Hi readers and friends! Welcome to chapter 15, in which you get some tooth-aching RaccoonxGaara sweetness with a pinch of battle thrown in at the end. It's my birthday week, so if you could give me some reviews that would be nice

Anyway love to all my readers, reviewers, favoriters, followers and haters too :P

Did I mention that this story was a slow-burn romance, cause it is *insert upside smiley* but I'm sure you noticed that from the 14 chapters you had to wait just to get a single kiss without tongue, teehee :D

Thoughts are in italics

Memories/flashbacks are in bold italics

Bold if not for emphasis, is for my beginning/endnotes.

Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto, and you know what, that's probably for the best.

Open Season

It had only taken one month of Gaara being Kazekage for him to amass a fanbase. Raccoon had noticed the first letter only weeks into his official stint in office. After checking it for traps, she reluctantly had handed the perfumed piece of mail over to the bewildered Kazekage, who eyed the messily drawn hearts all over the envelope with trepidation. Raccoon wondered idly if his thoughts were along the same lines as hers: what kind of trick is this?

Happily for Gaara, it turned out to be an actual note of admiration and confession, though the fan hadn't signed their name. He blinked at Raccoon, unsure of what to do, and she'd had to stifle a giggle behind her hand at how adorably lost he looked.

"I'm assuming you don't reciprocate?" At the wrinkle in Gaara's nose, she actually let loose a little laugh, but squashed it down with difficulty under his unamused glare. "Right." She cleared her throat. "Well you can either trash the letter or keep it, up to you really."

He eyed the stationary warily for a while longer, before deciding to tuck it into his desk and move on to the massive pile of paperwork, Raccoon busying herself with making tea. They didn't talk about the incident further, but she knew that Gaara believed it to be an outlier in all the reactions he received, but as she poured him his daily dose of green tea with a hum, she understood that this would just be the first of many.

Months later saw a massive pile of letters, all having been checked for traps and tampering previously. The surge was surprising, as they'd gone from one to two letters a week, to five or six, to ten to twelve, a steady increase. But judging by the pile, this had to be a good 50 letters, some on top of presents, trinkets and other tokens of appreciation.

Gaara was, suffice to say, flabbergasted for a good two minutes. Raccoon took to separating the mail while he gaped, organizing the pile by foodstuffs, letters only, miscellaneous items, and a more…inappropriate pile that was larger than she expected.

"This can't all be…"he started warily, softly, to himself. He approached slowly as if sneaking up on a dangerous animal.

"I'm afraid it is." Raccoon tried to keep the humor from her voice, but it was a little difficult when she had a lingerie set pinched between her, blessedly, gloved fingers.

Gaara turned an alarming shade of red upon realizing just what she was gingerly moving into a pile. "Is that—is it-?"

"Used? Most likely." She snorted back at laugh as he spun around back to his desk, murmuring something about what he'd done to deserve this unwanted attention.

"Most men would relish in this." She waved the garment around teasingly in Gaara's direction, delighting in his face of revulsion far too much and glad he couldn't see it.

"I'm glad you find this amusing." He huffed, purposefully bending over to assess his latest mountain of paperwork.

"Now, now," she cooed, behind her master in no time, "you know you're not to bend over like that, you're going to damage your spine." She pulled at his shoulder until he righted himself into a proper sitting position.

"I'll stop teasing you, promise." She waltzed back over to the pile of gifts to finish sorting through, well aware that Gaara had his eyes on her pensively now. She patiently waited for his question as she unearthed the fourth box of chocolates from the pile.

"They can't all be declarations of…love?" He finally groused, curiously.

"Well, some of these fancier envelopes look to be letters from daimyos of other lands congratulating you a little late." She titled her mask back up to him. "But those are a small fraction, the majority of them are, from my guess and the—" she jerked her head back slightly, "overpowering scent of perfume, female admirers." She shrugged as he further furrowed his brow.

He sighed, chin propped on his fist. She knew he had more questions, and she was expecting something along the lines of: what kind of gifts are there? What should I say in reply? What she got was:

"Have you ever been in love?"

She paused, a sparkly looking letter floating above the pile of other scented, brightly colored envelopes, as she thought about Gaara's question. This was a chance for her to be honest, well as honest as one could be when they'd decided to keep lying to someone because they were a coward. At the same time though, this kind of question was dangerous to their relationship of leader and subordinate.

While yes, it wasn't uncommon for a Kage to know extensively of their shinobi's lives and vice versa, this was information you picked up through years of knowledge and observation. To ask outright wasn't unheard of, but it was a step into intimate territory. Shinobi were supposed to be dispensable, so you tried to distance yourself as much as possible.

Gaara seemed to want to take these notions and throw them right out the door. She was proud, and wouldn't have cared either way, quid pro quo be damned, but she didn't want to give the Council a reason to put Gaara under a microscope more than they already were.

When her silence stretched on for too long, Gaara opened his mouth to withdraw the statement, she could see it in the way his shoulders slightly fell and his face smoothed out—he was trying to convince her that he wasn't upset.

"Yes." She answered before he could snatch the question back.

He choked slightly. "Oh." He blinked, and then emboldened, blurted out another question: "Do you think that any of these—" he motioned to the piles all around her, "seem true to love?"

From the look on his face he didn't seem to believe so, despite them both knowing that he knew next to nothing about the type of love outlined in these letters.

"Love for people is expressed in different ways." She swept her hand over the pile of chocolates and boxes of gizzards and other delicious lunches. "There's different types of love, and people often confuse them." She fingered the card in her hand, sending a wave of sparkles down onto the others. "I would say that a lot of these women now have admiration for you." She tapped the floor near the miscellaneous items of wealth and craftsmanship. "Some of these women only want you for your status and power." She shrugged and motioned to the pile of scanty lace of panties and other unmentionables. "Some of these women only want you for your body." Gaara's face burned again at that, but Raccoon plowed on. "It's hard to say whether any of this is real love because it's unlikely that most of these admirers of yours have ever met you in real life, much less know your character enough to discern such a thing."

At her last sentence, Gaara got a far away look and seemed to press his lips together in thought, finger occasionally raising to rub them absentmindedly. Raccoon forced herself to go back to organizing things so she wouldn't jump to stupid conclusions, like that he was thinking about her, the realest her he could remember, smacking a kiss onto his mouth only some months ago.

To say that night didn't haunt her since would be a lie. She'd gone home after to put the more unused parts of the abandoned building in even more disarray, by the end of it she was sitting amongst dust motes and broken glass with tears in her eyes wondering why she had to let potential rejection dictate so much of her life. Why she had to let the past rule her so much. So what that Gaara had said ten years ago that he didn't need her? He wasn't the same person any more, he should have a chance to decide his own actions after learning the truth.

But it didn't matter how many logical explanations she gave herself, she couldn't bring herself to try again. And now here they were months later, one pining and the other trying to learn about love from a liar who wouldn't even admit she was in love with him.

"What's it like…to be in love?" Gaara's question seemed almost hesitant. As if he was a little afraid of the answer, maybe of confirming something. She swallowed the sudden lump in her throat, pausing in her sorting once again to answer him properly.

"It's like…jumping off of the side of a mountain with no safety, no way to save yourself. You fall and fall, and the rush of the wind is the thrilling part of it. Everything they do, everything they are, it makes your heart pound. You don't want the feeling to ever end, being with them makes you feel more alive than you ever have been before. You start to wonder what life was like before them, boring, safe, unfulfilling.

She inhaled a large breath, forcing herself to get back to the mechanical task in front of her so she had a distraction from the growing lump in her throat.

"At the same time, this feeling is a double-edged sword, you're frightened like you never have been before. Do they feel the same? Will this feeling last? To change your relationship, it's frightening. But the even more frightening part of it all is when they catch you. Because then you've given them your heart, you've given them the power to hurt you, and in loving them, especially in the world we live in, you've put a target on their back so other people can hurt your heart as well. Your heart is constantly in your throat, torn between feeling scared and elated, but you do everything you can to protect this person, uplift them, and to keep them happy. Being in love, it's beautiful, but it also means opening yourself up to pain unimaginable."

Soon she was grasping at nothing and had to clasp her hands together to stop the slight tremors racking through her body at being so… vulnerable in front of Gaara.

"That sounds…terrifying." He admitted softly, and she raised her head to find him staring off into space now with a pinched look on his face. Their feelings were starting to mix together into a confusing concoction of shared vulnerability, heat, hope, excitement to name a few and overlaying it all it stank of fear.

"Gaara, I don't tell you this to deter you. If you wish, I hope someday you experience the joy that comes in loving someone and being loved, but you must know that in every relationship in the Shinobi world there is a risk, and there is no greater risk that exists than in having a romantic partner."

"Raccoon…this person, are they—"

She toyed with a beautifully knit pillow and met his gaze again. "I have had the privilege to fall in love twice in my life. The first, he was killed in front of me, to save me."

"I…I'm sorry." She shook off his apology.

"Don't be, he was my first love, I'll always cherish him."

The silence reigned, but only for a moment that seemed simultaneously too quick and too slow. "And…the second?"

She paused. "He doesn't know yet. Ah, for some reason it's harder being in love this time around than before. I guess, I guess I'm letting fear overwhelm me." She tugged at her hair before she remembered that that was a very "Miyako" thing to do, even with shorter hair and immediately stopped.

Gaara looked at her, and she was sure he didn't even notice, a little pitifully. She gulped around the stubborn lump in her throat and made to lighten the subject quickly.

"Is that why you're glaring holes through such generous offerings?" She dramatically gestured to the racier pile once again.

Gaara sighed, but didn't take the bait as she had hoped, looking at the pile thoughtfully. "That doesn't look like what you described."

As much as she wanted to desperately get off of this topic, the overwhelming fear still clouding her senses, she also was too curious about Gaara's thoughts to let it go. "These then?" She lifted up a more thoughtfully put together card, though she didn't read it. "Not all of them are so…shallow?" She shrugged. "Some are true words of admiration." She waved around the cardstock. "I thought you would've been thrilled at this at the very least."

His eyes widened slightly. "Don't misunderstand." He looked slightly panicked, though nothing in his emotions could really point to why he was suddenly so anxious. "I appreciate the…ah—" Gaara darted his eyes away and missed how Raccoon suddenly elongated in shock, her mouth agape behind the mask as Gaara stumbled over his words.

"I appreciate the support and change in opinion." He rushed to explain. "I just…this is unexpected, this—" he snatched up a nearby envelope and began reading without any preamble.

"Honorable Kazekage Gaara, I have always admired your strength in battle and your work ethic this past year." He gulped, taking a moment to look up at Raccoon with wide eyes, his aura practically on fire in emabarrasment as he finished with a faint blush. "I have recently found, however, that I have come to admire you in other ways as well. The way you carry yourself, the depth of your eyes as you speak on issues that inspire you, the purity in your heart for a village that is still struggling to find trust in you after breaking yours. I have no doubt that you have caught many eyes, but I hope that my words reach you enough for you to consider me to stand by your side and l-love those qualities genuinely."

He tried to snap the card shut, but the effect was lost due to its more delicate nature. So he had to settle for composing himself quietly instead of outwardly taking out his frustration and confusion.

"So what you're saying is, is that you can handle familial love, your siblings," she counted off on her fingers, "friendly love, Naruto," she ignored the slight flutter—not quite knowing if it was from elation or disappointment—when added a "you" under his breath, "but at the mere mention of romantic love you become a blushing teenage boy?"

He glared, but it only learned a laugh in response, as his cheeks were still painted a light pink. Because Raccoon wasn't supposed to know that Gaara had never been in love before, she decided to see how far she could get in this little trade of vulnerability they were having amongst each other.

"Or could it be that you're blushing because you've thought about it? Have one of your many admirers caught your attention?" She clamped her mouth shut immediately after asking, silently reprimanding herself. It wasn't as if she'd meant to goad Gaara into admitting something about "Miyako", even though she was kind of desperately hoping that this is where the conversation would lead.

"No!" He was clearly debating with himself and she held her breath the entire time as the conflicting emotions passed, plainly, a rare occurrence, across his face. "I… I'm confused about my feelings for someone is all. I don't know what to think."

Raccoon didn't pry, knowing that whatever it was that Gaara wanted to talk about he would come out and say it eventually, and more likely if she pretended to be occupied. She would have to indulge him if she wanted to get him to open up more. So she rose, silently and gracefully and softly announced that she would be back with tea. Now, anyone could take that to mean the conversation was over, but such was Gaara and Raccoon that they understood the signal to mean: "I'm giving you time to think and we'll be back to resume the conversation if that's what you want."

When she returned with a tray of green tea and several small snacks for Gaara to munch on throughout the day—because between the gifts and the various paperwork he had to get through for the upcoming joint Chuunin exams he wouldn't be leaving his office before nightfall—he looked determined and launched into a spiel as soon as she set down the tray before him.

"I don't know what it means, what she did." He grumbled, picking up his cup and warming his fingers around it, though there wasn't any need to though they were on the tail end of summer.

"What did she do?" Raccoon prompted softly, though she knew good and damn well what had Gaara ready to pull his hair out.

"She kissed me!" He exclaimed softly, looking across to Raccoon with a bemused expression. "And then just…left." His brow furrowed.

"Does this person love you?" No, Raccoon wasn't asking to boost her own ego, or to extract information from Gaara exactly. It was like…a form of an anonymous survey. She was determining how to better meet the needs of her audience.

"I don't know, she…she kissed me, but I haven't seen her since, so I don't know what that means." He grumbled, finally sipping his tea slowly, still a little lost in thought. Raccoon cleared her throat just slightly to draw his attention back to her.

"Maybe she's scared? Maybe she was trying to test how you felt about her?" She feigned a shrug, though she knew she was doing less of an "anonymous survey" at this point, and more of a…redirection? So much for that plan.

"Maybe…" He didn't seem convinced.

"Had you not thought of her that way before?" She continued to probe gently, going back to doing another mindless task of separating paperwork into levels of importance.

He answered after a while of watching her hands move across his desk. "Not really, she was always just…there, I guess. I didn't see her in that light until she caught me off guard by kissing me, and now, I'm looking back on every interaction wondering if her feelings were there the whole time."

Raccoon once again gave a little shrug, and decided that it was time to stop her inquiry, for now at least. "Hmm, well, maybe you should think it over? Ask yourself if you're ready for a relationship, if she's the kind of person you could see yourself being with, and just try and spend time with her if you can. You can't force yourself to have feelings, but if they're there, it will become obvious to you the longer you spend with her." Was she trying to change his perception of her subtly for when he was eventually informed that Raccoon was Miyako Maki was Miyako Kurosawa? Yes. Sue her.

Gaara hummed, a sign that he was through with the conversation, and picked up the first leaflet of paper in the stack of documents that needed to be dealt with before the day was out. As he read longer he got lost in the decision-making process and his haze of confusion lifted from his mind.

Raccoon, however, was still shaking a little with emotion, the fear no less potent in her aura even without Gaara's own.

G/M

"Has everything been prepared for the second round?"

Gaara didn't even look up from the documents in his hand as Raccoon came to stand in front of him.

"They're making the final adjustments as we speak." Raccoon paused to let Gaara hum noncommittally before launching into her line of questions.

"You called me back here despite knowing that they would take advantage of my absence to tamper with the grounds." It wasn't a question and she made sure to communicate how annoyed she was with this course of action in her tone, which was really only detectable by a select few.

Gaara set down his document with a sigh. "Yes."

She twitched, but said nothing more, fully aware of what Gaara was doing even if she didn't agree with it.

"It would be easier," she started breezily, "if you would just allow me to use the information gained from Yura to squash this attempt at a coup once and for all."

Gaara sighed and picked up another document, scanning it lazily. "We've already talked about this, Raccoon."

"I understand your desire Kazekage-sama, but some people cannot be…reasoned with." Raccoon snorted at her own statement. "It goes against my better judgement to allow you to court death so intimately."

"A shinobi courts death everyday they breathe." He replied flippantly, but the tightening of his hand on the leaflet of documents in front of him gave away his real emotions.

"You are the Kazekage." She shot back. "And while that comes with the understanding that you would die for your village to ensure its protection, it does not mean throwing away your life to those that would dance on your grave."

"That's enough Raccoon." He sent her an icy stare. "I've made my decision."

Whatever she could've said to counter was foiled with a knock at the door, and despite how irritated she was with her leader at the moment, she still slipped to his side with ease. She had impressions to keep up after all, and they didn't need to be fighting while others were attempting to kill him.

"Kazekage-sama, the first exam has ended and the entrants are on their way to the Demon Desert checkpoint." The Chuunin reported from his kneeled position.

"Very well, finish the preparations for the Second Exam. You are dismissed."

Once the Chuunin was well out of hearing range, Raccoon moved mechanically to get the tea set.

"Raccoon." He sighed, code for: don't use tea as an excuse. And because she couldn't help herself, she threw in one last comment.

"Your duty may lie in protecting this village, and I know you feel you owe it to yourself to gain as much of its trust as possible. But my duty as your Right Hand is to ensure you are able to build that trust with people who are worth your time." She turned to look over her shoulder, reading through his stone-faced look easily. "Know that anyone who poses a threat to you during the Second Exam tomorrow will be disposed of whether you like it or not, Kazekage-sama."

G/M

"This is bad."

Raccoon surveyed the splatter of blood, the only trace of the attempted assassin left to analyze and hummed noncommittally.

"You couldn't get Gaara to agree not to survey the exams himself?" Temari sighed in frustration, her free hand massaging her temples.

Raccoon pivoted slowly to face the tensed siblings and walked back to the center of the crime scene where it happened.

"To be fair I wasn't advocating for him to do so." She began, much to the siblings chagrin. "But I did offer to use the information provided to us to investigate whatever…group is behind this." The sarcasm was so thinly veiled Kankuro had to snort at Raccoon's blatant show of emotion.

"But Kazekage-sama denied me this route."

Temari arched an eyebrow at the ANBU Captain in interest. ""Kazekage-sama" huh? You two must be fighting."

"I'm merely practicing." She challenged coolly, ignoring the twin eyerolls the siblings gave her in disbelief. "I will continue to…monitor the situation. I have informed the Kazekage that should action be taken against him, no orders will keep me from their disposal, but more I cannot do." She gave a one armed shrug. "My hands are tied here. I'd suggest you try your hands once more if you really wish to change his mind."

"If he won't listen to you than we have no hope." Kankuro sighed out despondently. "Thank you Raccoon, have a goodnight." The ANBU gave a bow before disappearing, leaving the siblings to stare at the leftover blood in abject worry.

"Do you have as bad of a feeling as I do?" Kankuro's concern, though quiet, carried itself on the wind to his sister, who closed her eyes and gave a loud sigh.

"We will protect him, Raccoon will protect him. No matter what happens we will have to be enough."

G/M

Raccoon was, admittedly, tuning out Temari's speech to the genin. She'd technically already heard the rules to this type of survival exam before. The only difference was that they were going to be in a far more open, but just as dangerous terrain, and in this exam she was spying on a coup instead of a crazed pedophile. Things seemed much simpler a year and a half ago.

Yet another surprise she'd learned last night that was similar between the exams: the presence of two Jinchuriki. She flinched unperceptively at her reaction to the blue-haired Fuu last night. Upon finding her on top of the giant scorpion, she was instantly hit with the feeling of being in a jack-in-the-box, her body winding up as the feeling of longing swept over her amidst all of the childish images of a playroom.

Gaara had definitely noticed, but since they weren't saying much to each other—partially out of necessity since Kages weren't really known to make casual conversation with ANBU, but also largely because he was miffed with her, let's be honest—he hadn't commented on her wobbling forward a little towards Fuu as she lurched into their space. No one outside of Gaara and Naruto would be as magnetic to her due to her relationships with them, but Fuu was close. Her hands twitched to pet her hair while teaching her to play cards, everything about her screamed: coddle me. It was sad that the girl had no friends even outside of her teammates.

Speaking of teammates, those two with her, definitely not genin. She'd commented as such to Gaara and Temari offhandedly, but Gaara had allowed it—and she suspected it was due to Fuu reminding him too much of Naruto with her exclamation of not caring about rivals or allies, only making friends.

If in fact they were going to attempt to draw out the Akatsuki, Gaara wasn't the only one with a target on his head here. While the Waterfall was a small nation that primarily kept to themselves, it didn't mean the Akatsuki would be entirely unaware that Fuu existed. It seems Raccoon's job was just made harder, but first, she had to get rid of a pesky group of dissenters.

As soon as the entrants were released into the desert and the siblings and Raccoon were in the safety of Gaara's temporary office in the Demon Desert's tower, Raccoon's brain went to calculating how she could sneak away from Gaara long enough to investigate the dissenters properly without giving them the exact opening they needed.

"So you'll stay in the office and monitor the progress of the exams with the third eye?" Temari clarified, almost disbelieving at how…agreeable her normally stubborn brother was being.

"Yes." Gaara's voice had a slight edge of sarcasm in it, but for the sake of the current situation, everyone in the room ignored it.

"Well if you're going to stay here, then that means we can send Raccoon on the field." Kankuro suggested casually, gesturing to the stock still ANBU.

Raccoon mulled over how differently these Chuunin exams were going in comparison to the last. Just a year ago Gaara was urging her to spy on any and every one, and yet now he scrutinized her with the same distrust the siblings had given her during those last Chuunin exams.

She communicated her challenge in her posture; normally while she was all for staying by Gaara's side as often as possible, they were both well aware Raccoon was best utilized in this situation as his outside eyes and ears rather than being stuck in the tower fetching tea. And he could say nothing against it, though the twitch in his mouth screamed his suspicion plainly.

"Very well." He allowed, and the ANBU bowed in silent thanks.

"You are to report to me every day at sunset—we don't need you getting caught by giant scorpions. And obviously, do not interfere unless there is an extenuating circumstance." Raccoon nodded sharply at his orders and he sighed in dismissal.

The siblings and Raccoon ambled to the front entrance of the tower before slipping into a less crowded alcove, the ANBU naturally taking to the shadows while the siblings entirely faced each other as if they were the only two involved in this conversation.

"I say we divide and conquer." Kankuro grunted, tugging on his scrolls.

"What are you proposing each of our roles be?" Although Raccoon already had a guess as to where this was going.

"When I suggested you for the field, I wasn't kidding." Kankuro scoffed, darting his eyes over to the much-too-casual ANBU leaning against the wall, cracking her knuckles nonchalantly.

"I have no objections, seeing as any attack against Gaara will likely take place outside of the tower, but this attack will most likely be coordinated and you two still have duties to proctor the exams." Raccoon pointed out, watching as Temari breathed out through her nose in exasperation.

"You can't feasibly be everywhere at once." Temari countered, though it sounded more like a question.

Well she could, but they weren't going to ever find that out, so she hummed in mournful agreement.

"So which of you is going to be on Gaara-guard duty?" Raccoon quipped, barely holding back a snort when both quickly let out a "not it!"

"C'mon Temari, it will be easier for me to confirm any plans against Gaara since I'm in line to sit on the Jounin Council."

"Why would they be more willing to tell you anything than they would me? We're both liable to report back to Gaara, so your theory is flawed."

Raccoon watched the two squabble back and forth for a little while before clearing her throat, and she watched in amusement how the two had to work really hard not to whip their heads in her direction.

"And this is why, I think it would be easier if I interrogated our suspects to see if there's any further information before taking to the field."

Temari chewed on her thumbnail in thought as Kankuro crossed his arms and tightened his jaw.

"Now don't be mad just because I'm taking away some of your responsibility. Don't you have enough to do?" Raccoon trilled.

"That's not what this is and you know it." Temari groaned, rolling her eyes. "Gaara will be suspicious if you have nothing to report, and if you're going to try to get the suspects to admit to a plan with subtle coercion that's a potentially long game."

"Facts I am well aware of." The ANBU pushed herself from the wall and stepped slightly closer to the pair. "It's a good thing I have other methods of…persuasion."

The duo looked at her dead on, and she could tell that they were recalling that time nearly a year ago when she'd come to their aid despite the Council's protests, the only answer given was that she had been particularly "persuasive".

"If it makes you feel better," she offered, "I will only operate in these coercion methods at night, this way the report is already made and Gaara is already appeased. I will act tonight, swiftly, after Kankuro does his own "subtle" investigation and marks our targets. Which will leave you, Temari, unfortunately, on Kazekage-babysitting duty."

The eldest snorted unladylike but nevertheless agreed after a bout of long silent stare-downs from her brother and the ANBU Captain.

G/M

The days in the Demon Desert were sure to be long for the participants, especially for those who were not used to Suna's oppressive heat or nasty surprises—quicksand, poisonous plants, venomous giant animals, the list goes on. But the first day in the Demon Desert for the ANBU Captain Raccoon felt like the longest hours of her life as she itched for the sun to fall in the sky. She'd thought being forced to slink around the Forest of Death for five days was boring, but being forced to tunnel under hot sand to avoid detection at a moment's notice was worse. Still, she couldn't say that nothing was happening. She'd already seen five fights in five hours and she was only following Sand Shinobi. But Shinobi fights tended to only last between 10 to 30 minutes, and 30 was really pushing it, depending on skill level. And if the skill level was particularly low it made for boring television.

So yes, Raccoon was absolutely glaring at the sky in hopes that the sun would sink already dammit so she could wring these old prick's necks for information.

Just out of curiosity, she'd popped in on teams Kurenai, Gai and Asuma-Kakashi and was thoroughly impressed with what she saw. Since it had been roughly a year since she'd seen the kids, and a year and a half since she'd seen them engage in combat, she saw that their skills had improved significantly. It was fun getting to watch Sakura hold her own, cinnamon burning her nose be damned. And her teamwork with Choji and Ino, dare she say, was far better than ever with Naruto or Sasuke.

Team Gai each got their time to shine amongst the several skirmishes they had with various teams, with Neji leading quite flawlessly. She was glad his snap of leather was a lot less biting now. And Lee's friendly battle with Shira was a delight to behold, it felt like two firecrackers simultaneously competing while also lighting up the sky brilliantly in their own show. She'd felt so energized afterward that she'd skipped to find Team Kurenai.

That turned out to be a huge mistake.

She realized quickly when one of Shino's kikaichu had broken from the pack to fly straight at her that there was a reason she hadn't spied on this group the last Chuunin exams. Trying to maintain stealth around a group of trackers was a bad move. In particular Shino it seemed, as this was the third time the tracker would've been in close contact with her, once at the last Chuunin exams. Which is why Raccoon bolted before the bug could make contact with her, and regretfully before she could see if the three retrieved their scroll back from the Grass ninja. She didn't need Shino making connections.

Blessedly the sun sank low enough in the sky for Raccoon to bolt back to the tower. She ran so fast actually that she had to force herself to slow down several kilometers from the tower so she wouldn't look like a maniac.

"Kazekage-sama, I have returned with a report."

Gaara blinked rapidly at the kneeling ANBU and then turned to regard that yes the sun was in fact setting in the sky. He wanted to be suspicious, but scolded himself—Raccoon was nothing if not punctual.

"Report." He listened as she rattled off a detailed list of observations on several teams from the Sand and Leaf.

After her bow, Gaara found himself offering up the findings on a latest report, as he would usually do. Even though a small part of him wanted to dismiss her without any further information. He was, admittedly, being petty.

"You were correct in your assessment that Fuu's teammates are not genin. An investigation has shown that they are in fact Jounin." He hesitated and she tipped her head in encouragement for him to speak freely, which he found himself doing without much thought, no matter how miffed with her he was.

"I don't want to disqualify them." The silent 'much to the judgement of others' rang loud between them.

"Then don't." He scrutinized her, a part of him wanting her to disagree, to challenge him as she had only days ago.

"Everyone says I should." He countered, unsure of why he was goading her into defying him.

"Since when have you cared about what others say?" He flinched at the gruff way she said it, aware that there was a double entendre to the statement, but he was missing the hidden meaning.

When he didn't speak again, Raccoon broke protocol to ask for her own dismissal—an act that had him gaping once again.

"Where are you going?" He demanded, his voice strangled.

"If the Kazekage does not need me further tonight, I wish to retire." She clipped.

In Gaara's mind flashed many a night the last few months where the two would work through the night, Gaara sometimes falling into a trance like state as close to sleep as he could get at his desk while Raccoon lightly snoozed in one of the dark corners behind Gaara's desk. He'd be roused out of his sleep-like state to morning tea and a light breakfast that always tasted delicious. After the first few weeks he stopped scarfing it down when Raccoon wasn't looking and allowed her to take care of him because it made him feel warm. Eventually he breakfasted slowly and the two would chat over more mundane topics of the village—with Raccoon having much more to say since she often had to accompany Kankuro or Temari about town for something or another in Gaara's stead, and in those moments when Raccoon would make wide sweeping gestures during stories to make up for her lack of expressions, Gaara felt like his whole world was at peace.

Just the way Raccoon was standing now communicated how cold his entire world had become in something shy of a week. He heard himself snap that she was dismissed, and she was out of the room before he could even close his jaw around the last word, leaving him with the doubt that this was the best plan after all.

G/M

Raccoon wasn't a sadist, but occasionally she enjoyed people's screams. Specifically terrible people, so judge your mother.

The balding man who's head she had between her fingertips screamed much higher-pitched than she expected, desperation drenched in the way his fingers scrabbled at her own. She dropped his head momentarily to let him suck in breath he didn't deserve, her voice slithering across the cavernous room lightly.

"Are you going to tell me what I want to know now? Or should I just extract it from your head and leave your brain to rot like a vegetable?"

In a corner lied the sobbing man's accomplices, both already having been thoroughly questioned and tortured, though you wouldn't be able to tell from the outside. This was Raccoon making compromises. Gaara wanted to play nice with the dissenters, he wanted to change their minds through his example and his words, fine. So Raccoon had stayed away from pulling out fingernails, burning, asphyxiation, or anything that could produce outward marks. That didn't mean she could fuck with their minds. And then, if they decided to get with the program they could still keep their jobs and Raccoon wouldn't be reprimanded—you know, if they didn't retain permanent mental damage, all of which could be avoided if they just gave up the information she needed. So what if they'd flinch every time they saw her mask anywhere? She didn't say she'd be nice about interrogating them.

"Please, please." He clutched his head. "We-we don't know anymore, I swear!"

'Well, one bruise wouldn't be that bad.' She rationalized as she stomped on the man's back hard enough for him to fall face first from his fetal position to the floor.

"You can feed as many lies as you'd like to the Kazekage, but I can see right through you, and what you've given me thus far isn't enough." She emphasized her feelings with more pressure onto his flat form.

These three were, at best, just organizers. They allowed the real villains access onto the ground premises, but they didn't know anything more, most likely by design—they needed plausible deniability for situations just like this one.

But she knew they had to have a name—all they'd given her thus far was the vague plot: someone was planning to seal the Shukaku inside Gaara in a teapot, as was done many decades ago with the first Jinchuriki. The previous attempt at Gaara's life had only been a distraction from the larger picture at stake—they wanted the siblings to run around on a wild goose chase for a faction attempting to assassinate the Kazekage the old fashioned way, leaving him defenseless to being lured out for the real plot.

All of this, however, wasn't all that surprising. Raccoo could've surmised this in her sleep, but she still needed a name. There had to be someone at the top, or close to it, that she could hunt down.

"Who gave you your orders?!" She barked, kicking the man to roll over onto his back before shoving her boot into his stomach. The man hissed, but didn't attempt to move or speak, only continuing to blubber that he didn't know.

She swooped down and yanked him up by his collar. "I'm losing patience, but I'm not without mercy, you have one more opportunity to feel my grace." She hovered her free hand in the air near his face, letting him see the flickering barbed hooks, no bigger than a fingernail extending from her fingertips, but he flinched anyway.

"So, a name, who gave you your orders?"

"H-himura, he's the only one who knows more than I do!" He shouted as the hooks scraped the side of his face.

She scoffed, hardly surprised and let the man fall from her grip. From her weapons pouch she produced a small bag wrapped tight. She rolled it in her grip for moment before tossing it between the three, out of the room before she could even see it explode into glittering purple dust.

G/M

Sleep, when you're in the middle of trying to save your master from a coup d'état, was the worst. Lying to your master and crippling yourself, while also in the middle of trying to save your master from a deadly coup d'état, made Raccoon the worst. Alas, these are things you have to do when you used too much magic the day before scrambling useless Jounin Council underlings' memories.

Thus, Raccoon slept her best opportunity to nip this in the bud, aside from tonight, away. She kept trying to make excuses to stay in the tower and hunt down Himura all morning before dawn, but she kept getting accosted. First by the siblings, as well-meaning as they were, who tried to get her to agree to let them handle Himura, after confirming she hadn't killed anyone last night of course. They squabbled amongst each other, ultimately with no solution when a lackey had pulled her aside to give her a request from Gaara to follow specific teams during Day 2. Then she'd spent far too long fuming about why Gaara hadn't felt the need to simply summon her and tell her himself if he had such requests. And by the time she realized she was free enough to track down Himura, the sun was creeping into the sky and she had to go back out into the desert, cursing all the while.

She was given majority teams outside of Sand to watch—including the one Waterfall team, the one Rain team, Team Gai (Gaara had been impressed by her report the day before it seemed), Shira's team, and some sand team that included siblings.

And while that was all very entertaining—Fuu by herself was interesting enough in her random musings to warrant her own TV show, kind of like Naruto—that didn't mean she didn't want to get back to the tower as quickly as possible, find Himura, and strangle him.

As the hours clicked by, Raccoon felt herself becoming more and more agitated instead of relieved, a feeling of dread setting into her stomach as the third day loomed closer. She knew, without a doubt, that whatever was going to happen was going to happen tomorrow. This was the perfect setting to attempt to do something as underhanded as kill the leader of a nation. And the less she knew about what exactly was going to happen tomorrow the antsier she grew.

She almost barreled over Temari and Kankuro when she arrived to the tower, part of her wanting to hunt down Himura that very moment, reporting to Gaara and keeping appearances be damned, but her conversation with the siblings "talked" her down.

"He's not going anywhere Raccoon." Temari eyed her tense posture with interest. "You're not normally this sloppy about your emotions."

At this, Raccoon snapped into her normal stance, though she was still too stiff, it wasn't that obvious anymore that she was in distress.

"Anyway, we planted a bug on one of Himura's aids, and you'll be glad to know he definitely has direct connection to whoever is leading this plan."

"But no name." Raccoon grunted and sighed, only just keeping herself from deflating when the siblings shook their heads. "That helps, means there's only one more obstacle to the finish line." The siblings hummed in agreement, but didn't take their eyes from the ANBU, it was as if they were trying to do their own investigation.

She cleared her throat and excused herself from the siblings probing stares, making haste towards Gaara's office.

As if a dream the scene replayed itself as it did yesterday: Raccoon gave her report, Gaara took notes to add to his own and made only different intonations of hums at the information presented to him, and then proceeded to stare her down for an uncomfortable period of time after she'd finished.

She cleared her throat, subtle twitching in her frame belying her desperate attempt to flee this situation. And just when she couldn't take it anymore, Gaara opened his mouth first, beating her to the punch.

"What exactly are you planning with my siblings?"

"Planning?" She repeated like a certified dumbass.

"Yes, you've been in the hallways having many heated discussions."

Raccoon was glad for the mask for the umpteenth time, so Gaara couldn't see her roll her eyes. Of course he was spying on them.

"No one is planning anything Kazekage-sama." She droned, posture slouched in a vain attempt to get him off of this topic of conversation. Maybe if he thought she was bored he'd stop his line of questioning. No dice.

"Kazekage-sama?" He snorted. "Now I know you are." He countered with a sneer.

She put her hands on her hips, only barely holding back all the attitude from her voice at her next statement. "We are simply ensuring your safety, in spite of some people's best efforts."

Gaara leaned back in his chair, regarding his ANBU coolly while he played with a pen. "If that's the case, then you certainly shouldn't mind staying with me."

She gaped, he could probably guess that she was gaping even if he couldn't see it. She fleetingly hoped her glare was burning his insides. Stay? Stay and do what? He was clearly doing this as some form of punishment. He didn't know what Raccoon and the siblings were planning, but he figured he could put a wrench in their plans if he kept Raccoon from participating. Jackass!

"And what would you require from me to request such a thing?" She swept her hand over his mostly empty desk—as he'd brought none of his village paperwork with him, to instead devote all of his efforts into proctoring. This was against so many protocols, but their relationship was as strange as they came, so she might as well have pushed it.

"I've never needed a reason." He sniffed. "It certainly hasn't stopped you before." He looked at her pointedly and she clammed up, knowing this was his subtle way of ordering her—a warning.

"If that is what the Kazekage requires." She hissed out, before stiffly moving to stand in a dark corner, as far away from Gaara as she could physically be while still doing her job.

He let the silence sit and looked out of his round window for a while, successfully managing to avoid Raccoon's clear feelings of displeasure by distracting himself with the status of each team as Raccoon had reported. But after only half an hour he found himself spinning his chair to regard the ANBU stiffly in the corner with an equally annoyed look.

"Does being around me now detest you that much?" He spit.

"Don't bait me." She didn't even look in his direction at this counter.

"I'm trying to figure out why you've suddenly turned so insubordinate!" He scoffed, hands tightening on the arms of the chair.

"I will take being called insubordinate if it means you continue to breathe!" She crossed her arms defiantly.

"Why don't you understand why I have to do this? You! The very person who has been encouraging me to change the villager's minds this whole time?" He didn't even feel himself stand.

"It's one thing to show the village you've changed through your actions—which you've done might I add!" She whirled around to face him now, and he ignored the tiny flutter of happiness to instead scowl harder. "You've abolished that stupid rule that Taijutsu only users can't be Shinobi. You've reinstated the Academy with better lessons. You've humbled yourself by learning from others lower in rank than you—I needn't go on."

She took a step closer, her arms unfolding to be thrown heavenward. "But it's another thing entirely to put your life at risk, knowingly."

His eyes raked across hers: "You know something." He breathed.

"You know something!" She fired back, unconsciously advancing further into his space. "You know that whoever is behind this won't stop until they kill you—even if they don't succeed here. And yet you won't let the siblings or I help you—you stubbornly attempt to take it all on on your own. You stop us at every turn from preventing your death—why?!"

Gaara felt like he couldn't breathe, the air around them was so saturated with Raccoon's emotion as the barely 6 inches between them vibrated with their ragged breaths.

Gaara choked momentarily, unsure how to respond to such a display, chiefly because he'd thought Raccoon's behavior the past few days was her finally showing how she really felt—that she was tired of him. So he'd provoked her in order for her to admit it: that she resented him for making her job so difficult, or that she'd always seen this as a duty and hadn't cared for Gaara in the first place. But he'd apparently missed something.

"I—" He swallowed, with difficulty, still fumbling for words to describe how this felt.

"I know that you will do what you feel is best." He blinked as she suddenly moved back, the charged air around them rapidly cooling the further away she retreated back into the dark corner. He felt his tongue loosen, but he still didn't speak, still felt a mourning fill his chest at the distance between them.

"But I just wonder if you ever think of anyone that loves you when you make these decisions."

And then she was back in the corner, leaned up against the wall as she was previously, giving the impression that the whole conversation had been nothing but a fever dream. Gaara lowered himself back into his chair and let the silence consume him, wondering if Raccoon counted herself among those who loved Gaara. He didn't know why that thought made it particularly difficult to swallow, and not entirely in a bad way.

G/M

Waking up with a woman on top of you is normally any man's fantasy. Jounin Councilmember Himura, however, woke up with an ANBU Captain straddling him and one hand over his mouth.

"Please don't make this difficult." She sounded tired, and normally a Shinobi would take advantage of this fact to form a strategy—but Himura, while childish to some, was no fool. He could feel the power coiling in the muscles tensed lightly around him. She wasn't so much physically tired as she was at the end of her fuse, and that could easily spell death.

The dappled light of the rising sun sent him enough light to be able to tell, unsurprisingly, that Gaara's Right Hand ANBU Raccoon was perched a top him. He knew well enough her skill, and tried not to struggle.

"Just tell me," she continued after a patient breath, "who is planning to extract the Shukaku from Gaara today, and how if you know, and maybe I won't kill you."

She slowly removed her hand from over his mouth, noting that the normally prissy Councilmember was being strangely compliant. That should've been her second clue. Her first should've been that she needed more sleep before attempting to take this pathetic little weasel.

"I'd rather be fired."

G/M

ANBU uniforms are dark for a reason, but not even the darkest material could hide the fact that Raccoon was covered in blood.

"Rac-Raccoon-san—" A nearby Chuunin paled as the ANBU marched through the chaotic tower, her aura giving off killing vibes that kept even the most seasoned Jounin far from her path.

"Raccoon!" Temari and Kankuro clad in Sandstorm gear stopped in front of her, eyeing her with thinly veiled interest.

"You're going to round up the participants, right? Go, I'll take care of this." She dismissed shortly, an added wave punctuating her statement.

"But—" Temari started with a furrowed brow, a tinge of concern in her eyes as she surveyed Raccoon.

"You can't waste time, and neither can I—go."

Raccoon speed-walked to Gaara's office once they'd cleared out, cursing when she got on top of room, only to sense that Gaara was definitely not inside. She shoved past the two guards standing post and practically threw the door off of its hinges with her force. She rounded the desk in record time to find small piles of sand collecting underneath Gaara's body.

"Idiots!" She shouted at the guards, who gaped as the sand clone dissolved in one punch from Raccoon.

"Raccoon-san, where are you—"

She spun to the guards who jumped back at her pointed finger. "You two make yourself at least partially useful and have the tower searched. I will search the desert."

"But—" They looked back and forth from a nearby window, being pelted by a whirlwind of sand, to the blood covered, tense ANBU Captain, before deciding that if she wanted to brave a sandstorm, more power to her.

"Yes ma'am."

G/M

Despite being magical, even Raccoon couldn't just run through a sandstorm like it was nothing. She had to tread carefully due to a combination of factors: she had to track Gaara, detect and avoid human and nature made traps, avoid participating teams, and track Fugi.

At one point though, she had to stop in between where she sensed Gaara and where she sensed Fugi to rest, because at the point she was now, she wouldn't be able to handle an all-out battle between someone who could supposedly extract Biju.

Thankfully, who'd have thought she'd be saying that in this situation, the sandstorm was going to be another hour before passing over her approximate location. That gave her enough time to go into meditative state to regain some of her energy while still keeping tabs on Gaara and Fugi.

She noted leather, metal and fireworks on the edge of her senses—Team Gai. They didn't seem to be moving, but that wasn't in a necessarily concerning way. She doubted Lee at the very least would be popping and sparking like a contained firecracker if they were in trouble otherwise.

As soon as the dust settled Raccoon stalked through the desert, not even bothering hiding her presence in the quiet, the only sound being sand slinking around her feet. Fugi wasn't moving, proving to her that he had to have been the cause of this sandstorm, or its facilitator. But it was strange to her that he was quite some distance from Gaara—what exactly was he waiting for?

She felt out around Gaara, sensing Matsuri's familiar marble-like presence, because she was terribly transparent but pure and childlike obviously, as well as her teams'. Maybe he was waiting for Matsuri and her team to clear out from Gaara? He didn't want them getting caught in the crossfire? How sweet for a would-be murderer.

She dropped the sensory perception to shift into concealing her own presence as she snuck up to Fugi, who was sitting atop a higher mountainous like structure that overlooked the desert and gave a great outlook at the setting sun. Again, murderers had a penchant for the aesthetics of nature, they're just like you and me kids!

It would be stupidly easy for Raccoon to kill him—she wouldn't even have to touch him honestly if she didn't want to, but part of her really, really, wanted to rip his heart from his chest and add to the collection of bloodstains on her uniform.

But, just like earlier, Gaara's disapproval made her pause. The desperation in which he was throwing himself into this enterprise proved to her that he was willing to change the minds of the villagers one way or another, even if she didn't approve of it. If she killed Fugi herself all she'd be showing others was that Gaara wouldn't hesitate to silence anyone who opposed him; that he didn't need to get his hands dirty, he had the government behind him now to do that for him.

She gave an audible groan, presence sensed be damned and tackled Fugi down onto his stomach in the next moment.

"Just because I can't kill you," she seethed as she wove chakra string and two kunai into an elaborate trap that had Fugi's ankles and wrists bound in an almost uncomfortable bow in his back, "doesn't mean I'm going to let you do whatever you want." The statement was more for herself than it was for Fugi.

"The Right Hand." He grunted, while still somehow remaining impassive looking, though he strained against his bindings. "You've hogtied me so your master can come and kill me himself?"

Raccoon twitched at the far too appropriate term, but hid it quickly. "No, I'm tying you up so my Kage can," she couldn't believe she was about to let this fall from her mouth, "talk to you." She spit.

"I don't need you escaping before Gaara-sama can get the answers he needs from you." She finished.

He snorted, still delicately, before averting his eyes. "It will come to the same thing, he is a danger to the village."

Raccoon groaned and paced around Fugi, fingertips rubbing together in thought behind her back as she regarded the bound man.

"So you're willing to die on the idea of this now baseless belief?" She snorted, throwing her hands up when he continued to avert his gaze in boredom.

"I'm not good at getting through to assholes." She mumbled under her breath. "And frankly I don't have time." She kneeled down to the bound man. "You're obviously not the intended murderer here, so who do you have doing your dirty work?"

"You cannot threaten me with death when it is an end I have accepted." The ANBU Captain rubbed her temples, knowing that no form of torture was going to get him to crack, and that she didn't have to energy to extract the information and possibly save Gaara from having the Shukaku extracted.

"You claim to be doing this for your country, but you ignore all of the good Gaara has done for this country in the span of a few short months, not counting what he pioneered before he even became Kazekage. Why are you so willing to plunge your country back into turmoil because of your beliefs? Because of your prejudices?" She tugged her hair and took a slow breath, finding herself getting far too worked up over this and itching to solve this the way she normally would—her fist, in his face, possibly repeatedly.

"As long as he possesses the Shukaku inside of him he is a threat to this nation, I am simply doing what I must."

Fugi was suddenly hoisted up by his collar, oops, throwing his spine into a further excruciating curve as Raccoon hissed at him. "You made him that way!" She roared, shaking him for emphasis and relishing, only slightly, the way he flinched as the strings cut into his skin. "Do you know he purposely put himself in the trajectory of your plot, not knowing anything about it, just so he could get a chance to speak with you?! To convince you with words that he is working to be a better person because you won't believe in his actions?" She dropped him, tired. "If you want to help your country so fucking much, why don't you start for taking responsibility for the part you played in Gaara's downfall! At least my "master" as you call him," she snorted around her air quotes, "is trying to change. You're too busy being stuck in the past to even make any progress for this land."

She huffed, feeling as if she'd run an emotional marathon as the weathered man stared up at her in his uncomfortable position. Just when she was starting to calm, to reel herself back from taking gulping breaths through her rage, a scream ripped itself through her unbidden.

The ghost like pain radiated from her abdomen and she pressed on it so hard as she bent at the waist that the pain was dull in comparison after a few moments.

"You…what the fuck is this?" She spit, ignoring his answer, which wasn't anything more than wider eyes and a lower jaw, and instead reached out beyond the pain to find Gaara.

Marbles, balloons and antiseptic spray—Matsuri's team, Gaara's sparkler with a bleeding background, and bladed feathers—the assailant obviously.

She took off, Fugi escaping be damned, as fast as she could in their direction, cursing as the phantom pains kept spiking through her and slowing her down. 'Just hang on Gaara I'm coming, you can't die while we're in the middle of a dumb argument!'

G/M

Raccoon breathed out a sigh of relief as she felt Gai's team arrive on the scene, having had to literally pause mid stride earlier when Fuu joined the fray and got herself into a bind as well. Gaara would have to beg, she decided as she saw a giant green cocoon in the distance, for her not to kill this attempted assassin. She arrived upon the scene to Lee, Matsuri and Fuu's nameless teammates attempting an attack from behind while Neji attempted to breach the cocoon. She didn't know what sort of power this man had, so she whipped out her crescent scythe mid stride and launched it to his front, hoping that at least one of the five attacks would hit. She groaned when it didn't, bouncing off of the sudden shield the man erected around him and sailing into the air to embed itself into the ground below.

"Raccoon-san!" Matsuri exclaimed as the ANBU leaped up onto the ledge and to the right of her foe. He was clearly frustrated, playing his lute at a faster rate, but the cocoon erected around them seemed to slowing the progression of chakra, the pain still present but lighter somehow.

Raccoon stalked around the man and to the others, Lee recognizing her at once as well and giving a thumbs up. The ANBU didn't even regard the two strangers, instead turning the Gaara's student.

"Matsuri." She murmured and nodded to Lee.

"Raccoon-san, what should we do—those men are—" the girl choked on her sentence, looking frustrated between the cocoon and lute-playing man.

"The Hyuga is inside of there?" She clarified, looking to Lee who nodded quickly.

"Then we do nothing." Raccoon grunted, though her tensed posture was screaming that she hated it just as much.

"B-but—" Matsuri started to protest.

"This is a precarious situation, Matsuri-chan." The ANBU intoned, carefully monitoring the Jinchurikis' statuses inside the cocoon. "We make one wrong move and we could jeopardize Neji's plan for rescue."

"But the chains—" Matsuri started to protest, fists clenched in front of her in anger.

"They're paused." Raccoon offered up calmly. "The Cocoon is keeping them at bay, and his primary target is to extract the Biju, he won't take his attention off that goal."

Matsuri huffed. "How can you be so calm about this, this is Gaara-sama, we have to do something!"

Lee tried to pacify the angry genin by exclaiming that they could trust Neji, as he was brilliant, and if the man's chakra was split between defending from their attacks, he couldn't focus as much energy on the extraction.

"Still—" Raccoon heard the waver in Matsuri's voice and turned to her sharply.

"That's enough." She droned. "You think this isn't hard for anyone else? Lee has a history with Gaara-sama as well as the two of us, but squabbling amongst each other will solve nothing. We will trust in Neji to carry out his plan and we will not jeopardize it, that's an order."

Matsuri snapped her mouth shut and bowed shallowly at the waist. "I'm sorry, I understand." The girl gnawed on her lip as she eyed the cocoon hard, as if glaring at it would give her the sight inside she needed. "I'm just so worried."

Raccoon grunted out a breath involuntarily as she felt the pressure release around her abdomen, silently thanking the heavens that Neji Hyuga was punched in the face by Naruto hard enough to knock compassion into his body.

The chains withered in the air, the barrier still erected and the assailant looking flustered. The chains changed into some sort of black looking ink substance and wound themselves around the enemy and sent him tumbling down the side of the rocky hill.

Making good on her promise, Raccoon leaped down and landed near the flailing assassin, handing twitching beside her body to call her blade from the sand, where it came soaring. Her sight was locked on the panicking assassin who now was attempting to crawl away from her as her hand came to point with two fingers straight between his eyes.

She wondered fleetingly what he was thinking about as he stared death down in the face. Was he regretting his choices? Was he wishing for mercy? It's too bad Raccoon had run out of mercy for the day.

"Raccoon!" Was barked behind her and the blade stopped in its path at the twitch of her hand, hovering hardly a centimeter away from impaling him straight through the head.

"Don't." Gaara's frosty voice hissed behind her, sand snapping inches away from her stilled wrist.

Raccoon considered doing it anyway for a second, knowing that it would make her feel immensely better, knowing that it was what she wired to do anyway—scum didn't just get away with threatening her masters without paying some sort of price. He wasn't any more special than all the other assassins she'd slain to protect Gaara. So he'd be mad. He'd get over it.

Then she'd twitched her head to look at him to tell him as much and saw a face so openly furious that she lost the ability to breathe for a moment. Everyone else, she noticed, was looking at her warily—and even Matsuri, as much as she loved Gaara, didn't look like she'd back Raccoon up should she decide to kill him. Also, she cast a glance at the still snapping sand, knowing that as soon as it touched her it would go limp—and possibly give away her real identity. She wasn't prepared to explain herself in front of eight other people, so she retracted the blade. She saw everyone only visibly deflate when it was strapped back onto her back.

It took Gaara far too long to unlock his jaw, but when he did he approached the assassin to take a look at how his own jutsu was strangling him, Neji on his heels. Raccoon, though it was childish, moved to the very back of the group, content to simply let the man die of his own cowardice. She wasn't, however, surprised when it turned out to be an issue Neji could fix.

Pleasantries were exchanged, with Raccoon hovering at the side of the group boring holes into Gaara's face. Now that one assassin had been taken care of, there was still the issue of the mastermind. She slowly approached Gaara, in time to hear Fuu exclaiming something about knowing someone was going to come and rescue them to Gaara, who only gave her a wane smile in response.

When Fuu attached herself to someone else—Neji, poor guy—Raccoon slipped beside Gaara who barely gave her a glance. She stopped herself from scoffing, not wanting to initiate any more tension in front of the others—they didn't need to know how much friction was actually between Gaara and his Right Hand.

"I have something to show you." She whispered gruffly, directing her mask to his eyes when they regarded her coolly.

"He," she nodded her head to the still recovering lute-playing priest, "was contracted by the true organizer of this plot."

"And you just tell me this now—" he cut his own self off, "you didn't—"

"No. But you'd better hurry or he may get loose." She groused as his eyes met hers—guarded and untrusting. She grit her teeth, but whipped away to start back where she'd came from.

She heard Gaara make up some excuse behind her, as well as one for her behavior. She didn't bother trying to eavesdrop on any comments made about her, or the goodbyes exchanged.

Gaara caught her elbow once they were a good 3 kilometers away. His grip wasn't bruising, but firm, but nothing was firmer than his eyes on the side of her face.

"What?" She asked, not even bothering to resist his hold in anyway, all defiance had seeped out of her to be replaced with relief.

"You didn't really—"

"No." It was hardly a snap. "I cared more about the fact that you were dying." She chuckled weakly.

They stood there under the burning sun for what felt like too long, the longer Gaara seeming to study her, the more her strength seemed to leave her—though that wasn't quite it. She was just tired of fighting with him honestly, it was draining, it made her feel like shit, made her hate herself in new ways she didn't need.

"I'll go back to the tower." His grip loosened around her elbow, but still his fingertips feather touched her skin.

She looked at him, eyebrows furrowed behind the porcelain barrier. "What about—"

"I'll go back to the tower and…you and a sand clone will go talk to the leader—"

"Fugi." She offered at his pause.

He frowned. "Okay?"

She realized that the tentative hopeful look on his face was compromise. He was promising not to put himself in more danger today. It certainly didn't make up for the fact that he'd worried her half to death and purposely put himself in harm's way—but it was a step, and she wasn't going to argue against progress.

"Okay."

G/M

It was well into the night by the time Gaara and Raccoon were alone again. After Gaara's sand clone had made his declaration to Fugi—although Raccoon shifted her stance threateningly when it wasn't looking at the offer for Fugi to behead him—they'd then had to deal with the fallout. Raccoon still had to give a report on what she'd learned from Himura ("You didn't kill him did you?" And the only reason Raccoon hadn't glared was because it came from Kankuro and not Gaara) which was that Fugi wasn't the only attempted assassin with a plan for Gaara's head. Then they'd had to go straight into a meeting with the Leaf for them to debrief about what they'd learned from Kakashi and Tsunade and their attempt to gather intelligence on Rain, as well as vaguely explain why they suddenly had to stop the exams. Then they'd had to make the announcement of cancelling the exams to the participants.

By the time they'd compiled succinct and accurate reports on the participant's progress during the exams the moon was high in the sky and staring expectantly at the backs of the Kage and his Right Hand, gnawing away at their stubborn need to be right.

"I'm sorry." They both blurted out simultaneously.

They spun to each other with twin looks of confusion, well as far as Gaara knew Raccoon's stance was confusion.

"Why are you apologizing?" Gaara asked first, looking too cute with a wrinkle in his forehead as he stared her down.

She sighed heavily and leaned her back against the nearest wall, though she still had her body angled to face Gaara. "I…realized that I was playing "Judge, Jury and Executioner" and…" she tugged at her fingers since she couldn't really tug at her hair, "that isn't my place." She paused. "And, executing the dissenters wasn't going to help you in the long run. They'd simply think you were controlling the government to settle scores for you, even if it's warranted." She whispered the last part, but this time Gaara's snort was of amusement instead of annoyance.

He looked at her softly, thoughtfully, and her heart ached so badly at having missed that for so long.

"I'm sorry too, for…putting you through all that trouble." His face pinched in regret and Raccoon sighed, only barely holding back her exasperation. Apparently not enough though, as Gaara looked up at her determinedly.

"And I don't mean making you chase me through the desert, or tracking down the dissenters—although thank you!" He suddenly exclaimed, looking up wide eyed. "For that I mean, for going out of your way to…" he hesitated again, and Raccoon's sleep-addled brain finally caught on—Gaara was nervous. He clearly had no idea what to say and was struggling to find the words, which is why he was flipping so rapidly between gratitude, sorrow, regret, determination…

He cleared his throat. "What I mean to say is," he tried to appear taller by sitting up in his chair, but Raccoon had already read him thoroughly and simply cocked her head—making him fall back into a flustered state all over again. "I mean to say, for not thinking of others…specifically you!" He blinked rapidly in the silence, and then rushed to fill it when he realized the impression that statement could leave. "And Temari and Kankuro. Yes." He nodded, clearing his throat a few more times before settling back in his chair.

Once he was through with his tirade, Raccoon softly accepted his apology. "As long as you include us in your endeavors from now on—we're a team, always remember that."

Gaara nodded, hesitantly, seeming to think better of whatever counter was lying on his tongue. "As long as you…and my siblings," he added quickly, "trust me to do what I think is best without interfering—" he felt her narrowing her eyes, "unless my life is at stake." He breathed out softly.

The ANBU unprofessionally stuck out her pinky to her leader, who looked at it in wonder. She wiggled it in his face impatiently, giggling when he finally brought his own up into the air. "Promise?"

He linked their pinkies, face taking on a light blush as she twisted her thumb to be face up and guided him with her other hand to do the same, feeling like she was silently laughing at his ignorance, but still:

"I promise."

He felt the peace filling him up once again.

GMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMG

Whelp, that took way too long . I hope you enjoyed it! I'm going to sleep for like 24 hours *insert upside down smiley*

Also, you have no idea how badly I wanted Raccoon to think: 'Just hold on Gaara, I can't have you dying mad.' XD

Anyway, I'm a nerd, see you next time!

Someone' .Acronym