I don't really like this chapter that much and it's kind of short. Hopefully the next one will be better.
Chapter twenty
The whole walk was… quiet, a little too quiet for Sakura's liking. She knew allowing Gaara to escort her home would be a silent trip; Gaara was never really one to talk. But Sakura was. Sure over her time with the red head she has grown use to his silence and learned when it's the best time to talk with him around but that doesn't mean it makes things any less comfortable.
They continued on the path that Sakura takes everyday when she headed home, they even pass the little clearing where they met up during every night. It was a little weird for the pinkette to pass the clearing without stopping to visit Gaara, but it was even weirder to be walking with him past this point. She then realized this would the first time he'll know where she lived. Or she assumed he doesn't know where she lived for he never followed after her when they had their little evening meetings. Gaara didn't seem like the starker type so she really doubted that he has ever followed her home before.
By the time they left the training grounds, Sakura couldn't take the silence anymore, no longer caring if Gaara wanted to talk or not.
"So," she began. "Have you started your training yet?"
The red head stopped walking, looking up at Sakura, blinking his eyes. He seemed a little surprise that she spoke, talking to him. He wasn't use to having people talk so willingly openly to him like Sakura. Maybe that's why he always comes and sees her all the time, to have someone else to treat him like a human then a monster then his sensei.
"I start tomorrow." he answered. "Sensei and I are going to be away for a while."
"Away? Where are you going?" she asked, slightly startled to hear that he was leaving.
"Somewhere to train in peace, somewhere away from other people for their own safety."
"How long will you be gone?"
He thought for a moment. "Five days at the least, that's what sensei hopes. But perhaps a week, that's the max of it. He needs to train my brother to."
"And you're leaving tomorrow?" he nodded. "Is that why you're escorting me home, to tell me?"
He paused for a moment before he starts continuing walking with Sakura. "Part of it, and I wanted to see you before I left."
Silence fell over them once more as they entered Sakura's neighborhood. They didn't speak again until they reached Sakura's door step.
"So this is where you live?" Gaara looked up at the small two-store house.
She blushed, rubbing the back of her neck. "Yeah, it's not much but its quite nice inside. My mom really decorated it quite nicely compared to it before when we moved in."
The red head nodded, still looking up at the building. "It's strange to see how this village was built compared to the buildings of Suna."
"Are they really that much different."
"Kind of."
Silence fell between them once more.
"Thanks for escorting me back." the pinkette whispered. "It was sweet."
Gaara nodded, not looking up at her.
"I hope your training goes well and that you come back safe." she said.
"I will." he answered.
Sakura smiled a bit, turning to face her door and twisted the door handle. But before she entered inside her home, an idea popped into her head. It was kind of a stupid one but also a sweet one.
Quickly she turned around to face Gaara and gentle gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, causing the red head's eyes to widen in shock. With a satisfied smile on her face, Sakura quickly entered inside her home leaving the shock Sand nin on her doorstep.
(B R E A K)
"Where is he? I was sure I saw him come through this way." Naruto muttered in the middle of street. "I just have to find that old pervert and get him to teach me. The way he beat up Ebisu was awesome, I've got to find him."
Looking down at the two streets in front of him, Naruto finally choose the left street and took of looking for the old pervert. From the shadows, Jiraiya stepped out and watched the blonde kid raced down the street and disappeared from sight.
"Finally, I lost him." said Jiraiya. "Now back to my research."
With a usual pervert grin on his face, Jiraiya quickly headed back to the hot springs and pick up where he left off before the kid showed up. With his note book and pencil out, the sage sat down in the spot he was in before, and looked through the little hole in the wall, giggling quietly to himself.
For ten minutes he continued to do his 'research', uninterrupted until he was caught peeking again. Only this time, it was someone he was not expecting.
"You never do change, do you sensei?"
Jiraiya jumped insight shock to be caught a second time, quickly putting his notes away as he turned around sheepishly to the one that caught him. He was prepared to talk his way out of this until he saw who it was that caught him.
"Y-You!" Jiraiya said in shock.
(B R E A K)
"Harder! With a kick like that you will get nowhere!"
"Hai!"
Sakura sent a harder kick to the dummy hanging in front of her, managing to send it rocking back from the kick on the rope it hanged on.
"Good. Now again!"
She kicked it once more.
"Again! But with more force!"
She kicked it.
"Again!"
Once more.
"Again!"
The dummy was sent flying back.
"Again!"
Sakura yelled as she sent one more powerful kick, causing the dummy to finally split its gut and spill the sand out from inside it.
Seeing this, Hana smirked in satisfaction. "Perfect."
Sakura watched the sand spill out from the dummy, laughing nervously. "Looks like I broke it, sorry."
"It's not training if you don't breaks something every once in a while." said Hana.
The pinkette smiled. "Is that another Inuzuka say?"
"Yep. My mother would always tell me and Kiba the same thing every time we go out training." Hana grinned.
"That would make senses why Kiba broke all the training equipment back in the academy."
The brunette smiled at that and looked up to the sky, looking to the sun's position. "Let's take a quick ten minute break before we start training again. I have one more hour left to spend with you before I have to head to work."
Sakura nodded, falling back to the ground from exhaustion. Hana sat down beside the exhausted Genin as her three dogs came and joined her, Suzune sat beside Hana and Hato and Washi sat beside Sakura. The pinkette pushed herself up into a sitting position and scratching Washi's back ear, making Washi very happy.
"It looks as if Washi has taken a shining to you." Hana commented.
Sakura giggled, scratching under Washi's chin. "I love animals, always have. But I'm more of a cat person then a dog person."
Wahsi gave her an insulted look that made both the girls laugh.
"How ironic, Itachi said almost the same thing while petting Hato." she snorted. "You really are his student."
Sakura smiled, giving Washi one last pat on the head before she fell back once more. She started up at the blue sky, watching the white puffy clouds slowly go by, slowly taking different shapes and forms. A small snort escaped from her when she realized she was turning into Shikamaru at the moment, cloud gazing, his favorite hobby.
She heard Hana sighed deeply beside her and lay back on the ground. Together, they stared up to the sky, just cloud gazing in peaceful silence. Sakura was begging to see why Shikamaru did this; it's peaceful and relaxing, it takes the stress right out of you. If she could, Sakura would just lie in the grass all day and stare up at the sky.
"Red alert! I repeat, red alert! We are entering laziness!" her inner shouted, red lights going on all around her.
'I am not coming lazy; I'm relaxing. There's a difference.' Sakura said back to her Inner self.
"But you're starting to think like that lazy ass, Shikamaru. If that doesn't call for a red alert then I don't know what does."
'I am not turning to Shikamaru… but if I do, shoot me.'
"You got it boss!" Her Inner said gleefully.
'Hey! Don't sound so happy about it!'
Washi's growl brought Sakura out of her argument with her Inner self. Soon, Hato and Suzune began to growl as well. The three dogs stood up and huddle together as they glared off towards the same direction that Washi was growling at. Hana sat up straight, looking off to where her dogs were glaring at with narrowed eyes.
A few seconds later, an orange and yellow dot appeared off in the fields of the training grounds, growing closer and closer to them. Hana soon relaxed and called her dogs to heel when she caught a whiff of who it was.
"Looks like we have a visitor." she told Sakura.
Before Sakura could ask who the visitor was, it was already answered by the said visitor.
"SAKURA!" came a familiar yell that could only belong to the famous knock headed ninja of the Leaf Village.
"Naruto?"
It was Naruto, now that she got a better look at him.
The blonde was heading towards them, looking distress about something once he reached them.
"Sakura, have you see the Pervy sage?" he asked.
She gave him a weird look. "Who?"
Her friend frowned. "You know the Pervy sage. He's this big guy with long white hair and is a total pervert."
"Naruto, should you be training with the sensei Itachi-sensei assigned you?"
"That Ebisu guy is weak compared to the Pervy sage. I want him to train me instead of that guy. So have you seen him around?" Naruto asked.
"We haven't seen any perverts around if that's what you are asking." said Hana.
"Ah man, I was sure I saw him come this way." the blonde whined. "Maybe I took a wrong turn back there." he scratched the top of his head. "Well, see you later Sakura."
"Bye Naruto." Sakura waved at him as she watched him run off somewhere else.
"I'm starting to wonder how Itachi was able to put up with all three of you." Hana murmured quietly to herself.
Sakura just shook her head at Naruto once he was gone.
"Alright!" Hana clapped her hands together, jumping back onto her feet. "Time to get back to work."
Sakura groan but got up as well
(B R E A K)
"Well, I can't say I'm not surprise to see you two here. I'm actually quite shock."
"We are quite surprise to see you as well, sensei."
Jiraiya grinned, pouring a cup of sake for himself and his two companions. "How long as it been, nine, ten years?"
"I believe it's been fifteen." the woman replied with a smile, picking up her cup.
Jiraiya whistled. "Fifteen years, has it really been that long?"
"It just seems like yesterday to me that the three of us searched out for you to train us." said the last company, taking a sip of his sake.
"Tell me about, it just seems like not that long ago that all of us sat down together like this." The Sanin then had a sad smile as he looked to the man across from him. "I suppose in a way, we are all still here."
Both the man and woman fell silent as they stared down at the table with grim expression, thinking of deceased member of their team. One that if it wasn't for him, neither the man nor the woman would be the people that they are today, or sitting here in the Leaf Village.
"I've heard rumors that you all died when the war was coming to an end. I'm ashamed to say that I believed them, if I have known that either of you were alive I would-"
"It's alright sensei." the woman cut him off, offering her old mentor a small smile. "We understand. There was no way of you knowing that we were alive then, the war ending was chaotic."
But Jiraiya didn't look convinced, looking to the man. "But I still wish I that I knew. Maybe you guys weren't ready to be on your own. There was still so much more I could have still teach you, prepared you for. Then maybe Yahiko would still be here with us."
The man sighed heavily, looking at the palm of his hand with grief. "There was nothing you could have done to safe him, sensei. Yahiko would have died either way then, he gave his life to protect Konan and me."
Jiraiya smiled sadly at him. "I have to say Nagato, I was surprised when I saw you. I thought you were Yahiko then but when I saw your eyes I know you were Nagato."
"Pein." Nagato corrected. "I go by Pein now."
"Oh right, sorry."
"Even if Yahiko is gone I feel like in a way he is still here with us, that with his body his spirit still surrounds me." There was a hint of a smile on Pein's face.
There was a pregnant pause between them, still remembering their last teammate, Yahiko.
"So." Jiraiya broke the silence. "You killed Hanzo and became the new leader of Amegakure I've heard."
The orange haired man stared at the cup in his hand. "I didn't attend to be the new leader of the village but I couldn't let him get away for killing Yahiko like he did either."
The Sanin nodded. "I didn't know Hanzo was the one that killed Yahiko because he feared that Yahiko would push him out of power."
"Yahiko had no attention to do that." Konan added in. "He just wanted to have Hanzo listen to his ideas of peace, a better future for our village."
"But the bastard believed that he was just after his power and murdered Yahiko and tried to kill us to." Pein said bitterly.
"If I known then what I know now of Hanzo, I would have killed the bastard myself before he tried to touch any of you." Jiraiya scowled.
Pein and Konan smiled faintly at their sensei's words.
"So what have you been up to all this time, sensei? Still writing?" Konan asked.
"Yup, and I am happy to say I am quite a famous author now." he said with pride.
Konan snorted. "Yes, among the other perverts you are. Really sensei, porno books?"
"Aw, so you two know my work?"
"Unfortunately." Pein said.
"I was mortified." Konan muttered into her cup.
"Hey! My work isn't bad. I'll let you know I'm a bestselling author!" Jiraiya said with pride.
"There you are!"
The three shinobis at the table looked out towards the street to see a blonde Genin dress in orange, only standing a couple of feet from their table. The boy was huffing lightly, like he had run for miles, (which he has) looking irritated as he glared at Jiraiya.
"You!" Naruto pointed at Jiraiya. "I've been looking for you all over the place."
Jiraiya cursed under his breath and then muttered. "I thought I lost him at the market square."
"I want you to train me!" Naruto proclaim.
"No way." Jiraiya replied.
"Well to bad! I'm not leaving you alone until you agree to train me." Naruto stated.
Konan giggled faintly from behind her hand. "Now this is a familiar scene." she said.
"So it is." Pein agreed.
"What are you two muttering about?" the sage asked.
"Sensei," Konan started, "Doesn't this seen look familiar to you at all? Picture two more kids with a rainy back drop."
Jiraiya looked confuse for a moment before it finally dawn on him where Konan and Pein were talking about.
He then burst out laughing. "Well what do you know, this is familiar."
"What the heck are you talking about?" Naruto shouted, feeling impatient and irritated for being left out of the loop of something.
They ignored him.
"Just train him sensei, we know you want to." the blue haired woman whispered to Jiraiya.
Jiraiya snorted, crossing his arms and looked away. "I don't know what you are talking about, why I would I want to train this brat."
"Look at the Hokage Mountain." Pein said quietly.
The sage froze for a moment before he growled.
"Hey! I'm still here!" Naruto shouted, right beside Jiraiya now. "Are you going to train me or not, Pervy Sage?"
Konan snorted. "Pervy sage."
Pein smirked. "How fitting for you."
"Shut up!" their sensei yelled.
Konan just giggled again, turning to Naruto with a smile. "He'll train you."
"Wha!" their sensei looked at her in horror. "No I won't!"
"He will." Pein added in.
"Stop speaking for me!"
"Do you guys know the Pervy sage?" Naruto looked at the two Rain nin.
The orange haired man nodded. "He was our sensei a long time ago."
The blonde pouted and glared at Jiraiya. "You'll teach shinobis from other villages but not me!"
"Would you two shut up already, you're not helping me here!" Jiraiya glared Pein and Konan.
"We didn't say we were trying to help you." Pein said blankly.
"So are you teaching me or not?" Naruto whined at the older man.
"He's teaching you." Pein told him. "He'll meet you here tomorrow, at nine o'clock."
"Alright!" Naruto cheered. "I will so be here tomorrow!"
Pein smirked as he watched Naruto race off to prepare for his first day of training with Jiraiya.
"Do you two hate me, is that it?"
"Of course not sensei." Konan smiled.
"We just pity the kid is all." Pein took a sip of his drink.
"Just face it, you were going to train him anyway." said the blue haired woman.
"What's makes you so sure about it."
"Because he's your older student's son, the Fourth Hokage." said Pein.
There was a moment of silence over them.
"So you see it to then" the sage asked.
Pein nodded. "He looks exactly the like the picture you showed us of Minato when he was his age. The resemblance is striking."
Jiraiya smiled faintly, leaning back in his seat. "Minato was one of a million. He was something special, almost more special then you, Nagato."
"And I have no doubt that's true from all the stories you use to tell us about his strength and abilities. I would have liked to meet him one day and see how great he was ourselves." said the orange haired man.
"Perhaps there is something special about this one." said Konan.
Jiraiya nodded, raising his sake cup. "Let's hope so."
There it is people, the Gaasaku moment you've all been waiting for! The reason why it was a long wait is because I like to start things slow with pairings. I don't like to go straight into things. Friendship before romance.
Please view!