Chapter Six

The Mystery of the Mountains

They'd all been together throughout all these years, gaining two new friends in the process - himself included.

Gaara Sabaku never thought he would be so lucky, when he felt alone most of his life both at school as well as at home. His brother and sister both cared about him, but their father's clear hatred made them pretend to loathe him on the surface. It wasn't his fault that his mother died - not to sound cold and heartless - but Rasa blamed him anyway.

Moving here from Suna hadn't helped matters. Home life didn't change at all, nor did school life - and then Shion came into the mix, but she wasn't what he thought she'd been. So he chose to break it off with her, knowing he was better off without her, even if he doubted he could find another willing girlfriend that easily...and his fortune changed at that moment when SHE abruptly stuck into business which wasn't hers. He had never had anyone defend him the way Hinata Hyuuga did.

He hadn't meant to, but his eyes inadvertently lowered down to where one breast threatened to a hundred percent jump out after she hit Shion's pretty little face. Her face blushed redder than any tomato when she, too, noticed and ran off before she could tell him her name. He never would have known had Naru Namikaze, her friend, not heard her story and found him, coincidentally when they shared music class in school.

Who would have thought that he ended up joining their little group, consisting of the girls as well as Neji - the overprotective cousin - and of course, Sasuke Uchiha, who had a record as long as his arm since he was fourteen? He was wary around people like that, but he learned Naru had to do with it, and on her watch, the guy caused no trouble.

Other than the girl whom Shion humiliated all throughout their middle school days, Gaara happened to enjoy the presence of the other girl who he could never stop thinking about since that day. We share something in common: respect for Naru, and we weren't loved much by our own fathers. Mine blamed me because Mother died giving birth, hers ignored her because she resembled her mother who took her newborn sister with her in death. She had her cousin while I was mostly alone, and Temari and Kankuro had to occasionally slip behind Father's back.

Other than having a new group of friends, he found himself falling instantly in love with her, but hadn't worked it up to confess it yet.

However, he wasn't sure if Hinata felt the same way, and there was also cousin Neji to deal with, as Naru warned him long ago. And they had just graduated and would enjoy what free time they had left until college.

His goal in life - he used to have no idea what he wanted to do for himself, purely because of how everyone in life treated him until the girls approached him.

They had a new record label going on, but it was better to have a backup, for Neji and Hinata were considering library work or being teachers, given Hinata loved children and had the heart for it, whereas Naru thought about being a music instructor and teaching children the basics. Sasuke considered going into art dealership as well as cruising his motorcycle that he saved up all the way through high school as he promised his girlfriend of one year during their first meeting.

Gaara...all he could think about was the old site in the mountains where his brother and others used to work at, before there was an accident that killed Kankuro and a small handful. It had long been rumored that there was a yet-to-be-discovered crystal in those mines. That area was likely millions of years old, based on how the rocks had grown around everything; all of it was educated guessing only.

And according to Naru, just distances away from here, her godmother Tsunade's grandfather found a crystal during a hike, and when he passed on, he gave it to Tsunade's brother who ended up dying during the last war. The fact she still wears it even after her mother disappeared without a trace...

He met Tsunade a few times and thought her a decent woman - with a temper pulled on a hair trigger whether it was someone crossing her or attacking a loved one. So to know she likely was never going to come back had devastated her family, despite keeping faith, and as much as Gaara hated to admit it to himself, a lot of people in this country went missing only to never be seen again. He agreed with Sasuke on several layers of incompetency.

That woman now with them...Kaguya. Sasuke is rightly suspicious, and so is Neji. She's still a mystery despite doing everything to live with them, but caused no trouble. Someone like that is too good to be true.

Kaguya of Kawa - it made him wonder if that was where she was really from, too, since his family used to go on vacation there, even if tensions were strained, and he never knew anyone with THAT pale a skin in that countryside - was there that night, appearing like a proud mother would when her child accomplished something. To this day, Sasuke was rightly on edge because of the mystery.

Tonight went by without a hitch, and it had been a time of celebration for them. Although, besides Tsunade, there were other absences who the friends wished had been with them tonight: Naru lost her parents a long time ago, as did Sasuke - although his estranged older brother finally made the time for him - and Hinata and Neji lost mothers themselves, along with a couple other relatives. The air was heavy with fun but an underlying longing...

...and on Gaara's part, he wracked his brain with how to talk to Hinata. He had all summer before they went to three years of advanced learning.

He decided tonight was too late for that, and tomorrow would be a talk with Naru. Maybe he could just be up in those woods tonight while he cleared his thoughts as he did whenever he had a hard day with Father - which had been often - but when he arrived, he happened across a couple unexpected things.

The early month of March was still chilly even though spring was a couple weeks away, so he bundled up and trekked with his pack strapped to his back, ears tentative like a wild animal. Sometimes, he wondered what kind it could be for him, since Naru was the equivalent of a fox if those whiskers on her cheeks weren't enough.

It was then that he heard the noises, and along with the words, the names were included at some point:

"S-Sasuke, just a - just a little bit! I'm co -"

He quickly shut that out of his senses by covering his ears and proceeding forward in the direction he'd gone. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally happen upon two of his friends while they were doing...that. It was none of his business. Gritting his teeth about it would just make his jaw ache painfully.

However, a flash of white to his left made him blink in surprise as he wondered if he was seeing things. From what Gaara could catch, the thing was a human shape, but it was too white to be human. Nevertheless, curiosity got the best of him as he hurried in that direction which it vanished, seeing it going towards a place he knew too well, causing the creeps up his spine. Why is it going in -?

He lost sight of the humanlike thing when he arrived at none other than the old mining site at the foot of Konoha's mountain range bordering Kawa...where his brother and others were killed in the accident.

~o~

The first time they made love, it was the universal position in that she was right beneath him and at one point shifted, leg bending and wrapping around his hip. It hurt at first because it was just the first time. Keeping the protection responsibility in mind, she and Sasuke came out here because it was late enough for them to get adventurous, except they couldn't be out here too long since it was cold, and getting all the way naked was out of the question.

There was one thing they could do which didn't involve all of that.

Right here in their favorite spot near the waterfall and pool - and close to that old mine which was closed down some time ago, according to Gaara - were they up against a tree, heavily making out and exchanging saliva which was scented with the sweet foods they had earlier with their friends, though it wasn't nasty. It aroused Naru all the more. In fact, just as much as the time when Sasuke told her he could chew her up and eat her alive just because she loved ramen so much and often smelled of it even hours after consuming it. Who the hell often got lucky with someone like him? Little old me!

He was her first love and hopefully her last. She couldn't see herself with someone else even if they left this town like they always talked about. They were set for community college in Tokyo while Neji and Hinata were off to the big university, Gaara remaining here in Konoha to learn construction, because of that place up the hill. He said his brother was one of the men who died in the accident which resulted in its shutdown. Not only did it have bad memories, but it was something he wanted to do for a purpose.

The future was ahead of them now, but it depended on what happened in the present.

Pretty soon, her lungs were burning, so she broke it off first. From the way he rasped in his breathing, she thought his were, too. "You still have it?" She could have gotten it herself, but then Jiraiya and Orochimaru would have found out somehow, and Sasuke was alone at home, so kept it safe. He smirked and produced it from his coat pocket. The bottle was a luminous ombre dye from icy blue to royal and the hottest pink ever which progressed to yellow, shades of orange and ending with the most passionate red. Like the ultraviolet rays.

This was a special lubricant for him as well as her - and the couple together - which had been out for a while now, but she and her boyfriend since last year were going to use it for the first time, because it'd been a while, and it was perfect timing while there was still a little bit of winter left and warming temperatures. Plus, the plum blossoms were still in their prime, cuing the incredible scent and taste which came with as soon as Sasuke popped it open for them to inhale first. Plum blossoms had this one thing the cherry blossoms didn't: sweet aroma. And the taste was that of citrus, which Naru got herself when Sasuke dabbed a tiny amount on the pad of his finger for her before adding more and coating his fingers with it, going right down to a certain place in which she unbuttoned her jeans and pulled the zipper down just for him, her spinal nerves alight with the thrill of discovery in these woods as well as her nipples straining against the fabric of her sports bra beneath.

His first finger came into contact with her triangle of curls, and just underneath did the adjoined folds ignite with the pooling liquid coming to mix with the sweet gel her boyfriend's digits were covered with. Harshly gasping with the powerful sensitivity turning her body into jelly, she tilted her head side to side in ecstasy. His forefinger and thumb had her clit in their grasp in no time, amplifying the control he had over her, and it excited her.

This stuff began as icy and cool, charging the electrical currents before turning into a soft warmth deepening into spicy heat which flared her like lava at the bottom of the volcano.

Without warning, Sasuke knelt down in front of her and put his mouth in place of his fingers in no time at all. His tongue swept up and over the pink pearl which darkened the harder he sucked and swirled on her. Naru had a harder time staying quiet even as he brought her to the edge - "S-Sasuke, just a - just a little bit! I'm coming!" - and she could remember when she used to have "the talk" with Tsunade about this when she was just hitting puberty, and how hot she got if the summer heat didn't do much of the trick. Tsunade said that this was one of the greatest heights, but ALWAYS make sure you kept it clean, and that was hard enough to keep a conversation about compared to everywhere else. She even heard that some guys in conversation talked about when they had "tuna fish", and that did not mean the fish itself, but something else that would even cause poor Hinata to pass out...

She came down from her high and threatened to pass out herself when Sasuke caught her in his arms and helped her resituate, not only promising her that she could return this favor, but there was something more serious.

"Come on, let's get the hell home before we freeze to death."

~o~

"Remind us why the hell we are doing this when it is the dark of night, the weather is freezing, and just when we have our futures ready and waiting?!" Neji demanded when the five of them were at none other than the closed-down mining site in the base of the mountains overlooking the town.

Why did they come here? Because Gaara had witnessed something the previous night when he came up here to hike as he often did in the past, and it looked human but couldn't be. "Was it a ghost?" Hinata had gasped, hands to her cheeks, despite knowing spirits were just a centuries-old means to keep people in line, to be "aware" of what was out there in the world, and to always be on the lookout. All those old ghost stories kept Neji and his cousin safe all their lives, but they grew out of it while there were those who still believed in this bullshit.

"I don't know what it was," Gaara had said, and they were all in the bar and grill during the afternoon when he chose to tell them, "but I had a bad feeling especially when I saw where it went. I tried to ignore it, but I can't."

"So, what do you want us to do?" Sasuke asked, one eyebrow raised. He lowered his voice so that no one outside their group could hear. "Sneak there under the cover of darkness to investigate? When the guards there could clearly catch us -"

"- but not like that big tree out there," Naru interrupted him. "That mine has been closed a long time before, then reopened until something else happened. It's like an invisible force is preventing us from finding out what is in there. Maybe whatever Gaara saw last night is leading to it..."

Neji knew what she was going to say, so he had to interrupt her with what he'd been thinking: going up to an abandoned but forbidden place to find what likely might not be there. When we all could be caught red-handed and given a criminal charge of trespassing on our records like Sasuke used to. The Uchiha echoed his thoughts. Which boiled down to their shared verdict of wariness, but Gaara insisted despite knowing as well as they did.

"If only. There is a pull that has to be answered. If there's nothing, then I'll apologize for everything."

And if they were in deep shit, it was all on him.

Thank the gods that Gaara used to visit this place with his brother - while not knowing what the actual minerals were in this place, and Japan's mining was minimal due to limited resources - and that a load of things were exactly as they'd been left, such as the explosives that they discovered when darkness fell and the air was once more colder than daylight. Which added to the possibility of them all getting caught by -

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

Naru's shout made them all spread out and duck their heads just as the explosion went off, the sound coupled with that of earth and debris guaranteeing their chances. And this point was right after searching every cranny they could, which led them right to one last spot that hadn't been touched in a long time. And who's idea was it to finally get that sense of adventure when they looked everywhere? The one who shouted the words.

Whoever left the TNT explosives had to be an idiot, but "lucky" for them.

The great pile rolled across the ground like a miniature snow avalanche, causing them to stand and further spread out in opposite directions. It stopped in the nick of time, however, before the whole hilltop could collapse on them...

...and when it was over, the sight they were gifted with caused them to collectively gasp at what was beneath this millennia-old rock.

It's...it looks like CRYSTAL.

Not just any crystal, but it might as well be calcite which was one of many minerals rarely mined, and rather than the expected moonlit white, this was blue as the piece around Naru's throat which Tsunade Senju's grandfather found long ago around this area. It glinted and glimmered even when their flashlights didn't hit it. It was so strange, since the expected white could be shaded with nearly every color of the rainbow if the mineral was impure. This was...solid blue.

"My God...it's amazing," Hinata gasped, being the first to reach and touch the nearest stalagmite of the cavern-like entrance they all formed. "I don't know what it is, but that accident never should have happened. Then your brother would have savored this moment, Gaara!"

At the mention of his elder brother, Gaara smiled faintly and agreed with just a nod, joining her side and caressing a crystal above his head. Neji was tempted to join them, looking over his shoulder to see Sasuke and Naru coming up, hand in hand and stricken by what they were seeing.

Whatever they found in this restricted area, it had a bewitching effect on all of them...as well as what must be an incoherent voice whispering to them, beckoning them inside against their better judgment.

Wherever security was, they must not be coming, or they were occupied elsewhere.

~o~

They came here to look for Gaara's "ghost" or whatever the hell it was, but instead, they discovered a crystal cave. Now, this was something the average person didn't see with their own eyes everyday outside the movies.

If that was calcite, it couldn't be normal, since the colored form was almost never found here on Japanese soil. And if not cleaned out, the mineral shimmered with colors of the rainbow. This was eerily reminiscent of Naru's necklace, having been examined upon its finding but nothing unusual discovered other than being identified as a "rare colored version of the crystal". And speaking of which...

When Sasuke touched the crystals along with the others for no real reason other than awe, he felt a warm vibration course through his hand and arm, traveling throughout the rest of his body, and the others said so, too. It was an incredible find they made, even if they couldn't look for Gaara's weird thing; if not for the fact they were breaking and entering, this was a goldmine they struck! And now they were exploring it when there was an invisible danger sign waiting in the wing. He was right when he said they shouldn't even BE here, but something was drawing them in especially after those minerals sent something through their systems.

There was so much more of these opaque treasures when they were inside the cave. It was as if they were inside a...fairytale. Sasuke never thought he would say anything like this. This place could very much be the Eighth Wonder of the World -

Hinata was right; this place never should have been shut down. And if that damned accident hadn't taken place, Gaara's brother and the other men would have lived to enjoy their glory.

"Oh, I'm tempted, baby," Naru whispered seductively in his ear, making him shudder, her lips against his ear, "to sneak back up into this place if we ever get a chance. Think of a new way to increase our passion -"

"No one is going to increase anything, much less their stupidity. You kids shouldn't even be here when you got your futures set in stone. Might as well have thrown that away."

Hinata and Naru both squeaked in shock, the latter slipping behind Sasuke and the former between her cousin and Gaara, all five nearly having heart attacks as they saw the person at the end of the tunnel they were at which had forked into three ways, the other to the right side. Black hair tied behind the neck, dark eyes glowing like fire in the cores, and their owner clearly disappointed that they were here. Took the earlier words out of Sasuke's mouth.

"I-ITACHI?! What the hell are you doing here?!"

The elder snorted, hard expression unchanged. "I could ask the same of you and your friends, idiot otouto. But since you're here now, might as well follow me so I can show you what this place is whether I like it or not...because he said so."

Japan has mining facilities, though few and far between due to the country not having "onshore mineral resources". Namely, there are small deposits in the archipelago, specifically oil, iron and coal. Therefore, Japan depends on imported raw materials and energy.

Calcite itself is one of many minerals seldom mined for previously mentioned reasons. It generally is white, sometimes other colors, but mostly shimmers with the rainbow colors if containing impurities.

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