Try, Try Again ((NarutoXGaara fanfic))

Chapter 2 (Revised)

Disclaimer: I am NOT Kishimoto! I don't own Naruto.

The redheaded boy's leg had given out a long while ago, the long dried tears crusting over from the waves of heat radiating from the dunes of sand that surround him. Having passed out from exhaustion, the boy had no idea of where he was or where he was headed. Hearing the chirping of birds foreign to his land, Gaara lifts himself up to his hands and knees, groaning in exhaustion but dead set on pressing forward, away from any pursuers that may be on his trail as a result of his status as the Kazekage's jinjuriki. Slowly rising to stand, he sways unsteadily, then sets off in a direction away from the fading footprints on the horizon. Thankfully the wind would wipe the dunes clean soon, leaving no trace of the small male behind. After many mind-numbing hours of trudging through the ever shifting sand, the feeling of stable, hard packed earthen road makes him stumble and almost fall. Peeling his eyes open, he blinks wearily once... twice... a third time, before comprehending the fact that the terrain had changed. It was unfamiliar to him. Green, springy substances sprouted from the hard packed earthen road, and, in the distance, huge brown limbs sprung up from the ground, a canopy of green at their peaks. Padding forward slowly, he stays lost in his own little world until his ears pick up a familiar sound. Running water. His legs rush forward, almost too fast for his feet to catch up as he scampers quickly towards the sound. Soon enough, at the edge of the huge brown and green growths, he finds himself at a clear spring and he kneels down to eagerly drink the seemingly heaven-sent liquid. As it rolls down his dusty throat and fills his empty belly, he whimpers faintly in pleasure.

About half a day's walk away from where the redhead was satisfying his thirst, a small blond headed boy had collapsed onto the forest floor, exhaustion making his vision swim before him. The boy, Naruto, leans back against a tree, trying hard to catch his breath. Right about now, the young boy would likely give anything for a bowl of his favorite ramen. Staring out at the maze of brown and green, he tries to steady his racing heartbeat and focus his blurring vision as he rests. Once he felt rested enough, and calmer, the Konoha boy stands on worn legs and begins to weave his way through the trees, searching for a good place to hide till morning. Nearing the edge of the forest, the small blond decides to climb up into a nearby tree to have a better viewpoint of where he might be able to hide for the night. Seeing the plains to the side, and the denser trees in the opposite direction, he quietly decides that the denser trees would be the better hiding place. Spying an exotic splash of red near the spring that cuts between the forest and plains beside it, Naruto leaps into the next tree, then the next. Leaping like a monkey, from tree to tree, the boy from Konoha heads towards the odd patch of color. Suddenly losing his footing and slipping from the tree, falling and slamming into the spring with enough force to render him unconcious in front of the afor mentioned blotch of color. Just as his vision fades to black, the blond realizes that the blotch of color is actually a small boy, just about his age, scared to death and shaking like a leaf.