Blood is Full of Empty Promises

Gaara watched as Kankurro left the room. He looked down at Ayaka. She was sleeping and looked so innocent. He was glad that all the comotion didn't disturb her. The last thing he needed was a drunk Ayaka trying to fight.

Yaoki and Korobi, Gaara's first sand friends, entered the room. "Gaara, are you ok?" they asked rather loudly.

Gaara gritted his teeth with annoyance. "Be quiet," he said calmly and they both took a step back slightly afraid. Gaara then remembered that these two were the first friends that he had in the sand village and it was all thanks to Naruto. "I'm sorry. You were just worried about your friend, but could you please keep it down? Ayaka is sleeping and I don't want anyone to wake her."

"Ayaka?" Yaoki asked.

"Who's that?" Korobi asked.

"Do you think that Gaara could have a girlfriend?" Yaoki asked Korobi excitedly.

"She's so cute! They would be so cute together!"

"DID I NOT JUST SAY KEEP IT DOWN?!" Gaara yelled at them and they both shrank back feeling slightly ashamed of themselves.

"But Gaara-kun, you just yelled," Yaoki said carefully.

Gaara placed his hand over his face and contemplated asking God why he made these two his friends. He sighed. Friends were supposed to tease you about these types of things weren't they?

A sand shinobi entered the room. "Lord Kazekage, Temari has returned. She's in the conference room requesting to speak with you," he informed and quickly left the room.

Gaara exhaled in relief. He was glad that his sister was back and safe. He didn't even want to think about what he'd do without her.

"Yaoki, Korobi, stay with Aya-chan and make sure no harm comes to her," he ordered walking towards the door.

"Aww he just called her Aya-chan!" one said behind him and Gaara rubbed his forehead in annoyance. He decided to ignore it and head for the conference room to meet with his sister.

Temari was lounging on the conference table looking rather bored. Gaara noticed a dead body in one of his nice conference chairs. He clenched his fists. There was a dead body on his nice conference chairs. It would take forever to get the blood stains out.

"Couldn't you pick a better place to put the corpse?" Gaara asked feeling even more annoyed.

"So apparently the Hidden Stone Village thinks they can pull a fast one on us," she said ignoring what Gaara had said about the dead body.

"What?" Gaara asked feeling a little shocked. It wasn't a huge shock that the Hidden Stone would attack them. They had been feuding with them for decades, but it had been quiet recently between the two villages.

"I guess they thought they could take us after the Akatsuki invaded. Thankfully we were on alert," Temari said jumping up off the table and walking over to the window.

"What do you suppose we do about this?" Gaara asked his sister. Temari was always really good with political situations such as these. He made sure to pay close attention so that someday he wouldn't have to ask her for advice, but simply her opinion.

"I brought the body back for evidence. Of course the Hidden Stone would feign innocence, but they can't with proof. You should send them a message immediately informing them of what occurred here tonight. I'm sure they already know, but what they don't know is what we are going to do about it."

"And what will that be?"

"Attacking them doesn't sound like a good idea. We could take them, but we have no idea if other villages will decide to come to their aid. We have no choice, but to ask for a peace offering. No one was hurt here...well, except for him," she answered looking at the corpse.

"Very well, I'll write something up and send it out. Temari, get that body off of my chair," he ordered and left the room to go to his study.

_____

Gaara spent the remaining of the night in his study taking care of the Hidden Stone situation. Yaoki and Korobi continued to watch Ayaka and talk amongst themselves about the possibilities of Gaara having a girlfriend.

The sun started to shine in through the window and brighten up the room. Yaoki and Korobi were playing a game of cards at the table on the other side of the room.

The brightness of the room made Ayaka stir and she finally woke up. She squinted at the light and sat up. Her first thought was the horrible headache she had and then her second thought was who the hell were these people and why were they in her room.

Yaoki noticed that she was awake. “Look! Aya-chan is awake!” he exclaimed excitedly. Ayaka gripped her head at his loudness.

“Good morning!” Korobi yelled and smiled brightly at her.

“If you two don’t shut up, I will slowly and painfully rip out your vocal chords,” she threatened calmly.

The two shinobi shrank back against the wall.

“Wow, she’s more scary that Gaara-kun.”

“They’re a perfect match,” the other gushed.

Ayaka got up and they instantly shut up. Instead of going over to them to harm them she instead went into the bathroom to grab a glass of water. “Holy shit, how much did I drink last night?” she thought aloud and downed two more glasses of water.

She came back out of the bathroom to see that the two shinobi were watching her carefully. “Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you,” she said and sat down on the bed. “What are you guys doing in my room anyways?”

“Gaara asked us to look over you,” Yaoki answered. “Our village was attacked last night.”

“So? Shouldn’t you be protecting the village or something?” Ayaka asked looking rather bored.

“Well, they actually tried to kill you last night,” Korobi replied and Ayaka’s eyes widened. She didn’t even so much as wake up last night. She could have been done for.

“Why me?” she asked.

“Their real target obviously wasn’t you. You’re just sleeping in the Kazekage’s bed so they thought they’d be killing Gaara-kun.”

“Luckily, Gaara-kun saved you!” Yaoki added in excitedly.

“Oh, it’s so romantic,” Korobi gushed.

“I’m leaving,” Ayaka grumbled and left the room. Those two really annoyed her. They were too energetic for it being so early in the morning.

“Good morning, Aya-chan,” Gaara said smiling at her when she walked into his study.

“Next time someone tries to kill me, don’t leave Thing 1 and Thing 2 to watch over me,” Ayaka grumbled.

“Did they wake you?” Gaara asked, his smile gone.

“No, but they sure are annoying,” she said and chuckled. “What’s with them anyways, Gaara-kun?” she asked in a mocking tone.

Gaara blushed at the nickname. “Korobi and Yaoki were my first friends here in the sand village. It wasn’t that long ago, but it was my first time in charge of my own mission. My squad was to partner up with shinobi from the hidden leaf village.”

Gaara stood up and walked over to the window to look out at his village. “They feared me at the beginning. They wouldn’t even come out of hiding to introduce themselves to Naruto and his team.”

“How’d you become friends?” Ayaka asked actually sounding interested.

“Naruto Uzumaki. It must have been something he said or did, but when the ANBU from my village came to kill me they stayed with me and fought by my side. After that mission we became close friends,” he answered. “If you stick around you’ll see them more often.”

“I should get going then,” Ayaka joked and Gaara almost looked sad. “I’m kidding. I won’t leave yet. I still have a few days to heal.”

“I’m glad,” Gaara said. “So how hung over are you? You’re being awfully pleasant today.”

Ayaka gritted her teeth in anger, but then she remembered that this man had saved her life yet again. “You saved me. It’s the least I can do,” she replied seriously.

“You were only in danger because of me. You owe me nothing.”

“Whatever you say,” she replied waving him off and gave him a half smile.