Chapter 2

"Goodbye, Gaara." Matsuri cooed.

Her informality towards surprised Gaara; she had never called him by his name alone. He didn't mind it actually, being called without a title soothed him; Gaara hated the spotlight. But what he hated the most was the idea of his only student being forcibly dragged away from his existence.

The two of them stood inside of the Kazekage tower waiting for Matsuri's new teacher to arrive. The atmosphere was deathly silent for the past several minutes. Gaara wondered how much more of this he can take. How much time did he have before she was extracted from his presence?

Suddenly, a bulging figure shuffled towards the pair, disturbing the two from their thoughts. "I'm here for Manami," the man grunted.

"Matsuri," Gaara quickly corrected him without hesitation.

The man peered up from the ground to look Gaara in the face. His expression squinted against the sun, and with his half open mouth appeared twisted.

"Oh, so you're the behemoth who's been philandering Masami, huh?"

Gaara ceased to correct him on Matsuri's name again, mostly because he had just been called a behemoth and accused of fondling his student. It took every ounce of his strength for Gaara to not execute him right on the spot, and even more to maintain his calm exterior.

He felt a tug on his shoulder; Gaara brought his face down to Matsuri's level.

"What does Phil-land-der-ing mean?" she whispered.

"Never mind…" Matsuri was too innocent to know.

The bulging man began to roar with laughter. His belly juggled as he threw his head back in hysteria. Gaara wondered what in the world could be so funny.

"So, yea…I'm her new teacher; nice to meet y' all."

The pair was speechless as the man stood before them, obviously waiting to take his new student into custody; his eyes were half-lidded and his was mouth curved into an exaggerated smile. Gaara thought he was going to be sick.

"My name's Azazel," he grunted.

Looking down at Matsuri, she appeared to be content. He was mostly worried about her, although she wasn't reacting to the situation.

"So, uh…yea, we can start any day you want. I don't have the curriculum right now, but uh…we can just kind of...train, or something. I suck at ninjutsu, I hate genjutsu, so I'm not teaching that, and…I guess I'm ok at taijutsu, but I'm not a professional or anything, y' know?" Azazel huffed out a few more laughs after finishing his speech.

"All registered instructors are supposed to have an acute knowledge of ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu. It is also recommended that you prepare lessons before the beginning of each class, otherwise you cannot teach." Gaara stood motionless and expressionless after finishing his speech.

Azazel jabbed a bloated finger into Gaara's face, "You think you're better than me? She's my student now, and there's nothing you can do about it! I can do whatever I want with her; you hear me you lusus naturae?"

Matsuri peered up at her former sensei with wide eyes. Gaara knew that she couldn't completely understand how this man or the other villagers portrayed him, but he knew that by looking into her eyes that she was deeply worried. How exactly this man planned on teaching Matsuri was beyond Gaara; whatever happened next was fate's decision.

And then, Gaara was left alone inside the tower while watching his precious friend walk away like a lamb to the slaughter.

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Azazel's name sounds relatively similar to Azuma; I promise the two have nothing to do with each other, haha! I also have nothing against chubby people - Choji is awesome.