A/N: Uh...it occurs to me that DK-chan doesn't even know her fic is up. She doesn't get on the comp too much lately, I'm thinking. I should PM her.

Thanks for the reviews!

Chapter 3

It wasn't the lips that had a cool shudder glancing along Naruto's skin. It was the hand. The hand Gaara had on Naruto's face, that caress was somehow more intimate than the lips.

But the lips definitely caught his attention, too. More than the lips themselves, it was what the lips were making Naruto feel. He knew nothing of erogenous zones or how touching certain areas invariably brought on pleasant sensations. He just knew that what Gaara was doing made him feel really good, like really good, and Naruto hadn't felt really good or kind of good or a little bit good in a long time. Maybe not ever, not like this. He leaned his weight forward, rocking on his hands and knees, pushing his mouth against Gaara's.

Gaara didn't know what he was doing either. He had a vague memory of Yashamaru kissing away some hurt during that remembered conversation and Naruto's face was right there, those weird feelings were twisting in his chest and the urge had come on him to do this intimate thing. A faint sense that this was maybe wrong niggled the back of his mind, but then Naruto was pushing against him, wanting him and everything went out of his head. Gaara's desperate soul failed utterly beneath the twisting rooting feelings inside him and he threw himself against Naruto, arms clasping around the other boy's slight frame spasmodically.

Just that.

They only hugged hard, pressing their lips against each other's in this strange new experience. Gaara slid down the concave side of his sphere beneath Naruto's greater physical strength, but it was he that rolled them so the blonde was beneath him. Gaara gasped at how delicious it felt to have Naruto's body pressed to his in all the places he'd never been touched before. Naruto's hands roamed everywhere; Gaara's back, his hair, his neck and shoulders…one tanned hand squeezed Gaara's tight left buttock cheerfully and Gaara gasped again. Naruto let out a nervous little giggle. He gave the redhead another grabbing pinch.

Gaara lifted his head and shoved a hand under Naruto to do the same to him. Naruto twisted and squirmed and somehow the blonde's knee came up between Gaara's legs and the impact was a dull punch of something that had Gaara suddenly sweating. He froze. That had felt more than good, that had been…

He shifted experimentally as Naruto, also frozen, watched. The way Gaara was positioned, his own leg landed between Naruto's thighs and that had him gasping and then their bodies caught on and they were doing a weird kind of gyrating motion against each other. Their eyes were wide and a little scared as they stared into each other's faces.

There was no question of stopping, even if they didn't know what was happening. It was like hanging on to a log as a raging river rushed you headlong towards open sky; you wanted to let go of the log, or in this case stop what you were doing, but you just couldn't. The river would carry you over regardless and whatever they were doing was taking over their minds and pushing them towards something no matter the insubstantial thoughts they each had about stopping.

Naruto went over first. A strengthless little scream escaped him as his insides erupted hotly into his pants. He clutched at Gaara for support, tremors clamoring through him as Gaara seemed to suffer the same fate. Gaara uttered a series of hitching, shuddering breaths amidst a high whine and then the sphere wasn't a sphere, but so much falling sand. Naruto and Gaara, in the throes of their first orgasms, fell with it.

Gone though his mind was, Gaara had to assume his sphere had risen while he and Naruto had been touching; they weren't falling from the relatively safe distance of forest treetops. They were tumbling through a good two or three thousand feet of hot summer air. Bad as this was, Gaara's mind was still locked on the wetness spurting out of him even as he fell. It was Naruto's hysterical scream (one much livelier than the scream he'd given when he'd ejaculated) that had Gaara flinging out a desperate hand. His sand gathered gracefully under the blonde to halt his fall. He landed on the cloud of sand beside Naruto a moment later.

They drifted towards earth as the adrenaline of coming and plummeting to their deaths slowly evaporated. The sand set them down gently among the forest trees on a grassy patch of ground. The green canopy above them let in small rays of light. They were silent as their brains stuttered back to some semblance of working order. It was a lengthy process, but at last Naruto said,

"What…what?"

"Huh?" Gaara's mind was having trouble starting.

"Huh?"

"What?"

"What what?"

"Huh?"

"Uh….that." It was as much as Naruto could manage for the moment. Then, "Thing. We…uh, did. Wh-" a blush stole up Naruto's neck. "What were you doing?"

"Oh. That." Gaara struggled to remember words, how they formed and what they meant. "I…don't know?"

"Me either."

"You…seemed to like it."

"Yeah. You didn't…stop. Either."

"Was it wrong…do you think?"

"I don't…I don't know. Did it feel wrong?"

"A little. Then no. "

"Yeah. No. I mean it didn't. Feel wrong." Naruto groped for some kind of elaborative amendment, found one: "It felt good."

"Yeah."

"You maybe…want to do it again?"

Gaara summoned a tiny shred of strength and used it to laboriously turn his head to regard Naruto. He felt nearly comatose with fatigue. "I do if you want to."

Naruto lifted a hand that felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. He found Gaara's and laced his fingers with the paler ones. "Yeah. Okay. Tired now."

"Me too."

They slept there on the sand, spread-eagled and completely defenseless. A white-haired man found them like that an hour later. Recognizing the blond hair from his past, the man stood looking them thoughtfully as he rubbed his chin. Eventually he decided to sit for a spell and continue his journey a bit later.

Their bodies recovered speedily as they slept off their activities. They improved to the point that they both woke with a start, the presence sitting a few yards away setting off their inner alarms with a jangle. Naruto gasped and sat bolt upright. Gaara, used to his sand protecting him, sat up more slowly. Then he got a good look at how strong the guy's chakra felt and decided maybe Naruto was right to look as he did.

Night had come. Insects could be heard droning with a skrii-skrii sound. The man sat cross-legged, fanning himself idly as he sipped from a sake bottle and watched them in amusement.

Gaara rarely spoke to anyone unless forced to. He was content to let the silence stretch out to infinity, but Naruto said brazenly, "Who are you?"

"I?" the man said as he snapped his fan closed. He pointed at them with it. "You should be offering me your names! I watched over you while you left yourselves unguarded, you should bow down to me!"

Gaara got up, bored by the man already. Naruto hurried to follow. Gaara's sand funneled itself back into his gourd as he stood, turned his back and began walking toward the village. Naruto cast the white-haired man a worried glance before he ran to catch up with Gaara.

Once in the village, Naruto asked what kind of trouble Gaara'd be in with his sensei. Gaara gave a languid shrug. "They fear me. I'll be fine." Then he turned to look at Naruto as they walked beneath a street lamp. "Are you worried? About me?" It was a strange concept. And wonderful.

"Well, yeah. I mean…I don't want you to get in trouble for what we did. And I'm not sure I can break into your motel again."

Gaara felt painful joy at seeing the crestfallen expression on Naruto's face. The blonde wanted to see him again. "I will get away, don't worry."

"Okay…so, I'll see you by the stream again tomorrow?"

"Yes. We'll train."

Naruto nodded. Neither of them had the guts to say what else they wanted to do.

The next day Naruto arrived at the appointed place and found Gaara waiting, arms folded. He bounded right up to the redhead, grinning hard and exuding happiness. "You're here! Were you waiting long?"

Gaara might have acknowledged a few things about his feelings for the blonde yesterday, may have engaged in questionable behavior, but he was far from used to this open camaraderie and exuberance. Naruto threw his arms around Gaara and all Gaara could do was stand there with his folded arms pressed to Naruto's chest. Naruto didn't seem to mind. He was turning away, opening his bag and talking about eating lunch before they got started.

Naruto paused in his bubbly ramblings as Gaara's hand closed over his wrist. He dropped the onigiri he was holding as Gaara inexorably pulled Naruto against him and tried to duplicate the hug he'd received. Naruto relaxed once he realized what was happening. He hugged Gaara back eagerly.

"This is nice," Naruto said after awhile. It was, too. Not like yesterday, just nice. Comfortable. It made him feel like he wasn't alone and the relief of that was too breathtaking for Naruto to let go. It was better than the first hug of a few moments ago.

"Yes," Gaara said. His eyes glanced around over Naruto's shoulder. There was no one else around. Gaara leaned back, locked his gaze on Naruto's mouth and then did what he did yesterday.

Naruto stood complacently. It was the same, he thought incoherently. This morning he'd woken up and wondered if what he'd done with Gaara hadn't been some fevered dream. He'd been kissing a boy, I mean come on! But it was happening again and the feeling was the same, except no it wasn't.

This time the crazy good feelings came much more swiftly, making their knees buckle. Naruto put out a hand to steady himself, stumbled, was caught by Gaara, and then they both ended up on the grass, half in the water.

Ugh, Naruto thought. His mouth is open and-

!!!

!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gaara felt Naruto recoil at the touch of his tongue. Truth be told, he recoiled himself. He didn't know how that had happened. He tried to apologize, but just then something caught his attention that he hadn't really noticed yesterday.

His prick was hard.

Water was seeping up his pants leg and the feel of it against his heated skin, against that hardness, had Gaara biting Naruto involuntarily. He felt perilously close to that feeling that had come upon him in the end yesterday.

Naruto bit back, then he and Gaara were both biting, then they weren't, then their mouths were eating each other painlessly. Naruto didn't know what he'd been disgusted about. It was glorious, amplifying those feelings until-

"What's this?! I find you sleeping like babes one day and screwing the next?!?" The white-haired man reached down and dragged the two boys apart by the scruff of their necks.

Naruto spluttered as the big man tossed them head first into the stream. Gaara reacted differently. He managed to dissolve his gourd and send it and the sand it contained into the sky before he landed in the water. He stood –stood!- on the ripples their landing had caused and raised a hand toward the white-haired man.

"Sabaku SouSou!"

Naruto watched from the water as the sand enveloped the man completely. Gaara closed his hand into a tight fist and the sand compressed with an audible crunch of bones.

Naruto yelled. "What! You killed him! Oh, my God, you killed-"

"Hardly," the white-haired man said from up in a tree. Naruto looked from him to where Gaara's sand was revealing a pulverized log. He dragged his soaked body from the stream and went to examine the log up close. He turned frightened, awe-struck eyes to Gaara.

"Dude, you have to teach me that jutsu," Naruto said in a shaking voice. "I can't wait till you start training me!" His blue eyes glowed at the prospect of using such a technique against Sasuke. The thought curled his lips into a wolfish grin of anticipation.

But Gaara wasn't listening. He was staring at the man who lounged casually in a tree. The man, in turn, was staring at Naruto. He dropped from the tree to land lightly in front of him. Naruto was forced to look up at the brawny guy.

"Train? By this boy? Where is your Jounin teacher," the man said with a concerned frown.

"Off teaching Sasuke."

Naruto heard the man mutter about the treatment of a godson or something. He looked at the white hair and supposed it was close enough in color that Kakashi could be the man's godson. It was a creepy thought.

"And what do you need training so urgently for that you're willing to seek it from this person?" He gestured vaguely at where Gaara was walking slowly toward the stream bank.

Naruto explained about the Chuunin exams and his upcoming match against Neji. The man listened. He frowned again at hearing how Ebisu had turned him down. Naruto lost interest when the man did nothing but stare at him thoughtfully. He turned his attention to the wood splinters in his hand and held them up to Gaara. "This is what you did to Fuzzy Brows, right? Could I do it without the whole sand thing because, like, I don't have a great big gourd of Sand and-"

"Oi, Naruto."

Naruto stopped speaking to turn his head slowly and regard the man. "How do you know my name?"

The man ignored that. "I know a much better move than this jutsu." He kicked some of the destroyed log with a geta. "If you like, I can teach it to you. I can train you for this match against the Hyuuga."

Gaara felt the old red rage wrap him in a heated cloud of anger as Naruto's eyes lit up. His friend was being lured away from him! He turned and began walking slowly back toward his motel and the fit he was sure Baki was having at his absence.

Gaara didn't see Naruto for three days. He remained in his hotel room. On the third night, he sat on the roof contemplating murder of the white-haired interloper. A thud behind him showed Naruto standing there. He looked extremely tired, but happy. Gaara faced front again, idly bending a piece of grass back and forth in his fingers. His elbows rested on his drawn up knees.

"Aren't you going say hi to me?" Naruto asked as he dropped down beside Gaara.

"You obviously have a new friend."

Naruto studied the blank features and realized this lack of emotion was the same as the sand armor; it protected Gaara. He threw it up to prevent himself from getting hurt. Then, on the heels of that thought, I hurt him. He thinks I like someone else better than him.

"First of all, he's not a new friend," Naruto said testily. "You and I are more than friends, remember? He could never be what you are to me. Second of all, he's training me and you can't imagine how hard the crap is. He's killing me."

Gaara slid his gaze up and down Naruto's body and noted the circles of exhaustion under the blue eyes.

"I missed you, Gaara. Don't be mad at me, please? Ero-sennin would have my ass if he knew I wasn't working on that blasted summoning jutsu, but I had to see you. I thought maybe something happened to you when I didn't see you for so long. Please?"

Naruto wormed his hand into Gaara's, sending the blade of grass swaying down to the ground. After a minute Gaara let his hand be held, squeezed Naruto's fingers in turn. Naruto scooted closer to him and Gaara's body relaxed. He laid his blonde head on Gaara's shoulder. "Can we go up in the sphere again?" he whispered after awhile.

"…you mean…?"

Naruto scrunched his nose in embarrassment. "Yeah."

"I might lose control of it again. When we…you know."

"I trust you."

Gaara stared down into the blue eyes. Out of nowhere a thought struck him, blinding everything inside him with its brilliance: I love him.

The sphere was a dark shape against the full moon. Said moon drove Shukaku to make Gaara do some very interesting things inside that sphere. People on the ground glanced up at the odd muffled howling sounds coming from the floating shape in the sky and hurried to secure themselves behind closed doors.

Gaara and Naruto managed to meet a few times each week during the month before the final exam. Naruto told Gaara his teacher's name was Jiraiya, but that he couldn't stop calling him Ero-sennin because of his perverted ways. Gaara thought of what he and Naruto snuck off to do so often and wondered if they were perverted. When Naruto managed to summon Gamabunta, Gaara celebrated with him. The two previously lonely boys grew closer to each other with each passing day. Neither of them liked to think what would happen when the Chuunin exams were over and they had to separate.

Then Gaara received even worse news. The night before the final matches Baki addressed him and his brother and sister.

"I've mentioned the mission before, but until now I've kept the details from you," their sensei said gravely. He continued to elaborate on the mission, the plan, as Gaara, Temari and Kankurou listened in stunned disbelief.

Naruto wasn't asleep when the frantic pounding began on his door. He was awake, dread twisting his guts at facing Neji tomorrow. He hadn't seen Gaara in two days, forcing himself to spend the remainder of his time training like hell. The hammering on his door was a welcome distraction from his thoughts.

He barely cracked the door open before Gaara forced his way through in an uncharacteristic show of speed and nerves. He spun and faced Naruto in agitation. Naruto had never seen Gaara display anything but numbing calm, steely control. He was shocked to see the redhead in such a state. "What's wrong with you?" Naruto asked. Then he had a thought. "You nervous about fighting Sasuke? Don't be. Just promise me you'll use that Sabaku SouSou on his ugly-"

"Naruto, do you trust me?" Gaara interrupted edgily.

"You know I do. Why?"

"Come with me. Tonight."

Naruto realized he was still holding his door open and closed it as he frowned. "O…kaaaay…where?"

"Away…just away."

Naruto waited for more, making a rolling motion with his hand.

Gaara searched for words, decided nothing but the truth would do. "Something bad's going to happen. Here, in your village. Tomorrow." That was it, Gaara couldn't bring himself to speak of his role in it. And anyway he wasn't going to do what they said. He was going to take Naruto and leave.

Naruto frowned hard. "What do you mean? What's going to happen??"

"I…it…some people are going to attack. Please Naruto, just come with me!" Gaara held out his hand. Naruto looked at it.

"But this is my home. I can't just abandon the village when it's going to be attacked. I have to help, I want to help! And," Naruto squinted his eyes in sudden suspicion. "How do you know there's going to be an attack?"

Gaara could not bear that look, not from him. He dropped his hand as he brought himself under control. He turned, giving Naruto his back as his familiar tight self-containment asserted itself once more. He still shook with nerves, but it was under the surface now. Trust goes both ways, he thought. "I know because my sensei told me. He said Suna is in an alliance with Oto to attack Konoha and bring it to its knees. I swear to you Naruto, I swear, I knew nothing about it until tonight. Please leave with me."

Naruto leaned against his door, his palms flat and spread against the wood, mouth open. Gaara turned back to him and saw the look of horrified shock. He waited.

"Why would your village do that? Forget that, we have to tell someone," Naruto said nervously. He started to pull his door open. Gaara was there, slamming it shut again with one palm.

"No, Naruto."

"Bastard! Why not? If we warn everyone then Konoha will be prepared and-"

"No."

Naruto tried to calm his panicking mind and think. It was hard to do, adrenaline was coursing through him and everything in him was telling him to act, to act now. He looked at Gaara questioningly. "How come, if you don't agree with what your sensei said, you're not going to stay and fight with Konoha?"

Gaara was silent for many moments. His luminous eyes weighed his friendship with Naruto, judged the blonde able to hear the truth. "Because they want to use me, use Shukaku, as the main weapon. And if I stay here, if I see all the blood and killing, I'll lose control of myself and end up killing everyone and destroying everything anyway. I have to leave, Naruto, get away before it all starts. And I want you to come with me."

"Why, though? How come you're not going along with the plan?"

Gaara had asked himself that question, too. He'd thought long and hard as he made his way to Naruto's building. "Because of you, Naruto. I don't want to hurt you and if I attacked your village you would never forgive me. I can't lose you or your friendship."

Naruto tried to smile, but the situation really was too dire for that. He paced up and down, thinking. "How long would we have to be gone for? Would it be forever?"

"No," Gaara replied, not daring to hope that Naruto was agreeing with him. "Just until the invasion is over, one way or another."

"And you're sure we can't stay and fight?"

"We could…well, you could. But if I stayed, things would get out of hand."

Naruto studied Gaara as he pulled on his lip. "When is the invasion supposed to take place?"

"Sometime during the matches."

"So…not as soon as they begin?"

"I don't think so."

"Okay then just let me beat Neji first. Then I'll come with you."

"What? Naruto, that-"

"Please, man! You have no idea how hard I trained and I promised that shark I'd beat his ass. Just let me have a chance to beat him and then we can leave, okay? Look, I'll even pack my stuff now."

Gaara wavered, relented after continued pleading from Naruto. "All right. But this is cutting it pretty close."

In the end, Gaara was glad he'd agreed. Naruto had his balls to the wall, but then he used his Kyuubi chakra and really did win spectacularly. He felt Shukaku stirring in him, responding to the Kyuubi chakra and the bloodlust evident in Neji and Naruto both. By the time Naruto landed next to him and they were making their getaway, Gaara was panting harshly.

Naruto eyed him and linked his arm through Gaara's. "It's okay, I got you. We're leaving."

Evading Baki and gate security was nearly impossible, but there Gaara had them covered. They traveled swiftly past Sand and Sound Jounins in the forests outside Konoha, traveled all day and all night until they were good and lost in the Land of Fire. Gaara was calm again. He and Naruto finally stopped near a low mountain that had a cave.

They had no way of knowing how long the invasion would go on or who would be victorious so they just stayed away. They hunted, played, trained, and did more of what they'd done in the sphere. Their groping and kissing never went much beyond that and Gaara never put his mouth between Naruto's legs again as he'd done that night of the full moon. They'd both been more than a little frightened at how adult that had felt.

Naruto turned to Gaara happily one afternoon where they sat in the wildflowers and said. "I love you."

Gaara smiled. Really smiled. His teeth were showing and everything. Naruto was busy staring at this sight and almost missed Gaara's own declaration. "I love you, too."

Epilogue

It was Jiraiya who found them some weeks later. He woke them both up from a sound sleep in each other's arms with a solid punch to their heads. "Stupid!" he barked. "Running off during the invasion, making everyone think you both had died! I nearly had a stroke from the worry!" He gave them each another punch for good measure.

He carted them back to Konoha, keeping up a running commentary about their lack of consideration. Naruto finally told why they'd run away, how they hadn't wanted to risk Gaara bringing out the tailed beast inside him. Then Jiraiya was silent.

At the village, Baki took Gaara and explained how they'd all been made fools of. Orochimaru betrayed Suna and The Fourth Kazekage was dead. Gaara received the information with little emotion.

Jiraiya spent his time going head to head with the village council. They denied him, fought him, threatened him, and all to no avail. Jiraiya provided irrefutable proof. "He's my godson," he told them angrily. "I will not let him be treated this way anymore, I don't care if you think he's Konoha's weapon."

"Very well," they capitulated. "On one condition: Bring us Tsunade as the new Hokage. Then you may have him."

Naruto sat in his apartment, Jiraiya explaining how he'd known his father, how he was his godfather, how Naruto was going to be under his care from now on. "I'm leaving the village?" Naruto asked in wonder.

"Yes. To train with me."

"For how long?"

"Until you're an adult."

"Oh. Gaara's leaving too," Naruto said sadly. He looked down at his dirty hands. "He's going back to his village. I guess…I guess we won't see each other anymore."

Jiraiya came over and ruffled Naruto's hair. "We'll swing by Suna from time to time."

Gaara came to see him that night. They stared at each other in the doorway for a long time. Then they were both crying, the shock of seeing Gaara display such emotion eclipsed by how much parting from him hurt. "I'll visit you," Naruto sobbed brokenly against Gaara's shoulder. "I promise, I'll visit."

"I'll be waiting," Gaara said just as fiercely. "Don't forget me, Naruto."

"Never! Oh God!"

Then Gaara was gone.

Jiraiya said they'd be leaving in a week. The night before they left, Naruto was in his apartment alone, making sure he had everything packed. A knock sounded at his door. He went to open it.

It was Sasuke. He had a bag on his back. Naruto only looked at him, wondering what on earth he wanted.

"I'm leaving," Sasuke finally said.

"Okay," Naruto shrugged.

Sasuke blinked. "I'm going to Orochimaru."

Naruto remembered the snake freak who'd attacked Sasuke during the Chuunin exams. He'd heard the same freak was responsible for the invasion. He eyed Sasuke with hooded eyes. "Always knew you were a traitor."

Sasuke said nothing. He was going to do this thing regardless. He'd just hoped, secretly, that Naruto would try to stop him. He'd noticed Naruto wasn't hounding him, harrassing him the way he always used to, as soon as he'd gotten back from training with Kakashi. The blond had a new obsession in that red-haired kid. Sasuke had been shocked at how hurt and jealous he'd been. He'd come here hoping for…something. But Naruto didn't seem to care that he was leaving the village. He started to turn away from Naruto's door, away from the cold look in those blue eyes. Then he stopped.

"I never hated you," Sasuke whispered. I just wanted you to chase me harder. I wanted you to save me, he thought. Then he left. He heard Naruto slam his door and winced.

Naruto left with Jiraiya the next day. He learned much on his travels with the guy, including who his parents were. And he kept his promise to visit Gaara. He managed it two or three times a year. It had been during one such visit that Akatsuki tried to take Gaara. Naruto had gone insane, gone Kyuubi, and he and Gaara annihilated both Deidara and Sasori.

After that, Jiraiya was approached by the council of Sunagakure, beseeched to take their Kazekage along with him and Naruto on their travels in order to keep him safe. Jiraiya agreed.

Naruto and Gaara remained together, learning and loving, ever since.