Gaara was blessed with one year. One year of complete bliss and happiness. One year to spend loving and caring for the woman he loved. One year that brought joy and heartbreak, smiles and tears, sunshine and rain.

It also brought beginnings and endings. The former was personified in the birth of a daughter while the latter was defined by the death of a wife.

Two months after the birth of their child, whom they named Takara, Sakura's condition began to decline rapidly. She often fell into long fits of coughing that would confine her to bed rest for days on end. Gaara had to remind himself (and sometimes be reminded by the anxious mother) to take care of his baby, for he had a habit of forgetting everything except the green eyes that he loved; and it was nothing less than murder to ask him to remove his gaze from them for any span of time.

On the first of December, being the day they first arrived in the Snow Country, Sakura and Gaara were walking through a silent, icy forest, the child resting in Sakura's arms. She seemed distracted with an uncommon happiness that filled her eyes with a rarely seen light. Gaara watched her anxiously, afraid of the presentiment he felt when he looked at those orbs of preternatural illumination. Finally, he stopped her by laying his hand on her arm.

"Why do you look like that?"

Sakura turned to look at him, seeming slightly put out that he had disturbed her reflections, but she smiled good-naturedly. "It is exactly the type of night that I wished to die on, Gaara."

"You wish to die?"

"I do not wish for it to happen, no. But it is inevitable and you and I have known it. Why do you give me such a look of surprise? We have known it was coming and I was simply thinking that this would be the perfect night to end it."

"You are a cruel woman."

"You must never call me that again. I am dying. And who knows, but I won't be dead in a few hours?"

"What about our daughter?"

"What can I do? There is nothing that can stop this illness, though I had you for a time of happiness and Takara has brought us such joy. My will to live left me the day I left you behind. It was too long ago and too deeply embedded in my consciousness for you to dream of a recovery at this stage of the malady."

"Sakura..." The girl placed her lips against his.

"Come to terms with it. I do not wish to see you sink into despair when I am gone."

"You must not leave me tonight."

"I must and I shall. I am tired of living in this body so worn out and useless. I gave all my remaining strength to the one I am holding at present and there is nothing left for me to survive for. I could not recover. You knew that."

"I always hoped you would prove me wrong."

"I never did. I knew it was impossible."

Silence prevaded over the couple. Both seemed to find comfort in staring at the infant in Sakura's embrace. In her was a future for Gaara and a death for his better half. Gaara could hardly bear to look at it; he seemed to find a perverse way to blame the baby for its mother's untimely passing.

Gaara suddenly became aware that Sakura's grasp seemed to loosen to the point of it being dangerous and he caught Takara just in time to see Sakura slipping to the forest floor. With wide, panicked eyes, Gaara lifted one in each hand and carried them as quickly as he was able to the small cabin that they lived in.

The night wore on with the man trying to restore Sakura to her senses, which he did briefly. She sat up for a few minutes, enough time to kiss Gaara and extract a promise that he would never stop taking care of their little girl. The vow was hard-wrenched and Sakura realized that Kabuto's influence might prove too much for the heartbroken and devoid lover. Placing another kiss on his forehead, her head fell to the pillow and she closed her eyes.

Sakura never woke up.

The hours dragged by. Gaara consoled himself with useless ideas of her being in a deep slumber. But he knew very well that she was not to wake. He sat next to the kunoichi's bed, holding his daughter and mesmerizing himself in the green eyes that she had inherited from her mother.

"I don't know how to love you. How can I? You are just like her and I can hardly bear to look at her now that she is gone. Takara (1) you are named for you are our treasure, but there is no longer an "our". I feel that I am capable of giving you only half the love that you deserve. And there is one to whom I feel that I must return, not out of desire, but compulsion. But I promised..."

Gaara tried to choke out the name of 'Sakura' but a sob caught his throat. The infant looked up at him solemnly as if it fully comprehended all that her father said. In truth, it was merely the countenance of the man that drew such expression into her eyes, for she puppeted what she saw from her parents as all children do.

"You will remain in someone else's care. And you will learn the meaning of loneliness so that when you meet one to end it, you can fully appreciate its closure."

The sand-nin rose and left the house. In the next few days he would bury his wife and seek for someone to raise Takara. That someone came in the form of a solemn nin with sapphire eyes and blonde hair. One who complied with Gaara's request simply because the child was Sakura's.

"I despise you, Kazekage. You deserve the pain she is putting you through. I take Takara for her mother's sake and spare your life for the same reason."

"There is nothing for it. I cannot love the child as I should, Uzumaki. Rebuild Konoha with her help, for she will be quite strong if she is anything like her."

"Build it for who? There is no one left."

"I spared your life because I believed you would find a way."

"I should punch you in the face. Or kill you."

"I will leave then."

And Gaara did leave, escaping the memories and attachments that he had clung to. Running to a hopeless doom because he believed that all he had loved in the world to be lost completely. Naruto watched him run until he disappeared entirely from his keen sight. He glanced down at the child in his arms.

She was a real beauty, a true daughter of Haruno Sakura. She had the aforemetioned emerald eyes, along with very pale, creamy skin, and small features which were made stern by the influence of her father. The only characteristic she seemed to have recieved from Gaara was beautiful, silky red hair. It was the one trait that was untouched by her mother.

"You have your father's personality."

The girl cooed and waved her hand in front of the boy's troubled blue eyes, managing to evince a small smile from her caretaker.

"Do not turn out like him."

--

Kabuto smiled at the stirring body of Uchiha Sasuke. It had been simple work retrieving the boy after putting him under at jutsu that gave the appearance of death. Kabuto had kept him alive and unconscious for more than a year, waiting for that blasted kunoichi to die.

The plan had worked perfectly.

Kabuto had planted that infamous notebook from which Tsunade got the idea of the rescue mission for the Uchiha. She probably would have preferred to do it herself, but it would be dangerous for her to leave the village. So she had sent the only other person capable of pulling off the task. This brought Sakura to Orochimaru's lair and lured Gaara along with her. Counting on the power of heartbreak, he had split Gaara and Sakura by means of a web of deception and cruelty which killed the girl just as he wanted. Konoha was destroyed along with two of the greatest medic-nins, the only ones capabale of performing such jutsus to seal away Orochimaru's soul. Kabuto used his own power to make Sakura's seal weak and temporary and also made allowances for Orochimaru to bide his time without detriment as long as he was imprisoned in her hand. Now that she was dead, Gaara was his tool to be used however he desired and the soul that had been sealed away broke free from Sakura and found its way back to the body it coveted.

Sasuke's, or rather Orochimaru's, eyes opened.

"Kabuto, your plan was brilliant."

The medic-nin smirked to himself. Yes, it was indeed a brilliant plan.

"Orochimaru-sama, I hope you did not suffer any ill effects?"

"None whatsoever. It was completely flawless."

"Will the Kazekage destroy Suna, or do you suppose he retains an attachment?"

"He will do whatever we wish. His precious wife is gone and he has given up his child to another nin. He has no desire to live at all."

"His child?"

"Yes, a daughter. And it is important that we discuss her while we are on the topic. I have managed to...taint her with a bit of my influence while she was unborn."

"Taint?"

"Yes, I will reveal the full scheme later. Simply another tool that we might find rather useful when Gaara loses all potential. Now we need only wait for the man himself to come. It should be a matter of days. And there are more important things for us to do besides having him destroy Suna. However, these things will require us to bide our time. Be patient, Kabuto."

"Understood."

Orochimaru smiled. Everything was working out as they wanted.

--

"It's by your own choice that you die. I do not pity you or feel sorry for you. I am angry at your selfishness to give up. Die if you please, Temari. I will kill Orochimaru myself."

"I do not wish for you to be angry. If you lost her, you would do the same."

"Her?"

"Don't play dumb, it's annoying."

"I would not roll over and die."

"You say that now."

Gaara's eyes saddened as he flew through the treetops. Heartbreak had never made itself more known than now. Even that day when Sakura claimed she did not love him seemed miniscule in comparison to this. At least then she had been alive and it was still possible to hear her voice and see her face.

There would be none of that now. Temari was right.

Gaara clutched at his chest, the full pain of his aching heart began to set in. This 'wound of the heart' was far greater than any other Gaara had gone through before. A realization came with the pain. He was dying. It was only a matter of time.

There was no reason for him to live anymore.

--

Perhaps if Gaara had consented to keep the child, he would have learned how to love and cherish someone else rather than sink into the despair he found himself in. Maybe the girl would have taught him that life could go on even at the loss of someone precious. But it is useless to dwell on what-ifs and could-have-beens. Takara would not be part of the man's life for a long time.

The next seventeen years of this unfortunate history would pass with very little event or circumstance worthy of being narrated. The Desert Rose would bloom again in the form of a pretty kunoichi with green, solemn eyes, pale skin, and fiery red hair. Naruto would take her to Suna to be raised in the village of her father's family. At the very early age of thirteen, she became the strongest sand-nin in the village; an undisputable genius in shinobi arts and with a certain aptitude for medical skills. Before she would hear anything of her father, Takara would become Kazekage at fifteen and was said to be a very kind, though reserved leader.

The skills of the sand-nin did not stay secret very long. A mere two years after Takara became Kazekage, Orochimaru, fully reclaimed in his power though still refraining from open war against the Hidden Villages, would hear of her prowess. Growing bored and beginning to feel the effects of age, the man began to form a hideous plan that involved passing his soul from the less appealing Sasuke to the more youthful and promising Takara.

Gaara, still living in spite of the void in his heart, also heard of his daughter's greatness and began to fear the covetousness of Orochimaru. He desired a reunion between himself and his daughter and went off to find Uzumaki Naruto on the eve of the girl's seventeenth birthday.

Footnote:

(1) Takara means 'treasure' in Japanese.

Author's Note:

Here ends Part 1 of the Desert Rose story. I will continue to write on this same thread with Part 2, but I felt that a measure of closure was appropriate for this chapter.

I appreciate all the wonderful reviews. Many of them inspire me immensely, so don't stop writing them!

Love


Manwaithiel