Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Team ❯ Team - Gaara's Reaction ( Chapter 3 )

Title: Team: Prequel to Precious

Author: Persephone-sings

Date: November 27, 2004

Team: Part One-Gaara's Reaction

Tsunade winced as she watched Gaara's fist slam into the top of her solid cherry wood desk.

"How can you do this? What are you thinking?" Tsunade sighed as she morosely observed the hand-sized dent now marring her once-beautiful piece of furniture.

"I should make you pay for that, you know." She mumbled under her breath as he turned away from her to glance out the window into the yard. She knew what he was looking at. His new team was waiting for her signal to come into the room and meet their third teammate.

He turned his head slightly towards her but didn't quite meet her eyes. "I apologize. But that is just one more reason why I shouldn't be placed on a team such as this! You're being purposefully dense about this, Tsunade. They can't handle me!"

Tsunade's heart went out to him, this young man not quite seventeen but who had already seen a lifetime of pain and suffering.

She understood his concern. His self-control still slipped sometimes, especially when he was agitated or concerned for other people. As he was now. Gaara of the Sand was supposed to be the most fearsome ninja of all time. 'A merciless killing machine who could finish any job' was how the Kazekage had advertised him to other villages. But she knew, after watching him in battle and even watching him in everyday life. Gaara was not a monster but he was afraid and alone and wary of others, which was precisely why she placed him in the team she had decided on. If he was to have a chance being integrated into Konoha, these two Chuunin ninja would accomplish it and would be able to help him.

"Gaara," She waited for him to turn fully and face her. "Why are you trying to become a Konoha ninja?"

His shoulders hunched defensively and his brows drew together. "I wanted to leave the Sand village. I want to try and find a way to live a better life than what I have been living."

She smiled at him and rose to join him at the window.

She nudged him with her arm and ignored when his sand flared up to stop her touch by reflex. "That's right, Gaara. You want to live." She nodded her head in the team's direction, the two ninja waiting outside. "So does he and so does she. They are just like you. Misunderstood, feared, ignored, underestimated in any category, and underappreciated."

He eyed his new team with something akin to interest before turning his head away.

"That makes me not want to be with them even more. I don't want to hurt them by mistake."

She shrugged, "To be honest, I'm not sure if you could. Didn't Naruto beat you the last time you two fought? And Hinata has grown much stronger than when you last saw her."

Gaara felt his eyebrow twitch at her mention of his most humiliating defeat.

"Thank you for that humbling reminder, Tsunade. It isn't really Uzumaki Naruto that has me worried." He tapped his finger against the glass windowpane at the young woman sitting next to the energetic young man. "It's her. She is too weak. No matter how strong she grows, Hinata has no monster inside of her like I or Naruto do. If I was to lose control, how would she stop me? I haven't had enough training to be able to always control Shukaku's calling. I would never forgive myself if she, an innocent and even my teammate, was harmed."

Throwing him a grin, Tsunade, with a confidence even she didn't quite feel, said, "Well then, guess you'll just have to not lose control then, eh?"

He looked at her, disbelief clearly written on his face. "You certainly don't ask for much, do you?"

Tsunade hummed in mock sympathy and swung around to march to the door. With her hand on the doorknob, she stopped and turned back to him.

"Gaara, I wouldn't have placed them with you if I didn't think all three of you could handle it. Remember, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!" With that, she swept out of the room to bring up the next team member.

Gaara watched her go with troubled eyes. His gaze was once again drawn back to the two ninja laughing together outside. His eyes widened when he saw that they had stopped laughing and instead appeared to be looking straight at him. The back of his neck prickled and he resisted the urge to rub it.

Prepared for them to turn away in disgust or fear or hate as he was used to, instead, Uzumaki Naruto gave him a great big wave of his arm from one side to the next, almost knocking into his friend. Hyuuga Hinata watched him a second longer and then sent a small smile up to him.

His hand lifted to rub unconsciously at his chest over his heart. He couldn't decide which act affected him more: Naruto's very open greeting or Hinata's conservative, private hello.

Slightly panicked, he couldn't think of how to reciprocate their greeting but by the time he had thought to wave back (he wasn't sure, later on, if he would even have been able to return their gestures), they were gone.

He lifted his eyes heavenward and sighed. If this didn't work, he wasn't sure what he would do.