-
Naruto cracked an eye open. He tried to remember exactly where he was. Oh yeah, he had stayed over at Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara's house and studying took hours so it got so late that even Naruto thought it wasn't a good idea to go back home. So he got to sleep over. He picked to sleep in Gaara's room. His choice scared Kankuro and Temari but Gaara didn't seem to care.
Now Naruto wanted to figure out where that odd sound was coming from. The sound was what woke him up in the first place.
Naruto rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stood up. He looked over at Gaara's bed and blinked. The red-head seemed to be having a nightmare. That didn't seem possible, but that what it looked like. The reason Naruto didn't think it was possible was because Gaara was more into horror books and movies than he and Sasuke were! His room was even painted with vampire colors!
Getting back to the matter at hand, Naruto walked over to Gaara's side and shook him.
"Hey, Gaara, wake up," Naruto said in a not-so-quiet voice.
The red-head mumbled something that sounded like "No, Yashamaru, no." Naurto couldn't be sure though.
"Gaara! Wake up!"
Gaara sat up suddenly, his right hand grasping the front of Naruto's shirt. He panted and looked around quickly. He sighed, and his eyes returned to their normal expressionless state, but Naruto caught the fear in them a few seconds ago.
"What the hell was that dream about?" Naruto asked after a couple of moments.
Gaara turned to him, glanced at his hand and let go of Naruto's pajama shirt. Naruto shook his head as he glanced at the red-head's nightshirt. The guy even slept in vampire attire!
"What did you hear? I know I talk in my sleep when I have a nightmare," Gaara said emotionlessly.
"Something about Yashamaru. He was your uncle, wasn't he?" Naruto said, putting his hands behind his head.
Gaara nodded slowly. Naruto raised an eyebrow as he watched the boy's hands clutch the black sheets. The blond looked back up at his companion's face and gasped at the pained look on his face.
"I'll – I'll tell you if you promise not to tell anyone, and I mean anyone. Not even Kankuro or Temari. They don't know anything about it, and it should stay that way," Gaara said quietly.
Naruto sat on the edge of the bed.
"'Kay, I promise I won't tell. But it must be pretty bad if you of all people are having a nightmare. Are you sure?"
"Positive. Can you keep your voice down? I don't want Temari-nee-san coming in here."
Naruto nodded rapidly.
"It started back when my family was still in Sunagakure. It was around the two months before we moved here. It was a fairly normal day; Temari had beat up five perverts, Kankuro was covered in blood before school even began, and Father was absent most of the day. The evening was what went horribly wrong. Temari and Kankuro didn't show up until ten o'clock at night, which meant they were five hours late. In those five hours . . . Yashamaru did something bad . . . to me. . . ."
Naruto waited a few minutes for Gaara to continue.
"And?" Naruto prompted.
Gaara glared at him half-heartedly.
"Sorry, I know this is probably hard to say but I get impatient easily," Naruto added.
Gaara sighed.
"Yashamaru raped me."
They sat there in silence, Gaara's words seeming to echo throughout the room despite the fact that he whispered it. Naruto attempted to process the information.
"He – what?"
"Don't make me repeat it," Gaara mumbled, almost pleaded. "It happened two more times in the same week before Father found out. I don't really know what happened to Yashamaru, but I'm assuming he died because there was lots of blood and people usually don't hold funerals for people merely missing."
Naruto didn't say anything. He stared at the red-head in awe. Gaara's emotionless mask broke and Naruto saw how hurt he was. Tears begged to fall, but Gaara seemed to forbid them. The blond didn't know what to do.
"I – I'm sorry that happened to you," Naruto whispered.
On impulse, Naruto hugged the red-head. Gaara didn't pull away, so Naruto assumed that he wasn't going to hurt him for it. Silently Gaara's tears fell and dampened Naruto's pajama shirt. The red-head couldn't cry more than two or three, however.
". . . . Thank you . . . Naruto-kun."
-
Days later, Gaara and Naruto didn't mention, not even to each other in privet, about that night. But Temari and Kankuro figured something had happened to make them act like friends. Naruto and Gaara even started hanging out with each other outside of school and Gaara's house.
"Cool, they got that new werewolf book out!" Naruto exclaimed, picking off the shelf.
Gaara shrugged, picking up a vampire novel.
"I'm not really into werewolves," Gaara muttered.
"I noticed that by what your room looks like. It's as though you've walked into Vampire Heaven. Wait . . . ."
Gaara chuckled at the irony of Naruto's sentence.
"Anyway, I suggest you give it a try. Not that I would know, but don't vampires become a little dull and boring after a while?" Naruto asked.
Gaara blinked slowly. They stood there quietly for a few moments. Naruto was having a hard time getting used to these silences.
"I guess I could give it a try," Gaara admitted, picking up a copy off of the book shelf.
Naruto grinned.
"Hey, blockhead. What're you doing here?" called a voice.
Naruto whipped around happily and Gaara narrowed his eyes. Sasuke walked toward them. The bluenet glared at the red-head.
"Hey Sasuke! And stop calling me a blockhead!" Naruto replied in mock indignity.
"Whatever," Sasuke said, pulling a collection of short horror stories off the shelf. "What's he doing here?"
Gaara glared at him, having not missed the emphasis on the word "he".
"He and I have been hanging out," Naruto said, seemingly unaware that Sasuke didn't like Gaara and vice versa.
"Hmph," Sasuke grunted.
"By the way, how's your brother doing?" Naruto asked; maybe he wasn't that clueless.
"Well, apparently there's some issue involving the Mafia. Something about some guy called Wind Shadow in the area. A bit odd to be here in Konoha, though. He'd only get caught, every law-breaker here gets caught."
"How do they know he's in Konoha?"
"If your dad hasn't told you, how am I supposed to know? Itachi won't tell me anything Arashi won't tell you."
"Damn it. I like getting the scoops before the reporters."
"Yeah, me too. And it's a little hard to figure out exactly what the law enforcement biz is about. I mean, every time I ask Itachi was the advantages and disadvantages are to being a cop, he starts off with the disadvantages, gets to the advantages, then starts laughing and tells me to ask Obito who's never around long enough to ask him anything."
"Why? You wanting to be a cop too?"
"I was thinking about it. What about you?"
"Well . . . I don't know. Dad would blow a gasket if I went into law enforcement."
"Why?"
"'Cause he'd be too worried! Kind of makes you wonder what he thinks he's put Aunt Tsuande, Uncle Jiraiya, and me through, but yeah. Aunt Tsuande's been discouraging me from becoming a teacher or anything like that because of the low pay, and there's no way I'd help Uncle Jiraiya with his books like he keeps asking me to. I don't want to be known as the second biggest pervert in Konoha!"
"What about . . . a doctor . . . like your cousins?" Gaara suggested quietly.
Sasuke glared at him, obviously wanting Gaara to butt out of the conversation. Naruto, on the other hand, welcomed him in with open arms.
"Nah, it doesn't matter what Shizune and Kabuto say; I'm not smart enough for that." Naruto said.
Sasuke and Gaara frowned, forgetting that the other was there. Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but Gaara, surprising both Sasuke and Naruto, beat him to it.
"That's only because you're not exerting yourself," Gaara said, holding a hand up when Naruto looked like he was about to protest. "Remember, I've seen every single study session you've had with my sister. You two go nowhere fast. It's like you don't want to try. Even Kankuro gets better grades than you, and he's dumber than you are. It's not because you're not brilliant, it's because you aren't trying. Care to say why?"
Naruto gaped at him.
"That's the most I've ever heard you say," Naruto stated.
Sasuke snorted. Gaara glared at the bluenet.
"Well?" Gaara urged, ignoring Sasuke and giving Naruto an annoyed look.
"Uh, I don't know. I just don't have any goals in any of the classes, I guess," Naruto admitted sheepishly.
"We're going to have to fix that, now aren't we?" Gaara muttered.
The red-head turned away from them and picked another book off the shelf. It was another werewolf novel.
-
Sasuke walked back to where he left Itachi, which was the mystery section.
"Hey, kiddo. Where'd you disappear off to?" Itachi asked.
"Went to the horror section. Found Naruto there. He's hanging out with that Suna kid, though. You know, the red head I told you about?" Sasuke replied.
"The one who would kill anyone who'd get in his way?" Itachi said.
Sasuke nodded.
"I don't know why Naruto even wants to be in the same room as him, let alone be friends with him. He's a jerk."
Itachi stayed quiet for a few moments, listening to Sasuke continuing his rant. He thought about how Sasuke described the kid. Could he really be . . . ?
"Are they still in the store?" Itachi asked.
"Uh, yeah, Naruto said they were going to buy their books then head to the food court," Sasuke answered.
Itachi put the book back on the shelf, turned on his heel, and headed to the check-out. Sasuke followed, wondering what Itachi's hurry was. They had plenty of time before they had to be home, and it was Itachi's day-off. Usually his big brother wanted to spend as much time as possible in the library or bookstore on his days off.
The two Uchiha reached the check-out. Naruto and Gaara had just got to the front of the line. Itachi narrowed his eyes at the red-head. Yes, he definitely looked like that kid. The question was: did his profile match?
"Hey, Naruto-kun," Itachi called out.
Naruto and Gaara turned their heads. Gaara glared at Sasuke and Sasuke glared back. Naruto grinned welcomingly at them both.
"Hey, Itachi-san! How's your day off?"
"It's fine. Sasuke mentioned finding you and said you and your friend were going to the food court. Mind if we join you?" Itachi suggested.
Sasuke looked at him, his face betraying his disbelief and confusion. Naruto blinked several times before turning to ask Gaara if he minded. Gaara merely shrugged and mumbled something that Itachi couldn't hear. Naruto replied an "Of course Sasuke-kun has to! Itachi-san's his brother! He's not going to ditch him!" Gaara seemed disappointed. To Itachi, it looked like Gaara didn't like Sasuke either.
"Sure, you guys can come!" Naruto said happily, but Itachi caught the uncertainty in his eyes.
God, was Naruto a damn good actor or what? Maybe he should go into the acting business. He was handsome enough for it.
-
Naruto attempted to speak with Sasuke and Itachi as much as possible and include Gaara at the same time, but seeing that Gaara didn't speak much, that was hard. Itachi couldn't blame the kid for trying; Naruto must've felt a little bit like he was pressuring his best friend and his best friend's brother onto his new friend. It reminded him of when Obito was trying to hang out with Kakashi and include Itachi like his parents wanted him to at the same time.
"So, you're Gaara," Itachi said.
Gaara looked up from his book and looked at him rather tiredly.
"Do you have any siblings?"
"Yes."
"How many?" Two, you're going to have two.
"Two."
"Do you have a mother and father?" No, you don't have a mother but you do have a father.
"Just Father."
"What do your siblings look like?"
"Why are you asking?"
"I'm just curious. Sometimes sources of information are biased."
Gaara raised an eyebrow at Itachi. (Itachi couldn't see the eyebrow because of the eye-liner, but the face muscles portrayed the same expression.)
"My sister is blonde and wears lavender-and-black everything. My brother is a brunet and everything he wears gets torn up. Now leave me alone."
Gaara hid his face behind his book again. Sasuke and Naruto had stopped talking and stared at Gaara in surprise and, in Naruto's case, awe. He just told a cop to leave him alone, and said it quite rudely. Itachi didn't really care, though. He had what he needed to know. He just needed to see his siblings in person.
-
Red Roses2: Told you things were getting interesting. Why does Itachi want to know more about Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro? Review, share your thoughts, and keep reading. And read my other fiction "Key to the Cage" while you're at it. It's a NejiNaru.