Naruto exited the cab which had brought him home from the hospital. He'd stayed with Kiba until visiting hours were over because the brunette had insisted that he would die of boredom if Naruto left him alone. Now it was dark, and Naruto hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. His stomach grumbled loudly, reminding the blonde that it didn't like being neglected.

He hated missing meals, but he'd been having fun. Talking to Kiba was easy, and, while Naruto wasn't certain of his feelings for the brunette, he definitely enjoyed spending time with Kiba. Walking up the steps to his door, Naruto reminded himself that he needed to get it replaced-the bullet holes from the night he'd been shot at still pockmarked his front porch. After fishing into his pocket for his keys, Naruto's attention was diverted off into the darkness.

The bushes had rustled.

It was probably a cat, but after the past events he wasn't willing to take a chance. Drawing his gun, Naruto walked back down the steps and brought his weapon up to point at the shrubs, "Who's there?"

Gaara had been waiting for the KBI agent to return for the past few hours, and, once the blonde had appeared from the inside of a yellow cab, Gaara could feel a sense of anxiety wash over him. What if this was a mistake? Naruto Uzumaki had been fairly straight laced the first time they met, adamant about following orders and doing things by-the-book. If Gaara appeared on his front porch, the blonde would most likely slap handcuffs on him.

The prospect of being locked up did not appeal to Gaara at all. Deciding that it would probably be best that he didn't go through with his idea, the redhead backed up, preparing to leave, when he accidentally made too much noise, bumping into the base of the shrub behind him. He froze instantly, not moving, not breathing, not daring to make a sound for fear that Naruto might find him.

It was a justified fear, because the blonde had drawn his weapon and come straight toward the bushes.

"Who's there?" Naruto called out, gun raised.

The blonde was dressed like he'd just gotten off of work. His tie was loose, his suit jacket open, the top button on the collar of his white shirt was undone. He hair was messy, shining golden in the glow of the porch light. Gaara should have tried to slip away, but he couldn't stop looking at the angelic features of the man before him.

This was a bad time to start developing a crush; his mind informed him. Gaara had never shown an interest in anyone. He'd never even found someone attractive-not guys, not girls. But here he was, hiding in a bush with a gun pointed at his head, and Gaara Kaze was discovering that he found someone to be insanely attractive, and not only that… apparently he was gay, because that someone was another male. The analytical part of his brain found this to be highly amusing and worth studying at a later date, provided he wasn't shot by the blonde agent in front of him.

"I'm losing my mind," Naruto muttered to the night, lowering his gun and walking back to the porch steps.

Gaara let out a quiet sigh of relief, glad that he hadn't been discovered and thankful for the cover of darkness. It had kept him from being seen, which meant he could flee the moment Naruto was inside. His luck was turning around for the better it would seem.

In fact, Gaara's luck was rather incredible at this moment in time, because if he had decided to leave when Naruto had turned around; then the redhead would not have been there to witness what happened next.

A shadow detached itself from the tree in Naruto's yard, silently running towards the blonde. At first, Gaara thought he was seeing things, but then he caught a glimpse of silver, the shine of a light glinting off of a weapon of some sort. Naruto didn't even know he was in danger, and Gaara was too far away to do anything.

Thankfully his body reacted without thinking, and Gaara shouted, "Watch out!"

Naruto started at the sudden shout, spinning around just in time to catch the shadowy attacker. Naruto used both hands to stop himself from being stabbed, holding onto the wrist of the hand carrying the knife. His attacker was completely clothed in black, wearing gloves and a ski mask which made it almost impossible to have noticed the person if he was hiding in the dark.

The black-clad man was several inches taller than Naruto, and having caught the blonde off-guard, he was beginning to overpower him. Adding a second hand onto the hilt of the knife, the attacker began to put all his weight behind the knife, pushing the blade closer and closer to Naruto's chest.

Breathing heavily with the amount of effort he had to put into holding the blade back, Naruto started to panic. His gun was pointed toward the wall, which meant he couldn't shoot his attacker, and if he tried to move the gun to get a good aim, he would end up getting stabbed because he wouldn't have both hands pushing against the weight of the man towering over him.

Naruto dropped to one knee, slowly losing this battle of strength. If he didn't do something soon, he wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer!

Then, out of nowhere, another figure came charging out of the darkness and tackled the knife wielding man. He couldn't be certain, but Naruto thought he had seen a flash of crimson hair, but it was too quick to be certain. The two figures tumbled down the steps, grunting and struggling, as they landed sprawled at the base of the porch. Naruto staggered to his feet, rushing forward to see what had happened.

The black clad man had ended up on top, and the person at the bottom was none other than… "Gaara!?" Naruto looked at the younger man in shock. What was he doing here?

Gaara groaned as his back hit the pavement and then the weight of the other man landed on top of him. The force of the fall left him dazed, and he wondered why in the hell he had left the safety of the bushes? Oh, yeah! That's right, Naruto was about to get stabbed by this assassin who was now straddling Gaara and was still armed with a knife.

The redhead struggled, trying to throw the other man off, but his small stature meant that his physical strength was nothing compared to the masked man. The figure in black pulled back a fist and struck Gaara across the face, causing him to see stars. He then raised the knife over Gaara's chest, and the redhead froze.

So this was it? It all ended. He was going to die because for the first time in his life Gaara had given a damn about another person. Now that was a prime example of irony. The redhead shut his eyes, hoping that it would make his death seem less frightening.

There was an exploding noise. It was so loud; Gaara thought it had to be a cannon, or a some large artillery gun. Then suddenly the weight that had pinned him to the ground disappeared. Hesitantly opening one eye, Gaara saw Naruto standing over him, a smoking gun pointed at the corpse of the man clothed in black. The blonde had shot their attacker at point blank range, and what had once been a head covered in a ski mask was now little more than half of a head and some tattered remnants of black fabric.

It was a gory, gruesome sight, but Gaara had never been more thankful to be alive.

"You alright?" Naruto asked, looking down at him.

Gaara nodded silently, still too shaken to move.

"Good," the blonde reached out a hand, and Gaara accepted it. Naruto pulled him to his feet; Gaara was wobbly for a second, his head spinning. He had to hold onto the blonde agent's shoulder to keep his balance.

"Easy there," Naruto said softly, "Looks like your bleeding."

"He hit me," Gaara muttered, looking down at the corpse and then shaking his head to try and clear some of the groggy feeling.

"I can tell," Naruto frowned, holstering his gun, "Come on, lets get you inside. You've got a nasty cut on your cheek. We'll see if we can't clean that up."

"You're not going to arrest me?" Gaara raised an eyebrow.

"Currently not a government agent," Naruto shrugged, "So, frankly, fuck the rules!"

"Oh…" Gaara furrowed his brow in confusion. If Naruto wasn't a KBI agent anymore; then that changed his original plan. Was it still safe to stay with the blonde? It would be for at least 24 hours… after all, that kill had bought Naruto some time.

"You coming?" Naruto looked tired as he climbed the steps.

"What about…" the redhead pointed at the body. It wasn't like they could just leave a corpse on Naruto's front lawn.

"I'll call someone once we're inside. They've put someone else on the case," Naruto laughed bitterly, "He can deal with this shit for a change."

A/N -

Told you! Gaara and Naruto's meeting would lead to this eventually. I'm starting gearing things up towards something big, so you can expect there to be several interlocking scenes from here on out. I'm going to continue changing up the POVs, but you can expect the story to start feeling like it is more interconnected.

Not much to say today. Hope you like the update, and I will see you all tomorrow.

Read/Review/Recommend me to your friends! :)