Shinycry- hi guys! Long time no see, which is my bad. I just wanted to say thank you to all those who reviewed and the readers. Here's chapter 4!
Disclaimer- shinycry doesn't own Naruto.
Ch. 4
Iruka, Gaara who's holding Iruka's hand and Sakura walk down the market. They look at all the fresh fruits and vegetables, buying some here and there. As they walk, Iruka catches two ladies behind a stand, staring at Gaara with disgust in their eyes. So when they start talking, Iruka expands his hearing to hear what they were saying.
"Look, I told you the red sand demon was in our village."
"I can't believe it's here."
"Yup, and it can't fool us by changing into a small child. We won't buy it."
"I feel sorry for Iruka-sensei for having to put up it."
Immediately Iruka turns his attention to Gaara to see if he heard them or notice their nasty stares. He didn't want Gaara to feel unwanted or any negative feelings. To his utter relief, Gaara is listening to Sakura while looking at something with a great interest. Looking up to see what it is, it almost makes Iruka chuckle. In fact, he does chuckle softly.
Smiling down, Iruka moves his hand which held Gaara's little one, towards Sakura. "Sakura, can you show Ga-chan toy store over there at the end of the market? I'll be there shortly."
Sakura's a little taken back at the request but knows better then to question her former sensei, who she trusts without a doubt. Nodding her head, Sakura grabs Gaara's little hand and cheerfully said, "Come on Gaara, let's go look at what toys they have!"
At first Gaara looks really hesitant to leave his mother's side but once he sees the reassuring smile his mother is giving him, he nods his head slowly. "Don't be long, okay mommy?"
With a smile and a soft caress on red hair, Iruka replies, "Of course not Ga-chan, be good and listen to Sakura. I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?" Once they leave towards the toy shop, Iruka turns around and walks towards the two voices that continue to talk about Gaara. As he gets closer to them, the feeling he has in his stomach from hearing their bad talk about Gaara keeps on intensifying to the point where he just wants to tell off the old hags.
"And I heard that it's only here because the people in the Hidden Sand Village didn't want it there."
"Then what makes them think we want it here?" one of the ladies whispered harshly to the other.
That's the last straw, "Excuse me? But for your information, Ga-chan is not an it."
"You gave it a nickname?" one of the ladies says in total disbelief.
"If not an it, then what else?" questions the other, studying how Iruka left Gaara with Sakura.
"A poor boy that fate was cruel to upon birth and even now, still continuing to be cruel by having ignorant people, like you, talk about him as if he's a monster."
"It is a monster! And you left it with Sakura! How could you?"
"He's a human who has feelings like the rest of us do. And Sakura will be fine because Ga-chan won't do anything to her."
"No, it isn't. It doesn't know how to feel like us."
"I'm sure he would be deeply hurt and sadden by your ignorant talk."
"Why are you defending it, Iruka?"
Iruka gives them a disgusted look, just like the one he caught them giving Gaara, "I'm not defending it," the two ladies smile thinking they got through to him, "I'm just defending Ga-chan. Tell me something, has Ga-chan ever done anything, anything at all to either one of you. And be honest with yourselves."
Iruka's not surprise when the two ladies for once don't have anything to say back to him. "Next time you start talking about someone, try to think of all the things that person has done to you personally. And if you can't think of anything, then, there's really nothing to talk about" with that, Iruka goes off to go join Gaara and Sakura.
One of the ladies behind the stand looks at the other in surprise, "If I didn't know any better, I'll say he sounded like he was defending his own child or something."
At the toy store with Sakura and Gaara
When they had first walked in, Gaara had dragged Sakura towards the stuff animal area, having them look at all the different stuff animals the store had to offer.
While looking, Sakura spotted a pink rabbit and reached out to get it. "What do you think Gaara, do you like it?"
All Sakura gets from Gaara is a sour expression. "You don't like pink, huh? Well then, maybe something blue?" Gaara immediately nods his head. He doesn't know what 'blue' looks like but he's sure it's better than this 'pink' color.
So they went back to searching, Sakura looking at the top shelves while Gaara sits on the floor looking at the bottom shelf. He moves the stuff animals around trying to find the perfect one. It's not until Sakura stretches a little to reach a certain stuff animal at the very top of the toy shelf. "How cute!" she squeaks and brings it down.
Gaara looks up to see what Sakura thinks is 'cute'. When his eyes meet the stuff animal in Sakura hands, he right away gets off the floor and tries his best to reach for it. Sakura lowers her hands for Gaara to grab the stuff animal and chuckles. "So this is the winner, huh?" She asks already knowing the answer if Gaara hugging it tightly to his chest is any indication.
"Oh, can I see the winner?" a voice from behind them asks, surprising both Gaara and Sakura. Turning around, Gaara runs up to his mother. Iruka naturally bends down and places the grocery bags on the floor so when Gaara runs into his arms, he can hug him as he lifts him up.
"Mommy, mommy look!" He looks at what Gaara has chosen and blinks in surprise. Sakura walks up to them with a playful smile, "It seems like Gaara has a thing for dolphins, ne Iruka-sensei?"
Iruka can only laugh, "It sure seems that way. Come on, let's go pay for this and meet up with the guys. They're probably waiting for us." Iruka places Gaara down on the floor and grab one of his hands while his other hand grabs some of the grocery bags seeing as how Sakura already grabbed a few herself.
"Well Sasuke and Naruto are probably there already. I don't know about Kakashi-sensei though. It's a shame we didn't get a chance to go shopping for Gaara."
"I know but I don't want the boys waiting for us too long. It's already been a little over an hour. We could always go shopping tomorrow. Thank you." Iruka says as he pays for the stuff dolphin and hands it over to Gaara's waiting hand. "Of course, you know Sakura we'll probably have to take Kakashi with us."
"It's no problem, he can carry the bags!" once Sakura says that both her and Iruka laugh. They both can picture Kakashi reading his 'book' in one hand while carrying bags in the other.
They continue to talk until they spot Naruto sitting down next to a standing Sasuke. They seem to be arguing about something which doesn't come as a surprise for Iruka and Sakura.
"What if Iruka-sensei doesn't have ramen at his place! I'm just making sure by being on the safe side." Naruto glares at Sasuke who glares right back. "By bringing a whole backpack of it? You really are an idiot."
Not wanting them to get into a fight, Iruka asks "Could one of you please help me with these?"
Before Sasuke or Naruto can move to go help Iruka, someone appears from behind and grabs all the bags in Iruka's hand in one hand. "Yo, sorry for being late. I got caught up in which volumes I should take with me."
Normally Naruto and Sakura would be screaming 'liar!' to their sensei but they felt their sensei wasn't lying this time. Although they didn't know if it was a good thing considering what the truth was. So they settled with glaring at him and his bag.
"Kakashi, please don't tell me your bag is half full with your, um, books?" questions Iruka.
"Nope." Kakashi's students look surprise while Iruka signs in relief. Too bad it was short lived, "It's three fourths full!" Four sets of heads drop, they should have known better. They really should have.
"See what we have to put up with, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto whines into his hands.
TBC
1. I hope you guys are reading this part because I'm going to explain about Gaara age. I had put two times saying his 3 years old when I answered my reviews. And I know: what? he's 3 and Iruka carrying him? But if you think about, it makes sense. Iruka first carried, actually more like hugging if anything, Gaara because he wanted Gaara to feel warm and safe. But then Gaara had fallen asleep on him, so of course Iruka still going to carry him around. Once Gaara woke up, Iruka still continued to carry him because he figured Gaara still might be tired or half asleep. But after a while, he placed Gaara on the ground and is holding his hand in his.
Shinycry- Thank you for reading! Please review and tell what you think. If I have at least one review saying for me to continue, then I well. Although it feels nice when there's quite a few reviews because it makes me feel I don't totally suck. Remember suggestions are welcome. Or if you're curious about something in my story, please feel free to ask about it. Thank you