Gaara didn't sleep that night. Not that he ever really did, but for once, he didn't even really feel tired. That was something of a marvel in itself; he was so used to the bone-deep weariness, that barely hidden weight of exhaustion that hung forever on the edge of his consciousness. He could hardly remember the last time he felt so energized.

"Stop pacing," Shukaku demanded. "You're making me dizzy."

Gaara did stop pacing across the floor of his hotel room, mostly because he wasn't sure what Shukaku would be like when it was dizzy. It might possibly cause the demon to mentally vomit, and there were things Gaara figured he was better off not experiencing.

"Good call," the demon said dryly. "Relax. You made it through a date without screwing up. You even get to see him again in the morning. Your "mission" is going smoothly. What are you so stressed over?"

"One date went okay," Gaara said. "But what am I supposed to do for tomorrow's?"

"I don't know," Shukaku said genially. "Push him up against the nearest convenient surface, rip his clothes off and screw him silly?"

"You're not helping," Gaara said through gritted teeth. Temari had said that dinner was usually a proper activity for a first date, but she hadn't mentioned what was considered appropriate for a second one. He'd wanted to ask her, but she'd already gone to bed by the time he'd returned to the hotel. He and Neji had been out longer than he'd realized. Gaara had briefly considered waking Temari up, then decided against it. While the sand would have protected him from anything she would have thrown at him, she probably wouldn't be coherent enough, or in any mood to explain what was expected of him next. From listening to Temari's arguments with Kankuro over the matter, Gaara had already concluded that his brother's advice probably wouldn't be enough to get him through a second date.

So Gaara had briefly browsed through Konoha's library for information. As it was a shinobi village, with frequent nocturnal missions, places like the library were kept open all night. One never knew when they would need to do research, on tactics, country relations and histories, or looking up particular maps of little known areas. Unfortunately, the Konoha library had a distinct lack of information that would be helpful for Gaara's current mission. In his research, he learned five techniques for interrogation through culinary skills, seven ways to use small rodents as a weapon, and the history of a short-lived art form known as kunai-juggling. None of the books he could find said anything about what one was supposed to do for a second date.

He'd finally returned to his hotel room to pace.

"Really, dating isn't as hard as you think," Shukaku finally said. "You don't need a step-by-step mission outline to do it. I know you keep calling this a mission, but really it's a simple social interaction that mortals have been performing with rather impressive results for hundreds of years."

"Then why do I feel like I need some form of instruction on the technique?"

"Because you have the social skills of a rabid bear," the demon said. ­"You want instructions? Fine. Talk to Neji. Learn about him. Should have done that tonight, but you were too busy ogling him, if I recall correctly."

Study the target. That was one of the first rules of being a shinobi. Gaara knew all the rules by heart, and he felt stupid for forgetting even the most basic of them when confronted by Neji's intense and curious gaze.

"I wouldn't take it too hard,"­­ Shukaku said. ­"I wasn't all that impressed by his interrogation skills either. I was certain he was going to pry out your every reason for asking him out. You should be proud; he must have been having a good enough time that he didn't care about your reasons. But tomorrow, find out about him. And you might want to be prepared to talk a bit about yourself as well. Don't forget to mention me, either. Tell him all about how I wreak havoc on your sanity, and drive you to do great and terrible things."

"Are you trying to scare him away?"

"Just wanted him to be impressed… You never know, maybe he'll find it sexy."

Gaara scowled. "Why do I keep talking to you? You always say such stupid things."

"Hey, I'm just trying to help,"­ Shukaku said. "But go ahead and muddle through it on your own. At least I'll still be around to laugh at you when it all goes to hell."

Gaara didn't take Shukaku's lack of faith in him too personally. In fact, it was almost a relief to have the demon talking down to him again. It disturbed him when Shukaku was trying to be helpful. Gaara couldn't quite figure out why Shukaku was trying to help him with this mission with Neji, either. Though it did seem very focused in getting Gaara into bed with Neji, presumably so it could watch. Maybe Shukaku was just horny.

Now that was truly a disturbing thought. Gaara was going to have to proceed with this mission with a little more caution, until he ascertained what Shukaku's true intentions were, as well as, perhaps, his own. His own life had already been ruined by the demon; he wasn't about to let Shukaku somehow ruin Neji as well.

"Really," Shukaku griped. "You're no fun at all."

x.x.x

Gaara watched the sunrise from the park, as he waited for Neji. Logically he knew Neji wasn't going to be there that early, but he just couldn't stand to wait in the hotel room any longer. Gaara almost liked sunrises, as much as he liked anything. Shukaku was most active at night, and the demon would quiet down somewhat as morning dawned. So Gaara got to enjoy the lightening of the day in some semblance of peace.

At first the hours passed by with Gaara hardly noticing them. The park gradually filled with people as the morning g officially began, though most of them kept a careful distance from the park bench where Gaara waited. As the morning wore on and Neji didn't come, Gaara became somewhat concerned. They hadn't really settled on a specific time to meet, but it was getting later in the day, and he'd really expected Neji to be there earlier…

"I didn't mean to keep you waiting."

Something very much like relief settled in Gaara when Neji finally arrived, shortly before noon. Gaara stood, and the two of them walked down the park path.

"I meant to be here earlier," Neji explained. "But it seemed like everyone in Konoha wanted to stop and talk with me this morning. At least, everyone that saw you in the training grounds yesterday, plus all the people that Lee told, as well. They all think that you're up to something, and apparently believe that I would know what that something is."

"Why would I be up to something?" Gaara was up to something, of course. But he didn't think Neji would be too happy to hear the details of this particular mission.

"That's pretty much what I said," Neji said with a smile. "Though I don't think they're all willing to believe you're here on vacation. So we may have to deal with a few people with too much time on their hands trying to spy on us."

Now that Neji mentioned it, quite a few people in the park had been slowing down to watch them as they walked past. Gaara scowled automatically, and a several of them hurried off about their business. Gaara still wasn't too pleased with this recent development. This mission would be hard enough without an audience.

Neji seemed to understand Gaara's unspoken reluctance to be watched by so many people. "Don't worry," Neji reassured him. "I've already thought of a place we can go." He didn't say where, though, only quickened his pace. Intrigued, Gaara followed.

Neji led the way out of the park and through the village. Gaara walked closely beside him, trying to ignore all the people on the street that watched them go by. The sand was already whispering and grating inside its gourd, anxious. It probably wouldn't kill anybody, Gaara mused. Only… scare them a little. But it wouldn't help, he decided. It was his own infamy that was causing this mass curiosity. Probably causing a sand tidal wave to sweep away all the spectators would just make things worse.

Neji didn't seem too bothered by it, though. Probably he was used to people watching him. Gaara could understand that; he rather enjoyed looking at Neji, too.

Neji took a series of short-cuts out of the village. Gaara started to recognize some of the terrain as they passed by. He'd passed this way before, on his way to the second part of the chuunin exams. They'd left the curious onlookers behind, and Neji finally came to a stop outside a high fence, enclosing a dense forest.

"Here we are," Neji announced.

The Forest of Death. It lived up to its name; many people had died here. It was a training ground, and had been used as a site for the second part of the chuunin exams. It was dark in there, and full of dangerous creatures, that generally ate first and asked questions halfway through digestion. Gaara really doubted his sister would have suggested a place like this for a second date.

"Are we even allowed to go in there?" Gaara finally asked.

Neji shrugged. "We're not genin anymore. And really, the fence is more to keep the forest in, rather than the shinobi out. Besides… what good are we as shinobi if we can't even sneak into one little Forest of Death?"

Whatever the standard "second date" activity was supposed to be, Gaara expected that this idea was going to be more fun.

Getting into the Forest of Death was ridiculously easy. There were guards, but not many. Nobody honestly expected people to try to get in the Forest of Death. And even if they did get in, the forest had its own protections. Not that Neji and Gaara needed to fear the forest's poisonous and vicious creepy-crawlies. So they easily bypassed the few guards, found an easy entrance, and made their way inside.

The forest was heavily shaded and chilly. Neji and Gaara just walked silently through the forest for a while. Creatures made strange noises in the far distance, but nothing came to attack. Gaara thought he recognized a few of the trails, but couldn't be entirely sure. The forest was a world unto itself, and seemed to be hiding all its secrets in a shroud of muted light and dense foliage.

The two of them finally headed upward into the vast network of branches, finding a sturdy limb to sit on and view the forest. Neither of them had said much during their walk. Gaara listened to the sand humming gently in the gourd, and thought about the last time he was here. It seemed like a lifetime since the chuunin exams. That had been the first time he'd been to Konoha. Not that it had mattered to him, back then. He hadn't cared where he was. He didn't even care about the exams, or becoming chuunin. The fighting was fine, but all that had really mattered at the time was the killing.

He could still feel it sometimes, inside of him. He could feel it now, here in the Forest of Death. The old wounds would always be there, and with them that urge to spill as much blood as possible, to somehow ease his own hurts.

"I killed someone," Gaara said to the forest's faintly ominous quiet. He didn't know why he said that, of all things. But here in the forest of monsters, he felt… like he needed to explain what he was. "Not too far from here, during the chuunin exams. They may have told me their name, but I don't remember it. They tried to kill me, but that's not why I killed them. I killed them because I could. Because that's what mattered, back then."

When Neji said nothing, Gaara added, "Because I'm a monster."

"Mm," Neji murmured. "Have you killed anybody lately?"

"I wish!" Shukaku grumbled.

Gaara ignored the homicidal demon's commentary. "Well, no… not lately."

"Killed anybody in the last few years? Just for fun, I mean. Shinobi missions don't count."

"No." Gaara frowned. "What does that matter?"

Neji shrugged. "When I was a genin, I believed that people were what they were, from the day they were born, until the day they died. It took me a long while- and a rather embarrassing beating- for me to figure out that people were capable of changing. I know that I've changed since that time at the chuunin exams. I like to think I've changed for the better. I think you have too. The Gaara you were back then wouldn't have asked me out yesterday."

"You don't think I'm a monster?" Gaara was suddenly aware that some part of him had expected Neji, with his ability to look into and through a person, would quickly see Gaara for what he really was. Other people, like Naruto or Lee, somehow naïve enough not to recognize it, but surely this elite shinobi would have realized. It was only a matter of time before Neji wanted nothing more to do with him.

Neji shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know you that well. I'm not saying you're not a monster, but I'm not saying you are. What I'm saying is… you don't have to be if you don't want to."

"And if I do want to?"

"Then you can do that too, I suppose."

The conversation was a morbid fascination to Gaara. "What if I wanted to kill you? Could I do that?"

Neji's intense eyes favored him with an unreadable gaze, one that made Gaara almost forget what they were talking about. "Do you think you could?"

What was Neji asking? If Gaara though he had enough strength, enough skills to kill him? Or if he could even bring himself to deal the killing blow, to someone that intrigued him so, plagued him with such wonder and confusion? Could Gaara really stand to watch the life go out of those fine opal eyes?

Gaara finally looked away, down at the interweaving branches below that blocked the view of the forest floor. "I don't want to kill you."

"I'm relieved to hear that."

"Just in case anybody's wondering," Shukaku said, "I want to kill both of you."

Gaara ignored the demon, in favor of trying to sort out his tangled thoughts. He really didn't understand this strange feeling he got when he talked with Neji. Like everything was both so much clearer, and so much more muddled than it had been. He didn't think Neji really wanted him to be a monster, even though he said that he could. The monster in Gaara would scare Neji, no matter how elite a shinobi he was. But Neji thought Gaara could be something other than a monster. If Gaara wanted. It all came down to what Gaara wanted.

So what did Gaara want?

It felt like so long since Gaara had had a purpose in life. Sure, before, his purpose had been to kill people, as many and as messily as he could. He'd given up that path, but had yet to find something to replace it. Something to really fulfill him.

"I don't know what I want," Gaara finally admitted.

"It's not really something you have to decide right now," Neji said.

When silence fell this time, it was almost a comfortable one. Neji seemed relaxed in his own contemplations. Gaara tried to sort through his own. It was too much to think about. And he felt like there was something, just beyond his ability to define it, that would explain everything, if he could only grasp it. The harder he thought about it, the more elusive the feeling became.

"You think too much," Shukaku said. "Quit angsting about your pathetic and miserable life. You're on a date, remember?"

Right, the mission. Gaara grimaced; he had forgotten. Once again, he wished he'd been able to scrounge up some sort of information about how this human ritual was conducted. But at least he'd been able to come up with an idea for it on his own. He dug out the small jar he'd brought with him.

"Here," Gaara said, handing the little item out to Neji. "I brought you something."

Neji took the jar, peering in confusion at its contents. "Sand?" He blinked as the sand in the jar twisted and roiled of its own volition, as if ruffled by a wind. Neji blinked at Gaara in surprise. "This is your sand, isn't it? Are you… sure you should be giving this to me?"

Gaara shrugged slightly. "I have more." He frowned, suddenly uneasy. "Do you… like it?"

"Yeah." Neji smiled, watching the sand swirl and whirlwind in its small glass container. "It's kind of cute."

The rest of Gaara's sand, secure in its gourd, hummed and swished in pleasure. In counterpoint, something in the distance crashed through the trees. The tree the two boys were sitting in shook, showering them both leaves.

Gaara picked a leaf out of his hair, tossing it in the direction of the disturbance. He looked over at Neji, almost shyly. "So… want to go kill something?"

Neji tucked his present away to keep it safe. Gaara could see Neji's eyes glitter, more intense, disturbing, and beautiful than Gaara had ever seen them. "I thought you'd never ask."