Gaara x Naruto…
Slight Itachi x Naruto…
There he was…at his third chounin exam. Who knew he could improve in such a little span of time? Gaara knew, he knew he could do it and as for the others, they didn't care. Well, not as much anyway.
He couldn't help but smile a little at the blonde, how he has grow so strong and fast, not even his friend Lee could rival him, of course, that was who he was fighting against in the arena.
With the help of the Kyuubi's power, he was able to defeat him. What surprised Gaara was how Lee didn't seem shocked by it.
'Why?'
The holder of the Kyuubi, ever since the last time he remembered him, or even saw him, he was still the same person as ever. Still boisterous, with that same smile on his face, never changing.
"Uzumaki…"
He won the fight, it wasn't easy but he won. But just because he won, doesn't mean he would be promoted to Chounin. No, those bastards wanna keep him as Genin for the rest of his life. So he would never achieve his dream of becoming Hokage, to gain the attention that he wanted so much. Gaara frowned at the thought of that.
Then Naruto was gone from the arena and slowly trudging up the stairs with Lee in tow. The sand-nin couldn't help but get a little nippy at the sight of his blonde holding onto the 'Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha' but he guessed that couldn't be helped. Naruto loved to help after all.
Once the Kyuubi vessel got up the last step and away from the stairs, he took a look around and guess who he saw.
"Hey! Nice to see ya Sandy!"
Gaara's eye twitched at such a ridiculous given name, he nodded his acknowledgement and wondered why the blonde wasn't afraid of him. The last time he saw him, he tried to kill him, and his team-mates. But he guessed that he's got quite a forgiving character.
"How long have you been here for huh? I bet you got here just when I started. Right, right?" Naruto bounced happily over to the red head, never minding the fact that he's a cold blooded killer. Was, a cold blooded killer.
Gaara still didn't like to speak much, and who would've guessed that he was shy? Indeed he was, not unless he's raging on about killing people. But that was back then, he's changed now, completely different. But not different as in he would automatically change his personality from seemingly shy to energetic.
Gaara nodded at his questions, but Naruto didn't really bother to wait for his question to be answered. He's got a short memory span, quite sad really. Gaara continued to nod or shake his head depending on what the blonde asked. Topics varying from techniques learnt to ramen, then the perverted old man otherwise known as Jiraiya and back to ramen again.
The red head smirked, even after so long, the holder of the Kyuubi still loved ramen, even more so now than when he was little.
How old are they you ask? It's only been a short time, only a year, more or less. Now Naruto and the others were thirteen while Lee, Neji and Tenten were fourteen.
Only Naruto, Lee, Temari, Kankurou and Gaara were still Genin. The rest not mention before had become Chounin at their second attempt. And as for the sand siblings, they missed their second attempt due to the decreasing military forces of sand and they were forced to skip their exam to take on missions and such.
Neji and Sasuke were eager to become Jounins soon, but they still had time to watch their team-mates fight for the right to become chounin. Even if they hated to admit it, they still cared for them.
Back to Naruto…he was still chatting happily about ramen. Why miso ramen is definitely the best, but chicken is second best. The other flavors he didn't mind but he loved any type of ramen if it came from Ichiraku Ramen. The instant noodle cups were satisfying but you had to wait for three measly minutes, which Naruto thinks is almost a life-time.
"Hey! Are you even listening to me!" Naruto playfully punched the sand-nin on his arm, forgetting the fact that the sand would protect him.
Gaara nodded, making Naruto angry but in a cute way. He pouted his lips and crossed his arms, which made the red head smirk at his demonic friend's childishness. Then realization hits him, his eyes widened as the blonde stared up at the boy with fatigue rings around his eyes.
"What?" Gaara asked while staring at Naruto, getting worried that he might run off soon when he realized that he was talking to 'Gaara of the Sand'.
"Your sand didn't come up."
"I don't need to use my sand when I'm with you."
"What are you trying to say!"
"Nothing Naruto, nothing."
"It's something! You just called me Naruto!" the blonde shouted out, forgetting that he was talking about Gaara's sand earlier.
It was Gaara's turn to fight, he was against a ninja of Rain. He was formerly up against a ninja of Sound, but he went missing the night before. There use to be five shinobis of the Sound, but four of them never came out of the forest. You gotta wonder what happened eh?
"Hey! I'll chat to ya later eh? We can eat ramen later on too!" Naruto shouted out as Gaara made his descend to the arena. The fight was easy, very easy. In fact, he didn't need to move a muscle. While the shinobi of Rain tried futilely to land a good technique on the red head, he was always met with a small hand of sand to push him down. Of course, for Gaara it was slightly fun for a bit anyway, but the Rain shinobi got totally pissed off.
"FIGHT SERIOUSLY, YOU FUCKING BITCH!" The ninja yelled out, angry beyond belief. Gaara lowered his head, shielding his face from his opponent.
"You want me to fight seriously? Then I'll fight seriously…" At that moment, his sand began to pour out of his gourd, down to the ground. The gourd on his back disappeared joining with the sand that laid on the ground, waiting for commands, waiting for blood.
The unsuspecting ninja, was curious why the red head isn't doing much, but decided not to ponder on it too much as he threw his kunai at him. It was blocked by a wall of sand. Once it dropped the kunai, it surged forward to him and swallowed him up.
Gaara raised his hand, arms outstretched, conditions met to perform his once favourite technique. The Rain shinobi appeared in front of him, in a small cocoon of sand, eyes wide with fear.
"I'm fighting seriously, why aren't you? Bitch…" Gaara smiled evilly at his opponent.
"GAARA NO!" he turned his head slightly to the right, to see him with that face of fear. Not for the ninja, not for himself, but for Gaara.
"DON'T DO IT! YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!" Naruto continued to shout out, hoping that the red head wouldn't revert back to his old ways.
"Are you gonna do the smart thing?" Gaara turned back to the fearful ninja floating in front of him.
"I QUIT! I QUIT! I GIVE UP!" The shinobi of the Rain shouted out with all his might with eyes clamped shut, thinking that he might die already, he wasn't expecting for the sand to fall away from him. Taking shape of the gourd behind his back once more, he took his victory and walked away with a smirk on his face.
"Just so you know, I could've killed you. But I've changed. That wasn't even half of my strength. Be careful with who you insult." With that, Gaara walked away, leaving behind a very shocked and pissed of ninja from the Hidden Village of Rain.
Naruto was waiting at the top of the stairs, waiting for him to come into view. As Gaara slowly walked up the stairs, Naruto decided to run down and meet him half-way.
"You didn't kill him." Naruto spoke slightly surprised.
"You didn't want me to." His voice passive.
"But you could've killed him."
"You didn't want me to." He crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"Why didn't you kill him?"
"Because you didn't want me to…"
Naruto stood there in awe. Wondering why Gaara didn't kill him and why the red head heeded his words. "Why did you listen to me?"
"Because I wanted to…"
Naruto continued to stand there, in front of Gaara with that confused face of his.
"Promise me you won't try and kill anyone again." Naruto smiled at the holder of the Shukaku.
"I don't make promises..." Gaara spoke in that passive voice of his, while Naruto's head went down and he pouted slightly. "But I'll try." Naruto's head perked up and beamed at his friend, taking his hand and dragging him up the stairs to meet the others. Gaara couldn't help but feel his face grow slightly hot around his cheeks. Face full of shock and awe, but the corners of his lips tugging up for a smile. Small, but it was still a smile.
'I'll try for you…'
What do you guys think?
NEW FIC NEW FIC! YEAH! I'm totally lost for Gaara's Thoughts...Any ideas?