Desert Flower - [Rewrite]

Chapter 16

Sunagakure no sato

Suna Main Stadium

The stage for the finals of the chunin exams was set as the buzzing of the crowd anticipating to see the young talent of their villages waited eagerly. The betting counters were taking bets with their respective people going through the crowds with several betting charts for people to place their bets from their seats and in between the matches. One half of the stadium was filled with the crowd from Suna while the other half had various other village's audiences and various people there to witness the biggest co-hosting of the chunin exams in history. It was the first time that the 'Big Five' had decided to send their candidates altogether in a single crop pool.

The Daimyos and various other dignitaries sat in their own personal VIP stands as they looked at the best arrangements they had ever seen at such a big event with a huge smile. Several ANBU were flanking the stadium hidden in their covers watching with hawk like eyes, ready and prepared with several orders in case any of the possible scenarios arose as was the order by their military commander. Up in the stands four of the Five Kages sat in their seats with their official hats over them representing their respective villages with pride. Everyone waited with bated breaths for their Kazekage and the main host of the finals to arrive and start the big event.

"Hmph these young people, no respect for punctuality. I knew it he was too young to be a Kage." Grumbled the Tsuchikage making the Mizukage giggle.

"Oh come now Tsuchikage-dono, there is still time for the ceremonies to proceed and with the preparations that I've seen for now he seems to be quite a capable leader if I do say so myself." She said making the man grumble that he should be here before time as the Raikage spoke up.

"I wish to see the talent that Suna has been hiding. I hear they have trained quite a few capable shinobi but the news has been slim since their defense systems were upgraded." He said and Tsunade smirked under her hat waiting with her breath held for the one person she was waiting to get a glance of for the first time in three years. She knew she might even cry if she saw him in front of all these coots but she couldn't care less as she tuned their voices out and kept looking around for the face with three whiskers and sun kissed blonde hair that was completely missing which annoyed her to no end.

"So Hokage-dono aren't you curious too?" asked Mei and Tsunade looked at her surprised as she hadn't heard her really well.

"Huh Mizukage-dono you say something?" she asked innocently making Ao behind her to chuckle lightly when a dark aura surrounded her as she turned her glance to the man who gulped.

"Ao shut up or I'll kill you." She said sweetly making him sweat and shiver and for Tsunade to sweat drop while she turned her gaze back to the stands to find the familiar mop of blonde hair.

Meanwhile in the stands for the Jounins…

Temari stood in the stands in an elegant white kimono with blue desert lilies at the bottom near her thighs and her shinobi equipment strapped on. She had her large battle fan in a seal in her wrist, courtesy of baka blonde husband that she didn't have to carry it around everywhere on her back. She had two small fans in her sleeves always at the ready for any kinds of problems. She had chosen this particular colour for her clothes to match it with her husband's perfectly and had her hair in a usual loose bun that Naruto had grown quite fond of in the past few days seeing her do it like that and she didn't have the heart to refuse him anything.

She leaned on the railings with a soft sigh wondering where he was or what surprise really he had for her. From his grin she knew it was most likely going to be big but she wanted him with her by her side and his arm around her waist like he always did. Speaking of problems…