A/N: The next chapter that isn't a year later. YAY! The continuation from the cliffhanger last chapter. YAY! Read on I won't keep you.

Chapter 17: Truth Pt. 2

"He's mad…not really mad but he's not happy," Naruto stated while using his ability as an emotion sensing Kyuubi to read Gaara from where they were while Kankuro kept Neji from going out the door, "I said he was mad not homicidal".

"She's probably trying to explain herself as she attempts to tell him," Hinata offered, trying to remain calm for everyone, "Gaara has a temper but he does care deeply for her…"

Temari nodded from where she sat, "The more she explains why to him the more likely he'll understand and not blow up. He just went through a period of not having her around and suffered from that remember? I don't…think…he'll do anything that will result in a repeat of that…I think. At the very least he won't blow up."

"At her," The elder Sabaku brother corrected, "He'll blow up at everyone else that knew and didn't tell him."

Naruto just waved it off, "He'll get over it."

Gaara ran his fingers through his hair forcing himself to calm down, look at the facts, and think about this before losing his temper. It seemed she was waiting for him to calm a little before continuing on this revelation. Of course what she said next just sent his anger level right back up again.

"I'm…I'm a princess. The princess."

He just hissed as his temper flared and she looked at him before continuing on; knowing it was now or never to get this all out. If she didn't he'd walk away and wouldn't listen to whatever else she had to say.

He was already starting to walk away before he hurt her. That was the first instinct he had on how to handle this. Walk away now before he lashed out and physically harmed her. Despite it all, Gaara didn't want to hurt her. That amazed him to some extent. He had wanted to kill her at the beginning of all this after he found out the truth. Well he had found it out and yet he didn't want to kill her. Yes, it had momentarily flashed in his mind, he was a homicidal psychopath after all, yet his mind instantly put that option as way out of the question and not even a close option for how to react or what to do. As of this moment he wasn't homicidal, he was just angry he had been lied to.

"I'm the Heir Apparent. Yukiko is my older twin sister. She supposedly stripped me of my title befo-"

"Any idiot knows that title cannot be stripped!" Gaara hissed back at her as he turned around to face her, his fangs extended fully from his barely controlled rage, and walked towards her as she leaned back against a tree as if this conversation was taking all the energy right out of her, "So therefore you're still next in line."

He might not have wanted to harm her, but he was still angry enough to stand there and tell her how wrong she was. She had a title. He was told she didn't. Therefore someone lied and since she was the one with the title he felt fit to reason she was the one responsible for him being in the dark about it all this time while he put his well-maintained and hidden emotions on the line.

"I know that!" She hissed back at him, her own fangs fully displayed, which simultaneously angered him a bit more as well as thrill him slightly to see her usual fiery-self back, "I know you're angry, but I can't help the fact I was born a princess. I didn't choose it. I don't want it, but I can't stop being it. I've tried, Gaara! I've tried and tried and tried! I've tried so hard to get away from it. From that label just…just…just plastered across my very being by the council that used to deny I was even alive before my mother was murdered by her own brother! Who before that tried to kill me and instead murdered my father! Why?! Only because I'm the second born princess like my mother was! I never asked to be a princess! I don't want to be a princess or a queen or anything of the sort! I just wanted to live my life as I chose to live it!"

"You still could have told me!" He hissed back at her, still, rather irrationally, convinced that his lack of knowledge was her doing, "You. Lied."

"Oh he's pissed…he's really, really pissed right now." Naruto stated while they all sat down in his study waiting for the outcome of this, using the Kyuubi demon as a sort of transistor radio to broadcast what was going on, "But she's just as mad now. He probably said something he shouldn't have."

"He probably accused her of lying," Hinata stated and Neji nodded, "Zu does lie…to her enemies. To everyone else…no. She won't lie; she'll simply skirt around an answer or answer it vaguely. She may boarder on lying but she won't outright lie unless it's to protect someone."

"You NEVERasked ME!" Zu rounded while facing him, refusing to back down at this moment, "You assumed what Neji said was true instead of asking the person you were asking about! I probably wouldn't have told you…but I wouldn't have lied. I'd just have skirted around the answer like I always did whenever you'd start asking implicating questions. Did it ever occur to you that I never named my parents? My sister? My family? Does it occur to you now that I answered vaguely about things that would have otherwise indicated anything incriminating enough for you to kill me, which you were planning on doing when I first got here! Yes, I noticed that's what you were doing at first!"

Gaara twitched in his anger but her words forced him to think for a moment, think back since he met her…and she was right. Zu had never really revealed anything damning, anything that would give out who she was even when she was telling him about things from her life. He had known so much about her yet so little.

That had all changed now. The knowledge of her title meant a more filled out version of her history now that he could place names to the people she had indicated in her stories about her life. It filled in so many gaps and explained so much about her. It explained why she did certain things or acted a certain way. It even explained this situation a bit more for him. It even went as far to help explain how she always seemed to know what it was he was thinking at any given time.

"I know who your family is now." He stated a bit calmer than he was before; he was still furious but not as much so, "That still doesn't change it though."

"You think I don't know that? Wishing my title away does not make it go away…no matter how hard I wish for it to. I already told you that I have tried. I tried to forget about it. Pretend I didn't have it. Pretend I was normal and not born into 'privilege' so I could go on living a happy little twisted existence at your side," Zukiyo admitted to him smoothly and honestly which made him blink in surprise and look at her.

Gaara was not expecting her to admit anything of that sort so…easily. He knew to some extent that she felt the same way he did, even if he wasn't sure what it was he felt for her. Right now there was still anger, slowly diminishing anger as he slowly understood what it felt like to be her and in her position, but he knew that he still felt much more than just that for her.

Their lives were very different yet at the same time not. She was a princess that was loved by both parents, he was a vampiric noble that never knew his mother and was hated by his father yet there was a similarity in parts of their lives. They were both hated by people they wanted love and acceptance from. They were both shunned simply for being themselves. They had both felt agony at the hands of a family member. In her case, he admitted, she may have felt a bit more than he did from what he knew of her history.

"I despise my title. It has brought me nothing but pain, loss, trouble, and grief. I don't want it. Not one part of it, but with things as they are now…I…I don't feel that I have a choice."

Gaara knew what she was referring to. She meant the state of the world and the Immortal government. He himself had stated they needed a new queen. Of course at the time he had no idea that Zu was the only option for a new queen. Still he didn't know what he'd have said even if he had known. He still had plenty of anger towards the rest of them that knew but he was finding that he just couldn't stay mad at her.

He just couldn't, especially now as she looked rather trapped and alone like some bird in a cage. As furious as he had been with her he still didn't like how she seemed trapped. That wasn't her. Zu to him was a free spirited, wild, untamable force that, even though he still wanted to claim as his own, he knew should never be caged.

He had been so intent on killing her once he found out what it was everyone seemed to be hiding from him about her. However, over the months he had spent around her or without her he had been swayed from that intent by her very being. She was useful to him, yes, even more so now if he really wanted that aspect of her so it made sense to not want to kill her, but more than that he enjoyed seeing someone so seemingly free. Even though she was a fugitive, weaker than him, and watched constantly she still did what she wanted, when she wanted, and how she wanted. It hit him then that not being able to choose how to live her life had to be unbearable for someone so fiercely free spirited.

"And if you did?" Gaara asked, simply out of curiosity as he looked at her while his anger towards her subsided and he stepped closer to her still.

"Given a choice; I'd say to Hell with them all. I would be content with living here with you having a quiet little life." she stated truthfully and sighed while looking up at him ,as he was now directly in front of her, "I can't change my title, it's part of the package that comes with me…but the title does not make me…me".

The red head simply looked down at her while thinking still, trying to sort through all the emotions that he seemed to have to deal with now because of her. It made his head spin. There was still just so much to sort through all at once. He could easily forgive her for this he found. In reality he had agreed that there wasn't really that much to forgive. True she didn't tell him about her title but he had never asked her about it. Gaara knew she probably wouldn't have told him, but she was right: she'd have just skirted around the answer without lying. The red head could even understand why.

For someone like her, a title was a burden worth forgetting and living without. She was trying to do that with him. Move on from the pains of a title that she didn't choose and which everyone seemed ready to gut her for. Gaara found that he could understand that and it amazed him.

It amazed him because he had taken the time to think about this instead of just outright killing her. Anyone else and he probably would have without a moment's hesitation or second thought after it. Kankuro had been right earlier. Gaara cared for this female in front of him on a level he never expected to care for someone in his life for the first time in his life. He only recently came to terms with that.

Now he had to come to terms with the fact that the woman he wanted also came with a title he did not want. Being with her would mean he'd have a title too. Considering the fact that the embodiment of his desires was also the Heir Apparent to the Immortal and Vampiric throne…he could be king. If he stayed and she became queen…which he had no doubt that she would. It was all that could be done to ensure that the world wouldn't go to Hell in a hand basket with him and his family in it. He knew that and he knew that she knew it was the only path for her to go. He also knew that despite her ruthlessness, her homicidal tendencies, her coldness to her enemies, and her own psychopathic nature that Zu was incredibly loyal to her family and her friends and that, much like Naruto, she would do anything it took to keep them safe. The fact he had knowledge of her clan and the royal house only reinforced his knowledge of what Zu would do concerning her sister and title.

All of this going on in his mind was soothed instantly as he felt the familiar sensation of her fingers running through his hair as she spoke softly and sincerely.

"Yes…I could be queen…and that would make you king if you choose to stay, but no matter what, even if you don't choose to stay with me, I am your princess and yours alone. I refuse utterly to be anyone else's if I have to be one at all. If you go…I will be…be…sad," she stated and he knew very well she'd be more than that by the look in her eyes as they clouded over a bit and fought back tears, "…but I will understand. I really would and you…you know I would. It's a lot to ask of you and it's a lot to ask you to go through. That still doesn't change that I refuse to submit to anyone but you."

She had pulled away a bit as she was saying this, leaving a cold void where she had been standing before him. It reminded him too much of what life had been like when she was ignoring him completely before. Gaara couldn't stand the thought of going through that sickening rollercoaster again, but this time be permanently going down. As such he did the only thing that he really could at that point and pulled her back to him and wrapped his arms around her, holding her against him tightly but gently.

He didn't have to say it, she knew by the look in his eyes even as he habitually tried to hide it. Gaara very simply cared too much about her just to let her go and walk away from her or let her walk away from him again. He didn't want the title, he didn't want the responsibility that came with that particular title, but he wanted her more. The past month without her was still fresh in his mind and he did not like the pain it caused to think of going through that again for even longer.

Despite her having a title, despite the impending battles he knew would come, despite the danger he knew everyone was in because of her, despite everything really…his instincts never changed as they told him that she was his. His Princess. His…and he would slaughter anyone and everyone that even thought about taking what was his away from him.