Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Variety Pack	By : Vermaxen Category: Naruto AU/AR > General Views: 2853 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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
- 8
- 9
- 10
I got 10,000 hits on Variety Pack! Woohoo! My thank you to all of you who bothered to
read my jaunts into alt pairings and to write some of your own is. . . well. . . more smut!

A fun note on the
title:
A couple of friends of mine and I were talking about how
awkward sex with Gaara might be, just because of the
whole armor of sand thing. One of them
said, �It would be like going to the beach� which brought about gales of
laughter and this title, which I ripped shamelessly from a United State of Electronica (U.S.E.) song called, Vamos A La Playa. I thought the English would be more
appropriate just so no one thought I was actually multi-lingual. My goodness no, three years of Latin and two
of Japanese left me with little to boast of.

GaaSaku this time, because I just
can�t get enough of them. A bit
truncated because, well, it�s a oneshot
so I had to condense the action. That�s
why they had to act a wee bit out of character.
Such is the way with these things, right?

Oh, and I�d just like to give a shout out to KuroOkami who did some amazing fanart
for me not too long ago. GaaSaku yeah!

So again, to all of you who reviewed and all of you who
viewed, this is my gift for you. Hope it lives up to whatever standard I�ve
set for myself. ::shrug::

Thanks!

Lady D

*
*
*
Let�s Go to the Beach

*
*
*

Petal soft like the flowers she had been named for, Gaara ran a hand down her hair and on to the exposed skin
of her arm above the sheet. He wanted to
wake her up, to devour her again, to watch the expression on her face alter as
she realized anew that it was his bed she had ended up in. .
. and it was in his bed that she was going to stay. Nearly a week had passed already, and the
novelty of waking to his watchful gaze was something that caused her amusement
and frustration in turns.

Possessive would be too mild a word to define how he had
constructed his attachment to the Konoha kunoichi. It was
more painful than leading a village, by far, because of two important factors:
there were many Suna villagers and therefore it was
difficult to individuate and give any sort of precedence over any other member
of the village, and secondly there was no physical attachment Gaara had for any member of his village. Sakura was special, and the deeper their bond
grew the more he dreaded the day she would have to leave.

*
*
*

The chuunin exam was held in Sand
this year, with Gaara confident of making a good
showing of the talents of his village and looking forward in general to the
presence of the Konoha ninjas he remembered from the
exam a few years ago, but really only a few in specific. When Lee did show up, Gaara
allowed his pleasure to rise to the surface of his impassive sand mask. It was with shock and a mild feeling of
betrayal when that even slightly unguarded expression was also witnessed by a
pink haired girl who had been obscured by Lee until he rushed up to enthusiastically
greet Gaara.

The girl was disturbingly familiar for some reason. Gaara searched his
sometimes scattered memory of the days before his illusions to insanity fell
away to mere instability. The name did
nothing for him, Sakura Haruno, but the pink hair
caused a shard of pain to streak through his heart.

�I�m here to volunteer as a medic for the exam.� Sakura politely spoke to him, but avoided
meeting his eyes. �It is part of the
reason the Hokage was so willing to let me attend the
exams, if you will accept this goodwill gesture.�

Why would he refuse?
A good medic was worth his or her weight in gold. Gaara knew how easy
it was to take life, and the ability to save it had only recently begun to
interest him. As for a medic trained
personally by the infamous Tsunade, well, it would be
stupid to refuse even if he wanted to.
Diplomacy was slow in coming to him, but he went through the motions he
had learned from books and the advice of others.

�I thank you. Is
there anything you need that we may supply you for this duty?�

�Thank you, but that won�t be necessary. Your permission to be on the medical team
should be sufficient to allow me access to the materials and facilities that I
need.� She nodded stiffly and walked
back towards the arriving Konoha party with steps
that ate up the ground. The girl was
small, but she carried herself grandly.

Gaara tore his eyes away from her
retreating for slowly to find Lee doing the same. The tall boy in the green jumpsuit and jacket
hadn�t changed a bit, it seemed. All his
emotions were laid bare to the world, his happiness, his anger, his joy. .
. Gaara was
almost embarrassed to look at him.

�I know it might seem unreasonable, but I wish to ask you a
favor as a friend.� Lee watched Sakura�s
retreating form with a mixture of fondness and determination.

�What?� Gaara neither agreed to nor contradicted the
statement. The time he spent talking to
Lee was always emotionally confusing, as the other boy�s overtures of
friendship seemed genuine. To be so
charitable to someone who had nearly crippled and killed you. . . Lee
fascinated him just as Naruto did.

Lee smiled brightly, looking more like his mentor every time
Gaara saw him.
�Ever since Sakura started training to be a medic she has had a tendency
to do more than she could possibly manage.
I want you to keep an eye on her, to tell her when she needs to stop
since it would probably have to be an actual order. Her devotion to her cause is admirable, but
she�ll drive herself to destruction just like I. . .� He shook his head, clearing away old
memories. Gaara
felt guilt hanging heavy in his throat, choking him. How could he say no after that? It was all the more frustrating because Lee
hadn�t conjured up memories of Gaara�s past barbarism
on purpose. Lee wouldn�t use such
blatantly manipulative tactics.

�I�ll watch this Sakura of yours then.� He quelled his agitated mind and tried to
re-center his thoughts.

Lee�s smile fell, but even if it faltered it didn�t make him
any less outwardly pleasant. �She�s not
mine, I�m afraid. Thank you, Gaara. . .
Kazekage.� He inclined his head and promised to talk
with Gaara later when things were less hectic what
with needing to help manage to settle all the genins
who were taking the test into their new surroundings.

The seeds of Gaara�s undoing were
sown that day with Lee�s admission, but at the time all Gaara
could remember thinking was how next year someone else�s village should host
the chuunin exams.
This was already a headache in the making, and he didn�t have the
benefit of being able to sleep through any of his cranial pain.

It annoyed Gaara how correct Lee
had been. In addition to meeting with
daimyo, general appointments with his council and any other shinobi
who had made arrangements to speak to him, and reviewing the data about the genin entering the exam, Gaara
found that he actually did need to keep an eye on the pink haired kunoichi. Her
distinctive head of hair bobbed all over the place, getting into people�s
business, even bossing around and instructing the Sand medics every now and
then as to how they should be treating genin when
they came in with injuries from practicing before the tests. There were a few complaints, but a negligible
amount, and she was being far more helpful than hurtful. At first Gaara
wondered if she slept as little as he did, since she had her finger in every
pie in this exam.

Later on, when Lee and Gaara
actually found a moment to talk to one another, Lee made excuses for her
behavior when Gaara told of how busy Sakura had become. It
had something to do with the first chuunin exam she
was in, he postulated, since that had been a traumatizing event for her. She had become a different person by the end,
and her antics were probably both an attempt to protect others even as she
tried not to relive old pains. Then the
topic had shifted to a lighter one as Lee enquired after Gaara�s
family and the general state of the hidden village.

Apparently a lot of people had been changed by the end of
that fateful chuunin exam.

Memories invaded his mind at night when he was pouring over
paperwork and most of the rest of the village was asleep. With the crack of his pen breaking Gaara suddenly remembered Sakura Haruno, and the ink ran down
his fingers with the consistency of blood and ruined the document he had been
preparing.

She had very nearly been another one of his victims. It was all too clear now: his rage, Sakura�s
attempt to save her friends, his sudden association of her with Yashamaru. . . Like Lee, she had walked up to him with no
hesitation and spoken to him. So clear,
so purposeful. Now his promise to Lee
made little difference because Sakura had taken on a
significance to him that he wanted to better understand. With a mind that rarely stopped even if he
was outwardly placid, Gaara knew what it was to work
over ideas until they were the only thing that filled his world. The luxury to obsess was less available now
than it used to be, but his nights were his own and therefore his nights all at
once became clouded with thoughts of green eyes not unlike his own.

At the first exam, she was present and so was he. Being only the first part and intended to eliminate
the truly causal genins, Gaara
felt no need to pay much attention to it.
He would be given more reports than he would ever desire to read about
it later. It was more interesting to
watch Haruno�s reactions.

She was so bright and alert.
Nothing seemed to escape her notice and there were people coming every
so often to speak to her. It startled Gaara to note that they were some of Sand�s medics. How had she gained such a tight network of
people so quickly? Was this the kind of
training one received from the Hokage? No, Tsunade wasn�t
a very cooperative woman, this was more likely a
reflection of Sakura�s personality. She
liked being in control, she liked being informed, and she was personable enough
(or assertive enough) to organize things to suit her. He watched her with mixed feelings of
fascination and amusement until she began to sway on her feet. Gaara wasn�t the
only one to notice and someone put a hand on her arm to steady her. She leaned at them and smiled, waving them
away.

Doesn�t
need anyone�s help. Gaara felt the corner of his mouth twitch up. She was standing in the sun, and had been for
quite a while. She may not have even
noticed, she was so intent on the people around
her. Lee�s comments about her devotion
to her job seemed justified.

�Call up the Konoha ninja Haruno to me.� Gaara told one of his aids.
They nodded and moved off to pass on the message. This would get her out of the sun, and it
would give him the opportunity to finally speak to her about her disruptive
influence on his medics. It wasn�t
intended to be a reprimand so much as a notification, a few words of
caution. He didn�t want outsiders
messing up his village in any way, at any level of life.

Sakura marched into his presence, annoyed at being taken
from her position down where all the action was. What if she was needed? She hid her irritation imperfectly, but that
might have been because she looked on the verge of collapse. Gaara gestured
towards the water near him and she shook her head.

�What do you need me for?�

Gaara didn�t say anything for a
while, letting the silence sit between them thickly in the heat. A drop of sweat was running down the side of
her face but she made no move to swipe at it.
Gaara hoped she had put some sun protection on
that pretty white skin of hers, since she looked like the type that would burn
before she would tan.

�I hear you�ve been quite active in the past couple days
before the first exam.�

It wasn�t obvious that he was displeased, but Sakura knew very
well how she had walked in and taken over the workings of things as much as
possible.

�I am simply making things easier for everyone in the only
way I know how.� Her body was swaying
again. She should have been fine now
that she was in the shade of his pavilion above the exam grounds. This didn�t bode well.

�Have some water.� He
gestured at it again, keeping his rising anger in check. Why couldn�t she take care of herself? Was she that set on doing her job? Concern jagged through him and he crushed it
as quickly as he detected it.

Sakura was more intent on continuing to justify her actions
than actually listening to Gaara�s words. Her pale face reddened at the cheeks from the
force of her words, but her body had begun to shiver and she continued to
sweat. This was going to get ugly soon,
and he was the closest person to her. . .

�. . . and then they told me they didn�t even have a
contingency plan for it! You can see I
did what I�ahh, I mean�just a moment I think I need
to. . .� Her eyes rolled back and
finally her legs gave out. The heat
stroke that she had been verging on had finally overcome her healthy body�s
defenses.

Sand cradled her and Gaara transported
her limp body over to where he sat. He
made sure to keep her feet slightly elevated and then brought the container of
water over to where he sat as well.
Perhaps he should have called for medical assistance for her, but he
knew very well what they would do and for some obscure reason he didn�t want to
trust this job to anyone else. Gaara shrugged out of his Kazekage
robes and opened up the container to dunk them in. Once they had absorbed as much as they were
going to, he wrapped them around Sakura�s supine form and stood away from her. It was strange to be walking around in his
underclothes, the loose pants and shirt that he had sported as his former daily
attire, but no one was going to question his actions even when he walked away
with Sakura�s unconscious body trailing after him on a bed of sand.

*
*
*

The sun hadn�t risen yet when Sakura felt the gentle brush
of skin against skin and remembered with a sleepy smile what had happened the
night before. They hadn�t even made it
through dinner before Gaara had been ready. She had said she wanted to finish
eating. He had put sand in their
food. She had yelled at him for wasting
their meal. He had kissed her until she
wasn�t sure what she was angry about anymore.

He was watching her again.
She didn�t need to open her eyes because she could feel his gaze
penetrating the sheet she wore loosely around her body. It was chilly at night here, so covering was
necessary, but she felt the sheet being pulled off and scrunched up her face
while the air cooled her skin too fast.

�I�m still asleep.�
She forced herself to keep her eyes closed as her contradictory
statement made him rasp out a low chuckle.
Sakura felt the sheet be pulled the rest of the way off of her body, and
a hand roll her from her side onto her back.

Right when she was forming a question, her slightly puckered
lips were caught up in a kiss. It might
have been intended to be gentle, but Gaara still had
a hard time keeping his excitement from taking over. His tongue slid over her teeth and she opened
her mouth for him to explore. Gaara bit down on her lip, capturing it with sharp teeth, then running his tongue over the marks he had made. He nipped his way down her neck and she
finally noticed how her chest was heaving.
At least she wasn�t cold anymore.

�Awake yet?� He asked
from somewhere near her solar plexus.
Sakura opened her eyes and met his darkly circled ones so that she could
see his reaction when she shook her head.
�Good.� Was his reply as his body
settled closer to hers and his mouth encircled the tip of her breast and his
fingers slithered down her belly.

Gaara bit down slightly on her
nipple even as his fingers slid into her and the combined sensation caused her
to gasp and then make a little disapproving noise in the back of her
throat. His sadistic tendencies were
sometimes exciting, but there was always the thrill of fear in the back of her
mind that someday he would take it to far.
Things weren�t entirely perfect about their liaison, but they were both
learning.

*
*
*

She had awoken in the hospital, and it was the nurses she
was being attended by that told her that the Kazekage
himself had brought her in and tended her for a few hours before his duties had
called him away. It was bothersome that
she had to be grateful to that man, but she knew that gratitude was expected in
a situation like this. Really she was
only mad at him because he seemed to feel a need to keep some sort of strange
observation on her activities. Sakura
knew what she was doing and she knew how to take care of herself. Years of feeling like a weak person, albeit a
smart one, had left her with something to prove. Collapsing in front of Gaara,
well, that was a blow to her pride. The
blow would be refreshed when she went to thank him, as she would go make an
appointment to do immediately.

Lee came to visit her in the hospital, but she was getting
ready to go just as he burst on the scene with more worry than information
about her condition. Sakura made sure to
prove that she was perfectly fine, simply a little tired and a little sunburnt, so he could go back to whatever he needed to be
doing. Her sharp tone wasn�t any
reflection of how she felt about his presence, and more her anger at herself
for being put in this position.

It was evening when she made her way to the Kazekage�s office.
There was staff there twenty four hours a day for their sleepless
leader, and she intended to simply submit her name to the queue of people who
wanted to speak to him. To her shock she
was shown into his office nearly upon her arrival. It seemed he was expecting her and wished to speak
with her. Then again, their conversation
had been cut short earlier.

This office wasn�t anything like Tsunade�s. The Hokage always
had books lying around, scrolls, empty plates and bottle of sake, the bed in
the corner for her pig, and any number of miscellanies. The Kazekage�s
office could be considered sterile at best.
Sakura had taken it for granted that there would be stuff
everywhere. There was no sign anywhere
that Gaara had personalized this office. He had been Kazekage
since he was fourteen, and now, almost seven years later, there was nothing
that would need to be cleaned out if by some strange twist of fate he
died. Was his existence so unremarkable
that he had nothing of value to display?
Not even a family photo?

�You recovered quickly.�
Gaara hadn�t stood or even made any move other
than the slow turn of a page in whatever report he was examining.

�I�m a medic.� Sakura
said as if that were all the explanation she needed to give. Gaara looked up
finally, with something lighting up his eyes in a way that made them look
unnaturally bright.

�Well, you did
collapse in front of me not long ago.�
Did he have to say it like that?
She felt bad enough about that as it was. Sakura approached his desk and noted with
some curiosity that his robes looked oddly folded,
sticking to him in a way that implied the heavy fabric was wet.

They did say that he brought her in and tended to her. . . what would she have done if someone had gotten heat
stroke in front of her. . .

Kazekage or no, Sakura felt
herself go into autocratic medic mode.
�Don�t tell me you�ve been in those wet robes all this time,
particularly at night.�

Gaara arched an eyebrow at her and
her abrupt subject change. She threw up
her hands and moved around to where he sat behind the desk and pressed a hand
to his forehead to check his temperature.

�You seem slightly chilled, but not too bad. I think you need to either go change or have
a change of clothes brought to you. This
is foolishness, not taking care of yourself. . . if
you don�t have your health, you don�t have anything.�

She bit her lip hard when his eyes glazed over, and she
withdrew her hand as if she had been burned by his clammy skin. It wasn�t just that she had touched him,
although that was what caused her to go into slight shock since she was half
expecting a funeral shroud of sand to envelop her at any moment. No, it was what she said, so soon after
noting how bare his office was or rather more accurately, how bare his life
was. . . . you don�t have anything. . .
The old adage might have been a little bit too true for this situation
and guilt overwhelmed her fear.

�You will come see me tomorrow.� Gaara said, that
glazed look still marring his vision. �For a checkup.� His lips quirked. �That is all.�

Woodenly, Sakura moved away from him and forced herself not
to look back when she felt his eyes boring into her from behind. Maybe she could blame the heat stroke on her
behavior tomorrow, even though they would both know it was a lie. But right now the discomfort of a convenient
lie would be much more acceptable than the strange butterflies she had
wandering around in her stomach. She had
made such a mess of things today.

And as it turned out, it just got worse.

When Gaara had said he wanted a
checkup, he had been perfectly serious.
The Sand medics may have had great respect for their leader, but not
even respect or concern for him could get any of them to touch him. They had to touch him for either a chakra scan or for an old fashioned physical, and what they
could not bring themselves to do Sakura had started almost without thinking.

That had been the difference, however, because that first
time she hadn�t been thinking and the second time she found herself thinking
too much. There had been no mention of
her words to him yesterday, and no further attempts to talk about her role
among the medics in the chuunin exam, instead Gaara politely and formally asked her to give him a
checkup. He gave her a guarantee that Shukaku would not bother with her so long as her chakra scan was fairly shallow, and that he would not
interfere with a physical examination at all.

They were in his office alone again, and it was night
time. Sakura had had nothing to do, what
with the second part of the exam underway and all the genin
out in the desert somewhere. Her little
episode had gotten her taken off the lists of those going out to monitor the
competitors, much to her chagrin. Here
she was, instead, feeling up the young, handsome, fit, possessed Kazekage. Sakura made her mind restate the word with
extra emphasis lest any of those other words that had preceded it try to crop
up again. Stupid inner self, she could
at least show some discretion.

Gaara took off his shirt, but
stopped there when he watched her face go slack and her mouth thin into a
line. She didn�t find this funny at all,
even if Gaara seemed to. Her hands lightly skimmed over him, noting
that even years later he looked fragile to her.
His body wasn�t emaciated, but he did look about two missed meals away
from collapse and she reflected anew over the consequences he must suffer over
never getting a full and complete rest.

�Do you always work, or do you make sure to take time off
for yourself at night?� Tsunade had told her that having a good bedside manner
would help her, but that it wasn�t necessary.
Right now it felt as necessary as breathing to take her mind off of what
she was doing and distance them from how personal it felt. Of all the bad situations she had roped
herself into. . .

�I have a few hours to myself.�

She waited for him to elaborate, then gave it up as a lost
cause. His heartbeat had quickened in
the time since she had started the exam.
It was probably anxiety, since if she had rarely been touched she would
find it stressful too. His control was
amazing, because Sakura never would have suspected anything if she hadn�t been
examining his insides.

�You might think about giving yourself more time, or take up
a hobby. Maybe get a pet. You�ll work yourself into an early grave at
this rate.� Ixnay on the eath-day. Her brain supplied complete with little
mental throat slitting motions.

�When?� Gaara mumbled,
almost to himself.

Her guilt redoubled, folded in on itself, ate her
alive. Sakura felt like the worst person
on the face of the planet. This Gaara, a Kazekage who had done
everything for his people still couldn�t even get a medic to check up on him
and here she was, under his defense, callously sniping at him with her
words. Even if it wasn�t on purpose it
was inexcusable. Sakura stopped doing
her job in a lackluster manner and really bent into being thorough about her
check up.

An hour of complete silence passed, with Sakura only pausing
to make notes on a pad of paper she had brought with her; Gaara�s
check up was complete. She pronounced
her verdict: that Gaara�s body was surprisingly
healthy considering what he put it through, but that his body was eating away
at his muscle because he didn�t have much fat left on him and he got so little
exercise so he wasn�t building new muscle.

�More food and exercise?� He sneered at her. �That�s all?�

�Don�t give me that look.
You wanted my opinion as a medic, and that�s what I�m telling you. I was expecting it to be far worse, but from
what I know of possessions, the host�s body is often repaired automatically by
the creature possessing him. You�re
lucky, really.� She didn�t say any more
as thoughts of a different possessed boy flitted about in the minds of both of
the room�s occupants yet remained unsaid.

Sakura had picked up her things and was leaving when Gaara, as he was pulling his robes back on, called to her.

�Have dinner with me.�
As always it was an order, not a question. Who did he think he was? Kazekage. Her brain laughed at her in reply, and she
grimaced.

�I don�t think that�� Her eyes rolled back in her head as
she tried to think of a nice way to turn him down.

He had moved across the room so swiftly that she didn�t
notice him again until he was directly in front of her. �You said I needed to eat more.� Her heart rate increased as she was sure his
eyes had flicked over her body when he had said that. Sakura was suddenly afraid to ask about what
he planned for exercise.

*
*
*

One of her hands slipped into his fine hair massaging his
scalp with reflexive tightening of her muscles.
It was nice, but did nothing to ease the sharp ache as his erection
strained at every moan and sigh that escaped from those pretty, swollen lips of
hers.

His fingers were slipping into her with increasing ease and
soon she�d be ready enough to take him in.
Gaara�s mouth moved from Sakura�s reddened
nipple back up to her neck, and he stroked the tendons there slowly, making her
squirm and further impale herself onto his
fingers. She pulled his head up by the
hair so that she could kiss him again, stabbing her tongue into him
insistently, pleading with her throaty groan for
release.

As soon as he had pulled from her, her other hand had sought
his full erection and guided it to her entrance. She was being surprisingly forward this
morning and he let his body be guided by her wishes; he didn�t mind
relinquishing his power over the situation at this precise time because when
she enveloped him he wasn�t thinking much of anything anymore.

�Sakura,�
He hissed as she clenched around him and he began to pump into
her slowly.

�. . .I�m awake, I�m awake. .
.� Was the only intelligible thing he
could make out, and in response he gritted out a fearsome smile. She was his, all his,
and this was everything he wanted right now.

*
*
*

After he had decided he wanted her, it was relatively easy
to secure being in her presence as much as he desired whether she knew he was
there or not. What had started as mere
interest had blossomed into lust and consuming obsessive attachment after she
had touched him. He hadn�t realized how
much he had craved such contact until he had gotten it and reacted to it. Desire he was familiar enough with, but it
had never had an object before and so he had never been compelled to do more
than relieve himself when it became too pressing and then go about his
life. But now, when he felt the stirrings
of want inside of him, they had a face and a name.

Sakura.

It whispered through his mind with an intensity that before
only killing could have inspired. The
only stoppers to his needs were the limited timeframe in which she would be
here, and the fact that as of yet she still probably feared and disliked
him. Oh, and pitied him, but he didn�t
think of that as a bad thing because it gave him a way into her softer
emotions. It was leverage, and he had
been working it to get her to continue to dine with and talk to him in the
evenings. He had taken her words
seriously about eating more, though he was waiting on the exercise at the
moment.

Things had progressed nicely, from his perspective, because
of how she seemed to have grown more natural in his presence. Gaara knew she had
talked to Lee, and of course the boy would only say good things about Gaara. Lee was that
kind of person. Good, kind, friendly, simple
Lee. He was almost too nice. That was his downfall. Gaara wasn�t
nice. He knew what he wanted and he was
going after it with any tactic that would work.

It was a shame that her ties of loyalty to Konoha ran deep, because if he could have gotten her to
stay here, even as a missing nin,
then he would have protected her.
However, if Sakura was the kind of ninja who would be willing to do
that, she probably wouldn�t have been nearly as fascinating to Gaara. He knew that
she wasn�t that kind of person because it radiated out of everything she said
to him. It was easy to get her to talk,
and he knew far more about her than he ever suspected he would. He knew what her basic opinions were on
politics, on medicinal practices, on children and marriage, and on the
educational system that ninja were put through, to name a few examples. So much knowledge was pumped into that brain
of hers that it was a surprise she didn�t explode with facts at random passers
by.

Instead, Gaara milked her brain
and even opened his mouth now and then to respond. It seemed to him, judging from the way her
behavior had changed markedly in the past week since the month break between
the second and third parts of the exam had begun, that the way to Sakura Haruno�s heart was through her brain.

Their burgeoning friendship was pleasant, but it wasn�t enough for Gaara. He needed more intimacy, and he needed it
before she left or else he might not get a second chance at this.

�Are you angry about something?�

�What?�

�Your aura today is, well. . .� Sakura was in a particularly good mood
because she had spent the entire day helping out at the hospital. The days in which she was kept busy seemed to
be the ones in which she responded the best to him, so he had instructed that
her aid be sought whenever possible by the medical staff. Her usual tactic when faced with an
unfortunate topic was to avoid it quickly, and so she changed the subject. �I set a little boy�s arm today, and he told
me they were playing ninja and he was the Kazekage. He had tried to lift a tub of sand but he
fell down and it landed on his arm. Sand
is pretty heavy. . .�

Gaara frowned at her as if she
were crazy.

�I just thought it was cute that that�s what they were
doing. Kids like to emulate people they
admire.�

�Children also spend a lot of time pretending to be
monsters.�

Sakura stiffened and her eyebrows drew in so Gaara knew that a burst of temper was soon to follow. �You can�t be optimistic about anything, can
you?�

�I�d rather not have foolish expectations.�

She jumped up from where she had been resting on the ledge
of the balcony above his office, where they usually retired to after eating,
and grabbed his arm without thinking to drag him over next to her.

�See all those people down there? They count on you. They have faith in you. If they didn�t, then someone else would be
doing your job. Well and good to think
of yourself as a martyr, but maybe if you looked around you�d realize that
you�re the only one who really thinks that about yourself after nearly a
decade�mmfh.�

So many words. Sakura had so many words flitting around in
her pretty head, and while he didn�t precisely believe this set, it had incited
him to action when combined with the hand that hadn�t left his arm. She had been looking across the village and
she didn�t expect the attack at all. Gaara realized he had almost unconsciously grabbed onto her
arms and held them down so that she wouldn�t push him away while he kissed her,
but she wasn�t even straining against his hold.

�You�re wrong about me, Sakura. I�m still selfish, still dangerous. What I want has simply altered
slightly.� Her eyes were locked open in
shock, frozen.

It was gratifying that she wasn�t frightened, but she did
seem skittish. �What do you want. . . from me?�

�I want what we have now. . . and
more.� She did try to jerk out of his
grasp at that. Gaara leaned in
close, felt her tremble briefly before she got herself under control. �If you can prove to me there�s no way you
could ever want this, then I�ll consider letting you go and forgetting all
about it.� It was a lie, but she didn�t
need to know that.

�So aggressive,� She admonished. �No subtlety at all.�

They stood there in silent tableau on the roof while she
thought things over.

�Not now. This is too
much now.�

�There isn�t any time to waste. Either you accept this, or you admit that
everything you did and said to me was motivated solely from pity and could
never be anything more.�

She got upset at that.
�I don�t want to have to hurt you, but I will if you pressure me into
having sex like this. You know it
stopped being pity a while ago, but whatever kind of friendship we have isn�t.
. .�

�I know you�re not stupid, Sakura. You knew what was going on from the
beginning. You knew I wanted this from
you, your company in every form. Why are
you resisting when you�ve been complacent to it for so long?�

Sakura bit her lip and looked away. �It�s too soon.�

�You know why I need this, you know
what it means to me.� Gaara was getting desperate. This was it, this
was his only real chance. They�d be back
to square one after tonight if he failed and he�d never manage to build up her
trust enough again to get close. �Please.�
The unfamiliar word was like poison in his mouth, truly a reflection of
his desperation.

She searched his face, the dark circles around his eyes and
the bags below them, the flared nostrils and the tightly drawn mouth. Once, almost imperceptibly, she nodded.

�It�s not that I don�t still have misgivings about this,� Sakura responded
with an echoing smile when Gaara�s tense expression
melted into one of relief. �And you
better not think I�m easy. . . because I can still
beat you, I swear.�

Her body was still shaking a bit when they kissed again, but
he didn�t have to hold her hands down.
Eventually, the shaking stopped entirely. She had accepted him.

*
*
*

Sakura locked her ankles behind him as the pace sped
up. He growled low into her ear,
probably without noticing he did so, and she felt a primordial thrill at how
animalistic it was, how raw. The sweat
on their bodies was making it difficult to retain a hold on his back and her
hands eventually gripped his biceps, feeling the muscle bunch and strain as he
continued to support himself at the elbow.

Gaara was intent on leading them
quickly to completion, and she suddenly drove her hips up to meet him to push
him even more entirely into her only to flex her muscles around him. He paused for a second to gasp out her name,
adding a strangled chuckle and then tried to slow himself down to prevent
himself from releasing too soon.

�Witch.� He murmured, looking down into her face
slightly contorted by pleasure.

�Monster.� She responded without
venom, and leaned forward to kiss him lightly and run her tongue over his lips
in parting.

He looked determined, and she knew she was in for something
when he pulled out of her entirely and flipped her over while she squealed at
his busy hands tickling her sensitized flesh.
Once she was in a better position, he entered her again and reached his
hand around to stroke her bundle of nerves as well, working the nub with slick
fingers. It wouldn�t be long for her at
this rate. Gaara
knew what he was doing.

*
*
*

She had been angry at herself the next morning; there was no
getting around it. He had been perfectly
correct when he had said she knew what she was getting into, but she didn�t
think it would get that far. They would
spend time together, they would flirt, and then they would part and Sakura
would fondly think �what if� in the privacy of her mind. That�s all she had expected, and all she had
planned for with that big brain of hers.

It had been doubly annoying last night because it had been good.

His understandable inexperience coupled with her very little
experience should have ended with both of them having a mediocre time, but Gaara had been so willing to learn and once she got over
her embarrassment she showed him what she liked best and he had picked up on it
quickly. What had made it so great was
the fact that he was perfectly patient and able to take as long as he needed to
so that he did it right. He acted as if
they had all night, and from his perspective they did, since he wasn�t going to
fall asleep any time soon.

Sakura had been tentative about touching him at first,
afraid to alarm him into raising his infamous defenses, but her exploration of
his body went on without incident and she lost her apprehension in the
following haze of sensation. Gaara trusted her, and he was far more relaxed having her
touch him after days and days of being in her presence. It was a heady thing to have that much barely
contained power in between her legs, and on top of her, and.
. . She still blushed when she
thought of some of things she had begun to demand of him when they had gotten
more into the moment.

Waking up to Gaara staring at her
was the first step to dealing with the reality of what they had done.

�Where is this?�
Their actual transportation had been a flurry of sand and she wasn�t
quite sure where they had ended up.

�This is a guest room.
I have no bed in my room. I
thought you�d want one.� She nodded
gratefully.

Funny how she couldn�t think of his fond
but protective assessment of her this morning as anything but cute. Gaara was quite
attractive, even with the dark circles around his eyes, but that wasn�t why she
was waking up next to him. He was
someone who had more authority than she did, but that wasn�t it either. It wasn�t even because she thought that he
needed someone in his life due to his extreme isolation despite his highly
public job. No, in the end she had said
yes because, damn it all, she liked him.

Sakura wasn�t willing to say it was love; that was too
strong of a term to throw about when she would have to leave soon. They had only been around one another such a
short time, but she did feel a bond to him.
Lots of people liked Sakura, they were kind to her and they were
friendly to her, but they also treated her like something that needed to be
guarded. When she was around Gaara, even if it was a false assumption, she felt like she
was the one protecting him. The role
reversal had been refreshing, almost irresistible. Although, now she�d never
again think of that pale body of his as frail after last night. The blush returned in full force.

Gaara sighed inaudibly, but she
felt his body shudder as he pulled her closer to him. It wasn�t as if she had healed a bone
fracture of his, or stitched together a torn muscle, but Sakura certainly felt
like she was healing something in him.
If only this hadn�t been the only way.
Who was going to help her when
she had to leave?

She looked across the room and knocked back her head so
quickly and with such force that she clipped the wall. What was worse, now how was she going to
explain to Lee and the rest of the Konoha people here
why all her stuff had been moved into Gaara�s guest
room and still retain her dignity?

*
*
*

She cried out, pushing her face down into the pillow to
muffle it. Sakura surfaced to the sound
and sensation of Gaara pushing into her body the last
few times to assure him his own orgasm and then her shaking limbs collapsed her
back down onto the sheets. The bed
shifted as he got up and once Sakura had calmed her breathing down she flipped
over to find him wandering naked back into the room, pulling on a shirt as he
went.

�Is it that late already?�
It wasn�t light yet, so far as she could see.

Gaara shook his head. �I have some work to catch up on. We retired early yesterday. You�re a big distraction.�

Sakura bit back the reply that she�d be gone soon so he
wouldn�t have to worry. The grim
expression he wore made her intuit that the thought occurred to him as
frequently as it did to her. She didn�t
need to voice it.

�I have a night shift at the hospital tonight, so I need to
sleep.�

Gaara�s tone didn�t change, but he
turned away so she would see how he smirked evilly while he put on his trousers
and robes. �Maybe I�ll come by and wake
you up at lunch.�

�Good luck, I�m a heavy sleeper.� He sat on the edge of the bed to pull on his
sandals and she crawled over to wind her body around his. Sakura brushed the air on the back of his
neck to the side so that she could plant a solid kiss there.

�I think I�ll manage it somehow.� Gaara turned around
to look at her, and ran a fistful of her hair through his fingers. He put on the mantle of his job, complete
with hat, and walked out of the room without a glance back at the woman
watching him intently.

Sakura fell back on the bed, pulling the sheet over her like
a shroud. In this cocoon she wished she
could somehow transform herself and change this situation so that it could
work. Gasping for new air, she was
forced back out into reality.

It might have been slightly messed up and entirely
impermanent, but she wouldn�t trade it for anything. She closed her eyes and tried to settle her
mind for the sleep she needed. Sakura
could count on Gaara to follow through with his
promise, and if that were true she�d need all the sleep should could get or
else she�d be dead on her feet for her shift.
The prospect wasn�t entirely as unpleasant as it could have been.
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