A/N: Hello, there! Here's the new chapter. I hope you like it and I'm waiting for the feedback! Thanks to the ones who favorited and/or are following the fic!

Lock on Lockon: Tnx, here you go! XD

Naruto,

I need to ask you something about Harumi. To put it simply: what happened to her? Not long ago she had the prettiest smile I ever saw, now… she's lifeless.

What went wrong? What took away her happiness?

Looking at his email, Gaara decided it sounded too desperate. Especially for something he was sending in the middle of the night. He deleted all the words except his friend's name and wrote: "What happened to Harumi?" instead.

Yeah, that sounded less weird.

He sent the email and looked at the clock. It was a quarter after two. No way Naruto see his email so late.

He was about to turn off his laptop when a reply appeared on his inbox: Video chat. Now.

Yeah, maybe working late was a must for all the Kage.

Gaara opened his video chat program and clicked on Naruto's nickname. His friend concerned face popped up on the screen. Well, at least he seemed to be concerned under the thick, shapeless layer of colored makeup he had on his face.

"Nice make up. All those… manly colors." Gaara couldn't help but tease.

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Oh, huh, I was playing with my daughter before." He wiped the makeup off his face with the hem of his pajama shirt. "So, did Harumi do something?"

"She… doesn't believe on ANBU. Not how she should believe." Gaara summed up.

Naruto sucked his teeth. "That's a shame. Harumi had the potential to be next commander of ANBU." The Seventh Hokage frowned. "Wait a second, did she tell you her name?"

"Oh, no. Temari did… It was an accident, I think."

"I see… It isn't too hard to figure it out, anyway. Ki and Haru." (A/N: from Kisetsu - season - and 'spring') Naruto sighed. "Didn't you wonder why I sent someone other than Shikamaru as my representative?"

Gaara shrugged. "You told me on your letter that you were trying to cheer her up."

"Do you think is working?"

"No." He answered honestly.

"Yeah, so it seems… I guess I will have to discharge her for good then."

Gaara widened his eyes. "Isn't that a bit too much? You said she is going through a baleful phase, but is it really that bad?"

"You know, after the war was over and the times changed, the need to rethink ANBU started to become more and more eminent. Especially here on Konoha, where we used to have a little thing called 'the Root', something inside ANBU that was even darker than ANBU itself." Naruto explained. "Having been a member of the ANBU himself, Kakashi-sensei created the post of the ANBU commander: a person who would watch his subordinates closely and to prevent them from being consumed by the darkness surrounding them. To do that, no one is better than Sai, you know him."

Gaara nodded. Even now he still would have a hard time holding back a chuckle every time he reminded the unique personality of Temari's "man of honor". Indeed, it should be quite refreshing to stay near someone so delighted about life.

"He has been doing a great job: on these eight years, he only failed once." Naruto told him.

"With Harumi?"

"Yes, and it seems she's doomed."

"What happened to her?" Gaara wondered.

"It's not my place to tell you that."

"And are you sure you want to fire her?"

"No. I don't even want to do that: Harumi is by far the best kunoichi on ANBU and she's probably the stronger offensive genjutsu user we have." Even through the webcam, Gaara could see how much his friend was conflicted. "I've told you the reason she's there is because we are trying to cheer her up, but above all, this mission was her last chance to prove she's a ninja not a mercenary."

"Is it really that bad?" The Kazekage asked again.

Naruto looked away and smacked his lips before starting the answer:

"In order to change ANBU's self-image we adopted a new policy: their function is not to kill, it's neutralize and no mission worth the life of a companion. Despite all that, Harumi's murder rate is higher than the rest of ANBU together and, besides, last month, in order to accomplish a mission..."

"Let me guess: did Harumi let her friends behind?"

"No." He sighed. "She killed them."

"Wow." It was all Gaara could say.

"That's why I think being a kunoichi is not right for her. Maybe it is better to make her step back."

Gaara opened his mouth to say something but he was interrupted by a child's voice:

"Daddy?"

Naruto turned his head to look at someone out of the reach of the webcam. "Yes, sweetie? Whatcha doing out of bed?"

"I can't find onii-chan."

"Boruto isn't home today, he's sleeping over at uncle Sai's house, remember?"

"But I don't want to sleep alone. There's a huge cyclops on my wall." The speaker finally became visible: a five-year-old little girl, with dark short hair and big blue eyes.

"Okay, so do you wanna sleep with mom and dad? If there's a cyclops on the house, someone should stay with mom to protect her… Will you protect her while dad beats this evil cyclops?"

Himawari gave it a thought then nodded. Naruto grabbed her in his arms. "I'll take her to her mother. Just a second, Gaara."

"No problem."

While he waited, Gaara felt his face open up on a smile, despite the tension he was feeling because of the subject.

He was glad to see his precious friend being so happy: no one deserved such a beautiful family better than Naruto, it was gratifying to see someone who had once been ostracized to achieve all his dreams. It was nice to see the life that had nothing but loneliness to shine like the sun… It was as nice as thinking of Harumi was heart-breaking.

She was the opposite of them: Harumi had a light, she was happy but now, for some reason, she was purposely wallowing in darkness. The situation was so bad that even Naruto, whose motto was to never go back on his word, was giving up on her.

That was also disappointing. Naruto was known for changing people's life, no one was better than him on making a person who's lost in the dark to see the light.

Why won't him help her?

An answer formed on the back of his mind. Maybe Naruto couldn't help her. Maybe he couldn't understand the entrenched thorns in her heart.

Such a good, gentle and loyal person would never understand why someone would murder a friend.

Gaara did.

That was it. He could do it. He could finally pay someone back the gift he had received from Naruto many years ago.

Naruto came back to his place in front of the webcam.

"I'll fix her." Gaara told him.

"Huh?"

Gaara remembered Naruto didn't participate on his lucubration. "Let me try to help her: I think I know how she's feeling. There's good in her and I think I… No, I know I can show her the light again."

Naruto smiled, relived. "Thank you, Gaara. Thank you very much."

"I'm still the one who should be thanking you."

Naruto smiled again but then the smile was out like a light. "Gaara, you should be careful. Harumi is not an easily approachable person. After what happened these days… Actually, even before that…" Naruto froze and didn't keep talking.

"Not your place to tell me?" Gaara guessed.

Naruto shook his head. "No, this time is more because, if tell you, you might give up." He inhaled deeply. "I'm counting on you, Gaara."

"I won't let you down."

The smile was back. "Thanks. I wouldn't guess that… Hey, do you think she planned all this?"

"Who?"

"Your sister. She was the one who suggested me to send Harumi to the Chunin Exams. Do you think she knew you try to help Harumi?"

Gaara gave it a thought. "Probably."

The blond man chuckled. "Now, I should really go back to bed before my wife and daughter get…"

"Devoured by an evil giant?"

"It's an evil cyclops." He waved Gaara goodbye. "Good luck."

They logged off at the same time.

Then the Kazekage finally realized something: he had no idea of how to do that. He had his heart reached because of a fight, but he didn't think he could use the same method with Harumi. To say the least, it would be pretty weird if the Kazekage suddenly picked up a fight with an foreigner kunoichi who was, basically, a stranger to him.

Besides, Gaara was a middle range fighter, genjutsu users used to be close range: with such a combination, the fight would end too quickly for them to get a grasp of each other's feelings.

Then again, punching some sense into someone wasn't something you could do with women.

But if I run out of options…

No, no. He was looking at it from the wrong perspective. He shouldn't plan his actions based on what worked on him but on what he thought what would work on her. But that was even worse: he knew nothing about her.

Not just that, Gaara was useless when it came to females in general. Well, he had never met his mom and the only woman he was close to with was his sister, but Temari used to work so hard on suppressing anything vaguely 'girly' about her personality that she almost didn't count as a reference.

That didn't mean she couldn't help at all. After all, Temari at least knew Harumi. Gaara was pretty much an outsider who kept calling her without a suffix in his mind when, actually, she hadn't even told him her name. And if Gaara thinked of her as a stranger, Harumi probably thought of him as… Well, she probably didn't even think of him at all.

That was why it wasn't a bad idea to ask Temari for advice. Sure his sister would at least be able to offer him a start point, he grabbed his phone and called her.

The phone rang five times before someone picked up. A weak, distant voice said:

"Hello?"

"Temari?"

"No."

"Huh, Shikamaru-nii?" Silence. "Hello?"

"Hello."

"Shikamaru-nii, is everything alright?"

"Who is it?"

"Gaara."

"Gaara… of Suna?"

Gaara - of Suna - chuckled. "How many Gaaras do you know?"

"Gaara of Suna?"

"Shikamaru, shut up!" Another voice said. Now it was really Temari. "What is it?"

"I think some jerk is making a prank call pretending to be you brother."

There was a sigh and a few noises on the phone and then Temari's voice sounded through it: "Who is it? I'm hanging up!"

"It's Gaara!" The Kazekage answered a bit amused. What was wrong with them?

"Gaara… of the Desert?"

"No, Gaara of the rain forest! Of course it's me, Temari! Come on!"

There was a long silence then: "Gaara."

"Yes?"

"Do you know what time is it?"

Gaara checked his watch. 3 a.m. Crap. He had forgotten how late it was.

"Geez, sorry. Go back to sleep, I'll call you tomo… I mean, later today."

Temari snorted. "I'm awake now anyway, so spit it out already."

"Okay, Huh… First, thank you for the video. I watched three times already. Secondly, about Harumi…"

"Wow, wow, wow. What about Harumi? Did she do something? Are you alright?"

"Uh, yeah. Why the worry?"

"Harumi can be very… Never mind. So, about Harumi…?"

Gaara gulped. He didn't know how to start. That was just great: he hadn't even talked to Harumi after deciding to help her and he was already lost.

"I've heard she's doing… bad."

"Yeah, you could say that. So?"

"Uh, I think that… Well…" Everything that crossed his mind sounded too pretentious: God, did he really say he would fix her? Who the hell did he think he was?

"Gaara, I love you, but I won't stay awake just to hear you stutter." Temari complained.

"Well, I see a lot of my old self on her and I think I could help her see the light again. Even if she doesn't want to."

On the other side of the line, his sister smiled.

"Oh, good, you'll help her! I was praying for it! Do you need anything? Ask whatever you want!"

"Right, then, what happened to her?"

"Ugh."

He sighed. "Never mind."

"No, wait. I can't tell you exactly what happened, but let me give you the big picture, okay?"

"That would be a big help."

"You see, you said you saw a lot of your old self on her… That's quite right."

Gaara frowned. "She has a tailed beast inside her?!"

"Don't be so literal!" Temari enraged. "Think about how being rejected by your own village made you feel."

Gaara didn't have to work too hard to remember that. "Lost. Alone. Sad. Confused… then angry, lusting for blood…"

"Yeah, let's focus on stopping Harumi before she gets to that." Temari change the phone to the other ear. "That's it. Except that, after you wigged out completely, you found comfort on hate, on killing… Harumi doesn't have even that. She lost her purpose to live."

"But she is not alone. She has friends, you and Naruto seem to care a lot for her." Gaara argued.

"It doesn't make a difference how we feel if our feeling can't reach her. You're right, though, I really care… But it is not like we were close before, I just happen to be her boss' best friend. And she is… she used to be… in really good terms with Sai."

Gaara thought his sister's voice sound a bit odd when she said those words. It was like she was insinuating something different from what she was speaking. As he wasn't really good with innuendos, so he asked:

"Do you think Sai's involved in whatever happened to Harumi?"

"I know Sai's involved." She said. Once again, those words sounded really meaningful. Gosh, if Temari was willing to give him so many hints, why couldn't she just tell him what the heck had happened already?

"I should ask Sai-san, then?"

"I don't know if he would tell you, anyway. The easier source is surely Harumi."

Gaara frowned. "And she would tell me? A perfect stranger?"

"She will. If you ask properly and gain her trust."

Gaara remained silent for a while, then he and his sister spoke at the same time:

"Gaara, I..."

"Temari, I..."

"You go first." Temari gave in.

"I want to ask something. Naruto said you were the one who gave him the suggestion of sending Harumi here."

"Yeah, I did."

"Why? You just said you and her aren't close. Why would you go so far for your friend's subordinate?"

Temari pressed her lips together. Sometimes she would forget how keen Gaara really were.

"I can't explain it well enough… I guess it is because, even though we aren't friends, the little I know about Harumi already made me realize she's special. She is someone who is worth saving. Besides, ever since she changed, Sai have been down too. He tries to hide it, but I know he blames himself."

"And your original plan was just the 'get her close to youngsters' thing or you always knew I would try to help?"

"I hoped you would."

"And why is that?"

"Because if there's anyone who can bring back to life someone who was consumed by their own darkness, it's you. With every bit of awkwardness and insecurities you have. Don't worry. You will do just fine."

For Temari surprise, she heard Gaara chuckle.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing. I was just thinking that you're really clever, Temari. I guess you and Shikamaru-nii do have something in common, then.."

It was Temari's turn to chuckle. "Need anything else? I'm starting to get really sleepy."

"Well, I… don't know how to do it. I want to help her to be happy again but I don't know how."

"What made you happy back then?"

"The thought that I might be needed by someone for who I am, not for who one would want me to be."

"That's it, Gaara. You should work on make her feel needed."

"I see! I can do that! That's it! Thank you, sis, you're awesome." Gaara hang up before she could say something back.

Temari smiled. She could already imagine her little brother starting to plan something enthusiastically, forgetting completely that it was late and he was an early worker Kage.

"So that's why you filmed that video and made Harumi hand him to you?" Shikamaru asked when his wife lied back on bed. "You were trying to make sure they would meet, that he would know her name and get interested on her problems, weren't you?"

Temari sighed. "I needed Gaara to notice her."

"Mah… You realize you might be throwing your brother to the wolves, right?"

"Harumi is not a wolf. She won't hurt him."

"She hurt Sai."

Temari closed her eyes. She didn't want to think about that. "I really do think he can do it. Gaara will be fine. Harumi soon will be too."

"If you believe that, I do too." Shikamaru proclaimed. "I trust your brother and I trust you."

She smiled softly and touched his face. "I love you."

"Yeah… and I would love to sleep now."

Nevertheless, Shikamaru took her hand on his and started to draw small patterns with his fingers on it, softly. He didn't stop it until after both of them were asleep.

The second phase of the Chunin Exams was planned by the Kazekage himself and was taking place on Suna's underground.

"Now, listen," Gaara was saying to the examinees as they stood on the entry of the undergrounds "this is the last phase that you will be doing as teams, which means that those who pass today will be on their own, but today the rules are the same as yesterday's test: or the whole team makes it, or no one makes it." He took a breath.

"The test is quite simple: a integrant of each team will be blindfolded, muzzled and will have their noses and ears clogged, that is to say that this person will have to be guided by touch. After you got in, you'll have three hours to find your way out."

Gaara gave a few seconds to the "That's really easy! We can make it!" chattering to cease.

"Oh, and don't forget: you can only get out after you get rid of the all obstructions on your teammate's or yours senses and the only way of doing it is passing it to someone else. If the time is up and you're still down there or if there's anyone on your team with eyes, mouth, ears or nose covered, you fail."

The chattering was back, now sounding more cautious.

"Any technique, weapon, strategy is allowed, but, please, remember you will be on a city's underground, so you must avoid potentially destructive actions… especially if you reach the sewer or the catacombs."

Now the examinees went quiet.

"Questions? No? So, ready, set… Good luck… And go!"

The teams flew through the entrance without thinking twice. Gaara smiled a bit before turning to the representative's of the other Kage and the leaders of the smaller villages that were taking part on the exam.

They and the teachers of the genins that were taking the exam were in a bunker with large screens displaying the images captured by several security cameras in the undergrounds. Harumi was there, of course, showing the usual nonchalant face, and, exactly like the day before, her aura of indifference seemed to function as a wall that isolated her from others.

"Good morning." He greeted all. A few answered him, not Harumi, who was now really focused on something on the screen. He got closer to her. "Haru...ka is a really smart girl." Gaara said, trying to cover up his bloop looking at the screen.

Harumi raised an eyebrow. "Which one of them is Haruka?"

"None. Haruka is a girl I know which I just happen to remember now her."

The eyebrow was replaced by her narrowing her eyes. "Kazekage-sama, do you…?"

"Do I have a favor to ask you? I do! Actually, one of the shinobi that should go through the underground to hinder the examination is sick today and couldn't make it. Could you replace him? You just need to trouble with traps or something and then, after the time is up, show to the ones who didn't make it the way out."

Oddly, she smirked. Gaara would rather she didn't. That smirk was nothing like that smile she showed on the picture nor the sarcastic smile she gave Mizura and Omoi on the day before, no. That smirk was… evil. Like she was actually happy for being told to stand on those kids' way to their dream and not because she was feeling useful.

"Can I use my mask?" She asked.

Gaara gulped and nodded, afraid that, if he dared to talk, his voice would crack. Harumi smiled for real now. If only the reason she was smiling wasn't so dire, Gaara would have said that it was a beautiful smile.

"Thank you." She said. "I'll do it, then. Kazekage-sama, would you see me out?"

He nodded again and they walked out the bunker. When they got to the entrance, Harumi pulled out her rabbit-shaped mask and placed over her face.

"You know, Kazekage-sama," Harumi started to say slowly "I don't dislike my name."

"What do you mean?" He asked, genuinely confused.

The kunoichi looked back to him, it surprised him how, under that mask, her green eye shone brightly. "You've known my real name since yesterday, right? And, well, 'Harumi' is not a name I dislike, so I don't mind if you call me like that. At least not when we're off duty. "

Gaara felt his cheek flush a bit. Yeah, he was never a good liar.

"But why would I meet you off duty?"

She tilted her head to the side and then turned back to the entrance of the underground. "Well… I still wanna know how do you know my name, I'm craving for a juice hamburger, and Suna is famous for making good ones and I'm free tonight."

"Oh." Gaara answered. She had forgotten to mention that the men of Suna were famous for their killer lines.

"Just… think about it." The green sparkle was gone for a second, as she had winked at him. Harumi was gone before he could say something (well, not that he had managed to think about something to say, anyway).

"That isn't exactly what I would call nonchalant." Gaara finally managed to say out loud.

He was going to need a new adjective to describe her. Maybe "nuts" was more suited.