AN: This is the first of a couple of oneshots that I've dedicated to Kitsune (known as kitsune-chan1227 on DA, and as kitsune-chan119 here on fanfiction. She's such a darling, you should check out both her writing and drawings! They're great
(oh yeah, and I don't own Naruto)
She had soft hair, he mused. Much softer than his, anyways. The sand and the wind dried his out, but hers was well kept, befitting of the former Hyuuga clan heir. It was soft and long, and in the constant Suna sun, it shone far brighter than it had that first time he had seen her.
Well no, he corrected himself, the second time. The first time had been the Chunnin exam - the time he was thinking about was when he had seen her with Naruto on one of his trips to Konoha. The look on her face as Naruto ran to him, and away from her, had been etched into his mind for days after, along with the image of a stern, elderly man glaring at him from across the council table as he asked him if he could visit his compound. Hiashi had been politely definite, but Tsunade's exclamation to stop being such a tight-ass might have spurred his final decision, if only to get the drunkard off of his back.
She had been training when he finally did drop by. She had pulled her hair back so it didn't bother her, and as she practiced the precise steps of the Hyuuga style, he had hidden his presence. Unlike Naruto's bubble-gum haired companion, Hinata was not an eye-catcher. She did not boldly enter a room, or loudly greet others. She did not brag, or dress to suit others wants.
And he found that beautiful, even as sweat dripped down her mesh tank-top and veins bulged around her eyes.
He wrote his curiosity off as just a passing thing; until, back still turned to him, she whispered, "Good afternoon Kazekage-sama."
No stutter. No pretense. As the time slipped by after her greeting, she went back to training, stumbling only slightly as he walked away from her.
And into her father.
Gaara had to hand it to him - Hiashi was handling himself far better than most parents did when Gaara was over for a visit. Shikamaru's mother, mid-rant about her lazy son and equally lazy husband, had gone suddenly still when he had made his presence known, while Sakura's father had been on the very brink of fainting when he witnessed his precious daughter with two demon containers. Instead of doing either of those, Hiashi looked him straight in the eye and straightened his back.
"She is not a fighter."
"...I do not follow."
"She lacks any form of common sense - she's too soft on others. But...she sees the good in people. She wants to help them."
Gaara watched as the older man stepped closer to the arena where his daughter was practicing so diligently. There was a look in his pale eyes as he turned to him that Gaara couldn't read.
"It just so happens that she sees good in you. Kazekage or not, do not crush her, or you will be invoking the wrath of many skilled and dangerous Gentle Fist users."
When Gaara remained silent, Hiashi took matters into his own hands. "Talk to her, if you wish. Be aware that you have many eyes watching though."
As her father disappeared around the corner, Gaara shook his head. It was out of character for him to seek a stranger out like this, but he couldn't find the emotions to be upset over what he had done. He had, after all, gained the approval of the notoriously straight-laced and uptight Hyuuga lord to approuch his heir, something that seemed to be a big deal. At least, it seemed that way, what with the thirty or so pair of eyes that were trained oh-so discreetly at him and Hinata.
"Hello Hyuuga-san," he called out to her as he stepped closer. At his greeting, she turned fully around to him, and, much to his surprise, smiled. It was not the uneasy, unconfident smile she had shown Naruto before Naruto had run to him, but a familiar smile that made his heart clench. Even now, after so many years of struggling to control his urges, of bettering himself, few of the villagers dared show him a face like that. To think that, of all people, a girl who had witnessed him brutally murder other genin, a girl notoriously known for being a slip and a mouse of a child, would smile with such warmth at a monster like him...it boggled his mind.
"I was wondering when you would come talk to me, Kazekage-sama." With practiced ease, she bowed, and then stepped to the side, where a small bench overlooked the training grounds. She gestured at it, and he nodded, moving towards it, his customary guard sliding off his back on a sand current. Though Shikaku was long gone, he could still move the sand, albeit slowly.
"Why would you think that?" he asked when she finally settled in besides him. It was surprisingly not as awkward as he would have thought, to sit in the middle of a foreign countries greatest clan, with severe supervision over both him and the girl in front of him.
Hinata didn't seem to mind either. In place of answering, she undid her pony tail, letting her hair fall down to one shoulder. While she brushed aside the slight curls that clung to where the band had been, she simply said, "I had a feeling."
Amusing. Before he could stop himself, he found himself smirking at her. It wasn't a smile, like the one he showed his family or Naruto, but it was more than most other nations had ever seen. That too, didn't seem to faze her, as she tilted her head back and looked up into the clouds.
"You are aware why I am in Konoha, correct?"
A faint blush settled against her cheeks - he noted she did that whenever she was embarrassed. "Very aware."
"Yet, you are sitting here with me. Why?"
Hinata gave a little half-shrug. "You looked desperate. Oh, um, but I don't mean that in a mean way or anything..." she trailed off. Much to his (dare he say it) amusement, she started poking her fingers together. Back and forth, back and forth. Maybe it was some strange girl thing? The only girl he spent regular time with was Temari, and he had learned long ago she was not the portrait of feminine beauty.
"It's fine. I am rather desperate, at this point," he admitted. He defaulted to crossing his arms across his chest, just so he didn't seem so stiff. "But that doesn't mean you have to do this."
For a second, Gaara thought he had scared her away. Her round pupiless eyes went wide and her mouth made an O. It wasn't until her tinkling laughter filled the arena that he let his guard down.
"I haven't agreed to anything yet."
"This is true."
"And you have made no promises yet, correct?"
"Also true."
"Then Kazekage-sama, I don't know why you are worrying."
It took him a minute to get that she was playing with him. Understanding flooded him, so he did something he rarely did - he laughed.
Maybe it was that that made him ask her for a second outing. Or maybe it was the way she didn't flinch when his sand accidentally rubbed against her, or the way she shyly intertwined their hands together as she dragged him behind her to show him her home. It didn't really matter, either way: Much to his astonishment, Hyuuga Hinata had turned out to be more than the mousy first born he had written her off as years and years ago. No, in fact, she was quite tactical.
"You mean to tell me, she planned this?"
"Yup. I didn't really get it, but I guess it all worked out, neh?"
"Why would she plan for something like this?"
"Dunno. But she's a nice girl, a little weird, but nice. Maybe she just has a thing for demon containers, neh? She seemed really upset when I told her I forgot to mention her to you. But it all seems to have worked out for the better, huh?" Naruto slapped his back in what was, Gaara guessed, a comforting manner before taking his leave.
When he asked her later at dinner, Hinata had simply smiled over her cinnamon roll at him and said, "Naruto believes I have a thing for guys with demons," and left it at that.
A year after, he asked, this time over a bottle of champagne. Again, she smiled, but said, "You looked so lonely, like a lost puppy."
A few hours after that, while she was pinned beneath him, she said, "Because you deserved love and I wanted what I had never had. Naruto was fleeting - but you are for life."
It was one of the only times Gaara had felt like crying out of pure happiness. He hadn't, of course, but the feeling was there, and Hinata knew it too. That's probably why she cradled his cheek and leaned up for a kiss.
And now that she laid still in his arms, chest slowly rising up and down with each peaceful breath, and her hair strands were between his fingers, he felt a sense of elation. He was no Naruto, and never would be - and that's why she had come to this strange alliance with him. He could provide what Naruto neglected to give her, and she gave him what everyone had thought he never needed.
So when he settled down to sleep, he wasn't surprised to find that she had wrapped her arms around his middle. He smiled - and with a gentle kiss and a soft-spoken "Good Night" he cradled her in his arms and let the sandman take him away.