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.
Longest chapter to date, and no more long chapters after this. There.
Those who have read the manga covering Gaara's confrontation with his father would already know how little fighting there actually was, so, I'm improvising.
Reviews are appreciated, as always.
High noon – the hour of reckoning.
The resurrected Kages had stayed on course, each coming in from a different direction. They would have successfully boxed the 4th Division in, had Gaara not mobilised his men first to fan out into a wide arc around their borders.
The White Zetsu army arrived first, and stopped just outside of striking range of the Allied Shinobi Forces. The resurrected Kages stayed at the back of the army, obviously hoping to draw their attackers forward and throw their position into chaos.
Gaara lifted a hand to halt his shinobis, and everyone waited to see which side would make the first move.
In the end, it was the Allied Shinobi Forces that made the first move. More specifically, it was one individual who made it.
"Yo."
"Naruto!" Sakura jumped at the blond shinobi's sudden appearance, and well, his change of appearance; he was all aglow in his Nine-Tails Mode when he decided to make his entrance.
The shinobis around started talking excitedly, some clearly in awe of how powerful Naruto looked, while others greeted him with reservations. He was still the Kyuubi jinichuuriki after all. But this was Naruto – he would just grin and brush off any criticisms directed at him.
"Sakura-chan, I'm not late, am I?" asked Naruto as he peered towards the tall outcropping of rocks where Gaara and Oonoki were standing.
"No, you're just in time, for once," she smiled, "You are a shadow clone, aren't you? Where is the real Naruto headed?"
"Yeah, I'm a shadow clone, so you better not hit me too hard, or else – 'poof'!" grinned Naruto, "And I'm heading towards Madara's base right now with Killer Bee. He knows we're coming for him, so we don't have to be all stealthy-like in our approach."
"Naruto, this is serious! You have to be careful, especially when you're facing an immortal like Madara," Sakura was torn between wanting to beat the optimism out of Naruto, and hugging him for it.
"Sakura-chan, you worry too much," Naruto said, leaving Sakura to wonder if she really was doing that; Naruto was the second person to tell her that in the past few hours, "I'm going to check in with Gaara now to see what he wants me to do."
"Didn't Tsunade-shishou and Inoichi-san give you your orders already?"
"Yeah, but the field situation might be different, so I'm going to see what Gaara has to say." With a wave of his hand, Naruto leapt right up onto the outcrop in two bounds.
He landed soundlessly a short distance away from both Kages. Oonoki turned around at the presence of a foreign chakra signature, but Gaara, having already noticed Naruto's chakra signature amongst his shinobis since a few minutes ago, did not.
"Hey, Gaara. Tsuchikage-sama," greeted Naruto, "Sorry I'm late – had to clean out some White Zetsu clones in the 2nd Division on my way here. So, are we proceeding with the war council's instructions?"
Gaara finally turned around to face his smiling jinchuuriki friend. As Naruto had been completely unaware of the ongoing war until a day ago, the blond shinobi must have done a lot of catching up with the Intelligence Division since. The previous instructions were for him to create shadow clones and send them into all Four Divisions to root out the enemy clones, and to assist the 4th Division's upcoming battle against the resurrected Kages. However, Gaara did not want his friend overstraining his chakra reserves performing both tasks right now.
"We should concentrate on eliminating first-hand threats for now, Naruto. I want you to create three more clones – one to assist each segment of our Division. Stay among the shinobis and help them fight against the White Zetsu army."
"What about the four Kages?" Naruto jabbed a thumb towards the four lone figures behind the sprawling enemy forces, "Shouldn't we be targeting them first?"
"I don't want you to overwork yourself by creating too many shadow clones, Naruto. This battle may go on for days if we do not take out the Zetsu clones first. I especially do not want them infiltrating this Division to create mistrust among my men, so your priority is to stop that from happening," explained Gaara.
"A few more shadow clones won't make much of a difference to me, Gaara," Naruto was not boasting, but just stating a fact, "I promise I won't die, not before becoming Hokage anyway."
Gaara knew he was not going to win this argument, not when Naruto's eyes belied his fierce determination to protect everyone.
"Very well, you may assist Nara-san and my siblings. They will each be facing a very powerful Kage – specifically, the Second Mizukage and the Third Raikage. Although they are backed by a sizable shinobi army each, they can still use your help."
"What about you and Tsuchikage-sama?"
Gaara crossed his arms over his chest, then turned to look in the direction of the four Kages before finally speaking up, "Tsuchikage-sama and I will be taking on one Kage each. We know their techniques inside-out, thus we're in the best position to confront them. The Fourth Kazekage and Second Tsuchikage utilise devastating attacks that can wipe out hundreds or even thousands of our shinobis in a single blow, so we want to draw them as far away from our men as possible."
Naruto held his tongue when Gaara mentioned the Fourth Kazekage. He knew exactly who that was, and what this fight meant to Gaara almost immediately.
Gaara needed this confrontation, and as his best friend, Naruto was not going to deny him.
"Well, you're the Regimental Leader, Gaara, so I guess you know best. Man, first you beat me to become a Kage, and now you are the field leader for the entire shinobi army. Are you ever going to stop taking glory away from me?" Naruto feigned being wounded, clutching his heart while his mouth opened in a dramatic sigh.
I have taken more than that, Gaara thought glumly. However, he knew better than to bring up the topic of his growing affections towards Sakura at this time. The last thing he needed was a confrontation with Naruto at such a crucial point.
"You'll surpass us all one day, Naruto," he replied calmly.
"And that day can't get here soon enough!" Naruto pumped one fist in the air, "Okay, I'm going back down to give those Zetsu clones one heck of a beating. But if I sense that you guys need me, I'm going to jump in whether you like it or not, got it?"
"As if we can stop you," smirked Gaara.
Naruto simply gave him his widest grin yet, and was just about to rejoin the shinobi army when he noticed something at Gaara's feet.
"Erm, Gaara – why do you have a cat with you?" Naruto pointed at the creature pacing around Gaara's heels.
The sand-cat lifted its gaze to meet Naruto's, and immediately puffed itself up into a fluffy sand ball of sorts. The Kyuubi's intensely powerful chakra was clearly distressing it, and Gaara quickly nudged the cat to his other side before Naruto could do something stupid to worsen the situation; perhaps by patting the sand-cat.
"This is Haruno-san's cat," explained Gaara, "Although she is my personal medic, I refused to take her into this battle with me. So as a compromise, I'm taking this cat along."
Naruto shot him a baffled look.
"The cat can transport me back to safety if required," elaborated Gaara.
Naruto's mouth took a silent 'O' shape. It took a few moments for him to process Gaara's earlier words, and his eyes instantly bugged out as he shouted, "Wait, you get 24-7 personal attention from Sakura-chan? And isn't her cat supposed to be a calico girl? This one has bal… I mean, this one is a boy!"
Sound really carries out here, thought Sakura gloomily as Naruto's words pierced through the air and ricocheted around the surrounding dunes and mountains.
"It was Hokage-sama's idea to assign me a personal medic," Gaara left the rest unsaid, figuring that there was no point in tossing more fuel into the fire that was already threatening to consume Naruto's brain.
Naruto suspiciously rubbed at his chin. Clearly, something was afoot – perhaps this was a test from Tsunade baa-chan to find out if he could be calm in the face of shocking news. Yeah, that had to be it – the training for becoming a Hokage never stops!
"Okay… but what about the cat? This cat is not Harumi, because Harumi is just a regular cat that likes to wind herself around my ankles all the time. This cat is a nin-cat and obviously unfriendly."
"Haruno-san missed her cat, so I made one for her," replied Gaara.
Sticking to just plain facts and not saying unnecessary words was Gaara's plan when talking to Naruto; he still had absolutely no idea how to explain his growing attraction towards Sakura to his best friend; who was, incidentally – as if it was not weighing enough on his guilt already – in love with Sakura as well.
"You are a real good friend, Gaara," grinned Naruto, "You can focus on your fighting now that I'm here – I'll protect Sakura-chan!"
Naruto was gone and away before Gaara could say another word, and that suited him just fine.
A few seconds later, a loud "thwack" echoed up from the shinobi army, indication that Naruto was probably sporting a new bruise courtesy of his beloved teammate.
Oonoki finally turned to face Gaara and asked doubtfully, "That's our savior and best hope against Akatsuki?"
"Yes. Yes, he is."
"Are we being slighted?" grumbled the Second Mizukage, "All they are doing is just standing there and waiting for us to make the first move."
"Stalemate," intoned Mu softly, "It is still hard to believe that our villages have all banded together to fight the one who controls us."
The Third Raikage stood forward, and the remaining three Kages turned to look at him.
"I'm going to make myself clear on this – I don't want to hurt, let alone kill my own shinobis. But our will is not our own right now. We should disclose our combat weaknesses to our shinobis to end this conflict with minimal losses."
"Are you losing your edge, old man?" chuckled the Second Mizukage.
The Third Raikage did not even bother to face him when he spoke again, "We are already dead. So what if they know of our weaknesses?"
The Second Mizukage made a tsk-ing sound and turned away, appearing offended by the Raikage's words; just in time to witness a wall of sand easily over a hundred meters high coming right at the four of them.
"Okay, there's a buttload of sand headed straight for us," there was a combination of amusement and admiration in his voice, "Whose village does this shinobi hail from?"
Sand.
The Fourth Kazekage whirled around, and his eyes widened at the massive tidal wave of sand coming right at them. The number of times that he had witnessed such a force of nature could be counted on one hand, and none of them bode well.
This could only mean one thing – Sunagakure has decided to employ their deadliest weapon, inducing Gaara into a false sleep so that Shukaku's powers will be at its greatest. It was the double-edged sword that the Suna elders never foresaw: Shukaku would effortlessly win their battles for them, but at the same time, collateral damage was just part of the game to the demon tanuki.
And he was the only one who knew how to stop Shukaku.
"Honourable Kages, I will handle this," declared the Fourth Kazekage.
Seeing the grim determination in his eyes, the Third Raikage nodded and said, "We will go forward to engage our shinobis, and see if we can do something about those white creatures as well."
The three Kages transported away just as dark rings formed around the Fourth Kazekage's eyes. He watched the oncoming sand with an unwavering gaze, and when he deemed the moment perfect, slammed both hands into the ground to invoke his special technique.
At first, nothing seemed to happen, and the Fourth Kazekage felt an instance of fear; had his resurrected form somehow returned corrupted and unable to use his famed ninjutsu?
Then just as suddenly, the ground beneath his feet shook, and a blast of gold dust burst out with a bestial roar. Like a monstrous wave, it headed straight for the tsunami of sand.
Both waves met in a thunderous, heads-on crash, scattering sand and gold dust across the battlefield. The heavier gold had slowed the onslaught of the sand, effectively weighing the sand grains down in a rain of dust. The Fourth Kazekage blinked, quickly commanding his gold to clear his line of sight.
It was not the demon tanuki that greeted him, but his own flesh and blood in human form. Gaara was standing aloft a sand platform, his form still coiled from his initial attack.
He had approached his father alone.
"Gaara?" The Fourth Kazekage could not hide the surprise in his voice, ignoring the sand now encasing his legs from calf-down, "Where is Shukaku?"
He was not surprised at his father's assumptions – that he would not have been able to wield sand with such ferocious power without the aid of Shukaku. After the sixth failed assassination attempt on him, his father had grudgingly agreed to train Gaara, treating him more like a weapon than a son. And in all those years, Gaara had never demonstrated the ability to control such an enormous volume of sand while in human form.
That was all the value his father saw in him – a honed blade to be used against Suna's enemies.
"Shukaku is gone, father," replied Gaara as he leveled his gaze, "I am no longer the jinchuuriki you made."
If anything, the Fourth Kazekage looked even more astonished as he muttered, "That's not possible. You would have died if Shukaku was removed from you."
"I did die, father. But Chiyo-sama gave her life for mine."
The Fourth Kazekage concluded one thing from their current conversation – the world had gone absolutely stark raving mad; Chiyo was the very person who proposed sealing Shukaku inside his youngest child, and she had viewed Gaara as a failure as well. Yet somehow, she was willing to die to save the monster she created?
The Fourth Kazekage's gaze hardened, "Chiyo might have deemed you worthy of saving, Gaara, but I will find out for myself if that is the case."
In a blur of hand seals, the sand at the Fourth Kazekage's feet crumbled away, and he leapt backwards to create some distance between them. He still had no idea why Gaara was able to manipulate sand despite the demon tanuki's absence, and he intended to find out why.
Gaara launched himself forward on his sand platform at breakneck speed, intended on intercepting his father and to stop him from drawing him too far away from the 4th Division; He did not require the assistance of his shinobis, but if he were to stray out of range, his men might just come for him anyway.
The last thing he wanted was for his shinobis to be caught in the crossfire; in particular, a pink-haired kunoichi.
The Fourth Kazekage misinterpreted Gaara's lone assault attempt, though.
"So, they are sending the berserker alone to confront me, hoping to get rid of us both in the process?" taunted his father as he sent another rush of gold dust at Gaara's platform, hoping to throw him off balance.
Gaara quickly steadied himself, swiftly discarding the weighed-down sand and replacing it with more from his gourd. This was how the Fourth Kazekage had trained his son – by always pinning him down under the weight of his gold dust technique whenever Gaara's defense faltered for even the slightest moment. It was his way of telling him that Gaara could never hope to rise above his own sire.
"No, father. I chose to fight you alone, to protect my village and my people from you," Gaara locked gazes with the Fourth Kazekage even as he directed a stream of hardened sand at his father's feet.
"Your village?"
"I am the Kazekage now."
The Fourth Kazekage could only stare disbelievingly at his son while dodging the attacking sand – the failed Ultimate Weapon of Suna was now the leader of his village? The monster who once killed friends and foes alike indiscriminately was now in the position of absolute trust?
"You are lying," declared the Fourth Kazekage.
Gaara regarded the older man coolly, replying, "I have nothing to gain from such deceit. In fact, now that I am a Kage, I am starting to understand why you have tried to have me killed so many times.
"As the Kazekage, you had to put your people first; you needed to protect the village and you chose to do it by sealing Shukaku inside of me. When I became a clear threat to the people of Sunagakure, you were simply taking the most appropriate course of action – trying to eliminate me. Your duty was to protect your people, even at the cost of your own flesh and blood. I can see now why you did what you did, and I bear no grudge against you. I only wished that my mother did not have to die for the mistakes that we have both made."
The Fourth Kazekage's glare hardened as he regarded his son, now exuding all the calm confidence of a born leader. Gaara was his last-born; he was far too young to be a Kage in the eyes of his father.
"Then show me that you are worthy of the title you now wear." With that, the Fourth Kazekage launched into offensives.
Although the Fourth Kazekage stood stock-still, Gaara knew only too well that his father had already begun the battle. The question was, which direction would his father's gold dust be coming from? Gaara had been on the receiving end of the irritating metal in his eyes far too many times to count.
Gaara weaved a sand shield just in time to fend off the onslaught of pellet-sized gold bullets. The bullets disintegrated upon impact, quickly mixing into the sand shield. Gaara had no choice but to discard the now significantly heavier sand.
… And then came the actual attack itself; Gaara had suspected that the gold bullets were just a diversion.
He was about to summon more sand from his gourd to block the incoming jet of gold dust from the opposite direction when a streak of orange-red darted into his line of sight.
The sand-cat collided with the gold dust and disintegrated into a puff of sand. Before Gaara could even fathom what had happened, the sand-cat re-materialised on his sand platform, shaking itself vigorously to dislodge whatever gold it could.
Perhaps it was not the brightest of moves to stuff the sand-cat under a small sand dome with an airhole on top, now that Gaara considered it – it was not as if the sand-made cat needed oxygen, and the sand-cat had probably turned itself into sand and slipped right out of the airhole. On the other hand, encasing the sand-cat in an airtight dome reeked of animal cruelty, thus Gaara's current quandary.
"Stay out of this, Mun. You shouldn't even be here," Gaara took his eyes off his father for just a moment to chide the sand-cat.
It was not the best time to learn that the sand-cat – or basically cats in general – did not respond to orders very well. In fact, the sand-cat shot a very insulted look at Gaara before turning away from him, tail swishing as it looked at Gaara's opponent.
"No," commanded Gaara, knowing that he could have been talking to a rock for all the response that he was getting.
Soundlessly, the sand-cat leapt off the platform and went charging for the Fourth Kazekage, not caring that its approach could be seen; the older man had attacked its maker, and it wanted to respond in kind.
The Fourth Kazekage's reaction, however, was completely unexpected: he froze and simply stared at the tiny, charging cat, looking utterly confused.
Gaara squinted, trying to make out his father's single spoken word.
Kagetora?
The Fourth Kazekage held both arms out, shielding himself from the sand-cat just as it transformed itself into a sand cloud in his face. It was a warding gesture more than anything else, but that was also the opportunity that Gaara was waiting for – he glided over to his father, rapidly summoning sand to encase the Fourth Kazekage's entire body, leaving only his head and neck exposed.
The sand-cat returned to its form and leapt onto Gaara's sand platform. Both cat and maker gazed down at the now-trapped Fourth Kazekage who was busy blinking sand out of his eyes.
Gaara steeled his voice, "Who is Kagetora?"
The Fourth Kazekage lifted his gaze to the sand-cat, and after several heartbeats, he shook his head almost sadly.
"No," muttered the Fourth Kazekage cryptically, "You're not him."
Gaara did not have time for his father's nonsensical words. He repeated his question more forcefully this time, "Who is Kagetora, father?"
The Fourth Kazekage's eyes were downcast as he pondered the implications of the sand-cat's presence. Eventually, he looked up at Gaara.
"Kagetora… was the nin-cat that I gave your mother when she made jounin.
"This sand-cat of yours… the resemblance is uncanny. Kagetora was the most talkative animal ally that I've ever met – your mother could spend hours with him discussing everything and anything. He was always by your mother's side, whether if she was on missions, or if she was just strolling through the village. He only deliberately left your mother's side twice – when Temari and Kankurou were being born – and came back a month later on both occasions; he was not fond of screaming babies.
"He did stay for one birth though – yours. You were born premature and feeble, and soon after your mother… passed on, Kagetora stayed beside your special incubator and never left, not even to eat or drink. When you were finally strong enough to be moved to a normal crib, Kagetora would curl up beside you, purring.
"He never talked again after your mother's death.
"Then the morning when you opened your eyes for the first time, the nin-cat was simply gone. My men tracked it to the deepest parts of the deserts, and lost all traces of it there."
The Fourth Kazekage sighed deeply, his entire form seeming to sag despite being held up by sand. Gaara's eyes had widened in surprise in the meantime, alternating between looking at his father and at the sand-cat.
"Why… why are you telling me this?" Gaara's voice faltered in spite of his best efforts to appear unaffected.
"You re-created one of your mother's most treasured companions from your sand, even when you had no idea of its existence. The odds of that happening are just…" then the Fourth Kazekage lifted his gaze to look at the point over Gaara's shoulder, "You are watching over him, aren't you, Karura?"
A hissing sound emitted from Gaara's gourd, and he turned his head – just in time to see a sand-mirage of a woman with shoulder-length hair standing beside him. It took him a few seconds to finally summon the strength to speak to the mirage whose photo sat on the family mantle till this very day.
"Mother?"
The mirage simply smiled softly at him, placed her hand on Gaara's shoulder, then turned towards the Fourth Kazekage. Gaara was still staring at the mirage, not quite believing his eyes. He had always wanted to see his mother's smiling face, but now that he was faced with it, it seemed to have gone against everything that he had been told about her.
"But mother hated me! Yashamaru told me that when he tried to kill me!" The hand on his shoulder lifted away briefly before settling back down, the mirage looking sadly at him.
The Fourth Kazekage finally spoke up, "They were all lies, Gaara. Lies to test you.
"The senior council wanted to make sure that Shukaku could be controlled under even the most volatile of situations, and that meant a test of your emotional stability as a jinchuuriki. Yashamaru had instilled in you a great love for your mother, and love is a weakness a jinchuuriki cannot possess.
"So I ordered Yashamaru to attack you, and lie about your mother's affections for you in the process.
"Understand this: Yashamaru never hated you, not even once. If there was anyone he genuinely hated, it was me for essentially causing your mother's death when I agreed to have Shukaku sealed inside her womb."
The Fourth Kazekage chanced a glance at Gaara, and was struck by how horrified Gaara looked. Slowly, Gaara lifted his trembling hands up, staring at them in disbelief.
"Did I… murder my maternal uncle for no reason?"
"He was testing you, under my orders."
Just as suddenly, Gaara's eyes turned vicious and he yelled at his father, "You let me murder countless people in order to assess my suitability as Suna's Ultimate Weapon?"
The Fourth Kazekage at least had the good sense to hang his head in shame.
"Gaara, I'm sorry," muttered the Fourth Kazekage, "I have taken from you your childhood, your mother, created a rift between you and your siblings… But most of all, I am sorry for ever lying to you that your mother never loved you."
"The meaning of my name…"
The Demon that Loves Only Himself.
"Your mother gave you that name, Gaara-sama, with her dying breath. She died cursing the village and your existence," said Yashamaru.
"You were so precious to her, that your mother's last words were that she would protect you for all time – The Demon that I Shall Love," the Fourth Kazekage looked up at the mirage of his beloved wife, "And she did. You should have lost the ability to control sand once Shukaku was removed from you, but your mother must have been watching over you and helping you retain your powers. Karura was an expert in sealing ninjutsu; she must have sealed away some of Shukaku's powers even when the demon was removed from you so that you would still have control over sand.
"There is no better proof than the visage of her standing next to you, created from her own consciousness."
Gaara turned to the smiling woman, and felt the impact of her promise penetrate his heart.
The sand-cat had looked at Karura, but shown no signs of recognition. Still, it purred softly from behind Gaara.
"Father," said Gaara as his voice started to crack, "Thank you for telling me the truth."
"You are indeed worthy of the Kazekage title, Gaara," the Fourth Kazekage smiled with fatherly pride, "I only regretted that I was never able to express my love for you as a father should."
Quietly, Gaara applied the resurrection seal to the sand encasing his father – the one certain way of returning Kabuto's tainted handiwork to rest. The Fourth Kazekage did not struggle, and in fact seemed almost relieved at what was being done.
By the time the seal had done its work, Gaara's mother had vanished back into his gourd, although the feel of her hand on his shoulder lingered.
Gaara collapsed to his knees suddenly, startling the sand-cat. It quickly backed away, but drew closer and purred in concern when it saw that Gaara's head was tilted back as he trembled.
For the first time in seventeen years, Gaara openly wept in a mixture of relief and joy.
Focus.
That was the mantra that Sakura had been chanting to herself the moment the White Zetsu army rushed them, which was also the precise moment Gaara chose to propel himself away from the present battlefield to meet the Fourth Kazekage as planned.
Sakura decided to distract herself from worrying about the possible outcomes of Gaara's confrontation with his father by joining in the skirmish; her role as a field medic could wait until there were casualties to attend to. Careful to conserve her chakra for healing later on, she attacked with a kunai in one hand and the other readied to pick from her array of ninja tools.
It was not as if her monsterous strength would have been much use in their current situation: with enemies and allies packed together like sardines, a single chakra-infused strike from her would result in friendly fire.
One of Naruto's clones was right at the front of her Division's segment, quite literally pummeling his enemies into oblivion before most of the White Zetsus could get a chance to steal their shinobis' chakra. There was a small circle of space around him, and Sakura made a beeline for him where they readily fell back-to-back. Their movements synchronised as easily as the act of breathing, having worked together as teammates for so long.
"Just like the old days, eh, Sakura-chan?" grinned Naruto.
"Pay attention to the enemies, Naruto!" she chided.
Naruto's only response was to smile and mutter, "Yep, just like old times."
It did not take long for the casualties to start showing up, and Sakura reluctantly pulled herself away from the battlefront to attend to the injured. On the battlefield, Sakura was only able to perform triage healing, just enough to ensure that the injured would live long enough to be transported to the medic base; she could not waste her chakra on fully healing anyone.
Not even Naruto. Or Gaara.
It was the most basic duty of a field medic, and she hated it with pure irrationality.
Sakura had no idea how long had they been fighting – she was kept busy by a constant stream of incoming injured. So she did not even notice the cloud of sand materialising over her head until the sand-cat landed on her shoulders and startled her enough to make her jump.
"Mr. Fluffy-kins!" Sakura gaped at the purring cat, "What happened? Where is Kazekage-sama?"
The sand-cat purred contentedly as it continued rubbing its head against her cheek, and Sakura decided that if the sand-cat did not have to transport Gaara back to her, it most likely meant that he was alright.
That still did not explain where Gaara was, though.
But she could not abandon her patients now to go looking for Gaara, even if that someone was their Regimental Leader. Sakura simply had to accept that the sand-cat's presence was indicative of Gaara's safety, and carried on with her work.
Unbeknownst to Sakura, Gaara had returned and was now assisting the Tsuchikage and Shikamaru in their fight against the Mizukage; his siblings seemed to be handling their situation well, but an old Tsuchikage and a shadow technique user were not exactly the best match for a genjutsu expert. In addition, the sudden departure of the Second Tsuchikage was something that they had not accounted for, and Oonoki was now facing an enemy that he did not have enough intel on. As far as the redhead was concerned, he had fulfilled his end of the bargain – he had taken the sand-cat with him in his clash with his father as he had promised Sakura.
There was also the matter of the fact that he did not want to face the sand-cat right now, not when it still reminded him so much of his mother's unwavering love and his father's sincere sadness.
Gaara chanced a glance at Sakura, her pink hair making her stand out even in the chaos below. She seemed to be unhurt, and his heart lifted at that thought.
That in itself gave him the strength to move on to the next battle.
Naruto's presence had really turned the tides of the battle for the Allied Shinobi Forces. Aside from his devastating ninjutsu attacks, the fact that the strongest jinchuuriki in existence was fighting alongside gave the 4th Division a huge morale boost.
However, that did not change the reality that the Allied Shinobi Forces suffered substantial losses, and Sakura found herself drafted back to the medic base when news of the four resurrected Kages' defeats came in succession and the White Zetsu armies retreated as the day turned into night.
Shizune quickly assigned all available medics to the tents where immediate medical attention was required, and Sakura was about to volunteer for that position when Shizune held up a hand.
"Sakura, you have been performing field healing for almost the entire day. The last thing I need is for you to over-exert yourself," the brunette swept a hand across the sea of medic tents, "We have our work cut out for us for at least a fortnight, and I am going to need your help as much as possible."
For once, Sakura did not argue. Her placidity caused Shizune to raise an eyebrow in disbelief, but she decided to count her blessings and she immediately directed Sakura to a tent to perform non-chakra based healing.
Sakura had obeyed without talking back; she was simply too tired and somewhat numbed to put up any form of resistance. Although she had been trained as a field medic and had gone on numerous missions in such capacity, none of her previous experience had prepared her for the carnage she had witnessed today. On her four-men teams, it was easy to focus her healing on the injured; on larger teams, it was a little harder but still manageable.
However, when it had reached the point whereby Mr. Fluffy-kins had to help her by bringing in the injured from the frontlines because she was simply too busy healing the injured behind enemy lines…
When there was a brief respite from the never-ending stream of injured shinobis being brought to her, Sakura called out to Naruto to ask about the situation at the different segments of the 4th Division; Naruto's shadow clone from Shikamaru's Division had just returned with a cocky grin etched on his face, which Sakura took as a good sign.
She was stunned to hear that Gaara's fight had been the first to be concluded, and almost wanted to ask why had Gaara not immediately returned to his shinobis. Naruto simply shrugged and said that Gaara was held up by the fight against the Second Mizukage. He had reported it as a fact, completely unaware of the pact between his best friend and his long-time crush.
Sakura allowed no emotions to show on her face, although she was worrying about just how much chakra Gaara had spent in the long hours of confrontations today.
Drawing a calming breath, Sakura readied herself for an all-nighter shift as base medic, and finally pushed aside the tent flap. There were two civilian doctors inside the tent, and they nodded their greeting to her before beckoning her towards her workstation.
Sakura was so preoccupied, both with her own thoughts and with bandaging her thirty-seventh (or was it the thirty-ninth?) patient's arm – whom happened to be Matsuri – that she did not notice how Matsuri's eyes had widened and were now trained at a spot behind her.
"Haruno-san."
Sakura whipped her head around, surprised to find Gaara standing behind her with arms crossed. His imperious, almost overbearing presence was causing the two civilian doctors to attempt camouflaging themselves against some file drawers. Matsuri, on her part, looked absolutely awestruck by Gaara.
Only Sakura noticed how his hands were subtly trembling. And that he was not carrying his gourd – but that was not really an issue when Gaara could command any sand at his disposal. It was just odd to see him without his gourd so soon after the battle.
"Haruno-san," Gaara repeated himself, "I require your immediate presence in my tent."
Sakura took a moment to snap herself out of the stupor that she did not even know she had succumbed to, then quickly glanced at Matsuri's arm. "Kazekage-sama, I will be right with you the moment I am done with Matsuri's injuries."
Everyone, with the exception of Sakura herself, looked completely aghast that she was effectively disobeying a direct order from the Regimental Leader.
Gaara's normally passive features suddenly turned impatient, and he reached down to heave Sakura up by her arm, causing her to give a small yelp of surprise.
"Her injuries can be treated by a civilian doctor. But I cannot wait any longer."
"Kazekage-sama, you may be the Regimental Leader…" Sakura began in slight exasperation, at a complete loss on how to deal with Gaara's very strange turn of emotions.
"You are correct, Haruno-san – I am the Regimental Leader, and I want you in my tent. Now."
Gaara snaked an arm around Sakura's waist, pulled her against himself so abruptly that she could not avoiding slamming into his chest, and promptly vanished in a swirl of sand.
They left behind two cowering civilian doctors, and a statue-like, slack-jawed Matsuri.
Sakura arrived back in their tent so suddenly that she did not have the chance to orientate herself before Gaara and herself fell onto the carpeted floor in an awkward tangle of limbs, leaving Gaara half-sprawled across her body. Gaara's arms were wrapped around her back, pulling her so tightly against himself that he had lifted her back off the floor. His face was pressed against the smooth column of her neck, and every shuddering breathe he took made Sakura tremble for some reason unknown to her.
Sakura did know something, though: she knew with extreme gratitude that she had left Katsuyu with Shizune back at the medic tent, or Gaara would really be getting a faceful of acid right now from the protective slug summon; it did seem reasonable for Katsuyu to assume that she would be defending Sakura's honour if she attacked the clinging Kazekage.
Even if Sakura herself was not feeling that her honour was in any danger of being violated.
The sand-cat was conspicuously missing from the tent.
Now that Sakura had a moment to consider the situation, she was struck by the complete oddity of it; had it been Naruto, Sai, or even Kakashi-sensei holding her like this right now, she would have sent them into suborbital space travel. But this was Gaara – someone whom once withdrew from her touch months ago – and now he was all over her like a very clingy… pet of sorts.
Something was very wrong.
Gaara's voice was raspy when he said, no, commanded, "Hold me."
Sakura obliged him, although albeit hesitantly – Gaara's arms had pinned hers to her side, so she could only reach up to grasp him by his sides. Timidly, she tried to soothe him by rubbing his sides firmly but gently.
Once he felt her touch, his shoulders shook even harder. It took Sakura a heartbeat to put together the combination of his trembling form, his shaky words and harsh breathing.
Gaara was crying.
And that scared her more than anything else that she had even seen as a kunoichi.
"Gaara," she whispered against his tickling hair, "Gaara, please, tell me what is wrong."
"Lies," growled out Gaara, and his voice shook once more in a hiccuping sob, "My entire childhood was built on nothing but lies."
Sakura held her tongue, knowing that the ensuing silence was all the prompting Gaara needed to talk; when he calmed down enough.
As Gaara's breathing steadied, he began to speak. He spoke in a quiet voice, trying to avoid injecting emotions into his words. But it was not an easy task given the things that he was telling her.
He told her first about his confrontation with his father, purposely omitting the part about Mun; By Gaara's reasoning, Mun possessed no consciousness of his once-living likeness, so there was no need to complicate matters by telling Sakura that the sand-cat he gave her was essentially a physical replica of his mother's own cat.
Little by little, Gaara revealed to her his entire past, and finally told Sakura everything about Yashamaru – both the truth and the lies.
What troubled Sakura most was how Gaara claimed to have "murdered" his uncle.
Still, she did not interrupt him, knowing that she needed to hear all that he had to say, just as he needed to have someone to listen to him.
When Gaara finally stopped speaking, Sakura waited a moment longer, just to be certain that he had nothing else to add. His face was still buried against her neck, but his fierce hug had by now lessened in its intensity, allowing Sakura to rotate her stiff shoulders.
Abruptly, she reached up and clasped both her hands to his ears, startling Gaara enough that he drew back to meet her gaze, eyes still slightly red and puffy from earlier.
"Gaara, your childhood was not built on lies," she stated plainly.
"But…"
"But nothing," one of them had to be strong, and Sakura knew it had to be her right now, "You were told lies by your father, and your uncle did so under his orders. There is a difference between being told lies, and thinking that your childhood was built on them."
She drew her hands higher, and reached out to part his unruly fringe, exposing the kanji on his forehead.
"Yashamaru-san loved you, and your mother swore to protect you for all times; the best proof is your ability to continue controlling sand despite Shukaku's absence.
"And in his own way, your father loved you. Why else would he train you personally, knowing that there was a kill-order on you from the senior council? If the Suna senior council wanted to, I am sure they could have stripped your father of his title."
Gaara's eyes widened in pure surprise; he had not considered his father's merciless training sessions from that perspective before. Searching his memories now, he recalled how his training sessions had always been supervised from a distance by a senior council member.
But Sakura was not done. She pulled him closer, now cupping his cheek with one hand as the other traced his kanji tattoo. She could feel the slight indentation under her fingertip, and she realised that it was not a tattoo, but missing skin torn away to form the kanji for 'love'.
"Your childhood was built on unconventional ways of expressing love, but it does not cheapen the emotion," she looked him straight in the eyes, still tracing the kanji with slow, deliberate strokes, "Gaara, you have always been loved by those closest to you, and that has nothing to do with the fact that you were once a jinchuuriki and now the Kazekage."
Sighing softly, Gaara reached up to pull her hand away from his forehead, and Sakura panicked for a second, thinking that she might have violated some unseen boundary by touching his mark.
"No one has ever touched my scar before."
Sakura blinked in surprise, and immediately went rigid when Gaara drew her hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips one by one. His gesture was completely alien to her right now, and it did not help that his fringe was hiding his eyes from her, thus making it impossible for Sakura to discern his thoughts.
Sakura swallowed as quietly as possible to mask her nervousness, "Gaara, I think…I…"
The young Kazekage finally looked up at her. When he saw that he had Sakura's full attention, he turned his head to plant a soft kiss to her cupping palm, eyes half-lidded as he gauged her response.
Sakura's reaction, as often was the case, was to simply freeze like a deer in a hunter's sight.
"I think… the moment is right," Sakura finally found her tongue.
Real smooth, Haruno. Why don't you just ask him to jump your bones and make mad monkey love to you while you are at it?
Sakura really hated her subconscience, sometimes.
She could feel Gaara's lips curling into a smirk against the sensitive skin of her palm. Almost lazily, he dragged himself upwards so that he was now face-to-face with Sakura. Gaara allowed their breaths to mingle for a while, just long enough for Sakura to perform the perfect imitation of a ripe tomato.
"Very well, Sakura."
Gaara bent his head down, and pressed a closed-mouth kiss to Sakura's lips. And another. And another.
Slowly and self-assuredly.
It took Sakura's brain a while to catch on to what was happening, but when it did, she responded in kind to his kisses, all the while wondering if Gaara had ever kissed another woman before; he certainly seemed confident enough, and definitely attractive enough to draw the attention of the opposite sex.
When he finally parted his lips ever so slightly, she could sense him trembling minutely against her over-sensitised lips.
Sakura knew then that without a doubt, she was the first woman Gaara kissed so intimately, and that realisation gave her a rather pleasant jolt down the length of her spine. Boldly, she reached around his neck and drew Gaara impossibly closer.
That was all the reassurance Gaara needed to know that he was on the right track, and his response grew more fevered.
Sakura did not know how long they spent lost in each other's kisses. It might have been a few seconds, a few minutes… even a few hours. Whenever Gaara drew away to steal a breathe, the disappointment she unconsciously showed only served to draw the redhead back in like a potent, irresistable drug.
And it was not as if Gaara was going to pass up the chance to memorise the feel of Sakura so close to him; it was the first time in a very long time that he felt so safe and warm and…
Loved.
"Sakura," Gaara forced himself away from her kiss-bruised lips to plant a quick kiss to her cheek, resisting the urge to smirk at her dazed look, "Sakura, the sun is starting to rise."
Sakura sat up so quickly, Gaara only just avoided having a head-on collision with her forehead. Her back made a popping sound of protest, having bore both hers and Gaara's weight for quite a while, but she ignored it.
Oh, stars! How is it possible to do nothing but kiss someone for three hours straight?
Sakura quickly did the calculations in her head – it must have been at least nearing four in the morning when Gaara whisked her away from the medic base, and they had spent at least two hours talking.
Alright, it was probably closer to an hour that they spent doing nothing but kissing.
Not that it made Sakura feel any better.
"Sakura?" asked Gaara, rubbing her arms both to sooth the troubled look on her face as well as to draw her attention.
She turned to look at Gaara, and her eyes were immediately drawn to his redder-than-usual lips. Gaara's hair was a little tousled from her running her fingers through them, and he too had a slightly dazed… no, drunken look in his eyes.
Sakura extended both arms – an invitation for an embrace. Gaara obliged her without a second thought.
Even with all the layers of clothes between them, Sakura felt that it would have been impossible for them to feel anymore intimate.
Except when during the course of Gaara's attempt to perfect his kissing techniques, he had developed an embarrassing interest in wanting to know the touch of Sakura's skin better. Sakura decided not to mention there and then about Gaara's very male evidence of his desires for her, chalking it up to a natural, biological reaction of being so physically close. Gaara in turn had done nothing to acknowledge his little (or not so little) dilemma, and simply went on kissing her as if all his senses only functioned from waist-up and nowhere else.
"Gaara? Is this it?" Sakura asked softly, "Are we… a couple?"
By the end of the day, Sakura still preferred having a label assigned to the nature of their relationship – her logical side demanded that much.
Gaara was silent as he pressed a kiss to her ear, causing her to squirm slightly – an interesting reaction that he mentally filed away for further study.
"Such an anachronistic choice of words, Sakura," replied Gaara, chuckling lightly.
Sakura blinked, then turned her head slightly towards him, "Well, what would you call us?"
Gaara paused, then drew back to meet her questioning gaze.
"We're more like two halves of the same soul, taking too long to have finally found each other."
Sakura pondered his words for a moment, then her voice grew serious, "Gaara, I need you to promise me something."
"Anything." The redhead readily agreed, still giddy from the pleasant sensations that he had shared with Sakura.
"Promise me that if you ever decide to become a poet, you won't quit your day job."
Gaara blinked in surprise, but his lips slowly curled into a smirk when he saw the merriment in Sakura's eyes.
"I'll take it that you don't wish to receive love prose and poems on your pillow at night?"
Sakura giggled, "They don't really work on me, Gaara. I think I've read enough poems about the tragedy of mortality to last me a lifetime."
"That, and my poetry stinks?"
"I didn't say that, Gaara."
"No, but your face says it all."
They would both have been more than contented to spend the rest of the day quietly together, but Fate really hated Sakura.
Gaara suddenly drew away, and he lowered the sound barrier of the tent enough for one very familiar voice to pierce right through the fabric.
"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!"
Naruto.
Sakura found herself seized with panic and unconsciously clasped her arms over her chest as if to hug herself, but Gaara took control of the situation by squeezing her hand, reassuring her of his intention to be by her side at what was to come.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice was coming from the vicinity, but he did not seem to know exactly which tent Sakura was in, "Sakura-chan, your cat is bitin' me and he won't let go!"
Sakura bit back a snort of laughter; Naruto loved small animals and would always try to befriend them. Sadly, the Kyuubi's aura was often too intense for his fluffy targets, and most of them would flee at the sight of Naruto.
Or in the case of cats, attack him. Harumi was not a nin-cat and could not attack him conventionally, but she always seemed to get underfoot whenever Naruto visited. Naruto, blissfully unaware of the calico cat's intentions to kill him, simply assumed that Harumi was just being extremely affectionate with him.
"We should speak to Naruto," declared Gaara suddenly.
"Now?" baulked Sakura. She was not yet mentally prepared for this confrontation, even though she knew it was certain to come.
"I owe him that much," Gaara stood up, and held his hand out to Sakura.
Slowly, Sakura nodded and placed her hand into his. She allowed Gaara to gently pull her to her slightly wobbly feet. It did not help that the closer they walked to the tent flap, the more her legs felt like jelly.
"Naruto," called out Gaara as he lifted the tent flap.
The blond jinchuuriki was a comical sight to behold – his pants were halfway off despite his best efforts to hold onto his waistband, and the sand-cat was quite resolutely tugging on his pant legs, growling and perhaps trying to pull Naruto away from Sakura and his terrritory.
In the sand-cat's mind, both the concepts of Sakura and his territory were interchangeable.
"Gaara! Hey, since you made this cat, can y…" Naruto's voice trailed off when he found himself unable to look away from Gaara and Sakura's linked hands.
The three of them stood silently, all not quite knowing who should be the first to break the silence. The only one unaffected amongst them was the sand-cat, still intent on… whatever it was trying to do to Naruto's pants.
"Naruto," began Sakura, feeling her courage slip away as her teammate turned stiff, "We need to talk."
"I can see that."
Nothing, absolutely nothing, could have prepared her for the utter disappointment in Naruto's clear, blue eyes.