Chapter 1: The start of our story

His face, radiant and beautiful... The way he moves, graceful, but with perfect precision… His smile, hypnotizing…

"No!" I suddenly screamed, not believing those were my own thoughts. No, someone must have been saying that and I was just remembering what he or she had said. I looked around to see that my sudden shout had alarmed the few people around my open office door. Well, it was my office/room/home/the place where I run the whole village. Seeing their alarmed faces made me wish they didn't care about me. Made me wish I wasn't the Kazekage, so that people wouldn't care if I suddenly started talking to myself. But they did and I needed to reassure them.

"It's alright, I just had a sudden flashback. Sorry to bother you." It wasn't really a lie… I barely noticed the people nod, saying I had no need to apologize, and so on. As they left, I absentmindedly closed my door. I sighed without realizing it and walked to sit at my desk once again. I put my head into my hands and sighed again. When did everything become so confusing? …

"Well, it was probably when he showed up."

What do you mean? What does he have to do with any of this?

"Ah so you admit that as soon as I said 'he' you knew who I was talking about."

What?

"You've been thinking about him a lot recently."

No I haven't, I've just had to deal with a lot of stuff recently, you must be mistaken.

"I know what you think about, and you've been thinking about him, no matter how much you deny it."

Well, you should keep to yourself. Stop invading my thoughts. I wonder if the fox-boy has this problem…

"Are you talking about the boy with Kyuubi in him? Oh, you have no idea. Compared to Kyuubi I'm about as bad as Jiminy Cricket."

Some conscience you are.

"I don't know why you're thinking about that boy anyway. You have plenty of nice girls who'd let you fuck them…"

They don't like me. They didn't like me before I was Kazekage. They just want me because of my position.

"And this boy, you think he liked you before you were the Kazekage? That maybe he's liked you all along? How unlike you, Gaara."

Stop chuckling, Shukaku, and stop reading my thoughts.

"I can't help it. You're my only form of entertainment."

Well, stop bugging me about him. I'm having a tough time without you making fun of me.

"Fine, but you realize you're falling in love with the boy, don't you?"

My reply was a long and loud sigh. I let my head fall from my hands to the desk, ignoring the loud thunk my head made when I let it fall.

Love, the word engraved on my forehead and yet I have no idea what it really means. What is it like to love someone? Am I in love with him? What is it like to be loved by someone? Does he love me? It's all too confusing. I need to get back to running the village. I don't have time to be thinking about him…

As if on cue someone knocked on my door. "Come on in." I called, lifting my head off my desk and sitting up straight, regaining my composure. It was the woman from the front desk. I recalled her name with ease, since she always insisted on bringing up my urgent messages herself. I was pretty sure she wanted me, but I have no interest in her. In fact, I almost despise her because she's so desperate. But I put on a fake half-smile and greeted her warmly nonetheless.

"Shiya, I'm glad to see you. What is it this time?" I said, reaching for the oversized manila envelope she was handing me over my desk.

"An urgent message from Konoha Village." She said, smiling at me, trying to use her charm to win me over. I didn't notice her in the slightest, though. Which was a waste, since she was such a beautiful woman.

"Thank you, you may leave now." I said, still hiding my hostility.

"Well, actually, Gaara-sama, I was wondering if you wanted to…" She said boldly, blushing and trying to look cute as she said it.

"I said you may go now. Please leave." I said, interrupting her. My voice had lost all warmth and she was completely shocked. But I guess I sounded kind of angry, so she left without another word, thinking to herself that she had hoped Gaara-sama had liked her at least a little bit…She'd keep trying, maybe today was just a bad day.

I looked down at the envelope, opening it carefully after she had left. It was unlikely that this had anything to do with him but… Maybe it did, and that put me on the edge. I wanted to see him and yet, I knew that I shouldn't see him. That I was going insane from thinking about him, that I was driving myself crazy with these mixed up emotions.

I got the documents out of the envelope and began to read them, pushing my other papers aside. It was a document requesting permission for one of their ninjas to visit me. Not the village, me. As I read through, I found the name of the ninja who they wanted me to see…

Rock Lee…