The second cut definitely needed to happen. We really don't need the mother/daughter bonding and it can be done in other ways that are little less detrimental to the flow. The first opening wasn't bad and it still may have useable aspects to it. It depends on if you want to go that way and if you plan on having any part of the plot depend on Sakura knowing the missed desert survival classes and/or the reasons why Gaara now has his people's trust.

As for listing who is in the party. Well, there are one of two really easy ways that you can identify who is in the party with Sakura and Gaara.

1.) Have Sakura take mental stock. She can get bored sitting on Gaara's lap and glance around and note what people are doing who's riding where etc. If you want, since you have Gai, Kakashi, Naruto, and Lee in the party. You can use this time to have minor antics going on that attracts her attention and adds some levity to the chapter.

2.) The old guard accounting for who is entering and exiting the city. You can have him ask for the identities of those people whom you haven't identified as being in the party and have him give them passes to the city. You don't really have to identifie the wagonhands or advisors by name if you have them go in out of earshot of Sakura or if she gets distracted by something else, like a conversation with Gaara over her new home or the cliffs leading into Suna. Again you can use this for comedic effect as well as some drama when it comes to currently unaffiliated shinobi.

Those are the two easiest ways to do it. Another easy way is to have Sakura acknowledge in conversation that she didn't really get a chance to note who all was in the party and that way you can have whoever you want show up later without issues. She didn't know and since she is the primary POV character it means that the reader didn't know.

Hopefully that helps.

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Hmm... I believe in the idea that no dropped scenes are bad; they just didn't fit with the story. Well, unless they were horribly written, or something like that, but I know you're a talented author who works hard to create something worth reading. Tidbits of stories, ideas that won't work, are all just 'deleted scenes' of a fiction.

The question here isn't whether or not you've done something right or wrong; it's whether or not you choose for that something to be right or wrong. You have to ask yourself: Where is this story going? Is it really relevant to add in all of the other characters' interactions? What will build on this story and advance it in a direction I want it to go?

You know, I read a book once on novel writing, and one thing really stuck out to me. All stories have a certain 'theme', and are written in a certain way. Some focus on character development (Like mine.), others on plot (Like a mystery.), and even some are meant solely for the purpose of describing exotic places (Lord of the Rings.). There's many other categories, but the purpose remains the same: What kind of story are you writing? When you find that out, you can begin thinking of ideas to advance on your fiction.

Is Tsunade and Sakura's mother/daughter relationship important in this story? If so, great! Add some more stuff with them interacting, though in a subtle way. If not, that's fine too. Same goes for the other people in the caravan. If YOU feel there is a need for them later on in the story, then keep writing little tidbits of what they're doing, also.

Just one more thing before I finish. The most important thing to remember while writing a story is to write it for your own purposes. It's fine for other people to pitch ideas, and help you, but if you don't want us to know what's happening between other characters behind the scenes, then we can just live with it! When you start writing a story for yourself, as if it were for your own personal pleasure, then it become easier and more exciting to create!

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