Title: Covered
Author: T.S. Jackal-Bright
Rating: PG-13 now, eventual R for strongly implied adult... stuff
Warnings: Foul Language, YAOI, psuedo-het, AU follows the manga timeline up to the Valley at the End and then takes a hard left, MPREG, OOCness, OCs
Pairings: SasuNaru, one-sided GaaNaru
Summary: Naruto learned a lot in the past five years, but he never did learn when to leave well enough alone.

"Covered"
Chapter 1
T.S. Jackal-Bright
"Your hair is too long. It's a liability, so get it cut."

Mori hadn't seen much of Sasuke for the first week, but once it had become apparent she told the truth about breaking ties with the Sand, he approached her to become his aide during a trial period, to be sure of where her loyalties now resided. The last one he had met an unfortunate end at the business ones of a dozen or so kunais, so the position stood vacant.

Also, Sasuke liked to keep his potential enemies close.

That meant they were within range.

On this particular morning Mori struggled between clearing away the man's breakfast dishes from the low table in his quarters and keeping herself from strangling the guy. Last night they fought over whether or not Mori was ready for fieldwork and a bad night's sleep couldn't dispell the animosity between them; the bad feelings hung gunmetal-gray over their heads, all ozone-tang and storm-cloud sharp.

It would have been embarrassing, really, if Mori cared about things like that. The rest of the camp had heard them arguing the night before, with Mori's insistent "I'm fucking ready already"goading Uchiha-sama into a much louder than normal "I don't think you are" that echoed from front hall to the kitchens in the rear. If pressed for an opinion, the other Sound nins would probably have agreed with Mori out of fear; not only was she freakishly strong, she had no qualms about yelling at Uchiha-sama or telling him exactly what she thought in many colorful and inventive phrases.

Scary woman, for certain.

Sasuke's first comment of the morning proved he had considered her demands. An odd comment, one that made Mori slip on the slick-suds of memory. Before she could stop herself, she spoke.

"I thought you liked your women to wear their hair long," she snarked, slamming a cup onto the tray before lifting it from the table.

Sasuke paused, an ugly-bruise recollection resurfacing from the old days, the long-gone yesteryears. He knew the stupid rumors about his likes and dislikes, the ones Konoha girls hoarded like small children with their shiny coin-machine prizes. He wasn't so dense. Sasuke knew that was why Sakura and Ino never cut their hair until it nearly killed them, the idiots.

"Not that it's true," he answered slowly, "but how did you know that?"

Crap.

"Temari-chan swooned about you for weeks despite the chuunin exam fiasco. I either had to listen to that crap or kill her, but the latter seemed too troublesome so, yeah…"

Babbling like a cheeky, little monkey and feeling about as bright, Mori trailed off, praying that she sold yet another load of crap.

"How do you know Temari?" Sasuke asked, his voice dangerously even and soft.

"We grew up together. BFF, blood sisters, all that shit. It was her that got me the bodyguard position when her little brother became Kazekage. Man, Gaara used to give me nightmares as a child. My mom used to say 'Be good or Gaara will get you;' he was like the Sand's resident boogeyman."

"Why work for him them?" Sasuke asked, curiosity a bare fringe-tinge ringing around his words.

"He… changed. A lot," she laughed, soft and almost wistful. "After that exam. Gaara was still quiet, you know, but not in that 'I'm plotting everyone's demise sort of way.' More gentle."

No response from Sasuke, just a cool look, analyzing her and her words.

"Gods, listen to me go on and on about all that old shit. I'll get these to the kitchen right away."

Mori hurried to the door, the dishes prattle-rattling on the tray, high-pitched, ceramic echoes of her own babbling moments before. She was eager to get out of the distressing atmosphere but Sasuke's voice stopped her short at the door.

"Mori," he said in his usual disinterested monotone, "You talk to much."

"Yeah, I know, I know. My parents hated that they could never shut me up. They always wondered how I could become a ninja, that the enemy would hear me coming from a mile away and all."

"Everyone has their… weaknesses. I have a meeting this morning; your hair should be no longer than chin length when I return. I have an errand for you to run."

"Yes sir," Mori grinned and stepped out.

The halls were empty so Mori let the smile slide off her face, a worried grimace replacing it. That conversation troubled her. Sasuke didn't quite trust her and who could blame him? Naruto kept on surfacing, mutating the cold-hard bitch persona of Mori "Aka" Rin into a flighty, sentimental girly-girl. Why did she think this could work? Naruto never did subtle. Couldn't, really. Shouting, beating, and head-on declarations of war were more his style and try as she might, Mori couldn't completely deny who she really was under the jutsus. This was exactly why he never received spy missions. Maybe the old hag and Gaara had been right about all this…

Pushing open the kitchen door with her rear, Mori carried in the breakfast tray and set it beside the novice who'd been assigned to dishwashing detail. A former genin of the Leaf, Mori could hardly stand to talk to the boy but he always seemed to be on duty at meal times so, try as she might, she couldn't avoid the snotty traitor.

"Oi, Mori-san! Those Uchiha-sama's dishes?" he asked, gesturing to the addition to his pile. Mori glared and nodded curtly; at least she could keep up pretenses around the rest of these bastards. Turning to leave, Mori paused.

"Kid, you have any scissors lying around her?"

2 years and 2 Months Earlier
"Beta, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, boss."

"Good. What's your location?"

"Sector G, north perimeter, 50 yards from the target."

"Roger that. Hold until further orders. Over and out."

Shikamaru repeated the same conversation with his five other squad members. It was just reconnaissance, nothing too taxing for his team, but still he was edgy. The Hokage had informed him of impending troubles with the Akatsuki and Naruto, adding two more to his team to compensate. The fact that she felt uncomfortable assigning her most competent team to the mission and then padded it out even further made him worry.

Also, the possibility of running into Sasuke, or Orochimaru in Sasuke's body, made his nerves and his stomach more than a little wonky. Hokage-sama mentioned that sour-tasting tid-bit, too.

Shikamaru tensed at someone's approach but relaxed when a Leaf messenger landed beside him, shaking and sharing the same branch.

"Sir, news from the village. Two Akatsuki members have engaged several ninjas inside Konoha's border."

"I hope they didn't chince on the rings," Shikamaru muttered off-handedly.

"Sir?"

"A joke, sorry."

"… Right, sir. The rest of the message is as follows: your team is to stand by to act as an escort. Uzamaki Naruto is to be evacuated to the Village of the Hidden Sands under orders of both the Hokage and Kazekage."

"But what about…"

Before Shikamaru could finish his argument his radio crackled to life.

"Fighting has broken out in Sector H, sir! Looks like trouble in the Sound ranks, something between S-Class criminal Orochimaru and missing-nin Uchiha Sasuke!"

Shikamaru sighed and sent the order.

"Stay out of it but keep an eye on things. I'm sending the rest of the team as back up; depending how things go, we might have to step in."

"Yes, sir!"

Calling the rest of the squad with the change in orders, Shikamaru noted the uneasy horror on the messenger's face. A genin, just barely, he doubted the boy had been this close to such a dangerous situation before. How could they have sent such a chubby-cheeked child into such a volatile danger zone? Were things that bad back home?

"Look, everything's hitting the fan right now, kid. I need to stay here with my squad and you need me to get Naruto out of town, right? If you were me, what would you do?"

"I… I don't know, sir."

Silence from both parties for a moment, and then a wafer-thin, waver-voiced question.

"...Sir, is there going to be a war?"

Home may not have been much safer but Shikamaru couldn't keep the boy out here in a place like this. Another sigh. Why him? Why did he always have to make these crap decisions?

Shikamaru let his team know that he was heading back under new orders and that they should hold their positions until things got too out of hand. Also, no one was allowed to die without his order, so they'd better all be breathing when he got back.

And with hardly a sound, the branch was empty once more.

"You damn hag! I'm not going to run away from a fight!"

Tsunade twitched and restrained herself. Physically, at least.

"Brat! You can't beat them! Remember the last time Uchiha Itachi and his fish freak showed up? Even Hatake couldn't handle him and you guys had to come running to find me!"

"That's because those stupid elders thought you'd make a good Hokage! Fat lot they knew!"

That did it. Tsunade smacked Naruto and sent him stumbling.

"I'm trying to keep you alive, you idiot. You're safer under the Kazekage's freaky albeit watchful eyes. It's too late, I've already called back your escort. Shikamaru's on his way and Konohamaru's already packed up your necessities; you're heading out immediately."

"But!"

"No buts, that's an order," Tsunade threatened, dropping her voice down to somber, more serious tones. Not ashamed to pull rank on him, Tsunade tried to cut the argument short with the heavy press of her position. "You're a ninja and a citizen of my village so you have to listen to what I say… For a change."

Naruto glowered but, thankfully, shut up. A knock at the door drew the Fifth's attention away from the fuming young man; it was Konohamaru with Naruto's things.

"Now, I'm going to take you to the south gate and then Shikamaru and his team will take you the rest of the way. No one outside of this room knows where you'll be so that should give everyone some time to safely straighten things out. You'll stop over at a small town along the way, a neutral village, and ready your cover. The Kazekage's sending everything you need for your new Sand citizenship.

...And don't worry, it won't be forever; just until all this shit is taken care of."

"Old hag…"

Tsunade turned and started. Naruto had a determined, less-than-exuberant look on his face. She didn't like it. It was too out of character.

"Thanks."

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she gave him a hug, kissing him on the top of his head; he'd grown those two years away but she was still tall enough for this big sister gesture. It seemed unfair, really. Naruto had just gotten home from his travels with that idiot Jiraya and she hardly had any time to set him straight before he had to run away again.

Things really were too quiet when Naruto was gone.

"All the thanks I need is you not dieing and ruining all our plans," she said, slapping a grin on her face.

"You ready to go, bro?" Konohamaru asked from the door, his own smile screwed on a bit too tight. Naruto nodded and ruffled his hair roughly as they passed through the door, closing it behind them.

"Now," Tsunade exhaled, trying to sound nonchalant, "let's blow this joint."

He watched them come. No pretense, no tricks or games or genjustus, just a "howdy-hello" and "we'll be taking you now, Kazekage."

Gaara found this to be quiet stupid on their part and when the sand rested on the desert's face once more, hiding any blemishes from the fight, he felt the Akatsuki members would agree. If they were still alive, of course.

The dry ground thirstily sucked down the shock-scarlet blood, leaving hardly a drop.

Gaara took care of the rest.

6 Month Later
The bitter-bile clack of lacquered high heels sounded harsh in the dimly-lit, lonely-stone hallway. An hour earlier she would have been met by breathing guards, but only the well-bled dead greeted her.

"It was him wasn't it, Shizune," Tsunade's teeth and statement-not-question gnawed at her lower lip, barely-held-on-to rage flying through her like a let-go-blow. Tsunade heard her friend and aide's assent but didn't turn from her examination of the scene.

Nothing had been destroyed, property-wise. The seals on the door had yielded to an expert hand and anything unwanted in the vault had been left untouched, respectfully. The guards weren't stationed permanently at the door, having to keep an eye on the entire underground stores, what with the ranks still spread thin this long after the war. Apparently he had gotten his timing wrong and panicked, if that was even possible for the bastard, killing those that would ungraciously interrupt his theft.

"There isn't a chance he could have sent an underling, could there?"

Tsunade saw the swish-shake of the other's dark head as she turned to leave.

"There were also reports of activity on the Uchiha grounds," Shizune added quietly. "Further investigation revealed a secret room that probably held something of importance to the Uchiha clan. He's the only one left, besides Itachi, so he's probably the only one who knew where and what it all was. I can't expect he'd send a lackey to retrieve something so personal."

"Goddammit," she growled, half to herself. "He's got a whole village of rogue ninjas under him now. By putting his own thumb in the pie he might as well have signed his own death warrant."

"He also killed the jounins on sentry duty that tried to stop him on his way out. Messy, probably from haste. Not like him at all."

"Neither was desertion, murder, and mutany, or so I thought. Shizune, I want to see a full written report on all accounts of what went down within the hour. And I mean all accounts."

Tsunade fell silent as they began to climb the rough-hewn stairs, their steps echoing tall and thin around them. When she spoke again, the ire and rage were gone, leaving only weariness.

"I tried to hold off. The Elders hated me for not acting, insisting he was a threat. I defended him, said he had his own prerogatives against Itachi, not the Leaf, said he wasn't a threat to us just yet. Shikamaru and his team kept an eye on his activities outside the Sound as best they could. I thought that would be enough. Now my butt's going to fry in this grease fire, I just know it."

"What are you going to do?"

"What else can I do?" Tsunade paused for a moment at the staircase's end, her slender hand pressed flat against the thick, dark door. "I'll upgrade his status to S-class, set a price on his head, and come up with a plan to take him down."

"It'll break Naruto's heart when he finds out Sasuke's wanted dead more than alive."

"Why'd you think I went so easy on the little prick in the first place?"

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaagaspaaaaaaaaaara, I'm bored," Naruto whined, ignoring his new volume of Come-Come Tactics that lay beside him, spine strained as it bridged face down to save his place. Lolling on the expensive, expansive couch in the Kazekage's office, Naruto's legs kicked aimlessly at the air while head hung groundward, collecting all the blood in his body. Gaara twitched but refused to look up from his paperwork; usually, if he ignored Naruto, the young man would wander off and entertain himself.

For about five minutes.

Then he'd be back in pestering and picking and generally pissing him off. Gaara did it to himself, though, not allowing Naruto out of the Kazekage compound unescorted for the duration of his exile.

Naruto began his high, keening wail once more, but Gaara couldn't hear over the rush of blood to his own head. A file marked urgent had somehow gotten into his pile of accounting and budget ledgers, but once he glimpsed the familiar symbol of the Leaf printed on its front his stomach dropped at the mistake. After only scanning the front page, Gaara snapped it shut, not wanting to read any more.

It wasn't that he cared about the Uchiha, because it was in fact quite the opposite, but he wanted to hide this before Naruto saw it.

"Whatcha reading?" Naruto asked, gone from the couch in a puff of smoke. He reappeared on the desk, sitting cross-legged and holding onto his toes while craning his neck to get a look at whatever made Gaara react so suddenly. He brightened when he caught sight of the familiar seal. "Hey! Something from home! What is it? What is it?"

"It's nothing, a request for assistance," Gaara responded too quickly. There was a good chance it wasn't a lie; the Leaf probably requested at the end to keep an eye out for the Uchiha and take care of him if they got to him first.

"Let me see!"

"No."

"C'mon, let me see!"

Naruto hopped off the desk and into Gaara's lap, struggling to wrest the papers away from his friend and his single-minded Sand bodyguard. A mouth full of dirt and a black eye later, Naruto clung to the ceiling, dancing around further attempts to get the file back while trying to read it. Flipping back the cover, Naruto scanned the first item and stopped dead. A tenticle of sand snatched it from his grip but it was too late.

"What is that?" Naruto murmured, looking down at Gaara. Gaara couldn't stand to look, so he busied himself with reading the rest of the file, backing into his desk chair while taking it all in. A few minutes later the file slapped onto the desktop, sliding across the well-polished surface. Naruto let go of his chakra-hold on the ceiling and flipped, landing lightly if more than a bit distractedly. Gathering up the papers, he stood there reading while Gaara watched from the corner of his eye. The phrases broke up and blistered in Naruto's mind, and he could only understand some of it while still piecing together the whole picture.

"At 0200, March the 1st, missing-nin Uchiha Sasuke did break and enter the scroll vaults located in sub-basement B in Administative Complex C…"

"…died due to blood loss…"

"… were notified and funeral rites prepared…"

"…also broken into, but the contents of the hidden room in the Uchiha were unknown…"

"…engaged in battle at the east gate with the four jounins on sentry duty…

"Four more fell at the east gate when…"

Brows dragged down, following the corners of his mouth, and the grimace only grew as he waded deeper into the account. The bastard, what the hell was he thinking? Stealing classified scrolls was one thing, but murder? Human life used to mean something to Sasuke; he almost died protecting Naruto once and couldn't kill him when he had every intention of doing so. When did that change? When Sasuke violently overthrew Orochimaru? Or was it something he learned before that? When did Sasuke get so far away from him, when did he become such a stranger?

This was beyond searching for power, needing to kill his brother. This wasn't a mean to that end by any stretch of the imagination. Naruto wanted to cry, to scream, to demolish something, but he just stood there, gripping tight the pages and trying to see despite all the words that filled the ocean between him and Sasuke now.

"The Leaf has asked for our help in locating and destroying the Village of the Hidden Sound and its leader, Uchiha Sasuke," Gaara said at last, unable to take the disturbing silence any longer.

A blonde-flash head-snap and Naruto met Gaara's impassive gaze. The blister-brilliant pain and beaten-puppy betrayal in Naruto's eyes rattled Gaara, unsettling him. He had grown accustomed to handling the emotions of others, but Naruto's were always ten-fold thick, like too much gravity focused on a single spot deep in his chest. He never knew how to react, so he turned away to shut it all out.

"Assign me to the reconnaissance team," Naruto croaked out, ordering without a hint of request. He was glad Gaara no longer looked at him, though; Naruto had sworn not to shed another tear for that bastard but was dangerously close to breaking that vow.

Without a word, Gaara headed towards the door, the silk-swish of his robes too light and airy in the heavy press of the room. He just needed to step out for a moment; he couldn't quite breathe properly.

"Gaara, I need to be the one to find him!"

"No," the Kazekage said, silhouetted in the doorway, "you don't."

"Why the hell not!"

"Because the one who finds him kills him. You can't do that."

"I know, but…" Naruto quieted once more, trailing off. When his voice returned it hung low, as soft a murmur the loud-mouth could reach. "I promised too many people, myself included, that I would bring him back. Me. If that means bringing him back for his execution, then… I just… I need to see him again. One more time…talk to him…"

"It would break you."

"Maybe," he spat bitterly. "Maybe not. That bastard hasn't broken me yet."

"Besides," Gaara said as he faced his friend again, "the Akatsuki are still at large. I beat them off once and they sent you into hiding…"

"'Cause the hag made me," Naruto interrupted, grumbling.

"...but who knows what will happen next? If you're out wandering around I can't protect you."

Naruto frowned.

"You make me sound like a pathetic, little girl, you..."

"Don't let Temari hear you say that." It was Gaara's turn to interrupt.

"If you don't let me, I'll do it myself!"

"That's desertion," Gaara warned, his eyes narrowing. "You'd be a missing-nin yourself then. Also, Hokage-sama would kill me for not keeping you in line."

Gaara, having no sense of humor that Naruto could find, obviously believed in the very real threat an angry Tsunade posed. If the mood of the discussion hadn't pinned his humor to the tray to await the knife, Naruto would have laughed at the thought.

"Please..."

The door snapped shut, leaving Naruto alone with the file. Screaming, he threw it, watching the papers fly and flip around him. They settle soft and sweet on the floor, hot-white blurs in Naruto's tear-stained eyes.

TBC

AN: Thanks to those who took the time to review. It's much appreciated.