#25)
Requested by: frack101 (aka Fuzzy-Hime, aka my muse)
Characters: Gaara
Situation: Gaara likes to make sandcastles.
Pairings: No Pairings.
Spoilers: YES.

A/N: All must bow down to the wonderness that is my muse. :bows: (And yes, wonderness is a word. Cause I say so.)

Disclaimer: I own Naruto Merchandise. That counts as owning them, right? K. Masashi can't get mad, right?

Gaara liked sandcastles. Not surprising, really, since he essentially grew up in the middle of a large beach. Of course, the desert was hardly a beach, but it still had sand. And you needed a lot of sand to make sandcastles.

When he was a child, he used to leave the village with a large jug of water and stop right outside the walls. He would empty the jug on the sand, sit down, and then start making himself a sandcastle. Of course, he could've cheated and had it done in three seconds with a jutsu or just forming it with his own sand, but where was the fun in that?

You always felt like you'd accomplished something after working hard on something like a sandcastle. And the older he got, the larger and more detailed his sandcastles became. They'd started out as simple, one lump structures, but as time went on, they slowly began to take more shape and he began adding more details like towers, windows and even a moat.

He would make a new one every day, until people would walk out and see nothing but sandcastle after sandcastle outside the village walls. The winds blew them away eventually, but they survived for quite a while before blowing away.

Once, he was asked why he didn't just make the sandcastles within the village, but Gaara never answered. He was never really one for conversation, so people could only assume he just didn't want them to get destroyed.

People assumed he's stopped once he became Kazekage. After all, he couldn't just leave the village whenever he pleased without guards, and Gaara liked making sandcastles to get away. It was hard to get away when ANBU were breathing down your neck, insisting they're protecting you. No, Gaara hadn't left the village to make sandcastles since becoming Kazekage.

But it didn't mean he'd stopped.

Gaara had a huge vessel of sand in his office with a jug of water beside it. Both were replaced every morning, for his convenience. Whenever he got stressed out, or annoyed, he would lock his door, pull out a large wooden board, pour sand and water onto it, and start making a sandcastle.

It soothed him. Calmed him. Some even claimed it made him nice.

If there was one thing Gaara was very rarely, it was nice.

And so, on that hot, stressful Wednesday afternoon, Gaara needed to make himself a sandcastle. He went about everything as usual, locking his door and getting everything ready.

Now to Gaara, working with sand was an art form; it wasn't something just anyone could do, and it wasn't to be taken lightly. He worked hard, and he ensured he did it perfectly. Which was why when he was just about done, and a large scream startled him into putting his hand through the left tower, he was not very happy.

"Whatcha doin', Gaara?"

The Kazekage turned ever so slowly towards the window, his eyes locking on the blond who'd startled him into destroying his masterpiece.

"Naruto." he growled.

The blond frowned, perched up on the windowsill. He'd tried the door, but it was locked, and instead of being smart and coming back later, he'd climbed the large building and entered through the window. Security in Suna was really lacking.

"Your door was locked." He shrugged. "I was curious as to what you were doing. Sandcastles, huh? That's cool."

Gaara's hands shook before he lashed out with his sand.

"Gah! Gaara!"

END.