Chapter One:
His advisor sat, waiting for him with his eyes closed, head back, and legs crossed. He looked regal – like a finely furnished and sculpted piece of marble. His black hair stood out from his head and the contrast painted his skin white, almost translucent. It framed his face and gave him his signature look – a look that would get him recognized as soon as someone saw him. Gaara had to hold himself back from reaching forward and brushing a piece of stray hair out of his calm face.
Sasuke had been his advisor for about three months, and ever since he sorted out his feelings, it took Gaara every ounce of restraint and mental strength he had to not pounce on the raven-haired teen, and show him just how much of a precious person he was to Gaara.
Sensing the Kazekage enter the room, Sasuke opened his eyes and lifted his head. Hiding his surprise at how close the redhead had gotten before he allowed himself to be caught, he offered a smile instead the bewildered expression he was tempted to let out. Gaara managed to curb a smile as well, but it was more a tilt of his lips than anything. As a guard nearby glared at Sasuke, he remembered staying seated – unless the teen offered for him to sit – in the presence of the Kazekage was considered a sign of disrespect. Sasuke rose to his feet, and making a funny face at the guard to show he didn't give a damn, he bowed at the waist to Gaara.
The redheaded teen rolled his eyes at his advisor's antics, and motioned for him to follow Gaara to the conference concerning the amount of trade importing and exporting his village. As they walked, Gaara reflected on the price for such things – cotton, thread, water, dairy, grains, etc. – as it was very expensive, and he was having trouble exporting his medicine and money to pay for it all. His medicine, extracted from his cacti and mixed into salves and oils to spread over wounds, was expensive, yes, but that would only last for so long. The price was bound to go down, and this meeting was about finding another item to sell. The shinobi taking missions held up for themselves with money, but with no products in the village, what could they buy?
"Gaara," Sasuke murmured, disrupting his thoughts. Gaara glanced over to see an uneasy expression on his face for a brief second.
"And I thought it was just me," he said quietly, staring straight ahead as they passed guards and village shinobi alike, each one pausing in what they were doing to either salute or bow. Sasuke glanced at him sharply.
"You feel it?"
"Mmm . . . something is coming, though it's near impossible to tell if it is good or bad." They had arrived at the meeting, and as Gaara finished talking, the guards opened the broad, ornate oak wood doors. As Gaara stepped inside, everyone, including Sasuke, bowed low at their waists. "Rise," he ordered, not unkindly, as he walked to his throne. It was barebacked because of his gourd, but his had lower back support and arm rests. As he seated himself the others sat as well. "For the first order of business, I would like to talk about trade. We have more than enough imports, but to balance it out, more exports need to be made. If we do not fix this matter, then we will be in debt to the Land of Waves and eventually go bankrupt."
"Kazekage-sama, we're working as fast as we can with the medicine," a middle aged man, head of the medic-nins in Suna, started, standing to address the imposing figure at the head of the round table, "but it takes time to get it right and ready for use."
"I'm not talking about medicine, Fa Sin, I'm talking about something else." Gaara smiled at the man as he sat down, and eyed the rest of the attendees with Sasuke at his right side. "I'm talking about something new."
They all glanced at each other with puzzled expressions, and one of the Elders jumped to his feet, frowning heavily. "There is no need! We're doing fine on our own! So what if we owe a little money later on? We'll just pay them back."
"And how do you suggest we do that?" one of the lesser important men from the back of the room asked. Gaara recognized the man to be Sen, the head of Trade and Commerce. He seemed to agree with his leader. "Force the shinobi to do more jobs? By the rate we're going, we won't have any shinobi left in the village, and we'll still be making the Land of the Waves wealthier by buying their stuff and not selling much back in return. The Kazekage is right, it's time to make or sell something new. We can't let things continue as they are."
The Elder glowered at the standing man, but he sat down. Another middle aged man, named Kani, stood up and bowed to Gaara, proposing, "Sir, if I may make a suggestion?" Gaara signaled the man to stop bowing, and as he stood upright, he said, "What about creating hotels and inns or people to stay and charge them, instead of letting them stay at the Kazekage mansion?"
Gaara frowned in thought, and Sasuke watched him out the corner of his eye with a calm expression while others waited with baited breath. The Elder looked like he wanted to speak again, but held his tongue in respect for the Kazekage. Finally, Gaara shook his head and explained his reason before the others blew up at this supposedly great idea. "We would be wasting our builders for something trivial, and we would just be angering the occupants of the other countries that come and visit. We already strip them of their food before they enter the Village, but to force them to pay for a room to stay in as well? I know for sure that I wouldn't like that, and most likely the shinobi that come from a long journey wouldn't like that either." Gaara leaned forward and pressed his fingers together. The conference attendees were nodding along, some frowning in thought and others with raised eyebrows.
"No, that won't do," Gaara continued, shaking his head. "I was thinking more of selling oil." At this, the occupants of the room sat up straighter, and the Elder that looked on the verge of saying something snapped his mouth shut. "I can feel it beneath the surface right now, but to get it out will be the tricky part. Right now, houses stand over the spots. We can't afford to move the people. That would just anger them. And oil spills are common; if oil gets into the sand, it can disrupt the animals and plants that reside there."
"Why not build pumps?" the Elder asked, setting his mind to the task. Gaara kept silent and the others in the room looked at the Elder askance. He elaborated, "If we pump it out and keep it controlled, the oil won't spill. The materials for the pumps are expensive, yes, but if it works it will benefit us in the long run. Oil is quite expensive, as there are not a lot of oil spots. We could sell for twenty notes a gallon."
The others were all nodding in agreement. But there was just one problem. "What about the people on top of those spots. It will disrupt them and we don't have space to move them. Unless we could find more oil spots elsewhere, we have no way to get to it," Gaara mused.
"Couldn't we move them to the Kazekage Tower?" Fa Sin asked. There were exclamations of agreement and disagreement across the room.
Gaara slowly nodded his head, and said, "I believe we could make it work. I just need a list of the people willing to move to the Tower—"
The door burst open and a guard stood there, panting. Gaara stood, and the guard bowed deeply, and trying to catch his breath, heaved out, "Kazekage, sir . . . a man named . . . Albus Dumbledore is here . . . with his deputy Minerva . . . McGonagall. You said to . . . alert you immediately if something like this . . . happened."
Gaara sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Please lead them to my office. Uchiha," he barked, and Sasuke stood at attention. "Watch them, and send the guard here if you see anything too suspicious. I will finish up here. Go."
Sasuke and the guard stepped out the door and vanished. Gaara turned back to the waiting occupants in the room. "I apologize for the interruption. For now I want Sen and Aguri to talk to the constructors Akihiko and Mina about the pump materials and cost. As soon as you have a plan and design worked out, bring it to me and we will talk it over. You are dismissed." The attendees in the room all stood as one and bowed to him at the waist again, before leaving in groups to talk about the new plans for the oil pumps and how the oil would make them rich. Afterwards, Gaara walked to the door and asked the one of the guards to bring his siblings to his office.
"Yessir!" the guard saluted and took off.
Gaara sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he started walking again, the other guard at the door watching his Kazekage in amusement. Poor kid, he thought, how tough is it to be a ruler of a village?
When Gaara made it to his office, there was a small commotion inside. Knowing exactly what it was, Gaara gave his nth sigh and stepped inside. It seemed like the occupants of the room didn't seem to notice him. Temari and Kankuro stood there, arguing about who was the better fighter – one of the most common fights between his siblings. Sasuke was smirking at the scene, but at least he seemed to be keeping an eye on the two wizards inside of his office. The wizards, however, watched on in slight bemusement, something Gaara had a tendency to see on peoples faces as the first met his siblings.
"Enough," Gaara demanded, and Temari cut off in mid-yell. Both of his siblings faced him with sheepish and bashful expressions, and Kankuro was trying to pull off and innocent one that would just get him hit in the face instead of what he really wanted. "You are Jounin, why are you fighting when you are supposed to be doing your job?" When they both opened their mouths and started to point to each other, Gaara raised his hand. "That was a rhetorical question. Now," he turned to the two wizards after Sasuke gave him a nod, "what brings you to the Village Hidden in the Sand?"
Dumbledore gave him a smile, but the twinkle that usually resided in Dumbledore's bright cerulean eyes was dimmed, almost nonexistent. "I believe it is a matter of importance. I wouldn't have come here if it were anything less. You see," with a flourish, he pulled out a piece of parchment from his long, periwinkle robes, "the Dark Lord Voldemort has risen in power. He is back, and there seems to be no stopping him."
He handed the paper to Gaara, and he opened it cautiously, aware that there could be a paper bomb hidden in it. He knew that Dumbledore would never hurt him willingly, but one could never be too careful, and with his past, Gaara was quite paranoid. Staring back at him was his face.
Gaara frowned, and the crease between his nonexistent eyebrows grew deeper. "Why am I looking at myself? And why is my face in another dimension?"
"You see, the Tailed Beasts are quite a legend in my world," Dumbledore started, and Gaara's nonexistent eyebrow rose in silent inquiry. "This was an assassination poster."
Sasuke took a step forward, his hand clenching around his katana. Temari and Kankuro stiffened behind his back, and he felt killer intent roll off of them like the waves of a tsunami. "And are you here to fulfill this mission?"
Dumbledore gave a pained smile. "No, actually, I was here to warn you. In fact, you are the most famous of the Tailed Beasts, though a Naruto Uzumaki is climbing the list. The Dark Lord knows who you are, and he seems to be quite determined to find you and bring you to his side." Dumbledore raised his arms in a welcoming position. "But I am here to give you an alternative."
Gaara frowned, staring at the vulnerable form of Dumbledore. His eyes were still dull, but they shone more than before. "And what is this alternative?"
"I am here to ask you to stay at my school, Howarts."
The sentence hung in the air like spiders with their webs, and Gaara felt Sasuke take a step closer to him. Dumbledore explained before Gaara could open his mouth. "I believe it is the best thing for you to do. I will provide you with a safe place to stay and a very hefty amount of gold, and you will provide my school with protection."
"And you think that leaving my village, which, by the way, is stuffed full of shinobi that have experience in the field, is the best way to go about this targeting?"
McGonagall frowned at his condescending tone. "Young man, Hogwarts is covered in protective spells. There is no other safe place in the world for you to be."
"And there is also the matter of your shinobi not knowing anything about how wizards fight," Dumbledore countered. "Wouldn't it be better to stay where he can't get to you and you can learn all the magic you can, so you can counterattack?"
"And leave my village open?" Gaara argued. "I don't think you understand what being the Kazekage means. But I will enlighten you." Gaara took a couple steps forward, so he was right in Dumbledore's space. But the man didn't put his guard up, like last time they met. "It means sacrificing your time and often times your life for the better of your people. It means that every thought, every action you make, effects every single person in your village. If I leave, I will be abandoning them, and I will be going against my morals. Do not give me the choice of leaving my village to save my own life, because you should know by now that I will never choose myself over them. Am I made clear?"
By the end of Gaara's inspiring and enlightening words, Dumbledore's face had taken on a pale hue. He looked scared, and a little frustrated. This spurred on another round of questioning from Gaara, and a very important question from Sasuke. "Why are you so adamant on me joining you at Hogwarts, Albus?"
Sasuke stepped forward, adding in, "And why do you have a picture of Gaara when the only one's to cross the dimension in the last decade are you and Minerva McGonagall?"
"I've been wondering that, too," Kankuro muttered to Temari behind them.
Dumbledore's face faltered for a second, and Gaara took another step forward, putting his face right in front of Dumbledore's.
"Please, just think about it," Dumbledore said softly, staring into Gaara's teal colored eyes. "You can give me the answer in two days time, and if you say yes, we can grab your stuff and be at Hogwarts the next second. And the faster you get the mission done, you can be back faster. I would never tell you to leave your village, you know that."
Gaara stepped back. After a moment of thinking, he settled on, "Fine then. You will get your answer in two days time. For now, leave because you are no longer in my good graces."
Knowing a dismissal when he heard one, Albus Dumbledore bowed and followed Minerva McGonagall out of his door. The shinobi inside of his office all stared at Gaara, waiting for their orders because they knew something was amiss.
"Capture them and bring them to interrogation, they are not who they say they are." Temari and Kankuro saluted, and before they left, he added, "And make sure you break their wands in half. They will be defenseless that way. Be careful."
Sasuke and Gaara stood in the sparsely decorated office for a minute in silence, before Sasuke spoke. "How do you know they aren't who they say they are?"
At this, Gaara gave an unusual show of amusement; a sound that, with more force behind it, could've been a snort of laughter. "Albus Dumbledore would never say 'stuff'."
Sasuke gave a bark of laughter and followed him out the door, startling the guards standing at attention. "Yes, that is a very adequate reason," Sasuke said amusingly, walking beside him with his hands in his pockets – a nasty habit he had ever since he was a kid.
"Quite. Now all that's left is to contact the real Dumbledore and tell him what is going on at our end. The conversation will be interesting, no doubt."
No doubt indeed, Gaara mused.