Chapter 11

Gaara Point of View:

"Enough!" The word came out harsh as Matsuri continued to fret and cower and cling. She was a kunoichi for Kami's sake; such behavior was revolting. She dropped my hands as if I had the chakra virus but at the moment I didn't really care if she was scared, either of me or the bandits that lay maimed or dead on the desert floor. I didn't have time to worry about her with Harper rushing off across the sand with no direction.

Without further ado I set off in the direction in which she ran mindlessly. There was almost no chance that I wouldn't catch up and there were things I had to say, things I had to explain. The Twin Mind Jutsu, the fact that she would live, how I felt. I had to apologize for not helping in her fight too. The war in my own mind between acting as the Kazekage, who would have to prioritize an actual member of the village over someone technically classified as a temporary citizen, and acting as Gaara, who very much wanted to save Harper above anyone, tilted just briefly to the former's side. I lost hope. I rationalized that Harper didn't have much time; churning the waters and showing any kind of preference would not end well. But I forgot, churned waters don't matter when a shinobi can walk on top of the squall.

I was foolish. But if I had jumped in immediately I would not have the realization that I now had. The terror of an emotional scar was causing my sand to react to her. In matters of the heart I seemed to be a coward, really.

The air was suddenly split with a forlorn scream coming from the northwest and I increased my speed. Only a few moments passed before I caught sight of her curled in the sand with her hands over her head. Harper opened her mouth and another raw scream filled the air. For a moment I fear she perhaps lost consciousness and was having one of her bloodline induced dreams but the way she cringed in on herself denounced the possibility.

I stood across the sands from her, perplexed and with a pain blossoming in my chest. Temari would call the pain 'anxiety' but to me it was my own body reacting to whatever it was that caused Harper to voice such desperation. It wasn't long before she spotted me; her head was rising for air to voice another scream when she made a failed attempt to stand. It occurred to me that she was exhausted from the prolonged use of her bloodline.

She was shivering as I approached, trembling perhaps. For the life of me I couldn't guess what caused this reaction. A small part of me thought it might be the blood that now stained her hands as people not commonly referred to as monsters often had trouble coming to terms with the fact that they committed murder, but if that were the case she wouldn't have a need to run into the desert.

Why don't you just fucking ask her? The pseudo advice Shukaku offered peppered with hysteria and vulgarity but it did make sense. I just wasn't sure why he was keen to help in the first place. The terrifying thought that he might be interested in Harper crossed my mind but I couldn't think how she would be of use to him.

Might as well. I thought to myself, keeping the notion far from Shukaku. "Harper…"

"I'm sorry." She didn't let me speak and instead immediately apologized.

Why are human beings so difficult? I could quite hold that back from the bijuu inside me and he laughed heartily at the opinion. "What are you sorry for?" With any luck she wouldn't beat around the bush and just tell me.

"Your sand saved me."

No such luck on being direct. Shukaku said with a giggle.

"It did." I had no idea where she was going with this.

"Why?" Did she really not know or was she stalling?

"I suppose because it saw any harm done to you as harm to me. Harper, did you know that there are different kinds of wounds." Her nod fueled my need to explain even with the devastated look on her face. "And you know that my sand protects me from harm, correct?"

"I know what you are trying to explain." Her admission was not altogether shocking, she was a bright woman after all. "But even though…even if… that jutsu….someone is going to be linked to me right? That's not fair. You don't deserve…"

I chuckled. It was a rare sound, gravelly and deep, and I seldom found something amusing but she was so upset over that? "Let me get this straight," I told her calmly as she looked at me in the most offended manner I had ever seen anyone look upon me. "You are upset, not because of how I feel but because you are worried about having to share yourself, in a sense, between me and the jutsu user should you agree to the connection?"

I perhaps should not have sounded so unimpressed with her concern because she pouted before opening her mouth to protest. I cut in with a toothy smile before she could complain. "Harper, you were told that the person who could perform the technique was unable to, were you not?"

"You said he couldn't complete it." She sounded incredibly petulant.

"Correct. The Twin Mind Jutsu requires an exchange. If the bond is formed from, say mutual anger or hate, the user commits an act of violence against the person he or she wishes to connect to, however, if its mutual attraction the user exchanges a kiss. I haven't been able to touch you for some time now and that is because my sand has been protecting me from the possibility of heartbreak. I believe that problem has been solved so if you are willing…"

Harper's Point of View:

"Wait…hold on, rewind and pause. You were the person who could link with me this whole time and you never said anything?" I wasn't quite sure if this was real. I figured I fell asleep on the sand and this was just some really bizarre, and really good, dream. The kind of dream I would remember when I woke up. My thoughts caught up to me even if it was a dream though. "You can't do that!"

He looked at me in curiosity going so far as to tilt his head to the side. "I assure you I have thought about it." His voice sounded a bit tired and I could only wonder exactly how hard he had considered the option.

"But you're the Kazekage."

"I am." He wasn't getting it.

"You said there was a low success rate for the jutsu. You said people die." His eyes narrowed at my protest.

"So you think I would ask one of my shinobi to use this jutsu with you knowing that they may die, but that I would be reticent to use it myself?" It was a good point. "There is, in each village, Suna included, a plan to follow should a Kage die. Being a shinobi is a dangerous profession even with the alliance the great nations share so of course there are contingencies." Another good point. "Aside from that I would rather try to save you and die in an un-Kage-like manner than not try and have to live with the fact that I could have." Ok now I was just a puddle of goo.

"Sorry," I muttered. I felt like a scolded child but I didn't think it was undeserved.

"That apology I can understand and accept." Gaara's face looked slightly blank but there was a gentle upward tug along one side of his mouth.

"I do have two questions about this whole situation, if that's ok?" A part of me wanted to hide under a rock just thinking about the second question but he just nodded calmly. "Um, when are we going to use the jutsu? I don't think I am going to last much longer without sleep but if you're willing to wake me up every hour like before I am ok with that."

"It's not healthy to wake up every hour," Gaara said the words like he was thinking out loud but I felt it was deliberate. "And for the safety of the people in the village we should use it somewhere without witnesses, say in the middle of the desert. It is still a kinjutsu. Ideally we could do it now and should it fail, well I told you the consequences of madness and absorption. It would be better to have someone of my abilities outside the Village in case I go insane and to be honest I think that your bloodline makes you a greater risk than you imagine." I nodded warily. I made sense even if it was a bit sudden. "What was your other question?"

I definitely wanted to melt into the sand. Considering talks of madness and danger this was not the best time to flirt. "Never mind. So, uh, what do I do?" But as I asked my bloodline kicked in, I was interested after all. "Oh." I just had to stand there and look pretty apparently.

"Sorry it isn't more interesting on your end." Gaara's smile made it easy to see that he was not sorry at all. In the end I closed my eyes on the series of seals Gaara was forming and took a deep breath. There were worse ways to die than to kick the bucket kissing Suna no Gaara. The sound of sand dancing through the wind caught my attention as Gaara firmly announced, "Twin Mind Jutsu." There was a pause and I opened my eyes anxiously to see him hesitating.

Ah, I thought a bit amused, I doubt he has much experience kissing people.

It wasn't like me to be forward but the standstill couldn't last forever so I took the single step toward Gaara and placed my lips on his. At first we just stood there, lip to lip; his were chapped and cautious but I rather enjoyed the sensation.

Slowly, as if through a long damp tunnel, I could hear…something.

Did she just fall on me? Yes it appears she did.

The ability to see the future? That doesn't even seem possible.

Dreamed of me when she was ten? Just what I need more fangirls.

She wants to be a ninja? I'll test her resolve first.

Slowly the thoughts changed.

Will I be bothering her if I go to… what is it… hang out?

What excuse should I use today?

Sleep over?

Why can't I touch her?

I'm the one who can save her.

I love her.

I love Harper.

Thought after thought from the time we met until this very moment flowed into me. This is what Gaara thought of me all this time. I wondered what he was hearing from me. Would he hear about how I fangirl'd or how I hoped he really was real? Would he know the pain I felt from the treatment he received or the anger I had at the actions of his village? Would he know that I cried hysterically when he died?

Would he feel the thousand little thoughts and emotions I'd experienced from watching a fantasy show about ninja from another world or would it start where I fell on him in his office as the sun set across the desert?

"I heard it all." Gaara said quietly. Time had passed and I wasn't even sure when he stepped away but there was a faint smile on his lips. "I do have to say it's reassuring that you don't squeal quite so much anymore. And in regards to your second question, I would also very much like for that to not be our only kiss."

I felt myself blush crimson as Gaara smiled a bit wider. The run home was quieter; the silence only broken by the music playing from my iPod which had never stopped playing. I slipped upstairs while Gaara calmly walked into his office to fill out a report on the bandit incident. Cuddling into the blankets to ward off the cool desert night I could feel a soft buzz in the back of my mind. It was gentle, familiar and peaceful; a quiet white noise that I never wanted to tune out. It pulsed like a heartbeat and when I thought on it enough a soft clarity opened throughout my mind.

On the other side of that clarity Gaara would send a reassuring thought or tell me to rest and I knew that he was right there. This was our secret, our savior of a sin. But even if it was just for sixth months we had done the impossible and who knew, we might survive. We might go on past that marker. This is just our beginning arc.

A/N: Whew so this is, as one reviewer surmised, just the beginning. There will be more arcs but as always updates may be slow. Sorry for that. Thank you for reading so far and I hope to see you for Harper's first mission.