WARNING: There are mentions of boys being in love with other boys in chapter and for the rest of story. How scandalous.

Dedication: Ha! You didn't think I'd write it did you Flightless Bird? Well here it is, almost 3 month after I started the first chapter and a second on the way!

--

The lives of the Jinchuuriki are marked with violence and hatred and their deaths are no less so. After all to kill a demon is a feat worth singing about even if that demon is someone's little girl, best friend, or kid brother.

Yet even in these bloody lives there is exquisite love and joy. After all a person cannot know happiness till they have known sorrow and the more intense the pain the more precious the pleasure.

So it was for Naruto and Gaara. Two innocents stained with blood of a parent before their first words were spoken. For this, a thing they had no control over, they were shunned, rejected, by those around them. It only made sense for two identical souls reaching out to find each other.

They did not fall in love, their love simply was and because of this there would be no falling out of love. These words were never spoken. If a ninja say "I love" it is just a precursor to "how could you leave me?"

The love hung between them all the same binding them together like steel wire, strong but not so strong death couldn't server it. The frailness of this seemly unbreakable bound at been shown to them in a way that was painfully clear with Gaara's death. It had taken a life and then some to bring him back.

Naruto pressed his face to the hot portal wind and watched the storm rage. In his mind storms meant heavy rains and cold winds, but here they meant hot sand moving fast enough to take the flesh off your bones.

"You know you will burn your face if you keep it against that window, especially when the sun comes back out." Gaara voice was as dry as the desert he lived in.

"But I'm bored." Naruto whined peeling his face off the window, "And I'm hot."

"How does pressing your face against a sun baked window help either of those problems?" Naruto muttered something incoherent and flopped down in his seat next to Gaara's desk. Gaara continued to sort through the papers on his desk marking and occasionally signing them.

Naruto fidgeted and then yawned.

"This is the most boring mission I have ever had." He huffed and folded his arms. Gaara picked up a paper and scribbled his signature on it before answering.

"You mission was to be 'the Hokage's ambassador from the Leaf to the Kazekage in the Sand to insure continued friendly relations between these two great ninja-villages.' How interesting did you think it was going to be?"

"It sounded more interesting when Tsunade said it."

"I can only imagine." Just a hint of sarcasm laced Gaara's otherwise emotionless voice. Naruto sifted uncomfortably again and stood to pace the small room.

"Still so sure you want to be Hokage? Being a Jonin is much more interesting." Naruto shrugged.

"They let anyone become a Jonin, look at my sensei."

"Look at your Hokage." Gaara placed no particular emphasis on this statement and Naruto almost missed it. Naruto glared before he kept pacing.

"It should rain more often here." Naruto declared.

"If it did we would be called the Village Hidden in the Mud."

"Water and sand don't make mud, they makes wet sand." Naruto said insolently.

"The Village Hidden in the Wet Sand then, either way it would be a wet mess."

"What would be a wet mess? I sincerely hope you're keeping conversations work appropriate." Temari entered the office bearing another stack of papers, "Regardless of the topic of your conversation, if you have time for ideal chatter you have time to start on tomorrow's paperwork." Gaara looked impassively at the documents.

"I'm sure that it's dinner time."

"I'm sure that Temari invents papers for you to sign. I've never seen Tsunade even attempt as much paper work as you do in a day." Temari sniffed indignantly.

"Just because your Hokage is lazy." She huffed and walked out the room without finishing the sentence.

"You know you make a horrid ambassador." Gaara said looking at the door his sister had exited through.

"That's not true!" Naruto declared and walked around the desk to stand behind Gaara, "I'm not an ambassador to the Sand; I'm an ambassador to the Kazekage." Naruto grinned and kissed him just below his ear, letting the thick red hair tickle his face. He pulled back and smiled wider, "I think I do a good job at that."

"Perhaps." Gaara's toneless voice allowed, "But perhaps not, I'm sure that Konoha has more diplomatic people." Naruto snorted,

"More diplomatic than me? I don't believe you. Give me one example."

"That Shikamaru my sister is so found of. I'm sure that she'd even process the paperwork for him to be your replacement herself." Naruto gave him a flat look.

"You could have at least pretended to think about that for a minute." Gaara shrugged before standing.

"I didn't want to falsely assure you. Come on let's go to dinner, before she makes me do more paperwork." Naruto complained loudly about the weirdness of the dessert cuisine before walking from the room with Gaara.

The office was left with neatly stacked papers resting on the desk and its hot windows looking out on wild sand. As void of human beings as the room was it didn't seem empty, as though some of Naruto's energy had leaked out and given life to the room.

--

AN: Yuppers another new story! I'm starting two to three new ones in spirit of the not-quite-here-but-just-around-the-corner-way-easier-summer-semister! Rock on! -Morana