It was not often that the Hokage was outside of her office in the mornings. Those who were familiar with her routine knew that Shizune kept a close eye on her mentor's daily workload, and that she was the main reason why paperwork flowed smoothly in and out of the Hokage building; those who really knew the Hokage understood that more often than not, Tsunade would be busy nursing a hangover in the mornings, and thus generally stuck indoors until closer to noontime.

So it was with certain trepidation that Izumo and Kotetsu - forever drawing the short straw on gate duty - took up their usual position, arms crossed behind their ramrod-straight backs and staring towards the forest-lined path that led to the main village entrance. Tsunade stood a little in front of them, arms akimbo as she glared resolutely down the well-trodden path. Her lips were pressed together firmly and downturned, and though she had no Alpha pheromones to signal her displeasure with, it was clear from the intensely savage aura rolling off her in waves. Tobimaru was perched on one of the massive doors framing the entrance, and its attention was fixed in the same direction as well.

The reason for Tsunade's presence at the gate became clear when the hawk suddenly took off directly down the dirt path, quickly vanishing into the distance as it darted overhead. Several moments later, a figure appeared in the distance, and it was clear that the individual approaching them was not doing so on foot, but was instead soaring through the air on a platform of sorts.

"Oh, it's the Kazekage," noted Kotetsu, and he turned quizzically towards his companion as if to ask if he knew the reason for the Kage's arrival. Izumo gave a small shrug before returning his attention to the Hokage, finally understanding the reason for her being here.

He had no idea why the ground beneath the Hokage's foot was cracking under the persistent grinding of her heels, though.

The sand platform that Gaara arrived on stopped a dozen metres in front of the Hokage, and the young man jumped off it to land softly on the ground. When he rose, he lifted his right arm out, and the circling messenger hawk was quick to perch on his wrist, making small noises of satisfaction as it leaned into the touch of Gaara's free hand.

"Hokage," he greeted as he approached, and he lowered his arm, prompting Tobimaru to hop onto his shoulder instead. Both man and bird peered back at the blonde woman standing before them, and Tsunade crossly folded her arms in front of her chest, her stance telling of her agitation.

"If you were going to come right after you sent your letter, you could have saved your bird a trip."

The unspoken "You did not give me any time at all to stop you" hung heavily in the air between them, and Gaara tipped his head in the slightest of nods. "On consideration, I knew that the message could strain relations, and it seemed prudent to come personally to ask for Haruno-san's hand before the rumour mill spins everything out of proportions."

Tsunade felt her eye twitch, the cause of which was standing before her as passively as a man asking to borrow a cup of sugar looked. Surely even a Kage had no business looking so calm and collected when he was all but demanding that his fellow Kage surrender her apprentice to him, right? "I haven't spoken to Sakura yet. She's been busy at the hospital, and I haven't had a chance to talk to her since yesterday. If you want to be the one to break the news to her, be my guest. It's your funeral."

"I was hoping for a wedding instead," Gaara deadpanned, lowering his voice enough that the village guards did not overhear him. "Are the terms acceptable to you, Hokage?"

Turning on her heel with a huff, Tsunade started back towards the village. Gaara froze in place, and it took him a moment to realise that the Hokage was expecting him to follow. He strode past the guards, nodding to them as they bowed low before catching up to walk abreast with Tsunade. There was a brief sensation of fog gathering in the air, and it became apparent to Gaara that the Hokage had erected a genjutsu around them; they would be able to converse without drawing attention to themselves, with the exception of keen sensor-type shinobi realising something is amiss, but not what.

"The terms," Tsunade began, "Are not for me to accept. Sakura may be my apprentice, but both her parents are still with us. That means that if you want her hand in marriage, your proposal must be acceptable to them."

"Is there nothing Konoha wants when I take one of their most outstanding kunoichi as my wife?"

Flattery, coloured by the fact that he was all but asking Tsunade to name a price for her apprentice.

At least, that was how Tsunade understood his words. "Thank you for holding my apprentice in such high regard, Kazekage." She did not sound grateful at his gallantry at all. "If there is something I want from you at all, it is the promise that she is honoured as your only mate and wife. If I hear of any adultery, or Kami forbid, a secondary mate…"

Gaara looked nonplussed as he replied tersely, "I take my vows seriously, Hokage."

"You are young, and your council is wilier than ours. I have heard of their attempts to press Omegas onto you since you became the Kazekage. It appears that your frequent clandestine meetings with Jiraiya have convinced them that you have an appetite for women, and I sincerely hope you can now be sated by only one."

"Jiraiya-sama picks our meeting places, and I cannot help it if he prefers the rowdy nature of houses of pleasure to use as our cover. In any case, I promise you that the rumours of my indiscretions are greatly exaggerated."

"Indiscretions," Tsunade shot him a baleful look. "Should I give you a physical while you're here, just to be on the safe side?"

He was not so dense as to not realise the nature of the insult which the Hokage had thrown at him, but before Gaara could muster up a retort, Tobimaru shot straight up into the air, a single screech emitting from its beak as it glared forward. The reason for the bird's cry were the twin matching blurs of orange and green headed straight for them, and Tsunade lifted an eyebrow to Gaara. "It looks like you have allies to count on here, at least."

Naruto and Lee certainly did not feel like allies the moment a massive sand wall shot up in front of both Kage, and their momentum caused them to bounce dramatically off of it.

Lee was the first to recover, and he poked his head out from behind the sand wall to wave cheerfully. "Gaara-san! We did not expect to see you in our beloved village unannounced! Ah, Hokage-sama! It is wonderful to see you out and about so early!"

Naruto's head appeared on top of Lee's, and he pressed a hand down on the young man's bowl-cut to give himself a little more leverage as he leaned over and yelled just as loudly, "Oi, Gaara! Baa-chan! Ya didn't tell me Gaara was coming to town! Wanna get some ramen and then spar? Or just get some ramen? Heck, it's half-off before ten! Let's go already!"

Tsunade punched the sand wall while Gaara released his chakra from the sand at the same time, causing a ton of it to pour over both Naruto and Lee. She glanced between Gaara and Naruto, and wondered if it would be possible for Naruto to mature like Gaara did if he was serious about earning the title of Hokage. Both of them were Jinchuuriki, sharing similar feelings of hatred and abandonment as children; the fact that Gaara had managed to overcome his past to become a respected Kazekage - and the youngest Kage ever to come into the title - that gave her hope that Naruto could achieve his dream as well.

Looking down at the blond boy scrapping sand out of his mouth, her hopes faltered.

"Naruto, Lee, it's good to see you both," Gaara's sand shifted around both shinobi, pushing them back up onto their feet. "I'm sorry I couldn't let you know ahead of time that I was coming, but the Hokage and I have some important matters to discuss."

Gaara could almost see the lightbulb go off on top of Naruto's head, and his fellow Jinchuuriki smacked his fist into his open palm as his mouth took the shape of an 'O'. "Ohhhh. Okay, okay, I totally get it. This has to do with the mission two weeks ago, right?" He then leaned towards Gaara and whispered conspiratorially, "I told ya Sakura-chan was good, wasn't she? I bet ya can't get enough of her healing touches, right?"

Gaara's brain immediately took a turn into a highly-inappropriate direction as he realised the suggestive nature of Naruto's words; surely Naruto would not talk so crassly about his female teammate, would he? And oh, she was his love interest too, wasn't she? How would he react if he knew the real reason for his visit to Konoha?

This is going to be more complicated than I expected.

Still, there was no time like the present. Gaara locked gazes briefly with Tsunade, noting the wrinkling of her nose as she realised what he was about to do. However, the fact that she chose not to stop him - and was in fact reinforcing the genjutsu to encompass the two newcomers with a few subtle hand signs - was a good indicator of how the Hokage wanted the matter dealt with expediently; and fate must have decided that for him as well, to toss two of Sakura's most ardent admirers right in his path.

Squaring his shoulders, he looked Naruto right in his bright blue eyes and said firmly, "I'd rather you don't talk about my mate that way."

This time, Gaara could definitely see the gears turning slowly in both his friends' heads, and it almost caused his face to crack into a smile, as comical as it was to see their brains try to reconcile his words with his meaning. Tsunade was not sharing in his merriment, however, if the way her fingers flexed with the urge to punch all three men was any indication. The Kazekage returned his attention to his friends; it was just a matter of which of the two would understand the implication of what he…

"Sakura-chan is ya WHAT?!"

Being the Hokage's apprentice meant that one sometimes received unexpected summons, more so than a regular shinobi whose summons to a mission was usually preceded by a certain amount of paperwork. If Tsunade got a hair up in her about a new medical theory, or the occasional brilliant idea of how to count cards without getting caught, Sakura would be the first to hear knocking on her window.

The ANBU rapping quietly on her hospital office window was exceedingly polite for once. It was clear in his mannerism that he did not wish to alarm her with his presence, and had allowed her to glimpse his shadow before announcing himself with a few firm taps against the glass panes.

Sakura fell sideways out of her chair, anyway.

Her well-meaning interruptor quickly pushed the window open and ducked down next to her, leaning in to rest a hand on her back as he asked in a deep but gentle voice, "Are you alright, Sakura? I apologise for startling you."

It was not the ANBU's fault; Sakura's nerves have been worn down to tiny nubs since Tsunade started working her like a mule, and the waiting game whilst a certain redhead took his time in responding to the Hokage's missive had in turn burnt those tiny nubs to ashes. It had been a week since her heat ended, and Tsunade had promised to write to the Kazekage immediately to explain her offer to go to him as a rut partner (she was blissfully unaware of how Tsunade had received another letter from the Kazekage himself earlier that day). The longer it took for Suna to respond, the more guilt ate at her insides - she could very well have insulted the Kazekage with her offer, and the reason why there had been no reply from him was likely due to Suna busily amassing their forces to launch an all-out assault on Konoha.

Imagination, Sakura noted, was a terrible thing to have in spades.

Blinking away the riot of runaway visions of doom from the forefront of her mind, Sakura took in the white stoat mask of the ANBU, and allowed him to help her up. "No, Neji-san, it's nothing you did. I've just been on pins and needles lately." There was no shame in her friend knowing the reason for her awkwardness, especially since she did not want him to feel responsible for her undignified fall.

"You can't call me by my real name, Sakura," there was a small sigh from behind the mask, but the ANBU still reached up to push it back over the top of his head. Familiar lilac eyes gazed down at her, and they softened for a moment as the Hyuuga male saw her nervously tug on her medic apron. Whatever that was ailing his friend, Neji had the suspicion that he held the antidote for them in his next words - "You've been summoned to the Hokage's office immediately."

"Oh?" She could feel her heart lodging itself a little higher up in her throat, and she had to forcefully swallow against the thumping of her too-loud heart. "Do you know the reason why?"

Infuriating, the brunet pulled his mask back over his face and held a hand out to her in silence. Sakura knew from her years of friendship with Neji that it was his way of telling her to not ask questions, and to obey the order instead; he had always been one to pride efficiency over decorum, and that was probably the reason why he was picked for ANBU (and possibly headed towards a captain position, if the recommendations pushing for his promotion were true - ANBU records were kept secret, but she was the Hokage's apprentice and had 'accidentally' seen a document or two that her clearance level definitely did not allow her access to).

She quickly arranged the stack of upturned paperwork on her table while Neji pushed her chair back under the table for her, and he allowed her a moment of silent reflection as her eyes swept over the interior of the room, almost as if she was taking it in for the last time. Yet when she turned back to face him, there was no hint of melancholy or distraught written in her features - only a fierce determination of a seasoned kunoichi marching towards her fate. He could have left her to make her way to the Hokage's office, but Neji felt compelled to see her to her destination today. The two of them leapt out the window and raced across the rooftops, the path to the Hokage building from the hospital a familiar one to them both; Sakura could make her way there blindfolded and deaf, if the situation called for it.

She wondered if she would ever come to feel so similarly at home in Suna, or if she would leave before the terrain of the desert village became part of her mental roadmap. If the Kazekage accepted their temporary arrangement, she would be using every spare minute she had to find a way out of their predicament, before either one of them became too entangled. She was used to her own heart being treated with carelessness; it came with the territory of chasing after an avenger whose goals did not allow himself to love. Gaara - who loved his people enough to die for them - was such a magnanimous man that he should not be hurt by her own selfish desires.

They came to a stop at a ledge near the Hokage's office, and Neji paused as if he was waiting for her to enter the office before he left. At Sakura's nod of thanks, he lifted his head and spoke almost too-softly, "I have a question before I go, Sakura."

Oh, stars. Here it comes.

It wasn't as if she took pains to continue concealing her secondary gender after Tsunade's advice, but Sakura was not certain if she wanted to unleash her Omega pheromones upon her unsuspecting friends - especially when she was fresh off her most recent heat. Instead, she opted to gradually reduce the dose of Beta pheromones on her scent patch, allowing only the smallest traces of her Omega sweetness to seep through. At this stage of her progress, Kiba had taken an extra long look at her when she walked past him two days ago, but he did not approach her to question her about it (though he glanced confusedly down at Akamaru afterwards). That a prospective ANBU captain was asking her about her true secondary gender was par for course, she supposed.

"Yes, Neji-san. The rumours are true. I am an Omega." She turned to face him, emerald-green eyes unwavering in her bravado as she continued, "Tsunade-shishou agreed to train me in spite of it, and I have managed to work around the limitations of my Omega side by learning to multiply the destructive force of my chakra-based attacks. Kakashi-sensei has also taught me how to counter Alphas in our line of work, and I have yet to be cowed by an Alpha."

All except one, her Omega reminded her, and Sakura refused to acknowledge who it was.

Perhaps her tone came off more bitter than she would have liked, but Neji's face was hidden behind his mask, and the fact that he was so stoically silent had her stomach churning in a mixture of nerves and annoyance. Although she had grown closer to Neji over the years (ANBU missions tended to have a higher injury rate, and the Hyuuga male preferred to seek her out for treatment over other medic-nin), the fact that he was an Alpha always made her a little more wary of him; he was already hard to read in the best of times, Alpha pride not allowing him to be ruled by his emotions as he entered puberty, and the stoat mask over his face just made the task completely impossible.

Neji lowered his mask so that it hung around his neck, and said, "Actually, I was going to ask if you wanted me to get Naruto and Lee away from here. They seem to be causing quite a ruckus outside the Hokage building."

As Sakura fought the urge to facepalm herself, Neji's lilac eyes continued to stare at her in open curiosity, and something about the way in which his pupils were lost in the colour of his irises sent her thoughts in the direction of a certain Suna-nin at once; she mentally slapped herself to get her brain started again.

"Yes, please. I don't know what has gotten into them, but I haven't had the chance to tell them about my… situation. I need to answer my summons, preferably without interruptions."

Neji nodded his agreement, and after pushing his mask back over his face, body flickered his way down to nab both shinobi by the scruff of their necks. Ignoring their unmanly shrieks of surprise, Sakura returned her attention to the partially-open window of the Hokage's office; there was always one window left unlocked for ANBU operatives and important messenger birds to enter from, and she had slipped in from there once or twice herself to answer her mentor's summons.

"Tsunade-shishou," she greeted as she landed next to the Hokage's desk, and she lifted her head to find…

"Haruno-san."

Red hair, red kanji, and red robes.

Alpha.

So drawn she was to his presence - his posture straight and angled towards hers the moment she entered the room, jade-green eyes lighting up in recognition - that she instinctively closed the distance between them, ending up a footstep and a heartbeat away from bumping right into his torso. Gaara tipped his head slightly to gaze into her eyes, and the manner in which he worried his lower lip as he studied her approach made the Omega part of her shudder in want of his teeth meeting her n-

Tsunade cleared her throat obnoxiously from behind the desk, and it was only due to a lifetime of kunoichi training that Sakura was able to suppress the urge to jump in surprise; she had practically forgotten whose office she was in, drawn as she was to the call of sandalwood and iron that she had in her mind and on her skin for the entirety of her heat.

"Shishou, you've summoned me?" The pink-haired kunoichi forced herself to present her back to Gaara as she addressed her mentor, even as parts of her warred between the utter disrespect of her display in turning away from an Alpha, and the need to keep an interested Alpha in her sight at all times in preparation for…

For…

For what? An attack? A sexual mounting by a knotheaded, hungry Alpha?

Interested Alpha? She mentally shook her head. He's only interested in my body. The fact that he is here means that he does not consider my proposal insulting. And it looks like he came alone, with no army behind him, so…

Good news for Konoha; questionable news for herself.

Even as she directed her attention towards the stoney countenance of her Hokage, Sakura could feel the tiny hairs on her arms standing on their ends as Gaara approached to settle beside her. His arms hung loosely down his sides, and she could not help but pull her own back to fold them over her lap instead, lest she chanced an accidental touch. She was woefully unprepared for how domineering his presence was even when she could barely make him out in the corner of her eye, and his familiar scent of forests clung to the inside of her lungs. It was ridiculous how much he took over all of her senses just by being in the same room as her even when she was outside of her cycles, and that pit of warmth in her burnt a little hotter as she wondered if she was drawn to him only in a physical sense, or if there was something more to it.

"... Are you listening, Sakura?"

Sakura snapped her head up, mortified that she had somehow not heard a single word out of Tsunade's mouth. When she glanced towards Gaara whose entire posture remained angled towards her mentor, she was even more surprised to see the slight upturn of his lips as jade-green irises flickered towards her face. Was he laughing at her expense?

"I'm sorry, shishou. Could you repeat that again?" Sakura bowed low, holding herself bent at the waist long enough for her blush to (hopefully) fade away.

"I said," Tsunade heaved an exaggerated sigh, "The Kazekage would like to speak to you in private about your proposal. He has concerns about the arrangement, and he would like to address them before he will discuss your proposal."

"Oh." Sakura turned to face Gaara, who was now looking at her with open interest. She squared her shoulders as she stood a little taller - Kakashi taught her the importance of not falling prey to her Omega instincts to shrink herself in the presence of an Alpha, so that the Alpha would not see her as someone easily bullied into agreement - and smiled politely at Gaara. The way his eyes tracked over her lips made something warm flare up in her chest, and she ignored it as she addressed him, "As the Kazekage wills it, so it shall be. Will one of the conference rooms work for your needs?"

"Our needs," Gaara replied, and while Sakura proceeded to clamp her mouth shut at his declaration, he addressed Tsunade, "Can we not speak in your office?"

"I'm not vacating my office for however long you two need to have your discussion. And depending on how your discussion goes, I may end up needing to rebuild the whole place, which I need to stress will come out of my Kage stipend," Tsunade continued scribbling in a scroll as if that task was preventing her from leaving the room, which was something Sakura knew was out of the ordinary for her. The blonde woman looked from the young Kazekage to her student, then made a shoo-ing gesture with her hand. "Go and get some fresh air, the both of you. Your pheromones are starting to stink up the place."

She did not miss Gaara's sharp inhale of surprise, and it was obvious from the way he was frowning that he was trying to regain control over his unruly scent glands. Sakura in turn slapped a hand over the back of her neck to reassure herself that her scent suppressant patch was still in place, and the sigh of relief she released was embarrassingly loud. Unlike Alphas, Omegas could not control the release rate of their pheromones, so her only option was to rely on scent patches to keep her secondary gender's expression tamed.

Gaara glanced towards her, and the way his nostrils flared told her that he was picking up on her scent, in any case.

Or perhaps something else.

Beyond the physical connection, there is a spiritual one.

She scowled lightly at the abrupt recollection of Tsunade's description of a soul bond. Gaara's hand touching her shoulder drew her attention at once, and she was prevented from jumping into the air in surprise only because of how firm his grip was.

"Your place, perhaps? Somewhere discreet?" Gaara suggested.

"Not too discreet," Tsunade muttered without looking up from the scroll that she had been pretending to read but absolutely not comprehending for the past five minutes, "There will be ANBU around at all times, since we cannot let anything happen to a visiting Kage on our watch, the both of you."

The cheeky smirk that Tsunade threw at Sakura caused her brain to travel to some very interesting places. Surely the Kazekage did not mean that, did he?

"Hokage," he rebuked even as he sounded exasperated at her insinuations. He released his hold on Sakura's shoulder, drawing her attention to him once more, and said to the kunoichi, "We have much to discuss, and after that, I'd like to meet your parents. We should get moving."

Meet my parents? Surely he can't mean…

She could demand that he make himself clear right his instant, but Tsunade had always drilled into her the importance of showing respect to a higher-ranking shinobi; Kage was the highest rank a shinobi could attain, and Sakura didn't think her mentor would allow her to pummel a fellow Kage, even if it was to get an answer out of the infuriatingly one-track-minded man.

"The Hokage Mountain is fairly deserted at this hour," she offered up, "It will be a good vantage point as well."

"Perfect," he declared, and he held a hand out to Sakura who could only blink dumbly at the gesture, "I'll take us there."

Tsunade made a snorting noise from the scroll that she was now hiding behind in an attempt to make herself scarce, and she muttered a little too loudly, "Huh, never had you offered to hold my hand the last time we teleported with your sand, Kazekage."

"I wasn't trying to court you, Hokage."

Tsunade's brown eyes were blown wide open at Gaara's bluntness, and Sakura in the meantime decided it would be a lot faster (and better for her sanity) to take off out the window; she stumbled at the window ledge upon hearing Gaara's words, and was saved from plummeting to her death (or at least, a fall that she could break by only by destroying the pavement) when a tendril of sand hooked itself around her waist. Once he was certain that Sakura was no longer in danger of tipping out of the window, he called his sand back to his side, drawing the young woman's attention to the small gourd secured to his waist by twin criss-crossing leather belts.

He could practically hear the dozens of questions she had lined up on her tongue about it, and he held his hand out once more. "I'll be happy to explain how my sand works, Haruno-san, if we can go somewhere private."

Curiosity killed the cat, and it may just have killed Sakura as well. She stepped back into the room warily, torn as she was between accepting Gaara's hand and wanting to just outright barrage him with her questions about his continued ability to manipulate sand. In the end, the logical part of her won, and she placed her hand gingerly on his upturned palm.

Oh, his hand is so large, she noted as his fingers closed around hers, engulfing her in the warmth of his touch.

So caught up in the sensation she was, that she did not realise she had stopped her approach until Gaara tugged on her hand firmly, and she just managed to avoid crashing face-first into his clavicle as she closed the distance to stand in front of him. When she tipped her head back to look at his face, they were shrouded in the darkness of his enveloping sand before she had the chance to read his expression.

After what felt like several disorienting seconds of being suspended in mid-air, Sakura felt the air from her lungs rush out of her in a small gasp as her feet abruptly touched solid earth. Blinking away the fuzzy sensation in her mind, she was mildly disappointed when Gaara immediately released his grip on her and stepped away to give her back her personal space; though, his eyes never once left her face.

"I… I never saw you make any hand seals," she muttered for want of something to fill the silence between them.

Gaara's expression was neutral as he explained, "I never really needed hand seals when it comes to controlling sand. I possess Magnet Release as a kekkei genkai, which allows me to move sand with my will alone. Though, hand seals do help me direct my focus."

The tremor that ran through her at his revelation was noted by Gaara's keen eyes, and he could not blame her; he was divulging a well-kept secret about the Kazekage's bloodline. Many have suspected his grandfather and father's ability to wield sand was the result of years of training, or perhaps even a secret jutsu of some sort. When the Ichibi was ordered to be sealed inside of the Fourth Kazekage's son, outsiders had speculated that it was to maintain the illusion of power that the Kazekage's family had over the desert at a time when the village was starting to flounder from their Daimyo's loss of favour.

Magnet Release - an extremely rare technique that would allow its user to control inanimate, usually metallic objects as if they were magnetising it, thus the name. And if it was a kekkei genkai, then it was one that the shinobi world would wage wars over to possess, seeing how it gave Gaara such an overwhelming battle advantage no matter where he fought; sand existed on every part of the earth, even underwater.

"Why are you telling me this?"

She watched him stop at the metal barriers that prevented civilians from climbing down onto the carved visages of the Hokage in the mountain, and when he did not turn back to face her, she approached to stand a short distance away. She took care not to rest her weight on the sun-scorched metal, and instead allowed her eyes to drift sideways to watch Gaara's hands flex and relax. There was a slightly pinched look on his face, and his naked brows briefly furrowed before he finally turned to look at her; the intensity of his gaze caused all thoughts in her brain to slow to a crawl, and his next words definitely caused them to stutter to a halt.

"Because the Kazekage's wife should not be kept in the dark about his bloodline."