Chapter One

His first glimpse of her had been the Chunin exams. While unable to judge, he had decided to at least view the coming generation of ninja in his village. Less then impressed with their progression he had allowed his gaze to wonder. She sat behind her mother, the current Hokage of Konoha. She stood out among the observers, not because of any generous abundance of beauty but rather that she was the only one completely hidden beneath cloth. Her eyes peaked out over a black cloth veil that extended to wrap loosely around her head. Her eyes, he noted were gentle, one a soft blue that reminded him of the skies in Suna, the other the yellow of sand. They watched the test with interest, bordering on fascination. Her clothing also seemed to have the desert heat in mind. Loose, light shirt transparent and full armed with an over tunic synched at her waist with a black leather cord, loose pants that were tucked into thigh high leather boots. Her outfit was entirely black as if she strove to blend with the shadows. She sat with rigid posture behind Tsunade, though seemed relaxed. She must have said something for Tsunade nodded and smiled.

She tilted her head and the sun reflected off her hitae-ate. Gaara frowned, at the symbol. It was a series of engraves in a vaguely rectangular shape. The Village of the Maze. He recalled an invitation some months ago to celebrate the Hokage's daughter return. She was apparently the daughter of the two village's kage. He smirked behind his hand.

She suddenly shifted her gaze from the exam and looked around. Her eyes met his. A shiver went down his spin and his eyes widened a fraction in surprise. She held his gaze, tilting her head again ,curiosity plain in her gaze. He settled his hand back in his lap, leaving his smirk firmly in place.

Her eyes flashed with annoyance and she looked back to the examinees.

Gaara turned his attention back as well. Feeling strangely satisfied from her reaction.

Tsunade pretended to ignore Gaara's interest in her daughter. Through out his stay in Konoha he seemed to subtly strive to annoy Kitsune. She feared greatly what that might mean for Kitsune. Gaara of the Desert's interest in anyone tended to be short and lethal. What worried her more was that he was able to pull reactions from her daughter. Since coming to Konoha Kitsune had maintained an air of serenity and gentility. Her words were short and candid. Her eyes were ever gentle and patient, yet the Kazekage with only an expression could pull annoyance and anger to those calm eyes.

Knowing who Kitsune's father, Tsunade knew just how volatile her emotions could be, how easily the right buttons could push her into something she would regret later. So Tsunade kept Kitsune busy giving her a team of Genin to train. She fretted and listened for any rumors of what Gaara was up to.

Naruto sat next to Kitsune at his favorite ramen shop. They had developed a ritual to celebrate the last day of training for the week. It was one of the few times he saw her with her hair out and veil down. He always took several moment to simply stare at her. Her hair was her name sake, the reddish copper of a fox. It was cut to frame her face and hung just below her shoulders. Her face was heart shaped, her eyes the odd mis-matched color she claimed was a 'gift' of her fathers. Her skin though gave off a sparkle like sheen as if coated with a thin layer of silver. He had once reached out to touch it, without thinking, and Kitsune had politely told him that touching was unacceptable.

Naruto found it odd, but as she had smiled kindly and had looked fairly embarrassed, so he had apologized and accepted it as some strange culture thing from Meikyuukere.

They spoke of their teams. Well, he spoke of his team and she made non-committal noises of agreement or disbelief. He had gotten her to laugh once. The sound and nearly sent him to his knees to express undivided love. What had kept him in his seat had been Tsunade's words that Kitsune needed time to heal.

"Megitsune" a deep voice broke through Naruto's chatter.

Kitsune jumped, dropping her chopsticks and knocking over her bowl of ramen. She turned, her cheeks red and her eyes both angry and hurt.

"Kazekage-sama." She said, her voice hard.

Naruto blinked and turned, "Gaara-sama. That was uncalled for."

Gaara's smirk was chilling his eyes burned as if he knew something that Naruto did not about the women beside him.

"Is it?" His eyes remained on Kitsune.

Kitsune turned to Naruto as if ignoring Gaara, "I am sorry Naruto, a sudden foul stench has entered the shop and I have lost my appetite. I will see you in the morning for the joint training session."

She stood putting down enough money for both their ramen and calmly slipped back on her headdress as she glided out of the shop.

Gaara followed ignoring Naruto's angry shouts.

Naruto stared after the two of them completely bewildered at the exchange. What did Gaara have against Kitsune?

Kitsune tried desperately to ignore Gaara's presence. He could tell, it reflected in those eyes that haunted him each night. Gaara was not sure when interest had turned to obsession, but he did not deny that Kitsune was a strange addiction. Gaara had never been denied anything, and he wanted the silver skinned foreigner as he had never wanted anything else. He had to have her; he was not leaving Konoha until he had what he wanted. A grin twitched on the corners of his mouth as he followed her to the river.

Her father was infamous. His quick temper and cruel games were part of stories parents used to keep children in check. It worked, far more then many fairy tales of boogiemen or monsters in the closet. He was real, and the Meikyuukere was spoken of rarely for it was filled with things stranger then most could imagine. The only way one could find Meikyuukere was if they knew where it was, or they had the 'right' words. It is said that even if one found their way into Meikyuukere, they would never find their way out again.

The fact that Kitsune was here, in Konoha, was an intriguing puzzle that Gaara imagined he would figure out as soon as he had her with him in Suna. First though was to see if she had any of her father's qualities, ore her mothers for that matter.

She hesitated on the bank of the shallow stream. She turned and faced him, the setting sun reflected of her hitae-ate. She placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her mix-matched eyes.

"Kazekage-sama. If there is aught I have done to offend you would you be so kind as to inform me that I may some how rectify the situation. I find your stalking to be both childish and irritating."

"Really?" Gaara said, " I had thought you hadn't noticed."

Kitsune folded her arms, "What do you want?"

Gaara covered the distance between them and reached out to touch her face. His fingers drifted over her skin, her blended chakra danced across his fingertips and he felt a hot stirring in response. She hissed at him and slapped his hand away from her face.

"How dare you-"

Gaara reached out again slapping her hand away and surrounding her with sand.

She closed her eyes as his sand danced across her skin. Her blended chakra rose to meet his and the glow that emanated from her skin was intoxicating. He stepped closer so that barely a grain of sand could pass between the two of them. She gasped her chest rising to brush his and he felt his desire stir.

She opened her eyes and he saw heat flicker in their depths. He reached out again to touch her and now she was frozen unable to react as their eyes remained locked. He brushed his lips over hers once, twice then deepening the kiss, cupping her face with one hand and pushing back the rest of her head gear. Her blended chakra battled his sand as she battled his invasion.

He let her push him back and he let himself fall back cracking his head painfully against a long and allowed himself to slip into oblivion. He had her now.

A/N: so anyone who read this chapter after I posted it the first time can all laugh at the fact that they know where this story is headed cause I was an idiot and forgot to delete that one scene before saving the chapter as a webpage…hahaha, silly me. Anywho. I would really like reviews? I'd hate to think that 35 people read the chapter and all 35 hated it or didn't like it enough to review L.