The wind was warm and dry against his cheek as he hoisted his sand gourd onto his back. An unexpected sense of relief swamped through him as the weight settled comfortably against him. It was almost as if he had been missing a limb and had finally gotten it back. Why did he keep forgetting the things most important to him, he thought. After draping his Kazekage robes across the only chair, he stood staring at the strange contraption that now nestled against the farthest wall. It's not like he had never seen a bed before, but to see it in his room…was unsettling. It had always been obvious to him that humans needed to sleep, but why so long? What did you do for so many hours?
Gaara had been trying to sleep ever since he had gotten back to the Sand Village. It hadn't worked. The Kazekage eyed the soft mattress with something akin to dread and disdain. He let out a snort as if to dismiss the useless piece of furniture; he had better things to do than close his eyes and stare into darkness.
He glanced at the door and then at the open window. Going through the door would mean having to put up with his subordinates when all he wanted to do was to be left alone. Going through the window, however, would pose a problem if he didn't have enough chakra. He stood thinking for a couple of minutes before he decided that there really wasn't a choice. He was going out to test his new boundaries, right? That meant…he shifted his gourd slightly, took a running start and jumped out of the five story high window.
The wind whistled past his ears without restraint. His red hair lashed against his cheeks like thousands of miniscule whips. He felt his heart beat rapidly against his chest and adrenaline rush through his entire body, making his skin tingle. So this was what it felt like. He had forgotten. He closed his eyes briefly and just felt. And it finally hit him. He was alive.
This revelation happened in less than a minute. His eyes snapped open so quickly that it was more like he had blinked. He didn't have to glance down to know that he was perilously close to the ground. He mentally groped around, looking for that source of power, the core of all his training and years of death. It was taking him too long. The ground was speeding towards him with exhilarating speed that could very well prove to be his death. But never let it be said that Gaara of the Sand died because he jumped out of a window and wasn't fast enough. It was just absurd. That was what was running through his mind as he kept on coming up empty handed. There was barely more than a couple of feet between him and the deadly ground. He closed his eyes and groped desperately for absolutely anything that might stop the fall. And that's when he found it, sending out trendals of blazing fire, at home in the place that used to be occupied only by a darkness that went by the name of Shukaku.
He yanked at it. With it as his voice he called down at the trillion grains of sand waiting at the bottom, now barely a foot away. There was a slight sucking sound as he collided with the ground and passed through it. The sand was barely whispers against his skin as he continued to fall past ground level. He waited until the friction between him and the sand had slowed him down before making a compact landing space. He breathed in the grainy smell of his surroundings, completely at home under twenty feet of sand. He watched with seemingly disinterested eyes as the remaining sand particles settled among its brethren. His surroundings were slightly moist and dark; even the Sun did not dare penetrate its gaze so deeply into the Earth.
With one last deep breath, he extended out his arms above him, feeling the sand shift comfortably against him. With a burst of chakra, he tunneled his way out into the open air.
His hair was made almost white with sand and he could even feel small particles lodged on top of his eyelashes. He shook the sand out in a way that calls to mind Kiba, Naruto's dog-like comrade. Brushing out the robe that he wore underneath the more formal Kazekage robe, he proceeded to search for a place where he could work on his chakra in peace. He was sure to remind himself that it had to be someplace where Temari couldn't find him when she was notified that he was not in his office.
He had wandered off a couple of miles from his village when he caught a curious glimpse of dark blue and white before it disappeared behind a small dune. Well aware that it might be a genjutsu, he proceeded with care. He uncorked his gourd by hand, not wishing to waste precious chakra for such a simple task. With his chakra enhanced sand ready for use, he skirted around the dune. The sand settled back down quietly into the gourd as the Kazekage stood, transfixed by the sight before him.
The hands were the first thing he saw. Swift, thin and white as the moon, they stood proudly and gracefully for a second before turning into a blur until they stopped again a few seconds later. Then came the wrists and a little skin of the arm that peeked from under the sleeves. As white as the hands, the wrists were slim but strong, hints of muscle rippling under the smooth skin as they moved to follow the hands. Then Gaara's gaze settled on the shoulders, slightly broader than conventional beauty allowed and partly hidden by the ruffles of a hood. He could not see her face. Curiosity burned in him as he was forced to contemplate her long blue hair instead of look on her face. He watched the beautiful mane move in waves as the woman turned rapidly, too fast for him to see her face.
He forcefully pulled himself out of his stupor just in time to block the kunai headed toward his head.
AN: It shouldn't be too hard to guess who that was. :) Please review!