A/N: Wow, what was it this time, two months in between updates? Although, I do have an excuse for being so late. I had been writing a chapter throughout winter break, and since no one had answered the Naruto/Sasuke pairing question I had to write a chapter without them. Then someone did reply, and they suggested yaoi, so I had to fit it in the story without it seeming random and/or weird. There, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Also, since the name of the reviewer who gave the suggestion was sasUke, I'm making it a NaruSasu.

Thanks to all who reveiw!

Disclaimer: Go to chapter five.

Red Horizon

Lee sat quietly in the small sparsely furnished office. Sunlight filtered in through open windows behind him and cast a shadow across the oaken desk that sat before him. The red sun watched him through the mountains in the landscape.

The door opened and a man clad in green spandex and vest stood opposite Lee. The man walked up to the desk carrying a scroll and wearing a smile that seemed to sparkle in the orange light.

"Another mission successful!" the man stood triumphantly with a thumbs-up extended and if it were possible the gleam of his teeth shined even brighter.

Lee lazily looked up and extended his hand to receive the mission report in the scroll the man held. Looking down to hand his prize to the man Gai gasped at what he saw.

It was Lee, dressed in black pants and a simple blue with white fish net shirt. No green or any spandex to be seen.

"My precious student!" Gai cried. "What has happened to your uniform?"

Lee sat writing down the new report. Without looking up he replied, "I no longer need it."

"Eh?!" Gai exclaimed. "What is this talk? What could have happened to douse your bright flame of youth?"

Stamp. File. "Nothing."

"But Lee…" Gai trialed off in thought for a moment. Then it hit him. Sakura…

Gai looked down at his pupil as Lee continued paperwork. He sighed as he gazed.

"Lee"

Said ninja looked up from his task.

"Would you come with me for a moment?"

"I can't, I have some more wor-"

Lee's excuse was cut short when his sensei placed a heavy hand on his shoulder, his eyes a silent plea.

"Sure."

The blades on the ceiling fan seemed to cut through the air with noise louder than Temari's Wind Scythe. Gaara sat quietly listening to them rotate. The air around him felt humid and heavy as he mulled over in his mind the recent events that he'd been reported.

The Sand. His village. His home, was…

…gone.

For some reason the redhead couldn't quite grasp that fact as he sat in the lobby of the hospital. In contrast to his inner turmoil he sat quietly, waiting for some feudal lords he didn't know and local kages to call him into his own office to discuss what was to be done. They were to decide what to do with Gaara, maybe even find a new Kazekage to replace him if they found so fit, not that one was needed anymore.

But what of his village? His people? Sure, they could rebuild everything and go on with their lives, but all the feudal lords couldn't rebuild his village. The one he grew up in. They couldn't bring back the people to repopulate it or re-teach all the secret jutsus that had been passed down through parents to their children or sensei to their pupils. They couldn't bring back the once strong and prideful village that claimed dominance over the entire surrounding desert.

His headed jumbled with various thoughts, Gaara glared up at the ceiling fan. Was it broken or something? Why couldn't the damn receptionist turn it down, or better yet, off?

Gaara suppressed the urge to grab a kunai and break the stupid appliance when he heard his named being called.

"Lord Kazekage?"

A messenger and a few escorts stood in the middle of the room, Gaara hadn't noticed them arrive. He nodded his head for a reply.

"Please come with us."

With that they vanished in a blur that made the receptionist double-take at the spot where they once stood.

All that was left were the smoking, mangled remains of a fan and a charred hole in the ceiling.

As the Hokage traveled to Gaara's hidden mansion she weaved through piles of ash and ruble. Cement and steel were scattered like broken glass, and shards of the actual material lay on the ground like dew. Most of them stained an awful red. Charred silhouettes stood on a few remaining walls, looming like shadows. Tsunade felt a chill about her that she hadn't felt since the time of Kyuubi.

She knew that something bad had been coming the Sand's way, but she never expected this. She had been warned by other officials to keep an eye on the Sand, so she knew something big was happening when she got word from the Anbu. Two monsters rampaging through town.

Once all the bodies were cleared out, a meeting was called to one of the three buildings left standing. They weren't technically standing though, their top story was gone, the rest were underground and were spared by the earthquakes. One of the underground structures was actually where the Kazekage was located. He traveled to a nearby tower to conduct business matters and to confuse assassins of his real location.

A red sun sat in the distance, hiding behind sand dunes and the horizon. It looked as if the sun itself were the content gaze of a demon after another satisfying kill. Tsunade tried her best to ignore it as she quickened her pace towards Gaara's office.

Naruto lay quietly in the sterile room, staring at the bleach white walls. Thinking, trying to remember how he'd gotten in the hospital, what happened yesterday, the day before, the week before, anything.

Bits and fragments of people screaming, fleeing, and dying, of two monsters ripping each other apart, and of just terror itself had been plaguing him in his dreams. He didn't know what they meant, and in some way he didn't want to know either. Although they did remind him of the tales people in Konoha used to tell.

The ones of Kyuubi.

Naruto quickly turned over and feigned sleep as he sensed someone coming towards his door. Possibly another nurse or doctor. Or maybe it was them again.

The door opened and Naruto knew right then who it was. He was right. It was them.

They walked up to the hospital bed and stood before pulling up a chair to sit beside it. Usually they were silent and just sat there. Other times they tried to talk, but couldn't seem to find the right words.

Naruto remembered what could have been on of the first few days here, when he had been barely conscious. He'd been in and out of sleep, teetering on the edge between reality and dreams when he felt his arms slip off the bed and a hand catch it. Naruto had wondered who it had been, and mostly believed it to be Sakura. But ever since their daily (or what he thought daily) visits, he began to suspect someone else entirely.

"Hey" they said, and slightly shook his arm.

Their voice sent a wave of nostalgia through Naruto's head that he couldn't quite place. It was like he had heard it just yesterday.

Naruto felt the hand on his arm still for a moment before tightening its grip.

"Hey, I know you're awake now dobe, get up."

Dead last? Who did this person think they were? He was the future Hokage; 'dobe' certainly did not fit into that title.

Whoever they thought they were they sure did have a strong hold on Naruto's arm.

"Naruto."

"What do you wan...t..." Naruto had finally turned around in only to find his words quickly die out in sight of his visitor. With the hand still on his arm Naruto realized whose hand had held his the first day and who had been coming back to see him everyday he could remember in this cold hospital. It was the same person he had almost started to believe he would never see again.

"Sasuke…"

Naruto was suddenly full of white heat, of every emotion that he could think of all at the same time. This person…Sasuke…he… he.

It was then that he punched Sasuke as hard as he could right in the jaw, hard enough to break it even.

Sasuke landed heavily on the floor, his eyes closed in pain. Naruto jumped up and walked over to him, looking at a familiar scene. He reached down to grab his collar and pull him up, but was tackled before he could do so. He fell on his back on the other side of the room, Sasuke above him, when they both heard a pounding at the door.

"Hey, what the hell is going on in there?!"

Naruto didn't know who it was, but knew he wanted to finish his fight. He saw Sasuke grab a parchment from one of his pockets and trough it at the door. It landed horizontally across the seam between the door and doorframe, and sizzled, burning into and sealing the wood together.

Realizing what Sasuke had just done, Naruto continued his assault and kneed him in the chest, knocking him off and switching their positions. Naruto heard himself yelling at his best friend.

"Did you kill Itachi yet? Is that why you came back, because you got your stupid revenge? Or were you just tired of working under Orochimaru."

A dark blue was already spreading across Sasuke's jaw were he'd been hit. He winced as he stared defiantly up at Naruto.

"That's none of your business moron."

Naruto fought the urge to punch him again, just for being arrogant.

"No, when you left team seven without any explanation other than vengeance, when you made Sakura-chan cry, and when you left me for death, you made it my business. "

Orange and ruby stripes shone across the room through blinds that shielded a ruby sun. They reminded Sasuke of the red chakra from his last fight with Naruto as they illuminated the blonde's hair and eyes.

Naruto all but shook him when he grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up.

"Well,"

Sasuke's voice came out heated with annoyance, "Fine. Your right, I did come back because of Orochimaru, I did get tried of working under him and I was glad when his little village killed him. "

Naruto looked at him in confusion as he continued.

"Someone told me they killed you too," Sasuke paused before going on. "They boasted about killing the container of Kyuubi. I've fought your before when you used his power so I knew it'd take one hell of a ninja to do it. I came to see if it was actually true or not."

Naruto stared at him, a dubious expression on his face. He looked as if in thought. Loud thuds came form the door, shinobi trying to break into the room.

"That cant' be it. After all this time, that can't just be it. "

Sasuke looked off to the side. "It's not"

Anger flashed across Naruto's face again.

"Then why the hell won't you just tell me all of it?!"

"Because I can't!"

"What?"

Sasuke continued to stare at the window. "Just…just…"

Naruto heard him curse under his breathe before Sasuke closed the remaining space between them and kissed him. He sat stock still, completely confused by his friend's actions until Sasuke pulled back and pushed him off. He stood up in a hurry as Naruto sat stunned on the floor.

" Happy?"

Sasuke didn't wait for an answer as he stormed towards the window, planning his escape through it as the thuds from the door became persistent. As he reached to open it a kunai flew past his hand and embedded itself in the latch to the window. Feeling for his own, Sasuke realized that Naruto had stolen his kunai and turned around in the same anger Naruto held earlier. Although before he could punch the moron he was shoved against the wall and his kiss returned.

He soon forgot about the bangings from the door as they faded off into the background.

An orange sky gleamed on the windows of Konoha, making the village a surreal scene. Lee sat with his back to the fading red sun as he waited for his sensei to come to their old meeting place on the balcony of one of the towers. He could almost see Neji and Tenten sitting next to him, both shaking their heads at their sensei's overdramatic expressions.

The sun almost looked pink to him, and he turned around to look at it, its presence a pang in his chest. It reminded him of Sakura's hair, a color he'd never seen on anybody else and something he doubted anyone could look as good in as she did.

He continued to gaze at the small star until, just like Sakura, it disappeared behind the horizon.

A/N: Sigh. I've been waiting for an opportunity to put Gai-sensei in the story. I think his nice-guy-pose rocks. (Review!)