Shinycry- hello there! Thank you for your reviews and those who just read! Here's Chapter 2 for you folks!
Disclaimer- Shinycry does not own Naruto
Chapter 2: "Well…"
"Naruto, exactly what did you do to make Gaara like this?" Iruka looks down at Naruto's blond hair. He gets the feeling he might be better off not knowing however he needs to know what happen. Just how did Gaara get like this?
Naruto nervously looks up at expecting eyes. Gulping, he replies sheepishly "Well, you see…."
Flashback
"Oh man, I don't even know why I bother waking up so early when I could be dreaming of Sakura and mine's wedding! Instead I have to wait here at the bridge with Sakura and Sasuke for our lazy ass sensei who's probably going to show up two hours late! And that's if we're lucky…" Naruto mumbles under his breath as he kicks a rock hard into the air which accidently hits someone right on the forehead.
"Ouch!" Naruto looks up to see who he hit. A few feet away from him, is an old geezer who's carrying something that looks twice his size and weight. Running over to him, Naruto offers a sheepish grin.
"Ah, I didn't mean to hit you with that rock old man! You okay?" Naruto stares at the older man who's rubbing a red spot that's forming on his forehead.
"Er, I'll live."
"You sure, you look pretty old to me."
"Why you little-"
"HEY! I don't want to fight you old man!"
"Why? You afraid you're going to lose to me" the old man balls his fist in front of him, ready for a fight.
'Is he serious?' Naruto thinks. "Don't make me laugh old man! It looks like you can barely lift that thing of yours."
"Oh, and you think you can? Well, then it's decided! You're going to carry my bag until we're at the front gate of the village. Then I'll take it from there."
Naruto, not being one to turn down a challenge, agrees, "I can carry it with no sweat, give it here! But I'm only going to carry it until we hit the front gate. I got places to go and people to meet."
The old man nods his head as he slips the bag off and gives it to Naruto to carry. They walk in silence down the dirt road towards the front gate. Only one thought runs through Naruto's mind during the whole trip, 'How the hell did this old geezer manage to carry this damn thing! It weighs a freaking ton!'
"Ah, we're here. You can give me back my bag now. As a thank you gift, I'll give you something" the old man smiles at him.
'Did he forget I hit him with a rock in the forehead? Oh well, I'm not going to remind him if he's going to give me something!' Naruto thinks excitingly as he returns the bag over to its owner. The said owner opens it up and starts looking for something inside. After a few minutes, where Naruto's telling the old geezer to hurry it up, the old man finds what he's looking for.
"Here it is! It's a scroll."
"Oh, what does it do?" Naruto's eyes grow big, looking at the scroll in front of him. 'Maybe it's something really powerful! So powerful that I can kick Sasuke's butt and make Sakura fall in love with me!' Naruto's thoughts are interrupted as the old man speaks up.
"Why don't you find out? Well, good luck young man" with that the old man's gone.
"Bye and thanks old man!" Naruto turns around and starts walking towards the bridge, all the while reading the scroll that was given to him.
End of Flashback
There's silence in room as several pair of eyes look at blond hair boy expectedly, waiting for him to continue. After a few more minutes of nothing, Iruka tries again "Naruto that still doesn't explain why Gaara is like this. Why don't you try explaining that to me?"
Naruto starts to tap his two index fingers against each other in a nervous gesture, looking everywhere but at his former sensei's face. He knows if he tells he's going to be in a lot of trouble. 'Plus Iruka-sensei is so scary when he's mad…' the fox-boy silently thinks.
Seeing her teammate in 'distress', she decides to 'help' him out. "Well Iruka-sensei, after the mission was over we decided to get some lunch. While we were walking down the road, we spotted Gaara sitting on a tree branch alone. Naruto, over here, started saying something about how he wanted to show off this new jutsu he learned. Not only that, Iruka-sensei, but to find out exactly what he learned in this new jutsu of his." Sakura takes a deep breath before continuing. "There was a poof of smoke and when it cleared up, Gaara was nowhere to be seen. All we got was a sound of a small child crying and Gaara's clothes on the tree branch. It was Kakashi who went up to investigate and found a small crying Gaara hiding under a pile of his clothing" Sakura gestures towards the sleeping Gaara. "And then to top it all off, the scroll burned up after Naruto finished performing it!" By now Inner Sakura was blowing flames out of her mouth.
Iruka was right, he was better off not knowing. Imagine if he didn't have to give Tsunade some papers, he could have been in his bed right now. "Naruto, what were you thinking? Doing a jutsu on Gaara, who was minding his own business? A jutsu you had no idea what it was capable of doing. Did you even stop to think the jutsu could have seriously injured him?"
Iruka tries his best to keep his voice down, not wanting to wake up the sleepy chibi in his arms. He's able to calm himself down by combing through Gaara's hair with his fingers, gently. The softness of Gaara's hair amazes and surprises him. But what surprise him more are the soft sniffles he hears coming right next to him. Looking down, he sees Naruto's eyes watering up. The sight makes his heart drop. He didn't mean to raise his voice at Naruto. He just wanted the younger boy to be aware of the consequence behind his action. Plus Iruka always hated when Naruto cried because tears simply don't go with his cheerful face.
Iruka gently maneuvers Gaara to his hip, allowing him to need only one arm to hold him. This gives him the opportunity to wipe away the tears that are now falling freely from Naruto's face. "Shh Naruto. It's okay, don't cry…"
"You're…but you're *sniff*…angry at me…*sniff* I'm sorry! You're right, I know what I did was really wrong…I should have *sniff* thought it out more" Naruto wipes his tears away with his sleeve. His eyes widen when he feels himself being drag into a warm hug. This makes him question whether or not if Iruka is still angry at him. When you're angry at someone, you don't go hugging them, right? After realizing that, he hugs Iruka the best he can without disturbing a sleepy small Gaara.
This makes Iruka smile. He knows when it comes to Naruto, it's always better to show him because actions speak louder than words.
A peaceful sleeping expression covers Gaara's chibi face, Naruto hold a bright smile with his eyes closed looking content, and the tenderly Iruka smiling lovely at the boys in his arms could only be summed up in one word: beautiful.
The other people in the room half expect pure white wings to sprout out of Iruka who so openly and willingly allow two demon possessed kids in and make people remember they're still just children. And not the beast everyone keeps on thinking they are.
Kakashi and Sasuke are having a hard time trying not to smile while the other two had no problem showing it whatsoever especially Sakura. She even squeaks out loud. As Tsunade continues to watch the scene in front of her, an idea pops into her head. A smile gracing upon her face as the she speaks "Iruka-sensei, I want to know if you have enough room at your place for them if not I can arrang-"
Iruka turns his head when he hears his name being called. Placing his chin on soft red hair, he answers the question before the Hokage can finish it. "No, that's okay. It's true we can't all fit comfortable in my apartment but I have a house that has more than enough room for everyone here…Gaara, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and me."
After seeing the obvious question in their eyes, Iruka speaks up again, "I felt really odd living in a big house all by myself so I moved into a small apartment."
"Um, Iruka-sensei…why didn't you sell the house?" Sakura polity asks. All she gets is a smile and Iruka lightly shaking his head for an answer. Sakura wants to ask what that means but feels like she should drop it. The rest of them know not to pry into things that are not their business and left it alone as well.
Tsunade decides to change the subject, "Very well then. I want you, Sasuke, and you, Kakashi, to pack some clothes because you two will be staying with Iruka until I say otherwise." Right off the bat both Naruto and Sakura shout, "What about me?" They both get a 'shh!' from Iruka who gestures towards the sleeping Gaara. Both Naruto and Sakura blush and look at the ground sheepishly.
"Honestly Naruto. You were going to pack your stuff anyway and go to Iruka's house no matter what I said. As for you Sakura, I won't place you in a house full of boys. That and your mother might have something to say about it. Anyway tomorrow I want you to come and pick up your mission, Kakashi. I'll make sure it's one where Naruto and Sasuke can both handle on their own without you being present. I, on the other hand, will be looking up this jutsu and see if I can reverse it. By any chance Naruto, did the old man say where he was heading? Or did he give you a name or anything?"
Naruto shakes his, "No, and I didn't ask. Sorry…" Iruka pats his head.
"Alright then, are there any more questions?" when she sees them shake their heads a 'no', she dismiss them with a, "I'm counting on you guys to do a good job." She knows they have questions but she at a lost as well. They're just going to have to all play it by ear for the time being.
Outside the building
As they walk outside, a thought occurs to Naruto making him stop walking all together. When Iruka notices Naruto's sudden stop, he asks "Is there something wrong?"
"Well, I just thought of something. Who's going to be Gaara's dad?"
TBC
Shinycry- sorry if the chapter seemed short, I'll try to work on that. Anyway, who's going to be chibi Gaara's father! Who? Who? Well, actually it's kind of obvious who it's going to be but oh well. Please feel free to suggest something to me and I'll see if I can work it in. Thanks you again KageOni1 for your suggestion which will start in the next chapter. Thank you readers and please review, as long as I get one review that says to continue then I'll be more then happy to obey.