Notes: People have asked about the ages of the Naruto kids. They're still genin, but I always thought they looked 15 as genin and 18 after the time skip. So for
this fic they graduated from the academy at 15 instead of 12.
Warnings: boys kissing, obviously, bits of NaruSasu, GaaraSasu, and GaaraNaru (sort of)
A New School of Magic
The Labyrinth II: Kisses
There was a wall directly outside the door with an unlit removable torch in the corner, and a narrow path leading to the left. Sasuke lit the torch with a simple
fire jutsu and lifted it. The walls of the tunnel were the same bluish gray rock like substance as the room. Naruto grimaced at the gloom. The torch didn't light
more than three feet in front and behind them.
"We're underground?" asked Naruto. It didn't smell like it. There was nothing earthy or dusty in the air. But it was cooler in the tunnel-hall than it had been in
the room. He glanced back and jumped. "We won't be going back in there."
Sasuke turned as well. The wall where the door had been was now solid stone. There weren't even crevices outlining the doorway. They were now standing in
the corner of a dead end tunnel three feet wide that led only in one direction. He lifted the torch over their heads to illuminate the ceiling. A mere two feet
above their heads, as seamless as if the tunnel had been carved out of solid rock.
"First time I've been glad not to be taller," Naruto muttered. He eyed that low ceiling. The room had been just as small, but it hadn't seemed nearly as
claustrophobic as this narrow little tunnel.
"Let's go," said Sasuke. It was more of a warning than an invitation. He started down the hall, the chain forcing Naruto to follow along.
The tunnel bent sharply to the left again, into a very short hall, before arching a ways and ending in a sharp right hand turn. They followed it straight for a few
steps. Then they stopped at an intersection. Sasuke moved the torch so it lit the path leading to the right, and then the one that continued straight. There
were no footprints, no displaced dust, nothing to tell which direction was used most often. Naruto jerked on his arm suddenly.
"We go right," said Naruto. "Put your hand on the right wall and follow it out."
Sasuke gave him a skeptical stare. "Where did you hear that?"
"Everyone knows that," Naruto scoffed. "If you're lost in the woods you go straight, if you're lost in a maze you go right. It's common sense."
Going right repeatedly sounded like a very good way to go in circles. Sasuke would have pointed that out, but it probably wasn't worth the effort. His head hurt
and arguing with Naruto was a waste of breath. He sent one more look at the straight path and raised his left hand.
"Kunai," said Sasuke. "I'll see if we can mark the stone in case we get turned around and forget which way we came when we double back."
"We're not gonna double back," Naruto scowled. He handed his chipped kunai over, anyway. He was curious to see if it could actually make a mark on the
stone out here any better than it had the chain earlier.
Sasuke took one step into the straight path and scraped the kunai across the wall. The metal sparked silver glints over the stone. The scratched arrow was
spiderweb thin, but clearly visible if they were looking for it. He turned back and made another mark on the right path, an x this time. They probably wouldn't
end up going in a circle considering they'd started out at a dead end. He did it just in case.
"Happy now?" Naruto taunted impatiently. "I'm telling you, we're not gonna double back. And if we do, I'll just start using a bunshin to check for dead ends."
Why hadn't he thought of that? Sasuke frowned, wondering exactly how hard he'd hit his head earlier. "Do that now. Send one down each path. There may be
traps in here." And far better to have a bunshin set one off than to walk into it themselves.
Naruto didn't fail to notice that Sasuke made no attempt to create a clone himself. His feeling of superiority poofed out as quickly as the bunshin he created.
He tensed, tried again, and again, and still couldn't get one to materialize fully before it poofed. He bristled in embarrassment, "Shut up! You try it, if you think
you can do better!"
"I didn't say anything," Sasuke remarked blandly. "And there's no point in my trying." If Naruto's kage bunshin couldn't maintain its form, then his own clones
wouldn't fair any better. Something was preventing it. So they'd be forced to explore themselves? That certainly supported the idea of this being a distraction
to waste their time and energy.
Sasuke started down the right path without a word, tugging to make Naruto follow. He didn't have to put his hand on the wall. The path led them into two more
sharp rights and then a series of short tunnels heading vaguely to the left. It wasn't until they reached the dead end Sasuke had expected from the very first
that he spoke.
"You were saying?" Sasuke drawled.
"Oh, shut up," Naruto glared. He tensed his right arm and all but drug Sasuke the last few steps toward the shadowy dead end. He was hoping for a door, a
set of stairs, anything that would mean Sasuke hadn't been right all along. He touched the solid wall. And that torch sparked so suddenly Sasuke thrust it away
from his face. The wall in front of them shimmered in response.
"I knew it!" said Naruto. He sent a triumphant look at Sasuke. The seemingly blank wall was now decorated with the same mural illustration as the back of the
room they'd just come from. And there was a holder in the corner for the torch. "Put it in there," he waved smugly. "How much do you wanna bet there'll be a
circle on the floor here?"
Sasuke forced his expression to remain bland as he put the torch in the holder. As long as it was a way out, it didn't matter who'd been right. He still didn't like
listening to Naruto brag.
They stepped back so the firelight fell on the floor. Sure enough, it illuminated another of those smooth circles, set right in front of the mural. Naruto grinned
and put his hands on his hips in a bragging pose. His grin faltered just as quick. He kept forgetting the chain pulled Sasuke's arm right along with his. And
Sasuke was giving him another of those 'I can't believe I'm chained to a dobe' looks. Naruto sniffed at him and dropped his arms to his side. Sasuke was just
jealous.
"You do realize this means we have to kiss again," Sasuke said in a scathing tone. Any remaining smugness dropped from Naruto's face. He was relieved. For
a second there Naruto had looked far too happy to see that mural.
With a resentful grimace, Naruto assumed the position. Then he swore never to so much as think that phrase in relation with Sasuke ever again. He cursed
Ero-sennin in his head all through the kiss, and when he didn't feel quite as inclined to gag afterward, he passed it off as a mark of being a good ninja. A good
ninja was supposed to get numb if the torture was the same every time. That was the whole point of training, after all. Sasuke, who was gagging as much as
last time, had a long way to go before he'd be as good a ninja as him. Hah.
Again, his feeling of superiority didn't last long. All it took was a quick look around. They weren't in the hallway anymore. They were in a very familiar-looking
room. The same room, apparently, because there were smears of blood along the far wall where they'd landed. And the door was closed. Sasuke was sending
him a withering glare. Naruto tensed and almost spat his irritation, "Shut up! This is not my fault! Damn it!"
"We go right," mocked Sasuke. "We're not going to double back."
"Shut up! Just get over here so we can get the door open."
"You better not be enjoying this..."
"Oh, sure," scoffed Naruto. "I'd rather kiss Kakashi-sensei than you!"
A moment of highly disturbed silence followed. Sasuke felt his stomach roil, threatening to lurch up into his mouth. Naruto didn't look much better.
"I take it back," Naruto whispered.
"Yeah," Sasuke said, just as faint. He shook the sick feeling off forcefully. "This is a mission. To get out of this place. That's all."
"Of course!"
"As quickly as possible."
"Right!"
They didn't look at each other before or after the kiss. And while there was no gagging as they made their way out of the newly opened door, there was a
heavy discomfort hanging over both of them as each imagined being in this situation chained to Kakashi instead. Sasuke was thinking that even Sakura would
be better than that. Naruto wasn't thinking at all because he was still convinced there were bloated fish lips hiding under Kakashi's mask and the thought of
those pressing his mouth made him feel weak and scared. This situation was weird and bad, but it could have been so much worse.
The unlit torch was back in its place just outside the door, which again vanished the second they lit the torch. The only proof that they'd already traversed the
tunnel were the scratches Sasuke had made at the intersection. He added a slash to the mark on the straight path, turning it into an 'x' and adding a doubled
arrow. The tunnel continued for what felt like hours. It led them in pointless meanderings vaguely to the right, and then what might have been down before
branching in another intersection. This time the paths were right and left. Again, Naruto attempted and failed to make a bunshin to check the paths for them.
"Right again?" Sasuke muttered. He was too tired to bother with sarcasm. He'd already decided that if they ended up in that room again, he was going to stay
there and rest until his head stopped throbbing every time he blinked.
"We could go left," Naruto offered, his tone just as lifeless. He didn't like the way Sasuke was leaning on the wall with that listless expression on his face. His
shoulder was still hurting, and his face was as tender as before. That, along with the silence from Kyuubi, made him wonder if something had happened to the
fox when they'd arrived here. Or maybe something had happened to his chakra after that blow up in the room. He should have been completely healed by
now. "Right didn't do much good last time."
"Not your fault."
If Naruto hadn't already been sort of worried about the asshole, he would have started now. "You're not gonna pass out on me, are you? Because I wasn't
kidding about dragging your ass!"
"You wish," Sasuke sniffed. He pushed off the wall and made the same marks as before, an 'x' for the path they'd come from, a slash for the left path, and
another 'x' for the right. "As long as the marks stay, we might as well be consistent and keep going right." He didn't mention that his head was too fuzzy for him
to draw a picture of the maze in his head. He should have been able to keep track of where they were in relation to the room they'd started from. As it was, he
didn't know whether the room was above, below, left, right, or even on the same level as them. Parts of the tunnel had seemed more elevated than others. He
was completely turned around. He almost hoped they did end up back in the room. He wanted to lie down for a while. He couldn't think clearly like this.
The path took them up and then windingly down before ending abruptly. Another mural, another kiss, and they were back in a room identical to the last one.
Naruto was just making up his mind to groan, and Sasuke to take a nap, when they noticed the differences. The size and decorations of this room was the
same as the original one. But there was no blood near the far wall. And there were two familiar people sitting near the door who definitely hadn't been in the
original room. Naruto realized why Kiba was gaping at him like that and turned a furious red.
"It's not what you think! I had to kiss him! It's not like I wanted to!"
"Idiot," Sasuke muttered.
"Really!" Naruto continued, rushing toward Kiba and Shino, desperate to defend himself. "We had to kiss to get the door open and then there was a dead end,
so we had to do it to get here! It was the only way - using force didn't work!"
Kiba grimaced, "You kissed him twice?"
Shino, who'd deciphered the 'trick' of the room almost immediately, sent a veiled look at his teammate. "I told you a kiss would open the door."
"No way in hell," Kiba shuddered. He shot a wild look at the black glasses hiding Shino's eyes and squeezed Akamaru till the puppy whimpered. He knew where
all those bugs of Shino's lived and there was no way, no way in hell. He respected his teammate, even sort of liked him now and then because he could be
funny in his own weird way, but the thought of those bugs just...no way in hell. "Stop talking about it."
"How long have you two been in here?" asked Sasuke. "Did you learn anything from our captor?"
"Just that he's crazier than everyone says," Kiba spat, eager to talk about something less disturbing. "Why the hell did your team leader snatch us, anyway?"
"That wasn't really Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said quickly. "We were with the real Kakashi-sensei when he showed up. It was definitely an imposter!"
"He didn't say anything to you?" Sasuke prodded, looking at Shino. "Anything at all?"
"Nothing useful," said Shino. "We've been in here for a little under two hours now."
Kiba finally noticed how close the two were standing and why. "How come you're chained together?"
"How come you're not?" Naruto shot back with a pinched scowl. "That's not fair!"
"Did you get injured during the capture?" asked Shino. He'd been training when Kiba had shown up with the apparent imposter, so he went through his
supplies now. There wasn't enough water to wash the two off, but he had plenty of bandages.
"We tried to bust our way through the door," said Naruto. "Didn't work. At all."
By the time the two boys had used up both of Shino's rolls, they'd compared stories and arrived at the conclusion that the imposter must have been wandering
around Konoha for a while before snatching them. They'd also concluded that staying in the room any longer than necessary was a bad idea. That meant two
of them were going to have to kiss.
"You two do it!" Naruto yelled, pointing at Kiba and Shino. "It's only fair!"
"No way in hell," said Kiba. "You've already kissed him twice, what's one more time?"
"Three times," Shino commented, "if you include their kiss in the academy."
Sasuke glowered, not mentioning that they'd actually kissed five times all together. Once to get out of the room, once to get back in, once to get out again,
and once to get here. If he included that accidental first kiss, he'd had enough of kissing his teammate to last a lifetime. He sent a considering look at the two
boys standing opposite him. Kiba he couldn't stand, a mutual dislike that stemmed from his own distaste and the loud mouth's abrasive Naruto-like personality.
Shino he found disturbing, though he didn't know him well enough to have a good reason. He'd heard rumors of the boy's bug usage, otherwise they were
virtual strangers. If he continued thinking of this as a mission, detached and impersonal, a stranger was an improvement over someone he couldn't stand.
"I'm not doing it again!" Naruto wailed. It was one thing to do it because he had to, when it was just him and Sasuke completing the mission, with all the
reluctant acceptance to numb the torture. Doing it with an audience? In front of Kiba, who'd never let him hear the end of it?
"Let's get this over with," said Sasuke. "I'm not such a child I'd rather stay here and whine about it."
Naruto bristled at the insult. It wasn't until he saw Shino nod and move toward the circle in the corner of the room that he realized Sasuke hadn't meant him. He
panicked, using the chain to keep his teammate from taking another step. "Wait! You can't kiss him!"
Sasuke glared at the chain, which pulled tightly enough to hurt through the bandages he'd wrapped his arm in. "Why?"
"Because!" Naruto said quickly. "He uses bugs! Didn't you see him fight in the-" No, he realized, Sasuke hadn't seen Shino in combat during the exam. Sasuke
had fought first and been taken off by Kakashi afterward. "He uses bugs!" he said again. "Bugs!"
Of all the ridiculous- "I don't care," Sasuke snapped. "Kiba uses a dog."
"Hey!" yelped Kiba.
"I want out of this place," continued Sasuke. "Unless you want to kiss him," and he waved at Kiba, "this is the only way out."
"But you can't!" Naruto grimaced. It was just too wrong. He'd never kiss Kiba, but he couldn't watch Sasuke kiss Shino, either. It was just...wrong. "You can't
because - because I'm chained to you! It'd be like me kissing him, too!"
"Your teammate is as bad as mine," Shino commented.
"We should really make them kiss each other," Sasuke muttered. He jerked sharply on the chain, distracting Naruto mid rant. "You or him," he spat. "I'm not
staying in here another minute. Stop being a baby."
"Fine!" Naruto scowled. "I'll do it again. You better be grateful, teme. I'm saving you from getting a mouthful of bugs, you know!"
Shino's eyebrow twitched. That was the only sign he gave of how insulted he was. He stepped aside and went over to watch the door.
Naruto shot a bristling glare at Kiba, whose mouth was open, no doubt to deliver some insult or taunt. "Turn around! You don't have to watch and gloat!
Pervert!"
"Like I'd want to!" Kiba grimaced. He turned his back, silently grateful he hadn't had a chance to speak. If Naruto would rather kiss Uchiha than him, that was
just fine. Not like he cared.
A moment later the four teens trooped out of the room, none of them saying a word. Sasuke paused to make an 'x' near the door, just in case.
Two hours later they had a reasonable idea of the maze they'd traversed thanks to Shino's memory and Kiba's sense of direction. Sticking to the right at the
first intersection took them back to the room. Going straight took them to another intersection, straight or left. They went straight again and were taken back to
the room Sasuke and Naruto had originally been in. That was when Shino called a break, sparing Sasuke from having to admit weakness and Naruto from
having to admit concern for his teammate. By the time they managed to get back to the room Kiba and Shino had been in, they knew it was directly below the
first one. The left wall facing the door was the back wall of the first room. And judging from the tunnel branches, the walls separating the two rooms couldn't
have been more than a foot thick. It really begged the question of how the rooms were sealed so tightly that Kiba and Shino hadn't detected Naruto and
Sasuke's attempts to force their way out earlier.
The third portal outside the second room took them to a new room. By then, all four were so accustomed to the kissing that Naruto didn't even blush at the
eyebrows being raised by the two boys waiting there. He scowled instead, annoyed at how Neji stared at him and Sasuke as if they'd done something
disgusting. There was no point asking Shikamaru why the two boys hadn't attempted to get out of the room on their own. Neji was a thousand times more
prissy than Sasuke on a bad day and Shikamaru was too lazy to push the issue. He also didn't bother asking anyone else to kiss the door open. While he
didn't think kissing Shikamaru would bug him much - since Shikamaru was the sort to shrug it off as a troublesome necessity and nothing more - he'd gotten
used to Sasuke. He actually thought it was a good thing they kept having to kiss. That little rest didn't stop Sasuke from looking glazed and numb when they
walked. Having to kiss woke him up, where taunts and insults went entirely ignored. All he had to do was press a little closer than necessary, and Sasuke was
bristling just like his usual self.
"Don't look at 'em," Kiba said to Neji and Shikamaru, waving for them to face the door. "It's the only way to open the door and better them than us."
"How convenient," Shikamaru muttered. He had an idea how much kissing Naruto and Sasuke must have done to make Kiba shrug it off so easily. At this rate
the 'other' Kakashi was going to get just what he wanted. Lock them in a room, indeed.
It wasn't until all of them were moving down the new hall, that Naruto begged the question. "Where's Lee?"
Neji stopped in his tracks, a dangerously blank look on his face. "Why would he be here?"
"He got taken right before the guy came for Sasuke," Naruto frowned worriedly. "He had to have been brought here."
"He wouldn't have been put with us," said Shikamaru. "He's in no condition to walk around in a pointless maze like this."
"Well, what about Chouji, then?" Naruto prodded. "How come you guys were together instead of with your teammates?"
Now Shikamaru was the one to react sharply, "That man didn't take Chouji."
"How do you know?"
"He promised he wouldn't."
Kiba snorted, "And you believed the guy?"
"Yes," Shikamaru said flatly. He glanced at Naruto, "You and Sasuke were taken together, weren't you?"
"Yeah," Naruto frowned. "How did you know?"
"Lucky guess..."
The tunnel took them down a long way to the right before ending at an intersection. They debated briefly about whether or not to take a left this time. So far
the first portal outside each room, if one kept going right, had taken them back to the room again. Naruto wanted to keep going right because that had been
his idea. Sasuke just wanted to keep moving. The others thought they should consider it a while before making another 'circle' and wasting time. In the end
Sasuke decided it for them. They'd go left this time, since that was what Kiba and Neji wanted, but if it took them back to the room and the right path ended up
being the correct one, one of them would have to start doing the kissing. Kiba immediately tried to change his vote to the right path and Neji threatened to
murder Sasuke with his glare. Shikamaru commented that the two could always stay here and hope the rest of them came back once they found the exit. After
more exchanges of death glares between Sasuke and Neji, and a few 'I'm not kissing him!' grimaces from Kiba, they were on their way again.
Down, to the left, up, back to the right, and finally they'd reached a portal. Kiba gave a fervent, 'Please don't be the room again!' while Naruto and Sasuke got
into place.
Neji simply sniffed at the very thought of Sasuke attempting to make him kiss Kiba. Sasuke could barely walk without listing to one side. Empty threats didn't
mean much to him. He turned his back on the two, once again activating the Byakugan. He couldn't see through the walls here, hadn't seen any chakra in the
room, and even now, when the teleportation came, he couldn't understand why all of them were transferred instead of just the two boys standing in that
particular circle. The kiss was the key, but some sort of energy had to be transporting them from one place to the other. Whatever it was, it remained invisible
to his eyes. The transfer happened in a second, nothing but displaced air to show they'd arrived in a formerly unoccupied space.
Since Neji was the most alert, and staring away from the kissers, he was the first to see the occupants of the room they arrived in. He immediately discarded
any personal issues he had with the people behind him, deflecting an attack and assuming a defensive position. Sharp bits of sand grated over his left hand,
threatening to infiltrate despite his chakra. And then the person responsible was waved back and the opposition disappeared.
"Easy, Gaara."
"Gaara?" Naruto yelped, whirling from Sasuke to look around the room. His first thought was that his wounds still hadn't healed and he'd never be able to get
enough of Kyuubi's chakra to fight him again if he couldn't even heal a sore shoulder. His second thought was that Sasuke was a moron for activating the
sharingan half asleep. Those damn squigglies were way too eager to cover his face up. "Stop it," he hissed at his teammate, giving him a shove. "We can't
fight in here."
Kankuro, who'd been the one to wave Gaara aside, shrugged. "We're not going to fight. Are we, Gaara?"
"No fighting," Gaara said in his calm monotone. His eyes were roving over Naruto, taking note of his bandaged face, his proximity to Sasuke, what the two had
just been doing, and the chain that bound them together. Whatever he thought of it, he kept to himself. "Sand is now allied to the Leaf."
"Since when?" asked Shino. His own attention was caught on Kankuro, who looked oddly naked without his puppet. Gaara's gourd of sand was strapped to his
back, but the other one looked as if he'd been taken completely unprepared. He was apparently unarmed.
"Since we found the remains of the Kazekage," said Kankuro. "Orochimaru took his place, remember? Enemy of our enemy and all that. We were just finalizing
the agreement when that guy showed up."
"That wasn't Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said quickly. "It was an imposter."
"Obviously," Kankuro snorted. As if any mere Leaf jounin could have gotten the drop on Gaara so easily. "He said to wait here until someone came to 'collect'
us. I guess that's you guys?"
"You have to kiss to get the door open," said Shikamaru. "They're good at it, so we've been letting them have the honors."
Naruto rediscovered his humiliation and blushed, "What the hell is that supposed to mean!"
Shikamaru sent him a knowing look, "That you're good at it. Quick and efficient, no arguing or whining or," and his eyes flicked toward Neji, "feeling as if your
manhood is being threatened."
"Yeah, well," Naruto blustered, "if someone else wants the honors, have at it." He tugged Sasuke away from the circle and waved for someone to take their
place. "It's not like we've been doing it because we want to."
"I'll do it," said Gaara.
"Eh?" Naruto flinched. Gaara was staring at him as if he wanted to eat him up with his eyes. All of the color drained out of his face. "Um...with who?" They had
a lot in common and with time they could have been great friends, but the last time he'd seen him the guy had been trying to kill two of his most precious
people. That, along with the hungry stare, made him swallow nervously. "With...?"
"Uchiha."
Naruto flinched again. "Huh?" Then why was he staring at him like that? He wanted to kiss Sasuke? "No!"
"That's twice now," Shino commented. "What objection do you have this time?"
Naruto shot a wild look at the others, just realizing how it might sound. "It's not like I care! It's just-" He stared at Gaara, who was still eating him alive with those
burning eyes of his. Why stare at him if he wanted to kiss Sasuke? One way to find out. "I mean - wh - why would you wanna kiss him? He's an asshole!"
"Jealous?" asked Shikamaru. Kiba snorted.
Sasuke glared suspiciously at Gaara. This had nothing to do with him. Gaara was needling Naruto intentionally. Hoping to get Naruto to volunteer himself
instead? He wouldn't be surprised. "It's fine with me."
"What?" Naruto blurted, sending him a horrified look. "You're kidding!"
"No."
"Not-" Naruto turned his attention back on Gaara, "This is suspicious! Why do you want to kiss the asshole? Confess!"
Shikamaru sighed, "You're being ridiculous, Naruto."
"I want an answer!"
"Because," Gaara said calmly, "you seemed to enjoy doing so."
"Wha-" Blood rushed to Naruto's face, "I did not! Take that back! You take it back or I'll - I'll-"
Sasuke snapped and knocked Naruto on the back of the head. "Shut up, dobe." He caught Gaara's eyes and stepped back into the circle. "We have to mimic
the illustrations."
"Understood," said Gaara.
Naruto watched the redhead approach his teammate and suffered a minor panic attack. This wasn't happening. "No! You can't-"
"Shut up, Naruto," Shikamaru sighed. "Just because you're the only one who's ever kissed him doesn't mean you own rights to his mouth. Let someone else
have a turn." Suddenly every eye in the room was on him. He ignored most of them in favor of staring at Sasuke, his expression bored but pointed. They both
knew perfectly well why Sasuke had agreed. To keep Naruto from volunteering in his stead. While he didn't particularly like Sasuke, he liked the idea of Gaara
getting close to the blonde even less. "It would be nice to get out of this room sometime today."
Sasuke closed the distance between him and Gaara, ignoring the chain and the way Naruto was gaping at him with the strangest expression on his face.
Disturbed, accusing, disbelief, confusion, and he was blushing and tugging absently on the chain like he couldn't make up his mind to pull or to be still.
Gaara's expression was even worse. Blank face, burning eyes. An inhumanly cool hand taking hold in his hair. The others turned away, but Naruto was still
watching. Well, let him watch. The idiot didn't even understand that he was the reason Gaara's eyes had that semi-psychotic bloodlust in them. The same look
Sasuke had seen during their fight. If it weren't for the tiny layer of sand masking Gaara's true skin, he just knew there would be a psychotic grin on his face to
match those eyes. He could barely keep from activating the sharingan. "We have to close our eyes, like in the illustrations."
"I know," said Gaara. He flicked one look off to the side, at Naruto, who was starting to look pale and panicky. "I'm not going to kill him."
"Of course not!" Naruto blurted. "But why do you have to-" The two kissed and he bit off his words. Wrong. Again, that was all he could think, that it was wrong.
Gaara was just like him, so he should have been as disturbed by the thought of kissing another guy, especially an asshole like Sasuke, as he'd been. So why
did he have to do it? And he was standing much too close to Sasuke. Even when he'd started pushing during the kisses to wake the teme up, he hadn't gotten
as close as that. And Sasuke was too pale, like he was scared. Why not? He didn't know that it was a demon that made Gaara so volatile, but he'd definitely
seen how dangerous he could be. So why had he agreed? He couldn't have actually wanted to kiss someone he was afraid of.
The door opened with a whoosh, and Naruto sent a relieved look at it. Then Shikamaru looked past him and he realized the two were still kissing. Naruto took
a step toward them, tugging on the chain. Sasuke's hands dropped to his sides and his eyes opened, but he made no effort to push Gaara away. And Gaara
had the nerve to move closer, looking for the world like he was planning to crawl into his mouth. It was too much.
"Stop it," Naruto growled, stalking over to them. "Knock it off!" He pushed them apart, wincing at the wet sound of their mouths parting. This was a whole new
level of disturbing. Gaara's eyes snapped open to lock on his own. Naruto gave him an extra shove, "You pervert!"
"That was interesting," said Gaara. He licked his lips.
For a moment, Naruto thought he was trying to pick a fight. Then it clicked. Gaara, demon container, a lifetime without human contact, no friends, no intimacy,
even worse off than he'd ever been. This was his first kiss. Naruto sympathized, but that still didn't make it okay to...to drag it out like that. Especially with
Sasuke! Yeah, they were just alike, but that didn't mean their first kisses had to be with the same person! And he'd never kissed Sasuke that way. "You were
supposed to stop when the door opened," he muttered.
"I was distracted. I see now why you enjoyed it."
"I did not!" Naruto blurted. "Stop saying that!" He didn't realize Sasuke had passed him till the chain drew taut. He shot him a look and was almost relieved by
his shuttered expression. Gaara was making him feel like it was his fault he'd wanted to kiss his teammate. He swore, if Gaara tried that at the next portal, he'd
kiss the guy himself. He couldn't stand the thought of seeing that again. "Let's go," he muttered at the blank-faced redhead. He added a convulsive, "Pervert,"
on his way out the door. Gaara didn't seem to mind.
The tunnel outside the room led them down a long way before turning sharply to the left and ending at an intersection. They were just preparing to have
another debate when Akamaru started barking.
Kiba's face lit up with excitement. "Fresh air! He smells fresh air! Grass - animals - outside!"
"Where?" asked Shikamaru.
"Let's find out," Kiba grinned. He dropped and set the puppy on the floor. Akamaru took one long whiff and then raced down the right path.
They caught up with the dog at an intersection. Again, the puppy took long sniffs at the air before picking the left path. They followed him up past another
intersection, at which Akamaru barely even paused. Then the dog was gone, with Kiba right behind him. Naruto took two steps to race after them, and Sasuke
jerked him back to a walk.
"Come on," Naruto whined, "we're almost out!" He knew Sasuke was tired, but they had to be close if Kiba wasn't even waiting for them.
"We don't know what we'll find outside," Shikamaru reminded him. "We should proceed cautiously."
"I heard you made chuunin," said Kankuro. He didn't mention that he'd heard it by accident, having run into his sister while she was giving a blistering rant
about the guy who'd had the nerve to forfeit during a match with her and still somehow managed to get promoted. "Think that makes you the leader here?"
Sand might be allied to Konoha now, but that didn't mean he was going to follow orders just because of rank.
Shikamaru shrugged. "If you want to rush on ahead, feel free."
"Don't argue," Gaara said quietly. Kankuro stood down just like that. They both knew Shikamaru was right. Kankuro was just itching to start trouble.
They walked briskly but cautiously down a long way, till the path turned sharply once, twice, and then they could just make out a hint of light in the distance. It
wasn't until they neared the light that they realized it was faint because Kiba was standing in the doorway and blocking most of it. His expression when he
turned managed to dull any excitement they might have felt.
"There are things out there," he murmured, looking queasy and unnerved. "Things...!"
"What kind of things?" Neji demanded, his eyes narrow with contempt. He didn't wait for an answer, "Out of the way."
"Sure," Kiba snorted, "see for yourself." And then he moved to the back of the group, a protective hand holding Akamaru, who was whining softly, close to his
chest. "Never liked him, anyway," he muttered quietly.
Neji stepped into the light and out of sight. There was a loud 'Hah!' as if someone had laughed or been punched in the gut. A tendril of sickly green mist tickled
the doorway, causing everyone but Gaara to cover their noses. Neji took one step back into the tunnel, gagging and choking on the fumes. Then he went
insane.
.-.
PART 8
.-.
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