Well now, I see people seem to be enjoying this so far. Don't worry, there's more where this came from. Updates will be once a week, real life and beta schedules permitting.

Thanks for all your reviews, faves, and alerts. I really do love seeing those. They're inspiring. It's particularly heartwarming to see the names of a few writers I enjoy listing this story as a favourite :) Thanks guys! (updated to fix dialogue punctuation in the great fixing of 2016)

Chapter 2

Sakura left then, and made her way back to the Six Tails' temple. It was easy enough for the young shinobi novice to navigate the stone walls and lanes of the complex which housed the nine temples of the tailed gods. She'd been doing it, after all, since she was an undedicated initiate, training in the common academy. She ran along half-foot-wide walls of stone, jumping onto the roofs of outbuildings (but not the temples themselves, that would be blasphemous), and leaping over the gardens and courtyards in the bright afternoon sunlight.

A few passing dedicated watched her as she flew past, and while some made faces at the young woman's travel-mode, others smiled. All members of the clergy were chakra users, after all. Whatever they chose to do after dedication, they were each given the same shinobi training at the academy. Few priests would find fault with her using her skills in this manner, but there were always a few spoilsports who would prefer the novices walk on the provided paths.

She arrived at the entrance to the Six Tails' temple in good time, puffing slightly from the exertion. With a blush, she realized abruptly that she wouldn't have time to change out of her soiled clothes – Tsunade was expecting her right away. She grimaced and ran her fingers through her sweaty, messy pink hair, attempting to look somewhat presentable. Then she sighed and walked in, heading for the high priestess's chamber.

Tsunade's door was closed when Sakura found her way to it. Gingerly, she knocked on the stone surface. "Come in," replied her mentor's muffled voice. The girl pushed the door open, the well-designed stone portal swinging easily aside with nary a squeak. Tsunade sat at her desk, focused on a pile of papers in front of her. She was wearing her favourite green robe, and her long blonde hair was tied in the usual pigtails she wore. On the high priestess's forehead was a purple diamond; an outward sign of the Six Tailed Slug's favour, and the reason why this woman, well beyond her hundredth year, barely looked past her 20s.

Tsunade's eyes slid up from the papers and glanced over Sakura appraisingly. The pink haired teen thought she saw a flicker of annoyance pass through her mentor's amber-brown eyes. "Sakura. You're here. Good." She didn't mention her student's disarray, or the sand still clinging to her shorts, or the beads of sweat on her broad forehead. But a slight tone of disapproval shone through her voice all the same.

Sakura gave a bow, much deeper than the barely respectful one she had offered Gaara, and waited for Tsunade's instructions.

"You are to go into the city and fetch these items for me. You may not have enough time to gather all of them today, so you have until the supper meal tomorrow. You are exempted from hospital duty until you have gathered everything on the list." Tsunade held out a sheet of paper. Sakura stepped forward and accepted it, glancing over the list.

Written in Tsunade's neat script were about thirty various alchemical products and healing plants. Sakura knew where she would be able to get several of the items, but some of the more arcane sounding things she would probably have to ask around for. The girl guessed this was also a test of her information gathering skills. She nodded absently as she looked over the list.

"Take this. It should cover the cost," Tsunade said, holding up a small jute bag of coins and bills. Sakura took it and weighed it in her hands. She'd stash it in her hidden pouch when she got back to her novice's cell.

"Thank you, Lady Tsunade," the teen replied. Tsunade smiled, the first real smile she'd made since Sakura arrived at her chamber.

"Now go, Sakura," Tsunade said. As Sakura turned at her dismissal, she paused once more as her teacher called out one last thing. "And stop somewhere nice and eat. You deserve it."

"Thank you, Lady Tsunade," Sakura repeated, a little more quiet and subdued. She left the high priestess's office, closing the stone door behind her.

Sakura knew full well what Tsunade was doing. By getting her out of the hospital and sending her on an errand, she was keeping her student distracted and unable to dwell overmuch on what had happened that morning. The old woman had done something similar twice before. Each time Sakura had lost a patient.

Sakura knew full well what her teacher's tactic was, and she appreciated it. She felt much better now that she'd had a chance to visit the arena, but she was still grateful for the chance to escape into Miyajima City. She wasn't sure she could face the children's ward again right now, not so soon after little Hiro went to join the gods.

It was long past time to go to her cell and change. She would shower first, though. It was hot out there today, and between the fight and the run back to the Six Tails' temple, she had only gotten more sweaty and dirty. The cloths and water in the cooldown room had only done so much, after all.

She reached her cell and placed the money bag and list on her bed, and stripped down. She threw her clothes in the laundry basket, and grabbed a bathrobe and her shower basket, flying out of her room. Her headlong dash almost brought her into a collision course with another of the novices, and she screeched to a halt before bowling over Ino.

"Sorry Ino!" she shouted, as she dashed off to the showers.

"Oy, Forehead! What's the rush?" Ino demanded, starting to follow her.

"Lady Tsunade has me on a task," she replied.

"And that requires a shower?" Ino asked, keeping pace with Sakura easily. She gestured to Sakura's shower caddy.

"It does when I'm all sweaty and smelly." Sakura wrinkled her nose.

"What were you doing that you're all sweaty and smelly? Hey, didn't you have hospital duty this morning? Wasn't there a patient—," Ino broke off suddenly. "Oh."

She hated the sound of pitying understanding in Ino's voice. "Yes," Sakura sighed, slowing to a halt outside the novice girls' bathing room doors.

"Oh, Sakura, I'm so sorry," Ino said. Through the corner of her eyes, Sakura could see the blond haired, blue-eyed girl giving her a pitying look. Sakura sighed again. She felt like covering her eyes.

"It's… ok. It happens," the pink-haired girl said, morosely. She didn't feel quite up to looking up from her feet.

Ino's soft hand rested on her shoulder for a moment, and then Sakura felt herself pulled into a rough hug. The other girl was impulsive like that. Ino could be a real pain sometimes, and sometimes a bitch, but her heart was in the right place. Sakura returned the hug.

"It's ok, Ino," the pink-haired novice said, finally pulling out of the hug. "Tsunade has me running tasks for the next day."

"Oh, do you get to go down in the city?" Ino asked, mood suddenly brightening. That was Ino. The blonde always itched for a chance to go into the city to shop. Generally, novices were forbidden to do so, unless on specific assignments. Acolytes, on the other hand, could leave the compound freely. Priests, of course, were under no movement restrictions. The exception for novices was when they were conducting their pilgrimage tasks. Novices on pilgrimage could go where they needed to in order to complete their quests for the gods. Sakura was dreading hers. In another year or two, it would be looked upon as amiss if she had not yet started them, but for now, she still had time to put it off. Pilgrimage was usually performed somewhere between the ages of 14 and 19.

"Yeah. I have until supper hour tomorrow to find everything on this big long list of stuff." Sakura scrunched up her nose. She scooped up a clean, folded towel from the bench. "I know what most of it is, but there's some stuff on there I've never even heard about before," she headed for one of the curtained shower stalls. Unselfconsciously, she untied her robe and hung it on the hook, towel hanging beside it. She stepped into the stall.

"It's probably a test," she heard Ino's voice through the patter of the warm rain of the shower.

"I figured as much," Sakura replied, her own voice echoing from the walls of the shower. Standing in a shower always did funny things to acoustics, she'd found. "It always is with her."

"Don't I know it," Ino remarked. Sakura gave a chuckle, closing her eyes as she lathered raspberry-scented shampoo into her hair, cleansing away the sweat, dirt, and sand.

"Where did you go this morning? I missed you at lunch in the refectory."

Sakura paused mid-lather, then went back to shampooing. As she rinsed, she replied, keeping it vague. "I was out at another temple."

"Oh, making an offering?" Ino asked, casually. That wasn't unusual.

"Yeah." Sakura didn't want to say much more than that. She didn't want to admit she was fighting in the battle god's arena. Ino was a terrible gossip. It would be all over the novitiate in ten seconds flat.

She finished washing up while Ino chattered at her cheerfully. Finished with her ablutions, she stepped out of the shower and grabbed the towel.

"So, do you think I could get away with going down with you into the city?" Ino asked, slyly.

"Probably not." Ino pouted at Sakura's negative. "Hey, it's not under my control," Sakura mumbled. "If you want to go, ask Tsunade."

"I already know she'll say no," Ino muttered.

"Why do you want to go down to the city so badly?" Sakura asked.

The blonde batted her thick eyelashes in false innocence. "Becaaaaause," she said, obviously unwilling to say her reasons.

Sakura snorted. "It's a boy, isn't it." It wasn't a question.

"That's none of your business," Ino snapped.

Sakura rolled her green eyes. So anyone else's business was fair game, but the gossip queen was exempt? Suuuuuuuure. Besides, Ino's reaction all but confirmed that it was indeed a boy.

"You know we're not supposed to see boys until we've reached 18," Sakura said. "The priesthood wants us to focus on our studies, not the opposite sex."

Ino gave an exasperated sigh. "I'm doing fine in my studies. Surely kissing a boy can't be that detrimental!" she huffed.

"It's still the rules, Ino. Like no going out of the compound without permission."

"I know, I know. Hey, don't you have somewhere to be?" Ino said, apparently tiring of the conversation.

"Yeah," Sakura grinned, and then was unable to resist the barb; "In the city."

Ino stuck out her tongue. Sakura shrugged on her robe and deposited her used towel in the laundry basket, grabbed her tote, and headed out of the girls' showers back to her cell. Ino followed her, going to her own cell.

"Well, have fun down in the city without me, Forehead!" Ino said, with a hint of rancour.

"I'm not going for fun, Ino," Sakura replied.

"Still, get some while you have the chance. Ugh, the novitiate is so boring sometimes," Ino complained.

"Do your pilgrimage and become an acolyte then," Sakura suggested.

"You first." Ino stuck her tongue out again. Sakura gave her a good natured eye roll and dipped into her cell to change.

Fifteen minutes later she was on her way out the gates of the temple compound after flashing Tsunade's note to the guards, and was making her way into the city. She had the list of 'groceries' tucked under her arm and the money stashed away safely where it wouldn't present a target to pickpockets. It was still early afternoon and she figured she would have enough time to get some of this stuff before the shops started to close up for the night. She looked up at the sunny blue sky and smiled, feeling a lot better.

"Well, I'd better get a move on," she said to herself, and stepped onto the long stone stairway down into the city. The view from the top of the temple rise was gorgeous. She could see the streets of Miyajima City spread out below her, bustling with people. To the east was the harbour, and the sea, with all the little barrier islands out among the glittering waves. North and west of the city the land went from farmland to jungle on the slopes of Fire Mountain; the perfect, ice-capped cone of the extinct volcano rising above the land like a sentinel. South was the fertile region, where much of the country's food was grown, and the fields spread out like the patches on a quilt.

The marketplaces were busy, and Sakura was having mixed results filling Tsunade's list. She had decided to go for the things she knew were quick and easy first, before going for the unknowns. She could inquire about the unknowns as she shopped. At the herb vendor's she managed to find several items on the list all in one spot, and she bargained her way into a good price for them. She put them in her pack and looked around.

Night had started to fall before Sakura had made her way through much more than a quarter of the list. She stopped for a moment on the street, looking up at the sky to admire the sunset gloriously painting itself across the horizon. Then she sighed, and returned herself to earth as her stomach rumbled.

That's right, Tsunade had said something about getting herself something good to eat. Sakura would hardly protest that! With a grin, she headed for a restaurant that she knew was good, but not too expensive.

Well-trained shinobi reflexes allowed her to dodge the hand she felt reaching out for her. She heard a dry, familiar-sounding chuckle. "I thought novices weren't permitted into the city," a familiar masculine voice said.

Sakura whirled. Just as she had expected, it was that red-headed boy from the battle god's temple. "Gaara," she said, giving him a quick nod of greeting. Again, he gave her a slightly insulting, overdone bow back.

"At your pleasure, my lady," he smirked at her.

Sakura frowned.

"What are you doing in the city, novice?" Gaara asked teasingly.

"I'm on an errand for Lady Tsunade," she defended herself.

Gaara smirked at her with a knowing look.

"I am!" Sakura insisted, pulling out the list. "See?" She held it out.

Before she could react, Gaara had deftly transferred the list from her hands to his own. He glanced over the writing with a 'hmm'.

"She wants you to pick up geddys leaf? Good luck finding that."

Sakura sighed. "Don't I know it. I suspect this is also a test of my ability to find information."

"Oh really… Hmm… a polished sphere of fire mountain obsidian… a perfect double terminated quartz… I hope the slug princess provided you with some money, Cherry Blossom." Gaara raised an inquiring naked eyebrow.

"She did," Sakura said. Gaara held out her list, and she snatched it back from him. He smirked at her action.

"So, how do you think you're going to find that geddys leaf?" Gaara asked, giving her a contemplative look.

"Well, uh…"

"You know it's contraband in this city, I hope."

"Yeah I know. It's also a powerful healing herb when mixed correctly with the right other herbs and substances. Like fish scales and hibiscus stamen."

"Hmm… I saw both of those on the list."

"Yeah."

"Do you know where to find all of this stuff?" Gaara smirked at her.

"Most of it," Sakura replied. "Some of it I'm not sure about. Like the geddys leaf," she admitted.

"Anything else?"

"Yeah," she listed off the five items she expected to have trouble with. Partly because she had no clue what they were.

"Well…" Gaara trailed off, looking thoughtful, finger on his chin. "I know where you can get most of those. But the stores are closing now."

Sakura sighed. She was well aware of that. Of course, here was Gaara, helping her waste time. But then again, since it was nightfall and everything was either closed or closing, did it really matter if she was wasting time? "I have until the supper bell tomorrow."

"Well, you might just succeed in your tasks, then. Consider it practice for your pilgrimage," He commented.

"Yeaah…" Sakura drawled. She wasn't looking forward to her pilgrimage. Sure, it was a necessary step before she could become an acolyte, but… some of the people she knew had taken more than a year to do theirs. And who knows what the gods would ask of her. They seemed to ask some people things that seem easy, and some people things that sounded impossible to her.

"Don't worry, Sakura. The gods never ask what mortals cannot do," he smirked at her obvious nervousness.

"I don't know about that. Some of those tasks I've heard other people getting sound a little impossible to me," Sakura said.

"Maybe for you, but not for them," Gaara replied, smirking.

"I guess you'd know. You survived it," she pointed out.

"Why, I guess I have," he acknowledged.

Sakura's gut rumbled again, this time loudly. She felt acutely embarrassed, especially when Gaara developed a shark-like grin at the sound. Nope, she hadn't managed to hide that one. He'd definitely heard it.

"Hungry?" he asked teasingly.

"A little bit," she said. "I was actually considering going for supper when I ran into you." Never mind that she hadn't really run into him at all. He'd clearly spotted her and decided to continue on their conversation from before. Or something. And he still had her blood lily on his flak jacket.

"Were you, now?" He asked archly. "Where were you thinking of going?"

"Matsuki's."

"Matsuki's. Not a bad place to eat. Want company?" Gaara asked.

Sakura blinked. Was this guy asking her out or something? She gave him a slightly suspicious, sidelong glance. He had a fairly neutral, casual expression. He wasn't ogling her or anything. Maybe he just wanted to be friends.

"Yeah, sure."

Which was how she found herself across from Gaara at Matsuki's, ordering yakiniku while he lounged in the booth.

"So are you related to the head priest of the battle god?" she asked, as they waited for their food to arrive.

"You could say that," he replied. "I'm from the desert."

"Ohhh…" He might be highly placed, indeed. The temple in the city was not the main temple, unlike some of the other gods in the pantheon. The battle god's main temple was actually found in the desert, several days' travel to the west of the capital city. The Six Tails' temple here was the god's main temple, on the other hand, and Sakura certainly benefited from being a novice in what was the premier centre for the dedicated of the healing god in the country. "So how come you're out here then, slumming it?" she smirked at him.

He smirked right back. "I guess you could call it that," he drawled. "I'm here for something special. I'll probably be here for a number of years before I go back."

"Think you'll make priest while you're out here?" She asked.

"I don't think my place in the priesthood was ever in question," he replied. Yep, she thought, hereditary priest.

The servers chose that moment to come out with their food. Sakura eagerly picked out some slices of raw meat and laid them across the grill.

"Are you hungry, Sakura?" Gaara commented, more a wry observation than an actual question.

"I missed lunch. I was in the arena," She said, slightly defensively.

He raised a naked eyebrow at her. "It's not healthy to skip meals."

"You're telling me? I'm the healer. I know that."

"So why did you?"

"Because there wasn't enough time," she snapped. His question brought back memories of this morning's events with a suddenness she hadn't expected. The six year old boy with the mystery illness that had been under her care for the last three weeks. Identifying the illness days too late to implement an effective treatment. Trying anyway. Failing. Watching the little boy's life slip away as the illness took him, knowing damn well that she could have saved his life if she'd just been a little smarter, a little quicker at identifying what was wrong with him. She'd missed the treatment window by only a few days.

Before she could stop it, a tear rolled down her cheek. She closed her eyes, feeling ashamed, and then was surprised when she felt a touch wiping away her tear. Her opening eyes revealed Gaara leaning across the table (somehow avoiding the grill) and reaching out to touch her face.

"Hey, whatever it was, you're forgiven now. You know that," he said, softly. It was probably the first thing he'd said that wasn't couched in a knowing, mocking, sarcastic, sardonic, or slightly teasing tone.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I had a bad day. That's all." It felt like a betrayal to reduce Hiro's death to nothing more than 'a bad day', but she really didn't want to talk about it.

"Hey," he said, less than serious tone back, "shit happens."

"That it does," she muttered.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

She thought about that for a moment, and then shook her head. "Not right now," he gave her a slight nod, dropping the subject.

"Your meat is cooking. You might want to turn it."

"Oh!" She exclaimed, turning the strips quickly while Gaara gave a sardonic half-smile. He also turned his.

They ate together, chatting about minor things like temple life and the joys of novicehood. Gaara was past his novice days, and had a 'been there, done that' attitude about the whole thing. She found out that he was 17, and had finished his tasks before coming to Miyajima City. Though he never outright said it, Sakura was 100% certain by the end of the meal that he was indeed a hereditary. They talked longer than she expected before finally finishing their meal and asking for their cheque.

"I'll get it," Gaara said, when it came.

"No, I can do it. I did win some money today," she blushed.

He smirked back at her. "I told you to save it. You might want that for something else. I'll get it," he insisted.

"What if I want to pay?" she demanded.

"Tough luck," he gave her a smirk. When the waitress came to take their payment, they elbowed each other and struggled in an attempt to be the one to pay. Gaara won, probably by dint of his greater height and reach. And the fact that Sakura didn't want to hurt him. She could have won if she really wanted to. The waitress apparently found their antics amusing, covering her mouth to stifle the laugh.

"I'm going to get you back for that," Sakura said, as they walked from the restaurant.

"I'd like to see you try," he smirked down at her.

"You're insufferable," she accused.

"Guilty as charged," he acknowledged lightly. "Are you going back to the temple?"

"Uhh…" Sakura said. She probably should, but she had a feeling that her best chance of getting geddys leaf would be after dark. "I was going to try to get the geddys leaf…" she trailed off.

"Ahh, right, Lady Tsunade's list." His voice was dry. "You're probably right."

"Yeah," she echoed. "Any ideas?" She'd take any help she could get here. Despite the fact that she wasn't about to bring Ino into the city with her, Gaara was here, and he seemed willing to at least stand here with her outside of Matsuki's.

"Actually…" he drawled, "I believe I may have some ideas. Follow me down to the docks," he turned to her. Under the pools of streetlight he seemed to look even more fey than he had inside the battle god's shrine. "That is, if you can travel like a shinobi," he gave her a challenging smirk.

"You're on." It was all she had to say. Gaara vanished in one fluid movement, but Sakura was able to track him by the wake of chakra trailing behind him. A split second later and she was launching for the roof of Matsuki's, after him like a hawk on a squirrel.