Principle of Nature
Chapter 3
Of Teammates, Death Threats and Unexpected News
A/N: Right, so I would like to note that, while this is officially an InoxGaara story... it's actually an InoGaa/ItaSak story. Just... y'know... so you know. I'm incapable of writing a story containing ItaSak without writing in the ItaSak.
Posted: 10/26/12
xXx
Yo Gaara!
Well, I made a decision and have separated the two for the foreseeable future. Actually, both were going to be traveling to Suna for the exchange, however I have replaced my male shinobi. Only the kunoichi is coming, to offer her medical expertise. And before you ask, no, I'm not talking about Sakura and Itachi. I don't have a death wish. Well, you'll meet her about a day after you get this letter anyway.
I have assigned a trusted nin to her team to keep an eye on her and see how she does, so you don't need to worry about having someone do so for me. Obviously. I have also sent a man with experience in fuuinjutsu, and though he isn't nearly as good at it as Ero Sennin, he has spent considerable time studying under my old teacher, so he's more practiced than I am.
I hope this letter finds you and your siblings well. Tell your brother I said hi, and your sister that the cookies were wonderful. Thank her for the recipe.
One more thing... my birthday's next month! Send me something, you stingy bastard.
-Naruto
Rolling his eyes, Gaara jotted down a note to get Naruto a specialized kunai or something. It was easier than listening to the idiot whining.
xXx
"Sometimes I wonder if you are actually a genius, or just an idiot," Naruto said, staring at his nin in exasperation.
One Uchiha Itachi actually looked offended for about two seconds, before the expression was swallowed by his usual show of apathy. "Sometimes, Hokage-sama, I wonder much the same thing."
Naruto smirked, amused rather than annoyed by the spitefully dropped title. "So she kicked you out again, eh? I thought you guys made up earlier this week?"
"Yes." That was it.
Snickering softly, the blond sat back in his chair, rather enjoying the fact that Sakura was taking out her displeasure with the forced vacation on Itachi. "And? What do you expect me to do about it?"
There was a long moment in which Uchiha said nothing, instead staring at Naruto blankly. Then he sighed. "Make her take me back."
A few birds were scared off by the force of the Hokage's laughter.
xXx
"So... why do I have to be here, again?" Shikamaru asked.
"Because my fiance's a dick and he's not allowed into the house."
The Nara frowned at the kunoichi bustling about the kitchen as she prepared dinner. "Let me rephrase. Why do I have to be here?"*
Sakura rolled her eyes and scowled at him. "That's not rephrasing, Shikamaru, that's re-emphasizing."
"Whatever."
She huffed and moved the pot off the stove for its contents to cool, before darting over to the microwave when it chimed. "I just... wanted company, and you get free, no-effort food out of it, so why are you even complaining?"
Shikamaru shifted, frowning. "I don't know. Just seems like a lot of effort to me."
The woman pointed a wooden spoon at him. "You know who's troublesome?" she demanded, but didn't wait for an answer. "You are. You are troublesome, Nara Shikamaru. Stop complaining and drink your tea!"
He lifted both hands in surrender. "Alright, alright." He waited a few minutes for her to chill out before asking the next question, just because he had to know. "Are you forcing me to be here because Ino's gone?"
She pouted as she started to set the food down on the table. "What? I can't believe you'd think of me that way, Shikamaru!"
"So yes," he replied with a sigh.
Frowning, she set down the last dish and then propped her hands on her hips. "Do you want the dinner, or no?"
Shikamaru eyed her for a beat, then nodded. "Yeah. Sure." Sakura was a decent cook (though she had nothing on Ino's mother), and he was here anyway, so he may as well. Though that was crappy reasoning to begin with; he'd probably stay even if it was horrible.
Of course, he was not at all surprised when, ten minutes later, Sakura heaved a sigh. And then said nothing. Even so, he could feel her focus directed at him, and finally spoke up. "Something on your mind?" Giving in was less of a pain.
The female just shrugged. "I'm... I had this fight, with Itachi..."
So that's what she wants, Shikamaru thought in dismay. She wanted an ear. Gods, is there no escape? Choji, man, where are you when I need a cop-out!?
Meanwhile, Sakura continued uninterrupted. "It's his fault, you know! Everything is solely his fault. He's like one big..." She gestured inarticulately for a moment before huffing. "Trouble magnet! Bad luck, all over the place!"
And I'm the one that's troublesome?!
"And now I can't even break up with him, 'cause I'm stuck with his friggin' kid!" Sakura wailed, and dropped her head onto the table.
Blink blink. "Wait... you're pregnant?" the Nara asked, eyes wide. She made a noise that may or may not have been an affirmative, but he took it as one anyway. "With... Itachi's kid?" The same noise repeated, and Shikamaru started trying to figure out an escape. Was Itachi watching him right now? What if he'd messed up? He'd get knifed in his sleep for sure!
"Don't worry, Shikamaru," Sakura deadpanned, now glaring at him. "Itachi's nowhere near here."
A part of him hesitantly relaxed, but he still frowned suspiciously at her. "How do you know?"
She groaned and dropped her head back onto the table. "Would you stop pitching a fit and just listen? I don't even want advice! I just want an ear."
So she admits it, he thought, somewhat victoriously. "Fine, but make sure your fiance doesn't kill me in my sleep for breathing the same air as you."
Sakura sat up again, holding up her fist, and then one finger. "One, I would not let him. He would die if he even thought about it. Don't give me that 'I doubt it' look; Itachi would let me at least beat on him because I'm pregnant with his kid." She held up the second finger. "Two, Itachi doesn't go around killing people that talk to me. He's not crazy." A third went up. "Three, he won't kill you for breathing the same air as me. He'd kill you for coughing in that air."
"You just contradicted yourself," he pointed out nervously.
"Grrr! FINE! GET OUT!" she yelled.
Shikamaru ran like the hounds of hell were on his heels.
xXx
"... legs hurt, feet hurt, eyes hurt- why does the sun have to reflect off of all the fucking sand? Can you believe that? It's reflecting the sun! I'm going to get sunburn before we reach Suna. I swear it! And then I'll look like-"
Kotetsu had already tuned the complaining blonde out, and beside him, Kakashi's nose was firmly buried in his book. "Do you read the same one over and over?" he asked softly, careful not to alert Ino to the fact that he was deliberately ignoring her.
"Hm?" Kakashi didn't lift his gaze as he turned the page.
"Your book," the team captain clarified.
A noncommittal hum was the only answer, so Kotetsu just gave up. Instead he glanced over at the other male in their party whom, he noted with no little amount of irritation, didn't even appear to be sweating. In fact, Sai was just ambling along, nodding whenever Ino looked at him, and smiling his usual fake smile. It was like the sun had no effect on him whatsoever, which kind of pissed Kotetsu off a bit.
He turned his gaze back to Ino, sighing as he let the complaining wash over him again. Did she never run out of breath?
"-can't believe we're just walking. Can't we like run or something? Jeez, I don't even understand this- and how the hell do Suna natives stand it!? I HATE IT!"
xXx
It wasn't the sun that woke Sakura, seeping through her window to wake her with all the gentleness it could. Nor was it her lover and fiance, dipping the bed with his weight as he sat and offered a steaming mug of coffee. No, Haruno Sakura was not awoken by either of these things.
Instead, it was to a familiar face, stretched in a wide grin. The only reason Sakura didn't pitch him through a wall was because this was her house. Still... "NA-RU-TOOOOO!"
She at least beat him up.
Twenty minutes later, he was nursing a black eye (that, she noted with irritation, was already healing), and she was nursing a cup of coffee. "So? What the hell do you need to wake me up for?" she demanded.
"Can't I want to visit my best friend?" he asked innocently, and grinned when she leveled a flat look on him. "Alright, alright, you caught me. I'm here on, and I quote, a 'mission of love'. Lee popped up in my room this morning, bitching at me for allowing yours and Itachi's 'youthful enchantment' to 'wither like roses in the winter'." He shrugged helplessly.
The kunoichi scowled at him. "Do you make a habit of letting your nin push you around, Naruto?"
"When they start singing love sonnets? Yeah," he deadpanned, and picked up his own mug of coffee.
Sakura was silent for a moment as she tried to block the mental theatre. "Uhg. Okay. Fine. Whatever." She shook her head. "But I'm not letting him back in the house."
Her former teammate sighed. "At least tell me why you keep kicking him out? It was his place first, you know."
"He has seven acres of land, complete with houses, to pick from. He'll live," she retorted.
"Sakura."
She huffed, annoyed by the instant inner jerk that came as a conditional response to Naruto's recently developed "Hokage" voice. "He got me pregnant! What do you want?" she demanded. "It's not like being kicked out will make him a less efficient nin, so you can't be here because of that."
The blond shrugged, propping his jaw on an open palm. "Well, no. But his moral is low. And while I know he can work just the same as always in that state, I don't want him to have to." His brows furrowed. "Is being pregnant with his kid really bothering you that much?"
"No!" she protested immediately, sitting up straight. "Of course not! I love him, and I... I love the fact that we're going to have a family together..."
"But?"
She shook her head and slouched again. "No buts. It's not the fact that I'm pregnant that annoys me. I guess... it's a combination of 'I can't go on missions', and 'Itachi is an overbearing sunovabitch'."
Naruto blinked at that. "Overbearing?" he echoed, surprised. "What do you mean?"
"I mean," she growled, "That he stalks me like some sort of obsessed freak whenever he's not on a mission! I'm at the hospital, oh my god, there he is. I'm going shopping, he shadows my every move. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, BREAKABLE!"
He flailed a little, waving his arms as if that would fend her off. "Okay, okay, I believe you! Have you told him to give you space?"
She slammed her fist onto the table, baring her teeth furiously. "Yes! So he stopped revealing himself. But I know he's there!"
"How?"
"The hospital has video cameras," Sakura snarled.
Her former teammate laughed nervously under the force of her glower. "Oh, right... I'll... talk to him?"
Even though it had come out like a question, the offer seemed to calm her a bit. "Yes. Thank you."
"And you'll let him be here in exchange?" he prodded.
"Only if he actually stops stalking me," she replied, scowling.
Naruto heaved a relieved sigh. "Great. Good. Thank you." There was a brief pause before he cleared his throat and spoke up again. "Also, do you know why Shikamaru's been requesting missions? He won't tell me."
Sakura's head met the table as she groaned in exasperation. I hate being awake.
xXx
"Uh, Gaara?"
The redhead looked up to find his older brother peeking inside his office. "What is it?"
Kankuro opened the door wider, half stepping into the room. "The team from Konoha has arrived. They're waiting in the lobby. You want me to send them up?"
Gaara frowned and glanced down at his papers. "Give me five minutes, then send them."
"Alright," the puppeteer agreed, and ducked back out. He hurried back through the Kazekage dome and down three sets of stairs before reaching the wide front room. There, a four-man team in Konoha garb (some of it rather impractical, really) and nin gear waited with a secretary.
The tallest of the group, a familiar silver-haired jonin, was cheerfully chatting with the civilian woman, the corners of his sole visible eye creased in a smile. He didn't turn immediately as Kankuro approached, though the other three did. A black haired man with a cloth wrapped over the bridge of his nose stepped forward. "Ah, Kankuro-san, correct?"
The puppeteer stopped several feet away as Kakashi finally turned toward him. "Yes, that's me. Welcome to Suna," he greeted with a wide smile.
The man nodded. "I am Hagane Kotetsu, the leader of this team. I believe you know my teammates, Ino, Kakashi and Sai? Thank you for meeting us."
With the official introductions out of the way, Ino grinned and waved. "Hello, Kankuro-san! Have you been doing well?"
He smiled back. "Yup! Pretty much. Kazekage-sama will see you now," he said, judging that enough time had passed between him leaving the office and now. Or at least it would have by the time they got up there.
The blonde was visibly relieved, and offered another warm smile, though it was actually 'Kotetsu' that answered. "Good. We have much to discuss before the day is through."
For the next hour and a half, Gaara and Kotetsu had negotiated a long list of techniques that would be exchanged over the two months that his team would be in Suna. When they had finally finished Ino was dead tired, hungry and more than a little grumpy. Sai looked as unphased as always, Kotetsu seemed a bit tired, but satisfied and...
Is Kakashi-san asleep on his feet?
As if in answer, the Hatake opened his visible eye and looked back at her with a smile. She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Kotetsu when their captain and the Kazekage stood. "Kankuro will escort you to where you will be staying, and you will all meet your official escorts in the morning," Gaara said, gaze sweeping over the rest of the team.
Ino mercilessly quashed a butterfly or seven in her stomach, and offered him a convincingly tired smile. It helped that she was actually exhausted.
"Dismissed."
The team filed out after Kankuro, but Ino glanced back to find that the Kazekage was sitting down. She paused, and he looked up. "Yes? What is it, Yamanaka-san?"
It was like she couldn't help herself, because she was smiling at him again. "Goodnight, Kazekage-sama," she said softly, and closed the door behind her.
Gaara blinked at the reinforced wood, surprised. There was something odd about her voice when she'd said that... What is it? But then he shook his head and started writing a response to Naruto. The blond was likely anxious to hear back from him, anyway.
xXx
Yes, it's a short chapter, I'm sorry! But it's because the scene I originally had at the end of this chapter was so long it exceeded my expectations for length, and breaking it wasn't really an option. So you'll get it next week! Maybe.
*for a funnier use of this phrase, check out Kage no Monogatari. XD
Anyway, to make up for the shortness of the chapter, here's an Omake.
xXx
"And you're sure?" Jiraiya asked, giving his companions a stern look.
Lee nodded slowly, standing at attention before him. "Yes, I'm certain."
Dark eyes shifted to the other male. "There's no doubt?"
The Hokage nodded grimly. "None."
"Very well then," the Sannin replied, with such an air of seriousness that it was difficult to believe whatever came of this would be good. He rolled up the scroll in his hands. "We must procure evidence immediately. Lee!"
The young man saluted automatically, just barely biting back, 'Hai, Gai-sensei!' "Your orders, Master!"
"Get a camera!" Jiraiya barked, satisfied when the youth took off. "Naruto!" The Hokage straightened. "Fetch Sai! We need photographic and painted evidence!" But mostly painted evidence, for his books.
"Yes!"
"Mission: Prove Hatake's Face is a go!" He would defeat the undefeated Face Hiding Champion!
(TBC)
Till next time! XD