Nothing changes. Yet, everything has at the same time to the two of them. Of the whole of Suna outside the council and Rasa, of Sute's father, and themselves not a soul knows that the two children are long pledged to each other. Not even the girls mother is aware.
Gaara feels like he should have even more glares sent his way. Perhaps pity directed at the gangly form that is always following after with her neck twisting every which way as though she'll miss something in the loud marketplace. There's strange instruments wailing about and people conversing creating a massive din that almost has him growling in reflex. Gaara loathes crowds. They part for him at least and he isn't forced to elbow and twist around. Sute is.
Still she's such a little spider in her way, scrambling through gaps and limbs around her with a cheery smile and a laugh when she brushes too close. There's ghosting fingers in the marketplace that seeks to find and snatch away any change that they may have on them and no few suspect Sute of that. Yet her hands are always empty and her attire while perhaps a bit unkept from wind and sand is not rags. As his seafoam eyes go over Sute as she laughs and talks with a shopkeeper, finding one of the items they have been asked to order sent back by his father; they linger on the dark arm band she is wearing.
His.
It is very out of place. Faded and coarse in contrast to the linen and cotton she is wearing, all of it undyed and leaving Sute as washed out as much of Suna is. For a moment he wonders if she wouldn't prefer something else. Something brighter and less worn and abused as all things get with his sand in time. After all sand is by it's very nature abrasive.
But then his eyes come back from assessing the market once more, settle on the dun and tan form of his follower who claims him as her friend watching her fingers brush over the brown item as the tiniest fond smile sneaks on her face.
She's not even looking at him as she weaves back from the crowd, the order placed to be delivered.
Gaara feels his scowl under his sand armor lessen. Perhaps it is out of place and not so fine, but Sute likes it well enough. He'll ask why later.
()()()()()()()
It is almost fortuitous that he is spared finding out how to even ask without it being a poorly worded demand when Kankuro asks instead. Kankuro may be the eldest brother but he has this obsession with fashion that has even Temari asking questions and advice. Something about knowing it even if he doesn't choose to act on it.
"Where'd you get that wretched looking thing?" Kankuro has his mouth full but Sute doesn't even flinch at the horrendous manners as she gets a glass of water. She eats with the sand siblings more often than her only family after all. With her eldest siblings off all the time being genin and her father always on missions the less time she spends around her civilian mother and sister who love her in a distant way..the easier. "It's all old and looks beat up. Besides it's not matching anything and that's not how you do a statement."
"I like it. It was a present."
"Lousy present..they couldn't get you something nice?"
Gaara is surprised that he's suddenly aware of how easy it would be to simply ensure Kankuro can no longer give his opinion. He watches as Temari and Kankuro look around for him, sensing the immense build of his killing intent, the chakra palpable and thick. He isn't there of course, but his sand eyes are watching for him as he sun gazes upon the hot roof of a tower nearby The heat is stifling and yet it is so entirely soothing.
Sute rolls her eyes at Kankuro before she sets down her water cup and then gives him a tired smile.
"I think it's nice. Because I value whom it is from more than what."
"Did your dad bring it back?" Temari asks and it's possible. A valid suggestion that Sute could easily have gone with and no one would think more of it.
Sute though has tired of the round about defense and just smiles. "I don't think there's a ninja alive who could have brought this back from whence it came." She laughs at her own joke before going in to oil her sunburn and try to soothe it. Everyone in Suna gets burned if they are out without enough cover during the day they just know how to treat it before it becomes worse.
Gaara finds himself smirking. Indeed. No one could have taken that from him save if he chose to gift it himself.
()()()()()()
The first time Kankuro realizes Gaara is only wearing one armband, and the other is still on Sute for all she has to wear it a little higher up on her arm, he chokes on an insect that flies in his mouth it was so far open.
No one else notices.
It's not long after Gaara asks if she would prefer a different bracelet.
Though he doesn't react it is immensely gratifying to see Sute clutching her arm to her, hand splayed over it protectively and her shoulder's curving even as she asks if he wants it back.
He doesn't answer, satisfied.
If it's mostly because not only does she clearly value it but would have relinquished it if he'd even nodded or held out his hand than because she enjoys it is entirely not something he cares to examine. It's just nice to have one person who never looks through him.
Really though it isn't as if he's not given Sute things before. Her gear to learn to be a shinobi was all his older worn ones, and those from his siblings he liberated. He'd walked right in and plucked her garments out of the shop to throw at her because she'd been wearing civilian level attire that while keeping her safe from the sun and cool wouldn't hold up to the rigors of training. Training he ensured she had on a level that was far above any quality those who attended the academy would ever hope to come close to.
Also she regularly got to keep her life. That was a gift he kept allowing her.
()()()()()()()()
"She's not good." Baki says once as he watches the spar between Kankuro and Sute, an ever watchful Temari and Gaara on the sidelines as the children have instructions called out to them by one of the other Jounin who has been trying to get them to use blunted kunai and learning how to strike for tendons to cripple an opponent. Kankuro being older, is using this as a chance to practice using his chakra strings with a very primitive puppet to do so.
"No." Rasa agrees. Half the time he watches his children more than his future daughter in law because it is so rare that they all interact without bickering or threats of bloodshed. He also loves making Baki expand on what he means because it is not that Rasa cannot guess, but he enjoy forcing his uptight shinobi to talk. He needs to become used to explaining things because Rasa intends to make Baki be the instructor with his team made up of Rasa's offspring and you simply must explain things to Kankuro.
"She is ..competent. Never going to amount to much in a cell though.." He mumbles and Baki crosses his arms. It's a problem that has been weighing on the sand nin for some time. Because you do not break up the three man cell formation for good reason. Which means either leaving Sute behind -if Gaara allows it- or finding a way that she could follow.
"It's a pity her chakra renders her entirely unsuited for being a medic." Rasa concedes. Nanashi is there, as always, the silent elder breaking his quiet contemplation.
"I will start working with her. I'll ask some of my compatriots to do the same."
"A poison expert is hardly going to be easy to bring along as an addition." Baki snarks and it makes Rasa lift an eyebrow in amusement. These two have never gotten along.
"But one who knows how to sedate?" The silence draws out. Yes. Because the knowledge of the holders of the tailed beasts is not as secret as any would like. Nanashi does not offer what he thinks is not a great possibility, Sute down there and still alive after being informed she was to wed Gaara some day is strong proof of this. "I will have it where she is taught the older medic skills for battle, those that do not take chakra. A long time ago all that was recorded was ways with herbs and skills. Where she can suppress her chakra so easily, nigh indefinitely with her bloodline and has only non jutsu based medic skills she'd essentially be more a civilian."
"I'll have the paperwork started." Rasa ratifies the decision easily. There is no reason Sute needs to be an acknowledged ninja. It is technically very illegal, the system works as it does for a reason but where Sute is already on paperwork as the future bride of Gaara he can push it by if the local Daimyo ever demands to see it. She won't be able to go on missions and be paid like another but if what Nanashi is suggesting works, she'd just be going with Team Baki anyways and since she was two when the betrothal contract was signed Rasa has paid for what Sute needs as is part of the rights as her future father in law. Not that Baki knows what her ties are to Gaara, just thinking she is his only friend.
"You are forgetting the girl herself has to agree." Baki points out and Nanashi smirks.
"She has been conditioned to think Gaara is her truest friend and knows her limits." Nanashi waves his hand, because it is true even as they see the girl lose to Kankuro. She tries, she's attentive and bright and talented in her own way but the skills of the Kazekage's children are those of future Kage level nin themselves or at the least of their skills ANBU. Talent to some degree does pass on from the parents and Fumei Han, Sute's father, is only ever a Chunnin and much of that impressive since he cannot sense chakra. At the very best, Sute may make special jounin but never true Jounin.
The thing is, unlike so many of the other hidden villages; Suna has never forgotten that sometimes having the exact right tool for the job is far more important than the most flashy or all around. A sword can be used to kill, defend, chop wood, cut food..or you could use the right tool for the job. Suna prefers to work in that way. Sometimes due to economic issues they have to force all their tools to go work in ways they are not best suited for, but they thrive when they can match mission to specialist. So Suna looks at Sute and sees a chunin quality with very specific uses and they are immensely pleased.
Only Suna has the additional non spoken of rank of 'specialist chunin' and 'specialist genin' in their files.
They are utterly shameless in happily paying civilian contractors in Suna to do work and sending the ninja out beyond their borders. It is sometimes, the only way the village has managed to scratch out a living.
If those they send out are technically a lower grade level than they are sent on a mission, it is only because no other vllage has all the layers they do and no one will ever know the difference.
()()()()()()()()
Rasa of course, tells Gaara the plan first. Alone.
"...she will be able to go where I do, even on missions?" His son asks, clarifying. It is amusing to Rasa as the precise tone the boy uses is more like a child asking to bring along their pet. Emotional stunting is a very common trait in ninja, there's even a whole group of theory that it is due to the chakra use itself with the stronger utilization at a younger age being damaging. If that was possible than the fact that ever since he became the holder of the Ichibi...yes. Gaara is far more emotionally stunted than Rasa even and the Kazekage was an acknowledged prodigy with his gold dust from the start.
"Indeed. While you do much of your own training that is too dangerous to involve Sute in without your needing to keep an eye on her is when I will have it scheduled." He will not interfere with Gaara's free time, or when he wishes to train the girl in his own way. Indeed Rasa plans to adjust his other two children's lessons so they can be free to train together if Gaara is in such a mood.
It is Gaara's way, when he is not fighting bloodlust, to ponder. He does so then, eyes sharp against the dark circles as he methodically works through the proposal in his head. It is a risk to offer a new way for Sute to become dangerous, for she is assuredly not a threat to Gaara now. But as a poison mistress? This however, Rasa knows Gaara must decide on his own. Pushing the boy always ends up with one less loyal nin at worst (As the boys uncle, and his brother in law proved. A shame that he had taken his hatred on Rasa out on Gaara and done the suicide strike but thankfully it did not destroy everything they had worked so hard for), At best it will involve being forced to suppress a massive surge of chakra by smothering his own son until he passes out with his gold.
Neither is pleasant.
"Sand will not defend against all poison." Gaara finally says and Rasa thanks the years of self control. Because he wants to tremble in relief that his son is actually communicating with him on his thoughts. It's a rare event and blessed when they occur.
"Gaara, you have seen my ANBU and guards do many things, even if I was far stronger than they are."
Jade eyes lock to Rasa's own and slowly he nods. It's true, and a few times it has even been one dying to intervene with Gaara for all that Gaara obliterated them. He does have his fits, just usually he goes outside the main section of the village to indulge. The odds of being choked by gold dust is less if he isn't around people, though it took nearly bullying a few of his father's guards to learn why it was sometimes he was put down immediately and others just watched.
"They are weaker than I am Gaara, but they are loyal. It is why my best guards are not always my strongest." And perhaps Gaara is just a boy, but he watches as the information sinks in and is turned around in his head. Analyzed.
The chilling part is that Gaara's immense strength is nigh unstoppable but when he uses his mind in whatever fey method his rationale works it is clearly a genius that lays under all that sand. Were Gaara not the holder of Shukaku and able to properly sleep it is very likely he'd be every bit as lethal in his way.
"You are saying Sute is loyal."
"To you."
"...explain."
"My guards are loyal to me. My ANBU to me and to the village. They are both loyalty, my ninja forces are to the village ...everyone has their levels but my guards would follow me no matter where I went even if it was to leave the village behind." It's a laughable idea but he knows they would. Guards have done so to vanished Kage in the past, seeking them until they simply perished in the efforts.
"Just me?" Gaara mumbles and Rasa feels he wasn't meaning to say it aloud but he affirms it.
"Sute seeks you out. She does not hide from you does she?"
Gaara does not meet his eyes.
"She can learn." It's said cold and indifferent but the very permission makes Rasa hide a smile. Eventually, step by slow faltering step, Gaara is going to be okay some day. Perhaps it is not the healthiest regard he has for Sute, but if all turns out well. Someday.
The meeting with Sute, has Gaara there. She asks numerous questions detailing her lessons and the time, what it means for her future. They are all very thoughtful questions and Rasa enjoys watching Gaara's subtle surprise and interest at this side of his friend. She asks what it means for missions, for future goals. What other avenues she should be self studying if she is to never wear a headband like the others. Rasa has packets they often give if they use a rare civilian on a mission for her to peruse later. She inquires about her particular chain of command since it will not be like most nin.
In the end, though she has clearly made up her mind she turns at smiles at Gaara. "I'd like to, do you have an opinion?"
Gaara just shrugs. "Do what you want."
It's really quite pleasant to hear.
()()()()()()()()
"I learned about poultices today. They're basically crushed up herbs and such that are made wet and then placed on the skin for various reasons." Sute informs him as she steps over to Gaara's side. He was hanging upside down from a beam outside in the rock garden and Gaara does not reply. It is his signal she can continue and so she does.
Kankuro and Temari stop what they are doing, listening. They are shameless but Gaara has never reprimanded them so they soak up the indirect lessons as Sute babbles on to Gaara while wrapping her hands and ankles for the upcoming lessons. It's been going on since Sute started training to be a field ..well half the time they've heard medic and half the time poisoner so they aren't certain which is correct. The lessons are something that it turns out Sute thrives on. Somehow her lack of chakra sense means her observational skills are vastly improved as it's what she uses instead.
The first time she had a lesson and told Gaara "Nanashi-sensei said my danger respect ratio is entirely gone though..apparently I wasn't supposed to pick up the scorpion. I don't know why, his tail was down and he looked relaxed." It actually had Gaara laughing in that slightly demented way he does. Because of course, if she was not at all worried that Gaara's sand would be slipping about and throwing her into things and diving at her to keep her on her toes in the lessons..why would something like a scorpion, which all children in Suna knew how to find and catch as a hobby, worry her?
Everything Sute learns she tells Gaara. Even if he doesn't retain it or the information isn't of interest he enjoys the fact that she reports to him, shares it with him. She never demands to know anything, and indeed even her questions are geared so he may ignore them or not as he sees fit. It is never "What did you do today?" but "Anything I should know?"
Sute is so entirely open that one would never guess she could keep a secret. It is that exact quality though that makes it work, of herself she hides nothing truly. She is open and honest. The same person no matter to whom she talks to even if no one else gets her to smile like Gaara does. It is the secrets for others that she hides with such ruthless efficiency it has even gotten a begrudging respect from Rasa because the girl will happily tell you anything about herself. The moment you ask about someone else though she will suggest finding the person to ask them face to face.
It turns out that she has always been aware of the gap in her skills and her future family. Not that it was hard, seeing her siblings and father spar a few times it is evident they are not that out of reach for Temari and Kankuro. So giving her a way to keep up with them, has Sute throwing herself into it wholeheartedly.
It starts to become a common sight when Rasa gets home to see Gaara wide awake staring into space or a scroll, Sute not far away passed out over her reading.
That doesn't mean it doesn't amaze Rasa, or Gaara if the strange looks he sends her sleeping form are any indication, that Sute is so immensely comfortable with the guaranteed bringer of her death sitting within arms reach. If Gaara ever felt so inclined to act. It's not the most touching thing about them, but it comes close.
()()()()()()
Gaara starts going on missions with his siblings and most are not ones they bring Sute for. Any that are close, a day or so, and they take her along as an observer. Baki even challenges the kids to kidnap her from Nanashi to take camping. Temari and Kankuro don't get far of course because Gaara finds sweeping in and then taking her with him effortless.
Sute just laughs as she starts getting the sand out of her hair and doesn't question it. She knows Kankuro and his big mouth will fill her in before long.
(()()()()()
Strictly because of her lack in chakra sensing and how she tells Gaara everything at one point Baki has a nin henge and pretend to be Gaara, with Rasa observing from a large piece of quartz with that remote viewing method all Kage's seem so fond of. They need to be certain before they take her to an actual distant village if she'll tell all the secrets if someone just mimics Gaara. Henge is the most common of techniques after all.
The nin has to substitute right away as Sute doesn't hesitate to start throwing senbon at him. Bemused but pleased it is not long before Sute is being surrounded by sand and yet this time when Gaara flickers into place Sute doesn't lift a finger. Because after the disaster that happened with his uncle, Rasa did not dare keep Gaara in the dark about what they were going to do. Not that his son was happy at all.
However it seems Gaara is rethinking how much he disliked the plan because while the imposter was attacked without any sign of hesitation -something all parties are satisfied about- again Sute cannot sense chakra.
"How did you know?" Gaara asks, arms crossed as he stares down into the light brown eyes that mimic the colors of the sand around them. That she's hanging by her ankle upside down, held that way by his sand completely doesn't phase Sute. It's just another limb for Gaara really.
"Your sand has a smell I know very well."
Gaara tilts his head but understands what she means. Under the scent of blood is the very tang of his chakra, the mustiness of earth and iron though is all most can scent. But Sute has been around his sand since she could do little more then drool. To her his sand is Gaara and he nods, smug. Rasa observes he sets her down a little more gently than normal.
"How can sand have a smell?!" Kankuro blurts out later when they hear about it and Sute just gives him a funny look.
"We live in the desert. How could you miss that?"
It starts a long discussion between Sute and Temari, and while Gaara doesn't join in he is rather pleased to hear that Sute too can smell the difference in his sand, the fresh sand blown in from outside the village that has been scoured by wind and sun. That she knows the acrid ozone in the back of ones tongue heralding a sand storm. Rasa is the one who settles the discussion when he enters and assess the situation.
"In time you will all learn the different scents and sounds of our home." Rasa does not question Sute and her knowledge.
Not when she sits as close to Gaara as he seems willing to allow. After all, Gaara is a force of nature and it is not so unlikely that in the times they are not always being observed that Gaara's own sand takes on different qualities. No one but Sute would be close enough to know if it was.
()()()()()()()()
After she can identify Gaara by the smell of his sand of all things, Gaara seems to relax slightly. Which for him is just his arms are not always crossed and he isn't scowling. Somehow knowing such intimate details has finally settled in Gaara's head that Sute really is as loyal as his father was hinting because not even the rest of his family had known there was anything besides an old blood scent to his sand. It only reeked so foul when he was angry or his bloodlust was up.
They finally take Sute with them on a mission. Because of Gaara they can take B ranks when most would be doing C's, the D's are considered unpaid skill builders in Suna and Sute sticks close to Gaara at all times. She knows without him and perhaps Baki if he can spare the split seconds, she is a dead girl walking.
"Why are you so cautious?" Kankuro mutters as he catches Sute looking around again.
"I'm not an idiot Kankuro..I am no where near good enough to be on this mission. I am just staying alert to save the trouble of trying to keep me alive." Sute isn't worried as she says it and yet Kankuro is spluttering.
"What are you talking about! You're a ninja too!"
"Kinda."
"Kinda? You can't kinda be a ninja!"
"Yes. Now be quiet." Baki is amused at how she almost hisses it but he had heard the rattle of Gaara's gourd just then. It seemed Sute knew Gaara, and when Gaara was annoyed..
Kankuro drops off in talking though, not risking that she could be bluffing. They've all learned to use Sute as an early warning system, before Gaara pulls out the death threats.
The mission is of course, almost pointless to have any there but Gaara. Still Temari and Kankuro lay the ground work, identify that their target is there. Suna is ruthless, the desert makes you that way and so each of the children are already ready for the idea of killing.
If Gaara is positively eager, it is something no one there tries to think too hard about. It is over before it begins truthfully but they head back slowly.
Along the way Baki makes Sute do constant testing of the rations and water that they find with her basic kit Nanashi has been training her in. He slips in mild alterations at points, only ever to his own rations and the fact she catches each has him pleased. None where particularly rare or hard to counter, indeed one would only work like a low level chakra pill but Sute still found it.
After that there are more missions, longer ones that Baki takes the brats on. Some Sute joins them for, others she does not as her apprenticeship is a serious ordeal.
()()()()()()
It is one of those missions, one where ten year old Gaara is going to be away for nearly a month and Sute is not going, when she approaches him. She waits until after the full moon, waits until they are alone one night exploring a nearby ruin hidden in the sand cliffs.
"You're hovering." Gaara mumbles as he runs a hand over one sheer rock outcropping, worn smooth as glass from all the sandstorms over the years. They enjoy exploring this area with so many caves and wonders. Sute looks up from where she had been staring at a spider with it's funnel web hiding below.
"I..I want to ask a favor." She waits then, watching him. It's not in fear but more seeing if he's in the mood to listen or wishes to put it off until morning. She understands he rarely feels content but for some reason out here in the cliffs he always calms. Her expression's no longer alarm him. In the year they've known they are engaged Gaara has come to realize sometimes Sute wants to test their boundries but never wants him to be uncomfortable.
It's wonderful to not have someone forcing him into 'acting normal' as sometimes his siblings nag at him. He has a snarling voice most the time that he fights from giving into and there are few things that work to calm him like the rush of battle, of killing. The irony is the aftermath is always just a let down. But his sand is a hungry entity and it is uncomfortable when it has been too long. Right now though, after the full moon has passed over a week ago and he has slept fitfully but has at least slept..he inclines his head. Sute doesn't ever ask for anything if it's not something he'd probably give anyways.
"Since you will be gone, and I'll miss you-" Gaara almost doesn't hear the next part because every time she has voiced that it stil seems surreal. "Is there any way you could leave some of your sand with me? I'm kinda used to the smell..and.." She shifts, looking down and he flickers mentally to watching Kankuro with his blanket, Temari with a particular stupid pillow..and even his own teddy bear. One that is locked away in his room safe and pulled out from time to time. He knows of course these days that Sute cannot sense chakra and it is part of why he can tolerate her. It is negligible information however, and so he smirks at her.
"Have you grown dependent on me?" It's said mockingly to hide his slight wavering tone but there's no doubt Sute hears it.
"I can't imagine a world without you in it." Sute agrees and though it is not the first time..Gaara closes his eyes.
Oh he isn't stupid, not by any means. He knows that with the early contract it was arranged so that they'd spend time together, they'd be used to each other. That she's always been encouraged to seek Gaara out. That doesn't mean he doubts her though. No, if anything Sute is loyal and sees him and all the sides of him. Even those he knows she doesn't like she doesn't question because it is his life to do as he desires. He tries to do the same for her.
And so if like his bracer that she still wears though it's been mended so many times almost none of the original fabric is there; she needs a physical sign? He can give that. Gaara can't say the words, call her his friend, admit he will miss her as well because he is not certain that is what he feels. What he does know is when she is not there he feels people do not view him as Gaara but as the container to Shukaku only. It drives him a little crazier.
Why not see if both of them can be settled?
"Hold out your arm." He sneers as she lifts the one with his old armband and she holds out the other. Paralel. Nodding Gaara directs his sand, hearing the usual pop as it slithers out of the gourd and trails up to meet her hand. He takes a moment to enjoy how she looks at his sand, always as if it's a wonder. At least these days she isn't drooling on it.
The sand twists around her arm leaving angry pink marks as it scratches before smoothing out into a thin bracelet just above her wrist. There is no artistry, it's just like a bangle but instead of stone or wood it is his sand held together with his chakra so it is stronger than steel.
"Oh!"
As Sute trails her fingers over it, her eyes delighted and giggling it makes Gaara smirk in pride. "It won't fade."
If it was Kankuro or Temari, there is no doubt Sute would have been flinging herself at them and hugging them tightly right now. However, this is Gaara and he does not allow actual contact. As it is though sometimes, rarely, he'll permit her contact with his sand armor and this is one where she wraps one arm around his and beams up at him. Her hold is loose, pathetically so but it is done on purpose so he allows it. Not that he can feel it directly but he feels what his sand does permeated with his chakra as it is.
And at this close contact, ever so slightly, he can feel the sway of Sute's almost vanished chakra for the first time decently with his sand adorning her wrist. He can find her now, and that eases the predatory nature because usually finding her with her barely existent trickle of chakra she emits is as hard as tracking down a single insect in a hive. He shrugs her off before long, not used to the contact as slight as it is but watching as Sute turns her wrist, tan eyes entranced with the sand and picking out how it is so many variations of colors as sand holds shells and minerals, ores and stones alike.
It's always the simple things that delight Sute. He doesn't even get perturbed when she thanks him repeatedly through the night even as they explore.
When Gaara leaves, not having bothered to sleep, it is nice to sense her from such a distance. It's not like his sand can do anything, but it will at least let him constantly know she is alive and do the same for her.
Inwardly though Gaara's favorite part might just be the expressions on his team leader and family when they realize Sute's bracelet is made of his sand as it catches in the pre-dawn light as she waves good bye before going to sleep a while.
Really. They should stop thinking they can predict him by now.