A/N: Hmm. What was the plot for this fic again? I hardly recall. I think it's simply FLUFF CENTRAL. :0

Yet, I wonder… Is it meant to be?
Like a jigsaw puzzle, sometimes the shapes look like they'll match,
only when you go to piece them together,
they don't fit.
Or maybe one piece fits, and the other doesn't.

My brain spends a full minute calculating what had happened. Slowly, data comes filtering through the haze and initial thought of this is wrong.

The data is this: Naruto, like Lee and Sasuke, is very fast. In fact, he's gotten a lot faster than I remember. Like the wind. And when he headed for me at that new speed, I hesitated for some unknown reason and dropped my kunai. An opening was formed and he took it to pin me to the ground much as Sakura had done to him moments prior.

Now, why do I find this 'wrong'? Could it be that I think I am weak or defenseless? No. Could it be that I wasn't prepared? No. Then why?

My brain spends another minute trying figuring out that one. Yet I don't get that minute; Naruto starts talking, and automatically I open my ears to listen.

"Oops, too fast, huh? I caught you off guard. Here, let's start over," Naruto says kindly and maneuvers around me. I close my eyes for a moment, that heat on my face more than ever. Naruto stares down at me, his hand outstretched to help. "Oi, daijoubu?" he asks. "Your face looks flushed. Maybe you're sick and we shouldn't be sparring…"

My face is flushing…? Is that what this heat is? I've never experienced such a thing. I pull myself up, ignoring his offered hand, and steadily begin to understand why that felt so wrong.

It's physical contact.

I was being touched, forced to the ground, and hovered over. Closeness I'm not used to, since most attacks I've had were either blocked by sand or brief and painful, like a punch to the face. But this one… this one was slowed, full of contact, and strange. The placement of our bodies… it makes my mind freeze and warning bells sound in alarm. It's almost unwanted, yet at the same time, is craved, despite the source.

If I were a greedy person, I would have not let Naruto remove his weight, or I would have asked for him to try that again.

But I'm not a greedy person. And I fear why I would want to do such a thing. I also fear why I would crave such hard contact, despite the panic that rises in my chest that screams, 'this is an attack! Get out while you can!'

The fact that it's Naruto who did it, though, changes things. It makes a small part of me remember that this is not meant to harm, that he's my friend and not my foe, and that of all people, I don't need to label any touch of his to me as 'unwanted'. Since so many in the past have been of assistance. Like this head butt; it startled me from so many things when it jarred my brain. And the grip on my shoulder that brought me back from the land of the dead and saved me from my nightmare last night.

What I don't understand, however, is why all these things are rising to my mind this very second. And what triggered these thoughts? Then my feelings… why am I suddenly pumping with an electrical current made of pure adrenaline.

Nearly my entire body is stressing that I should run. Leave. Escape. And for Kami's sake, flee!

But I'm rooted to the spot and I find my mouth forming one word. "Again."

Naruto grins widely. "Then pick up your kunai and get into position," he says playfully.

I don't need to be told twice. I lift the metal from the ground, silently wondering what the hell I'm doing. I would have walked away any other day; what's holding me back? I already said this is wrong! What if he touches me again like that? What will I do?

I pray I won't get 'greedy', that's what.

"Ready?" he parrots from before.

"I've been ready, Uzumaki," I retort, a smirk in my voice.

He flashes another grin and charges the meters of distance between us.

This time, I truly am ready. I dodge his first attack with his blade of chakra, which I notice extends like a sharp breeze of wind when he moves side to side. I'll have to be careful of that.

I twist my body and strike with the blunt end of the kunai, which clashes with his razor-sharp chakra. "You're better at taijutsu," he remarks through his teeth as he tries to match my force. Force, not strength; he's much stronger than I am.

"I've had time to practice."

He smiles and backs off. "Let's see if you can block this…" and he summersaults, landing right behind me, and he reaches to pin my arm behind my back. I cut something I can't see with a second kunai I had hastily hid into my sleeve. I hear a grunt and my heart drops. Did I hurt him? This is supposed to be sparring, not an actual battle. But it seems I didn't, for I feel no sticky warm liquid. Instead, I hear the kunai drop to the ground as a blade grazes my throat. I instinctively lift my chin as high in the air as it will go.

"Nicely done, Naruto," Kakashi praises. "Using your wind jutsu to capture his kunai and tossing it aside with your chakra, in the same way a tornado grabs and tosses things. And then you trapped him."

In my ear, Naruto pants slightly from using such a vast amount of his chakra. He loosens his grip on my arm (although he's still touching it, and I miraculously don't resist it in the least) and releases the blade so his fist is empty near my throat. Somehow, with him standing so close behind me, I flush once more. Tingles run up my arm from his hand.

I'm once again frozen, and as my mind screams at me to leap out of his grasp like I would with anyone else, my body has a tugging urge to feel more contact, perhaps something softer at my exposed throat…

Naruto moves away from me and sits down on the ground before falling backwards onto the grass. "Phew! I'm wiped. That was harder than I thought," he mumbles.

Still a bit shaken, I move my feet clumsily and walk over to my 'kage robes, which lay next to Sakura-san. She had folded them for me while I was sparring.

Seeing what I've come for, she holds up my clothes. "Good work out there," she comments politely.

I grunt agitatedly as if to say, 'tch, yeah right'. The phrase itself sounds like something Naruto would say.

I take the clothes with a whispered, 'arigato'. Then I drape the fabric over my arm and begin to leave. Finally, my brain is expressing. My body seems to be moving slowly.

"Oi, Gaara, wait up! Let me catch my breath, then we can walk home together, dattebayo!" I hear him call from the ground. I look at him and swallow, wondering what's wrong with me. We're sparring one minute and the next I'm thinking weird things. It would be best if I leave without him, but the emotion in his eyes shows that he wouldn't like it if I did that. So I linger near Sakura-san and Kakashi-sensei.

"Anou, Gaara-sama…" Sakura murmurs. I cast my gaze to her and she smiles. "What do you think? He's doing great, isn't he? It's like he's a whole new person during battle…"

I nod in agreement.

Her smile fades. "But you know, I wonder sometimes what it's doing to his body. If you noticed, we have Yamato-taichou here."

I nod again, because I had noticed.

"Well, he's here because if Naruto runs out of his own chakra, he'll start using Kyuubi's, and then disaster could hit, get what I mean? Or he could hurt himself, which is why I'm here; I'm not some sparring partner. He could spar with anybody. But I have to be here to keep him safe. It's weird the precautions we have to take for him…" Sakura-san looks genuinely concerned, and I feel it with her. Even my stoic face reveals some of my concern, and I know she sees it because her eyes brighten and her brows soften. "Make sure there are no post-training effects, will you? I have some things to attend to, so I can't come home with you guys." Which she has, earlier this week after a different training session. She made dinner for us a second time that night.

"I will," I reassure her, and she winks.

"Thanks, Gaara-sama!" she says happily. She stands and gaits along the street, her hand in the air as a wave in goodbye. "See ya!"

I watch her retreating pink-and-red figure and am a bit startled when I hear Naruto come up beside me. "Alright, I'm fine now, we can head back." He puts his arms behind his head and begins walking. Naruto stops as his stomach growls, which I hear from a meter at the rear from him. "Actually… let's buy some ramen from Ichiraku's first. I'm starved!"

He conveniently forgot his money at home, but I didn't mind paying for Naruto's meals along with my own. Three bowls compare to his usual five or six is nothing to pay for, especially since I only purchased one bowl and get paid well for the job I do.

When we're both content, Naruto says we should go down to the lake in the center of Konoha. It's about four o' clock, but since it's the middle of winter, the sun is already beginning to set. Because of this, Naruto insists I see the sun setting over water. 'It's much different than it setting over sand,' he said while eating. I go along with it, not sure what else to do.

Naruto walks out onto a dock and sits on the far edge, motioning to the space next to him, inviting me. I cross my arms and walk at a snail's pace to him, trying to ignore the constant watch he has on my movements. When he finally peels his eyes away, I'm left wondering why Naruto was staring after me in the first place.

"The sun should be setting soon," the kitsune begins, stirring up the small talk right off the bat. He dislikes silences far too much. I think it's because harsh or drastically lengthy silences make him uneasy.

"Hn."

Naruto looks over at me, his eyes soft. "Do you like sunsets, Gaara?"

Without looking at him, and using the removal of my sandals as the excuse, I say: "I prefer sunrises."

"Doushite?"

I dip my feet into the water. "They signify new beginnings, fresh starts."

Naruto's brows meet as he absorbs that statement. His eyes return to the water, which reflects oranges and yellows mixed with pale lavender-blues. Silence falls, and for a minute I think it's the kind that hurts Naruto, the ones he's doesn't like. Yet he seems calm and lost in thought. Still, I want to say something to ease the tension in those golden brows. I don't know what to say.

I'm saved the trouble as Naruto finally speaks, stealing the silence. "Ah… here come the pinks."

I look to the sky, and I see the swirls of pink in the clouds. For a split second an icy wind sweeps across out bodies, and shiver. The dull pinks turn crisper into magenta as the sun sets lower, and I sense warmth near me that wasn't there before that breeze swept through. I nearly jump into the water below when I find Naruto a handful of centimeters away, his breath clouding in front of him when he exhales. It's getting colder; for Konoha, winters are like falls, although with one or two snowfalls in January. I learned that from my sister and her trips here to work with that Nara character. But I had no idea it got this chilly. Since the warmth is so welcomed, I don't budge.

"Gaara…" he mutters. "What do you think sunsets are, if sunrises are beginnings? They're not endings, are they?"

He makes it sound like sunsets mean death. "No, Naruto," I tell him as gently as I'm able, "They aren't endings. They're hopeful reminders."

"Of what?"

"Of tomorrow, of what's to come," I say pensively, staring directly into his searching eyes. I look back at the colorfully reflecting water. "Of the future."

It was during a sunset that I spoke to Kankurou, recalling my future: I was going to be like Naruto and become the leader of my village to be respected and eventually loved, although not in the same context of other love. I learned from Temari the different sorts of love… and I'd never admit it, but I'm desperately hoping I can reach the romantic kind someday. It's a small dream, but it's the only one I have left now that I'm at the top of ninja status, have no demon, and finally have people precious to me. Which are three things I would have never thought possible if I were about four years younger. If I were that much younger, I'd laugh bitterly and claim that my older self is insane.

Maybe I am.

Because right here, right now… I can feel my heart fluttering in my chest and can't help but think an insane thought as Naruto murmurs, "Either way, it's beautiful."

The insane thought: It's pretty, yes, but it's not the only beautiful thing here. Not when the light is tinting your eyes an alluring blue-violet-grey and your hair a mellower blonde and making your skin appear soft and creamy.

The even more insane thought that's being made by my body and not my mind: I want to close the distance between myself and that beauty. Maybe it'll rub off on me and make me beautiful as well, inside and out; like how he is.

It was then I realized something. Perhaps I'm not insane… perhaps, it's something else entirely.

My hand raises and traces the dents of the kanji on my forehead, the scarred flesh feeling coarse under my fingertips.

"What are you thinking about?" Naruto poses.

"You."