Thank you for all the hits, favorites, alerts and reviews, everyone! I am deeply sorry for the two-year hiatus I took - I've just had a lot going on in my life and I took a break from writing to concentrate on my family matters and studies. Also, coughtravellingcough.

Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. I'm not talented enough to come up with the awesomeness known as Gaara.

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.

"I was not always the way I am now."

Gaara raised a skeptical brow at Kohaku's surprising words. "You mean you weren't always an emotionless vocabulary machine?"

Even though he was supposed to be sensitive right now, and was also expected to behave with the dignity that was required from the leader of a respected hidden ninja village, he was, underneath the blue and white ceremonial robes, a teenager. The age came with a certain capacity for sarcasm. And, for Gaara, it hadn't been a problem before, but after meeting Shishimiya Kohaku, he had to say, he had gotten a lot more sarcastic.

"The language comes with an early start on reading during my childhood. So, no." Kohaku's hazel eyes bore into his jade ones with a cold regard, "I used to… smile more."

The Kazekage swore that he could've seen a slightly repulsed twitch beneath Kohaku's eye when she uttered the word 'smile'.

"The Shishimiya clan was one of the minor clans tasked to protect the borders of the Land of Fire," Kohaku slid a hand into the weapons pouch on her waist and pulled out a dagger. It was a very simple blade; bronze and slightly rusted with disuse, and had a mountain lion's head engraved on the hilt. "I was part of the clan, as was my older brother."

"You have a brother?" Gaara couldn't quite picture a male version of Kohaku standing next to the girl, with the same blank, owlish staring at him with an equally unnerving intensity.

"I had a brother," Kohaku said in a low voice; her tones clipped and measured, "He died."

Oh. Now Gaara felt awkward, and didn't know what to say. 'Sorry' seemed empty, and useless, because there was no use feeling sorry, was there? It had happened so long ago, and he was sure that Kohaku wouldn't even care if he did say sorry. He wasn't going to pity her, but sympathizing with her seemed pointless as well.

But then, Gaara could understand where she was coming from. After all, he too had once been an ebullient child, until Yashamaru had attempted to assassinate him. The memory of the kind man's smiling face as he watched the light die out of his eyes made Gaara grimace.

"I don't know what to say…"

"You do not need to say anything. You wanted to know why I am the way I am, and this is the reason why," Kohaku said quietly, "My brother was my best friend. We did everything together, even when we started our training as Root ANBU."

Gaara's stomach sank at the mention of Kohaku's affiliation with the underground society of Konoha shinobi that worked in the shadows. He had so many questions he wanted to ask, pertaining her true reason for being here in Sunagakure. And in the first place, why was she even in Root? He didn't say a word, though. She was finally starting to talk.

"The day he died…" Kohaku felt her voice falter, but she paused, collecting her emotions and bottling them up. "The day my brother died was the day I stopped associating myself with ridiculous social conventions like friendship and love."

Upon mentioning the word 'love', Kohaku's eyes traveled discreetly towards the red character on Gaara's forehead. This, however, did not go unnoticed by the Kazekage. He lifted a hand, resting his fingers against what actually was not a tattoo, but in reality, a scar. He could still remember the sand painfully digging against his then unmarred skin, the layers of skin underneath stinging painfully as blood welled up and mixed with the grains of chakra-infused sand. The burn upon the contact of his raw, exposed flesh and the granules of sand was still fresh in his memory. At this response, Kohaku's eyes quickly darted down to look at the ground.

"You know, I was once like you too, as well," Gaara decided to say. Seeing Kohaku's gaze slowly move away from the ground, and onto him, he decided to speak again. "I was just like you. Someone important to me betrayed me, and he died, and ever since that night, I lost sight of what it meant to live life to the fullest. Day after day, night after night, I closed myself off from the world around me and trained. I lived in absolute loneliness for a long time. That was until I met Naruto, of course.

"He changed my life. He risked his own life to save those of his friends; those of people who had shunned him for being a jinchuuriki. I couldn't understand why at first, but then I came to realize that it was because he was making the effort to make those people overlook the fact that he was a jinchuuriki. Instead of instilling pure terror into them with the power he had as a jinchuuriki, he worked hard, using his own strength, to prove his own worth to others," Gaara didn't know if Kohaku was even listening, but he still went on away, "He had people that cared about him. And he showed me that I had people that cared about me too, and if I just opened myself up a little, I would be able to see that. And so I did. And I haven't been alone again since."

Gaara took a step towards Kohaku, reaching out a hand, and rested it on her shoulder. He could feel her muscles tense underneath his palm, but slowly and surely, she relaxed. "You don't have to shut people off, Kohaku. You have people that care about you too," he hesitated, his stomach feeling queasy, but he ignored it and said, "I care about you too."

At this, Kohaku's eyes widened slightly, before she caught herself and controlled her facial responses. The redhead knew that she had been caught off-guard by his words, and was stumped on what to say back to him. He didn't blame her. After all, they did have a strange relationship, where Gaara's feelings for her were uncertain and her own feelings for Gaara… Well, whether there were feelings at all was already uncertain.

"I-,"

"Can I hug you?"

Before he could even realize what he was about to ask the girl, it escaped his mouth, completely bypassing his vocal filter. Gaara wanted to take back his words so badly, but it was too late. It was already out there. And again, Kohaku's eyes widened. This time, she made no effort to rearrange her facial features back into the stoic mien that she was so accustomed to wearing.

Gaara now felt a nervous shakiness as Kohaku just remained dumbstruck with his extremely out of character question. It wasn't like Gaara was an unfriendly person. He just didn't… hug. But at this moment, it felt… right to him.

Before she could freak out and disappear on him, Gaara reached out his arms, pulling a stunned Kohaku towards him. He could feel her entire body tense underneath him, her eyes wide open.

Kohaku was speechless. Normally, she would've reacted by elbowing Gaara and pulling a kunai up to his face, quietly hissing a dangerous threat to remember his place and to never overstep her personal boundaries again, but instead, she just stayed there. She tensed up, feeling Gaara's arms envelop her, but as she came to terms with the fact that the obstinate Kazekage who was so abnormally focused on being her friend had actually managed to tunnel his way through the shell she had encased herself in, and was in the proximity of her personal space, she realized that she didn't mind. She could feel Gaara's warmth; his chest rising and falling as he breathed, and the loud pounding of his heart. Actually, if she had allowed herself for even a split second, she would have admitted that she felt safe. Protected.

Memories of being a carefree child resurfaced, pushing out the dark thoughts that were clouding her mind, telling her that it was wrong and she was already basically setting the book of Root ANBU codes on fire by simply allowing herself to feel emotions. Her forehead rested against Gaara's shoulder, and Kohaku thought about what this meant. The fact that for once, she didn't care if she was disobeying commands; the fact that the discipline that she actively worked at to maintain had dissolved in a blink of an eye. Had she not trained hard enough?

Kohaku's arms lifted involuntarily; she found herself about to return the embrace that Gaara had her in. She stopped herself.

No.

She stepped back, breaking away from Gaara. The redhead had a slightly sheepish expression etched across his face as his gaze met hers. What else would he have expected from the seemingly cold kunoichi?

"Kazekage-sama, I-,"

"There's no need to say anything anymore. For now, at least," Gaara said softly, "I do have many questions pertaining your past, but for today, let's just end here. Let's spar again tomorrow, shall we?"

He knew that if he kept inching closer and pushing it, he would only spook her off like a deer caught in headlights. Today was progress, he told himself. She hadn't attempted to mutilate him, so it was a small victory. With a small smile on his face, he turned around and started walking out of the sparring room.

She had been about to hug him back. He had felt the movement, and even if Kohaku tried to deny it, he knew better. He was starting to melt the ice that her heart was encased in.

xxxx

"Ew, Gaara. Stop that. It's creeping me out. And that's saying something, because I've walked in on Kankuro talking to his dolls too many times than I care to remember," Temari complained as she sat on a chair, wiping down her giant fan.

"Hey! That's offensive! You've hurt my feelings! And they're not dolls! They're deadly weapons!" Kankuro barked at his sister, passionately defending his honor, as well as his puppets'. "But seriously, Gaara. What's got you in such a good mood? Did you get laid or something?"

It was true that the Kazekage was behaving oddly, because when the two siblings had decided to spend some time with the Kazekage after they got off duty, they had found the redhead diligently reading paperwork and stamping sheet after sheet. Of course, it was normal to find Gaara doing his duties obediently despite abhorring them, but instead of a face devoid of emotion as he trudged his way through the piles of never-ending paperwork, he had been smiling to himself. It wasn't a wide, toothy grin, nor a wide, face-splitting smile, but the subtle, upward curve of his lips was already enough to garner a response from his older siblings.

Upon hearing his older brother's crude remark, Gaara snapped out of his happy daze and narrowed his eyes, giving Kankuro a steely glare. "Unlike you, I don't waste my time hopelessly chasing after skirts," Gaara said curtly, earning a pained look from Kankuro and a loud snort from Temari.

As Kankuro remained seated in his chair, sulking, Temari turned to her youngest brother. "But seriously, though. Why're you all sunshine and rainbows today? Can't be the paperwork," the blonde cast a wary eye on the sheets of paper neatly stacked in various piles on the desk, "Is it that Shishimiya kid?"

The brief widening of Gaara's eyes let Temari know that she had hit the jackpot. Well! She was curious now. The last time she checked, Gaara had been down in the dumps about the girl, feeling all sorts of anguished and conflicted because he had learned that she could not be trusted, and now, well, as Kankuro had so very eloquently put it, 'sunshine and rainbows'.

"Did you talk to her?" Temari wanted to know, getting up and inching closer to her youngest brother with a glimmer of interest in her eyes, "What did you talk about?"

"It's nothing that pertains to either of your interests," Gaara said curtly, turning back to his paperwork and starting up a frenzy of paper scanning and stamping. Temari grinned, because she had definitely made her brother flustered - it wasn't obvious, but the Kazekage's cheeks were warming ever-so-slightly with colour.

"Gaara liiiiiiiikes her!" Kankuro sang out gleefully, poking his brother's cheek, "He liiiiiiikes her!"

"Shut up Kankuro!"

As her brothers continued bickering, Temari couldn't help but realize that she wasn't sure of what to make of this. She knew, of course, that Gaara had feelings for the Shishimiya girl, even if he insisted that she was merely a friend. She was more to him than he would care to admit, and Temari wanted to be happy for her brother. He was finally on his way to the next step of becoming a real human being, and people would no longer question his sexuality and great fondness for the Uzumaki kid. But then… could she trust her? Love was blind, even if it was a mere crush. Was Kohaku simply playing and manipulating the Kazekage for a darker purpose?

She didn't trust her.

FAQ Time!

Are you going to be updating regularly now?
Well, as you can see, it has been a year or two since my last update and I'm a few months away from graduating so… can't say for sure. All I can say is that I definitely want to finish writing this story.

Wow, Temari doesn't like Kohaku, huh?
She's a smart girl, and she has good instincts, which are telling her that Kohaku definitely has a different purpose in being in Sunagakure, and for that, she doesn't trust her.

So Kohaku has a brother? Did she kill him like Sai killed his brother?
Well, stay tuned to find out?

Luv,

Pichuzilla.