Disclaimer: Naruto and all relating characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto

"Talking"

'Thinking'

Shadow on the Moon

Chapter 1: When the Moon Dreams

Darkness hung over the desert making the moon in the night sky shine brightly lighting everything in the village below. A lone figure bounced from roof to roof looking ever so often up at the stars that appeared silently overhead. This figure blended into the night and with the grace of years of practice bolted from one roof onto the tallest house in the area, then launched off and fell a bit only to land carefully onto a window sill from an open window. Once inside the house she let out a large sigh and flopped onto the bed nearby. This was none other then Gekkou Katsura who had just finished her shift on patrolling the village until the night watch took over. It had been a few months since she had traveled from her home in Konoha to her new home in Suna. She closed her eyes and could feel sleep starting to take over as she curled more into the covers of the bed, she smiled and inhaled the scent all around her. It was that of her precious person, Sabuku no Gaara. She grabbed onto one of the pillows and snuggled it gently waiting until the red headed shinobi returned for the Kazekage tower. There was a noise of the door to the bedroom opening and closing swiftly, footsteps walked over to the bed almost silently and stopped just in front of the young chuunin. She didn't stir since she knew exactly who it was.

"You are late" A cool voice spoke while keeping his eyes on the almost sleeping girl.

"I know Gaara" She opened her eyes to look at the other who wore a face of concern though not many people would be able to see it. "The ninja who was suppose to take over for me had an family emergency to I stayed until she got there."

"I don't like you to be out late by yourself" He said and she just laughed, he was very protective over Katsura and she liked it but would always remind him she was a ninja and could take care of herself. He sat down on the bed facing away from the swordsman, she sat up as well and took off her sword forgetting she was wearing it and tossed it near the wall gently. She crawled over to him and placed her arms around his neck while placing her own head on his shoulder. He brought up his own hand and held onto her arm. "I don't want anything to happen to you" He managed to say. Katsura smiled and kissed his cheek.

"You don't have to worry, as long as I have you I will always be safe." She said and those words seemed to soothe the tattooed young kazekage. She let go of him and instantly the boy felt colder. "Now I haven't eaten all day, I'm going to make some dinner what do you want?" She walked out of the room knowing Gaara wouldn't answer her, he never did. It had been like this for a while, she would come home from her almost daily patrol or mission and make diner for the two of them and sometimes Temari and Kankuro. By orders of Tsunade she was not to leave the village on missions until she gained the council's trust after what had happened when Gaara died. Baki of course had been fighting for her the entire time and all but one of the members knew she wouldn't do anything against the village, the one that thought otherwise didn't even trust the Kazekage but he was slowly coming around.

She walked into the kitchen down stairs and started looking to see what there was to make. Gaara silently entered the kitchen as well, he was dressed in her usual attire that was under his robes, and took as seat at the table and watched Katsura. She huffed upon seeing almost nothing left but managed to make a simple meal of rice and meat. While she was cooking Gaara could hear her voice singing silently, he never told her that he could hear her sing every time, she would sing that simple song that her mother used to sing to her as a child and though her voice was not the greatest he still enjoyed her singing. Everything seemed peaceful until a certain puppet master made his way into the kitchen, drawn by the scent.

"Hey Gaara, what'cha making Kat?" Kankuro said going straight to the cooking food, just as he reached his knuckled were smacked by a wooden spoon. He pulled his hand back and cradled it like a child. He looked over at the offender which was Katsura.

"Don't call me that and don't eat until its finished" She scolded like so many other nights, a scene similar to this played out almost every night and Gaara sat silently every night. Truth be told he was happy that Katsura had come into his life, everyone was. The two other Sabuku siblings found that Gaara was more relaxed and, dare they say, happier with the brunette around. The council was pleased that the young girl was having a positive impact on him, they were afraid he may revert back to how he was, except for Baki, but since Katsura arrived there had been several changes of the Kazekage and none seemed to think the same thing anymore. The three of them sat down to dinner just as Temari came back from a mission that she had been at for a couple of days. She joined them as well, the wind mistress smiled. They had once been a broken family but now they were together again with a new person.

After a nice night of talking, mainly by Temari and Katsura, the young swordsman yawned. "I think I am off to bed, Kankuro you get the dishes." She smiled as she stood up to walk away.

"Why do I always have to do the dishes, what about Gaara or Temari?" The makeup boy complained.

"I just got back from a mission and Gaara's been working all day" Temari said nonchalantly while smirking at her younger brother. He just glared at the kunochi.

"I work all day too, I had to help at the academy today… I had to work with kids, I hate kids." He yelled while Temari shrugged, he looked over at his younger brother but saw that he was gone along with Katsura. He looked back at his sister who was helping herself to another serving. "How long to you think it will take for them to realize that we know"

Temari looked at the empty seat then back to her plate. "I don't know… I think It might be time to have a talk with them though." The eldest sabuku said while digging into her food. Kankuro paled under the purple makeup, memories came back when he and Shikamaru almost gave Gaara a talk before.

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The happy couple were upstairs during the conversation of the other part of the family. Katsura lay in bed while Gaara sat at his desk looking over paperwork that he needed to finished before he went to bed. Ever since the demon was extracted from his body he required sleep but found he was unable to fall asleep unless he was with the young swordsmen. The red head sighed and shook his head.

"I don't understand why you want to keep it a secret from Temari and Kankuro" The kazekage stated without looking at who he was talking to.

Katsura opened her eyes and leaned up to look at the back of Gaara's head before she spoke. "It's not exactly proper for a girl to share the same bed with the guy she is dating" The young brunette said making Gaara look back at her confused.

"You have said that before and I don't understand" He started but Katsura turned red and laid back down and tried to fall back sleep.

"Don't ask" She said hoping Gaara would change the subject. Something such as that needed to be discussed at the proper time and this was not it.

After a few minutes the light above the kage's desk turned off and Katsura felt the bed shift under the newly added weight. She felt Gaara's strong yet gentle arms wrap around her and she leaned into him using his chest as a pillow. Gaara fell into peaceful sleep thanks to the steady rhythm of Katsura's breathing, Katsura fell asleep as well but for some reason the brunette was having a bit of trouble resting peacefully, images flooded her mind in an incoherent movie playing through her mind.

DREAM

The wind blew across the treetops making the branches ache and moan in protest to the unnatural moment. Figures darted from brach to brach in a blur that even the trained eye would have trouble finding. Two other figures stood in the middle of a clearing back to back with kunai in their hand waiting for an attack. Katsura stood on the edge of this clearing watching but she felt heavier then normal and found she was almost unable to move from her spot, she watched in horror as the scene unfolded itself. The two figures in the middle waited though one was shaking in fear as the other remained expressionless. A blur rushed for them and a fist contacted with one of the figures in the center, Katsura saw a glimpse of this boys face as he hit the ground and the other reacted to try and hit the attacker. She realized they were her old teammates, they were Gemma and Jubei. More blurs came out of the trees around them to attack, slowly their faces became covered blood and bruises. Katsura wanted to go help but found she was unable to do so, Gemma was hit in the back and fell over spitting up blood, he looked up and made eye contact with her, his mouth moved to tell her to run, to get far away but the words never reached her ears. With every ounce of strength she had Katsura raced towards her teammates. Jubei turned around and smiled at her just as sword came at him piercing his chest. Katsura screamed and ran faster but the ground disintegrated under her feet and she fell into the blackness of nothing. Her heart raced and her eyes filled with tears that streamed down her face in hysterics.

END DREAM

The next morning Katsura woke up to an empty bed as per usual, everyday she would wake up and Gaara would have already left to the Kazekage tower for his day of work. But this time she wished he was till here next to her, the young girls heart still raced from the vivd dream of the night before. She sat there and wondered why she would have a dream such as that. It had been two years since Gemma and Jubei died, never once did she have a dream about them even though she regretted not being there for them. Her hand reached up to push her hair out of her face and it brushed her cheek gently, she realized that the tears in her dream were real and her face was still stained with them. She took her arms and brushed off any remaining tears from her face before she pushed out all thoughts. She got up and went through the morning routine of getting ready for the day of boring missions or patrol, she sighed.

Tsunade had been clear that Katsura was not to have any outside missions until she was trusted and after what Katsura did by putting everyone in danger she didn't think that would be anytime soon. And to top it off there was no one to train with, Gaara was the kazekage and was really busy and Temari and Kankuro were Jounin and they helped at the academy so their schedule was full as well. The young chuunin wished she could meet more people in Suna but for some reason most of the girls didn't like her.

She walked out of Gaara's room silently and closed the door behind her as quiet as possible even though she knew everyone was gone for the day, her patrol shift didn't start until noon whereas everyone else was gone before she woke up. A sound of a throat being cleared made her jump and turn around facing the hallway to see a glimpse of blonde.

"Temari" Katsura smiled awkwardly at the wind mistress who was, for some reason, waiting for her in the hallway. "What are you doing here?"

"My mission was canceled" A true rarity for any ninja "Why were you in Gaara's room?" She asked coyly with a small smirk.

"Oh… I forgot my sword" She smiled bigger and her hand instinctively raised to rub the back of her head. "Well, I am off to train"

"I'll go with you" Temari said knowing she had to bring up this subject at sometime or another. The two girl walked silently while Katsura almost burst at the seams that she was going to have a training partner. Memories of their last fight played through her head and she stuttered, hopefully the same thing wouldn't be repeated. As the two approached the flat training grounds just outside the busy section of town a mixture of nervousness and excitement mixed within the young girl, she was just plain happy to have someone to train with.

Katsura grabbed her sword and Temari her fan as they stood on opposite ends of the training field. They waited until just the right moment before attacking, just as Katsura was about to charge a cool voice spoke called the swordsman's name making her stop cold in her tracks. She turned to see Gaara looking mildly bored at the scene, the brunette smiled.

"What are you doing here?" Katsura questioned, usually he was gone the entire day at the tower.

"I saw that you were having trouble sleeping and I was concerned so I left Kankuro in charge and left." Gaara explained calmly. Meanwhile high the the kage's tower an angry puppet ninja sneezed loudly making all the paper work fly about, slowly his patients was being worn down. Katsura ran up to him and wrapped her arms around her precious person, he really did care even if he didn't show it all the time or could even verbalize it. Training was canceled for the day, even though Katsura did try to convince Gaara to spar against her but ended up failing.

The three headed back to the house. Katsura grabbed Gaara's hand, just the feeling of being close to the sand nin was enough for the other to forget about her worries and relax. She smiled happily, she never wanted this to change.

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Sorry, sorry, sorry (seems like all my author notes begin with this) I was suppose to write this much earlier but I had tons of personal problems and was unable to do so… why does reality have to get in the way so much!? Anywhoo hope you like the beginning of this story.

Please review, Arigatou