I just thought it's about time that I wrote something close to a one-shot. I've been meaning to write a GaaSaku, and this story just popped into my head moments ago. All I've thought of was the introduction, and I don't know where this might lead to as the story progresses. In other words, please just think about this one as a past time write-up for an insomniac who just found out a way to spend the whole night. Thank you.

P.S. Safe Ride and Paper Walls is ON HIATUS. I'm self-beta-ing them, since I can't afford to get a beta for my stories. :P

P.P.S. Long one-shot is long. And, an OOC Gaara is OOC.

P.P.P.S. This whole shit was done in ONE NIGHT.

EDIT: I decided to split this one-shot into parts.

NARUTO belongs to you-know-who. Like, come on, Kishimoto pwns everyone.

Kazekage-sensei

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-GaaSaku-

Sakura didn't care anymore.

She didn't give a damn on how fine the day was before she went to the Hokage tower for a meeting. She didn't give a hoot on why the villagers were very lively and busy that day. She didn't give a shit on how her mentor, much to her surprise, had mildly explained the whole matter to her and her fellow chuunin.

Her most awaited 10 days off had been cut down to one because of an unexpected problem during the winter break. The Academy had fallen short on staff: many chuunin teachers had passed the final jounin exam for the year, which effectively slashed two-thirds of the teacher population inside the school. Plus, there were many students who had failed some subjects which required them to attend classes during the whole break.

Sakura groaned as she walked lazily back to her home. Her one and a half week of vacation had been swept away from her hands. She sneered as her mentor's words rung back to her head like an alarm clock.

"All of you are going to work as temporary teachers to these children for a whole week." Tsunade said as she waved the list of students in front of the chuunin. "For those who were expecting their winter vacation, I suggest that you forget about it. You are now dismissed."

"Fuck!" Sakura cursed aloud. She also had just rushed out of the hospital just to attend that goddamned meeting, and she knew she had just spent all of her strength and chakra on tending to her patients. "Bullshit!"

"Why are you screaming such profanities so shamelessly at this late hour, kunoichi?"

Sakura almost jumped from where she was standing. She was shocked to see Suna's Kazekage, standing in all his glory, just steps away from her house. "Well?" he asked again.

"Nothing," she sighed. "I just knew I had to scream out my frustrations. Fancy meeting you here, Kazekage-sama."

"Gaara," he replied monotonously. "Just call me Gaara. I think I'm close to forgetting my own name."

Sakura snorted. Did…did he just make a joke? The infamous cold-blooded Kazekage of Suna had just cracked a joke right before her very eyes. She didn't know if she'd laugh or what.

"All right," Sakura recomposed herself. "Gaara. So, what brings you here in Konoha? It's very unusual for a high official like you to enter the gates of a neighboring village."

"I was bored," he replied smoothly.

"You were…bored?" Sakura gawked.

"Let's just say…" Gaara faced the draw bridge on his right. "I went here to escape."

Sakura looked at him indifferently. She examined the Kazekage's features while he wasn't looking. The last time she saw him, she was sure he was just as tall as she was, but now he stood some inches taller than her. He also grew up as a very fine man; he had developed well and became very, very attractive.

"You know, it's very rude to stare," Gaara commented. Sakura immediately tore her gaze away from his body. She realized that she had been staring at him longer than she should. "I'm not staring!" She hurriedly turned her face to the draw bridge on her left with a heavy blush.

"Right. Well, I guess I should be going now," Gaara began to walk towards the direction of the Hokage tower. He passed Sakura, slightly bumping their shoulders.

Moments later, she was alone. And she swore she saw him smirk as he left.

"Temari-san?"

"Oh, Sakura-chan!" The blonde sand-nin approached her with a big smile on her face. "It's been a while. How are you?"

Sakura returned her smile. "Doing great, Temari-san. It's nice to see you here so early in the morning. Are you here for a vacation?"

"No, no," Temari waved her hands in denial. "I'm on a mission right now. By the way, are you on this mission, too? About the problems with the Academy?"

Sakura sneered at the memory. "Well, yeah… My vacation was cancelled."

Temari noticed the gloom on Sakura's façade. "I see. If I were you I would just shrug the whole thing off. I know you're a hard worker, Sakura-chan, so don't worry. I'm sure these stupid missions will pay off." She patted the pink-haired woman's head.

"Thanks, Temari-san. Wait, were you sent by the Hokage, too?"

"Yes. Konoha kinda borrowed five nin from Suna. That'd include me and Kankuro. To tell you the truth, I was shocked to find out everything about the shortage. But I'm glad I'll get to teach some students for the first time."

Sakura pondered for a while. "You, and Kankuro-san?" she asked.

"Well, yes. Actually, Gaara came with us, too. I don't know why, but he suddenly offered to participate with the mission. Some elders disagreed, though. But still, he insisted to go." Temari explained. "By the way, this'll be our longest stay in Konoha."

"You're right," Sakura chuckled. "Well, maybe all of those Kazekage stuff are starting to rub on him. Actually, I saw him last night on my way home. He told me about…escaping?"

Temari let out a small laugh. "Really? It's the stress, alright. He's been working on sorting some missions just recently. I thought being an insomniac was pretty convenient. I never thought he'd mention the word escape." She chortled. "It's very un-Gaara-ish."

The two girls laughed together until they were greeted by Shikamaru on the sidewalk. "Good morning."

"Good morning, lazy ass." The two girls said in unison. Shikamaru scratched the back of his head and mumbled something about girls being troublesome.

"Well, Sakura-chan, I have to go. Since today's free, why not make the most of it?" Temari waved goodbye.

"Thanks, Temari-san." Sakura was about to walk the opposite direction when she saw Shikamaru drape an arm across Temari's shoulder.

"Are those two…going out?"

The Next Day --

"Okay! I think that's the lot." Sakura closed her lesson booklet and rushed out of her room. She shoved her arms inside her jacket's sleeves and put on a pair of winter boots. She pulled a scarf from the counter and went for the door. "I think I'm too early for today's classes. Hm, I might as well read the extra pages when I get there."

It took her only a few minutes to get to the Academy. She was about to go in when she saw Iruka walking by the entrance.

"Iruka-sensei!" Sakura greeted him. "It's been a while! By the way, congratulations! You made it to Jounin."

Iruka smiled back and gave his old student a pat on the head. "Thanks, Sakura-chan. Anyway, you don't have to call me sensei anymore. It's been years since your batch graduated."

"Then senpai it is," she replied with glee. She was really happy for her old teacher. School duties had frozen him to chuunin level, and she knows that it was mostly because of his fondness for kids. She was glad he took time in taking the Jounin exams. "Right, Iruka-senpai?"

Iruka blushed a beet red. He chuckled and waved his hand up and down. "W-well… I'm kind of...still not used to being called senpai," he replied. "But thanks. Anyway, are you one of the chosen ones?"

"Gah, senpai! Don't make it sound like it's a gift or something." Sakura sneered. "I should be sniffing on some hot coco right now, you know."

Iruka let out a laugh. "Many other chuunin were actually complaining about it, too. Hm, let's see…" He took out a piece of paper from his bag and handed it to Sakura. "I just thought you might need this."

Sakura took the paper and read the title aloud. "10 Useful Tips on Handling Children…? Hah! I really need this, Iruka-sens—I mean, senpai. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome." Iruka smiled. "Well, I guess I should be going now. I'll go see Kakashi and the rest to have a nice drink."

"Okay. Be careful, senpai!" Sakura waved as she watched her old teacher walk away.

Sakura walked across the hallway and looked around. It felt so…nostalgic. It had been six years since she had her last steps inside the Academy. She was still the 12-year-old schoolgirl back then that everyone teased. She inwardly laughed at the memories and continued to walk forward.

She hadn't realized that she was leading herself to their old classroom. She stopped and slid the door open and breathed in the scent of winter. The room was still the same. She could still see the carved vandals made by Naruto and Kiba on the teacher's table. She smiled as she recalled Iruka-sensei screaming the living daylights out of the two for drawing a penis with a flower bud sprouting on top of it. She also hadn't realized that she was already laughing by herself.

Moving on, she walked towards her old seat where she found some of her own scribbles. They were small words and doodles, but what caught her attention was the "SasuSaku" and "U+S" she found on the lower right corner of her table. She chuckled at the memory.

'Uchiha Sakura, huh?'

She ran her fingers across the mark and smiled. She had already moved on from her first crush; she realized that it was not love at all. She had only wanted Sasuke because she cared for him. She realized it during the talks she shared with Naruto as they reminisced the old memories they had with their departed friend. It was very heartbreaking, and before Sakura knew it, tears welled up from her eyes.

She knew she shouldn't be crying. She knew she wasn't crying because of her first heartbreak. She knew that her tears were for her teammates. Ever since Sasuke had departed and Naruto continued his training outside the village, Team Seven was no more. Sure, she had missions with Kakashi, Yamato and Sai, but it just wasn't the same without her two boys. She and Naruto had already talked about it, and decided that they'd be Team Seven again if and only if Sasuke would return. She knew that Naruto said it just to raise their hopes up and never give up.

But Sasuke never returned; at least, for Sakura and Naruto, not yet.

She wiped her tears with her scarf and fixed herself. She walked down from the center aisle and went for the door. In hopes to distract herself from the sudden flashback, she took out the piece of paper Iruka had handed to her earlier and made her way towards the faculty room.

She had expected that she'd be the first to arrive at the room, but when she slid the door open, she nearly dropped her bag. She didn't expect that he'd be here so early in the morning. She drank in the sight of him: slouched on his chair with his legs settled on his table, wearing a dark sweater and dark denim pants. He wore a smaller version of his hitai-ate plate as a pendant.

For a split second, Sakura forgot to breathe. She was torn away from her reverie when the object of her attention dropped his legs to the floor and stood up.

"Oh, it's you." Gaara spoke. "You're early."

It took all of her willpower to keep herself from drooling. He looked so…so much sexier on his feet. She caught her breath and replied, "I'm…well, I just thought I might be able to study the lessons I'll be teaching today here in the faculty room."

Gaara slouched back down on his seat and continued onto his readings. "I see," he flipped a page and paused to look at her. "You're staring again."

Sakura fought back her blush and glared angrily at him. "I'm not!" She proceeded to her seat and took her books out. "It's just that…you're being out of character today."

"Out of character?" Gaara replied from his seat. "What do you mean?"

"Well… You look…" Sakura stuttered. She couldn't find the right words to say. 'You look hot. You look gorgeous. You look so sexy.'

"You look…different." She managed to say. "Maybe it's because I got used to seeing you with your gourd always strapped on your back." She breathed after.

Gaara turned his revolving chair to face her, much to Sakura's surprise. "Ah, that," he placed his leg on the table beside Sakura's. "I don't want to scare the kids. Besides, I don't want to wear my robes here." He replied smoothly and fixed his eyes back to his reading once more.

Not knowing what to reply anymore, Sakura simply replied with a nod and tried to focus her attention to her own notes. Moments later, she found herself very distracted at the male just a few steps away from her. She could hardly remember everything she had read the previous night, and she couldn't bring herself to understand the notes she had taken down while reading them.

Noticing the tension emanating from his company, Gaara inwardly smirked and looked at her. She was hardly the girl she was when he last saw her some three years ago. She was wearing a white top underneath her brown collared jacket with a green and white striped scarf looped around her shoulders. He was slightly disappointed that her outfit hid some of her curves, but her dark skirt which stopped around mid-thigh exposed her smooth thighs. The rest of her legs were covered with dark winter boots.

With the smirk still plastered on his face, he continued to stare at her features.

The last time they met was when she and old lady Chiyo performed a jutsu to bring him back to life. He was told that the process nearly took five straight hours to complete, and all he could hear and feel during that time was her. Only her. Until now he could still feel the warmth of her chakra as it coursed through his body during the operation.

When he recovered and finally departed their ways, Gaara found himself craving for that warmth again. He tried to forget about it by dousing himself in paper works and preparing missions. For three years he had done a great job as Kazekage of Suna, and the elders and officials knew nothing about the cause of his hard work. For three years, he had controlled himself. He was glad that he was relieved of bloodlust, and he only used his skills for the good of his people, and these people knew nothing of his misery.

For three years, he had changed, but he then realized that the craving didn't die down at all. It was unbearable.

Until the Hokage of Konohagakure had sent him a letter using one of the messenger hawks; Konoha needed help. For the first time in years, Gaara felt alive. He immediately replied to the Hokage's request without even letting the elders know about the details of the mission. He included his name on the list of volunteers. The B-ranked mission became an A-rank, seeing the participation of the Kazekage on the mission.

When the elders found out about it, they had strongly denied the Kazekage of his involvement with the mission, yet Gaara insisted. After several meetings and arguments, he had convinced the elders to let him off for two weeks. He told them he wanted to stay in Konoha for the whole winter break.

Gaara wasn't an idiot. He knew that he had fallen for the pink-haired woman who had put her own life on the line just to save his. When she found him near her apartment two nights ago, he was surprised to see her cussing and screaming through the night air. She looked so stressed back there, and he fought the urge to grab her shoulders and crush her into his chest for all that he's worth. He just bumped their shoulders to relieve him of his tension and walked away. When he was sure he was far enough from her, he finally released the smile he had been meaning to let out when he saw her.

And now, here he was, staring intently at the woman who had been the cause of his misery, who had obliviously plagued his mind every single day, who had unconsciously stolen his heart even though she was a million miles away from him.

Reviews are nice, people!