Author's Note: You can actually think of this chapter as a direct continuation of the last one.
The sound of crickets and all other manner of nocturnal creatures could be heard from team 7's campsite at the edge of the forest. Above them a million stars twinkled in the night sky. All around them the silhouettes of trees framed the picture postcard view above them. While back on the ground, the embers of what was once their cooking fire gave off only the faintest of an orange glow. Off in the distance one such as Temari could see the outlines of the mighty sand dunes turned almost purple in the foreground of the midnight sky. Temari had volunteered to take the most difficult middle watch after Kakashi. In truth, she had not slept a wink since her and the rest of Team 7 had turned in for the night. Her thoughts always drifted to her younger brother and whatever horrible fate lay in store for him. Which became worse and worse each time Temari tried to imagine it. When that proved fruitless she welcomed the isolation of night watch. The peace and quiet of the tree branches gave her time to silently vent. The sight of the dunes also proved to be soothing. That idiot Nara boy might love to cloud watch, but she preferred to dune watch. She found it even more mesmerizing to watch, the sight of the wind's ever present force constantly shifting and swaying entire mountains of grains of sand was fascinating. It was subtle, so subtle you would never notice it. Not without spending a significant time on it. Something Temari could equate to a lot of things in her life. The beauty you had to keep watching in order to appreciate its value.
Like the Sand village; that seemed to be nothing more than a dusty city in the middle of a desolate country until you saw how much the people had learned to thrive with the limited resources they were born to.
Like Shikamaru; who seemed like nothing more than an unfathomably lazy boy at first glance, yet always surprised her whenever he displayed his brilliance in tactics and strategy.
Like Gaara; who started out as nothing more than a monster in her eyes, yet grew to become the Sand's most beloved Kazekage.
To think. Thought Temari. That the man who would forever change my brother for the better would be his enemy and a fellow Jinchuriki. And that he's sprawled all over his sleeping bag like a freaking child.
It was true, whenever her brother would bring up the subject of Naruto, you'd think he was talking about some divine angel that had descended from on high and showed Gaara the way to the promise land. Getting the psychopath beaten out of him by Naruto had no doubt been the best thing to ever happen to Gaara. With that kind of reputation preceding him, Temari imagined that the orange clad squirt she had last seen at the Chunin exams to be sleeping with some kind of dignity. He looked way too relaxed to be a ninja, but that might have been the point. Naruto was an innocent soul, incorruptible by the evil goings on of the world. He might have wept for her brother (whom he no doubt considered a brother himself) during the day. But at night, in his sleep, he was at peace. It was probably the reason he was able to reach Gaara in the first place. A man who always wore his shoulder on his sleeve had very little to hide.
Now that pink haired one…she had somethings to hide.
Temari had seen her. Returning from her make-out session with Naruto or whatever, yet for the entire meal she kept a respectful distance from her blond haired teammate. The whiskered fool had made several obvious attempts at starring at her, all of which she did her best to ignore. Did they get into a fight? Temari was this close to asking Hatake if those two had started dating when she thought better of it. It was none of her business and there were more important things to think about.
Still, that didn't stop her from noticing Haruno's subtle body language betraying her true feelings.
As the sun dipped behind the dunes, Temari noticed the pinkette scooching her seat closer and closer to her fellow chunin. Every time she thought no one was looking she would inch her butt nearer to his. By sunset, the tips of their fingertips were just ever so slightly touching. The fire pit could only illuminate part of their hands, leaving the rest concealed in private shadows. Temari wasn't even sure that Sakura knew she was doing it. Naruto had long given up trying to catch her gaze and resigned himself to watching the flames dance about, there was no way he noticed. If their jounin sensei had noticed he was doing a damned convincing job of looking indifferent.
Soon enough though, the silver haired squad leader had shut his orange book and order his men to turn in. He took first watch, with Temari volunteering for second as was said, and Sakura volunteering for the last watch. Temari observed as both Naruto and Sakura broke away from each other without uttering a word. They simply rifled through their backpacks and each pulled out their own sleeping bags.
The sand mistress was about to question why the two of them seemed so cold towards one another when she noticed how they had positioned their sleeping bags.
In a wide open clearing, they had placed their make-shift beds side by side, barely an inch separating them. Without a word they crawled into their bags and drifted off to sleep.
Again, if the copy-cat ninja had any problems with this arrangement, he didn't share it. As for Temari, she couldn't help but find the whole set up adorable. She herself had been on countless missions with ninjas of the opposite gender (not just her brothers mind you). And you never saw two ninjas sleep so close together unless there was something going on between them.
Temari remembered when she and the rest of the Sand ninjas had attacked the Leaf, when Naruto had fought Gaara it was to save that pink haired girl whom Gaara had taken hostage. Thinking back on it, he must have had a crush on her to go that far. And if that was the case, then Temari couldn't help but be overjoyed to discover that those two had finally (or would finally) discover one another.
Sure, she often came across as a cold and calculating bitch. But she was still a girl damn it! And this was quality grade A gossip. Years down the line, the bumbling knight finally wins the heart of his princess. It was just so precious. God damn did Temari need to make some girlfriends! She had been forced to hang out with her brothers for far too long and the only real friend she had in the Leaf was Shikamaru. Another guy who would think the sacred art of gossip to be nothing more than troublesome.
Temari was mentally listing off the pros and cons of asking out that Matsuri girl who always seemed to glow red whenever she was around the Kazekage when some exciting new development…well, developed.
From across the fire pit, Temari could see Naruto spread eagle, his limbs sticking out of his sleeping bag like he couldn't be contained even when lying unconscious. His left arm had landed right on top of Sakura, smacking her in the cheek. Rather than knock the klutz's hand away (and then knock the klutz himself away) Sakura's hand snaked out of her sleeping bag and grabbed ahold of Naruto's. She held his hand against her cheek, while her fingers intertwined with his. Temari couldn't see it in the dark, but both Sakura and Naruto's thumb took this opportunity to rub circles in each other's hand. Unknowingly, this had a calming effect on Naruto, preventing him from squirming around any further.
Temari thought she was going to squeal. This fluffy goodness was a welcome distraction from the horrible thoughts plaguing her mind about her brother. In time. She thought. When all of this is over and things are back to normal. I'd give anything to have a boyfriend like Sakura's. To have and to hold. To keep me warm on a cold night. But definitely not that little boy, Shikamaru. That guy's a pansy…
Several hours later, Sakura stirs herself awake. She awoke feeling particularly warm and fuzzy. More so than she could ever remember feeling.
Author's Note: Those last three sentences were added when I intended to add Sakura awakening and freaking out over spooning with Naruto, but by then inspiration dried up and would have felt unnecessarily tacked on. Such is the struggle of writing.
Since I posted the second chapter (and changed the title box to include the narusaku tag) I got over 400 views in less than 2 days. That to me is insane. I know other authors can boast much larger numbers, but I don't care. I'm so grateful to everyone who viewed, followed, favorited, and reviewed.
I'm also especially grateful to my co-author cmartinHFD for this chance to write narusaku without having to write the rest of the story surrounding it.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.