Chapter ten- This might be a problem...
"Bye Fu-chan!" Naruto called out happily. Her new best friend turned towards her and waved happily.
"See you soon Naru-chan!" she shouted back with a grin as her figure disappeared slowly into the black at the edge of her mindscape that was other minds could link up to.
Grinning happily, the blonde turned to the only one left there (excluding Bijuu) and hugged him tight.
"Did that go as well as you wanted it to go, Naruto-chan?" She beamed up at him.
"It went loads better! I'm so glad that we did this Gaara-kun," Naruto replied excitedly.
"I am glad as well. However, it is morning and we both have places to go," The blonde groaned. She didn't want to go anywhere; she was happy here thank you very much!
"Five more minutes Gaara-kun?" she asked, batting her eyelashes in an attempt to get the redhead to agree.
"Only five more," he agreed, albeit a bit reluctantly. All that he could hope was that his devil sister Temari, or his annoying brother Kankuro didn't discover his body in the meantime.
In Suna, the sun was shining bright and early. Temari yawned widely as she walked into her bathroom, placing on her customary outfit and grabbing her fan.
Suddenly she sneezed.
Looking around suspiciously, she frowned. Someone was talking about her... however; fortunately for Gaara she was too busy to really ponder the matter.
Pounding heavy handed on the brown door of Kankuro's room, the blonde yelled
"Kankuro! Baka, it's eight o'clock and you have training at half past! If you ever get your lazy bum up, I'm gonna be in the kitchen eating all of the pancakes!"
At this, a stumble and a quiet curse could be heard from inside the room, and then a loud bash and a yelp as the occupant of the room tried to get ready before his elder sister ate all of the pancakes.
Snickering, Temari walked further down the corridor, followed shortly after by a flushed boy in a black cat suit. He raced after her and caught up as she lifted a hand to knock on the last door in the hallway, a blood red door. She carefully knocked on it and called out
"Gaara? It's me, Temari. If you would like then we have put breakfast on the table,"
Tensing in apprehension for what came next, they waited for the sand to swirl under the door and wrap around a leg in confirmation.
They waited.
And waited.
And waited a bit more.
After receiving no reply for several minutes, the Sabaku siblings looked at each other and Kankuro cautiously stepped forwards. A hand was raised slowly, and a gentle nudge opened the door wide.
Prepared for their younger brother's rage when they found them in the room, Temari and Kankuro stepped forwards. There, by the window, lay their brother. Asleep.
They immediately panicked, considering that if he slept then the Ichibi would be released, but when nothing happened, Temari stepped forwards once again and stroked Gaara's cheek lovingly. It had been ages since she had seen him like this; vulnerable and innocent.
A sudden smile crept up his stone features and crinkled the edge of his mouth.
They gaped at it.
Why the hell was Gaara of all people smiling? And for that matter, why was he sleeping!?
A mumbled string of words came from his mouth, and Temari leant towards him to hear what he was saying.
"Are we... the others soon? ...see you... then... -chan," he whispered softly.
She gasped and stepped back, motioning furiously for her younger sibling to do the same as Gaara woke up.
Once they were outside the room, the door was shut tightly and Temari repeated to Kankuro what she had heard.
"Gaara asked someone if, if they were doing something with others soon, and then said that he would see them..."
"That's not so bad is it?" Kankuro replied curiously.
"No but he also said 'chan'," Temari answered nervously.
(For any unaccustomed to the ways of Japanese, 'chan' is a suffix used after a name that refers to a close female friend or sister)
"Ok... Maybe we should watch out for the next couple of days," he said, backtracking quickly to the kitchen. He liked the kitchen. Currently there were no freaky and/or scary siblings hiding in it.
With a roll of her eyes, Temari strode off towards the kitchen as well, hoping for some pancakes.
Well, there went Kankuro's safe haven.
Naruto opened her eyes, blinking as she yawned.
Damnit! She had got so caught up in chatting to the jinchuuriki (mainly her green haired friend Fu) that she had forgotten to recharge with actual sleep. Normally she survived on the three hours gained between 6 and 9, when there was enough time to get ready before Kakashi arrived.
Although it was currently nine thirty.
Or not, as it turned out. It was eleven thirty (at least by the time she made an appearance at training ground 7 it was) and she had a very irritated team waiting for her.
"NARUTO!" Her kind and loving fellow kunoichi yelled and bumped Naruto fiercely on the head.
"Humph. Dobe," The reaction of her uncaring second teammate.
"Naruto, Naruto, must we go back to basics here? I'm sure the first year academy would love to have you with them learning how to read a clock as it appears that you have forgotten how it is done,"
"Hai sensei," she replied, lost in a bubble of her own thoughts.
The bubble remained there for the entire day, giving the others the impression that she wasn't all there today. Quite rightly too. Half of her mind had gone dreaming to a place with Gaara, and the occasional appearance of Fu.
Happy days.
Kakashi noticed that the daydream was apparent throughout the entire day, but didn't know what to do about it.
Poking didn't work.
Ignoring it didn't work.
Bashing him on the head (courtesy of Sakura) didn't work.
So Kakashi tried the last option that he could think of.
The Sandaime Hokage was having a peaceful day, reading a little oran- no, doing all of his paper book (whilst his secretary ignored the giggles that drifted out from underneath the door) when crash Naruto came flying in. Literally.
"Naruto! Why is there a hole in my roof?"
The culprit scratched his head and replied
"I don't know. I guess Kaka-sensei felt like it," Oh. So Kakashi was responsible for this? But what was he doing there?
A sharp rap of knuckles on the door prompted him to call out
"Come in!" and in entered the silver haired jounin himself.
"Ah, Kakashi. I hope that you can explain why Naruto came falling through my ceiling,"
Uh oh he thought.
"Well you see, I was crossing the road when I saw a bright orange thing chasing Tora the cat, and so I stepped in to save the poor little cat and all of a sudden the orange thing disappeared,"
Sandaime sighed, then laughed a bit at the excuse. However, peering closer at the man he saw the ANBU hand signs that meant Kakashi needed to talk in private. Raising an eyebrow curiously, he turned to the 'bright orange thing' (thing! Thing indeed Naruto thought crossly) and said
"Well, it's okay. It'll be your mission tomorrow to clean it up. Go on, my boy, I'll sort out the rest of this mission with your sensei,"
"Hai, hai jiji! I'm gone, see?" and true to her word, Naruto ran off, out of sight of the men.
Naruto cautiously flew back to the room and landed on the door frame. Silly people, underestimating her. Just because she acted like an idiot!
"Kit..."
"Fine," ok, that might be a pretty good reason. But still!
The second she had been ordered out of the room so that the men could talk (of course she had noticed the hand signs- she had grown up with ANBU all around her after all) Kyuubi had suggested that she henge into a fly and come back again.
Naruto had done just so, since it was better than her 'walk on the ceiling in an invisible genjutsu' that any chuunin could notice.
Enhancing her ears with chakra, the bluebottle called Naruto listened.
"-ruto, Hokage-sama," came the deep voice of Kakashi.
"Go on then. Is there something I need to know about him?" replied the Hokage. Naruto grinned a little- people of Konoha were really bad at... how to put it...
"Seeing underneath the underneath, as that 'sensei' of yours would say," Kyuubi answered. Naruto could just hear the grin in her voice as she smiled back and continued listening.
"He appears to live life in a day dream for part of the time. It's weird, but it's a bit like Naruto's listening but not really paying attention to the world around him. He was also laughing a lot when the mission about Tora the cat came up yesterday, so it is plausible that he knows,"
"Hmm. In this case, I will have to keep an eye on him. Thank you Kakashi,"
"No problem, Hokage-sama," Naruto heard the squeak of rubber as Kakashi turned towards the door.
"Oh and also... when you touch him it feels a bit off, like... I'm not sure how to explain it. I can feel him, but it somehow seems a bit artificial. Don't take my word on this one though- maybe speak to a few more people about him. I honestly don't know if anyone knows him well enough to know any of these secrets though,"
"I wonder..." were the last words Naruto caught with her ears before being caught in a strong hand. She blinked huge fly eyes at her captor.
It was Kakashi. Ah. This might be a problem.