Naruto : Hidden Cloud

"Who are you? And why did you stop me from fighting Lee?"

Sato asked curiously, but the woman who was holding Sato's hand, had veins popping on her temple.

"Don't act like you forgot me again!"

"I am Temari! TE-MA-RI! Your maid—I mean, the Kazekage's daughter!"

Temari yelled with a hurt look, and Sato laughed. Of course he remembered Temari; he was just pulling her leg.

"I was joking with you, so why did you stop me?"

Sato smiled and removed his hand from Temari's grasp. Although she didn't need to answer Sato's question, her brothers did it for her.

"I told her to stop you. That guy is strong; you will get hurt."

Gaara said softly while emerging from an alley. Kankruo was also standing behind Gaara, glaring at Lee.

This made Sato pause. Was Gaara protecting him? Sato gave Gaara a weird look, but Gaara simply walked up to Lee.

"Leave him alone; he is my friend."

Gaara told Lee in a calm voice, but Lee didn't speak. He was seriously staring at Gaara.

Gaara was emitting a high amount of bloodlust, Lee couldn't take his eyes off him. 

His instincts were telling him that if he stopped paying attention to Gaara, he would be in danger.

'They are just standing there, menacingly.'

Ino gulped; she didn't understand why Gaara and Lee were staring at each other without moving.

But the atmosphere was pretty intense.

*Crack*

Suddenly, a snapping sound came from Lee's body.

"Ugh?! Sand? When?"

Lee's eyes shrunk; he was paying full attention to Gaara, but somehow a bit of sand had gotten on his hand.

Which had brutally snapped his finger in half.

"Leaf hurricane!"

Without a second thought, Lee kicked his own hand; he spun around like a whirlpool, which scattered all the sand stuck to his hand.

*Scatter*

When a bunch of sand fell from Lee's hand, exposing his bent finger, everyone finally understood what happened.

"He broke Lee's finger just like that?! How strong is this guy? Lee didn't even see it coming."

Ino exclaimed with her hand on her mouth. Lee was a muscle monster, but this red-haired guy seemed to be an even bigger threat.

"That was a warning."

"I could have gone for your head instead. Leave."

Gaara said calmly. He slowly absorbed all the sand back into his body and stood in an intimidating way.

But if there was one thing Lee was good at, it was having a lot of courage.

Lee just smiled; he didn't care about his broken finger or Gaara's threat. Instead, he gave everyone a thumbs up with shining teeth.

"What an honorable friendship! I hope to see you all at the chunin exams."

With that said, Lee turned around and walked away. Sato noticed he didn't apologize till the very end, but that didn't matter anymore. 

Sato was much more curious about Gaara.

"You let him go? The Gaara I know kills people randomly; what happened to you?"

Sato laughed and grabbed Gaara's shoulder, although this time Gaara didn't break away from Sato's hand.

"You overestimate me Sato; that guy was strong. I couldn't have won so easily."

"I have thought about some things recently. Temari told me everything, Sato."

Gaara looked at Sato gratefully, and he thanked him with a serious face.

"Because of you, I know the truth about my life. Thank you for telling Temari."

"You made me realize I was never meant to be a weapon."

Gaara softly touched the love tattoo on his forehead. Sato didn't show anything externally, but internally he was laughing wildly.

'My plan worked. I was hoping Temari would tell Gaara the truth about his life, and mention me by the way. She did this perfectly.'

'This is why I ignored Temari for so long. I wanted her to spend more time with Gaara and to make the guy grateful to me.'

Sato chuckled. Gaara's loyalty was no longer a problem. With Gaara's personality, he would be Sato's friend forever.

Sato pretty much stole Naruto's position in Gaara's life.

"Sorry, Sato, I told Gaara without asking you. Me and Kankuro were horrible siblings. I wanted to make it up to him."

Temari apologized to Sato with a flustered look. 

She thought she did this behind Sato's back, without realizing he was expecting it in the first place.

Sato just chuckled and let go of Gaara. Which made Temari sigh in relief; Sato wasn't angry at her.

"I am back, Sato. You can take me as your hostage again!"

"I brought a special maid uniform with me this time; Gaara chose it for me."

The way Temari said it made Ino blink. She wasn't sure if Temari was joking or was a little sick.

'Or is she trying to seduce Sato Kun? Hostage, maid, what the hell??'

Ino's eyebrows jumped, but before she could ask anything, Sato started talking. 

"It's good that you are back, Temari; I thought hidden sand was going to break their promise."

Sato nodded. looking at him, no one would guess that he had ignored Temari on purpose.

Gaara also smiled, then spoke as if he remembered something.

"We have something to do. Temari can stay with you until the exam ends."

It was obvious Gaara wanted leave Temari alone with Sato. He took Kankuro with him and left cleanly. 

But before Gaara could leave, Sato called out to him.

"If you have time, come to my place; I will help you tame the beast inside you."

"Trust me, you might need his help soon."

Sato warned Gaara.

Gaara's father, the fourth Kazekage, was dead. Orochimaru, who was going to act as the Kazekage, was also dead.

Sato had no idea who was pretending to be the Kazekage right now.

The attack on Konoha, which will happen soon, is no longer safe. Neither for Sato nor for Gaara's team. It's best to be prepared for everything. 

"I see. I will visit you soon then."

Gaara agreed without much thought and left. Sato huffed and cracked his neck.

"I am tired, Ino. I am going home."

"If possible, try to train before the final exams. You know it's not safe."

"You might even need to fight Lee in the matchups; I hope you don't lose so badly next time."

Sato told Ino vaguely, and Ino nodded. She knew Sato was talking about Konoha crush plan.

As for Lee, Ino will show him why the Yamanakas were such a feared clan.

"Okay, Sato kun, bye-bye."

Ino smiled and happily hugged Sato before running back to her flower shop.

"She's gone. Let's go, boss. I have to get back to my maid duties quickly."

"I was gone for so long, there must be so many pending jobs!"

Temari said while fanning Sato with her ninja fan. She felt a weird kind of giddiness while acting as Sato's maid.

Ino was right; instead of the upcoming threats this was what she was worried about. Temari was a little sick in the head.