It hit Naruto hard when he picked up his next mission from the Hokage the following week.

He glanced up from the blank paper to give a questioning look to Tsunade.

"Sand?"

Tsunade gave a sigh and rolled her eyes, as if Naruto should know already.

"Well, the someone within the council started a rumor that you were fixating..."

"Fixating?" He looked back to the assignment, "On what?"

"Lately the majority of your missions have been to Sound... Stakeouts, infiltrations, you know, the like."

"So?" Naruto think he knew what she was hinting at, "You think that I have been intentionally manipulating the system so that I could get those missions?"

"That's what they think." She said tersely.

"And you realize that you have been the one giving me all the missions in Sound, right you old broad?"

"Don't get snippy." She sounded indifferent, "I know that. It was careless of me to focus you on those missions. The only reason I even assign you to those is because how productive you seem to be."

Naruto honestly didn't care. He was done with this. So what if the council thought he still had emotional difficulties with Sasuke. That was there problem not his.

"Whatever. I'll go pack."

She watched as he turned and exited her office, slamming the door behind him.

Naruto re-read the mission as he walked through the poorly lit halls of the building. It was simple. The task was way under the skill that was usually required of anbu. It was actually odd how easy this mission would be.

The paper said that he was to report to Sand within three days. When there he was supposed to aid the strategists in creating a spy network, infiltration system within Sound. It was ridiculous, he was indirectly doing the same job he always did.

"Sneaky bitch." he murmured as he pocketed the slip.

Naruto figured that it would take about two days to actually get to the border and another half day to get to the city. Naruto fumed to himself about the trip, he would have to be going pretty damn quick to even make that kind of time. Three days my ass.

If he left that night it might be doable, so Naruto quickly packed toiletries and clothing into a small pack. He didn't want to travel in his uniform, he put it in his bag as well.

He pulled on a gray t-shirt and some shorts, put on his shoes, he left the apartment hoping, but not really caring that he hadn't forgotten anything. Whatever he needed he could buy in Sand.

As he left the city he briefly spoke with Shikamaru who was guarding the gate.

"Sound again?"

"No, actually."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and leaned against a wall. "Really?"

"Yeah, weird right?"

"Wanna trade?"

"Nah, guarding the gate is fucking boring."

"You're tellin' me." He sighed and looked at the clouds, "have fun man."

Naruto began to plod away, "You know it." He waved without looking back.

As soon as he hit the forest Naruto began running. He ran hard, feet barely making any sound as they kicked up dust on the trail. After six or seven miles he was gasping for air. At this point he took out his water, drank a few gulps, sat down and hunched his shoulders.

He vomited.

Naruto sat gasping for a moment after and wiped his mouth and took another swig. He wretched up the last of his meals over the next two minutes. When he was done, the blonde stood up and let the afternoon sun hit his clammy, wet face.

He wasn't sick from the run. Usually he could run ten miles without stopping, and without ever beings sick. Something else was bothering him.

He began walking again.

"Walk it off..." He said motivationally to himself.

He hadn't been to Sand in forever. He wasn't sure if he was anxious or not. He did know one thing. He had to try to avoid Gaara.

He needed to.

Gaara had not seen this hopeless pathetic Naruto. All Gaara had ever seen was the joyful intact fox boy, and Naruto knew he could not keep up a facade the entire time he was there just because the Kazekage hadn't known what Naruto had become.

No, that was absurd. Naruto wasn't going to avoid Gaara because he didn't have a pair.

I won't let this bother me, he thought. Who cares? What'll it matter to Gaara if this is how I am? He's probably just like Sasuke... He'll rip me apart.

And I can't let that happen again.

Naruto mulled all this over in his head for hours, sometimes running or walking, but taking no notice of anything, trying to find some solution to the problem that made him think in repetitive circles.

Soon it was dark and there wasn't much light to travel by. This made no difference to Naruto. He figured he wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, so he climbed a tree and began passing miles that way.

Occasionally some animal would make a noise that would startle him, but he just kept going, exhaustion setting in.

Naruto tripped.

His weight flung him into a branch, knocking the wind out of himself. He didn't have time to recover, he was already falling the twenty feet to the forest floor. More and more branches stabbed at him, ripping his clothes and tearing him up. At least they broke the fall.

Naruto landed with a reverberating 'thud'. He had fallen on his back, so it had whipped his head back then forward; pulling the muscles in his neck and shoulders.

Groan. He tried to catch his breath, he was hyperventilating. Rolling over on the ground of needles, leaves, and pinecones, he curled up and coughed.

"Heal that, Fox..." He said scornfully, seeing that his leg was twisted and bleeding profusely.

The young man passed out from lack of sleep.