Chapter SIXTEEN

"Come in." Gaara straightened himself as the door slowly opened to reveal Kankuro, who had been the one to have knocked on his door.

Sasori stood to his left, right behind him. Sakura stood to his right. Namikaze Minato stepped through the door next and Gaara stood up as both Sasori and Sakura bowed.

"Sakura-chan!"

Minato had to hold back the urge to face palm when Naruto shouted loud enough for everyone to hear.

Sakura nodded at him.

"Kazekage-sama." Minato bowed in greeting.

Gaara bowed back.

"GAARA? YOU'RE THE KAZEKAGE?"

Ino whacked Naruto upside the head, saving Minato from having to do so himself. "Shut up and show some respect."

"Hokage-sama." Gaara glanced behind the Hokage at his accompaniments and frowned a little. "Perhaps we should head straight to my house instead."

Minato bowed his head. "I apologize about how we all just barged in-"

Gaara waved this off. "I've already expected it." He turned to the two standing to his sides. "Sasori, I'm going to head back for today. You are to join us once you are done with everything." Sasori nodded, then left in a puff of smoke. He needed to go tell the workers of the Kazekage's departure.

"Sakura, I want you to go tell Kankuro and Temari that they are to drop whatever they are doing and come see me. Come back afterwards." Sakura bowed, and she too was gone.

"Whoa." Naruto mumbled. "You're Kazekage."

Gaara nodded at the blonde. "Yes."

An awkward silence stretched out between them. Gaara was pretty grateful when Temari and Kankuro barged in. "Hey Gaara-" Kankuro stopped, and glanced at te Konoha nin, who looked at him weirdly. "Oh. Ops. Sorry about that."

Temari huffed. "I always tell you to knock before entering. Then you wouldn't have to make a fool of yourself."

Sakura skipped in beside the arguing siblings and took her spot beside Gaara again.

"You could have told them about the change in plans, you know." Gaara murmured.

Sakura frowned. "My apologize, Gaara-sama."

Clearly, she didn't know what she was apologizing for. At least now, he could tell. Before, she would just apologize for everything Gaara berated her for, and have no idea what she was being yelled at. She would always think that it was something she had done.

It had to be.

That was what had been engraved into her.

By him.

He had pushed here away when her actions drilled into him by himself angered him. When she tried to heal him of his unconscious fears, he had yelled at her, afraid that she would take him apart little by little.

The thought made him wince.

Gaara shook his head. "No, it's my fault." Sakura opened her mouth to object, but Gaara smiled briefly at her, then turned back to the Konoha nin. He cleared his throat, and his siblings turned to him as well.

"Shall we get going?

Dinner had been ordered from one of the most expensive and famous restaurant in Suna. Gaara frowned at the numbers, then offered the living room to everyone. "Please, make yourselves at home."

No one seemed to mind as they did just that.

The table was dragged into the living room. There was a knock on the door, and Sakura went to open it. She came back a few seconds later with a basket. She glanced at Gaara, and when she met his eyes, she quickly looked away. She darted off again, coming back with two baskets this time, and much quicker than before. She went back and fourth a few more time, each journey quicker than the last.

Everyone else in the room just glanced between Sakura and Gaara. Ino, Tenten and Hinata, who had been about to help, had paused in their spots, unsure.

Sakura gracefully placed the last basket of food on the table, before glancing over at Gaara, eyes slightly lowered.

Gaara forced himself to smile, trying to forget the aching pain withing his chest for the sake of putting Sakura at ease.

Sakura's eyes brightened, and she offered him a small smile.

The ache in his chest was gone anyways.

The Konoha kunoichi demanded that they be allowed to help with the food. Gaara saw no reason to decline, so he sent them after Temari.

The eldest of the Suna siblings went around passing people cups of things to drink. She passed a cup to the Hokage, bowed to him, then did the same for Gaara. She then glanced at Sakura.

Said girl was sitting on the floor at Gaara's feet. Her knees were tucked to her chest and her nose was buried in her arms. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was slow.

Temari crouched in front of the girl, a cup held out in front of her. Sakura sat upright, startled by the shadow suddenly looming over her. She did a good job of hiding it, though. She stared at the cup being offered out to her, then at Temari, then Gaara, who both nodded at her, like she was checking the the cup was actually being offered to her.

She slowly took it, dipped her head at Temari, then looked up at Gaara again, who took a pointed sip of his own. Sakura mimicked his actions, only to quickly draw back, her tongue sticking out of her mouth. Her sudden movements caused the contents of the cup to spill out onto her hand.

Gaara quickly leaned forward, startling the Hokage. Gaara took the cup from the girl, who was looking at her hand where the hot liquid had landed. Gaara wiped at her hand with the sleeve of his robe then pulled her towards him, inspecting her hand.

Sakura raised her other hand. Their hands brushed as Sakura ran her finger over her minor burn. She drew her hand away to reveal that the burn was gone.

Gaara sighed, and slowly let go. "Be careful." He told her.

Sakura nodded.

"Hot?" He glanced at Sakura's cup, which he had placed on the table.

Sakura nodded again.

"Is there something going on between them?" Ino asked, peeking out from the corner of the kitchen.

Temari snickered. "Of course." She paused. "They're the only ones unaware."

"They're cute." Hinata admitted.

"I know right?" Temari sounded a little smug, then frowned. "But they're so careful around one another, they'll never get anywhere."

Tenten watched Gaara reach down and pull Sakura onto the spot beside him. Minato had a creepy smile on his face as he wordlessly shuffled a little to create more space. The redhead then blew the steam away from Sakura's cup, then handed it back to the girl.

Sakura smiled her tiny smile again, the one where everything was expressed by her eyes, and she could see the tip of Gaara's ears turn red. Still, nothing appeared on his face, and they both turned back to their drinks as if nothing had happened.

"But really, this is dumb." She muttered.

"I know right? Those two are complete bafoons. At this rate, they'll never move to the next step." Temari agreed.

"Do they even know what the next step is?" Ino asked.

Temari paused. "Well, maybe not. But that's what guarantees their relationship!" Temari said. "Because Gaara's so new to this and Sakura's so new to this as well. Because they have completely different views of expressing their feelings to someone compared to everyone else. No one else will understand either of them. In this aspect, they only have each other."

Ino nodded thoughtfully. Everyone present knew of Gaara's past, to some extent. They also knew of Sakura's history. "Pushing them wont help."

Temari nodded, a soft smile on her face as she watched Gaara sweep Sakura's hair from her eyes.

"And they don't even know they act more couple-y than most couples."

You know what? Please ignore the 'one more chapter' and 'four more chapters' and 'maybe a few more chapters' and all those other things we said.

We just keep adding to it and stuff, and it keeps growing.

Next time, we wont try and estimate when the ending is coming, or anything...

Yeah...

(WOZ RUSHED)

((EVERYTHING IS THESE DAYS))

Darque: So...Raven's back!

Raven: Hi.

Darque: So, Raven, how was your...uh...what were you doing again?

Raven: If you were trying to role play an interview, I suggest you stop. You're terrible.

Darque: But what were you doing?

Raven: You wrote it down on the previous chapter. By the way, thanks for making me the villain.

Darque:...

Raven: Darque?

Darque:...

Raven: Hello? If this is revenge for me leaving you to do everything by yourself, please stop. I'm sorry, okay?

Darque: What are you talking about? I was just going back to the previous chapter to check what I had written.

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