Standard disclaimers apply. I'm just borrowing these characters for a little while.
Author's note: Kishimoto-sensei's plan is to fit the entire 4th Shinobi War Arc into a matter of days in the Naruto timeline, but I'm taking the liberty of extending it since war is never so quick and clean-cut. Events from the manga will be added, removed or shifted around. Please pardon my impudence.
This chapter has been CENSORED. The complete version can be found on AO3 under the author AviumR.
Travelling by sand always left Sakura feeling somewhat bereft; The sensation of the ground vanishing under one's feet, without knowing when or where one's soles would once again touch solid ground, always left her feeling anxious. Not that she had good reason to feel that way - Gaara would not allow harm to befall her while cocooned in his sand.
It was fear on an instinctual level of the unknown.
Or maybe it was something else more akin to unwavering trust; to trust someone so much that you feared what would happen if you ever lost your faith in them.
Sakura decided to file that away for her brain to process later.
Shortly before rematerialising near the training grounds, Gaara had loosened his hold on her waist and took two deliberate steps to the side to create a respectful distance between them; That was how they appeared before the startled guards at the training grounds.
To be fair, no one was expected to be training at two in the morning, especially after a rambunctious party. So the guards had every reason to be wary the moment sand started gathering before their very eyes, eventually depositing before them the Regimental Commander and his personal medic.
"Kazekage-sama!" The team of five guards quickly raised their arms in salute.
"You're dismissed," Gaara announced, "Haruno-san and I will be training here for the next few hours. We are not to be disturbed."
Inwardly, Sakura face-palmed. Gaara had made it a point to not be caught with his arm around her when appearing in front of his men, and here he was the very next minute telling them that he wanted to be alone with his personal medic. He was, in short, a mess of contradictions.
The guards seemed to be at a loss on what they were supposed to do: on the one hand, they were not supposed to abandon their station; on the other, the Regimental Commander just told them to do just as much.
Meanwhile, completely unfazed by the confusion he had caused to both his men and Sakura, Gaara walked over to a wooden lean-to and deposited his gourd under the shelter, then promptly began shrugging off his robe.
The guards got the message loud and clear, and all quickly scurried off out of sight.
Sakura openly gaped at him, unable to tear her gaze away from the skin that his mesh shirt exposed and left absolutely nothing to her imagination.
Ok, it left a few things to her imagination. But it certainly cleared up a few questions as well. She definitely was not openly ogling at his abdominal muscles those months ago when he had trapped her Zetsu-clone.
"Aren't you cold?" She blurted out before she could stop herself.
Gaara shook his head as he placed his folded robe carefully on a bench; their earlier activities have left his blood warmer than usual, and if he wanted to get both their minds off that which had transpired between them, he didn't need to verbally draw her attention to that fact. Instead, he motioned to Sakura to remove her robe next.
"You aren't used to fighting in those garments, Haruno-san. You'll need to remove them," he reasoned.
Not having an excuse to defy him, Sakura headed for the lean-to and removed her robe as well. The frigid night air struck her skin like the cold edge of a blade, and she involuntarily hissed. But she persisted in folding up the robe with the same care that Gaara had treated his with, and placed them side-by-side before turning to face him. By then, the young man had made his way to the centre of the training field and was studying the terrain.
It was a nondescript training field - levelled earth and the occasional protruding stone. A few stray ninja tools littered the landscape, mostly too worn to be useful as weapons anymore. These grounds were well-used, and for their purpose tonight, it suited them just fine.
Standing a dozen or so feet apart, they both struck mirroring sparring stances. Each was waiting for the other to signal the start of the session, but Sakura suddenly turned her head towards the camp.
"Kazekage-sama, do you feel that?" asked Sakura as she tried to focus her chakra-detection towards a group of incoming shinobi.
"It's just ANBU. No doubt they were sent here by the guards we chased off."
Of course they would not be left unsupervised; the team of ANBU rapidly approaching were simply following protocol to ensure the safety of their Regimental Commander; he was vaguely surprised that they had managed to escape his ANBU's efforts to babysit him when they had earlier vanished from the camp. Gaara could only shake his head lightly in exasperation before making a beckoning gesture to Sakura.
"Let's give them a good show, shall we?" A hint of a smirk played on his lips.
As if in silent agreement, they moved towards each other at the same moment, hands and arms connecting in a series of probing taps; Gaara, because he knew Sakura was a taijutsu master and he needed to know how far she would push him, and Sakura, because though she had heard of Gaara focusing on taijutsu training after his encounter with Akatsuki, she had no idea of the extent of his skills. She did not want to risk going too hard at him, but she did not want to insult him by going too easy, either.
"No chakra allowed, got it?" Sakura stated out of the blue.
Well. That certainly changed things.
"You will compromise my Absolute Defence, Haruno-san?" He parried a punch thrown at his face that appeared too slow to be serious.
Sakura grinned, her other hand catching his side in a surprise swipe that he barely cleared, "I mean it. I'm not having you waste your chakra reserve on a spar. I didn't force-feed you all those herbs just for you to blow it all on me instead of Madara."
"Very well," Gaara slipped backwards to dodge a series of practice strikes aimed at his torso, "No super-human strength for you, and no sand defence for me. That seems fair."
"But your Sand Armour stays on, got it?"
The redhead tapped her elbow as one of her punches slipped past his ear, mirth in his eyes as he replied, "Skin-to-skin contact bothers you that much, Haruno-san?"
She really had to learn to stop blushing so much around him, growling out, "I'm serious. Your safety is paramount, Kazekage-sama. We are very exposed out here in the open, even if your ANBU is playing bodyguards right now."
Her comment sobered him up, and she saw the very moment he started taking their spar more seriously; he turned his heel to solidify his foothold, then began to push back against her assault. Each clash of fists and legs shifted from almost gentle taps to more solid blows, as they began to push each others' physical limits with increasing speed and force.
The sound of their blows echoed through the training field, and Sakura noticed that a few ANBU members were openly observing them now.
Probably to make sure I won't kill the Regimental Commander by accident.
Watching the first drops of sweat beading and gathering on Gaara's forehead made her realise that her muscles were now starting to tingle from her exertions. The once chilly night air surrounding them was instead starting to feel uncomfortably humid and oppressing as they huffed and stole breaths between traded blows.
It was apparent to Sakura that Gaara's taijutsu had improved since he last fought Lee all those years ago during the Chunin Examinations. That experience for the once-invincible Jinchuuriki had solidified for him the need to be prepared to counterattack if an enemy came under his Absolute Defence. She had no doubt that although he was deliberately suppressing his sand to prevent it from coming to his aid right now, Gaara was still ready to summon it with a single thought.
He was voluntarily making himself vulnerable, and that realisation should not have made a spark of thrill run through her, causing her to falter for one brief moment before fluidly slipping into her next stance.
Gaara's eyes were trained on the movement of her limbs, watching keenly for her next manoeuvre while holding her to the rules of their engagement. Which was why he was not expecting Sakura to break it; a pump of chakra into her feet, and she somersaulted gracefully over his head to dodge a blow aimed at her shoulder; she had wanted to tease him just a little, but to clear a jump over his full height required chakra assistance. Sakura turned around in time to catch him openly gawking at her duplicity, before his expression shifted into something feral.
Oh, stars.
One blink was all it took for his expression to melt back into his normal impassive self, but she had caught sight of the hint of savageness that belied the impassive mask he wore. It was his way of telling her that the gloves were off.
As if the sudden surge of sand rushing at her from behind was not enough of a hint.
Silently cursing herself, Sakura found herself playing a lightning-quick game of cat-and-mouse with the Regimental Commander's sand attacks. Gaara did not let up on the barrage of sand, standing back as if to admire her movements while she danced and weaved her way out of their reach. Sakura had no chance to stop to rebuke him, breathlessly chased by his sand as she was. To any onlooker, it appeared as if the Kazekage was trying to keep her out of reach to avoid physical combat; Sakura knew better, though - she could tell out of the corner of her eye that she was slowly but steadily being herded towards Gaara.
Sakura decided to find out what he was planning, and allowed herself to be driven within his reach by the whipping sand. Just before he could actually extend his arm to brush her face, she met his gaze sternly, letting him know that she knew what he was plotting; and so help her, she could have his arm twisted behind his back before he could even think of touching her.
What was his game plan if he could reach out and touch her? A nerve pinch? A fierce tackle to knock her arms away from him? A sweep to put her on her arse and knock her legs out from under her? She ran through every possible scenario in her head, fists tensed and ready to strike.
It was none of those.
The tender caress of his fingertips against her cheek was practically a mockery of their spar, seeing the way he drew back his hand and then moved to knock her aimed elbow away from his face.
So Sakura responded in the way she knew best - she called forth her store of chakra into her right fist, and obliterated the earth under both their feet. Gaara teetered briefly at the disappearance of the ground under him, but he managed to steady himself on a platform of sand that took the place of torn-up training grounds the next moment.
"Stop wasting chakra, Kazekage-sama!" Sakura yelled out.
"You first, Haruno-san," came his retort.
Silently fuming, Sakura made herself stand still, then closed her eyes. Gaara watched as she pulled her chakra back from her limbs and back into her torso, licks of blue chakra vanishing from her form as she did so. A nod from her, and that was their cue to return to their previous rules of engagement.
Except that Gaara's blows were now no longer aimed at sparring her. Instead, they took the form of light brushes and taps, like a child pretending to train as a shinobi instead of a battle-hardened warrior. His switch from using his infamous sand to attack her to now practically patting her like a beloved but skittish pet was simply not sitting right with Sakura; she was feeling toyed with, and he was the one who suggested a spar to begin with!
With a rumble of annoyance, she lunged at him, telegraphing her intentions clearly; Gaara could choose to either meet her head-on with a counter, or try to dodge her, but he wouldn't be able to parry her with a too-delicate touch.
He chose to dodge, a fist aimed at her now-exposed back. What he didn't expect was for Sakura to twist around almost the same instant her breath ghosted past his face, her arms thrown forward to grab his extended one. Her fingers found purchase on both his forearm and upper arm, and before Gaara's sand could react, he found his world literally flipped upside down.
When his sand finally answered his silent call, it was to bubble up around them and promptly encase them in a dark, gritty cocoon that was a touch too small to comfortably hold two individuals. The rush of sand knocked into Sakura, pushing her forward and over Gaara as she fell.
She landed face-down on top of a plane of taut muscles.
It took her several heartbeats before Sakura could will herself into opening her eyes, and she quickly found herself staring into an oddly lustrous jade-green gaze in the darkness of their sand dome.
"I've made a terrible mistake," Gaara muttered against her cascading bangs that were tickling his nose.
She blinked owlishly at his comment, fingers finding purchase against the surprisingly smooth skin under his mesh shirt and, hello, pectoral muscles.
It took her another moment to register that she was half-straddling his hips, and that Gaara's hands were clamped almost painfully on her hips as he swallowed too-loudly in the stifling silence of the surrounding sand. Their breaths were loud, almost too harsh and hurried within their confines. The spar had lit up their senses and heightened them, and the thrum of their blood burnt like molten lava in their veins. Blood that was being carried to certain lower body parts that they really should not be that aware of at this point because otherwise their spar did their ardour absolutely no favours.
At the end of the day, the untouchable Kazekage and highly-respected Regimental Commander was still a teenage boy, no matter how large his shadow loomed over the shinobi world.
'Large' was an interesting choice of words, Sakura mused to herself; she hoped that it was dark enough in their sand dome to hide her full-bodied blush.
She felt his hand questing for her fingers, and once he found them, began to trace them up her arm, leaving goosebumps in their wake. Once his hand found purchase on her elbow, he tightened his grip and pulled her forward.
His intentions were clear, and Sakura could not find it in herself to fight what he was asking for; not with the way his body was radiating warmth underneath her.
Just before their lips could meet, a series of thumps echoed above them.
"Kazekage-sama? Is everything alright?" A member of the ANBU team was tapping on the sand dome as if he was knocking on a door.
Gaara heaved a long-suffering sigh at the disturbance while Sakura jerked herself back upright at the interruption - it was humiliating how often she forgot her surroundings whenever she was busy getting… busy with Gaara.
"We are fine. Return to your posts," Gaara answered with an air of compulsion in his voice.
There was a pause before the ANBU member replied, "We'll continue to stand guard, sir."
Resigned to the fact that he would not escape his men's well-intentioned but completely buzz-kill actions, Gaara squeezed Sakura's elbow to draw her attention back to himself. "Let's return back to the camp. I have a meeting with the War Council tomorrow morning, if the other Kage's aren't completely hungover."
Sakura nodded, though she wasn't certain if he could make out her gesture in the darkness. Gaara started to sit up under her, and that was her cue to scurry off him before he dropped the sand dome and left nothing to his ANBU's imaginations.
With the sand lowered, Sakura looked around - there were three members of ANBU and their captain right next to them, obviously concerned with how she had tackled their Regimental Commander who only made things worse by concealing the aftermath in his impenetrable defence. Further out afield, more members of ANBU were standing guard, but it was evident that they were still paying attention to the spar.
Their attention had never wavered from the Kazekage's actions.
This must be how Gaara felt when I was first assigned to him.
"We'll return to the camp now. You're dismissed," said Gaara to the ANBU captain.
The ANBU captain bowed low, then gestured to the rest of his team. Within seconds, their chakra signatures were a distance away.
Gaara exhaled quietly, then tilted his head lightly as he looked at Sakura. They were going to follow the ANBU team back to the camp. He picked up his robe and re-dressed himself, then snapped his gourd back onto his back while Sakura draped his spare robe over one arm.
Sakura hoped that her heart would finally calm down by the time they reached the gates; she didn't want to explain her nervousness to the sensor shinobi on guard duty, and she definitely did not need to be dragged away for interrogations due to said nerves triggering their suspicions.
The pace that Gaara set on their trek back was sedate. He strode, back ramrod-straight and looking like his usual neutral self. But for the tell-tale knot between his non-existent eyebrows, Sakura would have admired his ability to regain control over his body so easily.
At approximately the halfway point between the training grounds and the camp, Gaara unexpectedly stopped.
"I will be back shortly," Gaara announced, prompting Sakura to turn around.
The hour was late, with twilight being hinted at in the skies. An entire day of festivities and debauchery later everyone in the army needed their rest, and that surely included the Regimental Commander. So Sakura had to ask, "Why? Where are you going?"
A frown was on Gaara's face as he turned his head slightly to avoid her gaze as he spoke, "I need to take care of… something."
"Something? What do you mean by…"
Oh. Oh.
She would not blush or stammer, she told herself; she was a medic, and the wants and needs of the human body were nothing new to her. However, the realisation that all that knowledge which she held also applied to a certain male body made a sudden lump rise in her throat. Gaara finally turned to face her, and his complexion was slightly flushed as well.
"Normally, it goes away by itself," He began his explanation, shifting from one foot to the other almost awkwardly, "However, with everything that has happened in the past twenty-four hours, I think my body is too confused to cooperate. I don't want to make you uncomfortable, so I'll take care of matters and be back soon."
Masturbate. Gaara was going to go somewhere private to masturbate.
It was a perfectly normal thing for a teenage boy to do, especially one who had been riled up by a female body that he had tangled with intimately several times in the past few hours. They agreed not to take the next step in their relationship, but physical needs still demanded to be sated anyway. Sakura knew she should be looking at this clinically and acknowledging that the Regimental Commander needed all his wits about him instead of being hampered by his hormonal drive. That one simple act was all he needed to bring order back to both his mind and body - perfectly efficient and normal.
So why did the thought of that act make her feel warmth seep through her veins all at once; as if the heat from his body was transmitting across the brief space between them?
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Sakura finally ventured, "Can I come with you?"
The steadiness of her voice surprised both her and Gaara. The open expression of astonishment was written all over his face as he replayed her words again and again in his head, sucking in a deep breath as he did so.
When Gaara finally spoke half a minute later, the jade-green of his eyes had turned a shade darker, "Do you know what you are asking, Sakura?"
This time, she couldn't trust herself to speak, so Sakura silently nodded as she raised her arms to her chest, hands clasped protectively over her bosom.
I know what I want.
She was attracted to Gaara physically as well as mentally, there was just no use trying to deny it. He had won her heart over months ago with his humble leadership of the entire shinobi world, and more recently, he had won her body over as a man.
When Sakura looked up from her downcast gaze, she was greeted by the sight of Gaara's outstretched hand. She lifted one of her small hands into his, allowing his fingers to encase and swallow hers as he called his sand to whisk them both away.
(The rest of this chapter is rated E, and can be found on AO3 under the author name AviumR.)