Welcome to chapter five.

It's a bit strange how this chapter went. It was supposed to cover the entire time up until they went in pursuit after Gaara, but it very clearly does not. I'm really disappointed with this chapter too, cause it's pretty damn boring. Either way, I hope it serves its main purpose, which is bringing us up to the big pursuit. Please comment and vote and enjoy this. Oh, and the song is basically entirely unrelated to the actual story. Simply one of my favorite songs by Sum 41, from their album 'All Killer, No Filler', which does sort of relate to this chapter. You know, filler.

DISCLAIMER: Well, no... I don't own anything.
WARNINGS: Filler. Wallowing in self-pity. Also not edited.

Anything in bold is important or with emphasis.
This is what memories look like.
This is what thoughts or letters look like.
'This is what song lyrics look like.'

~SCARRED~

'Don't count on me,
to let you know when.
Don't count on me,
I'll do it again.
Don't count on me,
it's the point you're missing.
Don't count on me,
cause I'm not listening.'

~SCARRED~

"Hai! Bye!" I reply, and in the next moment Kakashi is pulling me along with him, straight to the office of Tsunade. I keep my eyes shut for the trip, only opening them when we stop moving.

We are in Tsunade's office. I immediately form two handsigns, a signal for Makoto to follow. He would understand. Moments later, with not only my teammates but also Sakura, Shizune and Tsunade watching Makoto makes his entrance, landing perfectly beside me. He glances around, eyeing everyone. I pat his head once and he sits, eyes turning to Tsunade.

"The Kazekage has been kidnapped," she says.

~SCARRED~

After a mission briefing and being given a total of five minutes to go to our homes to get our stuff and say goodbye to our families, I sprint to my home so fast my legs blur, the three boys behind me. I burst into the main house, running straight past my brothers to get to my room. They watch me as I pass them, instantly getting the message that I was being sent out on an emergency mission. They follow me up, asking me what happened. I answer with short, choppy sentences.

"Gaara got kidnapped by the Akatsuki. I am going with a squad to get him back. Leaving in three minutes." My pack is slung over my shoulder, all my pouches strapped in place and my trench coat on. I have Makoto's pack, too. "Gotta go. I love you."

"Good luck," Daichi says, smiling softly, "We love you too."

"If you see him..." Kazuo trails off. "Bye, imouto."

I nod. If I saw Masao. "Goodbye, anikis." Then I am disappearing, running at the same pace as before to the gates where we were meeting.

I'm the first there, aside from Tsunade-sama and Shizune-san. Makoto is sitting patiently by Shizune's feet, ears perking up at my appearance. I toss his pack to him and he catches it in midair, shimmying it down until it was securely attached. Seconds later the three boys appear, all with packs slung over their shoulder. I must have been moving considerably faster than them, seeing as how they have been staying with my brothers and I at our clan grounds, just in one of the side buildings instead. There wasn't enough room for them in the main building, unless they wanted to sleep in Masao's or my parents' rooms. Which they probably wouldn't want to, anyway. My stomach still turned whenever I looked at their doorways.

"Head immediately to Sunagakure. Send updates on the state of the mission when possible. A team of five will follow you, leaving tomorrow. Depart now," Tsunade-sama says. We nod, share a brief glance, and then off we go.

~SCARRED~

"So, Ninken-san," Naruto begins conversationally, "wanna introduce yourself?"

Makoto's eyes narrow. "Why can't you introduce yourself first, Jinchūriki-baka? Why me? You got something against ninken?"

Naruto pales marginally, a ridiculous sweatdrop expression crossing his face. "No, no, gomennasai! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage! Who are you?" He accents these words by furiously shaking his head, almost getting hit in the head with a branch due to his lack of attention to what was in front of him. Entirely unsurprising.

Makoto chuckles. "Just fuckin' with you, but okay. I'm Makoto, formerly of Mizu no Kuni, but I met Oujo just under two years ago and helped her out when she needed it. Been with her since."

"Oh, got any embarrassing stories to tell?" Kakashi-sensei asks. I glare at him from the corner of my eye.

"No. He doesn't," I reply bluntly, directing my gaze back to the front. We were running at a break-neck pace towards Suna, only a few hours into our journey. Naruto, though worried, also had an insatiable natural curiosity and some nervous energy to burn. In the form of talking and asking endless questions.

"Well, actually, there was this one time not so long ago..." he trails off slightly, a bit of laughter rumbling in his chest. He completely disregards the heavy glare I directed his way, having been used to it enough after knowing me long enough and then having an innate resiliency to glares. Like Naruto was with Sasuke.

"Oh, do tell us," Naruto grins, a foxlike quality to it, the grin only faltering upon my glare being directed at him. He lets the smile go after my look at him, preferring to look elsewhere. Like at Sasuke. Still not what was in front of him, a very unwise decision when traveling at such speeds through the branches of a thick forest. As a direct result of his inattention, he knocks his head against a branch just at his forehead level. Normally, I knew he could very well dodge the branch, as well as any others in his path. But he was otherwise mentally occupied, a good part of his thinking going towards Gaara and the other part to nearly anything but Gaara.

"It was three months ago. She was out on a B-rank mission, some easy stuff. She was completing the mission with a fellow ninja from Konoha, some other high-up chunin. They were heading back to Konoha and found themselves with extra money left over for their mission ration. Seeing as how the mission had been tiring and they were still technically able to use the money they checked into an inn. The woman at the front kept referring to them as a couple, making little jokes about how cute they were. Come next morning Kimi snapped and nearly killed the woman after several attempts to correct the mistake. It was pretty damn hilarious," Makoto recalls. I, for one, personally feel like bashing my brains in right about now. Especially because of the amused laughter coming from my teammates.

"It's not funny in any way," I insist, feeling my jaw twitch with repressed anger. Naruto and Kakashi both just laugh a little bit harder, Sasuke only chuckling lightly. Most likely out of a mixture of stoic Uchiha bitchiness and self-preservation. Either way, I was partially grateful for his ability to keep himself composed. The other part of me was angry with Naruto and Kakashi for laughing so hard, Makoto for telling the story.

After the laughter subsides, we fall into a silence. It's not particularly enjoyable. There is so much we could be talking about right now, so much bond mending we could be doing- but we weren't. We weren't communicating honestly, not saying what was on our minds.

I hate this. This silence, this inability to fill the gap that formed between us. No, no, not formed- enhanced. I had always felt a minor gap between us, like I was left out of the 'team' in the smallest but strangely consequential of ways. But was it just me? Was I the only one truly upset about our distance, the careful little ways we held back with each other, kept our true emotions at bay? My heart hurts. Everything hurts. What if they always felt like this, disconnected from me and holding back, not regarding me as their teammate, part of their inseparable bond? This was not what our reunion was supposed to be like. We were supposed to be able to feel all joined together like I had built it up in my head.

Hours pass in this silence. Night begins to come, darkening the blues and bringing on the black sky. It was the perfect night for stealth- starless, cloudless, the moon nowhere in sight. Everything was still, only sounds of small animals, our footsteps and the sound of breathing reaching my ears. Nights like these happened to be my favorite sort, the relative calm being comforting.

We don't stop until it's nearly midnight. We set up camp, quickly assign watches and wolf down a bit of food before sleeping. I volunteer to go first, wanting to see just a little bit more of the sky before sleeping. Besides, a period of rest would hopefully help calm my mind and heart down. The watch was divided into blocks of one hour at a time, five hours total. Kakashi had second, Sasuke third, Naruto fourth and Makoto fifth. Mako would probably start waking us up a bit before his hour was up, so we could get back to traveling that much sooner. We have made good time so far, covering just over a third of the trip in roughly eight hours. Still, we have a lot of ground to cover and little time to do so.

I settle in for my watch, my back against the trunk of a tree on the edges of the little clearing we'd settled in. All others fall into a heavy sleep, soaking up as much energy as possible. My hour, starting as Kakashi fell asleep, goes by rather uneventfully. Nothing of consequence happens. I find myself waking Kakashi soon.

He is sleeping on a small bedroll, a bit further from the group. Not far enough to incite worry, though. I walk quietly to his side, resting a hand upon his shoulder. He is awake instantly, no sound escaping him. "Your hour," I murmur. "I'm going to sleep now."

He nods, pushing his blanket off. "Thanks. Night." I gaze at him carefully for a few simple seconds, then I nod quietly and stand, stretching a bit as I head over to my cot in between Makoto and Naruto. I pull Makoto's blanket up enough it covered him properly and then crawl beneath my own. I shut my eyes to the world and soon enough I'm asleep.

~SCARRED~

"Ne, oujo..."

Makoto's voice wakes me. I open my eyes, blinking slightly before sitting up. I am the first awake. I reach out and pet him, scratching behind his ears and around his muzzle. "Good morning," I tell him, stretching my limbs out after I finish petting him. He nudges my hand and licks me. I offer him a smile, standing. "Hungry, yeah? Just a second. Wake the others, will you?"

He nods, scampering over to the others to wake them up. He nudges them each in turn, licking Naruto's hand. No reason in particular for it, just to be annoying. I myself am crouching by Makoto's pack, getting out some food for him. He could very well do it himself but he preferred for me to do it; it was generally a bit quicker that way. Once he's woken everyone he comes back over to me. I hand him his food and begin to get ready to leave. That consisted of brushing my hair quickly, grabbing a ponytail and knotting my hair into a messy bun, pulling my trench coat on and then packing my mini-cot, consisting of only a blanket folded over.

By now the boys are mostly ready to leave as well, just stretching their muscles out a bit to get ready to begin running. Makoto is done eating. I fish out a chocolate bar from my pack and begin unwrapping it, munching on my food. After a few moments we're all packed up and ready to go. It's still dark outside, only around five thirty-ish in the morning.

We set out quickly, all really too tired to talk. And we remain in silence, too, until around noon or so. We're all definitely hungry, Makoto having begun to whine about needing food.

"I request a short break for lunch and rest. No more than five minutes is necessary," I announce. The boys give general agreements, mostly because they were hungry as well. We stop in the branches, upon which we all dig through our bags for food. Makoto gets his own easily, so I focus upon finding more than just a chocolate bar. I get a water bottle and two wrapped riceballs. They weren't what I normally would prefer but they were easy to eat and quick. No more than three minutes after stopping we are off again.

We're nearing traveling for a full day. It was going by rather quickly but I still had too much time to think about a lot of things I didn't want to think about. Like how I felt so damn awkward about being near them, about how I seemed unable to do anything to close the gap. I was well aware that it was my fault as well that we were distant. But something held me back every time.

The rest of our traveling to Suna passes without much consequence. A few words were exchanged between us every so often, but the conversation was brief. We make it to Suna in record time, reaching in two and half days instead of three. We go directly to the hospital, having been instructed that Temari and Kankuro were there, Kankuro poisoned in a fight against one of the Akatsuki.

We're directed to Kankuro's room. As we enter, though, someone...

"HATAKE! YOU WILL DIE!"

~SCARRED~

CHIYO-BAA!
I love this obaa-sama 3 I'm excited to have her in this story.