Chapter 27: Ribbit

"Gaara?" Naruto couldn't figure out why Gaara was doing that. "Gaara?"

"Ribbit."

"Gaara, snap out of it."

He started hopping. "Ribbit. Ribbit."

Naruto shook him. "Gaara, knock it off."

He wasn't listening. He started hopping down the street on all fours, croaking like a frog. Naruto chased after him, avoiding Shino and Neji as they continued what they were doing.

Gaara was pretty quick. He slowed now every now and then. When he stopped, Naruto tried talking to him again but it was no use. Gaara's eyes were closed, leading Naruto to believe that Gaara was still asleep. He might have been dreaming he was a frog. If Gaara wasn't acting out his dream, then what else could this be? Another adverse effect of the hypnosis?

Gaara started hopping again. Naruto was about to shout his name when he saw Kankuro exiting one of the buildings Gaara was about to pass by.

Gasping in horror, Naruto ran in front of Gaara and threw himself into the doorway before Kankuro could leave.

"Where have you been?" Kankuro asked him. "You said you'd bring Gaara back to me before the meeting. This is cutting it awfully close."

"Yeah, no kidding."

"So where is he?"

"Oh. Around."

"Did he go to the meeting without me?" asked Kankuro. "So he wouldn't be late?"

"Well, you know Gaara." Naruto gave a nervous chuckle. "Just loves to keep you hopping. Heh heh."

Kankuro gave him sympathetic look. "Listen, I'm sorry I'm more anxious than usual. There's a lot going on and there are people who still don't respect Gaara as the Kazekage yet. There are tons of people who care about him now, but there are some who don't. It's all about impressions. I'm also trying to redeem myself after what happened."

"Oh, you don't say." Naruto didn't hear or see Gaara which made him nervous.

"When we were being assigned to escort Gaara to this village, some of the higher-ups didn't want me to be one of his guards, saying that I let him get captured on my watch last time. They all but said they didn't trust me with the task. They only allowed it because Gaara put in a good word for me. He said he wanted me to come with him. That's why I'm here."

"Uh-huh."

"If anything happens, I'm going to get chewed out for allowing it. And no doubt some of these asses are going to say it reflects poorly on the Kazekage. It sucks that some people judge Gaara for the littlest things. Something as simple as being late could make him appear irresponsible in the eyes on the higher-ups. So it's nothing personal, Naruto."

"No, I realized the same thing, which was why I decided to bring him back rather than wait until the last minute. I know it's important."

Kankuro chuckled. "I guess I should have explained more. But I know you wanted to spend time with him and Gaara never gets to visit people unless it's on business. I couldn't let him come all this way to be disappointed. Sorry I was so harsh."

"Don't worry about it."

"I probably got Gaara stressed out, too, with all my talk. I didn't mean to do that." Kankuro shrugged. "I'll let him know before his meeting if there's time. Either way, I hope you guys had fun."

"Tons."

"Great. I should have known I had nothing to worry about."

"Yeah. Heh heh."

"Ribbit. Ribbit."

Kankuro paused. "What was that?"

"Nothing."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gaara hopping by the building on all fours.

As Kankuro leaned to one side to look over Naruto's shoulder, Naruto threw out his arm to block Kankuro's view. "Ignore that."

Kankuro frowned. He grabbed Naruto's arm and forced it down, stepping out into the street.

"No..!" Naruto half whined, half moaned.

Kankuro stopped and stared open-mouthed at the redhead hopping around on all fours.

"G- Gaara?!"

He kept hopping. "Ribbit. Ribbit."

Kankuro ran up to his brother and bent down. "Gaara, what's wrong? What happened to you?"

Gaara kept his eyes closed. "Ribbit."

Kankuro spun around and glared at Naruto. "What the hell did you do?!"

"I..!"

"You what?!"

"I didn't… I don't know!"

Kankuro bent down again and tried to shake some sense into Gaara. "Why's he like this? What did you do to him?" Kankuro rubbed Gaara's back. "Gaara, can you hear me? Gaara?"

"I'm sorry. I don't know what happened."

Kankuro stood up. "What the hell happened to him?"

"I said, I don't know. He just started… Out of the blue, he…"

"He can't attend a meeting like this!" Kankuro shouted. "I should have known better than to trust you with him!"

That hurt. It really did.

While Kankuro kept trying to bring Gaara back to his senses, Naruto reflected on his actions.

He knew Gaara had a meeting but he kept stalling. He knew Gaara couldn't be late, but he kept coming up with excuses to make him stay longer. When Gaara couldn't, Naruto forced him to against his will with hypnosis. He knew Gaara had to be in good form for his meeting, but he messed with his head before he had to go in.

Gaara was his friend, but he was being selfish. He realized the importance of the meeting and Gaara's need to make a good impression a little late, but when he did realize it, he tried to return Gaara to normal. It blew up in his face, but his intentions were good. In the end, he just ended up making things worse.

Maybe Kankuro was right. Naruto shouldn't have been trusted with Gaara. He was in his care and he messed everything up before an important event.

He thought he was a good friend, but now…

"I'm sorry," Naruto said earnestly. "I didn't mean for this to happen. I'm sorry."

Kankuro was too busy with Gaara to respond.

Naruto numbly walked away. He wanted to make it better but every time he tried, he ended up making it worse. He didn't know what to do.

He stopped, looking around at the chaos around him. Everyone had converged on a single location. Lee was still trying to find a dance partner, Shino was still running scared from bugs, Neji kept speaking his mind no matter how cruel his opinion, and Gaara thought he was a frog.

How could he fix this?

"Naruto!" Shikamaru was calling for help. Kiba was biting his leg. Shikamaru tried kicking him off but he wouldn't go away. He just kept biting him. "Do something! Get him off!"

He didn't know what to do. He was afraid to make a move. What if he made it worse?

"Naruto," came another voice. This one was female. "What in the world is going on around here?"

He turned and saw Sakura with a horrified look on her face.

"Sakura, I…"

"Get it away!" Shino ran by and used Sai as a shield. This freed Neji up to carry out his plan to punch his relative and tutor in the face.

"Stop biting me, Kiba!" Shikamaru shouted, kicking him in the shoulder.

"Well, Naruto?" Sakura pressed.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto confessed the truth. "I used hypnosis on our friends and now they're like this."

"What? How did you..? Why did you do that?" she asked.

"I thought it'd be funny, but now I don't know what to do. I can't snap them out of it and anytime I try, I make things worse!"

"Kiba, stop it!" Shikamaru yelled again.

"He'll snap out of it if he hears a bell," Naruto told him.

"Does anybody have a bell?!"

Sakura moved aside as Lee pirouetted down the street. "How in the world did you do this?" she asked Naruto.

Naruto took out the jewel. "I used this. I got it at the shop we passed on the way back from the mission. Now I don't know how to fox this. I didn't mean for it to go this far. I didn't think it would be this bad."

"Can't you just tell them to return to normal?" she asked him.

"I tried that with Gaara and now he thinks he's a frog. I tried with Neji, but then when I changed Sai back, Neji started acting weird. I don't know how to fix this."

"Did you even know what you were doing when you hypnotized them?" she asked.

"No, he didn't. He winged it like an idiot," Shikamaru called from across the street. "Ow! Kiba! Ding, ding! There's the bell, now stop biting me!"

"It has to be a real bell, Shikamaru."

"I'm going to ring your bell in a minute!"

"Not before me," said Sakura. "And all these other people you've tormented with that jewel."

"I'm trying to change them back but I can't! I don't know what to do!"

"Sakura!" Lee grabbed Sakura from behind. "Dance with me! My soul is on fire as is my passion for you!"

"Lee, stop-" Sakura was pulled closer to Lee and he started spinning. "Ahh! Stop, Lee! Stop!"

He was holding her too tight.

"Lee!"

Naruto tried to pull them apart. "Lee, snap out of it!"

"I cannot stop dancing!" Lee cried out. "I am so full of energy and I cannot stop! I want to dance!"

"No, you don't. I just said you did. Now stop it! You're hurting Sakura!"

"Dance with me!" Lee pressed Sakura to his body.

"Stop!" Sakura shoved him away at the same time Naruto pulled Sakura backwards.

Naruto landed on his back but Sakura remained standing. As Lee moved to grab her again, Sakura stepped backwards. Seeing the heel of Sakura's boot come at his face, Naruto threw up his hands.

Sakura stomped her foot on the ground to brace herself and shoved Lee away from her.

Her heel just missed Naruto's head, coming down, instead, on the jewel on the ground.

When Naruto had fallen backwards on the ground, the necklace he had pulled out of his jacket landed beside him.

The force of Sakura's stomp shattered the jewel instantly.

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