Cold Rain (Naruto Fanfic)

Cold Rain

"Can we talk?"

At first, Rasa's mind didn't register the question in his head, what with how focused he was in catching up on the unfinished paperwork the one impersonating him left behind, not to mention the fact he found himself having to deal with the strained relations with their ally village. A voice in his head noted Temari and Kankuro knew better than to bother him in the office unless it was an emergency, yet—the person asking was Gaara.

Rasa looked up at his youngest, his mind taking in the fact Gaara made the effort to approach him, yet there was the flicker of fear in the boy's eyes rather than the usual hostile rage, while his mouth pushed together in determination. The first words out of his mouth were to tell the boy, "I'm busy Gaara."

"Please?"

Gaara of course never said please, or thank you, or even sorry, what with how his world revolved around himself and only himself. Yashimaru, or whoever was pretending to be Yashimaru that day made sure of that, so Rasa found himself staring despite the fact he should be working on paperwork. He finally decided—even lectured himself that it should have been an easy, go-to decision—that whatever was going on with Gaara could wait.

After all, Gaara wasn't killing people, nor was there any killing intent emanating off his youngest.

"Wait outside." Rasa waved his hand indicating Gaara should leave him to his paperwork for the time being. He remained focused, the only things making him look up from the stack of paperwork was the sudden deluge of summer rain which happened every year starting up outside, or someone bringing him—unfortunately—more paperwork. Finally, the work was finished and he let out a deep sigh.

The Kazekage stretched, his mind now contemplating the strange occurrence with Gaara, yet when he left his office, Gaara was most definitely not waiting for him outside. Rasa let out a sigh. "Must not be important."

Except, he caught sight of the all too familiar head of auburn hair outside. Rasa's eyes widened, unsure of what was unfolding in front of him. "Gaara?"

Gaara's head jerked up, putting the worry that the boy almost fell asleep on him into Rasa's mind, yet there was still no blood lust which indicated a certain tailed beast might take over. The boy looked up at him, tilting his head as if expecting something.

"Why are you outside in the rain like this?" Rasa's fingers tightened around the waterproof cloth he and other Suna used when the weather got like this, noting Gaara didn't have anything of the kind on him.

"You told me to wait outside." Gaara's voice slurred and his thin-framed shivered ever so slightly.

"I meant outside of the office and..."

"Sorry," Gaara muttered, his head turning away.

"What?"

"I'm sorry."

Rasa stared despite the fact the weather wasn't ideal, but then said, "You never apologize, let alone obey my orders. What's changed?"

"I made a friend."

"You—you what?"

Gaara teetered back and forth, then looked at him. "I said I made a friend."

"I heard that."

"Then why did you ask?"

His youngest rarely attempted to communicate anymore—since Yashimaru did what he did, so Rasa forgot how much of a chore trying to understand his youngest was. Rasa's head turned towards home. "Let's head back to the compound. It's not far."

"Okay."

"Is he obeying my orders a second time?" Rasa mentally prepared himself for something to happen, although he didn't place it in Gaara to pull some kind of trick—every move the boy made in the past against him was filled with utter rage and utter blood lust, yet there was no killing intent. "Why am I more concerned about the fact Gaara is not doing what he normally does?"