Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Year of Change ❯ Chapter 3, Part 3 ( Chapter 12 )

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. The story on the other hand, does. If you take it claim it as your own work, I will find you and tickle you to death. You've been warned.

 

Chapter 3, Part 3

“And that…” Kankuro sat back on his heels. “Is how you change a tire. Or four of them in this case.” He wiped his hands on his pants and looked over at Gaara. “Think you can remember all that?”

Gaara nodded and pushed the leaver on the jack and watched at the car slowly touched the ground. They had spent the better part of the morning getting replacement tires and then the afternoon replacing them all. Getting the car back to the apartment complex had been entertaining, seeing how the man toeing insisted that they take it to a garage and “let the professionals take care of it.” Kankuro had been insisted that they bring back home and let him take care of it.

“The day I can't change a tire is the day I stop being a man. Hand me that jack.” Had been his words before pushing up the sleeves on his shirt.

And they had done just that. Thanks to Kankuro's experience with a part time job he used to have, they were able to replace all the tires fairly quickly. The destroyed tires lay some ways away close to the stares. Once Mr. Haruno had come down to see how the progress was doing, but hadn't really stayed for conversation. It worried Gaara a little. He didn't want to fallen out of his good opinion already just because someone had slashed the tires on his car. It wasn't really his thought though, right?

“Are you alright?” Kankuro leaned closer to his brother. “You've been getting this spaced out look on your face all day.”

“Have I?” Gaara didn't think he was spacing out. He had been paying attention… except those times when his mind drifted off back to the other night. Her voice in his ear, hands on his back…

“You're doing it again.”

Gaara mentally kicked himself. “Sorry.”

“Did you two get into a fight?”

“Eh?”

“Well, you two didn't say anything when I picked up and haven't done so since she went upstairs.”

The reason for the latter was that Gaara didn't want to knock on the door and risk seeing the wrath of her parents. He wasn't sure how they felt about the car, but was pretty sure that the mother wasn't happy. If the yelling though the floor boards was any indication. He planed to go and knock on the door once the car was fixed, almost like bringing a peace offering gift.

Gaara noticed that his brother was still looking at him, waiting for an answer. “Well, kind of, but we worked it out.”

Kankuro leaned in again… leaned in too close.

“What?” Gaara narrowed his eyes in annoyance.

Kankuro examined him for a moment longer before a smug look appeared on his face and pulled back.

“What?” Gaara asked again.

“My little brother's growing up so fast.”

“All you did was teach me how to change a tire.”

“I'm not talking about the tires.” Kankuro gave his little brother a nudge and stood up.

 

“Come on. Help me take these flats to the junk yard. If we're lucky, we'll be back before dinner time.”

The following Monday he was there. Leaning against his spot on the wall and waiting for her. Sakura smiled at him and closed the door behind her.

“They're not angry, are they?”

“No.” Sakura readjusted the strap on her backpack. “You fixed the car and it didn't cost dad anything. Wheels haven't fallen off, so he is fairly content.”

Gaara followed her as she started to make her way down the stairs. “You're mom didn't seem too happy.”

“She gets a little hysterical at times. She was angrier about the fact I didn't call that night then the state of the car.” She changed her voice so it sounded more like her mother. “Do you know how worried I was? I almost called the police! Look at this! You see this grey hair? It's new and it's because of you!”

Gaara chuckled. “I hope you don't get like that when you're older.”

“Why? You're going to stick around that long?” She teased.

“I might.”

By this time they had reached the bottom of the stairs and she turned to look back at him. “You mean that?” She was watching him closely, her eyes a little hopeful.

He smiled and leaned down to give her a soft kiss before taking her hand and walking to the bus stop. They enjoyed the comfortable silence as they walked, each in their own thought till the came to the bus stop and a strange scene. Tilting his head to the side slightly, Gaara wasn't sure what so strange about it till Sakura said something.

“Eat you're ramen already?”

That's right. The morning cup of ramen was missing. Naruto also had a strange look on his face and turned to look at them as if he was still half asleep. It took him a moment before he broke out in his normal grin.

“Morning! Have a good weekend?”

Naruto started to daze off once again when they had finished their morning chatter. His eyes seemed to gloss over slightly and a tiny smile touched his face. It took Gaara a moment before he recognized the spaced out look that had dominated his own features for the last two days. He gave Nartuo a type of “congrats” pat on the back. The other youth looked at him for a moment before he too realized and they both broke out in identical grins.

“What is so funny?” Sakura eyed them.

“Super secret squirrel guy stuff.” Naruto said, trying to suppress his grin.

Sakura huffed and crossed her arms. “Men.” Gaara and Naruto looked her for moment, at each other, and started to laugh. Or in Gaara's case, quietly chuckled.

 

0o0o0o0o0

He was touching her at school now, nothing indecent, but in subtle ways. Lightly holding her hand when they walked down the hall, or a hand on the small of her back when going up the stairs, his knee against hers when they were eating lunch. It took her awhile to realize that he was merely keeping within the school's PDA code and entertained herself with thoughts of what he would do if there weren't such rules.

Their relationship had changed. Before it was something soft and almost shy, getting use to each other, but now it gone to a physical level. His frequent touching of her seemed to prove it. The first showers of spring happened as Sakura and Gaara slowly explored this new aspect of their relationship. It was interesting for the most part.

With the changing weather, came the shedding of Gaara's `winter fur.' He started wearing a hoddie in the morning along with his normal pants and shirt, his fish net sleeves poking out under the heavy cotton garment. With this change came a new time of grumbling from him. Instead of complaing about the cold, he was not complaining about the rain.

“You just like to complain about the weather.” Sakura had said while they were standing under his umbrella one morning.

“I just don't like being cold… or wet…”

"I can't say I like it either." Naruto chimed in, huddling close on the other side of Gaara. It was a comedic scene, since Gaara's umbrella was really only big enough for himself and maybe one other. They were squished together like lunch meat.

"Don't you own an umbrella?" Sakura said, leaning forward to glare at him.

"And miss this wonderful bonding time?" Naruto mock snuggled Gaara. “Never!”

"I'm starting to feel a little uncomfortable with this... 'bonding.'" Gaara muttered, trying to lean away from Naruto.

 

0o0o0o0o0

“It's been a while, hasn't it?” Dr. Hatake said with a smile. “You're looking better.”

“Am I?” Gaara didn't think he had ever come here looking other then normal.

“Well, you don't have that look of `I wish I was anywhere but here' like you normally do.”

Gaara sat his chair. “Well… you don't poke and prod like the others did.”

“Thank you.” He actually sounded pleased. “So, how have things been going?”

What a question… Gaara thought back to the last time he had come in and started to relay all the events that had happened since his last visits. Looking back on it… it was a lot. It felt like ages since he'd last come, not two months. Still not sleeping, the locker incident, the winter break the tires on the car slashed.

Dr. Hatake looked a little concerned. “You're medical records and history couldn't be accessed like that…”

Gaara interrupted him. “Hacker. I received a letter a few weeks later from the place I had stayed at saying someone had accessed my privet information and they were doing everything to find out who did it.”

“The file about your father…”

“Newspaper article that could be downloaded from the library from my home town. Has my name and what happened.”

The older man tapped his finger on his notepad, thinking. “And you know who did it?”
“I know. I just can prove anything. Going to court and telling the judge that he smiled at me wouldn't take me very far. I don't have any proof.”

Kakshi leaned back in his chair and closed his eye while he thought. “What else has been going on?”

Gaara went on to tell him about his relationship with Sakura and Naruto, how it was developing. He even told him about meeting Sakura's parents and how her father reminded him of someone that worked in a bakery.

“It's good that you can see how a `normal' family can interact. It helps you understand how what happened to you was wrong.”

“Wouldn't I just end up being jealous if I look at it that way?”

“Some would, yes, but you're sharp and haven't imagined yourself as the victim. I only mention it as something that you can refer to later on down the road when you have a family of your own. Many people in your position don't look at other families like that and end up repeating what happened to them to their own family.”

“An Endless cycle?”

“For some, yes. It's the reason why people who were beaten end up beating their own kids or spouses.”

Gaara tried imagining if he would be able to hit Sakura. The image disturbed him and he shook his head. “I don't think I could do that. Besides,” A small smile touched his lips. “If she didn't kill me, I am sure Naruto or Lee might.”

“Who's Lee?”

 

0o0o0o0o0

Flashback

Lee was, as Gaara found out the week before his appointment, a force to be reckoned with. After the results of his midterms came back, a new class schedule was sent out. Most of his classes were the same except for his last period, which had been changed from Economics to Gym and Sakura had Home Economics; the one class they didn't share.

It was all Gaara could do to stand. He couldn't remember a time when his body felt this tired, and for the first time he wished that he could fall asleep and block out the next six to eight hours. He pressed his head against the shower and just stood there was the spray of water flowed down his body, giving some relief to his sore body. As he stood there, the conversation he had had at lunch fluttered back into his brain.

“Eee…” Naurto had said while looking over at Gaara's schedule while they were eating lunch. “You have Gym with Mr. Might. That means Lee will be there…”

“Lee?”

“Remember that guy that tried to ask me out to the Home Coming?” Sakura said
“The edger one? What so bad with him?”

“Well… nothing. He's a pretty cool guy.” Naruto said around a mouth full of cheese hamburger. “He's just hard to keep up with. Try not to be his gym parennter.”

This puzzled Gaara. “Why? Does he sweat too much?”

“No, you just won't be able to keep up with him. I don't think anyone can…” Sakura said thoughtfully.

How many laps had he run? Push-ups? Sit-ups? He wasn't sure but he knew, but he did know that he never wanted to do that many again… and that he would probably end up doing just that. What was this? Gym or Boot Camp? Lee had enjoyed himself completely. In fact, he had commented that Guy was going easy on them today.

Trying to wash himself was a bigger chore then he ever remembered, with the bar of soap weighing at least fifteen pounds and his arms twice that. He didn't even want to think about what it was going to be like to actually get dressed. By the time he stumbled out of the shower and back to his gym locker, he was extremely happy that this was his last class of the day. He wasn't sure if he would have been able to give his full effort otherwise.

And this was only the first day…

He was finally able to get dressed and hobbled out of the locker room with the rest of the male students just in time for the bell to ring. He's never been so happy to hear it. Turning to walk down the hall, Gaara path was blocked.

“I would like to have a man to man talk with you.” Lee said to him. He was dressed in his karate Gi and seemed ready to go to his club.

“Now?”

“Now.”

Gaara sighed and followed Lee. They walked down the hall in silence and it wasn't till they were outside that Lee finally spoke.

“I would… like to thank you.”

Gaara looked at him.. “Why?”

“Before… before you came Sakura was very sad. Most of her movements were very mechanical… she wasn't all there. But… she's different now. Happy, more driven… and I know that it is because of you.” Lee gave him a very determined look. “So… thank you.”

The image of the first time he had seen Sakura suddenly popped back into his head. Not the time she had stopped by to his family food… but before that. Staring up at her when had first stepped out of the moving van. Her eyes… they had looked very sad… and lonely.

“No…” Gaara said slowly. “She's happy because she wants to be.”

 

End of Flashback

 

0o0o0o0o0

“Ah, I know who you are talking about now.”

Gaara blinked. “Really?”

“Bowl shaped cut, round eyes and extremely polite?”

Gaara nodded.

“Guy's prodigy.” Seeing the puzzled look on Gaara's face, he explained. “Guy is someone that I went to college with. The person who teaches your gym class, Mr. Might? We've gone… practically everywhere together.”

“You two were good friends?”

“Ah… no. More like rivals. We've competed for the same things for…” He thought about it. “I want to say the last ten years. The only reason he's left me alone for the last few years is because of Lee.” Despite his words, his tone bordered on fondness.

 

“Anyway.” He shifted in his seat. “Back on subject. What you need to do is fight back.”
Gaara frowned “How can I do that? I don't have half the influence he does.”

“I'm not talking about it in a physical since. What he is doing is bullying.”
Gaara wasn't sure where he was going with this.

“After all the school shootings and sexual assaults that have been going on, it's a school's duty to make sure that there is no bullying. Other wise they could be sued for not stepping before something happened.”

“So… you saying… you want me to tell someone?”

“Exactly.” He started ticking things off his fingers. “Things such as punching, kicking, spitting, stealing, teasing, name calling, being ignored, shutting out or even rumor spreading… those are all forms of bullying.”

The people I thought were my friends turned on me.

Gaara hadn't really connected the thought even when she had said it. At the time he had been too busy with being uncomfortable and preoccupied to hear what she's said. Little tid bits started coming back. He wasn't the only one. Sasuke had gone after a lot of different people. He may not know who they all were, but the one he did know…

“What do I need to do?”

 

Author Note:

 

This was all that I had written before hand. The rest of the updates after this one are going to take longer. If anything, I will finish this story, because it would be a crime not to. A whole lot of work and effort went into what you have already written and I would be kicking myself later on for not finishing it.