Hello everyone! :D

Taking a prompt from a 'what if?' meme [that went like this: "What if Gaara and Naruto had always known each other even though they'd never met? (Their demons allow them to communicate?)"] over at Akki no Ai Community, I wrote this small-ish fic =3
This is meant to be a one-shot, but there could be a continuation, I don't promise anything... ^^;

Notes: slightly AU ('cause Naruto knows about Kyuubi even if he's only around 6) and therefore slight OOCness, nothing much anyway.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but what I wrote.

Ja ne,
Temari 88

I've Got a Voice in My Head

Young Gaara had been meditating for a while - it was what he did instead of sleeping, as having the Ichibi inside him prevented him from doing it - but the sand around him was still restless, a sign that the boy wasn't sufficiently relaxed to slip into that comatose-like state that allowed his body the illusion of slumber. After two years of doing it, Gaara still wasn't quite used to meditating... it felt unnatural and forced... the fact that Shukaku tended to resist to the process, grumbling no-stop and breaking his host's concentration, did not help.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breath o—

"Blood!" came the Tanuki's voice.

A spasm on Gaara's brow was the only sign the beast had managed to disrupt his concentration. Now he had to start again.

Breathe in, breathe out. Brea—

"Destruction!"

A fist tightened on top of a knee, but still, Gaara did not eat the bait; he was somewhat accostumed to the annoying personality of the demon sealed in him so it took more than that to lose his composure... although it was also true this all thing had been going on for the past hour and a half and Gaara's patience was just about to run dry.

Breathe in—

"RAMEEENN!"

"Oh, for Kami's sake, Shukaku shut up!" Gaara finally snapped, opening his eyes and glaring at the innocent wall of his room. Silence met his outburst for a few minutes then the beast spoke up.

"The hell do you want, human? I didn't say anything... this time." Gaara could see the Tanuki waving a paw at him in denial, while its huge brows furrowed. The redhead, on the other hand, was confused - if it wasn't Shukaku's voice, then whose had it been? He knew for certain it wasn't his own, he wasn't that crazy yet.

"Then who the heck was it?"

"What should I know?"

"... I don't have something else sealed inside me, do I...?" he knew it was a stupid assumption: no one would be able to even survive with TWO Byjuu sealed inside; heck, even ONE was more than enough to kill its host in most cases! But he really couldn't think of anything else. He was rather worried... he had never heard that voice before and truth to be told, it didn't sound demonic or even mean.

"I wonder if..." started Shukaku in a somewhat wavering voice, as if it couldn't quite believe what he was saying. "Could it be another Jinchuuriki...?"

Gaara's reaction was to gape like a fish. "WHAT?"

The Tanuki was hesitant in explaining further. As far as the beast knew (the fact it wasn't the smartest of the tailed demons tried to be kept in a corner of its mind) it was more than rare for that kind of occurrance to happen and it was a first time for one of Shukaku's hosts. Although it was true that, potentially, all the tailed beasts had the ability to talk to each other through telepathy... they simply never found it of some use—Byjuu preferred working and living alone after all.

"Shukaku..!" Gaara's voice snapped the demon from its thoughts. "What do you mean it could be another Jinchuu—another like me?"

"Well..." the beast sighed, there was no escaping, was there? "We Demon Lords have this ability, you know - telepathy. It's possible that another Jinchuuriki reached your mind through that, using the power of their own Byjuu..."

"... You mean I can hear this person's thoughts?"

"Yup, and it can probably go the other way around too if you try it." Shukaku paused for a moment, then said, "Even if it's pretty much unheard of... never used telepathy ourselves, you know."

"Where is my raaaameeennn? I can't be out of ramen~~" came the same voice (a boy's) as before, only now it was extremely whiny. "I'm hungryyy~~ and I wanna my ramenn~~"

Gaara put his hands up to cover his ears, as if doing that would block out the invasion taking place in his head. "You! Shut up!" he ordered (both talking and thinking) the 'intruder', hoping it would reach the kid's mind.

"Huh?" the voice answered, completely confused - that didn't sound like Kyuubi... well, the Kitsune didn't speak to him a lot to begin with, but he could recognize the demon's voice when it talked to him. "Who's that-ttebayo? You're not Kyuubi!"

"Kyuubi?" wondered Gaara out loud, hoping Shukaku could tell him what that was about.

The Tanuki didn't respond for a while, surprised and shocked at what he had heard. Kyuubi? As in THE Nine-Tailed Demon Fox? ... Sealed into that whiny kid?

"Bwahahaha!" Shukaku fell over, crushing its tail in the process but not caring as it was too busy laughing. "Damn Kitsune got what he deserved! Strongest Byjuu my ass, who's laughing now, huh?"

"How dare you laugh at me, you puny Sand Tanuki?" came a booming voice leaking malice. Gaara clutched his head in pain, the loud growling following suit making his eardrums vibrate in a very unpleasant way.

"Ow, you fucking Fox, that hurt-ttebayo! I like a lot better when ya never open your mouth... geez!" complained the guy in Gaara's head and the redhead found it hard not to agree - if this new demon threthened to split your ears every time it speaks, it'd better shut up...

"And I thought that having Shukaku's voice was a pain... but to hear two other is way worse...!" grumbled Gaara rubbing the bridge of his nose. "And it's giving me a headache. Or it's just the lack of meditation..."

"... Heh, I know what ya mean-ttebayo, 'bout the stinking voices I mean." said the boy, ignoring the protests that arose from those 'stinking voices' and continuing like it was nothing. "The name's Naruto, by the way! Uzumaki Naruto-ttebayo! What's yours?"

The redhead didn't really want to answer but it didn't seem like he had a choice in the matter. "... Gaara, Sabaku no Gaara."

"Nice ta meet ya!... Ah, but it's not like we've met face to face... does it count anyway?"

"I don't really care..." replied Gaara, his tone as blank as his face - he was tired of the blanter and he just wanted to go on with his meditating and his sort-of-sleep.

Naruto chuckled a little, then he spoke up again. "Oh, well, I guess I'd better go back to sleep... I've got no ramen ta eat for a midnight snack so there's no point in staying up. G'night, Gaara!" he finished with a cheerful voice.

"Yeah, yeah, go to bed—" just then, something occurred to the redhead. "YOU CAN SLEEP?" he asked, astonished.

No one answered him. Naruto had already zonked out.

"Looks like the kid's seal is different from yours—and done much better than yours, too." said Shukaku, unhelpfully and disgustingly amused by that fact.

Gaara growled at him. "That's so unfair!" then sat down cross-legged again and did his very best to finally concentrate on his damned meditation, throwing back spiteful insuts at Shukaku every time the demon tried to distract him.