Naruto's baby blue eyes scanned the tree. There was a red target painted on it. Naruto held a shuriken in his right hand. He twisted it around his finger and then closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and then threw the weapon in the direction he judged the tree to be. Naruto opened his eyes. In a perfect world he would have hit directly in the center. Instead Naruto opened his eyes to find Kiba howling and rolling on the ground in laughter, TenTen slapping her face with her palm and Shino looking very pale at his near death encounter.
Naruto was training with the rookie nine. He was taking a break from his intense training on creating a new jutsu to do some simpler training with his classmates. Or he thought it would be simple. They were taking turns attempting challenges presented by one of them. Naruto had accepted a challenge by TenTen. To hit a target with their eyes shut. TenTen made it look easy and graceful. Naruto however was not talented in the area of targeting with his eyes shut. Never again would he try for he had almost killed unsuspecting Shino who had been avidly having a conversation with a hive of ants. Most of the students were able to contain their laughter; Kiba was not one of them. Most just politely snickered. Naruto sent a death glare in Kiba's direction.
"Oh yeah mutt!?! Lets see you do better!" Naruto yelled to the Kiba who was just now regaining his composure.
"Do you truly want to cause yourself more humiliation?" Neji muttered from the sidelines, Naruto ignored him.
"Alright Naruto, I'll show you I [i]can[/i] do better." Kiba said, wiping tears from his eyes and putting emphases on 'can'.
With that the boy and dog pair made their way to the line roughly twenty feet from the tree. Kiba shut his eyes and cockily threw the shuriken at his guess of the tree. He hit the tree, which was more than Naruto could say, but was no more need as close to the center as Shikimaru had been, and Shikimaru was a bit off the mark, which was TenTen's blade in dead center. Akamaru barked and Kiba grumbled something about at least hitting the tree. Naruto glared at the boy who's aim was clearly better than his own.
Next up Sakura walked up the same tree. Everyone looked at the powerful ninja girl. She smiled knowingly and then turned to face the tree. In a moment she had built chakra up in her fist and had punched the tree, causing it to split down the center.
"I bet none of you can do [i]that[/i]" She said, prideful of her work.
At first no one made a move to challenge her. A challenge such as this was where each student would use his or her own power to match the result. Finaly Sakura's former friend and current rival stepped up. She tossed her blond ponytail, which had grown long since she had cut it, behind her shoulder.
"I can. Billboard brow." Ino threw the last bit in as an afterthought.
{ [b]"Ooohhhh! Of course pig face can't let me have a bit of pride. Heh, well no way with she be able to do THAT!" Inner Sakura[/b] }
With that Ino turned to face Sakura. Shikimaru couldn't help but grin at what he knew was coming. Ino, in a split second had used her trademark Jutsu.
"Mind Transfer jutsu!" she said and then her body went limp.
Sakura was irritated one she realized what had happened. In a few moments Ino(In Sakura's body) had split a tree directly like Sakura had. Once Ino was back in her own body the two began to argue. Naruto turned his attention to the presence he felt approaching.
"Sakura flower! Violence is never the answer…unless you are battling imminent evil. Let us-" Said Lee and Naruto distantly heard the sound of Sakura punching him.
"Hey, Hinata, do you know if any visitors are coming to the village?" Naruto said to Hinata, who was one of the only people who was not rolling on the ground laughing(Kiba) quietly betting on the outcome of the two girls battle(Choji, Shikimaru) or attempting to keep the peace(Lee, TenTen).
"U-um…I-I th-hink s-some sand v-vi-visitors were coming…" She said with her meek smile and blushed.
Naruto nodded gratefully at the girl who appeared to be having a difficult time not fainting. Sand…could it be the Kazakage? Gaara and Naruto had not seen each other since Gaara died. Come to think of it, Naruto had not heard of any goings on in the sand village from Tsunada either. Naruto was about to tell the others he was leaving, but seeing as they were all occupied, he settled for waving at Hinata(not noticing he made the poor girl almost faint).
As Naruto ran through the village streets, he couldn't help but be curious as to what sand nin were coming. He couldn't help but hope it was Gaara and his siblings. As Naruto approached the Hokage tower, back at the training grounds several more trees had been split and Sakura, TenTen and Ino were currently chasing after Kiba for making one too many crude and….animalistic…remarks.
Naruto was almost out of breath and panting heavily when he opened the door to Tsunada's office. Not bothering to look around the room before storming in, he began.
"Old lady Tsunada! I need to ask you if-!!!!!" Naruto said, but was abruptly stopped by running full speed into a solid but soft figure and managing to tip it over. It smelled vaguely of dirt and sand. Much to Naruto's surprise, he to fell to the ground along with it. Several gasps emitted from the room, one belonged to Tsunada and the other two sounded familiar but Naruto couldn't quite place them. Naruto opened his eyes and almost had a heart attack.
Gaara of the desert was pinned underneath him. Naruto's hands were on either side of Gaara's head and the current position was proving awkward.
Naruto was much too young to die.
Unfortunately he had resigned himself to the fact that the afore mentioned was inevitable. Gaara had become better about killing people since they had fought, and Naruto assumed he had become better still since having his demon removed.
But no one improves that swiftly.
Several moments went by, no sound except the breathing of the inhabitants of the room. No moments accept the slow rise and fall of Gaara's chest beneath him. Naruto carefully opened one eye. What he saw surprised him greatly. Gaara had raised a non-existent eyebrow and his eyes seemed to have an interesting shine to them. It looked almost as though he was smiling without his mouth. Naruto blushed at the closeness of their faces. Naruto smiled shakily.
"Heey…dattebayo…" He said with a half smile.
Gaara raised both his brows questioningly, if he wasn't…y'know…Gaara he would have laughed.
"As…er…'comfortable' as this new arrangement is….you are on my lungs and are not particularly light." Gaara said with a look of rater amused indifference.
Naruto hopped up to stand upright, not offering Gaara a hand. He latched his fingers behind his head in a casual Shikamaru stance. After a moment Gaara had stood up. Naruto looked around the room, Tsunada looked like she planned to murder him in his sleep. The other two people in the room were Gaara's siblings. Kankoru was restraining himself from obvious laughter while Temari stood perfectly poised, except for the twitch above her right eyebrow. Naruto then realized that his impending doom was in the near future. It Temari was too mad to speak…well considering the massive amount she talked usually...it was bad. Naruto felt himself go very red.
"Sorry Gaara. I suppose I will….be going…eh?" Naruto said and began slowly slinking from the door for fear Tsunada and Temari would eat him.
"Naruto…" Gaara paused, about to say something. "What was that you needed to ask Tsunada?"
To anyone other than Kankoru, the small glint behind Gaara's eyes would have been invisible. Gaara had been developing a sense of humor recently. Not necessarily a good thing. Kankuro had been on the receiving end of some of his 'jokes'. Temari had yet to discover this new bit of knowledge about her little brother.
"oh right…well…er never mind." He said and tried to turn around again.
"Out with it Naruto. It was so important that you had to interrupt me and plow down our neighboring Kazakage." Tsunada said calmly. Ooh, that meant she was really mad.
"I was…iwasjustwonderingifthevisitorsfromthesandwereGaaraandhissiblings." Naruto finished quickly and was out the door in a moment's time.
That was remarkably odd. It was not like him to be embarrassed over such a silly thing. It was just Gaara. Naruto shrugged and figured it was just the foreboding of death from Old Lady Tsunada then sent him fleeing. Naruto then proceeded to vividly envision many deaths at the Hokaga's hands.
Naruto arrived at his house after doing several low level missions. Pulling weeds, rescuing cats and the like. He would expect to get something a little better. Sure he was the lowest level ninja of the rookie nine…but he had been told by many that he deserved to be a higher level.
You would be surprised how exhausting it was to go around all day running other peoples errands. Naruto dragged himself into his small house. It was dark outside and Naruto's only thoughts were of sleep, well that and the fact he was dying of thirst. Naruto walked groggily over to his fridge and took the first edible looking drink he saw. The milk tasted slightly off, but Naruto figured it was his imagination. After all he had only gotten it…well he couldn't exactly remember when but that meant nothing because he had a horrible memory.
Naruto tossed his orange jacket to the side and slipped into his bed, not bothering to change his clothing, he accepted the fact that he would wake up with mesh marks on his torso from sleeping in the shirt all ninja's seemed to wear under their clothing. Naruto fell asleep quickly in his messy bed covers.
Naruto felt no need to question why he was sitting on a bench in front of a moonlit river. That was just the way dreams worked, you didn't question them till they were over. His friends were there. Wrestling and playing with each other on the beach.
Beach? Since when was there a beach?
Naruto just shrugged and walked over to see a young Gaara playing in the sand, his large teal eyes looking troubled. Young Gaara looked up at Naruto.
"The tower won't stay straight." He said, getting teary eyed.
"Maybe it's supposed to be a little crooked." Naruto said with a faint smile.
"Like you?" The young Gaara said cheerfully. Naruto laughed.
"I suppose so. Like me." Naruto grinned and proceeded to look and find what his other friends were doing.
Neji and Hinata were sparring, Choji was chasing butterflies, Kiba and Shikamaru were making out, TenTen---Naruto stopped mid search and let his eyes drift back to Kiba and Shikimaru. Them, together? Naruto didn't have a problem with it, it was just odd considering Kiba was always making such crude jokes and Shikamaru was always with Temari. He would ask them about that when he escaped his dream world. BAH! Why were they even in his dream world, doing…well that.
'That' consisted of Shikamaru being pinned to a tree, though he didn't look as though it was against his will, by Kiba. Kiba's hand were on either side of Shikamaru's face(Similar to the way Naruto had pinned Gaara down he recalled later.) and Shikamaru's hand were in Kiba's hair. It was almost painful to watch, Kiba's aggressive nature showing through as Shikamaru already had 'love bites' and then genuine bites, as in bleeding, on his neck. Naruto could not tear his eyes away from the sight. Kiba broke the lip-lock they were currently in to lick the faintest drop of blood from Shikamaru's neck. Shikamaru shivered slightly, getting a smirk from Kiba, and then attempted to escape. Kiba, being larger and stronger that Shikamaru just pushed him back against the tree, and Shikamaru made no further attempt to free himself.
"Kiba…." Shikamaru said, almost pleadingly. Naruto couldn't help but wonder how he was hearing it considering how far from them he was, then he realized that he was in fact standing right next to them.
Kiba bit Shikamaru on the neck, not realizing the sharpness of his own teeth. Shikamaru gasped, the wound was fairly deep and looked very painful. Kiba grinned sheepishly and stopped biting for the time being.
Naruto chose then to look away, he was greeted when he turned around by many more couples doing roughly the same thing. The only people present and without a partner were Gaara and Naruto. Naruto walked over to the normal aged Gaara and sat down, the young Gaara had long since vanished. They were again on the beach and everyone else had vanished. Gaara turned to Naruto and----
Naruto woke to a loud banging on his door. Naruto got up and shuffled over to the door, bumping into his table on the way. When he opened the door he was surprised to see Kankuro and Temari. He was even more surprised when Temari punched him in the jaw. Naruto fell backward and landed on the floor at the windmasters strong punch.
"Better?" Kankuro said with a smirk.
"Much." Said Temari, regaining her composure.
"What the hell was that for!!!???" Said a very flustered Naruto.
"For running my brother down you idiot! Do you have any idea what would have happened had he been in a bad mood?" Temari growled.
"Don't call me an idiot! Well he wasn't in a bad mood, so you can stop glaring at me now." Naruto said, calming slightly.
Kankuro came over to Temari and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes then got wide and she ran out the door. Kankuro walked over to Naruto and helped him up of the ground. After a few moments of silence, Kankuro spoke.
"You are everything to him. You know that right?" Kankuro said, his brow furrowed.
"Me and Temari try, but there is something between you two that we could never live up to." He continued.
Naruto said nothing, merely stared at the puppet master. With that Kankuro walked towards the door. Just before exiting, he looked back at Naruto with a smirk on his face.
"Just keep in mind, if you hurt him. I will end you."
The frightening part was that Naruto knew he wasn't kidding.
Naruto wanted to go visit Gaara, but he was avoiding it for resons he himself was not entirely aware of. Naruto figured he was just being immature. Naruto had been procrastinating all morning. He had done nothing productive of his day. He had somehow made his way to the top of a hill. Looking around he noticed it was the hill Shikamaru usually come to cloud watch. Then Naruto noticed Shikamaru. Naruto made his way over to the lazy ninja and sat down beside him. Shikamaru said nothing, only continued watching the clouds. Naruto waited for several minutes for the boy to say something. When he didn't Naruto sighed. Nothing. Naruto sighed louder. Still nothing. Just as Naruto was about to sigh yet again, Shikamaru looked over lazily at him.
"Yes, Naruto?" He said dully. Then Naruto noticed the bandage on his neck. It was a square of white gauze that was held own by medical tape, the wound under it had to be fairly large…also something you wouldn't was to go to a healer for. Naruto could swear he felt his eye twitch.
"W-what happened to your neck?" Naruto said after regaining his composure.
"Kiba," Shikamaru said without so much as changing his facial expression. Suddenly there was a rush of wind and Naruto was gone. [i] 'What's his problem, why is he getting all upset over Kiba biting me in training?' [/i] the shadow ninja simply shrugged and went back to his cloud watching.
Naruto was freaking out. It was not so much that he was apposed to the idea of Kiba and Shikamaru together, it was just that his dream had came true in a sense. Did that mean all his dreams would come true, or was it simply a coincidence? Naruto didn't know. Naruto's thoughts kept going back to his dream, and the look on Gaara's face before it ended. Naruto wished he could have stayed asleep a bit longer just so he could no what would have happened.
It was just then that Naruto noticed that he was almost outside the village, and there in front of him was Gaara. Not exactly in front of, more like several yards ahead of and a few feet to the side. Still, the point remained the same. Gaara was sitting by a small stream of water; Naruto realized he did not have his gourd with him. Naruto was about to sneak off when the stoic ninja spoke.
"Naruto, don't be stupid. Just because I lost my demon doesn't make me deaf. I could here your abnormally loud breathing." Gaara said without even looking behind him.
Naruto huffs mentally, since when did Gaara get a good sense of hearing. Maybe it has to do with the One Tails enormous ears. Then again Gaara no longer housed the One Tail. Naruto takes the hint that he has no chance of escaping, so he goes over and plops himself beside Gaara. The redhead turns to look at him.
Naruto notices how perfect Gaara is. His hair is the same shade of blood red all the way through, and it looks doll-like against his pale white skin. His eyes are the brightest teal eyes you would ever see, and the rims around them from housing the One Tail remain and will continue to forever. The only thing about his face that could be considered a flaw would be the Kanji above his forehead. If you look closely at the raised scar you would notice how the edges are serrated almost as if they were made by a million grains of sand. Maybe they were, Naruto had never asked Gaara.
"Why are you staring at me?" Gaara said, no mocking tone in his voice, simply curiosity. The question flustered Naruto and his cheeks turned pink.
"W-eell, I was jus th-thinking about your scar and what it means….." Naruto said, his sentence choppy and unfinished.
Then, much to Narutos great surprise. Gaara kissed him. It was quick, lasting only a second. Simply a small peck on the lips. It was no were need as intimate as the kiss dream Kiba and Shikamaru had been sharing. It was like a kiss that two little children would share. The same little children would then blush and run away from each other. That was what Naruto felt inclined to do, but something was telling him to stay.
"That's was it means." Gaara said, looking unfazed.
"What what means?" Naruto said, getting over his flustered-ness.
"My scar. It means love." Gaara said, with that glint in his eye that only his brother would be able to recognize.
After a moment Naruto smiled. He didn't know if he was in love with Gaara, he didn't know anything. He had never even considered the possibility up until that moment. All he knew was that sitting with Gaara on a picture perfect day, felt right.
Holding his hand on said picture perfect day felt even better.