Evolution of the Bond

(Gaara x Matsuri)

Chapter I: A Bad Day?

It was an exceptionally blazing and boring day in Sunagakure. The village's Kazekage, Gaara, was sitting just now behind the pile of documents, begging for his work to finish as soon as possible. The former Jinchuuriki sighed, while signing another document. As the time passed by, the stack of unsigned papers began to shrink, only a few remaining now. It seemed that the young shinobi's wish was fulfilled, when someone interrupted the silence, which reigned in the office, by knocking on the door.

"Come," said the Kazekage in a bored voice without diverting his eyes from paperwork. Baki entered the room, unfortunately, bringing other documents, which required signing. 'I'll grow old here…' Gaara thought, but he didn't give a hint. Instead, he returned to his not so absorbing job.

"There you go, these are documents concerning the jounins exam," said Baki, putting papers on table. The former Jinchuuriki looked askance at him and let out a quiet "hn", to confirm that he would take care of those. Baki exited the room, carefully closing the door behind him.

'What a day…' Gaara thought to himself, trying to focus on the content of the next document. He had already attended three meetings today, and he still had to do the paperwork, all of those because of the jounin exam. The "genius" Hokage, Tsunade, presented an idea regarding how the jounin exam should be modeled after chuunin exam form. Naturally, the difficulty level would be higher, but the candidates would still have to fight in preliminaries, to select a few best ones, who would later fight in the final tournament.

The idea itself was quite good but it required the enormous amount of work from every Kage. The Kazekage vengefully hoped that "Princess" Tsunade was dying from overwork right now, since other Kages enforced the first exam taking place in Konoha.

Gaara looked at the clock hanging at the wall. It's 7:15pm, and in a quarter he was supposed to have a training session with his only student, Matsuri. Officially, she hadn't been his student any longer, but he still decided to prepare her for taking the jounin exam. The redhead decided to call it a day, even if he knew he would regret it later. He exited the office and he went to his room, with intention to change his traditional Kazekage robes for his training suit. Unfortunately, on his way to the dojo, he had encountered something that didn't lift his mood.

"Gaara!" Temari yelled to her brother, staying in front of him with another pile of documents in her hands. "You have to look at these."

"Leave them on my desk," Gaara said without ceremony. The golden-haired girl nodded, letting her brother to continue his previous action.

Quarter later, Gaara, already clothed in his red training suit with the gourd on his back, was sitting on the bench in the dojo, waiting for Matsuri. Usually, she was the one coming there on time, even joking that he was always coming late. The Kazekage had to admit that he couldn't understand that girl. Not even a bit. Gaara treated women with a great distance – especially his fangirls, who had never been leaving him alone, as he walked down the streets in his own village. He hated their giggles and advances. They were young girls, mostly teens, who had a crush on him and were ready to do everything to have Gaara only for themselves. But the object of their desires ignored them, knowing that they're interested in him only because of his position as a village's leader. His thoughts returned to his student, Matsuri, whom he managed to befriend. Of course, since the time he had defended the village from being destroyed by the blond guy from Akatsuki, all people of Sunagakure accepted Gaara, including village's elders, who once suggested him to take the Kazekage's position only because they hoped they would control him more easily that way. But the former Jinchuuriki trusted only a few people, he truly trusted: his siblings - Temari and Kankuro, his very first best friend, who changed his life – Naruto Uzumaki, and … Matsuri. Gaara guessed that he made friends with her because, as opposed to others citizens of the village, she was never afraid of him. Moreover, she was the only one who had chosen him to be her teacher, despite of rumors about him, which were running rampant around the village; the rumors, which were partly true. When Matsuri graduated to a chuunin rank, Gaara decided he wouldn't train her anymore, yet she still insisted to train together with him, and he couldn't grasp the reason at all.

The shinobi changed track of his thoughts and began to ponder over the next day, which would unmistakably bring to him even more paperwork and council meetings. Considering the number of documents, which he must have checked out today, it appeared that he would have to work on them until the late night. Yes, that day was particularly bad, so the next one probably would be even worse…

The sound of the door opening knocked Gaara out of his reverie. The Kazekage raised his head, looking at the dojo entrance and the person who had just entered the room. As expected, it was Matsuri

"I'm sorry for being late, Gaara-sama," she said with the faint voice, her head lowered, closing the door behind her. Gaara noticed that she looked tired, but he decided not to ask for the details. For now. The Kazekage only nodded, rising from the bench and making several steps to the center of the room.

"For starters, let's warm up."

Today he had only sparring in his plans. The sand started floating from youngster's gourd, as the kunoichi stood in her combat position, ready to attack with a side-kick at any time. Gaara blocked her kick lifting a shield of sand with the small movement of his hand. The Kazekage noticed a grimace of pain on Matsuri's face. He ordered his sand to wrap around her leg, and then to throw her few meters away. It was strange, because usually she wouldn't fall for such simple trick. Unexpectedly, the brunette didn't land on her legs, keeping the perfect balance. She landed on her back instead, and she lifted herself from the floor with difficulty.
"Are you alright?" Gaara asked, with a feeling that his apprentice was going to lie to him.
"Y- yes…" she replied, confused a little.

The Kazekage acknowledged that he was right, but decided to continue sparring. This time the kunoichi didn't even manage to move near her sensei. She lost her balance while trying to attack. As a result, she collapsed on the floor once again, moaning quietly from pain. Gaara approached her, sighing.

"You are not alright at all" he commented coldly, lending her a hand to help her lift from the ground. "What is wrong with you?"
"N- nothing…" she replied hastily, blushing. The young Kage had never had any clue, why her face was turning red, why it was happening so often or why it was happening around him.

"You're lying," the Kazekage contradicted.

"N- no! I'm alright! I only…"

"You only don't have enough strength left to rise up on your own," Gaara said, looking into her eyes. The girl averted her eyes, blushing even more. The silence fell, and she interrupted it after a short time.

"I'm sorry …"

"Don't apologize. Sit down and tell me what's wrong with you," the Kazekage commanded, pointing at the bench with his head.

Matsuri obeyed his command, sitting next to her teacher on the wooden seat. She did it with a slight resistance, because she didn't want the redhead to think of her as a little girl… A weak, little girl. A moment of silence fell once again. The Kazekage sighed, turning to his student.

"Explain yourself."

"It's my fault…" the kunoichi admitted quietly.

"Yours?"

"..."

"Matsuri," Gaara said. "Look at me." The girl obeyed his command. "I'm not angry or disappointed with you in any way. I just want to know what's wrong with you."

The brunette breathed deeply, preparing herself to talk.

"You know, because of the approaching exam, I didn't take any missions lately… I'm just…I'm just nervous about this…"

"To the point, if you may," the Kazekage said, his hands crossed on his chest.

"…I d- don't feel very confident about my nomination… B- because of that, I'm training intensively to… to be worthy of the title of jounin… and-"

"How long did you train today?" Gaara interrupted her suddenly. „You are exhausted and in this case, there is no way for you to continue this training."

"About… seven hours…" she admitted after a moment.

"You overdid it. Furthermore, I think you hurt yourself," the redhead said.

"N- no! I'm just tired, that's all!" Matsuri negated hastily, a little too hastily to be believable.

"Take your gloves off," Gaara ordered suddenly.
"P- pardon me?"

"I ordered you to take your gloves off. "

The girl obeyed his order reluctantly. It turned out that her knuckles of her index and middle fingers were bruised and raw. Gaara sighed.

„Just as I thought. You are not only exhausted from the training, but you also have injures… What other parts of your body you managed to damage as well?

"You have won, Gaara-sama," she said, feeling guilty and staring at floor. "I have damaged almost every part of the body, which are used for attacking… also my arms hurts terribly…"

"Why aren't you being honest with me?" he asked her with no anger, even though he felt bad about her behaviour.

"... I don't want you to think that I'm weak, Gaara-sama…" she mumbled, while watching her knees.

The Kazekage flinched imperceptibly. A long moment of silence fell, durning of which the redhead remembered an event from six months ago…

Gaara watched his student, who has been training in order to master Lightning Element. The Kazekage had to admit that Matsuri's progress was pretty much rapid – she seemed to be quite talented in chakra control. For now she has succeeded in wrinkling around the center of the leaf. She stopped for the brief moment, sending Gaara short look, but then proceeded with the exercise. However, her teacher's voice stopped her:

"Enough for today, Matsuri," he affirmed, rising from the bench.

"But Gaara-sama, I'm still able to keep going!" she gasped, wiping sweat from her forehead with her palm.

"No. You have used too much chakra," he replied.
"But Gaara-sama…"

"No," he said with a tone of finality "I still have some duties, so I cannot watch over you for today anymore. Besides, you are already exhausted."

The brunette lowered her head, asking reproachfully:

"Why… why don't you believe in me, Gaara-sama?"

Turquoise-eyed boy didn't reply instantly, thinking for a while. Soon, he spoke with an emotionless voice:

"It's not about my faith in you, Matsuri. You just shouldn't continue your training today."

"I want to improve my skills, Gaara-sama!" she called, her onyx eyes looking at her sensei's face „I want to be strong! I have enough reason to…"

"Matsuri," the Kazekage started, confused a little. However, his student didn't stop here:

"…be strong! I want to protect people who are important to me… I can't afford to lose someone important… Not again!" she continued. The redhead decided to not interrupt her, because he knew that the death of her parents was the reason she decided to become a kunoichi. "You said it yourself, Gaara-sama, that ninja becomes strong, when he's fighting not for himself, but for others. I want to fight for Suna. For people that needs protection. For your siblings and, what's the most important, for you, Gaara-sama! Please give me some more credit!"

The Kazekage was confused. It was hard for him to explain, why he was feeling so uncomfortable. Matsuri tightened both of her palms on the leaf, flowing her chakra through it once more. The effort made her hiss.

"Matsuri!" the redhead started, seeing his apprentice falling to her knees. He approached her just to see the mix of exhaustion and joy on the girl's face. Matsuri pointed with her head at the leaf, which was perfectly wrinkled now – the sign that she completed the first step of Lightning Release training. Gaara smiled faintly on the girl.

"Good job," he said, his voice a little warmer than usual "Forgive me my lack of faith. You deserve way more credit…"

'This time it's not about my faith. She is completely exhausted, ' Gaara thought, looking at his student. She glanced at him, noticing that her sensei's eyes weren't neutral anymore. "Please, stand up," the Kazekage said, rising himself from a bench.

Matsuri did as she was told. To her amazement, her sensei lifted her and carried bridal style. The girl's face took on the colour of ripe cherry. She cringed in the redhead's embrace.

"B- but…" she stuttered nervously.

"Hm?" Gaara looked at her. "You have a fever?" he inquired when he saw the ruby tint staining his student's face.

"N- no, it's just…" Matsuri clearly didn't know what to say. 'What if he finds out how I feel about him?' she asked herself inwardly.

"I guess it is just like the old times, right?" the former Jinchuuriki asked, wrongly interpreting actions of the teen girl.

After she became his student, their training sessions during a few initial months were so intensive that he had to carry her out of the dojo. Only then, she never felt so embarrassed and excited at the same time… After all, back then she didn't consider him the most amazing man in the world...

The sound of her name uttered by her beloved Kazekage knocked her out from her reverie.

"Y- yes?"

"You're burning with fever. Are you ill? " Gaara asked seriously, scanning her face with his pale eyes.

"N- no, I'm just…" She didn't quite know what she exactly was. Excited? Happy? Nervous? "… I'm just tired, that's all." she lied.

In a response, the young Kazekage started to move towards the door, and opened it using his sand, while still carrying his student bridal style. Matsuri knew, where Gaara was taking her. After a minute, which seemed to last hours to her, the Kazekage brought her to her private room. The former Jinchuuriki opened the door, using his sand again and entered Matsuri's place. Her room was a regular guest-room with bathroom, and Gaara allowed her to use this particular room as her own since he had started teaching her. Thanks to his kindness, Matsuri didn't have to live in her parents' old house anymore. The house was too big for her, and it was too difficult to maintain – to put it bluntly, it was impossible to maintain for an academy student or a genin. For those reasons, the girl was very thankful to her teacher. Having no concerns about her old house anymore, she gladly was adding some of her money for the mansion, even if she never had to. The Kazekage approached the edge of her bed, and laid her down gently. Nearly instantly, the girl has changed her position to a sitting one. After that, Gaara spoke:

„Matsuri, wait here for me."

„But, Gaara-sama…"

„It's an order," he said firmly with an emotionless expression on his face.

After that, he exited his student's room. Matsuri sighed, her thoughts wandering around her thoughts following her sensei. As a kunoichi, she always worked hard. Actually, she had two main reasons to become stronger. First reason was her desire to protect people – it was only natural to someone, who lost her parents. Second reason was no one else but her teacher, Gaara. She fell in love in him quite long time ago, she had never declared her feeling for him, because she was afraid of his reaction. She was afraid that he wouldn't feel the same, that he would never want to be her boyfriend. Furthermore, he could not only reject her, but also cut that little bond of friendship they shared.

Actually, Gaara wasn't her first crush. Her interest in boys continuously grew for a few years already, even before she got the chuunin rank. Unfortunately, she never had enough courage to approach any of them because it seemed to her that they preferred good-looking girls, Sari for example. Then the time had come when she noticed that she developed a feeling towards Gaara, which was much stronger than a simple teenage crush. At first, she didn't know what it was and it scared her a bit, but then she realized that she loved him. She knew that she could draw his attention only with her skills as a kunoichi. Because how else that could be done? In her opinion, she was a girl of an average beauty. That was true that there were a few boys who had asked her out before. Even Toushiro Ichi, one of the most promising young jounins of Sunagakure, had once asked her out. However, she turned all of them down, since she had realized already that she was in love with her sensei. From Matsuri's point of view, her beloved one was a good-looking young man, with gorgeous, bloody-red hair, beautiful aqua eyes and marvelous kanji sign, tattooed on his left temple. But there was something more to it. Gradually, he had become the most important and reliable person to her at the same time, since after losing her parents she never had anyone or anything to cling to.

The kunoichi has once thought of speaking of her feelings with Temari, but she decided it would only bring extremely unpleasant results. Why would Kazekage's sister allow mere clumsy chuunin girl, lacking of any talent, to date her brother? That would be a dishonour…

Suddenly, familiar dry voice forced Matsuri to come back to reality.

„Matsuri…"

„G- Gaara-sama! You surprised me… Wait a second, what's this?" Matsuri asked, noticing a bottle and bandages in Gaara's hands.

„I'll take care of your injuries," the Kazekage said seriously.

„N- no! T- there is no need for that!" The kunoichi blushed. Was he really going to treat her like she was a weak, little girl?

„Yes, there is. Otherwise you don't recover before jounin exam. This ointment should soothe your pain and also make regeneration process of bone and muscle tissues faster. As a chuunin, you should be already aware of that."

The teenage girl nodded slowly knowing that resistance was pointless.

„Matsuri, we will start from your tibias. Please take your stockings off" said the Kazekage.

The brunette, her hands shaking, did as he said, exposing her legs in front of Gaara. The redhead started to applying ointment on her shins. In spite of a slight burning, caused by the treatment, she was enjoying her teacher's touch although she tried to hide it. Once done, the young Kazekage bandaged both of her tibias. Luckily, Matsuri was reasonable enough to not damage her heels – had she done so, she would have problems even with walking. The next parts of her body Gaara treated were her palms, and fingers. She enjoyed it, too. Only this time she had to put more effort into hiding her emotions from him.

„You said that your shoulders were hurting too, right?" the redhead asked.

The brunette nodded in a response, feeling nervous. The Kazekage started applying ointment on her arms. Matsuri shivered at his touch. Despite the tension building between the two, Matsuri wanted her sensei to treat her for as long as possible.

Gaara could feel the heat, raging under her skin. Why was she reacting like that? Surprisingly to him, he noticed that the girl was very excited, especially when he was applying ointment to her arms, sliding his hands under the short sleeves of her shirt. The Kazekage finished the treatment, confused. His student's smooth skin was very warm, he could see her quivering slightly. He didn't know why, but suddenly he found himself just… relaxed.

'Why?' he asked himself but he couldn't find an answer. After a long moment of silence, he spoke to the teenage girl:

„Matsuri, I want you to rest until the jounin exam."

„But…"

„Listen," he interrupted her gently. „Don't worry about your skills. In order to reach your full potential, you need to rest."

„But Gaara-sama, I'm still not strong enough and-„

„You are good enough to give a jounin exam a try. You may have lived as a kunoichi only for four years, and yet in some areas you're beyond chunin already. I appreciate this," said Gaara, smiling with his eyes to brunette's surprise.

„I… Thank you, Gaara-sama!" the kunoichi spoke, smiling, her face tinted with pink

„I have to go now." the Kazekage has informed her after a short silence.

„It's alright, Gaara-sama."

„Rest well," the readhead said and exited the room.

Matsuri sighed and lay down on her bed, reflecting on what Gaara had told her. Was is possible that all of her efforts in training were appreciated by the most important person to her? By her teacher… By her love. 'Who knows, maybe this day has some positive sides?' she thought, clueless that the young Kazekage had similar thoughts at the moment.