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.
THANK YOU for all the long reviews - I knew you guys could do it! So here's my end of the deal.
Long reviews help writers figure out which parts of their story are clicking with the readers, and which parts need more work. They are genuinely helpful, and it's also very interesting to read the speculations that some of you have written. Most of the speculations I already have planned or written - is that a good thing or a bad thing?
When Sakura opened her eyes several hours later, she had to shut them immediately to shield herself from the blinding whiteness that surrounded her.
She tried to raise her arm over her eyes, but it felt impossibly heavy and unresponsive.
Fantastic – I've been poisoned and temporarily paralysed as a result.
Sakura was surprised by how calmly she was taking her own diagnosis.
There was a horrible ringing in her ears, and Sakura's eyebrows furrowed. It took her a while longer before she realised that it was not actually ringing in her ears, but the voices of at least two individuals talking nearby.
"What is it with you and poison, Kankurou? It's almost as if you two cannot be separated for long," said a distinctly female voice.
"Geez, Temari! Twice – just twice I've been poisoned or am confronted by a possible poisoning and you make it sound like I'm wearing a sign that says, 'please poison me!' over my head!"
Temari heaved a sigh, then continued, "And that makes it twice that Sakura has saved your sorry butt. You do know of the Suna tradition where if someone saves your life three times, you're obligated to marry her, don't you?"
Kankurou began coughing, followed by a thumping sound indicating that he was probably trying to dislodge whatever that slipped into his windpipe.
"I thought that practice was only if a man saved a woman three times!" He choked out.
"If you didn't cut classes to play with your puppets so often, you'd have realised that the tradition had never specified the sex of the rescuer."
"No, no – I know you are pulling my leg, Temari. I've only ever heard this practice being upheld by men."
"That's because history is gender-biased."
Okay, I'm not just paralysed; I'm high. Really, really, drug-trippy high.
That was the only rational explanation that Sakura could come up with for overhearing such an absurd conversation between Gaara's siblings. She knew that the people of Sunagakure did things differently from Konohagakure (eating salted tongue was one of them), but some practices sounded just too far-fetched to be the truth, and this had to be one of them.
"You've got to be insane if you think I'm going to hit on Gaara's woman, Temari."
"Until Gaara decides to claim her through marriage, she's up for grabs, Kan-ku-rou," Temari sounded positively devious.
"Medic… I'm his personal medic, dammit," Sakura muttered, figuring that it didn't matter if she decided to talk to her hallucinations; it gave her something to do at least, "I am nobody's woman, and I'm not from Suna, so you can stop all this crazy talk about me marrying Gaara."
"Sakura! You're awake!"
Oh, darn it. I wasn't hallucinating.
Sakura forced herself to open her eyes, and two blurry figures appeared in her field of vision. It was hard to tell who was who, though, since both of Gaara's older siblings favoured dark-coloured clothes.
Temari ordered Kankurou to find a medic while she approached Sakura to help her into a sitting position. It was a little harder than she had thought, because Sakura's muscles were stiff and heavy like lead at the moment.
Sakura managed a smile of apology, though, which Temari acknowledged with a little smirk of her own. The blonde looked about to say something when Kankurou swept back into the tent, a medic-nin tailing behind him.
Obediently, Sakura allowed herself to be subjected to a battery of tests before the medic finally pronounced her well on her way to recovery, although she would need at least another twenty-four hours to regain full use of her muscles. He left her with some medicine and a flask of water before bowing to Gaara's siblings as he exited the tent.
Kankurou heaved a sigh of relief and sagged into a nearby chair. Sakura may not be hale and hearty, but at least she was not in any danger.
And that meant he was not in any danger of being buried in sand in the near future.
Hurray! thought Kankurou.
Temari poured Sakura a drink and helped her with it, and Sakura was grateful to finally be rid of that parched feeling in her throat.
"Erm, Sakura?" Kankurou scratched the back of his head awkwardly before finally looking up at her, "You were great out there. By detecting the poisonous mist early, you managed to save everyone on my squad."
"Including my brother's sorry butt," chipped in Temari.
Sakura smiled at Kankurou, "Thanks, Kankurou-san. And I apologise for tossing you into that tree – there was no time to assess if it would hold you, and it clearly couldn't."
Temari's laughter filled the tent while Kankurou's lower lip stuck out in a deliberate pout.
After a while, Temari brushed away the tears of laughter from the corner of her eyes and turned to Sakura.
"Now, you were saying something about not being Suna-born?"
Sakura was still fighting the vestiges of exhaustion in her mind, so it took her a moment to process what Temari was asking. When she finally strung the words together, Sakura could feel the heat rising in her cheeks.
"Well, I was told by… someone, that the Kazekage can only marry someone from Suna. Not that I'm considering it or anything!" Sakura quickly added, "It's just that, you guys can pretty much stop planning for a sister-in-law outside of Sunagakure."
Temari exchanged slightly confused looks with Kankurou. She gestured towards nothing in particular and began, "Sakura, here's the thing – the Kazehime title is only bestowed…"
There was a sudden flare of chakra from outside the tent, and all three individuals turned towards the tent entrance at once, knowing exactly whom to expect. Whatever Temari was planning to say went unsaid as she clamped her lips shut. Kankurou unconsciously shrank into the shadows; if he had a tail, it would be tucked neatly between his legs right now.
Just because Sakura was alive and on the road to recovery, it didn't mean that Gaara would let him escape unscathed.
Fortunately for Kankurou, when Gaara entered the tent, his eyes were immediately on his resting medic and not his siblings.
"Kazekage-sama," Sakura greeted, attempting to bow.
Gaara was by her side before she even had the chance to incline her head, his hand pressed against her shoulder to stop her action.
"You shouldn't strain yourself, Haruno-san. I do not wish for you to observe such formalities in your current state."
Sakura tried to give him an angry glare, but all she did was manage to look sleepy.
Temari looked from her youngest sibling to Sakura, and back again. Finally, she spoke up, "Sakura, do you remember how you arrived at the medic base?"
Sakura blinked several times, searching her memories as she did so. She could come up with no explanations at all.
"I… assumed Kankurou-san took me along with the rest of the squad back for medical attention?" She ventured, sounding unsure of herself.
Kankurou snorted, gesturing to the sand-cat curled up next to Sakura's side that she had only just noticed, "Pfft – that cat of yours transported you away before I even knew what was going on."
Sakura looked down at the purring sand-cat, and smiled affectionately to it. She wanted to pat it, but her hand felt a little heavy for that right now.
"So you saved my life by taking me to the medic base, Mr. Fluffy-kins? You're such a sweet, clever cat," Sakura cooed.
Both Temari and Kankurou developed coughing fits out of the blue, while Gaara turned to give them a positively murderous glare.
Undeterred, Temari strode over to Sakura's side with a look on her face that was reminiscent of Ino's when the Yamanaka female heard a particularly juicy piece of gossip – "Oh, no. Your sand-cat didn't take you here on its own, Sakura. Do you want to know where it took you instead?"
Sakura had the sinking feeling that she was better off not knowing, but Temari went on anyway.
The blonde pointed one finger upwards, "Your cat decided to give both the Kazekage and Tsuchikage a surprise by dropping you out of the sky and right into Gaara's arms."
Sakura paled significantly at the image of herself, unconscious and falling right into Gaara's outstretched arms. And right in front of the elderly Tsuchikage no less; she might have given the poor man a heart attack! She turned to the sand-cat and laid one hand on its hindquarters firmly.
"Why did you do that, Mr. Fluffy-kins? The Kazekage is a busy man and cannot be wasting his time catching falling shinobi!" Sakura was trying her best to keep the panic out of her voice.
The sand-cat gave her a look that implied she just asked a very stupid question.
Gaara's soft clearing of his throat drew her attention back to him, and Sakura had to strain to hear his words above Kankurou and Temari's uproarious laughter.
"To enter the medic base, everyone has to be subjected to a chakra check. Mun was apparently not a fan of chakra probes, so he decided to bring you to me instead. He must have chosen me because I created him," Gaara explained, "That, and he would have had to place you on the ground for the sensor shinobi if he arrived at the base entrance directly, and I think he didn't want to do something so ungentlemanly."
Sakura's brain was working overtime. There was a question that was just out of her reach that she remembered wanting to ask Gaara about…
"Kazekage-sama," Sakura began, not quite able to hide the growing nervousness in her voice, "Does that mean last night, it was you who carried me back to the tent and not the sand-cat?"
Gaara tilted his head as if considering how to answer her, and then nodded as he concluded that honesty was the best policy. "Of course it was me. You left Mun back at the tent, remember?"
Sakura looked completely flabbergasted; it was as if someone had just beaned her with a blunt, heavy object. Temari took one look at the stricken-looking kunoichi and practically shoved Kankurou out of the tent amidst his protests, whispering something about escaping while he still had the chance. The grin on her face, however, told that Kankurou's personal safety was the last thing on her mind.
Gaara watched the antics of his siblings until the tent flap closed before turning back to Sakura.
She was still slack-jawed and wide-eyed.
"Haruno-san?" He asked, unsure of what exactly was going on in her head.
"Kazekage-sama," she began, "Will you please help me roll over onto my stomach?"
Gaara appeared puzzled by her request, but did as she asked, gently guiding her body around by the torso. Sakura's muscles were still not working as well as she would like them to.
As he reached over to help her turn her head to the side, Sakura surprised him further by deliberately burying her face into the pillow.
And then she screamed. Long and loud.
To Gaara, though, it sounded more like muffled squeaking.
When Sakura's voice finally gave out on her, Gaara reached out to turn her onto her side before kneeling down to meet her at her eye-level.
"Haruno-san, nobody saw me carrying you back to the tent, if that was what you were worried about; I transported us directly back."
"… Oh."
"Is it really such a bad thing for others to assume that we are more than friends?"
Sakura blinked, and promptly blushed a delicate pink. "… Come again?"
Gaara sighed, "I'm not hitting on you, Haruno-san. I'm just asking if it is so distressing a thought to be considered a potential Kazehime."
She should be flattered on some level – after all, the Kazekage was considered one of the most eligible bachelors in the Five Shinobi Nations. However, she had honestly never thought of furthering her position in the shinobi world through a political marriage, and she had definitely never considered Gaara from such an angle before.
Until now.
But this was a time of war – other duties came first.
She took a deep breath to clear her mind and steady her voice before replying, "The Suna kunoichi's are already on the verge of putting up 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' posters for me."
"You do not trust in my ability to protect what is mine?" Gaara asked, sounding somewhat offended.
Sakura narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "Kazekage-sama, I really hope you are referring to me as your personal medic, thereby making me 'yours' within that context."
"Did I not promise to protect you when we left the War Council?"
"Well, yes, but…"
"Then trust in me, as I trust in you."
Sakura had no reply to that. Gaara had never given her any reasons to doubt him before; she wondered if that counted as trust.
Gaara rose to his full height, then turned to look at Sakura. He wore a poker face, concealing his thoughts from her.
"I spoke to the Hokage recently, and I have expressed my thoughts to her that you are an excellent kunoichi. To lose you will be a great loss to all of us, both on a personal level and towards our cause. You are one of the few people I can trust, Haruno-san, even more so when I can speak frankly with you. No other woman has your sharpness of mind and tongue."
Sakura really, really wanted to pinch herself. Or maybe hit her head against the side table. Gaara was saying things that she never expected he would utter in a million years.
It had to be a hallucination. Or whatever medication they gave her to counteract the poison in her system that was making her hear things.
Yes, that had to be it.
Fortunately, Gaara decided to stop making her head spin.
"Haruno-san, I am assigning you to the medic base for the next seven days. You require ample time to recover from your injuries, and Shizune-san seemed overwhelmed by the amount of wounded shinobi being brought in," then he smirked, "I, however, expect to see you for our nightly tea sessions."
"Kazekage-sama, the chakra pills…"
"… Are outright unpalatable." Gaara involuntarily scrunched his nose at the memory of downing one of those pills last night.
Sakura could not help it – she grinned as Gaara smiled back at her.
"I shall do so, Kazekage-sama, if just to avoid being court-martialed for insubordination."
"But not tonight, Haruno-san. You need your recovery time," Gaara adjusted his shoulders to stand a little taller, "I shall make do with the chakra pills tonight."
"Thank you, Kazekage-sama."
Gaara nodded, and with one last request for her to have a good rest, exited the tent.
Sakura released the breath that she did not know she had been holding all this while.
Gaara was a possessive man – that much she knew. If she looked at it logically, it probably stemmed from a childhood of being surrounded by would-be assassins; he therefore cherished anyone he could put his trust in. Over the past few weeks of being in close, constant contact with Gaara, Sakura knew that she was beginning to let her guard down as well – they talked and acted like old friends now.
They had learnt to trust, and wanted to protect each other.
That's what friends did for each other, was it not?
Satisfied with her deductions, Sakura fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
When Gaara walked out of the tent, he was surprised to see Shikamaru leaning against a stack of wooden crates, arms crossed and suppressing his chakra. It was odd – why would Shikamaru want to hide his presence from both him and Sakura?
Upon hearing the rustle of the tent flap, Shikamaru looked up and pushed himself off the crates to walk towards Gaara. Gaara regarded his second-in-command – he wore an expression of mild annoyance, but that told him nothing of what Shikamaru was thinking; Shikamaru always looked as if the entire world was doing nothing else but tossing trouble his way.
"Nara-san, are you here to see Haruno-san? If so, she is currently resting," said Gaara, speculating that the Nara prodigy was here to visit his wounded comrade.
"Kazekage-sama," Shikamaru stopped a respectful distance away, "I wish to speak with you, not Sakura. Can we go somewhere else?"
The buzz of activities in the medic base resonated in Gaara's ears, and he nodded to acknowledge Shikamaru's request; not only was the base noisy, there was little that it offered in terms of privacy.
"Shall we head to my tent, Nara-san?"
Shikamaru nodded, and Gaara swept a hand forward to summon sand from his gourd. The sand enveloped them, and when Shikamaru opened his eyes again, he realised that Gaara had transported them directly to his large tent without undergoing clearance from the sensor shinobi of the Fourth Division.
There are definitely some perks to being at the top, mused Shikamaru.
Gaara gestured to an empty chair by the side of his table – Sakura's usual sitting place when she was helping him with his paperwork. But Shikamaru shook his head, wanting to get right to the point.
"May I speak frankly, Kazekage-sama?"
Gaara nodded once, and Shikamaru locked gazes with the young Regimental Commander. He didn't look forward to broaching the subject that he was about to bring up when the time came, and he most certainly did not expect the other party to be the Fifth Kazekage, of all the people in the world.
Life had a way of being troublesome – that much he knew.
"I want to talk to you about Sakura," Shikamaru began, his hands twisting behind his back, "Sakura is… not experienced in the area of romantic love, Kazekage-sama. All the experience she ever had in this department can be summed up in one individual."
"Uchiha Sasuke," Gaara was starting to find that name distasteful to utter.
"And I don't think she ever loved him at all, so she is completely new to the idea of romantic love."
"That makes us both," Gaara said, uttering it as if it was a fact and nothing more.
The sky is blue. We are at war with Akatsuki. I have never been in love.
Shikamaru closed his eyes and sighed before opening them, this time looking more serious than Gaara had ever seen him.
"Kazekage-sama, Sakura is a good friend to me; I don't want to see her get hurt. You were teasing her back there at the medic base, and I think that just confused her even more. Sakura may not say it, but even if she does think that way, she won't dare to voice it out of respect for your position as her commanding officer."
"Nara-san," Gaara held his head high as he spoke, "I know better than to fool with another person's trust and emotions. I would never deliberately hurt Sa… Haruno-san."
Neither one of them made a comment about Gaara's slip of the tongue.
"How should I put this… Kazekage-sama, you have been living in close quarters with Sakura for over a month now. Are you certain that you are not mistaking this physical closeness for emotional closeness?"
Shikamaru knew that he was walking on thin ice, but he had to push on. For Sakura's sake.
For one moment, Gaara looked ready to summon his sand to perform a very repulsive task on Shikamaru, but then he looked away, and muttered, "Nara-san, Haruno-san is very fortunate to have a friend such as you to look out for her. And I can tell you this much: that I am probably just as confused as she is."
Shikamaru blinked, surprised by Gaara's honesty.
"Kazekage-sama, Sakura is an exceptional individual and an amazing woman. I just want to make sure that she is not being misled, because she is more emotionally fragile than she looks," said Shikamaru, "I will not ask if you love her, because love is not something that happens overnight. All I ask is that you take things slow with Sakura, and that you never play games with her."
Gaara frowned, looking insulted by Shikamaru's insinuations that he would knowingly hurt Sakura. There was also a hint of anger in the redhead's eyes. However, Shikamaru stood his ground, determined not to be driven off by Gaara's glare.
"Haruno-san seems very important to you, Nara-san." Gaara's voice held a hint of frost.
Shikamaru nodded once, "She is important to me, Kazekage-sama, but not in the manner in which you think."
There was no need to tell Gaara that he and Sakura had dated in the past, and had parted on good terms after they decided that they wanted different things in life.
Shikamaru wanted to die from old age and not sand, thank you very much.
Both men stood in silence for a long time.
It was Shikamaru who spoke first – "Kazekage-sama, I meant no disrespect with my earlier words. If I have offended you in any manner, I apologise for that."
Gaara pondered Shikamaru's words for a while. There was no denying that he enjoyed his verbal parrying of wits with Sakura; perhaps a little too much. Sakura had responded in kind, and he had naturally assumed that his words had meant no harm.
That was, until Shikamaru reminded him that Sakura might have been upset, but was simply too polite to tell him otherwise.
"No, Nara-san. Although I cannot determine outright that I have intentions towards Haruno-san, I can tell you that I genuinely care for her welfare. I am fond of her, and I don't wish to lose her through any foolishness on my part. I can see how some of my choice of words could have troubled her, and that I shall watch out for in the future."
Inwardly, Shikamaru was satisfied with Gaara's reply – he was not too proud to acknowledge possible mistakes, something which even Shikamaru himself had trouble doing at times.
If a man was willing to put a woman ahead of his own pride…
Yes, Shikamaru was certain that Sakura was in good hands.
"I should make my preparations to leave in assistance of the coastal defence, Kazekage-sama."
Gaara nodded to dismiss him.
Shikamaru was at the tent entrance when he suddenly spoke up.
"One more thing, Kazekage-sama – Sakura likes white lilies."
And with that, the Nara prodigy left.
When Sakura woke up the next morning, bleary-eyed and dry-mouthed, the first thing she saw was a single white lily sitting in her water flask.
She wondered how she was going to get a drink of water now.