As requested by MoonGoddess00-

R&R and let me know how I'm doing.

(*******************************************************************************************************************************)

Weeks passed since the first time Naruto had felt Yuki's emotions and he was still gleaning thoughts and feelings from her.

And due to that fact, his behavior had become incredibly strange. Even Shikamaru had asked him what the hell was going on the last time he had dropped everything in the middle of a meeting with the village elders to go to the hospital to see Yuki.

Which led to him inevitably contacting Gaara in the hopes that he would perhaps be able to tell him something about the odd occurrences that he'd been experiencing of late.

He had to wait several days for the red headed man to appear, but when he did- he made sure to meet him at the village gates. "Naruto." The red head greeted in his usual affectionate tone as the blond Kage walked up to him and shook his hand before pulling him into a quick hug.

Startling the older man somewhat since Naruto rarely hugged people unless 1) Something was seriously bothering him. 2) Someone close to him was missing and presumed dead. And then there was number 3) Lovers.

Despite Naruto's hero/war hero/Kage status- he had only seriously dated two women in his life. His former teammate Sakura Haruno, whom had ended their relationship to pursue her career as a medic nin. She had left the village for three years and when she had returned she had not only been married, but pregnant with Sauske Uchiha's daughter.

The second woman that Naruto had ever been seriously involved with was Hinata Hyuga. However he had called off their relationship when he had found out that she was engaged to be married to another village's clan head via an arranged marriage planned by her father.

And though Naruto had parted friends with both, he had yet to really find anyone that interested him. Which was part of the reason why everyone with political ties was hounding him to marry and have children. Another reason had more to do with the fact that he was the last of both of his parent's Namikaze/Uzumaki bloodline. And any child born from him was believed by all to be the next greatest future asset.

But that was neither here nor there since he doubted Naruto would ask him to come to the village earlier than expected just to speak of such distasteful things.

No- something was bothering his little brother and he was going to find out what.

With that thought firmly in mind, Gaara kissed Naruto's forehead as he was apt to do when he knew the younger man was upset about something and let the blond pull away from him. "Why is it that you've asked me to come so quickly?" Gaara asked curiously.

He hoped that nothing had happened to his sister or nephew.

Shikamaru he could live without since he didn't really like the fact that he couldn't bully the man into moving away from the leaf village so that he wouldn't have to wait so damn long to see his family.

Naruto looked around, noting the various shinobi and civilians walking the streets around them and hesitantly put a finger to his lips to indicate that he either couldn't or simply wouldn't speak of whatever was bugging him out in the open.

There were far too many people around that could hear, and from the slightly pale color of his face coupled with his worried expression- there was only a few that he would trust with whatever it was weighing so heavily on his mind. Nodding his head in understanding Gaara grabbed his duffle bag and looked at Naruto expectantly and frowned a bit when he noticed that the blond was looking in the direction of the village. His body as tense as a bowstring.

He looked like he was...hurt... But that wasn't possible or Gaara would have noticed by now. Besides no one in any of the seven nations would dare to touch Naruto after all he had done for everyone all over the world. And Gaara was fairly certain that if anyone had dared to lay a hand on the blond- that Naruto would have ripped it off and sat down somewhere comfortable to watch them bleed out.

God knew that he had done so before, once while visiting Sauna not long after Gaara's rescue from the Akutsuki.

A very foolish individual had slipped into Gaara's hospital room unaware of the fact that Naruto was staying with him to keep him company- for Gaara's sanity's sake or his own, Gaara would probably never know- all he knew was that the man had slipped in armed and intending to murder him while he was weak only to find himself face to face with one, and this was an understatement- angry blond whom had very promptly kicked the man's ass and then ripped him apart limb from limb.

Gaara had woken up not long after and flicked on the over head light just to almost jump out of his skin at the sight of the bloody broken and beaten body of his would be killer.

Shaking the unpleasant memory aside, Gaara reached out and gently placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder to shake him a little and see if that helped the blond to focus. He'd just traveled for a day in a half at top speed in the dessert. He needed someplace to crash, along with some much needed food and water.

Feeling the hand on his shoulder, Naruto turned his head slightly to glance at Gaara and noted the way the man suddenly dropped his hand away from him and stepped back a bit with an alarmed look on his face.

"Gaara?" Naruto said questioningly as Gaara began to look a little bit scared. Of what he couldn't say since he didn't know what about him could possibly elicit such a reaction from his brother. After all, he should know by now that Naruto would never hurt him.

However before he could say anything else, and assure Gaara of this, the red head grabbed him and put him in a rough almost but not quite choke hold and poofed them both away from the village gates and straight into Naruto's home where he then released the startled blond and slammed a palm against the nearest wall to activate the privacy seals that Naruto had placed around his home and then once that was done, he grabbed the blond again.

This time by the shoulders and shook him as he asked, "When did it happen? Who started it?" Confusing Naruto somewhat until he finally seemed to get what had his brother so rattled.

Something about him was changing. He knew it. He had even felt it before now, but he had thought that he would have a bit more time before it truly showed through on a physical level.

"Gaara... Tell me what is wrong with me." He said softly as he reached up and laid his hands over Gaara's own. The man looked at him as if he thought he was playing some sick game with him before finally realizing that he was completely and utterly serious.

He had no idea what was happening to him.

No wonder he's upset. Gaara thought as he released Naruto's shoulders to scrub his hands over his face before finally saying in an exasperated tone, "Naruto... You're the carrier of the Kyubbi no kitsune- How can you not know that you've been bound?"

"Bound?" Naruto asked still looking confused.

God save me from foolish little brothers, Gaara thought as he said. "Yes. Bound. As in you've chosen a mate for yourself."

Naruto got a peculiar look on his face. A weird cross between thoughtful and calculating before saying, "But I'm a human. Human's don't choose mates per say."

Gaara made a funny little sound in the back of his throat and growled at him, "They do when they are demon containers!" God he had never wanted to throttle the younger man more than he did at this moment.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Gaara made a strangled sound before replying, "Instinct."

"Huh?"

"Christ you're so clueless- A demon container's instinct is like a finely honed machine, Naruto. It is neither truly human nor demonic in nature. It's a merger of the two. So when say a particular demon reaches a particular time in it's life- it begins to search, albit sub consciously- for a mate. The mate could be another demon, or in this case- human because you yourself are human. My guess is that Kurama finally found someone who fits all of his requirements to be your mate. The whole goal of having the demon choose someone for you in the first place is that it wants you to breed strong offspring."

Naruto was quiet as Gaara explained things to him, finding it peculiar that the older man was so oddly knowledgeable about this whole 'bound' business. In fact the amount of stuff that he knew about it- details included- gave him the suspicious feeling that perhaps Gaara was or had been, bound at some point in his life.

But to his knowledge, in all the years he'd known the red head- Gaara had been asexual. With absolutely no interest in any girl or woman whatsoever. But if that was true, then how did he know all this stuff?

Was he yanking his chain or something with this whole bound nonsense? Gaara didn't seem the type, plus he was a really bad actor. So maybe the only way that he would know is to ask. Yeah that's it, ask.

"Gaara." The red head stopped talking to look at him for a second. "H-How do you know about this whole bound thing?" Naruto asked, getting the sudden feeling that he should be very nervous about bringing up this subject to his friend.

Gaara blinked at him and looked uncomfortable. Like really, really uncomfortable. Like his former mentally unstable self finding out that his older brother wanted to rape him- kind of uncomfortable. It took a moment or so for Gaara's mind to register his words before he sighed and walked over to the couch and sat down, looking far older than he should have for someone who was just twenty four years old.

"Sit down, Naruto." The red head said quietly, his heart suddenly aching in his chest as he thought of his experience as someone bound. "And I will tell you what you wish to know."

The blond sat down beside him, somehow getting the feeling that he wasn't going to like what Gaara had to say.