NARUTO: THE SECRET SONGS OF THE NINJA.
Disclaimer: Look over there! A three-headed monkey!
################
Chapter 11- The Song of the Desert Wind.
"Well, I'd say that turned out about as well as we could have hoped!" Jiraiya's face was beaming as he raised his sake cup, toasting the table. "Gaara learned a valuable life lesson, the demons were left sealed in their prisons, and no-one was too badly hurt." Kakashi, Guy and Baki all nodded as they lifted their own cups. Naruto, Gaara and Temari had all been hospitalised thanks to the assorted injuries the Kyuubi had inflicted on the Sand Siblings (and Naruto's own overuse of the fox's power had in turn inflicted on him), but while Temari would have her arm in a sling for a week at least, even with medical ninjutsu speeding her recuperation, the other two were recovering with startling rapidity. Even more remarkably, Gaara's actions after the fight had suggested shockingly uncharacteristic concern for his sister's welfare. While his behaviour may have seemed normal to the Konoha jounin, especially after Temari had risked her life to protect him from the rage of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, as someone who had known him for years Baki was fully aware of how unprecedented this was.
The Sand jounin sipped his sake thoughtfully. "As you say, Jiraiya-san." He put his cup down on the table in front of him and folded his hands together. "You said, Kakashi-san, that your team were away from Konoha at... the time of our attack. I can't help but wonder how differently things might have turned out if you had been present."
Jiraiya and Guy exchanged questioning looks, but Kakashi merely sipped his drink calmly. "Hmm... to be honest, probably not that different. Naruto only gained access to the power of the Kyuubi thanks to the rather desperate situation we found ourselves in while we were away. It's an interesting story, although not exactly a pleasant one." Guy's cup was empty as well, so Kakashi refilled it from the small ceramic jar that was still half-full of the steaming alcohol and his old friend returned the favour. "Anyway, that's all water under the bridge now. If we weren't going to put the past behind us, we wouldn't even be sitting here now."
Baki nodded gravely. "Indeed, and we're exceedingly grateful for your understanding." He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "That said, I still have to repeat how sorry we are for what happened. The folly of our Kazekage is something I doubt we'll ever be able to live down, but we'll do what we can to make it up to you."
Jiraiya drained his cup and poured himself another measure of the hot sake. "Well, the reparations you've offered us will certainly get us back on feet much more quickly." In truth, it was considerably less than he'd hoped, but before this conversation with Baki the Konoha ninja had been unaware of the financial difficulties plaguing Suna that had driven them to betray their allies in the first place. He wondered if their plan to make the Wind Country Daimyo rethink his reliance on foreign ninja would be successful, and privately hoped it would- it was terrible to think that the massive losses both Leaf and Sand had sustained had could all end up having been for nothing. "Guy and his team will return home with them ahead of us tomorrow. I'll stay here with Kakashi's team for another day or two, so Naruto can have a bit more time to recover."
"That's not a problem," Baki assured him. "You're welcome here for as long as necessary." He raised his cup high. "To our future cooperation!"
The other three men all joined him in his toast.
oooOOOooo
Once their little get-together had finished, Kakashi and Guy strolled down the corridor that led to the guest quarters the Konoha group had been granted for the duration of their stay. Jiraiya had gone off on his own to discuss something with one of Suna's elders, so the two old friends took a moment to talk just between themselves.
"So Guy, now we seem to have some breathing room, there was a little favour I was meaning to ask you," Kakashi said.
The Sublime Green Beast of Konoha raised one of his brick-thick eyebrows. "Oh? It's exceedingly rare that you would look beyond our rivalry to seek a favour from me, Kakashi! I can't wait to hear what it might be!"
The masked ninja sighed inwardly. The "rivalry" that Guy always made such a big deal about was strictly one-sided. The man was difficult to understand and somewhat of an embarrassment to be with sometimes, but Kakashi would have been happy to be his friend as long as he was able to deny it in front of his students. But the rivalry seemed to make Guy so happy (especially when he was ahead in wins) that Kakashi didn't have the heart to just tell him he'd had enough. "Well... it's concerning Keiji."
"Your new student, the older boy?"
Kakashi nodded. "That's him. You know about his eyes, right? His terrible depth perception at short distances handicaps him a lot. He can get by in day-to-day life, but his taijutsu is terrible, and I'm concerned about what would happen if he was forced into hand-to-hand in a deadly combat situation. I've been thinking about how best to help him overcome his disadvantage for a while now, but I don't think this is my field of specialty."
Guy's face took on a grim look. "Oh yes. I recall I once discussed the boy with Hagimura-sensei after we each took up leadership of our teams last year. He told me he was training his team to work together in a combat scenario so Keiji-kun would be kept at the back of the formation to provide covering fire for his two teammates." The bowl-haired jounin shook his head. "While teamwork is a marvellous trait to ingrain in your students, I warned him that he was accommodating Keiji-kun's weakness rather than helping him to overcome it, which would limit the boy's growth. He didn't listen, but it wasn't too long after that his team had that tragic encounter."
"Keiji is rather too specialised for my liking," Kakashi agreed. "Having one thing you're really good at is all very well, but there are some fundamentals that can't be overlooked. You'd know that better than anyone, Guy- you may be Konoha's greatest taijutsu master, but even you have basic competence in ninjutsu and genjutsu techniques. Someone who can't at least display basic competence in all three can't possibly succeed as a ninja."
To Kakashi's surprise, the other man stopped dead in his tracks. "Eh..." Guy coughed awkwardly. "Well... now that you mention it... I haven't told you much about my dear Lee, have I?"
oooOOOooo
"Huh." Kakashi struggled to come up with a more profound response, but Guy's little story had somewhat nonplussed him. A ninja with no ninjutsu or genjutsu? He wouldn't have believed it possible, but apparently Guy's protégé had reached the finals of the Chuunin exams and even survived the hellish battle that had come after. And if there was one man who would simply defy the impossible until the impossible just gave up and let him win then... well, it was probably Naruto actually, but if there was another it was Guy. Kakashi made a mental note to try and see Rock Lee in action for himself when he had the chance. However, this really was getting away from the point and he shrugged. "OK, so it makes sense that you can train a strong ninja who's only capable of using taijutsu. If it's you teaching him then I'm sure he can make it work. But even if that kind of focus works for Lee, I don't think it's good for Keiji to have effectively no taijutsu, even if only enough for basic self-defence. So I was wondering if there was anything you might be able to do to help him?"
The other man pondered for a moment, then his face split in a brilliant shiny smile. "Kakashi, I'm delighted that you've come to me for this! I think I have just the thing you need to help Keiji-kun deal with his issues, and with your agreement we can start tomorrow." The two of them resumed their stroll towards their quarters as Guy continued. "Since your team will be remaining here for another few days, I'd like to take Keiji-kun with me and begin training him immediately. I'll leave Tenten here with you in his place- her abilities are quite similar to his, so she should be able to fill in for him quite well while he's gone, and I think the poor girl could do with an extra day of rest." The ever-energetic jounin sighed. "Her youth burns as brightly as any of my students... but I admit I've been pushing her extremely hard over the last week, and her training is focused more on her weapon skills than the kind of physical strength and endurance that Lee and myself concentrate on. She's handled it well, but I think she's earned a brief respite."
"Fair enough," Kakashi agreed. "We shouldn't be getting into any kind of trouble on our own on the way back -and even if we do, we'll have Jiraiya-sama with us- but I'll look after your girl for you. Thanks for helping me with this, Guy."
His old friend gave him his classic thumbs-up pose, smiling teeth glinting even in the half-light of the dimly-lit corridor. "Not a problem, my dear rival! I look forward to seeing how I can help stoke the fires of your pupil's youth! And in return, I hope you could spare me the time for our next contest once we return to the Fortress."
Kakashi groaned inwardly.
oooOOOooo
"...so that's how it is," Guy finished explaining to his students the next morning. "Tenten will remain here the rest of Team 7 and Jiraiya-sama, and we'll depart for home as soon as Keiji-kun joins us." Their teacher already had three large satchels sitting at his feet, loaded with the money Suna had given them in reparations.
Tenten contemplated his words. Although her sensei hadn't elaborated on why she'd been chosen to take Keiji's place on Team 7 until the return to the Fortress, it was a massive gift for her. She'd already flipped her lid once when told that, after running from the Fortress to Suna and back again in less than five days, they'd be returning to the Village of Sand again less than a day later; the idea of spending only a single night in Suna before heading home again was appalling and she suspected that Guy-sensei was doing this as a favour to her. Much as she hated Suna and its ninjas for what they'd done to Konoha, the thought of an extra day or two of rest before setting out again was extremely tempting.
And yet...
She hadn't missed the flicker of disappointment that had crossed Hinata's face when Guy had declared that their team would be returning to the Fortress ahead of Team 7, despite the girl's efforts to conceal it. Tenten had only known her newest teammate for a few days, but she could make an educated guess as to why. She hadn't missed the way that Hinata's voice had seemingly stopped the rampage of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, nor the way the younger girl had anxiously hovered around Uzumaki Naruto like a moth fluttering around a candle when his strength had finally given out and he'd allowed himself to collapse. Tenten didn't know whether the two of them had a secret relationship, whether they were just friends, or even if Hinata just had a simple and unspoken crush on the boy, but at the very least her concern for him was obvious.
In the short time she'd known Hinata, Tenten had managed to form a few opinions about her. From the first time she'd seen the young Hyuuga she'd felt sorry for the girl, as she'd watched her teammate Neji, Hinata's own cousin, verbally tear her apart until she'd forfeited rather than fight him in the Chuunin Exam final preliminaries. Maybe Neji had been trying to be cruel to be kind, since Tenten was well aware of how strong he was and how brutally Hinata would have lost if they'd fought, but she couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy as the white-eyed girl had practically folded in on herself. Neji had never talked about his family, but Tenten had gotten the impression that something in his past was the reason for his fatalistic personality. Nevertheless, much as she'd cared for him, she had to admit that Neji could at times be quite a jerk.
When Guy had informed her and Lee that Hinata would be filling the hole Neji had left on the team, Tenten had been torn between rejection of the idea that anyone could ever take his place and relief that, if they had to replace Neji, at least they'd managed to find the only person left who was similar to him. This internal conflict hadn't lasted beyond the end of the second day on the road. Taking the opportunity to get to know Hinata better as the group had crossed the Land of Rivers, Tenten had quickly realised that the girl was nothing like her cousin. The younger Hyuuga was shy, timid, preferred to listen rather than speak and was very reluctant to talk about herself, particularly her abilities as a ninja. Tenten had almost feared that Neji had been correct in his brutal assessment when he'd declared Hinata unsuited to being a ninja, but as she'd coaxed more about herself out of the smaller girl she'd uncovered her true nature. Hearing the story of how she'd gone back to save Uzumaki Naruto, host of the Nine-Tailed Fox, from Orochimaru, Tenten had seen the core of strength within the girl's timid unprepossessing exterior- and when she remembered how Hinata's face had lit up as she described the way Naruto had rescued her from the Sound prison, Tenten could see the obvious connection.
As a good sempai, there was really only one thing Tenten could do here. With an small internal sigh, she raised her hand. Guy gave her a questioning look. "Yes, Tenten?"
"Sensei, if it's not really that important that someone with the same abilities as Keiji replaces him on Team 7, then I'd prefer to stay with you and Lee to help train him," she said. "You know the three of us were all in the academy together, so I know him pretty well, and I wouldn't mind the chance to catch up with him some more. Maybe I can even find some ways he can work shuriken into his taijutsu, like I do." Her aching legs screamed at her, demanding to know what the hell she was thinking, but she ignored them.
Hinata stared at Tenten, her pale eyes wide and shining with hope, while Guy stroked his chin pensively. "Hmm... I guess what you're saying makes sense. But are you sure you're OK with leaving immediately, Tenten? We're not going to rush back to the Fortress, but are you sure you wouldn't prefer the extra days off?"
So she had been right. Ignoring her thighs and calves, which were quietly sobbing in despair, she managed to force a somewhat wobbly grin. "Oh I'm fine, sensei." She raised her hand and pumped her clenched fist with as much enthusiasm as she could fake. "I can still feel the fires of my youth burning strong. Don't worry about me."
Her teacher's face split in a brilliant smile. "Well said, Tenten! Very well then, if you're fine with it and Hinata has no objections, you can come back with us and Keiji-kun, and Hinata can return later with Team 7." He turned enquiringly to his youngest student, who nervously shrank back slightly from his radiant grin. "You don't have any problems with Tenten's suggestion do you, Hinata?" The girl blinked twice and shook her head mutely.
"Yeah!" Lee pumped his fist far more enthusiastically than Tenten had, grinning as widely as his master. "With Tenten, Keiji and me it'll be just like being back in the Academy again, won't it Tenten? I can't wait to show him how much I've improved under Guy-sensei's tutelage since we last trained together!"
"Indeed!" Guy-sensei turned back to his protégé. "And together we'll help him to become stronger and stoke the fires of his youth, the same way I helped you, Lee!"
"Indeed, Guy-sensei!"
"Lee!"
"Guy-sensei!"
"Lee!"
As the two got lost in their own world, Tenten glanced across at Hinata. While she was, somewhat unsurprisingly, staring at the befuddling display in confusion, the older girl could still make out the faint smile playing around Hinata's lips, the tinge of pink on her cheeks. The Hyuuga caught her eye and Tenten winked at her knowingly, causing the blush to deepen.
It was tough being a good sempai sometimes, but it was worth it.
oooOOOooo
Consciousness trickled back to Naruto like someone pouring cold custard into his ear and he shuddered. Everything hurt. It wasn't the broad, throbbing ache of cracked ribs and bruised muscles that had assailed him when he'd woken up after the drubbing he'd received from Orochimaru. Almost every inch of his body burned as if he'd gone skinny dipping in a lake of acid.
At least his memory wasn't fuzzy this time. He clearly remembered how, after Gaara had yielded to him, he'd managed to walk out of the canyon that had been their battlefield and out of sight before the pain and fatigue had become too much and he'd simply keeled over, Kakashi-sensei catching him just before he hit the ground. It didn't surprise him to find himself once again lying in what was presumably a hospital bed, although he was a little surprised at how hard and uncomfortable it was compared with the one he'd been confined to back in the Fortress infirmary. Pulling open his gummed-together eyelids with some difficulty, he found himself staring up at a ceiling of plain red sandstone, with a single bare light bulb hanging from it. Turning his head painfully to the left didn't reveal much except a small, plain wooden cupboard set against the wall, but looking to his right yielded much more pleasant results: Sakura sitting on a similarly plain wooden chair, reading a scroll with her brow furrowed in concentration.
"Sakura-chan." His voiced croaked dryly and the pink-haired girl looked up in surprise. A warm smile spread across her face and, placing the scroll down on the table next to her, she rose to her feet and moved to stand at his side.
"How are you feeling, Naruto?" she asked.
"Terrible," he admitted, licking his dry lips. "How do I look?"
Her mouth quirked. "Terrible. But at least you're not covered in blood now."
Naruto lifted his head to look down at himself. Although the white cotton bedsheet covered his body up to his chest, the arms lying on top of them were heavily bandaged, with more linen wrapped around his chest. As soon as he tried to move his numb arm he became able to feel their pressure, not tight, but firmly pressing against his skin. He experimentally flexed his leg muscles and felt more wrappings around them as well. Sitting up and pulling the sheet back, ignoring the screaming of his flesh, he saw that over half of his entire body had been swathed in bandages. They even went under the boxers that were the only piece of clothing he was still wearing, although he could feel that at least there weren't any compressing his junk, which was some small comfort. He gave Sakura a stunned look. "Wow, I must have been a mess."
She nodded soberly. "Yeah, you were completely soaked in blood. Large patches of your skin had simply evaporated right off your body, you looked like an uncooked hamburger on legs. Fortunately the Suna medic-nin applied some kind of mending salve with the bandages, along with some healing ninjutsu." She smiled. "Apparently you're healing scarily quickly. They checked under the bandage on your right arm about twenty minutes ago and the skin there had mostly regrown already, although they said it'd be best to leave them on for a bit longer."
Naruto let out a relieved breath. "Phew. That's good to hear." He cocked his head to the side as something occurred to him. "Hey, Sakura-chan? How long have I been out?"
"You've been asleep for just over a day," she said. "Suna said they don't mind if we stay for a few days to let you recover. I was wondering if you were going to wake up at all today, actually."
Naruto grinned cheekily. "Aw, were you watching over me while I slept, Sakura-chan? I'm touched."
To his surprise, the pink-haired girl laughed. "Hah, no, I've only been in here for half an hour. It was actually Hinata who was staying with you for most of today- I had to practically force her to go out and getting some fresh air by promising to take her place for a while."
Hinata? Naruto blinked in surprise and felt something jump inside him. "The rest of her team went back this morning," Sakura continued, "and Keiji went with them. Apparently Kakashi-sensei asked Guy-sensei to help train him or something. So Hinata stayed here to take his place until we get home again."
"Uh... OK then." Not quite sure what to say to that, Naruto sat up, swung his legs sideways over the edge of the uncomfortable bed onto the floor, forcing Sakura to step back, and cautiously tried to rise to his feet. He swayed a bit and Sakura caught him gingerly by the elbow, trying to support him without putting too much pressure on any of the bandaged areas but he waved her off and managed to keep his balance. "Uh, where are my clothes anyway?"
"Oh, they're being cleaned and mended," Sakura answered. "They were a total mess. But laundry dries quickly here, so they should be ready soon." She crossed the room to the cupboard and removed a bundle of beige cloth, which she tossed to Naruto. "Here, put this on." It turned out to be a plain yukata, which hung a bit loose on Naruto's short frame but was better than nothing. "You want me to bring you something to eat?"
Naruto stretched his cramped muscles as far as he could, ignoring the cries of pain they gave off with every movement. "Nah, it's OK Sakura-chan. I think I'm fine to walk, so I'll go with you." There was a pair of indoor sandals on the floor next to his feet, which he slipped on easily enough, and the two of them left the room.
The corridor they exited into formed a ring that ran around the outside of one of the largest of the bulb-shaped buildings that made up the centre of Suna- probably the central building they'd met the Council in yesterday. "So how did everyone else come through?" Naruto asked as the two of them walked down the curved passage. The view of Suna visible outside the tiny porthole-like windows that were spaced every few feet along the corridor was uninspiring, just more dusty red buildings as far as the eye could see, until it was abruptly cut off by the enclosing cliff walls at the village's edge. "Uh..." He hesitated for a moment. "Temari didn't look like she was in good shape by the time I... uh, got control again."
"Well no, I'm afraid she's not really," Sakura answered gravely. "The Kyuubi broke her right arm in three places and cracked several of her ribs as well." Naruto winced guiltily. "But don't worry," his teammate assured him, "she's not in any danger. Her brother -Kankurō that is- was just pissed about losing his puppet trying to stop it, he was otherwise untouched. Gaara was in the worst shape by the end- I simply couldn't believe he was able to stand up in front of you like he did, even briefly, and he passed out even before you did. They said he's recovering swiftly, although not as quickly as you." She cast a curious glance in his direction. "It must be a common ability that comes with having a demon sealed in your body. Seems pretty useful to me, although I can see why you're not too crazy about the side effects."
Naruto's initial instinct was to wince at how casually Sakura could talk about the monster that had almost consumed him and destroyed them all- but found, to his surprise, that he didn't really want to. The girl's flippancy regarding the Kyuubi, even after the near-disaster, was actually kind of reassuring. Only a week or so ago she'd been frozen with shocked horror when Orochimaru had spilled Naruto's dark secret to her, but now she was almost able to joke about it already. "Sakura-chan?" he started, then hesitated and his feet slowed, causing him to lag behind Sakura. Should he really...? "Uh... what did you... think about my fight with Gaara?"
The girl stopped dead in front of him and Naruto pulled up short behind her. She didn't turn around, but she seemed to be thinking and Naruto held his breath. "Well," she said, "it was definitely the most terrifying thing I've ever witnessed."
Naruto bit his lip until he could almost taste blood.
Then Sakura spun around, her cherry-pink hair fanning out behind her as she beamed at him. "But I think you were awesome, Naruto! You really stood toe-to-toe with Gaara for as long as you could, and then when the Kyuubi almost took you over you beat it back down again! And that thing you said to Gaara at the end about his family was really cool too."
Naruto's gaped in surprise. Sakura had never complimented him that directly or effusively before. Picking his jaw up, a grin crept across his face. "Yeah, I guess I was pretty cool." The grin widened. "Hell yeah! I was totally awesome! Don't even know what everyone was so worried about, with me on the job there was never anything to be-OUCH!"
Sakura had lunged right up to Naruto, lashed out and... flicked in him on the forehead with one finger. "Don't push your luck, Naruto!" she warned him, an expression halfway between a scowl and a smile on her face. "Just because I thought you could do with a little reassurance doesn't mean you should start getting full of yourself."
The boy rubbed his stinging forehead ruefully and smiled in embarrassment. "Yeah... yeah, OK, sorry. Thanks Sakura-chan."
She winked at him. "No problem, I'm ready to rein you in any time you need it. Come on, let's go get something to eat."
oooOOOooo
Naruto was just finishing off his impromptu lunch when he and Sakura were joined by Jiraiya. It was a rather surprising meal- Naruto didn't know what kind of food he'd been expecting the desert-dwelling inhabitants of Sunagakure to eat, but a tuna sandwich with mayonnaise hadn't been it. Still, he could feel his strength returning with every bite. He'd just swallowed the last crust and was scraping a stray blob of mayonnaise off his plate with one finger when the big white-haired man sat down opposite him in the empty dining hall. "Well boy," he said by way of greeting, "you did it again. I swear you must have the luck of the gods on your side."
Naruto licked the mayonnaise off his finger and gave the older man a withering look. "Don't call it luck, pervert herm-uh, Jiraiya-sama. Come on, can't you give me some credit here?"
Sakura elbowed him in the ribs, making him suck in a pained breath, but Jiraiya just clicked his tongue. "No need to be so sensitive, boy, you know what they say: better lucky than good." He laughed out loud at Naruto's affronted expression. "Hah, don't worry boy, I'm just pulling your leg," he chuckled. "You did good there. You really put on an impressive display against Gaara, and that 'Drilling Claw' technique you used to bust through his sphere- you made that up on the spot by combining your Fox Claws with the basic theory for Rasengan, right? Amazing bit of improvisation, that!" He shook his head in open admiration and Naruto glowered at him, lifting his glass of juice to his mouth. "You gave us more than a bit of a scare at the end, though- thank goodness that little Hyuuga girlfriend of yours was able to bring you out of it."
Naruto rocked backwards in his chair, his face flushing crimson as he nearly choked on his drink. "D-don't call her that, pervert hermit!" he spluttered, coughing. "Hinata's -guh- not my girlfriend! That's-" He cleared his throat and leaned forward angrily. "Don't say something so rude about her!"
Startled, Jiraiya raised a questioning eyebrow. "What? What's so rude about it? I just thought that, seeing as how you were, y'know, the way you reacted to her when the Fox had you, the two of you must have something special. Was I wrong?"
"Ye-" Naruto hesitated for a moment, then ploughed on. "Yeah, you are, if by 'something special' you mean we're going out. Hinata's just a friend. It's not right to spread rumours about people that just aren't true."
Jiraiya cast a questioning look over at Sakura, who just shrugged helplessly. Rolling his eyes, the veteran jounin filed the issue away in his 'not my business, at least for now' basket. "Well never mind then, boy, sorry about the misunderstanding. Anyway, how are you feeling?"
Mollified, Naruto sank back into his chair. "Eh, I'm alright. Feeling stronger already, although something does feel a little bit off."
"Yes, I expected as such," Jiraiya said knowingly. "You used the Five Elements Seal to shut the Kyuubi down, right? That should still be in effect, messing with your chakra flow. You won't be able to do any precision chakra moulding until it's released." The big man stood up and walked around the table. "Open up your yukata and channel some chakra, boy, and I'll release the seal now, then give you a new Delayed one. I doubt there's any more danger from the Kyuubi by now, and we might as well replace it sooner rather than later."
"Aw, I hate this bit," Naruto groused as he loosened the sash holding his robe closed and pulled it open enough to reveal his belly. "Can you be any more gentle this time?" Folding his fingers and channelling chakra through his body again, the ever-present seal reappeared on his stomach, Jiraiya's emergency alteration marring the pattern.
The old man grinned. "Nope, afraid not, boy. Suck it up, this'll barely be a tap compared to what Gaara did to you anyway." Forming a series of seals, spreading his fingers and lighting them with chakra fire again, he drew his hand back to strike. "Five Elements Unseal!"
Naruto squeezed his eyes shut as he braced himself for the blow, but after a few tense moments Jiraiya merely pressed his fingers firmly over the five seal marks and when he pulled them back they were gone. Naruto's eyes snapped open again and he glared at the smirking old man. "Ha ha, very funny, pervert hermit." Off to the side, Sakura was suppressing a smile of her own.
"What are you complaining about, boy?" Jiraiya retorted with mock indignation. "I thought you wanted me to take it off more gently than I put it on?" He went through the hand motions to prepare the Five Elements Seal and lit his fingers up again. "Now hold still. It's harder to apply than to remove."
The blond rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah alright. Sorry for compl-"
"Five Elements Restrained Seal!"
The breath burst from Naruto's lungs in a rush as Jiraiya's fingers smacked into his stomach, knocking him back into the chair behind him which rocked and almost toppled over. Sakura gave a startled gasp as Naruto wheezed for breath and the boy lurched up from the seat again, seething with anger. "W-what the hell was that all about, you old bas-"
Jiraiya raised his hands placatingly, trying to hide his smile and mostly succeeding. "Sorry, sorry, I guess that was a bit mean of me, but I really do have to use more force to apply the seal properly than I need to remove it once you've activated it. It's like the difference between driving a nail into a piece of wood and pulling it out again. Maybe I didn't have to surprise you like that, but I just couldn't resist." Naruto reluctantly sank back down into the chair again, giving the older man a death glare for the ages and Jiraiya's smile became sincerely apologetic. "Don't worry boy, I'll make it up to you later. Now we've got a bit of time I can work on teaching you Rasengan properly, as well as sort out your issues with the Summoning technique. And maybe there are a few other neat little tricks I can teach you too..."
At the first mention of new techniques, Naruto's furious expression collapsed into something akin to an eager puppy. "You can? Great, when can we start?" Jiraiya nodded sagely. The boy was pretty easy to handle if you knew where his levers were. As long as he had more to teach Naruto, he could get along with the boy easily enough- and in doing so it'd also let him, at least in a small way, make things up to Minato.
His train of thought was broken by an unexpected interruption. "Speaking of which, Jiraiya-sama," Sakura's voice cut in. "I don't suppose there's anything you might be able to teach me as well?"
Naruto and Jiraiya stared at her in astonishment.
oooOOOooo
Work the awl carefully. Study the finger joints for the precise place to insert the point. Tap the nails in with just the right amount of force. Tighten the screws with a delicate touch. Watch the way the hand twitches in response to your actions.
Kankurō frowned. Working on his puppets was normally a very relaxing activity for him, despite the intense level of concentration and focus it required. But as he worked on constructing a new hand for Karasu to replace the one destroyed during its run-in with the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, he couldn't settle into his usual rhythm. Something was preventing him from giving the task his full attention.
It wasn't like the girl sitting in the corner of his workshop was glaring at him, or making a distracting amount of noise. In fact, every time he glanced in her direction, the petite black-haired girl was watching his work with polite fascination, remaining completely silent and still as she sat neatly out of the way in a clear space on the bench top, hugging her knees against her chest. Her interest was flattering - Kankurō always liked it when someone appreciated his nascent genius- but something about the way her pupil-less white eyes followed his every movement was subtly off-putting.
And just to make things super-awkward, he couldn't even recall her name.
He supposed he had no-one to blame but himself. First he'd left the door of his workshop ajar and it had drifted open without him noticing, so he couldn't blame any passers-by for looking in. Then when he'd noticed the girl peeping around the doorframe, rather than telling her to leave he'd asked her whether she had an interest in puppets. He didn't know why he'd done that; even if she hadn't been a Konoha-nin, she wasn't even remotely his type of girl, and the only time he'd ever seen her before she'd arrived yesterday with the others had been during the Chuunin exam preliminaries when she'd backed down from a fight with her own cousin (who, Kankurō recalled ironically, had been the poor unlucky bastard who'd had to fight Gaara right before the attack on Konoha had began).
Maybe he just felt he owed her for saving his life (as well as that of his brother and sister) when the Fox had been a split-second from tearing off his head? That much at least was pretty much indisputable- while he'd been only barely cognizant of what he'd been doing when he threw himself reflexively in between the blazing form of the Kyuubi and his siblings, no-one could have missed the way the demon had frozen at the sound of the girl's scream before dissipating and leaving only a blood-soaked Uzumaki Naruto.
With a sigh Kankurō put the awl down beside Karasu's half-completed new hand and stretched his arms wide. Maybe it was time for a break anyway- he'd been working for the last two hours without pause. The girl -damn it, what was her name again?- blinked as he climbed off his stool. "Um... I'm sorry, Kankurō-san, am I bothering you?"
"No, not really," he answered reflexively and silently cursed himself. If he'd at least said "a little" maybe she would have been on her way. "I just need to stretch my legs for a bit." The girl nodded and hopped down from the bench, following him to the door and walking out in front of him as he opened it. Following her out into the late-afternoon sun of Suna and carefully shutting the door behind him, he cricked his neck to the side and took a deep breath. He gave the Konoha kunoichi an odd look, then strolled off towards the Council building. Almost predictably, she fell into step behind him.
Well if she'd attached herself to him for now, there was nothing he could do but make the best of it. "So, what made you so interested in puppetry?" he asked the girl conversationally.
"Um..." The dark-haired girl hesitated for a moment. "Well, when I was just a child, my father took me to a performance of Bunraku puppetry for my birthday. They performed Hade Sugata Onna Maiginu, and I thought it was just amazing, the way they made the puppets move and dance like that. But those were just normal civilian puppeteers, I'd never seen anything like your battle puppet until-" She looked visibly uncomfortable for a moment before continuing. "-until you defeated Chouji-san in the Chuunin Exam preliminaries."
Mmm. That wasn't exactly a pleasant line of conversation. The fat boy had proved a difficult opponent for Kankurō- while his destructive rolling attack had been in effect Kankurō hadn't been able to follow his common tactic of using substitution to bait him into going for Karasu for fear that Karasu wouldn't survive the initial hit, and the rotation had made him as good as immune to all of Karasu's weapons and tricks as well. Eventually he'd managed to knock the fatso out of his attack by having Karasu surreptitiously plant a timed explosive tag on the floor and then using his own body to lure the human wrecking ball over it just as it exploded. Most of the blast had been deflected by the rotation, but it had still hurled the boy against the wall, stunning him and stopping his attack, and from there it had been a simple matter of having Karasu constrict him until he surrendered.
Of course, it wasn't the fact that he'd beaten one of her fellow Konoha genin that made it an unpleasant subject; it had been a fair fight. It was the fact that in the very next match the same girl had been bullied into submission by her cousin and suffered a nervous breakdown in front of everyone present. Well, that and the fact that the Chuunin Exams had eventually culminated in Suna and Oto destroying Konoha, which made discussing them a little bit awkward. After all, it wasn't like he could just say "I'm sorry we burned down your village".
"Hmph. Yeah, the Puppet Techniques have their origins in the Bunraku traditions of the theatre, but were adapted to serve as weapons by the master puppeteer, playwright and shinobi, Chikamatsu Monzaemon." Despite himself, Kankurō's voice took on the tone of academy lecturer. "Both the greatest playwright and puppet-maker of his time, he was also a ninja of Suna, and one day it occurred to him that a single puppeteer could use chakra threads to manipulate several part of a puppet at once, instead of three puppeteers controlling a single puppet with rods. Once he'd finished creating the kugutsu no jutsu -the Puppet Technique- his next step was to build puppets suitable for ninja combat and, well, the rest was history." He glanced backwards at the girl as they walked and found her hanging on his every word. Apparently she really was fascinated by puppetry, on an artistic level at least. The one thing he did remember about her was that the clan she'd come from was supposed to have been the most upper-class and traditional one in Konoha, so it wasn't really that strange that she'd have an interest in the finer arts. "I initially learned the technique from Karuta the Shadow Spider, who could blend into the darkness so well that you'd think her puppets were acting completely on their own, and she in turn had studied under the great Elder Chiyo. Karuta-sensei bequeathed Karasu to me, with more of the famous master Sasori's puppets waiting for me to inherit once I improve my skills enough to control more puppets at a time. Elder Chiyo was supposedly able to control the entire ten-puppet set of Chikamatsu's own collection on her own, one puppet controlled by each finger!" He shook his head in admiration. "It'll be years before I'm even a fraction as good as that, though. I even went to the elder myself and begged her to teach me her secrets after Karuta-sensei declared that she'd taught me all she could, but Elder Chiyo refused- she'd retired, you see, and didn't want to have anything more to do with the village." Kankurō sighed regretfully. He realised he was rambling, but something about the girl made her a good audience. "It's a pity, but all her knowledge will be lost when she dies. Karuta-sensei even told me a rumour she'd heard that Elder Chiyo had replaced one of her own arms with a puppet limb that she could control just like her real one!"
"Really?" An unmistakable note of excitement entered the girl's voice and Kankurō glanced at her in surprise. "So, it might be theoretically possible for a puppeteer to... replace a missing limb with a puppet one?"
The puppeteer pondered for a moment. "Hmm... y'know, now that you put it that way, it might be. I hadn't thought about medical uses for it- Karuta-sensei described it as being like changing a limb into a puppet one for combat purposes, but I wonder if it might actually be possible for me to, say, take an arm from Karasu and..." His voice trailed off as his sharp mind began to consider the possibilities.
The two finally stopped in front of the Council building, where the rest of her people were lodged in the guest rooms. The Konoha girl looked up and the large bulbous edifice and turned to face Kankurō. "Um, I think I'll be going now." She bowed politely. "Thank you for your time, Kankurō-san. It was extremely interesting and informative."
Kankurō blinked and nodded back to her. "Oh... sure. No problem, uh..." Crapping crap it.
The white-eyed girl smiled. "Hyuuga Hinata, Kankurō-san."
"Right, no problem, Hyuuga-san. I like it when someone takes an interest in my work." He smiled slightly. "It's a bit difficult when you're the only puppet-user of your generation and none of the other shinobi in your age group have anything in common with you."
The girl bowed again, turned away and headed towards the front entrance to the building. Just before she reached the doors, Kankurō was seized by a sudden bizarre compulsion. "Um, Hyuuga-san, just a second!" Surprised, she turned back to look at him again and he bit his lip. "Uh... I'm... sorry we burned down your village."
There was heavy pause as the Hyuuga looked at him and Kankurō cringed with embarrassment, dying inside. What had compelled him to say something so stupid? But then Hyuuga Hinata just smiled and bowed to him one final time before turning away and disappearing through the doors.
Wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead, the Suna genin turned and started to walk back to his workshop. Well, that actually hadn't been all that bad.
oooOOOooo
As his consciousness crept back out of the darkness to occupy his body again, the pain made Gaara moan.
Oh yes, the pain he'd wondered about for so many years. Uzumaki Naruto had finally taught him its meaning, and it was a lesson he would never forget.
He heard a startled gasp coming from somewhere to his right and slowly lifted his head to look at it, but only managed to get his eyes open in time to catch a glimpse of whoever had made the sound disappearing through the door of the room. Letting his head slump back onto the pillow, Gaara took stock of his body. Both of his biceps and his thighs were heavily bandaged where he remembered the clawed tails of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox wrapping around him, his ribs screamed to him in the language of fractures, and more bandages swathed his abdomen, holding his guts together. He reached out mentally for his mother's sand and felt most of it scattered across the floor of the room around his bed, but it reacted sluggishly to his commands, as if it were as tired and weak as he was. The voice that usually howled in the back of his head was currently silent. In hindsight, he was amazed he wasn't dead. He had no idea how he'd managed to stand up to speak to Uzumaki Naruto at the end of their battle even for a moment, but now he felt as weak as a kitten, barely able to move and completely unable to stand even if his life depended on it.
In fact, why wasn't he dead? Under the circumstances, he wouldn't have found it strange if the other shinobi of Suna had taken his once-in-a-lifetime weakness as an opportunity to be rid of him once and for all.
Footsteps on the stone floor outside the room heralded the entrance of Baki. His teacher strode through the door wearing the same stoic expression he always did, but as he stopped at Gaara's bedside and looked down at him, Gaara detected something subtly different about the jounin, something off, something that had changed since the last time Gaara had seen him.
The realisation slowly dawned on him like the morning sun creeping up over the high stone walls of Suna. His teacher's face resembled the stoic mask he'd used to conceal his fear from Gaara for the last two years, but this time there was a subtle difference that Gaara was just barely able to detect. This time there was no mask. Baki was no longer afraid of him.
"Gaara." His teacher's voice was as toneless and controlled as ever. "How do you feel?"
Gaara didn't answer immediately. How did he feel? Weak, obviously. Even powerless. Angry? Afraid? Sad? He couldn't recall the last time he'd been in a situation like this. "I'm... OK. I guess."
Baki nodded. "Hmm. I feel I should let you know, Gaara, that there's a not-inconsiderable faction on the village council who voted that we eliminate you while you were unconscious, to put a definitive end to your demands that we engage in endless warfare to sate your bloodlust." He frowned. "I, for my part, opposed this proposition... but I could still change my mind. So I've come to you first, Gaara, to ask you: what do you intend to do now?"
If Baki's first inquiry had been challenging, this one was almost impossible. As he lay helplessly in bed, defeated but not dead as he'd expected, with his powers diminished and his principles shaken to the core, Gaara had no idea what he wanted to do now.
No, wait. There was one thing. "Baki... sensei, how is Temari?"
The eyebrow above Baki's single exposed eye twitched slightly, but his expression remained otherwise unchanged. "Why do you ask?"
One difficult question after another. He found himself struggling to put his answer into words. "I... she was... she was hurt protecting me. I... want to know that... that she's OK."
This time he definitely saw a glint in his teacher's eye. "How uncharacteristic of you, Gaara. You've never cared about the welfare of your siblings before." The lack of accusation in Baki's voice only made the observation sting all the more, because Gaara couldn't deny it. "She's in no danger. Her injuries will keep her off duty for a few weeks while she recovers, but there'll be no permanent damage."
Baki's words gave Gaara a strange and unfamiliar feeling of warmth within his chest. "Can I... can I see her?"
"Not at the moment. She's been given painkillers and she's sleeping." Baki looked at Gaara strangely. "You can see her when she wakes up, if you're able to walk yourself. What do you want to say to her?"
At last, a question he knew the answer to. "I want to tell her... thank you." Gaara hesitated for a moment, then added. "And that... that I'm sorry."
It was then that something truly remarkable happened. Something Gaara had never seen before, and didn't believe was even physically possible.
Baki smiled at him.
It was only a small thing, a minor upward curving of the lips, but it was unmistakable on his teacher's stoic, carefully controlled face. Gaara couldn't recall the last time anyone had smiled at him other than the fake, nervous smiles Temari and Kankurō gave to try and placate him whenever he threatened them. It gave him a strange sense of satisfaction, like he'd finally done something right after a long string of mistakes. It didn't last long, but Gaara would not soon forget it. "Hmm. I see you've been given some serious food for thought, Gaara," the jounin said. "As your teacher, let me give you this advice: every now and then, it pays to stop and take stock of your life, especially after a major upset or significant event. Sometimes you'll look back at the things that have come before, at the things you see ahead, and you'll see things differently than you did before. Maybe you'll see yourself differently too. The world changes, but so do we."
Gaara mulled over his sensei's words. Despite nominally being his jounin instructor, Baki had never really attempted to teach him much of anything before, which had suited Gaara fine as he'd never considered the man to have anything to teach him. But Baki's words resonated within him. The world changes, but so do we...
Baki turned to leave. "Well, I'm glad to see you're on your way to recovery, Gaara. I'll reassure the council that there's no need for any hasty actions and when Temari wakes up I'll let her know you want to see her." He was almost out the door when Gaara's voice stopped him.
"Baki-sensei, what happened to... Uzumaki Naruto?"
The jounin stood very still, facing away from Gaara. "He's still here, recovering from the battle, although he's up and about already." His tone was even more carefully measured than usual. "Why do you want to know?"
Gaara hesitated again. One more difficult question. "Because... I want to... talk to him, if possible."
Baki looked back over at his prone student and raised his single eyebrow. "I'm sure you'll get the opportunity before he leaves."
With that statement, Gaara's sensei departed, leaving him alone with a head full of strange new thoughts.
oooOOOooo
After finishing his meal and having his seal refreshed, Naruto headed back to his room to get some more rest. Sakura offered to walk him back, but he tactfully refused. He appreciated the thought, but the last thing he wanted was to be treated like an invalid when all he needed was some more time to recover.
It was pretty incredible, he mused, that he was even able to walk after the pounding he'd taken during his battle with Gaara. The host of the Shukaku had beaten him around even more brutally than Orochimaru had, although at least he hadn't been bitten by a pair of venomous snakes this time. During his meal, Sakura had given him a brief rundown on the initial diagnosis Suna's medic-nin had made when attending to his injuries after the battle. Aside from the huge stretches of skin that had been seared right off his body by the corrosive power of the Kyuubi, he'd also suffered torn ligaments, ripped muscles, cracked ribs and dislocated joints, mostly from the strain he'd put his body under. However, diagnostic jutsu had also found traces of much more severe injuries- several ribs shattered to splinters, a fractured ulna in his right arm, serious damage to his heart and lungs, even a ruptured kidney. Only the Kyuubi's shroud had kept him from being ground to a pulp by the monstrous strength of the Shukaku, and not even that had been able to protect him completely. However, traces were all the medic-nin had found- all the most serious injuries had been miraculously regenerated before the fight had even ended. Apparently the raw power coursing through Naruto during the battle had not only held his body together, but also undone injuries that would have been fatal to any normal human.
Naruto shuddered as he sat down on the edge of his bed again, kicking off his sandals and his fingers fumbling with the sash holding his yukata closed. The power had kept him alive, true, but almost at the cost of his very soul. He'd come this close to losing everything when the Kyuubi had used the open channel to seize control of his body. It had been a mistake of near-catastrophic levels and one he'd never repeat- he'd never trust the fox, or use it's power ever again. The only thing that had saved them all from disaster had been-
"Naruto-kun?!"
Naruto jumped a good three inches up off the bed. He caught the barest glimpse of Hinata ducking back out of sight around the doorframe as he desperately yanked his yukata closed again, nearly knotting his hands together in his hurry to get his sash retied. "H-Hinata!" he stammered. "Uh, hi!"
Her head peered around the frame again and, seeing him decently dressed, smiled shyly. "Um, I'm glad to see you're awake. You were in such bad shape after yesterday that I was worried about you."
Recalling what Sakura had said about Hinata sitting by his bedside for most of the day before he woke up, the blush that he'd just managed to rid himself of came storming back with reinforcements. "Uh... I'm fine, fine, thanks for worrying about me."
The girl finally came through the door and took a seat in the chair Sakura had been occupying when Naruto had awoken, her hands folded demurely on her lap. "I just went out to look around Suna. Have you been awake for long?"
"Nah, about twenty minutes," he said. "Just got myself a snack. Oh, and old man Jiraiya reset the emergency seal on my stomach." Aaaaand right off the mark he'd already turned the conversation back onto the Kyuubi, without even meaning to.
He winced, but Hinata just nodded. "That's good to hear. You're not in any pain, are you?"
So the conversation wasn't going to crash and sink on those rocks just yet. Naruto grinned in relief. "Nah, I'm OK, just got a bit of a twinge in my muscles, like I've been for a long jog." In actual fact, his ribs stabbed at him with every breath he took and his skin still felt raw to the touch, but he didn't want to make Hinata worry about him any more than necessary. "So, uh..." He floundered for a second. "Did you see anything neat in Suna?"
"Yes, actually, it's a fascinating place," she said brightly. "It's interesting to see how ninja in other villages live in contrast to Konoha, especially dwelling in an environment like this. Also I spent some time talking to Kankurō-san about the village's puppetry tradition."
Naruto raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Puppets, huh? So is that what they do for entertainment out here?"
Hinata gave him a blank look, then giggled. "Oh, I forgot, you haven't seen Kankurō-san's combat puppet yet, have you?" Her expression grew thoughtful. "I guess you couldn't actually see it when the Kyuubi smashed it at the end of your fight with Gaara-san?" Argh! Again! Naruto winced as Hinata mentioned the fight. He couldn't help but wonder why she was suddenly being so tactless, bringing up such an awkward topic of conversation so casually.
Hang on a second, though... Naruto caught himself. Why am I even being so defensive about what happened? Why am I making this awkward? He stopped to think for a moment. Sakura-chan said that she thought I was cool, so I was able to clear the air with her easily. Why don't I just do the same with Hinata? That way there's nothing to be worried about.
Another stray thought snuck in from some unknown corner of his mind: I wonder if she thought I was cool as well...?
"Hey, uh, Hinata?" he began.
Her milk-white eyes met his. "Yes, Naruto-kun?" she asked innocently.
"Uh..." He licked his lips nervously. Why is this so hard? It shouldn't be so hard to ask her. Wait, what was it I was gonna ask her again? "Um, have you had lunch yet today?" DAMMIT!
Hinata blinked at him, nonplussed. "Um... actually, I haven't eaten since breakfast." She glanced down reflexively at her stomach and smiled bashfully at him. "Now that you mention it, I am a bit hungry. Did you say you got a snack earlier, Naruto-kun?"
"Um..." He flailed around for an answer. "Uh, yeah, if you go down to the dining hall you should be able to at least order a sandwich from the kitchen. I think Sakura-chan and old man Jiraiya should still be there too."
The girl stood up, "Well, um, if you don't mind, Naruto-kun, I'll just go and get myself a bite to eat. Is that OK?" She gave him an apologetic look.
Naruto waved his hands frantically in front of him, forcing a grin. "No, no, that's fine, you go right on. I'll be fine here, Hinata. Don't worry about me. I think I'll take another nap."
With another small smile, the Hyuuga turned and slipped out of the room. As soon as her footsteps had faded away down the corridor, Naruto let his head slump into his hands. All of a sudden he felt like he really needed another lie-down. "Argh! What the hell was that all about?"
oooOOOooo
By the next morning, Naruto's skin had almost completely healed, leaving only a few sensitive pink patches where previously there had been raw, bloodied flesh. His clothes were returned as well, repaired and freshly-laundered, and once his bandages had been removed and he was dressed in his usual outfit he felt even more like his old self, ready for anything at a moment's notice.
While Naruto wasn't yet up to anything like his full strength, Jiraiya decided that their group would depart from Suna after lunch. While he trusted Shizune to keep things in order, they'd been away from the fortress for longer than he felt comfortable with and it was still several days journey to return. Naruto was capable of travel, even if only at walking speed, and the rest of them could help him if necessary. It was past time for them to go home.
Before they could leave, however, there was one small thing that needed doing. Gaara had requested an opportunity to talk to Naruto, in private.
The blond boy took a deep, nervous breath as he faced the door in front of him. Baki had relayed the request to the Konoha group when Jiraiya had declared their intention to leave this morning. At the time he hadn't thought too much about why Gaara might want to talk to him and had readily agreed to the meeting. Now that Baki had brought him to the room where the boy he'd fought against only two days earlier was waiting for him, he found himself second-guessing his decision. Oh, it wasn't that he was afraid of Gaara, not any more, but his instincts told him that Gaara had something important to ask him, something that would be very significant to both of them, and he dreaded the possibility that he might muck it up.
Steeling himself, he turned the handle and pushed the door open. Gaara looked up as he entered. The other boy was seated behind a table that was, aside from the two chairs on either side of it and the bare light bulb set in the ceiling, the only thing in the small, bare room. It looked like an interrogation room, which didn't exactly fill Naruto with confidence. When Gaara's eyes met Naruto's, the other boy did his best to smile reassuringly, although his expression had a forced, plastic look that betrayed unfamiliarity with the action. "Uzumaki Naruto," the Sand genin greeted him. "Please, sit down."
He gestured towards the chair opposite him and Naruto cautiously took a seat. Gaara looked like hell. Sakura-chan had mentioned that the regenerative powers the Shukaku granted to Gaara weren't anything like as strong as his own, and Gaara had lost their fight after all, but Naruto was still startled to see how weak the boy appeared. He doubted Gaara had even been able to walk to this room without assistance. "So, uh, Gaara," he said, "what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"
Gaara shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Naruto realised that the other boy was, if anything, feeling even more nervous and awkward than he was. "Uzumaki Naruto," he began, then stopped. There was a long pause while Gaara's eyes flicked all around the empty room as if searching for inspiration anywhere but on Naruto's face, then he took a deep breath. "Uzumaki Naruto," he repeated. "What was your childhood like?"
Naruto was speechless. To be honest, he'd kind of predicted that the conversation would involve the things the two of them had in common and the differences between them, but such a blunt inquiry caught him completely off guard. He knew about Gaara's past already, and it had indeed been far worse than his, but... his memories of his own childhood were still far from pleasant. Before he was partnered up with Kakashi-sensei and his teammates, before he started at the Academy and met Iruka, before his first meeting with Teuchi and Ayame... he'd been completely alone.
And if he hadn't had them, he could well have ended up even more like Gaara than he already was.
"My childhood was..." he began hesitantly, "...lonely. I had nobody and nothing. The first thing I can remember is the orphanage. The lady there kept me fed and clothed, but usually ignored me. She kept the other children away from me, and didn't care what I did as long as I stayed away from everyone else. Whenever I went out into Konoha, everyone who saw me would glare, and mutter under their breath about how I was no good and how they wished I didn't exist, and all the parents told their kids to stay away from me as well, although they didn't tell them why."
Gaara gazed at him unblinkingly. "Did anyone ever try to kill you?"
The Leaf genin shook his head. "No, no-one ever touched me." He stopped for a second a frowned. "Wait, hang on, I do think there was one time when I was a kid, before I started at the Academy, I got beaten up by some other kids, but... I don't remember why. Now that I think about it, I think they were just normal bullies, I don't think they even knew me. So why did they...? Was there someone else there? I think..." He pondered for a moment, then shook his head again. "Nah, never mind. I guess I was under Old Man Hokage's protection so the people of Konoha wouldn't dare hurt me- but that was also the reason no-one would ever tell me why they all hated me."
"You didn't know you were the host of the Kyuubi?" Gaara sounded surprised.
"No, it was kept a secret from me and all of my generation. Almost all the other children hated and shunned me, but they didn't know why they were doing it." The painful memories showed on Naruto's face and he took a deep breath. "I remember I used to stare into a mirror, examining my own face, trying to see if there was something wrong with me. I wondered if it might have been these-" He traced his finger along the whisker-like marks on his cheeks, "-and I guess in a way it was, but I didn't know what they meant, or why people might hate me for them, so I was just confused."
Gaara looked at him and, to Naruto's shock, he thought he saw a subtle trace of sympathy in his normally blank expression. "Did you hate them?"
The blunt question made Naruto hesitate. He didn't want to say this... but there was no denying the truth. "...yes. I hated them. I hated them for the way they glared at me when I'd never done anything to them. I resented the other kids for being so happy with their parents and their friends while I had nobody."
"But you don't still feel that way." It wasn't a question.
Naruto finally found something in the conversation he could smile about. "That's right. I don't."
Gaara stared at him intensely. "What happened to change you?" he asked, and Naruto thought he heard something that sounded like eagerness in his voice, almost like a hunger.
The smile widened. "I finally found people who accepted and cared about me. First it was old man Teuchi, the best ramen cook in Konoha, and his daughter Ayame, who both made me welcome to eat at their place whenever I wanted. They were the first people to show me kindness. Then when I started at the Academy I met Iruka-sensei, who looked out for me and taught me everything I knew about being a shinobi. He was half-way between a big brother and a father to me- still is, actually. Things were better at the Academy, and not just because of Iruka-sensei- some of the other kids there would let me hang around with them despite what the adults said. I guess we weren't really "friends", I was always the dead-last in the class and everyone laughed at me, but Kiba and Shikamaru and Chouji would let me hang out with them when they were getting into mischief. I remember Iruka-sensei used to line us up at the front of the class and scold us all together."
Naruto's smile faded from his face as he continued. "And then on the night before graduation from the Academy, one of the teachers there went rogue. I'd failed my final graduation exam, but he tricked me into stealing a powerful forbidden scroll for him by telling me that I could pass if I did. When I brought it to him, he told me the truth about myself. Then he tried to kill me. And Iruka-sensei risked his life to save mine, because even if I had the Kyuubi sealed inside me, to him I was one of his precious students." He felt moisture start to sting the edge of his eyes just remembering Iruka leaning protectively over him, Mizuki's shuriken buried in his back, tears falling from his own eyes to splash on Naruto's face. "And that's why I've never had to doubt what I..." His voice trailed off.
I'm not a monster. I'm not. "I..."
Just the one time, maybe. But there was no way he could forget the words that had saved him once already.
It's not a monster that defeats a monster. It's a hero.
He took another deep breath and the smile surged back onto his face. "I have no doubts about what I am."
Gaara gazed at him wistfully. Naruto wondered if the expression on the other boy's face was similar to his own back when he'd watched the other children going home happily with their parents after class every day. "That must be... nice." He hesitated awkwardly. "I... once had someone who I thought cared about me. My mother's younger brother Yashamaru." Naruto had heard about Gaara's late uncle from Temari, but he held his tongue. "He lied. He was ordered to assassinate me by my father, but he did it willingly because he hated me for killing my mother when I was born. Before he blew himself up trying to take me with him, he told me that my mother had hated me and cursed my birth. If even my own mother hated me, how could anyone ever love me, other than myself?"
Naruto picked his words with extreme care. "Um... don't hurt me for saying this, but... I don't see how that matters now, Gaara. So your mother and father may have both hated you. I don't even know who my parents were. Maybe they hated me as well? I guess I'll never know. I like to think it wouldn't matter to me as I am now because I have friends and people who care about me. And so do you."
Gaara looked like someone had punched him in the gut. His stoic expression cracked and Naruto thought he finally got to see what Gaara of the Desert had looked like when he'd been just a sad little boy, before the humanity had been crushed out of him by the traumas of his childhood. "I... do I...?" He looked like he wanted to cry but didn't know how. He looked lost. "But... Temari and Kankurō... all these years I've been so... cruel towards them. I've threatened them. I've... never hurt them, but I would have. They knew I would have."
"Your sister really cares about you, Gaara," Naruto said, absolute conviction in his voice. "Before we fought, I talked to her and she told me she didn't want you to be hurt. She was so conflicted about me fighting you. And then she risked her life to protect you from the Kyuubi, didn't she?" He looked guilty for a second. "Er... I'm sorry she got hurt. But she'll be OK, right?" Gaara nodded and, encouraged, Naruto continued. "And I haven't spoken to your brother... but he stood between you and the fox as well, didn't he? The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes again at the end of the fight was him standing right in front of you, ready to fight me if he had to. He wouldn't have -he couldn't have- done that if he hated you, Gaara."
The sand-wielding boy was silent as he absorbed Naruto's words. Naruto gave him a moment to mull them over before adding softly "Yesterday you said me and you aren't alike. And at that time, you were right. But... if you wanted to, if you wanted to escape that loneliness you've been trapped by all this time, if you wanted to have friends you can trust like I do... then we could be."
Gaara's black-ringed eyes went wide. He looked like the words had just been sucked out of his lungs. Naruto waited patiently for the other boy to find his voice. "I can... have trusted friends like you do? People who can accept me despite what I am? Even beyond my family?"
Naruto nodded enthusiastically. "Sure you could! If you try to befriend people, and they get to know you and know that you won't hurt them, they won't fear you. It might be hard, but I can guarantee that there are people out there willing to be your friend. I found them, so can you."
The Suna genin looked like he'd come to a decision. Placing his hands on the table he, slowly and with difficulty, pushed himself to his feet, and looked Naruto straight in the eye. "Then, Uzumaki Naruto... is there any way... you could be my first friend?"
Naruto blinked in surprise, then smiled. Rising to his feet as well, he walked around the table until he and Gaara were standing face-to-face. "Gaara?" The other boy's green eyes gazed into his pensively... and Naruto extended his hand to the other boy. "I'd be happy to. As someone who understands the pain you went through, I'll be your friend to make sure you're never completely alone again. And you can be one of my precious people, who do the same for me."
For the space of a dozen heartbeats, Gaara didn't move, not so much as a muscle. He didn't even blink. Naruto's grin began to slip a little and he wiggled his hand awkwardly in the air. Then Gaara slowly and hesitantly raised his own hand, reaching out for the blond boy's. With his fingertips only a few inches from Naruto's, he hesitated again... and Naruto reached forward and clasped Gaara's hand in his own, shaking it warmly.
Gaara's expression was one of shock as he stared down at their joined hands. Looking up at Naruto's face again, Naruto saw another glimpse of the true smile he'd seen on the boy's face the day before when he'd looked at his brother and sister, and Gaara's grip on his hand tightened, returning the handshake. "Uzumaki Naruto," Gaara said, genuine warmth audible in his voice. "My friend."
Naruto smiled back.
oooOOOooo
Their departure from Suna went without much ceremony, with only Baki and Kankurō there to see them off. Temari and Gaara were still recovering and the Suna council had decided to keep things low-key, so only the jounin and his sole ambulatory student were present at the great entrance of the village to bid the Konoha group farewell.
The three Konoha genin and their single Suna counterpart stood respectfully back from each other while Jiraiya, Kakashi and Baki met between them, exchanging the necessary formal niceties. Naruto stood between Sakura and Hinata with his hands behind his back, trying not to fidget with impatience. The midday desert sun overhead was already scorching the back of his neck, and he was just as eager to return to the Fortress as Jiraiya was. Standing across from them, Kankurō looked equally uncomfortable and Naruto wondered how he could have grown up in the desert wearing those heavy black clothes.
Rather unexpectedly, the other boy took a deep breath as if resolving himself to something and stepped forward, marching across the space between him and the Konoha genin to stand in front of Naruto. The blond blinked in surprise and Sakura gave the older boy a wary look. For a few moments Kankurō awkwardly drew circles in the sand with one foot, then he looked up and met Naruto's face. "Uh, Uzumaki-san? I just thought... I probably should have said this before, but... I just needed to thank you for rescuing my sister from Orochimaru."
Naruto grinned. "Hey, no problem. If you'd been in my shoes I'm sure you'd have done the same for me. I mean, if I had a sister. Which I don't, but if I had and Orochimaru had taken her prisoner then I'm sure you would have rescued her as well when you broke in to save Temari."
Kankurō nodded uncertainly, perhaps unsure of how to respond to that. Hinata giggled, and Naruto felt his face flush red. Had he just said something clever and witty, or incredibly dumb?
"So, um, I heard Gaara wanted to talk to you a bit earlier," Kankurō asked with deliberate casualness. "What, uh, what were you talking about?"
"Oh, nothing all that special," Naruto said breezily. "Just a chat between friends."
Kankurō stared at Naruto as if a tiny winged pig had just landed on his head and ordered a glass of iced tea with a twist of lemon. "You... you're... Gaara's friend now?" Naruto nodded cheerfully. For a moment the puppeteer looked like he was trying to process a totally new and alien concept, then a smile crept across his painted face. "I'm glad to hear that. Any friend of Gaara's is a friend of mine." He extended his hand. "Looks like I owe you two now, Uzumaki-san. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask."
Naruto took the proffered hand and shook it firmly, returning the smile. "No probs, Kankurō-san. I'm just glad we're all good now." He licked his lips nervously. "Um, give my regards and apologies to your sister for me as well."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Kankurō assured him. "Temari doesn't hold gr-" He hesitated. "OK, I tell a lie, Temari definitely holds grudges, but in your case I'm sure she'll forgive you." As the adults finished their exchange and turned away from each other, signalling their time was at an end, he smiled again, fiercely this time. "Just promise us that when you go after Orochimaru for real, you let us know first."
Naruto's own grin widened to bare his fangs. "Oh absolutely!"
oooOOOooo
The crimson haze clouding his eyes made it hard to see the blood, but he could smell it everywhere. It covered the ground, the walls of the canyon, and him. The bodies lay strewn all around him. Jiraiya with his long white mane stained with darkness. Kakashi, lying in a heap of tangled, broken limbs, like a discarded scarecrow. Keiji and Sakura piled together where the boy had desperately tried to carry his stricken teammate to safety. Kankurō sprawled among the remnants of his puppet, just more shattered wreckage. Temari was lying prone across Gaara, the spreading dark stain around their bodies evidence of her futile effort to shield him. Guy, Lee Tenten and Baki were scattered across the periphery of his bloodshot vision, as lifeless as the stones they lay on.
Hinata stood before him, the last one alive. Her white eyes gazed straight at him, unflinching and unafraid, despite the tears he could see gathering in the corners. She did not run, did not cower, did not even take a fighting stance to defend herself. He snarled, raising bloodied talons to rend her slender body, but she only lifted her own arms and held them out to her side as if to embrace him. "Naruto-kun," she whispered, her voice shaking. "Please... you must-"
With a hateful roar, the Kyuubi brought its claws smashing down on the defenceless girl.
Naruto's body convulsed and he nearly ripped his sleeping bag apart as he thrashed into wakefulness. He retched violently, gasping desperately for breath as he fought down the bile that rose in his throat, clutching his arms so tightly that his nails almost drew blood. He suddenly felt suffocated within the confines of his small tent, like he'd throw up if he didn't get some air immediately, and scrambled out of his padded canvas bedding towards the flap over the door.
Because of his condition, they hadn't been able to move as fast on their trip out of Suna as they had on the way there. Fortunately they also did not have the same urgency that had driven their forced march during the first trip, otherwise Naruto may have faced the indignity of having to be carried by Kakashi or Jiraiya. At their more relaxed pace the group was still a long way from the border of the Land of Rivers when night fell, so they settled for the night on top of another rock pillar, the same way they had (on Temari's advice) during their first night in the desert. The landscape was dotted with these unusual, eye-catching monoliths, and they'd pitched their tents on top of a medium-sized one in the middle of a small cluster of them. There were taller ones, but those narrowed as they rose until they lacked the space for the party to fit all their tents onto, plus the higher they got, the harder and sharper the desert wind became. Naruto's tent had felt slightly empty without Keiji taking up half the room within it like he usually did, but right at this moment the pitch-blackness felt like it would crush him, and he practically tumbled out into the moonlit night, gasping for breath.
"Something wrong, Naruto?"
Naruto jumped so far he almost fell off the pillar. Kakashi was sitting cross-legged near the edge of the stone platform, watching him with an inscrutable expression on his masked face. "O-oh, Kakashi-sensei," he gasped. "What are you still doing up?" Judging from the height of the full moon overhead, it looked to be around midnight.
"Oh, just pondering the state of my life, you know how it is," his teacher answered with an insouciant shrug. "It's a lovely night for it." He had a point. The full moon hung low in the sky, pouring quicksilver light over the desiccated landscape, casting the dunes in a deep shade of blue. "So are you alright?"
"Eh?" Naruto fumbled for a reply. He didn't really feel like admitting to his teacher that he'd been having a horrible nightmare, and certainly didn't feel up to describing it. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine, just having a bit of trouble sleeping. Needed some fresh air."
Kakashi nodded. "Fair enough. I was thinking I might turn in myself about now anyway. Just make sure you get enough rest." He rose and headed for his own tent, patting Naruto on the shoulder in passing. "Oh, and if you're going to stay out here for a while, maybe you should tell that girl to get some sleep too." He inclined his head up over his shoulder in a skyward direction. "We're going to be walking all day tomorrow."
Naruto stared blankly as the jounin vanished through the cloth flap into his shelter. Girl...? Perplexed, he turned and looked up in the direction Kakashi's nod had indicated.
The fairy danced in the silver light of the moon.
Naruto's eyes widened. Up above their campsite, on top of the tallest of the spires -a slim needle of stone only a few feet wide at the top- a slender figure twisted and spun, silhouetted against the full moon. Her arms whirled around her body as she twisted and pirouetted, stepping delicately from one side of the spire to the other, hands slicing through the air around her in elaborate motions like a mystical dance. The moonlight clung to her form, casting a shining corona around the nymph's body like a robe of spun spider-silk.
Shaking his head, Naruto looked closer, and his jaw dropped as he recognised the dancing girl. Hinata?! What was she up to at this time of night? He hadn't identified her sooner because she'd discarded her usual bulky jacket, the sleeveless tunic she wore underneath it considerably slimming down her silhouette. Briefly he ducked back into his tent to grab his sandals and jacket, the latter of which he'd bundled up to use for a pillow, although he found it hard to tear his eyes away from Hinata's elegantly twirling form as he slipped his clothes back on. Gathering himself, he leapt from the pillar to another, taller one, then from there he sprang up as high as he could, touching down lightly on top of the spire behind the girl, so fixated on her movements that she initially didn't notice him. "Uh, hey Hinata?"
The girl spun around like lightning, raising a palm to strike at his face, and Naruto froze. The instant she saw him, though, she stopped dead in her tracks. "Naruto-kun?!" she gasped in surprise, jumping back as if she'd been stung by a wasp- then gave a small startled shriek as her foot skidded over the edge of the narrow stone platform, slipping out into empty space.
Naruto lunged forward and grabbed the shocked girl by one of her flailing arms as she began to topple backwards, yanking her to safety. Hinata crashed into his chest and clung to him, breathing heavily. Naruto cursed himself for startling her- sneaking up on a ninja in the middle of the night was a good way for someone to get hurt, and he'd acted without thinking. For several seconds they stayed locked together like that as their heart rates settled, then Hinata pushed herself upright, stepped back, took a deep breath and looked at him, her cheeks tinged red. "Oh... I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. That was... rather embarrassing."
Naruto rubbed the back of his head awkwardly and grinned. "Nah, that was my fault, Hinata. I should have let you know I was coming first." He lowered his hand and shrugged apologetically. "What were you doing anyway? It looked like you were dancing."
"Oh no!" the girl said, smiling faintly. "I was just practicing my Jyuuken. That was a form used for fending off multiple attackers coming from different directions at once, but I guess it resembles dance steps to an onlooker when there aren't any attackers."
Well that made sense. "Well, uh, I'm sorry for interrupting your training," he apologised. "I can go if you want to continue."
To his surprise, Hinata shook her head emphatically. "Oh, no Naruto-kun!" she exclaimed. She sounded almost like she was pleading. "I was just about to take a break anyway. Would you... like to stay and talk for while?" Indeed, a sheen of sweat glistened on her brow above her large white eyes and she was visibly trying to keep herself from breathing hard. Naruto grinned in a hopefully reassuring way and sat down on the edge of the pillar, letting his legs dangle over the side, and Hinata joined him, sitting to his right with her knees tucked up against her chest.
"So, uh..." For some reason that escaped him, just sitting here next to Hinata was making him inexplicably nervous. "Why are you up here training this late at night?"
The girl looked down, as if trying to avoid his eyes. "Well... I just... have to get stronger, Naruto-kun. I can't remain this weak any longer, and we don't have any time to train while we're travelling, so I have to fit in whatever training as I can, whenever I can."
"Wh-but Hinata, you're not weak!" Naruto protested. "Haven't we already been through this? I believe in you, remember? Just think about all the things you've made it through up to now!"
Her lips curved upwards, but she still didn't look at him. "It's... nice of you to say so, Naruto-kun. If you insist, I won't call myself 'weak', but... I'm not strong enough. Things aren't like they used to be any more. I need to be as strong as I can possibly be now... for Hanabi-chan and the last few Hyuuga children, for Konoha and... and for..." Naruto waited as her voice trailed off, but Hinata didn't seem inclined to continue. If she'd been determinedly gazing down at the desert floor below them before, now she was outright looking away from him, staring into the empty night. It reminded him of the way things were back in the Academy, when every time he looked in Hinata's direction she seemed to have found something fascinating to study on the opposite wall.
The silence was becoming awkward. Something to say, something to say, he needed something to say! "Um..." Great start! "I, uh, I need to..." Wait, what did he need to do other than say something? Oh, that's it! "I need to thank you for what you did for me."
Hinata sucked in a sudden breath, almost a gasp, and hesitantly turned her head back to face him, her pale white eyes reflecting the lunar light. "Wh-" She licked her lips. "What would you need to... what did I do that you'd have to thank me for, Naruto-kun?"
It's... not obvious? Naruto shifted uncomfortably on his hard seat. This hadn't seemed so hard at first, but Hinata's reaction had thrown him off. "You know... during my fight... with Gaara. You... called my name. I heard you." I felt the warmth on my cheek...
Now she was definitely blushing and Naruto wasn't sure that he wasn't as well. "I... you... um... I'm glad I was... able to help you, Naruto-kun. It was the least I could do." She looked away again. "I hadn't really had a chance yet to properly repay you for saving Hanabi-chan and myself from Orochimaru."
Naruto blinked, surprised. "Oh...? Uh, I'm sure you already thanked me, you know, when I let you out of the cell, and when you came to see me in the hospital at the Fortress." Now that he thought about it, it was starting to bother him that Hinata kept seeing him confined to an infirmary after getting a severe beating. Even though he'd won against Gaara, being hospitalised afterwards still left him looking pretty uncool. He grinned awkwardly at her, rubbing the back of his head. "Anyway, you don't have to thank me for saving you, Hinata, it was nothing."
Her head snapped look at him again and Naruto was shocked to see a look in her ivory eyes that bordered on fiery. "It wasn't 'nothing,' Naruto-kun!" she insisted fiercely. "It meant a lot to me that you came for me! You saved my life -mine and Hanabi-chan's- just like I knew you would! It's important to me!"
The force in her voice made him rock back in shock. He'd only been trying to be modest when he'd shrugged off her thanks, he certainly hadn't expected that kind of reaction. "Uh... I didn't mean... OK. Um..." Come to think of it, all modesty aside it hadn't been "nothing" to him either, had it? Even before he'd given his solemn word to Kiba, Hinata's rescue had been the foremost thing on his mind from the moment that he'd heard of her survival. Naruto liked to think he would have done the same for any citizen of Konoha who'd been taken prisoner by Orochimaru, but... would it have been the same?
His words didn't so much make Hinata settle as deflate, practically shrinking into herself. "Oh... no, I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. I... shouldn't have-"
"No," he interrupted, "please don't apologise, Hinata. And don't worry about repaying me either. You already did when you saved me from the Kyuubi." With your voice. And... He blushed and looked away from her again. I still don't know why she did that. "That would have been far worse than just my death if you hadn't... done that. So... I'm the one who has to thank you for that, Hinata," he muttered awkwardly.
"You're... you're welcome, Naruto-kun," she whispered. "Shall we... just call it even?"
"Yes!" he agreed in relief. "We're all good. All square. That's fine."
For a moment they sat there on the edge of the pillar in silence. Despite the beauty of the view, the desert night was as chilly as always and the midnight wind chose that moment to rise up again, biting at them viciously. Naruto shivered as the freezing gust raked along his cheeks and glanced sideways at Hinata again. Having presumably left her jacket down in her tent below, with her vigorous exercise keeping her warm up until now, she was visibly trembling in the cold and rubbing her bare arms with her hands. Without thinking he shuffled across on the stone until he was sitting right up close against her, blocking out the chill wind blowing between them. As soon as their bodies touched, Hinata drew in a sharp breath, but she didn't pull away. "Is that better, Hinata?" he asked her. "I mean, unless you'd prefer to just go back down and get some sleep...?"
"Oh... no... it's... fine, Naruto-kun." The words drifted from Hinata's mouth like she was barely aware that she was even speaking. "It... I'm happy to stay out here... a bit longer with you." Naruto snuck a sideways glance at her face. Her white eyes were wide open, staring straight forward, and her expression was strangely blank. He could feel her body trembling and mentally congratulated himself for being considerate enough to think of this. Although I didn't really think about it, did I? I just did it. Sitting this close to her he could feel the warmth of her flesh, even faintly smell the sweat she'd built up during her training.
The claws ripped into defenceless flesh, shredding the life from the girl's body as if seeking to tear out and devour her soul.
The nightmare memory flashed across his mind a lightning bolt, almost causing physical pain. Naruto flinched and gritted his teeth as he willed away the false images and sensations of the catastrophe that hadn't happened. Just a dream. It was just a dream. It will never happen. "Hey... Hinata?" he said softly, staring blankly out across the night dunes below them. There was one more thing he needed to get off his chest. "I'm sorry if... I scared you during the fight with Gaara. You know, when the fox... almost had me."
She looked at him, surprise in her eyes. "Eh? I wasn't..." Her voice trailed off for a moment. "Yes, I was afraid," she admitted. It stung a little, but Naruto felt oddly relieved by the confession; he didn't want her telling obvious lies just to spare his feelings. "The Kyuubi was terrifying. I was almost as scared of it as I was of Orochimaru. But..." Her face dropped and her voice faded to a whisper until Naruto had to strain to hear, even with her mouth mere inches from his ear. "...what I was most afraid of was the thought of losing you, Naruto-kun."
Something hot sparked inside his chest, a steady warmth that permeated out through his body, down to the tips of his frozen fingers and up into his head until his ears practically glowed. It was a feeling he couldn't put a name to, a strange melange of happiness, gratitude and comfort that he'd never felt before. Naruto had already been well aware that Hinata was one of the few people who actually cared about him- the way she'd returned to save him from the brutal beating Orochimaru had given him, even though it had been to cover her escape that he'd challenged the snake-nin in the first place, was proof enough. Hinata was one of his few and treasured friends. So why was this simple sentiment having such an effect on him now?
"Hinata," he whispered unthinkingly. The girl hesitantly raised her face to meet his again and the light of the full moon illuminated her radiantly, shining off her pearly eyes like a pair of silver mirrors. They were suddenly inexplicably captivating to him. She really does have beautiful eyes. Without even thinking, he lifted his right arm and wrapped it around her back, gently pulling Hinata closer to him. His other arm came up and his hand settled onto her slender shoulder, turning her body to face him. The girl stared at him, glowing eyes wide, short breaths escaping her delicate, slightly-parted lips. He felt the warmth of that breath brushing against his own mouth as her eyes grew larger and larger in his sight.
There was barely a finger's breadth between them when the desert wind rose again, slashing across the side of his face like an icy slap.
What am I doing...?
The thought was like the cold steel of a blade's edge being pressed threateningly against his throat. Naruto blinked as he suddenly took stock of his position, less than half a second away from kissing Hyuuga Hinata on the lips. What... what the HELL am I DOING?! Slowly, carefully, trying not to make any sudden movements but uncertain whether he was even capable of hasty motion with the paralysing numbness that had gripped his body, Naruto moved back away from Hinata again, taking his hands off her delicately as if she were a live bomb and leaning back. He wished he was dead. Confusion and shame warred in his head, but he couldn't look away from Hinata, as if he was staring down a wild cat that would attack him if he broke eye contact. She stared back, her expression frozen, wide eyes gazing at him in shock. WHAT did I almost do?! He didn't know what to do. Didn't know what to say. Didn't know what to think. "Hi-Hina...ta..." he stammered hopelessly, trying to form an apology, an explanation, a coherent sentence even.
The girl blinked her silver eyes just once, then tore away from him with a startled gasp. Moving in a panicked blur, Hinata spun to her feet, turned, ran and leapt from the top of the spire. Jerked out of his paralysis, Naruto scrambled to his feet and ran to the edge, peering out into the darkness after her. He couldn't see any sign of the girl- she'd simply vanished into the night. "HINATA!" he shouted, uncaring of who might hear him, but his voice was swallowed up by a violent surge of wind that slapped across his face as if to punish him for his stupidity.
I have to... I have to do... what? Go after her? Let her go? Go tell Kakashi-sensei? Stay here? Follow her? Leave her be? I... I...
Naruto dropped helplessly to his knees, clasping his aching head with both hands, berating himself for his own stupidity. An indecisiveness like he'd never known paralysed him. "I... Hinata, I... what was I... what did I... why did I... AAAARGH!"
The moon glared down at him mockingly as his thoughts chased each other round and round his head without finding an answer.
TO BE CONTINUED...
################
AFTERWORD: OK, so this wasn't at ALL the original plan for this chapter; you may have guessed that from the fact that the chapter's title is different from both the "Next time" bit at the end of Chapter 10, and from the now-removed teaser. Fact is, it basically ended up being unavoidable when I was about 2/3 of the way through the chapter and realised that I was already well over 26,000 words already (Chapter 10, by far the longest chapter I'd written to date, was itself only about 28,000 words). When the story has run away from me that badly, I really didn't have any choice but to break it into two parts (something I've admittedly done before, but only in action-heavy arcs like the Earth-nin's Revenge story of Chapters 4-6 and the Sound Rescue story of 8-9), otherwise it risked becoming simply too long to be comfortable to read. I think I got so caught up in writing the character-focused stuff that followed on from the ending here that I lost track of exactly how much stuff I'd already done at the start of the chapter- broken in half like this, this chapter is still over 16,000 words, which is comparatively short but still quite a decent length. I hope. I'd also lost sight of how much meat the interactions between the characters in the chapter, particularly Naruto and Gaara, actually gave it, so I hope it didn't feel like too much of an anticlimax after all this time.
So yeah, it's about time we got down to brass tacks: yeah, the story is, ultimately, NaruHina. It's still not going to be romance-focused, the fic is an action drama, not a love story, but their relationship is part of the story (my ideal comparison is to 'Avatar: the Last Airbender', where Aang and Katara's relationship was a constant and significant part of the story, but not really central to the greater plot). Some people will, unfortunately, hate that because the NaruHina vs NaruSaku (among others) shipping war is one of the most intense and vitriolic in fandom history, but I'm afraid these people, if there are any reading my story (and I've received a couple of indicative reviews already), will have to either accept what's here, or stop reading. I'd prefer it if people would judge my story based on its plot and writing quality, rather than basing everything on the pairings I favour. Mind you, I imagine any NaruHina haters (if they'd even made it through Chapter 10) will have already given up before they get to this afterword anyway.
You know, in the more than a year since the release of Chapter 10 (it's pathetic, I know), I still haven't gotten around to reading more than the first chapter of Gaiden, let alone investigating Boruto. Spoilers are nasty things (one particular dumbass posted a rather bluntly-titled video that popped up on my Youtube video list with no warning and totally ruined a major plot twist that I'd rather not have known about) and quite frankly I find myself not exactly that keen on continuing to follow it. As I've often espoused, by the end of the Naruto manga I was basically only reading to see NaruHina get resolved (so sue me, I really like the pairing), because the manga itself sure wasn't very good any more. I guess it's something I still have on my Should List (my list of things I "should do"), but between reading manga, reading books, watching anime, watching non-anime TV shows, watching movies, playing games, playing more games, playing endless hundreds of backlogged games, I could type out everything on my Should List and it'd be longer than the entire fic so far (and that's just recreational things I should do)!
Speaking of things I should do, if you're wondering about how my writing career is going... don't.
Anyway, with the former Chapter 11 being split into two, I can't speak for how quickly I can complete the new Chapter 12. If you did the simple math based on what I already said you'd already have worked out that I'd already written about another 10,000 words for it, which happens to be roughly half-way through- but I'll confess, the part I'm up to is hard. I don't have anything even approaching a regular work schedule, so the best I can do is keep plugging away at it whenever I can. I might be able to have it out by Christmas, but I'd hate for you to quote me on that. If I can work out exactly how the climax of the chapter plays out, I might be able to go on a tear, but otherwise I could end up stalled for ages again. As always, I beg your understanding and forgiveness.
Incidentally, I'm still pondering whether or not to begin releasing my other Naruto fanfic, 'For Love'. If you haven't heard me mention it before, it's the story I work on (well, one of them anyway) whenever I'm out of the house, writing on my tablet, so it doesn't cross over with the wok on Secret Songs, which I exclusively write on my desktop. I've gotten 3 1/2 chapters of it already written, but I'm trying to stockpile them in advance before I begin to release them, so it doesn't have as many massive delays as Secret Songs has wound up having. I've barely been out of the house at all in the last several months, so work on For Love has pretty much slowed to a crawl and I'm wondering if I shouldn't just put it out there to see what kind of response it gets? I'll think about it some more.
As always, I apologise for the delay and would just remind you that I appreciate any feedback you give me.
NEXT TIME:
As our heroes return home in triumph, the survivors of the Leaf must decide what their new path will be. Some must make peace with their past, others must face the present, but all must look to the future. Weakness becomes strength, pain becomes resolve and hearts speak true in Naruto: The Secret Songs of the Ninja chapter 12 - The Song of the Way Forward.
- Arcane Azmadi
