Two years ago today

Firefights always look so pretty on television- choreographed, small amounts of blood, no screaming or smoke billowing from various bullet-damaged vehicles. No gasoline flavored ash clogging the air either. No, gunfights on TV are almost enjoyable to watch.

Until you experience one.

Bullet wounds are ghastly to look at and much, much worse to personally live through. Bullets don't leave nice neat holes that trickle blood. Oh no- they forcibly carve flesh away from the body. Maybe the entrance wound is small, but that small bit of metal has to go somewhere. And as a general rule you're better off if a bullet doesn't get lodged inside you- even if the resulting scar more closely resembles a golf divot than human flesh.

And oh yes, people scream. They scream and screech and shriek from the horrific pain- because bullets can ricochet inside the body.

It's no wonder I can't sleep, what with that running through my head.

Naruto Uzumaki, also known as "that crazy kid- get him away from the power tools!" wandered down dark streets to his favorite haunt. It was an old abandoned playground situated right beside a broken-down church. Naruto was fairly sure it had been a Catholic one before the shootout, but he wasn't one for religion and had never asked around to be sure. Some of the metal fixtures in the playground had old blood stains on them, and it was generally believed the place was haunted by the kids who had died here. The place was perfect when you just wanted to get away from everyone and everything, and Naruto didn't mind the ghosts.

He shivered in the cold, putting his hands in his pockets. He couldn't sleep. Again. His breath exited his body in a gusty sigh. I'm starting to become an insomniac!

As a general rule he liked sleep. He liked sleep a LOT. A wistful smile crossed his face as he pictured his very comfy bed back home. He really liked sleep.

Kicking a rock that had foolishly jumped into his path, bright blue eyes watched it skip crazily across the pavement. Stupid nightmares! It's not fair.

Eyes still following the rock as it stopped bouncing, he noticed a pair of shoes sitting where his shoes normally took up space at his favorite "Brooding Spot." Lifting his gaze he accepted the fact that the shoes were attached to legs which led to the inevitable conclusion that there was going to be a torso, arms and head to follow soon after.

What he did not accept was that the person who was attached to all those body parts was one and the same with the red-haired bastard who had tried to kill him about a year ago and was the cause for his damn nightmares that wouldn't let him sleep god damn him!

Indignation, fury, confusion and annoyance flew through his body (in exactly that order). He growled his frustration at the huddled figure.

This earned him a gun (specifically an Uzi if he wasn't mistaken) in his face and wild aqua orbs defiantly staring into his, madness skittering across their surface.

Naruto paused, noting the make and custom work on the gun. Very nice- obviously quite personal. He liked the hourglass designs that had been placed onto the hilt and sides of the barrel.

And at least the bastard had moved out of his spot. Although it was a little unnerving to know that he could move that fast. He considered growling again just for good measure, but the twitchy finger of that red-haired bastard convinced him that it might not be a good idea to do so.

"You're a jerk!" he stated instead. Loudly, and with feeling. But mostly just very loudly.

The Uzi twitched and leaped away from his face like a startled rabbit. In its place a pale delicate hand rushed to point at his nose.

"I know you."

The flat, almost dead tone heaped more annoyance onto Naruto's psyche. His brain promptly melted into angry goo; drowning his sanity and good sense.

Which usually accounted for a lot of the (self-admittedly) crazy things he tended to do.

"I sure as hell HOPE so!" he blustered, even more furious than before, "You tried to kill me last year you frakking git!"

To retaliate properly to the rudely pointing hand Naruto raised his opposite hand to point back at the "frakking git."

The pointing went on for another five minutes.

Still wearing his trademark glare Naruto took the time to really look at the other boy. He was skinny; well, he looked skinny due to the rather dark and baggy t-shirt coupled with too large jeans hanging off his small frame. He had bags under his eyes and his skin was far too pale. His hair looked like it had gotten into a fight with a weed whacker and lost: random chunks were shorter or longer than others in an almost endearing haphazard manner. It looked like it hadn't been washed in a while either.

In short- he looked pathetic.

Well damn, how in the hell can I stay mad at someone who looks like a depressed hedgehog?

...

Dammit!

Mind made up, he asked the first question that came to mind.

"When was the last time you ate?" Naruto did his best to use Iruka-Dad's sternest voice.

The random question apparently took the other off-guard. Wide aqua eyes blinked once in confusion and the hand that had begun to tremble dropped back to the smaller boys side. "What?"

Naruto let his hand drop as well and put both fists on his hips, leaning toward the other. "I said when was the last time you ate? You know, had food? You look frakkin' terrible!"

It seemed all this kid could do was blink. Naruto sighed again, then reached out to grab the red-head's hand. "Come on. And put that away," he gestured to the Uzi, "you won't need it at IHOP. They get irritated when someone brings in a gun. They're so frakking sensitive! And you ARE hungry right?" He narrowed his eyes at the dark circles under the kid's eyes. "And you need to sleep more too- you look like a zombie. Your name is Gaara Sabaku right?" He stared at him until he got a nod from the wide-eyed teen. "Oh good. My name is Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki, in case you forgot. The hell are you doing out here at three in the morning anyway?"

Pausing in his frantic glances between the hand that was holding his and the boy that was now pulling him along like a talkative tugboat Gaara gathered his scattered thoughts together enough to answer. "Couldn't sleep."

Naruto nodded, shaggy blonde hair whipping along with the movement. "Yeah, me neither. Frakking nightmares," he leveled a weary glare on Gaara again, "which I have you to thank for by the way. You can be one scary git."

More with the blinking of the eyes, which seemed preoccupied with staring from his hand to his face and back again.

Naruto's lips twisted into a frown. "You're not a very talkative person are you."

A slow dazed shake of a russet head in the negative.

He prosaically shrugged. "Meh, at least you're not telling me to shut up- so I guess you're all right."

A shrug from slim shoulders in response. "Your voice is nice."

This comment brought Naruto to a halt and he turned to face Gaara, mouth gaping in surprise. "What? Really?"

A nod. "Yes, it reminds me of my brothers' voice."

This brought a smile to the spiky blonde, and he turned around to continue tugging Gaara along to IHOP.

"Did you know that today is National Pancake Day?"

This was how the odd friendship between Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara Sabaku began.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The kid was frakking weird; Naruto just couldn't understand him. He kept muttering and Naruto was sure the red-head was NOT talking to him. That and he was obviously paranoid- the frantic and twitchy eyes sort of gave it away.

People always thought Naruto was oblivious and stupid, like he couldn't understand why 2 plus 2 equaled 4… and he liked it that way. People tended to talk a lot more when they thought they wouldn't be understood. And Naruto had gotten amazingly good at reading body language too- people said so, so much without saying a word. So thankfully, due to his not-obliviousness and uncanny insight into silent body signals, Naruto deduced that Gaara was all sorts of Fucked Up. Majorly so actually- it was almost physically painful to watch him interact with normal, not-nearly-as-messed-up people.

So Naruto talked for him. And enough for at least a three-person conversation, but Gaara honestly didn't seem to mind. Which was good because his odd behavior was making the waitress twitchy. So Naruto did what he did best: he distracted him.

"So Gaara- hey, can I call you Gaara or do you want me to call you something else?" Waiting for the addressed to react Naruto tried to decide between the Very Awesome blueberry pancakes or the strawberry crepe Goodness. He went with his gut and the Very Awesome blueberry pancakes as he took in the sight of Gaara nodding his head yes in his periphery vision.

"Gaara is fine." Again with the no inflection. Freaky as hell.

"Oh good; so anyways do you have a favorite type of pancake? I like the blueberry myself."

"I don't know." Gaara's voice, just for a second, sounded vaguely puzzled and achingly lost.

That got his full attention. Ripping his happily meandering gaze away from the over-sized menu he stared at the too-skinny red-head. "What? What do you mean you don't know? Haven't you ever had pancakes before?" Blue eyes took in the angle of the slim shoulders. Defensive, too much so- might need to back off a bit.

Gaara shook his head. "No."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to change that- I'll order two different kinds and you order two different kinds and you'll just try a bit of each to see which you like best." Naruto nodded, pleased with his Obviously Awesome Plan. "I like them all so whichever you don't like I'll eat, okay?"

More with the blinking. It was kind of cute actually, so he smiled at him with his most comforting grin.

"Ok." This time the stare was just a little less suspicious than the one before it.

He could work with that.

&&&&&&&&&&

A few months later and Naruto found he could not sleep. So, always one for routine, he made his way back to the creepy playground within the depths of the city. For some reason the place relaxed him and calmed him enough to sleep. He supposed the kid ghosts felt sorry for him- not that he was superstitious or anything.

And who should be there at the dead of night but Gaara Sabaku. He slowly made his way over to the other teen and silently sat beside him. Somehow, this night called for silence.

"Why aren't you afraid of me?"

Or maybe not.

For some bizarre reason such a deep gravely voice coming from such a small guy didn't seem strange at all. It fit him, unlike the clothes he was wearing. Naruto, giving the red-head a once over, thought he saw bandages peeking out of the long-sleeved shirt Gaara had donned.

"Why do you have bandages on your arms?" he retorted, folding his across his chest.

Gaara blinked and looked down, reaching out a hand to trace the slightly blood-stained cloths. "I scratched at myself. Why aren't you afraid of me?" he repeated, gaze now boring holes into Naruto's head.

Bulkier shoulders shrugged under the large orange sweatshirt. "I dunno. You don't have that 'I'm about to kill you' look I guess." He leaned back onto his elbows, staring at the patch of sky, counting the stars for a bit. He could feel the git staring at him. It was starting to get annoying. "Why? Should I be?" he challenged.

"You're the only one who doesn't look at me with fear in their eyes."

The soft admission startled Naruto into sitting up. He did some staring of his own for a moment, then sighed, looking away.

"I'm the only one huh? I thought you had, like, siblings or something."

"I do."

That made him face the other again, and for a moment he stared at the side of Gaara's head, utterly shocked. "They're scared of you? But-but- they're family!"

And the kid just shrugged a shoulder, like it was nothing! That one action made his jaw drop. And Naruto, being Naruto, just couldn't leave well enough alone.

"But- why? You didn't threaten to kill them or something did you?!"

A blank stare, then a slow nod. "Once; before Father died."

Like it was fucking normal to be talking about threatening your siblings with death in an abandoned playground at two in the morning. Naruto's mind boggled over that for a bit.

"B-but… didn't you tell them you didn't mean it?!"

Ooh, an eyebrow this time, progress in facial expression!

"But I did mean it."

Naruto could feel his brain twitch. This was a bit much for two in the fucking morning. "Do you mean it now?" He could feel the outrage thrum through his body.

"No." Okay, that no inflection thing had to go. He swore he could feel an aneurism building in his head.

Naruto waved his hands in exasperation, noting in a distant part of his mind that Gaara's green eyes followed every movement like a hawk. "Did you tell them that?! It's kind of something they'd want to know!"

"It is?" FINALLY! Actual surprise this time! Not much mind you, but a little bit! It was there, he heard it!

"YES!" He jumped up and found himself looking down the barrel of an Uzi again. He pushed it exasperatedly out of the way and glared at him. "Of course they'd want to know- otherwise they'll think you haven't changed at all! It's kind of important!"

"I've…changed?"

He deserved a gold star for not slapping his hand over his face in exasperation, he really did. A big one. He groaned instead. "Uh, yeah. Otherwise I wouldn't be hanging out with you right now. Geeze, for someone who is supposed to be a genius you sure are hella dumb."

"I've changed." There was a slight bit of wonder in his deep voice, and that caught Naruto's attention.

He crouched down, eye level to him, and tilted his head. "Yeah, you're not the same kid who tried to kill me two years ago. I mean, you actually have inflection in your voice and stuff! And you've had pancakes, where two years ago you hadn't. And," he put his finger to his chin in thought, folding his other arm over the other elbow, "you haven't shot at me yet, that's an improvement!"

Green eyes stared at the Uzi still clenched in his grip. "It's not loaded," he admitted quietly.

Blue eyes stared appraisingly. "Was it last time?"

"Yes."

Yikes. Not terribly surprising, but still- yikes.

Face furrowed into a frown, causing his scars to scrunch up he asked "Ever thought about seeing a psychiatrist?"

And there was the Uzi again. His arms wind milled and he fell backward, landing with an "Oof!"

"That wasn't an insult- I'm serious!" He spoke to the stars, which were a lot less threatening at the moment. "They really help and stuff. Hell, I've been seeing one for like, ever."

Silence, then a rustling of clothing, and red hair appeared, green eyes looking at him upside down. "I don't like talking to people."

Naruto huffed, folding his arms and not getting up. He repressed the urge to poke at Gaara's nose. "Not surprised. I think this is the most you've spoken to me since we've met."

For the past two years Gaara had searched him out from time to time. Mostly the kid just sat and stared at him weirdly, but lately…

Gaara, for all his psychoses, really reminded him of Sasuke. It made him sad, and drove him to help the quiet red head when he could. He could see the hurt Gaara held inside him, and it made him ache too.

Silence reigned, Naruto becoming drowsy as he counted the stars again, cold air a comfort against his hot skin.

"Does it help?" A quiet monotone.

Blinking, Naruto sat up to look at Gaara, propping himself up on his elbows.

Who was staring at the Uzi cradled in his lap, tracing gentle fingers along the barrel, up and down, up and down, soothing and constant.

He laid back down. "Yeah, it does."

Two days later and Iruka-dad was calling his psychiatrist, asking if he could take on another patient.

&&&&&

Next time it was Gaara who found him sitting on a swing at the playground. Naruto raised aching red eyes and watched as the small and lithe red head walked carefully closer. He sniffed, rubbing at his tear-stained face.

"Naruto?" This time, the monotone had a different note in it- worry.

He hiccupped. "Yeah?" Voice sounding like he'd eaten carpenter's nails.

A hand, pale and small and warm, settled on his shoulder- resting there. "Why are you crying?"

If one was just going by voice inflection, they would think that Gaara couldn't care less about the answer one way or the other. Naruto knew better. The fact that he'd asked at all said everything. Gaara was trying his damndest to be a friend- and yeah, he'd needed a list of things that Friends Do For Each Other, but he'd memorized it and tried.

Naruto hiccupped again. "S-Sasuke keeps having nightmares- and I can't help him! T-the bastard won't LET me!" He wailed and leaned forward, arms wrapping tightly to the lithe yet so strong form that didn't move away.

Gaara said nothing and let him, simply pulling them both to the ground, Naruto wrapping himself around him, head burrowed into his stomach. He laid the flat of his hand against the broad plane of Naruto's back and moved it in slow circles.

They stayed like that until Naruto was numb. He shook, and hugged Gaara. "Thanks," he muttered, slowly sitting up and rubbing at his eyes.

A bandana found it's way under his nose. "Here."

He gave a weak chuckle. "You carry these things on you?"

A blank stare. "I never know when someone is going to try and kill me. It is good to have makeshift bandages around."

He sighed. "Or weepy friends."

A sage nod from the red head.

He pursed his lips, then shrugged, wiping his nose. Gaara waved him away when he made to give it back.

"Keep it."

They relaxed into silence for a while, then once again, Gaara took his rightful position in left field.

"I want to go to high school."

Naruto blinked and did some serious staring of his own. "Eh? I thought, you know, you had your GED and stuff."

Another nod. "I do." He elaborated at Naruto's "The Hell?" look. "I… I want to know what it's like to be… normal. To… act my age." He stared at his hands, twisting the W.W.N.D. (What Would Naruto Do- unpatented) bracelet Naruto had given to him as a joke- teasing him about his habit of asking Naruto what he should do almost constantly. He had yet to take it off.

"Oh. M'kay… Like, you mean as in… now?" Blue eyes watched as Gaara twisted the roughly made trinket.

"Yes."

A light turned on. "You want to go to my school don't you." It wasn't a question- merely a statement of soon-to-be fact.

"Yes."

Naruto sighed. "All right- but my crew can get pretty crazy. They still think you're nutters you know."

"I know."

"And you're ok with that?" disbelief coloring his tone.

"No- but…" a sigh, then bright green eyes bored into his own. "I want to try- try and… and make new bonds. Be more than j-just… just some weapon."

His jaw fell slack, then, because he could, because Gaara let him now- he pulled the smaller boy into a tight hug.

"'Kay. Why don't you-" he cleared his throat, tears threatening again for wholly different reasons, "why don't you arrive on National Hug Day? There'll be a welcoming committee and stuff for you." He paused, feeling Gaara shiver, "Does your sister or brother know?"

"Just Temari," his voice muffled. "She's all for it. Said she'll make the arrangements and everything for me."

"Good."

Later- Naruto fell to sleep with a lighter heart, shoulders still feeling the burden of Sasuke… but hopeful that someday… maybe…

Maybe Sasuke would accept his help too.