Lee had just finished his training and was just about to leave (it was dark and he was alone because everyone else left ages ago) when he heard something behind him

Lee had just finished his training and was about to leave (it was dark and he was alone because everyone else left ages ago) when he heard something behind him. Normally he would have thought nothing of it because it was a very windy night but he kept hearing these things all day and he was sure that someone was following him.

"Who's there?" he said loudly hoping to startle anyone who was hiding and not to give them any time to think but to his surprise he saw noone and nothing happened he stood in a defensive position for over ten minutes.

He decided that noone was there and he was just being paranoid. Since his fight with gaara in the chuunin exams he'd been very jumpy.

He went home and fell asleep quickly not noticing the angry gaara hiding in the trees surrounding the training area.

Gaara felt stupid! He'd made to much noise when following Lee, he needed to catch lee by surprise and finish what he started in the chuunin exams.

He arrived home and sat on the couch feeling rather more depressed than normal. Temari came and sat next to him; "uh, gaara where did you go? You said you'd be home by eight, I cooked you some really nice stuff..." she asked.

"can't you just heat it up" he retorted, not in the mood for explaining things to his sister, she wouldn't let him look for lee. Let alone kill him!

"Oh, ok..." she said sounding hurt, she'd obviously thought of that and just wanted to know where he'd been.

Gaara gazed at the ceiling and spent the few minutes it took for temari to get and heat up his food, thinking about how good and alive it would make him feel killing lee.

Temari brought him some food and he ate it slowly to pass the time. He was in for another long and boring night thinking about nothing but lee.

Lee woke up the next morning having completely forgotten about what happened in the training area the night before and happily ate his healthy energy boosting breakfast while thinking about the training he would do that day.

Gaara was sitting alone in a clearing in the forest near Konoha when he felt a light tap on his shoulder, who had snuck up on him? who could?

He turned around and found goofy black eyes staring back at him. It was lee. "What do you want?" he asked bitterly, lee had managed to sneak up on gaara whilst gaara couldn't manage to even come close to lee.

"well you looked so lonely sitting here on your own and I never see you in the village, so I though id asked you if you wanted to hang out! Would that be ok?" Gaara sat there looking dumbfounded, had he heard the green jumpsuit clad leaf ninja correctly, or was he simply going mad?

"Well?" asked lee inquisitively. Gaara smiled inwardly, it would be a great way to catch him off guard! "Sure," he said "why not?"

"Great!" shouted lee, obviously exited at the prospect. What a fool he thought as he followed the scurrying lee through the forest towards the village.

No, gaara couldn't be seen with lee by anyone close to him or by temari and kankuro!

Temari would be in the village visiting some of her friends and if she saw gaara with lee she would know that he would kill him when the chance came.

Lee was happy that he'd managed to get gaara to be his friend and was sure that what happened in the chuunin exams was a distant memory and lee completely forgave him.

"Wh" he began to speak but gaara cut him off; "I don't feel like going into the village right now, my sister's there"

Lee was confused, surely gaara would like to see his sister? "What do you mean? That shouldn't affect us, we could avoid her if you wanted, I want my friends to meet my new friend!!" Lee was quite frustrated.

Was gaara hearing things, had lee really just called him his friend? Perhaps he would humour lee for a while, gaara had never had a friend before and was interested to see what made it so appealing.

"Ok then let me see your friends, perhaps I can become their friends to," Gaara liked that idea but in the end he would finish what he started, he'd made a promise to himself and he was going to keep it.

"anyway, as I was saying, where do you wanna go?" Lee looked so hopeful and happy and care free that gaara was seriously considering renouncing the demon inside that made him feel the need to kill and the loneliness that he'd felt all his life. "why don't we go see these other friends of yours?" Gaara said feeling stupid but good at the same time.