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.
In the manga, Gaara's manifestation of his mother in his sand shields seemed like a case of Oedipus Complex, so I had planned to use the sand-cat as a representation of his mother instead.
"You wanted to talk. So, talk."
Naruto's earlier bout of yelling had drawn the attention of more than a few shinobis, and they decided that it would be better to move into the tent to continue the confrontation. Naruto has said nothing, simply following after them.
Unfortunately, the tent that had been Sakura's home for the past few months, once so cosy and inviting, suddenly seemed oppressively small and about to close in around her. She was standing by Gaara's side, having decided that if she was going to pursue a relationship with the Kazekage, she should not have to disguise her intentions.
Naruto, arms crossed over his chest, waited with atypical patience for them to speak.
The mood within the tent would have been entirely somber, if it was not for the fact that the sand-cat was now hiding under Sakura's bed, growling and guarding a shred of Naruto's pants possessively.
"Naruto," it was Gaara who chose to break the silence, "I have started courting Sakura."
Mentally, Sakura slapped her forehead; trust Gaara to state the obvious.
When she stole a glance at Naruto, however, the perplexed look on her blond teammate's face seemed to suggest that perhaps things were not as obvious as they seemed to her.
Naruto's scowl deepened, "And were you guys planning on telling me? Or were you hoping that I'd find out from the gossiping kunoichis at the medic base?"
Ah, Matsuri. Of course the Rumour Forest would have erupted into flames the moment Gaara stole her away, and right in front of one of his biggest admirers no less.
"Naruto, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that I was going to wait for the right time, because there will never be a right time for this," Sakura shot a look to Gaara, and he took the hint to vacate the tent. The sand-cat followed after Gaara, crouching as it darted past them and still guarding its prize jealously.
Once the tent flap fell back into place, Naruto took a step closer to Sakura, disenchantment radiating from his entire being. Sakura felt the overwhelming urge to reach out and embrace him, but somehow it felt as if it would make the matter worse than it already was.
"Sakura-chan," it almost broke her heart to hear him addressing her so sweetly, "When you came to 'confess' your love for me, despite it having been a ploy to stop me and Sasuke from fighting, there was this small part of me that hoped against all hope that somehow, you meant it.
"It's been over five years since Sasuke deflected from Konohagakure, and we've all seen how much Sasuke had changed since. You've always been the smartest and most logical among the three of us, Sakura-chan. I thought… when Sasuke got branded as an international criminal and tried to physically hurt you once more, you would finally be over him; and I would finally have the chance and the time to work up the courage to tell you how I've always felt about you. But you still looked so dejected despite Sasuke's blatant attempt to kill you, I knew he must have meant more to you than I had imagined.
"I have always loved you, Sakura-chan. When I knew you were smitten with Sasuke, I had one more reason to intensify my rivalry with Sasuke. He had all your attention, and I wanted you to look at me the same way as well.
"Sakura-chan, I know these will sound cliché and naïve of me, but all I wanted was to make you happy. When our first attempt at retrieving Sasuke failed two years ago, you looked so miserable, and I knew then that all the years had not dulled your feelings for him. I will bring him back to you, Sakura-chan – you do not deserve to settle for less."
Sakura's resounding slap on his cheek seemed to echo in the tent for an eternity.
Naruto blinked, his hand automatically moving up to cover his now smarting cheek. Sakura's chest was rising and falling visibly from the deep breathes that she was forcing herself to take in order to rein back her temper.
She had forced herself to listen to Naruto's (very wrong) assumptions about her feelings towards Sasuke, but when he implied that she had decided to settle for someone lesser, the gloves were off.
"Naruto, you…" Sakura struggled to scrap together her sentence against the rage threatening to overspill from her, "How could you talk like that about one of your closest friends? How dare you think that I am just giving up and going for the next best alternative when it comes to the people I care for? Gaara was and never will be a replacement for anyone!"
Looking extremely bewildered while rubbing his smarting cheek, Naruto explained, "Gaara once told me that he did not feel very different from Sasuke – the both of them driven to prove themselves in order to find worth in their lives. I thought this similarity…"
"Well, you thought wrongly. Even if there were any similarities between them, that was when we were children. Did you conveniently forget that Sasuke left us in search of power and nearly killed you to attain it? What other mad atrocities has he committed since his time with Orochimaru? Do you think we know about all of them?" Sakura then brought her hand down on Gaara's table, effectively leaving a permanent indentation of her palm on the polished wooden surface, "And who do you think started this whole damned war that we have been fighting for months now? Whom exactly?"
She felt a splash on water on her foot, and it took Sakura a moment longer to realise that she was crying; crying again like a helpless little girl.
That thought only made her sob even harder, and Naruto slowly approached her to wrap his arms around her from behind, pulling her tightly into his warm embrace.
"Sakura-chan, please, don't cry," the blond whispered.
Sakura watched through misted eyes as his Nine-Tails Mode melted away, leaving behind a very familiar blond shinobi in his blinding attire of orange and black. She curled herself backwards into his embrace, ducking her head to hide her falling tears despite knowing that it was a futile act.
"Naruto… do you know how many shinobis have died in these few months alone? How many other lives have now changed forever because a loved one had died in battle? It is just so hard… so hard knowing that it could have been avoided if I had been strong enough to kill Sas…"
Naruto spun her around so suddenly, Sakura had to grab onto his jacket to keep her balance. His bright blue eyes were wide and almost appeared to bore into her soul.
"Sakura-chan, what are you saying? You love Sasuke – it's not your fault at all if you could not bring yourself to finish the job."
Sakura drew a shaky breath, then promptly dropped a bombshell on Naruto's nicely-compartmentalised little world, "Naruto, I never loved Sasuke."
Naruto was silent for at least a few minutes, his arms still loosely wrapped around Sakura. Although his head was bowed, he was tall enough that Sakura could look into his eyes and study the emotions running through them: confusion, anger, and finally sadness.
"Sakura-chan, if you are trying to lie to yourself again…"
"I am NOT!" Sakura yelled so loudly that Naruto recoiled on reflex, although he still did not let go of her.
She hoped that Gaara had the sense to re-erect the sound barrier when he had left the tent.
She waited for Naruto's grip on her arms to slacken, then firmly pushed them back to his sides. Sakura then drew in a deep breath; an action that Naruto knew she often took before she either punched him or gave him an earful.
"Naruto, I had a talk with Ino a few months ago," she shot him a look that threatened him bodily harm if he interrupted, "To make a long story short, I realised that I was never actually in love with Sasuke himself. Instead, I was in love with an idealised version of Sasuke which had never existed in the first place."
Naruto crossed his arms, tilted his head and pondered her words for a long moment, then rather eloquently stated, "Huh?"
Sakura sighed loudly, knowing that she would have to lay it out in detail for Naruto.
"Ok, Naruto, tell me – what is the one thing that every girl in Konohagakure found appealing about Sasuke?"
Naruto snorted derisively, "Every girl thought he was just so good-looking. He's just trying to act cool by being all broody and mysterious!"
At that, Sakura had to giggle; it was true – the mysterious nature of his aloofness lured girls to him like bees to honey.
"Well, see, I was attracted to him for that initially," admitted Sakura, finding it odd that she did not feel any shame in saying so, "And when Team Seven formed, I was over the moon at the prospects of being on the same team as Sasuke. But eventually, I grew to care for both you and Kakashi-sensei as well."
"We were a good team, Sakura-chan."
"The best."
They waited for each other to speak first, and it seemed to take forever before Sakura continued, "But I don't think my feelings towards Sasuke really went beyond his looks. I was just another fangirl."
Sakura touched her heart quietly, then looked up at Naruto, "Do you remember what he said at the team introductions?"
"My goal is to restore my clan and kill a certain man. I am an avenger, and nothing more."
"I wanted to heal that hurt inside of him, wanted to reach out to him so badly, I managed to confuse that feeling for an attraction to Sasuke. But in reality, Sasuke wasn't and never would be the person I consider an ideal life partner. He looks emotionless on the outside, but like Karin-san told us – he seems to be running purely on rage now," Sakura could not help feeling a little sad, both for Sasuke's many losses in his life and her own first crush, "the man I consider my ideal has nothing in common with what Sasuke has become."
"Sasuke-kun."
"Pardon?"
"I didn't hear you refer to him as Sasuke-kun even once today," Naruto cleared his throat softly, "You're really over him, aren't you, Sakura-chan?"
"You can't really be over someone that you've never loved, Naruto."
"And your decision to be with Gaara… does it have anything to do with all the time you spent together?" Naruto sounded regretful, as if lamenting his own time spent apart from Sakura.
Sakura nodded, unable to say anything once she caught Naruto's tone of voice.
"Does he treat you well?"
The soft smile on Sakura's face told Naruto everything he needed to know.
"I'm glad," said Naruto as his face broke into an endearing smile that did not quite reach his eyes before he turned to leave the tent.
"Naruto, wait!" Sakura grabbed onto his sleeve.
"Sakura-chan?"
She shrunk a little at the sadness radiating from Naruto's entire being, "I… I'm sorry I lied about my feelings for you. I really wish I could love you back the way you love me, but I…"
Naruto shook his head, "Gaara deserves some happiness in his life."
So do you, thought Sakura.
Suddenly, she hit upon a thought from the time that Pein attacked Konohagakure.
"What about Hinata? She really likes you – she said so as much when Pein almost had you." Perhaps she was grasping at straws, but Hinata was the one girl she knew that loved Naruto unwaveringly; Naruto deserved a woman like that.
Naruto grinned, "Sakura-chan, I can't force you to stop liking Gaara, so you can't force me into liking Hinata either. She is a nice girl, and I know she is fond of me, but I'm not ready to move on just yet. You will always be special to me."
"Naruto…"
The blond shinobi gave an exaggerated stretch of his limbs, then strode towards the tent flap purposefully.
"Now, you'll have to excuse me – I'm going to have a little punch-up with Gaara," Naruto smiled disarmingly.
"What? Stop it, Naruto! I won't have you and Gaara fighting over my decision! Best friends don't beat each other up for another person's choices!" Sakura's eyes widened in shock as she dashed after her teammate.
"We're not going to 'fight', Sakura-chan. We're just going to settle this the Bro Code way."
"… Excuse me?"
"Naruto is just following the rules of the Bro Code," intoned Shikamaru passively from his medic tent cot.
The Nara prodigy's cryptic reply did nothing to settle Sakura's already frazzled nerves, especially not after she ran all the way to the medic base the moment Gaara and Naruto both vanished in a wave of sand; they left her standing with the sand-cat that was now by her side, looking equally confused.
"Okay, Shikamaru, you tell me – what exactly is this 'Bro Code' about?" Sakura said through clenched teeth.
Shikamaru, incapacitated by nothing more than a bad sunstroke (and an equally burnt ego), turned to his side on the cot and leveled his gaze with the now seated Sakura.
"Let me guess: you are dating Kazekage-sama now," Shikamaru stated more than asked Sakura.
"Yes, I am. But I fail to see how that is relevant and oh, stars – Naruto and the Regimental Leader are beating each other up…" her voice dropped to an awed whisper, "… I just started the Fifth Shinobi World War all by myself, didn't I?"
Sakura looked so appalled at her 'realisation' that Shikamaru had to stifle a snicker. Well, he tried; his laughter slipped past his gritted teeth in an odd, whistling sound.
"Shikamaru, this isn't funny! I may have just destroyed the Kazekage-sama's closest friendship!" hissed Sakura, aware that their conversation was in danger of being overheard in the crowded medic base.
Shikamaru reached up to wipe away a tear of mirth, then said, "Sakura, despite all outside appearances, you did not just start the Fifth Shinobi War."
The sand-cat suddenly leapt onto Shikamaru's bed, and for a moment Sakura worried that it was going to attack Shikamaru. Much to her surprise, Mr. Fluffy-kins started rubbing itself against Shikamaru's hand, purring loudly in the process. The young man blinked at the cat's sudden affections, but decided not to question it; perhaps it was trying to butter him up for some unknown, cat-ish reason.
Shikamaru's hand automatically began rubbing the cat as he continued, "I think you know how the story usually goes: two guys are the best of friends because they have many things in common, including their preference in the opposite gender. As a result, they often find themselves falling for the same woman. Male rivalry kicks in, and those on the lower end of the evolutionary chain usually choose to settle it with their fists."
It occurred to Sakura that Shikamaru just implied that Naruto was a Neanderthal for instigating the fight, and she found it a strangely accurate assessment of her teammate's hit-first-talk-later mentality.
"As you can tell, it is not the best way to settle such problems – too many cracked heads – so some guy came up with the Bro Code," Shikamaru annoyingly chose to pause at that moment to take a drink of water; Sakura suspected he did it to keep her on tenterhooks, "It is a set of unwritten rules governing male friendship. One part of the Bro Code covers exactly how to settle the situation of when two best friends fall for the same girl, especially if she has made her choice already."
Shikamaru went quiet, and Sakura nodded with certainty, "I am going to stay by the Kazekage-sama's side."
"Ok, and clearly, Naruto knows that – which is why he invoked the Bro Code. In order to preserve his friendship with Kazekage-sama, they are going to mock-fight to let off some steam, toss a few angry words here and there that they don't really mean, and finally, when they have broken a bone or two, they will re-affirm their friendship while wishing the winner of the lady's heart the best in the future."
Shikamaru was certain that his words should not have made Sakura go slack-jawed and looking even more horror-struck than ever, but clearly they did.
"Sakura?" he asked, concern evident on his face.
When Sakura finally recovered enough to speak, she clapped her hands over her cheeks and muttered, "So in the end, the solution is still for them to fight it out? That is just… redundant."
"Ah, but they still stay as friends afterwards," pointed out Shikamaru.
Sakura sank into the nearest chair as a boneless lump.
Men are crazy.
"Yo, you Sakura?" an unfamiliar male voice came from behind the privacy curtains before a muscular, dark-skinned man strode into view.
Sakura's senses went on high alert at once, her hand poised over her kunai pouch; this stranger knew her name, and under war time circumstances with all the Zetsu clones still hidden among their ranks, she had to assume the worst.
"Relax, Sakura," said Shikamaru unexpectedly as he gestured to the sunglasses-donning man, "This is Killer Bee-san, the Hachibi jinchuuriki."
The tall man flashed her a lop-sided smile, and Sakura forced herself to smile back; her brain was working overtime at the sight of this stranger.
Wait, didn't Naruto say yesterday that he was heading towards Madara with Killer Bee-san?
"Killer Bee-san," began Sakura as she bowed, "It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for taking care of Naruto for the past months."
"The honour is all mine, young lady. And I hate to say it, but lately Naruto's acting all funny."
"Whatever do you mean, Killer Bee-san?" Sakura was starting to get that annoying, sinking feeling in her stomach.
"Well, we were headed straight for Madara's base, when he suddenly decided to head for this place."
It did not take long for Sakura to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Naruto's shadow clones had vanished one by one after the battle, and one of them must have overheard the screaming kunoichis about Gaara's sudden abduction (there really was no other word for it) of her from the medic base. Concerned as ever, Naruto must have decided that it was a matter important enough for him to discard his original plans and instead come rushing to Sakura's aid.
There was also the issue of Naruto's fight with Gaara – if he had been a shadow clone, it would take just one good hit to vanquish him. They would not even have a chance to get to the angry words stage.
Bottom line: the real Uzumaki Naruto had made a several hundred kilometers detour simply to find out about Gaara's intentions towards her.
Sakura was extremely glad that she was already seated; otherwise, her legs would have given out on her.
Shikamaru looked from her to Killer Bee, and then back again. Finally, he nodded and said with a slight grin, "You did not start the Fifth Shinobi World War, Sakura, but I think you did throw a spanner into the current war."
Fortunately for everyone, the sand-cat caught her in a cloud of sand as Sakura toppled out of her chair in a dead faint, then promptly whisked her away to goodness knows where.
Killer Bee turned to the slightly sun-burnt youth and jabbed a thumb outwards, "If that's the girl of Naruto's dreams, I think she could really use some proteins."
Shikamaru shrugged, and went back to a book on Suna's political history that Temari had left for him.
"Gaara… you are… an ass…"
"I am not… a donkey… Naruto…" replied the redhead between gasps of air.
Both shinobis were lying on their backs, faced up against the harsh desert sun and breathing harshly as if they had just finish a great battle; which was probably the case. Between the two of them, they had changed the desert landscape twice over, resulting in it resembling the site of a concentrated meteor shower.
When Naruto had first approached Gaara upon exiting the tent, his stormy countenance was enough to give Gaara pause. Sakura was standing at the tent flap as it fell close, looking extremely troubled. Having taken both factors into account, Gaara decided that Naruto was there to end their friendship. The idea made bile rise in this throat: Naruto was his first real friend after all.
The blond shinobi walked right up to him, and Gaara rose from patting the sand-cat to meet Naruto's gaze. Instead of saying anything, Naruto simply jerked his head sideways; Gaara interpreted it as that Naruto wanted somewhere with more privacy to 'discuss' the matter with him.
And what place offered more privacy than the deep, uncharted desert itself?
Gaara took them away with his sand just as Sakura rushed out, one hand stretched out as if to stop them. The distress on her face only served to affirm his resolve to settle the issue with Naruto as quickly as possible, and he forcefully pulled his gaze away from her as the sand swallowed them both.
Naruto saw, but made no comment.
Once they had arrived in the middle of what appeared to be nowhere to Naruto, Naruto threw his arm out, finger just shy of poking Gaara in his eye.
"We are going to fight, Gaara," stated Naruto, "And if you consider me a friend, then you will not hold back."
Naruto's choice of words gave Gaara that sliver of hope he needed to believe that their friendship could still be salvaged.
It would explain why in Gaara's enthusiasm to prove to Naruto that he respected him as a fellow combatant, he accidentally broke Naruto's tibia. In response, Naruto had yelled something about not wanting to ruin Gaara's "pretty face" for Sakura's sake and promptly head-butted Gaara in the kidney.
Everything pretty much went downhill from there.
That had been several hours ago.
The desert sun was high overhead, and both men had sprawled themselves out on the sandy surface, too exhausted to seek out any shade. Naruto's broken bone had healed itself nicely along with whatever bruises he had, thanks to the Kyuubi's supernatural chakra. Gaara, though, looked every bit a man who had just walked out of a common street brawl, tattered clothes and all.
"Hey, Gaara."
"Hmm?"
Naruto rolled himself over with a loud grunt, and Gaara turned his head to face him. They simply stared at each other for a very long time.
Naruto's face finally broke into a genuine grin.
"No hard feelings?" The blond shinobi asked.
Gaara unconsciously massaged his jaw that was still throbbing slightly, "No, none at all."
With a contented-sounding sigh, Naruto threw himself back onto the sand.
"You know, Gaara, I'm glad that Sakura-chan chose to be with you," Naruto said, "I really do."
Gaara said nothing; he knew that Naruto had more to add.
"I mean, sure, I'm bummed as hell that Sakura-chan said she could never love me, but then again, I guess a part of me was always ready to lose her to Sasuke. I promised Sakura to bring Sasuke back, even when I knew I was killing my own chances with her; I just wanted to make Sakura happy."
You always did put the happiness of others ahead of your own, Naruto.
"Even though Sakura-chan is now your girlfriend, I'm still going to keep my promise to her to bring back Sasuke," Naruto clenched his fist and held it straight up against the skies, "So, don't get all jealous when I get that idiot back, okay?"
"A promise is a promise, Naruto. I cannot fault you for wanting to keep it," replied Gaara, "And I am certain that Sakura must have told you about her present feelings, or lack of, towards your former teammate."
"Yeah, about that… I really did think that Sakura was trying to stop me from clashing with Sasuke again. But she had this really sincere smile on her face the entire time she was talking about you," Naruto's chest heaved defeat, "I've never seen her talk about a guy like that before, not even once with anyone she dated back in Konohagakure.
"Sakura-chan is really in love with you, Gaara."
Gaara tried to conceal his surprise; he really did. But neither he nor Sakura had ever used that term between themselves, even when the shadows of the past no longer tainted the meaning of that word for him. As Kazekage, he was loved by his people, but romantic love was a completely foreign concept to him. He could only blink owlishly at Naruto's unexpected words.
"Gaara," Naruto's voice was firm, "And don't tell me you don't deserve to be loved. Because Sakura-chan chose to be with you, and I can tell she is happy. If you take that happiness away from her, I will never forgive you."
They would always be best friends, and thus came the inconvenience of being too easily read by each other.
"Naruto, I would never hurt Sakura, or anyone intentionally, especially the both of you. Falling for Sakur…"
Naruto held his palm up right in Gaara's face; the blond shinobi often had little idea of how much personal space others required.
"Gaara, we already yelled at each other about this earlier on. You did not choose to hurt me, and neither did Sakura. Call it…" Naruto flicked his hand about as if the gesture alone would help him find the right phrase, "Call it Fate or whatever. Tsunade baa-chan assigned Sakura to you, and the two of you end up spending the entire time together. You care deeply about people's feelings and always look out for those close to you, and so does Sakura. If the two of you didn't notice each other under these circumstances, I'd actually be more concerned."
Gaara nodded and spoke in a voice just above a whisper, "Thank you for understanding."
Naruto sat up and crossed his arms over his chest, huffing a little as he replied, "A Hokage must be able to adapt to changing circumstances. Anyway, it is better that we sorted this out now then if we waited until I became Hokage – the entire shinobi world might get dragged into a war."
Right. As if there was not an ongoing war already.
"So!" Naruto clapped his hands together and jumped to his feet, then turned to grin at Gaara, "Wanna go back to Sakura-chan and see how freaked out she must be by now?"
"Hang on."
Gaara swept his hand over the endless desert, and within moments, the sand dunes righted themselves, and the pock-marked landscape appeared as pristine as it was when they first arrived.
"Show-off," Naruto muttered.
The blond shinobi extended a hand towards the still-seated Gaara, surprising Gaara somewhat. A second later, Gaara allowed a ghost of a smile to form on his lips as he grasped Naruto's hand and let himself be pulled back up to his feet. Naruto continued his streak of surprising Gaara by throwing an arm over Gaara's shoulder to support him, despite Gaara being (just) able to walk on his own.
Gaara responded in kind; he never expected to feel so happy being embraced by another man.
Sakura was sitting on the edge of her bed back in her tent, hand clenching and unclenching on her lap; the sand-cat had brought her back to the safety of her usual sleeping place to recover from her shock.
Fortunately, Sakura had only blacked out for a few minutes – by the time she regained consciousness, she found herself back in a very familiar place with Mr. Fluffy-kins purring on her chest. She had ran a quick diagnostic on herself to double-check that her fainting spell was not due to anything more than the guilt of diverting Naruto and Killer Bee from their mission, and was vaguely relieved that it was indeed the case.
Once she found the strength to sit up, Sakura gently moved the sand-cat aside and cast her chakra out in search of both Naruto and Gaara's chakra signatures. She had expanded her search scope as far as possible without straining her chakra reserves, but they were nowhere within the vicinity.
Don't panic, Sakura. Shikamaru already explained the Bro Code to you. All you need to do is save your chakra for healing their injuries once they return.
Willing herself to calm down, Sakura slowed her breathing and tried to meditate to sooth her wrung-out nerves.
It did not help that moment later, a cloud of sand began to form in front of her and out walked two of her most precious people in the world.
Sakura quickly looked them over: Naruto, as expected, as sporting only a few bruises that are well on their way to healing. If it was not for his rumpled and slightly torn clothes, he could have just returned from accidentally falling down a well. Gaara, on the other hand, had more exaggerated-looking injuries compared to Naruto.
The one thing that stopped her from yelling at them immediately was the similar smirks that they both wore.
"Hey, Sakura-chan," smiled Naruto as he and Gaara walked forward, still holding each other up by the shoulders.
Sakura allowed them to close the distance, and once they reached the edge of her bed, she threw her arms out and locked them both in a crushing embrace.
Naruto, long used to the intensity of Sakura's hugs, simply chuckled and reached around to pat her on her back. Gaara, though, nearly stumbled over at the sudden forward momentum of his body and had to steady himself before he could reassure Sakura with calming strokes on her back.
Sakura was trembling despite basking in the comforting warmth of her two dearest companions in the world.
"You… you idiots; I was worried sick about you both!" Sakura's voice was slightly shaky as she clung onto both men like they her only lifeline. She buried her face against their pressed-together shoulders and willed herself to not cry once more: she had shed enough tears over matters of the heart once too often.
It was only when Sakura was absolutely certain that no tears were in danger of falling that she looked up at two of the most important men in her life. She quickly scrutinised them for any injuries that needed immediate treatment, and Naruto recognised that look on her face in an instant.
"Sakura-chan, I'm alright. You know what the Kyuubi does for me," then he cast a sideways, cheeky grin in Gaara's direction, "But you better take a look at your boyfriend here, because I may have damaged something irreversibly."
"I don't know why you men must always resort to talking with your fists," Sakura mock-scolded Naruto as she checked the torn areas on his clothes for injuries regardless of his dismissal for medical attention.
"Actually, we had a fantastic fight, Sakura-chan. Best I've had in a long time," Naruto sniggered as if the entire situation was nothing out of the ordinary.
Sakura turned to look at Gaara, who simply shrugged and replied, "It was a good fight: Naruto gave his all."
"What?" Naruto gaped at Gaara, "Gaara, if I had really wanted to, I could have flattened you in under a minute. I just went easy on you because I didn't want to bring your corpse back to Sakura-chan!"
Sakura 'innocently' poked one of Naruto's bruises with a chakra-enhanced fingertip, causing him to yelp and jump.
"I could have flattened you just as easily, Naruto. Literally," replied Gaara, a smirk playing on his lips.
Naruto leaned over to Sakura and stage-whispered, "Watch out, Sakura-chan. I think this one enjoys using his sand too much. He may even try to use it on you when you two are having se… OW OW OW!"
With Naruto's ear firmly gripped in one hand, Sakura blushed as she growled through gritted teeth, "Naruto, you are not going to speculate on other people's private affairs!"
Naruto strained to look at Gaara out of the corner of his eyes; Gaara gave a soft, quiet cough and turned away.
"Oh ho – no way, Sakura-chan!" Naruto sounded a little too pleased for her liking, "Don't tell me you guys have not gotten it on yet!"
"Naruto!" she hissed once more, yanking on his ear for good measure.
"Ouch, ouch! Sakura-chan!"
Sakura finally relinquished her hold on Naruto's ear and turned away, her cheeks a brilliant shade of pink.
The blond shinobi looked from his teammate to his best friend, noting how they were both avoiding each other's gaze at the moment. To draw their attention back to himself, Naruto stretched and yawned aloud.
"Well, I guess I better be going. Bad guys to put a hurt on and all that," he placed both hands on his hips, then added, "You guys are going to name one of the kids after me, right? I mean, you have to start soon to raise at least five or six great shinobis to help rebuild after the war, so you guys might as well…"
"Naruto!"
Sakura and Gaara had shouted out his name in perfect unison, and that only made Naruto snicker even more. He decided that it would be in his best interest to leave before Sakura dealt him a good blow and made for the tent flap.
Just before he started to lift the tent flap, Naruto turned around, enough for both Sakura and Gaara to see the sudden serious expression on his face.
"Gaara, I'm glad that it was you who won Sakura-chan's heart. But if you ever hurt her even by accident…"
Naruto left the rest unsaid as he finally left the tent.
In their heart of hearts, they both knew that Naruto was hurting, but he would never show it in front of anyone. One look at each other and they immediately knew what each other was thinking.
After a long stretch of uncomfortable silence, Gaara cleared his throat and said rather redundantly, "That went better than expected."
Sakura turned to Gaara and stood up from the bed, closing the distance between them slowly before she reached out to fold Gaara into a hug.
"I'm really glad it worked out, Gaara. I don't want to think about losing either of you."
Gaara's response was to pull back enough to look Sakura in the eyes, right before he leaned down to kiss her full on the lips.
"Neither can I," he whispered into her ear before pulling back.
Sakura closed her eyes and pressed her face against his collarbone, more to hide her blush than anything else.
"Sakura, I think…" Gaara did not have any time to finish his sentence before he suddenly sagged against Sakura.
"Gaara?" Sakura drew back to look at his sluggish form in clear alarm.
"I… a seat…"
Gaara dropped to the floor of the tent like a limp ragdoll before his eyes could even finish closing.
The last thing he saw was Sakura's panicked expression as his vision dimmed and faded to nothing.