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.
It was snowing.
Sakura glanced out of the window of the small shack that she was sitting in, taking in the sight of snowflakes drifting lazily from the skies. It had not snowed the entire time they were in their desert encampment - not enough moisture in the air despite the chilling temperatures that the area dropped to at night.
But here in the Land of Waves, snowfall was commonplace. Especially in February where the people were long used to its presence, and few dared to venture out in the cold.
This was the location that the War Council chose to secret the Regimental Commander away to while he recovered from his injuries. Arrangements were made through a chain of intermediaries with the locals for a modest shack some distance away from the nearest civilian village to avoid the curious eyes of its residents, and Baki and a team of ANBU had quickly secured the location. The shack was perfect despite its derelict state; No one would imagine that someone as important as the leader of a Hidden Village would be staying here.
Rising, she peered out of the window, hoping to catch sight of a member of their team.
Sakura saw nothing, of course. What kind of ANBU would let themselves be seen so easily, especially if they were tasked with protecting a charge as important as the Regimental Commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces?
She turned back to face the room, eyes landing on a presence laid out on a large bed.
Gaara.
She reached out to brush against his hair, secretly enjoying the way his impossibly messy but still-soft locks felt against her fingers. Sakura allowed herself to trace the scar on his forehead with her fingertips, her mind pondering when did Gaara allow himself to trust in the love and respect that he was now surrounded by, instead of the tainted version he had believed as a child.
His facial expression was completely unguarded for once, relaxed and boyish-looking; Sharpening angles and an aristocratic bone structure that was in the midst of transitioning from a teenager to a man. The peaceful aura that radiated off his slumbering form belied his real, physical condition.
He had been unconscious for three days now, and she was responsible for rendering him so.
Several days ago, when she had returned from reporting to the War Council, Sakura's chakra had recovered enough for her to do a precise scan of Gaara's condition; He was taken into a temporary tent to rest, and he had remained out cold the entire time. They had placed him on a cot after persuading the sand-cat to release Gaara to them.
Her resulting outburst of self-flagellation was thankfully only witnessed by Temari and Kankurou who had stayed by their brother's side. And Mr. Fluffy-kins, if one counted him as a witness.
Although she had managed to knit back together his shattered ribs, in her haste to close him up, she had left a bone shard near his stomach. It was too big a piece to hope for it to be absorbed by the body eventually, and its location posed danger to his body mending as well.
By now, Gaara's entire left torso was swollen and bruised as his body attempted to repair the damage that was done to it. That made the task of cutting him open to remove the fragment harder than it would have been had she not been careless.
"Stop blaming yourself," Temari chided with no malice in her voice. She watched the pink-haired kunoichi dig gruesomely into her brother's side with gloved hands, Sakura's quivering lips betraying the presence of unshed tears. "You stabilised him enough to give him a fighting chance. That's all that matters."
When she finally sealed his side close with her healing chakra, Sakura felt ready to fall over. Instead, she dropped to her knees and shut her eyes, startling both Sabaku siblings with her actions.
"Hey, you ok?" Kankurou finally ventured when she remained prone.
Sakura nodded, then forced her eyes open to check on the condition of her patient.
How strange it was, to finally think of Gaara as an actual patient with bloody wounds and broken bones; the last time she actually fulfilled her role as a medic-nin to him, it had been a case of chakra exhaustion. Left alone, he would have recovered, albeit slower than if she had not given him more chakra-boosting tea. Now, if she had not intervened, he could… no, would have died.
"I need to check his mental state when he wakes up. He has a head injury." At Temari's frightened expression, Sakura shook her head, "It doesn't look serious, but we need to be absolutely certain that no long term damage was done."
"That may have to wait, Sakura-san."
All three shinobi turned their heads towards the entrance of the tent where Baki stood holding the tent flap up. He strode right in, his presence a familiar one to them all and bode no questioning.
"We have received directives from the War Council. You will need to stabilise the Kazekage as far as possible, as we will be moving him to a hideout for now," said Baki.
Temari approached her former teacher and asked, "Where are you taking him?"
There was no harm in telling the Regimental Commander's siblings, and Sakura was privy to the information, seeing how she was part of their entourage, so Baki replied simply, "The Land of Waves. We have friends there."
The Land of Waves. Just the name itself brought back a rush of memories for Sakura. It was the site of her very first genin mission outside of Konohagakure, and the events that had transpired there remained very much in her mind.
She wondered briefly if Tazuna and Inari would recognise her (naturally pink hair was pretty uncommon), but then she came to the realisation that there was no way they would be placed anywhere near where civilians would frequent.
"You have an hour to pack, Sakura-san," said Baki, "We will handle everything except the medical supplies, since that remains under your jurisdiction, as well as your personal belongings. We will bring you both some winter clothes as well, as it is known to snow quite heavily in winter."
She nodded her head, "Then I'll take care of our indoor attire, along with the Kazekage's medical needs."
With that, she left the tent and took off in the direction of the medic corps - or what was left of it.
Civilian doctors and shinobi medics alike were working at salvaging whatever supplies and equipment they could. Though most of the camp had been destroyed, by some miracle, much of the medic base had escaped the carnage. That was at least some good news, for that meant that the injured shinobi would not perish from a lack of medical equipment or medicines.
Now all they had to worry about was the overwhelming number of wounded in contrast to the miniscule amount of medical professions they had left.
Don't despair, she told herself, as she eyed the few remaining Katsuyu summons lingering around.
The fact that most of the slug summons had left meant that they had done all that they could, meaning either the injured parties had been stabilised, or they were beyond saving.
Sakura hoped that there were more cases of the former rather than the latter.
Reaching a group of medic-nin, she bowed quickly in greeting before she started sorting through the various crates and boxes. She mentally ran through the list of injuries that Gaara was spotting, connecting each with the required treatment plans and pulling aside the associated equipment. Storage scrolls were unfurled and rolled back up in quick succession as she collected everything she knew she would need.
There was the temptation to bring extra supplies of basic material such as gauzes and painkillers, but Sakura did not succumb to it; there were so many others that needed those, and if required, she knew she could rely on her knowledge of natural remedies to substitute these components. Certainly it would take time and effort, but it was better than depriving others of their limited stock.
"Haruno-san?" An older female civilian doctor that she recognised from her shifts walked up to her, "What do you need all these for?"
Her actions would have roused the suspicion of any onlookers - a single treatment session did not necessitate such a volume of equipment, and to them she must have looked like a rabid hoarder with the manner in which she was snatching these up. She did not even want to know what her colleagues were thinking, as she stashed away vials of morphine into an insulated carrying case.
"I will be gone for a few days. Nothing to worry about, Amano-san."
Another healer approached; this time, it was a medic-nin, asking, "Are the Kage's alright? We saw the fighting from here, and…"
The medic-nin did not finish his sentence, and instead waited for Sakura to do it for him.
"They are fine," she replied smoothly, "The War Council will have more information for us soon."
Amano caught Sakura's eye, and she thinned her lips as she recognised the lie for what it was. She reached down and unclipped her supply pouch from herself, and held it out to Sakura.
"Here, take this," Amano shook her head when Sakura started raising her hands in protest, "I have everything else I need here."
When Sakura did not respond, Amano sighed aloud and thrusted her pouch into Sakura's hands. As Sakura faltered from the gesture, Amano leaned in and cupped her hand over Sakura's ear to whisper, "Bring him back to us healthy, ok?"
There was no mistaking who the 'him' Amano was referring to, and Sakura nodded her thanks to the smiling matron.
Sakura made a trip towards their tent after she had finished collecting all the medical supplies she needed, hoping that there would be things she could recover from there such as the chakra-replenishing herbs that she kept a small store of. There was also the issue of acquiring clothing for them to wear during their time away, and she hoped whatever they had left was still salvageable.
Picking her way through the rubble, she made good time in getting to where their tent once stood.
Emphasis on 'once'.
Madara's Susanoo had cleaved the camp clear into two, digging a massive trench between that shook the earth beneath and tearing the ground apart. A giant boulder was protruding out from their toppled tent, and she inwardly grimaced, knowing that she would first have to clear the area out before she could even begin her search. Time was not on her side for this endeavour.
Still, she had to try. So she began climbing over the cluster of rocks and debris blocking the tent's entrance.
"Sakura, what are you doing here?"
At that familiar voice coming from in front of her, Sakura looked up.
"Shino!" She allowed relief to grace her features, having not seen much of the quiet male in the past six months. Many members of the Aburame clan have been sent out on scouting missions, their bugs able to obscure and confuse sensor shinobi types by covering the land with multiple chakra signatures to avoid disclosing their exact location. She had healed a few of his clan members whilst on duty, but had not seen Shino himself.
Shino was standing next to the massive boulder, his expression as unreadable as ever. A swarm of his insects hovered behind him, their low buzzing an oddly calming vibration in the air.
"Is everything ok?" He asked, holding a hand out to her. It took Sakura a moment to realise that he was offering to steady her precarious foothold on the rocks, and she placed her hand into his. He easily lifted her onto his perch, and released his hold just as quickly.
Must have heard all the rumours about the Regimental Commander's possessiveness.
Sakura tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, and addressed the stoic man, "I was hoping to recover some of my things from my tent, but it looks like it won't be possible."
Shino raised an eyebrow, then replied, "This large tent is yours?"
Ok, so maybe he didn't pay attention to the rumours and hearsays about her unprofessional relationship with Gaara.
He was probably just touch-adverse.
"I've been sharing a tent with the Regimental Commander ever since I was assigned as his personal medic," she explained.
The brunet nodded in understanding, and turned his head towards the toppled tent.
"I'll lift away whatever I can, so you can go inside and recover your belongings."
Without so much as a single visible gesture, Shino directed his swarm of bugs towards the debris piled on and around the tent. The almost telepathy-like connection the Aburame clan had with their insects was always a sight to behold to Sakura, seeing how they acted like extensions of their masters' limbs.
His bugs made short work of clearing away the mess, depositing the debris in a neat pile next to them, and Sakura gratefully thanked him for doing so. Shino's response was a polite incline of his head before he turned and walked away, presumably to continue helping with the recovery efforts.
After pushing aside the torn tent fabric, Sakura was finally able to look inside of it. As to be expected, a good portion of their possessions were previously crushed under the weight of the debris, but it was mainly her side of the tent that took the brunt of the damage.
She took note of Gaara's desk, still standing but covered in a layer of dust, and decided that it would be prudent to store it away in a scroll for safekeeping immediately; Gaara kept some paperwork inside one of the drawers that she knew him to be quite secretive about. He had almost caught her fingers in it slamming the drawers shut one day, and his eyes held a hint of wariness when he regarded her then. She had only been searching for a new ink block in those drawers, having assumed that it was where he kept his spares.
Secrecy and the title of Kage usually went hand-in-hand, so Sakura could only shrug it off and take no offence at his resulting brusqueness. Her occasional nosiness into the Hokage's paperwork had once led to a bruise on her stomach when she 'accidentally' laid eyes on a pile of important-looking documents and Tsunade practically shoved her aside in her haste to hide them (they later turned out to be a pile of personal gambling debts).
Digging through the mess, Sakura heaved a sigh of relief at recovering the pouches of chakra-replenishing herbs, and sealed that away with some of her clothes that she found. They were dusty and stained from being buried, but nothing a good washing wouldn't take care of.
At the sight of Gaara's imposing-looking wardrobe she hesitated. What should she pack for him exactly? In the past few months, he showed a preference for the maroon robe that he wore almost daily in times of peace. In fact, with the frequency of that particular piece of attire appearing on him, Sakura has the suspicion that he had more than a few of it available at all times (she pretty much commandeered the one he gave to her at the beginning of the war, so he must have at least a couple of spares).
So should she pack his robes, even though Baki would supply them with warmer attire? And how many shirts and pants would he need, if his wounds ruined them? And in which style? And oh, she was going to have to go through his underwear drawer; Even if she just shoved everything into a bag, she would still have to unpack them at their hideout, anyway.
Slapping her cheeks with both palms, Sakura forced herself to exhale. All this fretting over something as simple as a patient's attire was very unbecoming of a medic-nin.
Besides, she had helped Naruto pack for their missions ever since the blond ran out of clean underwear during a mission in their genin days. She had handled male undergarments with cool detachment and even scolded Naruto for not replacing the ones with unsightly holes; Surely she could handle her boyfriend's clean undergarments, right?
But when she reached out to latch onto a drawer where she presumed he kept his undergarments, her courage irrationally sank like a bag of rocks tossed into a lake.
With a resigned sigh, she applied a seal to the wardrobe that transferred the entire thing into a storage scroll. She would just take all his clothes along, and that was that. She did not need to spend any more mental energy on what should be an otherwise simple endeavour.
She was several minutes past her allotted time when she finally made it back to the tent that Gaara was resting in.
"You're late, Ugly," Sai smiled with false cheer at her as she approached.
"Don't start it, Sai. I had to dig around in our tent to find some stuff," Sakura suddenly felt very weary from the day's events, and she allowed herself to slouch slightly in the presence of her former teammate.
Baki and a group of twelve ANBU members stepped out from behind the tent, nodding their acknowledgement of her arrival. A quick glance at the ANBU team greeting her informed Sakura that they were all Suna ANBU - they each sported a piece of cloth over the lower half of their faces instead of the animal-themed masks that the Konoha ANBU wore. Not much of a surprise, really. Their charge was the Kazekage after all.
"Baki-san, I have the Kazekage's desk here," she held out a small storage scroll to the man.
The jonin blinked, and then nodded minutely, taking the scroll from her without a word.
"Are you all ready?" Sai asked, holding his special scroll in his hands.
So that explained Sai's presence: he was going to provide them with transportation. It made sense, seeing how the Land of Waves was four days' travel on foot using their fastest pace, and adding an unconscious patient to their retinue would certainly add to the overall travel time required; Sai's ink birds would have them past the borders of the Land of Fire in around ten hours or so, and it would be a few extra hours on top of that to reach their final destination.
It was always fascinating to watch Sai's ink beasts come to life. He made masterful passes of his brush over his scroll, and finished off with a hand seal that brought forth five of his creations from the paper. The birds stirred the air around them with their wings as they landed on the ground, then all stood still to await their passengers.
Baki and Sakura mounted one of the birds, Gaara carefully tucked between the two of them. The sand-cat walked up to them, and flattened its ears in suspicion.
"Oh, Mr. Fluffy-kins. I know you hate being up in the air. Do you want to ride inside my jacket again?" Sakura started unzipping her flak jacket while looking at the cat.
"Seriously? Is that an offer, because - OW!"
Sakura paid no attention to Kankurou who was now rubbing the back of his head, courtesy of Temari's fist.
The sand-cat cocked its head this way and that, and as if finally coming to a decision, lept towards the trio on the bird. Just before its paws could make contact with the bird's feathery back, the sand-cat burst into a fine cloud of sand that drifted and settled over the prone Kazekage, forming a blanket over the man. It tucked itself neatly into Gaara's side, quite binding him down to the back of the bird, causing the ink bird's haunches to twitch in reaction.
No matter how much the sand-cat seemed to disagree with Gaara's forwardness towards his mistress, in the end, it was still very much loyal to its maker as well.
The rest of the ANBU team settled in teams of threes to the remaining ink birds as well. They carried no visible cargo with them, most likely settling for the more practical method of transporting everything in storage scrolls.
The one item that they did choose to transport in its actual form was Gaara's gourd. It looked strangely out of place on the back of one of the ink birds instead of being attached to its owner.
"You did a good job today, Ugly."
Sai flashed Sakura one of his practised smiles, and no good ever came of that.
Before she had a chance to question him, the ink bird that she was on started flapping its wings, buffering the air around them and causing her to squeeze her eyes shut against the stirred-up dirt.
By the time she opened her eyes again, they were already high up in the air, the shinobi below them but small specks.
Sai waited until he could no longer make out Sakura's pink hair in the distance, then turned to Kankurou and Temari.
"Naruto seems happier now despite Sakura spreading her legs for his good friend. I hope to one day understand how to process such conflicting emotions with the same ease," he said with a serene expression on his face.
Too bamboozled by the combination of words that came out of the ink master's mouth, Temari and Kankurou's stunned silence allowed him to beat a retreat to the safety of his comrades' side before they regained their senses.
"Now I know why Sakura punches her teammates all the time."
The shack that the War Council had arranged for Gaara to be secreted away in was modest in size, and practically miserly in its contents. Baki did not allow Sakura or Gaara into the building itself until it was cleared of potential dangers. At least it looked clean - someone must have been in here just hours ago to tidy it out.
Naturally, there was only one bedroom. However, it made sense to Sakura that she would be sleeping in the same room as Gaara, seeing how she had to monitor him at all hours. Sure, there was only one bed, but Baki reassured her that they had packed her a futon.
Sakura looked at the sleeping bag she had decided to shove into a storage scroll at the last minute, and sighed quietly at how practical it was for its original purpose after all. The futon was thin, and the wooden floorboards cold and hard. She had slept in rougher conditions, to be sure, but she wanted to at least not freeze to death in her sleep.
There was no dedicated kitchen to speak of, only a sunken hearth in the small living area that was standard in houses this far out in the wilderness. That meant that they would need coal or wood to keep the shack warm. Sakura could easily rise to the task, but knew that her duty was to the Kazekage, and that menial work would probably be left to Baki or a member of the ANBU team to perform.
The less said of the bathroom situation, the better.
There was no showering or bathing area, simply put. There was a rudimentary toilet and that was that. She would have to bring in water from the well outside to wash her hands and herself later.
The bathroom was more for her own needs than Gaara's, so it was probably not a priority for whomever that assigned them this shack, anyway.
"Baki-san, where will you and the ANBU be staying?" She had asked after inspecting the shack inside and out. There was at least a good twenty or so centimetres of snow underfoot, and the clouds overhead foretold of more snow to come. They could not simply set up tents outside.
Baki had nodded in the direction of a nearby mountainside, and explained, "There are a few natural caves up there. We will be sheltered and well-hidden. There will always be ANBU posted around this shack at all hours, so if you need us, just send out a chakra pulse."
So that was why this particular shack was picked - it was close enough to natural hiding spots where their protectors could reside.
Sakura wondered briefly where the other Kage's had been sent to.
"I will be back each morning and evening with any communication from the War Council, Sakura-san. I can bring back any supplies you need during those times as well."
That was several hours ago. After settling Gaara into the bed with the help of the sand-cat, she re-checked his condition, gave him another dose of morphine, and finally completed the grim task of inserting a tube in-between his ribs to inflate his left lung.
Gaara had let out an involuntary whine of pain when air began to fill his lungs more readily, and that single sound reminded her of just how fragile the human body was, even if that body belonged to one of the strongest shinobi of the lands.
Inserting the saline IV drip next was a routine process for her on her hospital rounds and in the field.
The fact that it was completely routine bothered Sakura immensely.
For one thing: his sand did not instantly rush to the site of her probing needle; In fact, the needle slid right under his skin and into his vein as easily as it did for her other patients. At the very least, she should have encountered the barrier of his Sand Armour, but Gaara was unconscious and unable to conjure it.
Sakura glanced at the gourd resting in the corner of the room, watching it for signs of it recognising its master's pain.
It remained silent and motionless - a foreboding-looking weapon, now reduced to mere decoration in their sparse surroundings.
Absent-mindedly, she ran her hand down his forearm, noting the paleness of his pallor and the softness of his unblemished skin. He was completely vulnerable, possibly for the first time in his entire life. Shukaku had put up a fight when he was taken by Akatsuki, but he had no such defender now.
Her contemplations were interrupted by the sand-cat choosing to bump its head against her leg suddenly. Sakura looked down at the cat, regarding its bright green eyes. There were days when its eyes looked a little clearer, and others, a little darker.
Today, they looked more like Gaara's eyes.
Shaking that strange observation out of her head, she decided that her time would be better spent making a complete treatment plan for her charge. The kotatsu table's quilt was threadbare and could use replacing, but it served a place as good as any for her to do her planning whilst in the living area.
When she went to check on Gaara two hours later, he was covered in a fine sheen of sweat despite the slightly open window. It was a good sign that his body was fighting off any infection that he might have developed from his injuries.
However, that meant a change of his clothes, and suddenly, the oversized wardrobe seemed more trouble than it's worth when she dropped it in their living area - it took up more space than she would have liked.
Still, it wasn't as if Gaara would be up and about anytime soon; they wouldn't run the risk of bumping into each other at every turn.
It was during this change of clothes that she realised she forgot one of the most basic steps in the care of an unconscious patient: the catheter.
I'm a professional medic-nin, trained by Senju Tsunade of the Legendary Sannin.
That was what she repeatedly chanted to herself as she snapped on a clean pair of gloves and proceeded to manhandle… no, to insert the catheter into a certain male's body part that she lately had been having trouble getting out of her mind.
The sand-cat twitched its ear at the blush on her face.
And that was how three days went by - a routine of swapping out emptied IV bags, chakra scans and healing sessions as her charge slowly but surely regained a healthier hue to his skin, and his wounds stopped their sickly, greenish discharges. All that was left that hinted of his side ever having been torn open was an angry patch of healing skin, the tube now gone. Sakura kept him blissfully unconscious the entire time, a combination of morphine injections and the blocking off of his cortisol production that would cause him to awaken. Both of these measures she could only take for a few days at a time, lest she caused undue physical strain on his body.
The third day was also the day when an unexpected visitor dropped by.
There was a knock on their door around four in the afternoon, and that instantly made Sakura wary; Baki was supposed to come closer to six, and the ANBU guarding them had never approached the shack even once.
"Who is it?" Sakura called out, a kunai tucked into the sleeve of her shinobi shirt.
Through the door, a muffled voice replied, "Haruno-san, we have a message from the Hokage."
Sakura swung the front door open so fast that the startled ANBU took a step back on reflex. A mop of light brown hair greeted her, and its owner held out a scroll. She started to reach out for it when a thought struck her:
She was in enemy territory and responsible for the life of the Regimental Commander.
Sakura inwardly cursed herself for opening the door so readily.
She brought her hand back to her chest, levelled her gaze at the ANBU's stern grey eyes, and ordered calmly, "Open the scroll, please."
She still had manners, after all.
The ANBU member did not obey, instead choosing to turn the scroll a certain way to expose a glowing seal on its side to her.
"I regretfully cannot do that, Haruno-san. It has the Hokage's seal on it."
Sakura's eyes lit up in recognition at the glowing green seal - Tsunade had taught it to Shizune and her as a way to keep any communication between only the three of them; from mentor to apprentices.
There could be no forgery of that seal, since only three individuals in the world could form or break them.
Thanking the ANBU member profusely, she finally accepted the scroll and took it to read next to the sunken hearth.
It was a good thing the fire had not been lit for the past few hours; Sakura would not know how to explain accidentally setting Katsuyu on fire to her mentor.
A tiny version of Katsuyu had materialised from inside the scroll once it was unfurled, and she dropped unceremoniously onto the pile of burnt wood with a wet squelch.
"Katsuyu-sama!"
"Sakura," the slug greeted as it slithered its way up to her lap, "I have some good news. Tsunade-sama is recovering well, as my presence here can attest to. I have been sent here to serve as a means of direct communication with Tsunade-sama if you wish.."
Sakura nodded, biting her knuckle to stop herself from screaming in relief. Though both Tsunade and Sakura had a blood contract with Katsuyu, they each could only summon a portion of the massive slug, and that portion was always tied to their own chakra reserves. That Tsunade had sent her personal version of the slug summon truly meant that the Hokage was on the mend.
"How are the other Kage's doing?" she quickly asked to distract herself.
"They are all recovering well. You did a good job, healing them through your link with me. As a matter of fact, the Kage who bore the brunt of the injuries was the Kazekage," the slug twitched a tentacle, and hesitated before asking somewhat begrudgingly, "I assume he is healing as expected?"
A nod, and onto the next question, "Has there been any word from Naruto?"
"We have sent out messenger hawks to their last known location. Naruto and Killer Bee are too far beyond our telepathic communication range. It may be days before we hear back from them."
It was not good news, but it was not bad news either.
Sakura placed her hand over her heart, feeling the knot of stress that had been sitting inside her chest for days finally subside slightly.
Katsuyu made her way into the bedroom where her counterpart slug was. They waved tentacles in greeting, then merged back into one larger slug with a soft "pop". Sakura followed close behind, and lifted the slug onto the end of Gaara's bed.
Katsuyu sat quietly on the blanket, studying the steady rise and fall of the redhead's chest.
"He should wake up in the next few hours. I stopped blocking his cortisol production and took him off the morphine this morning."
"Good," the slug sounded strangely annoyed, "Tsunade-sama wishes to strangle him once he is better."
Sakura blanched, asking the only question she could come up with - "Why?"
"Hopeless bravado. He gave up his defences to shield the other Kage's. Whatever he had left on himself was not enough to protect him, as you can probably tell," the slug replied, "He did all that after Tsunade-sama went down, and I think it was his guilt at not protecting her that made him do something so reckless."
It was difficult to tell if it was Katsuyu herself talking, or if she was serving as a mouthpiece for Tsunade. Katsuyu sounded very much like her mentor at that moment.
"In a way, he saved everyone. Just like you did," the slug finally conceded as she turned to face Sakura.
Sakura found herself now torn between two new emotions: pride at Gaara's protectiveness, and rage at his selflessness. The two traits that most endeared him to her, now proved to be his undoing, that almost took him away from her.
Noting the kunoichi's sudden bone-weariness reflecting in her eyes, Katsuyu said, "Take a nap, Sakura. I'll alert you if anything changes."
She would have protested, and had already formulated a pretty impressive excuse for not taking a nap in the same breath, but her body betrayed her in the form of a badly-stifled yawn.
"Go."
Sakura was asleep within twenty seconds of her body sliding into the sleeping bag.
"Sakura."
There was the sensation of someone or something nudging against her head; It felt slightly moist on contact as it rubbed up against her hair.
Sakura's sleep-clouded brain took several moments to realise that she was being roused by Katsuyu, and she practically jumped out of the sleeping bag.
"Gaara? Is he alright?" She rushed over to the side of his bed at once, hands readied as green chakra rippled across her palms.
Gaara was finally beginning to stir.
She did not realise that she had held her breath until a pair of jade-green eyes met hers, and exhaled only when Gaara's lips began to curl into a soft smile.
That smile continued to turn upwards until it became a full-blown, toothy grin very much like Naruto's.
"Pomegranates," he murmured.
"Excuse me?"
Outrageously, Gaara started laughing out loud.
Morphine. It's a morphine high, Sakura reasoned to herself.
Katsuyu and the sand-cat exchanged baffled looks. Sakura tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear as she leaned over Gaara, pressing her hands to his temples to send tendrils of healing chakra into his mind; Much like she would do for Tsunade when she was suffering from a hangover after a heavy drinking session.
Her chakra began clearing out the remnants of the drug from his system. It was a painstaking process, because she did not want to accidentally lower his dopamine levels too much and cause his pain awareness to come rushing back, but she did not need him stoned out of his mind, either.
In the end, all she could do was to purge enough of the drug to smooth his bout of hysterical laughter into a series of soft chuckles.
"You smell like pomegranates again," Gaara explained, his hand coming up to clasp against hers on his temple, then he drew her hand down the side of his face to rest against his cheek. With his eyes still locked on hers, he turned her palm enough to press a tender kiss to it, humming softly as he did so. "That means we are safe."
Oh.
She would not have risked using scented products if there was even the slightest chance of blowing their cover, but Baki and the ANBU team had been diligent about ensuring their seclusion and safety. Gaara had noticed her preference for this scent on such occasions, and had correctly deduced their current situation.
Sakura nodded, letting Gaara to continue holding her hand as she said, "Yes, we are in the Land of Waves right now. Baki-san and your ANBU are with us. You are under orders to stay hidden until you are completely healed, Kazekage-sama."
At the mention of his title, Gaara frowned, "Are we alone?"
Sakura stole a glance at the sand-cat and Katsuyu, and nodded. She pretended not to notice the slug bristling.
"Then you will continue to address me as 'Gaara'," he concluded, finally turning loose of her hand to scrub the sleep out of his eyes.
Well, at least that proved that his short term memory was working.
"I'm going to need to ask you a few questions, Gaara, to assess that there has been no damage to your mental functions. You took a blow to the head, so it is simply standard procedure for me to do this."
She helped him into a sitting position, fluffing up pillows and doing her best to avoid jostling the IV tubes that Gaara was now scowling at.
"Don't even think about removing them yet. I'll take them out for you once you have regained full control of your muscles."
Gaara was now glaring down at his blanket, and that meant he had probably discovered the presence of another tube he wanted very much removed from his body.
"Now," Sakura ignored the direction of his gaze, pulling out a small flashlight as she approached his face, "Name and date of birth?"
"Gaara. Nineteenth of January."
His pupils were so similar to the colour of his irises that Sakura had to lean in closer than she normally would to be able to observe the way his pupils dilated and constricted under the glare of the flashlight. They had responded as a normal person's would, so she tucked her flashlight away as she began running her fingers down his jawline and to his neck, checking for signs of any bruises or marks that she might have missed.
Not that there would be any; She had been very thorough in checking him for injuries and healing them since the battle with Madara, and even managed to smooth out the appearance of his Chidori scar when she had healed his side.
"Where were you born? How many are in your family?"
At that question, Gaara paused. And Sakura wanted to mentally slap herself for asking a question that no doubt brought up painful memories of his mother and his childhood. It was a standard question for her to ask her patients, but then again, her current patient was not a standard one.
"Sunagakure," he finally answered, "I have a sister, Temari, for my eldest, and my brother Kankurou after her. I am the youngest child of Rasa and Karura who are both gone now."
That was the first time Gaara ever spoke his parents' names aloud to anyone.
He found it easier to do so than he had ever imagined.
Sakura paused at the manner in which Gaara was looking at her almost forlornly as he gave his reply; Her eyes widened as she finally realised the implication of it, her hands halting in their task as she turned them towards embracing Gaara instead. He in turn allowed her to do so, sagging a little into her hold as he stroked her back.
Katsuyu cleared her throat obnoxiously from the foot of the bed.
"So," Sakura fought the flush on her cheeks as she pulled away, "Your long term memories seem fine, as is your short term memory. I need to ask a few more questions to determine how much you remember of the last few days."
Gaara shrugged lightly. After Chiyo had revived him, the Suna medic-nin that were attending to him had done the same as well.
"Do you remember who you last fought? And who you were with?"
"Uchiha Madara. All five Kage were there."
"Do you remember how you got your chest wound?"
Gaara's fingers twitched subconsciously in the direction of his left side as he answered, "Madara's Susanoo."
"And do you remember the conditions of the other Kage's?"
That was the first question that Gaara shook his head at.
"It's ok," Sakura reassured him, "Sometimes, when our body has been subjected to great trauma, we lose perception of our surroundings and the people around us."
"But, they are alive?" The mixture of doubt and hope in his tone was unmistakable.
At Sakura's answering nod, Gaara's shoulder visibly drooped as they lost their previous tension. Sakura continued her scan of his body, lifting up his shirt to check his chest wound. She noted with satisfaction that the gauze she had wrapped around him was clean of blood and pus for a second day in a row - a sure sign that he was recovering well.
Gaara's abdominal muscles rippling as he chuckled gave her pause, and she raised her eyes to meet his.
"What's so funny?"
"Had I known it would take a life-threatening injury to stop you from being flustered about undressing me, I would have done this sooner," he answered between breathless laughs.
Morphine, she reasoned to herself, even as she lightly smacked his uninjured shoulder.
A series of knocks on the door followed by the familiar pulse of Baki's chakra gave her the chance to step away from her charge who was having too good a time at her expense.
"Sakura-san," Baki held out a basket of produce and drinking water.
"Baki-san, the Kazekage is awake."
It was not often that one would witness the stoic Suna jonin's face being lit up by a riot of conflicting emotions. He strode towards the bedroom after shoving the basket into Sakura's arms, and stopped at the threshold of the doorway.
Gaara looked up at the visitor, and nodded, "Baki, I apologise if I had caused you undue worry."
"O-of course not, Gaara-sama," the jonin replied, hands unclenching in clear relief at the sight of the awaken young man before him, forgetting his charge's title for brief moment as he spoke once more, "Sakura-san had worked diligently at all hours to heal you, and we never doubted that she would bring you back to us in perfect health."
"This merits a reward, does it not?" Gaara's voice turned mischievous.
Frowning slightly, Baki nodded his head once.
"And how would a Kazekage reward the Kazehime for taking such good care of him?"
Sakura, who had just entered the bedroom after putting away the items Baki handed her, looked from one man to the next, clearly coming in just in time to have caught Gaara's question, if her darkening blush was any hint.
"Well," Baki cleared his throat, "I believe it involves a night of f-"
"Thank you, Baki-san! You may go now!" Sakura shrieked as she pointed towards the door, her hands itching to just grab the man by his jacket and haul him out.
Baki, having always been a good judge of the odds that life presented to him (he did survive leading a genin team with a blood-thirsty Jinchuuriki after all), swiftly made his exit.
"Before I go, Sakura-san, do you require anything for the Kazekage?" Baki turned around and asked after taking half a dozen steps out onto the fresh snow.
"Soup. Ingredients for soup," she answered, then promptly shoved an armful of small glass vials at Baki. The jonin was confused by the action until he read the label on one of the vials.
At his questioning gaze, Sakura answered curtly, "We are good on morphine."
"Are you s-"
"Yes, I am sure."
Goddamned morphine.