The Definition of Piety

A/N: Thank you once again to all my reviews! I love you guys!

A Plan

It was easier to say that you were going to do something rather than actually come up with a plan of action. Both Neji and Gaara were revered as geniuses, prodigies even, and yet neither boy had the slightest clue of how to actually go about commencing their little declaration to help Sasuke admit his feelings for Naruto.

It would be much simpler if they could just talk to the youngest Uchiha and convince him of what would be the correct choice to make, but Sasuke was too much of a stubborn jackass for that to do any good, and neither Neji nor Gaara thought they had the patience to deal with the high-strung ice prince.

Another option was actually beating their logic into the Uchiha, but that plan had already been dismissed for obvious reasons. Ethics really had nothing to do with it, both boys just really did not want to deal with murder or a heartbroken blonde Jinchuuriki on their hands.

So, for this particular case, though they were loathed to admit it out loud, they were stumped.

Dammit.

The walk back to the Kazekage Suite was made in silence, both boys too lost in their own thoughts to really hold up a decent conversation. The streets were vacant, only adding to the silence in the late night, or rather morning, but neither boy really minded at all. Both had went through years of solitude, whether self imposed or not, so the fact that there was someone there at all was enjoyable in itself.

They reached the Kazekage Suite with no real registration, and they nodded their heads towards each other in a silent goodnight, before Gaara reached to open the door. He paused at the handle and turned around to face the other shinobi.

“Thank you for dinner. It was enjoyable.” The sentence held no real emotion, but Neji could hear the sincerity in it nevertheless. Gaara was not one for expressing his feelings or showing his gratitude over simple matters, but neither was Neji, so for him it was enough.

A small smile graced his lips. “You’re welcome, Kazekage-sama.”

“Gaara.”

“Excuse me?”

“My name is Gaara.” The Kazekage stated flatly. “I don’t desire for you to address me with such an honorific anymore. Call me Gaara.”

Neji looked at the Kazekage in mild shock, before his smile returned once more. “Goodnight, Gaara.”

“Goodnight.” And with that, both boys turned in the opposite direction, one towards his own home and the other into his current living residence.

He made his way to his rather large bed as he sat down with natural grace on the silken sheets. He did not attempt to remove his clothes as he scooted closer to the headboard, in order to take on a more relaxed sitting position. He knew he was not going to get any sleep at all tonight, not that that actually bothered him. Gaara, usually got very little sleep in the first place and when he did it was only because he was more relaxed than usual, so, how could he be expected to get any sleep when he couldn’t stop thinking?

His mind raced with thoughts of what to do about the current situation. Never had he imagined that he would actually be thinking up ways to help Naruto get together with someone else. He had never really believed that Naruto could love him in the way that he loved the blonde idiot, but that didn’t mean that he really wanted to help the man find a deeper relationship with someone who was not him. It was hard to think about the other boy being so intimate with Uchiha Sasuke, but Gaara had long since resigned himself to the fact that if Naruto ever chose to be with anybody, than it would be the Uchiha. Gaara himself had never thought of being with anybody but Naruto and he really couldn’t imagine being with anybody else even now, but he accepted his own defeat.

Yet, did he really want to see Naruto with Sasuke? Furthermore, did he really want to help Naruto be with Sasuke?

It was a tough decision to make, and though he pushed the feeling aside for a more rational one, in the back his mind he could admit that no amount of acceptance could stop the painful tugging in his chest. For so long he had lived without this feeling, this hurt, yet Naruto had been the one to bring it back full force, and no matter how grateful he was, there was still a small part of him that hated to feel like this.

But Naruto was worth it. It had never been a question of that, and like Neji had said, he didn’t want to see the blonde hurt anymore. And if that meant completely destroying even the smallest bit of hope and helping Naruto get together with the very source of his pain, then so be it.

Naruto was definitely worth it.

He was positive Neji felt the same.

But still, how were they supposed to help at all? No matter how much he racked his brain for an idea to help out the Uchiha, the only thing that came to mind were rather disturbing pictures of what he could do to the snooty bastard. The boy almost made Gaara wish to take back is resolution to not kill for the hell of it. But no, that had already been decided that that wouldn’t do at all.

So, what then?

Gaara was leaving soon to return to his duties as the Kazekage of Suna, so what could possible be done when he was separated from the issues by such a long distance?

Then it hit him.

A smirk spread across his lips in the darkness of his room, as he continued to sit, his mind roving over the details of this plan that was forming at a rapid pace inside his head. He waited patiently for the sun to rise and a decent hour to come before he could have a talk with the Godaime Hokage. He hoped she would be agreeable to it all. After all, it would be rather troublesome if he had to wage war on the woman.

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“Excuse me?” Tsunade said with a slight edge of annoyance at having been woken up so early. She rubbed her temple soothingly as she pushed aside an empty sake bottle as if attempting to make her desk look slightly neater in the presence of the Kazekage. Gaara could see the distinct imprint of ink on her forehead where she had fallen asleep on top of her unfinished paperwork. He resisted the urge to shake his head.

“I said that would like to have an escort back to Suna. Three to be exact.” He stated, his tone working to make sure that the woman knew that this was not a request.

Tsunade huffed, obviously not impressed. “We’ve already set up for Inuzuka-”

“Well, I want to change that.” He cut her off abruptly, though his voice was as even as ever.

Tsunade groaned, apparently from her hangover as she continued the vigorous rubbing on her scalp. She was really in no mood to deal with this at the moment. “Fine, who do you want?”

“Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto…and Hyuuga Neji.” Was his calm answer.

“Tch, you’re really shoot high, don’t you, brat?” He decided to ignore the brat comment as she continued on. “All of them have missions coming up soon.”

“Well, get someone else to do them. I’m sure you have other qualified shinobi in your village, am I correct?” He stated smoothly, never breaking the heated stare he had going on with the older woman.

“Yes, but-”

“And I’m sure that it would not be that impertinent of an issue for you to give their assignments to someone else.”

“Listen here-”

“As the Hokage I would assume that it is your duty to make sure that all visitors to your village have their desires met and the optimum protection on their return trip.”

“Brat-”

“As the Kazekage, my village would not look kindly on you if anything were to happen to my well-being because my request was not met.”

By this point the blonde woman was looking quite harassed. “Are you threatening me?” Her golden eyes narrowed as she held the redhead’s gaze.

“Yes.” There was no hesitation.

The woman gave him an incredulous look before rolling her eyes and leaning over the desk to invade Gaara’s personal space. Her massive breasts swung back and forth as she leaned over and braced herself on her arms to balance herself. “Look here, kid, I’ll be damned if I’m going to be intimidated by a brat like you. The answer is still no.” Tsunade finished lowly.

A lesser man would have been cowering in fear by this point, but Gaara just merely let out a small sigh of annoyance. Clearly the threat of war was having no effect on this woman. It was time to pull out his trump card.

“Hokage-sama, I have documents stating that you owe a large sum of money to Suna. I have been looking over this fact for the past couple of years, but-”

Tsuande held up a hand to stop him. Her face was quite red from obvious anger but she looked up at him in acknowledged defeat. “What were those names again…Kazekage-sama”

Gaara had to stop the smirk. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

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Naruto, Sasuke and Neji stood gathered at the gates of Konoha as they watched Gaara approach.

“What’s all this about?” Naruto called to his friend, a huge grin plastered on his face as his arms rested behind his head. Gaara felt his heart clench at that smile, as he finally reached them.

“You are to escort me back to Suna.”

“Hell yeah!” Naruto exclaimed, obviously looking forward to the chance of spending more time with his friend.

Sasuke let out a huff of annoyance before returning to his usual cold mask and letting out a rather redundant, “Hn.”

Neji, on the other hand…Neji was trying to cover up his shock. It didn’t take a genius figure out what was going on here.

“well, lets go.” Sasuke stated rather coldly before he made his way out of the gate, his blonde friend trailing closely behind. Neji and Gaara lagged behind them, creating enough distance for them to speak in low whispers and not be heard.

“What is this all about, Gaara?” Neji immediately questioned, and Gaara found that he rather liked that Neji had no problems saying his name.

“You said that we should help the Uchiha figure things out.”

“Yes, but this?”

“I really didn’t see any other way, I was leaving soon. Besides this is the most rational answer if we want to really spend some time on them.”

“But-”

“Are you backing out, Hyuuga?” There it was, that slight edge of amusement that Gaara had seemed to have reserved for him. Damn the Hyuuga pride.

“Alright then, let’s do this.” Neji said, not even attempting to not sound cocky.

“Hey, will you two catch up!” Naruto yelled, from some distance ahead of them.

“Quiet down, dobe.” Sasuke coldly scolded the other boy.

“Oi, teme!…” the two seemed to begin a heated argument that ended with Naruto throwing a punch, which the Uchiha easily dodged. It seemed this was going to be quite a difficult task indeed if the two boys could not go five minutes without fighting with each other…but still, Naruto was worth it. To see him happy was even more so.

Neji and Gaara exchanged a look as the two other boys began to argue again.

“It’s time for some intervention, Hyuuga.”