This story is a little woobly with time and age. Gaara is specified as the younger sibling and he's supposed to be about thirteen from what I understand. Those of you who have read my stories know that I prefer to write them a little older than they are. So. That being said, Gaara and my character will be fifteen during this story and it will take place after Gaara's second appearance during the Sasuke retrieval mission. I am not separating it into two stories, because until the war his story is largely separate from Naruto's and there's more leeway for plot line if I'm not linking it to Naruto's development. Hopefully you guys enjoy it.

Feel free to leave comments of any kind because I love them. Good, bad, detailed, even grammar mistakes I don't mind. I want to know what you think, what you want more of, what you don't want more of… all of the above. So please make yourself and your opinions known. I will also say that though I will make edits in the case of comments I do outline my stories completely beforehand so everything is planned, purposeful, and going somewhere so don't worry… I have LOTS planned for all you. I don't ever leave my lovely readers without something to look forward to*winks*

Also I assume you realize but safety first:

I DO NOT OWN Naruto.

Kankuro watched the girl from the corner of his eye. It had been nearly three weeks since the shy creature had begun to follow them around, occasionally looking as though she had finally worked up the courage to speak to them before someone else walked up. You could literally see her confidence deflate as it happened and she would shrink up slightly, hugging a file to her chest and chewing on her lip.

Though she stayed at a pretty good distance and wasn't the type to stand out Kankuro had noticed her the first day because unlike most people she wasn't avoiding looking at Gaara, when she would nervously glance up it was at Gaara that she was staring. Kankuro had noticed this and caught her eye as she looked away from his brother. Her eyes were why he remembered her, because they were a deep red.

The typical, shy little office girl that no one gave a second glance to had the most stunning eyes in Sunagakure.

He also quickly discovered that shy wasn't the right word to describe her. He never once saw her blush, nor did she ever squirm under his leery glances. She just seemed uncomfortable with coming up to them. He figured fear was the motive, and though he understood that he was still annoyed by it. He was tired of people being afraid of his brother when he was obviously trying so hard.

Again Kankuro seemed to be wrong because she never once seemed to jump the way others did around Gaara, him using his sand didn't make her tense up in fear. Her red eyes simply followed the grains of sand as they moved; no fear in her expression only a mild curiousity.

By the end of the first week Kankuro had sort of given up. She didn't appear to be attempting to harm him, and she though she wasn't afraid she definitely wasn't going to be coming up to them to say whatever it was she wanted to say to Gaara.

Three weeks of this and Kankuro was getting a little antsy though. More like, annoyed, very annoyed. She was just standing around, normally between ten and twenty feet away doing… well doing nothing. He wanted to shake her by the shoulders and tell her to get on with it already.

Perhaps she was some kind of creepy fan girl? He frowned and glanced from her to Gaara. Surely not… He sighed in frustration and Gaara eyed him suspiciously.

"Something wrong?" He asked with his normal monotone voice.

Kankuro shrugged, "Not particularly." He responded simply. Gaara's strange sea foam green eyes watched him for a moment.

"Have you noticed the girl?" Gaara suddenly asked in the same bored tone. "The one in the short black kimono?"

Kankuro quirked an eyebrow, "red eyes would be a better defining feature." He said in response. "I didn't realize you had noticed her."

Gaara crossed his arms, "It's been three weeks; I couldn't have not noticed her."

Kankuro smirked slightly, "Right. Honestly she's been driving me up a wall. She either needs to say what she wants to say or get the fuck out."

Gaara seemed to consider this, "We don't know her name."

Kankuro snorted, "So." He turned to the girl, "Oi!" He yelled out and the girl tensed. She brushed her shoulder length black hair out of her face and made eye contact without any difficulty.

"Yeah, you. Get the fuck over here." He demanded loudly.

She seemed to tense further, and the rest of the hall stopped dead in their tracks. She hesitated for a moment but walked forward, bowing slightly as she came to a stop in front of them.

"Name." Kankuro demanded again.

"Shinzu Kaoru." She responded without flinching at his intense glare and she glanced at Gaara for a moment before looking down and taking a deep breath. "I…"

"You've got something to say I take it." Kankuro again watched the girl's confidence deflate at his interruption. "Well?"

She chewed her lip for a half a second. "I have a case that I feel needs looked at."

"Take it to Mission's Assignment." He replied shortly.

She tensed. "That's where I work, it's been denied."

"Then why are you here?"

She swallowed slightly, staring up at Kankuro's challenge as she considered a reply. She looked at Gaara again and then back at Kankuro. "Technically speaking Gaara is now the head of our department. I wanted to present it to him directly."

Gaara raised a non-existent eyebrow at this and Kankuro was equally shocked. So it was Gaara she wanted to talk to.

"Why was the case denied?" Gaara now spoke and she turned to him a little surprised.

She took a moment to reply, not really out of fear it seemed but just to observe him. "It's been denied every year for the past thirteen years, people think it's a scam or a hoax."

"Is it?" He asked almost lazily, holding eye contact with her. Kankuro was almost surprised at the balls of the girl to hold Gaara's gaze like that.

"No. It doesn't make any sense to use the same joke every year when no one's listening to it-"

Kankuro snorted again and rolled his eyes. "You've obviously never been to a Christmas party."

Kaoru glanced back at him, something a little desperate playing in her expression. She was really serious about this, just not serious enough to actually get anything done it seemed.

She looked back at Gaara and swallowed again, she opened her mouth to speak and Kankuro interrupted yet again.

"Present it to your superiors again, and quit standing around waiting for someone else to do something about it."

Kankuro turned to leave, not feeling like watching her deflate again.

"No!" He turned in surprise and his brother, though wearing a much more neutral expression, was just as surprised by the outburst his non-existent eyebrows arched up. "I-"

Everyone in the hall was staring at her and she squirmed slightly. "I've turned it into every one of my supervisors, the head of my department has changed twice since my arrival, and I even tried to get permission to take it to the last Kazekage. No one's listening to these people and yet they continue to ask for our help." She looked to Gaara and held out the file, bowing as she did so. "Gaara-sama, it's not a hoax, please take the time to read through my research."

Gaara watched her carefully and took the file from her hands. She kept her head bowed as he thumbed through the pages and scanned the information. Kankuro was waiting with just as much anticipation as Kaoru, wondering what Gaara would do.

When he finally spoke Kaoru tensed as though she expected the file to be thrown back at her. "You will present this tomorrow morning at our meeting."

Kaoru's head flew up, her red eyes wide with surprise. He held the file back out to her and she took it without question before he simply turned and began to walk away. Kankuro was just as shocked as she was and watched Gaara walk away for a moment before going to catch up with him and glancing back at the quiet girl with red eyes.

One side of her mouth had curled up slightly in a tilted smile before she seemed to laugh a little, "Thank you Gaara-sama!" She called down the hall and though Gaara didn't respond Kankuro looked over at his brother to see a small satisfied smirk on his lips.