Gaara-23

Deidara-23

Neji-16

Kankuro-16

Lee-19

Naruto-20


Lee sat with Nejis group discussing what could be done to get Gaara to fight for the clan. Lee held no hope that Gaara would ever do it.

Neji, Deidara, Kankuro, and Lee walked into the room. They found Gaara sparring with his men, and they understood why he was regarded so highly.

Gaara wielded his bastard sword with more accuracy and speed than anyone they had ever seen. Deidara saw the spark in his eyes. It was the same way when he led the Sabaku clans army, and when Gaara looked at him. Though now, Deidara suspected, that he would only bring back painful memories for the man he loved, and always will love.

Gaara had been his soul mate, they were one whole person together, and he fucked everything up.

Gaara knocked down two of the five men he had picked a fight with, and the other three charged at him without so much as a second thought to what they were doing and they to found themselves on the ground.

Neji whistled. He had never seen five full trained men defeated so easily.

"Who are you?" Gaara asked looking at him. Neji could see the spark Lee had spoken of in his eyes. Gaara was a very large man, he stood a head taller than Neji. He also had around 30 or 40 pounds on Nejis slim 130 pound frame.

Lee spoke up first, "This is the group that came yesterday."

Gaara looked them over. His eyes stopped and widen on the blondes.

One second he was standing before Neji and the next he had Deidara by the throat pushed up against the wall.

"You betrayed me!" He shouted. "I loved you! You got me exiled from my clan! I could no longer protect the ones I loved and its your fault!"

Deidara had only seen Gaara like this one time before. When a Hyuga man had raped his eight year old sister.

FLASHBACK

Temari stumbled into Gaaras tent. He was laying on the bed with his hands behind his head and deidara draped over his body. He stood up when he heard Temari collapse.

It had taken a few hours before she woke up, and when she did she told her brother everything.

Gaara grabbed his bastard sword and nothing else.

He stalked through the camp and found him. Mizuki.

Gaara pushed the man up against a wall.

"What the he..." but his words fell on deaf ears as the whole camp had heard how a Hyuga soldier had raped Gaara Sabakus sister. No one was dumb enough to stand with Mizuki after that.

Gaara grasped the man's throat.

"Do you like how it feels to be udderly helpless before another person?" Gaara asked. Anger seeping through every word. "To know that a man holds your life in the palm of his hand, and could take it without even trying." Gaara spat on the men's armored chest. "I will give you a trial by combat, as leader of this clan I have every right to do so. If you can strike me down you will be cleared of all crimes." Gaara lifted his bastard sword up.

Deidara had just now noticed that Gaara wore no armor to this fight. He wore a pair of cloth pants that clung tightly to his legs, but other than that he was naked. No shirt, no armor, nothing. Just his sword.

Mizuki smiled. He could beat a Gaara with no armor.

"I accept you trial by combat." and swung his sword. Gaara had dodged it ran Mizuki through. He didn't stop until Mizukis body was at the hilt of his sword.

"I will see you in hell boy." Gaara spoke into the younger man's ear.

END FLASHBACK

Deidara looked back into those sea green eyes. He put his hand on Gaara face.

"It is okay to hate me. I deserve no better from a man such as you." He smiled at Gaara and Gaara found all the hate he held inside of himself wash away.

A tear fell down his face. He let his hand fall from Deidaras throat and he brought the blonde haired man close to him. He hugged him with every ounce of strength he could muster in his tired body.

Deidaras eyes grew even wider as he felt himself flush against Gaara sculpted body, and then he grasped back, holding onto him for dear life. As if any minute it could all be snatched away.

The scene before them shocked the rest of Nejis party, including Neji himself.

Gaara cried, he cried harder, until the room was filled with sobs. Naruto looked on in jealous rage. He had tried to get Gaara to notice him since they met up and formed this mercenary company, and this guy walks in and steals him away just like that.

Gaara never talked about his past with his fellow mercenaries. He got drunk, fought with the men under his command, and fought for any clan willing to pay for his services. They did other jobs sure, but they were usually done by Naruto or Lee.

Gaara pulled away from Deidara.

"Do you still love me?" Gaara asked.

"I have never stopped un." Deidara smiled back.

Gaara hadn't felt anything other than emptiness in the years since he had been exiled. He smiled back at Deidara and for the first time in years it was real.

"Tonight we drink until we see the gates of ValHalla!" Gaara shouted.

Lee and Naruto were both taken aback by this new Gaara before their eyes. This Gaara was not the same person they had grown to know. The Gaara they knew was cold and stoic. This was a different man.

Gaara drank more than any man Neji had ever seen before. They had been at it for hours and Neji and his group had given up trying to keep up with Gaara.

"Why have you come here." Gaara said to Neji, there was only four people left in the room now. Neji and Kankuro sat on one side of the table, while Deidara sat on Gaaras lap.

"I am Neji Hyuga." Neji started, "My uncle is dying, he will have died long before any of us return." Gaara nodded. He may be drunk, but he was still smarter than most of the people in the room.

"You want me to lead my clan again." Gaara said.

"Thats the gist of it." Kankuro said. "I am not ready to lead, I would not be a good leader." he said drinking the rest of the mead in his cup.

"I will have to think long and hard about this." Gaara said downing the rest of his cup in one gulp.

"I would expect no less. I have heard about what happened. My uncle has given you full power of both clans to do with as you see fit." Neji said.

Gaara thought it over. He liked the idea of leading his men back into battle, he had been trained to fight as a Sabaku, if he were to die, he would rather do it with the men raised as he was.

"Why don't you all go to your own rooms tonight, I need some time to cool my head. If I found you in the same bed as me I doubt I would be able to do much thinking." Gaara said looking at Deidara.

"I understand." Deidara said. "I am gl..." his voice was stopped as Gaara pressed his lips to his.

It felt like for the first time in almost ten years that things were okay.

Gaara pulled away and looked into those big beautiful blue eyes and Deidara stared back into his sea green eyes and Deidara slumped against his chest.

"Lead the way, I'll carry him." Gaara said.

Neji nodded and they set out to their rooms.

All three of them had their own rooms. Gaara opened the door to Deidaras and laid the blonde haired man down on his plush bed. Gaara leaned down, he assumed Deidara was asleep.

"Not a day has gone by that I haven't thought of you." Gaara started. "I have never stopped loving you, and the day I stop will be the day they burn my bones." He kissed Deidaras forehead and when he pulled away he found that Deidara was not asleep.

With tears in his eyes he pulled Gaara back down and hugged him. He hugged him with all the strength he had in his frail, tired body. Gaara held him as he cried.

"I am so sorry." sobbed Deidara. "I didn't know what I was supposed to do."

"It is okay now." Gaara said laying his forehead on Deidara's. "In my heart you have always been there." He crashed his lips down upon Diedara's once more.

"I love you Dei." Gaara said as he stood at the door.

"I love you to Gaara." Deidara whispered as he drifted off to sleep.

Gaara passed Nejis room.

"I'll do it. We leave in two days, I must rally my men and see who will follow me." Gaara said.

"Weren't you going to think about it?" Neji asked.

"If it means being by Deidaras side again I will led any army into the pits of hell if I must. I would claw my way back out to." Gaara said.

Neji couldn't help but believe the mans words. They were spoken so well he had trouble believing Gaara was a Sabaku.

Gaara walked into his room hung his sword on the rack, and stripped of his clothes. He drifted off to sleep with his blonde haired lover on his mind and his taste on his lips.

Not a few hours later he was awoke by the feeling of steel at his throat. Without opening his eyes he pulled whoever was on top of him closer making the knife cut into his flesh.

"Do it." Gaara said.

"Why do you not love me?" Naruto whispered.

Gaara opened his eyes to see Naruto straddling his hips with a knife to his throat.

"I could have given you everything you needed. I even would have welcomed being a replacement, but you never gave me a chance." Naruto cried.

"If you are going to kill me be done with it already." Gaara said.

"Are you not afraid to die?" Naruto whispered.

"What is the difference if I die now or in ten years." Gaara said looking Naruto dead in the eye. "I was dead the moment I was born. That is what it means to be a Sabaku. We were trained to go into any situation, prepared to die. knowing that should death favor us we would always have a seat at the tables of ValHalla." Gaara said.

Every clan had their beliefs, the Sabakus had clung to the way of the Vikings. Most other clans had adopted Catholicism, or Christianity, but the Sabakus were the oldest, and they believed in the ways of old.

Gaara looked into Narutos deep blue eyes and threw him from him. He grabbed his own knife from his bedside table and stood up. Naruto saw him for the first time in all his glory. This was the way Gaara Sabaku should always be seen.

Gaara stood naked with cold hard steel in his hands. The moonlight glittering off of his skin. His muscles flex and his cock though not hard now was of no small size.

Had Naruto not been sacred for his life he would have been drooling.

"I will not hurt you now." Gaara said. "But you know I rarely give second chances. I will be leaving the Bijuu, taking any man who wishes to stay in my service. You or Lee can lead the men that don't leave with me. I no longer care." Gaara finished, he set the knife down. And sat down in a chair on the other side of the room.

"Where are you going I'll fight at your side!" Naruto yelled.

Gaara waved his hand and Naruto stopped talking.

"I do not trust you to let you fight at my side, I would not led you into battle if you paid me to." Gaara said. He had always been bluntfully honest.

Naruto began crying. "Why won't you let me love you?" he sobbed.

"Because my heart has always belong to someone else." Gaara said and he stood up and walked out of the room.

The guards were not unused to seeing Gaara naked. He tended to walk the grounds at night without clothes. He walked to the bath house and there he found HIS blonde.

"I didn't expect to see you here at this hour." Gaara said. He could see he startled his lover and he lowered himself into the bubbling waters so he sat behind Deidara.

"I woke up after a few hours of sleeping." he replied leaning backing onto his redhead.

"Why I'll be damned. The same thing happened to me." Gaara said with a chuckle.

Deidara turned around and the first thing he noticed was the cut on Gaaras throat.

"What happened to you?" Deidara cried.

"I was accosted by unrequited love" Gaara said laughing. Deidara didn't know how he could laugh while bleeding from the throat, but this was Gaara.

"What do you mean?" Deidara asked after Gaara hadn't explained.

"One of my high-ranking men seemed to have quite the crush on me. He snuck into my room in the middle of the night and held a knife to my throat. He asked me why I would not let him love me, and I told him because my heart always belonged to someone else." Gaara said kissing the blushing blonde.

The two sat in the tub like that for some time. They watched the sun come up through the window and the Gaara hadn't felt complete for so long he had forgotten what it was like.

Gaara noticed that Deidara had fallen asleep with his head under Gaara's chin. He smiled and lifted him up, wrapped him up in a towel, and carried him back to his room. He laid Dei down on his bed and climbed in after him. He laid on his back and felt Deidara pull himself closer until he was almost on top of him.

Gaara smiled and fell asleep.