wow it's been a bit sorry folks life got weird
I do have the finished chapter in the next part done and we all get to witness the mess that is Sakura's love life. Wow. It's rough. Only date humans y'all.
(especially don't date possessive birds)
As always this is written on the phone so pardon the formatting.
Gaara was getting better each day with climbing up trees. His usually cumbersome claws could find the smallest of handholds and that tail of his made him nimble as a squirrel. At the age of six he was already a master of scaling up any tree that could hold his weight and was brave enough to leap from one to the other. Soon his favorite chore became collecting soft underlying barks and sun-kissed leaves from above the canopy. Sakura watched him from the ground and caught the ingredients that he tossed down.
Often times he would throw himself and she easily caught him.
Another time he had climbed a dead and rotting oak and presented her with a slab of heartoak he had dug out. Later that day she taught him the basics of whittling as she worked to fashion herself a new pipe. Smoking was a habit she had picked up early in life from her mentor and lately she had been terrible about it. Stress seemed to be building up as the years went on and so many things were changing. The sages had never been overtly favorable of one another, but the outright hostility between them was vexing. The slugs whispered in Sakura's ears of growing strife and she felt herself grow weary.
She wasn't frightened for herself. She could hold her own ground easily if the time came for it. Even the other witches under the Toad and Snake weren't above her level overall. So what if they could perform a few tricks that she couldn't? She would like to see them grow themselves back together. Even the snake took time and Sakura didn't. She would be fine.
Gaara, on the other hand, would be dead if anyone went after him. He was still so young and didn't have the stomach for bloodshed. Even when she hunted for meat he always thanked the animals before each meal. He was gentle as he grew older and she ached to know sooner or later he would be hurt. A terrible thing was his existence; one of neither human nor fae. A punishment.
She remembered the first advice that had been given to her as a new 'mother'.
'Better to let it die than waste your soul on it.'
It had hurt hearing that from someone she once held in high regard. Sakura knew such a thought was born from regret of what the witch herself had done, but she never quite forgave Konan giving her that advice. Sometimes she wished the toad witch had taken a different path and sometimes she just hoped the woman would let her own mistakes burn away for new growth. Sakura had done the same for herself after all and she never regretted it.
Especially at night when she told Gaara stories hidden in between the stars. How he would curl up against her side and whisper questions about each light above them. How he already could predict the cycles of the moon and trace out the path it took with his fingers. Often times he would stay up even as Sakura dozed alongside the boy. If was difficult to make him sleep some nights and impossible during the full moon when it hung heavy in the sky.
Gaara was ruled by the moon and would be for his life. It was simply in his blood after all.