Paints
Chapter One
Decision
Hello everyone!
Disclaimer disclaimed. HOWEVER, Miyuki, Karourain(pronouced Ka-rou-ra-in), and the rest of the fangirls are mine.
Note: Please don't be offended if you are a desperate fan girl of Gaara. My assumptions here in the story are just jokes. Oakie? (:
"Regular speech"
"words in the letter"
Emphasis of regular words
"Naruto. Remember 'the memories'?
Of how I met 'it'. That single decision I made.
Which triggered the start of how it all happened.
. . ."
"Hurry!"
Naruto and Kankuro ran up the flights of steps, not pausing to tie a shoelace, drink some water, or even scream in agony at the burning in their thighs. Gaara was angry. Very angry.
Few things upset Gaara after he became Kazekage. He used to blast up anything that got on his slightest nerves— rocks, trees, people, animals; basically the landscape and everything in it. Now it didn't bother him anymore. Because it was all overshadowed by his hatred of... fan girls. Fan girls. The word struck fear into even the most terrifying demon. Because once a girl desperately fanned someone, she would cross rivers of torture and lakes of death just to be with that particular someone. It would creep that particular someone out so much that he would kill her. And he would be happy.
But no, this wasn't the case with Gaara. He was the protector of his village. He had to protect his siblings, elders, younglings, and, his fangirls. By killing a fan girl, he would have helped in murdering his precious dream of staying Kazekage. This concept made Gaara so angry, it drove him almost to the point of insanity.
Naruto and Kankuro skidded to a stop when they heard an explosion overheard. They heard two muffled voices, most likely Gaara and Temari's.
"It was your BIRTHDAY, for Mom's sake!!" A huge fluttering of papers. "I could just kill them for what they did! Where are they?! WHERE IS NARUTO??!! Temari, WHERE ARE THEY??!! Bring them up here right NOW!!" Another explosion.
"Now Gaara, calm down, calm down! I can sense them below us! Just wait a couple—" A shattering of glass.
Naruto and Kankuro heard the door slam open. The terrified ninjas heard footsteps banging on the ceiling above them, then a cascade of pounding thumps as Gaara made his way down the stairs.
Gaara immediately spotted the striking golden hair, the bright orange outfit, the deep blue eyes glistening with terror. They locked gazes.
Right away, Naruto felt as if he was thrown into freezing oceans. He took a few weak steps backward as Gaara began to slowly pursue him, and then chase him down the hall. An icy hand clutched his neck and Naruto felt himself being thrown against the wall. Again, those cold pale hands grabbed his collar and held him up.
"OOUUAAGHH!! Help!"
"Shut up Naruto! I want to tell you something!!"
"Why couldn't you have just--" Naruto began shouting a stream of complaints as Gaara dragged him up the stairs by his hair.
"If another word comes out of your mouth, I WILL do something." Naruto stopped protesting.
"Poor Naruto...,"said a weary voice.
Kankuro turned to find his sister looking very disgruntled, and covered in deep cuts and bruises. Kankuro's mouth fell open. She smiled, and lifted her hands. "S'not what you think. Gaara said he'd make this year's birthday punches extra delicate." Kankuro gapped, but Temari just shrugged. " At least he kept the promise."
Gaara slammed the door behind him and flopped onto his desk. He motioned for Naruto to sit on one of the chairs. For several minutes, no one said anything. The silence grew. Then...
"They ruined Temari's birthday party."
Naruto cocked his head.
"Those girls. The ones I tell you about. They...ruined...Temari's...TWENTIETH...birthday...party."
Naruto's eyes widened, and a grim look came upon his face. "Wow...that's pretty bad. Tsk tsk."
"It was supposed to be all about her," Gaara continued, his hands balling up into fists. "But what happens? They rush in. They flip over the food table. They crush her presents. They attack her and her friends. And then it ends up with me in the middle! Always me, me, ME!" Suddenly, his face turned thoughtful.
Naruto frowned. "That sucks, man. Ehm...what are you thinking?"
"Naruto...no matter how good-looking a guy is, if he's extremely strange, they would avoid him, right?" He stared at his friend. "What would you think would happen...if I pretended to be gay?"
"WHAT??!!" Naruto shrieked, jumping. "GAY??!! ARE YOU NUTS?!"
"I'm not turning gay...I'm just gonna pretend to be so those girls would avoid me," Gaara replied calmly. "I've been considering this for a while now, too, by the way."
Naruto took several deep breaths and sat back down in his chair, taking care to lean away from Gaara far as possible. "So, um, gay. Won't you get fired for it?"
"I dunno..."
"But-but, being the Kazekage! It was your only dream!"
"And that dream turned to a nightmare. I'm about ready to end it." Gaara stood up, and so did Naruto.
"Um, gay. Are you positive you're gonna do it?"
"Yes."
"You promise not to turn gay yourself?"
"I'm not turning gay, I'm only gonna be pretending."
Naruto relaxed. "Okay, so you promise, PROMISE not to truly turn gay."
"I promise. I won't turn gay."
"Do you promise, promise, PROMISE that--"
"SHUT UP!!"
"I can't—"
The door flew open, and one of Gaara's assistants tumbled in. "Gaara-sama," he gasped. "There are a group of fan girls in the lobby. The village elders have been trying to hold them off, but they refuse to leave unless you visit them."
Gaara's face turned dark purple as Naruto's eyes brightened. "Oh really?" Naruto said, his eyes sparkling with an mischievous idea. "C'mon, Gaara, let's go tell these girls to...leave."
The lobby was filled with girls wearing extremely short, lacy pink dresses and crowns. They were all screaming. And once Gaara came down the stairs, they screamed even louder.
"Gaara-sama!!!" One girl shrieked.
"Gaara-chan, pregnify me!!" Another one squealed.
"Gaara!" "Gaara-chan!" "Date me!!" "I have a treat for you in my room!" "Want to see my new underwear?" The girls continued to shriek out explicit comments, much to the disgust of the elders and Gaara.
"Wow," Naruto murmured.
"I know," Gaara whispered under his breath. "And you said you always wanted fan girls."
Naruto shuddered and spotted one of the elders. He giggled and pointed. "Look, Gaara. That guy is standing next to this hairy-ass fan girl. Look at his face!" He giggled again. Gaara didn't laugh but cleared his throat.
"Alight, you bit—AHEM. Alright, GIRLS, I want each and every one of you turdlings-- EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU, to get the hell out of my sight!!"
"Aw, Gaara-sama!! Let us stay!" they squealed.
"Gaara!" one girl whined. "Can't you at least stay with me for just a minute?" This started on a whole new round of pleading and a bit of fighting.
"YOU SLUTS, SHUT THE HELL UP!!"
Everyone turned and stared at Naruto. He took a deep breath, and began shouting, "YOU WHOREBAGS ARE SOME OF THE DRIPPIEST, MOST DISGUSTING GIRLS I HAVE EVER SEEN!!! And you hoes can just save your breath, because Gaara ain't gonna go with you, not now, not ever! Not just cause you guys are so unattractive, but guess WHAT!! HE'S GAA-AAY!!!"
It was as if time skidded to a stop. The room was deathly silent like a tomb. Gaara slowly turned his head to glare at Naruto. Naruto stared back at the seething aquamarine eyes. Gaara pointed his finger, and Naruto followed its direction into the faces of the shocked elders. One of them gestured for Gaara to come.
As Gaara walked towards the man, the fan girls immediately parted away from him as if he were a poison. He hid a smile to himself; he owed Naruto a huge amount. But the elder pointed at his kage robes. He gestured for Gaara to take them off and hand them over. Gaara did so until he was standing in his regular black pants and shirt. Then the elder threw his arm toward the door.
"You...are...to be Kazekage no longer. Now. Get. OUT." Now Gaara didn't know whether to chide or thank Naruto.
"Oh c'mon! If you wanted to keep it a secret, then how would those girls ever know that you were gay?" Naruto complained, as they both strode through the streets towards the Suna gates.
"You don't scream it out when there are ELDERS around, you meddling fool!" Gaara hissed. "Now that you helped me lose my job, where am I supposed to go? I can't stay here because life would certainly be bothersome..."
"Just come stay at Konoha!" Naruto offered. "You'd have peace and quiet..."
"I have fangirls in Konoha too. Dumbass."
"Oh...well, don't worry," Naruto replied cheerfully. "Suna and Konoha are so close, word passes through to them quicker than my diarrhea."
"...Don't talk to me."
"What? I just said--"
"DON'T...talk to me."
"Okay so, if life would be bothersome here, wouldn't it be bothersome in Konoha too?"
"I'll live."
By the time the two ninja made it to the gates, it was nightfall. They made it to Konoha within two days. Naruto was right- even with their speed, Gaara couldn't have found himself any peace at Konoha either. Even the color of the town was too bright and bold.
"It's so intense," Naruto commented, observing the town from an overlooking cliff. He turned to Gaara. "Do you remember it being this colorful?"
Gaara shrugged. Much as he didn't care what people thought, it still disturbed him to know that people he didn't even know already knew that he was "gay", but they didn't know that he was just acting it. He disliked being judged like that.
"Oi, cheer up, Gaara! Here, let's go to my apartment. I'll make you happy with my chicken-beef-and-shrimp ramen dish!"
Gaara was bored. Naruto had crashed immediately after eating Gaara's ramen dish, leaving Gaara awake and restless and irritated. The redhead stared out the window at the sapphire blue sky laced with small but billowy white clouds. It was a nice day; he would go outside and explore the area.
As Gaara was walking among the buildings, he noticed one that was currently being painted a bright orange. He stopped to watch the progress. It surprised him that only one person was painting the huge round roof. Gaara watched as the person climbed down their ladder, retrieved a new paint bucket and resumed painting. He observed that the painter's movements were noticeably graceful, yet when the painter happened to bent down at a certain angle, their arm would jerk back, as if their stomach was in pain. It was strange. The hands were small and unnaturally pale, though most of their body was already covered in huge, paint-stained baggy clothes. Tufts of messy black hair stuck out from underneath an old brown hat.
Occasionally this person would stop painting and put a hand to their forehead.
'This person seems to get a lot of headaches,' Gaara thought. He didn't realize just how late it was until he found himself squinting against the light to get a glimpse of the figure. He looked around. The sky was blue, but the clouds were hues of hot pinks, oranges, and purples. Konoha sunsets were certainly beautiful. He turned back to see the painter climbing down from the ladder and setting the paint bucket on the floor. Whoever it was picked up a can of brushes and began walking in Gaara's direction. Gaara squinted to get a look at the person's face...A sharp kick in his ribs made him shout.
"Naruto!!"
"Hey, Gaara!" Naruto stretched his arms up to the sky, yawned and grinned at the same time. "I had one nice sleep. You enjoyin' the scenery?"
Gaara nodded and turned his head just in time to get a glimpse of the painter walking by. His eyes widened; he absolutely couldn't tell whether the person was a boy or girl. The person had small facial features but large, pale eyes, masked in sickly white skin.
Another kick from Naruto and Gaara jumped up, seized his friend by the collarbones and slammed him into the wall. By the time Gaara turned around again, the he/she was gone.
"You jackass! Stop kicking me!"
"You kept staring at that person!"
"I was observing them because they were STRANGE!"
"Well it's getting dark. We should go inside, unless you want to get man-raped--" BOOM.
Over the next couple days, Gaara observed the person. He could tell that even though he/she dressed in baggy clothes, they were very thin. He/she also walked with a disturbing posture: stiff, bent over a bit too much, weakly shivering, slightly hunched shoulders. Gaara smiled to himself; he had dubbed the person as "he/she", and the concept was still amusing to him.
Then one day, Naruto decided to take Gaara out on another one of his super-exciting Konoha tours. It seemed more like a show for the townspeople: as Gaara walked by, people would actually stop and point and whisper to their friends about "how the ex-Kazekage turned gay".
After several hours of this, Naruto became irritated.
"Man, this is just dumb," Naruto groaned. "Wherever we go, people always point and stare!! That's it. I'm going home." Naruto spun around and arrogantly strode off towards home. Gaara quietly followed after him, then stopped. There, right on the roof above him, he/she was there, painting as usual. Only this time, he/she was facing Gaara. Their face was stained with paint, making it difficult for Gaara to see...
"Excuse me? Are you Gaara-sama, ex-Kazekage of the Suna Village of the Wind Country?"
Gaara turned around and immediately flinched. Fan girls. Four of them.
A fan girl crept forward, tears in her eyes. "Is...is it true that you've really turned...gay?" Gaara released the full, furious power of his aquamarine eyes on the girls.
"What about it?" he growled.
Hinata finished painting the ceiling and looked over her work. She smiled, then grimaced. Oh no, not another one of those darn headaches! Her lower back also ached something mean. Hinata sat on the roof for a while, hoping the throbs would go away. She looked around the town to distract herself from the pain.
'Well, I painted 50 houses this year. I should be proud of myself.'
Hinata looked down when she noticed a bright spot of red hair among all the common brunettes. She stiffened. That guy, with the red hair. The redhead. Wasn't he that person who kept looking at her, at around four o' clock nearly everyday?
'That person has good looks, and fan girls. So why is he watching me?'
Another large throb hit her head. Hinata groaned and climbed down the ladder. She was done for the day, and ready to crash at home.
"Yes, I'm gay," he snapped. "What about it? Sad? Well, I hope you are." He swiftly turned around and nearly bumped into someone.
"Augh--sorry--"
When he saw who it was, he froze. Her face fascinated Gaara. It was bony, almost sunken, with slightly full but pale lips. There were dark purple shadows under her eyes. Despite her sickly face, it had a perfect and small shape with huge, lavender eyes.
He/she stopped and looked up. He/she met Gaara's gaze. Immediately, He/she picked up the pace and resumed walking, watching the ground. Gaara stared after He/she, and the fan girls followed suit. They wrinkled their noses and scoffed as He/she walked past them.
"Ha, look Ayumi. Is that even a guy or girl?"
"I don't know! Let's check!"
One of the girls pushed He/she to the ground. He/she fell and dropped the can of brushes.
"Oh, looks like its a girl!" The fan girls squealed and tittered.
"What a hideous girl!" "Stay away from our Gaara!" "How dare you take his eyes from us?!"
He/she swiftly sat up and grabbed the brushes with alarming speed, stuffing them back into the can. Gaara scowled at the obnoxious girls and bent to help He/she pick up their last brush. He/she snatched it away before Gaara could hand it over, then pushed past him, back into the crowd, back into mystery. And Gaara could do nothing but stare.
I hope you enjoy the chapter! New story, hope you like it. Please review, good luck on finals, enjoy, have a good night! (: