Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Team ❯ Team - Together ( Chapter 4 )

Title: Team-Together

Author: Persephone-sings

Date: November 28, 2004

Author note: This is the last section of Team. I was going to end it at Gaara, but I decided they should all meet face to face first :)

Team-Together

Gaara blinked again, to make sure his two new teammates had really left the yard. They had.

Panicked, he wondered if Tsunade would really bring them up to see him so soon. Would they change their minds? How bloodshot were his eyes today? He hadn't noticed before he left his cramped apartment and he wished that he had. He glanced down at his clothes and rubbed ineffectively at wrinkles and the perpetual dust from his sand that always seemed to coat him as soon as he left the apartment.

His gaze landed on his gourd and he couldn't decide even now if his decision to leave the Sand Village and try to change his life was a good one. He didn't even know if he could do it or if he really wanted to put in the immense effort he knew would be needed. Would people even notice? And if they did, would they care? He had always been horrible at reading people and now that he was constantly in contact with them, he felt the loss much more than when he had been truly anti-social.

A muffled voice outside the door caused his sand to hiss in its container and he had to repress the instant reaction to defend or attack that still hit him every time he was in the company of others. The effort to repress it wasn't horribly large, but he could feel Shukaku writhing angrily in his mind at the constant repression. He could feel a headache come on and he brushed a hand against his temple, feeling it throb.

"Oi, old lady, what did he say?" Uzumaki Naruto, no just Naruto, now was outside the door. He imagined that Hinata accompanied Tsunade and Naruto. He wondered if it was because there was supposed to be safety in numbers. He also wondered if they truly knew that no number would matter. If he wanted them dead, they would be dead.

With a heavy sigh, Tsunade pushed open the heavy door and entered her office. If she noticed the young man standing defensively by the other exit (she wondered idly if windows truly counted as exits without stairs) she didn't mention it and neither did the other two.

Naruto bounded into the room and almost immediately Gaara had to fight down the urge to pin him to the chair to stop his energetic movements. His constant motion was upsetting to someone who preferred being still and Gaara knew his headache would get much worse before leaving the office.

Naruto threw himself into a chair and grinned at Gaara, waiting for some kind of response in return. Not knowing what he expected, Gaara nodded at him and shifted uneasily.

Hinata entered the room a few seconds after Naruto, though much more sedately, and Gaara was immediately grateful for her fluid, soft movement. It was soothing in a way, which irked at the Sand ninja more than he liked to admit. He wasn't used to having anything be soothing and he wasn't sure if he liked the way it made his shoulders relax a tiny bit or the fact that he could almost feel his sand settling back into the gentle rolling motion it made inside the gourd.

Seeing him watching her, Hinata sent him a timid smile, wondering exactly what she was getting herself into. He nodded stiffly back at her and she noticed the tension around his eyes and mouth. It made her feel a little better. He was nervous. She was nervous. And even though Naruto acted as confidently as he usually did, the set of his shoulders told her he was feeling the strain as well.

Tsunade cleared her throat expectantly and waited for the new team to turn their attention to her.

"I've met with you all privately, and you have all agreed to become teammates, am I correct?"

Naruto glanced at Hinata, who nodded, and then at Gaara, who just threw him a glance before turning back to Tsunade. Taking the cryptic look as a 'yes', Naruto smiled, if a little tightly, at his Hokage and said, "You bet your ass, old lady!"

Glaring, the young-looking old lady wrote out a physical note to knock Naruto upside the head after their meeting and continued.

"Then, with that out of the way, I don't have any Jounin available to monitor you, so I expect you to train on your own until I can find one I can spare. You know where the training grounds are, as well as the training scrolls, right?"

Naruto scratched his head, confused. "Training . . . scrolls? Why would we have training scrolls?"

"What, do you think we all just memorize everything from generation to generation? Think how messed up folklore gets after five generations of verbally being passed down! Can you imagine how horrible the jutsus would turn out? Che, I can't believe it. Did you ever go to class, Naruto?" Chuckling, Tsunade wrote down the location for the training scrolls and handed it to Hinata.

Taking the slip of paper, Hinata laughed, "Whenever he was in class, Naruto didn't manage to stay awake for more than ten minutes. It's a wonder he remembers anything at all from school."

Making a loud protest, Naruto turned to Gaara for support, automatically searching for another male in the room. Gaara, not knowing what he wanted, just watched him in confusion.

Seeing this as support for Hinata and Tsunade's comment, Naruto groaned and threw his arm across his forehead. "I'm defeated from all angles! Gee, man, we need to work on your support of your fellow man! We can't let women run all over us, you know!"

Knowing he had missed something, Gaara shook his head, hoping a 'yes' would be the answer Naruto was looking for. Apparently it was, and relieved, Gaara moved from his position by the window. He could feel Shukaku getting even more restless and he knew he would have to go hunting in the woods to feed his demon.

"I have to leave now."

All three people watched him go, wondering at the abrupt exit. Tsunade motioned for the other two to follow and Naruto immediately left, hollering for Gaara to wait up.

Hinata remained seated, obviously waiting for a moment alone.

"No Jounin available? No offense, Hokage, but isn't that a bit of an overstatement? I see Jounin all over the place but they don't seem to be on missions or anything."

Watching the young woman who seemed to catch every lie Tsunade tried to pass, she responded with a weary sigh.

"Those two guys will be so far ahead of any Jounin I have here within a week of training with the scrolls that it seems like a waste to assign one to your team when I could use them for missions and watch duties."

Eyes wide, Hinata ignored the omission of her name and spoke quietly, "I didn't realize they were so far ahead of everyone else. Why are they not Jounin then?"

Tsunade shrugged, "You know Naruto's reputation and you know Gaara's. You might not know why, but I imagine you've pieced together the puzzle from watching them fight. If I was to promote them to Jounin so quickly, the villagers would make their very lives a living hell. Sasuke and Temari and Shikamaru are another story altogether. Respected families, respected children, and admired abilities, those three have no problem being accepted. Naruto and Gaara, I'm afraid, will not. I know you're still wondering why I put you with them so readily. Your powers, admittedly, are far weaker than yours. But your potential is there for growth. I needed to take you out of your team, where they refused to train with you because they feared for hurting you, and put you into a situation where you absolutely need to grow in order to keep up. Also, and probably more importantly, I think you're the only person I can truly feel confident in to team up with these two. I think you can help develop their emotions and what they present to the outside world."

Hinata nodded absently, churning the thoughts in her head. The tremendous weight of responsibility weighed her down already and she wished that she knew how to start. Forgetting herself for a second, Hinata's hands starting fidgeting, something she had thought she had managed to break more than a year ago.

A warm hand covered her own, stopping their motion. "Hinata, it's alright. Look at it this way; you can't screw them up anymore than they already are, right?" She grinned proudly, already feeling the easing of responsibility. She had every bit of her faith resting on the slim shoulders of this young woman. " Feel better?"

Raising an eyebrow, Hinata idly wondered if Tsunade was drunk.

What had she gotten herself into?