Title : Anger.
"You can't be serious, Hikaru!" Naruto's shrill voice clouded the atmosphere of the dining room downstairs, in the Suna tower. His expression was, that of a puppy who was suddenly abandoned by his owner – Crestfallen, forlorn and disbelief.
The other group members from Konoha, too were pretty stupefied, despite themselves. It was not something they had expected – not so soon at least.
"I'm sorry guys," Hikaru started in his raspy voice, causing the others to stare at him with a dumbfounded expression – even Haruhi, who seldom showed any facial expressions, was gaping at him in disbelief. "But it's Lady Tsunade's word."
At that exact moment, the Sabaku members glided down the stairs to join the Konohagakure group.
Shikamaru and Temari were the first to take their places beside each other at the dining table, followed by Hinata and Kankuro, who at the time, was whispering something faintly funny in the Lady's ear. It was their secret.
Last of all, the Kage strolled downstairs, demanding attention in his proud demeanour, whilst his gaze shifted to all the members of the table. His eyes scanned, once and then shifted to the next – When he took his place beside his wife, he nearly caught a certain silver haired man throw a rather dirty glance at him, but of course the Kage of Suna paid no attention.
"You know, I really hate grandma Tsunade…." Naruto glared down at his empty plate, making himself less audible – the frown never leaving his face.
Gaara's expression was unreadable, but he was curious. However, he did not want to pry into a matter that did not concern him. He glanced at his wife, whom he could tell, was having a hard time trying to keep her curiosity at bay. Sighing softly, he started in his coarse, husky voice "Why do you hate the Hogake?" His gaze was fixated on Naruto, who instantly perked up. Maybe, the Suna leader could help?
"Lady Tsunade has called for us," he started in his shrill voice, but decided to keep up the charade for a bit longer. After all, the whole charade had to look genuine enough for the Kage to actually consider. "We must leave tomorrow morning."
It was rather impossible to miss Hinata's reaction, upon hearing the decision. Her face turned pale, as if all the blood from her face had disappeared, and she nearly dropped her soup spoon into her broth. Gaara side-glanced at her, and witnessed his wife, take out the spoon with such gloom that he felt only pity at her condition. "Y-Y-You are leaving t-tomorrow?" she asked, like a doe had just been injured by an arrow.
"We were hoping to stay longer, Hinata." Shinomiya Hayato spoke for the first time, at the dining table, whilst he himself held a rather forlorn facial expression. Staring down at his now empty soup bowl, the silver haired man jabbed at an ignored piece of carrot, and swallowed it with bitterness.
"You're the Kazekage, can't you do something?" The charade was slowly coming into full bloom, for the expression Naruto wore was priceless. It could melt anyone's heart.
Gaara had no intention of making an effort whatsoever, but it was his wife's rather hopeful expression that did manage to thaw his heart, remotely. He sighed, grudgingly and nodded slightly. "I can't promise anything, Uzumaki."
Much later after dinner, and a couple phone calls later, the Kage in his office, sat motionlessly.
He had failed in trying to get the Hogake of Konoha to allow the ninjas to stay for a little while longer in Suna – it was an urgent mission, Tsunade had told the Kage in a rather phlegmatic tone, despite the situation. The Kage obviously, knew all about important missions, and assassinations and what not, and hence did not pry further.
It was the part of breaking the news to his wife, that disturbed the redhead faintly. It was not that he really wanted the group members to stay, really – for him, it did not matter. It would simply mean less trouble, and less wastage on resources.
It was her happiness, that he felt a doubt poke him in the chest. She had been so happy for the past few days that she spent with her friends from Konohagakure. She had not looked this happy, in a long time since her cousin left – in fact, he wondered why her happiness left in the first place. Could it possibly be, because she was forced into marriage? Maybe, she preferred to remain independent?
The thoughts of her absent from his life, seemed to cause a rather disturbing lump in his throat. He did not like the idea of his wife being… well, not his wife. It was a true alien feeling for the Kage, for he had not felt this way for anyone, in a very long time. Having such emotions and feelings only proved disaster, in Gaara Sabaku's eyes.
Besides, he did not know how to love, or have emotions for anyone.
Sighing to himself, he clenched his teeth for allowing his thoughts to drift back to Hinata for the fifth time, that evening. He could not stop thinking about her in the black dress that she had vogued in, earlier in her bedroom. Her dress seemed to have been like God's gift to the universe for it seemed to fit her ever so perfectly – the rich black material that made such a perfect drape for the trail behind, and hugging her curves ever so gently; Her cleavage was in abundance, but had been covered up with the help of the dainty coral neck piece, and the white jacket that looked so out of place on her feminine body…
Gaara's thoughts stopped abruptly.
The white jacket that looked so out of place.
Shinomiya Hayato. The name itself, caused an involuntary growl echo from within and Gaara did nothing to tame it. He would openly show his disregard for the man, if the situation called for it. In fact, he would not mind watching the life being squeezed out of the man's eyes, while the Kage's sand choked the victim. Gaara would rather, greatly enjoy watching Shinomiya struggle for breath and hence, beg the man to have mercy on his pathetic life. The poor man would be paralysed for the rest of his life anyway, therefore the redhead would really be doing the poor man a great favour by killing him.
A knock on the door, caused Gaara Sabaku's inner demon 'Shukaku' to disappear, and he returned back to reality. "Come in."
However, he wished that he had not allowed the intruder to come in that easily, for the last person he wanted to see was standing opposite him.
"L-Lord G-Gaara, w-were you able to s-speak with L-Lady Tsunade?" Hinata stood rather bashfully opposite the Kage's desk, whilst her gaze was downwards. Gaara rolled his eyes for he only wanted her to look at him. Besides, didn't he tell her to call him by his name?
"She cannot allow, for Naruto has an urgent mission for the Water Village." The Kage spoke monotonously, while keeping his gaze distant and towards the windows. He would have much better preferred telling this news to Naruto, instead of Hinata, for she started looking extremely forlorn, "B-But, there must be o-others who could t-take his place!" the woman raised her voice slightly, and this caused Gaara to turn his gaze back on her. To his surprise, she seemed to stutter a lot less. But there was not much he could say to her, for he had tried. Kakashi Hatake, would have been the only option besides Naruto, but the shinobi was currently unavailable for he had disappeared and not returned in a long time. No one, other than Jiraiya knew about his whereabouts and the old sage was not really willing to disclose the information to the Hogake.
"Her word is final, Hinata" Gaara got up from his chair, and made his way towards his wife who was looking rather distraught, and lost. She was obviously hoping for her husband to create a miracle, but was rudely mistaken. She did not raise her gaze even when realizing that Gaara was coming towards her.
Gaara Sabaku did not know how to cheer up his wife, for he was unaccustomed to such things, but he did not really enjoy seeing her like that. It wasn't the work of a proper husband to just sit and watch his wife mope around. And therefore, being an amateur in the ways of love and affection, Gaara decided maybe an intimate moment would help? He had read something about it in that male magazine Kankuro had given to him, that night.
That fateful night.
"I did try, Hinata." The Kage only thought it was fair that his wife should know about his efforts and in fact be grateful about it, but she simply nodded and against all odds, decided to turn and take her leave but he held her wrist gently, causing her to turn back to him – their gaze finally met, and he realized that she was truly upset. Her pearlescent orbs were pale, and dull, yet a tiny spark of hopefulness was visible, the embers of which were slowly dying.
The Kage wished that his wife would forget the issue for once, and match what his eyes were trying to tell her. He had been guilty about the events of their consummation night, and properly speaking, hadn't touched her since then. He had been feeling slightly lonely, for most of the nights his wife was in her room laughing around with her friends while he sat in his office, or on his bed, trying to ignore the voice of her laughter. He wished he could sleep on those nights.
The man now, wanted his wife to be with him – maybe give him some time too? It was true his company was no match against the Konoha group, but he was her husband and it was only fair that she spend some time with him too.
"P-Please L-Lord Gaara, t-they are waiting for m-me" Hinata protested, while breaking eye contact with her husband though she wanted to stare into them for a second time. She was aware of how close he was standing to her, with his breath tickling her skin, and honestly speaking, she enjoyed his closeness but was scared at the same time. And then, there was the heart breaking news.
Gaara however, was confused about this reaction from Hinata. She had not reacted this way, on their consummation night, and in fact did quite the opposite, but right now it seemed like she did not want to be in his presence and it injured his feelings faintly, but he decided it was worth a try. She was his wife, after all.
And so, he slowly pulled her close to his body, whilst wrapping his long arm around her slender waist; He then held her chin slightly and leaned forward for a kiss – one that he felt was the right thing to do for she slowly reciprocated. The Kage felt relieved for he half expected her to reject it and scream at him to stop, but then again maybe people liked kissing. At least he did.
And this time, when Hinata slowly began wrapping her slender arms around his neck, Gaara did not even mind. It was true he became stiff for a slight few seconds, but soon enough he lightened up and just slowly, began to slide his tongue inside her parted mouth. It was like, a part of him knew just what to do and how to take the lead.
However, just before it got intense and Hinata had already allowed some foolish moans to escape her lips, she slowly came back to reality. It was a lovely couple moments with her husband so close to her, but she had to break the news to her friends. She could always do this another time with him.
"I-I have to g-go t-tell them," she started in her ragged voice, after slowly tearing away from his embrace. Truthfully, she felt terrible for standing there and lip locking with her husband and feeling good about it, when her friends were bound to leave the next morning. She should have been spending time with them, on their last night in Sunagakure – not kissing her husband like a lustful woman.
However, Gaara was not as understanding as she had hoped him to be. She simply thought that she could pull away from him, apologize and leave him in his office, but she did not wonder about how he might have felt. Maybe she just did not understand?
"Why is it always about them?" he started, in his ragged voice while grabbing onto his wife's wrist a little too tightly. But it was rather obvious that he was annoyed at her behaviour. He could have been a little less hard on her, given her friends will have been gone by tomorrow but he lost his temper, despite his normally phlegmatic temperament around her.
"L-Lord G-Gaara, they are o-our friends!" Hinata spoke out, in disbelief. It was true that not all of them were the Kage's friends, but he was acquainted with Naruto and Sakura, pretty well.
"They aren't my friends," Gaara spoke in single syllables, monotonously and his non-existent eyebrows were knitted together, "At least Shinomiya is not."
Hinata's eyes widened at her husband's response and though she was hurt at his words, she decided to ignore his words and simply turn to leave. It was highly unlike her normal behaviour but she would not stand and hear such talk about her friends. Especially, when they all held the Kage in a very high position in their eyes. They respected him.
Therefore, she shook her head at him and simply gazed downwards whilst trying not to show her discomfort to him, "L-L-Let go of m-me" she had hoped it would sound more defiant, but it came out as a miserable plead. Like she was requesting him to let go of her.
Gaara did not. His grip only tightened around her wrist, and it caused the woman to choke back a gasp of pain.
"I-I s-said let g-go of me, G-Gaara!" The woman cried out, helplessly, like a pathetic victim begging her perpetrator to have mercy on her life. She didn't sound anything like she wanted to, though.
"I think, asked you to let go."
This caused Gaara to instantly loosen his grip on his wife, and turn to the new intruder. Hinata, turned quickly to stare at her saviour only to regret her decision.
"Get out of my office." Gaara made his way towards Shinomiya, dangerously, while he clenched his jaw to the point of hurting himself. He did not expect anything to go the way things were going at the moment, for all he wanted was for his wife to just cheer up. How things had gone so horribly downhill within a matter of minutes, Gaara could not fathom. It was true that he was annoyed at his wife's preference of spending time with others, besides himself. But it was only human nature was it not? The husband could ask his wife for some time too, could he not?
A/N : So what do you think of this chapter? I think its heavily flawed but well I tried under the circumstances. Wasn't really feeling all too well.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it!
Please review and favourite my story! (Could I get a couple more reviews pretty pleaaase?)