A/N: Huzzah! A new little story. It's mainly about post-time skip Naruto/Hinata, Kiba trying to sabotage the whole thing, and Sakura hooking up with Gaara in the process.Anyway, I'm not sure if this'll fly. So, if you like it, say it in a review. Or a flame. Yeah, flame. Make my day—you know you wanna!
Disclaimer: All the characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto. No money is made from this story and no copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: Get a taste of what life would be like if Naruto was in charge when Gaara challenges him to survive a week in his shoes as Kazekage. Mayhem, old rivalries, and romance ensues when the boys go full throttle to win their bet. Naru/Hina, slight Gaa/Saku
You Bet Your Kazekage!
---Prologue---
With the hype resulting from the up-and-coming batch of Chuunin exams, most of Konoha's Shinobi found themselves in Sunagakure, where the examination was taking place. The Leaf's present Chuunin were there to evaluate, or to witness from the frontlines, the surefire disaster Naruto would cause on his second try. There was no way around it—something was bound to happen.
"Teamwork. It's the key to your success, Naruto," Sakura was lecturing her friend, as all of Konoha's recently appointed Chuunin—formerly known as the Rookie Nine—passed the gates of Suna, in the heart of the Wind Country. The pink-headed girl had aced her own exam during Naruto's three year absence and, therefore, felt fully qualified to dish out some friendly advice.
But Uzumaki Naruto was not a fan of advice, however friendly it was, even if it came from the object of his long-lasting affection. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," he rudely dismissed his teammate's suggestion with a frivolous brush of the hand, offended that Sakura assumed he needed a pep talk. "I'm going to win this with strength and not personality!"
"And why's that?" She inquired, her tone shifting from bubbly to bitterly annoyed.
"Because Naruto doesn't have a personality." Inuzuka Kiba shot back at the conversing duo, shoving the fuming blond Genin out of his path, as he bypassed him on the way to Kazekage Gaara's office. Ignoring Naruto's pathetic attempt at a clever retort, Kiba walked on to catch up to Hinata, who was seemingly in deep conversation with Shino a few paces ahead. A conversation with Shino? Go figure.
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In exactly 9 days, the Chuunin exams—or, shall we call it, the Chuunin debacle—would take place. Gaara had graciously agreed to host them in Suna, where he would participate in the evaluation along side Tsunade. Something he regretted two minutes after offering. After the Shukaku had been extracted from his body, the former jinchuuriki discovered the pleasures of sleeping; something he indulged in all too often as of late.
"Gaara-sama, wake up!" Temari tentatively said, lightly shaking her brother's shoulder. She had been trying to wake him up for the past fifteen minutes with no success. It seemed as though Gaara was trying to make up for lost time by sleeping 24/7. Despite the Council of Suna's assertions that the Kazekage had become a lazy bastard, Gaara was hard at rest, while Temari was getting very impatient. "Damn it, Gaara!"
After a few faint knocks on the door, Shikamaru entered the Kazekage's wide circular office. "Hey, Temari. Everyone is here, they're waiting outside."
"Give me a sec, I'm working on it."
"This is troublesome, I'll be waiting outside." Having said what he came to say, the lazy exam supervisor did not exit the room without shooting a puzzled glance at the sleeping Gaara, somewhat weirded out that the former resident psychopath of Suna had turned slacker. Was Gaara giving him a run for his money? Nah! Shikamaru gave a slight nod to Temari and half-closed the door behind him.
While it was men who discovered fire, women like Temari discovered how to play with it. Impatience is the mother of invention—or however that expression goes. Grabbing the half-empty glass of water lying on the desk, she slowly poured its content on her brother's lap.
"Huh," Gaara languidly gritted out, half-drowsy, half-surprised to be so brutally jarred out of his sleep. Elbows firmly resting on the desk, he placed his head between his hands and blatantly stared up at Temari, anger rising inside him upon realizing how his sister went about waking him up. "Temari, how about you get out of my office?"
"But Gaara—I mean, Kazekage-sama—Konoha's delegation has been waiting for twenty minutes," she replied hesitantly, a twinge of fear peaking in the pit of her stomach each time her brother got angry. Something he did regularly. "And Naruto's been threatening to break down the door."
"Temari, get the hell out of my off-"
"Your office, well la-dee-da!" Naruto interrupted, popping his head through the opening. Forcing his way in, he began mimicking aristocratic gesture as he pranced around Gaara's desk. Of course, nothing gets on steel nerves quite like Naruto; and Naruto knew it well. His motto was work it, as he continued to aggravate Suna's Kage by wrapping himself in the Kazekage robe, which was dangling from the chair.
"Temari, you can bring the rest of them in. It can't possibly get worst."
On the blonde-headed Jounin's signal, Shikamaru, at the head of the group, entered first, closely followed by Sakura. Pilling in, Inuzuka Kiba, fancying himself in charge of his own team, attempted to push Shino out of the way—with no success—and entered, head low, shortly before Ino and Chouji. Taking a deep breath as she passed the doorframe, Hinata was last to enter. Perusing the scene with soft white eyes, she stood a few steps back as the rest of Konoha's petulant Shinobi gathered around the Kazekage's desk.
"Not too shabby," Sakura pointed out, flashing a bright smile to the unresponsive Gaara, as she looked about the room.
"When I'll be Hokage," Naruto began, halting his prancing to place the Kage robe on Gaara's extended arm. "My office is going to be twice as great."
From the opposite end of the room, Kiba scoffed. "If you become Hokage, if."
Kiba and Naruto always engaged in this kind of verbal sparring. More rivals than friends, if one had the chance to best the other, he would jump on the occasion. Unfortunately for Naruto, he rarely had the chance to best anyone. "Being Kage is easy. Look at Gaara, he's always loafing around."
Snapping him out of his drowsy state, Naruto's comment instantly irked the Kazekage. "Where the hell did you pick up an idea like that?" He indignantly inquired, only to be met by Naruto's evasive expression. "Having Kage rank is hard work. Where did you hear this I'm lazy trash?"
"Well, there's an interesting graffiti about it in the puppetry department."
"Kankurou. That knave, I'm gonna kill him…" Gaara trailed off, making a mental note to get back at his brother later. Kankurou had always been an annoyance. Still was. Through the pandemonium that the Chuunin exams were sure to cause, he vowed he would exact some sort of revenge before the end of the week. Pissing off Kankurou—still number one on Gaara's to-do list.
"Don't worry about it, Kazekage-sama," Kiba added from the sideline, giving Naruto a smug look. Inuzuka Kiba had a knack for trouble, perhaps even more so than Naruto. The latter—being his favorite target—always fell victim to the ninken master's constant jabs. "Naruto couldn't survive as Kage for a week."
Naruto's face dropped; too easily riled up. "Hey! I don't take kindly to your insults." An easy prey, indeed.
"Funny, with a face like yours, you should be used to it by now," Kiba answered, very amused.
"Stop this damn arguing," Shikamaru interjected through a deep yawn, his tone very business-like; he was taking his position as Chuunin evaluator seriously. Dealing with Temari had gotten easier over the years; dealing with the constant bickering of Naruto and Kiba still posed a problem for Konoha's professional slack artist. "It's tiring just listening to the both of you."
Gaara nodded in agreement. "Right. It's not that you couldn't be Kage, Naruto." He paused before adding, " It's just that you don't have what it takes."
"WHAT?" The nine-tails host exclaimed vehemently, exacerbating the tension for everyone in the room—yet again. Uzumaki Naruto thought he had everything to be Hokage: the brains, the skills, the talent, the dedication. Not even Kazekage Gaara could tell him otherwise. He was piqued, too piqued to let any of this slide. "Why don't we bet on it, eh Gaara?"
"Bet on it?" He queried, obviously perplexed. "What do you mean by bet on it?"
"I mean, I'll take your place as Kazekage for the next, say, 7 days, and I'll prove to you that I'm Kage level."
Unlike Naruto, Gaara was not so easily baited. However aggravated he was by Naruto's constant pestering, nothing could convince him of marching into such a stupid wager. "Why the hell would I do that?" He coolly posed the question to the peevish Leaf Shinobi. "Seriously, that's the most ridiculous-"
"Playing chicken, Kazekage-sama," Kiba suddenly voiced out, interrupting Gaara's fervent admonition. Starting to like where this was going, he could not let Gaara's lack of careless stupidity stop Naruto from causing a fiasco. But, feeling the weight of the Kazekage's psychopathic flavored stare on him, he quickly felt the need to reiterate that sentence, " I mean, playing it safe. Yeah, safe."
Gaara never played safe—or chicken for that matter. "Fine. Take my damn place for a week. I'd also wish you luck for the Chuunin exams…but, chances are,you'll turn up dead before they start."
References for this chapter:
1. Funny, with a face like yours, you should be used to it by now----The Black Adder.
That's all, methinks. If you spot something else, you can always let me know.