A/N: Here's a new chapter. And just so you know, everybody is extremely OOC.

Kurenai's Web

Escape

The barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay, and it smelled of manure. It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful breath of patient cows. It often had a sort of peaceful smell- as though nothing bad in the world could ever happen again. It smelled of grain, harness dressing, axle grease, rubber boots, and new rope. Whenever the cat was given a fish head to eat, the barn would smell of fish. But mostly, it smelled of hay, for there was always hay up in the great loft overhead, and there was always hay being pitched over to the cows, horses, and sheep.

The barn was pleasantly warm in winter when the animals spent most of their time indoors, and it was pleasantly cool in the summer when the big doors stood wide open in the breeze.

The barn had stalls on the main floor for the horses, tie-ups on the main floor for the cows, a sheepfold down below for the sheep, and a pigpen down below for Gaara.

It was full of all sorts of things the one would find in barns: ladders, grindstones, pitchforks, monkey wrenches, scythes, lawn mowers, snow shovels, ax handles, milk pails, water buckets, empty grain sacks, and rusty rat traps.

It was the kind of barn that swallows liked to build their nests in. It was the kind of barn that children liked to play in. And the whole thing was owned by Hinata's uncle, Mr. Shikaku Nara.

Gaara's new home was located in the barn cellar, directly underneath the cows. Mr. Nara knew that a manure pile was a good place to keep a young pig. Pigs needed warmth, and it was warm and comfortable down there in the barn cellar's south side.

Hinata came almost every day to visit Gaara. She found an old, discarded milking stool and placed in the sheepfold next to Gaara's pen. Here, she sat during long afternoons, thinking, listening, and watching Gaara.

The sheep soon got to know her. So did the geese, Nagato and Konan, who lived with the sheep. All the animals trusted her because she was so quiet and friendly.

Mr. Nara did not allow Hinata to take Gaara out, nor did he allow her to go into the pigpen; but he told Hinata that she could sit on the stool and watch Gaara for as long as she liked. It made happy just to be near the pig, and it made Gaara happy to know that she was sitting there, right outside his pen. But he never had any fun- no walks, no rides, no swims.

One afternoon in June, when Gaara was almost two months old, he wandered out into his small yard outside the barn. Hinata had not arrived for her usual visit, and Gaara stood in the sun, feeling bored and lonely.

'There's never anything to do around here,' he thought. He slowly walked to his food trough and sniffed to see if anything had been overlooked at lunch. He found a small strip of potato skin and ate it. His back itched, so he leaned against the fence and rubbed it against the boards. When he tired of this, he went indoors and climbed to the top of the manure pile and sat down. He didn't feel sleepy, and he didn't feel like digging. He was tired of standing still, and he was tired of lying down.

"I'm less than two months old and I'm tired of living," he said. He walked out into the yard again. "When I'm out here, there's no place to go but in. And when I'm indoors, there's no place to go but out in the yard."

"That's where you're wrong, my friend, my friend," said a voice.

Gaara looked through the fence and saw Konan the goose standing there.

"You don't have to stay in that dirty-little dirty-little dirty-little yard," said Konan, who talked rather fast. "One of the boards is loose. Push on it, push-push-push on it, and come on out!"

"What?" said Gaara. "Say it slower!"

"At-at-at the risk of repeating myself," said Konan. "I suggest you come on out. It's wonderful out here."

"Did you say a board was loose?"

"That I did, that I did," said the goose.

Gaara walked up to the fence and saw that Konan was right- one board was loose. He put his head down, shut his eyes and pushed. The board gave way and Gaara found himself standing in the long grass outside his yard. Konan chuckled.

"How does it feel to be free?" she asked.

"I like it," said Gaara. "That is, I guess I like it." Actually, Gaara felt queer to be outside his fence, with nothing between him and the big world.

"Where do you think I should go?" he asked.

"Anywhere you like, anywhere you like," Konan replied. "Go down through the orchard, root up the sod! Go down through the garden, dig up the radishes! Root up everything! Eat grass! Look for corn! Look for rice! Run all over! Skip and dance, jump and prance! Go down through the orchard and stroll through the woods! The world is a wonderful place when you're young."

"I can see that," said Gaara. He jumped in the air, twirled, ran a few steps, stopped, looked all around, sniffed the smells of the afternoon, and then set off walking down through the orchard. Pausing in the shade of an apple tree, he pushed his strong snout into the ground and began pushing, digging, and rooting. He felt very happy.

He had plowed up quite a bit of ground before anyone had noticed him. Mrs. Nara was the first to see him. She spotted from the kitchen window, and immediately shouted for the men.

"Shika-kooo!" she cried. "Pig's out! Kakashi! Pig's out! Shikaku! Kakashi! Pig's out, He's down there under that apple tree."

'Now the trouble starts,' thought Gaara. 'Now I'll catch it.'

Konan heard the racket, and she too started hollering. "Run-run-run downhill, make for the woods, the woods!" she instructed. "They'll never-never-never catch you in the woods!"

Pakkun the pudgy pug heard the commotion and ran out from the barn to join the chase. Mr. Nara heard and ran out of the machine shed where he was mending a tool. Kakashi, the hired man, heard the noise and came up from the asparagus patch where he was pulling weeds. Everybody waked towards Gaara, and Gaara didn't know what to do. The woods seemed a long way off, he had never been down there before, and he wasn't sure he would like it there.

"Get around behind him, Kakashi," said Mr. Nara. "Drive him towards the barn! And take it easy- don't rush him! I'll go and get a bucket of slops."

The news of Gaara's escape spread rapidly among the animals on the place. Whenever any creature broke loose on Nara's ranch, the event was of great interest to the others. Konan shouted to the nearest cow that Gaara was free, and soon all the cows knew. Then one of the cows told one of the sheep, and soon all the sheep knew. The lambs learned it from their mothers, and the horses, in their stalls, pricked up their ears when they heard the goose hollering; and soon the horses had caught on to what was happening.

"Gaara's out," they said. Every animal stirred and lifted its head and became excited to know that one of his friends had gotten free and was no longer penned up or tied fast.

Gaara didn't know what to do or which way to run. It seemed as though everybody was after him. 'If this is what it's like to be free, I believe I'd rather be penned up in my own yard.'

Pakkun crept on him from one side, Kakashi the hired man was sneaking up to him on the other side. Mrs. Nara stood ready to head him off if he started for the garden; and now Mr. Nara was coming down towards him, carrying a pail. 'This is really awful,' thought Gaara. 'Why doesn't Hinata come?' He began to cry.

Konan took command and began to give orders. "Don't just stand there Gaara! Dodge about, Dodge about!" she cried. "Skip around, run towards me, slip in and out, in and out, in and out! Make for the woods! Twist and turn!"

Pakkun prang for Gaara's hind leg. Gaara jumped and ran. Kakashi reached out and grabbed. Mrs. Nara screamed at Kakashi. Konan cheered for Gaara. Gaara dodged between Kakashi's legs. Kakashi missed Gaara and grabbed Pakkun instead.

"Nicely done, nicely done!" squawked Konan. "Try it again, try it again!"

"Run downhill," suggested the cows.

"Run towards me!" yelled Nagato the gander.

Run uphill!" cried the sheep.

"Turn and twist!" honked Konan.

"Jump and dance!" said Genma the rooster.

"Look out for Kakashi!" called the cows.

"Look out for Nara!" yelled Nagato.

"Watch out for Pakkun!" cried the sheep.

"Listen to me, listen to me!" Konan screamed.

Poor Gaara was dazed and frightened by this hullabaloo. He didn't like being the center of all this fuss. He tried to follow the instructions his friends were giving him, but he couldn't run uphill and downhill at the same time; and he couldn't turn and twist when he was jumping and dancing, and he was crying so hard, he could barely see what was happening, After all, Gaara was a very young pig- not much more than a baby, really. He wished Hinata were there to take him in her arms and comfort him.

When he looked up and saw Mr. Nara standing quite close to him, holding a pail of warm slops, he felt relieved. He lifted his nose and sniffed. The smell was delicious- warm milk, potato skins, rice husks, corn flakes, and a piece of eggplant left over from Kakashi's breakfast.

"Come pig!" said Mr. Nara, tapping the pail. "Come pig!"

Gaara took a step towards the pail.

"No-no-no!" cried Konan. "It's the old pail trick, Gaara. Don't fall for it, don't fall for it! He's trying to lure you back into captivity-ivity. He's appealing to your stomach."

Gaara didn't care. The food smelled appetizing. He took another step towards the pail.

"Pig, pig, pig!" said Mr. Nara in a kind voice, and began walking slowly towards the barnyard, looking all about him innocently, as if he didn't know that a little white pig with black eye-rings was following along behind him.

"You'll be sorry-sorry-sorry," Konan warned.

Gaara didn't care. He kept walking towards the pail of slops.

"You'll miss your freedom," honked the goose. "An hour of freedom is worth a barrel of slops."

Gaara didn't care.

When Mr. Nara reached for the pigpen, he climbed over the fence and poured the slops into the trough. He then pulled the loose board away from the fence, so that there was a wide hole for Gaara to walk through.

"Reconsider, reconsider!" Konan cried.

Gaara paid no attention. He stepped through the fence into his yard. He walked to the trough and took a long drink of the slops, sucking in the milk hungrily and chewing the eggplant. It was good to be home again.

While Gaara ate, Kakashi fetched a hammer and some 8-penny nails and nailed the board in place. Then he and Mr. Nara leaned lazily on the fence while Mr. Nara scratched Gaara's back with a stick.

"He's quite a pig," said Kakashi.

"Yes, he'll make a good pig," said Mr. Nara.

Gaara heard the words of praise. He felt the warm milk in his stomach. He felt the pleasant rubbing of the stick on his itchy back. He felt peaceful, happy, and sleepy. It had been a tiring afternoon. It was only about four-o'-clock but Gaara was ready for bed.

'After all, I'm really too young to go out into the world alone.'

A/N: And that concludes this chapter of Kurenai's Web. Just so that we're in the clear, these are the following character representations:

Konan- the goose

Nagato a.k.a. Pein- the gander

Genma- the rooster (one-time character only)

Pakkun- the dog

Happy reading!

N & B