Haruhi looked in the mirror as she adjusted her black purple-striped tie. Tying a tie was relatively hard for her at first, but her father helped her out. After she placed the tie under her collar appropriately, she walked over to a chair where her pale blue jacket hung. A sound caught her off-guard as she approached the jacket.

It sounded like hushed whispers. A rumble of various voices was accumulating. What was going on? It sounded like it was coming from outside her apartment. Haruhi raised a brow and lifted the jacket from the chair. She pulled the jacket up her arms and brought the front of it forward. She buttoned the two lone buttons on the jacket and headed for the door.

As Haruhi opened the door a frown came to her face. A crowd of people had collected around the apartment like rain in a puddle. She remembered the last time something like this happened. The Host-Club had decided to pay a visit that day.

Yes, Haruhi remembered that day clearly. The Host-Club had pulled up in a flashy limousine, and stepped out sporting non-school uniform designer outfits. Tamaki had his expensive glamour sunglasses. Come to think of it, that visit to her house was Tamaki's doing too. If she remembered correctly, it was because Tamaki had been worried about her living conditions.

Haruhi snorted at the memory, and couldn't decide whether to be amused or annoyed. Either way it seemed something similar was happening again. However, as she scanned the crowd not a Host-Club member could be seen. The object of everyone's attention was not in her view.

Yet, where was the thing or person stirring such commotion? Haruhi finally noticed that the crowd was focusing on something just beyond her peripheral vision. Haruhi turned her head to look behind her.

"What are you doing?" asked Haruhi incredulously. The maroon-haired stared down at her with his green glassy eyes. He was a sight to see sitting up in the tree beside Haruhi's apartment complex. Haruhi concluded, however, that it was at least better than him hanging upside-down from the tree like the incident yesterday. She was sure that would have caused even more attention to come than they already had.

"I was waiting for you…" Gaara answered after a short pause. He tilted his head as he continued to look at Haruhi. Then he blinked. Haruhi shifted the bag on her shoulder and glanced back at the crowd behind who had not taken their focus off the two. Haruhi sighed and turned back to Gaara's fixated stare.

"Why are you waiting for me in a tree?" Haruhi asked as she seemingly joined in this un-announced staring contest. She did admit the boy looked intimidating sitting up there. The early morning sun appeared to highlight the dark circles around his eyes even more, making his vibrant aqua-marine eyes a prominent focal point on his face.

"Why not?" Gaara stated bluntly. Haruhi couldn't doubt that logic. Haruhi glanced down at her watch. They had to pick up the pace if they were going to make it school. Lowering her arm she prepared to leave.

"Come on, we have to hurry if we are going to be on time," Haruhi said. As she began to walk away in one swift motion Gaara jumped out of the tree. The heads of crowd members of the two teens. Necks craned as they turned the corner and disappeared from their view.

Gaara and Haruhi walked in silence as they continued down on their way to Ouran High school. Haruhi was used to walking alone to school, so the quiet didn't bother her all that much. She was intrigued by the fact, however; that she could still be walking with someone, but still feel like she was alone.

The pair began to turn another corner and Haruhi took this chance to glance over at Gaara. His focus was straightforward, but as soon as he felt her eyes on him he turned his head to gaze at her. Haruhi breathed in and then let the breathe escape before looking ahead again.

"Sorry. I was just curious as to why you were here to pick me up this morning," Haruhi said. There was a brief silence between the two. Haruhi's gaze fell to the sun's early morning rays just beginning to peek over the trees. Gaara seemed to contemplate his answer to the question Haruhi presented before speaking up to break the silence.

"I was fulfilling my duty to the highest extent. If I was to not do it at my best it would not be worth doing. Furthermore, if I cannot protect one person how will I be able to protect thousands more," Gaara said as his eyes seemed to take a far-off look.

"So you did this, because it was your duty?" Haruhi asked slightly crestfallen (though she didn't understand why), "Yet…what did you mean by being able to protect thousands?"

Gaara breathed in deeply and began to pick up his pace. His dark-rimmed eyes gazed towards her for a moment, before looking forward again. Haruhi felt that he was almost reluctant to tell her something.

Haruhi shifted the bag on her shoulder. Then her eyes shifted to the large gourd attached to Gaara's back. Wasn't that heavy? The sound of a throat being cleared was heard. Haruhi snapped her attention back to Gaara's face.

"Where I come from…as well as Sakura and Naruto, ninjas are a very important part in the protection of an entire village. It's our duty and our job. In my village, I have a…very high-ranked position. So it is very important that I must learn how to properly protect those in my care. By taking this job as your body-guard, I hope to better myself," Gaara said, seemingly choosing each word carefully as if not to give everything away fully.

Haruhi still felt irked (for some strange reason) at being some experiment in protection, but she also accepted the fact it was for a good cause. She felt the need to add something more to the conversation after this point, but could find no words to say after that. So she opted, for staying silent. It wasn't long before she realized they were already in front of the school.

The pair kept the silence around them as they began to ascend the stairs up to the third music room. Chatter around them almost ceased as well as wandering eyes followed the new addition to Ouran High school; various girls watched Gaara as he followed Haruhi into the third music Hall. After the two disappeared from sight the chatter erupted again with full force.

The occupants of the third music hall stared curiously at the people that had just entered their little sanctuary. One of these people was their secret little angel in disguise, while the other was a scary looking outsider. The sound of a lap-top being clicked shut rang through the walls of the third music hall, Followed by the sound of a chair screeching against the floor.

"Well how interesting. This is the second time 'you' have entered through this doorway with Haruhi in tow. I'm not sure whether to be impressed or concerned. 'You' have such a way of making an entrance," Kyoya said with this eerie under-lining tone of cynical air.

The host-club was some-what put off by Kyoya's tone, as well as Sakura and Naruto who had entered the room a little before Haruhi and Gaara arrived. Haruhi blinked at Kyoya's strange greeting, and put it off as him about to load large amounts of money on her debt later today. She was partially right…

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about," Gaara retorted coolly back to Kyoya. A stare down began at this point. A sharp pointed glare filtered through Kyoya's black rimmed glasses towards the ninja across the room. Gaara returned the look with an uncomfortable crooked smile as his eyes narrowed slightly.

The tension between the two began building. An electric pulse seemed to almost shoot through them. The masters of icy glares and troubled minds continued to stare each other down. Both princes' of darkness sat confidently on his thrown. The other occupants of the room started becoming un-easy as these two over-whelming powers tried taking the other down in some mental or physiological battle. The group was not actually sure what to call it.

An odd sound stopped the tension in the room and interrupted the quiet. Honey-sempai groaned again as tiny tears began to well up in his eyes. Mori knelt down beside the small teenager to see what was wrong. The room watched on in interest.

"We're all out of sweets…" Honey-sempai said sadly as he licked the remnants of the last cup-cake off his fingers. He was completely un-aware of the tension moments before, for he had been too engrossed in eating his cup-cake. Haruhi almost wanted to laugh. She found it so typical of host-club to get off task sometimes.

"I will see what I can do…" Kyoya said as he adjusted his glasses and went back to his forgotten lap-top. The host-club began to really loosen up after this point. Everything started coming back to normal. Well, relatively normal…

Kaoru and Hikaru were slightly bored. There was no host-king here today to pester. Both gained mischievous grins as they eyed the other un-suspecting blonde in the corner, Naruto. Perfect. He would make a great replacement while the king was away. The twins trickled off to make mischief.

Naruto looked on wearily as the two twins approached. Sakura ignored Naruto's current predicament. Her thoughts were focused on the past. In fact, her thoughts were mainly on the moments that occurred minutes before. When she had watched those two forces go against each other, something had swelled up inside her.

It wasn't a bad feeling. On the contrary, it lit a fire inside her. Those cool glaring eyes, dark aura, and icy nature took a very positive effect on her as it brought back memories of another boy in her past that did things just as similar. Goose-bumps spread across her skin as a pleasurable sigh left her lips. She wondered were her dark prince was right at this moment.

Haruhi watched as everyone did their own thing. Her eyes spotted the clock on the wall and she realized they only had a few minutes before classes actually started. She wondered if she could manage to escape without anyone noticing her missing. With Tamaki not actually here, she might've stood a chance. However, Kyoya decided to ruin her moment with an announcement.

"Now that I have handled the sweets incident. I have another important thing to discuss. Our current 'guests' here in the host-club don't particularly fit in this fine academy. So I believe it would be in our best interest, as well as theirs, to be fitted for school uniforms," Kyoya said.

Naruto didn't look to happy about briefly parting with his orange jump-suit, and Gaara seemed to almost to have a raging rebellious aura about him saying "Hell No". Sakura on the other hand looked worried. She studied the room around her.

"What will my uniform look like? Is it blue too?" Sakura asked as she eyed the baby blue-blazers and black slacks. Kyoya shook his head and lifted up a bag from his desk. He lifted a yellow dress from it and presented it to the room. Sakura blinked at the outfit thrust in front of her.

"This is what you shall be wearing. Luckily enough, we already happened to have an extra dress for you to wear. For the gentlemen however, they will need to be measured and fitted," Kyoya said. Sakura eyed the frilly-yellow dress again with distaste. If need be, she was going to have to fight in that?

"Wait!" Naruto yelled, irritating some of the people in the room, "Will you be deducting money from us to pay for these things? I need at least some money after this for ramen!"

Sakura agreed that Naruto posed an important question. Although, she found his reasoning flawed. Kyoya lifted his little black book from his desk and flipped it open. A Cheshire smile crossed his face, yet he shook his head.

"Oh don't worry. I'm not deducting any money today. I am though, adding money to Haruhi's debt for this little venture," Kyoya said smoothly. Haruhi's eyes grew wide and then frown formed on her face. Her head fell to her chest as she sighed. Why?

A knock was heard on the door and a slim man slipped through the door. In his hand were a note-pad and a yellow measuring tape. The fitter had arrived just in time. Kyoya summoned him over. Gaara looked at the foreign man with disgust.

"No-one is going to touch me…No-one," Gaara said plainly as he glared menacingly at the man with the measuring tape. A smirk appeared on Kyoya's face as he glanced over at Gaara. His eyes glinted in the light.

"Well, I am truly sorry Gaara. Either someone measures you for a uniform or you don't get one. And I'm afraid if you don't receive a uniform you will have to leave by default. You can't measure yourself you know. So Gaara, who shall be measuring you if not this fine craftsman?" Kyoya said smartly.

What Kyoya was unaware of was that he was not the only clever person in the bunch. Gaara held a twisted mind as well. From that twisted mind a great little revenge to Kyoya's comment came. The twisted little mind then told its body to put on a twisted little smile. It did so. Kyoya's plot back-fired.

"Haruhi…"

………………………………….

I am so sorry for the delay. The play rehearsals were a lot more work than expected. Keeping up with the play and my homework was a lot more troublesome than expected. So I'm happy I managed to finally get this up. I hope to get back to that weekly thing I promised last time. Heh. Well, I hope you enjoyed this. And I hope you'll review.

And if you were wondering about the Naruto characters it's after the time skip. Sakura and Naruto are only weary of Gaara, not because they're scared, but because they're scared for what he might do to the host-club if they make him angry enough. Feel free to ask anymore question and I'll be happy to answer. .