Connection

Author's Notes: I am trilled with the reviews! I never expect to get so many! Sankyuu! Over 50 reviews! dazzled Sorry for the wait minna

Disclaimer: Naruto and its character are owned by Masashi Kishimoto-san

-Shard- break

He was alone.

Yet he felt no loneness of any sort. Since, he is only considered to be 'alone' in the dining room in his temporary house. It was a house made in another one of the typical Konoha-styled architecture. When they first moved into the temporary residence, Gaara had thought it was funny how all the buildings had colorful semi-dome roofs. The buildings seemed too colorful to live in. He mentioned it to his caretaker, who only smiled thoughtfully and replied that they should give the most respect since it was the house given by the Hokage himself.

Putting that thought aside, the redheaded Suna boy reminisce the events of the day that happened just hours ago. Namely, he remembered the simple gratitude he received.

Arigato

Thank you.

No one said that to him before, except for Yashamaru. Perhaps when Gaara volunteered to help Yashamaru fetch a book, he would thank him. But it was all done with formality and respect.

"Thank you Gaara-sama. I graciously appreciate it."

Yashamaru say it as if it was a required rule. In a way, Gaara supposed it was, for everything Yashamaru do or say to him was done with the most formality he could imagine. It was a required rule. Something he must say despise what he feels.

Though his caretaker had said it much more times than the blond-haired boy did; the words had never sounded more heartfelt. It was as if 'thank you' suddenly has a much greater meaning than it had before. For the rest of the day, Naruto had taught him the "right, Naruto way" of playing the soccer ball. It took Gaara a long time before he could understand the basics of ball playing, which was natural considering he always played ball by himself.

But Naruto didn't seem to mind teaching. Or, as put in a more commonly interpreted way, Naruto didn't mind acting like the one with more knowledge, which was rare to happen. Surprisingly, neither felt awkward with each other. It was only too bad that the day seemed to have ended early.

"Ayaa…I need to go buy ramen and milk before the shop closes!" That was what Naruto had wailed when he noticed the setting sun. He explained with ongoing run-on sentences about his reasons to go buy ramen and milk. Gaara had only caught something about eating different type of ramen daily and how ninja milk is essential.

Though disappointed, the redheaded boy had shrugged and smiled softly, saying that he didn't mind in a voice just a bit above a whisper. His intention was to veil his inner feelings, but Naruto somehow saw through his cover. "You know, I can teach you 'Naruto Airball' tomorrow! Same place, okay?"

This was not the first time that the sunshine-haired boy surprised him. A smile sprouted on his features as he nodded yes.

"Gaara, you're a good guy, but you should speak up more! Ja mata!" The Uzumaki boy grinned and left off in a blur of yellow and reddish-brown. The cause for those colors was the unruly blond hair and the dirty old soccer ball.

"Gaara-sama."

Yashamaru's calm and collected calling pulled the said boy out from his reminiscence. He turned and saw his caretaker standing by the entrance of the kitchen. Yashamaru had his hands folded before him in a position of respect, as always. He was wearing a solid navy blue apron, indicating that he had been that one cooking.

"A-ah, Yashamaru…" Gaara began faintly. Yashamaru was always respectful and polite. One would've thought that Gaara might've felt distant from him because of such formality between them, yet Yashamaru was the only closest thing he had to a friend…until today.

"I met a boy, Yashamaru!" Gaara smiled. Light appeared in his eyes when he continued speaking. "He was really kind! He said his name was Naruto."

"Is that so?" Yashamaru smiled back pleasantly. He tilted his head towards a round table off the side where plates of steaming food were placed. "Gaara-sama, I have prepared dinner. Please take your meal."

Gaara conformed happily. His day had result with him being so delightful that he dropped nearly all his awareness. Although Yashamaru would be the least likely person to be in his suspicion, he could never feel safe without having a good amount of awareness of all things around him. However, today was different, which is why he did not see Yashamaru turn with his head away from him. It was why he did not see the cold, bitter expression that marked over the sand ninja's features when he turned.

-Shard-

He was the first to arrive in the park on the next day. He, as in Sabaku no Gaara, had arrived first. It wasn't certain if that was unusual or not. He supposed that arriving 'exactly on time' to anything was usually the best. He didn't mind much, he simply did not want to waste time. Others, however, seemed to have the impression that he wasn't known to wait upon others. The "Demon of the Sand" may have been the evidence that backed this kind of thinking.

He was waiting for someone. That was why Gaara was waiting by the swings. It seemed that the Academy have two days off, for the building was as empty as the day before. The Suna boy guessed that it was either that the school was always off for two days in a row, or that it today was a special day off. He preferred the former, for he did not want any special attention drawn upon him.

He had a permit with him, of course. Yashamaru gave him a small identification slip to attach under his poncho garment this morning. Over breakfast, which consisted of rice balls with seaweed and many unknown green vegetables that grew in Konoha, Gaara had insisted that he wanted to go by the swings again. Yashamaru looked disturbed when he said that. It was out of his expectation. The Suna ninja did not seem to be worrying about the reason why Gaara wanted to go out. Instead, he seemed more anxious about the events to come that day.

Naturally, Gaara asked, "What's wrong?"

"The food is prepared by someone from Konoha today. It is not a dish similar to one of Suna. Forgive me if it is not suitable for your taste. I will see to future changes as of preparing food closer to dishes of Suna."

That didn't answer anything near what Gaara asked, but he decided to brush it aside by replying that he didn't mind trying new food. His mind reasoned that Yashamaru was acting strange because he was unused to the food. A paranoid side of him thought otherwise. But Yashamaru couldn't be hiding anything serious, and in the end he allowed Gaara to go to the swings anyway, with that, he cut off the argument with his paranoid part.

Back to where he is at present, the boy with the sand waited. He sat on the swings and swayed in the air just as he had done a day before.

It suddenly occurred to him that Naruto didn't even mention what time they were going to meet. He only assumed that it was the same time as yesterday. Besides, he and teddy could wait, they were patient enough.

"What are you doing here?"

Gaara snapped back to full conscious upon hearing the unfamiliar voice. He traced the voice back to three boys in front of him. From the look of their Konoha blue sandals, he could tell that they belonged to ninja families. But judging them by their age and the absence of shuriken holster and hitai-ate, Gaara knew they were neither official ninjas nor ninja-in-training in upper diversions. He knew thus much, it was the same principle in Suna. No one actually stopped and taught him that, such knowledge came from years of observing people from the side.

"Hey, you're not from this village!" The boy on the left side of him remarked.

Gaara blinked. The three of them stood side-by-side, forming a dome-like line in front of him. He edged back involuntarily when they peered at him like a foreign animal. This was beginning to unnerve him. He slid off the swing and retreat with his back facing the tree. He instinctively clutched the worn toy bear closely against his chest.

As if responding to his actions, the three boys stepped forward into the umbrage of the tree.

"Hey look! He has a teddy bear!" The laughter came from the boy who spoke first. He stood in the center, a typical place to stand as the leader of his small group.

"Aren't you a little old for teddy bears?" Another of scoffed. The boy, though shorter than the other two, crossed his arms and stared distantly at Gaara. The Suna boy barely had time to note any of their appearances. The realization of what kind of scenario he was in gradually sunk in.

Such situation never occurred. Perhaps one or twice some Suna kids might've attempted to do this, but it was never a success. Either they abandoned the idea instantly after starting it or someone would interrupt. Usually Yashamaru comes just before anything happens thus prevent any real damages done.

"You're not from this village, are you?"

The death grip of the redheaded boy tightened around the purple teddy bear. If the bear had not been so worn out, its stuffing may have been in danger of bursting out.

S-stop…

"You know, there's a rule in Konoha that everyone who's too old to carry a teddy bear should be punished!"

The eyes of the Suna child widened. He closed the little space there was between the heels of his feet to the tree trunk. That action only initiated the three boys to advance a couple of steps closer.

"Look, we don't like foreigners in our properties."

Stop!

Gaara felt a sudden ice grip of fear over his body. It wasn't the three boys who gave him this overwhelming dread. Of course, he was frightened when he realized the scenario he was in, but that fear was not to the point of putting him in horror. However, it was that small fear he emitted which triggered the attention span of the sand. It put the sand on full alert, ready to protect regardless of Gaara's will.

He absentmindedly moved free hand away from him and landing it on the tree trunk. His fingers pressured on the bark of the tree. Slowly, he brought the fingers towards his palm while digging fingertips into the tree trunk

Stop it!

Oblivious to the three Konoha children, glitters of sand flicked around Gaara's wrists and lower parts of his arms. The sand was ready to attack. It was ready to protect Gaara on the next move of any of the three.

"You–"

The voice of the boy was cut off abruptly by a lightning-fast flash of red.

The three boys stepped back simultaneously after the flash purposely landed between them and Gaara. All four pairs of eyes shot to the place where the flash had landed. The dust faded away for them to see…a dirt red soccer ball?

Gaara blinked. The sand faltered on its spot, diminishing into small amounts that slowly faded in the air. He analyzed the characteristics of the landed ball: old, dirty, red…he vaguely remembered a ball just like this…wait…

A blur of yellow followed the movement of the ball, sliding on the path between the tree where Gaara stood and the swing where the others were currently standing next to. The blur was followed suit by a trail of flying dust, making a dramatic entrance.

The blur slid to a gradual stop to reveal a grinning sunshine-haired boy. He lifted his arm to the sky dramatically to pose as he declared his entrance. "Ta da! Uzumaki Naruto is here! I who will become the future Hokage of the village will –Huh? EHHH? When did you get that far?"

Naruto froze in his mid-speech to realize that instead of stopping right in between Gaara and the small group of boys, he ended up a few good yards away from his planned stop, unlike his ball which had successfully made it there. He immediately whipped around and dashed back to spot where he originally wanted to stop at. Once there, he dusted his arms and cleared his throat as if that mistake had never happened.

Gaara could only stare with wide eyes and mouth hanging open. This was probably the first time he felt so shocked. Not shock from fear, but rather shock from…the uniqueness of the entrance. The other three Konoha children reflected his expression down to the last twitch on the eyebrows. Uzumaki Naruto is a unique child. He changed the entire mood of a scene with his trademark clumsiness.

The boys standing struggled and regained their previous positions. Unlike Gaara, they recovered faster from the dramatic, although not as heroic as Naruto would've wanted, entrance.

"What's your problem Uzumaki?" the boy standing in the middle glared peevishly.

"That's my line Ka…ah…Kata…ah…whatever your name is!" The blond-haired boy shouted back across the small distance. "Plus, what were you doing anyway? So Gaara is new. Big deal! You guys never pay attention to new people around anyway."

"Oh, so the teddy bear-boy is you friend?" The second boy laughed mockingly. He tilted his head towards Gaara, who immediately edge back with the little space due to the glance. Naruto stepped in front of him, blocking him from view.

"Like you never held toys before, mister stuffed-octopus-boy, niee" Naruto stuck his tongue out, making the said boy lose his posture and blush red in embarrassment.

"It's no big deal! I used to hold toys too. I still would! But they're hard for me to carry around, so you should be impressed that Gaara have the ability to hold his around!" Naruto tilt his head up and declared fearlessly. "Unless you wouldn't admit that either!"

"W-why! You!" The remaining unspoken boy shouted.

The center boy stared at Naruto with narrow eyes; trying to intimidate him. However, he failed to remember that the blond-haired boy forgets the principles of intimidation when he just pulled off a "fearless hero" move. All right, his first impression was not so heroic, but people make mistakes! So maybe his was just entirely off the scale, but that's okay! Downside to this situation is, he ran out of ideas for how a hero is supposed to act, usually they have come up with really clever methods or remarks, but all he could conjure up was a: "Niee."

A temper string snapped.

Not the first time it happened, mind you.

The opposing Konoha boy raised his arm above his head, preparing to strike. "Uzumaki!"

Naruto instinctively outstretched his arms towards both sides so no hit would be inflicted on Gaara. The hand fisted and Naruto shut his eyes, preparing for the hit.

Thump

Gaara winced and forced his eyes shut at the sound of flesh contacting with flesh. There was no shout of pain, but a small gasp, and it wasn't from Naruto either.

"Okay, that's enough."

The voice was new.

"Iruka-sensei!"

The Suna child's green eyes slowly moved up. Going past Naruto's ruff blond hair, he saw a Konoha ninja holding the raised hand of the center boy. Gaara could tell that he was an official ninja by the hitai-ate and the Konoha vest he wore. The ninja, whom Naruto had called "Iruka-sensei", stood behind the Konoha boy and had a firm grasp on his wrist.

Slowly, the grabbed boy looked back his shoulder to see the ninja teacher. "I-Iruka-sensei…"

"That's enough." The ninja repeat with a frown. There was a moment of silence as he allowed the boy to digest the situation. His voice then softened slightly, but his features remain steady. "Go home and think about this. I don't want to see something like that happen again. Do you understand?"

The boy nodded quickly. He wrenched his hand away immediately after Iruka loosened his grip. Rubbing his wrist, he turned around to face his teacher. His eyes darted back and forth nervously for a few seconds before finding an exit and scrambling away. Iruka watched his back for a moment before turning to the other two who remained.

"The same goes for both of you." He tilted his head. "Now go home."

The two exchanged uncertain looks with each other before leaving as well. They knew well enough that even though Iruka was a forgiving teacher, he doesn't leave such disputes unsettled. They were going to have some hard time writing on the board tomorrow.

Naruto watched them leave and grinned at his teacher. Despite the fact that he had just came close to a crisis, he managed to keep his carefree self. Gaara, on the other hand, took more than a moment to recover. It took him awhile before his fingers loosened from both his teddy bear and the tree trunk. He felt his breathing and heart rate gradually returning to its normal pace.

"I'm glad that you stood up to them, Naruto." The Konoha ninja said approvingly.

"Teh! There's no way that I'm ditching the damsel in distress!" The blue-eyed boy grinned. He turned toward Gaara and shrugged casually. "Meh, forget them Gaara! Don't listen to anything they said. I don't like that guy either, what's his name? Kata…Kara…err…Ka-ha? I don't remember. "

"Now Naruto, I'm sure Karusa-kun didn't mean much harm, but I'll make sure to talk to him tomorrow in class." Iruka trailed on into murmuring more about how he should discuss this with the other teachers. He made a sudden stop in his mid-thought. "Oh, and Naruto?"

"Eh?"

Pound

Several birds who had settled on the branches of the tree immediately flew away.

"Itaaaaiii!" wailed Naruto. He held his scorching head with both hands. A small trail of smoke sizzled from the bruise.

"Don't go around and talk big if you have no idea what you're saying!" A pulsing vein had appeared on the Chunnin's head. In the background, Gaara widened his eyes at the sudden, unexpected attack.

"Demo sa –it sounds smart! So that's good enough, right?"

"Do you remember what Ninja Rule number five is?"

"Eh…ninjas must always eat ramen after a good fight?"

Pound

"Wrong!"

"Itaaaaiii!"

Gaara watched the exchange with wide eyes. Naruto's relationship with this Iruka-sensei was so different from the one he shared with Yashamaru. He couldn't help but compare. Normally, Yashamaru wouldn't dare to touch Gaara without a reasonable purpose, much less hit him. Yet Iruka's hits made their relationship seem so much closer and…normal.

"Who's this?"

Gaara blinked back to reality upon hearing the question. The Konoha ninja was now staring at him surprisingly. It wasn't every day that Iruka catch Naruto with another child, especially one that's not from the village. As a ninja, he was trained to be observant. He noted that the clothing the boy wore was from another country. He also noted that the boy had unusually red hair and dark linings that outlined the rim of his eyes, but he brushed that away for now.

"This? This is Gaara." Naruto pointed his thumb over his shoulder and grinned once again. He waved a hand carelessly to indicate Gaara to come forward. With uneasy steps, the Suna boy moved towards Iruka but dodged behind Naruto before he got too close. Using Naruto as a sort of shield, he peered over his shoulder and said faintly "K-konnichiwa."

Iruka gave a friendly smile towards him.

Naruto blinked behind his shoulder at the redhead and back to his teacher. His shoulders sagged and he shook his head. Dramatically, he spoke in a purposely pitiful voice. "Ah, iruka-sensei. I never knew you could scare someone you just met so much."

"Naruto!"

"Ah –oy!" Naruto stepped away at seeing a vein throb on the Chunnin's head. "Err…you're scaring Gaara!"

"Ah! Sorry Gaara-kun, demo…"

"Eh? Um…it's…"

"Ah, it's okay, we all know that Iruka-sensei always loose his temper right?"

Pound

"Itaaaaiii!"

"Naruto!" The vein throb was even bigger now.

Gaara, who had instinctively stepped away from the blond boy, watch the teacher and student confusingly. "A-ano…"

"Sorry, Gaara-kun."

"N-no, it's okay…"

"No it's not! Iruka-sensei! Apologizing isn't enough! Gaara will forgive you only if you treat us to ramen!"

Pound

"Itaaaaiii!"

"R-ramen?" Gaara smiled awkwardly and tried to divert where the conversation is going.

Naruto suddenly forgot the pain on his head. Light shone in his eyes as he smiled broaden. "You like ramen, right Gaara?"

"E-eh, I never tried it before…" The redhead answered truthfully. He really never tried it before. This caused a big impact on the ramen-lover. How can anyone not try ramen before? Ramen is the holy food! Or so Uzumaki Naruto believed. It was truly impressive how long his love for ramen lasted, considering he consumed at least one bowl of it every day. "EHHH? Hear that? Iruka-sensei! Gaara MUST try ramen! He never tried it before!"

"Really? Well, sure, I can take you to Ichiraku's, but…"

Iruka was cut off instantly when he spoke the magic words. "Yatta! Iruka-sensei! You're the best!"

"Yes, yes. Ah, I feel like I've been…" It took a moment for it to hit him. It was then he realized that things had went Naruto's way by chance. "Wait! You only said that so I can take you to eat ramen, didn't you?"

"You promised!"

"I never promised…ah..." Iruka groaned in defeat. How many times had Naruto use these kinds of methods to get him to buy ramen for him?

"Yatta Gaara! Ramen!" Naruto grab Gaara's hand and did a little dance, in which the Suna boy was constantly pulled awkwardly towards different directions. Though inside, he smiled softly. The stay in Konoha turned out to be more eventful than he had expected.

…tbc..

Response

Obasan-Kitsune: Sorry for the long wait!

Mythologic: Thanks for the compliment!

Alida: I can't be positive how this story will lead, but I'm pretty certain that it will remain in their childhood stage for at least some chapters.

EyeoftheTigerKissoftheDragon: Glad you like!

Sin Piedad: Eh? I thought arigato is without a "u"?

Sorelina: Thanks for the definition.

Jen: Um, I'm not sure about a sequel or anything yet. For now, I have to focus on getting my lazy self to update faster!

Gaara- Kaibutsu: Love for chibis!

Yume no Zencho: Thankyuu!

KinOfDragons: Thankiee!

Burning tree: Yes! Love for chibi Gaara! He was so timid!

Sariachan-KokiriLeaf: I hope I can continue keeping them in-character

storywriter10791: Sorry for the wait!

yuffiegal23: Long wait –Gomen!

Hiei's Cute Girl: Thanks for the review But I'm quite certain that Yashamaru is a male. I've checked some websites and they all indicated Yashamaru as Gaara's uncle.

Fic Slayr: More childhood fic! Plus thanks for the enthusiastic review!

kikyo: Ari!

FairyQuilan: Sankyuu!

… Thanks!

AngelsWind: Thank you! Sorry, I update in a very slow pace, but your review really encouraged me!

Tamayo: Naru and Gaa chibis! w

Ehwinn: I'm happy to see your review! And yes, sorry! I update so slow!

Uchika na Kage: Hehe

Viky: Yes, finally ;;

Mistress DragonFlame: Thanks for the definition of drabble!

Kirby Starz: Gomen! Must've waited long!

dragon of the water: Hai!

anti-thule: Hehe

SensiblyTainted: I still don't have a certain plan for the near ending though.