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Sand in the Leaves	By : ahmenet Category: Naruto > General Views: 1274 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor do I make any money from this fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
For those who’d
like to know. The age of consent in this story is 15. I know this
seems young for some but if you are allowed to carry lethal weapons,
slit peoples throats, and die for your village at 12, I don’t
see why you can’t date, have sex, get married or even get drunk
and smoke. Oh, and I don’t own Naruto.

0.0.0.0.0.0

“Gaara? Where
are you going?” Neji watched his teammate hold the flailing
black cat by its nape an arm length from his body.

“I’m taking
it to the veterinarian.” The red heads voice was laced with
mild irritation.

“You don’t
need to take it to the vet. We just need to take it back to its home
so the nice genin laughing at us from the roof over there can get
paid.” Nejis eyes wondered to said rooftop and the howling
genin.

“No. I’m
taking it to the vet.” Sea green eyes turned toward the Hyuuga
looking a little wild. “We’ve chased this cat down five
times in the past four days. It obviously doesn’t want to go
home. I’m going to put it out of its misery and ours.”

Neji sighed and walked
behind Gaara as the man headed for the vet. As punishment went this
was light. Since Gaaras arm still wasn’t completely healed and
Neji was still having trouble with a few of his injuries they had
been assigned to genin jobs. They did the jobs and the genin
assigned to them got paid. It hadn’t taken long for the little
runts to find out about the special punishment. They were lining up
down the halls of the Tower, waiting for the two jounin to show up
for another assignment.

“Fine. We’ll
take it to Hana. She can give it back to its owner.”

Gaara nodded and Neji
watched him walk for a few minutes, holding the cat out in front of
him, before he decided enough was enough.

“Give it to me.”
He held out his arms for the cat.

Gaara didn’t
argue, simply turning and depositing the angry feline in his
teammates arms. Neji winced at a particularly hard scratch but
gamely rubbed behind the cats ears to calm it. The two fell silent
as they maneuvered the streets toward the Inuzuka office. Neji stole
occasional glances toward the former Kazekage and wondered what the
man was thinking. They’d each spent two days in the hospital,
neither seeing the other. When they’d been released, Neji
hadn’t been sure what Gaara would do. But it had been four
days since their release and the red head had ignored him in
everything but training discussion and their punishment assignments.

“Have you met
Hana?” He asked, hoping to at least start a clinic
conversation if nothing else. At the rate he was going, he’d
have nothing resolved by the end of his allotted week.

“No. I don’t
have a pet so there isn’t a need.” Gaara continued
ahead, never looking toward his companion.

“I wasn’t
sure, since you’ve been here a few times in the past and…”

“No. I haven’t.”
Gaara took two quick strides forward.

A whistle sounded from
above and Neji looked up to see the genin looking down on him with
something akin to sympathy. He supposed they’d heard about
everything. Not just the punishment but Nejis extra task in
repairing the damage he’d caused with his little stunt. He
turned his eyes from the kids on the rooftops as the vet hospital
came into sight. Gaara opened the door and held it as Neji brought
the cat inside.

A young chuunin sitting
behind a small desk looked up and smiled with a blush at the two men
in the doorway. Then she saw the cat.

“Why is he
here?” She asked rounding the desk and heading for a small
door in the back.

Gaara gave Neji a
confused look before the Hyuuga lifted the cats tail to show he was,
in deed, a boy. Gaaras eyes widened but he nodded then turned back
to the chuunin now leaning her head inside the door.

“Hell No!
Send it back! I don’t want that woman anywhere near my
hospital!”

Neji winced and Gaara
gave a knowing look. The cat hissed and spit a few times then
settled again. The chuunin said something else and boot heels
clicked on wood as someone came to the door from the other side.

“I don’t
care if the Hokage herself is standing with a slug sitting in her
cleavage; I don’t want that cat or his owner anywhere near this
hospital!”

Gaaras eyes widened as
a dark haired woman in blue robes emerged from the door. She took in
both men and the dreaded cat and sighed… loudly.

“Good morning,
Inuzuka-san. We are sorry for the interruption.” Neji stated
though Gaara didn’t look the least bit sorry as he grabbed the
cat from Nejis arms.

Holding it out by its
nape and walking the short distance to the medic, Gaara put the cat
directly in Hanas face.

“Taking care of
mistreated animals is part of your job, is it not?” He asked
directly.

Hana didn’t look
happy. “Yes.”

“Then you should
do something about this animal. No animal that’s treated well
would run as much as this one does.”

“Is she’d
fix him he wouldn’t run at all.” Neji mumbled under his
breath.

Hana snorted in reply
and watched as Gaara stretched his uninjured arm as far out as he
could. She looked him over a second time before it dawned on her
just who this was. She smiled.

“Neji.”
The Hyuuga looked over Gaaras head at the woman. “You got off
easy.”

He grimaced as she took
the cat from a seemingly relieved Gaara.

“That’s
your opinion.” He folded his arms over his chest.

“So where are the
genin responsible for this?” She asked as her assistant took
the cat through the door.

“Probably on the
roof.” He groused. “Waiting for us to tell the owner
where the cat is so they can get paid.”

Hana’s eyes
widened before she burst into fits of laughter.

Gaara was already on
his way to the door looking less than pleased and more then ready to
be done with the task.

“Oh, don’t
be so stiff, Sabaku-san! This is mild considering what Gai could
have done. You should feel lucky.”

Gaara turned slowly to
pin her with a withering look but there was no fear in the medics
eyes. “Should I?”

They stared at one
another for a moment. Gaara turned away first then walked out the
door. Neji turned to follow but was stopped as Hana cleared her
throat.

“You were both
wrong.” Neji turned to look at the woman with cool eyes. “In
your own unique ways. If he ever gets his head out of his ass you
might be able to apologize for whatever you did.”

Neji opened his mouth
to explain exactly what it had been when a scream was heard from the
back followed by crashing and an irate feline cry.

“Damn Cat!”
Hana ran into the back as Neji, a smile satisfied smile on his face,
walked out of her office.

0.0.0.0.0.0

Gai stood at the
training field while Sakura shredded leaves from a nearby tree.
She’d been more irritable since the boys had gone into the
hospital though he couldn’t put his finger on the cause. He
thought it might have something to do with one of the medic staff but
when he’d asked she’d changed the subject and that was
the end of it. Now she simply destroyed foliage as they awaited the
arrival of their other teammates. Genma and his team where already
standing at the road some feet away, ready to watch Gaaras
performance on the field, and with any luck, in another week the
group could rejoin the mission roster. Not that any of them were
hurting for money but it was healthy for both mind and body to be
useful.

“Here they come.”
Sakura called.

Over the slope Neji and
Gaara made their sedate way to the training ground. Both seemed in
deep thought and were obviously not conversing. Gai sighed knowing
another day had been lost to Gaaras stubbornness and lack of trust.
Though he wasn’t sure just how hard Neji was trying either.

“Good Morning
fellow shinobi! It is a glorious day for training!” Gai
yelled causing both men to snap out of their own thought and look at
him.

Gaaras eyes widened
while Neji moved closer to the others already seated on a fallen log.

“Gaara! Lets get
going!” Sakura called when the red head didn’t move.

“This isn’t
a training field. It’s a lake.” Gaara said quietly.

Genma moved up behind
the young man, noting his skin was now dewed and seemed paler than
usual.

“You alright,
Gaara? You need to head to the hospital?”

Gaara stood quietly for
a moment then looked back at Genma.

“Yes. I need to
go back to the hospital.”

Sakura, who’d
walked over to check that things were alright, heard Gaaras request
and frowned.

“You did
everything you could to get out of there as fast as possible
including threatening a few of the nurses with very nasty possible
deaths and now you want to go back?”

Gaara nodded several
times as he stared over the large expanse of water only feet away.

“Alright. Let me
take a look at you and see if you need to go all the way back up
there.” Sakura sighed and approached Gaara on the left side,
grabbing for his arm. He yanked it out of her grasp and spun to
stepped way from her.

“Gaara? What’s
wrong? I’m just going to check it. I’ve done it a
thousand times this week. Just get over here and let me look at it.”

He nodded again and she
reached for him again but he jerked at her touch and stepped farther
away.

Gai and Neji watched
from a stand of reeds as Gaara moved farther and farther away from
Sakura and closer and closer to the waters edge.

“What do you
think the problem is?” Neji asked concerned as Gaara moved
close to the slippery bank.

“I’m not
sure. Perhaps we should…”

splash

Gai blinked and Neji
snorted as Gaara slipped in the mud at the banks and fell back into
the water. Since the lake was man made there were no slopes and the
drop off was deep. Sakura looked up bewildered and Genma rolled his
eyes. A moment passed. Then another. Gaara didn’t come back
up.

“Shit!”

Gai and Genma were
first in the water. Both going under at the same time as Neji ran
for Sakura and the two jounin by the road came down to the waters
edge. Long seconds passed and the ripples dissipated as everyone on
the banks waited for someone to come up for air.

“What’s
going on?” Came Chojis voice from just behind them.

Sakura opened her mouth
to speak when Gai and Genma came up holding a limp Gaara in their
arms, his too long hair obscuring his face.

“What the…?”
Choji dropped his bag of crisps and shouldered past Yukio and
Shichiro to help Neji pull the men in.

Sakura dropped to the
ground and took several deep breaths while the men pulled Gaara and
lay him in front of her. His pale skin was clammy and he wasn’t
breathing as she touched his chin and tipped his head back. His
heart beat beneath her palm at a steadily slowing rate.

“Sakura?”
Neji asked, now on his knees next to her.

She leaned forward
while pulling his mouth open with her thumb, and pressed her open
mouth to his. She blew several deep breaths into his mouth, making
sure to keep his head tilted back, when his body suddenly jerked and
a strange sound choked from between his lips. Moments later a geyser
of water spewed from his mouth and he coughed repeatedly. She and
Neji turned him to his side to allow his lungs a chance to purge
themselves.

“What the hell…”
Yukio started only to have Genma wave him off.

“Just get someone
down here with stretcher. I don’t know what the hell happened
but it looks like he’s going back to the hospital after all.”

0.0.0.0.0.0

“The first group
is here. They were brought in through the southern gate this
morning.” Shizune placed the report on the Hokages desk.

“They made good
time. Guess they didn’t run into any trouble.”

“None that
couldn’t be dealt with easily. Seems they have some children
who are afraid of the ANBU masks. Sai’s been taking care of
them.”

Tsunade looked up with
wide eyes.

“Sai? ROOTS Sai?
Has the nerve to call Choji fat Sai? Doesn’t understand a
basic ‘knock, knock’ joke Sai?”

“Well, it seems
he understood they needed to move quickly and he understood the
children were uncomfortable so he fell back on the books he’d
read and decided to make the children comfortable to gain their
trust. It worked. He has a following of little rug rats at his
heels as we speak.” Shizune grinned.

“Oh, I’m
sure he’s handling that well.” Tsunade laughed and
lifted the report.

“No one’s
really sure how he’s taking it. Since he never really learned
how to express himself outwardly no one can tell if he’s
irritated, confused or happy about it.”

Tsunade sighed and
chuckled over the image of Sai walking hand in hand with several
children while being followed in pied piper fashion up and down the
streets of Konoha. The idea had her smiling and she leaned back in
her chair with a perversely peaceful expression.

“All of the
refugees are to be examined and moved to ANBU headquarters for
debriefing and relocation. I’ll be down soon to personally
oversee everything. I want them out of the village within the week.”

“Yes,
Hokage-sama.” Shizune cleared her throat while rifling through
the contents of the desk. “Oh, and there was an incident on
the training grounds this morning.” Shizune lifted some of the
signed papers from the desk and turned toward the door.

“What was that?”
Tsunade turned her uninterested gaze to a small stack of papers
behind which hide her Sake bottle.

“Gai team had a
little accident but it’s taken care of.”

Tsunade looked up at
her assistant with narrowed eyes. All incidents with team Gai were
to be reported to her immediately.

“It’s late
afternoon. Why am I just hearing about this and what exactly
happened?”

Shizune turned fully to
the desk with a light blush on her cheeks.

“I know you said
everything was to be reported but it was a small problem and nothing
that would disrupt the team. It seemed silly to bother you with it.”

Tsunade’s
fingertips pressed together as she leaned forward and frowned at her
long time companion.

Shizune sighed and
lowered he gaze. “Gaara fell in the lake.”

It took Tsunade a
moment to absorb that. When she did she frowned all the harder.

“And? That can’t
be all. Everyone falls in that lake at least once. Sometimes once a
week!”

Shizune nodded then
groaned a little. “They had to jump in and retrieve him.”

“Explain
retrieve.” Her eyes narrowing, the very perturbed hokage
leaned farther over her desk.

“It seems…
well, Gaara-kun… he can’t swim.”

“He can’t
swim?”

“No.”

“Not even doggy
paddle?”

“No.”

“So he fell in…”

“Yes.”

“And because he
has no body fat and plenty of muscle…” Tsunade felt the
headache coming.

“He sank like a
rock, yes, Lady Tsunade. But he didn’t need to stay in the
hospital. He was in and out quickly.” She reassured. Seeing
the eye twitch that signaled a headache or a tantrum she braced for
the tantrum and prayed for the headache.

“Well that’s…
you’re right, Shizune.”

“Right about
what?” he assistant asked warily.

Tsunade stood and
ushered the confusion woman with her arms full of papers, out the
door.

“I really didn’t
need to be bothered with that. Way too many important things to do.
I’ll just leave it to the team to decide how to handle it and…”

“But Lady
Tsunade! You said…”

“Forget it.”
She pushed the dark haired woman out the door and slammed it shut in
her face.

The moment the door was
closed she moved back to her desk and her bottle of Sake. With
visions of Sai in baby land and Gaara walking stoically by koi fish
she sat down to take a much needed break. After all, nothing really
surprised her that much anymore. It was a nice change.

0.0.0.0.0.0

“What are you
doing?” Konohamaru asked.

Moegi sat going over
the short list she had composed while twirling a kunai on the table
next to her.

“I’m making
a grocery list. We haven’t got a thing in the house and I’m
starved.”

“No.” He
slid into the seat beside her and looked her over. “You’ve
taken your hair down.”

Moegi nodded.

“And cut it!”
The boisterous brunette lifted a hand and touched the chin length
ends of her hair.

“It was getting
hard to deal with. Besides, I needed a change. I’m not a kid
anymore.”

Konohamaru looked at
her, suspicion obvious on his face.

“This wouldn’t
have anything to do with a red headed former Kazekage would it?”

This time the girl
blushed. “I just wanted a change. A girl has to try something
new every once in a while.”

Her teammate and friend
shook his head sadly. She ignored it and continued with her list.
It was true. She wanted to change but she had to admit that she
hoped Gaara would take notice. She knew she wasn’t a great
beauty but hoped the new look would help her look a little older if
not more attractive. At 15 it was difficult to change much else.
Oh, there were ways but they all seemed too time consuming, useless
or just plain silly. She was a strong, young kunoichi and a good
one. She didn’t have time for frivolity.

“Well, just as
long as you aren’t doing it for some guy I guess it’s
okay.” Her teammate groused.

Moegi smiled and
ruffled his already mussed hair.

“Oh, come on
Konohamaru. You know I only do these kinds of things for you.”
She purred.

The young man in
question jumped and gave her a sharp look.

“You’re not
supposed to talk to me like that! We aren’t dating anymore!”
He whispered heatedly.

She giggled and rolled
her eyes before picking up her list and standing to stretch. She
watched Konohamaru’s eyes quickly take in the site before
shifting in the opposite direction. They’d broken up mutually,
it wasn’t good dating a teammate, but she was sure he wouldn’t
mind a little tumble with her now and again. Sadly for the male
population, she wasn’t that kind of girl no matter how much fun
it was.

“Where’s
Udon? I thought you and he were training together?”

Konohamaru looked off
down the street as a vendor started packing up his business for the
end of the day.

“He went home
early. We couldn’t get anything done after that big scene by
the training fields. Too many fan girls hanging around. We were
afraid we’d hurt them and apparently so was everyone else.”

“Whose fan girls
this time?” She asked with a smile, knowing most of them were
Gaaras.

“Gaara’s
and Sasuke’s.”

“Sasuke’s?”
She looked at him stunned. What were Sasuke’s fan girls doing
at the training field?

“Yah! When we
all managed to get back on the field, Sasuke was there with little
Naruto and Hiro. Seems Hiro has figured out how to make a tiny fire
ball jutsu and they were practicing.”

Moegi looked alarmed.
“He didn’t…”

“Oh no!”
Konohamaru rushed to reassure. “It’s really small.
Nothing like Naruto’s.”

She blew out a breath
and turned into a small market with fruit stands against the outside
wall.

“Speaking of…
You watching his kids tomorrow night?” Konohamaru watched the
Uchiha children once a week. Since the three tended to be more
trouble than most, Sasuke just hired ninja to watch them. The boys
liked her spicy teammate so he usually got the job.

“Yeah, wanna help
out? He’s paying B rank this time since Hiro learned the new
jutsu and Tadao found his voice.”

So, peace in the
village is a thing of the past, she thought remembering the day
Naruto learned to talk. “I’ll get back to you on that.”
She smiled and waved as she turned into the market.

0.0.0.0.0.0

Gaara lay on his back
staring out of the open shutters at the stars. Night had fallen but
he was no closer to sleep. The day had been long and needless to
say, embarrassing.

He’d panicked.
There was no other way to explain it. In Suna there was little
water. Walking on it was more an exercises in keeping your feet dry.
Most bodies of water were no more than knee deep. He’d taken
one look at that lake and known it was much more than knee deep. All
he could think every time Sakura had reached for his arm was that she
was going to find nothing wrong with him and then she and his new
youthful fucking team leader and the psyco Hyuuga were going to drag
him out over that body of water. Into that body of water! And what
had he done?

“So stupid.”
He groaned and rubbed his hands over his face.

His hands stilled and
he grew quiet at the sound of soft shoes on the landing outside. A
few moments of silence and there was a knock on his door. He hadn’t
locked it, knowing the neighbors sometimes came by to check on him
this time of night and expected it to be one of them. So he was
surprised when the door opened and Neji walked through it. The
Hyuuga looked over the room with expressionless eyes then turned to
the bed.

“Get up. Get
dressed. Bring your bath towel.”

“What are you
doing here?” Gaara stood from the bed and followed the taller
man as he rummaged around his closets, tossing pants and shirts at
him.

“Helping. It’s
getting chilly out. You don’t want to go out in just that.”

A net shirt dropped on
top of Gaaras head and he tossed it to the floor. He crossed his
arms and glared holes in Nejis back. At least until Neji turned and
slammed a shirt over his head.

“Put your arms in
that and get some pants on.” He turned back to the closet.

“Exactly why am I
getting dressed and why are you here?”

Neji pulled the bath
towel and drying towel down from the shelf and turned again.

“We’re
going to the baths. Unless you want to freeze on the way back I
suggest you put on you pants.” He grabbed a pair of pants off
the floor and threw them in Gaaras face.

“The baths?”

Gaara stood totally
confused. Of all the reasons to visit someone at this time of night…

“You didn’t
tell us you couldn’t swim.” Neji said quietly.

Gaara blinked and
blushed. “I didn’t think it was necessary.”

“You could have
drowned.” The Hyuuga eyed the red head with dispassionate
eyes.

“Disappointed?”

They watched one
another for a moment before Neji turned and walked to the door.

“Get dressed or
I’ll dress you myself.” Gaaras shoes flew at him from
the door. “I’ll be outside.”

The door slammed and
Gaara stood holding a pair of pants with a shirt handing around his
neck and his shoes toppled at his feet wondering exactly how long
Neji would wait outside the door if he decided not to show. The
sound of a soft knock came from outside and one of the neighbors
doors opened. He heard Neji greet the older woman, heard her cooing
the Hyuugas name and several little pet endearments, then his door
smoothly opened.

“Now, Gaara-kun.
It’s not good to sleep in the days dirt and grim. You won’t
feel rested in the least.”

“Watari-sobo. I
assure you I’m fine with…”

“Now, now. Be a
good boy and let’s get you dressed.”

Gaara looked toward the
open door as the older woman lifted each of his arms in turn to slip
them into the sleeves of his shirt. Neji stood grinning at him. It
seemed he wasn’t the only one who knew how to fight dirty.

0.0.0.0.0.0

Hope you all
enjoyed. Thanks to all who have reviewed. I hope I’ll be able
to answer at least a few of your questions soon.
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Sand in the Leaves