Gaara was annoyed. Which meant that if he were any other person he would be ranting and raving at his partner by now. As he wasn't, Sasuke was instead treated to a silent, and extremely intimidating, aura of menace that seemed to surround Gaara. Something that was honestly more effective at unnerving most people than shouting at them. Sasuke, however, just ignored it.

They had been sent out on new mission of sorts, if being sent out to constantly chase rumours of the Resistance counted as a new mission it was what they had been doing before after all, and the time before that, and the time before that. The problem with doing a lot of thee missions and having a good success rate at finding out new potential sources meant that they were now considered sort of experts on the matters, and that, in turn meant even more missions of the same kind.

Gaara had never liked secrets, yet somehow secrets were everything in the world he moved in. The hidden parts of the regime that no one could legitimately know about, those very same parts that they were to deny all knowledge of and of taking part. The torture, the prisons, the body counts. Yet the one person Gaara thought he could count on for honesty was, strangely enough, Sasuke.

They had never gotten along at first, when they were first put together as a team after Gaara's first partner had a terrible accident that Gaara couldn't have saved him from. And okay, maybe he could have saved him if he'd tried harder, but he'd never liked him that much anyway and Gaara was apathetic to what was going on around him.

Then there was Sasuke, an arrogant little kid who'd rubbed Gaara the wrong was instantly. Sasuke had been fresh from the academy and although he was a year older than Gaara he hadn't seen half of what Gaara had already, or so he thought. There had been hints of a darker part of Sasuke's past that Gaara wasn't privy too, but, at first he'd not bothered to question it as he didn't care, and now he allowed Sasuke that small amount of privacy partly because he never wanted to talk about his own past anyway and partly because Sasuke had earned his grudging respect.

And he did respect Sasuke, which was a strange realisation from someone who had no feelings on any matter of the regime before, he'd accepted the tasks assigned to him as he had nothing else and knew no other way to live his life. But Sasuke had managed to hurt him, hurt Gaara who was hailed as an exceptional ANBU agent as he'd returned from every mission without a scratch on him and then he'd been forced to stumble back to base with Sasuke, arm in a sling, after a mission and it wasn't the mission itself that did it to him it had been his partner. He had made some sort of comment that apparently Sasuke didn't like and the next thing he knew was that Sasuke had turned on him.

It was then that he'd found out that Sasuke was funny in a way, funny peculiar that is. He didn't like blood everywhere, and he didn't like it when bodies were torn apart. So Gaara found himself curbing his blood-up-all-the-walls killing habits and Sasuke seemed to relax a tiny amount. Gaara didn't think he was being considerate at the time, for his partner who'd attacked him so suddenly was shaking with a mixture of rage and something else Gaara couldn't place.

Strangely enough it had never crossed his mind to turn Sasuke in for attacking him, he could have branded it as treason even and had him executed but Gaara had written the report himself and put his wounded shoulder down to a lucky shot from the chaotic rebel group they had been hunting down (who were possibly part of the Resistance, they didn't have enough evidence to prove if they were or weren't but their assignment had called for them to be executed). And he'd allowed the spotless record he'd been so proud of be ruined for Sasuke.

It was around this time that Sasuke had unknowingly become the one person Gaara felt he could count on, they had spoken to each other over time and Gaara had come to learn more about him. He had, however, only discovered that Sasuke had a brother when they had both happened to call in at the same ANBU base over near the border to the Land of Waves.

It that taken a lot for Gaara to conceal his surprise at the existence of another Uchiha in ANBU, before he had ignored all the petty gossip that circulated ANBU bases, and it was his old partners interest in spreading rumours that never endeared him to Gaara, and it was Sasuke's interest in privacy that Gaara sort of liked. It was only when Itachi appeared on the scene and Gaara felt the tiniest stirrings of something deep inside him that he realised that he had assumed the Sasuke's desire for privacy didn't extend to him.

He had thought he had known his partner well enough by now that there were no big secrets between them but first there was Itachi and now, upon discovering the small flower shaped necklace in Sasuke's possession, there was this. And Gaara was familiar enough with himself to realise that the something he had felt before was hurt, with a little bit of betrayal mixed in for good measure. Gaara had thought Sasuke was beyond keeping things from him now, especially after the big Itachi conversation they had when a mission had gone bad and survival looked like it wasn't an option anymore. Apparently Gaara had been wrong. He hated being wrong as well.

Gaara had first found the necklace a few days ago, it was when they had stopped off to see what their next mission was supposed to be, something that turned out to be a complete waste of time they had been given nothing new. But Gaara had found something in Sasuke's bag which had surprised him.

He hadn't been deliberately going through it but they had been given some extra supplies and as Sasuke hadn't been in the room they were sharing Gaara thought it wouldn't matter if he put it in Sasuke's pack himself, after all as far as he'd known at the time it contained the same as his did. The necklace had thrown him though, he had noticed something shining and had a rather unfortunate fit of curiosity that Gaara wasn't often prone to. He had pulled out the delicate flower shaped necklace with some confusion as he didn't know where or how Sasuke had come to own such a thing.

The ANBU rulebook would have him report it. They weren't meant to carry personal trinkets with them, by entering ANBU they had effectively given up their right to a separate identity to the one being an ANBU agent provided them. It was only really for ease of use that they kept their names because rattling off rank numbers was something that even the administrators could admit was ridiculous. Besides if need be names could be interchangeable for the sake of the mission. But as far as Gaara knew Sasuke had kept his name, and Gaara was the only name he had known, whether it was the one he was born with was another matter altogether.

Regardless, Gaara had said nothing during their temporary rest stop at an ANBU base. He wondered what was so important to Sasuke that he would keep it, he knew it wasn't from a girl, Sasuke never seemed to go off base and meet anyone, Gaara would have noticed that, so Gaara could only assume that it was something Sasuke had kept with him for years from before he entered ANBU.

"What's bothering you?" Sasuke asked and Gaara just gave him a stony look.

"Nothing." He said firmly and Sasuke looked like he wanted to say something but he just shook his head instead. They continued walking in silence for a while longer and Sasuke was still aware of Gaara's eyes practically burning a spot in the back of his head. It had been that was for days and Sasuke was slowly running out of patience, not that he ever had that much to start off with.

Sasuke stopped walking and turned around, and it was only Gaara's quick reflexes that stopped him from walking into Sasuke.

"Look if there's something you want to say just say it." Sasuke said.

"I could say the same to you," Gaara said evenly and Sasuke frowned at him.

"What?" He asked.

"Is there anything you feel like telling me?" Gaara asked and Sasuke half shrugged.

"Not really."

"I see." Gaara watched Sasuke silently and Sasuke began to feel slightly uncomfortable. It was even stranger as any form of heart to heart he had had with Gaara never came willingly, they were never ones to do the big soul searching talks while they travelled under the stars or anything like that. Any big revelations came when they felt they had no other option but now it felt as if Gaara was waiting for him to say something, and Sasuke didn't know what he was expecting him to say. Gaara looked slightly put out.

"Just come out and say it, something's obviously bothering you." Sasuke said, sounding exasperated.

"Who did the necklace belong to?" Gaara asked and Sasuke froze. He should have known better, Gaara wasn't exactly known for his tact but this was the last thing he had expected the other man to say.

"I-" Sasuke started and then he trailed off, not really sure what to say.

"It must have meant something for you to actually keep it despite everything." Gaara said.

"It's nothing." Sasuke said evenly.

"Don't lie to me, I thought we were beyond that by now. I know you and I know when you're lying to me." Sasuke sighed and glanced around, he took his bag off and sat down on a large, protruding tree trunk and put his head in his hands.

"It is nothing," He said again, and Gaara frowned at him. "I found it in that village, Konoha, in the snow by the body. I don't know why I kept it, it just seemed- I don't know." Gaara took a seat on the ground opposite Sasuke and looked at him thoughtfully.

"Did you tell anyone?" Sasuke asked.

"Do you think they would have let you walk out on another mission if I did?" Gaara countered and Sasuke shook his head.

"No," He paused. "Thank you."

"Is there anything else you've been keeping from me?" Gaara asked and Sasuke could have sworn that for a moment that Gaara seemed upset at the thought of him keeping secrets.

"Someone had seen the body" Sasuke said slowly, "They'd written Rest in Peace in the snow." Gaara sighed.

"Well, by now people know to keep their mouths shut so you might be alright there." Sasuke nodded and pulled the necklace out of his bag.

"He probably got a better memorial than most people out there with that," He said running his thumb over the petals.

"He probably got more than we ever will as well." Gaara muttered, he reached out to ask for a look at the necklace without saying anything and Sasuke passed it over. "Do you think it was his? The man from the Resistance?"

"Probably, it seems a bit much for someone from that village to have."

"It looks old, it's what I imagine a family heirloom to look like." Sasuke gave Gaara an odd look, he often forgot that Gaara had never experienced any kind of family life.

"It probably was." He said softly. "So what do we do now. I've managed to incriminate us both."

"No one else knows about it yet." Gaara said, "Besides, maybe we could use this and find out more about that Resistance member."

"We know roughly from the direction he was travelling in that he probably came from one of the outlying villages near the Fire Temple so if we look there maybe someone will recognise it. It's a long shot but it's probably better than chasing rumours for months."

"So this is probably what they call a blessing in disguise." Gaara said and Sasuke almost smiled.

"Even if I was being stupidly sentimental at the time." He sighed, "I'm not good at this," He muttered. "Itachi would never have slipped up like that." Gaara frowned.

"We're all only human. Despite what they want us to believe, and some of us are probably a little more human than others." He said digging in the ground with a stray stick. "I've never experienced the things you have so I can't pretend to understand feelings like sentimentality but it can only be good, right? I mean it's better to have that then be what I am. I can't feel anything unless I'm hurting someone."

Sasuke sat back on his hands and gave Gaara an odd look.

"I don't believe that." He announced and Gaara looked up at the pattern he was digging in the dirt. Sasuke was refusing to look at him though. "Maybe it was true before but I don't believe that now."

"It's true when I'm fighting someone, when I'm hurting them is when I'm the most alive."

"That's the same with all of us, it's the adrenaline." Sasuke said dismissively. "Sometimes, there's more than just that in you, you're the same as the rest of us deep down." He continued flatly, "you might have been one of the best ANBU operatives they've ever seen, until I ruined that for you." He added with a smirk that had Gaara almost rising to the bait to protect his former reputation as unbeatable, "but you're as human as the rest of us are." Sasuke paused, "except maybe my brother the automaton."

Gaara nodded and they fell silent for a moment.

"Come on." Sasuke said suddenly, "I've had enough of this conversation." Gaara nodded.

"One more thing," He added, and Sasuke glanced back at him. "Thank you for actually trusting me with this."

"You've been glaring at me for a week," Sasuke said, "I had to tell you something."

"If that's all it takes for you to crack then you'd be shit on the receiving end of torture and interrogation." Sasuke snorted.

"If it's anyone else but you I'd be fine." He said standing up, "besides you seem surprised that I'd trust you after everything we've been through of course I do." He said frankly.

"You never said anything about it to start off with."

"Because it would incriminate you as well."

"It's too late for you to be worrying about that now, I think we've both said enough to each other to be arrested for talking ill of our beloved leader and country." Gaara said and Sasuke gave him a half smile.

"This was different," Sasuke said softly, "and besides if you want to keep going with all this sentimental talk I'd rather nothing happened to you."

"You forget that you are the only person who ever really injured me, you screwed my perfect record and since then I keep getting injured." Gaara protested.

"This is about your sprained ankle again isn't it?" Sasuke said dryly, "you just don't like to admit that it was an accident and it was your own fault anyway."

"It was not." Gaara said hotly and Sasuke's expression seemed to soften slightly.

"I never wanted you to find this out," He said suddenly.

"Even though you trust me?" Gaara asked sounding slightly confused.

"Because I trust you, I didn't want you to have to lie to everyone and cover this up for me. It's not right." Gaara was about to protest when Sasuke spoke again. "You're the only person I have left." Sasuke said firmly.

And that was it. End of discussion. This afternoon was going to be like one of the many other moments where they showed themselves to be real human beings only for it to be swept under the carpet and never spoken of again.

Gaara watched Sasuke as he picked his bag up again and got ready to move out again. He felt a heaviness on his person that he had never experience before, a sort of sadness, maybe. If he was all Sasuke had now, at least he had people he cared about before.

Whereas for Gaara, Sasuke was the only person he had ever had that he felt he could really rely on and he felt like he was losing him already to the bigger things. Things that they never touched on despite all the other ANBU rules they had broken. Those parts deep inside them that said somewhere that what they were doing was wrong, those parts that had to be ignored. So they packed up and got ready to head towards the Fire Temple to see what other members of the Resistance they could find as it was their job and neither of them knew anything else anymore.