A/N at the end.

Chapter 7

Dinner time today for Gaara was not of the typical that he'd gotten used to as of late: Instead of the modest apartment in a quieter neighborhood, he found himself paying patronage to the bustling Ramen Ichiraku. Instead of the simple yet heartwarming homemade meal, an over-abundant serving of miso ramen was on his menu this evening. And instead of a certain pink-haired woman who'd warmly ask about his day at the table side, he had to field questions from an overly eager manager of the establishment about his dining experience.

"Itadakimasu!" uttered the adolescent beside him, as she snapped a pair of disposable chopsticks into vertical halves.

Nevertheless, Gaara did have the company of a raven-haired genin by the name of Sarada Uchiha. She'd invited him for dinner downtown after their training session today because, as she'd informed him, her mother wouldn't be home in time to welcome them to her cooking. According to the young girl, the medical staff at the Konoha Hospital had requested Sakura to provide consultations on a case concerning a newly admitted patient. And Sakura had left money for her with instructions to dine at a restaurant of her choosing.

Thus Gaara and Sarada now found themselves sitting side by side at the counter that sectioned off the restaurant's open kitchen, their presences effortlessly blending into the busy scene at Ichiraku during its peak hours. Much like the urban transformation that Konoha had undergone, the eatery too had been expanded and renovated. Once a small street-side stall, the property now boasted a much larger seating capacity indoor; the remodeled interiors, along with upgraded furniture, created an appealing ambiance. It'd become a popular destination for the locals and visitors alike to frequent. Said was personally true for Gaara as well. Understandably so, Ichiraku remained one of his preferred stops whenever he was in town. He appreciated that their product stayed authentic throughout, despite the modernization. In addition, the establishment held some of his fondest memories, which involved his best friend enlightening him about his favorite food over two piping hot bowls of the said food. Even after all these years, Gaara was grateful that he could continue the same tradition with Naruto from time to time.

"Mmm!" The young girl next to him openly expressed her delight in her dinner choice.

Gaara smiled, as he watched his companion savored each bite of her food. Sarada was a fast learner, he mused. In their recent training sessions—although far in between at times—he'd focused on remedying her deficiency in precision and speed in long-range combat. Her natural endowments from her lineage easily shone through in their simulated fights. The Uchiha prodigy's exceptional physical prowess and chakra control, coupled with her analytic mind, created a lethal combination to any adversary on the battleground, in addition to allowing her to grasp the training lessons rapidly.

Yet, there was one area where Gaara lacked the expertise to provide guidance: The use of her Sharingan. It was almost disheartening to watch the young Konoha-nin endeavor on her own to fine-tune her doujutsu skills every time. Her father would be the most sensible candidate to coach her in this domain, but his support was long-time missing due to obvious reasons. Regardless, Sarada had taken all of Gaara's teachings from their training sessions to heart and proven herself to be a capable kunoichi with promising potentials. Her goal of becoming the future Hokage was well within reach, Gaara reckoned.

Sarada's uninhibited slurping of the noodles from her bowl had somehow added an appetizing factor to the serving of ramen he was about to consume. Gaara figured he'd better start on his dinner before the noodles soaked to an undesirable state. He brought a spoonful of soup to his mouth and took it in without hesitation. The rich scrumptious broth mercilessly burned his tongue. He forced the hot liquid down so to prevent himself from sputtering it out in an unseemly manner. Grimacing while reaching for the cup of cold water next to his bowl, he wondered how and when he'd become so childishly careless, but realized that he'd neglected to test the temperature of the food absent of Sakura's gentle habitual warning at his ear side—something that he'd grown accustomed to hearing before each meal at the Uchiha household. He didn't think he'd become dependent on someone else for the simplest things.

"Gaara-ojisan, how did you first meet my mom?"

Before Gaara could fall pensive over his latest realization, the black-haired girl beside him had posed mid-eating a conversation starter, one he hadn't anticipated. He folded his arms, as he mentally tried to retrieve the memories that'd supply him the answer to Sarada's question.

It'd been so long, he ruminated. Honestly, he couldn't remember, but their very first encounter must have occurred during their generation's Chuunin Exams in Konohagakure. It was his logical deduction. After all, that was when he'd met one of the individuals that held the most significance in his life, Naruto Uzumaki. Naturally, as part of his jinchuuriki friend's cohort, Sakura must have been alongside the blond; though to Gaara's younger self, her presence was likely overlooked. Outside of his siblings, Naruto had always been Gaara's most memorable and influential person in his adolescence.

A pang of guilt prodded his inside. The thought that he'd paid little mind to Sakura back then made Gaara feel undeserving of the attention, generosity, and kindness she'd come to show him.

"Your parents and Naruto were on the same team. We all participated in the same iteration of the Chuunin Exams about two decades ago." His response lacked specificity, but it was the best Gaara could offer given his inadequate recall.

"Yeah, Nanadaime told me they were all teammates." Sarada echoed the information she was given. She'd ceased her enjoyment of her food and was now perceptibly less cheerful in her demeanor. Staring blankly into her half-filled bowl, she murmured, "Mama doesn't like to talk about the past…"

The girl laid her chopsticks down. Turning her head toward Gaara, she continued, "I think there are things about Papa that she doesn't want me to know. Did he…" she hesitated, "do something bad?"

The child was very intuitive for her age, Gaara decided.

Sasuke had a contentious history. Despite the Uchiha being someone dear to Naruto, Gaara never grew an affinity toward the once self-proclaimed avenger. The Sharingan wielder, so neck-deep in revenge at one time, was a traitor who'd abandoned his village; his status was arguably the equivalent of a missing-nin. He'd also committed several heinous crimes, joined the notorious Akatsuki organization, and was unrepentant of his acts until the very end.

Despite the lengthy list of Sasuke's offenses, his friends—the very ones that he'd left behind in the dust to cope with the consequences of his desertion—readily embraced him with unconditional forgiveness when he finally returned to Konoha to make amends. Gaara, for one, had difficulty in empathizing with the actions by his peers from the Hidden Leaf. But he'd tried to understand, knowing full well about Naruto's boundless devotion to his friends. Aside from Naruto's willingness to pardon Sasuke's checkered past, the clemency that the Konoha Council had shown the raven-haired man was also highly controversial. Though Gaara was not surprised in the least. After the war, Sasuke was the only surviving member of the infamous Uchiha clan. He'd been granted mercy, because after all, individuals with Kekkei Genkai, especially when they were the last of their kind, were assets to any village.

Still, Gaara knew better than to dispute Sasuke's reputation in front of the young Uchiha heiress. "No. Your father saved the world along with Naruto."

Upon his reply, Sarada sighed. "I know. That's what everyone tells me. Nanadaime stayed here in the village though. I don't understand why Papa has to be away all the time."

He could agree with her sentiment, but he wasn't about to add to her downbeat mood. "It must be for good reason."

"Mama said he's on an important mission. But…" Crestfallen, Sarada cast her eyes back down. "I don't need a hero for a dad. I want a dad who's here for me and my mom."

Gaara frowned.

Sasuke is an idiot.

Speaking of not having developed a liking toward the Uchiha, what bothered Gaara the most about Sasuke was that the man took lightly of everything that he himself yearned for during his childhood. When he'd resolved to transform his dismal life for the better, Gaara had toiled to gain the respect, acknowledgment, and friendships from all those around him. Sasuke, on the other hand, was handed all these from the very start, but he chose not to treasure what he had… even up until now, as it was apparent. What kind of man would willingly neglect his familial duties and seek purpose in something that concerned not his loved ones? The back of his mind drifted to the scene where he'd found himself smiling in parallel to Sarada and Sakura's joyous laughter in that familiar dining room…—Only a foolish one at that, Gaara conceived. No matter the magnitude of the mission, Sasuke's limited returns to his family over the span of years was unreasonable.

"Gaara-ojisan, do you like my mom?"

Sarada's distinct voice snapped Gaara out of his contemplation. It was a question as innocent as the expression she'd conveyed to him, but he found himself unprepared to give a straight answer; not because of the unexpectedness of Sarada's query, but because of its nature.

It wasn't that he disliked Sakura. No, far from it. It was just that lately he wasn't so sure anymore where his stance was in his ever-growing relationship with the pink-haired woman. And the recent episodes of their interactions only served to tangle his thoughts into knots of confusion, with the way she'd hesitantly rest her head against his back, as well as the way his rigid body curiously welcomed the foreign yet delicate gesture…

Were all of this part of a natural progression en route to a deeper friendship? He felt inane to be asking such a question. He was an isolationist no more; he had friends, and he knew friendships. But out of his friends, not many were female. Even fewer who'd interacted with Gaara the same way Sakura had—actually, none had done exactly what she did, to open up not only her home, but also her mind for him to acquaint with and understand.

If Gaara were to close his eyes, he could easily relive the times when he felt the inundating warmth of her being through the smallest contact where her forehead gently touched his clothed body. Yet it was these seemingly inconsequential moments they shared that was the most meaningful. Underneath the spoken, he'd seen manifestations of her troubled inner self that she so struggled to suppress; he'd become aware of her anxieties to a fair extent. And he was partially confident about the root of the disturbance. After all, Sakura's averse reactions to his mentioning of Sasuke, as well as her avoidance of the name in spite of their expansive conversations, was a telltale sign.

So what if Gaara had granted her a reprieve from her tumultuous emotions for minutes longer than necessary? He'd fulfilled an obligation as a friend to comfort and support his companion in need. And, it just so happened that he preferred to see Sakura smile a bit more radiantly each and every time afterwards.

Hence, at the end of the day, Gaara would chalk up their growing closeness to friendship and settle on a neutral answer to satisfy Sarada's inquisitiveness.

"She is a friend that I'm fond of…" he trailed off.

"I see." Sarada quietly stared into her bowl again, as though taking a moment to absorb his reply. It was another minute before she angled her head toward Gaara and asked, "Gaara-ojisan, you are leaving Konoha tomorrow?"

"Yes, I've concluded my business here for this visit."

"When are you coming back?"

"It's uncertain. I have no travels to Konoha scheduled as of yet."

Sarada's disappointment was made visible through her drooped mouth and knitted brows. Though she'd wiped away her gloom from her face before long. Her deep obsidian eyes locked with his, as she announced, "My birthday and Mama's birthday are coming up next month; March thirty-first and twenty-eight. We usually have one celebration together because the dates are so close… Will you come to the party?"

Unlikely.

Gaara held his tongue before he could allow his automatic thought verbalized. It was a truthful answer: Aside from his Kage duties that necessitated his presence in Konoha, he'd traveled to the village only a handful of times for personal reasons in the past few years. Even his trips lately were a bit out of the norm in terms of its higher frequency. Thanks to the efforts drawn up by Konoha and Suna to aid their respective neighboring nations in their joint mission to cultivate and sustain alliances, Gaara had found himself more or less a regular visitor here in the recent months. But now that he'd fulfilled his present work requirements, he had no cause to press him for another visit anytime soon. Additionally, taking into consideration the substantial amount of work that awaited his attention at home, he'd anticipate himself grounded in his office for an unforeseeable future, much less being able to return to Konoha in less than a month's time.

Yet, against his bout of rationale, Gaara offered a more optimistic response: "I will try my best."

"Promise?"

"It's a promise."

A/N: Womp, no Sakura in this chapter; but worry not, she'll be back in the next! Though I did enjoy Gaara and Sarada's interactions.

Yes, yes, I know, updates are still coming out slow. Please bear with me!

In other more exciting news, I'm calling out to all you GaaSaku lovers out there with regards to a GS fanfic/art exchange event on tumblr that will be happening in December! You can find more information via the link: gaasaku-fanfests dot tumblr dot com. The deadline to sign up is next Friday. I will also post about this on my FFN profile. I urge anyone who's interested to participate and spread the word. This fandom needs more love! 3