After talking to Shikamaru, the blonde followed his friend down to the cafeteria. Naruto was looking a bit pale and exhausted which was normal for him after a particularly intense therapy session.
The blonde smiled when he saw familiar red hair, he stopped to get his ramen and walked toward his partner and Temari.
The beautiful blonde woman turned to look at Naruto when they got closer, she was blushing and looked like she had been crying. Temari got up, glancing at the redhead with a soft smile then at Naruto "...I need to get going...I hope to see you soon, Naruto." She gave a nod then grabbed Shikamaru's arm, dragging him off.
Naruto watched her retreating figure before moving to sit down "Your sister is really beautiful...you kinda look like her. Is she alright? She looked like she was crying."
"She's fine." Gaara responded, looking his partner up and down, noticing how exhausted the blonde looked "...Are you?"
Naruto blinked in shock then smiled warmly, moving to squeeze a pale hand "Yes, thank you for coming with me today." He hesitated, wondering if he ought to ask or not "...I am going somewhere really important after this..would you like to come? There is someone I want you to meet."
Gaara was quiet for a moment but nodded, trusting the blonde to tell him if it was important enough.
"...Can I ask about Temari-san? She seems like a really nice person, if a bit scary." Thus far the family topic had been something Naruto hadn't dared to approach.
"...She's the eldest...and the one that looks most like our mother or so I have heard." Gaara replied "I...wasn't a good brother to her...not the way Sakura-san and you are but I'd like to try. You helped me see what is important."
The blonde felt his cheek and ears reddening, looking at the redhead "I am sure you were a great brother...that you are one. You are really kind, Gaara-kun." Naruto brightly said.
"There is a lot you don't know about me Naruto-kun...one day I'll explain everything...but you might leave." The redhead looked down, unable to look at his partner.
The blond was surprised by the words, wondering what could be so bad that it made the redhead worry "No matter what you've done Gaara-kun...it's all in the past. I don't care if you were a killer or if you did anything else that might make the world see you as a monster, to me you are my precious person, believe it!"
Gaara stared in shock, he hesitated before moving forward, kissing a tanned cheek "Thank you, Naruto-kun."
The blonde grinned, cupping pale cheeks and pressing their lips against each other affectionately, the worry and stress from earlier fading away. "I should be the one thanking you...and I'd love to learn everything that I can about you. What makes you happy...what makes you sad...angry...everything!"
After that the blonde quickly ate his ramen, then got up and led the redhead toward the top floor. He was hesitant as they neared a room, taking in a deep breath and exhaling.
He opened the door toward the large room, not looking at Gaara's expression, instead he walked deeper inside. The room was decorated simple except for a fan looking logo right behind the bed and a few pictures.
There was a thin figure hooked to multiple machines, the thin face was framed by dark hair.
Naruto bowed politely to the thin figure "Hey bastard...I am back." He greeted "It's been a long time, huh? Sorry bout that...you know how much of an idiot I am." The blonde walked closer, moving to gently brush a strand of dark hair away and rest their forehead against each other for a moment "I know you can hear me...today I came to introduce you to someone special to me...yeah yeah I know...who could be stupid enough to put up with me, huh?" Naruto chuckled, feeling a lump on his throat but trying to act strong.
"Uchiha Sasuke...meet my precious person Gaara...he's a lot like you. Both of you are very quiet and smart...except he's much nicer! Unlike you he doesn't call me a baka, you Teme!" Naruto forced himself to sound cheerful, turning to look at Gaara. "Gaara-kun...this is my best friend Uchiha Sasuke, he's grumpy, quiet and really smart. He is also Sarada-chan's father."
The redhead stared at the thin figure and gave a polite bow of his head. He stared at the sleeping man, this was the person that Naruto cared about so much...the one that the blonde was always talking about.
"Hey teme...how much longer are you planning to sleep for? It's been almost a decade already...everyone except for Sakura-chan and I have given up on you coming back but I know you'll wake up...Sakura is trying her best and so am I...but Sarada would be really happy if she got to meet the real you. I want you to tell Gaara embarrassing stories about me...to hear you call me an idiot one more time and...and...I want you to tell me that I am acting like a total loser and taunt me about it." Naruto stared at the sleeping figure, biting his bottom lip, wanting the raven's permission so that he could be with the redhead.
"Kakashi-sensei would be really happy if you woke up...he's not the same ever since you slipped into a coma...none of us are so wake up...get your ass out of bed and marry Sakura.
Didn't you say that you'd like to rebuild the Uchiha clan? Well you have a daughter now...you can marry Sakura and have more kids with her. I won't ask you to be with me again...I won't complain or argue. Right now I am really happy with Gaara-kun...didn't you say that we are brothers? You should be giving me a hard time about finally dating someone, right? Sasuke...Sasuke wake up, please." But of course the raven didn't, this wasn't some reality tv show where they suddenly got a happy reunion or where a miracle would suddenly occur.
Naruto watched the raven with a sad expression on his face, feeling a small hand holding on to his bandaged one. He was grateful that Gaara remained quietly by his side and that the redhead didn't comment on the tears running down the tan cheeks.
Once the blonde composed himself again, they left the room, heading down to let Sakura know that they were going back to the flat.
Naruto looked up at the sky, feeling the sun shining down on them and took a deep breath then exhaled and grinned "It's a really wonderful day, isn't it Gaara-kun?" He brightly asked, acting like everything was perfectly normal.
"You don't have to hide the ache in your heart when you are with me, Naruto-kun." The redhead softly said, looking at the beautiful man.
Naruto turned his head and looked at the redhead, the smile turning warmer "Thank you...but I'll be fine, you are here with me."
How could Naruto be so strong? Gaara wanted to ask the blonde but decided not to. He followed his partner toward the ramen shop that the blond was always eagerly talking about. When Naruto introduced the redhead as his precious person, Gaara felt a warmth spread through his body. He really liked hearing stories about the blonde's childhood. In the ramen shop there were pictures of the blonde with different people and at different ages.
"Naruto-kun is this island hero...when he was still a teenager he defended this place from a dangerous criminal organization that had been going around creating chaos. He risked his life to protect everyone here that's why we all love him." The young hostess warmly said "He was...no he is one of the greatest detectives that we've known! Everyone was surprised when he left the island instead of becoming the island's leader."
The blonde blushed and squirmed "Eh...I just wanted to explore the outside a bit more, ya know? Maybe someday I'll come back." If Sasuke ever woke up and forgave him. It just felt wrong to become the leader after what he did.
Once they were done eating ramen, Naruto thanked the chef and waved goodbye, heading toward Sakura's flat. He showed the redhead where he had grown up, his old flat which still looked the same and had remained abandoned with his friends coming to clean it up whenever they could. He showed the redhead his old training place and the figures of the island's leaders before him. They had all been great people, some had been the top detectives and some had been other professions as well.
This island was filled with so many memories, some happy and some sad.
"N-N-Naruto?" A soft voice called out.
The blond stopped and turned, grinning "Hinata-chan!"
Hinata bowed politely, looking at the redhead and then at Naruto, she was dressed in a long summer dress with a cardigan "I-I am glad you are back...umm h-hello." She greeted the redhead.
"Ah, this is my precious person, Gaara." Naruto gave a gentle squeeze to the smaller hand "Gaara-kun this is my friend Hyuuga Hinata."
Pale eyes stared at each other, due to her pale eyes people often thought that she was blind, which wasn't too far from the truth.
"Hello." Gaara greeted, bowing his head politely.
"I-I-I am glad you found someone to make you happy. I-I-If you'd like you can visit Kiba and I." Her cheeks reddened, looking down at the ground.
"You two are finally together? It's about time! Congratulations, Hinata-chan." The blonde seemed to glow "Yeah I'd love to visit. I'll be here for about a week...is it alright if we go for a bit, Gaara-kun?"
The redhead nodded, this was another side of Naruto that he didn't know. The blonde seemed really happy.
"I-I am glad….I'll see you soon. See you later Naruto-kun...G-Gaara-san." With that Hinata left.
Naruto felt quite happy after that small chat, he still remembers how it had felt to date Hinata. The Hyuuga was always soft spoken but could be quite firm about things. They had been together for about three years until they mutually agreed that it just wasn't working out, Naruto couldn't give her the type of affection she wanted and deserved.
Once at Sakura's flat, Naruto looked through her fridge while humming "Hey Gaara-kun, what is your home like? Your taste in food isn't American at all...and it isn't fully Asian."
"...My home?"The redhead asked, thinking about what he used to eat growing up, Yashamaru and Temari used to be the cooks in the family.
"Hai...here we eat a lot of ramen...fishes, rice and vegetables. What about where you are from?" Naruto was really curious about the redhead, he was glad that he got to see Gaara's sister and that she seemed to like him as well.
"Hmm...Temari always cooked whatever animal we were able to grow...she often made cactus juices for us." Gaara never really thought about what he ate, it was just food for him.
"Lucky! Iruka-sensei used to buy me ramen whenever I did something good, it was my favorite time." The blonde decided to go for a glass of milk, pouring a glass for himself "Would you like something to drink?"
"I am fine, thank you." The redhead responded, moving to sit down on the couch.
Naruto drank his milk and washed the glass, then went to sit next to his partner, curling up against the smaller body. "...What are your siblings like? What do they like to do? When I was younger one of my biggest wishes was to have lots of siblings that I could talk to and play with."
Gaara thought about Temari and Kankuro, their relationship has never been good, it's gotten slightly better after he started reading Naruto's blog and even he would admit that he's tried a bit more ever since Naruto and him started dating. "...Temari is strict...Kankuro is...complex." Perhaps that was the best way to talk about his brother, the relationship between the two of them was still quite tense. "Temari likes collecting fans and Kankuro is a puppet master, he has a small studio filled with puppets."
Naruto tried imagining them, humming out "Your family is really creative. I would love to meet Kankuro-san and to properly meet Temari-san! What made you interested in doing sand sculptures?"
"...The sand makes me think of my mother. When I was born I was wrapped in sand and my mother's body." Gaara softly replied, taking in the warmth of Naruto's body. If someone in the past had said that a monster like him would find a precious person he would have killed them for such foolish words.
Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment, imagining a newborn Gaara wrapped in sand "I am really happy you were born Gaara-kun...and that we found each other." He gave the smaller hand a squeeze "And I am grateful that your mother chose to let you live. I don't think it makes you a monster the fact that she sacrificed herself for you...it means that you are just that precious. No parent would want their child to die." The blonde thought about his own parents, about how they sacrificed themselves in order to save him.
Precious...it was not a word that Gaara was used to hearing when describing him. How would things have turned out if they had met when they were younger? "Thank you, Naruto-kun."
The blonde grinned and nodded, he was glad to be his parents child. They had given up their life to make sure that Naruto stayed safe, it was the type of love that had shaped him. He would like to think that Gaara was the same, that the redhead's mother loved him so much that she decided to trust Gaara's father to raise him and give him love. "Alright, it's your turn to ask me a question."
Communication was key in a relationship, that was something that Gaara was learning in his relationship with Naruto. He thought about the question, there were a lot of things he wanted to ask but was unsure how to.
"How can you be so kind after everything that has happened to you?" Gaara softly asked, feeling warm hands tracing his face.
The blonde gently traced his lover's nose and eyes, smiling warmly "I don't really think I am kind...but I've had a lot of kind people support me. Iruka-sensei was the first person to acknowledge me and support my dreams...old man third was always patient with me and treated me like his own grandchild...Sasuke-kun….Sasuke-kun always treated me as an equal and never judged me based on my situation."
His hands moved to trace the invisible eyebrows and the kanji "When did you get this?"
"...I carved it shortly after Uncle Yashamaru's death to remind me of who and what I was." The redhead softly responded, feeling his cheeks reddening when he felt warm lips pressed against the kanji.
"You are beautiful and deserving of love...you are someone who was wanted and who is kind." Naruto murmured against the kanji.
"...What if I am not as kind as you think, Naruto-kun?" The redhead didn't consider himself to be any of the great things that the blonde mentioned.
"The whole world can see a monster when looking at you...but I'll always see my precious person, believe it!" Naruto assured, brightly. He cupped the redhead's cheek and pressed their lips against each other.
After that the topics became lighter, mostly about food. Naruto wasn't sure when he dozed off, holding on to the redhead.