Lover In Training

It was 1 o'clock in the afternoon in the city of Konoha, a time of day that could only mean one thing...

"ONE MISO PORK RAMEN!"

Yes, that's right. It was feeding time for a certain rambunctious blond ninja who was taking time out of his hectic training schedule to eat some well-deserved lunch. The final part of the Chuunin exams was tomorrow, and he had to make sure he put everything into his training, to make sure that he passed this time. He was, after all, the only one from the rookie 9 that was still a genin. Something that the others never let him forget. But that wouldn't matter forever. Yup, one day he'd become the Hokage of the village, and everyone else wouldn't be able to say a thing about him still being a genin. Nope, no way, no how.

"Another, old man!" Naruto shouted as he quickly polished off the first bowl, not even bothering to turn around when he felt a familiar chakra slowly approach him.

Just as the figure stopped and sat down beside the blond, Naruto's second bowl of his beloved ramen appeared before his eyes and he quickly started downing the hot noodles, glancing to his right to see Gaara sitting there with a slightly contemplative look on his face. Naruto just shrugged it off, however, and continued to eat his ramen, figuring that if Gaara really wanted to say something, he would, despite the fact that the red head rarely ever began conversations on his own.
Which was something Naruto had noticed many times from Gaara. The red head clearly chose to express himself through actions, however slight they were, rather than actually speaking. Though, if prompted into a conversation that he couldn't get out of, the red head could talk just as much as a normal person, only a bit more awkwardly. Still, Naruto always found it interesting whenever Gaara would speak more than ten words at a time. It was a rare sight, but that only piqued Naruto's curiosity even further. The red head was full of secrets, and Naruto wanted to pick at them until he knew all of them, despite the fact that he was rarely this interested in other people.

With one last slurp from the large bowl, Naruto set down the porcelain and let out a contented sigh, finally turning to look at Gaara with lips slightly pursed in thought. "Ne, Gaara. I know you don't like ramen, even though I think you're stark raving mad for that, so is there something you want from me?"

Gaara blinked quickly and spun his head around to look at Naruto, his face remaining mostly stoic, though a bit of surprise showed through. He'd been lost in thought and had barely realized when the blond had finished the ramen. Not to mention, he'd expected Naruto to eat at least a few more bowls considering how much he loved the stuff.
Remaining true to his silent nature, Gaara simply nodded, then glanced around them, hoping that Naruto really wasn't expecting him to talk about something in front of all these....people. He felt awkward enough as it was, he didn't need anything else to add to his nerves. Wait....nerves? That was a rarity. There was no way that Sabaku no Gaara, Kazekage of the Sand was nervous. Right?

Seeming to understand the gesture with ease, Naruto nodded and paid the man behind the counter, standing up swiftly. "Alright, let's go to the training grounds, then. It okay with you if I train while you talk?"

Silently nodding once more, Gaara stood up and followed Naruto to the training grounds, his eyes focused on the ground in front of him, watching as his feet came into view and disappeared again, over and over until his eyes started going fuzzy from the repetitiveness of it. He felt a tingly little feeling in his chest and blinked wide eyes, mind rapidly going through the different emotions until he figured out what it was. He still wasn't entirely used to these strange feelings that had begun to stir inside of him, and it was beginning to unsettle him. First, he was nervous, and now it seemed he was almost...anxious? What was with him lately? He wasn't entirely sure of what was going on lately, but somehow he knew it had something to do with the blond walking in front of him, and he wanted to find out what exactly was happening, soon.

*****

"You okay?" Naruto asked as he looked at Gaara curiously, a worried frown on his lips. He couldn't figure it out exactly, but he could tell something was wrong. Gaara had been refusing to look at him since they left the ramen shop, and although that was mostly normal for the red-head, it wasn't normal for him to be staring at the ground the entire time, as if purposely keeping his eyes locked on something else. Gaara had a tendancy to want to face things head-on, so the fact that he seemed to be avoiding something at all was strange in itself. "You wanted to talk, right? You want me to look away or something? I mean, if it's something embarassing..." Naruto trailed off, clapping a hand on Gaara's shoulder, which just caused the boy to tense up completely. "Ne, Gaara, talk to me. What the hell's wrong with you?" Naruto asked, grabbing both of Gaara's shoulders this time and shaking the red head slightly, surprised when he didn't even try to pry away. What was going on??

"Would you...stop shaking me?" Gaara asked, his voice slightly choked as he looked up at Naruto, eyes slightly wary.

"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed, releasing Gaara's shoulders almost instantly and jumping back, eyes wide. "Are you sick or something?"

"Maybe...." Gaara said, his voice lower than normal as he lowered his eyes to the ground again. "My stomach feels funny, kind of tingly. And my chest hurt real bad, like it's being pushed at from the inside. My throat gets kind of tight too, but it's only when I think about---"

"Ah! I got it!" Naruto cut off, grinning from ear to ear. "No need to say any more. Dr. Naruto knows exactly what's wrong with you!"

Gaara blinked in slight surprise at being cut off, but just shut his mouth, looking at Naruto expectantly, knowing that the blond would continue with what he was saying despite being given no reply.

"You have a crush!"

".....Huh?"

"A crush!" Naruto exclaimed, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "It means you like someone! You were gonna say that it only happens when you think of someone, right? Well that means you like them!"

Gaara blinked once. Twice. Then his eyes went wide when he realized exactly what he'd just heard. All of those thing, they meant that he had a crush....that he like NARUTO? No way....that was impossible. Naruto was.....Naruto. And it just....it couldn't be. Right???

Wanting some kind of explanation to the blonds crazy ideas, Gaara lowered his eyes and looked at Naruto with an expression that just dared him to lie and bullshit his way through this. "How do you know?"

"Easy." Naruto shrugged, intertwining his fingers behind his head and grinning one of his trademark Uzumaki grins. "That's the same feeling I get when I think of Sakura-chan."

Gaara blinked slowly and shifted his eyes to the ground, feeling something in his chest tighten. He wasn't sure why, but the hurt it caused now was a thousand times worse than the hurt that'd been there before. It was something he didn't like, in the least.
He looked up at Naruto once more, chewing on his bottom lip and trying to figure whether he wanted to ask his next question or not. But in the end he gave in, figuring that it couldn't hurt. "How do I not like them?"

At that, Naruto let out a sudden burst of laughter, the grin on his face widening until his eyes were no longer visible. "I'm gonna have to teach you everything, aren't I?" Calming himself down until only one last giggle escaped, Naruto reached out and poked Gaara in the chest, catching the red head by total surprise. "You can't just NOT like someone. You have no control over who you like. Which kind of sucks at times, especially when the person you like is in love with someone else." Gaara flinched inwardly at that. "But you have to keep at it. You have to get them to like you, some way or another. Unless you just give up on it, but that's just stupid."

"Then...how..." Gaara mumbled, not entirely sure he wanted to continue on with this conversation. If anything was said that could give him away and let Naruto know, he would die. Well, maybe not, but he got the feeling that he'd be embarrassed out of his skull.

"What? How do you get them to like you?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow and shrugging once Gaara nodded. "It depends on the person. If you like a shy girl, like say....Hinata for example. You gotta be real nice to her and make her trust you before you tell her you like her. Otherwise she'll just get scared and run off." At Gaara's obviously uninterested look, Naruto figured it wasn't a shy girl and went on. "Okay, well....if you like a normal girl like Tenten whose kind of assertive but really nice, you just gotta tell her and things could go either way, really. It depends on her feelings. But if you like someone aggressive....someone like Sakura-chan," Naruto didn't see the glare Gaara gave him at the mention of her name, "then you gotta be more aggressive. She'll never admit it, but she wants someone who'll show her how powerful he is. It's just a matter of getting enough courage to do it." Naruto said, ending it with a slightly embarrassed grin, rubbing the back of his head.

"Assertive...." Gaara mumbled, holding his chin in deep thought, trying to figure out how he would manage to be more aggressive than Naruto, of all people. It seemed almost impossible.

"EH!!!" Gaara's head snapped up, his eyes wide as he quickly ran back the last ten seconds in his head, making sure that he hadn't spoken his name out loud. "You like an aggressive girl?? Who is it? Who, who, who?!" Naruto bounced, eyes sparkling and teeth flashing. He was far too curious for his own good sometimes. "I bet it's that Matsuri girl, isn't it?" The grin only got wider. "Ehhhhh but if you like Sakura-chan, I'll tell you right now, there's no way I'll hand her over to you! Friend or not!"

Gaara's eyes narrowed in a slight glare, feeling the bottom of his stomach heat up in something that resembled anger, but didn't quite match any of the anger he'd felt thus far. "I'll be leaving then." Gaara announced suddenly, turning on his heel and starting off towards the exit of the training grounds. His insides were boiling right now in something akin to rage, but at the same time, entirely different. He wasn't necessarily angry at Naruto, or at any situation in general. It was just the thought of Sakura and Naruto together that got to him and made him want to pummel the girls face into the ground. She'd saved his brother, so he wouldn't do anything, but oh how he wanted to.

"Oy! Wait a minute!" Naruto shouted, waving at Gaara and still grinning like the fool he was. "You're planning to go get your girl the way you are right now?!"

"What?" Gaara asked, entirely confused. He wasn't exactly about to go off and tell Naruto he liked him, seeing as Naruto was right there, but he didn't bother to correct the blond. Instead, he decided to play into it, seeing exactly what it would get him. "Why?"

"I TOLD YOU!" Naruto sighed exasperatedly, then ran the rest of the distance that Gaara had put between them in his fit of jealousy, a reprimanding look on his features. "There's no way you're gonna get a girl the way you are now, especially since you like an aggressive girl. I told you what you have to do to get her, remember?"

Gaara's eyebrows lowered, his face taking on a serious expression. As if he could forget. "Be more aggressive."

"Yeah, you know what to do. But do you know HOW to do it?"

Blinking his eyes a few times, Gaara frowned as he realized that no, he had absolutely no idea. He was new to this entire thing. So, instead of playing proud like most would do, he shook his head, not looking at Naruto any more.

"Alright, I get it. I'll help you out. You should be damn grateful! I'm not even training today for you!" Naruto yelled, though he obviously wasn't angry about it.

Gaara tilted his head to the side and almost let out a smile, but kept it back and simply nodded, hoping that Naruto would realize his appreciation through that one gesture. He didn't like saying thanks much.

It seemed that Naruto did indeed get it, because a second later he was straightening up and walking towards the exit gate, a grin on his face. Gaara, however, was a little confused. If Naruto was going to teach him, why were they leaving...? He didn't say anything, but his expression clearly showed his confusion, which Naruto seemed to notice when he turned to look at the red head.

"Ah, sorry. I just figure it'd be safer to train you in my place." Naruto laughed, his grin widening at Gaara's clearly baffled expression.

"Safer?"

"Yeah, safer." Naruto nodded, continuing to walk leisurely, hands folded behind his head. "I mean, I'm gonna teach you how to kiss her, right? I don't want someone seeing and thinking we're a bunch of gays."

It took everything in his power to keep his face blank when Gaara heard those words. Did that mean that Naruto, as in the Naruto he liked, was going to kiss him, as in himself? His mind tried to work around that idea, and though he still didn't quite understand it all, the image it produced in his head made something in his chest leap and tighten at the same time, almost causing him to stumble. He caught himself though and forced himself to keep a straight face, though it was proving difficult for maybe the first time in his life.

Still, they continued on the path back to Naruto's place, the blond acting as if this were a normal, every day occurrence, and Gaara, well.....If there was one distinct thought running through his mind among the many others that seemed to be muddling up his brain, it would have had to have been "Holy Shit."