GS Note: Reloaded chapter one. Should be no mistakes in this chapter either but, hey I'm lazy. Also, time line doesn't exist. I've watch up to meeting Tsunade in the anime and read the first few manga in Japanese but I haven't dedicated a lot of time it.
Also. I'm avoiding using Japanese but I've only seen the Japanese version or read the Japanese manga so I have no idea what the English terminology is. You can be assured the Japanese it right if I have to use it but things like dobe will be kept dobe if that is the best word and Tsunade-baba is one of my favourite nicknames so I'm keeping that when needed.
Pairings- be prepared for slash. I'm an equal opportunist romantic and, yeah. Don't like it stop now.
I'm also one of the laziest writers you will EVER MEET so while I'm in a writing mood right now I may not be for long. I update when I update and while encouragement helps I would rather right a good quality piece then a fast, short bad quality piece.
I'm actually surprised anyone likes this so, yeah. Makes me happy to hear from y'all.
CHAPTER 2
Tsunade had taken one look at Gaara and evicted Naruto from his chair so the worn Sand-nin could sit. Shikamaru had given up on his work and was leaned back in his chair, arms crossed with a look of feigned boredom on his face. Sasuke leaned against the wall, shooting angry glares at Naruto, who was twitching uncomfortably.
"We were headed back when we found him collapsed on the trail. We thought at first someone had mugged him until we saw who it was. We thought it best to bring him here," Kakashi had managed to get over his shock and calmly explained things to the Hokage while shooting discreet glances at his former student. "He claimed to be looking for Naruto."
"I am looking for that bastard," Gaara mumbled. His voice was slurred and he was slumped uncomfortably on the chair like his back wouldn't support him. Sasuke's hands hovered over his kunai and Kakashi's shoulder tightened but Naruto just looked confused.
"Let's not get over excited," Tsunade rested her chin in her hands. "Sasuke, Kakashi, go file your report. I'll summon you for a debriefing about this later."
The two jounin narrowed their eyes at her. "I think we'd be best suited here," Sasuke grumbled and planted his feet.
"I think that I'm the Hokage," Tsunade's eyes flashed irritably at them and Sasuke quelled slightly. "And I think that means I get to pull rank. Leave."
With great reluctance, the two bowed and exited the room shooting worried and angry looks over their shoulders. Once she was sure they weren't listening at the door, Tsunade relaxed.
"Gaara of the Sand, I haven't heard anything from you in over five years. Why the sudden interest in my shinobi?"
"Yeah," Naruto couldn't hold himself back. "I haven't done anything to you!"
Gaara eyes were glazed and unfocused but he narrowed them in Naruto's direction. "What are you talking about? For the last five months we were locked up together. It was only two weeks ago you were released. I only escaped three days ago."
At this, Tsunade, Shikamaru and Naruto looked at him in disbelief.
"Five months?" Naruto echoed. "I may be stupid, but I think I'd remember that. I haven't seen you in years."
Gaara gripped the arms of the chair and pulled himself up. His hands were shaking but he lurched forward, almost falling out of the chair, and snarled accusingly at Naruto.
"Years?" Gaara's voice was low but dangerous. The tension in the room had risen. Tsunade unconsciously leaned back and Shikamaru's eyes grew calculating but he didn't move. "Years? Years?"
"Look," Naruto held up his hands. "I just had this memory weird thing happen, maybe I just forgot about it-"
Gaara's angry hadn't shrunken but it had stopped growing. The glare was still furious but less accusing. "Forgot?" His eye ticked.
"Yeah," Naruto smiled. "I mean, Tsunade is trying to fix it-"
The Gaara fell over. His hands dangled over the chair arms and his head dropped to his chest. They all froze, then Naruto sprung forward to catch him as he started to slide off the chair.
"He's asleep," Naruto shook the boy's shoulders but Gaara only snored softly. He raised his hand to slap him awake.
"Stop," Shikamaru finally stood up and walked across the office. "It's okay."
"What the hell do you mean it's okay," Naruto yelled. "You know what happens when he sleeps!"
"Just look," Shikamaru frowned, not used to being questioned. "There is no chakra coming from him. Something has suppressed his demon."
Tsunade had come from behind her desk pushed Naruto aside. Gaara flopped back in his seat, his head falling back over the backrest in a very awkward angle. She knelt in front of him and formed a quick succession of seals, stared intently at Gaara's chin. After a few minutes she relaxed and released the juutsu.
"He's right," she said. "Someone has placed a barrier around the takuni spirit." She smiled slightly. "It's recent, I'm sure not even Gaara knows about it. This is probably the first time he had slept peacefully."
Naruto slumped in relief.
"We'd better get him into a bed," Shikamaru observed. "Even without the power of his demon he's quite dangerous. The last thing we need is for him to wake up with a crick in his neck."
Tsunade had to use the chair to stand. She shot Naruto a look as he smirked.
"I got you this, brat," she reached into her penholder and tossed something small and shiny at him. He caught it. "If you are going to work for me you need something more in a couch. Think if it as a sign on bonus."
Naruto felt tears well up in his eyes as he clutched the key with both hands. "Tsunade-baba…"
Shikamaru jumped out of the way as the Hokage jumped on the chuunin and preceded to beat him with a scroll she had grabbed off the desk. Gaara didn't stir.
The apartment was near enough to the head quarters that Naruto would never have to worry about being late, but far enough away that carrying Gaara became a task. He received many stares but grinned as he readjusted the boy on his back.
It was on the top floor of the seven-story building, something that Naruto was sure Tsunade had arranged just to annoy him. There were only four doors along the side and his was the last. It looked clean enough on the outside. There was a paper attached to the door stating 'Uzumaki', a faded Welcome mat and black lamp attached to the wall to guide people to the door at night.
He dug out the key with one hand and, after some careful balancing, unlocked the door. He had to open it with his foot.
It was fairly cozy. The only window to the room was on the opposite wall and was on the wrong side to catch the fading sunlight. There was a counter and wall shelves were also on the opposite wall. A second counter with three tall stools was in the center of the room. On his right was a battered shelving unit and on his left was a carpeted square with a bookshelf. Across from the carpeted area the hallway began.
Naruto kicked off his shoes and stepped into the apartment. It was light enough to see and his hands were full so he padded across the wood floor to find a place for his guest.
The sliding door on the right was the bathing room with a nice looking bathtub. Naruto opened the left door with his toes to reveal a very small tatami bedroom. A bare desk and moveable closet were in two corner but there was no bed. There was a decent sized window with a planting shelf. Like the one in the kitchen it was facing the wrong side of the building to get the light from the setting sun.
Gaara wasn't much taller then Naruto but he was getting heavy on his back. He carried him back to the front room and lowered him on to the carpet. He lay back beside the slumbering boy and sighed. What had he expected? It was a brand new apartment; he was luck enough that the few pieces of furniture were there.
It wasn't like he hadn't slept on more uncomfortable places. The carpet was soft and fairly new so he stretched out and dozed.
Three hours later, Gaara woke up.
He felt very disoriented. A sharp stab of panic over took him and he scrambled to his feet, tottering as he stood up too fast.
The movement woke up Naruto but he sat up lazily, stretching to get the kinks out of his back. Gaara was standing over him, breathing fast and heavy with fear.
"What the hell happened?" the normally collected and cool face was young and venerable. It was nice to know that he was still somewhat human, Naruto decided. "Where the hell am I?"
"My new apartment," Naruto yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Like it?"
Gaara blinked at him. "Was I… dead?"
"Dead to the world," Naruto stood up.
"But then," Gaara stumbled over his words. "How am I alive?"
"Dead asleep I should say," Naruto waked over to the kitchen and started to open the drawers and fridge. "Damn, I don't have much money for food yet. Are you hungry?"
Gaara just stared at him looking very lost and confused. "Asleep? But, I- I don't understand."
"Yup," Naruto shut the last cupboard frowning. "Sleeping like a baby, like a normal person. Tsunade had a look at you while you were out. Someone locked away your demon."
Gaara held out and hand and nothing happened. The lost look was replaced with wonderment, then fear and finally anger. Naruto sat on one of the stood and leaned against the table. "What are you doing?"
"My sand," Gaara growled. "I-I thought it was just that place that blocked it…"
"Are you hungry?" Naruto asked again. It was probably a good idea to keep him distracted. He had just moved in after all and he doubted even the Hokage could coax the building owner to keep him if his roommate destroyed the place. "It's not that late, I'm sure if we head out and find someone they'll feed us."
Gaara blinked and dropped his hand, the confused look back. Naruto stepped into his shoes and Gaara just scowled as they walked out the door. Naruto locked it and they headed down the stairs.
They found Hinata and Sakura catching a late dinner after class and after some whining on Naruto's part they agreed to treat the two boys. Both the girls looked questionably at Gaara but from the sullen look they received they quietly (and wisely) accepted it.
On the way home he stopped by Ino and Shikamaru's to pick up his stuff. Shikamaru had been unhappy with the interruption threw the pack in his face before slamming the door.
Back at the apartment it was almost midnight and Naruto made the unhappy realization that they had no futon or even blankets to sleep on. All the stores were closed so he worked on unpacking his bag. He didn't have much, a few changes of clothes, scrolls he had collected, personal gifts from people he had met, his weapons and ninja gear and a medical kit.
Gaara had nothing so he sat on a stool staring hard at the wooden counter deep in thought. It took almost no time for Naruto to put everything away and he settled down beside Gaara. Even though it was only some things the apartment looked more permanent, more like a home then a casual resting place. Naruto decided he liked it.
Neither made a move to go to sleep. Gaara was too nervous to risk it again and Naruto wasn't about to let the ninja roam his brand new apartment and stare at him while he slept on the rug again.
"So," Naruto started. He leaned on his elbows and looked sideways at where Gaara was boring holes into the wood with his eyes. "You said we were together for five months. Where?"
Gaara was silent for a long time then asked, "What do you think of me?"
That started Naruto a bit but he recovered. "Well, I can't really say, I mean despite what you say I haven't seen you in years. I guess I… well I guess we are kind of the same. I mean, with the demon thing and the people hating us. And I don't hate me."
Naruto's voice trailed off. There was a silence that was neither uncomfortable but both felt the need to say something.
"Why are you asking me that?" Naruto broke first.
"Because," Gaara said.
"What do you think of me?" Naruto decided to turn the tables.
Gaara paused and looked right at him. The dark circles around the eyes stood out in stark difference to the paleness of his face and there was something indescribable in them.
"That's what you asked me," Gaara all but whispered. "Before. That's why I asked you."
Naruto was unused to such a serious air. It made his feet twitch and right now all he wished to do was leave. "What did you say? Then, I mean."
Gaara dropped his eyes and looked off to the right. He smiled slightly then shook his head. "Nothing special."
Still full of questions but feeling like he had dodged a bullet, Naruto decided to change the topic.
"Anyway, you still hadn't answered me, where did we spent 5 months together?"
"Near Konoha," Gaara replied dully. "There was a secret base underground that we had been captured in. I had been heading home and you had been heading here. We escaped easily but it was right into a trap-"
Naruto remembered a flash of light. He shook head to clear the image
"-our capturer had been waiting for us. We stepped onto a seal that locked our chakra. Taijutsuu was useless because there was no one to fight. We were kept in a cell about the size of this room for the entire time. They would flood this gas stuff into our room and it would paralyze me and knock you out. They were doing something on us but I don't ever remember what it was. One time I was back in the room and you were gone, they said they released you. I thought you had struck a deal with them," Gaara scowled. "But they got cocky and misjudged the gas needed to disable one person as opposed to two. When they came to get me I knocked them out and took off."
"Once I left that place I could use my chakra again," Gaara said when Naruto experimentally gathered chakra in his hand. "But the gas had messed with my system and I collapsed on the path. That's when your friends found me."
Gaara was surprised the word 'friends' slipped out so easily. Even after all those years words like that, words that were connected to such a feeling, usually made his stumble.
Naruto twiddled his thumbs for a minute before replying. "I don't remember. Not at all. When I woke up on the path I thought I just tripped or something. You're telling me it was five months? In the blink of an eye? Wouldn't I notice that? I mean the date today is-"
Naruto stopped. In the all the time he had been here he hadn't looked at the date. He groaned and put his head in his arms. He was such a moron. He had even suspected a memory juutsu. It would have been smart of him to try and figure out how much of his memory had been tampered with. He had gotten distracted first by the hospital and then Shikamaru and had forgotten.
The rest of the night passed by relatively fast. Naruto dropped off to sleep again from boredom at the counter and Gaara had let himself out to meditate on the roof. They went to head quarters fairly early and Naruto begged for a shift of guard duty.
So he and Gaara spent their morning lazing about the West gate. At noon they changed shift and Naruto had made enough to go shopping.
Gaara had followed him like a shadow all day but when they entered the busy marketplace he moved closer to Naruto's side. It had seemed strange to Naruto that Gaara had accepted him without question and had stayed so comfortably in his presence. Even the fact that he had listened to him babble on all day was odd but he supposed that if Gaara was right about the whole five month things it would make sense.
What was even stranger was the feeling he got from himself. It was like Gaara had been at his side for a long time. The past two weeks without him seemed unimaginable.
The pay was small so Naruto decided that the best thing to do would be to buy some things to make the apartment more comfortable. After all, his friends wouldn't let him starve.
The bedroom was much to cozy for a bed so they ended up at a futon store. The old grandmother watching the cash register watched them nervously, her hand gripping a large piece of wood under the register. Naruto smiled at her but didn't pay her any attention; Gaara stood in the corner and glared at her the whole time.
The door opened with a jingle of the bell and the old woman sagged in relief.
"Sasuke!" Naruto waved at the jounin. "Fancy meeting you here."
"Naru-" Sasuke looked startled and glanced uneasily at Gaara. He relaxed and a small smile crossed his face, making him look even more dark and mysterious. "Naruto, Gaara."
After picking out a blue futon with stars and spaceships on it (Gaara look horrified at the choice and Sasuke refrained from comment), the three went out for lunch, treated by Sasuke.
Gaara sat stonily slurping his ramen while Sasuke listened easily to Naruto prattle on.
"I meant to write you guys," Naruto was saying. "But the letters I did write always got rained on, or Hitomi kept on eating them. They were really good ones too. I did have a Konoha drinking buddy for a week when I was staying the south but I guess he forgot to give you guys my message."
"I knew you were alive," Sasuke said simply. "After all, I knew you would refuse to die while still being second best to me."
It was true too. Sasuke had always known that Naruto would come back. He always made sure to ask around when he was on a mission outside of the Fire country if anyone had seen the missing shinobi but never got truly worried. He was angry, of course, that Naruto had just never come home after the goodbyes. He had assumed that Naruto had been angry with him, or decided that the whole village was a thing of his past. When he had seen him in Tsunade's office and he hadn't given him more then a passing glance Sasuke had gotten angry. But during the briefing he got the impression that Naruto had disappeared to disappear. Not because of any personal feeling, but that life had caught up with him and he had just been busy.
Sasuke could forgive that. After all, he had always been too busy for Naruto. He remembered when he had chased after Naruto that one time when he had heard that Itachi was after him. It was Naruto who had been fine and Sasuke who had been beaten. Naruto could take care of himself.
"So, Gaara is staying with you?' Sasuke asked and Naruto paused.
"I guess so," he looked over to where Gaara was quietly choking on his ramen. "I mean we never actually said anything but I kind of assumed that he would be. Right?"
Gaara, now recovered, nodded mutely.
"Ah, crap," Naruto cursed. "I still only have that one futon."
"I have a spare you can borrow," Sasuke said. Naruto looked at him strangely, it wasn't like Sasuke to just volunteer things. "What? I do. Moron, fine then, I'll just keep it and you can sleep on the floor."
"No, no," Naruto stammered. "I mean, thanks."
It was a long walk back to Sasuke's house and an even longer one back. Gaara and Naruto staggered under the weight of the two futons and blankets. They had to rest after every level of the apartment building but eventually made it.
"Whew," Naruto dropped the futon and it's bundle on the ground and collapsed on the hard wood floor. Gaara lurched in after and dumped Sasuke's secondhand on next to it. "I've never been this out of shape."
Gaara panted but silently agreed. They pulled the two futons into the small bedroom. Sasuke's was a mix of pale greens and plain, which Gaara instantly preferred over Naruto's spaceships.
"We're going to need to get rid of this desk," Naruto commented. "Otherwise they wont both fit in. But where to put the desk…"
"Out the window," Gaara said dryly from where he was resting on the piles of blankets. Naruto looked at the desk thoughtfully. Eventually it was dragged out into the hall and left at the back behind the door. The futons barely fit in together but they managed it.
"Are you hungry?" Naruto asked. They were sitting on the stools again and the sun was settling. "I think if we leave now we can run into someone again."
Gaara shrugged but slid off the stool. As they walked down the stairs Naruto could already sense that this was going to be more troublesome then it was worth. It might even been a good idea to get Kakashi to teach him that teleporting juutsu.
They actually had to work to find someone to feed them but Kiba eventually agreed, with some help from Hinata. Once again, Naruto chatted easily with stories of his adventures while Gaara sat quietly and invisibly.
As Naruto took more and more short C-rank missions their income slowly grew. Naruto never commented on having to support Gaara and Gaara never really knew how to thank him. There was one day where Naruto broke down and took a mission that would take him away from the village over night.
Gaara was getting progressively better at sleeping but never slept more then two days in a row and usually only for a few hours at a time. His tanuki demon had given him strength before. Now, though, the energy he received through their link was dormant and Gaara needed to consciously think about using it. It was a strain on him mentally and physically but he wasn't ready to let down his defenses enough to sleep, even with Naruto around. Much of Naruto's paycheck went to ramen and coffee.
"Are you sure you'll be all right?" Naruto was packing his meager bag while Gaara sat on the stool with his legs dangling like a child. "I mean, Sakura or Sasuke are willing to take you out for dinner, or Shikamaru said you could stay with them. Now that you're kind of sleeping and all-"
"I'll be fine," Gaara said, a hint of a smile on his face. Naruto stopped packing for a minute and looked sheepish.
"I know, I know, it's just that I've never seen you cook before, I don't want you to starve or get lonely or something…"
"I'll be fine,' Gaara repeated. Naruto finally was finished and after a soft push out the door, Gaara was left on his own.
He had been having a strange guilty feeling ever since he had started to stay with Naruto. He felt like a dead weight. It wasn't like he couldn't work; he was a trained ninja after all. His own country hadn't contacted him, probably assuming that he was dead and their troubles were over. Gaara wasn't about to disprove that. Still, at least in Sand he had been independent.
After Yoshimare had died, Gaara had stood alone in his heart and but strong in spirit. He looked after himself, he had learned not to rely on anyone. But those months with Naruto forced him to change. He found he liked not needing to worry about money, about food, about having his personality being eaten away. But that didn't mean he wanted to become a useless object.
A few short hours after Naruto had left, Gaara was bored and left for the only place he really knew, the head quarters. Umako didn't even question him when he walked casually into the Hokage's office.
As usual, Shikamaru was absently going through report scrolls and writing curt recommendations at the bottom. Tsunade wasn't even pretending to be working. She was carefully molding chakra on her nose and balancing pens. There was a clatter when he walked in and she lost her concentration.
"Gaara," she smirked. "Lonely all ready?"
"Is there something I can do?" he didn't even bother with a greeting. It was hard enough going somewhere without Naruto there to speak for him, he wasn't going to bother being polite.
Shikamaru motioned to the chair that Naruto used to occupy in the corner and Gaara carried to the large desk.
"Read through these, correct the spelling and grammar, then sign your name on this line," Shikamaru passed him a bundle of scroll. "When you're done I have more."
Shinobi Academy had focused mainly on shinobi teachings, physical training and mental preparation. They did not focus on penmanship.
Shikamaru took the scrolls as he finished with then, scanned them then wrote comments at the bottom and occasionally drew a frowny face at certain parts of the report. Then it was thrown into a pile to be delivered back to the person who wrote the report and it was on to the next.
It seemed to Gaara that Tsunade spent a majority of the time avoiding paperwork, playing Go with Shikamaru and playing on a hand held gambling game that, by the sound of it, she lost frequently.
They stopped at noon for lunch. Gaara had been out around the town and generally knew where everything was but he didn't have any money. There was food at the apartment but as Naruto had pointed out he didn't even know how to make instant ramen. He was about to just leave the hot street and go back into the office, skipping lunch, when Shikamaru came up behind him with his hands shoved in his pocket.
"Come on, I usually go to this stand near the West gate," Shikamaru headed off down the crowed street and, not knowing what else to do, Gaara followed. They didn't talk as they eat, but listened to the older men also seated on the stools in the shade of the cloth roof.
After a while, Shikamaru threw some bills on the table and they left back towards the office. They worked with the same rhythm at the work until about 5 o'clock. Shikamaru just closed the last scroll, tied it up and woke up Tsunade.
"Do you want something to eat?" Shikamaru once again sounded like the words were being dragged from his mouth. Gaara shook his head and Shikamaru was gone before he could change his mind. Not that he was going too.
People moved away from him as he walked down the crowded market. It was getting darker and market foods were half priced so the streets were filled with over stressed mothers dragging their cranky children.
Gaara didn't feel like going back to the apartment and he didn't feel like being alone so he moved from stand to stand looking over the food and eavesdropping on mundane conversations before he found a used book store.
Tsunade had slipped him from bills, casually telling him it was for the work he had done that day, then spirited out before he could say anything. Ignoring the suspicious eyes following his back as he roamed the shelves, he picked a thick volume at random and paid for it.
The stars were out when he finally made it back to the apartment and he settled on the rug. In the time they had been living there Naruto had managed to accumulate several piece of furniture. One was the low table in the middle of the carpet. It had been Sakura's first table when she moved out of her parents' house and had since moved on to bigger and better furniture. Another was Kakashi's old lamp shaped like a stripper on a pole that Naruto adored and Gaara detested. Iruka had donated several food appliances and some old reference books Gaara had read and Naruto ignored. Sasuke had all ready given them the extra futon and Shikamaru had shown up one day with another bookshelf that took up the wall behind the door.
Hinata stocked their medicine cabinet; Kiba had brought a few homemade blankets. Gaara had been startled one day when Rock Lee had shown up while Naruto was out on a mission and shoved a weighted pack filled with weapons (and two green jumpsuits that Gaara had blanched at and Naruto was delighted with).
Through his salary Naruto outfitted them with the basics but the few frivolous items in the apartment had all come from Naruto's travels and there was nothing here that belonged to Gaara.
Until now that is. Gaara settled down with his new book titled Icha Icha Paradise: Collection of Best Works.
It was quite late and he had all ready had three cups of black coffee to fight off sleep when the door knocked. Paranoid, Gaara set his book down and reached for the shiruken hidden under the low table before standing and silently gliding over to the door.
The lamp outside was on and he could see the shadows of feet peeking through the door. There was more then one person but no one was talking so Gaara tucked the four sharp stars under his sleeve along his wrist and stepped down to open the door.
As his feet connected with the cool stone floor he heard a roar in his ears as he activated the seal half inside and half out before passing out.