Chapter Five
Months had past since Sakura and Gaara have been declare Sages. A name given to them by the village meaning that they were humans complete fused with a mutant that they were forever safe from become a mutant. When knowledge first came out about this people were scared of them. They couldn't believe it, but as the days passed and nothing seemed to change no matter how much to two used their mutation people started to believe. Gaara helped the miners, making more room that was desperately needed. He helped by moving the hardened earth that the picks would not brake. That material was used by Tenten to create better weapons for the people who went to the surface. Less and less people came back hurt, for Sakura would go with the parties tot eh surface and heal the injured before they were so bad they couldn't be helped. There was still the possibility of the hunters turning into a mutant, since Sakura still could not figure out how it was that she had done what she had done.
Since Gaara was able to create more space, Sakura's home was finished quickly and she was to move into this new home today and for some reason Gaara felt like he was losing something. He sat in his living room on the couch that had become his bed for the past six mothers. Sakura was in the room gathering the few items that where hers. Once she was packed she came out and down the hall to where Gaara was. She smiled at him.
"Thank you again for letting me stay here until I had a home, I'll stop by in the morning to get you, remember we have that big excavation tomorrow" Sakura said cheerfully. She felt like crap, but on the outside she look like she did every day, content. She opened the door and left with out another word. She made her way to her new home in complete silence. The village had already shut down for night and only the lights left on for the guards kept her company.
The dirt path that lead to her home wasn't very well lit, that area was still under construction, but Sakura didn't care. She wanted to stay at Gaara's but that though alone was what made her leave. She had been alone for ten years and to lean on someone now would cause something in her to be lost for ever and she wasn't willing to part with it just yet. Taking a deep breath she opened the metal door to her new home and stepped inside.
It was much different then Gaara's. Sakura just told her self it was because it didn't have anything in it to that was why it felt empty. The lay out was even different. When you opened the door it opened into the kitchen. The Kitchen was white metal walls with tile covered floors. Fully applianced with a stove, oven, dish washer, coffee maker, fridge and a toaster. She smiled a little, Tsunade must have stopped by before Sakura got her for a small fern from the Myra field was on the counter with a little note. Sakura didn't have to read the note to know it was welcoming her to her new home.
Sakura looked over at her living room that was to her left. A half wall separated the kitchen and living room. A door way with no door way was the only entrance into the fully furnished living room. Stepping into the living room she looked around a little. A lavender couch sat against the half way, a small end table on each side, one had a lamp. A lavender love seat sat to the right of the couch, sitting against the wall. A red oak square coffee table laid in the middle of the room. Under it was a shag lavender rug, contrasting against the plain white carpet. The walls had been painted a soft lavender to match the furniture. A book self was placed on the far wall, already filled with an array of book ranging from suspense to science.
Sakura chuckled slightly before turning around to go down the hall to check out the others rooms past the kitchen. The first door on her left lead to a full bather room. White like the kitchen. The next door lead the bed room. A mattress on the floor and a dresser was all the greeted her. She guessed the Tsunade wanted her to pick out her own room decorations and colors, for it had been left white as well. She left the room and went to the last door at the end of the hall. She opened the door and couldn't help but smile.
Tsunade had created a green room. She had filled it was many different plants that she knew Sakura loved and in the corner was a lab. Tsunade also knew how much Sakura loved to work. She would have to hug the old woman when she next saw her. Taking a deep breath she shut the door and reentered her room. Setting her small bag onto the dresser she told her self she would get to unpacking tomorrow, for now she was exhausted and she had a big day tomorrow excavating the area they had found early that day. She laid down on the mattress and closed her eyes, intending on sleeping, but it would not come. For the rest of the night she tossed and turned, trying to get her restless mind to sleep.
Gaara watched as she left and kept him self very still. All he wanted to do was get up and pull her back inside, but he knew better. Just because Tsunade had said that they were cured he was completely positive that he was. He felt that at any moment the beast would wake from it's slumber and take control of him and he couldn't have Sakura round if that happened again. He didn't know how long he had forced him self to sit there but soon he stood and headed for his room. A place he had only been a couple of time since Sakura moved in. He walked to the door and looked into the room and couldn't seem to get him self to go into the bed.
He growled to him self in frustration and went to the couch to sleep. As he laid down his mind kept him up, something it did often, something that didn't effect him to much. He counted the minutes till the light turned on in the village. Knowing he would get no sleep he busied him self with his daily process. Taking a shower, cleaning up and getting dressed. He dressed in more lose fitting clothing today. He was going to be working hard and sweating a lot, he didn't want to over heat.
He decided against a shirt and slipped on a pair of wrap pants that loosely fit around his hip to where he had to tighten the string to keep them up and even then the slipped a little. He put on a pain of black boots and then slipped the goggles to rest upon his head. He heard and knock at the door and knew the others had arrived. He sighed and went to the door.
Sakura stood chatting with Naruto about her new home and what Tsunade had done as Konkuro went to knock on Gaara's door. Sakura had paid a lot of attention to her image today. She had plastered as much make up as she could to cover up the black circles under her eyes, but not enough to where it looked like she had a lot of make up on. She had pinned her hair up neatly so that it would not get in her way. She had also fixed her self a new outfit out of some old material she had.
She wore a black halter top that she had made straps for, for safety of course, didn't want the girls accidentally popping out. She had taken the pink from the spandex shorts she normally wore off and wore just the black spandex. She had attached five small pouches to a belt that she wore, each one holding a different thing that she though she might need. From food pills to test tubes. She had also borrowed a pair of Naruto's boots. She didn't have any that didn't expose her toes and that wouldn't be good for the work they would be doing. When Konkuro and Naruto came to pick her up they had been shocked into silence. Konkuro was the first to speak of course, once again trying to get into Sakura's pants, hence the red hand print on his cheek.
Naruto on the other hand wouldn't look anywhere besides her face. Something Sakura found cute and she felt a little sorry for ware such clothing when he was trying so hard to be faithful. Once she showed them why she wore this though they wouldn't be attracted to her anymore and would think her a brute, but she didn't really care. When she heard the door open she looked and her breath caught.
She had seen Gaara shirtless before, but for some reason something seemed different. His pale skin almost seemed to glow in the artificial light. Her eye traveled down his tones body to his waist where she could see red peeking out from below the black wrap pants. Her heart fluttered and her whole body clenched as she quickly looked away, trying to hid the blush, but failing because her hair wasn't there to hid her face.
"What's wrong Sakura your all red" Naruto said bring every ones attention to her, cause her face to brighten. "Sakura, are you sure your feeling up to working today, you should go see Grandma yo-" before he could finish Sakura turned and punched him.
"Shut up Naruto, I'm fine" she said crossing her arms. Konkuro wolf whistled and Sakura dropped her arms, realizing by doing that she had lifted her breast. Sakura heard a smacking sound and looked to see Gaara walking out of his house and Konkuro rubbing his head. Gaara stopped in front of Sakura and looked her up and down before turning and starting in the direction of rock lee, one of the other helpers. Sakura started to walk as well and she heard Naruto complained about them leave him along with Konkuro.
It took an hour to get everyone that was to go on the excavation, but once everyone was rounded it Sakura realized that she was the only woman going on this thing. All in all there was Gaara, Konkuro, Naruto, Rock Lee, Gai, Kakashi, Ibiki, Shikamaru, Iruka, Neji and then her self. Once everyone was rounded up they started for the site. It wasn't to far from where Sakura's new home was, but it was far enough that it took then another hour to reach the site.
When they got there they could all feel the difference. Normally the village was warm, the body heat of everyone and the core of the earth heated the area, but this area was chilly, causing goose bumps to form on Sakura's skin. She steeled her self and wouldn't show her discomfort. She walked forward to where Gaara was. The entrance to the site was blocked off by rocks. A small cave in must have happened after everyone left. It wasn't uncommon since it had not been stabilized.
Sakura walked forward and looked at the structure of the slid and took a steep back when the rocks started to move. She looked back at Gaara who was staring at the rocks, moving his hands every once in awhile to place the heavy material else where. Once the area was opened Sakura stepped back and let the others go first. She had been told so many times that she was never allowed to go into a new area first, that the guys had to go first to make sure it was safe. Once she was given the okay she walked inside of the cavern.
The area was much different then anything that they had come across. Unlike the Myra fields that plant life the grew here was normal. It was like it had never been touch by the radiation and was left unchanged. Sakura had already tested a sample of the plants and all of them came up clean . Also the steam the ran threw the cavern to pool into a lake was clean, where ever the water was coming from it to was untouched by the war. The soil was the same. Some of the soil in the village was contaminated, but Tsunade had learned a way to clean it so it was safe to be around. This area though didn't need to be cleaned, it was wonderful.
It was joy to find such a place, it meant that not everything was destroyed in the war, that there was a fighting chance. Sakura went to the lake of water and touch the old surface. She could see all the way to the bottom and see the cave that lead some where new as well. This was what they were here for. They were going to check out where the tunnel lead to. Only her, Gaara, Naruto and Kakashi where going, the others where going to wait here and take more samples and watched for danger.
Naruto was the first to dive in, splashing Sakura in the process. She instantly stepped away and looked at her self. She was soaked and starting to chill. She glared at Naruto when he surfaced. He shivered and complained about the water being cold.
"Fresh water is normally cold, don't pee in the water Naruto" Sakura scolded, Naruto just whined about not doing something like that.
Kakashi walked up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"now now Sakura, no need to be mean to Naruto" he said before he jumped away from him, but not quick enough as he pushed her into the water. She held her breath and she crashed into the water. She opened her eyes under the water and gasped as a fish swam in front of her. She quickly surfaced and got out of the water. Everyone looked at her strangely as she pointed to the water shacking from the cold.
"t-there's a f-f-fi-fish" she said threw clattering teeth. Naruto looked around in the water and started laughing.
"There's a lot of fish, I've never seen so many" he said as he tried to catch one.
"Is pinky afraid of fish" came the testing voice of Konkuro. Sakura stomped her foot and turn to him.
"I am not afraid of fish, I'm afraid of things I don't know are there, if I had known there were fish I would have been fine" she said in a matter of fact voice as she walked over to the waters edge and looked to see how many different kinds there were. Once she counted out five different type she dived back in. When she surfaced she looked at the ones staying.
"There are five different type, catch one of each, Tsunade will want to see them" with that said she dove under water once again. Once at the bottom she pulled out a container from one of her pouches and collected some of the plant life that was at the bottom of the lake floor. She put the container back in her pouch and resurfaced.
Gaara watched Sakura as she came out of the water because of a fish, water dripped from her, sliding down her exposed skin. He felt his muscles tighten and tried to look away but couldn't. He just wanted to go over to her and lick those water droplets from her. First from those slightly parted lips. He followed one little droplet that ventured from those cherry lips down her delicate slender neck to travel down the valley between her breast. He felt an unwanted desire to catch that droplet and follow it back up.
Something coiled in the pit of his stomach and he felt him self tighten and stiffen at his thoughts. He growled a little, something only he heard. He watched as she walked tot eh waters edge and dove in. An action that left him hissing as pain came from his palms where his nails had dug in. Konkuro noticed this hiss and turned to his brother.
"Who, Gaara" He was going to say more but snapped his mother shut when Gaara glared at him. Before anyone could look to see what Konkuro was talking about Gaara stalked quickly over tot eh water and jumped in.
He welcomed the cold water on his heated skin and let it soak way his desire. He resurfaced the same time Sakura did. He looked between everyone and nodded. It was time they got this little journey over with.
"Naruto, Kakashi, you go first, Sakura in the middle" He said earning a whistle from his brother. Just because he didn't day anything didn't mean he wasn't going to test his brother any way he could. Now the man had proof that Gaara wasn't emotionless and had the hots for a certain pink hair lady.
"Konkuro, just because Gaara said I'm in the middle doesn't mean you can take it sexual you pervert" Sakura scolded him with a glare before looking at everyone. "alright lets go"