Gaara was in front of daimyo-sama's office, asking for an audience. The assistant told him to come back another time because daimyo-sama is busy. Gaara had his hands behind his back as he spoke loudly to make sure daimyo hears him from behind the door.
"For each day you refuse to see me, I will roughen the torture of your employee. I know you ordered them to assassinate me. When I break them, I will make public all the information they provide."
After he finished his monologue, he wished the assistant 'a good day' and turned to leave when he heard the door slowly open behind him. The assistant bowed his head and had his hands clasped in front of him in a humble position as he moved to the side to make room for daimyo-sama.
"Kazekage, come in. Let's talk."
Gaara smiled wickedly before he turned to face his rival and follow him inside. They both sat at the table. Daimyo thought of ordering food, but considering the reason Kazekage-sama was there, he thought: he won't trust the food. He will definitely think it is poisoned. So he ended up by not ordering anything, not even water. Gaara was very polite and bowed respectfully to the interlocutor, but his words were sharp as a knife.
"What shall we do from now on?" Gaara asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You tried to kill me. We can't pretend that isn't true. Should I kill you instead?" he asked with a smile.
"What? You have the guts to threaten me in my office? In my country?"
"Just as you had the guts to try to kill my family when I wasn't here. Tell me, why don't you try to kill me now?"
Daimyo-sama felt the danger, so he tried to redirect the flow of conversation.
"You can't tell me that kunoichi from Konoha is your family. Kazekage, you misunderstood. I only wanted to protect this country. That girl is a spy from Konoha. She was sent here to infiltrate your home and find out the secrets of the village. She is trying to manipulate you into acting in favor of Konoha. You can't tell me you haven't figured that out. She is the threat I wanted to annihilate, not the kid. I know he will serve as Kage in the future."
"Don't try to excuse yourself. Sakura can't be a spy. I have known here for more than 10 years. I called her here too examine the quality of our water and soil. Speaking of which, why did you sabotage her research? Why did you plant those kites?"
"I see you already know this, too." He is smart, this Kazekage.
"I intuited daimyo-sama's true intentions. You sent the kites to poison the water, which would have caused food shortage. In other words, you wanted extremely high prices to create chaos. You knew I wouldn't have resources to remedy the problem which means the people would have turned against me. I would have come to you and ask for a loan, which would have kept me in your debt. You wanted to be able to blackmail me into doing anything you want in exchange for money, since I had no resources to give it back. Then, you introduced a substance into the kites' containers that can only be found in the Land of Cloud, for double purpose:
1. Maybe you succeed into creating a war that would bring you great profit due to army needing money to prepare and defend the nation
2. get me out of the country to have the chance to kill my family and say I can't protect a nation if I can't protect my own family. Then, you feared there were high chances of me coming after your head, so you tried to eliminate me while I was still out of the village."
"I see you already know everything. Why are you still torturing my employee?"
"For my personal pleasure."
Gaara's words scared the feudal lord.
"Kazekage, you are cruel."
"This gets us back to my first question: What do we do now?"
Daimyo was silent for a long while before he opened his mouth to speak:
"There is no point in hiding, so I will tell you the truth. It is very unfair the people believe they lead a good life thanks to you. The land you live on is mine. The food you eat is mine. Even the army is mine as I pay for it. I don't receive any gratitude. It is just business, Kazekage. I hold no grudges against you. If I would have let you be, you would have eventually concluded you don't need me. You would have killed me and everything that is now mine would have become yours. And then, you wouldn't have any debts towards me and you'd be free to rule as you wish. This was a fight for survival. I have to protect my life in the first place."
This was a new perspective that Gaara hasn't considered yet.
"Daimyo-sama, I assure you I am not interested in taking your place. You didn't consider one thing: I am open for negotiations. It can't all boil down to killing."
They negotiated peace terms all day. Some things remained written in stone and others were to be discussed in detail on the following days.
"What will you do with the prisoners?"
"I should kill them for high treason, but in the light of our new understanding, I will let you save one of them. Who do you want to keep alive? Usagi, Midori or Noriko?"
"Kazekage, you can't be serious."
"If you don't want to save one, I can kill all of them."
"Wait, wait!" Daimyo said as he cleared his throat so he wouldn't sound too desperate. "Give me Usagi. Do what you want with the rest."
So Usagi is his reliable man. Predictable. He thought he is of more use than the girls. Gaara thought.
Gaara decided to free Elmer after he cut one of his legs. Elmer couldn't work in the army anymore with just one leg, meaning he won't be of use to anyone. There was no need to kill him, like Noriko and Midori. The girls used cunning instead of physical skills to fight. Gaara couldn't take their brains out and let them live at the same time, so he chose to order his ninja to kill them.
He thanked Shikamaru for his service and asked him to deliver a gift to his sister, whom he missed dearly. They haven't seen each other in a long time. Shikamaru smiled and let him know he is welcome to come by and see his nephew when the Suna crisis is over. They parted ways with a friendly handshake. Shikamaru was going to leave to Konoha first thing in the morning.
Gaara was walking on alone on the road, tired but peaceful. Suddenly his sharp ears caught noise and he recognized the voices of 2 of the few ninja that ambushed Sakura and Matsuri in the rocky mountains and got away. Gaara masked his chakra and he eavesdrop on the conversation.
"That pink haired chick is nuts. When I was following her, I kept hearing her talk by herself."
The other ninja laughed.
"Yes, she's crazy. She must be giving blowjobs that erase your mind. Otherwise, I don't understand how a prostitute from Konoha turned the Kazekage's head."
...
It was late at night when weird noises woke up Sakura from her sleep. She slowly got out of bed and sneaked out of Gaara's bedroom with a kunai in her hand. She checked the baby's room first. All clear. The light was turned off on the hallway and if there was an assassin in the house, Sakura didn't want to give up the element of surprise. She waited for her eyes to adapt to the dark. There was only one room which had a slightly opened door. There was no light in the room either as far as she could tell. Gaara's throaty voice reached her ears. He was groaning as if something hurt. Sakura opened the door widely and put the kunai down. She saw him standing in the middle of the room.
"Gaara..."
"Don't come any closer." He said quickly and a little too harshly and while he turned his back to her.
Sakura halted her movements. From what she could tell in the dark, Gaara was licking his hand, like an animal. She frowned and decided to ignore his previous words. She came closer to him with small steps, without saying anything. Gaara's sand shield prevented her from touching his back when she lifted her hand.
"Come on, Gaara. Have faith in me. Let me help you."
"I don't need help. Go back to bed." Gaara said calmly without making eye contact.
"Didn't you tell me to trust you? How can I do that when you don't trust me?"
Silence followed.
"Please, I want to help you."
Gaara sighed and pulled back his sand. Sakura touched his shoulder briefly, but she quickly retracted her hand with rue when he jerked as if her touch hurt him.
"I am sorry." She said as she went around him until they were face to face. He had a beastly look in his eyes and something else that resembled shame. He was probably hoping he won't be discovered. He came home with the intent to lick his wounds to help disinfect them and heal faster. He didn't want Sakura to find him in this state because he didn't want to seem weak in her eyes. How can she count on me if she sees me like this? He tried to look as tough as he could and swallowed his pain.
"Oh my God! What happened to you?"
"Nothing. It's nothing." He replied with irritation.
Sakura sighed thinking: Why do men always want to look so tough? Her hands rested on his forearms, feeling his muscles underneath her fingers and guided him to sit down on the chair behind him. He listened to her like a good boy.
"Isn't this the room where you first kissed me? The one where we could see the sky?" Sakura asked while she kneeled before him, trying to get him out of his mood. The memory put a smile on his lips.
"Can you open the sunroof again?"
Gaara raised his hand to make the sand obey his wish. The ceiling unveiled all the secrets of the sky above the two lovers. Sakura's hair shone like rose gold and he couldn't keep himself from touching it lightly with his rough fingers. The girl leaned into his palm and kissed the inside of it. She yearned for his touch. Sakura knew his hand was hurt so she examined it between her palms. His knuckles were purple with bruises and covered in dried blood. Gaara looked down at her from where he sat with his back bent forward, his hair in his eyes and the other hand rested on his knee. Green light shone from Sakura's healing hands.
"I didn't think you'd be the kind of man to fight like this. What is going on with you?"
Gaara didn't say anything, so she applied pressure on the wound from his other hand to make him talk. Gaara grunted and closed his eyes for a second.
"Tell me, please." Sakura pleaded.
"I didn't mean to worry you. I was heading back home when I stumbled upon 2 men who talked filth and lies about you. I lost my temper and jumped to a fight. One of them somehow managed to deactivate my sand for about a minute, so I had to use my fists."
"You defended me?" Sakura asked with pride. "What happened to them?"
"I ripped out their tongues as soon as I regained control over my sand." He said and clenched his fist at the same time.
"Gaara, don't you think you were a little too harsh?"
"They were part of the assassins who tried to kill you. They are lucky to still be alive." Gaara said emotionlessly. His tone was cold and distant. He seemed trapped in that memory. Sakura healed his hands and stomach and then pulled at his hip to guide him to sit on the floor. He leaned on his hands. She stood on her knees, between his parted legs. His feet touched the floor and his knees were bent. Gaara's face leaned on her chest and she felt his arms wrap around her middle as he inhaled her sweet smell. Sakura stroked his hair while helping with the dislocated shoulder. Gaara behaved like a real man and didn't make any sound of pain even if he was never truly hurt before he could practice endurance. Gaara's hands moved lower to fondle the flesh of her thighs. Her sweet voice whispered calmly in his ear:
"My lion, let's try not to give such extreme punishments to those who only talk. It's true they can't go unpunished, but ripping out their tongues is a little too much."
"Anything that makes my flower happy." He said and kissed her tummy while gripping her thighs between his fingers.
Sakura giggled and thought with pride that her man is a knight, a real man. Gaara thought there was no point in arguing with her on this topic. He was going to severely punish those who dared to talk like that to her. But there was no need for her to know this.
Note: Thank you very much for your feedback and I am sorry I can't post as often as you want. Lots of love ? ﾟﾒﾓ? ﾟﾒﾖ?