Starting over

#62 Chunin

Naruto POV

"Naru, can we talk for a sec?", Temari asked, as we were going back to our hotel to pack our stuff. She had been distant ever since we went out of the Hokage's office. We stopped and sat down on a bench that stood under a large cherry tree. "What is it?", I asked not knowing what she wanted to talk about. "Why didn't you want me to see how much money your parents have left you?", Temari asked, coming straight to the point. "Why would it matter, I mean you know that I don't care about money and I know that you don't either. I just didn't want to burden you with the knowledge. I didn't think you would get mad over it.", I responded, earning a disappointed look from the girl. "You are right, I don't care about that stuff, but you forgot one thing. We are supposed to trust each other blindly. I mean, I love you and I have no secrets from you and I would expect you to not have any either.", Temari said, gradually becoming louder, while she spoke. "You know, that I love you and I don't have any secrets. You could just have asked, I would have told you immediately. I'm sorry, if it looked like I was trying to keep that information from you. I just didn't want to burden you with it.", I apologized, smiling at my girlfriend, as she looked at me with a small smile on her lips. "Just don't make me ask for something like that again.", she said, as she leaned towards me and caught me totally off guard, kissing me. I put my arms around her back and deepened the kiss. "So, how much money has been transferred to your bank account?", Temari asked, as we broke the kiss. I chuckled, putting my arm around Temari and watching the wind drive through the trees. "All together, I'd say around five million ryo. And after we get home, I am going to the Spa to tell them, that they should send the revenues to my account too, so that I have everything coming together on that account. I am guessing, that will be another 20.000 ryo per month. After all, the Spa is booming and enjoys a perfect reputation.", I told Temari, earning a shocked look from the blond haired girl. "Wow... we could survive on the revenue alone. I mean, we don't need to work anymore.", Temari whispered, trying to comprehend, what she had just realized. "But that would be pretty boring, don't you think?", I laughed as we stood up again and resumed on our way to the hotel.

Timeskip 1 week

After our daily training session, were we had fought against Anko, who had given us more trouble than we had previously expected, Gaara, Temari, Anko and I went to a small restaurant for dinner. As we sat at the table, we had time to talk for the first time, since Anko had moved into Sunagakure. "Have you settled alright?", I asked the purple haired kunoichi. "Yeah, I even made some friends already. The other jonin have accepted me without problems. I also have found a great flat in a nice beautiful house with great neighbors.", Anko said, smiling while we waited for our meal. We chatted further, while we waited.

After our meal Anko went away, while Gaara, Temari and I went towards our home, chattering around.

We noticed something was off, as soon as we had stepped through the front door. There was light on and the sound of cooking came from the kitchen. We looked at each other and approached the kitchen, knowing that the guards around the house would have intercepted anyone other than Rasa or us. Sure enough, we got to the kitchen and saw Rasa sitting on the table while a woman was preparing dinner. We already knew Sandra, his personal cook, so we weren't particularly surprised. "Hello dad. Why so early?", Temari asked, as we joined him at the table. "Well, I have something very important to tell you. But let us eat first.", Rasa said smiling, looking over his shoulder to see that the blonde woman had just begun taking some plates out of the pantry. "Well, we already ate with Anko, sorry. But feel free to eat, we will wait.", Gaara explained, causing Sandra to put all but two plates away again, before putting some noodles and sauce on the remaining ones.

After Rasa and Sandra had eaten, Rasa lead us into the living room, sitting down on the armchair opposite from the couch. He also produced a big package and put it in front of the table. We looked curiously at the package and at the Kazekage who smiled at us.

"It fills me with pride and joy to be able to declare that you three, Temari Sabaku, Gaara Sabaku and Naruto Namikaze have convinced your Kage in the chunin exams that you have taken part in and are hereby declared chunin. Also, because of the very good record that team Baki has and it's actions in the defense of Konoha, as well as the great reports by your sensei, you have been given a raise to your normal chunin salary, as well as pay for a S ranked mission. Congratulations.", Rasa declared smiling, opening the package to reveal three flak jackets and three sets of Suna's standard headgear. Temari squealed quietly and jumped up to hug Gaara and me, before going around the table to hug her father. Gaara and I just smiled, taking out the flak jackets and giving the feminine cut one to Temari while putting ours on. Temari also put her jacket on, although she had more problems since she had to make it wider in certain places. As we put on our headgear, Rasa smiled and stood up. "Now you look like real shinobi of the sand.", he said, taking the empty package and sealing it back into the scroll, he had taken it out of.