Verses of Emotion: Verse 5 - Ramen

He sits quietly, waiting at the ramen shop the other frequents often.

He does not bothering to even order food, just waiting, silently and without a single word of explanation to the owner of the small eatery. The elderly man seems overly suspicious of the red headed man seated before him, but Gaara is not in the least concerned. The man will not kick him out, he should know who he is and that should be reason enough. Oh, he would not dare kick the mighty Kazekage out. No one would even thing of such a thing.

Gaara sighs. He does not know when the one he is waiting for will come.

But he knows he will, because he does every single day.

Maybe the boy has already come here today? Gaara considers it to be a possibility. Maybe he is on a mission? Gaara certainly knows that is not true. While he has not seen Naruto at all since his arrival yesterday, from his conversation with Lee, it seems the blond is indeed in the village. If he wasn’t, Gaara would curse his horrible timing.

Deciding that his time is short, Gaara finally takes action.

He looks up from the ground suddenly and asks the owner if the Uzumaki has been here yet, the first words he has said all day, and after an initially surprised response from the man, he answers with a short and simple no, and nothing more.

At least that means he has not missed him. He is sure to come soon, Gaara hopes. He just has to; after all, the red head cannot wait forever. But he knows that is not true. He would spend the rest of his life waiting if it meant seeing the one he loves so dearly for even just a second. That is how much he longs to see the loudmouthed blond, so much so that he is willing to waste his day in waiting.

Minutes pass, but Gaara stays. He would leave, out of simple irritation, but he knows Naruto will come soon, and he may miss him even if he leaves briefly for just a second. He would leave if it were not Naruto, oh; he would have left ages ago if it was not Naruto he was waiting for. Or Lee. Gaara could wait an eternity and more the for two of them.

Hours pass, but still Gaara waits. Without a word, the owner has set down a bowl of ramen for the red head to eat, but he has not touched it. He is too preoccupied with his thoughts to even notice it there. What if Naruto never comes and he is stuck waiting forever?

The sand ninja sighs again. He would like to wait forever, but the store will close eventually, and then he will be forced to leaf, Kage or not.

It is then that he perks up, a familiar chirpy and annoying voice penetrating his ears painfully.

Gaara spins around on the chair with new energy, determined to seek out his friend. Poking his head out of the shop’s entrance and surrounding flaps, he hides himself as he watches the one he loves converse with another.

The detested Uchiha boy.

The one that abandoned the village, killed his own brother, and not to mention, had the whole leaf village, lead by Naruto’s bond with the boy, chasing after him like foolish idiots.

Gaara still doesn’t fully understand how he was accepted back so easily. After all he did, all the innocents he killed, he deserves to be a criminal still. The irritating Uchiha should have been killed years ago; at least in Gaara’s opinion. He put his Naruto in pain, and that is what annoys him most.

Naruto eventually waves goodbye enthusiastically to the raven haired ninja, and Gaara finds himself glaring at the one receiving so much attention, not noticing when the blond approaches the ramen shop and sees him there.

“Eh, Gaara-kun!?” The Hokage scratches his head in puzzlement, only to make the red head jump slightly out of shock and look up at him with his own questioning gaze.
“Yes, Hokage-dono…?” Gaara asks softly, a false smile on his features as he attempts to be as polite as he can possibly be to his fellow Kage and cover up his previous display.
“Watcha doing at Ichraku’s..?” Naruto asks dumbly, as if it is not every day that the Kazekage decides to go to a restaurant in Konoha.
But actually it isn’t, so Gaara thinks that Naruto is justified in asking. He still doesn’t give an answer though.

Gaara shakes his head furiously, as if shaking his thoughts away, before patting the empty stool beside him. He hopes his outing with the Uzumaki will go better than the one he had with Lee. He didn’t make any progress with that one.

Before they can even begin conversing and catching up with each other, the blond stares at the bowl of ramen before Gaara and asks him why he hasn’t so much as even touched it. Gaara just shrugs, watching as Naruto orders his own ramen, his loud voice booming at the young women taking his order, who smiles with a sense of familiarity at the boy.

Gaara feels jealousy erupt, and wants to crush her. Crush all of her bones into a white powdery mix, smothered in blood and organs. Oh how he wants to crush that girl.
And he is instantly ashamed of himself for such a horrible thought.

He lets the sudden emotion leave before he looks up at the blond once again, who seems to have begun raving on about the Uchiha whilst the red head was not paying attention.

Gaara wishes he would shut up.

Gaara also wishes that he would talk about him that way.

Naruto keeps talking and the red head keeps nodding in acknowledgment, before finally deciding to say something of his own.

He asks Naruto why he cares about Sasuke so much, hoping that maybe it will help him figure out why no one cares about him.  All he gets is another rant about the raven and his supposed bond with him.

Gaara really wishes he would shut up now.

He asks Naruto, as bluntly as he can, if he cares about him at all. The blond is silent for a little bit, recognising the look in the sand ninjas eyes to be dejection, before giving him a hearty pat on the back and attempting to comfort him.

Somehow even that turns into a conversation about Sasuke.

And right in that moment, the Kazekage stands up and proceeds to leave, not caring about the shocked boy left in his trail. He knows full well that this outing makes his failed date with Lee so much more pleasant. In comparison it was even nice.

Gaara thinks he will stick with seducing Lee from now on. At least he seems to appreciate the red head.