I am currently in the process of re-writing this story, please be sure to read from the beginning if you are familiar with it. Updates on later chapters will be posted sporadically. I am sorry I've been so busy of late but I hope you enjoy the story regardless of this! –Saki
Chapter 14
Sakura sighed and rested her head quietly on the sofa, unaware of Gaara who was now standing next to the couch. Gaara watched for a quiet moment before walking across the carpet and sitting down gently on the couch. Sakura's eyes flew open and she jumped a little as Gaara merely blinked at her slowly.
"Oh Gaara, I'm sorry I almost forgot you were here." She blushed and looked down.
"It's fine Sakura. The party was rather tiring. I was getting this present; I forgot to open it last night." He looked down at the small box wrapped in red paper for a moment, gauging her reaction as he did so.
Sakura recognized the box and began to blush once again. It was her present for him. Immediately, Sakura wondered why he hadn't opened it before but assumed he had done so out of courtesy to her. Most likely he wanted to thank her without the stares of others.
"I hope you don't mind me sitting here." He murmured before gesturing to his current spot near her. She shook her head.
"I don't mind at all." She smiled a little, but quickly averted her gaze. Gaara suppressed the urge to frown at her sudden action.
"She keeps doing that! I'm seriously going to go mad if she doesn't stop." He looked back at the box and carefully untied the ribbon before opening the box. Inside was stuffed with paper, which he took out, revealing the snow globe with the small model of Konoha inside. He lifted it carefully out of the box and shook it, watching as the fake snow drifted down on the miniature city with amusement. "Thank you Sakura, it will remind me of my visit here when I go back to Suna."
She smiled and nodded. "I thought you might like a bit of Konoha to bring back with you." He smiled gently at her and nodded.
"It was very thoughtful of you." Sakura looked at him with a surprised expression for a moment before blushing slightly once more.
Gaara turned back to place the snow globe back into the box and was about to put the lid on when he noticed another small box nestled in the wrappings. He looked at Sakura with a quizzical expression and picked it up as a look of nervousness crossed the Kunoichi's face.
"Another gift?" Sakura watched intently as he opened it.
When he opened the small box he found himself slightly in awe of what lay inside. Sakura had gotten him a beautiful charm, a single leather string with a small wooden carving hanging from it. On the carving was a small Sakura tree, barely noticeable on first glance, but upon further inspection you could see every individual flower on the tree. Under the tree small pink flowers lay scattered. It was amazing. Whoever crafted it had carefully carved every flower so that the final product looked real. He looked up at Sakura who had been watching him examine the carving. "Where did you find this?"
"I got it at a small store down the road from here." She felt her face heat up slightly and looked at the carving. "I thought it would remind you of Konoha since we have so many cherry blossom trees here in the spring." She smiled as he lightly ran a finger across the carving.
"It will help me to carry a piece of Konoha with me always." He refrained from saying what he really wanted to, that it would remind him of her. He didn't want her to leave because she was embarrassed and knew that saying such a thing was a very good way to cause her to do exactly that. He smiled at her again and put the charm in his pocket, rubbing the carving once more before looking up at her. "I know that the cherry blossom trees won't have any flowers yet, but do you think we could go see them sometime?" He asked her, as he quietly reached behind his back to get his present for her. She smiled and nodded.
"They might not have any flowers yet but the snow makes them just as pretty." She looked at Gaara who smiled and held out a long box wrapped in simple pink paper. She gasped a little as he handed it to her.
"It's nothing big but I think you'll like it."
"Oh I wasn't expecting anything so large, you didn't have to get me anything really, thank you." She smiled at him and began to open it, her fingers as gentle with the paper as if it was a patient she was working on. He watched carefully for her reaction when she saw the gift. As he expected, she gasped when she opened the box.
"Oh it's gorgeous!" She whispered, picking up the first of the two items in the box.
It was a knife set, delicately crafted for quick maneuvers and skillfully polished with sand. They had an inscription on the hilt that Gaara had carved with his own sand. "To Sakura, A great ally, Kazekage Gaara." She read aloud and smiled at him. "Thank you so much! I'm quite good with knives but haven't been able to find any that fit my liking." She held it up and balanced their weight in her hands. They really were perfect. The balance was equal and light, perfect for quick hand-to-hand combat. She smiled and sheathed them back into the holder that Gaara had wrapped it in.
She looked back into the box and was surprised to see a small jewelry box with her name inscribed on the front. With a glance at Gaara, she picked it up and opened it, her breath stopping abruptly at the sight.
Inside lay a necklace with a light red crystal hanging on the end of a small chain. What made it special, however, was what was inside the crystal. Sakura watched in wonder as sand swirled around the crystal in a slow spiral. With a start, Sakura realized that it reminded her of Gaara's sand swirling quietly around him when she visited him in Suna. "How on earth did you get this?" She held it up to the light still in complete awe at the craftsmanship.
"I bought the necklace and the crystal and placed some of the sand from Suna inside of it. I put a miniscule amount of my chakra in it and that is what keeps the sand swirling." He pointed to the moving grains as they twirled quietly in the crystal. Sakura looked at him with wide eyes.
"You did that for me?" She looked at the necklace with the sand and thought of Gaara carefully infusing his chakra in it so that the sand would swirl just as it did when he was in Suna. "Does he really care about me that much?" She watched as he smiled gently.
"You've never really been one to be afraid of me even during the exams." He held out his hand and she placed the necklace in it, brushing against his hand causing shivers of electricity to run down her spine. He noticed this as well.
She watched as he unclasped the necklace and motioned for her to turn so he could put it on her. She obliged and tried not to shiver again at his warm hands brushing against her neck as he clasped it back on. She turned back to face him and ran her finger across the crystal causing the sand to swirl quickly. She gasped a little and dropped the crystal back onto her chest where it resumed its slow spiral. Gaara saw this and inwardly tried to think of an explanation. "Shukaku why did my chakra react to her touch?" He heard Shukaku chuckle.
"She has feelings for you. You forget that your chakra contains some of mine as well. The sand reacted to her touch because it has your chakra in it. When her hand touched the glass some of her chakra was in her fingers. It felt your chakra and reacted positively to it signifying that there is a bond between you two. My extra hormones are currently causing you to be in search of a mate our chakra will react to the one who you have the strongest attraction or connection to. But it is a mirror reaction. They also have to have a strong connection or attraction to you for it to work." Gaara mulled this over as Shukaku's voice faded.
"Sakura?" He said breaking the silence.
She turned to him and her eyes shimmered a little. "Yes? What's wrong?" She quickly glanced down at the necklace sitting on her chest. "Is there something wrong with the necklace?" She held it again and watched as the sand again swirled faster.
"No, I mean not exactly, nothing's wrong but there is something you should know. I don't expect you to understand right away." He waited and she nodded. "Your chakra reacted to mine. When you touch the crystal it causes your chakra and mine to react to each other." She nodded.
"I understand the reason why the sand moved, but why does it react to my chakra? I've never heard of chakra reacting in such a way other than in the Inuzuka clan when…" She trailed off, looking at his face and realized that his eyes unknowingly held the answer to her question. She blushed and looked down at the necklace, deciding not finishing her sentence was a very good idea.
"It's very pretty. Thank you Gaara." She murmured, deciding in a split second to lean over and hug him.
He froze as her warm arms wrapped around his back, not used to this close contact yet but most definitely enjoying it. All too soon she had pulled away and stood up, blushing as he watched her leave the room talking about making lunch for them. He sighed.
"This is going to be harder than I thought." He ran a hand through his hair and stood up to go help her in the kitchen. She waved him away and placed two bowls of ramen on the table.
"I hope you don't mind I wasn't really planning on making a big lunch today." She looked at the ramen and sat down to eat.
"I don't mind." He glanced at the clock on her wall. "This is a late lunch." He chuckled and she turned to see that it was almost two o clock.
"Wow it's been two hours and I didn't notice." She silently scolded herself for not being more observant but then stopped herself remembering with sudden clarity something that Tsunade-sama had said only a week before.
Konoha: A week before Christmas
"Sakura, I know that you're bored and want to go on a mission, but I want to hone your training in that new surgical technique we developed." Sakura looked at her mentor and sighed.
"Yes Tsunade-sama." She bowed lightly and looked at her teacher, quietly sipping her sake behind the desk.
"You need to relax more Sakura, I know that it is in your nature to be prompt and organized but every once in a while let yourself live a little." Sakura nodded. "Here have some sake." She poured Sakura a small glass of sake despite her protests. "Drink." She commanded. Sakura took the drink and sipped it. It tasted horrible and it took all of her willpower not to spit it at her teacher who had noticed her discomfort and promptly began to laugh.
"Now go home and relax. I don't have a scheduled time for your trainings I'll send a messenger whenever I want you to come train." She nodded as Sakura bowed and waved her out of the room.
Sakura smiled. Maybe Tsunade was right, maybe Gaara was just what she needed to relax.
End of Chapter 14
This chapter has been re-written.