Sakura felt like she was going to throw up at any given moment.
Upon seeing the greenish hue on her face, her mother took her by her forearm and firmly led her into the kitchen. "Come," she said, deliberately keeping her face turned away from the living room, "Let the men do the talking. We can go fix them up with something to eat and drink."
The feminist streak in Sakura would normally have protested, but for once, she felt inclined to hold her tongue and follow after her mother dutifully.
That left her father and Gaara sitting alone in the living room, facing each other with the suddenly too-small coffee table between them. She would have preferred them to be at the dining table, which was wider and would therefore make it harder for her father to reach across to manhandle Gaara; but the moment they materialised in the Haruno apartment, her father's expression of astonishment quickly changed to one of seriousness, and he had tilted his head towards the living room while glaring at Gaara. That was when her mother came in and took her away from the potential scene of carnage.
I'm being too dramatic. Dad knows better than to purposely antagonise a Kage, and Gaara isn't going to hurt my father.
Oh, so it's Gaara now, her Omega tittered.
Sakura decided that it would be much better for her sanity if she focused on counting out the scoops of tea leaves to use, then mentally counting down the steeping time required instead. It helped keep her mind away from the two men in the other room.
Unfortunately, she forgot to plug her ears up.
"So, you want to marry my daughter, Kazekage-sama." Kizashi's words came out as a statement, and his bland tone did not fit in with the atmosphere of the discussion at all.
Gaara, who had kept his gaze on Sakura's father the entire time since he arrived (it was polite to keep eye contact, but he made sure that it would not come off as a rude stare), nodded. "Yes. I have asked for her hand, and the Hokage has given her blessings as well. As you are her father, I'd like your permission to take her as my wife, Haruno-san."
Hearing Gaara's preferred way of addressing her directed at her father caused Sakura to flinch; though he had requested for her to call him by his name, she had not made the same request of him. She had assumed that he would now call her by her given name, but perhaps Gaara was so insistent on protocol that he would not have done it without her explicit invitation to do so. She made a note to talk to him about it later.
"And if I don't agree?"
Oh, stars.
That puking sensation that had settled at the bottom of her stomach surged once more. Her father was no simpleton - he knew better than to challenge an elite shinobi, especially one who was arguably the strongest in his country. Yet here he was, outright inviting himself into a guillotine. Sakura could not help but glance over her shoulder nervously, and she was surprised to see a hint of shock on Gaara's face.
Gaara's hand that was resting on his kneecap flexed once, and he caught Sakura's eye briefly before returning his attention to her father. "I would like to say that I will then respect your decision, and never come back to darken your doorstep. However, Ha… Sakura and I are in a unique situation. She is bound to me, as I am to her. If your concerns are about her status as a kunoichi, I promise you that she will continue to serve as one, but under a different banner.
"I can invoke the Alpha Laws, which Konoha adheres to as well, and simply stake my claim to her," his eyes darkened, and there was a scowl touching his lips, "But that is not the type of man I am, and completely unbecoming of the Kazekage. I am trying to understand things from your perspective, Haruno-san, and I know the sorrow that it would give you to lose a daughter to a foreign land, and so unexpectedly as well. I give you my word that she will be allowed to visit Konoha at least once a year, and more often if we can find the time."
Kizashi lifted an eyebrow, and crossed his arms. "It's not as if I expect her to be able to have much freedom as a married woman. Sakura is a kunoichi, and we already barely see her. I imagine that being that wife of the Kazekage means she'll be lucky to have time to eat more than a meal a day, given how busy she'd be."
The Kazekage could only blink at his statement. Was Sakura overworking herself that much in her pursuit to catch up to both her Uchiha prodigy and Jinchuuriki teammates? He had read Sakura's file soon after she had left, and noticed immediately that she was from a civilian bloodline; that meant no kekkei genkai or clan techniques to rely on. Her outstanding performance in the field was the result of pure hard work and effort, but if the price had been her health…
"I had no idea that Sakura was doing so much. I give you my word that she won't miss a single meal, nor would she stay up late on her workdays. Her well-being is paramount to me." He was now her pack Alpha in all but name, and the last thing he wanted was for his newly-claimed pack Omega to fall ill whilst under his care. Not only would it reflect very poorly on him, there was a part of him that despised the idea of failure; especially if the one he failed was one so important to both himself and Naruto. His glance darted towards Sakura's to lock with hers for a moment before he returned them to her father, and he had to keep his lips thinned in neutrality even as Sakura's blushing face stirred up strange, new emotions in his chest.
Meanwhile, Sakura was ready to punch a hole in the floorboard to hide in. Except they did not live on the ground floor, and her downstairs neighbour would probably get a heart attack if a pink-haired kunoichi was to literally drop in on him.
"She's also very wilful at times, and I know she has taken to expressing herself with her fists when her temper runs short."
Dad, whose side are you on?!
"We have an endless desert surrounding Sunagakure. She is free to punch and kick all the sand she wants. No one will know if she does, because the sand dunes are shifting all the time. The villagers will just chalk up any changes in the landscape to the winds."
Kizashi leaned forward, and tapped the table with a finger. Gaara shifted to lean towards the man as well. "And… there's the matter of her dowry."
Gaara's expression was calm as he leaned back into the couch, and he directed a stream of sand from his gourd onto the coffee table. From where she was standing, Sakura could not make out what he was doing with his sand; all she heard was that a dowry was being discussed, and being the gentleman that Gaara was, he refused to address the issue verbally.
The sand grains glided across the table, then arranged themselves to form a sequence of numbers. The redhead gestured towards it, and asked, "To your satisfaction?"
Sakura was dying to both know what the price of her independence was, as well as dying to smack both men for discussing about her as if they were trying to broker a cattle trade. A bride price being offered was a tradition that was starting to grow out of fashion, with most families agreeing that the money was better set aside for the new couple to start their life together with. It was a financially prudent decision, as a dowry sometimes translated into a substantial downpayment for a house. In more recent years, she had told her father to not expect one for her, nor ask for one, because she didn't want to feel like she was being bartered for (she also figured that Sasuke would not have much of one to give, given all the years he had spent away as a rogue-nin). Her father had grumbled, "Ok, but if your husband is not from Konoha, then all bets are off."
Fate had a strange way of throwing a spanner into the works.
She watched in muted horror as her father reached towards the sand grains and deliberately poked at them, and then he started rearranging the sand numbers. Gaara's expression appeared carefully blank to any onlooker, but she could make out a hint of bewilderment in his jade-green eyes as he watched possibly the bravest (and stupidest) man in the world manipulate his chakra-infused sand with bare hands.
When Kizashi was done, he leaned back with a confident smile. Gaara's naked brows furrowed briefly before he blinked at the man across him. "You just took three zeroes off."
Oh, she was going to kill her father.
Granted, Sakura didn't want to be traded off for a bride price, but if her father was trying to barter off too cheaply, that was a blow to her ego as well.
"Yes, I did. Your offer here -" Kizashi boldly jabbed at the sand grains once more, and Sakura could not help flinching as he did do, "- is going to go directly into Sakura's personal account. I want her to always have access to her own funds, so that she's not dependent on missions to earn enough money for her wants and needs."
Gaara only appeared even more perplexed. "When Sakura becomes the Kazehime, she has access to the Kazekage's stipend as well. She'll not be required to earn a living by taking on missions, and her every need in the Kazekage Manor will be taken care of by funds allocated from our budget."
"Oh?" It was now Kizashi's turn to look confused. "I was under the impression that Suna is rather impoverished, which is why they… you know what? Nevermind."
Sakura inwardly heaved a massive sigh of relief. The last thing she needed was for her father to mention Gaara's past as a Jinchuuriki whose birth was engineered to shore up Sunagakure's military power, and that would in turn lead to more countries hiring them for more highly-paid shinobi missions. If Gaara understood what Kizashi was implying, he politely ignored it and instead explained, "We have entered the precious mineral trade in the past few years, and thanks to some new trade treaties, are able to ensure that your daughter will want for nothing."
"In that case, I guess we can forgo a dowry." Kizashi scratched his chin, seemingly satisfied with Gaara's answer. "I have one other request in place of it."
"Of course. You only have to name it."
"I want the wedding here in Konoha. Sakura's family are all civilians, so I think travelling across a desert will be too difficult a journey for most of them." He paused, and then raised a finger as if to add another point, "And I want it to be the biggest, grandest wedding ever to happen in the entire history of Konoha, because Sakura deserves it!"
"Dad!" Sakura admonished as she balanced a tray of snacks and tea into the living room. "You always knew that I wanted a small affair, just some family and friends."
Her mother came up beside her holding the teapot. "Oh, Sakura, that was before with your previous plans. Now that you are marrying a Kage, there are expectations."
When Gaara's eyes met Sakura's, she had to fight to stop herself from looking away. It was clear from the way that he was scrutinising her that he understood the reason for her always wanting a small wedding - Sasuke had very few friends, and no family to speak of. It was in Sakura's nature to be considerate about that fact and request for a quieter affair instead.
"I believe Haruno-san is correct, Sakura." Oh, the way he uttered her name as he unwaveringly gazed at her. "The Hokage has asked for the same thing as well, so it seems wise to do as asked of us. We will have the wedding here in Konoha, and afterwards, we can have the ceremonial presentation of the Kazehime in Suna."
Returning his attention to Kizashi, Gaara asked, "Now that we are discussing the details of a wedding, can I assume that you have agreed to let me have your daughter's hand, Haruno-san?"
Kizashi reached boldly across the table, and Gaara automatically froze in place as the man brazenly patted his shoulder. "Welcome to the family, Kazekage-sama. You can call me Kizashi, and my wife, Mebuki. No more of this Haruno-san nonsense!"
"Then I'd like to extend the same courtesy, and request that you call me Gaara."
"Oh, my. Listen to us, calling the Kazekage by his name!" Mebuki turned pink under Gaara's gaze, and Sakura wanted to facepalm herself; her mother always had a soft spot for handsome redheads.
Handsome, indeed.
Abruptly, Gaara stood up, startling her parents as he turned to face their door. Almost immediately, Sakura could make out the sound of wind slicing through the air, and the thrilling of a blade twirling; she barely had time to leap in front of her parents before -
"RASENGAN!"
The Haruno apartment's front door disintegrated in an explosion of wood blasted inwards, and even as she held her arms out in front of herself, Sakura braced for impact…
… Which did not come.
By the time the debris in the air cleared, she was able to make out over the hastily formed sand wall in front of her as a stern-faced Naruto tumbled through the doorway. The blond shinobi glanced around quickly, and promptly pointed a finger behind her while yelling loudly.
"Gaara, ya asshole! Are ya threatenin' Sakura-chan's parents because they won't let ya steal her away? Don't worry, Sakura's mum and dad, I'll save ya!"
Looking over her shoulder, it was finally clear to Sakura why Naruto had arrived at such an erroneous conclusion - there was a small sand dome dropped directly over both her parents, but Gaara's sand had also lurched forward to protect Sakura as well, causing a small gap to be left in the space between her and her parents. Kizashi could be seen peeking out from said gap to try and figure out what had happened, and who to hold responsible for the repairs that needed to be done.
What no one in the room saw was how Gaara's eyes had widened in surprise for a moment before his lips thinned in consternation. For his entire life, the only time his sand was able to move without his direction was when his own life was in danger, as it sought to protect its master. If his aim was to direct his sand defences towards another, it had to be commanded to do so. He had ordered his sand to protect Sakura's parents with the understanding that Sakura was a kunoichi who also happened to be a close friend of their surprise visitor; there was also the fact that said visitor was Naruto, who would never actually harm Sakura - one of his most "precious" people, as he constantly reminded Gaara of whenever he stopped by Suna - and he would most likely pull his attack back at the last minute. So when his sand rushed to form a protective wall around her…
What is going on?
"Dammit, Naruto! It's not what it looks like, and you wrecked my place over nothing!" Sakura stomped towards him and hoisted him up by the front of his shirt, her cheeks flushed with indignation at the rude destruction of her home.
"Sakura-chan, tell me this ain't true! Ya not leaving us to marry Gaara, are ya? Oh no, did he knock ya up or something while ya guys were in Suna? Are ya pregnant? Do ya need to sit down? Are ya going to name the kid after me? Wait, wait, Saku-"
Whatever Naruto was planning to say was lost to the distance as he gained momentum from Sakura's impressive punting of him out of the front door and clear across Konoha. As everyone in the house studied the trajectory of Naruto's flight, Kizashi slipped out from under Gaara's sand defence and whispered conspiratorially to him, "I told you she likes using her fists."
The redhead was not certain if one could be entirely rational when your front door and half the living room were decimated by an offensive ninjutsu, but he felt it was only polite to nod his agreement to Kizashi. "A very formidable kunoichi, certainly. She makes Konoha proud, Kizashi-san."
"I will pray that you won't ever be on the receiving end of them, but I suppose you'd do alright even if that happens. I mean, you're a Jinchuuriki like Naruto, right? He recovers from her punches like this!" Kizashi snapped his fingers for emphasis.
At her father's words, Sakura could not help but turn back to face Gaara. He caught her eye briefly before returning his attention to Kizashi. Shinobi world happenings were sometimes a little slower to make their way to the civilian population, but as far as Gaara was concerned, the only secrecy they needed to maintain was the fact that he had died from the extraction of his Bijuu. The fact that he was no longer a Jinchuuriki was news that had been spreading to the different countries, but the Suna council made sure to also send out the story that their Kazekage still retained his mastery over sand, lest their enemies were to think their Kage weakened.
"I'm no longer a Jinchuuriki, but I understand that Sakura is a very capable medic-nin as well. What she breaks, I have no doubt she can heal."
Kizashi sucked in a long breath through his teeth, and he side-eyed Gaara before muttering, "So, it's like that between the two of you, eh? I suppose if it makes Sakura-chan happy, and you have no complaints…"
"I'm going to check on Naruto!" Sakura's voice reached a pitch that she was certain alerted a few dogs in the neighbourhood, and she dashed past the broken front door in the direction of where Naruto had flown, cheeks flushed red as she realised that the last thing she wanted was her sex life speculated upon.
Especially if it was by her parents; and even more so if it was non-existent to begin with. Seeing to her matrimonial duties was one thing, but hearing it discussed was quite another.
And when she realised that being the Kazekage's wife meant a life in the limelight, any prolonged absence on her part would be logically speculated to be due to either her heats or her husband's ruts, which meant… Everyone in Suna was going to know exactly when she was getting frisky with Gaara.
Oh, god-freakin' Hashirama.
By the time full realisation set in, she had spotted Naruto sitting in the middle of a field at the end of a long dirt tract ploughed out by his landing body, hunched over as he dusted himself off. She stumbled to sit beside him, dropping her face into her arms as she groaned aloud.
"What's the matter, Sakura-chan? Did ya hurt 'yaself punching me?" Naruto flashed her a cheeky grin, and he braced himself for a fist to his chest as Sakura was wont to do. When she did not lift her head after several moments, his confusion gave way to concern. "Are ya feeling sick? Is it the pregnancy? Are ya in labour?!"
Sakura reached out and clapped her hand over his knee, giving it a painful squeeze before mumbling into her arms, "First off, Naruto, I am not pregnant. Secondly, pregnancies last for nine months. There is no way I am in labour."
Naruto rotated himself on the ground to face her, and he leaned this way and that in an attempt to catch her (still hidden) eyes. In the end, he leaned back on his folded arms and said in a slightly hurt tone, "Then why is Gaara calling ya his mate? And why didn't ya tell me ya were an Omega?"
Where do I begin?
"Do you have time?"
"For ya? I got forever!" Naruto's voice was strangely jovial, perhaps even too much so. The smile on his lips did not quite reach his eyes, and that realisation made Sakura's throat squeeze together briefly, almost choking off her words as she contemplated where to even begin telling her tale.
Forcefully clearing her throat, Sakura began her story from the onset of her first heat. When she reached the part about seeking tutelage under Tsunade, Naruto appeared ready to cut her off, pain in his eyes as he realised how the abrupt manner in which he had left the village with Jiraiya had left Sakura with no one to turn to; Sakura held her hand up for silence, straightened her shoulders, and continued her tale.
It took the better part of an hour, the bulk of which was spent explaining how Kakashi had stepped up to become her pack Alpha and care for her in the way that a young Omega needed; how he had trained her to stand firm in front of other Alphas, to defy her biology's tendencies to please, and how she had managed to stay hidden in plain sight as a Beta instead.
The part about her encounter with Gaara was the one Sakura stumbled over the most, the rawness of the situation still sitting on her mind, inside her chakra system, and burning over her skin from his recent touches. She was herself in a daze, having only just agreed to the Kazekage's proposal, and articulating her thoughts was much harder than she expected. While she mentioned the nature of her soul bond with Gaara, Naruto was not one she trusted enough to tell of her plan to break it. She knew he was close to Gaara, perhaps as close as he was to Sasuke, even. A part of her whispered that he would be glad to be oblivious to such a plot, because he could claim innocence of all knowledge of it should she succeed.
When she finally stopped speaking, Sakura lifted her gaze (which she realised with annoyance she had dropped once more - her Omega tendencies have been presenting themselves more since recognising Gaara's Alpha, and that irked her to no ends) to meet Naruto's bright blue eyes.
"Huh," Naruto's tone was solemn. "So, Gaara and ya… An unbreakable bond."
She nodded, and was quite startled when Naruto launched himself at her, hands squeezing her shoulders as he broached her personal space. His normally reassuring scent of summer and citrus was sharpening into something sour, like lemons left out to rot in the sun. "Ya are such an idiot, Sakura-chan. If the bond is so important, if the two of ya needed each other so badly, why did you lower 'yaself to something like becoming a rut partner? Now I need to beat up Gaara for not finishin' what destiny started for ya and making ya his lawfully-wedded wife and mate!"
"Weren't you listening? I am going to marry him, but we both agreed that a mating is out of the question right now." Sakura found herself confused by Naruto's about-turn in attitude over her still new relationship with the Kazekage, and she wondered if he even remembered he was supposed to be upset at her leaving Konoha.
Maybe he did not care for me as much as I assumed, Sakura thought dejectedly, He did leave Konoha without even saying goodbye. It was almost a year later that he finally made a trip back, and he didn't try finding me then.
"Wait, ya guys are gonna be sleepin' in separate beds or somethin'?! Is Gaara acting shy or what, because ya really pretty and ya smell nice, so why doesn't he -"
Sakura shoved him over hard enough that he bounced when his head connected with the ground.
"A mating is too… complicated right now, Naruto. We barely know each other. Gaara has suggested that we take time to first get to know each other before having children. This has nothing to do with coitus."
Naruto smacked his ear to dislodge some dirt that became stuck, and muttered, "Coi-what now? Didja mean sex? Yeah, I don't think Gaara's too shy about it, anyways. That Pervy Sage is always dragging 'im to the Suna brothels. He says it's to pass intel along about ya-know-what, but between me and ya, I don't think it takes a whole night to do something like that."
Gaara's that experienced?
Naruto was too fixated on trying to reach a pebble that had found its way inside his ear, and he did not notice the emotions that flitted across Sakura's face at his words. She was initially shocked at the knowledge that the Kazekage was sexually promiscuous, then appalled at her own inexperience that would no doubt be a disappointment to him, and finally, a tiny part of her was sweetly anticipating what he could do to her. Though, if he had no qualms about seeking out sexual partners for his needs, the only reason why they had to share their cycles was because of how incredibly powerful a soul bond was - it bound both parties to each other, making all other potential partners unattractive and even outright repugnant to them.
Whatever limited information she could find on the one recorded case of Soul Mates had noted that the Alpha and Omega pair had tried to endure their cycles alone at first, and by the Alpha's third rut, he had torn into the Omega's home and almost killed her in the frenzy of his lust. While she was recovering, he had attempted to take other partners outside of his ruts, but the more Omegas he slept with, the more he craved his destined Omega instead. In the meantime, the Omega grew cold to her previous lover's touch, and all but drove him away. The soul-bound Alpha was heading down the path of certain insanity until the Omega was able to go to him to receive his mating mark, the act finally tempering his rage. If such a situation were to befall the leader of Sunagakure, it would lead to his unseating and political turmoil, and the only ones who would benefit from such a situation would be Akatsuki.
It was as plain as day.
Sakura was Gaara's, and Gaara was Sakura's.
She still held Sasuke in her heart, though, and dreamt fondly of him. That allowed Sakura to heave an inward sigh of relief at the realisation that perhaps the soul bond had not taken root enough to bind her to Gaara forever, and maybe…
"I'll miss you," she whispered more to herself than anyone.
Naruto blinked, and his eyes softened. He scooted closer to Sakura and smiled tenderly at her. "I will miss ya too, Sakura-chan. I promise I'll come by and visit whenever I can. Pervy Sage was supposed to take me out on another training session, but he told me we had to stay in Konoha for a bit. I guess it was because ya getting married.
"I'm really glad it's Gaara that ya marrying, though. He's a really good person, and the proof is in the fact that he is the Kazekage. He's strong enough to protect ya, and that makes me feel super-relieved because I'm always so worried about ya the entire time I am out training with Pervy Sage!"
Then Naruto leaned forward, knocking his forehead against her lightly, and his exhale fanned across her cheeks as he mumbled, "Sucks for teme, doesn't it? He's done gone ran off and Gaara's swooped ya up in the meantime."
He felt more than he saw Sakura's newfound tension in her entire body, and Naruto stubbornly kept his forehead pressed against hers even as the tension gave way to a light trembling. When he eventually lifted his gaze, the sight of Sakura doing her best (and absolutely failing) to blink back tears tugged mercilessly on his heartstrings, and he could not help but throw his arms around her shoulders to pull her into a firm hug. "Hey, hey, don't be sad, Sakura-chan. We'll still be fightin' to get that idiot back. Maybe we won't be a team anymore, but he'll be home again. That musta count for something, right?"
Oh, how she wanted to just tell him her plan to break the soul bond, so that they could reunite as Team Seven once again; so that she could fulfil the dream that she had harboured for the better part of half her life. But Naruto believed so strongly that Gaara was going to be good for her that he was willing to sacrifice his own crush on her so that one of his dearest friends could take his place. Naruto's heart was just too big, too generous. She should have known from the moment he swore to her that he'd bring Sasuke back, no matter the cost. And that cost was Naruto's own feelings.
In the end, all she could do was hug him back, and sob shamelessly into his shoulder.
Naruto's fingers dug into her flesh, and he held on.
Being a Beta, his scent barely registered for Sakura's inner Omega. His comforting sunshine scent laced with the sharpness of citrus was physically reassuring to her, but it did not scratch the itch that her Omega needed attending to. She barely managed to suppress the whine in her chest as she pulled him closer, pressing her nose against his neck to bask in the solidity of his presence.
Naruto smelt nothing like fresh earth or sandalwood.
When he started loosening his grip around her, and actually started pushing her away, a low whimper did escape her throat. She suspected Naruto was pushing her out of his personal space so that she was no longer embarrassing them both, and she sullenly hung her head, just barely suppressing the pout of disappointment at his rejection.
"Hey," Naruto called out.
"Naruto." A voice, deep and soothing. "Sakura."
Red hair, red kanji, and red robes.
Sakura felt impossibly rooted to the spot, and she could not find it in her to face the man who had come looking for her. Her father had probably sent Gaara out after her when she had been gone for too long, and being the gentleman that he was, he simply went along with the request despite the fact that he was a Kage and had more important matters to attend to.
Such as our wedding.
With her head hung, Sakura tracked the redheaded shinobi's position by the sound of his footsteps, and she did not acknowledge him even when she saw his toes in her line of sight that was directed at the ground. Omega manners dictated that she should be rising to her feet to greet her pack Alpha, so that it would be easier for him to scent her. But Kakashi had all but trained that instinct out of her, and she stubbornly stayed seated.
So it was to her mild surprise that Gaara knelt down in front of her and took hold of her by her hands, warmth racing from his palms into her flesh as he pulled her to her feet. She obeyed silently, though she did not lift her head even when she was finally standing in front of him.
The sight of his pack Omega looking so distressed caused a growl to build in his chest, but he swallowed it back before it could emerge; the last thing he needed was to fluster Sakura further. Sakura's parents had tried to play their parts as good hosts while she went after Naruto, offering Gaara snacks and light conversation as the minutes wore on. Yet even as he did his best to stay focused on their words and answer their questions about his homeland and his life, half his mind and heart was preoccupied with worry over Sakura, of the confrontation that she might have with Naruto which she had been trying to avoid only several hours ago.
The edge that his nerves were tethering on finally gave way a little under an hour after Sakura's departure, the nagging feeling that something was amiss having churned his stomach into outright queasiness; Gaara rose from the couch wordlessly and started walking out the front door before he remembered where he was. He coolly explained that he had something he needed to attend to urgently, and he refused Mebuki's offer of more tea before he left.
He wasn't even certain where he was headed; the few trips that he made to Konohagakure in the past usually involved Lee or Shikamaru as his chaperone, and they mostly kept to a strict routine and steered clear of the civilian districts (except for Lee's constant requests for him to join in his training, which Gaara learnt to indulge in once and never again - full splits were not fun). Instead, he relied on the pull in his chest - a sense of mounting anxiety and misery that he felt in his guts that did not belong to him - to guide him towards his newest pack member.
Most people would avoid walking towards something that made them uneasy.
Most people were not Sabaku no Gaara - moulded into a weapon before even his birth. A child whose birth marked the death of his mother. A boy whose uncle's blood rested in his weaponised sand. A Jinchuuriki ordered to attack an ally village. A monster humbled into seeking forgiveness and repenting. A Kage who walked willing into the enemy's trap to save those who still hate him for his youthful sins.
A man whose very existence spelt unease for both himself and those around him.
But he pressed on, walking down unfamiliar roads and past gawking civilians and shinobi alike, all in his quest to find the only Omega in the world whom he was bound to; the only Omega in the world whose presence washed over him like spring rain over the bone-dry desert, quenching a thirst that he had not been aware of until now.
In the strangest way, they were alike in their standing within their genin teams. She was deemed too kind-hearted, too soft to succeed. Held against the standards of the Uchiha prodigy, a Jinchuuriki and the famed Copy Nin, she had been left far behind in terms of her abilities until her Hokage agreed to train her. And he in turn was the monstrous boy who murdered indiscriminately, on whom the smell of blood and wickedness lingered - the shunned member of his genin team. They were both lonely in their own ways.
Apart, they were both shinobi, proud to serve their village and country. Separate duties with separate lives. Together, somehow, they were more. Under the fervour of their touches, a sense of deep calm had claimed Gaara's soul. The more he kissed her, tasted her, desired her - the stronger his sense of completion; of finding a kindred soul.
The Alpha in him whispered that he needed to mark her, to taste her sweet blood on his tongue as he bred her to finally find that sense of completion that he sought for his entire life.
The man in him argued that he needed to find her, to take her into his arms and reassure, to prove that he could heal instead of hurt for once; a different sense of completion.
The sight of his fellow Jinchuuriki wrapped so tightly around his Omega sent an irrational spike of jealousy up his spine, and Gaara slowed to a stop near the pair. Naruto, who still had most of his wits about him (unlike a clearly upset Sakura), was the first to notice the redhead's approach, and he smiled encouragingly at him. When Gaara saw Naruto's grip slacken around Sakura, he saw it as his cue to approach the rest of the way, and he noted grimly the sadness in the blond's eyes. He would have to speak with Naruto about his plans with Sakura at a later date; for now, his immediate need was to soothe his Omega.
"I'm going to scent you," Gaara finally spoke up when it became clear that Sakura was not going to look at him anytime soon. He waited several seconds in case she was to respond, but she continued keeping her head down as if she had not heard him.
He lifted his right hand and brought it to her chin, squeezing gently to secure his grip before he started tipping her face towards his. He could not suppress the slight jolt of surprise at how distraught her emerald-green eyes were when he could finally see them, and the sorrow in them caused his touch to falter. He silently congratulated himself on not showing displeasure on his face, and brushed his fingers down the side of her jaw, touched the delicate skin behind her ear, and slid them into the base of her skull before pulling her towards his own exposed neck. Naruto looked like he wanted to break out into a shit-eating grin when Sakura leaned forward, turning her head as she did so she could push her nose up against his jawline, sighing as she breathed in his scent of sandalwood and iron.
Yet her quiet trembling and soft whimpers did not subside, and aside from wrapping his other arm around her waist to pull her closer, Gaara was at a complete loss on what else he could do. He had been trying to collect himself since he started making his way to Sakura, and the sense of calm he was attempting to project in his pheromones should be solid reassurance to his Omega. He still had not mastered how to control the release rate of his pheromones, and his inadequacy in consoling his Omega was causing his own distress to seep into his scent.
Copper and blood. The proof of his displeasure.
Sakura whined.
Gaara paled.
"Kazekage."
Gaara whipped his head up, and there was no stopping the snarl that burst past his lips as his eyes took in the sight of the Copy Nin standing a short distance away. Kakashi was standing upright and rigid, his stance radiating Alpha confidence while his pheromones carried to Gaara's nose the scent of volatile gunpowder.
Another Alpha. Her former Alpha, Gaara told himself, and he glared fiercely even as he pulled Sakura impossibly closer, He cannot have her. She is mine now.
If it came down to a fight, the Ichibi Jinchuuriki would have been confident in his ability to defend what was his, even if Kakashi had more than a decade of fighting experience over him. But he had since lost his Bijuu, and he had yet to test his kekkei genkai nor trained with it sufficiently to know how he could fare in a real battle against such a strong Alpha. All he could do was growl a warning as he bared his teeth at Kakashi, canines flashing menacingly as he did so.
Kakashi started lifting both hands up at the same time, and Sakura could feel Gaara's muscles tensing under her touch. She was only vaguely aware of her former pack Alpha's presence, surrounded as she was by Gaara's overwhelming scent. When she pushed against him to turn around as the first hint of fresh earth and gunpowder reached her, she had to struggle against him so she could even turn her head. Gaara's arms were secured to her tightly in his bid to prevent Kakashi from stealing her away, and she should not find his possessiveness so infuriating and yet so enticing all at once.
The silver-haired jonin's hands came to a stop at chest-level, and he turned his palms outwards - a universal signal for pause. He locked eyes with Gaara to make sure that he had the redhead's full attention before he began a slow and steady approach, hands still held out placatingly to signal that he bore no ill intentions.
Gaara allowed Kakashi to approach until he was about five or so metres from them, and he ordered with a visible curling of his upper lip, "That's close enough."
Naruto who had sidled closer to Gaara and Sakura was watching the exchange with bated breath. This was not his first time witnessing an Alpha confrontation over an Omega, but it was the first involving his friends and teacher, and with the fact that Sakura was said Omega made things that much more interesting and high-stakes.
"Your wrist scent glands, Kazekage," Kakashi called out, prompting Gaara to glance down at one of his zippered sleeves. Reluctant to let go of Sakura, he brought his sleeve to his face and bit the zipper, tugging it down with his teeth as Sakura watched with clear interest. There was denying how he was thrilled at being the object of her attention instead of Kakashi, but it did not seem wise to provoke her former pack Alpha by basking in that fact, so he kept his eyes focused on his task. After exposing his wrist and the scent gland that rested on the underside, he kept his wrist up and his eyes levelled at Kakashi in anticipation of his explanation.
"Press it to the one on the back of her neck," Kakashi pointed towards Sakura. "Rub your pheromones directly into it."
Naruto made a face like he heard something scandalous. Although he was a Beta, the fact that he was a shinobi meant that he would come across more Alphas than the average person over his lifetime. Jiraiya made it a point to instruct him on the more common Alpha (and Omega) practices, and he had emphasised to him that touching another non-Beta's neck scent gland - especially if they were an Omega - was considered an act so intimate that even packmates did not do it often. Touching an unrelated Alpha's scent gland brought vastly different results, but that was a tale for another time. When he turned to look at Gaara, the redhead's widening of his eyes revealed that he too, felt similarly shocked by Kakashi's order.
When it became apparent to Kakashi that Gaara was not going to simply follow his command, he gestured towards Sakura who was still trembling minutely in his arms and explained, "Since the day you marked her with your scent, Sakura's body had started changing in anticipation of a new Alpha's claim. My pheromones won't calm her like they used to anymore, and your pheromones are too new for her Omega to gain comfort from. You need to force her body to recognise your claim, and short of mating her, the next best way is to mix your scent with hers directly."
There was no need to mention how Sakura's scent had started changing to reflect Kakashi's own whenever she was upset or angry; when agitated, her scent had taken on a hint of gunpowder in the more recent years since Kakashi was her pack Alpha. Sakura probably did not notice it, as most people were too used to their own scent to pick up such subtle changes, but Kakashi's keen nose had detected it over the decoy pheromones she wore whenever she was in a fight-or-flight situation. It has only strengthened his desire to protect her the more time he spent in her presence.
And now, with the hint of copper and blood on her, there was no better proof of her compatibility with Gaara's Alpha. Their secondary genders had called out to each other even before they recognised each other as Alpha and Omega, his scent woven into hers since their first intimate moments. But because of how new their bond was, Sakura was not able to mentally reconcile it as her new Alpha's; they had to resort to cruder means, which meant smearing his scent oils directly into her glands so that his role would register for her physically at the very least, and that would hopefully calm her down when she realised she was under the care of a friendly Alpha.
He glanced down at Sakura, making sure that she understood his intentions before he proceeded further. Sakura's response was to close her eyes and press her cheek to his - a sign of her deference to his Alpha. Swallowing down a sudden bout of nerves, he dragged his forearm against the collar of her top, tugging it downwards and exposing the patch that covered her scent gland as he removed his Sand Armour from elbow down. The Alpha in him was displeased that she was still choosing to hide her secondary gender in his presence, but the rational part of him understood that she did not want to broadcast her secret after having hid it away for years. To be able to finally peel off that patch that camouflage her true self caused a rumble of satisfaction to emit from his throat, but all Sakura could hear was the slow and irrationally loud untacking of the patch from her skin as he peeled it off her - the symbolic stripping away of her Beta self.
Gaara did not give her long to contemplate on her circumstances; after dropping the patch into his free hand, he angled his wrist and pushed it firmly against the slight bump of her scent gland. The friction irritated his normally concealed wrist gland, causing a burst of his scent and pheromones to seep out at once. Ignoring her small gasp of surprise at the suddenly increased vigour of his scent, he started rubbing his wrist back and forth against the back of her neck, scrubbing away the decoy Beta pheromones and allowing her natural Omega scent to seep out.
The first lungful of her honey and pomegranate scent struck him like a blow right in his solar plexus, and Gaara's arm that was around her tightened as he fought to keep himself steady, focusing all his concentration on releasing a steady stream of his pheromones instead. The decoy Beta pheromones left an oily smear against his wrist gland, and he bit down on his lip to keep from voicing his displeasure about it.
"Should we be stickin' around?" Naruto's loud whisper was directed at Kakashi. "I feel like we're looking at something naughty here."
The silver-haired jonin tamped down the urge to sigh aloud at Naruto's rude remark, and the glance he exchanged with Gaara in that moment told him that the Kazekage had heard it as well. Scenting your packmate in public was one thing; scenting your pack Omega in front of her former Alpha was another, and Naruto who had picked up the spiking air of tension around them was trying to get Kakashi away in his usual boneheaded manner.
Meanwhile, Gaara's attention had returned to Sakura. It was to his satisfaction that her trembling was starting to subside, the now-gentler circles that he was rubbing into her neck clearly helping her distress.
It was then to his astonishment that Sakura suddenly gripped the front of his robes, shoved her face against his chest, and attempted to muffle a scream of pure mortification into the fabric. Key word being that she tried, but the three men standing around her heard it as clear as day. So surprised he was, that Gaara stopped in his movements and hovered both hands over her, not knowing whether he should be backing away in case she decided to follow up with a punch, or if he should continue trying to comfort her.
"That's our cue," Kakashi said too-brightly to Naruto, and he snagged the blond by his waist and leapt up into the trees before Naruto could get the first syllable of his protest out of his mouth.
Gaara blinked down at the kunoichi still clinging to him, watching her entire form heave as she drew in a breath to refill her lungs. "Sakura?" Her hair had fallen over her still downturned face, the only hint of her embarrassment being the pink tips of her ears; he felt an almost overbearing urge to rub his fingers over the heat gathered there.
She lifted her head from his chest and turned away, but not before he caught sight of the pretty blush on her cheeks that matched her hair.
"I'm sorry. I'm usually not like this, but the stress…" Sakura clamped her mouth shut at once, and a dozen different scenarios ran through her head of her Omega tendencies revealing themselves in front of others. None of them were good. And the fact that she had agreed to marry Gaara meant that she would be under the scrutiny of his council and shinobi, all awaiting a similar outburst from her so they could point and sneer at her. "Omega hysteria," they would quip, before insisting that their Kazekage take a mate that had better control over her emotions.
The idea of Gaara taking another woman stung just as much as the memory of her failure to keep Sasuke in Konoha - an emptiness that pierced deep inside of her, chilling her very soul like when she woke up alone on that empty park bench so long ago. That's odd, she mused to herself. Why should I care if he finds a more suitable woman to take as his wife and mate instead? That would free me from my obligation to him, and the dissolution of our marriage would not seem so scandalous then. I can even tell him outright then that I am trying to find a way to undo the soul bond, and he'd not consider it treason.
The ghosting of fingers against her cheek caused Sakura to follow the direction of the gesture; she turned back to meet Gaara's cool jade-green irises that had always been difficult to read, and now it was harder to shake off the influence of his Alpha pheromones complying her into seeing him as a prospective mate and therefore no longer held away at a polite distance.
"I should have come to you sooner. I felt your distress at the back of my mind, and I should have been with you when you were talking to Naruto." A flicker of… regret in his face? There was a marked pinch in his naked brows for a brief moment, but Gaara quickly schooled his features back into calm neutrality.
Sakura blinked owlishly at him, and when it registered for her that he was apologising for not coming to her as her knight in shining armour fast enough, that part of her that always lamented how weak she was compared to the rest of Team Seven reared up like an old, forgotten monster. She withdrew from the bracket of his arms, careful to keep annoyance out of her voice, "I am a kunoichi, not some weak, defenceless woman who needs saving."
"You are undoubtedly one of the most capable kunoichi I know, and I understand there will be an adjustment period as we get to know each other better." He boldly took one of her hands in his, and locking gazes with her, watched her complexion flush and darken with a rush of blood as he brought her hand up to his lips to kiss. The leather texture of her glove hindered his intentions, but Sakura still ended up speechless at his gesture. She watched as he traced his tongue over his lip afterwards - whether it was a teasing gesture, or a subconscious one, she had no idea - and his tone was firm as he said, "For now, this is a partnership where we need to watch out for each other. Let me care for you as your pack Alpha."
Oh, she realised. The tell-tale furrow between his brow bones was the giveaway that he was still trying to reconcile his newfound designation and the obligations that came with it. As the Kazekage, it was his job to ensure the physical well-being of his people; as an Alpha, it was his job to ensure the mental well-being of his pack on top of that. For a boy that once tethered on the brink of insanity thanks to his Bijuu's torment, was he equipped for such a task?
"What do you think of the new Kazekage?" Councilwoman Koharu had asked Tsunade one day over tea in her office many years ago. The old woman had peered out the corner out her eye at a young Sakura who was tidying up a stack of scrolls, but eventually she turned back to face Tsunade, perhaps deeming their conversation safe for a genin's ears.
"Gaara? Naruto and Jiraiya swore for him, and our correspondence has been cordial so far."
Koharu waved a hand flippantly. "Anyone can write pretty words on a piece of paper. For all you know, it is being dictated to him by his council. How certain are we that Suna will not plan another attack, especially since their heavy hitter of the last attempt is the current Kazekage?"
When Sakura chanced a glance in Tsunade's direction, she could see from the scowl on her mentor's face that Tsunade did not like the direction that the conversation was heading in. "Aside from the fact that his own council deemed him fit for the role when they once shunned him?"
"Desperate men will make allies of wolves."
Tsunade's fingers twitched in the direction of her drawer where she kept her stash of sake, and Koharu glanced at her hand before smiling condescendingly. "Perhaps he has a weakness that is not so apparent for a Beta."
It was all Sakura could do to prevent herself from launching at the councilwoman. A double blow - insinuating that Tsunade was unfit to be the Hokage because of both her Beta status and her weakness for alcohol. Her mentor's appointment to the role of Hokage had not been welcomed by all, and the Konoha council had been visibly disappointed when the Alpha Sannin Jiraiya refused to put on the hat.
"Then let me give you my assurance of my faith in the boy." Tsunade steepled her hands, and smiled broadly at Koharu. "He has lived a lifetime of persecution, and is now guarding the very same people who shunned him with his very own life. He could have gone rogue, or demoted all the councilmen who had ever wronged him. Yet he chose the most difficult path, not because he needed to prove himself to anyone, but it was the right one. That is a boy I can see growing into the robes they crowned him in, and a man I will expect great things out of."
Koharu's wrinkled face grew even more so under her frown, and she rose from her seat. "Your optimism is impressive, Tsunade. In your lack of maternal achievements, you have obviously grown soft for these children we call 'Jinchuuriki'."
"The next Hokage might even be one," Tsunade mused as she watched Koharu's retreating back, and when the councilwoman did not turn back to look at her and instead continued out the door, the blonde quickly added, "The Fifth Kazekage will defy all our expectations yet."
Defying expectations, Sakura realised with a jolt. That was the incredible amount of faith the Tsunade had invested in Gaara based on not just Naruto and Jiraiya's glowing assessments, but also based on her belief in the era that their new generation would herald. A Kage who was raised in prejudice could choose to live by the same rules that tormented him, or he could choose to rise above them. It was clear from Tsunade's words that she saw that the better side of Gaara's nature had won, and she was willing to fight to ensure his continued success as the Kazekage. How could she claim to be her apprentice, if she did not share in the woman's belief in nurture over nature, especially since she was similarly being trained to defy death's call as a medic-nin?
To make matters worse, her union with Gaara was another spanner in the works in the eyes of his village; their Kazekage was not only marrying a foreigner, she was a kunoichi. Assuring his council of her loyalty while keeping his female admirers placated (she had seen his distraught fangirls every day their Kazekage was missing, and they were too numerous for even her photogenic memory to accurately place their names), while trying to rein in his Alpha tendencies at an age when presentation of the secondary gender was practically unheard of…
No, she would not be a millstone around his neck on top of all that. Steeling her gaze, she tipped her chin forward so that she was fully facing Gaara. His attention had never wavered from her, and she could see the burning curiosity in his eyes once he took in her resolute expression.
"This partnership is a two-way street. I refuse to only be useful to you when you are undergoing your rut." Sakura tried not to think too hard about the visuals of the scenario she had conjured up, but the pinking of her cheeks was a dead giveaway. Gaara decided it would be unwise to point that out and simply nodded for her to continue. "I'd like to help you with your paperwork. Tsunade-shishou has taught me the propriety required to handle much of it, and if I can help in any other way besides that, you only have to ask."
Certainly, Gaara had handled himself sufficiently in the political arena since his inauguration, but her memory of how Konoha's own council had cast derision on his ascension was a reminder of how precarious his position was. The last thing she wanted to be was to become a burden, an extra drain on his attention when others would move against him through her - the Kazekage's Omega wife.
Gaara blinked down at her, a small smile appearing on his face as he said, "That can certainly be arranged, though, you will be required to train our medic corps. Our current head has lamented the long hours, so I don't want to place you under undue strain if you wish to add boring paperwork to your plate."
It was no secret that the most tedious part of any Kage's day was the rubber-stamping of shinobi and village matters, and the fact that Gaara could joke about it was a good sign that he saw the absurdity of assigning such a mundane task to essentially the strongest shinobi in the country. She was certain that she would be of use to him, as in the weeks after she became familiar with sorting through the Hokage's paperwork, Tsunade's alcohol stash needed replenishing at a slower rate. Similarly, this was a matter of pride for her - to lessen her new Kage's workload, and prove herself an asset and not a burden to the Kazekage.
Just as she would serve him as his wife, this was also about her duty to Konoha. To ensure the continued peaceful cooperation between their villages as they tackled the Akatsuki threat. If she could increase the efficiency of Suna's shinobi resources, they could afford to expend more of it on tracking down Akatsuki, and bringing her that much closer to securing Sasuke's return.
"I would like to ease your burdens as much as I can," she insisted, and she picked up the spiking of his sandalwood scent; Gaara was obviously pleased that she was coming around to the idea of making a place for herself in his home and village.
He smiled openly at her, offering her a peek of his canines that did not seem as sharp as during his pre-rut, and whispered, "Then I'd be a fool not to accept."
Sakura was not sure if they were both talking about the same thing.
The manner in which he laced his fingers with hers and pulled them up for a lingering kiss, hooded eyes glancing at her and making a jolt of heat-recognition-desire race down from the contact point of his mouth right into her stomach - it was a sign that his inner Alpha was appreciative of her Omega's deference, just as hers was. Kakashi had no need of her Omega submission to him, and had in fact taken great pride in training that instinct out of her; that all went out the window whenever she was in the presence of Sabaku no Gaara. Had she truely subdued her Omega tendencies in the past, or had she just been a very good actress all along? Because one look from the aristocratic, young Kazekage was all that he needed to convince her that complying was in both their best interests. Especially hers.
What have I gotten myself into?