This is my first fic. Reviews are cherished.
AU, Yaoi, SasuGaa, Gaara a little OOC- he's still antisocial but I didn't want him to be too predictable.
Disclaimer: Do I need one? I promise not to impersonate Masashi Kishimoto. Naruto isn't mine and never will be.
- - -
A lone figure moved through the moonlit streets of Konoha. He was almost invisible in the darkness. Almost. But almost was no gaurantee that no one was watching. Gaara shivered in the cool night air and pulled his collar higher over his neck. Numb fingers fumbled and almost dropped the slender package hidden discreetly beneath his coat.
The street was deserted and his footsteps echoed softly. Would they attract notice? This was a heavily guarded area. Gaara stopped for a moment, listening. But the night was silent. When minutes passed with no change he started forward again. The Otogakage didn't like visitors.
Tired, but alert eyes flicked over each dull grey facade he passed.
21... 22... 24... 25...
Wait, what? Gaara paused once more, this time in confusion. His gaze never wavered from the two buildings before him. He was used to midnight deliveries and his nightvision was excellent. Their curb numbers clearly read 22 and 24. Only a black ally existed between them. Fantastic. Where did these people learn to count?
He rechecked the address scrawled on the package's brown paper wrapping. The handwriting was messy, but not illegible. 23, Elm Street, Konoha. Gaara glanced up at the rusted sign proclaiming the street name in bright green ink. Someone had spray painted various swear words on it. Charming.
This was the right street, so where was the fucking building? Gaara shifted nervously. Sometimes the places he delivered to had hidden entrances. If the city planner just didn't like the number 23, he was screwed.
A car backfired in the distance. Yelling ensued. God, I hope I'm out of here before any shots are fired. The last thing I need is a bullet wound.
He ducked quickly into the ally between 22 and 24. Sure enough, there was a small door toward the back. He would have missed it had the moon not chosen this moment to come out from behind a cloud. A dingy bronze 23 glinted eerily in the new moonlight. Gaara knocked purposefully and stood back. The door opened slowly, as if expecting to shut at any moment. First an eye appeared, then the rest of a face. The man behind the door was nondescript in appearance save for his dull orange hair.
"What do you want? We're closed." His tone was low and dangerous.
"I'll only be a minute. Can I come in?" Gaara kept his face carefully neutral.
"Come back tomorrow." The man slammed the door shut.
Well aren't you just a bucket full of sunshine? He would need to try a different approach.
He stepped back up to the door and knocked. When the door didn't open he searched for a doorbell. There wasn't one, so he knocked again, louder, and more incessantly.
The door opened a crack to reveal the same man, looking slightly angrier.
"I told you, we're closed. Come by tomorrow and I'll hook you up. People are trying to sleep man. Piss off."
So this was a crack house. Before the man could shut the door again, Gaara blocked it with his foot. "Wait!" Looking as innocent as possible and injecting just enough urgency into his voice, he tried to Bullshit his way in. The package had to be kept a secret. Itachi had been very clear about that. This was a covert mission.
"Please, there's someone I really need to talk to inside. I promise not to make any trouble. I just need to talk to her. I made a terrible mistake and I don't know what I'd do if I didn't tell her before it's too late." Gaara prayed this guy had a penchant for young love.
The man regarded Gaara silently, his expression softening. After a moment he spoke. "What's her name? When she wakes up, I'll tell her you stopped by."
"It's-" Fuck. What was the name? The red head struggled to remember. Krista? Why couldn't that ass have written it down. No it was something more like...
"It's Karin. but what I have to tell her is private. I know she'll understand if you wake her up."
The man's face paled. "You- what do you want? Karin's not- I mean she doesn't live here anymore." He tried to shut the door again but Gaara caught it before it crushed his foot.
"Please! It's very important I speak with her. Can't you at least tell me where she might be? I'm a friend." He did his best impression of a baby deer.
The man stared at Gaara hard for another minute through narrowed eyes. Finally, a long sigh wracked his skinny frame and he waved Gaara inside.
Inside happened to be just as depressing as outside. A few people dozed on a scruffy couch in the center of the room and the acrid smell of smoke hung in the air. The man strode across the room and pointed down the hall.
"Second door on your left, kid."
"Thank you so much- Sorry, what did you say your name was?"
"Jugo." He grunted before slumping onto the couch beside a woman with black hair.
Jugo. That might come in handy later. Gaara thanked him again and made his way over the dirty shag carpeting to the room the man had indicated.
The door was ajar. Inside, Gaara could see another woman fast asleep on a small bed. Her shoulder length red hair was tangled with sleep and she had a thin line of drool running down her chin. Gaara knocked softly. Apparently she was a light sleeper because her eyelids fluttered and she groggily propped herself up on her elbows, squinting at the door. Gaara stepped inside.
"Karin?"
"Who wants to know?" The woman reached for a pair of round-framed glasses and slipped them onto her face.
"Well are you Karin or not?"
"It's my room, I'll ask the questions here." Her eyes narrowed. "And so what if I am?"
"If you are, I have a package for you." Gaara was getting bored of this. He longed to climb into his own bed and pass out. It had been a long day.
The woman's expression changed from anger to shock in a heartbeat. "You don't mean...?"
"I'm just the delivery boy, do you want it or not?" He held out the unexceptional brown bundle to her.
The woman slid out of the bed, eyes transfixed on what Gaara held in his hand. She would recognize that handwriting anywhere. Once she was a foot away she grabbed it from his hand, cradling it to her breast.
Gaara shrugged off her odd behaviour and headed towards the door. He had a long, cold walk ahead of him.
In a dim room at 23 Elm street, the woman called Karin waited until the crimson haired boy's footsteps had died away completely before carefully opening the package. She let the wrapping fall to the floor and stared at the sealed scroll she now held in awe. A single coiled snake was stamped into the now-dry wax. Her fingers itched to break the seal and read it, but this letter wasn't intended for her. Orochimaru would be returning next week and she knew he would be very, very pleased. Karin smiled to herself and placed her new treasure in the wall safe above her bed and laid back down.
Gathering clouds overhead promised rain, but Gaara was asleep in his bed before the first drops started to fall, blissfully unaware of what events he had just set into motion.
- - -
Be kind, review.
