Behind the Sun

Chapter 2: Say Sorry


Gaara had been meaning to take this slowly and proceed with utmost caution. He wanted to very gently and comfortably integrate Naruto back into the community of his home town, and hopefully by doing so, achieve Naruto's mental recovery.

Unfortunately, when it came to Naruto things tended to deviate from the plan. Even Gaara's plan.

"Baka! You stay away from Akamaru!"

Naruto was on all fours, growling at the large white dog which replied with equal aggression.

"What? Do you think you're an animal now, you crazy?" raged the dog-nin. Gaara was almost positive he remembered him for his surprising defeat to the boy he was currently yelling at in the Chuunin exam preliminaries a few years back. Inu... Inu— something.

"K— Kiba-kun... Naruto-kun..." pleaded the timid girl Gaara didn't remember at all.

Naruto was unheeding of the Konoha-nin's protests. Gaara stepped in and grabbed the growling boy by the collar as he readied himself to lunge at the animal that had offended him.

Akamaru recoiled at the sudden appearance of the redhead as he caught a whiff of the familiar scent that came with him.

"Graaaaaaagrrrph!" rumbled Naruto as Gaara pulled him backwards.

The owner of the nin-dog looked about to yell at the intruder as well before re recognized the face and scent. "Wha... the Sand kid?"

Akamaru whimpered and hid behind his master's legs.

Gaara gave him and his dog a low-grade threatening glare. That basically translated to, "I'll kill you if you so much as piss your pants in my presence."

Naruto struggled in his grip, flailing his arms and rumbling lowly in his throat.

"Ramen," said Gaara, monitoring Naruto's reaction carefully.

Naruto stopped and looked up at his captor. "Now?"

A single nod.

"Yes! Ramen! Ramen! Ramen!" Gaara let go of the boy lest he find himself dragged down the street in his enthusiasm.

"What the hell? Hey!" Kiba yelled as Gaara turned to follow his charge. "You! What did you do to Naruto?"

Gaara paused.

"K—Kiba-kun..." The girl warned; or pleaded really.

"He's even stupider than usual!"

Gaara did not turn around. "He hit his head."

Kiba blinked. And Gaara was gone. Then he laughed out loud. "Well, that's funny! I thought that's what's been wrong with him all along!"

Hinata pushed her fingers together.

"You do realize that that was the Kazekage you were addressing so rudely only a moment ago?"

Kiba jumped. "Ahh! Don't do that, you idiot!" Akamaru barked at the bespectacled sneak. "And what do you mean Kazekage?"

Shino sighed inwardly. "Gaara, he's the Kazekage of Sunagakure."

Kiba blinked slowly. "Y-you mean...? That maniac is...?"

"He's actually quite popular in Suna now, according to my sources."

"Shit!" Kiba clasped his temples with terror in his eyes. "I'm gonna die!"

Shino was feeling cruel so he somehow forgot to mention that it had been years since Gaara had gone on a murderous rampage, according to reports.

"A... ano..."

By now well-attuned to their teammate's quiet voice, the boys turned to her.

"N-Naruto-kun... he— he seemed..."

"Crazy?" Kiba supplied. "More so than usual?"

"Gaara-sama mentioned a head injury."

Hinata focused on her twisting fingers. "I... I... wonder if he's alright?"

Kiba shrugged. "Does it matter? I'm more worried about that Sand kid..."

"Perhaps the more apt question is what is Kazekage-sama doing in Konoha with Naruto? He had other duties to attend to, so why bother with a Konoha-nin with head trauma?"

"I— I think..."

"I bet it was the Sand kid who messed that idiot up in the first place."

"I..."

"It doesn't help to just make assumptions like that."

"Ano..."

"Well, then what do you think, huh?"

"I think they're friends." The voice was smaller than usual.

"What?" Kiba asked louder than was necessary.

"I think... I think... they're friends."

Kiba frowned. "Friends? Naruto and the Sand kid? Sure, they're both freaks but that doesn't automatically friendly with each other." The dog-nin's eyes widened suddenly in realization. "Unless... the Sand guy is faking liking Naruto so he can infiltrate Konoha!" He gasped. "That explains it! You know how Naruto is always starved for attention! Knowing that idiot he probably wouldn't notice anything wrong!" Akamaru barked. "Yes, yes, I know! Damn, we've gotta tell everyone else!"

Shino ignored the boy's rant and let him run off to spread his stupidity. After all, it has already been said that he was feeling particularly cruel that day. Or particularly lazy, either way. "What makes you think they're friends?" Shino asked of his last remaining team member.

"Etou..." Hinata looked away and started twiddling her thumbs. "Ano..."

Shino was a very patient person.

"I... I've seen them... together sometimes."

The bug-nin frowned inwardly. "Naruto hasn't been to Konoha for two years." And they had yet to visit Suna in the travels of team ten.

Hinata studied her fingers. "Before Naruto left for training... and after the Chuunin exam... I saw them sitting together of the rooftops in the night... sometimes..."

Shino nodded imperceptibly. "I see."


Gaara was slowly discovering that he was having one of those days.

"What do you mean you don't know me?" The girl with the horridly unfortunately-colored hair screeched. "I can't believe this!"

Naruto whined, his hands over his ears.

"I've been your teammate for all this time and all it takes is two years for you to forget me!" If Gaara wasn't standing in the way with his palm gripping Naruto's shoulder the girl probably would have struck him. "What about all those times I saved your ass, huh? Or even the times when you saved mine? You're such an idiot!"

Gaara had half a mind to just ignore the highly-annoying pink-haired monstrosity, but as he felt a slight tremor pass through Naruto's shoulders he knew that would be a bad idea. He really did not feel like filling out the paperwork that would ensue if he let Naruto go.

"Excuse me," his voice was low, monotone, and unassuming; but the underlying threat that haunted every sound and movement Gaara made was ever present. "I'd advise you to be quiet now."

Sakura paused in her frantic ranting and gesturing to blink at him. Perhaps she considered turning her anger on him, but it soon disappeared to simmer below the surface of her expression. It was Sabaku no Gaara she was looking at, after all.

"And I'd like you to say you're sorry."

The kunoichi recoiled at that. "What? Why would I—"

"Because," Gaara's eyes narrowed just a smidgeon more. "I advised you to do so."

Sakura stared at him. Blood-red hair, pseudo-eyeliner markings, ai tattoo... yes, this was Sabaku no Gaara that was asking her to apologize to an idiot. (An idiot who didn't deserve an apology!) She shivered. Creepy... "Um,"

Gaara growled with a mixture of exasperation and hostility. Naruto was still crouched on the ground half behind him, his hands covering his ears and his eyes screwed shut. "He's had a head injury."

The girl's eyes widened. "What? Does he have amnesia? Let me..." She started towards Naruto with the intent of a medical examination but Gaara stepped in the way of her advance.

"I can assure you," Gaara's voice rumbled in his chest. "That he has already been given the proper medical attention. Now, I shall reiterate: Say, 'sorry.'"

Sakura glanced from Naruto to the menacing redhead staring her down. "Um, sorry?" She tried to tell herself that she was apologizing because she actually meant it, not because Gaara was really scary. "If... if he really has amnesia then I guess it was wrong of me to..."

"No, you have to say it louder: 'I'm sorry, Naruto.' Say it." Gaara pointed downward, indicating that Sakura needed to address the blonde boy at his feet.

Sakura tried not to dwell on the weirdness that Gaara implicated in this situation as she obediently knelt down, always keeping one eye on the Sand-nin. "Um, Naruto?" Okay, so she felt a little twinge of guilt when the idiot actually flinched. "I'm sorry, I... I shouldn't have yelled at you."

Naruto opened one cautious eye.

She smiled at him.

"Not Naruto's fault?"

Sakura cocked her head and frowned slightly at Naruto's new speech pattern. Now that she knew that it was due to a head injury it seemed even stranger. "No, Naruto, it was my fault. A misunderstanding." She glanced up at Gaara. "What exactly happened to him?"

Gaara didn't reply for a moment. "He hit his head."

Sakura managed to put a lid on her annoyance at the non-informatory quality of his answer. Instead she looked back at Naruto. Surely, if he could remember Gaara then he could remember her. She had known him longer after all. "Alright, Naruto, let's try this again. I'm Sakura, we've been teammates since we graduated from the Academy. Do you remember me?" She put on her best, most comely smile. Naruto had practically been in love with her for years, to remember her he probably only needed a little push.

Naruto stared at her for nearly a minute, his eyes half-closed. "Meh," and he jumped behind the protective barrier of Gaara's legs again.

Sakura couldn't say that she felt a little hurt. This was Naruto, wasn't it? He was supposed to be head-over-heels fallen for her; in the past the smile she had just given him would have had him groveling at her feet.

Gaara couldn't say he took no small pleasure from the pain that passed over the girl's face. Call it schadenfreude. Her hair pissed him off. "Yelling at him isn't exactly the best way to reacquaint yourself with him." Yes, Gaara was gloating. But no observer could see that from any of the non-extant tell-tale signs in his voice or face.

Sakura bit her lip and straightened herself, keeping her eyes one the blonde peeking at her from between Gaara's ankles. "How exactly did he get like this?"

"He hit his head."

Again, Sakura found herself fighting the urge to snap at the redundancy. "Has Tsunade seen him?"

Gaara shrugged one shoulder. "Yes."

"Oh," Sakura struggled for words. It wasn't easy keeping a conversation going with an antisocial psychopath and a victim of head trauma that was currently hiding from her via crouching behind said psychopath.

"Um, what does he remember?" She fidgeted. "He must have... I mean... he's lived here all his life."

"Very little."

Sakura was starting to get really ticked off with this guy. Something about how his crystallized aqua eyes pierced her never ceased to make her uncomfortable but his failure to answer her questions with a satisfying reply was seriously trying her patience.

"Naruto is boo-oored!" Naruto singsonged. Apparently, his attention span had remained unchanged.

Gaara's eyes flicked downward. "Are you hungry?" They had only just left the ramen stand.

"Noooo..." Naruto rolled onto his back, blinking up at them both against the sun. "Naruto wants to play a game!"

Sakura was at a loss for words. Naruto had always been childish, but this was ridiculous.

Gaara glanced up and down the street, as if searching for something to keep the boy occupied. "Why don't we..."

"Naruto wants to play Chase!"

"... play a new game?"

The blonde jumped up almost instantly. "A new game! Yeah! Yeah!" he hopped up and down. "How? How!"

Gaara pulled a folded piece of paper from behind his sash. "It's called 'Find the Place.'"

Naruto became rapt with attention.

"Now, this place can be found due to a particular mixture of scents. You have only found this place if all of these scents are there—"

"What? What? What?" If Naruto had a tail it would be wagging vigorously.

"It smells like this: Naruto, ramen, sour milk,"

Naruto wrinkled his nose.

"Mold, and..." Gaara paused. "Lysol."

"Blech." Naruto apparently didn't like Lysol's scent.

"You'll find it on a street that smells like chicken and cat litter."

"Okay! Okay! Naruto knows, can Naruto go now?" he was jumping from foot to foot.

Naruto vanished as Gaara made a dismissive motion with his hand.

Sakura had been watching the exchange with a bemused frown. She would have found the situation comical if it weren't so weird. "Um... where did you send him?"

Gaara glanced at the piece of paper in his hand. "Apartment 3 in the C complex on 23rd street."

It wasn't until Gaara was already half way down the street before she recognized the address. That was Naruto's address.


A/N: Sorry it's been so long. This chapter has actually been in my notebook for... um... over a month? Heh, yeah, I'm lazy. Anyways, the fluff will soon all but disappear I'm afraid... 'cuz the next chapter is were we start to dip into what exactly Naruto's head is up to. For those who don't like character deaths... this is a warning. I'll put a bigger warning when I actually get to it at the beginning of the first chapter containing it, but for now there will be a couple minor character deaths. Hehe... this is gonna be fun... (giggles maniacally)

schadenfreude: It's a German word for basically "happiness at the misfortune of others." Heh, it's almost like Gaara's philosophy. Or at least it was before Naruto.

By the way, for those who didn't catch on, when I put italics in parentheses I was inciting to voice of inner Sakura. I meant for it to be subtle, but I just felt like pointing it out for future reference.