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Sabaku no Gaara was a Beta.

At least, that's what his personnel records in the Suna shinobi registry indicated.

His father, the Fourth Kazekage, had high hopes for his youngest son. Their village's most esteemed elder, the old lady Chiyo, had declared the boy a promising vessel for the Ichibi tanuki demon, Shukaku.

That information had pleased his father greatly, for not only would they have ensured the Land of Wind's military might with the control of a Bijuu, it surely meant that his son would be an Alpha whose name alone would send even the strongest of their foes fleeing for the hills; That his wife had to die from the stress of birthing his youngest son had to mean something, right?

However, through a series of misfortunes, the Fourth Kazekage would not live to see the day his youngest came into his designation. Which was just as well, because by the time Gaara was crowned the youngest Kage ever in the Five Great Shinobi Nations at the age of fourteen, his scent remained a muted blend of white sage and thyme; which was most likely due to his preference for burning those herbs during his meditation sessions than anything else.

Puberty arrived for the Fifth Kazekage with no fanfare to speak of, and those on his council who had ordered the construction of a secret bunker in anticipation of his Alpha rut quietly buried the expenditure in the Puppet Brigade's budget spreadsheets for the year.

A Beta Kage was not the worst thing that could happen to a village.

A dead Kage was, though.

The first sensations that came to Gaara's awareness when he woke up from a roundtrip to hell and back was of pain and the metallic tang of blood inside his mouth, and finally that of the stifling silence in his head.

Oh. It was quiet for once.

Too quiet, he realised, and he drew his hand up to his grimacing face to claw at the unnaturalness of it all.

A soft, feminine hand, clasping boldly around his fingers just before he could scratch at the scar on his forehead. He forced himself to crack open his eyes that he had unknowingly shut, in preparation to chide his kunoichi for her boldness in touching him; His sand had always rebuffed their advances before they could make contact, and…

Where was his sand, anyway?

He flexed his fingers against her palm, a verbal rebuke at ready to scold the reckless forwardness from this woman. Unused to such intimacy as he was, the contact from her fingers almost seemed to burn at his naked skin, now unshielded by his missing Sand Armour.

Except that it was not a Suna-nin that had taken his hand, but an unfamiliar and so achingly exotic one.

Pink hair, he realised. Unusual, and certainly not from his village. It would have stood out too much against the dusky tan architecture of their village. Or blended in too much with the setting sun's hues as the dying lights bathed the desert landscape in a riot of reds and pinks.

So many contradictions.

Her grip tightened further, and her voice came out in a tremble, "Kazekage-sama, can you hear me?"

Of course he could hear her, he wanted to angrily retort; Shukaku's voice was gone, and the silence the silence, oh, the silence…

Emerald-green eyes swam into his field of vision, so compassionate and yet so intense, and he lost all sensation of his tongue. Like a useless lump of flesh it sat heavy and unmoving in his mouth, and Gaara blinked at the ridiculousness of it all.

What kind of a jutsu had this kunoichi cast upon him, and why did her touch seem so unnaturally warm?

"Gaara? Ya ok?"

Another hand, this time clapped to his opposite shoulder and squeezed gently, almost careful in its touch. As Gaara turned to face the person whose voice he knew with such familiarity since five years ago - a skull-cracking headbutt and a meeting of shared Jinchuuriki sorrows were hard to forget - his sharp inhale brought to his senses the smell of warm summer days and a hint of citrus

Huh. When did Naruto develop a scent? Had he come into his secondary gender late? They had met several times in Suna whenever Jiraiya deemed it as good a time as any to stopover for a few days, which he did over the course of the last few years (it seemed to involve 'training' around the local bathhouses and brothels, for some reason, and Gaara had to stoically pretend those reasons were valid ones; at least the Toad Sage knew to be discreet). Naruto never had a particularly remarkable scent that he could recall.

Also, what business did he - a Beta - have with a heightened sense of smell, anyway? That was the purview of the Alphas and Omegas, who needed the ability to scent danger and safety and, and…

Mate.

Naruto smelled pleasant. Like a comforting cloak draped across his form; Familiar, but stifling like the scent of an overly-friendly packmate.

The Kazekage blinked against that very odd, extremely stray thought. He had his own pack that consisted of his siblings and Baki, and their scents have remained muted to him for his entire life. Betas had little use for scenting after all. Betas had little use for a pack, period. Except that his sister was an Alpha, and had corralled them into a small family unit of sorts that he had no reason to object to; it kept Temari calm to have a pack to protect and fuss over.

"I thought we lost ya!" Naruto seized the redhead by both his shoulders and bodily turned him towards his thousand-watt grin. The smile that the blond had bestowed upon him had crept up into his blue eyes, pushing away the hint of tears that had gathered there when all hope appeared to have been lost just a minute ago. The momentary tensing of Naruto's fingers warned Gaara in time that he was about to be yanked headlong into a hug whether he wanted it or not, and he braced inwardly for it.

Except that it did not come.

"Sakura-chan, ya still holdin' onto Gaara? He's ok now, thanks to ya!"

Even at the mention of her name, it still took Sakura three heartbeats before she glanced down at her own hand, and found her fingers laced intimately with Gaara's. She frowned, as if suspicious at the actions of her own body, then promptly uncoiled her grasp on Gaara even as his hand traitorously refused to release her until she physically pulled her fingers back.

That would explain the shit-eating grin from Naruto, Kankurou and… Chiyo?

No, she was not smiling. In fact, the old woman seemed strangely tense.

"Kankurou. Chiyo." Gaara greeted, and he made to rise to his feet.

Only to be held back by Naruto and Sakura once more. Naruto was not about to turn him loose, it seemed. The pink-haired kunoichi was leaning over him as well, hands glowing green with medical ninjutsu, and he was still too out of it to protest her movements as she ghosted her hands over his torso.

Warm. Not quite like Naruto's scent - it was like the reassuring heat of skin-on-skin contact, which he had but a handful of memories to call upon. And delicate like the furrow in her fine brows, drawn together in deep concentration. And… sweet? Something that made saliva pool in his mouth instead of the teeth-grinding sweetness of syrup. More natural, almost honey-like in its richness as it settled on his tongue.

Chiyo hobbled over to them, her form held up by Kankurou as she displayed a marked limp in her steps. As she looked over at Sakura who was completely focused on the Kazekage, her lips thinned in a thousand different considerations.

"That slug princess did good work." Even having witnessed Sakura's almost mythical healing abilities in pulling their Kage free from the jaws of almost certain death, old grudges were not so easily forgotten. In fact, her disenchantment with Tsunade seemed to have readily found a target in Sakura instead.

He should have died, Gaara realised, as he touched his now freed hand to his chest, rubbing in absentminded circles around his sternum. Jinchuuriki's were so irrevocably tied to their Bijuu that when Akatsuki worked their foul jutsu on him, tearing the tanuki demon away from his body and mind, he had screamed and yelled and begged for the pain to end; as if his soul was being crudely cleaved into two halves. Shukaku had roared his rage as well, but in the end, there was little the Bijuu could do but to loosen his metaphorical claws on Gaara's body and allow himself to be torn away.

"Akatsuki?" Gaara inquired, still confused at the situation he had awakened to - surrounded by his shinobi and Konoha-nin, and barely a dry eye in sight. What were they crying for? For one moment, he was seized by the panicked notion that he had not managed to direct his sand which he used to shield Suna from Deidara's attack away in time, and instead dropped the massive load directly on his people. Had he destroyed the very village that he had taken an oath to protect?

"Gone," Sakura was the one to answer him, and she seemed startled that it was she who spoke up. A pause, then, "For now."

Naruto grinned, "Yep, we whooped all their asses and got ya back! Ya shoulda' seen Sakura! Chiyo baa-chan said she stopped Sasori all by her awesome self!"

"Naruto." Sakura blushed, unused as she was to being the centre of attention, and certainly not when Naruto decided to paint such an overwhelmingly positive lie about her efforts; Chiyo had fought just as hard, if not harder, than she did.

A brief hint of something tangy, like a fruit bordering on overripeness. Gaara rolled that scent on his tongue as he inhaled it, trying to piece together where or whom it was coming from.

Still, it made no sense. He was a Beta. His sense of smell had always been a little better than most Betas' thanks to what he assumed was his Bijuu's influence on his physical development, but there was no reason for him to so readily scent others around him, especially now that Shukaku was gone.

Oh. Shukaku was gone.

He was empty, he realised with a start. No longer a Jinchuuriki, and now a stranger to his own body that had housed a demon for his entire life.

What do I do now?

He winced at the sudden flare of pain from the back of his skull, and Sakura lifted her chakra-lit hands up to his temple in an instant. Although she kept her hand suspended above him, the warmth of her chakra seeped through his skin and burrowed itself under his flesh, curling softly around the throbbing in his head like a caress. Combined with the call for calmness that her honey-sweet scent carried to him - so the scent was coming from her - the Kazekage had to fight to keep his suddenly heavy eyelids open.

"Let's get him home, you guys." Kankurou shifted next to Sakura, lightly bumping against her as he reached for his younger brother's arm.

Rrrrrr…

Everyone around Gaara froze up at once, and their astonishment was clearly conveyed in their wide-eyed looks directed at him. Sakura had withdrawn her hands in surprise, and it stirred up a spark of annoyance in Gaara at the loss of her gentle touch.

"Gaara, did you just… growl at me?"

Kankurou knew better than to panic, of course. In his more blood-thirsty moments, a much younger Gaara had made some inhuman, almost bestial vocalisations that still featured in Kankurou's nightmares every now and again. After being tempered by Naruto's friendship, the eighteen year old Kazekage had not fallen back to his more primal ways once in the past five years. So to hear him make such a noise…

"Sorry. I don't know why…" Gaara's voice trailed off, a hint of confusion lingering in his tone.

All he knew was that when Kankurou came too close, knocking into Sakura as he did so, he had felt irrationally upset at his brother's action. Maybe he was just not in the mood to be moved yet - his muscles were aching like he had finished a full day and night of sparring.

"Let's get him home, so we can have our medic-nin look him over." Chiyo sounded agitated as she spoke, and Gaara could only assume that his abduction by Akatsuki had upset the Suna council elder a lot more than she let on. He had no misconception that it was because the woman felt bad for him, knowing that she was the one who sealed Shukaku inside of him to begin with.

Perhaps she was upset that they had lost Sunagakure's ultimate weapon, and that his ability to control sand was now compromised. And oh, his power to manipulate sand. What happens now that Shukaku is gone?

He glanced down at where his right hand was pressing into the ground, and focused hard on the grains he could feel under his fingertips.

Nothing happened.

His teeth clacked as he gritted them, a wave of self-loathing and panic rushing over him as he sought harder to will the sand into moving.

Obey, damn you!

Inexplicably, Sakura promptly fell onto her behind, her legs splayed out under her. Surprised jade-green eyes lifted up to meet her suddenly frightened-looking emerald-green ones, and Gaara took note of how her hand was clenched around her own throat, as if shielding herself from a lunging wolf. He was certain that he did not speak this time, so her alarm seemed unwarranted.

"Whoa, how are ya still doin' that?! I thought those Akatsuki bastards took the stupid tanuki!"

Naruto's cry of surprise drew Gaara's attention back to the sand he had been trying to move with his mind, and he was just as bewildered by the sight of a miniature sand cyclone stirring and growing in his upturned palm.

Kankurou gave a low whistle, then turned to Chiyo with one raised eyebrow.

"Not here," the old woman said cryptically, "I will speak to the Kazekage's family in private later."

Gaara's return to the village was done without fanfare, per his request. His shinobi followed closely behind in solemn silence as he was carried between Naruto and Kankurou, his legs still numbly refusing to work properly for now. He could sense the other Konoha-nin trailing a respectful distance behind his own shinobi, and almost wanted to demand that they walk closer to him. After all, they were the ones to rescue him from Akatsuki's clutches, according to Naruto and Kankurou's dramatic retelling of the past few days.

Learning that Sakura had also saved Kankurou from Sasori's poison (which not a single one of Suna's medic-nin's could even come close to determining what it was, he was harshly enlightened on) filled Gaara's stomach with lead, as he realised the depths to which his gratitude for Konoha's assistance could never be sufficiently conveyed. Their allies have saved two members of the Kazekage clan and pack, and if archaic ways were to be observed, he would have to cede a member of his pack over to them as a token of his everlasting gratitude.

Although… if the rumours about his Alpha sister and a certain Beta Konoha-nin were to be humoured, he would have to do that eventually.

Speaking of which, said sister was rushing up to meet them as they came within sight of Sunagakure. Temari's face went through several different expressions at once - horror at the sombre arrival of the returning shinobi, followed by sorrow at the idea of losing her brother, then astonishment at realising that the grumpy-looking, slightly dusty shinobi at the head of their contingent was her very much alive youngest sibling.

Gaara did not appreciate physical affections, or physical contact in general. That he was being held up by two men was enough of a blow to his ego - the village leader should not appear weak, especially in the aftermath of such a devastating attack on his people. So adding his sister's attempts to hug his newly-regained life out of him as she scented him, her voice only just slightly blubbery as she scolded him for making her worry - it was enough to make him want to hide himself in his bedroom until everyone had gone back to their usual routine. And that meant the departure of his Konoha allies as well.

That thought should not make another pang of annoyance settle in his gut.

Maybe he was just flustered, unused to being the one who was saved instead of being the protector of his village. Which again, was very odd. He had called on foreign shinobi for aid in the past, the first incident being to help rescue his student, Matsuri. There had been several other missions that he had called upon non-Suna shinobi since, mainly from Konoha. So there was no reason for him to feel his ability to defend his village had been compromised.

Except that it was. Not only had he lost his Bijuu, he had also died, according to Naruto.

"Ya weren't breathin', Gaara. Chiyo baa-chan said ya heart must have stopped for hours by the time we got to ya! I don't know how Sakura did it, but she is one heckuva' medic-nin. Musta' been some special trick she learnt from Tsunade baa-chan!"

In the meantime, Sakura continued to linger at the back of the returning party, pressed close to Kakashi's side. She was rubbing absentmindedly at her throat with her now-gloved hand, and that gesture drew her teacher's keen eyes to her movements.

How odd that she would so readily bare her throat to him - a Beta - when all he did was unleash his pheromones in an agitated rush as he tried to will sand grains under his command once more.

And now that she thought about it, his scent had grown stronger since she first started infusing her chakra into his previously lifeless body. Gaara's scent had been sharp and metallic, the stench of death curling around the edges of it that she had to fight for hours to all but erase it from his skin. By the time he finally stirred, the metallic aroma of his scent had settled deeply into her pores and on her tongue, and its similarity to the coppery taste of blood had made her shudder.

The sight of his jade-green eyes finally opening, first staring unseeingly at her, then finally in recognition, caused her trembling to worsen. It stirred up memories from her genin days, of being pinned unconscious to a tree as a half-monster-half-boy leered while tearing into Sasuke; Watching as those jade-green eyes turned black with golden flecks. And even now with those fearsome days behind him, the startling luminosity of his eyes, combined with the fact that his pupil matches the colour of his iris (what a biological oddity) - it all left her feeling discombobulated. Especially when he appeared determined to not break his gaze from hers.

Yet she could not deny that her heart had been gladdened to have successfully revived the Kazekage. The sheer magnitude of her deed aside (and it no doubt meant bragging rights for Tsunade now, perhaps even political leverage), there was satisfaction to be gleaned from the fruits of her late nights of studying, and long days of being tutored under the watchful eye of both the Hokage and her fellow apprentice, Shizune.

Still, it had been a bit of a shock to her. Bringing back the dead was supposed to be a taboo in many cultures, Konoha's included. But Chiyo was all but prepared to perform a forbidden jutsu to transfer her own lifeforce to the Kazekage, and Sakura could not bear to see an old woman who had lost everyone precious to her atone in such a manner.

So she had lied.

It was easy to spin a tale about Tsunade's teachings that bordered on godlike in their results - stories from her own experience of bringing a dead sparrow back to the world of the living, its wings unfurling to take flight once more. Tsunade had beamed and congratulated her on undoing death's work, and Sakura in turn learnt to respectfully refuse offers of celebratory sake being thrusted at her sixteen year old self.

The fact that the sparrow had been newly dead by Tsunade's hand she carefully omitted.

"I'll save him."

That was what she had said to Chiyo, and she must have glared something fierce at the old woman; Chiyo had clicked her tongue and stopped her approach, instead settling on a nearby rock to watch Sakura lay Gaara flat on the ground before she started pushing her chakra into his body.

A dead body was an empty vessel, limited in its ability to absorb and process chakra. Sakura knew that she was running a risk of exposing her failure if her chakra were to seep out of Gaara's unresponsive body, but she stubbornly persisted, knowing that if she failed, Chiyo would step up to the plate in her stead with a method that would spell her own death and in turn, brand her for life with her incompetence.

Failure was not an option for Sakura. It wasn't just a Kage that she was trying to save here, but Naruto's dear friend as well.

What she did not expect was for him to take and take and take… every single ounce of chakra she directed from her core into his, his body greedily absorbed deep into each cell, reinvigorating his heart enough to force it into pumping once more. With blood coursing through his body at last, the rest of her chakra he drew to light up his nerves and basic functions, and all possible concerns from her about lasting brain damage were quickly erased when he started speaking again in that familiar, deep baritone of his as he stirred, sandwiched between Naruto and her.

"You did really well today, Sakura-chan," Kakashi's visible eye crinkled in a smile, even as he struggled to stay upright with Gai bodily supporting him up.

She smiled at the praise. "Thank you." Kakashi's scent was soothing and familiar, and the fact that he was giving off calming pheromones helped settle her racing heart.

There was a mild commotion at the front of the group, and she lifted her head automatically at the raised voices.

It was easy to pick out Temari's voice - the Alpha female of the Kazekage clan had been making frequent trips to Konohagakure since several years ago under the guise of being an inter-village ambassador. The older kunoichi kept her scent carefully suppressed whenever she was in their village, a diplomatic gesture to keep her position appearing as a neutral one when in the presence of foreign shinobi's - allies or not. And now that she thought about it, Shikamaru had mentioned offhandedly that Temari's scent had almost knocked him off his feet when they fought in the Chunin Examinations, when she had no reason to hide her Alpha status to his Beta one. She had wielded her pheromones as precisely as she did her gigantic fan, and the Beta spectators in the front row seats had to breathe more shallowly to avoid being overwhelmed by her presence. Unmated Omegas - unwelcomed at events where they could be easily exposed to Alpha pheromones - would have readily submitted in the blonde kunoichi's presence there and then.

"She reminded me of spicy medicinal herbs," Shikamaru had commented, "Potent enough to keep you alert and on your feet."

Sakura was used to working with medicinal herbs, and found that description fascinating enough to try catching a whiff of her scent the next time Temari was in the village. To her disappointment, the blonde kunoichi smelled more like dry sand and burnt spices.

"That just means you're not compatible with her."

Shikamaru's laughter was cut short when Sakura retorted with a coy smile, "And you are?" He had blushed a deep red at her insinuation, and quickly excused himself to cloud-watch for the rest of the day.

Right now, the object of Shikamaru's not-so-secret affection was grousing at Kankurou and Naruto, no doubt upset at how long the rescue of her youngest brother took. From where she was standing, Sakura could just make out Temari pressing her face against Gaara's neck - she was both scenting him in concern, and blatantly rubbing her own scent onto his skin; Very typical Alpha behaviour when their packmate had been away for more than a few days.

"You smell different," Temari's voice carried across the dunes.

"It's nice to see you too, Temari." Gaara's reply came out clear and crisp in spite of his haggard appearance.

Chiyo's approach was noticed immediately by Temari, and she crossed her arms over her chest in obvious displeasure.

"Why does he smell different, Chiyo-sama? What happened out there?"

The old woman made a shushing gesture with one hand, and Temari's lips thinned. But she knew better than to demand answers about the Kazekage's health out in the open, so she turned on her heel, an indication for the contingent to proceed back into the village.

"Is our mission over?" Sakura glanced up at her teacher.

"There'll be a debriefing eventually, but Suna's priority is their Kazekage right now. We will have to wait for his medic-nin to give him a clean bill of health, and you will likely be asked to explain what you did for their Kage," he nodded to Sakura, smiling reassuringly, "I think they will want us out of their hair soon enough. I won't expect us to stay more than a day or two."

Good, her brain offered up unbidden, and Sakura wondered why she was feeling such a terrible itch under her skin, making her feel all but ready to flee back to the safety of Konohagakure and her own room.