A/N: This story was was cowritten by Ryth76, my sister. Please enjoy! This was actually put up before, but I removed it to break it up in shorter segments.

The chapter endings may be a little stilted. I didn't write this story with chapters in it and it's too long to put up in its entirety. So I tried to make the chapters short enough for the reader to be comfortable. Even though that means some chapters may end awkwardly. Maybe later I'll go back and patch them up.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Hush! It's A Secret!

By Little Seagull and Ryth76

Gaara's POV:(Day 1)

It was early morning in Sunagakure. The person known as Sabaku no Gaara sank deeper into the blankets. So tired. A pair of aquamarine eyes fluttered open, squinted at the clock, and then closed them wearily.

It would be so easy to sleep in, but the pile of documents weren't going to shift through and sign themselves. They would continually pile up. There were teams to send out. Missions. Agricultural debacles. Political orders.

Gaara tossed off the covers and stood up, clad in the loose black and maroon nightgown. The nightgown that, like everything she wore, hid tell-tale signs of womanliness. The problem with being raised as a boy all her life was that she had to constantly hide. There was no room for mistakes. A mistake could cost her reputation, her highly esteemed position, banishment, or her life.

She frowned at herself in the mirror, staring at the curved hips, the slim waist, and then the bust. The bust that had become fuller in the past two years. Even flattening those breasts wasn't doing much anymore. And the years had only succeeded in making her body more feminine. A real problem.

Once every few months she would see her gynecologist (one of two people who knew the secret). The next appointment had been scheduled for today between lunch and breakfast. That and the fact her physical non-female oriented health needed to be checked on.

She staggered groggily into the bathroom to take a shower, stripped, adjusted the dials, and entered the stall. The hot water poured over a strongly muscled back, muscular arms and shoulders, beads dripping down into the softer plains of marble white skin.

Her mind went back to the formal message the Sand had received from the daimyo of the Land of Cliffs. Makoto Hikaru. She recalled meeting him once. If memory served her well, he was a tall, thin man with a constant embittered look in his black eyes. As though he had seen a lifetime of pain and suffering. Judging by the report on his land, she could understand.

The economy and military force was low. The morale of the villagers was low. Not to mention a renegade ninja clan had made multiple assaults on the village. Because the land was slowly slipping into the grasp of the shinobi clan, the people had tried to establish more territory.

But the territory they wanted was being targeted by the Land of Valleys.

Skirmishes and fights had broke out between the Land of Cliffs and Land of Valleys. Many people had died.

Gaara had a sick feeling in her stomach. She lathered soap on her body, rinsed, and then stepped out of the shower. She had a bad feeling something was about to happen. Even though she couldn't see it, couldn't touch it, the feeling of something was strong and prominent. Premonition. A dark foreboding.

Gaara ignored the itch in her throat, suppressing the urge to cough.

Such poor conditions required desperate actions. And it probably didn't have anything to do with the Land of Valleys.

Having cleaned up for the day, she slipped on the white and blue Kazekage robes and took purposeful strides to her office. Whatever it was, she had dealt with worse things in her life.