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Ch. 12 Chibi Confusion
"Naruto-kun!"
Said blonde and his secret love turned to look behind them, Naruto's mouth still full. There stood an obviously shocked Sakura, Ino, and Hinata. They all were watching him munch away with wide eyes, and Inner Sakura was throwing a massive screaming fit that was sure to cause a headache soon. In the silence, the Kyuubi-holder swallowed his food and smiled.
"Hey! What's going on? Where ya headed?" All three seemed even more shocked.
"Wha- How- You- " Ino kept sputtering while Sakura stepped forward, poking Naruto.
"We just saw you at your house! We told you, we're heading over to Sasuke-kun's! How'd you get here so fast!" Naruto merely blinked dumbly while Gaara watched on, secretely confused.
"What? I've been hanging out with Gaara here since mine and Sasuke's sparring match. And why were you at my house? You live closer to Sasuke than I do." He pointed to his house, then to Sasuke's. Ichiraku was practically the halfway point between them. The girls gasped and began to blush, looking away nervously.
"Um! Well! You see, uh... We uh... We gotta go before Sasuke-kun leaves his house! C'mon!" Poor Hinata waved as she was dragged off behind a pair of frantic kunoichi.
"Huh.. wonder what that was about.." Gaara watched his friend, secretely glad the blonde hadn't called him 'Panda-man' in public. It was okay every now and then, but he did have a reputation to live up to.
"More importantly," he stated, getting Naruto's attention. "They said they just saw you at your house. But you weren't there. Someone's inside your home, pretending to be you." The fox-boy gasped and stood, completely forgetting his half-finished bowl (a rare occurance) as he looked at the red-head.
"I'm gonna go find out who it is!" With that he sped off, leaving the poor Kazekage behind. But he wasn't hurt. He knew that a frantic Naruto meant he was focusing on something and had no room for anything else. It also meant he became completely determined. Something that the young Kage admired in his best friend.
Sadly, though, after Gaara had paid for the food and made his way calmly to the place he was currently staying (because no way in hell was he going to run, especially not in front of these people), he arrived to find a pouting Naruto sitting on his floor.
"No one was here when I got here! They must've ran, knowing I was coming! They didn't want to mess with me!" Gaara looked around, wondering if anything had been taken, but the blonde answered the look. "Not a thing was missing, or even moved! Why would someone break into my house and not mess with anything? I can tell someone's been here, though." When the Kazekage gave him a blank look, he continued. "Kyuubi. It makes my senses a little sharper, and I can smell that someone other than you and me's been in here. It's kinda familiar, but I can't place it..."
Gaara nodded, accepting the idea easily since he once carried a demon inside of himself as well. He knew the things they could do first-hand. Glancing at the time, the red-head sighed.
"Naruto. I have to get back to the meeting, it was just a lunch break. If you can smell whoever it was well enough, you might try tracking him down." The other male's face filled with shock.
"I'll end up looking like Kiba!" It was obvious he was fighting the urge to refuse merely because of looking like someone else. Finally, he sighed and admitted defeat. "Okay.. But I'll at least walk you back to the old hag's!" Gaara nodded, honestly glad for the company, as they left the house (Naruto double-checking the locks) and headed back to the tower, the fox-container grasping his friend's hand and tugging him along in an effort to make him hurry, though really, neither minded taking their time.
And neither let go of the other's hand the entire way.
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The Uchiha glared darkly at the flowers he had stolen. He couldn't very well leave them there, after all. Maybe he should go back and drop them off later? Ugh, but then it would be as though he sunk so low as to be a delivery man. He already hated himself enough for willingly helping out that idiot. He personally wished they'd stop being so damn stubborn and justget together already. Then he could get back to his own life, one that didn't involve those two. His debt would be paid off, and he'd be free again. Damn his honor for getting him into this mess, anyway.
He found himself vaguely wondering what would happen when the girls ran into Naruto and his future lover on their way to the Uchiha grounds. The idiot would go nuts and run back to his house, no doubt. But he wouldn't try to find him, right? No use worrying about it now. Even if Naruto tried to track him down, he could easily evade capture, or even notice, unless the Kyuubi was given enough control. And no doubt he wouldn't resort to that for something so simple as chasing someone who did nothing wrong.
With a frown, the brunette stood and looked around. Even up in the trees like this, he felt exposed. There weren't enough shadows in this part of the town. But he knew where there would be plenty, and made his way to his intended resting spot.
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Back at his house, Naruto tried to isolate the scent as best he could. He was trying, really! But there was this other, flowery scent that kept messing it up! It seemed like he should be able to recognize it easily, but he just couldn't think of who it could be. With a shrug, he decided to focus on following the scent, rather than deciphering it. It helped that whoever it was had taken the flowery-smelling thingwith them.
Once he got back outside, though, he was having a lot more trouble. Foxes are good at smelling things, yes, but not that good. All of the other scents kept covering up the ones he was tracing. He lost it many times, and had to guess as to the direction quite a few times. Finally, he reached a spot amongst some trees where a bunch of flowers were laying on the ground. With a sigh, the blonde noticed he couldn't even catch the person's scent anymore.
"Damn it!" He muttered as he lifted the flowers. If he was lucky, they might have the guy's name on them! After glancing at thetag, he blinked in confusion and read it again.
"To Naruto, from Gaara." Now he was confused. Why would Gaara send him flowers? And when? He was in a meeting all morning, and with him anytime he wasn't. And who brought them? And who accepted them, since it obviously wasn't him.
At least he felt he might know the answer to one of those questions, if not more. Ino's family owned the florist shop. Ino, Sakura, and Hinata had been at his house. They probably brought them. But why? Sure, Sakura knew he liked Gaara, but she wouldn't do something like that, would she? What if Gaara didn't like him back, and these flowers made it seem like he did? Then Naruto would say something stupid, and the Kage would be offended or upset and they might end up damaging their friendship!
With a small frown, the Kyuubi-holder carried the flowers back to his apartment. Even if they weren't from Gaara, and they had no meaning, it was still nice of Sakura to give him these.
It was as he was filling a glass with water to act as a vase that Gaara returned. It was honestly kind of funny how he didn't knock, just walked right in and put his gourd down by the door, as though he was used to living there already. When he saw the flowers on the table, and the water Naruto was carrying over to them, he raised a non-existant eyebrow.
"Where did you get those?" Naruto looked up at him and grinned.
"I think Sakura-chan got 'em for me! They're nice, huh? I think that's why those three were here earlier." It wasn't until he noticed the slightly narrowed eyes that Naruto realized how he had just sounded. "Ah! I mean, um, she was just delivering them! They weren't from her from her, just.. yeah." Gaara didn't see how this was much better. Someone else was interested in his Naruto? He glanced around while the blonde put the flowers away, and finally saw the small card resting on the table. Picking it up, he read it, blinked, and reread it. So, Naruto thought those flowers were from him? Personally, he didn't like flowers much, not used to seeing many, but if Naruto liked them, then he didn't mind that much.
"You got back pretty fast, Panda-man! The old hag let you go already?" The red-head smirked slightly at his friend.
"It seems she used the lunch break to find the sake her assistant had hidden from her. When I arrived, she was already on her second bottle, and I was told I might as well give up on working today. Though she did offer to play cards with me..." He trailed off as his friend laughed, and found himself smiling -just a little, mind you- at the way everything felt so normal to him now, being here with Naruto again.
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"Sasuke-kun!" The two girls refused to give up! Hinata had already left, but they would never admit defeat! They knew he was in there, they just had to convince him to answer the door! Maybe he couldn't hear them? His house was pretty large...
"Sasuke-kun!"
Deep inside the house, one bleary eye opened as he felt around on his bedside table for his earplugs, putting them in place before going back to sleep.
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Yikes! Hopefully I won't take as long to update next time!