A/N: So how's that for an update? But I apologize for its shortness. The next chapter won't come out until probably next week but I promise it'll be longer than this one.
Warnings: More implied yaoi but still not enough for the rating to go up. Lots of Gaara in this chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Wish I did but hey, if everything I wished came true, I would be ninja, a shinigami, an exorcist and an alchemist all at once, yeah!
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For The Want Of
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Chapter One
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I saw you with your new girl just yesterday
And I feel that I must confess
Even though it kills me to have to say
I'll admit that I was impressed
Walk Away by Paula Deanda
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-Flashback four years-
A dark pair of eyes jealously watched the newly wed couple of Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata. Haruno Sakura stared sadly at the ground, disappointed that her husband paid almost no attention to her and still treated her as nothing more than a good friend. She looked up at him almost hopefully though, when his arm tightened around her waist. But it was for nothing because the moment she saw his eyes, she saw nothing there but a burning jealousy for a pretty black haired girl and nothing but an unbearable regret towards the blonde.
"Sakura. Let's go." Uchiha Sasuke whispered to his wife as he tugged the two of them away.
"B-But Sasuke-kun, we haven't congratulated them yet or given them their present or-"
"We can do it another day. Let's go, now." He said, his voice taut with an emotion Sakura couldn't place. She sighed and followed him home to the Uchiha compound, which, for all its history and magnificent size, was really no more than a dead ghost town to her.
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Sasuke pulled Sakura into the house and gently kissed her forehead. He realized that he didn't give her half the attention or affection she craved and deserved but for now, this was the best he could do.
"Will you make dinner or shall I?" he asked, his voice deep as ever with maturity layered on like a dark silk.
"I'll do it," Sakura replied cheerily, "Why don't you go lay down for a bit, Sasuke-kun? I'll have it done in a bit."
Sasuke nodded mutely and walked to the living room. He lay down on the couch and closed his eyes wishing that he'd be unable to see them if he closed his eyes even though he knew it was entirely wishful thinking. He listened to his wife cooking in the kitchen and wished that he could love Sakura half as much as she loved him. Oh, there was no doubt that he cared for her but that could only go so far.
But really, why didn't he love her? She had been there for him during all those missions and had never once stopped loving him in all their twenty odd years of knowing each other. And far be it from him to say that she wasn't beautiful now. She was sought after by more than half the available males in the village for her beautiful porcelain skin, enchanting green eyes and her beautiful features in general. It was probably a safe bet to say that even the unavailable males lusted after his wife as well. Her body was no longer that of a little girl's, it had developed into that of a gorgeously mature woman. Her shining hair had been grown out a little longer and looked positively beautiful, framing her heart-shaped face. And while her forehead had never shrunk or anything, it now gave Sakura an air of elegance around her person.
Soon though, Sasuke arrived on the reason. She simply wasn't him. She wasn't the one chasing after him at the Valley of the End. She hadn't been there and neither had poured out their emotions to each other there. Sakura was not the one that had fought Orochimaru for him during the Chuunin exams. He had not taken dozens of needles for her on the Great Naruto Bridge. And she was not the one who could ever really understand how he felt when Itachi had killed his family. She had never been an orphan and likely never would be. But above all, she had not made it her nindo to keep her promises to everyone no matter how ridiculous or insane, she had not made it her nindo to-to…
"Sasuke, would you like to eat now?" a soft voice said. He opened his eyes to see her standing before him with an apron over her everyday work clothes. He nodded and stood up to embrace her tightly.
"Thank you, Sakura." He says. Her eyes look at him, wide and questioning. But he doesn't answer, as he knows she'll figure it out on her own. But he is thankful nonetheless because unlike that man, she can't make him crave her like a drug until he would do almost anything. Almost being the key word. And she couldn't make him smash his heart into thousands of little pieces.
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Present Time
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"NEEEEEEEJI!!!!" Naruto shouted into the halls of the Hyuuga compound, running from one building to the next in search of his long-time friend and supporter. In all honesty, Neji was one of the reasons he was Hokage now; because if the illustrious Hyuuga family was wholeheartedly backing the demon container, who were the villagers to object?
"Naruto! I thought I've told you before, don't run around disturbing the rest of the family like that!" replied a flustered Neji who had finally appeared five minutes after Naruto's great 'Neji Hunt' had started. "What kind of example do you think you're being for all the children here?" he said, waving an arm to show all the little kids he was babysitting as a result of a lull in high classed missions and only D-ranked ones going around. Actually, these days a ninja would consider himself lucky to get a C-ranked mission.
Naruto jumped on Neji energetically. "That's not the point! I've finally figured out the great mystery of 'Why are there suddenly no worth while missions'! It's because of the Chuunin exams! So all the countries and hidden villages are busy preparing for the exam! Who would have thought?"
Neji sweat-dropped. "Apparently everyone but you, Hokage-sama…" and attempted to peel Naruto off.
"That's not the point, Neji! But anyway, Gaara's here and stuff and soon there'll be a TON of people coming from everywhere so we need to organize something fast, believe it!" Naruto replied from some other room in the vast complex. He ran by wearing his Hokage ensemble and shouted, "Konohamaru, race you to the tower!! Neji, Hinata, will you two do me a favor and get the Jounin instructors to assemble? Thanks, I love you, Hinata-chan!"
Hinata blushed and waved at Naruto's retreating back while Neji pouted slightly.
"What, no, 'Thanks I love you, Neji'?" he asked himself. The Kazekage raised an eyebrow at the petulant ANBU ninja walked towards him and leaned in very, very close. In fact, Neji could even smell him. Blushing from head to toe, he wondered what the Kazekage wanted. Hopefully nothing that would result in him cheating on Ten Ten but this was the KAZEKAGE so he couldn't refuse him anything! And-and-and-
"Take care of Hiroki for a while." Gaara said as he dumped a pouting child into Neji's hands.
"B-but UNCLE GAARA!! I'm a big boy, can't I go with you?" whined the Hokage's son.
"No, Hiroki. We don't want you to know the going on's of the Chuunin exam before you're even a genin, do we? That would ruin the surprise. So stay with Uncle Neji, won't you?"
"Fine…"
"That's a good boy. I'll make sure to bring something back for you." Gaara patted Hiroki's head and flew away on his sand toward the Hokage Tower.
"I WANT DADDY'S KATANA!!" Hiroki yelled at his godfather's back, ignoring the person he was sitting on.
"I'm some ANBU… They used to call me Captain Hyuuga. Now I'm going to be forever known as 'Neji the Babysitter.' WHY ME?!" Cried an anguished ninja as he sank to his knees in despair. Hiroki hugged the white-eyed man sympathetically as other children crowded around their favorite storyteller.
"It's okay, Uncle Neji the Babysitter. There'll definitely be some mission for you to go on soon so that you can disappear for a long, long time until no one even knows who you are!" Hiroki was very pleased with his brilliant plan. The other children were nodding in agreement, awed by the genius of the Hokage's child.
"You think that's funny, do you?" said Neji, turning on the concerned four-year-old and co. "Well, I'll show you funny! Laugh at this! EIGHT TRIAGRAMS SIXTY-FOUR PALMS OF DIVINE TICKLING RETRIBUTION!"
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"And that's how it's going down." Finished the Hokage. "We're going to be using the same Chuunin Exam (1) from the infamous Rookie Nine's time. Go!"
Konohagakure's ninja flew off at this command. Gaara strolled up from behind him and said quietly, "You do that very well. Konoha should be proud to have you as her Kage. But she isn't, is she?"
The blonde turned towards the former demon container smiling sadly.
"Perhaps. At any rate, she isn't going to start showing me off anytime soon."
"The people of this village have yet to see you as anything more than the demon who killed their precious Fourth?"
"I think they're getting over that but it doesn't change the fact that the thing inside me has taken the lives of many people who were precious to at last one person. I-I think that given the choice between those lives that were lost and me…"
"They would choose the dead." These last five words left pale lips like a dead breeze.
"Yeah. They would." Azure eyes filled and the white sleeve of a Kage robe wiped tears of Naruto's beautiful tan skin. "You would think, wouldn't you, that after more than twenty years of that kind of treatment, a person would get used to it."
"If someone could get used to that, they would have to be dead inside. But you're alive. And that's why their treatment should still hurt. That's why your eyes will still spill tears when something hurts. And that's why you can still love those people and this village enough to serve it every day." Gaara told Naruto. He knew his words would have hurt a younger more immature Naruto but this one could understand the meaning.
Naruto smiled slightly, genuinely at his old friend now. "That doesn't really sound like you."
The red-head nodded in agreement, "That's what Temari told me once. So you would be right in saying that it doesn't sound like me because it didn't come from me and you never heard it from me, understand?"
Naruto laughed now, a real laugh. "Oh, definitely. If I heard it from you, Temari-nee-san would find out and then you'd kill me and then she'd kill you."
"U-um, Hokage-sama? Kazekage-sama?" Before them stood a young teenage girl clutching a pen and pictures in her hand. She bowed quickly, "Couldyoupleasesigntheseforme?" she squeaked out.
Naruto grinned and took the offered pen scrawling his signature all over… Gaara's picture. Gaara scowled and snatched the pen from Naruto, writing his name in big bold letters over Naruto's picture.
"There ya go!" Naruto said, handing them back to the girl, returning the pictures. The fan-girl squealed and ran off. Before falling into a dead faint when she saw that her beloved Gaara-sama's face had two dark rings around the eyes as a result of her Hokage's signature and over her beloved Hokage's face and most importantly; his adorable whisker marks, was SABAKU NO GAARA.
Naruto hooked his arm around Gaara's as they walked back to the Hyuuga compounds from the bottom of the Hokage tower, "And that is why you are Hiroki's godfather and my best friend, Gaara!"
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A pair of coal black eyes widened at these words as the owner melted into the shadows and away from the two Kage's.
So now he's your best friend, dobe? Did I truly cut our ties with only three words?
---------------end-chapter-one---------------
(1) Chuunin Exams: Yes, I'm using the same one as the one from the manga and anime because I'm too lazy to make up a whole different cast of examiners and tests and whatnot. Besides, if they usually use a different one and haven't used this one in a while then it's perfect for my uses.
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Review Please!
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