Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
A/N: I am SO Sorry for the LATE upload. I was counting on uploading like a week a go or something. I haven't however. Why you might ask. Well because when I went home from my dad's place after New Year's Eve I accidentally forgot my memory stick which carries the story b. Not good in other words. It's still over there, but my wonderful cousin who had up till chapter 13 on her computer send me those three chapters I were missing on my computer :D
So here are chapter 11
Chapter 11: Kazekage, the Ichibii
They got away quickly after Naruto had finished packing. They traveled quietly the rest of the day trying to keep a high pace. Right after noon they reached the desert. They continued through the hot and dry desert for hours. When dawn came and they didn't even see Suna at the horizon despite the flat landscape, Shino started to become a little worried. He didn't feel like having to camp in the desert because he felt like sleeping in town just because he wanted to have a private walk with Rin.
"Hey Hinata-chan, you see anything?" he asked Hinata. Even though the Byakugan might have been for short distance she still yet saw a little bit further then the rest of them.
"I'll check"she replied before she said Byakugan and looked a head of them. She did however not see any town at the horizon.
"No I'm sorry Shino-kun" she said with a sad voice. "No, wait a minute" she then said with more hope in her voice. As the wind blew further some air borne sand had moved and revieled something on the horizon.
"It's there, it's still very far away but I can see it" she then exclaimed happily.
"Good, then let's hurry so we get there sometime" Shino then said before they hurried of.
Soon before nightfall when they walked over a smaller hilltop they could see the town clearly. The big walls that reached far up towards the sky. The narrow opening in to town. They still had a long way there, but now they could see more than just a dot at the horizon.
They reached the town one hour after nightfall. They were stopped by the gateguards.
"Who are you and what are your business in town?" One of the men asked.
"We are from Konoha and are here to stay the night. It was actually your Kazekage who offered it when he heard we had a mission close to Suna" Shino said as he reached the man who had talked a scroll. The man opened the scroll and looked at it. He nodded a little bit at it before he closed it and handed it back to Shino.
"It looks good. Please report to the Kazekage's office so they know that you are in town for a while" he said before he went back to his vantage-point.
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They walked through the dark town towards the center of it. After a while they saw a big building in the middle, they guessed it was the Kazekage's office. When they entered the building it was dark and empty save a man sitting at a desk lit up by a small lamp. When the door opened he looked up and was quite shocked to see so many come in at this hour. Even if it wasn't that late it still was after nightfall. It had almost been empty in the streets when he walked from home, it really should be by now. The six teenagers and the dog walked up to the desk. As they got closer he noticed that all of them wore konoha-forehead protectors. He stood up at the sight of them.
"The Kazekage is waiting for you" he said without waiting for them to say anything. He walked around the desk and started to walk towards the Kazekage's office expecting them to follow.
"Do you know who we are?" Naruto asked the man walking in front of them.
"Of course, I saw your headbands. The Kazekage has been waiting for you quite some time today. You really did take your time didn't you?" The man replied without stopping or turning towards them.
Pretty soon even Shino started to wonder if they were in a genjutsu or something, could there possibly be so many stairs in one building? Not even the Hokage building had those many, still yet this house that was that just as big was able to contain that many stairs.
After surely the 50th stairs that they had thought 'This have to be the last one' they finally came to a stop at a door. The man knocked at the door.
"The Konoha-nins have arrived Kazekage-sama" he said through the door.
"Let them in" came a monotone voice from within the door. Naruto reacted to it, he thought he recognised that voice.
The man opened the door and entered the room. It looked almost the same as the Hokage's office with a few differences. At the other side of the desk a red headed boy in their age was sitting. He looked at them with turquoise eyes.
"Gaara?" Naruto asked him surprised as he pointed towards the red head.
"Hai, Naruto-kun" he said in a monotone voice. Naruto looked suspiciosly at him not dropping his pointing finger.
"W-what are y-you d-doing in that chair?" he asked him. "Don't tell me you're the Kazekage" he then added.
"Well actually I am. And don't you know that it's impolite to point?" he said to Naruto, growing an almost unnoticable smirk at the ending. Naruto seemed to realize then that he had been pointing towards Gaara all this time. He shook his hand fiecerly a while before he snapped it behind his neck and started to laugh little nervously.
"Ah, gomen Gaara" he said. The man who had showed them the way trough the stair-filled building looked shocked at the boy for his seemingly lack of respect to the Kazekage. He didn't even present him as sama, only by his firstname without any suffix at all.
"It's all right. So, you really did take your time getting here, didn't you?" Gaara then asked them repeating what the man had said earlier.
"That is my fault Gaara-sama. Yesterday we found an almost perfect place to camp. So I decided that we should stay there despite the fact that it actually was too early to do so" Shino now put in.
"Hai" Gaara said as he nodded to Shino. "Aburame Shino, wasn't it?" he then asked him.
"Hai, you've got a good memory there Gaara-sama" Shino said to him.
"Hey, this is Rin-chan" Naruto then put in motioning towards the red headed girl. Gaara looked over at her. She bowed deeply to him as she spoke.
"Kizume Rin, it's pleasure to meat you Kazekage-sama"
"It's nice to meat you too Rin" Gaara said.
"Now I guess you want to sleep after the long day of traveling" he said as he stood up.
"Taiki-san, please show them where they are to sleep" he then said to the man.
"Hai" Taiki said as he bowed to Gaara and went out the room once again expecting them to just follow. They started to walk after him. Naruto didn't move however. When Rin started to walk after Shino he stopped her by grabbing her arm. She looked at him slightly surprised.
"Wait a minute Rin-chan" was all he said before he let go. Gaara who understood that it was about something Naruto wanted to speak in private about waited to ask him about it until the door closed.
"What is it that you want Naruto?" Gaara asked him sitting down once again.
"It's about Rin here" Naruto said.
"Okay, so what about you?" Gaara then asked now turning towards the girl. Rin looked confused at Naruto.
"What are you talking about Teinousha?" she asked the blonde boy. Naruto looked at her and then back at Gaara.
"She's also a Jinchuuriki. She's the container of hachibi" Naruto then said to Gaara explaining himself. Rin looked shocked and angry at him, how did he dare to tell her secret to somebody else. Gaara looked shocked at the girl.
"Really?" he asked them. The Kazekage stood up and rounded the desk.
"How did you find her?" Gaara asked Naruto.
"It's actually quite a long story that I maybe should tell you tomorrow instead" Naruto said to him. Rin still hadn't said anything but just looked at Naruto. Naruto looked back at her now.
"Gaara is the Ichibi" he said as an explaination to him telling Gaara about her. She looked back at the Kazekage shocked.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier that you knew another Jinchuuriki?" she asked Naruto after a while.
"You didn't tell her that?" Gaara asked the blonde boy. Naruto just shook his head.
"Thanks" was all Gaara said as a small smile entered his face. Naruto just smiled back one of his rarely seen true smiles. He knew Gaara didn't like people's first imprecssion of him to be that he was a Jinchuuriki.
"So, Kazekage-sama you're" Rin started.
"Please, Gaara" The Kazekage interupted her.
"Hai, Gaara-sama, sorry for asking but how come you're a Jinchuuriki and still yet the Kazekage?" she then asked him.
"Well..."
After their talk with Gaara Taiki showed them to their sleeping places. In difference to the hostel the night before there now where one room for the guys and one for the girls, and a bed for all of them. No sleeping on the floor here.
Rin had been expecting questions about what she and Naruto had done. What she hadn't expacted however was Sakura practically jumping her when she entered and eagerily asking her.
"Now, when the guys are not around tell me how it was!"
"How what was?" Rin asked the girl nervously.
"Kissing Shino-kun of course" Sakura said as if it had been obvious it was what she had meant.
"Ow" Rin said feeling her face heat up slightly. She found it quite suprising, ususally she never blushed or found something embarassing.
"Well, I guess it was ... good?" she said a little unsure in an almost asking tone.
"Aren't you sure how it felt?" she heard Hinata ask her from one of the beds. Some way Hinata had gained enough confidence in her surprise that she managed to ask it sounding quite confident.
"Well, of course I know how it felt. I just don't know how to explain it" Rin said sounding a little irritated, still yet she blushed a little bit more at Hinata's question.
"Hey, I was wondering. How about the bugs?" Sakura then asked her sounding curious.
"What about them?" Rin asked her a little confused.
"You didn't notice them?" Sakura then asked her.
"No, was I supposse to?" Rin asked her back still yet wondering a little bit what she meant.
"No, I was just wondering" Sakura said as she waved her hands in front of her not wanting to explain more because of fright to upset Rin about her choice of boy.
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"What were you doing?" Kiba asked as Naruto entered their room.
"I was just talking a little bit more with Gaara" he said simply as he went over to the only empty bed in the room. Happy for not having to sleep on the floor another night. It was far worse than sleeping in a tent in the forest.
"Sooo, was it the first time?" Kiba then asked him with a tone that worried Naruto to no end.
"What do you mean first time?" he asked him suspisciosly.
"With Hinata" Kiba said in the same tone. Shino's head snapped up from his bag which he stood leaned over.
"What did he do to Hinata?" Shino asked Kiba. Kiba looked a little bit at Shino and snickered. He looked back at Naruto before he explained.
"Yesterday, when I went to search for them I found them standing huddled up together their faces inches apart" he said with a huge smirk on his face. Shino's head snapped from Kiba to Naruto quickly.
"Nani? They were kissing?" he asked Kiba as he looked at Naruto.
"No, I think I interupted them before they could. Then we don't know if it was the first time it happened" Kiba said with the same huge smirk. By now Naruto blushed like crazy.
"Sooo, was it the first time or not?" Kiba then asked him once again.
Naruto mumbled something incomprehensible.
"I can't hear ya" Kiba said.
"It was the first time" Naruto said a little too loudly souding greivly irritated.
"And you interupted us you idiot" Naruto then said to Kiba. Kiba just snickered some more.
"Well, I guess I should be sorry for doing that" he then said still yet wearing the stupid smirk.
"Yeah you should" Naruto mumbled sourly as he started to unpack some of his bag. Kiba just snickered some more before he did the same.
During the forenoon the next day Taiki came and asked Naruto and Rin to come with him to the Kazekage's office. When they entered the room Gaara asked them to sit down.
"So, how did you meet Rin Naruto?" Gaara then asked when Taiki had left the room.
"Well, as you might know I have been away for almost three years on a training trip with Jiraiya" Naruto started. "Then one and a half year ago maybe Jiraiya snapped up something about a Jinchuuriki during his research. Usually he doesn't hear anything about Jinchuurikis, we aren't that usual as you know" Naruto then continuned.
"Yeah I know" Gaara put in.
"Yeah, well he also heard that this one didn't live anywhere. Who ever it was the person didn't belong anywhere. Not like we didn't belong when we were kids. She didn't belong to any village, nor any clan or anything. So we decided to seek this Junchuuriki up. It would hopefully prevent Akatsuki from getting to it. After about six months we meet Rin in a large town, which we actually originally entered to gather some more info on her. At first she didn't trust us obviously, but after like a month or something she finally agreed to come with us" Naruto then explained further.
"A month?" Gaara asked him.
"Yeah, actually she didn't trust us until she saw me lose control over Kyuubi because she wouldn't trust us" Naruto said as he scratched the back of his neck awkardly.
"You started to trust them when you saw him lose control?" Gaara asked her.
"Yeah, that was when I knew that he didn't lie when he said that he was a Jinchuuriki" she explained herself.
"Oh, well that actually makes sense" Gaara then said.
After Rin had told Gaara about her history and he had told her his Rin and Naruto went out to find their friends. Gaara on the other hand had to go back to working.
They found them in one of the restaurants after a while. They were sitting at the window as usual. They walked up to their table and sat down. Rin sat down next to Shino and Naruto took the last empty chair next to Hinata.
Rin now remembered Sakura's question about the bugs the earlier evening. She decided to tease the girl a little bit. She bent over towards Shino and put her hand at the back of his neck. She engulfed him in a deep passionate kiss. As she did so she also concentrated some chakra in to her tongue. She almost immediately felt the bugs come in to her mouth instinctively. She also felt Shino fighting for them to go back. She then stopped concentrating chakra but made shure that one of the bugs still yet stayed in her mouth. When they broke apart she could feel the other's gazes on them. That was when she released the bug, she could feel it fly away from her lips towards Shino. She looked a little bit at Sakura, she could she the shocked and almost disgusted look that the pink haired girl tried to hide. The other one's had just as must shock, but those who also looked with disgust didn't look with nearly as much as Sakura. Therefore they also did a better job hiding it.
When they had finished eating they went back to their rooms in the Hokage building. When they reached the rooms they saw Kakashi and Kurenai standing outside of them waiting for them. When they came walking down the corridor Kakashi removed himself from the wall without looking up from his Itchi Itchi book. He stopped in front of them holding up a hand as a sign for them to wait. After a while he put away the book.
"Yo" he said as he did his usual greeting.
"So, you ready to continue the mission?" Kurenai then asked them from her place at the wall.
"We can get going any minute we want to, we have already talked to the Kazekage" Kakashi then said.
"So, when are we going then?" Shino asked them.
"As soon as you have finished packing. Apperently the situation is a little worse then we thought so we can't stay here another night" Kakashi then said.
"Hai" they all said before they went in to their rooms to pack their stuff again.
A/N: Hope you liked it! Once again so sorry for the late upload!!! Please review anyway!
If you think it's weird that Naruto gets so surprised about Gaara being the Kazekage, then please remember the fact that this story begins at the same time as Shippuuden, which means that he doesn't know of that when it begins.