Preview...

Fool's Gold

Sunagakure was a city of dust and air. During winter, harsh sandstorms would beat against the dome shaped clay buildings. In summer, the heat would be so stifling that leaving one's home was not unlike stepping into a live oven.

Autumn, however, was rather pleasant to someone accustomed to Konohagakure's much more temperate climate. It was comfortably warm, and the breeze was just cool enough to ease Kakashi itching lungs.

It was stuffy in the Kazekage's office, and his still healing lungs had gotten uncomfortably tight. Loathe as he wants to admit to weakness, Kakashi had requested a quick rooftop break. Now, he leaned against the banister on top of the Kazekage tower and breathed in gratefully.

"Naruto told me of your condition," Gaara's soft, deep voice said from behind him. "I hope you don't mind. He was worried."

Kakashi snorted in amusement. "I expected nothing less. I hope he didn't ask you to babysit."

Gaara smiled faintly as he joined Kakashi at the banister. "I hope you are recovering well...?" He asked, a hint of uncertainty creeping into his voice. He often reminded Kakashi of Sai; always searching for the right social cues and responses. He was rather more adept at it than Sai was, however, in the sense that at least he rarely insulted anyone.

"I'm fine. Just a hiccup," Kakashi said, which was almost the truth anyway. "I just wanted to enjoy the view."

Gaara's nearly invisible eyebrows rose minutely. It was probably not every day that he caught a fellow Kage in such an obvious lie. Still, he had to at least be somewhat unsurprised after the whole 'I'm sorry I'm late, but I was kidnapped by a camel' schtick Kakashi had attempted earlier that afternoon, when he'd overslept and arrived at their meeting almost 2 hours too late (Tenzou had almost had a fit, the poor man).

Kakashi and his small party had arrived at Sunagakure's gates the previous day for the official meeting between the two Kage's. Kakashi probably would've preferred to attend such a meeting as bodyguard or advisor, but Tsunade was annoyingly persistent about the whole 'you deal with all that now, I'm retired, damn it' she liked to throw at him.

Okay, so he didn't completely hate politics. In fact, it wasn't as unlike battle as he had anticipated before he had taken up the Hokage mantle. It was all about making the right move with the right piece, and nudging the pieces you couldn't quite control in just the right direction with some subtle manipulation. It was an entirely new sort of challenge, and he had always liked challenges.

After their arrival, there hadn't been much time to do anything politics related, of course. There had just been the ever so dreary parade towards the Kazekage tower (drawing far too much attention in the process for Kakashi's liking) where they were staying for the night. Then the next day, they would discuss politics, trade agreements, Intel, and a surprising amount of frivolous formalities.

By this point of the day, they'd already finished with most of that. As expected, their discussions had been rather uneventful. The biggest hiccup had been one of Gaara's top jounin being an annoying little shit- err, insisting that Kakashi apologize for his tardiness, and then subsequently interrupting the discussion far too frequently. Fortunately, Gaara's calm yet stern disposition had eventually calmed the man down.

They'd had a quick few meals between their discussions, which had struck Kakashi as rather odd. He'd been invited to stay for a week, but it seemed that the young Kazekage wanted to rush through all of their discussion points within a single day.

"How long ago did it happen, again? Fox's attack?" Gaara asked unexpectedly. Kakashi turned to look at him. The younger man leaned forward on his elbows, the setting sun adding an orange hue to his already bright hair. His face was rather grim.

"Four months," Kakashi said. Four months of recovering his health, moving into a new apartment (this time, he'd insisted on something that suited his tastes a little better, but he had lost the battle of not having his apartment on top of a tower marked by the Hokage symbol. Well. You win some, you lose some), talking about Minato and Kushina with Naruto, and far more time than he liked in a hospital bed as Tsunade checked him over.

The poison was as good as gone by now, Sakura's seal having done its job, but there was still the lingering damage to his lungs. Tsunade had even gone so far as to insist Sakura would join him on his trip to keep an eye out. As far as Kakashi was concerned, he felt it was unnecessary meddling- but even he couldn't deny he enjoyed having one of his students with him.

Sasuke had gone off to travel again, for the sake of his rather elusive atonement (how atonement was achieved far away from the people he'd hurt most was something of a mystery to Kakashi). Naruto had decided to join him for a while, and then gotten stuck in Kumogakure. By all accounts, Bee was currently teaching him how to rap. God save them all. Finally, Sai, still recovering from his own trauma, had stayed behind to oversee the further examination of former ROOT agents- intended to root out (pun intended) the last of Fox's minions.

That had left Kakashi with a party of five, himself included; Tenzou, Shikamaru (as his self-appointed assistant), Sakura, and finally an ANBU bodyguard, Yuugao. Aside from Shikamaru, they were also the people who had helped him fight Fox, so he was rather pleased to have them along.

"I was shocked to hear of it," Gaara said. "It seems our past continues to haunt us."

" 'Our' past?"

Gaara grimaced slightly. "There is something I should discuss with you. Something rather important, but I didn't want to do so during the meeting."

Odd. It had to be something important, for the Kazekage not to entrust his closest advisers with it. Well, knowing Sunagakure's power division, it was likely Gaara's siblings would know. But why not involve the rest of his counsel? Curious.

Kakashi shrugged slightly. "I'm here now. Fire away."

Gaara shook his head. "You'll have to see it to believe it. We'll go tomorrow."

AN:

Edit: The new story, Fool's Gold, can be found on my profile!

Sooooo... Am I writing a sequel to Uneasy Lies the Head?
...Yes. Probably. I am. Definitely.

I'm still solidifying the general plot line, and obviously I also have Thunderstruck to work on, but I wanted to give you guys a little preview.

I also wanted to ask you a question: would you like for there to be any romance in this particular story? I'm still debating it. (Please note that if you have suggestions for pairings I welcome them all, but obviously I will not be obliged to write any particular one if I don't like it myself.)