Cookie Flavors

Chapter One

Sighing softly, Gaara ran a pale hand through his blood red hair. His icy green eyes took in the many piles of papers that needed his approval and he couldn't help but let out another tired sigh. Pulling on of the piles toward him he got to work.

The sun was starting to sink in the sky when Gaara had finally finished clearing his desk. He had just lain back in his chair, when a tapping noise drew his attention to the window behind him. Turning to the window he found a bird perched on the ledge, tapping at the glass with its beak. Standing, he crossed to the window and opened it. The bird hopped in and Gaara immediately recognized it as one of the messenger birds from Konoha. He untied the scroll from the birds back and continued standing as he read it.

As he read, the door to his office was gently pushed open. A blonde head poked in, but seeing that Gaara was busy it was pulled out of sight and the door began to close.

"Temari," The blonde haired girl that had opened the door jumped in surprise before calming down and, opening the door all the way, stepped into the room. "Set up the guest rooms and arrange for a reception at the south gate." Gaara's voice was quiet and emotionless as he gave Temari her instructions.

"Oh," she blinked once more in surprise before focusing on the business at hand, "How many will be arriving, who are they, will they need anything specific, and when will they arrive?"

"Seven, four boys and three girls. Team seven and eight from Konoha. No and tomorrow around four." As he spoke, Gaara pulled a blank scroll from his desk and, quickly writing a reply, he tied it to the messenger bird's back. The bird hopped out the window and took off immediately.

"I'll tell you when the preparations have been completed." Said Temari as she turned to leave. She stopped in the doorway for a second and looked back at the youngest of her brothers. He was calmly seated in his chair looking out the window at the village. She quietly noted that his desk was completely clear of the piles of paper that would normally cover it. Giving a small smile she slipped from the room, closing the door behind her, thinking of the perfect way to reward her brother's hard work.

The sun rose the next morning to find Gaara still sitting his chair, turning around he couldn't help but let out a sigh at the sight of the piles of paper covering his desk yet again. In the middle of the night one of his aides had brought them in quietly. Settling back into his seat, he reached for the first pile and got to work.

At noon someone knocked on his door, breaking his daily routine.

"Come in." he called without looking up from the scroll that he was reading. The door swung open and from the chakra, Gaara could tell that it was Temari.

Stopping in front of his desk she said, "The preparations are complete."

"Good, they'll be here in half an hour." as he spoke he continued to read, "Temari, I want you to be a part of the greeting committee. Make sure that they come here immediately. No detours no matter what."

"Very well."

Gaara waited for a moment for her to either say something else or to leave. When she didn't he asked, "What Temari?" As he spoke he glanced up at her quickly. What he saw made his eyes widen and his mouth open slightly in surprise.

Temari just grinned at the look on her brother's face as she put the plate that she was holding down in front of him. Gaara's green eyes were completely focused on the plate.

The smell of chocolate floated up from the warm, just baked cookies. He reached for one only to have his hand slapped away. It took a moment for him to come out of his haze, but when he did he looked up at his sister with a murderous look on his face.

"Temari." His voice came out as a soft, low growl from the back of his throat.

Temari continued to grin at him as she said, "Gaara, as a reward for all f your hard work as Kazekage, I present you with these cookies. Also, I am willing to fill in for you occasionally if you ever wish to take a break and hang out with your friends." She smiled down at him and, turning away, walked out of the room. But before the door had shut, she stuck her head back in and said, "Don't eat them too fast, you won't be getting them again very soon." And then she was gone. Leaving Gaara alone with a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies.

"Kakashi Sensei!" shouted Naruto at the silver haired man who was completely ignoring him in favor of reading the small orange book in his hand. The man's actions didn't seem to affect the bouncing blonde haired boy though. "Kakashi! I'm starving! Kakashi Sensei!"

"Shut up Naruto!" yelled the pink haired girl who was walking beside him as her fist knocked him to the ground.

Naruto sat up slowly and looking up at the pink haired girl folded his arms across his chest and said, "Sakura-chan! Why did you do that? Aren't you hungry as well?"

Sakura just hmph'ed at him and followed after Kakashi who had left the two behind. Standing up, Naruto brushed the dirt off of him and turned to the other team who was walking behind them. "Aren't any of you hungry?" he questioned.

"Nope." Said Kiba, while Hinata and Shino just shook their heads.

"Naruto," said team nine's sensei, Kurenai, "How can you be hungry already? We ate breakfast four hours ago and you ate the most of everybody."

"No I didn't." said Naruto defensively, "Kiba ate the same amount as me."

"Yeah, but I'm not hungry, am I?" said Kiba as he smirked at Naruto. He obviously found the other boy's troubles amusing.

Kiba's comment started a pointless argument between the two. Kurenai rolled her eyes at her student's childish behavior. Giving up on trying to figure out why Naruto was hungry she sped up to walk with Kakashi and Sakura, leaving Hinata and Shino to watch the two bickering boys.

"It's not my fault I'm hungry." said Naruto. "I can't help it if my metabolism is faster than normal."

"Well you don't have to whine about it so loudly!" Kiba yelled at the other boy. "The rest of us don't want to hear about your problems! We're not going to being eating again till we get to Suna. So you're just gonna have to live with being hungry!"

The others looked at him in surprise at his outburst.

"K- Kiba," stuttered Hinata quietly, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Said Kiba roughly. Seeing Hinata flinch at his tone, he softened his voice and said, "Sorry Hinata. I've just been feeling on edge recently."

"I wonder why." Mused Shino in his normal monotone voice, "Usually you're quite calm when we go on missions. What's got you so tense? We're just going to Suna. We probably won't get in a single battle. What are you nervous about?"

"Huh?" said Kiba, "I'm not tense or nervous about anything." But the slight blush that pinked the skin on his cheeks betrayed his words. If Shino hadn't known him so well he never would have noticed it since it was mainly hidden by the red tribal tattoos that covered most of his cheeks.

"You're blushing Kiba." Said Shino in a flat voice.

Naruto, who had been watching silently since Kiba's little outburst studied Kiba's face intently before grinning like an idiot and saying, "He is!"

"I am not!" yelled Kiba, trying to make the blonde boy stop laughing.

"Why are you nervous Kiba?" asked Hinata, "You never get nervous before battles and we won't be in any, so are you nervous about seeing someone?"

"What!" shouted Kiba, the pink getting slightly darker around the edges of his tattoos. "How could I be nervous about seeing someone? I don't know anyone from Suna." He reasoned as he subtly moved so that he was slightly ahead of them, making it impossible for them to see his face.

"That's not true." said Shino as he pushed his sunglasses further up his nose. "You know Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. You could be nervous about seeing any of them."

Kiba stiffened slightly as Shino listed the names of the sand shinobi that he had met. Hoping that no one had noticed he said, "Yeah, but I don't know any of them very well."

"So?" said Naruto as he bounced next to Kiba. "That doesn't mean that you can't have a crush on one of them."

"He's right," said Shino from behind them, "you don't have to know someone to be attracted to them."

"So which one do you think it is?" asked Hinata innocently. "I don't think it's Temari. We all know that she and Shikimaru have a thing for each other and I can't see Kiba getting along with her at all."

"I agree." Said Shino simply.

"Wait," exclaimed Naruto after he'd thought for a moment, "so Kiba's gay?"

"What! No, I'm not gay!" Said Kiba loudly, but once again his cheeks betrayed him.

Naruto saw his cheeks darken even more and laughing said, "Ha! You are! Don't worry man, it's okay."

Kiba just walked along quietly, his face so red that his red fang markings were hidden.

"So, who do you like? Gaara or Kankuro?" Naruto's voice was strangely emotionless as he said this and Kiba looked over at him questioningly.

Shino seemed to notice the change as well since he said, "So, who do you like Naruto? Gaara or Kankuro?"

"Huh?" Naruto blinked for a few minutes before turning beet red. "Um, well…"

"Well Naruto?" said Kiba with a slight snarl in his voice.

"I asked first!" shouted Naruto, "You have to tell first."

Before Kiba could respond Hinata interrupted with, "Why don't you both say which one you like at the same time? Then you'll know that you don't like the same person."

"How do you know we won't like the same person?" asked Naruto.

"I'll tell you after you confess who your crushes are." Said Hinata with a small smile on her face.

"Okay." Said Naruto and Kiba quietly agreed.

"On the count of three." Said Hinata. "One…Two…Three!"

"Gaara." Said Naruto quickly.

"Kankuro." Said Kiba a few milliseconds behind him.

"See," said Hinata, "I knew you two wouldn't like the same person."

"How?" asked Naruto.

"Easy," said Hinata, "Naruto, you fought Gaara after the chunnin exams and you found that you had a lot in common with him. You also did everything you could to help him when his student was kidnapped. Kiba, Kankuro is the one who saved you from Ukon and Sakon. He's also the person that you volunteered to help when we went to back up the Suna shinobi."

"And," said Shino once Hinata was finished, "Naruto hasn't hung out with Kankuro at all and the two have nothing in common. The same thing goes for Kiba and Gaara. So you two don't have to worry about the other stealing your crush away. The only thing you to really need to worry about is whether or not Gaara and Kankuro are gay."

Naruto and Kiba froze at Shino's words.