I own my illustration of Sasuki and I made it this story's cover photo :) Tell me how bad it is because I'm such an amateur :3
As soon as the Naruto, Sasuki, Itachi and Rin arrived at Suna, Itachi immediately said, "Behave yourselves."
Sasuki barely muttered a "Hn," as she started walking off in the direction of which she doesn't know, her sandals digging into the unfamiliar sand.
She was in a bit embarrassing situation as it was. Why? She had been forced into wearing a dress!
Sure, it was fun and all at the festival last night and she was wearing a yukata. but it didn't mean that wearing the yukata was fun and in no sense would it mean that she was going to start wearing such from now on.
Sasuki sighed. She guessed that it can't be helped.
Their first spying assignment was in Suna and as far as they were concerned, the village as strict. They didn't allow random ninja in. Especially those whose identities were questionable. They had to pretend to be civilians.
And apparently, to be a civilian is to wear dresses.
Naruto, who had started to follow Sasuki was in a better situation. He was just wearing the clothes he wore when sleeping. A plain shirt and shorts.
Well, as plain as a bright orange shirt could be.
What ninja would wear such a blinding color?
And then again, Naruto proves his point.
"What better way to act civilian-like than to act un-ninja-like?" he said. Sasuki and Itachi hoped that the color would actually make him less of a ninja more than it will attract unnecessary attention.
Itachi watched as the two walked off. Rin was making gurgling sound, reaching out for them with her chubby arms.
"It's okay, Rin," Itachi told himself more than he told the baby. This was their first spying mission and they didn't even get to graduate academy. He hoped they had a natural affinity for acting. "They'll be fine."
Itachi started heading off into the opposite direction of where the two went.
"Hey, there's a park over there," Naruto pointed to an isolated area. "Let's go, dattebayo!"
"We are on a mission, Naruto," Sasuki pulled his back and hissed into his ears.
"Ne, Sasuki," Naruto turned to face her. "If Ero-sennin didn't see anything here, what makes you think we would?"
Sasuki was stunned for a moment. Naruto actually made sense. Did the sannin actually just sent them here for nothing?
"Maybe it's training," Naruto answered her unspoken question. "Now, come on, dattebayo!"
Naruto held her hand and pulled her towards the park.
As soon as they got there, a head of red made its way to their line of sight. It was another kid.
"So, it's not so empty, after all," Naruto said as he bounded towards the other child.
"Hello!" Naruto said loudly as he neared the swing set where the child was sitting quietly. Sasuki noticed that Naruto didn't mention his name.
"Go away," the redhead answered without looking up. The words didn't hold the hurtful tone it should have had. Instead, it was laced with sadness.
That, however, made no impact on the pride of a certain Uchiha.
"I don't think you can make us go away," Sasuki told the boy coldly.
"Sasuki," Naruto whispered reprimandingly.
"Just...," the other kid said silently. "Just leave me alone."
"Make me," Sasuki knew she was going to regret this rare show of impulsiveness. But it was impulsiveness and she couldn't really stop it.
The redhead looked up at her to reveal thick dark lines around his eyes. Even though his face showed an angry expression, his pale green eyes reflected sadness.
"Don't look at me like that," he said.
"Look at you like what?" Sasuki challenged.
"Like that," the redhead stood up and showed that he was a few inches shorter than the other two. "I hate it when people look at me like that,"
"I kill the people who look at me like that," he finished as the sand beneath his feet started to shift.
Suddenly, sand was flying through the air towards Sasuki. She got over her initial shock and could barely move aside to dodge the fast-moving particles.
Sasuki pulled out a kunai from beneath the skirt of her dress and tried to counter the sand. When it proved futile, she dodged another wave of sand and threw the projectile towards the other kid.
Who knew her impulsiveness would lead to this? Then, again, who would have thought a kid sitting on a swing was this skilled.
'Sorry, Nii-san,' she thought as she remembered his latest words: 'Behave yourselves.'
The kunai didn't even get three inches of its target as sand blocked it. Sasuki was too focused on the kunai that she didn't see the oncoming sand that made its way towards her. It was too late to dodge.
She braced herself for the impact but she only heard something else hit the ground.
She opened her eyes to see that Naruto was sprawled on the ground with his eyes closed, blood dribbling down his chin and onto the sand around him that seemingly looked like a hand trying to choke what life remains in of him.
Sasuki immediately ran towards his unconscious and not breathing form. The other kid watched them silently, looking quite entertained.
"Naruto," she yelled as she tried to shake the sand away. It only seemed to hold on tighter into him as his body was pressed into a smaller and smaller figure.
Sasuki felt a burning sensation behind her nose, a sure sign that she was going to cry soon.
But the redhead watching them saw something entirely different. To him, not a tear was forming on the girl's eyes. Instead, the blackness of her irises changed into a glowing red and on them formed a ring with three misshapen dots. No. Three tomoe.
Sasuki stood up faster than the redhead could have seen and soon, she was behind him, forming hand seals.
Had it not been for the boy's automatic defense, he would have been burned alive what with the famous Uchiha fireball jutsu.
The redhead sent another wave of sand towards the girl who was sprinting at an impossible pace but she dodged out-of-the-way easily.
She made another sent of hand seals and threw a few kunai, which soon were burning. The sand swatted the flaming kunai before they reached him. The kunai burned everything they made contact with.
Exchanges of blows happened repeatedly and soon, dust and smoke was rising in the surrounding air.
"So," a dark menacing voice echoed around Naruto. "You've finally come to see me. Brat."
Naruto sat up slowly and realized that he had been lying on water. Ironically, no part of him got soaked.
"You seem a lot more talkative the whole time I watched you from here," the voice boomed.
Naruto looked up to see piercing red eyes from behind metal bars that never ended.
"Speak, brat," the voice commanded. "Your friend is going to tire out soon. Unlike you and Shukaku's container, her chakra reserves are average."
"Sasuki?" Naruto finally spoke.
"Yes, the Uchiha brat," the voice answered. "You should be dead but I won't let my container prove weaker than that of Shukaku's. I have more tails than him. Saving her, however, is not for me to do."
"You saved me?"
"I told you I won't lose to that tanuki," the voice angrily bellowed. "Are you going to wake up or not?"
"Sasuki," Naruto rose from the sand that lay unmoving around him. "Stop."
Sasuki immediately looked for the source of the voice, forgetting of her current fight.
Naruto was immediately in front her, red... Is that chakra emanating from him? His arms were opened wide as he face the oncoming attack of the redhead.
The sand barely hit him as it disintegrated when it reached the chakra covering him.
Looking closely, Sasuki saw a... tail of the same energy behind Naruto.
"Hey," Naruto's voice woke Sasuki up from her confusion. "You have a monster in you, too."
The redhead seemed just as confused as Sasuki.
"You're just like me, dattebayo," the blond started walking towards him. "I know how you feel."
"Don't go near me," the redhead said silently, no trace of threatening in his voice.
"You don't like people looking at you like you're the monster. Like its all your fault, I know. But those are only the people who don't know you. But that's exactly why. You don't have to kill them. Just prove them wrong. Prove that you're not the monster they think you are."
"But I am a monster," the redhead whimpered as he sat into a fetal position.
"Does that make me a monster, too?" Naruto asked as he neared the boy, the red chakra around him slowly disappitating. "Do you think I am a monster?"
"You don't understand. My own mother didn't want me. My uncle, he-he tried to kill me."
"Do you really believe that?" Naruto sat down beside the redhead.
"He told me," he answered with doubt.
"Did you feel like it?"
The redhead looked up to see the boy staring straight into the sky.
"Didn't you ever feel warm and safe whenever you think of them? My Kaa-san said that if I feel like that, then it means that she's still beside me. It's been over a year since she and Tou-san died but I still feel their love. Didn't you ever feel it?"
The smaller boy thought deeply of the words that the blond said. He did feel warmth whenever his uncle told him about his mother. And he felt it too when it was just his uncle and him.
He looked back up at the blond beside him. No one has ever sat this close to him. Did he really not think of him as a monster?
Itachi saw the dust and smoke rising from the direction Sasuki and Naruto took.
He noticed a few of the shopkeepers gossiping about the monster probably taking his anger out somewhere. There were also a few ninja jumping from roof to roof towards the direction of the disturbance.
He had a bad feeling about this.
He walked quickly towards a dark alley and continued on his way towards the smoke in the shadows.
Rin suddenly awake, said, "Tachi."
Itachi's eyes widened at the baby's first word. What a situation for her first milestone.
"Yes?" Itachi decided to humor her while speeding towards their destination.
Rin just reached out to the direction of where they were going.
"I know," Itachi said as he picked up on his pace.
'Even Rin is worried,' he thought.
When they reached the park where Sasuki and Naruto was, Itachi was even more shocked.
Not one of the ninja he saw earlier was present. And instead of a fight, he saw Sasuki just standing and Naruto sitting close to a boy who was younger than both of them.
"That's Itachi-nii," Naruto pointed at him. "And that's Rin."
Naruto quickly stood and helped the redhead beside him up. Then he led the both of them towards Itachi and the baby.
"Isn't she beautiful, dattebayo?" Naruto cooed.
Itachi hesitated before handing Rin to Naruto. If Naruto trusted this boy then why should he not? Still the thoughts of what smoke he saw earlier lingered.
Smoke only meant one thing.
"Sasuki," he called. "What happened?"
"Ne, Itachi-nii," Naruto interrupted before Sasuki could even answer. "Could we take Gaara with us? No one here loves him any more. He's strong, too, dattebayo."
'Gaara?' Itachi thought.
"He's just like me, Itachi-nii," Naruto followed up.
Realization came to Itachi. And he also sensed ninja nearing.
'The boy is a jinchuuriki.'
One jinchuuriki is hard enough when he starts to use the beast's power.
But it seems that this Gaara had taken a friendship with Naruto. Knowing a jinchuuriki's fragile and unstable emotions, if Naruto leaves without him, he might attack them out of rampage.
And who knows what Suna would do if they learn that they were ninjas infiltrating their village? And missing-nin at that.
Perhaps if they let Gaara join them, he do them great help escaping.
Sure, Suna would feel badly to lose such power. But they could have seen him as a threat, too. If what has been said is true, then Suna might even just let them leave freely.
A million different pros and cons rushed through Itachi's mind.
He would have opted to weigh each one but he knew he should think quickly before the other ninja reach them.
"Tell me more," Gaara asked of Naruto. His Suna scarf was flowing behind him as he leapt from tree to tree. He should get rid of these clothing soon. It was far too distinguishable.
He had been travelling for days with Naruto, Sasuke, Rin and the older boy who he had decided to call Itachi-nii as well.
He had never been allowed out of Suna before. This was the most fun he had since the day he was born, perhaps the only fun he's ever had.
And during this period of just running away from what he used to call home, Gaara went through remarkable change.
He was still quiet, opting to say as few words as possible. But he was undeniably a lot less gloomy and depressed.
"I've no more stories to tell, dattebayo," Naruto whined jokingly. He had been the one narrating what stuff they had gone through.
Hearing each, Gaara felt like he was there. Like he was really part of this family. No, he felt that this was family.
Yes, Sasuki and Itachi were still a bit reserved, but they did trust him. He felt it. And he trusts them as well.
"I have a story," Itachi suddenly spoke up and all eyes were instantly on him. He looked down at the redhead in his arms. "Rather, Rin has. Now, do you not?"
"Tachi," Rin said with giggles.
"Aww man," Naruto said hen he got over the surprise. "I wanted her to say my name first, dattebayo."
"Only seems logical for her to say Nii-san's name first," Sasuki said. "He's the one who holds her most."
"Well then, hand her to me," Naruto ordered. "I'm holding her from now on, dattebayo!"
"Naruto," Gaara called. "Don't you think I look more like her siblng than you do? What with the shade of hair that we share..."
"Gaara!" Naruto yelled. "You know her a few days and you go say things like that?"
The bickering continued for a few more hours and even Sasuki and Itachi joined at times.
'This never happened back in Suna,' Gaara thought. 'Not even my siblings were allowed near me.'
Then, Gaara stopped thinking about his past. That part of his life was over now.
He should stop thinking about that. Why would he if it only wasted what joking and laughs he could have with his new siblings?
He would never trade this for the world. This was far more precious. He never felt more happy.
Gaara never felt more alive.
Yay for procrastination!
I just wanted to thank everyone so much for reviewing especially those who suggest things. You make my imagination run wild with ideas. :)
Wow. Two chapter in two days, huh? I'm bad.
Anyway, please tell me what you think... Was I too fast with Gaara joining them? It was only a year after Gaara killed his uncle. So less blood spilled, less trauma.
Also with the image I drew of Sasuki. First time guys. :
Please Review~