Gaara stared out of the windows of his office, blankly. Wisps of sand drifted around the glass of his window, tapping him, mocking him. He didn't like it. Gaara clenched his fists. He hated it when someone mocked him, even trivial things like a grain of sand. Except his grains of sand aren't really trivial. Gaara stared at the wisps of sand outside the window, before his sand ate it up from the outside, swallowing it whole. Not even grains of sand got in the way of the Kazekage of Sunagakure. That would show them not to mess with me, Gaara thought. His face remained impassive as he sealed his sand inside his gourd as it rested against the wall.
Someone knocked on the door. It rattled across the room, interrupting the silence that he woke up so early to hear. He was used to constant knocking and stuff like that, but not normally so early in the morning. Never this early. Normally everyone would be asleep and he'd have some time to watch over the sleeping, peaceful village before it burst into it's constant energy. A constant buzzing. That reminded Gaara of him. Naruto Uzumaki, the one man who beat him. Gaara smiled a hollow smile to himself as he thought about the yellow haired genin. The whiskers on his cheeks and his constant, constant rambling about trivial things. Hm. He seemed to be using the word trivial in a lot of his thoughts lately. He'd need to get a new adjective.
The knock came again, interrupting his deep thoughts.
"Come in." He said, his voice still and deep, blank of emotions. Like normal. A brown head poked in and large brown eyes followed. Then Matsuri stepped in, closing the door behind her softly, careful not to make any noise in case she woke anyone up. She smiled and reached behind her neck, sheepishly.
"Ah, sorry, Gaara-sensei. I felt like I needed some training, and I know you wake up early. I'm sorry to bother you." She said walking forward, her hands behind her back. Gaara looked up, his jade eyes looking into her doe eyes. She blushed a little. This is my leader, my Kazekage. I shouldn't have feelings like this. My sensei, Matsuri thought, shaking away any thoughts of Gaara staring at her like that, his eyes so intent and gentle, unlike before, when his eyes were itching to kill. Murder, in fact. When she was scared of his sand because it reeked of blood and… death. But now at least she knew that he truly cared about the village. And hopefully her. No no no, this was wrong. She wasn't meant to feel like this for her Kazekage. No.
"Let's go, Matsuri." Gaara said, sitting up from his chair gracefully. Matsuri's eyes widened for a second, then she smiled. He had the urge to smile back, but he didn't really know how. After all, it wasn't like he did it often. He saved his smiles for special people, and special occasions, and it'd have to be pretty damn special for one of Gaara no Sabaku's smiles. For people like Naruto and Matsuri, he would. Matsuri cocked her head to the side and Gaara snapped back from his thoughts.
"My apologies." He bowed his head and took the lead as he led her down the Sand's intricate hallways and winding turns. She didn't seem surprised or flustered like Naruto had when Gaara had shown him the Bloody Sands.
Which was exactly where they were going. The air reeked of blood and rust and Matsuri wrinkled her nose to the distasteful smell.
"Training starts, now."