Chapter 7
Naruto and Sakura confusedly followed Sasuke as he led the two of them to the table the sand siblings were sitting at. “Sakura, when you feel like the two of us are going over board, hit us or yell.”
Naruto and Sakura looked confusedly at each other as they took seats across the three siblings.
“Temari, Konkuro and Gaara no Subaku…” started Sasuke as he took his brooding pose, “How did you find the second round?” he asked, causing Naruto and Sakura to look very concerningly his way. He was never one to strike a conversation… did he fancy one of them?
“Naruto Uzumaki. Leave.” This caused all eyes to go to Gaara then Naruto. Her teammates eyes were laughing at her but the sand siblings were concerned and worried.
“The test was actually quite easy. We managed to finish it quite quick. By the way, I do love your new outfit.” Replied Konkuro as he leered to her chest. She didn’t have anything binding her chest so the bodice was the only thing covering it, giving him a good view.
Not that Naruto really cared who looked, they wouldn’t get to touch was all that mattered to her. Maybe when she was older she would care, but at the current time, she didn’t.
None of the three siblings replied, Gaara glaring at Naruto who focused her attention of Temari when she realised what the teme was doing. “Temari… you’re a wind user right?”
The older blonde looked at her, confused by her question but carried on the conversation nonetheless, “Yes. Why did you want to know? In fact, I’d love to know how you figured it out.”
“I have a wind affinity and was wondering if you had any tips? I can do all D rank and some C rank wind release jutsu’s but was wondering how to move an incoming object without being near it. As for how I figured it out; you’re from the land of wind and carry a large tessen. Unless you get hot really easy and need to cover large surface area to cool down, I fail to see why you should carry one.” Temari, Konkuro and Sasuke chuckled lightly at her joke.
“There is a technique taught in Sunagakure to high tier wind users. You simply use a bit of your chakra to either create or control the air around you and make it speed up. Of course, you could always do the daitoppa or yadama henshin bakuh. The former being used for large things such as people or boulders whereas the latter is used for things such as shuriken and kunai.”
“Now I’ve heard of the second one, that’s a C rank but the first one I can actually do. I just find it annoying how you have to build it up before you release the wind.”
Temari nodded her head earnestly, clearly having faced the same problem before, “I would teach you the technique I use to deflect weapons without having to do that but it’s a Suna secret…”
Naruto waved a hand as she peeked at the others; Sasuke and Sakura were talking to Konkuro as Gaara glared at her. “It’s fine. I get it. It’s like if I wanted to teach you a clan technique, I would have to go through a lot of paperwork first. Sasuke and I are the only ones of our year to actually have a specialization in an element. Everyone else has something else they specialize in. like Sakura, she specialized in genjutsu and inryo ninjutsu.”
Temari looked to her teammates, clearly impressed that fresh out of the academy genin had already started to specialize. “Can you take a guess at what my siblings and I specialize in? Then I’ll try to guess what the people I’ve seen specialize in.”
Nodding her head slowly she looked to each sibling as she answered, “Well since you’re the eldest you have to specialize in diplomacy and stuff like that as well as wind. Konkuro has to specialize in puppets since he’s carrying one around with him everywhere, and as for his element I’d have to say wind but I think he’d be good with the other elements as well, minus fire. That doesn’t go with puppets. Gaara on the other hand… well he carries a gourd of sand so I’d say sand manipulation. As for elements… wind, earth and lightning seem to fit his personality-”
She was interrupted by Sakura scoffing, “What personality? I said it before I’ll say it again. The only way this boy could have a personality is if being a psychopath was one.”
Before Naruto or Sasuke could reprimand the girl, the latter was called in by a jonin to talk to Kakashi so Naruto decided to carry on, “That’s honestly all I can think of. Well no, I guess assassination would work well with Gaara since he did easily kill Team Shigure in the forest of death.”
“About that, you made the forest seem really dangerous, it wasn’t all that bad.” Said Konkuro as he looked her in the eye, clearly trying to avoid the topic of his brother.
“Oh I guarantee that at least one third of the teams that participated either die or get severely injured.” She let out a giggle causing Sakura to lightly hit her over the head.
“You’re going a bit psycho there Naruto.”
She smiled sheepishly just as a sand tail hit the table causing the food on their trays to shake. Good. If they had fallen Naruto would have gone crazy for the loss of ramen.
“Naruto Uzumaki. I suggest you leave the table at once. Your presence irks me.” If Naruto though he looked irritated before, Gaara looked down right mutinous right now.
Naruto being the weird person she was wasn’t frightened by it at all, instead she loved it. Sakura on the other hand seemed to be barely holding it in.
“Why would my presence irk you if I’m talking to your sister? Would you prefer I talk to you instead, because I will have to finish my conversation with your sister first.”
“By all means, please carry on talking to my brother.” Said Temari the same time Sakura said, “Naruto where do you come up with these conclusions?”
“Leave before I feed your blood to mother.”
Naruto groaned as she looked to the red head, “I told you once and I’ll tell you again. I’m not afraid of your mother. You can both come at me with all you’ve got, you won’t get very far.”
Because she was side-tracked looking Gaara in his hypnotic teal coloured eyes he had she didn’t notice the two whips of sand that took a hold of her, causing her to involuntarily flinch. One wrapped around her waist whilst the over went around her neck, the latter not being too tight, leaving enough space for her to breathe.
She could vaguely sense the jonin and ANBU in the room move to them yet she raised her hand and used Konoha’s signs for them to go back to their posts.
“Why do you not fear me? I have never met a person who didn’t cower in my presence. Even my father once did so, so why don’t you?” the sand wrapped around her suddenly tightened causing Kurama to wake up.
What did you do to upset Shukaku’s jinchuriki so much foolish ningen? He asked sleepily.
Why must I always be at fault? Can’t people just get annoyed and I just happen to be there?
No.
Well I didn’t do anything. She stuck her mental tongue at him like the childish girl she was.
She let out a large bout of chakra dispersing the sand from around her as she sucked in two large breaths. She looked to Gaara and saw his fury, saw the large range of his emotions swirling in those hypnotic teal eyes and in that moment Naruto saw the real him. Up until now all she had seen was a façade, yet here and now was real.
She knew she should be afraid, like Sakura or Konkuro yet she wasn’t. Hell even Temari seemed to be scared and she had been the one to keep her cool till now.
Once again it simply excited her. At this point, she was thriving off it. Sakura would most definitely demand she have her head scanned to see if she had been dropped as a child or if all her screws were where they should be, since this was clearly not how someone reacted to being threatened.
Then again she recalled Jiraiya of the sannin being highly infatuated with Lady Tsunade despite her constantly beating the crap out of him. Probably not the best type of relationship someone could get into but she was sure this was simply a phase. (A/N I do not condone violent relationships but anime likes tsundere and I’d like to think of Gaara as a half tsundere half yandere)
Sakura was then called in like Sasuke, yet she paused, only leaving when Naruto gave her the okay. Once she was out of hearing range she spoke, “Did you honestly believe your demon frightens me Gaara? There are worse demons out there and I’ve met them. The only difference between us is I know how to control them.”
Neither Gaara nor Konkuro seemed to understand her implication but Temari did. She gave a look that told Temari not to tell her bothers, to let them figure it out themselves before she was also called out to take part in whatever her teammates had been individually called in for.