So used to being steadied by either Gaara's hand or arm holding her, that Sakura almost lost her footing when they re-materialised in his tent. In the past, she had tried counting the seconds which they spent travelling in his sand in an attempt to time the descent of her feet to the ground, but she always ended up off by a second or two. It was safe to conclude that his sand constantly eluded her grasp, both metaphorically and physically.
As if realising his error, Gaara's arm shot out to grab her wrist. He paused just before he made contact with her, not knowing if his touch was welcomed.
"Are you alright?" He chose to politely enquire instead.
Of course she would be - she was a top medic-nin and an apprentice to a Legendary Sannin after all; there were few kunoichi of her calibre in their world, but he could not help feeling concerned for her. The Sakura he knew at the beginning of the war would have taken offence at his question, assuming that he had asked it due to her being of the fairer sex. It was the Sakura that knew him for several weeks that later understood it was part of his upbringing to always be civil to one and all, no matter how he felt on the inside.
She wondered what he was thinking of right now. Gaara never betrayed his emotions very much on his face or in his gestures. All she could do was nod her accession, and Gaara took a step to the side to give her some of her personal space back.
"Do you want some tea?" Gaara proceeded to ask as he made his way to where Sakura kept his teapot, dropping his gourd against his table as he did so.
In all honesty, she could use something to keep her alert, especially if she was going to have that conversation with Gaara.
"Yes, please," she walked up to him, reaching for the teapot that he was holding in his hand, "I can brew it."
"Allow me," he insisted, pulling the teapot back towards himself.
Since when did Gaara make his own tea?
Annoyed by the various acts (and words) of oddity that Gaara had displayed tonight, Sakura placed her hands on both hips and stated pointedly, "Kazekage-sama, I'm not wanting to play games. I need to give Naruto a full physical in the morning, so if you'd let me do my job…"
"I don't play games either, Sakura," he chose to use her given name to restore the bubble of intimacy between them, and his eyes darkened slightly as he regarded her with seriousness, "Let me do this, and we will talk once we both have gotten something to drink."
There really was nothing else for Sakura to do except fold her hands on her lap as she stood awkwardly in place. She watched Gaara take familiar steps around the tent: turning the stove on after he checked the water level inside the kettle, retrieving a tin canister of tea leaves from behind the pot of honey, and finally filling the teapot up with freshly boiled water. He measured out three servings of tea leaves for the teapot before placing it and the teacups on the tray that Sakura used each night.
It was the way he arranged everything on a tray, with the two teacups still upturned and sitting to the right of the teapot's handle, that caused her to jolt inwardly.
Every step he just did was exactly how Sakura had made tea for him while they were secluded away in the Land of Waves.
That Gaara was so carefully observant with everything that Sakura did made a small tremor surge through her veins, and she knew there was no hiding that little pleasant shiver at recognition of his attentiveness towards her.
In the three minutes that it took for the tea to properly steep, they spent it standing across from each other. Sakura was tempted to shift from one foot to the next, except that she did not want to look too fidgety. At the same time, Gaara stood so still that he could have passed for a skin-toned statue. Neither of them knew who should be the first to speak.
So Mr. Fluffy-kins decided to do it for them by announcing its presence with a loud "mrrrr".
The way Gaara's jade-green eyes widened in pure amazement at the sand-cat's sudden ability to speak caused Sakura to make an unladylike snort.
"When did he…?" Gaara stepped closer to the sand-cat, and the Kazekage lifted it up to his eye level. Soft rumbles of purrs continued to emit from the pleased-looking feline as it allowed Gaara to handle it without fuss.
"The morning after I moved into Ino's." The sight of Gaara looking so innocently bewildered made her heart constrict briefly. "Mr. Fluffy-kins does seem to evolve at the strangest times."
And if those times happened to coincide with Sakura's realisation of how much further her feelings towards Gaara had deepened, it was simply a coincidence, right?
Right?
Deciding that it had spent enough time being ogled at, the sand-cat wiggled out of Gaara's arms and leapt towards Sakura's neatly-made bed, happy to settle on the comfort of an actual mattress for the first time in a week.
Traitor, she thought glumly at the sight of the sand-cat rapidly succumbing to sleep.
"Have a seat, Sakura." Gaara gestured towards her chair as he set both readied cups of tea on his table.
Sakura took her seat, and Gaara settled into his chair behind his table. He watched her take a careful sip of the hot beverage before he finally drank from his cup.
"I'd like to say my piece, and you're free to speak your mind afterwards." The Kazekage always had a way of cutting right to the heart of the matter, and was never one to beat about the bush. His single-mindedness of character made him a formidable opponent both on the battlefield and in front of his council, and Sakura knew there would be no interrupting him.
A small nod from her, and he leaned forward to steeple his hands on the table, gaze locked resolutely with hers as he revealed that which had been plaguing his mind.
"I have jested about abdicating in the past if it would help my suit towards you, with the understanding that the obligations of my title can be overwhelming at times." At this point, Sakura looked ready to say something, so he shook his head to stop her. "I have considered that position once more, but I have come to realise that the title of Kazekage would fall to Kankurou by default. While he is perfectly capable as a shinobi, my brother's temperament does not make him a good politician.
"In any case, the reassignment of the kunoichi's is something that I cannot undo, and nor can my successor if I choose to abdicate. I am ashamed to admit that I have bartered away shinobi's lives for the good of the village and the alliance, but that is my duty to my people, just as yours is to me right now."
He paused to inhale deeply, and he chose to look away from her when a blush rose to his cheeks.
"You are everything that I've ever wanted in a partner, Sakura. You speak your mind, you fight for what you believe in, and you deeply treasure all your relationships. I am being completely honest when I say I cannot envision another woman ruling by my side. If you were to become mine, I know that you will love Suna and its people the same way I do.
"But if this is too much responsibility to bear, I do not want to burden you further. Say that you are done with me, and I will cease my courtship at once. I will not force you into a life that you were never prepared for."
The silence that enveloped the tent was rapidly becoming suffocating, as Sakura stared in astonishment at the now defeated-looking young man across her. His brow was furrowed as he clenched his teeth, waiting with bitterness for Sakura's next words to cut him loose and tear away a portion of his beating heart.
"I am an idiot." Sakura intoned dryly.
Wait. What?
At the unexpected statement Gaara reared back, his nose scrunched up in confusion. He waited with bated breath for her to explain herself, and Sakura took the chance to place her now empty cup back onto the table before lifting her gaze to meet him.
"I am a kunoichi, Gaara." The softness as she spoke his name made him sit up a little straighter. "Yet nothing in my life could have prepared me for the fact that I would be at the frontlines fighting a world war before I even turned eighteen. Everything I did as a genin never prepared me to one day be training under a Sannin as a medic-nin. My life's course is as unpredictable as a leaf's being swept along by the wind."
"I am scared," she acknowledged that fear that had been gnawing on her insides for days, "Of the prospect of such a drastic change. At the idea that one person can hold so much power as to alter the course of the lives of thousands with a single command. And seeing you do that so easily makes me feel… inadequate."
"It does not," Gaara argued back at once, "Do you think I am so heartless as to order countless others to die and not lie awake at night knowing that I have to answer to their families, and then to the shinobi themselves in the afterlife?"
"This," he gestured towards his face, "This is a mask I must wear so I do not appear weak. So that I can rule without every single decision of mine being challenged by my council. But I must take the loss of lives together with the ones that we will gain when we finally achieve world peace, and pray that it is all worth it in the end. That is my duty to my people, and with that responsibility comes the power to decree the lives of those who have come to trust me. I am not so full of myself to think that I will change the world for the better, but I know at least I will try my hardest.
"So no, Sakura. You are not inadequate in any way. You were not born into a bloodline with expectations of becoming a Kage unlike mine. The fact that this power scares you gladens me, actually."
Gaara rose from his seat and came to stand in front of her. He braced his hands on the armrest of her chair and leaned forward, enough to crowd her into leaning against the back of her seat and stare unblinkingly back at him.
"Power scares those who do not seek it. You who only ever wanted to become stronger for the sake of those you love, and not because you wanted to acquire fame and fortune - the prospect of becoming a ruler frightens you, doesn't it?"
That they were so casually discussing the obligations that becoming a Kazehime entails should not come so readily to him, but Gaara in his steadfastness of nature had set his sight on this one particular kunoichi, and had no eyes for others anymore.
"I am afraid of that power. I've seen what it does to others." There was no need for Sakura to bring up a certain raven-haired avenger, but his presence loomed over them both in that instance anyway, "And that's why I am a fool to think I can escape it by shying away when a chance to grasp it presents itself to me.
"Each time I heal someone, I see the gratitude in their eyes. And when I look to the left and right of me, I see others expecting the same ability out of me to save their lives. What you asked of me was always a far-off idea of one day being responsible for so many others, but watching all those kunoichi's lose their way and purpose because someone in power had asked that of them… It became real."
Gaara nodded in silence, exhaling softly against the crown of her hair.
Not everyone was suitable for the life of a shinobi, and even fewer were suited for the life of a Kage. Sakura's fear of coming into such power stemmed from childhood betrayals from those who sought it out - Sasuke most certainly, and Naruto in his own way did it too when he left to train with Jiraiya.
In her mind, she had equated power with loneliness and burden.
She was not entirely wrong.
Several moments of silence later, Gaara was surprised to find Sakura's palm pressed against his chest. He took the hint at once and stepped backwards to let her rise from the chair, and she walked towards her own bed before plopping down on the edge. The sand-cat made a disgruntled noise and flopped over to face away from them both.
If she was willing to bare her soul to him, he would give her all of his attention. That was Gaara's conclusion as he went to stand next to her, and he noted with satisfaction the way she glanced briefly at his face before she turned to hide the pinkness of her cheeks.
"I once broke a gurney when I threw it at Sai and he dodged it."
Okay…?
Gaara chose not to interrupt her, and Sakura took it as a sign to continue.
"The Hokage building has several rooms where the maintenance staff have given up on replacing the doors after I took them off their hinges or crushed the doorknobs under stress."
Violent, but understandable. Gaara was subjected to daily trials against his temper by own council, and had damaged his fair share of official Suna government property in a show of his power (and limits), though it was usually done when he was not in the presence of others. The less he reminded them of his murderous rampages in the past, the better.
"Shizune nee-san makes me take mandatory vacations once a year because I tend to get short with the hospital staff after about eleven straight months or so of hospital shifts."
"Are we comparing notes on who has intimidated more people? Because I'm certain that is a challenge that you will not win," Gaara asked, his knitted brow bones giving away his confusion at her words.
Sakura shook her head, and smiled morosely, "I am telling you right now, Gaara, that I am not a poised woman like your mother, or the previous Kazehime's. I was not raised with the bearings of a noble woman. I can only handle so much stress before I start hitting something or somebody. Most likely both."
Oh. Oh.
A tiny bubble of hope started to form in his chest as he replayed her words in his head. Gaara glanced down at the empty spot on the bed beside her, and at her agreeing nod, sat down on it. Their knees brushed against each others' as he did so, but neither moved to shift or pull away.
"I have gone out into the desert to rage at those I cannot physically do so against. It is fortunate that the sand dunes are constantly shifting, so no one can discern where and when I have taken out the worst of my temper."
He reached out for her twitching fingers with both hands, watching her motions still as he smoothed them out with his palms.
"The council has a budget set aside for the frequent replacement of the conference room furniture, because while I prefer not to resort to violence, sometimes a point is best made with a broken chair or two." At her horrified look, he quickly added, "Kankurou and Temari are the ones intimidating them. It's not befitting the Kazekage to threaten his own council, so they do it in my stead. And not always under my orders either."
"Tsunade-shishou has no problem with giving our council a piece of her mind. She can be quite loud and vulgar about it too," Sakura giggled as if sharing a secret. Which it probably was, and Gaara filed that away as political ammunition for another day.
They both looked down at their now-joined hands, the silence an easy one as Gaara continued to caress her upturned palms with his.
"What are you saying, Sakura?" He finally asked.
Sakura smiled wistfully, "I am saying that I have a horrible temper that becomes especially apparent under stress, and I don't think your council or shinobi will appreciate it very much. But that is who I am, and I don't think I can change that so easily."
Gaara tilted his head and scowled. For one moment, Sakura thought she had completely blown apart his expectations of her, that he suddenly realised how ill-suited she was as the wife to a Kage, and she started to shrink away from him.
So she was quite startled when he reached out and clasped his hands around the back of her neck, drawing her close to press their foreheads together. His exhalation of agitation against her parted lips made her bite her lower lip back to stop an embarrassing noise from emitting.
"Why in the world would I want someone else that is not you? This version of you is the one I gave my heart to, and I will not accept a muted, less spirited version of you." He breathed hotly against her, and the abrupt sensation of being so close after days of longing made it harder for the both of them to focus.
"When your burdens become too great, let me take them off you. I'll do everything in my power to ease it, be it taking you someplace secluded to expel your rage, or surrendering myself to your mercy. This I will gladly do for you, as long as you are mine.
"So when the responsibilities become too much for you to bear, don't hide from me. Don't let that fear quiet your strong sense of justice. Tell it to me, like you did when you learnt the truth about the reassignments. We can work it out better together than as two individuals. Even if there is no fair solution, there is at least us."
He watched Sakura worry her lower lip with her teeth, and he told himself no matter how tempting it was, he would not close that tiny distance between them until she proved amicable to his continued suit. Why taste more of that which he could not have to torture himself further?
"Us," she breathed out quietly. So close they were that Gaara nearly went cross-eyed trying to discern the emotions in her bright green eyes, but the idea of parting physically from her was even more distressing, so he simply nodded.
"Yes, us," he replied, swallowing thickly.
He felt more than he saw Sakura's answering nod. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the slight upward curl of her lips as she spoke softly, "I like the sound of 'us'."
The way his chest seized up, breath caught in an inhale as he pulled back at last to really look into her eyes; Sakura's cheeks turned rosier if it was possible under his scrutiny, and she started to turn away from him. Emerald-green eyes grew even more shy the longer he stared at her, and he caught her tracking the slow bob of his Adam's apple as he swallowed around his tongue in a desperate attempt to find words.
"Let me kiss you," he said at last. There was a firmness in his voice that was in complete contrast to his badly rattled nerves, and he wondered how he even managed his words without betraying his jackrabbiting heart.
He licked his lips, suddenly aware of how dry and chapped they were from days of restlessness and heartache. That Sakura mirrored his action almost immediately left his lips slightly parted in heated anticipation.
When she finally nodded, the sigh of relief he breathed out was embarrassingly loud.
Slowly, oh so slowly, he began to lean forward. He lightly bumped his nose against hers, but did not move forward. Instead he stayed pressed close to her, breathing softly against her cheek and feeling her pulse thrum as he took her hands in his. When he finally angled his head, it was just enough to press a closed-mouth kiss to her - soft and chaste.
"I did miss you," he pulled back enough to murmur against the softness of her lips, "Unreasonably so."
Gaara leaned forward once more, this time pressing a firmer kiss against her. Still close-mouthed, though he did push enough against her now parted lips to make a smacking noise when he drew back once more.
"In a little more than half a year, you've taken over all of my senses and my thoughts. I have never imagined that I would find the other half of my soul in the middle of a world war," he continued his confession with sincerity, watching Sakura's cheeks bloom and her eyes widen in surprise.
When he leaned forward, he tilted his head enough to fully connect their mouths together, and he could taste Sakura's soft sigh of blushing affection against his tongue. He began to move his lips against her, drawing hers into a mimicry of his. She returned the movement of his lips with her own angled tilt of her head, making small, wet noises against his mouth as he laid claim to her lips once more.
"Sakura," he pulled back to let her witness the fire in his eyes, "My Sakura."
It was reassuring; how easily they fell back together again. Sakura's fingers flexed in his grasp, and Gaara took that opportunity to ghost his fingertips up her night-chilled forearms, over her elbows, and finally seizing her biceps to hold her still as he mumbled nonsensical words between nips and licks to her now-bruised lips.
She shifted lightly in his grasp, and he loosened his grip on her biceps so she could finally lift her hands up to his jawline. Tracing the side of his face from his ears to his chin, she wondered to herself at the perfection of his skin; She had never seen Gaara shave, never seen so much as a stubble on his face or any hair on his body, and come to think of it, he did not have any pubic hair on him either…
"Is something wrong?" Gaara drew back, concern laced in his voice when he registered her distraction through her slackened movements.
Sakura could not help the titter that escaped her, and quickly explained before Gaara could take it the wrong way - "Your skin is so smooth. You don't have any hair except on your head."
She did not expect him to knock his forehead against hers lightly in a teasing manner before he clasped one of his hands over her left one, then turned his face to kiss her palm softly. "The unfortunate side-effects of constantly wearing my Sand Armour. The abrasive nature of sand has rubbed off any fine hairs I have on my body. As a child, having no eyebrows made me self-conscious, but I've since learnt to live with it. Not having to shave daily is a great boon for a busy Kage."
There was a mischievous glint in his eyes when he peered into her gaze, "You'd prefer a lover who can grow facial hair?"
There was a pause when both their cheeks grew a little more flushed as Sakura's gaze dropped briefly down to his crotch, and Gaara could only chuckle self-deprecatingly before muttering a quiet, "Sorry. I can't do anything about that."
This time when he closed the distance between them, Sakura caught sight of his tongue peeking out between his lips, and there was no mistaking the ardour as he slanted his mouth against hers, a masculine groan emitting from deep inside his chest when he finally flicked his tongue against hers.
"Gaara," her voice came out hoarse with a thousand emotions, all of them pleasant ones.
He was now kissing her almost fiercely, all tongue and teeth and wet heat as his arms shifted to cradle her upper back and card his way messily up and through her hair. When he purposefully caught her tongue with his teeth, catching and pulling and just sucking on and not letting go, she gave as good as she got, seizing his lower lip in a harsh tug the moment he turned loose. The little gasp of surprise from the redhead was definitely one of the more interesting noises that he had ever made in her presence.
Or maybe the sound he made was a result of Sakura's hands travelling down to his torso as she plucked away absentmindedly at the buttons gathered at the top closure of his robe. Taking her gesture as a signal that she did not mind making things a little more heated, he slipped the palm that he had on her back downwards, snagging briefly on the waistband of her pants before he trailed his fingers up the naked length of her spine.
Her mewl of surprise at his touch and the way she shivered against the blazing heat channelled through his fingertips, and the manner in which her hands trembled against his robe as she shook with desires made his cock twitch.
His breath only slightly shaky, Gaara dipped his head towards the underside of her chin and nudged his nose against her so that she exposed more of the tempting curve of her pale neck to him. Shivering against the tickling of his hair, she obliged him, and that was the moment he sealed his mouth against her pulse, holding her heartbeat captive between his teeth.
She involuntarily froze, feeling the sharpness of his canines pressed so intimately against her; Sakura knew that he would not hurt her, but that he had the ability to do so sent a bolt of heat racing through her blood. And when he laved his tongue against her, tasting her night-chilled skin and the warm blood underneath, something primal stirred inside of him.
That was what he squarely laid the blame on when instincts told him to clamp his teeth further into her flesh, to hold a portion of her in his mouth to suck and taste and mark as his.
A love bite, she thought distracted, running her fingers through his hair and massaging his scalp in such a manner as to make him hum at the back of his throat.
Sabaku no Gaara was a possessive man, and secretly she wondered why it took him so long to openly claim her as his. Perhaps his station did not allow for such open displays of affection, but whatever that once held him back apparently had no sway over him anymore. He continued to alternate between licking and nipping her neck, making a detailed roadmap of his ardour for all to see if they chose to look.
It would not be that great a sin; after all, others have assumed that the Regimental Commander and his personal medic have been familiar with each other for months now.
What did a mark or two matter? He rationalised to himself before finally pulling away, his lips plush and wet from his ministrations against her. She is mine, after all.
He panted softly against the crook of her neck, eyes squeezed shut as he fought to calm the lust threatening to overtake his mind. In his mind, he felt it was crass to attempt any further intimacies with Sakura so soon after patching things up with her.
A valiant effort indeed, but one that was immediately undone when Sakura pried away the hand that he had placed on her back, only to drag it up and over her covered left breast to let his fingers mould around it.
Gaara jerked backwards so quickly at the unexpected sensation that had Sakura not kept her hand over his, he would have taken a straight tumble off her bed. Instead, he was left staring wide-eyed at her from an arm's length away, an expression of shock written all over his features as he unconsciously flexed his captive fingers.
The flesh under her shirt and wraps gave slightly under his touch. All soft and firm at the same time and definitely heated.
Well, it was not as if he had not felt her breasts against his cheek or nose several times in the past, but to actually take a hold of one in his hand at her behest was… not something he gave too much thought on until recently.
It was better than anything he imagined.
When he finally dared to look at her face (because of course his eyes were glued to her covered chest this entire time, teenager that he was), he found his throat too dry to speak upon seeing the fervour in her eyes.
"Sakura." Her name came out as a breathless utterance from his lips. "Sakura, no, not like this."
Well. She was not expecting that rejection. Her gaze turned downcast, and she quickly let go of his hand; Gaara knew he messed up right away.
He quickly closed the distance between them, pulling her into a fierce hug as he exhaled next to her ear, the heat causing her to squirm. Sakura made a small noise of confusion, and she leaned away from him to ask accusingly, "Why not?"
"I have told you before. I won't have you bound to me because of a moment of carelessness. You as a medic-nin know that nothing can be guaranteed, no matter what precautions we take." She was not expecting the bitterness in his voice, and it soothed her ego somewhat to know that he was not rejecting her because of any shortcomings on her part.
"You really plan to wait until the night of your nuptials?" Sakura was rightfully boggled at what Gaara's words implied.
To heck with his notions of protecting her, she was a teenager too, dammit! Sex was supposed to be the natural progression of a courtship between a man and a woman, and Sakura was certain that she was going to die from the female equivalent of blue balls if he kept staying his hand.
Gaara shook his head, leaning in to press a kiss to her ear, "I am a Kage, not a saint. My patience is not infinite."
"Then why…"
"For now, while the war is being waged, the reassignments are in effect. There is also the matter of your position as my personal medic." He leaned back to carefully tuck her unruly fringe behind her ear, then he moved back in to seal a promise against her lips. "I want your absolute consent as my equal. Come back to me after the war when you are certain, and I will make you mine."
He wanted her complete surrender. To know that she would willingly be his for the rest of time after all has been said and done.
It was his way of telling her that he didn't want either of their feelings being hurt if she decided that he was not the one for him when they were both no longer under the duress of an apocalyptic war with death dogging their every step. There was also the unavoidable fact that Sakura was currently assigned to him, practically in a position of servitude to a Kage. Perhaps he did not want her to ever think that she had been pressured into anything due to the nature of her mission or their respective titles.
Sakura wanted to say something biting, to challenge him for even thinking that she would be so weak-willed as to be pressured into giving herself to him just because of her mission to ensure his well-being above all else. There was also the undeniable fact that she had been the one trying to nudge him towards more physical acts, so that made her the instigator and absolved him of any future accusations that he used his title to get his way with her.
As for the idea that she would change her mind after the looming presence of a war dissipated and she would come to regret giving herself to him - that definitely made the corners of her mouth pull down in a frown. Even without a world war, death was always a knock away from their doorsteps with every mission a shinobi took on, but that did not mean every shinobi lived each day like it was their last, and she certainly did not approach romantic love with such an attitude. If she did choose to sleep with him, it would not be driven by such external pressures; Sakura's displeased expression said as much.
"Do you think we would have come this far without the war pushing things into place for us? If we had not met under these circumstances…" She paused to make a sweeping gesture around the tent, indicating to him their present boarding situation.
Gaara had an immediate response for her, and it was almost as if he had given this question some thought in the past. "I have admired you deeply since we were children, and the tales of your skills as a medic-nin have been spreading since you saved my brother's life. Had it not been for the war, I was already planning to ask the Hokage to lend you to us to help us train our own medic-nin. I am sorry to say that our medic corps have been found lacking since Chiyo-sama's passing.
"If those were the circumstances we were to meet under, I would be in the position to pursue a more formal courtship. If you were amicable to my suit, your parents and the Hokage would have been the first to know of my intentions. But I think it is safe to say I have always been rather taken by you, Sakura."
Suddenly, a frown appeared on her face, and there was curiosity in her voice as she wondered, "Then why were you so against my assignment to you as your personal medic at the start? Wouldn't it have been an opportunity for you to get closer to me?" She willed herself to keep her gaze locked with his, and it was to her amusement that Gaara turned his head, the tips of his ear tinged sheepishly red.
"It was a welcomed opportunity, certainly. But I was equally certain that I would have made a fool of myself and blurted out my fondness for you long before we grew closer, and thus destroying any chance I'd have with you."
With you… I'm only human.
A reminder that though they were both battle-hardened shinobi - one born into the life and the other drawn to it - they sorely lacked experience in matters of the heart. Juggling an inter-village relationship against the backdrop of a devastating, drawn-out world war, the Kazekage and the Hokage's apprentice were an unexpected yet ultimately compatible match that none could have foreseen, the least of all themselves.
He noticed that she was shivering minutely in his grasp, and Gaara pulled back to ask with concern, "Did I say something wrong?"
Sakura shook her head, eyes closed as she spoke softly, "I never knew. I have been so obsessed with getting Sasuke back for so long… I honestly do not know how I would have reacted if you decided to court me."
Carefully, she reached up to push his fringe back to expose his kanji, and her fingertips lightly traced its fine strokes. A part of her wondered if she had been the only person to ever touch his scar so intimately, and seeing Gaara unconsciously worry the inside of his lip with his teeth as she did so made her heart clench.
"I would have tried to persuade you that I could make you happy. If you'd have given me a chance then, I would have made you mine without a second thought." The sheer conviction in his voice sent Sakura's brain tumbling down a series of rabbit holes that all ended up with her compromisingly positioned under him, and she flushed at the lasciviousness of her subconscious.
"I would have let you." The quirked non-existent eyebrow on Gaara's face made her smack his chest lightly, "These past few days… I just needed the time to sort out my own thoughts. It had nothing to do with you. I won't change my mind about us, no matter how we were brought together. So if that is your excuse…"
Sakura's scowl was coloured by the flushed pinkness of her skin, and Gaara chuckled softly at the sight of it. He let his hands slide down her back to rest on her hips, watching her for any negative reactions as he gently but resolutely pulled her onto his lap.
"One day, Your Hokage will have to acknowledge you as a Suna-nin, but I'd rather it not be due to extenuating circumstances." At this point, he deliberately glanced downwards at where Sakura assumed was her womb, and really, she should not be blushing so much if she actually wanted it. Gaara smiled and added, "I am already on thin ice with her as it is."
"Your council will not be pleased to learn that I'm still in possession of my chastity," she goaded, even as the idea of being an integral part of a Suna Council's plot to gain advanced medical knowledge sat sourly on her stomach. Though, a long-term mission to Sunagakure to train their medic-nin did not seem such an unpleasant prospect, especially now that she had people that she cared greatly for living there.
One more so than others.
"They will have to wait. You don't answer to them," Gaara's expression turned pained for a moment as he remembered the order issued by Satoshi which he had deliberately ignored and even let Sakura learn of. He had stripped the council of their stipends for the next three years to cover the damages that their sabotage had wrought on the Allied Shinobi Forces' medical supplies, and ordered that they perform monitored community service every weekend for an entire year - both perceived as demeaning commands by his stuffy councilmen. Outright killing them was not possible, but obliterating their pretentiously holier-than-thou attitudes and humbling them before their fellow villagers was just as good a punishment. He hoped it was a lesson they would remember for a very long time.
Sakura's soft sigh of resignation blew against his hair, and he tried not to let his male pride feel too elated at her disappointment.
"However, that is not to say we cannot engage in other activities that won't run a similar risk." That suggestion he growled out against her lips before he swiped his tongue lewdly against her parted lower lip, "I have promised you pleasure, and I would very much like to make good on that promise."
"O-ok."
Really, her voice should not be shaking so much when muttering a one-worded reply, but her senses have been ignited by his proclamation, and she was very much attracted to the young man in front of her after all.
"But not tonight," he nudged her head backwards, exposing her neck for him to drag an absolutely filthy path down to her clavicle with his lips and tongue, sucking a trail of heat and want against her quivering throat, "You need a good night's sleep, as do I. When you are well and rested, and when you are ready, we can resume this… conversation."
"Oh, goody. Now that we've established that Sakura needs to be up in the next few hours to give Naruto his physical, I am glad we are all coming to our senses!" Katsuyu's voice quipped from inside Sakura's discarded medic pouch that was at the foot of her bed.
Of course they had completely forgotten about the slug summon, whose presence was generally concealed within the tent.
Generally.
"Katsuyu-san," Gaara heaved a sigh, feeling heat rise to Sakura's cheek against the press of his. He had no idea where his half of the slug summon had gone off to after he had left her in the tent earlier, but he found that he really did not care about that very much right now.
"Katsuyu-sama!" She had to stop squeaking out the name of her contract animal with so much shame, but then again, was it really her fault that Katsuyu caught Gaara and her in highly suggestive situations so many times?
It probably was his fault, though.
"Go change for bed, Sakura. The Kazekage and I will fetch your items from your tent for you in the meantime," Katsuyu twitched a tentacle in the direction of the screen at the back of the tent.
"Oh, that's not necessary! I can do it myself!"
"I insist," Katsuyu all but glowered, and she looked pointedly in Gaara's direction.
A look of understanding lit up on Gaara's face at once, and he lifted his hand towards Sakura's pouch to allow the slug to slither up and onto his shoulder from there.
"We'll be back soon," Gaara announced softly before leaving the tent.
Left alone in the tent with a snoozing sand-cat, Sakura could only stare at the now-closed tent flap. Mr. Fluffy-kins made a show of stretching out lazily on her bed before settling smugly into the warm spot that Gaara had vacated on her bed.
"What just happened?" Sakura asked no one in particular.
With the exception of the night guard, there were few other shinobi around to witness the Regimental Commander leaving his tent in the middle of the morning, a large slug perched on his shoulder like an angry parrot.
A parrot was an apt description, as Katsuyu was muttering under her breath while Gaara took them to their destination on foot. He was in no hurry to finish his task, deciding that it would be best for them both to give each other some time to cool down.
That he immediately knew where Sakura's new tent was set up was simply something he paid attention to as the Regimental Commander, he reasoned to himself. Nevermind that he wouldn't be able to name the tent location of more than a handful of his closest shinobi.
"I wish you'd stop making Sakura feel so self-conscious, Katsuyu-san," Gaara was the one to break the silence.
"Begging your pardon, Kazekage-sama," Katsuyu's tone was mocking as she oozed more slime that necessary on his robe to keep herself attached, "But while I have agreed that it is none of my business how far you take your physical relationship with my mistress, I don't recall ever asking to bear witness to your attempts at bedding her."
Gaara could feel heat rushing to his cheeks at the truth in her words, and wondered briefly if this was how all animals regarded their humans when they decided to engage in coitus in front of them. Except that Katsuyu was much more than a mere animal, and certainly a lot more powerful than one.
"Can't you just… poof away or something?" He argued weakly.
Katsuyu made a squelching noise as she shook her head, explaining, "As you might recall, I was initially assigned to Sakura to help her keep in contact with Tsunade-sama at the beginning of the war, though the need for me to do so were far and few in-between. If I were to vanish, I'd return back to the Shikkotsu Forest from whence I came. I can't return unless summoned again.
"And since this portion of me is tied to the Hokage, who do you think will be alerted when I disappear? What do you think she would be assuming when that happens?"
The Kazekage could only nod at the wisdom in her words. The last thing he needed was for an angry Hokage to storm into the encampment to check on her apprentice while expecting that the worst had happened, only to most likely end up catching Sakura in a very compromising position.
"Perhaps we can come to an arrangement, then? So we are no longer risking embarrassment to each other?" He could feel the blood rushing up the back of his neck from the humiliation of having to bargain for privacy with the Hokage's animal summon out of all the summons in the world.
"Then I ask only for you to grant me the same consideration. When you are about to engage in adult activities with Sakura, let me know so I can make both Fluffy and myself scarce. Better yet, let me know in advance so I won't even have to be in the tent with your adolescent hormones stinking up the place."
Katsuyu was effectively asking him for a schedule of his private time with Sakura, which a teenage male obviously did not possess or even planned (ha) to come up with.
At Gaara's incredulous look, Katsuyu finally took pity on him and sagged slightly before sighing, "Very well. I will do my best to discreetly leave the premises whenever it looks like things are getting interesting for the two of you. Just leave me a gap in your sand barrier so I can depart, or I will verbally call out for one."
"Thank you." It was at least a step in the right direction to save Sakura from dying of embarrassment each time he decided he wanted to be intimate with her.
They continued the rest of their trek in silence. Even if Gaara did not know the location of Sakura's tent, it was enough to pick it out from the sea of tents that sprawled the entire encampment.
For one thing, there were several pots of lilies placed outside her tent, and he paused at the sight of more lilies nestled in the space between it and the neighbouring tent.
Too grand a gesture, he concluded. He would have to relocate all these lilies before they wilted from neglect, though they did not look too shabby at first sight.
The reason for their good condition became apparent when a blonde kunoichi stepped out from the neighbouring tent, hands on her hips as she readied herself to chastise Sakura's late return. Ino was definitely not expecting to see the Regimental Commander outside Sakura's tent, especially at this hour.
"Kazekage-sama," she greeted dryly, a hint of frostiness in her voice as she tilted her head as if to ask the reason for his presence, otherwise conveying none of her scepticism towards the source of her best friend's distress for the past weeks.
"Yamanaka-san," he nodded to her.
"Kazekage-sama, I've said it before, but just Ino will do, please. Yamanaka-san is my father," Ino grimaced at the formality in his tone, and she peered around him openly as if trying to locate someone else.
"I am here to retrieve Haruno-san's things," he offered as an explanation to her quizzical expression, and he was not expecting Ino to slap her hand to her chest soundly.
"Oh, thank goodness! I hope you mean the lilies as well, because I did not sign up for this war to become the Regimental Commander's personal florist. While I've taken care of plenty of flowers back at our shop, I simply do not have the necessary supplies to ensure their good health here!" Ino pulled back her own tent flap to reveal at least a dozen more pots of lilies cluttering the interior of her tent, and Gaara could not fault her chagrin. "It's a good thing that Sakura is such a skilled medic, because she has absolutely no green thumb. It had been up to me to keep all her babies alive for her!"
"My apologies," Gaara held back the frown that threatened to spill over his features - it would not do for a Kage to look chastised by a chunin after all. "I will have those taken care of by tomorrow morning. I'm just here for her personal belongings right now."
Ino could only shrug in badly-concealed frustration; another night breathing in pollen-laced air was her fate for now. Gaara dipped inside Sakura's tent, and emerged a moment later with her belongings carried on a sand platform.
Still, she could not resist trying to sate her curiosity. "How did you find so many white lilies anyway, Kazekage-sama? It's not even spring yet."
"Village secret," was his cryptic reply as he turned to leave.
She could only stare at the Kazekage's back as he walked away from her, confused by his answer. How did the ability to cultivate several dozen species of lilies count as a state-level secret? Was Sunagakure about to embark on a massive floral trade arrangement with the other villages?
"But… lilies don't grow naturally in the Land of Wind. Only the desert lil- oh. Oh." Ino promptly covered her mouth to hide the shit-eating grin that was forming, "Very sneaky, Kazekage-sama."
Gaara could not ask for more today: Sakura was back in his tent with him where she belonged, and she had more or less agreed to his continued courtship of her. What more could a man in his position ask for?
Certainly not a certain pink-haired kunoichi curled up under his blanket, making herself at home on his bed. But he was getting that, anyway.
It was a shame that Sakura always dressed in a more worn set of her shinobi attire to bed, having picked them for their practicality and modesty since the beginning of the war. Gaara made a mental note for himself to arrange for something more… flattering for her to attire herself with once all this was over.
Baki would probably have an aneurysm if Gaara ever sent him on an errand for women's nightclothes anytime soon. It was a task that he had to take on himself, though he certainly did not consider it a very bothersome one.
Also, the rumour mill would no doubt conjure up an extreme version of his request, spinning it into a demand for lacey lingerie for his personal medic as she played sex-kitten private nurse to him.
"Sorry, that was too forward of me, wasn't it?"
Gaara must have been staring unmovingly for too long, and Sakura's voice came out meek as she turned her face away, something akin to shame in her eyes as she started tugging the blanket off.
"No, stay there," he called out a little too quickly, and the redhead wanted to slap himself for the eagerness that he betrayed, "I just wasn't expecting things to go so well."
Ok, he definitely wanted to slap himself now.
Sakura blinked at him, as if unbelieving of what Gaara had just said. His lowered head and slightly flushed appearance confirmed for her that she had not misheard anything.
She tried her best to stifle the giddy grin that threatened to break out across her face as she tucked herself back under the blanket, and finally spoke when she knew her voice would not betray her mirth, "I'll be waiting."
Oh, right. He had to get ready for bed as well.
Gaara moved towards the back of the screen where several basins and several covered jugs of clean water were kept, taking care to let Katsuyu hop off onto his table before he did so. The other half of Katsuyu who had stayed with him watched from the backrest of his chair - back from goodness knows where - tentacles twitching towards her as she did so.
"Should we merge back together?" Katsuyu-on-the-backrest asked the other.
Katsuyu-on-the-table did the slug equivalent of a shrug as she replied, "I don't see why not. We were assigned to Sakura in the first place."
By the time Gaara came back around the screen, fresh-faced and teeth cleaned, both slugs were in the somewhat messy process of merging back into each other, slime squelching as they did so. A few moments later, only a larger slug remained in their place, and she leisurely waved a tentacle at Gaara.
"Kazekage," Katsuyu nodded towards him, "I'll be accompanying Sakura once more. I'm sure you won't miss my company too much."
"You have been an invaluable advisor, Katsuyu-san," he answered diplomatically, even a part of him was torn between the relief of not being constantly shadowed by the Hokage's animal summon, and having a far wiser, more experienced voice to speak to.
While Katsuyu moved towards Sakura's empty bed to hunker down with the sand-cat, Gaara busied himself with disrobing. Used to the dry chill of the desert nights, these forested surroundings were almost suffocating with the humidity levels in the air, especially at nightfall. He would normally have worn an outfit similar to Sakura's to bed, but the moisture in the air stuck uncomfortably under the fabric and left him sweatier than usual when he woke up.
He did not miss the sharp intake of air from Sakura as he pulled his mesh shirt over his head even as he stood with only his back presented to her. He was not a vain man, but he knew that Sakura had developed an appreciation for the defined appearance of his back muscles, and he subtly flexed them as he rolled his shoulders to loosen the tension that had built up in them from a full day of carrying his gourd.
There was definitely another pronounced inhale coming from the direction of his bed when he finally turned around to walk towards Sakura sans shirt, and he could not help a smirk working its way onto his face as her eyes openly swept over his exposed torso.
Sakura's eyes followed him as he headed to her empty bed, her expression turning to one of understanding when he retrieved her pillow and brought it over. He climbed into his bed from behind her, pillow tucked under his own head as he patted hers.
As Sakura started lowering herself back down onto the bed, her face turned towards him, Gaara smiled, "Turn around."
Well, that was stran-
Oh.
The moment she started to lay on the bed, back presented to him, Gaara had his arms wrapped around her waist before she could fully sink into the mattress. She made a small sound of surprise as he pulled her close to tuck her against the full length of his body, legs quickly tangled with hers as he did so.
By the time she had her full weight rested on the mattress, Sakura was as red-faced as she could possibly be without combusting from mortification.
The wet swipe of his tongue against the curve of her neck did not help her increasingly lewd thoughts at all. She tried to will herself to relax, forcing breathes through her nose instead of her mouth as her body wanted her to do while under the firm suction his mouth was applying against her neck.
When Gaara finally pulled his mouth away with a wet-sounding "pop", the sigh of relief as he moulded himself fully against her was unmistakable.
Heat. So much of it. His bare skin was pressed heatedly against the thin fabric of her sleep shirt, and though Sakura knew that the typical human male body ran several degrees hotter than her own, the press of his flesh against hers felt like a furnace. It might be due to his desert ancestry that made his blood warmer at sundown.
A welcomed respite for the cold winter nights.
She wondered if she would appreciate it as much when the weather turned nicer, and she was torn between being thrilled at the idea of learning that fact, and at the same time, she did not want to imagine the war continuing any longer than it had to.
His quiet exhale tickled her ear as he breathed against it, and his arms wound themselves impossibly tighter around Sakura, effectively imprisoning her against him. She could feel his hips pushing into hers, and though his cock remained half-hard, he did not attempt to grind against her. Instead, he seemed content to stay suggestively nestled between her buttocks, and that was doing her own ardour no favours.
"Spooning leads to forking," she blurted out, a pretty blush blooming on her cheeks once more.
Gaara's reply was a huff of amusement as he growled out against the back of her neck, "Only if you have no self-control."
Several heartbeats later, Gaara propped himself up on one arm and gazed down at her. Sakura rotated her neck to gaze curiously back at him, and the severity of his jade-green eyes kept her focus on them as he spoke.
"Where did you learn to say something so crass?" He wondered aloud.
"Sai," she giggled, and the suddenly serious look on Gaara's face prompted her to explain herself quickly, "When we bunk out in the wilderness, we normally sleep in two-men tents for safety reasons. Naruto has a tendency to spoon his tent partner. Kakashi-sensei made sure to assign himself as my tent-mate ever since I woke up screaming with Naruto drooling all down the back of my top.
"I don't think Naruto ever grew out of that habit, though. When we were on a new team with Sai and Yamato-taichou, Naruto was assigned to bunk with Sai. I was on the night watch when Sai said that to him. There was a lot of shouting about dick-measuring from them both, and our mark got alerted. The mission ended up taking longer than expected because Naruto spooned."
Gaara could only nod in slight bafflement at Sakura's explanation. Since his genin days, he had never been assigned a tent partner when out on missions. No one wanted to share sleeping quarters with the blood-crazed Jinchuuriki of the Ichibi tanuki demon, so he always had privacy in spades, including from his own siblings.
Sometimes, he wondered if he was missing out on certain bonding experiences in his younger days. Hearing Sakura recount such tales made him aware that he did indeed miss them, though he was certain that he didn't need to live through being spooned by Naruto, or anyone else, for that matter.
Sabaku no Gaara was the Big Spoon, thank you very much.
"Naruto can't spoon you anymore," he declared bluntly, nosing her cheek as he leaned forward, "He could start an international incident if he decides to get fresh with the Kazehime."
She scoffed and lightly smacked the hand that was clasped to her hip. Turning as much of her torso as she could in his grip, she twisted around to peer into his eyes, and mustered all the sincerity she had in her to say, "Thank you. For giving the kunoichi's a choice after all."
It took what felt like an eternity for Gaara to respond, and she wondered if she had upset him with the reminder of their initial falling out, or that perhaps he was unwilling to address such a sombre topic; the slow exhale from her lover breathed out against the shell of her ear told otherwise, and he drew Sakura impossibly closer against his chest, causing her to gasp quietly.
"You were right. They had no alternative when presented with a mission for the good of their village, so it was a compromise I proposed to the Kage's - that we give them the choice our councils robbed them of. It may not be what everyone wanted, but-"
Sakura silenced him with the touch of her fingertips to his cheekbone, and she tilted her face up to press her lips against his parted ones in a gesture that was infinitely tender, sighing her solace against him.
When she pulled back from him, it was to press a softer kiss to his chin. "You cared enough to try. And that is all that matters."
She was not expecting him to rise to his knees, to straddle himself over her prone form and lean over her, caging her increasingly red face between his elbows as he leaned over her suddenly too-rigid body. Pressing his nose against her, lips slanted in anticipation of sweetness, he whispered, "For you? Anything."
Anything and everything sounded like an excellent idea to Sakura, and she brazenly slid her hands up his bare arms, starting from his elbows, curving around his triceps to glance across his shoulders, intertwining fingers around the back of his neck to pull him down close and…
"Sleep, you two." Katsuyu was fast losing patience with her two young charges, one of which she had recently decided to take under her metaphorical wing (and was starting to regret).
"Goodnight, Katsuyu-sama." Sakura called out meekly as she struggled against the ever-present blush on her face, and she rolled over to present her side to Gaara instead.
Gaara scrubbed a hand up into his hair and sighed, knowing that the moment was ruined and it was partially his fault for getting carried away. He cast a look of mild exasperation towards the slug and rolled himself off and back to his original position as the big spoon. When he reached down to tuck Sakura more tightly into his blanket, only to brush against a sandy paw.
Mr. Fluffy-kins, long used to sleeping curled up against Sakura's chest, was making its way towards her to do so once more. It turned its deep green eyes towards Gaara and uttered a noise of discontentment, making a show of circling the spot in front of Sakura's face before plopping itself down against her cheek.
That Sakura automatically reached forward to pull the sand-cat against her should not make Gaara feel an irrational surge of jealousy. Mr. Fluffy-kins was made of his sand, after all.
The only comfort he took from the sand-cat's invasion of Sakura's personal space was that he knew it would protect her as fiercely as he would.
Gaara didn't know how providential that thought would turn out to be one day.