Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Actions Speak Louder ❯ Relaxing in the Earth Country ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Who knew the Country of Earth was so warm during the summer, the heat was unbearable, it was such a different heat than the desert. Ura was dying in her room, she was going to melt into sweat and water if she didn't get cool soon. There were no lakes or ponds in this country, she was stuck... Then a thought came to Ura, but she knew Baki would never approve of such an idea, but her sensei wasn't around to get mad at her. She put her hari bag at her side, Ura decided she was going for a walk, with or without her team.

Ura walked down the hall, no one was around, but when she was about to walk passed the training room, Temari, Kankurou, and Baki were inside that room. She peaked in and saw that Baki was helping them train, so he was too busy to notice her about to leave without permission. Ura acted like she wasn't doing anything that would get her in trouble and continued to walk down the hallway. Besides, she turned a new leaf, Baki would never expect a quiet girl to leave without him noticing, but this was the new Ura, someone who was going to take a chance.

She was about to leave, until she felt a firm hand on her shoulder, "Where do you think you're going?"

It was Baki...he turned her around, "Care to explain your escape?"

"I was just..uh...uhm...going to...do something," Ura was a terrible liar.

Baki threw her to the ground, far from the door, "If you go out there with that sign on you, you'll be dead within seconds. Now get up and get to the training room, you're slacking off again."

Grudgingly, Ura went back to the training room, she would wander around later when Baki wasn't around. Temari leaned against the wall as Kankurou was fixing up Karasu. Kankurou notice Ura walk in, so he smirked, "Baki send you here too?"

"Yes..." she sat down on the target next to Temari, "It's just really hot and boring here..."

"Tell me about it..." Temari yawned, " The desert heat is more relaxing than this..."

Baki then walked in, Gaara entered after his sensei, but leaned against the wall next to the door. Their sensei stood in front of them all, "Congradulations, we finished the mission, all we need to do now is take back the headband to the Kazekage, then we can travel to Konoha for your Chunin Exams."

"Chunin Exams? What's that?" Ura spoke up to ask.

Baki explained what they were, then he handed her a pamphlet, "The rest of the team decided to go, but if you do not join, none of them are able to go until next examination. Sign on the line when you decide, choose wisely, because once you join, you can't go back."

Ura looked at it, she didn't know if she really wanted to go or not, but when she looked back up to ask another question, Baki was gone. Gaara had left as well, so did Temari, and Kankurou left Karasu in the training room. She was alone in the training room, dwelling if she should go or not...

*I'm not that strong yet...sure I was able to kill a few mercenaries, but we're talking about other ninjas now. I'll have to compete with a lot of other Genin, plus i'm in a four-man team, if I die, they'll be able to go on... But if I don't go....we'll all have to stay back another year....and they'll hate me....They've been Genin longer than I have, and I just joined because I worked so hard... I don't know...on one hand I wanna say 'yes' because then I can prove myself to Gaara...and on the other hand I wanna say 'no' because i'll know I won't stand a chance against anyone. On second thought, i'll deal with this later, right now...I just wanna clear my mind...* Ura stuck the pamphlet in her pocket and went to the meditating room.

She lit a few scented candles, sat on a mat in front of a Budha statue, place the pamphlet next to her, then began to meditate, centering her chakra to expand it. It felt nice to only sit in silence, the feeling of serenity surrounded her as she imagined she was just running in the desert, no one chasing or was she chasing anyone, just running because she could. The candles wafted off the scent of sand, if it even had a smell, and it reminded Ura of her home, and how good it felt to sleep under the stars in the warm air. Plus, the feeling of sand wrapping around her wrist...wait...sand wrapping around her wrist? That never happened before... Ura's eyes shot open when she saw her wrists below were lightly squeezed by sand, "Wh...what!?"

"Shut up, you will sign the paper," Gaara's dark voice damaged the silence, her forced her around with his sand to make it clear.

Ura wasn't terrified about the evil look on Gaara's face, or the fact that he could break every bone in her hand if he wanted to, no...it was the sudden choice that terrified her, she didn't want to die in the examination. She got on her knees and tried to pull away, "I-I will..."

Gaara freed her hands from the sand, but didn't move, he wanted to see her sign it in person. Ura calmed down, got the pamphlet, and found a pen near Gaara's feet, then she signed it, "There, I signed it..."

"If you get in my way during the Chunin Exam...I swear i'll rip you apart," Gaara turned and left.

Ura sighed, then looked down at the little piece of paper Gaara wanted her to sign so badly enough to threaten her life...again... It's only been a day since he had last threaten her...why was she counting them anyways? One of these days, Ura was going to get tired of that...

She left the prayer room and then noticed how late it actually was, it was nearly sundown. Kankurou and Temari were at the balcony, just hanging out, and Gaara was on the rooftop, getting ready to spend the entire night awake. Ura, however, didn't know where to go, she wasn't in the mood to talk with Kankurou and Temari, and she didn't want to bother Gaara...so she went to the training room, her hands were wrapped up in bandages, and she began her nightly training.

**The Next Day**

Ura's hands were so sore of training all night, but she was getting a lot better, though she was sacrificing her sleep for strength. She fell on her bed and got a few hours worth of rest, but it wasn't enough to keep her from getting a bt edgy.

"Well there you are, we're leaving in a half hour, you better be ready or else Baki will be even more pissy with you," Kankurou entered Ura's room.

"Yeah I know..." Ura got up from her bed.

"Hey...what's wrong? You look exhausted," Kankurou stood in front of her, "You're not getting sick hopefully..."

"No...I trained all night, Baki said I was slacking so I strengthened myself up," Ura yawned.

Kankurou rolled his eyes and scratched his headgear, "Look...if you keep that up, you'll never be focused when you're in a battle..."

Ura put some of her loose items in her bag and strapped her weapons onto her, "I'm ready..."

"Go back to sleep, i'll wake you before we leave, you need to get some rest though," Kankurou stated as he left the room.

Against his orders, Ura followed him out and had an apple in the kitchen to get something in her stomach. Kankurou nagged on her for a few more minutes, but then gave up when he realized she had tuned him out. He sat across from her, his head gear off, and toyed with his headband, waiting for something to happen. Temari joined the kitchen and looked around, "Where's Gaara?"

Kankurou then perked up when he heard that question, "I thought you were watching him!"

"You said you were going to watch him today!" Temari stated.

"Today was your day of watching him!" Kankurou fell off of his chair to snap at Temari.

"You idiots!! Both of you were supposed to be watching Gaara! Now we can't find him!" Baki stormed into the kitchen as well, "Take off your head bands and go find him, he has to be somewhere..."

They all gave him their head bands, then set off to search for their missing teammemeber, Kankurou went to look in the northern area of where they were located, Temari to the south, Baki looked anywhere he pleased, and Ura looked in the rocky region. Ura couldn't find Gaara anywhere, but she had an eery feeling about the place she was looking through. The rocks were abnormally sharp as razors, and were as tall as the Kazekage's mansion.

"Gaara...you have to go back to the shrine, we're going to leave here in a few minutes," Ura called out.

No answer, so she leaped to the top of the rock nearest to her, got her balance, and looked around. She could see a small figure in the distant, it was at the top of a reall, really, steep, tall, dangerous cliff. When she looked even harder, she knew who it was, it was Gaara looking into the distant, and Kankurou, Temari, and Baki were far from where Gaara was at. Relieved that she found him alive and safe, she ran to where he was and ran up the mountain. She stood a few feet behind him, then said, "We have to go back to the shrine, Gaara, we're going home now..."

Still, no answer... This was one of those times Ura thanked her parents for giving her such a long, long patience. When she was about to speak again, repeating what she had said before, Gaara finally stated, "I heard what you said...now get away from me..."

Ura tugged on the bottom of her umbrellas, before she had found him, Ura was worried that Gaara was hurt somewhere, that someone stronger than him got to Gaara first. And this was how he was repaying her anxiety? With hatred and resentment? Gaara could hear her tugging harder on her umbrella, then he turned slightly to her, "You're wasting my time... Your blood will not satisfy my feeling of being alive..."

*Meaning in Gaara's language: You're not good enough...* Ura thought to herself, a bit hurt, but then brushed it off, to make Gaara see how strong she was, she had to act stronger than him.

"I'm not leaving until you go back to the shrine... Baki, Temari, and Kankurou are all looking for you, you should at least make an attempt on showing you actually plan on going back," Ura stated, "I'm not going back empty handed...."

Gaara eyed her, and Ura had a feeling she was pushing him to his limits, but she stood her ground. He narrowed his eyes on her, "One way or another, i'll kill you, it's written in stone..."

"Don't count on it, Gaara, i'm going to be alive for a very long, long time," Ura had the courage to say.

Gaara heard a part of it, then disappeared with his sand, leaving Ura all alone on the cliff. Of all the times she felt like she was going to die was that moment, the wind was blown out of her by her conversation with Gaara. It was like he was draining the life out of her each time they spoke to one another, for once, she would like one conversation to lead to something other than both going away angry or stessed. She sat down, now they could go look for her, Ura was just too tired to do anything at the moment.

*When will Gaara see...is he that blind?* she thought to herself as the wind wrapped around her.

"Look...a foriegn girl..."

Ura didn't care that there were two Rock Shinobi behind her, she'll run when they get too close, but until then, she'll just dwell. Then, one appeared in front of her, she just looked up at him with a sad look, "Go away..."

He smirked, he looked like he was around his early forties, a bit old to still be playing ninja, but young enough to still pack a punch. Ura got up and pulled out both her umbrellas, talk was over, she was mad and someone was going to pay. The two men pulled out their kunais and prepared to attack, but Ura threw both umbrellas in the air, doing a few handsigns, she glared at the men, "Rain of Blood Jutsu."

Instantly, the umrbellas twirled around, sending all the hari at the two men while Ura ran at them with her own hari in her hands. She swirled around, like in a swift dance, Ura had both her arms out to her sides, slashing their bodies like it was nothing. They didn't stand a chance to her, both fell to the ground, limbs and pieces of skin scattered the cliff top. Ura caught her umbrellas as they fell to the ground, putting away all the hari she had used.

"Impressive..."

Ura turned to see Baki with a friendly smirk on his face, "So this is how you fight? I haven't seen you use that jutsu before, where did you learn it?"

"I taught it to myself," Ura was a bit embarressed that he had watched her fight without mercy.

"Really? Maybe you aren't going to fail the team after all, you may be one of the strongest on the team," Baki held her pamphlet in his hand, "I'll be more than willing to approve your name into the Chunin Exam, seeing how you can control your chakra, use jutsus with little flaw, and have the ability to control your emotions during battle."

"Thank you for your comments..." Ura finished strapping on her weapons, "Did Gaara return?"

"Yes, he's waiting for us to come back so we can go... You four will have a week before we leave to go to Konoha, Kankurou informed me on how long you've been training. I can't say 'keep it up' because of the physical toll it's taking on your health. Get a lot of rest Ura, you're now a valuable member to the team," Baki explained.

Baki and Ura managed to get back to the shrine to see the others, then they set off in a run back to their home. Within a full days run, they made it back in one piece, Ura collapsed in the sand, but Temari got her back up with one swift bang on the head with her fan... There, Ura went to the rooftop of the Spiritual Temple to get some rest, and to feel safe with the spirit of the dead around her.