Gaara's heart was pounding as he flew toward the screeching sound in the distance. Below him, Naruto, Sakura, and Hideki were running on the sand. Their shared anxiety propelled them toward Sasuke and Sarabi. Had the beast come back? Was this a different one?

He knew his first concern needed to be Sarabi's safety, and then he needed to worry about getting the sand beast (if that's what it was) away from his village. But presently, his mind was going blank. It was an unusual feeling to be at a loss, to have so many thoughts while none of them really made it to the surface. He was afraid.

A bright flash of light immediately drew his attention toward the dunes in the distance. He could no longer see Sarabi and Sasuke from his vantage point, but he didn't need to. What he saw instead was an orb of white light. He knew that white light. He'd seen it before when he and Sakura had been trapped under the sand. Sarabi had been at the center of it.

Since that day had come and gone, nothing like that had ever happened again. The mysteries of the catacombs had been forgotten after the cave-in. They didn't matter so much after Sarabi and Taiyo had been rescued and adjusted to life on the surface. Now, Gaara was deeply regretting not investigating the whole ordeal further.

He glanced down to the sand below. Sakura craned her neck to look up at him. He couldn't see her face clearly from his height, but the small gesture was enough. He found comfort in it.

As they neared the impending scene, Gaara could begin to see Sarabi's form at the center of the glowing orb. The light seemed to have expanded so much that it loomed over the desert like a second moon. He looked away, nearly blinded by the sight of it.

Behind Sarabi's floating light was another sand beast, wailing and wriggling through the air. It was embroiled in a battle with Sasuke, who was moving at breakneck speeds to attack it with his katana. For a moment, Gaara could only watch in fascination as Sasuke attacked the beast with such grace and speed. Unfortunately, Gaara could also see that Sasuke was covered in the beast's mucus.

"Sasuke!" Gaara heard Sakura yell beneath him. He glanced down at her to see her running toward him.

Quickly, Gaara lowered his sand disk and hopped onto the dune beside her. "Wait," he said, reaching for her arm. "We need to come up with a plan first."

"He's right," Naruto said. "What the hell is that thing?"

Before anyone could answer, another screech echoed through the air. The sand beast's body came hurling toward them, flailing as it hit the ground, tossing sand up all around them.

Gaara could feel a sudden concentration of chakra, a massive buildup he hadn't felt before. It was Sasuke. He was rushing toward the downed beast with Chidori crackling in his palm.

"Wait, Sasuke, don't—"

Chidori collided with the beast's head, exploding it on impact. Sakura, Naruto, and Gaara all reeled back from the explosion of blood and mucus and sand that sprayed over them. Gaara shot up a sand wall to block most of it, but he could still feel flecks of it on his face and arms.

"Sarabi-chan!" Naruto yelled.

Gaara glanced up at the orb. It was fading rapidly, darkness descending over the dunes. For a moment all he could do was watch as the orb shrank, it's perimeter coming closer and closer to Sarabi's body. He didn't know what would happen when it reached her, but he didn't think it would be good.

The light disappeared in her chest. She hung suspended in the air for approximately one second before her body began to hurtle down toward the sand. Quickly, Gaara leapt up into the air and caught her, using his sand to bring them both back gently toward the sand. Her body was limp in his arms, but he could still feel the presence of chakra in her body and see the faint pulse beating in her neck.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he lowered her to the ground. Sakura and Naruto were at her side in an instant. Sakura's hands were shaking as she pressed them to Sarabi's chest.

Gaara couldn't help but feel some of her anxiety mirrored in his chest as well. Just what the hell was going on out here? How could there be another sand beast? Where had it been all that time and what was happening with Sarabi? Were they somehow connected?

"Umm, guys…"

At the sound of Hideki's voice, Gaara looked up. Sasuke was coming toward them. There was fury and ill intent evident on his face, but he wasn't running. He didn't look like he would attack them, but it put Gaara on edge all the same.

"Sasuke," Naruto said, standing up to face his estranged teammate. Gaara's hand flew to Naruto's arm, holding onto him but not holding him back. Not yet.

"What the hell?" Sasuke demanded. "Was this all some sort of trap? Did you send me out here with this girl knowing that thing would attack her?"

"What?" Naruto asked, genuine confusion contorting his features. "Of course not. I don't even know what that thing was."

Sakura looked up, but kept her hands on Sarabi's chest. She seemed worried as she chewed her lip. It made Gaara feel worried, too. "Sasuke, you need to clean that shit off yourself now," she said, her voice surprisingly authoritative. "It's acidic in the sunlight. Please, it's very dangerous."

Sasuke glanced down at his soaked clothes and grimaced. "Acidic?" he repeated.

Gaara glanced up at the sky. The sun had just dipped below the horizon, thankfully. It gave them plenty of time to decide what to do next.

"How is Sarabi?" he asked Sakura. "Is she going to be okay?"

"I don't know. I don't know," she said, the crease between her brows returning. "All her vitals are fine. Her chakra level is okay, she's breathing just fine. I don't know why she unconscious and I can't wake her up."

Sasuke made a noise of disapproval.

Naruto, who had seemed to fall into some kind of trance as he watched Sasuke, jerked his arm free of Gaara's grip. "Drop the attitude, Sasuke," he said, his voice dangerously low. "We offered you her help and now she's hurt. You can't even feel the slightest bit sympathetic?"

"It was clear that whatever that thing was wanted her and not me," Sasuke said defensively. "This isn't my fault."

"I didn't say it was your fault," Naruto said. "That doesn't mean you have to be a dick about it."

"It wanted Sarabi specifically?" Gaara asked, both trying to get answers and mitigate the impending argument he could feel coming.

"Gaara, I've got to get Sarabi back to the village," Sakura said, her voice frantic as she lifted Sarabi up and cradled her against her chest. "Something is really wrong with her and I can't tell what it is."

Gaara nodded and took Sarabi from Sakura's arms.

"What about my medic?" Sasuke asked.

"That's really what you're concerned about at a time like this?" Naruto demanded harshly.

Sasuke glared at him, but said nothing.

"Sasuke, you need to come back to the village anyway," Sakura said. "You need to bathe and get all that stuff off of you."

Sasuke scoffed. "I don't have time for this."

"Well, make time for it," Sakura snapped. Both Gaara and Naruto were surprised by her fierceness. "You can't avenge your clan if you die first."

He looked like he wanted to argue, but she did have a point. The begrudging nature of his acquiescence was not lost on Gaara. He would vastly have preferred that Sasuke just leave and perhaps die later on, but for the sake of the better part of Team 7, he would allow it.

/

Back in the village, Gaara stood at the entrance of a hospital room, watching Sakura chew her thumbnail as she hovered over Sarabi's bed. Gaara could admit he didn't know much about medical science, but he trusted in Sakura's knowledge completely, and Sakura seemed quite worried. Gaara felt a little sick to his stomach when he looked over at Sarabi. Her face was serene. She looked peaceful, which would have made him feel better if he didn't already know that something was very wrong with her.

"Is she in some kind of trance?" Naruto asked from his position at the foot of the bed.

Sakura shook her head. "I really don't know," she said. She leaned forward over Sarabi's chest and brushed the strands of dark hair away from her face. Her fingers ghosted over Sarabi's nearly translucent eyelids. "Everything is perfectly fine with her. Ever her brain activity seems normal, like she's just asleep. But if that were true, I'd have been able to wake her up."

"We need to figure out what that bright light was," Gaara suggested, leaning against the doorframe.

From the adjoined the bathroom, he heard the groaning of pipes as the water was shut off. The sounds of the water running stopped.

"And we need to figure out what to do about him," he continued, nodding his head toward the bathroom door.

"Oh, screw him," Sakura said, her eyes still transfixed on Sarabi's face. "Just let him go."

"Sakura, what the hell are you saying?" Naruto demanded.

Gaara said nothing, but he tried to push down the feeling of delight that was burbling up in his chest. Now was definitely not the time for that.

"Look, Naruto, we tried," she said, turning to look her teammate in the eye. "Sasuke has a mission and he won't rest until he's completed it. It has nothing to do with us, so we should just let him go. If he wants to come back afterwards, then of course I'll welcome him back with open arms. Until then, he's a free man. He can do what he wants."

"An accurate conclusion," came a voice near the bathroom door. Sasuke stood in the open doorway, still wet, still wrapped in nothing but a towel. Gaara scowled. "So does this mean I'll be leaving here empty-handed?"

"I guess so," Sakura said. She sounded the appropriate amount of apologetic, but there was an undercurrent of regret and disappointment. Gaara felt it pull something painfully tight against his chest.

"Are you sure you won't come with me?" he asked her. He crossed his arms over his chest and took a step into the room. Gaara stiffened, and he noticed that Naruto did as well.

Sasuke approached Sakura, who was doing her best to seem un-intimidated by his weird tactic. He sat down next to Sarabi opposite Sakura. His eyes drifted away from Sakura's, toward Sarabi's face.

"Is she going to be okay?" he asked.

Sakura was stunned by the question. She opened her mouth and then closed it again. "I don't know," she said, words that must be killing her to repeat by now.

Sasuke held in a breath for a second before releasing it. "Sakura, I'd really like for you to come with me."

Panic surged up through Gaara's throat. This could be it – the moment he loses her. She should want to say yes because this was everything she always wanted.

But instead, she turned around to look at him. Her eyes met his with a sort of sadness behind them. It broke his heart, but he smiled at her in spite of it – weak, but a smile nonetheless. She could choose for herself. Gaara couldn't stop her if he wanted to, which he very much did.

Then she smiled back. It wasn't as weak as his, and it was reassuring to see it on her face.

"I can't go with you, Sasuke," she said, her voice a little stronger. "I hope you succeed, though. I want all the best things for you."

If Gaara didn't know any better, he might have thought Sasuke was touched by her words. His brow furrowed for a second and his mouth turned down into a frown. His shoulders drooped for just a second before he straightened up again.

"I understand," he said, standing up. "Tell Kakashi I say hello."

Naruto and Sakura both opened their mouths in an absurd display of shock. It was so comical that Gaara couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him. At the sound of his laughter, Sasuke's eyes darted over to Gaara, who automatically straightened his posture under the scrutiny.

"Could you provide me with a change of clothes," he asked a little too politely. "Mine are ruined."

"I'll do it!" Naruto exclaimed, springing up from the bed like a tightly wound coil. "I have some extra clothes that will fit you."

Gaara was uncertain about that. He didn't want to have Naruto and Sasuke get into a fight without his presence. He found it hard to imagine that Naruto would just let Sasuke go that easily. But Sakura had done it, and he didn't think she would do that either. They seemed fairly amicable at the moment. Even Sasuke was behaving with more manners than usual.

Sasuke looked Naruto up and down. Though he didn't actually do it, Gaara could feel the roll of his eyes. "Fine," Sasuke said.

Gaara shifted out of the doorway to allow the pair to pass through. As they passed, Gaara covertly sent a sprinkle of sand along with them so he'd be able to keep track of them in case something were to happen.

Once they were gone, Gaara shut the door and sat down on the foot of the bed. Silence stretched between them, but it wasn't uncomfortable. There was a tenseness in the air, a concern for Sarabi, a mutual understanding of the thickness of emotion that naturally followed an experience like the one they'd just shared. But instead of feeling awkward, it only made Gaara feel closer to Sakura.

"I know you're worried about Sarabi, but it will be okay," Gaara said. He firmly believed that, but he was aware that his words were more for consoling her than explaining the truth.

"You don't know that," she said softly, "but you're right about one thing. We need to find out what that light was and why that beast is back."

Gaara nodded in agreement. "In the morning I will take a squad and go investigate," he replied. "Until then, I'll have the village guards keep an eye out for activity."

Sakura fell silent again. Her fingers moved to Sarabi's and threaded through them. She closed her eyes and took in a breath as she tried to collect her thoughts.

"Sakura, why don't you want to go with Sasuke?"

A scowl immediately marred her features. "Why would you ask me that?" she snapped. "Now really isn't the time."

"I'm just concerned for you. That's all."

"You're jealous," she snapped, "which is ridiculous."

"I'm not jealous," he replied smoothly, though he knew that was a lie, "but even if I was, why would that be ridiculous?"

"Because I'm not leaving with him," she explained. "I chose to stay here with you. You know that. What else do I have to do?"

"You don't have to do anything," he said a little stiffly. He hadn't exactly been under the impression that he was the reason she had chosen to stay. He had assumed it was for Naruto, for Konoha. He didn't doubt her affections for him, but he hadn't calculated that they may have been a factor in her decision.

"Then why are you jealous?"

"I'm not."

Sakura frowned. "You're acting jealous. I could practically feel how much you hated Sasuke. Just the way you were looking at him…"

"Of course I hate Sasuke," he said a bit defensively. "He hurt you and Naruto. He abandoned his home and turned his back on the people who love him. The only reason I allowed him into the village was to make you and Naruto happy. Which might have been a mistake, because you don't seem all that happy right now."

Sakura blinked slowly and looked back down at Sarabi. It was clear that much of her unhappiness was due to Sarabi's condition, but she would be a fool to deny that part of it was because of Sasuke.

"But okay," he conceded, "I might be a little jealous."

He had half expected her to be amused by his admission, but instead she lifted her head up to glare at him.

"But it's not your problem," he added quickly. "You don't have to do anything. I'm not sure you could if you wanted to."

"Why are you jealous of him?" she asked.

Now it was his turn to glare at her. That was an absurdly obtuse question. "Umm, because he was your teammate and your first crush and you pined after him for years. Now he shows up and asks you to come with him and I'm not supposed to feel a little threatened by that?"

"You don't have to feel that way," she said with a little too much vehemence. "I chose to stay here with you because I like you. If I liked Sasuke then I would have chosen to go with him."

"Really?" he asked, his eyebrows flying up in surprise. "You would have left Naruto and Konoha behind to go with Sasuke?"

"The end goal is to have Sasuke back in the village," she said. "He can do that with or without me. He only needed a medic, and I would have been happy to do it. It might have hurt Naruto at the beginning, but if it ended with both of us back in Konoha, I don't see what the problem would be. When I liked him, it would have been a great opportunity to spend time with him. But you're the one I want to spend time with. I still want Sasuke to come home, but I don't care if I'm not the one who goes with him."

Gaara was silent in response, trying to think of what to say before he spoke again. She was being quite frank about her feelings, which was oddly refreshing to him. He had only had experience romantically with Matsuri, who hadn't been as forthcoming with her feelings.

"I see," he said after a moment. "I'm glad you chose to stay because of me. It means a lot to me to know that's how you feel."

Sakura's features softened so dramatically he was afraid she might burst into tears. She reached for his hand, dropping Sarabi's to hold his instead. "Gaara, you're a goddamn treasure."

A short laugh escaped him. That was not what he had expected, but it made him smile and it lessened some of the tension in the room.

"I can't wait to get you alone again."

Gaara felt a coil tightened deep in his gut at the sound of those words. There was a heated look on Sakura's face, which looked almost out of place. It occurred to him that Sakura was eager for the physical aspect of a relationship with him and that thought sent most of the blood away from his brain into a much lower region. It was hardly appropriate given the circumstances, but the damage was already done. He was eager, too, if a little nervous.

Because he couldn't quite form the words he wanted to explain that he wanted that, too, he leaned across Sarabi's legs and pressed a kiss to Sakura's mouth. It was tender and chaste and Sakura was smiling when he pulled away.

"You should go tell Kakashi and Sai what happened with Sasuke," he suggested. "I'll stay here with Sarabi until you get back."

Sakura nodded, though she didn't look happy about having to tell her teammates about Sasuke. Gaara didn't know the dynamics of their team, but it was hard to imagine it was the kind of thing Kakashi would be blasé about.

"Okay," she agreed. "I want to stay the night here with Sarabi just in case she wakes up, so would you mind having someone bring in an extra cot for me?"

"Of course," he replied.

/

Gaara sat in the dark in Sarabi's room, watching her chest rise and fall with her breaths. Sakura had been gone for almost an hour. Naruto was still with Sasuke – Gaara could still feel his chakra signature within the village walls. With his sand he could tell that they were near the guard tower. Their presences were calm, not volatile or violent like Gaara had expected. If they were only talking, then Gaara had no complaints. He wondered what that conversation was like.

It was an odd predicament Gaara found himself in. He really needed to be back in his office doing paperwork. Temari would be furious when she found out he hadn't even touched it yet and even more angry about everything that had happened with Sasuke and Sarabi. Gaara hoped that the festivities would distract her enough that he could resolve everything before she found out.

He wasn't going to get his hopes up, though.

It wasn't as though he could just leave Sarabi here alone. She might wake up any moment and he wanted to be here to see what she knew.

And Gaara was getting better at being honest with himself. He wanted to be here when Sakura got back. Sasuke's arrival threw a wrench into what was already a very precarious situation. Now more than ever he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible, to have as much of her as she would allow.

Yes, he had other things to tend to, more important Kazekage duties and responsibilities. And yes, romantic distractions were beneath him. He was a powerful man who surely couldn't have a weakness as simple as affections for a girl.

But his jealousy of Sasuke, his inability to focus on anything but Sakura… well, it certainly didn't feel like he had things under control. He knew he needed to do better.

The hospital door clicked open, drawing Gaara's attention. Sakura stepped inside, keeping her face hidden behind a curtain of pink hair. She shut the door softly behind her and when she turned to face him, her cheeks were wet with tears.

Doing better could wait until tomorrow.

"Sakura?"

He stood up, worry creasing the skin between his brows. Without a word, Sakura pressed her face into his chest and cried some more. Her hands fisted in his tunic and she leveraged her weight against him. No one had ever cried into his chest before and he wasn't sure how to comfort her. He wasn't even sure why she was crying. All he could do was smooth a hand over her hair as she cried.

"Sakura, what's wrong?" he asked.

"He's gone," she mumbled. He was surprised to hear steadiness in her tone. He was also surprised by how vehemently his own body reacted to those words. He felt himself stiffen. If Sakura noticed, she had the grace not to mention it. Gaara couldn't help but feel a little weird about comforting her while she cried over Sasuke.

Curious, he reached out with his chakra, feeling for the sand he'd sent along with Naruto and Sasuke. There was no Sasuke anymore – his signature had vanished and Gaara hadn't even noticed. Naruto's was still there, somewhere. Gaara didn't pry into where. If he, too, was mourning Sasuke's loss, then Gaara could give him some privacy.

"Kakashi-sensei was so mad," Sakura continued, pulling her face away from his chest, but keeping her fingers curled up in his tunic. "We shouldn't have done all this without consulting him. We should have at least told him Sasuke was here."

Gaara pulled her hands away from his clothes, linking their fingers together. He hated to see her so sad, both for selfish and selfless reasons. It sucked that the little time he had with her was marred by today's events. And it sucked that she had to feel this pain when she didn't deserve it.

He hated how he didn't know what to say. He hated not knowing what to do to cheer her up. This wasn't something he'd really done before. Temari wasn't the type to cry in front of him, though he was sure she cried. She never leaned on him for comfort like this, and neither had Matsuri. He had learned over his late teenage years that words could solve most problems.

But his problem was he didn't know what words to say.

Sakura pressed her forehead to his collarbone and breathed a heavy sigh. He could feel moisture on his tunic from her tears.

"Come here," he said, using her elbow to guide her toward the extra cot he had brought for her. She allowed him to lead her. When Gaara climbed up on the cot, Sakura followed him wordlessly. He held up his arm for her to settle beside him. She melted into him and continued to cry.

He hated himself for enjoying it. He ran his fingertips across her arms soothingly, giving her a reassuring squeeze every now and then, relishing in her shivers.

He held her until she stopped crying and they fell asleep together.