A Cousin's Revival
Miyo
"It's gonna be all right," Sakura told Naruto. "She's bringing him back!"
That stopped both me and Naruto.
"That's probably why she took Little Gaara, Miyo. She remembered how you said it reflected Gaara's life status, and she's hoping it returns to its original state just from where she's left it. Gaara's more important, but if Little Gaara starts moving again thanks to this…"
I hugged my arms tight to my body. That would be worth almost as much as getting Cousin Gaara back!
What left me feeling proud of Naruto was when he offered some of his chakra to a failing Lady Chiyo. And what left me feeling hopeful was that Lady Chiyo accepted it.
"Become a Hokage the likes of which has never been seen." Lady Chiyo surprised Naruto, I think. Then she imparted some words to Sakura. Then she glanced at me. "And young one, get Kankuro to show you how he makes chakra threads. Your doll jutsu will rival the puppet jutsu someday." Her attention returned to Naruto with one final request. "Please…look after Gaara."
And then, right around the time Sand shinobi arrived on the scene…Little Gaara twitched, and rolled off of Gaara's forehead.
Right before Gaara opened his eyes!
To say we all celebrated upon his saying he was all right…would have been an understatement. Though Gaara himself…still looked like someone had smacked him in the back of the head with a board.
Little Gaara…can you stand? I didn't want to approach him right off with the Kazekage's family being so close.
Little Gaara rolled out of the way of Temari's knees, stood up, and took three wobbly steps before falling down again. He tried to stand up again, he was definitely game, but he just didn't have the strength.
I fished in my sleeves and came up with a new doll. Little Naruto…go help him, will you?
I watched as Little Naruto ran over, threw Little Gaara's arm over his shoulder, and helped him back over to me. As they got closer, I saw that Little Naruto was patting Little Gaara's back, a definite "welcome back."
I remained hanging back. I didn't know what to say in front of all the Sand shinobi…or my colleagues. In fact, the line was blurring for me between Leaf and Sand, and it had ever since I trained in the Sand village.
Kankuro told Naruto and the other Leaf ninja that Lady Chiyo had used a Reanimation Jutsu…and she was dead now. Somehow, I'd figured as much.
The end of the day was a time spent in mourning for the brave old lady who had given her life for the future of the Sand village.
The next day as we were heading back to the Sand village, I hesitantly asked Kankuro to show me how to generate the chakra threads, remembering to add that Lady Chiyo had asked me to ask. He showed me, and I practiced a couple times while he was watching, just so that he could tell me I was doing it right. Finally…
"There, you've got it! Now you just need to practice."
When we got to the village, we found that everyone was waiting for us! They were all happy to see Gaara!
There was a moment of silence when Lady Chiyo's body was brought back into the village.
Then we had to tell Gaara – while he was sitting at his desk again – that we needed to leave right away for the Leaf village. I knew we had to check back quickly with Lady Tsunade, but…I wished we could stay a bit longer.
We all stopped by Lady Chiyo's grave to pay our respects. I left my little doll of her, not having any need for it anymore. She looked so lonely sitting there all by herself.
Then the Sand trio – what I've always considered Gaara, Temari and Kankuro – escorted us to the edge of the village. Once there, Naruto decided to be funny about his farewell with Gaara. "I guess this the part where people usually shake hands and get all choked up."
I rolled my eyes with a smile. When I'd left the first time, it was a hug and getting choked up. …I wonder if that'll happen again.
Gaara actually extended his hand to Naruto, though, and he was actually smiling a little, which he hadn't been even when he'd given me that hug. And then, when Naruto made no move in his surprise, some sand circled around Naruto's wrist and brought his hand up to meet Gaara's hand.
I covered my mouth, trying not to burst into giggles. Then after the handshake was over, I spoke. "Gaara, are you feeling strong?"
He stared at me, his smile briefly disappearing. Then it returned, and he held his arms out.
That was enough for me – I threw my arms around his neck, and felt his arms close around me. "Goodbye, cousin," I whispered. "Thank you for saving my life."
"Thank you, cousin, for coming to save mine."
Then we set off for home.
"I'm always going to remember," I finally laughed, "the look on your face when Gaara used his sand to lift your wrist up, Naruto!"
He just grinned at me. Then we had to wait up for Guy-sensei and Kakashi-sensei. Suddenly, Guy-sensei got Kakashi-sensei onto his back piggyback-style and took off running past us!
That left me speechless. And then Lee was trying to get Neji onto his back so that he could do the same thing. Good grief. Well, if he wanted a personality match, there was no closer match to Kakashi-sensei than Neji. At least Neji told him to forget it.
Then there came the most entertaining conversation. I looked at Neji. "Hey, um, Neji? When I was going off to the Sand village to train two years ago, it looked like there was something you wanted to tell me. What was that about?"
He stared at me, and it was an expression I'd never expected to see on his face ever. I think the best name for that face would be "caught out." I still remembered talking to him before I left:
"Well, goodbye Neji." I turned to go.
"Miyo?"
"Hm?" I looked back at him.
A moment of silence. Then Neji turned away. "Never mind. It isn't important."
I was beginning to think that maybe what he'd been planning to say to me…was going to be something he was planning on keeping in his heart for eternity now. It couldn't have been about me and Gaara, at least not anymore, because Gaara had called me cousin in a normal tone of voice and I hadn't been speaking all that quietly.
Then something else happened that I never thought would happen.
Neji Hyuuga started stammering. And blushing.
"Um, well, uh, that is, ah, ahem…"
Lee started snickering into his hand.
That got Neji's attention, and his blush just got even fiercer. "Stop looking at me!"
"Well, go on, Neji," Tenten prompted, looking like she was seriously enjoying this, "what were you going to say?"
I think Neji's next declaration was born of panic. "If you want to know, you'll have to catch me before we reach the village!" And then he bounded off after Guy-sensei, with the rest of his team hard on his heels. I ran after them, less because I wanted to push him for that information and more because I wanted to spare him further embarrassment from his own team. This was a bit of a surprise to me, Neji acting human; normally he acted untouchable.
Clearly Neji was panicked – he overtook Guy-sensei!
"Hey now, what's got you in a rush?" Guy-sensei called as Tenten and Lee shot by as well.
I briefly kept pace with Guy-sensei. "Um…I think I accidentally asked Neji about an embarrassing secret, and now Lee and Tenten are trying to catch Neji to make him tell them what it was. His challenge was that they had to catch him before he reached the village. I'd better try to catch him first to try to spare him the embarrassment."
As I leaped off, I heard Guy-sensei yell after me, "That's it, Miyo, show them what you learned in the Sand village!"
Truth be told…I hadn't been going at full speed until after I passed Guy-sensei. Soon I shot past the two other chunin and I was gaining on Neji.
And it's not like he didn't notice. He tried to put on another speed burst. The branch he stepped on broke, and I leaped past him, catching him up into my cloak and disappearing into a nearby tree's foliage. Once there, I covered his mouth and waited until Lee and Tenten had passed by. Then I let go and sighed relief. "For the record, I wasn't going to push you anymore for whatever it was you were going to say back then. If I knew it was going to embarrass you that much and sic your own teammates on you, I would never have asked."
I turned to look at him again and found him staring at me. "You've gotten fast!" As I glanced away, trying to be modest, he went on, "And that maneuver you used to save me and hide me all at once – I don't think there are many chunin that have that level of skill! And you're still just a genin?"
"Um…"
"That's something I was meaning to ask you, sis," Naruto suddenly popped up into the tree next to us. "Of our entire class, you and I are the only ones who are still genin. It makes sense for me, I was too busy, but why didn't you go for the chunin exams?"
"That's…something I was meaning to tell you." I glanced at Neji. "If you want to hear it, we need to get to Naruto's place. After making our report to Lady Tsunade, of course."
"Of course. And of course I want to hear what could keep a ninja of your caliber out of the chunin exams. All the Kazekage would ever say was that you weren't ready."
"Of course Gaara would say that. I told him that I didn't want this story made public. Only Iruka-sensei…and maybe Master Jiraiya…know anything at all about this story. Gaara knows the full truth."
"And you didn't tell me, sis?" Naruto sounded hurt.
"You…had your own troubles."
"…That's true…" Then he blinked at me. "Wait…does this have anything to do with that Jinjuriki-energy thing that pushes your nightmares away?"
I nodded. Then I saw that Neji looked confused. "This is tied in with that story, and it'll be easier if I start at the beginning. Let's make the report."
We caught up to the village, and managed to give the illusion that Neji had gotten home a good two minutes before they did and therefore didn't have to tell them anything. And after giving the report to Lady Tsunade, Neji, Naruto and I went back to the Uzumaki residence.
I unloaded my sleeves and sat down, motioning for them to do the same. Sitting down, I mean. "This all happened back when I was five…"
