"Look at this!" Came the cry of the boy. He was excited at his findings. A little shiny object…like a little tiny tear, he thought foggily. Smiling, he bent down to pick it up. He wanted to be the one who got to show his teammates…the one that Sensei would notice for finding a valuable Ninja tool, or so he thought.
A grubby hand came down and met the frozen tear. Skin met the faux glass…a smooth brush of flesh and crystal…wind and water colliding.
Naruto awoke outside of the Academy, Kakashi resting in a nearby tree, to the sound of screaming.
Rubbing his eyes tiredly, he looked up at Kakashi, "Hey, Sensei, shouldn't we be worried about that?"
A pause. Naruto waited patiently. He coughed, "Umm, Sensei, should we do something?" The scream echoed faintly in the now late afternoon breeze.
Another pause.
"Sensei!!" Naruto cried. Kakashi jumped and looked down, "Oh, sorry Naruto. Did you say something?"
A rock came flying Kakashi's way; he dodged easily and squinted his eyes; a grin.
"I heard a scream." Naruto felt that he didn't need to say anymore.
Kakashi, nodding, got down from the tree, "As did I. Want to see what it was?"
Getting up, brushing dirt off his backside, he asked, "Why didn't you wake me up? Did you not notice the little episode I had back there?"
Kakashi started walking back toward town, "You were asleep before you hit the ground. We will have to assume the scream was nothing; the Hokage has requested a meeting. She says it's important."
Tsunade paced back and forth in her office, waiting for her invited guests to come. Why is it that they never come when I want them to, and they always show up when I don't want them?
She rolled her brown eyes. They're all fifteen minutes late.
Thirteen trips she made around her office; the sun high in the sky, casting no shadows as it soared in the azure sky, was beginning to set, casting yet again more ruby hues to everything within its great line of vision.
Making her fourteenth trip 'round, a slight knocking came from the other side of her door. She stopped and straightened up. Her voice showed only half of the irritation she was feeling, "Come in."
Three ninja came shuffling in. They all three looked slightly alike, though were in every way, different.
One was tall; the only female of the trio. Her blonde hair was pulled back into four ponytails, one on each corner of her head. Her light lilac and red attire matched that of a ribbon that was tied around the base a massive fan she carried behind her back. Smirking, she stepped further into the room, to allow her companions more space.
One of the others in the room now was dressed entirely in black. Dark eyes were shrouded in purple face paint. The wrappings behind his back were concealing something, Tsunade presumed, his infamous puppets. He scratched his nose and sniffed, looking at the floor as if it was a piece of art.
The third one of the guests was shorter than the others. He seemed to be in charge of the other two, though he was probably the youngest. His reddish brown hair gleamed in the early evening sun as he walked slowly into the room. A large gourd was strapped to his back, and his eyes were like dead turquoise marbles; a stunning light blue but with no pupil. Deep ebony rigs encircled his eyes, and he seemed like the most interesting thing in the room was what was outside of it.
"Temari, Kankuro…" Tsunade paused while the two mentioned nodded, "Gaara." she finished. Gaara didn't nod, but mutely stared out of window.
Tsunade sat on the corner of her desk, "The others obviously are late. Later than you three were."
Kankuro and Temari exchanged glances, "Uh, yes, about that, Lady Hokage, you see—"
Tsunade held up her hand, "No matter. All is fine. You are here now."
About that time, Kakashi and Naruto shifted uncomfortably into the large room. Kakashi grinned weakly, though one most likely couldn't tell, "Fell asleep."
Tsunade didn't believe it, but decided that since they were here now, they might as well get on with it.
Clearing her throat, she said, "Okay. I've kindly asked that Sunagakure would allow me to borrow three of their Shinobi for a week or so. They, no doubt, have agreed." Looking up, she noticed Naruto's confusion.
Smiling, she said, "I think it's what best."
Sounding beside himself, he said, "but why? What have they done to deserve to stay here?"
Kakashi stepped back, "I have nothing to add."
Sighing, Tsunade said, "If none of you are going to speak up," she threw a glance at the Sand Ninja, "I guess I'm going to have to tell them why you're here."
Finally taking his eyes off the floor, Gaara mumbled, "Because of me."
All eyes seemed fixated on him.
"You?" Naruto asked.
Tsunade peered at Naruto, his eyes bright blue, "Yes. Him."
All was shrouded in an awkward silence. After a few quiet minutes, Tsunade spoke up.
"I know you want to get out of here swiftly, so we must discuss this now.
"Last night, Gaara was…" she stopped.
"You know what death and this have in common?" She asked, placing an object on her desk.
No one answered.
Gaara looked at the object in question, "I do."
Tsunade looked up, "Good. Now we are getting somewhere. Explain."
Temari and Kankuro looked very out of place, so they shifted their glances to the object on the desk. It was a small, glass-like tear, much like the one Gaara still had.
Gaara closed his eyes, regretting saying anything—he hated being put on the spot to explain something.
"Last night," he began, "was the beginning of something I feel will become horrible. I was out on the shore, doing nothing. And explosions came from the village, followed by horrible, unimaginably heart-shredding, tortured moans. They rang on and on forever. Until I thought I could stand it no longer, they began again. Two men, in the midst of this, came down to the shore, two cloaked men, black and red robes, one was short with a hat. One was tall and blonde...I think it was a man. They saw me wince from the Shukaku pressing me. And they left; disappeared. But the screams didn't. I waded out in the water…and this washed up."
Slowly, he placed an almost exact replica of the tear that was already there on the desk down beside it.
Kankuro spoke up, for the first time, "And you didn't mention it why?"
Gaara looked over at his brother, "It didn't concern you."
Tsunade coughed, "So…y-you found this, in the ocean."
Gaara looked up at her; she flinched, "Yes."
Nodding she held up her tear, "This one was found clutched in the hands of a dead boy this afternoon."
Kakashi and Naruto looked at each other, Naruto whispering, "Ha! I told you we should've been more concerned."
Kakashi rolled his eyes, "Well, he's dead now." Speaking up so everyone could hear him, he said, "What are they? Are there more of them?"
Tsunade held up a hand, "First thing first. Gaara, these cloaked men, you said red and black robes?"
As he nodded, Naruto blurted, "The Akatsuki! I told you, Granny Tsunade! They were in the Sand Village!"
The three Shinobi glanced oddly at him.
Tsunade, chuckling said, "Thank you Naruto, for bringing up my number two thing to discuss."
Looking out the window, she said, "Naruto has had these dreams in which something happens later on. At least I think. They also seem to cause him pain. The first dream was last night." She turned pointedly to Gaara.
Sighing, he said, before she could ask, "And you think this thing" he gestured to the tear, "and his nightmares are related, right?"
Kakashi spoke up, "I don't."
Tsunade, whose mouth had opened in response, closed. She turned to him, her brown eyes burning with the question she couldn't make her mouth form.
Taking the floor, Kakashi stepped forward, "I thought Naruto was having odd dreams because today was the one year anniversary of his and Sasuke's battle. Seeing as it isn't, this tear-thing makes me wonder…
"Naruto told me that he had dreamed the Akatsuki were going to attack Sunagakure, and then come for our village. It involved lots of screaming and fire. But nothing about these tears, right?"
Naruto shook his head no.
Gaara spoke up, "So I got called here why?"
Tsunade found her voice again, "You said you heard voices?"
Gaara turned his head, "Yes. But I never said I could understand them."
"Do you hear them even without holding this tear?"
He said nothing but nodded once.
Naruto finally asked a question. Tsunade couldn't help but see how much of his father was showing through as he asked this, "But that boy…he died touching the tear. And Gaara didn't."
Tsunade tilted her head, "True."
Gaara looked at his tear, now back in his hand, "This one, if you could call it this, sort of speaks to me. I don't know how to explain, but…you could have a hundred of these…and I would know that this one was mine. Just something about it." It gleamed in his hand as he turned it gently between his fingers. It seemed to know he was talking about it. The red sunlight was shining against it, and it looked like a small drop of blood.
Closing his hand around it, he said quietly, "I think I'd die of I tried touching that one."
The little glassy tear shaped item gleamed innocently on the desk. Who knew something so small and beautiful could kill with just one brush of the skin?
Kakashi, without moving, said, "So the tear chooses its owner?"
Naruto piped up again, "So how'd you get the tear back up here without you dying?"
Tsunade chuckled darkly,"You silly child," she held up her hands; they were covered with several layers of gloves.
"Oh…"
"So who does the tear pick?" Kankuro asked mysteriously. Naruto thought he was trying to lighten the mood, but with Kankuro, you couldn't be sure.
Naruto stepped forward and got eye level to it. It shimmered in the setting sun. But it didn't' glow red…it radiated electric blue—just for a second.
Naruto reached forward and clasped the tiny tear in his hand. His head pounded severely; overflowing with a bright searing pain, and the screams. He was sure his head had exploded and everyone could hear these agonized wails of a thousand tortured, suffering souls…but no one could.
He didn't know his knees had hit the floor, he didn't know he screamed in pain, he didn't know he dropped the tear until the screams quieted long enough for his brain to clear. His ears were still ringing, the edges of his vision blurred. He saw the tear, laying not but an inch away from him…on the floor. Panting and gasping, he pushed himself up to a sitting position. No one dared say anything.
"I-I'm" Naruto puffed, "not dead."
He leaned forward and the screeches grinded in his mind once more. Stopping mid-reach, he waited until they subdued. Leaning forward once more, ignoring the heartbreaking shouts, he quickly grabbed the tear, bracing for a Hellish moan-fest.
The silence stung his ears more than he thought it would. Looking up at the eyes waiting for something to happen, he held the little tear in his hand and whispered, "I think it was scared of me."
And none of them could understand what he meant.
"Scared?" Gaara asked.
Naruto stood up, "I bet the tear was a little shocked because of the Fox. I bet it didn't know that that's the side I used more when reaching for it the first time, and it had expected the more Naruto side of me to grab it—like I did the second time.
He forgot that only Kakashi and Tsunade knew he had the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside of him.
"But the tear I found wasn't scared of me…"Gaara said smoothly.
Kakashi looked over at him, "if I may, did anyone else hear these screams?"
Temari and Kankuro mutely shook their heads. Gaara looked at them, and denied, "But I heard the screams before I found the tear."
Kakashi sighed, "Naruto did wake up to screaming…that boy who grabbed the tear. I wonder if that counts."
Temari, finally, said something, "Here's how I see it.
"Gaara and the Shukaku have been at a distance for so long, it almost disappeared completely. More of Gaara was in control, per say, when he found the tear…or…"
"Or?..." Tsunade pressed.
"Did the tear wash up to you, or did you look down and see it come up?
Gaara blinked, "I never looked down at my feet, so it could've been there the entire time. Why?"
Temari nodded, "I've got it. It must've touched Gaara when it first washed up; he heard the screams. It washed back out and back in, which explains the screams fading and growing…then he picked it up, so he and the tear were already used to each other."
Tsunade nodded, "Possibly. Either way…here is my mission for all five of you."
They all rolled their eyes.
She sighed, "Gaara, Naruto, take your tear and study it. See how it affects your attitude and fighting style. See if it does anything odd to you or to things around you. Or makes you notice things differently…..anything odd, write it down immediately. And see if any other tears show up."
"And us?" Kankuro asked meekly.
Tsunade yawned, "Find out anything you can about the Akatsuki."
A wave of her hand signaled that they could leave, and leave they did. They all had sleep awaiting them, even Gaara, who didn't take lightly to sleep, looked forward to his usual ten minutes' worth.
As Kakashi, in the lead, opened the door, Tsunade's voice sounded loudly from her desk, "Oh and one more thing, for all of you…
"Don't die."
Kankuro mumbled to Temari as they headed down the hall, "How's that for a parting gift?...I mean, what ever happened to 'good night?'