A Virgin Kiss

Chapter 36: The Months

It took Neji a week to figure out why Gaara seemed to have suddenly developed a masochistic edge. During a visit to Suna’s hospital, Rin, one of the medical ninjas, had mentioned an odd case of a ninja from another part of Wind country who was coming in the next day for a consultation. The nin in question seemed to have lost the ability to control chakra on the right side of his body—a problem since it was impossible to walk up vertical surfaces or walk on water without control of the chakra in both feet. The medics in Suna had been studying the case file and weren’t sure they could help. Rin asked Neji, who could see tenketsu, to look over a copy of the file and come in the next morning to see if perhaps something was blocking the nin’s chakra points.

That night Neji told Gaara he would be staying up all night going over the files. When Gaara coaxed Neji into taking a break for some sex at one point, he showed no interest in anything painful. The Kazekage was happy to stay up with Neji and spent the night watching him work, fetching him drinks, rubbing his shoulders, and listening to anything Neji cared to say. The Hyuuga hadn’t realized how alert Gaara was every night—it became clear the redhead was spending his nights haunted by worries, fears, and doubts. The mild pain of the spankings and bites made Gaara focus on his body, not his fears, and in a weird way made Gaara feel he was still being touched, being loved by Neji since he could still feel what his lover had done to him when they had last had sex.

While Neji wasn’t averse to introducing a little kinkiness into their sex life, he was not interested in playing the sadist or dominant every night. In addition, he just didn’t think it was good for his lover in the long run. A nocturnal animal that could use some attention but wouldn’t mind being left alone for many hours, or even days, might distract Gaara at night. A cat was a logical choice; moreover, cats appealed to Neji. He could see similarities between himself and cats, both tending to be aloof, elegant, independent, discriminating, loving with their friends, and deadly to their foes.

So it was that Gaara and Neji came to have a cat, a slim black tom that Neji named Nightwalker. Ostensibly, the cat was Neji’s, but it didn’t take long for the cat to indicate it preferred Gaara. When Neji would wake in the night, Gaara would have Nightwalker on his chest or by his side. In the morning the little toys Neji bought for the cat would have moved position in the night, and the cat brush have gotten full of cat hair again. The litter box would have been cleaned as well although with a master of sand, it was hardly surprising that the “cat sand” was frequently changed.

Playing shogi and go with himself was another way Gaara passed his nights awake. After learning the basics, Gaara practiced and soon was regularly beating Neji, to the point that three weeks into their month, the Hyuuga refused to bet on games any more. Before Neji made the no-more-betting rule, he had been forced to be uke in several weird positions, rim Gaara, wear a skirt during sex, and keep a butt plug in for four hours during a boring formal dinner.

The days flew by, and soon the month was up. It was time to head back to Konoha. The chuunin exam would begin soon, and after it was over, a decision would be made if once more liaisons should be exchanged. Gaara wouldn’t be able to return with Neji, but he would of course be there for the third part of the chuunin exam. To the teenage lovers, a month and a half apart seemed much too long. But they were ninja first, lovers second, and it would have to be endured.

The journey alone back to Konoha was not as bad as Neji had thought. He missed Gaara, he missed the sex, but he’d forgotten how much he loved the danger of missions, the camping out, the reality of having to deal with dangerous animals and more dangerous men. Training never gave you the same high as the real thing. Moreover, as close as Neji had gotten to Gaara, he had spent more years of his life with his teammates and friends. He’d missed Lee, TenTen, and Gai. He missed seeing friendly faces he knew. He missed the respect that he was given in Konoha as a Hyuuga. He also missed—it sounds silly—trees and rain.

The suspicion and even hostility Neji had endured in Suna, the dry air that made his hair brittle and dull, the boring diplomatic meetings and frequent reports that his role as a liaison required: all these would not be missed. In fact, for the first three weeks back, Neji hardly missed Gaara at all. At first almost every night someone took Neji out to welcome him back and of course pump him for information on his trip and boyfriend. He was back doing missions and training with Team Gai. And just when people were starting to take Neji’s presences for granted again and he was growing a little lonely, Naruto came home, which inspired another series of social events.

But by week four, Neji was eagerly looking forward to Gaara’s arrival in a little over two weeks. His bed seemed awful empty without Gaara and Nightwalker in it, and his cock wasn’t very satisfied with just his hand any more. But more than that, Neji found himself missing Gaara whenever he saw anything red or green. He would see red curls against white skin or remember deep green eyes rimmed with dark black. Eating meals reminded him of how Gaara would tease him at the table, and seeing any cat reminded him of the sight of the powerful Kazekage naked with a swirl of black fur curled on his chest. The sight of go pieces or a shogi board got him hard. Taking a shower reminded him of shower sex while flames reminded him of the night they’d sixty-nined by the light of the campfire.

When Gaara arrived, Neji wanted to spend every minute of his visit with him. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to sit together to watch the final matches of the chuunin exam since Tsunade and the other head ninjas attending always sat together isolated from everyone else. But they could of course attend the festival together, and Gaara was arriving a few days before the festival so that they could have some alone time.

The night before Gaara was due to arrive, Neji found himself unable to sleep, pacing in his room in the Hyuuga compound. He wasn’t worried about having sex with Gaara after being separated for a month and a half. He wasn’t worried about how Gaara and he would get along during the Kazekage’s visit. But he was dreading any discussion of what came after the visit. Leaving Gaara out of the equation, Neji preferred Konoha to Suna. Did he want to return again as a liaison? And if he didn’t, did it really matter—if Gaara and Tsunade wanted him to go, could he say no? If his clan didn’t want him to go and protested, could he go? Surely they would make him come back someday.

Suddenly, getting involved with Gaara seemed a remarkably dumb thing to have done—he had been thinking with his dick. Even though the relationship was still going well, what would happen when they had their first fight? Would he end up in a desert coffin? What if he did want to stay with Gaara, would his clan invoke the curse seal and force him back? Would Gaara fight for him? What would happen to the alliance between Fire and Wind?

Feeling claustrophobic, Neji moved out to the courtyard. He paced and stared at the stars. But when the dawn’s light began to spread in the east, he had no answers.