Chapter ten: Shallow

Sasuke wanted to ask him where he had been but when he saw the look upon his face he decided not to. Gaara didn't seem pretty happy and he was certainly not interested in being interrogated. The sand released the leaf ninja's hand faster than he would have thought, but he stood there, not moving an inch, just getting up from the floor, his eyes fixed upon his partner.

The red-haired boy ignored him and went to his bed, lying with his face down, buried in the pillow. Sasuke stood there until he realised that he probably looked like an idiot, so he decided to take a chance and find out what his partner had been up to.

"Uhm... something wrong?" he asked, not sure what to begin with. Gaara needed a long time to answer and when he did, the answer was a low 'hn'. Sasuke sat on his bed, trying to make him do something, anything, to let him know that he had nothing to do with his bad mood. "You're not going to sleep, are you?"

"Of course I'm not." he replied in the same cold voice.

"Will you please talk to me about this? I feel guilty."

"Well don't." Gaara snapped, finally getting his nose from the pillow to move with his face to the ceiling. "It has nothing to do with you but you don't have to know everything."

"Oh, having secrets?" Sasuke murmured, running his hand over Gaara's chest to go lower and lower, until the red head stopped it by placing his own hand over it.

"Maybe."

"Why? Don't you trust me?"

"I don't want to go through this with you again. I have nothing to tell you."

Sasuke felt him stiffen a little under his touches, as if they hurt and that only made him more curious. He frowned and took an ofensive stand against Gaara even if he was absolutely sure he wouldn't like that at all.

"Take your shirt off." he demanded, as coldly as he could.

"...What?" Gaara asked huskyly, his eyes narrowing.

"You heard what I said."

Gaara grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it up, discarding it next to him with a slight trace of amusement in his eyes. Sasuke glimpsed at that perfectly sculpted abdomen, then moved his hand over the skin, pressing lightly, to see if he would react again and as Gaara seemed more and more amused, he gave up, thinking that it had probably been his eyes playing tricks on him. Everything was okay, except for the fact that he was completely embarrassed.

"Done?"

"Uhm... yeah." he admitted, lowering his eyes. "I think I'm getting paranoid."

"You think?" Gaara rolled his eyes and took his shirt in his hand, ready to get dressed, but Sasuke stopped him by literally throwing himself on the other ninja. "Mmmm... not now." the 'victim' groaned, making Sasuke chase his lips for a kiss and in the end, get nothing. "I'm tired. Besides, we're leaving in two days so you'd better enjoy your free time while you still can."

"When did you talk to the Leader?"

"Yesterday." Gaara replied after a few moments, giving up under Sasuke, who kept claiming every part of his partner's body for himself. "Don't..."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was going to tell you later, now get off me! I'm not..." he choked with a moan and his body simply refused to resist any more, remaining still on the matress, under the dark-haired ninja who really enjoyed torturing Gaara like that for not telling him everything.

"What's wrong?" he asked, crawling back to reach his mouth and claim it in a kiss. "If everything was okay, you would have used your sand against me. You don't want this and still, you let me do whatever I want. This is not like you, Gaara."

"Just shut up. I'm too tired to lecture you right now."

"What have you been doing in the last two hours? You can't be so tired for nothing! Damn it, Gaara, you're the host of a tailed beast! Naruto never got tired in two hours! You seemed to feel okay during the fight between Kay and Itachi. What happened since then?"

"I told you, it's none of your business. And I'm not like your boyfriend from Konoha."

"C'mon, you know he wasn't my boyfriend."

Nothing but an awkward silence followed. Sasuke felt Gaara's steady breathing because his head was resting on his chest, but then... he felt strange, he had a bad feeling, something was wrong and he knew it deep inside. Gaara was hiding something from him and he could do nothing to find out what that was. What could it be? He cuddled up next to him and stretched an arm over Gaara's abdomen as if to make sure he wouldn't go away while he was asleep and then he only needed a few minutes to fall into oblivion and enter the world of dreams.

Gaara stared blankly at the ceiling, feeling his partner's heart beating slowly somewhere near to his own heart. If he wanted to keep him safe he had to make him suffer as well as suffering himself. He was the sacrifice, there was nothing he could do about it anymore, except for pretending that everything was okay. If only shukaku would shut up.

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"Good evening, Kay dear." a lovely voice greeted her as she walked along the corridor to the Leader's office. Kay displayed a polite smile and noded, recognising the person who had spoken to her even if she had her hitae-ate over her eyes again.

"Good evening, Konan-san." she replied, still smiling beautifully inspite of her hidden glare. "Deidara told me Leader-sama wanted to see me."

"Oh, yes, Kay-san. He's waiting for you inside." the blue-haired woman smiled gently, opening the door for her. "Pein, Kay-san is here."

"Thank you, Konan, let her in."

Kay entered and Konan left the room, then the Leader closed 'The Ancient Tome of the Four Elements" and looked at her with sparkling eyes.

"Please, have a seat." he said as he watched her comply with the polite order given to. "How is Itachi?"

"He should be back to normal by the end of the week. Until then I'm afraid he won't be able to get out of bed, but considering the fact that he is a very stubborn person, I suppose he could do it sooner. I can still go on a mission if you want me to, Sir."

"No, Kay, that won't be neccessary. Stay with Itachi for now. I can assign other teams for your missions. What about the young Uchiha?"

"What about him?" she asked, a slight 'what do you care' in her voice.

"I never thought this place was... healthy for him, if you know what I mean. However, his partner seems to blend in perfectly. I hope the two get along well."

"They do, Sir." she replied coldly.

"I'm glad to hear that. Would you like a glass of wine?"

"No... no, thank you." Kay muttered. "You pervert. I don't know what you're up to, but whatever it is, I don't like it." she thought, feeling the scent of white wine in the air.

"That would be all, Kay. You may leave."

"Thank you, Sir."

A few minutes after she left, Konan entered the office through another door and fixed her eyes upon Pein, who had rezumed reading.

"Is it true, Pein?" she asked, rising her eyes to look at the empty chair on the other side of the table as if Kay would have still been there. "Is she another Uchiha?"

"Yes, she is an Uchiha, as well as an Inverse. There are great risks involved when dealing with an Inverse. If you don't mind, I would like you to keep an eye on her. She might not be as loyal to the Akatsuki as she seems and I have no ways of making sure she is bound to this organization. If she should make one single mistake... you will bring her to me immediately. I know she is prone to insubordination and as long as Itachi isn't there to 'temper' her, I'm afraid she cannot be trusted. Therefore, she must be watched closely."

"Of course. The last thing we need is this girl against us. I understand perfectly. But what about the host of the one-tailed beast? Isn't he a threat as well?"

"I have already taken care of that. He won't make any problems. Oh, and if the girl discovers you, kill her. It's not an order. Just do it if you want to."

"As you wish." she smiled.

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Kay entered the empty kitchen and was happy to find some chocolate ice-cream in the freezer to get over her anger. She hated both that man and his partner, Konan. She heard the kitchen door but didn't turn around, recognising the chakra immediately.

"I haven't seen you for ages." she sneered, finally turning around to face Tobi, pushing her hitae-ate up to look at him with her black eyes. "I didn't know you were here as well. What's this, Madara? An Uchiha reunion?"

"Always sarcastic, dear Kay, aren't you? I was coming for that ice-cream but I see you got here first so..."

"Never mind. Let's share, dear Madara."

"How is Itachi?"

"Stubborn." she snapped. "I'll have him back to normal by the end of this week."

"I know he's in good hands. I always thought of you as an Uchiha, you know. One of the best."

"You can keep your ice-cream." she sighed. "I'm going back to the mule to see if he'd like to eat something. Goodbye, Madara. See ya' around."

"Yeah, sure. Bye.""Are they all trying to get me pissed off today? It started pretty well this morning, without Itachi scolding me for getting up late again and they have to come one by one and be sooooooo annoying. Baaah, fuck 'em! But I know Madara pretty well. I'd be surprised to find out that he really takes orders from somebody, not to mention that that somebody is a very big nuisance called 'Pein in the ass'."

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Gaara was heading towards the library, wanting to get something to read for that night. Sasuke was already asleep and except for Kay and Itachi, he could feel no other chakras in the building, although he knew Pein hadn't gone anywhere: his chakra was always hidden. Before he could enter the library, a strong hand gripped his wrist and pulled him in the darkness, forcing his body against a wall. He already knew who it was but there was nothing he could do so he let his lips crushed into a brutal kiss and waited for it to end.

"I want you." a soft voice whispered in his ear while his neck was attacked by the same brutal lips that had kissed him so painfully.

"Can't you wait until I come back from that mission?" Gaara snapped, squirming because he felt uncomfortable pinned to the wall with a knee dangerously positioned between his legs to make him unable to escape. "Don't leave marks." he hissed, trying to push his attacker away.

"Don't be so mean, you know it's no use, Gaara. It will only make your situation worst." the ninja continued, pushing his hands under his shirt to caress the burning skin. "I'll be good, as long as you cooperate. And how exactly do you think I could stop myself from leaving marks when you're so damn hot?"

Gaara closed his eyes and tried to ignore both the shukaku, who was yelling as if hell had frozen over and the fuckin' rapist who tainted his body and mind at the same time. It made him sick but he tried not to think about it, he tried not to think about Sasuke and the fact that he was safe as long as he was 'a good boy'. There was no escape.