Inspired by my long, long car ride to school with my little brother. Standard disclaimers apply.

Walking through the desert with an idiot

"It's so hot!" Naruto yelled out in frustration. The blonde ninja never liked the heat, and right now he felt like he was walking in an oven, instead of making a trip to Suna.

"What are you talking about kid?" Kankurou asked turning around to look at the Leaf shinobi. He was wearing his trademark face paint and his usual attire consisting of black from head to toe. Five large heavy scrolls were placed on his back, but despite the weight of the scrolls and the blazing heat, it seemed to Naruto that this was probably just another ordinary walk in the park for him.

The nineteen-year-old was in charge of leading Uzumaki Naruto through the harsh deserts of Suna, since the Hokage assumed—more like knew—that the loud blonde ninja was bound to get lost and eaten by vultures. Kankurou took the mission of escorting him to Suna, partly because he hated teaching those brats at the newly-created Academy and, of course, he assumed it would be easy C-rank mission.

Now thinking about it, maybe this mission needed to be raised into a higher level. This kid was driving him crazy! First, he'd said good-bye to his girlfriend almost fifteen times until Hinata mentioned that he really should be going. Then he left his favorite nightcap that he couldn't live without and they were forced by his whines to return to Konoha even after they had been traveling for an entire day. It hadn't matter that they returned back to Konoha, since Naruto found the nightcap in the last zipper of his bag when they entered the front gates

Kankurou's yells at him could have been enough to match those of his sister. Naruto had continuously apologized meekly, and so the older boy tossed away his anger.

Until the blonde walked into a nest of scorpion and got stung.

Another two days were lost, as Kankurou had to treat him with the antidote, and give him time to heal.

There was an old saying in Suna, If the cloak is too heavy to carry, then simply take it off. In other words ditch the kid and let him get eaten alive by vultures. But it was a mission and he couldn't leave the blonde stranded. The trip to Suna and Konoha lasted for at most one week, but thanks to Naruto it was already a two weeks, and there was still another day left.

"It's hot!" Naruto repeated getting cranky from all the humidity that the desert seemed to be throwing off at him. He took off the bright orange jacket and breathe out in relief. "That feels a little better," he said to himself tying the jacket around his waist. Sweat dripped down his body trying to keep him cool, but to no avail.

"I wouldn't take off that jacket if I were you," Kankurou warned. The last thing he needed was for the knuckleheaded ninja to get bad sunburn.

"Why not? Its like walking through an oven!"

"Its only 100 degrees," he said as though it were a cool, sunny day.

"100 degrees! It never gets like that at Konoha!" he shouted out jumping up and down, the idea that they would be roasting inside an oven drawing into him.

"Well Konoha is in a forest area. Suna is right in the middle if the desert. So were pretty much used to the harsh conditions here," he said continuing to walk through the sand.

"Why'd we only get the water? I'm so hungry! I still think we should have bought that ramen from Konoha," Naruto pouted. He lifted the large canteen that was strapped to his side and gulped a bit of water.

"How I'm I supposed to stay alive if I only have water and no ramen?"

Maybe there's a reason why ramen doesn't exist in the desert. Look what it's done to this guy, Kankurou thought.

After much debate and yelling, he had convinced Naruto that bringing a six pound pack of ramen was really not in his best interest. They gotten three canteens of water and some prepackaged food for their trip to Suna, but Naruto being the knucklehead that he is ate all of his food and drank nearly all of his water in by the second day. And so they were not stuck in the scorching desert with stomach rumbling and a three large canteens of water.

Kankurou looked at the younger boy and briefly sighed. "Kid, you're going to have to understand that in the desert water is the most important and valuable thing here. It only rains twice here and that if were lucky. You can go without food for three months but you can't go without water for three days. We can't go wasting water on something like ramen."

Naruto gasped turning around sharply to face the Sand shinobi. "How dare you insult ramen!"

"I didn't—"

"Yes you did! How can you insult something that is so good?"

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT RAMEN! I'VE NEVER EVEN TRIED IT BEFORE!"

"Maybe that's why Sand shinobi are so scary and yell a lot," Naruto said more to himself.

"I'M NOT YELLING!"

"Sure, you are. Can we stop now?" he asked sitting down on top of the sand dunes.

"Fine," Kankurou said reminding himself over and over again of the mission.

Pulled off his blue right sandal, he turned it upside down. Slowly, sand fell out making piling to form a small mountain of sand. .

"Hey, how's Gaara?" he asked turning to his other sandal.

The question caught him a bit off guard, but he quickly recovered. "He's good. He just can't get used to sleeping, according to him it's a 'waste of eight hours when you could be doing something more practical,' so he basically even more grumpy than before," Kankurou said smirking about how his little brother had yelled at his personal assistant to no ends for giving him his morning usual coffee on the evening.

"He's got some addiction to coffee, so don't mess with his daily six cups of coffee, otherwise he might throw you out the window if he's in a good mood," he laughed.

"I'll keep that in mind," Naruto replied and gulped. After all he had first hand experience on what it was like to anger a Kage. Just a few weeks ago, Tsunade baachan threw him out of her seventh floor office after waking her up with his loud raquet. The scary part was that there was no window.

Kankurou stared at the moron, who probably would have gotten eaten by vultures. was so childish, and yet he was able to defeat Sabaku no Gaara that psychopathic that wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone. And because of him that twisted relationship he shared with Gaara now became a strong bond between younger and older brother.

"Here," Kankurou said digging into his pouch and taking out a white rag. He shook it slightly before bending over Naruto's blonde locks and tying on his head.

"What's this?" Naruto asked touching his head to feel the cloth.

"It's a turban, baka," he said getting up and shaking his pants from the sand.

"Oh," he said sheepishly. "Uh… thanks! Hey you are right! My head does feel a little bit colder."

He smiled at the boy.

He really was an idiot.

"No problem, Naruto. I should be thanking you."

A/N: Naruto can be such a dork some times, but I still love him anyway! Until then...

--Mel