Disclaimer: Nope don't own Naruto, and I never will. I'm only saying this because I'm at gunpoint. I do own Naruto…I mean I don't!
Story: Fem!Naru Minato tells Kushina to flee to Suna, if something were to go wrong in Konoha after his death. Because of this, somehow Naruto is raised in the Sand.
Set as an AU.
Spoilers: …Probably?
Warnings: The usual stuff? I mean, most people who read my stuff are repeated readers, so they should know…otherwise…eh…
Pairings: Yondy!Kazekage/Fem!Naru

Suna no Hoshi
Chapter Fourteen: Precious and Fragile Things

Rasa was close to pulling his hair out, when the situation worsened as Naruto burst through his door and looked around in alarm.

"Kazekage-sama, are you alright?! Where's the intruder? Don't worry; I won't let anything happen to you!" Naruto growled protectively.

His stomach dropped and he just wanted to disappear off the face of the earth. And if not that, then he would like to just quietly crawl under the covers, pretend he didn't exist, and if possible die.

But Kami, could she stop being so sweet?

"Naruto, I'm fine," he said tiredly, slowly running a hand down his face.

Ugh. For her to come find him after that nightmare (never mind how it started, which made him unable to look at her further)…Hell, for him to have had a nightmare in the first place, and for her to come witness the aftermath…

Someone up there really hated him.

"I had a bad dream," he reluctantly admitted.

Immediately, she blinked at him before standing there awkwardly and her arms coming to lie limp by her side, kunai held loose in hand.

"Oh, um, okay. I, uh…should get back to bed," she finished off lamely. "Good…good night."

She left quickly and he groaned, hiding his face in his hands. Why did this have to happen to him?

He lied back and tried to fall asleep, but he couldn't fall asleep now. Feeling too awake, he sighed and got out of bed. Deciding to try to do something to take his mind off the nightmare (and memories of a kiss that didn't really happen), he went to go head out of his room. Hopefully, he'd end up feeling sleepy too.

But just as he opened his door, he stared in disbelief at the girl who fell back, still sleeping.

Apparently, Naruto had taken up guard against his door, sitting down cross-legged on the floor, and had fallen asleep in the meanwhile.

Face turning red, he looked away and his face was reticent (but extremely embarrassed) as he leaned down and picked her up, sliding an arm underneath her neck and the other under her knees. For his troubles, he got smacked in the face as Naruto turned in his arms and snuggled into his chest (this was turning more horrible by the second).

He swore he'd retaliate against all these problems stacking up against him, by stealing her noodles for the next two weeks. She was the cause of it all, damn it. Served her right.

Rasa reiterated that threat in his head when he had just placed Naruto into her bed and gone to pull the covers over her, when her arms shot out and she'd grabbed hold of him. In his surprise, she'd managed to pull him down and secure him to her side as she cuddled into him, having a vicious grip latched onto him and refusing to let him go. His face, unfortunately, was burning bright red by then.

"…Kaze-Rasa…don't…stop…" he managed to hear some of Naruto's mumblings.

He stared blankly at her, while his mind raced with thoughts it really shouldn't be racing with. He put the brakes on that immediately (though that odd combined nickname thing she did with his title and name gave him a pause –probably as if she couldn't make up her mind to call him 'Kazekage-sama' or finally 'Rasa' like he'd been needling her to do).

For all he knew, she was probably trying to get him to stop stealing her noodles in her dream (which he was definitely now planning on doing in real life).

Yes, that's it. That's what her dream was about.

He gingerly pried her arms off of him and quickly escaped, slipping a pillow back into her grip. He blinked as he watched her move her head closer to the pillow and rub her face against it, purring. Rasa just sighed, moving to go towards the door, when he froze at the sight of Gaara watching with wide eyes.

"…You move fast, Otou-san. Maybe you should wait until she's awake though."

Rasa twitched. "You little –!"

He let out some Gold Dust and had it dart towards Gaara, who (he swore this wasn't just his imagination) briefly smirked before disappearing off with a sand shunshin. Rasa quietly cursed, though he glanced to make sure the commotion hadn't woken up Naruto.

He swore his kids (and Naruto) were going to be the death of him.

Slipping out of her room, he headed to the kitchen and got himself a glass of wine. On second thought, he grabbed the bottle too, and then headed to the living room where he started a fire in the grate of the fireplace before sitting down on the floor and leaned against the couch. He sighed again, and took a large gulp of wine as he stared at the fire. It was rather cold that night…

Staring at the color of the wine, he vaguely heard Naruto's voice laugh in his head and comment that it was the color of his hair.

She would think so, wouldn't she?

It was…a bit of a long time since he'd last had any alcohol. Since before the night with Yashamaru and when Gaara was younger actually…

He wasn't much of a drinker. He knew when he drank, it was when things were bad. And when he drank, he drank a lot.

Rasa hadn't needed to before. Though he had plenty of reasons and stress to have turned to the bottle, he had Karura and then he had Minato and Kushina. He even had Baki, who was still a bit of a panic-driven, clueless to things guy back then as he was now. And then near the end of the war, he'd also had first little Temari and then Kankuro.

And then he lost practically everyone and he didn't know who to turn to, so he started binge drinking when he was really, really feeling messed up. He didn't do it often, but he knew when he did, it just went south really quickly and really badly.

So then there was the whole Gaara and Yashamaru thing, and Tsunade was there and she got a huge big clue about his problem since she'd been diagnosing and healing him after the whole stupid "locked-in and deprivation tactic" he'd used with Gaara.

According to her, while he wasn't dependent on alcohol and wasn't a "classic alcoholic," he was definitely an alcohol abuser, which still classified him as an alcoholic all the same. Particularly that when he did drink, he was a binge drinker and he just really drank heavily. While he was only at the edge of alcohol abuse and not yet into alcohol dependency, Tsunade warned him that there were still heavy consequences to his kind of drinking.

There were also supposedly two types of alcoholics: "those who have antisocial and pleasure-seeking tendencies, and those who were anxiety-ridden people who were able to go without drinking for long periods of time but were unable to control themselves once they started." He qualified as the second.

Then Tsunade bluntly told him she knew that he hated work, hated being Kazekage, was sometimes resentful of the job (and village, but he won't say anything aloud about that, even if she accused him of it in front of everyone), and was always stressed out due to the job. She then told him that if he kept being stressed returning to work and combined it with binge drinking, he was going to end up having a heart attack on a Monday.

To which she then even more bluntly told him that older men with a history of drinking, as well as those with depression, were high risks for suicide.

That he refused to answer her told her easily that yes, he was suffering from depression and that he had sometimes thought dying was a better alternative.

Of course she wasn't a psychiatrist or anything, but she was capable of detoxing him and then threatening him with the ghosts of Karura, Kushina, and Minato. And Kushina's ghost had been enough that time to get him to leave his office and go after Yashamaru and Gaara, so all three got him to reluctantly promise Tsunade he wouldn't go back to it.

He'd thrown himself into the search for Naruto, while drearily continuing to look after the village. He was unhappy, but the search was enough to make him content and when he was single-mindedly focusing on it, there wasn't any room for anything else. The only other thing that had kept him afloat had been his kids.

But then Naruto had come into his life and he actually felt alive and he wasn't depressed anymore and drinking never entered his mind –

He just hadn't counted on feeling the way he did about her.

He was very sure that Minato and Kushina really would kill him over this, and he was uncomfortable about it himself, because of her age and because she was…Naruto. She was someone he was happy talking to, being around, made him happy –and he didn't want to change things between them. He didn't want to make things bad between them, or awkward or…

He didn't want to lose her.

When Rasa looked down, his glass was finished and he'd realized about a quarter of the wine bottle was already empty. He grimaced and decided that maybe he should stop while he was ahead.

"R-Rasa-kun?" he heard the sleepy voice of Naruto and he looked over to the hallway's entrance to see her standing there, rubbing at her eyes adorably with the sleeve of her pajama top.

"Naruto? What are you doing up? You should go back to bed," he said, feeling completely tired.

"Woke up," she murmured, stumbling slightly as she made her way towards him. She plopped down beside him and pulled her knees to herself, wrapping her arms around them. She started to rock slightly, and he could glimpse her eyes were a bit glazed.

"Naruto, are you alright?" he asked, becoming a bit worried as he reached out and gently touched her shoulder.

She froze and then the next thing he knew she was slowly turning to him…and then crawling on top of him and settling on his lap…and then she was right in front of his face and he could feel her breath fanning across his face…and there was this look in her eyes and she was coming closer and he couldn't move and he guiltily knew he didn't want to stop her either and then she was –

She was kissing him. She was moving her lips against his and he wasn't protesting, and suddenly her slender hands were moving up his arms and gripping his shoulders hard. His hands were moving on their own and gripping her waist, and she just had to press down at the same time as she licked his lips. The groan he let out against her was only mildly embarrassing, but he could hardly care about it right then.

She kissed his ear and nibbled his earlobe, before pulling back and he was blinking dazedly in the aftermath.

"Consider that a gift, because I highly doubt my kit will be anywhere near as responsive to you like that for a long while, the oblivious gaki."

He stiffened up and immediately looked at her, and she had red, slitted eyes with an amused smile that mocked him. He knew without being told that this was the Kyuubi no Youko.

He narrowed his eyes and had begun to move into a wary stance, when it held up its hands and rolled its eyes. Kyuubi in Naruto's body snorted.

"Relax," Kyuubi started, tone bored. "I haven't usurped her body or anything. At least permanently. We have an agreement where I can be trusted enough to use her body to borrow her senses, to be able to have some form of freedom. Although usually when she's aware and allows it –I just decided to not abide that now, just for little ol' you; I got tired of watching this little dance around and also was more than a little entertained that one of the most powerful ninja in the Nations was acting lovesick for my kit, of all people. Surprise, surprise. I really couldn't let it pass."

Rasa frowned, but kept watching it uneasily. "I…I wasn't…I was keeping away."

Kyuubi snorted again. "Yes, yes. Whatever. I don't care, human. Besides, you should be grateful for it. You won't get an opportunity like this for a long time. You should take advantage of it."

"Absolutely not!" Rasa hissed, full out glaring at the bijuu who was occupying Naruto's body. "Bring back Naruto's body to bed and let her sleep. Just…just leave me the hell alone!"

The Nine-tailed Fox scoffed. "Fine. Suit yourself. It's your loss. This is probably not going to repeat for a long time."

Kyuubi in Naruto's body got up languidly, stretching and cracking her neck smoothly. Guiltily, Rasa didn't miss or look away from the small expanse of skin that showed as Kyuubi stretched and the bottom of Naruto's top lifted up. When Rasa quickly moved his eyes away and accidentally looked up at Naruto's face, Kyuubi was smirking knowingly.

"Night, human. Good luck with your pathetic affections."

It left and Rasa was alone again. He stared down at his empty wine glass lying on the floor and reached out and morosely flicked it away.

He grabbed the bottle instead.

When he awoke, his head was pounding and someone was poking his shoulder. He miserably opened his eyes and was about to yell at the person who was annoying him, only to see Baki staring at him in worry.

"Sorry," Baki muttered. "I should stop poking now."

Rasa stayed quiet as Baki moved away, and sat up slowly after. His head began to pound even more and he wasn't looking forward to rummaging around for some aspirin to help with his headache. His hangover was horribly massive, and judging by the completely empty wine bottle by his feet, he'd drunk himself to the point where he'd blacked out at some point. He'd probably had just completely passed out even.

"I'd accuse you of being a high-maintenance alcoholic, if I didn't know you don't drink like this all the time. But then again, as a high-maintenance alcoholic, you'd be acting normal and living and performing life with no signs, and keeping your drinking life separate." Baki was still sounding accusatory as he scowled at Rasa.

"…You're too loud."

Baki sweatdropped and Rasa just groaned, plopping back sideways on the couch. He grabbed a pillow and smothered it onto his head, trying to block out everything.

"Well, just here to make sure you're alive and that you're alright." Though Baki sounded unhappy, Rasa could hear the undertone of relief and he felt bad about snapping at the other and about this whole thing.

"You didn't have to come here. I would've been fine," Rasa muttered.

Baki snorted. "No, actually, I kinda did. Especially after Naruto came screaming and panicking into my apartment at four in the morning, and dragging me out of bed and all the way to here."

Rasa's eyes widened. "She was screaming and panicking? She…she saw me like this?"

Baki huffed, irritably grabbing the pillow and whacking him on the head with it, expounding on his headache.

"Yes. She was and she did. You really scared the shit outta her, Rasa. You really think she's not going to freak out when you're just passed out and unresponsive on the fucking couch?"

Rasa winced. "I…I didn't want to upset her. Did my kids…?"

'No," Baki answered in a short tone. "Naruto, actually, thought of them. Didn't want to panic and worry them, so when she found you like this, she went to me. After I got here, she made sure to distract and draw them away by making them breakfast. She covered for you and said you were working already, and she used her 'Prince Aura' to get them to go out and do separate jobs as a distraction. Kankuro and Gaara are currently detained at the greenhouses, and Temari is working Gate duty."

Damn it. He was feeling crappy physically and emotionally right then. It was almost enough to make him want to go drink himself into a stupor again, but then again, that was what got him into this mess in the first place.

"I gotta go. Take the day off, Rasa. I'll streamline and make sure things go smoothly at the office for you today. Just relax, enjoy the silence and the rest. A break will do you some good," Baki patted his shoulder gently. "I'll see you later."

He left and Rasa was miserable. He couldn't see how he could relax and let himself rest, when he was all agitated and pissed off at himself for all of these problems. Gritting his teeth, he harshly pressed the palms of his hands against his closed eyes.

First things first –a huge glass of water and aspirin.

He could probably sleep off a bit of his hangover for a few hours, a hot shower would help after, and then he could get some food in him…He'd probably be looking like he was back to normal, if not actually was.

But as he entered the kitchen, he couldn't help but stop and flinch. Naruto was frantically scrubbing at a pan and looking like she was doing dishes, and hadn't seem to notice him there or have heard him. He should have noticed that Baki hadn't mentioned where Naruto was, and should have figured she might have still been in the house.

One more step was louder than he would have liked, but it alerted her to him being there and she whipped around, still holding pan and sponge in either hand. He flinched again as he noticed the obvious puffy red eyes and slightly red nose, and felt horrible that he'd made her cry and worry over himself so much.

"Naruto?" he hesitantly called out.

She fidgeted before finally putting the sponge and pan down on the sink, and washed her hands really quickly. She then grabbed a cup and filled it with cold water, before reaching close by and grabbing a pair of already set aside aspirin pills. She marched over to him and shoved her items at Rasa, still not talking or looking at him. He took the stuff from her, and quickly downed the pills before gulping down at least half of the glass.

"Naruto," he tried again, putting down the glass on the nearest surface to him.

Except she'd interrupted him by painfully hitting his arm. Blinking, he began to gape before noticing she seemed to be trembling. When she looked up, he was horrified to find she was crying again. Frozen at the sight of her crying, he was a bit out of it and just watched as she rushed at him and began angrily hitting his chest. He tentatively grabbed her wrists and stopped her, but she wasn't done.

"Idiot! Jerk! Dumbass! You're so stupid! Don't ever do something brainless like that again! You had me so worried!" she screamed at him, before she slumped against him and started crying against his chest.

He held her gently against himself, and inwardly cringed. He felt even more worse than before.

"I promise," he swore. "I won't ever go drinking like that. Or even ever, if you want."

She clutched tighter onto him in response, starting to sniffle a bit. He squeezed her gently.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. "Please forgive me?"

"Only if you really won't ever do something like that again," she muttered. "You…you really scared me. I was really worried. I thought you…"

"I know. I'm sorry," he said again. "I…I never wanted you to feel like this. I didn't want to hurt you like this. I'm so sorry I worried you so much. I didn't want that at all."

He could hear her swallow and let her pull away from him, with her rubbing at her eyes.

"Kazekage-sama is irresponsible…You shouldn't do such reckless –"

But his eyes darkened and he'd just instinctively pushed her against the table and cornered her. And hell, he was already at this point, what was a little more?

Plastered against her, his bowed head over her shoulder was an ideal place for her to hear him clearly. And she was trapped, especially with his arms on either side of her and clutching tightly onto the table's edge.

"Don't call me that," he growled.

"Call you w-what?" she inhaled sharply, taken aback at the turnaround of things.

He leaned back a little and angled his face close to hers, staring deeply into her eyes. She hid her shiver at the dark look in them, and at how intense they were at the moment.

"'Kazekage-sama,'" he scowled heavily. "Don't call me that. If you're going to call me that in front of people, fine. I'll deal with it. But like this, alone…even if you won't call me Rasa, you could always go back to calling me Tenoh. It's okay. I wouldn't mind. Call me Tenoh if you want, but I don't want to be Kazekage-sama to you," he voiced firmly, and he really wished she would catch onto the pain in his voice.

As he moved back just the slightest, he could see her face was tilted upwards to see him, and her eyes were still a bit watery. How strange how fragile she seemed right then, given how she normally was. But she'd always been fragile around and only with him…

'How precious you are to me…'

He moved his head closer to hers again, and he could see her eyes widening the closer he got. He hovered before moving his head and sliding his cheek against hers, stopping there and just resting against her. He breathed in deeply and inhaled her scent contentedly.

She didn't know what was wrong with her heart.

The day was spent quietly and together. He'd nudged her over back to the sink, and had taken to drying the dishes as she washed (though she was washing much less frantically as she had been earlier). The dish washer was neglected for the time being, as the activity kept them grounded and allowed them quiet and a time to comfortably be next to each other.

He went ahead with his original plans, and after his shower he'd walked out to find a small meal set aside for him on the kitchen table for lunch. He ate quickly and searched out Naruto, who was quietly sitting on the couch and curled up in a ball, staring off into space and looking troubled. He felt guilt swell up in him again and he gingerly came over and sat next to her. He pulled her close to him and she silently nestled comfortably to his side.

"I didn't have anyone I was really close to in my life," she murmured. "You were the first, you know. And then everyone else followed. But you…Tenoh was the first person I ever really let in. If you go away, I don't know what I would do."

"I promise I'm not going anywhere," he murmured back to her, squeezing her to his side. "I promise."

He'd always been careless about himself and his own health before, but it seemed that he had better take better care of himself, if only so she wouldn't worry and become sad.

"I'm sorry," he whispered again, and was grateful to find she'd fallen asleep on him. He swallowed regretfully and kissed her forehead, before staring off in deep thought. Eventually, he'd fallen asleep as well.

His kids came late in the day, just as sun was setting in Suna.

"Yo! Dad, are you 'messing around?'" Kankuro yelled out as his greeting, entering the home before either of his two siblings. "Naruto, I got you some herbs and spices!"

When they heard no answer (especially an irritated yell from their dad and maybe an excited one from Naruto), they traded worried looks and quietly moved further into their home. To their surprise, they saw the two curled up together on the couch in the living room. Well, Naruto was curled up, but their dad was holding her tightly to him.

"Hey, I guess they got together?" Kankuro asked unsurely.

Gaara frowned. "We don't know for sure. We shouldn't say anything unless they confirm it."

"Aw. Why not?" Kankuro almost pouted.

Temari hit his shoulder. "No, Kankuro-baka! If they're not, then we just messed things up for Dad and scared Ouji-sama off!"

"Eh, she does seem skittish about these types of things, wouldn't she?" Kankuro agreed after thinking about it for a moment.

"Let's just scrounge around for food for dinner and go to sleep," Gaara suggested. "It would be best to leave them here and they'll wake up on their own, or one of them will and either wake the other up or, Dad most probably, carry the other to bed."

"We can't lift either of them up anyway. Er, maybe Naruto though…" Kankuro said thoughtfully.

They quietly slipped away, and thankfully found leftovers for them to eat for dinner. And then it was off to bed for Kankuro and Temari, while Gaara wandered around the home sleeplessly, like usual. Only this time, he found his father awake and staring contemplatively (and longingly, if Gaara saw correctly) at Naruto, who he hovered over slightly.

Rasa was just quiet, despite having felt his son's presence enter the room. His gaze hadn't left Naruto's face from the moment he woke up, and now, leaning over her, his eyes were drawn to her lips.

He wanted to kiss her again.

But he couldn't and wouldn't lean down and take her lips for his own, not again. Despite how much he was aching to just move just a bit closer to her…He was about to move away when Naruto's head gently moved towards him. His eyes widened and his head shot up as he immediately looked up to find Gaara, only for his son to be looking back at him steadily.

A look of understanding was clear in Gaara's honeydew eyes and Nagi flinched.

Rasa didn't look away from Gaara for the longest while, and his son stood there and stared back. He felt absolutely torn…

He turned back to Naruto and closed his eyes, and a second later felt the soft lips of the girl he wanted touched against his. He had kept back, refrained from leaning down and kissing her, but if she would just move to him…

Rasa didn't remember ever feeling as grateful as he did then to Gaara, than ever so far in his life.

Started 9/23/13 – Completed 9/30/13

A/n: No funny (much). Funny next time? :D Anyway, please review! I hope everyone enjoyed and sorry this came out a little later than I wanted!

No Omake this time :(

TO Drinker:"Lame. Pairing. just lame."

...That you reviewed on the first chapter and probably didn't even read it past finding out the pairing, means you're just plain stupid. And lame. Lame and deleted. And ignored.

To bunnyguest: Don't worry, Naruto won't be calling him Kazekage-sama for long, if Nagi has his way. Maybe not an impromptu kiss like you were expecting, but how's the two kisses in here? The cloens are always fun to bring up!

To Guest: Glad you were smiling so much! Hope this update makes your day as well!

To Guest 2: Thank you!

To Kisa: Thanks! The omake are always fun to make –sorry there aren't any this time! And of course, Nagi's nightmare. I'm sure he'll probably have more :D

Citations:

1. Chapter title from "Precious" by Depeche Mode.

2. All alcoholic information researched on the web, especially wikipedia. One line quoted above is verbatim from the article on binge drinking.