It was ironic, getting some of the reviews while this part was all ready 1500 words in and I was all ready answering some questions (some not all! No worries!)
This is the longest goddamned chapter in the story. That's why it took so long. That and I suck at action scenes.
CHAPTER 5
He pretended that it was night and the stars were shining brightly over top of him. The moon would be almost at the highest point in the sky, a sure sign that everyone was asleep. He would be the only soul awake, left to watch the world slumber, protecting it or preparing to devastate it, he could never settle on one. He would sit on the roof, high above all of them. The wind would be cold and unimportant, the stars and moon would be bright and no one could find him beyond them.
Gaara's hand hurt and drew him back from the daydream. He shifted them to a better position behind his head, the bandages making a good cushion, as he ignored the pillows piled temptingly in the corner.
They had knocked him out with sleeping gas, the kind they had used to subdue Naruto. He had woken up in the room, sick to his stomach with his hands bandaged and recalling nothing about how much time had passed. Before, when he had just been paralyzed, they would come back to this room disoriented but at least Gaara could estimate how long it had been. It had been something normal that they could cling on to, first three hours, then three hundred and forty two hours, then four hundred and twelve, but at three thousand, six hundred and twenty nine Naruto had left him behind. Three thousand seven hundred and thirteen hours when he had finally escaped. But now that they had realized that he could slumber safely they had no hesitation to knock him out.
Naruto had been amazed that Gaara could keep track of time like that and he never explained it was because it had been a game when he was younger. He would count until the sun rose. First it was out of boredom and loneliness, he wanted people to wake up. Then it became less a countdown as a clock on a timed explosion scroll, counting how much time he had left to be away from the rest of the world.
He could remember thirty-eight hours in this room this time around. But he was certain that he had been there more.
Ever since he had been little the night had held such power for him. He could sneak out of his room and away from his handlers and sit wherever he wanted. When he was very young he liked to look into people's windows. It was hard to imagine living like them, without all the toys and things people had draped over him. He remembered very few and only vague images from those windows; it had been so long ago.
There had been a little girl, older then him but younger then Temari. She had pigtails like her but her hair was black and her skin was the exact shade of chocolate that the Kazekage's security advisor gave him every Monday. She was sitting on the floor playing with a doll made from two sticks and covered with a dress made from an old sack.
The girl had made the doll dance across the earth beaten floor, spinning dizzily in a circle until her tiny fingers lost their grip and the doll fell. The girl picked it up and started her little stick dancing again, the same pattern, until the doll fell once more. She did this over and over and Gaara watched, mesmerized by the little girl's patience. No matter how many time the simple doll fell the girl helped her to dance again.
When Gaara slipped back through his own window he sat in the dark and tried to make his own doll, a brightly painted blonde girl, a present from a visiting ambassador's wife, dance. But the shiny buckled shoes on the doll made her wobble and fall before she could spin as beautifully as the stick doll had. Gaara tried again and again before getting frustrated and threw the doll against the wall.
His caretaker at the time, his uncle had been away, rushed in to see what had happened but Gaara had all ready moved on to another toy, turning his back on the cracked face of the doll.
Gaara wished for that stick doll now, the one that could spin and spin and would still spin after it had fallen and look as graceful and beautiful as it did moments before.
He rolled onto his side, trying to ease the churning in his stomach. He remembered when he and Naruto had first come back from one of these sessions. Gaara had been terrified. The white masked men had placed them back in the room and left. It felt like his entire body had been severed from his brain and he was scared that it would never reconnect. But slowly he felt painful tingles in his nose, then his ears and it spread down his body at a terrifyingly slow pace until only his fingers and toes prickled.
He had turned onto his stomach and inched forward on his elbows to Naruto who had been placed on the blankets. His muscles jerked against his will and felt oddly weak but he finally managed to make it over when Naruto's eyes started to flicker.
The other boy had awoken screaming in pain, rolling into a tight ball as he heaved, his back and throat convulsing. Gaara had scrambled to his hands and knees to get out of the way. Naruto gasped for breath between spasms and Gaara watched wide-eyed and helpless, never having been in the position of the caretaker before.
It had gone on for hours with small breaks of air between the choking gasps and bloody vomit and Naruto's voice was raw from screaming. Gaara had managed to crawl onto the blankets with him, holding him on his lap as Naruto sweated and shivered. Gaara held his shoulders and stroking his hair hoping that he was helping.
Finally, Naruto had passed out but trembled in Gaara's hold even after Gaara had covered him with the blankets.
He had woken up again after what Gaara figured was a day but felt like an eternity.
It hadn't been that bad when Gaara had woken up this time. After a month of experimenting on ratios apparently they had managed to create the perfect mixture for knocking out a person without too many side affects. Still, a person wasn't meant to be gassed at all as Gaara's body was quick to remind him.
It was after that incident that the ice had been broken between the two of them. There was only so much breathing space in the room and both Gaara and Naruto were too aware of their personal space to be able to ignore another presence. At first it had been a bother for Gaara, Naruto was noisy, brass and knew way too many perverted jokes then was comfortable. But eventually they had both given in; they needed each other.
He remembered the first coherent conversation they had had. Before the first gassing they had pretty well avoided each other as best they could. They had only been there a few hours and Gaara was all ready through a book while Naruto was ripping pages out of another and making origami frogs.
But after Naruto recovered it was hard to ignore the fact that they were there for a while and they were going to have to live with each other.
"I still want to know why the hell we're here," Naruto grumbled, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room while Gaara leaned against one of the walls, his legs outstretched.
"I thought it would be obvious," Gaara replied, crossing his arms. "How many other demon carriers do you know?"
"Well," Naruto thought for a moment then sighed. "Yeah, yeah, jeez, forgive me for hoping that for once it wasn't the damn kyuubi people are after."
"You are hoping for someone with a personal vendetta against you?" Gaara snorted.
"I can be plenty unlikable without that damned demon!" Naruto protested. "Lots of people want to kill me and it has nothing to do with being cursed! Heck, most people who are strong enough to hurt me don't even know about it."
"I didn't think people hating you would be a good thing."
"Well it's good to be hated for being yourself then just for existing," Naruto said with a sardonic smile. And in a weird way Gaara understood.
They passed the time playing endless rounds of jun-ken-poi (Gaara was the almost flawless victor), sparring (which was challenging without the use of chakra) and meaningless conversations.
"I swear, her breasts were the size of my head!"
"Impossible."
"So possible! She had to wear this metal armour thing to hold them still or she couldn't use taijutsu without falling over!"
"I don't believe you."
"I'm telling you, when she ran they almost hit her chin on every step."
"That is a physical impossibility and you know it."
"Ch', you just can't believe something you don't see."
"I can so."
"Like what?"
"… lots of things."
"Yeah right, I bet you never even believed in Santa Claus!"
"Of course I did! When I was younger my uncle used to dress up every year and give me presents from all over the world."
"That's not believe in something you can't see," Naruto rolled his eyes. "I believed in him and I didn't get a single present my whole life."
That had sobered the mood for Gaara but Naruto just laughed. "Anyway, so there she was, standing over me, and I thought I was dead, I mean, I was piss drunk and there was this chick with the huge breasts and this huge sword standing over me…"
Gaara stared at the corner, not really seeing it. They had gone over every centimeter of this room; there wasn't a fleck of dust he didn't all ready know about. There didn't seem to be a reason for moving so he didn't. Being alone all that time before had been different. He had felt betrayed and had been fueled by a strong desire to hunt down Naruto. He had spent most of the time training or pacing. He had only stopped moving when he had been drenched in sweat and his muscles gave out on him.
But now he didn't have that reason. Naruto was out there, somewhere. He didn't even remember this place. Five months, gone. Gaara couldn't imagine what that would be like but what was harder was that Naruto could forget this, forget what had happened. He had followed Naruto around this last little while, trying to regain what he had lost but if anything Naruto was more confused by his presence and Gaara was too unsure to know how to proceed. It had been Naruto after all who had started their friendship and who had started to move it farther, not Gaara.
He was certain Naruto wouldn't think twice about his leaving. There was no one coming for him and no one waiting for him.
There was a dent in the wall from where Naruto's foot had hit while they were sparring once. It was too deep for whomever their capturers were to repair so it stayed there. It was like a carving on the wall, a testimony.
It was exactly seven angry steps or five normal ones from one end of the room to the other. After a few days they had started to go stir crazy. They had measured the room then faced each other.
"Ready panda eyes?" Naruto taunted.
Gaara smirked. He crouched low and replied dead panned, "Anytime whisker face."
Naruto jumped first, aiming a blow at Gaara's head. He ducked and used his wrist to deflect and forced Naruto to spin off to the wall. Naruto rebounded off the wall and came at him again.
Naruto's movements were fluid and smooth but they were slow and only a fraction of his strength. Gaara could follow them without trouble but he could barely move fast enough to move out of their way and he couldn't spot an opening to launch his own offense. It didn't take long for Gaara's knees to give out and he fell backwards, landing hard.
Naruto stopped in mid stance.
"Are you okay?" he said confused. Gaara panted but didn't stand up. He shifted to sit cross-legged and Naruto looked around uncomfortable before sitting too.
"I hate this," Gaara sounded frustrated for the first time.
For a moment Naruto thought he had said 'I hate you'. "Hate what?"
"This!" Gaara gestured around the room. "I can't stand it anymore! It's been five days and we've only seen them once. I can't take it!" His voice was getting louder with every word and he clutched his head.
Naruto leaned back. He remembered the psychotic rages Gaara went in during the chuunin exams and they nearly always started with a headache. He glanced wildly around knowing full well nothing would protect him.
But then Gaara released his head, looking puzzled at his hands, his anger forgotten in the face of a mystery. Not letting his guard down, Naruto backed against the wall and watched him wearily. "What?"
"I… I don't know," Gaara stared at his hands, puzzlement turning to horror. "I mean, we can't use chakra but," he stopped.
"But what?' Naruto was starting to realize that sometimes Gaara would just trail off as if he had forgotten the rest of the world was there.
"Shukaku," he touched his hands to his stomach and looked, as if he could see inside himself. "It's like he's not there."
Naruto let out a relieved sigh. "That's all? I never really feel the kyuubi either."
"No, not Shukaku," Gaara frowned and finally looked up. "I always felt him, heard him. I thought the chakra shield was just shutting up his voice."
Naruto shrugged and sat across from him. "I don't see why you are complaining. You never seemed too happy to have to be carrying him around all the time."
"Yeah," Gaara said softly. He took his hands off his chest and rested them on his knees. If they were ever going to escape they were going to need to fight their way out. He had relied on the demon for so long to protect him and to fight for him. He looked at Naruto who was watching him. Naruto did fine without using his fox helping him. He would have to learn how to work without Shukaku if he ever wanted to get out of here.
"You're right," Gaara said. "It's just strange. Give me a moment, then I'll be ready to start again."
Gaara flexed his bandaged hands. He never really had gotten that good. It made him think. If he didn't have his demon he was little more then a mediocre fighter. He gave a short laugh, little more then a hard breath. That was funny. Him, the most feared ninja of the Sand really wasn't that much stronger then a Konoha genin. If he never broke the seal then what would happen to him? Even when he sparred with Naruto in Konoha and he was able to use his own chakra he had barely hung on as Naruto beat him with ease.
It would serve him right, Gaara thought scornfully. To be powerless. He curled up tighter.
Food didn't come at regular intervals nor did it consist of anything remotely appetizing.
"That's it, they've decided to starve us," Naruto had been particularly melancholy one day. Gaara had counted twelve hours since their last meal and Naruto lay flat on his stomach by the flap as if him watching it would force food to come through.
"They haven't decided to starve us."
"We're done for. Goners. They've gotten what ever they wanted from us and now they are just going to leave us to rot."
"It would be easier to kill us through the gas," Gaara pointed out and Naruto shuddered.
"Don't say that," Naruto snapped and reached forward to bang on the metal with one fist "Hey! Starving demons in here! This is cruelty to animals!"
Naruto had fallen asleep when they finally pushed two bowls of cold rice meal in. Naruto hadn't woken up and didn't move when Gaara went to retrieve his bowl. They weren't given chopsticks so he had to shovel it into his mouth with his fingers. He had gotten over the indignity of it quickly; mostly because having Naruto as his meal companion didn't call for much in the way of manners.
He was still hungry after he had finished but he ignored it and went to wake up Naruto so he could eat his share.
Other times they had meals that were in the same hour. It frustrated Naruto to no end and he often ranted at the walls as if hoping for an answer.
Gaara turned from his side to his stomach and rested his head on his bandages. He stared at the metal food flap. So far there had been nothing. The last time he had eaten had been lunch with Shikamaru. He felt hollow but it was bearable so far.
…………………………………………………………………………..
Naruto left Shikamaru's determined to head out that night in Gaara direction but when he got to his apartment his common sense finally made an appearance and he calmed down. It would do Gaara no good for him to just go charging off into the night on little sleep and no resources.
So he washed the dishes, placed the plants on the windowsills, organized the books and soaked in the bath while he thought about what he was going to do the next day.
He had lain awake, still thinking, until the sun edged over the horizon. He drifted off as it started to shine through the leaves of the herb plants he had placed on the sill.
A few hours later he woke to a sharp knock on the door. Thinking it was Gaara back from meditating or visiting old friends or something he struggled out of his blankets and skidded across the polished wood floor to the door.
Instead of his red headed companion three little, round, scowling faces stared at him.
"Yo," Blondie said. "You're late. Again," she glanced at his sleepwear and continued. "And you're not even dressed. I thought you would have learned from yesterday. We've been up since six."
Naruto was disappointed and wasn't afraid to show it. "Oh. Yeah. You guys. Well come in I guess. I'm not feeding you today."
The three were undeterred and Hanako shyly held up a straw basket. "I brought eggs for lunch today, Naruto-sensei."
It was hard to argue with that, so he stepped back and let them in while he got dressed. Musad had found the rice machine and was scooping it out into the yellow and red bowls. Naruto wrinkled his nose, it had probably been sitting there since before he left on the mission but the machine would have kept it warm and he didn't want to make any more. Hanako had a frying pan going with four of the eggs sizzling and Blondie was raiding Gaara's tea stash.
For the moment he was content with sitting on a stood and letting them take care of things as he thought of a way to get rid of them for the day.
When it was all ready Hanako slipped an egg on the rice and clipped fresh parsley off of one of the plants in the kitchen window to place as a garnish. They ate in silence for while.
"What do you guys want to do today?" Naruto finally asked, looking a them through his eyelashes in what he thought was a calculating gaze. To the kids it just looked creepy.
Blondie glanced and Hanako who shrugged. Musad didn't look up from his bowl.
"Well, I don't know," she replied for the three of them. He looked at her and she squirmed, inching away from him on her stool. "You're the teacher."
"Right," Naruto smiled and leaned back, forgetting that he was on a stool not a chair and tumbled backwards.
"On second thought," Blondie sighed. "Maybe we should pick something."
Naruto ruefully rubbed his head and got up. "Well, while you guys talk it out I'm going to run some errands."
"Now just a min-" Blondie started but Naruto was gone and she cursed and threw her chopsticks on her bowl. She looked at Hanako again, and then nudged Musad in the ribs until he looked up too. They nodded and were gone out the door almost as fast as Naruto had been.
At the west gate Sasuke straightened up from where he was leaning. Beside him, sitting in the shade, was Sakura. She had grown in the last few years. Her hair was still short, her forehead still large and her eyes as brilliant as they had been when she was twelve. But she was no little girl. Her boyish figure had blossomed into full curves that she complimented with comfortable clothes. She had the confidence she had lacked before and she grinned at Naruto's approach. Naruto slowed and looked at them with suspicion.
"Hey, Sasuke, Sakura," he said slowly and stopped. Sasuke and Naruto eyed each other.
"Naruto," Sasuke said coldly. "Where are you off to today?"
"Errands," Naruto replied, just as cold. His hands twitched. Sasuke's hands remained steady but they started to drift towards his leg pouch.
"Hm," Sasuke grunted and slowly fingered the side of a shuriken. Naruto licked his lips. A sudden wind blew a dead plant between them, tumbling it over and over in the dry dust.
Sakura stood up and looked from one to the other with an exasperated sigh. "Honestly, boys, we can just talk this out."
Sasuke relaxed a bit but Naruto didn't and launched at him with a yell. Sasuke tried to dodge to the left but Naruto spun in the air and caught the side of his head with the flat of his foot. Sasuke went skidding through the dust until he finally got his feet under him and stopped, crouched low to the ground. He had three shuriken in his hand and his now red eyes darted around, looking through the dust.
There!
He glanced up to see a shadow in the dustbowl above him and brought his arms up to cross in front of his face, prepared to fling the shuriken.
"Mizu tsuna no juutsu!" Sasuke threw the shuriken at the voice. He knew they hit from the grunt of pain but it didn't stop the hands from emerging from the dust in a fish seal then thumping hard once on his chest.
He was knocked back, out of the dust, in surprise. Thick blue cords erupted from where Naruto had hit him and before he could react they snapped around him, wrapped around first his shoulders then his knees, ankles, wrists and fingers.
Sasuke struggled, too late, as Naruto walked up to him and tossed the three shuriken on the ground. He had three shallow cuts, two to his forearms and one on his cheek.
"Nice throw," Naruto gloated as Sasuke squirmed in the ropes, glaring. "Tell Shikamaru I said hi."
"Naruto!" Sasuke tugged at the bonds. "Would you stop to think? You can't rescue him on your own!"
"Tell you what," Naruto crouched next to Sasuke and flicked him in the nose. Sasuke lashed out with his teeth but resulted only in an empty click as Naruto whipped his hand back in time. "Tonight, when I march back here with Gaara in tow, drinks are on you."
"It's not a game," Sasuke retorted. He was seething. Naruto, a chuunin, had just bested him, and he was all ready being considered for the ANBU. He would never hear the end of this from Kakashi.
Naruto just laughed and was gone in a flash. The dust had settled by now and Sakura watched as he jumped the wall, not bothering with the gate. She didn't follow him though but instead walked over to Sasuke, trying to hide a smile.
"Why aren't you chasing him?" Sasuke said through clenched teeth. He wiggled some more but the blue ropes didn't give.
"I know better then to get between Naruto and what he wants," she said. "Besides, I didn't think you wanted just any old person to come along and find you flopping here."
"What the hell was that juutsu anyway," Sasuke grumbled. He had finally managed to sit up but his hands were still twisted uncomfortably behind his back. "Tuna?"
"Water rope, I think," Sakura said dryly and formed a simple release seal with her hands. The bonds turned to water and dropped, soaking Sasuke.
He shot her a deadly look as she giggled. "Come on, we should report in to Shikamaru."
Naruto knew that the water bind wouldn't hold Sasuke for long so he moved quickly and didn't bother to hide his trail. After a few minutes he realized that no one was after him and slowed. Curious he stopped and listened but the forest was quiet. He shrugged and started moving but kept an eye over his shoulder.
He was so focused on listening behind that he forgot to listen ahead so he had no one but himself to blame when he stepped into the simple snare trap.
It jerked him up until he hung by one foot five feet from the ground, swaying from the force of it. He didn't even attempt to get loose, he just let himself swing with the rope until it finally stopped and waited for the trap setters to emerge.
"Hey," Kiba grinned. He had grown taller but little else had changed. He had shed the heavy fur trim jacket for his mission today and crossed his arms in triumph. Naruto scowled and crossed his arms too.
"Hi," Naruto was annoyed. "Shikamaru send you too?"
"Yeah," Kiba grinned. "Shino's here as well."
Naruto twisted to get a look around and saw him crouched at the base of the tree look up at where the rope was tied. Kiba may have grown taller but Shino had grown until he towered over all of his classmates and it was easy to tell that even if he was almost sitting on the ground. He hadn't traded his jacket for anything else today.
"Your dog isn't here," Naruto snapped. "What, I'm not worth the damned dog?"
"Hinata needed to borrow him for a class project," Kiba explained as if they were here for a friendly chat and Naruto wasn't dangling upside down from a tree. "I don't even try to ask what they are doing in those med-nin classes any more."
Naruto grunted and tried to think of a way out of this. He had to admit, Shikamaru was serious about this waiting-for-the-Hokage idea. "So are you guys just here to catch me or to join me?"
"To catch you," Kiba replied. "Shikamaru made it a B-rank mission but I have to say it was easier then I thought."
Naruto tried to grab him but Kiba ducked out of his way laughing.
"What's the deal anyway?" Kiba said once he had put some distance between them. "I mean, I know Gaara's been hanging out with you but it hardly seems worth it to risk your job and reputation for a roommate."
"There's-" Naruto had started to say 'There's more to him then that' but stopped before the words could form. He was glad he was upside down for the moment; Kiba and Shino wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a blush and his all ready red face. "I just want to know where he went," he finally said, figuring it was safe enough to say, to Kiba and to himself.
"Look," Kiba's tone lost some of the humour and took a more serious note. "I doubt that he's spying. I mean, I may not like the guy but not even a spy would put up living with you for that long to get, what, the best ramen shop locations in Konoha?"
"Shuddap," Naruto snapped. The blood rush was making him dizzy.
"It's not like you've been on any top secret missions lately," Kiba shrugged. "Personally, I have no idea why he was here so long but good riddance. I think," at this Kiba leaned close enough to whisper but not within arms' reach, "I think he just needed to get away from that psycho family of his. I heard from a merchant that that girl with the fan has been looking for him nonstop."
"When the hell did you turn into such a gossip?" Naruto spat at him and squirmed. The rope was starting to dig into his ankle and he wished that Kiba would just get him down all ready.
Kiba looked insulted. Shino finally stood up, shaking his sleeves free of the forest ground dirt. A dozen or so bugs dropped to the ground and started to climb up the tree. Naruto looked over his shoulder and watched them as they scurried quickly up the trunk and onto the branch that his rope was tied too.
"Hey!" he shouted as they swarmed the rope. Naruto started kick with his foot making the branch shake. "Get them off you jerk!"
Shino just shrugged and the rope shuddered then broke and Naruto crashed face first into the ground. Not taking any chances Kiba grabbed one arm and Shino grabbed the other and they hauled him to his feet. Naruto jumped as bugs started to crawl all over him, under and over his clothes, in his hair and over his face.
"Get 'em off!" he panicked. "You bastards, get 'em off!"
"It's so that you can't use juutsu to escape," Shino finally spoke and he sounded cross. Naruto didn't give a damn whether he was cross or giggling like a schoolgirl, hundreds of little legs creeping all over his skin wasn't a pleasant sensation.
Naruto wiggled and struggled but they both had strong grips and neither was concerned about having the black crawlers on them so Naruto didn't have a chance. He cursed as they started to bodily drag him back the way he had came.
"Never mind what I said before," Kiba grunted as one of Naruto's flaying feet came dangerously close to his groin. "Definitely B-rank."
Naruto lunged for his ear and Kiba almost dropped him. "Can't we, like, tie him up or something?" Kiba risked letting go with one hand and grabbing Naruto's hair, shaking him like a puppy and then grabbing his arm again.
Shino was about to reply when something hard hit him on the head. Naruto wrenched sideways and Kiba was too shocked to hold him. Kiba flatted against a tree, three slender knives in his hands as he scanned the green tops. Naruto was gone and Shino was stunned on the ground. He looked left, right, above, on the ground but there was no sign of whoever had attacked them. The forest was silent and whatever had been there was gone now.
Naruto was too happy with his luck to worry about Shino. He had a pretty good idea what had happened. Unlike his friends he hadn't been distracted when the attack had come. He ran along the branches of the trees until he reached a river then dived into the deepest part.
It was cold and he almost let go of all his air with a yelp but managed to control himself. He clung to a smooth rock with chakra until the pounding current washed the last of the bugs away.
The three little faces were watching as he bobbed to the surface. Blondie waved mockingly and Naruto sighed. The current was strong but he was stronger and he waded back to shore only a few feet from them.
"We followed you," Blondie proclaimed with a self-satisfied look on her face. "We knew you were going to try and get rid of us again but we didn't think you'd be doing something illegal."
"It was cool," Musad offered solemnly.
"What did you do anyways?" Blondie asked with eager eyes. Naruto groaned and rubbed his temples. His hair was plastered to his face and neck and was stuck with twigs. The cut on his face had reopened and was bleeding again and the river water made the cuts on his arms sting.
"Nothing," he said and crossed his arms, trying to look commanding. "Go back to the village and train or something before someone misses you. The last thing you want to do is be caught with me right now."
'No one's going to miss us," Blondie scoffed and Naruto felt a sympathetic twinge.
"We spoke together, Naruto-sensei," Hanako piped up shyly. "This morning, while we were waiting for you. Kaida-san thought that you might want to leave us behind again."
"Which you did!"
"We are supposed to be a team, Naruto-sensei," Hanako looked at him directly for the first time. "That is what being a genin is all about. Learning to work together. I know we…. We are not the ideal team," she faltered. "I mean, we're not special or anything
Naruto laughed for a moment. "You guys just took out Shino with a rock."
Hanako blushed but Musad just looked smug.
"You're right," Naruto sighed. For a moment he felt old, looking down at the three. He wondered if this is what Iruka went through everyday, or if this is what Kakashi felt whenever Naruto looked at him defiantly. He could remember so clearly being them, thinking he was invincible and if only he had a chance to prove himself. But now he looked and saw their small hands, their baby fat and suddenly he had a stab of responsibility. "Just not now."
He glanced at the forest behind them but there was no movement. Not that he expected any. "I really don't have time to train you guys right now," Naruto said. "I'll be back by nightfall. Hang out in my apartment until then. Throw a party or something."
"We are not throwing a party, we are following you," Blondie planted her hands on her hips. "You obviously can't be left on your own for one minute."
Naruto went to speak but found his voice frozen. He entire body suddenly wouldn't move. He couldn't even make his eyes turn to see what had him captured, though he all ready had a good idea.
"Fine," his mouth was working and that was his voice but it wasn't him saying it. "I give up. But be quiet and stay out of the way."
The kid eagerly walked across the pebbled bank of the river. "Finally, I knew you would see it our-" Blondie suddenly stopped as three black trails emerged from Naruto's shadow and attached to their feet when they were close.
Naruto suddenly was able to move his eyes and his mouth.
"How the hell did you get me?" Naruto fumed, he could only use his eyes and not his neck to scan. The water at his back protected him from attacks on the other bank; the trees on this side were several meters back from the river's edge and the overcast sky kept shadows at a minimal. He couldn't see anything to show how Shikamaru had trapped him
"Naruto-sensei," Hanako sounded nervous. Blondie looked scared next to her and Musad looked furious. "W-what's going on?"
All three took one step to the left and the bodies were forced into a landing crouch as Shikamaru jumped down from his perch. He had been hiding on a branch in an oak tree that had braved the river's banks on the other side. Naruto hadn't noticed the faint shadow outlines of the overhanging branch on his side of the river.
They straightened slowly and Naruto knew Shikamaru was close enough behind him to feel his breath on the back of his neck.
"Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed. Naruto felt his cheeks heat up in anger and embarrassment at being truly captured. "I haven't done fieldwork in eighteen months. Too much paperwork."
"You've improved your technique," Naruto sneered. He felt his shoulder shrug alongside the kids as Shikamaru quietly acknowledged it.
"I see you're inspiring loyalty fast," Shikamaru commented and Blondie turned red.
"We aren't loyal," she spat. "This loser tried to ditch us again!"
Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets and Naruto's fingers jammed his hipbones clumsily; he didn't have pockets of his own.
Naruto could see Kiba and Shino approaching from the trees. Kiba was laughing and clapping Shino on the back; the other ninja was holding an ice pack to his head and carrying a good-sized rock in the other hand, frowning at the kids. Sasuke and Sakura dropped from the trees.
Sasuke was still soaked but Naruto was worse off from his dive in the river. As they came up behind the kids Shikamaru let the shadow bind go. Kiba grabbed Blondie's shirt before she could think of running. Shino laid a warning hand on Musad's head and Sakura patted Hanako's shoulder comfortingly.
Sasuke glared at Naruto. Sighing, Naruto put up his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine, I'll go quietly."
Still, Shikamaru and Sasuke stayed almost glued to his side as they stared a march back through the forest to the hidden city.