Remembering Sand-Surfing

A/N: I tend to use one character to tell a story a lot; therefore, unless the speaker changes between chapters, I won't bother naming the POV at the start of a chapter.

I tried to focus on training for a while. But a couple days after Naruto and the others left, I got bored. That night, I dragged Kai out and started setting up my Distance Chat Jutsu. After all, I justified to myself, this counts as training – it's a ninjutsu!

I didn't pick Naruto; for one thing, Little Naruto immediately started shaking his head at me when I reached for him, so apparently my spirit-brother has a lot on his mind. I chose Gaara; sure, as Kazekage he was likely to be busy, but frankly, I'm not sure Gaara gets the chance to just talk, or even just spend time enjoying someone's company.

When I activated the jutsu, I found that sure enough, Gaara was awake. Just going by how he was sitting on the chair I'd plunked Kai in, he was looking over some paperwork.

"Hey, Gaara."

Gaara flinched. One has to know Gaara to really catch something like that – I'd startled him a little.

"Sorry, cousin, I didn't mean to startle you."

That one word tipped him off as to who was addressing him. "Miyo."

"You feel like taking a break?"

He was quiet for a second. Then he shoved the chair back. "Why are you awake at this hour?"

"I'm too keyed-up to sleep for some reason. I called because I was bored out of my mind."

Gaara smiled. He didn't smile all that often, but I counted it progress that I could get him to smile at least once every conversation we've ever had.

I set my hand on his shoulder. This was mostly warning for what I was considering doing next. It was always strange to me when I touched Kai during Distance Chat Jutsu. It felt like I was touching a plush toy, but at the same time it felt like I was touching a flesh-and-blood living being. I almost wondered what it felt like on the other end.

Gaara

I could almost feel the warmth of her hand when she did that. Mostly all I felt was pressure in the shape of a handprint.

"Miyo…the final stage of the Chunin Exams will come sooner than you expect, and you need your rest."

"I know…and while I'm physically tired, I can't get to sleep!" Then an invisible weight eased down into my lap and leaned against my chest.

That didn't take long to figure out. Miyo still valued physical contact, and she'd chosen to sit on my lap like a child. I set my hand on her back, briefly closing my eyes to do so. Attempting to touch something one can't see is…somewhat unnerving, which is why I'd closed my eyes.

Miyo's voice reached my ears again. "Gaara…remember when I'd asked if we could test out some team maneuvers, and I suggested sand-surfing?"

I started laughing. "Do I ever!"

"Hey, Gaara? We ought to try out some team maneuvers. I mean, what if some fight comes up while I'm still here?"

Gaara looked at Miyo. "What did you have in mind?"

"Ah…I've got this little idea…you moving your sand around, and I'm running or sliding along it. Even if it's just a gimmick, it'd be fun to try out." She cocked her head at him. "You never really had fun growing up, did you?"

Gaara was quiet for a minute. Then he closed his eyes and shrugged.

Miyo counted that as a victory. "Sweet! Let's go try it out!"

So they headed to an open spot outside the village and Gaara called some sand up. "Have you ever actually done anything like this?"

"Ah…once during a high wind I'd leaped up and used falling leaves as stepping stones." Miyo leaped up and into the sand.

Gaara started using the sand to form pathways for her, circling them up, around, and back down past him to loop upwards behind him.

Miyo was game for the challenge. She ran up the pathway, circled around, and started sliding down towards Gaara.

She had just about drawn even with him when suddenly her foot slipped and she fell towards him. Everything happened so fast that not even Gaara's sand was able to react to the change before Miyo collided with him.

And their lips intersected.

For a long second, the two pairs of black-rimmed eyes just stared at each other in astonishment as sand rained down on them from Gaara's losing focus.

Miyo was the one to react first. She caught his shoulders and pushed herself off of him. "Well, that didn't go according to plan; you want to try a do-over?"

Gaara kept staring for a moment. Then an odd, dry sound came from his throat. The sound became a hoarse, ill-used chuckle; then the chuckle increased until he was outright laughing.

Miyo stared at him. Well, that's one of the spookier laughs I've ever heard. I could get used to it, though.

Miyo

I grinned up at Gaara. "It's funny, because right before I moved, all I could think was 'awkward!' I finally just said the first thing that came into my head to try to defuse the awkwardness."

Gaara's laugh dropped back into a chuckle, and he looked down at me. Well, looked in my direction; he still couldn't actually see me. "You certainly did that!"

"Well hey, at least the technique worked when that assassin tried to do you in, right?"

Kunai were flying everywhere, mostly from the assassin. Miyo had missed the guy's name, and frankly, considering Gaara was his target, it didn't matter. He wasn't actually succeeding in hurting them, but he also had some jutsu keeping them from attacking him directly.

Miyo leaped backward and landed next to Gaara. "Hey, I've got a plan, but it's weird."

"It works for me; I tried attacking him from all angles and my sand isn't penetrating. What's your idea?"

"Two words, Gaara: sand surfing."

His face twitched. Miyo had found a couple weeks back that all she needed to do anymore was bring that up and he would start laughing. He was doing his best to hold that laugh back this time, mostly because he could tell she was serious.

"You either lock yourself in your sand ball to keep safe or just keep dodging, and have your sand carrying me around. I'll shift my feet the way I want the sand to move, and try to stay unpredictable."

Gaara leaped out of the way of another projectile, with Miyo following. When they landed, he asked, "And do you want me to have my sand cling to your feet so that you don't slip?"

"No." She left it at that.

Gaara considered his options. Then he gave her a sand pillow to hop onto.

She mounted up and scuffed her left foot forward.

Gaara took the cue and sent her flying forward, as he leaped in the opposite direction.

The next couple of minutes involved Miyo signaling him what to do with the sand with her left foot, and Gaara dodging attacks and moving her about.

If she turned her foot to the right, he sent her right.

If she turned her foot to the left, he sent her left.

Digging in her heel meant up, and tapping her toe into the sand meant down.

At first, Gaara didn't understand why she was sending him every signal except for ultimately "towards the assassin." Then he got it: she was trying to make sure the assassin forgot all about her.

And after that couple of minutes, it seemed to be working – Miyo hadn't had to signal any dodges for a full thirty seconds.

Then she gave him a new signal: up-left.

He sent her upwards and towards the assassin. Reading a couple toe-taps, he edged her so that she would be going more-or-less past the target. Once she was lined up with the target, she signaled just up, and he sent her upwards.

Gaara suddenly realized she hadn't stopped signaling "up," and he was sending her up and upside-down!

Just about the time she was right over the assassin…she fell.

She twirled in midair, all but binding herself up in her curtain-cloak and curling up into a ball, and landed squarely on the assassin's head.

Gaara felt enlightened. "Of course: his defense was preventing any direct attacks, but if something were just to fall on him, it wouldn't be stopped." He walked over where Miyo was uncurling on top of the would-be assassin. "Excellent strategy, Miyo."

She sat up, shook sand from her hair, looked up at him and grinned. "Sand-surfing is awesome!"

Then Gaara felt like he had the option of laughing.

Gaara was busy laughing a bit more and agreeing with my statement when I yawned.

He noticed that…felt it, probably. "You'd better get some sleep, cousin."

"I know…good night, cousin." I hugged him, he hugged me back, and I ended the jutsu.

"At least talking with Gaara helped me relax enough to sleep," I voiced to myself as I climbed into bed.

Boredom plus nerves equals one sleepless night. I just hope it stays at one.