I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

Supernova

She'd never noticed until she found herself leaning over his inert figure, pushing her chakra into a body that no longer had use for it. When the dull realisation hit her, Naruto had already rushed past her with a howl of stricken grief and thrown himself over the body, and the thought was too easily swept aside by the rising lump in her own throat as she blinked back hot tears.

She thought she'd never have the chance to ask. Even after staring wondrously at him and crying into Chiyo's limp shoulder, the thought didn't occur to her. It remained that way even when he knocked on her door with a snoring Naruto buoyed on a bed of sand behind him.

The sight of him confounded her for a second. Hastily, Sakura reached for her teammate. "Sorry, he's a bit of a bother sometimes… why is his face all wet?"

The sand bed tipped slightly so that Naruto slowly slid into her waiting arms. Before Sakura could buckle under the sudden weight, Gaara had reached out to take the blonde by the elbow. She glanced gratefully up at him. "He fell asleep in his ramen," he told her in response.

Sakura sighed and shot her slumbering teammate a wry look. "Why am I not surprised?"

Together, the two of them managed to haul Naruto into his room, with Gaara's sand taking the brunt of his weight. They decided to leave his hair soppy with miso soup. Gaara reasoned that it would be kinder to let him rest rather than wake him trying to wash it out. Sakura had other ideas. "He's slept through two buckets of cold water before. It's better to let him learn his lesson this way."

Gaara had raised his eyebrow with his head tilted at a small angle. After he'd left, Sakura eventually deciphered the strange look as she lay awake on her futon: Gaara had been curious.

Naruto's thunderous snores in the next room kept her awake. Usually, whenever they stayed at an inn, Sakura would shut both of their doors and sometimes even burrowed her head beneath her pillow for good measure. But after what had happened in the past two days, Sakura felt the need to know that her best friend was safe, breathing and alive. She would never let Naruto go through what Gaara had.

Still, as the hours slowly trickled by, the notion of sleep eventually became a luxury and Sakura surrendered. Checking on Naruto once again, she quietly left their cabin. Kakashi was recuperating at the hospital and wasn't around to notice her.

Outside, the chilly desert night made Sakura grateful for the overcoat Temari had lent her. She drew its high collar around her neck now, exhaling a misty breath. For a long moment, she simply stood at doorway, admiring the cold, quiet beauty of Suna. It was nothing like Konoha's running lakes and dense forests. It wasn't home – but Sakura could see how it was, to the people who lived here, irreplaceable.

A light wind stirred the silent streets, making Sakura stiffen. She had overlooked his chakra signature, her senses dulled by security. Only the familiar trace of copper in the breeze gave him away.

Sakura turned around. Seeing him perched on top of the domed building summoned a tendril of surprise, but it faded quickly as jade eyes widened. The sight of the dark, wet blood trickling down his face had reminded her.

She simply stared at him for a while. He stared back. She thought she saw his lips twitch. It wasn't an invitation – far from one – but somehow, she wasn't afraid to join him. As she made her way towards him, Sakura wondered what kind of crazy thoughts she was entertaining. She was looking at the reason for the phantom crushing pressure on her ribs that had plagued her for months of restless nights after her first Chuunin Exam. Not to mention that, ally or not, Gaara was nothing more than the Kazekage to her.

He didn't move, only watched her steadily from the corner of his eye. Sakura cocked her head. He blinked slowly, a thin rivulet of blood dribbling through his fingers to slide down his cheek. That made up her mind for her.

She gestured at the domed surface. "May I?"

She didn't wait for a response and he didn't give her one. But he did shuffle over a little as she lowered herself, giving her enough space to sit beside him without slipping off.

They sat silently. Sakura pulled her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees. She didn't even register that she was idly studying the dark sky until his low voice broke through. "There's Aries."

"Pardon?"

"Aries," he repeated. "Naruto said you had your birthday last week. That makes you an Aries."

She'd have to ask Naruto exactly why he'd felt it necessary to inform the Kazekage of her birthday. Sakura made a mental note of it as she raised her head. "Where?" she asked curiously.

Gaara lifted an arm and pointed to a patch of sky that was partially obscured by the administration building. Sakura shifted around for a better angle, absentmindedly leaning towards her companion. The pungent tang of drying blood rose to meet her as her head neared Gaara's. She froze.

"Do you see it?" he asked patiently.

Swallowing, Sakura nodded. "You like looking at stars?"

Gaara's arm lowered. "My uncle did," he answered shortly. "He had a telescope."

She hesitated. "There was a meteor shower when I was eight. Did your uncle take you to see it?"

His eyes flickered to her face. His gaze was suddenly heavier and the blood on his pale skin reminded Sakura of the bloodthirsty murderer she had seen all those years ago. Her heart sped up a little; she told herself not to flinch. After several long seconds, Gaara shook his head and turned away. "No. I'd stopped looking at stars by then."

"Ah. That's a pity."

Silence slipped between them once more. Sakura tried to study the constellation that she had been born under, but her mind was distracted. As the minutes dragged her, her gaze pulled away from the night sky, drawn to the dark smudges that gleamed against Gaara's collar. Her eyes traced the crimson trails beading at his chin and travelled upward to rest on the stained hand pressed against his forehead.

When his teal eyes shifted to regard hers, Sakura didn't back down. "You shouldn't do that, you know," she said quietly.

He shrugged minutely, the gesture self-conscious. "It's a habit."

"It's a bad habit."

She'd thought he was afraid of bleeding. How could he be, when it was nothing but a routine to him? Did he think it didn't matter this way? Sakura couldn't agree with that. Only a medic would think to suspect the worn kanji that was anything but faded. No one else would have noticed that the strokes were raw and fresh, and that the ragged edges whispered of dozens – no, hundreds – of nights just like the present one which Sakura had stumbled upon.

The steady drip drip of his blood filled the wordlessness. Sakura hugged her knees tighter. "Naruto told me before," she said slowly. In the back of her mind, she wondered why she was whispering. "When you were little, you decided only to love yourself, didn't you?"

Something flashed through his pupils. She knew because she was watching them. Finally, Gaara's lips parted. "This tattoo was my first injury. I did it to myself as a reminder that I am a monster who needs no love but my own."

His monotonous tone made Sakura look away. She was afraid that he would be offended by the pity that glimmered in her eyes and pulled her brow together. She bit her lip. Fixing her gaze on a particularly bright star, she asked softly, "Then why do you keep reopening the wound even now?"

"I told you. To remind myself."

"But… you saw it yourself, didn't you?"

He looked strangely at her. "Saw what?"

"Everyone who came to rescue you… they did it because they love their leader."

If she had been looking, she would have seen Gaara blink. "Love?" he repeated.

At this, Sakura turned her head to give him a puzzled look. "You didn't realise?" she asked, trying to keep the incredulous tone from betraying her emotions.

Gaara frowned. A childlike confusion clouded his eyes. "My village accepts me," he said slowly.

"Your people love you," Sakura told him in an equally hesitant tone. When Gaara's frown deepened, she added, "It's not like a mother's love, or love between siblings. It's subtle and sometimes neither side notices it – but it's there." She watched him, fascinated by the myriad of emotions that she could see in the small furrow of his brow, the vague darkening of his eyes. "A village is a family."

The slight twitch of his lips spoke of faint amusement. "Sounds like something Naruto would say."

Sakura laughed softly. "That's because it is. Word for word." Her eyes softened as they flickered to his forehead once more. They closed briefly while she gathered her thoughts. "That's why I don't think you need to keep reminding yourself. The only thing you love isn't yourself anymore."

Gaara fell silent. Sakura was wary. Sometimes, Naruto went into denial when he finally got what he had been wishing for. But the boy sitting beside her was not Naruto, and Sakura was nowhere near foolish enough to let herself think that, simply by seeing a scar for what it was, she understood Sabaku no Gaara.

"But," he murmured, and Sakura readied herself for it, "I don't want it to fade."

He took her silence as a sign of confusion. "The tattoo," he elaborated. "I want to keep it."

From the look on his face, he hadn't expected Sakura to burst into disbelieving laughter.

Her eyes crinkled with amusement right before his own, and Gaara blinked. "Kami," she chuckled breathlessly. "You really don't know the first thing about injuries, do you?"

Gaara's eyebrow rose inquisitively, almost indignantly. He didn't know how to answer to that.

His solemn but blank expression made it hard for Sakura to stop giggling. She inhaled deep breaths, though the occasional snort threatened to break her tentative composure. "When you get a cut, you bleed – obviously," she explained amusedly. "Then your blood will clot and dry. Eventually, the wound will start to scab while it heals. In your case, it's old and deep enough that without medical attention, it will scar."

"Scar?" Gaara echoed.

"It will close but it won't go away," Sakura said simply. "Doesn't that sound better than this 'habit' of yours?"

Gaara cocked his head, looking just like a curious Naruto. "It won't go away?" he asked after a pause. There was an uncharacteristic persistence in his voice.

Sakura smiled. "No," she assured, as if speaking to a dubious child. "I promise, okay?"

Gaara looked at his unlikely companion. He hadn't heard something so sincere from anyone but Naruto in a while. He pulled his hand away from his forehead to stare at the blood on his palm. It looked inky in the dim light.

A cool hand settled on his sticky brow. He blinked. Then he jerked away. "Don't heal it," he muttered.

He looked so dismayed that Sakura couldn't help but chuckle, already forgetting about the way her inner medic had pulled her arm towards the wound without sensible thought. She smiled gently at Gaara. "I'm only going to make sure it won't get infected. I'll have to heal a couple of layers to do that, but I promise you'll still have a scar." It took great control not to laugh again. The irony of her own words did not escape Sakura.

Gaara frowned back, digesting every detail. Then his head dipped in a terse nod. He let Sakura's fingers flutter on his skin once more and winced unconsciously when she extracted the grit from the wound. Injury was foreign to Sabaku no Gaara.

As her hand glowed a light, healthy green, Sakura found herself watching Gaara's face as she worked. He had closed his eyes – thankfully, since leaning in had put her chest distractingly close to his head. She smiled at his small grimace. If Sakura told anyone that she had been allowed so close to Gaara, most of them would think facing an S-class missing nin like Sasori had taken its toll on her. At that moment, though, Sakura wasn't seeing Gaara as the Kazekage or a jinchuuriki. To her, he was just a boy.

"I still don't understand," she said casually. "You don't need to remind yourself anymore, so why do you want to keep the scar?"

He didn't open his eyes, but Sakura wondered if she hadn't imagined his tense grimace easing a little. "So I don't forget what you said," Gaara replied.

Sakura's hands paused for the briefest of moments. She caught herself quickly enough that she could orchestrate it to make it look like she was studying her handiwork. If he had noticed anything, Gaara didn't mention it. In fact, it was the last time either of them would mention the scar. Their own little secret.

"What star sign are you?"

"I am a Capricorn."

"We can't see that constellation from here, can we?"

"No. It will be close to a year before it returns. You can ask Naruto to show you in Konoha."

"Naruto? He barely knows which direction the sun rises from!"

"I can teach him."

"I think it's easier if you just show me yourself. Much easier."

"You will be in Suna at the right time next year?"

"I… don't know. But it's alright – if not next year, then the one after. We'll be in the right place at the right time eventually." Sakura grinned at him. "We'll have a chance to see it together for as long as you have your scar."

Gaara stared curiously at her, wondering if he would ever be able to smile so easily and earnestly. "Are you sure it won't go away?" he asked again.

Sakura laughed and playfully bumped her shoulder into his. "Yes, Kazekage-sama. I promise."

A/N: The idea came to me in the shower (as they do). Just a different take on Gaara's scar, not really canonical. Only my second time writing GaaSaku so feedback would be nice! Either way, I had fun with this and I hope you guys enjoyed the short ride.