Teddy Bear

By: Amanda Arcand

A/N: I thought of this while watching a Naruto and Gaara tribute on YouTube… Gaara had a little teddy bear when he was a child, but where did that bear go? Naruto is bound and determined to find out.

"AW! Is this you as a kid, Gaara?"

Gaara, slightly annoyed because of being interrupted from his paperwork for the hundredth time that hour, glanced up at the grinning blonde who was holding up a picture of a chibi Gaara holding onto a purple bear.

"Yes."

"Aw! You were so cute, Gaara!"

Attempting to ignore the twitch in his left eye, Gaara returned to his paperwork.

"Do you still have this bear, Gaara?"

"No."

"Why not?" Naruto blinked.

"I threw it away after Yashimaru tried to kill me."

Frowning, Naruto plunked down onto the sofa and watched the Kazekage scrawl his name across a random scroll before casually tossing it aside for a new one.

"Do you miss it?"

"Of course not. It was just a bear, Naruto."

'Liar,' Naruto thought sadly as he watched Gaara's fist clench over the kanji brush as he continued signing.

With a clap, Naruto jumped up and strolled to the door, hands clasped behind his head, "Well, I gotta go find Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme and finish our mission. Bye, Gaa-chan!"

Naruto quickly left the room as a random scroll was thrown at his head.

"No… I've never seen a bear like that…" the old woman muttered, giving Naruto a 'what-the-hell-are-you-looking-for-a-purple-bear-for?' look.

Sighing, Naruto continued on his way down the dirty streets of Suna away from the toy vender and mentally checked over everywhere he had been. It had taken him all day, but he had been to every single toy store, toy vender, and what ever other random place might sell toys are here and had yet to find a purple bear. Scratching his head in bemusement, he looked around and attempted to figure out his next course of action. Because, of course, Naruto would never consider not being able to find the little bear.

One week later

Gaara stared at the Bastard Uchiha (he and Gaara had never quite gotten along after his return from the snake man) and frowned, "What do you mean?"

Sasuke's left eye twitched as he ground out, "I mean, do you know where he is? I've spent the last week looking for the dobe, and I can't find his orange clad ass anywhere. The villagers have seen him wondering around, but no one knows where he is, either."

Gaara frowned and leaned back in his chair. Naruto had said he was going to find the Bastard Uchiha a week ago, what could he be doing that could be holding him up in Suna?

Naruto panted as he looked up at the newly painted house. With a final nod in approval, he walked through the small door into the sand covered home to face the old lady within.

"Alright, I've weeded the cactuses, rounded up all the chickens, watered the camels, cleaned the house, done the grocery shopping, and painted your house. Is that all?"

Blinking, the old woman looked up and smiled at him kindly, "Yes, thank you dear."

Naruto grinned as she opened a glass cabinet in her parlor and took out an old, stuffed purple bear, "Here is that bear, dear."

"YATTA!" Naruto cheered as he inspected the bear. It was old, purple… and a bear. But, was it Gaara's? gulping, he turned the bear around and tried to find any indication that it was indeed the Kazekage's. His breath caught in his throat as he saw the tear in the bottom left seem of the right leg. Quickly whipping out the photo, Naruto glanced at the bear in the picture and the bear in his hands and grinned.

It matched!

And just in time for Gaara's birthday, too!

Gaara glowered darkly at the party guests before him, silently wishing each of them a long, slow, agonizing death. Where was Naruto? Why weren't they looking for him? Instead of searching for the Kazekage's best friend they were throwing him a party. A party, for kami's sake!

Shifting his eyes to the doors as they were flung open, he felt his breath release.

"HEY, GAA-CHAN!"

Gaara blinked at the blonde dumbly as a orange and blue box was shoved in his face by the grinning boy.

"What… is this?"

"It's a present! Open it!"

Tentatively, Gaara opened the neatly wrapped (for Naruto, anyway) box and felt his breath once again catch in his throat.

"Where did you…?"

Naruto beamed up at him as Gaara examined the bear and found it to be authentic, "You like it? I spent that last week searching for it, and when I finally DID find it, the old lady that had it made me do all her housework before I could have it! Can you believe she made me weed her cactuses? Cactuses, Gaara!"

Gaara stared at the blonde, and let the tiniest of smiles pass over his lips as he looked at the grinning fool, "Thank you, Naruto…"

"Glad you like it!"

Of course, as Gaara had once said, it was just a bear that his uncle had given him as a child. But the fact that Naruto had spent a week trying to find it, and even lowered himself down to the genin level of manual labor again, made the bear even more precious than it had been to him as a child.

He would never admit that aloud, of course.

Cute, neh?