Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Creatures of the Wind	By : Casey Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 1151 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Creatures of the Wind
- 2-Spend it All with Me
- 1
- 2
A/N: I absolutely, in no way, intended on continuing this silly
little story of mine. However, I kept coming up with different
scenarios to put these two in so... Here it is. Try not to drool,
kids. And for those of you who guessed it was Sakura, you were right.
Was I so transparent? I realize that at the beginning of P.I, she
seems like she didn't realize he died (which she most certainly does,
seeing as in the manga she's the one who pronounces him dead). That
will be addressed later in P.III.

Again, this contains MASSIVE spoilers for those of you who don't read
the manga. You've been warned.

Lastly, I took some liberties with the character of Matsuri (who I
actually find quite endearing in the anime fillers, poor kid) and
stuck her in here too.

This leg of the story is all fluff and some angst thrown in for good
measure. I tossed in a teeeeensy bit of comedic relief at the end to
keep it light because I don't want any emo-Gaara's running around.
That would be dumb.

Warning, this hasn't been beta'd and I'm low on sleep so forgive any
errors. Be grateful that I realized the word for the tailed-beasts
is 'bijou' and not 'bijuu,' which means 'snot' and definitely not
anything demonic, just gross. Heheheheh. Japanese is fun.

Song Recommendation: “What are you Doing the Rest of your
Life?” the Dusty Springfield cover (which is where the opening
lyrics come from). I might want this to be my First Dance at my
wedding. So romantical.

Now, on with the show!

Creatures
of the Wind

P.II

What are you doing

the rest of your life?

North and South

and East and West

of your life?

I have only one request
of your life...

That you spend it all
with me.

...

They knew it would be difficult.

As the Kazekage, Gaara was required to be in Suna almost every day,
save for the few weeks during the year set aside for the Chuunin
exams and the scant meetings with other allied Kages that he was
required to attend. Every other waking moment was dedicated to
running Suna. From the most mundane ordinances to tracking down
S-Class criminals and Missing-nins, his time was not his own.

This was the life he had hoped for only a few years earlier, when
he'd confessed his desire to be needed by the Village to his older
brother. He had chosen this path before he found her though, and it
seemed unfair that there could be no satisfactory compromise. The
best they could hope for were a few hours during his rare visits to
Konoha and it simply wasn't enough.

Though he couldn't say as much for himself, she deserved to be
happy.

Sakura understood from the beginning that this was bound to happen.
There was no way she could move to Suna, despite her attempts to
convince Tsunade-sama that setting up an elite Medic-Nin school there
would strengthen their alliance. The old woman saw right through her
and while she admitted feeling sympathetic to her former-apprentice's
situation, it just couldn't be done.

Ninja were not to leave their village for extended periods of time
unless the mission was long-term covert-ops or reconnaisance.

No one ever said the life of a shinobi was fair.

Gaara worried constantly when he received word that Sakura was being
sent out on a mission. That he was told at all was a generous
gesture from Tsunade. By all rights, she didn't have to tell him
anything about the goings on of her ninja. It was out of
respect and concern for them both that she kept him updated. Gaara
knew Sakura was a talented kunoichi—both as a fighter and a
medic-nin. He had seen her punch craters into mountains and shatter
the skulls of her enemies with a single thrust of her clenched fist.
He chakra control and generation was astounding.

He didn't believe her when she admitted to being such a late bloomer
as a ninja. It amazed him that someone could develop that kind of
strength over a few short years.

Still, he worried. He was distracted the days she was out in the
field, various scenarios running through his head, calculating how
long it would take him to reach her if something went wrong.

What if he wasn't fast enough? Strong enough?

What if she died?

He knew what he would do if that happene; he would follow after her.
Suna would find someone to replace him within days, if not sooner.
Kankuro and Temari both told him what the Council members talked
about when he wasn't in chambers—How they hoped that on the
next mission or during the next conflict, he wouldn't come back. If
Sakura was killed, he would grant his Council their wish.

They still hadn't forgiven him for getting captured by Akatsuki.
Having been rescued by Konoha-nins only furthered their
embarrassment. That a handful of jounin and chuunin (and one
obnoxious genin) defeated two Akatsuki on that mission alone
was enough to annoy the old men. But the fact that their Kage, the
“strongest” in their Village, had died at the hands of
those same villains was shameful and, in their minds, made Suna the
laughing-stock of ninja society.

Gaara craved revenge on the people who had killed him, who had caused
him the greatest pain he had ever felt in his life. At the same
time, he knew it was that event that had brought her to him and that
had set him free. With Shukaku gone, his head felt calmer, he was
more balanced, and he could finally sleep on a fairly regular basis.

He found that most of his chakra and strength had come out of the
ordeal intact. After all, Shukaku's chakra was only ever used when
he was pushed to his absolute limit. The same thing happened with
Naruto, he realized. Whenever his friend was perilously close to
dying or could see that his friends were, the Kyuubi's chakra would
flood out of him. Admittedly, the Nine Tails was a far more powerful
bijou than Gaara's One-Tail, but the situations that roused them were
the same.

Any direct threat to the life of their Host, and the Tailed-Beast
would be forced to intervene. As sentient creatures, most of the
intelligent ones understood that if their containers died, they would
most likely die with them. For a long time, Gaara thought that if he
ceased to exist, Ichibi would be set free. After the extraction, he
realized it wasn't that simple. Akatsuki required the Hosts to be
alive when the ritual began. Even if they were just clinging to
life, the human soul still holding on to this world, the container
would remain intact.

After discussing it at length with the smartest person he knew, Nara
Shikamaru, he came to the conclusion that if Naruto died, the demon
would die with him. Perhaps that was why Yondaime Hokage had sealed
the beast inside the infant boy. Not to make a weapon, but to
guarantee that someday, when Uzumaki died, the beast would be gone
from this world forever.

There was really no other practical way to kill a Tailed-Beast. Gaara
wasn't even sure they could be killed.

Sitting in his office, he pushed aside his notes on the bijou and
fingered the last communication from Tsunade.

KK: HS-KG LFW NNTW -T

It was a simple code—not even a code really, just abbreviations
for phrases and names they were both familiar with.

Kazekage: Haruno Sakura was sent to Kumogakure.

Light
field work.

No
need to worry. -Tsunade

The Hokage always wrote that there was “no need to worry,”
even though she knew he would worry anyway. He quickly scribbled a
message back, his sloppy, shakey caligraphy scrawled on a tiny scroll
for one of the falcons to carry.

HK: TY4M. HS-KG PLMK. -SnG

Hokage:
Thank you for the message.

When
Haruno Sakura returns to Konohagakure,

please
let me know.

-Sabaku
no Gaara

“Usagi,” he called softly, knowing his former student and
current ANBU assistant would hear him easily from beyond the door.
The girl really did turn out to be an invaluable asset to the
Village. She appeared in the room in a puff of light smoke, her
rabbit mask pulled over her face.

“Hai, Kazekage-sama?”

“Take this to the falconers and have it sent to Konoha
immediately.”

She bowed and disappeared again. Her speed was what had earned her
the zodiac her mask represented. Matsuri had indeed become an
excellent ninja and from what his reports told him, she was only
getting more adept each mission. He suspected she still harbored the
remnants of a childhood crush on him but knew she would never act on
it. The girl was honorable above all else and cherished the
friendship she had forged with her sensei.

It would blow over eventually. Besides, Temari told him that one of
the more handsome young chuunin, Tategami, had fallen madly in love
with Matsuri and was slowly but surely working himself into her
heart. Perhaps they would end up getting married one day, when
Matsuri was old enough of course. It would be nice to preside over a
wedding and even nicer to do so for someone he cared about. It would
be quite like giving a daughter away on her wedding day, he mused,
pretending to read the stack of reports and notices that seemed to
appear on his desk as if by magic.

A puff of smoke and Usagi was back.

“The message is on it's way to Konoha, Kazekage-sama.”

“Arigatou, Usagi.”

“...”

“What is it?”

“You really love her, don't you?”

He sat back in his chair, trying to ignore the sadness edging her
voice.

“I do. She saved my life several times. I suppose I was bound
to fall in love with her.”

“Does everyone fall in love with their savior?”

“Perhaps. I think they become more precious to you, especially
when they save your life at great risk to their own,” he
pressed his fingertips together, eyes drifting shut as he continued
to ponder her questions. He knew this conversation was bound to
happen sooner or later, but he couldn't help wishing for the later
rather than the sooner.

“Then... Would you be mad if I said that I fell in love with
you, just a little, when you rescued me?”

“Mad? No, never. Matsuri--” he faltered, having slipped
back into calling her by her true name. She waved it off and he
continued. “Matsuri... I spent the formative years of my life
hating everyone and everything because I thought I was
incapable of being loved.”

“Kazekage-sama...”

He shook his head and motioned for her to sit. The only people he
ever spoke to about this were his family and Sakura. But Matsuri was
practically family and she deserved to know, to understand him a bit
more.

“All the people who should have cared about me didn't,
including Temari-sama and Kankuro-sama. I don't hold it against them,
I was quite unlovable for a long time. I was a menace, and I
suppose they saw me as the reason they no longer had their mother. It
was only natural, and I've put it behind me.”

She nodded slowly, having taken a seat in one of the empty chairs
positioned before his desk.

“I was very young to have to deal with the things I did. My
father wanted me dead and didn't hide that fact. My uncle and
guardian was the first one sent to destroy me. The villagers,
especially the children, were terrified of me. It was no secret that
I had the Ichibi inside me and they were right to be afraid if It and
me.”

She pulled the mask off and sat it in her lap, eyes focused on her
feet. The telling and receiving of this story was difficult for them
both, but they would see it through, if only to know one another as
they should.

“But then 'That Person' changed everything. He beat some sense
into me and proved to me that we could be what we were and still make
connections to people. It would be harder for us, but it could be
done. I realized that I had given up on other people long before I
should have and refused to trust anyone since that night with
Yashamaru...”

His voice caught at the mention of his uncle's name. It had been such
a long, long time since he had said it outloud. It felt thick and
unwieldy on his tongue, almost as if he'd swallowed a bee and had his
mouth stung from the inside.

“But the point is, once you get an idea in your head, even if
you disagree with it, you can't unlearn it. There's no making
it go away. It sat there, like the figurative elephant in the room,
desperate and potent and try as I might, I couldn't ignore it. Not
forever. So I tried to start over. I apologized to my siblings, I
began to talk to them. I made it my goal to become needed as
Naruto-kun had. I don't think I'll ever be completely accepted by
everyone, and maybe no one can really achieve that, but I'm much
happier now than I ever was before. I was dying before, very slowly
so I didn't notice, but I was.”

“And she saved you from all that?”

He nodded.

“That and the times she came out to retrieve me during both
kidnappings—Yours and mine. That first time, when they took
you, she got right down next to me and healed me. After everything I
had done to her during the Chuunin exams... I almost killed her, did
you know that?”

She shook her head 'no' and he could see the streaks from her tears
staining her cheeks.

“I did. I almost crushed her to death against a tree. I would
have done it, too, if Naruto and the Uchiha hadn't stopped me. Her
ability to forgive was as powerful a medicine as Naruto's ability to
forge friendships. Then she came a second time when the Akatsuki...”

“When they killed you.”

“Hai. It hurt, Matsuri, so badly. Like every single nerve was
on fire, like I was being ripped in two over and over. Shukaku was
pulling against them, trying to claw his way back inside of me.
Wherever they put him, he didn't want to go. It was the first and
only time I'd ever felt him afraid. That's when I gave up
hope. I thought, 'If Shukaku knows this is the end, then it's really
over.' I remember looking at myself, at my hand, and not recognizing
myself. I kept asking if I'd ever become needed by anyone and no
answer came. So I gave up and just... floated away.”

Her head was in her hands now and she was crying freely. He could
feel his own body tremble at the memory and for a moment he thought
he should stop. But it seemed that the more he spoke of it, the
lighter he felt and he remembered something else Naruto had helped
him understand: Sharing pain with other people is as important and
vital as sharing joy. No one can bear it on their own.

“I'm sorry, Matsuri-chan. I'm putting this burden on you when I
should not...”

“No! No, I want to share it,” she answered, lifting her
head from her hands for a quick moment before a small smile creased
the edges of her eyes. “If it helps, I want to share it.”

“It does, it helps. Thank you.”

She wiped her eyes and waited for him to continue.

“I don't know how long I was dead for. Sakura has told me
anywhere between 2 and 3 hours judging by my body temperature when
they finally got a hold of me. It was like being asleep and not
dreaming; I just wasn't there anymore. And then I could see myself
again, my hand, could hear myself asking if I'd come to be needed,
even by just one person... Then there was sun in my eyes and an
obnoxious Konoha-nin grinning in my face. I felt the life rush back
into me. Everyone was there, yourself included, you know how the
rest goes...”

She replaced her mask, smoothing the back of her hair down.

“Hai. And that's when it started between you both?”

“Yes. Though I fought it for a while longer. I still didn't
believe...”

Usagi stood. “I'm happy for you, sensei. I just hope she
deserves you.”

He remained silent, not having a response worthy of such a wish. Of
course Sakura was worthy of him--of that he was absolutely certain.
What continued to nag him was the fear that he didn't deserve
her.

“You said she saved you another time, after the missions?”

“Hai... After Ichibi was extracted, my body didn't adjust
immediately to the absense of It's chakra. I still wasn't sleeping
and because of that I wasn't healing. It all compounded until my
internal systems started shutting down.”

“And she helped you fix that?”

He nodded, unable to hide the small smirk that curled one corner of
his mouth upward, recalling just how well she had 'cured' him during
his first trip to Konoha after the abduction.

She bowed and 'poofed' out of the room. He wondered if she'd figured
out what the smirk meant. She wasn't a child anymore and he was sure
that she understood the more intimate aspects of a relationship like
the one he and Sakura shared. How typical for him to turn something
that had started out so profound and touching to something so awkward
that she had left the room without warning or dismissal.

Any other of his ninja would be severely berated for such disrespect.
But with Matsuri, he was willing to let it go. It was his fault,
really, he never should have let the conversation go that far.

As he was about to leave his office for the day, she threw the door
open, panting behind her mask.

“I'm sorry, Kazekage-sama, but we received an urgent message
from Konoha.”

So that was why she had left so abruptly. Someone had alerted her to
the arrival of one of Leaf's hawks through her headset.

“Is it--”

“No, the Decoder says there's nothing about Haruno-chan. It's
about Sarutobi Asuma. The Akatsuki are involved.”

Gaara came around the desk and pushed past her, moving to the
Decoder's office with quick, measured steps.

“Sir!” The man jumped up and bowed before immediately
returning to the translation of the message.

“It seems that Akatsuki have become active again, Sir. They
attacked a monastary of some sort and a 4-man team with Asuma as the
leader was sent out to investigate. They were attacked and,
regretably, Sarutobi-san is believed to have died from his injuries.”

“And the Akatsuki?”

“Escaped, Sir.”

Gaara swept his arm across the Decoder's table, flinging everything
to the floor.

“Kuso!”

“All of Leaf's nin are being called back to the Village. With
Akatsuki on the prowl again, they're worried about an attack.
Hokage-sama says that you understand what particular item they might
be after and thought you should know.”

He nodded.

“Usagi.”

“Hai!”

“Double the guard on the perimeter walls and get at least a
dozen Jounin and Chuunin to the tops of the high towers to watch the
skies.”

She vanished from the room, off to complete the tasks given to her.

“Sir, should we send a response?”

The Kazekage grabbed a piece of paper and pen off the floor and
quickly jotted a note:

Understood.
Any support you need will be given from our end. Make sure the item
in question stays out of harms way, no matter how difficult
persuading said item might be. When HS returns, tell her to send me a
message relating the outcome of this event. I am most sorry for your
loss, if SA is indeed gone. We will send rotating patrols out to
keep an eye on the borders between our Villages. Who knows which road
they will choose this time.

-SnG

“Code it and send it with our fastest bird.”

“Yes, Kazekage-sama. Right away.”

The smug bastards had done it again. Who knew how many Jinchuuriki
or bijou they'd managed to collect between his encounter and the
current crisis? With their ultimate plan still completely unknown,
it unnerved him that so much had happened without either Suna or
Konoha knowing.

To make the situation worse, Sakura was in Cloud Village, doing
Gods-know-what, with those murderers on the loose. If Kumo had a
jinchuuriki of it's own, it might be targeted—No, it would
be targeted and if she were there, he knew she would try to
intervene.

He would not sleep until he heard from her, until he knew without a
doubt that she was safe within the walls of Konoha.

...

In the early, freezing hours of Suna's dawn, a haggard looking hawk
delivered a message to Kazekage Tower.

KK:
HS-KG SAS. SA-X. MemTMW. AKAT MSG, WKYP. HS MSG ATCH. -T

Kazekage: Haruno Sakura is in Konohagakure, safe and sound.

Sarutobi Asuma is dead.

Memorial will be held tomorrow.

The Akatsuki are missing,

I will keep you posted.

A message from Haruno Sakura is attached.

-Tsunade

...

He carefully placed Tsunade's message aside and sat on the edge of
his futon to read Sakura's letter. There were near-translucent spots
on the rice-paper where tears had obviously fallen. He felt his heart
twist in his chest.

Gaara,

I
promise I came back as soon as I was able. No one really knew what
had happened until Tsunade made the announcement outside the
hospital. It's all very, very sad and I wonder if I could have done
something to save him if I had been here. Ino is crushed and just
cries all day. Shikamaru has pretty much kept to himself and has
started smoking. Chouji has stopped eating.

I've
seen people die before, but it's different when you've known someone
for so long and then they're suddenly not there anymore. He was such
a good person and he really loved his students. If it hadn't been
for his keen eye, Shikamaru would have been passed off as a
below-average student. Could you imagine?

Naturally,
Naruto is a mix of emotions. Sometimes he cries, other times he
swears the most violent things against Akatsuki. From what we've
gleaned from Tsunade, the culprits were members called Hidan and
Kakuzu, both who claim to be immortal. Hidan worships a God of Death
and somehow uses his God to kill his enemies. Kakuzu uses some kind
of chakra enhanced thread to extend his limbs and actually sewed
Hidan's head back on after it was cut off. Shikamaru explained it
all to Tsunade but it made very little sense to me.

The
funeral was incredibly depressing. Konohamaru is the last of the
Sarutobi family now. I think Naruto is planning on taking him under
his wing—You know, seeing as Konohamaru will be dealing with a
lot of the things Naruto did.

I
can't write anymore. I'm just going to try to sleep and maybe when
I wake up this will all have been a bad dream.

I
don't know. I'm just tired of losing people. Do you think that makes
me a weak kunoichi?

I
miss you and I wish you were here.

Love
you,

S.

...

He went to the aviary himself, his own letter rolled neatly to fit
inside one of the small canisters attached to the falcons' legs.

My
Sakura,

I
would never, ever think that you are weak. Especially not for what
you mentioned. The generations that came before us are the ones that
believed such feelings were only problematic for a ninja. I believe
it's what makes us stronger. You once told me something Kakashi-san
said about Naruto—That to Naruto, it doesn't matter what
Village you belong to or what your past might have been. To him, all
that matters is the Now.
What can be done Now to
make people's lives better?

Maybe
that is what we should be teaching our students, Sakura. Perhaps the
future of the shinobi doesn't lay in hiring ourselves out as guards
or mercenaries. Perhaps we aren't just weapons to be flung at
enemies.

I've
been trying to read a book out of my father's library every day.
There is one that I particularly enjoy about a kingdom whose king
believed that, above all else, it was the responsibility of the
strong to protect the weak. Could that be our future? To keep groups
like Akatsuki and vermin like Orochimaru from hurting other people?

I
don't think that would be such a bad role to fill. In a way, we do
that already. It's all of the other jobs that we turn ourselves out
to complete that degrade what we are.

Sometimes,
I have dreams in which I see the faces of the people that I've killed
and I wonder what their lives were like, who they were, what their
goals were. I took that all away from them, for selfish reasons, and
I can never undo it. I wonder why I was allowed to live, why I was
snatched back from Death's door so many times...

Maybe
to make sure others don't repeat my mistakes and the mistakes of our
forefathers.

The
world cannot go on the way it has for all these hundreds of years.
We will all end up killing each other until no one is left to fight.

So
yes, of course it's hard to see the people we love and know die. We
aren't the ninja that our Villages hoped we'd be. We can't just kill
indescriminantly anymore. It's all Naruto's fault, really. He's the
one that started all of this.

I
was just telling a former student of mine today that you can't
unthink
an idea once it's in your head. That's Naruto's gift to all of us.
He doesn't think the way that a ninja is supposed to. As Kakashi
said, he doesn't care much about Villages or alliances—in the
end, it's all the same to him. That whole belief system has forced
me, quite against my will, to re-examine everything I had every been
taught or come to know.

The
world isn't a fair place. Things rarely work out the way they should
or the way we want them to. But you don't turn your back on the
world because of that. You have to fight each battle with the hope
of improving your environment. I don't believe that every person can
be saved, not even Naruto is that persuasive. But for the ones he
can't turn or bring back, he'll remove from the picture completely.

We'll
help him do both.

I've
gone and exhausted myself waxing philosophic. I should really leave
this to people like Shikamaru and Temari. They could write entire
textbooks on these sorts of thoughts.

Please
pass my condolences to Asuma's team, his family, and his former
students.

I
hope to see you again soon and know that I am there with you, even if
it's only in my thoughts.

-Gaara

PS:
Stop beating yourself up over what happened. You and Loud Mouth both
need to realize that you can't save every one. All things happen as
they must, remember that.

PPS:
Tell Tsunade-sama that I am grateful for her assistance and that she
has Suna's full support in any and all endevours.

...

He never signed his letters “I Love You.” He wondered if
it hurt her feelings and hoped she understood that he just couldn't
write it. It was taboo for him, as if writing it down, dragging it
into the tangible world, would make it breakable.

He firmly believed it was bad luck.

She never brought it up and he desperately hoped that was because she
understood.

Besides, she knew he loved her. How could he not?

...

Less than 72 hours later, she arrived in Suna, having been given
special permission from Tsunade to make an unscheduled visit.
Everyone in Konoha was grieving and being allowed to do so. Sakura
needed to be with Gaara and the Hokage had recognized that.

The ANBU team that escorted her to Suna's gates took a few moments to
quench their thirst and then they were off again, on their way to
their primary destination.

No one informed the Kazekage of her arrival, leaving him undisturbed
to mediate a petty squabble between two merchants who both wanted to
hire Suna's ninjas to kill each other. Gaara tried to explain that
his ninja would not fight each other no matter how much coin was
tossed at their feet, but the two idiots seemed intent on watching
the other get his throat cut by a few kunai.

“Fine. So be it,” Gaara spat, slamming a pair of the
black daggers onto the table. “Well, go on! Fight eachother if
you're so keen on dying.”

“B-but we're not shinobi! This is the job we want you to
do.”

“Perhaps if you shed a little blood yourself, you'll find it
less desirable than you do now.”

“Who the Hell do you think you are! This is what you people
are here for!” The fatter of the two exclaimed, grabbing one of
the kunai by the wrong end and puncturing the tender flesh of his
palm.

“Baka! Don't you know anything? You hold it like this...”
The other fumbled with the small weapon, trying to wedge one of his
pudgy, heavily jeweled fingers through the ring at the end of the
shaft. Why he would try to do
such a thing was beyond Gaara, but it was vaguely amusing,
nonetheless.

The Fat One was too busy lamenting the prick to his hand, sucking the
wound like a piglet on its' mothers teat.

“That really hurt!”

“Of course it did. Did you not expect an injury to hurt?”
the Kazekage asked, quirking a hairless brow in question.

“I don't want you to injure him, I want you to KILL
HIM!”

“Then you believe death to be painless?”

“Of course not!” The both shouted in unison, blood
dripping from one's hand, while the other tried to free his
sausage-finger from the kunai-ring by waving his hand frantically
through the air.

“And you do not wish to feel pain?”

“No!”

“Then I believe we have no more business to discuss. You may
both take your leave.”

“Wait a minute now!”

“If we pay you, you have to--”

“I believe the Kazekage has, quite politely, asked you to
leave, Gentlemen.”

All three men looked up as a pink-haired kunoichi entered the room,
smiling gently at them.

“Sakura?”

“Ahhh, what a lovely girl! Tell me, what services do you
specialize in, little Cherry Blossom?”

Gaara clenched his teeth, now absolutely determined to rip the
imbecile's throat out.

“Oh, I specialize in many things, Sir. I'm one of the
best in my Village...”

Both of the old men leaned over the table toward her, panting like
dogs. Sakura continued smiling and Gaara relaxed a little, knowing
that whatever she planned to do would be worth his patience.

“Would you like to see my specialty, gentlemen?

They nodded so enthusiastically, Gaara was sure their heads would fly
right off their necks. It would have been almost as amusing
as what actually happened. Almost.

“Wonderful, now you're both paying attention, right? I usually
don't do this for free...”

Again, they nodded.

Faster than he could follow, she slammed a gloved fist down on the
table, snapping it in two so that the ends of each flew upwards into
each man's jaw, knocking them off their chairs and onto their backs
like overturned tortoises.

Thankfully, Gaara had pulled away from the table once he saw her pull
her glove on. He knew her so well.

“I apolgize for breaking your table, Kazekage-sama.”

“It's fine. I'll send a bill to them both to have it fixed.
After all, they did ask you to show them your 'speciality.'”

The merchants crawled out of the room, nursing their swollen jaws
while whimpering like a pair of spanked children.

“I hope you both learned your lesson!” she shouted after
them, half-turned toward the door.

“And what lesson would that be, Genkotsu no Sakura?” He
asked, pulling her down into his lap.

“Mm, that fighting is bad?”

“How articulate. Tell me, do you always talk like this?”

She giggled, pressing her forehead against his.

“No. Only when I'm around
you...”

...

A/N: Hey, hey! See how that last part mirrored the lines in the first
part where he gets all mumbly and Sakura's all huffy and, AW!

Btw- did anyone else pick up on the fly-away crow symbolism from the
first part? I was hoping someone did as I lurrrv Wantanabe's use of
them in 'Bebop' and 'Champloo.' Crows=Death, Crows Flying Away=Gaara
is saved/not gonna die. Also, the Europeans (mostly the French, I
think) used to call an orgasm “the little Death” because
it kinda feels like you're dying(?) but in a good way(?) The French
are weird, but the Crows fit in there too. Me likey symbolism.

Eh, I had Gaara call Sakura 'Genkotsu no Sakura' because I, probably
mistakenly, think that sorta maybe translates to “Sakura of the
Fist.” If someone knows for sure one way or the other (and
preferably knows the right way to say that if it's wrong)
couldja let me know? Please? I pay in smut, yes? :D

Keep an eye out for P.III where there will be more “petite
mort” scenes for you to gobble up.

Sakura: I knew you were going to cave.

Bri: You did not, you big liar.

Sakura: -puts her gloves on- What was that?

Bri: Um... Um... Of course you knew! How could you not have, what
with you being the smartest and best character in the
whole manga.

Sakura: Just the manga?

Bri: The show too, the show too!
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Creatures of the Wind