Naruto cringed at the sand that stuck to the bottoms of his wet feet. Wrapping a towel around his waist he scuttled to his room. He flipped up a foot as he walked, attempting to remove the annoying particles. "And why can't you stay with Lee?"
Gaara's head poked out of the kitchen. "He's with Sakura now." He made a vicious cut into a pepper. When in Konoha, it was Gaara's habit to stay with Rock Lee. They had become fast friends after the Kimimaro incident. Lee admired Gaara's skill as a ninja. Gaara was impressed by Lee's inability to hold a grudge.
Naruto detected a trace of venom in his voice. After throwing some clothes on he made his way back to the kitchen. "Well it actually works out better this way." Gaara looked up from the battered vegetable. "I have to go away on a mission and I need someone to look after Puck."
Gaara turned his attention to an onion. "I'm Kazekage," he murmured.
"And?" The blonde picked up a slice of the mutilated pepper.
Smacking Naruto's hands away from the food, Gaara replied. "I can't do two jobs at once."
Pink lips twisted into a pout. "Come on. Let me taste it." Naruto demanded as he dodged a wooden spoon. Ultimately unsuccessful, he slipped his reddened fingers into his mouth. The pout transformed into a wicked grin. "Of course if you don't want to stay with Puck, you'll just have to stay with Lee." Gaara's eyes narrowed. "Then you'd get to bear witness to his affections for Sakura, daily."
Gaara threw down the wooden weapon, gesturing to the vegetables. Naruto reached over and plucked a large zucchini wedge. Having Gaara around was going to be fun.
Kakashi exposed his Sharingan and moved toward the sleeping form of his ward. Sasuke had twisted the sheets around his pale-scarred flesh, a side effect of the recurrent nightmares. No signs of genjitsus or seals. His chakra wasn't focused on any area of his body. It was constant, if depleted, which was not unheard of in a ninja who trained emphatically. But still something wasn't right. Sasuke wasn't right. The jounin almost laughed at the thought. Was Sasuke ever right, had he ever been?
Sighing, he replaced the protector over his eye, opting instead to study the white scar tissue that ran amuck over Sasuke's arms. They were a varied lot, some long and continuous and some short and deep. Many overlapped creating an almost pretty pattern. He wanted to touch the marred flesh, to know what horrors his pupil had endured to make him exorcize the demons directly from his flesh.