Note: I have no ownership to Naruto
Part 10 – 06/21/06
Journey to Hidden Sand!
A Kitsune's Adventure
"What is Hidden Sand village like Kakashi-sensei," asked Hinata as the group dashed through the trees with Konoha a good day's journey behind them. Currently the genin team had a good day and a half left in their journey to Hidden Sand, and was approaching the border to Wind Country. The air around them was already getting hotter and the tree-line was thinning out as their approached to the border.
"Hidden Sand is located in the desert and the shinobi of that village specializes in wind jutsus where Hidden Leaf specializes in fire jutsus. Hidden Sand is also called Suna to its citizens. Currently Konoha has a non-aggressive treaty with Suna, and our current mission is the yearly genin trade mission. They set a team of genin over to Konoha once a year and we send over a team as well as some other time point through the year."
"Kakashi, are we suppose to learn anything in particular on this mission?" questioned Naruto as he jumped from the last large tree in the area to the ground as he and his fellow teammates followed his jounin sensei.
"No Naruto, this is a straight forward mission, no spying or anything. This mission is design to allow you to meet other genin in a somewhat friendly setting; so that you can meet different people in different environments. Naruto, you've seen this in your travels with Jiraiya-sama. People from different villages across the shinobi nations dress, act, and live differently based on different environments settings," commented Kakashi to the team as they started across the seeming endless desert.
"So Naruto, who is this Gaara you were talking about before?" questioned Sasuke as he stepped around Yuki who was playing tag with a bunshin of Yuki that Naruto had made for him.
"Gaara, he well; he is a complex person," spoke Naruto slowly in deep thought. "Gaara is not really liked by most of the people in his village" continued Naruto as he looked off into the distance.
"I meet Gaara back when I was six. Ero-Sennin, Yuki, and I had stopped in Hidden Sand for a short time on our journey; and Yuki and I meet Gaara in a small park in the village. Gaara was watching a group of children play kick ball from over on the nearby swing set and the ball had been accident kicked to hard over into Gaara direction. The sand around Gaara had reached out and caught the ball as it approached him. Gaara had reach out to pick up the ball from the sand to give it back to the group of children, when they realized who had the ball they then ran away screaming 'monster'. Gaara had looked so sad, he then put the ball down and when back to the swing by himself.
After that Yuki had looked strangely at Gaara then said we should make a new friend. So we walked over and I got on the swing right next to Gaara. He did not even know I was there as he was looking down at the ground and pushing at the sand around his feet as he was slowly swinging; until he heard the squeak of my swing next to him. So we sat there slowly swinging back and forth for about a half a hour before either of us spoke.
Then both of our stomachs complained in hunger. Gaara looked a little bashful and I gave a little laugh and rubbed the back of my head. Yuki was laughing his little tail off at us. I asked him if he wanted to join me for some ramen. He nodded and the rest is history" spoke Naruto with a little smile on his face as the group continued to dash into the desert.
"Silent friends!" said Sasuke in mid-run with a smirk. Hinata gave Naruto a supporting smile of encouragement. Kakashi gave an upside down eye smile to show his support. Kui gave Naruto a happy bark, where Yuki ran along side Naruto and licked his hand in remembrance of the events.
"Silent friends, yea that about describes us. Gaara does not talk a lot. He can communicate a wealth of information in a single glance. Plus we just understand each other; although I definitely am trying to get him to lighten up some. He gets along with his sister and brother more now" remarked Naruto.
"So he has sibling?" questioned Hinata as she leaped over a small sand dune. "Yes Temari is his sister and she is the oldest. Kankurou is his brother and the middle child, then there is Gaara and he of course is the youngest in his family." "What about his parents?" questioned Sasuke in mid dash over yet another sand dune.
"Hmm, well Gaara's father is the Kazekage of Hidden Sand," responded Naruto with a frown. "Gaara has had a hard life in Hidden Sand; although he did go traveling with us for a year before he had to return to go the ninja academy in Suna. His father was not very nice but Jiraiya sort of bribed slashed blackmailed him into letting Gaara come with us," smiled Naruto.
"I would say that was one of the important things that Jiraiya did that I actually liked and approved of during our traveling, well besides training me" grinned Naruto.
"Oh, how did Jiraiya-sama convinces the Kazekage to let his son go and travel about with you and Jiraiya-sama?" asked Hinata with a questioning look on her face.
"Well, he gave the Kazekage some information on some missing sand nins and he mentioned something about withholding the sale of a certain little orange book within Wind Country," laughed Naruto with a smirk.
Sasuke smirked at the blackmail idea and gave a small chuckle. Hinata frowned in thought of the little orange book then blushed at the thought of what was in that little orange book. Kakashi hugged tightly his own copy of the said little orange book in a protective gesture. Kui just shook her head and Yuki barked 'ero-sennin'.
"We had a lot of fun traveling and training together," remarked Naruto as he looked off into the distance towards Suna. "Back then I was also training with Hitsu-sensei from the spirit kitsunes; he trained us in defensive elemental jutsus. Gaara already had limited control of the sand around him but he really excelled under Hitsu-sensei training. Gaara has an excellent defensive and offensive control of his sand. I cannot wait to see what he can do now. It's been two years now and Gaara is a perfectionists and a general around scholar" grinned Naruto at the thought of sparring with Gaara again.
"So he's strong!" questioned Sasuke with interest. "Gaara has excellent chakra control and he has a ultimate defensive shield that automatically protects him from danger" remarked Naruto to Sasuke. "Hmm" mumbled Sasuke in thought and hope for a change to test his strength.
"I'm just hoping we get to partner up with Gaara's genin team for the week" stated Naruto with a grin. "Then we might not be stuck doing D ranked missions all week" chuckled Naruto.
"Why would we not be completing D ranked missions in Suna, Naruto?" asked Hinata as Sasuke looked on with interest. Kakashi raised his eyebrow also in question. "Well Gaara and his genin team really do not do D ranked missions any more; maybe on their first week as genin but definitely not now. Gaara is more likely to do a C or B ranked mission then any other type" stated Naruto.
"How do you know what type of mission that Gaara gets in Hidden Sand" asked Sasuke as he dodged around other sand dune. "Well because we write to each other. Konoha and Suna have a treaty in place so there is no rule saying that I cannot communication or write with someone in other hidden village. I have a few friends from my journey that I correspond with via letters," remarked Naruto as he dodged Yuki's attempt to nip at his heels; only to get a nose full of sand.
"You're so lucky Naruto; to be able to make friends outside of Konoha and to be able to keep up to date with them through letters" a hopeful Hinata stated in thought of making a friend outside of the Konoha.
"Yep and Gaara's my best friend, and the bonus part is that I will see him again in a few weeks at the chunin exam in Konoha. I'm going to introduce him to Ichiraku, the best ramen stand that I have come across in years never less across the shinobi nations" stated Naruto proudly as he pumped his fist into the air. Yuki was starting his 'ramen' chant while running along side of Naruto.
"Well team lets work hard and have fun" stated Kakashi as he passed around a water canteen. "Yes sensei!" shouted Naruto. "Let's train hard and learn new jutsus" continue Naruto as he passed the canteen to Hinata after taking a gulp of water. "And make new friends" smiled Hinata after taking a sip of water and passing the canteen to Sasuke. "And to test our strength" smirked Sasuke as he took a mouthful of water then passed the canteen back to Kakashi. "And to eat more ramen" barked Yuki as the group laughed at his comments. Kui then said "to friendships, understanding, and training."
"So to Suna we go!" shouted Naruto as the group laughed.
To be continued
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