Dysfunctional - 10

The following morning Naruto and Haku had awoken to find Gaara missing. It was unusual. Gaara had the habit of sleeping in late now that they had become genin and no longer had to race to the Academy every morning.

Naruto, however, was confident he could locate his redheaded friend and set off to find him while Haku went ahead to their training area.

'If I were Gaara-kun, I'd go somewhere quiet where I could sleep...' Recalling a few places around town like that, Naruto decided to go with his gut instinct and search downtown, the area where he had found Sato. 'I bet all slackers gather there...'

Sure enough, on the roof of a launderette, Gaara sat quietly next to his sand gourd, watching clouds pass. A roof over from him Shikamaru also lazed about, leaned against a chimney. Naruto frowned as he landed next to his teammate.

"I figured since you and Shikamaru have the same hobbies that I might find you here, Gaara," Naruto smirked, "You can't just ditch training to do nothing!"

"We don't have any hobbies, Naruto." Shikamaru informed him from a few feet away, still lying on his back and staring at the sky.

The blonde scowled, "Exactly! That's what you two have in common!"

"You're very troublesome, Naruto..."

Gaara said nothing in response, but stood up and tied his gourd to his back. Naruto smiled to himself, 'Well, at least he's cooperating...'

The teammates moved on, leaving Shikamaru to his cloud-watching. Even though Gaara had never been very talkative to begin with, Naruto found him curiously quiet, 'Maybe something's bothering him?'

"You can't keep hanging out with that lazy-ass, Gaara-kun." Naruto tried to create a conversation.

Gaara gave a monosyllabic grunt in response.

"Why weren't you home this morning? You usually sleep in. Oh and you missed breakfast..." Naruto went on airily, hoping not to get on Gaara's nerves.

"I couldn't sleep last night."

"You couldn't-?" The blonde frowned as he jumped over a gap, "Was it the-?"

"No. I just couldn't sleep."

"Oh."

Gaara gave him another suspicious look, "You never got around to telling me where you were yesterday."

"I told you already. I was training with Ero-sensei."

"I'm aware," He retorted, "What were you training for exactly?"

"Uh, I can't tell you that..." Naruto put his hand over his heart, "Ero-sensei made me swear!"

Gaara frowned and lost interest.

Still, Naruto didn't want to lose the conversation so he scrounged around for another subject.

"Did you see how pretty Sakura-chan was last night?" Naruto smiled at his friend, "She's always pretty of course but last night she and Hinata-chan looked pretty good!"

Gaara's expression did not change, leaving Naruto puzzled, but he continued.

"And the way she kept hanging around Sasuke you'd think they're having a fling or something." Naruto mused, trying to push his buttons.

Something in Gaara's face snapped and his expression which had once been stoic turned into a full-blown glare. He sped up the pace, "I don't want to talk about her."

"Huh?" Naruto was caught off guard by his anger, "Why not? Is something wrong?" He didn't understand. Sakura has always been so close to him, "Didn't you talk to her last night?"

"...I did." His eyes narrowed.

Naruto looked a bit nervous, "W-what did she say?"

"Many things." Gaara ground out through gritted teeth, and then stopped on top of a shingled roof. Naruto paused as well, waiting for an explanation and fearing it at the same time.

"She succumbed to her teammate's questions and told them about our abilities."

The blonde boy wore a horrified look, "What? How much did she tell them?"

There was a long, painful silence.

"...everything." Gaara's face was dark.

Naruto scratched his head, not certain what to do, "Well, I mean...she is on another team now so I guess she-"

"She has betrayed us."

"No!" Naruto shouted, shaking his head aggressively, "Don't say that! What else could she have done? It isn't her fault..." Naruto felt his insides twisting into knots at the news. He supposed that Gaara was taking it very hard, simply because he had always felt very attached to her.

"She did try to apologize by giving us information about her team." Gaara went on, looking disgusted.

"She did?"

"The only thing of consequence she gave away was Sasuke's recently gained Sharingan," The red haired boy spat, "Yet still her loyalties are so torn she will even stoop as low as to giving away her own teammate's secrets...pathetic."

Naruto felt something sting at his eyes and he rubbed at them frantically, "No...you're wrong. Sakura-chan would never do that." He looked up at Gaara, who had his face turned away from him, "Gaara please...don't be mad at her! She...I know that she likes you! She likes you a whole lot! Really! And I know that you...you care about her too!"

"Shut up, Naruto."

"No!" The blonde boy glared at him, "Is that why you're so mad? Because she made a mistake? People make mistakes, Gaara, and you have to forgive them. You can't be mad at her! You like her, I know you do!"

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Gaara hissed venomously, turning his back to Naruto, "You don't know anything about that. You can't even see it for yourself, not even when Hinata looks at you, you see nothing. You are a blind fool!"

The blonde boy stumbled back in shock, unable to believe what Gaara had told him.

After a brief silence Gaara turned to face Naruto again, his voice full of rage, "The Chunin Exams are near, Naruto. People will turn against us. It is the way of things. Sakura is our enemy now, even Hinata and Lee's teams will be nothing more than our competition," His sand enveloped him and he disappeared in a whirlwind after adding, "You'll do well to understand that."

Naruto stood there shaking from head to foot, desperately rubbing at his eyes.

'But I don't understand, Gaara-kun...I can't.'

*

Around noon, Sato arrived as his team's training area looking very pleased with himself.

"You're early." Kurenai said sarcastically, by now knowing that he would always be late no matter how he was disciplined.

"Good morning to you too, sensei!" He grinned, and then turned to Shino, "Hey! Shino-kun! Let's spar!"

Shino didn't look very interested, "Where were you?"

"Well I can actually tell you the truth this time!" Sato smiled and even Hinata looked confused.

"You see, my uncle was giving me a hard time this morning...but I finally convinced him to teach me how to use his most powerful technique! It's totally awesome!" Sato gave them a thumbs up, still grinning.

A look of alarm descended on Kurenai's face, 'But...he can't mean...'

"His most...p-powerful technique, Sato-kun?" Hinata asked, confused, "What could it be?"

Rather than explaining it, Sato decided to demonstrate. Completely shocked and unsure of what to expect, Shino formed a clone of himself with his Kikai insects as a ball of electricity crackled to life noisily in Sato's hand.

The silver haired boy laughed, "I told you it's awesome!"