The Search for Saltwater Taffy

Tomboy14- the most faithful reviewer I've had... the last chapter is for u!!!

Chapter 11

Aftermath

1 month later…

Sakura dove below the kunai headed towards her face with a smirk. 'You have to be faster than that, Naruto,' she called.

Naruto just scratched the back of his head. 'But I don't want to hurt you, Sakura chan.'

'You have to try,' she chided. 'It's the only way I'm going to get any better.'

Naruto threw another shuriken, but she saw what was coming. He'd used a henge to throw the large shuriken, and he was pretending to be the shadow; they'd used that trick on Zabuza when Sasuke had been with them.

She let the shuriken hit her henge and sat back high up in one tree, a smirk of satisfaction on her face.

That expression quickly turned to one of horror as she felt sand covering her legs, snaking up and pulling her out of the tree she was taking a break in.

She fought angrily, furious. There was no way she could break out of that as long as Gaara had his concentration on her. It wasn't just her who couldn't break free; when he was trying, he'd never lost a victim of desert coffin.

She blinked innocently at him as she hovered in a coffin of sand slightly above the ground.

'You ran off on me, for this?' he asked, gesturing to Naruto and Lee whom she was practicing with.

'I was in a hurry,' she told him defensively.

'Gaara kun,' Naruto yelled over at him, bounding over with all the energy of a young puppy. Sakura snickered as Gaara was knocked over by the classic Naruto-favored tactic. An I-missed-you hug from Naruto was often like being hit in the chest with a ton of bricks.

Sakura caught herself gracefully as the desert coffin gave under Naruto's friendly hug and the shoulder-punching where-the-hell-have-you-been?

She ran over to Lee, who decided to become her shield as Gaara stood up, sand holding his friend at bay. He stalked over to her with a frown on his face. 'Step aside, Lee,' he said darkly.

'I'll protect Sakura with my life,' he proclaimed dramatically. 'Taffycell lives on!'

'Taffycell?' he asked, confused.

'Hai, when Ino was halfway through her pregnancy, we ended up going recon through a few hidden villages for taffy. We finally found it in Suna. I hope the people were appeased by the money we left,' he mused. 'That's why we're Taffycell!'

Gaara shook his head. 'Taffycell?' he frowned. 'So it wasn't just you and Hanabi and Itachi?' he asked.

Sakura stiffened and Lee just made his nice guy pose. Sakura watched Gaara cringed as the shing from Lee's sparkly teeth hit his ears. 'How can teeth make noise?' he grumbled.

'Lee, you weren't supposed to tell him that,' she whispered, wishing he hadn't been off on missions when she was taken to Suna.

'What else haven't you told me, Sakura?' he growled.

'What does it matter, anyway? You don't own me, I don't have to answer to you,' she growled back defiantly.

'Yes you do,' he replied with a smirk. 'I'm higher rank than you are.'

She glared at him.

'Why didn't you just stay home?' he asked pleasantly. 'It would have been easier to find you there.'

'Because I have things to do,' she told him, pushing past Lee, who made a disgruntled noise, shrugged and walked off, saying something about youth and romance. 'I can't stand still to wait for you, Gaara,' she chastised.

'Oh, come on, you couldn't sleep in ten minutes with me?' he frowned.

'I'm still a Konoha nin,' she told him. 'I still have things to do.'

'You'll be a Suna nin by nightfall,' he told her. 'You should listen to your Kazekage,'

She frowned at him and stuck her tongue out.

'Oh, come on,' he huffed. 'Tsunade didn't give you a mission on your wedding day, did she?'

Sakura shook her head. 'Then come on.' He grabbed her shoulder. 'Naruto! Lee!' he called loudly. 'Ramen time.' Tsunade certainly had not given her a mission on her wedding day, although she hadn't been terribly happy to lose her apprentice. Sakura could still remember her grumbling and talking about merging the medics of the two countries...

Naruto looked up instantly, stars in his eyes and a puddle of drool forming below his chin on the ground. Lee looked over from where he and Tenten were sparring and called over to Neji.

'Why can't I get time alone with you?' he grumbled, cranky. 'We're getting married, not the whole of Konoha.'

'And Suna?' she added cheerfully. The sand sibs and several other of their friends from Suna had come for the wedding. Most notably Junko, with a big old bottle of scotch as a wedding gift.

'When you belong to Wind, you'll have to listen to me and do what I say,' he grumbled at her.

'Sure,' she mocked.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ break

On the way back to Suna for their halfway-honeymoon-halfway-work thing that was supposed to be relaxing, nothing too crazy happened. They didn't hear anything from the Akatsuki, oddly enough, nor any other missing nin.

Temari had run ahead, having decided to leave the newlyweds alone for a while. She seemed to have given up on killing Itachi; Sakura couldn't fault her for that one, though. Killing Itachi was almost impossible. Even Sasuke had ended up a bloody, beaten pulp for his efforts.

She figured he was just best left to do his own thing, as long as that thing didn't involve killing others.

'Blades of Wind!' came the cry from just ahead of them, and Sakura could feel the residual power from Temari's attack.

She glanced over at Gaara, and as a unit, they ran to catch up with Temari and defend her if necessary.

Gaara stopped her at the edge of a mowed down area of trees where Temari could be seen panting heavily, fan at her side, face furious.

Standing calmly in the middle of a hundred and fifty years worth of damage, Itachi smirked at Temari.

Sakura almost didn't recognize him, since he wasn't wearing an Akatsuki robe, but the robes of a traveling Suna citizen. The only reason he looked like Itachi was the panama hat with a bell on it hanging from one hand and the dark, funky hair.

'You stopped coming after me, kunoichi. Was it that hard to find me?' he asked in a mocking tone.

'You're here now, so I can kill you,' she hissed viciously.

'You don't want to.' He told her.

'Yes I do,' she screamed. 'I hate you, you destroy everything you touch, and you do it on purpose!'

'I've grown very…bored… with destroying things.' He offered, looking at his nails. 'I think it might be more interesting to make something, don't you, Temari?'

'You can never be forgiven, and you can't be pardoned for what you did,' she yelled over at him.

Gaara whispered softly into Sakura's ear, 'I think we shouldn't be listening, ne?'

Sakura nodded. 'We can't leave without her, though. She's your sister, and I don't want to leave her out alone, especially with Itachi on the loose.'

Gaara snorted into her ear, 'If he wanted to kill her, she'd be dead a thousand times over, my wife.' He told her. 'Itachi doesn't want her dead.'

'But what if he does something bad to her, or tries to take her with him?'

'Uchiha,' Gaara called, coming to stand by Temari.

'Kazekage sama,' he bowed a little and smirked as Sakura took Gaara's other side and held his hand. 'And wife now?'

'Uchiha, what do you want with my sister?' he growled.

'Quite obvious, isn't it?' Itachi made something like a leer over at Temari's furious form.

'How far are you willing to go for her?' Gaara called to him. 'What would you do to get the one you want?'

'Depends,' Itachi narrowed his eyes and approached.

Temari readied her fan, standing defensively, and Gaara put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. 'It's alright. I've got it.'

'It depends, Kazekage sama,' he answered, coming within ten feet of the trio. 'What are you asking in exchange for your sister?'

'Would you leave the Akatsuki?'

Itachi scoffed. 'I already did. I grew bored destroying, I've already said.'

'And they let you live?'

'Not so much. Deidara and Kisame have a body to take back to leader. I carved his eyes out myself.'

'So you killed him?'

Itachi laughed softly. 'No, we found him in a grove of trees outside Konoha. I think he was a thief or missing nin, but he'd been killed. It was silly; the body was a couple hours old,'

Temari frowned at him, and Gaara smirked. Sakura just hoped Itachi was done being stupid.

'And how do you intend to earn pardon from Konoha and Sunagakure? You murdered your clan, and Temari won't go far from Suna.' Temari frowned at Gaara, and he squeezed her shoulder.

'Don't know, don't care.' He said coldly. 'I could take her right now if I wanted to.'

'You could try.' Gaara returned.

'It might be an interesting fight,' Itachi smirked. 'But I'm lazy today. Look, I haven't even taken her from you yet.' he added as proof.

'Itachi san, what the hell is going on with you?' Sakura asked, unable to stay silent any longer.

'An Uchiha always gets what they want,' Itachi told her with a slight smirk.

'Not this time,' Temari growled.

'Are you willing to bargain for pardon?' Gaara asked. 'Hokage Tsunade sama might pardon you for some certain… information.'

'I have two pieces of information I will part with,' Itachi said. 'They're vital to Suna and Konoha.'

'What else?' Gaara asked. 'You're the one trying to be pardoned here.'

'I don't care, really if I'm pardoned.' He shrugged.

'Then why?'

'I want to rebuild the clan, of course. Differently this time.' He said.

'You need the pardon then, for your children.' Sakura whispered.

'Yes, in time, I will require a pardon.' He acknowledged. 'I don't want Temari to have to be far from her loved ones.'

'You're talking like I want something other than to kill you, Itachi teme,' she growled, turning away.

'We'll talk soon, Kazekage sama, Sakura san.' Itachi bowed. 'I'll see you soon enough, Temari,' he called at her back, before disappearing.

Gaara raised a brow at Temari's back, and Sakura frowned. 'I don't want Itachi to hurt her.'

'He won't,' Gaara smirked at her. 'Come on, we're going home.'

Sakura sighed and caught up with him, wondering when she could start at the Suna Medical Facility. Between the Suna and Konoha Med nin, they should make some serious progress, very quickly.

She was glad the alliance was tight between the two countries.

Fin

Sabaku no Hime that last part focused entirely too much on Temari and Itachi I think, although I don't think there was much more to write about Gaara and Sakura. In this one, they live happily ever after, and he still gets her firstborn child, although he wasn't going to stick the kid in a tower or anything…

Anywho, I'm thinking of writing the Temari/Itachi bit. That's a crack pair if I've ever heard of. (sound like a good idea?)

Vive les crack pairings!!!

anyways, thank you to all of you who've read, and a big hug to my reviewers! It's meant a lot to me, especially the past few weeks when I was trying to cope with my gramma dying. (she was my last grandparent, and we've always been very close). It isn't the best story, since the writing style changes from haha to more of a serious note, but it was an escape for me.