Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Dancing Kitsune ❯ Naruto's transformation ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I own nothing!!! I am a lazy, lazy, lazy person. Wahahhah!

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" Where did you get that from?" Gaara repeated, eyes wide and almost fearful.

Naruto shrugged, holding the orb out in the palm of his hand. It glowed eerily, emitting a strange red glow that enveloped his hand in warmth.

The orb jumped up into the air, hurling itself to the open hand of the maiden.

It settled gently into the carved notch with a easy clink.

Immediately, the air began to chill as if Jack Frost had blown a breath full of ice crystals through the air.

Gaara moved forwards, seizing Naruto by the shoulder. He shook the blond roughly, shaking Naruto back and forth.

" Where did you get that from!?" he shouted.

Then, a miraculous sound filled the room.

Rain.

Rain was falling…

Naruto strained, hearing the quiet plinking of tiny water droplets dance down from the sky to hit the parched earth, quenching its thirst.

Water began to drip from the ceiling in a misty haze, drip dropping down onto Gaara's face.

Gaara reached up, touching his face with a trembling hand, pulling a single water droplet onto the tip of his finger, examining it with a look of amazement.

"W…Water?" He murmured softly.

Naruto looked around, brushing a few solemn drops of crystalline liquid from his cheeks.

" What the hell…"

Gaara closed his eyes, letting the water drip down his face in tiny streams of clean water.

The sound of the water's crackling on the roof intensified and the water began to stream from the ceiling, turning the sand soaked ground into a muddy puddle of goo.

Naruto heard the sounds of shouting from the outside, sounds of cheering from the villagers that had been denied everything of life and pleasure for so many years.

Naruto looked up at the maiden statue, mesmerized by the radiant glow that seemed to be seeping through the marble, giving it an almost lifelike appearance. He reached out, as if to touch it when the strange red light jolted down from the maiden's palm, enveloping him.

Gaara's eyes snapped open.

" Naruto?" he mumbled, staring stonily at the red light.

Before he could say another word, the red light vanished leaving a rather different Naruto…

A six year old Naruto….

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Gaara sat rigidly in his room with the toddler Naruto bouncing up and down on his bed beside him.

The village historian had come running into the main house shouting happily, waiving around a scroll that supposedly told the tale of the statue and other legends that told about the beginning of hidden village of sand.

According to legends, the hidden orb of sand village would return to the maiden's hand in times of trouble or famine, bringing with it rains the good fortune.

Unfortunately, the power of the orb could only be borrowing the life force of the person who had found it, de-aging them down to a young age that would eventually be restored after two weeks time.

Now, Gaara was stuck baby-sitting the prophetic "child" of the tales.

He felt sick to his stomach with the toddler dancing around his personal room, throwing himself off the bed and chairs like they were playthings instead of Gaara's property.

Naruto giggled and threw himself onto Gaara; Gaara caught him in outstretched arms and held him there away from his body, with a look of disgust plastered across his face. He had never been good with children, due to the demon inside him and he didn't like the fact that it was coming back to haunt him.

Naruto giggled, reaching out with chubby fingers to touch Gaara's face and Gaara pulled back, repulsed.

" Gaa-raa" Naruto chirped, squeezing his eyes closed.

In an instant, he began to cry, screaming and wailing like an animal caught in a trap.

" You don't wike me!" He whined, tears streaming down his face like untameable rivers, matching the rain outside with their power.

Gaara let out a frustrated sigh and pulled the boy a little closer, shuddering when he forced himself to pat the child on the back in an attempt to get the boy to stop blubbering like an infant.

" shh! Ok, I like you, now stop your crying- you mangy thing" he mock cooed, scared by the warm feeling that seemed to be radiating from his heart upon sight of the crying boy.

Oh gods, he thought, as Naruto wrapped his chubby arms around his neck, nuzzling his neck with his wet slimy face.

Why did bad things have to happen to bad people? He wondered if he could somehow dump the leaf ninja back off at the hidden leaf village without causing too much damage and then remembered the warning that the historian had told him before the man had run screaming from the house after being chased with a tidal wave of muddy sand.

`You must not hurt the child or leave him in a place where he can be taken by anyone else. The child is now under the protection of both the sand demon and the sand village and if it should die, the village would be struck down by the vengeful spirit of the stone maiden'

He shuddered as Naruto stopped crying and started to wipe his runny nose on his sleeve.

Why did it have to be Naruto, the leaf village's number one loud obnoxious ninja? Why couldn't it have been anyone else? He could have dealt with anyone other then Naruto - he would have had no qualms dealing with anyone who wasn't the most annoying being on the planet. But no, the fates were mocking him.

Naruto pulled himself onto Gaara's lap, playing with his leaf head protector. He tossed it up in his stumpy little fingers, nearly braining Gaara when it jumped out of his grasp and soared up. Luckily, Gaara managed to lean back just in time to avoid seriously being hit. Unfortunately, this ment falling onto his back, giving Naruto more room to crawl on him.

Naruto took advantage of Gaara's leaning and crawled up onto the sand ninja's chest, giggling innocently as he sat down and began to play with Gaara's fingers.

" Can we play hide and seek?" The toddler asked, eyes wide and excited.

Gaara let out a frustrated sigh, but kept his emotions in check.

He had to comply, unless he wanted to be stuck with a screaming Naruto…

Though, he doubted that it could be any worse then the screaming toddler…

" if I must." He grumbled.

Naruto clapped his hands together, grinning happily. He slid off Gaara's chest and landed lightly on the bed, bouncing a little. He slipped down the side and landed on his feet, waddling off at break neck speed, nearly hitting the corner of the door when he dragged it open.

He looks kind of cute like that… Gaara reflected, shaking his head to try to get rid of the words.

What had made him think that?

Growling in annoyance, he stood up and snuck off after the youth, chasing the giggling boy out into the hall where he found Naruto hiding behind a miniature vase.

He rolled his eyes to himself, putting his hands on his hips.

No wonder the kid is so horrible at being a ninja… he can't even hide properly behind anything… he sighed to himself.

He slowly walked over to the vase, leaning over it to tap Naruto on the had once lightly.

" I found you."

Naruto frowned, scrunching up his face in sadness.

" Ok! I'll hide again!"

The blond toddler tore out from behind the vase and ran down the hall, tiny feet flying, propelling the little being so fast that he nearly hit the wall at the end when he tried to turn.

Gaara felt sick.

" Why me?" he wondered aloud, scratching his head.

Naruto peeked out from the end of the hall and grinned excitedly.

" K' you have to close your eyes and count to thirty!" he giggled, watching Gaara until the sand ninja sighed and did as he was told.

Gaara closed his eyes, putting his hands over them to over emphasize the stupidity of the task, hearing the excited squeals as Naruto tore off again, stumbling and tripping on something.

" one." Gaara counted aloud, cursing himself for ever having learned to count in his life.

Another set of giggles made him speed up his counting, not wanting to have to listen to any more sounds of Naruto.

" Two, Four, Ten, Twenty - oh look. Thirty. Ready or not here I come." He said loudly.

For once, Naruto fell absolutely silent, not even laughing or knocking anything over.

Gaara frowned, opening his eyes.

Had the tiny ninja fallen off of a table, perhaps knocking himself out?

No, he reasoned to himself.

He would not be blessed with a mishap of that magnitude.

Grumbling to himself, he stalked down the corridor and walked around the corner, squinting at the area to spot the tiny toddler who had seemingly vanished from sight. All that was there was a small set of bamboo blinds and a coffee table at the end of the hall.

He scratched his head in a very un-Gaara like manner and slowly began to inch his way through the room, racking his brain for some childhood memory of someone playing tag, if only to figure out what he should do.

He frowned, remembering a small figment of when one of the villager's children had tried to drag him into the game. They had conned one of the adult ninja's into playing the stupid game with them by wailing in unison when the man had refused, causing the rest of the ninja's and other adults around to glare at the man who had made the children cry. It had been an amusing notion of childhood black mail and Gaara had watched it from his bedroom widow in an attempt to stave off boredom and sleep.

He remembered seeing them run off in scrambled directions, leaving the chastised man to stand rigidly in the middle of the square, counting dutifully down to zero. Then, once reaching zero, the man had opened his eyes and had begun to wander around the room, calling out childishly, saying things like " where did all the little kids go? Oh dear, I can't find them! Are they under this-" and the man would pick something up, finding a few of the youngsters who would giggle innocently at him, making him smile despite his annoyance at having been conned into the entire thing.

Perhaps that was what he was supposed to do, he wondered, tapping his lip with one finger.

Well, it was worth a shot. If it kept the blond ninja from screaming and driving him insane any further, anything was worth trying once.

He cleared his throat, thankful that no one else had bothered to venture into his home in an attempt to figure out what had become of him, and began to speak.

" Oh dear…" he had to bite his lip to keep from tearing his hair out when Naruto giggled from some unseen location.

He continued, playing with the words this time to have a distinct double meaning that he hoped the little child wouldn't pick up on.

" If I lost Naruto, it would be … horrible. Perhaps he is hiding under the-" Gaara looked wearily to the first set of blinds.

" Blinds…"

He grabbed for the blinds, pulling it aside to reveal nothing.

He let out a sigh, scratching his head again.

" Ok… maybe he's hiding under the… far table."

He stalked to the end of the corridor and stooped low, peeking under the table where once again he found nothing.

Now Gaara was perplexed.

There was nothing else in the room that a small child could possibly hide under or in for that matter.

Well, he thought; this was certainly a head scratcher if there was one. He sighed again.

He would have to try again.

" Where could Naruto be? Is he hiding under the floor boards?" He asked the empty hallway.

Again, the impossible to locate giggle surfaced.

Gaara looked down at the floorboards, seeing no possible way to get underneath them.

" I guess not."

He looked around the room again and suddenly had the impulse to look up at he ceiling.

There, nestled in the cross beams, sitting like a bird just escaped from its cage, was Naruto. The blond grinned.

" oopsy."

Gaara stared blandly up at the little boy, hands finding their way to his hips.

" How did you get up there?" he asked lamely.

Naruto giggled.

" I climbed up silly. How did you think I got up here?" Naruto hugged the beams, dangling his little boot-clad feet from the end. He shuffled a little closer to one of the beams, blinking innocently down at Gaara.

" You climbed up there?" Gaara asked, scratching his head for the umpteenth time that day.

Naruto nodded.

" Then get down from there. I'm not going to climb up and save you if you decide to fall on your little soft head." The sand ninja growled, turning away.

Naruto's eyes welled up with tears and he scrunched his face up.

" You don't like me do you? Why?" He sniffled.

Sensing that he was closed to another tearful childish screaming fit, Gaara decided to push down the overwhelming impulse to respond to the boy's question with the truth.

He turned back around, trying to smile (which he suspected would break the sand armour he wore) weakly at the boy who continued to look read to burst into tears.

" Of course I like you… don't be silly." He said, as cheerfully as he could.

Naruto locked eyes with him, obviously not falling for the lie.

" No you don't. NO one likes me. They yell at me all the time and throw things with me - even you look ready to throw things at me…" the little boy sniffled again, wiping his nose on his sleeve.

" I'm not coming down. You can just go back to your room." He said with a whispered squeak.

Gaara's left eye began to twitch vindictively.

" You're coming down this instant… young man." He said, trying to keep calm.

Naruto stuck his tongue out at him, hugging the beam to keep from falling.

Gaara smiled.

" Alright. Then stay up there you little runt. I'm going back to my room."

He turned swiftly and stomped loudly back down the hall, throwing open his door before heaving himself onto the bed to smush himself in the soft comforter.

He wasn't going to let some stupid little kid get the better of him, he stated to himself roughly.

No little kid was going to make him do anything. He didn't care if the kid burst into tears of exploded. He wasn't going to go out there and get Naruto down from the roof.

Nope.

No way.

Not bloody likely.

He closed his eyes, letting his exhaustion pour out of him.

He would take a nap. Yes.

He relaxed, trying to pull himself into the warmth of a dream and suddenly sat upright.

Nope.

No way.

Not bloody likely.

He wasn't going to go get Naruto.

He heard the soft muffled sounds of crying and cringed despite his best efforts.

Nope.

No way.

Not bloody likely.

He tried to block out the crying, trying to will it to stop and when it did, he felt worse then before.

Letting out a sigh, he stood up, dragging his feet as he went back out his door and down the hall to stand underneath Naruto's beam, seeing the small crying boy hanging precariously from the beam by both hands, having slipped.

Naruto fell down, expecting to fall head first into the floor and was caught in Gaara's arms, where he pressed his face against the sand ninja's chest with hot tears still streaming down his face.

Gaara let out another sigh wearily, hugging the boy to his chest.

Damn the small part of him that was egging him into liking the boy.

He patted Naruto's back, speaking from his heart this time instead of from his head.

" I don't hate you. You just get on my nerves some times… I'm not used to having a little kid around."

Naruto sniffled, snuggling closer.

" Ok."

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It was the middle of the night now and Gaara still couldn't get let himself fall asleep.

Naruto was curled up in a ball on his chest, snoozing softly into his neck, unaware of Gaara's inner struggle.

He would have to send Naruto back to the hidden leaf village…

Soon, the boy's little team would come looking for him and it would be disastrous if they didn't find him at home, probably more disastrous then if they found him a little boy crying into some stuffed animal.

A little part of himself told him that the boy would be better off in the hidden leaf village then in the hidden village of sand, making him squeeze his eyes shut.

It was true…

No matter what his heart told him, no one grew up in the hidden village of sand without ending up a horrid little monster.

He scowled, looking to the little boy for some insight.

Naruto gave a little muffled groan and snuggled tighter against him, his baby soft blond hair pushed out to one side leaving it bent and smushed.

It was too much, having something so angelic so close, he mused to himself, almost reaching out to smooth the boy's hair back down.

He couldn't help being a little anxious about leaving the little boy with some strange village. It was his job to make sure that nothing happened to the boy of the prophecy and he would have hated to bring his village to smoking doom….

He yawned, closing his eyes again.

Yes.

In the morning he would walk the boy back to hidden leaf village and he would make sure nothing back would happen… he would keep his distance and would keep guard…

Naruto rolled over, nearly falling off Gaara's stomach, reaching out with his tiny stubby fingers to hold onto the coarse fabric of Gaara's shirt.

Gaara cradled him with his free hand, keeping the small boy from falling any farther.

He's sort of like a cat… Gaara mused again, reaching out to ruffle the boy's hair, which resulted in Naruto batting at his hand in his sleep.

He closed his eyes, letting sleep claim him.

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Morning came and went.

Gaara lay asleep on his bed, half wrapped in a blanket that Naruto had pulled from the ground and had flopped over the sleeping sand ninja.

Being as Naruto was only six, the first thing that had crossed his mind had been to go find something to play with or at least someone to play with.

He had crept silently from the room, sneaking like a thief out the door and had run as quietly at he could through the house, coming to a stop directly in front of the beautiful maiden statue.

He hadn't been able to tear his eyes off it's wondrous face for a full twenty minutes and had only been pulled away from it's entrancing stare when a ball had rolled into the room followed by a pair of children Naruto's current age. The pair, a brother and sister with spiky red hair and bright green eyes had looked meekly at him, as if afraid of him.

He grinned at them, picking up the ball, holding it out to the pair who had burst into bright smiles.

" who are you? We're Pala and Para. We're twins!" the little boy said, clutching the ball.

" Oh! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! It's nice to meet you-" Naruto started but almost instantly, the little boy broke in, grinning at him.

" Want to play ball with us? We need a third person, or it'll be no fun."

Naruto beamed.

" Sure!"

The twins led him out to the centre of the town, which had transformed since the merciful rain into a greener area. The buildings didn't look half as burned out as before and the cracks in the ground had vanished.

They held began to pass the ball back and forth in a triangle, getting to know each other.

After fifteen minutes of the game, Pala (the little boy) gestured to the building Naruto had been inside.

" Are you staying in the village long? Or are you just visiting with the elder?"

Naruto scratched his head, tossing the ball back to the little girl.

" Gaara's taking care of me." He said, not realizing that this would most likely cause some distress.

The little girl looked horrified, tossing the ball to her brother.

" You're kidding! He's so cold and mean - my mom says that he was born with a demon inside him an' he acts just like it! But I thought that he got killed when those strange guys came… oh well."

Naruto looked shocked and a little offended.

" Gaara's nice! He's not mean!" he protested but his protests fell on deaf ears.

The little brother picked up where his sister had left off, tossing the ball back to Naruto.

" He's our half brother. His dad's our new dad and our mom's his new mom. He never plays with anything or us. Dad says he's shameful or something- everyone's scared that he'll go crazy and kill everyone. I heard the historian tell the town to stay away from him an' everything. But that's strange, that he's letting you live with him in there. We don't live in that building… only Gaara lives there. Our dad and mom said that we're not to ever go in there unless we know for sure Gaara's not home. He nearly threw me through a wall last time I went in there… I'm glad we met you though. It's nice to know he's not all that bad… when he's in a good mood."

Naruto caught the ball and grinned again, tossing it to the little girl.

" But, explain something to me K'? Why does he live all alone? Isn't it lonely?" the blond asked.

The pair nodded in unison.

" yeah. It's really lonely. Sometimes he wanders around in the middle of the night - but he's better now. Ever since he got that hourglass, he's been a little better. But he lives in that house because dad doesn't want him around. I think our dad's scared of him. The only people who Gaara really let come in the main house were his brother and sister - but they died and now no one except Gaara goes in."

Naruto frowned.

" But that doesn't make any sense! If my sister and brother had died, I'd have just moved in with my remaining family - that is, if I had any…"

The little girl blinked at him, holding onto the ball.

" You live alone?" She asked shyly.

Naruto nodded.

" Yeah. I've always been alone though…" he looked down at his feet, embarrassed.

The little boy stomped his feet at his sister.

" Oi! Throw the ball - " he caught it when it nearly hit him in the head and then tossed it to Naruto, continuing their conversation.

" Anyways, you should be careful. Those two creepy guys might come back. I didn't like them. One of them had weird eyes with swirly things in them and the other guy looked like a big creepy snake. I didn't like them at all."

Naruto nodded.

" They sound scary, but no one's going to scare me! I'm going to be the Hokage of hidden leaf village when I grow up! No one will beat me! I'm gonna be a ninja." He said.

The pair giggled.

" Ok! We believe you! We want to be ninja's too! Do you know any moves?" They asked, discarding the ball, sprinting over to stand in front of Naruto, eyes wide and hopeful.

Naruto shuffled in his place, blushing.

" I know a few little things, like how to hide an' stuff… but I haven't been in an actual ninja school yet." He said softly, poking his two index fingers together.

The pair excitedly looked at each other.

" Ok! We can teach you what we know, if you teach us what you know, ok? It'll be fun!"

Naruto grinned.

Gaara woke up rubbing his eyes, blinking back sleep.

He scanned the room lazily, seeing nothing out of the ordinary and then jumped up, eyes wide and round like saucers. Naruto was gone!

He ran around the room, panicked, picking up anything and everything that he guessed the small boy would hide under and was horrified when he couldn't find the boy. He even spent a few minutes staring at the ceiling as if thinking that the boy might have climbed it again, but the moment he didn't find Naruto he shot out of the room and began to frantically search.

He searched high and low, running through the entire house as if someone had lit his ass on fire, knocking things over as he went. Not bothering to fix what he had rummaged through, he almost tripped ungracefully on several chairs as he finally found himself standing in the main room in his house, standing under the maiden's statue.

He heard giggling and whirled around, not used to hearing anyone laugh in the village and was relieved to see Naruto standing with a pair of children he vaguely recognized to be of some relation to himself.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets, trying to regain his calm, and stalked out the front door where he stood in the doorway glaring at Naruto.

" Oi! What are you doing out here?" he growled, trying to be nonchalant.

The twins gaped in horror at him and scurried behind Naruto, who grinned excitedly at Gaara, looking a little ashamed that he'd snuck away from the sand ninja.

" Eh, well, I wanted to do something and I just-" he looked down at his feet when Gaara stared unabashedly at him, eyes narrowed.

" I'm sorry-"

Gaara sighed, slumping his shoulders in defeat.

He stalked over toward Naruto, kicking himself mentally when he leaned over and ruffled the blonde's hair, relieved that he had found the boy safe and sound.

The pair of children behind Naruto gasped and backed away from him, eyes wide and horror struck.

The looked to Naruto with expressions of amazement on their chubby small faces, startled by Gaara more then they let on.

Gaara ignored them, kneeling in front of the small boy; he reached up and grabbed Naruto by the chin.

" Don't you dare vanish on me again." He grumbled, grimacing when Naruto hugged him around the neck.

Naruto hung off him, making Gaara sigh again; the sand ninja reached around and picked him up, hugging Naruto to his chest.

" Now… what are you doing out here anyway?" He asked as the two other children tried to hide from him.

Naruto struggled free and dropped to the ground, scratching is head.

" We were just teaching each other ninja stuff…" he said, shuffling in his place.

Gaara frowned, crossing his arms.

" What do you mean… teaching each other ninja stuff? But you don't know any ninja stuff right now - your only six." He said, rolling his eyes.

Naruto stuck his tongue out at Gaara, crossing his arms. He mimicked the sand ninja, rolling his eyes idiotically, making both of the children behind him freeze in horror.

However, Gaara simply smiled a little, no worse for wear.

" Alright then… show me what you were teaching each other - and by the way, who are you two little runts anyway?" he asked, frowning at the pair who shrank away from him in terror.

" That's Pala and Para - they're your little brother and sister, stupid." Naruto grumbled.

Gaara raised an eyebrow.

" Oh… I suppose your right… I did recognize them from some occasion involving my father… oh well." He straightened up and put his hands in his pockets, looking around expectantly, as if having sensed someone watching him.

He eyed Naruto, lips drawn into a fine line.

" Well? You going to show me what you learned or what?"

Naruto grinned looking up and locking eyes with Gaara, a fire lit in his emotions.

" We learned how to hide in the desert - and I taught them how to hide in villages!"

Gaara stared blankly at Naruto.

" And you're going to show this to me… how exactly?" He asked.

Naruto nodded to the twins, who nodded fearfully to him before holding out their hands towards him.

" Ok! We'll hide and you have to find us! But we'll only be in the village and not outside!" They slapped their hands together and nodded diligently to each other before taking off in different directions, watched by an rather annoyed looking Gaara.

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T.B.C!!!