Gaara opened the curtains; another Sunny day in his sand village had begun.
The sun shone a little too bright in his still sleepy eyes when he clothes himself for a long day at the office, knowing that would be boring.
"But that's a job of a Kazekage after all" he thought to himself while he closed his roomdoor.
The building wasn't that far away, just all-round the corner, he came by a bakery and brought a sandcake for breakfast.
He noticed that people began to recognize him, not as a monster but as a person, it was thanks to Naruto though.
"I have to thank him for getting me out of the darkness" he mumped to himself, "but how?"
"Well, I will ask Temari or Kankuro when I see them" he thought, forgetting that they were both on an A-rank mission.
He stopped and opened the office doors, leaving them open for a nice breeze to go through the building and for the sand ninja's to give them a welcoming feeling when they deliver their reports.
He sat down behind his table, it was a little messy with all the paperwork laying around.
"Let's begin with that" he thought, it took longer than he expected but still finished it before his luchbreak.
Gaara thought off what to do next, waiting for reports wasn't his kind of thing, he rememberd the idea he had this morning.
"A present for Naruto" he thought, "hot spring tickets? With who would he go? or maybe he could invite him?".
"Why not", Gaara needed space and time to relax after all, Gaara mumped, "next a good hot spring, not too far from both sand and leaf village."
Gaara searched his head for the Kage meeting data.
"Mmm, next week I have a meeting with Tsunade and then I'm in the leaf, settled".
The week passed quikly, Gaara arrived at the Firecountry. Next stop Leaf-village.
Gaara always thought that the Leaf had something peaceful, all sorts of colors filled this place; green leafs, pink sakura's, red/orange building.
Tsunade stood by the portal, welcoming the sand personally with a strong handshake, she gave even gaara a hug.
"Follow me" she said, Gaara walked with her to the Hokage-office, they passed Ichiraku's when he recognized the same kind of clothing Temari used to wear.
He smirked, "so she was skipping her duty again to hang around Shikumari, her missions and ninja skills are both excellent though.
"Temari, the next time you go to the leaf after a mission, please inform me first" he said while giving her a schouldertap.
Tamari's face colored from white slowly to tomato red, "I would esprissied that" he said, while enjoying her still red face.
"Where is he anyway" he asked, Temari didn't answer.
"Well don't stay to long", Gaara left Ichiraku.
"I'm sorry, lady Tsunade for suddenly stopping" he made a light bow.
"No sweat" she responded.
They walked further and arrived at the Hokagebuilding, Tstunade sat down, " let's get down to business" she said.
Gaara responded a yes.
The meeting took around the whole day so tsunade suggested that Gaara could stay in the leaf.
When he got outside, there was a chilly breeze, it cooled his head down bit after the stressful meeting, the top of the Hokage-building had a nice view.
Gaara heard footsteps behind him, he turned around, "so you really are here Gaara, I'm surprised".
Gaara smirked," I have to do my job, speaking of which how is your road to be Hokage doing Naruto?"
"Fine, I guess," Naruto responded, "I'm too busy with my missions that I can't take the chunin exams "he said while he stopped walking and took place next to Gaara." And… how is Sakura doing?"
'Fine…I guess" he said, Naruto's face showed a warm smile while he talked about his friends and especially Sakura.
Gaara enjoyed Naruto's talk, because he had been through the same situation as him.
"Oh…uhm… Naruto?" he began, "would you like to go to a hot spring with me?" he asked.
Naruto looked up to see Gaara's expression, Gaara tried to keep a pokerface (on his sand armor of course).
' I just wanted to thank you for being a good friend" Gaara said a little soft, his face showed a bit of disappointment.
"Wow. A hotspring" he said, "I'll go Gaara"
"Do you have a date" Naruto asked, how about after the meeting?" Gaara said.
"All right" Naruto responded.
" Gaara have you eaten yet?" Naruto asked, "Yeah, some disgusting fish on my way to the Leaf" he responded.
"Like to go to Ichiraku for a bite?"
"Everything better than fish" Gaara said.
So said, so done.
The Kagemeeting ended a few day's later and both Tstunade and Gaara were relieved about the result.
" Well, Tsunade, thank you for your hard work" Gaara said while he stood up from his chair.
He saw Tsunade's face had a warm smile, what could she have up her sleeve" he thought.
"you invited Naruto to a hotspring, am I wrong?"
" no you're not" Gaara responded, " is there something wrong to ask a friend to a hotspring trip?"
he asked Tsunade.
"It just sounds wrong" she responded "but it isn't my business, take good care of him and don't let him bath for to long and especially…. DON'T LET HIM PEEK BY THE WOMAN'S BATH" she yelled.
"I won't let that happen" Gaara promised while he kept a casual face.
" have fun…oh and don't forget to bring enough money for at least 3 people" Tsunade said with a smirk.
" you'll find out soon enough" she answered to Gaara's questioning face.
Gaara left the building, he arrived at Naruto's apartment shortly.
He knocked on the door, footsteps, Naruto's face and an open door.
"come in" said Naruto, Gaara followed him to both his living room and bedroom.
" sorry about the mess" Naruto apologized while he scratched his head.
"Well, I don't mind" Gaara said, "I don't like cleaning either", "but I don't let people see my mess" he said, thinking of his room back in the sand, people only see my laundry."
Naruto laughed, "that's funny, who does your laundry anyway?"
"That, I have to do myself but I let it dry on one of the cable's by my house."
"Aha" Naruto responded, "if I dare to do that in the leaf, my laundry gets burned"
"Sakura" he said, "but don't mind that, I'm ready to go" Gaara followed naruto to the door, he locked it.
"so… let's get going" he said while he turned around, giving the Leaf a last look before he jumped tree to tree.
Gaara took the lead, giving Naruto enough space to accompany him,
Naruto did while they both enjoyed the quietness around them.
Gaara was the first to speak up, he told about a lot that burdened him, Kankuro who spends a lot of his time preparing all his puppets until they were good enough to beat Sassari's, and about Temari who fell in love with Schikamaru.
At first he didn't bother, but she became a pain in the neck for Schikamaru, Tsunade told him that fact of course.
"I didn't expect you to be so open" Naruto said while he thought about his troubles, which he told Gaara at his turn.
Sakura who still wants to be better than Ino, Sai who has a lot of trouble finding his emotions, "that's just annoying enough to make me go crazy, ya know" Naruto almost screamed.
Gaara smiled, "let's relax, will you?" he said.
Naruto laughed, "That would be smart" he responded.
They arrived soon at the hot spring.
"whoa.." Naruto said in surprise, he walked to the changing room, grabbed a yakuta and started to undress.
"I will check us in" Gaara said while he turned around and walked to the owner.
Checking in wasn't that difficult, so Gaara joined Naruto soon at the bath.
Gaara stepped into the water, it was hotter than he expected.
Naruto looked up to see who stepped in, he laughed and closed his eyes.
"is there something wrong" Gaara asked while he looked at himself but saw nothing different.
" I was wondering…" Naruto said mistyriusly, making Gaara curious.
Gaara gave Naruto an asking face.
Naruto answered" do you wear your ultimate defense when you relax?"" you don't have to answer, I was just curious."
Gaara laughed "you have to find out yourself, if you want to know" was his answer, trying to tease Naruto a little because the answer was almost too simple to solve.
" no, of course you don't " said Naruto after a few thoughts."
"why would I wear it in a bath" Gaara asked, "hnnm…I don't know" Naruto responded slowly, enjoying the hot water and the fresh air around him.
Gaara gave it a rest, sat next to Naruto and enjoyed the relaxing rush that came over him.
His thoughts filled his head, memories.
Memories that played like a movie in his head, both happy and sad.
Naruto heard Gaara breathing heavily, he opened his eyes to see what happened, Gaara's face showed pain, Naruto tapped him on his shoulder, trying to wake him up.
He didn't respond, Naruto found it fishy.
He bowed and grabbed Gaara under his knees, his body leaned against Naruto's chest.
Naruto layed the yakuta so that it covered Gaara.
Naked with Gaara in his hands he walked from the hall to their room, he layed him on the ground.
He carefully dried him, at last he covered Gaara with a blanket so he couldn't catch a cold.
After that naruto clothed himself which his yakuta, leaving the room to prepare some cold pats to lay on Gaara's forehead.
"I'm not a medical ninja but he has a high fever" Naruto said to himself, "what to do next".
When he came back in the room and dipped Gaara's face.
He looked better every minute but still couldn't open his eyes, the stress of the last week hit him like a bomb, it became too much to handle.
Naruto found it quite amusing that Gaara collapsed, a naughty thought past his mind, he ignored it knowing that it won't work out.
It probably would end like him and Sasuke, a misunderstanding on both sides had resulted to Sasuke's leave and betraying the village.
Naruto ended his thought when Gaara came back from his blackout; he was still tired so Gaara asked him if he already ordered some food.
"No I didn't" Naruto answered "but I will order porridge for you"
"Please don't wait for me to order" Gaara said, knowing that he wasn't planning to eat anyway.
Gaara slept quietly for 30 minutes until an old lady brought naruto's food, ramen he thought.
Naruto knelt down by Gaara's head, checking if he was still asleep.
He carefully lifted Gaara up, but he didn't have the strength to keep his upperbody in a sit position.
Naruto chuckled, sat down beside Gaara and pulled him on his lap.
Gaara's side leaned against Naruto's chest, Gaara panicked over the awkward position, he gave it a rest, knowing that it would be for the best.
Naruto's heartbeat sounded so strong…so loveble, almost cute in that quite muscled body.
"you look so sweet when you're having a high fever" Naruto said while he spooned Gaara porridge, Gaara felt embarrassed, but his cheeks already had a rosy color from his sleepiness.
Somehow Gaara secretly enjoyed the attention, just for once Gaara let things be.
Naruto fed him the whole bowl, surprisingly Gaara was really hungry.
After that Gaara felt sleepy from the meal, but his body temperature wasn't going to let him sleep.
Gaara was way too cold to sleep, the position he was pulled into made him too excited.
Of course Gaara wasn't the only one that noticed that he was turned on, Naruto felt it too.
"Gaara" he began "do you feel any better?"
"uhm.. no" Gaara answered "but you can make me" he whispered in Naruto's ear…..
"To be continued"