9

.

The wind was no longer mild, but chilly. The nights in the desert were cold. Shikamaru sighed as he watched the last ferry of the day depart from the port. Tiredly, he ran a hand through his hair and massaged his tense scalp. The tie tore and his hair fell around his shoulders.

"We're finished!" There was no need to use the walkie-talkies anymore. The port was silent. Everyone, save for the five members of their team, had departed.

.

It was in the late afternoon when Temari finally arrived. Gaara looked up from his desk when the door clicked shut and waited for her to speak up.

"I've got the info you requested," she said and reached a map out to him.

He accepted it and spread it out on top of the neatly ordered sheets of paper he yet had to work through. Even though the map showed him what he'd been dreading, he kept his face neutral. Gaara didn't know how they'd done it, but they'd found out that Naruto was residing in the eastern part of the country. The posts that were positioned around that area proofed that much.

Naruto should just stay in Wind and wait this out. No good could come out of this rash escape attempt. But Gaara knew he wouldn't be able to convince him. His friend was simply too stubborn for his own good.

"Thank you. You should take a rest now," he advised, his words a subtle dismissal.

But Temari remained rooted to her place, her face a thoughtful frown.

"There's something on your mind," he remarked.

She nodded. "You know they're searching for someone, right?"

"A civilian that left Konoha, yes."

Gaara watched his sister nibble on her bottom lip. She was nervous. "I've got a bad feeling about this," she admitted.

"Any particular reason?" he asked, the tone giving nothing away.

She shrugged. "Intuition. I feel like I've seen the guy they're looking for before. He seems familiar. You'd feel the same if you'd seen his picture."

Willing himself to refrain from stiffening up, he answered, "Maybe." He leaned back into his chair while keeping eye-contact with Temari. "I will watch out for anything unusual tonight if that will ease your mind."

A bright smile spread over his sister's face. "Really?"

Gaara nodded. "I'll be alert the whole night through."

.

The next time Gaara entered the hotel room, all the mess from the past weeks had vanished. It had always been this way, he remembered. Naruto wasn't a particularly tidy person until the day of departure arrived. Then, everything was cleaned up until the place was void of any evidence suggesting he'd ever been there.

"You've got it?" Naruto asked. There was something strangely eager in his voice, almost as if he was looking forward for what was to come. An odd mix of excitement and paranoia.

"Yes. And I also know where they've decided to position their guards."

Naruto sighed heavily. "Bad news?"

Gaara chucked him the rolled-up map that Temari had given him. "You have to change your plans. They're focusing on the exact route you wanted to take."

Lines spread over Naruto's face while he inspected the map. "Want. I'm still taking that route."

Gaara shook his head, exasperated with his friend's thick-headed demeanour. "This is just stupid. If you're not going to stay here, at least don't try to get caught on your way out."

Naruto shrugged his concerns off and Gaara was reminded of how childish his friend could be. No matter what he'd say, it'd be of no help. He was too mulish to get through.

"Just leave the country through its western borders. They've got no posts there. Our knowledge gives us a head start."

"And then what?" Naruto scoffed. "Keep on running until they catch up with me?"

His face froze up, and when he reluctantly met Gaara's stare again, his eyes was apologetic. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bitch at you."

"It's okay. We're both a little stressed."

Naruto nodded. "I want to get out through the sea route to get it over and done with. Once I've reached the next port, there's no way they can trace me any further."

Gaara decided not to press the issue any further and reached out the plastic bag that he'd brought with him. Naruto raised his brows in surprise when he pulled out a plain beige dress.

"Not bad. Not bad, at all, Gaara. I was afraid you'd come up with something garish but I should've known that you'd keep it subtle."

Gaara decided to forego discussing over his fashion choices. Instead, he sat down on a nearby chair and watched his friend pull out two pairs of shoes, a white blouse and a dark blue skirt out of the bag. Naruto sceptically pursed his lips as he inspected the last item. "A little short, but it'll do."

Without further ado, he created a shadow clone. "Get yourself ready," he ordered.

There was something seamless about how he went about all of this, as if he was all too practiced in this routine.

After checking that no one on the streets was paying attention to their hotel room, Naruto opened the window and took a box in. In it, lay tufts of dry, platinum-blonde hair.

"Is that a wig?"

Naruto nodded.

"Please don't tell me you've made that yourself." Because where would he get a wig from when Gaara had been his only connection to the outside world for the last weeks? He couldn't have had it before that, or else he'd worn it while travelling to Suna and wouldn't have bothered shaving his head bald.

Naruto's lips shifted into a lopsided grin. He beckoned the doppelganger to step closer and put the wig on.

"How did you do that?" Gaara asked, genuinely curious.

"I've kept my hair after I've shaved it off and-"

"You did what?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I've kept my hair. Wasn't the first time I needed it afterwards. Then I took some nude fabric and sewed every strand on, fixed some rubber around the edges and-"

He stopped his explanation when Gaara met his eyes with a dead-pan expression. "Why didn't you just tell me to buy a wig?"

He shrugged. "Those that are made out of real hair are hard to find. The fake ones got an artificial sheen on them and smell like plastic."

Gaara sighed and inspected the doppelganger. "It's a different colour," he noticed.

Naruto nodded. "That's what I put it outside for. If you lace the strands with lemon juice and let them wait in the open sun for some hours, it'll bleach the hair."

"You have much more knowledge on all of this than you should."

Naruto tipped his head to the side. "That's also what you got the coffee for."

"What do you mean?" Gaara remembered bringing over large amounts of instant coffee powder but he didn't see how that had anything to do with the wig.

Naruto grinned, grabbed his wrist and led him towards the lone desk in the room. A plastic box had been placed on it. In it lay- Gaara couldn't refrain from scrunching his nose up in disgust when he saw a mass of something drenched in what smelled like stale coffee. His friend pulled out the soggy mess and Gaara finally realized that it was another wig.

"This is a really bad idea," he said quietly.

Offended, Naruto spluttered, "It's not just an idea! I did this before and it works!"

"Maybe you should stop spending so much time alone if you're going to come up with something like this."

His friend rolled his eyes. "Stop nagging. I've told you, it works. If you keep the hair in the coffee for long enough, its colour changes into a light brown. Plus, it dissolves my scent and cloaks everything in a smell of coffee."

"I could've gotten you some hair dye, you know."

Naruto crossed his arms. "I know what I'm doing. The smell of ammonia that's in chemical hair dye would be too suspicious."

Gaara sighed and sat back onto the chair. He wanted to respect his friend's experience concerning these issues, but his ideas seemed too odd to confidently rely on them. "Tell me if you need my help."

Naruto shrugged, took the plastic box and went to the bathroom. Gaara could hear him dry the wet wig. When the boy returned to the main room, he had light-brown, straight hair that reached his chin. It didn't even look half-bad. Actually, it looked pretty good.

The heavy smell of coffee passed by when Naruto rushed to his doppelganger to inspect the haircut it'd given itself while its creator had been in the bathroom. "A little uneven but it'll do," he muttered critically, ran a hand through the shoulder-long tresses and brushed the bangs out of its face.

Gaara lost focus over the rest of the disguise process. All he knew is that by the end of it, the original Naruto had slipped into the beige dress and flat sandals, while the doppelganger had put on the blouse and the skirt. The heels that it wore made its legs appear even longer in the short skirt. Somehow, he didn't make the clothes look out of place. It was probably due to Naruto having a slight built and not being extremely tall. The fact that the garments were a number or two too big, helped.

"Did you shave your legs?"

"You gotta commit to the role," Naruto admitted. "You got the perfume?"

Gaara nodded and pulled the bottle that he'd wrapped into plastic out of his pocket. Naruto accepted it and checked the label. "Vanilla? Good choice."

He took a deep breath and looked around the room as if to remember what else to do. "Make-up," he said. "We should be almost finished then."

Gaara couldn't make out what he did after that. They were too many brushes, creams and powder palettes to keep track of. But by the end, he could tell that the doppelganger had rounder, bigger looking eyes with dolly lashes attached on them. Its nose was somehow pointier, its lips and cheeks in a matching pink.
The original's eyes were almond-shaped and slant. The cheekbones were prominent and the nose slimmer-looking than before, the lips a subtle peach.

"I see how you managed to escape Konoha's grasp for so many years," Gaara chuckled. "You're my best friend and I wouldn't recognize you on the street."

Naruto laughed. "I'm good, aren't I?" The laughing came to a sudden halt and the boy reached to his chest as if he had trouble breathing.

Gaara stood up. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah," he huffed. "It's just the corset. Still a bitch to get used to."

Gaara sighed. "I'm concerned," he admitted.

Naruto straightened himself up. "There's nothing else I can do." He threw a thick poncho that was supposed to hide the lack of breasts towards the doppelganger.

"You could remain here until the danger's passed over," Gaara pressed.

His friend shook his head vehemently. "I can't stay in this room for one day longer. There's no way I'm waiting this out like a rat they've chased into a corner. I gotta get out now."

"You're playing with fire," he warned.

"You know I've got a plan."

"One that might fail. Even if you send your doppelganger to cause some chaos, they'll try to find you through your scent."

Naruto furrowed his brows and grabbed the map that he'd laid aside. "I haven't seen Kakashi around the port," he remarked as he unwrapped it.

"You're on first-name-basis now?" Gaara asked, his tone unimpressed and curious at the same time.

Naruto raised a brow. "The guy's been chasing me through the world for ten years. If we're not on first-name-basis, I don't know what we are."

Gaara leaned back. "He never struck me as such a persistent man. Do you know what his motivations are?"

His friend shrugged as he inspected the map. "So who's the one doing the scent-searching if Kakashi's looking over Birds?"

"Kiba Inuzuka. He has a dog with him."

"Hm." He lay his head to the side. "Is he, by chance, a little gullible?"

"I don't know them that well. I wouldn't recommend getting close to anyone. But if you absolutely have to, Inuzuka and the girl are your best targets. Stay away from the rest, especially from Shikamaru Nara. He may not be the physically most proficient, but he will see through your cover. I'm suspecting that he's the one who's after this whole ordeal in the first place."

Naruto nodded, lost in his own thoughts. "Yeah, he's the one who started this all."

"But even if the dog-boy isn't the most intelligent member of the group, he's got the sensitive sense of smell that he'll sniff you out with. A coffee-wig and some vanilla-perfume aren't going to help with that."

"Relax," Naruto placated, "I've planned ahead."

He walked in front of the mirror and brushed some stray wrinkles out of his dress. "You noticed that I lost weight?"

"Is this another diversionary tactic?" Gaara countered sceptically.

"No. Just the result of my new diet. Raw food."

Gaara sighed. "I don't know what one thing has to do with the other, but continue."

"Body scent," Naruto explained, "is partly made up through your genes, but also determined through your lifestyle. What you put into yourself, you expel in some way or the other. I've only been eating fresh, plant-based foods in the past weeks. Vegetables, fruits, nuts. The diet flushes the toxins out of your body. Your smell changes."

The way Naruto explained it, it made sense, but neither of them had a particularly sensitive sense of smell to test that theory. Who knew whether this actually worked. "Have you tried this out before?"

"How do you think I've been keeping Kakashi's mutts off my tail?"

Gaara sighed. "So what's the plan?"

"The doppelganger and I are going to go to the port. Since my scent is diminished, they shouldn't be able to pick up on it. But the doppelganger's wig should still smell a little like me. While the clone attracts their attention and leads them away from the port, I'm going to get on the ferry."

It sounded simple. Gaara knew that it was anything but. "What will my role be?"

Naruto shook his head. "You've already done enough and I'm thankful for-"

"Since when do we thank each other, Naruto?" Because they weren't like that. They didn't help each other so that the other could owe them one. They weren't best friends because of some cheap level of debt. "You know that you can rely on me."

Naruto's face crumpled into a grimace. "I know it too well. That's what I'm afraid of," he confessed. "I don't want them to know that you're helping me."

Gaara shook his head and pressed his lips into a thin line. The thought of just standing on the sidelines was unbearable.

"Any more tension between Suna and Konoha, and this might go out of hand," Naruto reminded. But the Kazekage didn't need a reminder of the rocky political climate between the two hidden villages.

"At the first sign of trouble, I'll be there."

.

Naruto felt the sun prickle on his skin. It had been way too long since he'd been out in the open. He briefly debated buying some sunglasses, but hiding his face in such an apparent way would make him look suspicious at the port. Sweat ran down his back in steady drops. He could only hope that his face wouldn't start to sweat, too, or else his make-up would be ruined.

Finally, the woman he'd been waiting for passed the corner, in her arms a stack of files that she had to bring to the Kazekage. Naruto had seen her often enough to know that she was a secretary working in Gaara's office.

Naruto straightened himself up and passed the corner he'd been watching the streets from. A polite smile graced his face as he asked her for the way to the hospital. When she turned around to point into the appropriate direction, she didn't notice that Naruto slipped an envelope between her files.

He thanked her, bid his goodbyes, and picked his stride up. His eyes met those of his doppelganger's.

"You done?"

He took out the bottle of perfume and sprayed it on his neck. "Yeah."

.

The plan worked until it didn't. Eventually, not even Naruto had a back-up plan to fall back on. It was all Shikamaru Nara's fault.

At the beginning, everything was going fine. Only the sea wind was working against them, blowing his doppelganger's scent into the opposite direction from where the dog-guy was standing.

Naruto had checked up on the ninjas' positions. It wasn't hard to pick up on them when their headbands were gleaming under the searing sun. Also, he could tell a fighter when he saw one. Their tense stances and searching eyes told him that they were awaiting him.

His stare slipped to Shikamaru Nara. He looked just like the day he'd met him for the first time; a little more tired maybe. If it hadn't been for him, Naruto would probably still be mending swords at the forge in Kinzoku's smithy.

"We have to do something now," his doppelganger mumbled under his breath while acting interested in the cold drinks that a guy was trying to sell. "We can't wait until the wind works in our favour, or we'll miss the ferry."

Naruto understood the implication. Although he had counted on something like this to happen, he remained hesitant. "Confronting them is a risky move. If they catch you right away, they'll blow your cover and you won't be able to buy me enough time to get on the ship. Be careful."

The doppelganger brushed one hand over its skirt before it turned around to walk in the direction of the dog-boy. Naruto willed himself to take deep breaths and remain calm as it closed the distance to its target.

When it 'accidently' walked into the guy, they both fell to the ground and successfully managed to gather the other team members' attention. A flirty smile graced the clone's lips as it began to talk to the boy. Time seemed to slow down, the seconds trickling by like syrup while he waited for the glimmer of recognition to finally emerge in the guy's eyes.

He startled when instead, the sound of loud barking broke through the noise and a large dog lunged after his doppelganger's ankle. It'd been a close call and Naruto held his breath until the clone managed to get into safe distance.

The dog and his owner went after it first. Then the guy in green, the smoker, the girl and-

His hand formed a tight fist. Why wasn't Shikamaru leaving? The boy stood unmoving, his face set into a broody frown. Then he lifted his walkie-talkie up and said something that Naruto couldn't hear from the distance. When he looked up and searched through the crowd, Naruto was careful not to turn around too quickly and raise any suspicions. To be safe, he asked the merchant to sell him a bottle of orange juice he'd been pretending to look at for a while.

While passing through the crowd, he witnessed how the two men who'd left not a minute ago, returned to their original positions. The big dog joined them shortly later.

Naruto bit back the urge to curse. They, no, Shikamaru Nara had caught on to his plan. He was ready to strangle that guy.

There was no way he could risk going on that ship now. He was pretty confident in his disguise, but if he passed by, they'd get a much closer look at him. If he did one mistake, or Shikamaru Nara pulled another trick out of his ass, he'd be done. Especially the two older men would be impossible to escape from. He'd just seen with his own eyes how fast they were.

A change of plans was in order. Either he went to a town farther away from here and waited until they left their posts, or he chose a whole different route to escape with. He mulled it over.

Rivers and Rain, being right next to the Land of Fire, was out. That left Birds. But they had plenty of guards positioned up there, one of them being Kakashi. If there was one person who knew how to look through his disguise, it'd be him. He had as much experience chasing Naruto, as Naruto had fleeing from him.

He uncapped the bottle and drank some juice while slowly steering away from the port. He didn't want to wait in the inner part of the country and he couldn't escape through the nearby borders. That only left the borders that were more than a day of travel away.

If they caught him on his way, it'd be the end. Not only were some of them much faster than him, but they also came in bigger numbers. Naruto could only hold them off for so long.

But when had the odds ever worked in his favour before? Exactly. And he was still alive and free despite everything. Naruto would work with what he got, he always did.

He looked up. The last remains of sunlight would soon vanish. He had to hurry and use the impeding darkness while he still could. At this period, it'd be easier to move without catching anyone's attention.

In less than ten minutes, he'd left the port and was back in the desert. His feet sank into the ground and he couldn't understand why, after all these years, he still had so much difficulty moving in this terrain. These stupid, thin-strapped sandals certainly weren't helping the issue.

He cursed, pulled out a scroll and unsealed it. The dress, the damned corset and the sandals were discarded in favour of some simple pants, a shirt, a jacket and sturdy boots. After debating whether he should keep the wig on, he decided to take it off, too. Now that the feminine disguise was half-gone, there was no meaning in keeping it on. Besides, the smell of stale coffee was starting to make him nauseous. While he was at it, he decided to get rid of the make-up, too, until he, Naruto Uzumaki, was the only one left. No doppelganger, no disguise.

Mentally picturing the map he knew by hard, he debated where to go. He somehow had to reach the Land of Vegetables without being spotted by the guards who were looking over the nearby borders. The countries were right next to each other, so there was a considerable risk.

The route he had to walk was clear in his head. Naruto had passed through so many places, he'd long become an expert on several countries' geography.

However, this would've been so much easier if he'd just gotten on a ship. Now he had to trample through the sand for two days before he could even attempt to leave this land. Maybe he should pass through Suna on his way and check up on Gaara to let him know that he was okay.

It was a fast moving journey. In the past, he used to get lost in this place because the area only consisted of sand and even more sand and an occasional rock if he was lucky. But he'd learnt not to worry over his never-changing surroundings in order to focus on his end goal. He'd visited Gaara often enough to know his way to Suna.

In the course of the night, the mild wind and sparkly skies lulled him into sleepy drowsiness. The moon was only a thin sliver, barely giving any light to illuminate the void desert. There were no people, no animals, no plants and no buildings to distract him from the mind-numbing boredom.

He jumped in surprise when a loud, booming noise rang through the air and shook the ground underneath him. Naruto could feel the impact run from the sand into his body. An explosion.

After remaining still for some moments, trying to understand what just happened, he gathered his thoughts. It'd seemed like the blast had come from the direction of Suna. Maybe he should change his destination. If this was something that Konoha had orchestrated, it might be a trick to catch his attention and lure him into their hands.

But Gaara was in Suna. What if something was happening and he needed his help? Naruto wasn't a professional fighter. Most of what he knew, he'd learned on the street from other street urchins. Still, he'd rather die in a fight than leave his friend to struggle on his own. At the very least, he could serve as a distraction for the enemy and buy some time.

Just as he'd started to run again, another blast echoed through the air. But this time, Naruto kept on running confidently in the direction of Suna. The explosions kept up, one more volatile than the last as he gradually came closer to the hidden village.

He twitched when he felt the ground underneath him shift. However, it wasn't the impact, but some active force moving the sand away. There was only person who could that.

"Gaara."

Suddenly, he was glad that he hadn't been able to escape today. Something was definitely going on and his best friend was involved in it. Naruto had to help where he could.

Something white flashed through the sky. He squinted. It hadn't been star, it'd been far too big. Just as he was beginning to believe he'd imagined it, the big white mass emerged again and this time, Naruto managed to keep his gaze on it.

It was a giant bird. Weird, he'd never seen that sort of animal in the desert before.

He didn't have the chance to think about it for too long. A rush of sand rocketed from the ground and began chasing the bird through the air. Naruto searched the dunes, but Gaara wasn't anywhere to be seen. Only when he lifted his head up again, did he spot his friend standing on a platform of sand in the sky, his stance even more rigid as usual.

Naruto's gaze shifted back to the bird. It was hard to tell in the dark of the night, but it seemed like there was a figure sitting on the animal's back. The explosions had to be coming from them. There was a fight going on and Gaara hadn't won yet. Strange.

An age-old heat ignited inside him. It was the instinctual urge to jump into a fight without a care about the consequences. He'd always been impulsive and it'd gotten him into trouble many times before. Even now, at sixteen years old, he hadn't completely learnt how to keep his urges under control.

But no matter how much he recklessly wanted to, he could hardly reach a battle field in the sky. He didn't have any fancy jutsu or special abilities to help him out. Everything he'd ever been talented at, had been Fuinjutsu.

He didn't understand it. Although he'd harboured dislike for all ninjas ever since he left Konoha, he had tried to learn their practices just because they were an advantage to have when you're living a life on the run. He'd stolen scrolls and even asked people who'd once went to Academy for advice, but it'd been of no use. He'd failed at the most simplest exercises. The only things exempt from that, had been the Shadow Clone Jutsu and Fuinjutsu.

While clones were incredibly helpful, he could hardly use Fuinjutsu half of the time. There was too much planning, information gathering and preparing involved to use them spontaneously in combat. It simply wasn't his style and that's why he failed to grasp why he'd been such a natural at learning it.

Now, too, all that knowledge was of no help. So when he watched the bird's great wings sway in a clear attempt to prepare for another attack, he did something he hadn't done in a long time: call attention to himself.

"Hey, bastard!"

The bird changed its direction until it could fix its bead-like eyes on him. It looked more like a stuffed animal than a real, living being.

"Yeah, you! Come down, you coward!"

Faint laughter filled the air. "I've got no clay to waste on you, kid," shouted the man riding the bird.

"Naruto!"

Gaara's serene composure was broken, his eyes widened in pure shock. The sand platform collapsed in itself and he slid it down until he stood by Naruto's side while trying to keep track of the bird that continued on swerving above them.

"What are you doing here?"

Naruto shrugged. "The plan failed," he admitted.

"You've got caught?"

"No. I just couldn't distract them for long enough to get on the ship. They've never even seen me."

Gaara relaxed slightly.

"What about you? What's going on here? Who's the guy on the bird?"

His friend focused all his attention back on his opponent. "I don't know," he answered, his tone a little frustrated. "I wanted to check whether you're doing okay. On my way to the port, I've encountered them. They seem to have been looking for me."

Naruto continued on searching the sky. "They?"

"The other one's on the ground. You can't see him from this distance in the dark. He hasn't done anything until now, but his partner has been causing me enough problems. Fortunately, I've met them before they could enter the village. At least, Suna isn't at risk of being harmed."

They cautiously watched the bird decline and land on the ground to allow the man dismount it. While he slowly approached them, Naruto could distinguish another person walking next to him.

"Naruto, you have to go. I will hold them off in the meantime."

"You better not be serious," he growled.

Anybody else wouldn't have spotted a change in Gaara's demeanour, but Naruto could see the worry in his friend's eyes. "I know that you don't want to leave, but there's nothing you can do. I have to concentrate on fighting them."

And although Gaara hadn't meant it that way, Naruto had understood him too well. At this moment, he was nothing but a burden. He was good at evading his enemies, not fighting them. Especially not against ones who could last in a fight against Gaara. Still, he couldn't turn around and leave.

"I've got my seals."

"They don't help you in a battle if you didn't already have the time to prepare a specific seal for a specific opponent," Gaara dismissed.

"Those unhelpful things almost rotted your arm off. I wouldn't underestimate them if I were you."

"That was pure luck."

"Are we honestly going to discuss that now?"

A thunderous boom went off right next to his ear. Naruto spitted the sand out that had protected them from another explosion.

"Be careful," Gaara grumbled. "The blonde's the one who's been causing all these explosions. He builds bombs out of clay figures."

Naruto nodded and turned back to their opponents. Now that they'd come closer, he could see that the man walking next to the young, blonde boy was a short, crookbacked man. They were both cloaked in dark robes with red clouds on them.

The boy lifted his hand and adjusted his eye-scope that his long hair had been hiding. He laughed loud enough for them all to hear.

"You were right, Master Sasori! That really is the brat that Itachi and Kisame have been searching for. I can't wait to see their faces when we arrive at the hideout with two jinchuuriki in tow, yeah!"

Naruto knitted his brows. "What are you talking about?" When he looked at Gaara, his friend's face was stiff and unreadable.

"No need to look around, yeah. I was referring to you, Kyuubi brat."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Has one of those explosions messed up a few screws in your head?"

The boy sent his hunchbacked partner a nasty glare when the man let out an almost silent chuckle and said, "I like him."

The boy scoffed. "I'm going to deal with the fox on my own. Keep the Kazekage off my back, Master Sasori."

His partner had barely grunted when an explosion went off right beside Gaara and Naruto. Before they had a chance to recover, another chain of explosions followed. Gaara's sand was the only barrier that shielded them from the impact. Without resting itself back to the ground, it rushed after the boy who'd jumped on his bird's back again.

Naruto huffed. This guy wanted an explosion? He could have one. He grabbed a scroll from the inside of his jacket and unsealed the stored knives that he'd forged himself while he'd been working in the smithy.

When the bird descended, he took aim and stroke out. A brief sense of satisfaction filled him as a chain of boisterous, cracking sounds rang through his ears and the sky was filled with fire and smoke. It vanished when the bird emerged out of the fumes, its owner on its back. The cloak was dirtied, the hair in disarray, but otherwise, the boy seemed to be doing fine.

A grin was plastered on his face as he said, "Alright, that was a sneaky trick. I didn't expect any seals to be engraved into the steel. I can always respect a person who likes a nice explosion." He laughed and jumped off the bird's back. The knives that'd just been aimed at his direction were held between his fingers. "Not so shoddy, yeah. Maybe I'll keep them, for times like these when I'm low on clay."

"You do that," Naruto quipped and let the knives explode again. The seals would work until an explosion would crack the engravings. But when the smoke cleared, there was only a mass of clay to be seen. A doppelganger.

He felt the skin on the back of his hand tingle. His breath hitched when he spotted a white spider climbing up his arm. Another explosion went off and this time, Naruto wasn't able to escape it. Although he'd shaken the spider off, he hadn't managed to get himself into safe distance.

He used the initial few seconds after the explosion to get out of the smoke cloud. He needed a clear field of vision. As he coughed, the numbness that'd allowed him to move so quickly died down, and introduced the pain of burned and shredded flesh to him.

He checked himself, just to be sure, and was relieved to confirm that all limbs were still at their place. The arm the spider had been crawling on was bleeding, though. The skin coating it had been blazed off, leaving only the pink, vulnerable flesh behind. It was gross but Naruto was used to seeing his injuries. He stood up and shifted his weight onto his left leg and gasped silently. It might be sprained.
When he lifted his hand to check why the hell his scalp was burning so badly, he realized that almost half of his hair had been hinged off.

"Naruto!" He felt Gaara's gourd press against his back.

"I'm alright," he answered without bothering to turn around. He had to focus on his battle.

"You're injured," his friend persisted.

"Nothing I haven't experienced before."

A surge of wind blew through the desert, cleared the last remains of smoke, and revealed the boy who'd caused this whole mess.

"You've got quick reflexes, yeah." Naruto tensely watched him put his hands into the bag that was strapped around his waist. "I gotta ask, though - Why don't you just use the power of the bijuu? Your friend's doing it, too."

Naruto scoffed. "You honestly think I'm a jinchuuriki?"

The boy knitted his brows and turned towards his partner who- wait, who was that guy? The old, hunchbacked man was gone. In his place, stood a young, red-haired boy in the same cloak. "The man from before was a puppet," Gaara mumbled. "This is the actual him."

"Hey, Master Sasori! You sure that's him, right?"

"I've told you, Deidara. Don't make me repeat myself."

Blue eyes met each other again. "You heard it, yeah."

"It's not your job to discuss with them," said his partner, his voice managing to sound venomous although it was oddly monotone. "I don't want to be late, so hurry up."

Deidara rolled his eyes. "We'll be returning with two jinchuuriki, he'll understand. Besides, this is entertaining."

Confusedly, Naruto interjected, "You think I wouldn't notice if there was a chakra monster living inside of me? I'm not a jinchuuriki."

The smirk didn't slip from Deidara's lips. "You sure? Hey, how about you ask your friend? He looks a little paler than usual, hm?"

Naruto spared Gaara a short glance. To his surprise, his friend really did seem a little uneasy. "What is he talking about, Gaara?"

"I'm not entirely sure," he answered lowly.

"What do you mean, entirely?" Naruto questioned. He shook his head. This was ridiculous. But why was Gaara acting so strangely?

"This is not the right time to argue."

"Yeah, I agree. The right time would've been right after you'd found something out. You did find something out, right?"

"The notion has crossed my mind," his friend admitted.

"You have got to be kidding me. This is a joke, right?"

"Like I said, I didn't know anything for sure," Gaara answered, his voice unusually meek. "Shukaku's told me, but you know that he's a rotten liar."

It was absurd. Of course, it was false. Shukaku had helped to push Gaara to the brink of insanity with his lies, they'd be stupid to trust a word he says. None of these allegations made sense.

Didn't they?

Naruto remembered Konoha. People whispering behind his back with hate and fear filled eyes. The similarities between his and Gaara's past. The present – Konoha's refusal to let go of him.

Bullshit. If there was a bijuu residing inside of him, there would be a seal maintaining the cage. He would've noticed if there had been a seal on him. Naruto may not be exceptionally talented, but he knew his way around Fuuinjutsu.

Deidara laughed loudly and even Sasori's marble face expressed amusement. "This is comedy gold!"

Before Naruto could question his friend any further, a puppet came to life and shot forward. But before it could reach either of them, the sand swallowed it up and tore it apart. Deidara snickered. "The Kazekage's making your dolls look pretty old, Master Sasori. I'd suggest an explosion."

"You're talking although all you've managed to do is give that clueless weakling a new haircut?"

Deidara scoffed and put both hands into his bag. "Whatever. Let's finish this, yeah."

Naruto produced five doppelgangers, flipped out two short, thin-bladed tantos, one hand holding each, and focused on his opponent. He didn't only use weapons to attach seals on, after all. He liked these tantos, they were handy and, with a little practice, felt more like an extension of himself than anything else.

Nonetheless, they'd be of no use if he didn't come close to his opponent. Deidara could evade his explosives, but his own clay explosives were much more difficult to escape from since they could actually move on their own regard. If he wanted to win this, he had to be quick and catch him off-guard.

Deidara stretched his arms out, his palms facing flat forwards. With grotesque fascination, Naruto watched tongues slither out of the mouths inside his hands. The mouths opened wide and spurted clay out. At first, Naruto thought that Deidara had messed something up because the white mass only lied limply on the ground. But soon, the clay built itself up until it formed a vaguely humanoid figure.

"Let me show you what art is!"

The figure wobbled forwards, but Naruto sidestepped it and sliced it with his tantos horizontally where an actual human being's gut would've been. The clay parted into two separate masses and splattered onto the ground. It didn't remain there, though. Just after a few seconds, it rebuild itself, this time into two figures, and attacked him again, only to be held off by his doppelgangers. Again, the clay parted, formed itself up, and multiplied his opponents.

If this guy wanted to fight with numbers, Naruto could recuperate. A few hundred doppelgangers appeared with a single hand seal.

Deidara smirked. One of the clay figures went off, caused a mid-sized explosion, and took half of his doppelgangers with it. The guy was playing with him.

And Naruto wasn't making much progress. If he wanted to end this fight, he had to take care of the source of the problem and destroy those freaky mouths.

He spared a short glance to Gaara who was still busy fighting the red-head coordinating a puppet. No, he had to develop a plan without involving his friend in it.

Something quick and foolproof to get rid of those arms. He chuckled. Alright.

He surged forward with five other doppelgangers, evaded the clay figures, not even bothering to get involved in a fight with them. There was only one target. They gradually closed distance when another boisterous explosion shook the sand underneath his feet off and threw him up into the air.

He might've lost consciousness for a few seconds, he wasn't sure. When he opened his eyes, he was lying on his back, his vision a little blurry. He wiggled his toes, twitched with his fingers. Good, everything was where it belonged. The bastard must've hid a bomb underneath the ground.

He groaned as he watched Deidara approach with light steps. The feet halted next to his head and when he looked up, the boy wore a playful smile on his lips. He lifted his foot and pressed it against Naruto's head, shifting some of his weight onto his skull. Naruto could feel the blood-clotted sand grind against his raw skin.

"You finally done?" Deidara mocked. "You're lucky I'm not here to kill you or this would've been over long ago."

Naruto coughed, watched the blood splatter from his mouth against the shoe sole, and drip back onto his face. He tried to speak, but he couldn't gather enough air in his lungs to do even that. It took him a few attempts until he managed to croak, "You needed me alive?" He chuckled. "Well, that backfired."

Hurriedly, the foot was lifted off his forehead. For a second, he came close to blacking out, but when his vision cleared, he saw Deidara crouch down with a worried expression on his face.

"Shit! Don't die on me yet, you little brat! I'll be in one hell of a trouble if you kick the bucket, yeah!"

Two fingers were pressed against his neck, checking his pulse. The sleeve slid up, revealing the skinny wrist underneath. With one flick of his arm, Naruto grabbed it and activated the seal.

He barely had the chance to turn around and pull his arm away before the explosion went off.

Smoke filled the air. Naruto could smell its bitter tint mixed with the foul stench of burning flesh. Was it his flesh? He couldn't tell, his body was oddly numb.

He had to get out of here. When he opened his eyes to gather his surroundings, they burned so much that they teared up. He forced them to remain open but there was only gray smoke enveloping him and clouding his vision. The ringing in his ears robbed him of all sense of direction he might've had.

He pressed himself against the ground. His sense of touch was all he had left. While he forced himself to turn on his stomach and stem himself up, the pangs gradually returned. Gripping the hot sand with his hands, he compelled himself to crawl forward.

Although he couldn't have progressed for more than a few feet, fatigue soon made him collapse. He coughed and the metallic taste on the back of his throat told him that he was still hacking blood out. Gritting his teeth, he stretched his arms out, buried his fingers in the sand and pulled himself forward, his chest and stomach dragging against the heated ground.

Eventually, the numbness dissipated entirely and made room for an all consuming wave of pain that multiplied with every passing second. It was torture and if Naruto hadn't had the experience from accidently blowing himself up while practising his seals before, he might've gone crazy.

Suddenly, blissfully cool hands grabbed his wrists and pulled him out of the fumes. Never had oxygen been so delicious before.

When he could finally use his eyes again, he saw Gaara concernedly checking his injuries. Naruto followed his gaze. His clothes were destroyed almost completely and gave access to the burned, bleeding flesh underneath. His right ankle and wrist looked misshapen, probably broken. His back felt as if had been flayed.

"I'll live."

"We have to get medical attention," Gaara said lowly. Naruto could see the pure fear in his eyes.

"I'm okay."

"No, you aren't."

Naruto ignored him. "Is the puppeteer finished?" Aside from looking distraught, his friend didn't seem to be in a bad shape.

"Yes, he's dead. What happened?"

Naruto wanted to shrug but he could only flinch when he tried to move his shoulders. Clavicle was probably broken, too. "We have to get rid of those mouths in his palms. I wanted to fix an explosion tag and blow his arm off, but I couldn't get close."

Gaara stiffened up. "Naruto." He took a deep breath. "What did you do?"

"He played dead and blew himself up along with me."

Slowly, the smoke dissipated into the night air, leaving Deidara standing in the ditch that the impact had dug. With squeamish satisfaction, Naruto watched blood trickle down from the stump where once his hand had been.

Deidara laughed. "You've got an understanding for the fine arts, fox. I'd like to have met you under different circumstances." He smiled. "Don't worry. After we're done with you, I will honour your last moments with an explosion. It's a pity you won't be able to watch yourself implode, but it will beautiful, I promise. I will make you into a piece of art."

"Enough," Gaara grinded out and with a start, the sand shot up and attempted to swallow Deidara up.

The clay bird that'd been waiting patiently for its master's command flew by and caught Deidara who'd jumped up to evade the sand. Only the undamaged arm was caught in Gaara's attack and squashed up until the blood painted the sand red.

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. "Unless he pulls another trick out of his ass, we should be good."

"That doesn't seem too unlikely," Gaara commented cautiously.

They watched the bird fly high only to turn around and steer towards them. "What is he doing?" Naruto worried.

Gaara didn't answer and used the sand to build up a thick protection wall between them and the bird. There was silence. Naruto noticed that they couldn't even hear the birds' wings slap against the wind anymore. It was eerie, especially after the series of noisy explosions that'd just occurred.

Gaara's looked as uneasy as Naruto was feeling. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, a shiver ran down his spine. An innate instinct told him that something was about to happen.

He didn't even catch white spiders digging their way through the sand. The last thing he saw was Gaara shoving him backwards, away from the wall. Then, there was darkness.

When he woke up, he was in a sewer.

.

A/N: Lmao where'd we start, where'd we end up? I know I let you wait but hey, I came back with 8k words!

So how did you like it? I was getting real Gaara/Naruto bromance feels, you guys.
By the way, just want to assure that I didn't pull Naruto's disguise techniques completely out of my ass. Bleaching with lemon juice/dyeing with coffee/changing body odour really works.
However, I was really struggling with the action scenes. I can't write an engaging fight to save my life but I feel like this honestly might be my best attempt at it (yeah, the rest of my fight scenes are even worse trash). Anyway, if you got any suggestions on how to do it better, they're very welcome!

Let me know what you thought about this chapter! The next one's going to introduce us to someone the last sentence has hinted towards. Hope you're looking forward to it :D

Thanks for reading!