A/N: Oh shit I almost forgot I write things... my bad. Hope an update makes up for it. And before I forget, I seem to get fairly positive reactions to the flashbacks, they're typically lighthearted and I personally think they explain further how Naruto and Gaara are who they are at this point in their lives.

Anyway. Enjoy(:

xXx

"I mean, I don't mind but-"

"But what?"

"… I can't feel my legs."

"UGH"

SMACK

A hard right hand landed across Naruto's cheek as Ino climbed off top of him to reach for a window of broken glass.

"That one!... That one one hurt." Naruto reached the shallow opening just after her, busting out the remaining glass with a covered elbow.

"I mean, don't I at least get points for originality?" He offered her a hand once he pulled himself up and she reluctantly took it after some thought. "Most guys take a girl to the movies or some other normy thing on a first date. But I definitely helped you kill your jerk husband and then surf down a building." His smile was typically infectious if nothing, but all Ino did was raise a brow.

"You also wore a dress and got kinapped."

"You think I wanted to wear those fucking pointy shoes??" Was Naruto's retort.

"Oh, you mean the ones you destroyed... for the record you looked like a monstress."

"Haha ... Yeah sorry about that ." Naruto nervously scratched at the base of his neck with both hands. Taking to traversing down the wreckage to avoid that particular topic of dress wearing.

"But I gotta say. The police thing is kinda doing it for me..." Ino's gaze followed closely along that of his tight fitted police slacks. Telling herself it was because she'd abandoned her fragile shoes and stepping precisely in his steps would keep her from falling.

'Yeah... falling.'

"What was that?"

'That speaking before thinking thing he does must be contagious.'

"I said that you're sadly mistaken if you think we killed Sai back there." It'd been a change of topic sure but Naruto deserved to know. Ino was almost a one-hundred percent sure that the man she shot down wasn't her husband, he simply wasn't skilled enough. From the missed shots, to the toying with her position, it couldn't be him.

She was sure of it.

"I did some thinking and uh... I guess it wouldn't be to much for us to help you with your little Sai problem. I mean if Granny trusted you, then why not?"

"And then what? You get revenge for Tsunade, we kill the only man that's ever loved me besides my father and that leaves us where? I don't think you want to do this. This is my problem."

Naruto offered her a hand once he reached the street, a slight frown on his face.

"So, no second date?"

He's persistent, she'd give him that. And she never really saw him frown, so this expression was different for her, she wasn't a fan. So Ino managed to smile in apology as she gave him her hand.

"Yeah, no date- AH!" She nearly jumped out of her skin when instead of giving her a hand, Naruto placed his fairly large hands around her slim waist. Bringing down a surprisingly ticklish Ino who squirmed in his grip.

'Wasn't expecting that.' Naruto's face brightened at the reaction. Continuing, obviously.

"Aha. HA. STOP IT BEFORE I PEE MYSELF!" Ino was in tears of laughter.

"Before you what?!" Naruto had officially had too much fun at this point, as intense as she was was, he hadn't expected a giggle to be something she was even capable of.

'Wow, I didn't even know she could even laugh this much... Was that a snort??'

"Ahem." A gruff voice sounded behind them and they turned to see a giggling Tenten and Gaara tapping his foot rather impatiently.

'... Gaaras going to kill me.'

"If you're quite done, I believe we have more important places to be." Gaara was right, the blaring sirens in the distance seemed scattered across the area, but it was only a matter of time until the cops stopped chasing escaped convicts to check out the building that just happened to implode next to a rioted prison.

"Anywhere specific?..." Naruto asked, executing his thinking position, rubbing both hands against the base of his neck. A very embarrassed Ino scooting far away from him.

Gaara didn't answer and only eyes him, waiting.

'He's so... tame? lately.' Naruto thought as he looked at his long time friend. Gaara has always been quiet, sure, but this was different. He was beginning to suspect the quiet for doubt.

'Does he think I can't do this?'

Naruto was genuinely stumped as to where to head next. The mission had gone tits up, there was no lead on where Sasuke and Kakashi might be, their own coffee shops around town where likely rigged with explosives and to top it off communication had been compromised.

"Huh... good point. Well if you were Sasuke, where would you go during a prison riot?" Gaara asked.

"Oh come on. You can't honestly expect him to be able to analyze the foresight of anybody?" Ino stated, accompanied by the exaggerated rubbing of her temples.

"Well he did seem to figure out that 'foresight' of your would be assassin. Soooo..." Tenten reminded her. But Ino wasn't having it.

"I mean isn't it time to explore other options?" Ino asked. "There's no way we're finding that guy-"

"His mothers house!" Naruto blurted.

"...Excuse me?" Ino was a bit aloof at Naruto's sudden outburst. Tenten and Gaara too gave him a look that begged explanation.

"If I were Sasukes punk ass I'd run home to my mother like I always do! That punk is known to bail when the situation gets tough. And I mean, the Uchiha grounds aren't too far from here, and I'm sure it's secluded enough from the city to retreat there, especially considering he's harboring a suspected federal criminal."

"That actually makes a lot of sense. He'd want to keep Kakashi safe for the meantime, so I can't imagine him seeking out the Anbu for help like one might normally do. So home makes sense." Tenten explained. "Good job Naruto!"

"Yeah... I guess it's not a terrible idea to check it out." Ino said, much to Naruto's silent boasting triumph as he fist pumped that air.

"Well wouldn't that be literally the first place they go though?" Gaara chimed in. Naruto was ready for his response though.

"Well normally you'd be right. But the Uchiha Compound has nothing on the mansion. There's no way those losers are getting in even if they wanted to."

"And we can?" Gaara asked.

"Of course we-... C'mon man what's up with you? You know I wouldn't suggest it if we couldn't pull it off."

The silence between the two was a pregnant one that only ended when Gaara gave a hesitant node in approval.

"It's settled then! Let's get a move on!"

Naruto gave him a concerned look over his shoulder before taking off.

'I'm so used to him leading. What could be up with him?'

Now that he thought about it, this whole operation had been under his own lead, with Gaara by the wayside, simply following allong. It had never been that way between them in the past.

Gaara gave Naruto a nod before heading towards the car. The blonde bolted past him and he noticed a strange absence of something. His keys.

"And I'm driving!" Naruto shouted behind him.

Gaara stood still as Tenten and Ino also rushed along to the car.

"Come on Gaara!" Tenten tugged at his long sleeve but didn't get so much as a budge out of him. "We kinda need to go... are you ok?"

"I'm just kinda processing the possibility of us surviving today... it's getting slimmer by the minute." Gaara held a hand to his chin in thought as he watched Naruto try and fail to start the stick shift car.

"Can you do this later maybe? I mean it can't be that bad." Tenten steadily tried to push Gaara into the car, but got maybe a foot closer after entirely too much effort. "Gaara... MOVE IT."

Gaara paid her no mind as he proceeded to count out the factors of his rather unfortunate circumstances on his hands.

"Let's see. We got the Anbu, the Akatsuki, God knows how many escaped criminals, a distinct lack of coffee shops, which means a lack of coffee(he shuddered at the notion) the KPD, Ino's crazy husband, the Hyuga, there's no way to reach Shikamaru, this fucking idiot wants to drive! And oh!" He stopped with only one finger left as her turned to face Tenten. "My girlfriend turns out to be a knife bearing ninja physco capable of killing multiple grown men in the blink of a fucking eye!"

Gaara's breathing was sporadic, he could feel his breath laboring as his chest heaved from working himself up and he could hear his own heartbeat in the excessive silence as Tenten could only stare up at him. Gaara stared right back. But he was quick to realize his frustration may have been misplaced and made quick to apologize. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he'd hoped that the look on Tentens face didn't mean she hated him.

"Tenten... I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that-"

"So I'm your girlfriend now huh?" Turns out the look was her trying to hold in a laugh.

"..." Gaara blinked

Hard.

'Ah Hell.'

"Did you plan on telling me anytime soon?" She continued to tease.

Tenten was able to coral a speechless Gaara much more easily after that as she crammed the red faced redhead into the car.

xXx

Some years ago

W.E.T Training exercise

"I think I've reached a new level of caffeination." Gaara hands trembled as he brought his fifth cup that hour up to his lips.

"... Maybe slow down bud?" Naruto warned, or tried, anyway.

Gaara was to busy making sure his plan was set perfectly. Seeing as he himself wasn't personally involved, he pulled a small hip-pocket radio to his mouth set his plan in motion.

"Gamma Squad, this is Hound. Roll call."

"Or you know, ignore me. That's cool too." Naruto whispered from beside the man

"Avenger, standing by." The familiar voice of Sasuke sounded back first.

"Papa Wolf is in place." Came the gruff response of Kiba.

"Ice Queen in position." Was the final response from Haku that came nearly a minute later.

"All right team, we got one shot at this... Don't fuck it up, I'm ready to head home." Gaara said.

Naruto had grown accustom to seeing Gaara in this state. W.E.T. training had been especially hard on him ever since Anko started paying "special" attention to him. He'd visited the sandbox at least thrice a week and gained the title "Demon of the Desert" from his peer group.

The result was a very worn out, very heavily caffeine addicted Gaara.

Sad, yes. But they could both slowly begin to see the budding benefit. Gaara's stamina had spiked exponentially, and his nerves seemed to have calmed from the very temper driven youth he once was. Molding before them now was a hardening warrior eliminator that took charge in both the classroom setting, and in practical test such as the one he and Naruto found themselves in today.

Gaara caught Naruto blankly staring at him again. No doubt concerned about his new addiction and "lack of sleep" like he always seemed to have lately.

"Just worry about the mis-"

"Yeah, yeah, the mission. I got it Gaara." Naruto said, turning his attention back to the task at hand. Starting by fitting his "glasses" to his face. A custom piece their classroom was able to test-run, they doubled as a scoped camera. And by tapping the side of the frame, he was able to zoom in a considerable distance. Nothing James Bond level, but an extra 20 more feet of clarity makes a huge difference.

"This is the Fox... Target spotted." Naruto muttered over group radio. The duo had been charged with taking first site of their target in the crowded shopping district of central Konoha. "80 meters north. No additional hostiles in sight." The target in question being none other than Kakashi Hatake, whom was busy taking a pleasant stroll through the shopping district with same questionable reading material in hand. Icha Icha paradise, an authors special edition signed by Jairiya himself to be exact.

The mission? Retrieve that book by any means necessary. Without any casualties of course. Which might be an issue if Kakashi catches on to them In the slightest.

Naruto scrunched an eyebrow at his own name. He'd always been such an outgoing and boisterous individual. But the role he'd began to train for left him feeling out of place. Being trained in silence, covert operations, and stealth had taken somewhat of a tole on the way he saw things. Needles to say, he had to adapt. And adapt well he did, so much so that his teachers took to calling him Fox.

"Copy that. Deploying decoy. Ice Queen, out." One que, Haku rounded the corner and ran head first into Kakashi. One would suspect, into his chest, even in the faked collision. But instead a hand held her at arms length. The man could truly never truly be caught of guard, and Gaara planned to use that to his advantage.

Wearing all white, the dramatic fall she took was capitalized on when a slight mud splatter coated her from head to toe.

"Oof." Haku did her best at selling the overdrawn nursing of her forehead. "Teacher why'd you hit me like that?!"

Kakashi looked down at the girl who he'd just floored on instinct. "Well you should know better than to try and sneak up on teacher."

He held his hand out to the girl, effectively falling for Gaaras trap. As soon as Kakashi's hand came near, she reached past him.

Straight for his face mask.

Kakashi's face had been the topic of many a rumor. Legend says that he was hiding a pallet full of messy scares under there, myths stated he was actually missing a mouth and that the lips were sewn on. And perhaps the most popular, a tale of a gorgeous face, hidden from the world, never to be seen my mortal man. These rumors had been so frequently uttered by passing classes of students that Kakashi was well advised of their suspicion after 5 plus years of teaching. So when Haku's hands neared his nose:

SMACK

Kakashi's free hand made restraint of hers and his other quickly released his book in order to strike her atop the head.

"OW!" Haku screamed, gaining a fair bit of attention from the rushing crowd around them. A few even stopping to see what exactly was going on.

"Well that will teach you brats to try and take my mask." Kakashi said matter o' factly. He stood to dust himself off and noticed something out of place.

"Wait a minute..."

"Gamma Squad, commence phase 2." Gaara muttered into his radio. Not even bothering to look at the missions ongoings in favor of reading through one of the various strategy text books he'd been assigned.

"Was the skimpy white dress really necessary?" Naruto asked off line.

Gaara simply shrugged and continued reading. "Maybe, maybe not."

Back at the scene, Haku began to cry hysterically.

"Don't touch me, please!" She pleaded with year filled eyes.

"Hey old man! Stay off of her!" A stray voice said from the somewhere in the crowd.

Kakashi turned just in time to see a crop of black hair retreating around the corner. Followed by the hovering crowd that gave him their full attention.

"I know that duck assed shape hair anywhere..." He mumbled to himself. "Hold on now everybody, these brats are just pranking me-"

"I-I'm retreating! I've been made. A-Avenger out." Sasuke stuttered quite frantically into the group radio.

"Roger Avenger, move out." Gaara replied.

Naruto commended Gaara's lack of frustration with the plans hiccups, but he was still pissed with the Uchiha's willingness to give up so easily.

"Avenger, this is Fox."

Gaara raised a hairless brow at the blonde from across their table, but didn't make to stop him.

"Send it for Avenger." Came a shaky reply.

"... Punk Bitch."

"Fuck you, Uzuma-"

"CODE. NAMES." Gaara reeled in his fuming rage as he not so discreetly roared into the receiver of his radio. He considered his surroundings. The quaint little loft on the second story of his favorite coffee shop in town. If he caused to much commotion it could prove to be an issue for their vantage point.

"Papa Wolf, stir up the crowd in Avengers absence.

"You got it boss."

"Hey, what's going on over there!?" Shouted a "concerned citizen". Kiba, who'd taken to weaving inbetween the growing crowd and shouting absurdities about the man that were eventually matched by other equally concerned citizens.

"Is he a pervert?" Gasped a startled old woman.

"Look at that poor girl, that brute!" Yelled another citizen.

"Wolf, skip to phase 3." Naruto commanded, still surveying the area through his special glasses.

"Get him!" Shouted Kiba, whom was crouched stealthily in-between the shuffling bodies.

'I know that voice... that makes 3 of my students.' Kakashi clung his mask close with one hand, if he were to be ambushed, now would be the time.

The crowd began to surrounded Kakashi as planned.

"Rush em Akamaru." Kiba looked down at his four legged companion, a little Inuzaka family hound named Akamaru who yipped in understanding.

As Kakashi began to back slowly into a corner, the pup swooped in to snag the precious book he left behind.

"Hey you get back here!" Kakashi quickly realized his mask wasn't the mark when he noticed Haku smile before getting up and retreating. But by the time he'd gone to confront her, he had a small mob to deal with.

"This is Papa Wolf, package secure."

"Roger that. Release the package at drop off location. Everyone else, pop smoke."

Kakashi was met with relief however when he finally busted through the crowd to find his book safely on the ground.

'Now what the hell was that about? My mask wasn't the mark, and the little brats even left my book.' He calculated the possibilities, taking his booking and racing off before anymore "concerned" citizens could block his path.

The lines went dead and within minutes Gaara and Naruto had a happy puppy appear at their table.

"Thanks bud." Naruto gave the little dog a pat on the head wich was replied to with a yip of satisfaction.

"Umm sir, there's no dogs allowed h-"

"He was just leaving." Anko interrupted, having shown up at the agreed time to check on the squads progress. "Isn't that right, boys?"

"Yes ma'm" Gaara nodded at the waiter. He gave a "shooing" motion to the dog and it reluctantly scampered back out the open door. The waiter seemed a bit nonplussed but left the trio alone anyway, seeing as the dog had left.

"Impressive, welps. No ones gotten anything off an instructor in years. How'd ya do it?"

"Know your enemy, teacher." Gaara said, nodding over at Naruto.

"The old man writes the books, it was as simple as switching them out with an unsigned one I got from his bookshelf." Naruto said hesitantly. He was afraid that Anko might be a bit peeved that they abused a resource like that.

"Well isn't that the same as never having taken it?" Anko questioned, a bit peeved that the silver haired teacher wasn't really at a loss."

"Well normally you'd be right teacher, but this one." Naruto handed her the book. "Is a certified signed copy, first edition. All the typos, authors notes, everything, worth thousands. That." He pointed down the street Kakashi had bolted down. "Is a cheap reprint copy Jiraiya uses as "gifts". They're worth about 10 bucks."

"Kakashi made the mistake of assumption. We caused a simple misdirection, feeding him we enough information to believe we were after his mask. Putting him on guard for the completely wrong thing, and boom, game over. The poor guy likely won't know that's not his book for some time." Gaara finished.

"Hmm." Anko considered the plan carefully. "Simple, yet resourceful. It pains me to say this... but well done."

Naruto and Gaara couldn't believe their ears but once the shock of those words finally settled, there was a high five of immense satisfaction.

"FUCK YEAH!" Naruto shouted.

"This will prove to be significant payback for all the time he targeted his naive students at me." Anko said with a menacing laugh. "Silly old goat had it coming."

"What exactly did he have students take from you teacher?" Naruto asked.

"..." Anko only crossed her arms and remained silent. A seething frown brewing on her face

"Teacher-"

"That pervert always sends them after my panties. Four god damn groups!!"

"... well how many succeeded?" Naruto couldn't hold in the curiosity. After all, this was a subject he was very interested in.

"Just the first one." Anko said, this time with a smile.

A toothy, genuine smile that the boys found just a taaad bit unsettling.

"And the rest?" Gaara asked.

"Well." Anko picked up the book and turned to take her leave. "There's a reason this training program has a 12% mortality rate."

"Oh." Naruto gulped. "Rest in peace brave warriors." He whispered as she walked away. He turned to Gaara and for a moment the redhead thought he'd abandoned his silly infatuation.

"So uh..."

'Oh no.'

"Think we can maybe" Naruto modded towards the door.

"No, idiot. Absolutely not."

"But don't you want to test your skills?! Come on Gaara! Pleeeease-"

"NO."

"... I'm surprised she wears any honestly."

xXx

Naruto lost himself in his own mind as he thought about that day. A lot of growth, both positive and negative, had betaken the pair since them. A successful career, many completed missions. And one, daunting, failure that caused them to retire.

A single mistake had seen Naruto to become the leader as Gaara struggled to bear the shame of failure. Gaara gave up all his success like they didn't matter after one failed mission and Naruto could understand that, the weight of their line of work was harrowing to say the least and the reward, to most, wasn't worth it. Naruto had always been the motivation behind the plan, but now he was the leader as well and he wondered what that made them.

Would he fail as Gaara had? Or simply fail to live up to the standard he'd placed.

Pressure is pressure and he'd never really been one to be concerned with it unless it involved more than himself. And this? This involved so much more. Him, Gaara, Tenten, Ino...

The shaky gear change of the stick shift reminded him that he was slowing down and he quickly came back to reality. The gravel crunch of the mile long Uchiha residence driveway was beneath them and it was time for action.

"So what's the plan?" Gaara asked from the passenger seat.

Naruto could see the anxiety of the whole thing rising in the form of reddened ears and chewed finger nails as his friend looked bleakly onto the long, winding road.

Naruto looked into his rear view mirror at the two girls they'd brought along.

"I'm taking a page from a master strategist. I'm thinking we use a little misdirection."

xXx.

A/N: Tell me what you think damnit. And thank you all so much for the reviews, it keeps the thoughts moving!