At the end, both of them walked out of the cemetery together, although they lived on different streets, two-thirds of the route consisted of passing through the same streets and shops. Temari was originally going to go eat some chestnut sweets at a shop she knew brought them, and out of habit, she was going to ask Takara if he wanted to join her, but she remembered how sensitive he was about his appearance.
She had seen him accidentally once without his mask at the Academy when it cracked due to a bad hit he received, and he had to go change it in the changing rooms. She was very curious and didn't let the opportunity pass, absenting herself from the lesson saying she had to go to the bathroom shortly after.
He was quite handsome, but she understood a little how his appearance hurt his male pride.
She herself questioned for a moment if she had gone to the women's dressing room by mistake...
"Hey," Temari called to Takara when she remembered an issue. "Gaara was looking for you earlier, he wants to know if you'll have enough of those puppets to last him throughout the chunin exam."
"Wait, has it been confirmed who's going?" Takara stopped walking and turned around. "I understood that the lists... oh, right."
"Yes…" Temari scratched her hair with her hand, confirming Takara's thoughts. "My father already told us everything."
Takara stared fixedly at Temari, making his silent question clear.
"You're in," Temari confirmed, letting out a sigh of relief that she didn't know was contained when Takara looked away from her.
In fact, originally it was going to be just her family as participants and some ninjas as escorts to Konoha. But as she was preparing to go to the cemetery, she heard her father arguing with the old lady Chiyo, something about a sword, Kirigakure, and recent merits.
Rasa only reluctantly agreed to include Takara in the team due to pressure, but he was very dissatisfied with it.
She didn't want to say this part, because she doesn't know how Takara will react.
And to be honest, she has an approximate idea of Takara's strength and feels safer when she knows he will be included in the plan against Konoha.
"How will it work?" although Takara's question was vague, Temari understood what he meant.
"You'll have to do the same trick as in the Academy. You know, use your puppets to confuse others and make them think they're real people," Temari couldn't help but remember Kankuro and his heartbroken face.
Takara nodded in agreement with the arrangement; it would be a headache to take the exam with two people dragging him down and forcing him to waste time.
"I understand that I'll have to prepare fake documentation?"
"Just use your twin maids' puppets and that's it, there are records from the Academy when you did that, so we can recycle the papers and no one will suspect," Temari told him.
"You remember I told you that I rarely use them for fighting, right?" Takara stopped at a stall to buy some salt since it had run out at his house. "I have others that are much more useful for beating up Konoha ninja; those two are more for saving me the trouble of doing housework."
"Save those for the final part," Temari shook her head. "Besides, I think you're the only puppeteer who makes puppets for a purpose other than fighting in some way."
"Said the kunoichi who asked me to make a pair for her."
"I was just kidding, you know…" Temari coughed and looked away as she felt her face turning red.
The truth is that she was the only one who did the housework at home and it took up a lot of her training time, so when she found out about them, she couldn't help but ask to be relieved of those tasks.
In the end, she didn't get them out of consideration for her brother Kankuro, as it would have been a bit cruel.
"What day will we leave?" Takara asked with the salt in his hand.
He wanted to know if he would have time to make the Tsunade puppet and update some others, if he could recreate her enough so that she could use techniques like the Mystical Palm, it would be very useful as a backup measure in case he ended up injured.
He also knew the principle behind Tsunade's brute strength, so using it in a battle if necessary would also be possible, although the chakra consumption would be a bit large.
He tried to create a puppet of Doctor Blythe of Neferpitou, but his affinity was always low and he couldn't afford to make mistakes when it came to his safety and health, so he dismantled and burned it, never wanting to leave evidence behind.
"Five days after the news is published, that is, within six days from today," Temari looked distractedly at the salt in Takara's hands and was trying to remember if she still had some at home or needed to get some.
She was also the cook, and her brothers really liked salty food, so she used a lot of salt, while her father usually preferred spicy food.
"Okay, I've been working on a new puppet last week and it should give me enough time to finish it," commented Takara without even revealing his lie with a single tick.
"Another one?" Temari stopped briefly when she heard that. "Can you tell me?"
Since Kankuro was also a puppet ninja, he had a rough idea of how his trade worked, and most puppet users tend to focus on having at most two or three main puppets.
This is because of the time it takes to familiarize yourself enough with their movements to be able to use them skillfully during missions, do maintenance, repair after battles, and the high cost involved in making a new one.
But Takara didn't seem to mind these limitations; Temari knew of at least ten different puppets in his possession and was sure they weren't all of them. In fact, she didn't even know all the things the puppets she knew could do.
"The Slug Sannin," Takara replied unconcernedly.
"Do you intend to use it during the chunin exam?" Temari frowned. "You'll make Konoha feel uncomfortable."
"But the old lady Chiyo will be delighted, right?" Takara countered as he laughed. "And Konoha can keep their opinion; if they don't like it, let them come and tell me to my face. Then, I'll ignore them."
Of course, he found the old lady Chiyo's opinion irrelevant on a personal level, but it's a viable excuse to get that puppet out.
Temari reached out to grab Takara's shoulder when she heard that and led him to a side alley, to get out of public view.
"Listen, it's better if you don't use that puppet during the exam if it's not necessary," Temari advised him as she looked around and made sure no one was paying attention to them. "You know the plan; it's better to let Konoha lower their guard and have you be the target of monitoring for using a Tsunade Senju puppet; it's not a good idea."
"Relax, I wasn't planning on using it so soon," Takara responded in a flat voice.
He had a general idea of the level of the people participating in the exam and there was no chance of being injured by those guys.
The only threat was if Naruto lost control, Orochimaru tried to do something in the Forest of Death, or Konoha's higher-ups decided to make him disappear at some point.
Danzo, probably.