Well, I suppose it's been a little while since I've updated.
...too bad for people that cared.
Anyway, that does not make this chapter uber long. Just really slow to come out. Enjoy.
Chapter 8
Gaara knew something was fishy about this mission, so he went to the source: the only ramen stand in all of Sunagakure. Or rather, one of the three customers that could handle the food they served.
"Naruto, what is the meaning of this?" He asked calmly, the sand drifting over to place upon the counter the official looking document that detailed team 6's mission.
The Hokage slurped up a few noodles, then picked up the paper to read it. "Looks like an assignment for bodyguard duty protecting…Hey, it's me!" He then turned to look at Gaara and said as innocently as possible, "Why, it looks like it's your team's assignment! What a coincidence!"
"…And that is why I've come to ask you what the meaning of this is," Gaara repeated.
"Well, I thought that since your always dropping by Konoha to say, 'Hello,' I thought I'd come out to Suna and meet your students."
"You requested my team for this assignment?" Gaara asked, visibly annoyed.
"Well sure!" Naruto was oozing self-satisfaction, "Why not? I'm sure you've got a great group of genin, and it shouldn't be too dangerous, so your group should be up to it."
"And…?" Asked Gaara.
Naruto paused a moment before answering, "…and the Kazekage begged me to have a team of ninja from Suna 'guard' me." He smiled, "Gotta look good for those feudal lords."
"I'm not taking the mission."
"Sure you aren't," Naruto said, with a smug grin on his face, "You try telling that to your team, see how that goes over, then check with the Kazekage, to see his opinion, and then check with all of the ninja that are expecting some of the feudal lords to make some more commissions with the village, thus increasing their pay checks a bit, and then…"
Gaara rubbed his eyes, "alright, you win. Now shut up."
He walked out, ignoring the Hokage calling behind him, "Ne, Gaara! Don't you want some ramen?"
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"We set out tomorrow, so make sure you have everything you need."
Hagaimaru did a little dance of joy, singing, "We're gonna have a real mission, real mission, real mission!"
Gaara watched his student, with a bit of malice for some other person in mind. He soon lost himself in his thoughts, abandoning the narrow-minded concept of hatred for the one person truly responsible for his present situation, but expanded outward to everyone mildly connected with the matter.
As Gaara's musings played out in his, Hagaimaru's dance was interrupted by Yaezaki's arm around his neck; she then proceeded to beat him about the head with several sharp blows. Seiseike amused himself with fiddling with a kunai he had withdrawn from his poach and watching Hagaimaru's punishment.
Gaara snapped back to attention and with a quick glance over his students announced, "But until then, we will train."
Yaezaki stopped her barrage against her teammate, and looked up to her teacher, "Gaara-sensei, shouldn't we prepare for travel tomorrow."
"You'll have all night to prepare." Years of insomnia had caused the sand-nin to become indifferent to the need of sleep that others had, much to the dismay even of teams of jounin he had led in the past. It was this quality, though, that had earned him a certain recognition for the efficiency of his missions. He continued, "We'll use the east training grounds."
His students looked at him with a look that said, "Duh." All other training grounds were outside of the city. In other words, the desert.
None too pleased with the oh-so-obvious attitude of his students, Gaara replied to the look with, "I'll meet you there," and vanished in his whirl of sand, leaving his students quite literally in his dust.
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20 minutes, and two separate attempts to risk escaping training (by Yaezaki and Seiseike, respectively, both thwarted by Hagaimaru), the genin made it to the other side of the village and entered the training grounds.
Gaara was standing with his arms across his chest, and his gourd on the ground next to him, thrown carelessly.
"Today," He began, "We will be doing taijutsu."
The agenda was had mixed reviews. Cheers from Hagaimaru, and a sort of sullen look from the other two, Yaezaki still wincing slightly in remembrance of her sparring matches with Hagaimaru, and any one could tell by looking at Seiseike's thin frame that he was none too excited about the prospect of taijutsu training.
"Each one of you will be fighting a sand clone of me," Gaara said, and was about to continue when Hagaimaru interrupted him.
"Gaara-sensei, why can't we just fight you? I think we can take ya' if it's just taijutsu!"
Gaara continued, annoyed that he had been interrupted, "…Because, Hagaimaru, I have no control of the sand that protects me. My sand clones will have all of the same taijutsu skills I have, but you will be able to actually engage them in some hand to hand combat, instead of fighting my shield, which will never strike back."
He paused so that Hagaimaru could absorb the information. Once a look of understanding dawned on the boy's features, Gaara began.
"Suna Bunshin no Jutsu."
Sand emptied out of his gourd and formed three sand copies of Gaara. After a moment, they had completely formed and the chakra that held them together removed their sandy complexion to give them even the exact coloration of the genins' instructor. Once completed they stood at attention, awaiting orders.
Gaara calmly sat down next to his now empty gourd and waved his toward the genin, "You may begin."
Before even the sand clones moved, Hagaimaru reacted, moving so fast that it made Gaara nostalgic of his first Chuunin exam.
Hagaimaru delivered a strong round kick to one of the sand clones…which wasn't there. He felt a foot connect with his jaw from below, sending him flying into the air.
The other clones were already engaging in the spar with Yaezaki and Seiseike. Yaezaki was making an attempt to meet with the clone head on, trying her best to land a punch or a kick or anything on the copy of her teacher, unsuccessfully, though. The sand clone was doing slightly better. It had landed one punch, then held back, and had been forcing a steady forward movement, even when Yaezaki side stepped to avoid a fist or foot, the sand-Gaara always forced her in a single direction of its choosing.
Seiseike wasn't fairing much better. Instead of taking the direct approach of his teammates, he had stayed where he was, and when the final clone came after him, attempted to move as little as possible to avoid the flying side kick aimed for his head. The kick was, in fact, a feint, and Seiseike instead ended up doubled over a knee in the gut. His legs were then quickly swept out from under him, landing him on his back. He barely had time to roll out of the way from the next punch aimed for him, and none to recover.
Hagaimaru could sense that something was coming up from underneath him. He couldn't move, as there was nothing to grab onto in the air. He took a breath to reassure himself, and reached blindly behind him…and grabbed the foot of the clone about to execute a devastating combo. He released one hand from the foot, and with the other pulled as hard as he could to one side. The clone couldn't stop its own momentum, and Hagaimaru ended up on its left side, right next to it.
Hagaimaru reached with his left hand as quickly as he could to grab the clone's own left arm. Now angled at ninety degrees to the clone, he brought up his leg and slammed his heel into the stomach of the copy, with enough for to shift its momentum downward to earth. Now that he had something to grab onto, Hagaimaru assaulted the helpless clone on its travel with "Gravity Airlines". He pummeled it until the clone's head was facing the ground, hit it one last time for good measure, then pressed his feet against the sand copy's to jump away from the site of impact.
Upon hitting the ground, the tremors near the sand-Gaara's body created fissures within a five-foot radius, and a crash so thunderous that his teammates, even in their trance of combat, had to look up as every person does when such a sudden deafening noise is heard. The sand clones they were fighting, however, must have had sand in their ears, as they did not react to the sound, and both simultaneously delivered a punch that threw the genin back from where they were, and knocked the wind out of them. This forcibly returned them to the present and they continued the fight, as Hagaimaru did a victory dance as he saw that the clone had disappeared, and the sand that composed it returned to its place in Gaara's gourd.
Hagaimaru completed his dance, and watched his teammates for a few moments. Bored of that, and realizing he had nothing else to do, he looked around at Gaara for some kind of instruction. Receiving none, the genin walked over to his instructor and sat down next to him. Gaara made no objection, so he stayed.
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The other two never beat the last of the sand clones. After several hours, Gaara released the jutsu and his copy's disappeared. The sun was setting and Seiseike and Yaezaki were on the verge of collapse before he allowed them the respite.
He stood from where he had been sitting and said, "That's enough," even though his students had stopped as soon as their opponents had disappeared.
"I suppose," he continued once his students had had enough time to breath, "that I should have warned you, I trained briefly with a team of the best taijutsu and weapon specialists I have ever met. I was told I was a fast learner."
He paused again, then spoke again, "Go home and pack. You're all dismissed." And he left.
You know who I'm talking about.