AN: This is one of the major rp sessions I had with Panur and I must say I really enjoyed writing it. It contains a bit of everything, including fluff, angst, comfort and pain. Also, there's shonen ai and tad of yaoi included. Enjoy!^^
Sometimes he didn't know what was there anymore. He slowly got up and caught his teddy by plushy hand and sat on a little step, staring at the rising sun with blind eyes. One more sleepless night… And the demon never stopped chanting a lullaby. He wanted to sleep.
White shorts and dark sandals styled differently from the standard Suna clothing appearing in his field of vision. They remained there for a second or two before their owned crouched down to join them.
'…are you crying?'
A blond kid with blue eyes smiled tentatively at Gaara.
#+#+#+#+#+#
It had been a full moon that night, which meant two things.
1) Namikaze Naruto (a child that normally could put a kindergarten class worth of kids let loose in a candy store to shame in terms of energy) had reached the apotheosis of excitement.
2) Hatake Kakashi, his designed bodyguard (a title that he had the feeling had only been given to him because 'babysitter' wasn't exactly fitting for an ANBU captain) had realized that no matter how much the unexpected needed to be expected, when said unexpected was a blond six year old, one simply wasn't ready.
In the moment it took him to blink, Naruto had disappeared. Kakashi, who hadn't slept the whole night, and had endured a three day trip in the desert with a optimistic and easily distracted Hokage sensei and a preschooler that insisted on doing his best to get lost in the desert and ingest cacti of dubious hallucinatory effects, considered early retirement. Or suicide.
Perhaps asking some of the locals what was the most potent tranquilizers at hand to douse the ramen the child ingested –Suna was famous for their poisons and concoctions, right?- call it a night and ride off into the sunset to live in some deserted mountain, only coming done to mingle with society every four years or so to get his new edition of his favorite lecture material. That was a nice dream, indeed. If only it weren't for the little detail he needed to be alive to be able to fulfill it… But one had to look at the bright side of things. His sensei was a sensible, just man. If he laid the facts in a bright light, he was sure the man might understand and leave him enough bones unbroken for him to crawl to the nearest hospital.
'Sensei, the good news is that I can now pay more attention to your brat because I finished the last volume of 'Icha icha'… the bad one is that I lost the brat while reading the last volume of 'Icha Icha'.' Lucky him, he wasn't that attached to his remaining eye. Or limbs. Thankfully the Hokage had only left a few hours ago, which meant he still had enough time to go through all of Suna until he found the brat, then hog-tie him to bed and take advantage of the fact Minato wasn't around to show him what a thousand years of pain was really about. He almost wished Shikaku was here. 'Troublesome' never sounded good enough when it didn`t come from a true Nara`s lips.
People stared at him, as he was a newcomer and newcomers never were really welcome in this deserted and cold village. But nobody really tried to help. He looked like a ninja. Ninjas were not to be bothered.
#+#+#+#+#+#
The redhead looked with no new mimic on his face as he watched the blond. Then, after a second or two he frowned, glaring at the newcomer. He hugged his teddy closer and got up from the step to march away to another step that was two meters away and sat with his back to the blond stranger, not saying anything. Another one was going to mock him? Most likely. But this time they'll get a mouthful of sand in their nose and ears. Right, teddy? Teddy nodded with his lack of movements.
The blond's face fell, his expression scrunching up in an offended pout and eyes closing into a strange fox-like expression.
'Hey, are you ignoring me?' He followed after the other, doubling until he was staring at the red-haired kid almost upside-down 'I'm talking to you!'
The redhead looked with no new mimic on his face as he watched the blond.
'Who are you?' he said after ten seconds of long and very stretched silence. 'I've never seen anyone wearing clothes like you before.' His eyes glinted with curiosity as he watched him, but he held his composure as his father always told him to hold on his emotions like a real ninja. And Gaara was a good boy, despite that his father always looked at him with disappointment. But now he probably would be very proud! He didn't even blush at the stranger! Father didn't like him doing that. Yes, Gaara was a good boy.
The blond smiled a bit more.
'I`m Namikaze Naruto. I'm from Konoha. It's a village across the desert…' He looked that around, first from one side, then the other, then pointed somewhere behind him. 'That way.'
He wasn't really sure it was that way they'd come from, but he was fairly certain the kid wouldn't know and he wanted to sound smart.
'My father is the Hokage, and I'm gonna be Hokage someday too!' maybe that wasn't the exact thing the redhead had asked for, but Naruto felt it was his duty to inform anyone he met who he was and what he would be someday when he got stronger than the current village leader.
'Hello, Namikaze Naruto.' The red haired kid smiled now a little, looking at him closer now, but he quickly hid behind an old ragged toy he was holding in his hands. 'I'm Gaara, Sabaku no Gaara. And that's Teddy. Say hello, Teddy.'
Small hand of the redhead took the plushy deformed paw of stuffed bear and waved it like if the toy said hello. Then he let it fall as he hugged it closer and eyed Naruto with interest now, his eyes glinting with unsure smile he still was a little afraid to show.
'You're not getting away from me?' he asked in a small voice, sternly but with a little, just a little add of fear that danced in his soul nonstop. Could it be that the kid was just mistaken and talked to him because he didn't know who he was? If that so, he'd start running away in any minute... or was it another mockery of kids that used to play bad on him? There was always so many and he never remembered all of them. It could be that one just borrowed some foreign clothes and made a little theatre here now. 'I won't hurt you, I swear...'
The blond grinned back and made a small waving gesture towards the little toy, his own stance relaxing inwardly. Back at home, almost no one wanted to play with him, except for Neji and Hinata-chan… He wasn't sure why, maybe they were scared because his dad was Hokage, but this kid didn't seem to mind… His words, however, were odd.
'Huh? Why would I run away? Why would you hurt me?' he asked confusedly, thinking if maybe he had breached some incredibly weird sort of etiquette that he wasn't in Suna… not that he had an idea of what etiquette was, but it seemed important when his father asked him to please try to behave…'Why are you crying?'
'Ah... it's nothing.' said the redhead and quickly cleaned his eyes with a fist, trying to make it look right. Maybe if he didn't tell, the kid will still be oblivious and will stay with him? Or maybe, maybe even... talk to him some more?... He couldn't tell him he was being abused by others, no, no way! The blond might think it's not okay to hang out with him, might think he is bad... 'Do you want to play with me?'
He thought quickly of possibilities he could offer, but they didn't come and Naruto could go away in any minute. He had to think quickly. 'Or... or... I have cookies in home, I can give you, Yashamaru never denies me when I ask for them, or we can play with Kankuro's dolls or I can show you something nice or... or...' He thought frantically but no ideas came to his head.
'...I can let you play with my teddy!' he uttered quickly, showing it in an offer. It had to be enough. He didn't know what else to do. How could he? He never met someone for that long... And Kankuro always took his teddy as he muttered it was his and that Gaara could destroy it if he wasn't careful. Teddies seemed to be a very valued item.
'Yes!' the blond nearly leaped at the offer, never having met someone that would ask him first if he wanted to play, it was always him approaching and the kids making some weird excuse and going away, looking at him funny. Cookies… cookies sounded good, but Yashamaru sounded like an adult, and those usually handed him right back to Kashi if they were present when he tried to approach their kids. And he wasn't that hungry yet, It was still early. The dolls sounded interesting too, especially because he didn't know what a Kankuro was, the only problem being.. 'Only girls play with dolls… right?'
Gaara looked at him, petrified that his offer was being denied in such subtle, but visible way.
'No! No!' he said quickly, shaking his head frantically 'My brother plays with them all the time! Not only girls! But if you don't want we can play a tag or with a ball or... or build sandcastles! I build great sandcastles!' Then, seeing that he almost hoped from his feet as he stood up he caught himself and stood straight and calm, like his father always taught him to and made a very serious face that he always saw when Kazekage had an important mission to do.
'Do you want to play sandcastles with me?' he asked politely, trying to look as serious as the matter he was asking about. Nobody, even his siblings didn't play in the sand with him, fearing the faces it made at them. But stranger didn't know that. Maybe he wouldn't be afraid?...
'Okay!' the blond asked just as brightly, deciding to overlook the strange mood swings this boy seemed to have. 'Maybe we can play tag when the sun comes down? It's too hot for that now… ' and it wasn't even ten in the morning… Sheesh, he felt like if he had been left with his face facing the oven… he hadn't really felt it the first day in the desert, excited as he was with the trip, but now… It wasn't that bad, it got really bad at home when summer got really hot and sticky sometimes, here it was just hot, but at least the air didn't feel like if it got stuck to your skin. 'Let's play sandcastles! How do you make sandcastles here? Your houses are all roundish and funny.'
'It's because they're real houses.' said Gaara, feeling surprised that the blond didn't know that. 'Aren't houses in your village round too?' Slowly he got up from the step he was sitting on and looked around. It was time of eating so nobody was there to tease him. Good. 'I'll show you.' he said, and made move like if he wanted to catch Naruto by hand, but stopped himself. 'Come with me.'
Then he turned around, but not fully, so he could still see Naruto and moved forward, to the place where he always could build what he wanted. Other kids got used to the fact that the biggest and the best sandbox was Gaara's sandbox and nobody dared to get close to it anymore. So he had all sand for himself.
'Nooo~' the blond elongated the world by giggling in the middle of it, following the redhead closely. 'They're square or really big, for departments and, um… like a tube, yes?' he illustrated the point by making a cylindrical mimic with his hand and extending it. 'Really tall, but those are all made of stairs and ledges, I don't know what for. There are also a lot of cables going around, but I don't know what they are for, either. I guess ninja just like it, because they're always running through them...'
Gaara watched the blond like if he was talking about something taken from another universe.
'We don't have cables.' he said after all and looked in front of himself. 'But we also have stairs. The longest are in the Kazekage's tower.' With that he pointed at a very high building in the middle of the town which seemed to be made of very unstable material, just like every other house in this place. Gaara watched it, not feeling proud or curious. To him it always looked the same. He slowly turned the corner to the playground where no kids were playing at such hour and jumped into the sandbox with grace, like he usually did. Ah, his usual sand toys were left the way he used them last time. Good.
'Here.' he said, giving the blond shining shovel and sitting in the middle of the square. The sand under his feet swirled and straightened like a blanket so he was now sitting on a very plain surface.
The blond squeaked, and nearly tackled the redhead off the spot he was in. He had just SEEN the thing move all alone!
'Gaarathesandisalive!' Enemy ninja? Jutsu? Assassins?
Gaara blinked at the sudden intrusion of his personal space and blushed a little at the new feelings. But then he looked at the sand which slowly formed the grinning face of his inner raccoon and looked at Naruto. He was, in the end, just like any other kid. He saddened.
'It's my mom.' he said, looking as the sand grinned wider, then vanished, leaving the surface as plain as it was. 'The sand listens to me.'
The blond squeaked again and pulled back, kind of hiding behind the redhead… but then turned and stared at him with huge blue eyes at the boy's information. 'Gaara…'
Gaara cringed. He knew that tone very well. He held his breath to not scream from frustration at what was going to happen next and he searched frantically through sand to find something, anything valuable that could change the topic, but he didn't find any. 'We... we can go play with teddy?' he asked with desperation, holding onto his toy with his dear life. Really, he didn't have anything else to offer. For the first time he felt that maybe money weren't as unimportant as he thought they were.
The blond didn't seem to listen.
'Gaara… your mom is huge.'
The redhead stared at Naruto, then frowned, looking at the sand that smiled at them again, showing pointy teeth in a toothy grin as it travelled through the whole sandbox lazily, like a fish in aquarium. 'No, she isn't.' he said, then he left the toy on the ground and moved his hands. The sand slowly advanced, taking the whole content of sandbox up and creating a big shape of the beast that was as high as half of the high tree. Someone in the house nearby screamed, but Gaara held the figure up. The bits of sand that covered something that probably was supposed to be tail, but it seemed there wasn't enough of material for it, waged just as lazily as the smile ventured before.
'She is even bigger.' he said. When another scream could be heard, he let go of the sand and let it fall down in dusty thud. The sand hit both of them, but it seemed that Gaara was not even moved by the fact it was getting to his nose or eyes - like if it was completely natural. 'I could show you, but we'd have to go out of the town.'
Naruto hacked and couched dramatically, little fists rubbing the sand off his face and eyes, then blew a raspberry to get what he could off his mouth, which had been gaping open. 'Nah, it's ok, I don't think she likes me…'
He didn't really like her much, either. Gaara's mom didn't look nice, actually, she looked hungry, and for him. Things with teeth that pointy ate meat, even if, as far as he could tell, she didn't have the things inside you needed to digest stuff. That probably didn't matter, as there technically wasn't any brains in the sand, either, so she probably wouldn't know that and try to eat him anyway. 'You don't look like her, do you look like your dad? Everyone says I look like daddy. But he says my eyes are like my mom`s. '
Gaara blinked, looking at him. Naruto looked like both of his parents? He crept closer to see the eyes, but he didn't find anything specific in them as he didn't know how the blond's mom looked like. Like father but with his mother's eyes!... Strange!...
'I do not.' he said, shaking his head and getting into his sandbox again, his teddy forgotten on the ground 'I look only like my mother. Everyone keeps saying that.' Well, maybe not like his mother from the picture he saw in Yashamaru's room, but everyone said he was a 'monster' so he had to be very similar to the animal his mother represented in his head. He didn't saw it when he looked into the mirror, but what was strange after all? Every kid looked a bit like its mother and even if he didn't see where it was the others probably did so he was no one to argue. It's not like he got a lot of things that happened around him yet.
'I don't think you look like her at all!' blond complained, still trying to rub at his eyes. He made an annoyed noise when he couldn't finish taking the annoying grains off his eyes.
'Then you're a very strange being.' said Gaara with seriousness and grabbed the shovel, wondering where to dig first. Smile ventured further from him and sat in the corner, looking at the blond with interest. After a moment Gaara decided to look at him too. What could have interested the face so much in the kid?...
'I'm not strange!' the blond complained again, giving Gaara as much of a dirty look as you could with teary eyes. He rubbed at them harder, feeling the scratchy things going all over them except out, which was where he needed them. 'I'm so, sooooo so sososo normal you`d- heeeeey—Gha!'
Ah, he was having troubles taking the sand out of his eyes. Gaara didn't understand that as he always had some grains in his own, but it seemed that people were too sensitive to little bits of earth. Or was it possible that sand didn't always just slid barely on the surface of the eye? All in all, the blond seemed to be inclined into pushing them into his own as he touched his eyes again and again. That had to hurt. 'Don't rub them.' he muttered and got out of the sandbox yet again to bend over Naruto's face as he held his hands to stop them coming into the way.
Ah, there they were. Six in one eye and two in the other. He clapped his hand s over the blue orbs and removed them, feeling like the sand moved with his hands. then he let go of it. 'Here.' he said with a shrug and stepped aside to take his forgotten toy in his arms. Teddy was always inclined into getting lost. He really had to be careful with him.
Stuff! Stuff came out of his eyes! He would have started panicking if he hadn't realized that after whatever was gone, his eyes stopped stinging. He blinked cautiously, fully expecting more of the tiny glass-like feeling going over his eyes, and smiled widely when he felt them feeling even better than before.
'That's so cool! How did you do that?' He followed the redhead, nearly knocking him over in his enthusiasm. How had Gaara done that? He hadn't seen him use a hand seal, maybe it was too fast? Sure, he hadn't seen it, but he had been busy trying to look into his own eyes, not at his hands…
'Is it like a jutsu? A bloodline limit? My friends have those and they can see through your skin with it—Well, Neji can, but Hinata-chan is too little still, but it's really cool, their eyes go all like fshwaaa- and then they get stuff like pupils and get all veiny all around here-' he gesture at the soft skin around his eyes, following to his temples, then started giggling. 'And-and I always wondered how it looks in old people because they are all wrinkly, so I don't know how the veins would look on them- I bet it's really funny- cause- cause they all ones always have this seeeeeeriuous faces-!'
'Old people are always serious.' The redhead responded as he turned his face toward the sand. The face still laughed at him quietly, the only one from days. Sometimes his brother and sister did. But besides that he rarely saw anyone giving him a smile. And Yashamaru didn't count. Yashamaru was a completely different being. His closest friend. Friends always smiled at each other. He looked at the blond and gave off a very small timid smile. Like that... or so. He wasn't very good at this.
'And I don't have veins in my eyes... I do it because I want to.' With that he pointed his finger at the sand and it jumped, forming a wavy little hand. Then he fisted it as it squinted and fell down. 'It's not a jutsu. I just can.' The face beside him opened his mouth in a wider smile which roared in his head with a booming laughter, and his head only. He learned that he was the only one to hear it some time ago so he usually ignored it.
'You must have interesting friends.'
'Neji is really cool, and Hinata-chan is very nice, but I don't see them very often, their family is always busy… So you don't waste charka when you do it?' the blond sounded amazed. He frowned, looking deep in thought, before smiling brightly. 'I can walk on trees! Kashi taught me how to do so, but he says I'm bad at it. I waste too much charka.' Which wasn't fair at all, because he had a lot of charka to waste, so it was okay for him to use more than it really required, right?
'It's chakra.' said Gaara, correcting the blond. Then he looked at his own hands, pondering. He had to use his chakra to move the sand and yet, he didn't do it. His mother always let him use some of her own. He looked at the blond again.
'It's important to use as little as possible. I can't walk on trees.' he murmured, feeling ashamed at the fact that he actually couldn't do something. But sand always heaved him down and all his efforts were laughed at by Kankuro who had no problem with it at all and he actually got on top of the tree with first try. Temari always said he had to train it somewhere before but as he tracked his brother many times he never saw him doing that. Though Kankuro usually liked getting things from affair by gluing blueish strings of chakra to it. Maybe that was the key? But he couldn't do that also.
'I'm a weak ninja.' he said after all with sigh and meddled with sand a bit as it jumped, almost like if it wanted play a tag 'And we don't have many trees to exercise on...' They usually walked on special walls and marked their efforts with paint. At the first try he almost sprayed whole paint on himself as the sand suddenly weighted him down and didn't protect him from the cause. Mother thought it was funny, just as Kankuro did, but he didn't and actually even cried a bit. His marks were always the lowest from whole family. Even grandma Chiyo seemed disappointed. 'Why is their family so busy?'
His imagination showed him his father sitting in his chair, reading something. Stupid question, fathers were always busy. But whole families? Grandma Chiyo sometimes let him sit with her as she sat near the small lake in her house. But it was always fish-less and the situation never changed so he didn't go there very often.
Naruto looked confused.
'But you are my age?' he closed his eyes, making a thoughtful expression. 'Daddy said only genins learn to walk on tress, so you shouldn't even try until you finish academy and learn some techniques…' Some of which were still a mystery, thanks to the fact that Kashi only ever taught him whatever he wanted to teach him whenever he felt like it… which usually was after hours of pestering.
'…I want to learn to walk on water…' he'd seen his father fighting on a river once, as he helped Kashi with a new technique, and he had been amazed at the fact they could run on it as if it were land. He stared at the redhead, not missing the saddened expression. 'I can try to teach you, if you want? I'm not really good at it, but I can tell you how I do it!' But would Gaara have enough chakra for it?
…maybe he should have listened to grandpa and asked Ebisu to teach him about chakra control, but the man was so boring, and he always looked at him funny, and he hated that. 'Oh… their family is really important. They started Konoha, I think…? Anyway, they're always training and stuff, I wish I could train that much, but daddy says I need to wait for the academy.'
Gaara looked at Naruto with unsure stare. Could such a little boy know how to help him - him, whom his own father could not train properly? True, the Kazekage tried to teach him only once and resigned only after his first failure as he seemed to be pressured by someone about the 'Red Moon' matter, but still...
But he nodded, hoping that if anything, they might at least have some fun. It wasn't like if he spent his days with anyone after all. 'I'll show you the ground.' he said and hopped out of the sandbox, taking the teddy and waving off the smiling face which crumbled into the nothing as he trailed away.
'It doesn't matter if I'm genin or not.' he said quietly, fondling with the plushy paws of his toy. Stuffed bear seemed to dance in his arms almost like if it was alive. But he never got it as good as Kankuro did. 'Father always wanted us to train, the earlier the better. Grandma Chiyo and grandpa Ebizo wanted us to train too.' True, that. Grandma Chiyo seemed to favor Kankuro though, just as Grandpa liked Temari better. Gaara liked to think it was because their abilities matched, but it seemed it was because he was simply unable to be taught anything decent. His abilities to control sand were unknown to any of them, and even his father, who tried with his all knowledge seemed to be powerless. All Gaara could was teach himself.
And how could you teach yourself when you didn't know what are you being taught of? Yashamaru always said it's a matter of creativity. His desert coffins were feared, but it was just dull and probably it wouldn't help him on a battlefield. And water? His sand hardly even let him get close to water once he accidentally tripped to the river in the land of Waves. It was the last time his mother just let him wander around and the last time his father actually took him anywhere. Though maybe it has something to do with the fact that, supposedly playing a 'strong hero' in a role his father told him to play, he just fell into the water and almost drowned as other Kages just looked at him with distaste... It seemed like if he made his father unhappy, but didn't know why.
It wasn't his fault that sand was so heavy after all.
'Here we are.' he said and stopped before a tall wall that shone in the backyard of big house of Kazekage 'Paint is standing in the shadows.' He looked at Naruto and waited. What could the blond do now? Could he really walk on vertical lines as he said himself? But he knew some important family. So maybe he wasn't as untrustworthy as he seemed to be.
'Really? That's cool, my dad doesn't want me to train too hard… ' Naruto often felt his dad worried too much about what he did. The day he learned to walk on trees he'd been so tired Kashi had to carry him home and later he'd heard his father talking a lot with Kashi, and not sounding happy at all. Luckily Kashi never took his dad seriously when he got like that, and Minato usually apologized afterwards, so… 'Ehhh, we don't need paint for anything, do we?' he asked, staring at the marks on the wall.
'I need to know what you can do with it first, we don't need to measure it.' He approached the wall, touching it with his fingers curiously. It was harsh and grainy, which was actually better. It was always harder to stick to smooth surfaces the first times. 'Okay, this looks good. How do you try it?'
Gaara shrugged as he tucked his teddy in the shadow, telling it to stay still and not to move anywhere as he went training. Teddy never moved, but who knew. Maybe there will be time he'd forget and wander off somewhere like he himself usually did. It never hurt to remind him about it. '...and don't kill people.' he said with all seriousness, repeating what usually Yashamaru told him when waving him off, then he turned to Naruto.
'I just walk on it.' he said, then he got close to the wall and touched it with hands to add some chakra and glue himself to it. Then he jumped and touched the wall with his legs, staying in such position for a few seconds when earth tugged sharply on him and his weight. Then he slowly let go of his hands and moved forward. One step. Two. Three. The further form earth he was the harder it got. Slowly and invisibly, the sand from earth was coming to him and tucking on his backside as he heard the murmur of mother inside his head. The further he got the more sand he needed to be safe once he fell. So after eleventh step he actually had whole gourd on his back that weighted more than he did.
And nothing stopped Shukaku from doing that. He breathed through his nose as he made one more step, feeling the sharp tug of gravity as more sand was added and he yelped at the thirteenth step. That was it. His record was fifteen steps on a wall that any normal kid could walk twenty steps without even sweating over. The sand pulled on him again, adding more pressure and his legs let go as he fell down, head first. And there was a lot of dust everywhere again as he got up.
He couldn't land on his feet like ninja too. The sand always made him fall on his back as it moved when he touched it with his feet. 'That's it.' he said with saddened face, seeing as the sand wavered away on the ground.
Naruto was staring at him with his mouth gaping open. Slowly, he approached the redhead and the newly formed gourd, eyeing it as one would do a suspicious animal and walking around a few times. After some more staring, he moved closer and cautiously pressed an ear against the gourd. 'It's breathing…?'
'It's mom.' said Gaara, as he got up and patted the gourd so it wouldn't attack Naruto out of sudden. 'She wants me to be safe.' And she always did, no matter what he told her. She just watched him and nodded but never really agreed to doing what he asked of her. 'I know what I'm doing.' she said once 'You don't need that ability at all.' And then the sand under his steps moved and formed stars that lead to the top of the wall but he stubbornly refused using them. That was too easy and he didn't want to cheat. He wanted to be a ninja, not a cheater. The same was when Shukaku offered him levitating on sand or even teleporting him up.
'That's not like ninja at all!' he muttered while Shukaku said that's exactly like ninja and a very good ninja. But once he did it in neighborhood everyone seemed to have a panic fit like in old horror movies, some even screamed like in those. His father probably wouldn't approve of such abilities and neither would grandpa and grandma. World of ninjas was a harsh one.
'Your mom lives inside?' he asked, knocking on it a bit, then turning and sniffing it. That odd smell was even stronger up close. It wasn't very nice, but he kind of felt like if he liked it… 'Daddy wants me to be safe too, but if I don't learn and sometime he isn't there to help me, I need to take care of myself, right?' He gave the gourd an experimental push, eyes widening when the large thing barely budged. And Gaara had been carrying it around all day as if nothing? No wonder Gaara couldn't get far at all! 'Your mom's too big for you to carry her, tell her to stay down until you can do it right.'
The gourd twitched and for a moment the face from a sandbox revealed itself, smiling at Naruto like before and then it vanished. 'I told her.' said Gaara with shrug. 'But she doesn't listen. She says she knows what she is doing. See?' He got up and ran to the wall, doing three quick steps before the sand actually got to him and made it to eight before the gourd has reincarnated on his back again. His muscles gave out quicker this time as he just let himself fall, trying to do a hop on feet, but the sand was under his feet again and he fell flat on his face.
'Father said that I had to be stronger than that, but I don't know how to do it. And no, I told you I don't want to fly up.' he said out loud to the sand as it moved, getting him up from the ground on barely a few centimeters, then fell down at his words. 'That's cheating.'
Naruto frowned at the face, mouth pulling back to reveal sharp little teeth before he even realized what it was doing. He took several steps back, and helped Gaara back to his feet. 'Can't you make the sand keep your mom down?'
'No, because my mom is the sand.' the redhead said as he dusted himself off and looked at the grains. The said sand seemed to be now trailing after Naruto, the smiling face showing again and again, golden eyes peaking at him with curiosity as it held the distance but circled him around. 'She seems to be fond of you though.'
Naruto made a face, not looking exactly thrilled about the other's comment, but said nothing about it. It wouldn't be very polite to tell Gaara or his mother than he didn't like her at all and that whenever she smiled at him it reminded him of the wolf in Little Red Riding hood and made him want to scratch her.
And his nails were getting sharp from it. 'Thanks,' he muttered, scratching a whiskered cheek as he pondered a solution that would help his friend. 'Hmm… and if I help you?'
Gaara shrugged, looking at Naruto helplessly. Nobody really wanted to 'help' him as everyone seemed to be a little appalled by the fact he got heavier and more covered in sand with every step. His father once tried removing it and it snapped at him. He didn't try anything anymore. 'I don't know, maybe it would help.' he said as the sand advanced from the floor in a grotesque slim shape and simply rocked lightly on the wind above Naruto, watching him with curious eyes and smiling with wide smile that echoed in his head like if his mother was 'giggling' or was just 'too happy' and couldn't contain the laughter in herself.
Naruto scratched the back of his head some more, trying to ignore Gaara's mother hovering over him. Figures the one parents that seemed to like him would be the creepiest one he'd met. 'See, my daddy doesn't want me doing dangerous stuff and always thinks if I'm alone I'm doing something dangerous, but he lets me go out and stuff if Kashi comes with me.' He explained, trying to reason out a way to get everything to work out. '…so maybe your mom tries to make you stay to be safe? So if you aren't doing anything dangerous, she won't try to stop you!'
Looking at the wall a moment, Naruto pulled his hands in the needed hand seal and took a deep breath to gather the chakra on his feet, after which he ran to it and easily climbed up to about the same height Gaara had, taking a moment to adjust. It was easier on the wall than on the tree, actually, the coarse brick didn't break as easily as bark, and he never seemed to be able to adjust without trying it a few times. The blond walked a few moments around to make sure he had a proper grasp, and then walked a little lower, smiling at the redhead and extended a hand. 'Tell your mom I'll help you and to stay down, I won't let you fall.'
Gaara nodded and walked to the gourd, whispering to it as he always did: I will be safe, he will hold me, I'm not going to fall, I want to learn, I want to, please... The lazy figure in his mind nodded, looking at him.
'Sure you do.' it said in a mocking tone, then it widened its eyes and looked at the blond through his eyes. It seemed that his mother was more distracted by the kid now instead of helping him. No wonder since he never met anyone. it's been something new to both of them. He grasped the wall with his hands and jumped up, touching the wall with his feet as he did before. The sand stirred, looking at them from the ground, but didn't do anything yet. He took three steps and he still didn't feel anything, though the gourd had rolled itself closer to the wall now.
'She doesn't trust you.' he said, extending his hands up. And maybe also he shouldn't if she didn't, but he completely saw no reason behind it. If course, it was a little strange boy and that should have alarmed him, but he just wanted to have friend for one day at least so he tried to ignore the signals. Five steps. The sand started crawling up the wall.
Naruto arrived to a conclusion faster than the sand. He'd only advanced three steps with Gaara before he voiced it. 'This isn't gonna work.' he said, giggling a little. Not because he couldn't take Gaara's weight, at all. Maybe he couldn't carry around giant jars of dirt like if they were pillows, but Gaara wasn't that heavy, and if he used chakra, he was pretty sure he could… But exactly because like this it was hard for them both to gauge to both advance and regulate how much chakra they were using. If he pulled Gaara, then he wouldn't be using the right amount of it, and even if she slackened the hold, it`d be uncomfortable.
'I need to let go of you, but then how can weee…' the blond eyed around, trying to find something that could be used to help, before suddenly brightening. 'I know!'
Running down the wall, he ran to the guard and after quickly informing Gaara's mom he would be borrowing it, he took the sash that Gaara used to keep the gourd strapped to his back. 'Look, look, let`s do it like this!'
Running back to place, he fastened one end of the long piece of fabric around the redhead's waist, then the other end to his own and ran back up until the was little left of the material loose.
'That way you can do it alone and I can catch you if you fall!' Naruto grinned, adjusting so he was crouching against the wall, so he could have more surface to keep himself glued to the wall. 'Tell her not to worry, I'm stronger than what I look.' He said, grinning.
Gaara nodded as he redirected those words to Shukaku. The sand didn't back off, but it also didn't come closer, hovering just under Gaara, as it followed Naruto after he took the redhead's scarf. So far everything seemed to work. Maybe the blond wasn't as childish as he looked like to be?...
'Here I go.' he whispered under his nose as he caught the scarf with strong grip and eyed the sand under him. Without it gluing his skin it seemed to be much easier though. He stepped forward a few more steps, getting closer to the middle of the wall and looked down. it seemed that the street was getting nervous now and the sand slowly gathered from all corners under him. And it didn't look good at all. He looked at the windows of his own house. Nobody seemed to notice anything yet. He took another two steps forward. The smiling face swirled above him and looked at them with tentative gaze.
'Gaara~' the blond said, good humouredly. 'Calm down. If you get nervous it doesn't work. Just um... Imagine the chakra gluing your shoes to the wall, it helps!' He didn't like the sand mother surrounding him from all parts, but it wasn't like if he could do anything about it. Gaara had managed two or three steps over what he`d done last time.
Gaara nodded, gulping down some saliva that seemed to linger in his mouth and moved forward yet again. My shoes are glued to the wall... My shoes are glued to the wall!...
Step, step, step, the sand below him was getting now louder and even bigger as he heard it but he didn't dare to turn around and actually see what was happening. He saw the end of the wall getting near and he decided to just push forward. The smiling face slowly stopped smiling as it travelled with him, its smile melting. Now he was watched by a pair of blackish yellowish eyes only and he felt the tension growing on the back of his mind. Shukaku seemed to remember about something...
Step, step, step. The blond boy was sure encouraging and he really helped him there, though it seemed that he helped both of them as the sand didn't weight them down as he was being assured with the scarf. Step, step, step, almost there, almost at the top!... The sun shone brightly as the sand roared and a lot of big paws shot upwards, getting steady on top of it. Gaara saw it many times as he steered it so he didn't back off. But when he was almost, almost touching the top...
'What the hell is going on here?'
His foot has slipped.
His waist tugged on the scarf harshly, the sand from below getting up and covering him immediately, weighting so much more- He glanced down. He never saw so much sand around him- And it was AROUND HIM-
True to his promise, Naruto did catch Gaara when he fell. He even managed to hold onto him as the sand covered him – it took a flare of chakra and he skidded his palms when he pressed them flat on the wall to break the fall- but when the scarf broke, the sudden lack of weight made him lose control and concentration.
The scarf torn off under the weight, also pulling the blond boy and taking them both down.
'Release!' could be heard as the sand suddenly dissolved, unsure, drifting off, just as it was told. Not touching father. And he was now held under an arm like a purse and in the other was Naruto, while his father looked at him, furious and disappointed and jumped off the wall on the steady ground, letting go of both of them.
'Why do you always have to cause troubles?' the Kazekage murmured through his clenched teeth. 'You make me feel so ashamed!'
Gaara winced at the sentence and looked around quickly. A lot of people was standing by, watching them now. He caused a ruckus yet again.
'...sorry.' he muttered, glancing at Naruto with sorrowful glare 'I didn't mean to.'
It took a moment for Naruto to gather his bearings and understand what the man had said, before glaring up at him.
'Hey! Gaara didn't do anything, why are you scolding him?' he squirmed against the larger man until he was released, catching himself clumsily and falling on one knee instead of his face, for once. Getting back to his feet, he put one hand on his waist and pointed at the older man accusingly. 'He would have done perfectly well if you hadn't interrupted, so put him down and apologize!'
The crowd nearly gasped as everyone held their breath in silence. For a few seconds only a sand rustling on the street and getting blown by wind in every direction could be heard. The older male looked at the blond with steely glare as something akin to surprise struck in his eyes for once. But it vanished very quickly when he observed the foreigner in that position.
'Gaara.' he said in a stone cold voice, slowly turning his head toward the redhead 'We're going home. Now.'
The crowd moved and scattered quickly as he shot it a superior glare and Gaara winced again as the big, vaguely warm, but not loving hand grasped his own with a sharp tug and pulled him to move with him.
'Sorry' he said weakly, shooting the blond a glance above his shoulder, but he was pulled again and he had to look forward to not trip. Father did what could be known as eternal damnation in this village - ignored his opponent completely. 'Good that Naruto is not from this village.' he thought to himself sourly. 'Too bad that I am.' Who knows, maybe if he was born in that Konoha the blond was talking about, he wouldn't get so scolded - just as here?...
Naruto jumped, not having expected everyone and the man to just leave without an answer and bit his lip, trying to think of something he could do. Gaara wasn't fighting this person and he knew his name, so he wasn't a stranger, so it couldn't be anything bad, but, the way Gaara had looked at him was so unsettling, and…
'Wait, wait!' he ran after the pair and caught the redhead by his free hand, wrapping both hands around it, looking up at the brunette with his most convincing pleading expression. 'We weren't doing anything bad, just training! Please let Gaara stay with me, I promise I won't let him get in trouble!'
The Kazekage didn't stop, moving them forward, but his head turned to the blond with the terrifying astonishment, pure outrage shining from his eyes. How is that possible this was happening? He raised his eyebrows even more as he looked at the blond though. The similarity couldn't be missed. And the clothes... of course, they were different.
Minato's kid. 'Staying with Kakashi' my arse since he didn't see the young ninja anywhere. But maybe he was mistaken?...
'Is getting away from your nanny when he isn't looking 'not doing anything bad'?' he asked with low, almost saccharine sweet tone, but at the same time he tugged on Gaara sharply. The redhead yelped, but let himself be dragged and the sand didn't do a thing to him, but the grip of the blond has been almost severed. Good thing, that parent's authority. 'He already IS in trouble, if you haven't noticed. And so are you... Naruto, if I'm not mistaken.'
The blond flinched, eyes narrowing suspiciously as he blushed, feeling like if he had been caught with his hand on the cookie jar. Yes, technically he shouldn`t have left the room until his father came back from the meeting, but he`d been so excited and restless they couldn`t really expect him to just stay there, right? He hadn't before and well, it was Kashi`s fault for not paying more attention to him and getting distracted with pervy stuff and... How did this man know.
'...Yes, am Namikaze Naruto.' he said, staring at the older man with narrowed eyes. 'And why should we be in trouble? We were just playing. And Gaara was doing fine.' The fact that he thought that the redhead had failed because of this older man didn`t need to be repeated out loud for him to know that`s exactly what the blond felt.
Kazekage snorted under his nose. Fine. Yes, they were doing just f i n e. Especially Gaara and Shukaku now.
'I don't know what you consider 'fine' he said out loud as his grip on Gaara's hand grew in strength. The redhead whimpered as the sand rustled, cracking under his palm. Probably he made it a little too strong but he didn't really care. 'But what's happened couldn't be considered 'playing'. Have I not told you to not enter the backyard without my permission?'
The redhead cringed a bit, but he didn't say anything. Actually, he had forgotten.
'And as for you, Namikaze Naruto' the older man sneered, looking at him 'I am Kazekage of Sunagakure, Sabaku no Daichi. Don't think only because you're your mother's son you have any rights to disobey me here.' With those words he opened the doors to his house and pushed Gaara inside. Not even the door started closing as he caught Naruto by his t-shirt's collar and lifted him up so he could carry him like a little kitten. 'You stay here.' he informed Gaara. The redhead nodded and hugged himself since the toy was left outside 'And you're going with me. Your father will be probably very happy to see you causing troubles in the back of my mansion.'
The blond's eyes widened as he hear the man's title, then made a face, because if there was one person in the whole of the village he shouldn't talk back to, that was the Kazekage… And what did he mean about being his mother's son. Of course he was, who else's son could he be? He stared after Gaara as the Kazekage pretty much pushed him inside, but he couldn't do much else before being caught by the back of his shirt and being lifted off the ground.
'Hey-, what? Put me down, I can walk on my own!' He flailed some more, but when that proved fruitless –he couldn't exactly bite the Kazekage- he just slumped on the hold and attempted to look as dignified as a person being dragged by the scruff of the shirt could. Which wasn't much, really.
The Kazekage didn't even flinch as Naruto struggled, so his pace was not disturbed as he advanced on the stairs, not fastening but not slowing himself either. Naruto pouted. The Kazekage dragged him through what felt was the most endless set of stairs from endless stairs Country
After four agonizing minutes, he reached his office.
'One would think I should knock...' he muttered to himself as he glanced at Naruto. Knowing Namikaze senior, Minato would be doing who knows what just right now. 'But on the other hand... no.' A smirk graced his face as he pushed the door, dangling Naruto up like a little toy and spoke up:
'I'm sorry for interrupting you, but I believe that I found something troublesome in the back of my yard and I believe that in some way it might belong to you.'
'Daichi-kun, good thing you are back-'
The taller blond was still frowning slightly at the scroll in his hands. Konoha's Hokage hadn't been in Suna for over seven years, when he had been invited to the Kazekage´s wedding. A few years later the Leaf had been attacked by the strongest Bijuu, the Nine-tailed fox, after which he had completely stopped attending summits, placing one excuse after another as to why he couldn't leave his village. As it was, now that proper treaties were severely past due, Minato hadn't so much as extended a hand to greet his fellow Kage before the brunette slumped his arms with a load of paperwork he apparently expected him to go through before the meeting was interrupted for lunch. At the moment he arrived, the Hokage had been going through an intelligence report on the borders of Wind country that stated that shinobi wearing Konoha headbands has been seen at the site.
'I checked in our scrolls and none of our shinobi was assigned to that area, have you -?' Dark teal eyes looked up to direct the question and blinked at the sight of his only child dangling unamusedly from the Kazekage's grasp. '…Naru-chan?'
The little boy made a vague waving gesture in his direction, and Minato's eyes narrowed when he recognized the blond's expression as one any parent would: 'I did something bad and you are going to find out what.'
'What are you doing here? I told you to stay in your room… Where is Kakashi-kun?'
Kazekage smirked at those words as he ungracefully let go of Naruto and let him hit the ground as he stood aside, his hands on his hips. 'If you're talking about Hatake's son, I haven't seen him anywhere. And you kid was playing on the backyard of my home so I guess it's quite far away from the hotel you said you will be staying in.' he said unamusedly, then clapped his hands like if Naruto was dirty. 'Please, keep your brat under control, Gaara had almost killed him.'
The kid shot the brunette a dirty look and got back to his feet, making a show out of straightening his shirt, only to stop and point at the Kazekage glaring fiercely. 'That's a lie, don't believe him, daddy, we were just pla-!'
'Killed him?' Like most parents, Minato only heard the parts that interested him. Gaara. Daichi`s Gaara. The same Gaara that apparently was vessel to Suna's demented sand demon, Shukaku. 'Naruto, what were you doing?'
The blond winced, perfectly aware of what that tone meant. Dad was about to get into drama mood. 'We were playing… training! We just-'
'Training with Sabaku no Gaara?' Minato was next to his son and checking for missing limbs and broken bones in less than a second.
'Where is Kakashi-kun?'
'Eer…'
'You ran out of him again? Naruto I told you to stay in your room-'
'I've been there since yesterday, and I was bored, you can't just leave me there and forget-' l, my Gaara caught him and almost killed him on the way.
'I didn't forget! I left you there because you always get in trouble if unsupervised-'
'I don't get in trouble, I-'
'You weren't here for twenty minutes and already found one of the deadliest spiders on the world!'
'It got into my backpack, how's that my fault?' On the bright side, elder Chiyo had been very happy of the spider his son had found, considering how rare it was. Minato had been less than thrilled when his only son had pulled at his pants leg and showed him the fist-sized bug wriggling helplessly in the bare grip of his only son as he asked if they could keep it.
It really wasn't, but one couldn't help but think it was… Naruto just happened to be a natural magnet for trouble, despite his best attempts to keep him unharmed. Figures that if he happened to look away for one second he'd try to challenge the deadliest weapon of Suna. Minato groaned and covered his hand. 'I should have left you in Konoha...'
He actually had intended to. Naruto had been a last minute additive to the trip- after so many years he couldn't keep pushing meetings with other Kages, so he had intended to leave Naruto with Kakashi and Sarutobi to take care of him in his place. He'd almost made it to the outskirts of Fire country before having a parental hunch that told him that if left alone Naruto would surely do something suicidal and he practically ran back to Konoha expecting to find his baby in his deathbed. He found instead Kakashi and his boy waiting at the gates with their luggage already made.
'I'm impressed sensei. I didn't think you'd last so long,' his student had told him, and Minato decided to ignore the jab and further son-complex-related comment in favor of squeezing his baby and promising he'd never, ever leave him alone again. Maybe Naruto would have been safer if he'd left him in Konoha, but Minato always seemed to end up having a panic attack at the thought f something happening to Naruto in his absence. It was stupid, he couldn't protect him from everything, and yet…
'Daddy, Gaara and I were just playing, he didn't try to kill me or anything, I was just telling Gaara how to climb up walls and then he came' more pointing at the Kazekage. 'and ruined everything and scolded Gaara and dragged me here and we didn't do anything!'
'Gaara is not a boy who just plays or can be trained like any other. He can't climb walls and his sands gets murderous when you try to pull that on him. I saved him in the nick of time.' said the Kazekage and opened the door 'I'm sorry for the inconvenience but I believe I can't save him from entering Gaara's playground every time he dares to go in there. Gaara! Come here!'
Naruto pulled out of his father's grasp to point some more at the older man, somehow evading the Hokage from grabbing him again.
'That's a lie!'
The quick steps could be heard and soon there was a little boy with red hair standing in the doorway, peaking at them with vigilance. 'What have I told you about training?'
'That I can't do it unless I'm with someone older.'
'And what you just did?'
The redhead looked at his toes, the sand on his skin ruffling with uneasiness.
'You could've killed you both.'
'I'm sorry.' The Kazekage frowned, then slapped the back for redhead's scalp, making Gaara cringe and the sand hiss even quicker.
'I didn't hear you!'
'I'm sorry!' said the redhead almost roaring, as the sand got up from the floor and fell down with a loud splat.
'Now get out of here and don't you dare to go out of your room.'
'Gaara can climb walls fine, and he would have been all right if you hadn't scared him and the sand didn't do anything to me and it didn't feel like if it wanted to hurt me at all!'
'Namikaze Naruto!'
The blond flinched and turned to his father with a fierce pout.
'But it's true, dad… It likes me and all! Right, Gaara?'
Minato stared at the redhead standing next to his father, a little surprised about how much like Daichi the boy looked, but especially about the fact he really wasn't what he had imagined him to be. Then again, did Naruto look like he houses a murderous beast inside of his body? Besides, Naruto was very sensitive to killing instinct… and he knew better than anyone how strong those of a possessed medium could be. That Naruto thought the sand liked him, however, wasn't exactly reassuring.
'The sand... uh... the sand...' The redhead seemed flustered and suddenly started stepping from one foot to another,pulling at his shirt like if it was a flower and basking his eyes everywhere, looking at Kazekage a few times and paling every time because the older man seemed to become more and more annoyed with every glance Gaara threw him. 'The sand...' then he looked at Minato and caught his worried stare. It wasn't that he saw many new faces around lately so he decided to keep up with it and remember as much as he could in his situation. 'The sand is... curious. Mom seems to be-'
The speech was cut off as the Kazekage hit the redhead on the back of his head. 'What the heck did I just say.' could be heard in dangerous, low tone that promised nothing but upcoming sandstorm. 'Go to your room and not go out of it. And don't you dare to say those stupidities about your own mother again!'
Gaara cringed and shut his mouth, actually tearing his shirt and letting it go in the process. He caught one more the stare of new blond man and let it go, feeling ashamed for what he did. Then he slowly moved away from his father, hesitating. He didn't want to leave room yet, but his father was seething mad now and it was the best to not disobey his commands now.
Naruto cried indignantly at the hit and he would have done something if Minato hadn't caught him and held him on place, cutting out his protests at the same time.
'But da-'
'Naruto.' The blond looked down at his feet. Once the redhead disappeared from sight, Minato released his kid.'Go outside and wait for me.' Again the little blond looked like if he would protest but in the end he ran out, glaring at the older brunette furiously.
'…That wasn't necessary, was it, Daichi-kun?' the Hokage asked, giving his friend a worried glance. It wasn't just that he thought that the Kazekage was too hard on his son, as this was Suna and people in general were harsher, not to mention he had no saying on how other people raised their kids. 'Please don't be too hard on Gaara-sama… Naru tends to get in trouble, it's probably his fault that he disobeyed you.'
'What I do with that piece of my genes is not your business, so please, keep your funny outrageous fatherly advices to yourself. I raised more kids than you and I still remember how to treat a circus lion so don't tell me what to do with a beast on the leash as you have no rights to speak to me about the 'raising kids' matter at all.'
Then he turned away and slowly walked to the window that was shining with desert light at both of them. 'And now, let's talk about something more of importance.'
The Hokage slowly unrolled the held scroll, gazing at the redhaired man in silence. The Suna's Kazekage knew that, and did not say a thing.