The gates of Suna were finally visible to the kunoichi as she was sprinting along the sand to the village. The pinkette sighed a little as she recalled why she was there anyways, a certain blonde haired fan-wielder said that she needed her help with something and it was urgent. Usually when a sand shinobi says urgent, it's urgent, so rather than waiting until the next day to leave Sakura decided to pack up and leave right then and there. Unfortunately for her, she didn't bother to check the weather because as she reached the Suna gates the rain started to fall relentlessly.
"Who goes there?!" One of the Suna guards shouted as they saw her approach, they couldn't see her too well with the rain falling.
"It's Sakura Haruno, from Konoha." Sakura shouted over the rain towards the guards as they approached her to verify her identity.
"What brings you here, medical-nin?" The guard addressed her.
"Temari requested my presence." Sakura lazily replied back, the rain was starting to rain down even more.
"Sakura!" A brunette called out from one of the posts and quickly made her way over to her to tackle her in an embrace.
"Matsuri! How've you been?" Sakura hugged her back watching the other guards go back to their posts to shield their selves from the rain.
"Good! You're here for Temari? Well, better get out of the rain soon it's going to be a bad storm. She should be home right now." Matsuri informed her before pointing in the general direction of the home and saying bye to her pink-haired friend.
Sakura waved her thanks and began walking towards the direction Matsuri pointed, the rain was coming down even harder now as it soaked her hair. Sakura was not all that familiar with Suna's layout, her best friend Naruto came here all the time to see the village's kazekage, but Sakura usually stayed in Konoha to train.
As the kunoichi passed the kazekage building she saw a house residing closer to the building than the others, she was assuming that was where Temari was. Sakura picked up her walking pace and hoped that Temari was home. With three loud knocks on the door, the pinkette stood in the raining with her arms crossed. But, the figure that ended up opening the door was not who Sakura would imagine would greet her.
Then again, it wasn't an actual greet as opposed to a glare. Before her stood the village's kazekage, Gaara. To Sakura he always seemed very unwelcoming, heck, he usually glared or ignored her whenever Naruto brought him to Konoha to hang out with him or if they saw him during a mission. She was beginning to think the redhead just flat out did not like her.
"Greetings, Kazekage. T-Temari asked me to come to Suna for something urgent." Sakura stuttered out a bit, not out of intimidation but from the cold rain, it was starting to make her shiver.
Gaara took notice of this and looked at the girl before him, he hadn't really noticed her since his death incident, she was one of the medical-nins that tried her best to revive him before lady Chiyo sacrificed her own life to bring Gaara back. To him Sakura looked older than when he first met her during the chuunin exams.
Her light pink hair has gotten longer, it reached her mid-back and curled a bit at the edges. He's always found her hair color interesting considering Konoha had only one pink haired individual. She appeared a little taller, but he was still taller than her. He even noticed that her curves were more profound… Gaara shook his head at this as a way to clear his thoughts and looked back at the girl with his usual glare.
"Temari isn't home." He finally answered back.
"Oh… where'd she go?" the kunoichi frowned a little.
"Her and Kankuro had to attend to something… they didn't really say what." Gaara thought a bit about it, remembering his older sister and brother leave without much to say.
"Ah, well sorry to have bothered you, kazekage." Sakura bowed lightly and turned to leave, the disappointment on her face was all but unnoticed. Before she completely walked away from the door, Gaara grabbed her arm lightly. "Come in." he said briefly. She turned around surprised and saw him walk further into his home, she shivered once more as her body's way of telling her that the cold rain was still falling. Afraid of falling ill, Sakura walked into the warm house and stood in the doorway watching Gaara walk away.
The redhead turned back to her, "you're welcome in our home." Gaara informed her watching her shaking form in the doorway.
"Thank you, kazekage." Sakura addressed him so formally, to this Gaara kind of frowned.
"We're friends, you've known me for quite some time now, please call me Gaara." He turned back towards the living room and sat down on the couch, playing the movie he was watching prior to the knocking interruption. Sakura soon walked into the living room, her shaking seemed to lessen, but not by much as she sat down on the opposite end of the couch and joined him in watching the movie.
After a few minutes she spoke, "Are you watching the Titanic?" Sakura's face brightened with the smile that played along her lips as well as a stifled giggle. Gaara sent a glare to her that made the smile quickly disappear.
"Mn." Was all the he replied with as she shifted uncomfortably from the other side of the couch. After a few more scenes, she spoke again, "I'm sorry if you thought I was making fun of you… I just didn't think you're the kind of person to watch movies like this." Sakura's apologetic tone caught his attention as he turned his head towards her, her arms still were crossed over her chest and she shivered lightly. Without a word the sand-nin got up and grabbed one of the blankets from the closet, unfolding it as he walked back to the couch where the disappointed pinkette hid a sad expression along her pale face. Before she turned around, Gaara placed the blanket along her shoulders and sat back down on the couch.
"Thank you." She smiled towards him before wrapping herself up in the blanket, Gaara nodded before looking away to hide a slight blush he had, the blanket he grabbed from the closet was one Temari got him for his birthday 3 years ago. It was a crimson red blanket with the black markings that matched the symbol on his forehead.
Sakura's shivering finally stopped after a few minutes and she seemed to be enjoying the movie. Gaara turned towards her again, what she didn't realize is that though he seemed to be watching the movie he still watched her out of the corner of his eye. For some odd reason, he seemed to be more interested in the medical-nin than the movie. Interrupting his own thoughts he asked "would you like anything to drink?"
"Oh, hm. Do you have tea?" Sakura asked, pushing a piece of her pink hair out of her face.
"Mn." Gaara got up and walked into the kitchen before returning with two glasses of tea. They always had tea at his house, unlike Temari and Kankuro's usual coffee brewing in the morning Gaara liked to have tea. It soothed him before attending his kazekage responsibilities. He handed her a glass of tea, her fingers brushed along his as she grabbed the glass and thanked him. Gaara quickly returned to his own seat, the small and unnoticeable hand touch surprised the kazekage as he wasn't used to small interactions like that, he even looked down at his hand before taking a sip from his glass.
Around the middle of the movie their attention was brought back when the sound of glass falling onto the carpeted floor was heard, Sakura looked at Gaara and saw that his glass fell off the coffee table. The redhead got up quickly to get a towel and came back to clean it up, he seemed a little embarrassed.
"Here, I'll get you a new drink." Sakura helped out, reaching down to grab the glass and walking into the kitchen. After washing the cup and finding the tea, she made her way back into the living room and handed it to him. Gaara nodded lightly and managed to thank her almost inaudibly as she sat back down on the couch next to him. He shifted uncomfortably a bit in his seat. 'She probably didn't mean to sit this close…' he concluded to himself before turning towards the movie once more.
Around the end, he saw the pinkette start to doze off, her head bobbing gave her away. Gaara kind of chuckled to himself at this as she completely fell asleep. Her head leaned over onto his shoulder. At this small event, Gaara's face turned red and he silently panicked, 'her head's on my shoulder, of all people it had to be my best friend's pink-haired friend?!' he mentally shouted, 'maybe I can use my sand to push her off…' he was planning before his plans were interrupted by light breathing and more shivering. He looked down at her sleeping form, she was cold. Summoning some sand, he let the sand carry the blanket from the opposite end of the couch to the sleeping girl, covering her up with the fabric.
Though he wanted to push her off and wanted so desperately for the rain to stop so she could leave, another part of him wanted to hold her and fall asleep as well. Though he wouldn't admit it to his blonde haired best friend, he's always had a crush on the pink-haired kunoichi from Konoha. Ever since the fight between him and her when Shukaku was taking over his body that he couldn't quite control he saw how concerned she was for her teammates and her acts of protection over those she held dear. The time he thought he was left for dead as they extracted the demon from him… he didn't expect her to be there trying to bring him back. He did quite enjoy waking up to see her sitting close by, relieved to see him back but the tragic event of losing lady Chiyo was heartbreaking. I guess you could also say his small crush on her developed even further when he'd go visit Naruto and Naruto brought her up, making remarks on her training and her annoying anger issues slowly disappearing and becoming less seen.
'She's been spending all of her time with grandma Tsunade and trying her best to prove that she's strong. She was so sick of sitting on the sidelines and seeing friends get hurt, so she promised herself that she'd give it her all and protect everyone she loves.' Gaara recalled the most Naruto's said about Sakura when they saw her training with Tsunade in one of the fields during Gaara's visit to Konoha.
Gaara looked down at her and what he said next he couldn't tell if he was just tired or if he was just being open, "You've always been a strong and likable ninja." He then pressed his lips against her forehead and kissed it gently. Before long his own breathing lightened up and he fell asleep as he leaned his head on top of hers. Neither of them woke up to the sound of the door opening and Kankuro walking in with Temari.
"Those kids can be so stupid, lighting a fire near their grandmother's house, what the heck were they think—" Kankuro was cut off by Temari's hand as she clasped it over his mouth and put the other hand to a "shush" gesture to her own lips, motioning with her head to the living room. Nodding Kankuro stayed quiet and followed the creeping Temari to the edge of the living room. Temari smiled instantly and nearly giggled as Kankuro chuckled lightly.
"Looks like little brother had some company." He whispered, watching Temari move to the closet and grab another blanket. She walked over to the sleeping ninjas and placed the cover over Gaara who only seemed to shift lightly in his sleep, surprisingly not waking up but wrapping his arms around Sakura.
Temari pushed Kankuro up the stairs and told him they need to get some sleep for the mission tomorrow, so Kankuro left. Before she resided to her own bedroom, Temari turned off the lights downstairs and smiled at the sleeping ninjas on the couch before going to bed.