Moving On?
If you asked Naruto how Gaara ended up tagging along on his training trip, he'll tell you that it was, in all honesty, an accident. After Naruto told Gaara everything the red-haired boy left him along with his thoughts only to show up a few minutes later with a small bag. They had stared at each other for a while before Naruto realized that Gaara had made up his mind and there was no changing it.
Jiraiya had taken one look at Gaara and proceeded to ramble about how he wasn’t paid enough to babysit two jinchuriki. He might have also said something about how having two kids with him would ruin his chances with the ladies but Naruto couldn't be certain. That’s a lie Naruto knew that Jiraiya was, in fact, mumbling about having two clock-blockers.
Anyhow Naruto had come to Sauna to say goodbye to Gaara but ended up leaving Sauna with Gaara. If anyone asked him it was annoying but deep now Naruto was graceful. With Gaara now joining them he felt a little bit less lonely. A little bit less afraid.
//\\//\\//\\
They’ve been traveling and training for two months.
Two months since Naruto has last seen Konoha. A lot longer than two months since the last time he saw Sasuke. And Naruto hated the fact that he couldn’t get him out of his head. It helped that Gaara was there, he had someone to vent to when his mind becomes too much for him. But sometimes when he lay awake in the dead of night all he could think about was if Sasuke was watching the same night sky as him.
He wanted there to be something connecting them, even if it was as little as the night sky. It was a thought that made his aching heart bleed with sorrow and regret but it also filled him with hope.
Under the night sky, the moon was his companion and the stars were his witness to his silent tears.
//\\//\\//\\
Gaara wasn’t stupid. He might not know how to deal with emotions and had a lot more trouble understanding what sleep was but he was not stupid.
When Naruto confessed to him everything that had happened in the past few months all he could think about was that Sasuke Uchiha was an idiot. His childhood lacked love but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t see the gift that it is. The seal on his forehead is in the character for love and he liked to think that his mother wanted him to remember that love was important.
So, in his head, Sasuke Uchiha was the world's biggest idiot. To have someone that loved you the way that Naruto did and throwing it away was idiotic. Gaara couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of walking away from love. But maybe it was because deep down he wished someone loved or cared for him the way that Naruto cared for Sasuke.
Seeing his friend, because they were friends he understood that now, crying himself to sleep angered him. Why did someone that had been shud, betrayed, knocked down all of his life have to deal with heartbreak too. Why could Naruto not obtain the happiness that he deserved? Why did he have to shed tears for someone that had no problem leaving him behind?
He was also rather angry at the fact that Naruto felt the need to hide his tears from him. After traveling together for two months he thought that they had grown close. Close enough that they could share their fears and sorrows.
Naruto might be putting on a strong front but the cracks on his mask were starting to become visible. Gaara could only guess that it wouldn’t be long before the mask broke and Naruto became but a shell of the person he was.
That, of course, would only happen if Gaara let it happen. Naruto Uzumaki was his dearest friend and he wasn’t about to lose him too.
//\\//\\//\\
Naruto was not happy, he was wet, hungry and tired. Jiraiya had woken them up at 4:30 in the morning to train after only having slept for no more than three hours the previous night. Today’s lovely lesson consisted of “see no evil.”
In order for them to fully understand the lesson, Jiraiya had temporarily blinded them with a seal, in order for them to learn to trust both in their instincts but to also understand that some attacks can go unseen but not unheard. While that sounds great and all their training was to take place in a lake. As in on the lake.
That pervy asshole better watches his back.
Gaara wasn’t happy either, his sand was wet too and that made it hard to control. But he was less wet than Naruto at this point. Unlike Naruto he saw what Jiraiya was talking about, he never noticed that he trusted what he saw too much and sometimes what you saw wasn’t what it seemed. But now that he knew that he should rely on his other senses he will be training and honing his other senses too.
“Fuck!!!” And once again Naruto was dunked in the lake.
Jiraya should really watch his back.
//\\//\\//\\
Not a lot of people knew that Naruto was an outstanding singer and dancer. Growing up surrounded by maiko he picked up on the beauty of the arts. The only ones that knew this side of him were Aki-nee-chan and the girls; after all, they trained him. And if at one point Naruto thought that he could share this side of himself to Team 7...well nobody had to know.
Anyways, nobody knew this side of him until now.
If you ask Gaara he’ll tell you that he only found out that Naruto could dance and sing by accident. And really it was an accident.
After the training they had on the lake, Naruto had all but dragged Jiraiya to one of the most expensive inns that the village they were currently staying on had. Jiraiya couldn’t really say no after having put through his training. Also, Naruto had a crazed look on his face and Jiraiya didn’t want to find out what would happen if he said no. After having finished showering and eating Naruto had all but disappeared.
Gaara wasn’t worried, he figured that Naruto needed some time alone after spending three months with them on the road. He had to admit that a break from them as needed. So Gaara let him go. Jiraiya wasn’t very happy with this but that soon changed after realizing that the inn had a coed hot spring that was closed to children after dinner time.
While Gaara was in their room reading and meditating, Naruto was exploring the hotel. Or at least that had been the case before he found what he thought was a music room. There were a lot of different instruments all around the room, but what caught his attention was the stereo on the corner of the room. Aki-nee-chan had given him a cassette filled with recordings of the girls and her singing. Not being able to stop himself he figured that the room was empty and most likely sound proof that it was okay for him to use.
Naruto hadn’t meant to be in the music room for too long. But he missed Aki-nee-chan and the girls and he also missed dancing. For him dancing was an outlet, much like taking care of his plants was a stress reliever for him. And what was meant to be one song turned into twenty. But he just couldn’t stop dancing, there’s so much he was holding in for the past few months that once he started he just couldn’t stop. If you asked him when he started to sing along to the songs, Naruto wouldn’t really be able to tell you.
Which is why it really shouldn’t surprise him that Gaara had walked in on him. Not when he was so immersed in his own world that everything else faded away.
And so now Aki-nee-chan, the girls and Gaara know that Naruto was an amazing singer and dancer.
//\\//\\//\\
“Will you two just stop,” Jiraiya said as he all but stomped his foot. For the past week, Naruto and Gaara had been acting strangely. They wouldn't look at each other and every time they did they would blush and look away. Jiraiya was starting to think that while he was doing some important research for his book that Naruto and Gaara had been doing some research of their own.
"I don't know what happened to make you two act like two blushing maidens that just lost their virginity. But this has to stop. Go back to being your annoying little selves."
Naruto and Gaara who had turned cherry red during Jiraiya's rant were dumbfounded.
"You...you PERVY SAGE!!!"
//\\//\\//\\
“You can’t tell anyone.”
Gaara looked at the anxious face of his most precious person and couldn’t help but want to hug him. Of course, he didn’t hug him. Gaara wasn’t quite sure he knew how to hug or really touch anyone without invoking pain. “You have the word.”
Naruto nodded. He trusted Gaara he really did but when people found out about how he could dance and sing it lead to him being questioned. After years of this, he got used to hiding it from everyone outside of his home.
“-again?”
Gaara was staring at him expecting an answer yet Naruto had been too last in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard the question. Taking notices of Naruto’s confusion Gaara restated his question.
“I would like to see you dance or sing again if that was okay with you.”
No one aside from Aki-nee-chan and the girls had asked him to dance or sing for them. Naruto felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest and he was sure his cheeks had a red hue to them. Yet he found himself nodding.
“Okay.”
//\\//\\//\\
Location unknown
“Fireball jutsu!”
Sasuke felt like his lungs were going to explode at any moment now. For the past hour, all he had been doing was the same fireball jutsu none stop. He didn’t see the point of this training, not when he had perfected that particular jutsu when he was in the academy. If you ask him this was a waste of time.
"Sasuke-Kun you've improved.” Kabuto’s voice brought him back to the present. Kabuto was put in charge of his training after he arrived at Orochimaru’s base; being the faithful pet he was Kabuto took his task to heart. “It’s almost double the size of your initial fireball. Your breathing capacity has improved but there’s still room for improvement.”
Sasuke scoffed. “What’s the point of this training? When are you going to really start training me?”
Kabuto pushed his glasses up. “As I said earlier the size and rage of your fireball jutsu have increased quite a bit in the past two weeks. While you fail to see the point in this training soon you’ll start to see the payoff.”
Having grown annoyed with Kabuto, Sasuke started to walk away from him. But just as he was making his way out the door Kabuto spoke again.
“Naruto Uzumaki is rumored to be training with Jiraiya, one of the legendary sannin.”
//\\//\\//\\
For the past few weeks, Jiraiya had a distinct impression that someone was following them. It started soon after they left the small village close to the Hidden Grass Village. Yet no matter how many toads he sent out to explore the area they found nothing and his sources reassured him that the Akatsuki had not made a move.
Jiraiya had started to think he was just paranoid after he was traveling with two jinchurikis. Yet as they made their way to the Hidden Waterfalls Village he couldn’t help but stop dead in his tracks. The feeling of being watched came back ten folds but as he looked around he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“Pervy sage hurry up!” Jiraiya turned to look at Naruto who was walking up ahead with Gaara. “Is your age finally catching up to you old man?”
Not wanting to worry the two boys Jiraiya made sure that he acted like he normally would.
“You brat!” Naruto burst out laughing as Jiraiya started to shake his fist in his direction while muttering about how kids these days were ungrateful brats.
Four men stood among the clouds watching the exchange between Jiraiya and the two jinchuriki.
“We should make our move now, it’s clear that we outnumber them.” As the first man spoke one couldn’t help but stare at his predatory smile.
The smaller of the four men scolded his companion. “You shouldn’t underestimate Jiraya.”
“Eh~ but that makes it a lot more interesting yeah. It would be quite the explosion.”
The last one of the group said nothing as he continued to observe their targets, his red eyes never once lost sight of them.