Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Tsunade's Heir ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: The anime “Naruto” isn't mine. My stuff is mine though.

Chapter 9

Two Years

Life returned to a semblance of normalcy for the Houous. About the fateful night of Hero's Day: they moved on. They never forgot - and never, ever, would forget - but they moved on. The next few years markedly showed, in accordance to Naruto's new resolve, a number of interesting developments. Jiraiya, of course, trained Naruto `for real' as opposed to merely leaving him with a few frogs to spar against. However, even so, Jiraiya would always stay only Jiraiya. And while each of Jiraiya's training methods did have actual benefits, arguments would often break out over the efficiencies of some of these methods.

“Okay, kid. Today let's work on stealth trai-”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait” Naruto immediately interrupted. “Is this `actual stealth training' training, or is this `try to get Naruto to help me peek on the hot springs and call it stealth training' training?”

“…” Jiraiya looked at his pupil as he carefully considered the question “… is there a difference?”

“Ero-Uncle…” the student growled menacingly, “you damn perverted, useless sensei! Like I'd go along with crap like that! Don't lower me to your level!”

The frog Sannin looked both incredulous and insulted. “Are you questioning my training methods? A student should just sit quietly and learn!” he demanded imperially.

Naruto glared angrily. “What the hell? I'm definitely questioning your training methods! I'm telling you that I don't want to learn your peeking skills in the first place!” Stealth? Fine. But for the love of god, why did this guy have to sneak peeking in along with any ()(&&$ action he could manage to… Wait, was he just trying to piss Naruto off? Since it was a pervert like his uncle, he really couldn't tell…

IIII

But, before all else, he was his mother's son and endeavoured to advance in her medical teachings. Well, though every now and then a distraction would arise…

“Alright Naru-chan, what's here?” Tsunade asked, pointing to a body-sized picture of the human body.

“What?” Naruto said flatly. “…skin”

“You idiot, you know what I mean!”

“… someone's neck”

“That's it!” Tsunade howled as if she'd been pushed to the edge of her tolerance and then been shoulder-charged off that edge by Gamabunta. “You've been pissing me off all day; explain yourself or be noogied all to hell!”

It was as if Naruto was waiting for this as some form of que. “Acting like you don't know! Kaa-chan…” the blond ground his teeth.

Tsunade's sigh was a tired and defeated one, “damnit Naru-chan… I was going to pay you back, really…” she already felt guilty about it. Would the brat just let it go…

“My money! You took my money! You're as bad as Ero-Uncle!” Naruto was practically hysteric. “I still can't believe it!”

“Look-!” the mother's flustered voice revealed her discomfort. “I told you I was only borrowing it! You have so +&$#! much, I don't even know how you noticed I took any!” Indeed: Naruto had, when he was younger, been allowed into a gambling establishment and walked away several pounds heavier… in cash. He'd let his Nee-chan use most of it to clear off no insubstantial number of debts, but he'd kept a portion of it to himself. Henceforth, this secretly hidden stash had been named the “Naruto Ramen and Awesome Stuff Reserve”. Truly, it was a sacred and wonderful thing. And to take from this: the most cherished of cherishable stashes of money, was an unforgivable offence indeed.

“But I needed some sake money!” Tsunade almost pleaded - almost. “And it was hardly anything!”

“No one touches the Naruto Ramen and Awesome Stuff Reserve” he informed her gravely.

"It was a 500 yen coin!”

“No one”

“I… You! This is- !” Tsunade: Sannin, mother, and veritable god of medic-nins the world over - spluttered indignantly for a response.

“And besides! You're my precious Kaa-chan, and I love you. But…” Naruto muttered darkly. “Are you expecting me to believe in your ability to pay off debts! What the hell kind of idiot do you think I am?!”

“You! Are you saying I can't even pay back my own son!” Tsunade was incensed

“If you have it, then give it to me!” Naruto demanded.

“What? That…” a short, ominous silence filled the room. “Later! I'll give it to you later!”

“You don't have it!” Naruto vindictively shouted. “You definitely don't have it!”

“Shut up! I'll give it to you later, so sit down and tell me which organ is here” she jabbed her finger at the picture once more - as if she were stabbing it. The Slug Sannin then pre-empted her son's demands, which she knew were coming. “And I promise as your mother: I won't touch your stupid money reserve without permission again!”

That stopped him cold. Naruto blinked, surprised, before sighing and sitting down again passively - still faintly annoyed, but passively - wiling to let that be the end of it for now. “The Parathyroid glands.”

“And what do they do?” Tsunade asked in a lecturing tone. She was glad to get that conversation behind her. Honestly, taking 500 yen and replacing it before he noticed… it seemed painfully easy and harmless at the time… come to think of it, she should have cast a (&&(#& genjitsu on the stupid bag right from the start! Well it didn't matter anymore. She always kept her promises to Naruto: it was why her promises to him were so scarce in the first place. She'd simply never break one, she'd break her own arm first - she could heal her arm. If it was her heart or her son's trust, she wasn't so sure.

“Parathyroid hormone. It increases the calcium concentration in the blood.” Naruto stated simply. Too easy.

Tsunade snapped out of her briefly wandering thoughts. “What? Yeah. And here?”

“The heart. It pumps blood throughout the body's arteries and veins…Why the hell are you asking such an easy question?”

“These are important! Each organ has its own function. If someone suffers internal injury and you only know the symptoms then you need to be able to connect that symptom to an imbalance in their bodies and know which organs were hit right away!” Tsunade barked. “It should take you one second. No, if you're going to be a medic on the field, it should take you less than one second! Anything less is a half-assed medic-nin! Now again, and faster! What's here!”

Naruto got it. Someone's life could depend on this. “The gallbladder! It stores about 50 milli-letres of bile for the digestion of fats!”

“Not enough! What are the properties of bile?”

And so it continued. Being a medic-nin was more than just knowing enough Ijutsu, it was a matter of knowledge of the human body. Incidentally, Tsunade did in fact pay Naruto his 500 yen back at dinner that night, though a particular incident overshadowed that event. She then gave Shizune an I.O.U note made out to a local noble family worth 500 yen to put with her other debt-papers. Naruto's greatest progress was in his chakra-control. Having struggled with that issue his whole life, being told that he was growing at a far above-average rate was something that flooded him with awe, pride, and perhaps most dominantly: relief. Life was not moving on merely for the Houous, however. Back in the village of Konoha, life had progressed as well.

x-Fire Country: Konoha-x

“Ino-chan!” a bubblegum haired girl called out. “Over here!”

The blond girl sighed and made her way over to the swings where her two-year friend Sakura sat waiting.

“What were you thinking about?” the curious pink-haired girl asked as her once-bully took the swing-seat beside her. Neither girl was actually using the swing to swing, but it was somewhere to sit this lazy afternoon. “It's like you're always daydreaming nowadays.”

“Not always” was the stubborn, immediate response.

“Okay, okay.” Sakura placated. The girl looked a far cry from how she'd been two years ago, mostly courtesy of Ino herself. Most notably, her hair now framed her face in a way that didn't have her forehead painted with a figurative “Bully Me!” sign.

Ino's friends took this time to appear on the scene and amicably take up spots sitting on the grass or against the nearby trees.

“Hey everyone!” one girl spoke up victoriously. “I saw Sasuke-kun today!” the girl yelled triumphantly. All girl-chatter ceased and attention was summarily diverted towards the girl. In a blink, the exited children crowded her, gossip-engines running full-throttle.

The girls seemed to brighten up at the name, minus the notable exception of Ino. “Sasuke?” Sakura asked eagerly, “you mean Uchiha Sasuke? `The last Uchiha'?”

“Wow! What was he like? What was he doing?” an exited black-haired girl asked.

“He was shopping for vegetables!” the first girl informed

Gasps were heard all around, as if this was some strange, epic development. “So he likes vegetables!”

“Did you talk to him?” another excitedly asked.

“Oh no, I couldn't!”

Uchiha Sasuke: Ino vaguely pondered the name. Three months ago, a terrifying Uchiha prodigy had apparently gone insane and killed his own clan members. Now only Sasuke was left. The event was being called the “Uchiha Massacre” and was yet still the talk of the town. Of course it would be. The Uchihas had made up most of the police force; the lack of their presence on the streets was an easily identifiable thing, even for eight or nine-year-olds such as themselves. Uchiha Sasuke: the last Uchiha, the child that insisted to live on his own inside that huge Uchiha complex. Everyone spoke of him. All the adults did nothing but sympathize and praise him. Sometimes: the crowd would part for him, or he'd be escorted to eat for free someplace. An independent, quiet, and - according to just about everybody - perfect boy. No wonder he was a hot topic. He was like a real-life fairytale prince.

“Oooh, maybe I should become a ninja after all…” the brunette lamented. “Sasuke-kun's in the Ninja Academy already! I want to go too…”

“You can't, you can't. It's really tough if your parents aren't ninjas you know…”

This Uchiha Sasuke situation… normally she'd be all exited about it as well. He was their age after all; he could be her prince charming, her knight in shining armor. On top of that, he was the number one `popular' topic right now. And Ino had a long history of being on the leading edge of such things. But somehow… she just couldn't share Sakura's or the other's enthusiasm. Uchiha Sasuke… really, he seemed so fantastic but the fact was she didn't like him. She'd seen him around, but he was so cold, and seemed so far away. He didn't seem like the kind of person she could look on as an equal. No, maybe he would even be someone she'd look at as a superior...

When everyone else started talking about `lovey-dovey' stuff regarding Uchiha Sasuke, she kept thinking… of that blond-haired boy who'd stood up to her two years ago. If he were here, she could probably argue and talk with him, no problem. She wouldn't have to watch her words or change her hair for him. Strangely, that just seemed… more appealing, somehow. She couldn't explain it, was she being lazy? These thoughts often occupied her. People kept saying that she was looking quite thoughtful all the time.

“Ino-chan!” Sakura called.

Snapping back to reality, it seemed that all of Ino's `sometimes friends' and Sakura: her only `constant friend', were up and ready to leave.

“Ino-chan, let's go!” Sakura motioned to the other girls, who were walking away. Without a doubt, Sakura wasn't impressive enough to hang out with such cool kids on her own. What she did have going for her was that she was the only person that Ino hung out with, with any kind of consistency. And Ino was, basically, popular enough for the both of them.

“No, I'm not coming today” Ino responded, not getting up from the swing. A brief silence hung in the air: one of contemplation “… Hey Sakura, do you remember the day we became friends?”

Sakura jolted, startled. “Huh? You mean at the sandbox?” Sakura was half surprised, half bewildered. Where had that come from?

“Yeah, I'd been looking around for that blond friend of yours but couldn't find him anywhere” Ino thought back. “So then I asked you about him.”

“I remember… I told you about the festival…” Sakura reminisced

“And do you remember about how he told you to wait somewhere before he went onto the stage, right?” Ino pressed. Sakura easily nodded to her question. “And you used to go back to that spot and wait around there for hours all the time.”

“Um…” now Sakura was embarrassed. She fixed her gaze by her feet, “… yeah.”

“Why did you do it?” Ino asked sharply, as if she were impatient.

“What? I… Well, I don't know. It's just… Naruto-kun did so much for me… but I couldn't do anything for him” Sakura's embarrassment was overshadowed now by a distant but enduring sadness. “The only thing I could do… the only thing he asked me to do… was to wait there for him.”

That sad look there, Ino recalled, that exact same look two years ago was what caused her to suddenly think… that Sakura was worth helping out. And from there, a friendship had grown.

A very impatient voice grabbed Sakura's attention. “Sakura-chan, are you coming with us or not? Is Ino-chan coming?”

Sakura hastily ran to meet them “Ah! No, sorry: Ino-chan isn't coming, but I'm coming!” She looked back and waved. “Bye Ino-chan!”

Ino waved back and watched the girl leave, one question still weighing on her mind. Sakura, but then why don't I see you there anymore?

IIII

The Houous, in their travels, finally made their way outside of Fire Country. There were two reasons for this: firstly, Tsunade deemed Naruto competent enough to travel to these new countries without things being overly dangerous. He was eight now. Secondly, there was a need to put assess Shizune's practical skill level against foreign diseases. This led to the Houous visiting Grass Country to cure a wealthy merchant - who'd demanded only the best but had, in the face of his death, managed to settle for the best's assistant. Next on the Houou's list of locations, was Wind Country. Among the less worldly educated, a series of particular questions are of unending confusion and amusement. These were questions surrounding the seemingly mismatched naming of other countries, for instance: Why exactly is Wind Country called such, when it is clearly much, much hotter than Fire Country?

Naruto, age eight, mused on a great conundrum as he walked alongside his Kaa-chan and Nee-chan. As Naruto glanced around at the swirling sands of Wind Country, he realized something: Wind Country really was hot as hell, but it could never be called Fire Country. Indeed, while the heat was truly blistering, fire had no actual place here - for there was nothing to burn. There was simply not enough greenery for fuel in a place as barren as this.

Naruto squinted against the harsh wind, which was carrying sand into the air and proved to obscure vision, among doing other things. A white cloth - longer than any scarf - was wrapped around his head and acted as protection from the sun as well as a filter to keep the restless sands out of the young boy's lungs. The rest of his immediate family wore the same. So this is Wind Country… it lives up to its name, as Kaa-chan had said. It's unreal. Does the wind really never change direction? It always blows towards the NorthEast, away from the heart of the country. If a force were to invade… between fighting against the sand and the wind just to reach the village, they'd be dead on their feet by the time they reached halfway to the front gates. And if Sand shinobi were mobilized to meet the invaders… they would only have the wind at their backs. It's a natural defensive and offensive advantage.

Naruto gritted his teeth, this damn sand, if only it were harder and his foot didn't sink in to it all the damn time...

Shizune's eyes widened in shock, seeing her otoutou take another heavy step in front of her to stand on top of the sand - and stay there. Shizune, confused and unsure, watched her own footing as she stepped forwards, but was only rewarded with her right leg sinking into the sand under her weight, as always. Her head snapped hastily up to meet the back of her adopted younger brother again.

“No, you're not hallucinating, Shizune” Tsunade's muffled voice barely made its way to her apprentice's ears. The woman was looking at her adopted son with fondness and pride. She felt an unreasonable urge to brag to somebody. “That's the real thing”.

“B-But Tsunade-sama!” Shizune protested. Walking on sand without sinking in was nothing like walking on water. In the end, walking on water was simply a matter of pushing the right quantity of chakra out of your feet, so that you were pushed above it. Doing such a thing on top of sand would do nothing more than send the sand under your feet spraying in all directions as if a fan were strapped to your leg. To walk on sand as without sinking in at all… it involved pushing the chakra out of your feet and grabbing not only the sand, but any gaps of air between the sand and holding everything together - before your foot even lands. It was a technique designed for the desert: once a person's foot sunk into the sand, no matter how slightly, physical energy and speed were lost. Shizune's eyes were pleading for reason “That's a B-rank Chuunin technique!”

Tsunade quirked her eyebrow, though she could definitely understand her assistant's confusion. It was a difficult thing to accept, but honestly, her apprentice should be better than this. “It's not like we can't do it too, Shizune”

Shizune absently stepped unto the sand as well. Yes, she could do it with ease, that was true. Even sand Jounins might have difficulty with this act, but it was a matter of chakra manipulation and in this field Shizune stood far above normal people. Yet she'd had training - and a full day to get it right. “But without any training at all, Naruto-kun just did it so suddenly! As if it were nothing!”

Hearing this, Tsunade was shocked. No, not about Naruto. “I can't believe this. You still don't get it? The rules of chakra manipulation that Naruto follows… are completely separate from the rules that anyone else uses” Tsunade sighed. “It's always been that way”

“I guess… but it's always strange to think that it could be so drastic… He's come so far in these past two years.”

“It's not that it's drastic” Tsunade growled, attempting to drill this point home once and for all. “It's that your sub-conscious keeps thinking his growth should slow down already, but it barely does” This was her genius apprentice? Tsunade made a face “And why the hell are we talking about this at a time like now? Don't forget why we're trekking through this god-forsaken desert in the first place” Tsunade reminded. “It's time for your final exams.”

Indeed. Shizune considered herself Tsunade's apprentice for some time now, and would remain so in the future. However she was still, unfortunately, considered a `student' in Tsunade's eyes, rather than a `medic-nin'. A strange notion, considering the black-haired woman's capabilities. The fact was, however, that Tsunade's personal beliefs on what a medic-nin should actually be capable of were set quite high. And until Shizune completed this last step - on her own - her mentor would never accept her as a medic-nin straight until the day she died. The first test was cleared: treat a patient in another country, using only local ingredients for the crafting of medicine. Since Naruto was old enough to travel to new countries, she'd finally completed this step. The second one - the harder one - was all that remained.

IIII

x-Wind Country: Sunagakure-x

Two guards stood watch diligently by the gates of Sunagakure: the hidden village of sand. They didn't speak a single word to each other. This was not due to a rigid adherence to duty, as Suna might have other villages believe. It wasn't even because they were sulking or silent types by nature. The fact was: they didn't trust each other at all. Was this strange? No…

In Sunagakure, everyone was afraid of each other. It was ingrained into their bones. The common, silent belief of every person in the village went something like this: It was a village of selfish back-stabbers that would do anything for the sake of improving their own lives. But then, it was a harsh and poor life in this village. The pain of monotonous, constant poverty had driven neighbors to each other's thoughts repeatedly. Only the children and those that were drunk on alcohol were spared from the mental taint upon this village, to a point. Just how much of that belief was exaggeration of the truth, and how much of that was reality in itself?

Squinting into the distance, the guards spotted an anomaly: people approached? From the NorthEast! Where they would have to battle the famed winds of their country head-on. The rightmost guard brought out a small telescope. What could it be? Perhaps they were survivors of a caravan that had been swallowed by a sandstorm? There was a child with them, walking on his own! A mere child walking through the vast and brutal desert. Ninjas, most certainly, and no average ones either. He was focusing on the following woman's face when her hawk-like gaze snapped directly to him.

“Shit!” the guard uncharacteristically exclaimed: stumbling backwards. Did… did she see him from that distance?

IIII

Tsunade increased her pace and walked beside her son. She was going to say something, but was predictably cut off

“Are we there yet?” the boy asked, mirroring a key phrase spoken by children throughout the generations.

“For the last time, brat! Shut up and have some patience!” Tsunade demanded for the `umpteenth' time. “And yes, thank god we're almost there, I can get away from your noisy self and grab some sake. The guards have probably already seen us” Tsunade added. “It's not easy to see it, but we're going too far north. We're going to angle south now so just follow me like the patient child that I always wished you would grow up into but never did.”

“What was that!” came the indignant, if muffled reply. “Say that again, Kaa-chan, I dare you!”

“Oh drop it, it's too damn hot to argue…”

“Like hell I'll drop it! I'm patient!” the boy insisted, still muffled by the cloth around his head. “I'm the most )&$#& patient child in the whole damn world! I put up with you, don't I?!”

“YOU BRAT!” Tsunade rounded on her son and prepared to sock him with one hell of a punch - but the heat stole her passion and she soon lowered her vengeful fists. “… Ugh, it's too hot for this…” she reiterated. Her next words were snapped: “Oh and brat! Lift up that cloth”

“Huh?” Naruto sounded. “You mean I can take this stupid thing off? Yes!”

“No, Naruto-kun!” Shizune interrupted quickly, instantly beside her Otoutou as well. “It protects you from the sun” she pleaded. “Just lift it enough to show them your forehead okay?” The two identifying symbols of the slug Sannin were, without a doubt, the diamond mark on her forehead and the kanji on her coat.

“Eh? Oh” Naruto blinked. “You mean this thing, huh?” he asked, doing as he was asked and revealing the blue diamond mark on his own forehead, the one usually hidden by his messy hair - it being a deeper blue than his mother's.

IIII

Ten year old Sakyuu Temari walked casually through the streets, an “in-training” version of the standard Suna Battle fan being carried on her back. Though she was small, she was recognized as the Kazekage's daughter and was silently deferred to as she always was. Oh, it gave her no special privilege: nothing came for free in Sunagakure, but she was treated with the respect that was due to her. Perhaps it was some kind of vain attempt by the cosmos to balance the good with the hellishly bad in her life. Temari's father was a downright cold and distant bastard even by Suna standards and her youngest brother was a maniacal killer born from the death of their mother and the sealing of a demon: bringing forth a perversion of nature which even her father feared - feared and hated. These were constants in her life and she could properly surmise that, due to living with Gaara, the Sakyuu family was the most frightened family in Sunagakure. Oh, such a prestigious award. But these were still constants, it was normal for her to fear her brother, bearing no comfort from his presence. It was normal to feel that, as the boy's sister she ought to reach out to him, but it was also normal for her to note that such an act would spell death and pain. But on top of all the every-day shit she routinely put up with… now Kankuro, her other brother, was wearing face-paint that she suspected was supposed to make him look like a kabuki actor, but did in fact look eerily closer to make-up and was now obsessing over a stupid marionette doll. Honestly, this whole world was going insane…

“Proof of ID?” came a voice filled with bland amusement. Temari looked up from the stall selling cloths for kimono obi. It seemed someone was at the East gate. A tall blond woman stood haughtily with another woman and a child waiting behind her.

IIII

“Proof of ID?” Tsunade sounded vaguely amused, with an undertone of annoyance. That guard had been rude as hell, who did he think she was? Oh, he was in for some pain…

Shizune watched the scene unfold yet again. Naruto, used to this, tapped his foot impatiently and wished his mother would just get it over with. Was this becoming some kind of twisted ritual, he wondered...

“Heh, alright you uncouth bastards. Here is…” in a flash of movement, her fist was inches in front of the stunned guard, “my proof of ID”

Flick!

Naruto watched the predictable event. And now the guard's sailing, sailing, sail-ouch. Right into the building.

“R-Right” the other guard responded, unnerved. “That will suffice, Tsunade-san”

Tsunade cocked an eyebrow.

“S-Sama, Tsunade-sama” the guard corrected himself, fearing for his health. Yet he did not feel the killer intent lessen, “h-hime? Tsunade-hime? Please follow me, Tsunade-hime”

The Slug Sannin lost interest in the guard at that point, “just lead me to your Kazekage. We're here on personal business. Naru-chan you want to come?”

IIII

The meeting with the Kazekage was a brief one, there not being much to discuss and the Kazekage not being the type that could muster enough humility as to be a plesant host.

“Final exam?” the Kazekage's hard voice inquired, lacking humane levels of emotion behind it.

Tsunade wasn't fazed. “Yes.”

“Why come here?”

“Why? We're here…” Tsunade said in pure business tones, “for the Shojou family”

The Kazekage took a deep breath and leaned back, disguising his surprise. “To have curing a new, deadly sickness as your final exam… You're in a class of your own, as expected. Very well. It's an honor to have you reside in Sunagakure.” But though the Kazekage's words were polite, they sounded as if they were forcefully pulled from his thought.

Frankly, Tsunade didn't care at all. “Hm, well we have permission now. Why don't you go play or something brat? All that's left is to iron out the details.”

IIII

Unknown to Naruto, Temari: most analytical of the sand-siblings, had received a discreet command from their father to follow Naruto and befriend him. It was an information-gathering mission. The fact was that family meant little to the Kazekage, and he sought to implement his children as tools where he could.

Temari knew why she was chosen, how could she not? Her analytical mind surpassed Kankuro's and, indeed, anyone else in their age bracket. She'd met this Houou Naruto, the boy easy to identify as she'd spied him at the village gate before. He'd been tending to a dog, of all things, with a care and precision that seemed out of place for the sake of a mere stray mongrel. He'd turned, seen her; had been confused to hear that she wanted to talk to him, but was clearly interested to hear that she'd proposed a game.

The pair sat in the shade of a building, their backs against its wall. “Well,” Naruto quired of this strange girl that had not showed him even one genuine smile, even when asking - telling him to play a game with her, “what do you wanna' play?”

Temari hesitated. Dare she be so obvious about it? No, even if he suspected something, it wasn't an unusual suggestion, wasn't something that she couldn't explain away. Temari licked her lips. “Truth or Dare”

x-two hours later-x

She couldn't believe it. They had played truth or dare for all of an hour. It was ridiculous. More ridiculous was that, during that time: Naruto hadn't picked `Truth' even once. From that one-hour game, what technical specifics she learned about him? Some of the most important discoveries were that he could rub his stomach and pat his head at the same time , was able to multi-task several other strange and complicated motions, and that he could do both cartwheels and a fairly good chicken-impression. That was it. Whereas he now knew that she had at one point owned a teddy-bear, she secretly liked kimono's but didn't own one, and that the reason she kept her hair in pigtails was because it would otherwise resemble something he'd laughingly called a `spiky afro'. However, during conversation with him as they'd played this game, and now as they merely sat and they talked about Sunagakure, she'd learned much more. To her, Houou Naruto was open, yes. Sometimes painfully so - painful to her, that is. He held no qualms about telling her she was being stupid or mean, and he absolutely wouldn't stand for it without one hell of a fight. He was so brave that he could pick `dare' every time and - when he was dared to - would hop on one foot, hold the other with his left hand, balance her fan in the palm of her right, stick out his tongue, and whistle `Mary Had a Little Lamb', all at the same time. Oh, he'd complained. He'd sworn at her too, something she'd learned to get used to. His anger had been obvious and he'd pointed out using highly… creative terms that it wasn't fair, but then, that had been the point. Yet her impossible dare hadn't deterred him a bit. Houou Naruto, Temari realized, wasn't a naive or foolish character; he was simply an very strong and perhaps stubborn character. Besides: he had, after twenty tries and subsequent falls, managed to do her impossible dare, whistling and all.

Though she wasn't so foolish as to think she couldn't be wrong after knowing the boy for only an hour or two. No, but she was probably close to the truth. She wondered if her father would want a report on Naruto, but soon stopped that train of thought when the boy in question proposed a game of “hide and seek”. It may have been a mission at first, but he was her friend now, despite the two years she had on him. Yes, his bluntness could annoy her, but it was also refreshing. He was very trustworthy. Or rather, she could trust him to plainly show his intentions or views without bothering to cover anything up. The question was: was he like that with everyone, or only with people he deemed were not a threat?

A small, red-haired child stood a far way detached from the scene but watching ever so intensely. His body was half hidden by the wall of a building he stood behind, such that the kanji for “Ai” on his right forehead was blocked from view; his eyes tracked the new addition to his village intently. He reached up and tentatively toughed the red kanji distractedly. Love only yourself, live only for yourself. These were the things his Kaa-chan said on her deathbed and the voice in his mind: his mother, had hissed as the sand turned on him and carved the message into his flesh not so long ago. But maybe… maybe that new boy, the loud and bright one, would let him play with him…

Maybe…

It was just so hard to be all alone…

And maybe they would let him play…

Gaara didn't smile at the thought. He was a child who had forgotten how to smile. And he knew well and deeply that no one would ever let him play with them. Everyone: every single person he'd ever met, had been afraid of him, afraid that he'd kill them. And the voice in his mind, mother kept telling him to kill everyone. Even his uncle, the only one to ever acknowledge him had revealed his actions as a purely fake ploy and cursed Gaara's existence. Everyone kept treating him… as if he was there to kill them all. But he didn't really want to hurt anyone. He didn't want to be a monster.

Could there be another purpose to exist for him? Another reason? Everyone else seemed to have more than one option, they seemed to get to choose theirs…

Maybe they would let him play with them this time…

And maybe he wouldn't have to be alone after all…

Maybe...

Omake

An interesting item came up that day, before Tsunade repaid her son the 500 yen.

“And here?” Tsunade asked yet again. They had stopped earlier, but had regoined this same training a short while ago. It was dark, actually. And Shizune was undoubtebly preparing dinner by now.

“That's the, er…”

“C'mon, Naru-chan,” Tsunade prompted, amused. “You're a medic-nin in training. It's just a technical term, so say it.” Hell, he swore all the time, anyways! Kids could be so odd...

“I know that!” Naruto responded hotly, “The… er, male reproductive organ and external organ of urination…”

Tsunade snorted at her adopted son's face, noting that in the end he hadn't said the organ's actual name. “Right, well next one, what's-”

“Er… Kaa-chan?” Naruto interrupted, somehow shy

“Huh?” This was new, Tsunade wondered what-

“Well, Ero-Uncle was saying some stuff about it…”

Jiraiya did?! “Wh…” Instantly, the color drained from Tsunade's face “What?” She asked, voice horse

“Well, you know,” Naruto scratched the back of his head, embarrassed, “he was saying how it really had many more uses, or something like that. He said that I was missing some information and that it was really important…”

“He, He WHAT!” The horror in the mother's face was joined with the shocked outrage in her voice.

“Well, it's Ero-Uncle, so I can't be completely sure,” Naruto frowned thoughtfully “but is it true that…”

“Yo!” The voice of the previously mentioned Ero-Uncle accompanied the unmistakable bang of a front-door slamming opened. The Houous do, as it happens, lock their front door, but hey: Jiraiya was a ninja, come on. It would be embarrassing not to pick the lock. Real ninjas didn't consider something that puny as any kind of obstacle at all. “Just thought I'd drop by since I was around,” Jiraiya reasoned loudly, that the inhabitants of the house could hear him. “But, actually, I'm starving! It's been a tough day and I have a huge hunger! Do you know any good restaurants and - hey, that smells like Nikujaga!” He yelled, sounding ever so fake to the well-trained ears of the house. “What an amazing coinci- ACK!” Tsunade had just come skidding through a door to his right. Before Jiraiya had even a chance to clasp his hands together to beg for mercy, he was grabbed by the shirt and pinned to the wall.

“Ji-Ri-Ya…” Tsunade's voice was ominous in a way that very few things could be. And the fact that she didn't have her `you're annoying' look on, or even her `I'm going to kill you look', but instead was sporting her much feared and respected `I'm going to castrate you in a very painful way, heal you, and then find a far, far, more painful way to do it again' look only scared Jiraiya even more.

Jiraiya gulped, he'd seen that look twice before. In his mind, there was little doubt that, had she caught him those times, the look would have proven to be exactly what it sounded like.

“Just-what-did-you-say… TO-MY-SON!” Tsunade sounded vengeful and terror-inducing in a decidedly unhealthy-for-Jiraiya way

“Oh shit” Jiraiya almost said. But of course, Tsunade wouldn't have liked anything but the truth out of him, this very moment. Even so much as a 'hello' could endanger his future. Sighing, the frog Sennin informed Naruto that he was leaving all his possessions to the boy and reluctantly motioned for Tsunade to lean closer. “Well…” whisper, whisper….

Tsunade's face became pale, quite pale. And then the color came flooding back. Perhaps too much so: she became red you see, quite red. Finding no words to adequately express even a fraction of her rage, she made a strange, strangled `squaking' sound and gathered a terrifying amount of chakra in her body. She released it in a focused point from her fist, slamming it into the unforgivable pervert's stomach.

Naruto watched his uncle sail away through the front door and rack up some truly impressive air-time. He turned to his mother, who was huffing and puffing: not with exertion, but raw rage. “Hmm… so wait, does that mean it's all true, then?” he asked, confusedly

“ABSALUTELY NOT!!!!!”

My BETA says that some of the chapter lacked my usual flair. I wrote about 3 000 of these words while sick, so maybe that's it? Though maybe my BETA is just picky and thinks I'm some kind of fanfiction-god...

500 yen is almost $5 Canadian

My favorite line (or sequence of lines) was, hmm... "He was so brave that he would pick `dare' every time and - when he was dared to - would hop on one foot, hold the other with his left hand, balance her fan in the palm of her right, stick out his tongue, and whistle `Mary Had a Little Lamb', all at the same time. Oh, he'd complained. He'd sworn at her too, something she'd learned to get used to."

Wind Country actually is placed on the SouthWest corner of the map in the Narutoverse

Sunagakure is the Hidden village of sand, Wind Country's ninja village

A Kimono is an old-fashioned dressing robe kind of thing in Japan. It can be really beutiful and decorative. There are several types and levels of formality in them. Both men and women can wear them, though the styles are different. The Kimono's Obi is the decorative cloth that is tied around the waist of the Kimono.

The sources I check don't list a last name with any of the sand siblings, though I seem to recall there being a popular last name used for them in fanfiction. For now, I'm using Sakyuu for them which means sand dunes

The lines on Kankuro's face are from actors in Kabuki theatre, an old traditional type of Japanese theatre. Kankuro's name is also the name of many famous Kabuki actors.

The kanji for "Ai" on Gaara's head means 'love'. A wise reviewer pointed out that, when combined with the kanji that make up Gaara's name, it reads like "I love death". This reviewer also noted that, interestingly, Gaara's name on it's own means "self-loving" or, "loving only one's self".

I'll tell you now. No, Ino isn't obsessed with Naruto as much as she is with the thought of Naruto. The kind of character he represents: one which she doesn't see from anyone else.

Nikujaga is a beef and potato stew, flavoured with sweet soy

No, I actually have no idea what Jiraiya told Naruto: I'm not perverted enough to fathom what could be going on inside his head at that point…

I'm a bit excited about the next chapter

Please review