Title: Shukaku Love
Author: pawsbells
Characters/Pairing: Haruno Sakura and Sabaku no Gaara
Type: Continuous (InComplete)
Genre: Romance/Humor
Word Count: 5373
Rating: M (Contains content suitable for mature teens and older)
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto-san.
Summary: She should never have extended her help to him. It was supposed to be a simple healing but it was anything but. Now he was chasing her around the countryside in his bestial form and she still had no idea what she had done to merit his attention.
Chapter Last Revised on: 11/07/08
Chapter Two
"What did you mean just now?"
Was the first thing Gaara heard when he returned to the clearing. The tall redhead ignored the question that the puffed-up little kunoichi was demanding for him to answer. Instead, he looked approvingly at the steady campfire she had effortlessly built in the middle of the small open space that was their rest stop for the night. Dusk was rapidly approaching, and the sky was painted in a kaleidoscope of dark pastel colors. Gaara continued to move closer towards the fire when Sakura threw herself in his path, pink eyebrows knitted together and mouth slightly pursed in a gesture of feminine irritation.
"Answer me."
He stopped before her, and as he stared down at her much smaller form he decided that he had to award her points for her dogged tenacity. Then he wondered inwardly why he was allowing such impertinence from her and that made him frown.
She must have thought that the sudden look of annoyance on his face was due to her (surely no one in their right mind would dare command THE Sabaku no Gaara!) for she quickly lowered her eyes from his.
"Erm…I mean, Kazakage-sama…if you may, will you kindly explain your actions?" Sakura tried to be demure, honestly she did, but the stilted way her words came out made it all the more obvious that she was gritting her teeth with impatience and of course Gaara was not buying any of it.
"Do not address me as Kazekage." He stated impassively instead. "You are no longer in the position to refer to me as such."
That sounded like a bad thing.
Sakura was so confused that she lifted her head again to stare at him. What exactly did he mean by that? All his mysterious talking about in riddles this entire day was causing her nothing but a huge headache.
"Okay…" Never one to realize when was the right time to continue pressing on and when was the time to stop the pink-haired kunoichi was determined to get to the bottom of the matter. "So how should I address you? And why am I no longer in the position to-"
He was steadily growing irritated with all her 'whys' and 'how comes', and he quickly cut her off before she could bombard him with more questions whose answers he did not wish for her to know just yet.
"For the moment, you may call me by my given name."
She may call him?
Sakura was so flabbergasted by the Suna shinobi's arrogance that she almost sputtered with disbelief. Despite her exhaustion, emerald eyes sparkled with exasperation as the pink-haired female struggled with the overwhelming urge to open her mouth and ask him if that meant that '(pig-headed) demon' and '(obstinate) monster' were included on the list as well. Only the knowledge of a certain painful death by a lot of sand had managed to keep her mouth closed and her irritation at bay.
"And as for your other question, you should no longer address me as Kazekage for your role has now changed. You are no longer in the same league as those who would grovel and acknowledge my position for favors and such.
"You are now more than that."
Gaara sounded almost in physical pain when he literally forced the last sentence past his lips, but Sakura wasn't exactly celebrating her sudden elevation of status either. She was too befuddled to even notice the redhead's self-disgust.
"But…why?"
Gaara shot her a mildly disbelieving look that told her that he could not believe that she could have been anymore dense. Naturally, she had to prove him wrong, and continued giving him that wide-eyed look of utter puzzlement.
He growled to himself in frustration. Then before she could have a chance to protest he placed both hands on the curve of her shoulders and jerked her towards him. She barely had the time to squeak before he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers violently.
The kiss wasn't meant for pleasure, and the rough contact scraped her inner lip against her teeth almost painfully but still, still, it did not manage to mask that instant flare of attraction that ignited to life when he touched her.
Against her will, she melted against him immediately, and it was then that Sakura began to comprehend.
She could not resist him at all, and it was a terrifying thought.
Just as quickly as he kissed her, he withdrew and stepped away quickly from her, his normally dispassionate jade gaze harsh.
"Did you feel that?" He asked her brusquely. Sakura could barely nod and it was all she could do not to touch her fingers to her lips in wonderment.
"You are the Shukaku's chosen. You are my mate. Can you understand that now?"
Still deep within the throes of shock, Sakura could only nod dumbly yet again.
"Good." Apparently it was enough for the Kazekage. He nodded at her curtly before retrieving a pair of freshly plucked apples from his satchel and pushing them onto her slack hands. "Appease your hunger and then rest. I won't be stopping unnecessarily tomorrow."
With that, he retreated to the darkest edge of the clearing, settled down fluidly against a tree, closed his eyes and appeared to all the world to have fallen asleep instantly.
Sakura could only stare at the blood red apples that she now held in her hands. Then she lifted her head slowly to look at the now still-figure of the powerful shinobi whose touch could literally send her into a lapse of bewildered awe.
And kami, she wasn't even going to think about when he kissed her.
Sakura tottered unsteadily to as near to the campfire as she dared to, and then sank down before it in a noisy thump of exhaustion. The apples rolled silently from her hands to rest beside her, and Sakura buried her hands in her face as the magnitude of what had happened finally sank in. She groaned inwardly.
What had she gotten herself into?
The next morning arrived quickly enough. Too quickly in fact, for Sakura.
Predictably, the Konoha kunoichi had not had the best sleep that night although her chakra level had certainly improved to a much normal standard by dawn. Sakura felt utterly, utterly wretched in her dirty clothes and scruffy, unwashed hair, not to mention the sudden tension she would feel whenever her eyes would land on Gaara accidentally. The Kazekage, on the other hand, looked as fresh as the day she had met him, and seemed hardly affected by this entire mess that he (yes, he) had landed her in.
The unfairness of it all made Sakura one very formidable grump.
It was really off putting that the only person to witness her in all her full glory was about as responsive to it as a block of wood.
After a quick breakfast and an equally quick cleanup both ninjas broke camp and continued towards Konohagakure. With Sakura now more or less able to travel faster, the two opted to make use of chakra to hasten their speed through the dense forest.
The pace that Gaara set was sadistically grueling, but Sakura would be damned if she complained about it. So gritting her teeth, Sakura pushed herself to keep up with the Suna shinobi while Inner Sakura urged her on with encouraging words and mental pom-poms. They only stopped once during mid-noon for a brief lunch, and by dusk they finally arrived at the imposing gates of Konohagakure.
Sakura was weary to the bone by then, and as the surprised gate patrol let her and the esteemed Kazekage through the village gates the medic-nin started to wonder what Gaara was going to do now that he had escorted her safely to Konoha as promised. Too exhausted to even feel awkward, Sakura turned slowly to the redhead beside her and was about to open her mouth to ask when she was rudely interrupted.
"Sakura-chan!!"
Sakura turned her head to the joyful yell just in time to see a bright orange bundle bearing towards her at an astounding speed, kicking up a whole storm of dust in the process. Her tired emerald eyes lit up immediately.
"Naruto…"
Uzumaki Naruto was one of Sakura's best friends, right next beside Yamanaka Ino. Insanely powerful yet startlingly outgoing, the loud and brash blonde was also slow to anger and quick to understand whatever problems that she might have. In other words, Naruto was about the best friend anyone could wish to have, only that she could never seem to cure him of addressing her by that embarrassing nickname. It was really a good thing that his girlfriend Hinata understood the depth of their friendship and had not felt threatened by it like Sakura had worried that she would.
Whatever it was, Sakura was only too glad to see Naruto especially after such a bewildering day. She was even prepared to suffer the bone-crushing hug that she was sure the tall blonde was about to bestow upon her when he drew up to them. Sakura braced herself for the impact even though she wasn't feeling all too well at the moment.
Naruto raced down the last leg of the street towards his friend whom he had not seen for a week. Not having noticed the Suna shinobi yet the Kyuubi-host was about to pull his pink-haired friend into an enthusiastic hug when-
He was rewarded for his efforts by a mouthful of sand and a sore butt.
Sakura stared disbelievingly at the tall wall of sand that kept her best friend away from her. Then she turned increasingly livid eyes to her unwanted companion.
"What are you doing?" Sakura hissed furiously at the dispassionate male standing beside her. "That's Naruto!!"
"My Shukaku does not like you near other men."
That was not the answer she wanted to hear.
Gaara swore that her eyes spat emerald fire then.
Turning fully to face the taller male now, Sakura did not for once stop to worry about Gaara's fearsome reputation as one of the most dangerous ninjas in the world. Nor did she consider the possibility that he could hurt her very badly if he wanted to; she was that angry. The petite medic-nin stepped forward until she was nearly chest-to-chest with the redhead and glared mutinously into calm jade eyes.
"Look. I don't give a damn whether your pet raccoon don't like it if I greet my friends. Put down that shield now."
She was blatantly challenging his position and the Shukaku didn't like it one bit. So did he, for the matter. The sand Tanuki within him was growling for him to put their insolent female in her place. She may be their mate, but she needed to be shown who's the alpha in this relationship.
He did not do it though.
For Sakura was breathtaking in her fury.
Despite the fact that she was grimy from top to bottom and utterly exhausted from the insane trip back to Konoha, she literally glowed with a fierce inner energy that erupted to life the moment her friends were the slightest bit threatened. Her emerald eyes were bright with agitation and her stance was stiff and unrelenting, making it obvious that this was one fight that she would not back down from.
For someone who ought to be seriously intimidated by him, her fierce loyalty towards her friends impressed him. Besides…
That look of pure feminine obstinacy on her face aroused him beyond belief.
He held her stare quietly for a second longer than necessary, letting her know without words what he thought of her cheek before turning away to stare straight ahead, the shield of sand that had concealed their conversation from the rest of the world dropping away slowly as he did so.
Sakura was so surprised that Gaara had done exactly as she had asked that her anger faded somewhat. She started to frown with confusion.
"Gaara? What are you doing here with Sakura? And what the hell was that shield for? That hurts, you know!"
Naruto, having just picked himself up, finally realized that the male standing right beside Sakura was none other than the Shukaku-vessel himself. It was hard not to, seeing that the blonde had literally bounced off one of the Suna shinobi's specialty defense move less than a minute ago.
"Naruto." Gaara nodded to the Konoha ANBU but otherwise made no effort to answer the blonde's latter questions. Undaunted, Naruto quickly looked to Sakura for an answer, who quickly grabbed the opportunity for a quick getaway.
"Ask him." The pink-haired kunoichi rebutted quickly, still a little annoyed with the redhead. "I have no idea what is going on myself and I don't think I want to know either. I have to go to the Hokage Tower to report in to shishou, and since I probably stink to the high heavens and feel even worse than the dead I will talk to you later, after I am a little rested, ok, Naruto?"
Sakura darted over to her blonde friend and gave him a quick one-armed hug, not noticing the way Gaara's jade eyes seemed to cool at the sight. "Help me keep Gaara from following after me for awhile, please? I will explain later." Sakura whispered into the blonde's ear as she slowly backed away from him, quietly pleading with her eyes when Naruto's sapphire orbs eyed her questioningly. It took a split second before he nodded minutely, and Sakura stepped back and smiled gratefully.
"Ok, I am off to see shishou, see you later!" With a slight wave and a quick jump that immediately propelled her to the rooftops of Konoha, Sakura disappeared quickly in the direction of the Hokage Tower.
Both males watched the pink blur disappear into the distance.
Then Naruto turned back to Gaara, his normally cheerful blue eyes now sharp and astute.
"Why are you here, Gaara?" The Kyuubi-host asked seriously this time.
The Kazekage did not take his eyes off the rooftops for the longest moment. His excellent hearing had ensured that he had overheard Sakura's plea to be left alone and Naruto knew it. Gaara slowly turned towards the only person whom he had truly regarded as a friend. If Naruto found the small smile that graced the lips of the redhead unusual, he did not comment on it. Instead he waited patiently for the answer that he knew was to come.
"I have found my mate, Naruto, and I am here to guard her."
When Sakura arrived at the Hokage Tower, she was slightly out of breath and her leg muscles were screaming with fatigue.
Shizune smiled a greeting when she saw the young medic-nin. "Go on in, Sakura, she's waiting for you."
Sakura was too exhausted to even want to know how Tsunade knew of her arrival, especially when she was a day or so ahead of schedule. The Hokage was just special that way. Sakura was only too grateful that she didn't have to wait her turn to see her teacher. The pink-haired kunoichi trudged into the Hokage's office straight away after throwing an exhausted smile at the assistant.
"Shishou!" Sakura did not look up as she started to withdraw the completed mission scroll from the small drawstring pouch that she carried with her at all times. "Here is the scroll-"
"Why is the Kazekage with you, Sakura?"
Sakura paused slightly before expelling a long sigh at the abrupt question. She wasn't even surprised that the Hokage had already heard of the news, and well, her shishou wasn't exactly one to beat around the bush after all.
The younger kunoichi laid the scroll gently on the desk and lifted her head to look at her Teacher. The blonde Godaime was leaning backwards on her chair with sandaled feet stacked neatly on the desk. Her posture might indicate one of relaxation, but her keen golden eyes were anything but. They pierced right into Sakura's, and too weary to even attempt to evade her questioning, Sakura spilled.
"I don't really know the whole thing." The pink-haired female answered truthfully. "And what I do know don't make much sense at all and appears to be so unbelievable that I think Gaara has got to be kidding me."
Tsunade's eyebrow rose at Sakura's familiar address of the powerful Kazekage.
"Then tell me what it is that you do know, Sakura. We don't normally have one of the five Kage drop in on us for no reason whatsoever, you know." The Hokage asked dryly.
Sakura turned slightly pink at her Sensei's blatant probing for answers. How the heck was she supposed to tell her that the Sabaku no Gaara had apparently decided that she was his mate? She could not even imagine the Godaime's reaction to that. Sakura's eyes slipped shut as she tried desperately to think of a suitable answer that would hint (very vaguely) of the true situation and then pray hard that Tsunade-shishou would leave it as it was.
This was all her own fault. Why must she stop to offer help anyway?
Eyes still closed, Sakura frowned. No. This was not her fault. It was his! How dare he just jump on her and declare that she was his supposed mate like some uncivilized caveman? Yes, this was all Gaara's faul-
"Sakura, do you really have to take so long to answer that question?"
Emerald eyes flew open to see Tsunade looking pointedly at her. Slightly frantic, Sakura's mind raced for the prefect reply.
"Erm…It happened like this-"
Sakura was about to tell the Hokage the whole story with the more embarrassing parts omitted off, chiefly about how she had healed the poisoned Kazekage and he had decided to escort her back to Konoha out of gratitude when there was a huge commotion outside the Kage office.
"Sakura-chan is inside, isn't she? Let me in! I need to talk her!!"
Naruto.
Despite Shizune's continued protests, it took only a few seconds before the door to the office banged open noisily to reveal one purposeful Naruto on a quest for truth.
Sakura flinched inwardly.
If the noisy blonde was here…
Then that meant Gaara was too.
Heart heavy with dread, Sakura turned slowly to face the entrance just in time to see the gourd-carrying ninja a few feet behind a squawking Shizune and a determined Naruto. Their eyes met briefly and Sakura scowled when she thought that she detected faint traces of amusement in his otherwise impassive façade.
'Of course he would be amused. Kami knows that I am.' Inner Sakura spoke up then, her voice rich with laughter. 'Oh Sakura, are you really so dense that you still don't understand what he means? Even I know what is going to happen already.'
Sakura bristled inwardly as she looked away from the Suna shinobi. 'I know what is going on! I just don't want to-'
"Sakura!" Naruto barked suddenly. "Is what Gaara said true? Are you really his mate?"
'-acknowledge it.'
Sakura wanted to dig a hole and disappear into it forever at the dead silence that immediately followed after Naruto's literally yelled questions. Even though she knew that the wish was futile, she squeezed her eyes shut and prayed for the miracle to happen anyway.
As predicted, she didn't get what she wanted, of course. Instead, she got a warm masculine hand on the small of her back and emerald eyes flew open immediately. The gentle gesture was surprisingly comforting but the look on the person that the hand belonged to was not. Gaara's charcoal-rimmed jade eyes were hard and demanding.
"Sakura." It was the first time that she had heard him address her by name, and the soft half purr was strangely pleasing to her ears. She stared at him with slight bewilderment. "Answer."
It took all of Sakura's willpower to move away from Gaara's mesmerizing warmth, but move she did and she took the opportunity to study the reactions of everybody in the room. Her blonde friend appeared slightly disbelieving, Shizune looked utterly stunned by this new turn of events, and her Tsunade-shishou…
Shishou was smiling like Christmas had come early and somebody had just given her a huge crate of sake and a month long holiday from Hokage duty.
Sakura was instantly alarmed by that overly cheerful look. Frantic, she sought to explain the situation. "It's not like that, you are mistak-"
Sakura paused mid sentence when Gaara stilled impossibly, and his light green eyes froze up.
'Why are you stopping?' Inner Sakura piped up then. 'I thought that you were going to 'explain' your way out of this?'
'Shut up.'
Inner Sakura smiled knowingly.
They both knew the reason why Sakura had stopped.
It was that look on his face.
It was unnatural for one to be able to switch to that blank, seemingly uncaring look that fast, and when Sakura thought of how he had probably had to manage that trick at a young age…
Damn her soft heart.
Damn it.
Sakura sighed.
"Yes." The Konoha medic-nin whispered softly at last. "Gaara thinks that his Shukaku has decided on me as his mate."
"You are wrong." It was Gaara, and Sakura lifted her head to stare at him with mild surprise. His face was still as implacable as ever, but there was a slightly uncomprehending look reflected in his eyes.
"Huh?" Sakura was, once again, as articulate as ever.
"You are wrong." Gaara repeated almost gently, his jade eyes focused solely on her as if they were the only two people in the room, his initial hesitancy fading away quickly as if it had never been there in the first place. "I know that you are mine, and I am not going to let you go."
It would have been highly romantic if this was a different situation, but as it was, his resolute words only made her shiver with apprehension. Sakura did not know how to answer to his blatantly possessive statement, and luckily, it appeared that she did not need to.
"And you won't have to, Gaara. This is very good news." Tsunade announced suddenly, her clear voice startling everybody out of the stunned stillness that had developed not but a few minutes ago.
Gaara lifted his head from the fascinating female whom he had been staring at to look at his fellow Kage, impassive façade firmly in place. He had already predicted this reaction from Tsunade, so he wasn't very surprised by it, unlike his fellow demon-host.
"What?!" Naruto turned to stare at the Godaime. "No offense to Gaara, but how is this supposed to be good news? Sakura and Gaara barely even know each other, and besides they are both so different that throwing them together like this is like eating soup ramen with ketchup! It's weird, that's what!"
Sakura flushed slightly. Trust Naruto to use food as examples. Ramen and ketchup indeed. And speaking of food, the pink-haired kunoichi suddenly felt so hungry that her head started to spin a little. She blinked rapidly to try to dispel the slight dizziness but to no avail.
"No, it's not weird." Tsunade snapped immediately at the always-brash Kyuubi-vessel. Sakura started to weave but it was so slight that it was nearly unnoticeable. She closed her eyes to try to stop the room from spinning and did not notice Gaara eying her carefully.
Meanwhile Tsunade continued to speak, her voice filled with delight.
"Think about this; the mating bond of a tailed beast is damned near impossible to break, and furthermore this is an alliance between the Kazekage Gaara and our Sakura, who is among one of the most powerful medic-nin on the Konoha medical team."
Naruto's sapphire eyes widened at the implications. Shizune merely nodded her approval before slipping quietly out of the room to start preparing the mountain of paperwork that she knew would be needed if things went the way she predicted it would.
Sakura paled further and her eyes opened at her Sensei's words. The pink-haired kunoichi fought a wave of panic together with a most nausea-inducing sense of vertigo as she tried not to think too much of what the Hokage's words meant. She's joking, she has got to be joki-
"This will be a match made in heaven, and an inter-village marriage would definitely cement our bilateral ties with Suna for a long time to come." Tsunade beamed at everyone, as she very well should. Thanks to fate and opportunity, she had solved a major political pain-in-the-butt permanently and it wasn't even dinnertime yet. She could not wait to celebrate with a bottle of the highest grade of sake. "I trust that you will have no problems with this, Kazekage?"
Gaara had already expected that the Hokage would allow him access to Sakura; to intentionally deprive a tailed beast of its mate would definitely lead to disastrous consequences, and besides, a match like theirs was the easiest way out to maintaining the longstanding political treaty between the two villages. He just hadn't foreseen that the Hokage would so generously allow her most powerful student to be literally given to him like that.
Well, all the better for him.
Gaara nodded once.
Not for Sakura though.
"No!" The petite medic-nin yelled out suddenly, shaking her head to clear the powerful rush of blood to her head and the rapidly extending ring of darkness that was obscuring her vision. It was to no avail. "I don't want…"
She fainted.
He caught her before she hit the floor.
The Shukaku within paced cagily with anxiety at her sudden transition from wakefulness to unconsciousness, and upon a glimpse of her ashen face started to rage furiously at Gaara for having pushed her to a state of such exhaustion, all because of his perverse need to see how strong her determination could be.
Gaara did not need his Shukaku to tell him that he had made a mistake. Thanks to years of practice, he quickly shoved the screaming Tanuki demon to the recesses of his mind, allowing himself to concentrate fully on the female and her alarmingly fluctuating chakra. As he picked her up to rest fully in his arms, he quickly noticed how very light she was, and cursed himself inwardly for neglecting her health. She had probably been sorely depleted from her earlier mission even before she had met him, even before she had been kind enough to stop by to heal him, and all he had done to her in return so far was to wear her out even further than he had to.
Some wonderful mate he was turning out to be.
An unfamiliar feeling wormed its way to his gut and stayed there, making him feel most uncomfortable.
Guilt.
"Quick! Bring her here!" It was the Godaime, her face slightly worried as she regarded her beloved student. Her messy desk have been quickly cleared of scrolls and documents by a fast-thinking Naruto to act as a makeshift bed which Gaara immediately strode towards to lay his pink-haired burden on. As he surrendered her warmth to the desk, the primal instincts that had saved his life again and again urged him not to let her go, and instead to carry her off to somewhere private where he could guard her properly especially at a time when she was so weak and susceptible to threats. He snarled inwardly to dispel that almost animal instinct to protect and released her all the same, stepping backwards so that the Hokage could diagnose and heal her.
The Kazekage kept close watch as the older medic-nin quickly infused some of her chakra into her passed-out student, checking her various chakra points for any blockage as she did so. It took all of three minutes before Tsunade announced her diagnosis.
"She's just over-exhausted, Naruto. Quit making so much noise and let her rest in peace." The Hokage growled at the hyperventilating blonde who was still panicking around the unconscious form of his best friend.
"Rest in peace?!" Naruto blanched. "She's not going to die, is she?"
Tsunade wondered just how on earth someone as dense as Naruto could have made it into ANBU. "No, you imbecile." She rolled her eyes at the blonde now that she had done as much as she could to help Sakura. "It was just a figurative speech."
"Oh. So she's going to be okay, right?"
A long suffering sigh.
"Yes, Naruto. You can bother Sakura again after she is well rested."
"Ok." Naruto frowned at the petite form of the pink-haired kunoichi lying on the desk. "I am going to bring her back to her apartment. She will rest better there." The blonde started to reach for Sakura, but before he could gather his friend into his arms, Gaara beat him to the task.
"I will do it."
Naruto watched, slightly taken aback, as the infamous don't-touch-me Kazekage brushed an utmost gentle hand down the side of Sakura's mid-length pink tresses, before bending down to carry her in his arms. Both Naruto and Tsunade tried not to gape overly at the uncharacteristic display of almost-human emotions that played across the face of the Suna shinobi that split second. The Shukaku's influence on Gaara must have been pretty strong for the normally detached male to act so…caring.
Calm jade eyes met uncertain sapphire.
Naruto was still not sure how he felt about what was happening. He wasn't even sure how he felt seeing Gaara hold Sakura like that. Of course, he had long gotten over that childhood crush for his pink-haired friend, but still he could not help but always worry about Sakura. Although Sasuke's defection to Orochimaru those years ago had adversely affected everybody in some way or another, Naruto had always known that Sakura had taken the emotional blow a lot harder than most, no matter what her normally cheerful façade indicated. Sakura was just very good at hiding her emotions, he supposed.
But now, as he continued to stare at the sight of Sakura tucked safely in the protective embrace of one of the most powerful ninjas in existence, Naruto started to question himself if this turn of events might be a good one after all. Sakura had been alone for so long, always foiling the multiple attempts of a startling amount of shinobi wanting to date her, and Naruto sincerely wished that she wasn't still holding out for Sasuke's return. She deserved so much more than that.
Gaara was strong and steadfast, and Naruto decided that Sakura could use that in her life at the moment. Besides, Gaara might even stand to learn a lesson or two in humility from his best friend, as witnessed from the generous amount of head thumping that she doled out to him on an alarmingly frequent basis. In fact, they would probably complement each other very well once they got over the getting-to-know-each-other/wanting-to-kill-each-other part, which Naruto, in his usual spirit of over-bursting optimism, decided should be no problem at all for both his friends, conveniently choosing to forget that one happened to have a violent split personality whereas the other happened to be an unpredictable, psychotic mass murderer.
Yes, the more Naruto thought about it, the more the couple before him looked like the best match he had seen in…well, forever, barring his Hinata-chan and himself, of course. Hell, even their hair colors blend together (or clash horribly) if he squinted hard enough.
There and then, as Gaara waited patiently for Naruto to guide them both to Sakura's apartment, the Kyuubi-vessel suddenly nodded firmly at the redhead before grinning widely at him. Tsunade merely stared at the blonde briefly, wondering inwardly what was going through his head at the moment.
"Go, this discussion will be continued at a later date." Tsunade motioned for them to leave her office. "I will stop by to look in on Sakura this evening."
"Fine." Naruto started to walk out of the office after a brief wave to the busty Hokage, calling behind him as he walked through the doorway, the casually muttered sentence an obvious indication of his acceptance of this new situation.
"Come on, Gaara, let's get your mate home."
:tsuzuku:
Questions That I Would Like To Answer Before You Ask:
Someone had asked this question before, but I forgot who (my apologies!); if the Shukaku needs a mate, then what about the Kyuubi?
Well, as we all know, the Shukaku is actually a Tanuki demon, a raccoon dog demon, to be exact. Not to be confused with the typical raccoons, raccoon dogs are monogamous by nature, which means that they take only a single mate for their entire lives. At least, that's according to the information found on Wikipedia. Therefore, I derived that it was possible for the Shukaku to have a mate in mind for its vessel, and only she would do for him.
Foxes, or red foxes like the Kyuubi, on the other hand, are not primarily monogamous. They were once considered to be so, but evidence has showed up recently that polygamy may be practiced among the extra-territorial foxes. That does not necessarily mean that Naruto would be polygamous by nature as well; just that the Kyuubi would probably care less who its vessel chooses to mate with.
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Your reviews fuel my passion for writing. So please leave a comment if you like this fic, thank you.
--paws
