I'M BAAAACK. I'm terribly sorry for not updating sooner, but such is the life of a procrastinating college freshman with the tendency to cram. And I would like to say THANK YOU! for all the positive reviews, it really made my stone heart swell :)
Anyhow, this is the next chapter and feel free to criticize my writing skills (or lack thereof). I'm not really confident with this one, but I hope you like it. :D
Disclaimer: Naruto-kun is not mine. Though I do hope Sasuke was. And Itachi. And Gaara. *squeal*
Chapter 2
Evasion at its Worst
It was a beautiful day.
Sunlight streamed through drifting clouds, giving Suna a surreal light. Little birds chirped cheerily on their respective branches, as if welcoming the brand new day with a merry song that put Disney to shame. Dogs and cats decided to ignore each other for a while and opted to stretch lazily under the warm morning sun.
Everyone was in a cheery mood.
But not Hinata.
Hinata was in a very bad mood.
Sulkily, she looked at her clock and thought that yes, in three hours she would have to get to work, and yes, she ought to start getting ready lest an unfortunate turn of events cause her to be late for class again, and she wouldn't want that, would she?
With a sigh, Hinata stumbled tiredly towards her closet. She grabbed a change of clothes and a towel and moodily stalked towards the bathroom.
No, not that bathroom. She was never going in there. Not ever. Not in her life.
…but just to make sure, she activated her Byakugan and looked around for a minute.
Okay. She was safe.
For now.
Hinata picked the bathroom farthest from the one she had picked last night. It made her feel a bit better. And, well, less paranoid. And more unlikely to encounter an incredibly hot Kazekage and consequently be thoroughly ravished.
Though that wasn't necessarily a bad thing –
Oh god. There it was again; her formerly dormant hormones that decided to reveal its existence last night when she happened to stumble upon a naked Kazekage with the silkiest hair she has ever been privy to touch (Neji-niisan never let her touch his), the most smoldering eyes she has ever had the fortune of seeing, and the most perfectly sculpted butt –
Hinata despaired.
(The heavens above despaired with her.)
Grimacing, Hinata set her clothes down on the counter then turned to the sink to brush her teeth. In the process, she had a quick glance of her complexion; the tired eyes, the pale cheeks, the messy hair, the –
She paused.
Then slowly, painfully, her heart constricted and her eyes widened.
No.
Oh no.
There, where her jaw and her neck connected, was a dark bruise. There was another one just below it. And another one near her collar bone.
Gaara had given her three hickeys.
With a glare that gave the impression that she might have been channeling Neji, Hinata scowled at the reflection of her poor, abused, bruised neck.
That son of a bitch!
Meanwhile, Gaara was having a wonderful day.
It was the first time he had slept in days. And he didn't have any nightmares this time; meaning no blood, no gore, no traitorous bastards, and more importantly, no strange voices that suspiciously sounded like Shukaku taunting him in the depths of his mind.
All there was in his dreams was a variety of PG-rated activities he did with a dark-haired girl who stared up at him with wide, innocent pale eyes.
Truth be told, all he wanted to do last night was to take a relaxing shower and stagger off to bed to fall into a fitful sleep that would probably involve lots of nightmares.
But then a shy little kunoichi soaking in the bathtub decided to make herself seem interesting. See, Gaara had been watching her for a while now. She has the most bizarre reactions to everything; she blushed a lot (he had discovered last night that yes, her blush does go down to her chest), and she does this poking thing with her fingers (at first he had considered it unprofessional because she kept doing it whenever she gave her reports, but after a while it had strangely grown on him), and when he exerts enough scary-Kazekage-aura she stammers a bit when she speaks (which he found cute, but he wasn't about to tell anyone that).
And, well, she was probably the only female in Suna aside from Temari that wasn't a fangirl.
He wanted to see what she'd do if she, say, saw him taking his clothes off.
He couldn't really resist.
And so, last night (which the heavens above have labeled as the 'most disastrous divine intervention ever'), he stumbled upon an unsuspecting little kunoichi in the bathtub, and in a momentary lapse of intelligence, had decided to deliberately undress in front of her slowly. He actually felt a bit stupid about it, but her flustered expression made it all worth it.
It was so worth it.
He had been right when he thought she would turn to a flustered mess of blushes and stammers.
What he didn't count on was how much courage the girl hid behind all those layers of shyness by kissing him. (Or maybe she was just suicidal.)
See, arguing and raising your voice to the Kazekage required a lot of courage (unless you were Temari, in which you wouldn't need any at all) and would be punishable with a heart-stopping glare, or in worst cases (or if you were Kankuro), an impromptu intimate meeting with sand. But touching him was a whole new level altogether.
Kissing him would mean death and utter destruction. And if the one who did was perchance a fangirl or a fanboy, then there would be extra blood and gore for everyone.
But Hinata was no fangirl (or fanboy; she was too curvy to be one), and she was far too pretty to be shred to bloody little bits.
Gaara wasn't gonna lie.
Hinata was gorgeous. Everything about her was pale; her doe eyes, her slender neck, her slim shoulders, down to her cute small feet; all except for her dark, dark hair that fell in waves down her small back and her dark, long lashes that framed her wide, frightened eyes.
And she had the right curves in all the right places. He knew, because he felt it with his own hands last night.
And the innocence that radiated off her like a beacon awoke his predatory instincts (it's arguable that it may have been an influence of Shukaku lingering in the recesses of his mind). It was as if her whole being was screaming 'ravish me!' without really meaning to.
He did ravish her. Heartily so.
But the look she had given him after their, er, intimate connection promised that she would definitely avoid him like a plague for the rest of her stay here in Suna.
Silly girl, that was impossible. She still had to give her weekly reports to him personally, alone with him in his secluded office…
He should really stop that line of thinking. It wasn't very Kazekage-ish to take advantage of an unwilling kunoichi. He was quite certain it was classified under 'sexual assault' or, worse, 'rape'.
But then again it wouldn't really be rape if she was a willing participant –
Gaara sighed as he made his way to breakfast.
Fine. He was going to leave the situation alone and act like nothing ever happened. He wasn't about to force her into some weird arrangement just so he could satisfy his libido because really, stuff like that had a huge potential for drama, and based from Kankuro's past experiences, drama mixed with girls just meant a migraine.
All he had to do was control his hormones for a few months until the Hyuuga heiress leaves and everything will go back to the way it was before.
It's not as if he'll catch one whiff of her scent and suddenly he'll be all gaga over her. That's utterly ridiculous.
He had been able to restrain himself from slaughtering everyone in his line of vision when Shukaku was still inside him; restraining himself to kiss a girl without Shukaku's influence would be a piece of cake.
What could possibly go wrong?
(Fate laughed maliciously.)
(The heavens above sighed. Don't these humans know that questions like that jinxed them?)
Temari was trying to make pancakes when Hinata walked in with an expression that suggested that whatever it was that she never ever wanted to happen to her had already happened.
Temari gave her an odd look. "Why are you wearing a turtleneck?" She asked. Then, as an after thought, she added, "Whatever happened to your beloved jacket? Finally found the courage to throw that ugly thing away?"
Hinata colored. "Ano. It, er, ripped…?"
Temari made a show of rolling her eyes and flipping a pancake from the frying pan at the same time. "Good riddance. Now, if you rip that turtleneck and replace it with something a little more revealing –"
"No, this is fine!" Hinata said hurriedly. Then, she sniffed. "Temari-chan, I can smell something burning…"
Temari paused.
"Oh crap!" She yelled, once she saw the pancake she had been flipping for the past five minutes had turned from golden brown to a horrible black.
She attempted to salvage the pancake from further burning by shoving it in a plate, but she miscalculated the force she exerted on the spatula. The pancake thrust upwards into the air and hit the ceiling. Temari and Hinata gave it a blank stare and waited for it to fall on the floor.
It didn't.
"…would you like some help?"
Temari glared at Hinata. "No. I can make pancakes by myself!"
"Temari-chan."
Temari sighed and gave Hinata a pout that was reminisce to Hanabi-chan sulking when Hinata's too busy to bake chocolate chip cookies. "Fine, you can help me. Lord knows how much my brothers want edible food."
Hinata stifled her giggle with a cough.
Temari saw through it and gave her a nasty glare.
Fifteen minutes later, a delicious smell was wafting all over the kitchen.
"You're good at cooking." Temari said, sulkily. "Very good."
Hinata gave her a cheery smile. "Ne, let's do this again some time. Cooking with you is fun!"
Temari begrudgingly took a bite from one of the pile of pancakes. She closed her eyes as a glazed look crossed her face. "So delicious…"
Kankuro strolled in a second later with a mesmerized look on his face, as if he was guided to the kitchen by his sense of smell alone. "Something smells nice…" He said. His eyes zeroed in on the plate of pancakes on the table, and a drop of saliva drooled from his mouth. He reached out and held a pancake in his hands the same way a devoted Christian would hold the holy grail.
He took a bite.
…And was instantly transported to heaven.
"So… Good…"
Temari took another bite and nodded in agreement.
"Midget, this settles it. You're cooking everyday," said Kankuro, his voice a bit muffled from the pancake he was savoring in his mouth.
Hinata pointedly ignored the jab at her height and blushed abashedly. "But Temari-chan told me I shouldn't because I'm a guest –"
"Forget what I said." Temari clipped. "This is too good to pass up. I bet even Gaara would agree."
As if on cue, a bored-looking Gaara walked into the kitchen.
And, in a bizarre turn of events (or Fate just had a horribly twisted sense of humor and wanted a good laugh once in a while), the pancake stuck on the ceiling unstuck itself and, (the Universe held its breath) dropped right on top of Gaara's head.
There was a tense silence as the other three occupants of the room froze and acquired varied looks of shock and horror.
Oh shit. They were all going to die, he'll have no mercy! He's going skin them alive and slice them into tiny bloody bits, and he was going to leave their gross carcasses in the middle of the dessert where the vultures could feed on them, and why isn't he doing anything?
When nothing happened but an awkward silence, Temari, Kankuro and Hinata deemed it safe to think that Gaara wasn't going to feed them to the vultures. Relieved, the Universe released the breath it was holding.
And the other three occupants of the room burst into laughter.
Gaara scowled and glared at them. "It's not funny," he said as he peeled the burnt thing from his crimson locks. He gave it a critical stare as he held it between his fingers. After a few seconds of intense scrutiny, he wrinkled his nose at it and decided it wasn't worth his time as he threw it into the trash with deadly precision.
Hinata found it all awfully cute. Then she blinked, backtracked, and brutally stomped the thought bubble that had the audacity to suggest that Gaara-sama was cute.
Gaara's piercing gaze traveled to her. Hinata stiffened and her giggles stuck itself on her throat. "A-ano," she managed to squeak, while internally reprimanding herself for stuttering pathetically. "I'm going to be late!"
Gaara's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to say no, she isn't, but Temari was faster. "Okay Hinata-chan, see you later!"
"And don't forget to cook dinner!" Kankuro added.
Hinata waved at them cheerily and looked at everywhere but at Gaara's general direction. "Ja!"
With one last awkward smile, Hinata dashed off towards the Academy.
The Sand siblings were left in the kitchen in their own devices. Kankuro wolfed down pancakes, Temari gazed out thoughtfully from the window, and Gaara tried not to think of how wonderful it would feel to rip off Hinata's turtleneck and let his hands roam all over her bare chest.
It was peaceful.
That is, until– "Oi, Tem, I bet you could never whip up pancakes that are edible."
Then– "What did you say?"
And all hell broke loose.
Gaara scowled at the growing pile of paperwork on his desk and wished, not for the first time, that glaring at it could scare it away into oblivion and save his brain from further headaches.
But alas, it is not so.
He sulked for a total of thirty seconds, then he berated himself and forced his hand to take a pen and a page from his mountainous paperwork.
A minute later, the door of his office burst open, and the resulting whish of air sent some of the papers piled on his desk to flutter to the floor.
Gaara's eye twitched. He glared at the intruder, who could only be either one of his siblings, because only they would be able to slam his door open and live to tell the tale (though it doesn't necessarily mean they'd live without a few blackeyes and bruises here and there).
It was Temari.
"What do you want." Gaara said. Grains of sand poured out of the gourd resting on his side; dutifully, it went to the floor and picked up the fallen papers and put it back on the desk.
Grumbling, she stacked another pile of paperwork on his desk.
Gaara blanched.
"Ugh, that goddamn Kankuro. I swear to god when I get my hands on his slimy little neck-"
Expertly, Gaara blocked out Temari's temper tantrum and instead focused on critically inspecting the new pile of work to do.
"I don't get why he keeps insulting my culinary skills! A little encouragement would be nice, but noooo. He doesn't even know the difference of a frying pan and a rice cooker! He has some nerve-"
Gaara felt like pointing out that he didn't know either, but he decided against it. If he provoked Temari a little more his paperwork might fly off and be never seen again.
"Am I really so hopeless in the cooking department?"
There was a pause as Gaara wisely kept his mouth shut to prevent himself from blurting out the first thing that came to mind. "I'm sure you'll do better with practice."
Temari's face broke into a bright grin. "Thanks, little brother."
Gaara ignored that warm thing on his chest called his heart and shrugged. Then, he turned his attention back to his paperwork. He was halfway through, just a few more minutes and he could squeeze in some training before his appointment with the Elders-
Temari decided not to take notice of Gaara's general unresponsiveness and continued on to prattle about how annoying Kankuro was, not like Gaara, who was such a nice brother, so could he maybe send her to a mission in Konoha? Not that she wanted to see a certain pineapple-head genius or something, that's utterly ridiculous!
Gaara made a mental note about the pineapple-head genius bit. "I'll think about it," he said distractedly as he grabbed his pen and signed on a particularly important-looking paper.
"Speaking of Konoha," said Temari. "Does Hinata-chan seem a bit depressed to you? I've heard from a very reliable source that she confessed her undying love to Naruto but was turned down, the poor thing…"
Gaara's pen came to a halt.
"Oh?" he said. So he wouldn't look suspicious, he pretended to keep himself busy. His eyes skimmed over the page on his hands, but the letters didn't really register on his mind.
"Goddamn Naruto, it's so typical of him to be so insensitive. Hinata-chan's been condemned by her whole family, and now that Uzumaki brat stomps on her heart."
Interesting. Very Interesting.
"Hn," said Gaara.
Temari was about to rant about how Hinata-chan's cute, smart, kind, and generally a very good catch when she saw the devious smirk on her little brother's face.
Her blood ran cold.
She knew that smirk. Oh no, don't worry, it wasn't the maniacal one he used back when he was still prone to homicidal rampages. This one- it was much scarier.
It was the dreaded plotting smirk.
The last time she saw it was a week ago when Kankuro had been dumb enough to eat Gaara's precious stack of chocolate chip ice cream. The next day he found his precious stack of porn magazines burned to ashes.
Temari genuinely worried for the poor soul Gaara was plotting against.
Hinata nervously made her way to the kitchen. Her eyes kept darting around, and any glimpse of red made her breath hitch and her lips tremble.
But she promised to make dinner! She wasn't going to run straight into her room to hide like some coward; though the idea does sound very appealing–
"Hinata-chan!"
Turning, Hinata saw Temari grinning at her from the kitchen's doorway. "Don't think you can run away from cooking dinner!"
Hinata blushed embarrassedly. "I wouldn't think such a thing."
Minutes later, as Temari stirred the contents of the pot on the stove, Hinata sifted through the collection of spices in the cabinets and asked, offhandedly, "Temari-chan, why aren't the servants cooking your meals for you?"
Temari's eyes glazed and a thoughtful look crossed her face. "I'm sure you know that Gaara had a very rough childhood. Everyone was out to kill him, so he didn't trust anybody." She paused to lift the spatula from the pot and brought it to her lips to taste.
"It doesn't mean that he's Kazekage now that people will stop trying to kill him and poison his food. I hope you understand."
She did. She was the heiress of a very powerful clan looked down upon by her family; and it was no secret the Hyuuga would gladly get rid of her. It would be very convenient if she suddenly dropped dead from food poisoning.
"I'm glad that you trust me, then," said Hinata, with the warmest smile Temari has ever seen on her.
Temari's eyes looked suspiciously wet. "Of course, you silly girl. It's hard not to."
The only thing that made dinner not awkward was Kankuro's incessant praises of Hinata's culinary skills.
Temari was giving Gaara a calculating stare, who was staring unabashedly at Hinata, who was squirming under the unwanted attention.
The tension was so thick it could be cut by the blunt end of a butter knife.
Temari watched as Gaara's intense eyes remained fixated on Hinata's blushing form as he mechanically ate his dinner. Then slowly, slowly, a smirk appeared on his face.
Temari almost coughed out her dinner. And judging from Hinata's frightened rigid form, she saw it too.
What the hell is he up to?
"Damn, Hinata-chan!" Kankuro said, who was still oblivious to the tension suffocating the room. "I haven't eaten like this in years! You're such a good cook, unlike someone I know-"
Temari's head whipped to her other more annoying brother. "What was that?"
Hinata, sensing another sibling war would break out, put down her barely touched dinner and excused herself.
Once she was out of the door and she was sure no one was watching her, she made a beeline to her room.
If she had looked back, she would have seen how Gaara's stare followed her until she disappeared from the doorway. She would have seen how he put down his already empty bowl, and how he excused himself from his squabbling siblings who weren't giving him much thought at the moment.
She would have seen the devious smirk on his face, and the predatory gleam in his sea-foam eyes.
(In her lair where mere mortals like us cannot possibly reach, Fate sat back on her Chair of Doom and grinned evilly.)
Remember what he said about how it wasn't very Kazekage-ish to take advantage of an unwilling kunoichi? And how he was going to leave the situation alone and act like nothing ever happened?
Yeah, well.
Fuck that.
He may be the Kazekage and the saving grace of Suna's falling economy, but he was also a hormonal eighteen year old who suddenly has the perfect opportunity of exploring the pleasures of the opposite sex standing right in front of him– or, to put it more accurately, hiding behind the door he was standing in front of.
He'd be damned if he let this cute, awkward little kunoichi slip from his reach.
The door was locked, no surprise there, so he let his sand slip through the cracks in the doorway.
A few seconds later, the door opened ominously with a soft click, revealing the surprisingly not-so-tidy room of Hyuuga Hinata, who was poised in the act of escaping through the window.
Upon further inspection, one may notice that Hinata remained unmoving because of the bands of sand that held her arms and feet.
"K-kazekage-sama," she said.
Kami, if she kept looking at him with that frightened deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression he might ravish her now and ask questions later, which is all as well because she wouldn't be able to move or fight back anyway–
"What do you want?" Hinata asked. She mentally patted herself on the back for not stuttering even once, and for sounding brave even though she was feeling everything but that at the moment.
"Hn," said Gaara. More sand poured out from the gourd strapped on his back and obediently slithered on the floor towards the door to lock it. Hinata tensed even more and tried, again, to cut through the sand enveloping her arms with her chakra, but failed. She grimaced and wondered if Gaara-sama had come to finally finish her off.
Gaara walked purposefully towards Hinata's rigid form- no, he sauntered- there was no other word to describe it. The grim determination in his eyes and the decidedly predatory way that he moved made him look so graceful and scary and so goddamn sexy that Hinata's instincts were having trouble figuring out whether to escape or to stay put.
Well, said the optimistic part of Hinata's mind, if he kills me now, at least I get an exclusive view of smexy predatory Kazekage-sama before I die.
Hinata felt the sand around her limbs shift; it jerked her and forced her back against the wall. Breathless, Hinata closed her eyes as the impact of the collision shook her body.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself an inch away from a pair of smoldering green eyes.
Hinata despaired and feared for her life. Her blood rushed to her face. Her hormones jumped in joy and did a happy dance.
"Gaara-sama," said Hinata, and if she was under any normal circumstance she would have cringed at the begging tone of her voice. "What –?"
"Hinata," interrupted Gaara, in a voice that was sweet as honey and smooth as velvet and sexy as hell that Hinata grew thankful for the sand that was holding her limbs. His pale hands fingered the hitai-ite tied around her neck. With a flick of his wrist it fell to the floor with a clang. His fingers traced the line of her jaw, then stopped as the high collar of her turtleneck hindered him. Hinata, with her heart beating loudly against her ribcage, watched as Gaara folded her collar and revealed the bruises that littered her neck.
Gaara stared at it intensely before moving his smoldering gaze towards Hinata's confused and conflicted eyes.
"G-gaara–"
Gaara seemed to have a penchant for interrupting her speech; before she could say the standard 'sama' before his name, his soft lips crashed down to hers.
It started chaste and innocent and sweet, but it turned hot and passionate as their tongues met and clashed with each other.
Hinata whimpered softly as Gaara pulled away reluctantly; his hands had stayed cupping her face for the whole duration of their kiss, and if they went any further his hands might roam and do other things they might both regret.
Hinata gave an experimental tug on her limbs and found with disappointment that the sand still made movement impossible.
Gaara rested his forehead against hers. He turned his intense gaze toward Hinata's cautious one and said in his deep voice, "I have a proposition to make."
(At that exact moment, the heavens above finally chose the right instance to intervene divinely.)
Before he could elaborate any further, a loud knock resounded through the room. Gaara and Hinata stiffened and whipped their heads toward the source of the noise.
"Oi, Hinata-chan!" Temari's voice reverberated from behind the door. "I know you're in there, so open up!"
"Hn," said Gaara. The sand around her limbs slid away from her and glided towards his gourd. Without the sand supporting her, Hinata slid to the floor with an 'umph.'
Gaara gave her an amused look. Then, he bent down until his face was level to hers and gave her a lingering chaste kiss on the lips. Once they parted, he told her in a low voice that sent a shiver down her spine, "I will come back tomorrow."
As Temari grew more persistent in knocking down her door, Gaara disappeared in a wall of sand.
Breathless and confused as hell, Hinata was left gaping at the now empty space Gaara had been residing in just seconds ago.
Outside, Temari scowled. "Hinata…?"
Please review! ;) By the way, I love cats. Just saying. :3