Hey guys :). I know this is a little late but I think its a pretty well developed chapter...? Well, I'd like to see what you all think and maybe start speeding up the plotline? I dont want to rush things.. tell me what you think and if I should start 'heating things up' between the two of them :).

Chapter 3: Say Anything

I stared at my feet, wondering what powered them to move forward on their own. Each step they took felt listless, as if I was barely moving at all. There was nowhere remotely close in which I was heading to, and nowhere behind that meant turning around would have any use. So I would keep walking forward, even if forward was seemed endless and wherever my destination was, was too far off to think of it as anything other than a distant dream.

Of course, the reality of it was very clear, as it was walking right beside me with ill-contempt and a horrible mood just wafting off of him. Kazekage-sama was no longer in the calm, almost lighthearted state of mind he had been the day prior. Now he was just hard and cold as stone, teeth clenched oddly and nose scrunched miserably.

"What's your problem?" I asked finally. It seemed it had been hours since he face first downturned. "You've been miserable all day."

"Not miserable," he stated. "Impatient. I want to be home."

"We'll get there when we get there," I replied, no longer feeling shy. More so, now that I knew exactly what he felt of me, I no longer felt confused. In fact, I think I more felt a bit of annoyance at how rude he had been. He could have tried to be softer, maybe more human. This horrible mood was also putting me extremely on edge. "And we wont be there for another very long time so give it a rest."

He looked down at me, nose no longer scrunched. In fact, there seemed to be an odd smirk visible across his cheeks. "A rest, you say?"

"Yeah, that would be just lovely," I muttered, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

"I have said nothing to you this entire time and yet I'm still doing something wrong…" he scoffed. "Really now, I'm the one who should be giving it a rest."

"Your mood is making this trip a lot more unbearable than it has to be so lighten the fuck up and give it a rest," I huffed, the anger boiling over. This was far from what I'm sure he expected seeing as it was something I'd never say to anyone at all. In fact, I had a hard time saying cruel things to anyone but to Gaara at this very moment in time I really didn't care. There was no one here to judge me but him, and, to be quite frank, I didn't care what he thought of me.

"And being peevish with me is going to make my mood lighten," he murmured, still smirking. "You have a funny way of cheering people up, Miss Hinata. A very funny way."

"I don't care so much as to cheer you up," I said. "I couldn't care less. I'd just rather make it to wherever we're going without having to deal with mister piss off storming around like the world causes him oh so much trouble. Look at yourself and your life. Things are good so stop acting like a little walk is the end of the world. Get over yourself."

"Cheeky," he chuckled. "Very cheeky. Surprising almost..."

"What's not surprising is your lack of respect," I grumbled.

"And your lack of respect, might I add," his chuckles grew hearty as he stopped, smile wide. "You do realize that you are not only mouthing off to a higher up, but also to the Kazekage of a village in which exports and imports regularly with the village in which you come from? And, might I add, you are also representing the whole of Konoha at the same time as you mouth off to a leader from a very closely tied village?"

I felt my stomach drop.

"Of course, it never really mattered to me who treated me like a real 'leader' in words. Don't undermine my authority and I have no qualms against you," his eyes lit up. "But say whatever you want. I love a challenge."

"I don't plan on being a challenge, Kazekage-sama," I murmured, letting my anger diffuse slowly. It wasn't worth my time giving him what he wanted. "You'll have to find that elsewhere."

"No, you are definitely a challenge," he rested his arms against his chest. "A challenge I accept with gratitude."

"And what gratitude is that, Sabaku-san?" I asked, feeling the anger flare up again. It was hard keeping my emotions under control when I started feeling an immense hatred well up within me. "Seeing as you find it in your best interests to bug me. I don't see any sort of sincerity in anything you've told me so far, and quite frankly I'm not looking for any. Mind your own business and I will do as I'm asked. I want nothing to do with you."

I think this threw him for a loop as the smirk disappeared from his face, brow furrowing. "Nothing?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"Not friends?"

"No chance in hell."

"Well friends wouldn't be that hard I think," he stated, hands gesturing as if balancing the pros and cons of what he had spoken of. "Seeing as we're going to be spending the next three months together, it would seem imperative that we should be somewhat friends…"

He was rambling. His words were blurring together as if he was confused, but he kept speaking, trying to find a balance. It was kind of cute…

"Ah, so you want to be friends?" I asked.

"No."

It was my turn to smirk. "Oh really now."

"Really," he stated, knowing that he had just gotten caught in some form of a loophole. He would fight his statement till the end though. That I knew was clear for he was Sabaku no Gaara.

"And yet you want me to want to be your friend, is that right?"

"I was not making any statements towards us actually being friends," he raised his hands in defense. "Just wondering as to why you did not have even the slightest inkling of a want to be friends is all."

"Ah, I see," I murmured playfully. "And for a second there I actually thought you had a heart. How wrong of me to presume…"

It was blatantly clear that this had went from a moment of anger to a whole different emotion once again. It was playful as if we weren't really combating. Just communicating in the only sort of amusing way Gaara knew how. Time was zooming past as long as we were talking in such a manner, and to be completely honest, it was kind of fun. I wasn't hiding nor fearing. I was allowed to be straight up blunt and forward. I was completely and utterly myself… And it was amazing.

"Presume all you want," he said. "I have a heart, seeing as I'm alive after all and, contrary to popular belief, I do bleed and it is red."

"Ah, seems I was once again wrong," I smirked. "You're just a mess of contradictions, aren't you?"

"Contradictions? No," he said, resting his hand against his hip. "Now vital organs would be more of the correct term to use there."

"Naruto was right," I said, resting my own hands on my hips as I halted.

"As in?" he asked, turning to look back at me.

"As in your way of being," I said. "You are a lot more social than you give yourself credit for. I think you actually have a high liking towards humanity, you just don't want people to see that about you, huh?"

"Oh the calamity, you just solved the mystery of the century," he rolled his eyes. "There are no big secrets here, Hinata. I am as I am. Whether you see me as a stark being or a brat, I don't really care. People will always see me for what I'm not so let them believe exactly what they wish to believe. I'm a monster. I'm lifeless. I feel nothing. Traits that aren't necessarily true but have been ones I've acquired."

"But why?" I asked after pausing for a few seconds. His words surprised me once again. "You don't care what people think of you?"

"Never have, and probably never will," he sighed. "People are ignorant and close-minded seeing as they like to push out what they don't understand. When something is amiss, you destroy it. When something is perfect, you praise it. I'm the farthest thing from perfect and quiet close to the 'amiss' category so, no matter how hard I would work to restore my already completely destroyed reputation, there would be no way that I could, in fact, change how people felt about me. So why should I bother caring what they think, Hinata? I am who I am and I know who I am. That is enough for me."

"You're a lot stronger than I would have guessed," I said, feeling suddenly very ashamed. I had spent so much of my life trying to be everything I wasn't. A perfect, model daughter for my father. A strong Shinobi for everyone else. A beautiful girl for Naruto. So much time was spent wondering, waiting, trying to change every aspect of myself to match these unrealistic ideals that came with being a girl. The more I thought of it, the more I realized how obsessed I had been with the idea of what people saw. What people understood was me.

And Naruto wasn't like that. He was always seen as a monster and yet loved life. Loved every part of himself and fought for friends and for what he wanted in life without ever thinking about how people thought of him. He already knew what they saw and didn't fight that because he knew who he was and he was happy with that.

As it seemed blatantly the same with Gaara.

How much time had I wasted? I could never say. But I was immensely ashamed as I stared at Gaara, lips downturned. Why had I ever thought so lowly of him or anyone else who saw the world from a much more rewarding perspective?

"You know, sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom to realize that people's ideas of you aren't what matter," he stated, turning to walk away once more. "I hit rock bottom many times if my lifetime, Hinata-sama. I've done many things I'm not proud of in search for the reasoning I have today. And, armed with that experience, I was able to grow and become what I wanted to be. Not what anyone else wanted of me. You'll find that one day, I think."

"And whys that?"

"Because you see things a lot like I do," he stated. "I can tell."

(break)

I had to admit, things became a lot easier for us after that little play fight.

We got to talking about a lot of things like life and our childhoods. Some things I never really expected of Gaara and, to be quite honest, I was really happy that he spoke of it with me. I was insanely interested in what he had to say and the more I listened, the more my respect for him grew. He had been so quiet though before. So stark and rigid to anyone on the outside. But than again, it wasn't as if he was very lenient either.

As we talked, he was quick to say what he felt or meant but did so in an odd sort of manner. He walked straight, face very expressionless unless smiling at some form of a good memory. He seemed so, shall I say, awkward?

But I was awkward too.

It was hard trying not to think about what he was probably thinking about me. Trying not to revert back to the calm, submissive me that everyone knew me as. I wanted to stay outright and fluent with him. To be completely and honestly myself, but it was scary when someone could read me so openly. I didn't know if I liked that or not.

But I would be me. There was no one in the world I wanted to be more and it seemed that Gaara was not shunning me out or thinking me weird in any of my thought processes. He just listened intently when I spoke, nodding and taking in everything I spoke, and replying at appropriate times.

So maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, being myself and all. And if he didn't like me for what I was, than that was his own problem… right?

"There is only one more days walk from here on in," Gaara murmured, stopping now. He let the rucksack fall from his shoulders, slumping down to sit. "I cant wait to be home."

"Yeah, Suna sounds beautiful by the descriptions you've spoken…" I caught myself, realizing exactly what I just said. Gaara had spoken idly of how much he hated the idea of beauty and I just brought it up again.

He shrugged, turning his eyes towards the sky. "I guess, in a way, Suna is beautiful. It is the place I call home. It's the place I don't feel so alone."

I felt as if I stumbled into a private moment I shouldn't have been apart of. A moment in which wasn't mine but still interestingly enough, I was hearing it.

"You love Suna," I stated. It wasn't a question. It was a fact.

"With every ounce of my being," he smirked, arms wrapped around his knees. His eyes were upturned towards the sky. A blood-red sky.

"Than I am happy that I should be so lucky as to see it," I stated, smiling widely. "And I hope that maybe, one day, I can see and understand it the same way you do."

"Good luck," he chuckled mildly. "But my love for Suna is a love that only comes with the thought of that place in which you first came from. That pride for the people who you belong to. Your pride lives with the Hyuuga clan, am I correct? In Konoha? No matter how bad things get, when you think about it, the place you come from is the place that makes you puff up with happiness… a least I do."

"No, I can understand that…" I smirked.

"Ah, so you have the pride of your people?" he asked. The look in his eyes was childlike again, but his expression, though still oddly very still, was softer and kinder than what I was used to. Was he.. opening up to me? I didn't really know. He was Gaara after all.

So I stared down at him, wondering what those large, aquamarine eyes held inside them. They were absolutely beautiful. Why he couldn't see that was something I didn't understand but I was terribly bohemian. Truth and beauty were exactly the words to describe Gaara.

Brutal truth and brutally beautiful.

"I do," I said, thinking back on it. I had definitely tried to show my pride during the chunin exams and in many other aspects of my shinobi career. It was a matter of how much pride, though, that was the question. "I love my people very much, especially Neji-niisan and Hanabi-imouto. Hiashi-chichi is nice too, sometimes, and he makes me work really hard so I am happy that he is there."

"You call Hyuuga-sama as a brother?" Gaara asked. A plan question, but there was curiosity evident in it. "Why's that?"

"Because Neji-niisan is my brother," I stated. "Though not blood related in that sense, he was more of a sibling to me than imouto and more of a father to me than chichi. It's alright though. I am happy that I have a family."

And this was true. Hanabi had never really been close with me till recently, and Hiashi was never really close with me at all. I don't know if he understood his position as a father, but it was alright. I still had a father and it made me happy.

"He sounds like a good man," he stated. "I had personally wanted him apart of my militia…"

"I know, Gaara," I chuckled. "I was there when you spoke to Naruto-san."

He glanced up at me, hand wiping away the stray locks of hair that had tossed too and fro in the light breeze. Luckily it had been very warm out that afternoon and the sky was cloudless, though the ground was still somewhat damp. I didn't mind so much seeing as we were walking but now, as the sun was slowly hitting the horizon, sleep was inevitably coming closer. I laid my bag down, ready to pull out the tent when I heard Gaara's voice cut in.

"Leave the tent," he stated, slipping his own bag off of his shoulders. "It's a clear night tonight and we wont have the chance to do this in Suna. Lets sleep under the stars."

I stared at him for a few seconds than down at my bag, a little surprised. It was something I had never done before, sleeping outside without a tent. I wasn't sure if that was such a good idea but listened to him anyways. Maybe it would be nice. I grabbed my sleeping bag and began to unfold it, getting ready for the approaching night.

"Do you like sleeping under the stars?" I asked.

"Yeah, when I get the chance too," he stated, turning his eyes towards the sky. "It's been awhile though. The desert drops in temperature to minus twenty at night and hits a high of thirty-five during the day so staying out at night to experience the coldness and the weather change often enough is very hard on the body. I end up not being able to watch."

"Oh," I stated, a little surprised. Those were quite the drastic weather changes in which I had not thought would happen. The small amount of clothing I brought was summery… maybe I would have to do some shopping later on when I had some spare time to myself. Either way, I would be there for awhile so I did need to prepare myself for what was coming.

We than set up camp. A slow, dragged out process of firewood collecting and placing things out this way and that. We had both been very tired from the long walk and as night approached ever faster, all I wished to do was sleep. Of course, I had to eat something and that I did. When everything came together, we sat by the make-shift fire eating boxed onigiri and drinking out of the canteens we constantly refilled. It was very relaxing.

Gaara ate quickly. He had spoken of not really enjoying onigiri that much as it was often enough bland and tasteless. I didn't mind bland so much and ate slowly, the rice balls a little stale from being left in boxes for over a day and a half. It was still nice to have something in my stomach of which wasn't trail mix and sunflower seeds.

When the stars bloomed across the sky, Gaara had become very quiet, no longer impatient. His eyes just stared searchingly as if waiting for something; anything. It was only the stars though as unmoving as they were and with growing curiosity, I took a seat near him, trying to search for whatever he was seeing.

But all I saw were stars.

"He's beautiful, isn't he," Gaara stated, smiling. "You never see him so clearly except nights like these."

"Him?" I asked.

"Orion," he said, not letting his eyes drift from the place where they stayed. "In all his infinite glory. His hands raised for battle, sword sheathed. A true nobleman."

"Unfortunately, I don't see him," I murmured, embarrassed. It wasn't something I liked admitting, mind you, as I searched. When I saw stars I saw nothing within them. Just them. I had never even been able to locate the little dipper which was supposedly very easy to find.

"You only see outer appearances," he injected, voice not harsh, but not kind either. "What is external. Nothing on the inside. You see, Orion has to stars for his hands, three for his belt than two for his sheath. Lastly there are two more for his feet. Do you see?"

I shook my head, still embarrassed. What a fool I was making myself seem.

"There," his hand touched the bottom of my chin, tilting it up higher, free hand pointing. "Those bright stars there."

The first glimpse I got of Orion was sadly unenthusiastic, for I had been to lost in the touch of the hand against the skin of my neck. It was beautiful, mind you, and I much enjoyed the sight of such a marvelous constellation, but there was someone much more beautiful only inches from my side. So close that his skin was against mine. How could I think of something so far away when the thing that interested me the most was mere inches from my side?

This I could not tell you, but one thing I was very sure was that, when his hand fell away, I craved it. I knew then that everything I knew of Gaara, that unoptimistic, sarcastic, stark, rigid Kazekage, was excitingly wrong.

Okayyy, so that was the chapter :). Tell me what you think and please please please review! I would love to know if I should 'speed up' the relationship. Tell me everything you want to see and I may add it if it doesnt conflict with the plotline D

~Sabaku-Kazekage