The next chapter... finally. Sorry it took me so long! T.T Okay, I actually revised the whole story so before reading this chapter I would recommend that all you awesome readers go and read this again from the beginning. I changed it quite a bit, so that's what I recommend. Thanks for sticking with me, here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor any of its characters.

Chapter 6: Speculation

After breakfast the shinobi all went their separate ways. Shikamaru and Chouji ended up outside, looking for a good place to go cloud watching. They found hill with a tree on top, with an open view of the sky. They both plopped down underneath the tree, staring at the fluffy white clouds floating lazily across the blue sky. It was a peaceful spot; a couple of birds and butterfly's flew by, and the tree offered shade from the sun. They boys lay there quietly, soaking in the natural beauty of the spot. It was Chouji who finally broke the silence.

"Shikamaru?"

"…Yes, Chouji?"

"Why do you think we were sent here?"

Shikamaru closed his eyes and pondered the question. Why were they there?

"I don't know. From what we've heard so far, I conclude that we're probably here for some reason, we just don't know what it is yet."

A new voice suddenly cut into their conversation.

"Knowing those old bastards, you'll probably never find out either. Sometimes it's just too troublesome…"

The boys sat up quickly, looking around them for the source of the voice. Shikamaru stood up and looked behind the tree, Choji following suit. Looking up at them lazily from her position in the grass was Shika. They boys relaxed and decided to sit next to her. The three sat in a comfortable silence, but it was soon broken. Shika suddenly sat up and leaned against the tree. She looked at Chouji.

"Your name… is Chouji, right? And you are…?"

"Shikamaru. Nara Shikamaru."

"Ah. You know…"

The two boys looked at her curiously, sensing a story.

"I had a friend named –Chouji too. He was a nice guy… always laughing and everything. I really have no idea why his family moved to where I lived… not that they stayed."

Shika's eyes were slightly glazed over, as if she were remembering something from long ago. Chouji was understandably curious.

"Why did his family move away?"

"…He almost died. I told him to move before he could get hurt again, or maybe killed. It was partly my fault… If he hadn't seen the scars, then he wouldn't have tried to…"

Her voice trailed off and started rubbing one of her arms, as if it pained her. The boys were slightly confused; which scars? They couldn't see any, on her arms or on her face. She noticed there confusion and decided to change the subject.

'Mendokusai… Shikamaru-kun, what are your parents like?"

Shikamaru noticed the blatant change in subject, but decided not to push it.

"Well… my mother is really troublesome, she nags me all the time and is really scary. My father is a ninja, but she still has complete control over him; he's totally whipped."

Shika seemed amused by this.

'So… he knows both of his parents. His mom… she may nag him but I bet she really cares about him. And his father… well, just being there for his family tells me that he's okay.'

"Shika-chan?"

"Hai, Chouji-kun?"

"What are your parents like?"

'…Fuck. Mendokusai….what to say? I can't exactly tell them that my mother was…'

"…My mother is dead. I never knew my father."

Shika closed her eyes, signaling the end of the conversation. Shikamaru was a little stunned and Chouji was stricken for bringing up such a painful subject.

'Her mother is dead? She didn't know her father? Mendokusai… I wish that she had said more, now I'm curious. Women are so troublesome…'

'Oh no, I shouldn't have brought that up! Poor Shika-chan…'

Both boys looked back at her to find that she was asleep. Shikamaru decided that was a good idea and lay on the grass for a nap. Chouji decided to stare at the clouds some more, and opened a bag of potato chips.

Lee and Neji went to an outside practice field to spar. They had been going at it for quite a while, Lee using his awesome taijutsu techniques and Neji using his Byakugan and jyuuken, when they were interrupted.

"Neji-neesan?"

Neji immediately froze at being called 'older sister' while Lee tried not to laugh at the expression on his teammates face. Neji swiftly turned around to identify the voice and was met with an interesting sight. -Hinata was there in front of him… but definitely different. While regular Hinata was still painfully shy, this one was looking at him with her arms folded across her chest and a confused expression on her face. Her hair was down to her mid-back and she was wearing a pair of thick white pants with a purple sweater. She also had the trademark white, pupil less eyes of the Hyuuga clan. –Hinata strode over to Neji, looked at his face quizzically, then… patted him on the chest. Neji and Lee were shocked speechless.

"…You're a boy."

Now -Hinata was the one who was shocked.

'This isn't Neji-neesan… so who is this guy and why does he look exactly like her?'

Lee decided to break the silence by launching into his usual exclamations.

"YOSH! How rude not to introduce ourselves! I am Rock Lee and this is my youthful teammate Hyuuga Neji! May I inquire your name?"

His energetic introduction seemed to break the girl out of her thoughts and she immediately bowed politely.

"How rude of me! My name is Hyuuga Hinata. So…

'Why the hell do you look like my cousin Neji? Okay, maybe I shouldn't put it like that… Oh what the hell, why not.'

"…Can I ask why the hell you look like my female cousin Neji and why you have the same name?"

Neji was feeling very confused. Hearing a curse word coming from someone who looked like your usually shy younger cousin was somewhat… disturbing.

"I… according to what I've heard, I'm another version of your cousin –Neji, just as you are another version of my cousin Hinata from my world. Have you heard of this before?"

-Hinata thought a bit, then her face lit up.

"Hai! Neji-neesan told me about that once, she learned it from her sensei. Wow… this is my first time seeing this. So tell me… what is your family like where you live?"

Neji started a little at the question. Why would she ask that all of a sudden…?

"… In the Hyuuga family there is the main house family and the branch house family. Everyone in the branch house family is…"

"Branded with a curse seal which forces them to obey the main house."

Neji didn't try to hide his shock that the other girl knew what he was going to say. Even Lee seemed intrigued. Hinata noticed his expression and smiled gently.

"Yes, I know about it. The same thing went on in my family… until it destroyed them."

"…What?"

"Yes. The whole main house and branch house system blew up in their faces. That's what happens when you enslave your own family… it ends up destroying both sides. Maybe it was for the best… But if it weren't for ojisan no one in the family would have survived. The only surviving Hyuuga members are me, -Hanabi, otosan, ojisan, obachan, and Neji-neesan."

Neji was quiet; this was quite a lot to take in at once.

'So in another world, the Hyuuga clan was destroyed by its own system and… my parents are still alive?'

Lee, meanwhile, had hugged a rather freaked out -Hinata with tears running down his face.

"You poor thing! Having so much tragedy in your family while still a youth!"

While having been at first freaked out by the enigma that was Lee, -Hinata softened when she felt his concern and hugged him back.

"Arigato, Lee-san. It's okay though, -Hanabi-chan and I had Neji-neesan to help us through. Also, obachan is like the mother I never knew, and ojisan is helping otosan to be more… human, I guess."

Breaking from Lee's mighty embrace, -Hinata went over to Neji, who was still thinking.

"Neji-kun?"

"…Hai, Hinata-san?"

"Don't worry about what happened to the clan in another world… I'm sure it wouldn't happen again."

Neji turned away from her, but she still heard his muttered, "But what if the clan seems to need it?"

She tuned him around immediately.

"What do you mean?"

Temari and Kankuro had found something interesting. On top of Garra's bag was a photo album. The two curious sand siblings couldn't help but pry; Temari had told Kankuro about her conversation last night with Garra, and they both wanted to know what her family had been like. Sitting down, they began to flip through it. It was arranged by age, starting with the oldest photos and ending with the youngest. Temari stopped on one photo; a three year old Garra, being read a story by -Temari, clutching an obviously homemade panda doll in her hands and listening with rapt attention. Another showed a five year old Garra being given a piggyback ride from -Kankuro, the former looking gleeful and clutching her bothers hair, and the latter looking slightly annoyed that his poor hair was being abused. When they got to the picture where a seven year old Garra was smiling and flashing a victory sign at the camera along with her two siblings, the two older sand shinobi felt like crying. Temari tried to swallow the lump in her throat; Gaara had never looked that happy around them, especially when he was that young. They had always feared him, avoided him… but what if they hadn't?

Kankuro wasn't in much better shape than his sister; in the pictures Garra had obviously adored her older brother, and that -Kankuro seemed fond of her too, though annoyed at times.

'I… never really thought of Gaara as brother back then. If I had… would he have looked at me the same way Garra did her brother?'

Temari replaced the album on top of the bag and both siblings wordlessly left the room, silent tears of guilt running down their faces.

Naru and Naruto meandered down the outside path to find a place to train. Naru had asked Naruto if he wanted to spar, and the blonde boy had readily agreed. They found a flat field and decided on the rules. Only taijutsu and ninjutsu were allowed, no genjutsu. They both took fighting stances; a slight breeze blew through and Naruto suddenly lunged. Naru fell backwards and kicked him square in the stomach, causing him to fly backwards. He landed on his feet, hunched over slightly from the pain in his abdomen.

'Damn, she can kick hard! I went a little easy on her because she's a girl, but I'm not sure if that's the greatest idea now. Okay, I'll try something to gain an advantage.'

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Naru was suddenly faced with Naruto clones on all sides. She grinned savagely.

'So that's how he wants to play, huh? Alright, let's see what you've got!'

The clones sprang at her simultaneously, but before they could fully reach her she put her arms out in front of her and crossed them.

"Fire arrows: multiple target attack!"

She flung her arms outward and multiple fire arrows fired outwards toward the bunshin. They were all struck by an arrow and disappeared, except for one. The real Naruto dodged the arrow, and back flipped to land at a safe distance away from the fire user.

"What the hell was that! You didn't use any katas or anything!"

"That's for me to know and you to find out!"

Suddenly Naru was right in front of his face, and he brought up his arms to block a kick.

'She's fast!'

Both blondes then engaged in a furious taijutsu match. Naruto noticed that Naru was not only fast, she was pretty strong as well. Unless Kyuubi decided to heal him, he was going to have some pretty nasty bruises in the morning… Suddenly Naru swiped his legs out from under him and kicked him in the head before he could hit the ground. Disoriented, Naruto could only lie on the ground clutching his poor throbbing head.

"Itai! Okay, you win! But I'll get you next time!"

Naru perched next to him, a wicked grin on her face.

"Suuuure you will. C'mon, you'll probably want something for your head or you'll die in the morning with a killer headache. Take this for now, it'll make you sleepy later until I can get you some proper medicine."

She gave him a small pill that he swallowed. Naruto got up, his head spinning slightly. Naru grabbed him by the arm to steady him, and they began to trek back up to the Harusame.

Gaara had finished meditating outside when he sensed two presences approaching. He silently went to see who it was, and was slightly surprised when he saw the two blondes approach. Naruto was clutching his head in pain and Naru was trying to console him.

"Sorry, I didn't think that I hit you that hard!"

"Don't underestimate your strength!"

Gaara approached the two.

"…What happened?"

Naruto turned his best crying chibi face towards Gaara.

"Naru hurt meeee!"

"I said I was sorry!"

"…Is there anything I can do?"

Both of the blondes looked surprised at Gaara's offer. Gaara himself was kind of surprised; since when had he offered to help people out of the blue?

'Well, Naruto did kind of save my life once, so why not help him out?'

Naru smiled at him.

"Thanks Gaara-kun, can you look after the crybaby while I get some medicine?"

"I'm not a crybaby, Naru-baka!"

"You will be if you don't get some headache medicine soon. Just sit down and try not to hit your head against anything, okay?"

With that Naru went down the hall to who knows where. Naruto slumped against the wall, the pain in his head getting the better of him.

'Aw man, this hurts so bad! Hmm, I'm kinda getting sleepy… thank kami, that sleep medicine's working now!''

After a moment's hesitation, Gaara sat down next to Naruto. Naruto looked like his head hurt a lot, and Gaara wasn't exactly sure what to do in a situation like this. He calmed down a bit when the blonde's expression became sleepy. Naruto slowly fell asleep, and his head drifted down to land on the sand nin's shoulder. Gaara stiffened at bit at the unexpected contact.

'He's leaning on my shoulder…'

Gaara was about to push him off (the guy having certain personal space issues) but then caught sight of the blonde's peaceful sleeping face, free if the pain he had felt earlier. Naruto looked so innocent in his sleep, breathing slowly and peacefully in and out. Gaara relaxed and little and started to relish the warm human contact.

'Maybe I'll let him stay like this… At least until Naru comes back.'

TBC

Hehe, I think this is my longest chapter yet. Okay, so we learned a little more about some peoples history, met another person, and found out that Naru kicks ass. What's next you may ask? If you want to find out... Review! -please?-

Vocab

oneesan: big sister

oniisan: big brother

ojisan: uncle

otosan: father

okasan: mother

obachan: aunt

obaasan: grandmother

itai: ouch

Please Review, it feeds the soul.