Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Team ❯ Team Ice Cream ( Chapter 6 )

Title: Team: Part Six

Author: Persephone-sings

Date: 12/8/04

Author's note: Sorry about the delay, I've hit finals week and a good friend of mine is getting married and I'm a bridesmaid so I had to take all my finals early and it was so insane...anyway...part six is up!

Team: Part Six

She must have been insane to agree to this.

Hinata fumed silently as she paced around the classroom. Never had she met two moodier people than her male teammates. It was ridiculous!

She said as much to the two pouting men sitting in the front row.

Naruto dropped his chin into his cupped palm and glared at her. "I'm not doing that. It's stupid. How is that supposed to make me stronger? Who's idea was it to get those worthless jutsu scrolls anyway?"

Hinata sighed, resisting the urge to scream and pull at her hair in despair. They hadn't even made it through the first scroll yet and it had been over two weeks! Those two put up a fuss about every task, every lesson, every word they had to memorize. It was exhausting enough for her that by the time they made it out into the field to practice, her stamina was almost nothing. Which, of course, did nothing to appease her demonically-aided companions. Those two could go for hours and hours doing the same thing.

She leaned back against the desk in the front of the classroom, "Naruto, this is to help develop scouting abilities, we've discussed this already."

Gaara snorted in disdain and turned his glare from the desktop to Hinata.

"What a waste of time." Ever since their last meeting with Tsunade, Gaara had been very cold and very distant. Hinata had gone into the team with this grand vision of helping Gaara turn his personality completely around to be the kind, caring, emotionally stable person she had created for him to be. But when they had finally found him that same day, Hinata had seen Naruto sniffing at Gaara discreetly and then backing away slightly. She hadn't understood until Naruto had told her later that Gaara had reeked of blood.

And even though she knew Gaara was infamous for his bloodlust, she had never been alone with it. Nor had she had to deal with his changing moods. Completely different from the Gaara that had stood defensively in Tsunade's office, the young man who had met them at the gates to the village that first day had been openly rude and dismissive.

Every day Gaara had a slightly different personality. Some days he was amicable, easy to work with on scrolls and almost comfortable to be around. Sometimes, when his lip quirked at a dry response from Hinata or a random joke from Naruto, he seemed almost normal, happy. So he had his good days. But he had his bad days, and more of them. Like today.

Today, Gaara was mean and condescending and completely unapproachable. As soon as she had entered the classroom where they usually met for the lesson time, she had spotted Naruto and Gaara in each other's faces. Knowing Gaara had most likely provoked Naruto (as had been the pattern), she had braced herself for a bad day.

And it certainly was a bad one.

"Hello? Earth to Hinata!" Naruto's voice jerked her out of her thoughts. Hinata looked at the two men in front of her and smiled sheepishly. Sometimes, with the endless puzzle that made up her team, Hinata got lost in her mind trying to decipher it all.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

Naruto sighed despondently, "Can't we skip the mission today, Hinata? I mean, c'mon! Searching for some stupid herb? Can't we do something more interesting, like traveling to somewhere dangerous and kicking some ass?"

Gaara's gaze slid over to the blonde and his teeth flashed in a mocking smile. "I'd be more than willing to kick your ass, if you'd like. We don't even have to go anywhere. I can do it right here."

Naruto growled and made to get in Gaara's face, "Okay, you jerk, I've had enough. You are one of the most annoying guys I have ever met. One more word and I'm gonna take you out, you got it?"

A hand made of tiny sand granules halted Naruto in his tracks and he snarled, fighting against Gaara's virtually impassible defense.

"Dammit, that's cheating! It's not like I whip out some giant fox to bite you in the ass or something to stop you!"

Hinata watched, wide-eyed as Gaara's own hand clenched, making the sand immitation grip Naruto's shirt harder and whip him towards the sand-nin.

Face to face, almost nose to nose, Hinata could see Naruto's eyes cross at the nearness of the other man.

Gaara's voice slithered across the room to where she stood and she shivered.

"Make no mistake, Uzumaki. You may think you people have trained me and helped me and whatever the hell else you think you do to try and rationalize allowing me to even live among you but you're wrong." Gaara's eyes darkened with an inner fire that had Hinata stepping closer. His anger was entrancing, his face more alive than she had ever seen it.

"Do you know why you're wrong, Naruto?" Shaking his head numbly, Naruto thought he saw just how thin Gaara's control over the monster was. "Because this tame animal that you and your fellow villagers see me as is nothing more than a misconception that I feed you to keep from being annihilated. This control that you think I have over the demon that resides in me is hardly more than a slipping death-grip. It's inevitable that my control will snap. I cannot control this demon inside me!" Tired of the pretending, tired of the lies, Gaara hoped to scare these people away so he could truly be alone. So he wouldn't have to worry about hurting people he was growing to care about or whether or not it mattered if the demon inside him finally wrestled the tenuous control away from him.

A gasp from the forgotten member of the team had Gaara jerking to look at Hinata. She was standing with her hand against her neck and was watching wide-eyed as Gaara attempted to break apart their recently-formed team.

Did he really want to know what she was thinking? Did he want to know if she knew he was doing this, not to hurt them, but to protect them?

The haggard face that glanced at Hinata had her heart in shattered pieces around her feet. She had never really thought what it meant for Gaara to not have help from a seal like Naruto had. His demon ran free in his mind.

Hinata, unable to stop herself from going to her teammates, found herself standing next to a livid Gaara and a more than nervous Naruto. She raised her hand slowly, as if approaching a wild animal (which in fact she was) and placed it on the sand-formed hand that still gripped Naruto's shirt.

It hardened more under her touch and she waited nervously for it to react offensively against her. Uncomfortable with close contact, Hinata wondered how she had enough guts (foolishness?) to actually initiate touch. She forced herself to meet Gaara's angry eyes and decided that if he was going to kill her, she might as well go all out. She smoothed her palm down the warm, sandy hand to where it connected to the gourd strapped across Gaara's back.

Letting out a shuddering breath, Gaara's eyes jerked from Naruto to the hand clutching his teammate's shirt back to Hinata.

"What do you want from me?" he asked hoarsely.

Hinata's eyebrow raised in surprise and she answered honestly, "I don't want anything from you."

Hinata watched as the sand fingers shuddered and loosened fractionally. Naruto's breath whooshed through his mouth as he felt the pressure ease and he silently cheered Hinata on. However she was reaching inside to the (Naruto firmly believed) completely insane man next to him, Naruto wasn't sure. Didn't really care at the moment. He was just content to breathe freely again.

She was watching Gaara now, a thoughtful look on her face. "Have you ever had ice cream, Gaara?"

"Ice cream . . . no, I don't think so."

The sand fell completely away as Gaara regained a timid control over the bristling demon inside him. He squashed the urge to apologize to Naruto because it would ruin his carefully-wrought plan. He had changed his mind in the last couple of weeks. Wanting to change was one thing, he knew. Being able to was a completely different matter. He didn't think he could battle the demon inside him long enough to make a difference anyway.

Hinata sent an inquiring glance at Naruto, "Hungry, Naruto? It'll be my treat for making you do silly missions for the past two weeks."

Grinning, deciding not to push the issues that Gaara had clearly brought up, he pushed the incident with Gaara to a back corner of his mind to analyze later. Naruto launched himself at the door with a yell. "ICE CREAM!"

Hinata laughed and made to follow him. A warm, dry hand caught her wrist and she had to stop the reflexive reach for a weapon. Reminding herself to make one of their missions about getting used to casual touch, she turned to face her teammate.

"Why are you doing this? Can't you guys see that this isn't going to work?" Gaara's brow was furrowed and he looked uneasy.

Hinata shrugged and quirked her mouth wryly, "Guess we're not the type to quit a seemingly hopeless mission. Besides, we knew what we were getting into when we signed up for this." Well, not to the extent that she knew now, but certainly more aware than many people. "Want some advice, Gaara?"

He nodded warily and decided to give in for a while longer.

"Rocky road is absolutely divine."