Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Chemistry	By : acidprince Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Rock Lee/Gaara Views: 1184 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto as it belongs to a genius called Masashi Kishimoto. I make no money from writing fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
Comments: I hope you don't find part this too boring, but I'm really just trying to set the foundations for the plot here. I really don't want to go straight into the romance stuff because this story is really one that could be a success or it could end up an awful disaster, so you'll have to bear with me on that. ~I also need to point out a couple of small details (if you don't remember, it might be worth refreshing your memory) the daimyo who was in power in Part I is replaced by another in Part II, even though in the manga he's not dead. However, I've killed him off for the sake of the plot (I didn't think it was too bad cuz this takes place like four or five years since Shippuden anyway). Also, Gaara has had Shukaku sealed inside of him again.

Gaara unbuckled his gourd and dumped it near the desk in his bedroom with more lethargy than he usually would, feeling more tired than he ever had. He had just finished taking his wounded troops to the hospital and had helped clear the bodies from the desert. This was the third night in a row he had been attacked while at his desk, and he was quite sure it wouldn't be the last. His eyes didn't show it, at least not to those who knew him, but he was really very tired now. He hadn't had too great a chakra expenditure, but he was becoming increasingly concerned about who the attackers were, what they wanted with Suna, and why they were apparently trying to assassinate him.

Of course it wasn't often Gaara had to deal with multiple assassination attempts, much less in the safety of his own village, but it wasn't the first time it had happened, and he had had threats to his life on the battlefield, too. But there was just something about this one that the redhead didn't like; he could feel something nipping at the top of his spine, like he was overlooking something really obvious.

He rubbed his eyes roughly and blinked a few times. He must be more tired than usual. He hung his long black coat over the back of the sand-coloured armchair in the corner and made his way to the connecting bathroom. He stripped, dumped the clothes in the laundry basket and turned on the shower to wash the desert from him. Half-closing his eyes, he stared up at the showerhead a bit blearily, running his hands through his hair with a sigh as the warm drops hit his skin.

Temari was probably making her way over; she had been organizing for the wounded enemies to be treated and then put in the care of the interrogations unit, so Gaara was waiting to see if any of their guests had survived the battle. Only his siblings would be able to tell that he was tired, so he set about removing any trace of it from his eyes- he had too much work to do.

He didn't spend longer than a few short minutes in the shower and he stepped out to change into his Kazekage robe minus the hat, slinging the gourd over one shoulder and heading toward the kitchen for something to eat. Temari arrived a little later than predicted, when the sun was just beginning to rise over the desert.

Gaara let her in with a quiet greeting and, after one look at her face, offered her a cup of tea.

"I think I'm going to need something stronger," she replied, all but slumping into a chair at Gaara's kitchen table.

"What's the situation?" Gaara asked, preparing a drink for her anyway.

Temari sat up slightly and rubbed her head, feeling the beginnings of a headache prying at the front of her skull- she'd only come out of hospital about five days ago from a rather nasty head injury she'd sustained in Wave Country. "One of the men and the kunoichi we captured have died of their injuries," she answered, "the last one is stable. We're keeping an eye on him. As soon as he's strong enough, we're going to put him under interrogation. The others are dead and it looks like a few got away."

"And ours?" Gaara asked with slight trepidation.

"Four dead, two seriously injured and the rest should be okay soon. But man, I've never seen burns like that before in my life," Temari replied with a regretful shake of her head.

Gaara was silent for a moment, with only the tapping of the teaspoon against the cup making a sound. "Any clues as to where they're from?" Gaara asked, placing the tea in front of his sister, who took it with a short thanks.

"I've never seen that symbol before," she answered. "Plus, those gas masks give me the creeps. I'll get one of the elders to have a look at it and see what they know in the morning. But if you ask me, I smell a rat."

"So its not just me," Gaara replied, sitting down opposite her.

"Do you have any idea what might be going on?" She asked hopefully.

"No idea," the redhead replied, "we probably won't know a thing until we get some answers."

Temari sighed and rested her head down on her arms.

"You should go home and get some sleep," Gaara said. It wasn't a suggestion. "…Where's Kankuro?"

Temari snorted. "So should you, evidently. He left for his mission this morning, remember? The one -you- sent him on."

Gaara blinked. Of course. "The one in Konoha, I remember," he said.

Temari sat up and shook her head to take a sip of tea. They spoke for a few more minutes until the Kazekage decided that he needed his sister to be rested for tomorrow and all but kicked her out of his house.

Gaara managed to get about an hour's sleep that morning, which was just enough for a bred insomniac like him for about another month. Two, perhaps. He was at his office by eight and was greeted by the poison drenched kunai he had dropped on his desk the night before. Interestingly, it seemed to have turned a bright, crusty, glowing orange overnight and had built a little nest for itself in the hardened sand of his workspace. He called for his aide.

"Michi, have this strange kunai taken to the investigations unit… or a lab. Don't touch it though. Don't let them touch it either." He ordered, picking up the mail that had been placed in a cubby above the large bureau by the door.

"Sir," he said, and left to find someone with lead-based gloves.

Gaara sorted through the scrolls and envelopes, identifying seals and handwriting from memory until he came across one with Naruto's personal mark. He placed all the others back in the cubby with disinterest and broke the seal, immediately expecting bad news about his brother.

<I>'Dear Gaara,

How are you buddy?! Thanks for sending your brother to help us out, we could really use him and his puppets for this mission. Those bandits near the border are really starting to irritate me now. I'm fine, by the way, just that and I'm a bit pissed off at not being allowed on as many missions as I used to. But, I'm getting used to the job. It's just the paperwork… how do you and Granny Tsunade get through all of this junk?!'</I>

By getting a few hours sleep over a six month period, Gaara thought. Why the hell was Naruto writing just to say thank you? Sand already owed Leaf a huge debt.

<I>'Well, I just wanted to write 'cuz we haven't spoken in too long, and to let you know that we owe you for this! See ya!

Naruto'</I>

Gaara narrowed his eyes at the paper and dumped the scroll into a nearby drawer, not even thinking about writing the other man back. A few minutes later, Michi and a woman from one of Suna's labs, dressed all in white, heavy looking clothes, complete with goggles and a mask, came to pick the kunai up with a pair of pliers and place it in a small chest. Then she gave a worried look to the rather large hole in Gaara's desk.

"Um, Kazekage-sama, I think you should get a new desk," she said, her voice muffled by the mask she was wearing, "and maybe work from home for a few days…"

"Hm? Why?" Gaara asked disinterestedly from his seated position, scanning through the other mundane documents that had been delivered.

"Well, this is just from a first glance, but I think that orange substance is poisonous… or radioactive," she said anxiously.

"Oh, that's okay," he said, standing and beginning to clear everything off of his desk. "Stand back."

Michi and the young scientist stood close to the far wall as Gaara crushed his sandstone desk into a ball and continued to crush and shape it until it was in its loose form. He then directed it towards the open window, to the outskirts of the village and closed his eyes as he deposited the apparently dangerous sand about a mile away from Suna.

Once he was happy with his work, he lifted his hand swiftly, and soon there was a similar amount of sand in his office, into which he sculpted a brand new sandstone desk. It was probably a bit more grainy than his old one, but it would do. "Is that all?" He asked, beginning to load his things back onto his desk.

Michi and the young woman looked at Gaara with wide eyes, and then the scientist nodded and scampered off down the corridor, clutching the little chest in mild terror.

"Uh- Kazekage-sama, may I ask you something?" Michi asked, looking at Gaara with his dark eyes.

Gaara glanced at him in a wordless 'yes'.

"Where… where did that kunai come from? It doesn't look like one I've ever seen before," He asked. Michi was quite a tall man and five years older than his Kazekage, with choppy brown locks and dark eyes, as well as the rather strong bone structure and tanned skin that a lot of Suna's citizens seemed to sport. He had seen a fair amount of action, but he still had a kind of innocence about him that had usually disappeared in most shinobi by the time they were eighteen.

Gaara considered the question and then agreed with him. "I'm not sure, we're looking into it," he replied enigmatically, not sure about how much information he was willing to share at this point.

The rest of his morning was spent as it usually was, with Gaara filling in forms and reading over his mission reports like the robot he had programmed himself to be. He vaguely noted a difference in the security pattern surrounding his office. He didn't pay much attention to it; they weren't ANBU for nothing. At midday, Temari appeared in his office with the information she said she was going find, but from the look on her face, Gaara didn't think it was good news.

"We need to call an emergency meeting of the council. Now." She said strongly.

"That bad?" The redhead asked.

"Yes."

--

Gaara sat down in his usual chair with his councillors around him at the table, his elbows resting on the dark wood and resting his chin on his folded hands. Temari was sat to his side and was glaring hard at the numerous elders and representatives who were chattering and flipping through documents.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," she said in a voice that didn't take any bullshit. Every head at the table turned to look at her, including Gaara. "I've called this meeting because of some rather disturbing information I have gathered in relation to the recent attacks on the Kazekage. After having spoken with Ebizou-jiisama and several other elders, it would seem that there is something of a traitor amongst us, or perhaps, there was at some point in the past," she added.

Two aides placed a couple of gas masks, weaponry, and the forehead protectors of some of their guests on the table before the blonde, who thanked them quietly. Several of the older council members flinched at the sight of them, which Gaara noted. "The people who attacked us are not local, nor are they from any village that Suna has any knowledge of," Temari said and held up one of rubbery gas masks, which, in contrast to some of the other equipment, had the forehead protector screwed into the space above the large goggles. She tapped the symbol with her index finger. "This is the symbol for radiation," she said, "but I've never heard of a radioactive country or anything like it. So why would we be attacked by a country I, nor the Kazekage or likely many of you have even heard of?" She asked rhetorically, her eyes hard. "If my gut feeling is correct, I think that somebody here has been keeping something from us."

One of the councillors, a sixty-year-old, white-haired, retired kunoichi raised her hand slightly. "Temari-san, if I may?" She said, blinking her slightly sagged eyes at the young woman. She was silent for a moment, and then she spoke. "Kazekage-sama, are you aware of the agreements the Fourth had with regards to energy?" She asked apprehensively.

"Some, but not all of them. He was a very secretive man, as you know… but we've secured our energy resources. We know exactly where it's coming from," Gaara replied, "why?"

"This reminds me of a conversation I overheard, many years ago."

"Please tell us what you know, Masako-san," Temari said, listening intently.

"Well, about three years before the fourth Kazekage died, I remember overhearing a conversation he had- it was a meeting of some kind with officials from a country I don't remember the name of," she began, "but they were talking about power. I remember being confused because Suna has huge reserves of oil, and of course the windmills around the coast help power us also. But the Fourth was talking about more power- not to support us, he was talking about weaponry of some kind, nuclear weaponry."

There was a heavy silence around the meeting room.

"I'm not one hundred percent sure what the outcome was, I stopped listening and left straight away. I haven't spoken about it since, but that symbol is the same one I saw on the foreign nin who must've visited us all those years ago. I saw them again when they were leaving."

Both Temari and Gaara were silent for a while, wondering what this could mean for their village. "Is this all you know?" Temari asked. "Are you sure that this is the symbol you saw?"

"Yes. I'm quite sure that this is the symbol I saw… I remember because I've seen many different symbols in my time, but that was the first and only time I saw that one," Masako replied, "…until now, of course."

Gaara sighed. "I want all the information on the nuclear arms trade we can find. If the Fourth made a deal with this country then there must be some kind of paper trail. Either he took everything he knew about it to his grave, or someone has been keeping it under wraps so nobody knows about it, not even me. If this is the case, it looks like the Kage of this village has not received their end of the bargain, and thinks they've been cheated."

"I suppose that's feasible, but surely they know the Fourth is dead?" One of the councillors replied.

"Maybe they don't, maybe they just haven't had the news? Perhaps that's what the traitor wants," suggested another, "someone might've been stopping the news getting to them, an insider."

"…Somebody in Suna wants Gaara dead?" Temari said, letting her worry spill over into her voice for a moment.

"It's possible. We had to do a lot of work to remove the Fourth's sympathizers from this council, remember?"

"Plus, there's surely a lot of competition for the Kazekage's position. There always has been, as far as I can recall," said one of the older councillors.

"Do you think the Daimyo could have anything to do with this?" Temari asked.

"It's very unlikely. He knows full well that the Fourth is dead and that we've changed this council a lot since. We know nothing of a deal for nuclear power or weaponry."

"The former daimyo is dead anyway. The Second has no reason to attack Gaara or let such a thing happen," said one of the councillors.

"I think that this really requires a face-to-face talk with him, or maybe even an investigation into the former's legislature and to see if it has any remaining effect over the current one," said one of the elders.

There was a thoughtful silence.

"But even so, isn't that a little harsh just for some soured deal?" Asked a slightly younger councillor.

Temari thought for a moment. "That depends on the nature of the agreement. If we're talking about nuclear weaponry, there are all sorts of implications that can have." She said. "But you're right. It does throw into question the morals - and common sense - of this country's government to just all-out attack our leader like that. Do they want war or something?"

Gaara considered this. "I do not want to go to war over a misunderstanding or because of my idiot of a father. Enough blood has been spilled over that man, and we will get to the bottom of this. Meeting is adjourned," he said in his usual monotonous, unemotional voice, and stood to leave.

--

A fortnight passed without Gaara or anybody else coming under fire. Obviously the assassins had left, leaving both their dead and wounded behind, perhaps assuming that any survivors had been killed. But their last survivor had woken and was fairly healthy again, and had been under interrogation for about a day now. So the redhead was on his way to visit them and to have a look at the things the investigations unit had seized.

"Kazekage-sama!" Said a voice some distance in front of him as he made his way up the corridor. Gaara could just see Ryousuke poking his head around the door. He stepped out to greet his Kazekage formerly. "What brings you here?" He asked politely. Watanabe Ryousuke was a tall, lean man, who had a special eye for detail. He was also very pale, and was among the small group of Suna's people who burnt very badly under the sun. Unfortunately for a Suna shinobi like him, this meant it was quite difficult for him to spend long hours in the desert on missions, which limited him to certain fields. Luckily, he had found quite a comfortable spot for himself in the field of interrogation.

"I just came to see how things were going… and to have a look at some of the evidence." Gaara answered, walking into the surveillance room that the other man had just stepped out of. On the far wall was an array of electrical appliances, and four small screens displayed their captive from four angles, bound to a chair and surrounded by complex, scrawled symbols on the floor, with two nin on each side holding a hand seal and with their eyes closed- genjutsu.

"Is he complying?" Gaara asked, not taking his eyes off of the enemy shinobi.

Ryousuke pushed his glasses up his defined nose and shook his head. "I'm afraid its proving to be quite a struggle," he answered.

"When something comes through, you will inform me immediately. Do not tell anybody else of the information you discover. I will tell your superiors," Gaara said, only looking at him as he finished speaking.

Ryousuke swallowed. "Understood," he replied.

"Good. Now, where can I find the seized items?" Gaara asked.

"They'll be in the evidence room. I-uh, I would show you myself, sir, but I'm not allowed to leave my post."

"It's fine, I know where it is," Gaara said, and turned to leave. He made his way down the hall and ignored the guard, who saluted as he approached. The broad man didn't say a word and just continued with his job as Gaara pulled a set of keys from his pocket. He took a moment to find the right one and then he unlocked the door slowly, stepping into the medium sized chamber that housed a number of curious objects.

Gaara's sea coloured eyes roved around the strange little museum of sorts with caution until he came across a collection labelled with radioactive symbols and bright warning ink. Gaara didn't touch it, but he was still somewhat interested in the odd equipment they had captured. The gas masks were certainly unusual, even if it wasn't the first time Gaara had seen them used, but the kunai were strangely shaped. The one the Kazekage had had removed from his office was in the same design as the four that were rested on the metal shelf, but the scientist must have taken it somewhere else if she thought it was a threat. Instead of the single point, these kunai had three, though the shuriken were basically the same.

The redhead was disturbed by somebody suddenly swinging the door open.

"Gaara!" Temari yelled. "What the hell?!"

Gaara didn't see what Hell had to do with it. "I was looking at the kunai," he replied flatly, as if there was nothing wrong with snooping around the evidence locker to look at pointed, deadly and apparently radioactive things, Kazekage or no.

"For Christ's sake, its dangerous!" She said, practically grabbing her little brother by the shoulder and then ushering him out of the room with a slight glare to the guard. The heavy door slammed behind them and Gaara locked it again.

"How is it dangerous?" Gaara asked, pulling himself away from his sister. His eyes narrowed slightly. "What do you know?"

Temari rolled her eyes and began walking faster toward the exit. "Wait until we get to yours," she said, "I'll explain everything."

They hopped along the rooftops of Sunagakure, shadowed by ANBU in the same way Gaara had been followed to the Interrogation Compound of course, though tighter than usual. Temari was headed towards his residence, so she must've had something very important to say to him.

Temari kicked her sandals off and left them by the door, slid her large fan off her back and rested it against the slightly tatty brown sofa Gaara had in his main room. Gaara did the same and dumped his gourd down next to it, following his sister to the kitchen table. "So what is it you were going to tell me?" He asked as soon as the blonde sat down.

Temari sighed, more than used to her brother's bad manners. "The man we put under interrogation today is high-level. He said he had been sent to assassinate the Kazekage as part of an elite three cell squad. His name is Ken, he's 26, and he's from a distant country, though he hasn't said what its called yet. He's said a number of other things, but because he's from such a long distance away he speaks with a different dialect, so he's a bit hard to understand sometimes."

"I see," Gaara replied, "did he say why he was sent?"

"He might've done, we're having an interpreter try to translate what he's saying. The thing is, we can't put him under too much physical strain because he's still recovering, and if he dies then that's our best lead out the window. We still haven't had any luck with that paper trail you ordered." Temari paused. "God, he must've really not wanted anyone to know about this…" She whispered, almost to herself.

They were quiet for a couple of minutes, mulling over the facts they had in front of them.

Gaara felt a strange sort of familiarity about this whole situation. The former daimyo had reduced the funds of Suna, so the Fourth placed Shukaku inside of him like a weapon in order to lord the power over him, or to some such extent. This reeked of the same sort of plan… but Gaara was nine by then. He snorted. This must've been just before he decided to invade Konoha with Orochimaru and then just let the deal dissipate.

The hatred he felt toward his father went up a notch.

Finally, Gaara spoke. "When is Kankurou due home?"

"Sometime tonight. Why?"

"I just think we could use his help with this."

"Why? Kankurou sucks at documents and stuff like that. He can't even look at a book without getting distracted."

The redhead was silent. To be honest, he had just missed his brother a little. Plus, he was curious about what kind of Hokage Naruto was and about any news from Leaf. "I don't know," he replied.

A tiny smirk pulled at his sister's mouth, as though she knew something Gaara didn't.

Gaara ignored her. "Anyway, why is looking around the evidence room apparently dangerous now?" He asked, changing the subject- something he had learnt a few years ago and found endlessly helpful.

"We just need to keep a closer eye on you," Temari answered. "You're the one they want, after all."

Gaara thought about this. "Maybe I should-"

"What?" The blonde snapped, her eyes narrowing into slits.

Gaara wasn't intimidated, but he thought it best she didn't know about his plan. "Nothing, don't worry."

Temari gave him a suspicious look and glared at him a moment longer. "Fine," she replied. "Anyway, I have work to do. Try and work from home today, just to be on the safe side."

Gaara didn't say goodbye; he just got up and walked into his living room to start working on his strategy.

--

Of course, the elite three cell squad the man had been a part of had their numbers down to three combative opponents- maybe even just two if the injured one the other two had grabbed had died. They had presumably returned to their village or an allied one to recuperate, so this left Gaara with quite some time to perfect a strategy, as he had been for the last month since their guest had been put under interrogation. Temari and Kankurou had been giving him strange looks this past week as he had been out on the training grounds more often than usual, so much so that his paperwork was piling up somewhat.

But the only responses Gaara gave their questions were either silence, or he said that he was perfecting a new technique, which in fact, he was, so it wasn't a total lie. But this one was just slightly more… specialised, if an attack that included his sole effort to wipe out a fair number of opponents, stronger and better than he usually did, could be named so. This was also the technique he was planning to use when the next attack struck.

Now, Gaara was well aware that his sister was keeping a close eye on him. He was also aware that the ANBU had changed their security pattern around him, his home and his office, which probably meant that they had a new battle strategy in place if the attackers were to strike again. As well as this, he had no idea when the enemy was going to strike, how they had changed their attack sequence, and what surprises they had in store for him this time.

So the redhead more than had his work cut out for him. Nonetheless he was already devising a plan in his head. He stood up straight to wipe the sweat from his brow and sighed. He had changed from his usual Kazekage robe and had even taken off his long black coat, leaving him in his usual linen vest, pants and sandals.

Gaara was now twenty, and he had grown somewhat since his adolescent years. His hair was longer and touched his shoulders at the sides, though it still spiked roughly over the top of his head. He was broader around the chest and was slightly taller, but he still had that slight puniness about him he had yet to grow out of.

But nonetheless Gaara had become quite attractive. He didn't really get what 'attractive' meant himself; he didn't get it because as far as he knew, it was to do with sex, which he didn't understand and didn't have much of a desire to do so. The only thing he thought it did was make people revert to their ten year old selves and act like complete morons. Just as a small group - or maybe it was a couple, Gaara had ignored them almost entirely so he wasn't too sure - of young female nin had been doing so today. They had been surprised to see their Kazekage suddenly on the training grounds - not that it could've been the first time; he was a Kage and needed to stay strong. They knew this. Nevertheless they had stood huddled together, whispering and giggling. Humans were weird creatures.

Gaara shook his head at the infuriating piece of human behaviour he yet again couldn't decode, and instead swung his arm out to send a huge wave of sand towards the training dummies, flooding the floor around their feet like the tide washing over the shore. His hands flew through several hand seals and then the sand that had encased the legs of the dummies flew up, encasing every one of them in a Desert Coffin. He then concentrated his chakra and curled his outstretched, splayed hands into fists, crushing every one of the dummies.

After a few moments, he allowed his hands to relax, and the sand that had been tightly wrapped around the dolls fell away, leaving all but one of the original twelve in a pile of wood and straw.

Gaara turned his head around to look at his brother's face as the older sibling applauded him slowly.

"Nice attack. Is that what you've been working on?" He asked.

"Yeah," Gaara said, panting lightly. He walked over to sit down on the bench next to where the puppeteer was standing.

"What's it called?"

"Desert Harvest," he replied.

"Cool," Kankurou said quietly, leaning against a nearby post. "So what's your plan for these attackers?"

Gaara's breathing began to even out as he braced his weight against one knee and wiped the sweat from his neck with the small towel he had brought. He eyed the water bottle his brother was carrying with a quick glance. Kankurou handed it to him.

Gaara took it without a word, taking a few swallows and then handing it back to his brother. "I'm not sure yet," he said, unsurprised that his brother had known. Temari knew he was planning something too, no doubt.

"Gaara… I'm sorry to be the one to say it, but maybe you should just let someone else protect you for once," the puppeteer suggested, "if everything is as bad as Temari said it is, then we should be the ones looking after you, not the other way round."

The redhead blinked and looked up at Kankurou's painted face with a stubborn glare. "I'm the Kazekage, Kankurou. I can't just sit back and let my people die for me like this. I made a vow to protect the village, even if it means I could die. That's the reason for my existence."

"I know, but don't you think-"

There was a sudden flicker in the palm trees above them that made the brothers and the three ANBU who had been watching Gaara all day stand to attention. Said ANBU were on the now moving target in a split second, chasing the assassin with admirable speed. Kankurou looked at his brother in slight surprise. "How the fuck did they get here?! This part of town is a fortress," Kankurou exclaimed.

"They're elite," Gaara replied, grabbing his nearby coat and gourd before hopping onto a ledge of one of the bordering buildings. Kankurou followed.

The ANBU had been joined by a couple of jounin who had sensed the conflict and were now fighting two of the attackers on Suna's round rooftops. The enemy was outnumbered and they were again trying to move the battle away from the village where they could be joined, no doubt, by their comrades.

Gaara knew this and so he began taking a different direction, hopping over a series of buildings in a different direction. In the distance, Kankurou shouted after him, telling him to stop being so stupid and to get to safety. But Gaara wasn't stupid. This was the reason he was alive. If he didn't do this, then he might as well go back to the way he was at the Chuunin exam- loving himself, killing for himself.

He jumped up onto the ledges of the huge walls of bedrock and hardened sand surrounding Sunagakure, then reached the very top in a few short bounds. He felt his brother's chakra behind him, but he ignored it and began to disintegrate into sand once he reached the top. The grainy waves flew through the air, chakra rich and bending, until he felt the foreign chakra lock onto him a small distance east. Four shinobi caught up with him after a short pursuit across the desert and once he felt there was enough distance between them, he materialised, standing straight, stoic and with his arms crossed over his chest, facing the advancing attackers like a brick wall.

The four shinobi were dressed in the same attire as the ones the previous assassins had been wearing during the last attack; mostly in black, gas masks, face respirators, headphones, goggles, gloves and other equipment that looked like it belonged to scientists.

"What do you want?" Gaara asked darkly, staring hard at the attackers.

He wasn't met with an answer. Obviously they weren't the talking type… Instead, several of the three pointed kunai were sent soaring through the air, only to be caught by Gaara's automatic sand defence. Though the ninjas' faces were mostly covered by gas masks and other such equipment, Gaara could feel the spark of horror that went through every one of them.

The sand was reaching out of the gourd hungrily, though it began to settle back into its container once the kunai fell to the floor. Gaara stared hard at them. Everything was eerily silent for a moment, like the calm before one of the many sandstorms the desert threw at Sunagakure. Then Gaara's sand lashed out, chasing the targets that had jumped up and were trying to surround him- they had planned ahead. The sand spiralled out from Gaara, hurtling towards the nin and reaching for their ankles whilst the Kazekage simply stood, his eyes hard on the ground a few feet before him.

The sand morphed into four hands that caught hold of two of the nin, gripping them by the ankles and binding them to the desert floor, whilst the hands that had failed to catch the other two only increased in speed as the two shinobi hopped along the top of a rocky facade. He didn't see the hand seals, but he felt the chakra of one of them suddenly mould into yet another unusual jutsu and glanced around just in time to see her release a cloud of some kind of gas. It seemed to come from her face respirator, Gaara noted, before he pulled the sand around himself in a protective shell.

The two others he had rooted to the ground were struggling against the sand, but a mist of sand had begun to form above them. Gaara concentrated on these for now. "Suna Shigure," he muttered, and begun surrounding them with sand. After a few moment they were completely enveloped, still struggling, until Gaara performed his Desert Funeral on them. He ignored the other two advancing enemies as he lifted the sand sphere into the air, trying to get away from the poisonous air behind him and possibly to attract his other would-be assassins.

He reached his hands out and began guiding the sand towards the other two, chasing them with it for a few minutes while they ran about the façade several metres below him. Finally, he caught one, sending a huge wave of sand towards him and crushing him against the jagged rocks, whilst another wave went after the annoyingly fast kunoichi. Eventually, while she was looking over her shoulder at the advancing, grainy hand, Gaara formed another in front of her and crushed her between them before she even knew what hit her.

Everything was silent for a moment while the sand slithered about, falling back into the desert and streaming into the gourd at Gaara's command, rich with chakra an the liquefied remains of the attackers. The redhead lowered himself back to the floor and allowed the hardened sand to disintegrate into its loose form, where it slinked back into his gourd.

Looking around the now sparse battlefield, Gaara sighed. His chakra reserves were still quite high thanks to Shukaku, and so he began to fly back to Suna in his sandy state.

When he arrived, it seemed that his Shinobi had been ambushed by the remaining nin, yet there were only three enemy bodies where Gaara had located them.

Gaara was met with surprise and slight mayhem when he materialised near one of the outlying garrisons.

"K-Kazekage-sama!" Exclaimed a nearby Chuunin.

Kankurou and Temari had sensed his chakra as soon as he came near to the village, and were in front of him within a few minutes.

"Gaara!" Temari yelled. "What the-"

"It's fine, Temari, I took care of them," the redhead replied, "is everyone safe?"

"What-"

"They put a couple of jounin in the hospital, but I think the three back-ups those two that were snooping around the village had were the runts of the litter," Kankurou explained, "the ANBU dealt with them, but we've had the first two put in the high-security wing of the hospital."

"Good. Are they badly injured?" Gaara asked.

Kankurou snorted. "One of the ANBU used a weird genjutsu on them. They'll be out-cold for a couple of hours but they're otherwise healthy enough to be interrogated. They shouldn't die too soon like the other guy did," he said.

Gaara was wordless, and walked past his bored-looking brother and quietly fuming sister to see what his soldiers were doing. It was a shame he hadn't had a chance to use his new jutsu, but he knew there would be a chance for him to use it in the future.

"Temari-san!" Gaara glanced around to see a medi-nin land in front of his siblings and squat. "I think you should come and see this," he said worriedly.

"What is it?" The redhead asked.

"The attackers… they were using a Henge."

*****

Yes, its boring as hell and the cliff-hanger sucked balls. Sorry about the lack of yaoi here, but as I said, I'm laying the foundations for the plot before we even go into that. Trust me, its important =__=; Sorry for any mistakes, C&C is appreciated!
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