Yeah, new chapter! Remember, there is a reading guide that explains any Japanese or reasonings I had while writing. Feel free to mosey over there while you are reading or after or whatever. People really seem to enjoy this story which is cool. I never expected anyone to like it and I'm glad it's getting such a steady audience.

Anywho, enough with me.

CHAPTER 6

The handcuffs were well made; smooth and so dense he had no hope of breaking them. The seal carved around the cuffs was elegant and looked like more decoration then a binding inscription. They didn't open, or rather the seal hid the opening from him. He did think that they were going a bit overboard in handcuffing first his hands together, then the handcuffs to the pole support in Tsunade's office, and then again to Iruka, sitting in a relaxed pose next to him with the latest Shinobi Techniques open on his lap.

"Is this really necessary?" Naruto grumbled and rattled the chains. Iruka smiled good-natured at him.

"It's not that the Hokage doesn't trust you," he replied. "Shikamaru just doesn't want to have to outrun you again."

Naruto grunted and tried to cross his arms but ended up tangling himself even more. Iruka just flipped through his magazine.

He had been here for half an hour and it looked like he would be here for a while longer. Shikamaru had stomped around the office for a bit, gathering up forms and then locked himself, Sasuke, Sakura, Shino and Kiba in the office across the hall, determined to have them all fill out the forms together and correctly so he wouldn't have to deal with them later. Naruto almost felt sorry for them.

Iruka was on medical leave. His ankle was in a heavy white cast and a pair of wooden crutches was resting on the desk next to him. Naruto had stared at him when he had hobbled. Iruka had scowled and muttered, "Damn kids" under his breath but didn't elaborate. Naruto wasn't in any mood to carry a conversation so he ignored it and they sat in relative silence.

He had known it was futile when he had run away before. As soon as he had seen Sasuke doing guard duty of all things he knew that Shikamaru wasn't about to just let him leave. Idly he wondered if it was too late to ask for a mission that allowed him to leave the city for a good reason. A cat scavenger hunt or something.

He wasn't too sure exactly why he had this desperate feeling. Sure, he and Gaara had gotten along. He had gotten used to waking up and having him curled up next to him, or reading down the hall, or struggling to make coffee. He had liked the quiet eye raises, the dead panned comments no one else heard, the steely looks when he overstepped.

Still, he liked things about other people too and if they just up and left he would be worried of course but he wouldn't have this primitive, animal need to search them out. He shifted, unable to keep still.

The next time he saw Shikamaru he was going to belt him across the head. It was unfair of him. Even if he did manage to get out of the chains and get out of the sealed window there would be no way he could fight Iruka, let alone an injured Iruka. The guilt alone would eat away at him so he was stuck, completely and utterly.

It was getting late and the breakfast the kids had made him at noon seemed a long time ago. Traveling for the past five years had made him get used to eating on the run and going a day or two without a proper meal but with a month of living back in civilization, with his own refrigerator, he had settled quickly back into a steady diet. And now he was hungry.

Iruka's stomach growled and Naruto couldn't help but grin over at him.

"Don't smile like that," Iruka warned. "My relief will be here soon with dinner."

Naruto knew he perked up at that and Iruka frowned at him so he tried to look meek. Iruka rolled his eyes.

"What is Gaara to you?" the words were eerily close to what Gaara had asked him three weeks ago.

Naruto looked at his hands and hoped that if he didn't answer Iruka would just sigh and go back to his magazine because he didn't like to lie to his old teacher but he also didn't know the answer himself. But Iruka worked with five year olds and had much more patience then Naruto.

"I don't," Naruto said haltingly. "I don't really know, exactly."

Iruka raised an eyebrow. "Is he a friend?" Naruto shrugged. "Does he owe you money?"

Naruto laughed at that one. "No, no. I mean, we've both been living off my money but it's not like he owes me or anything. I mean," Naruto trailed off. He sighed and slumped and Iruka sat up straighter. "Have you ever known someone and known they were, I don't know, important or something but you don't really know why? Like your life is just, well not empty, but it's missing something you never knew you didn't have before?"

Suddenly Iruka felt a nagging little voice in the back of his head yelling 'Run, run you stupid bastard!' and he cursed himself for being so approachable. Throwing yourself between a shower of shuriken and your student was one thing but it was something entirely different to face an emotional dilemma. The little voice, resigned to the fact that he was going to be ignored, pointed out that Iruka felt the same way every time he drew the short straw to teach sex ed.

"Why do you ask?" Iruka finally replied.

Naruto shot him a funny look. "Never mind."

They had an uncomfortable silence for a while.

"Well," Iruka finally squished the little voice with a final foot stomp. "How important is this person?"

"I don't know," Naruto shrugged. That phrase seemed to describe most of what he understood of his emotions right now. "Pretty important."

Iruka really wished that Naruto's father was here. It was conversations like this that was punishment for making women go through childbirth. But the man was long dead and Iruka had foolishly brought this position on himself and he was going to face it like a man.

"Important enough to go charging after him against Hokage's orders," Iruka said.

"The Hokage hadn't said anything at that point," Naruto defended and cursed when the chains kept him from crossing his arms again. "It was just Shikamaru and what does he know?"

Iruka wisely refrained from comment. "Either way, you knew the consequences. So this person," Iruka stubbornly kept from saying the name, "is important enough for you to risk all of this."

"I guess," Naruto mumbled. "I just don't get it."

"Sometimes feelings aren't very logical," Iruka said. He was on more familiar ground, switching consciously into lecture mode. "There is no way to rationalize them. You have to accept it, embrace it and grow stronger with it. Ignoring it won't make it go away. You have several people who are important to you, right?"

"Well yeah," Naruto said. "You, Sasuke, Sakura, Tsunade-baba. And all my friends I guess."

For a moment Naruto felt like he was twelve again and he and Iruka were sitting in Ichiraku eating ramen. It was rather different when they were sitting in Tsunade's office chained together and he was now almost twenty but the atmosphere was the same.

"Why are all those people important?"

"I don't know," Naruto said again and made a face. "But it's a different kind of important I think. Maybe. I don't know!" Naruto tried to throw his hands in the air and got frustrated when the chains stopped him again.

Iruka was trying to decide how to reply when the door opened and his relief poked his head in.

Naruto was escorted, chained, through the streets to his apartment. While he had been at the head quarters the clouds had gone from overcast to stormy. The streets were even more full as people hurried to get their shopping and errands done before the rain fell. His guards, two chuunin who he vaguely recognized from somewhere, stood close enough that they could grab him if he ran off but far enough away that people could mistake them for casual observers.

The distance wasn't fooling any of the villagers. Most turned their backs when he walked by but a few shouted insults at his back. One brave old man threw a rotten tomato from his vegetable stand. It hit Naruto square on his back and a few people gave a ragged cheer but were silenced by the icy looks from the chuunin. Naruto just sighed and bowed his head, preferring not to watch the faces as he passed.

As they reached the seventh floor of his apartment one of his neighbours was just stepping out. Kimura Aya was seventeen and living on her own. Naruto and Gaara had run into her a few times, she was cheerful enough and worked as a teacher's aid at the nearby civilian primary school. She clutched her bag to her chest as Naruto walked by and stared, wide eyed, as the bandaged faced chuunin opened Naruto's door and let him in.

Her knuckles were white but she stopped the two as they were leaving.

"Is he in trouble?" she asked and the two glanced at each other.

"He's not dangerous," the taller one replied. His face was half covered by dark brown bangs but he had gentle eyes.

"Oh," she said quietly and glanced nervously at his door.

"One of the elite jounin has sealed his apartment for tonight," the one with the bandage over his nose tied to reassure her. "And someone will be here to escort him out tomorrow."

She nodded, still gripping her bag and too frightened to respond. The taller one shrugged and the shorter one sighed and they gave her one last reassuring smile before leaving. Aya rushed back into her apartment and packed a quick overnight bag before hurrying down the stairs, cursing herself for thinking the apartment was a great deal.

Naruto tried all the windows but found them sealed with ink all around the sills. The door was sealed too and when he tried to punch through them he ended up hurting only himself. Even the walls were harder then diamonds and Naruto felt himself panicking without knowing way.

He paced the main room thinking. Last night's calm, precise planning didn't seem to have worked so Naruto was ready to move onto his usual fallback Plan B: reckless, pig headed stubbornness.

Now that he had that sorted out, he stalked into his bedroom and pulled his travel sack from the sliding closet. He stuffed his clothes in, cramming them unfolded into every crevice. After a moments debate he grabbed some of Gaara's clothes too. They were neatly folded but he balled them up to fit in.

In the kitchen he grabbed some of the hardier foods to bring with him, some apples, a few pears and several instant ramen bowls. Not knowing what kind of state he would find Gaara in he grabbed one of the blankets Kiba had brought them and tied it to the straps.

His mind wandered briefly over what he was doing. Treason. Disobeying the Hokage. Aiding a possible enemy. Betraying his friends. Rescuing Gaara.

Prepared now to leave, Naruto went to the centre of the main room and laced his fingers together. He hadn't been able to break out himself but he did have one damned cursed card up his sleeve. It was time for the fox to pay up.

Five years of nomadic living had forced him to utilize every strength he had. The demon had gotten him out of some tight corners. He walked the familiar paths inside of him. It was dark and he shivered. No matter how many times he ventured this deep it always scared him that there was a part inside of his body that could house this dank maze.

He turned the final corner expecting to see the never ended bars and the dark, red, angry eyes trapped behind. But all that was there was a dead end. Naruto stopped, nearly breaking his meditation. He retraced his steps but no, this was the place. He rested his hand on the wall and it hummed. He frowned, there was something wrong with it, something that turned the hum into a sting and he found himself back in his apartment with a flash of white, panting and soaked through with sweat.

"What the hell," Naruto whispered and looked at his hands. They were shaking.

Before he could think there was a sharp rap at his window.

"Yo, loser!"

Blondie smiled cheekily at him. Pushing aside the fox for the moment, Naruto frowned and walked over to where the window was still sealed shut.

Either Blondie didn't notice or she didn't care. She gripped the bottom of the frame and heaved it up, almost tumbling off the perilous perch she had on the sill. To Naruto's surprise it slid open and he reached through quickly to grab her arm and keep her from falling.

He pulled her in and she had to use his arm to steady herself.

"What-" he started. "How did you get in here?"

She looked at him like he was crazy. "The window. Jeez, they let just anyone become a ninja huh?"

"No, I mean, the seals, how did you get passed them?" but it was obvious that she had no idea what he was talking about. Instead she uncoiled the rope that was around her torso and handed it to him. He took it and she tossed the other end out the window. Naruto braced himself just in time as heavy was suddenly added to the other end.

"You didn't really think we'd let you get away without at least an explanation," Blondie planted her hands on her hips with a smirk.

"You guys shouldn't be here," Naruto said as Hanako's copper head appeared at the window and she crawled in.

Hanako turned and offered a hand to Musad who was right after her but he brushed her off. He was sneezing and Hanako handed him a cloth from her pocket.

"Well, we aren't good at doing things we should," Blondie sounded proud of herself.

"This is different," Naruto walked over to the window and stuck his hand out again. Confused, he looked at the ink seals painted on the wood. He had never been good at calligraphy; that had been more of a Sakura thing. He traced them in the air, trying to read it.

"Look," Blondie sounded annoyed that he wasn't more grateful. "We just got a huge lecture from some weird looking guy about obeying orders and all that crap and we've decided," at this Hanako and Musad nodded in agreement, "that rules suck and we want to know what you were doing anyway."

Naruto looked up from a kanji that might have been 'inside' but could also be 'mouth' with the tail end of the last character in his name.

Naruto felt like shaking them. "You can't just disobey orders," he said harshly. "Following rules is what ninja do. You all read the oath when you graduated, the Hokage is your way of life now!" he glared at them. "You could get jailed just for seeing me right now."

"You could too!" Blondie yelled. "And we are going to follow you because you are our teacher whether you like us or not!"

Naruto wanted to grab her and shake her.

"Orders are stupid," surprisingly it was Musad who spoke. The room fell quiet. "Sometimes stupid people give stupid orders. We cannot know who is stupid or smart. You ignore stupid orders," Musad accused. "And you are giving stupid orders now. We learn from you, we do what you teach and you teach us to ignore. We obey orders that are close to our hearts. Genin are teammates. We obey the heart of the team."

It was the longest speech the boy had every said and it seemed to take a lot out of him.

"And anyway," Blondie added. "You owe us a proper lesson for once."

"But this is different," Naruto repeated but he knew they wouldn't change their minds now. Giving up on trying to understand the seal and deciding no to tempt the fates he shouldered his bag again and looked curiously at them. "Just who gave you that talk about obeying rules?"

"I don't know," Blondie huffed. "Some loser like you who looked half asleep and covered his face the whole time."

Suddenly Naruto smiled. He remembered a similar lecture, years and years ago when he was tied to a stump in a field. Blondie looked taken back by his change in mood and Hanako looked worriedly at him. Musad just smirked and cracked his knuckles.

"Okay!" Naruto yelled. "Off we go then!"

"You mean we can go?" Hanako looked at him in disbelief.

Naruto thoughtfully touched his nose and grinned. "The whole reason I got caught last time was because I didn't have anyone watching my back. As long as you guys promise to obey at least my orders we can get along. Shikamaru will kill me if one of you gets killed. You'd never believe the paperwork we would have to fill out."

…………………………………………………………………….

Gaara gave a calculating look at the wall. It was hard to concentrate. His brain was slowing down, he had started to recognize it after three weeks and he knew he should sleep. But he didn't want to sleep, not alone. He always knew how venerable people were when they slept and became even more attentive of that fact when his father started to hire assassins but he had never thought about it in terms of himself too much.

But, as his hands trembled and his knees felt hollow and ready to collapse, he was all too aware that those vulnerabilities applied to him now.

He had been pummeling the wall for a good three hours and had forgotten that physical work would drain his energy. He could still go long stretches without sleep and being knocked out from before had given his body some rest but he couldn't go on forever.

The plaster was cracking and he was afraid if he fell asleep they would repair it. They could repair it anyway, putting him to sleep themselves, but Gaara wasn't going to give them the satisfaction.

The bandages on his hands were soaked through with blood and plaster stuck onto the gauze. Finally his knees gave out and he slumped to the ground, panting and sweating.

They had fed him and it was surprisingly good. Rice meal with the occasional fruit was the most they could have hoped for before but this time around he had gotten egg soup, rice and katsudon. He had been a bit suspicious but was too hungry to not eat it. It didn't mean he was going to start trusting these people though.

The entire room was starting to swirl around the edges of his vision but he pushed that back and attacked the wall again.

He punched, feeling the split skin on his knuckles open farther, deeper, and used the pain to fuel him

He kicked, seeing the faces of anger and fear on the faces of his village. He punched, using the suffering of his wounded heart at the sight of the children, terrified of him for retrieving their ball. He used the fear of seeing his first dead body, killed by the unswayable power inside of himself, the loneliness brought on by the shortsighted elders of the village, the fury of Shukaku at being forced into a pathetic child.

But that was all draining from him and his onslaught slowed as all those emotion transferred out of him, destroying the wall between him and freedom. He gave one last pathetic punch before dropping to his knees exhausted and rested his head on the splintered plaster.

It wasn't fair; he slammed his head on the wall, unable to lift his hands from where they shook in his lap. How could all the suffering in his life amount to only this, not even enough to break through a damn wall?

He thought of Naruto. He thought of the time before he had met him, lost in his own world, trying to make it perfect for him by destroying everyone else in it. He thought about after, when he realized what a lonely place he had created when he needn't have. And then he thought about their time together in this room.

All of a sudden he felt more anger then he had ever felt before. He slammed his fist on the wall, thinking about Naruto. He slammed the other, remembering the full out, happy smiles. He slammed them both when he remembered the sideways looks Naruto gave him when he thought he wasn't looking. And again, remembering sly smirk when they sparred, and again, the image of the pleading eyes when there was only one apple left for the two of them, and again, the surprised look when Gaara had split it in half.

And, finally, he just punched the god dammed cursed beige wall.

He eventually collapsed and in his dreams he punched through the wall and found his way back to the small, tucked away home that he and Naruto had.

Not accustomed to dreaming he woke up disorientated and facing a fresh new beige wall that bared no sign of his earlier attack. His hands had fresh bandages, salve and stitches. Instead of getting frustrated, Gaara sat and stared, wondering idly what would happen if he tried to gnaw through his wrists. He stared at them for a moment then decided against it.

Just the fact that his hands were bandaged made him think. These people either couldn't use chakra, enjoyed drawing out their pain, or it was part of their twisted reasoning. He concluded that they must need to use chakra at sometime seeing as all three times he had been captured it was because of a preset seal.

Perhaps they hired someone. It wasn't unheard of for lower ranked ninja to sell their services on the side if they fell out of favour with their kage or needed extra money. It could be either a personal vendetta against him or Naruto or both, or it could have nothing to do with them.

Gaara fingered his tattoo; it was all so pointless.

Maybe it was the sleep or maybe it was because Gaara had finally worked all of the helpless aggression out of his system, but he felt more refreshed then ever and it was like he could see clearly for the first time.

Except for the fact the damned wall was in the way. He cocked his head at it for a moment and scrutinized. There was no point in beating it again, he decided. After all, it probably led to another condemned prisoner for all he knew and Gaara had already made one serious relationship with a partner in crime, he didn't feel the desire for another one.

So that was out. He laid back and felt an unusual emotion; laziness. It was nice, he decided and closed his eyes, nice to feel venerable. Nicer still to have someone to watch his back and with the cloud of depression worked out of his system he felt for a brief moment that someone did. He slept for the first time in this room without the aid of drugs or exhaustion.

Just as an aside, how many people read the Reader's Guide? It does help I think to connect the dots of the story. I'll write the chapter and when I go back and analyse it for the last time I see things I never saw before and it's those observations that I record in the Guide. It's under my memories in my lj, which is my homepage.