Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (rightfully owned by Masashi Kishimoto) nor any other implicated series, and I do not make any money out of this fiction. I will also add that any sections or phrases in this chapter that bear resemblance to works by the author are recreated in the same spirit of free usage and is not for profit.

A/N: As always, this took longer than intended but I am glad to have gotten it out before Christmas.

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The blowing sand had quickly washed away the blood and covered the corpses Gaara left behind, and Naruto was glad to be leaving the area. He hoped by not seeing the horror that Gaara had just caused, he might be able to pretend it never happened; which would be easier if he didn't also have to ignore the blood and gore drying in Gaara's hair at that very moment as he walked behind him.

He had been expecting the attempt, so when Gaara's sand swept around to capture him, he was ready to leap out of its path. Not one to give up after the first surprise attack, Gaara continued his attempts to rescue his little brother and keep him safe inside of his gourd. His sand flew around but each time it came close, otouto would jump out of the way.

Naruto was exhilarated. He had been intensely observing Gaara's attack patterns since he came to Suna and it was finally paying off.

"Haha, you aren't gonna be locking me up anymore, 'ttebayo!" Naruto taunted, stopping long enough for the sand at his feet to grab a hold. "Ah, crap!"

Moments later Naruto was trapped away again and the group could continue, with all but Gaara struggling to walk under the enormity of their bewilderment. Gaara never calmed down, and he did not surrender to sentimentality or familial affection, and yet he had just spared their lives (after threatening them) thanks to nothing more than a hug and being verbally accepted by the stranger he claimed was his little brother.

The rest of the team knew better than to delay Gaara so they did not let their incredulity slow them down, particularly when their faux-redheaded teammate was not around to act as their saviour, as strange a thought as that was.

Meanwhile, inside of the gourd, with little to occupy his mind outside of watching the unchanging landscape and having a close view of the blood caked into Gaara's darkened hair, Naruto was forced to dwell on not just what transpired but his role in it. He had killed someone and not for the first time…

"Let me go!" He struggled, he could hardly breathe. It was so hot and he was so thirsty.

The hands, dozens, or hundreds for all he could tell, would not release his weak body, even as frail as they were themselves. They had done this before, he had seen them, but he had never tried to stop them and he knew no one would stop them now.

It was okay, they could take his sandals and even his treasured goggles, precious as they were to him and even though they were his last possessions left from before he was trapped here. He just wanted some water.

The cell had a small trough of stagnant, warm water, he just needed to crawl to it and he could drink his fill but the other boys and girls thought he was trying to escape with their prizes and gripped him tight until they could relieve him of them. Doubtless, they themselves would have them stolen once they had been taken for 'treatment' like Naruto had just been.

He was too thirsty, he couldn't think.

He reached over and tried to pull one of the restraining hands off of him so he could just get a drink since he could not speak, but his perceived resistance only earned him a weak punch to the face.

He tried again to grab one of the hands holding him down, his fellow victims now taking turns to slap or punch him, taking their mad frustrations out on him. And then the boy whose wrist he was holding screamed…

Naruto reckoned if he had hands right now, he would be staring at them even though there would be no blood to be found. He didn't leave blood behind, just dust. But still, he felt oddly numb as a pile of mostly inanimate sand. He was more upset about Gaara trapping him again than what he had done to that murderous bandit.

Maybe he was more like Gaara than he thought. That was a scary prospect.

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Naruto had taken to dazedly watching the scenery again and occasionally his teammates, who were walking behind Gaara and had initially traded concerned looks for a while but eventually went back to their normal wariness around the redhead who was carrying him. The time between the attack and their arrival at the Dansai River felt like a dull blur to him in his confinement.

Thanks only to his partial inanimateness, Gaara having kept him imprisoned for the days it took to reach the river without letting him out even once for food or water, did not kill Naruto. However, it did leave him in a foul mood.

Baki and Gaara's real siblings had pleaded on Naruto's behalf to let him out and have something to eat or drink, but the most Gaara was willing to allow was a little water being poured into his gourd. He was apparently far too paranoid of another attack taking place and his little brother being injured even more seriously to allow otouto any measure of freedom.

Temari was convinced that when it came time for Gaara to loosen the reigns, he would be throwing a corpse out of his gourd. Kankuro disagreed, believing that Menma would simply fail to re-substantiate and would forever remain as sand. Whatever Baki thought of the matter, he kept to himself.

Naruto had been eagerly awaiting their arrival at the river, if for nothing more than a change of scenery; he was beginning to wonder if anything short of battle would give him a chance to escape.

He had expected the desert to run straight into a small stream and they would have to run along it for a couple days, instead in the distance he saw a village among a number of trees; a startling green and brown digression from the uniform sand he had had to stare at for the past few days. Apart from the odd weed or the cacti and securely guarded greenhouses back in Suna, this was the most green he had seen since Mizuki's arrest. How desperately he wanted to jump out of this prison and roll in some grass or hug a tree.

As they neared the village, Naruto could see what looked like a small fishing community milling around until they spotted the approaching quartet. Shinobi, Naruto understood, were often objects of fear or hatred outside of their base villages, so it came as no surprise that a welcoming committee failed to materialise when they closed in.

That a few shouts were heard which included "Demon", "red" and "Sabaku" as the streets completely cleared was probably more specifically directed at this particular group of shinobi rather than their profession in general. In fact, the way that the villagers ran away and glared out of their windows at Gaara reminded Naruto a great deal of how he had been treated in Konoha.

However, unlike in the previous instances when he had been drawn into making this same comparison in Suna, now he was utterly pissed at his carrier and he could not help but complain to himself that he had never killed people like Gaara had (back then, anyway) and yet he had been treated the same. Just because they both housed demons, they were treated the same, even though one was a murdering psychopath and the other was an innocent and awesome Hokage-to-be.

He steamed over this inequity while the team entered the village proper and walked straight through the empty streets until they reached the small dock. It had, moored to it, two small fishing boats and a barge with a nervous-looking man aboard.

"I am Baki from Sunagakure." The team sensei said, walking right up to the ferryman and offering him a scroll from his pouch. The boatman took one look at the wax seal on the scroll and handed it right back, beckoning for them all to get on board.

"It will take two days to reach Denshi." The man said.

"Yes, I know." Baki said shortly, standing aside for his Genin to board. Kankuro sat right down and observed the village while Temari emulated their sensei and remained upright and stoic. Gaara stepped aboard slowly and moved to the precise centre of the barge, standing only long enough for the boat to rock a little. Naruto wondered if Gaara did not like being on boats or if he just disliked being away from sand.

They cast off with the barge operator nervously steering them in the middle of the wide river and trying not to make eye contact with any of them, especially the infamous demon of the sand. It had taken only a few hours for Temari to tire of standing to attention with nothing to do so she wandered over to the edge of the simple craft and sat on the low wall that ran around the rectangular vessel. Kankuro had continued to stare out at the passing scenery, most of which was green on the bank of the river and then abruptly shifted back to the familiar desert colours further out. Baki had not moved a muscle and Naruto could not work out why the uptight Jounin was so determined to look tough when the only people there to see were his own students and a barge operator who could not be less threatening, and he did seem to be trying.

Gaara ignored all of them, as much as he was ever able to ignore anybody near him, and was presumably meditating because his eyes were closed and his breaths were even. Naruto might have thought he was asleep except Gaara didn't sleep and he had testily asked Kankuro what he was doing when the older boy was trying to fish with his chakra strings to pass the time.

They would be travelling down river overnight and Temari figured this might be a good opportunity to deal with Menma's corpse and Gaara's tantrum. Gaara was at his least dangerous when he was surrounded by water, and there were no more villages for a few miles so the human casualties would be minimal.

"You should let Menma out for some food now, Gaara." She gently prompted, keeping her distance.

He opened his eyes and looked at her with all of the normal hostility but did not verbally respond.

"We've talked about this, he needs to eat." When he still didn't respond, she added, "He'll be safe."

Temari watched her brother carefully for any reaction and just managed to catch his eyes flick to their left corners, to the direction of the bargeman.

"He will be safe. You can protect him from one civilian and we will help, okay?" She pointedly looked at Kankuro.

"Uh, yeah, we'll make sure nobody hurts him, Gaara." Kankuro said, trying to keep his tone even despite the silliness of the statement. The barge operator was paralysed in fear, knowing that his death was imminent when Sabaku no Gaara had acknowledged him. He wanted to claim that he had no ill will to whoever this Menma was but he was sure any speech from him now would result in his death.

Gaara looked around the boat, verifying that there was no one else onboard and that the bargeman was as harmless as his idiot teammates claimed. It had been a little while since his little brother had eaten and he was starting to struggle again. But he could hardly feel the sand on the shore at all, so he would be restricted to using his gourd and his brother's sand until they could cross the water.

Gaara eased his hold on his sand and let Naruto emerge in his own this time, climbing out of the gourd and reconstituting just above the opening. Naruto landed onto his newly reformed feet and swivelled on his feet and swung for Gaara, who was still sitting and looking up at him with that same hateful straight face. The sand left in the gourd rushed out and blocked the punch and Gaara did not even flinch behind his shield.

Naruto pulled back his fist and then walked over to the side of the barge and moped over his inability to hit his captor just once. The satisfaction of leaving a bruise on that porcelain face would have made the inevitable retaliation worthwhile.

Gaara stood up when Naruto took his seat and moved closer to him, still a few feet in from the wall. He was staring at Naruto again, which made everyone uncomfortable, but it was Kankuro who noticed what had caught Gaara's rapt attentions this time.

"Temari, do you have the dye or do I have it?" Kankuro asked.

She rolled her eyes, "You're the one who packed it. Why should I know which bag you put it in?"

Kankuro ground his teeth, "If you haven't seen it, just say so!" He pulled his bag around and started to rummage through it until he found an unassuming scroll. He unfurled it and started to read the kanji along it until he came across the dye symbol. Using one of his non-poisoned senbon, he pricked his thumb and summoned the dyeing supplies.

"Menma, come over here." Kankuro waved him over as he started to mix the red pigment, ready to redo the probationary comrade's fading dye-job. The white was starting to bleed through in areas and in others it had just faded to pink, which Naruto would only be too glad to re-colour.

Pink only suited Sakura-chan.

Naruto sat next to Kankuro and took off his shirt, using a ready towel to catch anything that might drip onto his grey shoulders. Gaara watched Kankuro so carefully he suddenly worried he might hurt Menma and he might die for it, except he was dyeing hair and there was almost no way that could actually hurt his adopted younger brother.

That said, he took extra care not to let any go in Menma's eyes.

Kankuro used the river water to wash the dye out afterwards and Naruto let it dry under the sun while he enjoyed the fresh air and a chance to eat something, even if it was rations. He had asked if he could have some of the fish Kankuro had managed to catch with his chakra string but the kabuki-impersonator had scowled and told him to get his own. When Naruto realised that Kankuro was going to be eating his fish raw, since there was no feasible way to build a fire on a wooden barge, he decided he could be contented with the dried rations.

While Naruto was out, Gaara was clearly unsettled, so Baki did what he could to subtly stand between his most psychotic student and the barge driver. Gaara hated and feared him as well but their fight had been settled a long time ago and he could rely on Gaara's passivity so long as he didn't make a move against him.

Kankuro and Temari dearly wanted to talk to Menma, to know more about the addition to their team who they had previously deemed to be useless, until he had tamed Gaara. However, as much as they wanted to chat with the annoying foreigner, they had no chance when Gaara would not let them near him once Kankuro was done colouring Menma's hair.

Since he was essentially still isolated despite being on a cramped river vessel, Naruto tried to talk to the only one he was allowed to speak to here. Sadly, Gaara was even less talkative than before and refused to help Naruto train that night. He continually pestered Gaara and by the time even Baki was half-asleep, sitting against the opposite side next to the bargeman, he had managed to convince the stony psychopath to let him wash his hair at last.

Going long period in between baths was just one of the many hazards of being a shinobi and they would almost certainly have a chance to make themselves presentable before meeting the clients, but that was still a few days away and Naruto had been staring at, among other things, the back of Gaara's blood-crusted hair for too long and he vowed to wash it at the first opportunity.

Gaara was less than cooperative as Naruto bent him over the side of the barge and used the chilly river water to remove the bandit from Gaara's hair. It was difficult to see clearly in the waning moonlight but he was pretty sure he got most of it by the time Gaara's patience ran out and he threatened to 'ground' Naruto again.

With the rest of his night and nothing else to do, Naruto slumped down and started to try and manipulate Gaara's sand again. He spoke to his surly 'older brother' as he concentrated on his task, which mostly amounted to staring at the inanimate sand.

He didn't have much to say of consequence and the lack of reciprocity made for a bit of a stilted monologue.

"You know, I just don't get it. Right? I mean, how many shinobi actually use the ring. Other than putting exploding tags on them, it seems like a waste of time." Naruto continued his rant, having wandered onto the topic of kunai five minutes ago. Gaara desperately wanted to inform his ignorant little brother that the ring was primarily for balancing the weight of the knife, and the ring was a versatile shape for that weighted section, however Gaara knew engaging his otouto now would only encourage more inane talking. He needed to teach his little brother early on that silence was golden.

Naruto did not catch on to this lesson, instead he continued to talk until Kankuro got woken up by his impassioned speech about the obvious political agenda behind a so-called "balanced diet". Kankuro stirred, said something vaguely threatening and barely coherent before turning back over and returning to his sweet dreams.

Naruto continued to stare at the sand, trying different hand movements and different chakra outputs (ranging from fire hose to tsunami). Near the end of the night, when the sky was returning to navy blue, he finally felt the barest twinge in his perception, a light brushing against his… maybe this was what people meant when they talked about a sixth sense? He could definitely feel something.

He tried to keep that feeling in mind despite his attention deficit and then he tried to do something with it. It was frustrating but he definitely felt something… give.

Just as the sun was rising, earlier than Team Baki appreciated, Naruto screamed in exaltation, waking everyone on the raft who had not already been awake. He had managed to make the sand move! Without even touching it or using handseals or anything! Granted, he had only managed to make a little tuft of the handful jump a little, which wouldn't be very useful in a fight (or any other situation)…

His teammates were less impressed by this monumental achievement and he was pretty sure, as time wore on, that he would have died on that river had Gaara not been there. Gaara did not seem to care about this triumph, either, waiting until Naruto had seemingly finished practicing and drawing the sand back into his gourd. He had seen otouto's pathetic trick and did not see any reason to care.

Since everyone was awake now and there was a village nearing on the eastern bank of the river, Gaara swept Naruto back up into the gourd and finally enjoyed some peace and quiet. An hour later when the lethargic team rose properly, Temari noticed that Gaara's hair was cleaner than it had been since they had fought those bandits. Suddenly feeling hopeful, that today might be a good day to deal with her recalcitrant little brother, she stood and walked over to where Gaara was again sitting in the middle of the barge.

"Your clothes need cleaning. If you take them off, I will wash them and they'll be dry by the time we have to get going." She said. It was a hot day so the clothes would dry very quickly. In future, she would need to see about getting Gaara a second uniform for situations like these. He was always getting covered in blood and keeping him from terrifying clients because of this had been a struggle at times. He hated clothes shopping so much, it had been a shock to hear he had gone with Menma to get some.

"No." Gaara said.

"You can wear one of Kankuro's spares until yours dry." She reasoned, ignoring her middle brother's indignation of his clothes being lent without his permission again.

Gaara glared at her, the thought of wearing that idiot's uniform was an insult.

"Fine, you can stay in your under-things, but please let me wash your bodysuit. You'll start to smell…"

Gaara, unlike most teenage boys, did not give himself a cursory sniff but instead proceeded to petulantly ignore her attempts to goad him.

Temari saw she was making little headway and gave her layabout brother a look from across the barge. She had to do this twice more before Kankuro caught on.

"Oh, right," He said, standing up and walking over, staying behind his big sister. "Yeah, you should let her wash your clothes. It's no problem at all."

Temari elbowed him in the ribs, "Please, Gaara, it won't take long."

Gaara glared and stood to disrobe. Gaara was an immodest boy, stemming from his total lack of empathy, so he did not feel the need to cover himself as he stripped down to his undergarments. His upset had been at the thought of dressing in Kankuro's ridiculous outfits. Seeing her baby brother in such a state, Temari wrapped him in her blanket before commencing the washing. Gaara was not happy to be wrapped like this, not least because of the physical proximity it had entailed.

He resumed his seat next to his gourd and watched his contemptible team members mill about. He needed to figure out, one of these days, why he had never killed either of them. It was puzzling.

With a sinking feeling that they knew exactly what their little brother was thinking at that moment, Temari proceeded to wash the blood stains out of Gaara's black body suit and ruined white sash. The latter item would need a very deep clean when they returned to Suna, or even replacing altogether. She quickly bullied Kankuro into helping her.

Within ten minutes, Gaara had discarded the blanket she had wrapped around him and instead called his sand out to cocoon him. He kindly released his hold on Naruto again so that he could partially manifest within the safe confines of the sphere. Naruto managed to form his torso in the cramped space and marvelled at the strangeness of being half sand.

Despite Gaara seemingly being more willing to chat, in that he did not look in the other direction and totally ignore Naruto as he spoke, Naruto now came across another problem: if the subject did not concern killing or working life as a shinobi, including an impressively encyclopaedic knowledge of geography and other areas, Gaara did not seem able to speak about it.

Naruto tried to get to know Gaara a little better, to get past what he had learned in the first two weeks of their acquaintance. But, as it turned out, there was not that much more to know about Gaara once you moved past the killing, the paranoia, the mother obsessions, the demon, and the loneliness/creepy obsession with Naruto. He decided, as he struggled to think of another subject, that he should introduce his self-proclaimed brother to more experiences in life outside of work, like movies, ramen, pretty girls (like Sakura-chan) and ramen.

Somehow, he doubted Gaara would be too interested in the fairer sex. Unless it involved killing them. The was his primary interest in all people.

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Now that he was redressed in his somewhat fresher clothes, Gaara disembarked the barge, leaving its owner/operator terrified and thanking the gods that he had survived. He would be a hero back in his village for this!

Straight off of the dock, Team Baki started running west into the desert. It would take a further two days to reach Akaihana at their scheduled pace and Naruto was glad to see that the land west of the Dansai was a lot more varied than what he had witnessed in the centre of the country. While it would still qualify as a desert for its dryness, the region seemed positively verdant by comparison, with the occasional tall cactus and half-dead shrub punctuating the scenery, plus the distant mountains looming at the border of Wind as they neared their destination.

Over the two nights that it took to reach Akaihana, when Naruto was again allowed out of his portable home, he tried to replicate his (in his own eyes) amazing feat with the sand while gently introducing Gaara to some of his interests. What Naruto had failed to imagine was that even after describing in excruciating details the plots of some of his favourite movies, and telling of one or two of his more elaborate pranks, Gaara could so utterly fail to comprehend their greatness.

After describing how he had painted all over a precious village landmark from where he originally came from, Gaara had seemed confused as to why Naruto had not been killed by his village chief, and then he could not fathom why Naruto had done it in the first place. Uncultured swine, Naruto thought.

Beyond Gaara's incomprehensible lack of appreciation for the finer things in life, Naruto also had to work out why he was still struggling to even make the sand move when he had already managed to do it on the barge. He reckoned it was because on the water there had only been a little bit of sand to think about, whereas now he was surrounded by the stuff.

On the mission's seventh day, Team Baki walked into the bustling mining town of Akaihana with an air of relief. Even for desert dwellers, it seemed treks through the open desert were unpleasant. Indeed, as soon as they neared the buildings in the shadow of the mountains, Kankuro immediately demanded that they go and have a proper meal.

Unfortunately, like the little village up the Dansai River, Gaara's appearance quickly spread through the town like a cold spell and people were already beginning to clear from the streets.

"We're not going to go and eat in a restaurant while Gaara has rations, Kankuro." Temari scolded him. If Gaara tried entering a dining establishment, the cooks and waiting staff would probably clear out too.

Kankuro looked gravely disappointed but did not push the issue, whether because he saw the virtue of Temari's statement of was simply bowing to her leadership, Naruto could not say. Had he a voice, he would have complained that he wanted to eat a decent meal too.

Gaara turned on his heel and marched towards an alley.

Temari just caught his changed direction in time to ask, "Where are you going?"

"Eat quickly or die." Gaara told her without stopping or turning, continuing into the alley and then hopping up onto a roof.

Kankuro's smile grew and Temari's frown deepened but she still led them to the nearest inn for lunch after Baki gave a nod. In the tree Gaara had claimed as his temporary dining room, he allowed Naruto to partially manifest, still holding his legs in the gourd so he could be sucked back in an instant. Naruto scornfully chomped down on his dried rations while having to suffer under the wafting smell of the dining district in the street below.

As he choked down whatever meat had been dried and rendered into little more than chewy salt, Naruto resentfully made the same comparison he had been making for ages now. He could sympathise with Gaara's treatment once again and it was pissing him off more than ever. In his home village, he had been barred from certain shops and restaurants and for no good reason (since pranks were delightful in his eyes). Gaara's psychopathy was bugging him more and more as their time together wore on.

After lunch had been eaten, Gaara was called into a second floor window of the inn where his teammates and sensei were waiting. They had booked the room for a couple of hours so they could all wash up properly and make themselves presentable before meeting the clients. The way Gaara went along with it when he had been so resistant to self-maintenance before made Naruto suspect this was a regular occurrence. Yet another thing his Academy education had failed to prepare him for.

They all took turns in the shower, with Kankuro taking the longest, and even Naruto was allowed out long enough to clean himself. He had to look for back up in the room when Gaara wanted to wash with him again. He did not understand the distinction between 'brothers' going to a bathhouse together and two guys sharing a shower. Luckily Temari and Kankuro were quick to try and explain the important difference.

As he enjoyed a hot shower, Naruto wondered what other vital lessons had been excluded from Gaara's upbringing. For someone so clearly intelligent as Gaara was, he was a total moron at times. He might have seemed like a pervert if he didn't look so confused. Still, straight forward motivations or not, Naruto watched the door intently throughout.

Soon they were all cleaned up and ready to go. Naruto was a little disappointed that he had not had the chance to see what was under Baki-sensei's face covering, but otherwise he felt much better… until he was crushed into sand again.

They left the inn and walked further into the town, towards a heavily guarded compound that surrounded the largest mine around. The group garnered fewer terrified reactions as they walked amongst the busy industrial area, and instead they proceeded unmolested to the main office in the centre.

Baki led them into the administrative building, up to the personal office of Chianki, owner of the largest ruby mine in Wind, the fourth richest man outside of the nobility in the country, and their client. He was an older gentleman, dressed in traditional Wind robes and with a kind-looking face, Naruto thought.

"Welcome, welcome. You are just on time!" He greeted them, waving them all into his expansive office and sitting back down behind his desk.

"Team Baki reporting in for the escort of valuable cargo to the ruby refinery in Onkibu, the Land of Tea. I am the Jounin instructor for this team, and with me I have the Genin: Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara."

"Wonderful. I was led to believe that some of the children of the Kazekage were on your team. Would it be terribly rude to ask who is who?"

"All three here are the offspring of our Kazekage. As such, they are some of the strongest shinobi-in-training we have to offer." Baki boasted, though pride being curiously absent from his tone of voice. "They will be more than adequate for this mission but for anything they cannot handle, I will be there to step in."

Naruto noticed the smirk that etched itself onto Kankuro's face and his glances at Gaara. Did Kankuro think Gaara was stronger than their Jounin sensei?

Was he?

The door opened behind them and a boy darted in, a year or two older than Temari and mousy in every way. He set an armful of scrolls down on the desk and stepped back.

"This is my stepson and personal assistant, Chosuke. He will be joining me on the journey as a learning experience." Chosuke bowed to them as his stepfather introduced him.

"That will not be a problem. Who else will be accompanying you on the route?" Baki asked.

"It will be me, Chosuke, my security chief, Yoshifune, his deputy, Arran, and the cart drivers, Yusuke and Yura. Oh, and there's my cook, Aisu."

Chosuke walked quickly to the door again and poked his head out, inviting in a broad, older man and a twenty-something man with sharp eyes, both of them wore nondescript uniforms and carried katana on their hips. They both looked displeased to be in Team Baki's presence, though Yoshifune, the larger of them, did a better job of hiding his distaste behind a professional veneer.

"Baki, this is Yoshifune. He used to work for Sunagakure but was given special dispensation to leave their service and come work for me privately, full-time." The client said.

"Yes, we are acquainted. We used to serve together." Baki said, making no move to greet his old comrade, and likewise no warmth was extended to him either.

"And this is Arran, his apprentice and deputy. They both command the bulk of the security around the mine and typically accompany me on these journeys."

Since Baki-sensei and this Yoshifune person used to work together, Naruto assumed he was around Jounin level. These rubies must been really valuable to need two Jounin level shinobi, two Genin, and whatever Arran was supposed to be. Not to mention Gaara. Naruto was beginning to doubt this was the easy, introductory mission he had been led to believe.

As they were guided outside to meet the cart drivers and cook and begin the mission strategy briefing with the outside security force, Naruto worried that the presence of two obviously hostile shinobi would mean Gaara would be even less willing to let him out…

Both the head and deputy security chiefs seemed hostile with all four present Suna shinobi, but they appeared to be wary of Gaara in particular, maintaining a constant distance and letting their hands stray towards their weapons when forced into proximity.

In another room the combined group found a large chest being guarded by six of the security staff. Baki gave an order for Gaara to carry the enormous chest for them, which he followed, ignoring the worried body language of the client who could maintain his pretence of ignorance only up until the demon ninja of Sunagakure started handling his precious merchandise. Heedless, Gaara followed them back out into the courtyard with the heavy chest wrapped in his sand. Naruto was tempted to try his luck and break free, but this did not seem like a good moment, meeting the client and all, and Gaara would only tighten his grip in the future if Naruto took such 'liberties'.

Outside, the two carts were waiting with the same six security staff members making a perimeter around them. Naruto thought it was a little silly. Who would be crazy enough to attack a fortified compound when they would be taking the box of jewels outside any minute now?

"These will be our drivers, Yusuke," He pointed to a scrawny looking teenage boy who smiled widely at them, "And Yura." And to a girl who looked very much like the male but was much more reserved. "A very reliable pair. I employed their father back in the day and now they work for me too."

The fraternal twins were very friendly and bowed politely, looking around at the three Genin with intense curiosity.

"And here is Aisu, my favourite employee of all." Chianki said, gesturing grandly at the middle-age woman who blushed and waved a dismissive hand at her employer's flattery.

"If that were true I would be able to afford a bigger house." She said with a grin.

Chianki laughed loudly and Naruto decided he liked him.

Gaara was instructed to gently place the chest into the front cart and then join the entire extended security detail as they huddled to discuss the formations and plan for the weeks ahead. Naruto kind of zoned out at this point, looking around instead at the private security still keeping watch about the place. With so many of them about, he wondered why Chianki-sama had bothered hiring Suna shinobi.

If Yoshifune was a Jounin, then his deputy had to at least be a Chunin, so were all the rest of these guys at the level of Genin? If so, Naruto figured they were more for show than anything. Maybe they were all Chunin, then? But weren't Daimyo supposed to prevent private armies?

It was all just too confusing.

Instead he focussed on Yura, who was quite pretty (compared to Temari, the only girl he had seen in a week), who was stood by her cart and watching the from afar. Both the young cart drivers, and Chosuke, seemed to be fascinated by the Suna shinobi, which Naruto couldn't blame them for. He figured it must be torture to have to live so far away from a hidden village and not get to see or learn to do any of the amazing ninja stuff he could do. Doubly so in a crummy country like this one where all they had to look at was sand and pointy-stabby-death-plants (cacti).

Gaara had once calmly mentioned that Wind was also home to giant scorpions and vultures big enough to carry horses, at which point Naruto had ended the conversation and gone to hide in Gaara's room for a little while, looking out the window as if one of the predator birds would swoop down for him any second.

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As they started off towards Jōgaya, the formation was optimised for distant observation, apparently. Naruto thought it was similar to how Iruka-sensei used to separate him from Kiba and the other trouble-makers in class so they couldn't continue to disrupt the class. Temari and Kankuro were flanking either side of the cart carrying the chest while Baki was walking along next to the back cart with the client in it. Yoshifune was riding with the chest and Arran was with Chianki, Chosuke and Aisu.

Meanwhile, Gaara was a 'floating member', meaning he walked where he wanted. It was supposed to make the protective detail more unpredictable but Naruto assumed it was really because Baki-sensei did not want to have to try and tell Gaara what to do more than absolutely necessary. Either way, it did make for a clever formation.

They travelled by road when leaving the town which made the walking much smoother for Naruto. As a pile of sand, he tended to shift around a lot when shaken which was uncomfortable, in a strange way. Everything was strange when you were made out of sand.

At night, around dinner time, Gaara announced that he was going to check the perimeter and slunk off into the night without confirmation from his commander. The client seemed delighted by the diligence of his guards and the increased distance from the monster he had heard legends about, many of which he believed were exaggerated. None of which actually were.

In the darkness of the sparsely clouded moonlight, Gaara let Naruto crawl out of the sand.

"Finally!" Naruto all but yelled with his first lungful of air. "I know you're crazy and everything, but you have to let me out every now and then, 'ttebayo!"

Gaara, as always was unmoved, though he was unsure whether he should scold his little brother for calling him crazy. He had heard people call him that before and could never work out if it was true or not; sane people did not tend to murder quite so often, but then there were people out to get him…

It hardly seemed to matter so he let the potential insult slide this time.

"Anyway, I better get over there before they finish whatever sort of stew that was." Naruto said, beginning to walk back to camp.

"No. You will eat here." Gaara said, stepping into Naruto's path and pulling out more rations, which were in ample supply now that the rest of the team were eating Aisu's assuredly delicious cooking. Gaara would not risk otouto's safety around strangers. Not when the strangers included men his father had once controlled, and alternatively those men were also those who had left the control of the village, so they were even more dangerous.

Seeing that any argument would lose him his outside privileges, Naruto sat down and ate his pathetic dinner. He couldn't spend the rest of his life like this, spending all of his time in a gourd except for the little time his psychopathic jailor let him out for… for what? Company? Gaara didn't seem interested in talking to him, just looking at him. Creepy as hell but Naruto could not work out what the point was. It certainly reinforced the crazy angle. Speaking of crazy, he was pretty sure he was going to go madder than Gaara if he was kept locked up much longer.

Naruto got less than an hour out of the gourd before he was swept back up.

Naruto struggled for the rest of the night, trying without rest to escape his bindings and screamed all sorts of profanity and threats at Gaara in his head, as usual. That was until Naruto said, "And don't get me started on your mother obsession! It's bad enough that you listen to the voices in your head, but don't call them mother, dattebayo!"

And Gaara answered, "Mother is in the sand, not in my head."

Naruto went silent for a moment and then said, "You can hear me in here?"

Gaara did not answer and Naruto had a horrible feeling the continued silence meant he was right. He had been saying some very hurtful and anatomically impossible things to Gaara when he thought he could not be heard in here.

Well, this was going to be awkward.

He had to think back, make sure he had not 'spoken' about his past or about Konoha, but luckily he hadn't really, only commented about how much nicer the forests of Fire were compared to Wind's deserts.

In the morning, after Naruto had spent the night watching Gaara carefully for any signs that he had taken offence to what he had been saying all this time, they crossed back over the Dansai, this time on a huge bridge. In order to be allowed over it without paying a tariff, Baki had to show his mission scroll to the toll operator.

From the eastern bank of the river, they took the road south until they were only around a mile from the coast. The roads were all stone now and so much smoother than the sandy, rocky ones, and infinitely better than travelling over open desert. Now, if only Naruto could walk on them himself!

It took a week to reach the next river, travelling along the road all day at the sedate civilian pace he had been warned to expect in the Academy when escorting non-shinobi. At night they would park up the wagons and the others took shifts staying up alongside Gaara, and each evening Gaara would go to 'check the perimeter' and would let Naruto out for up to an hour.

By the end of that week, Gaara had taken to answering Naruto's mental questions and comments occasionally after the ex-blond spent days loudly annoying/torturing him until he did. It turned out that Gaara drew the line at one malevolent voice in his head screaming at him. So now at least Naruto had something to do in his confinement, even if it made Gaara look even more off his rocker than before.

Gaara had always had a twitchy, glaring madness about him but now he was actively talking to himself. This was not so alarming for the current Suna-nin who understood Gaara was probably talking to the boy in his gourd, but for Yoshifune it marked a disturbing downturn in the Jinchūriki's already shaky mental health.

Eventually, the group had further crossed over the Unkei and Chagawa rivers and were headed towards the Hanagarashi River. The road was quiet along the coast which was a relief, since every time another traveller was spotted coming towards them, they all had to close in around the carts and ready their weapons. As they would pass by, Team Baki were all ready to spring into action at the first sign of provocation. It was a huge headache every time.

Naruto had been allowed only one full night out to stretch (or possess) his limbs. He had spent that night, as he spent the few hours he had received over the other nights, practicing his thus far useless ability to control tiny amounts of sand. Since he had been talking with Gaara so much during the days now that he knew he could be heard, Naruto did not feel the need to chatter so much when he was face to face with his unlawful captor.

Over the course of this new stage in their travelling relationship, whereby they could converse freely while Gaara performed his duties, Naruto had encouraged Gaara to disclose more about himself and his past. For instance, Gaara shared more on his strange understanding of what it meant to be a Jinchūriki, about Yashamaru's tragic death, about what he considered to be 'training' before Naruto arrived (which mostly involved taking difficult missions and killing people), and also about the early days of his career.

He had apparently murdered his first sensei within a week, and the only Genin he had ever been tasked to work with before his siblings graduated had been crippled within a month. He had been assigned to work on solo missions with Baki as his handler after it was concluded he would not function within the normal team structure (a decision that was revised years later after he killed another client in a rage and his siblings were finally ready to restrain him).

"Baki-sensei is really closed off. Was he always like that?" Naruto asked.

Gaara paused as he always did in answering. "Yes, he has always disliked frivolity." As an afterthought, he added, "He became quieter after his face was scarred."

"His face is scarred. So that's why he wears that curtain!"

"Curtain?" Gaara still struggled with his little brother's stupidity at times. "Yes. I left him heavily disfigured and he has kept it covered ever since."

"Wait, you did that to his face? How is he still your sensei?"

"He is not my teacher. He keeps clients away from me when I lose control and teaches Kankuro and Temari."

"Right…" Naruto said, wondering again if his life would have resembled this in any way had he been able to stay in Konoha. He sincerely doubted it.

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On the mission's sixteenth day, something finally happened. Unlike the attack that had occurred in the desert outside of Suna, this group were clearly better prepared. They had sprung out of hideaways, three dozen armed men and women, all armed with swords or kunai. Some were certainly missing-nin, which gave Naruto cause for concern. Bandits were one thing but fully-trained shinobi were another entirely.

Luckily, Gaara did not share such reservations and went straight to work.

Kankuro and Temari had moved the clients to the cart carrying the chest and were fending off the few who got near alongside Yoshifune and Arran who were clearly worth their retainer fees. Baki had run straight for the man he identified as the leader while Gaara was left amongst the bulk of the attackers, right where he wanted to be.

Gaara's sand killed as many as it could reach, lashing out and snapping bones or piercing torsos with ease. Naruto, desperate to get out and do something, continually tested his restraints again like he had last time. It would only be a matter of time until Gaara's control waivered again and he would be free to help.

This time he would be more careful.

"It's been a long time, Baki-senpai." The leader said, carefully maintaining his distance from the legendary Suna Jounin.

"Have we met?" Baki asked, creeping in a fraction of an inch before slipping back to his starting distance, disliking his opponent's reaction.

"When I was a slave of the Kazekage like you, I used to look up to you. We even went on a mission together once, as part of a squad."

"I don't remember." Baki said, adjusting his grip and circling around, looking for the one opening he would need.

"You wouldn't. I was just a Chunin back then. And you still had your face."

Baki did not respond to that. This man was going to die either way, so the taunts were simply unbecoming.

Finally, the attacker's patience wore out, perhaps as he watched his comrades being slaughtered by Sabaku no Gaara near the carts. He leapt forward, hoping to slip under Baki's guard and perform a killing blow before this became a contest of skill. Unfortunately, the deserter was not the first to try to exploit Baki's age or blind spot, so as soon as he saw the younger man flying directly at him, Baki darted backwards to maintain the correct distance and lashed out with his kunai.

The leader spun away, clutching the gash that had appeared over his right brow which was now dribbling blood into his eye. Baki had to admit, that might have been a little petty of him.

With Temari and Kankuro, they had been sent out from the cart to ward off nearing assailants while the client and his staff huddled next to their private security. "These guys all deserters from Suna, you think?" Kankuro said, sending Karasu to snap someone's neck.

"How should I know?" Temari complained, jumping away from one attacker so he and three others would try to chase after her, lining them up perfectly for her wind blades to slice them apart. "Maybe. I think I recognise a couple of these guys from the Academy. Drop-outs mostly. Not enough work to go around, they have to make a living, I suppose."

"Traitors, then." Kankuro said, falling back to the cart to keep anybody from sneaking in behind them.

"No honour amongst shinobi, Kankuro." Temari said, moving to the other side.

"I guess not." He said, readying Karasu for another attack.

Gaara was drawing the most attention, in the centre of the attack, and that made things easier for him. If everyone was trying to kill him, he did not have to hunt them down afterwards.

It was just as Gaara was dragging one screaming combatant towards him that his attention was drawn to a particularly fast taijutsu user who almost bypassed his automatic defence, and in the momentary distraction Naruto was able to slide out of his confinement and reconstitute himself.

Knowing Gaara would want nothing more than to snatch him back up immediately, Naruto jumped away, out of Gaara's immediate reach and quickly plotted how he might take down one or two of these more experienced fighters from behind while they were focussed on Gaara.

He ran around the perimeter of the group trying (and failing) to kill Gaara, and struck out here and there when he could. Sadly, his melee skills were still pitiful and his pre-adolescent strength couldn't do much more than knock a full-grown ninja to the floor. By the time they got back up, Naruto had moved on to attack someone else with the same effect as a mosquito buzzing around a feeding frenzy.

He tried to snatch a kunai from someone but they almost cut his throat, and all of the weapons belonging to Gaara's earlier victims were too close to the psycho who was looking at him more than the people trying to gut him.

His only other option was to use his dehydration ability, which he refused to do because it was horrible. Maybe he would have to kill people as a shinobi, but he would not use his only ability to do it, he would not resort to that as his only option. So now he had to think of something else.

He had no weapons on him right now and he had no techniques worth using other than the sand clone, which he needed more sand to use…

More sand…

Naruto ducked under a sword strike and pushed off the rocky ground to kick the assailant in the face before flipping away. The guy he kicked seemed angry.

He had his idea now but he had just about pissed off enough people so that Gaara was only drawing the bulk towards him. Some of the attackers actually seemed more interested in killing Naruto now and it wasn't giving him enough time to do anything, so he did something desperate. He ran into the ring of people around Gaara and then into the danger zone, having to duck and dodge around both the sand tendrils and the attacking ninja now. But between those two forces, Naruto was finally able to buy himself a moment's respite while Gaara protected him.

He fell down on to the ground and pressed both of his palms against the stone ground, channelling all of his ability as fast as he was able. He had managed to 'dehydrate' rocks in Suna before, and that one time before then, so surely destroying the ground here wouldn't be so hard.

Having to roll over three times to avoid Gaara's sweeping sand proved otherwise. He was leaving puddles of sand under his hands each time he tried but he just couldn't crush the quantity of rock he wanted without leaving himself open to attack or recapture. Maybe his idea to try this between the opposing sides wasn't such a good ideas after all.

He jumped up and leap-frogged over Gaara's sand…egg, using the surprise that caused to retry his idea, utilising one of the numerous surrounding corpses to block his 'older brother's' latest 'rescue' attempts and buying just enough time to let his influence seep into the ground properly.

The fighters were getting desperate. The whiskered one was annoying but the demon of the sand was slaughtering them left and right. If they weren't careful-

All thoughts on the small battlefield went awry when the ground gave out beneath them and instead of the firm, solid stone path, they found themselves on a fresh batch of sand. The adjustment provided Gaara with the brief distraction needed to catch two more enemies and kill them. Only half left.

The remaining combatants did not realise until it was fatally too late that Gaara's previously short reach, owing to his limited available sand, was now extended under their feet with the changed ground. Only one managed to make off of the ground quickly enough to avoid the snare that captured and swiftly killed all of his slower comrades, and even then he did not make it to a safe landing spot before Gaara's sand sought him out in midair and finished the fighting force.

Seeing that Gaara had finished off the bulk of the attackers without losing control, Baki stopped wasting time and killed the ringleader. An old comrade he might have been, but Baki was the highest ranking Jounin in Suna for a reason and the distraction of the man's comrades' deaths was all he needed.

Naruto stared in shock at the massacre that had taken place. He had just enabled Gaara to kill all of these men, but a part of him was proud that he had played a pivotal role in the victory. What was worse was that, in his heart of hearts, he had known he was causing those men's deaths when he supplied Gaara with the sand. Did that make him just as responsible for the killing?

Gaara clearly didn't care, not even fazed by the red patches of sand around him, where the bandits had been sucked into the earth and crushed.

While their team leader checked in on the clients and the cargo, Naruto debated approaching Gaara or staying out of his general vicinity for a little longer; smaller chance of his being stuffed back into the gourd if he kept his distance (temporarily). It turned out to be the best option by far, staying out of Gaara's immediate reach, as the client, being allowed out by the protective squad now, had caught sight of the additional fighter.

"Who's that?" Chosuke asked.

Naruto realised he might have looked like a straggling assailant since he didn't have a headband yet and had not been visibly travelling with them thus far. He forced himself to put on his biggest smile and walked over to explain. It was more luck than skill that he was able to avoid the kunai sent at his head by Yoshifune.

Before the privately hired Jounin-level ninja could follow up his initial attack and kill Naruto, which would lead to all of their deaths at Gaara's already blood-soaked hands, Baki sped in between them, "Halt. He is a member of my team. He has been concealing his presence with us until now."

"Why doesn't he have a hitai-ate?" Yoshifune demanded, unsure of a shinobi able to stick so close to him and remain undiscovered.

"He is a trainee, only provisionally assigned to my team."

"You've brought a student, not even a Genin, on this mission?" Chianki asked, looking displeased.

"Only as an observer. I assure you that the additional presence will not negatively impact our performance and you will not be charged for the extra shinobi. As he has just demonstrated, despite his inexperience, Menma has a few useful skills that can aid in this mission."

Naruto was too flattered to care that Baki-sensei's words were almost certainly insincere and given to mollify the client, not to reassure Naruto. Instead, he rubbed the back of his head and tried to fight back a blush, his prior horror all but forgotten.

"Well, I only wish you had seen fit to inform me and my security team before we departed. Yoshifune almost killed the poor boy." Chianki added, still looking uncertain at the grey-skinned, whiskered boy. A provisional shinobi was a strange thing to send on an important escort mission, especially one that was most likely a defector from another country. Still, it meant there was one more shinobi between him and the demon child of Suna.

"I apologise. He was only supposed to be observing this mission. This breach of procedure will be reported to the Kazekage and dealt with accordingly upon our return."

"Well, I don't know that you need to do anything so drastic. Chosuke said it looked like he really helped out your other student so you needn't discipline him on my account."

"Thank you." Baki said, bowing and covertly glaring at Naruto behind him. The brat was a burden enough, now he was forcing Baki to humble himself in front of a civilian.

Naruto divided his attention between his negotiating sensei and his creepy, crazy 'older brother' who was slowly moving in Naruto's direction. Better keep any eye on him or else he'd get swept up without a chance to fight back.

"So, I noticed you could perform a few interesting tricks with the sand. I was of the impression that only those with… special abilities could manipulate the elements like that." Chianki said.

"I am afraid Menma's techniques, like all jutsu used by Suna shinobi, are proprietary secrets of Sunagakure." Baki interjected before Naruto might boast about his newly improved skill set.

"Of course." The client said, looking at Naruto sideways and the way the demon boy was sneaking up on him.

Naruto had been focussing too much on the conversation between the client and his sensei after all and failed to keep an eye on the psychopath at his back. He was halfway inside the gourd by the time he noticed what was happening. So used to this procedure, he didn't bother cursing as he was sucked in.

It scared him, that this half-existence was becoming normalised to him.

He settled in to his non-existence in the gourd and started to rationally explain, for the sixteenth time since he had discovered this ability to converse with his captor, that imprisonment was not kind and nor was scooping him up without warning. Gaara never answered these complaints to Naruto's satisfaction, or even responded half the time.

The client did not accept this turn of events with the same taciturn resignation of the Suna shinobi, instead gaping at the sudden and wanton act of homicide between his protectors. Baki immediately deduced the issue and spoke up, "He is not dead. Menma's abilities allow him to travel in the form of sand. He and Gaara work closely together. That is how he has been travelling with and observing this mission."

Chianki was still off-put and made sure not to wander anywhere near the clearly mad demon host, also keeping his stepson from going over. The boy was not stupid but he had had a fascination with ninja since he was a small child, his affluent parents prohibiting the dangerous career path despite the boy's desires. Seeing such an impressive, albeit unhinged, shinobi so close was too much for the naive boy to handle and clearly wanted to grill him about his sand abilities as well as this Menma's.

"You mustn't bother that one, Chosuke." Chianki warned. They may have been shinobi, trusted implicitly to do their jobs (and nothing else), but everybody in Wind had heard stories about Sabaku no Gaara, demon of Suna, and knew that no one was safe from him if he took offence.

While nothing was said openly to disparage the reputation of Sunagakure's ability to ensure a client's safety, Chianki had heard whispers of commissioners going missing or being 'unavoidably lost to enemies' on missions with the demon boy. Chianki would have refused the team (if he thought that might be allowed) but those same whisperings, and some more public records spread a great deal more proudly, spoke of that same demon boy's monstrous efficiency and power.

Chianki had decided that the weapon would be an asset on this mission since his cargo was so valuable. Clearly he had made the right decision since an attack had already been made and repelled by the boy. Witnessing his quiet but agitated manner, Chianki had been beginning to think that the stories had been some underground marketing for the struggling shinobi village, but after seeing how he dealt with dozens of enemies in minutes, he had no doubts.

Now he just had to stop Chosuke from doing something dangerous like offering the redhead a full-time job.

Chianki approached Baki again, "Since we know he is… observing this mission, would it not be more prudent to let Menma walk with the rest of you, to boost your numbers?"

"Gaara is in charge of him so it is his choice." Baki said.

Gaara had heard this response and scowled. Otouto was still rambling about being let out and now Baki and the client wanted to throw him out into the world. Next, his stupid siblings would chime in, knowing them.

It was that night that Naruto was let out to eat that he managed to run past Gaara's guard and back to the camp. Aisu had been making a wonderful looking broth of some sort and Naruto could not bear another meal of ration bars. He got back quickly enough to grab a bowl from a startled Kankuro and was almost at the boiling pot, before it was finished cooking, when Gaara caught up to him.

"They're not gonna try to kill me!" Naruto complained when Gaara advanced on him.

Gaara did not reason well, he was a boy of action.

"Is that what this is all about? Well of course your subordinate is perfectly safe with us. He seemed pretty safe with those thieves earlier, but I can promise you that none of my men would think of attacking a Suna shinobi." Chianki said from the fireside. These Genin were becoming more drama than he thought professional, but with any luck, this might defuse some of the pent up aggression.

Gaara looked even angrier but did not make another move to capture his errant little brother.

Naruto heaved a great sigh of relief and fell back to sit in the sand next to Temari who was keeping an eye on Gaara's reaction. Gaara stalked up to Naruto and sat on his other side, now watching the client and his staff like a hawk.

Naruto refrained from making any histrionic remarks about being freed, instead trying for dinner again. Aisu was about to smack his hand away with her ladle but even her civilian eyes caught the crazed one's tensing when her spoon was raised.

"It's not finished yet. I never let anyone try it until it's done."

"Aww." Naruto whined, flopping back into his original seat and staring forlornly at the pot.

Kankuro glared at the boy who had stolen his bowl but had no intention of attempting to retrieve it. He would borrow Temari's after she was finished eating, which would suck because the soup smelled amazing. It was a rarity that ninja were invited to dine with their clients, and Kankuro had never been on a mission with a dedicated cook along for the journey before. He could get used to this.

Since Naruto was out and free, he realised he would have to do without sleep again during the nights. Instead he stargazed with Gaara (for ten minutes before he got bored) and then he worked on his taijutsu, which Gaara was ill-equipped to tutor him in. Gaara's was even worse than his, not that he would admit it.

When Naruto teased him about this gap in Gaara's otherwise impressive arsenal of techniques and then tried to spar with him, Gaara simply sent out his sand and flattened him against the ground, crushing him into sand until he released the pressure and allowed Naruto to reconstitute.

"Teme." Naruto growled, starting the first of many attempts to avenge this loss.

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Naruto had briefly worried that being an active member of the squad and walking beside them to guard the cart rather than being carried around like luggage might have been disappointing in some way, boring even, but it was no such thing. Granted, very little actually happened, but compared to his previous non-existence, entertaining himself only by trying to talk to Gaara or watching the scenery, it was a regular party.

He had not been given an assigned position so he ended up wandering freely, which was ideal since Gaara would not let him stray further than five feet, meaning Gaara was still continuing to function as a floating agent. Naruto was akin to a dog, Kankuro muttered, watching him excitably dart about, being left behind by the carts for a few moments while he examined some weed or shiny detritus and then running to catch up again. Gaara followed without complaint.

The only specific issue Gaara seemed to take was when Naruto struck up conversations with the client or his people. Granted, Chianki was not very talkative with him (since with one redhead invariably you found the other), but the others were all somewhat interested in chatting, except for the security staff who acted like the Suna-nin and took their jobs way too seriously.

Gaara acted like the ground would swallow his little brother up if he weren't there to stop it but Naruto ignored him as much as he could and continued to interact with these new people under his 'older brother's' intense scrutiny.

Naruto had complained many times over the course of these weeks that this mission was taking way too long, and it had been the responsibility of Kankuro and Temari at different times, when they still bothered responding to his whining, to explain that Wind was the largest amongst the Elemental Nations by far and was also one of the hardest to traverse. Naruto usually grumbled and would be back to complaining the next day.

With Gaara's surprisingly allowing disapproval, Naruto was finally able to get to know these new people. Despite what Konoha had spent the better part of his life trying to stamp out of him, Naruto was a people person and loved getting to know anyone and everyone. Sadly, his Suna team were a bunch of psychos and jerks, but these civilians and private security people seemed nicer.

…Well, the civilians did. Yoshifune and Arran were as unfriendly as their Sunagakure parallels and seemed to dislike him immediately, whether because he was foreign or because he was closely tied to Gaara, he didn't know. Still, Naruto had persevered with Arran, boredom and curiosity spurring on his dogged interactions.

It turned out that unlike Yoshifune, Arran and the majority of the Akaihana private security personnel had not been trained in Wind's hidden village, but instead had primarily been trained by retirees and those shinobi specially released from active service to Suna, like Yoshifune, who had been Arran's sensei. Naruto still didn't fully understand why Suna let such strong and trustworthy men leave its ranks, but after two attempts at explanation, Arran had refused to try again.

It apparently had something to do with boosting economic growth within the country by aiding its primary producing industries in whatever way possible, and also because Suna was struggling to maintain the number of Jounin it had trained for the last war since the work had all but dried up internationally. Naruto thought he understood the second part, but he wasn't sure why there were no missions, or, for that matter, how villages attracted customers.

Iruka-sensei had definitely spoken on that subject, but Naruto only remembered that lesson because it had been early in his studies at the Academy and the day he first attained and used a smoke bomb. In hindsight, he now knew to check its yield before setting under a teacher's seat, as it had been combat-grade and had blasted the main teacher in the ceiling before choking half the class. On the bright side, it had had meant a promotion for Iruka-sensei, who had been the overworked assistant sensei before then.

The older sensei had been transferred to another class, lest he murder the demonic prankster brat, and Naruto had had to restrain his giggles whenever he saw the limping, middle-aged Chunin walking around the Academy, for fear of being pelted with (definitely not blunted) shuriken.

As bad as Naruto felt for hurting the lazy, boring teacher for no reason when he was younger, Naruto still smiled as he remembered the day.

Seeing that the peculiarly coloured trainee shinobi had drifted into some sort of remembrance, Arran had taken the distraction to move away and avoid further interaction with the dim foreigner. Plus, Yoshifune-sensei would undoubtedly lecture him on not being distracted on duty. No matter how old any of his students got, Yoshifune-sensei was always ready and willing to give them a stern talking-to if they stepped out of line.

The drivers were incredibly friendly and always happy to talk, especially about Wind. Apparently they were patriots, whatever that was. Naruto tried asking Gaara what that meant but Gaara also didn't know, and Naruto didn't like asking his team too many questions in a day as they started getting upset (after the first fifteenth or so). In any case, they both proved to be veritable fountains of trivia for his new country – once they had confirmed with their boss, and the client with Baki, that the foreigner was to be trusted with civilian-level knowledge of the country.

It was through the two drivers, Yusuke and Yura, that Naruto learned that half of Wind's citizens lived along the Dansai or Temari rivers and around Reto Lake. Naruto asked (question fourteen of the day, before noon) and that was indeed where Temari's name had come from. The rest of the populace were mostly split between Suna, Jōgaya, and the relatively verdant north. There were a few small settlements at oases and on the southern coast, but those were few and far in between. Naruto considered himself lucky to have stumbled upon a human settlement in such a vast and lifeless country as Wind.

Although, eyeing the way Gaara was sticking to him, Naruto wondered again if he might have been better of walking past Sunagakure and trying his luck at the next village.

As knowledgeable and talkative as the drivers were, Naruto's favourite person on the trip was definitely Aisu. She was a delight to chat with, even on subjects not directly related to food, although anybody with a half-decent ramen recipe memorised was a precious person in his books. She said his old pranks sounded hilarious, but had to warn him off trying to demonstrate one since everyone was either their boss/superior, or likely to try killing him. The only ones safe to prank were the twins, and Naruto didn't really feel like doing anything to them when they were so nice.

Baki-sensei could have used the levity but even Naruto knew that wouldn't end well, even if Gaara would protect him from any lethal retaliation.

In the evenings, Gaara would often drag Naruto away after he had eaten and they would spend the nights together, sometimes without exchanging more than a few words. Spend enough time with someone, especially someone as disinclined to talking as Gaara, and himself being caught in a web of falsehoods, it soon became difficult to keep any conversation alive. Although, he did get to learn where Gaara got his tattoo from, which was a story he could have done without knowing, if only because pitying Gaara made it harder to hate him for being a weird, stalking creep.

Instead, Naruto continued his training when silence abounded and he wasn't allowed to sleep more than a couple hours a night. By the mission's twentieth day, he could make a miniature tornado of sand over his palm, not that it was a skill good for anything but amusing himself as he walked. He wasn't expected to keep watch (or do anything); that much had been made abundantly clear to him by multiple people.

On that day, they reached the last of the Great Rivers. The bridge over the Hanagarashi River was blocked by a pair of huge muscular men that Naruto had to remind himself were probably far weaker than they looked. Between them stood what looked like a Daimyo official, fitted in robes probably more expensive than Naruto's old apartment (likely claimed by the village as a possession of a traitor by now…)

Baki went on ahead of the carts to show the official his mission scroll and get everyone moving. However, by the time the front cart reached the bridge, the guards had not moved and everyone was forced to halt. The shinobi had to reposition themselves, now that they were stationary targets, and await their leader's resolving the hold-up.

Naruto, not being tethered to any set position, wandered around to the front, where Baki-sensei was still talking harshly with the smug official.

"That's does not matter. Without direct permission from the Daimyo, your mission does not constitute a pass anymore. You need to pay for your caravan like everybody else, shinobi-san."

Naruto did not like aristocrats and their lackeys, and this man stunk of that same arrogance and derision.

"Fine, we will cross elsewhere." Baki-sensei said angrily. They would simply have to travel a mile up the river and have Gaara form a temporary bridge.

"That will not do. To cross this river anywhere, you must pay the toll, regardless of whether or not you use the bridge provided. You may travel north and walk around the river entirely, but that would cost you several days or a few weeks."

Baki gritted his teeth. The Daimyo had been causing problems for a while now but this latest insult to Suna was ridiculous! Kazekage-sama would be sending more than one missive from this.

"Fine. Show me your royal seal and I will speak to my client."

"Very well." The official wasted no time in pulling out a finely-crafted fake. Baki took an extra moment to examine it before it was snatched back out of sight and the confident looking imposter sneered at him again. Baki smiled now.

"Before I inform my client, might I ask which lord you report to in the capital?"

"Why should I tell you that?" The false-official spat, tired of this shinobi's impudence.

"I would like to check with them, to see if they themselves have been providing these fakes to imposters." Baki said.

The official's face didn't shift, he simply snapped his fingers and jumped back so that his flanking bodyguards could move in to strike down the nosey shinobi. Naruto saw this turn of events and was about to jump forward to help his outnumbered sensei in any way he could but before he could close the relatively small gap, both of the burly men's head were already falling off of their shoulders. Naruto wasn't sure how Baki-sensei had managed to decapitate both men without any weapon in his hands, but his eyes still sparkled in joyous pride at his current teacher's obvious strength.

The imposter had already jumped over the side of the bridge and into the fast-moving river, being carried downstream already.

Kankuro was on the bridge by that point and Temari was pulling out her fan, both ready to pursue atop the water and finish off the conman, but Baki told them to stand down.

"The current is particularly strong on the Hanagarashi this time of year. A civilian like him will be swept out to sea and will drown. No point in wasting energy to run down a dead man."

The convoy moved on after that, Naruto watching his sensei with new eyes, even as his mind boggled at the number of thieves, bandits and fraudsters in this country. Surely Fire had not been this bad!

Naruto had the poor sense to vocalise this disbelief openly within earshot of his sensei, to which Baki-sensei responded, "How is it that a wandering ronin's apprentice is so ill-versed in the proliferation of thieves across different nations?"

"Uhh…" Naruto's mind ran as fast as it ever did, hopefully he wouldn't simply name a different ramen topping this time, "Well, I guess I must have just been lucky…" He laughed it off and rubbed the back of his head to show how totally and absolutely nonchalant he was.

Baki quietly decided to revisit the Kazekage's decision to allow this clearly dishonest boy into their military and so close to the weapon. No doubt Rasa-sama knew what he was doing, but Baki needed to know the plan if he was to keep watch over the probable spy.

Frankly, the best argument against Menma being a spy was that he was such an obvious contender.

Finally, two days after crossing the Hanagarashi, they reached the outskirts of Jōgaya. In the evening light, the capital city looked magnificent to Naruto, who had only ever seen towns, and villages, the biggest being the hidden villages which were both dwarfed by this place. Some of the buildings he could see in the distance, near the centre of the city, looked even bigger than the Hokage mansion!

Naruto was desperate to go and sightsee but one look at his team and his request died on his lips. Everyone looked as surly as usual, and Gaara looked close to a panic attack as they all marched into the city streets with their carts. So many people clearly had the unstable Jinchūriki spooked.

The rest of the team were on edge with Gaara in such a densely populated place. Gaara had only come to the capital twice before, and the first time he had killed three civilians that Baki had to dispose of discreetly. The second time had only been spared a body count because of Temari and Kankuro's inclusion onto the team and their providing a distraction to Gaara.

That had been at the beginning of their initial reacquaintance, when Gaara had been somewhat interested in them. That interest fortunately ended before he decided to murder them to 'prove his existence.'

While the streets of the capital were supposed to be relatively safe from serious crime, barring the odd pickpocket or murder here and there, Baki-sensei had reminded them before they entered the city proper to not let down their guards.

As they passed through a busy market street, a couple vendors saw the rich-looking carts and the shinobi with disposable income and decided to make a final sale of the day. They shouted offers from the sides and tried to entice the teenagers and adults to examine their wares, to little effect. When that failed, a few more tried the direct approach, carrying over trinkets and items, to demonstrate their brilliance to the prospective buyers.

They made a fatal mistake when they stood in Gaara's way, darting in front of him to try and foist a roll of silk into his hands, so that he might feel its quality. The man had gotten scared when he spotted the crazed look on Gaara's face and perhaps even spotted the sand creeping out of his gourd. Before Gaara could follow after his retreating prey, as he clearly intended to do, Naruto stepped in and dragged him onwards by his leather sash.

This was his first trip to the capital and Naruto had no desire to be in the middle of a massacre.

Gaara looked angry at him but Naruto didn't care so long as he did not try to capture him. Gaara had tried to scoop Naruto up before they entered the city, being very wary of letting Naruto out amongst so many unknown people, but Naruto had threatened to pick a fight with the Kazekage upon their return to the village. Naruto felt no guilt by scaring his obsessive partner since it seemed to work.

Still, it meant that Gaara was now walking right next to him at all times and looked ready to commit a murder whenever someone walked in front of them, which was frequent on the busy streets. Gaara's pause in order to massacre the traders had been the most distance he'd allowed since they entered Jōgaya and it ended swiftly as Gaara regained his senses and brushed Naruto's hand off of his sash.

Kankuro and Temari had had enough and they broke formation to approach their sensei, needing to confer this second instance of previously unheard of temperance from their psychotic little brother. Gaara did not spare targets once he had them in sight, not without another death taking the target's place, and twice now Menma had distracted Gaara from his blood sport. Baki agreed that this might simply indicate a positive change, as they hoped, but he warned them that this could also 'soften' Gaara. After all, who needed a kind weapon? It was unclear whether this was the case as Gaara had not hesitated to slaughter the bandits without issue or complaint.

The other issue was the one Baki was more concerned about, that they were ceding what little control and influence they had over their precious Jinchūriki to a foreigner, which might harbour disaster. Hopefully Menma really was as dumb as he acted, in which case they had a great deal less to fear.

The carts were led right through the city to the other side, to the docks where their boat was already waiting to be loaded. They were not due to sail until tomorrow but the chest and remaining supplies were to be stowed away tonight and guarded by Gaara, Naruto, Temari, Kankuro and Arran until they left. Baki and Yoshifune would escort Chianki and Chosuke to a nearby inn for the night, since they insisted on a comfortable bed.

The drivers and cook were to stay on the boat too, not invited to spend a night on a comfortable inn mattress, to their chagrin.

The young guards were all to take shifts watching the chest, with Arran staying up all night to keep an eye on the Suna-nin. Even official Suna shinobi could not be trusted with this much money, was the thinking of both the client and the village, so missions like these almost always included private security to keep the real ninja honest.

Gaara ended up staying up all night with Arran, to the latter's discomfort. Naruto was allowed his scant two hours, further adding to his already impressive sleep deficit and the growing bags under his eyes.

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In the morning, Arran was downright skittish after enduring Gaara's unwavering gaze for a full four hours while Naruto further practiced his sand control to amuse himself. Naruto had considered coming to the security worker's rescue and distracting Gaara for a while, but when he tried talking to Arran that evening, he had been very rude in his refusal.

Kankuro and Temari had taken turns to patrol during the night while Gaara watched the cargo, so they ended up sleeping in a little later than scheduled, causing Gaara's to glare disdainfully at his lazy teammates. Naruto had taken pity on them and woken them before Gaara got it into his head to do it. Less gently, by Naruto's guess.

Did they appreciate his kindness? No, they did not.

Then again, him screaming for them to wake up, a scant few feet away from their ears, might not have been the gentle awakening he thought it was. He was pretty sleep deprived himself and it was making it harder for him to concentrate, he reckoned, as he blankly watched them growl at him and threaten to do everything short of physically injuring him (in line with Gaara's standing orders).

Baki-sensei and the client showed up mid-morning, along with a dozen stout sailors looking upset to have been ejected from their own ship for the night by their paranoid commissioner. Still, no matter how resentful they were of the shinobi who had taken up residence on their sacrosanct vessel, they knew better than direct any of their anger directly at the trained killers. Everyone had heard stories of these weapons who looked like children, who could kill grown men with terrifying ease.

Baki-sensei listened to the brief reports of the night's inactivity and gave them their new orders for the day. They had several hours before the ship was due to depart so he sent out the three Genin and whatever Naruto technically was, since Baki could not accept that he was a full-fledged Genin with his lacking skill set, to re-provision. Baki and the private security pair would stay on the ship with the client and oversee the sailors.

Even with Kankuro and Temari flanking his sides, Gaara was even more panicked than he had been the day before as they wandered through the crowds. The streets were much busier in the morning and the elder Sand Siblings had their hands full keeping Gaara's path clear.

Predictably, as soon as they had left the docks and seen the hustle and bustle of the capital city streets during proper trading hours, Gaara had scooped Naruto up and secured him in his safe gourd. Naruto was pissed, having wanted to explore Jōgaya himself, but seeing how close the natural redhead was to throwing a fit (and possible a few people), Naruto tried to resign himself to only watching the short tour of the city.

Obviously, the sane pair of Genin were trying to keep the shopping trip brief, wishing they could have left Gaara somewhere quiet while they followed their orders, but there was every chance Gaara would be overwhelmed without their interference and do something regrettable in their absence anyway. Despite their intentions and Gaara's clear discomfort, their younger brother would occasionally dart off in a different direction to stand over by a stall or pick up an item.

As they watched him examine some sort of glass sphere for sale, at an exorbitant price, it was plaint to see on his face that he did not care about it nor have any intention of buying it. The shop owner looked displeased to have some child touching his wares but he refrained from shooing away the browser because he was a ninja.

Gaara continued to hold the fragile trifle for a couple seconds more and then returned it to where it had sat, walking back in the direction they had previously been headed. Otouto had been insistent that he be shown any shiny trinket or bizarre object up close that they passed on the market street. It delayed them greatly but it stopped his little brother from continuing his struggles so ardently.

It also stopped him singing to annoy him.

Temari and Kankuro had no idea what had spurred on this uncharacteristic bout of curiosity and wanderlust. They observed and tried to keep up with Gaara's random traipsing about, his interest in products even extending to stealing a few of them, which Temari and Kankuro winced at. They did not have any extra money to remunerate the sellers and there was little hope that they would be able to adequately explain the idea of purchasing to Gaara in the next five minutes, so they followed after him and hoped that the shop and stall owners continued to be less vigilant than the ones in Suna.

While less used to the skilled hands of a shinobi thief, the men and women, and especially the children, of the capital seemed very interested in the trio of Suna ninja. Living and working around a shinobi village, it was easy for some to forget that shinobi could be a comparatively rare sight in some towns and cities.

To Naruto, the idea was ludicrous. The only places he had lived had been filled to the brim with shinobi, they were a fact of life. Civilians looking in his direction with anything but hate or fear was also something of a novelty for all three of them, but Gaara didn't look like he even noticed them all, he just continued on his way, deviating only when Naruto excitedly yelled for him to get a closer look at something. Whenever he was really interested, Gaara took it. Naruto hoped Kankuro or Temari was paying for these things.

He did suggest Gaara could probably get away with snatching a single copy of the newspaper on sale, since Naruto wanted to see if that 'reporter' in Suna had written anything.

They returned to the ship in time with all of the provisions, as well as the various knick-knacks and snacks Naruto had ordered his carrier to acquire. The sailors were anxious to leave as soon as possible, so with the returned Genin team on board with all of the supplies they would need, they were told (not ordered) to go below deck with the other passengers and wait there until they had left the Bay of Bunpuku.

Since it was only familiar faces below deck, Naruto was allowed out to peruse what Gaara had stolen for him. It was a bit like Christmas, except really, really not.

"Hey, where does the name Bay of Bunpuku come from?" Naruto asked openly. This was apparently his country now, until a better place became available, one without psycho captors, and he should probably learn a little bit about it. It was also something to fill the silence.

"A bay is bigger than a cove but smaller than a gulf." Kankuro piped up, smirking.

"No one knows where Bunpuku comes from. Someone's name, most likely, but I don't think anyone knows who they were." Yura spoke up, always happy to share her knowledge. She ducked down her head afterwards with everyone looking at her.

No one jumped to continue the discussion of history and Naruto's attention had in the meantime shifted to the newspaper, identical to the copy that Chianki was leisurely reading by the single candle lit in the darkness. Naruto scooted closer to him, conscious of the eyes tracking him. With the dim light, he started reading what he soon discovered to be a totally boring set of stories.

He was definitely not a reader, as his previous efforts directed at the fast-paced action adventure fictions that Iruka-sensei had tried recommending to him had proven. Trying to muddle through a weekly edition of a national publication that dealt mainly with politics, agricultural reports, trade negotiations and editorials on the plight of the overburdened courier, Naruto soon wilted and tried to sneak a peek at their client's paper in case his was more interesting.

Seeing an exact copy, Naruto started flicking through the pages, looking for any interesting pictures, of which there were a few woodcut illustrations. He was also looking for any subtitles with that journalist's, Minestu's, name on them, but only found one. It was apparently, from what Naruto could gleam, the latest in a series of articles about Minetsu's time in Suna. Sadly, it didn't mention Naruto or even Gaara, and instead focussed on Suna's architecture. It was vague and presumably avoided giving any specifics because of Suna's censorship, which made it even more boring to read, so Naruto dumped his paper and returned to where he had been sitting before so Gaara would stop making everyone feel even more uncomfortable with his glaring.

When the ship had sailed out of the bay into the Hanguri Gulf, a lone sailor had poked his head through the hatch and said the guards were allowed up on deck now.

Baki and the security guys, along with the clients and their staff, were to stay below deck with the chest, while the Genin got to stay up on deck and keep watch for pirates.

Like so much of active shinobi duty, as Naruto was learning, watching for pirates was much like watching for bandits in that it mostly consisted on doing absolutely nothing. They had five days with essentially nothing to do but sunbathe since the sailors made it abundantly clear that the shinobi were not needed (or wanted) to run the ship.

Naruto was let out surprisingly quickly after Gaara saw that his reputation had preceded him amongst the seamen. They knew what Gaara would do to them if they went near his little brother.

Kankuro had immediately taken up residence on the stern of the ship while Temari was stationed at the bow. Gaara, as usual, was free to roam but he seemed to like the crow's nest. It was physically the furthest away from anyone he could be on the ship. Plus he could see Otouto anywhere he went on deck.

The puppeteer of the team was using the time to tinker about with one of Karasu's detached limbs, while keeping an eye on the horizon. Naruto had asked him what he was doing (several times) and tried to observe the delicate ministrations but his impatience soon won out and he tried his luck over with Temari.

She had been dividing her time between dozing in the sun with one eye flickering open to keep watch from time to time, polishing her fan to a high gloss, and working out. Naruto had not noticed before, and he worked hard not to notice it too blatantly now, but Temari was the most muscular girl he thought he had ever seen. Granted, his knowledge of the opposite sex beyond the rather limited pool of his classmates from the Academy was lacking, but Temari was really strong-looking. It was scary, really. As if she weren't intimidating enough already.

After taking a long look at her gravity-defying, one-handed handstand push-ups, Naruto went back to the empty starboard and lamented his own doughy physique.

The next day, after Gaara refused to further discuss Naruto's sand techniques since they had not progressed even a little since the last dozen times he talked about them, Naruto went to talk to Kankuro. He tried Temari first but she had said something very unkind so he figured the puppeteer was the safer bet.

"What do you want?" He sighed, continuing to paint some strange substance on to one of his senbon. When that was done, he carefully slid it into a container and pulled another out from a different container.

"Nothing," Naruto said, squinting under the sun, "just wanted to talk."

"About anything?" Kankuro said. After living and travelling with the dyed boy for the worst part of a month, he knew just how loquacious he could be if he was allowed.

"Well… umm," Naruto quickly tried to think of something that might interest the older boy and save Naruto from the silence. "You're the Kazekage's kid, right?"

Kankuro paused and looked up at the idiot standing in his sunlight. "Do I really have to answer that?"

"It's just, I know Gaara's a weird case, but how come you and Temari don't live with him?" Naruto almost mentioned that he knew that the Hokage used to have a few close relatives living with him in his mansion.

Kankuro nudged Naruto to the side with his foot so the sun would glint off of his weapons again and he didn't end up having to use his own anti-venom like some novice. "We're not a close family." He said this while returning to his work, ending the conversation.

"How come?"

Again Kankuro had to look up at Menma, trying to figure out how he had actually been apprenticed to a ronin when he was both incredibly annoying and entirely without tact.

"None of your business."

Naruto wanted to contest that he wasn't the one who insisted he was part of the family, but he didn't want to agree with Gaara. Kankuro started ignoring him and he knew he only had one more chance before he was told to go away, so he concentrated as hard as he could to come up with something better to talk about.

Sadly, his mind was one-track and all he could think about now was his new boss. "So, how long has your dad been the Kazekage?"

Kankuro sighed. "About fourteen years, maybe thirteen. Before Gaara was born."

"That'd make sense, I guess." Naruto said, stroking his chin, wondering about the process of creating a Jinchūriki. "Is he a good leader?"

"You expect me to badmouth the Kazekage and my father?"

"I guess not. So what happened to the last guy, was he really old like the Hokage?"

"The Hokage? No, the Sandaime was young, in his prime. He disappeared during the Third War. Probably killed by the one of the other Kage."

Naruto sincerely doubted the Old Man would have done something as dirty as kidnapping and secretly killing another village's leader, but he was too nervous over his slip up, mentioning the Hokage, to fret over it.

"And your dad's really young so he's probably gonna be in the job for a while yet." Naruto continued. He had always wanted to be Hokage and in his mind becoming the Kazekage would make do as a substitute ambition. The people in Suna treated him like trash, in a comparable but different way to Konoha, so being recognised would still be satisfying. Plus, if he were Kazekage, he could order Gaara to leave him alone.

"Planning treason already?" Kankuro asked with a snort.

"No!" Naruto was quick to overreact. "Just wondering how long I'd have to wait to get the job."

"You? Kazekage?" Kankuro openly smirked now.

"Yeah, why not me? Plus, who else is gonna do it? Baki-sensei?"

"Because you're a weakling. And Baki-sensei won't do it either. He hates politics. No, Temari's probably going to take over when our father kicks it." He said casually.

"Temari?!" Naruto looked over to where she was still working out. "How come? I mean, she's strong and all, but Gaara's probably stronger, right?"

"Gaara's not eligible. He doesn't care about running the village anyway. He'd just as soon see the rest of us die than do anything to help. It pretty much always runs in the family in Suna, so it's probably going to be Temari or me, and she's stronger than I am." Kankuro said before quickly following up with, "But don't you dare tell her I said that!"

"Sure." Naruto said, trying to imagine either moody teenager as leader. Temari did fit the picture a bit easier. "So Gaara's not even eligible?"

"He's not a leader, he's a weapon." Kankuro said this with a strange bitterness that Naruto didn't understand.

Naruto didn't like the idea of the successors all running in one family, it reminded him of those stuck-up clan jerks back in Konoha, and it excluded him from the running. Suddenly, in Naruto's mind, the only thing in his way was the family bloodline he didn't possess.

One teme in particular came to mind.

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The day after his informative talk with Kankuro, he tried begging the older boy to teach him water walking. Baki was apparently too busy to waste his time, but Kankuro brazenly said he couldn't be bothered. Naruto, dejected, looked up at Gaara who was still in the crow's nest, staring right back down at him, and immediately wrote that option off. Gaara might be willing to try and teach him but he was an awful instructor.

That only left…

Temari was surprisingly willing to, as she phrased it, 'bring him up to a basic level of shinobi proficiency so he didn't impede their duties further than he already had'. He was sure she was insulting him somehow, but he was just happy for the help.

However, this relief soon waned as Naruto learned that the inability to teach in any sort of reasonable manner, like the leadership of Suna, ran in the family. He realised this vital piece of information after Temari had tethered his body to the back of the ship and promptly, and literally, kicked him off into the sea. She shouted for him to try waterskiing with chakra first and then try running.

He very nearly drowned half a dozen times, which Gaara failed to protect him from. Kankuro had moved over to laugh at him while Temari shouted stern and unhelpful advice, half of which he couldn't hear of the waves that he kept being dragged under.

Sadly, this late juncture was when Temari learned that Naruto did not know how to swim, which made his frantic struggling in the wake of the ship all the more desperate as he inefficiently tried to stay above the water.

And all through this torture Gaara watched from the crow's nest.

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By the time they had sailed through the Nanmen Gulf and were entering into the much colder Kanashii Ocean, days later, Naruto was running along behind the ship, periodically jumping over the boat's wake and the sporadic blade of wind his sadistic temporary teacher sent his way whenever Gaara's looked away for a moment. Gaara clearly knew something was going on because the glares he sent towards Temari, which were already harsher because of her hard treatment of his Otouto, had turned downright frosty but he couldn't murder her for something he didn't see happening.

Well, he could, and most likely would one day, but right now he refrained and continued watching to make sure his little brother's distress did not verge into actual injury.

Kankuro had taken to watching the horizons from next to Temari despite the tactical disadvantage because this sort of entertainment was too good to pass up, but despite his enjoyment, even he thought his sister was a crazed sadist when given half the chance. It was why he had trained as a puppeteer as a child rather than requesting she teach him what she knew of nature manipulation.

Granted, he had always liked playing with puppets (which were not dolls!), but he had known better than training in anything even tangentially related to Temari's expertise.

He watched Menma running unsteadily on the water's surface and tried to gauge how much of his imbalance was due to his inexperience and how much could be attributed to the choppy waters he was running atop. It was as the grey-skinned boy performed a flip and loudly 'whooped' in the air, that Kankuro thought he saw something on the back of Menma's neck. He couldn't make it out but whatever it was, it was dark. Kankuro would have to tell the overly energetic idiot to shed the seaweed he'd presumably picked up before re-boarding the ship.

For hardened seamen, the sailors were surprisingly precious about their deck's cleanliness.

A half hour later, after the day's torture had concluded with the same promise of continuance tomorrow, Kankuro double-checked and found nothing on Menma's neck. The seaweed must have fallen off already, or it was just a trick of the light.

Other than Temari's Spartan training, Gaara was again all over Naruto, ready to snatch him up if one of the sailors looked at him the wrong way. Or if he was being 'unruly.' It soon came to the point where Naruto walking in the direction of anybody other than a teammate would have him 'rescued' and spending several hours in the gourd.

It clearly wasn't about protecting him since, even by Gaara's insane standards, the friendly wagon drivers surely posed no threat to him, weak as they were, and yet Naruto was disallowed from going near them.

By the end of the voyage, Gaara was glaring at everybody and back to only letting Naruto out for meals, to be eaten in seclusion, and nothing Naruto said made any difference.

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It was on the mission's twenty-fifth day that their ship docked in Degarashi Port on the western coast of the land of Tea. They all spilled out onto land as soon as the gangplank was laid down, eager for both firm footing and some form of bathing facility that did not leave their skin salt-encrusted. Kankuro was surprisingly precious about his skin.

As soon as they alighted, they moved the chest onto another waiting carriage and transported it through the significantly smaller city than their last port. Chianki had bought out a small inn for the night, where they would all rest and recuperate before the final leg of the journey. Naruto would have liked to have seen this city as well however Gaara would not let him step foot on dry land, locking him in the gourd for the entirety of the afternoon and evening. It was past midnight when Naruto was finally allowed out for a bite to eat and a quick wash.

After he had dried himself off, he pleaded with Gaara to let him stay out for a while. As usual, the redhead's porcelain face could not be moved by Naruto's words alone, and his attempts at logical reasoning were pitiful. In the end, all he could do was try staging a physical confrontation again.

Naruto saw that look in Gaara's demented eyes that meant the sand would soon be unleashed, to snatch him up, so Naruto ran forwards, into Gaara's personal space, and grabbed him by his white cotton and leather sashes and tried to throttle some sense into him. Gaara's automatic defence did not view him as a real threat so it allowed Naruto to shake him while shouting as quietly as he could, considering the extremely late hour. This turned out to be loud enough to wake someone in the floor below, Naruto guessed this from the muffled yelling and the thumping sound coming from the floor.

"Stop shaking me." Gaara softly commanded him, reaching up with his smaller hands to try and dislodge the ones still gripping him.

"Not until you stop being a crazy jerk!" Naruto replied.

"It's not safe out here." Gaara said for the millionth time.

"It's safer than me being bored to death." Naruto said, losing some of his steam now.

"I will not let your existence perish."

"It's not gonna perish. I'm not that weak, dattebayo."

"You are weak and young. I am your older brother, it is my job to protect you."

"Kankuro doesn't have to protect you and he's your older brother. And he's actually older than you."

"I have never thought of him as my brother. Kankuro is a weak idiot. And I do not need protecting."

Naruto had a hard time refuting that when he saw just how strong Gaara's sand techniques were. "Well neither do I!"

"But-"

"I'm staying out." Naruto said definitively.

Gaara glared, as he always did, but he stepped back out of his little's brother's reach and then sat down to keep watching him. Naruto knew he would have to stay near Gaara and endure his unceasing watchfulness, but that was better than captivity.

Mildly.

During the night, since he could not train without causing damage to the establishment and he had taken his uselessly weak sand controlling ability to the limits of individual development, Naruto spent the hours he would have rather been sleeping talking with Gaara again. He spoke of movies and childhood games and nostalgia, and he talked of his loneliness as a young boy; something to which he figured Gaara could relate.

Gaara did not react to confessions of a shared childhood trauma, instead he kept his cold eyes bearing down on Naruto throughout. Clearly Gaara resented any and all moves by his little brother to establish a measure of independence too much to be paying attention to what he was saying.

In the morning they were to set off early, so as the rest of the group yawned and moved about sluggishly, those more used to sleep deprivation, or those recently introduced to forced sleep deprivation but aided by boundless natural reserves of energy, helped load the chest and supplies onto the cart. While Naruto was all too happy to ferry the boxes of food, water, and camping goods into the cart, he could only stand back and watch as Gaara moved the heavy chest onto the cart again. Without his sand control, this would certainly have been a more difficult mission involving lots of heavy lifting and sore backs.

The image of Gaara working in a construction crew floated through Naruto's head and made him spontaneously laugh.

"What was that about?" Aisu asked from behind him.

Naruto related the thought to her, discreetly, and she agreed that it was worth a chuckle. She had been very kind to him during this mission, always willing to listen to him talk when everyone else eventually would tire of him. Whether she was singularly interested in his stories and thoughts or simply the most patient was unclear, but he appreciated it nonetheless.

Gaara looked over directly to where he had been watching Naruto from the corner of his eye, but this circumspect manner of surveillance had not warned him of an approaching danger. He would have to devote an eye to watch otouto fully from now on. He turned to his little brother and watched them interact. It was the cook who was too friendly with his little brother.

Gaara watched as they chatted and laughed, his frown growing more severe as time passed. He watched as otouto made some wild gesture, and then as he stage-whispered something to her. He watched as she playfully slapped him on the back, making him yelp and then laugh alongside her.

He had watched her slap him. Slap his little brother. Slap otouto.

He killed her before anyone could blink an eye. His sand had flown out without hesitation or delay, wrapped her up and crushed her to death before she could even whimper or panic.

Naruto had not been able to process the unprovoked violence, not until the blood spurted out of the sand coffin and onto his sandals. He looked up in shock, hoping he had not seen what he thought he saw, that Aisu-san was safe and that Gaara had just murdered an inbound assassin instead.

A quick look around the area at the horrified faces all staring at Gaara and not finding Aisu anywhere confirmed that the cold rock forming in his chest was supposed to burst any second and release the pent up grief he should be feeling.

"Wha… but she…" Was all he managed to say as his mind finally started running again.

Everyone was shocked by the sudden and senseless bloodshed as Baki immediately leapt into action and started apologising to the client, who was understandably upset that his long-time employee and treasured personal cook had been murdered in front of him with no provocation. The elder sand siblings were less surprised, instead they assumed their assigned positions, weapons at the ready to defend the client (as much as possible) from their little brother should he go into full meltdown, and ready to defend Gaara should the client's private security make good on the threats their looks were implying.

While these professionals went about the business of clearing up after Gaara's latest mess, Naruto screamed and ranted and raved at the psychopath who had just killed someone he liked, who had been kind to him. He shouted at Gaara for being crazy and dangerous and for giving Jinchūriki a bad name.

Gaara made no excuses for himself, although he did seem confused about that last statement, but he just did what he always did when his little brother acted out like this: tried to capture him. Naruto saw this coming and felt sickened by the idea of being so close to this wanton murderer.

The sand was too fast for him to dodge effectively so he used what little control he could muster over the sand and managed to stall its movements for one and a half seconds while he jumped out of the way.

He screamed more profanities at Gaara from a safer distance and then he dived out of the sand's path one last time and jumped onto the closest roof and took off running. Never before had he been so desperate to escape from this deluded killer, so he pushed himself to run as far and as fast as he was able, into the deepest parts of the port city where he might never be found.

Temari caught up to Gaara as the redhead slowed to a halt in a busy street, having given chase and then lost the trail, looking around as if lost without his ever-present adopted brother within reach. Baki and Kankuro were still back with the client, trying to calm frayed nerves, leaving her to deal with her youngest brother.

It was as Gaara stopped turning around, looking for someone who clearly wasn't there, that Temari realised the full extent of the problem. Gaara was distressed, swiftly becoming angered. She was stuck dealing with a pissed off Gaara in the middle of the Land of Wind's capital city…

"Temari, I want him back now!" Gaara said without looking at her.

Temari stared at the back of his head and wondered what sequence of words she could utter that might spare her life, since none of them could honestly imply she had any way of complying with his unreasonable demand quickly enough.

"Yes, Gaara…"

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A/N: I hope you liked this latest chapter and the general direction this story is headed.

Since it's Christmas, I have some more good tidings for those of you who read Hidden Inhumanity: I have spent the last couple days writing a short chapter to publish before New Year's Eve. It will be short but I hope it will be no less enjoyable.