A/N: WOW…more reviews!? –hyperventilates- Thank you so very very very much!!!!!! I'm glad my last chapter wasn't that much of a disappointment! But this chapter might have a few sentences that might confuse some readers :S Anywhos, I'm gonna keep this author's note short, but the one at the end's where I'm gonna explain some stuffs k? THANK YOU TO ALL MY REVIEWERS!!!!

Disclaimer: I own not Naruto, but I own in gunbound…? :P

Warning: -Points to rating and summary- There's yaoi and swearing. Yaoi means boy loves boy and swearing means sacrilege

"..." normal speech

'...' thoughts

Dobe dead last

Baka idiot

Futon Japanese bed made of straw

Bolded text – setting

Italics – emphasized thoughts or words

Chapter 3 – Baby Steps

Konoha – Apartment

Naruto's eyes stared at him. Gaara stared back. The only trace of movement was the steady flicker of the single candle lit by the futon. Finally, Naruto's dry and cut lips moved to form quiet words. Gaara leaned in closer to the blond to hear what he was saying.

"Wh…who are you?"

Gaara looked at Naruto for a while, wondering how long the blond's memory span was.

"Gaara of the Sand," was his emotionless reply. It was strange; Gaara's battle with Naruto had not been long ago, only several months to be exact. A significant battle like theirs could not have been easy to forget.

"I tried to kill you before…" Gaara tried to explain somewhat lamely. He didn't know what to say to the normally talkative blond. The Naruto that had woken from this long slumber was not the Naruto he knew. It was not the Naruto he had subconsciously grown obsessed with over time.

"You did? I..I don't remember anything…where am I?" Naruto said as he winced when he tried to sit up. When Gaara made no move to answer him, his face grew more and more desperate as he began to ask himself more rhetorical questions. He looked around the darkened room. His face was contorted in strained concentration once more, and then came the question that answered Gaara's suspicion.

"Who am I?"

'So, he's lost his memory…' Gaara thought. It was going to be easier to manipulate Naruto than he thought. This was his chance, and he would not let this escape from his grasp.

"Your name is Uzumaki Naruto of the Hidden Sand Village. You have no family, but you've always lived here with me. You're mine."

Gaara knew what he had said was an outright lie. But Naruto was his, and he was going to do whatever he wanted with his own possession.

"Yours?" was the quiet reply. Naruto stared at Gaara for a second. He couldn't really interpret what Gaara meant by that statement, but he had a vague idea. Was he really in a relationship with Gaara? Naruto couldn't tell if he was lying or not. He couldn't remember anything, no matter how hard he tried.

'He has unpleasant eyes…' Naruto thought quietly. Slowly, he broke his gaze from Gaara's visage. Then, he became aware of the searing pain that screamed from every inch of his body. With a groan, Naruto collapsed back onto the futon, and the impact did not agree with his bruised back very much.

"You shouldn't move so much," Gaara stated plainly. It wasn't normal for him to give another such consideration for their actions, but this Naruto always had an air around him that affected his usually morbid demeanour.

"You were attacked by a group of bandits. You were knocked unconscious and almost beaten to death. I found you before they could kill you." Gaara said. He was aware that Naruto had been wondering where his wounds had come from. He had to move all suspicions away from himself if he was going to convince Naruto of the new life he was trying to give him.

"I'm sorry I don't remember anything," Naruto said as he tried to avoid Gaara's constant gaze. Doesn't he blink at all?

Gaara noticed the blonde's discomfort. "Stay here," was Gaara's cold demand. The sand-nin stood up and began walking towards the door.

"Hey..hey, where are you going?" Naruto said desperately as he tried to get up again.

"The kitchen," Gaara answered smoothly, without looking at Naruto. Instead, he continued to walk out of the room.

"But…I don't want to be left alone…" came the soft whisper. Gaara stopped walking. He slowly turned around and saw the vulnerable form of Naruto. If Naruto had remembered how his life was like before, he would know that this is what he looked like when the Leaf Village marked him as an outcast. Naruto's eyes were wide and pleading, and he was kneeling alone on the floor helpless and lost. He was all alone in the dark, with only the feeble light of a candle to guide him.

Gaara suddenly had a splitting headache. Hunched over in pain and quietly gritting his teeth, Gaara reached up and clutched his head.

'I looked like him when I was little…'

'No…'

He looked up at Naruto again, and saw that he hadn't moved. Even in amnesia Naruto still looked exactly like what he had been feeling before. He was still the Naruto searching for acknowledgement and stubbornly trying to prove his humanity to a village.

"I'll be back. I promise." Gaara said, still clutching his throbbing head.

Without another word Gaara slid open the door and quietly closed it.

'I wonder if Temari can cook ramen…' Gaara thought, unexpectedly feeling a mixture of surprise and amusement at his own thought.

Back inside the murky room, Naruto had slowly eased himself back onto a lying position on the futon.

'I guess he's not so bad after all. If I really loved him before, I'm sure I can learn to love him again.'

Konoha – Hokage's Office

Sasuke wrenched open the door and slammed both his hands on the secretary's desk, causing the lady writing something behind the counter to jump slightly.

"How may I-"

"Kakashi! I need to speak with Kakashi! Now!" Sasuke yelled.

"I'm sorry, but Kakashi is unavailable at the moment as he is in an important meeting with the Hokage." the secretary answered calmly. "I would also like to advise you to keep your voice down inside the building."

"This is urgent! Very urgent! Isn't there any other way to get Kakashi out of that meeting!?" Sasuke yelled back, slightly annoyed by the secretary's nonchalant behaviour.

"I'm sorry, but the Hokage has left strict orders not to let anyone interfere. If you need to speak with one of the Jounins or the Hokage, you're going to have to sit down and wait." she answered, a frosty commanding tone slowly edging on her words.

"But one of his students is missing! He could be bleeding to death right now!" Sasuke frantically tried to explain.

The secretary seemed to hesitate about her answer. After a slight pause, she said, "I would like to help you, but it is the Hokage's orders to refrain any disturbances. Please sit down and wait patiently for assistance."

The secretary, however, didn't seem as confident in her answer as she would like it to be. Sensing this, Sasuke forced his voice to a quiet and calm tone. He turned his obsidian-black eyes onto the secretary.

"My friend's in trouble and I need help. Please try to get Kakashi for me."

A short pause encased the two. With a defeated sigh, the secretary got up, "I'll see what I can do."

A smile tugged at the corners of Sasuke's mouth.

"Thank you."

Her footsteps faded around the corner. Sasuke sighed tiredly as he sat down. He took his face in his hands. His legs ached, his head nagged at him for sleep, his whole body was beaten and bruised, and his clothes were torn and dirty. But he wouldn't give up. He had to find Naruto even if it took years of sleepless nights.

After a few agonizing minutes that caused Sasuke to begin to lose hope, the secretary emerged around from the hallway followed by a masked Jounin.

"What is it Sasuke?" Kakashi asked tiredly.

"He's gone. Naruto's gone." Sasuke said, trying to keep from yelling again.

"Gone? Do you mean you lost him while you were walking through the market or a group of renegade ninjas came and took him?" Kakashi asked, his visible eye still drooped in his typical bored manner.

"He's gone and I don't know where he is! I was training with him at Area 21, and I got mad and accidentally punched him really hard and when I went to get him I couldn't find anything but his blood! He's gone!" Sasuke yelled. He couldn't string words together to form an understandable sentence. He couldn't take the slow and steady pace anymore. Naruto could be dying somewhere in the forest and speaking slowly wasn't going to save him.

"Sasuke I want you to go back to where Naruto was supposed to be and search for any evidence. You're a ninja, so act like one to save Naruto. I'll help you as soon as this meeting is finished. I'll let Tsunade-sama know as well." Kakashi said, hands still stuffed in his pockets.

When Sasuke only continued to breath rapidly and stare at him in disbelief, Kakashi bent down to Sasuke's height and looked at him.

"Naruto will be okay. He's strong and he won't go down without a fight. Thinking irrationally and running around the village screaming isn't going to help, alright?"

Sasuke nodded numbly.

"Good. Now you get going and I'll meet up with you as soon as I can."

With that, Kakashi walked around the corner he had appeared from once again.

As soon as Kakashi disappeared, Sasuke dashed out the door and ran as fast as he could into the forest once again, the fast-approaching cloak of the night closing in around him from above.

Konoha – Apartment, Kitchen

Luckily, Temari had found a small packet of ramen and had quickly made something for Naruto to eat. It lay in a steaming bowl on the kitchen table.

Temari at first, had been shocked at the request, but not wanting to send Gaara in a homicidal rage, she did what was asked without a word of protest. Gaara had almost thanked her when she was done. Almost.

Taking the hot bowl in his hands, Gaara took a few careful steps towards the door of the kitchen, impassive of the hot temperature that clung to the bowl of ramen.

But a dragging sound of heavy and laboured footsteps stopped him. Naruto's hunched form appeared in the doorway. He leaned against the frame for support. His face was lit up and he looked like he had something in mind.

"I thought I told you to stay." Gaara said monotonously. Naruto's wide and innocent eyes suddenly found the floor immensely interesting.

"I'm sorry…you were taking a long time so I thought you needed some help." Naruto mumbled. The hope he had felt when he thought of helping Gaara to make him happy dissipated at Gaara's emotionless words.

Gaara stared at the blond once again.

"Sit and eat."

Naruto looked up curiously.

"You mean you're not mad?"

Gaara didn't bother to answer as he chose to lean against the wall and watch the blond sit down.

Taking Gaara's silence as a sign that he wasn't mad, Naruto smiled widely and took the chopsticks next to the bowl and prepared to eat.

There was one problem, however. Naruto held on stick in each hand, and stared at them, apparently lost at what to do next. He resorted in trying to poke the noodles and impaling them in attempt to hold them long enough for him to eat them. This was proving to be a difficult task. Each time the noodles slipped through and landed back into the bowl with a plop, sending droplets of soup into his face. Naruto only managed to stuff a shrimp inside his mouth before Temari walked in.

She shot a glance at Gaara, still leaning against the wall and examining the blond's struggle with his food. Realizing that Gaara wasn't going to do anything to help Naruto, she walked over and took a seat across from the blond. She gently reached over and took the two sticks gently from his hands.

"You hold them like this," Temari said. Gaara watched on as the blond listened closely to Temari's words, staring intently at the chopsticks as he became determined to learn how to use them once again. When Temari finished her brief lesson, she gave the chopsticks to Naruto for him to try. Naruto placed the chopsticks in his hand and made adjustments with his free one. When he was done, he looked up and smiled at Temari. She then got up and left the room after she had made herself some tea.

Naruto was still holding onto the chopsticks in an awkward position, but Naruto continued to examine closely the way he picked up the food and slowly began eating the ramen. Gaara could see a trace of the Naruto he knew before. The old Naruto was always eager to learn new techniques, and he trained relentlessly with a strong determination that was rare in the shinobis nowadays. Naruto had a slow mind, but his iron-hearted devotion to his dream may pull him farther than many shinobis someday.

Even if it was something as small and simple as learning how to use chopsticks, it was a sign that Naruto still held the determination that he had always possessed.

'You continue to surprise me Uzumaki Naruto…'

Gaara continued musing deeply for a while before Naruto had said loudly, "I'm still hungry. Do you have any more of this stuff for me to eat? It's good."

In his mind, Gaara almost smiled when he also noted that Naruto's old habits will never change.

Konoha – Forest

The world was quiet. The birds that normally flitted through the woods had disappeared into the hazy shadows of the trees. The world held its breath as no trace of wind came.

Sasuke stood in the middle of the torn clearing once again. He looked at the area where Naruto's body had lain. The dirt had been disturbed so that it left an outline of Naruto's body. The blood of Naruto had long since seeped into the ground, leaving only an almost-black mahogany stain behind. The tree where Naruto had most definitely hit had a crater in it.

But that wasn't what interested Sasuke. What interested him the most was the set of footprints next to the outline of Naruto's body. The size of them was somewhat small to be Naruto's. But his suspicion was confirmed when he saw long entrails of sand on the ground, which contrasted noticeably from the forests' dirt.

'Now I've got you…' Sasuke thought as he took a handful of sand and let it fall once again to the ground.

A/N: Finally done this chapter! It's a really boring one (and it's long . ) I wanted some character development in this one and I'm not exactly sure that happened a lot in this chap :( The chopstick part with Naruto and Gaara was kinda pointless, but I wanted to show that Naruto still has some of his old personality even if he forgot who he was! And I hope the meeting-thing wasn't too…illogical, I guess you could say :P Hopefully it wasn't too confusing :S Now for the review responses!

Review Responses:

Little Leila: Hehe, that's okay! Last minute reviewers are still reviewers so no problemsss :D And you're the first reviewer for Chapter 2! Yayy! . I'm a huge GaaNaru meself, so I was thinking of writing one o But then again I'm not a SasuNaru hater (even though I hate Sasuke ;/) so I decided to write both pairings! :D Your challenge about Naruto losing his voice sounds really fun to write :D I think I might try that after I finish this fic :p I like to write one fic at a time, cuz I'm simply too lazy to write 2 fics at once I think I might start rushing each chapter if I write 2 fics at once anywho ;/ I don't think this fic is gonna be kept long, but we'll just have to see! Thanks for reviewing again! :O

burningshadow: Aw shucks XP Thank you SO MUCH!!!!!! I never thought my fic was good enough to make anyone speechless! THANK YOU! I hope this chapter wasn't too boring :D Thanks so much for your review!!!!!

Kisu: Hehe, I liked the little scream in the distance too if I do say so meself :P You know, there are so many GaaNaru and SasuNaru fics out there but I can't ever decide between them! But, being the big Sasuke-hater I am, I think I'm starting to like GaaNaru better o.O Maybe I should just torment Sasuke some more in later chapters :

Cookie6: Yeaaaa! Die Sasuke!!!! –Chops him up into little pieces with a butter knife- I hope this chapter wasn't too boring ;/ I had a lot of trouble of thinking what to write for this one and I'm not really happy with the outcome .

LittleDarkOne: This chapter was hopefully longer :P But it was such a borrring one (in my opinion) :P Chapters look so much longer when I'm typing it up in Word Perfect :P Stupid Gaara and his hunger for blood :P But at least Naruto's awake now :D And it seems Sasuke has an idea who took Naruto away ;) I took slightly longer than usual to update (stupid writers block ;;) and hopefully this chapter wasn't too long or boring :(

Anime Lass: Yay! The last chapter wasn't too disappointing to another one of my wonderful reviewers! Sorry this update took longer than the last one, and this one was probably boring wasn't it? :P I hope this chapter didn't make you fall asleep XP I swear I was falling asleep myself while I was writing it o.O

Ria Sakazaki: -GASP- Don't ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER think your reviews are lousy cuz I definitely DON'T! :D Your reviews make me sooo happy! I'm surprised someone even bothered to read my story but for someone to even review was enough to give me a heart attack! So THANK YOU for reviewing…AGAIN! –tries not to faint- And you reviewed twice and liked my story! –faints- THANK YOUUUU :D

Iceheart19: I'm not sure about the manga, but in the anime, their eyes seem to be coloured really really pale violet :P that's what I thought at first anywho . But then again, I'm kinda colour challenged o.O This chapter was wayyyyyy longer than I intended it to be, so hopefully isn't wasn't so long that it made you fall asleep ;; I'm sorry if there's any spelling or grammar mistakes :S I'm notorious for writing the weirdest things and making the dumbest typos XP –tries to catch a beta-reader with a butterfly net-

F.A. Star Hawk: YA! LONG LIVE GAANARU! :D In my opinion, you can NEVER have enough of those . I think I'm gonna be putting in some more GaaNaru in it soon, since Sasuke's AWAY running around the village like a chicken being chased by Ronal McDonald with a butcher knife ;/ hmm :

Midnight-Blue-Wolves: This chapter was really boring XP I think I just barely got past that writer's block! There are so many things I could've written when Naruto woke up, but I just had no idea where to start! Oh well, I hope this wasn't too much of a disappointment :( I'm definitely disappointed meself XP

GeNo C. iDe1: I'm glad the last chapter wasn't as bad as I thought it was! But this time I'm pretty sure it was boring XP And the length of it was just enough to make me fall off my chair! Hopefully this chapter didn't make everything go crashing down :( Maybe the next chapter's gonna make things better ;/

Chelsea: Haha XP Gaara's so cute isn't he? But I'm just way too lazy to fight over him :P Too many of those evil fangirls running around –looks outside window suspiciously- err…-hides own Gaara plushie in a cookie jar just in case- evil fangirls are out to get me! –grabs a pot lid for a shield- Thanks for reviewing! :D

tracy-kin: Wow! I'm really surprised someone was checking for updates! was really weird :P Didn't move my story up when I updated it XP oh well :P Poor Gaara and his obsession over blood :/ But I think he's gonna eventually get over it, just enough so Naruto can give him a hug without getting killed X3 But maybe Gaara just needs help…psychiatric help ;/ Maybe we'll just torture Sasuke some more by making him run around like crazy hehe XP me and my sasuke-bashing ways ;/

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!! FOR EVERYONE'S REVIEWS!!!! I can't believe I got so much AGAIN! This is so great! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I can hardly believe it! You know, there's been a lot of amnesia fics lately :P And yet I'm still getting reviews! I can never thank everyone enough!!! THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING AND READING…AGAIN!

(One confuzzlingly happy) Tsuki

Update 15/1/05:

The title of this chapter has been changed. Many thanks go to ji for pointing out my (very stupid) mistake. (I pay attention in history…really. -crosses fingers-)