Stage Two: I'm Just Blunt, that's All

The Gryffindors didn't have class with the Kazekage until Thursday. It was normally a zero period, and we had it with the Slytherins. I wasn't too thrilled about taking a class that I already knew. It was strange though. Why did the Gryffindors have all the cool classes with total ass-tarts like Slytherins? Anyway, I wasn't too thrilled. Usually, I arrived to class first, but this time, I was almost late. And everyone else was there. The only seat left was in the back. Fine with me. It seemed that my classmates were totally stoked for the class. We only had to wait three seconds after the bell rang before Gaara disappeared in a wave of sand. Show-off. The class all jumped in shock and surprise. I had to suppress a snort because he had way cooler tricks than that.

"hey," he said with a smirk.

The girls all sighed. I nearly gagged.

"I'm going to start you all off with a quiz," said Gaara-sama. "To see if you've opened your books since you've gotten them."

This time there was a collective groan throughout the class.

"You and you," he said, pointing to Lavender and Blaise, "Pass out these tests."

The two hopped up and took the papers and distributed it to the class.

"You may begin," Gaara said. "You have forty minutes."

I looked at the test and cold barely hide the disgust I felt. These questions were so painfully easy that I couldn't even dignify them with an answer. So I just turned over and began doodling on the back. He could fail me if he wanted. This test could be answered by any kid in the Ninja world who's never been to the Academy.

"Time's up," said Gaara, forty minutes later.

He spent that time doing some much-needed paperwork.

"You and you, collect the papers," Gaara said.

Harry and Pansy Parkinson stood up and collected papers. It took Gaara-sama all of ten minutes to finished grading those papers.

"I must say," he said, "I'm extremely disappointed. Only one person passed, and that was Hermione Granger."

Hermione smiled, clearly mollified by her genius.

"But I am curious," said Gaara-sama, "at this black paper. Arata? No last name?"

"That'd be me," I said, raising my hand lazily.

"Did you not read the book?"

"Oh no, I've read the book," I said, wrinkling my nose. "I just couldn't bring myself to dignify those questions with an answer."

Gaara's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Those questions are so painfully generic that even a child who never went to the Academy would know what the answer was," I scoffed. "How could I bear to answer such easy questions? It's an insult to my knowledge."

Gaara looked at me with cold curiosity.

"What village are you from?" he asked bluntly.

The class gasped as I pulled my necklace from under my shirt. It was a silver hourglass, the emblem of Suna.

"Yours," I said. "My daddy didn't want me to meet you because he thought I might offend you… something about my brutal honesty."

"Who's your father?"

"Baki," I said with a sigh. "Poor old man, he goes on and on about discovering the opposite gender. Honestly, tell me, doesn't that sound like a scientist who's found some strange bug species? And how can you discover something that's been there all along? I mean, come on!"

Gaara nodded understandingly.

"I heard Baki had a daughter, but I'd never thought I'd meet her."

"Well, you have," I said with a smile.

"You're a jounin, correct?"

"Hai."

"Nande-"

"What the hell is going on?" asked Theodore Knott, interrupting our conversation.

"Oh, nothing, my dear Theo," I said with a smile. "Just trying to figure out why we've met before especially when my father trained our new teacher, ne, Kazekage-sama?"

"Hai," he said, nodding. "I guess I won't be grading you on your work in this class, Arata-san."

"So," I said hopefully. "Can I go?"

"No," said Gaara. "You're going to be my TA."

"Aw cripes," I complained. You're mean!"

He just smirked. But then he addressed the entire class. "But I really am disappointed in all of you," he said coldly. "For homework, I want you to read the first chapter and do all of the comprehension questions at the end of the chapter, on my desk when class starts. No, Arata, it would be pointless to make you do that when you already know the content."

I smiled.

"No, I want to know what you've learned," said Gaara, walking around his desk and leaning against it. "Someone tell me, what is a ninja's duty?"

Hermione's hand shot up. Typical.

"Yes?" Gaara said, gesturing towards her.

"A ninja's duty is to finish the mission, whether their life forfeit or not," she said.

"The exact textbook answer," said Gaara. "No, that's not it, though. Some of the stuff in the textbook is a load of crap."

Hermione looked absolutely crestfallen and the rest of the class looked stunned. Hermione never failed to answer a question correctly. I sighed. This girl was too 'by-the-book' to understand the true depth of the question.

"You remind me a lot of a friend of mine," Gaara said. "Haruno Sakura, very smart, and could memorize anything in a book. But you've got to learn the deeper meanings of things."

The bell rang.

"I'll award house points and extra credit to anyone who answers the question correctly," said Gaara-sama. "And you can't ask Arata for the answer, I'll know if you did."

I sighed and stood, running my fingers through my grey-black hair. I collected my things and left before anyone else. I wanted to get to the tower.

"Arata!"

I turned to see Hermione Granger of all people running towards me, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley hot on her heals.

"What?" I asked bluntly.

"I-I was hoping," she asked, embarrassed, "that you might help me figure out what the answer is…"

I looked at her. She'd never done this before, to my knowledge. So I sighed again.

"The answer is within here," I said, placing the tip of my finger over her heart. "Just, put yourself in the same position as a ninja and think about your duty, your real duty, and you'll find you answer. It's slightly different for everyone."

"Good god, woman, will you just give us a straight answer?" Ron asked, exasperated.

I looked at him, bemused. "But then you'd never learn anything," I replied.

"Well said, Arata-san."

We all turned around and saw Gaara-sama balancing a large crate and several other unknowns.

"Umm, Kazekage-sama, where's your gourd?" I asked. "I was wondering about that during class, it's… unnatural…"

"Oh, it's I a small scroll I carry on my person at all times," he said, shrugging.

I just stared at him. That would leave him vulnerable for too long.

"Kazekage-sama…"

"Don't call me that," he snapped. "It makes me feel older than I really am."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Are you… complaining?" I asked.

"You try being called Kazekage everyday for the last six years and you tell me whether you feel thirty years past your prime," he said.

"Huh," I said. "Well, you're still at a swinging twenty, so I guess that should negate all thoughts of old age, shouldn't it?"

Gaara stared at me, calculating.

"How old are you, Arata-san?" he asked.

"Umm, fifteen, why?"

"You seem much older… from the way you act."

I nodded slowly. "Um, okay," I said just as slowly. "Well, I'm going to the common room where I can focus on my studies and figure out why life is a bitch!"

I ruffled Gaara-sama's hair and waltzed away.

"Did she just-"

Gaara-sama sighed.

"I need to talk to Baki… soon."

I just smiled and went o up to the Gryffindor tower to finish homework. I then went down to the great hall for dinner. This time, people looked at me. I ate my dinner in silence and then went back up to the tower to do more homework. At fifteen 'til ten I went down to the Room of Requirements for the DA meeting. As soon as I entered all eyes fell on me. And a second later, I was bombarded with questions about the Kazekage. Man these people could interrogate!

"SHUT THE HELL UP YOU CRAZY HOES!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

All was silent.

"I don't know too much about the Kazekage, only what I hear from friends and my father," I said slowly. "Furthermore, we do not have a romantic relationship. I'm not my speed and he's not mine. Furthermore, I only just really met him today, so the possibility of ever knowing him is dashed. I only know of him because of others, especially my dad, who was his instructor when he was rookie eight years ago. Gaara is five years my senior and my boss. That would be a very unprofessional relationship. The Kazekage is expected to marry a non-ninja female to stay home and raise the kids. I repeat, I don't know too much about him!"

"But what type of girl does he like?" Padma Patil asked eagerly.

All but a few girls looked at me eagerly.

"Don't even think about it," I said.

"Why not?" Padma asked indignantly. "Do you like him?"

I laughed. "That's hardly the case," I said. "The fact is, no one in this room is Kazekage-sama's speed."

"What do you mean?" Cho Chang asked.

"Well, Gaara-sama's not at all shy about his relationships," I said scratching the back of my head. "I do think I could name only about twenty of the girls he's dated… and all of them are fast."

"How do you know?" Lavender demanded.

"Well," I said, shrugging. "There's this girl I know, a neighbor, who went out with him for all of a month last summer. She was a fast little thing, came running to me with all the dirty details. But he ditched her, said she wasn't what he was looking for. It's not really that big of a deal. It happens."

"What do you mean?" Padma urged.

"Well, no one can hold on to him," I said. "A lot of girls like him, and the girls in my village are just waiting to be the next in line to shag him, just to say they did."

"What about you?" Dean Thomas asked, a sharp tone to his voice.

"I think he's dead sexy," I said bluntly. "But that's nothing to go on at all, as I said, a lot of girls want him back home, and there's no way in hell I'd just be another fuck-chapter in a guy's story. So, to answer your question, I don't like him, I never slept with him, and I have of intention of being romantically of physically involve with a guy five years older than me."

The girls all sighed, probably thinking that's one less rival. I sighed mentally. I wondered how many of these girls in Hogwarts would he would sleep with before they realize what they've become.

"Anyway," said Harry, grabbing everyone's attention. "Let's get back to practicing the bat-bogey hex."

I was always paired with Neville. He was a sweet guy, and he was really getting better at defense. But, it was clear that I was so much better that Harry took over practicing and sent me to assess the other charges. It was fine, but the girls kept asking me random questions about Gaara-sama. How the hell was I supposed to know what his favorite color was? Why the hell would I care to know what his favorite food was? What did I look like, an online dating service or the host for Blind Date?

At the end of the session I decided to avoid the common room for a while and go to my favorite place to think, the astronomy tower. When I arrived, I saw that, unfortunately, I wasn't the only one who saw the serenity of the astronomy tower. My Kazekage, Sabaku no Gaara was standing there with a hawk on his arm he glanced back at me for the briefest of moments before sending the hawk off. I smiled as I approached him

"You know," I said, looking out at the bright moon. "People around here use owls, not hawks."

"I've noticed that in the mornings," said Gaara-sama.

I smiled.

"You know you should be in your common room," he said. "It's past your curfew."

"I'm a big girl, I can take care of my self," I said lightly, flashing him a smile.

"Yes, you are," he said.

I looked back at the moon so I wouldn't embarrass him by seeing him check me out. It was a guy thing. Heck, it was a girl thing too. So it was no big deal. I checked him out when I first saw him too. It's a natural reaction.

"The moon is so pretty," I said dreamily.

"I wish we could watch it back in Suna," he said.

"There would be less smog," I smiled. "So we'd not only see the moon more brightly, but we'd also see more of the glittering stars."

There was a moment's silence.

"Arata, are you… going out with anyone?" he asked.

"Blunt much," I smiled at him. "No, I think boys are stupid."

He looked at me oddly.

"I'm not a lesbian!" I laughed. "I'm straight, I swear. It's just that, I don't want just any guy, you know? Why would I date someone I don't like? I guess… I haven't met anyone who could light my fire yet."

"What are you looking for?"

"I don't know," I said, looking up at the moon. "But I know I want someone who can make me feel like a woman without pressuring me to do something I don't want to, and I want someone who can take care of me, and who can make me smile when I'm crying."

I looked back at Gaara.

"So, you want a man," he said.

I smiled. "I guess I do," I said. "But enough about me, what about your love life? Who's the lucky girl this time?"

"No one, I've taken a sabbatical from the dating game," he said promptly.

"What about that nice blonde girl daddy told me about?" I asked. "Kali?"

"I ditched her," he said. "She wasn't what I was looking for."

"In other words you got tired of just shagging her whenever you were together," I said shrewdly.

Gaara flinched.

"You truly are brutally honest," he said. "Yes, I got tired of fucking her."

"I never learned how to lie," I smiled. "But are you sure you can survive the sabbatical without cheating? I mean, it really is good for you to give it try… but you haven't gone a week without…"

"Yeah, I know," he said. "But I'm tired of the same thing over and over."

I smiled. "Then that means," I said brightly, "You want something more in a girl than a good little shag. That's good."

"Well what about you and your sex-life?" Gaara argued.

"I'm as pure as snow after a storm," I said with a finger to my lips. "I haven't even received my first kiss! You're not going to find any dirty-laundry in that closet."

Gaara chuckled.

"I can't win against such honesty," he said.

I smiled and held his face.

"You tell me when you meet Miss Right," I said. "I want to know when you've found your happy medium."

He looked at me for a long while. I let my hands slide down and I smiled.

"Well I better get going to bed before one of the prefects report me," I cheered. "Good night, Kazekage-sama."

"Arata," he called. I looked back at the door, surprised he used my name so casually.
"Just call me Gaara," he said. "And with not tile it we're alone."

I smiled. "Alright," I said.

And with that a disappeared down the stairwell.