She Was the Oasis in Gaara's Heart

Author's Note: ok sooo this is a fic i wrote for a friend and one of them convinced me to put it up, this chapter is like Teen rating but the next chapter isn't so bare with me please.... i accept reveiws with open arms!!! P.S. it's ok if you don't know who Saretha is.... she's o/c


Gaara Always Gets What He Wants

Gaara scratched at the yellow bark of the tree he sat in. He was bored, he couldn’t practice at the moment because of all commotion down below and he couldn’t continue on because his team needed him. He snorted, he hated having to wait for people, even if they were his siblings, but if he didn’t he wouldn’t pass the Chunnin exams.

“Hey Gaara! Want to go get some food? Or actually help set up camp!?” one of his teammates called from down below.

He jumped down from the tree and surveyed the clearing, Temari and Kankurou stood in the center putting down the bed rolls and making a small fire. Gaara nodded and walked off into the forest in search of food.

Crouching before a small stream he rubbed the tattoo on his forehead, lost in thought about how to catch the fish swimming in the water, he didn’t even notice the other ninja walking through the brush behind him.

“If you want to catch one you have to use a spear,” Gaara’s head snapped up at the feminine voice and his body tensed in to his fighting stance.

“Relax,” the girl in front of him chuckled and waved her hand in a dismissive gesture.

His eyes swept over her form taking in her long dirty- blonde hair, green eyes and black rimmed glasses. She wore a pair of tan pants and a light green shirt; she blended in with the surrounding foliage quite well. She was attractive but something about her made her seem unapproachable, maybe it was that she seemed to give off an air of self-confidence that was quite strong.

“Why should I? You haven’t proven yourself to be trustworthy and you have a spear in your hand,” he said matter-of-factly.

“True, but I swear to you, on my honor, that I am interested in nothing but those fish,” she said with a smile.

Gaara frowned slightly but moved aside, keeping his guard up just in case. The girl moved closer to the stream and stilled watching the fish intently, waiting to strike. A small fish moved closer to the bank and she struck, quickly snapping the spear down and impaling the wriggling fish easily.

“See, it’s easy. Here you can use my spear,” she said handing the weapon to the other ninja.

He looked at it closely and glanced at the fish in the water. Gaara did as the girl did and moved closer to the stream, paused and waited for the moment to strike the spear raised just slightly.

“Now,” she said in a soft whisper and within seconds he had speared his own fish.
Gaara checked the silver scaled animal over, as if he expected it to disappear. Then he looked over at the girl standing beside him smiling, suspicion clouded his eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that, you did it. It’s your fault! So what’s your name? I’m Saretha,” she giggled.

“Gaara. I’m from the Village of the Sand. Where is your team?” he wasn’t really interested but for some reason he felt he should know.

“Team? I don’t have a ‘team,’ whatever that is,” Saretha said in confusion.

“You know, your team, for the Chunnin Exams,” the boy’s voice held a note of exasperation in it.

“Ummmm… I don’t know what the Chunnin Exams are. Sorry? I’m not really in the school,” her tone was clipped and she looked slightly upset with the subject.

Gaara watched Saretha shift her body in an uneasy motion. He frowned when she answered his question. *Not in school. That’s a little weird for someone whose the same age as me*, the thought entered his mind but he decided not to ask considering the way her voice said that the conversation was over.

“I live here in the forest now. So you’re in these Chunnin Exams. Interesting, how long will you be in the forest?” she was curious, but something else was sparkling in her eyes though Gaara couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“It depends on how long it takes for us to find what we need, and get out of here,” he said with a shrug as he turned back to the stream of fish.

Gaara talked with Saretha as she helped him catch his dinner. Surprisingly, he didn’t mind being around her; in fact, though he wouldn’t admit it out loud, he kind of liked talking and being with her. *Why does she invoke these feelings in me? And what are these feeling? Friendship?* He asked himself as he glanced over at her out of the corner of his eye. She caught him looking and smiled at him, while she adjusted his grip on the long wooden spear.

Saretha pulled out some string and threaded it into the gills of the fish that they had caught, making one large string.

“You know, I can help you with whatever you have to do in the forest. I know this place like the back of my hand,” she said handing the string of fish over to Gaara.

“If you want,” he said with an uncaring shrug.

The girl nodded and walked with Gaara back to his campsite. Every now and then Saretha would crouch down and touch the ground seeming to memorize the location of a plant or animal print. *I guess since she has to live in the forest she has to make sure she knows where to get food and herbs*, he thoughtfully looked at a plant she had taken a berry from, to him it looked no different than any of the others.

Gaara reached the clearing before Saretha and told her to stay back until he checked with his teammates, to make sure they wouldn’t attack her. He had no idea why he was so worried about her being hurt or something, because he never worried about anyone else he was with.

“Hey, Gaara, we were wondering why it was taking it so long. Looks like you caught a lot of food, good,” Temari said looking up from the fire.

“I found someone to help us with the Exams. Come out here Saretha,” Gaara said putting the fish down next his sister.

Temari and Kankurou’s eyes narrowed in suspicion as they watched the girl step out from behind the trees.

“Saretha is the person that helped me catch the fish. She lives here in the forest and knows it quite well, she says she can help us get around,” Gaara stared defiantly at the other two ninja, daring them to object to his decision.

Saretha stood silently behind Gaara, she was sure he was the leader of this group. Temari smiled at Saretha and nodded giving hers and Kankurou’s acceptance. With that Gaara turned and smiled, a true smile, at the new member of their group, for now. This little gesture was not missed by his sister and the female ninja frowned in confusion, who was this girl that made her brother so happy?

“Temari, may I cook the fish? I know some good herbs to put in it,” Saretha asked, addressing someone she just met so informally didn’t seem bug her.

The other girl seemed taken aback at the request but nodded, she didn’t know any herbs to put in the fish to make it taste better. Saretha smiled and took off into the forest, returning a few minutes later with three different green leaves clutched in her fist. The boys began to gather more kindling and other small pieces of wood as the girls began to work on dinner. Temari watched Saretha gut and fillet the fish, the rub the herbs into the meat.

“Put this on a stick please,” though she spoke with authority Saretha was always polite so Temari was only to happy to help put the fish on sticks and put them over the fire, turning it every so often to make sure it didn’t burn.

Within minutes the small group sat down on the separate bed rolls, Saretha sat on a particularly soft patch of clover (she was used to sleeping without a bed roll because she was sometimes caught in the dark away from her hut), and began to eat in a companionable silence.


When finished Temari and Kankurou slipped into their bed rolls and fell asleep. Saretha looked over at Gaara, the only other person awake.

“Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll keep watch,” she said with a kind smile.

“I don’t sleep. I am possessed by a demon and when I sleep it takes over my body and eats away my conscious,” he said it as if it were the most common thing in the world.

“I’m sorry, Gaara,” the soft gasp left her lips as she touched his face.

“Its fine,” he said coldly jerking his head away from her hand.

But instead of letting him run away Saretha brought her hand on top of Gaara’s, “No, it’s not fine. You did nothing to deserve this and you have no need to be afraid to let people touch you. I knew you were different since the first time I saw you. I could feel the anger and hate coming off you but I also felt that underneath was love, strong and fierce. I knew that if I could just touch that core of kindness then everything in my life would take on a new meaning. That’s just what I intend to do, touch you and be with you, let you know there’s more to life than hate.”

Gaara’s eyes widened and he froze when he felt Saretha press her lips to the kanji tattoo on his forehead.

“Goodnight,” and with that said Saretha turned and walked to the other side of the campsite near the other two and laid down for bed.

Gaara pressed a hand to his forehead and frowned in confusion. When he turned his face to the moon he felt heat rise to his cheeks. Gaara of the Desert was blushing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been two days since the night Gaara had told Saretha about the demon inside his body and during those days Saretha and Gaara had gotten closer. He was now used to the small gestures and touches she gave often, like the touch of her hand against his or her giving him a flower of particular beauty. He never understood why she did these things, but he accepted it as who she was. Plus he would do almost anything to see her smile and accepting these small tokens or returning the touches seemed to make her happy and she would almost always beam at him.

Saretha had not kissed Gaara since that night but that did not detain her from showing her affections for him, nor did it stop him from returning them, even if he did not notice he did. This display of caring did not go unnoticed by the other two companions, Temari and Kankurou but they never said anything about it. Temari was happy that her younger brother had finally found someone to make him truly smile and Kankurou didn’t really care that much.

“Hey guys, I’m going to go find some lunch. I’ll be back soon,” Saretha said running off into the trees.

Gaara smiled and continued walking with his teammates until they reached a small clearing where they could eat. The ninja bent down by the clear creek and reached his hand in to capture some water. He was raising the liquid filled palm to his mouth when he heard a scream.

The boy’s head snapped up at the screech of terror as he quickly realized it belonged to Saretha. Without even bothering to see if the other two had noticed the scream Gaara bolted into the forest following the stench of blood into the dense part of the woods, darkness surrounded him and he glanced around for the girl he was searching for. A quiet sob told him to turn around and travel backwards a little and there he saw his companion. She was crawling backwards away from a large beast cradling left leg against her body. He saw blood dripping from a shallow gash onto the forest floor.

The creature was huge and looked similar to a giant black stag. The deer had silver antler and hooves, with long curling yellow fangs protruding from its mouth. A set of silver bat wings were set on it’s back and at the end of each a long wickedly hooked thumb nail was attached.

Slippery ropes of drool fell to the ground with sickening splashes and it pawed the ground leaving deep gouges. It tossed its head eyes rolling madly as it prepared to charge the shivering form of Saretha.

Gaara opened the gourd on his back and manipulated the sand into his hand and changed it into the shape of a large sword. He then jumped in front of his ward right when the deer charged. Gaara caught the antlers in the sword, making his weapon as hard as steel, and swung it so the thing’s head snapped to the side.

“Get away,” Gaara’s voice was cold and menacing as he lunged at the monster before him slicing it on the flank.

The creature howled in pain and reared its front hooves lashing out with power only war horses had. With a correctly placed slash its razor sharp hoof cut Gaara’s arm deeply.

Gaara let out a groan of pain but held his ground. When the stag reared again Gaara moved swiftly to the side and slashed its wing on the tender joint. The thing let out a pathetic bugle of pain and turned crashing through the forest.

“Gaara, you’re hurt,” Saretha said with a gasp as she tried to stand to check on him.

“I’m fine, but how are you?” he asked concern evident in his voice.

“It’s nothing really. It’s actually quite shallow,” she said giving up on trying to stand she instead pulled him down to look at his arm.

Saretha ripped her shirt’s hem and wrapped it around his arm, tying it tight to make sure pressure was on it.

“We should get to the supplies, that won’t last for long. You don’t usually get hurt like this, that beast must have had some magical properties,” Saretha was contemplating on how to move when Gaara touched her arm gently.

This was the first time he ever initiated any type of contact. Saretha blushed and looked up at her hero.

“I almost lost you. No more running into the woods alone,” he said with a gentle smile and pulled her towards him in a strong hug.

Love pulsed in waves from his body and Saretha couldn’t help but cuddle closer to the warmth. That is why she whimpered when she felt it being pulled away from her. But when she looked up the protest died on the tip of her tongue when she saw the look Gaara had in his eyes.

Gaara smiled down at her and leaned in gently pressing his lips to her’s. Emotions of heat, passion, love and lust filled his body in an intoxicating mix and he couldn’t help but let out a small moan when he felt Saretha push back just as gently with her own lips. It was heaven as he felt her surround him, all he smelled was her, all he saw was her and all he felt was the girl in his arms. She tasted sweet on his lips and he closed his eyes.

They broke away from each other to smile and blush, no words were needed they both knew that the other loved them. That was when Temari cleared her throat ever so slightly. Turning slowly, still blushing, the two lovers saw their other companions standing before them smiling. Gaara groaned and thought to himself, *Oh no, this will end in nothing but teasing*. Then he glanced over at Saretha and saw her red cheeks and he smiled thinking how cute she looked. *Well it’ll definitely be worth it*, Gaara thought with a grin