"Let me kiss you."

The first thought that came to Sakura's mind was: I can't slap the Kazekage. Tsunade will kill me.

Her next thought was: I should slap him, anyway.

Her final, somewhat rational thought was: Refuse him, you silly girl. What is he going to do, force himself on you? He hasn't seen you wield a chakra blade, and he's going to find it impossible to perform as a man if he presses you.

What came out of her mouth was: "I've never kissed anyone before."

In the end, Sakura wound up slapping both hands over her face to hide her mad blush from Gaara, who had settled back on the floor beside her instead of looming so intimidatingly over her. When she finally found his silence too stifling, she peeked between her fingers to look at him.

The Kazekage looked utterly stunned. He had been in the presence of beautiful women for most of his adolescent years, mostly due to him having to host banquets and dinners for his Daimyo and other high-ranking politicians. Most of these invitees brought with them their entourage that always consisted of young ladies-in-waiting or female family members, and they took such gatherings as a good chance to show these women off to seduce treaties out of each other. Oftentimes, these women were dressed to show off skin and curves, and their faces made-up to conceal every blemish and flaw, showcasing only what was desirable to better attain their goals.

Haruno Sakura did not wear make-up, nor did she dress immodestly. Certainly, her thigh-high shorts that clung to her like a second skin might scandalise a more conservative individual, but she was dressed for all the practicalities that was required of a kunoichi. In short, she would have been unremarkable - a pretty young lady, drowned out by the presence of much more daring beauties.

Except that Gaara was looking at her as if she was the most captivating woman he had ever seen in his entire life, and the Alpha in him was both delighted and surprised that she had never even done something as simple as kiss another man; in his eyes, she was too appealing to have escaped the touch of a devious man.

One such as himself.

Sakura lifted her head as she scented the tang of blood in the air, and it became clear that Gaara was agitated. For what reason, she did not know.

"You were saving it for him."

Sakura always felt as if Sasuke's presence was one that constantly hovered between the remaining members of Team Seven, and now it appeared that it was discernible to even an outsider such as Gaara. He was staring sternly at her, and instead of cowering like the Omega in her wanted her to do - appease your Alpha, don't provoke him by mentioning a lost love - she forced herself to sit up straighter, and she matched him glare-for-glare; Kakashi would have been proud of her for not falling back on her Omega default of demurring in order to appease an antagonised Alpha.

"So what if I was?" She snapped, and she could make out the subtle tic in Gaara's jaw as he bit back words he had readied. "I never planned on tempting another Alpha, and I certainly did not march into Suna with plans of marrying the Kazekage. If it wasn't for the strength of the soul bond, we could be discussing how to break the attraction instead of trying to convince me to marry you!"

Gaara tilted his head as he studied her - chest heaving, eyes blazing - the very pinnacle of a woman enraged and on the verge of violence. He dropped his crossed arms to his lap and asked in a crisp, controlled voice, "Soul bond?"

The squeaked out "meep" that Sakura muttered would have been funny under normal circumstances, but she was too busy preventing herself from racing to the Hokage Mountain and pitching herself off it to have taken notice.

Oh, stars. He wasn't supposed to know.

By all intents and purposes, Gaara's understanding of their attraction was that it was a run-of-the-mill Alpha-Omega attraction. That she happened to be one of the few kunoichi in the world to be deemed high-ranking enough to be betrothed to a Kage was just a happy coincidence; in any case, the fact that she had saved both his life and his brother's meant that Gaara was supposed to devote the remainder of his existence towards ensuring her happiness. Now, it appeared that beyond all these reasons, there was another one binding them to each other.

"Explain what a soul bond is."

What a horrible day today is turning out to be.

"A soul bond is a… rare variant of an Alpha-Omega bond. It is supposed to be unbreakable, and according to Tsunade-shishou, is so powerful that the pair will develop a sixth sense about each other. Of course, the science on soul bond says that it does not exist, and shishou said that she has only ever heard of them. She has never actually seen one with her own eyes."

The fact that the first thing Sakura chose to bring up about the bond was that it was unbreakable sat ill with Gaara at once - not that he considered it an issue for himself, but that it was clearly something on the forefront of Sakura's mind. She had undoubtedly thought about undoing it, and though he had found the attraction between them to be troublesome at first, the idea that she wanted to deny it caused his hackles to rise, and his teeth clicked together in a bid to stop his forming snarl.

Mustering up an aura of calm, he tapped his sternum with his fingertips. "So this yearning… it isn't normal?"

A very direct man, indeed.

"Actually…" Sakura's eyes seemed to light up, and she scooted close enough to Gaara that their bent knees bumped together. "I'd like permission to check out something in your chakra system, if you don't mind?"

Instead of answering her, Gaara chose to start disrobing instead. This was not the first time a medic-nin made such a request of him, and he had always begrudgingly complied out of a sense of modesty, stubbornly insisting on keeping his Sand Armour on every time he did so. But with Sakura, the idea of allowing her to familiarise herself with his body did not seem too off-putting, and Gaara decided to file that realisation away for milling over later.

Sakura gaped at him for several moments before she came back to herself, and she grabbed his hands before he could move to the fourth button of his robe. "I can do it over your clothes, you don't need to undress!"

Her tomato-red face and panicked expression gave Gaara pause, and he found himself outright asking, "You are a medic-nin, and a person undressing is so distressing to you? Haruno-san, do you expect us to carry out our relationship with all our clothes on?"

The ghost of a smirk on his lips was begging for her to smack it off him, but Sakura chose to focus on prying his hands off his buttons instead. She had no trouble dealing with naked patients all day long, but none of them were her Soul Mate, and certainly none of them as attractive as the shinobi sitting serenely in front of her. Shooting him a warning glare, she allowed green chakra to envelope her hands, and she lowered them to hover over his abdomen once he nodded his understanding.

As a medic-nin, she was used to recognising her own chakra signature, since she needed to be able to trace it when she was injecting her chakra into another person. So it was almost instantaneous that she was able to detect her own chakra settled in Gaara's body - a tiny pool sitting directly over his heart instead of over the stomach like it was for her. Her lips thinned in grim acknowledgement of its location, but she supposed it made sense, seeing how she had initially spent most of her chakra trying to reinvigorate his heart muscles into pumping once more.

In the meantime, Gaara had to stop himself from outright groaning at the familiar sensation of her chakra threading through his veins and the fibres of his muscles. He had treated medic-nin with mistrust since one tried to assassinate him when he was seven, and begrudgingly allowed himself to be subjected to their expertise after he was brutally injured in his fight against Naruto. To be fair, he was only half-conscious when his siblings took him to the infirmary. In the years after, he found himself having to disguise his unease at being subjected to a medic-nin's touch, especially if he wanted to command their respect and obedience as the Kazekage. But old grudges ran deep, and some of his medic-nin still believed in the superstition of Shukaku's chakra acting like a poison that could force one into a frenzy of bloodlust; just as he avoided going to his medic-nin as much as he could, they did the same to him as well.

When Sakura revived him - and no one could explain how it was done, not even Chiyo - it was not the first time he stirred with another person's chakra inside of him as they attempted to heal him, but it was certainly the first time he so greatly enjoyed the simmering warmth that sat deep in his bones, making him feel comfortable enough to almost fall asleep while walking sandwiched between Kankurou and Naruto. Perhaps that was why he had felt so at ease when he found Sakura again the next morning after a long night away from her side, and that had to be why he took her to his office, knowing that they would be the only ones there. The connection was there from the very beginning, and it was such a shame that he could only put a name to it after her pack Alpha had taken her away. If he had recognised what he had desired, if the Copy Nin had not come…

Looking at her now - brows slightly pulled together and a deep concentration reflected in the emerald-green of her eyes - he could not help but feel at ease, knowing that he was in the best of hands. Yet at the same time, her silence was unnerving, and the longer they stayed this way, the more Gaara feared he was going to do something that would scare her away before he could convince her of their compatibility.

"Is everything alright?" He asked as he brushed her wrist lightly, and Sakura was so startled by the contact that she withdrew her exploratory chakra in a rush. Gaara made a small sound of surprise at the abrupt withdrawal of the comforting warmth, and his gaze was accusatory when he levelled it at her. "Did you find something I need to be aware of?"

Sakura touched one hand to her bosom. "There is a little bit of my chakra inside you, just as I have some of your chakra inside me. Somehow, it is not dissipating like it should when foreign chakra invades a body, because our own chakra system should be able to fight it off."

"So, you think this is a sign of the soul bond?"

"I… don't know."

"How does an Alpha-Omega pair know that they are meant for each other?"

She lifted an eyebrow at his question. Surely this was something that everyone learnt in the academy, right? She began reciting from memory, "The first sign of a suitable mate is when both parties find each other's scent pleasant. The second sign is when the Omega allows themself to be alone with the unmated Alpha. The third and strongest sign is that the Alpha is filled with an overwhelming urge to mate-mark the Omega."

When Gaara's words finally registered for her, the only thing she could do was freeze in place - both out of shock that she had basically told Gaara that they were a textbook Alpha-Omega pair, and that she had absolutely no clue if he was ready to mark her to prove his point.

"Let's find out, shall we?"

Slowly, almost as if he was afraid of spooking her, Gaara lifted his hand and held it up. He wanted for her to turn her attention to it before he moved towards her face, fingertips gliding from her chin over her cheek and rubbing heat into the skin under her ear. As he did so, he rose to his knees and leaned into her personal space.

"Let me kiss you."

That must be what he was planning, Sakura realised, and she fluttered her eyes close in resignation. It was foolish to think that she could serve as a rut partner without having to lock lips with Gaara, and even more foolish to think that she could save any part of herself to begin with. But she also knew that he was enough of a gentleman to not push for what she was not willing to give, if the way he did not simply force a kiss upon her was a sign; he had declared his intention, and had been waiting for her consent.

I should know what it is like to kiss my Alpha, at least.

Taking her upturned head and closed eyes as a sign of acceptance, Gaara closed the space between them, stopping just a hair's breadth from her lips. He paused in his movements, and observed with satisfaction that there were the slightest of tremors running through her as her blood pulsed and rushed under her ears - she was clearly anticipating the kiss, even if she verbally raised doubts about the act.

Gaara's lips were slightly chapped, but very soft; that Sakura realised when he pressed a closed-mouth kiss to her lips. She could feel the hand behind her ear nudging her gently, and she followed the direction of his touch, so that their lips now met at an angle instead. All she could focus on was the gentle movement of his mouth against hers, closed and chaste as he bestowed small kisses. The self-assured manner in which he moved his mouth over hers, slotting them together so perfectly without the awkward bumping of noses or teeth… a tiny voice inside of her growled its annoyance that she was not his first. Then again, she was the only one stubbornly holding onto her virtue while most of her yearmates have learnt to enjoy everything the opposite sex had to offer; she realised that the Kazekage as a teenage boy was no different.

"Breathe through your nose."

She could feel his smile of amusement against her lips, and that was when she also became aware of how her lungs were starting to burn from a lack of oxygen; she must have been holding her breath the entire time, and Gaara's instruction both thrilled and scared her - he was clearly an experienced lover, and he could take the lead, but would she be enough for him?

"Good," he mouthed against her, and his fingers curled around the back of her skull to tip her head even further. At her gasp of surprise, he wound his other arm around her shoulders, drawing her close as he shifted and tilted and parted his lips and oh.

Warm, wet heat.

The drag of his tongue against her lower lip was so unexpected that Sakura ended up whining at the pleasure-shock-scorch of it all, and her hands grasped empty air as she sought to find something, anything to ground herself with, before Gaara ended up stealing all her senses. She clawed at his sleeves, eventually securing her fingers around his flexed biceps to anchor herself to, and the position in which she found herself in was one where her pelvis was tipped forward to bump against his.

Gaara grunted in surprise at the contact, and he pulled away briefly to look down between them; there was no space between their bodies to slide even a sheet of paper through, not with the manner in which Sakura was moulding herself against him. The sweetness of her scent was almost cloying, broadcasting her acceptance of his touch as she whimpered at the momentary loss of his lips. Her back was arching lightly, and the way that she was instinctively lifting her chin to expose her unmarked neck…

It would be too easy to lose himself in this - day after day, night after night. Weeks and months spent fucking and breeding this wonderful Omega that was bodily pulling him down to join her against the floor as she nuzzled against his chest. Spilling himself in the deepest parts of her, putting a child in her, and many more in the future.

That was not what he planned for, he noted with alarm even as one of his hands strayed briefly down her sides to caress the dip of her hips, cataloguing where his children would grow inside of her. He needed Sakura as his anchor, his Omega partner to quell him in times of turmoil. Instead, here she was, seducing him down the path of sin. The last thing he needed was to be led around by his inner Alpha who only wanted to do unspeakable things to the woman beneath him. Having since disposed of his Bijuu, he was done answering to instinct and bloodlust (though lust would be more appropriate a term now).

Sakura nipping at his chin was an unexpected but wonderful surprise, if Gaara was forced to admit it. He looked at the kunoichi that was bracketed between his elbows, taking in the gorgeous blush on her cheeks as she whimpered for his touch. Surely it would be alright to indulge in a few more kisses? He leaned forward once more to first kiss her jawline, and at her answering gasp, turned his attention to her lips to suck lightly on them, begging for her to give him entry. When her tongue sought out his in answer - inexperienced, sloppy, but oh so willing - Gaara had to physically swallow a moan at how good she tasted.

Her slick would be the sweetest nectar you've ever tasted, leered his Alpha, you should try it.

Gaara mentally berated himself at the thought of it. Sakura had never even been kissed until today, and here he was entertaining ideas of doing things to her body that she would be woefully unprepared for. He lifted his hips, removing that delicious pressure that he had unknowingly been rutting against, and he sighed his kiss into her mouth. For now, he would pretend that he did not pick up the betraying scent of her slick seeping out from her, and he would most definitely keep his pelvis off of hers until he got his erection back under control; arching his hips away from hers was possibly one of the most difficult things he had to do in the recent weeks.

There was a growl building up in his chest that was dying to break free, and it seemed the longer Gaara stared at the unmarked skin on her neck even as he tried to focus on kissing her senseless, the more that growl threatened to spill out of him. An agreeable, willing Omega seeking his touch would no doubt welcome his mating mark - a piercing indenture of his teeth placed precisely on the junction of her neck and shoulder, showing to one and all that she was claimed and no longer available to another's pursuit. He could feel his fangs - already sharp for a human's - itching to latch onto her neck to carve out the proof of his existence. If he were in a rut right now, it would be too easy for his even sharper canines to accidentally draw blood, and he tried to focus all of his attention on her mouth and lips instead, lest his own was to stray.

He had to be better than this, better than the monster he once was. But he could already see that his self-control would come to be sorely tested with Sakura, if just kissing her was threatening to rouse his Alpha into branding her, if just kissing her made the coiling warmth in his heart surge and ebb, if just kissing her made that pull that much stronger to want to sink himself inside of her to meet the answering heat of her Omega's call.

The sound of blood rushing in her ears was all Sakura could hear, and it drowned out the thunderous drumming of her racing heart as she bit down lightly on his lip, tugging and coaxing him to seal his mouth more fully against her. Ghosting her fingers against his chest, she pressed her palm fully against his heart in vague hopes of drowning out her own riotous heartbeat. Instead all she could feel was the hitch of his breath, the firmness of his pectoral muscle, and a fever in his chest that mirrored the one pushing against her diaphragm; bleeding between tissues to trace the shape of her disobediently pounding heart.

Her soft curves and plush lips, coupled with her Omega pheromones that were spiking in response to his Alpha ones - in the end, Gaara had to curl his hand around one of Sakura's wrist to pry her hand off his arm, and she blinked up at him in confusion; Lips bruised and shiny with spit, pupils dilated in want, and of course, that tell-tale wetness that was pouring out of her most secret of places…

She will be the death of me.

It'll be the sweetest of deaths, his Alpha chortled.

"We are definitely physically compatible." Gaara whispered against the shell of her ear, he buried in his stomach his disappointed moan at losing the comforting heat of her chakra's pull.

Sakura remained prone on the ground, gulping in big lungfuls of air that she hoped would help clear her dazed mind. Gaara continued to hover over her, and he realised with dejection that the sight of her all flushed and heaving underneath him was not helping him get his straining cock back under control. Oblivious to his turmoil, Sakura reached towards the junction of her neck and left shoulder, and she rubbed small circles into the flesh, mimicking the sensation that her body wanted there. Gaara saw the movement, and he scowled down at her. "I confess that I felt compelled to mate you."

"It's the soul bond," she explained, staring up at him before running a hand through his fringe. Her eyes rested on his kanji as she parted his fringe, and Gaara closed his eyes to lean into her touch, a rumble of satisfaction emitting from his chest as her soothing gesture. He was never much of a fan of physical contact, and only his packmates ever got away with ruffling his hair. The fact that he found her act comforting rather than irritating spoke volumes to him about his own acceptance of her as his Omega, in the same way that he felt compelled to caress her even though he usually shied away from touches. She lightly dragged her index finger down his scar, marvelling at the preciseness of its strokes, and whispered, "It increases the urge to complete the mating."

Children.

That was what their inner Alpha and Omega wanted; what they were trying to coax each other into.

Gaara sat up on his knees, forcefully pulling himself out of her finger's reach, and he laced his fingers with hers to help her up into a sitting position. "I am offering you marriage, but I am not prepared for children right now."

"I don't think I am, either."

Sakura's stomach did a flip-flop when Gaara slipped his arms around her before tugging her forward, cradling her head against his clavicle as he murmured, "Then marry me. I know we are doing this backwards, but let me woo you after. In time, when we are older, and when we come to care for and love each other, I will properly mate you."

She had managed to suppress her gasp of surprise, but Gaara did not miss the sharp inhale she took. He swallowed, suddenly unreasonably nervous as he awaited Sakura's response. He had all but pushed himself on her to prove his point that they were suited to each other, and had Sakura refused him, he would have backed off like the gentleman that he was expected to be. But instead of finding any hint of distaste at kissing her while knowing she was pining for another, he was all but ready to bury himself inside of her. And Sakura did not seem to find his advances disagreeable either, if the manner in which she responded to him was any indication.

Love… it could be nurtured, could it not? Even if both of them were not passionately devoted to each other to call their marriage one of love, but rather one of convenience. He could see himself coming to care for this kind-hearted kunoichi. There was a part of him that deeply regretted taking her away from her home, but more importantly, from Naruto; he knew that his fellow Jinchuuriki harboured affections for Sakura, but he was answering an ancient call that all but guaranteed the shattering of his psyche if he tried to deny it. Naruto would hate him for it, but he hated himself more for doing it to the first person in the world to accept him for who he was, and had shown him who he could become.

Gaara's blunt fingertips unwittingly dug into her back, and Sakura grunted in pain. He pulled himself off of her in an instant, leaning backwards so that he was no longer wrapped around her and so that he could finally look her in the eyes. There was a hint of confusion in her eyes, but they were soon replaced by a look of determination.

If she could not escape his offer of marriage, she could at least escape the permanence of a mating mark. Without that physical claim on her body, Gaara had no bond to invoke to keep her chained to him. Yes, undoing a marriage to a Kage would require a level of finesse that Sakura was not certain even a brilliant mind like Shikamaru's could find a loophole for, but society accepted divorces more than the breaking of an Alpha-Omega bond. Perhaps it was the romanticism of it, of how two individuals can drift together due to a biological compatibility that made it taboo to break a mating unless it was imposed or undesired. In contrast, marriage was human, and humans erred.

"Alright," Sakura replied, and she forced a smile on her lips that did not quite reach her eyes. "I agree to be your wife."

Naruto did not manage to track them down while they were in Sakura's nest, which suited her just fine (it was warded against most probes anyway, which always made her wonder what was the purpose of the room before it was turned into her heat room). Because she had spent all of her adolescent years hiding her Omega status, she dared not have a nest outside of her heat room. As Gaara glanced around the room, his eyes lingered on her nest, and Sakura found herself growing increasingly nervous under his scrutiny.

"You understand that as your new pack Alpha, I cannot permit you to bring Hatake-san's scent into our home. I will furnish you with all the nesting material you will need, but you might want to take some of your parents' clothes in the meantime, to help your transition."

So terribly business-like. But she could not fault him for his attitude. Gaara had displayed a remarkable level of tolerance towards Kakashi's scent the entire time they were devouring each others' mouths - when a normal Alpha would have perceived another's Alpha scent as a challenge for the Omega's affections - she supposed it was about time she deferred to him as he expected an Omega partner to, as well.

"Of course, Alpha."

She did not expect the lifting of his brow bone, nor the annoyance that flashed in his eyes as he glared at her. She forced herself to keep her gaze locked with him, to not submit as her Omega wanted her to; she would placate him as his pack Omega, but that did not mean she would not wilt like a flower whenever he looked at her - that was too much for the strong-willed kunoichi in her to tolerate. If there was one thing Sakura found extremely cringey in Ino's romance novels, it was the multitudinous descriptions of Omegas swooning and shivering when an Alpha looked angrily at them. She would not become like one of them; Kakashi made sure of that.

"Don't," his voice sounded pained, perplexed, even, "Do not call me that. I'm not pressing my status on you. To you, I am not the Kazekage. If we are to be wedded, I'd like you to call me by my name."

An equal. He was trying to reach out to her as an equal.

Sakura supposed it was a difficult change for him, to go from not having to deal with Alpha-Omega dynamics in his personal life, to being thrusted headlong into taking on an Omega wife in a matter of weeks. Whatever he had learnt in his dealings with secondary gender for politics could not be so readily applied to his love life, and Sakura could see that for herself as well - she had been doing her best to pass as a Beta for years. As an Omega, she was expected to be affectionate towards her Alpha, always letting him take the lead in all matters. This ran completely counter to her lot in life as a kunoichi.

"If I marry you…" Gaara frowned at the 'if' in her choice of words, but he did not interrupt her. "... I will still keep my rank as a chunin kunoichi, right? I will be allowed to take on missions, to continue my training as a medic-nin?"

He did not betray relief at her question, and instead addressed her concerns. "I have spoken about this with your Hokage. She will be sending someone named Katsuyu with you so that your training is uninterrupted. I have also made it clear to her that you won't be stripped of your rank as a kunoichi, despite there being no ranked Omegas in our shinobi army. As to the matter of missions, you will find the opportunities limited, since the Kazehime is expected to serve the village alongside the Kazekage. Which means paperwork and village relations." His eyes reflected thoughtfulness despite his neutral expression. "I believe your Hokage has familiarised you with what that entails?"

She could not help a blatant shudder as she recalled the number of times when she received a summon to the Hokage's office, only to find Tsunade half-buried in scrolls. After digging her mentor out, it was up to her and Shizune to help tackle the workload, which generally consisted of reading mission reports, assigning missions, and all matters that pertain to the smooth running of a shinobi village. Sometimes, if a civilian matter had an impact on the village, the paperwork would make its way to Tsunade's desk; Konoha was unique in the sense that the village was divided into a shinobi and a civilian sector, with a committee of villager-appointed civilians overseeing the latter. Eventually, Tsunade ended up tricking Sakura into doing her paperwork for an hour or two each morning, and while Sakura would come to loathe the sight of those stacks of scrolls awaiting her each day, she would secretly admit that it gave her a sense of satisfaction to see how her efforts helped in the betterment of the village.

Still, not being able to ask to be assigned to a mission whenever she got the itch for action was a disappointment. Gaara studied her downcast look for a moment, then as if he suddenly understood her dejection, he added, "I do take on a few high-ranking missions myself every now and again, to get a chance to stretch my legs. We can take those together when the opportunity arises."

Sakura nodded, but she could not help feeling disappointed that if she wanted to go on a mission as an excuse for some breathing space, it was not to be so. She would be expected to be by her husband's side at all times as the Kazehime, that much was certain. Briefly, she wondered how that would curtail her independent streak, then when she realised that if she were able to get herself assigned to the Suna hospital, they could at least spend most of the day not stepping on each others' toes. Or drowning in each other's scent.

Sandalwood. Iron. And… blood?

Then the strangest thing happened - Gaara turned away, but not before she caught the hint of irritation on his face. "Who is this Katsuyu, anyway?"

She resisted slapping her hand to her mouth to stop the giggles threatening to spill out of her, and instead swallowed them back down. Once she was certain that she was no longer at risk of bursting out into laughter - jealous, the Kazekage was jealous - she replied, "Katsuyu-sama, as I call her, is Tsunade-shishou's animal summon. I have a contract with her as well, but since our chakra is tied to our summon, Tsunade must want her to act as a point of contact between us." There was a part of her that was immensely grateful that there would be a familiar face accompanying her into the harsh deserts.

"Ah," Gaara looked chastised. "I apologise if I have been rude when speaking about her. Since she is an animal contracted to both yourself and the Hokage, there are no security concerns, and she would be free to come with us after the wedding."

Wedding.

Oh, right. A wedding.

A freakin' wedding.

"A wedding?" Sakura gasped quietly, and Gaara seemed bewildered by the confusion in her voice.

"Of course there will be a wedding. Your Hokage insisted that we formalise the arrangement as soon as possible. That will depend on how soon the other Kage can arrive, and naturally, that I had to convince you to marry me to begin with." He appeared confused by her dazed look. "Surely you don't expect us to elope, do you?"

Her mother's joking concern was coming true in the worst way possible in the form of a stickler-for-the-rules Kazekage.

"I… Kazekage-sama, this is all a bit -"

"Gaara." He corrected her patiently.

"Gaara," she bit out his name, "I was expecting to only go to you as your rut partner. I have since agreed to marry you, but the scope of a Kage's wedding is… not what I'm mentally prepared for."

"None of us are," Gaara enlightened her, and even he seemed exasperated at the idea of having to be subjected to the pomp and pageantry that came with the wedding ceremony for the leader of the Land of Wind's most important village. He gestured to her back, and Sakura looked over her shoulder to make out what he was trying to point out. "But it seems like you've accepted my token long before I myself understood the magnitude of what I was offering, and I stand by it. I won't dishonour you by simply whisking you away to Suna, and I understand that the Hokage wants to give you a proper sending-off as well; two birds with one stone."

She felt a rush of blood to her cheeks as she automatically clasped her medic pouch, the Kazekage's scarf a presence potent enough to almost burn through and scald her hand. "Kakashi-sensei explained that it was a token of courtship. So you meant to take me as your wife all along?"

"Wife and mate, actually." For someone talking so solemnly about mating and wedding, Gaara appeared surprisingly unaffected, his expression schooled into neutrality. "I was prepared to properly woo you before that. Had we been from the same village or the same country, I'd have taken my time in earning your acceptance, but Suna is three days' travel on foot, and I don't think it is advisable for us to have such a great distance between us before my suit concludes."

The sudden onset of a heat or a rut when one's desired partner is three days' travel by foot is definitely not ideal, and since Gaara was loath to treat their arrangement so casually, he only ever entertained a proper mating and marriage. Then Temari had shown him the statistics pertaining to Alpha-Omega couples, and it troubled him to see that children were almost always conceived within three months of a mating. "Birth control just doesn't work very well for a newly-mated pair," she explained, "So if you are planning to give her the mating mark, I'm going to tell the household staff to start putting together a nursery."

Temari had never seen her younger brother turn so ghastly pale, and she had made a sign to Kankurou to catch him if he should stagger or fall over. "Children?" Gaara had muttered weakly, and Kankurou tilted his head in confusion at his brother's tone.

"I've seen you with the academy students, Gaara. I didn't think you'd be against the idea of having a few kids to trip over in the house. Of course, I thought I'd be the first to have a litter of my own, but if my little brother wants to beat me to it…"

"I'm not… she's not ready," Gaara refuted. "And the main reason why the council agreed to let me marry Haruno-san is because they could lay claim to her medical knowledge and have her fortify our medic-nin's abilities. If she were to become pregnant so soon and taken off her duties, they'd feel slighted."

"So? Let them feel however they want. As far as we are concerned, you don't owe the council or Suna anything after what Akatsuki did." Kankurou looked deliberately at Temari, and she nodded in agreement.

"Kankurou is right, you don't owe the council anything. But speaking as her friend, I can tell you that Sakura is not the type to discard all of her training to start popping out children, either. I think the best solution is to take her as your wife, so that you won't subject her to the ridicule of being a mere rut partner. She will have standing with the council when she becomes the Kazehime as well, and I'm sure the Hokage will agree that it will only strengthen our alliance."

Temari had to bite the inside of her cheek before she ended up blurting out what Shikamaru had once told her about Sakura - that she remained steadfastly loyal to her Uchiha teammate, and most likely still harboured romantic feelings for him. If Sakura was indeed still hung up on another man, there was very little chance that she'd agree to an outright mating. A marriage, given time to nurture and grow, may eventually lead to love. But a mating when one partner's heart was not in the relationship could spell disastrous consequences for both her brother and her friend, especially if Sasuke turned out to be an Alpha; if he came to challenge Gaara for Sakura, the bloodbath that would ensue would make Akatsuki's attack look like a childish tumble in a sandbox. The Uchiha clan did boast of many Alphas before their demise - it was safe to assume that Sasuke had a good likelihood of presenting as an Alpha like his S-rank criminal brother, Itachi.

Gaara looked from one sibling to the next, and said, "I've heard what you have both said, and taking Jiraiya's words into consideration, I think forgoing a mating for now will be the most prudent thing to do. I will leave tomorrow for Konoha, to ask for the Hokage's blessings to marry her."

"Parents. You need to ask her parents, too. Sakura is civilian-born, and her parents are still around, so you will need to convince them alongside Sakura and the Hokage that you are husband material." Temari wanted to facepalm herself. Was it wise to encourage her brother to marry Sakura, when the both of them barely knew each other? If it was not for their biology calling out to each other, she would never have considered the possibility of either one of her brothers marrying her friend; then again, she did not expect said friend to have saved the lives of both her brothers within a week of each other, either.

"They'll probably want a grand wedding," quipped Kankurou.

"Probably a sizable dowry as well," Temari added. "You're going to need to host two ceremonies - one in Konoha, and one here in Suna."

"That's right, Sakura is the Hokage's apprentice, isn't she? That's almost like two Kage getting married. It's going to be a big political shebang and the council will probably want to use the chance to sneak a treaty or twenty into discussions with Konoha before you sign your name on the marriage certificate."

For the first time in his life, Gaara sighed hard enough that his shoulders drooped. Rather than calling this a wedding between himself and Sakura, it would probably be more accurate to call it a union between Konohagakure and Sunagakure. He could already see the amount of paperwork that was going to cross his desk before he could leave Suna.

Which meant he had to leave now, before his council started sending drafts of treaties for him to review.

"I'll make my case to her parents personally. There is no need for the council to get involved in this." He strode towards an open window, taking in the sight of the setting sun. The village below was stirring after their mid-day siesta, and the magnitude of his responsibilities never felt heavier on his shoulders now that he had someone important to cherish for the rest of his life. Patting his gourd, he glanced backwards at his siblings and said, "A change of plans - I am leaving right now."

"You just sent Tobimaru to Konoha a few hours ago!"

But Gaara paid his sister's exclamation no mind, and in a flurry of sand, vanished from the Kazekage's office. Kankurou clapped his hand to Temari's shoulder, drawing her attention to the rueful shake of his head. "Leave him be, Temari. I can tell he's got it bad for Sakura. The last thing he needs is to try convincing her to marry him with the council's scripted proposal, which I'm pretty sure they are working on right now."

"Huh." Temari made a small sound of surprise. As an Alpha herself, she was familiar with the ability of an Omega to take over an Alpha's senses and occupy their every thought (she had never met one that invoked such a reaction from her yet, but she was aware of how potent their pheromones were when she was nearing or on her rut). As the Fourth Kazekage's eldest child, she took it as a matter of personal pride whenever she projected enough of her Alpha pheromones to chase any scheming Omegas away, so that she would never succumb to them and shame her pack. It had taken her the better part of four years to master that skill, whereas Gaara barely had a day before he was tempted by Sakura. If he was being led around by his Alpha's desire to lay claim to her, she could hardly say it was unexpected.

It would have taken a regular shinobi three days of travel to cross from Sunagakure into Konohagakure; Gaara did it in a little under a day and a half, though he could not outrace his own messenger birds yet. The sight of the Hokage waiting crossly for him at the village gates after he sent a sand clone ahead of himself caused a dozen different thoughts to run through his mind, almost pushing aside his foremost plan to find Sakura to persuade her against her plan to only become his rut partner. In the end, he supposed it was good that he was intercepted, as it gave him the chance to calm his strong pheromones that had spiked in anticipation of seeing his Omega once more; Sakura did not need to be frightened off before he could make his case.

And now that he had won her over, it was time to tackle her parents, metaphorically speaking. After all, he was the Fifth Kazekage, having handled himself in various negotiations with increasing finesse and tact as he grew into his role.

How hard could it be to convince two civilians that he was the best choice for their daughter?