Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Dancing Kitsune ❯ problems arise ( Chapter 8 )

Disclaimer: I own nothing!!! Little to nothing…WAAAAAAARK.

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Kakashi looked as if some one had tried to forcibly insert a telephone pole up his butt.

He stared with wide eyes at Naruto, as if he thought the statement had been a total and non-humorous joke.

If Gaara hadn't been standing in front of Naruto, the sensei would likely have thrown himself bodily on to Naruto in order to try to shake the information out of him.

Instead, he pointed one shaking finger at the blond, one eyebrow sticking up in disbelief.

" What? You can't be serious? I'm not allowed to wear pants?"

Naruto nodded, ducking once more behind Gaara; he huddled there between the sand ninja's shoulder blades until the sound of Kakashi fainting dead away made him peek out.

Iruka held the unconscious Jounin, scowling to himself; Kakashi lay limp in Iruka's grip, his golden ears lying flat and prone on his head like little yellow velvet flaps. His tail hung at his side, twitching ever so slightly.

" Um… Naruto-kun? I think he took the news a little hard… Are you sure that Orochimaru really means Kakashi can't wear pants? It's sort of his nature to fuck with peoples minds…" Iruka grumbled, grunting with the extra weight.

Gaara stared stonily down at him, crossing his arms.

" I think he ment it. He has a rather large stash of porn up there; it proves his intent of perverted nature…" he said in a dark voice.

Sasuke glared at Gaara, appearing ruffled.

He seemed to stare accusingly at the man, as if the ninja had committed some strange and heinous crime against him. He clenched and unclenched his hands in displeasure; it appeared to take almost all of his self-control to keep him from striking out at the red head.

Gaara on the other hand looked annoyed with Sasuke's presence and Kakashi's total lack of consciousness.

He began to drum his fingers on his arms, eyes narrowed.

" Look, if this is too hard for you all to understand, I'm sure you can just find some place else to stay in…" he drawled.

Naruto scoffed and prodded Gaara in the back.

" Oi. You don't have to be so rude to them, you know? It's not like it's their fault that Orochimaru's a pervert." He grabbed Gaara by the shoulders and laughed a little when Shikamaru frowned at him, shaking his head.

" Naruto, are you stupid? Why do you trust Orochimaru? He's an insane evil man…" Kiba asked, scratching behind his fluffy ears.

Shino nodded in agreement; he gestured with one hand at Gaara.

" Besides; Gaara here once tried to kill us all. How can we trust him?"

Naruto pulled himself out from behind Gaara's back and stood firmly in front of his Koi.

" That was in the past; Gaara's our friend."

Sasuke scoffed, rolling his eyes.

" Oh please; you really think you can trust any of them. Gaara would lie to you without a simple thought. Orochimaru would lie to you and then kill you. I'm not staying here… I won't stay in his presence; Naruto, you're coming with us… we've… got…" he froze, chewing his lower lip with a nervousness that Naruto was unaccustomed to.

Gaara looked offended by the comment, and a thick breeze of sand tore up from behind him; it started to jerk toward Sasuke when Naruto waved a hand at him.

" No. I'll deal with him."

Gaara frowned, but obeyed, opting to simply glare daggers in the Uchiha's direction.

" You'll deal with me?" Sasuke snorted, rolling his eyes.

" You couldn't deal with a tree Naruto. You're coming with us and that's final."

" He goes no where." Gaara growled, raising one hand to gesture with his middle finger at Sasuke.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed into slits. " Naruto is my problem, not yours. Back off." He hissed.

Gaara smiled.

" Back off yourself. He's my business."

" Says who?" Sasuke countered.

" Says me." Gaara pointed his thumb into his chest.

" Says you?" Sasuke snapped in disbelief.

" Are you hard of hearing or something?" Gaara growled back, locking eyes with Sasuke as if he were a thief trying to raid his bedroom stash of dirty magazines.

Sasuke smirked.

" You are a dumb ass, you know that? Naruto is the only member of our group that's alive and he sure as hell isn't going to go off with some crazed lunatic with deranged intentions."

Gaara smiled back thinly.

" You tread on thin ice Uchiha."

Naruto looked from Gaara to Sasuke, startled by the slip of information.

He stared with pleading eyes to Iruka, unable to bear being left out of the information loop.

" Iruka sensei… what happened to Sakura?" he whispered softly. His eyes locked on Iruka's like shimmering lamps of hope.

Iruka's face fell; a wave of dark depression welled up into his face and he looked down at his feet, ashamed at having done nothing to tell Naruto the news until that moment.

" Naruto-kun…" he began, swallowing a lump in his throat.

Sasuke looked away, unable to look at Naruto's face any longer.

Naruto stared eagerly at his teacher, pressing him for information; he grabbed Iruka's sleeve, feeling like a child being deprived of precious time spent with a loved one.

" Iruka Sensei?" he pleaded, dreading what would be said.

Gaara locked eyes with Iruka; he frowned when Iruka shook his head a looked away in utter dismay.

" Naruto-kun… Sakura was… She was… she's…" he stuttered.

Shikamaru scowled and crossed his arms.

" She's dead Naruto. Itachi killed her."

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Gaara sighed and scowled to himself for the fifteenth time that day.

Naruto was sitting underneath the coffee table in Orochimaru's living room, crying silently to himself; Gaara had asked him if something was wrong over ten times already, and he had responded with the same sad sniffle and mumble as he had the first time Gaara had asked.

It was beginning to make Gaara angry.

So far, he had managed to retain as much of his anger as he could inside his head; he wasn't one to just allow emotional breakdowns to exist without him causing it. He didn't appreciate being left out of the loop as well. It made him edgy.

He crossed his arms; seated on the couch with a look of vibrant displeasure on his lips like lip-gloss.

Orochimaru hovered parentally behind the couch, fretting in Naruto's direction.

The entire episode had left the missing ninja a little confused; he hadn't expected the upset Sakura's death would cause to Naruto.

Of course, Orochimaru had taken the job of hostess to heart. He had even dragged Iruka and Kakashi bodily up the mountainside to keep them from leaving with Sasuke and the others. The only ones who had had the courage to remain behind were Kakashi and Iruka - and even they didn't seem to like the idea too much.

Orochimaru on the other hand had been ecstatic.

He had found time to serve cookies and coffee while dusting around Kakashi.

It had taken Kakashi a long time to get used to Orochimaru's presence; and in truth, Kakashi and Iruka had only been in Orochimaru's house for two hours.

Of course, once Kakashi had spotted Orochimaru's rather large pile of porn (part of it had been stashed underneath the couch cushions that Kakashi had been sitting on and it had poked him when he had first sat down.) he was even more afraid of the villain.

Orochimaru frowned and scratched his head; leaning over the side of the couch, he prodded Gaara in between the shoulder blades with a long slender finger.

" Well? Is he any better yet?" the sound ninja asked, blunt as a butter knife.

Gaara snorted, shaking his head.

" Seriously? You really think he'd stop crying after only two hours? Though… I'm not sure what it's about. I knew it had something to do with that girl's death, but I didn't think it had this much control of his emotions… sometimes… I just don't understand him."

Orochimaru smiled, tracing his lips with his tongue.

" Well, Gaara-sama, sometimes the human heart is fickle… though I myself don't fully understand why Naruto-kun mourns this female so much… she was probably his friend." He shook his head and turned to stare unabashedly at Kakashi, who flushed and looked away.

" And Kakashi-kun! You don't seem to be playing with my rules! You're still wearing your pants." He drawled deviously.

Kakashi blushed and crossed his arms.

Orochimaru took this as a sign of incompetence.

He touched his lower lip with one finger, licking the digit.

" My dear… do you need help? Because I'm willing to lend a hand if you need one…."

Iruka let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head.

" Oh for Pete's sake Orochimaru! He's not going to take off his pants just for you." He grumbled.

" Oh?" Orochimaru whispered sweetly, pulling his finger out of his mouth; he licked his lips again.

" And I suppose he'd take his pants off for you then?"

Iruka blushed and looked away; Kakashi on the other hand put his head in his hands in dismay.

Pleased, Orochimaru ran his fingers through his hair; he snaked around the couch and scooted Gaara over, sitting down beside the sand ninja with one hand on his leg.

" My dear Kakashi… there is a way we can remedy this situation… I have a rather large collection of … dress up clothing you might call it… in my possession. I wouldn't mind sharing them with you; after all I only said you weren't allowed to wear pants… I didn't say you couldn't wear other things." He reached out across Gaara and grabbed Kakashi by the shoulder, caressing the leaf ninja's arm with his long slender fingers.

Kakashi sighed.

" If that's the rules you set out, I'll abide by them. I have just one little tiny question to ask…" he looked up from his hands and seriously locked eyes with Orochimaru.

" Do you have Icha Icha Paradise eighteen?"

Orochimaru's eyes lit up; he clapped his hands together excited.

" Of course! I love Jiraiya's work! I'm the one who convinced him to start writing his books - when we were children, I conned him into writing dirty short stories to leave in Tsunade's desk to embarrass her."

Kakashi and Orochimaru got up and left, chatting lightly.

Iruka looked as if he would have rather had his stomach pumped before he tried to get involved in their conversation and decided to spend his time contemplating the meaning of life with his face in the carpet.

Gaara put his feet up on the edge of the coffee table and stretched out as best he could, trying to ignore Naruto weeping under the table.

Gods, he thought; would Naruto be like this if any of his other friends died? It didn't seem humanly possible for one person to retain so much guilt and depression.

For perhaps five more minutes, Gaara contemplated this thought.

Then next five minutes were spent working up the courage to talk to Naruto.

Grumbling to himself, Gaara sat up and stalked his way around the table, sitting down on the carpet. He caught sight of Naruto, teary eyed and generally miserable looking.

" Oi, Naruto. Stop your damned crying already. What's done is done. There isn't much you can do crying a damned river into the carpet." Gaara grumbled.

Naruto peeked out from under the table with an accusing glare alive on his lips.

" You don't understand do you - I mean, didn't you cry when your sister and brother died?" the blond asked, wiping his eyes.

Gaara blinked at him, a slight smile twitching his cheeks.

" No. I didn't cry. I don't cry when people do things to my family - I kill people who do things to my family. It's more efficient then crying. Tears don't get you anywhere and they certainly don't bring back the person who died."

Naruto looked shocked to his soul.

" You're kidding, right? You'd cry if someone really important died, wouldn't you?" He asked meekly.

Gaara shrugged.

" If you mean, if someone I loved were to die… I might cry… but… it would most likely be after I'd killed the person who killed the person I loved first."

Naruto shook his head and stuffed his head into his hands.

" You just don't get it, do you? You don't have any emotions at all… why do I even bother…."

Gaara reached out and flicked Naruto in the head.

" I have emotions you pompous ass, I just don't like to wear them on my damned sleeve like tassels on a bicycle. It's unbecoming."

When Naruto did not respond, Gaara sighed and tried again.

" Look, I have emotions! I'm just not as close to people as you are - "

Naruto jerked up from the carpet and snorted; tears streamed down his face like hot rivers of salt.

" I met her when she was just a little kid - when we were in school… she was so beautiful, and I had this enormous crush on her… but she'd always ignore me and… and I thought she would be around forever. She was the first female friend I had liked… other then Hinata; she was so nice - when she wanted to be…" he murmured, wiping his nose.

Gaara frowned; he crossed his arms and stared dark as the night at Naruto.

" I understand. You are in love with her." He said quietly.

Naruto let out a growl of disgust.

" No you fool! She was the first person I thought I liked. She only let me close once, and that was when I realized I didn't like her - I was … a little different then I thought I was."

" Different? What's that supposed to mean? Do you have some disease or something?" Gaara asked with a grunt.

Naruto scowled and reached out; he grabbed Gaara's leg with one hand, smiling through tear filled eyes.

" Stupid! I mean I didn't know I was gay until then." He fell silent, thinking to himself.

" She sure was surprised when I told her… I don't think she thought anyone would just stop in the middle of sex with her in her life…"

Gaara looked repulsed.

" That's disgusting."

Naruto sighed and wiped the tears from his eyes, pulling himself up from under the table and up into Gaara's lap. Startled, the sand ninja fell silent. Naruto wrapped his arms around Gaara's waist; he buried his face into the nape of the ninja's neck.

" Please… don't say anything more about her, ok? Just… just hold me." He mumbled.

Gaara felt as if a wave of protectiveness had bubbled up from inside to drench him to the skin. He tucked Naruto close to his heart and cuddled the soft blond; he wanted more then anything in the world to stop the sadness from consuming his koi.

" Naruto-kun… how come it hurts you so much to loose someone?" Gaara asked.

Naruto shrugged, sniffling into Gaara's shirt.

" I don't know… it's probably because you know the person inside out - like, you know their favourite colour and foods… their funny stories and their sad ones, their likes and dislikes, their favourite things… in a way, they become part of you; so when they die, so does a part of you."

Gaara frowned.

" Naruto-kun… I… I want to know those things about you. I want to be able to feel sad if you… if you were to leave me." He struggled to find the words and found himself squeezed into a hug, with Naruto's wet cheeks pressing against his warm skin.

" You already know my favourite food silly." The leaf ninja said.

" Ramen?"

" Yes."

" What about favourite colour?" Gaara questioned.

" Probably orange or red."

" And your funny stories? And your sad ones?" Gaara pressed further; wonder catching him by surprise. He realized faintly that he had never thought to ask such things of anyone before in his life and it made him want to know the answers even more then before.

" The stories can wait for another time Gaara-san… but before I will tell them to you I want to know your favourite colours and your favourite food." Naruto said softly, holding Gaara close.

" That's easy." Gaara said pompously.

" It's yellow and watermelon."

Naruto pulled free and locked eyes with Gaara.

" Watermelon? You eat watermelon?" he said, shocked.

Gaara frowned and nodded.

" Did I stutter?"

Naruto rolled his eyes and tackled Gaara to the ground, burying his face closer into Gaara's chest. Gaara feebly traced the contours of Naruto's shoulder blades, unsure of what to do.

He could smell the soft scent of Naruto, a smell he preferred to any other scent in his life.

He even smiled to himself when Naruto began to chuckle into his chest out of sheer amusement.

" You… you eat watermelon? How come I've never seen you eat it before?" The blond asked, breathless.

Gaara shrugged.

" Probably because I look silly when I eat it… my sister once told me I ate so much once that it was all over my face…"

A moment later, Gaara thought that Naruto was choking on his shirt from laughing so hard.

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