Chapter 10: Gaara
It was a rather subdued trio that led Hana to where the Kages had met. None of them were eager to see what Tsunade would have to say about their now confirmed chakra collector, or her methods.
After hearing the whole story, Tsunade sat, fingers steepled, chin on her thumbs.
Her palms were tingling. There was a huge, huge gamble in front of her.
Now she may be the biggest loser whenever she bet money, but Tsunade generally won big when she bet other things.
She was alive, after all, when so many others... were not.
On the one hand, this Hitsugaya Hana was more or less a mystery. Nobody knew anything about her or her mysterious "mama", what war they were supposedly running from, what sanctuary they were supposedly running to, or where they came from in the first place. When asked, Hana just said they lived in "Seireitei", which was an odd name for a village, and not one Tsunade had ever heard of - and she liked to think she knew a good bit of geography of the surrounding countries. It certainly wasn't anywhere within the country of Fire, which Tsunade knew best as she was charged to protect it.
And it was a very bad sign that she had the ability to capture and carry with her samples of her ninjas' chakra. There were lots of bad things that could result from those samples getting into the wrong hands, and since they didn't know where Hana came from, there was no way to know she wasn't some kind of spy, willing or not, witting or not.
On the other hand... Tsunade had the gut feeling that Hana was a true innocent, a rarity. She certainly acted clueless. And it was painfully obvious that Chouji was totally smitten with her, an added unwelcome complication. Not the kind of thing you want on your people's minds when they had a war to attend to. It was going to be hard enough with all those ninja from the five countries trying to work together and put aside their differences while dealing with homesickness for their own families and villages, much less a romance between one of her own and a total stranger.
The part that made her palms tingle, however, was this mysterious "chewed soo" (as Hana put it) that the "pretty fox" said would help her find her "petals". Whatever jutsu this was would, in theory, lead her to the owners of the chakra that would fill the petals of the odd sakura-shaped tattoo she had on her chest.
And one of those owners, according to Sakura, was Uchiha Sasuke.
Which meant, in theory, that if they put Hana out as bait, either she would find him - or he would find her.
Which also meant, in theory, that Sasuke would no longer be missing, and a large unknown element in the equation would be less of a problem when facing the other Uchiha currently being a thorn in their collective side.
But in order to get that far, they would have to get Gaara of the Sand, the current Kazekage - in other words, a ninja from a completely different country, much less village - to agree to give her a chakra sample.
To agree to kiss a total stranger.
Yeah, right...
Tsunade let out a long sigh. It was worth the risk. Now to get him to agree...
Hana had been waiting an hour or so alone when a young man came in to see her. She saw the red hair first - so much like Mama's - then the flower tattooed on his forehead.
"Hitsugaya Hana?"
She nodded mutely.
"My name is Gaara. I understand you want something from me."
Gaara hadn't expected a request like this. Frankly, it was embarrassing. It was bad enough he was expected to lead an army from the Five Nations. He was the youngest Kage, untried as a leader, only a Kage because his village didn't really trust him and it was safest for them to keep him high profile where he couldn't do any damage - and this even after the One-Tail had been removed forcibly from him.
To have another Kage approach him on the eve of war asking a "tiny favor" of this sort was unsettling.
What made it far worse is he had never kissed a girl before and had only the faintest idea of how to go about it.
And then he walked into the room to find this beautiful young woman seated before him. Yes, Tsunade had said she had already fallen for someone else. It was hard to imagine anyone not falling for her.
"Your flower is pretty."
Gaara started. His flower?
"I have a flower, a picture though, not a drawing like yours. Would you like to see it?"
The girl pulled down just a little on her shirt. She had a delicate sakura blossom tattoo, or so it appeared, with three petals uncolored and two, the one pointing right and the one pointing right and down, filled in with a brilliant emerald green like her eyes and a vivid indigo purple, respectively. A small coiled stem peeked out from beneath the flower.
She put her finger on Gaara's forehead above his left eye. "Your flower is a drawing. It's pretty."
Gaara digested this. She couldn't recognize kanji? "Mine isn't a flower. It's a word. Can you not read?"
"I can read perfectly well," the girl said indignantly... followed by a sheepish "in English, that is. Just not Japanese."
English? What the heck?
He decided to proceed delicately with her. "This is rather awkward. I don't get asked to kiss a beautiful woman every day."
The girl tilted her head to one side. "They said you are sou-taichou. Does that mean the shadows are taichous? I still don't see how the other lady is a fire-shadow and you are a wind-shadow. You look awfully solid to me. My To-san is a taichou," she said with just a hint of pride in her voice. "He is in charge of the Tenth Division of the Court Guard. But that's at home, and that's a long way from here."
A military kid. Great. How could it be possible that a military kid be so completely and utterly clueless? You would think she would be hardened, street wise. And what military, from where? Gaara was just as puzzled as Tsunade had been. Whose court did this girl's father guard?
"The term Kage is a title. Kazekage means that I am a leader in the country of the Wind. Hokage means a leader from the country of Fire. They chose 'Shadow' because we lead specially trained people who protect from the shadows, trying not to draw attention to ourselves."
The girl seemed to think about this a minute. She blinked a few times and then said "But isn't a war going to draw a lot of attention?"
Gaara was starting to get distracted by her big green eyes. "We have a lot at stake. A lot of people we want to protect. A very bad person, a very strong person, wants to make it so everybody thinks what he wants them to. We want to stop him before he succeeds in making that happen so the people we protect can be free."
The girl's mouth made a round O.
"But that isn't what you are here for, is it?"
She shook her head.
"You have the advantage on me. I've never kissed anyone before, and by all accounts, you have kissed at least three." He ran the tip of his finger lightly over the petal pointing left and down. "And I am to be the fourth, yes?" She nodded slowly, her eyes never leaving his.
Gaara felt like he could drown in those eyes. Instead, he tore his gaze away and looked down at her hands. "Here, let's start with something less... intimate." He placed her arms around his neck and his around her waist. With his left cheek on hers, he didn't have to look into those eyes.
She whispered in his ear, "I thought 'intimate' is what happened when Mama and To-san close the door to their room." At that, Gaara nearly choked. She really was innocent. She had no idea about what happened between men and women.
"When I say 'intimate', I mean 'close', like something you wouldn't ordinarily do with someone. Like something you save for someone special. Like kisses usually are." He resisted the temptation to hold her closer, breathe in her scent. "Usually you don't just kiss anybody. You save kisses for the people you really care about. And you save kisses on the mouth for the person you love."
"Love?" She thought a moment, then said "You mean feeling all fuzzy inside when you look at someone?"
He wanted to look in her eyes again, so very badly. Instead, he said "There's love, and there's attraction. When you love someone, you want the best for them and you want to protect them. When you're attracted to someone, there is a feeling of... heat. And if the one you love and the one you're attracted to is the same person, and that person loves you and is attracted to you back, it can be really beautiful." His heart ached even as he said that, knowing she didn't yet understand, knowing she was already leaning towards someone else.
"Like Chouji? Like how even though he wasn't one of my petals, my chest got all hot when he kissed me?" Gaara could feel her cheek heat up when she whispered it.
"Yeah, like that." He was glad she couldn't see his face just then.
Gaara held her close a moment longer and then said "Let me see if I can help you, okay? But you have to make sure your eyes stay closed."
"Why?"
"Because when you're kissing, you're supposed to be concentrating on how it feels."
He started near her left earlobe, tracing a line of delicate featherlike kisses slowly down her cheek near the jawline. He would only have one chance at this, and he wanted to make it something he would remember. Something they would both remember.
One last kiss near the corner of her mouth, a pause, and then he placed his mouth on hers.
Chakra flared, and the third petal glowed a ruby red.
Gaara held the kiss as long as he thought he could possibly get away with it before breaking. It was still a pretty chaste kiss, all things considered, no tongue or anything, but it was plenty enough to leave him feeling like a ball of lava had settled right around where his heart should have been.
And the girl... her eyes remained closed nearly a full minute before she said simply "Wow."
Gaara allowed a grim sense of satisfaction to mingle with his sense of loss. He would most definitely remember that feeling. He would carry that feeling with him into the days ahead and remind himself that he was fighting to protect people like her. And he would carry the hope that someday, someone would look at him with eyes like hers, and her love and attraction would be directed at him.
Tsunade had arranged for a pair of messengers to escort Hana to the village of the Leaf. Before they left, Hana shared with Chouji what she had learned... when Gaara kissed her, it felt like hot sun on burning sand and scorching wind; when Chouji kissed her, she felt like melting heat inside and out. Almost, almost she didn't want to leave, didn't want to try to find her mama, didn't want to go back. But she had to try, and Chouji had a war to fight. Tsunade sent messages saying she was to stay with Sakura's parents and have a small allowance, and apparently she was to help with the rebuilding efforts that were going on after a major battle had destroyed much of the village. She was to be given some amount of freedom, as long as she didn't try to leave the village. But she had no desire to leave the village, since that was where Chouji would go when things were all over.
Satscout: Mayuri better fix this.
Hitsugaya: Excuse me? He's torturing me over there.
Satcsout: And I want you in one nonzombified piece when he's done. If he brings you back, I'll be willing to call him "Mayuri-sama" for a while in exchange.
Hana: Mama?
Satscout: I thought I told you not to go reading To-san's manga for a while.
Hana: Is it true? Rangiku-nee is zombified too?
Satscout: I could just about strangle the mangaka right now, but yes, it looks like it.
Hana: But it isn't Halloween yet.
Satscout: If he doesn't get a move on, it WILL be Halloween before they get your father back to normal. And please don't wake up the dragons... we really don't want them getting involved yet.
Hana: Mama?
Satscout: What now, honey?
Hana: You need to write faster, Mama.
Satscout: No offense, honey, but my life over here is complicated too... and soon enough I'll be catching up again since it takes so much screen and/or chapter time to explain what's going on. They're on what, 690? How much "time" takes place between where I am after chapter 13 and Naruto's "present"? Then I'll really be waiting for them - since anything I write would only have to be modified if they do something untoward in the manga **coughs** like let you cameo **coughs** and it's better for me to go with the mangaka's story.
Hana (pouting): You're saying I have to wait to see Chouji again, aren't you.
Satscout: Sorry, honey. Deal with it.