Sakura rested her elbows on the windowsill with the chin on her fist, looking blankly out the window. She couldn't sleep much a night before. She was restless and her mom stole many of her sleep hours with her constant talking about Gaara's physical aspect, his money. Mebuki tried to persuade Sakura into naming her future kids the way Mebuki wanted. It was tiring for her daughter. Wind moved the green leaves slowly, as if they were writing a song on the portative of the sky.

"You must convince him to leave your kids here in the summer."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Or you can give them to me to raise until they are older and you can take them back. You don't know how to take care of a child anyway."

"Mother!"

"What? You really don't know. You don't know how to bathe, feed them or change their diapers. I don't want to worry. It's better if I raise them until they are 6-7 years old. This way, you have more free time to take care of your husband."

"No way! How can you even imagine that I would abandon my children? How can you believe the Kazekage will ever let his kids to grow up in another village?" If they are born with my disease, they will need special care and you couldn't even take care of me.

"Suit yourself. Don't come to me crying later that something happened to them and you don't know what to do."

Sakura remembered this discussion from last night. The sun was just rising. As she was counting the endless shadows adorning the street, a single one stood out. It looked like a small ball at first, then it became the tip of a pencil. Sakura's lips turned red and she started humming a romantic song as she recognized the features of the man she loved. She bit her ring and giggled. Then, she stood up and ran to the bathroom to get ready to meet him.

When Gaara raised his hand to knock on the door, Sakura opened it, leaving him with his fingers hanging in the air. Her green eyes looked directly into his. He unconsciously raised his right hand to cup her cheek. His thumb felt something on her skin, so he took a closer look. She was wearing lipstick, eye shadow and... was that pink powder on her cheeks or did she just blush? Even her eyebrows looked darker than usual. That was the moment his smile faded slowly. His thumb moved to trace her jaw as he spoke calmly.

"Did you go out last night?"

It made sense if this was the make-up from last night that she didn't wipe. Who did she see last night?

"No." Sakura replied amused and perplex. "Why do you ask?"

"Who did you put on make-up for?"

"For you, of course." Sakura replied in a relaxed manner.

"This early? The sun has just shined." His hand moved lower on her neck and then on her shoulder. He looked right into her eyes, searching for any sign that she was lying.

"I saw you from the window and I wanted to look pretty for you. I couldn't sleep much last night. I talked with my mother."

Sakura held his left hand between hers and drew interesting shapes in his palm with the tip of her finger.

"You have no reason to worry. You truly are the only man in my life." Her left hand paused from drawing and moved to caress his hair. "I don't know a stronger man than you, or more romantic or more caring. The bed was cold without you last night. I missed your touch." She bit her lip, stroked his cheek and she knew she won him over with this.

He suddenly felt proud.

"Who said I am worried? You are and will always be mine." He moved closer to kiss her, but she took a step back.

"Not in front of my parents, please."

Gaara pouted and grunted in annoyance, before he said resignedly:

"Let's eat at my sister's. She is cooking a feast."

"Where do you two love birds want to go without even saying 'Hello'?" Mebuki spoke from behind Sakura, taking them by surprise.

They both let go of each other in shame of being caught. Sakura turned slightly to look at her mom.

"Mebuki-san, good morning! I came here to invite your daughter to have breakfast with my sister if you agree."

"Huh? You want to leave already? I thought you came all the way to Konoha to stay with us."

"Honey, leave them alone. They're young. They don't want to stay with two boring old people like us." Kizashi said.

"At least drink a coffee with us and then you can go on your way."

Gaara accepted and crossed the door's threshold. He couldn't risk looking uncouth in front of his future parents in law. Sakura's father couldn't wait to talk with Gaara some more. Sakura followed them in with a smile.

Shinki tugged on Sakura's sleeve. She sat on the chair before the table.

"I want to sit next to you."

Sakura laughed and granted his wish.

"Of course."

Shinki moved from where he should have sat next to Shikadai. Shikamaru and Gaara sat at either head of the table. Sakura and Temari sat on their spouse's right, on opposite sides of the table. The kids took the spot next to their respective mothers. Temari cut Shikadai's meat because he couldn't. Sakura offered to help Shinki, but he refused categorically.

"I am a big boy. I can do it myself!"

He had no problem to accept help when he was home, but he wanted to show that he is more powerful than Shikadai. Temari hoped this will make her son more ambitious to surpass this kid, but Shikadai's lazy nature didn't let him. He is so much like Shikamaru. Temari thought as she smiled bitterly.

The men talked to each other about business. Temari intervened to say something from time to time, but not too often. Sakura was silent. She didn't want to get involved into a discussion with Shikamaru because it might make Temari or Gaara jealous. It was a boring discussion that was none of her business anyway, so she preferred to just listen. Temari asked her a question every now and then because she didn't want the guest to feel left out.

At some point, Shikamaru saw that his wife ate almost all of her rice, so he moved rice from his bowl with his chopsticks into hers. Temari smiled and ate. Gaara saw it and immediately copied his brother in law's behavior. He took food from his plate to place on Sakura's.

"Dad, I want some, too." Shinki complained.

"I'll give you some more because I am closer." Sakura said cheerfully.

Temari looked at her son and knew he had something on his mind. She recognized his thinking face from a thousand.

"What are you thinking about?"

"I was thinking it would be interesting if crows lived for 300 years."

"Yes, so you can see all of the worms they ate throughout their life." Shinki gave a smug answer.

"Gross. Don't talk about worms when we're eating." Sakura scolded him right away, but the kids laughed without a care.

"Why do you think it would be interesting?" Shikamaru was curious.

"We could hear everything they heard. Maybe they witnessed important historical moments so we could check if the history we know is correct."

"Do crows hear?" Shikamaru asked.

"I don't know. I imagine they can."

"Mom, do crows hear?" Shinki asked Sakura.

"Yes. They are among the smartest birds. The brain of a crow weighs about 7 grams, meaning 2.7 % of the average weight of its body. In comparison, a human brain weighs 1 kg, representing 1.9% of the body weight."

"Waa! This means crows have a bigger brain than ours." Shikadai said.

"I don't believe this." Shinki said. "I simply can't believe it."

Sakura kept going. She felt like fish in the sea.

"Crows can tell the difference between colors, they can recognize human faces and can even make hooks by bending flexible branches with their beaks and feet to extract insects from narrow spaces."

"I didn't know they are so cool. Dad, I want a crow, too." Shikadai said while looking at his father.

"Huh? Oh." Shikamaru didn't know how to answer to that especially since Temari gave him a dead stare.

She thought: Who is going to clean after that bird?

"We will see." Shikamaru said after a pause and busied his mouth with chewing again.

"It can't be very fun to have a crow for a pet. A crocodile is more interesting, or a scorpion or even a tiger." Shinki then looked at his father.

"Don't even think about it." Gaara replied in a relaxed manner.

Sakura had goose bumps from Shinki's enumeration.

"Of." Shinki pouted and looked back at his plate while Sakura relaxed.

"You better take care of a camel." Sakura said.

"What is a camel?"

"A cow of the desert. It gives you milk." Temari replied and everyone started laughing.

"Sakura, we have no room for a camel." Gaara told her.

"I know. I was just joking."

Gaara relaxed his shoulders and everyone turned back to eating again.

"How does my sister feel?"

Now that they were alone, Gaara took the chance to talk to Temari. Shikamaru left to work, the kids were playing outside. Shikadai wanted to show Shinki the Nara forest. Sakura wanted to meet with Ino. She enjoyed the fresh air and good weather. It was a good break from the dry and always torrid Suna.

"I feel fine. And you?"

"Me too."

Even if they were blood related, it was still difficult for them to find the right words to talk to each other.

"Do you need anything?"

"No. Shikamaru takes care of me." Temari answered with an honest smile.

On one hand Gaara was happy to know his brother in law is careful with his sister, but on the other hand, he felt pissed that there was nothing more he could do to help her as her brother. He took out a white envelope and handed it to her.

"This is your allowance for last month. Since I came here in person, I thought I might as well give it to you myself instead of sending it through mail."

Temari pushed his hand to his chest, refusing the money.

"You need them more than me. You have to save money for the wedding now."

Gaara took her hand and placed the envelope in her hand with determination.

"You have nothing to worry about. I will be fine. This money is rightfully yours. I won't take no for an answer."

"Fine. Thank you." She happily said.

Note: Thank you very much for your support! Thanks to the review you left yesterday, I could push myself to write another chapter. Thank you:D I will post a new chapter from my other story in about 2 days. Please tell me your opinion about this chapter, too.