Friends and Further
by thatreevesgirl/Lemon Drops
Drabble 2: The Rain

Just because it was the desert didn't mean rain never came, only that it was a rare and celebrated event. It was precious to the village hidden in the sand, and something which usually went hand in hand with impromptu festivities. As Naruto wandered the streets of Suna, taking careful note of the hundreds of residents dancing and celebrating outside, their clothes drenched by the rather heavy desert downpour, he realized that in Leaf everyone just took the rain for granted, even cursed it every now and then instead of appreciating the gift.

The blond shinobi, golden strands wetted and matted to his forehead, took to the rooftops of the ally nation, hoping to make it to his destination faster. Naruto swore when he reached the Kazekage's office (which several guards had informed him was where Gaara was holed up for the evening, too much work to do anything but play catch-up on his paperwork) he would drag said Kazekage out and make him enjoy the rain, just like his people did. This was probably why Naruto was nearly in shock when Gaara's balcony came into view.

Gaara was already out in the rain, not doing anything extraordinarily un-Gaara-like, but the Suna leader did have his head raised to the heavens, hands extended high in the air with palms upturned, grinning madly at the grieving, desert sky. Naruto chuckled a bit as he saw Gaara even stick out his tongue to catch the rogue drops of rain in his mouth. This was at the very least good blackmail ammunition, stuff he could use to tease Gaara about in the years to come, whenever one of them visited the other.

One final leap and quicker than the flash of lightning which crashed hard in the distance, thunder rolling across the sloping hills of wet sand, Naruto was perched beside Gaara on the balcony, tediously positioned on one of the railings as he smiled at his friend. "You look like you are enjoying yourself," Naruto told him.

Gaara wasn't spooked at all by the foreign ninja, he'd sensed Naruto for some time, so the Kazekage just kept his arms outstretched, his mouth open, the grin wide, and let his body drink up the precious water his people had been blessed with. After a few seconds Gaara cocked his head and nodded to Naruto, "I am," was the only thing he said in response.

It was rather humorous to see the leader of an ally nation preoccupy himself with something as innocent as playing in the rain, but Gaara was doing just that. Naruto hopped off the ledge of the balcony rail and in an instant was mimicking every movement of his friend, hands high in the air, tongue hanging out of his mouth as a raincatcher, letting the drops wash away every problem which plagued him. After a few moments, Naruto, being the playful person he was, started spinning in circles, becoming so dizzy (which was an awful lot of whirling about for a ninja to get dizzy) that he crashed into Gaara and they crumpled to the ground, laughing all the way down.

Naruto watched as Gaara chuckled and sprawled on the balcony floor, shielding his eyes with one hand as the rain picked up force and started pelting them quite hard. "It's nice to see you laugh," Naruto told Gaara, as he too laid down to enjoy the replenishing water which belted them in sheets.

"It'll all be gone tomorrow, soaked up by the ground, or evaporated into the air, it never stays," Gaara replied in a more somber tone. "The rain gives us permission, at least for whatever small amount of time it stays, to live fully and appreciate what we've been given. It reminds us what is precious."

The torrents of water which had been falling started to trickle, and Naruto wished for a moment that it would stay. The leaf-nin could already tell that the storm was lifting, the rain was dissipating, and knowing how free the people of sand were with it, he desperately wanted it to linger. "So it reminds you of what is precious?" Naruto asked quietly, holding out his hands and trying to catch what was left of the mere drizzle now falling on the desert.

Gaara responded by nodding, sitting up and already returning the more stoic and quiet version of himself. Naruto watched as Gaara ran his fingers through his wet locks, the deep, red tresses dripping as Gaara tried to ring the water out of the strands. "I think you'll need a towel for that," Naruto told him, chuckling as Gaara's hair was quickly re-matted to his forehead by the light trickle of rain. "A big towel, cause man-oh-man are you…"

"It reminds me of you."

Naruto was a little shocked by that. First, Gaara had rudely interrupted him (something Gaara never did), and second, what his friend was implying made Naruto want to smile, or hug him, or something, the shinobi really wasn't sure. Naruto had never been good at math, but he got this concept. If the rain reminds you of what is precious, and the rain reminds Gaara of Naruto, then Naruto was precious to Gaara. It was nice being told that, and Naruto whispered back as he watched the last of the rain trickle down from the clouds above, "You're precious to me too, Gaara."