CHAPTER FOUR
The feeling of extreme mortification when it seems like the only means of escape is the ground opening up and swallowing you up expeditiously, Sakura felt like that right now.
'wtf is this situation' she thought incredulously to herself, she was currently standing in front of the Kazekage in a t-shirt that was too far up her thighs and the Kazekage was right in front of her,this was not how she envisioned her official meeting with the Kazekage go, she didn't even know the dude lived here , shouldn't the Kazekage have a separate quarters ,then she recalled Temari's words
"We live here too" of course that included him, Sakura mentally slapped herself meanwhile she was so not in the right state of mind to meet Gaara. Her thoughts were cut off by Gaara clearing his throat , 'great now he probably thinks I'm stupid'-
She could make out his attire from the small moonlight seeping through the window, he was clad in his usual kazekage attire with his sand gourd at his back as usual, she wondered briefly if he carried it around everywhere with him, he'd gotten taller since she last saw him she noticed "or you just stopped growing"inner mocked
She looked then at his face and hoped he didn't notice her face now adorned a deep red flush that would make Hinata proud.
'sakura Haruno…" he started, it sounded like a question
She chuckled nervously "that's me haha…she paused …I'm really sorry to intrude in your living room like this, I was just really very thirsty"
The awkward silence was deafening, Sakura wished the floor was quick sand.
If he was aware that she was going through a mental panic he showed no sign of it, his face held no emotion as his dark rimmed eyes fixed on hers, which only served to unnerve her .
As a doctor she was used to maintaining eye contact, it made the patients comfortable and establishes some form of trust, sounds dumb but it kinda works, but now as his sea foam eyes fixed on hers, she couldn't for the life of her maintain eye contact , she averted her eyes quickly and looked at anywhere but his face which was by the way , wow, 'when did Gaara get that fine'
"He'd always been fine , you were too obsessed with sasuke kun to notice…shocker"inner deadpanned
she banished the thought as quickly as it came.Focus Sakurajust then Gaara started to say something
"…. the living arrangements are to your tastes , yes?"
"Thank you and yes of course, it's more than I expected"
"ahh"
Another awkard silence, she started to fiddle nervously with the bottom of her t-shirt, she thought of maybe excusing herself, ... even conversations with Sasuke were not this awkward and that's saying something, but then he started to say something again
"I'll take you to see the hospital tomorrow, will you be okay with that?" he inquired
No she wasn't okay with that ,she'd have preferred Temari to do the tour or even Kankuro. She wasn't looking forward to more hours with Gaara, he made her nervous. She groaned inwardly but on the outside she looked in his face smiling sweetly as she responded "Of course , that's what I'm here for"
"We'll meet at my office by 10am then, I'll send-"
"I know the way" she cut quickly
There was a brief look of surprise on his face, it disappeared as quickly as it came
That came out louder than she wanted ,ughh
'sorry, I know the way to the kazekage's tower and I don't need an escort" she added more softly this time
"I see" …. "I'll excuse you then…goodnight" he nodded politely before turning and heading to the stairs
Sakura let out a breathe she didn't know she was holding before also heading to the stairs , she took the first step and then she became aware that Gaara was climbing the stairs too 'his room just had to be upstairs too' she really needed to scream ,she wondered why she had such shitty luck before resigning to her fate and following the red head , he looked back at her with a quizzical expression , she stared back at him confused till it suddenly hit her that he was wondering why she was following him , she giggled in realization before replying
"My room is upstairs"… "guess we're floormates" she added trying to lighten the atmosphere, he seemed to smile a little before turning and proceeding up the stairs, she managed to find her room door In the darkness, the dim light from her room allowed her to see Gaara walk further before stopping in front of another door, she quickly entered her room and closed the door before he caught her staring, he probably already did anyways.
She looked at her bed, she definitely couldn't sleep now, the previous events now left her very awake and energetic, she glanced at the gigantic scroll she had come with, she had been planning on unpacking the next day but with nothing to do and a lot of energy to spare she decided to just do it.
"might as well get it over with" she muttered to herself before stretching and getting to work.
Observing her finished work, she grinned feeling proud of herself , the wardrobe was filled to the brim , she'd definitely packed too much though , she yawned feeling very exhausted , she checked the time, If she slept now she'd get a good 4hrs of sleep and with that thought she turned off the light and plopped face down onto her bed into a very deep sleep.
Gaara sat on his window sill peering at the night sky deep in thought, it was too late for anyone to be on the streets but even if they were, they wouldn't see him through the genjutsu that made his window look empty even if he were seated there. Not a lot of things surprised him because quite frankly human beings were predictable but he had to admit the encounter downstairs had totally taken him by surprise, he had tried his best to hide his surprise having mastered the act of poker face, and then his siblings..… he had half a mind to probably kill them, he had a feeling they planned all of this, especially Temari, firstly, they had a guest quarters, he didn't mind that they brought her here instead of the guest quarters, but giving her the room on the same floor as his when they were about 4 empty rooms downstairs… but then he supposed he could be blamed for that, he briefly recalled the conversation with his sister earlier in the day;
"so Gaara where should we place the new guest when she arrives"
"anywhere you want"Gaara replied distractedly while writing down something
"Are you sure?"
He hated distractions "do I need to spell it out for you" he bit out through gritted teeth
"Okay then" Temari chipped , he would have caught the excitement in her eyes and voice if he wasn't so focused on what he was writing.
And then he had come home to see pink hair in his house and said pink hair bumping into him, Sakura Haruno… she was definitely interesting, the way she fidgeted under his gaze had amused him, she was also very easy to read, he could tell he made her very uncomfortable , maybe a bit nervous too , she couldn't look him in the eyes , maybe he was sick but he liked making her uncomfortable, it had been entertaining to watch her nervousness spiral.
"and her fucking sexy legs" shukaku added bluntly
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, he was used to shukaku's bluntness already so he rarely got surprised but yes he had to agree with less aggressiveness of-course unlike the Ichibi in him, her legs were definitely something, he was a warm blooded male after all, it would have been impossible to not notice her legs or her looks in general and he had admit she was alluring and with the combination of the moonlight hitting her face she looked ethereal. He smirked to himself as he jumped down from the windowsill, his sand catching him softly, he had a feeling the days ahead would be interesting.
Sakura stretched as her eyes fluttered open , she looked around confused for a few seconds before sitting up straight immediately and grabbed the small clock by the bed , seeing it read 9:10am, 'shit, shit, shit" she muttered as she threw herself from the bed , she had exactly 30 minutes to get ready so she jumped into the connecting bathroom and took the world's fastest shower, 25 minutes later , she was ready, outfit and all. She dressed in her daily ninja outfit , pink tank top slit at both sides and tight black shorts that stopped mid-thigh(just imagine outfit from the last), she didn't have time to do anything stylish with her hair so she just did a middle part and tied it low at the back , satisfied with her look , she dashed through the doors .
She was lost, it was hard to accept it but she was lost she couldn't believe after yapping about how she knew the way to the tower she ended up getting lost , this was so not her day, well maybe if she knew the streets of Suna had been reformed and now looked like a frigging puzzle game... she sighed in aggravation, the villagers were giving her strange looks already not exactly bad looks mostly looks of curiosity, some seemed to recognize her and stared in awe, she was getting uncomfortable and agitated , she had what maybe 15minutes or less to get to the tower and she was lost , there were a lot of shops by the street so she decided to just suck it up and ask someone.
"The kazekage will see you shortly" a pretty girl with short brown hair, dark eyes and fair skin informed her, "his meeting still has about 5 minutes before it ends" she smiled apologetically at Sakura before stepping out from behind the desk and leading Sakura to what seemed like a waiting room.
"I'm Matsuri by the way...Gaara's assistant" she added smugly as she outstretched her hand for a hand shake , Sakura chalked the behaviour up to her being proud of her work, which in her opinion wasn't necessarily bad , she too was also proud of her job , Sakura smiled sweetly as she took the proffered limb in a handshake , "nice to meet you Matsuri" Matsuri probably already knew about her but it was polite to introduce yourself regardless, so she added "I'm Sakura haruno" Matsuri smiled although it didn't quite reach her eyes.
"I know that, I've heard a lot about you"
"ohh"
"ohh? Really that's all you can say...lame" inner deadpanned , Sakura ignored .
"I'll let you know when the meeting's over" Matsuri said before leaving the room.
Sakura sat down on one of the wooden padded chair which was incredibly soft and comfy. Were all furniture in Suna so incredibly soft and comfy?, all in all she was happy she made it time she didn't want Gaara to see her as unserious, she was very professional when it came to her job.
Her mind went back to the conversion between her and Matsuri, the conversation had been weird, she hoped that the girl didn't dislike her, it was still too early to making enemies, not that she planned on making enemies in the nearest future, she hoped her stay in Suna would be fun ,peaceful and productive. Her thoughts drifted to konoha, her friends, she already missed them ,Ino was probably waking up to some killer hangover right now , that girl had no chill ,and she could bet Naruto was eating ramen at ichiraku's , she'd have to remember to write to them regularly otherwise she'd never hear the end of it especially from Ino and Tsunade. She fiddled with the bracelet on her arms while still deep in thought, she had gotten it from an old woman who had shown her directions to the tower , coincidentally the woman owned a jewellery store and saw it fit to gift her a bracelet ,maybe she heard about her from somewhere , Sakura had initially refused but the woman insisted, she didn't want to seem rude so she accepted the gift, it fit her perfectly and she liked it.
"The kazekage will see you now" Matsuri's voice cut through her thoughts as she stood by the doorway
Sakura nodded as she stood up, allowing Matsuri to lead the way. She walked behind Matsuri, as they climbed the stairs she noticed the building had been largely reformed, it looked more refined , she was glad Matsuri was there to lead the way otherwise she'd get lost again and that would be embarrassing, she could see other ninjas going and coming , probably to receive a mission or report on a mission , kinda made her nostalgic .Suddenly Matsuri stopped and Sakura would have bumped into her if she hadn't been paying attention.
"I'll be stopping here, the office is just straight ahead" she pointed in the direction
Sakura nodded, "Thank you for your help, the building is way different from the last time i was here, i would have gotten lost for sure"
"Gaara asked me to" she replied flatly before turning and leaving
Okay that girl totally had something against her but she'd think about it later, she had bigger things to deal with.
Sakura took a deep breath as she prepared herself to knock on the huge oak door
"Stop acting like you're about to step into the devil's lair...kami...you're the haruno Sakura, since when did you become a wimp" inner admonished
Sakura smiled as she knocked confidently on the door
"Come in" she heard Gaara's deep voice blare
"And later you'll say i don't give good advice" inner added smugly
Sakura sighed as she turned the door knob ...this was going to be a long day.
A/N: it's been a while i updated but that's because my laptop decided to crash and i had to fix it but yey, new chapter and i made it a bit longer as compensation, hope y'all like it, I'm sorry for any grammatical error you see , it can be annoying i know.
