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Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. If it did, I would make more Hinata scenes instead of Sakura ones.
This story will not have any relation to Naruto's dream of achieving Sasuke Uchiha's return or defeating Orochimaru. This happens a little bit after the Rescue Gaara arc. In other words, kind of AU (Alternate Universe). Thought you should know.
The first thing Kohaku became aware of when she woke up was the bandage wrapped around her forearm. Weak rays of sunlight streamed in through the chinks in the curtained window beside her bed; the auburn-haired kunoichi pulled off the crumpled blankets from her person. She pulled back the golden-coloured sleeve of the sleeping shirt she wore, sitting up as she lifted the injured arm up to inspect it.
A frown appeared in between her eyebrows.
As she stared at the simple first-aid that Gaara had applied to her arm, the apathetic shinobi could not help but be perplexed. She swore that she had felt something strange as Gaara had given her a peculiar look the night before; something that felt like there had been a swarm of angry bees in her stomach. Of course, she had attempted to suppress it, but it had instead grown out of control. Kohaku became acutely aware of the increase in her heartbeat, as well as the sudden reticence she had felt when Gaara had asked her what the matter was.
That was when she had abruptly excused herself from the redheaded Kazekage's presence.
She had then ruminated on the peculiarities during her walk home, and wondered about them in the darkness of her room, until she finally fell asleep. Now that she was awake, she was back to square one.
What, exactly, had occurred during the night before?
Knock knock knock.
The abrupt sound of someone rapping on the wooden door dissolved all thoughts in Kohaku's mind. There was someone else awake already?
Kohaku got off the bed, the hems of the black pants she wore pooled around her bare feet as she crossed the spartan bedroom to open the door. She only let the door open with a slight crack, peering out with an expressionless eye. A masked Kakashi, minus his forehead protector, stood there in his usual sleeping clothes.
"Kakashi-nii. You're up rather early," Kohaku's eyes automatically trailed to the ANBU tattoo stamped on his left upper arm like they always did when it was visible; it was a glaring reminder that the jovial jounin had once been part of the clandestine legion of masked shinobi.
Kohaku had known this when she had first met him, and when the silver-haired man discovered her allegiance to the Root, she had used the honorific that she referred to Sai with. An enraged Kakashi had then made the girl promise to never refer to him as her senior, but instead something else. The training Danzou had never subjected her to had come to the young girl's mind as the jounin had made his plea, so she settled on him being her brother.
He had discovered her training in a very remote area of one of Konoha's training grounds, where the Root ANBU usually carried out their training exercises. With the absence of a forehead protector, as well as the tanto lying on the ground, the jounin had managed to put two and two together.
xxxx
"I don't want you to become a second version of the past me, Kohaku. I know you don't have a choice in this, but at least let me share some of the burden you carry. Don't see me as your senior; see me in a different view."
"A brother?"
"A brother, if you want."
"Is Hatake-nii-san agreeable?"
"That's a bit too long, don't you think? What about 'Kakashi-nii'?"
xxxx
"Well, I actually wanted to sleep a bit more, but then I heard the buzzer. There's an early guest looking for you," Kakashi explained as he prodded the door to open wider with a finger, "He's waiting at the door,"
"Who is it?" Kohaku decided to ask as she walked towards the front door; a small, uncontrolled part of her felt a sudden fluttery nervousness at the probability of the visitor being Gaara. Putting on a mask of indifference, the girl then completely squashed the sensation - or so she thought, until she discovered the Kazekage waiting outside, dressed in his usual getup of red and black.
"Chibi," Gaara nodded in greeting. His expression was a strange one; it seemed like he was trying hard to mask what seemed like skittish nervousness, from the way he was fidgeting slightly.
"Kazekage-sama," Kohaku nodded stiffly as she stepped outside the apartment, feeling the chill of the cold floor tiles underneath her bare feet.
"Take your time, you two," Kakashi managed to pass his tone off in an lighthearted lilt, but the troubled Gaara from the night before made him dubious and somewhat worried. He cast one last furtive look in his subordinate's direction as she looked outside the door before returning to his room.
Gaara nodded at the sound of Kakashi's voice, before returning to look at the shorter person before him. Kohaku stared up at him, eyes as blank as always, but the Kazekage could not quell the sudden rush of fondness that he felt as he regarded her crumpled attire with a slight smirk.
A baggy round-neck shirt of glaring gold whose hems reached her knees, with too-long sleeves and black pants that were too long for her legs as well… Kohaku was definitely more normal than most people were led to believe. Catching the surreptitious smirk that Gaara was trying to smother behind a pale hand, Kohaku narrowed her eyes slightly in mistrust. "What is it that you find humorous, Kazekage-sama?"
"You look different," Gaara noted, "Cu- I mean, like a child. You should put your hair down more often. You don't look like you carry an aura of repulsion when you look like that,"
Kohaku's hand instantly snaked up to touch her tousled hair; the ends grazed around her shoulders, in an obvious disarray as they were free from the normal messy bun that Kohaku usually chose to wear her hair in. "Keeping my hair in this condition will give root to various problems, Kazekage-sama. And it is not by choice that I look like a child. I am not a child; I am fifteen, coming sixteen."
"Yes, I know that," Gaara raised an eyebrow; Kohaku was behaving somewhat strangely. Usually, she would have brushed off Gaara's unnecessary comments, like the one about her hair and appearance, and would have asked him about his purpose for visiting her quarters.
Kohaku seemed to have realized this, because she pulled her hand down and coolly lifted her eyes to meet Gaara's. The Kazekage could not help but feel a shiver run down his spine, as he recalled the events of the night before as their gazes connected; a strange, heart-rending feeling throbbed in his chest.
"What is your purpose for visiting here so early in the morning? Have you come to ask my assistance in aiding you to make yet another falsification come true?" Kohaku tore her gaze away from Gaara's, lifting an arm in front of her face.
Gaara gave the girl a puzzled look; what was wrong with her? Kohaku's blank eyes remained trained on the ground, her sleeve shielding the lower half of her face.
"What's wrong, Chibi? Do I smell bad or something?" Gaara was somewhat affronted by Kohaku's behavior, but then, if he stopped to consider the person before him, what else was new?
"No. Nothing is wrong," Kohaku's blank expression remained intact, as she spoke from behind her dangling sleeve, though she still wouldn't look into Gaara's eyes. "You may pass this off as one of my few eccentricities,"
Gaara stifled a smirk and a scoff at her words; few eccentricities? 'A billion' would be the correct term to describe the many foibles that the Kazekage knew so well. "Did I do something wrong?" Gaara tilted his head slightly with a questioning look, "You look like you're angry at me or something. Why won't you look at me?"
Truth to be told, there was a reason why the auburn-haired enigma had masked her face and broken the visual contact she had had with the young Kazekage only a few minutes before. It was not because he smelled bad; on contrary, his person carried hints of the sandalwood incense Temari liked to burn early in the mornings when the stuffy Kazekage mansion was being aired while the wind was still and unmoving.
It was because she had felt a sudden prickling sensation on her cheeks as Gaara was speaking, and as foreign as she was to the complexities of human emotions, the Root ANBU definitely knew it was no sunburn.
It wasn't because Gaara had done something wrong to offend her; he was behaving in a perfectly maintained manner of decorum. It wasn't because she simply didn't want to look at the boy; it was because she couldn't.
If she looked into the jade depths of Gaara's eyes, Kohaku was afraid that she would probably do something thoughtless. Afraid that maybe her heart rate would elevate even higher from the intensity of the gaze. Afraid that maybe her breath would catch in her throat just from looking at the dignified Kazekage.
It then became horribly clear to the titian-haired shinobi that she didn't have complete dominion over the restraining of her emotions, even if Danzou had brought down the axe on that particular project before any form of damage could become irreversible. What was wrong with her? Why did she suddenly feel like an audacious little girl in the presence of the young Kazekage, whom she normally gave the same treatment she did for other people?
"Chibi?"
Gaara's voice broke her train of thought; it was querying and somewhat concerned. Kohaku shook her head slowly. "Please pardon my impertinence, Kazekage-sama," her voice came out as an uncharacteristic mumble,"As I was asking you earlier, do you require my assistance for something?"
xxxx
Gaara lowered his eyelids as he studied Kohaku; just when he thought he finally knew everything there was to know about the enigmatic girl, she became a jumbled-up puzzle again, pieces tossed around and scattered everywhere, waiting for someone to piece them back together again. What was going on in that mind of hers? "You left abruptly last night, so I was worried," he explained, never taking his gaze off her, "I was right to be concerned. You're behaving strangely, Chibi. Did you take some strange medicine without any doctor's consent?"
"No," came the short, blunt answer of the girl, "There is nothing for you to concern yourself about, Kazekage-sama. I am perfectly fine,"
Gaara presented her with a completely disbelieving look, before heaving a sigh. What did he have to do to get her to be honest with him? One would think she wouldn't have any inhibitions about speaking her mind with him; she normally displayed more emotion when it was just the two of them. At least that was what Gaara had perceived, anyway. Shifting slightly in his stationary position, Gaara felt his gourd jostle slightly on his back. He reached a hand over his shoulder to adjust it, brushing his fingers against the rough surface of the sand container.
An idea hit him.
It was perfect.
"Say, Chibi. You're still off-duty today, right?"
The redhead could see that the girl's features had shifted surreptitiously to an expression of surprise, from the way her visible eyes widened slightly, and the way her eyebrows had lifted by a small measure. "Why do you ask that, Kazekage-sama?"
"Perfect," Gaara merely answered her question with a half-smile, "Go get changed; I'd like to borrow you for the morning."
"'Borrow' me? I was unaware of the fact that I belong to someone."
Gaara suppressed the urge to smirk; some things definitely never changed. He knew that Kohaku wasn't being sarcastic; she was being dead serious. For a brief moment, Gaara found himself fondly remembering the awkward moments where her inability to detect sarcasm, and the completely ironic talent of hers to be sardonic had been displayed before he caught himself.
Not again. Why did he always have to forget himself when it came to her?
"Ah, well, I'd like you to accompany me somewhere for the morning. How does that sound? I'll treat you to a meal in that tea-shop you like, in exchange."
xxxx
As Gaara led Kohaku along the narrow, curved corridors of the Kazekage mansion, the girl had to wonder where exactly was the Kazekage taking her. Once again, she had been enticed by the tantalizing call of free mochi, and hence found herself trailing after the redheaded boy as he headed for a destination unknown to her. She watched with a sort of faint interest as passing chuunin, jounin and, well, basically everyone greet the stoic Kazekage with an enthusiasm that could not simply be brushed aside.
Each time, Gaara presented every well-wisher with a small smile and a nod. While his actions did not seem to account for much, what was amazing was the fact that every one of them seemed to brighten at being acknowledged by the sixteen-year-old, as they continued on their way after bowing deeply, with a new, light-hearted spring in their steps.
Gaara noticed the way Kohaku was silently studying him, and lifted a brow. "Got something to say, Chibi?"
Kohaku looked up briefly to acknowledge hearing his question, before averting her gaze from meeting his again. "No," she answered curtly, "I was just wondering why all those people seem so ebullient, even when you did not say anything to them."
The question caught the young Kazekage off-guard, widening his eyes, though he recovered at once, his neutral expression intact. "Well, I don't really understand why, myself. Temari says it's because they like having me as their Kazekage."
"Then their actions do make some sense, then," Kohaku said softly, turning her head away to look outside a window they were walking past. They were in a lower level of the mansion; the people walking below the globe of the mansion seemed more larger than when she saw them from a window in the upper levels earlier.
It was clear that the words that came out of her mouth were meant only for her ears, but Gaara could not help but take notice and ask, "What do you mean?"
"The basic principle," Kohaku replied, still looking at the constantly-changing scenery outside, slightly surprising the redhead, because she would have normally given him a condescending stare and remain quiet. She was replying to questions that she normally left unanswered. Why was she so responsive today? "If you are fond of a particular individual, you will still be jubilant, if they acknowledge your existence. It does not matter if he or she says nothing to you, because you know that the person appreciates you."
Now Gaara was completely surprised. Hearing words like these, it was hard to believe that it was coming out of Kohaku's own mouth. He looked down to get a better look at the girl, and saw that her blank features had relaxed slightly; she was deep in thought.
He then thought about what she had just said; about being happy just because the person you admired acknowledged your existence, that it didn't matter if they didn't say anything to you. Was she just stating an observation she had come to conclusion with by studying the people around him? Or - he was taking a long-shot by even considering it - did she feel that way about someone?
Did she?
FAQ Time!
What's wrong with Kohaku?
She's stubborn. We all know that pretty well, don't we?
Why was Kakashi angry? He's the type to not care about things concerning other people.
But remember, Kakashi and Kohaku have some sort of a bond, something like what he has with Naruto and Sakura. Ergo, he was bound to become enraged when he discovered that the emotionless little girl that he's so fond of, is actually in a shady organization like Root.
Gaara's being OOC.
Ah, but you've never seen a Gaara crushing on someone now, have you? This is my take on how he's like when he's in like.
So, as always, reviews and constructive criticism are greatly encouraged and appreciated!
Luv,
Pichuzilla.