Chapter 13 : Unexpected(4)

The next morning Naruto was stood outside the steel door with a satisfied expression on his face as he took note of the undamaged door. Letting out a sigh of relief he took a step towards the door and knocked three times. After waiting for 2 minutes he got a reply in the form of three knocks.

Smiling to himself Naruto quickly unlocked all the doors and swung it open to find Gaara, actually smiling at him. It was surprising just how much difference one night of sleep made, his skin looked a few shades healthier with a bit of colure in his cheeks, the rings around his eyes had faded slightly and his face looked less stiff. The fact that he was openly smiling at him surprised Naruto.

"I take it you slept well?"

"Indeed"

"Good"

Without another word Naruto made his way to the kitchen to make them both breakfast, the smile on his face never leaving his lips.

XXX

That night Naruto and Gaara were making their way down the street to the Pizza Corner. The sun was just starting to get low in the sky and they could already hear the music from the party echoing around the almost empty streets.

Naruto was dressed in a long sleeved red t-shirt with a white shirt over the top left unbuttoned, dark blue jeans and his usual fingerless gloves and bucket hat. Under his left arm was a tube shaped object wrapped in green paper with the words 'Happy Birthday' printed all over it and in his other hand was a box that stretched to about 7 feet long but only a few inches wide wrapped in the same paper.

Despite Naruto's best efforts to change his mind Gaara had refused to change, not feeling comfortable without the thick leather coat he used to hide his sand, and had decided to go to the party in his normal clothes.

Thinking back to the red headed teen's reaction when he had explained what a party was brought a smile to Naruto's face, his friend never having heard of a party before and shocked that someone would actually invite him to one.

As they turned a corner the Pizza Corner that Cyborg had told him about came into view, a quaint two story building with a small balcony on the second floor and a patio with several tables set up on the outside. They could see all the other teens that had been invited to the party, along with what Naruto was sure were a few that weren't, through the windows and could see most of them were dancing to the loud music.

They had no trouble getting in, though they did have a little problem getting through the crowd, and started to look for any sign of the Titans in the mass of moving bodies. Gaara had been drawing a lot of attention because his odd chose of clothing but nobody really cared, having too much fun to worry about one strange boy. Between the loud music, flashing multicoloured lights and dancing teens all around them it took the two ex-ninja half an hour before they were able to find Cyborg, and they were only able to find him because of his size and the fact he had burped louder then the music.

"Hey Tin-san, I see your enjoying yourself"

"Naruto, hey man how you been, not seen you for a while"

"Not bad, let me introduce my friend, Cyborg-san, Gaara, Gaara, Cyborg-san."

"So your the one Terra wouldn't stop talking about, nice to meet you"

The only reply he got was a small nod.

After the introductions were finished the mechanical teen led the two up the stairs to the second floor were it was a lot less crowed. Unlike the downstairs where all the teens had been dancing the room at on the second floor had tables set around the edge for people to sit and talk. They could still here the music from the lower floor and a few people were dancing but nowhere near as many, though Naruto did see Starfire floating above the heads of people, twirling around with a large smile on her face.

They found Robin sat at a table with Raven and Terra not far from the balcony, a pile of presents stacked on the table. Naruto was trying not to laugh; Robin was wearing a smart black suit with a white shirt and bowtie, and his mask. He wore his mask to his birthday party.

"Traffic-light-san, happy birthday"

"MY NAMES NOT TRAFFIC LIGHT!"

Smiling to himself at getting a reaction out of the boy, Naruto slide into the seat next to Raven and put his arm around her shoulders, his smile turning into a grin when he saw the red spreading across her grey skin. At least until she punched him in the ribs, winding the blonde and forcing him to pull his arm away.

"You're so cold Raven-chan"

Shaking his head at the two's antics, Robin turned his attention to the red headed boy that had come with the blonde, taking note of the strange scar on his forehead and odd choice of clothes. Standing up and walking over to the Gaara the masked teen offered his hand.

"You must be Gaara; Terra hasn't stopped talking about you since yesterday."

For a moment the sand user just looked at the offered hand with a blank expression, seeming unsure what to do before slowly, with slight hesitation, he brought his own hand up and shuck. Robin took note of the way he didn't put any presser into the shake and just let Robin control the handshake.

It was at this point that Naruto saw something out of the corner of his eye and a deep frown spread across his lips before he stood from his seat and put on a fake smile.

"I'll be right back, Gaara you stay here and try to be social."

Without waiting for a response he walked off in towards a table at the other end of the room where Beastboy was sat with a few people they didn't recognise.

Shrugging his shoulders Robin went back to his seat and offered Gaara the one next to him so they could talk.

"So Raven and Terra told me you have control over sand? That an impressive power, have you ever considered become apart of a team?"

"No"

"Why not, we could use someone like you."

"I have my reasons, one of which is I have no right to protect people with the things I have done in the passed."

Before the masked teen could push for more detail he was interrupted by Raven, who decided to try and learn more about Naruto through his quite red headed friend.

"So how do you know Naruto, he said you were from a neighbouring village and came to his with your family."

"My older brother Kankuro and older sister Temari"

They way he talked without any emotion was a little off putting for the three teens, his face didn't even twitch.

".. So how did you become friends?"

"He saved me"

"From what?"

"Before I met Uzumaki-san I was trapped in a darkness of my own creation, unable to se anything but an endless void."