Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden.
Warning: rating may go up, yaoi, boyxboy
Pairing: NarutoxGaara
Please enjoy!
The next night Gaara sat patiently on the curb outside of his apartment building, waiting for Naruto. When his leader had returned, Gaara pointed out the naivety of the blonde, but he insisted. So, the redhead could do nothing but continue to play the helpless vampire hater. It annoyed him to no end, but there was no way he could ever disobey his orders.
His master was there for him, his master was his only friend, his only… Anything, really. He was the reason Gaara was alive. The redhead tentatively reached a hand up and pressed his cool fingers against the make-up covered scar engraved on his forehead. It was his mark. His contract, so to speak. It was what bonded him to himself. The rouge skin continually reminding him his place and who he was. A murderer.
"Hey! Gaara!" A familiarly grating voice called. The redhead groaned and stood up. He was always careful not to make his 'character' too different from himself, or else he might have difficulty acting. So, indifference was the best route.
He lifted his hand in the air as a casual form of greeting. Naruto, who was now really close, grinned goofily.
"How're you tonight?" He asked cheerfully. Gaara swallowed and remembered his mission.
"Cold." He lied again, relatively proud of himself for lightening his tone. His mission was to get the blonde to trust him and tell Gaara all of the Hunter's secrets. It would be tough, but he could do it. He'd yet to receive a mission he couldn't complete both quickly and effectively. Gaara had no idea why the blonde was the one his master specified. Perhaps there was something special about him.
"Really? It's warm again tonight. Well," he shrugged off his orange jacket, "here." He offered the offending thing to Gaara and he stared at it for a moment. He didn't quite expect that, but had to play along. He grabbed the jacket and slid it on his petite body. The sleeves reached all the way down to his second knuckle and the shoulders were falling off.
Naruto's heartfelt laugh filled the air and Gaara frowned. He didn't like being made fun of.
"You're small for your age, huh?" The blonde continued to chuckle but stepped in closer to Gaara. The redhead tensed, almost punching Naruto as an automatic reaction, but stood stock still, biting his lip. He wanted to kill so badly…
Naruto's tan hands grabbed the bottom of the jacket and zipped it up, to keep the thing from falling off of the redheads small form.
"There ya go." He smiled, patting Gaara on the head. The redhead glared, completely ignoring how sweet the Hunter was being to him. For that exact reason. Naruto was a Hunter. "So then, tonight will be lesson one!" Naruto grinned broadly. His mouth was so large and it reminded Gaara of a monkey.
"Lesson one?"
"Well, you can't very well protect yourself properly with only one night of training." Gaara grinned inwardly, not letting his expression change. Perfect. That was exactly what he wanted. He was planning on just saying, even after tonight, how he was still afraid and didn't think he'd learned enough, but Naruto did that for him. Wonderful.
"So then, are you ready to go?" The blonde asked. Gaara nodded. "Great! Follow me!" He chuckled, for no particular reason other than being happy to help somebody.
They walked, mostly in silence, until about ten minutes into the walk, Gaara spoke up.
"Where are we going?" He asked, looking around. He didn't really recognize this part of the town.
"Hm? Oh! To my old training feild. It's where my first real lesson in hunting was given." Naruto explained. Gaara nodded, time to get to work.
"Is it the the same place all beginning Hunters first learn?"
"Nah. It is often used, I'll give you that. But each Advanced Hunter takes the rookies to whatever ground they want. Be it by the Kohaku River or a grassy field, like where we're going. It doesn't much matter. Mostly depends on personal taste and abilities."
"Abilities?" Gaara pressed.
"Yes. All Hunters, or all good Hunters, I should say, are known as Seconds. I'm sure you've heard the term before. Supernatural beings are known as Firsts, Hunters with powers, like myself, are known as Seconds. Then regular humans, like you, are Thirds."
"How demeaning." Gaara suppressed another grin. "What kind of powers do you have?"
"I agree, but I'm not sure where the labels originated. I'll show you some of my abilities in training. If not tonight than tomorrow. Tonight, I'm mostly going to teach you the basics of hand to hand." Gaara's eyes hardened. That was probably most of the useful information he would get tonight.
"Ah! We're here!" Naruto grinned and led Gaara down a large, grassy hill until the duo stood in front of three large pillars. Gaara lifted a nonexistent eyebrow, wondering if they were used for torture. If they weren't, they sure as Hell could be. The blonde removed his backpack and started pulling things out.
Among them, two targets and several traditional Hunter blades, known as kunai. He used two kunai to make the targets stay on two different logs.
"There we are! Now then." He grabbed Gaara's arm and walked a few yards away from the targets. "We'll start kind of close, since this is probably your first time."
"Not exactly. I went to the academy for a short period of time, remember?" Gaara mentioned.
"Oh right, right." He laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Well, either way. I'll throw a few at the target on the left and you'll have the one on the right." He explained, handing the redhead three kunai.
"Watch me." He instructed. Throwing all three at once, hitting his designated target in a perfectly straight line. The kunai in between hitting the bull's-eye directly.
Gaara rolled his eyes at the pathetic attempt to show off. The redhead sighed and reluctantly threw the first of his blades, missing on purpose. The blade veered off course and hit the large tree stump behind it.
"Hm." He said, pretending to be displeased. Naruto watched closely as he threw the second, this time hitting the target, but no where near the centre.
"Hold on a moment." Naruto said, bending down to move Gaara's legs. Widening his stance. He then stood and got directly behind the teenager. He posed the same way, slightly bent at the knees to lower himself to Gaara's height. Naruto gently rest his arm on Gaara's, one tan hand covering a strikingly pale one. Naruto hadn't really noticed how pale the boy was until he put his hand on Gaara's. The redhead was right, he was cold.
Gaara tensed against Naruto.
"Don't worry. Relax. If you tense up, your movements will be too sharp. Don't throw, but move with me." He hooked his foot under Gaara's and pressed up against him. "Relax." He whispered, pushing the boy's body so it followed his own movements.
The redhead swallowed thickly and wondered, idly, if Naruto had heard it. Relax. He needed to relax. He forced his muscles to calm down. Nobody ever got this close to him, let alone touch him. Nobody. Not even his master.
Eventually, though, he relaxed and almost melted into Naruto, until they were moving in perfect sync. Bodies flowing together like an elegant wave being pushed and pulled by the sway of the moon. Gaara leaned against Naruto gently and the blonde closed his eyes, completely forgetting that he was suppose to be training.
He lifted his arm and Gaara's did the same. They pulled back and leaned forward, as if throwing a kunai. The redhead's freezing body against the blonde's hot one caused a certain pleasant warmth and neither could quite focus on anything. They repeated the motion, over and over and over again. Simply enjoying the closeness before Gaara's eyes widened in realization and he tensed again, snapping off the connection they'd just made.
"I-I think I got it." He said in a whisper, though he wasn't too sure why he was talking so quietly. Naruto backed up a significant amount and walked around to Gaara's left.
"Okay." he coughed uncomfortably. "Good. Right then. Let's… uh…. Let's see if you learned." He said awkwardly. Gaara nodded, eager to leave, he threw the kunai perfectly, hitting the target dead on.
Naruto smiled, forgetting the tension and clapped loudly.
"That was awesome! I might have to look out, you learn fast." He chuckled. Gaara nodded. "Well," Naruto began, looking down at his watch, "I have patrol duty soon. I'll walk you home before I go report in." The blonde smiled, walking over to clean up the supplies. He was a little off put, since they didn't really get to train all that much, because they lost a good chunk of time doing… Whatever it was they just did. Naruto wasn't really too sure what to call it.
After everything was back in his bag he smiled at Gaara. The redhead just looked lazily at him, waiting. He chuckled and they soon began the ten, twelve, minute walk back home. Gaara still felt uncomfortable and refused to look at Naruto.
Just what the hell was that? Was it Naruto's ability? That had to have been it. There was no way anybody could get that close to him, and stay there for so long without him killing them or at least hurting. Yet, the blonde had. It was just so warm next to the blonde. He was like a sun. Perhaps that's what the power was. He released a warm aura that momentarily makes the opponent loose focus so he can attack them.
That had to be it. It was also an equal possibility, considering the blonde's idiocy, that he couldn't quite control it and it accidentally infected him too. That would explain everything.
"Gaara…? Gaara? Gaara! Are you okay?" Naruto grabbed the teens shoulders and shook him gently. The redhead immediately knocked the hands away and kneed Naruto in the crotch.
"I'm sorry! It was an automatic reaction." He lied. He was mostly just sore about letting Naruto that blonde fell to his knees and grabbed the most sensitive part of his body, feeling his eyes water.
"Don't worry about it." His voice sounded a bit higher than usual. "I didn't want kids anyway." He mumbled. Gaara let his lips upturn slightly before dropping the look and kneeling to help Naruto.
"Are you alright?" He asked apathetically. Naruto grimaced, but nodded nonetheless, taking Gaara's offered hand and standing.
"I'm good." He mumbled.
"Why were you shaking me?"
"Because we're here." He said, gesturing to the apartment building. Gaara frowned. How could he have been so oblivious? Was it that damn aura? With a scowl he nodded. Naruto, being the perceptive genius he is, smiled.
"Don't worry. I'll be back tomorrow." He assured. "Hey, I never have to work during the day, what do you say we meet then?" Gaara swiftly shook his head. "Why not?"
"I sleep during the day because…" he bit his lip, trying the think of an excuse. "Because I stay up all night in case vampires attack!" He furrowed his brow, hoping that lam excuse would work.
"Oh! Well, I suppose that makes sense." Naruto nodded. Gaara felt relief wash over him. Nearly caught there. "I'll see you tomorrow!" The blonde grinned, wrapping Gaara up in an awkward one-armed hug, before walking away from the seething redhead.
He didn't want that thing to touch him again. With a huff he turned and stormed into his apartment, his master already sitting there waiting, having let himself in.
"Gaara." He said, voice gravelly.
"Master." He greeted back.
"I suppose all went well?" Gaara nodded, not wanting to tell him how warm and nice the blonde felt against him. Damn brainwashing aura. He'd have to ask Naruto to be a little more careful, since he couldn't outright kill him for it. "Good then. Good. You may document your findings in the folder I left in the kitchen. Disclose all and any information." He said curtly before standing.
"Leaving?" Gaara asked dispassionately.
"Of course. I've got better things to do." He mumbled darkly, slamming the door behind him. Gaara didn't even flinch at the sound, having been long since used to the action.
The redhead plopped down ungracefully on his couch, looking around the dark apartment. He'd never noticed how empty it was. He frowned, suddenly feeling very alone.
He sighed and closed his teal eyes, feeling heavy. He didn't get to kill last night as his master only fed the redhead scraps. He wanted to kill, he really did.
He'd been left alone in the empty, dark apartment again. His master had zero regard for Gaara or his well being. It had never really bothered the redhead before but now something seemed off. He hugged himself, feeling a soft fabric beneath his fingertips.
Naruto's jacket!
He never gave it back. The redhead curled in on himself, clutching at the material. Why was he suppose to trick Naruto? The filthy Hunter surely had it coming, like his master said…. Right?
Gaara's purpose in life was to obey his master and to kill. That was it. That was the bottom line. Then… What was this feeling? What was this doubt?
"Riddle me, riddle me, ree." He sang gently.
"A little man in a tree;
A stick in his hand
A stone in his throat,
If you tell me this riddle
I'll give you a groat."
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If anybody except HeartsNaruto is reading this. XD
Review! -Lunar