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Living Stone	By : Resting-Madness Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Rock Lee/Gaara Views: 2359 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the naruto universe, or the characters involved. I also make no money from this work of fiction.

Chapter List
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Gaara opened his frosty green eyes to the familiar sound of wind slamming into wind. He didn't have to feel the lack of warmth on the other side of the sleepingbag nor the disappearance of a body to know that it's Lee outside, bashing the wind into itself.
Rolling over from his stomach, he gets up for the day.
The Kazekage often wondered if Lee's challenge to the gale force would cause a hurricane or tornado someday? But it seemed unlikely. The ambitious shinobi started this little activity during a wind storm in Suna one afternoon. Gaara had been working for the day, and never one to handle boredom, Lee decided he'd test the blast of wind from from his senpu kicks against nature's fury.
The red head wasn't sure how a victor could be decided through this, but upon seeing scars left in cacti or trees, he figured the victor was Lee if his wind could cut through the powerful gust and still leave a mark on something in the direct path.
Avoiding the personal beat-down going on he walks to the nearby river, in all his glory, to wash. He brought with him a wooden bucket fished from a strap on his travel bag and filled it with toiletries: soap, shampoo, a towel. He'd of liked to include a razor and cream, but the need to shave has alluded him since he hit his teens and seems to want to continue to do so throughout his nearing adulthood.
Removing his toiletries, he then turns the bucket over and takes a seat on it. Lucky its warm out; he only needs to dunk his bar of soap into the river water, he then scrubs it over his body with efficiant swiftness.
Lee smiled at the victory of the day. He'd bested mother nature once again. It was great that its so windy this morning; they must be closer to Suna than he'd thought. Looking to the river when he hears splashing sounds, Lee spots Gaara about to hand a bar of soap to a sand clone. He smiles when seeing that the clone looks like him.
'How sweet!' He declared to himself.
Lee vanished in a blur, appearing behind Gaara to swipe the bar from him. Gesturing for the clone to scram, he happily begins washing the male's back for him. Gaara continued rubbing his soaped torso thoroughly to clean himself.
He's washed Gaara's back before during their conjoined showers over in Sunagakure, and he was never intrussive of Gaara's person, but the red head's never been seated during a shower. And Lee caught himself admiring the seat-plumped rear, to the point, that he let his washing hands linger on the crest.
A small smile appeared across Gaara's mouth. "Of all the clones I've made of Lee, you're the most inaccurrate."
Laughing, Lee hands the soap back to Gaara before wrapping his arms around him from behind. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"None of them have ever tried to fondle me." Replied the Kazekage.
"Then they must have their head in the sand." Sniffing his fiance on his nice clean neck, Lee plants kisses there. "Mmm. Nice and clean."
Nuzzling his profile into Lee's, he comments softly. "It won't last long if your unpopular cologne sticks to me."
Cocking a grand brow, he wonders. "Unpopular colo... ohhh," Releasing Gaara with a chuckle, he says in mock offense. "So sorry my sweat offends you, your majesty."
"If you're bathing you should hurry, we have to go through Suna and restock our supplies for a longer days travel."
Halfway out of his form-fitting unitard, Lee's face breaks into an enormous grin. "You mean we get to take the sand steamers?!"
Sand steamers were constructed a few months back to help travelers, mainly merchants, who aren't gifted with superhuman abilities to cross the desert that's newly infested with sandworms. The war wasn't just between the ninja, its also effected mother nature and her creatures who fled to different inhabitants to stay alive.
These worms are about the size of a full-grown human, and as deadly as a plague of starving cannibals let loose after you've sustained an injury to your legs. Seeing as how they're not going for a recreational workout of destroying pest, he saw no reason that they shouldn't take the steamers.
"It is the fastest mode of transportation,"
Lee thought they could have restocked in his hometown, but then he remembered that nothing of the sort is open beyond restaurants for the workers to have meals. When they say everyone is helping out, they mean everyone.
There's also the option of restocking at a shop in River- a border which they're currently at- and go then to Rain from there on a boat, and they could leave out Suna all together- it would be faster- but, Gaara probably wanted to touch base with his village before going back out. Its understandable when the shinobi world is still so fragile.
Standing from his seat; he uses the bucket for its actual purpose and scoops water from the running river into the bucket, dumping it over his head repeating it until the soap has been rinsed off completely.
"And it would be nice to spend a couple more days together before you go back to Konoha."
"Aaaahh!" Voicing his refreshed pleasure of splashing water all over himself, he then shakes his head vigorously to remove the heavier amount of water in it. "Sounds good to me." Scrubbing water over his face with his hands, he then moves on to wash his hair.
Taking it upon himself to assist Lee in his bath, he crosses through the stream over to the energetic shinobi and begins in on the task of scrubbing down Lee's back. He resisted the urge to return the earlier favor done to him, but they really needed to hurry.
With help from the strong winds blowing they dried off quickly, even without the towels. It really was a shame to waste such a nice day traveling with a purpose, but it couldn't be helped. His men are waiting for him, granted they're from Suna.
"Gaara," He repremanded his nudist lover, who's walking back to their tent without a stitch of shame, by covering him with his towel. "Your guards are around," He didn't need to add 'somewhere', it was implied because they can be very discrete in location. Hidden but watching; and in that watching they'll be seeing certain bits that should be covered.
"We're all men, Lee." He moves the flap and steps inside the tent.
"Yes, but do they have to know the details?" He looks about, adjusting his own towel more securely around his waist before stepping inside.
That only produced a chuckle from the Kazekage. Dressing; afterwards the two packed their things, then broke down the tent to stow away as well. Their short trip to Tea Country was officially over.
..................
Lee cocked a suspicious eye at the dog-pile of merchants lining a seat against the steamer's metal walls. The majority of them are a shifty looking bunch; bundles are resting against their chest and stomach filled with who knew what, while the more respectable- known- merchants are in the midst of trying to make a trade, even as they've just obtained a portion of their wares.
"Prickly pear candy for you, sir?" One of them turned to his right to ask Lee this. He looked as though he could use a lot less candy in his diet with as crooked as the teeth are that shone in the dim lighting.
"Thank you." Reaching into his coin purse he removes a few ryo, then hands them to the man in exchange for the pouch of candied cactus leaflettes.
Lee loves traveling in these things. The contruction of cold steel and power, working on thin piston joints and condensation, he couldn't help but feel a kinship with the lifeless machine. Plus, you get to meet salty characters sometimes.
Opening the bag he leans it to the Kazekage, who removed three then ate them quietly one at a time. The murmur of the passangers was nearly hushed completely by the sound of the machine's engineering when it started to move.
The sand steamer is constructed to look like a giant silver scarab beetle; its movement made possibly by a steam system that uses sand and water heated to a piping degree, creating the steam that the little cylinder pumps use to shove the ligaments into function by the applied pressure.
A dozen worms rose from the sand to welcome the movement above their hiding holes; they plan to show the disturbance what the new sands of Suna are all about. But every firm toothed bite on the machine was going to waste because the steel could not be pierced by their pursuit, they even lost teeth when latching onto it getting dragged off out of their hole.
The worms hard bodies are torn to meaty chunks under metal foot; the offense does not go ignored by the rest of the community of infestation, and reenforcements spring up from underground to take their shot at the strange prey that's besting them.
But with the pressurized speed of the machine their efforts were beyond futile, and the group of travellers make their ways easily through the infested desert, leaving pools of sludge in its depature.
0 0 0
Amegakure. An absess between three of the Five Great Shinobi Nations. Once run by Hanzo the Salamander, during a time when it served as a battlefield for war; it was during Ninja World War III that the man lost his life to Nagato of Akatsuki, which at the time was a group of liberation rather than criminal orginazation. Nagato later changed his identity to Pain, and under this name took rule of the country; slaughtering any assassin who came after him and his aides due to loyalty to Hanzo.
Because Pain could briefly stop the constant rain fall, the citizens could only bow to the man and fall under his rule, though what could they have done really to oppose him? When Pain was defeated, and Konan took rule in his place. She was killed by Akatsuki member Tobi for Pain's Rinnengan eyes, and since then the village has been in quiet wonder over who should rule between the two men who have stepped up to lead: Kerai Akio and Shochou Hayate.
Full of war refugees, thieves, the starved and desperate, broken and poor; though the village allows you in, it remains under heavy surveillance within its walls and its borders. No one is trusted from within, and no one is trusted from without.
But whichever way their chosen leader chooses to lean in ruling, they of Rain will lean into the ruling.
Lee huddled in on himself against the peeping eyes of Rain's security. He doesn't really like hard examinations of his person. There's too much in there to see in his opinion. Eyes on his hard work as a ninja he can deal with, but nothing else.
Gaara seemed disinterested in the whole ordeal, but trudged on through the border's leer and up to the large front barracades without so much as a side glance at the discrete movement over at their right.
As if he'd somehow morphed from the bolted door, but was actually hiding well enough to be invisible, a tall guard stands before them with his arms crossed. He's got long dark brown hair braided into pigtails with a crewcut up top, cruel beady brown eyes; his arms are big and beefy which sort of clash with his height, and he looks like he could snap you clean in half without so much as an unintentional flexing of those arms.
Lee nods to himself with a high level of impressed.
"Name and reason for entering." He demanded without request. His voice was much lighter than his body; it must be a balancing thing. Build like aa underground compound, voice of a feather.
"Kazekage Sabaku no Gaara, I've come for my confined subordinates." Not breaking eye contact, he adds. "This is my bodyguard, Rock Lee. If you feel there is no need for him, then it will make no difference whether he accompanies me inside or not."
The man appeared less than impressed with either of them; his arms remain crossed over his tree trunk chest as he leered down at them. "What are these 'subordanates' doing in Rain?"
"They were on a conjoined mission with an ally nation, and wound up in Rain's custody upon the start of war. I was given word to pick them up by your police chief." He removes the summons from his pocket handing it over to the man who snatched it quickly away. No funny business afterall.
Eyeing the paper, he only had to recognize the seal of their moderately sized police force to have him stepping away from the part inbetween the doors. "Don't linger. We're in the middle of political debate for the well-being of our village. We don't have time or resources to mess around with false warfare."
'Could have fooled me.' Thinks Lee with a squint as the doors part for them.
"In and out."
"In and out." Gaara repeats.
"What about them?" He nods indirectly behind the pair.
4 men appear in a kneel behind Gaara and Lee.
"Kazekage-sama." One of the men questions their leader's decision.
Gaara nods, "They can remain out here." then he walks through the large entrance with Lee in tow.
Lee doesn't know about Gaara, but he's never been to Rain before so his large eyes are taking in this sight and that to really take it all in. Amegakure is certainly living up to its name as far as the leaf-nin can tell. It hasn't ceased to even a drizzle since they arrived ten minutes ago. And if you're the kind of person who goes mad from repetative sounds, the slapping of feet on wet concrete would send you straight to the nut house.
"Maybe we should ask someone where the prison is?" He suggest when another scrutinizing eye catches his own wandering gaze.
"My sand eye will find it, and we'll go from there." Gaara replied easily.
"Still, the guy at the gate could have told us." He muttered to himself.
"Its better we keep to ourselves."
Inching behind Gaara, he suddenly recalls that he is in fact the younger man's bodyguard and decides to puff up his chest and step before him instead. He's not intimidated, just concerned. He's only been here less than 20 minutes, and he wants to reach into his purse and shell out ryo to dirty little boys and girls walking slowly about the streets, looking at fruits and vegetables with lust filled eyes. The adults aren't any better.
They've got a look that says "beat it or I'll beat your ass" or "feed me, please". Either scenario could go down if they didn't leave soon. Just as Gaara started to say he found the police station, a man's booming voice ran over it.
Their gazes search for the voice, out of habit, and they fall on a slender narrow-eyed brunet, who's standing on a sort of stage before a well-sized crowd of citizens.
"That's right!" A woman cried from whatever the man had just said.
Unable to help himself, Lee joins the crowd out of curiosity. Not wanting to delay leaving, Gaara thought about snagging Lee and tugging him along with him to the precinct, but instead just joined him at the back of the crowd; though he tugged the hood of his cloak lower to furter hide his face. It was fine for Lee to eavesdrop, but this could be a bad scene for him.
"We don't have to be the lesser man!" Preached the man on stage. "We don't have to know the pain of death having done nothing, when we too could choose to fight along with our fellow man!"
"You tell 'em, Kerai-san!" Shouts an onlooker.
"What is the one major thing we as the people hate when war comes our way?" He looks around as if expecting an answer, then goes on when the men, women, and teens look at him in wonder. "Its that we're sending our husbands and wives and children out into the world with nothing but hope that they'll come back! But on the battlefield, we can know! And with this power we can do even better by preventing such life taking situations from ever happening again!"
"Yeah!" The crowd cheered.
"This man is insane." Gaara mutters to Lee.
"He is.... Though, I'm not entirely sure what he's talking about." He admits.
"We'll no longer feel the threat; we'll no longer be inferior!" The man, Kerai, continued. "You, sir, haven't you felt threatened by the shinobi world?" He points out a man with a burn all over his face, and some rough patches on his arms. "Those burns don't appear natural to me."
"N..n..no... M..my" The man is saying through a hard stutter. "son was asked to war because he has water style jutsus, I refused and was burned by a man because he told me I don't know when to butt-out."
The crowd looked aghast by this.
"My point exactly... You were assalted with no way to assalt. You, a mere man, could do nothing. But it won't stay that way for much longer. Not now that I've found the cure of our indifference."
Done listening to the incompetant, he begins to move away. "Let's go, Lee."
Lee looked to where Gaara's headed, but remains firmly planted in place until the man begins his speech about choosing him as Amegakure's leader, he then takes a step to the right but pauses when the man removes a stone of somekind from his pocket, but figuring its nothing he loses interest enough to leave after Gaara.
Ten minutes later Lee watches a young boy gathering rocks by a nature-made canal; the child scampered away when the second downpour began, though with the dripping buildings no one is sure when the first one had stopped; either way, the child had no desire to be swept away in a flash wave that might happen through.
"He seems in a hurry." Lee comments.
Pausing his steps, Gaara looked but was too late to see anyone. "Its not much farther." He informs his permitted bodyguard, as if to alert him that he should remain alert.
"Yes sir!" He salutes with a straight back, clicked together heels, and a hand to his forehead.
Smiling faintly, he continues on to the police station in silence. Gaara had to admit it, the place is a bit of a downer, even in daylight. The rain is ridiculously present, the energy is so low you'd think you're asleep, and in all honesty it seems as though the village itself is in a state of poverty with the way everyone who's litering the streets is covered in filth or rags, or trying to steal a meal. But as he'd told Lee, its not their problem and they shouldn't get involved.
Five minutes away, Lee lifts his nose into the air. "Mmm." His stomach agreed with a loud enough growl. Wondering where the smell was coming from, he looks past Gaara and points. "There it is!" Hurrying by, he clears the distance to the station with a record breaking sprint; waiting at the door, he opens it for the slow-paced red head then gestured its admittance to him.
"Kazekage-sama." The officer at the desk regocnized the young village leader right away, after all, his sand barrier was over his head protecting him during the war. "Right this way." He whistles to one of the officers standing guard by a door; a sign to the right of the door reads: Holding Cells. "Fujikawa can show you inside."
The pair walk to the guard at the door, passing through into the hall once its unlocked.
"Lord Gaara!" One man cried out as he approached.
"Kazekage-sama!" The other said in relief.
"Are they yours?" The guard asks; it isn't enough for the imprisoned to recognize the young man, He has to ID them.
"Yes. They're from Suna. You can let them out."
"We're so relieved to see you're alive." The first sand-nin to speak comments. "We heard things about the war, we even felt the shakes."
"We thought the place was gonna come down on us." Chimed the other shinobi.
To the guard, Gaara asks. "Is there anything I need to sign?"
"Right this way." The guard takes them back into the main hall of the station.
Lee followed the group around quietly; with some wonder as to why the guards look so spooked?
"I can't wait to get home... Is there even a home to return to?" Asks the first shinobi.
"Suna is fine. It was Konoha that took the brunt of the attack."
Gaara didn't need to mention neighboring villages that got hit with backlash. It wasn't any wonder they thought the building was gonna come down on them with the battlefield right next door. They're lucky to be alive. All the refugees are.
"Can we get something to eat before we head back?" Lee suggests on the freed men's behalf, and himself.
"No!" The shinobi shout in unison.
"P- please... We can get back to the village ourselves, if you wish to stay. But, we'd like to get home."
The second ninja nods in agreement.
Lowering the pen, he nods to them. "If that's what you want. We'll see you to the gate."
He'd of let it be, but this place has been even sketchier than what seems usual. Its better to see that the men are actually safe and sound and on their way home before he goes about any other business involving this place. Thankfully its something as frivilous as a quick meal. Even he has to admit he's hungry, having only had candy all day.
"Thank you.. Thank you.."
The four leave the station in somewhat of a hurry, going through the village towards the exit faster than Gaara and Lee had come in- of course, now they know which way they're going.
"I hate you!" Cried a child. "I hate you!" He throws one of the many stones he'd gathered by the canal.
"Hey!" A man snapped, before trying to snatch the child away from the rally.
"Get rid of that brat." Kerai ordered anyone who'd listen, while dodging the stones. "Take him out of here."
"No! No!" He flails when a woman gets her hands on him after he was run into a barracade of spectators for her to grab him. "I hate him, he killed him!"
That turned Lee's head. What was going on over there?
Spotting a flailing child being hassled by adults, he sprang into action and rushed to the rescue. Gaara narrowed his eyes at the unwanted situation that he'd thoroughly told Lee to avoid. These people and their lives are not something that can be fixed by outsiders or insiders.
"Let the kid go!" Lee bellowed over the noise while the child was being snatched this direction and that by anyone who felt a need to touch him out of kindness.
He shoved the people's grasping hands from him, pulling him into his safety, and covering him with the lower length of his cloak. The crowd doesn't back off just because a stranger butts in, and they move in on Lee intent to hurl him from the child and continue with their pesturing him. But they should have known better than to mess with the splendid beast that is Rock Lee.
Scooping the child into his arms, he quickly executes a senpu against the onslaught knocking them all over the place. A collective groan went up, right before one of the men on stage with the bitter elective, Kerai, points down at Lee saying.
"Do you see, it continues to happen to us even as we attempt to make equality with the shinobi scum."
Offended by the comment, Lee straightens and bickers back with a fist raised in self-justice. "I'm not scum! And neither are other shinobi." Looking at Kerai he tries to explain. "You were all planning to hurt a chi-..."
"Come this way!" The boy insists, as he drags Lee away by the wrist.
Keeping himself covered, Gaara follows after them. His men fled the gate that was pointed out to them. How is it that something as simple as a two man pick-up could be turned into so much trouble?
.............
The young boy mauled his offering of food from the kind stranger; he ate and ate, not even caring whether or not it was actually from his plate. He swiped a couple slabs of Lee's skirtsteak, and even found himself removing a clump of baked potato from the grouchy looking red head.
Lee only smiled sadly at the young boy's hunger. He even looks like he's starved, so he really can't blame him for finishing his plates and aiming at another's. Gaara was getting a little testy, due to the fact that this "in and out" seemed like "in" wouldn't end. Not to mention, everyone in the place is giving them the evil eye, namely the hungry young boy. They must not like children here, that, or the child tends to eat and run.
Clearing his throat when the child's fork found his plate for the third time, he had to bring his chow down to an end. "If you're done, we'll be taking our leave."
"Gaara?" Lee sounded as if his lover had just said "go lose a leg" to the child. "Don't you think we should help him? That mob seemed pretty vicious."
"He worked them up by throwing rocks."
Ignoring the indifference, he asks the child. "Why were you throwing rocks at that guy anyway?"
The reaching hands stilled, and he slowly crumpled in on himself to hide the tears that suddenly flooded his eyes.
"D- don't cry," He waves his hands up defensively; the fall of tears were like a spray of shurikan waiting for a target, and in Lee's case they hit their mark because his heart aches for the child. "we'll help you."
Gaara fixed Lee with a dirty look that, like all his resistance to Lee's curiosity, went ignored.
"We'll start smaller, my name is Lee." He's not so foolish as to give his surname. "What's yours?"
"Miyamoto." He sniffled.
"Its nice to meet you, Miyamoto." He made a small bow. "This is Gaara."
Miyamoto only continued to aim tears at his lap, his choppy brown hair did nothing to hide his miserable freckled face.
"Will you tell us why you're so angry with that man?" He reapproached the subject.
"He has my older brother." Sobbed the child.
Lee and Gaara exchange glances of concern and disbelief. They thought it'd be something simple, that maybe Kerai had been incharge for a moment and maybe raised living taxes and evicted the kid from his home; or maybe the kid's just got a bad disposition with authority because it's the thing to do when you're young. But why on earth would the man have the child's brother?
"Are you sure?" Lee asks.
Miyamoto nods, lowering his voice. "My brother used to work for him in the factory that shut down a six months ago, because of the war. Its at the edge of town," He points left as though it were two feet away instead of miles. "He was a security guard."
"But how do you know Kerai has anything to do with it?" This was Gaara finally joining the conversation beyond being a listener.
Seeing the hard glances from the other patrons in the bar, he swallows and offers the jist of his problem. "Because he came home from work every night at the same time."
Gaara felt himself rolling his eyes, though not physically. That explanation didn't clear up anything.
Trying to make better sense of it, Lee concludes. "Okay, you mean that your brother hasn't come home anymore?"
"Yeah, but... it was before he didn't come home." He starts crying again.
Sucking in a breath to steady his agitation with the pace of this conversation, Gaara speaks thoughtfully to the distraut male. "Stop crying. Tell us what happened and we'll see if we can find out what happened to your brother for you. But if its got nothing to do with that man outside, you must leave him alone. Understand?"
The child nods his head frantically. He's so happy for help that his appetite has restored, and he's once again snatching at food to make way for his mouth.
Beaming his trademark smile at Gaara, Lee all but hugs the male before he recalled that the child never said a word about what happened to his brother beyond "he didn't come home".
"Miyamoto, your brother?"
"Hmm?" He seemed almost startled.
"You're going to need to tell us what's happened before your brother's disappearance, if that's the part that's most relevant. He could have just gone somewhere."
"But he didn't." The boy mopes again.
It would seem they'll be talking circles all night at this rate.
"My brother, Tetsu, he came home on two occasions and told me that that bad man has been looking at him funny. Like he's.... you know, evil."
"You can't assume Kerai has done anything to your brother just because he was looking at him." Gaara injects. He could have been accussed of evil thoughts as often as he's hard stared at Lee, when he was trying to figure out why he likes him. "Its just not enough of a reason to suspect someone of foul play."
"But my brother wasn't just a security guard, he had abilities... like a ninja."
That was it. The eavesdropping bartender had heard enough. This boy would tell his story to just about anyone who was dumb enough to listen, and frankly she was getting tired of the slander. Along with everyone else in the village. Isn't it enough that they still have no ruler, but now they have to suffer in some brat trying to cause trouble while the place is in a peaceful state of cease-fire. Small wonder he'd involve outsiders, since the rest of the town has cast him aside.
"Miyamoto!" The branwy woman snapped. "You stop talking nonsense about Kerai; he's a good and honest man just trying to help us out. Do you really think we'll see him any differently because you and some outsiders plan to go snooping around where you don't belong?" Popping her meaty hand down on the wooden countertop, she leans her weight on it to glare authoritively at him; the expression hidden from the outsiders at that angle.
Bowing his head, he tucks himself into a mental shelter again, taking his verbal beating as per usual when speaking about his brother.
"I don't ever wanna see you in here again, you got that?" Straightening, she waves him away. "Go on, get out. Tell your friends to pay the bill and to go on with you, as well."
Miyamoto slid sadly from the seat, discouraged beyond words as he walked out the door. Lee gave the woman a disapproving glare before following behind Gaara, who waited for him at the door.
"Its better if we talk at my house." The boy whispered quickly; snatching Gaara's hand, he pulls him toward his home.
...............
Lighting a lantern for them to see, Miyamoto sets the thing down atop the shabby coffee table in the center of the disheveled room. He offered them water, taking a seat upon their decline.
The outsiders look about the dimly lit home with smpathetic eyes. The home is a dump! The only thing that could live comfortably in here would be inatimate objects, and even those things are weathered beyond proper use. It made one wonder just what happened in here?
"I'm glad we're alone." His voice is a lot clearer now that he's away from public ears. "My brother was a shinobi just like you guys, its why he was hired as a security guard for the iron factory. Kerai new the factory would be safe from anyone who broke in, with Tetsu on the payroll."
"But why need a shinobi to guard a factory that makes iron?" Lee asks. "Is it pricey stuff to pawn?"
"No. That's why its weird that he would disappear. No one ever attacked the place directly." He shrugged. "Anytime it came under harm was when something else was going on, and it was sort of in the way."
Assessing the situation in my his mind, Gaara asks. "I'm guessing that your brother was a shinobi is why he was killed." Every other word from Kerai's mouth was "shinobi" this or that.
"Not for that reason, but what he could do as a shinobi. His ability wasn't like anybody elses." He shakes his head; the pride in his voice couldn't be mistaken. "My brother could sort of... absorb other ninjas' abilities. It was like nothing you'd ever see!" He added with even more boast. "And he was sure his boss was plotting something because of it. He didn't know why, and one day he didn't come home."
"But from what I hear Kerai doesn't oppose shinobis, he's for them."
"I know. But this isn't about whether he does or doesn't like ninjas, its about the fact that a few months later he started this campaign about wanting his fellow man to become shinobis as well, like he's making them."
"Making them how?" Lee asks. "Something like that isn't possible."
"But it is. He's got these stones that make it possible to give a normal human chakra abilities." His mouth sags into a frown. "I'm not sure how, though. But I know my brother's got something to do with it."
"If that's true, then that sicko needs to be stopped, and his operation shut down!" Declared Lee whilst standing from a chair so tattered its nearly three-legged, fist balled in righteous fury.
His hope restored, Miyamoto stands as well; a big smile on his greasy face. "Do you mean it?"
"Absolutely! We'll stop Kerai and expose him for the villain that he is, and see that you get proper justice for your brother."
Over-joyed, the child threw his arms open and wrapped them around Lee's torso.
Gaara watched the enthusiastic pair with exhaustion. They really needn't be nosing around in these peoples affairs; he's not a hardass, he can empathize with the child's pain completely. He has a brother, and knowing a brother's love he can understand the pain of losing it. But to get this involved is risky.
Not only are they breaking and entering in a foreign land, but they could do serious jail time for this. If this is all for nothing, it can cause a rift between Sand and Rain, should Kerai become ruler. And with Leaf's inhabitants being the sole reason for the war at all, it could place them as instigators of uprisings as retaliation for the past war, regardless the summit meetings and aliances made. If they help this boy... they'll have to be invisible to do it.
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This was insane. It was beyond insane actually, and yet somehow he was talked into it. Clumps of sand spin around heavy screws that are keeping a ventilation gate in place. The metal gave one scrape of a sound as it slid loose from the building, but did little else to blow their cover as the grate is slid off.
The two move up the wall and into the ventilation shaft; the sand pulled their entrance closed after them.
"Lee, wait." He whispered.
Not knowing the acoustics of the building talking normally could pose as a problem for them. On top of the fact that there could be policemen roaming around to weed out the squatters. So they need to keep a low profile.
"I don't know if that boy is right, but I do know that if this turns out to be nothing... we can't keep his hopes up that we'll be his saviors." He can't see Lee, but he's almost positive those big brows of his are furrowing in disappointment. "We tell him what we've found, then cut our ties."
"But what if he's right? What if we do find his brother?" He's on hands and knees again, beginning to make his way through the airduct. "Do you think a man with enough power to make a mob attack a child in broad daylight, and in a public area, will stop at being found out?"
"If he's right," He crawls after him. "then we'll turn the matter over to the police."
Lee kept his sigh inward, continuing with moving forward. He knows that Gaara cares, and that he wants to help. ...But with the ninja world being so fragile right now, it's hard to care and it's hard not to care. Lee gets it. Everything can be taken the wrong way, so better to stay out of it. But he can't see a child being hurt and not take action. Its just not in him to turn away from someone in need. He'd be like thousands of uncared for children, if not for Maitou Gai coming to him, and showing him a better way.
Remembering this pushed Lee further along, and thankfully he hears Gaara behind him.
The metal duct popped and panged when their weight bent it in, but luckily it wasn't done enough that it alerted anyone of their presence. Hopefully their luck will hold out.
"Stop." Lee commands; he supposed if this were an intimate moment between them, he'd of blushed feeling Gaara's hand brush his rear-end before it rests on the small of his back as the male scoots to sit at his side. But the moment was what it was in the situation, and he went on explaining himself. "There's a drop from here. Should we go down it?"
"I'll go. You keep straight ahead."
"Ummm?" Lee began.
"Is it far?" The sand snaked its way across the gap like a bridge. "That should help. Go up if you get the chance. Tap the sand twice and I'll know to lift you, tap it once if you come across something, I'll join you then."
"Okay."
Though he can't see it, Gaara knows he's just received an almost trademark grin and thumbs up.
"Good luck." Lee says hoping neither of them need it.
And to his own unspoken words of hope for success, Gaara adds after it. "And be careful."
The sheet of sand sinks him slowly down the shaft like an automated platform to the next floor. Lee continues forward, being trailed by a chunk of sand.
The building, no surprise, is empty. From the highest location of the roof, to the lowest floor of the basement. The search and rescue team found no one and nothing suspicious in the closed factory. And meeting up in the same place they had come in, the pair make their escape returning to Miyamoto's home.
..............
"Then you didn't look hard enough!" Insists the child through flustered emotions. "Wasn't there even any blood or anything?"
"Nothing. We're sorry." Lee offers.
The boy's face crinkled up before the tears began flooding from his eyes.
The outsiders remain silent watching the boy's pain. What could they do? There simply wasn't anything pointing to foulplay in the factory, nor was there anything incriminating towards Kerai.
"We've done what we said we'd do. We'll be leaving now." Gaara says after the moment seemed not to stop on its own. On his way to the door, he- once again- isn't surprised to hear Lee intending to help out.
"How long ago did your brother go missing?"
"A month." He sniffled.
"Which gave Kerai plenty of time to clean up whatever he may have done."
Cutting into Lee's deduction with his own, Gaara insists. "If he's done anything." Pulling the door open, he turns back to the child and calmly says. "We're sorry about your brother disappearing. But we made a deal about this. Nothing turned up, so we can't help you anymore."
'We can, you just don't want to.' Thinks Lee, giving his lover a very stern look.
"Its late. We need to find an Inn." This he says to Lee before walking out.
Lee spared Miyamoto one last sympathetic look before leaving as well.
The walk to the Inn was in silence: Gaara got them a room. Silent. They went through their nightly routines. Silent. They climb into bed. Silent. Gaara falls asleep. Lee leaves the room, re-dressed, cloaked, and covered by darkness.
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Living Stone