Naruto: A Different Life

Chapter 14: A Really Cool Way to Exit a Building

"Can I go now?" Naruto asked Kat who was preparing to make lunch.

"No."

"Why not? I go out into the village all the time."

"Because I am about to make lunch."

"So?" Naruto said with a frown.

"So you can suck it up and deal with it and go out after lunch."

"But Kat, then you will have some other reason to keep me here today."

"And?"

"And you just don't want to do your chores by yourself."

"...Maybe"

"Please! I will be back before lunch and help you out afterwards. Please!"

"Fine," Kat finally relented with a roll of her eyes.

"Lunch is at one-thirty. If you are late I will not save you any."

"Kay, bye!"

"Don't forget that Kakashi is doing some unknown-but-apparently-important-stuff today and will be back late." Kat called as Naruto ran out of the door and out to the market to explore again. While running thoughts of a certain redhead popped into to his mind.

It has been forever since Naruto had seen Gaara anywhere in the Sand Village so he decided that he would speak to the redhead the first chance he got. Every day time he left the house, with or without an escort, he'd roamed his eyes over the crowd searching. After about three weeks into his stay in the Sand he picked up a flash of red hair.

Naruto ducked past a few villagers and confirmed that it was indeed Gaara making his way down the street, where everyone practically leapt away from the oncoming child. After hearing about some of Gaara's attacks, the blond decided to follow the redhead and see what his destination was.

It wasn't long before Naruto realized exactly where they were going. The park. Thankfully the place was empty since it was around lunch time, so they will get it all to themselves. Suddenly Gaara stopped and spun around and saw his stalker.

"What do you think you are doing following me? Do you have a death wish?" The redhead asked quietly with no emotion.

Crap! I don't know what to do know! I wanted to approach him, not have him see me following him! Calm down Naruto, at least you have an opening to talk now.

"Hi! My name is Naruto Uzamaki. I saw you in the park a few weeks ago and really wanted to talk to you." He replied cheerily.

"Why would you want to talk to me? And more importantly; why would I want to talk to you?" Gaara spoke with some venom coating his words. His teal eyes locked onto Naruto's blue with a small amount of something like anger and something else; loneliness?

"Well you see..." Naruto trailed off unsure of how to phrase what he was wanting to say. "I wanted to talk to you since, well to be blunt about it, you know the same pain that I did in my old village." He almost twitched with nervousness waiting for the reply which soon followed.

"Doubtful. We are nothing alike. Leave me alone or I will not hesitate to kill you." Gaara said coldly, glaring at the nervous blond. Sand swirled at his feet and made its way to its new target.