Standard disclaimers apply. I'm just borrowing these characters for a little while.
Author's note: Kishimoto-sensei's plan is to fit the entire 4th Shinobi War Arc into a matter of days in the Naruto timeline, but I'm taking the liberty of extending it since war is never so quick and clean-cut. Events from the manga will be added, removed or shifted around. Please pardon my impudence.
Thanks to Mihzuki for helping me correct an embarrassing typo, and Just Spike for another wonderful review.
Sakura was in a bit of a predicament. Actually, 'a bit' might be an understatement.
She was currently being buried alive by the hundreds of medical scrolls and books that had decided to topple onto her cot where she was previously standing over, all at the same instant. Even with her cat-like reflexes, she did not have time to react. At least, not without damaging several priceless tomes in the process.
And how did she end up literally buried up to her neck in books? Sakura would tell you that it was all Shizune's fault.
After her first scouting mission with Kakashi, Sakura found herself reassigned to the medic tents as a full-time medic. She was not sure what was the reason for that, but it might, just might, have something to do with the fact that she had punched a White Zetsu clone right into half. Or more accurately, she had decimated the poor sap, sending wood-like splinters flying in all directions like lethal javelins.
Hatake Kakashi, the famous Copy-nin and onetime Hokage candidate, had no trouble dodging the projectiles. However, the same could not be said for the other members of his team.
… On second thought, she did have a pretty good idea why she was benched from the frontlines. At least until she removed the splinters from all the impaled shinobis.
For the first few days, the number of patients was manageable. Gaara was not taking any chances and insisted on gathering as much enemy intelligence as possible, be it their positions, tactics or numbers. Most of the cases she saw were not life-threatening, which meant that she had time to continue her training under Shizune.
Shizune – bless the sensible head on her shoulders – did not question her about the rumours flying about. She was too busy giving Sakura stacks and stacks of medical scrolls and tomes to study "in her spare time".
"Shizune nee-san, I can't possibly have time to read all these once we begin our offensive! I'm going to have my hands full here at the medic tents," Sakura finally spoke up on the day Shizune handed her two dozen musty old scrolls.
"Goodness, Sakura! I don't mean for you to read them all at one go – just take your time with them. We know that we'll be dealing with Kabuto, and his extensive medical knowledge combined with Orochimaru's forbidden techniques means that we'll be facing a formidable opponent. You have to be prepared for every possible jutsu and then some," and as if recalling Sakura's tendency to over-achieve, Shizune added, "Don't think about burning the midnight oil, or you're not going to be much help the next day."
Sakura, not wanting to get into an argument with Shizune, obediently left her tent with yet another armload of medical readings. When she had reached her tent in the segment of the camp where the 4th Division was, she had to stop for a moment to find an empty space for her latest additions.
She told herself to ignore the precariously stacked, slightly wobbly piles, and finally decided that the only space she had for the scrolls was under her cot. Just as she squatted down to place the scrolls, her elbow accidentally bumped into one of the many barely-standing stacks.
It was like watching everything happen in slow motion – one stack started to lean forward, swayed precariously, and finally toppled over. In the process, a few flying books hit another stack of scrolls.
Chain reaction.
And that was how she ended up halfway off her cot, her body weighed down by books that were making her sneeze from the sheer volume of dust that they had stirred up.
"Sakura, should I go get help?" Katsuyu asked from inside her collar.
"NO!" It was already embarrassing enough that a Konoha shinobi was being bested by a bunch of dead trees.
Oh, the irony.
Sakura wiggled a little, "If I can get my other hand free…"
Speaking of her hand, why was it so ticklish?
Sakura looked at her only visible hand. At the moment, a small cloud of sand was brushing against it. With a start, she realised that she must have been trapped longer than she had thought; she was always ready outside Gaara's tent with his herbal tea at ten o'clock sharp. Gaara was probably wondering where she was.
And she didn't even have the water boiling started yet.
"Shoo," Sakura said to the slithering sand defiantly.
Like that was going to do any good. Sakura heaved a sigh, and wondered if the sand's constant rubbing against her skin counted towards the weekly exfoliating session that Ino had insisted upon.
"Haruno-san?"
Oh, stars. Not him. Not now.
"Go away!" Sakura yelled out against all sensibilities. Then she coughed again.
"Haruno-san, is everything alright?"
Inhaling to reply was a mistake – her coughing fit only got worse.
"Haruno-san, I'm coming in."
Before Sakura could yell out something to deter the man outside, her tent flap was lifted and in stepped Gaara.
For a long, long moment, they simply stared at each other; Gaara at his half-buried medic, and Sakura at her statue-like charge.
Another bout of coughing from Sakura broke the tension between then, and Gaara sprung into action by summoning his sand to work at removing the piles of books and scrolls that had Sakura buried up to her torso.
"Stop!"
Dear God, she was starting to sound like a traffic warden or something.
Sand hovered around her like waiting tendrils, and Sakura forced herself to stop coughing long enough to explain, "There are some irreplaceable books and scrolls here – the sand could destroy them."
Gaara furrowed his brows, "Sakura, your faith in my ability to control my sand is practically non-existent. I have plucked kittens off trees with it."
Sakura did her best to brush aside the mental image of the honourable Kazekage in all his finery, standing under a tree and pulling kittens off treetops while surrounded by cheering children and swooning kunoichis.
"I don't care," she coughed again, "Tsunade and Shizune will murder me if I let anything happen to these books."
"From the looks of things, something has already happened to them."
"Ha ha. Very funny."
Gaara approached her, assessing the situation as he did so. Finally, he same to stand right in front of her and folded his arms, "Sakura, while the desert nights are cold, covering yourself in books is not the most conventional way of keeping warm. I am going to insist on helping you out of your little nest, and I'm going to use my position as your superior to do it."
Oh, he was not playing fair at all!
Sakura muttered something under her breath, and then finally conceded, "As you wish, Kazekage-sama. I have only one request."
"Speak."
"You cannot use your sand – only your hands."
Gaara felt his left eye twitch. Personally, he thought Sakura was behaving irrationally – his sand would have made quick work of re-stacking her documents and freeing her from their confines. On the other hand, he didn't want to be on the receiving end of her infamous ire, as Naruto had told him about on several occasions. On one such said occasions, Naruto had greeted him while sporting a black eye that he claimed the Kyuubi couldn't heal supernaturally.
And more recently, based on Kakashi's report on their first day of scouting enemy territory, he learnt that Sakura's strength was not to be underestimated.
Knowing that the sooner he started, the sooner they would get out of this ridiculous situation, Gaara reached over and began to remove the books trapping Sakura's upper body.
"And please put the books over there," she gestured with a twist of her neck.
Gaara could have sworn that Katsuyu was laughing at him, but one could never tell unless they were well-versed in the language of tentacle-waving.
Once Sakura was freed from a possible death by books, Gaara told her to move into his tent for the remainder of the war.
Sakura was startled by the offer, to say the least. However, any protests she had about his offer died in her throat when he began to list the reasons for suggesting so.
One – her tent was simply too small for her needs.
Two – trying to clear the tent will simply mean risking another landslide of books, so she was better off turning the tent into her medical library instead.
Three – it would simplify things for her, since she was already spending the better part of each night helping him with his paperwork. There was no point in them having separate quarters if she spent almost all her time at the 4th Division in his tent.
"It would not be proper!" protested Sakura.
"And yet the richer civilians and daimyos whose private nurses share their quarters do not have their reputation called into question."
Sakura rubbed at her temples and gritted her teeth. It was too late at night to really come up with a good argument. Gaara, on the other hand, had many years of practice at staying awake for nights on end, so he still had his wits about him.
"That is where you are wrong, Gaara. There is plenty of gossip about their pretty nurses and the 'extra' services they perform for their lords." Sakura shuddered at the idea of being thought of as one of these special aides.
"My conscience is clear, Sakura. And so is yours. How is this different from bunking with your male teammates when you are traveling in the wilderness?"
Because they are my friends. Because I trust them. Because I know they won't do anything disrespectful to me.
With a start, Sakura realised that whatever she had just said in her mind applied to Gaara as well. Gaara was a friend, civilians and shinobis alike trusted him with their lives, and the thought of Gaara trying to make a move on her was just… weird.
With one last mournful glance at her jumbled piles of books, Sakura walked out of her tent. Gaara took that as a sign of her consent, and followed after her.
Still, she hesitated at the front of his tent, even when he had held the flap back for her.
"Can I request for another tent?" Sakura gave one last attempt at weaseling of this new sleeping arrangement.
"Haruno-san, we have deployed all our available resources at the other Divisions in preparation for offensives. I'm afraid that is not possible for the time being."
Sakura groaned mentally and finally crossed the threshold into Gaara's tent. She could not explain away the odd sensation that she was getting into something bigger, but after battling with her books and bickering with Gaara for the past hour while they worked together to free her, all she wanted to do was to sleep.
Speaking of sleep… there was only one bed in the tent.
"Gaara, where do I sleep?"
He looked surprised at her question, "On the bed, of course."
Sakura quickly shook her head, "That's completely out of question, Gaara. You are the commanding officer and you require a proper resting station. Perhaps I can get some cushionings and…"
"Sakura, there is no way I'm going to let a lady sleep on the floor."
Well… that was just fantastic.
The flap of Gaara's tent moved, and Sakura spun around, hand already positioned at her holster before she realised that it was Baki entering the tent.
"You summoned me, Kazekage-sama?"
"I require an extra bed for Haruno-san. Her previous sleeping quarters are… unfit for use."
"I can arrange for a cot for tonight, Kazekage-sama. A proper bed shall be sent for tomorrow," Baki suggested.
Gaara nodded, and Baki left to rummage up a spare cot. When he turned around to look at Sakura, he found her positively seething.
"Gaara, I'm a kunoichi! I do not require the extravagance of an actual bed, not when we are at war!"
"And I am a shinobi, yet they insist on giving me a proper bed."
"That's because you are the Regimental Leader!" she all but yelled out.
Gaara crossed the tent and stood right in front of her so suddenly, Sakura could have sworn she never saw him move at all.
"Haruno, you are precious to Naruto, and therefore, important to me. And I will not have those important to me settling for less than they should," his tone was passive, but it bode no arguments.
Sakura was not certain if she should be flattered or not. So Gaara saw her as something of Naruto's to protect? It was very chivalrous of him, and at the same time, very demeaning towards her standing as a capable kunoichi.
Not to mention, she was not Naruto's possession, dammit!
Baki's return was surprisingly quick. In a flash, he had the cot set up opposite of Gaara's bed. Gaara nodded his approval, and it was all Baki needed to be dismissed.
Sakura walked rebelliously towards the cot and plopped herself on the edge of it. Then she lifted her gaze to meet Gaara's.
"Gaara, you are a very, very stubborn person."
"Likewise, Sakura."
Still feeling self-conscious, Sakura slipped off only her sandals before tucking herself into the cot. Her back presented to Gaara, she was fully clothed and she was completely ready to fall asleep while Gaara spoke up.
"By the way, Sakura, weren't you supposed to be giving me more of that aromatic tea?"
Darn it.