Disclaimer: No I do not own Naruto. I think it's pretty obvious that I don't.

FemNaru. Naruto/Gaara with a tiny bit of one-sided Kakashi/Naruto if you squint. Also there is a screwed up timeline. Live with it.


She ran as fast as she could. She gritted her teeth in agony. She couldn't keep up! The others were leaving her in the dust. With pure will power she started to channel more wind chakra into her legs.

She ran back into formation and panted heavily. This was taking a lot out of her… No! She wouldn't give up! This was her first proper mission. If she gave up… Then it was all for nothing!

Her pants turned to choking gasps as she struggled to breathe. Shit! She was falling behind again.

In her desperation, she forgot the first and most important lesson which had been taught to her.

You never channel to much Wind Chakra to your legs.

She screamed as she felt the muscles in her legs rip and fell to the floor.


Stay with Me.

A GaaNaru one-shot.


Yugito groaned as she woke up. Opening her eyes, she stared up at the white ceiling lit. Glancing around the room, she noticed the IV drip attached to her arm and the annoying beep of the machine.

'Definitely a hospital.'

"Ah, Yugito. Welcome back."

"Raikage-sama!"

The Yondaime Raikage winced. "Honestly, Yugito. I'm your cousin! There's no need to talk to me like that."

"Sorry A-niisan."

Yugito blinked a couple of times and thought back to her fight with the two Akatsuki members, Hidan and Kakuzu. All she remembered about the end of the battle was that someone saved her.

"A-niisan… What happened?"

A grinned at her. "You have never been so lucky, Yugito. One of Suna's Runners saved your life."

Yugito's eyes widened in recognition. "A Runner?"

"Yeah, that's me."

The two Kumo ninja snapped their heads towards the doorway and saw the girl who had been the subject of their conversation standing in the doorway.

Naruto grinned at them and reached for one of the scrolls on her belt. Pulling it off, she read the label and chucked it towards the Raikage. A reached up and snagged it out of the air.

"What's this?"

Naruto shrugged and leant on the doorpost. "The whole reason I was in Kumo. The Kazekage wanted this message delivered."

Yugito stared up at Naruto. "You're really a Runner?"

The blonde blinked and turned her side towards Yugito. She tapped her left hand on her right arm. It took Yugito a moment to get what she was pointing at because of her hazy vision.

On Naruto's right arm was a dark red armband. On the band was a white oval and embroidered in black was a Kamaitachi, the fastest animal in Wind Country. Under the Kamaitachi were three black stars.

"This is the official Runner's band," drawled Naruto, "Three stars mean three years and when you get that far… You become a lieutenant."

Yugito gaped at the young woman stood next to her. The girl was easily ten years younger than her and was a lieutenant of the Runners!

"Naruto-sempai!"

The blue-eyes teenager turned at the cry of her name and watched as two Suna chuunin skidded to a halt next to her. They both had orange armbands on their arms and no stars were present.

"Newbie 1, Newbie 2…"

Newbie 1 opened his mouth in protest. "Naruto-sempai. We have names! My name is-"

"I couldn't care less," interrupted Naruto lazily, "What do you two want?"

Newbie 2 tugged on her long, brown ponytail. "We've finished our mission, sempai!"

"Oh… Good," she muttered, "We can go then."

The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki glanced over her shoulder. "Later, Raikage-dono, Yugito-san."

Naruto reached forward and shoved the two awestruck Newbie Runners out of the door.


The three were running in a triangular formation. Naruto raced at the front with the two low ranked Runners running behind her.

"Naruto-sempai," called Newbie 2 over the roar of the wind, "Where is the rendezvous point?"

"It's just a few kilometre ahead," replied the blonde, whose long ponytail waved behind her, "We'll be there in a minute or so."

They neared the point at an incredible speed and Naruto held up her right hand to signal that she was slowing down. The other two copied her as she skidded to a halt under a huge tree.

Two Suna chuunin jogged out from under the tree where they had been waiting in the shade. Both of them had orange armbands with a single star on.

Both shinobi stopped in front of her and saluted.

"We're ready to join formation, sempai!" said the taller shinobi who was standing on her left.

"Right," she said in her typical drawl, "Typical 'V'-formation."

All four of the lower ranked ninja called out "Hai!" and changed their positions so they stood in a backwards 'V' with Naruto at the point.

"Ready?" she asked and without waiting for an answer she lifted her hand and dropped it and the group of five shot out of the shade like bullets tearing through the wind.

"Naruto-sempai," called the shorter of the one stars, "What is the estimated arrival time?"

Naruto glanced up at the sun that was falling just behind them. That made it... 1300 hours. She did some quick calculations in her head.

"Che… Makoto-san," she called back, "We should arrive early tomorrow morning at around 0500 hours. We'll stop to set up camp in several hours."

Makoto nodded, although the Lieutenant couldn't see it, and returned to focusing wind chakra to his legs. It wouldn't be good if any of them fell behind. Naruto-sempai was one of the fastest Runners in the whole system!

The blonde sighed as she looked up at the sun.

'Damn,' she thought, 'and I really wanted to be with Gaara today…'

She shook her head and picked up the pace a little. The faster they went, the faster they'd get home after all.


"Mission success, Kazekage-sama!" called the rookies as they stood grinning madly in front of the red-head. The Kazekage sighed and muttered something under his breath.

"Congrats," he drawled, "Hand in your reports later today."

One of the Newbies grinned and leaned over to the other.

"Now we know why Naruto-sempai always drawls."

"Why yes!" cried a voice right behind them, "Gaara and I do drawl a lot, don't we?"

The rookies whirled around with a look of pure horror etched upon their faces.

"N-N-Naruto-sempai! We, uh, we didn't mean anything!"

The blonde stared at them blankly. "Of course you didn't."

She leaned forward and whispered threateningly, "Get back to base now. Later on I think we'll have a little… talk… about my drawl."

The fear the young Runners felt could not grow anymore.

"Go."

They vanished in a gust of wind.

"Was that really necessary?" asked Gaara with a smirk.

"Uh huh," Naruto grinned and leapt into Gaara's arms. The red head swept her up into a passionate kiss that would have continued for a long time had someone not cleared their throat in the doorway.

If looks could kill the poor person would have been long gone from the glares he received from the Kazekage and the Lieutenant.

"K-K-Kazekage-sama," choked out the Chuunin, "The C-council is gathered n-now…"

Gaara sighed and muttered angrily under his breath. Naruto shrugged and slipped out from Gaara's embrace.

"I got to get back to HQ anyway," she said, "I'll see you later, Gaara."

A huge blast of air shot through the room and Naruto shot out of the window.

"I am so glad that I use paper-weights," murmured Gaara.


End of Chapter 3,

Nothing to say here… I just decided to continue it. Just a filler basically which is leading up to the first real arc…

Jounin Exams!


Omake

Over at the Runners Headquarters, the two rookies were playing some Shogi. Newbie 1 was currently losing to Rookie 2.

Ding, ding!

A bell chimed at the entrance.

"Oi, Newbies," called Lieutenant Naruto, "Get that door will you? I'm kind of busy in here."

Newbie 1 sighed as he stood up. Pretending to be irritated at having to leave his game, although secretly he was so relieved as he could not stand losing to Newbie 2, he went and opened the door.

Standing on the other side were the Sabaku Siblings.

"Can we see Naruto?" asked Temari.

"S-sure," stammered out Newbie 2, "C-come with us, please!"

The two rookies strode down the corridor desperately trying not to run.

As soon as they reached the kitchen door, they could handle it no longer.

Newbie 1 flung the door open and together the rookies bellowed a single name. "NARUTO-SEMPAI!"

The blonde launched the cup she had been cradling into the air in shock and hot liquid landed all over her and the kitchen.

Both the rookies froze as they watched hot chocolate drip from their Lieutenants hair.

Naruto slowly looked up and they jolted at the sight of the blood red eyes of Kyuubi.

"You have three seconds to start running."

They never ran as fast in their lives.