Gaara walked slowly around the Hidden Village of Sand. It had been a week since the meeting in which Naruto had declared that he'd kill the Hokage himself- telling the other demons that the Hokage was off limits.
Gaara suspected it was much more than that, but he wouldn't say anything. Neither he nor Kyuubi had been caught yet, and from what Naruto was telling him he was moving up the ranks in Konoha, and had been assigned to the Hokage's team. Apparently the Hokage went into battle with his people, not just stayed on the sidelines. Admirable, for a human. Gaara was surprised that Naruto had been moved up so quickly to such a high post, but Naruto had told him that he was pretty sure the Hokage suspected him and was keeping an eye on him since Naruto had managed to lose every single one of the Hokage's spies at night.
Gaara himself had been moved up to patrolling the village during the day and occassionally going beyond the gate to look for any demons that could be planning to attack. Gaara had almost laughed when he had recieved those orders.
'I could tell them exactly what the demons are planning on doing, and exactly where they are, but that would do us no good.' Gaara thought.
"Are you even paying attention?" An annoyed voice broke into his thoughts. Gaara glanced at his partner- Yami had been assigned to patrol with him.
"I am. There's nothing dangerous going on here." Gaara said calmly. Yami nodded.
"It has been kinda quiet- no demon attacks for three days." Yami said softly, as if afraid she'd jinx it.
"We're still burying the dead from that attack." Gaara reminded her. Yami nodded.
"That was the least protected part in the whole village- we didn't know that they'd go after the elderly. Now they're gone." Yami said.
"Konoha's getting it worse." Gaara said. "I heard that demons attacked them last night and swept halfway through the village." He had been the head of that little band, but he didn't tell her that. For some strange reason, he was becoming more and more reluctant to pass information onto Kyuubi about the defenses of Sand. He refused to realize that he was becoming more hesitant because of the woman patrolling with him- he refused to believe his newfound sympathy for humans had anything to do with her. Yami nodded.
"They're just picking through the rubble today. The Hokage was almost killed, I think. The messenger sent here early this morning said that Uchiha-san was about to be killed when a member of his team showed up and knocked him out of the way. The other person nearly got himself killed!" Yami said. Gaara hadn't been in that part of Konoha, so he hadn't seen, but he had a gut feeling that he knew who the person was.
"Do we know who saved him?" Gaara asked. Yami shook her head.
"No- the messenger didn't know his name- all we know is that he's in the hospital, recovering."
Naruto stared at the ceiling of his hospital room, wondering what on earth had possessed him to save Sasuke's life.
'I ordered that attack- hell, I told them to attack me as well, just not enough to kill me. Why the hell did I go and nearly get myself killed to save that bastard?' Naruto scowled. He had been assigned to Sasuke's ANBU team just days ago, and had come to learn quite a bit about the Hokage. One- Sasuke was a bastard. Two- Sasuke was a bastard who apparently cared about what happened to his men and would fight with them. And three- Sasuke was a bastard who had a connection to Naruto. Naruto felt connected to Sasuke deep in his soul, almost like...
'No, I am not going there. We're rivals, enemies- predator and prey. He's just a human- a very strong one- but he's just a human, with dakr eyes that can pull you in, a toned body, silky hair... goddamnit!' Naruto hadn't been able to keep his thoughts on track lately, and he'd been assigning fewer and fewer attacks. Instead of a few a week, he told his men only to attack once, and he'd been more and more reluctant to issue the orders.
'Why can't I stop thinking about him?' Naruto asked himself crossly, as Sasuke's face rose up in his mind as he racked his brain for the reason he didn't like to attack anymore.
The door to his room opened, and a silent figure entered, sitting next to the bed in the chair provided for visitors.
"I want to thank you for what you did out there last night." Sasuke said. "You saved my life when most of the others froze."
"Like I had a choice, bastard. I'm supposed to protect you- isn't that my assigned mission?" Naruto said, folding his hands behind his head.
"Dobe." Sasuke said, in response to the nickname Naruto had adopted for him. Naruto gritted his teeth. He had no clue why- of all things that Sasuke could have picked- he had picked that name. It grated on his nerves every single time...!
"Why are you here?" Naruto asked.
"We're having another meeting to discuss strategy- I came to see if you were well wnough to attend. We need everyone's input- our numbers are dwindling rapidly, and if we don't make a comeback now we'll never have enough nins to defend ourselves." Sasuke said.
"Of course I'm well enough! See?" Naruto asked, sitting up and ripping off the bandages that the nurse had so painstakingly put on his mangled chest. Sasuke looked like he was about to stop him, but instead just stared.
Naruto's chest showed no sign of the wound he had recieved the night before- it looked like it had been healing for months instead of just hours.
"Did they use a healing jutsu on you?" Sasuke asked. "The wound wouldn't have killed you if they bandaged it properly- and even if they needed to use some chakra on healing you, they know to save their chakra for those that can't be saved without a healing jutsu. They wouldn't have healed it so much." Sasuke looked into Naruto's eyes, as if looking in his soul to find the answer. "How did this heal so quickly? What are you?" Naruto laughed nervously.
'Humans don't heal that fast? Damnit, I slipped up!'
"It looks a lot better than it is! Ouch!" Naruto yelled, laying back down and covering his chest. "I think it's reopening- maybe I should stay here." he said, rolling so his back faced Sasuke.
"Fine then." Sasuke said, standing up. His voice was like ice- he was furious and obviously didn't believe Naruto, but he had too few soldiers to kill one that might be a demon- one that he had no evidence against. "Rest well- I'll inform you of the strategy in the morning." The door closed loudly behind Sasuke, not quite slamming. Naruto winced.
'That wasn't good- way too close.' Naruto thought, sitting up and calling for the nurse. To his surprise, Sakura entered the room.
"Sakura?" he asked, shocked. He had gotten to know her a bit better in the past week, and had met most of her friends in Konoha.
Sakura nodded.
"I'm in training under Tsuande- she's the lead healer here- to become a medic. The nurse who helped you last night isn't here, so- Naruto, why don't you have any bandages?" Sakura asked, as if just noticing.
"Well... uh... it wasn't as bad as it looked." Naruto said helpfully. "But it should still be bandaged until it heals the rest of the way, right?" Sakura shook her head.
"You'll just have to be careful- we have a shortage of bandages and we have to use them sparingly, only on the most serious wounds. But hopefully this'll be over soon." Sakura said, smiling. She turned and exited out the door, closing it lightly behind her. Naruto sighed and lay down.
'I'll take a nap then.' he thought. He closed his eyes. Not long after that, he fell deeply asleep and didn't wake up until that night.
Gaara slipped out of the Hidden Village of Sand and quickly made his way to Konoha- more specifically, the hospital. He carefully scanned the gates and then the streets for guards, not wanting to run into any trouble. He carefully avoided the tired nins and slipped in the hospital by way of the front door.
The nurse on duty was asleep at the desk, looking worn out. Gaara silently crept past her and up the stairs, glancing in each room as he passed.
When he didn't see Naruto there, he went to the second floor. Three rooms in, he hit the jackpot.
"Naruto." he said, opening the door and walking into the room. Naruto was sitting up and looked over at him, wide awake.
"Oh, hey Gaara." he said.
"So it was you." Gaara replied instead of greeting him. Naruto quickly pasted a smile on his face.
"What do you mean 'it was me'? What did I do"
"Nearly got yourself killed by one of your own men to save the life of an enemy." Gaara said,
slinging his gourd off his back and leaning against the wall. "I thought it would be."
"I can explain!" Naruto said instantly, turning to completely face Gaara. "I was just-"
"Protecting someone you feel a connection with?" Gaara finished for him. He had a hunch that he was right. Naruto looked flabbergasted.
"No, I was... well... he's my rival, that's all. That's it. I don't feel any kind of connection with him at all. None whatsoever." Naruto said, crossing his arms. Gaara smiled.
'I was right.' he thought smugly.
"Convince yourself before you try to convince anyone else." Gaara said. "What will you do?"
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked stubbornly. "I'll finish out this war and take his head while I'm at it."
"You don't mean it. I think you've found him." Gaara said.
"No- I do NOT want that stubborn prick for a mate, okay? I don't like him!" Naruto insisted.
"Who said anything about a mate?" Gaara asked smoothly. Naruto had fallen right into his verbal trap. "I could have meant anything by 'You've found him.'" Naruto looked shocked, then stubborn as he went back over the conversation in his mind.
"So? What, are you going to tell the others on me?" Naruto asked, looking away. Gaara chuckled lightly and shook his head.
"I'm in no position to judge." Gaara said, thinking of Yami. Naruto caught his faraway look and smirked evily.
'Revenge time.' he thought.
"Oh, so you want one of the humans too?" Naruto said. Gaara looked Naruto square in the eye and nodded. Naruto was taken aback- demons did not just ADMIT that they wanted a human!
"At least I'll admit it." Gaara said. "What will you do? Are you going to let the Hokage be killed on your orders, or will you end this before it goes too far? The humans are dying by the hundreds- it's only a matter of time before we wipe them out. All of them." Naruto looked away, thinking hard. They paused for a moment in the silence, then Gaara got off the wall, grabbing his gourd tightly.
"The next meeting is tomorrow. You have until tomorrow night to figure out how this will end." Gaara said, leaving his friend alone with his thoughts.
TBC...
A/N: Gahh! This is going a bit fast... sorry if I'm confusing anyone! I'm trying to keep it interesting... And I know it seems like this'll be over soon, but there will be many more chapters- the main conflict of this story hasn't even been revealed yet! We'll find that out later...