Gaara's POV
I slowly woke, popping my aching bones as I stretched myself out, I looked over at Kiba to see him sleeping softly, curled up. I slowly crawled out of the alcove, my body aching from all the recent activity. My injuries from the bomb, still tingle but the medicine used on me, still helping.
I stopped and listened for a while before following the sounds of the birds. After about five minutes, I started marking the trees with a pinned leaf to lead back to Kiba.
Soon after a couple more minutes I heard the sound of running water and ventured closer to it, seeing a small river, nothing much just about 2-3 feet wide, but the water looked clean and I was parched and I knew Kiba would be too, but I didn't have anything to carry the water back with, I'll just have to bring him here later.
I bent down to cup the water bringing it to my mouth to take that refreshing sip, before hearing a familiar voice
"Gaara!"
*Hinata's pov*
I woke up the next morning, blinking softly at dawn light. I stretched my body, before getting up and heading to the door where I heard the soft knock at.
I carefully creaked the door open to see Naruto's shinning face, before he pointed to his left, where his and Sasuke's room is at. I nodded to him which he smiled at before heading on down to Haku's room, as Sakura and Ino's room is to the left of mine as well. I opened the door more, softly closing it behind me before heading to Sasuke's room, upon entering, already seeing Sakura laid on the bed with her head on Sasuke's lap, who was softly stroking her hair.
Ino was on Naruto's bed sat up against the head rest with her knees pulled up and her head resting ontop.
I nodded to sasuke to which he nodded back before sitting on the edge of the bed, blushing slightly at the thought of Naruto sleeping here last night before shaking my head and smacking my cheeks, softly of course, didn't want to hurt myself, to focus myself
'this is no time for such thoughts' of course before I wouldn't of have mind fantasizing about Naruto, but I've change, and so has he.
I shook out of my thoughts as Naruto and Haku finally entered. Haku sleepily moving over to Ino, sitting next to her and laying his head on her shoulder, while Naruto walked over Sakura's other side, by her feet, and sat there.
Sasuke looked at all us, his gaze lingering on Haku and I, to which I responded with a small smile. Sasuke is such a great leader, he sees everything and he truly does care about all us.
"ok you guys, I know you guys are all tired but we need to go over our plan once Kiba and Gaara are back with us."
"you said the camp that chouji was sent to is around here right?" Ino spoke softly, looking up, prompting Haku to sit up and rub his eyes sleepily. Sasuke nodded to her question
"yea, I was thinking we should check that out before we move on, so after we get Kiba and Gaara back, we will head on over there, but I don't think everybody should go" we all stared at him as he got lost in thought
"then who should go" Naruto asked from his position. I certainly didn't want to go, I had to stay here to take care of Kiba, but I know Ino will definitely want to go, it's her childhood friend, I mean Chouji is all of our friends, but him and Ino are closer than the rest of us.
"well Ino will definitely go, and I will too, I was thinking of having you and Haku come with us as well" Sasuke said after a moment of silence. Haku looked up at his name being called, I didn't think Haku would want to go since he will probably be taking care of Gaara too.
"I know you want to be there for Gaara" Sasuke started before Haku could say anything, which for a second he looked like he did, but stopped as Sasuke gave his reasoning
"but I feel that since you and Gaara are the only ones who are 18, you guys are the only legal adults here and we might need that, if we can't break chouji out" Sasuke pointed out, and unfortunately, he did have a point, but I could tell that Haku wanted to argue but he knew that sasuke was right and let out a sigh before nodding.
Sasuke looked grateful before turning back to the rest of us. Sakura at this time had sat up and was rubbing her eyes, as Naruto skootched closer, so they were touching at the shoulders.
"ok next on the agenda, where are we traveling through next" Sasuke said, pulling out the map and laying it on the nightstand that he pulled from the wall to in between the two beds. We all leaned over it to study the map.
"so right now, we are here in Chorwan, Choji's camp is over there" Sasuke pointed to a circled area just a few miles from chorwan, so it wasn't far at all.
"Yeonchon is over here" the place was marked with a capital H, for what I am not sure, but it seemed pretty far, but looking at where we came from, in in-chop I say we covered a lot of ground within two days, judging by how we've come and how far we got, it might only take us 2-3 more days, and I was thinking we were going to be out here for months! Or even a year!
I zooned back in from my inner thoughts as Haku pointed out the next possible town, the town of se-dong was a good place to stop next and rest.
"we could either, go off trail and go through the forest, or walk by the river, but I don't think that is a good idea, soldiers might use that path" Sasuke said frowning
"then let's stick to the forest path, but we keep the river in ear shot or sight, so we aren't exactly in plain sight" Naruto said, his eyes narrowed as he studies the map. Sasuke nodded to his suggestion.
"alright, so we go along with way" Sasuke starting, point on the map to show everyone "then- "
Before Sasuke could continue a knock interrupted him, we all looked to the door, before Naruto, as he was the closes to the door, got up and answered it to see a sickly-looking teen standing there, he was all bones with hardly any body fat, his hair was long and an unusual white, almost like that Kabuto but more of pale white than a silver white. His green eyes looked sunken in and there were these red dots on the top of his forehead.
"your presence is wanted at the dining room" is all he simply said
"ah ok" Naruto said slowly looking startled by the sickly-looking man
"I will lead you there, are you all ready now" he asked, simply staring at Naruto, who looked back at us with his eyes screaming for help.
Sasuke then got up at that time and step forward in front of Naruto, who stepped back
"we'll get ready now, just wait a minute ok" Sasuke said to the teen, who nodded and stepped back from the door as Sasuke closed it. Sasuke turned back to us then
"we'll finish this later when we get Kiba and Gaara back, I'm sure they are fine now that we have Orochimaru's help" Sasuke said "ready guys" and we all just nodded to him.
I stood up but waited till Ino and Haku climbed slowly out of the bed, both still sleepier than the rest, making me wonder if they got any sleep last night. Sakura was also still a little drowsy but more alert than the other two. I put in the back of mind to ask about it later as we all ventured out into the hallway.
The teen looked to all us before nodding and leading the way to the dining room, where like yesterday a feast was laid out before us with Orochimaru sitting at the head.
We all sat down in the same spots as yesterday, except Sakura sat in between Sasuke and Naruto.
As we got settle in, Orochimaru cleared his throat before speaking
"ah good morning children, I trust that you all slept well?" he asked, waiting to see nods from all of us beginning
"good good, well I'm not going to stall any longer, I'm afraid I have some unsettling news for you all" at that we got scared, what did he mean unsettling, like did that mean he could not help us anymore, was he going to kick us all out, or did he mean something bad happen to Gaara and Kiba, were they found out and killed before we could get to them, I hope not.
I snapped out of musing as Orochimaru continued
"it seems, your friends took it upon their selves to get out of the hospital and have ran away in the middle of the night, most likely into the forest surrounding the back of the hospital. I have sent men to begin the search but I thought you would like to know the current situation at hand."
We were all stunned in silence, no one suspected that the two would run away, well maybe if Gaara felt unsafe he would do something like this to get both of them out alive.
"so have you gotten any leads yet on their whereabouts?" Sasuke asked coming out of his shock
"well we know that they ran into the forest but so far no, the forest is a big place for two boys, so it could take a while, but we need to be quick as they are still injured I'm sure" Orochimaru said calmly sipping his glass of wine.
"alright so when do want us to leave to help" Sasuke asked
Orochimaru eyes widen before he relaxed into a sly smile
"oh, you want to help, I figure you would leave all the work to my underlings"
"Gaara and Kiba are our friends, if anyone is going to find them quickly it will be us" Naruto said with his signature grin, the rest of us nodding in agreement, each of us giving Orochimaru our best determined face.
He looked to each of us, resting on me and, after taking a look at my determination, closed his eyes before taking a sip and letting out a low chuckle
"what an interesting group"
*Gaara's pov*
"Gaara!"
I quickly looked towards the sound to see pink and blue hair. I sighed in relief as Hinata and Sakura ran over to me, Sakura giving me a hug and Hinata softly smiling at me. I just patted Sakura on the back twice before she released me
"OMG I'm so glad you're ok, how are you, are you still hurt, where are your clothes, omg where is Kiba, is he dead! Wait no don't tell me, how are you!"
I closed my eyes counting to ten before opening them up to see Sakura wide eyed staring at me, and Hinata mouth open a little, eyes popping out, probably from when Sakura assumed Kiba was dead, giving the poor girl a fright.
"I'm ok Sakura, No I'm not still injured, I'm healing up just nicely, I don't know where my clothes are at, Kiba is safe, and once again I am fine, anything else?" I raised a brow, as Sakura rubbed the back of her head, a habit probably picked up from Naruto.
"no hehe sorry about that" Sakura apologize, Hinata sighing with relief that we were alright.
"I'm so glad we found you, and so quickly too!" Sakura said excitingly, grabbing my hand and I just nodded along with her as I started to lead them back to the tree I stashed Kiba at.
"yes, I am glad you found me quickly too, I wasn't too sure what I should do about food" I said voicing my worriers. Even if I could catch some fish, making a fire while we were so close to the hospital that I'm sure is looking for us wasn't such a good idea.
"How is Kiba, I see he's not here with you" Hinata asked, walking up on the other side of me
"he's safe but in desperate need of medical attention, I overheard doctors saying they were going to move him underground with more security and how they were going to bring me into questioning so I had no choice but to take Kiba out early, but he is resting now" I said as we rounded a corner and stopped suddenly as we heard more shouts from our left.
We looked around before spotting Ino and Haku walking towards us, Ino shouting and waving her hand to catch our attention.
"Gaara, I'm so glad your alright" Ino said as they finally gotten close enough to be heard
Haku didn't say anything except walking up to me and hugged me tight. I let go of Sakura's hand to hug him back needing no words to hear the worry that I caused. After a few seconds we parted, Haku blushing slightly before smiling at me
"I'm am glad you are ok Gaara, you had me worry there when we heard you guys ran away"
"Sorry to worry you, but we had to leave now or we would've been in trouble" I replied before turning to Ino who coughed very loudly
"you mean they had us worry haku, you weren't the only one you know" she said once she had our attention, putting one of her hands on her hips and leaning into it.
Haku blushed again, scratching his cheek in a cute manner "right sorry"
"well as nice as this is, come on we need to get Kiba and meet up with Sasuke and Naruto" Sakura clapped before looking to me. I nodded back and began walking back to where I put Kiba which we arrived at in just a few moments.
I crawled into the burrow to see Kiba was awake but laying down.
"Hey, are you feeling better now?" I asked, kneeling beside him.
"Yea, just tired and sore" Kiba answered after coughing a little. He began to sit up and with my help he sat all the way up looking exhausted
"come on, the others found us, we are gonna head back to where ever they found a place at, hopefully there is water there" I said helping him to crawl out the burrow to the others who were standing around the entrance.
"Kiba!" Hinata cried out falling to her knees to look over Kiba, who gave a weak greeting to Hinata.
"will he be alright" Haku asked concerned but I just shook my head
"I don't know, but please tell me you found a place that at least has food and water" I asked
"oh, yea I forgot to tell you, Sasuke had called one of the contacts that Kakashi had wrote down for us, he's called Orochimaru, and although he is a little bit creepy he's very helpful, he will have everything that Kiba would need" Sakura informed. I just nodded before glancing at Kiba
"alright, I'm going to lift you up ok" I told, he nodded and once I was turned with my back facing him and kneeling, he wrapped his arms around my neck allowing me lift him up on my back. I had to shift him a little so he was on securely and comfortable before I nodded to the others and they began to lead back to this Orochimaru's place.
It was about half an hour later when we heard some snapping and stopped, thinking maybe it might be Korean police looking for Kiba and I, but we all sighed with relief as Sasuke and Naruto came around a bend of trees, looking surprised at us before focusing on Kiba and I
"you guys found them!" Naruto cried out, running to us.
"Kiba man, you look terrible" Naruto said looking worriedly at Kiba who I couldn't really see but I'm sure did look terrible.
"are you guys ok" sasuke asked looking to me for conformation, I shrugged
"I'm ok, but I'm not too sure about Kiba, I feel he needs to get medical attention as soon as possible" I answer, Sasuke nodded and looked to the rest
"Come on, Orochimaru should have some medical equipment to help" Sasuke before heading off to lead the grounp
"hey do you want me to carry him, I know you were injured too" Naruto said walking beside me
I just shook my head "I'm alright, lets just hurry back" was all I said before Naruto nodded but kept on walking beside me.
It was another 15 minutes before we finally reached the back of a row of houses. We climbed over the gates, me passing Kiba over Naruto at that point before walking to a well where Sasuke let the pail go all the way down to the bottom before he did a series of taps before hearing something heavy move out of the way.
Sasuke looked over at Kiba and I
"Kiba, do you think you can stand up for like 2 minutes" Sasuke asked.
Kiba coughed a couple times before nodding, Naruto letting him down to wobble for a second before standing up, leaning on Naruto though.
Sasuke nodded before putting his foot in the pail and letting it lower him down, and in about 2 minutes the pail came back up.
That was when Naruto and I helped Kiba over the walls of the well, making sure he held onto the rope tightly before letting him go as he was slowly lowered down. After we confirmed that he didn't fall on the way down, everybody else went on down until soon everybody was underground.
Coming underground and walking down these long dark tunnels made me suspicious of this Orochimaru, I mean what could he have done to gain the money to build all of this. I dismissed my thoughts as I felt someone grab my hand and looked over to see Haku next to me, looking ahead but slightly down.
It was dark but I could still see his blush from the glow of the fires as I squeezed his hand back before looking straight ahead.
Soon we reached an open door that led to a dinning room, that was partially lit and housed a long table with, is that, is that a human? I don't know, it's a creepy male with pale, almost purple in the lighting skin, his eyes were creepy too being yellow and surrounded in purple and silver eye shadow, and of course matching his creepy appearance is a creepy smile as he looked over us.
"aw you are back and I see you found your friends, although one looks like he'll be dead any second now" The man, who I assume is Orochimaru said, still having that creepy smile on, before he clapped and a couple henchman, because this guy is obviously one of the evil overlords, came in and grabbed onto Kiba.
I glared at them as they took Kiba away, but they ignored my glares and kept on going.
"oh, don't worry about your friend, he will receive the medical help he needs, we have doctors here that can take care of him" Orochimaru said noticing the unease feeling we gave off.
"Thank you for taking care of our friend Orochimaru- seonsaeng" Sasuke said bowing a little
Orochimaru just kept his creepy smile and spread his arms out in show that we sit down, which we, unfortunately, did. Although I don't trust this man at all, but for right now he is helping us, so I will give him that.
We all sat down, of course I sitting next to Haku who sat next to Ino and Hinata on her other side, I placed myself between Orochimaru and Haku, not wanting him to be closer to the freak.
Orochimaru turned to me, seemingly pleased that I sat next to him
"yes and you are Gaara-gun I suppose" He asked in a seemingly pleasant voice, which to him was just a creepy pedo voice
"yes, I would like to thank you for taking care of my friends" I said stoically, bowing my head slightly to him
"yes, well you all have peaked my interest and it's not too often I come across orphans who are attempting to run away" in my mind I glared at him, we are not attempting like it's futile, we ARE running away to a better life outside this miserably country.
"if it's not too rude to ask" I started off and continuing once Orochimaru nodded his permission
"but why are you helping us orphans "attempting" to run away" I said back, I could see Sasuke narrowing his at me, telling me not to test this man's patient, but this is a completely reasonably question to be asking.
"oh yes, well like I just said, you have peaked my interest, really I don't usually do this, but I decided to see how far you guys get with such a large group"
"so, you are doing this on a whim" I shot back causing Orochimaru to smile slyly
"yes, you can say that, and a certain someone wouldn't be too pleased if I didn't help you, and I rather not upset that person" At that was when everyone got confused looks
"Kakashi-seonsaeng?" Sasuke asked
"hm oh not Kakashi, don't worry you will know who I am talking about in due time" was all he said before returning back to sipping his wine
We all looked at each other before shrugging and digging into the food laid before us, and it wasn't until I started eating that I realized how starving I was, but I guess this is the start of our next step, now we just had keep going, hopefully with no more casualties.
And finished! OMG so like I wrote half of this back in October, and when I was going to finish it that was when is started working again, and OMG all of those who work in food service know how much of a pain it is to be working during the holiday season, especially at a resort that literally can't close for nothing, not even for a holiday.
Then When January came when I can finally breath I got writers block T_T I know excuses excuses, I said I half of this story written, and I do, it's just sometimes I write different scenes and all I got to do is connect them but sometimes I get brain farts and this was one of those times. But no more writers block for me, but I hope you enjoy this chapter, sorry if it seemed a little rushed, unless you didn't notice it then just ignore this, but nothing really happens, but the next chapter will be about the start of the little expedition to rescue Chouji! Yay can't wait but until then see ya next time!