Chapter 22: Bath Time

"Hey, I have an idea," said Naruto. "Why don't we all go to the bathhouse and soak in the hot springs?"

"Hot springs?" repeated Gaara.

"Yeah. We'll get you all cleaned up and we can spend time together. It's always fun going with more people anyway. You'll like it."

Gaara didn't look too thrilled. "Actually, I think I'll pass."

"What? Why not?"

He shrugged. "I don't really care for water. I never liked swimming. Not that our village has many pools anyway. I just never liked baths."

"You don't?"

He shook his head. "Take showers to get clean, I just don't soak. Never liked it."

"Sounds like it's just business with you. In and out."

"The main point is to get clean, isn't it?"

This wouldn't do. If Gaara didn't like soaking in water, then taking him to a bathhouse was going to be next to impossible. He didn't want to have to drag Gaara inside.

Then again, he didn't have to.

"Sai, Neji, cover your ears."

They did as they were told.

Naruto snapped his fingers. "Sleep."

Gaara closed his eyes.

"Gaara, when you wake up, you will want to go to the bathhouse. You want to give soaking in the hot springs a try." He snapped his fingers again. "Awake."

Gaara opened his eyes. "Actually…" he said slowly. "Now that you mention it, going to the bathhouse sounds like a nice idea."

"Really, Gaara?"

"Sure. I'm willing to give it a try. Who knows? I might like it this time."

"Yes! Thanks, Gaara." Naruto stood up. "Guys, we're going to the bathhouse."

Sai and Neji didn't move.

Naruto pulled on their arms. "You can uncover your ears now."

The foursome went to the bathhouse. Naruto kept an eye out for Kankuro but he wasn't around. Gaara stayed close to the group, observing how a bathhouse worked. He stayed quiet while Naruto did most of the work. Soon, he was being led into a locker-room and given a towel.

"You'll like it, Gaara. It's fun."

Gaara took his word for it. He wondered why he had the sudden change of heart. Maybe he didn't want the fun to end. Maybe he wanted to try something new. Maybe he didn't want to disappoint Naruto. Either way, he was here now and being pushed into the next room.

It was warm and damp in here. It smelled strongly of soap and water. It was bigger than he imagined. He was picturing a bathroom half this size. He was glad they were the only people here. He didn't feel comfortable bathing in front of strangers. In front of anyone, actually. But this is what Naruto wanted and for some reason he wanted to give it a try.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

They chose a spot furthest from the door and started selecting their soaps. Gaara wasn't sure if he should try something scented or just regular soap. It wasn't a wide selection. Just the two and a couple different shampoos.

"Sai!"

Gaara looked up and saw Sai eagerly washing Naruto's back.

"What?" he said cheerfully. "I want to help."

"Fine. Just don't be weird about it."

Gaara looked at his reflection in the mirror. He didn't look as stressed as before. Other than that, and the ink smear on his cheek, he didn't look too different from the last time he saw himself.

"If Sai's going to wash my back for me, you want Neji to wash yours?" Naruto asked.

Gaara shrugged. "I suppose." He wasn't sure what to do. He had never been to a bathhouse in the Leaf before. Now that he thought about it, he had never been to any. No one was willing to go with him. They didn't have any hot springs in the Sand Village anyway. As a child, his siblings stayed away from him so he was used to doing things by himself, but most families bathed together when the children were young. Everything about this was new and different for him.

Is that why he wanted to go along with Naruto's suggestions? Why he wanted to give it a try?

He felt something cold on his back and he flinched. It was the soap. A warm wet cloth came next and started to rub the soap over his skin.

This wasn't too bad.

Gaara sat quietly as Neji washed his back and shoulders. Neji had a gentle touch. Having someone else bathe him was a little strange but it was nice, too. He was free to be lazy and do nothing while someone else did all the work.

"Eep!"

Hearing Naruto yelp, Gaara turned his head. Sai was rubbing his face against Naruto's back.

"Your skin is so soft!"

"Weird! Weird! You're being weird! Stop it!"

"Sorry. I won't do it again."

"You better not."

Things were uneventful until Sai started feeling Naruto's muscles. He squeezed Naruto's arms with both hands. "You're so strong!"

"What did I just say?"

"Sorry."

Gaara looked away. Neji was starting to shampoo his hair. He was a little rougher on Gaara's head than his back, but Gaara didn't mind. He liked the way Neji's fingers pressed into his scalp.

"Do you like the scented shampoo, Gaara?" Naruto asked him.

"It's different."

"Different good?"

Gaara took a whiff of the shampoo. "Good."

Naruto smiled.

Gaara looked at his reflection again. It looked like he had a white afro with all the soap suds and bubbles. Gaara shut his eyes as Neji dumped a bucket of water over his head to get the soap out. Gaara clenched his teeth.

"Cold."

"Sorry," said Naruto. "The water must have been sitting there a while and cooled down."

"I made sure to use fresh hot water for you, Naruto!" Sai dumped the bucket over his head.

"Ah!" Naruto tensed up. "Too hot!"

"Sorry. I'll fix it." Sai dumped a second bucket over him. This one with ice water.

"Cold!"

"I'll warm you up." Sai reached for the facet but Naruto grabbed his wrist.

"Never mind! I'll warm up in the hot spring!"

Gaara let a smile grace his lips, finding this experience enjoyable. Seeing Naruto and Sai interact with each other was also pretty amusing.

He saw Neji hold another bucket of water over his head in the mirror and shut his eyes, expecting the water to be cold. To his relief, it was nice and warm. When he opened his eyes, he saw that all the soap had been rinsed from his hair and shoulders.

"Cold! Cold! Cold!" Naruto quickly turned off the facet in front of him, having run the cold water by mistake.

"I can warm you up, Naruto, sir," Sai told him and Naruto shoved a bar of soap into his open mouth to shut him up.

"I can handle it, Sai. I can warm up in the springs, ok?"

Sai spat out the soap and started gagging and spitting to get the taste off his tongue. "Ok," he said, wiping his chin with his hand.

The hot springs sounded even better to Gaara now that he had been soaking wet for a while. Sitting like this was making him cold.

Naruto looked to the side and saw clumps of wet sand forming a ring around Gaara. It wasn't his sand armor. This was just the sand in his hair and the bits that got under his clothing. It was a good thing he got cleaned off before going into the spring, otherwise they might have been able to make a sandcastle in the water. Naruto didn't realize just how sandy Gaara could still be after leaving the desert far behind.

He also realized that Gaara must have been cold just sitting there with only a towel around him. With the sand off his body and in need of warmth, now seemed like a good time to go to the hot springs.

"Ready?" Naruto asked him and Gaara nodded his head.

Naruto led the group out into another area. As soon as he opened the sliding door, Gaara felt the temperature rise slightly. He saw steam. Naruto moved out of the way and Gaara was able to see the water fenced in by large flat stones.

"Here we are," Naruto said more to him than the other two. "The water's hot so you might want to get in slowly."

"Ok." Gaara kept a firm grip on his towel.

Naruto went in first followed by Sai and then Neji who had to be invited in by Naruto. Naruto encouraged Gaara to join them so he could warm up.

After seeing that the others had entered with no issue, Gaara stepped forward.

Unsure how he should go about it, Gaara decided to enter slowly as Naruto advised. Though Naruto and the others simply stepped into the spring, Gaara decided to enter even slower by sitting down and letting his legs go in first.

The water was warm. Really warm. It felt good on his feet. Gaara slowly dipped his legs into the water. The water went up to his knees but the heat from the spring warmed him throughout. He was almost tempted to stay like this and not enter fully as the others had done. But the heat felt so good on his legs, he wanted to feel it on the rest of his body.

"Come on in, Gaara," Naruto urged him with a smile. "Don't be shy."

Gaara's cheeks turned pink at being called 'shy', but that could have been from the water.

Gaara loosened his grip on the towel around his waist and slid into the spring. He gasped slightly as the hot water touched his chest and back. It was hot. But it felt good. Gaara remained still for a moment, letting his body get used to the heat before moving further in. He sat down in the water which came up to his shoulders and took several short breaths, the heat almost suffocating. After a few seconds, his body got accustomed to the heat and he was able to breathe normally.

"You did it, Gaara," Naruto said with a smile. "How's it feel? Do you like it?"

Gaara soaked in the water, moving his arms from side to side underwater before answering. "It's nice."

Soaking in hot water wasn't too bad. Different, but not bad.

"See?" Naruto told him. "I told you you'd like it."

He did like it, which surprised him. Normally he hated soaking in water. He didn't like being wet. He wondered what had changed. Maybe it was the fact that Naruto was with him.

The water did feel good on his body. The heat alone was loosening his muscles. The water made his body feel lighter. The feeling of water on his skin didn't irritate him this time. It felt good. It was soothing.

Naruto tried to have a conversation with him but Gaara was too relaxed to participate other than giving him one-word answers. He just wanted to soak here a while and let his mind drift.

Naruto normally didn't carry on long conversations while in the hot spring, but he wanted to make the most of the short amount of time he had left to hang out with Gaara. It was starting to get later and even he was starting to think it was time to let Gaara go back to his Kazekage duties.

They sat quietly for a while, enjoying the water.

Naruto tried to think of anything else they could do before calling it a day and letting Gaara continue with what he had been doing before. It might be a good idea. Even if the meeting was in the evening and it was still afternoon, Gaara did need some time to prepare.

He was also bothered by Kankuro's tension. He seemed more on edge since Gaara was with him. He knew it must have been because of the incident a few months ago with the Akatsuki. Naruto also suspected Kankuro was behaving this way because Gaara was still considered a child in the eyes of many officials. They thought he was too young to be Kazekage and Kankuro wanted to support his brother and show the adults that they were wrong. He and Gaara both wanted to make a good impression. If Gaara was late or ill prepared, that would have effected how others perceived him, especially the officials.

As much as Naruto wanted to spend time with Gaara, he knew he couldn't take him away from his responsibilities. He wanted to become Hokage himself one day. He couldn't be irresponsible. If he wanted the position, he also couldn't take others away from their own responsibilities. Gaara was the youngest Kazekage. He couldn't drag Gaara down. Not if they were true friends. He didn't want to ruin Gaara's chances or changed how the public viewed him, knowing how difficult someone in his position would have it. Gaara had a tailed beast inside of him and he was young. People already held him in a certain light because of this. To have come this far only to have Naruto's selfishness change everything he had worked so hard for…

If such a thing happened, Naruto would never be able to forgive himself. He was in a similar position to Gaara. He was happy for Gaara's success and it only made him want to work harder to be at that same level himself.

No wonder Kankuro seemed so stressed. He knew that the public already viewed Gaara a certain way. Things had changed, of course, but some people still judged Gaara harshly just for being young and for having a tailed beast inside of him. Those things could not be helped. Kankuro and Naruto knew that it wasn't fair and that people would judge someone like Gaara so harshly just based on that alone. Which meant anything Gaara did could be blown out of proportion. Something as simple as being five minutes late could be misconstrued as him being irresponsible, even if it wasn't his fault. If he stuttered during a meeting when it was his turn to speak, the officials could say it was a sign that Gaara was ill prepared.

No wonder he and Kankuro were so tense. Naruto hadn't given it much thought until now. He thought the whole thing was ridiculous at the time, but now that he pieced together everything he knew from past and present in addition with how people viewed people like himself and Gaara, Naruto understood why they were so fixated on time and having everything ready.

Naruto felt like a fool for not seeing it sooner.

Fun was fun, but he couldn't take up any more of Gaara's time. He had to let him get ready for the meeting. At least they got to spend a couple of hours together. That was good enough.

"Gaara?"

Naruto didn't hear a response.

Naruto looked across the spring. "Gaara?"

He looked over just in time to see Gaara sink underwater.

"Gaara!" Naruto reached forward and pulled Gaara out of the spring. "Are you ok? What happened?"

Gaara opened his eyes which had grown heavier. "Sorry. I think I dozed off for a second."

"You can't sleep here. That's dangerous."

"I know. I'm sorry."

Gaara was a bit too relaxed. If he was nodding off in the hot spring, it was time to go.

"We should get going, Gaara. I think we've soaked enough."

Gaara nodded. "Yeah. I think so, too."

Naruto helped Gaara out of the spring and back inside, telling the others to follow.

In the locker room, Gaara mentioned that his body felt heavier after being in the spring. Naruto told him that was common, noting that this was probably why Gaara wanted to sit down as he got dressed rather than stand like the others. He seemed listless.

"Maybe that hot spring relaxed you too much."

Gaara shrugged one shoulder. "It was my first time."

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