Chapter 7: Official

"Hey, where did this come from?" Naruto rubbed his head gently after running into a wall, he'd just woke up and walked to their usual spot, only to come face to face with a wall. "Oww."

"You are such a dobe."

Naruto turned back with an annoyed expression lining his tired features "What is this?"" He pointed to the building standing in the middle of the half destroyed forest, It was one story but about half an acre width and length.

"You can't be serous." Sasuke sighed "No one told you?"

Naruto shook his head.

"You should be able to smart enough to figure it out on your own. I overestimated you idiot."

Naruto glared back at him and turned back to the new structure, walking around toward the front. "I was gone for one day and you already built a base? Could have told me sooner jerk!" he shouted, looking up at the D.S.I sign. Curious to see the inside, Naruto opened the door and walked inside. "Hey, not bad." Naruto looked around inside, finding himself walking into a lobby clad in white and green. A sofa resided against both walls with a table in the center, and a desk stood just in front of the back wall in front of a door. It didn't look bad at all, especially considering it was built in one day.

Gaara was sitting on one of the sofas, Gourd resting on the ground next to him, he wasn't doing anything in particular and probably just waiting for Naruto. "Gaara? You knew about this?" Naruto said in disbelief "You went on the mission with me? How did you know?"

"I was told while you were asleep." Gaara said calmly, turns out he wasn't waiting he was just resting.

Sasuke came in behind Naruto, looking around the room with a subtle glance. "Were is Konohamaru?"

"Basement." Gaara replied calmly.

Naruto looked at him in surprise "We have a basement?"

Sasuke let out an exasperated breath in annoyment walked through the door behind the desk.

! - ! - !

It was his first time down here, Sasuke walked cautiously down the steps into the underground room, feeling along the wall for a light switch. It was mounted right by the door, but when he flipped it nothing happened. 'No power yet.'

He wondered why Konohamaru would be down here in the dark, maybe to be alone or just to think... '...' Konohamaru wasn't the be alone just to think type of person, Sasuke doubted the boy wanted to sit still that long.

Sasuke reached outward when he got to the bottom of the stairs, there was a door separating the stairwell from the actual basement. It quickly found the door knob and walked in, apparently Konohamaru made due with out lights. The room itself was as large as the entire building itself, that was a lot of space, the made himself right at home here.

In the very back of the room was a large dish that had a fire burning inside of it, that was enough to illuminate half the room. Behind it was a large poster with the Leaf insignia on it, 4 smaller flames were mounted along both with walls each of their Konoha forehead protector above it. This apparently was Konohamaru's alternative to wearing his favorite shirt, which he had finally changed.

He was building a training room down here, a lot of equipment was scatted around on the ground but none of them were set up. Konohamaru was currently trying to lift a punching bag off the ground, it was almost funny, he couldn't even get his arms around it and when he tried his hands slipped off the leather. "Need help?"

Konohamaru looked up and smiled "Hi Sasuke, like my room?"

"Your really going to stay down here?" Sasuke knelt down and picked up the punching bag, fastenings it to a hook on the ceiling that some how Konohamaru managed to get up there.

"Yeah, look at all the space!" Konohamaru yelled just to hear the echo that followed. "And it's the only place I can fit all of this stuff."

"Your too short to use half of it." Sasuke smirked, it was hard not to laugh when picturing Konohamaru trying to reach the equipment.

"I'll figure it out, I have to get stronger if I want to help. Besides, you can help me train " Konohamaru said, trying to lift a weight and move it 'Man it's heavy.' He really had a lot of work to do. After a few seconds he finally got it off the ground, only to trip on his scarf and fall face first to the ground "Owwww!"

Sasuke knelt down and lifted him on to his feet in an almost undignifying manner. Konohamaru waved his hand telling him he was alright even though he was wincing and holding his head. "Maybe you should take that off."

"What? No way!" Konohamaru said stubbornly "I already had switch my favorite shirt." He was now wearing a black one that looked like his old one only with out the Leaf symbol.

! - ! - !

Naruto walked out of the front room where Gaara was, looking around the forked hallway behind it, their was a series of doors along the walls on the left side and right. He could have guessed that the 8 of them on the left were rooms for each member, The ones on the right were mostly double doors and their purpose was unknown.

He had plenty of time to find out.

! - ! - !

"Gai?"

After an hour of searching he finally found his teacher, he didn't have any real reason for seeking him out, only to see if he could find out the combination to Lee's safe. If anyone had it, it was this man.

Gai turned around, his uncharacteristically empty expression changing into on of excitement

"Neji! Your alright!" Gai resisted the urge to hug him as tight as he could, Neji wouldn't like that all. "I was afraid you hadn't survived, I've been looking for you and Lee for days!"

"Gai-sensei." Neji shook his head, Gai was still his usual energetic self.

"Have you seen Lee?" Worry filled his voice now, with hope and concern "I can't seemed to find any sign of him."

"He's..." Neji paused, how do you explain to some one that the person they're looking for isn't even in the same time any more? "..Alright, he's not in Konoha."

"Where is it then?" Gai asked.

"I'm not sure exactly, you shouldn't worry about him though." Neji didn't feel like explaining the whole thing to him, Gai would have too many questions and it would take too long. He just hoped Gai wouldn't prompt him to explain farther.

Gai knew his students well enough to tell when they didn't want to talk so even though he really wanted to know more, Lee was safe and he could be satisfied with that answer.

"I need to know about something of Lee's, did he ever tell you a combination to a safe or

mention one?" He asked.

"No, not especially." Gai said, thinking about the question intently.

He went to the next logical thing "Well, what his birthday?"

"What? You don't know his birthday?" Gai looked on in mild surprise, one eyebrow raised.

"He's your teammate."

Neji snorted, they weren't exactly the best of friends "Not really."

"Hmm, it's strange how different you two were, he was always trying to learn more about you. I don't know if you could see it our not but he really wanted to be your friend. He even got you a gift for your birthday."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Neji looked up at him questioningly, he never got a gift for Lee.

"He never got a chance to give it to you though, I'm sure it's still some where around his house. He always kept his important things under the floor." Gai told him. That's just what he needed to hear, chances were that his things were safe from the storm if he did that. Which would explain why he put his safe underground, partly habitual and mostly intentional so that it'd be safe.

'He knew when my birthday was?' Neji thought, he never really cared much about his birthday, mainly because no one else paid attention to it. Neji barely remember when that day was, how did Lee find out? And even took the time to get him a gift of all things, that was Lee.

"I remember when he was half the size he was now..." Gai tended to reminisce when he was worried about some one or when he missed them, right how he was still worried. "He was so ambitious to become a ninja, he always had to work twice as hard because he couldn't use Jutsu. Great kid, never realized how much I'm proud of him until now. Heh, I guess you don't know what you've got until it's gone."

Neji looked up at him for a moment, his thoughts on what Gai was saying. "Thanks." He turned around, walking to Lee's house...now or later he wasn't sure.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Training.

They're wasn't much more to do right now and Gaara was completely fine with that. Iruka was...not exactly sure on what Iruka was doing at this particular time, most likely waiting for Kakashi to get back from scouting clients. Naruto would probably join him and train later, Konohamaru was probably going to spend all day setting up the basement which he had clamed as his own and Sasuke would most likely help him.

Neji was off doing noting in particular, to Gaara's knowledge he was scouting research materials. Last but not least that left Kiba, who was looking for dog food, or at lest that's what he thought he said.

That left Gaara alone in the peaceful serenity of the maze of fallen trees and those that were still standing. It was literally a maze to navigate and hard to travel through when moving at high speeds, that wouldn't be a problem for Gaara. He wasn't that fast and he never focused training on it anyway, just power and defense though it'd make a great course for training agility. He didn't focus on Jutsu either, he barely knew any because his main weapon was his sand. And a powerful weapon it was.

Right now his training focused on concentration, after time traveling he learned that it was possible to shape the grain in to specific shapes. If he could do that and change it from one object to another quickly then he'd be much more powerful in battle. He found the perfect spot to do that training, under a water fall a few miles away from D.S.I.

The few rivers in Konoha always had a weak current and were small, but after the storm they became rapids that eroded it's banks and expanded. So did this water fall, it was about 50 feet tall and sent a torrent of water on to him, who was sitting on a rock directly under it with out his shirt. The noise was immense, the water pounding on to him would have been very irritating if the sand hadn't been there to block it and the mist rising upward made it hard to see his hand in front of his face. It was just what he needed.

A large mass of sand floated in front of him that he could barely see, so it was a little hard to tell if he was doing it right. Another thing he needed, because he might not have time to check it in a fight. He was attempting to form it into a sphere...it wasn't easy but he could do it, eventually. But that was the problem, he needed to be able to do this quicker and with distractions.

Coming up on his eighth minute Gaara had the mass nearly perfect, just shave a little off and

A Kunai came flying at his arm from the east, he didn't even notice it let alone see it in the fog or hear it above the roaring waters. He couldn't get his defense up with all his concentration on forming shapes it was able to land right in his shoulder before the sand could raise around him.

He hissed in surprise and the sand his was forming fell limply into the water. 'What the hell!'

Gaara was immediately on alert again, sand rushed around his body and intercepted another one that came down from above clearly aimed for his head. Gaara pulled the bloody kunai from his shoulder and jumped upward, ascending the water fall toward the source of the closest attack.

Just as his body emerged from the Mist he saw a ninja standing at the head of the water fall. He didn't get a good look though, it was hard to get a good look at him though because he jumped in a blur of speed. Gaara tossed the Kunai at him but it was intercepted by another Kunai from the ninja as he fled.

Gaara landed at the top of the rushing waters, using his strength to stand just at the edge and prevent the water from sweeping him away. But it seemed just a soon as he touched down another Kunai was flying at his head, it was easy for the sand to block though. And it was easy for Gaara to look toward the source and saw another ninja standing on the banks below him.

He was dressed in Sand hunter attire and must have had the part to be able to get a projectile through Gaara's defenses "Damnit, I'm not going back." Gaara growled "Leave me Alone!" Sand rushed up from the ground around the man, devouring him completely but only to see his body dispel in a cloud of smoke.

His sand jumped at his back, knocking away a Kunai aimed for his head. Gaara crouched down as a fist just grazed the sand covering his head, turning around quickly and rising again with an upper cut that struck the true Ninja directly under the chin and sent him flying backwards.

Gaara drew his arm back as the man hit the river's base, sand began swirling out of his Gourd around his fist to form a spinning drill that he drove at the man's head. The Hunter was able to used the river to slide away by Gaara's side and send a sharp kick to his leg.

Gaara nearly feel but he flipped instead and recovered just as the hunter got to his feet, bringing them one foot away from each other. "Gaara, you have been ordered to return to the Village of the Sand." The man said, just as the other man appeared behind the boy.

"No." Gaara said plainly, casually folding his arms as the second man behind them began to speak.

"This is not an option, you have to return with us." The man said.

Gaara didn't reply, he just let the sand whip out of his gourd toward the men. Both of them flinched, the one in front of him jumped into the air but the man behind became entangled and bound by the waist and most of his torso.

He grunted, struggling against the sand that trapped him more and more each second. Finally he just pulled something out of his sleeve and tossed it too the ground. On contact it erupted into an explosion powerful enough to destroy the sand and let the man escape, leaving Gaara in a cloud of smoke and evaporated water...that he could use to his advantage. He couldn't see them so they couldn't him, and that could give him a chance to attack.

Usually he could use an under ground attack and take down his enemy from here but his sand wasn't as effective in water, so he he'd have to attack from above first.

A concentrated look came in to Gaara's eyes, causing the ground to rumble and shake, the grains and minerals underneath stirred. With out warning and large hole blew open in the center of the water fall sending huge pieces of debris the size of boulders down to a hunter on the ground bellow. The man was more then able to hear it coming, he ran forward with the knowledge that if he jumped in this blinding mist then he'd be hit.

Which is what Gaara wanted.

The ground under the hunter suddenly became less stable, he found himself sinking, quickly. With a little help from the water Gaara turned the ground into quick sand. Thin enough to pull him down but to thick to make it unable to swim through. "Hey! He's!" Before the man could utter another word his head was under and he was drowning in the thick liquid. It was loud enough to alert the second hunter who instinctively attacked.

A wall... a literal wall of Kunais so close that there was barely a centimeter between them came flying at Gaara, apparently by some type of replication jutsu. Their velocity was much too fast for Gaara to attempt to avoid, which was his second weakness, besides water weakening sand he was slow in comparison to most other Ninjas. He clinched tightly, doubling the layer of sand surround his body and bracing for impact, It was all he could do right now.

He found an outline of Kunais an inch from his skin, he was looking at one that came especially close between his eyes. Sand hunters weren't weak.

Gaara let the sand barrier fall and the Kunai's with it, just as soon as he did the hunter appeared in front of his face with an over sized shuriken . He thrust the large blades at Gaara's chest as more of a incaptaining maneuver, it tore through the sand, scraping his chest enough to draw blood. Gaara kicked him in the stomach forcing him back a few steps and just enough for Gaara to jump into the air and send a swift punch to the man's jaw and finally he kicked off the man's chest and flipped into the air. Landing with and almost grace into the rushing waters, it took all of his strength to keep from being washed away by the strong currents.

"!" Before the man realized it, His feet were being devoured by sand creeping up his body. It was moving quickly, about to take him over completely, he just had enough time to lift both hands above his head with the large shrunken and rotated it on nimble fingers that came with years of practice. "Kaze tunnel no jutsu!" Winds swirled around the spinning blades quickly forming a tornado.

Gaara was sure he's seen Iruka do this jutsu, most of his Jutsu seemed to be wind oriented. He knew what was coming next but once again his lack of speed worked against him. The tornado pulled up the water bellow, loosening the sand and freeing the man. The winds grew stronger and the tornado grew bigger until Gaara found himself being ripped at in a storm of wind and a torrent of water.

"Uhhhggggg!" Gaara planted his feet to the ground to keep from being blown away, He had to stop this attack. He expelled all of the sand he could outward making it as heavy and solid as he could manage. It collided with the tornado almost instantly creating an ear deafeningly loud grinding sound as one blocked the other while one tore the other apart.

After a few seconds both forces were dispelled and there was a heavy rain of sand and water clouding the both of them. The only difference was that the man was being covered in more and more blood from the sand while Gaara was practically immune. "I'm not going back. And I will kill anyone else who comes after me." he said firmly.

"Out of my hands, We were ordered to bring you back or kill you trying." The hunter didn't sound much as if he cared and he was still holding his ground though this rain was cutting him "And I have finish my missions, It's really important to now more then ever...Last chance to come back peacefully."

Gaara grunted in anger and annoyment, the softly raining sand became a powerful torrent that could rip the man apart. But he already had disappeared by then with an undetectable speed, it probably wouldn't be the last he saw of him or the Sand hunters. And now he had a whole new set of problem... but on the upside he did learn a new attack.

By sending lose sand into the air he could bring it down with enough force to rip an enemy apart.