"Suna? So soon?" Genma asked while leaning against the doorframe as Sakura packed. "You only just got back from that other month-long mission." Sakura paused, and when she listened a bit closer, there was an undeniable tinge of worry in the tokujo's voice.

Sighing fondly, the rosette sealed the last few kunai into her scroll and shoved it in her backpack, then turned towards Genma with a smile. "It's just a diplomatic mission, don't worry so much." When the brunet still didn't look convinced, she walked over and hugged him – Sakura suspected she needed the physical reassurance more than him, but it was nice nevertheless when his arms wound around her back with nary a thought. "It'll be in-and-out: harass some Elders, present the treaty, leave. No longer than a month. Tsunade-sama isn't expecting the same miracle as in Kiri, but she is obligated to respond to the interim Kazekage's request; Shikamaru and I are the best choice." She mumbled into the fabric of his shirt.

Genma hummed and lightly patted her head before withdrawing. "Shall I look it over?" he gestured to her pack and Sakura, seeing the change of subject as what it was, agreed. As Genma ambled over to sit on her bed, he laughed suddenly, picking up a hot-pink stuffed dinosaur from her pillow.

"You're leaving him behind?" he teased, shaking the toy in a mockery of a dance. "Kotetsu will be heartbroken."

Sakura mock-scowled, but she couldn't help the grin that pulled at her lips. The dinosaur was a gag gift from Kotetsu, given shortly after the rosette started seeing Inoichi for therapy, with a teasing 'Mr. Obnoxiously Pink for our favourite obnoxiously pink chunin!'. But even though at the time Sakura had scowled and smacked the man with the very toy he gave her, she kept it. Her old toys had all perished when her house had been levelled during the Invasion, so it was nostalgia more than anything and a desire to cling to the last remnants of her childhood with her parents that made her keep it and sleep with it since. Nonetheless, it was a fact which she would rather shave all her hair off for than admit to the insufferable raven.

"He's probably convinced I burned it to ashes the second I got it, so no, he won't be." She snarked eventually when the silence seemed to stretch on for too long and got a snort in return. The atmosphere in the room, however, was considerably lighter so she counted it a success.

From there, the conversation drifted to slightly more serious topics, from desert-appropriate clothing, Suna's socio-economic situation, to the pros and cons of foreign foods and the weather. Just before she settled in for bed, Sakura penned a quick letter to Chōjūrō, letting the bluenette know where she was going to be for the next few weeks, and Genma graciously agreed to send it off in the morning.

(and if the next day, Genma hugged her a bit tighter than usual when she was leaving to meet Shikamaru, then, well. Neither of them commented on it and Sakura simply made sure to squeeze just as tight in return.)

Shikamaru was already at the gates when Sakura arrived, and she waved in recognition before ambling over to the gate guards to submit their mission scroll and papers. She was slightly disappointed when the guards weren't anyone she recognised, but soon enough, they were off, easing in to the three-day trek for Suna. They kept a steady pace, nowhere near the speed at which Sakura had had to run at with Fox and Boar-taicho, but fast enough that by nightfall they were right by the border between the Land of Fire and Land of Rivers. Just for the extra security, they camped on the Fire side of the border, setting up their tents and getting a small fire going for food and extra light.

Eventually, when the hastily-hunted dinner was eaten and they were both sated but unwilling to go to sleep just yet, Sakura proposed a game of shogi, having spied Shikamaru's signature travel kit in his bag. They had chatted during the journey, catching up on what happed during the three months since they'd last seen each other at Inoichi's dinner. Which was nice and all, but jumping through trees and keeping half a mind on the direction they were heading in left little room for deep conversation.

As such, Sakura wasn't surprised when, after nudging his rook into place, Shikamaru asked, "So how is your jounin promotion going?" and simply judging by his tone, it would have seemed that the Nara was uninterested in the topic of discussion, but Sakura saw the way his eyes quickly flickered up to meet hers briefly before they fell back to the board, the glint in them half worried, half genuinely curious.

So she smiled. "It's slow-going, but I have hope. The requirement for even being nominated for the exams is five A-Ranks, 15 B-Ranks, 25 C-Ranks and over 70 D-Ranks. I'm all set on the D-Ranks front, and counting this mission I'll only have one more A-Rank left, but I still need 14 B-Ranks and 12 C-Ranks. It's... doable, but it'll take time. Though now that I'm not full-time at T&I it should be easier to get missions out of the Village."

Shikamaru snorted. "I still can't believe you did ten times as many D-Ranks as I did. And the ones Asuma assigned us were hell." He grouched, and Sakura found it funny how it was the D-Ranks that he found odd rather than the four A-Ranks.

Sakura grinned and shrugged, moving forward a pawn. "I think that was Tsunade-sama's intention – to make it hell." She laughed, scowling when Shikamaru used her moment of inattention to swipe her promoted bishop. "Oi! That was mean!"

The Nara just smirked, casually promoting his pawn. "Should've been paying more attention to the game, woman." He taunted, making Sakura's scowl deepen. Abandoning her hastily-erected Mino castle, she sacrificed her promoted rook to snatch his bishop in return. Shikamaru just raised an eyebrow. "Are you counting on me not being able to predict you losing your temper?" and in a move that Sakura hadn't even seen coming, he suddenly had a knight and a bishop around her king. "Because if so, then think again."

Sakura took a glance at the board, then, temper rising, pushed it aside and pounced, tackling Shikamaru to the ground.

"Oof! Ow, woman, your elbow's bony- get off- Sakura, c'mon, don't- ow! What are you- get away from my hair!"

Two days later, the duo finally neared the outer walls of Suna. The sun was unforgiveable, bright and hot and with not even a hint of a cloud in the sky, and Sakura was incredibly grateful she'd managed to convince Genma to go shopping with her and as a result her head as well as the bottom half of her face were now covered by a pale jade shemagh. She'd also swapped her standard uniform for a more appropriate outfit just before they crossed the border into the Land of Wind, and she now wore a loose white cotton tunic, beige linen pants and a cream overshirt that she left unbuttoned – Sakura was certain she would've cried if she'd had to stick by her turtleneck and dark trousers. Or at least looked as miserable as Shikamaru did; the Nara had clearly not taken his mom's nagging to heart and had merely replaced his usual short-sleeved Nara clan jacket with a long sleeved one. He'd been forced to ditch his chunin vest, and Sakura had taken pity on him and tore up one of her cotton shirts to give him something to cover his head and neck with. She also made sure to point out his lack of foresight out loud whenever the teen's complaining stopped sounding funny and treaded into 'annoying' territory.

But, at last, there were the walls of the Village Hidden in the Sand, and Sakura easily located the gap between the cliffs that Genma had told her led to the actual Village Gates. After a fairly long trek – made longer still by the fact that Shikamaru was quite literally dragging his feet, revelling in the 'first hint of shade in the last 48 hours, seriously, Sakura, how does any vegetation here even survive, I'm not surprised nobody bothers to invade Suna despite its crap military, this place is a natural oven' but finally, the Village's Gates came into view.

However, before they could so much as pull out their papers, a Suna shinobi stood before them, standing between them and the Gates with a kunai in each hand. "What's your purpose here? Identify yourselves!" he barked, pointing the kunai threateningly.

Shikamaru sighed, exhaustion turning into irritation. "We would've done so, shinobi-san, if you hadn't jumped on us." He snapped, pulling out his papers with a flourish atypical of a Nara. "We're the diplomats from Konohagakure. Your Kazekage requested us."

The ninja's hostility was replaced by suspicion, and he took the proffered papers like they were an exploding tag. "Diplomats?" he repeated, eyeing first Shikamaru, then Sakura up and down. "But you're just kids." He snorted derisively.

Instead of responding verbally, Sakura reached beneath the neckline of her tunic and pulled out her Kirigakure forehead protector she'd thought to bring which was now tied around her neck, then tugged her shemagh up a little and let the sun glint off the Konohagakure insignia on the metal plate. "Yes, diplomats." She replied coolly, her inborn politeness warring with her own exhaustion and annoyance at the situation. "Call your leader if you do not believe us."

"There will be no need for that!" a new voice called out, and a short figure jumped from the cliff, landing solidly behind the gate guard. "My idiotic brother has gone soft in his own age – he did indeed request diplomats from the Leaf."

Sakura, recognising just who came to greet them from the multitude of Bingo Books, medical and historical texts she'd read over the years, dipped into a shallow bow. "Chiyo-sama. I take it Honourable Ebizo-sama is the interim Kazekage?"

Chiyo paused, then suddenly, she was right in front of Sakura, reaching up and grasping her fabric-covered chin, then tugging her down so she could stare the rosette in the eyes. "You're sharp, girlie. But also suspicious!" And then there was a knife pressing to Sakura's throat, far quicker than she would've expected from such an old woman, and far too quick for her to dodge. "My brother didn't sign his name on the letter to Tsunade-hime, so you must have an informant! Spill!"

And then, instead of increasing, the pressure eased, and when Sakura looked down, she saw a pooled shadow by Chiyo's feet, the other end connected to Shikamaru. "I'd appreciate it if you refrained from threatening my teammate, Chiyo-sama." The Nara intoned smoothly, yet not breaking off his shadow. Sakura reasoned that the giant cliffs behind them were probably playing to the Nara's advantage, as it was literally the only place where his shadow wasn't completely useless.

"And to answer your question," Sakura added in a murmur, "I happen to enjoy history and medical books. You were quite infamous in both."

"Am!" Chiyo roared suddenly, moving as if to rush the rosette but was ultimately restrained by Shikamaru's shadow. "I am famous! Retired doesn't mean useless, girlie!"

Sakura exchanged a disbelieving glance with Shikamaru. From their experience, that was precisely what 'retired' meant in the ninja world – although few lived long enough to earn that title. Still, Sakura had grown used to humouring inflated egos.

"My mistake, Chiyo-sama. Is there anything else you need?" the pinkette replied, and Shikamaru finally dropped his Shadow Possession.

"Are their papers legitimate?" Chiyo barked at the gate guard, who nodded hastily, then, once the Elder had turned away from him, glared at the two Konoha chunin. "Then you shall follow me, and I will lead you to my brother."

Sharing one more glance and a shrug, Sakura fell into step with Shikamaru and the two of them followed the eccentric Elder through the main streets of Sunagakure. It was... it wasn't great was putting it mildly. While Kirigakure had had sad, hopeless people, a struggling economy and a depleted military, the atmosphere in Suna was somehow worse. The Village just seemed to stagnate. The people were wandering around aimlessly, most of the shops were closed, and only about a tenth of the population was visibly shinobi.

Sakura nudged Shikamaru with her elbow and jerked her chin at the crowd around them. "Kiri seems almost cheerful in comparison." She murmured out of the corner of her mouth, getting a slight grin in return. Then, after about ten minutes' walk, the straight road they'd been on before ended in a round, sandy-coloured building like most of the others they had walked past. Only this one was about three times bigger and with a kanji for 'Wind' painted on the side of the wall.

"Any bets about where we're going?" Shikamaru muttered dryly, and Sakura couldn't quite keep in the snort that escaped her.

"Speak up children!" Chiyo snapped from the front of their little procession, turning around to shoot them a glare. "How do I know you're not scheming behind my back?"

"I don't know, maybe the fact that you're still alive?" Sakura snarked quietly, the heat and the sweat she could feel dripping down her back making her ten times more aggressive than usual. Shikamaru choked, then bent over to get his breath back while he laughed.

"Stop that! Do you want me to leave you here? Or send you to the basements for interrogation? I'm still not convinced you're not spies!" Chiyo growled, and for an old lady, the woman sure had a loud voice.

Shikamaru quietened immediately, but Sakura saw red. "Threatening foreign diplomats here on the invitation of your Kazekage is not in any way helping Sunagakure's case, Chiyo-sama. There are already enough sceptics about this treaty as is – any hostile act against us carried out by your Village can trigger a war. And you and I both know Suna would not come out on top if it were to come to that, not with two superior Villages against yours." The rosette replied coldly, making sure to make her voice harsh and cutting.

It must've worked, because the woman stopped in her tracks and turned around to face them. Shikamaru tensed, but Sakura merely met the woman's eyes; compared to Orochimaru, she was nothing. Compared to Ibiki, she was nothing.

I am not helpless. Not anymore. If she attacks, I am confident we can get out. I am not helpless!

But then, Chiyo threw her head back and cackled.

"Oh, to be young and naïve again!" she crowed, her small stature shaking with the force of her laughter. "How self-important you must feel, to think your disappearance, a mere couple of genin, could force a war. I can't wait until you use those arguments on our Council!"

Shikamaru, despite the tenseness of his usually relaxed posture and the pallor of his skin, spoke first, and his voice was its usual detached drawl. "Mah, we're chunin, not genin. And perhaps that isn't too much, seeing as Suna gave up search of its own Kage, but Konoha has different standards. Especially since I am the heir to one of the noble Clans, and Sakura and I are both Ambassadors to Kirigakure. So perhaps not a war, no, but you would lose the only two allies who might even give you a chance."

Sakura stared at the Nara with a mix of surprise and pride in her eyes – last time, in Kiri, it would've been her who butted heads with the Elders, while Shikamaru did damage control. But this time, it seemed that he was less willing to remain on the sidelines of the verbal battles, and for some inexplicable reason, Sakura couldn't quite fight off the smile that pulled at her lips.

Chiyo scrutinised them for a long moment, then pushed open one of the doors leading to the round building with the kanji for 'Wind'. "We're here." She said instead, then walked into the dark hall, Sakura and Shikamaru having little choice but to follow.

To their surprise, the interior of the Kazekage building was rather cool and dark, and the Kazekage's office was almost chilly in comparison to the desert outside.

The man sitting at the desk was old. There was no other word for it, though Sakura struggled to keep herself from laughing at the expression on Shikamaru's face – the Kage's eyebrows were longer than Sakura's bangs, and they left his eyes strangely shadowed.

"Leaf shinobi," the man intoned, his voice drier than the desert outside and dripping with poorly-hidden disdain. "welcome to Sunagakure."

Nodding, Sakura and Shikamaru dipped into a bow, and the brunet sent her a meaningful glance that meant she should take care of the pleasantries. Sakura almost rolled her eyes in response.

"Kazekage-sama," she greeted politely, "thank you for the welcome. I am Haruno Sakura and my partner is Nara Shikamaru – Tsunade-sama sent us as the diplomatic envoys."

Ebizo's eyes seemed to settle on her for a minute, then he let out a world-weary sigh. "Although I am loathe to seek help from any country, it is my duty as Kazekage to ensure my successor takes over a prospering Village. We will begin negotiations tomorrow, with the Council of Elders. For now, go rest."

Sakura nodded, ignoring the dig at his unwillingness of foreign help, but then her curiosity got the better of her. "Have you decided on a successor, Kazekage-sama?"

Chiyo turned her suspicious eyes on her, making Sakura jump. "What business is it of yours, girlie? It's my brother and the Council you'll be doing business with." She snapped, and Sakura took an involuntary step back at the venom in her voice.

She nodded, feeling surprisingly cowed and was about to apologise, but Shikamaru gripped her wrist, and when she glanced at him, there was an odd look in his eyes. It looked like... indignation? anger? Something that had no right to be present in a Nara's eyes, whose tempers were renowned as almost saintly.

"That hostility was unnecessary." He replied, and though his tone was perfectly polite, his voice was cold. "Sakura's interest is perfectly reasonable – in fact, as I assume the successor will be one of the Sand Siblings, simply by virtue of being the late Kazekage's children, it is even in your favour. Perhaps you're unaware, but the three of them played a large role in the Invasion. Would it not therefore be in your best interest for Sakura and I to spread good words about them once we return, to reduce some of the animosity held by our people for their role in the destruction of our Village, or would you rather leave a teenager to bear the weight of a foreign Village's scorn when something could've been done to lessen it?"

Sakura was surprised. Pleasantly so, because she hadn't expected him to jump to her defence, but she was also exasperated. With herself, mainly, because she forgot that the teen beside her, despite his oftentimes lacking motivation, was in fact a genius. She had forgotten that the Sand trio were the children of a Kage when she asked her question, but the Nara hadn't, and, judging by Chiyo's scowl, she wasn't aware he had known in the first place.

The Kazekage, despite the unjust treatment of the diplomats he himself had requested, did not rebuke his sister or apologise on her behalf, which rankled with Sakura, but she stayed silent.

"Indeed," Ebizo commented, folding his gnarled hands on the desk before him, "it will be one of the Siblings who succeeds me. But they are not so helpless as to need that kind of favour with your Village." And although his tone didn't change, there was a slight edge to the way he said 'your Village'. Like it was somehow lesser.

Shikamaru frowned, but stayed silent,