Naruto not owned by I.

Chapter 4

Team 6 sat on the sand, looking very disappointed, and a little tired. They looked to their instructor, who looked back at them and said nothing.

The silence was held for several moments until one of the children said, "Sensei-"

Gaara interrupted the boy, "None of you were able to get a bell."

The proof of this hung from Gaara's belt. Two bells securely fastened.

At the mention of this, all of the students looked even more disappointed. Yaezaki voiced their worries.

"So…we failed," she said. It was supposed to be a question, but the answer seemed so obvious that she didn't think it mattered.

"Who cares if we failed," complained Hagaimaru, "We don't get lunch!"

"No," said Gaara, ignoring the second statement.

"No?" Asked Yaezaki, "But you just said…we didn't get the bells…"

Gaara looked to his students, and shook his head slowly, "If you're still worried about the bells, then you don't understand the point of this exercise. Then…you do fail."

Seiseike looked to his teacher, "But the point of the training was to get one of the bells, you said so yourself."

"Idiot!" Said Gaara, in an unusual display of almost open emotion, "If all you think this training was to get a bell then you should quit being a ninja right now."

"But you did say the point was to get one of the bells," confirmed Yaezaki, "you said to try and get a bell any way possible."

Gaara knew this wouldn't get any where quickly with some help. The three had almost passed, but they needed to understand why.

"And how did you do that?"

"You know as well as us," said Seiseike, "Hagaimaru used a smoke bomb to distract you, and then Yaezaki threw kunai to add to the distraction. Next, I used my…"

Seiseike's voice faded as his teachers body language told him that he was wrong, and Gaara was sick of hearing it.

Hagaimaru looked to his two teammates, then to his teacher and said, "We worked together. As a team."

Gaara looked to Hagaimaru, as though surprised that he of all people was able to figure it out, but lacking any of the emotion that would normally appear on a person's face.

"Correct," Said Gaara, "and that is why all of you pass."

There was a silence as the three let the knowledge of teamwork and the understanding of the lesson sunk in.

"So…" Said Hagaimaru, "This means we get lunch, right?"

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Gaara sat with a bowl of ramen in front of him. He didn't touch it, but watched his companion down his fifth bowl while talking, exposing the half-chewed noodles in his mouth.

"So, how'd the training go?" Asked Naruto. Much to his relief, Gaara had appeared on his doorstep this time, and politely rung the bell and asked to talk with him.

Gaara set down a glass of water he had been drinking from and replied, "Fine."

"They all passed?" Naruto asked.

"Mm," was the only answer.

"So, you'll start on real missions soon."

Gaara nodded silently.

Naruto was annoyed. He had been called her, having been asked for his advice, and now the Sand nin refused to talk. If it had been anyone else Naruto would have already lost his temper, but he expected this from Gaara, and so let it slide.

Gaara rubbed his eyes.

"Tired?" Naruto asked with a smile.

Gaara looked to his companion and gave him a death glare that could have killed lesser men. But being Naruto, he barely even noticed it.

Gaara finally spoke, "I need to protect these kids now, right."

It was obvious he knew the answer, but Naruto humored him, "right."

"What if I can't do that?" Gaara asked.

Naruto sighed. He understood why his friend only ever took or received solo missions. His sleeplessness left his personality generally unstable, and his childhood had turned him bitter. He was able to control himself now and ignore Shukaku's desire for blood; he was even able to keep himself calm through incredible self-control. But no matter what he did for his village, the villagers, and most of his peers, weren't able to get past the fact that the one tailed Tanuki demon slept within his body.

"Gaara, you can't let those people get to you," Naruto said, "You know you're different. I know you're different. And Hinata says that if I can understand something, everyone can."

Gaara appeared almost not to listen to the words of comfort Naruto provided, but said, "One of my students has an uncanny resemblance to someone I know…"

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Hagaimaru yawned and rose from his bed, rubbing his eyes, and staring blankly into space for a few moments. His nightcap barely stayed on his head. He slowly got up, now conscious, but not awake. He shuffled over to his the door of his room, opened it, and finished his shuffle downstairs, falling asleep at the bottom until his sister came by and gave him a good whack on the head.

"GAH!" Hagaimaru exclaimed, "What the hell was that for, Touhi!"

"You fell asleep again moron," Touhi said, "Weren't your 13 hours enough last night?"

"Gimme a break," he mumbled, "It's my day off."

"You're a genin, it's easier to count the number of days you don't have off," his sister retorted. Touhi was a chuunin, and three years older then him. More of an intellectual then him, and more annoying then anyone he knew.

He had breakfast, and then flew back up to his room. He changed into his regular clothes: grey pants, black undershirt, sandals, his forehead protector around his forehead, and the yellow-orange shirt most of his friends and family complained waking up to, with his clan's symbol emblazoned in red on the back. He liked the color, though, and no one doubted it; it matched his personality.

From the time he was young he had been loudmouthed, bluntly honest, and what some might consider stupid. Though not necessarily who one might choose to enter to represent one's country for a national debate, or even a spelling bee for that matter, he wasn't as stupid as people thought he was. He was practical, knew the tools of the ninja well, and on a side note, a health freak. For example, his breakfast that morning had been two imported apples, three glasses of carrot juice, and two bran muffins.

As a ninja, he had graduated almost at the bottom of his class, never getting anything better than a 14 on written tests.

"Alright! I'm going," He called to his parents as he left for the training grounds within the city. Though it was his day off he had promised his teammates he would meet with them to train.

"Hey Moron!" Touhi called after him, "Don't forget that it's Mom's birthday tonight."

The wave he offered without turning was his annoyed response. He wouldn't forget something like his mother's birthday. Though none too bright, he wasn't an idiot.

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Yaezaki tapped her foot impatiently. Boys! They never showed up on time. She had made sure to be punctual, so as to ward off any younger children that might hang around and monopolize the training grounds while other had some real training to do.

She saw a figure approaching, and though couldn't tell who it was, brushed off her green dress, made sure her headband was secure around her waist, and tucked a wisp of dirty blonde hair that had floated in front of her face. She always made sure to be as neat as possible, and hated being what she considered, "unpresentable." To be as such would mean to have a single speck of dirt on her otherwise flawless clothes. She even considered looking into jutsu to keep her clothes from getting dirty, but had decided it wasn't worth the trouble or people thinking even worse about how much of a neat freak she was.

"Good morning, Yaezaki-chan!" Hagaimaru greeted her cheerfully, as always.

"Good morning, Hagaimaru," she replied to her friend, "Do you know where Seiseike is?"

"I've been reading for quite some time now," replied Seiseike, suddenly standing behind them and startling Yaezaki.

"Seiseike, don't do that, you almost gave me a heart attack!"

"It happens," Seiseike said nonchalantly.

Yaezaki looked at Seiseike with a pouting look. He wore the standard sandals that Suna ninjas wore, and long red pants that he bunched up and tied just below his knee to make into shorts. The pants must have been too big for his fairly thin form, as he wore a belt, and an extra one for no apparent reason, to hold them up. His stomach was covered only by red fishnet, and his cream white shirt covered his chest and upper arms, and had hood on the back, which he had never been seen with up. He wore his forehead protector with its unusual red cloth on a chain around his neck, and his straight brown hair fell to his shoulders.

"Alright," said Hagaimaru, "Let's train."

"Let's go with some taijutsu matches," Suggested Yaezaki.

Hagaimaru smiled excitedly, but Seiseike was less than enthusiastic.

"I'll pass; I'm not very good at taijutsu. I don't feel like getting beaten up today," he returned to sit.

Hagaimaru shrugged, "Your loss," then he turned to Yaezaki, who had moved to about twenty feet away to outline a make-shift ring, and called, "So, what's the score, 20 to 2?"

"Oh, shut up, Hagaimaru!" Yaezaki called back, "I'll more than make up for those flukes today!"

Hagaimaru chuckled, "Don't you think 20 'flukes' deserves some type of consideration as fact?"

"Maybe you're afraid to be beaten by a girl."

Hagaimaru blushed with anger. He would never be beaten by a girl!

"Alright, let's go!"

Alright, a lot of this was kind of boring, but I figured I should get the vast majority of any description I'll have about the characters out of the way, as I didn't do so when I first introduced them, which may have been a mistake.

Hope people review...