Hello people! School is out and exams are over!
Damn you Danzo! I refuse to call you Rokudaime. That's Naruto's spot, you back-stabbing lowlife. Oh well, I am not changing my canon to fit you and your ambition in here.
For all those who are wondering about Danzo in this story, he was an 'unfortunate' casualty when Pein and Konan first attacked Konoha.
Apparently Nagato's hair was red. Odd, he looks more like the black haired type to me. I'll have to go back and change that in Chapter 3.
But at least everyone is okay in Konoha. Kakashi's alive and kicking, my froggies have returned, and everyone loves Naruto!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I mean, have you seen my attempts at drawing?
Chapter 5: Windows of the Soul
"Baki-san," Diachi called, "Can you come here for a moment? I need to talk to you."
It was mid day in the Kusa no Kuni, the sun shone brightly against its clear blue background. The grass waved in the breeze, making the plains around them look like an ocean of green. It was warm, but not stifling like Suna or even the permanent summer weather of Konoha.
It was pleasant, Gaara decided.
This was their fourth and final day of travel and would reach the village of Kochi in less than an hour. And it seemed as if their client was finally going to come clean about whatever he had been covering up.
"My village," Diachi began, "it's…well…it's not really a village."
"Well, if it's not a village, then what is it?" asked Temari, her head tilted to the side.
"It was originally a refugee camp for those escaping Hanzo's dictatorship in Amegakure during the Second Great Shinobi War," the green haired man explained, "It has gotten a lot larger, but we're still classified as such on the censuses. We don't exactly have a lot of money to go around. We can just barely pay for this mission and still afford to build up defences. If this becomes an A-Rank…" he trailed off before starting again, "well, we're starving already."
"You won't be able to afford it," Takana observed and then pointed to his clothes, "But why all this? Why pretend to be rich?"
"No offense, but your Kazekage won't exactly take an offer from someone who doesn't have money coming out of their ass," Diachi mumbled, the southern Kusa drawl in his voice becoming more prominent with ever word.
"Why didn't you just go to your own ninja village with this?" asked Hibeki.
Their client scowled, "Cause' they wouldn't do a damn thing about it. They practically rolled over and let Iwa take over fifteen years ago, so Taki knows that they can walk in and no one will care. We didn't know who else to turn to. We sure as hell weren't going to Iwa, Konoha's not going to get involved in a war that's not theirs, and Ame might still be under Hanzo's rule for all we know.
"We had no other choice.
"Please…we can still afford it; we just can't give you the best lodgings and food."
The silence was deafening as the Suna nin thought it over. Finally Wataru spoke, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm staying. It's just a month of wallowing in the mud doing patrol. I'm not a coward."
But Gaara knew that he was saying, "They need our help, so let's give it to them."
"You calling me a coward?" Kankuro sneered at the younger boy, "I giving up on this, so watch your mouth!"
"I'm in."
"I'm not going to back out," Temari put her hands on her hips, "Unlike a few other wimps, a little mud won't slow me down."
"So am I. Are you?"
Izumi shrank back from the annoyed look on the older kunoichi's face and then answered, "I-I-I…will do m-my…best, T-Temari-sama…"
"Definitely."
"Hey, don't call Izumi a wimp!" Hibeki yelled, confirming Gaara's suspicions of him having a crush on his teammate, "I'll kick you ass, even if you are a girl!"
"Is that a challenge, pretty boy?"
"Yeah!"
"I'm in, too."
"Great."
"Enough," Gaara said calmly. Suddenly, all eyes were on him, "This mission continues."
"I've got your backs, if you've got mine."
Baki gave him a look before telling their client, "Let's move. We're wasting daylight."
Diachi let out the breath he did not know he was holding. These were good people after all.
Konohagakure's academy taught its students that a ninja was a silent, deadly assassin. Emotion would only truly hinder them on the battlefield. It was best to keep them inside and hide them always forever.
Konohagakure's academy thought that Uzumaki Naruto would fail as a ninja because he could not do this simple thing.
They were wrong.
Senjutsu, or the Sage Arts, was different than anything ever seen before. You had to be open, for the simple reason that you were connected to the earth and the sky and the oceans themselves when you entered Sage Mode. If you bottled it up, if you kept everything to yourself, you would go insane. As a Sage, your very mind was everywhere at every time, but then you had to keep a distinctive sense of self so that you remembered who and what you were.
You had to be ready to act as one of the world's tenketsu.
The result of failure was horrifying.
Naruto had seen the statues at Mt. Myobokuzan. He had seen what had become of those who had failed along the path to becoming who he was today. He would not end up like them.
That was a promise.
He sat a top the middle of the three logs in the centre of Team 7's training grounds, completely still with his eyes closed. Entering Sage Mode had been second nature to him when he was in his thirty year old body, but now it was a little trickier.
"A bit less," he thought inwardly at the Kyuubi, "I can feel myself getting webbed fingers."
The King of the Bijuu grunted, but toned down the Sage Chakra.
Naruto had always known that him being a jinchuuriki was what made him the greatest of the toad sages. Not only did you need a large amount of chakra to begin with (which he had in shapes), but with the Kyuubi's help he was the first person to ever be able to use Senjutsu without the help of the elder toads.
Naruto concentrated, probing outward with his senses at the village around him.
Team 8 was walking towards their meeting place with Kurenai (had Akamaru really been that small once).
The Sandaime Hokage was leaning back in his chair; gazing over the village (it was good to see the old man back in action again, after all these years).
Kakashi, his nose in Icha Icha Paradise, was having to turn back because a black cat crossed his path (what do you know, the guy was telling the truth after all).
Sakura was walking up behind him…
"Hello there, beautiful," Naruto turned his golden eyes towards her light green ones, "I knew you couldn't stay away for too long."
The old Sakura – the fake Sakura – would have decked him for his actions, but this one smiled and laughed. Then she noticed his eyes.
"Have you made any progress with those?"
He nodded, turning completely towards her, "I've almost got it. It's really hard, I'm used to using more Sage Chakra than this body can handle. But with my old chakra still merging with the chakra from this time, it's going to take a while longer."
"I know what you mean. My metabolism has shot through the roof," with that Sakura pulled out a chocolate flavoured energy bar and began to eat, "With the way I'm eating, I should be twenty pounds over weight. If anything, I'm a size smaller."
A chakra signature started to make its way over to their training grounds.
"Sasuke's on his way," he informed his wife. To the Kyuubi he said, "All right, let's call it a day."
"Fine. Have fun hiding from the Uchiha now, mortal."
"It's not hiding! It's just-." But at heart, he knew what it really was. Naruto had been avoiding his other teammate.
"How are you doing? With Sasuke, I mean," asked Sakura.
"As good as can be expected," he responded as his eyes turned back into their natural shade of ocean blue and hoping down to great her, "How about you?"
The pink haired girl unconsciously rubbed her right hand, one that – a lifetime ago – had blown off Uchiha Sasuke's head in a fit of anger, "It's difficult. I…I can't act as if I love him as blindly as I did before, so I'm not going to. We can just be his friend, that's all he really needs. Right?"
"Do you think that what my father said in the dream was true?" Naruto asked, bringing up memories of last night and a visit from beyond, "About him having to choose between me and the world."
"Yes," Sakura said with a smile, wrapping her arms around him, "It's so like Sasuke that I wouldn't doubt it for a minute. I don't think he wanted it, though. I believe he regretted what he did."
Naruto rested his head in the crook of her neck, breathing in his wife's scent: the smell of the fruity shampoo her child-self used, the dry lilac soap, and beneath it, the all too human smell that could only be described as Haruno Sakura.
He loved her so much. And since they were alone, he wove his fingers through her short hair (she had gotten Ino to cut it the day they came back, saying something about a red ribbon) and kissed her as if his life depended on it.
"We'll get through this," Naruto promised as they sat, hand in hand against the poll, "We'll get through this. We'll save Sasuke, beat Orochimaru again, stop Akatsuki and Madara. And then I'll become Hokage and we can get married again and we'll have Kushina again; she can grow up safe and happy and-"
But that was lie. Kushina was as good as dead. The possibilities of having her and specifically her being born in a world were the timeline was constantly shifting was near impossible. No amount of wishing would ever change that.
"We'll get through this," Sakura repeated, as Sasuke came into view, "But first, let's go find Tora the Cat."
"Open the gates!" yelled Diachi, "I've brought the Suna shinobi to help!"
The row of sharpened wooden logs lurched backwards and revealed a young woman.
"Diachi-kun!" she yelled, running at the man and throwing her arms around him, "We were so scared."
"It's ok, these people are here to help us," he reassured her before turning to them, "Everyone, this is my wife, Hikari. Hikari-chan, these are…"
As Diachi introduced them one at a time, Gaara took in his wife. Fuura Hikari was beautiful, a gem amongst the mud. She had long blonde hair, a heart shaped face, and dark eyes. Her simple green kimono ended at her knees to reveal long creamy legs and robe sandals.
"If you'd like, I can get someone to show you around. I'd do it myself but…" Hikari stopped, and while gently smiling rested a small hand on her swollen stomach.
Gaara's eyes widened as he realized that this woman was with child.
"C-Congratulations!" Izumi smiled, her cheeks heating up.
"Thank you," the blonde said.
Diachi called one of his men over, "This is Taro. He's in charge of security here. He'll tell you whatever you need to know. I'm going to see if I can scrounge up any free beds for you." He gave his wife a kiss on the cheek, "I'll see you later, then."
Taro was a bald, heavily muscled man with a bow and quiver of arrows on his back, "The watch tower's up there," he pointed towards a high wooden structure with a rope ladder dandling in the wind as they moved through the camp, "You can take shifts up there. It ain't too stable, but it's the best we got.
"We've got some more men around the walls. I'll introduce you to them later…ah…what was your name again?"
"Baki" Gaara's teacher answered, "Just Baki."
"Well then, 'Just Baki', I'll let you take to them afterwards. They've never worked with shinobi before, so they're pretty interested."
Baki nodded and Taro continued, "Barracks on the left, that's where we all sleep when we're not watching out for trouble. It's loud, it's cramped, so I'm sorry if you don't get a lot of sleep."
Suddenly Gaara was very glad for his permanent insomnia.
"Latrines are over there," Taro waved his hand to a small shack on the right, "Seats about twenty. Men on the right, woman on the left, and no peeking. I won't have any perverts on my watch."
Kankuro twitched slightly, before coming to a stop behind everyone. In front of them was a large wooden structure.
"This is the mess hall," their guide explained, "It's open between eight-thirty in the morning till' ten at night. You're free to help yourself during that time. After that, you're just gonna have to fend for your self."
Taro guided them behind the kitchens and into a stable, "I don't know if you use horses, but we've got a couple in here if you need them. This girl," he petted the nose of a black mare, "is Hoshi, she's our fastest. Other than her, we've got Katashi. He's the gelding over there." Katashi, brown as the earth beneath them, snorted, "That's Hime, our little problem child. Watch out for her, she's trouble." Hime whinnied and stomped her feet. "And Noboro, the pack horse." Noboro was an old grey gelding in the corner.
Leading them out of the stable, Taro showed them a fairly new building. "This be our hospital. It's not much, but it's saved me on several occasions. Hikari works here sometimes, bless her heart, even with the baby coming."
There was a sound of stomping feet and then a large woman came bursting through the doors of the hospital.
"Doctor," she cried, "My little girl needs a doctor! She's bleeding!"
A small child clung to the hem of her skirt, balling her eyes out. The cut on her arm looked pretty bad.
Gaara was unable to use medical ninjutsu. It was not that he did not have the control or the skill, it just did not work. Naruto could not use it either, so they suspected that it had something to do with them being jinchuuriki. Youki itself was an incredibly destructive thing, even when used in the right hands. Healing with it was impossible. Regeneration is could manage, but not healing. With even the minimal amount that bled over the seal on his shoulder and into his normal chakra, it was enough to make sure he was unable to heal anyone with his chakra.
So he was helpless to watch as the doctor on call, a short little red faced man, struggle to bandage this poor child.
Until Izumi stepped in.
With confidence he had never seen in her before, the brown haired girl let her glowing green hands sweep over the child's arm. The cut may have been deep, but with a few minutes of hard work, Izumi was able to close it.
"Magic…" the child whispered. The young kunoichi blushed.
But this was not magic. It was the sign of an amateur medic nin. And it terrified Gaara.
Even when he was a kid, Gaara had this stupid rule about killing medics: he didn't. He could not really explain it; he just did not kill them. Perhaps it had something to do with Yashamaru, his first accident, or maybe his odd fascination with medics who could give life just as easily as he took them away.
And yet here was a girl that he had once killed out of sheer boredom, who was a medic.
Another accident.
Another mistake.
Sabaku no Gaara really hated himself at that moment.
Baki poked his chopsticks into the soba noodles (or what he thought were soba noodles) that the cook had served him at the mess hall. Today had been a very long day, after finding out that he would be spending the next month or so in a refugee camp would do that to someone.
The fact that he had not seen Gaara in almost an hour only made the matters worse.
Not that he did not know where the boy was; he had holed himself up in the watch tower after Taro had introduced them all to the guard squad. Gaara had stayed just long enough to be polite and then Suna Shushined out of there to start his watch.
But that was not what had Baki on the edge: he had seen the horrified look that the red head had given the Watanabi girl when she had pulled out her Shōsenjutsu and healed the cut on that girl's arm.
Baki was very aware of Gaara's little rule when it came to medical ninja. Just last year, the young jinchuuriki had almost violently protested against him killing a doctor in a foreign village. But after Kankuro had taken the older man out, Gaara simply shrugged it off; this was something completely different.
Baki had no idea what he was thinking when he scheduled Izumi's watch right after Gaara's. He knew that the red head would not kill her, but he would be in a foul mood afterwards.
A foul mooded Gaara usually meant dead bodies were going to start showing up.
Or would it?
Among many other things, Baki noticed Gaara's recent change in behavior: his sudden protectiveness of his siblings, his lack murderous intent, and his newly acquired need to help people.
Baki has seen the look the red head had given him the day that they had been assigned this mission to escort Diachi back to his home. It had shouted "Trust me! I want to help! I'm a good person!"
It had chilled him to the bones. Gaara just was not like that.
"Kankuro," he asked, turning to the painted boy next to him, "Have you noticed anything different about Gaara lately?"
The brown haired boy opened his mouth to laugh and then closed it, silently thinking his question over seriously. When Kankuro started to talk, it was uncharacteristically thoughtful, "Yeah, he has been acting pretty weird lately."
"How so?" Baki asked, titling his head to the side and winding his overcooked noodles around his chopsticks.
"Remember last night when we got attacked?" Kankuro started, "Gaara said 'You're welcome' to me afterwards. He never says that."
"He saved you, too," the older man commented, "That in itself is odd. And when we were leaving, he made sure to check the body of the boy who tried to kill you. He looked almost…relieved…when he pulled off the mask to see brown hair and eyes."
Kankuro snagged some mushrooms on the edge of his plate with his chopsticks, "He carries himself differently. Gaara's always been pretty uptight about everything, but now he looks almost…relaxed."
"Not relaxed," Baki corrected, "Just less tense. And his eyes…"
"Has he looked at you differently?" Kankuro asked all of a sudden.
Baki thought for a moment before responding, "Yes. Yes he has. Has he looked at you?"
The boy was silent, slowly playing with his food. And then he answered, "A couple weeks ago, Temari and I came into the kitchen and saw Gaara there. He's never in the kitchen that early. And he was just looking at us like…like…"
"Like what?"
"Like he hadn't seen us in years," Kankuro said, wariness evident in his voice, "Like we were ghosts of people had he had seen die. He looked at us like that the entire day. Even now, sometimes I catch him watching us…like he's surprised we even exist. It's almost…frightening."
Baki thought back a few weeks and remembered a day when he had met with his team only to see Gaara stop in his tracks just to look at him. The boy had gazed at him with haunted eyes, fists clenched in the fabric of his pants. The red head's mouth moved, silently whispering "Baki?" before the corners twitched into something that could resemble a smile-
And then Baki was suddenly too aware that Gaara just a twelve year old boy, a child in all aspects, not the immortal creature that the council made him out to be. He was so small and alone that the older man had this overwhelming need to through his arms protectively around the boy and shelter him from the man he was supposed to call father, who dared curse this wisp of a child to the fate that was jinchuuriki-
And it was gone, just like that. The look of desperation had disappeared and all that was left in Gaara's teal eyes was a deadpan stare. It had been so sudden that Baki still did not know what to make of it.
But even now, Gaara's eyes had changed. They were the eyes of someone who had seen Hell, seen the tragedies only mankind could bring upon themselves. Baki had seen those eyes on himself and countless other shinobi how fought in the Third Great Shinobi War.
"He looks…" Kankuro began but was unable to finish, unable to describe what his younger brother had turning into to almost overnight.
"He looks old," Baki finished for him, "He looks tired. He looks like…he's seen war and death so many times over. And Gaara…for some reason…
"He looks like he's still fighting."
Finally, they made it! It's taken, what, two chapters, but Gaara and co. have finally reached Kochi aka the Miserable Mud Pit.
Daichi's got a wife and a reason for being an ass earlier. Naruto is hiding from Sasuke. Gaara's drowing himself in his own angst for killing Team 24 in the other timeline because of his medic rule. Baki's begining to catch on.
What will happen next time on "I'll Do Anything"?
Later,
Whitefox