Inner Obstacle

Disclaimer: Naruto is Kishimoto’s, Gaara’s nicknames are fandom’s, and grammar is Eternity-chan’s. I really own not a thing here.

Thanks to: All of you, wonderful patient reviewers, who fills my heart with joy! Your reviews inspire me a lot! (yes, even the ones who only say ‘argh, UPDATE!’, they inspire me to get my butt in gear)


In my head, this is chapter 3-a, because that’s not where it was supposed to end. But otherwise, it was going to be too damn long… and I would have let you with another cliffie.

And before I forget (thanks for pointing it out, Pamy-chou): Gaki-san means Brat-san, and Hige-sama can be translated as Beard-sama.


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Chapter 3: Confrontations, Comfort and Concealment

It took a grand total of three hours for the Hokage to snap and hurl himself out of his office in search of the red head that had been the centre of his thoughts for the whole afternoon.

He didn’t know if he wanted explanations or apologies or fucking whatever. He just knew that if he had to stay behind his desk and pretend everything was normal while undergoing another flashback of Gaara sprawled against that disgusting Iwa Jounin, there was going to be some serious body harm done on the next poor fucker who tries to bother him with paperwork.

So, when he shot out of his office like some giant blond cannonball, causing the people nearby to cower and avoid him even more than they already have that day, he was trying even more to escape the restlessness of his mind than to cause trouble.

But it was undoubtedly from that moment on that things really started to go downhill.

He knew that the Kazekage was not in his suite. With that huge chakra of his, he could always trace him down if he was in the building and –obviously- providing that he wasn’t in one of his little amorous trips with a no-name Jounin, the deceiving sneak.

That meant that he was probably with Temari, maybe crying on his sister’s shoulder about how horrible the Hokage had been to him. Naruto snorted. The idea of Gaara crying on anyone’s shoulder was ridiculous, but then again, until this morning, so had been the idea of him being anything but asexual.

Naruto clenched his teeth, suddenly hit by a very disturbing idea. What if Gaara wasn’t with Temari, but once again, with the Iwa guy? He could have kicked himself for not checking for the blue haired man’s chakra before leaving the Hokage tower. He could just picture it now. He would arrive at Temari’s place, to learn that she hadn’t seen her brother the whole day. ‘Gaara? I thought he spent his evenings with you, didn’t he?’

By the time he reached the Academy district –where the ex-Suna kunoichi and her husband lived-, he had built up a nice paranoia that did not lessen when he was finally able to spot his target’s aura. Indeed his mind began playing other scenes, of Gaara comfortably laughing with his sister, telling her the event of the day.

‘Naruto? Yeah, that moron finally figured it out. But only because I was careless enough to screw a diplomat before him, can you believe it?’

He started, suddenly realizing that he was in front of Temari’s home –and that he had no idea what to say to her brother. He took a deep breath, trying –for what seemed to be the thousand time- to will away the images and questions that had plagued him. Gaara was his friend. He had not meant –probably- to hurt him. Besides, he wasn’t hurt. Just surprised, he guessed. Fuck. Fuck-ing unbelievable. How could he not have told him?

He quickly banged on the door. Let’s ask Mister Wonder here. He’d listen to what he’d say, and would stay calm.

… Self-made promises that flew out the window as soon as Gaara opened the door.

Naruto watched his friend intently, searching for a sign –any sign- of discomfort, shame, fear or, hell, even good old fashioned embarrassment. Something that would tell him that the evening had been as hard for the Suna Kage as it had been for Naruto.

But Gaara’s face was composed and his eyes unrevealing, as usual. The fucktard even had one eyebrow lifted in polite inquiry, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Naruto felt his fists clench by his side.

“Good evening, Kazekage-sama.” He intoned coldly, the corners of his lips curling in anything but a smile. Everyone knew that Naruto never used titles on anyone. He called the Raikage ‘Gaki-san’ and the Tsuchikage ‘Hige-sama’. He called Gaara a lot of things, from ‘Tanuki Bastard’ to ‘Sandypants’ and using his first name was as formal as he could get.

Gaara did not react. If anything, his expression grew even more distant.

“Hokage-“ a pause, no longer than a slap in the face but just as insulting. “sama. To what do I owe the… pleasure?”

The nerve! Naruto ground his teeth at the little jab, the tell-tale burning sensation behind his eyeballs informing him that his iris had probably turned red, even if Gaara did not seem to be cowed by that. Not that he gave a fuck about it…but that Suna bastard was NOT going to play it cool for long, if Naruto had a say in this.

He searched blindly for something, anything, which would make Gaara drop the mask that he usually wore for everyone but him. He had the time to recall that the red head was the one who usually had the upper hand in verbal sparring before he decided to forego any kind of subtlety.

“Well, I’m actually quite surprise to see you here tonight.” He gave a tinkling, fake laugh. “I couldn’t feel your chakra in your own suite, so I thought ‘Bummer, now I’m in for visiting every casern of jounin this country has, starting with the foreign ones. Might as well get very lucky and try at his sister’s.’”

The Kazekage blanched, his arms falling limply at his sides. “And what do you mean exactly?”

The Hokage titled his head to the side, mimicking pensiveness. “Why, I don’t know really…I spotted you this morning with an unknown underling I could have sworn you never exchanged one word with before…you mean that habit of yours not a regular occurrence?”

Naruto heard with a twisted satisfaction the slight breathless sound the redhead made, as if he had been punched in the guts.

“Nobuo…Nobuo is…” The feeling of satisfaction turned abruptly sour and raging when he heard that name in those lips. “And what ‘habit’ are you talking about?!” Gaara snarled.

“Fucking random jounin, of course.” The blonde raised his brows in mock surprise. “Well, seeing that you jumped at the first opportunity to get shagged by some stranger…”

He could not continue; there was suddenly a hand on his throat and pale jade eyes ablaze with fury, fixing him with murderous intensity. Naruto felt a thrill travel up his spine, overpowering the sudden pain on his neck. He had finally succeeded in riling the Kazekage...even if the fact that he had not gotten mauled by sand yet showed that Gaara still had a modicum of control on himself.

“You filthy hypocrite.” Gaara snarled, his voice low and vibrating with such disgust that it immediately sent the Hokage back on edge. Gaara let go of him, nose scrunched up, mouth set in a line.

“As if,” the redhead said, “you were in position to criticize me! Since how many years have you, how did you say?” His tone grew lighter and ferocious, mocking the words the Hokage had used that very afternoon “ ‘dedicated body and soul to strengthening the bonds between the villages’?” his voice went low again, shaking with repressed fury “and that, with the whole female part of every Hidden Village delegations, from top Jounin to kunoichi barely coordinate enough to open their legs for you? Where’s the fucking difference, huh? Is that because I did it with men? Is that what’s set you off, Uzumaki?”

“I don’t care about that! What fucking ‘set me off’” Naruto roared “is seeing the fucking Kazekage whoring himself with no decency whatsoever…”

“You’re directly calling me a whore now?” the redhead hollered, his eyes were wild, he was looking slightly crazy “…and what the shit do you know about decency, you asshole?” His lips widened in a scary smile, and he took two steps backwards. When he opened his mouth again, his voice was slightly higher, and rougher, and deceptively like Naruto’s.

“Oi, Gaara, ya remember the blonde with the big tits and nice ass? Yeah, weapons expert from Kumo or whatever…Told you she was the dirty kind, man. Took it all the way up, without a gag! And knew a helluvah number of fun tricks with those huge jugs of hers ‘dattebayo!”

Naruto barely registered the words and their accuracy, re-born from the Kazekage’s perfect memory, before he lunged at his friend. He had only noticed the mocking tone, the scorn behind it, tangible through the ‘dattebayo’, and slightly vulgar way of phrasing, symbols of the poorer education that had been thoroughly beaten out of him by Tsunade and Sakura, but that he still kept around his once best friend.

So he lunged at the Kazekage and drew his arm back, intend on hitting him, intend on hitting Gaara, to push those words back in his mouth, and wipe that terrible expression off his face, a mix of triumph, scorn, anger and even hate. A face that evoked such a crushing feeling in his chest that he primarily wanted to hit the other male just so that he could retaliate to that unexpected pain by physically hurting him just as much.

He was suddenly pushed backwards, not by the Kazekage, but by something large, hairy and coarse that was shoved in his face. He lowered his gaze and found Temari, looking pale and determined, a broom which end she had thrust in his face clutched firmly her hands.

“Enough! Go away now!” she made a motion as if she wanted to hit him with the brush again and he hastily ducked, too stunned to take an offensive stance.

He glanced back at Gaara, his chest still heaving and his breath labored from the rush of adrenaline and anger. The redhead looked –big surprise- more composed. He had snaked an arm around his sister’s waist, and his posture denoted some concern for her. Naruto remembered with a guilty pang that she was pregnant.

“I’m leaving.” He said. Gaara raised his face, and Naruto clearly saw that his earlier expression had not vanished. It had condensed in his jade eyes, two burnings points of anger directed at Naruto. And because the last one didn’t really know when to shut the fuck up, he added “I’m going before I say something I might regret”

Gaara pried the broom away from his sister’s hand, and led her inside. “You crossed that line this morning.” he spat, closing the door behind them.

Naruto stood for a moment, glaring at the offensive bit of wood, his anger still coursing through him and still calling for some of that insolent Tanuki’s blood. He finally turned his back to Temari’s home and stalked back to the Hokage Tower.

A few times on his journey back he nearly turned heels to confront the Kazekage again, as their meeting played over and over in his head and a few witty comebacks kept coming to his mind.

A couple of hours later he was glad he had not submitted to those angry impulses.

And a couple of hours later, he would have gladly made the route back on his knees if that could have helped lighten the feeling of shame and horror he got whenever he thought of his visit.

NaruGaaNaruGaaNaruGaaOMGGaaNaruGaaNaruGaaNaru

The Raikage watched from his post on the Nara’s household roof, as the departing silhouette of the Hokage merged into the night. “Well, shit.” He said, with feeling.

All around, the lights coming from the windows of neighbors that had been abruptly awakened by the brawl between their own leader and the ruler of an equally powerful ninja village, were slowly dying out. However, even though the civilians were going back to sleep now that the noise had ended, the shinobi nearby –set on edge far earlier by the chakra flaring- were starting to move. The Raikage saw a couple of shadows disturb the twilight sky, and wondered to whom they were going to report. ANBU? The Council? Or maybe Tsunade, the ex-Hokage?

“I thought you came here to prevent that kind of event?” The dry and slightly sneering voice of the Tsuchikage interrupted his thoughts. He turned to glare at the old man.

“Obviously I was too late.” He said, showing his teeth. He did not mention that he might have taken a wrong turn at some point.

The Tsuchikage looked down the street, toward where the Hokage had gone. A resigned expression had settled on his lined face. “Well, I think it’s over now. There clearly nothing we can do. We can just hope that they won’t mix personal with politic.”

“Can’t trust Uzumaki with that, obviously.” The Raikage mumbled, his smooth brow creased. Now that he really thought about it, he didn’t want the other Kage’s friendship to fall apart. It was nice to see them interact as if there were no hidden traps behind each of their words. Even the Kage meetings have benefited from the feeling of unconditional trust they both shared.

The young boy thought back to his own staff reunions in Kumo, and grimaced. Even back home, politics were much more like a minefield in which he was left to wander blind with people shooting him wrong directions.

It had been nice, if a bit of a paradox, to be able to somewhat relax while being with leaders that, while rivalling on most levels, still did their best to keep things running as smoothly as possible.

But now, with the drift between the Kazekage and the Hokage, would that still be the same?

“I still don’t understand why they yelled at each other like that.” He said, a bit of tiredness creeping in his tone. “Weren’t they supposed to be friends? Best friends?”

From the corner of his eyes, he saw the Tsuchikage shrug.

Suddenly the air shifted, and the Mizukage was there, watching the night alongside them.

“You mean you really don’t have a clue?” She said.

Both men watched her, glaring. “You mean you do?” the young boy asked, his tone challenging.

She looked at them both, and then rolled her eyes upwards. “Men…”

NaruGaaNaruGaaNaruGaaOMGGaaNaruGaaNaruGaaNaru

That was approximately the thought rolling around Sakura’s mind a few hours later, while sneaking around the Hokage Tower.

Of course, she had no reason to sneak…she was after all, the former team mate of the Hokage and as such, had earned by custom an automatic place in the Council.

Not that it mattered much. Sakura thought that it was one of her missions in life, to care about Naruto and especially, to make sure he behaved. Be it through advice, as tradition allowed her, or through more violent means, as she always had.

But she liked to try and creep in, just because…ah yes, target was in sight.

Ino Yamanaka was slumped against the wall leading to the Hokage’s room, eyes closed against the feeble morning light and sipping on a water bottle, looking utterly miserable.

Sakura made to pass her silently, but deadly hangover or no, Ino was still the Hokage’s assistant and personal guard as well as a top-notch kunoichi. She thrust up a leg, blocking Sakura’s way.

It was a recurring game between the two. Sakura, one of the best in using genjutsu, would try to pass Ino, who was one of the best in defusing genjutsu, whenever she could… and Ino would try to stop her, whenever she could, too.

“Forehead,” the blonde woman sighed, opening two blood-shots eyes. “Right now my migraine makes me hear each sound louder than the one made by two atoms of air humping each other. Your illusions are like wailing sirens…drop them, please.”

Sakura did just that, and smiled at her friend. “Really, Ino-pig, I can cure that headache for you! I promise to leave your head all nice and empty, as usual.”

Ino snorted, then groaned. “ I AM a medic, and not lousy enough to be unable to cure a migraine.” An unspoken ‘if barely’ hung in the air between them, but if Yamanaka was rather honest with herself it was not to the point of admitting her weaknesses to her rival. “I need to remember why it’s a shitty idea to get shit faced.”

Her friend winced, feeling inwardly sorry for everyone that would be crossing Ino’s path this morning. When the blonde had a headache, very soon everyone nearby was suffering from the same predicament. A mind-controller’s privilege.

Ino unstuck herself from the wall and looked blearily at the medic-nin. “Came here to beat the crap outta my boss?”

Sakura immediately frowned. “What makes you think that?” ‘Have rumours started already?’

Ino snorted again, then winced, again. ‘Stupid’ she mouthed, before answering.

“Relax. It’s just, you have that evil glint in your eyes…you know, the one that says ‘I’m going to set Naruto’s ass damn straight’.”

Sakura fought, very hard, not to blink. “I do not have an evil glint.” She retorted, annoyed.

“Whatever.” The blonde woman edged towards the stairs. “I’m going for a walk. I don’t feel like my head can support Naruto’s shouts of pain now. Take care for me, will you? Ah- and good luck.” She added, as an afterthought.

They both knew that sometimes, the only way for something to go into Naruto’s head would be to write it on a piece of paper, physically crack open his skull and shove it inside. Kami knew that Sakura was sometimes tempted to do just that.

The pink-haired kunoichi made her way toward the Hokage’s administrative centre. It was the place where a young Naruto used to bug the Sandaime and the Godaime for higher ranked, more interesting missions. Maybe that was the reason why it was now his favourite place and where he could be found most of the time, even in the –rare, very rare- times when he was done with paperwork.

She pushed the door open without knocking first. After all, it would have ruined the effect, and he probably already knew she was there. Still, he froze when she burst through the office’s entry, but his expression quickly morphed into one of resignation before he closed his eyes.

Sakura growled angrily and punched him square in the face. He had not tried to block or to avoid her blow, though he was not slammed into the opposite wall like he would have been a decade earlier. He did reel backward a few steps, until she grabbed him by the collar of his robes and yanked his face close to hers.

“What possessed you,” she snarled “to bother one of my patients, a pregnant woman, at her home, ‘til she had to resort to violence to make you go away?”

He seemed to wither under her ferocious glare, but he managed to gather enough courage to ask:

“Is Temari-san okay?” there was some real anxiousness and shame in his tone, so she injected a tad less coldness and scorn in her own voice to answer him.

“Yes” she could have added an ‘Obviously’ but choose not to. Every male, just like Naruto, thought that pregnant women were made of glass. The younger Sabaku was no exception. It was he who has called Sakura to check on his sister.

When the medic had arrived, she could tell that Temari was far more bothered by her brother’s meddling than by whatever that was supposed to have set her off in the first place.

Nevertheless Sakura had diligently run a quick check-up, all the while discreetly prodding to know more about the situation, but then she had hit the patented Sabaku Stubborn Silence.

She went back to her place knowing no more.

She still wouldn’t, if Tsunade hadn’t summoned her.

And now Naruto… looked almost as bad as Ino, with purple bags going halfway down his cheeks, blonde hair uncombed and clumped in limp locks around his face.

Scratch that, he looked worse than Ino; the mind-controller’s eyes weren’t that dull and empty. He obviously had little sleep that night, and something was clearly still gnawing at him.

“So, what happened?” She chose the plumper armchair in front of his desk and sat down. He did not answer but took his own seat across hers, and began to carefully prod the place where she had hit him. The movement allowed her to spot under his slightly raised chin a series of bruises on his throat, as if someone had tried to strangle him. They looked rather ugly, but it did not worry her as much as the dejected expression that had settled on his face.

She gently pried his fingers away from his swelling cheek, pulling her owns instead. She channeled chakra in her hand and started to heal him.

The Hokage closed his eyes, the healing touch producing its usual soothing effect. Yet she could see, with each restless tightening of his lips and tremors of his lashes that the thoughts which had prevented his sleep were not yielding their grasp on his mind.

She moved her hand down his throat, to tend the wounds there, but his hand shot forwards, catching her wrist and pulling it away.

“Not those.” He rasped.

“Why?” Just by the how the marks were placed on his Adam’s apple, she could tell he must be hurting every time he swallowed more than spit.

He averted his gaze. “Those I…really deserved.”

She went on her feet and turned around his desk, stopping next to him. She took his chin in her hand and raised his face to her. His eyes broke her heart a bit; they reminded her of the Sasuke days: they were hurt, lost and a bit frightened. There were also eyes that showed the shadow of the neglected child he had been, back in the days during which she herself had been to self-absorbed to notice him.

She slightly pushed the blond locks away from his forehead. “Naruto, what’s wrong?” she asked, trying to put as much meanings as possible behind that simple question. Things like ‘I’m your friend, I’ll listen to you and won’t judge you’ and ‘whatever it is, we’ll sort it together’.

His face crumpled and she thought for a moment that he was going to cry. He never had been ashamed of his tears; even to the day he had taken the Hokage’s Office though as a leader, the way he seemed to always wear his heart on his sleeve had from time to time been judged as a weakness.

But even though Tsunade, Shizune and herself had done their best to beat some of his rude manners out of him –with less than stellar results- they never really tried to curb that trait in him. Because overly loud, trusting, confident…and emotive, that was Naruto, and what made his charm... and strange effectiveness in the world of Kage Politics.

However painful to witness it could be, sometimes.

Naruto took a big, shuddering breath and watched his hands, tightly clasped before him on the desk. He raised them both and hid his face in them.

“I’ve lost him, Sakura-chan” his voice was muffled, ragged, and desperate.

“What? Who?” despite the fact that she knew who it could only be (who, she had come to realize, it was always about), but that did not make any sense.

“Gaara!” He lowered his hands to stare at her. “He hates me now! I saw that in his eyes!”

Sakura made no efforts to conceal the disbelief from her face. Yes, she had read the transcription of the argument, and yes, she had heard it had been the violent kind of row and hell yes, she had also picked up signs of deep agitation on the Suna Leader that night, but Gaara hating Naruto? It was as much an anomaly of nature as water morphing to fire.

She sat on the desk and took one of Naruto’s hands in hers.

“I severely doubt that’s the case, Naruto. You can’t suddenly decide that you hate someone, just like that.” ‘No matter how much it is deserved’ she thought, her mind once again brought back to Sasuke, the habit of a lifetime she could really use to break, now.

The blond wrenched away from her touch and walk toward the window, watching without seeing the fist rays of dawn peeking from behind the Hokage’s monument.

“What would you know?” he said bitterly. “I was furious; I said things to him…horrible things…”

“I DO know what you said to him, baka.” The medic nin crossed her legs. “And with the apparent volume you reached in your argument with the Kazekage last evening, I bet I’m not the only one. Be grateful that the Jounin who heard you chose to report to Tsunade and not the whole Council.”

She didn’t need to tell him that it wouldn’t stay that way for long. News of that nature was bound to spread and reach the hairy ears of the more pestering member of the Council.

He tensed. Despite being a public character now, the idea that his life and whereabouts were also of public nature still did not sit well with him.

“Then what did you asked, if you already have read the whole fucking transcription of my evening?” He half-turned to glower at her. “Unless you were more interested in the contents of my dinner or how many times I went to the bathroom?”

She raised her chin to match his glare, not backing down. “Don’t worry, I did read the part where you nearly abused the Kazekage and his pregnant sister.” She saw him flinch at the memory and all trace of anger fled from his face. She did her best to bite back her own.

“What I want to know is why, Naruto? Why did you get so angry?” Then again, she did have an idea…but she needed to hear his take on it. Only then, she could see what to do about it.

She saw his figure slump slightly. “Gaara…he likes guys, Sakura-chan.”

The medic-nin raised her brows in surprise. She had read the report of their fight, so Gaara liking men that way was not a surprise…but she had not expected Naruto to admit he was bothered by that.

“And it annoys you because…?” Unwillingly to her a bit of coldness had crept in her tone.

“Well, for starters, because he fucking didn’t tell me!”

“Maybe,” she retorted with evident sarcasm “he was afraid you’ll blow a fuse and start calling him a whore in the middle of the street?”

“Oh yeah,” he grinned, no showed his teeth at her “because shagging his man right in front of me was a sure way to make me rush to buy a fucking ‘congratulations’ card?”

Sakura decided to drop the subject. For a moment, she had felt a definite spike of that old chakra, a chakra that smelled –but not with the nose- of reddish, of copper, of zoo and unclean cages, the chakra of Kyuubi…and Naruto’s teeth had seemed damn long in the dim morning light.

“And?” she asked. He looked at her. Thank god his eyes were blue. “You said ‘for starters’” she added, a bit hastily.

He glowered at the carpet on his feet. “And he likes guys.” He turned his back on her.

She gritted her teeth. “So you already told.”

“You don’t understand! He likes boys, not girls!”

“Narutooo…” she growled. She considered punching him in the face again. It would not make him more coherent, but it would help a great deal with her frustration.

“Augh!” he began to tug at his hair, aggravated by his own lack of communication skills. “It’s just, I never thought he would like someone that way, you see? He never seemed to show an interest in anyone, before…so I thought, so I thought…”

He slightly touched the bruises on his throat. Right now he looked young, like a sheepish academy student caught skipping classes.

“I thought I was the- one of his most precious, most important people. Like he’s mine. Best, best friend and all and…well, I thought that maybe, one day, he’d find a girl in Suna, but that wouldn’t matter so much because…”

The sheepish young boy was rapidly aging before Sakura’s eyes, leaving in his place a bitter young man who had been born with so little things he could called his own that he was reduced to clutch possessively to the ones he was afraid to loose, be it his first friend’s acknowledgement or his best friend’s heart.

“Because…well, even if she is his sweetheart and all, there is stuff he won’t be able to tell her ‘cuz she won’t be a jinchuuriki and won’t be able to understand, but mostly, because she’ll be a girl and you can’t really discuss interesting stuff with them…”

Sakura had to blink at this because really, had the moron forgot that he was currently sharing his deeper thoughts to a bloody woman? Part of her mind had the time to wonder if that was the reason why the Hokage went through women like one went through used Kleenex. If he really had that opinion of the female part of the population, and never searched to build something deeper, it was no wonder none held his interest for long. But she did not interrupt; she wanted to hear Naruto ‘til the end of his speech.

“But then, if he likes guys…I guess, I’m not special anymore, aren’t I? As for our bond… Gaara’s not even a jinchuuriki any longer…There will be another guy he’ll share a deep bond with, another one to which he’ll spill his guts too –not that he’s doing that much with me, mind- and… and he won’t need me anymore.”

His voice had cracked a bit at the end, and Sakura had to fight the impulse to go to him and take him in her arms. But she couldn’t now, not before she reached a decision. She was pretty sure that Naruto had not realized the extreme ambiguity of his words. He thought that his reaction had been based on his fear of losing a friend, but Sakura could see the swirling mass of feelings under what was certainly a truth-if only partial; feelings waiting to be acknowledged.

But should those emotions be acknowledged? Was that prudent? When the Godaime had handed her the written transcription of the fight that had occurred between Naruto and Gaara, her analytical mind – probably overall less sharp than Shikamaru’s, but probably more acute on that sentiment stuff- had immediately started to draw hypothesis: reasons and consequences. She had not been far from the hook, but there were a lot of imponderables, mainly Gaara’s part.

As a friend, she wanted him to look deeper into himself, and see the exact nature of what he felt for Gaara. Then confront those feelings with the redhead’s, and see where it went from there.

As a member of the Council however…she could hear Tsunade’s voice:

“Keep the brat in check, Sakura. Whatever you decide, remember the world’s peaceful for now, and that’s mainly because Suna and Konoha move as one. We shouldn’t break that harmony now…”

The placid and unrevealing face of the Kazekage swam a moment to the surface of her mind. He loved Naruto, of that she was sure: but as a friend? Or something more?

She thought of Naruto, and how Ino complained about how she always had to completely re-organize the Hokage’s planning to squeeze as many free-time bits with the Kazekage whenever the two had an opportunity to meet, and how Naruto’s sunny disposition was then at its most radiant.

She thought of how fiery the Hokage’s temper could be, of how reserved the Kazekage could be, of the distance between Suna and Konoha, and how Naruto had never had a stable relationship before.

She thought of duty, peace, and her village.

And how they should prevail.

“Sakura?” Naruto was looking at her with sad, uncertain eyes. She smiled at him.

“Well, you certainly gave me something to think about.” She walked until she was side-to-side with him, and placed one arm around his shoulders.

“You were a total ass,” she said gently. Naruto seemed to deflate even more. “But I think that if you excuse yourself enough, and show the appropriate amount of remorse, the Kazekage will forgive you eventually.”

Naruto seemed to light up at her words. “Really? You think so?”

“Yes, but…” she raised one finger. “You’ll have to grovel.”

He blinked. She sighed.

“That’s part of showing the appropriate amount of remorse, idiot.”

“And how do I do that?”

“You can try to act very sorrowful… “She looked up to his waned eyes. “Never mind, just walk around with that very same face, it should do the trick. Be very polite to Gaara, don’t start to get angry at him…”

Naruto shook his head forcefully, as if afraid of that very thought.

“…and when he’ll finally talk to you if he’s growing angry and if he’s yelling at you, you just suck it up, okay? Don’t talk back, don’t try to excuse yourself, you shut up and let him talk, all right? And don’t forget to give him proper apologies.”

Naruto fidgeted a bit with the hem of his robes. “What should I say, as an apology, Sakura-chan?”

“You…” Here, she hesitated one last time, her conscience still not at peace with her decision to deliberately steer him away from potential trouble. She let go of him and crossed her arms.

“You can tell him what you said to me…that you were surprised because you didn’t know of his preferences and a bit hurt because he hasn’t confided in you and all that made you react violently. Tell him that you’re sorry that he believed he couldn’t trust you with that information, but that you’re his friend and will forever be if he’s willing to forgive you.”

There, better leave the whole jealousy that Naruto felt apart from this. Too unclear and unpredictable. Konoha and Suna’s alliance first.

The Hokage groaned and put his face in his hands.

“I’m going to screw up, Sakura-chan! He’ll look at me with his evil eyes and my tongue’s gonna be all tied up and I’m going to forget everything...”

“How about you write it in a letter? It’s not likely that he’s going to talk to you just yet, anyway, and with that it’ll get the main message across.” Then, to really tie the knot, “Do you want me to help you write it?”

He looked at her with such gratefulness in his eyes that her heart clenched a bit at the sight.

“Thanks, Sakura-chan.”

She looked away, through the window and toward the Hokage Monument where the stone face of her shishou –not showing the traces of age and worry like the real one had, that morning- was looking back at her.

“Don’t mention it.”


TBC


One question: This story is going to have a Happy Ending. Would a sequel in which everything end horribly bother you? EDIT: Okay, I've decided that I won't write the sequel! To be honest, I was not that enthusiastic about writing it to begin with: I liked the plot, but not the angst.