Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Tension ❯ Chapter 1

Gaara sat alone on the east wall of Sunagakure, waiting. The air stirred, little dust devils erupting on the ramparts, dancing around him. There would be a storm within the week.

Waiting for a friend.

Footsteps, familiar and self assured, the scuff of sandals on stone.

“ I am sorry I am late, Kazekage-sama.”

“You're not late.” Gaara patted the stone wall beside him, a gesture of invitation. The red head did not need to turn and look to know that the taijutsu master would settle there and smile at him, or the way he'd kick his heels childishly against the wall.

He turned to look because he wanted too.

“I am returning to Konoha tomorrow. There is a mission.”

“ I know.”

Lee had been stationed in Suna well over a year now. The villages shared many of their best jounin in an expression of good will, to strengthen the alliance. Of course these exchanges wound up having to do a lot of running back and forth between the two.

They sat together on the east wall, just a few inches farther apart than was necessary and shared the food Lee had brought in companionable silence.

This time tomorrow Gaara would know the Leafs absence like an ache in his bones.

The sun was setting at their backs, throwing long shadows on the ground and creeping across thick stone walls. It cast their silhouettes before them, long and distorted.

“Tell me about the mission.” Lee chewed thoughtfully and wiped a bit of imaginary rice from his lips.

“ I cannot. It is an S rank. I am not really supposed to say anything.” Gaara shot him an annoyed glance.

“ I'm the Kazekage. I believe my security clearance would allow me to know the details of a mission given to one of the men Tsunade placed under my command.”

“ It probably does.” Lee chuckled. “ But it is a Konoha matter, and I am not allowed to talk about it.” The red head moodily crossed his legs, set on elbow on his knee and his chin in his palm, but stayed quiet.“….I can hear you worrying. Quit it. I will be back alright, and that is a promise!” He flashed another smile that made Gaaras heart skip beats.

“Who said I was worried about you? I'm the Kazekage, I have a lot of things to worry about.” With that he stood and turned his back on the leaf-nin, heading back along the wall towards the center of the village. Lee just kicked his heels against the wall and watched the blue bleed from the sky.

 

 

It wasn't an affair.

It wasn't wrong if they didn't touch.

They were just friends.

 

Friends with tension.

 

It wasn't hard when Lee was gone, not really, Gaara trusted him not to die. It was just sore and slow, the hours, days, weeks, trickling dry and dusty between the pages of requests and mission reports and budgets, restless, bored. It wasn't hard. He didn't worry. Lee would always come back, worn down, beat up and beaming. And even if someday he didn't, it was just sparring in the crevice where the red rock burst high and jagged towards the sun, concealing them, just them, or racing through the opens dunes little furious blurs of motion and sand and thundering chakra tearing holes in the geography. And Lee, moving like music and catching the sun. Too fast for the sand, he'd punch right through close in enough that Gaara could actually feel him; a bandaged fist grazing by his cheek shocking and electric all over. They'd both come away with bruises, Lee would apologize, and Gaara wouldn't know why, exactly, they'd been sparring after all.

 

And even when someday he didn't make it back, he wouldn't be anywhere where Gaara couldn't follow.

 

But Lee did come back this time, with a broken arm that he refused to rest, but alive was alive, and Gaara wasn't complaining. They sat up late together in Gaaras office. Sometimes they talked, sometimes they didn't, and they fell without seam into their usual familiar rhythm, their own low resonance that Gaara could feel behind his ribcage, red and ancient as the sun sinking below the rolling sands. Lee sat at the window across the room, letting the night freeze in and smiled, his chakra glowing dimly in the back of Gaaras mind and it was easy enough to pretend that he was satisfied with that.