AN- FYI, this story isn't finished. I'm having trouble with the third chapter. My Sensei edited this story for me, so this is the sorta revised version, but critiques would still be nice. Enjoy.
"Good afternoon, Gaara-sama!" Rock Lee said rather loudly as he stepped into the Kazekage's office.
Gaara looked up and nodded his head at Konoha's green beast. "Lee."
"I have a message for you from Hokage-sama." He took off the bag on his back and pulled out a plain, unmarked envelope and placed it on the desk. Gaara opened it, skimmed through the contents, and called in a jonin that was outside the door to take it and deliver it elsewhere. Then he stood and walked to the opposite side of his desk to stand in front of Lee.
"Well," Lee started, "My mission is complete now, so…"
"Our response will be ready soon, and it's getting dark. Wait until morning."
Lee smiled. "Of course."
It was always like this. They've been friends since they were twelve and fourteen, about five years now. Living in different villages in separate countries meant they got very little time to spend together. Whenever one got the chance to visit the other's village they would look for excuses to delay each other.
They dropped Lee's pack off in a guest room in the Kazekage's home and proceeded to walk around the village, deep in conversation. Of course, a typical conversation between those two boys was Lee doing most of the talking and Gaara simply smiling and nodding.
"So anyways," Lee continued when the conversation got off track, "I was ready to ambush the enemy when Neji activated his Byakugan and said that it was a trap. He said the enemy we were looking at was a genjutsu trick, and the real enemy was hiding nearby, ready to ambush us when we attacked the fake one. So Tenten and I pretended to attack the illusion and Neji caught the enemy from behind when he jumped out."
"So you counter-ambushed the counter-ambusher of your ambush?" Gaara asked, keeping his face as straight and emotionless as ever, though amusement twinkled in his eyes.
Lee's momentary confusion melted into a goofy grin when he realized that was Gaara's odd sense of humor showing. "Er, yeah, I guess."
"I see." Gaara's mouth curled up ever so slightly. Lee tensed up and blushed- the young Kazekage apparently enjoyed teasing him, and they dry tounge-and-cheek manner he went about it only made it worse.
"Hey!" Lee started, but was cut off by a wall of sand that suddenly towered over them. The sand trickled away to reveal several kunai and, a short distance away, the man who threw them. He had his face covered, but a sand shinobi headband was clearly visible. He immediately rearmed himself and rushed toward Gaara. Naturally, Gaara stood still, confidant that the sand would protect him from such a sloppy attack, but it never got the chance as Lee rushed forward to meet the attacker.
He managed to dodge Lee's first move but wasn't fast enough to avoid a crushing round kick to his ribs. He jumped back a few feet and Lee followed with his fist ready. The mystery man barely saw the attack in time to raise his arm, blocking with the sharp edge of his kunai.
In an instant sand was swirling around them both, pushing Lee back and imprisoning the attacker from the neck down. He struggled for a brief moment then cried out in pain as the sand crushed his limbs, paralyzing him so that he could be arrested without trouble.
Lee relaxed his posture and let out a relieved breath. He opened his mouth to say something when Gaara grabbed his hand.
"You're bleeding." There was a subtle bite to his words.
Lee looked down at the blood covering his knuckles and running down his arm. "Oh, I think I hit his kunai."
"You shouldn't have attacked him."
"But, Gaara-sama, he attacked you."
"He attacked me, and you're the one who ends up injured," his voice clearly had an angry edge now. "Why the hell can't you think before you jump on things? You're too careless."
"I was trying to protect you."
Gaara pushed Lee's bleeding hand away. "Damn it, Lee, I can protect myself! What if he was more dangerous? What if more than your hand got injured? You never stop to think before you run head on into danger!"
Lee was taken back by the outburst. "Gaara-sama, I-"
"Don't, Lee. Don't 'Gaara-sama' me. Damn it, I am so fucking sick of this!" Without another word he disappeared in a whirlwind of sand.
Lee stood there, staring speechlessly at the spot Gaara was standing only seconds ago. One of the guards who came to arrest the attacker walked up beside him.
"Kazekage-sama hasn't gotten that angry in years. What happened?"
"I… tried to protect him."
A small sigh escaped Gaara's lips as he watched the moon rise. He was in his favorite star gazing spot, floating high in the air on a cloud of sand a little ways outside the village's walls. Everyone knew better than to disturb him here. The sun had set less that an hour earlier, and his had been a couple hours since the incident with Lee.
It still troubled him- why did he blow up at Lee like that? Sure, it was annoying that he got hurt in a fight he needn't be in, but that's just how he is. It would be unlike Lee not to attack anyone who was a threat to his loved ones. Likewise, it was unlike Gaara to lose his temper at his loved ones, especially Lee. Ever since Uzumaki Naruto defeated him in the chuunin exams when they were younger, Gaara taught himself to control all of the negative emotions Shukaku fed on. Why would Lee of all people make him lose it?
Perhaps you should just kill him, the one tailed demon whispered in his mind. I told you it was foolish to trust people. Nobody loves you. It will always end in pain.
Gaara promptly told him to shut the hell up and pushed him as far into the back of his mind as he could. No, the answer wouldn't come to him and Shukaku wasn't helping. He wasn't the best at dealing with people, but maybe he should go talk to Lee.
He floated smoothly back down to the village and straight to the door of the large house he and his siblings shared. When he reached the room Lee was using, however, he found it to be empty.
"Gaara?" Gaara looked down the hall to see Kankuro walking toward him. "If you're looking for Lee, he already left."
Gaara stared at his brother for a moment, then closed the door and crossed his arms. "Does he have the message?"
"Yeah, it was ready a while ago. He left as soon as I gave it to him." Gaara nodded and started walking down the hall past Kankuro. "Gaara, did something happen?"
The red haired boy stopped but didn't respond or turn around to face him.
Kankuro hesitantly continued. "Because Lee seems to think you're angry with him." Again, there was no response. "Gaara, are you-"
"No," he interrupted, turning his head to look at him. "I'm not. I just…" He looked down, letting the half completed sentence die.
The older brother stepped to the younger's side. "Just what? What happened?"
"…I just… yelled at him earlier. He got injured trying to protect me. I guess it made me angry, and I took it out on him."
"Protect you? From what?"
"Some lunatic attacked me."
"Huh." Kankuro shifted his weight and put his hands in his pockets. "I would say that you ought to apologize, but you wouldn't catch up to him now."
Gaara glared at him out of the corner of his eyes. "I know that. Right now I'm concerned with why I lost my temper."
"Didn't you say it was because he got hurt fighting for you?"
"That shouldn't be enough to set me off. It's in his character. Besides, he's been through a lot… worse." He choked a bit on the last word, remembering that he himself nearly killed the boy once. "I don't see why it pissed me off so much."
Kankuro looked up and thought for a moment, then motioned with one hand. "Come on, let's walk." Gaara went along wordlessly. He knew his brother was going to head toward the kitchen. "What about it made you mad? Specifically."
"…Him getting injured because of me."
"Because of you?"
"He was protecting me."
"…What would you do if it was more than a minor injury? If he broke some bones or got knocked out?"
"I'd kill whoever did it," Gaara replied calmly, as though the logic was very elementary.
"Right… And what if someone were to kill him?"
Gaara's shoulders tensed and his eyes narrowed. "I'd hunt that person down and tear him apart piece by piece as slowly as physically possible."
This made Kankuro visibly shudder. He's heard some sinister threats before, but he knew Gaara's were never empty. The silence stretched out awkwardly for a long moment before he spoke again. "…Um, just how much do you care for that guy?"
Gaara looked up at him. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you aren't exactly the most sociable guy around," Gaara half shrugged in agreement, "but you seem really attached to thick-brows."
Gaara looked forward thoughtfully for a moment. "…He is… my friend." He spoke slowly, struggling to find the right words. "I… have respect for him."
"Uh-huh. And what about Uzumaki and Uchiha and Nara and your other friends?"
Gaara's eyes narrowed. "It's different."
"How so?"
"It… It just is." The tone of his voice clearly said he was losing his patience with his brother's questions. Kankuro got the message and remained silent as he opened the door to the kitchen, Gaara entering first. He set about heating water for tea and rummaging through the cupboards looking for a snack. Settling on a bag of chips, he sat down across from Gaara at the small table in the corner of the room.
"Well?" Gaara asked impatiently.
"You wanted to know why you lost it at Lee, right? I'm working on it."
"The questions you've been asking hardly seem relevant."
"Not entirely."
Gaara was skeptical, but said nothing as his brother stood and walked over to the whistling tea pot. Kankuro poured two cups of tea wordlessly, put a bit of milk in one, and sat down while handing the other cup to his red-haired sibling. He opened his mouth to say something when Temari walked in.
"Hey," she said casually walking over to the table but not taking a seat. "What's with the heavy, serious air over here?"
"Gaara got angry at Lee but he can't figure out why," the middle sibling answered.
The blonde looked directly the indicated brother at the opposite side of the table. "Really? You had a fight with fuzzy brows?"
"Not exactly," he responded, looking away for a moment but regaining his composure quickly. "It was more like I yelled at him and left."
"What happened?" Gaara quickly summed up the afternoon's incident as Temari sat down between the boys. "So you didn't get the chance to tell him you weren't really mad at him, and now we're trying to think of why you exploded in the first place?"
"Pretty much," Kankuro said behind his cup. "All I got so far is that he has a lot of respect for the guy."
Temari softly shook her head. "You two are so dense. Gaara, you like Lee, right?"
A flicker of annoyance flashed in Gaara's eyes. "Yes, we already went over that."
"You get excited whenever you see him?"
"Well, yes, because we don't see each other often."
"Does that include a fast pulse and turning stomach?"
Gaara didn't respond verbally, but his eyes widened at his sister's question. Kankuro looked between the two, trying not to believe what he was hearing. "Hey, Temari, it's not like… You don't really think… He's not like that! Temari, come on he's not…"
"What?" The youngest asked, clearly irked by now. "What are you getting at?"
Temari sighed. "I think I know what the problem is. Gaara, little brother, I think you're in love."
Gaara immediately stood and walked past his siblings in an attempt to hide the blush that was rapidly growing on his cheeks. "Don't be stupid," he growled, not turning around. "I can't love." He walked out the kitchen door without another word.
Kankuro looked at Temari, shocked. "…You really think he's…?"
Temari just shrugged. "Think about it. Does he ever smile when fuzzy-brows isn't around?" She got up and left, leaving him to ponder the question.
Eventually he got up too and began putting away his snack, shaking his head and softly mumbling, "There is no way I'm related to these people…"
END FIRST CHAPTER.