Dropping Off The Jinchuuriki

"Because I've never been!" Naruto raised his clenched fists in an 'I'm ready' stance. "And it would be so cool to see the ice or play in the water in the nighttime! I bet nobody else would be around, we could do whatever we wanted, believe it!"

"...But.." He frowned. "I can't go in the water.."

Naruto blinked at him and then grinned. "Aw, I guess not, eh? Mr. Sandman will turn to mud if he goes in water. But can't you just take the sand shield off? I mean, yeah, you'll be open for attacks but who's gonna attack you at this time of night, no one'll know where we are so it doesn't matter!"

He sighed, shrugging. It wasn't like he anything better to do, and it wasn't as if anybody in Suna honestly cared what happened to him. "Sure.. why not."

"Alright! So we're off, I suppose!" He ran to the door before zipping up his jacket and looking back at Gaara. "You're gonna have to show me the way, I've never been!, so hurry up!"

"Do you think I've been there, either?" He shook his head, getting off the bed and following him. "We'll need a map, then."

Naruto blinked. "But I thought you've been everywhere, Gaara! Jeez.." He scuffed the floor and dug his hands in his pockets. "I don't have any map, though. And I wanna leave without anybody realizing it. What are we gonna do?"

"I know where to find a map without anybody realizing it." He said, then peeked out the door, looking around to see if the coast was clear. "It's just a bit risky.."

"Risk is my middle name!" He shouted before shushing himself. "Oh, yeah, we gotta be quiet." He leaned behind Gaara, not enough to see around the doorframe though, just enough to look like a cool spy movie.

He sighed quietly, wondering if a stealth mission would be too much for his orange friend. He shook his head, not really caring either way, and walked out of the door, motioning for Naruto to follow.

Naruto stalked behind him, glancing every which way once and a while. He was pretty jittery from exitement and couldn't handel going this slow. "Hey, hurry up! This place is stuffy and I don't want to see your dad again as much as you do!" He shout-whispered.

"Quiet.." His voice was almost inaudible. He stopped, holding up his hand and peeking into the door beside him. He stared, his hand still raised to Naruto. He held up only his index finger now, motioning for the blond to wait, and snuck into the room.

Naruto had a blinking spazm, slapping his hands to his mouth. Unlike Gaara who seemed to be very serious about all this, he had to hold himself to stop the giggling. Although a little voice inside his head was telling him to follow his friend he did wait as instructed.

As Gaara wandered into the room, he wondered if leaving Naruto out there was even a good idea, but he pushed that thought away. He got to the desk, opening one of the drawers to see if it had what he was looking for. Apparently not, so he closed that one and looked through a different one. After finding what he was looking for, he got back over to the door, walking out and stopping in front of Naruto. He looked over the blonde's shoulder, hearing the voice of someone coming up the stairs. He grabbed Naruto's arm, looking around once before pulling him into some random room. Which just happened to be a really cramped closet. He looked at Naruto, whispering.

"Be quiet, we can't be caught.."

Naruto glanced about and then huffed. "Why are we in a closet?!" He whispered rather harshly. "Did you get the map? Are we set to go? Why can't we be caught?" He tried to move his arm which was squashed between Gaara's hip and a large box but when he pulled it out it flew and slapped Gaara over the side of the head.

"Aghh!!" He growled, turning his head the best he could, slapping his hand over Naruto's mouth and keeping it there when he heard the people walking by the closet stop, one of them telling the other that they heard something funny from the closet. Gaara stared at the door, then eyed Naruto. Things wouldn't turn out so well if the guys outside the door were anybody special.

Naruto looked at the door as if it was Satan himself, suddenly feeling the pressure as someone jiggled the knob. His eyes darted up and above him he saw a rolled up rug on a shelf. Giving it a light tap, the rug rolled off the shelf and over the two boys, covering them completely in one silent second. From under their hiding spot, Naruto felt the dust crawl into his eyes and nose but kept perfectly still, his face in the most ideotic expression while the person at the door turned the knob.

Gaara kept his hand on Naruto's mouth, now staring at the rug that was hiding them. He waited, listening as the guys opened the door and stared at the rug. He heard one of them say something about how it must have been the rug, and they closed the door again. Gaara turned his head to stare at Naruto in the dark, waiting until he couldn't hear the two guys anymore. Once they were gone, he pushed past the rug, opening the door and pulling Naruto out with him. If anybody had been watching that, it would look as though Gaara was holding Naruto captive. He finally let go of the blonde's face, looking at him.

"Brilliant.. and your expression is strange, what does that look mean?"

"It means I-I-" Naruto threw his head back and then forward when he sent out a sneeze aimed directly at Gaara's face. Then he wiped his nose with his hand flashing a drunk smile. "-Just saved our butts with an amazingly-executed 'hold-in-dust irritation' trick, believe it.."

He stared blankly at Naruto, slowly raising his hand and wiping whatever had just hit his face off. Amazing how it barely bothered him that Naruto just sneezed in his face. "Alright then.."

He turned towards the nearest window, then glanced back at Naruto. "Follow me.."

Without waiting for a reply, he went to the window, opening it and putting one foot up, looking back to Naruto, then jumped out.

Naruto nodded once earnestly and followed Gaara out the window. For a brief moment he wondered why he was complying to everything so easily. But he quickly pushed the thought away and labeled it as 'Gaara was being to cool to argue with' and continued on.

Gaara grabbed Naruto's arm as the blond dropped past him, pulling him up onto his little flying sand thing. He made sure Naruto wasn't going to fall off, then looked up to the canyons not far from them. He already had the map out. "The Mist village is that way.. past the canyons. We'll be heading through the land of Rivers to get there.."

"Oooooh!" Naruto bobbed up and down in his spot. "This is gonna be so cool!" He looked over the edge of the flying sand blob and shivered a bit before grinning. "And it's so easy to get there on this thing!" His eyes reluctantly pulled away from the sights to glance at Gaara. "Do you always take the sand plane express?"

"No.. not always.." He replied, closing the map and looking at Naruto. "We'll have to walk some of the way, though.. I don't want to waste all of my energy at once.. are you alright with that?"

Naruto didn't reply at first because he was in the middle of spitting off the edge and watching as it disappeared on its trip to the ground. Then he looked back up. "Of course! Maybe we'll meet a missing nin and have to bring it back home! We'll be heros, believe it! And even if we don't, I'm sure where ever we are will look awesome and totally different!"