121 Chapter 121: Gaara, the disappointment

The next day, the entrance of Konoha.

Three siblings from Sunagakure waited patiently, hoping for the arrival of their sensei.

Soon, she appeared and approached them with a smile and confirmed that she would be coming along too.

Temari and Kankuro responded in kind, with an even larger smile of their own.

Now, they had completed the mission that they had been entrusted, and hopefully improved the lives of the Shinobi in the sand.

Another man, was walking alongside her and looked towards Gaara specifically.

"Yo. Want me to get someone to teach you how to bully that oversized raccoon in your body?"

The pupils of Gaara dilated as he looked at him confused.

Temari and Kankuro similarly looked at him questioningly and suspiciously.

They didn't doubt Hachiro's capability of getting the two jinchuriki in the cloud to help teach Gaara.

But why would he decide to generously give up the secret on how it works?

Pakura nodded as if recalling something and asked, "Is it okay if Gaara stays in Konoha for a period of time? I mean, until he learns how to control the tailed beast inside him. It would be troublesome if it broke out whenever we don't actually have any good sealing masters."

Hesitating, Temari looked towards Gaara and noticed that he other than the confusion, he didn't seem to be against it and instead quite interested in the idea.

She slowly nodded in agreement, "Okay."

Despite, having a relationship built on fear originally, Kankuro faintly smiled and comforted him.

"I guess in the meantime then, I'll try to change the image you have associated with you currently. One you come back they won't call you a monster anymore."

Gaara nodded and turned to Pakura.

"Lord Fifth, I will entrust the village to you."

Temari looked at him awkwardly, He's changed so much it's kind of scary.

Pakura, smiled and replied, "Of course, leave it to me."

She looked over at Hachiro with slightly complicated emotions and said, "I'm leaving."

He gave a grin and said, "Make sure to send a letter whenever you feel lonely, I can zoom over at anytime!"

She blinked and was tempted to ask if he could visit regularly, but she knew that right now with how young Hints was, she was having plenty of problems that would only be taken care of after a few months.

Maybe, weekly visits could be a thing after everything settled down...

With that thought in mind, she jumped over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek causing Hachiro's eyes, to bulge.

F***, this was like the first time in 7 years that she took the initiative! Well, aside from that horror of a first time, but that was forgotten history.

That was a dark story that didn't need to be brought up...

Soon, after recovering from that awkward situation, the group meant to be returning home to Sunagakure set off leaving Gaara and Hachiro by themselves.

Hesitantly, the jinchuriki tilted his head and asked, "So, when will I begin my new training?"

Before, Hachiro could reply, he felt a heavy intent emerge from behind him.

Thanks to observation haki, he knew who it was...

"Eh... Good morning, Mei."

He twisted his head and forced out a smile.

With a seemingly, happy expression, she joyfully inquired, "So~ how did kissing an old woman feel~?"

The corner of his eye twitched from speechlessness.

Old woman? Aren't you older than her?

Awkwardly, he shrugged and replied, "Pretty nice, so how was the mission going?"

"Humph!"

She glared at Gaara and a random dog that seemed to be watching her, before spitting out a reply.

"I've gotten a large enough group to set off now. When should I go?"

Slightly curious and interested, he asked. "Already? So, who exactly did you choose in the end?"

...

...

The Central plaza in Konoha.

Her first choice was naturally Kimimaro and Haku.

They were two shinobi close to her with good strength and originated from the Land of Water.

Oh, and the Otsutsuki cell transplantation proved to be quite effective in reducing the side effects brought by his bloodline.

Although, it was far from negating them completely, it had at least allowed him to slowly recover outside of combat.

Only problem was... the damn snake had to create a creepy looking face on the left side of Kimimaro's chest.

He gave a silent prayer to the poor boy, who forever had his love life ruined...

Alongside the two of them, Mei also picked, Might Guy, Kakashi and a few other shinobi that had experience fighting against Kirigakure in the last ninja war.

One thing he noted was that the 'squad' was more like an army and it's composition was roughly 30% Kumo shinobi and 70% Konoha ninja.

The total number of shinobi was over a thousand and none of them were exceptionally weak.

They were all combat ready and prepared to leave at a moment's notice.

A conversation was currently going on between two notible Leaf shinobi.

Unwillingly, Kakashi recalled some memories of the past and muttered.

"I didn't think, we would end up fighting another war with the mist shinobi."

His close friend and eternal rival, Guy had a thoughtful expression as he gave his own input. "You're right, I heard they're going through a rough time. I wonder if it's because..."

Likewise, the memories associated with the Mist were far from happy.

His father died under the hands of the Seven ninja swordsmen and while he knew that he died doing what he thought was right, that didn't make it any less depressing for him.

Mei approached the gathering of trained killers and patted Gaara on the back. "If you can try to integrate yourself and make a few friends. They're mostly men so that might be a hard task, but good luck..."

Gaara kept quiet and didn't show any signs of moving.

That caused the eyebrow of the busty and mature woman to rise.

With a mischievous and playful smile, she thought to herself.

Not very good at following orders are we? Well then, allow me to give you a helping hand!