Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodthirsty - Friendship ❯ Watching the clouds ( Chapter 3 )

Thanks ALOT for the reviews. *Stares* If there is anyone here that is reading "Stay with me!", I would most likely want to apologise for not writting to it right now, but I needed to writte this one fast. I'm a Gaara addicted. Well, anyway, enjoy!

Note: Lee has undergone surgery and it was 100% successful. In this fic, I whiped out and ignored the fact that Sasuke left the village with the Sound nins. (It would ruin it)

Summary: The new Chuunin selection exam is comming up, but before that Naruto wants to help Gaara at changing his habits, and getting him some friends, and hopefully, help him develop the bounds he has with his family and the whole village. But what can Naruto do to help him? Since he is also an oucast at his own village. But of course, first he has to arrive safely to Hidden Sand Village. :)

Pairing: No Shonen-ai (sorry). Shikimaru+Ino, Sasuke+Sakura, Naruto+Hinata, Chouji+ ... (not telling!), Neiji+TenTen, and lots of friendship.

Genre: Comedy, General.

Rate: PG-13 (for some cursing)

Spoilers: Mmm... Yeah I guess it has. If you haven't seen through Tsunade's saga, STOP or you might not get some stuffs. But, it doesn't really have that many spoilers, I think!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Naruto. Although I'd sure like that.

Bloodthirsty - Friendship

*By: NightAngel*

Chapter 3: "Watching the clouds"

Naruto raised his brows and finally decided to look up. What he saw startled him. But what he did next startled everyone else. - "GAARA!" - he got up in a flash. - "Long time no see." - as if they were long time friends, he hugged the other guy. Everyone in the street stared and then suddenly began to panick, yell and run. - "What's up with this village? Wow! They run fast!" - Naruto looked around, to find only smoke from the people's runaway.

"They know better than to hug me." - Gaara stated, showing no emotion at all.

"What are you talking about? We're friends now right?" - Naruto asked with a smile.

"Gaara of the desert has no friends." - Gaara added coldly. (No! I don't hate him. Gaara-kun is my favourite character of all times so go easy on me. Trying to keep him in character, without having to kill Naruto.)

"Oh shut up! Why do you act so cold? You'll never have friends if you keep acting like that." - Naruto asked, wizely.

"I said ..." - Gaara added, although he actually wanted to have friends, but he was not about to show that to Naruto.

"Yeah, yeah! I hear 'ya! Tell 'ya what we'll do. I have the afternoon free, and so I'll donate my precious time to your benifit." - Actually Naruto didn't knew very well what he had just said.

"What?" - Gaara asked, making a face.

"I'll help you get more sociable. Lets start with the people from the village." - Naruto started dragging Gaara behind him.

"I don't care about the village and the village doesn't care about me." - Gaara tried in vain to stop Naruto from dragging him, but to no avail. He could always use his sand and squash Naruto, but that wouldn't be very polite, since stupid Naruto was being nice to him.

"Yeah, right! Let's do it" - Naruto started looking around, trying to find someone that might need help on something. He spotted an old lady, carrying a great ammount of bags. - "Perfect. See that old lady?" - Gaara seemed unitersted. - "Go and carry the bags for her."

"Why?" - Gaara asked bored.

"Because then you'll be helping someone from the village, and then the village will start liking you better if you help. Go on." - Naruto almost kicked Gaara into going.

"She'll just yell her head off and run away." - he said.

"You'll never know if you don't try." - Naruto cheered. - "Go on." - Gaara sighed but decided it wouldn't hurt to try.

"Old lady. I'll carry those bags for you." - and without further notice he took the bags from the old ladie's hands. The women looked up and yelled her head out before running out.

"I told you she would do that." - Gaara said, standing there with the bags in both his hands.

"NO! You total moron! You can't just take the bags from people. What the hell do you think you're doing?" - Naruto was about to kill Gaara, but contained his anger. - "Well, let's try this again. You don't simply come and take the bags."

"Then what am I supposed to do? I thought you said I was supposed to take the bags." - Gaara said annoyed.

"Yeah, but you have to ask kindly. Just watch me and learn." - Naruto spotted a middle aged woman that was carrying a child in her arms, along with a bunch of bags. Gaara watched amused as Naruto made his way there.

"What's he going to do?" - he muttered under his breathe.

"Excuse me! Do you need help with those?" - Naruto asked with a smile.

"Why, thank you young boy. That's very kind of you!" - Gaara was shocked. So that's it? He had to be polite. No way!

He fallowed Naruto and to the lady's house, and the lady invited Naruto for lunch, but he refused politely. Then he walked back to where Gaara stood.

"See? It's as easy as that." - Naruto grinned, with his hands on the back of his head.

"No!" - Naruto gave him a "Hugh?" and he continued. - "I'm not lowering myself to that. Why should I be polite to the very same people that keep on trying to kill me? Not doing it. No!" - Naruto watched him dumbfounded.

"Do you or do you not want to make friends and make the village like you?" - Naruto yelled at the other boy.

"I don't give a damn." - «I always wanted to say that.» Gaara thought.

"Dumbass!" - Naruto hit him on the head, which earned him a death glare. - "You don't scare me! Now, behave and do as I tell you, or you'll never change."

"I don't want to change. I want others to change." - Gaara said finally.

"Right! Then sit down and wait till you die, because there's no way in hell others will change their ways if you don't try to change yours." - Naruto said wisely, with his eyes closed.

He didn't hear any reply from Gaara so he opened his eyes. The other boy was seating on the floor, very calmly.

"What are you doing?" - Naruto asked, e vein popping out from his head.

"Wainting, just like you told me to." - Gaara stated calmly.

"You ... IDIOT!" - and Naruto whacked him across the head once again.

"What are you doing!" - Gaara lost his temper. - "That hurts stupid!" - he yelled.

"Good! Now lets proceed with the plan. You'll aid the people from this village, and you'll do it the right way." - Naruto crossed his arms and looked threatningly at Gaara, who didn't seem one bit disturbed.

"Alright, have it your way! But I'm telling you, everyone will just yell and run." - Gaara sighed heavilly.

"We'll see about that."

...

Three hours later, 22 helps later and 22 screaming citezens later:

Naruto watched dumbfounded as yet another villager yelled his head out and ran away from Gaara, faster then he knew possible.

He saw the sad look in Gaara' face and sighed heavilly. This was more tiring and harder then he had thought.

"Hey, don't worry, they'll eventually start understanding that all you want to do is help. Just don't give up alright?" - Naruto patted his *friend's* shoulder, in hopes of rising his spirit.

"Can we stop for today? I'm tired Naruto." - Gaara was really down. At first he didn't want to do it, but thruth was that he had hoped to at least find a nice person among the ones he had tried to help. But all of them ran off before he could even blink.

"Maybe tomorrow you should try and wear some different clothes. Some people wouldn't recognise you and would let you help them. How about that?" - Naruto smiled.

"Whatever." - Gaara said, trying to hide his smile. He had a good time with Naruto, despite everything.

"Come on! Let's find a nice place to sit down and relax." - In the sand village there were no green places, it was all covered in sand, but fortunetly Gaara knew of a nice place for them to rest.

"There!" - he said walking beside Naruto, who, as usual had a grin in his lips.

"Mou ... It's actually a pretty nice place." - It was the top of a hill, and although there was no grass, the place had no sand either, it was all rocks. - "Should be a nice place to watch the sunset." - Naruto said happily.

It was. Gaara often came there to think. And he smiled when Naruto jumped from rock to rock, and almost fell over.

"Shikimaru?" - the dark-haired boy looked up and sighed. He wanted to be alone and now the hypercative Naruto and the bloodthirsty Gaara were there to crash that. Wait a minute! Did he say Bloodthirsty GAARA!

"Uah! What's he doing here Naruto?" - Shikimaru got up quickly and got into fight stance.

Naruto grabbed his hands and lowered them. - "What are you doing? Gaara is my friend. So quit being so noisy."

"Your ... friend?" - Shikimaru grabbed Naruto collar and shaked the hell out of him, a very Ino-ish thing. - "Are you out of your mind? That's the same guy that once tried to kill us. The one that enjoys killing people. I'm not ready to die yet." - Naruto watched him and then started laughing hard. - "What's so funny." - Good he hated when people started laughing on him.

"Relax, I'm not into killing anyone today." - Gaara assured him, as he sat down on a nearby rock. Shikimaru almost jumped.

«How can I relax when you're so close?» Shikimaru thought.

"Sit down and enjoy the view." - Shikimaru blinked. Was Gaara being nice? No! That was not a possiblity. But he sat down besides Naruto that was laying down on his back.

"Look Gaara!" - Naruto pointed out to one cloud. - "That cloud reminds me of Akamaru."

"Who's Akamaru?"

"Akamaru is Kiba's dog. You saw our fight right? Doesn't it have a resemblense?" - Naruto asked smiling yet again.

"Are you comparing a cloud to a dog?" - Gaara asked cluelssely.

"No idiot! You watch the clouds and say what they remind you off. Look, that one seems a cup of ramen. Yumy!" - Gaara almost laughed. Naruto was a ramen addicted.

"I think it seems like your head, after Sakura punched you." - Gaara said funnily.

"What? You're mean." - Shikimaru was amused. Gaara was actually smiling and having fun with that kid's play. He was about to say that it was all so boring and childish, but the way Naruto and Gaara were actually having fun, brought a smile to his lips. Maybe that Gaara guy had actually changed.

"I agree with Gaara. It's defenitly you with a purple eye and some broken teeth." - Shikimaru laughed when Naruto started whining and complaning on how mean they both were.

Shikimaru didn't complain anymore after that, and they satyed till night had come, and they couldn't see more clouds.

"Well Gaara, see 'ya tomorrow. Meet me on that place at 9 a.m.. Alright?" - Gaara nooded and left with a small "Goodnight" to both shinobis. - "Are you going back to the hotel?" - Shikimaru nodded and they both walked side by side, not saying a word, but both having a smile on their lips.

************************************************************

Na ruto jumped tree stairs at a time, going up to his room at the hotel. Shikimaru had found Ino on the way there, and the two started arguing and Naruto decided that disappearing would be a good idea. He opened the door to his room, with a smile on his face.

"Goodnight everyone!" - he blinked a couple of times before registering the image right in front of him. Sasuke was seating next to Sakura, on the edge of her bed. They were seating very close and they both blushed like mad when Naruto got in. - "Sorry! pretend you didn't see me." - Naruto was about to leave again.

"Naruto-kun." - he turned around to see Sakura running his way, with a worried face. - "Where were you all day? We were worried." - Sakura asked still blushing.

"Didn't seem like it." - he muttered. - "Au!" - he yelled when Sakura bumped him on the head. - "I left a note. Didn't you see it?" - he said, rubbing the back of his head, where Sakura had hit him.

"Yeah, but it said nothing specific. What have you been doing anyways." - she asked as they walked inside and closed the door.

"I went out to see the village and to get used to the weather here. This coutry is really hot!" - the other two nooded in agreement. - "How should you know? You've been inside all day? What were you two doing while I was out?" - Sakura blushed, and before Naruto could say anything else, Sasuke charged at him and threw him to the air.

"Kya!!!" - Naruto yelled when he hit his head on the roof.

"Stop thinking perverted things, dobe." - Sasuke yelled blushing.

"Well you two gave the ideas." - Sasuke was ready to kick him again, so he quickly hid behind Sakura. - "Sakura-chan protect me." - he pleaded.

"Sasuke-kun just forget it, you know how he is. Ignore him will you?" - Sasuke sighed and sat back on his bed.

"Whatever!"

Naruto sighed reliefed and laid down on his own bed.

"So? You spent the whole afternoon doing nothing?" - Sakura asked, siting next to him. Naruto could swear he heard a growl from Sasuke, so he smiled.

"Nope! I was helping Gaara!"

"WHAT?" - his teammates yelled together.

"You mean *the* Gaara? The same one that trapped me with sand against a tree and threatned to kill me?" - Sakura asked dumbfounded.

"Yeah! That's him alright." - Naruto grinned.

"WHY WERE YOU HELPING HIM?" - Sakura and Sasuke yelled at the same time.

"Well, the guy, for once is my friend now, and also because the villagers don't like him all that much and I thought he needed help with that issue."

"That coming from the outcast of our village ..." - Sasuke said.

"That doesn't mean I can't help him here. Well, at leats I try!" - Naruto rolled over, turning his back to his teammates.

"Naruto, Sasuke-kun didn't mean it that way. Listen, what was that about you and Gaara being friends?" - Sakura said while patting him on the back. (Yeah, they are pretty friendly now, and if you notice, on the Manga too. So she's not all that out of character.)

"ISN'T IT GREAT?" - Naruto got up so fast that Sakura fell off. Lucky enough, Sasuke caught her in time. - "Sorry about that Sakura-chan. But listen. When I saw him and said hi and hugged him like a friend, I was kindda afraid he would kill me or something. But he didn't and then I decided to help him and he actually listened to everything I said, and ..." - Naruto was so happy, that it took him a while to notice the faces Sakura and Sasuke where making.

"You ... HUGGED HIM?" - Sakura got up and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him violently. - "Are you out of your mind. What if he killed you? What then, hugh?"

"Sa-ku-ra-chan ..." - Naruto said dizzily.

"Ups! Sorry about that Naruto." - she sat down next to Sasuke and watched as Naruto fell back to the bed, recovering from the violent shake.

"She's right, Naruto. Are you even from this planet?"

"Listen, I wanted to help him. I know how it feels to be an outcast. I know how it feels to have something you don't want inside of ..." - Naruto trailed off. He had said too much. He looked at his teammates and gulped. He didn't want them to know, not now, not ever. If they knew he had the fox demon sealed in him, they would hate him and he would be left alone. He didn't want that. Not from them.

"Dinner time!" - Kakashi suddenly opened the door and came in with a smile, hidden by his mask.

"Hurray! Let's eat." - Naruto silently thanked his sensei for intruding in like that, but he knew that sooner or later Sakura and Sasuke would question him, and he knew he wouldn't be able to lie to them.

"What's wrong? Sasuke, Sakura? Aren't you two hungry?" - Kakashi asked his students that hadn't moved an inch. Sakura jumped and putting on a false mask, smiled and fallowed Naruto down the hall. Sasuke also got up, but with a frown, then he faced his sensei.

"Is there anything about Naruto that we don't know but should know?" - Kakashi eyed him for a second and then smiled.

"That's up to him to tell you. Don't you think?" - and he walked down the hall without another word. Sasuke sighed, and putting his hands on his pockets, fallowed close behind.

*Cough* I wanted that to sound a little more sentimental, but I failed miserably. I still don't know if in this fic I'll let them know about the Kyubii (is that how you writte it?). But I'll think about it.

Hope you enjoyed it. Please review!

***

{Ana Nunes}