Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto. Be glad.
A/N: This Sari is pretty much a personal OC. I have no idea what the modern fanon version is like. This version is from.. 2009? 2010?
Love Fever
Sari gave a soft sigh and nestled deeper into her sleeping bag, hair spread out beneath her head. Gaara placed a hand on her cheek. Her skin felt hot and dry, yet he could feel her shivering. He removed the drying cloth, cut from his sash, from her forehead and poured water on a fresh one.
"Gaara-sama…" Ittetsu whispered nervously. "How is she?"
He turned his head to the other teenage boy. He looked back at the girl and placed the wet rag on her forehead. "She will be fine."
It was a lie perhaps, but one he had to believe. It had been his responsibility to ensure everyone in his team got away safely. He had failed. Even so, he wouldn't yield to defeat yet.
"Go check on Matsuri," he ordered Ittetsu. She had offered to stand watch, too vexed by her friend's near death to rest. The Genin stammered an affirmative and slipped out of the tent.
Brown eyes fluttered open. "G-Gaa…?" Sari mumbled feebly. She moved to sit up.
Gaara pushed her back down, careful not to jostle her. She felt so frail, though he could feel muscle beneath his hands.
"Don't get up. You're burning with a fever," he said, touching their foreheads together to check her temperature. Yes, it seemed her temperature had gotten higher. Her cheeks were flushed and her breath came out rather laboriously.
Sari stammered, "I-I'm fine, Gaara-sama, really. I'll be fine."
Gaara sat back. "You were badly injured. I tended the injury as best I could, but I fear it's been infected."
An infection would surely prove fatal if the medic didn't arrive in time, if the fever didn't kill her first.
"T-Tended my...?" Her light brown eyes widened and she made a strained sound through her teeth, vibrant red plumes of infectious fever spreading across her face.
"Don't panic. You will only spread the infection faster," Gaara warned her, placing a hand on her wrist. Her pulse was much too fast.
She remarked in a near whisper, smiling shyly, "You're... kinder than I thought you would be. Someone warned me you cared only for yourself and saw other people as expendable."
Whoever told her that had perception months too late. It was true once, back when he was a different boy.
"I haven't had many chances to work with people other than my siblings," he admitted. No sense telling her he used to crush people to death to feel the thrill of being alive.
Sari pulled the sleeping bag over her red face. "Gaara-sama… You know, there is something you could do to encourage me to fight this fever…"
Gaara frowned. What could she need from him?
Sari looked away. "Will you eat fried octopus with me?" She squeaked out in a timid little voice partially muffled, eyes screwed shut.
Gaara raised a nonexistent eyebrow, unsure what to think. If it was a matter of life and death, of course he would choose to eat with her. What sort of question was that? "Yes?"
Sari closed her eyes with a soft sigh. Her breathing slowed as she drifted into unconsciousness.
Her dreams must be pleasant, Gaara thought, observing the content smile on the radiant girl's lips as she slept off the fever.
-fin-