Ch357. Arriving at Konoha

Sasori sat behind a table in the luxurious empty lounge of the hotel, cradling a cup of steaming hot coffee. Just what he needed to ease his shopping-spree-induced headache that was still going strong from yesterday.

He didn't need to worry about other people bothering him because their clients, Rei and Nadetsu, obviously booked the whole hotel just for them because... why not?

Somehow, that only proved to add to his increasing irritation of the two.

Just imagining the monumental waste of money it was, brought his subsiding headache back. The number of puppets he could make with that kind of money...

It was then the door to the lounge opened and in walked Temari wearing a somewhat loose but comfortable black kimono with her hair done into a bun and from her relaxed expression and contently squinted eyes, it was obvious she had a nice bath not long ago.

Sasori's eyes trailed over her form... before he almost did a spit-take, only barely managing to gulp down the coffee in his mouth before he started to chokely cough as he noticed that,

'Shit! She is limping! Lady Pakura will kill me!'

A terror surged inside the puppeteer as the pros and cons of going rogue instantly flashed through the forefront of his mind... again.

Temari leisurely walked towards the place where her brothers were seated and unceremoniously flopped into one of the seats with a content sigh before she started to fill the plate in front of her with the available breakfast choices. She was in the middle of this process when she abruptly stopped and her eyes rose up from the delicacies prepared by the hotel staff only to meet Sasori's intent stare.

"What?" Temari asked with a mild irritation seeping into her tone. She really did not like the judging way he looked at her.

"You slept with our client." Sasori dryly stated, his stare morphed into an unamused one.

"Yes. So, what?" Temari lifted her eyebrow at him, stubbornly refusing to play his blaming game. He probably wanted her to start apologizing or something but... meh, she didn't care. She felt heavenly and would do it all over again no matter what Sasori thought.

"Dammit, Temari." Seeing that his blonde charge had no remorse, Sasori started rubbing the bridge of his nose to cover the exasperated helplessness that was gnawing on him. "I am supposed to be responsible for you. Lady Pakura will kill me."

"Oh..." Temari's eyes slightly widened in the realization that Sasori was not angry that she slept with the client. He simply didn't want to face the non-existent consequences of her actions. Understanding that, Temari's temper cooled off and she continued in a friendlier tone, "You don't need to worry about that. Lady Pakura already knows."

Her reassurances finished, Temari returned to stuffing her plate with food, ignoring the gaping puppeteer.

Regathering his wits, the gears in Sasori's mind started to work overtime.

'Is that why we were given this mission?' He narrowed his eyes, glaring at the empty plate in front of him with his lips set in a frown, 'Is that why she flirted with Rei so much? To get him to bed her? But why...'

Sasori's eyes suddenly gained an understanding gleam. Temari's virginity belonged to Lady Pakura and the fact she just gave it to their client surely meant...

'This is a political transaction veiled as an escort mission!' Sasori's breath abruptly hitched and his eyes shot back towards Temari who was happily enjoying her food and chatting with her brothers. He couldn't help but feel a bit of pity for the girl.

Alas, it wouldn't affect him so there was no need to fret.

Satisfied with that conclusion, Sasori's worries subsided as he decided to indulge in his renewed appetite.

Unknown to him, he was totally wrong.

...

It took the group nine more days to reach Konoha gates, mostly because of all the detours Tsunade insisted on. Fortunately, the road was quite peaceful, the only eventful thing being Rei getting closer to Temari and Gaara finding a report with Fuu while Sasori grumbled under his nose about 'Riajuu'.

The redheaded boy could be seen almost smiling nowadays. And Kankuro secretly admitted to Rei that it was creeping the funk out of him before he promptly started to avoid Fuu in fear of being affected by her mentality adjusting hocus pocus.. as he named it.

In all honesty, there was no 'magic' involved. It was just her cheerful predisposition and insistence on being friends. But explaining that to a boy who thought wearing make-up was cool... yeah, Rei quickly decided it was not his problem.

The group finally arrived at the gates where a person was surprisingly already awaiting them.

"Greetings, Sabaku siblings, Mr. Sasori. I am Kurenai Yuhi and I will be your guide while you are in the village." A woman introduced herself with a polite bow, neither too submissive nor too small.

Rei lifted his eyebrow at Kurenai and looked between her and Tsu-, ahem, Nadetsu, his lips twitching into a smirk as he realized Kurenai had no idea that Nadetsu was Tsunade. That told him a lot about the level of trust his wife was willing to exert to the genjutsu mistress.

Rei could now see why Tsunade never showed Kurenai the village on the other side.

The fact Kurenai did not recognize Nadetsu Juusen, the CEO of the Biri-Biri company, however, would bite her in the ass on a later date if Tsunade's narrowed glare was any indication.

An observing outsider would probably suspect Nadetsu Juusen didn't like being ignored or that she was simply arrogant but Rei was sure Tsunade was glaring for a totally different reason. He knew this greeting of the important guests was probably Tsunade's subtle way of making Kurenai experience diplomacy and mingling among the people that will become important in the future while testing her behavior at the same time.

The Suna siblings might no longer be the children of the current Kazekage but they were still very close to Pakura, hence, deemed important by other villages.

That didn't mean Tsunade would easily disregard that Kurenai totally ignored the civilian tag-along and had no idea how Nadetsu Juusen, one of the most influential figures of the modern economy looked like. It didn't matter that Kurenai as a kunoichi did not really need to know Nadetsu's face. Nor did it matter that Nadetsu never introduced herself.

For Tsunade, this was a failure Kurenai will most certainly regret.

Sasori didn't respond as Kurenai expectantly stared at him. He knew he was the 'jonin instructor' of the team and it was his job but during the escort mission, the dynamics of the team became apparent. The real leader was Temari.

Not that Sasori minded. He was a loner by nature and preferred his puppets. Leading three brats was simply not on his list of preferred activities.

He simply silently turned towards Temari, an unasked question obvious in his gaze.

Kurenai noticed and quickly realized what was going on, her own eyes also relocating towards the fifteen years old blonde despite confusion being apparent on her face.

For this show of adaptability and understanding of subtle gestures, at least, Tsunade seemed to be happy and slightly nodded in approval.

Instead of answering, Temari glanced at Rei, and Kurenai's eyebrow twitched.

The ravenette had no idea what was going on anymore. A jonin instructor asking his student what to do? That she could take. Temari seemed to be politically higher than Sasori. But said student asking a civilian what to do? That baffled Kurenai.

She knew this was a sort of test the second she landed this mission but damn if these sand people weren't confusing!

Rei sighed and slightly squeezed Temari's hand before donning a small smile as he whispered to her ear, "Go and register for the Chunin Exams. We can meet at the Senju Compound later. You will be housed there anyway."

Needless to say, Kurenai narrowed her eyes in suspicion at the gesture, trying to understand the relationship and dynamics of the group in front of her. Unfortunately for her...

"Okay." Temari agreed with a small, almost unnoticeable pout before turning towards Kankuro and Gaara while her hand slipped out of Rei's before she gestured for Kurenai to lead the way and started following the clearly reluctant woman.

Rei heard Tsunade snicker next to him, causing him to turn towards her with a lifted eyebrow and a moment later, he felt her hand slide into his as she gave him a tempting look. Instead of answering the unasked question, she simply leaned forward and delivered an indulging kiss on Rei's lips, much to the embarrassment of the green-haired jinchuuriki that was trying to merge with the background.

"Let's deliver Fuu to the Senju Compound and then we can have a bit of alone time." Tsunade whispered, her hands snaking around Rei's waist.

Rei glanced at Fuu who averted her gaze downward with her cheeks flushed and smiled at the cute response towards the blatant affection, "Yeah," He looked back at Tsunade, "Sage knows the next few days will be a challenge with so many temperamental people all housed in the Senju Compound. A nice peaceful afternoon before the shitstorm starts will be nice."

---

Just a small rant to relieve my delicate sensibilities. Feel free to skip:

Yeaaah, sooo, I was browsing through the Avengers fanfictions on ff.net and I must say I am baffled. There is almost no good fanfic there.

Half of it is focused on hurt, drama, self-harm, mental illness, and similar shit that makes me feel as if it was written by 13yo edgy mentally unstable emo angsty fangirls and I still can't wrap my head around WHY. How did an action-based movie such as Avengers --> self-harm, emotional drama, angst, etc? Just... how?

More importantly... how did it become such a massive segment in the Avengers fanfiction community!?

And the other half is straight out homosexual content which I personally am not interested in.

Honestly, I have nothing against homosexuals but when I browse through fanfictions and all I see is Steve x Tony, Steve x Bucky, Steve x Clint, Steve x Bucky, Steve x Steve, I want to wring someone's neck not because they are homo but because there is no damn filter button that could just filter all of these out from my search. It is FRUSTRATING as heck.

It really says a lot about Marvel fans when half of its fanfictions are edgy angsty emo emotional wank fests that love increasing the emotional baggage of their readers and the other half are homosexual stories though.

Damn, I wonder how many people would get butthurt because of this :D.

No offense meant, people. It's a free world and you are free to do what you wish within reason. Let me just... sob my frustrations away in my lonely corner because I miss some good marvel fanfiction that wouldn't give me more emotional baggage or a mental illness for the shit and giggles of an edgelord author who is just coming into depression caused by puberty and think the world is out to get him and cutting his wrist is clearly the way to resolve all of his problems because why not?

Nah, thank you, keep your emotional baggage to yourself. I am not interested in buying that.

(Damn, I so needed to get that out of my system :D. Just browsing through the synopsis on Marvel Fanfictions on ff.net made me feel as if I had a mental illness.)