This story takes place in a possible future timeline of my own making. Enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Naruto

Remembrance

Gaara tapped his pencil thoughtfully against his head, staring down at the paper in front of him. The Kazekage's eyes slid over to the other side of his large and impressive desk to the stack of papers that still demanded his attention.

With a sigh, Gaara leaned back against his chair. When he had become the Kazekage over ten years ago, Gaara never would have guessed that so much of his new job would involve paperwork. Honestly! Everything from requests to find lost animals to calls for troops to come and maintain peace on the ever unstable borders, the papers were relentless. Half the time Gaara didn't finish one particular day's work and those reports simply added on to the ones that would undeniably come the next day.

Gaara raised a hand and rubbed his face. It was nearly midnight and the wind that blew past Gaara's open window made a loud whistling noise.

Turning to look out the window, the stern features of Gaara's face softened. His city sprawled out before his high tower and it looked rather peaceful in the dark.

The Fourth Great Ninja War had ended many years before and since then the ninja world had enjoyed a time of much tranquility and corporation. The Leaf's Hokage had played no small role in this change.

Gaara's eyes slid over to the edge of the window where a small picture was stuck into the small slit against the gap and the wall. The picture had been taken fifteen years earlier at the Chunin Exams. How long ago that had been. What a different person he had been back then.

Gaara tried not the think too much about that time. He wasn't proud of anything he had done in the first twelve years of his life but that time had been the worst. At the Chunin Exams Gaara had been a monster, there was no way around it. Then again, it was during that time that Gaara had meet him.

A sudden noise outside the window broke through Gaara's thoughts. The Kazekage stiffened and one of his hands curled into a fist. He could feel the sand around him churning.

Seeing that Gaara's window was several dozen feet in the air, there shouldn't be any reason for a scrabbling noise to be coming from outside.

Gaara stood with a flourish, raised a hand and- "Naruto!"

The Seventh Hokage swept through the window and landed lightly on the ground of Gaara's chamber. He straightened up and grinned at Gaara, his Hokage hat falling to one side to reveal his long blond hair.

"Hey Gaara," Naruto said gleefully, "Mind if I come in?"

Gaara sat back down on his chair and tried to look stern but couldn't stop the small, bemused smile from his face.

"I do have a door you know, Naruto" he said.

"Yes, but that's for boring people," laughed Naruto, and flopping down on the bed he moving a pile of books with his foot. The books promptly fell onto the floor with a crash and Naruto winced before giving Gaara a wry grin.

Gaara shook his head in amazement and the little ball of warmth that always appeared in his stomach whenever he saw his first, and best, friend grew.

"What are you doing here anyway?" he asked, "I wasn't expecting you."

"Just passing through actually," replied Naruto "This blasted desert is so cold at night! So I decided to just stop in here. I haven't seen you in months anyway, not since that meeting a few months back."

Gaara turned back to the still large stack of papers on his desk and picked up his pen.

"So where are your bodyguards?" he asked, "Or does the Leaf Village allow their Hokage to simply run wild?"

Naruto snorted. "Don't really know to be honest," he said innocently, "I lost track of them when we entered the village. I'm sure they will turn up eventually."

"Perhaps they are at one of our perfectly good rest houses," suggested Gaara, pretending to ignore the fact that perhaps the most powerful ninja in the world was currently laying across his bed with apparently not a care in the world.

"You can pretend that you're not happy to see me No-Brows," Naruto said in a sing song voice, "But I know you better than that."

Gaara fought to keep the smile of off his face. There wasn't anyone in the world that made Gaara smile more easily than Naruto did. In fact, there were very few people that could achieve the great feat at all.

"So," he said, changing the subject, "How is Hinata doing?"

A grin spread across Naruto's face and he clapped his hands above his head.

"She is absolutely fantastic!" he exclaimed, "Big as a whale but somehow still completely content. Don't know how she does it really. Seven months and she is still working at the Academy. Sakura's checking on her every week though."

"You're going to have to hurry home or the baby is going to beat you too it," Gaara replied.

"Oh don't you worry," Naruto said, "I don't plan on missing that! Then again Sakura's going to be a much bigger help then I will.

"Yes, well she's done it before," Gaara said, "Even Temari writes to her for advice.

Naruto laughed, "With a lazy husband like hers of course she does!"

Naruto craned his head to try to see what Gaara was writing. Gaara pushed him back with a light shove and Naruto almost lost his hat.

Settling back, Naruto continued, "Those twins of Sakura are sure a handful. Far too much like their father if you ask me. It won't be long before they get their Sharingan and then they really will be a headache."

A mischievous gleam clouded Naruto's eyes. "What about you Gaara? Are you ever going to settle down? It really isn't that bad you know."

If Gaara had been anyone else, he would have blushed. His knee unconsciously tapped lightly on the main drawer on the desk where the little sandstone ring was sitting. He had been thinking about doing just that but he certainly wasn't going to tell Naruto. He had learned long ago that Naruto was not exactly the best secret keeper. His big mouth tended to get the best of him.

Gaara settled on silence and Naruto just laughed. The two were quiet for a while with Gaara's pen scratching against paper the only sound in the room.

If anyone had told Gaara fifteen years ago that the loud and annoying blond boy from the Chunin Exams would become his best friend and greatest ally, he probably would have killed them for their insolence. But here he was, in the same room with his once enemy and completely comfortable with the company.

"Do you think it's strange?" he asked softly.

Naruto cracked one eye open, he had almost been asleep, and replied, "Is what strange?"

Gaara gestured at himself, Naruto and the room around them, "All of this. Our lives."

Naruto contemplated this for a long moment and then shrugged. "Not really!" he said with a grin.

Gaara narrowed his eyes and waited. He was very good at that.

"I mean," Naruto continued, "I was always going to be Hokage, everyone knows that."

Gaara snorted but Naruto ignored him. "And really it's not so surprising that you became the Kazekage either. I mean we are so alike and all!"

"But we aren't really," Gaara thought as he stared down at his papers, "We both knew pain and loneness. The difference is that you were never a monster."

There was another silence and then Naruto said, "You think too much Gaara."

Gaara turned to his friend, slightly indignant.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

"Just that we didn't get here by accident," Naruto said thoughtfully "After everything we've been through I think that this is where we were meant to be. You know, destiny and all that."

The marvel of Naruto never ceased to amaze Gaara. His spirit was stronger than ever and he was arguably the greatest Hokage the Village Hidden in the Leaves had ever seen. Why Naruto considered him, Gaara of the Desert, one of his best friend was an eternal mystery to him.

"Now if you don't stop with all the paperwork, you're going to waste the night away," Naruto said.

"I'm afraid that is exactly what I am going to have to do," Gaara said, staring over at the still large stack as if he were hoping it would spontaneously burst into flame, "Or I'll never get it done."

Naruto snorted with laugher and then rolled over on the bed to face away from his friend, "I guess you won't mind if I stay here then."

It only took a few moments for Naruto breath to even out and then he was rolling around, snoring.

After a particularly loud snore Gaara glared at the Hokage but had to smile at the completely relaxed form of his friend. Naruto trusted so completely that he let down his guard and was open to any attack without a worry. It was a simple truth. Naruto had faith in him.

Gaara's eyes turned back to his window, to the picture that hung there. In the picture Gaara was only twelve years old and the anger was apparent on his face. His arm were crossed and his head was turned to one side. Temari and Kankuro were standing behind him with smiles stretched across their faces. They couldn't look more different than their younger brother.

There was a second picture below the first. It had been taken many years after the first one and Gaara couldn't help but think that although he was in both pictures, in each he was a completely different person.

This second picture had been taken at the Kage Summit a few years before. Gaara was standing in his full Kazekage garb complete with the blue hat with the white symbol on it. Beside him stood Naruto, in matching red clothing.

Naruto had one arm around the Kazekage and was grinning at the camera. Gaara too was smiling but his own was much smaller than Naruto's. There looked completely content in each other's company.

What a different man he was now then the boy he had been. Gaara though for a moment and then reached up and pulled the first picture off the wall. He looked at it for a moment and then pulled out the top drawer on his desk. Gaara placed the picture in the drawer and shoved it back with a satisfying thud.

The sudden noise made Naruto flip over on the bed with a sniff. Gaara glanced over at his friend and thought, not for the first time, that the greatest moment of his life, the moment that changed his life, was the one when he had lost his fight with Naruto and for the first time, had his eyes opened.

Now here he was, the Kazekage of the Sand Village sitting in the same room as the Leaf's Hokage who was sleeping on his bed. They were here not as rivals, not as leaders, but as friends.

Gaara turned back to his stack of papers and began to write. Naruto let out another snore and his Hokage cap shifted on his head.

It was a peaceful night.

Fin

Just a short little story that I hope you all enjoy. Please review! I will leave it up to you all on who Gaara's ring is for.