Chapter Seven: Friends

The once steaming bath of healing herbs had long since cooled to a degree only slightly warmer then herself as Kira lazily stayed planted in the deep tub, everything below her nose submerged. Her skin tingled, the pleasant sting of cuts and deep burses being cleansed and encouraged to heal faster then they might have on their own.

Her mother always did this, always had a bath ready for her when Kira came home from long, draining missions. She had accepted her adopted daughter's fated life as a Shinobi, but she had stubbornly told Kira once that didn't stop her from taking care of her, even if she was quiet capable of doing it herself.

So when Kira had arrived home late from a weeklong mission with her ANBU team out in the Land of Grass, covered in small cuts from a wind user, her mother – old and cane bound as she was – got to work. Soon the water had been heated and the mixture of herbs her mother kept in stock was mixed within. She'd left Kira to herself after that, patting her on the arm and giving her a knowing smile, a smile that Kira knew meant her mother was glad she was home safely.

That had been a little over an hour ago and Kira knew her mother was long in bed. Blowing bubbles into the water she watched idly as her hair floated around her in the water like moss. She should get out, get some sleep, she thought with a frown. She couldn't, or rather knew it wouldn't work. While her muscles lagged and her bones groaned, her eyes were wide, watching, waiting. Her mind was always the last part of her to shift back to normal after a long mission, so Kira knew sleep was far off, even now.

With a tired sigh the shadow user finally stood, stepping out into the chilly air and onto the bath mat before unplugging the stopper and reaching for a towel. Once dry, she pulled on the normal clothes most villagers wore; a long tunic like shirt with pants. She didn't wear them often, finding it too hard to fight and run in, but they were soft and warm, nothing like the tough leather of both her ANBU and normal training gear. She grabbed a thick scarf on the way out her window, wrapping it around her neck for easy access incase her wet hair made her ears and face too cold.

She'd star gaze, she decided, and work on her almost finished belt, the pouch of string and beads calling to her as it hung at her hip. Jumping up onto the flat roof of her home, she knew her feet wouldn't wake her mother – the women was a deep sleeper – but even so, Kira's feet never made sound.

A great sea of stars greeted her as Kira moved to sit on the lip of her home, facing the outskirts of the village. Her mom's home was larger than most since it was a house and tattoo parlor combined, and was set further into the outer ring of buildings than most resident homes were. Rather than neighbors Kira, had grown up with a pet store on one side and a food pill shop on the other.

Both stores were closed for the night, the owners gone home so Kira knew she wouldn't bother anyone by turning on the small oil lamp she kept under a wooden box on the roof for times like these. With a click, the flame flickered to life and a small circle of light grew around her as she set it to her left and pulled out her work.

She twisted and tied and pulled, stringing beads and weaving braids all the while as the stars glittered and the moon glowed its ghostly light. It continued on like that for a while, just her and the sky above as she worked. It wasn't until her fingers had started to complain of the cold that she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. In the distance, not too far off, someone walked. Not really towards her, she realized, just back towards town. Her eyes flickered to where they had come from and suddenly she knew who it had to be, and let her tensing muscles relax once more.

She recognized the area off to the side as the placed Gaara had first questioned her. He'd mentioned once he spent a great deal of time out there thinking, something Kira had observed herself as she watched him over the years. She couldn't image many people would walk out into the cold of the desert to think, but then again, Gaara wasn't most people.

She untangled one hand from her belt and raised it over her head in a wave. She saw the figure pause for a moment and then turn, starting up again, this time towards her. She smiled slightly before going back to work. She'd barely gotten another knot done before the soft skittering of sand falling on rock echoed next to her and she glanced to the side to see the Fifth Kazekage standing there, arms crossed per usual. He was wearing clothes much the same as her, blue highlighting the edges and seams.

"You're up late," he commented after a moment, a barely noticeable hint of disapproval in his tone. She smiled slightly again, glancing away and staring over his shoulder before shrugging.

"Can't sleep, but I guess that complaint doesn't really work with you, right?" She teased slightly and watched from her peripheral vision as a slight curve touched his lips.

Things had been different since that day, almost two weeks ago when Kira told him about her assignment under his father. She'd expected him to hate her, or maybe want nothing to do with her, but it seemed to have done something else entirely. They were friends now, real friends. He was her leader, but somehow they saw past that, somehow when it was just them, Gaara and Kira, that's all they were, nothing more. It was something she enjoyed quiet a bit.

"You should still try," Gaara continued, walking a bit closer to peer over her shoulder when Kira finally turned back to her work. "You were gone for a while."

"Oh I was?" she said dryly, eyes still on her belt. "I had no idea…"

It took a great deal of effort some times to act like she would around Kankurō or Aya. Gaara was, after all, her superior in every sense of the word, but he'd been the one to instigate their first name bases. She had to try though, because he was her friend, she wanted to be his friend, and friends didn't duck their heads and talk in half sentences.

"I'll go to bed soon, don't worry," she assured him after a moment, despite the fact she knew he didn't buy into her words.

After a few more minutes of Kira twisting and turning twine, Gaara moved to sit on the ledge as well, a few feet between them. Whether it was ease her nerves or for his comfort she had no idea, but she appreciated it. Aya tested her boundaries enough on a daily basis.

They stayed quiet for a while as she worked, pulling beads from her pouch and slipping them on. This wasn't their first encounter like this since the day on the tower. He'd seen her in this spot the night before she'd left on her last mission. It had been near sun set and she had just barely started the belt then. They'd talked a little, just a handful of question here and there, mostly given by Kira. Simple things like favorite foods, hobbies; things new friends asked about. It was how she'd found out he had a garden of sorts. Cacti really, and she'd raised an eyebrow at him wondering if he was kidding. He hadn't been.

It had been on the fly, but now after days of travel and nights of silence Kira had time to think and get up the nerve to speak.

"Hey umm…" Her hands paused briefly, the loop of a knot between two fingers. "Can I ask you something?" Stupid, she thought, to ask about asking a question, but she still did it. She felt the young ruler's eyes on her and he shifted slightly. He must have known this wasn't like the other questions.

"Go ahead."

She bit at her lip and nodded slightly. "What's it like… with Shukaku gone?" She winced at her own question but forced herself to get her hands moving again, even if they did shudder for a moment as she tied the knot. She expected Gaara to be quiet for a while, maybe not even answer her, but it only took him as long as it took her to finish two rows of knot work.

"Quiet." Just one word, but she knew it meant quiet a lot. "Even after Naruto, the One Tails was never very easily swayed to be quiet. He was so full of anger, I could never let my guard down." There was almost a sense of yearning in his voice then, as if he had wished to understand the beast that had been trapped inside him.

Kira nodded her head; she knew well enough everything he'd suffered through. The dark rings that encircled his eyes would probably never go away, a reminder of just how difficult it had been. "…Have you tried sleeping at all?" Odd, to think of sleeping as something one didn't do. Depriving one of sleep was a brutal means of torture to most, but she'd watch him learn how to rest through meditation, which worked well enough she supposed.

"I have not," he said wearily and Kira glanced to her side to look at him as he stared out over the sand. "I'm not sure I know how," he admitted before quieting his voice even further. "I do not wish to see what dreams await me either."

"Dreams?" Kira muttered, confused, still looking at him, his hand clasped in front of him. Why would he not want to dream? Dreams were often nice, full of wonder and happiness, memories full of ...oh. She glanced back at her hands, a frown planting itself firmly on her face. She supposed for him, the thought of re-living his past would be enough to shy away from the entire process. Kira didn't have much of a choice; most people didn't. Still, she wouldn't give them up, even after all the nightmares. Nightmares that often woke her to pools of sweat and gasping breaths. She'd learned, over time, that being afraid of your own mind wasn't something one should do. How to tell him that though, without sounding like a dry old saying that meant so little?

"You know… every once in a while, I have this nightmare…" she began as she finished the last row on her belt and slowly tied it off. His eyes were on her again as she spoke. "…remember? I told you I never left the village till around the time you went to the exams in The Leaf? It's about that."

She'd been so happy; she'd longed to venture from the walls of Suna, but she had never thought at the time how much it would change her.

"What happened?" Honest curiosity covered his tone and the shadow user smiled slightly, glad to have distracted him from whatever his thought had been. She ran a hand over the patterned twine, thinking.

"When word came that the forth had been an impostor, along with his guards, Korin Esely among them, the elders sent out who they could to start searching for the real ones. We were short on ninja, with so many gone from our ranks, called away to the Leaf for that battle. So they sent people in reserves, including me. That's how I met Shura for the first time. I'd seen him around, of course, but we'd never spoken." She remembered thinking he'd looked scary with those harsh brows and hair cut. "It was just him and a few others on my team. We started back tracking the steps towards the Leaf; we were gone for days before we found any clues. I'm sure you've read the reports of what we found."

"Yes." No hesitation. Even if Rasa had done terrible things, to read about your father's death like that, it could be nothing but unpleasant to say the lest.

"When we found him, and my teacher, their bodies had been exposed to scavengers and weather for a while. I found them first honestly, by accident, they were just in that ditch and then." She shook her head, trying to shake the image of the corpses from her mind. "My team was alerted by me, well… throwing up. I'd seen dead bodies before… " Gaara had killed a few during her watch, ones she was unable to stop or ones that had slipped through. "…but the smell? Sometimes I still smell it, like it's always there. Shura had come over and patted my back and I just kind of sat there shaking. I don't know why, it wasn't like I really liked either of them, but I was horrified when I had thought I would be… relived." After all it wasn't every day you were suddenly free of not one, but two tormentors in your life.

"You're not that kind of person," he said evenly when Kira stopped speaking, lost in thought. She looked at him again, surprised and their eyes locked for a moment. He didn't say anything else on the subject, just pinned her with a stern look that told her everything she needed to know. He was right, she supposed, but she was surprised he knew her that well after only a few months. It brought her a sense of joy she wasn't expecting.

"Anyway…" She tore her gaze away still messing with the finished belt. "My point it that sometimes they aren't pleasant, but sleeping, dreaming… it's nice. I don't know how to describe it; it's just… worth it I guess. "

"I will consider it," he said after a pause and Kira nodded her head once more before folding up her project. She hated to leave the night with such a heavy question, so she ran through some easier ones as she put the belt away.

"So...uhh." She looked up as he glanced at her again and she flushed, ducking her head slightly. "What's… what's your favorite color?" Simple. At least she thought so, but the redhead just stared at her bewildered for a long moment before she tugged at a piece of still damp hair. "I like blue… if you didn't figure that out already," she coaxed, smiling slightly.

There was another long silence then as he stared at her, and Kira kept glancing back down at her lap before looking up again. She should look him in the eyes, she knew that, but she couldn't get them to stay. She wondered if she'd ever understand why she had such a problem.

"Gold." His voice brought her back and she blinked, raising an eyebrow slightly. He just looked at her calmly. "Like the color the moon turns during the fall season," he finished.

She was surprised, pleasantly, but still surprised. She hadn't been sure he had a favorite color; some guys didn't. But he wasn't like anyone else. It was strange though, that she'd never seen that color anywhere in his belongings.

"Fall gold," she repeated smiling before looking up at the stars above them "I'll remember that."

…

It had been a while since a council meeting had left Gaara feeling exhausted like it had today. He'd been stuck in there for hours, and by the end of it Kankurō was nearly twitching next to him.

Temari was already back home; she'd given her report on her latest envoy mission to the Leaf and then been excused. The news she had brought had started the discussion that had ended up taking almost an hour of the time before they finally moved on. Running a hand over his hair for a moment he repressed a sigh as they entered the main corridor.

"Damn. I can't imagine things are going to get any easier from here on out," Kankurō grumbled from next to him. "We just don't know how it's going to get worse."

"It is unlikely we will be targeted," Gaara replied, repeating what had been said not even minutes before. After all, the sand had already been targeted, somehow they'd just gotten lucky.

"Yeah I know, but it doesn't make anything better. " That was true. Gaara wasn't sure what he could say to make it any better, none of what had happened lately had been much good and for the most part all they could do was watch.

"-keepers!" Like a bolt of lightening formed into two pigtails Aya came barreling out from the ANBU headquarters and went racing down the hall. Gaara saw something long and colorful and recognized the belt Kira had finished days ago clenched in the girl's hand. It was only moments later Kira herself appeared at the door, standing in the doorframe with an exasperated look on her face.

"Aya, come on! At least let me put a clasp on it! Aya!" Moments ticked by and she hung her head and sighed. Her friend was long gone and for the moment the young ANBU seemed too preoccupied to see Kankurō or himself standing feet away with surprised looks on their faces. Though glancing at his brother, he found his expression had morphed into a smirk.

"Not going to chase her Kira?" he snickered, causing the girl to snap her head back up and almost loose her grip on the door, which would have gone straight into her face. She blinked one, glancing from him to Gaara and smiled warily.

"That would just fuel her antics. Besides she's the fastest on our team; I don't stand a chance of catching her." She sighed again and walking a few feet out of the room after a glance back and let the door swing shut. Her hair was down, Gaara realized, the part normally in braids swung around her jaw line and crossed along her neck. She was also, he noted, still in ANBU gear, the sand coyote mask on a hook at her hip.

"She's a bit of a handful," Gaara spoke up finally and her eyes snapped to his again for a moment before she smiled. He still found is a bit odd, the way she would glance away after a few moments, but at least he knew why. At least he knew she was trying to get better at it, and she was. She was able to look Kankurō in the eyes for several minutes now before looking away, but Gaara knew it was a struggle.

"Yeah, but she's good for me, or so she says," she muttered, tugging on her hair. She seemed to really take them in now, Gaara in his formal Kazekage wear, Kankurō all painted up. "Did you guys just get out?" There was an air of disbelief to her voice and seeing as the meeting had been four hours long, he supposed she had a right to be surprised.

"Sadly. Been a long day," his brother grumbled, rubbing his neck and glancing down the hall again as if he expected Aya to show back up. Gaara wondered too, but he had a feeling the blond was long gone for the day. "You still coming to dinner?" The question wasn't much of a surprise to Gaara, but he still saw Kira look down nervously. It had become a normal part of their lives.

"Don't see why not, I'm there every Tuesday." She certainly was. Every Tuesday Kira's foster mother went to a poker night at a friend's and Kira joined the sand siblings for dinner and hung out. It had been his brother's idea, stating that she spent enough time alone as it was. Gaara didn't mind; he enjoyed her company much like his brother and sister did.

"You make it sound like it's a bad thing."

"It's not, it's just, I guess, something I'm still getting use too." She tugged at a strained of hair again, peaking out from under normally pulled back bangs. Kankurō knew why of course, both of his siblings did. He'd kept it minimal in his overview of what he'd learned, giving them the facts they needed. While he didn't want to breech Kira's careful trust in him, he couldn't keep something like that from his family. Kankurō had laughed, saying it sounded like something she'd be good at. Temari on the other hand had been more concerned about the lasting effects Esley had left, but still found her 'job' interesting.

"Humph, well I need to do some work on my puppets before dinner, so I'll see you two at home," his elder brother said finally, turning on his heels and giving them a small wave as he spoke. Gaara simply nodded his head. It was normal for his brother to do busy work when he was worried. Kira seemed to know that too as she eyed the puppet masters back carefully for a few moments before quirking a small smile.

"Have fun with your marionettes!" she called after him, causing Kankurō to stop mid- step and look over his shoulder with a half scowl.

"They're not marionettes!" he snapped out, annoyed. Kira simply quirked an eyebrow at him, as if she didn't quite believe him. His brother huffed slightly before smirking and shaking his head. He said nothing more, just headed off once again after a moments pause.

It took a few moments of silence, the amount of time it took his brother to turn a corner and disappear, for Gaara to fully understand what had just happened. From the now slightly worried expression that had replaced the one before and from how she stared at the wall ahead, Gaara knew Kira was worried about his brother. A distraction, he realized quickly; while slightly abrasive, her jab at his brother had quickly distracted him from darker thoughts. He wasn't sure how long such an act would work, but he still found it interesting that she'd picked up on it so fast and fixed it the best she could.

He looked to Kira again who hadn't moved and was still playing absently with her hair. Did she already know? He didn't see how, but ANBU had been at the meeting, and word could travel fast. When she glanced at him again, she paused in flickering her eyes back down and he knew she must have seen something most didn't. Her hand dropped from her hair and she pressed her lips together into a worried line. The expression in itself dispelled earlier thoughts, even before she voiced them.

"…What happened?" she asked finally looking back down the hall to where her friend and his bother had disappeared. "Kankurō seemed in a hurry, and you look out of sorts," she explained quietly before he could say anything. "Shura was at the meeting but he wouldn't say anything when he came back. " Her shoulders tensed as she spoke. She wasn't use to being left out, Gaara could tell that much from the set of her jaw, but she seemed more worried then angry.

He looked around them. The hall was vacant, but it was still a hall. He took the steps necessary to stand in front of her before jerking his chin slightly as he spoke. "Come with me." With that he started down the hall and while he didn't look back he knew she was following. He led her down two more halls before entering the wing of the tower reserved for his family and walked to a door of to the side of the entrance to their living quarters.

Inside was a large room he visited often, and in some ways it mirrored the green house where herbs were grown in the village. This one was smaller, with two large tables on either side and one in the middle, all three housing deep planter like beds where rocky soil rested. Glass let in the raise of the sun from carefully placed windows and within each bed of soil was a species of cacti or succulents. Everyone of them was something Gaara had planted himself, and, oddly enough, he found it quiet relaxing.

Once inside the room, he glanced back at Kira who was looking about curiously, momentarily distracted from worry. Once her eyes settled back on him she gave a small smile. "I honestly wasn't sure if you were tricking me about this or not…" she mumbled looking about again. "It's kind of cool."

Gaara didn't really understand why she thought he had been kidding, but decided to let it slide. Perhaps it really did seem odd for someone like him to have a garden.

"I suppose." He walked over to a far side and clicked on a few lights and turned on the water for the carefully placed water lines running along the edges of the beds. Water could drip from pricked holes in hollow tubing freely that way, and it didn't take much. Water wasn't easy to come by in the desert, and Gaara knew not to let it run long.

"It must have been pretty bad news," Kira said, breaking him from his thoughts. He found her by one of the beds, hand reached out to touch one of the purple tinted leaves of a succulent, eyes trained on it. "You only stare off into space like that when you're worried or agitated," she explained. "And seeing as you had me come with you, I doubt it's the later…" She glanced at him then, a frown on her face, honey colored eyes worried. "What happened?" she asked again.

It always took him a moment to recover from the fact that she seemed to know him so well, almost too well though it helped to know why. If she'd been his sentry for years, she was bound to pick up on his habits, but Gaara had always thought his mannerisms had changed since the Chunin exams. Perhaps they had a little, but at the core of everything he guessed he hadn't changed. It was strangely comforting to have someone that could read him like that. Comforting and alarming. He was just thankful Kira seemed to know where lines were drawn; she wasn't like her teammate Aya or his bother. If anyone could read him so well, he supposed she wasn't a bad choice. They were friends after all, and he'd once been told friends learned how to read each other.

"Temari came back with news from the Leaf," he stated finally, watching as she moved her gaze back to the plant. "Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, was killed by the Akatsuki member known as Pein." Saying it himself, Gaara still had trouble understanding how that had happened. He'd never met the man, but he had been well known, powerful.

Though she wasn't looking at him, Kira's hand has stopped moving, and her face showed the shock that had mirrored many of the people at the meeting today. When she finally looked at him she looked like she was waiting for him to tell her it wasn't real, but the slight shake of his head made her lips press together and her gaze fell to the ground. ANBU were trained to know every village's strongest ninja, and Jiraiya had been no exception. The gravity of his death would mean more to her then a normal shinobi.

"I…" She frowned and he saw her struggle to keep the fear off her face. "Just was kind of monsters are we dealing with?" she whispered finally. He watched silently as her hand drew away from the plant and rubbed her opposite arm before she looked up again. He reflected briefly on her words. Monster. That had been a word many had used to describe him only three years ago. Yet, now, and even back then, that word had never been uttered, not from her. It showed him the gravity of her words and just how frightened she must have been. "Things are going to get bad, aren't they?"

Gaara sighed slightly, half tired of that question but knowing it wasn't her fault. It was a warranted question, one he would try his best to answer in a way to dispel some of the fear locked behind her eyes. "There's no way of telling, but we will have to be ready. I doubt that such an attack will not cause backlash of some sort." He saw her nod slightly again, peering at him for a moment before walking a bit closer and sitting on a near by stool. They were silent for a while, and Gaara let her think about the information as he worried about other things that did him no good, and had no bearing on the village at all.

"That's not all is it?" Kira spoke up finally. "Something else is bothering you… Did you know him?" she questioned, and Gaara once more thought it was interesting how she could loose her shyness if she was intensely focused on something, something that didn't have to do with her.

"No," he answered turning to look at her and watched as her gaze darted away. "I had never met him, but he was Naruto's mentor." He'd heard that his friend had spent years with the older man. They had been close, and it worried him to no end what his friend must be feeling now.

"You're worried about him…." she stated quietly, running a hand over her black pants, thinking. She stared at her hands for a long time before raising her gaze once more. "I'm sure he's sad, but I think he'll be okay," she said finally, a thoughtful look on her face.

"How do you know that?" Gaara wondered, curious yet hopeful at the same time. With such a distance between them, Gaara had no way of knowing how his first friend was, and a part of him wished he could see him. It was impossible though; he couldn't leave the village for something like that. His people would need him here and Gaara had to push aside personal agendas to keep them safe.

Kira shrugged slightly, her hands knotted together tightly enough that the tips of her fingers were red. "Because he's not alone. You've told me before that he has lots of friend there, people that look after him, just like your siblings do for you." She peaked at him and smiled slightly. "I don't know him, or his friends, but I like to think we're all the same in some ways. Loss is always easier if you're not alone, and he isn't, so I think he'll be okay."

She said nothing more on the subject, just met his eyes with a comforting smile. For the first time that day he felt himself relax, if only a little. She was right, and even if she wasn't it did him no good to worry. Her words were soundly reasoned though, and so the young ruler chose to believe them.

Soon enough Gaara was pulled from his thoughts as Kira's voice inquired about a certain plant, pointing at it with interest. Another distraction, he realized quickly, but moved to answer anyway. Much like his brother, it was just what he needed.

Thus, the plot gets moving again. And yes, Gaara growing cacti is actually cannon .. its super weird, but I kind of like it. Please Review!

DROH