Hey guys :) I know, I'm busy with my Pucca story and I should be focusing on that but... I couldn't help but post something and this had been sitting around for way to long that I even forgot about it!

Naruto and gang: *Gasps!*

Me: I know right. -_- *Sigh*

Anyway, hope you guys like the beginning and yes there will be yaoi in later chapters :)

I have two other 'Naruto' yaoi's and I suggest you check 'em out ;)

Innocent Affection

Being alone wasn't something new to Gaara so when he did have time away from the elders or his people he liked to sit on the windowsill and just watch the skies, and his people going about their business. Being alone wasn't terrifying anymore, though he'd never admit it. Not lonely anymore as he knew that he had people who cared all around him. In fact it was more like a relief of some sort as he didn't have problems and paper work being handed to him constantly. Tonight was cool, which contradicted its usual stuffy humid atmosphere; it felt luscious against his warm cheeks. His forehead burned, unusually so, though just on the area where his blood red mark was lurking. The burning mark reminded him of his past, the blood splattering on his face as he held the defenceless body too close to his face as he performs his signature jutsu, Sand Coffin. Feeling the body slump through his connection with the sand and the old pleasure that hummed through his being as he breathed in the smell of fresh blood and death. The sent attacked his nostrils' and he welcomed it, reminding him that he himself was still alive unlike his victim.

One particular death played on his mind, the death of a child just above his age, a child who thought it was clever to try and tease the villages' burden, the one everyone avoided with all cost. He remembers kneeling, blood splatters covering his face and white throw over which he'd put on earlier, whipping off the blood near his mouth with the back of his hand, eyes glaring at the body of the boy sprawled out on the sand that had been tinted red. Gaara stared into the already glazed over eyes of the boy, he saw his own face reflecting back at him, his young face stained with tears and blood. The face peering back wasn't one of pure hatred, like he thought his face was showing back then, but instead was an abandoned empty isolated child who lashed out once again without thought. He shouldn't have said it, Gaara had thought viciously. The boys words had stung, hit right into the centre of one of his nerves, the words of taunting.

Gaara had tried to ignore him. He really did, but the boy kept pushing when he noticed that Gaara was restraining himself though he didn't realise that his patience was short, even for a child. The last straw was when the boy had called Gaara's deceased mother, that she was the mother of a spawn of a monster, a beast, "a demon!" the boy taunted with glee as he pranced near the hunched Gaara. "She bore a freak and died of the shock when she saw you!" he screeched with passed on anger. Gaara snapped and had gruesomely killed the boy, silently crying as he did. Gaara hadn't realised that his fists had clenched so hard that his nails drew blood from his hands and his eyes had narrowed and focused on the stars that blinked brightly, not until a bang rattled his door to the Kazekage's room that situated at the top of the highest building in the village. "Enter."

The door inched open and one of the shinobi Ambu black ops slipped inside, the common animal masks, with a scroll held in one hand and a black crow sitting on his hand looking around curiously. Gaara looked over from the window and watched as the shinobi swiftly walked over to hand over the scroll before placing the bird onto a perch near by ready to be sent away the reply then silently placed himself into the corners. Gaara held the scroll in his hand, sent a curious glance over at the silent messenger, and then turned his attention back. The message wasn't urgent, otherwise he would have been informed immediately and the messenger wouldn't be so calm, so Gaara wondered what it was. Were there conflicts between the villages? Was there news from the other major villages? He opened the seal and let the paper unravel by itself to reveal relatively neat handwriting. Gaara recognised the writing as Kakashi's, the lazy scrawl on the loops was unmistakable. Gaara read silently before dropping the hand that held the letter onto his stomach as the once again looked out at the night sky. Kakashi was coming, meaning Naruto was coming. Gaara thought of the scrawny blonde headed boy that once stood up to Kankuro, though it was pretty pointless from the limited skills he possessed at that time. If that kid, Sasuke, hadn't intruded Naruto probably would have been beaten to an inch of his life. I may have even finished him off when I eventually showed up. Gaara glanced down at the letter again reading the words again. Gracefully, he stood and strolled over to his desk to compose a reply which he knew one of the group will be interested in reading.

...

Naruto perked as he heard about the mission to the Hidden Sand, an escort mission. Kakashi had gathered Sakura, Sai, Kiba, Akamaru, Shikamaru, Neji, and Hinata as well as himself. Tenten, Lee, Choji, and Ino were called away on separate missions, except Ino who had fallen ill and has been left to work in the flower shop till she recovers. They were escorting someone, he didn't know much about the mission, but he noticed that there were quite a few people here to protect this individual which made him think how important this person is meant to be. Naruto leaned onto the large wooden gates to the village as the group once again waited for Kakashi as he disappeared a few minuets ago.

"Does he always disappear like this?" Kiba asked Sakura lazily as he petted Akamaru who was sniffing at the air eagerly.

"All the time," Sakura growled out through grinding teeth. She was squeezing her fists in annoyance as she stared off into the village.

"Why are you so egger to get going anyway?" Neji remarked. Sakura looked at him sharply as she contemplated her answer.

"Well-"

"She can't wait to see a certain person in the Hidden Sand," a low voice claimed. "The real question is who and why?" Everyone turned to observe a dark brown haired boy slouching against a near by tree. Sakura scowled at him.

"Excuse me?"

The boy tilted his head; his bright golden eyes sparkled as he captured Sakura's attention, questioning her expression. "That is the reason, right?"

"Of cause not!"

The boy blinked, breaking the eye contact between them, his face dropping into a scornful expression. He looked away, his eyes going dazed as he drifted off into thought. Sakura glared at the lean tall boy. Naruto ran his eyes over the dark haired boy's lean structure, his hair was neatly pulled into a small lazy plat at the back of his head, his clothes looking very well kept and surprisingly opulent. The boy sensed the gaze and lazily met Naruto's eyes. He raised a brow before looking away once more. Conceited temee, Naruto growled in his head. A quick movement caught Naruto's attention. He turned to see Sakura being held back by Shikamaru as she tugged towards the young man. Shikamaru, calm as always, carefully assessed the man as he spoke, "And who are you?" Sakura stopped, waiting for the answer.

The rude man looked back over to the annoying group of shinobi, deciding on whether or not they were worthy of knowing his name, let alone family. Deciding on not he rolled his eyes. Naruto noticed the tightness in Shikamaru's jaw and he wondered what this guy had in him that was making everyone's patience wear so thin so quickly. Before Shikamaru, or Kiba who was readying himself to snap at the man, could reply to the man's rudeness Kakashi appeared at the gate just behind them.

"Kakashi," Hinata sighed in relief. She didn't like the idea of stopping a brawl between the group and the strange man. She looked at the tall man, white gravity defying hair blowing in the slight breeze that whipped by, expecting him to explain his disappearance as she didn't know better. Kakashi grinned beneath his mask and head band that covered one of his eyes. He pushed his Icha Icha Paradise back into his back pouch, trying to avoid the many glares he received from his group. He looked them over making sure they were all accounted for when his eye caught sight of the young man leaning on the tree.

"Ah, I see you're already familiar with our assignment charge."

"What?" Neji inquired.

Kakashi gestured towards they young man. "Everyone, meet Prince Ryuu from the well respected Takeshi family from the Hidden Cloud village. I assumed you had already introduced yourselves seeing as you will be travelling together for the next few days." Kakashi had never seen the group's heads snap to focus on the same spot so fast, to end up staring at the shocked prince.

"What?" Ryuu barked. "You expect me to be protected by a few measly rebellious teenagers?"

Kakashi lowered his eye to level with the obnoxious prince. "I assure you, you are being protected by highly skilled chunin and genin-"

"Wait!" Ryuu roared. "Genin? You think I am so lowly ranked to be okay with being protected by genin?" He turned to look at Naruto and the rest of the group, "Who is the genin?" Naruto's hand clenched at Ryuu's disgusted tone. When none made a move to answer the spoiled prince he turned back to Kakashi with a grimace plastered on his face. "I demand that you leave the genin behind. I can deal with the barely skilled chunin but I will not tolerate an inexperienced genin!"

"If you are so unhappy with the specially chosen group of shinobi, especially chosen by Tsunade, why don't you go and argue it out with her?" Sakura bitterly smiled at Ryuu. Ryuu froze as he thought over his last meeting with the Hokage. Naruto drank in with glee, along with his fellow shinobi, at Ryuu's pained face as he crossed his arms in a reluctant manner. "Thought so," Sakura remarked. Ryuu glared at Sakura as he pushed himself off the tree.

"Everything sorted?" Kakashi questioned Ryuu. He nodded stiffly, clearly sulking over not getting his way. Neji, Shikamaru and Hinata were already walking on ahead when Ryuu unsurprisingly complained.

"Hold on, we're walking? No carriage? Where am I going to put my luggage?"

Kiba snorted as he walked away while Kakashi explained why they had no other way of transport. Sai glanced at Naruto, flashed him his signature smile before waltzing off to catch up to the others. Sakura nudged Naruto as she passed suggesting to him that he should hurry up. As soon as he began to walk heavy baggage was thrown in his path with an expectant Ryuu holding out the strap for Naruto to take hold of.

"No way!" Naruto exclaimed in outrage.

Kakashi sighed as he looked at the two young men staring at each other determining the dominant one of them. "Naruto, just carry it for a while. Someone else will take it off you then." Naruto, muttering under his breath, heaved the massive luggage onto his back and trudged forwards, noting a smirking Sakura and a laughing Kiba as he did.

"So a genin is good for some things," Ryuu smugly chanted as he strolled ahead, practically forgetting he was meant to be being escorted, he wasn't hiring a baggage carrier. Shikamaru sighed as he thought; this is going to be so troublesome. He just hoped Naruto would keep his cool during this mission.

"How long will it take to get there?" Ryuu asked, for the first time genuinely interested.

"About two days," Neji icily replied.

"So where are we sleeping? A well known inn?"

"No, we're sleeping out tonight. Hope you're not scared of the dark," Shikamaru commented. Ryuu, frowning, went quiet. Akamaru barked as he raced ahead with Kiba quickly following, mimicking Akamaru's animalistic behaviour. Naruto grunting glared at them as he gripped harder onto the strap which was pulling him to the floor due to its weight. Shikamaru, because of his slow pace, walked side by side with Naruto giving Naruto the opportunity to ask about the airheaded prince.

"Hey, Shikamaru, you know more about the mission. Why do we have to escort Mr. Smart-arse over there to the Hidden Sand?" he asked curiously.

Shikamaru glanced at him surprised, "You don't know? There's a major family in the Hidden Sand who had finally birthed a female air, who on her first birthday was condemn to an arranged marriage to bring their family close to the Takeshi family, who are in charge of certain arrangements in keeping the peace between the five countries. The Takeshi family is quite large, but they only had a few available men to wed this girl."

"And unfortunately for us we get the cocky one of the group," Naruto groaned.

"Pretty much."

"One thing I don't get."

"Only one?" Shikamaru's sarcasm gained a cold glare from Naruto which he held his hands up at as a small apology.

"These two haven't met before, right? Then how can they go through with this?"

Shikamaru was quiet for a while giving Naruto time to watch Ryuu stroll confidently at the head of the group. "For the good of their people I suppose." Naruto nodded as it seemed reasonable, but he couldn't shake the unnerving feeling that he may not be able to go through such an ordeal if he was in Ryuu's position. For the people, he thought. He would when he thought about it that way, but along with that thought his opinion of Ryuu had risen quite a lot. Ryuu glanced over his shoulder at Naruto; smugly making sure Naruto was still keeping up. I take that back, he growled.

Hours past, and the sun began to set, causing Kakashi to wonder when they should stop for the night. Ryuu had started complaining about walked a while ago and even with Kakashi's usually cool exterior he could sense that the others were picking up on traces of his annoyance. A cawing noise caused everyone to look to the skies to see a black crow swooping down to land on Kakashi's out stretched hand. He opened a small light canister that was attached to the leg to pull out a rolled up piece of paper. He released the bird, having no desire to reply, before opening the seal and reading the content.

Kakashi announced that they were resting here for the night. Naruto gladly threw down his heavy burden down in relief. He stretched his back hearing it crack in several places. A groan escaped his lips as he straightened back up to then be shouted at for throwing Ryuu's bag down without consideration. Naruto only had time to glare a Ryuu before his sight was obstructed by a white piece of paper being swung in front of his face. Naruto looked up while grasping the paper to see a grinning Kakashi who left without a word. Naruto sat under a tree, leaning his abused back against its rough bark which felt like heaven against his violated muscles, as he began to read the neat handwriting. Though it wasn't addressed to him what was inside had a under meaning that Naruto was sure was meant for him. Gaara- the only other person he truly knew who has been through exactly what he had. He still remembered Gaara first showing up, his blood lust when he was fighting him, his anger, and his abandoned confused face that was exhausted to such an extent that he couldn't even raise his head as he watched Naruto drag his body towards him. Naruto couldn't wait to see how he was doing.

"Naruto, get some sleep," Sakura called from a few feet away, her eyes already closed. Naruto nodded to himself, said goodnight to the rest of them, causing Hinata to blush furiously though he didn't understand why, and tucked the letter away so he could drift off under the twinkling night sky.

Me again! :) Like it?

Ryuu's quite the character isn't he?

Ryuu: But of cause. I am the most important person in your pathetic attempt for a story. In fact without me this would be a pile of-

Naruto: Most important person?!

Me: Pathetic story?!

Akamaru: Woof!

Me: *Raises brow a dog* Okay...

Ryuu: I don't know what you're getting upset about. I speak the truth, even if it is to you useless-

Naruto: Finish that-

Me: And I'll cut off your stupid-ass tongue! Got it?

Ryuu: *Looks down his nose at me* Fine. *Mutters* What a bitc-

Me: That's it! *Grabs speaker-phone* Attention! Attention everyone! Ryuu's on sale! First to break a bone gets the pleasure of slowly killing the brat!

*Stampede of willing people*

Hinata: D-don't forget to review! *Looks worriedly over her shoulder*

Me: You there! Swing your leg more to get a cleaner hit. You- Hey- Don't do it like that! Put more power behind your fist. That's it, put your whole body weight into it XD

Ryuu: *Running away while ducking attacks* Damn you, you f***ing psycho!