Do You Hate Me?
Title subject to change, rating PG13 to be on the safe side.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I do own the plot of this story (for as far as there is one) and the extra characters I may or may not add.
Response to reviews at the bottom, be sure to read the A/N's.
Chapter 13 – Laying the Foundation – Part I:
Friendship...
What was it really?
This was the question that plagued the back of Gaara's of mind as he sat on his plain futon in his cold and bare room, looking out of the only window at the grey and dreary autumn sky, while his sister had gone with Naruto and Kumiko's team somewhere in an attempt to get to know one another better.
The answer to what friendship was might have been easy for some, but not Gaara. Never in his entire life had anyone willingly wanted to become his friend. That didn't mean he had not tried, no, he had. But always he had been rebuffed; always they ran away from him in fear...
Yet someone had not...
Faced with the prospect of losing someone precious to him, a child that everyone underestimated had stood up to Gaara of the Desert. Naruto was his name and he had fought Gaara with everything he had and more, he had pushed himself past his limits, all that to protect someone. It had shocked the redhead when he realized he was losing, even after putting himself under a fake sleep Jutsu that temporarily let the demon that resided within him to take over.
The boy's memories swirled in a haze as he recalled that day... Recalled the long and arduous battle that had followed... Recalled the pain and exhaustion, the fatigue that had overcome him, and no doubt also overcome his opponent...
The faintest flash of emotion flickered across the pale blue-green eyes as they watched the uncertain autumn sky outside.
Those eyes... Those innocent blue eyes had looked at him, fixed intently into his... The boy's entire body was bruised, injured, wearied. And yet, those eyes had remained bright, clear... And with the intensity of that blue gaze, the boy had dragged himself closer, too pained, too injured to move his body...
But his heart hadn't given up... Within those blue eyes there had been the spark of a rare unquenchable fire, a flame that had never once wavered, never flickered in uncertainty... His chin scraping against the unyielding ground, dragging his battered body closer and closer...
He had understood...
'Being alone... Being incomplete... What you must feel... What your pain must be, I understand that...'
The energy may have gone out of his body, his arms... but those eyes...
Something else... somebody else had awakened within those eyes...
And for the first time in a long, long time, Gaara had been afraid...
Even when they were in no shape to fight any longer, Naruto still stubbornly clung on to consciousness, refusing to give up...
The stirring of the being within him, the raging fury in those eyes, his whisper filled with determination, strength, will...
'But... For the people that are precious to me, to be able to...
The people that are precious to me... If you are hurting them... And if you are trying to kill them...
I will stop you...'
'What? Until now, for the sake of other people, you've...'
'Because they rescued me from the hell of being alone... They acknowledged my existence. That's why they are all the most important...'
'Love...'
Those words had changed his life... It had changed everything...
Something had stirred within him... Had glowed...
He'd felt something within him that was alien, so strange...
...Warmth...
A shifting of something that had slept for so long, and now had been awakened... The spreading of wings, the feeling of sudden lightness...
It was hope, it was... understanding... and these rays were piercing through the murky blackness, the confusion of his heart and his soul... They were breaking through like the rays of the sun...
When his sister and brother had intervened and carried him as they fled the Fire Country, Gaara had all the time in the world to think about his current situation. He realized that he didn't want this at all; he didn't want to be a ruthless murderer that would kill people just for the fun of it and in the most gruesome way possible. He didn't want to spill their blood senselessly in a macabre offering to his 'mother', which he by then realized was the demon that had possessed him at birth in the first place.
He found himself starting to resist the demon called Shukaku, with its false promises and seductive lies, and with its thunderous roars of outrage when he had dared displease him. Nothing stood between him and gory bloodbaths but his iron will.
Shukaku of course, had not been pleased, not at all. With every passing day he had sent wave after wave of mental attacks at the red-haired boy, hoping that his resolve would crumble. And even though Gaara was determined to remain strong, he felt his control slipping away, like grains of sand being swept away from a large dune, never to be seen again.
Gaara was no fool, even though he was struggling to hold the demon in check and was trying hard to change himself for the better, he knew that he still inspired fear inside his siblings' hearts. Nearly a decade of spending time with a person that killed without the slightest bit of hesitation had that effect on people.
With an unfamiliar smile tugging at his lips, he came to the conclusion that it didn't really matter, what was most important was that they tried. They really tried to get along with him and wanted him to feel comfortable. After years of painful solitude, that had to be the greatest gift anyone could ever give him, after those long, long years his brother and sister still cared.
But something had happened only a day before, and that was really the reason why he was up in his room in the first place. As if it wasn't enough, Naruto had come up to him and asked politely if he could talk to him. Obliging, he led them towards the living-room where they had, what could have been, the oddest conversation two people could share between them.
Naruto had confessed to Gaara, that he also had a demon living inside of him. It was the dreaded Kyuubi, the fox-demon that inspired terror into the people of old. It was almost laughable that it had been sealed inside a boy that truly was its opposite. Naruto never really wanted to hurt anyone, he never wanted to be a tool that killed people meaninglessly. He only wanted to protect the people he cared about, and even though Gaara didn't know much about nobility, that had to be the most noblest cause he had ever heard.
Gaara wasn't alone anymore; the ray of hope and warmth that previously filtered in through a crack of his cold heart suddenly found itself streaming in through a wide chasm like a newborn star. What was more, Naruto sincerely wanted to become his friend. Hopefully with his help, maybe Gaara would really find the answer to what that really was.
Gaara stood up and blinked his azure eyes slowly. 'I'm not your slave anymore, demon.' He thought to point out his defiance to Shukaku. All he received in reply was a faint chuckle that disturbed him more than any obvious and painful attack ever would.
As he walked to the door of his room to go downstairs, he suddenly heard someone speak from behind it, it seemed he had been too busy pondering about what had happened to him and never noticed anyone return from their trip.
"Thank you for doing this, Naruto-kun." A female voice said, followed quickly by what surely sounded like a passionate kiss.
A short time went by until the other person evidently broke himself free. "Don't worry about it, Temari-chan. I really want to become his friend. He..." Naruto's voice trailed off. "He deserves it, I think."
Another kiss resounded vaguely from behind the door. "Yes he does, and so do you." Temari said and evidently walked away, as her footsteps echoed softly through the long hallway of the first floor.
A long silence followed her departure and Gaara was beginning to wonder whether Naruto had also left until a sharp knock on his door startled him slightly.
Stepping back and turning his back towards the entrance to his room, he spoke up softly. "Come in."
With a creak, his door was opened and revealed a slightly flushed Naruto. "Hey Gaara." He said in a fake cheerful tone, obviously nervous for some reason.
"Hello." Was the short response as he motioned for Naruto to sit down somewhere without looking at him directly.
Naruto looked around and spotted a simple unpainted wooden chair, and after taking a few steps towards it he sat down and immediately stared down at his heavy brown boots, unwilling to look Gaara in the eye.
Without making a comment about the blonde boy's behaviour, Gaara also sat back down on his futon, caressing the tangible reminder of his unique situation, the heavy gourd filled with sand that was placed right next to him.
An uncomfortable silence settled down on the two of them, but obviously Gaara coped with it better as Naruto finally spoke up. "You know..." He started, trying futilely to start a conversation. "About yesterday..." He tried again, breathing in deeply and fingering the small necklace that hung around his neck.
Gaara waited patiently, in the way apparently only he could do, for Naruto to continue and settled his unwavering gaze on the blonde boy.
Although the redhead probably knew why he was here, Naruto really wanted to talk about what they had talked about yesterday. About the fact that both of them had a ferocious demon living inside of him and about the fact that he had offered a hand of friendship. But where to start?
Instead, Naruto looked around, taking in his surroundings. He raised an eyebrow slightly as he saw that Gaara really went for functionality instead of warmth as far as his furniture went. Heck, he didn't even have anything decorating his white walls either.
Letting out a deep sigh, Naruto turned to Gaara and flashed him a genuine warm smile. "Hey Gaara, how about we decorate your room a bit?"
Slightly startled, Gaara didn't really know how to respond until he felt that unfamiliar smile creep up on him. "I would..." He hesitated for a moment, trying to get a word that he had not used many times in his life past his lips. "Like that..."
The blonde boy chuckled and clapped his hands together. "Okay." He started, unknowingly already starting to lay the foundations of a strong friendship with the redhead. "You know, your room could really use a splash of orange..."
Sometimes Shikamaru really wished he hadn't been promoted to Chuunin, and this day was no exception. Today, like seemingly every day since he had been promoted, he was dragged out of his bed against his own will by his own mother and was forced to do, what were in his eyes, menial tasks. Well the Hokage called them missions, but the black-haired boy wasn't really too sure.
And after he was finally released from his 'slave-labour' he was allowed to drag himself back to his home. He got paid for the job of course, but since he still lived at home, his mother had insisted that he hand over the majority of his pay over to her so she could put it away for later and give it to him when he was older. This injustice, as he put it, left him with hardly any money at all! He felt this was particularly horrible since he had been eyeing this beautiful onyx and marble chess set for months. But he had blown nearly all of his precious saved up money on that Go set for Naruto's birthday instead. This left him with nothing to do other than placing his hands on the window of the shop where the chess set was displayed and bang his forehead against it with a sad expression on his face until the shop-owner would yell at him to go away after a few minutes had passed. Even if he did tell him it was troublesome to do that almost every day, he seemed to be unable to stop himself from continuing.
He let out a remorseful sigh, yes, he definitely hated the life he was leading now. Already he was forming plans in the back of his super-genius mind of two-hundred plus IQ to somehow retire at a very young age. That way he would be able to lead a peaceful and relaxed life that involved nothing than watching clouds and play games all day as he was given some lemonade by a, for some odd reason, familiar blonde girl.
Taking some more time to mull these things over as he sauntered towards his home, he received a shock of a lifetime when a blonde and blue blur jumped on his back without warning and screeched something painfully in his left ear.
"SHIKA-KUN!!!"
"AAARGH!!!" Shikamaru screamed in return as he dropped face first on the dirt, clutching his left ear with both of his hands. Lifting himself up on his knees, his eyes widened in shock and disbelief. "What the hell did you that for you... YOU WOMAN?!" He yelled angrily due to lack of a proper curse word.
Even though a lot of people seemed to think he was a chauvinist, sexist and all-round women hater, he prided himself on his proper upbringing thank you very much. Well, it was also the fact that he was afraid that his mother would suddenly appear behind him and beat him to a bloody pulp if he ever dared insult a member of the opposite sex.
Seeing Shikamaru in such distress, Ino could only giggle as she put her hands in front of her mouth in a vain effort to hide it from him.
Recovering slightly, Shikamaru sighed. It was bad enough that she had been hounding him after they had visited Chouji in the hospital, but after making him eat that horrible tasting bento she had made for him she seemed to have redoubled her efforts. Sure things were a bit different now, he had to admit that, but she could still get pretty annoying at times. He was sure he was going to show symptoms of cloud-watching deprivation if this kept going on.
"What is it, Ino?" He finally let out in another long sigh.
The blonde girl fumed slightly and gritted her teeth. 'Can't he be a bit more energetic?' She thought until she fluttered her eyelashes at him seductively and pouted in what she hoped was a cute way. All of this was clearly lost on Shikamaru though. "Why won't you call me Ino-chan?" She whined, stressing the word chan for a few moments.
Raising an eyebrow questioningly, the dark-haired Chuunin didn't know why he didn't. Of course, he already had an answer ready, the answer to most of his problems in his life. "It's too troublesome." He explained in a lazy drawl and stuck his hands in the pockets of his dark-coloured pants.
"Awww, Shika-kun. Come on, do it for me. Please?" She asked him with round pleading eyes as she rocked on the balls of her feet and clasped her petite hands in front of her chest as if in prayer. "Pretty please?"
Shikamaru scowled. "Alright already. What so you want from me, Ino... chan?" He asked reluctantly, tasting the words carefully as the rolled off his tongue. He had to admit though, it was a rather nice thing to say for some reason, but he shrugged it off as he repeated his own personal motto to himself once more.
"Oh yeah!" She began excitedly, remembering what she wanted to tell her former teammate in the first place, and clutched his right arm tightly with her perfectly manicured hands.
"Ouch!" Shikamaru complained. "Loosen the grip already, woman!" He demanded, dreading that the blonde girl was going to rip off his limb entirely.
Ino ignored him completely and looked around quickly, darting her head side to side as she tried to find out whether anyone was listening in on them. "Listen, I need to talk to you, I found out something very important!"
"Eh?" Shikamaru inquired languidly and quirked one of his eyebrows slightly. Whatever Ino had to tell him, it probably couldn't be anything good and he definitely didn't want to get involved if that was indeed the case.
"You heard me!" Ino snapped loudly, causing some of the passersby to snap their heads towards them. "You heard me!" She repeated in a harsh whisper. "We can't talk here, I don't want anyone else to know... yet." She said finally as a broad grin appeared on her face and her blue eyes began to sparkle. "So, are you free at the moment?"
"Yeah I guess so, but... whoa, whoah!" The Chuunin managed to utter before Ino tugged on his arm painfully and dragged him forcefully down the street where he had been 'ambushed' by the excited blonde. Shikamaru quickly found out where they were heading though, and started get a slight feeling of dread. Whenever they went to the place where he thought they were going, something strange and unexpected happened. But any and all complaints from him fell on deaf ears as Ino dragged him by his arm much like a mother would do to a small child.
The next morning, Inuzuka Kiba was a terribly unhappy man. Well, he wasn't exactly a man yet since he was only twelve years old, but he liked to think he was at any rate.
The reason for his unhappiness was that, for the second time since the legendary sennin Tsunade had taken up the office of Hokage, she had apparently picked him to be her very own personal messenger-boy. He didn't know why she had to pick him, he just happened to stroll by the office as he and Akamaru were out for a walk. This was why, in the morning while he could have been home training, he was now making his way through the bustling market streets of Konoha with his faithful canine companion.
As they the two of them dodged a particular 'wide' woman as she hollered at other people to buy her goods, waving her particularly foul smelling fish in a desperate attempt to lure them. Judging by the way people held their noses as they passed by though, it seemed she was having very little success indeed. And for Kiba and Akamaru, their very sensitive noses weren't exactly helping them much either.
"Yeah I know, Akamaru." Kiba gasped as he quickly tried to get away from the god-awful smell in response to the whimpering whine his dog let out. "It smells horrible."
The furry creature let out a bark in acknowledgement and wagged its tail as it ran around Kiba's feet in circles.
"Why are you so happy?" The young Genin inquired with a raised eyebrow. "This is the second time we have to go after Naruto just because Hokage-sama wants to see him, you know."
Akamaru let out a series of loud barks in reply.
"You've got to be kidding me. He's an idiot, that's what he is." Kiba huffed and gnashed his teeth as if to accentuate his point.
Again his faithful companion barked something which only his master could comprehend.
"Hey!" Kiba yelled. "You don't have to rub it in! In case you've forgotten, he beat the both of us, remember?!"
Akamaru barked once, cocked his head sideways slightly and almost seemed to grin.
After kicking a small stone that lay in front of him on the street with his foot, causing it to skip across the pavement several times, Kiba turned to his pet. "Yeah whatever, lets just get this over with alright?"
After a few more minutes, the Genin and his companion arrived at the mansion where Naruto lived with his new teammate and the feared Sand-nin siblings, the mere thought of Gaara still made Kiba's skin crawl and Akamaru whimper.
Taking in a deep breath, Kiba walked up to the massive front door resolutely and knocked on it three times in rapid succession while his dog sat on his backside between Kiba's feet, beginning to lick himself clean furiously. This action received a raised eyebrow from the dark-eyed boy. "Who are you trying to impress?"
Akamaru's response was merely a sneeze as his fur tickled his nose and continued to clean himself until the door swung open, revealing a grinning boy with spiky blonde hair.
"Hey Kiba!" He said jovially. "What's up?"
"Pfff. Hell if I know." Kiba scoffed as he placed his hands on the back of his head that was covered by the hood of his standard dark-grey fur-lined jacket. "But I've been sent to tell you that you've got to go see the Hokage in her office."
"Obaa-chan?" Naruto said, narrowing his eyes in clear suspicion. "What does she want from me?"
'Obaa-chan, eh?' The beast-technique using youth wondered but shrugged it off, there were other places where he'd rather be, and after this he also had to pay a visit to the Haruno house to tell Sakura that she had also been summoned. "Didn't I say I don't know? But you're apparently supposed to bring your new teammate too, along with those Sand-nins."
The grin returned to the blonde boy's face as he looked at Kiba's scowl. "Ok then, I'll go and get them. Bye!" He said quickly and slammed the door in Kiba's face.
Raising an index finger in the air and opening his mouth to protest, Kiba stopped himself as he realized that it just wasn't worth the energy. He just wanted to train, was that so bad? So, he contented himself with a drawn out sigh, while Akamaru let out a single loud bark.
"Shut up, Akamaru."
"Hurry up already would you?!" Temari yelled loudly into the house where she, her brothers and now two thirds out of Team Seven lived together.
"Yeah, alright, I'm coming already!" Her brother, Kankuro grumbled as he tugged on the black cap that covered his hair and stepped out of the heavy front-door and closed it behind him with a loud resounding thud.
Naruto, who had been standing with Kumiko and Gaara outside with Temari as she tapped her left foot impatiently, scowled. "Man, I thought only girls could be so slow." He said tactlessly which earned him a whack on the head from his girlfriend while his teammate merely rolled her eyes as she tried to suppress a snort.
Gaara showed the hint of a smile, even though he didn't realize it completely yet, his subconscious found it very amusing whenever he saw his sister getting into an odd situation with his newfound friend. "Let's go." He said simply and turned on his heel, arms folded in front of his chest.
The other four looked at each other for a moment, but quickly followed the redhead as he made his way to the Hokage's office.
For the most part, the trip was calm, but occasionally they came across a villager that ran away screaming at the sight of Gaara, which caused a few raised eyebrows to appear on Naruto's and Kumiko's faces.
After a few minutes and apparently having left those hysteric villagers behind, they came across the place where Naruto had met the Sand-nin siblings several months ago and he couldn't help but snicker.
"What is it, Naruto-san?" Kumiko asked, curious why Naruto would find anything about this place so funny.
The blonde boy grinned at her and then shifted his gaze to Temari. "This is where I met those three for the first time!"
Temari smiled while Gaara had just turned his face and stared at him stonily, Kankuro however, let out a snort.
"Yeah, we met that incompetent brat here. Little did I know that that would be the start of the worst period in my life. Stupid little brats and their... Oof!" The puppet-user managed to say sneeringly before a little something that had a very long scarf trailing behind it, slammed into him. "What the!" He yelled angrily and then pointed at it. "YOU!"
"Ow..." The thing said as it grabbed its long navy blue scarf and wrapped it around its neck while rubbing its nose vigorously.
Naruto laughed. "Hey, Konohamaru! What are you doing here? And where are Udon and Moegi?"
For what seemed the millionth time since she had come to the Hidden Leaf village, Kumiko felt her eyebrow raise high into air in confusion. 'Why is that kid wearing such a long scarf, and... what's with that weird hat...?' She thought as she inspected the peculiar headwear currently seated on top of Konohamaru's head.
The small boy jumped up and dusted himself off, quickly moving away from the quaking Kankuro as he tried to keep his anger in check. "Hey bro!" He said cheerfully before looking around and taking in the other people that were standing near him. Konohamaru hobbled quickly towards Naruto and motioned for him to bend slightly so he could whisper something in his ear. "Udon and Moegi are still in the classroom with Iruka-sensei, I slipped out." He grinned and squinted his eyes mischievously. "Hey, those two girls are really pretty, prettier than that wide fore-headed girl you were with."
Naruto narrowed his eyes happily and tried to hide his wide grin, failing miserably, and put one hand to the side of his mouth. "Yeah that white-haired girl is Kumiko-san, she's my new teammate. And Temari-chan, the other girl, she's my girlfriend, hehehe." He whispered conspiratorially.
"No way bro!" Konohamaru exclaimed, wide-eyed, then pointed at Temari disbelievingly. "That's your girlfriend?!"
If it was even possible, Naruto's grin grew even wider "Yep, hehehehe." He affirmed and beamed proudly at Temari, who blushed slightly in response. "She's great isn't she?"
"Ah man, I'm so jealous." Konohamaru said dejectedly. "She's really scary but she's really pretty too!"
"H-hey!" Temari protested, but didn't know whether she had to feel insulted or complimented but instead decided on glaring at Kumiko as the girl stifled a giggle.
Smoke threatened to come out of Kankuro's ears as he watched and heard the academy student rant on and on about his sister. 'Why you little... Just wait until I get you...' He thought menacingly until a particular comment set him off entirely.
"...That's it!" Konohamaru yelled with his fists raised in determination as he stared intently at the Sand Kunoichi. "I'll capture your heart and steal you away from Naruto-nii-san!"
"Say what?!" Naruto shouted as he nearly face vaulted along with Temari.
"Temari-chan will be mine!" The boy with his oversized scarf vowed.
Kankuro however, had other things in mind. "Come here you little brat!" He roared and ran after Konohamaru with his arms stretched out in front of him to capture said brat.
With a loud squeak, Konohamaru saw Kankuro charge towards him in a blind rage, then dropped to his knees and crawled through the gap between Kankuro's legs to avoid capture and possible disembowelment as the puppet-user made a swipe in the air where Konohamaru's head was just a second ago.
"Hah! You can't catch me, fatass!" The boy grinned triumphantly but quickly ran away as Kankuro came charging after him once more.
When the dust cloud that was caused by Kankuro's furious stampede settled, a quartet of silent Genins were left behind. Three of whom were just struck speechless and one who was always very silent anyway.
"That was..." Kumiko started, but was lost for words as her silvery eyes stared at the direction where Kankuro and Konohamaru had gone.
"Yeah..." Naruto affirmed the unspoken comment as he turned to Temari, hands hanging limply by his sides.
"He'll be back" Gaara stated suddenly, startling the other three slightly. "We're going." He ordered, clearly not allowing anyone to contradict him as he resumed walking towards the Hokage office.
A few minutes later, the group was rejoined by a panting and sweaty Kankuro. "Couldn't... catch... brat... kill him... later..." He gasped
"You couldn't catch a small kid like that?" Kumiko said snidely, not giving up the opportunity to insult him. She would never forgive him for calling her a useless brat.
Kankuro growled but it quickly turned into a hacking cough. "Bite me."
"Shut up, the both of you!" Temari demanded imperiously, receiving two disbelieving stares in return.
Naruto snickered and looked around. The group had already reached Konoha's busiest market, which lay directly in their path to the Hokage's office. Even though it was still small compared to the ones that were in the bigger cities of Konoha, one of which he had visited with Jiraiya, Naruto still marveled at the sheer quantity of goods being sold here.
Rows and rows of stands with many different kinds of foods and spices lined the streets, their owners shouting loudly to catch the attention of any potential customers lest their competitors steal them away. But this didn't interest Naruto; the only food stand he was interested in was the Ichiraku ramen bar.
What really caught his eye was the large number of stands displaying various kinds of weaponry, clothing and... 'Whoah...'
Ignoring the rest of the group, Naruto ran towards a particular item that seemed to call out to him. He couldn't quite explain it, even with the sun's rays not penetrating the grey thick clouds, it still seemed to reflect some kind of light. It almost seemed to glow...
"Hey, where's Naruto-kun?" Temari asked as she noticed her boyfriend's absence.
Kumiko looked around quickly and shrugged. "I don't know."
"There." Gaara said, his azure eyes focused on a single point in the middle of the shopping crowd and pointed a finger towards the spot.
As they walked towards the stand where Naruto was, they heard him having a heated discussion with the owner of a stand which was covered in a large amount of metal trinkets.
"...What do you mean you won't sell it to me?! I even offered you more money for it than the price-tag says!" He questioned hotly.
"I don't sell to your... kind!" The owner yelled back.
"Damn it!" Naruto cursed. "Just sell it to me you stupid bastard, I'll give you twice the amount of money!"
Never one to usually spend his money on frivolous things, and instead saving it for when he needed it later, Naruto was intent on buying this particular item. No way in hell was he going to swallow the treatment he knew he was going to receive from the stand's owner.
"I said no! Now go away you monster!"
"Excuse me..." Kumiko asked calmly, stepping from behind Naruto. "Is there a problem here?"
The owner, a rather scrawny looking man with a very pointed chin grinned, revealing a set of severely yellow teeth. "I'm just explaining to this... boy... That I do not appreciate his patronage and I do not want to sell him the particular item he wants." He explained in a falsely cheery voice while sending a hateful glare towards a scowling Naruto every few seconds. "But you my dear..." The owner continued, not noticing a fuming Temari striding towards him resolutely. "What can I do for you?"
Kumiko smiled sweetly and pointed to someone behind him, tucking her sleek white hair behind her ears with the other hand. "Nothing for me, thank you sir, but I think the girl behind you would like you to help her."
"Huh?" The owner inquired before turning around and suddenly finding himself standing face to face with a seething Temari. "Can I help... Aaah!"
"Yes you can help me!" The Sand-nin growled ominously and grabbed the stand's owner by his expensive looking black vest. "You are going to sell to Naruto-kun whatever the hell he wants!" Temari said, shaking the owner harshly once after every word. "If you don't, I'm going to shove your merchandise so far up your ass; you'll be spitting metal for the rest of your miserable little life! Got it?!"
The owner blanched and gulped audibly. "Y-yes, of c-course!" He stammered weakly, having no doubt that the Kunoichi would make good on her threat. "H-he can h-have it, f-free of charge!"
Both their heads swiveled to Naruto when he spoke up angrily. "I don't want it for free damnit, I said I'd pay double for it, so I will." He then pulled out his bulging froggy wallet; Gama-chan, and took out a wad of bills, slamming them on the wooden table of the stand. With a final glare, he returned the wallet to one of his pockets, grabbed the item he wanted to buy in the first place quickly and pocketed it before either of the two girls could find out what it was.
"Well then!" Temari stated cheerily and released the owner's vest, patting it down slightly to remove any wrinkles. "See, if you had just sold it to Naruto-kun in the first place, we wouldn't have to cause this scene, now would we?"
"N-no, I mean yes!" The owner squeaked feebly, feeling that his knees seemed to have turned to jelly.
"Good, remember it next time." Temari grinned, which was mirrored by Kumiko as they moved away from the stand, Naruto walking in between them.
"Y-you guys shouldn't have. I mean I..." He started but was cut off when Temari placed a quick kiss on his lips and hooked her arm with one of his.
"Don't worry about it, Naruto-kun." She said. "He deserved it."
"Yeah." Kumiko agreed with a nod.
"Thank you, Temari-chan, Kumiko-san..." Naruto mumbled and lowered his eyes, not wanting them to see the grateful tears forming that threatened to spill from the corner of his sapphire eyes.
"Well let's hurry to the Hokage, okay?" Kumiko said quickly, sensing the blonde boy's discomfort. "Gaara-san and Kankuro are waiting for us."
"Okay." Naruto nodded and swiped his sleeve across his eyes swiftly. He had made a promise to himself about not crying anymore in front of others, but for the time being, that seemed to be a promise he would be unable to keep. Maybe that was one of the conditions after finding people that you cared about... and that cared about you in return...
A/N: Sorry people, but I've decided to chop the chapter into two bits, otherwise it'd be nearly 30 pages. I haven't completely finished the second part yet, but I've got a huge chunk of it done already, so you guys probably won't have to wait two weeks for that.
Now I say you probably won't have to wait two weeks. I really don't know what's going to happen next week, I've got my birthday on Friday and I'll probably have to get ready to go to my new school. Anyway, nothing much to say aside from that so I'll just thank "refused" and "Princess-Tsunade" for their awesome help and get the review response underway.
Uhm, one more thing though. If there is anyone out there reading my fanfic, I would love to receive a bit of fanart. It can be about any character or technique or scene you want. (My favorite would definitely be an interaction between Naruto and Temari, but anything else is also good) If you send it to me via email which you can look up via my profile, I'll make sure it gets published and you'll have my eternal gratitude! And if you are wondering why I just don't draw anything? Well because the best I can do are some stick puppets, and that wouldn't be to impressive now would it? :P
refused: Yeah, yeah, less talk, more writing. I want to see your next chapter and I want to see it now! :P
Princess-Tsunade: Seductive purr indeed, you may have a bad influence on me little lady. :P Sakura and Kumiko will definitely get back at Kakashi, but I won't tell when yet though. Thanks for everything you put in your review, it was very kind as usual :)
clicke: Yeah Temari is 2 years older, but that's not so uncommon. Thanks for the review!
One Azn Dragon: No fight between Sakura and Temari... Maybe in the future... :}
Shippou-Chan: You'll just have to wait, and who said anything about summoning Kyuubi? :P
Raidin: Well I hope you'll resume writing, maybe you can rewrite some of the chapters you've already written and start from there? Anyway, thank you for your kind words, I hope you enjoyed Part I.
Yondaime-samaKazaraYume: Thanks for the review, but I'm sorry, I don't have any clue for what to send you about that contest thing of yours I'm afraid.
Max Knight: Thanks for the review, I really appreciate it. And uhm, there's not going to be a Hinata/Kiba pairing, sorry.
Kuwabaras pupil and Ipeefreely: There is going to be a pairing for Kumiko, that is all I'm going to say, I don't want to spoil it too soon. :)
cazertanu: Oh don't worry, I will never write Yaoi. :P
figurechan: I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you wanted to tell me. All I got were a bunch of weird a's and so on...
Black Fyre Dragun: Hmmm, well I can't really draw well so I don't think I will draw the techniques, sorry. But it did give me an idea though... Well you've already read it above I'm sure.
Crutches, Kirin Kage the Shadow Girl, Inferno-Dragonz, blazer6, DaveBoo1378, kashisenshey, Gopu, trickmaster, Kyubi-Naruto, Skuld's Sentaro, Fifou, AkiaBinZaid, Lek Nufrac, malkavsdevoted: I thank you all for your reviews, they mean a great deal to me. Also a lot of you asked questions about a particular kind of pairing or what not, let's just say I can't answer any of that or it would spoil things, and that wouldn't be much fun now would it?
Ok now that that is done, please leave a review! Like my dear friend "refused" said; they are my drug. :)