Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters associated with it.

A One Month Bet

The small bar that Temari led Sakura to was some distance away near the inner-western part of the city. The streets had begun to grow dim as they arrived. It was cramped into the side of an alleyway, with a dark-lit door barely visible from the street. Sakura was wary about being in an unfamiliar environment. She'd gone out drinking with Naruto and some other friends in the past, but she'd really only known Temari a number of days. She could only hope that her new friend could hold her liquor enough to find her way back to the mansion, because otherwise Sakura would truly be lost, and while she was sure she could hold her own against any robbers or things of the sort, it wasn't something she was particularly hoping to run into.

Stop worrying! Inner Sakura scolded. You're here to have fun, remember? Now get in there and enjoy yourself! Sakura took a calming breath and followed Temari through the entrance way. Inside it was loud and hot and vibrant. The bar lined one side of the room, while a small dance floor occupied by obviously too many people monopolized the other. Sakura didn't recognize the music that was playing from the live band in the corner, but it had an easy beat, and she liked it.

"I'll get us some drinks!" Temari said loudly over the music. Sakura nodded and followed behind her, gazing into the dancing crowd as she did so. A familiar, tattooed face was bobbing among the bodies. When Kankuro spotted her, he motioned for her to join him. She smiled and shook her head politely, so Kankuro made his way to her instead. She grinned with true amusement as he tried rhythmically to bounce is way out of the chaotic mass.

"Hey Sakura!" he shouted, while dislodging his lower half from between two dancing bodies. Sakura still felt a tad awkward around him, for she hadn't seen Kankuro since the previous Saturday, when he'd… Knowingly? Unknowingly?... embarrassed her. She still wasn't sure, and so she greeted him shiftily, maintaining just enough distance away from him so as not to seem too personable. Temari returned just in time to relieve Sakura of her discomfort.

"I didn't know what you liked," she said while handing Sakura a colorful drink, "So I got you something fruity." She turned to her brother and said, "Shoulda known you'd be here. I'm surprised they haven't kicked you out yet."

"Nah," Kankuro grinned as he tugged playfully at one of her pigtails. "I'm not drunk enough yet."

Temari slapped his hand away and gave him a glare of warning. No one tugged at her pigtails and expected to live another day. Kankuro laughed and held up both his hands in surrender. He backed away toward the crowd and said, "Besides, I got a lovely little lady waiting back for me on the dance floor, so I'll be here for a while."

Sakura blinked in surprise. Kankuro was here with a date, it seemed. Some of her unease dissipated. A week ago, she thought perhaps he'd been flirting with her with his deliberate mention of her "soak" at the bathhouse. Now, however, he was hurriedly bumping his way back to a dark-haired woman across the dance floor.

As though sensing Sakura's thoughts, Temari nudged her in the arm. "Don't worry about Kankuro. He's eighty-percent talented Shinobi, twenty-percent idiot. He's got a bit of a reputation for being a party boy, but he's a good guy." Sakura smiled at the reassurance. The character distribution reminded her of perhaps her closest friend, Naruto, though she believed in his case the values might have been switched.

Sakura and Temari sat at the bar a while, chatting and sipping at their drinks. Sakura's drink tasted of strawberries, something she would not have anticipated in a bar located in a desert. The sweet tang of it masked the bite of the alcohol, and so it encouraged every subsequent sip. Every now and again, Kankuro would escape the overwhelming horde of dancers and have a drink with them. The more she talked with them, less uncomfortable she felt. She even accepted Kankuro's invitation to dance with him… after another drink-and-a-half, that is. She met his date, a petite young woman who was clearly not of the ninja variety, but who greeted her pleasantly and who didn't seem to be offended with the fact that Kankuro would be dancing with both of them.

Dancing was a rather loose term to use, however, as Sakura was soon to discover. The dance floor was so cramped that all she could really do was jump up and down to the ever-changing beat of the music. She was truly having a good time, though. Once, while resting at the bar after a particularly fast song was played, a sandy-haired man with a dark-skinned complexion pulled up a seat next to her.

"Is that your natural hair color?" he asked in a gravelly voice.

Ugh, like I haven't heard that one before.

Albeit the crappy pick-up line, Sakura turned to face him. He was a handsome young man, though his heavy eyelids betrayed just how drunk he was. Sakura, however, was not intrigued in the least. His hair wasn't red enough, his eyes weren't dark enough, and there was no blood-red, tell-tale mark on his forehead. Also, his voice sounded as though he'd swallowed a mouthful of wet sand. Could this perhaps be the sand nin Temari had smothered with a sandstorm earlier? Sakura smirked at the thought. Regardless, his voice did not send shivers cascading down her body the way the dark, sultry tone of a certain other man's would have. Her cheeks, though already flushed from the heat of the room, soon blazed even brighter as she realized she was thinking about Subaku no Gaara. Her intruder mistakenly assumed her blush was meant for him, and he scooted nearer to her so that his knee touched hers.

"Can I bry you a dink?" he slurred heavily. Though Sakura was pleasantly buzzed herself, she was not yet inebriated enough to fall for this creep. Already he was leaning in too close, as though he might fall off his bar stool and onto her.

"No, thank you," she said quickly and edged off her seat.

"You wanna dance?" he tried again, but as he took a step toward her, he actually did fall to the floor. The bartender rolled his eyes and motioned for another, more muscular man to help escort Mr. Gravel out. Temari, who had been watching from afar on the dance floor, hurried to Sakura's side. Nothing needed to be said. They simply started laughing uncontrollably, holding onto each other for support.

Some time later, after more dancing and more drinks and the departure of Kankuro's date, the trio sat at the bar all together. Kankuro seemed a tad disheartened that his "lovely lady" had abandoned him without the promise of a second date, and he was happy to take out his frustration on a fresh bottle of amber liquid.

"Don't worry 'bout it, Kankuro," Temari sighed while lounging backward against the bar. "There's always more sand in the dessert."

"You mean desert," Sakura corrected shakily. She chuckled and finished off her fifth drink of the night. Thankfully she had enough physical control to remain mostly coherent, but this was perhaps the most drunk she'd been in months. Last time, Naruto had tricked her into playing truth or dare—Not a mistake she was likely to make again. He'd dared her to accompany him on a real date. Never again would she wake up at the counter of Ichiraku next to a snoring Naruto with his face half-submerged in a puddle of cold beef ramen.

Kankuro grouchily took a swig from his bottle.

Temari sat up to shift her seat position, but the movement was too quick and it made her sway. Proud kunoichi as she was, she growled and made a grim, thin line with her lips. "Damn, man. This is gonna freaking s-suck tomorrow. I'll have to go back to work on—"

"Oh, shut it, Temari," Kankuro scowled as he took another swig of his drink. "You sound like Gaara."

Sakura's smile faded, but she said nothing. She didn't even crack a smile when Temari slapped her brother upside the head, causing him to blubber and spill some of his drink. He growled and wiped his mouth on the back of his arm. Attempting to lift the hostility from the conversation, he shifted his tone and took another sip. "So you couldn't convince him to come tonight either, huh?" he inquired.

Temari shrugged, "Nope. I even told him Sakura was coming."

Sakura snapped her attention on Temari's comment. "What's so important about me?" she asked wryly. Surely her presence would hold no sway over the Kazekage's decision to remain unassociated with the party scene. If anything, Sakura felt that Gaara would view her in distaste of the subject. He'd given her free reign to do with her free time whatever she pleased, but she doubted going to bar, drinking and dancing with strangers, would earn her any favorable respect from him.

Temari and Kankuro shared a single, knowing glance that Sakura took to be a look of drunken allocation. "Nothing," Kankuro grunted.

Temari, despite her inebriated state, shrugged indifferently. "Usually Kankuro is the one to urge Gaara to go out and have a good time, but s-sometimes I do it, like tonight. We figured if someone new was going, he might finally give in."

Sakura wasn't convinced. Her intuition told her that wasn't the whole truth, but before she could ask another question, Kankuro shifted in his seat and tilted his liquor towards her. "Doesn' your Hokage take time out of her busy schedule to go out and have fun every nowinagin?" He took a moment to try and sober up his speech a bit before continuing to say, "I thought she had a thing for sake."

Sakura was too drunk to be offended by the comment about her Hokage. Instead, she blinked and angled herself slightly away. "Tsunade takes her job very seriously. She gave up drinking sake when s-she became Hokage." Well, at least it was mostly true. Sakura guessed Tsunade would've loved to go out partying, or in her case, gambling, if given the chance. She also knew, because she was her trusted apprentice, that her shishou would sometimes get so frustrated with work that she would shove off some menial reports on Sakura and go indulge in bottle or two. But Sakura would never betray her beloved teacher, because for all her past drinking problems, Tsunade had sobered up and accepted the title of Hokage, though hesitantly, with pride. She had brought their village back into order during a time of war, and she had taken Sakura under her wing. It was a blessing Sakura would never forget.

Kankuro wasn't entirely happy with Sakura's reply. He grimaced and countered with, "Well, she's kinda older, right? I mean, Gaara's only twenty. He's miss-sing out on the freaking prime of his life."

Sakura pondered this fact for a while, mostly because it was true. Beautiful, busty Tsunade looked to be in her early thirties, when in reality she was old enough to be Sakura's grandmother, perhaps even great grandmother. She had definitely seen her share of fun—and hard—times. Gaara, on the other hand, was roughly the same age as Sakura, and up until about five years ago he'd been forced to share his existence with a demon, a monster caged inside his body. His childhood had been filled with death, hate, and fear—even from the siblings who were so concerned with his current well-being. It wasn't until he met and fought with Naruto, another bird of the same, blood-tainted feather, that he'd rediscovered the value of life. At the ripe age of fourteen he was granted the title of Kazekage, but he was soon kidnapped and killed by the Akatsuki. Once he was revived by the famous and revered Chiyo-sama, he was reinstated, and that was the extent of Sakura's knowledge of him. Had Gaara ever had any time to simply be a child? A teenager? A man? Had he ever been really loved? Ever had the opportunity to love in return? Sakura guessed that he had not, even unto this day. She frowned with genuine sympathy. How sad his life must've been. How… lonely.

As though confirming her thoughts, Temari nodded slowly. "We've tried for years to get him to loosen up." she said somewhat sadly. "He needs it."

"He needs-s to get laid," Kankuro grunted. "The prick."

Sakura gaped at his bluntness. He'd been quite fun to be around at the start of the evening, but it seemed the Kankuro became more and more bitter the more he drank. Maybe he was still just miffed about being stood up.

Temari scoffed. "Hah! I don't think he'd know how." She sent a wink in Sakura's direction, which in turn led another rush of heat into Sakura's cheeks. Temari continued as though she had not noticed. "I don't think he'd even know how to kiss a girl! He's never had a girlfriend."

Kankuro shook his head. "He probably could've," he said bitterly. "D'you know how many dates I've had where women asked me about my handsome Kazekage brother." He forced a comical high-pitched voice that made Temari snort into her drink. "He could literally have anyone woman he wanted, probably. He's just never esspres—expreps…"

"Expressed?" Sakura offered. She was now intrigued by the conversation, perhaps more so, she noted, than she should be.

Kankuro nodded and went on with what he was saying: "He's never ex-pressed any interest in anybody until—"

Temari shot him a warning glare, drunk though she was, that silenced her brother mid-statement. But it was too late. Sakura had already caught on. "Until?" she pressed, "Until… now?"

A beat of hesitance passed between brother and sister, but ultimately it was Temari who gave in. "Yeah. Gaara… apparently… has found someone he's intersted in."

"Intersted in," Sakura echoed slowly, no longer caring that both she and Temari were too drunk to pronounce 'interested' correctly. "Who's he intersted in?"

Kankuro answered quickly, "Dunno. Won't tellus."

It was easy enough to believe, so Sakura didn't push the matter. Why would Subaku no Gaara, in all his solitude, tell anyone whom he had feelings for? It could be you, the hazy inner corridors of her mind whispered—No. Ridiculous. It was the alcohol talking.

"But!" Kankuro drew Sakura from her musings once again, and she looked at him attentively. "It wouldn' matter if he told anyone because he's decided that he's not gonna purse it."

"Pursue it." Temari corrected lazily.

"Right," Kankuro gruffed. "So it doesn' matter."

"But it wouldn' do him any good if he did, because he wouldn' know what he was doing," his sister chuckled casually. "It's like he's chasing a sandstorm: if he ever finally caught it, what the hell would he do with all that sand?"

Sakura blinked heavily at the metaphor. Her mind was swimming with too much alcohol to fully understand what Temari was saying. She doubted that comparison would've made any sense even if she was sober.

With a final swig, Kankuro finished off his drink. The bottle left his lips with a wet 'pop!' and he set it down with a sigh. To discover it was empty made him look just as sad as when his date had split, but instead of ordering another he simply shifted his attention back to the conversation. "What he needs is a lesson."

"A lesson?" Sakura ventured curiously.

"Yeah!" Temari said as she sat up, suddenly very excited. "Like a kissing lesson! So that he can feel more confident approaching his secret admirer… I mean admire? Whatever."

Sakura almost couldn't contain her humor. "That's ridiculous! Are you even hearing yourself right now?"

Apparently not. Temari continued without even acknowledging Sakura's protest. "Only, it would have to come from someone who knows what they're doing!"

Kankuro nodded, "Mhm. But we couldn' just get anybody. He'd turn 'em away."

"Right. So it needs to be someone he knows."

"Someone close by."

"Someone he could trust."

The ocean of alcohol that was churning in Sakura's dizzy head suddenly parted as though it were the Red Sea. She looked quickly from Temari to Kankuro to Temari again, realizing all too soon that they were both staring at her expectantly.

"Me?" she squeaked.

"That's so noble of you to offer, Sakura-chan!" Temari grinned. Sakura shook her head quickly as she blushed again, her cheeks hotter than ever before.

"Nonono, I couldn't. I can't! He's the Kazekage and I—"

"Ah, c'mon. Just one lesson!" Kankuro smiled. Despite his misfortune with his lady friend, this was the most excited he'd looked all night.

"Look don't worry s-so much," Temari giggled, "Just a little kissing lesson."

Sakura gulped, trying hard to hold her liquor down. The butterflies now dancing in her stomach at the thought of Temari's proposal were not getting along well with all those drinks she'd downed. She imagined herself kissing Gaara. It was a thought that had not yet crossed her mind, but she wasn't too alarmed that Inner Sakura thoroughly enjoyed it. To press her lips against his, to feel the warmth his mouth. The butterflies increased in number, nearing the uncomfortable sensation of nausea.

Her thoughts were jarred as Temari touched her shoulder gently. "It doesn' have to be anything intense. We just want him to have an idea of what he's up against."

Kankuro nodded, "In case he does decide to purse it."

A number of Sakura's butterflies began dropping like lead to the pit of her stomach. Suddenly her excitement had morphed into… disappointment. I won't be kissing Gaara… She thought sadly, It won't be me. Not really. I'm just a teacher…

Sakura-sensei…

She nearly gagged at the thought. She wanted so badly for it to be more than a lesson. She wanted to kiss Gaara, really kiss him. She hated the fact that whatever kiss they might share would lack feeling and intimacy. It would only be something for him to use in the future… Something to use on some other woman.

It's not like he and I have a future anyways… she sulked. Normally she would've discarded a thought like that, but the alcohol let free many hidden feelings she'd been trying to ignore. She liked Gaara. She'd been attracted to him the moment she'd stepped into his office two weeks ago. She was excited to see him when he called her for meetings and she was upset now that he had been treating her distantly. If he wasn't the Kazekage, and she wasn't from Konoha, perhaps things might've been different. Maybe they could've met like any other accidental couple. Like at the grocery store.

"Well, if it isn't Subaku no Gaara! Buying eggs, I see."

"Haruno Sakura. Good to see you again. I like eggs."

"I like eggs, too."

"You do, huh? Ya don't say."

Done. Happily ever after, right there.

Sakura chewed on her cheek. What was she thinking? There was absolutely no chance for her. Gaara was Gaara. She could not imagine him to be anyone else than who he was, and he was the Kazekage. IS the Kazekage. Things like 'happily-ever-afters' did not exist in the world of a Shinobi.

Sakura was so deep in thought that remembering the outside world was still going on rattled her. Temari had to shake her shoulder to bring her back to real time. "Sakura-chan?" she asked.

Sakura readjusted to her environment. The musicians were packing their instruments and the dance floor was clearing out. It would be time to head back to the mansion soon.

"Sakura, will you do it?"

Inner Sakura coyly scratched at the edge of her mind… Well, if you did want a chance with this man you've been fantasizing over, this could be your only opportunity… The alcohol made her feel unnaturally brave against completely incomprehensible circumstances.

"I'll do it."

Reviews are appreciated. Until next chapter,

Olly