Chapter 3: Reverie

Rin

"No, no, no!"

The shrill voice echoes through the busy hall.

Three sharp claps ring.

All voices and footsteps instantly stop.

"Listen to me and listen well: This family will not be disgraced because of your carelessness. We have the biggest names in the world coming over to celebrate the success of the merger. I will not stand for anything less than perfection. Am I understood?!"

"Yes Mrs. Mori!" Ring out all the voices in unison.

"Excellent! Now, get back to work!"

Sighing, Miyuki slumps into a seat. She feels arms wrap around her shoulders from behind. She leans into them and looks up, a smile on her lips.

"Hello my love," Noru says, bending down to kiss her lips.

A giggle comes from behind them.

"Mommy and daddy are kissing!" Squeals Mai. Holding each of her hands is a small tow-headed boy. They burst into laughter.

"My boys!" Miyuki says happily, standing up.

"Mommy!" The twins yell, running into her arms.

"Minori, Minoru!" she giggles, drawing them into a warm embrace.

She gazes lovingly at her wavy haired sons. Their chubby cheeks are flushed; their light brown eyes are shining with joy as they beam up at their mother; huge dimples appearing in their cheeks.

"Where is your brother?" She asks the smiling twins.

"Up!" chimes one of the twins.

"With big sis!" Adds the other.

"Here we are," comes a cool voice from the entrance to the hall.

"Ah Rin, it's good to see you," Miyuki says as the girl approaches her.

Rin stares back at her coolly.

Miyuki shuffles nervously for a second before springing back.

"Ryuu!" she adds gleefully as she bends down to look at the young boy holding Rin's hand.

She goes to hug the boy but he tenses up.

"Good afternoon ma'am," he says just as coolly as his older sister.

Despite his creamy vanilla complexion, blond curls, rosy cheeks and bright blue eyes, the resemblance to Rin was hard to miss.

Miyuki laughs nervously before clearing her throat.

"Right! It's good to have the entire family here for this event! Time to get ready!" she says a bit too excitedly before hurrying out of the hall just as the tears begin to roll down her face.

Rin raises and eyebrow but says nothing. She feels her sister's gaze on her but does not look at her.

Gaara

"Try not to embarrass me," Rasa mutters as he and his children step out of their car.

Kankuro lets out a whistle. "Check this place out," he says quietly, admiring the illuminated gilded walkway leading up to large doors.

The doors fly open and a jovial Noru greets them at the doorway. The sound of an orchestra drifts into the evening.

"Welcome!" he booms, large dimples on either side of his cheeks. "You're just in time for my big speech."

They are lead into a large hallway. Men and women in fine cloths and jewels are gathered all around the hall, drinks in hand.

"Come with me," Noru whispers before leading Rasa to the front of the hall.

"Ladies and gentlemen…." His voice trails off as Gaara walks further into the hall.

He continues to walk until the sound of voices and the orchestra is barely a buzz in his ears. He walks a bit longer until he comes to an open door. Peeking in, he notices no one and slowly walks in. He instantly collapses onto the carpeted floor, out of breath.

He buries his face into the soft carpeting as his mind begins to drift.

Maybe he could sleep for a bit?

No.

He bolts up quickly and pulls out his phone.

6 missed calls…shit.

Sitting up, he dials the number back.

"Hello?" he says in his hoarse voice.

"Yo Gaara what's up? I've been calling you for over an hour now."

"Sorry….I'll be out in a few minutes…Did you get the things?"

"Believe it!"

He hangs up and slowly gets to his feet. Time to leave.

Rin

Rin was just about to walk into the room when she notices a figure moving inside. She pauses and watches as a man quickly bolts up from the carpeting. A shock of red hair catches her eyes.

It was the same guy from the meeting earlier in the day. The son of Rasa Sabaku. What did her father say his name was again?

Rin hears him mumble into his phone before slowly standing and heading towards the door. Panicking she turns around and quickly runs down the hall.

Gaara

"What took you so long?!"

Gaara slides into the passenger seat of the orange Ford F 150 4x4 SVT.

"Sorry," he says quietly, his eyes closed.

"Don't sweat it man….Hey Gaara!" Naruto says with a large grin. "I already loaded up all of your stuff in my truck and I took your car over to my place a while back…so you ready to go?"

Gaara doesn't say anything.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asks, clearly worried.

"Yes," Gaara says simply, opening his eyes slightly.

"Okay, I'm going to warn you in advance…don't be disappointed when we get to my apartment downtown…it's an okay place…. Most of the people that live there are bachelors and a few stoners…there's this one chick though…." Gaara zones out as Naruto's voice blends with the lull of the engine. He gazes at the boy through the corners of his eyes.

Sunshine blond waves and cornflower blue eyes are the only things that have stayed the same on his best friend's body. Naruto looks completely different. Long gone is the incredibly pasty-skinned, short, slightly flabby 12-year old he met when his family first moved from Osaka to Tokyo 6 years ago. The orphan who was once the butt of everyone's jokes was no more. In his stead is a tall, toned, slightly bronzed young man. They were both the same height now.

When the two first met in middle school, Naruto was the silly prankster that never did his work, skipped class, failed tests, and bragged that when he grew up, he'd, "own a whore house," where he'd, "teach the prostitutes how to read." That, or he'd, "be a porn star." At first, the buoyant blond and the anti-social red head did not get along. Naruto disliked Gaara because of his privileged upbringing, while Gaara hated Naruto for being so damn happy, and, well, alive.

A cool breeze kisses Gaara's face as the car drives on.

The two boys ended up almost being expelled from boarding school for fighting. What started out as a few harsh words quickly escalated when Naruto's fists flew. Gaara had never been hit by anyone besides his father, so naturally, when Naruto punched him, he was incredibly surprised. His surprise quickly turned into a burning rage that completely blinded him to the point that he'd stabbed Naruto in the chest, narrowly missing his heart, but puncturing a lung and putting the boy in the hospital.

By some miracle or another, the two were given the opportunity of a second chance by the administration on the condition that they became friends. After about 5 days of silence on both their parts, the boys began talking and quickly discovered that they had a lot in common. Their main bonding point was the fact that they were both marginalized and ostracized by society, and that neither one of them had a mother, although Naruto was living with his godfather Jiraiya; his father having been killed along with his mother when he was a baby.

Naruto taught Gaara how to be alive. He encouraged him to keep at his art. He introduced Gaara to a group of juniors on the high school campus who called themselves the Akatsuki. The group was run by two red headed boys, Yahiko and Nagato, as well as Yahiko's blue-haired, origami-loving girlfriend, Konan.

Along with the rest of the gang, Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan were the disenfranchised children of business men and their wives, dead business men with mob connections, or in the case of Hidan, a tall, muscular, foul-mouthed worshipper of Jashin, and Sasori, a red headed Osaka native, drug dealer, and artist; businessmen and common whores, abandoned by their mothers at birth.

Gaara immediately took to weed, liking the distraction it provided from his everyday troubles. After a while, he felt like it was time to try other things. Enter, Sasori and his heroin. The first time Gaara tried heroin, he ended up vomiting and was sick for days. Somehow, Sasori managed to talk him into trying it again, and this time, Gaara's body loved it. It was nothing like weed. He loved the rush he felt. For the first time in a long time, Gaara felt alive. There were times where he'd inject himself to the point that he'd be unable to attend class for days at a time, staying locked up in his dorm room. Somehow, he managed to stay on top of his academics completing his work once he was in total control of himself. He continued to live like that until the fateful day during his sophomore year.

Gaara had never planned on overdosing. The heroin wasn't having the same effects it normally did, so in an attempt to block out the insistent nagging of the voice in his head, he'd used a large quantity of heroin in one afternoon. When he came out of his coma three weeks later, he was in the hospital, Naruto at his bedside.

Once clean, he'd caught up with his school work, the newfound success of his artwork being the driving force. Naruto also straightened out. Towards the end of sophomore year, he began dating the heiress to the Hyuga family business, Hinata. Although he still occasionally smoked, his grades had gone from D's and F's to A's and B's. While Gaara had decided early on not to attend university, Naruto's main goal became to go. For a while, things were picture-perfect for Gaara: his father no longer beat him, the voices were gone, he had a budding art career, and he'd been clean for almost two years.

Then, everything came crashing back down. No one wanted to look at his paintings, which were growing darker the older he got. The voices started back up again, keeping him up all night, and his father started beating him up again. Sometimes, he'd beat him so badly, that Gaara would be unable to move for days. In an act of desperation, he'd gone back to the false sense of security and comfort that heroin's deadly embrace provided.

"Gaara, we're here," Naruto calls from the back of the truck, snapping him out of his daydream.

Yes, he had gone back and did not plan on ever leaving it again.