Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upward

Naruto woke up moments before a tough-looking man burst into his room.

His head and half his face was covered in a white cloth, and a Suna headband was tied across his forehead. There were a pair of red lines on his cheek, just under his eye. It looked like face paint.

His expression was neutral, stern. Naruto took one look at his face and sat up straight. It was so hot, he hadn't used a blanket that night, and it was obvious he was still wearing the clothes from yesterday.

"...Naruto," the man said. "Get changed. Meet me out front."

"Huh?" Naruto tilted his head. "Why?"

"Training. Go out where you came in yesterday."

Naruto nodded, slightly bewildered. The man left the room, shutting the door quietly.

Naruto simply sat there, trying to comprehend the man's words. Then, he stood.

"Why the heck are we training?"

The man was leaning beside the front door when Naruto came out. He wore his favorite outfit—a baggy black T-shirt, obnoxiously bright orange cargo pants, and black shoes. Usually, there'd be a hoodie, too, but he left it in his room. It was just so hot.

The man looked down at him, and with his height and general mysteriosity, Naruto felt like he'd shrunk about a foot.

After a moment, he noticed Gaara, standing to the side. He had a strange squash-looking container on his back. It was the same color as the sand, with red marks on it. It was almost bigger than him.

Naruto nodded and waved a hand, still anxious under the man's gaze. Gaara looked at him, glanced at the man, nodded, and looked away.

"Boys," the man said. "My name is Baki. I'll be your instructor for the time being. I'll be teaching you how to make use of the power you both possess."

Except, he didn't meet either of their eyes. It seemed like he'd had that memorized. Naruto found that though utterly hilarious, but in truth, he couldn't muster the energy to laugh at it. What was the point, anyways?

"We're going to the training grounds," the man said. "It's near the greenhouses. If you destroy either of them, you'll have to pay to get vegetables imported, and I'm sure you don't have that kind of money."

Naruto nodded, surprised he'd have to specify that. What sort of kid could destroy a greenhouse?

"And I suggest remembering the way. You'll need to go there on your own soon enough."

Baki looked from Naruto to Gaara, then to the road in front of them.

"Let's go," he said, and he walked quickly towards it. The kids trailed behind him, struggling to keep up.

"It it always this hot?" Naruto asked Gaara after a while. Gaara nodded.

"You... get used to it."

"The air's so dry, there aren't any plants, it's so different from Konoha. I don't know how I could get used to it."

There was a pause.

"Hey, what do we need training for, anyways?" Naruto asked. "At the academy, back home, we're not allowed to use anything super sharp until we're nine... or at least as good as a nine year old. And everything else is super easy! So what are we doing?"

Baki glanced back.

"Best not to talk about Konoha too much, kid. We've never had the best relationship with that village... and anyways, it'll only make you miss it more." He turned forward. "You can't go back, so why bother?"

Naruto slowed down, frowning.

"What do you mean I can't go back? The guy who sent me here, he said I'd be back at home soon! Why are you saying I can't go back?" Genuine confusion showed on his face. It was strange. Before, he could hardly remember that conversation. But he was certain he'd been told that he'd go home soon.

Baki stopped in front of a standard wire fence. There wasn't a gate, or a gap. Just fence.

"Let's go in," he said. He stepped on to the fence, preparing to climb up, but Naruto shouted, interrupting him.

"Hey!"

Baki looked back, sighed, and stepped down.

"You said I couldn't go back," said Naruto. Clear distress leaked into his tone, but he wasn't even aware of his words. "But... when I spoke to Gramps and that—that ninja guy, I think, they said I could! Why did you say that?"

His throat was hurting, as though something were stuck. His eyes, too. It was almost... hard to talk, hard to form words. His muscles were tense—his hands, arms, face—everything—seemed pulled tight. Once again, he felt far away.

Baki looked at him, but Naruto wasn't afraid anymore. But the thought of truly never going home... he had never felt such a sense of dread. Even yesterday's sorrow was eased with hope. What was there now?

"They really didn't tell you, huh?" Baki said quietly. Naruto shook his head. Gaara was watching with wide eyes, but no other show of emotion.

"You're here because... well, they think without proper training, you're dangerous. Destructive. And until you get any power you may possess under control, you're not allowed to stay there. Out of fear of what you might do to people... or what they might do to you."

Naruto's arms went limp as his muscles relaxed. His shoulders slumped, he bowed his head, he bit his lip. He looked at Gaara, who didn't move. 

An awful silence descended upon them. The only noise was the sand, shifting around the three of them.

With a shaking voice, Naruto spoke.

"...Guess I'd better train, huh?"

To Baki, he cracked a small, pathetic smile. Baki smiled back, but Naruto could tell he didn't mean it. He could see the sadness in his eyes. He felt the same way.

The ground was sandstone. Massive slabs, stuck together with some sort of glue.

Baki led the way, right to the center. The area was enclosed with the wire fence. Outside it, about fifty yards away, were a pair of greenhouses, painted a desaturated sage color.

"First order, run laps," Baki said suddenly.

Naruto looked at him, shocked.

"Around this?" he asked, gesturing at the entire area. "That's... tyranny!"

"Not really," Gaara told him. "This isn't technically cruel or oppressive."

Naruto frowned. "Seems pretty cruel to me."

Gaara shook his head.

"It's only really cruel if he makes us keep going after we throw up or pass out."

Naruto raised his eyebrows. "He's done that?" He glanced back at Baki, who was obviously listening.

Gaara nodded. "Until then," he said, "it's more like totalitarianism."

Baki cracked a smile—one that Naruto was probably not supposed to see. But quickly, he covered it up with a rigid expression.

"Get running, kids," he said. "I'll tell you when to quit."

Naruto's throat burned. Not from emotion, this time, but from sheer exhaustion. His feet hit the ground, and he heard the steps echoing throughout the grounds. But it felt detached. Running, at that point, was an unconscious movement. Like before. But now, there was severe lung pain.

Gaara was keeping pace beside him. He appeared less tired than Naruto, and he wasn't wheezing or gagging or sobbing or any of those weird breathing things that happen when you're running for far too long.

Then, his vision doubled. His head had felt strangely airy for quite some time, but the sensation began to multiply with each step he took.

Every muscle he could name, and most of the ones he couldn't, burned. Naruto imagined acid eating through his muscle tissue.

"Naruto?" Gaara asked, but his voice was oddly reverberated.

The earth seemed to spin faster than Naruto could catch up.

And he was on the ground. There was no blood or pain or... well, anything. The cement was nothing but warm. And his eyes were closed, or maybe he didn't have any. Hard to tell.

He heard his name shouted, multiple times. Muffled. Not quite there. Must've been Gaara.

After some time, his eyes opened. His muscles weren't hurting. And... neither was his face. Or arms. Or anything else that had fallen on the cement.

But he wasn't on cement. He was on sand. Warm sand, not hot like what was out in the desert. And it was soft, dark, finely ground. Smelled oddly metallic, though.

"What... what happened?" Naruto asked, trying to get up and failing. He blinked blearily and looked around, feeling the sand beneath him absentmindedly. "What's going on?"

"You fell," Gaara told him. He was sitting on the ground, watching the sand twirling around him. "Passed out, I think. Reached the point of tyranny, 'cause Baki made me keep running."

Naruto looked at the sand underneath him. "How'd this get here, anyways?"

"Don't you know?" Gaara asked. "I'm a monster. Can control sand. Have a bunch in that gourd I carry. I used it to stop you from breaking your face." His voice was so flat Naruto couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

"Oh... Well, thanks," he said. Gaara stood. Naruto half expected him to help him up, but he just walked back to Baki, who was leaning on the fence. Watching them. Gaara's gourd was nearby, laying on the ground.

Naruto stood, with some difficulty. His legs felt weak, but significantly better than before.

As he walked, the sand flew past him and into the gourd.

Naruto walked rather slowly towards the pair. Once he reached them, Baki stood straight.

"Great! Time for combat training."

Naruto threw his head back and groaned.

They returned home when the sky darkened. Naruto fell into his bed and crashed immediately.

The next morning, he was not forced awake by anybody. It was bright out. Late, but not yet noon.

He walked downstairs carefully, doing his best to not make the stairs creak. The Kazekage, Rasa, was scary. Meeting him again would be an uncomfortable encounter.

Naruto sat at the kitchen table, sighing in relief. He called no attention to himself, and wasn't that great?

At home, he'd wanted all the attention in the world. But that was before... everybody found out. Before even he found out. And the only thing he could do now was stay under the radar. Now, attention was dangerous. Anybody could find out. Anybody could hurt him.

"Gonna eat?" someone asked. Naruto looked up, surprised. A boy was at the opposite end of the table, eating cereal with his fingers. How had he not noticed?

"I'm... not really hungry," Naruto said. Lying, of course. After the previous day's training, and the lack of dinner, he was so hungry he could've been satisfied with drinking his own blood. He'd read about it, once. Gruesome. But he didn't want to take anything from him. Who was he?

The boy shook his head.

"I can tell. You're starving." He frowned. "Or just, like, really sore. I can't tell."

Naruto chuckled tiredly. "Both, I guess. Yeah." He paused. "Sorry."

"It's fine. Here, have some of this." The boy started to push his bowl towards him, but he pulled it back at the last moment, looking at Naruto apprehensively. "You, like, eat... right?"

"Uh, yeah. Who doesn't?"

"I don't know. Gaara can control sand. Maybe you're, like, immortal." He shrugged. "How am I supposed to tell?"

"I'm still human," Naruto said. Not as defensively as he might've, had it been for any other reason. Really, he was just quiet. He didn't want to put up with that, not here.

"Sorry," the boy said, and he pushed the bowl across the table. Naruto grabbed it, took a piece of food, and ate it. It tasted like... sweetened cardboard.

"It's shit, I know," the boy said. "I put sugar on it. Might get your hands sticky, but it's worse with milk. Surprising, right?"

Naruto exhaled sharply, trying to laugh with food in his mouth. 

"My name's Kankuro. You're Naruto, right?"

Naruto nodded.

They sat together silently. As he ate, Naruto studied Kankuro.

He had brown hair and a chubby face. He looked similar to Gaara, except his nose was wider and his eyes were warm and brown.

For a long while, they just stared at each other as Naruto ate. The silence was awkward.

"You're one of those... things, right?" Kankuro asked finally.

"What do you mean, things?"

"You know."

"A Jinchuriki?" Naruto raised his eyebrows. "You asking if I'm a Jinchuriki?"

"That's what it's called. Yeah, a... Jinchuriki." Kankuro nodded. "Are you one of those?"

"...Yeah. I am."

"You're not gonna kill me, right?"

"What?" Naruto exclaimed. "No! Why would you ask me that?"

"Hey, I'm just checking!" Kankuro frowned. "Gaara threatens to kill me every time I breathe in the same room as him. Why should you be any different?"

"I don't know!" Naruto swallowed and looked away. "I didn't know he did that."

"You were with him all day, you didn't hear him threaten to disembowel Baki or something?"

"No! He didn't say that!"

"Huh." Kankuro shrugged. "Must like you, then."

"I like your hair," Gaara said.

"What?"

"Your hair." He pointed to his own, as though to demonstrate. "I like it."

Naruto smiled.

"Ah, thank you! I like your hair, too. It looks really fluffy."

"I don't brush it," Gaara told him. "I don't feel the need to."

"I don't brush mine either," Naruto said. "I probably do need to, though."

The pair sat on Naruto's bed. Gaara had brought a book, but they didn't read it. They talked about nothing. Except, Naruto had a question. 

"Hey, Gaara?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you... Well, you're like me, right? A Jinchuriki?"

Gaara nodded. He didn't meet his eyes. Although, to be fair, he hadn't met his eyes for the entirety of their conversation. 

Naruto swallowed, anxiety crawling up his throat. He half-considered backing out, but what use was a kid who couldn't ask a question?

"Well, Kankuro said that you say you're gonna murder people a whole bunch."

Gaara scowled.

"Bastard."

"Don't be mad at him," Naruto said. "He only mentioned it 'cause he thought I was gonna do it, too."

"Why?"

"Because you do it, I guess. He assumed we were the same." Naruto sighed. "I just wanted to know why, I guess. Like, I get people hating you and stuff. But why do you threaten to murder them?"

Gaara shrugged.

"Because I will."

Naruto stared at him, hoping for some elaboration.

"It's like... I don't always control the sand. Usually it does it's own thing. At least, the monster does. It kills people. I don't want to hurt anybody. But I will. The monster will."

His sentences were choppy, and his tone was monotonous, but Naruto couldn't deny the emotion in his eyes.

"It's a warning, then, right?" he asked. "Not a threat?"

Gaara nodded, fidgeting with his hands. "I don't want to hurt anybody," he said again. "But I can't stop it."

"We're different, then."

Gaara looked at him, confused.

Naruto smiled somberly.

"The monster... your monster... it's super powerful. From what I've seen, it tries to protect you, right? That's why I couldn't hit you during training."

Gaara nodded.

"But you could hit me, easy. My monster's asleep, or something. I think that's the difference. Yours is awake, and mine isn't. Does that sound right?"

"...I think so," Gaara said. He swallowed. "You know, when I was young, my father told me that I was just a weapon. I'd use this power for the sake of the village. That's why I train so much. So I can learn to control it, not let it kill people like it does now. Because my father said that if I become too much of a threat, I would be eliminated."

Naruto gasped slightly.

"No." He shook his head. "You won't... you won't be eliminated, Gaara. You can't be. You're so... strong."

And if Gaara was killed, and he couldn't go home, he'd have nobody. Nothing. Maybe it was selfish, but wasn't he allowed to be selfish sometimes?

"I'm a kid," Gaara said. "And so are you. We can't do anything about it. If someone tries to kill me, they will. And I'm okay with that."

"What?"

Naruto felt nothing but confusion. And, vaguely, sorrow. He was okay with leaving? How?

"I've made peace with death," Gaara said. "It'd be better for everyone, anyways. I can't hurt them anymore."

Naruto clenched his jaw, wearing a determined expression. But really, all he felt was dread.

"You aren't gonna die. I get you're okay with it, but it would really suck! For me, at least! There's nobody here but you who likes me, or talks to me. We're friends, Gaara. And friends don't let their friends get murdered."

And Naruto hugged Gaara tight. He tensed up at the touch, but after a moment, he relaxed. Naruto's arms were around his shoulders, and his eyes were shut tight.

And it was an odd realization, the thought that neither of them had been hugged before.