Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.
--
Status report: Day six.
Temari: Still a bitch; getting better. Sort of. Doesn't scare me for fun anymore, most of the time.
Kankuro: Entertaining and nice, if not overly flirty. Fun to be around. He's kinda like Naruto, only more mature.
Gaara: Quiet...but okay, I guess. At least he's stopped murdering people on impulse. And...eh, he's nice. Er. Well, not nice. But not disrespectful either. He's just sort of...neutral.
Naruto: Hasn't written one letter. Not one. He promised me he'd write every day. Liar. I'll get him when I get back.
Shikamaru: No letters at all. You know, we've been friends for seven whole months, so you would think that the guy would take the time to say hello.
My goddamned sibling: Still not here. I hope you're having fun, Sasuke, cause I'm gonna be POed when you finally show up.
My goddamned sensei: The same goes for you.
Mom: Hasn't written. Probably off on some awesome mission with her ANBU pals while I'm stuck here in the desert.
Tsunade-sama: ...hasn't written. But I suppose she's busy. She is the Hokage, after all.
Lee-san:...also has not written...
Ino and TenTen: Haven't written either! What's with these people? Have they all forgotten me? I'm serious. I haven't gotten any letters at all. Jerks. All of them. They –
"What are you writing about?"
Sakura peered at Kankuro over the top of the notebook she'd brought along with her from Konoha. Usually it was reserved for notes on complicated healing jutsus, but today she just felt like pointlessly writing something. Sitting on his couch with her legs tucked up to her chest with a pencil in one hand and a choclatey brownie in the other, she was feeling rather content, despite her agitation with her lack of news from her friends.
"People," she said, then took a bite out of her snack. "These brownies are kickass."
"You made them," Kankuro reminded, trying to look over her shoulder. "Who are you writing about?"
"No one."
"Am I in there?"
"Maybe," she said evasively, hunching over her writings protectively.
"I am in there. What did you say about me?" He asked, then waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Nothing inappropriate, I hope?"
"You wish," she raised a brow at him and held her notebook closer to her face to hide her smile. "I just wrote that you're fun."
"...just fun?"
"...were you hoping for something else?"
"No..." He sighed, and sent her a wounded glance. "But you could have at least mentioned the burning passion that you secretly hold for me, the way your pulse quickens whenever you think of me, how sexy – hey, what're you writing now?"
"That you're annoying," she scowled at him, then smirked. "And that you look good without makeup."
"Hey, I do?" He asked, eyes lighting up. Then he slowly frowned. "It's not makeup."
"According to you it is," she said, pleased with herself for tricking him, even if it had been juvenile and pointless.
He opened his mouth, probably to further defend the stuff he smeared all over his face, but was interrupted by a small tapping noise from the doorway that led into the kitchen.
"Gaara," Kankuro blinked in surprise. "I have a door."
"You didn't answer," he said flatly.
"Oh. Right. So what are you doing here?"
"I'm here to pick her up," he nodded to Sakura, who mentally sighed. Drat. And she'd been having fun, too.
"You came to me?" Kankuro asked blankly. "That was...nice of you."
For some reason Sakura found this funny, and had to fight not to laugh. Gaara noticed her twitching lips, however, and sent her a piercing glare that clearly said, I dare you.
She bit her lip, all traces of humor gone.
She dared not.
"Come on," Gaara motioned for her to follow him.
"Bye, Kankuro-kun." she sighed, and followed Gaara out the door. He turned to her on Kankuro's front porch.
"Are you hungry?"
"Eh?" Was all she managed.
"Come on," he said again, starting to walk.
She hurried after him. "I just ate."
"I'm hungry," he said bluntly. "And you should eat too. In the desert, if there's an opportunity for food, you take it. You can't know when a famine will come."
"You...have famines?"
"Don't you?"
"Uh-uh," she shook her head. "Everyone pretty much gets fed in Konoha."
"How nice." Was that contempt she heard? "But here it's different. You should eat when you get the chance."
"Do you think I'm weak?" She questioned him, frowning. "Just because my village is..." She trailed off. What? Her village was what? Wealthier? Well-fed? Stronger?
"I didn't say that," Gaara said, staring straight ahead.
"You implied it," she pressed.
"I'm not going to waste my time arguing with you."
Sakura huffed, but held her tongue. He was talking to her like she was a child!
"What do you want to eat?"
"What?" She asked, still working through her mental ranting.
"Haruno, I'm also not going to spend my evening repeating myself."
"I don't really care what we– oh hey, anko dumplings."
"I thought you didn't care what we ate."
"Well, that was before I knew Suna had a dumpling stall," she said matter of factly, pulling out her wallet.
Gaara's hand suddenly covered hers and he pushed her hand back down. Something stirred in her stomach, and her eyes widened a fraction. He lifted it away, and she felt an un-explanatory disappointment.
What...was that?
"Don't. I'll get it," he said, and she snapped out of her daze long enough to put her wallet away and follow him to the dumpling stand.
He paid and then handed her two long sticks with three balls of heaven on earth impaled on each.
"Thank you, Gaara-san."
He nodded and turned back to the man behind the stall. A moment later he turned around, holding a paper plate with a few chunks of unknown meat on it.
"What's that?" She pointed to his meal, trying not to wrinkle her nose.
"Tongue and gizzard," he answered, now walking again.
"Ew," she said automatically, falling into step beside him. Then his words processed. "Eww."
He glanced at her quizzically, as if unsure of her reaction.
"It's just...most people don't like that, where I come from," she tried to explain.
"It's good," he said, and she blinked, now unsure of his reaction. The old Gaara wouldn't have wasted sentences on defending his preferred food.
But, she decided, smiling, this wasn't the old Gaara.
--
Gaara nearly recoiled from the kunoichi next to him.
She was smiling, at him, and that in itself was a mystery.
This, of course, wasn't even taking into account everything else about her that left him completely baffled.
Why was she so calm? Why didn't she act nervous, or even awkward around him? He chanced a look at her. She had taken her eyes off him, and had gone back to eating her meal. Like she wasn't walking right next to an ex-murderer. Like he couldn't tear her throat out right this minute.
He tensed automatically, waiting for the voice that would urge him to do just that, before he remembered that he didn't have a voice anymore.
Ironic. He finally got used to Shukaku, then he was pulled out of his body.
They stopped at a small bench to eat, each one silent and perhaps even uncomfortably aware of the other's presence.
"Did you know that you eat strangely?"
He turned towards his companion, the corners of his mouth tipping downwards. "Strange how?"
"Well," she started, and he could see that she was carefully selecting her words. "You're just so...detached." She smiled at him again. "It's kind of funny."
So she also found him funny. Wonderful. He would have to add this to his list of things he couldn't understand about her.
"I'm not funny," he said eventually, and went back to his food.
"Are too," she retorted immediately, and he stopped his plastic fork's ascent into his mouth. She was watching him, eyebrows raised, as if challenging him to react to her childish prodding.
He snorted disdainfully and turned away. Like he would even consider it. He was Gaara of the Sand, Sabaku no Gaara, and he would not lower himself to such trivial argument. If she wanted to play silly games with herself then so be it, but he was a Kazekage, and he, unlike her, had his dignity to keep.
"Am not," he shot back, unaware that he had just rebelled against the logical portion of his mind for the first time in his life.
Sakura, however, grinned. "I knew it," she said happily. "I knew you still had some kid left in you."
"I do not," he scowled.
"You just contradicted yourself."
"I did – " Gaara snapped his mouth shut before he could embarrass himself even further.
Sakura laughed delightedly. "You know what?"
"What?" He humored her.
"I thought you were creepy at first, but I have decided that I like you."
"Whoo," he said, dully sarcastic.
"Methinks that Gaara, the Gaara, just made a joke," she peered at him, as if she couldn't believe it.
"...Haruno?"
"Yes?"
"Shut up."
She, for once, obeyed him, shrugging and moving on to her second stick of anko dumplings.
He frowned again. Was this the same girl whom he had seen when he was twelve? Back then she would have burst into tears at the slightest hint of an insult from her dark haired teammate. Hell, was this even the same girl who he had seen mere months ago? When he had woken to find her leaning over him after Chiyo-sama's sacrifice? She had been crying then, too.
"...aren't you bothered at all?" He couldn't help but ask.
"Eh?" She blinked. "Oh, no. I'm used to it. People tell me to shut up a lot. Sasuke-kun – " but she immediately snapped her mouth shut, and didn't finish what she had begun to say about her teammate. He decided to let it drop and went back to his dinner.
"SAKURA-CHYAAAN!"
An orange and black blur barreled into her, and Gaara stiffened with surprise, having not seen the attack coming. In the time span of half a second the cork had popped off his gourd, sand had gone spiraling into the air in all different directions, and the intruder was slammed into the brick wall of a nearby store.
"Ow, oww...Gaara, what was that for?" His captive whined, struggling halfheartedly against his sand prison.
"So troublesome..." A vaguely familiar voice sighed, moving in such a relaxed way that Gaara's sand didn't even react to him as a threat. "Why are you always so enthusiastic? You knocked Sakura flat on her back."
"Naruto? Shikamaru?" Sakura pushed herself up at the same time Gaara dropped Naruto. The blonde wasted no time in greeting her for a second time. "I can't breathe, Naruto."
"Eheh, sorry Sakura-chan." He stepped back and held out a hand to help her up.
"What are you two doing here?" She questioned, delicately brushing herself off.
"Hokage-sama sent us," Shikamaru drawled, shoving his hands into his pants pockets. "Messengers," he explained further. "We've got news and letters. Which do you want first?"
"Right now? You haven't even said hello, Shik."
"Preferably. I would really like to find an inn and sleep. Hello, Sakura."
"You haven't changed," she rolled her eyes. "Letters first, please."
He complied, handing her a small stack of paper and Gaara allowed himself to marginally relax. Obviously, Naruto and Shikamaru did not pose a threat. Sakura's eyes darted quickly over the sheets of paper, smiling widely.
"I was starting to worry," she said, folding her precious letters and stuffing them into her medic pouch strapped to her hip. "But every single one of them wrote to me."
"Of course," Naruto reached out to hug her again and she allowed it, sighing but hugging him back. "Everyone misses you."
"That's nice to know," she turned towards Shikamaru. "And you have not hugged me yet."
He sighed and slung an arm around her shoulders. Gaara was sure that he heard the word, "troublesome," muttered under the other boy's breath. Sakura just rolled her eyes and hugged him around the waist.
"Good afternoon," a cool new voice joined them. Gaara turned to see his sister, eyeing Sakura and Shikamaru with a calm predator's look. "Welcome back, Shikamaru."
Shikamaru detached himself from his pink haired friend, probably already knowing what was going through Temari's head.
"Yo," he said in lazy acknowledgment, moving towards her. He leaned down, since she was a few inches shorter than him, and pecked her on the lips.
Sakura's jaw dropped.
"Whoa, Shikamaru," Naruto said, astonished. "When you said you had a long distance relationship...geeze, couldn't you have told us?"
"You never asked," he shrugged, slouching beside his girlfriend, who was now sizing up Sakura, apparently trying to figure out what to make of her.
Gaara's brow creased, and he moved a fraction of an inch closer to Sakura, who was conversing happily with Naruto. He had seen that look on Temari before, and it always resulted badly. Many a-female had suffered at Temari's hands.
She was possessive.
And seeing as she had walked in with Shikamaru touching Sakura, even if it was a light sign of friendship, it was a bad sign for the pink haired girl.
"Haruno," he said quietly, moving closer. "You should – "
"Hey," Temari interrupted, walking up to them. "Let's go train:
"Me?" Sakura blinked.
Temari gave her a sour look. "Who else?"
"...all right," if Sakura was surprised she didn't show it. Gaara's brow creased.
"Did I miss something?" Naruto asked blankly. Shikamaru sighed and steered Naruto to follow the two girls. Gaara silently trailed after them.
Temari led the four of them out to a section of the desert bordering Suna. Sakura, after glancing around at her surroundings, shrugged and then moved into a pushup position.
"No," Temari told her, sapphire eyes flashing. "I want to fight."
--
Sakura slowly stood up from the ground, already knowing what a bad match up Temari was for her. Sakura specialized in close-range combat. Temari rendered that tactic useless.
She was not stupid. Temari was jealous or feeling threatened or both, and an emotionally unbalanced Temari was a force to be reckoned with.
Sakura didn't have any good ninjutsu up her sleeve. Her inhuman strength also wasn't any help in the sandy environment, unless she wanted to directly hit and kill Temari.
And she didn't hate her quite that much. Yet.
But...as far as she knew, Temari didn't have much experience in hand-to-hand combat. And hadn't she been training in taijutsu with a sannin for the past three years? Not only that, but she had a good arsenal of medical jutsus, had defeated a member of the Akatsuki, and had an array of genjutsu to fall back on.
Though, seeing as she had never tried any of these genjutsu in real life and had only read about them, she would rather avoid trying them out.
She didn't stop to ask herself why she was so carefully considering everything. She knew. This woman had treated her like trash ever since she'd arrived. Sakura wanted to win.
And I will.
Hell yeah!
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