So here we are, the first fanfic! This fic is dedicated to my beloved Gaara, who just so happens to be one of my favourite characters out of this glorious anime. XP Gaara's birthday is the same day as I've posted this fic, January 19th, so here is his tribute chapter. It takes place during Shippuden, sometime after the whole "oh, we found Sasuke again!" arc, but probably sometime in between arcs, when there's relative peace around the important parts of the world. This is also going to be one of the few fanfics where NaruGaa is the main focus. XP Now, without further ado, I present:
A Series of Birthdays
Chapter 1
Gaara
"So when's your birthday?" Naruto asked Gaara as the two of them sat in Gaara's room. Naruto was visiting in Sunagakure, partly because he wanted to see his friend, but also largely to do with the fact that Tsunade was getting tired of hearing people complain about Naruto, and so she sent him away for a while.
"Why do you want to know?" Gaara asked Naruto in reply, staring at the blonde.
"You can't answer a question with another question," Naruto argued. "Why don't you want to tell me when your birthday is?"
"You just answered my question with a question," Gaara pointed out. "Fine. If you must know, it's January 19th. Now tell me why you asked."
Naruto grinned. "That's coming up pretty quickly," he commented. "Got any plans to celebrate?"
Gaara looked startled. "Well...no, not exactly," he admitted. "I've actually never celebrated my birthday. Until recently, nobody cared about me enough to do anything, and I didn't care about any of them, either. And now, it's just become so much of a tradition to not do anything that I don't think anyone's thought of it."
Naruto frowned. "That's no good," he said, "I mean everyone's gotta have some sort of celebration on their birthday. Even I've had something special mostly every year. I mean, even when I was away from Konoha with the Pervy Sage, he always made sure to do something in recognition of the day."
"You forget, Naruto, that I've been alone much longer than you. It may seem odd to someone like you that I'm perfectly alright with not celebrating my birthday, but that's how it is."
The blonde grinned again. "Well, I'm not taking no for an answer. I'm going to make absolute sure you have a celebration this year, and every year from now on. In fact, I think I'm going to start planning right now! I'll see you later, kay?" With that, Naruto left. Gaara sighed, watching his friend go.
It was no secret that Gaara had feelings for Naruto, both his siblings knew this. He'd had these feelings ever since Naruto had helped in Gaara's rescue from the Akatsuki, and therefore his revival. In fact, the only thing stopping Gaara from acting on these feelings was Naruto himself. The blonde was just so oblivious to everything around him, and Gaara knew how much Naruto cared for Sasuke. He probably wouldn't even want to be with me, the redhead thought to himself. All he can think about is Sasuke, even after they found him and lost him again. Naruto wouldn't stop talking about it for over a month...yes, I'm sure of it. He'd never choose me, not while Uchiha Sasuke is still out there. Maybe Kankurou is right...maybe I should just give up. Gaara sighed again and shook his head, then started on some important paperwork. What I decide doesn't matter now. It's all up to him.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Hey Kankurou! Temari!"
The two shinobi looked over to see Naruto running towards them, waving. "Oh, hey Naruto," Kankurou said with a grin. "What's up?"
"I need your guys' help," the blonde boy said once he'd reached them.
"What kind of help?" Temari asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Well, I want to throw Gaara a birthday party this year, but I'm not entirely sure what to do. I figured you guys probably know what he likes better than I do, so I'm sure you could help me out." Naruto grinned.
Temari and Kankurou looked at each other briefly before looking back at Naruto. "Actually," Kankurou said, "you know him the best out of anybody. He may have started opening up more to us since he met you, but even so..."
"Talking about his feelings and his likes doesn't exactly come easy to him," Temari supplied.
Naruto frowned. "So you won't help me?"
"We never said that, did we?" Temari asked, smiling. "We'll help, we just may not be quite the help you're expecting."
Naruto grinned again. "Awesome! Let's get started on planning!"
"Well, we need balloons, that's for sure," Kankurou said.
"And streamers, and cake, and ice cream, and games..."
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
About a week later, it was finally January 19th, Gaara's birthday. He sat in his office, doing pile after pile of paperwork. He sighed deeply. "Who would've thought that being Kazekage would get so tedious after a while?" he said to himself. There was a knock at his door. "Come in," he called out. The door opened and Temari walked in the room.
"Gaara, there's something you've got to come see," she said urgently. Gaara stood up.
"Show me," he said simply. Temari led her brother out of the Kazekage building and into the warm night air, down a couple streets, and then finally to one of the squares in Suna. Gaara blinked in surprise when they got there, looking all around at the multitude of streamers and balloons, all different colours, and the huge sign attached to the two farthest away buildings in the square that said "Happy Birthday, Gaara". But what he stared at most of all was the huge swarm of people standing there. He only recognized a few at first glance, like Kankurou, Baki, Matsuri, and of course, Naruto standing right in the middle of it all with a huge grin on his face.
"I toldja I'd make sure you had a celebration this year," the blonde Jinchuuriki said as Gaara made his way over to him, still looking around at all the people.
"Is the whole village here?" Gaara asked after a while, his eyes much wider than most people had ever seen them.
"Pretty much," Naruto replied. "I think there were a couple people who said they had something else to do, but for the most part, as soon as I told them it was a birthday party for you, they couldn't get here fast enough. They all love you, Gaara."
Kankurou clapped his hands together once. "Alright, enough chatter, it's time for cake!"
Gaara looked at the many tables on the sidelines, filled with different kinds of party food, and then he saw the largest table of all, where there was a huge cake in all the colours of the rainbow – and then some. "Nobody knew what your favourite colour is," Naruto explained, "so we just went with all of them."
"Red," Gaara whispered, staring in awe at the huge confection. "My favourite colour is red."
Naruto grinned. "Well, now we know for next year. Go on over there and take a closer look."
Gaara did as he was told, walking over to the table with the cake. On the very top was a little miniature figure of himself, with his sand gourd on his back, and fake sand surrounding him in swirls. It was a very detailed little figure; whoever designed it had even managed to draw in the symbol on his forehead. Gaara turned around to see Naruto, Temari, Baki, Kankurou, and Matsuri standing right there.
"This is...this is amazing," he said simply. "Who did this?"
"I baked the cake," Matsuri said, looking rather proud of herself.
"And I made the figure," Kankurou said. "Look, it moves." He put a hand out and used his chakra strings to make the little mini Gaara move its arms, and the sand moved around as well. Gaara smiled, a very rare occurrence, even now. He looked straight at Naruto, who was also smiling.
"As amazing as it is," Temari said, "it's got to be cut. All these people are waiting for cake."
"Aw man, do we have to cut it?" Matsuri whined. "I worked so hard to get it just perfect!"
"Matsuri, you must have known that this would happen," Baki said. "Why else would you make a birthday cake?"
"Fine, but I get to cut it!" Nobody argued with Matsuri, and soon enough, she was handing out cake to everyone, starting with Gaara of course.
"This is too much, Naruto," Gaara said once they'd each gotten their cake, and had wandered a little bit away from the rest of the people. "When you said you'd make sure my birthday was celebrated this year, I thought you meant just a little party of maybe the two of us, Kankurou, and Temari, not something this large."
Naruto laughed. "You should know me well enough by now to know that I don't do things halfway. If I'm throwing a party for someone, I'm going to go all out! Of course, your brother and sister helped a lot...mostly just in getting everyone together, but still. Besides, you're my friend. I'd do anything for a friend."
Gaara looked down at his feet. It's now or never, I suppose, he thought. "A friend...is that all you think of me as? Just a friend?"
Naruto looked at Gaara in confusion, putting both their plates on a table near them. "What are you talking about?"
"I have long thought of you as much more than a friend, Uzumaki Naruto, and I've hoped that you may think the same of me. But I should know better. As long as Uchiha Sasuke is still out there, you will never be able to think of anyone in that way."
Naruto's face softened. "Gaara, I-"
"Alright, everyone's got their cake, so it's time for presents!" Matsuri announced loudly, making both boys look up at her. "I get to go first!"
"Nuh uh," Kankurou said, "Temari and I do. We're his family."
"Well I'm his student!" Matsuri argued. "I think I deserve to go first!"
"You're all forgetting that I'm his sensei," Baki said. "That means I get first dibs!"
"No, we do!" Temari said, gesturing to herself and Kankurou.
"It doesn't matter who gets to go first," Naruto said, drawing everyone's attention to himself. "Everybody will get to give Gaara a present, just stay calm."
"It's really not necessary," Gaara started, but Naruto stopped him.
"Yes it is. Presents are a huge part of any good birthday experience." He turned his attention to the other people now. "Everybody line up with your present, and give it to him one at a time. He won't open any until the last person has given their present, and it'll be completely his choice which one he opens first, so don't bother pushing and shoving."
Everybody did as Naruto said, though there was still a great deal of pushing and shoving. Nearly every person who gave Gaara a gift whispered to him, "Open this one first," as they handed it over. Naruto rolled his eyes, and Gaara just stood there, quietly thanking each of them. Once everybody had gotten a chance to give a gift, Gaara looked up at Naruto. The blonde nodded. "You can start opening them now."
One by one, Gaara opened the presents. There were many duplicates, due to the largeness of the crowd of people, as well as the fact that pretty much nobody knew Gaara well enough to know what he might like. A lot of the presents were various weapons, or sometimes food or items from Suna's many shops. Every time he opened something, Gaara made a point of thanking whoever got it for him, whether he liked the gift or not, and it was impossible to tell from his expression what he thought of anything.
After a very long time, all the presents were opened, and the party guests mostly chatted amongst themselves, and ate snacks off the tables. Everyone basically left Naruto and Gaara alone.
"Wait a minute," Gaara said after a while, "you didn't get me anything."
Naruto grimaced slightly. "I know. I couldn't think of anything good enough to give you, even though Kankurou said I know you best."
Gaara nodded. "It's okay, you don't have to feel bad about it. It's not like I expected anything at all in the way of presents."
Naruto fell silent, something even rarer than Gaara smiling. "What's wrong, Naruto?" Gaara asked, concerned for his friend.
"It's nothing, just...I was thinking about what you said earlier. I guess I never realized how much I talk about Sasuke. It must annoy you a lot." He looked at Gaara with a small smile.
"It's okay, I've gotten used to it. It really doesn't bother me as much as it used to."
"But it still bothers you, doesn't it?" Gaara had no response to that. Naruto sighed. "When you asked me if I only think of you as a friend...well, to tell you the truth, I've been asking myself that same question for the past while now. I mean, I've been spending so much time here, with you, that...You know what? I'm going to make it up to you. I know I didn't get you a present, but I hope this will do."
"Naruto, you really don't have to do-" Gaara was cut off quite suddenly by the pressure of Naruto's lips against his own, and Naruto's arms pulling him close. Gaara stood there, eyes wide, in total shock for a moment. Then, just as Naruto started to pull away, Gaara snapped out of it. His arms went around Naruto's neck, and pulled him back in, kissing him with a fiery passion. Naruto blinked in surprise, then grinned, returning the kiss.
Temari and Kankurou watched this happen, both of them smiling. "Well, it's about damn time!" Kankurou exclaimed. "Looks like our little Gaara has finally grown a pair!" He laughed as Gaara quickly pulled away from Naruto, blushing deeply. Naruto was grinning as well. Matsuri stood there with tears in her eyes.
"No! No, this isn't supposed to happen! Gaara-sama is supposed to be mine!" She dissolved into tears, as did many of the young kunoichi in the crowd who had dreamed that Gaara might one day belong to them.
Naruto laughed. "Too bad," he said softly, just loud enough that Matsuri could hear, "because it looks like he's all mine." He kissed Gaara again, not caring about all the onlookers, and those in the village who weren't crying in despair were cheering, glad that their beloved Kazekage could finally be happy.
"This is the best birthday I've ever had," Gaara whispered to Naruto once they pulled apart again. Naruto laughed.
"Well, Happy Birthday."
End
Yay! Happy ending for my lovely Gaara! Who's next, you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait four more days to find out, or look it up online if you're really that anxious. XP Happy Birthday, Gaara! I love you! Mwah!