Home Is Where The Heart Is || Naruto Fanfic

Chapter Nine

Three days later, Gaara and Naruko had arrived at Iwagakure. The two remained hidden and out of sight due to Gaara not having any registration to show to the guards (once again) of a main shinobi village.. 

"Either we both sneak in, or I do something that could potentially hurt you." 

"'Hurt me' how?" 

"Well it could make you disoriented for a day or two and ill, since you're not used to it." 

"Do it." Naruko looked at Gaara for a moment, then nodded. She wrote something down on a small piece of paper and handed it to the redhead. She sat him down, then began to slowly transport him into the seal.

"'I'm not sending him to you, please send him back'?" Gaara read out slowly, an unimpressed look being directed at Naruko, who laughed. "What am I, a dog?" 

"No, that's just in case Sasuke thinks you're a letter or something and takes you out of the seal. Make sure not to drop it, Gaara." He sighed softly, then looked down at his lower half when he felt it becoming numb. "Oh, yeah. You'll feel your body go numb and cold for a while. Make sure to take a deep breath - there's no oxygen in there." 

"What?" Gaara asked in sudden alarm, then felt his whole body go numb and quickly took a deep breath.

The sudden cold that nipped at his skin nearly made him gasp involuntarily. He curled up into a ball, rubbing his hands to stay warm. He tried using his sand, but his chakra wouldn't activate, and that meant he couldn't make the sand move. His head felt fuzzy and his whole body began to ache. His lungs started to burn and he involuntarily let out the oxygen in him. The sudden lack of air made his body hurt and burn even more, the air around him seeming to squeeze him. It was hard to move and if he did, it caused immense pain due to the feeling of being squeezed and, just when it felt like he was about to be squished into a human pancake, warmth returned to him. Warm, soft hands rested on his chest lightly. Gaara groaned in pain, finding himself not able to move and his ears popping and ringing, his body felt like lead and he couldn't even open his eyes or breathe properly. 

Naruko's worried gaze looked over Gaara as she felt his heartbeat - it was a little slow but drummed heavily against her hands. The girl's hands lit up green and a bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face as she concentrated heavily on not making her immense chakra reserves go out of whack and accidentally hurt him instead of help him. Please... She thought, biting her bottom lip nervously. Once she saw Gaara reflexively take in a deep breath and then breathe normally, a sigh of relief escaped her. Oh, thank Kami! 

"You should probably check if he's completely okay."

Right. What do I do, again? 

"Think back to when that Sakura girl explained it to you." 

"Thanks for the help." Naruko said sarcastically, closing her eyes, trying to remember the crash course that Sakura had given her when the mostly-blonde had nearly given someone a concussion as a kid, which was a story for a different day. "Gaara, I'm gonna make sure you're completely okay." Naruko spoke softly to the boy, who simply exhaled slightly heavier in confirmation. Moving her tanned hand upwards, she felt his forehead and moved it away when she felt no temperature difference. She brought her other hand up to one of his cheeks and moved her thumbs to above and under his eyelids, opening them until they revealed the black pupils in the centre of Gaara's sea-foam green eyes. The pupils shrunk a little from the light, but were still slightly dilated from the pressure within the seal. Checking the rest of him, Naruko moved Gaara so that his head lay on the pillow of the bed and he wasn't in an odd position. "Is this okay?" The ten year-old girl asked softly to the ten year-old boy, who exhaled in affirmation. "Just make your chakra spike if you need anything." She took his hand and gently squeezed it, then left from the bed to return to her bag.