Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto started the job, but I'm filling in the series with moments that should've happened. :P
A/N - I love all of my Gaara oneshots (because I love Gaara), but this is kind of special, because it has Naruto in it. Their friendship is one of the most beautiful bonds in the entire series, and I wanted to capture a friendship moment, brittle and precious as those are. Sadly, I couldn't write it as well as I wanted to, but here it is none the less.
If you want to have a taste of how this story should've sounded, go to You Tube and punch in 'Naruto Shippuuden Movies OST 09 Moonlight Talk (Gekkotan)'. Then hit it on permanent replay. I'm declaring it an official soundtrack.
Moonlight Talk
Gaara stashed away a stack of paper and locked the drawer. Having put the key into one of his pockets, young Kazekage got out of his official white robe and loaded the heavy gourd onto his back. Once again clad in his everyday shinobi attire, he turned off the lights in his office and headed for the door. He sent one more habitual glance at the still, dark furniture behind him, and had his gaze drawn by the window.
Pale moonbeam gleamed on his desk, dusting the smooth surface with fine, soft light. He walked into the moonlight and glanced outside. The village on the other side of the glass glowed peacefully with dim street lamps and millions of bright window patches, but his office was set up high above them and the artificial light didn't reach him. It was the night sky that provided him illumination.
Gaara looked up to the stars that reflected in his pale, colourless eyes.
Soon enough Kazekage's office stood empty in the soft darkness, whispering with a tranquil night breeze that blew in from the cooling streets.
He has always preferred the night. Even in the midst of his bloody past, Shukaku's thirsty snarls would ease off, ever so slightly, with the setting sun. There was something in the quietness of the dark, stillness of the moon-soaked rooftops and almost silent, ever present shifting of the sand that allowed him to take a break. He could not sleep, but he could rest.
Gaara landed on a randomly chosen roof with well-practiced ease and quietly lowered the gourd. He had stopped asking himself what would the tenants of the houses do if reckless noise woke them up a long time ago. Stretching one of his legs out, Gaara leaned his arm on the other knee and looked up.
Desert night sky was the most beautiful. You couldn't find so many stars anywhere else in the world. Gaara knew because he had been to many places and spent many nights on unknown buildings.
Even Konoha couldn't match Suna's skyline.
He remembered his stay in the Leaf Village, and how strange the sight from its rooftops seemed to him. If he climbed high enough, he could peek over Konoha's defense walls into a dark sea of impenetrable treetops, ruffling in the distance as far as the eye could follow. The feeling he had then was of a cornered animal, engulfed in smothering greenery. It was so different from the bare, flat wilderness surrounding his homeland. Desert may be cruel and lethal, but at least it played with open cards. No one could approach Suna without being seen. Broad forests were sneaky, in his opinion. You could never tell what crouched hidden behind a bush.
He wondered what Uzumaki Naruto thought about Sunagakure, and whether he and the rest of the Konoha shinobi on the diplomatic mission could sleep well in the environment that must have been so new to them.
While his gaze trailed over anonymous rooftops, Gaara wondered under which they were staying. It was late, and they had traveled a three-days journey. They must have been fast asleep.
Gaara frowned.
He didn't spend more than ten minutes with the foreign shinobi because of his tight schedule. Temari and Kankuro had the task of touring them around and making them feel welcome. Gaara was left in his office to deal with paperwork.
As a Kazekage, he would be seeing them tomorrow, but only to discuss formal, business details. It would be a long, dry meeting that wouldn't leave room for anything personal.
He wanted to talk with Naruto. In private, about anything else.
Gaara had seen the guy less than half a dozen times in his life, and still considered him his best friend. It would have been nice to catch up with him and do whatever friends did together - although even two years after being liberated from the cruel monster label, Gaara couldn't really tell how friendship worked in practice.
He wanted to see Naruto, especially because of all the things that happened the last time he saw the blond.
That was the day he learned that happiness could walk hand in hand with sadness. Gaara was feeling both and the one didn't interrupt the other.
He was happy in its purest form because he thought he had died hated, only to realize that in fact he lived loved.
He felt sobered by sadness, because Elder Chiyo sacrificed the only thing she really had to bring him to life, and because everybody around him cried over her death. Gaara could especially remember Naruto's pinkhaired teammate.
There were many moments he cherished from that day. Returning to the village draped over his brother's and Uzumaki's necks only to find entire Suna cheering and running towards him was one of the strongest. There weren't words.
But the last one was very special, too. It was the memory of pushing Naruto's hand with sand to meet it in flesh. The handshake meant a lot. Hopefully to both of them.
What troubled Gaara was that Naruto had many friends and much more bonds than he could ever dream of having. Even if half of them were based on the wish to smack the loudmouth. Gaara wasn't jealous, but he couldn't be sure that Naruto valued their own bond as much as he did.
Still, even if Naruto viewed him only as a fellow Jinchuuriki, the bond of pain and knowledge of loneliness were in their own special way stronger even than ties between kindred. No one could fully understand Gaara but Naruto. No one could fully understand Naruto but Gaara.
If only for that, Gaara wanted to thank the Konoha shinobi and somehow return the favour. But it seemed there was nothing the redhead could do for the other boy. He couldn't find a way if he was prevented even from talking with him.
Lost in his brooding, Sabaku no Gaara remained sitting on the cool tiles, watching the sky, the desert, and the nearly empty street. Every now and then, dark forms of occasional passersby would pass below him, but no one noticed his presence. Or so Gaara thought.
He felt someone was watching him and looked around, reaching for the gourd's cork out of habit. Someone stood unmoving in the shadows of the street below. Although Gaara's night vision surpassed that of a regular shinobi, he couldn't tell much more than that the person was looking up.
Suddenly, the dark silhouette threw one arm in the air and started waving. Gaara's frown changed into surprise when a familiar, very loud voice shattered the peaceful silence:
„Oi! Gaara!"
Uzumaki Naruto was quick to find his way up to the roof where Gaara sat. He plopped down to the roof tiles with no grace and little respect for the owners' repose. Whiskerlike markings stretched with a grin.
„So here you've been", Naruto said. He shuddered at the night chill and blew in his hands to keep them warm.
Gaara blinked the surprise away.
„What are you doing here?"
„I couldn't sleep", Naruto frowned. „First it was hot as hell, and then I was freezing. And there's some weird sound going on the entire night – like someone's been grating at my window the whole time!"
„It's the sand", Gaara said. „The wind blows the grains against the panes. You'll get used to it soon." Gaara didn't even notice it any more.
„Doesn't matter", the blonde shrugged. „I don't think I could sleep anyway", he added quietly and lowered his eyes.
Short silence ensued. With all his surprise at the blond's sudden appearance (as if Naruto was somehow summoned by his thoughts) and gladness for the given opportunity, Gaara couldn't overlook that Naruto seemed out of his usual confident good mood.
„Are you enjoying your stay?" he asked, gazing in front. This was Gaara's attempt.
Naruto rose his head absentmindedly and blinked. „Hm...? Sure. Except that you have crazy temperatures here", Konoha Jinchuuriki grinned, but it was weaker than usual. „Temari and Kankuro showed us the place. Sakura wanted to visit Chiyo-baa-chan's grave." Both of their expressions sobered, and Gaara looked into the distance again. „I see."
„I've waited for you outside the tower, but you never came out", Naruto continued. Gaara blinked. He didn't expect it.
„I've been busy."
Naruto humphed. „You make being Kazekage sound so boring. It looks like they keep you a prisoner up there!"
Gaara allowed himself a small smile. The definition wasn't far off the mark. He was a voluntary prisoner.
„Being a Kage is more responsibility than excitement."
„Yeah yeah... You sound like Tsunade-baa-chan", Naruto made a face. Gaara's smile widened.
„I mean... whoa!" Gaara followed Naruto's startled gaze to see what caught his attention and rendered him speechless.
What he saw was a myriad of rooftops spreading into the soft darkness, glistening with dim moonshine. Big, nacreous moon lit the quiet village, chaperoned by an army of bright stars, and outside the tall walls grey dunes could be seen, falling and forming at the touch of the wind. Sunagakure sparkled with tiny dots of electric light, like a hive of winking fireflies or earth stars. Each dot a window, each window a house, each house a family.
Naruto was on his feet. „Sugoi..." he said, staring at the sight. Gaara felt his homeland pride stir.
„To imagine that all of this depends on you, that you have something like this to protect..." Naruto whispered.
Gaara looked, too, seeing Suna as if for the first time, through Naruto's eyes. Something moved in his chest, telling him anew what he already knew. That it was worth dying for.
He glanced at his friend's animated face. He felt grateful. This was what he wanted them to share.
„Some day, you will have it to. When you become Hokage."
Naruto looked at him. He slowly sat down. „I guess." The wistful look was back in his eyes, which appeared grey in the dark.
Gaara frowned. He knew that Naruto's greatest wish was to become Hokage, because usually the blond wouldn't shut up about it. It had annoyed him when they first met.
„You will", Gaara said with utmost confidence. There was no doubt in his mind.
Naruto's eyebrows creased.
There was a brief period of silence between them. Stars shimmered and the sand shifted. Words were coming, slow to fall from the blond's mouth, but Gaara was patient.
„I saw Sasuke", he finally uttered. Gaara didn't expect that.
„He was this close to me... and I couldn't do a thing", Naruto's fist suddenly hit the roof's surface. Lifting his eyes from the new crack in the tiles, Gaara carefully scrutinized Naruto's features twisted into a painful snarl.
„Tell me..." Naruto said, not meeting his eyes. „If a guy can't even save one friend, does he deserve the title of Hokage?"
The silence remained unbroken, until Gaara let a quiet sigh.
„You saved me."
Naruto's head shot up in surprise, and he met a steady gaze of the stoic, redheaded young man beside him. Gaara was in earnest, and they both felt it was true.
Naruto's mouth lifted into a small, not quite convinced smirk. „Neji told me the same", he murmured to himself, and Gaara tried to match the name with a face. It gave him a faint ring.
„But it's different with Sasuke. It's like I can't break through. It doesn't matter what I say or do to him, he never listens. If I broke every bone in his body and dragged him back to Konoha, he would crawl away. I feel so damn helpless!" Naruto growled.
Gaara closed his eyes, trying to imagine how it felt.
It felt like trying to scrounge acknowledgment from a village of stony faces, all with their backs turned on him. That's how helplessness felt.
Gaara opened his eyes and saw Naruto enveloped in his air of sadness.
He pondered.
„That reminds me of Kankuro and Temari."
Naruto gave him a quizzical look. „How?" But Gaara thought he had a good argument coming.
„Their usual behaviour is reasonable, but they will have tedious arguments about insignificant matters and neither will admit they might be wrong, even when it's crystal clear. The only person they insult so much is the other one, and it puzzled me for a long time why they acted that way if they were supposed to be family. I think I got it now."
Naruto listened.
„It's because they are family. I think they feel free to treat the other the worst because they know that despite everything said they care about each other. And when it matters the most, they will show it."
Naruto frowned, testing the idea. „So you say they treat each other like crap because they're closest."
„Hai."
„Like brothers", Naruto smiled.
Gaara noticed that the grey veil dissipated as if chased away by ramen. The smile was of the broad, heartfelt quality.
The redhead nodded.
Naruto stretched his arms towards the stars and let out a loud, contented sigh. He closed his eyes. The night breeze swept the black ribbons of his hitai-ate, ruffling the blond hair. A real smile lay on his mouth.
„Thanks, Gaara. You're doing a good job around here. But it would be even better if you put a ramen shop somewhere!"
Gaara paused, surprised at the sudden change of theme, but the tension had disappeared from the cool air around them. „I'll think about it."
As he watched the other boy, Gaara remembered how he worried about paying Naruto back for the life he wouldn't have if it wasn't for Uzumaki's meddling. Those few words were such a small thing, but it seemed they did the job.
Mimicking the blonde Jinchuuriki with a real smile of his own, Gaara closed his eyes, too. Listening to the desert night, he knew two things for certain.
He has helped. And he had a friend.