Naruto: Reunion - Discontinued

27) Gaara...

After a seemingly endless and tiresome journey across the country, the team had finally made it across to the Village Hidden In The Sand. In their first step into the entrance, Yamato took a quick look around the area.

Everything was unusual. It did not seem to be hostile, however with the disappearance of the Kazekage, this meant that everybody would lead on with suspicion upon the sight of Leaf Shinobi. Due to the imbalance of trust and the reconstructing of the bonds between the two powers, it was up to the Leaf Shinobi to try to fix the lost fragments of a once friendly relationship.

Yamato turned back towards his pack of Genin and spoke to them in an official tone, so as to sound imposing. Once they heard his orders, they quickly took notice.

"We should be careful about what we do here. I'm going to go ahead and talk to the officials about the situation in this village. Depending on how that goes, we can proceed in our actual mission, just as planned. You four are free to wander, but don't cause any trouble for me."

"Roger!"

After Yamato had left, the main team looked at one another in confusion. Here they were, in a village they had never been in before, with seemingly no direction of what to do, and where it could be done. It was at this point, that the tension of the group had begun to increase in a state of awkwardness.

"I'm bored." Naruto yawned.

"Blunt as ever." Sasuke sighed. "Naruto is right though. We have almost zero reason for being here, aside from giving the sand boy a visit."

"Speaking of Gaara, where is he?"

At this question, suddenly the team felt a sense of purpose. Upon staring at eachother with intent, they smirked and looked at eachother with satisfaction. At this nod of enthusiasm, the group began leading the way togethor in hopes of finding their old friend, whom they had met in the Chúnin exams

"Um... I can use my Byakugan to find Gaara." Hinata had finally spoke after a few hours of searching.

"What's the fun in that? Wouldn't it serve as good training if we have a handicap?" Naruto smiled towards her, but Sakura simply sighed.

"You say that, but in reality it's obvious that we're not using the Byakugan, just so we can kill more time in finding him."

"What's the issue with that?"

"Nothing. I think it's fairly valid." After saying this, Sakura went back tilting her head around to scan the area. "But we're gonna need to go by some hints at least. This is starting to get boring."

The others simply agreed with her statement with a nod. "Judging by what we knew if him from back in the exams, it'd be natural to assume that there must be some people in this village who know of him."

Sasuke decided to walk on ahead of the group. After tapping the shoulder of an older adult in front of him, he decided to use this person to discern their friend's location.

"Excuse me. I'm looking for a man named Gaara. He has red hair and carries around a large container of sand around his back." The man scoffed at Sasuke and pretended to ignore him. "Knowing his origins, I believe you may know of him?"

It was at this point, that the group behind Sasuke had managed to get caught up with him. In noticing that Sasuke had Shinobi from the Leaf Village behind him, the man eyed the group with hostility. It took some time, but eventually, the man spoke in an ignorant tone.

"What of him?" His voice sounded almost furious. It was obvious that a grudge was held against the boy they were looking for.

"You heard me earlier," Sasuke was now at a point of annoyance with the man's attitude. "I asked you if you've seen Gaara. Me and my friends have been spending a long time looking for him."

It was this alone, that an angry face had appeared across Sasuke. In a quick motion, Sakura touched Sasuke's shoulder to send him back to his normal calm state. Once he had regained his senses, they looked back at the man. He began laughing. In noticing that Sasuke had indeed felt true anger towards him, he found it extremely amusing for Sasuke to want to look for such a beast. It had grown to a point, where now passerbys were stopping just to witness what was going on.

"Is this you pulling my leg? If you Leaf have no business, other then to see a monster, then you may as well have never even tried." He calmed himself from his state of dark joy. "The boy's a lost cause. It seems that his friends have the same temper as he does!"

Naruto, who had been watching the scene with rage, was turning eager to take action. As he watched this man begin to laugh again, his blood boiled at the foul sight of this man. It seemed unprecedented for such a corrupt man to live, but he knew how Gaara had lived his life before he had met him. Even so, he could still feel rage for the ignorance of this man. He took out his fists and was about to swing them - but Sasuke had done that for him.

The man fell straight onto the ground and squealed in pain. Noticing that this was no longer any of their business, the people watching began to quickly scurry about, so as not to get into trouble with any of the officials.

"Hey, what gives?"

"To explain something to trivial to you, will only end up wasting the time I have left in my life!" Sasuke eyed him with anger. "Naruto, Sakura, Hinata; let's go."

In an instant, Naruto's rage had quelled itself, and he followed his friends. Upon looking back at the man whom they had just injured, he realized the level of Sasuke's anger. It then only hit him, that Yamato had specifically warned them to not cause a scene. In thinking back to this, he felt an immediate feeling of fear emanate from his mind.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Sakura looked at him.

"Uh, nothing." He swiped her worry off so as not to worry her. "It's better you don't know. We are so dead after this..."

The group searched a little longer in the village. Finally, after a few hours, they leaned onto the powers of Hinata's Byakugan to do their work. Hinata complied with their wishes, and activated her all-seeing eye. Once this was done, they managed to find Gaara, treating his comrades to ramen. After working out his location, the group walked towards his whereabouts. Finally, they were going to see Gaara again.