'Ah, sorry you guys, I've got to deal with this,' Temari said with an apologetic look.
'That's all right, Temari-san,' Sakura said shaking her head and smiling. 'You've got a lot more responsibilities than us.'
'I'll meet back up with you later. We should definitely have dinner together.' The blond said, standing up and starting after the messenger that had summoned her. 'I'll see you later, Sakura-san. It was nice meeting you, Sai-san.'
Sai looked up at her, seeming slightly confused as though he hadn't been paying attention. 'Ah, yes. And you, Temari-san,' he recovered quickly with an empty smile and a nod.
Sakura leaned back in her seat and sipped on her iced tea, gazing up at the blue blue sky for a while before she was interrupted by Sai's voice. 'Gaara-san really likes Naruto, doesn't he.'
'Well sure,' Sakura said with a shrug, following Sai's gaze to where Naruto and Gaara were talking animatedly at another table a ways away. Or rather, Naruto was chattering like an excited five-year-old and Gaara was nodding occasionally. 'Naruto pretty much turned his life around single-handedly. They get along really well, because they understand each other better than anyone...'
'Is Gaara-san in love with Naruto?' Sai asked unabashedly.
Sakura choked on her iced tea. After coughing a few times and wiping her napkin across her mouth, Sakura gave the side of Sai's head (because his eyes were still focused on Naruto and Gaara) a withering look.
'Sai, maybe this is a complicated idea, but there are different kinds of affection,' Sakura said, sure to make her voice convey the expression her face was giving, since Sai still wasn't looking at her. 'You can't just categorize everything by...' Sakura trailed off, watching as Naruto gestured widely with his hands and laughed loudly. Gaara's mouth was open in a small little smile, as though he was maybe laughing as well. To accompany that expression was a slight demure and a faintest bit of pinkness to his cheeks.
Sakura's jaw hit the table. 'Oh my GOD!' she said feeling a mix of shocked, horrified and completely baffled. 'You're right!'
'Hm,' Sai replied non-committally.
'Oh my GOD!' Sakura said again, shaking her head incredulously. Hinata had proven that it was, in fact, possible for someone to have a crush on Naruto, but still! This was just plain crazy!
888
'-- And seriously! He's old enough to be her grandfather, dirty old man...!' Naruto said laughing.
Gaara rewarded him with a small, little smile and then it disappeared as he glanced up, past him. Naruto twisted his head around to see Sai coming up next to him.
'Sakura said that she needed to lay down for a while,' Sai said with the usual, empty smile. 'I think it's the heat.'
'Aw, that sucks,' Naruto said, a bit concerned. 'I hope she's drinking enough water... Maybe I should...'
'I'm sure she just needs a little rest,' Sai said with a shrug. 'I think I'm going to take a walk. I just thought I'd tell you.'
'Oh. Okay.' Naruto nodded. 'I'll see you later then.'
'See you,' Sai said, ducking forward very quickly and pressing a quick kiss to Naruto's cheek, before turning and walking away.
Naruto blinked a few times, totally bewildered before getting back his senses enough to yell 'What the hell, Sai?!' at the other boy's back.
He received a small wave before Sai slipped on the sandy rode and fell face first into the pavement. It was unusually clumsy for him, but Sai recovered quickly and continued down the rode.
'Jeeze,' Naruto snorted, turning back around and wiping at his cheek with a sleeve. 'Huh? Gaara?' he gave the redhead a slightly concerned look, as Gaara seemed to have bitten his lower lip hard enough to draw a small amount of blood.
Gaara looked back up at him and shook his head dismissively. 'You're new teammate is certainly... affectionate,' he noted.
Naruto snorted, rolling his eyes. 'He's totally clueless. He had special training to make him all emotionless and so now he's trying to learn to be social and he's so bad at it. He keeps coming up with stupid stuff like trying to give us nicknames and stuff like that. It gets pretty annoying sometimes.'
'Ah,' Gaara nodded. 'You were saying about the waitress?' he asked.
'Oh yeah! She came back with the coffee, and she totally poured it in Ero-Senin's lap! It was so funny I could have died of laughing!'