DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT own Naruto or the characters, I only own Kitty and Fern as they are my own original creations.

I hope you enjoy this chapter,

Read and Review please.


A Ninja's Lap: Chapter Nine


As the weeks pass, Tsunade and Shizune (along with tonton) order for Kitty and Fern to be trained like they were real shinobi and kunoichi. Tsunade also requests that Gaara stay and take a short seasonal rest from his duties in Suna. Gaara accepts the kind business like offer but makes sure he keeps a firm hold on his village; he would not allow his siblings to take control fully and drive the village to ruins whilst he was away. Over the weeks he would often send messages to his sister explaining why he was away and giving her frequent orders, that of course she didn't like one bit, but he didn't really give a damn.

So as it had already been decided, both Naruto and Gaara become the girls protectors, teachers, and as Gaara had put it "Mysterious people babysitters".

The routines planned by Tsunade for Kitty and Fern where sharp and solid, leaving very little time for site seeing and relaxing.

They were up at dawn, training all day. A few breaks in-between, finishing late into the night, and then being awoken at dawn again the next day. This was the routine for the next month or so.

"Why are we doing this to ourselves again Fern?" Kitty asks after a long day full of falls fails, and blind punching that left the two girls shattered from fatigue and aching with pains all over.

She flops onto the sofa, groaning as her muscles protest to even the smallest movement, and her body screaming for some sort of escape from the rigorous training it had endured that day.

Fern grumbles, her body curled up into a tight ball, arms over her knees. Training with Naruto was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. She had clearly underestimated his power and non-stop energy supply. It was as if he was the Duracell Bunny on crack.

She feels something poking into her side so shifts a bit and pulls a children's version of a kunai. It was made of rubber, and fern groans remembering that her next lesson was meant to be throwing knives. She was sure she'd die before then. Her darkly coloured eyes seek out kitty's lighter brown ones.

"We need to blend in" She replies, lifting her head a bit before letting it flop back down into the soft cushions, unwilling to move anymore. "We cans be defenceless forever"

Kitty moans and buries her head into a pillow, her hair splayed over the side of the couch she had collapsed onto, knowing all too well that it'd be a very long time before they could be considered strong enough to defend themselves in this world.

She raises a hand to make another point, but her muscles fight her furiously, making her whimper softly. Her whole body ached, refusing to do anymore work and so her arm simply flops onto her stomach with a thump.

Along with the training, Gaara and Naruto had been observing the girls, trying to figure out who they really where. Tsunade had tried to fob they're constant questions off with the simple notion that they came from a far away land where there was war and therefore would be allowed to stay for as long as they needed until the battles had been won or lost. Gaara of course knew instantly that this was just an elaborate cover story. If there was war, Konoha would help surely, and Suna would have heard something. But he did not push it and argue more.

He would watch and wait until he could find out himself, the truth he would reveal. Even if he had to stay for a year.

The factor that neither girl could balance properly, or even use basic defence stances to block attacks, Gaara had figured they were VERY far away.

Needless to say, the lack of strength and experience with the basics meant that he often lost patience with them.

The moaning didn't help either.


"Punch me" Gaara says to Kitty, as they stand in the middle of the Konoha training grounds. She was opposite him, and Naruto was training with Fern nearby. They had already begun and Fern was much more advanced than Kitty, but still not as good as Tsunade, Gaara and even Naruto wanted.

She looks at him, standing like a puny mouse, wide eyed and staring at his upper torso where he had gestured for her to attack him with a look of uncertainty, her brow creased.

"Punch you?" She questions, her eyes darting between his chest and his face.

"Yes" He replies, crossing his arms. His trademark stance that uttered a no-nonsense policy.

She pauses. Looks at him again with her large brown eyes. Pulls her arm back a tad. Stops. She drops her clenched hand back to her side and sighs deeply.

"I can't" she says.

He also sighs, a deeper more ferocious one than Kitty's timid almost frightened one.

The red head restrains himself from shaking his head. She was much too timid and cautious to attack him, let alone an intruder or attacker.

"Why not?"

She looks down at her hands that are now locked together and starts to fiddle with her fingers. Gaara sighs. This was going to be a very long day.

"I just don't want to hurt you" She replies, now glancing directly away from the red head before her and instead at her friend, who was trying to escape a Naruto shadow clone up a steep looking tree.

Kitty is surprised when Gaara starts to laugh. Her head whips back around to his direction. She had never heard his natural laugh before; it was different from his sadistic, bloodlust-filled one she had heard from him in the anime. Although she thought that laugh was sexy and so pure, this laugh eminating from him currently was even more so.

It was lighter; more relaxed, but still held the deepened tone his voice had.

The laugh had made her want to smile, but then she realises he was laughing at HER.

"Don't worry" He says as he tries to regain his composure, "I doubt you could hurt me even if you wanted to"

Kitty's mind grinds to a halt and she purses her lips. She crosses her arms over her chest, almost like Gaara does himself, but with a more stroppy finish. She takes a step forward.

"I could" She grates out, with a new found determination.

He raises an eyebrow at her, quirks his head to the side.

"Oh really? I'd like to see you try" He was smirking at her, daring her to show him what she was really capable of. His words held bite, but she could see the clear amusement in his sea foam eyes.

Kitty cannot help but return the smile, albeit a little hint of a blush caressing the apples of her cheeks.

Just then Fern decides to fall out of the tree.

The dark haired girl lands on top of two shadow clones, and "oof" escaping her lips as, amazingly, one catches her (sort of) and lands in a heap with her sitting uncomfortably in her lap, a background of orange and blonde hair.

Gaara and Kitty watch Naruto drop to the floor in a fit of laughter, and Fern stands, dusting herself off trying to regain what was left of her dignity.

Sea foam eyes watch with some more amusement as Fern strides over to Naruto and attempts to kick him, but ending up tripping over a misplaced over grown tree root. This time she falls on top of the real Naruto, winding him easily. Fern stares him down with her dark eyes and she grumbles a few obscenities at him then thumps him on the chest. He starts to laugh his own loud laugh, breaking Ferns resolve at which she also starts to laugh.

Kitty looks at Gaara, who seemed to find the whole thing amusing.

Still annoyed that he had laughed at her, and taking his challenge into consideration, she draws back her fist and flings it towards the side of Gaara's jaw with all the strength she could get, imagining that it wasn't Gaara she was punching, that it was really a punching bag, and not at all the red haired kazekage of Suna.

Crunch.


"Oh gosh, oh my gosh, oh gosh, oh-"

"Please calm down…" Gaara interrupts, his voice strained.

"Bu-"

"Calm. Down." He repeats, ignoring the frantic looks he was getting.

A low whimper over rides all thought, and Fern rushes along side him.

"I am, so, sorry!" kitty cries, her words broken at odd places, and tangled with sobs.

Gaara gives her a look as if to say "why are you sorry?" and he carries on rushing towards the hospital or the hokage tower. Which one he didn't really care.

Fern herself was frantic and Naruto speeds on ahead to get to Tsunade.

"It looks really bad Gaara" Fern mumbles, her dark orbs wide and worried.

Gaara simply nods. He tries to ignore the strange feeling of guilt and something else…but he couldn't quite place it. That annoyed him, but he had a duty to do, no matter what he was feeling.

He knew by the large bruise that it wasn't a good sign, but he did warn her.

Kitty was making oddly pitched whimpering noises. This somehow made the horrible feeling worse for Gaara. He didn't know how, or why, but it did. And he really didn't like it.

Naruto had already gotten to the Hokage's tower and was already running back now.

"Lady Tsunade says to go right up" he declares in his usual loud voice. "She's waiting for you"

Gaara picks up his pace, the weight on his arms very light he found. He tried not to linger on the feelings pounding through his head or chest and he also notes that Kitty had gone oddly quiet.

The red head decides it would also be better if he did not dwell on the why just yet.

His jaw felt tight and constricted which he hadn't experienced much before.

As they near the Hokage's tower, Gaara travels up the pipes on the outside of the building, instead of using the stairs, which would use up more time.

He steps onto the window ledge on the top floor. His balance was off considering the circumstances and a bit of extra weight, but he manages to slip through the opened window easily.

Tsunades golden coloured eyes lock onto him as soon as he enters, and she narrows her eyes a tad.

"I told you to look after them" She says sternly.

Gaara shrugs her words off, not really caring, and he goes to sit down on an empty arm chair. Tsunade follows him, and looks with a hint of worry at the large bruise that was clearly blotching across the skin. She reaches down and touches the bruise with a light hand.

Kitty cries out in an almost ear splitting pain.


Gaara grimaces at the noise. For some reason he really hated to hear her in pain. Maybe because it was his face she had injured her hand punching, but then again, maybe it wasn't. oh he was frustrated now.

"It's definitely broken" lady Tsunade explains. The older woman takes hold of kitty's arm and observes her hand and wrist. It was half covered in a dark bruise and her knuckles seemed swollen.

Kitty whimpers again at the movement of her hand and looks with pleading eyes at Tsunade.

Gaara had told her to be careful. But there was a bad feeling in his chest and it was bugging him.

"I'll heal it as much as is possible, but with hand bones you need to let them heal by themselves so they set properly again" Tsunade explains, already starting to push chakra into kitty's hand. The girls face visibly relaxes and her grip on the chair loosens. Gaara sighs.

"Your hand will be fragile for a while now, so no putting strain on it during training for a couple of weeks" Tsunade continues, giving Gaara a pointed look as she does so.

Fern and Naruto arrive at the door to the office having taken the stairs, and Fern settles herself down next to Kitty. She found the whole thing intriguing. Her eyes on Kitty's hand with a wary glance.

"Your face must be like stone" She comments. Kitty giggles and looks at Gaara with a teary smile tugging at her lips. Gaara looks at kitty and half smiles, "I highly doubt it. Kitty here is just too weak to cause me any pain just yet"

Gaara didn't know what had made him smile, but Fern had caught the exchange and was smiling smugly from her own chair, although no one took notice of it.

"don't worry I'll prove you wrong soon enough" Kitty replies, going back to watching what Tsunade was doing to her hand. The older woman bandaged it and tightened it accordingly.

A knock on the door sounds, just as Tsunade finishes. Her golden eyes shoot to the door, her eyebrow raised. She wasn't expecting any visitors today.

"Who is it?" Fern asks. Gaara pauses, and looks towards the door with an odd expression himself.

"My siblings" He replies, sensing their very familiar chakra. He had not anticipated them to come to Konoha, at least not while he had placed them in charge.

A chuckle resonates from the other side of the door.

"Come in" Tsunade grants, with an air of authority.

The door opens and both kitty and Fern look upon the two other sand siblings for the first time.

In the flesh that is.


A Ninja's Lap: Chapter Nine