"Stay close to me," Gaara said as they inched their way along the second tunnel Sakura had just created. "The sands will shift around us and they might crush you. Stay close enough that my personal sand can protect you."

Sakura heeded his advice, already fearing the sand that was closing in behind them. There was still a circle of dim light above – their one path left to the surface and the fresh air. She punched another tunnel at Gaara's discretion, this time horizontally instead of vertically.

"Do you know where we're going?" Sakura asked. More sanded shifted behind them, falling quickly to cover them after being disrupted by Sakura's hit. Sakura lifted her hand to protect her head from the falling sand, but a steady shield materialized above her, taking any light from the moon with it.

"I can sense the chakra nearby," he said. "I think we are fairly close. Punch here," he said, feeling for her hand and grabbing it so he could press it to the sand in front of them.

Sakura was glad for the total darkness that encompassed them, hiding the hot blush on her cheeks. Sure, she had touched Gaara before, but rarely had he been the one to initiate physical contact. She understood the need for it now, of course, but that didn't stop the way her heart seemed to skip a beat.

She did as she was told, forcing another tunnel through the sand with her chakra. The sands continued to shift around them, but Gaara's steady sand shield held strong.

They continued like this for some time, with Gaara placing Sakura's hand where she needed to hit and then Sakura punching. She could feel her chakra level getting lower – and it hadn't been very high to begin with. She wanted to ask Gaara if they could stop and take a break. She needed to catch her breath and maybe drink some water.

But she didn't want Gaara to think less of her. She could manage if he was managing.

In fact, Gaara seemed to be faring quite well. She could hear his unlabored breathing, his huffs of amusement each time Sakura pounded into the sand. His palms, unlike hers, were completely dry and warm. Whatever hesitation he might have felt in touching her hand seemed all but gone now.

"You like being down here, don't you?" Sakura asked, her voice slightly breathless.

"I do," he said, his voice smooth and mellow. She could hear the grin on his face. "It's cozy, isn't it?"

"Cozy isn't the word I would use," Sakura said dryly.

She heard him laugh – felt it, really – a low rumble in his back, which was pressed against Sakura's chest now as they inched forward through the sand.

"Wish I had better company, though," he said. She could tell from the lightness in his tone that he was joking, but she flicked his ear nonetheless. She heard him grunt, unused to being struck so openly. He shifted away from her slightly and Sakura felt the sand in front of her press closer to her skin.

"Yes, Kazekage-sama, I'm sure it would suit you just fine to have one of those pretty girls from your fan club down here instead," she muttered.

He laughed again and Sakura was in no mood to admit that she delighted in the sound. He didn't contest her statement, though, so Sakura continued to press forward, waiting for Gaara to place her hand in the next spot.

They took a few steps more. Sakura tried not to enjoy the warmth of his body because even though she was starting to get cold now, that seemed like too improper a line to cross. Eventually, Gaara's hand came to rest on her elbow, warm and steady, though he simply held her instead of guiding her arm to its new destination.

"We're very close, Sakura," he said. She could feel his breath rustling her hair near her temple. She tried not to shiver, she really did. But the warmth of his breath sent a minute shudder down her spine. Gaara pretended not to notice, but he must have felt it with the way they were pressed together. "I'm going to place your hand in the next spot, but you'll need to be very careful. I don't want you to end up crushing whatever it is."

"Okay," she said, determined to keep her voice steady and not show how affected she was by his proximity. It was, as he would say, inappropriate.

His hand slid down the length of her forearm and latched on around her wrist. He lifted her hand up to the sand close to her face and held it there.

"There," he said, his voice still low.

Obediently, Sakura pulled back and punched the indicated spot, carefully this time, expelling her chakra precisely enough to cast away the sand in front of them, but gently enough that if something were hiding in that sand it would not be crushed.

Another low rumbling sound surrounded them. Sakura could feel the sands falling around them outside Gaara's sphere. Together, they inched forward some more until Sakura felt the smooth coldness of stone beneath her fingers.

"Gaara-sama," she murmured. "I think I've found something."

"What is it?" he asked, reaching to touch the stone as well. His fingers brushed over hers as he explored the smooth stone in front of them.

"Do you have a flashlight, Sakura?"

"In my pack," she said, reaching into her pack, which now hung off one shoulder. She procured a headlamp and passed it over her shoulder to Gaara. Gaara took the lamp and flicked the switch, casting cool white light into their little sand bubble.

Sakura squinted until her eyes adjusted to the light. The stone in front of her was illuminated now – the same reddish brown stone as Turtle Rock. It was still mostly obscured by sand, but Sakura could see that it was purposefully carved, smooth with squared edges. Near the bottom, where the sand was still covering it, Sakura could see something etched into the stone.

"Close your eyes," Gaara instructed.

Sakura squeezed her eyes shut as she felt more rumbling in the sand. She felt a whoosh of air around her as the sand shifted. She felt cold, suddenly, and very exposed. Gaara's heat disappeared from in front of her. Silence settled around them again, marred only by the occasional rustle of trickling sand.

"You can open them now."

She opened her eyes and stared at the stone in front of her. Gaara had lifted the sand around them, but she could see that had come at a great cost. His breathing was labored now, and there was a noticeable dip in his chakra signature. She glanced in his direction and noted the strain on his face before she turned her attention back to the stone.

It was definitely the source of the chakra signature – she could feel it humming as she pressed her palm to it.

"It's a monolith," she said, her curiosity piqued.

"What does it say at the bottom?" Gaara asked.

Sakura crouched down to the base of the monolith, trying not to think too hard about the fact that Gaara's attention and focus was the only thing currently keeping her from being crushed by an avalanche of sand.

The symbols on the monolith were peculiar, nothing like the letters she was familiar with. It was a large amount of text, though, and she didn't want to leave without at least capturing something. She shrugged her pack off into the sand and fished around inside for some parchment paper and a pencil.

"It's in some other language," Sakura answered. "I'm going to rub the letters onto this paper. Shikamaru is good at this kind of thing – he'll be able to tell us what it says."

Gaara hummed but said nothing while Sakura rubbed her pencil along the paper to capture the etched symbols from the stone. When she was finished, she rolled her parchment back up and tucked it back into her pack.

"What do you think is causing this weird chakra signature?" she asked once she had stood back up and was facing Gaara now. The light from his headlamp shone brightly in her direction. Gaara was cast in shadow somewhere behind the light, but she could see the red tinge of his hair and the ethereal glow of his eyes.

He didn't answer her right away, instead choosing to stare at her for a moment as she squinted in his direction.

"Fuck, that's bright," she hissed. "Could you point that somewhere else?"

He mumbled an apology and brushed past her to inspect the monolith for himself. He, too, crouched down beside the stone, running his fingers over the strange symbols.

"I've never seen any writing like this before," he said. The light from his lamp reflected against the stone back into his face. He looked like a ghost in the white light surrounded by darkness, by trickling sand. "And this chakra… it's so strange. How could stone be producing chakra?"

He was quiet for a long moment, hand still pressed against the stone. He shut his eyes as if trying to sense something. Sakura remained quiet for a while, allowing him to think or sense or whatever it was he was trying to do.

"Perhaps we'll learn that once we've decoded the message," she said when he had made no movement for several moments.

He looked up at her as if he just remembered she was there with him. "Yes," he said softly. "We should get out of here. You must be exhausted."

She didn't feel the need to tell him she had been prepared to make a three-day journey prior to their little excursion.

"Come here," he commanded. She was getting a little annoyed with all of his demands, but she complied anyway because he was the Kazekage. "Grab onto me," he said once she was standing directly in front of him.

"Excuse me?"

"Here," he said, lifting her arms and settling them around his neck. "Hold on."

Sakura felt her face, neck, and ears heat up in a furious blush. Being chest to chest was far more intimate than the way they had been before and Sakura felt cloying nervousness drenching her brain like a slick syrup. Gaara's hand settled on her lower back as his sand gathered around them, forming his sand sphere.

Without warning, she felt them get pushed forcefully upward. She shrieked and tightened her arms around Gaara, her cheek pressed against his as she clung to him for dear life.

Their upward momentum didn't last long. They hit a peak, high in the air, Sakura assumed, and well above the surface. And then they were falling, plummeting back down toward the dunes, still encased in Gaara's sand sphere.

She clung even tighter to him, hoping he would buffer the impact for them when they neared the ground.

But instead, they both crashed to the ground, though Gaara fared much better than Sakura as he landed on his feet, his sand shield disappearing and falling to join the sand on the ground around them. Sakura fell to her knees, gasping as she fought to regain her sense of balance.

Gaara's hands were on her, lifting her up by her arms. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Sorry, that's the first time I've ever done that with someone else inside my shield, and with my sand control not working properly—"

"I'm fine," she said, getting to her feet and dusting the sand from her skirt. She brought her hand to her forehead to brush away her hair and found her skin soaked in cold sweat. She grimaced as she brushed her sand caked hair away from her face.

"You're chakra signature is weak," Gaara said. She peered at him through her sandy pink strands. "You need to rest."

"Nice observation," she said dryly, glaring at him through her lashes. He didn't look like he was faring so good either.

"Come on," he said, stooping down in front of her so she could climb on his back.

Sakura shook her head vehemently. "No, absolutely not. I can make it back by myself, thanks."

Gaara shook his head, too. "Not a chance," he said. "I'm not leaving you out here alone. Do you really think I'd just leave without you?

"Without me?" she asked.

"I'm assuming you won't be able to keep up with me if I fly back on my sand," he said. "Should I just hover over you all the way back to the village?"

"Uhh," she mumbled, feeling rather stupid.

"Stubborn woman," he said, shaking his head with vaguely amused disapproval before grabbing her arm and yanking up her onto his sand disc.

Sakura yelped and steadied herself by bracing against his shoulder, glaring at him. But when he stooped down for her to climb onto his back, she didn't need any convincing to hoist herself up.

There was a welcome party waiting for them at the gates – Temari, Kankuro, and Shikamaru all standing at the base of the guard tower, each with a surly look on their face.

"Gaara, what were you thinking?" Temari demanded. "You could have been killed out there!"

"Yeah, we agreed you would wait until me and Hideki could go with you," Kankuro chimed in.

Gaara gave each of his siblings a dry look as he shrugged past them. "We never agreed to such a thing," he said. "I said I'd prefer to go alone so no one will get hurt."

Temari moved to block her brother's path. "Then why did you take Sakura?"

"I didn't take her," Gaara said, his calm tone betrayed by the fierce look in his eyes. "She found me."

Temari whirled on Sakura. "What were you doing out there?" Gaara's eyes shifted and focused on Sakura in that unnerving way they did.

"I was inside the village when I heard the beast," she said defensively.

"Where?" Temari asked.

"Near the guard tower."

Temari pursed her lips. Sakura glanced over to Shikamaru and Kankuro who were both pretending not to listen.

"So right here in this very spot?" Temari demanded.

Sakura craned her neck, looking up at the guard tower above. She could see the silhouettes of the two guards she had spoken with before. They both waved at her and she waved back.

"Yep. This spot."

Temari crossed her arms and sucked in a deep breath to continue the interrogation, but Gaara held up a hand to stop her.

"What were you doing out here, Sakura?"

"Oh, you know," she drawled. "I couldn't sleep. Just wanted to take a walk." Absolutely no one looked like they believed her.

"It doesn't matter," Gaara said before Temari could snap at her. "Sakura, give Shikamaru the parchment."

Obediently, Sakura reached into her pack and passed the parchment with the monolith's strange words over to her comrade. Shikamaru blinked with confusion as he unfurled the paper.

"Shikamaru, I need you to decode that when you have the time," Gaara instructed. "I understand you have other things to do while you're here so I will have my strategy team help you out. As I understand it, you are quite good with codes, right?"

Shikamaru twisted his lips as he inspected the foreign letters. "This doesn't look like a code, Kazekage-sama," he said. "It looks like some sort of ancient language. But, yeah, I think I can work with this."

"Good," Gaara replied. "Now all of you get to bed. It's late."

Sakura glanced up at the sky, which was now starting to brighten near the horizon. "Kazekage-sama," she said. "Perhaps you should head toward the medical wing and get an antidote for the poison. And in the morning you'll want to have your injuries looked at again—"

"What injuries?" Temari interrupted.

"—just to make sure they've healed properly."

Gaara waved a dismissive hand. "Yes, yes, I understand," he said to Sakura. And Temari, he turned and gave a wry look. "It's nothing," he said to her. "Sakura already took care of them."

"So you fought the beast?" Kankuro asked. "Did you kill it?"

"Sakura did," Gaara answered dryly.

"Sakura!" Kankuro exclaimed. "We needed that thing alive!"

"Hey, don't pin that on me, Gaara-sama," Sakura said, glaring at the Kazekage. "You were the one who nearly killed it – I just put it out of its misery."

Gaara gave a noncommittal shrug. "Again, it doesn't matter. It's dead and nothing can be done about it now," he said. "Now everyone go get some sleep."

No one dared argue with the Kazekage, whose eyes had steeled over and had the stern set to them of mother who'd just caught her son with his hand in a cookie jar. For once, those penetrating eyes were settled on someone other than Sakura – Temari, who had settled a glare of her own in Sakura's direction.

Sakura wasted no time in getting back to her room.

Sakura woke to frantic banging at her door. A meek voice called her name from the other side, though it was barely audible through the solid oak door. Groggily, Sakura got to her feet and found a robe to slip on over her undergarments. She hadn't fallen asleep until after the sun had risen, and gauging by the light pouring in from the window it must have been close to noon now.

"What is it?" Sakura demanded as she flung the door open.

She recognized the medic standing in her threshold – a young girl no older than fifteen or sixteen. She wore her white medic coat and her mousy hair was tied up neatly on top of her head.

"Gaara-sama is in the infirmary," she said, her tone much too manic.

"Is it an emergency?" Sakura demanded, feeling a bit of that manic creeping into her own tone. Had Gaara gone at got himself hurt again?

"He came in just a while ago to get his injuries from last night looked at," the medic explained. "My superior was taking care of him, but he is asking for you now."

Sakura narrowed her eyes because this was a game she had played before, though usually with Kakashi or Naruto, who both refused to be treated by anyone other than her unless it couldn't be helped.

"Fine," she said, pulling he robe tighter around her waist. "I'll be there in a second."

"Really, Kazekage-sama?"

Gaara looked up at her with unimpressed eyes. He was reclining back against a cot in the infirmary, his hands propping up his head. The medic who had fetched her, and a woman who Sakura assumed to be her superior, were standing beside his cot, fawning over him with chakra lit hands.

"Took you long enough," he said, shooing the medic and her boss away.

Sakura watched them scramble toward the door and give Sakura a wary look before pulling it closed behind them.

"Are they afraid of you or something?"

He sat up and gave her a glare, wincing in the process. Sakura was immediately at his side because there should be no reason for him to wince now – his injuries should not be painful at this point. She pressed her hand against his chest, surging her healing chakra into his system.

"I was not in the best of moods this morning," he admitted almost sheepishly. He pulled down the collar of his tunic, revealing a nasty burn that ran along his collarbone. "It seems I missed a spot of that beast's mucus."

Sakura hissed through her teeth as she surveyed the damage. It was not extensive, but Sakura had seen the mucus work before so she knew it was probably very painful.

"The medics were unsure of how to treat it," he explained. "But that's not surprising. I'm sure they've never seen this before. I imagine you're the only one who knows how this should be treated."

"Yes," Sakura agreed. "And here I was ready to be angry with you for dragging me out of bed. I can't rightly be mad at you now, can I?" She set to work healing the acid burns and reknitting the skin around his collarbone.

"You know Temari is usually the only woman who can get away with being openly angry with me," Gaara said with an amused tone as he watched her work.

"Oh?" Sakura asked, equal amusement in her own tone. "What happens to the other women who dare to get angry with you?"

"It hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure you'll be the first to know."

Sakura wanted to laugh, but she had a feeling he was serious so she settled for giving him an annoyed look instead.

"You're going to help me again today, Sakura."

"Yeah, I know, I'm doing it now."

He shook his head. "No, I mean with the monolith. We're going back today. I'm going to bring it up to the surface."

"What? Why me? Wouldn't it be more convenient to take some of your own shinobi? Ones more familiar with the desert?" she asked.

"I might need you to lift it."

Sakura eyed him warily as she finished healing the burn on his chest. She removed her hands and placed them in her lap, unsure of how to reject his proposal. The idea of going back out into the desert was deterring enough, but being cramped in close quarters with Gaara again was definitely not something Sakura wanted to subject herself to.

"Now that the beast is dead we can go during the day," he said. "If we bring it up to the surface, I can have the historians go take a look at it. Even if we are unable to understand the language, there must be significant value in a monolith hidden under the dunes, don't you think?"

"Of course, Kazekage-sama," she agreed. She didn't have any personal interest in the monolith and whatever ties it had to Suna's ancient history, but if the Kazekage asked this of her, then she would do it. "When do we leave?"

"Now. You're done healing me, right?"

"Now?" she asked incredulously. "But I just woke up! I'm hungry."

"Go get dressed, kunoichi," he said, letting his gaze fall to her t-shirt and shorts. "Grab something to eat and I'll meet you at the guard tower."

"Kunoichi?" she shrieked.

"Yes, kunoichi. I needed to remind myself that that is what you are," he said smugly.

"Trying to provoke that anger, are you?"

Gaara smiled, though if he hadn't been so amused it might have looked more like a smirk. Sakura leaned back away from him, wishing he wasn't so damn handsome or that he wasn't the Kazekage. She didn't like the way his eyes were locked onto her, holding her captive. If he had been anyone else she would have reached up and bonked him on the head.

"Of course not," he said through his grin. "That's no way to treat my esteemed guest."

Sakura barely managed to refrain from rolling her eyes.

Gaara was waiting for her at the guard tower when she arrived, wearing her proper shinobi gear and carrying a half eaten protein bar. She glanced up above her, shielding her eyes from the sun so she could peer into the guard tower. There was no one manning the rails.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Sakura asked. "Your siblings didn't seem to want you to go out there alone."

"I'm not alone, am I?"

"I think bringing me along only makes it worse."

Gaara's brow furrowed. "What makes you say that?"

"You saw how irritated Temari was when we got back," Sakura pointed out. "Especially with me."

"I don't think she was especially irritated with you."

"She was," Sakura said firmly, but she didn't want to delve into exactly how she knew that. Was Gaara aware that his sister thought something was going on between them?

"Well, she's not the Kazekage," he said, "Now hop on." He turned his back toward her and crouched down for her to jump onto his back. Sakura eyed him warily. There was something unnerving about touching Gaara, about being under his ultimate defense instead of outside it. It should have felt like a privilege, but for some reason it felt unsettling instead.

And it prompted Sakura to wonder just why she was receiving this preferential treatment. She couldn't think of a time where she had seen Temari or anyone else under Gaara's defense. And for him to request that she tag along when he had made it clear that she annoyed him… well, it raised some more questions.

Dutifully, Sakura climbed onto his back, doing her best to keep as much distance between her chest and his back as possible. She regretted the sharp intake of breath that escaped her when she felt his warm palms hook underneath her thighs.

"You alright?" he asked, turning his head slightly in her direction.

"I'm fine, Kazekage-sama. Let's go."