A/N: If any one finds any mistakes, let me know(politely).

Beta: ChatGPT. Blame the AI chat bot for any grammatical mishaps.

Important: The universe from where Sora (Gaara) has travelled from will be regarded as Universe 2 from this point forward and our story is taking place in universe 1.

1.13 Understanding symphony

Universe 2:

Naruto opened her eyes and the dark ceiling met her gaze. What time would it be? Two A.M or perhaps 3 A.M? She wasn't concerned about that or anything particular these days.

It had been six months since Gaara had disappeared and the whole shinobi world was in an uproar trying to find him. Specially the Sand, they almost ended up announcing a war before they stopped and reconsidered. Temari was the one who stopped the Sand Village from attacking Leaf on account of kidnapping their Kazekage. However, the relationship between the two allied villages was looking grim. Both the great villages were walking on thin ice around each other.

Since Gaara's sudden disappearance, all the nations were trying to find even a slight hint of his presence, but it was like he had never existed. It was like the man named Gaara was just a tricky mass illusion.

Some things had changed since his disappearance. Naruto was named the sixth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village. It was mostly a desperate political move to prevent the Sand Village from attacking Leaf and creating another ninja war. The Sand Village was furious since Naruto was the last person who saw Gaara before his chakra signature vanished, but despite their fury, attacking a Kage wasn't something anyone wanted to do.

Although Naruto was indeed the Hokage, her time was spent trying to find a way to reach Gaara.

What happened to him? Was he kidnapped? Was he doing alright? These questions had no answer for her.

Naruto had been exhausting her chakra trying to find a way to reach Gaara using their three-pronged kunai, but to no avail. The Kunai had not responded ever since he vanished. Naruto was trying to modify the original seal to find a way to teleport to Gaara.

With a soft sigh, Naruto got up from her bed. She remembered working on a seal before she had fallen asleep. Most likely, Kurama must have knocked her out. The beast was the one keeping her alive since the headstrong girl had refused to rest until she found the missing Kage.

Naruto approached her desk and grabbed the three-pronged kunai and some brushes once again.

"Kid, at this rate, even my chakra will not be enough! You need to rest more," Kurama's voice was heard.

He had been a diligent partner in these past few months, trying to figure out what had happened to the Kazekage.

"I can't rest, my friend. I have to find him," Naruto answered tiredly, her voice cracking at the end.

She felt tears starting to fill her eyes.

NO! It wasn't time for tear now!

She quickly wiped her eyes away and looked back down at the kunai's seal once again. Her father was indeed a genius, a true mastermind of seals. The seal he made was simple yet extremely powerful. Without meaning to, she passed some chakra into the kunai, and she felt the familiar sensation of her chakra being sucked on quite vividly. For the past six months, even though the seal had been taking up her chakra, it had not been responding at all. However, this time, she felt a sudden pressure on her chakra pool, and the seal started to glow green as it sucked on more of her chakra at a tremendous rate.

Kurama was howling in the back of her mind to stop the seal, but before she could react, Naruto's vision started to blur, and her universe shifted.

Line break…

Back to our universe 1:

Naruto sat on top of the Second Hokage's head. The time of dusk was beautiful from the Hokage monument. The natural chakra surrounding the mountain was also amazing; she loved the feel of the slightly cold wind brushing against her skin and her loose hairs. She also liked how peaceful her village looked from this point. The birds were returning to their nests, and so were the people after a hard day of work. It was a serene view. However, Naruto's mid was not on the peaceful village scene, rather she was lost in the thoughts of a certain dark haired Uchiha. A slight change in the chakra alerted her of a presence near her.

"You are one difficult shinobi to track down, it seems like your sage training has done wonders for you, Naruto."

Naruto had sensed his presence long before Itachi had arrived. She hummed in response.

"Yes, it seems that way," she answered without bothering to turn her head. Naruto knew she was a coward; she had been avoiding Itachi for the past few days. In her defence, the feelings she was hoping to escape from seemed to have gotten deeper. Not wanting to burden Itachi with her one-sided crush on him, she had decided to wait it out. Although, how she needs to wait for this feelings to disappear for good is something to look forward to in future.

Itachi came and set down next to her, his slightly woody and smoky order filed her sensitive nose. A moment of silence passed between them. Usually, the silence between them were comfortable. Both the young shinobis had spent a lot of time just being around each other and not speaking. Yet, this time the air between them was creaking with some unanswered questions, some unspoken emotions.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" Itachi finally decided to commence with their much due conversation.

Naruto knew this question was coming. After days of pondering about what to do with her feelings, she had decided that her feelings were not worth losing her best friend.

"I am not, just been busy," she answered half-heartedly.

Naruto felt Itachi's burning gaze on the side of her face, and she dared not look at him.

"Busy enough to not look at me now?" his words were slow and almost on the verge of being menacing. Now, those who know Itachi would know that the shinobi was almost always calm, almost being the key word. He was never a loud-spoken person, but when he would get upset, his tone would go lower to another octave. Naruto knew him too well to not feel the cold chilling sweat running down her spine.

"Look at me," Itachi said after another moment of silence, his words almost a whisper just brushing like a feather on her ear. Only very few knew how deadly those words were coming from an Unicha and even less who lived through it. It was softly said, but Naruto knew that she needed to comply.

She finally turned her head and looked at him. Their eyes met, and Naruto found his red eyes looking into her blue ones. Itachi looked livid and distressed. Naruto hated to be the cause of his distress.

"Why?" he asked again. Naruto knew full well that Uchiha had not bought her 'I am busy' crap. He wouldn't in a thousand years.

Naruto was aware that life wasn't a fair ride. However, after a very long time, she wanted to complain about life again. They continued to look at one another for what felt like a long time, both not understanding the other's hearts.

"This is not fair," she uttered, frustration swirling up inside her chest. The hell with her feelings, she didn't ask for it in the first place. She wanted to be friends with him for the rest of their lives, but if Itachi laughed at her and her stupid feelings or rejected them, maybe, just maybe, she would be able to get her head back on track. Well, he was already in love with some girl, so this was bound to happen one way or another.

"Not fair? You avoid me for days and suddenly I am not fair?" Itachi asked her coldly. Since their childhood, Naruto and Itachi had never once fought among each other. However, it seemed that their unspoken truce was about to be broken.

"Did I say you were not fair,

Naruto growled out. Her temper flaring, she had never found Itachi so insufferable before. Why wouldn't he just shut up, not interrupt her and let her figure out how to tell him she liked him. Then she was safely get rejected by him and stopping having feelings for him for good! Damn it!

There should be a manual for this kind of situations, may be later I would write one and earn tons of money from it. She sarcastically thought.

"Then do explain what you mean," Itachi's voice wasn't low anymore, he was also breathing faster and his face was turning as red as his eyes.

Guess, she wasn't only one finding the situation bothersome.

"I..," Natuo took a deep breath trying to calm her racing heart, even in this heated moment Itachi looked too handsome to be true and he seem to have a bad effect on her heart.

His face sould be illegal!

"You?" Itachi countered. Somehow in their argumentative state they had left their seated positions and were standing up. Both facing each other, both were enraged with their own misunderstandings.

"Cat got your tongue now?" Itachi didn't give her time to response and started speaking. "We have a conversation to finish, the one we started when that iodic noble was trying to propose to you. But no! you first had to go to your training, I understand that, after that you had to help with constructions, I understand that too. What I don't get is you turning off your chakra signature whenever I try to get to you. You have me running around the whole village on your trail just to see you vanish," Itachi's voice was loud, his desperation evident, but at the end it dropped to just a whisper. "Why? Tell me why?" He was hurting so damn much, it felt like his heart was going to explode.

Can't she tell how much desperate he was for her attention and affection?

Naruto lowered her head. Everything he said was true, she had been trying to avoid him and that was painful for her as well.

"I didn't mean to 'Tachi," Naruto spoke, her voice shaking a little, her eyes started to sting as she tried to compose herself and control her tears.

Hear his old nickname from her Itachi's mood seem to improve a little.

"Tell me what is happening Naru, I am here, always here to listen to you," his voice cracked at the end. The hell! Only this girl had enough power to make him feel overwhelmed and she didn't even know the full extent of it.

The warm feeling that is followed by his presence resonated through Naruto's being and a sigh left her lips and she looked down at her feet not feeling brave enough to face his eyes any longer.

"I am not trying to avoid you 'Tachi, I have trying to avoid the feelings that I have developed towards you."

A long silence followed her declaration. Naruto was waiting for Itachi to laugh or to leave or do anything at all. But he didn't. Time seems to have frozen between them.

"What kind of feelings?" Itachi asked, almost daring to hope.

Naruto kept silent. Itachi reached out, cupped her left cheek, and lifted her face towards him. The warmth from his hands were familiar, comforting, and safe.

"The kind that will always make you think of me? I kind that will make your heart race just by looking at me smile? The kind that will make you worry about me? Or is it the kind that will make you want to see me happy all the time, which is it?"

Naruto for a moment wondered if this was how Itachi felt towards his unknown girl, but brushed the thought away quickly enough.

Itachi shifted himself closer and cupped her other cheek as well. "Tell me!" he demanded impatiently; his red eyes never stopped recording the moment. He was ready either to feel despair or eutopia, which ever it was, Itachi was ready to remember it for the rest of his life.

"All of it," Naruto answered unable to reject his demand, she felt tired and drained.

Let's just get it over with already, she thought.

Then Itachi smiled, the warmest, happiest smile Naruto had seen him in a while. Her eyes widened. He was beautiful.

"Good," he said, his happiness reflecting in his voice.

Good? Was he nuts? How was it any good? It was bad, extremely bad in fact.

Naruto forcibly removed his hands from her cheeks, took a few steps back and glared at him. Oh, he was indeed beautiful, a beautiful assbutt that is!

She started speaking with a grimace, "How is it any good? You have a girl you like and here I am.." she trailed off helplessly, unable to put words to her emotions any more.

Naruto was happy to see him happy, she wanted him to be the happiest in life, but a tiny part of her heart was throbbing in pain.

Itachi let out a small laugh and reached for her again. This time making sure to bring her as closer as he could physically. He joined their foreheads and Naruto let him. May as well enjoy the moment before it ends, she thought.

"Well, is it not good that the girl I like is you then?"

A/N: I will try to upload the next one after proof reading it via chatGPT again. If there are many grammatical mistakes, please inform me my lovely readers. The uploads will be much faster if the AI bot can help me with it. Thank you all!