Emerald Sand

Disclaimer: I Don't Own Naruto

Nurses were running everywhere in the busy hospital. During a party, a house burned down with twenty-seven people inside of it. Thankfully, nobody died, but the fires inflicted some serious burns on the party guests.

On top of that, Naruto's team had just come back from a mission, and of course Naruto underestimated his opponent. Because of this, he managed to break his leg, and he also managed to obtain some other injuries.

Since Naruto passed out on the battle field, his team members reluctantly came to help him, and they got injured as well.

After hours of hard work, everything in the hospital settled down. The nurses were ordered to go home.

Except for Sakura. She didn't want to go back to her lonely apartment, so she volunteered to check up on the patients one last time.

"Room 45" Sakura thought; Naruto's room. She entered and found Naruto sleeping. He was snoring slightly, and all of a sudden he mumbled: "Hinata..."

Sakura couldn't keep herself from smiling. Naruto had finally realized that Hinata had liked him for a long time, and he actually returned her feelings. They have been going out for two years now. She then proceeded to check his condition.

'Nothing too serious. He's stable, and his vitals are good.' She thought. She wrote down the current status of his wounds on her clipboard.

She looked at Naruto once more, and she was sure he was awake. His breathing wasn't even anymore, and she saw his lips were trying to repress a grin. She smirked and left the room, giving him the satisfaction of whatever he wanted to accomplish by pretending he was asleep.

She had one more patient to check up on. Sakura looked down at her list.

Room 46: Subaku No Gaara.

"Joy." Sakura said aloud.

They're both eighteen now. By this age Gaara had become the Kazekage, and Sakura had become a strong, respected kunoichi.

Tsunade often sent Sakura on important missions to Suna. During these missions, she had to meet with Gaara to discuss many important factors that would hopefully gain the Kazekage's trust, which would strengthen the ties between Konoha and Suna.

But something didn't feel right. Gaara has never been wounded, because he couldn't be.

With curiosity, she opened the door and found him sleeping. She looked down at her clipboard once more. She was supposed to re-bandage his forehead.

'Simple enough,' She thought. But that still didn't explain how he got injured...

Hoping to find an explanation, she looked down at her clipboard. She had hoped that one of the other nurses would have asked Gaara for the history of the wound, and she had also hoped that nurse wrote it down.

She took a step forward, and without paying attention to where she was going, she stubbed her toe on the side of his bed.

"Holy shit!" She shouted.

Of course, that woke Gaara up. While turning on the lamp on his bedside table, he directed his head toward the noise that woke him up. He saw Sakura hopping on one foot, while clutching the other. After the pain in her toe started to dull, she looked at Gaara. He was wide awake, staring at her.

Sakura smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry." She said, bowing her head.

Gaara continued to look at her. Sakura chuckled nervously as she turned away to get more bandages. She then proceeded to get some cotton balls, along with some water. She put the materials on his bed while she sat on the stool beside him.

"What are you doing?" Gaara asked in a cold voice.

"Um, I'm supposed to change your bandages." She replied, in a much friendlier tone.

"Hn." Was all Gaara said.

She reached up and took off the old bandages, disposing of them in a nearby bin. When she looked back at Gaara she went into shock. The Kanji tattoo on his forehead was retraced with a bright red color. It looked ghastly.

Gaara smirked while he saw Sakura's eyes widen. She collected herself, dipped a cotton ball in water, and started dabbing his forehead.

Gaara closed his eyes.

She threw away the cotton balls as well. She took the new bandages, and started wrapping it around his forehead.

At that precise moment, Naruto burst into the room. This went unnoticed by Sakura. Naruto looked at Gaara and brought his finger up to his lips, indicating him to be quiet.

Naruto had bandages wrapped around his leg, and a few bandages here and there. Sakura was still concentrated on the task before her. Just as soon as she finished tying them, Naruto pushed Sakura on to Gaara's lap.

Sakura blinked a few times. Then she spotted Naruto laughing uncontrollably.

"Naruto, you BAKA!" She yelled.

Naruto whistled at the sight before him. It wasn't everyday you saw Sakura on top of Gaara.

A vein popped in Sakura's head, which make Naruto gulp.

"Uhhh... See you later, Sakura-chan!!"

Naruto said, nervously, while he left the room.

"Haruno, get off me!" Gaara yelled, obviously irritated.

Sakura quickly got off and mumbled a 'sorry' to him. While muttering unintelligible words about Naruto, Tsunade burst into the room. Both of the ninjas gave Tsunade their full attention.

"Good, both of you are here."

Sakura looked questionably at her mentor.

"I have a mission for you Sakura. You will go to Suna and help Gaara find a wife. How you find a wife for him is up to you. You will be leaving tomorrow. I bid you two goodnight."

Tsunade then quickly left the room, afraid that the two shinobi would attack her. She would have to deal with them tomorrow after all... 'I need sake.' Was the only thought in Tsunade's mind.

Sakura and Gaara stared at the door. As the information sink in, Gaara froze.

"A wife," Sakura began. "I have to help you find a wife." She was beginning to repeat Tsunade.

Sakura stared, dumfounded, at Gaara.

"What?" Gaara said, clearly clueless.

"Well, by this age, since you are Kazekage, in order for you to keep your 'title', you need to, um, marry." Sakura explained, remembered her studies on marriages of ninjas. She looked at Gaara.

She could tell he was raging with anger.

"Uhh... I'm going to go now. Goodnight." She left quickly, not wanting to witness an even angrier Kazekage. She'd have to talk to Tsunade.

Hehe, I know this was kind of sudden... but I couldn't find a better way to throw it all in. the next chapters will be better. Thanks for reading :D R&R

darkXmai