Oh, an FYI, when it comes for imagining Naruto, he looks exactly the same as in Shippuden. Except that his clothing changed, his hair a tad bit longer with his tips dyed red, and taller. :p
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN Naruto nor any of its characters, just my own!
Chapter five: Welcome to the Sand
Without even noticing, three weeks had gone by. Naruto decided to stay in the little village to train Sana before going home. And, well, it was a good thing he stayed. The surroundings Sana was in helped her a lot. Instead of always traveling like she did with her father, she seemed more relaxed, learned more, and started to trust Naruto. Before, even though she thought Naruto was her master, she had no trust for him. But now, there was.
Even though it has only been three weeks, Sana learned everything as if it had been two years. Things that took most ninja's months to learns, took Sana hours. This had surprised Naruto very much. The two got stuff done in very little time.
At some points in time, the blond always wondered how she was able to do it, but nothing ever came to mind. Kyuubi told him that there was something off about her, something that she had never sensed in anyone before. And when an all powerful demon like that says something like that, its bad news. But, Naruto said they would worry about it later.
"Sana, wake up." A voice whispered, driving the girl out of her dreams. She blinked her eyes opened and yawned. She looked up into the friendly blue eyes of her sensei.
"We're leaving," Naruto started. He was crouched down next to her, already dressed for the day, his normal orange clothes and over coat.
At those words, all sleep vanished from Sana's mind. "Already? Where are we going?" The excitement in her voice made the blond smile, reminding him a bit of himself years ago.
"I'm going home and you're coming with me." He said standing straight. "It's been a few months since I've visited my home."
Sana wiggled out from under her blankets and started to tie her long brown hair up. She slipped into her knee-high boots and fish net gloves.
While she got ready, Naruto folded her blankets up and placed them in the bag he had bought for her. He didn't have a bag; instead he had a pouch that he kept on his hip where he stored his important things and everything else, like his own blanket was already gone.
"How far is your home?"
"It's about a normal day run from here. But, between your speed and mine, we could make it in about half a day. Well, that is if you're up to it." He added when Sana got to her feet.
The girl nodded. "Alright. I'm up for a good run."
Naruto nodded and within ten minutes, the two were running out of town while the first rays of the sun started to shine.
As the two ran, their pace matching one another, Naruto looked over to find his apprentice with an emotionless expression. He looked back ahead of him and spoke with a normal voice, "You know, if there's anything you wanna talk about, anything at all, you can say it."
Sana turned her bright green eyes to Naruto before quickly looking away. She nodded but didn't say anything.
Naruto let out a silent sigh but let the silence wash over them.
While they ran, a sleepy voice poked around his thoughts. He rolled his eyes before addressing the fox, /G'morning, Kyuubi. Sorry to have waken you./
He received an annoyed growl.
/Hey, hey, hey, we had to wake up early to arrive at the Sand in a few hours./ Naruto thought back.
'Yes, but couldn't you have done so smoother?' Kyuubi asked annoyed. In Naruto's mind, she uncurled herself before stretching.
/Whatever./ Was all Naruto thought back. He jumped over a fallen tree and continued to keep running. /Oh, hey Kyuubi. What do you think Gaara would say when he see's Sana?/
'How the hell am I supposed to know?'
He shrugged. /Just wonderin'./
Kyuubi let a low, irritated growl escape her throat. 'Wonder to yourself next time, kit.' The blond let out a low chuckle. Man, was she not a morning fox.
Sana looked over at her sensi when he laughed. "What's funny?" She asked.
Naruto looked over. "Oh, I was laughing aloud? Sorry. But I was just thinking."
"Oh, okay." She mumbled. They ran in silence for a while longer before she asked, "Were you talking to Kyuubi?"
The blond almost tripped over his own feet but he quickly caught his balance. "How do you know about her?" He asked, shocked.
Sana shrugged. "I've heard you mumble to her in your sleep. And also," she said, but her voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "My father talked about her a lot."
Naruto narrowed his eyes, as did Kyuubi. "What all did he say?"
"Well . . . what everybody had said; she was a vile, horrible creature and was trapped inside an infant twenty-something years ago. Then, when the baby grew up, the people in the village called him demon and didn't trust him because of the nine-tails." She whispered. She took a peak over at Naruto only to find his face washed of all emotion. Quickly, she adds, "But, I don't agree with what everyone says. The fox could be bad, but, she could also be good too." When the blond didn't say anything, she continued, "And as for the kid, how can he be a demon when he helped a girl get rid of her abusive father and been nice to her ever since? It doesn't make any sense."
Now Naruto looked at her. He stopped running and just stood there. Sana also stopped but was a few feet in front of him. She turned to face him.
"So, you know what I am and you still haven't run away screaming?" he asked.
Sana furrowed her slender eyebrows slightly. "Why would I run away screaming? All you've ever shown me is kindness. It doesn't matter what you have inside you. All that does is how you act."
The blond smiled sadly. "Only if they could see it that way." He mumbled.
"I'm sorry? Who could see it that way?"
Naruto blinked his eyes a few times. "Huh?" Sana repeated what she said. "Oh . . . uh, it's my old village."
Her eyes widened. "Old village? But, how is that possible? I mean, you're going home, which is your village. How is it old?"
"It's a long story," Naruto said, half heatedly.
Sana nodded. "Long stories usually help pass the time easier. If you want, we could walk and talk." Naruto mimicked her nodding and they both started to walk, evenly matching their paces.
'She really trusts you, kit.' Kyuubi mumbled. 'And she's getting more louder and confident when speaking.' The blond nodded in agreement.
"I live in the Sand village; that's my new home." He began. "My real home, the village where I grew up, made friends and lived, was the village Hidden in the Leaves. I lived there ever since I was twenty. And now, I'm twenty-two.
"Well, when I was a kid, all of the villagers, and I do mean all, hated me because the nine-tails lived inside me. They called me all sorts of names and always abused me. Well, like throwing things at me when I walked by. I was a lot younger than you, Sana. But, a lot of that changed." He closed his eyes as he relived the painful memories. "I'll go into details later about most things, but for now, I'll start when the day things started happening." He opened his eyes.
He talked about when he was a genin and his team. He didn't go into details, like he said, except for describing his squad, and he only talked about major things. He must have talked for at least an hour.
When he paused for some oxygen, Sana asked, "So Sasuke left to get more powerful to kill his brother? That's . . . charming."
Naruto smiled. "Yeah, but that's an even longer story. But anyways, when Sasuke did leave, I left for three years to train with the Pervy-sage, Jiraiya. Sakura learned to be a medic ninja from training with Tsunade." He talked a bit about how his life went on from there.
"So, you said you got Sasuke back, how?" Sana asked, paying attention.
The blonds' expression darkened a bit. "Well, it's rather complicated."
Sana took the hint. "I'll ask you about it a different day." She said. Naruto shot her a 'thank-you' look before looking ahead of him.
They walked in silence for a while until Sana broke it. "So, why did you leave?"
The blond snorted, surprising the girl. "I didn't get a choice on leaving. The elders of the village banished me. They said that they were tired of having the 'Demon child' in their village. Them and a few others."
"Was there nothing you could have done?"
"They made their minds up. At the meeting, they gave me a choice: I could leave myself or they could chase me out. I chose to leave myself. Since I did that, some of my friends think I just left . . ."
"When you left," she wanted him to keep going, "did you go straight to the village we are going to now?"
Naruto nodded. "Yup. I have friends there; Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro of the Sand. Gaara has a demon in him too. He is the one tail while I'm the nine. They accepted me and I've made the Sand my home. But, I travel a lot, so I'm hardly there."
"Will your friends not mind me coming?"
"Nah, I'll tell them the situation you were in. Either way, they won't mind."
As they continued to walk, another silence grew between them though this one was longer. While they walked, the trees started to thin out and a few piles of sand started to make it selves known.
Sana looked over at her sensi to find him deep in thought a while later. He had his hands buried in his pockets as he looked ahead of himself. His face was washed of all emotions except for this thinking face. ((Whatever it may be))
"Um . . . Naruto?"
He didn't look at her. "Hm?"
"Can we start running?" She asked, feeling bored from just walking. When they run, they go faster and it's easier to think about things. When you're walking, you just go so slow.
"Sure," he said absently.
The two started running and before they knew it, two hours had passed. They came to a halt on the border of the forest and started into an open sea of sand.
"We don't have very long till we reach the village." Naruto said, rather cheery all of a sudden.
Sana nodded. "How long would that be?"
"Well, about half an hour. We're rather close to our destination."
Once again, the two were off running.
"What's Gaara like?" The girl asked out of curiosity.
Naruto thought for a moment, thinking of the best explanation to describe the red-head. "He's hard to explain. At first glance, he seems imitating and scary and he acts like that for a while, but after a while and you get to know him, he's not as scary." He smiled. "He doesn't talk a lot like me, but talks. If that makes sense. If you're wondering, I'm part of their family; Kankuro's, Temari's and Garra's. They adopted me."
"Like you adopted me?" Sana asked quietly.
With the trees no longer shielding the two, the afternoon's sun blazed down on them. Naruto's blue eyes glimmered and he nodded his head. "Just like I adopted you."
XxxxX
Naruto and Sana made it into the village without meeting any scouts. Probably because they knew it was Naruto and that he was no threat. The blond led Sana up the side stairs of a huge building. Once they reached the top, Naruto had Sana stop as he bit his left thumb, surprising Sana, and smeared the fresh blood on the sand building.
In a flash, the dried sand crumbled away like the sand falling from an hourglass to reveal a hallway. The blond grinned and motioned for the girl to go it.
"It's a code only me and Gaara know." He explained as Sana walked in cautiously. "Using your own blood, either mine or his, the other is alerted on where the other is. So, if I'm out on some mission or whatever and Gaara uses the code, I know he's okay."
They walked down the small hallway. It was bare except for torches lining the walls, every few yards or so. The walls were made from sand, but it was dried and hard.
"Is that all it does?"
"Nope. Besides it only tellin us that the other is okay, it sends an image to both of us on how the other - -,"
"So it sends you an image? Like you will see what he's doing and vice versa?" She guessed.
"Yup. As of now, Gaara is in a meeting, so we're just going to our lounging room." Sana nodded.
"Naruto!" A female's voice sounded somewhere ahead. "So you finally come home after what, three months?"
"Three and a half, sis." A different voice commented. This voice was a bit deep though friendly. Obviously is was male.
Naruto smiled from his adopted siblings comments. "I was busy," he yelled back as he and Sana finally came into view with a large, circular room.
The room looked pretty relaxing; there were a few couches facing one another, rugs covering the sandy floor, a coffee table in the middle of the couches. In the far corner of the room was a mini kitchen with a big fridge. A table was also in the kitchen. Pictures of people hung on the walls; pictures of the siblings. (One of them even had Gaara doing a funny pose) On of the end tables that was against a wall held some plants and a lamp while the other table had a rather large candle burning and with four pictures on it.
Lounging on one of the couches with her feet tucked underneath her was a blond woman, her hair separated into four pony tails. Two on top two on bottom. She was wearing a black kimono that was short sleeved and had a giant closed fan on the ground in front of her. She had a cup of, what looked to be tea in her hands.
In the kitchen was a man with black pants and shirt. On his face was purple paint. He had brown hair on top of his head. (His hood was down). He walked over to Naruto.
"How was your traveling?" The man asked and grasped the blonds forearm in greetings. "We thought you were never coming back."
Naruto laughed. "It was alright; been training mostly." The two let each other go as they walked towards the couches. Sana stayed right behind Naruto like a puppy.
"Ah, learn anything new?"
Naruto grinned mischievously. "We'll of course, Kankuro. You don't think I'd train myself for two months straight without learning anything new, would you?"
The man, Kankuro chuckled. Before he could say anything, the lady on the couch looked behind the blond and asked, "Naruto, who's behind you?"
The blond looked behind himself to find Sana being shy and hiding herself. He laughed and gave her a gently push with his hand to bring her forward. "This is Sana. I saved her from a group of bandits and am training her to become a ninja Sana, this is Kankuro and Temari."
Sana just acknowledged them with a nod of her head.
"Well, hello there, Sana. As Naruto said, I'm Kankuro." Kankuro said and walked over to her and knelt down. He held his hand out and had on a friendly smile.
Sana took his hand in hers. His hand was warm and firm and strong. They parted.
Temari got up from the couch and put her mug down on the table before walking over to her. Like her brother, she knelt down and held out her own hand.
"I'm Temari. It's a pleasure to meet you." She smiled warmly.
Sana took her hand before saying, "The pleasures all mine." Temari's hand was soft and gently but at the same time firm. When they parted, the tow older ones stood up.
"Well, Sana, how long have you known Naruto?" Temari asked. She walked back to the couch. But before she did, she sent an odd look to the blond, thinking that Sana wasn't looking.
Sana looked up at Naruto. He smiled down at her before following Temari's lead and walked over to the couches.
"Um . . . about a month." She answered, also following the others.
Everyone sat down; Temari back in her spot with Kankuro sitting next to her and Naruto relaxing on the couch opposite from them. He leaned his head back against the couch board. Sana stood next to the couch, feeling awkward.
Temari smiled. "You can sit down, Sana. It won't bite."
She nodded and sat down on the very edge of the chair that Naruto was sitting on. She placed her hands in her lap and looked down at them.
"So, what's been going on?" Naruto asked. He closed his eyes, feeling comforted by his surroundings. If they let him, he would have fallen asleep right then and there.
"The usual." Kankuro replied. "Missions, scouting, meetings." Even though the blonds' eyes were closed, he could image him grimacing. "But, everything's been dull and boring with you gone. You always take all of the fun with you when you leave."
"And Gaara was getting worried about you. He was tempted to go and look for you." Temari added.
Naruto's eyes flashed opened and had a wide but hurt grin on his face. "I'm hurt. Does he not think I can take care of myself?"
"Of course not." A different voice said. Sana looked around, as did everyone else to find a man about Naruto's height, has red hair, light blue eyes with a black surrounding it. On his forehead had the symbol of 'Love' on it. He was wearing dark maroon color clothes and with black pants. He walked into the room with his arms crossed at his chest.
"Hey, Gaara," Naruto stood up and greeted the red head half way. Like Kankuro's greeting, Naruto and Gaara grasped forearms.
In a calm, low voice, Gaara responded, "Naruto, I assume your training went well?"
The blond chuckled as the two step brothers ((That's what I'll be mentioning them as, Step brothers.)) walked over to the couches. Naruto sat in his spot and Gaara stood standing. He looked over to Sana, who looked away feeling uncomfortable.
"You are Sana, I assume?" he asked. She looked up and met his eyes and nodded. "I am Gaara. Welcome to the sand."
XxxxX
And there you have it. ^^ I just love Gaara. He and Naruto are my two favorite characters!
Thanks for continuing to read the story. It's not the best, but it's something!
And, if you were wondering, the background story for Sasuke is coming. But, it's horrible. Remember, this is my first Naruto story so it ain't the best. Sasuke's story sucks ass. It's horrible. X.X
And, just an FYI
Sana's teleportation, it's not shunshin no sana. It's an actual jutsu that is rare and only a few people know how to do. She's a true teleporter….. And… so for the future reference, she is a very powerful, rare person that you won't really see. (I made her up) she ain't as powerful as Kyuubi, hell no, but more powerful than regular shinobi. Just an FYI and I'll explain more later on through the chapters.
And yes, Sana is a true teleporter! ^^
troutman30 - Hm…. I don't think Temari will get to see. :/ Sana becomes use to Naruto before she meets heeeeeer oops, now I wasn't supposed to say anything like that. Pretend you didn't read me say that ;) lol
