Ino did not know if the Samurai who Naruto had talked to earlier was lying about the size of the bath cloister in the inner rock garden, or the Samurai's definition of "small" was different from hers. Because the place was huge.

No, it was too huge.

The said open-air bath was right smack in the middle of the Wa rock garden located in the eastern part of the stronghold, surrounded by high walls composed of large boulders that served as a barrier from the outside. The ceiling remained open to the sky, which right now looked dark and dreary and ready to give way to more snow. Despite the place being exposed to the elements, the steam rising from the fairly spacious hot spring kept the place strangely warm, and aside from the wind that once in a while blew in from overhead, the place was very… very…

"This is… intimate," Gaara filled the thought for her as he stepped out into the rock garden, sliding the bamboo door behind him. He had a bundle of towels over one arm, a wooden bucket of what looked like toiletries on top of them.

No truer word could have passed Gaara's lips. Because that was exactly what the place was; intimate. Even Ino had to admit that if she weren't in such a predicament, she might have actually enjoyed the beauty of the natural rock formations surrounding them, the simple but definitely wonderful landscaping of the pines and evergreens at one portion of the closure, and not to mention the very inviting hot spring in the middle of it all.

Ino suddenly felt sick. She was alone with Gaara in this place. And much to her horror, Gaara was already heading to the small gazebo to their left, obviously stationed there for changing clothes. She followed after him hastily, nearly slipping on the wet rocks below her feet.

Gaara gently placed his things on one of the bamboo benches built in the gazebo and looked over his shoulder at her expectantly, those blue eyes searching her face as she skidded to a stop a few feet behind him.

Ino had her arms wrapped around her immediately. "What?" she asked uneasily.

Gaara gave her a long-standing stare before delivering a one-sided shrug that did not look to appealing on a woman's body. "Why are you being difficult?"

Ino could not help but gasp. She was being difficult? She was being difficult! How on earth could he accuse her of being difficult? What was he expecting from her? "I don't believe you!" she said incredulously. "You act as if this is nothing out of the ordinary."

This time, it was Gaara's turn to sigh. He slipped off his sandals and pushed them under the wooden bench with his toe. "Ino, how many times do we have to talk about this? We've been on and off this conversation since the cave incident. You're in my body. I'm in yours. There's nothing else we can do about this." A shiver wracked his lithe body and his hands rubbed the sides of his arms vigorously. "And I am cold."

Ino could only bite her lower lip and shiver along with him. He was, as always, right. She had been trying desperately to keep whatever modesty she had left, but she had been fighting the inevitable. And what sucked more about that fact was that it was all her fault. Not that she didn't already know that. She shook her head in resignation. She might as well just say it out loud.

"I don't trust you in my body."

She had expected him to jump into denial, or even pretend to be shocked of her accusation. Instead, he merely blinked at her. Then he said, "You think I will be… inappropriate to it? To you?"

"As if you haven't been all throughout the hours we're together underground," Ino pointed out, feeling suddenly hot in the face. She could not believe she was having such a conversation with the Kazekage about this.

This time, Gaara had the nerve to raise an eyebrow at her. "How have I been inappropriate to you?"

Ino didn't even hesitate to state the incidents. "On the first hour of us being stranded together, your sand fondled my ass even before I knew what was happening."

"I was trying to keep your ass warm. Because I had the inkling that you loved your ass." Gaara unzipped his flak jacket and neatly folded it on the bench. "If anything, it was you who made the first move, climbing all over me shamelessly when harmless slugs started to pour out of the walls of that underground tunnel."

Ino was scandalized. "I did not climb on you because I wanted to!"

Gaara narrowed his eyes at her. "Really now?"

"You happened to be the nearest thing I could cling on to!"

"That's beside the point."

Ino's mouth closed and opened helplessly, at a loss for words. In a feeble attempt to save whatever was left of her pride, she said, "Well, if it weren't for me, you would still be stuck in a hole."

Gaara sighed, rubbed his forehead briskly. "What do you want from me, Yamanaka Ino? I assure you, I never planned any of this. I just want a bath." And with one swift move, he hooked his dainty hands on the belt loops of his pants and unceremoniously pulled them down to his ankles. He was now standing in front of her in those form-fitting black shorts and mesh shirt.

"What on earth are you – " Ino started to protest, but she was interrupted by Gaara suddenly lunging at her, grabbing the neck of her maroon tunic and ripping it open, popping several buttons in the process. Out of instinct, her arms were around her chest – her lean, very, very built chest – and she squealed like a girl.

Gaara gestured at her exposed upper body. "If you still haven't noticed it, this actually works both ways. I'm in your body. You're in mine. Whatever worries you may have in your head right now, trust me, I know. But I promised you that I will take care of your body while I am in it. And right now, it is freezing. And so is mine. Is it too much to ask for you to worry about my body, too?"

Ino did not know what to say to him. She was too busy covering herself for a reason even she herself did not understand.

Gaara did not waste any time. Taking advantage of her silence, it took him but two seconds to take off his shirt, and three seconds his shorts. He neatly piled the clothes on the bench, as if standing in nothing but panties and breast bindings in the middle of an open-air bath was the most normal thing in the world. Ino could not believe he was stripping in front of her!

"S-stop right there!" Ino squeaked with little conviction when Gaara turned to her again and reached out with both hands.

Gaara had a stern look on his face as he brushed back the blond bangs that fell over his eyes as a cool gust of wind blew in from above. He was done listening to Ino, apparently, because he grabbed Ino's wrists uncaringly with a strength Ino didn't even know her body had. He shoved her against one of the pillars of the gazebo and tore the tunic off her shoulders. He discarded the piece of clothing on the backrest of a chair near them before he pressed his small hands on Ino's abdomen. The touch sent a tingling, unfamiliar feeling through Ino's spine and she swallowed.

"Ino," Gaara murmured.

Ino swallowed. "Yes, sir?"

"Take off your clothes. If you don't, I shall do it for you. And I believe that would not be pretty." He reached down and hooked his fingers on the band of Ino's pants and pulled gently.

Ino swatted his hands away. "All right, already! Sheesh!" She was trying to be nonchalant. It was not working, because she knew she was blushing like crazy.

Gaara was already working on his bindings, pulling at the knot tucked underneath his left breast.

Ino watched him as he successfully removed the bindings. He did not so much as blink as he went straight for her panties, shrugged them off, tossed them along with the other articles of clothing and stalked towards the hot spring without another look at Ino. He eased himself inside the hot water with a sigh escaping his lips.

Ino gaped at him in disbelief. He did not even bother to wrap a towel around his head. She could just imagine how dry it would make his hair after this bath…

"Ino," he called from his place inside the water.

"What?" Ino snapped.

"If you don't get in here, I'll fondle your breasts."

Ino was out of her pants and underwear in a heartbeat and nearly dived into the water next to him.

She did not even care about the… dangly bits that she could not help but feel on her.

Gaara sat there comfortably with the water up to his neck, his back planted on a curved rock. It may be because of Ino's behavior that he had decided to drape his arms on either side of him on the rock to show her that his hands weren't wandering to places they shouldn't be wandering.

Ino sank further into the water, pulling her legs to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Admittedly, the warmth did wonders to her nerves and it wasn't long before she found herself lolling her head back behind her, eyes closed and thoughts of Gaara – and the maleness of Gaara's body – completely forgotten.

That was until Gaara started talking to her.

"Why do you hate me so much?" he started.

Ino wrenched her eyes open and gave him a one-sided stare. "I never said I hated you, sir."

Gaara shifted slightly, causing the hot water to ripple. The wind had started to pick up outside, and with the temperature dropping around them, the steam rising from the hot water made it hard for them to see. Ino could make out a blurred Gaara a few feet away from her. She flexed her hands in front of her, examining those long, male fingers as she bit her lip. She did not hate him. How could she, when she knew this was her fault to begin with? She was just looking for someone else to blame. Or worse, she was looking for a reason to be mad at someone else other than herself.

She had promised herself that she would be more responsible, and it was as if one night trapped with the Kazekage had set her a decade, back when she was still a naïve Genin. She looked away. "I don't hate you…" she repeated with little conviction.

"Well, you most certainly don't like me, either," Gaara said to her.

Ino rolled her eyes in frustration. Not this conversation again. Why was he so convinced that she hated him? Was she really projecting that kind of aura?

Well, maybe she was. Maybe she was being a bit too hostile. Not that she wanted to. She wouldn't have even dreamed of talking back to a superior. It was Gaara who had been more than persistent to make her treat him like an equal. And this was how she normally treated lecherous men who tried to fondle her breasts. So what was the goddamn problem?

"Why are you so obsessed on me liking you or not? I'm not in the position to hate you, sir," Ino said diplomatically, lazily treading water with her hands.

There was a small splash from Gaara's side of the water, and after a while, he said, "I would have been happier hearing you say you hated me instead of implying as if you didn't care."

Ino frowned. Was it her imagination, or was Gaara… mad? She looked over to his direction and saw his silhouette stooped low over the water. "I do care. Oh, dammit. What's wrong with you? You sound like… like a girl."

There was a grunt followed by Gaara sighing. "I'm sorry. I think it's your female hormones getting the best of me. Could this be what a mood swing is? This is really uncomfortable."

Ino could not help but shake her head ruefully. "I know the feeling. It's like twisting logic, and finding a good enough reason to be sensitive about the littlest of things. Women, right?" She hesitated a bit before she let herself wade through the water towards him. She was being unfair to him. She was not the victim here; Gaara was. And if anything, he looked to be having a harder time than she was.

"Gaara," Ino started as she finally reached his side. He was his head bent low, his long, blond hair floating around his body like a veil. His face was unreadable as he kept his eyes down on the ripples surrounding him. "I don't hate you," she said gently as she gathered his golden locks with her hands and pushed them over his shoulders. "I hate the circumstances that we've been in for the past day. I hate the way things have turned out in this mission. And I hate myself for behaving like I did when I knew I could have done better. That's all."

Gaara gave her a one-sided stare and blinked twice before turning away from her again. "There's nothing we can do about that."

"I know. I was just looking for someone to blame. I'm sorry. You know me. You said so yourself. I value my job more than anything. It's my life. Back when I was young, I never really took it seriously and got sidetracked a lot by…" – boys? Sasuke? – "… by a lot of things, and trust me, those were the days I will regret until I die. And I gave everything up to be where I am now. It's what I am. It's what I do. You of all people should understand that. You're Kage. You can be nothing less than what you are. And I can be nothing more." Her hands lingered on his shoulder before she reached over to tie back his hair into a disheveled bun on top of his head.

That was when he finally shifted to face her. He rose on his knees and the water level barely brushed at his breasts. He did not seem to mind. The steam was building up around them nice and thick, and Ino could barely see his face. "I am Gaara, nothing more, nothing less. And you are Ino, nothing more, nothing less. And you are having dinner with me after this is over, because I asked you to. From a man to a woman, and not from the Kage of Suna to a kunoichi of the Leaf. We could be nothing less than what we are."

He was being poetic. Ino did not understand why it made her feel fluttery in her gut. She covered up her embarrassment with a smile she doubted he could see. "I just don't understand you."

Gaara leaned back his head and sank back comfortably into the water. "Most people don't."

Ino mimicked him and leaned back into the rocks behind her, and they enjoyed about a few minutes of silence before Ino looked over to him and asked, "Can I shave your legs?"

"Over my dead body," Gaara replied.

Ino returned her gaze to the sky, disappointed. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

And they were silent again.

After a while, it was Gaara who broke the silence. "We should get out. It's getting late and everyone must be waiting in the banquet hall."

Ino nodded. "You're right. We should get dressed."

"I can dress myself without having you threatening me?"

Ino shrugged, the hot bath leaving her relaxed and much too lazy to complain. "I bet your hands have been all over my body while I wasn't looking. I don't even care what you do with it now."

"Really? So can I – "

Ino pushed herself to a standing position and grabbed Gaara's forearm, dragging him up with him. "Don't push your luck. If you know what's good for you."

Gaara did not look the least bit threatened, of course. They stepped out of the water and into the cold night air to get dressed in the gazebo, and much to Ino's surprise, Gaara was behaving. He was in his clothes as efficiently as anyone could be. She on the other hand was having trouble with his tunic because Gaara had uncaringly popped majority of its buttons. She was too tired to even care.

Ino threw his towel over his head. "Your hair's long. It would take time to dry. Don't catch a cold."

"Thank you," came Gaara's reply from underneath the towel and he started scrubbing at his head vigorously with it. "It would be easier to dry near the fire back in the chambers prepared for us. We should stop by there and get ready."

Ino could only nod as she gathered the rest of their toiletries into Gaara's wooden bucket and tucked it under her arm. "We have to talk to Naruto about the summit tomorrow."

"Indeed," Gaara said, his head popping out from under the towel, his blond hair a tangled mess on his head. It took everything in Ino's power not to chase him around with a comb.

She led the way towards the sliding bamboo doors that led out of the bath cloister, thoughts of tonight's meal floating about in her head and wondering what the Samurai had prepared for the delegates from the five great nations. She was almost convinced that finally, things were looking up for her.

Until she opened the door and none other than the Third Tsuchikage, Ryoutenbin no Oonoki, in all his very short glory, happened to pass through the hall in front of their cloister in a fluffy orange bathrobe, as if he too had just come out of his bath. He looked just as startled at the sudden opening of their door that he stood petrified in front of Ino, staring up at her with eyes wide as saucers.

Gaara came up from behind her. "Is something the matter?"

And Ino's life was over then and there.

Oonoki's eyes traveled from Ino to Gaara, then back again. Ino slowly slid the door closed in the Tsuchikage's face, then turned to Gaara. "He's an old man. He wouldn't be blabbing about seeing the Kazekage coming out of a bath cloister with a woman, right?"

Gaara's face was solemnly grim. "He never really did like me." He reached out and opened the door again. As expected, Oonoki was nowhere to be found.

A/N: I updated! *dodges flying rocks*

This chapter is dedicated to El Cierto. Belated happy birthday!