Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Flowers in the Sand ❯ Chapter 17

Chapter 17

 

Safaia managed to escape Neji and the others after nearly an hour of inane chatter that never reached her comprehension. Her mind was in more of a whirl than it had been in years- not since Gobi was first sealed within her.

 

Oh, Gobi. How I wish you were here with me again. I know… that technically… you are still inside me, but I could really use your advice. Everything I've tried to do on my own has brought me nothing but uncertainty.

 

Slowly she walked out onto the terrace- a large, patio-looking area that was surrounded by a waist-high cement wall for protection. She was in luck- there was no one else out there at the moment.

 

Leaning on the wall, she gazed out over Konoha, marveling still at the sight of moon and starlight shining on the village. Yet tonight it brought her no peace as it usually did.

 

How could he? I didn't accept- I told him I had to think about it! But if I had protested in front of everyone, it would have caused so much trouble. And now, everyone thinks we're going to be married.

 

And then there was Gaara. Oh, God… Gaara. I… I never thought I'd see him again… And when she had… she honestly thought her heart would never beat again.

 

He had been dressed in a long-sleeved dark red shirt, almost the color of dried blood, with a thin line of gold embroidery around the close-fitting, mid-neck-high collar. His long legs were encased in loose-fitting black pants. A gold sash-like cloth draped over his right shoulder and wrapped around his waist in his favored style. His crimson hair was disheveled as always, but it just added to his look.

 

His breathtaking, drop-dead gorgeous look.

 

Safaia shook her head as if to get the thoughts of Gaara looking way too handsome for her health out of her mind.

 

“I'm sorry- am I interrupting a mental argument with yourself?”

 

Safaia turned to see Sakura walking (really, waddling) toward her place of solitude on the balcony. She straightened up and lowered her gaze, embarrassed. “Sort of,” Safaia replied quietly.

 

“Been there, done that,” Sakura chuckled softly. “Still do, on occasion.” She moved over to stand by the wall next to Safaia. “Anything you need to talk about?”

 

“Why do you ask?”

 

The pregnant woman shrugged. “It was obvious that you were not happy with Neji's announcement. All the girls could see it. The guys, however, are denser. They think that everything's always fine.”

 

Safaia sighed and her whole body seemed to droop- out of relief, Sakura sensed. “I do not love Neji. He told me a few weeks ago that he loved me, but I was unable to return the sentiment.”

 

“Ino mentioned something like that,” Sakura murmured, nodding.

 

“Then tonight, he caught me off guard and asked me to marry him. I told him over and over that I needed time to think, but…”

 

“But he wouldn't take that as an answer.”

 

“No.” Safaia lifted her sapphire eyes to Sakura's emerald ones. Sakura's heart filled with sympathy at the tears in those azure orbs. “Ino told me that marriage is a need to be with one special person that you just can't live the rest of your life without, someone you love with all your heart.”

 

“So you've learned what love is?”

 

“Yes,” Safaia replied sadly. “After watching you and Hokage Naruto… Ino and Chouji… Kiba and Hinata… I know what love really is and how it is supposed to be. Neji is not the man I love like that.”

 

Not the man I love like that… Realization dawned, even though Sakura had suspected it, on a much lesser level. “Gaara,” she said simply.

 

Safaia nodded, tears slipping down her alabaster cheeks. “Gaara.”

 

“If I may ask,” Sakura pondered, “How? You have not seen him nor talked to him in weeks. How do you know that you love him?”

 

Safaia looked up at her friend and smiled. The effect nearly lit up the dim atmosphere of the balcony. “I knew. Gobi knew. She told me, when Gaara and the others came for me. That is the reason she told me to leave with them.”

 

“That doesn't make a whole lot of sense,” Sakura muttered.

 

“It didn't to me either at the time,” Safaia continued. “I was more attracted to Neji at the time, because of his kindness and helpful attitude. But the more I talked with Gaara and got to know him, and all he's gone through because of Shukaku, I realized that he and I were very similar. We both had monsters inside us, who made us what we are today. But Gaara had Naruto and the rest of your friends to help him when the time came. I only had Gobi. Gaara helped me to see that this was my opportunity to become more than just a Jinchuriki- to be normal.”

 

“Gaara's been much more normal in the last few years,” Sakura agreed. “Although, when Gobi was sealed away inside you, he changed. He left Konoha and wouldn't come back. Do you know why?”

 

Safaia looked at the ground guiltily. “That would be my fault.” She leaned her head back and stared up at the moon. “When my sight was restored, and I saw him for the first time, I was afraid.” She held up a hand to hold off Sakura's assumption. “Not because I found him repulsive- quite the opposite!” She smiled gently. “Because a man that powerful, that attractive, that… amazing… needs a woman worthy of him at his side. He is the Kazekage of Suna and deserves a shinobi that can help to protect his country, not a worthless farm girl like me.”

 

“So you pushed him away because you felt that you were undeserving of his attentions?” Sakura asked. Safaia nodded. “Baka!” the pink-haired woman exploded, causing Safaia to blink in surprise. “He's been absolutely miserable because he thought you preferred Neji to him! Do you really want him to continue on like that because you think you know what he wants?”

 

“But-!”

 

“But nothing! I can't believe you'd be so cruel…” Sakura huffed. “Gaara is more than capable of knowing what and who he wants. It was his decision to make- not yours!”

 

She was right. Safaia knew it. And it completely broke her heart to know that she was the cause of Gaara's mood and seclusion from those who worried about him. No wonder she had not heard from him in six weeks. She had succeeded in pushing him away- all the way back to Suna.

 

And now they were both miserable.

 

“He left, didn't he…” Safaia murmured. “When Neji told everyone that I agreed to marry him.”

 

“Probably,” Sakura replied hotly. Then she softened. “And although I should be furious with you, I can't really fault you. You didn't know any better, and without even Gobi to guide you, you were just doing what you thought was best for Gaara. That, right there, is proof that you truly care for him- by putting his desires before your own.”

 

“I love him, Sakura,” Safaia confessed, tears dripping from her chin to land on the cement wall. “I love him so much… I tried to forget about him, to move on and let him live his life as he's supposed to, but I can't. He fills my thoughts every day and appears in my dreams at night. I'm connected to him somehow… but he doesn't know it.”

 

“Then maybe you need to tell him?” Sakura asked, wincing slightly and placing a hand on her overripe belly.

 

A shadow dropped down from the roof, causing Sakura to take up a defensive stance between the intruder and Safaia. Even at eight and a half months pregnant, she was a shinobi. Emerald eyes narrowed at the shadow.

 

“She just did,” said a familiar voice.

 

Sakura and Safaia both straightened up in surprise. Safaia took a few shaky steps forward. “G-Gaara?” she stammered, her eyes wide. “I… I thought… I thought you…”

 

“Left?” Gaara stepped out of the shadows, his face unreadable. “I wanted to. But after all the work Sakura and the others went through to throw this party for me, it wouldn't have been good politics.”

 

Sakura covered her mouth as she fought a giggle. Like Gaara really cares about politics when it comes to Konoha…She nodded instead. “I think I'll go… see what Naruto's up to.” The pink-haired woman excused herself and disappeared back inside the building.

 

Safaia stared up at Gaara where he stood nearly halfway across the balcony from her. In the moonlight, he looked even more handsome- and even more dangerous. His black-rimmed eyes were locked on her, unblinking. She swallowed.

 

“G-G-Gaara…” she managed to say, “I… I'm so sorry…”

 

“You did not tell Neji you would marry him?” He sounded rather uninterested.

 

She shook her head. “No- I asked for time to think it over, because I didn't want to hurt his feelings. He has been very kind to me.”

 

“So I've heard.”

 

Safaia blushed. “What… what else… did you hear?”

 

Gaara stepped closer, until he was within an arm's reach from her. His aquamarine eyes were soft for once. “I heard enough.”

 

“As did I.”

 

The couple on the balcony looked up, startled, at a new figure balancing on the edge of the cement wall. Gaara's eyes narrowed. “Kabuto.”

 

The silver-haired spy bowed. “Gaara. Or should I say, Kazekage.”

 

“You should say nothing, since your presence here signals your death,” Gaara murmured, his face a death-mask.

 

“I have no business with an empty shell like you,” Kabuto replied cheerfully. “I'm here- for the Five-tails and the Nine-tails.”

 

“Naruto would never fall into your hands,” Safaia cried as Gaara placed his body in front of hers, blocking her from Kabuto.

 

Kabuto grinned and snapped his fingers. “Oh, I think he will.” Another figure appeared beside him, holding-

 

“Sakura!” Gaara and Safaia called out together. Kabuto used that opportunity to fling a ninja wire out and snag the lovely woman off her feet and into his grasp. She barely had time to reach out a hand toward the Kazekage. “Gaara!”

 

“Safaia!” He jumped up and tried to grasp her hand, but Kabuto was way ahead of him.

 

“Tell the Hokage that if he wants his wife and his unborn child back unharmed, he has to turn himself and the Kyuubi over to me. I await his arrival at Orochimaru's underground palace in the Hidden Village of Sound in three days' time.”

 

Gaara made a seal with his hand and summoned what little sand he could- most of it from his sand armor, which he always wore. It left him vulnerable, but to save Safaia… With a gesture, he sent the sand after Kabuto, who dodged it nimbly, despite the woman in his arms.

 

“If your sand manages to catch me, you'll end up trapping the Jinchuriki with me. We'll both be crushed. Do you really want that?” Kabuto flung a kunai at Gaara, knowing the sand would cease its pursuit of him and protect its commander from the attack.

 

Gaara scowled as the sand did exactly that. With a final smirk, the Sound shinobi vanished, along with his accomplice who bore Sakura.

 

“Dammit!” Gaara growled, turning and running full speed back inside the building, intent on finding his fellow Kage as soon as possible. Why did this have to happen now? Just when…

 

Ignoring the startled looks from the gathered villagers, Gaara raced through the crowd, searching for his friends.

 

I swear to you, Safaia, I will save you. And once you're back in my arms again, I won't ever let you go. I promise.

 

-------------------------

 

Naruto scratched his head, looking rather puzzled. “Any of you guys seen Sakura?”

 

Ino shook her head and Hinata looked worried. “I haven't seen her in some time. Perhaps she went out with Safaia to get some fresh air?”

 

Naruto looked slightly embarrassed. “Hinata, would you mind…?”

 

She smiled. “Of course not.” She focused her mind. “Byakkugan!”

 

Sorting through the multitude of Konoha guests, she was startled to see a figure running full force through the room, dodging people left and right as it headed straight for them. “Naruto- Gaara's coming! And he looks frantic!”

 

“Frantic? Gaara?” Naruto immediately went on alert. He nodded at Hinata and Ino to inform the others as he waited where he was for his friend to find him.

 

“Naruto!” Gaara called as he finally broke through the crowd. The blonde man moved forward to meet him.

 

“What happened? What's wrong?”

 

“Kabuto,” Gaara replied, his voice as hard as steel. “He appeared on the balcony just now. He took Safaia and he demanded that you hand yourself over as well. He wants Kyuubi.”

 

“That's nothing new,” Naruto grunted. “He won't get either one of us.”

 

“There's more,” Gaara said, putting a hand on Naruto's chest to stop him from running off. “He's got Sakura. He says he'll trade her and your unborn baby for the Kyuubi.”

 

Naruto went completely still. His eyes, wide in a mixture of shock and horror, stared at the doorway to the balcony without really seeing it. “That… fucking… bastard,” he growled, his eyes having gone from blue to red, the pupils now thin black slits. The black “whiskers” on his cheeks became more pronounced. His hands, which were clenched into fists, dripped blood from where his now-lengthened nails- or rather, claws- had dug into his palms.

 

“Naruto, no!” Gaara placed both hands on the furious man's shoulders to try and stop the transformation. “You cannot help Sakura by doing something impulsive! You need to gather everyone together and set a squad to follow Kabuto! For now, you need to think like a Hokage, not a husband and father!”

 

Slowly the transformation reversed itself, but the underlying anger still stirred underneath Naruto's well-honed control. “We'll get them back, Gaara,” he promised his friend as the others came running up to where they stood. “Both of them. I promise you. And Kabuto will meet his master again- in the afterlife.”

 

-oOo-oOo-oOo-

 

A/N: Hugs and kisses out to those lovely, loyal readers on FF- SilverAngel906, Dog of the Dead, DaydreamerMagby, moongrace, darkheartscollide, sakura li 19, and gazer of life, and the few faithful on MediaMiner- djohnson, DarkestDragon102894, ren-hatake, and japhy. Many many thanks to everyone!