Sorry im re-posting this after a lil tweaking
AHA! Behold a new chapter! mwahahaha! lots of fluff...Gaara very oc? Or perhaps hes becoming this Gaar fella? or perhaps hes just more relaxed atm seeing as he doesnt have any kazey duties or a secret mission to kill most of Kanoha :P As always reviews rate remakably for writing
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The afternoon was spent trekking to the spot where Gaara had
slept and packing as many of the scented plants into the fresh jars as they
could. Sakura even dug up one of the plants to try and take with them.
She looked at the sky
"I'm going to have to go back to Kanoha with this haul, the
replacements won't be here for another month and I don't want the potency of
these to fade"
She pushed and sealed the last lid on, placing into the now
groaning backpack "I best head back to camp, then back to Kanoha…." She looked
at her feet "Would you come with me?" she asked quietly Gaara looked at her "why?" he said frowning "Why would you
want me to come with you?"
"I….I…..guess I just like your company" she said blushing
again
Gaara felt a tugging at the side of his lips and found
himself smiling.
They travelled for most of the day before Sakura called for halt. Gaara was impressed; she'd easily kept up with him, even demanding a foot race at one point.
Now camp was quiet, the only sounds those of the forest and of the crackling fire. If he focused he could hear her breathing, slow steady breaths, in and out. He was glad she was meditating, her eyes closed.
Her eyes slowly drifted open reflecting the fire. It danced lazily in her green eyes….Gaara blinked no, green is too simple a word for it He remembered as a child seeing some rich merchants visiting his father, one of them had worn a jewel that reminded him of Sakura's eyes, what was it
"Gaar-kun?" Sakura asked seeing him deep in thought
Emerald, that's what they look like….He realised she was talking to him "Hai?"
"I asked if your Kazehage minds you coming out here like this"
"I needed a break from work" he stated paperwork……
"What do you do?"
He frowned thinking how best to answer without lying – he did NOT enjoy lying "I, fill out paperwork"
Sakura cringed in sympathy "Oh I KNOW how much that sucks…..do you have any family?" she asked changing to topic
"A brother and sister" His tone suggested she ask nothing about parents or other relatives
She nodded "I guess they help with the business…"
"My sister mainly, she runs it when I feel like I have to get out of there, she picks up the slack, she always does" Gaara said surprised to find himself rambling
Emerald eyes reflected sadness momentarily "That must be hard for her, to never know where you are, and to never have a break herself" She looked upwards at the sky crossed by branches.
Gaara froze, he'd never thought about that, Temari never got time off; she was always covering him when he wanted to escape, making up lies for the elders, whilst Kankuro never did anything to help exactly, just did his missions and went home. It struck him that it was extremely unfair to his sister maybe I should try to be nicer to her……she's trying so hard to make everything up to me
Sakura stood suddenly "I'm going to head to sleep…."
"What about your family?" he asked wanting to know her
history
The way she stiffened showed she didn't want to answer that
question Kusso; I'd hoped to avoid it. "My
blood relatives are all dead" she said in a low voice "I have an almost
brother, Naruto, but he's on a long mission, and he can't talk to me, Goodnight
Gaar-san"
Now you've gone and
made her upset. He said inside his head Kusso
you should talk to her and apologise whoa
when did you care? The other voice stayed silent
He stood and made his way to the tent "Ano….Sakura-chan…..I
didn't mean to upset you…"
She pulled open the tent flap, "Gaar-san please, come in"
He ducked to enter and was surprised to see the tent was
easily big enough to fit in 3 people, so with just him and Sakura it was very
roomy. Some colourful blankets covered
the groundsheets and her camouflaged sleeping bag curled in one corned. There
was a pile of brightly coloured notebooks in a small pile beside some scrolls
and the full backpack. There was also next to each side of the tent a pot plate
on which rested a lantern making sure Sakura's shadow couldn't be seen by
anyone approaching the tent. Gaara was impressed by the whole set-up.
It must have shown on his face because Sakura suddenly spoke
"I don't carry it all with me, I have a jutsu that sends some things back to my
par….my house" she looked away then indicated a steaming tea pot "P, please
help yourself" she sounded forced. Is she
almost in tears?
He sat beside her "Sakura-chan….I did not mean to bring up a
subject that is obviously painful for you…." She sniffed, still not looking at
him. Frowning he tried to remember ANYTHING that would help in this situation,
he remembered his uncle trying to make him feel better when he was younger,
well before the whole you-caused-my-sisters-death-die-you-demon thing, he
always said the same phrase "Do you want to talk about it?" Gaara felt the
words leaving his mouth before he had time to stop himself.
Sakura shook her head "Ninjas do not show emotions on
missions" her voice was broken now
"Before enemies…..am I your enemy Sakura-chan?" he asked
gently
Sakura let out a quiet wail and wrapped her arms around him,
sobbing into his shoulder.
Gaara felt euphoric the feeling of Sakura's arms around him,
even the tears soaking through his robes was such a rare, no, unprecedented feeling he
almost yelped.
Instead
he opted for thinking what the hell do I do? His alter voice seemed
absent so he rubbed her back and stroked her hair soothingly, not sure if he
was helping or not.
Sakura
seemed to calm down, and scooted away from him "Gomen….I didn't mean to cry all
over you" She said eyes red and still watery. She quickly wiped her eyes with
her hand.
"Talk
to me" Gaara said reaching his hand out, craving the contact again
Carefully
Sakura placed her callused, yet smooth hand in his, Gaara's hand in comparison
was smooth from using the sand so much. She gasped as he pulled her over to
him, letting her lean on a dry patch of his robes.
"I,
don't want to burden you" she finally said after staring at the flickering
candle
"It
won't be, tell me what happened" he said firmly
"My
father was a ninja….he was, will always be remembered as an excellent ninja,
one who gave a lot to our village, even his life in the end" she took a shaky
breath and Gaara could feel he fighting tears "He always kept a picture of me
and my mother in his kunai pouch" she laughed "That kind of thing is forbidden,
for a reason, but he always carried it, so we could watch over him….The enemy
he'd been sent to spy on found him, and…..killed him" he felt her grind her
teeth "He was a bounty hunter, apparently my father was in the 'bingo book' but
low ranked, he Henged into my father and came home"
Gaara
squeezed her shoulder comfortingly, she'd gone quiet now and was shuddering "I
heard my mother scream and ran downstairs, and saw, my father standing over her
body, blood dripping from, his hands, my mother wasn't even a NINJA!" she
snarled the last word but then her voice went oddly quiet "I thought my father
had gone mad, but his eyes, they were different, I killed him, the Henge
stopped and I knew….I knew my father was dead….I couldn't even save my mother"
She
stopped now tears rolling once again down her face. Gaara sat her so she was
facing him and gently wiped away her tears, fascinated by the way they rolled
down his and her skin.
"Sakura"
he said in as comforting a tone as he could muster "Innocent people die all the
time, all we can do is try to prevent it, you, you do more than that, you try
to cure people and save their lives, when there is no hope you are there for
them, I'm right assuming you work at a hospital normally"
"Hai"
she looked down tracing a pattern on one of the rugs "Thank you Gaar-kun…I'm
sorry I cried on you"
Gaara
saw two big wet patches on his shirt "That's alright"
God's why am I being so nice to her?
Full of questions tonight aren't we?
Piss off
Aww meanie,
you're being nice to her and not me?
Bah I don't even know why I'm being nice to her!
Because….she
calls to you, and she's not afraid, and she wants to be around you 'Gaar-kun'that's gonna be fun when she finds out
I'll tell her eventually……there's no need to be dramatic
Meh just make sure
you tell her before anything else happens between you both, I've seen a
broken heart before and it's not pretty
Keep your long nose out of this
Whatever
He looked up
sharply at the silence in the tent; Sakura was fast asleep, curled up in a
ball.
She relaxes too easily in my presence
SAYS YOU!
He snarled quietly
at the voice before unrolling Sakura's sleeping bag and making sure she was all
tucked in and warm. He went outside the tent, put the fire out then pulled his
light backpack in and brought out his blanket and a pillow. Might as well
keep guard in here.
He set up his 'bed'
and blowing the candles out he began to meditate focusing on Sakura's breathing
and the sounds of the surrounding night.
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The next two days went quickly as they neared their destination. Sakura gave a small yelp of delight as she spotted the Hokage Mountain in the distance.
"Who goes there" shouted a guard as they reached the gates
"Hey Sar-san!" Sakura yelled waving
"Ah Sakura you're back! You brought someone?" the woman's waist length hair swished as she stood revealing a heavily rounded stomach.
"SAR!" Sakura screeched "I leave you for 5 months and you do this to me?" Tears appeared as Sakura looked heartbroken.
Gaara was confused. Is Sakura a lesbian? Is 'Sar' her partner? What the hell is going on?
The last thought was said as Sakura suddenly laughed and hugged the older woman gently "Why are you on gate duty you should be resting?"
Sar shrugged "You know how it is….."
Sakura nodded at the unfinished sentence before beckoning Gaara to follow her.
The Hokage tower was just as impressive as when he had visited it for the first time almost 3 years ago now, how memorable it was he reminisced as they approached.
The secretary waved Sakura and Gaara up as she continued throwing kunai at a target board.
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As Gaara had expected Sakura opened the door to her Sensei, and Hokage's office after a polite knock and bowed – NOT
Sakura slammed the door open before yelling "HAG!" at the top of her lungs at the sleeping woman.
"HZT?" Tsunade sat straight, and then pulled a wet piece of paper from her face "Sakura?" her sleepy eyes suddenly widened "SAKURA WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
"DON'T YOU 'WHAT THE HELL' ME!" The pink haired woman screamed back "WHAT WAS THAT STUNT WITH SASUKE ABOUT?! AFTER I'VE GONE THROUGHT ALL THIS TROUBLE TO FIND TONNES OF DEXER ROOT!"
"He" Tsunade spat out "Has been causing me a lot of bother – I was hoping you'd keep him a few days till I figured out what was wrong with his head" She sighed
"Huh?" Sakura asked sitting on the desk as if nothing had happened
"He came onto Hinata…."
"No!"
"In front of Neji…."
"NO!"
"And Hiashi…"
" NO WAY!"
"And Naruto…"
" KAMA!"
There was silence after this comment, then Tsunade suddenly
looked up and grinned "Did you say you brought some Dexer root?"
"Well….I say root – but you always prefer the leaves…."
Tsunade's eyes lit up "How much?"
Sakura dumped her backpack on the woman's desk.
"Thank
Kama; Suna has been riding my
back for these"
"They're needed in Suna?" Sakura asked at the same time as
Gaara the both shot looks at one another before turning to Tsunade.
"And who are you" Tsunade said, noticing Gaara for the first
time.
"Call me Gaar….Tsunade-sama"
Sakura suddenly fell backwards onto the sofa in a dead faint.