A year has passed since Sasuke left the village and Naruto was out training with master Jiraiya. It was now everyone else's turn to step up their successes. The Village hidden by the Sand invited Gaara to become the fifth Kazekage. It was his wish to stay on good terms with the Leaf Village and to show their loyalties they hired a young new Jonin to watch over the new Kazekage. Neji Hyuga was to prevent another incident where the jinchūriki would take over.

Neji Hyuga was three days out of the Leaf Village and coming up close to Sunagakure. He was not in a big rush to the get there. His first mission as a jonin and he was to follow around a guy younger than him being the Kazekage. Besides, its a mission being assessed by the month so he really didn't know how long he would be out in that blistering desert.

He couldn't even say that he knew Gaara very well from their time at the Chunin Exams. They didn't have the chance to go up against each other in battle, and Neji wasn't even sure if he could take him back then. Gaara was terrifyingly out of control during the exams, but he was sure he had to of contained it at this point to become Kazekage. Except, why else would they shell out so much money for a Jonin to watch over him? What could Neji do if it came to trying to calm him? He surely couldn't kill him, that would cause war between the villages. If he kept a close eye on Gaara's emotional patterns and routine, Neji suppose he would be able to stop something from bubbling up and if worse case use his byakugan to suppress his chakra.

[ - ]

Neji was lead down a narrow hall lined with stucco, two ninjas of the Sand were taking him up to meet the Kazekage before he started his mission in the morning. He thought of Gaara, how it would be to see each other after the fact now. Was Gaara on board with him following him around for who knows how long? He took a glance out the round windows as they passed by them. The sand beneath them sparkled as they hit the sunlight and wind blew them across the busy village. It was hot and it was dry. Neji really was not a fan.

They reached the end of the way with two heavy metal doors in front of him. The Ninja pushed it open and they peered through. It was a rounded room with more windows lining the back and a desk plopped right in the middle with Gaara sitting behind it. His sibling were on either side of him watching over his shoulders. "Neji Hyuga of the Leaf Village, mission to protect the Kazekage." One of the sand ninja announced as he let Neji step forward.

"Hello Gaara, interesting to see you again." Neji bowed in respect but words cold. Gaara crooked his neck to see him, distracted by his desk, "I didn't think we would see each other so soon." His face was flat as his voice.

[ - ]

Gaara liked being the Kazekage. He felt less like a monster to his village, using the strength people turned away from him from to protect them. It took a lot to convince his people that he was more than his jinchūriki. He tried to be social and take into the village to meet people to show that he was human too. Of course not everyone saw him that way, all he could do was his best.

People can't change their minds right away, he would tell himself, god knows I had to learn my own lessons. Even so, I had Naruto to lead me in the right direction...

Especially now with his siblings, he had to build his patience and keep himself in check when things got hard. He loved his siblings and was working on building those relationships again.

Gaara was at his desk flipping through a stack of paperwork he had due early in the morning. The sun was barely up, not even warm yet. The doors creaked open and the Kazekage rose some sand out of his gourd in the corner in anticipation. Neji poked his head in, hair falling on his face, "So this is where you are. I checked your sleeping chambers."

"I don't sleep much."

"That's not very healthy." Neji rose his eyebrows at him, placing himself beside the boy's chair. Gaara couldn't argue so he kept quiet and scribbled a few more signatures down. "You don't want me here."

"It wasn't my choice." Gaara sighed, taking pen off paper.

Neji leered at him wondering how he could get such an unreadable guy to connect with him. At least become close enough to predict his emotions, that would help his mission.

A sting of his glare behind him made Gaara fidget, he guessed that probably made him feel bad. He could apologize but he couldn't look back at the man. Since he walked in yesterday he felt like things were different than when they first met during the exams. Gaara was an angry kid, and Neji self centered to say the least.

But now, he's been noticing how long Neji's hair was, how vibrant it was under the morning light. Eyes that looked like two opal stones, even though piercing him in the back, he couldn't help but bring color to his face. Gaara without a doubt could call the man stunning to look at, but he couldn't dare share that feeling. He knew that they would be spending much of their time together and decided that it would just fade away.