A/N: For the NaruGaa fanday yesterday! I almost forgot, ah hahaha. AND THEN I WIND UP BEING LATE. Silly me. #sweatdrop#

–But Temari88 and YamiTenshi reminded me by posting some things themselves. And so here I am, also posting something, albeit a day later.

The manga/canonverse has felt so weird to me lately, and hasn't been offering as much NaruGaa as I would like for inspiration, so instead of something canon, I give you an AU setting. And because of my recent X-Men obsession due to the First Class film, this is a mutant!AU, but this isn't a crossover; it's my own adaptation, based on the same map of the Naruto World and such, but with different circumstance. (I'll make it work, you'll see. ;D )

The Neutralists are after him again.

They neutralize the mutagens inside mutated humans with a serum they've been crafting and perfecting for decades now, since the first mutants have been discovered. It's not right, none of it is; it's discrimination at its worst, and it's also a sort of genocide, because while they aren't killing the people who are mutants, they are killing the mutant gene inside them, and that's close enough to death for certain mutants.

Mutants like Sabaku No Gaara.

The last thing he wants is to lose his ability to control sand and other rocks, like sandstone and limestone and granite. And he happens to like how his mutation has made him look: no eyebrows or other body hair; pupiless eyes that can still see perfectly clear; hair on his head as bright and red as a firetruck; and, of course, his unblemished, milky-pale skin so unlike his parents'. He is a creature of the night, too; his body can go for long periods of time without sleep. It was labeled as "insomnia" before he realized it was part of his mutation.

And so here he is, trying to preserve his unique way of life. He runs at a painful speed through the forest on the outer limits of a town called Konoha, so far away from his own bustling oasis of Suna. He crashes into branches, snapping them off as he whizzes by, and more than once he stumbles and falls, tripping over fallen logs and exposed roots.

He can hear the sirens from the road, and boots stomping through the fall leaves of last season. He can hear voices, too, over walkie-talkies and yelling to one another, their guns locks and loaded, full of serum-filled darts.

Gaara keeps a straight face as he dives around the base of a rather wide tree and burrows into its hollowed-out roots, the wood rotting and stinking around him, and he knows that he feels a few spiders and beetles and other unpleasant things crawling just beyond the barrier of his clothing. But he doesn't care, not one bit, because he can't risk being caught. Not tonight, and not ever.

So Gaara puts up a shield, raising sand through pores in the ground from layers underneath the soil to wrap around himself, disguising himself as part of the earth. And this late at night, they won't be able to pick him out and distinguish him from other dirt and sand around the base of any tree.

He holds his breath for a moment, listening, and feels his heart thudding in his chest. He grips his heart over his shirt, fingers curling desperately into the fabric, and wrenches his eyes shut, trying not to breathe too harshly.

He hears footsteps coming from the opposite direction as the Neutralists. He freezes. Did they contact some from Konoha, and now he is being surrounded? He swallows hard, praying his heat signature is masked enough by the sand to ward off their heat-seeker scanners.

All too suddenly, those footsteps from the direction of Konoha are too loud and too close. Gaara jumps, biting back a startled sound from his throat, his eyes flying open but otherwise his face containing his shock as a hand reaches out and digs through his sand, stilling when they feel the warmth and firmness of Gaara's body.

"Is there someone in there? –Please, let me hide with you! They're after me, too!" a young voice says; too young to be a Neutralist playing innocent as another mutant.

Gaara unveils himself long enough to envelop the other body into his hiding place. Other shouts become muffled as he closes the sand around them and the tree again.

"Thank you," the stranger whispers, touching blindly to pat Gaara's shoulder. "Are you a mutant, like me?"

Gaara nods, but realizes it's too dark to see it. He opts to murmur, "Yes," instead.

"Wow. I didn't think there were many of us left around here. I thought I was alone," the stranger whispers brokenly, and shudders a breathy, quiet laugh of the nervous sort. "I'm glad I'm not. What's your name?"

"Quit talking," Gaara snaps under his breath, "They might find us. I'll tell you later."

"Oh. Okay. You're right," the stranger replies.

"Shh!" the sand-wielder hisses violently. Does this guy ever learn?

"…Sorry," the other says, and Gaara's eye twitches with annoyance in the dark. Nope, this guy really doesn't learn.

They wait out the search in their dingy, dirty hiding place for damn near half an hour longer before the stranger gets too restless and says he's going to take a look around. Gaara sighs, unable to protest much, and silently lets the other boy out of the sandy shield.

When the boy returns, he's talking loudly outside of it, saying that all is well and that Gaara should come out. "Come on, man, it's fine now; they're gone. Their cars aren't even on the road. We're safe, for now."

Gaara drops all the sand to the ground, stands, and dusts himself off until he's sure he doesn't have a bug or leaf or pine needle left on him. In the moonlight, Gaara's eyes well adjusted to the darkness, he looks over the other boy.

They are the same height, if not scarcely a centimeter or two apart with the stranger being the slightly taller one, and the stranger has vibrantly yellow-blond hair the same golden color as sunbeams. His eyes appear a dark cobalt in the night, and he has lines on his face that aren't wrinkles, but instead appear to be… whiskers? They nearly look like whiskers, anyhow, and could be part of the boy's mutation.

"My name is Naruto, by the way. Uzumaki Naruto. My mutation is to generate and control fire. What's yours? – Name and mutation, I mean. I wanna say something about sand, but…" the stranger remarks, cracking his knuckles and back and neck as he limbers up. He stretches while Gaara stands there, dumbfounded.

"I'm… Gaara."

"Just 'Gaara'?"

"To you, yes," the redhead retorts. He removes a canteen from his belt and takes a long sip. Wiping his mouth with his hand, he states flatly, "And yes, I can control sand. Other rocks as well, if they are small enough. The bigger the grain, the harder it is to control. And wet sand is impossible."

Naruto nods. "Mm, I see. That's cool. I wonder why sand, though? Did you used to live near the desert?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact," Gaara answers tonelessly as he steps around the blond and begins marching back the way he had come, planning on continuing his journey east, through the Land of Fire (which easily explains the origin of Naruto's mutation; all mutations are created through genetics, but are often adapted from the environment around the womb). "I lived in Suna, in the Land of Wind, until I was driven out."

"I just came from Konoha. I… accidentally blew my cover. I was doing so well, keeping it in for years, but… I sneezed and set a booth in the market on fire," Naruto says, sighing. He talks too much about himself. Does he have no sense of guard? Gaara might be a fellow mutant, but he's no ally, no friend. He's just a stranger. And yet here Naruto is, telling so much in such a short amount of time.

Gaara grunts and starts to walk in a different direction, legs moving quickly, to leave Naruto behind.

"Oi! Oi, wait up! Where are you going?" Naruto asks, speeding up his pace to scramble after Gaara. "We only just met!"

"All the more reason to part," Gaara retorts coolly. "We have more chances for survival if liabilities aren't around."

"What? No! It doesn't work like that," Naruto snaps back, grabbing Gaara's sleeve to force him to turn part of the way around and stop walking for a moment. "It works like this: you and I work together, protecting one another, and make it out of here alive. Where are you headed, anyway? Because I heard that, near the ocean on the far side of the Land of Lightning, there's a whole place where mutants aren't hunted and neutralized, and they all live together in their own community. I want to go there."

"I was heading there myself," Gaara admits quietly.

"See? Then we're meant to travel together! Come on, Gaara, let's stick together. We really can totally be more of a force to be reckoned with that way. Now that I think about it," he continues as he starts to walk again, keeping a hold on Gaara's arm that feels unsettling to the redhead, "We could make glass, couldn't we? Merge our powers, sand and fire, and you get glass, right? That could come in handy. Could reflect back someone else's power or block darts headed our way, if it's thick enough. Hmm. Worth a try, right?" and he grins broadly, the slight point on his canines oddly attractive.

Gaara looks away. "I suppose." He goes quiet for a lasting moment as they trek through the woods, coming out of it to trail down the road, looking inconspicuous as long as they aren't caught using their powers as Gaara had been not an hour ago. He licks his dry lips and adds, "Won't your parents care about your absence?"

Naruto shakes his head, a sad smile on his lips. "Nah. I don't have any. I did, I mean. Obviously I did, 'cause I was born. But… they died. House fire. I probably caused it, in retrospect. And even though I was just a baby in a crib, I probably subconsciously bent the fire away from myself to keep safe. I was adopted shortly afterward, since none of my relatives live nearby enough."

The redhead nods faintly. "I see."

"What about you?" Naruto wants to know as he laces his hands together and places them on the back of his head, walking casually alongside his new comrade. "Won't your parents miss you, too?"

"My father hates me, and my mother died during childbirth. My siblings took care of me my entire life, and they had to leave a month ago when we were separated during a mutant raid in my town. I'm following after them, now, going where they said they planned to go." And Gaara really hates talking, especially this much, so he makes a scoffing sound and shuts up after this. He doesn't want to give away any more secrets. And he is only confessing them now to avoid it later, because he hates it when people pester him for information, and he realizes that he might as well return the favor of sharing, our of respect.

"…Oh. I'm sorry to hear that," Naruto murmurs, moving closer as if thinking about placing a comforting hand on Gaara somewhere, but thinking better of it once Gaara shoots a glare the blond's way. He recoils, wincing. "Er. Um." He pauses, then continues walking again. "Anyway –"

"I prefer silence, thank you," Gaara cuts him off. He withdraws an MP3 player and slips the headphones over his ears. He plays some music, any song on shuffle doing it for him, and continues to pace alongside – but ignore – the blond flagging his left.

"Oh," Naruto sighs, and shrugs. He shoves his hands into his pockets while he walks, and wonders idly if they're going to trek the entire continent or if Gaara has money or a plan to get there sooner, and in more… style. A bus would be better than walking at this point. And if not for some of their obvious visual mutations, that might be possible.

0o0o0

Time passes, perhaps a few hours, until Gaara takes an abrupt turn down a path leading into more forest and finds a clearing buried within, not visible from the road, and starts to set up camp. "Light a fire, would you?" he mutters as Naruto glances around awkwardly, unsure as to what to do.

"I can do that," Naruto grins, and he moves to gather up rocks, forming a circle, and digging a bit of a ditch in the center of them. He then collects a bunch of twigs and sticks and chunks of fallen tree trunks (as dry as he can possibly find), dumping them into the fire pit. And then, as easily as breathing comes to him, Naruto holds out a hand and fire explodes from his palms in a stream, setting the bundle on fire. He retracts his hand, and Gaara watches with a bit of awe as it simmers down from a red-hot glow to something entirely normal.

"That's… better," Gaara remarks, looking away. "Now I can see what I'm doing." And he continues to set up his personal tent, and slipping form his backpack a small sleeping bag. He balls up a hoodie and forms a makeshift pillow. It's a lean-to tent if nothing else, and Naruto rolls his eyes.

"Is that seriously how you make tents? That won't do! A wind could just come along and blow it over!" Naruto reprimands. "How did you ever camp out while crossing the freaking desert?"

"I made a sand-igloo," Gaara retorts grumpily, stepping aside as Naruto moves in and starts fixing the tent.

"Well, it's a good thing you have me around, isn't it?" the blond says, flashing Gaara a grin, and in the firelight, Gaara can see the other teen's features much better, and he realizes with a flip of his stomach that he's attracted to the other boy, and that's certainly dangerous, so he moves further away.

Once Naruto finishes fixing up the tent to stand tall and proud and beige against the blue-brown background of the night-cloaked trees, he turns to find Gaara missing. He frowns, wondering where the redhead went off to. He decides against looking for him. He's hungry, so looking for food is a better idea.

0o0o0

They meet at nearly the same time back at the campsite, Gaara carrying three sloshing-full canteens, and Naruto returns with two rabbits in his hands.

Gaara frowns. "How did you catch those? You have no weapons –"

"Yeah, I do," Naruto says. He flashes his sharp canine teeth, and then reveals retractable claws in his fingernails. He shrugs and drops the dead animals near the fire, moving to put more kindling into it. "I like to think of my mutations as a sort of… fire-fox. Or fire-cat. I dunno which is more appropriate for me, but I think it's convenient. It keeps me warm and fed, even if it feels a little more animalistic and less human, which is just what the Neutralists and normal humans see us as, but whatever, right?"

Gaara puzzles over that for a moment, raking it over in his mind like dirt over seeds in a garden. He nods at last. "Right." He hands Naruto a canteen and orders, "Then skin and clean those up, and start cooking them." He hasn't had a meal before bed in a long while, and a general dose of protein and iron from meat in even longer. He licks his lips, hungry for it. And to think he used to be a vegetarian! Not anymore. One can't survive that way.

They eat the roasted rabbit in silence, and once it's all buried (they don't want to attract wolves or coyotes), the fire put out, Gaara moves to enter his tent.

"Um… Am I sleeping with you?" Naruto suddenly says, stopping Gaara mid-step. "It's a small tent, and you only have one sleeping bag, I know, and I totally didn't think to bring much with me, which was stupid, but, uh… Could I…? It might be weird, but –"

"Fine," Gaara replies curtly, and slips into the tent flap. He unzips his sleeping bag and spreads it out. Open like this, it's like a twin bed and a half, not quite a full-sized bed in size, and it takes up the entire tent floor. He keeps his hoodie to himself and curls up on his side, facing one of the tent walls.

Naruto follows him in, clearly uncomfortable, and shifts this way and that, using his small carrying bag as a pillow. They have no blankets. And the night is cold.

"Er, uh… Gaara?"

"What is it, Naruto?" the redhead grinds out through teeth clenched to keep form chattering. His eyes remain closed, and he tries to fall asleep, despite his usual insomnia. Naruto had a point about being animalistic; half the time, Gaara feels more like a nocturnal creature than a real person.

"Can… can I get closer to you? Maybe roll this sleeping bag over us? I-I don't mean to sound like a creep, but it is really cold, and I can't sleep like this, and I doubt you can, either. I can keep you warm, too, with my powers. So… please?" the blond stutters. "I know it's awkward, and this is only the first night, but we need to live through this to get to the east –"

"Whatever," Gaara grumbles, his heart speeding up a couple beats. He doesn't like that a teeny, tiny, fragment of an insignificant piece of him is kind of thrilled by the idea. Gaara has always been a lonely person, but that doesn't mean he's always liked being alone. Having company, as reluctantly gathered as it was, is a nice thing. And Naruto is a friendly enough person, and definitely attractive enough where Gaara wouldn't mind half as much as he lets on if the distance between them was a little… shorter.

"Is that a 'yes'?" Naruto whispers.

"Yes."

"Oh. Okay. Um, good," Naruto murmurs, and then Gaara feels Naruto's back pressed against his, and the sleeping bag covering them both. It gets a lot warmer in not a lot of time, and Gaara feels himself relax, teeth no longer straining to chatter. He sighs contentedly, his eyelids softening from a closed squint to smoothly shut. Naruto seems to make the same change in feeling, because Gaara can hear the blond sighing in a similar manner before remarking in a sleepy mumble, "Much better. G'night, Gaara."

Gaara doesn't bother to give the answering greeting, but he likes how this feels, definitely. He snuggles back a bit, hoping Naruto is already asleep and doesn't notice. He can suddenly smell Naruto around him, and he realizes that the boy smells like… oranges. Which is odd, but not unwelcome. Oranges remind Gaara of Temari, his sister. She used to eat an orange every morning for breakfast, and she would smell of them most of the day. And Gaara aches suddenly, missing her. She was like a mother to him. She was kind, and loving, and tried so hard to understand him no matter what he was going through.

Gaara shudders a breath and hides his face in the folds of his hoodie-pillow.

He hears a hitch in breath, and realizes that Naruto isn't as asleep as he had hoped. "Gaara? Is something wrong?"

"Nothing," he replies. "Nothing I would tell you, anyhow. You're a stranger to me."

"No, I'm not," Naruto replies, rolling over until Gaara can feel the other boy's hot breath on his neck below his short red locks. He stiffens. Their bodies aren't touching, but he can feel Naruto's presences as sharply as one might feel a bee sting. "I've known you for hours now, almost a whole night. And I feel like I've known you for longer, too; being another mutant makes you, like… brethren or kin. So come on, tell me."

"Go to sleep, Naruto," the sand-bender retorts with a defensive huff. "We are far from being 'kin,' or even remotely friends."

"Why not? You can make friends in a few hours. You can fall in love in a few days, too. Relationships and bonds are really simple that way," Naruto argues, and he shuffles a bit closer until he has a hand on Gaara's shoulder, forearm pressed between Gaara's shoulder blades. Gaara stiffens further, going rigid with insecurity and violation.

"Don't touch me," Gaara growls, but Naruto frowns and moves closer instead.

"Okay, fine. Don't say what's brothering you. Instead, let me ask some other things. How old are you?"

Gaara debates for a half minute on whether or not to answer. Naruto waits patiently, and it just makes Gaara even more irked. He exhales roughly and answers, "Nineteen."

"Really? Me, too. Well, uh. I mean. I will be nineteen in another couple months, but it's close enough. All right, another question: did you ever go to school?" the blond goes on, slowly taking his hand off and lowering his voice.

"No. Temari and Kankurou – my siblings – homeschooled me. They didn't want me to risk losing my temper in class and exposing my powers. Living in Suna like I did, sand was everywhere, and far too easy to control. I could have taken down the entire city," he murmurs.

He actually feels Naruto nod, a few of his blond hairs tickling the back of Gaara's neck at the movement, and a shiver tingles along Gaara's spine. "I went to school. I had friends, too. Humans, unlike me. Sasuke, Sakura-chan, Hinata-chan, Shikamaru, Lee. We were really close. Until I messed things up, like your siblings feared you might." He sighs. "All right, I have another question. What's your sexuality?"

"That's awfully personal," Gaara warns.

Naruto pretends not to have heard that. "Personally, I think I'm bisexual, because I think everyone looks good. Guys and girls both are attractive. But I dunno, I would only have sex with someone I cared about. Was really in love with, you know? So, yeah, there's that. What about you?"

Gaara doesn't want to answer. He hasn't been around that many people, but all the girls he's seen have never looked very appealing to him. So, softly, he whispers, "Homosexual." And doesn't say a word more.

Again, he feels Naruto's responding nod. "Thought so. While we ate, you sucked at hiding how many times you looked over at me." And Gaara can hear the smirk in Naruto's voice.

He grits his teeth and moves to elbow Naruto in the chest. "Go. To. Sleep," he commands, and Naruto snickers behind him, rubbing the sore spot on his left side.

"Sorry, sorry," he mutters. He rolls over again so that they once again back-to-back. He exhales, then yawns. "Goodnight. Try to sleep, okay? Those bags under your eyes tell me that you don't sleep much, and the sun should be up in a few hours. So try, all right?"

And Gaara doesn't think about how odd it is that Naruto cares about him enough to worry about his sleeping habits. So instead, he obeys and tries his best to sleep.

Strangely enough, he does fall asleep, and in record time, too. He blames the heat surrounding him.

0o0o0

In the morning, they pack up and continue east. They snag several rides, hitchhiking, and make it out of the Land of Fire within a week of meeting one another.

And then there is only the remaining trip to the mutant refugee community on the far side of the Land of Lightning, right along the ocean, due northeast.

"You really don't talk much, do you?" Naruto comments idly as they hike through a semi-snowy, rocky set of towering pines in a sporadic forest. "This whole time we've been traveling together, you haven't said very much. The most I got you to talk was the night we met! What's up with that? Why don't you talk, Gaara?"

"Like I said," the redhead replies swiftly, brushing past a tree branch, leaving it behind him for Naruto to deal with, "I prefer silence."

"Or your music. Which, hey, reminds me: how do you keep that thing charged?" Naruto wants to know.

"I don't. The last time I used it, if you recall, was at that town we stopped in to get a ride on our sixth day. I didn't have time to find an outlet to charge it, and now we are too far from any civilization to get it charged and working again," Gaara explains tiredly. He stops and glances around. "The sun is setting. We need to make camp before night falls; in this country, it gets far too cold without the sun to even try making a fire, even given your abilities."

"Oh. All right," Naruto agrees. He veers off-trail, following the other boy, and aids with the tent as he normally does while Gaara assembles the fire pit. They do their usual hunting and gathering until they have a roaring fire, roasting elk, and a sky full of stars. Naruto breaks the silence after their work. "Have you ever thought about kissing me?"

Gaara nearly chokes on a bite of meat. He pounds his chest and clears his throat. "Where the Hell did that come from?"

The blond shrugs, looking down and away, at the frozen ground. His ass feels numb with cold through his pants. He shifts uncomfortably and answers, "Dunno. Just was thinking about how nice you look in the firelight, and wondered, 'cause you're gay, if you ever thought about kissing me."

"No, I can honestly say I haven't," Gaara retorts, and it actually is the truth. He hasn't permitted himself to reflect on nor acknowledge any growing sentiments toward the blond. They are only traveling partners, he would tell himself each time he began thinking about Naruto as a romantic interest. They wouldn't work with feelings attached, because that would mean a risk in survival and –

Naruto unknowingly severs the redhead's thoughts. "Sorry, didn't mean to offend you, man. I was just curious. I mean…" and does Naruto truly have zero tact? Gaara frets as Naruto keeps talking, "I've thought about kissing you, so I just wondered if it was reciprocated. Sorry that it isn't. Um, anyway. You gonna finish eating that?"

"No, you can have it. I've lost my appetite," Gaara mutters as he stands and heads for the tent. He would love to force Naruto to into the cold tonight, forcing temptation away, but Gaara would hate to have Naruto's frozen death on his conscience, so with a quiet groan, Gaara folds into his sleeping bag and forces himself to relax enough to sleep.

He finds it easier to sleep, he realizes, when he's warm and when he's exhausted from a day of traveling. So this while trip has been great for getting to experience real sleep with dreams and everything, but it's also been horrible for having a moment to himself, all because of his unwanted blond comrade.

Speaking of that fiery mutant, he comes slithering into the tent approximately half an hour after Gaara. The redhead feigns sleep, keeping his breathing slow and even as Naruto climbs into the sleeping bag with him. But Naruto is facing Gaara's back, and it makes Gaara's lungs freeze.

"Oi," the blond says lowly. "I know you're not asleep. Could you face me for a second?"

Gaara doesn't want to. He fears that Naruto will try to kiss him, considering what he said over supper. But he feel like he is obligated to, so he slowly turns around and opens his aquamarine eyes. "What?"

Naruto touches his face, just a fingertip to Gaara's cheek, but it's enough. "You're not mad at me, are you?"

The redhead signs. "I was."

"But not anymore?" Naruto smiles, hope in his tone.

The redhead can't resist this damned fool. "No. Not any longer."

"Good," Naruto whispers, and just like that, Gaara's worst fears (and hidden desires) are realized. Naruto leans in and plants a firm, tender kiss to Gaara's mouth, and the slightly older mutant finds himself succumbing to the kiss, closing his eyes and returning it. Naruto breaks it off with a smile. "See? I knew you've thought about it." he chuckles airily. "You're so weird, Gaara; it's like you think you can't be yourself or something, just because you aren't by yourself anymore. But that's the whole point, isn't it? You're going somewhere where you can't be alone, because everyone will be like you, and like me. A mutant."

"True," Gaara murmurs. He feels Naruto's heated hand leave his face to trail down to rub his shoulder, then slide down further to rest on the middle of his back, bringing him closer.

Naruto closes his overly blue eyes and presses his forehead to Gaara's. "Remember what I said, about people falling in love in a few days?"

"What about it?" Gaara ventures cautiously. He feels himself shaking minutely, not sure where this is headed.

"Well, let's just say I kinda-sorta fell in love with this really quiet, stubborn, and mysterious redhead I met recently. He's a good guy, you know; he didn't have to let me come with him, didn't have to share his tent with me, and certainly didn't have to be half as nice to me as he has whenever we stopped somewhere or got a ride and he paid for me or made sure I was okay and comfortable," the blond confesses with a light-hearted tone. His eyes flutter open, and Gaara's pupiless ones search the cerulean orbs. Gaara's lips part, and he feels suddenly so naked, even though he's full clothed and beneath a sleeping bag. "And for the life of me, I can't tell if he even likes me at all."

Gaara swallows dryly and licks his lips nervously. "I think he does," he answers, feeling cliché and stupid but too warm and tired and protected under Naruto's gaze and arm to let it get to him. "But he doesn't know love, so he can't tell you if he feels the same."

"Really? That's ironic," Naruto laughs softly, "Because he has the kanji for love on his forehead as a tattoo."

Gaara tenses. "You know what that is?"

"Sure, of course I do," Naruto retorts. "What, you think I can't read kanji? Of course I can. And I know that one best because it was always my favorite character. Love is important. Love keeps people grounded."

The sand-wielder nods hastily. "That's why I put it there. As a reminder of what love means, and can do for people. And because I never got it from my father, and I wanted to spite him, showing him that I can know love even if he refuses to show it to me."

"That makes you pretty bold," Naruto grins. "I like bold." And he closes his eyes and kisses Gaara again, this time with slippery tongue, warm and tasting feral, and it isn't because of the elk they ate.

The redhead returns it greedily, sucking on Naruto's bottom lip and tip of his tongue, eager to wrap his arms around the tanned blond and feel him. He didn't even realize how much he wanted Naruto until Naruto showed how much he wanted Gaara. It's almost laughable, how that worked out.

They make it to the refugee community a while later than they meant to, and in total since they met, they traveled two whole months together. And they stayed together even after that, no one questioning them, and while they had to avoid a few Neutralists along the way, it didn't take much to be rid of them; just a little sand and a little fire and a little glass, and they were victorious.