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The sand was hot and the heat was horrific. The boy with the blue eyes walked in the desert, sand filling up places he hadn’t even thought of. He followed the white blob in front of him diligently. With every step they took, their feet sunk deeper into the hot grains beneath. Even chakra walking was not helping anymore. This was tiring or would be if you were normal. Sadly for the white blob, the teen behind him was none other than the number one hyperactive knuckleheaded shinobi of Konoha. The old sage looked back at his disciple with contempt as he watched him energetically jump around in the water like a pit of hot sand. He cursed the day he so much as looked in the direction of his homeland after the… after what could not be named in his mind unless he wanted to shatter it further.
Suddenly, a thought sparked up in his overheated head. Since when had he become so weak?! He, he who was feared by nations and revered by nature itself, had fallen so low as to complain about being a bit too hot?! What would Tsunade think or Sarutobi-sensei for that matter? What would Minato think?! Jiraya winced as the face of his student jumped out at him out of the deep pits of his mind where he thought he had buried it. That face, that was the face of his student, of the man who he let down. He looked back at the boy behind him. He stared at the eerily similar face and cursed.
Carry on damn it! You are Jiraiya! You are that boy’s godfather! Do you want to fail him like you failed his father?!
The voice was clear in his head. He had to carry on. He had to march. He had to be strong. And he marched until he saw the first glints of the rounded towers. That gruelling exercise was not for nothing. They had reached their destination.
“We are almost there, shortstack!” He bellowed out. “Keep up!”
Gaara paced around his room. He held the message in his hand, the little scroll he had awaited for so long. It was the letter, the letter he had been waiting for, so why did it worry him so much? Why did it feel wrong to even hold it? He hated things like this. Emotions were such inconvenient things. He walked and walked, one foot at a time trying to calm himself down. Repeating the same action usually helped, but not this time. This was different, this was huge. He didn’t even know what to think.
Calm down, brat! If the Kitsune sees you, my jinchuriki, in this state I will kill you! He will be here soon.
The voice of the sand beast beat out everything else in Gaara’s mind. What did the damned tanuki say?! Kitsune…He couldn’t have meant Him, could he? Why would he of all people be close? The young sand wielder didn’t get too much time to think before his sand acted for him. It almost dragged him out of the cramped room into the open streets. There he had no other choice but to act. After all, he was a jounin and there seemed to be a rather loud commotion at the main gate.
Upon arrival, he saw a sight at which even he couldn’t help but laugh, even if it was just a little bit.
You laughing?! Let me take over! I want to see what has you in such a good mood!
The redhead ignored the voice in his head. He had to be serious, this was no laughing matter. He collected himself and schooled his face into his usual dry expression. He approached the guards at the gate with only one question in mind. What in hell was going on here? Why was there a yellow blur trying to squirm out of the guard's grip and a white-maned man who seemed to have passed out?
“Gaara, finally! Tell them we are friends! And get those girls of the old perv before he dies from blood loss!”
The yellow blur turned into the familiar face that had visited the sand jinchuriki many a sleepless night. The host didn’t even have time to smirk when he heard his two female ex-students whelping and jumping back in disgust. The white lion-looking shinobi sighed a disappointed sigh and tried to get up to sit, only to be subdued by wires from a distance. For a moment Gaara’s mind wandered off. A lot of time had passed since he first saw his guest. So much had changed after that encounter. He winced remembering himself from back then. Still, he was proud of what he had accomplished. Here he stood, his students by his side, laughing at a funny situation. And to think that all it took was to meet one person. Speaking of that person, the guard holding him piped up.
“Lord Gaara, you know him? I have detained them, but if you vouch for them…” The guard left the sentence hanging.
The younger guest raised an eyebrow at the ‘Lord’ part. Was he too late?! He would decimate the old pervert if he was.
“Release them at once. That there is my esteemed guest and that is his teacher.” Gaara said in a tone that sounded too similar to his old self for comfort.
The death grip loosened around the blonde shinobi and the old man was finally allowed to sit up. He heaved as he pretended to have a bad back. He didn’t have to pretend much. Who wouldn’t have terrible posture after carrying around the scroll of contracts for at least three full decades?! He smirked as he brushed off the sand. There was a glint in his eye. That glint, in Naruto’s expert opinion, spelt some dubious things ahead. He just hoped that Suna didn’t have any casinos or bars, but he knew that it was only a dream. The old man would just get drunk off cactus juice or have his toads bring him sake from the nearest village if he got desperate enough. What came next was not quite what the teenage clone master expected and frankly, the statement hurt his feelings.
“Have things got so bad that I have been reduced to just this idiot’s teacher?!” The old sage said jokingly.
Sadly, Gaara was not all that good at picking up tones. His reply, which he would come to regret soon, became the best thing for the toad master and the worst nightmare for the frog wallet owner.
“I am sorry that you were treated this way, Master Jiraiya, The Toad Sage of the Legendary Sannin! I apologize on behalf of my students.” The redheaded boy said, bowing his head.
The shriek of the girls and Naruto’s facepalm were almost simultaneous. To the surprise of both parties, all Gaara got as punishment was a hand on his shoulder. He stared at it wide-eyed. Why hadn’t his sand stopped it? Why wasn’t it afraid of Jiraiya? All the questions were answered as the boy looked up and saw his mistake. The hand was not the toad sage’s; It belonged to a much more familiar shoulder. Now, this person’s hand he would accept any day.
“It has been a while, hasn’t it, Gaara?!” The energetic voice beamed at the Suna resident and the white and wide grin almost blinded him.
“It sure has, Naruto!” Gaara replied to his friend, his first and best friend, as an invisible tear formed in his eye.
Without a single word, the trio got up and went into the sand village. Naruto stared at the rounded buildings and the sand-coloured streets. He was trying very hard to not just run and climb atop a high pole and take in this image from high up. They passed many a shop and too many times Naruto felt the need to keep a hand over his wallet. He was not afraid of thieves, of course. No thief would be dumb enough to attempt and pick-pocket their group, surely. Though, Jiraya had a look in his eyes that just said that he might be fighting for the status of ‘Legendary Sucker of the Sannin’ soon enough. Admittedly, the streets were a lot quieter than Naruto had imagined. The village, despite what he had read in his war-time propaganda-ridden textbooks back at the academy, seemed peaceful, calm, somewhat tranquil. He, without a doubt, got a few odd looks from passers-by, especially from the older one, but then again, this is Naruto we are talking about. Who cared about odd stares when you have had boiling water thrown at you? Gaara didn’t seem to mind the looks either, mainly because he was too euphoric to notice them. He was so euphoric in fact, that he didn’t even remember what he was so worried about until he sat down at some ice cream shop and the shopkeeper mentioned the ceremony. Quickly enough to make him into a brick-coloured blur, Gaara gathered up everything he had with him and ran off to the giant building in the village centre. Naruto and Jiraya followed suit, having no trouble catching up with a very anxious teenager. Inside the building, the situation was different. The two elders of the village awaited the young Gaara, not expecting to see a familiar face or two with him…
“Jiraya?!” The old man yelled as he opened his eyes for what must have been the first time in a decade. He immediately assumed a defensive stance as he grabbed a kunai from a nearby chunin, much to the poor boy’s surprise.
“And that dog, the Yellow Flash!” Chiyo joined in with the yelling match. She was not as defensive as her brother, choosing instead to jump straight into the heat of things with a shriek.
Now, Jiraya, being a seasoned veteran, much to his denial, was always on guard, but even he didn’t expect a shrieking ‘old witch’, as he called her, to jump at them and start whacking them with some puppet from her sleeve. He was not surprised about the ‘warm welcome’ of course, but he had expected something more along the lines of a verbal attack, rather than having to fight off a five-foot-nothing ‘shrivelled rasen’ off his body.
Naruto, being a much younger and far more overconfident shinobi, plus an extra friendly one, didn’t have the same reaction as his sensei. He, as Gaara recounted many years later, apparently, decided that a shriek could only be fought with another, louder sound. Now, the young Uzumaki did have good reflexes, so he did manage to use his clones to his advantage, as he thought at first, not realising that the disappearing and reappearing act only cemented the image of him being the fourth Hokage in his ‘adversary’s’ mind.
For what it’s worth, they weren’t alone in the room, of course. The sand siblings, Kankuro and Temari, were also present as their baby brother’s best friend and his teacher got attacked by puppets and what could only be described as a walking skeleton using a kunai. They would have intervened, of course, if not for a small obstacle, dying on the floor from laughter. Gaara didn’t share the amused look however and his yell tore the air of the small room.
“Everybody calm down, now!” The voice was cold, commanding, too much like what he was afraid of it being again. He hated when he had to use ‘that’ voice. It made his stomach turn and his face visibly contorted for a second after.
“Sorry, Gaara!” Naruto, having noticed the change on his friend’s face, ran up to him to apologize and comfort the sand wielder. The redhead smiled, revelling in his friend’s care, but knowing it couldn’t last for too long. He himself had a job to do, but he couldn’t leave his guest hanging, could he?! His dilemma was quickly decided when Kankuro spoke up.
“Gaara, brother, don’t forget, you have a speech to prepare. We don’t have much time.” He reminded him as he wiped the tear off his face. The younger brother just nodded, once again some grief filling his heart but obeying nonetheless.
Tick… Tock…
The sound of the clock was deafening. It made Gaara’s mind race and his mouth dry. It had been an entire day since he last saw Naruto since Kankuro said that he should practice the speech. He had practised to a point where he could barely talk yesterday, he thought that would be enough, but still, no matter what, he was still almost ready to cry about how much he dreaded what would come next. The worst part was that no matter what he did, either he or Naruto were too busy to even chat. It was like either fate didn’t want him to even get a bit of rest, or that his best friend was avoiding him. God, why was this happening?!
“In… out…” He mumbled as he tried to breathe and calm down.
It did nothing. His breathing was laboured, eyes watery. God, this was such a strange moment of his life. What was this?! Didn’t he dream of this for years? Didn’t he wish for the day he would feel this way every single night?
Haha! I like this! I love this! You quivering like some small child, so so sooo great!
The growl of the legendary tanuki made Gaara straighten his back as he sat on his bed. He looked angry. Even today, after all of this, that thing, the beast, was there to mock him at his lowest point. He was pathetic. Why? Why was all of this here happening?!
You pathetic idiot! Is this how MY jinchuriki is?! Has the boy who made Earth shake become this disgusting mess of a thing?!
And then, just like clockwork, the door opened and there walked in a servant. The man was just plain, nothing more than a dust-spec of a teenager, just a little older than Gaara. He was dressed in the celebratory uniform and had a barely hidden smile on his face. It might have been the first day he and Gaara met, but it seemed like he was happy to meet him.
“Lord Gaara, it’s time. The people are waiting. The crowd is overjoyed.” He said with a smile.
Just like that, something in Gaara flipped. He looked into the servant's eyes, the blue, like skies eyes and he was reminded of why he was doing all of this. Without a single word, he got up, straightened his white robe and followed the boy to the giant balcony. The doors parted and the light blinded him. He looked upon the crown with a smile, a genuine grin for the first time in his life! The crowd, the crowd that had bullied, abused him for so long… now cheering for him?! What has his life become? The second he stepped out, the moment he saw the outside again, he realized, this was his new life. The life granted to him by the friend he made in the strangest way possible. He heard the doors close behind him and he saw the servant stand behind him, just having his back. He smiled and nodded at him. This was great. Of course, he would prefer to have his mother, his uncle, his friend and his teacher by his side, but even without them, this was the single greatest moment of his life.
“Gaara of the Kazekage clan, I, Chiyo, the elder of the Sunakagakure…” Chiyo began with a loud yell to the people and a single string in Gaara’s heart was touched, like a small crack in the dam of emotions.
“I, Ebizo, elder of the Sunakagure…” The old man said and another crack formed in the dam.
“We, the council…” Baki, the man who was like an uncle to Gaara after ‘the’ day said and the crack widened.
“And I, who has no power nor authority…” Gaara felt a puff of smoke behind him. He lunged and turned around with the speed of light as he saw what had happened. He saw the servant boy’s smile turn into the fox-like grin of his friend. He saw those marked cheeks. He saw his friend holding the Kazakage hat in his hands.
“Name you Kazekage!” They all said together as Naruto put the giant hat on his friend’s red head.
Gaara smiled, tears welling up in his eyes. He mouthed ‘thank you’ before turning back to the crowd and starting his speech, his heart now empty of worry, just happiness filling it to the brim. He didn’t even remember what he was saying. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that the person who he admired so much, owed so much, was here to see this accomplishment and celebrate it with him. So what if the Tanuki had made fun of him? So what if he had almost cried moments prior? So what if he felt very unprepared for this job? He didn’t care. This was the moment for celebration, for happiness and joy, for both him and his people. Finally, he saw the world accept him and he accepted himself with it.