Never Perfect

A/n Many many thank to you guys still reviewing..whenever I get stuck..I go back and read then and it keeps me going. Cheers as always to Telpei who, dispite going back to Med studies this week, still got it out to me. Luvs ya and Also a shout out to a speacail friend Dazmo. I paniced and he got my through waiting for telpei to get back to me. LUVS!

Sasuke and Sakura sat together and watched Naruto randomly shove Sand Nin out of his way as he tore up their camp to retrieve their belongings. Gaara just stood to the side, flanked by his siblings, smirking. He had watched stoically as Naruto had released Sakura and shoved her gently to Sasuke’s side before he had gone about sniffing out their packs and weapons. Nobody had stood in his way for long. While Sasuke had been pleased to see this spat of temper in Naruto, it made him burn to see the Kazekage smirking at the Dobe in that…cocky way. He was also thinking of ways to get Kankuro back for the kick he had administered earlier. However, soon he was sporting a smirk of his own when Naruto found his sword. When he had retrieved it and seemed to be bringing it back to Sasuke, Kankuro hurried to his side and bent his head low to whisper to Naruto. The blond head cocked to the side then Kankuro was doubling over dropping to one knee after Naruto delivered a slamming blow to his gut.

“I trust him. To hell with what you think.” Naruto’s words carried over the man’s frenzied attempts to draw air back into his lungs. Gaara just stayed were he was and watched the fox-man storm about. Finally every single on of their belongings and weapons had been dumped in front of the two seated teammates. Naruto knelt in front of Sakura leaning forward way into her personal space and sniffed the air around her. Once satisfied he repeated the process with Sasuke, leaning a little closer, but he pulled back once more after a short time. Gaara’s low voice cut in when Naruto looked like he was about to speak.

“If you’re finished harassing my people and your own, Naruto, we have quite a bit of travelling to do. I want you up front with me and your team mates back with the main group.”

Naruto answered with a low growl, but Sasuke could tell Gaara was just baiting him. God knows he himself had done it enough when they had been children. In honest truth, Sasuke was pleased to see that blue eye burning and snapping once more. Naruto truly was magnificent when anger held him – he always had been.

After a short staring competition, Naruto left their side and went to the Kazekage. Before long, the much larger group was on their way to Sand. It was very clear from Sakura’s and Sasuke’s position in the middle that they were under watch, but Naruto could be seen clearly arguing with the Kazekage before he stopped and waited for the rest to catch up. Once he was back with his two teammates, Naruto let out a sigh before keeping pace and locking that one blue eye on Sakura.

“Are you alright, Sakura?” Concern was evident in Naruto’s gentle voice and the pink haired nin was warmed through.

“I’m fine, Naruto. They didn’t really hurt me. It was you and Sasuke I was worried about.” At Sakura’s words, Naruto’s eye slipped to the Avenger and checked over his body again.

“They really did treat you for the wire cuts?” Sasuke as well felt a rise of emotion at the concern in the other man’s tone.

“The cuts are gone, although my ribs are still a little tender from that kick.” He was glad he had tacked the last bit on when Naruto snapped his head around to growl at the puppet master, who was a few feet away. Kankuro jerked his face to glance at them, and a slight tinge of fear was visible in his expression.

“I’ll hit him harder next time. Sakura, I can’t change Gaara’s mind about sending you back but if you don’t want to, I can get us away from here. I’ll fight us out.” The ninja around them tensed for battle at the blond’s words. It would be a lot harder to subdue them now that they were together, now that they didn’t have the other two trapped to use as bait to get the blond. Sakura’s words would decide the next few moments. Sakura took her time time to think about it. Gaara had gotten Naruto talking again. He was even thinking and planning. If the Kazekage thought it was time to shake up Leaf Village, she would do it. Besides, Sasuke would stay at Naruto’s side. The Uchiha would watch over Naruto, perhaps with even more fervour than she would.

“No, Naruto. I will go. Besides, Gaara is your friend. Fighting him is not something you should be doing. Not for me.” The corners of Naruto’s eyes tightened but he clenched his jaw and kept whatever he was thinking to himself. Sasuke took the time to admire the nin before him. Naruto was a stunning man on any day of the week but now that feelings where once more animating his face the Uchiha didn’t just want, he burned. Every time an emotion would shift his eye or make his mouth move in place of that flat mask, Sasuke wondered what that would be like, over him, tails waving and peeking over broad shoulders. While Naruto had been worrying about their safety, their health, Sasuke had been indulging in fantasies. He wanted to see that body naked once again like when he had bathed in the stream, this time filled out with flesh and muscle where it belonged. He wanted to feel them flexing under that golden skin as Naruto drove that unstoppable force behind a thrust. Red hair swam into his vision, jerking him from his vivid thoughts. The Kazekage had moved back to their position.

“Five minutes is up, Naruto. Return to the front with me.” Naruto’s gaze swept over Sasuke once more, and when the black haired nin caught the tiny flare of the blond’s nostrils, Sasuke realized Naruto had caught the scent of his slight arousal. He saw the war going on in Naruto’s mind: the need to stay against the demand that he go. Finally, shoulders held rigid, he swept away from his two teammates back to the Kazekage’s side. Sasuke’s eyes narrowed, seeing the triumphant smirk Gaara flashed him at the last second. He vowed to himself that once they reached Suna, the Kazekage would know who belonged to whom.

Further ahead of the silently fuming Uchiha, the Kazekage silently regarded the blond at his side before choosing his words.

“The Uchiha is angered at being forcibly separated from you. Many things have changed since last we spoke.” Naruto glanced over his right shoulder back at the man in question before facing forward again.

“Sasuke always had his own path in life that he felt he had to follow. I never agreed with the way he went about it, but I know why he did it.” Gaara didn’t look at the other nin as he spoke but when he was finished the Kazekage responded in low tones so it didn’t carry back to the others.

“He left you all the same. Hurt you. Yet, here you are. Kissing him, no less.” Naruto’s frame tensed slightly and his tails lashed wildly behind him, bobbing with his running steps.

“What Sasuke and I do and do not do is none of you business Kazekage-sama.” Even at the speed they were running sand still manage to wrap a slim tendril around the blond nin’s throat. Naruto gave no visible indication of noticing but his charka lifted slightly in return threat.

“Naruto as you ask me to call you by name so you shall grant me the same.” The sand fell away but Gaara continued. “You saved my life once, perhaps even saved my soul, by not allowing me to continue as I was. I say these things not to hurt you, but to protect you. I wish to remind you that the Uchiha chose to fight you nearly to the death, on more than one occasion, for the sake of his own choices.” Surprisingly the temper that had been simmering in Naruto since their run-in cooled. His voice, soft once more, floated gently to the Kazekage.

“Yet it was all in his grip, Gaara. His revenge on the Council of Leaf. He could have had it. He turned it aside to save my life, and then he came back. For me. He could have taken it all. Ripped the Kyubbi forcibly out. Wrenched my one eye open and forced his will into me. Yet, he didn’t. He held me as I broke and came back to myself. He cut tails from my body because I asked. He would pave my way to return to Leaf, if I so chose.”

Gaara had to ask the question, even in knowing that it was a heavy subject to touch on. “And would you? Return to your village? Go back to a place of degradation, where you had to force people to see you as human? Where they lock their very savoir away for one failure?” Naruto turned away slightly as they ran, so only the scared side of his face was to the Kazekage, who privately mourned the wreckage.

“I can’t answer that. Not yet.” Gaara chose to leave Naruto to his thoughts, dark as they were, to ponder his own coming choices.

Back in Leaf Village. Hokage tower, Council meeting.

The rumour mongering had done its intended job. Civil unrest was ripe throughout the Leaf village and now the council had convened. Key members were missing: Hyuuga, Inukuza, Nara, Akimichi, even the Abruame. The Main Ninja clans. Those who were not under Danzo’s control were not termed ‘The High council’. Those who were left to convene at this private meeting left a foul smell in the air: corruption and old age, but mostly fear. It seemed to seep from their very pores.

“Danzo! You said there was no chance of the Jinchuriki being alive!” One of the women spoke up and Danzo lifted a seemingly lazy hand to silence the general noise.

“I said no such thing. I believe my words were that the room was designed to bring out the Kyuubi so that the container would be consumed.” A man directly next to the woman who had spoken first slammed an aged fist on the table.

“Do not mince words with us, Danzo. You left us with the impression that there would be nothing left of the container. Evidently, from the rumours that have been spread far and wide throughout this village, the container is VERY much alive. It’s not the Kyuubi the Uchiha released.” Danzo waited once more for the murmurs to die down before speaking again.

“It would appear that way, but I believe it was the Kyuubi still, just for whatever reason it is unable to break free of the flesh of the container. We are all very aware here of the strength Uzamaki Naruto possessed, even without the Kyuubi’s own body. It is a very high threat to this village.”

A quieter member that sat to the side chose to add his voice to the floor. “And what if it’s not, Danzo? What if it is Namikaze-Uzamaki Naruto that was removed from the chamber? If that’s the case, your ship is sinking fast. I’d rather be a rat than drown with you.” Danzo’s smile, while chilling, appeared almost friendly.

“Your memory fails you, honoured councilman. I am Hokage, but it was with your approval that I locked the container away. I will not go down alone.” His visible eye raked them all before the tight lines about his eyes relaxed.

“However, I do believe this all to be a trick. The Kazekage himself now hunts down the Uchiha and the demon, not to mention the now missing-nin Sakura Haruno. Gaara is under the belief that the Uchiha killed the container to get to the Kyuubi. His blood rages are infamous. He will kill before stopping to ask questions.” The quiet elder from the far side spoke again.

“Let’s hope you are right Hokage, because if you are wrong our time will end.”

>>>>>>>>>>

The trip to Suna was long. The Kazekage obviously shared Sasuke’s previous feelings of trespassing over the Fire Country border, which would have cut at least a week from their travel. So, a journey that would have taken a little over a week was stretching on into two. The desert now stretched before them, stale, yet beautiful in its own way. They had been resting through the day and moving at night, and Sasuke was blessed with a new sight of Naruto. Most of his memories of Naruto were during the day time. When they were young they had slept at night, in their own houses, or even when they shared a tent it was just to bed down. In the sunlight, Naruto was part of the world around him, blending into the sunbeams and delighting in the daylight itself.

At night, the fox part of him seemed to come alive. This was the first time Sasuke could see him as truly beautiful. Moonlight played over his skin, highlighting patches here and there, playing on small platinum tones hidden in his hair, and making the yellow appear with silver highlights. The tips of his ears would tilt to catch sounds that drifted across the sands, sounds few of them could catch. The scarring across his face played in and out of the shadows, softening it, blending it with Naruto’s features, allowing Sasuke to slowly accept it as part of the man the fox nin had become. The scars no longer surprised him every time he caught sight of them. If not for that sparkling blue eye, his hair, and the two tails that twisted behind, he would have been just a shadow in the night, lithe body movements echoing that of the shadows playing around them as clouds flirted with the moon.

Gaara had relented with his separation of the team early on, and Naruto travelled with Sasuke and Sakura while ignoring the continuing strange looks from Temari and Kankuro. Very little had been said between any of them, but the old Team Seven stayed close to each other. They even bedded down in the same tent during the day, with Naruto between Sakura and the Raven. When Sasuke wrapped himself around Naruto’s back, Sakura just smiled softly and grasped one of the blond’s hands.

Naruto’s agitation had been building without explanation for the past few days, and on the last night of their voyage it burst over the whole group. He hadn’t helped pack the tent, but had circled the entire camp while growling at those that ventured too near. Even Gaara allowed him his space, but once they were ready to leave he motion Sakura and Sasuke to his side as he approached the man. His tone was anything but polite.

“Naruto, you will tell us why you’re disturbing the peace of this night.” Naruto’s blue eye narrowed, clearly taking offence at the demand and its wording. His voice was a snarl.

“I’m not walking into Suna like this.” Gaara looked faintly puzzled, but he dropped the sarcastic tone of voice as he spoke again.

“I fail to understand. We addressed your concern about war, what else is there to worry about?” Naruto grabbed the tip of one of the two tails present and waved it in Gaara’s face.

“I want them gone! I do not want to be seen like this. The ears I can do nothing about, I cannot be deaf as well as half blind but these are not necessary!” He was getting louder and louder as he spoke. Sakura turned her face away, unable to face this all a second time, but Sasuke’s face hardened. Sooner or later, Naruto was going to have to accept the tails as who he was now. They were not a sign of Kyuubi’s influence anymore. For the two weeks he’d been travelling with them, his charka didn’t tip to the demon’s side and his whisker scars never darkened. Again, Sasuke wondered if this was the result of him ripping the tails in half as he pulled Naruto from the cage. He really needed to speak to the Kyuubi. Gaara’s unmistakable growl of a voice cut through his thoughts.

“I will not allow the Uchiha to cut them from you a second time, nor will you get far enough to do it yourself. If you do not accept who you have become, nobody else ever will.” Naruto dropped the tail he had been waving in the Kazekage’s face like a flag, as if it burned him, and it simply returned to twitching behind him like the other. The narrowed blue eye glittered angrily, and Naruto balled his fists at his side – obviously fighting to keep his temper down. He glanced to his teammates, Sakura had turned back towards Naruto and her face was set with resolute agreement in the Kazekage’s words. Sasuke’s arms crossed over his chest as he regarded Naruto with narrowed eyes that clearly stated where he stood on the matter.

Seeing their support of the Kazekage, Naruto snarled before spinning away and storming in the direction of Suna. The rest followed at a slower pace, but Sasuke followed closer to the scarred nin. He saw the man reach into a small pack that swung from a belt he had procured from the sand nin, and he produced the orange bandana that he folded into a sash with jerky movements. Instead of covering his ears, he tied it about his forehead to hold his long hair back. Sasuke risked a tiny smile, pleased to see Naruto using his gift in such a manner, pleased to see him not covering himself, but even more pleased to see him in orange. The world would be coming to an end when Sasuke admitted it out loud, but it was true. Later that night, only the eyes of a few curious guards saw the passing group, and although they whispered Naruto kept his head held high. However, he would have relaxed - if not been deeply surprised - had he heard the hushed conversation.

“That’s Uzamaki Naruto, right?”

“Yeah I think so, man. He’s the one that saved Kazekage-sama.”

“What do you think happened to him?”

“Don’t know. Heard he was supposed to be dead. I, for one, am real glad he ain’t. Far as I’m concerned, the kid…well I suppose he ain’t a kid no more. Anyway, he’s a hero.”