Chapter 13: Into the Sand

“So, what’s the deal with this country? Why do they call it “Wind” when it’s so fucking HOT?” Naruto muttered in sweaty frustration. “Maybe if there WERE wind, it would be less miserable!” Ivy tightened pathetically around his waist, obviously unhappy with the arid environment. She hadn’t been nearly as active or annoying since they’d entered the desert and was pulling on his chakra enough that it was almost hard to ignore.

“Don’t mope. At least there’s no trees or anything here to jump you out of the blue.” Jiraiya quipped, his head turning to follow a skimpily clad kunoichi as she walked past them down the sandstone streets.

“Yeah, but that’s gotten a little better since Kaa-san gave me her necklace and there’s nothing else here, either! First there were nothing but dunes, and now there’s nothing but buildings, and guess what, everything is made of SAND.” Naruto flailed his arms around a bit to emphasize his point. “On top of that, you STILL haven’t told me what we’re doing here and why we had to creep in past the guards. Kaa-san never has problems getting into Konoha allied villages. I don’t like that we were all sneaky, sneaky about it! You didn’t let your paperwork lapse, did you?” His eyebrows furrowed, “You need to be more responsible!”

“Whoa, kiddo! You’ve been hanging around Shizune way too long.” Jiraiya glared. “I’ll have you know my passport is in perfect order, and I’ve got my reasons for being sneaky here. Besides, we’re NINJA. We’re supposed to be sneaky. Do you want to learn how to run a spy network or not?”

“Umm, actually, that’s not really my sort of gig.” Naruto answered honestly. “I like smashing things, mostly.”

His sensei sighed (11 year-old boys could be impossible sometimes – they never had their priorities straight), and pulled him into the lobby of the nearest shady looking inn. “Look, let’s get a nice room since we’ll be here a while, and then I’ll explain it all to you when we’re away from prying eyes and ears, okay? Don’t worry about the passport thing; I just want at least a day to look into things before making my presence known and as a very high ranking ninja and his apprentice of a closely allied nation, we’ve got 24 hours to turn in our paperwork. It’s a perk of being a Sannin. I can’t help it if your mom is too uncreative to use it occasionally.”

“Whatever.” Naruto muttered, “That rule makes no sense. You probably just want more time to come up with a good excuse.”

“Sometimes things need hand delivered to Kage in alliances with each other. Top secret stuff that needs as few paper trails as possible, and it helps to keep the allied parties honest if they don’t know for sure that there’s no one from the other village around. Ninja shouldn’t trust each other even in alliances. That’s why the rule’s there.” Jiraiya ignored his student’s grumblings of disbelief in favor of flirting with the pretty clerk behind the counter. She didn’t seem too impressed.

Normally, Naruto hated it when Ero-jiji went all flirty, but it actually expedited things in cases like this because the women were always really eager to get rid of them. Within five minutes, they had their room key and were headed up to the third floor to settle in. Though the inn had looked pretty shady from the outside, it was actually not that bad on the inside, and they’d gotten a pretty decent sized suite.

Naruto flopped limply back onto the bed closest to the window and next to the fan. It felt really good on his overheated skin. He shifted a bit uncomfortably to settle Ivy into a better position. She was kind of dried out and itchy and made disturbing crackling noises when she moved. “Okay, Jiji. Spill it.”

Jiraiya sighed and looked indecisive for a moment before sitting himself down opposite the brat and resigning himself to a guilty confession. He supposed he would’ve had to come up with something to tell the gaki sooner or later, anyway; he wasn’t going to like being left out of the action as it was. “Alright. I’ll tell you, but you’re not going to get involved, okay? You hang around, chase a few girls, learn a few wind jutsu, I don’t care, but if I tell you what’s going on, you’re going to promise to stay the hell away from it.”

The kid frowned and sat up. He’d rarely heard his godfather sound so serious about something. “What is it, Ero-sensei?”

“When I said I didn’t learn anything in Wave Country, I wasn’t being completely honest…My contact there said one of Orochimaru’s minions had been spotted in this area.” He winced, knowing he’d told Tsunade he’d try to let this sort of thing go, but he just couldn’t just yet. Not when information like this might be useful.

“O-Orochimaru?! Like the guy who got pissed off because Tou-san was named Yondaime and turned traitor to the village? You and Kaa-san’s old teammate, the mad scientist Orochimaru?”

“Yes. I’ve been keeping tabs on him whenever I could since he left, but he’s a slippery bastard. He’s a part of a missing-nin organization called Akatsuki that’s becoming more active lately after a long period where they seemed to sort of stall out. They want to collect the Bijuu for reasons I haven’t figured out yet but can’t possibly be good. Turns out Suna has a Jinchuuriki, and I think the bastard is trying to gather information on him.”

“There’s a Jinchuuriki here? Someone like me?” Naruto stood up so fast his head spun a little.

“Sit down, Brat!” Jiraiya barked, “Your secret is NOT to get out, understand? So you’re not going to go looking for him! Besides, rumor has it that he’s crazy. His Bijuu’s driven him completely nutso.”

Naruto frowned and began to pace, “You’re telling me that there’s someone in this city that could understand me and what I go through, and I’m not allowed to TALK to him? That’s completely not fair! How do you know he’s insane? Maybe his seal is just crap! We might be able to help him! No one else is as good at seals as you are or half as good as Tou-san was!”

“You’ve got NO IDEA what it’s like for a normal Jinchuuriki, Naruto. You have some chakra, problems? Big deal! Your mom, Shizune-chan, and me have managed to keep you safe from what being a vessel really means, and even if we hadn’t these people aren’t like Leaf Ninja! I’m sure his seal IS crap, but they probably did it on PURPOSE! That’s the kind of people most ninja are! Times haven’t been good here, and so these people don’t care about each other, only about power or keeping themselves alive. This is a harsh country with harsh rules, and you’re going to keep your head down while we’re here, or I’ll send you right back to your mother in Snow Country on my fastest toad! I should probably do that anyway!”

Naruto cringed. His godfather almost NEVER seriously yelled at him. He’d never heard him so stern before.

“I never intended to bring you here, but by the time I’d have found someone else to watch you, I’d have missed the operative, so this is how it’s got to be. The working window is too small for comfort as it is, but I’m not leaving this room until I’m sure you understand the dangers here, Naruto. This isn’t a game. If just ONE person aside from us finds out about the Kyuubi, your name could very well go onto Akatsuki’s list and BOOM, you’re looking over your shoulder for a pair of S-class nukenin for the rest of your fucking life – WHICH won’t be very long if they have any say in it! On top of that, one of those nukenin is Orochimaru, a man who killed scores of kids to study the bloodline YOU are the last to inherit.”

He jabbed a finger at Naruto’s chest, and continued, “Even without the Kyuubi, you’re in danger where that Snake is involved! Hell, the Akatsuki are collecting Bijuu; they may try to recruit you for the Mokuton if they’re trying to control that kind of power; they may even NEED you. You could be on their list already! We just don’t have enough information, and I’m not going to risk you more than I have to until I get it! The crap your mother would do to me would be nothing compared to the guilt I’d put myself through if they got their hands on you!” he raged.

Naruto had never seen his godfather so riled up about something. When he put it that way, it was hard to argue with the logic…“I-I’m sorry, Jiji. I didn’t realize…” He sighed, “I’ll stay in the room and won’t poke my nose into anything while you’re out. I’ll even only eat delivery food so I don’t have to leave.” Naruto wasn’t really used to feeling anxious about things, but he was smart enough to know when he was in over his head – at least if you pounded it into him for a while. Anything that got Ero-jiji so worked up had to be worth the caution.

Jiraiya sighed. He didn’t want the kid to start living in fear, but he needed to have some healthy respect for this situation, and honestly, he was a little soft for ninja life yet. He’d never had to make tough decisions or survive against adversity – the kind of thing that really makes a person strong on the inside as well as the outside. Jiraiya firmly believed in trial by fire and sink or swim, so maybe it was time to let go of the kid’s hand for a while…once they were somewhere safer. It was vital for a ninja to learn to harden themselves sometimes, and he’d be damned if his godson died because he’d been too soft on him.

He’d never said as much to Tsunade, but he had always wondered if that had been a contributing factor in Nawaki’s death. He’d never learned to make the hard decisions. A lot of Konoha ninja were just kind of thrown onto the battlefield, far too green in the head even if their physical skills were excellent. That was the one area where the harsher life of the other villages turned out much stronger ninja earlier on in their careers. Konoha genin were typically almost useless for a year or so. He sat down on the bed beside his godson and ruffled his hair affectionately. “You know I’m only so worried about you because I care, right?”

“Yeah,” he threw the older man a tentative smile, “I love you too, Ero-jiji.” He impulsively hugged the sennin like he used to when he was much younger. “Be careful, okay? It’s got to be dangerous for you too.”

Jiraiya returned the hug, fighting down an upwelling of fatherly affection for the brat. How the kid could turn someone’s emotions around so quickly, he didn’t know. It was almost ridiculous how easy it was to care about him – maybe there was something to Tsunade’s crackpot theory about Mokuton’s effects on people. “I’m not going out until a little later. Not much goes on around here during the day, and it’ll take some poking around to find out exactly who I’m looking for and where to find him.”

“Okay, but you still have to promise me you’ll be careful.”

“I promise.”

Naruto climbed off the bed and headed for the bathroom to see if soaking Ivy for a bit would perk her up or if he’d have to deal with her like this until they left. He wasn’t willing to put out the kind of chakra she needed to constantly keep herself in top condition in this heat, especially not if things had a chance of getting dangerous. He’d tried it a few times on the way here, but without knowing how to change his chakra into Mokuton chakra, the process was really inefficient and wasteful. Mostly he just flared his energy and she caught what she could, with a large part of it just seeping away whenever he tried to “feed” her, so he was stuck letting her pull what was absolutely necessary but no more than that.

When he reached the door, he had a sudden thought that kind of bothered him. He paused for moment and turned back, “Hey, Jiji…didn’t you promise Kaa-san, you weren’t going to go after Orochimaru anymore?”

Jiraiya’s eyes snapped up to meet his, and he frowned, “I promised I’d try to get over my issues with him, if she got over hers with Konoha. We all have different ways of getting over our issues. I have to know what he’s up to brat, especially if it could be dangerous for you.”

“Okay.” Naruto nodded, “I trust you…and I won’t tell Kaa-san, but I kind of agree with her that your obsession with him isn’t healthy.”

“You’re a good kid, Naruto. A really good kid.” The older man sighed, and then smiled, “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. I’ve just got to put my mind at ease here. I hope you never have to understand how I feel someday, because there’s nothing worse than having a comrade betray you like this. It’s not something you can just move past, but this is necessary, I promise.”

†

The sun was just starting to set when the hermit strapped his geta back on his feet and slipped his jacket back onto his shoulders. Naruto was dozing in front of the fan, a happily more damp Ivy curled around him protectively. The spritz down had seemed to help a bit, and she wasn’t as itchy on his skin anymore. Jiraiya sat down on the kid’s bed and shook him awake, deftly avoiding the plant’s attempts to slap him away. The damn thing was worse than Tsunade.

Naruto opened his eyes and blinked sleepily at his sensei, “Are you going out now?”

“Yeah. Don’t open the door for anyone but the delivery guy. Don’t leave the room, and work on that leaf cutting exercise I gave you for the wind chakra.” He ruffled the boy’s hair and stood up. “When I say stay out of trouble, I really mean it this time.”

“I will, Jiji!” Naruto sat up, “You be careful too. I won’t be there to save your ass, and when you start slacking off and whoring, make sure you use protection!”

“Why you little—“ Naruto laughed and dodged into the bathroom, slamming the door before he could be grabbed and properly noogied.

Jiraiya grinned and pounded on the door a few times for good measure, “Brat! I’ll be back before morning, and I’ve got a key, so don’t worry about letting me in.”

“Okay!” He called through the dividing wood. “Bye!”

†

Naruto was bored. Bored, bored, bored! He’d been trying to cut one of Ivy’s leaves (kindly donated) in half for the past two hours, but Jiji had suggested he approach it from a sort of meditative angle, and he wasn’t used to being this inactive for long periods of time. He’d ordered food a little bit ago, but it hadn’t arrived yet, and he was getting nowhere with this exercise. He just couldn’t seem to figure out how to make pure chakra cut things without molding it around something like his fingers for a chakra scalpel, and he’d never completely gotten the hang of that one, anyway. There had to be something he was missing.

He decided to take a break and went over to the window. There were way more people moving around down there than he was used to seeing active at night, but the desert environment was so hostile during the day that businesses stayed open later when the weather was cooler and much more inviting.

He started playing the “Who’s a Ninja” game where he tried to pick out which people passing below were civilians and which were shinobi without using his chakra senses. They wouldn’t have done him much good anyway since this was a Hidden Village full of people with active chakra. This was a game ‘Zune had come up with for him for endless boring stretches of road on their travels, or times when he had to sit quietly in a clinic with nothing to do but stare out the window while she and Kaa-san worked. It had variants like, ‘who’s a businessman?’ and ‘who’s a parent?’ but he liked this version best because there were rarely enough ninja around to use it and they were typically sneakier than a civilian. Well…in theory anyway…truthfully, ninja sometimes were way flashier than any “normal” people. Anyway, the game helped him be more perceptive and kept him busy instead of sneaking off to cause trouble, so it had always been highly encouraged in his youth.

It was also less destructive than “Kick the Log” and its variants.

Some ninja were harder to spot than others were. The pretty blonde girl on the corner was relatively inconspicuous, but the four ponytails in her hair were a little eccentric for a civilian, and she had a large metal thing with her that was probably a weapon of some sort and not a package from the nearby market. On the other hand, the boy on the other side of the street trying to blend in, was dong a horrible job of it. How could anyone not notice kabuki paint and a onesie with a cat hood? And that ‘don’t mind me, I’m just reading a newspaper!’ thing was so overdone…

Wait a minute…it almost looked like they were staking out this hotel.

The door exploded in a blast of sand.

†

“Have you found anything yet, Kabuto?” In a dark alley in a deserted part of town, a young man with silver hair and glasses knelt in front of a wavering, semi-transparent-red image. The only steady characteristics of the figure in front of him were the snake-like yellow eyes.

“Nothing concrete that we weren’t already aware of, Orochimaru-sama. The boy is the son of the Kazekage. Shukaku was placed in him during his birth, killing his mother, just as we had heard. I have not been able to confirm if he is insane, but it seems likely as that was the fate of the previous two human vessel attempts.” He paused to push his glasses up on his nose before continuing, “He has recently been named a genin and begun missions, but other than that, I am unsure. The people fear him to a great extent and are tentative to even speak his name. It’s as if they fear he will hear and kill them if they draw the slightest hints of his attention to themselves.”

“Worthless. We need to know his strengths, weaknesses, and what abilities he possesses. Sasori seemed very confident in your ability to infiltrate Suna and discover the Jinchuuriki’s vulnerabilities. Perhaps he overestimated your capabilities as a spy.”

“With all due respect, Orochimaru-sama, the Leaf has yet to discover my true loyalties, nor has my supposed master.”

“True.” The image flashed with colors and the man’s tone turned colder, “you have one more day, Kabuto. Do not fail me.”

“Of course not, Orochimaru-sama. You can depend on me.” Without further fanfare, he found himself completely alone once more, the apparition gone to wherever it had come from. “I will do all I can to help you achieve your goals.” He whispered to the night air.

†

“WHOA! What the HELL?” Naruto screeched. ‘Not cool, not cool!’ He gasped to himself, frozen at the killing intent radiating off of his visitor.

The boy standing in the wreckage of the doorway had red hair, dark rings around his eyes that Naruto would have recognized as marks of possession even if the newcomer’s chakra HADN’T raked across his nerves like nails on a chalkboard, and the kanji for ‘Love’ scarred into his forehead. In addition to that, his expression was as dead as he seemed to be trying to make the leaf genin.

Sand abruptly shot out of the gourd on his back, flying at the Konoha shinobi with incredible speed, forcing him to stagger back away from the deadly cloud. He instinctively knew it would be very bad if he let it grab him. It immediately lunged again, thick tendrils chasing Naruto around the room at the slightest gesture from the other boy, keeping him on his toes, destroying furniture, and damaging the walls and floors. “You are in Suna illegally.” The Suna-nin muttered, “I must feed your blood to Mother.”

‘What the hell? Was his mom some fucked up vampire? Naruto was aware he was being irrational, but he’d never been in a REAL life or death sort of fight before where he actually felt threatened, and he was a little panicked. He’d grown up his whole life knowing he had two of the most powerful shinobi in the world over-protectively watching his back, and as he was forced to scamper madly around the room, avoiding it’s other occupant and his threatening attacks, fear and adrenaline scrambled his mind too much to come up with a counter strategy.

He took a deep breath and jerked his mind into the game, pushing aside his fear and forcibly roping in his scattered thoughts before they got him killed. A flash of grit blew past his face, abrading his cheek before he could completely jerk out of its path. ‘You can do this. You are well trained, and he can’t touch you if you concentrate.’

Once he fought the panic down, it wasn’t too hard to keep ahead of the tendrils of sand; Naruto was fast and while the sand was too, he’d spent YEARS learning to avoid blows, it was completely reflexive or he’d no doubt have been dead in that first wave when he’d frozen up. Unfortunately, while it did seem to sputter oddly for some reason if it got near him and the Sand genin was starting to look a little frustrated at his prey’s constant escapes, the sand didn’t get tired and momentum was a powerful force. He did have more stamina than some small villages combined, but despite what his guardians liked to think when he was smaller, there was a limit to his energy levels. He wasn’t tired yet, but it was only a matter of time. He could see this “fight” playing out in his head, and he knew he’d have to try to go on the offensive soon if he couldn’t talk the other demon vessel down. He hoped Ero-jiji hadn’t been talking out of his ass about that 24-hour rule...

“I’m a Konoha shinobi!” he gasped, “We’re allies, and I’m here with a Sannin, there’s a 24 hour grace period!” ‘This is so not like training or beating up hired thugs! Damn it, his sand's so fast and he's hardly BLINKING – I-I could really die here!’ he thought, ducking under one long tendril of sand, and then back flipping to avoid another one. He landed hard in a low crouch and purposefully slid forward across the floor, covering his eyes from the spray of sand splashing against the wall above his head. He let himself fall flat on his back for the leverage he needed to kick his bed up on its side for some cover. This would be a lot easier in a more open space! “Aren’t you supposed to try and find out why we’re here and stuff before you start the killing?”

“…” the boy said, making it completely obvious he didn’t care.

Well, there was nothing for it; this was really dangerous, and if his calculations weren’t perfect, it would either be ineffective or the other boy would die, but he was having problems coming up with any other solutions in his current state of mind. ...He really didn’t want to hurt him. The other boy was a demon vessel just like him, but turned into this monster- so eager to kill, by the people in his own village!

He swallowed hard, and forced himself not to think about it too much because if he didn’t do something soon, the dead one here was probably going to be him. In that moment, his mind completely cleared and in one fluid motion he rolled away from his dubious cover and poised himself for a throw. A senbon slid out of one of his wrist sheaths hidden by his loose elbow length gloves - open at the knuckles for just this purpose - and was launched at the other sand genin faster than he could blink, even as the bottom half of his bed splintered into nothing at a particularly hard blast of sand, spraying the room in splinters, scraps of cloth, and grit.

The slim senbon flickered through the air faster than sight, either the touch of freakish strength behind the throw or the fact that his chakra just had that strange dampening effect on its power seemed to have made the redhead’s sand underestimate the force it would take to stop the weapon’s progress. It rose to block the needle but only managed to slow it down. The senbon continued through and pierced the boy in the neck, making his eyes roll back and the sand crash to the floor in a gentle hissing wave as his knees gave out.

Naruto fell ungracefully back on his ass, and sat panting on the floor for a moment, staring at his fallen opponent in disbelief. He could hardly believe that had worked…the amount of things that could have gone wrong if he’d missed the pressure point!...’Zune was getting a really big hug for the senbon training next time he saw her…

Oh, it suddenly hit him…Fuck, fuck, fuck! What if he’d killed him?! ‘Stop it, you’re a ninja. Calm down, and think rationally! It was him or you, and ninja kill people. Even if he’s dead, you were bound to kill someone sometime!’

Cautiously he approached the slumped figure and knelt down at his side to make sure he was okay. Fuck, if the shield had thrown off his aim…

If he’d hit true, the sand-nin should just be temporarily paralyzed until the needle was removed. He felt a sort of morbid gladness that he’d caught the kid off guard. There was no way that trick was going to work twice, and any ninja worth his headband should have been able to dodge that senbon after it had been slowed by the sand, but he’d seemed to put all his faith in that weird automatic defense technique, or he really HADN’T seen it coming. In the other Jinchuuriki’s defense, the sand wave would definitely have been hard enough to stop a normally thrown needle – Shit, it looked like it had sunk in much farther than he’d intended…

Sand flaked down from the wound in the boy’s neck and odd cracks spread out from around the puncture. Naruto’s frantically beating heart started to slow, and a rush of relief washed through him. His opponent was still alive. Holy fuck, he wasn’t ready to be a killer yet; he was only 11! His mother had said he was too young, she'd wanted him to be a mostly noncombatant medic-nin…His eyes closed briefly, maybe this whole ninja thing…NO, this was no time for doubts, there were still at least two more out there!

From his awkward position on the floor, the defeated kid’s eyes were wide and frightened, but he couldn’t move or speak. Naruto worried at his bottom lip. It was sad that he showed more emotion with his face paralyzed than during the entire rest of what to the blonde genin had been a terrifying and emotional ordeal. “Damn, you have no idea how lucky you are! It’s a good thing you’ve got this weird armor.” The Senju brushed at the sand around the wound, “I’m sorry, your sand block wasn’t fast or thick enough to stop that throw as much as I thought it would.” ‘-and if I hadn’t thought to correct the trajectory at the last minute to adjust for that--!’ He shuddered again. A little to the left, and the boy would have been paralyzed for life, not just until the needle was removed.

The adrenaline from the encounter started to go stale in his system. He forced himself to take calming breaths and not to shake. Ninja killed people, he reminded himself again…but if his first kill have been over a stupid misunderstanding? No use worrying about what hadn’t actually happened yet. He would have to get over this if he wanted to fulfill his dreams. Still, he wished his Kaa-san or ‘Zune were here to talk to about this…He just…hadn’t been prepared!... He’d wanted to be a ninja to save people and help them, not kill over stupid shit…

The redheaded shinobi apparently wasn’t dealing well with his near death encounter either, now that the action was over with. Naruto’s comforting words didn’t seem to reassure the other Jinchuuriki at all, but it was hard to tell since he couldn’t move to change his expression.

“Wh-What happened here? G-Gaara!”

Naruto spun to the window to see the black suited boy with the kabuki paint crouched on the ledge, he’d been too focused on his own inner turmoil and worrying over his opponent, that he hadn’t even noticed the other boy approach, ‘Stupid! Stupid!’ Don’t let your guard down in enemy territory!’ He was fucking this whole ‘first real ninja fight’ thing up in all directions. Wordlessly he prepared to defend himself again, promising mentally to be stronger and do better this time around.

“How-HOLY FUCK, you beat GAARA.” The strange new boy gasped.

“Er?” Naruto blinked, wasn’t he going to attack too? Tensed muscles began to relax again, as he rushed to explain. He knew he could take on another fight, physically at least he was almost completely unharmed, but he really wanted time to think all this stuff through before he was forced into another life or death situation – he was beginning to see why most shinobi were said to kill their emotions in battle, “He’s okay; I-I was really careful! He just won’t be able to move for a bit! It was all a huge misunderstanding; see Ero-jiji-er that’s Jiraiya, one of the Sannin-he wanted to wait a day to turn in our paperwork, and-“

“Gaara! H-How did you--?” The blonde girl he’d seen from the window appeared in the hallway and gasped at her first sight of the room. All three sand shinobi looked terrified now.

“He’s FINE!” Naruto reiterated, completely confused by their reactions and a bit annoyed at the repeated interruptions, but at least it was taking his mind off his almost first-kill. Both newcomers looked a weird mix between awed, relieved, and scared shitless. “Everyone calm down! I-I’ll let him go, see?”

He reached to remove the needle, only to be stopped by a shouted chorus of “NO!” from the sand shinobi.

“Okay, I’m confused.” He admitted, “Isn’t he your teammate, or something?”

“Um, well, yes – actually he’s our brother and our teammate, and we did have orders to capture you and the old guy you checked in with for illegal entry into the country but –“ The girl looked at Kabuki Boy who shakily pulled himself and a bandaged wrapped package the rest of the way inside the room.

“You beat Gaara…” was all the package bearing boy could contribute to the conversation. His mind seemed stuck on that one note. His expression had settled on ‘stunned’ and didn’t look like it was going to change anytime soon. “No one’s ever beat Gaara. No one’s ever even TOUCHED Gaara.”

The way he said ‘touched’ made it sound like he didn’t just mean he’d never been hurt in a fight. Naruto was relieved that it didn’t look like he’d have to fight again, but their attitude made him feel a little sick inside, well, sicker than he was already feeling, anyway. He…really didn’t like the picture this was adding up to. If people had known about the Kyuubi, that could have been him. This guy’s own siblings were treating him like he had some highly contagious and deadly form of the plague and trusting a suspicious foreign ninja over him. His village had turned him into a tool and a weapon and didn’t even have the fucking decency to treat him with basic human respect for it! ‘That could be me. If not for Kaa-san and ‘Zune and Ero-Jiji, that could be me…If MY own family treated me like that…’

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and forced his mind away from that for the moment and back to the issue at hand. “Umm, well, I’m sorry about the paperwork mix-up…if you’ll just wait here until my Sensei gets back…”

The other two looked at each other and tentatively shrugged, they had no idea what else to do in this situation, their minds almost unable to wrap around their brother’s seemingly simple defeat. Gaara actually LOSING, and to someone so young and relatively INNOCENT looking….well, that changed their entire WORLDVIEW. It was a complete paradigm shift. It was like hearing a fluffy bunny had kicked the ass of the boogieman under your bed that had terrorized you for years!

“Okay, now that that’s settled, do you think I can let him up?”

“NO!” They hurriedly chorused again.

“…I don’t like the way you treat him.” He frowned unable to reserve judgment anymore. He could understand their fear somewhat - Gaara did seem legitimately psychotic after all, but he was also FAMILY and it was no wonder he was murderous if this was the way he was treated! Nothing was more important than family, and leaving someone paralyzed like this for too long was really dangerous! He just couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that they seemed more scared of their brother than the "enemy" who had taken him down.

It was then Naruto noticed Kabuki Boy DID sort of look like he was going to wet himself after he'd criticized them, but that fear didn't make him feel any better, so he hurriedly continued, “-but I’m not going to hurt you over it! Jeeze! Take a breath! It was a lucky shot!”

“If his sand hadn’t seemed to lose a little of its power when it got really close to me, he probably would have won.” He mused more quietly, replaying the fight over in his head. Wow, that was kind of weird, come to think of it, and now that some of the adrenaline rush was gone, and he was starting to get a grip and regain control of his senses, he couldn’t help but notice his cheek and shoulder were tingling like when he had to deal with the Kyuubi’s power. But--his OWN seal was quiet…the back of his hand was kind of itchy too. He sighed, great – more girly leaf markings. Hadn’t this been a tough enough night for him already?

†