Today was the day, the day that he would don the robes of the Kazekage.
It had been a long time coming, and Gaara had worked hard for this moment. Becoming more social, understanding, patient, and wise. He had learned many lessons, taken on many missions, and studied about politics and economics. He was ready, and he was physically prepared for the task at hand.
However, a massive ceremony with a festival afterwards was a bit much, and he didn't know if he had enough mental strength to socialize that much. He'd have to use Temari or Kankuro as distractions.
The ceremony happened without much of a fuss, he had been handed the name by his original team leader, which was a sweet moment. After hearing the roaring cheers and hollers from his people he felt a little bit overwhelmed, yet he still managed to slip out a small smile as he accepted his new title.
He gave a speech, told his people of the few ideas he had been tinkering with, paid homage to the previous Kazekage (with kind words no less), and gave a small moment of silence for the departed. After all of that work the festival was in full swing, and the sun had started to set.
Right now he was traveling through the halls of the main building with his brother, Kankuro; his robes swishing as he walked on the sandstone floors. He turned a corner to find a couple arguing, and found it odd that one of them was wearing a green flak jacket-
"I already told you, I have no desire to go greet him!" The familiar bell like voice tinkled in his ears, making his heart clench.
"It is your duty! You are here on Tsunade's behalf! I don't care what kind of falling out you two had, you can't insult the new Kazekage just because you have a past with him!" Another voice, it was clearly Shikamaru.
"You go greet him! I never agreed to this! Sakura pushed passed Shikamaru, wearing a lovely jade chinese silk dress that showed off her matured form. She slammed into the redhead without realizing he was not even a foot behind them. "Oh! I'm so sorry sir, I didn't mean-"
"Hello, Sakura." As much as it hurt to see her, he had also missed her as well, and he couldn't help the small smile forming on his lips. She instantly paled, and gaped as she took a step back.
"Lord Kazekage." The kunoichi bowed respectfully, and it stung a little bit to know that she was trying to put that wall between them.
"How are you? It's been a while." Gaara remained warm, and gentle with his speech. She seemed to relax slightly, which was a success on his part.
"I'm well, thank you, and yes it has been a while since we last talked." Right then was when he noticed the biting tone in her voice, and it made him frown slightly.
It was best if he made a quick exit, rather than upset her further.
"I... would like it if we could catch up later, but right now I have matters to attend to. Please excuse me." He gave a slight bow in her direction before taking his leave, out of the corner of his eye he could see her shocked expression, and he wondered what it was that he said or did that would have caused that.
"Gaara." She called out to him, and he turned just enough to see her clearly. She seemed to be blushing slightly, although it looked rather frustrated. "Congratulations on becoming Kazekage, we hope your ties with the leaf village will only get stronger."
Sakura smiled, and it seemed half forced and yet also genuine. She truly had mixed feelings on the matter, but he smiled at her regardless.
"I wish for that as well, I have many friends in the leaf, and I care about them all very dearly." With another nod he was off to introduce himself to the other village's representatives. He could only hope that he just won points with her.
- ... - ... -
"Gaara-sensei!" Matsuri waved at him from across the large ballroom, like everything else it was made of sandstone; only there was gold streaks in the sand... he could only wonder if that was his father's handiwork.
Gaara waved back at his former student, watching her skip giddily in a red tea-lenth dress across the dance floor.
So far it had been good, and he had impressed more than a few representatives. They all seemed eager to do dealings with him, which was interesting since the sand village had never been desirable in the past.
"Gaara-sensei! Are you having a good evening?" Matsuri smiled big as she greeted him, and he nodded to her in response.
"It has gone better than I initially thought." At his admission she seemed to brighten much more than before.
"I'm so glad, Gaara-sensei! I don't think I saw you dancing at all tonight, and I feel like no one asking you would be a tall tale, seeing as you have a sizeable fan club." The student looked behind herself to prove her point. The second his eyes rose up to a group of girls he noticed that they immediately squealed or giggled. It was awkward, but he was still flattered.
"Ah, I've had a few people ask, but I am not a dancer. I've never done it, and I probably never will-"
"That has to be the saddest thing I have ever heard." A bell like voice chimed behind him, and he recognized it immediately. "How about you actually try learning tonight instead of becoming Suna's favorite wallflower."
"Is that your way of asking me to dance Sakura?" The redhead eyed her carefully from under his hat, and was almost soothed by her playful behavior as she circled around him.
"Well, its unbecoming of any kage not to dance at their inauguration. Dancing shows confidence, leadership, as well as finesse. If you can't move your own body successfully than how on earth can you control your village?" The clever kunoichi smiled genuinely this time, and it made his heart swell to the point that he would do just about anything she wanted. "So, what's the verdict? Shall we dance, or shall we just sit here like a couple of flowers? All pretty, and fragile-"
"Alright, I'll do it." Gaara replied instantly, shocking the two women.
"Eh?! You didn't even think on it!" Sakura blanched slightly. Most likely she was trying to tease him, or back him into some sort of corner, but in all honesty he would do anything just to get close to her again.
His hand went for hers to tug her out to the dance floor, however he noticed more than a few women beginning to glare.
Matsuri included.
"Gaara, I was joking with you-"
"Well, you made very good points, and what would be better than to dance with the representative of the leaf village?" The redhead took a jab at politics, and she withered.
"Oh, so your all business and no pleasure now? Heh, that's a weird change." Sakura scoffed, but quickly flustered as he took her one hand in his, while his other placed around her waist. "Hey now, that's a bit intimate-!"
"Well, I've only ever watched so I'm sorry if my handling is lackluster." His hand slid more to her hip to give them more space, but she was still in a weird state of mind over it. He took a step to the right, then back, then to the left, and then front. Dancing in the box formation that he had seen many times, yet it surprised her that he knew such things.
"You liar, you have danced before-!"
"Honestly, I haven't. I've only ever observed, but I watched those dancers very carefully." Gaara gave her a warm smile, but then grew suspicious of her devilish expression. "What's that face for?"
"Oh, I'm just wondering what kind of dancers you're actually talking about. Seeing as you seem to focus on 'darker' things-"
"I'm not following." He honestly was lost on this one, what kind of 'dark' dances could there be? A dance of death perhaps?
"Oh, shame on me then, I thought for sure that you've must have gone to one of those sleazy nightclubs, what with your sketchy past and all." Sakura looked positively smug, and it took him a minute to understand what she was talking about.
A sleazy night club, with dancers that you watch specifically. A strip club. As much as he felt flustered over such an accusation he surprisingly kept his cool.
"Nope, never been. Only woman I've seen naked is you-"
"Gaara! Stop saying that out loud, I ought to punch you for that! You're going to give me a bad name." The kunoichi looked off to the side to avoid his gaze, and he had to say that she had matured once again. She looked more beautiful every time he saw her. The room started to blur with how they were dancing, but she remained so crystal clear.
"How about you start feeling complimented by that instead of insulted." The redhead began, and she instantly soured.
"You bringing up a horrible memory should be a compliment? Why?" Her brows furrowed as she huffed, and while he didn't like to see her angry she still seemed to look so cute.
"Because, it means that no other woman has held my interest as much as you have." Gaara narrowed his eyes knowingly, and that blush he loved so much returned to her cheeks with interest.
"Yes, well... thank you, I guess.." Sakura stumbled on her words, and grew more flustered by the second. He could just kiss those pouting lips...
'Control yourself or she'll bolt. Prove to her that you have tamed your urges.'
His eyes flicked from her lips to her eyes repeatedly, but as the song ended he cleared his throat awkwardly before pulling away from her. Surprisingly she clung to him somewhat, and grew even more embarassed when her body didn't want to let go. Finally she moved away from him, and brushed some of her hair back behind her ear.
"Thank you for dancing with me..." The kunoichi bowed sweetly for him, and he returned it as well.
"Hopefully we can get another dance in sometime tonight, I have to admit that dancing with you was my favorite part so far." The redhead grinned almost ear to ear, and once again she fell back into a bashful step.
"Since when did you pick up sweet talking?" Sakura gave a small coy smile.
"Gaara-sensei!" Matsuri pranced over to him excitedly, completely ignoring that Sakura was even there. "Will you dance with me? Please?"
He looked to the leaf kunoichi, and she snickered at him. She obviously didn't care what he did, she just wanted to watch him suffer a bit.
That was fine, it's not like he did not like Matsuri, she just wasn't his type. She was... meaker. Almost mousey. It was cute, but not his style. However, he would dance with her just for the fact of friendliness.
"Certainly, Matsuri. As your friend, teacher, and now Kazekage I would be honored." He smiled down at her, and sure enough she was practically an excitable puppy in his arms.
He performed the same steps, only a bit faster as Matsuri was more enthusiastic. She chatted away over how wonderful the ceremony was, and complimented him on almost everything, from his hat down to the way that he walked. It was obvious that he had somehow stolen his student's heart, and he felt guilty that at some point he would have to injure it by telling her that he didn't like her that way.
As they turned about the room he noticed something odd, a group of girls had approached Sakura. They seemed to be having a heated discussion, and it looked like the whole group of girls were quite enraged at the leaf kunoichi. She said something that one of them, a sand shinobi, did not like.
That's when the unbelievable happened, one of them rammed Sakura in the stomach forcing her to crash into the punch table. The music stopped, people gawked at the commotion, and while Sakura was down another girl came in to hit her in the face. Only the girl was mistaken if she thought that the leaf kunoichi would fall for such tricks again. She was prepared, and grappled the girl with ease.
At that moment, Gaara immediately let go of Matsuri, and literally marched across the ballroom. People cleared the way for him the second they saw how angry he looked. Once he had finally made it to the table, Sakura had one of the girls in a choke hold while another came up behind her to attack with an unopened bottle of wine. He didn't even have to think for his sand to immediately protect the leaf kunoichi, and he felt a sense of pride when the bottle shattered against his sand shield rather than her skull.
The girls looked up in horror, the one with the bottle tried to run but he held her fast with his sand. Soon the sand had all of the girl's limbs held down, and he looked at each of their faces carefully.
"Ah, I know a few of you... others I don't... at any rate you'll be punished accordingly for attacking the representative of the leaf village-"
"Lord Kazekage, please have mercy! We don't want to die!" The girl who had initially attacked first started to sob, and for some reason it made Gaara want to laugh. Sakura was still just trying to breathe from the rage.
"No, I wont kill you, but you ladies will be spending the night in the dungeon, and are forever banned from any festivities involving myself. Obviously I happen to be the sore point here, so if you can't control yourselves then you will not be allowed to be around me. Is that clear?" Gaara scolded, almost like a stern father would, and all of the girls clamped up with tears stinging in their eyes. He felt a little bad, but there was no room for unnecessary drama in his home or work place. "Kankuro, I'll leave them to you."
"Yeah, I got ya." Kankuro sighed before grabbing one of the girls by the arm. "Let's go ladies, be thankful that he's not actually going to punish you more for making our ties with the leaf worse!"
The puppet master gave a wink at his brother while a few more girls broke out into hysterics. The whole group was escorted out, and suddenly the young Kazekage's whole focus was on Sakura.
"Are you hurt?" His expression dropped as she tried standing up, but her dress was soaked in water, punch, and she had a few pieces of glass sticking out here and there. They both cringed at the large shard sticking out of her thigh. "I'm going to take that as a yes-"
"Can you just... get me out of here please? There's too many eyes for me to just rip it out like I usually would. I'll make your guests sick." Sakura was being oddly considerate, but yet she seemed to look a bit guilty as well. Without a second thought, he picked her up into his arms to carry her out of the room. A few people gasped at this, however he couldn't really understand why. "Gaara! You can't just pick me up like that! It's too personal-!"
"Just be quiet, I really could care less at the moment." He quickly took his exit with her cradled in his arms, and he knew he was going to get berated for it later.
"Oh my god, if the shit hits the fan it's your fault. Do you realize how many rumours there are going to be now-?!"
"Like what?" Gaara asked as he walked through the darkened halls towards his own quarters, but she merely grimaced.
"That I'm sleeping with you for one!" Sakura winced then as her leg had twitched, and he moved his pace a bit faster.
"I don't see anything wrong with a rumour like that, you're a very beautiful kunoichi that is the apprentice to the hokage, I'm a young and powerful Kazekage. I'd say it's not a bad match." He smirked at that, almost having to hold back a laugh as she gawked at him.
"Do you realize that I could also be seen as swaying your emotions? Thus changing your thoughts for the betterment of my village?" As she spelled it out, he found he could sympathize with that. She was a threat because she was foreign, and that made him a little upset. He wanted nothing more than for his village, and many other villages to have peaceful relations.
"They didn't just choose me because I am strong, Sakura. If they had then I would have been Kazekage when my father died." As he got to his room, he opened it skillfully with one hand keeping her held securely against his chest for the barest of moments. She looked around the room cautiously as he went to put her down on the couch. "So to clarify further, I am not stupid, nor do my people believe I am stupid. I doubt they feel that I can be so easily swayed-"
"If I promised you a night with me, to where I would oblige to any desire you might have, would you grant me anything I wanted in return?" Sakura eyed him dangerously, and he felt his mouth go dry. That thought did hit him where it hurt for a moment, but he quickly shook it off.
'She's trying to trick you, and throw you off to prove a point. Don't bend to her will.'
"I think you'd be satisfied enough just being with me-" Gaara bit teasingly, and got an actual laugh out of her. He bent down to his knees inspect the glass on her legs.
"Wow! Aren't we a little too confident? Especially considering the fact that you're a virgin." The kunoichi teased mercilessly as always, and he wondered why they couldn't just have honest heart to hearts rather than competitive ones.
"You make it sound like you're not." The redhead pinched carefully at a shard of glass, and pulled it out as gently as he could so as not to rip the skin further. It would hurt more, but it was safer this way. She winced, but she didn't cry or groan, she was so much stronger now than when he last saw her.
"If I said that I wasn't, how pissed would you be?" At the mere mention of her sleeping with someone else the hairs on his body rose up. He felt a fire burning somewhere, and a possessiveness too. He had to control this feeling, and fast.
"It's not my place to say how I feel about it." Gaara answered carefully as he slowly pulled out a larger piece of glass just above her knee. It was deeper than he had thought, so when blood started to pour rapidly from the open wound he did something rather stupid.
Like an animal, he put his mouth on it.
"Gaara!" Sakura shrieked before slapping the back of his head like he were some sort of dunce. He winced at the smarting sting on his scalp, but he quickly snatched her hand to place over the pulsing wound once he pulled his mouth away.
"Heal it quickly, I think the glass hit an artery." He turned away from her to stand, and thinking quickly he rushed to his standard ninja packs he wore for missions. Sure enough he had a first aid kit, and brought it over for her to wrap up whatever she couldn't heal. She was healing the gashes, but her expression was one of embarrassment. "Is something wrong?"
"Yeah... I just hit you for your weird attempt to stop me from bleeding out. Now I feel kind of bad." The kunoichi sighed as she finished up healing the gash, leaving only the largest piece sticking out of her opposite thigh. She furrowed her brow at it.
"Hey, it's fine if you hit me. As far as I'm concerned your trust in me was destroyed a long time ago, so it's understandable." The redhead made to soothe her, but her frown stayed as she stared hard at the piece of glass. "I'll pull it out, and this time you can put your hand over it to stop the bleeding."
"Okay. On three then. One. Two. Threeeeeagh-!" Sakura groaned painfully that time, and unlike the others this one seemed to be in a very bad spot close to her inner thigh. It was deep, and it was pouring red all over her dress as well as the couch.
A main artery for sure, this was more precarious then he had thought.
As the shard came out he noticed that it had originally cracked in half lengthwise upon entry into her skin. Another long shard was still inside, and she would be in a lot more trouble if he didn't get it out.
"It cracked in your skin, there's half remaining-" He pulled with his fingers, and it slipped. It had gotten to a point where he literally had to rip it out by cutting his own hand, his sand beginning to swirl around the surprising wound. She was breathing hard, and she didn't look very well. He placed her hand over the wound, and she attempted to heal it, but it was taking longer than expected.
They should have done that one first... she was quickly running out of energy due to blood loss. Suddenly she started to tip over, and her hand slipped off her thigh leaving it open to bleed.
"Damnit!" He placed his mouth over the wound, and searched for the sash to his robes on his person. Once found, he went above the wound and tied the sash around it very tightly before wrapping it around the wound itself. With more gauze, and bandages he continued to wrap tightly at the wound. "Sakura, hey!"
Gaara tapped her cheek a few times, and she stirred slightly. He searched through his med kit to find something of nourishment to help bring her blood sugar up. He found a one of the military ration pills he had in his pack, he bit it in half, and popped the rest into her mouth.
"Chew it... please chew..." When she wouldn't move he decided to do it for her. Plucking it out of her mouth and placing it into his own, he chewed up the pill before forcing it back in with his own tongue. It was awkward, and a bit gross, but she needed to eat it quickly less she actually get permanent damage. God forbid he go to the medics with her, a rising star medical ninja, completely bloodied in his arms. She was beginning to become unresponsive, so he gave her a harder slap to wake her up. When she jolted he almost shouted. "Swallow it!"
Sakura did so, and coughed. She kept gulping back the drying ration, but it was at least in her system. Any second now she would be waking up with a great deal of adrenaline-
Something clocked him hard in the face, and he realized it to be her fist. His sand armor came to his aid, but cracked painfully under the blow. He shook it off, as he heard her gasping violently before a harsh growl escaped her.
"Sakura, heal your leg. It's still bleeding." The redhead reminded her, and she nodded quickly while placing her glowing hands on the wound.
This had turned into such a mess when he was just trying to take care of her. Why was it that whenever he tried to be better with her everything just seemed to go completely wrong?
"It's okay now... it's okay..." The kunoichi panted before laying back on the couch. The smell of her blood was thick, and it was beginning to break down all sorts of walls he had taken forever to build.
'No no no! NOT NOW!' He inwardly screamed at himself while grabbing at his skull. The sweet stench of metal invaded his senses setting off his blood lust, and he felt his mouth begin to water mixing with the left over tang of her blood in his mouth.
"Gaara, it's okay. I'm fine now-" Sakura reached out to touch him, but he flinched away from her almost fearfully. "Hey... what's wrong?"
His breathing grew heavy, and his palms grew sweaty. He just wanted another taste, just one bite... just one bite...
"You need to leave." Gaara stared at the blood on the floor, and wondered if he could lick the red drenched carpet.
"Why? We just fixed it, it's going to be okay-"
"No it's not. You need to leave before I end up hurting you more." He literally bit his tongue after saying something so stupid, but she didn't seem to freak out. In fact, she merely sighed.
"Go wash all the blood off, and I'll get this place cleaned up." The kunoichi spoke with the utmost care, and he felt instantly soothed. "When the blood is gone I'll let you know. Until then just relax in a nice hot bath."
How did she know that it was her blood that was setting him off? Was he so obvious?
The teen's head was spinning, and all he could do was listen to every step she ordered him to do.
It was funny, a foreign ninja telling the Kazekage to go take a bath; funny enough to make him give a slightly crazed laugh while he rinsed the crusted red from his porcelain skin.
AN: sorry for the delay, life called me up lol. Review please, I love your guys' thoughts!