Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Flowers in the Sand ❯ Chapter 27

Wow… I guess people like it when Gaara's naughty… O.O Heh heh… so do I! Anyways, as promised, here's the next chapter. I work a ton of hours this week and I've got a very difficult lab due for my computer class, so I probably won't be able to update until next weekend. So here's something to tide you over until then!

 

Chapter 27

 

The scent of fear filled Gobi's nostrils as she bared her fangs at Tenten, who was now pinned beneath her paws. She growled, her attention focused on this woman (“bitch” is not an insult if you're a dog, so…) who was at her mercy.

 

Tenten struggled slightly under the almost-crushing weight of the huge white dog's paws. “Wait!” she gasped, trying hard to get air into her lungs, “let me…!”

 

“You... kissed… MY… mate,” Gobi snarled, narrowing her golden eyes and moving her fangs that much closer to Tenten's neck. “Give me one good reason I shouldn't rip your throat out…”

 

“Safaia, no! Stop!” Gaara called out. He flung out a hand and summoned what little sand he could from the surrounding soil and managed to get a thin tendril to snake its way over to the transformed girl. “You do not understand!”

 

Neji pressed the edge of the kunai against Gaara's unshielded skin. “I understand that you took advantage of Tenten,” he hissed, low and serious. “What right have you to touch her?”

 

Gaara's aquamarine eyes shifted back to Neji's white ones. He scowled slightly. “Tenten does not belong to you,” he replied in the same deadly tone. “You ignored her when she confessed her love to you, did you not?”

 

Neji's eyes widened and his aggressive stance faltered slightly. “N-no… I… I…”

 

The Kazekage took that opportunity to kick the man off of him, sending him flying into a tree. As Neji hit the trunk with a whack, Gaara was headed for Gobi and Tenten.

 

Gobi ignored everything else going on around her- her mind was completely focused on the woman struggling under her paws. Her instincts screamed at her to teach this female a lesson for messing with another bitch's mate.

 

Suddenly, she was pulled off Tenten by a thin stream of sand. Standing on her back legs, her front legs windmilled the air as she fought for balance even though the sand held her upright. She turned her gaze around to see Gaara behind her, his hand stretched out as he fought to control what little sand he had managed to summon. “Safaia,” he murmured, locking gazes with the huge white dog, “come back. Please.”

 

Gobi bowed her head in deference to his request. Slowly the transformation took over and within moments she was human again. Safaia stood there silently, her head lowered and her hands clasped in front of her.

 

Gaara couldn't take his eyes off her. She was garbed in his colors- although her gown was a shade or two darker than his Kazekage robes. Her hair was pulled back and held with two silver sticks, and several strands had managed to escape and were now dancing delicately around her face. This is what she had worn to marry Neji? He didn't understand.

 

“Safaia?”

 

“You… kissed… her,” she whispered, disbelieving.

 

He almost smiled. Almost. “You were about to marry Neji,” he pointed out. “Why should you care who I kiss?”

 

Her gaze snapped up and he was slightly surprised to see her eyes were bright with unshed tears. “I was not marrying Neji because I love him,” she whispered.

 

“I never claimed you were.”

 

She nearly winced at his cold tone. She changed the subject slightly. “Why… why were you kissing… her?”

 

“We are to be wed this afternoon.”

 

Safaia stared at him in absolute shock. “You… are marrying… Tenten?”

 

He managed to shrug nonchalantly. “What does love have to do with marriage, after all? I was in need of a wife, just like Neji. Tenten had told your betrothed that she loved him and he ignored her confession. So I simply offered her a position as my wife instead of his.” He fought against the pain clenching his heart at saying such hurtful words, but that was what Tenten had instructed him to say.

 

“…I… I see…”

 

Tenten, in the meantime, had managed to catch her breath and was now over with Neji, who was looking rather shaken after being thrown into a tree by an irate Kazekage. She carefully ran her hands over him, checking for broken bones and other wounds. “Neji… Neji, are you okay?”

 

He shook his head violently, as if trying to get his brains back where they were supposed to be. “I…” He looked up and stared into Tenten's chocolate brown eyes. “What the hell were you doing?” he snapped.

 

She blinked. Then her expression turned cold. “You refused to acknowledge me, so I decided to move on. Gaara is in need of a wife too, now, since you stole his woman…”

 

“I did not steal her. He never acted like he wanted her. And why are you so upset? I proposed before I even knew how you felt about me.”

 

“Would that have even mattered? Even after you knew, you still had time to call it off! But instead you stubbornly plodded on, ignoring the fact that you were making everyone miserable!”

 

Neji opened his mouth to retort and paused. He regarded his teammate for a moment. “Everyone? What do you mean?”

 

Tenten nearly threw her hands up in the air in irritation. “Everyone in Konoha knows how Gaara and Safaia feel about each other except you! And you ignored that and went ahead and only focused on what Neji wanted! This whole mess has made everyone royally irritated with you and your holier-than-thou attitude!”

 

Neji was quiet as he turned his gaze to the forest floor. Finally he spoke, quietly. “I was… uncertain,” he told her.

 

“Uncertain?” She blinked. “Of what?”

 

“Of if it would work,” he replied, still not looking at her. “Between you and I.”

 

Now she looked confused. “Why wouldn't it? We've been together for years!”

 

“But not as… anything more than friends. I didn't want it to become difficult.”

 

“Baka!” she yelled, causing him to wince. “Ino and Chouji were teammates before they married! Not to mention Naruto and Sakura! And what about Kiba and Hinata? They were all teammates before they got married, and they're all doing just fine!”

 

He took a deep breath, aware that he might as well explain himself before she got any angrier at him. “I know how important being a kunoichi is to you,” he told her. “My wife needs to be focused on family first and foremost. I have a responsibility-“

 

“To sire the next generation of Hyuuga heirs and continue the bloodline,” Tenten finished, looking exasperated. “I know this! And you know as well as I do that I'm only a mediocre ninja- and I don't want to risk my platoon's lives because I can't keep up. I know enough to protect my family if it comes to that and I am perfectly capable of training my children.”

 

Neji tried to shake his head in denial. “You never mentioned-“

 

“Of course not! I didn't want you to think I was a weakling! How could I hope to earn your respect, and then your love, if I showed any weakness?”

 

He looked at her oddly. “You know I do not consider you weak any longer, Tenten.”

 

“That's because I refused to show weakness!” she snapped. Then her expression softened and her voice grew loving, yet sad. “But you, you baka man… you are my weakness. And this just proves that I can't fight it any longer.”

 

Neji opened his mouth to ask something but Tenten cut off his query with a deep, lingering kiss that pretty much caused any thoughts inside his head to dissolve into mush. Gooey, squishy, happy mush.

 

Safaia saw the kiss and pointed it out to Gaara. “It looks like your fiancée is kissing another man,” she told him.

 

Looks like the game is over, Gaara thought. He looked at Safaia. “You do not seem to be overly upset that Neji is kissing Tenten,” he observed. “Why did you attack her when she kissed me?”

 

Safaia blushed. “I told you- I do not love Neji.” She looked away, her blush increasing. “I love you.”

 

Somewhere inside Gaara's chest, his heart exploded into blue and white fireworks. He turned toward her slowly. He had known, because he had heard her tell Sakura the night of his celebration party, but it was a whole different feeling now that she finally said those three little words to him, directly to him. He took a step toward her…

 

“Gaara!” Naruto appeared out of nowhere and wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulders. “You big stud! Who knew you were such a ladies' man?” He winked one bright blue eye.

 

Gaara gave him a bored look that promised a slow, painful death. “Your imagination runs away with you again, Hokage.”

 

Shikamaru dropped down from the trees with Kiba and Chouji right behind him. “No one's dead yet, are they?” he asked. “That'd be really troublesome to try and explain.”

 

Kiba nearly spazzed as he spied Tenten still firmly lip-locked with Neji- who was actually starting to take some initiative and deepen the kiss. “Oh… dear… God… I seriously didn't need to see that…”

 

Chouji chuckled. “Nothing like seeing one's relatives making out in broad daylight to make you nauseous, eh, Kiba?”

 

“How would you know? And I seriously doubt you've ever thrown up in your entire lifetime.”

 

“Nope. Waste of food.”

 

“Ewwwww…” Safaia shuddered. “Can you talk about something else?”

 

The four men looked at her in surprise. “Hey, Safaia,” Kiba said, pointing a finger at her in a rather stupid gesture, “are you…?”

 

“Smiling?” Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji finished at the same time.

 

Indeed. Safaia was smiling brilliantly, nearly lighting up the area with her loveliness. “So what if I am?”

 

Naruto poked Gaara, a feat which would've been impossible if the man weren't totally captivated by Safaia's beauty. “What did you say to her?” he whispered, looking suspiciously out of the corner of his eye at his red-haired friend.

 

“Nothing yet,” he replied. He put a finger on Naruto's forehead and pushed the blonde man out of the way so he could move closer to Safaia. Naruto stumbled backward toward his three friends.

 

“Twenty dollars says he kisses her,” Kiba told Shikamaru.

 

“Thirty says she kisses him,” Chouji replied.

 

“Forty dollars and a trip to Ichiraku's for a week says he kidnaps her,” Naruto added.

 

Shikamaru sighed wearily. “In case you bakas hadn't noticed, Gaara and Safaia are simply walking over to where Neji and Tenten are currently stuck together at the lips.”

 

The three men blinked at the spot where Gaara and Safaia had previously occupied. Looking over at Neji and Tenten, they saw that, indeed, Gaara was walking quite purposefully over toward the oblivious couple, Safaia's delicate hand in his, their white robes flowing behind them.

 

“They're well matched,” Chouji observed.

 

Naruto nodded as he crossed his arms. “'Bout time Neji figured that out too.”

 

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

 

“Neji.”

 

The distracted man managed to pry himself away from the previously undiscovered delights of Tenten's lips to blink at the couple now looking down at them. “…Eh?” was all he managed to say- Tenten had done a good job of turning his genius to unintelligible mono-syllables.

 

“Release Safaia,” Gaara told him, his face serious. “She will be my wife, not yours.”

 

Neji glanced over at Safaia, who stood by Gaara's side as if she belonged there. He noticed that they seemed to complete each other just by being together. What had he been thinking? The pressure to marry and fulfill his responsibilities had completely overridden his common sense and observant nature. Otherwise he would have realized that Safaia had never been his- her soul belonged to Gaara, and his to her.

 

Lee's words drifted back to him. “She never would have been happy with me- her soul already belonged to someone else…”

 

“Then release Tenten,” he replied, returning the grim expression. “So that I may marry her.”

 

Tenten gasped. “You mean it? You want to?”

 

“If you will forgive a fool,” he murmured, looking back at her.

 

She appeared as if she were about to cry. “Oh, Neji…”

 

“Do we have a deal, then?” Gaara interrupted before Tenten could distract Neji again.

 

“One condition.”

 

Safaia, Tenten, and Gaara all paused. What could he want?

 

“That you and Safaia attend my wedding to Tenten today.”

 

Tenten held in a squeal of delight. Safaia smiled at Gaara. His aquamarine eyes softened at her. He turned and nodded at Neji. “I want to witness it myself, regardless,” he told the white-eyed man. “I prefer knowing that you are no longer interested in taking Safaia for yourself.”

 

Neji actually chuckled. “I can deal with a woman that can pull weapons out of nowhere when she's mad,” he replied with a grin, “but one that can transform at will and rip out my throat? I'll leave that to you.”

 

Tenten and Safaia both laughed out loud and even Gaara allowed himself a rare smile of genuine amusement.

 

-oOo-oOo-oOo-

 

One or two more chapters, folks, then the Epilogue! Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing- you are all wonderful!

 

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