There was only so long you could conveniently miss someone until even Gaara was aware he was being avoided, and he was usually happy to let people do so... except, when you were dating the Sand's Secret Weapon's sister, you didn't have the luxury of staying out of his way.

So when the evasion lessened just a fraction and one of his sandtraps outside the Hyuuga compound was disturbed, he moved quickly. Which meant, in practice, Neji suddenly coming face to face with a whirlwind of sand that coalesced into his future brother-in-law.

If he was honest, the first few people he'd done that to hadn't been Neji. But no one had to know that.

"Good afternoon," Gaara began. Too blandly. He was almost savagely glad he'd had a growth spurt recently, since it meant he didn't have to look up at Neji as he folded his arms.