"I should be there! I'm his big sister!" Temari raged as she set foot in the house. Shoes all but ripped from her feet and clothes torn off as if suffocating her. Shikamaru had heard all of this at dinner, by which he'd silently listened for the most part. It was better to steer clear of Temari's wrath whenever possible, and eating was one of those times. He'd much rather eat in disruption than be forced to not eat at all once her rage settled in his direction. So she vented and he listened. That was fine, but it hadn't ended when she got fed, so now it was becoming a real drag.

"It's not personal, it's for the investigation." His slow voice ejected in the momentary silence it took Temari to unwrap her chest binding. Blue eyes, sparkling and beautiful, but filled with untapped anger, stared him down. Momentarily, Shikamaru was scared for his life. He swiftly cleared his throat and went into repair mode, "I just mean, aren't we supposed to be planning for our wedding?"

"I can't concentrate on that right now! If Gaara isn't better soon, we're not going to have a wedding!" It was as if Temari had forgotten that very thought until it left her plump lips. Her brother was pertinent to their wedding. Without him there, Temari refused to have one; if Gaara died (her throat constricted at the thought) then she had convinced herself they wouldn't have one. It was at that thought that Temari began to rebind her chest, struggling with it in her haste. "I'm going to see him."

Shikamaru sighed, "So we're not planning the wedding?"

"Not right now!"

Not expecting the rejection to sting, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked at the wall to his left. "Either way, it's a drag." This troublesome woman has been moody lately, which was expected, given the circumstances. He supposed he should give her more grace in the situation. He knew was grief felt like, after all.

"Listen, T, we'll go first thing tomorrow morning." He began as he walked closer to the rigid woman.

He stopped her binding, which exposed her perked, pink, nipple. The image felt like a wave of excitement that landed deep in his belly. The Nara used his height to tower her as he brought their faces close together. He never really knew where this side came from, always chalking it up to nature's primal evolutionary response to the sex you were attracted to, and in this case, the woman that also produced the distinctly human emotions of love in his brain.

"I know you're not comfortable with others doing your job, and you want to protect your brother, but they're doing everything to rule out every possible reason he's sick. I know you trust Sakura, or you wouldn't have left Gaara's side, but we both know she won't let anything happen to him."

Their foreheads pressed together, basking in the reassurance of their love. Shikamaru embraced her face between his two strong hands, and soon their lips connected. He knew just how to calm her down.

—-

Quiet moans stifled behind the teeth of the woman, biting into the flesh of the man's shoulder. With a hefty push of his hip, Shikamaru elicited an even deeper mewl from his bride; her teeth retracted from his skin, her mouth ripping open to scream her appreciation. Mixing heavy breaths and slapping of skin filled the dimly lit room. Shikamaru's large hand enclosed around the ample breast of the woman below him, and his lips found the engorged nipple. Sucking at the pink nub, he slammed his hips, engulfing his endowment into the tightness of her walls, sucking him deeper inside. His breath caught at the feeling, making him nip at the sensitive engorgement in his mouth. Temari cried out, her back caving, carrening, and calling to the body above her. She gripped onto the man with her trembling hands. Thick thighs wrapped around the toned body of the Nara, bringing him into her folds deeper than before, and they both cried out together in their pleasure.

Carefully trimmed nails dug into the skin of his back, eliciting a guttural moan from the man's throat, the sound deep and reverberating. Rhythmic pounding of his hips, Shikamaru heard the triggers of an orgasm at the plump lips of his woman. Her eyes rolled involuntarily to the back of her head, her body shivering below him, and most of all, her already tight vagina wrapped like a viper around his cock. He was so close now as she rode the wave of ecstasy. Desperately, he pounded his hips faster, feeling the need for release. Soon, produced by the tight walls and meetings of Temari, he was spent. No thought, he spilled over, his seed shooting deep inside her womb, which drank it in emphatically. Breathless, Shikamaru fell gently to the waiting chest of Temari. Softly, she brushed her shaking hands through his hair which had been let loose from his normal constraints. For what felt like hours, the two basked in the glow of their love.

Soon, the Nara man retracted from his bliss to the edge of the bed, where the events of his situation blitzed his mind. For a moment, he'd allowed himself to focus on what mattered to him most, his soon-to-be wife, but the more pressing matter of the fragility of the political landscape invaded. The strategies for how to combat blatant attempts at peace disruption could not be avoided. As the Hokage's advisor and a firm believer in the necessity of peace after the bloodshed of war, his duty was to the lives of all people, notwithstanding the Kages. The biggest covet was the family he was currently attempting to build.

Sinking into his large hands, the Nara played through the many scenarios in which this could play out. The biggest probability was that Gaara would get better; that was the best-case scenario anyway, but the likelihood had been touch and go for some time that it made the man far more cynical than he usually was, which wasn't saying much to his character. He was a realist after all and where the chips had fallen was in his wheelhouse of pessimism. Not so willing to throw in the towel so soon at the expense of his bride's sake, he had to find the culprit before this assassination was successful, and in many respects that would deprive him of momentary bliss such as it was now. Especially so close to his wedding, his chagrin was effectively ticked.

"What are you doing, Shika?" The tantalizing call of his woman breathing fire to his loins.

"Just thinking," He said simply.

Temari sat up from her post, her euphoria slowly seeping from every pore of her body, bringing her back to reality. He was thinking, which often led to him overthinking and ruining the moment, how typical. All too willing to demonstrate her frustrations with his lack of pillow talk, she took a minute to watch his body, which had become far more rigid than just moments ago. He was always so quick to remove himself from the bliss of their lovemaking and back to the very reason he'd needed the reprieve. It was infuriating; in fact, it was downright irksome.

"About what?" She maneuvered closer to the man, her hand instinctively reaching out for him, bracing at the back of his neck and playing with the long hair that lay stuck at the nape of his neck from sweat.

"Why, Gaara?" He said.

Temari was confused at the question, if it had even been one, to begin with. Shikamaru had an expression of weightiness, as if each gear was slowly churning towards an answer which sat obviously at the end of the cycle.

"It's just a working theory." The Nara says as he fights to let go of the nagging feeling. He'd circle back to it. It was always like this, the clarity after sex always generated new thoughts that had been blocked. He hated to think it was from lack of sex and only when he got some he'd be back to his old self; curse being sexually active. He didn't have these problems as a virgin. Instead, he turned to his woman, focusing solely on her beautiful glow, and instinctively he reached out to touch her.

Temari, a strong woman at the best of times, melted like puddy in his hands. She wondered when that might go away, if it ever would, and how simple of a gesture could calm her; it was unnerving. But, at least she wasn't so fired up. It made sleeping much easier.

Sasuke was reluctant to enter the room, but the condition in which he found himself allotted little question; he had to speak with the Kazakage. While the images of his last, unquestionably unpleasant, exchange with the man had been at the summit where he attempted only one of his many crimes against the world, the Uchiha was professional enough to ignore the gnawing feelings of guilt and derision that came with the uncomfortable memory of his time in pitch darkness, of which he's only surfaced at the behest of a shining light that never fizzled from his black heart; pink in its presentation. He would deal with his own demons, which taunted him at every chance, and make good on his mission duties; they were the only thing that mattered at the moment, bone-rattling guilt be damned in the face of a possible disruption to the peace that Naruto was so believing in. The dissimulation of the situation, an ever-chattering bird on his shoulder, canoodling with the demon that made a home there. He would get to the bottom of this mystery, crush whatever misguided resistance to world peace was at play, and return to a world in which his battle lay square on his own heart of the crippling loneliness he faced after the case was solved. Dwelling in the acceptance of deserved fate was a later activity; now he stood at the door of the Kage's room, where behind it sat the land's most powerful man and the world's most beautiful woman.

His eyes, of course, found the luminescent pink hair that lay in a curtain around her glowing and peaceful face. Beauty was unavoidable; hers was a magnet from which he had no hope of escaping. Even as he came into the room, steadfast in his resolve to only focus on the mission, she stopped any semblance of coherency that he was used to harboring. It must stem from last night, the confession weighing on his mind, in so doing, distracting him from his task. He had to focus, and with his peripheral firmly magnified to her sleeping form, he gave the convincing illusion of his attention to the placid, redheaded man who sat in the bed.

Gaara didn't immediately address the Uchiha, instead allowing him to focus on what truly brought him to this room. Even in the peace of sleep, his mind stirred with words that were not conjured from his own mind, words that sprouted and bloomed into confessions of love at the lips of the Konoha nin. He'd been asleep, undoubtedly, and yet, he still could recall the words spoken as clear declarations. He was not one to pry, but the simplicity in which the two nin managed to express their love was endearing, and he was all too happy to express his findings with his Konoha counterpart once this whole ordeal was settled. As the birds chirped outside and the sun beat down heavy on his pale skin, kissing it and welcoming him back to the living world as if missing a dear, old friend, Gaara sighed and turned to the newcomer.

"Good morning, Sasuke." His voice was remarkably clearer than it had been just before he'd fallen asleep, and even he was surprised by its sound.

Sasuke was quick to nod his greeting, "Good morning."

Though, Sasuke was fighting the unsettling feeling in his stomach. Both unsure of what to say beyond a simple greeting, the too often torpid men sat happily in silence, only interfered by the almost inaudible snoring of the medical ninja on the bed's edge. Sasuke was conflicted about whether he should wake her. Sleep was necessary for any ninja, but Sakura's expectations resulted from clearheaded decision-making and deduction; his concern was if she had enough sleep. Should he wake her? He hated the thought of pulling her from her peaceful slumber, back to the harbinger of possibly peaceful disruption. She was so beautiful with her slightly furrowed brow and partially parted lips, the steady rising and falling of her body with every calm breath.

Sasuke hadn't consciously shifted his eyes to the woman, but soon, she was all he could focus on. In any other situation, he would scold himself for his inability to control himself. While the gaze was fairly innocuous and only conducive to admiration, it was still giving into distraction, which is life or death for any ninja. Could he trust himself not to be distracted in a more portentous moment? The inability to conjure a definitive yes was worrying, and the battle showed in the subtle furrow of his brow.

"She's a remarkable woman," the voice of Gaara resounded in the silence. Sasuke's eyes snapped back at the Suna leader, and without conscious thought, his mind shifted dramatically to the idea that the compliment, which was far too insufficient to describe Sakura that it was almost insulting, was possibly a show of interest and his heart beat just a little quicker than it had moments before.

"Hn," Sasuke said in response. Outwardly, his demeanor was of disinterest, but his mind envisioned many ways in which a possible competition for the affections of the medical-nin could impart.

"I've known Sakura a long time," He continued as he watched her with an apathetic stare, "and this is the first time I've ever seen her so relaxed." The hint of hilarity in his voice caused a shift in Sasuke's eyes to narrow unconsciously.

What was the manner of their relationship, he wondered? The pinkette seemed exceptionally close to the Sand ninja, in particular the Suna siblings, and particularly with the men. Were there far more men after her heart than even the Uchiha had believed, once so close as to be a threat? He hated thinking about it; the possibility of Sakura being so close to men who wanted her in the very ways he did was enough to make his skin feel uncharacteristically hot.

"Last night, she seemed the happiest I'd ever felt."

The sentence was unnerving. Sasuke's eyes squinted tighter in irritation and confusion. What exactly did the man mean by that?

"Love is a thing one should always reach out and touch when it is so close," the flame-haired man spoke again, his voice softer than it had previously been and his eyes shifting directly to the two-toned eyes of the Uchiha.

iOh, so he heard all that?/i The Uchiha felt a small pang of embarrassment, only due to the fact that his confession had been witnessed beyond the soundless wind of the night. But, the biggest caveat was the knowledge that the Suna leader was in close communications with two of the worst men who wouldn't shy away from such childish taunts of the cold Uchiha thawing his frozen heart.

Sasuke decided to ignore the poetic acknowledgment, instead, he shifted the conversation, a skill he'd learned in the wake of his childhood after the massacre in which the only conversation for years stemmed from the condolences and pity of what few adults acknowledged his presence.

"Your health has improved quickly," He began, "that establishes our theory. We should keep watch on the food moving forward."

Gaara smirked as he watched the changing clouds outside his window. The Uchiha was closed off to speaking about his feelings, which was understandable given that Gaara, and he weren't more than fellow peacekeepers. However, the dodging of the subject only solidified his conclusion and validated the hazy conversation he'd unintended to intrude on.

"Have you sent word to your Kage?" Gaara asked, resolved to play along.

"Yes."

He was a man of simple words, straightforward, and didn't dottle on small talk; in all honesty, Sasuke was a breath of fresh air. After years of playing a political discourse, it was comforting to be in the presence of a man so familiar to himself. A kindred spirit of solitude and content with living alone in their own demons, segregated from the light of others. Gaara's heart ached for the man who seemed unwilling to share his demons with those who were willing to bear the weight together. He had heard of the man's atonement of which he decided to walk alone, and prior to witnessing his openness to the love of the pink-haired medical-nin, he was convinced that Sasuke would walk the shadows alone until his dying day. He was happy to be proven wrong. His smile stayed as he addressed the man.

"Yes, we'll follow any directions you give. We're grateful for all of your help so far, Uchiha Sasuke. We hope to return in kind."

Sasuke was taken aback by the doggedness of his response and stood simply in the silence that followed. His mind focused on the words. Gratitude for what he's done, which Sasuke was humbly convinced was inadequate so far, was always uncomfortable for him to accept. Instead, he focused on the sleeping woman, which brought a cloaking of comfort to his bristled self-contempt. He was almost as suddenly surprised to see her stir; a sigh just above a whisper escaped her parted lips, and her hand, which had been used as a pillow for her cheek, pushed her slowly from her position. Her eyes were the last to waken; as she unconsciously stretched her long arms above her head, her green eyes opened to find the two-toned eyes of the last Uchiha. The green globes watched the Uchiha in a hazy stare that admired the handsome features of his face, unabashed by the cognition of reality. Involuntarily, Sasuke's cheeks glowed a slight shade of pink at the stare, which held more words than either had muttered through the thin walls last night.

"Sasuke," the name sounded like an overture of salvation, and Sasuke was so close to relinquishing hold of his restraints and commitment to suffering. Her voice was soft, pillowy, and filled with sleep that had yet to escape her body.

He imagined waking to this voice every morning, hearing her say his name in this way as a declaration, a preface to their bodies joining in the rays of the sun where her voice would lose its sleepiness and morph into cries of pleasure. When she would cry his name in praise as he drove his cock deeper into her walls, her breath at his ear, her mind thinking only of what he was doing to her body and how he was showing his love in every thrust.

Sasuke had to look away; his mind had run away with just that simple edict. How could he believe that he could focus on anything when she was so near? After last night, he was unsure if he could do his job with her around but was equally conflicted that he had no capacity to live each day without her so close. His heart raced without his permission. He was losing it: his resolve, his mind, the battle.

"Sakura," Gaara interluded. Sasuke could not thank him enough for taking her attention.

Sakura, who had been infatuated with the Onyx-haired man who'd confessed his heart to her last night, was quick to focus on the Suna leader once she'd been called. Her mind quickly deviated to her patient, and yet the Uchiha was omnipresent in every facet of her mind.

"Gaara, you look like you're feeling better!" She said, standing up from her spot. Her thighs prickling from the influx of blood that had been awaiting its chance to enter. She ignored the feeling before she leaned towards the Suna leader. She began her checkups of his health in the silent room. Sasuke watched her, safe to admire every curve of her body but, more dastardly, her skill at being a caregiver, which came so naturally.

Sakura fussed over the Kage, checking every vital, his chakra, and his lungs. For what felt like hours, the doctor went through every medical checkup that Sasuke had no names to. Steadfast and graceful, she ran circles around the room. Pink hair wisping around her head, strong but delicate arms glowing a brilliant green, and writing her findings in her medical notes. Incredible wasn't enough to describe her; beautiful too dull for her brightness. The two-toned eyes watched her consequently from his solitary section of the room where he stood perched as if in a perpetual watch. A feeling, something indescribable to him, fluttered in the pit of his stomach, and with the goal of ignoring it, chalked it up to hunger. The thought, a revelation to the fact that Sakura must be famished from her hours at the Kage's side.

"Sakura," Sasuke interjected on reflex, and the pinkette quickly turned to him. "What do you need?"

A shy smile on her lips, her cheeks flushed from her constant movements or that their eyes caught for the second time since their hearts took over the night, he was unsure. In an attempt to control his own face from betraying his suffuse, he kept his eyes affixed on the wall just above her glowing face.

As if like lightening, or that Sasuke was highly distracted, she was at the Uchiha's side; her heat suckling deep into his bones, fusing with his want, causing a damn of emotion to seep through; Sasuke kept his eyes forward, but his body leaned closer into her scent.

"Sasuke, he's better, but he still has a bit of a fever. I need to get him a cold press. Can you watch him until I get back?"

He swallowed a thickening of saliva at the base of his throat; his nerves at her closeness were bothersome, and his body wonted for her very being. Pink cheeks curtained by matching hair were all he could see, the red-hot heat of her body, only covered in the breathable fabric of her clothes; the inescapable scent of her hair all struck him, and his body ceased in its overwhelmed senses. If he ever questioned her being the most powerful woman he knew, there was none now. She held every atom of him in her hands, and she didn't even know it.

"You should eat first." The words left his lips through constrained vocals into a whisper for only her ears.

Sakura stood at his shoulders, the notice of his increased height in their separation only hitting her with their closeness. The purring of his voice cupped at her ear, ensnaring her brain in a whirl of euphoria, of which confused her. She wanted to lean closer and hold onto his body, which radiated inordinate amounts of heat that she felt as if she'd encountered a sun.

Green eyes lifted to meet his own, and the world escaped into a blackness in which only Sakura's presence was what mattered. He felt the natural effects that only arrived at her nearness; his body wanted her closer. Could he handle being in her being without taking it so selfishly?

"I'm fine, Sasuke." Her voice was only above a whisper.

"You need to take care of yourself too." The words were harder, edged with concern that was dubiety, not him. Showing his feelings so easily was a new feat in which he was afraid to climb, especially with witnesses, and it was with that realization that prompted the Uchiha to seek out the dullness of reality. He had to stay professional, or their mission may result in a disaster that held the capacity to ruin everything thing they built and everything their friends died for.

"I…" Sakura was taken aback at his concern. Not that he was unable to have such epiphanies, but that he'd been so open to showing them without the wall of apathy as a crutch. He cared enough to tell her to care for herself. The haziness of memory, enveloped in the core of her mind, came to light; this was like the old Sasuke, the small hints of care that he tried desperately to hide but always seeped into his words or actions. The boy she'd fallen for, the reason she'd found love so young in her life as to chase it in the debilitating loneliness that it left behind; she saw him now. He was no longer behind a door or traveling alone without her at his side. Instead, he was right here, and he cared.

"You need to eat too." She smiled, a genuine smile that haloed brighter than it had in many months. "Thank you, Sasuke." She whispered.

"I'll be back then." He said simply, avoiding looking at her in an attempt not to be entranced once again by her effervescence.

"Wait, Sasuke. Before you go, I need to get that compress. It'll only take a moment." Sakura calls out as she reaches for his hand.

Soft, warm hands enveloped his rough hand, and any protest he may have had in counter, eviscerated. Her touch was like a jolt to his nether regions, and while the animalistic response was irksome, it also was enlightening. Avoiding contact any further on the mission was another top priority in order for him to establish focus, which was so quick to leave him at any action she took. Sasuke knew his face couldn't hide the burning beneath his cheeks or the bashfulness that relaxed his brow. While wholly unwilling to remove himself from her touch, he stood still until she decided she'd had enough of touching him and setting his body aflame without even knowing it.

Sakura's innocent face was more the problem. She didn't know what such a simple act was doing and the fact that his cloak hid its effect so efficiently. If they'd been alone, he worried what his reaction may have been, only tamed by the subconscious niggling of a third person's chakra which was inescapable to notice. But, it was the additional two that were rapidly approaching that were keeping him from ravaging his desire.

The door burst open to reveal the fan user and shadow manipulator. The blonde woman's face looked flushed, and her teeth gritted. With her hair perfect besides one small patch at the back, which looked as if it had been left out of sheer lack of time to correct it, Sasuke knew she was upset before she'd even entered the room.

"Doc! How is Ga-" Stopping in her tracks as she witnessed the two Konaha ninja huddled up in the corner and the unbothered Kage to her right, whose interest in the scenery of the window was interrupted only by his very own sister. "Gaara! You're awake!" She said as she skipped to his side.

The Nara man's lazy gait only briefly acknowledged his fellow Konoha nin before turning with a smirk toward his bride and her brother. Sasuke sighed inaudibly at the interruption, but outwardly looked as disinterested as was normal for him. Sakura, looking abashed, scurrying to correct herself, standing in front of the Uchiha, let go of his hand (which garnered a visible reaction in the brow of the onyx-haired man that otherwise went unnoticed).

Sakura addressed the blonde woman, her voice professional and strong, "He's improved in the last twenty hours, significantly. Sasuke thinks the only two of us should stay at his side for the time being. To keep guard"

"I think you're right, Uchiha." Shikamaru said as his wife to be began to open her mouth. His eyes fixated defiantly on her, and soon her mouth was closed and her attention was back on her ailing brother.

Inwardly, Sakura sighed in relief; one argument with Temari was enough for her. The pinkette's eyes shifted ever so slightly that only the former rouge nin noticed with his advanced eyes. Her hips, as curved as they were (not that he noticed), swayed microscopically in her spot. Her thin arms fidgeted at her side and her back stiffened. What had her on edge, he wondered? The sudden change blanketed the room is a blueness, associated with the anxiousness he felt. Was something unusual and he'd missed it? The Uchiha reached out for the pinkette without fortitude of the implication their touching may create; his first thought was on making sure Sakura was okay.

"Sakura," his voice a whisper to her ears, "are you okay?"

Sakura, all porcelain skin, turned the color of the silk hair atop her head. Rigidity in her body absent and replaced with the stiffness of a statue. The shift of her eyes being the only moving part of her body aside from the inflation of her chest to show she was still breathing.

She remained silent for a moment longer than the Uchiha was comfortable, admonishing his lack of patience when confronted with the Haruno's discomfort. Slowly, a harrowing slow pace, she turned her head to the Uchiha. His onyx eye, the only one showing behind the silky matching color of his hair, glistening as he captured her beautiful expression that was instantly deciphered through the many years of reference his mind sifted through in a nanosecond; embarrassment.

Being the most outwardly confident woman he knew, it was times like these that he missed. Sakura had changed ostensibly into a woman, so effervescent he missed the self-effacing girl she'd been when they were young, dumb, and innocent. She looked like her now, and his heart stopped momentarily, reminding him of feelings he'd repressed as a child about her then. Had it always been there, this feeling?

"I know we just said we should stay by his side, but," And if it were possible, she became more pink, "what about using the bathroom?" Her eyes focused on anything but Sasuke, and for the first time in many years, he felt an almost uncontrollable urge to laugh. Instead, he softly cleared his throat.

"We'll switch off." It was a simple response to a simple question, one he knew she already knew which meant…and the laughter screwed its way to the top of his throat; he swallowed it down.

"You can go now, if you have to." Sasuke didn't look at the Haruno, unsure if it was to relinquish worsening embarrassment on her part or if it was to stop himself from disrespecting her dignity with laughter. He wasn't laughing at her, he was laughing at her cuteness. For all of her bravado and intelligence, Sasuke often forgot she was still a woman and women weren't as open about these things. No one was like Naruto, who let you know when he had a bowel movement. Girls were far more delicate about these things. He supposed that was refreshing, in a way, even if wholly unnecessary; it wasn't as if he didn't know everyone had to go. Instead, he settled on a knowing smirk and placed his attention on the gathering at the Kage's bed.

Sakura all but squealed in response, racking her brain for a professional response, and when it came she masked her presence in it, catching the Uchiha only slightly off his guard.

"I can go first, then you, so we get it out of the way. Just as a formality, you know?"

Sasuke only gave her a courteous nod, but refused to dull his smirking face. She was adorable, a word he'd ever refuse to speak out loud and even more so refused to acknowledge, even in the privacy of his own mind. But, Sakura Haruno, was indeed, adorable.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I'm so sorry this took so long!

School, work, and life all came together to kick my butt, just as this was getting somewhere. Thanks everyone that is still reading this and interested in the story. I never wanted this to be left unended. I am working my hardest to get this story churned out.

Please be understanding that this will maybe take until mid-year to be completely done because that is when I graduate college. But, I will do my best to get as many chapters out as I can until then. So, please keep watch of that.

I am so happy to get this out. THANK YOU ALL!