Author's Note: New chapter! Yay! Now we get a brief glimpse at Naruto while he's off on his mission.

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 23: Naruto Fireside Discussions

Naruto stared up at the stars, his hands tucked behind his head as he waited for sleep to claim him. The small group had been traveling for three days and he was finding himself oddly homesick. He sighed as he wondered what was going on back in the village.

Sakura was on watch and she turned her attention towards him at the small noise. "Naruto, what is the matter with you?" She asked quietly, not wanting to wake the two jonin or the elderly bridge builder sleeping nearby.

Naruto shrugged. "It's funny. I left the village for over two years and it was great. I mean, sure I wondered about everyone sometimes, but I was learning a lot and I didn't really think about what I was missing very often. Now though...we've only been gone for three days and I can barely think of anything except home."

The pink haired girl nodded. "Well, maybe it's because now you have someone in particular you want to go back to." She suggested with a smile.

A goofy grin spread over the jinchuriki's face and his thoughts were clearly miles away when he replied. "Yeah...I guess that could be it." The jinchuriki blushed slightly at the admission and hoped the pink haired teen wouldn't notice it in the dim light.

Sakura shook her head fondly. As much as Naruto sometimes aggravated her, he was one of her best friends and she was glad he had found someone that made him so happy. 'And at least now he's not chasing after me.' Her inner voice pointed out snidely. Sakura had to agree that was also a plus. Naruto was sweet but there was no way she could ever have felt the sort of affection he had wanted from her. He was more like an annoying little brother as far as she was concerned, despite them being the same age.

Naruto's unusually quiet voice pulled her from her thoughts. "Sakura-chan."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

Sakura nodded and the pair fell back into easy silence. The blonde was toying with something on a cord around his neck. 'He's doing it again.' She noted curiously. Sakura had first spotted the tiny glass container when they left the village and she had grown steadily more curious about it as the days passed. Naruto couldn't seem to keep his hands off the pendant whenever they stopped to rest.

"What is that?" She asked, suddenly unable to stand her curiosity anymore.

The jinchuriki's hand froze and he clutched the necklace in his hand as if he thought she might try to snatch it from him. In the flickering from their small fire, the pink haired girl couldn't be totally sure but it looked like her longtime friend was blushing as he replied.

"It's a gift. Gaara gave it to me."

Wheels turned in the highly intelligent leaf ninja's mind. She had studied Suna's customs when Konoha first became allies with the desert village. You never knew when such knowledge might make the difference between a pleasant diplomatic discussion and an international incident. Her eyes widened as the implications of the small gift registered and she fought with herself for a moment over whether she should tell her excitable friend what she knew.

"Naruto...um..."

The blonde sat up in one elbow to see her better and Sakura felt her resolve shake. If Gaara hadn't told him what the necklace meant, then maybe it was nothing but she also knew he shouldn't go around telling people Gaara gave him a necklace because anyone who knew anything about Suna would read into it more than the blonde intended.

"Um...that necklace. In Suna, it's a custom to...ah..."

Naruto smiled crookedly. "Yeah. I know." He said simply, deciding to rescue his flustered friend.

"You know?!" Sakura felt her jaw drop and her eyes bug out. There was no way he knew what she was going to say. He was too calm. Naruo was never so calm about anything to do with girls.

"Temari told me." The chunin confirmed, laying back down and spinning the necklace above his face to let the grains of sand catch the moonlight.

"Then you..." It was too much to process. Naruto could not seriously be engaged. He was barely mature enough to take care of himself, much less a wife.

"It's not official yet. I still have to ask her brother for permission and make her a necklace too." He said slowly. "Gaara...she asked me the night before we left the village." He admitted with a small grin. He didn't add that the sand wielder had thought him too asleep to hear her at the time. In his mind it still counted. "I know we're both still young but Gaara already..." His throat constricted on the words and it took him a moment to force them out. "She died, Sakura. I could have lost her forever before I even knew what I was missing and it nearly broke my heart then. I don't think I could stand to ever lose her now." His eyes brimmed with tears at the memory and he had to fight them back.

Sakura was speechless. Not only was her most hyperactive and sometimes dense friend halfway to getting engaged, he was also totally serious about it. 'He really does love her.' She realized with a start. She had known he was serious about Gaara before but this sort of love was beyond her scope of experience. Even her long held crush on Sasuke paled in comparison to the depth of the emotion should could see and hear from Naruto when he talked about the redheaded Kazekage.

A thousand questions ran through her analytical mind as she went over the complications that could arise from such a high profile marriage between two hidden villages. However, when she finally found her tongue, she asked the only question that mattered. "How can I help?"

Naruto blinked in shock, obviously having expected to need to work harder to convince his longtime teammate that he knew what he was getting into. His dumbstruck look soon morphed into an excited grin as he looked over at her. "I don't know, unless you can help me think of reasons Kankuro should let me marry his sister." He shook his head ruefully, still dreading that conversation more than anything his current mission might throw at him.

Sakura nodded seriously. She could do that. "Sure. I'll see what I can come up with."

Naruto's grin grew even broader and he let his head flop back onto his pallet once more. "Thanks Sakura-chan."

The pink haired girl smiled fondly at her friend and didn't reply as she turned her attention back to her guard duty, now puzzling over the blonde's request in the back of her mind. 'There are bound to be some good reasons they should get married.' She told herself.

Naruto's breathing evened out as he finally fell asleep and she glanced over at the jinchuriki to confirm what her ears had already told her. She smiled again as she noticed the vial of sand was still clutched in the blonde's hand.

'Reason number one: They love each other.' The romantic inside Sakura chimed in. Her more pragmatic side mentally slapped her. 'Baka. Naruto could come up with that much on his own. I can do better.'

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Naruto is a sneaky little fox, ne? What will Gaara think when she finds out he remembers her proposal after all? Next chapter, back to Gaara to see how her sleep, or lack thereof is going.