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Que Sera Sera	By : Rockrgrl4 Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 5886 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of its characters. I will make no money by posting this.

Chapter List
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Hey guys!

So I'm back with another chapter! Sorry about the wait, but I've been REALLY busy, and I hope that this was worth it! hope to update soon, but season has started so we'll see lol. :P anyways, enjoy!

-K.

Sakura awoke, startled by a loud thumping sound. Instantly, she sat up, alert, and looked around for her weapons pouch, which was inconveniently located on a chair opposite of her. Cursing, she leapt from her bed at a dead run, but as soon as she reached for a kunai the noise sounded once again and she recognized what it was. Someone was knocking at her door. Frowning, the kunoichi mused to herself, "But Kankuro isn't supposed to be here until 7:30…" Instinctively, she glanced at the digital clock beside her bedside and her eyes widened with surprise. It read 7:40.

"SHIT!" the rosette screeched, as she instantly bolted toward her bathroom, snatching up her toothbrush while simultaneously reaching for her deodorant.

~*~TIME SKIP~*~

"Kankuro, I'm so sorry!" Sakura apologized for the umpteenth time. "I was so impressed with the room last night I collapsed on the bed and I must have forgotten to set my alarm-"

"Sakura, enough," Kankuro replied amusedly, a hint of laughter in his eyes, "I said it was fine 15 minutes ago. Stop apologizing already."

The two shinobi were currently making their way down a bustling Sunian main street towards Suna's apparently discreditable hospital. While the rosette hurriedly chattered away, commenting about the buildings and the different vendors they were passing, Kankuro was reminiscing about Sakura's hurried attempt at getting ready. He had been standing in the hall outside Sakura's door earlier this morning and had heard her unusually loud cursing through her door. While he had waited there for her patiently, he had had a really difficult time of containing his amusement. It was obvious that Sakura had awoken later than she had expected, despite her attempt at trying to convince him otherwise. When she had opened her door and walked into the hallway with a bright smile and confident stride, she was still wearing her silky pajama top. Kankuro had had to will himself pretty strongly not to laugh at that. With a miraculous amount of effort, he had somehow managed to calmly point out that she might have to change shirts, despite the fact that he himself didn't mind. This effectively silenced her claims of being "ready to go" as she had so put it, as an angered expression appeared on her face at his perverseness. Still angered, she managed to glance down to see what she was wearing, and her expression quickly changed to one of utter horror. The rosette made a noise somewhere between a growl of annoyance and a "Meep!" of surprise, and turned and strode back into her room; another stream of curses soon following.

A single phrase soon brought the sand jounin out of his thoughts, interrupting his train of thought.

"I really am sorry-" the rosette interjected.

"Sakura," Kankuro said firmly, "I'm honestly tired of discussing this. You have nothing to be sorry for. Now quit apologizing or I'm liable to get angry at you." The sand shinobi stated, maintaining a serious tone, but somehow simultaneously managed to make it slightly teasing.

"I'm sorr-" the rosette started instinctively, but caught herself and immediately snapped her mouth shut. Kankuro shot her a warning look, but said nothing. After that, the conversation became non-existent, and they continued walking on in silence.

After a few minutes, the silence became almost painful for the both of them, and they both started,

"So-"

"How-"

Silence immediately followed. Surprised, they both exchanged glances and continued,

"What were you-?"

"You-"

They both stopped walking and turned toward each other, looking at each other questioningly. Sakura gave her escort a light chuckle and said, "You first." Kankuro smirked and replied, "Alright. I was just going to ask you how you like your room." He phrased his response tentatively, ending the sentence with an unspoken question.

Sakura's responding smile was huge. "I love it. When I walked in there, it felt like I was…important. The room is huge, and so lavishly decorated, and I loved the bathroom fixtures, and-" She broke off, her expression suddenly sheepish. "I'm sorry," she apologized, "I'm just not used to all the special treatment, and-"

As soon as she had apologized, Kankuro had sent her an obvious pointed glare, reminding her of their former "agreement". She only caught this halfway through her rant, but when she finally glanced up at his irritated expression she quickly silenced herself, and effectively cut herself off mid-sentence.

"What," Kankuro growled, "did I just tell you about apologizing to me?"

Their arguing increased both in intensity and volume as they continued, growing ever closer to Suna's medical hospital. Soon enough, Kankuro and Sakura's shrill protests had drawn the attention of Suna's citizens. They looked at the sand jounin and the rosette next to him with a great amount of curiosity-they had never seen the middle sand sibling this taken with a woman before. Granted, he would talk to them-and plenty of them-but never for this long, even if he was arguing with them. He would usually only talk with them long enough to earn their trust and to "get what he wanted from them", and he had never talked to the same girl two days in a row. Not once. Yet he had been seen hanging around with this leaf medic for several days now.

Curious. Very curious, the Sunian people mused.

TIME SKIP: 2 WEEKS LATER

It's true what they say about time flying when you're having fun, but the opposite is just brutally and unbearably true as well. Whether you're waiting on a certain given moment or just bored and hoping time will soon pass, the hands on the clock are virtually at a standstill.

As Sakura pondered that old saying, she also considered the value of time. In 10 minutes, Sakura Haruno can heal a broken leg or arm or successfully diagnose a walk-in patient in the clinic. She can set a cast or fully bandage a person's entire torso and prep them for major surgery. She can even fire a doctor or two, sign the papers, and still have the time to box up their belongings and punch them out the front doors. However, the one thing she could not do is stare at the clock mounted above her doorway for another second!

Angrily, Sakura huffed at herself. She knew, she knew she shouldn't have given the pediatric records to the OB nurses, because now she didn't have any work to do! 'Damn it,' Sakura growled internally, 'Now what am I supposed to do?'

Yes, it's true. Sakura Haruno had officially worked herself to the bone…and apparently still had meat enough to spare. It was almost laughable, actually, and-if you really thought about it-predictable. As we all know, Sakura is a workaholic, and as such is constantly working on something. There comes a time, however, when there simply isn't any more work left to do, and Sakura had somehow managed it for the day…

…with 10 minutes left to spare.

Anyone else in this given situation would have happily picked up their coats and skipped out the door whistling a happy tune…happy-grateful, even-that they could leave work early after a job well done. Yet, Sakura is a workaholic, as already mentioned, and is very…abnormal…in that sense.

So, with her not-so-natural refusal to leave work early, Sakura was posed with very few options. She could A) pick up around her office or B) walk downstairs to yell at some more people.

Funny. Has Sakura ever mentioned that she hates cleaning of any kind?

Removing herself from her office, Sakura quickly made her way down the hall, a mischievous smirk apparent on her face. She was mapping out the route she would take in her mind: first, she would head to the 3rd floor-maternity ward. After checking up on the nurses there, she would see if the obstetric doctors were progressing on the procedures she had just taught them this morning. Then, she would continue down to the 2nd floor to the ICU, and make sure the idiots weren't still using water to wash off the blood on victims cuts-honestly, haven't they ever heard of disinfectants? Or, you know, infections at all, for that matter? Then she would continue on to the first floor surgical areas and monitor a couple of procedures…

A hard body bumped into her at that moment, halting her steps and interrupting her train of thought. Annoyed, Sakura looked up, only to find the middle sand sibling staring down at her, with an eyebrow raised and an amused smirk on his face.

Sakura's eyes narrowed with annoyance. "Kankuro-san," she started, "what are you doing here?"

Kankuro feigned a hurt expression. "I'm shocked, Sakura-san," he continued, a frown evident on his face, "I didn't know you didn't want me around…" He trailed off, apparently still hurt. The melancholy expression on his face appeared so genuine-if Sakura hadn't known Kankuro the way she did then she would not have known he was faking. Still, she was tired of his games, and replied, "Cut the crap Kankuro, seriously. Now what do you need?"

The male maintained a stoic facial expression, although a flash of something Sakura couldn't identify briefly flickered in his eyes before disappearing. "Jeez Sakura," Kankuro snapped, anger lacing his tone, "I'm here to escort you home. And to take you to dinner, since neither myself nor Gaara will be home tonight, and the servants have been notified not to make our meals."

Embarrassed and ashamed of herself, Sakura apologized. "I'm sorry, Kankuro. I had no right to snap at you," she sighed, "thank you for coming." She smiled. "Really. I appreciate it, and I didn't mean what I said before."

As quickly as it had appeared, the annoyance and anger on Kankuro's face had disappeared, and his former cheer was for the most part restored. "Alright then," he happily declared, "Are you ready to go?"

Sakura thought back to her former plans; nothing seemed important enough that it needed to be done right now-the terrorizing the staff part, especially. If anything, delaying it until tomorrow would give Sakura more time tomorrow to mess with them. A mischievous grin once again found its way onto the rosette's face.

Kankuro, not oblivious to her change in mood, took note of her expression. "Whoever it is that has that look directed towards them," Kankuro carefully stated, "then I so do not want to be them at this moment." Kankuro put on a brave front, but secretly he was hoping that she was not thinking of him while wearing that smirk. He had a feeling some form of torture would result from it, and it wouldn't be pretty.

By this time, the two had made their way outside of the hospital building, and Sakura had steadily grown more curious about where the two were headed. "Where are we going, Kankuro?" She asked, only to be met with silence. "Kankuro?" she repeated.

More silence.

"Kankuro!" Sakura angrily exclaimed, "You have until the count of three to answer me, or-"

The sound of Kankuro's rumbling laughter cut off the rest of her sentence, and for some strange reason Sakura couldn't be mad at his stupidity. Instead, she found herself chuckling with him. However, when he finally came to a stop and turned to face her, a grin on his face, she couldn't resist the urge to punch him-hard-in the shoulder.

"OWWW!" The Sand jounin whined, "Sakura, what was that for?"

"For being stupid," Sakura stated, fighting to keep a straight face at his childishness. "Now as I was saying," she started, "where are we going?" She folded her arms across her chest in a stubborn move, refusing to budge until he gave her the information she wanted.

"Just around the corner," Kankuro finally answered, "It's one of my favorite places, and I figured you would like it." Rubbing his shoulder where she had punched him, he frowned. "Damn Sakura," she whined again, "that really hurt."

Barely holding back a wicked grin, Sakura challenged, "Good. Now maybe you'll know better than to mess with me."

Kankuro opened his mouth as if to reply, but almost immediately closed it as if he had thought better of it. Shrugging, Kankuro instead replied, "Whatever you say, Sakura." After a few more feet the burly middle sand sibling stopped in his tracks and announced, "We're here."

Sakura looked upwards at the simple dome-shaped restaurant. It was exactly the same as the other buildings in the vicinity, except that there was a sign in the doorway that advertised the business's name and the specials for the day. It looked simple enough; there were no flashing signs or advertisements on the walls like you would find in Konoha, but, Sakura supposed, when their walls were made out of sand they couldn't exactly do half the things that Konoha business owners could. Upon entering the restaurant, Kankuro led them to a booth towards the back. Sakura was surprised to see it didn't have very many places to sit. Rather than being a large business, it was a rather cozy place to be-contrary to what she had thought Kankuro would prefer.

Well, wasn't he just full of surprises?

After seeing the look on her face, Kankuro chuckled. "I've loved this place since I was little. It's one of my best memories of my father. He took me here a couple of times when he had time off work, which was rare. Temari almost always went with us. Gaara would stay at home-he was much too young to be out in public yet, as my father told us," Kankuro smiled sadly, "I had no idea, even at such a young age, of what my father was plotting, or doing to Gaara. Temari didn't either, or we wouldn't have allowed it to happen. Even though he was the Kazekage, we still could have done something for Gaara, rather than stand by in fear and watch everything happen. I guess it's true what they say, though. Ignorance is bliss." Kankuro reached across the table and grabbed a couple of pre-placed menus, handing one to Sakura.

Surprised at Kankuro's sudden and almost intimate revealing of himself, Sakura felt the need to reassure the puppet master. "Kankuro," she started, "What happened to Gaara-it wasn't Temari's or your fault. You two couldn't have done anything to stop it even if you tried-"

"The Yakitori here is great, if you want to try it." Kankuro interrupted and immediately went silent thereafter, studying his menu.

It was then that Sakura knew that Kankuro blamed himself for Gaara's hardships. 'He is so hard on himself,' Sakura thought to herself, 'He has to know that he couldn't have done anything about Gaara's situation at so young an age, yet he insists on shouldering the blame. Why, though?' Sakura questioned herself as she watched him order. She was so deep in thought she didn't hear the waitress ask her for her order until Kankuro nudged her on the shoulder and she absentmindedly ordered the first thing on the menu. She didn't miss the waitress's attempted sexy wink at Kankuro as she left, though. The action made Sakura scowl.

Inwardly laughing, Kankuro watched as Sakura shot the waitress a dirty look after she had left the table. She truly was different, Sakura was. She wasn't like the other girls-she was more mature and serious. Sakura wasn't the type to mess around, and Kankuro could easily tell that from her work ethic. She worked non-stop. From dawn to dusk she was at the hospital, and when she finally returned to the Kage's mansion she always stayed up late with paperwork spread out all over her bed, the lamp on her desk forever providing light. For this reason, Gaara had asked him to take her out tonight. She was working all the time, and Gaara didn't want her to wear herself out. She was a guest of Suna, after all, and she "Needs to take a break before she has a nervous breakdown", as his Kazekage had said. Kankuro resisted the urge to snort. He knew what Gaara was really up to. He was just trying to get Kankuro and Sakura out of the house so they wouldn't notice his absence for the night. Gaara was probably doing something with Matsuri again, and didn't want anyone to bother them. "Eh, Whatever. More power to him." Kankuro shrugged, and finally came out of his thoughts. He didn't realize that he had said that out loud until he had heard Sakura's question of "What are you talking about?"

"Eh heh heh," Kankuro sweat dropped, and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand in an embarrassed move, "Nothing, Sakura. So how's work?" He asked, hoping to change the subject. While he was sure she knew he was deflecting, he wasn't really in the mood to divulge information about his little brother's love life. And even if he was, he didn't particularly want to die by his little brother's hand.

"It's fine, I guess." Sakura suspiciously eyed him, before playing along with his conversation change. "I've been pretty busy, but we're making a lot of progress," she beamed, "many of your medics here have potential and a great amount of talent. I can't wait until we get started with the more difficult procedures-it's going to be exciting to see what they can do! First I think we'll start with procedures like Cricothyrotomies, and then we'll move on to the more common ones. Appendectomies, C-sections, Tonsillectomies, Vasectomies…"

"W-O-W! Okay, okay! I get it," Kankuro loudly interrupted, cutting her off before he could get more uncomfortable than he already was. Thinking about vasectomies was not something a man wanted to do before he ate his dinner; he could lose his appetite rather quickly. Before she could say anything else he interjected, "I take it you love your job, then, huh?"

"Yes!" The rosette practically squealed. "I love the fact that I'm helping people get better, and that I'm making a difference in people's lives. The only part I don't like, is, well…" she cut herself off and paused for a few moments as if to consider her words, before quietly finishing, "when I lose someone. Then it's like I failed them…both my patients and their families and friends. I have a responsibility being the doctor, and then I have to inform the families when they pass away or that they're not going to make it or that there's nothing more we can do," she tiredly buried her face in her hands, "it's the worst feeling in the world, because then you feel incredibly powerless-like nothing you do is ever going to make the world change or them get any better. So you have to just sit there and watch them fade away until all that's left is a memory."

With the mood between the two officially sour, neither knew what to say to the other, so they settled on sitting in silence until their food arrived. When it did, the two happily dug in to their dishes almost ravenously, and Sakura found that Kankuro wasn't kidding when he said the Yakitori was delicious. She practically tore into her food; she hadn't eaten since breakfast. When she stopped for a moment, though, and looked up to gaze at Kankuro's plate (he was eating something American-a cheeseburger and fries, she thought she'd heard him say when he had ordered), she couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled up through her lips. Kankuro stopped his eating, with a fry handing out of the side of his mouth. "What?" he asked, after he had hurriedly devoured the rest of his fry. "Did I get something on my face?" He took his hand and wiped it across his mouth, trying to wipe off a non-existent food item. This only increased Sakura's near-hysterical laughter and it only made Kankuro more self-conscious. "Sakura, really," the sand shinobi whined, "what is it?"

Sakura held her hands wrapped around her stomach-she was laughing so hard-and she took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. Finally, she managed, "You looked like a starving animal, scarfing down that food. Sorry," she apologized, seeing the hurt look on his face, "I'm not saying that in an insulting way. It was actually…kind of cute." She grinned.

"Hn. Really?" Kankuro smirked, "Then get used to it, because I'm going to start eating like that all the time, just for you. Chicken? I'll eat it with my fingers. Fries?" He held up a fry in front of him, demonstrating what it was at her look of confusion. "I'll suck them off the plate." He set said fry down on his plate, bent his head over it, and sucked in a tremendous amount of air before it went into his mouth. After seeing Sakura burst out laughing again, his grin grew even wider and he continued, "Ramen? Psh. I have no need for chopsticks anymore, because Sakura, you've just given me permission to face-bowl that bitch!"

Sakura was now doubled over, her head sticking outside of the booth and hanging out in the aisle. The two were now making enough noise that the restaurant's patrons were now watching the two-especially Kankuro's obscene and vulgar eating habits. The younger children were laughing at the two, trying to mimic Kankuro, while their parents frantically lectured them to eat their food properly and to put their plates down. The elderly customers of the restaurant merely shook their heads and sternly muttered "Kids these days", while continuing with their own meals.

Soon enough, the two had finally calmed down enough to start eating again, but as soon as they had taken another bite, the store's manager had come to stand at the edge of their table. "Excuse me, sir. Madam," he nodded at Sakura, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave. The other customers' are…uncomfortable…with your behavior, and I've had several complaints in the past few minutes. It's nothing personal, Kankuro-sama," the man bowed to Kankuro, "the two of you may come back at any time. It's just not good for business for you to stay." The man gave them an apologetic look.

"Nah, that's okay Jiro-san," Kankuro addressed the man, and resisted the urge to laugh. He wiggled his eyebrows at Sakura to try to ease some of her embarrassment, "We'll go. But do you think we can have some boxes to take our food home with?"

Laughing, the two made their way away from the restaurant, to-go boxes in their hands. "Oh my God," Sakura breathed, "That was so fun. It was embarrassing to have to have been thrown out though." She laughed again. "I've never been thrown out of anywhere before. You must be a bad influence, Kankuro." She shot him a teasing grin.

"Oh yeah, that's it," Kankuro snorted, "You better stay away from me, Sakura…Now it's all fun and games and getting thrown out of restaurants, but tomorrow you could be wrapped up in my illegal drug trade…whoops!" Kankuro pretended to cover his mouth in horror after she started laughing at his illegal drug trade comment.

"Drug-trade, eh?" Sakura laughed, "I'd have thought you were a pimp or something-in charge of Suna's prostitution ring."

At that, the two kept on joking, prodding at each other back and forth, until Kankuro and Sakura had finally returned to the Kage mansion.

'Oh crap,' Kankuro thought to himself, 'we weren't supposed to come home for a while…'

"Hey Sakura," Kankuro started uneasily, "Uh…we technically aren't supposed to be home yet, so do you want to eat in the basement? That way we can stay out of their-err-Gaara's way. He's a little busy tonight, and that's why he wanted me to take you out to dinner. He's entertaining guests tonight."

"I see," Sakura replied, and eyed him suspiciously, "Well then, I suppose we can." She smiled, and almost immediately her smile grew into a mischievous smirk. "We'll leave Gaara and Matsuri alone…for now."

Startled at her knowledge about his little brothers romantic life, Kankuro decided not to ever let her into his own personal affairs. Rather than press the matter, which he knew would only end in many prying questions on her part, he decided to just grunt his agreement. Making sure they hadn't been seen, they stealthily made their way around the house, and snuck in through the darkened back door. After stepping through the threshold and seeing no movement within the shadows, they crawled through the darkened kitchen silently. Turning into the hallway, they looked swiftly to their left and saw no one, but on quick inspection to the right, they saw two guards posted outside the dining room door-a sure sign that Gaara was in there. Another clue alerting the two to the Kage's presence was the muffled sound of laughter and voices coming from the room. With a muted curse, Kankuro pressed both Sakura and himself back into the wall and motioned for her to go back into the kitchen.

"What are we going to do now?" Sakura hissed. She had no desire to die by the Kazekage's hand, especially when she was on an ambassadorial mission. Talk about an embarrassing report that will reach Tsunade-sama if she would get caught; Sakura would never live that down.

"We'll have to go the other way around," Kankuro whispered, "we'll have to be careful though. I mean it Sakura; if we get caught he's going to make my life a living hell…"

"He'll make your life a living hell?" Sakura growled, "What about mine-"

"Yeah yeah, yours too," Kankuro hurriedly explained, keeping an eye on the guards at the dining room door, and making sure they hadn't moved yet, "But it'll be 1,000 times worse for me, trust me."

The two were laughing, the now empty boxes that had contained their dinner were spread open at their feet. They were now in the basement, and stretched out with several blankets and pillows that had come from the empty chest in the corner of the room. The two weren't lying together-there was only a few feet of space between where they lay with their own separate covers. Sakura smiled, propping her head upon her hand, her elbow supporting its weight on the floor. "I don't know how we managed to get down here," Sakura snickered, "but this is somewhat fun. We should do this more often," she giggled.

Kankuro snorted, "Yeah, definitely. We should sneak in my own house more often, whilst simultaneously avoiding my all-powerful younger brother, who could throw us in jail for the stupidest made-up offense if we get caught. What a thrill!"

Sakura turned her head into her pillow to suppress her laughter. Kankuro just smiled at her childish display and rolled over onto his back, staring towards the ceiling.

After Sakura caught her breath, she caught Kankuro's expression as he stared up at the ceiling. "What's wrong, Kankuro?" She asked, concern lacing her tone. She shifted her body until she faced him fully, giving him her full attention.

"Nothing, Sakura, I was just thinking; This is the most fun I've had in…well…ever. So I guess I'm saying thank you for hanging out with me tonight, Sakura." He smiled, and she thought she saw something flicker in his eyes before it disappeared almost instantly. "It means a lot to me."

"Hey, not a problem," Sakura smiled, "I've actually had more fun in the past few hours than I've allowed myself to have since-" She broke off, "well, since about 6 years ago, actually. So I guess I owe you a big thank you too." With a happy grin, she rolled back over onto her stomach and curled up under her own covers. She turned her head to face away from Kankuro as she rested it on its side, and muttered a appreciative, "Good night Kankuro" before closing her eyes.

"Hey, Sakura, wait-" Kankuro almost agitatedly answered, and reached out to roll her back over to where she was facing him.

Groggily, she answered, "What Kankuro? I'm tired…" Her hair was now just ever so slightly messed up from where she had lain on the pillow, and she really did look tired. They had been up for several hours talking, and it was late, Kankuro knew, but he just wasn't ready for her to fall asleep yet. He wanted to talk to her more.

"I know, Sakura, and I'm sorry, but…" he trailed off, and his gaze landed on her pale pink lips. They looked so delicious and plump, and the only thing he wanted to do at that moment was lean in and capture them with his own…

…and right at that moment, the basement door flew open, and the next thing they knew both Matsuri and the Godaime Kazekage himself were standing at the top of the basement stairs.

"Oh," Matsuri's hands flew to her mouth in shock and embarrassment after seeing the two wrapped up in pillows and blankets on the floor. Suddenly she felt very uneasy, and with the realization that she was caught in a very embarrassing situation herself, her legs gave out and she started to fall backwards. Of course, Gaara caught her and helped her stand back up, keeping his arms wrapped around her for support. Turning his gaze to meet his older brothers, he kept his face stoic, but managed to convey to him a message that only had a small hint of anger in it. "Kankuro," the younger sand sibling called out, "I need to have a word with you upstairs for a moment."

Kankuro resisted the urge to bury his face in his pillow and beat his fists on the ground. 'SHIT!' his mind cursed. This was SO not good…and Sakura was a ambassador, too…she could get in trouble…

Steadily, Kankuro got to his feet and walked up the stairs to where his brother and Matsuri were standing. With a quick nod to the female, he motioned for Gaara to lead the way out of the basement. Sakura remained downstairs, smothering her beet-red face into her pillow.

After the two boys had shut the basement door behind them, Matsuri managed to catch her breath and breathe again. When she looked down the stairs, she could see Sakura curled up, her head buried in her pillow in embarrassment, and even Matsuri couldn't help but reassure her.

"Sakura?" the young kunoichi timidly questioned, "Are you okay?"

Sakura barely lifted her head from her pillow and feebly managed, "Yeah, I'm just great Matsuri, thanks."

Matsuri actually had to resist the urge to giggle when Sakura stood up and wearily gazed at the Kazekage's younger student. She looked like she'd had a heck of a night. After her giddiness subsided, though, the brunette gazed down at the pink-haired woman and frowned. "Wait," Matsuri exclaimed in confusion, "You're…still dressed? So you and Kankuro didn't-"

"NO!" Sakura said forcefully. Upon seeing the frightened look on the younger girl's face, however, the rosette sighed and said, "Sorry. This just isn't the best scenario to be in."

At this, Matsuri merely raised her eyebrows at Sakura, which caused the rosette to almost-almost-laugh.

"Oh," Sakura smiled, "Right. I guess we're in the same boat, then."

Matsuri actually laughed at that. "Yeah," she grinned, "I guess we are."

"I should have known that it was you," Gaara started, "I was informed that my brother was acting foolishly at Ichiro's restaurant tonight, but I never expected it to escalate to this! She's an ambassador here on a mission from one of our allied nations, and you're sleeping around with her like one of your common-"

"Enough, Gaara!" Kankuro heatedly argued. "I have not done anything with Sakura. Nor would I ever put her in a situation that would question her honor."

At that Gaara snorted. Yes, Gaara of the sand actually snorted!

"Really?" Gaara questioned, skepticism written all over his face, "should I tell that to the rest of those girls that you've brought in here to have a romp with and then left at dawn's first light?"

"You," Kankuro fumed, barely managing to control his anger, "Really need to learn your place, Gaara. As if you have any reason to lecture me about inappropriate relationships! What about you and Matsuri, huh? And how many times have you slept with her?"

Suddenly, Kankuro found himself with his back shoved against the wall, and his little brothers' hands on his throat. "Don't," Gaara spat, "Bring Matsuri into this. If you want to live, Kankuro, then don't."

"Why not?" Kankuro rasped, "It's the same thing. You just need to realize what you're doing before she gets hurt again."

At that, Gaara dropped his hands from his brothers' throat, his eyes vacant from being lost in thought. Kankuro took this opportunity to massage his throat with his hands tenderly, trying to soothe the pain surrounding his neck.

"I have thought of that many times," Gaara started, "Yet I cannot seem to keep myself away from her. I think-" he cut himself off, as if afraid to finish his original sentence, then finally settled with, "I think she is important to me."

"If she's so important to you," Kankuro said, "Then why do you drag her around like this all the time? You even threw me and Sakura out of the house in an attempt to hide her, when we-everyone-already knows. You are trying to hide your relationship, and by doing so are failing miserably."

Gaara bowed his head in defeat. "I am aware of that," Gaara admitted, "But I still cannot stop seeing her. My mind says to stop, in order to save her from the threats and the trouble," he fisted his hand, and brought it up to his chest, "but this is what my heart says, here. To keep her there, and to never let her go."

Kankuro smiled, genuinely happy for his little brother, and put his hand on Gaara's shoulder. "I'm glad, Gaara. I really am happy that you have found someone to make you this happy. Yet, I'm a little disappointed that you seem to think of Sakura and I as this big of a threat to your relationship with Matsuri." Gaara looked up, startled, and Kankuro continued, "Oh, don't play dumb with me, Gaara. You blew up when you saw the two of us downstairs, which, by the way, we weren't doing anything but eating dinner and talking." Kankuro sternly finished.

Gaara gave Kankuro a crooked smile, "I am aware of that," he said simply.

"What?" Kankuro practically yelled, "Then why did you-"

"To mess with you," Gaara shrugged, "and to warn you to behave yourself. She may be your friend, but she is still a guest medical ninja here to help our own program. If you develop a serious relationship with her, or even have a fling, that affects both of our nations."

"I am aware of that, Gaara," Kankuro sighed.

"I know," Gaara nodded, "and I understand that. Still, Kankuro, behave. I don't relish the fact I have to remind my older brother of this."

Sighing, Kankuro decided to nod his acceptance rather than continue to press the matter. It was just easier that way.

With a final nod, Gaara turned on his heel and strode back to the basement door. He kept moving with a certainty in his stride until he stopped at the door and placed his hand on the knob. He turned to face Kankuro, his gaze positioned at the floor, and muttered out of the corner of his mouth, "Oh, and by the way, Kankuro. I didn't see anything if you didn't." With that the redhead opened the closet door, turned, and disappeared into the basement, leaving a dumbfounded puppet master in his tracks.

Hello again, guys!

It's me, and I don't have a whole lot of time. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'm going to post it as it is right now. If you see any mistakes, let me know! Love you guys, and thank you to my faithful alert(ers)!

-K.
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Que Sera Sera