Fading Dream

Chapter 1: The boy and the demon

So, there was this mass of sand floating in the air. Naruto didn't believe his eyes. It was impossible for sand to float and even more to float in their gym. The next thing he noticed was that something green hung down from the massive middle of the sand. The sand started to move like a living being and threw the green thing against a wall. Not till Guy ran screaming to the green thing, Naruto noticed this thing actually was Lee.

He regained his senses and started to search for the other student in the arena, wanting to warn him. The redhead  stand there, his hair only a bit messier than before. Naruto opened his mouth to a scream when the floating sand started to curl around the kid.

But what happened next was total out of his comprehension. The sand started to form a gourd, rested on the Gaaras back and he left the arena, walking back to his siblings and sitting down beside them.

While all this was happening, Asuma called an ambulance for Lee. Luckily they had an inner-campus ambulance. They said his injuries were serious, but not life threatening, while carrying him away on a stretcher.

No one dared to ask what the hell just happened. Getting injuries was a price they hat to pay for this education. Bruises and scratches were normal routine and as long as nobody hovered between life and death after a struggle, none of the adults cared. They all knew where to stop. Hopefully.

Since it was the last fight, their teachers told them to leave and wait for the annunciation of their grades.

No one seemed to want to know what just happened, except for Naruto. He knew there was something odd about the boy and now he was sure. He felt the kyuubi inside him rambling. He looked out for the redhead and waited until he and his siblings leaved the place. He wanted to follow them, but a hand grabbed his shoulder.

"You should better not bother them," Sasuke said with his monotone voice. Naruto looked back at his friend and recognized his gaze, a mix between disgust and the anticipation for a good fight.

Naruto freed himself from Sasukes grip, gave him a reassuring smile and turned back to follow Gaara. But neither he, nor his siblings, were visible anywhere around the gym. He cursed loud and went to go back to his room. Eventually an idea hit his mind. He turned and ran back to the forest.

There he was. Sitting in the same tree as every time. As if nothing had happened. Naruto noticed, the boy was sitting rather high in the tree and this wasn't a good tree for climbing.

"Just how the hell do you get up there?" Naruto asked the redhead with his usual smile. No answer. "Okay, um … I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I know your first name is Gaara, but what about your last name?" the blond tried to start the conversation.

Gaara didn't even blink. Naruto didn't know anything more how to start a pleasant conversation with him. Seemingly the gossip about this boy was at least half true. He stood there for a few minutes, watching the redhead which didn't move at all, not wanting to give up. Giving up was one thing he never did in his whole live.

When the skinny redhead was able to climb this tree, he would be also able to handle it. It took him nearly half an hour, but in the end Naruto was on a branch next to Gaara. He felt some while ago that green eyes started to follow him. While sitting on this branch, Naruto noticed the first time the full intense of this eyes. In difference to his previous thoughts they weren't dull. Though it looked most time like he was looking at nothing, he realized it was more like he was looking at something in himself. But now these emeralds stared at Naruto, clearly seeing him. The redhead switched from an interested look to a scowl.

"Go," Naruto heard the redhead speak for the first time. In difference to his body, his voice was deep and mature. Too mature for child of his age.

"Or what?" he answered cheeky grinning.

At first, Gaara seemed to be confused, but in no time he was back to his glaring. "You remember what happened to your little friend just an hour ago?" he growled.

"Uhm, well, yeah, that's the main reason why I'm here ," Naruto stated sheepishly, scratching the back of his head, "Just what the hell happened? No one wants to know, but I do."

"It's nothing of your concern," Gaara said with a monotone voice and turned his gaze back to the sky, which started to become red in the sunset.

"The kyuubi inside me started to ramble just before your fight. He said, he know 'you'. Though I'm sure, he didn't meant the 'you' that I know."

At the mention of the name 'kyuubi' Gaaras eyes grew wide. He snapped  his head back to the boy with the golden hair. "What did you just say?" he whispered.

"I said the kyuu-" Naruto started, but was interrupted by Gaara, who jumped from his own branch over to Naruto, hitting him right in the face. Blue eyes met yellow ones. Yellows, with weird cross shaped pupils. Wait … No, they're green and just like they should be. Must have been his imagination.

Gaaras hard hit made Naruto losing his balance. Falling, he made his last prayers, knowing this would kill him. He knew, he survived a lot of things where most people would have died, but a fall from about 10 meters to a hard and rocky ground wouldn't even he survive.

The more he was surprised to feel his pain after hitting the ground. He was still conscious thanks to his effort to protect his head, but was barely able to move. In difference to Gaara, who landed on him. The redhead stared at him with a look that was hard to read. Somewhere deep in Gaaras eyes, Naruto saw the urge to hurt. And then there was … guiltiness? Gaara looked down at his hand which was stained with Narutos blood.

The kyuubi in Naruto was screaming. Demon. Demon.

Slowly, but inevitable Naruto lost his consciousness.

…



Naruto woke up on a sunny day, the birds tweeted outside and the sun tickled his nose.

But his head hurt like hell.

"Urgh, what happened?" he mumbled to himself.

"Finally awake, Mr. Longsleeper?" a female voice asked him.

"Huh? Who are you? And what are you doing in my room?" Naruto asked panicked back. Then he slowly noticed that he wasn't in his room. "Wait … Where am I?"

The woman opened the curtains around his bed an revealed herself. "Don't say you forgot me already, Naruto-kun," Shizune pouted.

"Oh, of course not, Ms. Nurse!" he said sheepishly. He and the schools head nurse, Shizune, were on good terms since he was a regular in the infirmary.

"I just needed some time to order things in my head. But … What happened? I don't remember how I come to lie in this bed."

"I can't tell you much either," Shizune said with a sad tone, "three days ago I came here in the morning, like every day, and there you were, lying on the floor and blood all over you. Since then you slept. It's almost a wonder you're still alive."

"Whaaaat?! Three whole days?" Naruto freaked out, "What about my grades?!"

Shizune gave him another sad look and shook her head.

Suddenly, the memories of his little 'talk' with Gaara came back. He silently turned his head to the window, knowing well that all windows of the infirmary were directed to the forest. But Gaara didn't sit in his tree.

…



It took Gaara nearly two weeks before he came back to his tree again. Naruto knew because he was waiting for the redhead there every day. By this time the leafs of the trees on the campus of Konohas "Green Leaf" started to become yellow and red.

Eventually on day the petite red-haired boy showed up again, glaring at him. "You want to be beat up again?" he asked in a poison dripping whisper. Naruto noticed Gaara wasn't wearing his gourd anymore, but a sand-brown shoulder bag, which rested against his hip.

'So he is able to change the form of his murderous weapon,' Naruto thought with a sad smile. Yet the skinny boy, who was one head smaller than Naruto, was able to send him seeing stars with a single punch even without the sand.

Gaara grow even more impatient. "No," Naruto answered suddenly in a sad tone, "I just want to talk with you."

The redhead didn't say anything, just started to climb the tree. It took Naruto some moments before he followed the other boy with his eyes and he was surprised to see him already sitting on his usual branch.

"Just how do you do that?!" Naruto started his rambling, grinning, "I'm pretty good in climbing trees and even with all my exercises on this tree I won't make it in under seven minutes!" No reaction at all from the redhead. Naruto had the feeling this boy was a hart nut to crack. "You know, I think you're the same like me," he said in a somber tone after some moments of silence.

Suddenly Gaara shifted and fell. Naruto got a shock and prayed he wouldn't be suspected of driving the redhead into suicide, or even worse, murdered him. But Gaara landed smoothly beside him and didn't even twist an ankle. "You know nothing about me," he growled. Naruto couldn't stop but notice that Gaaras voice was somehow … appealing. In the same moment he refused the thought. The redhead went to go back to the dorms.

"I know there's a demon sealed within you." Gaara turned around to look at the blond boy, seeing him without his usual grin, but pained. "I know how it hurts when they're looking at you," he continued, "and you even don't know why."

"To sad I knew it," Gaara said and leaved a stunned Naruto.

Naruto knew Gaara wouldn't come to the trees again.

…



During their BCTI-lessons Naruto thoughts drifted away more often. He knew, somewhere in this fields behind school, Gaara was with his siblings. He always thought at least the family of a vessel would be different towards them. But he just learned it wasn't this way. He thought about leaving Sakura some time with Sasuke alone and searching the redhead.

"Naruto? Is something up?" Sakura suddenly asked him worried.

"Eh? Oh! Uhm, of course not!" he answered nervous, scratching the back of his head. He saw that Sakura didn't believe him, but she also knew he had his reasons. He wasn't the type for daydreams and big thoughts, but when he did so, he was happy when no one interrupted him.

Naruto fell back in his musings, unconsciously watching his groups training. This year was way better than the years before. Somehow the gossip about him stopped and no one avoided him. Was it because they finally saw he wasn't a demon himself? Or was is because they now had the redhead to gossip about? He knew, he was able to make friends despite being a vessel for a tailed beast.

He knew the look in Gaaras eyes and the tone of his voice. It was the same Naruto had before coming to Konohas 'Green Leaf', when everything was even worse.

And what was most important to him now: he wanted nobody to have to endure the same.