A/N: Weeeeee! I know, I know, I said Wednesday, but the plot wouldn't leave me alone. Can you believe it kidnapped me and held me for hostage? Something about continuing it or I would never read another story again. Yea…I don't believe it either, then again copious amounts of chocolate do nothing for my logical insanity…but it does do wonders for my imagination. Plus I only have 5 classes this semester, and 3 of them are easy, so I wish to celebrate with my wonderful readers! SO ON WITH THE FIC!
Still don't own Naruto or it's characters…but if I did, it would be awesome, and I would be rich. Hmmm…calls lawyer Can I sue Kishimoto for rights to Naruto? What do you mean what for? I want it, plain and simple. No case, NO CASE!? Fine what if I sue him for pain and suffering? How have I suffered? Uh…seizures from watching the show? No I don't have any proof…WAIT! NO! Don't hang up! hangs up phone eh, guess me owning Naruto won't happen…at least I have the OC's, right? Ok yea, I got nothing, just read the fic.
Dedicated to my FOUR reviewers, who kindly have taken the minimum of 2 seconds to tell me my writing isn't complete crap and would like to see more.
"Spoken word"
'Thoughts'
"Demon speech/speech between host and demon"
"Jutsus"
'Demon thoughts'
(Iwagakure)
Gaara walked down the dirt path to the village's center, and Tsuchikage's dome. Today was his first solo mission; a B ranked assassination in the Land of Waves. This was also a test for Gaara. The Village Hidden Among the Stone had a supplementary ANBU program. Any genin who could find a willing existing Black Ops member to sponsor them could enter the program. It was a way for genin with superior skills to get more advanced training and open up more slots on the mandated genin teams. The genin and his or her ANBU sponsor would handle C through A ranked missions as a duo; this way the genin still learned teamwork, but got specialized one-on-one training. Once the Black Ops member was satisfied with their protégé's progress, the genin had one final test and, upon passing, was admitted immediately into the jonin or ANBU ranks, depending on performance, it was not unusual for the protégé and instructor to form the many ANBU pairs taking on A and S rank missions either. Failing the test would make the genin an automatic chunin. It was the secret of the Stone.
Gaara had been accepted into the program almost immediately after joining the Stone's ninja ranks. His skills were barely above genin level, despite Itachi's and Shukaku's intensive training, but his vast amounts of chakra, efficient use of his chakra and sand, and his extensive knowledge of earth and wind based jutsus, thanks to Shukaku, made him a force to reckoned with for sure; even jonin were wary of facing him in combat for simple sparring. Gaara had perfected his mask of calm and indifference, even while arguing with Shukaku and, at the tanuki's insistence and Itachi's encouragement, had taken to learning a weapon style, further prodding made him develop a customized fighting style to suit his weapon of choice.
His hands were constantly encased in gloves made of a special blend of highly chakra infused sand. At his command that sand broke down quickly and formed a staff, scythe, or halberd. That sand was also extremely flexible; able to split or deform around an opponents weapon and the reform for a quick, and often lethal, counterstrike, or as hard as diamond, tanking through any weapon, or body, in its path. Due to his weapon's usage, he no longer depended on the sand to defend on him and remain in one spot, but rather darted around the enemy like an acrobat.
Gaara of the desert…Gaara of the Stone was now ready to become an ANBU. His first instructor upon admittance to the Jr. ANBU was Atsuko Kikumi; however that was quickly ended due to her continued mistrust since they first entered the village. It was finally decided he would get Itachi as instructor, who easily passed his ANBU examination and readily agreed to teach Gaara.
Gaara slowly entered the Tsuchikage's dome, and was immediately met with darkness and cool air. The feeling of raw earth reached Gaara's senses and he instantly felt at peace, this was his element; he could level this building, if he cared to. While he was mostly adept at sand, he could call upon any mineral if in dire need. Gaara strode with purpose to the Tsuchikage's office, more determined than ever now.
"Ahh, Jiro Saburo, right on time I see. Here are your mission details, you will have until the village gates close tonight to pack and leave. You are due back in two weeks."
Gaara liked the Tsuchikage well enough, on the few chance meetings with the man, but there was something about the way he said Jiro or Yuu to Gaara or Itachi respectively.
"I'm sure Yuu has some last minute advice before you leave you may speak with him before your departure, I believe he is somewhere near the genin training fields."
"There is no need Tsuchikage-sama, I am right here and completely confident in Jiro's abilities."
"Indeed…it's been six years since you've joined my village, you have given me no reason to mistrust you, can we drop these foolish nicknames?"
"Tsuchikage-sama?"
"I was not made leader of this village for nothing, Itachi Uchiha, nor can one mistake the infamous Gaara of the Desert. I have known your identities since day one, as do all of your fellow shinobi."
"I see, then why have you allowed us to continue with the charade?"
"Simple, you were seeking refuge."
The Tsuchikage held up a hand for silence before Itachi could speak again.
"Yes, the Kazekage has made every effort to find his missing son, you did not notice the Sand's or Leaf's tracker-nins scouring the village from time to time, but my ANBU did, it was far easier to simply let you live as Yuu and Jiro, the tracker-nins never suspected."
Gaara spoke up for the first time.
"If you knew from the beginning, why did you allow us to stay?"
"Your aniki here was determined to stay, and I didn't feel like fighting off the effects of the Sharingan. Every one knows of the legendary Itachi Uchiha, who killed his entire clan for no apparent reason, and the Sand Devil Gaara."
"So it was fear that day that convinced you to let us stay here?"
"As I said, you were determined to stay, and you have not given me one reason to regret that decision, my shinobi are in the best condition, so that they may call themselves your equals, your very presence has helped the Stone greatly. Besides, did you murder your clan?"
Itachi stared hard at the man before him.
"That is none of your concern."
"Very well, just be aware your true identities do not have to be hidden as long as there is no tracker-nin nearby. Gaara, you have a mission to see to, I expect you back before your two week deadline with your skills, understood?"
Gaara nodded, absorbing what he had learned.
"Then you are dismissed, your aniki and I have some matters to discuss."
Gaara bowed and left. Running through the village and gates, Gaara saw his fellow Stone shinobi in a new light, they knew who he was and humored him, and covered his tracks from his bastard father.
"Don't look too closely into it brat. The Tsuchikage said as much, your presence pushes them to be stronger, they may be your comrades, but they are still using you to an extent."
"Shut up, damn tanuki, Aniki even said that cooperation in the field is essential to a mission's success, I must trust them, even if it's only as teammates."
"If you say so, now about this assassination mission, what are the details exactly?"
Gaara scanned the mission specs quickly and commited it to memory, the scroll would have to be burned after he read it once.
"Land of Waves is where we're starting. We're looking for a man by the name of Gato, a big kingpin; The Land of Waves emptied its bank accounts for this one. Apparently they hired Konohagakure to escort their only bridge builder back home and keep an eye on him while he finishes the bridge. It's supposed to help the land recover economically from Gato's strangle-hold. We're an extra precaution to make sure he can't find some other way to dominate them."
Gaara had moved quickly, using Shukaku's chakra to enhance his speed, he was currently resting on one of the few remaining trees at the border of Earth, Wind and Rain countries. It was then Gaara realized Shukaku was snoring.
"Damn you Shukaku! Wake up you lazy ass bastard! You're the one that asked to know this information!"
"H-huh…whazat? Oh it's just you brat, whadya want, I'm trying to sleep here."
Gaara growled lowly but kept his face and eyes empty of emotion.
"If you didn't want to know, why ask?"
"Hmmm? Oh that, your voice was boring me, you suck as a story teller, you know that? I hate to know what our kids are going to go through, their father can't even tell a decent bedtime story, then again your stories could put them to sleep and-"
"GET TO THE POINT!"
"Alright, alright, geez, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Anyways I don't want to know all that useless crap, how many do I get to kill?"
Gaara sighed and leapt into the grasslands, sticking low and suppressing his chakra output. 'Should have known, all he cares about is his bloodlust. Stupid tanuki, can't keep his comments to himself, especially that children thing, as if I have time for such things, and no girl in the village can capture my interest…I wonder if it's weird that they don't, all the genin can seem to talk about these days is how hot the opposite sex is. It's Just a big waste of time when they should be training.' Gaara entertained the idea of himself with a girl and all he felt was sick to his stomach. He then heard someone laughing, specifically his tenant.
"Now what!?"
Shukaku tried to talk in between peals of laughter.
"Do y-…Do you hear yourself when you think? Oh this i-i-is just too rich. Hahaha, my little Gaara is growing up, now let Unky Shukaku tell you all about the birds and the bees."
"I already know the details of procreation, and I don't need your perverted take on it."
"Shut up when I'm being nice and trying to enlighten you brat, now think why it is girls disgust you?"
"Because all of them waste their time trying to dress up as sluts just for a little male attention."
"Ok, and what about your little male friends, hmmm?"
"I have no problem with them; they should spend less time looking down the kunoichi's shirts, other than that nothing, why?"
"I'm getting to it, now think to last week when you were sparring with Jykou, when you two were staring each other down after that little wrestling match, what did you notice?"
"He was sweating and his shirt and pants were ripped in several places. Come to think of it he should have just gotten rid of them."
"You would have liked that, huh?"
"What? Why?"
"You may not have noticed, and I'm sure no one else did, but think back, where did your eyes wander to?"
(Flashback)
Gaara was panting slightly, this was strictly hand-to-hand, and his attention was divided between his opponent and keeping the sand at bay, Shukaku was oddly silent. Jykou was a hard opponent too as he was also in the Jr. ANBU program. He was Gaara's age but loved taijutsu and was constantly improving upon it; Gaara could see the results too. Jykou was mildly ripped. His arms were slightly thicker than the normal 13 year old's, packed with muscle. His legs were built solidly too, he had well defined abs and pecs as well and Gaara's eyes traveled down his sparring buddy and had settled on a prominent bulge before his opponent attacked again.
(End Flashback)
"What does that have to anything Shukaku?"
"All this training and still so slow, let me guess, you were just appreciating your opponents training results."
"Yes! What else could it be?"
"Well I don't know how many boys your age stare at their male friend's bulges, or appreciate their muscles and quite like you did that day."
"What are you trying to say?"
"You still don't get it after all of this, let me spell it out for the slow person in the room, that's you if you didn't know, you are g-a-y, gay, you like guys, you want to-"
Shukaku chose that moment to insert in Gaara's mind a few choice images that underneath Gaara's mask had him blushing furiously.
"Uh-uh, no way, you're wrong on this one Shukaku."
"We'll see brat, we'll see."
"What do you mean 'we'll see'?"
"Well I'm a tanuki, and you're entering puberty, so since I'm not a female you won't go into heat per se, but pretty soon I'll go through something like it."
"Great and this involves me how?"
"Well whether you puny humans know it or not, you release pheromones when your ready for mating, we'll see if you respond to the female or male pheromones more during our little 'episodes'"
"Wait…what?"
"When I go into my version of heat, your gonna want to completely ravish anyone that gives off the pheromones that excite you, and I'm betting a deserts worth of sand and chakra it will be the males."
"I. Hate. You."
"Awww, I love you too brat, now let me go back to sleep, you got a mission to do, and I want to have my beauty sleep for my killings."
True to his word, Shukaku slept the rest of the way to the Land of Waves, leaving Gaara to his thoughts and Gaara was sorely missing Shukaku's company, if only to ask him the questions that were now swimming around in his head.
'Damn it, where are you when I need you aniki!'
A/N: MWUHAHAHAHA! I confused poor Gaara, but I felt I should make a move on the romance part of the fic other that the subtlety that Sasuke showed last chapter. Beta position still open if anyone is interested, I still plan to update another chapter by/on Wednesday.
And now its time for my favorite part…begging for reviews. I only have four! And like 500 hits, I'm not picky; any little form of compliments or criticism is greatly appreciated. It shows that I'm not wasting my time here.
So let's give some power to the reviewers. Vote for some pairings people, the GaaNaru is gonna happen, but you can suggest any pairing, vote, whatever and I'll find a way to work it into the story, or I can make a one shot for the winning pairing, something, JUST REVIEW, PLEASE!?