of the villager’s daily lives occurring around us. We were talking about nothing and everything going on around us and everything else. Zazu had proudly rambled on and on about his encounter with Naruto and everything, in incredible detail, about what had happened. Mellora and I simply listened, while Kinaru helped fine-tune the story. This Zazu boy was so excited about everything having to do with Naruto, that it actually made me wonder: could he possibly have loved Uzumaki Naruto?

“So…” Kinaru cooed. “Now what?”

“Well,” Zazu said, rubbing the back of his head, sneering. “After we lost Naruto yesterday, we found Gaara and Mellora. Together. Care to explain that, you too?”

Before I could even open my mouth, there was a poof of gray smoke that appeared beside us. I turned my head abruptly to face the cloud of appearing smoke, and found a tall, masked man with white-gray hair and a Chuunin vest strapped around himself standing beside us. His one visible eye suggested that he was smiling. Zazu’s eyes widened as Hatake Kakashi appeared.

“Who is he?” he exclaimed. “And how old is he?”

“This is Hatake Kakashi,” I introduced them. “He was Naruto’s sensei, and now he’s his team mate.”

“Naruto?!” Zazu exclaimed, looking around. “Where?!”

“Hello, Gaara-sama,” Kakashi bowed his head, leaning up against a wall.

“Kakashi-san,” I nodded I return. “What’s wrong?”

“I have to ask you a question,” he told me. “Well, it’s more of a request.”

“Sure,” I replied, nodding. “What is it?”

“Naruto, Shino, Sakura and Lee have just been assigned on a mission,” Kakashi explained. “They think it’s simple, but in actuality, it could get dangerous enough that someone might die. Naruto told me about a group of people who are after him, and we think that they are active around that area. In all seriousness, I’m worried about them. Especially Naruto.

“Gaara, I know you’re not of the leaf village, so you can come and go as you please. Frankly, I would like you to follow him. Check up on him. Make sure he’s alright. Please could you do this?”

“It’s no problem at all,” I nodded to him, smiling kindly.

“Thank you, Kazekage-sama,” he replied, relieved.

“Call me Gaara,” I said, smiling toothily.

“Ooo! Ooo! Can I come?” Zazu exclaimed.

“You’re that team from the corrupted village?” Kakashi looked to Mellora, Kinaru and Zazu.

“Yes we are,” Mellora nodded. “But we’re not gonna stay here for long. We’re going to go back to Suna with Gaara.” I saw Zazu’s face drain of all colours.

“Alright,” Kakashi nodded. “You can go with Gaara, Zazu-kun.”

“Hey,” Zazu tilted his head to a side in a puppy-dog like fashion. “How the hell does old and sexy know my name?”

“Thank you, sir,” Mellora smiled.

With that, Kakashi smiled behind his mask once more, and then placed his index and middle fingers under his eyes. With a poof of gray smoke, he disappeared out of sight. I turned to face the rogue team. Zazu’s expression looked as though he was about to break down into a series of sobs any moment. I knew, at that point, that he would prefer to stay here forever with Naruto-kun. I cleared my throat, redundantly, capturing everyone’s attention.

“Well, we might as well get ready,” I nodded. “We’ll catch up with Naruto and his team, but we’ll hang back a ways, understood?”

“Great!” Zazu exclaimed, his enthusiasm returning. “Let’s get going! I wanna go see my Naruto-kun!”

“Alright,” Kinaru said, crossing his arms in satisfaction. “……Where are we going?”