"Your looking… great!" gaara said walking over to Naruto. He hugged his friend lightly. "So, gaara, or should I say… kazekage-sama?" Naruto laughed. Naruto was probably the only person who could ever relax properly around gaara. They had become close friends because they both could relate to each other. "You want to stay a while?" gaara asked looking at naruto's bag. He laughed.
"Yeah…well, you did say-"
"Yes. I said you could stay anytime for as long as you like. It's fine Naruto, besides. I could use company. Here, I'll find you a room unless..." gaara blushed and stopped his sentence. "What?"
"Unless you wouldn't mind sharing with me… I mean, I know I have loads of rooms, but I don't sleep well… and…erm-" Naruto smiled as his usually calm friend rambled on. "I wouldn't mind at all." He said.
"Oh…oh right. Anyway… you hungry?" he said, his blush calming down. Naruto nodded then broke out into his usual fox grin. "You don't have a ramen stand here do you?" gaara nodded. A scream of "YES!!" could be heard throughout the sand village.
Naruto tucked into his ramen. "Mmmm. That's better." He mumbled through a mouthful of the noodles. "So, why the change?" asked gaara. Naruto blushed heavily.
"Erm, its kind of difficult to explain… gaara, if I told you something really bad, would you promise not to hate me?"
"I could never hate you, Naruto. Your practically my only friend." Naruto nodded.
"Okay, erm well… I left kohona because I have feelings for…Sasuke." Naruto buried his face in his hands. He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Its okay, its not a crime to like other guys. In fact now you mention it… that Neji from the exam was pretty cute."
"What…but y-you…" Naruto spluttered. Gaara smiled. Naruto soon got himself together. "Hyuuga huh? Man gaara, you have weird tastes" gaara pushed him playfully. "Yeah well at least I don't like an arrogant prick!" they both laughed at his description of Sasuke. "So, why the hair and the clothes?" gaara asked.
"Well, knowing Sasuke he's going to come looking for me and blonde hair and orange clothes will kind of get me found easily."
"Why are you running away from Sasuke if you like him?" asked gaara, confused.
"I know he doesn't like me back, and I don't trust myself around him. If he ever found out how I feel… it just got so hard because we were getting closer and closer and he had no idea. I even tried avoiding him, but the hokage gave us more and more missions together so that became impossible. I had to leave."
"Well, its fine. You can stay here permanently if you need to. Bummer, you could have introduced me and hyuuga." Naruto pushed him back.
"Cute."
Kiba looked at Shikamaru. "His smell leads out of the village." Then Neji spoke as well. "He's not in the village; I can confirm that." Shikamaru nodded. He didn't expect Naruto to still kohona. "Right. Kiba, you will lead and follow naruto's scent. Neji, stay up front with kiba and check in front regularly to see if you can see Naruto." They both nodded and took the lead. Kiba and akamaru combined found it easy to track Naruto. Sasuke and Shikamaru took the rear.
Three hours later of uninterrupted travel kiba stopped. "What's wrong?"
"Naruto is either in, or past the sand country. However, there is a small sandstorm on the outskirts of the city and the sand is destroying the scent trail. We can only hope he hasn't gone past the sand, otherwise we may… never find him." Kiba finished glumly. Sasuke had one of those moments where the light bulb actually appears above your head. "He's in the sand country with the kazekage!" everyone looked at Sasuke. "He became friends with gaara! He is most likely staying with him!" Shikamaru looked at him. "Good thinking. Come on; we'll go and see gaara, but we should get there before it gets dark."
Naruto stretched out loudly. "Man, it was good for you to pay for that… kazekage-sama!" he said with a foxy grin.
"Call me that once more!" he said raising a fake fist.
"Kazekage-sama." Naruto said plainly. Gaara smiled.
"You know, if anyone else answered me like that, I would kill them."
"Yeah… but I'm not 'them' am I?" Naruto said smiling. "Man, I am so tired." Naruto said standing up. They both walked back to gaara's place. Gaara's sister Temari raised an eyebrow as she saw them both enter gaara's bedroom. 'Well, its about time he got some. Perhaps he wont be so intent on killing when he's let off a little sexual steam' she walked past his room smiling to herself.
"You can sleep on the floor if it feels weird-" gaara began. Naruto replied by jumping on gaara's large bed excitedly. He pulled off all his clothes except his boxers and scrambled himself up in the sheets. "Dark red silk. This is sooo you gaara. It matches your hair. Comfy." Gaara pulled his clothes off until he was wearing the same as Naruto. He slipped into the bed next to the relaxed boy. Naruto looked at gaara and said; "what's wrong? Can't you sleep?"
"I can hardly ever sleep. My demon keeps me awake somehow, so I can never relax. Its probably why I always seem so tense." Naruto grinned.
"Tense! That's the understatement of the century!" before gaara could answer; Naruto wrapped his arms around gaara's wait and snuggled into him. "Naruto?"
"Helping you sleep better. And you make me feel safe, unless you mind?" Naruto said.
"No… and thanks. You make me feel safe too… I might actually sleep for once." Naruto wriggled in the night and he ended up sleeping on top of gaara, his head resting on gaara's chest, legs sprawled out everywhere. The redhead was actually asleep, but was soon woken up by Sasuke bursting into his room. He was closely followed by kiba, Shikamaru and Neji. All four boys shouted things at the same time. Sasuke shouted "what the fuck?" when kiba noticed it was Naruto he screamed, "holy freaking crap!" and ran out of the room. Shikamaru said "troublesome." And walked out followed by Neji mumbling something that sounded like "lucky bastard." Sasuke was the only one who didn't move. Temari burst in. "Gaara, I am so sorry! They just burst in and when I told them where Naruto was they just…sorry!"
"Its fine." Murmured gaara as he gently talked to Naruto. "Wake up, Naruto. We have company." Naruto groaned sleepily and held onto gaara tighter. "Naruto, you really should see whose here." He added. Naruto sleepily rolled off gaara's chest and looked around. "Sasuke? Oh shit."