Gaara couldn't quite explain it, but he felt a sense of belonging being out in the desert alone with Sarabi. The desert had always called to him, always felt more like home than even the palace walls. It was clear that Sarabi felt the same way. She was practically glowing as they ambled across the dunes. He was surprised to notice that clouds of sand gathered near her feet with each step she took, dissipating back into the ground when she had passed.
It was strange, but there were a lot of things about Sarabi that were strange.
"Are we far enough away from the village yet?" she asked, glancing back at him over her shoulder.
Before he answered, Gaara reached out with his chakra, feeling for some sign of the beast. The desert felt perfectly still.
"A little bit farther," he called out.
They continued making their way past the dunes, each lost in their own thought. The sky was impossibly bright while littered with stars. The moon hung high and silvery, casting cool light over the sand.
Gaara glanced toward Sarabi, who was now nearing a peak of a tall dune. She was graceful and lithe as she climbed, but Gaara could see a shiver run through her in the night air. When they had both reached the top, Gaara shrugged out of his jacket and passed it over to her.
Sarabi blinked at him in surprise.
"What?" he asked in confusion.
"Nothing," she said suspiciously. "I just thought you and Sakura were… together or something."
Gaara pushed the jacket closer toward her, brushing it against her arm. Reluctantly, she took it and wrapped it around her shoulders.
"How did you know about that?" he asked.
"Sakura is my closest friend," Sarabi said, sadness straining her voice. It was easy to see that Sarabi would miss Sakura just as much as he would. "We tell each other everything."
"Everything, huh?"
She eyed him suspiciously again and then glanced off toward the horizon.
"You looked cold," he explained. "That's all."
She pulled the collar of his jacket closer around her neck, still gazing out across the dunes. The wind whipped her dark hair around her face and she shivered again.
"Sakura was depressed, you know," Sarabi said matter-of-factly. "Sort of, I mean. She was fine most of the time, but sometimes I'd catch her in bouts of depression. She'd be sad for no reason sometimes. I used to think it was because of Sasuke. It's all she and Naruto would talk about when the two of them were together.
Gaara felt that stinging stab of jealousy again, so he looked away from Sarabi. He didn't want her to see it if it would somehow show on his face.
"But now I think it's because of you," she continued. "Whenever the subject of you came up, she would always light up. She loved talking about you. I think that's what threw me off. She's so much happier now that she's here around you all the time. She just missed you, I guess."
There was a sharp crackle in the radio on Gaara's ear. "No sign of the beast yet," Hideki's voice said through the static, "but there is an unidentified chakra source coming southeast of your position. Twenty clicks."
Gaara reached up and clicked the mic button on his radio. "We'll check it out," he murmured to Hideki.
Sarabi looked to Gaara expectantly, waiting for his instruction. "Southeast," he said to her, pointing out the direction to her.
Wordless, they leapt off, sliding back down the dune into the valley below.
"Why did you tell me all that?" Gaara asked, after a few minutes of silence.
Sarabi shrugged, but Gaara knew better.
"Why are you suspicious of me?" he demanded.
Sarabi stopped, so Gaara stopped beside her.
"I'm not suspicious of you," she said tersely. "You're a good man – I can tell. And you're a fine Kazekage."
"Then what's the matter?"
"Taiyo seems to think you have less than pure intentions with me," she said shortly, refusing to meet his eye.
"Do you believe him?"
Sarabi merely shrugged again.
"Taiyo's heart is in the right place," Gaara said, scratching the back of his neck nervously. This was exactly what he hadn't wanted. "But he doesn't know what he's talking about. He's being overprotective of you."
Sarabi crossed her arms, still refusing to meet his gaze.
"Sarabi, look at me," he commanded.
Obediently, she turned to look at him, her milky eyes focused intently on his. Her posture was angry and he wondered if that was on Sakura's behalf of her own.
"Sakura told me she caught you staring at me one time," she said, petulantly jutting her chin up.
"You're a beautiful girl, Sarabi," he replied tightly. "I know it's easy to forget because I'm the Kazekage, but I'm still an adolescent. It's unreasonable to expect me to be perfect all the time. I meant no disrespect to you."
"What about Sakura?" she asked. "Did you mean disrespect to her?"
"Of course not," he replied dismissively. "I love her."
Sarabi cocked her head to the side. "You do?"
Gaara tensed, wondering whether it was appropriate for him to have said that to Sarabi before he said it to Sakura.
"I do," he answered. "She's my girlfriend. Of course I do."
"She's your girlfriend?" Sarabi shrieked, grabbing onto his arm. "When did that happen? I thought for sure you were just fooling around with her."
Gaara winced and withdrew his arm. "Why would you think that?" he asked.
"Because of what Taiyo and Sakura said," she explained. "And you were with that Matsuri girl before. You know that broke Sakura's heart, right?"
"That's ridiculous," he said, feeling something tighten in the pit of his stomach. He had been angry with Taiyo for assuming that something was going on between him and Sarabi, but now he had to wonder. Had he given him a reason to think that? Was he doing something wrong?
Sarabi held up her hands defensively. "You know I appreciate everything you've done for me," she began. "I'm just trying to look out for Sakura. I know she'd do the same for me."
Gaara frowned. "You don't need to—"
A deep rumbling beneath the sand cut him off. He could feel the vibrations moving closer at a rapid speed so he grabbed onto Sarabi's arm and jolted her up into the air. From the safety of his sand disc, he sent out a probing pulse of chakra.
"Is that the beast?" Sarabi asked, clinging to his arm to keep her balance.
"I don't know."
Silence stretched over the dunes. With his chakra, Gaara could feel what he was certain was the beast beneath them.
"Now's as good a time as any to start your training, right Sarabi?" Gaara asked, keeping his voice low.
"What? You mean you want me to fight it?" she squealed. He could feel her fingers trembling as they clung to his arm.
"It's okay, don't be scared," he said soothingly. "You'll be okay. I'm here with you. Just trust your instincts. You don't have to fight it. Do what comes naturally to you."
"My instincts are telling me to get the hell out of here," she snapped.
A little disappointed by the lack of fight in her, and a little annoyed by their previous conversation, Gaara shoved Sarabi off the side of his sand disc. She wailed as she plummeted toward the sand, flailing her arms while Gaara watched from above. For a moment Gaara was afraid he might have to catch her before she hit the ground, but a second later she had created a sand disc (well, sand blob, really) of her own. It caught her just before she hit the dune.
"What the fuck?" she yelled up at him.
"That was good," he yelled down to her. "Keep using your instincts like that."
He wasn't exactly sure because it was hard to tell from this distance, but she looked furious.
The rumbling returned. Gaara could hear rather than feel it this time. With his chakra clamoring outwards, he could feel the beast speeding toward them underneath the ground. He returned his attention to Sarabi, who had lifted herself up to match his height.
"What are we going to do?" he asked her.
Her eyes were wide – almost comically so. It was clear she was unused to being asked that question. She pursed her lips together and let her eyes drift down toward the ground.
"Let me think for a second," she murmured.
Gaara obliged, letting her decide what course of action to take. His ultimate goal here was to learn as much about the beast and Sarabi's link as possible. He couldn't think of a direct way to accomplish that, so letting Sarabi take the reigns was a good way to see what she was capable of and what she was comfortable with.
"Are we trying to kill it?" she asked him, her eyes flicking over to his.
Gaara didn't have a chance to answer as the beast burst up into the air, spraying sand over the two of them. Gaara watched as the beast coiled up in the air, screeching so loudly he was sure his eardrum had been shattered. He winced and held his palm against his ears, surprised by the decibel of sound. He hadn't remembered the previous beast sounding so loud.
When the sound dissipated, Gaara looked back up to see the beast lunging toward Sarabi. He swooped his sand disc over toward her, ready with his personal sand to deflect any of the beast's attacks.
The beast's maw yawned open and launched a spray of acid over Sarabi before Gaara could reach her with his sand. He winced, watching her wipe the filth out of her eyes. They would need to get her cleaned up really good before she could be out in the sun again.
Maybe this had been a mistake, he thought.
Gaara raised his sand to strike the beast's head, prepared to draw its attention away from Sarabi so that she could recover. The beast screeched again, piercing the air with its angry wail. It lunged toward Gaara, its eyes wide with rage and panic. Gaara dodged and leapt backwards toward a deep valley, hoping to give Sarabi cover.
"Gaara-sama!" he heard her call out.
He slid his way down into the bottom of the valley, guiding the beast down and away from Sarabi. At the bottom, the beast screeched again and lashed out at Gaara, sending him flying back into the side of the dune. He used his sand to quickly brace himself and keep the spray of sand out of his face. He peered back up at the top of the dune to see Sarabi sliding down into the valley.
He wanted to call out for her to stop, to head back toward the village. He was concerned for her safety now, but they hadn't accomplished their goal yet and it seemed like Sarabi had some sort of plan.
The beast poised itself to strike again, manically flailing toward Gaara at breakneck speed. He positioned a wall of sand between them to guard against the attack – there was no way to dodge it at the bottom of the valley. He could feel rather than see the beast lunge toward him again – or rather toward his sand wall.
Before his eyes, the wall of sand hardened into grey stone. He heard a sickening crack as the beast struck the wall headfirst. There was a tense beat of silence as the sand and dust settled.
The wall shifted back into sand and Gaara released his hold on it, sending the sand tumbling back into the valley. The beast's limp body lay before him, knocked unconscious but still breathing.
Sarabi stood near its tail, her eyes lit up. She was sparkling in a way he'd never seen before. Fascinated by her new demeanor, he leapt over the beast to approach her.
"That was fantastic," he said, grinning at her. "You found a way to subdue the beast without killing it."
"I know!" she squealed, giddy with excitement. "Now we can take it back to the village for Sakura to study."
Gaara reeled back in surprise, already shaking his head. "No, that thing isn't coming anywhere near the village," he said firmly. "The only thing I'm interested in learning is the bond between you and the beast. There's no reason to bring it back to Suna. It's not safe."
"The bond between me and the beast?" she demanded, her hands on her hips in a way that was very Sakura-like. "What do you mean?"
"The beast," he said gesturing to the slumbering creature behind him, "is the offspring of your Goddess, remember? That one gave you its chakra. Whatever happened to you when you encountered this thing with Sasuke is a clue. We need to figure out what it was."
"So you came out here to recreate what happened?" she asked. She didn't sound happy.
"I came here to learn in whatever way I could," he said defensively.
"I could have died!"
Gaara blinked. "Really?" he asked, a little skeptically and a little afraid. "You were in a coma, but it didn't seem life threatening. Are you sure you could have died?"
Her face reddened and she seemed to be even angrier now. She stamped her foot childishly – another Sakura-ism she had picked up. "You misled me," she said. "I thought we were coming out here just to train."
"I don't know what gave you that impression."
"So we really came back out here so you could pit me against that thing and see how I'd do?" she demanded harshly.
Gaara gave her a noncommittal shrug. "I guess so."
Sarabi stood, her fists clenched tightly as she seemed to puff up with anger. After a moment she deflated, the winds breezing gently through her hair. She sighed and flicked her bangs away from her face, casting her eyes toward her feet.
"Come here," Gaara said, gesturing again toward the beast.
He approached its massive head, Sarabi in tow behind him. She still seemed rather irritated, but unlike Sakura she obeyed him anyway. Near the beast's head, Gaara could sense its chakra paths still active even in its unconscious state. He reached for Sarabi's hand and pressed her palm against the beast's head.
"Reach into the beast with your chakra," he instructed. "Tell me what you feel."
Sarabi closed her eyes to concentrate. Gaara could feel her surging chakra as it flowed into the beast, probing and exploring. She gasped and took a tiny step backward, though she kept her palm pressed against the beast. Gaara watched intently as she bit her lip, continue her exploration.
With his own chakra, Gaara reached out to see what she was doing. He was startled when he felt just one chakra presence – a combination of the one he had come to know as Sarabi, and the beast's slightly less sentient one. Said chakra pushed so roughly on his own that he staggered backwards a few steps.
Sarabi was breathing heavily, her eyes still screwed shut. Gaara watched for another moment, but he began to grow unsettled. He reached out with his chakra again, but was met with another firm push that kept him at bay.
"Sarabi, what's happening?" he asked softly, taking a step toward her.
She didn't answer and he could see that she was trembling now – not gently, but almost quaking, vibrating. "Sarabi?" he asked, his voice laced with concern. "Are you okay?"
He took another step, now in reach of her shoulder. He clamped his hand down on her, jolting her out of her trance. The beast stirred beneath her palm, a high pitch moan seeping from its mouth.
"He's in pain," she murmured, eyes still closed. She removed her palm and held it against her chest, cradling it.
"Well, yeah, he just dove into stone," Gaara agreed. "Did you feel his pain?"
"No, I…"
Sarabi's eyes flew open. They were unfocused, which was apparent even in their milkiness. They saw straight through Gaara, though he moved closer to her once more out of concern. She took a step backwards away from the beast, letting it roll over onto its stomach. His stomach, Gaara thought.
It adjusted itself further, kicking up the sand and dust around them. It rose up into the air again. Gaara instinctively reached for Sarabi's hand and forced her to take a step backward with him.
From the air, the beast looked at Sarabi. Gaara had a hard enough time distinguishing the ranges of human facial expressions, so this left him more lost than usual. All he knew was that the beast was definitely looking at Sarabi and not attacking her.
Then its head turned and he focused those unsettling, beady eyes on Gaara instead. Gaara froze, unsure of what to expect. The beast let out another terrifying screech and sprayed a deluge of its mucus over him. Sarabi attempted to come to his aid, flinging up a wall of sand between him and the beast. He mentally applauded her effort, but she wasn't quite quick enough.
Drenched in acidic mucus, Gaara wiped his eyes and glanced toward Sarabi. The beast moaned again, sounding very much in pain.
"We should let him go," Sarabi said, shrugging out of his jacket, which was also drenched in mucus.
"I agree," Gaara said, although it didn't seem to matter whether he did or not. The beast lunged high up into the air and then dove into the sand before them, darting back into its tunnels under the ground.
They stood silent and still as the rumbling faded. When the desert was silent again, Gaara breathed a sigh if relief. He whirled around to face Sarabi, searching her face to better understand what she was feeling.
Her expression was worried, but he couldn't gather much else from it.
"What happened when you touched it?" he asked.
"I could see what he was seeing," Sarabi explained, "and I couldn't feel his pain, per se, but I could sense his emotions. I don't know. It's hard to explain."
Gaara waited a moment to see if she would offer anything else. She kept her gaze off toward the horizon.
"Okay, let's get back to Suna and get cleaned up," he said. "We can reconvene in the morning to discuss this. I'll let you get some rest for now."
Sarabi's gaze snapped over to him and this time it was easy to see her anger. "Sakura wouldn't have liked knowing that you were bringing me out here to fight him," she said shortly. "I'm going to tell her, you know. You shouldn't have tried to hide it."
Gaara took a step toward her, towering over her in a way that he hoped was intimidating. He actually felt quite amused with her ire, but she didn't need to know that.
"You're no longer under Sakura's tutelage," he said lowly. "You're under mine. If this is how I choose to train you, then you will have to accept it. Tell Sakura if you wish, but I meant her no harm by omitting the truth. I didn't want her to come out here after you."
"Yeah, she hates how overprotective you are."
Gaara narrowed his eyes at her. "It seems you've become a lot like her during your time together," he said carefully.
Sarabi crossed her arms, unwilling to back down. She did have a fire that reminded him a lot of Sakura, but it was different on her. More annoying, he thought. Perhaps his rose colored glasses distorted his opinion of Sakura a little bit.
"Alright, that's enough for tonight," he said, rubbing his temples in resignation. "We should go to the infirmary immediately to get decontamination baths."
Sarabi tsked and began to stomp back toward the village, not bothering to hide her irritation with him. Gaara wasn't so sure he deserved her ire. He hadn't done anything wrong, really. All of it had been in her best interest, in Suna's best interest. If she was angry on Sakura's behalf still, well… He didn't know what to do about that.
Just when he thought things were beginning to go well with him and Sakura, now there was one more thing added to the mix. Were she and Sarabi really that close? Would they discuss things with each other that he had said to them in private?
Feeling a bit deflated, Gaara followed Sarabi, wondering why all of the women in his life had to be so troublesome.
/
Hideki met them at the gates, his expression worried from what Gaara could tell. He rushed to greet them when they came into view.
"Gaara-sama," he said reverently. "What do you need from me? What happened out there?"
"We're both fine," Gaara reassured him. "We need to be decontaminated immediately. The beast is gone. Not a threat for now."
The three of them began to make their way toward the medical wing. Once they arrived and Sarabi had been whisked away, Hideki followed Gaara into preparation area for decontamination.
"Sakura came looking for you earlier," Hideki warned, his expression guarded. "She heard the beast's screeching. I didn't let her leave the village, but she seemed pretty angry. I thought you might want to know."
"What did you tell her?" Gaara asked, careful to hide his exasperation from Hideki. He didn't want him to think he was upset with him.
"That it was all part of Sarabi's training," Hideki replied.
Gaara appraised Hideki, taking in his rigid posture and tense features. He was aware that Sakura and Hideki had a fairly close relationship. Usually that didn't bother him, but today he couldn't help but wonder about it. Sakura could charm literally anyone, it seemed. Between him and Sarabi, it seemed clear that Gaara's relationship with Sakura wouldn't be exclusively between the two of them.
He had no intentions of hurting Sakura in any way, of course, but he would still have to be careful with those extra pairs of scrutinizing eyes.
"Do you know where she is now?" Gaara asked.
"I believe she went back to her rooms, Gaara-sama."
/
Once Gaara had been properly bathed and cleaned of any remnants of the beast's mucus, he made his way toward Sakura's room, bracing for the worst.
She was reclining against the windowpane when he entered, her face tilted up toward the sky. The moonlight reflected on her face made her look ghostly, but she didn't look upset. Gaara hoped that was a good sign.
Silence stretched across the room. Sakura didn't look at him, keeping her eyes on the stars instead.
"I'm back," Gaara said softly.
Sakura looked down into her lap.
"Are you upset?" he asked even softer.
She finally looked at him. Their eyes met in a tense sort of way, but her expression was unreadable to him. She stood up and slowly made her way over to him. He watched her leisurely gait with trepidation. There was unequivocal sadness in her eyes, which only served to confuse Gaara even more.
Then she wrapped her arms around him, trapping his own arms against his sides. She pressed her face into his chest and let out a sigh, breathing warmth over his skin.
"No," she said, her voice muffled. "I'm just glad you're okay."
Gaara placed his palm on top of her head and held her against him. "You didn't need to worry," he said reassuringly. "I had everything under control."
"Is that why you didn't tell me?" she asked fiercely, though some of that fierceness was mitigated by the fact that she had yet to pull her face away from his chest.
"Tell you what?"
She pulled away then to glare at him, but he was just so pleased to have her back in his arms again that he couldn't let go just yet. He pulled her back against him, holding firm when she struggled for a second before giving up and allowing him to brush his fingers through her hair.
But a second later she shoved him back rather forcibly, her face glowering. Her eyes were incredibly fierce, her gaze so sharp it sent a shiver down Gaara's spine. There was something animalistic there, but Gaara couldn't quite place it.
"When I'm around you, it feels like I'm on fire," she said lowly, "like every nerve in my body is lit."
Gaara swallowed, trying to mask his confusion.
"Being angry with you makes it worse," she continued.
Gaara blinked and watched her slide into a fighting stance, her fists clenched but trembling.
"Sakura, what are you doing?"
"I'm mad at you for hiding the truth from me, but I sort of understand why you did it," she explained impatiently. Gaara cocked his head with more confusion. "I'm still mad at you, though. I want to fight you."
He was silent for a moment, drinking in the sight of her. He had been expecting her anger, but he hadn't expected a fight. Not a physical one, anyway.
"What if I don't want to fight you?"
Her answer came as a swift punch aimed at his chest. Gaara caught it with his hand instinctively, always deceived by her short stature and tiny hands. It was easy to forget she could break every bone in his body with little effort.
Fortunately for him, her punch was free of chakra. He had a suspicion this meant she didn't really want to hurt him – just to release some of the tension she was feeling.
An apology bubbled up in his throat, but he forced it back down. If this was what she wanted instead, he could indulge her.
With the hand that had caught hers, he grabbed roughly onto her wrist and forced her to step backwards. He could feel the goosebumps erupt on her arm under his palm. His eyes flew to hers, confused and curious and a little dark. She was wide-eyed and frozen, but incredibly alert. He could see that she had meant what she said about her lit nerves. She was gorgeously glowing in a way that he could only describe as being, well, alive. She was alive.
"Is this what you want?" he asked, pushing her even further back until she was against the window. He was delighted by how pliantly she acquiesced for him. He gripped her wrist even tighter, certain it would leave a bruise.
She didn't answer, but she didn't need to.
"Or do you want something else?" he asked, letting go of her wrist and trailing his hand down to her hip. He watched her breath catch in her throat and a pleasant flush appear over her neck and chest. He understood that animalistic gaze now, and he couldn't help but smirk.
Gaara wasn't usually one for that kind of arrogance, but seeing her writhe against him with angry, sexual tension… That certainly wasn't what he had expected when he came to her room, but how could he complain?
"Something else," she said, gaining back a little of her vivacity.
His smirk bloomed into a full grin. He was amused and pleasantly surprised by her behavior. He wondered if she would always be surprising him like this, or if he would come to be able to predict her eventually.
Because she seemed in the mood for it, Gaara grabbed the back of her thighs roughly and hoisted her up onto his hips. She anchored her arms around his neck, her nails biting into his skin. She leaned close to kiss him, but before their lips met, Gaara tossed her onto the bed and crawled on top of her.
She looked a little miffed, pouting up at him in a way that was sexy and adorable at the same time. She craned her neck to kiss him again, but he shook his head, smiling as he pulled away from her.
"You think because you're my girlfriend that you can just kiss me whenever you want?" he demanded.
While he had planned for the snide comment to prod at some of the tension between them, he had assumed it would be the sexual kind and not the angry kind. Sakura reached up and smacked the back of his head. In his pleasure-fogged haze, he wasn't able to properly block her attack, so he was surprised to find the back of his head smarting.
"Sakura," he murmured, a little shocked that she would dispense the mood like that.
Before he had time to process it, she reached up and smacked his head again in the same spot.
"Hey," he snapped, reaching for her wrists and pinning her hands down against the mattress. "What the hell?"
She looked amused and angry and horny all at the same time, writhing beneath him and panting. Her arms were covered in goosebumps and he could see that her nipples had become hard underneath that thin white shirt of hers. If she was trying to rile him up, it wasn't exactly working the way she intended.
"Let me kiss you," she commanded, her voice hardened like steel.
Gaara gripped her wrists tighter together, pressing her further down into the mattress. He knew she could easily escape his grip, but that was part of the fun.
"No," he replied coolly, narrowing his eyes. "I'll decide when you can kiss me."
She bucked her hips up into his wildly, eliciting a groan from him. All of the blood that had been anywhere else in his body rushed straight to his dick.
Apparently, she could decide, too.
Too lustful to deny her any longer, he bent down and crushed his lips against hers, still pining her arms above her head. She struggled against him for a moment, but he held her down firmly, kissing her with a near bruising force.
He was horrified by how turned on he was by her struggling.
Feeling a bit confused, he rocked back onto his heels, releasing her hands. She sat up instantly to fill the space between their bodies, her hands flying through the buttons on his shirt. He let her undress him, watching her nimble fingers to ground himself.
"Kazekage-sama."
"What?" he snapped, annoyed by the formal address.
"Take your shirt off," she said, gesturing to his now open shirt.
He didn't move immediately, appraising the situation as best he could. She was riling him up in the worst combination of ways. She was beautifully turned on, but he wasn't quite feeling the same way. He was turned on alright, but he was also pretty confused.
"When the Kazekage does something wrong, who punishes him?" she asked, moving to pull down his sleeves herself. He allowed her to remove it, but he felt rigid.
"The Kazekage doesn't get punished," he mused.
"He will today."
/
AN: This chapter is a little longer than the others because that little scene at the end really got away from me. Hope you guys don't mind. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯