A/N:I know things are moving slowly, but would you believe me if I said it's gonna be worth it? XD
Also since several people mentioned how quickly I update, I figured I'd mention that I didn't start posting this until I had several chapters ready, and I'm still a few chapters ahead of this (I'm about halfway done writing chapter 11) which is how I'm able to post once a week without fail. :D
Sakura took a sip of her coffee as she sat down on the small blue sofa in her room, her fingers running along the edges of the ceramic mug thoughtfully. She had managed to come up with a small plan for today's training session with Gaara, and she was going over the list of things to do for maybe the tenth time since she'd first woken up. She knew that she was probably overthinking it, but she hadn't trained anyone in taijutsu in years, and to be honest, she was nervous.
She continued to go over the plan of action in her head, and before she knew it she'd finished her coffee. She rinsed the mug in the sink, placing it beside the coffee machine to dry just as a knock sounded from her bedroom door. Sakura took a deep breath and went to open it, quickly smiling in Gaara's direction before moving to stand beside him in the hallway. She shut the door behind her and pressed her chakra into the seal to lock the door before finally turning to face Gaara fully.
"Good morning," She said, shaking off the strange feeling that still accompanied her every time she said that when it was well past noon.
"Good morning," Gaara replied with a slight nod of his head. Sakura looked him over to make sure he wasn't wearing anything crazy for their training session, and was relieved when she noticed the small gourd that was wrapped around his waist with a rope. She'd half expected him to wear his usual heavy gourd and vest to hold it, but he'd opted for a black t-shirt with mesh sleeves and standard ninja pants. It suited him.
When she glanced up toward his face once again, he offered her a small smile which she returned before he turned and began walking away. She followed him through the hallways and down the large staircase until they reached a section of the residence she'd only been to when setting up the seals. They passed the large kitchen and attached sitting room before they arrived at the door to the basement.
Gaara unlocked it wordlessly and began walking down the steps first, leaving Sakura to shut the door behind her. After the door was shut she paused at the top of the stairs as she realized that the basement was pitch black, but a few moments later the room beneath her became engulfed in a soft light. She began to move down the steps now that she could see, grateful that Gaara had gone first.
She reached the last step and looked around the room, realizing that it really just looked like every other basement she'd ever been in. It was large and mostly empty, and the only real difference was the color of the walls since they were likely made of adobe instead of concrete.
Sakura moved closer to the end of the room where Gaara was standing somewhat awkwardly, his gourd placed on the ground beside him. It was a bit strange to see him in such simple clothing, and she wondered briefly how much more strange it must be for him to be standing there without his gourd attached to his body. The thought made her smile sympathetically for a moment before she remembered the reason they were there.
"Okay, first thing's first. Have you already stretched and warmed up?" Sakura asked, to which Gaara replied with a shake of his head. "Let's do that first. If you have your own routine, you can do that, but otherwise just follow my lead."
Sakura began her pre-stretch warm-ups, starting with simple jumping jacks and lunges, and then moving to leg lifts and plies. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Gaara was following her moves with his eyes on her the entire time.
When her body was warm enough to increase the blood flow, she moved into her stretching routine. She sat on the floor and stretched her legs to the side as far as she could, then leaned to touch her toes on each side in turn. She went through a few more stretches until her body felt limber and ready to move, then quickly stood and moved into a defensive fighting stance with her arms raised to block.
"Alright, come at me with everything you've got. No chakra."
Sakura tensed her muscles as she braced for impact, frowning when she realized that Gaara wasn't moving. He was standing in the same place he'd started at, watching her with confusion.
"I thought we were going to train, not just spar."
"I need to see how you fight before I can come up with a training plan," Sakura replied, expecting that to be the end of the conversation. Gaara didn't move, though, and still looked almost hesitant, like he didn't want to attack her.
Sakura wondered if maybe he was worried about using his full strength and hurting her, especially since he had attacked her and almost killed her all those years ago. "I'll be using chakra to protect myself from being hurt too badly, and I'm sure you know that I can heal just about any injury that regular taijutsu can cause. I'll be fine."
Gaara seemed to think about her words for a moment before nodding his head in understanding. Sakura watched as he dropped down into an offensive stance and smiled at him reassuringly while bracing herself for his attack.
Gaara's entire demeanor changed as his expression slipped into something more dangerous. Sakura gasped softly, her body shuddering as she saw a flash of the memory of his sand pinning her to the tree, and then suddenly Gaara was moving toward her.
Sakura fought back a hiss as Gaara's fist came flying and crashed into her side, causing pain to surge through her body. She internally cursed herself for getting distracted and quickly recovered, watching his body movement to determine where the next blow would come from and managing to concentrate her chakra into that area just before he attacked again.
It didn't take long to fall into a rhythm, and Sakura managed to keep up with his attacks and block each one without moving away from the spot she'd started in. After a few minutes, Gaara seemed to realize this as well, and Sakura watched as his eyes narrowed on her just before he suddenly kicked toward her side.
Shit! she thought to herself as she dodged to the side. If Gaara's kick had landed, he would have hit her liver with enough strength to go through some of her chakra barrier. Her eyes locked with his from where he stood just across from her, his body still in his fighting stance. The moment stretched for what seemed like ages until Sakura felt a smile pull at her lips at the same time as Gaara.
They smiled at each other for a moment longer before Gaara darted forward again, his fist flying toward her. They danced around each other, breathing heavily with sweat trickling down each of their faces. Sakura let herself move around the room more freely to evade and block like she would if this was an actual fight, wanting to see what Gaara would do and if he could take advantage of the openings she purposefully left for him.
Sakura kept moving, finding that after a while she could easily predict what Gaara was going to do next. His attack pattern was fairly consistent and predictable, and he only seemed to notice and take advantage of about half of the openings she intentionally created.
As Sakura continued to study Gaara's form, she began making a list in her head of the different things that they would have to work on. Gaara seemed to notice her distraction and moved to take advantage of the situation, but Sakura already knew what he was going to do. She blocked the right hook with her forearm and shifted her torso to evade the body shot he threw with his other fist. Her palm was already out before his shin attempted to connect with her shoulder and she parried the attack easily, watching with a satisfied smirk as he stumbled backward.
The sight of Gaara stumbling around and missing shots was something Sakura never thought she would ever see. The same man who moved around every room with elegance and poise, who seemed to be calm and unphased even in the most frustrating and loud situations, was suddenly almost... normal. She wasn't sure why, but she found the idea of Gaara being a normal person and not just a Kage to be somehow comforting.
.
"Why is nothing working?" Sakura groaned, shoving the petri dish to the side and banging her head on the lab table.
Another week had passed, and she still hadn't made any progress on creating an antidote for the poison. Across the lab, Kankuro let out a string of curse words, and Sakura knew that he was having just as much trouble as she was.
There has to be something I'm missing, Sakura thought to herself as she ran her fingers through her hair roughly, trying to think of things she possibly hadn't considered before. What would she have done years ago when she was still learning how to create antidotes, when she was still open to experimenting with new ideas? What would Tsunade or Shizune do in this situation?
Sakura groaned again as her mind drew a blank, finding herself almost grateful for the knock that suddenly sounded from the door to the lab. She was the closest one to the entrance so she got up and peered through the small window on the door, taking a few seconds to recognize the girl with fluffy auburn hair that had brought them herbs last time. Sakura glanced toward Kankuro, who shifted his eyes from the clock on the wall to her and nodded to show that he was expecting her.
Sakura opened the door just as the girl began to stumble backward from the weight of the basket, somehow managing to grab onto her wrists to keep her steady just in time. Sakura grabbed the basket and placed it on the table beside the door, noticing immediately that it had at least twice as many ingredients as last time.
When Sakura glanced back to thank the girl, her brows furrowed as she noticed the expression on the girl's face. She was staring up at Sakura with wide and sparkling eyes in the same way she remembered Naruto looking at Ichiraku's ramen after a long mission away when they were kids.
"Can I help you with anything?" Sakura asked, not expecting the bright smile that quickly stretched across the girl's face. It was so wide that her eyes crinkled at the edges.
"You're Haruno Sakura-san, right?" Sakura blinked at the girl's question and nodded her head slowly. She knew she wasn't exactly supposed to be undercover, but for some reason she was still uncomfortable. "I knew it!"
"Have we met before?"
"No, but I immediately recognized you from the last time you were in Suna. I never forget a pretty kunoichi," the girl replied, and Sakura could swear that she was practically bouncing on her feet. Then she held her hand out, tilting her head and sending her fluffy hair bobbing to the side. "My name is Kitagawa Tsubaki. I hope we can get along while you're here in Suna."
Sakura offered the girl a polite smile and held out her hand awkwardly, remembering somewhere in the back of her mind that the people in Suna sometimes introduced themselves with handshakes. She opened her mouth to respond, but before she had the chance, a gruff and annoyed voice rang over the hospital's intercom, calling for the girl to return to the greenhouse.
"I better go. Let's talk more next time, Haruno-san!" Tsubaki yelled as she began running backward through the hallway, waving once and then turning down a corner and disappearing.
Sakura blinked, finding herself dumbfounded and a little bit weary. She hadn't run into someone with that much energy since the last time she'd been around Naruto, and even he had calmed down considerably over the years. Maybe she was getting too used to being around Gaara and his eternally calm presence.
When Sakura shut the door and turned back to the room, she immediately noticed the way Kankuro's eyes were lingering on the door and the faint blush that was spread across his cheeks. As if feeling the eyes on him, Kankuro glanced toward Sakura and then quickly looked back at the concoction he'd been working on. Sakura's interest was immediately piqued.
"Isn't she the girl who delivered the herbs to us last week?" Sakura asked, a small smirk tugging at her lips when she noticed the way he immediately tensed. She had only seen him behave like this one other time in the past, and it was when he'd been absolutely smitten with Ino during one of his trips to Konoha.
"You can't use this against me," Kankuro warned as he lifted his gaze finally, his eyes narrowed in an attempt to look dangerous. Sakura had seen this expression enough times to know that it was basically just for show, but he also never showed it unless he was serious about something.
"We both know that I have better blackmail material on you than your crush on the girl who delivers herbs," Sakura chuckled as she moved toward the basket, curious about why they suddenly had so many ingredients and if there was anything new. "Don't you think she's a bit young for you though?"
"She's older than you, Sakura."
Sakura's mouth gaped open as her attention whipped back to Kankuro, who still hovered over the table he was working at. His attention was completely on the materials in front of him, but there was a smirk on his lips that let her know he was aware of her reaction without having to look. She debated telling him he was a filthy liar, but he obviously knew more about the girl than she did, and she wasn't about to start up a fruitless argument for Kankuro to yell 'I told you so' about later.
She turned back to the basket and began sorting the herbs based on their medical properties, placing them into small piles to further organize later. There was a lot more variety this time around, but it still seemed like she'd already tried to use everything here. Was she really going to be stuck on this antidote forever?
Sakura sighed as she began sifting through the poisonous herbs, her gaze locking onto a new one that she immediately recognized as foxglove. She reached out and grabbed the tube-like flower petals, the wheels in her mind beginning to turn.
Before her thoughts were even fully formed, she had grabbed the flower and practically run over to the wall of supplies. She tossed it inside of a mortar and began grinding it up, her pulse racing excitedly as she wondered why she'd never thought of this before.
She knew that foxglove was poisonous, but she also knew that it was possible to extract the good parts of it and use them to treat heart failure, which just so happened to be the final cause of death of every person affected by the poison so far. She had never done it herself, but Tsunade had taught her about it years ago when she'd first begun her apprenticeship. Maybe this was the break she'd been looking for.
Once the foxglove was ground up, Sakura hovered her hands above the mortar, licking her lips as she focused on trying to find the pieces of the flower that she knew could be used for medicine. When she finally located the chemical composition she was looking for, she carefully pulled it out and placed it in a small bowl by itself.
Sakura could feel Kankuro's eyes on her as she ran to the other side of the lab to grab a dropper, but she paid him no mind. She hurried back to her station and pulled a small amount of the synthesized poison replica into the dropper, her heart racing rapidly in her chest. Time seemed to stretch from one moment to the next, but before she knew it, her fingers had pressed down on the dropper to release the poison into the foxglove.
For the first time in two weeks, the chemicals reacted to each other.
"Kankuro, come here!" Sakura screeched, her heart beating so hard that she could practically feel it in her ears.
Kankuro came racing over, saying something that she couldn't quite understand. Her mind was too far gone as she stared into the bowl below her, her hands trembling almost as much as her breath.
When Kankuro reached her side, he let out a gasp that was loud enough to break Sakura out of her trance. She finally tore her eyes away from the mixture in front of her to look at him. For a moment they both just stared at each other, but then suddenly they were grinning and moving around the room to gather more materials to work on actually making an antidote without having to say another word to each other.
For the first time in two weeks, they had made progress.
.
Sakura tilted her head back to face the sky, letting out a content sigh as the heat tingled against her skin. The sun had been out for hours at this point and had risen far past the edge of the rock wall to press down on the village. She knew that most of Suna would be asleep at this time of day, and she fought back a yawn that reminded her that she should be asleep right now, too.
"Come on, hurry up," Kankuro grumbled from in front of her. At some point while she'd been distracted by the heat, Kankuro had finished unlocking the seals to the Kazekage tower.
Sakura grinned sheepishly, stepping inside of the building and closing the door behind her, shuddering at the sudden cool air that swept against the layer of sweat on her body. She watched as Kankuro began working on the seals to the second door, following behind him when that one was opened as well.
She shut the door behind her and began to follow Kankuro as he headed up the spiral stairwell leading to the Kazekage office. Sakura knew that she wasn't moving as fast as she normally would, but that didn't stop the tired smile from pulling at her lips as she touched her hip pouch.
They continued up the stairwell until they finally reached the Kazekage office. Sakura leaned against the wall as Kankuro began knocking on the door in a complicated pattern of knocks, pounds, and taps. Not even a full second after the last tap, the door flew open to reveal Shin standing there, his eyes glowering and furious. Sakura could practically see the vein pulsing on his forehead.
"Where have you been?" Shin hissed, his eyes narrowing in a hard glare that would have probably scared Sakura when she was still a genin. Now, though, it didn't even break the smile that was still on her lips.
"Dude. Chill," Kankuro said lazily, clapping one hand onto Shin's shoulder as he walked into the Kazekage office. Sakura followed behind him, bowing slightly toward Shin as she passed him, her smile stretching when she noticed his glare darkening. Apparently he didn't like people being polite to him when he was angry at them. She did feel bad for not contacting him and asking him to escort Gaara back to the residence, but hopefully the reason would be enough to make up for it.
Sakura shifted her attention to the office, her eyes immediately locking onto the familiar tuft of bright red hair. Gaara's head was carefully propped onto his arms at his desk, his breathing slightly heavy as he slept, and she found herself thinking that his sleeping face was kind of cute. She moved to stand in front of the desk beside Kankuro and watched as he leaned over the desk, his fingers tapping against the dark wood.
"Gaara, wake up."
Almost instantaneously, Gaara lifted his head and looked up at them sleepily. He blinked a few times to clear his vision and shifted his gaze from Kankuro to Sakura, and then back to Kankuro.
"What happened?" Gaara asked, just before leaning back in his chair and rubbing one of his eyes. Sakura watched carefully to see if the dark circles around his eyes smudged-they didn't. So that got rid of the theory that Gaara was wearing eyeliner.
Sakura turned to watch Kankuro answer, finding herself only mildly surprised when he burst into a grin that took up half of his face. He didn't say anything in response and instead stepped to the side and lifted his arms, gesturing toward Sakura in a large and exaggerated manner. She was confused at first, but when she saw Gaara's eyes shift back to her, she realized that Kankuro was giving her a chance to answer in his place.
She opened her mouth to reply, but quickly snapped it shut as the smile that had been on her lips transformed into a smirk. Actions always spoke louder than words, right?
Sakura quickly undid the clasp on her hip pouch and grabbed a fistful of capped syringes, placing them onto Gaara's desk with a flourish. Gaara just looked at her, his bewilderment showing through every feature on his face and only deepening when Kankuro reached into his pocket to grab more capped syringes, placing them onto the desk in the same dramatic way that Sakura had.
"What's going on?" Gaara asked, his voice tinged with confusion. Sakura felt a swell of pride rise in her chest as she took a deep breath, the excitement from earlier beginning to bubble underneath her skin again.
"Give these to your medics who are going on missions soon," Sakura smirked, watching as Gaara's eyes widened slightly. "It won't negate the poison completely, but it'll stop it from spreading for several minutes. That might be enough time for them to use a teleport scroll to get back to Suna. It might be enough time for someone to extract the poison and save them."
Sakura sensed movement beside her and turned to face Shin, who had moved to stand next to Kankuro. His arms were folded across his chest as he stared at the syringes on the desk. Sakura wasn't sure if it was an effect of the sunlight shining through the window, but he seemed less rough and irritable than he had every time she'd seen him so far.
"How did you manage it?" Shin asked, his eyes shifting to Kankuro as he spoke. "You've been saying that it seemed impossible to counter this poison for months."
"Well, let me tell you something," Kankuro drawled out dramatically as he draped an arm heavily around Sakura's shoulder, the sudden impact enough to make her stumble a little. "It was all Sakura over here. She's the one who thought to use freaking foxglove."
Sakura watched as Shin looked her over, his expression serious and contemplative like he was trying to figure something out in his head. Just as Sakura was beginning to grow impatient and tired of being studied, Shin uncrossed his arms and lifted his eyes to hers.
"Was it really you?" He asked. Sakura just stared at him for a moment before nodding her head, and he hummed thoughtfully in response. "It seems that you possess a modicum of talent after all."
Sakura wasn't sure whether to scowl or smirk. On one hand, she had managed to get Shin to admit that she had talent even though he'd seemed determined to hate her; on the other hand, he had still managed to say it in a way that sounded sarcastic and rude.
Gaara cleared his throat from the other side of his desk, causing Sakura's attention to snap from her thoughts and turn to him. He'd stood up at some point, and other than a small clump of hair that was sticking up awkwardly, he didn't look at all like he'd been sleeping just moments ago.
"I will hand these out to our medics tomorrow," Gaara said, his voice quiet but still rough around the edges with sleep. Sakura beamed, her pride coursing through her when Gaara smiled at her. "Thank you."
Sakura watched Gaara quietly for a moment before smiling softly and shaking her head. "You don't need to thank me. This is part of my mission, and I just hope that it helps."
"What she means is, 'You're welcome'," Kankuro snickered. Sakura began to reach out to punch him lightly, but squealed when he picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of rice before she had a chance.
"Let me go!"
"Hush, you look like you're about to drop I'm carrying you back to the residence whether you like it or not."
Sakura groaned in frustration as she kicked her legs wildly to try and escape, but her reflexes were slow from exhaustion and before she could really do any damage, Kankuro had tied her ankles together with his chakra strings.
"If you keep going I'm gonna hog tie you and carry you in the streets like a pig about to be roasted," Kankuro warned as he began walking down the stairwell.
Images flashed through Sakura's mind and she shuddered. If they were in Konoha, she would break his face here and now and just help fix the buildings later. Unfortunately for her, they were in Suna, where the guilt would haunt her forever if she destroyed their streets or their Kazekage tower.
"I'll get you for this," she growled, glaring at his back with enough hatred to burn the sun.
"Yeah, yeah."
Sakura frowned and lifted her torso so that she was horizontal as she heard movement from behind them. Shin and Gaara had begun to follow them out of the Kazekage tower, and Sakura narrowed her eyes in Shin's direction, just warning him to laugh at her. He managed to keep his expression neutral somehow, and she wondered if maybe he didn't find it funny because he knew the struggle. She'd laughed when Kankuro had tied Shin up in the streets to stop him from walking away, but she was starting to think that maybe next time she would be a little more sympathetic.
She shifted her eyes to Gaara, fully expecting him to seem as calm and serene as ever. Sakura's mouth dropped open when she saw that, to her surprise, his lips had pressed together in a hard line as if he was trying to stop himself from laughing. The blatant amusement that flickered through his eyes caught her completely off guard, and the feeling of being thrown off only grew when their eyes met.
Sakura stared at Gaara for a long moment before pulling her eyes away, shifting them to the ground where they stayed the rest of the way back to the residence. She normally would have been angry to see someone so amused by her suffering, but for some reason, seeing Gaara let his amusement show so obviously on his face seemed to embarrass her more than anything. The entire way back, right up until she fell asleep in her bed, she found herself fighting off an embarrassed flush.
There's finally progress! I know, I know, it's taking forever, but the slow burn is gonna be worth it. I promise.
Thanks as always to TipsyRaconteur and cosipotente, as well as everyone who has left reviews. I love seeing what you guys think of the story so far and seeing your predictions. :D
