Chapter 7:

Undiluted Confessions

Upon hearing about the intruder's attack, Gaara quickly speeds down towards the Ipaasha's Garden following the sound of chaos and swinging swords. The row of maids leaped out of his way as he speeds towards the garden, faraway towards the center of the Miyagusuku Manor. The sun shines in through a glass dome, forming a large, safe greenhouse for the plants and herbs planted here, knowing so as he recognized the whiff of scent passing through his nose as the same smell as the ones at the Kazekage's Manor and the Suna's Hospital's own greenhouse.

He momentarily remembers Kaguya shouting after him to "Never enter the Garden without wearing at least a mask!", but he appeared to have ignored her and continued charging onwards.

He finds himself at a much larger clearing when he arrives at the center of the Miyagusuku's Manor. This clearing was much brighter than all the others, and much more lavish looking, complete with a carved steel door inlaid with gems and sorts. He would have stopped to admire the designs and carvings were it not for the small crowd of maids who squeaked, recognizing him and parted ways for him to pass by. They reminded him of his quest to save the Ipaashas and catch the intruders.

The garden's door are closed tightly, and yet through the slightly stained windows of the doors, he could see silhouettes of armed men jumping around, and the telltale sound of pots crashing and chaos could be heard clearly from where he stood. Angered that such ignorant people are trashing what could be considered as Suna's treasured rare breed of flowers, he used his sand to aid him in the quest of ensnare the trespassers.

Obeying his command, Gaara used his mind to control the sand as it slithered underneath the garden's door. The sand rises up grandly and caught the intruders effectively entirely by surprise.

Once he is sure that they're wrapped in his inescapable sand jutsu, Gaara quickly scanned the area for any damages or extra invaders.

That is, when he caught sight of the little group of petrified maid servants.

He knew by Kaguya and the head of the Miyagusuku's maid servants that these intruders have been infiltrating the Miyagusuku's Ipaasha's Garden for the past days. He had previously observed quietly that this manor have all the alarms and sealing jutsus installed and pasted almost everywhere. Infiltrating the manor after so many alarms and sealing jutsus would be close to impossible.

Unless…

His scrutinizing gaze caught one particular maid's eyes. He knew that kind of eyes; calculating and observing. Compared to all the other terrified eyes, he knew that she was the one he's after.

Before he could launch in and attack, another loud clang brought his head snapping towards the direction of the garden. Using his sand, Gaara forced the large door open and gave chase. There was another garden door; a much smaller garden, complete with an intricately carved door. Strange looking, and yet at the same time, his all-knowing eyes caught sight of another intruder within the compound of the smaller garden. He could feel his anger bubbling within his blood as the intruder looked up from what he was doing, caught sight of the feared Sabaku no Gaara, and continued to trash around the garden, hurling pots after pots of full grown Ipaasha's towards the wall.

It looks as if he knew you and ignored you, boy; Shukaku chided Gaara, knowing that the redhead is ready to burst with anger. You're not as fearsome as before, ya' know?

And you're not helping here, so shut up!

His mind whirled in torrents of anger. How dare they destroy what Kaguya's protecting! How dare they destroy the one thing that Suna treasures! How dare they destroy the very flowers that Kaguya cares with her heart and soul day and night! Gaara's chakra seemed to seep out of his very being and covered his entire body as his anger slowly took over his emotions. He kept a steady reign over the chakra incase it overflowed, and at the same time he checked his anger to make sure that it didn't go overboard lest he destroyed the manor. With his sand, he burst the door open and charged in towards the intruder.

As if knowing that he would never be able to escape, the intruder continued to trash the pots around frantically even after the garden door is open, rushing to destroy everything in the treasured garden. With one particular huge wave of sand, Gaara took care of the intruder and avoided all the Ipaasha's plants. His control above the sand is so great that none of the plants were even grazed by his sand.

The Ipaasha's Garden's door burst forth opens with a loud and dramatic bang and in came a sweating and flushing Kaguya, having ran all the way from the rooftop to the garden without stopping to catch a breath. Her long thin robes billowed from the light breeze created by the forceful opening of the door and it made her looked quite the sight. In fact, Gaara thought she looked fantastic.

Boy, Shukaku said in a careful tone, are you alright?

I'm fine, why?

You don't appear to be thinking in the right mind, ya' know? Shukaku said carefully, starting to think that being inside his 'dog house' would be a very good idea right about…now.

I'm good, so shut up, Gaara replied with a snap. Looking over at Kaguya, who rushed forward at him, another train of thought entered Gaara's mind and he casually imagined her throwing her arms around him and kissing him senseless, telling him that she adores him since they were young…

Boy! Shukaku nearly screamed at the sight of Gaara's inner thoughts running wild around his part of the territory in Gaara's mind. What the- Shukaku barely evaded another scene clip of an equally passionate Gaara kissing her back, his arms going lower and lower towards her- NONONONONO! Shukaku screamed, effectively running towards the safe side of the territory – his little dog house – That was dangerous! This is not the time to be thinking such a thing! The little boy I know is not a pervert! He's a fully fledged innocent VIRGIN! You're definitely not fine! You've gone mad!

When Kaguya finally arrived, Gaara is practically swishing the entrapped invader with his sand, a wide seductive smile on his handsome face.

"Kaguyaaa," Gaara said with a slight slur in his tone as one of his arm reached out towards her, his eyes growing hazy and his world seemed to tilt forward little by little. And this scent, Gaara thought to himself. It smelled so nice. Like sweets and perfumes and wood and…well, it's nice. I never thought that there would be something so worth smelling in this whole world…So nice… "Kaguyaaa…"

"Oh no, Kazekage-sama," Kaguya said in a voice that sounded almost like a whine. "I've told you to never enter the inner garden! It's where all the matured Ipaashas are grown!" Kaguya's nightmares proven to be true when she found Gaara practically standing inside the compounds of the inner garden, where all the matured Ipaashas are kept and almost all of them – unharmed as they are – surrounded him. Gaara unconsciously stepped closer into the garden and gazes intently at a white and purple flower, wondering why the flower looked so familiar to him.

Gaara had lowered the intruder to the ground none too gently, earning a loud pained grunt from the masked man, who, apparently, is trying to resist the inviting scent of a full, undiluted scent of the rare desert flower, Ipaasha. He's practically sweating from trying to hold as much breath as he could to himself and not inhaling the Ipaasha's scent. Hell, even the maids servants stayed away from the garden lest they brought extra trouble for their young mistress again. Everybody knows that the medicines that are used to curb the intoxication are not made from herbs they could just pluck from the side of the road.

Walking forward towards her, Gaara placed both of his hands on Kaguya's shoulders and held her in place, ignoring her surprised looks. "You're the first person," Gaara said in an almost no-slur tone, his eyes serious when he looked deep into her wide set of eyes, surprised. "You are the very first girl ever that I've actually taken an interest in, enough to want to make you my bride. I couldn't help but to think that we've met before…you're so familiar to me in a way, yet I couldn't remember it…"

Kaguya smiled awkwardly at the young Kazekage, blushing with their close proximity. She has never been held by a man before in a close distance, let alone receiving the powerful gaze that he now gives her. "I love the compliment, Kazekage-sama, but this is really not the right timing-"

Gaara interjected her words with one finger on her lips, silencing her with a charming smile he never knew he was capable of doing until he saw her flushed further into a deeper set of red, her eyes darting all over the place and avoided his gaze like a deer caught in headlight. Leaning into her, Gaara whispered the rest of his sentence into her ear that had her balk with surprise, "I think I'm starting to more than like you…"

"Wakame!" Kaguya exclaimed, the little servant maid immediately appeared by her side, a terrified look on her face when she saw the young Kazekage turning paler as the minute passed by. "Wakame! Get yourself together! Inform Temari-dono and Kankurou-dono of what happened, and tell them to come over quickly!"

With a few frantic nods, Wakame dashed out of the Miyagusuku Manor and ran out into the streets, running towards the Kazekage's Manor.

Trying her best to pried herself away from Gaara, Kaguya held him with one arm while barking out orders anxiously, telling her servant maids to wear a mask and be quick with what they do inside the garden lest they too gets intoxicated. Gently, Kaguya lead the young Kazekage out of the inner garden, making good use of the little time he had until his vision and vertigo started to gets the better of him. Ipaasha's Intoxication Syndrom's manifestations come swiftly without the victim's realization. It could be too late if Kaguya were to take her actions slow. Better treat it while the signs are merely starting.

Gaara's flailing arm caught Kaguya's shoulders. Grabbing what his hand have come into contact with, Gaara unconsciously pulled Kaguya nearer to him, wanting to see properly the face of the person holding him through his swirling vision. He felt his world tilt and turn and twist in a sickly way that he could feel bile trying to fight its way out of his throat. Swallowing audibly, Gaara panted and glared unknowingly at Kaguya, frustrated with his failing vision.

"Kazekage-sama?" Kaguya said softly, one of her hand touching his cheek gently to coax him to look at her in the eyes, guiding him with her voice. "Kazekage-sama? Gaara-sama? Can you hear me? It's me, Kaguya."

When he finally did moved his eyes from looking everywhere into focusing towards her voice, Kaguya recognized the early symptoms of Ipaasha's Intoxication Syndrome settling onto him slowly, beginning from his slow response to verbal commands, vision response to both people and light and wobbly movements. The clock had started to tick, and time is slipping right out of Kaguya's grasp.

Worried that he might just lose his mind, Kaguya patted his cheek as roughly as she could bear. "Gaara-sama," Kaguya called again in a louder tone, getting his attention. "Gaara-sama, let's get you out of here alright. You can't stay here any longer. You'll need medication, and quick."

As if on cue, Gaara came crashing down when his leg caught on a broken pot. His hand immediately went to his head as his vision swam right in front of his eyes, willing his world to stop tilting any further.

"Gaara-sama, come on, there's not much time left. If you could just stand up…"

Just as Kaguya despaired over her frail minimal energy at being unable to support Gaara, a pair of strong arms came from behind her and lifted Gaara up with ease, throwing the young Kazekage's nearly limp form over his shoulder as if he weighed no more than a sack of potatoes. Surprised, Kaguya stared as Spade, with his now transformed human form, smiling widely down at her.

"Hime," Spade, now Senri, said cheerily with a wide smile on his face. "You can leave the rough job to me. It's my duty to protect and help you, remember?"

Near 1 a.m at the Miyagusuku Manor…

Both Temari and Kankurou froze upon hearing what Wakame had told them. Immediately, they rushed from the Kazekage's Manor and went over towards Kaguya's place. The old head servant, Baba Yaga, brought the two Suna Siblings towards Kaguya's chamber. Both noted about the strange sudden eeriness of the manor, and they prayed for the better as the slide the door open and entered.

They were greeted with the sight of a tired Kaguya trying to coax a flailing Gaara to sit quietly. It was nothing like they have ever seen, and they have certainly never seen Gaara behaves as such.

Gaara had Kaguya practically kneeling on his lap while he sat there cross legged, one arm circling around Kaguya's waist possessively while the other pushed her hand holding the wet cloth away from his face. It had them so surprised to the degree that their jaws are hung wide open and appeared frozen permanently to the very ground they stood.

"Gaara-sama, if you would just listen to me-" Kaguya started, but her mouth is clamped shut with Gaara's flailing arm, covering her mouth neatly with his hand despite him being wobbly.

"No! Don't want another wet cloth! I don't like it!" Gaara, to his sibling's surprise, wailed.

Gaara, their ever so once-upon-a-time-deathly-scary-but-turned-good little brother, Gaara, is sitting there on a thickly laid out futon and avoiding Kaguya's advances on the wet clothes like a little child avoiding being fed bitter medicines. He wailed, of all things, wailed! Of all the things they could have seen, they've seen a side of Gaara that they're not sure they wanted it to happen ever again.

"Gaara-sama-" Kaguya started with a gentle, patient voice, but the young redhead interjected her with a loud and firm "No!" as he tried to avoid the advancing wet cloth with his head turned as far away from Kaguya as possible.

"It's supposed to clear your visions," Kaguya explained, managing to move the wet cloth over to his burning forehead. "You'll feel better afterwards, I promise-"

"No! And no to you too, Shukaku! Shut up! You're making my head ache!"

"Gaara-sama, this'll help you a lot. I'm not lying-"

"It's cold! I don't want it!"

Temari is the first one to recover from the initial shock of seeing her brother behaving in such a way. Blinking her eyes a few times to wake herself up, Temari nudged Kankurou's ribs as hard as she could and he yelped, announcing their arrival to the princess.

Kaguya looked up from Gaara and saw Temari and Kankurou standing near the sliding door to her chamber. Smiling gratefully, Kaguya were about to say something when Gaara locked one arm around her head and pulled her in for a kiss while his other hand effectively thrown the cloth away from her hand.

When Kankurou remarked upon the scene with a, "Now that was quick…" with one of his eyebrow raised, Temari gasped in a scandalous way and quickly moved forward to pull Gaara's arms off of Kaguya with Kankurou. It didn't help much that Gaara's arms were so much stronger with the Sand Shield continuing to protect him from unwanted assaults, preventing Temari from just trying to pry his arms loose, much less from Kaguya herself, who keeps on hitting Gaara's back pathetically in an effort to loosen his hold on her.

Kaguya had no idea that looking into his eyes with him forcing a kiss on her would be so awkward. On top of that, with the Ipaasha's Intoxication Syndrome still upon him, he would never realize that what he is doing is not quite right. He could no longer differentiate between right or wrong and black or white. All he knew is his particular fondness for anyone he ever had and sticks to that person. For all Kaguya knows, any moment now he would let her go and lets out a full blown serenade.

If he likes me enough to begin that, that is, thought Kaguya as she battles with Gaara hopelessly, flushing all the way to the roots of her hair when he skillfully moved his lips over hers again and again.

She hoped dearly that the serenade wouldn't happen. It would be so much more embarrassing with the Suna Siblings here. Moreover, she had initially thought that the young Kazekage didn't like her that much to begin to kiss her this hard. And his tongue, Kaguya thought to herself. Gosh! Kaguya squeaked inwardly and squeezed her eyes shut to avoid looking into his eyes boldly when she felt his tongue sweeping her lips pleadingly. She didn't know what to do when she felt his tongue sweeping her lips more fervently. It felt so strange and kinda nice at the same time. Gaara pressed his tongue against her lips and she parted her lips slightly, half wondering what he wanted her to do about it, only for him to immediately invade her mouth forcefully with his tongue and started to stroke her tongue sensually with his, surprising her from the inside out. That was when she thought that it was a kiss she receives from a devil himself.

With a loud 'HIYAAA!' from Kankurou and Temari, both of them managed to subdue Gaara's shield sand and aimed for their brother's arms, prying both of his arms from holding onto Kaguya's neck and waist and keep his arms down to prevent him from reaching out towards her again. By that time, the young princess of the Miyagusuku clan have glowed a wonderful shade of red from top to toe, holding her mouth with a shocked expression on her face.

Now that both siblings have Gaara under control, they took in the surroundings of Kaguya's chamber and noted that everything is in disarray. They could only imagine how Kaguya had actually tried her best to get close enough to Gaara with the wet cloth and holding their little brother off for God knows how long at the same time, and with their unexpected entry, it had served as a wonderful distraction for her to look away from Gaara for less than a second and he had seized it – like the shinobi he is – and crushed her to him in a scorching kiss. Deep down, Temari actually felt sorry for the young princess, but hey! The Wind Mistress thought on the bright side. Gaara's going to marry her and she's marrying him anyway! The kiss's bound to happen sooner or later, then why not now? Haha!

The wind mistress realizes that her own train of thought is wicked and dark and full of thoughts and things that are unsympathetic towards the princess. She stopped thinking and focused in keeping Gaara's arm strained afterwards and allowed herself no more than another train of undiluted and clean thought.

"Please, Temari-dono," Kaguya, despite her trying to gather her wits together, said in a shaken voice and to the eldest of the Suna Siblings, a pleading look on her tomato red face. "I will explain everything afterwards, but first, could you please try your best to at least cool him down? He's getting warmer, and when he gets warmer, he'll get bolder and he'll lose his logical thoughts the longer he is left in such condition. It'll at least slow down the process of the toxic. I'm not strong enough and I couldn't stop his arms from…err…" when her eyes caught Kankurou's, she blushed another shade of red and continued in a small voice, "-doing…err…I mean…err…I'm afraid that I won't be able to finish preparing the antidote in time either."

"Let me guess. He touched you somewhere no man has ever touched you before?" Kankurou's own unfiltered thoughts came straining through his unguarded mouth and joined the conversation.

He didn't even realize his sister's death glares that could actually kill him for good started to flare up beside him as he busy himself with staring at the little shy princess's reaction, who seemed to redden up to another dangerous degree of red. His wide painted lips smiled gleeful at the new information.

"So my lil' brother's a man now, ain't he!" Kankurou's gleeful tone piped up loudly, laughing in a shameless tone at the princess, seemingly appeared oblivious to his sister fishing out her wide set of iron fan from her obi. "Where did he touch? The breast or the-"

With a loud 'WHACK' that could have possibly killed a normal man; Temari swung her iron fan with one hand and mercilessly walloped her brother, ignoring Kaguya's squeak of surprise.

"One more word," Temari said, one finger held up in front of Kankurou's face, "-and I'll seriously considering putting you out of your miserable life, Kankurou," Temari continued in the most dangerous tone she could ever summon in her angered state, ashamed with her brother's behavior and uncontrolled dirty mouth. When Kankurou kept quiet obediently with actual tears swimming in his eyes, Temari smiled evilly at him and turned towards the poor princess.

"Is there anything else, Kaguya-hime?" Temari asked kindly with a nod, taking the wet cloth from Kaguya's hand. When Kaguya shakes her head, Temari gave her another nod and went on to her task. She understands what it was that she fears. The poor princess has never been touched by a man, much less kissing one as hot as her brother. She smiled understandingly, appearing amusing even when she thought about just what Gaara had done with his wandering hand when he is left alone with Kaguya…

"Shukaku," Kaguya started by facing Gaara, beginning the first of her task. "I know you can hear me, and if you do, I would like you to make an effort and stop erecting the sand barriers for a while. If you heard me, please let me know by giving me a signal of some sort so that I can know that you understand me."

But it's not me; Shukaku's voice came through her mind gruffly. Kaguya could sense that Shukaku itself is tired, probably from Gaara's mind running berserk from the effects of the Ipaasha's scent. Yeah, sometimes I did it, I admit that, but most of the time the sand he carry around with him seemed to have a mind of their own as well. It scares me sometimes. But I'll try.

"It's alright. Thank you," Kaguya whispered, giving the tailed beast her thanks and rushed around, opening jar after jar of herbs and piling them on top of a small worktable that she had probably asked her servant maids to carry it into her chamber, which Temari thought that it is very thoughtful of her to be doing so.

The Kazekage is an important figure to the village. He – or sometimes a she, but so far all of them has been a he – acts as a symbol of power to the village, leading and guiding the people, supporting and directing as the most powerful shinobi in the village. If words got out about the Kazekage being subdued by the mere intoxication of both the pollens and the fragrance of the Ipaashas, the village would be put into a fragile position, as other villages would come in and attack in the absence of the Kazekage.

Placing every herb that she has gathered into a small black pestle made of stone, she pounded the herbs with an equally black mortar and placed the pounded ingredient into a small glass pot filled with boiling water. The chamber is soon filled with a wonderful soothing herbal scent.

Pouring the boiled herbs into a small vial, Kaguya motioned for Kankurou to help her tilt Gaara's head backwards. After making sure that the vial of herbal essence is no longer boiling hot, Kaguya tilted the whole content of the vial into Gaara's mouth slowly, watching as he swallowed the liquids gulp by gulp.

Everyone watched as Gaara let out a loud groan of distress, one hand flying to his head and appearing as if he is trying to steady himself.

"Are you feeling better now, Gaara-sama?" Kaguya asks the young Kazekage with her eyes wide with anticipation.

"Much better from running my hands all over you without your permission," Gaara said as Temari raised her eyebrows at that comment, surprised with the truth that Gaara blurted out suddenly. With his eyes closed tight and appearing much in pain, Gaara continued to reveal one affirmation to all the things that have happened before his siblings' arrival, solving all the questions that have risen within both Temari's and Kankurou's mind. Kaguya wanted very much to slap her hand to her forehead and dig a hole to hide her in it forever in shame.

"I'm terribly sorry about that. I've never done that to anybody before. It's very nice – not that your figure's not top notch, and not that I've touched anybody else when I said that–" Kankurou raised his eyebrows. "–but I realize within myself that everything is done without my being sober and you being willing but that you're unable to defend yourself against me when I groped your wonderful set of breast and ass, not to mention that you've suddenly become the one girl that I wanted to have by my side and in my bed no matter what–" Temari could feel her jaw dropping loose from her skull. "–and the truth that your voice suddenly sounded so cute and sexy that I wondered how I could make you scream my name in bed when we really got married…"

By this stage, Temari started to feel herself going faint, a possibility that she is hyperventilating with the drastic truth about her quiet little brother. Kaguya, upon seeing this, fetched another one of her many sets of vials and thrust it underneath Temari's nose, relieved when she sobered up and breathed deeply to calm herself. Kaguya explained to Temari in simple quiet words that what Gaara blurt out is the undiluted words from his mind as he is still partially affected by the Ipaasha. Temari gulped as she braced herself for more of Gaara's confession, and it doesn't help that Gaara continued to blurt unknowingly as everyone's ears opened to listen to him blurt one thing after another. "–and I think that maybe we should skip the engagement and go straight for the wedding to try all those things out. Now that I finally understood why the councilmen have kept pestering me about marriage and getting myself a bride since they already done it plenty of times themselves, somehow daringly doing it in the store room at the office loudly with some passing maids to make me feel like doing all of those sex things with a girl in bed and finally getting myself a bride, but I can't since it'll create troubles and unpleasant scandals for the line of Kazekage's family and I don't really want to do it with anyone else but you after today and I planned to do it after we got married and truthfully, I wanted to do it very much with you right now and screw all the rules but I can't since I'm the Kazekage and I had a reputation to keep. Then I nearly forgot about it, but I suddenly recalled that I have to tell you that this headache I'm feeling right now is starting to get really bad and my vision swimming around is really starting to kill me."

Finally, Gaara stopped blurting, remaining unknowing of the fact that his siblings are just right beside him and after hearing his long line of brave undiluted adult confession, both of their jaws dropped to the ground silently and stared at their little Kazekage brother, viewing him in a new, different light. Temari couldn't help but to agree with Kankurou that their little brother is truly becoming a man right now. She never knew his thoughts seeing as he never talked about them and she never plucked enough courage to ask him about what he felt about 'the talk', but then everything accelerated to a degree that it's no longer 'the talk' that she's going to worry about right now, and it's all the statement about what he had just said that made her feel rather concerned with Kaguya remaining 'un-pregnant' and her virtues protected for a long while before the marriage.

Maybe it's a good idea that they skip the engagement…thought Temari.

As Kaguya blushes another shade of red and trying to ignore the looks that both siblings are giving her to prevent more embarrassment, she turned around and searched in a small wooden box filled with bottles and vials and ampoules. Fishing out a transparent little vial filled with brown powder, Kaguya uncorked the glass vial and placed it under Gaara's nose. He took it as his cue to breathe in, and when he did, he finds himself chocking back uncomfortable groans as his nose seemed to burn up from breathing in the vial of powder.

"It stings, yes," Kaguya smiled apologetically, knowing how it must have hurt and burned. "But it's a very good instant cure against vertigo and headache. You'll find yourself no longer in a situation wherein you might have to crack your skull to relieve the pain."

"What is that?" Temari asks from beside Gaara, staring with shock at the little glass vial that Kaguya is holding. The effect that it had generated is certainly unexpected, seeing as her little brother actually bended over the chair and holding onto his nose in pain.

"This?" Kaguya held up the vial. When Temari gave a nod, Kaguya explained. "It's actually powdered tips of a cactus's thorn. The stings are quite rewarding, actually, you'll be finding your sense of smell heightened later on, Gaara-sama."

When Gaara continued to groan painfully, Temari patted Gaara's back and sighed in relief. "Well, at least you're back."

"And I guessed that both of you heard what I have said just now…" Gaara grunted painfully while holding onto his nose, his ears starting to redden in shame.

"You bet we heard all of 'em alright…" Kankurou said sulkily, not expecting that Gaara didn't get a good scolding from Temari for doing and thinking everything that a man dreams to do to his to-be-fiancee…