Never Forget

Gaara's Return

I may or may not have forgotten that I had 99% of this chapter written already... so guys, for those of you who are still following this story, let me take a moment to express my deepest apologies for my absolutely horrid updating schedule. Actually, scratch that; there is no schedule at all.

I'm a sophomore in high school (meaning that I'm 15) and like a lot of you guys, I recently started school, around a month ago. The work load and the new schedule hit me like BAM and I literally have not written anything at all for around two weeks, much less get around to updating any of my fanfics. 

I hope you understand, and I know everyone uses this school excuse but it's true >.< I also have a TON of piano practice every day, along with competitive soccer, flute, marching band, and jazz. 

Anyway, now that HOPEFULLY more of you understand why I'm so horrid about updating, here's the new chapter! Hope you enjoy ^^

- Karina

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Chapter 5

                I was glad to see that the rest of my team were mostly unharmed, save for Sakura, who had the most cuts and bruises. Gaara had been revived by Granny Chiyo – something that I kind of wished I was there to see – and they welcomed me back with open arms.

                Literally.

                I found them near the entrance to the village, where it looked like the whole of Suna was gathered, and watched Gaara sit up and Naruto hug him. I leapt down from the tree I’d been balancing in, and landed right beside them. In a flash, Naruto had hugged me so tight that I couldn’t breathe, and I had to push him off me.

                “You’re back!” he cheered. “Hey, hey, Kira-sensei! Did you see what happened? I was so awesome during that fight – “

                “Good job,” I cut in before he could say any more. I turned to Gaara, who had been watching our exchange and said quietly, “We’ll need to warn the other villages.”

                “Yes,” he agreed, before trying to get up and failing. Biting back a small smile, I stepped forward and hooked one of his arms around my shoulders, to his protests, while Naruto hurriedly grabbed his other arm. Together, we walked him back to his office, the huge crowd trailing behind us.

                Some of the Jonin and Chunin remained at the base of the tower to stop others from coming in, and so it remained Konoha’s two teams along with the higher-ranking Sunagakure shinobi. With Gaara comfortably situated behind his desk, as per his request, he turned to me.

                Not Kakashi, I noticed, but me.

                “Where did you go?”

                The question caught me off-guard, before I realized that he must’ve noticed my absence when he had first woken up. As I thought about how to answer, Naruto cut in, “Yeah, Kira-sensei! You didn’t even see me fight!”

                Sakura, who had been strangely quiet so far, managed a small smile. “I can’t believe you actually left,” she said quietly. “You’re usually the one who refuses to let anyone else do things for you.”

                I laughed. “That’s true,” I said, before sobering up quickly. “Iwagakure was in a spot of trouble. Lady Tsunade ordered me to attend to them first.”