I have a really close friend who comes up with ideas for stories I write all the time, and even better, she has a British accent because she lives in Britain as a tour guide. Which is extremely trippy, and I should most likely be giving her credit here. Thanks to Dawn, for kicking my ass soundly and making me post your "one true pairings." Since I know you're going to see this here right away.
Enjoy, mademoiselles. Mellorine, mellorine...~!
Break My Mind, Restart The Time
Written by Ko-Sensei.
part two entails of redheads needing to pay hourly for body cushions and professional cuddlers
"Gaara!"
But as soon as the word had left his lips, there was a tap on his shoulder, along with a slight gust of wind by his cheek as a familiar person slid up behind him, with their arms suddenly being draped around his shoulders.
Being startled by this, Naruto had nearly fell over, but the arms kept him in place. Sounding amused, the person straightened out and bent over to pick up the shoe stand Naruto had kicked down by accident.
"...Naruto."
Gaara said, still sounding slightly amused, and like always, his voice was soft.
The blond cursed. "That surprised me, damnit. And I can remember my own name just fine as well, thank you very much." Despite the backtalk, Naruto reached for the back of Gaara's shirt and tugged it down, checking for wounds. Sure enough, to his dismay, there were dark bruises there.
Lightly touching over them with his fingertips, he scowled. Reaching for the redhead's wrist, he started tugging him towards his room-up a flight of stairs and down a hall to the right.
Storming through the door and sitting Gaara down on his bed by force (though he was actually gentle about it more than anything), Naruto frowned. Normally, Naruto thought he had it bad, but Gaara always managed to have it worse.
Though the fact that Naruto was faster and fought back may have had something to do with it. Honestly, though he tried not to let it on obviously, he was constantly worried because...well...
Compared to him, Gaara was pretty breakable.
As if reading his thoughts (which the jerk probably was), Gaara had a slightly amused expression on his face again. A majority of people would have probably not been able to tell ("His expression never changes... weird kid"), but Naruto had known his best friend long enough to read his expressions.
Which would make sense, since the two had been as tight as could be since they had shared the "loner" swing set seat on the playground at age five. Innocent and deceptively eager to make friends as small children, both would have probably been emotionally scarred forever if they hadn't found each other, since both were scorned and disliked among all the people living in Saitama.
"...Hero-san." Gaara accused bluntly. But by the way the other teen's shoulders relaxed, Naruto instantly knew that he was making fun of him.
"Stop laughing at me, you jerk," Naruto huffed, pretending to be put off by the redhead's inward laughing. "Why don't you-Oi!" The blond ducked as a folder flew right over where his face had been seconds ago. "Jerk," He repeated, making a face as he finally pulled out the first aid kit. "I'll treat you as soon as you decide to stop throwing things at my face. Think about all the chicks that would be devastated to see it damaged, Gaara, there'd be a riot after you! And I'm definitely not gonna come save your ass when you're being trampled by crazy fans."
"...Doctor-san." Gaara replied, with a roll of his eyes. Naruto huffed again, but simply moved over to sit at the foot of the bunk with the white box. "You seem to be kinda cheerful for all of this," He said, gesturing to the bruises as the redhead obediently pulled his shirt up, showing Naruto his back.
With a slight, barely even touching caress (with the end of his finger), his best friend cringed and nearly fell over the bed. Scowling, Naruto steadied him into laying facedown on the bunk and reached for the long, white bandage strips. Years and years of doing this had made him a professional.
Gaara joked sometimes (pretty much-yeah, the world was ending) about him playing doctor, but seriously.
He'd done this so much, it wasn't even funny.
Maybe he'd even consider learning how to do stitches next-though that would mean that the bullying had gone straight down flat out to extremes. And that would have been depressing.
"The doctor prescribes you specially handmade ice pads for the next three hours," Naruto announced loudly, aware that the redhead was most likely rolling his eyes underneath him.
Though trying to get Uzumaki Naruto to change his mind was an impossible thing, and even Gaara had to acknowledge that sometimes. Heh heh. The Sabaku Gaara was no match for his Dr. Uzumaki game.
So three minutes later, Gaara was still laying facedown on the bed with four ice pads covering his back and shoulders in bulging lumps, while Naruto was busy attempting to clean up his room somewhat since he wanted to actually be a decent human being (it was really taking a while, he had to go back to get two more garbage bags for the food wrappers) and pack some of his things.
Ah-there were those geeky beat-up goggles Konohamaru had given him for his twelfth birthday, to celebrate him going into middle school. Don't get him wrong, he was actually really fond of the item-but what kind of elementary kid would give a middle schooler goggles, honestly, what the hell.
….He was really going to miss that cheeky kid.
Looking around to see any other weird junk he might have wanted to bring with him, he tossed a beat-up fox plushie into the suitcase, along with some other litter.
Before he knew it, Gaara had come in front of him and put a hand on his wrist, preventing him from putting anything more in the suitcase. Curious green sea eyes stared at him, demanding an answer. Naruto sighed.
"...I'm going to live with pure evil." He muttered, and to anyone else, it would not have made the slightest inkling of sense, but since this was Gaara, he knew that the redhead would understand right away.
"I mean, for real. I'm moving in with my half-brother, apparently." The grip on his wrist loosened, and Naruto tucked the shirt he'd been holding into the suitcase.
"I think by switching subways and trains, getting to Ikebukuro should only take a few hours. Though maybe I should start hoping that someone will jump me on the way so I don't have to actually move in with-I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Naruto hastily said, grinning as Gaara had been giving him a murderous look.
Heh heh. Gaara was actually scary sometimes.
At Naruto's insistence, Gaara reluctantly went back to lay down on the bed with the ice pads back to their places ("Have to listen to Dr. Uzumaki's orders if you want to get better!") and silently watched him pack the majority of his clothes with melancholic eyes.
There was a crash, and loud calls of "Boss! Boss!" ringing through the orphanage. Damn, and he'd almost finished ungracefully shoving-uh, carefully folding and fitting (who the hell was he kidding) all of his junk in. Scrambling up to run away (though he had a huge grin on his face), he whispered (albeit loudly) "Let's beat it, Gaara."
Konohamaru and his gang were back from their middle school, apparently. Every day, they played a game. Konohamaru and his gang were "It," and Gaara with himself were the people to be chased. The high school ended an hour earlier than the latter, so as soon as Konohamaru stepped through the orphanage-it was game on. Tag sounded like a really simple game-but with how fired up Naruto and Konohamaru got, sometimes it had gotten just a bit too intense and they had damaged property.
It was something they had started seven years ago, and was kinda a tradition.
Only, he'd forgotten about Gaara's injuries. Turning back to look at him, Naruto gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, forgot about that. I was kidding, we're hanging around. Hold on a minute, I'm gonna announce that we're surrendering today."
This time, the redhead really rolled his eyes and moved over the bed in a swift motion. With one hand, Gaara closed and zipped up the suitcase, the other, it wrapped around the blond's wrist and dragged him up and away as Gaara took off running out of the room.
"You don't have to treat me like a girl, you know," Gaara criticizes, though he sounds amused yet again, and really, Naruto is a little too freaked out over Gaara saying... what, five, ten, eleven words to even comprehend anything or the fact that Gaara, Gaara of all people just jumped over a table and down six steps on the stairway or even that Iruka looks exasperated-
"Don't look so moronic when we're supposed to be doing an awe-inspiring getaway, Naruto," Gaara chastises yet again, and Naruto huffs before yelping, nearly having been slammed into the wall with the redhead's not-so-orderly steering.
"Well," Naruto snaps, "I'm sorry that I'm just having a gay freakout over you saying a more than two-word sentence and that you're actually talking in a normal tone of voice, and so far... ACK! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE DRAGGING ME, JERK!" And at least Gaara has the decency to look... scratch that, Gaara had no decency and did not look a bit sorry at all as he'd almost dragged Naruto into a stack of chairs.
"I give you an A-Plus," Gaara begins, "For telling your cult-like followers our location," and with a jolt, sure enough, Naruto hears Konohamaru with his two friends crashing into things and running over to their side of the orphanage, and besides it all-their game of running away and all of the weird things he does with his best friend, all he does is throw back his head and laugh loudly.
Gaara has become pretty good at this game now, Naruto realizes, and grins cheekily. With the redhead's fingers still latched around his wrist, they've reached the entrance to the orphanage in almost no time at all.
They've won the game.
"Konohamaru, I saw them fly over that desk!"
"Eeeeck... I'm hungry, can't we take a snack break first?"
"Dammit, I think we just missed Boss!"
Naruto grins. "Try again next time, loser!" And as expected, there's the howling laughter of Konohamaru's teammates then the groaning of the leader.
It was just their own stupid game. If Naruto and Gaara got away first, they won. If Konohamaru caught up to them, then they won and would make the two join their "gang" in doing weird "gang" activities (finding lost cats and catching lizards, apparently). They'd have to join the 'Konohamaru Gang' and actively participate in their weird games until dinnertime.
Naruto almost sighed. He really had been here in Saitama for a long time, and despite it all, he would really miss the few friends he had here. He smiled sheepishly again, remembering how when Gaara and he had first started this tag game with Konohamaru, Gaara had been a total klutz.
The redhead had totally tripped over every single flat surface in the building and knocked over all the furniture in trying to get out. At one point, Naruto had given up and simply scooped up his best friend in his arms before running away ("Dammit, boss, that isn't fair!") in all-out dramatics ("...Naruto, you're dead."), which would end up with both Konohamaru and Gaara trying to murder him.
Heh heh.
"Guess we won today, Konohamaru. You'll never be able to beat us, we're too cool. Just stay home and do your homework today!" Naruto exclaimed loudly, laughing as Gaara and himself burst out the front doors, listening to Konohamaru's disappointed complaints.
Gaara gave the blond a pointed look, which probably said 'Are you totally one to be saying that to them', but Naruto ignored it and pouted. "I'm not smart like you and I'm not going to go to Saitama Academy anymore, so like hell I'm going to do any papers."
"As if you'd do them anyways?" The redhead suggested, and Naruto suddenly clutched his heart dramatically, pretending to fall to his knees, thrusting his hand out. "My heart, my heart, how can you be so cruel to me, Gaara? I thought we were friends!"
To which the other teen promptly lightly tapped the blond's head in imitation of a punch, ignoring Naruto's exasperated complaints with a tiny, small smile. Gaara hardly ever smiled, so the action, not going by unbeknownst by Naruto, made him grin again.
"You," Naruto dramatically declared, pointing a finger at Gaara, "Love. Me. I. Totally. Just. Made you smile."
"Yes," Gaara says, in the exact same tone Naruto does (though it's much quieter, obviously) and he's also pointing the same finger back at the blond, "I. Do. But only when you let me use you as a pillow when I nap, you make a nice body cushion."
So Naruto howls with laughter on the sidewalk, though he's not sure if he's laughing or trying to sputter out complaints against Gaara's statement as really, the redhead can be mean sometimes, but it doesn't matter because Gaara simply takes him by the wrist again and starts leading him somewhere.
He doesn't even ask where his best friend is taking him because he doesn't care where they go.
Going around a corner though, with the sight of the familiar school bullies from Saitama, Naruto quickly hurries Gaara around the alleyway the long way around, before going back to let Gaara lead. People are staring at them because Gaara still has his fingers wrapped around his wrist, but Naruto doesn't care.
Doesn't give a shit really. 'Cause they'd stare anyways.
Or maybe they're staring because he and Gaara are standing so close to each other. Intimately, kind of like lovers. The two of them didn't do it on purpose (they hadn't even realized it until Iruka had pointed it out to them with a slightly red face), but since they were so comfortable with each other, neither had a sense of personal space, and it ended up looking intimate.
Ah, well. Whatever. More gossip for the bored, lonely housewives waiting at home.
If there were any cute ones.. maybe Naruto could go and entertain them, he thought, waggling his eyebrows suggestively at some of the cute females walking alone on the concrete.
"Ow!" He yelped, as a certain someone pinched his cheek. Hard. "Ow, Gaara, you know I was just kidding about them. Heh heh."
The redhead arched a nonexistent eyebrow. "Not the housewives this time, I was just telling you that we're here." And again, Naruto pouted as Gaara had seen right through him.
"You know," Naruto says seriously, and he looks at Gaara with a blank expression. "Since I'm leaving and all, I've realized that I have a problem. A really serious problem... that I've realized after spending time with you..."
Perturbed blue eyes stare at him curiously.
"I have realized... that I am..." Naruto trails off, and starts to look disconcertingly troubled and confused.
The redhead latches onto the blond's orange shirt sleeve with a few fingers and tugs on it slightly.
"I have finally realized... that I, Uzumaki Naruto..."
"…... am amazing."
"..." Not saying a single word, Gaara simply shakes his head after giving him an incredulous look, while Naruto smiles sheepishly and starts laughing again. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just, you were taking me so seriously and I couldn't possibly resist, I mean, do you understand this? You're Sabaku Gaara, I just can't resist-Ow! Aww, don't hurt me! I-Itte! Gaaraaaa...-Ack, I'm running away!"
Flailing and messing around, Naruto turns and starts running, only to realize that Gaara has brought him to the playground here, and for a moment, he pauses and is positively overwhelmed with sentimental emotions that can't be described as childhood memories flash in his mind, but then he quickly goes back to running away as he realizes that the redhead is chasing him.
Like, his life could be in huge danger here.
Grinning sheepishly, he dashes up the playground equipment and runs to the top-where there is a huge, orange circular slide going down three meters. He waits for Gaara to catch up to him, and waits just teasingly, barely out of reach-before racing down the slide.
Unfortunately, Gaara had already seen ahead for that, and as soon as Naruto hits the bottom, two pale fingers held straight out tap the side of his throat lightly.
Naruto is disappointed. "Aww... I liked it better when you were clumsy. Though I'm faster than you still, remember when you used to be a klutz? You couldn't chase me down and you'd trip all the time. It was adorable and positively scandalizing, you couldn't run across a room with a flat surface. Now this," He gestures to the fingers, "Is not fun."
His best friend sits down beside him on the side. "You're a total dork and an idiot," Gaara says, before promptly leaning back and flopping down on the blond. "And you still make a nice body cushion."
"Whoa, whoa," Naruto says, and lifts up one finger, waggling it at the redhead. "Just give me like what, an hour to get over the fact that you spoke more than one word, and once I'm mentally prepared and healed, we can then talk about you paying me hourly to be a body cushion."
Gaara simply rolls his eyes, which Naruto interprets to mean as 'What hourly payment, you dork', and Naruto sighs. "Haven't you been reading the newspapers lately, Gaara? Nothing is free anymore. Not even young love... which should be a crime!"
The redhead simply reaches into his pocket and brings out a phone, tapping on it with a finger, which Naruto also interprets to mean as 'Who reads newspapers nowadays, idiot, everyone uses their cellphones.' Naruto pouts, and steals the phone, nearly dropping it in the process (which has Gaara staring at him pointedly, but hey, it was a really old crappy piece of junk,) and flips it open.
"Did y'know that they have things like professional cuddlers for a job now? Some women sleep with their customers and get paid for it every night, man. Not as in sleep sleeping, but just cuddling together. See, nothing is for free in the world anymore. I should be charging you for sleeping on me. It's a total, absolute crime."
Naruto dropped the phone back in the redhead's lap before getting an idea and snatching it back just before it touched Gaara. "Hey, wanna bet on how many girl's numbers I can get?" He asked, grinning as he gestured towards a group of five pretty girls that were walking by them.
"Not interested." Gaara replied wryly, and took the phone back. "Impressive, Gaara!" Naruto said, pretending to be amazed. "A two-word sentence! Should I give you a present or something?"
As an answer, the redhead yawned and stood up, completely ignoring him. "Storm coming on, let's go."
Sure enough, when Naruto looked up, the clouds did look kinda dark and it was windy. He shivered, it was getting cold, and he hadn't brought a jacket with him as the weather had been moderately warm before.
"Eeeh? Oi, Gaara!" The blond called out, surprised as a light windbreaker had been dumped on his head. Tugging it off of his face, he saw that Gaara had already started walking on. "Hey, you're the jerk that needs to stop treating me like a girl, I'm not that cold, y'know."
But before he started going after the redhead, Naruto looked back and took in the sight of the playground one last time. Years and years of memories here, huh.
There was that one single, lone large wood plank swing under that tree.
It wasn't much of a surprise that all of the other kids on the playground who had been playing moments before dropped their ball and took off running when he'd come in sight of them.
Just 'cause he'd beat up the jerks who had been throwing rocks at the half-blind cat really badly, they called him a demon. Eeeh, was it really that necessary to run that quickly away from him?
Hmph. But it hurt a little more than it should have when they had, though.
Stomping over to his special seat, he paused as he noticed that someone was already sitting on there.
It was another boy around his age. He was wearing a scarf and holding a teddy bear, swinging back and forth slowly. For some reason, he had this weird ass red hair and blue eyes. When the boy on the swing looked up to see him, he didn't flinch or even glare at him.
And something else... he had the /same/ eyes as him.
Then he decided.
"Hey, kora! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the undefeated proud warrior of this playground. And you're sitting on my special seat right now, actually. But that's okay, I'm gonna share it with you since you're going to be my best friend, starting from today. What's your name?"
Pfft- Hell yeah, he was.
"Hey, you don't like to talk much, do ya?"
Curious sea green eyes stared at him. The little redheaded chibi didn't say a word, but simply hugged Naruto from behind, clinging to him with the teddy bear still being held in one of his hands.
"Geez, man! It took you long enough to get you to trust me, you'd freak out whenever I tried to get within a ten-feet radius of you. But whatever, it's not like I have anything else to do anyways. Then again... hey, you," Naruto said, trying to careen his head around to look at the redheaded chibi (though it really wasn't working well since the kid was clinging onto him from behind).
"Don't ya think that hanging around me for two months but not saying even a single word is a bit extreme?" Naruto huffed. "I'm pretty sure you can talk too, since I've heard you squeak. I mean, come on, it's been at least two months now, and you stick around me for a majority of the day. Could I get a name?"
Still, like usual, the redhead curiously peeped at him. When their eyes met, the redheaded chibi shyly looked away and went back to clinging to his back.
"Okay, fine. I didn't want it to have to come to this, but, if you won't tell meee.." Naruto began, lifting both hands up into pretend claws, like he was a monster, he made evil squinty eyes. "I'll have to give you a horrible nickname!"
Squeaking, the redheaded chibi let go of the blond and wheeled around, more intimidated by Naruto's notions rather than his verbal threat.
"...Garaa..." The redheaded chibi finally replied, though it was more of a whisper than anything. And then right afterwards, the chibi hid his face into his scarf. Aww, that was adorable.
"Ohhhh, so you can talk, after all! Finally, we made some process. So... your name's Kaara? That's a girly name though, heheh. Maybe you are secretly a girl. A secret, spying ninja girl undercover, dressing as a weird mute guy that likes teddy bears. Nice to know you, Kaara!"
And for some reason that Naruto couldn't figure out, the redheaded chibi pouted and walked away from him, ignoring the blond's blatant protests and cries of 'What did I do wrong, Kaara?'
A wadded up paper-ball was suddenly tossed as his head, and Naruto grinned. . "Wari, wari, Gaara. I'm coming now, so don't get your panties in a knot. Or if they are… I'm sure I can at least one number of one of those professional cuddlers, right?"
Suddenly, the entire atmosphere and surroundings around him started to twist and turn black as a vehemently murderous aura started leaking out. Ooooops...
…...Damn, Gaara was scary.
His murderous glare was just. Killer. Maybe he was actually some secret, spying ninja person undercover, dressing as a weird redheaded mute guy that liked teddy bears.
But despite it all, Naruto thought, with a reminiscent, wistful sigh, he'd miss Saitama.
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*
He has his suitcase in one hand and his backpack slung over one of his shoulders, with a beat-up wallet stuck into his right jean pocket. Teetering back and forth, Naruto waits on the doorstep of the orphanage, not really wanting to go yet.
And he's suddenly given a sentimental hug from behind again, arms wrapped around his shoulders.
"Don't forget me," The redhead mutters, and messes with Naruto's backpack zipper, slipping something into there. "Your driver's permit."
Awww, damnit. Naruto's reminded again that unfortunately, unlike baggage, he can't pack up Gaara and take his best friend with him. Though that would be pretty ace.
"I won't," Naruto promises, and frowns. "Try not to get beat up too much," He warns, as they both full know that with one of their victims gone, they'd take it out on Gaara twice as much. "If I don't hear from you every three days, I'm hightailing it back here and kicking their asses to the sky, got that?"
"Uchiha Sasuke, huh." Gaara says, changing the topic. "Same to you. If I don't hear from you every three days, I'll come and visit your grave in the Uchiha cemetery. Now get going, loser."
And with that, Gaara gives Naruto a push out the doorway (though it's gentle more than anything), and the blond panics for a second as he looks at his watch-he was going to be late, dammit.
Rushed and panicked, Naruto takes off running, but allows himself one glance back at the orphanage.
Gaara stands against the door, one leg propped up against the wall in a pose that looks almost kinda cool-he'd have to try that out later, with the same curious sea green eyes and weird eyeliner thing he had and the red kanji thing.
Although it's five in the morning, and this will probably wake all of the neighbors and the orphanage and cause a riot of swarming people to come running after him with bats and brooms, he can't help it. He grins widely, and motions for Gaara to go inside quickly. Good thing Gaara's foster family wasn't in this neighborhood, they would have probably beat him up too.
But as for this... heh heh...
Uzumaki Naruto couldn't go out with a bang.
He'd go out with a bang so outrageous that no one would be able to forget his name for another ten years.
"Three...two...one. Nice knowing you all," Naruto says, and positively beams, feeling like he's in kindergarten again.
…..Chaos ensues.
Simultaneously, three boomboxes start shrieking nightclub music really loudly, and there are a lot of popping sounds as firecrackers and mini fireworks are set off (courtesy of Konohamaru), then more smashing and crackling noises come up, and in just less than one minute, there are shouting and screaming parents, teenagers, and children running around outside, all fully aware of who was behind it.
"NARUTO!" "YOU BRAT!" "I SWEAR, THAT GODDAMN KID-!" "IT'S FIVE IN THE MORNING!" "NOT THIS AGAIN!" "THAT UZUMAKI!" "DAMNIT!"
Laughing wildly, he turns around and seriously starts running as the many adults and kids who are familiar with him start chasing him. The adults do so angrily, the kids don't have a clue what's going on but follow anyways because it's exciting, and Naruto blows them kisses.
"... LOOK AT THIS, THAT BRAT DID GRAFFITI ON OUR APARTMENT WALLS AGAIN!"
And more people start shouting as they realize that the walls have been painted with gorgeous, beautiful Uzumaki-prankster, goodbye-styled graffiti.
Oh, damn. He really needed to get his ass outta here.
"Try not to miss me too much~!" He calls, and laughs again as he thinks about how confused the train conductors are gonna be when a mob of people are angrily storming and following after a single, lone blond teenager trying to get on the subway.
At the top of the orphanage roof, Gaara is simply shaking his head at him, but (even though he can't see him well anyways since it's too far away), Naruto can almost swear that Gaara is laughing.
Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't.
Laughing loudly, he runs for his life to the subway entrance, a few streets away, being followed by a horde of angry, yelling parents, closing this one chapter of his life as he knows things aren't going to get pretty in the next.
"You have no idea what you're getting into, Uchiha Sasuke," Naruto mutters, making a face, but brightens up as he sees the subway stairs going down underground. The attendants and conductors were gonna be in for a huge surprise.
Lovely, lovely surprise.
Farewell, Saitama.
《If you can't tell, Gaara is one of my favorite characters. This isn't the last you'll see of him, that's for sure. The redhead is going to have some badass moments later on. This didn't go much into the plot, but hopefully wrapped things up with Naruto leaving his hometown.
Now Naruto is going to go live with his half-brother, and going to get involved with the rest of the Konoha characters in his new school. Then we'll get into the gang war and Konoha, as well as Sasuke.
Leave reviews for faster updates, please.
Thank you for reading! 》