Looking for Food.. And Onii-chan

He looked to Akio, then back to Naruto, an incredibly blank look on his face. The only emotion visible was in his eyes, but even that was being hidden. "If I fail to take care of Akio I will be exiled."

Naruto blinked a few times again and set Akio down, grinning. "Well, you might as well learn to like him, cuz if you don't you'll just have a miserable time." Then he pulled out his little notepad, revealing the picture he had drawn earlier of what was supposedly Gaara. "Hmm, actually, it does look a lot like you.."

"Then again, it may be better off that way." He shook his head, then eyed the notepad in Naruto's hands, wondering if he should bother asking. "I could just kill him now and get it over with."

"BWA?!" Naruto dropped his notepad, grabbing Akio once again in an embrace. "Not Nii-chan! No way, Gaara! He's too cute, man, you can't kill something this cute! He loves you with all his little purple heart, and he's waaaay less annoying then Konohamaru! You're lucky to have such a well behaved kid!"

He stared at them, then turned. "If so, you keep him, then."

"Uhh..." Naruto looked down at Akio, the thought swished around in his head a little bit. Having a little brother wouldn't be so bad, in fact, he'd have someone to talk to on lonely days. But he shook his head staring at Gaara. "I don't think it's possible. I mean, I'm already getting a break by the Hokage for my house and even Iruka-sensei tips in a bit, but they wouldn't offer anything for Nii-chan. We'd go broke and end up starving on the streets." Then he grinned and picked Akio up, placing him on his shoulders. "Besides, he likes you better, Onii-chan Gaara. And won't you be ex..exiled if you don't take good care of him? His place is with you, believe it."

"Whatever." He looked back over to them, staring at the purple haired boy that was now on Naruto's shoulders. "If you won't take him, then I obviously have no other choice."

Naruto stuck out his tongue. "Bleh. That's not true. You can live with him. That would be the best and nicest choice. In fact, you could probably teach him a few jutsu, I bet he wants to grow up to be big and strong just like you, huh?"

"No, he doesn't." He shook his head. "He can't. I wouldn't let that happen."

Naruto's smile widened. "See, you do care! What kind of brother would let his younger brother grow up so lonely as he is? Not Gaara of the desert! No way!" He hopped over to Gaara, ending the distance between them and picked Akio up, placing him on Gaara's shoulder. "He looks great on you, believe it!"

He suddenly looked a bit annoyed. "..Right. Why does it seem as though you're treating him as an accessory? Why must I wear him on my shoulder?"

"Yay!!" He grinned, hugging Gaara's face. "Onii-chan loves me!!"

Naruto smirked and crossed his arms. "You're just proving my point more and more. A brother would never want their little bro to be mistreated! And the reason he's on your shoulders if for bonding purposes." He put his fingers into a little square and looked through it a Gaara and Akio. "What a heart warming scene! I'm sure you'd get a lotta girlies with this little kiddy on your back!"

His expression suddenly turned even more annoyed. "I'm not his brother.. and I don't want any 'girlies', this kid following me around is quite enough, actually."

"Ah, well. I know you love him, even if you don't want to admit it." He turned around and was about to walk away but then he remembered something and looked back. "Hey, wait, why were you here in the first place? I mean, why did you come to Konoha at all?"

"..." He pulled Akio off of his shoulder, practically ripping his face off in the process, and put him on the ground. "No reason.."

Naruto turned around a skipped back. "That's not what Nii-chan said! He said you came to see someone. You got another best friend behind my back or something?" He put his hands on his hips and leaned forward, squinting at him.

"I don't think there is anybody else in this village that would even think about talking to me unless they were either stupid or thought I was on my way to kill somebody." He stared at Naruto, wondering which one he had fallen into when he decided to talk to Gaara for the first time. "And.. I'm here because.. because.. not because of whatever Akio told you."

"You're not here to see someone?" Naruto leaned back and glanced to Akio and back to Gaara. "So why'd you lie to Nii-chan? Are you part of some drug dealership planning to take over the world or something? Or maybe you went to a stripper bar, although there aren't many in Konoha, why you would pick this place to get laid is beond me."

"No. I did not come here to get laid, and I'm not on the drugs." He looked at Akio. "It is of no concern to you why I am in this village at this moment."

"Pooh." Naruto huffed and crossed his arms. "And here I was thinking that maybe you came to see lil ol me. But, since you don't really care either way-" Looking down at his hands he realized that the bowl of ramen he had been carying when he had left the shop had disappeared. Annoyed, he looked back up at Gaara. "-I might as well leave you alone. Especially now that I've lost my lunch finding your kid."

A sudden look of pain crossed his face, in but a second, and it was gone again. With his head turned away from Naruto now, he glared at the wall beside him. "Do as you wish."

Naruto smirked slightly at Gaara's very quick change in expression. He had begun to notice these slight morphs that fluttered around his friend's face every once in a while. Then he bent down to reach Akio's eye level and waved. "Bye-bye Pa-puru-Nii-chan, I'll see you around." And he stood up and walked away, kicking up dust with every step.

He turned his eyes back to Naruto, watching as he left. He looked down at Akio, seeing that the boy was waving happily to Naruto. He mumbled to himself, slowly uncrossing his arms. Then, doing something so unlike him, he ran after Naruto, jumping in front of him, his eyes wide and his expression showing fear, or something like that. "I came here to see you, alright?!"

He blinked, covering his mouth and walking past Naruto looking confused now.

Naruto blinked and cocked his head to the side, making slight sounds of utter confusion. As Gaara walked past him, he thought "Wait, that did just happen... right?" And then turned around and watched as his friend walk a few steps away before leaping forward and landing on Gaara's back. Hitching a ride on his gourd and grinning from behind. "Aha! I knew you couldn't resist me! Although I didn't think you'd go as far as coming all this way to see me, but whadda ya know? Gar-Gar has a soft-y side! I feel so special, haha! And I knew it all along too!" Of course he was lying about this, he had been just as surprised as the rest of the world with Gaara's sudden act of bravery.