The Lone Demon
Chapter Six: Painting
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Naruto kept his eyes on the dull ground as he continued to walk next to Gaara. He had no idea why he was still with him, why he hadn't run for his life already. The heavy awkward silence still hung in the air, not a word was said between them since they left the Hokage's building. Sweat rolled down Naruto's cheek. 'Damn, today's hotter than usual.' He sneaked a look at the redhead through the corner of his eye, curious as to what the boy was doing. He still had his arms crossed over his chest and kept a steady eye forward; his face still emotionless. Besides complex things, Naruto hated awkwardness. It always had a way of finding him. He ran through the thoughts of his mind, trying to find a way to break the thick silence.
"So… You said you're staying in Konoha until your dad sends you back. Why did he send you here in the first place?" Yes, good way to start a conversation! There was a pause before the other answered.
"As the Kazekage, he gets a lot of council meetings. This meeting, there were more council members than usual, so he had to rent out my house to them." 'So he has his own house too, huh?' "Yes, I have my own house." Naruto snapped his head up at Gaara, surprised.
"How did you know I was thinking—"
"You said it aloud."
"Oh…" Naruto propped his gaze back to the boring, grey ground; giving a small sigh as he did. "So… Where are you living at the moment?" Gaara's eyes fell on Naruto.
"I'm your neighbor." The bond stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide. Sabaku no Gaara… was his neighbor? Naruto mentally slapped himself. Of course, only fate could be this cruel to him. Gaara stopped and looked back at him. He put on a nice smile and gave a slight bow, the redhead raising a non-existent eyebrow.
"Well then, I was gonna do this earlier but I didn't have the time. Welcome to Konoha, Gaara!" They redhead's eyes widened in surprise as he stood looking at the other boy. He didn't expect the blond to welcome him. In fact, he expected the blond to run from him, like everyone else does.
"Why are you welcoming me? Aren't you afraid of me?" Gaara asked as his eyes slightly narrowed in suspicion; his voice carried a slight amount of frustration. Naruto kept the small smile on his face.
"Yeah, I'm a little afraid of you. Who wouldn't be? But that shouldn't stop me from welcoming you to my home village. Everyone deserves a warm welcome." That was when Naruto noticed how beautiful Gaara's soft red hair looked in the sun. It almost looked like red velvet. He wanted to badly to reach out and touch it; he started to raise his hand but quickly caught himself. "So, Gaara, where ya headed?"
"Home." Their houses were already in sight when the question was asked, making Naruto feel even more of an idiot.
"Me too. Luckily I got no homework to do, so I can just sit back and relax. What are you gonna do?"
"I need to paint my room."
"Do you need help? I wouldn't mind helping you." Now they were standing between their houses, staring at their own home.
"Actually, I wouldn't mind a little help." Gaara would have said no, he never needed help from others. Usually because others were always afraid of him and usual stayed a good fifty feet from him. But he really wanted his walls painted already; he couldn't stand another night of the white walls mocking him. Naruto gave a grin and started to walk towards the house. "Why do even bother asking if I need help?"
"I feel like I owe it to you. After all, you saved my ass back in the alley." Gaara opened the door to his house and led Naruto in. "You don't lock your doors?" The redhead ignored the question and led Naruto upstairs to his bedroom. Naruto looked around the room as Gaara stood near the door, watching him. Naruto noticed a small bear partially hidden on the closet's top shelf. "You have a bear?" Gaara frowned and gave a small glare.
"Don't ask." Shivers ran down Naruto's spine as he nervously nodded in response. 'I can't believe I'm in Sabaku no Gaara's room! I must be out of my mind!'
"So what color are you painting your room?"
"Black. Here's the can of paint, I'll go get the brushes." Gaara headed out of the room and downstairs, leaving Naruto alone. The boy looked around the neat room. The boy didn't have many things. A few books, a couple of movies, few drawing tablets, and a gourd. He didn't even hear Gaara reenter the room. "Here." Naruto jumped and let out a surprised yelp, his arms covering his face as if he was being attacked.
"Ah, sorry. I didn't hear you come in." Naruto took his brush and pried open the paint can, dipping the brush in the thick, black liquid. Gaara did the same and soon they were painting the walls. While painting, Naruto would ask a few questions and Gaara would cautiously answer some of them. For others, he would glare and frown, so Naruto would simply ignore that certain subjeck. Soon, they had one wall painted. Naruto took a quick little time out as he took a seat on Gaara's bed. He looked at the gourd next to him, curious as to what was inside it. He reached over to pull the cork out, but noticed the gourd slightly move. He blinked at the item. "Uh, Gaara?" Gaara, who was standing on his bed painting a corner, didn't reply. "I think your gourd just moved."
"It's just in your mind." Within an hour and a half, they had all four walls painted. Naruto stood in the doorway and smiled at his work. Gaara looked at him and nodded. "Thanks for your help, Naruto." It was right there, when the redhead looked at him, did Naruto notice how alluring Gaara's teal eyes were. In fact, he noticed lots of things about the redhead right then and there. He didn't have eyebrows, his teal eyes were alluring, he had an ai kanji tattoo on his temple, the boy was slightly shorter than him and he had thick eyeliner around his eyes. Why hadn't he noticed these things before? Was it because he was too afraid of the boy? Heck, after spending an hour with him, he didn't even find the boy dangerous anymore! (Except when he brought up a few certain topics. Then the boy would give one hell of a glare.)
"Well, I had fun. Maybe we can hang out again tomorrow or something." Gaara tilted his head slightly.
"Hang out?" Naruto smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, something friends do. Don't you have any friends?"
"I've never had any before." This cause Naruto's smile to falter.
"Why? Cause they're all afraid of you?" He nodded. "Well, maybe if you stop killing people, that'll help. Gaara, why do you kill, anyway?" Naruto was curious now, and he wasn't afraid anymore. Okay, he was still afraid, but just hardly…
"It's none of your business." Wow, what an answer. But our brave Naruto pressed on. (Idiotically, of course.)
"It's okay to tell me, Gaara. I'll understand. If it's because you were put through pain, I can really under—"
"You could never understand all of my pain." Gaara slightly growled.
"I mean I didn't have friends for a while. Not until I turned eight did I have any. I was always teased and pushed around and hated because I bear the Kyuubi's mark. So you can tell me, I won't push you away like others have. I promise."
"I don't need friends, all they do is betray you."
"That's not true, Gaara. Just let me be your friend and—"
"Get out." Naruto looked hurt. He just wanted to comfort the boy and find out what was wrong. Even if he was a killer, he still had a right to be loved and cared for.
"But Gaara, I—"
"Get out!" Gaara yelled, scaring the shit out of Naruto. Gaara walked towards Naruto to push him out of his room, causing the blond to back up. The gourd in Gaara's bedroom slightly stirred again. When Gaara pushed Naruto, Naruto shot his hand out and grabbed the boy's shirt to stop himself from falling, but it backfired. Both boys slowly tumbled and fell to the ground, Gaara on top of Naruto. The blond wrapped his arms around Gaara and the redhead stared in shock. As they hit the ground, Gaara's head landed on Naruto's chest. The two lay there for a second, catching their breath. Finally, Naruto realized he was hugging Gaara and looked at the boy. Naruto had a blush scrawled across his face while Gaara was still in shock. Gaara quickly got up, helping Naruto up without looking at him. "Sorry…" He muttered.
"N-No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have grabbed you to stop me from falling. I-I guess I should go then…" Gaara watched as the blond quickly walked down the stairs and suddenly realized how cold he was. The hug, it felt warm and alien to him. It felt… nice. Before he could stop himself, he opened his mouth.
"You can stay if you want." Naruto looked up at Gaara with surprise, a smile slowly forming on his lips.
"Alright, I'll stay if you want me to. I have nothing else to do anyway." Gaara walked downstairs to meet to boy, both entering the kitchen. "So, why do—"
"You talk a lot." Gaara pointed out, cutting off the boy's question. Naruto looked down at the ground, a sheepish smile on his face.
"Heh, sorry. I guess you could say I'm kinda hyper and always looking for attention. I guess it's because I was ignored a lot when I was younger." Gaara got out a pot of water and started boiling it. He reached into one of the cabinets above the sink for two cups and brought out two teabags. While they waited for the water to boil, a silence hung in the air that Naruto was just dying to break. Gaara poured the steaming water into the cups and gave one to Naruto, who quickly took a little sip. "Wow, this really good. Thanks, Gaara." Gaara also took a sip, closing his eyes. He felt at ease around this boy. It was nice for a change, to have company.
"I know you have a lot of questions, so you might as well get a few off your chest." Naruto looked up.
"What?"
"I know you want to ask me some questions. It's taking all you got just to keep quiet." Gaara opened his eyes and looked at Naruto. "Am I wrong?"
"No, I do have some questions. Like, how come you wear so much eyeliner?"
"It's not eyeliner." Gaara took another sip of his warm tea.
"Oh. Then is it true you've killed a hundred-forty people?"
"No." A feeling of relief came over Naruto as he took a sip of his tea. "I've killed more." Naruto stopped swallowing his beverage and looked at Gaara, who was as calm as ever. "I've killed at least a hundred-eighty. Forty of the bodies were never found, so the police left it at a hundred-forty."
"W-Wow…" Naruto put his cup down on the table. "Heh, it's funny. You don't look strong and yet you've killed so many." Gaara set his drink on the table too and looked at Naruto.
"Looks can be deceiving. So the Kyuubi was killed off twelve years ago?" Naruto nodded. "Though it entered you for a few minutes, it didn't leave you any power, did it?"
"Well, if I get angry enough, my blue eyes turn red and my whiskers grow a little thicker. If I get real angry, a red aura around me forms a one-tailed fox. But I only got that angry once. But it doesn't make me any stronger, it's just looks." Naruto seemed to pout. "I wish it made me stronger. Well, it does, but it's barely noticeable."
"It's not an aura, it's called chakra."
"Chakra?"
"It's like chi almost, but it can only be used in hand signs. In ancient times, it was said ninjas used chakra to form ninjustu attacks. But since you said the chakra doesn't make you stronger, maybe part of the Kyuubi's chakra was left within you. It's another showing mark the Kyuubi gave." Gaara calmly explained. Naruto stared with awe before grinning.
"Wow, you sure are smart! You sure know a lot about the Kyuubi, even though you grew up in Suna." The redhead took a sip of his drink once more.
"I know a lot about the nine demons, especially the one-tail."
"Because it attacked your village?"
"You could say that." The two sat in silence as they finished off their drinks. "Do your friends know that you held the Kyuubi?"
"No. Only Sasuke does, and he's the only other one who knows about the red chakra thing too." Gaara's eyes slightly narrowed, causing Naruto to raise an eyebrow.
"Sasuke Uchiha?" Naruto nodded.
"Yeah, he and his older brother, Itachi, are the only survivors of the Uchiha clan."
"I heard about the incident in Suna." Naruto looked down into his drink. It was already five-thirty and the party started at six tonight. He told Kiba he would go, but right now… Gaara was more important. He wanted to get to know the boy, to know why he decided to kill those people.
"Gaara?" He got no answer, but he knew the other boy was listening. "Are you going to enroll in Konoha Inter?"
"I might. I don't know just yet."
"I hope you do. I don't have many friends, so it'll be nice if you were there." Gaara gave a sigh.
"I don't remember agreeing on being your friend."
"Well you're mine, even if I'm not yours." Naruto chubily replied.
"Fine." Naruto looked up at his companion.
"Huh?"
"I'll be your friend." Naruto grinned and drank the rest of his tea.
"Heh, I'm Gaara's friend. That's got a nice ring to it. Now you can trust with anything!"
"Not necessarily. Just because I agreed to be your friend doesn't mean I completely trust you."
"Aw, come on, Gaara! You can trust me! I would never hurt you! Ever!" Gaara snorted.
"I've heard that before."
"Hey, what's that supposed ta mea—" 'Oh,' Naruto thought as he suddenly realized what Gaara meant. 'Maybe that's why he doesn't have friends. He has trust problems.' Naruto bit his thumb, causing it to bleed. He took off his headband and drew a line of blood under Konoha's symbol. Gaara raised a non-existent eyebrow as the other boy showed him his headband. "I vow that I'll never hurt you, Gaara. I swear on my blood and dream of being Hokage that I won't let anyone hurt you again." Gaara's eyes widened as he stared surprised. Naruto's face was serious, his eyes filled with determination. No one ever wanted to be friends with him so much before. All anyone ever did to him was run away and cause him so much pain. But maybe that's why this boy hasn't run away yet. He didn't know the whole truth.
"As a test of your friendship," Gaara started, "I'll tell you one important thing." Naruto grinned as he wiped the blood off his headband and tied it back on his head. "Have you ever heard of Shukaku, the ichibi?"
"Shukaku?"
"Shukaku is the demon spirit of the sand. It is the one-tailed demon." Naruto stared at Gaara, wondering where this was going. "It can control the sand itself to it's own will. It's a very dangerous bijuu."
"Okay." Naruto looked at the redhead. Gaara looked Naruto straight in the eyes as he said his next sentence.
"I host, and posses, the one-tailed bijuu: The Shukaku."
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Muahaha! There's the next chapter! I hope you liked it! I scraped up my wrists trying to climb this tall tree, so it kinda took me a while to finish the chapter. Plus, I had no inspiration to write for a while, so it took me a long time just to get back onto the computer. So, I hope you enjoyed it. I know I'm kinda rushing things with Naruto and Gaara being friends, but I wanted to kinda get that part done with. So Gaara turns out to be a host! Is he one, or was he? Find out Naruto's reaction in the next chapter! Thanks! Review please! :)