Editing! Gaara's Dream (new chapter added!)

(A/N: extremly WORK IN PROGRESS, but i have pretty much thought up the ideas for the whole story, unlike my previous story which isnt as quite well planned as this one. The reason for this? i absolutely love gaara, and ive thought up many many many ideas for this story because i love writing about his character so much. I will continue to update A Shinobi's Life as i write this story, so any people who wish for more chapters there, just check in every once in a while. i'd like to appologize to anyone who has been waiting, i stopped having internet for a while so was unable to review, edit, or update my stories :) Now, for the actual gaara story. no sexuality in this story yet, and im not sure when it will begin, however, in the next chapter there may or may not be major sexual tension.)


"Kazekage-sama! Kazekage-sama, we have a...little problem."

Gaara looked at the man in front of him sardonically. The hardened jounin gulped, though the look was nowhere near as murderous as Gaara's looks had been in the past. "What is it? Is Suna so weak that every "little" problem requires my attention?"

The ninja in front of him swallowed hard before attempting to reply. "Kazekage-sama, a Leaf ninja is here...she claims she is a diplomatic representative, but she carries no papers on her. We tried to apprehend her, but she overpowered her guards..."

Gaara looked almost amused. "A single kunoichi overpowered Sand guards? How many?"

The man looked embarrassed. "Ten, Kazekage-sama. She was last seen heading towards the Kazekage mansion, so we decided to try to get here first in case you needed protection...."

Gaara snorted. "I have no need for protection. Shukaku does that quite well."

The man blanched at the mention of the demon's name, glancing around almost as though the demon would hear his host and break loose to wreak havoc.

"I'm sorry, I'd left my papers at home, and decided it just wouldn't do to keep my new friends waiting."

Though Gaara had heard her approach, the jounin was almost completely surprised, and he spun around to look at her, immediately taking out a few kunai and stepping in front of his Kazekage protectively. The kunoichi grinned ruefully, then, to the obvious annoyance of the jounin, chose to ignore him and focused her attention on Gaara.

"Kazekage-sama, I'm Yurashi Serena. I'm the representative that you requested from Konoha. To help show the shinobi nations that the bond between Konoha and Suna is even stronger than before the war?"

Gaara nodded, staring at her intensely, but saying nothing. The jounin coughed, breaking Serena's concentration on Gaara. She turned her attention to him amusingly, glancing at his still ready battle stance and chuckling softly. "Hai?"

He cleared his throat and put his weapons away, obviously embarrassed at his lack of hospitality. "Welcome to Suna, Yurashi-san. I apologize."

Gaara nodded his head towards the door soon after, and the jounin left. Gaara waited a moment before sitting behind the desk. "Do you have any questions?" He held her eyes, staring at her unflinchingly.

She nodded, smiling at him brilliantly despite the intense stares and the disconcerting feelings they inspired. "The mission briefing didn't really tell me exactly what my duties would be here, so I was hoping that maybe one of your advisors, or one of your shinobi not scheduled for duty in the immediate future, would explain what was expected of me in more detail."

He watched her intensely. Gaara was human, despite many being unwilling to admit it. He still had wants, and needs, even feelings. He ate, he desired, he even slept once in a while, though never for long, and never before taking the proper precautions. He had learned control since the fight with Naruto, and he controlled his feelings with cold hearted precision. He still had such feelings, but they were hardly ever shown. Good Sand Shinobi that Gaara was, his emotions were buried quite frequently. He hadn't even admitted to himself that he needed companionship, but when Serena walked through the door, he realized in that moment that more than anything, a friend would be one of the most precious things he'd ever have a chance to have.

Clearing his throat, Gaara picked up a file on his desk and handed it to her, opening one of his own files with an air of dismissal.


During the weeks that followed, Serena couldn't decide exactly how to feel about Gaara. Serena had her own insomnia problems, and in her frequent trips to the kitchens late at night, she ran into Gaara quite often. Occasionally they would talk, sometimes about official matters, but sometimes she would talk about her family back home in Konoha, and others they would discuss training, or the mundane and boring duties they had, which included piles and piles of paperwork, which they both hated. They both took incredible care to stay away from in depth discussions of their home village. As much as they'd like to trust the other, it just wouldn't do to reveal their village's secrets.

Her conflict with him didn't stem from the distrust, ninjas were quite used to caution and distrust. She did, however, have trouble understanding his behavior. He didn't talk nearly as much as she did, usually choosing to watch her silently, though when asked he was quite willing to share his opinion. Sometimes he would talk to her for hours, just to dismiss her with a silent look when he felt the conversation should end.

She had learned to read his reactions pretty well in the weeks since she'd met him, but Gaara was unpredictable at best. However, unlike most people that met him, Serena didn't look at Gaara with even a single trace of fear.

She thought of her talk with Tsunade before the mission quite often, but she found herself disagreeing with the Hokage's warnings quite frequently.

'Don't address him informally, Do not mention Shukaku in his presence, Don't touch the Kazekage, or startle him, and for Kami's sake Serena, don't lose your temper and challenge him to a duel.'

She was beginning to think that almost every piece of advice Tsunade had given her was best to be ignored. Despite many warnings about Gaara's unpredictable, dangerous behavior and out of control violence, she had yet to see Gaara lose control in any circumstance, situation, or manner. She personally thought that while he was sometimes hard to read, or understand, he didn’t seem to lose control in many situations. She had been in Suna for four weeks, and he hadn't been violent to anyone, even during a situation where she herself had lost her temper.

It had been two days ago, they had been in Gaara's office discussing a meeting they had both attended, when the voice of a villager was heard through the open window.

"I for one don't trust the new Kazekage, the only thing he would protect is himself. It's like handing the title right over to Shukaku...and asking him 'oh demon, please kill us all.' How anyone would think you could count on the demon of Suna, Sabaku no Gaara..."

When Serena heard the sand villager talking about Gaara, she saw red, but Gaara just sadly closed the window. But that wasn't enough for Serena. Opening the window again, Serena looked down on the scene three stories below. Then, steeling herself for a decent, Serena jumped, running down the wall and landing in a crouch in front of the offending villager. Before his eyes could register her appearance, she was already behind him, holding a kunai to his vital organs from the back.

"Before you speak, you should do some research on the topic. I'd hate to have to kill villagers on a peace mission." Then, louder, she spoke to the villagers around him. "If anyone has anything to say about Sabaku no Gaara, take it up with me first, because if I hear another one of you talk about him badly, you'll the demon of KONOHA to deal with." She turned away, towards the Kazekage mansion again, but swiftly turned back. "Oh, and one more thing...." Putting the full weight of her body, the momentum of her turn, and a fair amount of chakra into her arm, Serena elbowed the villager who had been talking in the jaw, knocking him out cleanly and propelling his body a few feet more than was necessary.

There was an angry roar from the crowd, and Serena was just getting into the mood for a brawl when she heard a voice that shut everyone up.

"You shouldn't do anything stupid to the Konoha representative; it might get a bit...dangerous." Serena looked up at the calm figure of Gaara, arms crossed, expressionless but for a single drip of sand coming from his gourd, making it clear that he was NOT joking.

When Serena and Gaara were back in his office, Gaara attempted to explain why he didn't do anything to make the villagers stop hating him. "It's not their fault...I used to act like the demon they see me as..." Pausing briefly, Gaara thought about how nice it was to see someone sticking up for him. "Serena...thank you."

Serena smiled softly. "Anytime Gaara, they don't respect you as much as you deserve. Bakas, they should know not to badmouth the Kazekage right outside his window."

***

She closed her eyes, trying to make sense of her life in Suna, trying to think her way through her confusion, but she failed miserably.

More than any of the feelings that were confusing her, the mix of desire and frustration, added to the strong friendship that had transpired, affected her the strongest. She hadn't expected to have such a strong reaction to anyone, let alone the Kazekage, who she was supposed to respect from afar, not become intimately involved with. As a sensible shinobi, she knew Gaara was a man who she had little to no chance with, despite how she, or even he, might feel about the subject.

Gaara was affected just as strongly. He looked forward to the late night talks like a boy looking forward to Christmas. He hadn't talked much about himself, despite her willingness to listen. He was worried that he would scare her away, and he couldn’t bring himself to take that risk. Gaara was used to fear, the fear of assassination when he was young, the fear of the villagers and the people he had killed, and the fear that he wouldn’t be able to protect the village now. But in the later weeks, when he and Serena had gotten closer and closer, Gaara's worst problem was the fear that she would turn him away when she heard some of his more twisted secrets.

He had grown used to her presence, her support and encouragement. The thought of being without companionship, something he had been without for far too long, was enough to steal his breath away in a moment of heart wrenching terror. Despite his outward appearance, showing no sign of fear, or most emotions for that matter, Gaara could feel all of them. Happiness, fear, sorrow...he wasn't able to completely shut them away. The best he could do, like most shinobi, was bury it beneath the surface.

***

(A/N: Thank you for reading, and please review!)