Chap 9

"Subako No Gaara..." she said, but her voice was barely heard. Her lips were dry, as was her throat, and only a wisp came.

"Your name is TenTen, right?" he asked. TenTen nodded. Gaara did a few seals which summoned water (geez, people, did you really think he could live in the desert with completely no water?!), and TenTen thirstily drank it all.

"Arigato gozaimasu." She said. She was very, very tired.

Gaara was turning to leave.

"Wait! Gaara!" She called him.

Gaara turned his head.

"I'm lost. I want to go back to Konoha, but I'm lost, worn out, and in no shape to journey." She said. 'better to tell him then to not so. Maybe he can help me.'

"So?" Gaara asked "That has got nothing to do with me. Konoha is that way." He pointed at a random direction and turned around, going to his way. The whole point of the desert was that people were usually not there. He barely spent a day in the desert and already a human interfered. AGAIN.

No sound came from behind him. He bit his lip, he was sure that she would protest. Not that it bothered him that she hadn't, no way, but it just didn't seem right that she wouldn't. something was wrong. He turned around again.

TenTen had fallen to sleep.

Gaara thought of the options he had now. He could kill her. That would be his first human kill this week. He never liked to start it off with a girl. Superstition.

He could kidnap her and torture her. Oooo that would be fun. Really fun. The options that would evolve from kidnapping her were evolving into great fantasies in his mind (I always claimed the sexy-no-jutsu would have worked best on Gaara). This seemed like a pretty nice option.

He could return her to Konoha. B O R I N G.

He could return her to the sand. But he didn't want to go back there.

He could ignore her presence and leave her to welt in the desert.

He could take out his cellphone and call the Konoha rescue team to come in their airplane thingy and save her (this is for ladyvirgo).

He mentally scratched option 1 from his mind. He didn't feel a need for killing right now. Shukaku was quite content for being in the desert, he didn't press on him to kill.

He hesitated quite a bit before scratching option two. It seemed so nice, too... Just in case, he hadn't permanently scratched it. He might get back to it.

He didn't want to return to Konoha or the sand. Scratched them both.

And he didn't feel like ignoring her. No special reason. He just felt like helping her.

And his cellphone was out of battery. Shit.

He mentally formed another plan in his mind. And this was waiting beside her until she woke up. Then he'd see what he'd do. Maybe he'd kidnap her and- he'd leave the rest for later.

And so he stayed by her side while she was sleeping, staring at her, her steady beat breathing, her tightly shut eyes, her now-not-so-soft-but-probably-usually-soft hair...

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Hinata was laying on her back on the futon and recollected all that had happened since Sasuke came home. Each kiss, each breath, each touch... each word he had spoken to her, harsh or soft. She remembered when he got up, got dressed and simply left. She knew he had gone to Tsunade-Sama, to report his mission and the discoverings he and Naruto had made (he told her about it a great deal. He seemed to have really missed her, maybe as much as she missed him...), but she couldn't help but wish he wouldn't have left. She wanted him next to her.

She frowned at herself. Just four months ago she wished he wasn't there, tried to ignore him, tried as much as she could to avoid him. And now she wanted him to be with her all the time... what an abrupt change. But his departure to the mission had taught her many many things.

Sasuke was standing in front of Tsunade, Naruto by his side, reporting about their mission. They were almost through, actually. And then Sasuke could get back to Hinata... to were they left off... he was gone for less than 2 hours and he was already missing her.

He didn't love her, though. He told her he had. It kind of pinched his stomach that he had to lie to her, but he wanted her to be happy. He truly did.

And he needed her, and she knew that.

And he did indeed like her. She was so understanding when he came back... she was perfect. Everything about her was perfect. She was intelligent and wise, so they could have a decent conversation. She was beautiful in every aspect. She tried hard to please him. And she didn't speak too much. Sasuke liked that. He hated it when people went on and on and on babbling about stuff that didn't really matter.

He was starting to doubt even Sakura was that great. Sure, Sakura was smart. But she depended on him too much, and she talked too much... Sasuke found her annoying most of the time. His attention went back to Tsunade, who was rambling a lot about them taking way too long, and about Sasuke not having a Genin team attached to him for another 2 months now because that's when the graduates that havn't passed the genin test get to retake it. Sasuke couldn't really care less. Although being attached to a Genin team also meant no dangerous missions and lots of time at home. He was pretty sure Hinata would like that, but he would probably go mad. Three idiotic 12 year olds was the last thing he needed right now.

Sasuke and Naruto went to call Sakura, and they all (even Sasuke) decided to celbrate their return at Ichiraku Ramen. They (Naruto, anyway...) told Sakura about the mission to great length while gobbling up about 20 bowls of ramen. Sasuke was sitting and not saying too much, eating a bit of ramen and really not enjoying it.

"I'm going home." He told Sakura and Naruto.

"But we just got here, Sasuke!" Naruto called out, and Sakura nodded next to him. But Sasuke just left without saying anything else. Sakura sighed.

"Sasuke's been acting strange since he got married, don't you think?" she asked Naruto.

Naruto looked at her like she was from mars.

"He hasn't changed, Sakura, you have... you see him differently now that you can't have him, so it seems to you that he's changed. He's been like this all along."

And Sakura couldn't help but think that what Naruto said made sense. But she didn't care anymore. Ever since she stopped obsessing over Sasuke she found time for stuff that was a bit more useful, like training, working, chatting with Ino and her other friends, and, how now, obsessing over other boys. She found that she missed quite a lot of them in the 10 years in which she liked Sasuke.

END CHAPTER 9!!!

Short chapter, and annoying chapter, but very very necessary. Maybe I'll change around the ending of it when I rewrite everything.

Firstly, how do you like the beginning? I like it. I don't think it counts as OOC for Gaara because it's his Inner thoughts, not how he acts. Even though Gaara would have killed her, but she's very very very necessary for the story. Sorry ''...

For all you NejiTen fans out there (and by the reviews I got there are quite a lot of you) don't worry!!! Really. You guys should know better than to think I'd disappoint ya'll like that. But there will definitely be some GaaTen too. Because that couple is nonexistent. And I think that every couple, impossible as they might be, should have a few fics. :P

But I'm not just going to break Neji's heart. I love him!!

Ladyvirgo: The Naruto storyline leaves plenty of room for imagination. They aren't really exact about where and when the story takes place. They have televisions, cameras, walki talki thingies (in episode 6) and other mechanics, so I really don't see why they wouldn't have airplanes. This is an argument that could, basically, go on and on and on, so I'll just end it by reminding you that this IS just a fanfic, based on my sick imagination. So it doesn't actually have to follow the story if I don't want it to. Besides, there are fanfics I've read about Naruto which include busses, vacation trips to the Caribbean's and loadsa other stuff that can't really take place. Just use your imagination.

Though yeah, it would be kinda funny. ::Imagining Gaara in a red convertible:: ::drooling::

Naruto Wasian: you're replies always make me smile the most so I'll write a Gaara Hinata fic specially for you when I'm done with this one. XD

Everyone else that replied: THANKS! :D:D:D:D