Picture: At my profile will you find a link to an info picture of Lena! So visit my profile after reading, if you want to see her and get some small information about her.
Beta Reader: sasodei-iz-awesome (Ari-Chan)
Day: Friday
Chapter Ten: A Great Love, A Great Loss
An early Friday morning, but Sasuke was awake a long time ago. Even with the sleeping pills still in his system, he couldn't find himself in need of getting any more sleep now. The many butterflies in his stomach didn't make sleeping any more tempting either, and as he breathed in the sweet incense that was still left in the room, Sasuke filled up his body with strength for the day ahead of him.
With a weak lift, Sasuke moved his hand up to his own forehead to feel his temperature, and yes, his fever was all gone. 'I guess if I take it very easy on school today, everything will be fine for tomorrow's concert.' Sasuke thought, smiling to himself. As he thought about the concert the butterflies did a jump in his stomach. Finally after almost one week Sasuke was going to be able to see Utoran sing again! His lustful, amazing and sexy voice was worth everything for Sasuke. From the first moment he listened to his songs, Sasuke had gotten addicted to that voice. He only wished with all his might that he was going to be one of the lucky fans that were drawn out to meet Utoran at the back stage after the show.
'But that is like one against five hundred...' Sasuke thought sadly, almost feeling like slapping his head for thinking that he could possibly be one lucky enough to get behind the stage with the Uzumaki. Sasuke looked down on his number. 'One-hundred-and-sixty-nine... that is my number. Guess all I can do is to hope.'
Yesterday Sasuke had gone through one curse of a day, a horrible fever that could have killed him if it wasn't for his class friend Naruto that found him in the hall and got him home as fast as he did. And thanks to the medicine Naru... the doctor gave him it had made his body strong enough to fight back, killing the fever. But with The Uzumaki's concert tomorrow yesterday's day had almost been forgotten. "Even if my number doesn't get drawn out... I will still be able to see you perform. And I will be sure to enjoy every second of it!" Sasuke said, his voice almost sounded lustful as he gazed on the few pictures there was of Utoran on the internet.
The youngest Uchiha sighed and relaxed his back against his chair. 'Tomorrow... tomorrow...' Sasuke thought, closed his eyes and thought back on the little concert they had last Sunday. Sasuke could remember as if it just yesterday, the amazing loud shouting from all the hundreds of hundreds of fan girls and boys. The loud sound of the music the guys made on the stage, oh... and the sexy appearance of Utoran. The movements he made when he danced to the music. Sasuke had found himself just staring at Utoran all the time; his eyes couldn't move away from him, Utoran was just so sexy and cool.
After searching and looking on the Internet for pictures of Utoran and his group, Sasuke saw that the time was getting a little late, so he had to get ready for school now. But before he went out, he took some pictures of Utoran and placed them in on his iPod, so that he could see them later in his recess at school.
However, as he arrived at school there was a big black car parked in the parking lot, one that Sasuke didn't know about. Unconsciously Sasuke had startedmaking a list of who owed which car, and that car was not on his list.
He went inside the school and was about to walk past the teacher's office but, the door was open so he could see some people in there talking to somebody. And one figure rested against the wall, one that the raven hair knew from his class. Sasuke sneaked himself inside and asked. "What is going on here Shikamaru?"
The lazy boy against the wall opened his eyes and saw Sasuke. "Hello there, Uchiha-San." Shikamaru mumbled, and turned his head towards the two investigators that stood some few meters away. "My parents and I just solved a case last night, and we are here to tell the relative of that case."
Sasuke did know that the Nara family was Tokyo's best investigators, and he had heard rumors about that Shikamaru, their son, sometimes joined on things if they needed an extra brain in the investigation. So the rumors were true, and by the looks on their faces this was a big case. Sasuke turned quiet and listened to the conversation that went on in the room.
Naruto had arrived to the school with his motorbike. Ever since this morning Naruto had had a bad feeling in his stomach, like something horrible was going to happen today. 'Might as well be my imagination.' Naruto thought in a little hope.
The nerd had arrived a little early so he just went walking through the halls.
"WHAAAT?!" shouted a loud and angry voice out in the school halls. Naruto almost jumped by the sudden loud noise, but it didn't take him long until he made his feet moving and went running towards where the sound come from.
In the next second he come across the teacher's office; he was about to run pass it until he saw some somewhat unfamiliar people, but one he did know well and another was almost too familiar.
'Sasuke? With Shikamaru? What is going on? And aren't those Shikamaru's parents?' Naruto thought and walked in the room. What he saw made his eyes grow big and round. Shikamaru's parents were talking to a teacher, and strangely enough, he was the only teacher in the office. 'Why do I feel like, the bad feeling I had this morning, is because of this...?' Naruto tried to make out who the teacher was, but the only thing he saw was somewhat of his face expression, which was sadness and he seemed very upset, almost close to tears.
Shikamaru's parents were not really known of their sympathy, but were one of the world's best private detective or investigator. Nara Shikaku and Nara Yoshino had solved many difficult cases; Yoshino was the head leader of their growing company of private detectives. She was tough and strict but the best in her profession. The fact that the two of them, plus their son had joined them, meant that whatever case they were on now, had been a hard one to solve. And the relative of the case was that teacher, and he didn't seem to take their word to be true.
"What do you guys mean she was found dead!? She can't be!" the voice of the teacher was harsh and angry, and you can tell by the sound that he hoped it all was just a bad joke.
"We're sorry..." said, Shikamaru's father, Shikaku, in a low voice.
Naruto had walked slowly in to the tense room, the chance of view allowed the young man to see the face of the teacher, it was... the history teacher Jiraiya.
"My Lena... my beautiful Lena..." Jiraiya's voice suddenly changed. He looked deep in the eyes of the two Nara's, and their eyes held no lie, and he knew that someone like them would never joke around with something like this. Slowly Jirauya had let it all sink in, or at least startedto. His voice was sad, almost sobbing as he thought back about his beloved oldest daughter. "She was going to be a world famous doctor... just like her mother..."
The blonde walked over to Sasuke and whispered, so that only Sasuke could hear him. "What is going on here...?"
The Uchiha looked at Naruto in the corner of his eyes as he tried to show no emotion with his face, but Naruto could see that he felt sad for the teacher. "I don't know if you saw the news a few days back, but it said they found a dead body. Since it was so badly damaged it did take some time to identify it. But now they have, it was Jiraiya-Sensei's oldest daughter, Lena."
The blonde boy who stood next to Sasuke froze still. It all suddenly became so clear for him now. 'Of course! Ah... damn it!' Naruto suddenly turned furious over himself, 'I am even stupider that what I thought.' But, in the next second was that feeling all gone, another feeling started to grow instead, a feeling of uselessness and depression; he also started to doubt his own powers. 'I did know that Jiraiya had a daughter with the name Lena. Hell, I even met her once. In my vision did I not only get to know her name, but I did also see her. But... but why wasn't I able to link the Lena I saw in my visions and Jiraiya's daughter, together?! I could have at least warned him about it or something...' The blonde looked down at the ground. 'I did know! But... why was it like I... I just couldn't plut things together. Damn... damn I suck...' Naruto bent a little downwards, and his hands were holding a firm grip on his upper arm, as he tried his best to keep calm and not do anything strange, or to cry.
At the same time over with Jiraiya was the mood different. "Let me see her!" Jiraiya shouted angry, but at the same time sad.
"I don't think you would like that..." Shikamaru said, and lifted himself away from the wall and walked towards his teacher. "Her body is completely smashed, broken and destroyed, it was even just a wonder we were able to identify her in the first place." Shikamaru sounded like he didn't care, thought that was easier said than done. He did really feel sorry for Jiraiya; he did know Lena was close to being a world renowned doctor, if she wasn't one already.
Shikaku looked at his son, and felt like finishing something he left out. "Whoever did this, didn't want the body to be identified."
The lead investigator, Yoshino, held her hand out, telling her husband to be quiet for a sec. "That may be true, but the strange part is, we don't even know the cause of death. I mean, all the body went through would surely have killed her, but she was dead before all that. It..." she stopped, as if she would be called crazy for telling her statement.
"...it was as if her brain just suddenly stopped working." Shikaku finished quickly.
The room went quiet for some minutes, as Jiraiya was given the time to think over it all. The fifty year old man didn't seem happy about this, of course he didn't! He just got to know that one of his beloved daughters had been found dead some days ago, and not until now he had been told of it.
"At least..." mumbled Jiraiya sadly. "Just let me see her... one time." All his anger was gone in his voice, what come out now was pure sadness and grief.
The Nara family looked at each other, until Yoshino nodded. "Fine, follow us please. We will take you to her."
Naruto looked weakly up from the floor, but he still didn't move his hands away from their positions. As he gazed up, he saw the three Nara family members walking out the door with Jiraiya following right behind them. The teacher didn't even seem to notice Naruto's behavior as he exited; his mind was elsewhere. His eyes said it all; he was so sad and heartbroken about this. The worst one was one thought: what was he going to say to his wife and second daughter once they got home from the trip from America in a few days?
The two boys were left alone in the empty teacher's office. Shikamaru didn't follow his parents to the car, but stayed at the school, since the first class was going to start soon. Naruto didn't know what to think, he felt so stupid for not being able to link Lena that he had seen... die, and Jiraiya's Lena together. He had seen her when she was alive for crying out loud! But why hadn't his brain allowed his mind to add things together?!
The nerd stood still, not daring to move and his hand tightened, close to a fist. Since he was in the nerd suit, his arms were a little bigger then what they really were, so he could squeeze his fingertips on his "skin" without it hurting. This made his knuckles turn slightly white and his fingertips were getting red by the pressure as he was using an amazing force. 'I am so stupid!' Naruto thought angrily, he was almost close to tears himself. The image of Lena's death had entered his mind again, and seeing his good friend and teacher so hurt... it was overwhelming.
"You... are you ok?" Sasuke asked worriedly; he hadn't noticed it before now that Naruto sometimes had very strange behavior.
"I... don't know..." Naruto mumbled, trying his best not to shake in his voice as he spoke. His body had slightly started to shiver by itself, and he couldn't make it stop.
The Uchiha hadn't seen the nerd behave like this before; hell, he hadn't seen anyone behave like this in front of him before. Most people kept their face right whenever they were around an Uchiha. So what was he suppose to do in this situation? Either way, Sasuke moved in front of the shivering boy; it was then he noticed what the blonde did to his own arms. Quickly he took a grip on Naruto's hands, and made them relieve his arms.
The moment Naruto felt Sasuke's soft, and nice skin on his hand, it was like all his strength disappeared in the soft, yet firm, grip. His own tight grip on his own arms was easily broken. Naruto was shocked, and looked slightly up at Sasuke's face, that was right in front of him.
"You have to calm yourself." Sasuke ordered, his voice was maybe meant to be harsh but that wasn't a success, as his voice sounded much more comforting and kind, then hard and harsh. Naruto's hands were moved downwards, and they were still held by the Uchiha's hand, as if Sasuke wasn't ready to let go just yet. "Calm down, it's not your fault and there's nothing we can do about it now." Sasuke said, this time with a somewhat comforting voice. He had now tried on purpose to speak gently, however... it almost sounded fake. Well he did try! But he hadn't realized that he spoke much more gently when not planning on it.
Slowly Naruto's shivering started to stop, but something else would soon start if this situation continued like this. The blonde looked down on his hands, and saw how Sasuke was holding them tightly. 'My heart... it won't stop pounding!' and Naruto knew why his heart had started to work so quickly now, Sasuke was super cute with those comforting eyes and small, gentle smile. 'Daamn, why most he be so caring right now? My heart has yet to come after yesterday's happening...' Naruto breath out, and looked up at Sasuke with a smile.
"Thanks... Sasuke, I feel better now." Naruto gazed at the Uchiha, however without any further movements his glasses fell down a few inches revealing his ice blue eyes to Sasuke's dark black ones.
The Uchiha looked deep into those icy eyes. But suddenly it felt like someone turned on a switch in his head. His eyes turned hot, almost like they were burning. However, forget the pain; he couldn't stop gazing into Naruto's eyes.
On Naruto's side he hadn't planned on revealing his eyes to Sasuke today; it just happened, and now he couldn't help himself but to gaze back. Still in this trance like gaze, Naruto started to move his hand towards Sasuke's face, and very, very gently touched it with the back of his fingers, stroking Sasuke's cheek gently.
The Uchiha felt the gentle touch and a small blush started to come to his cheeks. Butterflies had arrived in his stomach again, dancing around like crazy.
Both the hearts of the two boys thumped harder and faster. Naruto had completely forgotten himself right now didn't he care about Sachiaiko Naruto or Utoran... he just wanted Sasuke, yes... right now, no matter the consequences. Therefore, with slow movements Naruto started to lean in towards Sasuke's face.
Sasuke saw this, and even if that face had the large glasses on the tip of their nose, images of Utoran and the doctor Naruto flashed before his eyes as he gazed into this Naruto's eyes.
When the two boy's nose almost touched an alarm went off in Naruto's head, saying that this was too early! And that he needed to get the hell out, right now. Naruto stopped moving, looked down at Sasuke's eyes one last time before moving his big glasses back up to the top of his nose. "Class will begin soon, so we better hurry." Naruto said, with a calm voice, however, as Sachiaiko it wasn't the right voice to use, he almost sounded like Utoran with that calm voice. "So see you in class!" Naruto called out happy, now talking as a pure nerd, lisping as he talked, and with that hanging in the air Naruto left the room.
The other young man was left in the room alone. 'Wha... what just happened?' Sasuke thought shocked. He tried to think back on the scene that had taken place just a second ago. But as he tried to rewind it all turn it out to be too embarrassing... that he just forgot about it! 'Nothing! Happened!' thought Sasuke angrily, his face turned tomato red, and quickly he stormed out of the empty teacher's office and went to his class.
While the Uchiha at school was having his troubles and moments, his older brother was having his own. Itachi was out traveling with his two working partners. Since five days ago, they had been traveling around.
"Do you guys feel anything?" the blue skinned Kisame asked as he was getting tired off all this walking in the hot city of New York. It was night at the moment, but in the city-that-never-sleeps there were still many people still walking in the streets.
Itachi shook his head. "No, the feeling is too weak to clearly point out." The voice in which he spoke was cold and dark; the fact that they had been walking almost nonstop for about two days now didn't seem to affect him.
Kisame sighed. "At least you can kind of feel something, it's a start. Back in Tokyo we did stand on blank paper. Maybe we will be able to find this one faster than the others?" the blue skinned man looked over at the second guy that was with them. He rarely spooks to anyone on the group, and he didn't seem too interested in what they did in the first place. He was the newest of their group, very talented at his work, though he didn't seem to take it seriously at all times. He had been with Itachi when he helped Deidara and Sasori on getting the young lady called Lena.
"Anyways, can't we just stop for the day?" Kisame asked as he massaged his neck with his right hand.
"That's not like you Kisame-Sempai." He who stood right next to Itachi turned around and looked at Kisame with somewhat of a smirk on his face.
"Yeah, I know. But we just got one not too long ago. I mean, it's just totally like nine Jinchuuriki, the leader can't expect us to find another one this quickly. We already have three, and I am starting to get hungry, since that damn plane food wasn't to any of my taste."
The Uchiha at the front stopped, sighed and looked back at his little group of people. "Then you will be the one to pay for the hotel and all the food." And with that said, Itachi walked towards a randomly picked hotel. The two others followed soon after. "But if this one disappears, I will blame you, Kisame." Itachi said with a threatening voice right before entering the hotel door.
"Yeah, yeah," mumbled Kisame, not really caring about all that, he just wanted to order a big sushi menu as soon as possible, relax in the bathtub and have a good night's sleep in a good bed for once. The third member rolled his shoulders and blew out a little sigh as he started to walk after his two working partners; he didn't really care if they continued walking or rested of the night, but since Kisame was going to pay for all of it, so why not?
It had only been a few minutes since both Naruto and Gaara had gotten home to their big mansion. Naruto was in his room and didn't know how to make the time fly; he was so close to being bored. "I might as well take a look on how Sasuke is doing." Naruto mumbled to himself and was about to concentrate on leaving his body, until the door to his room suddenly opened and Gaara walked in.
The redhead had changed his clothes after getting home from school. He now wore a simple black T-shirt with a dark lion head on the front, and his pants were dark-black jeans. On his arms were black and dark-red wristbands.
"Hello there." Gaara said in a rather happy voice, something the redhead normally never did at home, so he was apparently acting happy again and did nothing to try to hide it either. "You seem rather bored." Gaara said as he smirked and walked over to Naruto and placed his hand on the blonde's shoulder.
Naruto got a little bad feeling in his stomach by this and asked weakly in a mumble. "Eh... what do you want?"
The redhead just kept on smirking a sly smile. "I know you did train a little with your powers the day Sasuke, the whole Gym class and I was out running in the forest, but, Iruka asked me to train you today too." With that said, Gaara took Naruto's hand and started to drag him towards the training room.
"Wh... wh... what?" Naruto asked in a shocked mumble, not believing this was happening. "But, I was just about to see how Sasuke was doing." said the blonde in defense, hoping that Gaara would forget this whole training idea, and let him do what he wanted.
"I thought you would say something like that so I called him before hand; he is fine, just looking over his homework which he just finished." Gaara walked quickly through the halls, which meant they were soon in the small, narrow, hallway of stairs which was the only way down to the training room.
Naruto, who was still getting dragged by Gaara, sighed. "But seriously, did you drink coffee or something?" his voice was low, and he know there was no way to get Gaara to change his mind when they had gotten this far.
"No not really, but Iruka told me once to train your powers whenever I got an idea on how to train you, and I just did, or I have been having it for some time now, but so much has happened lately, and since we are both bored, why not try it out." Gaara said, and let go of Naruto's hand.
The two brothers entered the big and large training-room. It was very dark in there, only fifty percent of the lights in the ceiling were on and they were adjusted to a very weak power. And since it was very high up to the ceiling the lights didn't reach all the way down to the floor, leaving things down from their hips dark. Without getting any more instruction Naruto went towards the middle of the room. There he stood still for a second, until he turned around and looked at Gaara. "So, what was this great idea of yours?" Naruto asked darkly, just wanting to get this over with.
The other one's smile went down at the blond's cold words, he placed his arms in cross over his chest and looked a little angry, and almost disappointed at Naruto. "You know, I bet there are tons of people out in the world that wishes to do half the things that you are capable of. Can't you learn to be a little mot grateful to it then this?"
Naruto looked at Gaara; compared to him, Naruto had much more powerful powers. But Gaara didn't seem to complain to either that or about his own powers.
"Fine..." Naruto sighed, letting out a lot of air, but in the next second came a smile on his face as he said excitedly;"Show me the new training!"
The redhead looked at Naruto, and yes, there was nothing false with his mask, or face emotion, he did really mean it. This made Gaara get back his smile too. Sure he had been playing a little with the excitement when he had walked in Naruto's room like that, but the truth was that he found it very fascinating and fun to watch Naruto moving things without touching the object physically.
"The training is simply," Gaara started, and pushed in the button that made all the lights in the ceiling get on, lighting up everything. "Just look down around you." Gaara said, almost ordering, he loved to play a somewhat harsh trainer.
The blonde did so, and found some few feet away from him some footballs, they were not American-football balls, but round like in soccer. There were ten of them all in a circle around him. It was strange that he hadn't stumbled in one of them as he had walked over to the middle. But it seem like Gaara know acutely where to place the balls so that he would not trip in any of them, the balls were all in an amazing line, every single one the same centimeter away from the other, in a perfect circle. "And what am I going to do?" Naruto asked, not really following his trainer's lead.
"Your goal is to try to lift one of them, since I know you have some size problems." Gaara laughed a little at the end, but did not mean any harm in his words. Before when the two of them were much younger, Naruto could almost lift up anything tiny. But in the last year his measure had gotten from small and little toys to big and heavy rocks and other heavy stuff. So Gaara was going to try to make him get back to lifting small light stuff.
Naruto looked at the black and white ball in front of himself. "If that is what you want from me." Naruto answered and started to get down to business. He locked his eyes on the ball in front of him, and started to concentrate. As it all got more intense, he could feel his eyes change from ice blue to crimson red and his pupil got oblong. His six whisker-like marks got more deeper and visible and his hair and clothes started to move to an unrealistic wind, which was made by Naruto. Even though the blonde was used to finding the middle center of a big rock, it wasn't the same as finding the middle or heart of something this small. Some seconds went by before Naruto had gotten a solid grip of the ball, and slowly Naruto started to move his right hand upwards, the ball following slowly after. Once the ball was the same height as Naruto's head, Naruto moved his eyes away from the ball and looked at Gaara instead. "There, one ball in the air." His voice almost sounded a little proud.
The trainer smiled a little as he clapped with his hands a few times. "Good, good. But, we are only getting started." Gaara explained and walked closer to Naruto. "The next thing I want you to do is to lift up the second ball, which I will just call no. two, lift it up in the air and once up at the same height as no. one, let no. one fall down and bunch up again, after its no. two's turn to fall down. Got it?"
"I think so." Naruto answered and got ready. To tell the truth, this training was getting interesting, and he really wanted to impress Gaara that he was able to do this. He found the heart of no. two much faster than what he did on no. one, and soon was it floating in the air too. And as Gaara had said, when the two balls were the same height did he make no. one go down. You could tell Naruto still had his telepathic control on it; the ball went down impossibly slow, and when it touched the ground it didn't bounce at all, it went just as slow upwards. Though, when it went upagain to where no. two was, it was that one's turn to go down.
The redhead trainer looked on these slow movements. "Well, you did understand what I meant, that is fine. But what I wanted was that you almost let go of all control of no. one so that it fell down as naturally as possible. The way the two of them went up and down, it was clearly possible to see that you were holding them." Gaara said, not sounding too impressed yet.
"Well it's hard," Naruto started. "I have never 'almost let go of all control' on things I have to make float in the air. It will take me some time to even get used to the idea of that..."
Gaara nodded. "We have good time; just continue with the two balls until you get it right." The redhead smirked, there was no way he was going to let Naruto give up now; not since it seemed Naruto was actually enjoying himself.
The hours went by, and the blonde kept on with the two balls all the time, trying his best to loosen his grip of the balls once they were suppose to fall down. Something he found hard, ever since he had been able to control things with his mind; he had been sure to get a real strong grip of the item so that he didn't lose it. But now Gaara was asking, no, ordering him to do just that. It was hard...
But after almost three hours, things started to get more and more easier; it wasn't perfect, but as good as he could do it.
"That will do for now." Gaara said gently. "You did great the last time, it almost seemed like the ball just went down by itself."
"Thanks..." Naruto said, and wiped away some sweat that was rolling down his face. He then started to walk towards the door, but Gaara's look stopped him. "What...? Naruto asked, almost nervous.
"Who said you were done? I simply said you were done doing that. The next you will do is to move three balls. Two in the air, and one down, next will be four balls, two up and two down, then five, up to all ten."
Naruto's eyes got big. "You want me to lift and move all ten balls at the same time?!" he almost yelled shocked, he was already tired from the few hours that had already gone by.
"Oh come on, just try." Gaara said in a cheery voice.
Naruto felt his shoulders sink down as he gave in to his stubborn brother. "...fine."
The blonde went on, trying his best to do what his brother had told him to, but this was much harder. At the end with all the ten balls under his control, it was haaard... Though, it was easier to get his hold of the balls the more he picked up a new one. But to move five balls up, and then five other balls down, was taking its heaviness on his mind. Luckily the amount of ten balls didn't last longer than sweetie minutes, Gaara had something else in mind for the last forty minutes he was going to use on Naruto's training before ending it for today.
"You can let the all the balls hit the ground now." Gaara said, in his strong training voice.
Naruto fell on his ass down to the floor, feeling tired of using so much power for so many hours. "What now..." he breathed out tiredly; all of the footballs that were held up went down and bounced away.
"This one is much easier, you just need to turn around, and stop everything I throw at you." Gaara explained, like it was the easiest thing in the world to do.
"...o-key." Naruto mumbled, not really getting how he could be able to catch something he didn't see. Plus, he had never tried to stop something without finding the center of the object first. However, that didn't stop him from trying. The blonde stood up on his feet, turned around and got ready.
The trainer stood some meters away, with a big basked of different balls, most of them where footballs though.
Naruto didn't even know how many balls he was suppose to stop, or if it was just going to the same size football. But he tried his best to be ready. 'I might as well try this new trick I just made up.' Naruto thought, right behind his back started he to build up a strong force, if this worked right, would everything stop right the moment something got in it. It almost worked like a wall or net.
Then without warning, started Gaara to throw one of the balls towards Naruto, it was the same size footballs Naruto had used before. The ball went flying through the room and went straight towards Naruto. But as the ball reached Naruto's strong force wall stood it suddenly still, as if timed had turned itself off for that ball.
Naruto had felt the ball the moment it left Gaara's hand, and had traced it down and since he had made just a strong defensive wall would nothing get through.
Gaara continued throwing balls, some bigger but no one was smaller than the first football size. It was almost fun to see everything he thrown stopped still in the air. It was about fifteen balls in the midair now. The redhead smiled to himself as he got out a small tennis ball...
The small yellow ball went flying through the air, just like all the other balls, but this one was much smaller, as it got closer to the point where every other ball had been stopped. Gaara stared at the ball, looking after if it would slow down a little or stop completely, but nothing happened. It went straight through, hitting Naruto hard on the back. And at the same moment the pain come, went the strong psychic wall off and all the other balls went down to the floor.
"Ooouch!" called the blonde out. "What the hell was that?" Naruto shouted as he turned around, his right hand trying to reach the area that did hurt on his back to try to massage to make it better. He hadn't been able to sense the flying ball at all, it was like he had been bitten by an invisible mosquito. The blonde looked down on the floor and saw the little yellow tennis ball, his face expression changed from shocked to a heartbreaking look of sadness and one of pure disgust. "Wasn't that a little in on the small side?" Naruto mumbled and started to walk towards a closet that was in the room.
"Hehe, I thought so too, but I wanted you to prove me wrong, which didn't happen. But anyways... Hmm..." Gaara stood and wondered for a second, he had one last training he wanted to do with Naruto before he called it for the day, but he was scared of the outcome of the training and if Naruto wanted to do it in the first place.
"What is it?" Naruto asked as he had just gotten cleaned up from the last exercise, even thought he just used his brain to do it all, his body was affected too. So a quick wipe with a towel was as good as new. "If you want me to do something, just tell me." The blonde left the towel on the floor as he walked back to his position in the middle of the room.
"You sure?" the redhead sounded surprised. He looked at Naruto who had arrived at the middle, turned around and smiled weakly at Gaara.
"Yeah sure..." Naruto mumbled as he looked up at the ceiling, he didn't want to say it, but he had started to become a little tired, but if it was just a little exercise, he wasn't going to complain before knowing what it was first.
"Then..." Gaara stopped up a second before ending his sentence. "Read my mind."
The blonde quickly looked at his trainer with eyes of shock and surprise. "Everything but that!" Naruto answered instantly.
"Ah?" Gaara muttered. "I remember some year back, you read everyone in the mansion's mind. Especially mine, but that was all fun, since I didn't have so bad thoughts or much of a private lifeat the time." The redhead's last sentence was said in a low whisper, too low for Naruto to be able to hear it.
Naruto stood still and balled his hands into fists. "All... the thoughts were overwhelming..." he looked away in shame and horror, he could still remember their bad adopted parents, it was thanks to them that he sealed the power of reading people's minds away, since he got to know that some people can have horrible thoughts, that should be left for that person alone, not for other's to know about. "I haven't used that power since we lost our "parents". Well... almost."
Gaara understood that mentioning the reading of minds ability was kind of a taboo for Naruto, but he hadn't really asked it before now, so it wasn't before now he got to know that fact, though... he had had a feeling.
The aura around Naruto had chance, it didn't have any excited feelings for training anymore, it had become more sad and tired.
"..." the redhead trainer had no idea on how to replay on this, normally he would be able to find up something to change his brother's mind and make him happier, but this was an unexpected situation.
"You don't know what will happen if I try to read your mind... so I guess it's ok. So let me explain." Naruto looked up, almost expecting Gaara to look at him angrily and harsh, like a bad-ass-trainer normally would do, but as he looked over at Gaara, he could only see a faint smile of understanding and sympathy. The blue-green eyes of Gaara almost telling him to just start talking, he were waiting for the answer. This entire chance of Gaara made Naruto smile to himself as he started to explain, almost all worries was gone as he acutely felt comfort by finally tell this. "Once I got this power, I was able to read everyone's mind, yes. But, at the same time I found out many horrible things, not all people were as pure when they talked as when they started to think."
The older brother, who was older by nine months, understood what Naruto said. People can have a nice mask on their face, while their true self was something else. "It was thanks to you that we were able to discover the act of our "parents"." Gaara said, trying to show Naruto that he was following. 'Though, if he was able to read people's minds outside of the house, I can't imagine what kind of shock that must have given him.' Gaara thought. When they were little, he didn't always understand or remember that Naruto's mind was much more mature then his own, that seemed just like a little detail.
"Yeah, and. Hmm, do you remember when we were around ten years old, and there was suddenly a day it was impossible to wake me?"
"Yes I do." Gaara answering as he thought back. "We had no idea what had happened to you, you just slept and slept... for a week."
"Hehe." Naruto laughed weakly, he remembering back how worried everyone's faces had been when he had finally awoken after one week of sleep, especially his brother Gaara, he had actually almost cried in happiness of seeing his brother finally opening his ice blue eyes. "The day we became parent-less again, did I seal away my powers to read everyone's mind."
"Ah..." Gaara started quickly, "so you really did that." his words come out slow. "I had a hunch you did so."
"Yeah, and on the day I was not able to wake up... was the day I opened them again." Naruto gazed down at the floor.
Gaara looked now shocked at Naruto, he hadn't expected this. "So... after sealing the power for so long... does it take a lot of energy to get them back?"
The blonde stood still on his spot, but nodded his head at Gaara's words. "I was so determined to get it back, I was awake all night to remove the seal, and once I realized I had finally been able to do so... it was suddenly a week after."
"Damn, you went that far to get it back. So, what was so important that you wanted it back no matter what?" Gaara asked nervously, he thought that Naruto perhaps had noticed something wrong in the city and needed his ability to read minds to solve something difficult that would save many human lives.
"You see..." Naruto started, lifted his head upwards and looked sadly in the ceiling. "For many weeks his mood had been down, and he sometimes didn't come to school, I was growing worried. So, to find out how to make Sasuke feel better, I needed my powers back!" the last sentence was shouted out loudly.
By the sudden outburst and change of emotion from Naruto, it had almost made Gaara fall down to the floor in shock. "Whaaat?!" shouted the young man out frustrated. "All that for that? Well... I am sure it was very important to you, but the way you said it, it almost sounded like it was something else of great importance of the century or something like that!" Gaara said with a sweat drop sliding down his cheek. His right hand was at the back of his hand, while he scratched himself nervously.
Naruto laughed hard at Gaara's response. "Haha! Yeah, I guess so." Naruto laughed so hard, and it felt so good. Even Gaara started to laugh a little. After a few minutes was the laughing over and Naruto looked at his brother with a smile on his face, but his eyes showed seriousness. "But Gaara, he was really down, and I thought, if I maybe knew a little of what had happen, then maybe I as the class nerd could do something."
The redhead bellowed out some air and laid his hands in cross over his chest. "Well, you blocked your power and used I guess, twelve hours to get it back, but after having it seal away for three years, did it leave you unconscious for a whole week. So, what happened to you and Sasuke?"
The blonde's smile turned weaker, but he was still smiling. "On the weekend when I went over to where Sasuke was at, I searched for his presence with my mind. This was before I was able to leave my body, so I had to trust my newly-opened power to find him."
"Sooo, did you find him?" Gaara asked, things started to get interesting and Naruto's voice turned more and more serious.
"Yeah, I did after a while. And I then started to go into his mind ...but." Naruto bit his lower lip as he really didn't want to continue. But he knows, since he had agreed to tell Gaara everything, so he had to keep going. "But... I couldn't control it. The moment I went into Sasuke's mind... it all came at me at once!"
Gaara loosed up his arms from his chest and looked worried at Naruto. "Wh...what came? Sorry to say it, but I am not really following."
The blonde's gaze out in the room, his smile was still on his face but his face expression showed grief. "I went in his mind to get to know about the thoughts he was thinking at the moment, yes, I did get them, but not only that... Everything. Every thought that he had ever been thinking, everything he has seen, been doing and has wanted to do. His mind became an open book, no, a TV, a TV show I had to see even if I wanted it or not."
"..." the redhead stood still, waiting for Naruto to continue.
"I don't remember even getting home; my driver had maybe found me by the building and took me home. During the next few hours, my mind was like a cinema. All the thoughts and memories I had gotten from Sasuke the moment I entered his mind, was shown before my eyes that night, at first was there no time line, but after calming myself, things started to come in time order, from his first memory to this day."
"Ah..." Gaara gasped out, he didn't really know how to replay, but he remembered something. "Yeah... Em, when I think about it, the day after you had been out for a week, there was a morning it was very hard to wake you up, I almost thought you were going to sleep for a week again. You ended up being five hours late for school since nothing worked to get you up."
"It was that morning; the "movie" wasn't done yet, so I couldn't get myself to get up. But once I was able to move, I went to school, even five hours late. Knowing all about Sasuke, I was able to make things better for him."
The redhead shook his head. 'No wonders he knows everything about him.' Gaara had started to wonder why Naruto know so much about Sasuke's past without ever asking him in person. "So, what was this that troubled the oh-great-Sasuke-Sama so much?" Gaara's voice was very sarcastic, though he sounded like he really wanted to know.
"Hmmm." Naruto's face lit up in a bright smile. "He was tired of being compared against his older brother. So I sent about ninety-one Milliard yen, which is one million dollars, to the school with a note standing; Here is some money, they will be all belong to the school, but only if you all stop mention Uchiha Itachi at this school, if not, will I get my money back, and the school will have to pay me the double amount. Hehe, and his name was never mentioned by the teachers ever again, which led to that nobody on the school knew about him other then in rumors, and he quickly became nothing else then a legend, which grew tired, since the amazing and cool Sasuke was still at school."
"A million," Gaara said not really sounding surprised. "No wonder the school suddenly got a new make-over after that, and they said the principal won in lotto. Well, things had become much better at school after that, for all the students and for me as Sasuke's friend, therefore, no hard feelings against that here." Gaara smiled and walked over towards Naruto and petted him on the shoulder. "Nice work, even though it was a few years back, really good work."
"Nice of you to say that," Naruto said in a laughing voice. "He did turn out happier once Itachi's ghost left the school."
Gaara started to clap with his hands as he just continued smiling. "So in other words, you don't want to release your sealed power now, in case, since it's been years, it maybe leaves you in a long sleep like coma. And by reading someone's mind, you are afraid of getting all of the thoughts of that person all at once."
The blonde nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."
"And maybe it's for the best." Gaara whispered under his breath, but he knows Naruto could hear him.
"Hehe, yeah, you could say that." Naruto said in a playful voice as he closed his eyes, small blushes appeared on his cheeks and his face and smile turned to a somewhat pervert glee.
The redhead walked back a few steps worried. "Don't tell me... you are now going through some of the memories you got from Sasuke's, and the one just now are images of him in the bathroom, watching himself in the mirror?!"
Naruto opened his eyes shocked. "H... how did you know? Are you able to read minds?"
Gaara sigh. "You pervert, if you didn't know, looking at minors is illegal!"
"But, but..." Naruto sobbed. "It doesn't matter to me which year Sasuke is in when I see him! He will always shine like a pure, untouched angel and my feelings towards him will never chance. I LOVE HIM FROM HEAD TO TOE." Naruto shouted out with all the air in his lungs, so he stood now breathing heavily and an out.
"Fine, fine. But please, so that I can feel better about your so great love, please just look at him with those perverted faces of yours when his body is over eighteen." Gaara muttered, starting slowly to get to the door.
"I guess the training is all done?" Naruto asked, with a hint of happiness in his voice.
"Yes." Gaara said waving his hand in front of his mouth, before turning around, looking at Naruto with an evil glare. "For now that is."
The blonde's happiness disappeared quickly, but he guessed it was fine like this. This was Gaara's way of cheering him on after all, well so it almost seemed. "I can't wait until next time." Naruto said with a smile and walked out of the big, underground training room.
The two boys went to their separate rooms for a few hours; Naruto took a hot and long shower, while Gaara sat on his computer for a while.
Some hours later, it's ten o'clock, and both Naruto and Gaara are sitting in their big, cozy living room. It was one of the biggest rooms in the whole house, with a few large bookshelves up against the wall and a big fireplace.
The two young men sat in their comfy chairs that were right next to the fireplace. Naruto sat with a few pieces of paper on his lap and a pencil in his hand. The blonde thought hard with writing few words down on the paper, but he didn't have any inspiration about what to write and many wrinkled wads of paper had been thrown in the fire many times just this night.
"This is hopeless..." Naruto mumbled out in disbelief and scratched his head. "Gaara..." Naruto looked over to his brother who sat just a few inches away.
"What?" Gaara asked tired, he had laid still in his chair with closed eyes, almost falling asleep.
"I can't seem to think up a new song..." Naruto said with a voice of tiredness and it almost sounded like he didn't believe he was a good song writer in the first place.
"You say that every time you try to write a new song, since you have yet to find the right inspiration. However, once you suddenly do, you do make an amazing song. You have gotten so far anyways." Gaara said to his blonde brother, as he sat himself up in the chair, so that he could look directly at Naruto, showing him that he did care about the subject.
"But this time nothing is coming to me!" Naruto cried out, growing irritated over himself. Gaara didn't know what to say so he kept quiet for a minute. "Hey... Gaara."
"Hm?"
"You know that girl you talk to over Internet. The one you have been talking to for about six years now." Naruto said, as he again looked down on the white paper, trying to make out anything good.
"Yeah, what about her?" Gaara asked, not really understanding what she had to do with anything.
"You said once that she sometimes sends you songs she wrote and then you asked her how she got inspiration to write them... what was her replay?" Naruto placed the pencil down and looked at Gaara, waiting for an answer.
"Oh, that. Yeah she did write songs some time ago. Hmmm." Gaara started to think back, it had been a while ago since he had asked her that question so he needed to go deep in his memory to remember her accurate words. "She said: "Whenever I feel stuck in my writing I most likely take a biking trip out in the nice weather. But, if the weather is horrible do I often find myself staring into the beautiful red fire as the flames dances for me." ...and that is about it." Gaara ended.
Naruto looked at Gaara in a little confusion. "You... didn't have to remember her precise answer you know." Naruto mumbled tied and moved his tongue out of his mouth looking at Gaara.
"Well sorry for saying it all then." Gaara answered sounding irritated.
"Hey..." Naruto gasped out, as he suddenly remembered something about that girl. "Wasn't she going to visit Japan like... a year ago?"
Gaara's face turned blank. "Yeah... she was, but something important had come up so she couldn't make it. For that she was very sorry, but she will try to come to visit again ..." Gaara stopped a second. "Wait a second." Quickly took he out his cell phone and looked at the calendar, a smile danced on Gaara's face. "And that will be in some few days." Gaara looked happy and he did not even try to hiding any of his joyful voice. "She has always wanted to travel to Japan, and since she is going to travel to Tokyo I am going to show her around, so it's going to be fun."
"Looks like someone is looking forward to it too." Naruto said in a low voice almost smirking as he winked at his brother.
"What was that?" Gaara asked, almost getting angry as he did not really hear what Naruto had said, but he had a feeling what was said...
"No it's... not... thing..." Naruto wasn't planning on saying this slow and shocked; he just trailed off in his sentence. His eyes were starting to watch the flames, unconsciously, his mind had started to do what Gaara's internet friend had said, looking in the flames for inspiration. Many thoughts come to his mind. 'Hey... what if...' Naruto turned his complete attention to the dancing flames, and amazingly, just by gazing some few seconds on the hot and moving flames come one melody to his ear. Flashes of Sasuke came to his mind and by thinking about that sexy raven haired young man the words came to him. Naruto picked up his pencil in his hand and started to write down some words. And as his hand moved as fast as he could, writing down the words that came to his mind, it was like he could hear his group play the song already, and he loved it! This wasn't his first song he had Sasuke in his thought as he made it, many of the songs he made was thanks to the love he felt for the Uchiha, but this one was going to be winner for sure! Quickly were the notes written down, and the lyrics needed some polishing, but so far, this was no doubt his best song he had written ever!
'Sasuke...' Naruto thought as he was writing his best to make the song even better. 'This song... is for you.'
Gaara in his chair noticed the sudden distance of Naruto, he was completely taken in by the flames, which made Gaara smile. 'Good to know that her advice was good for you too.' Gaara thought and moved himself out of his chair and walked out of the living room, giving Naruto all the peace he needed.
To Be Continued...
Lena's death came as a great shock on Jiraiya and even at Naruto. Sasuke did it best to calm him, but what was that made his eyes turn hot? And how did Naruto's song turn out? If you want to know, continue reading You Will Be Mine!
Chapter Eleven: The Love Riddle