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Dark Soul	By : Shi_koi Category: Naruto Crossovers > General Views: 995 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Stargate, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
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Title: Dark Soul

Series: Story #2. Sequel to 'Sand Walker'

Fandom: Naruto / SG-1

Author: Shi-koi

Warnings: Gaara-centric, violence, blood. Normal
Naruto-verse stuff. Alternate timeline – Gaara isn't the
Kazekage yet. Note the 'yet'. The writing style changes from
present to past tense in places, usually when Gaara has to interact
directly to another person during a scene, so be prepared for that.
Eventually it will have chunks from Naruto's perspective as well,
but not for a long time.

Genre: Crossover, action/adventure, mild angst.

Pairings: None

Summary: (Crossover) (Naruto – SG-1) Sequel
to 'Sand Walker'. Set after the fight at the Valley of the End, and
before the beginning of Naruto Shippuuden. This is one vision of
Gaara's journey to be human.

*****

Notes 1: Sorry it's taken me so long to update.
On the good side, however, this is where Stargate really comes into
play. On the bad side, it may not be what most of you are expecting.

Notes 2: The style changes a bit during this.
This story was primarily an exercise in style application, so
forgive me if it seems a bit odd. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Notes 3: This story isn't yaoi or slash. In fact,
it has no pairings at all. No het, no slash, nothing. Okay? It's a
gen friendship fic, no more, no less. I've been writing some yaoi
out-takes, but they are just to fufill my own desire to explore
character alternatives, and have no bearing on this story. I don't
think I'll even be posting them.

Notes 4: Red Moon versus Red Dawn (and variations
thereof). When I started writing this, Yondaime-sama had no name,
and the Akatsuki were translated as the Red Moon... I'm sticking to
that for now, because this fic is an AU anyway, now that we know so
much more about everything in the Naruto-verse.

*****

Gaara can feel something...alien in the sands dunes
calling him. Alien even to this world.

The people of this world call it 'Earth', which is
quite unimaginative, naming a planet after it's dirt. Then again, to
Gaara, nothing will compare to the elegant beauty of his sands, but
calling a world 'Sand' just wouldn't be appropriate.

This desert is full of lush oasis and long dry
plains. The Northern-most end has rivers and fields which are a
delight to sense. The sands beneath them thick and heavy with
nutrients from the largest body of flowing water Gaara's seen in a
long time inside a desert.

The Southern-most end is harsher, with mountains,
valleys and even prairies.

Gaara prefers the North side.

The sand sets Gaara down gently and the blue of his
chakra softly settles. He feels as though he's coming down from a
mission high, and it's been so long since he needed stimulants to
enhance his performance that he has to take a few seconds to adjust
to the similar sensations.

There's a reason why he makes his own Hyourougan,
soldier pills.

There are loud jarring noises drifting down over the
dunes, and Gaara cautiously edges closer. The night darkness is
helping to conceal him, but it won't be hard for him to be spotted
by an industrious sentry, his skin is just too pale and his hair too
bright.

Then again, Gaara thinks as he wraps a genjutsu
around himself to hide him from prying eyes, as long as he's not up
against another ninja, he could probably walk right in unseen.

Gaara's never been the best person at genjutsu, but
all shinobi are taught how to cover themselves in illusions to hide
themselves, and Gaara is nothing if not thorough. He has the usual
basic ninja arsenal of genjutsu, but not much more than those he
uses for stealth. He can't attack with them, or use them
productively in a battle.

Not like the elder Uchiha can, his genjutsu
are legendary. Gaara knows the elder Uchiha, Itachi, has an attack
which, when used, is so traumatic and torturous it places the victim
in a coma. Most victims of which end up never waking from, their
mind simply unrecoverable.

Gaara knows because the elder Uchiha is a part of
the Akatsuki, the Red Moon, and the Akatsuki are after his and
Naruto's demons, or more specifically, after Naruto himself. Uchiha
Itachi has been after Naruto since the blonde was twelve.

Itachi was so ruthless in his pursuit of Naruto that
he used the Mangekyou Sharingan and tortured his own little brother,
who was only twelve at the time – after breaking both his
wrists and beating him almost to the point of unconsciousness in
front of Naruto's eyes, with Naruto unable to do anything to help –
when Sasuke crossed Itachi's path and tried to stop him, to avenge
the murder of his family and clan.

Uchiha Itachi, the same Uchiha Itachi who murdered
his entire clan when he was barely fourteen years old. Hundreds of
people carrying the Uchiha blood, so many of them they had an entire
district of Konoha to themselves and policed the whole of Konoha
were killed in the space of a single afternoon.

The Uchiha, who were spoken of in hushed tones they
were so powerful, annihilated by the son of the head of their clan.

Gaara likes to know his enemies beforehand, and
likes to plan a counter-offensive to keep in reserve. Hearing that
Uchiha Itachi is after you is a disturbingly scary thing.

Hence his recent study of genjutsu.

Gaara knows enough to protect his mind against
another shinobi, and that small amount of knowledge is more than
enough to pass undetected on this planet.

When Gaara clears the rise of the sand dune, he can
see the light from many harshly-bright torches dotting the lower
levels of sand below him. There are large trucks, crates, tents and
people in military garb.

Gaara doesn't like the look of them.

The majority of the people below are not dark, or
large, or swarthy...and they don't look anything like the native of
this desert. There are mostly white people mixed in with all
the rest, and their mannerisms are those of foreigners.

The sands hum their worry. Not because of this
strange military – the sands have existed too long to be
concerned by mortals – but because of whatever it is that they
are unearthing from the stone structures which must have been
revealed in a recent sandstorm.

Whatever is in those chambers that has the sands of
this world worried, also worries Gaara. He sits down and allows
himself to sink deep into the sand, beginning his meditations to
allow his mind to freely contact the living spirit of the sands.

The sands are worried, the last time creatures like
the one still in the stone chamber were allowed to roam freely they
stole many of the sand's children. The desert dwellers who lived and
died on her surface were stolen away and never returned.

They know Gaara. Gaara is one of her special
children, even if he wasn't born on her plains. Gaara belongs to all
sands on all plains and is bonded to every single grain in
existence.

And, Gaara understands fear.

Gaara rises to the surface and stares into the
gently sloping valley below, much of the lower level caused by the
diggers still working to remove the sand from the structures.

Gaara estimates that dawn is less than an hour away,
and he knows that the workers will increase in the daylight. He
hasn't got time for a complicated plan, so he makes himself
comfortable on a cloud of sand and hovers above the stone buildings.
He uses his third eye jutsu to take a look inside the building and
around the camp.

It would be odd to see an eyeball floating around
the camp, so Gaara wraps it inside a minor genjutsu, something which
is quite difficult to do to an object that is half summon, half
ninjutsu. Gaara can do it with a little bit of concentration,
immensely glad for his extremely large chakra reserve.

There's nothing particularly strange about these
people, other than the fact that as military types, they seem a bit
too weak for Gaara's liking. They have machines, guns and lots and
lots of men, but they don't seem any stronger than the worst placed
Genin ninja.

Gaara's own world has plenty of technology, but not
quite to the same standards shown here. They got rid of guns a long,
long time ago, after all, what was the point of a projectile weapon
who's ammunition couldn't follow the enemy if you wanted it to, or
was used against foes who could easily and regularly move faster
than a whole slew of bullets?

Most of the technology left was mainly used for
communication, and even then, mostly by lower lever ninja and
ordinary people with no ninja training, or by teams working together
in situations where any use of chakra would be discovered.

Gaara's world was virtually unpolluted, since fossil
fuels were very rarely used and even then, only in small quantities.
Even the large cities and towns ran on electricity. There were no
cars, like on this world, although Gaara did quite like one method
of transportation he'd seen on a different world, here they ran on
terrible, smelly, thick and usually damaging (to the environment
around them) fuels.

On the plus side, the fuel they used in their trucks
would be perfect for a diversion as it was so wonderfully flammable.

There are eight trucks on-site. Three are empty, two
have food and one has crates stacked up in it. The last two have
people inside them. Gaara creates five sand clones inside the three
empty trucks and the two with food in them. At his signal they start
driving away into the desert. Gaara doesn't know enough to really
control them, although figuring them out is easy, the experience
needed to really drive them has never interested Gaara.

The camp is in uproar as the military presence in
the camp realise what's happening and go on alert. Gaara simply
walks straight through them until he safely enters the rapidly
clearing stone buildings. It's easy for him to walk along the
ceilings to avoid detection, since the workers are pouring down the
tunnels and corridors at the sounds of shouting and yelling going on
outside.

After a half dozen minutes the structures are
completely clear, leaving Gaara to his own devices inside them.
There's a pulse in the sand that only Gaara can feel, directing
Gaara to one seemingly bare wall. Gaara spreads his chakra thinly
across the surface until he can sense the different areas of the
stone.

It takes a small amount of chakra applied in exactly
the right places for the door to open when Gaara presses against it.
The room before him is dark and musty, and a flood of dusty sand and
stale air rushes out when the heavy stone door swings open on
concealed hinges. Gaara removes a torch from the main room and takes
it with him when he steps inside the hidden room. He lights the few
torches still in their places with it before placing it in an empty
holder.

The genjutsu Gaara has activated is released. Gaara
has a feeling he's going to need his chakra, and it could be
slightly awkward maintaining his genjutsu when he gets to where the
sand wants him to go.

Gaara doesn't need the sand to tell him where he
needs to go. There's a large display shelf type thing built into the
wall, lit by a golden light. There is a lot of gold in this room,
excessively so.

Choosing one of his larger scrolls from his bag,
Gaara spreads it out and inks new sealing instructions on it using
his travel pot of ink and usual brush. The sand carries everything
from the shelves to the scroll, although the scroll is lost beneath
the sheer amount of items. Palms together, Gaara summons the
right amount of chakra and then thrusts his hands down onto the only
clear portion of the scroll, the circle inked out for his palm.

The chakra hisses and envelops the items, turning
them into small characters on the scroll, completely flat, ready to
be summoned.

There's only one item remaining in the room. It
looks like a long carved coffin made out of gold with the relief of
a person in ceremonial finery across the top. Gaara transcribes
another scroll ready for this item, it was simply too large to be
placed in the other scroll, then he steps forward and examines the
coffin.

When his hand brushes against the side of the item,
it starts to hum, and when it opens, the soft golden glow insides
reveals a woman sleeping. She's wearing an outfit that gleams with
thousands of woven gems and long strands of gold. Her skin is
lightly tanned and her eyes are lined in black Kohl.

Gaara stares at her. The sand is swirling in
agitation around his feet, partially drifting up the side of the now
open coffin, but not really wanting to get any nearer to the
creature with the human face. Gaara steps back when she sits up and
starts to rise. She steps gracefully out of the coffin and stands on
the sandy floor before Gaara. She's at least a head taller than him,
which Gaara's used to. Naruto and children are the only ones the
same height as him.

When she smiles her eyes glow gold and her voice
when she speaks is deep and multi-tonal. Her face twists in anger
when Gaara doesn't answer, but to be honest, he only understood
maybe one word out of a dozen.

He knows what she is now. Creatures of her kind have
been on other places he's been to, although he's never been as close
to one as he is now.

When she snarls and lifts one hand up with a device
he recognises as a weapon the sand lashes out and slams into her,
throwing her against the stone wall.

Her look of shock is almost comical, and Gaara can't
help but smirk, although it's so small only someone who knows him
well would be able to see it.

The woman has now beencategorised as a threat and
Gaara's in no mood to mess around, so his sand just holds her still
and twists off her head at the neck, ripping her apart. The two
halves are thrown to one corner of the room and discarded. There is
something...distasteful...about her blood, and Gaara doesn't know
whether he should be surprised or not at the blue blood spilling out
onto the sand and mixing with the red blood still being poured onto
the sand from the gaping hole that was her neck.

Gaara traces his hand across the same area that he
touched to make the coffin open, and is rewarded for his efforts
when the lid swings shut again, leaving the room lit by torchlight
again. Gaara seals the coffin away and stows the scroll beside the
first one in his bag.

There's nothing else worth taking in the room, and
the only signs Gaara leaves of his passing are the empty, dustless
spaces left from the items Gaara has taken with him.

Gaara recalls the sand clones back to him, and he
knows they'll be waiting as shapeless sand when he gets outside. The
sand is happy, and Gaara can sense it's relief.

The empty chamber with the now cooling corpse is
left as it is, and Gaara doesn't bother to close the door again, or
to extinguish the torches. He's done what he needs to do, and he has
no intention of hanging around longer than he must.

The sand from his clones rejoins him when Gaara gets
back outside. The sun has risen and the panicked cries have lessened
somewhat. Gaara realises he hasn't reactivated his genjutsu when a
few startled shouts are aimed his way and he realises that they can
see him.

A few guns are raised and their muzzles are pointed
at him in warning. Further back, Gaara can see some of the diggers
and other native workers staring at him in undisguised awe. Gaara
knows that they've probably heard stories about who he is.

One of the soldiers calls out a warning, and a few
soldiers are dispatched to his position. Gaara re-calls his third
eye summon and releases it, bringing back all traces of excess
chakra. When the soldiers surround Gaara, he lifts his head and
stares unblinkingly at the closest one.

The soldiers are wary of him, and Gaara wonders for
a moment if they believe him to be the creature that he killed
inside the structures. One at a time the men close in, lessening any
normal person's ability to escape.

Gaara doesn't care.

Before the soldiers get any closer, Gaara calls up
the sand, and it whirls around him in a rapid flurry of grit, dirt
and his own sand, transporting him in the blink of an eye.

He wonders what the soldiers will do when the sand
falls to the ground and there's no-one left there any more.

The thought makes his lips twitch.

*****

Gaara spends the next few weeks traveling from
market to market. He paces them out to prevent the gossip reaching
the places he goes to before he has a chance to visit. There are
many places on this particular world with sand, hundreds of them are
beaches.

One place has sand so white each grain glitters like
a single diamond. The ocean laps gently in shimmering waves. In the
dawn the sands seem to glow in an unearthly light, and in the dusk
it burns brightly in a beautifully fiery array.

In this place, Gaara sealed twelve gourd-fulls of
the pale sand to take home with him.

The beach Gaara is staying at now has delightful
little beach huts directly opening onto the beach and they offer
greatly coveted privacy. Gaara has long since changed a good few
handfuls of his gems for the local currency, and as a result, has
gained a bit of a reputation for paying well for excellent service.

There are lots of small shops selling items made on
the island, and many places will actually make what you want from
their selections. Gaara found himself buying even more on this
island than on his previous four trips.

He can't help it. This island specialises in many
kinds of hand-crafted puzzles, and they sell games by the truckload.
Their selection of mind-bendingly difficult puzzles and brainteasers
are impossible for Gaara to ignore. He knows he now has enough to
keep him occupied for years.

Gaara has been trying hard not to stand out in any
extraordinary way. He doesn't carry his sand gourd with him, and he
has done his best to actually restrain the sand that travels
around him physically with his chakra.

So far, he hasn't had any problems.

He's learnt the language of the islands, and each
day he goes out for a walk and listens to people when they talk.
Some of them try to cajole him into a game or two, whether it's
something simple like a board game, or rather more difficult and
involving more people, like tag.

Even the adults of this place don't seem to have
grown up.

Everyone is pleasant, or at least so relaxed they
can't put forth the effort needed to be rude. Jokes, stories and
games are a part of everyone's days, even the workers have fun at
night when they're off-duty. Fires light up a long stretch of the
beach away from the huts ready for the regular evening
entertainment.

It's the sort of place Gaara can lose himself in. It
doesn't take him any effort to enjoy himself, and the islanders
doesn't take offence with him when he goes for hours without
talking.

Gaara's used to a blindingly hot sun, so during the
day he has no problems watching as a gaggle of women with younger
children flock down to the beach, the elder ones with baskets full
of what Gaara knows to weaving necessities, the younger girls
watching over their much younger siblings and charges.

Every day they work, and Gaara finds it fascinating
to watch as mats, baskets, dolls, blinds, wall decorations and even
strange grass skirts and small accessories are constructed amidst
the laughter and chatter.

Gaara's already bought enough to furnish an entire
house.

Gaara likes this world, more than he thinks he
should. There are enough similarities with the places he visits not
to throw him off, but it's different and diverse enough to keep his
attention.

Gaara finds himself surprised when he realises he
doesn't want to return back to Sunagakure yet. But it's Kankurou's
birthday in two days, and Gaara wants to see his older brother's
face when he finds Gaara's presents.

Sometimes, Gaara feels like he's stepped into
someone else's shoes, and is living their life. The moment usually
passes quickly though, and Gaara finds himself wondering if those
flashes are shades of the person he would have been without the
influence of Shukaku within him.

Gaara spends the last night on the beach until dawn
starts to glow faintly on the horizon, enjoying the gentle
transition from the balmy night to the crisp morning air and the
lightening of the sky above the ocean. There's nothing quite like
his desert for beauty, but Gaara's beginning to think this beach
retreat comes pretty damn near close.

His beach accommodation is prepaid for, and the
housekeeping unit will be along sometime mid-morning so there is
really no need for Gaara to hang around...but he does so anyway,
until the day has a firm hold overhead.

The beach starts to fill up, and Gaara decides it's
finally time. He waits though, until he's hidden behind a copse of
trees which pepper the beach before calling up his sand and
disappearing. No matter how many times he travels, there's still
something terribly sad, and greatly invigorating aboutfeeling
and hearing the sands around him change. The island sands had
a jangly musical sound to them. Sunagakure's sand was delicate
almost...but with an intensity which would haunt Gaara if he chose
to never return.

Sunagakure is in the distance when Gaara reappears
on his homeland's sands. There's recognition and a note of welcome
humming through them and the grains swirl playfully around his legs
as he walks.

Gaara's first stop is to his small treasure room,
and he selects a few of the best crafted dolls he's bought from
around the worlds on his travels and wraps them in sand, hardening
the sand around each present until they look like a stack of eggs
with toughened shells. Small patterns of precious gems gleam in the
sand in delicate interweaving patterns made from rich dark
amethysts, a dark sapphires, fiery orange-red rubies or clear
diamonds, lying beside a few of eggs veined with black ebony. His
favourite one is threaded with the pale sand he found on a far off
beach creating subtle shapes and patterns that drew the eye. There's
no sand like that here.

The finished presents are placed carefully in
Gaara's room, one of the few places in the village that he knows
no-one will willingly enter without his express permission. Not that
anyone would request it. His bag is emptied and his remaining
supplies, scrolls and his bandages are put away, his clothes changed
into his reddish-brown trousers and matching
long-sleeved-high-necked top. A small silvery button gleams at his
neck beside the white sash draped over his right shoulder, partially
covering the leather harness he uses for his gourd. The excess
material that he wraps around the sand gourd is tied around his
waist.

Inside Sunagakure the ground itself is his weapon.

Gaara stops long enough to throw his dirty clothes
in the laundry basket downstairs and to get something to eat. When
he's finished he walks to the Kazekage's hall and drops off his now
redundant pass. There's a surprising amount of commotion going on
and a lot of hushed, but still frantic whispering going on. A
handful of passing shinobi give Gaara looks which he doesn't know
how to decipher. The glances aren't hostile, but they are
appraising and a bit...worried?

Gaara heard Naruto before he saw him. Loud
shouting drifted out through the thick wooden doors to the hall, and
the on-duty shinobi at the doors looked extremely uncomfortable to
Gaara's experienced eyes.

The shinobi inclined their heads respectfully to
Gaara and one of them opened the door for him, allowing the noise to
intensify.

“..hell you guys are thinking!”

A few seconds later a familiar blonde came barreling
out through the open door, skidding to a stop with wide blue eyes
staring at Gaara with something akin to embarrassed surprise. There
was still a high level of noise coming from the hall, so Gaara
roughly grabbed Naruto's sleeve – noting happily as he did so
that the blonde was in a typical chuunin uniform and not in his
usual garish orange outfit – and tugged his quarry down the
corridor, ignoring the startled yelp from the blonde and quelling
the looks that the shinobi guards gave them.

Gaara pushed Naruto into an empty room and leant
against the wall, crossing his arms and wondering to himself what
the hell was going on. Naruto being here was the last thing he'd
ever expected, especially in light of their last conversation, not
to mention the look on Naruto's face when he'd seen Gaara.

“Oi, oi,” Naruto squawked as he regained
his balance, “what the hell was that for, Gaara?”

Gaara stared at him until Naruto chuckled nervously.

“Ah!” Naruto's face lightened up
suddenly and he smiled warmly, bounding over in such as way that
Gaara was reminded of a playful puppy. “I never got to say
thanks!”

Gaara blinked and fought not to look confused. “Eh?”

“I don't know what you did,” Naruto said
dryly, shaking his head, “but it worked, whatever it was.”

“Oh.”

Naruto smiled at him happily. “Yeah. I haven't
been able to get a good mission like this for nearly half a year,
and the ones before that were pretty crappy.”

“What are you doing here anyway, Naruto?”
Gaara kept his arms crossed as he leant against the wall. He studied
Naruto intently, happy, and quite a bit relieved that traces of the
old Naruto he had seen before were starting to show.

“You don't know?” Naruto looked
incredulous. “I mean, what with all the negotiations, I'd've
thought you'd've been right there in the thick of things.”

“Naruto.” Gaara's voice held a warning.

Naruto gave him a sheepish grin. “Ah, I'm here
as part of a three-part liaison. Three chuunin from Leaf exchanged
for three chuunin from Sand. I'm here to shadow you.”

Gaara frowned. “Why you?”

“Aa.” Naruto shrugged. “That's the
weird part. I wasn't supposed to be here, but no-one else wanted to
come and Tsunade-baa-chan said that there wasn't any reason for me
not to come, after all,” he stated bitterly, “it's
not as though I have an overflowing calender full of unavoidable
missions lined up.”

“That still doesn't explain why you were
paired with me.” Gaara pointed out.

Naruto snorted and rolled his eyes. “Do you
really think Konoha would have sent me here without making sure that
my 'keeper',” Naruto made the small sarcastic hand
movements as he spoke, “is someone well equipped to keep me in
line.”

“They chose me?!” Gaara couldn't keep
the surprise and shock out of his voice. “Do they have any
idea of who I am...what I am?” Gaara rubbed his forehead, a
move Naruto recognised from his last visit as a nervous habit.

“Well, they do have all the mission
reports which involve you, and they probably have a lot more as
rumors, so, yeah, they probably know about you. Maybe that's why
they stuck you with me.” Naruto shrugged unconcernedly.
“Honestly speaking, I'm glad I got assigned to you. At least
with you I know where I stand.”

Gaara felt a niggling spear of doubt in his stomach.
“Do you have to accompany me on my missions?”

“Yep!” Naruto gave him a thumbs up. “But
don't worry, I shouldn't slow you down, ne?”

Doubt hardened into certainly. “Naruto,”
Gaara started slowly, “I only take 'S' class missions.”

Naruto froze, his eyes going impossibly wide.
“W-what?!”

“I haven't taken a lower classed mission in
nearly two years. The last 'S' class mission I went on, only my
siblings and I survived. There were originally five of us.”
Gaara said, his voice lowering until Naruto had to lean in close to
hear him.

“If you went with me, there would be a very
good chance that you would die.” Gaara felt like flinching at
the slowly growing look of comprehension in Naruto's expressive blue
eyes.

“But I'm strong.” Naruto whispered. “I
am. I know I am. Maybe they just have faith in me.”

Gaara shook his head. “Maybe they're trying to
kill you.”

Naruto's eyes shuttered and dulled.
“Tsunade-baa-chan wouldn't do that to me.”

“Naruto, tell me honestly. If we were given an
'S' class stealth mission, would you be able to carry it out without
drawing notice to yourself? Would you be able to distance yourself
from all distractions to the target? I don't mean just
assassinations, some missions are 'S' classed because of their
content, because of the high risk of mental breakdown.” Gaara
stared at Naruto, catching his eyes and forcing him to keep his gaze
steady.

There were things Gaara had done in the name of the
mission which he knew Naruto would not be capable of
doing. Things like turning a blind eye when innocents were being
killed or simply tortured for fun, cases where Gaara had had to kill
the enemy's hostage alongside with the target simply to ensure there
would be no escape.

Naruto was virtually undefeatable when he set his
mind to something, and he'd carried out assassinations just like
Gaara had, but not at 'S' class level. He'd fought foes which could
have killed Gaara and walked away...but when it came to matters of
conscience Naruto was incapable of acting strictly to the letter of
the mission without severe mental repercussions.

Knowing Naruto, he would still do his best to carry
out his mission, but Gaara had seen what happened to shinobi who did
that, most of them went mad. That wasn't an option when it came to
Naruto. Not only because he was precious to Gaara, but because of
the Kyuubi inside him.

“How stable are you, mentally, right now? How
is your health? How stable is your chakra?” Gaara continued
relentlessly. “In a flat out fight to the death, you'd be even
better than me at overwhelming the opponents. You're best suited for
the majority of 'B' and 'A' ranked missions, missions which need
sheer power and a good, solid base for intimidation.”

Naruto took the chance to look away, wrapping his
arms protectively around his chest.

“Naruto, I saw your seal the last time I was
in Konoha. You can't tell me there haven't been problems?”
Gaara pressed.

Naruto shook his head. “Just a few
fluctuations when my chakra tries to merge with the Kyuubi's.”
He shrugged again, hunching his shoulders inward. “I made
money, not from missions, but I made it, and I've been able to eat
properly and go around and exercise. I've managed to up my training
and I've even learnt a few more techniques from Ero-sennin and
Tsunade-baa-chan and Shizune-nee-chan.”

“But...? That's not all, is it?” Gaara
asked quietly.

“No..well, the Council wanted to keep an eye
on the seal, and they were worried about the Kyuubi breaking out...”
Naruto trailed off.

“Naruto.” Gaara's voice hardened. “What
did they do, Naruto?”

Naruto flinched. “I'm on an experimental
medication to suppress my chakra usage. They said that it would make
sure the Kyuubi couldn't break free, but I still have enough chakra
to mold. Just...not as much.”

“Enough to survive and complete a gamut of
extremely difficult and life-threatening 'S' class missions with a
partner who leans towards bloody rampages?” Gaara clenched his
fists. Even if Naruto was playing dumb, he could still see what was
happening. “How much of this medication have you taken?”

“I don't know, maybe a month's worth?”

“Stop taking it.” Gaara commanded
harshly. “I'll refuse any missions which come up in that
time.”

“Gaara! You can't! They'll only go and place
me with someone else!” Naruto hissed worriedly.

“Then I'll complete them by myself!”
Gaara snarled back. “I'm not fucking watching you die because
those snobbish short-sighted little peons have no idea of what you
are really like and want to destroy one of Konoha's darker secrets.”

Gaara hit the wall beside him with one fist, hard
enough to crack the stone. “Dammit Naruto, you can't be this
naïve! I'll take you on the missions with me, and leave you
somewhere safe while I complete them by myself. We'll match stories
up on the journeys back and we'll make sure you don't die.”

Naruto stood up straighter. “I can't do that,
Gaara. I'm not letting you take the damage for me. I just can't
believe that Tsunade-baa-chan would send me here with the intent of
killing me. I can't!”

Gaara shook his head, a small smile starting to
twitch at the corner of his lips. Had he been anyone else he
might've sighed. Naruto was Naruto was Naruto, and for some reason
this knowledge reassured him.

“Naruto, Naruto, Naruto. Don't ever change.”
Gaara clapped a hand on Naruto's shoulders, gripping him tightly. He
drew Naruto forward close enough to whisper in the blonde's ear. “I
missed you.”

When he walked away, Naruto followed, a smile
starting to form on his own face.

*****

tbc...

*****
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