Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Konoha Nights ❯ The Message ( Chapter 13 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Konoha Nights

GaaxSaku

The Message

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Sakura had never woken up to the smell of food being cooked that wasn't ramen. So when the alluring scent of food, and good food at that, found her she begrudgingly went to freshen up before heading towards the kitchen. The nest that once was smooth pink hair was crying for a brush but she just ran her fingers lightly through it, Gaara wasn't exactly the type to care what she looked like anyway.

Pulling at the black t-shirt that was three times to big for her frame she rounded the corner and froze at the sight of many containers of takeout on the kitchen table and Gaara already digging in. “I thought you said you would never do take out?”

He didn't even stop his eating and she only shrugged before sitting down on the opposite side grabbing the chopsticks. `Who cares,' she thought to herself. She was finally getting something other than her and Gaara's attempts at cooking, which weren't too great considering her specialty was ramen and cookies and his was basic and simple shinobi dishes.

Grabbing the closest box to her, she opened it and helped herself, “How did you know where to call?”

“There was a number on your refrigerator door,” he said after swallowing his mouthful.

Looking towards her kitchen, there was indeed a business card held up with an immature cow magnet. How in the hell it had made its way there was indeed a mystery, both the magnet and the business card. “Did the delivery boy say anything to you? I've been trying to get that poor boy to speak or at least take my money but he pretty much throws the food at me and runs.”

Where those sweet dumplings? Her mouth watered, oh yeah, Gaara had definitely caught on to her eating habits.

“I did not have that problem; in fact he was too talkative for my tastes so I gave him extra to leave.”

How in the hell had he managed to get a word out of him? She'd been trying to get him to speak to her for over three years! Was it-

“It would be wise for you to close your mouth when there's food in it.”

Sakura snapped her jaw shut, not sure when she had let her jaw drop in the first place. “That's so unfair.”

“What is?”

Sighing she took a bite of sushi instead, “Nothing.” Looking into the next box, she stopped for a second before looking through the other ones also. She would have laughed aloud if she could have gotten away with not having to explain herself. Was that gizzard? Sakura was well known for having strange eating habits, that mainly being that she ate just about anything. But what really made people uneasy about her meals was how she would eat something that didn't really belong with something else. Ino had commented that she ate like a pregnant woman when she always ate breakfast foods for dinner and lunch at breakfast and then sometimes all together.

But apparently she had found her match with Gaara who also ate a variety of weird dishes. Come on, salted tongue for breakfast? Her amusement did not slip past the Ichibi, but he wisely didn't say a word. Sleep, food and sex were the things that this woman had to have frequently and plenty of, and she also didn't like disruptions during any of them. Not that he particularly cared about keeping her happy, he just didn't want her going back to her old habits while he was still here.

Finishing with his share, he discarded the empty boxes and headed towards the bathroom with clothes. He smirked at his success of his mission: lure the pink haired woman out of the bed with food.

They had an appointment with the Jiraiya today and tardiness was never acceptable. Climbing into the tub, he let the spray of cold-water wash over him grateful that it was cold instead of scalding today. The plumbing here was one of the strangest he'd ever seen. It was rare to get an in between and the safest bet was usually cold over hot. After a quick shower, he dressed into some loose black pants, fishnet shirt and then a black long sleeved shirt over it. Sliding the door open, he found Sakura already dressed sitting on the bed with her legs crossed.

He studied her attire a moment before going to retrieve his gourd and strap it on. The woman had already sensed his stare and read his thoughts, “I don't particularly like wearing kimonos, but Jiraiya will lecture me to no end about how I should try to put more effort into my appearance when I'm in the Hokage office. Trust me; it's just easier if I suffer a few hours like than listen to his bullshit.”

Standing she let pulled the black silk kimono down before habitually fixing her hair that she had pulled back into a knot. It was odd seeing her in clothes, or rather clothes that covered her entire body, the last time she'd been this formally put together had been the Uzumaki ceremony. It had only been a week ago, yet it felt like more time had passed since then.

“Why are we going to the Hokage office?”

She huffed and put her arms down from her hair, “Jiraiya says that it's the safest place to discuss matters regarding a treaty. But the truth is that he likes sticking close to the tower incase someone should target his sensei Sarutobi-sama, he still hadn't quite recovered from the last attack launched by Orochimaru.”

“Hn.”

They left the apartment and made their way towards the tower. It was odd actually being out during daylight hours, he hadn't been outside during the day all week. Sakura as always, took his arm, led him to the tower, and gained them access at the gate. The two ABNU at the door didn't even question their purpose only nodded respectfully towards the pink haired woman.

Reaching a large red door Gaara could already hear the loud chatter of Uzumaki Naruto and the deep laughter of Jiraiya. `They were probably drinking.' Walking into the room after Sakura, his suspicions were correct when he saw several bottles of sake all over the massive oak table.

“Naruto what a surprise, I didn't expect you here,” she said before Naruto seized talking and ran over to hug her. Gaara hadn't realized he'd glared at him until the blonde stopped two steps away from her arms still open.

“Oh, yeah sorry about that Gaara, old habits die hard,” he muttered.

Sakura turned back towards him surprised and he only shrugged before unlatching the gourd and seating himself next to Jiraiya. They started drafting and it didn't take very long for Sakura and the kyuubi to get in a heated discussion about the best way to `word' something and she retaliated by giving him a new knot on his head. Gaara's opinion was only important during certain matters and he was content with only listening to them do the work and watch.

“She's just like her mother,” Jiraiya whispered quietly to himself unaware that Gaara had heard him. It was strange seeing such a powerful old man with emotion in his eyes. He'd never met Sakura's mother, only seen a picture of her back in Suna, but from what he could see there was absolutely no resemblance between them, so the old man must have been talking about her personality. Gaara turned back to look across the table at Sakura laughing genuinely at something the blonde had said twirling the bottle of sake in her hand.

Naruto slid a scroll across the table to him, “Hey man, what do you think about this one, will that old hag of yours go for it?”

“Naruto! That's not her name, it's Chiyo,” she yelled and the kyuubi cowered quickly, “Geez, I'm sorry, all old people are the same to me.”

Taking the scroll, he read over it carefully and then reached for a pen and made a few corrections.

Meanwhile Jiraiya was having trouble not laughing at the sight of someone correcting Sakura's work, oblivious to the deadly intent from across the table. It had been a weird twist of fate indeed to have the past Kazekage's son with them for the drafting. Although Sakura had said that he declined the offer to become the next in line, he would still help with the draft and with proposing it in a way that Suna would find beneficial to them. His name and the fact that he was a jinchuuriki would add a lot of weight to the proposition also.

Taking another sip of sake he watched as the Ichibi interacted with the other two at the table. Glancing at Naruto, he wondered if he noticed how Sakura kept finishing Gaara's sentences. Contrary to popular belief, Naruto was not an airhead with everything and in fact, he was usually pretty good and picking up people's emotions and body language. He'd have to ask him about it later, the Ichibi had actually corrected Sakura again and he wanted to see her reaction. Did she just smile? Hell was going to freeze over.

It was obvious from the day at the wedding that Gaara was only comfortable around these two, and now he seemed even more at ease around them, Sakura a bit more though. Jiraiya silently mused if Gaara knew the real reason why he did.

The Ichibi vessel had turned out to be a great asset to Konoha and he owed Sakura for ever mentioning brining him here. He was smart, deadly and had the patience of a god if he was friends with `loud mouth' and `temper'. The night of the wedding he had easily seen through Jiraiya's drunken front and when he approached him remarked, “Drop the act,” before jumping right into business.

He was fine man indeed and he hoped he would be of service to Konoha in the civil war that was about to take place; and to help heal Sakura's own insecurities. Judging by how he had practically growled at Naruto for attempting to hug her and by how he was watching her out of the corner of his eye, something told him that maybe he was helping her as well as himself. A pair of aquamarine eyes promised him death and Jiraiya looked away chuckling anyway.

Naruto stood stretching in an exasperated manner, “Alright, I'm outta here, Hinata's gonna have my head if I'm not back by dinner.”

All heads turned to the clock on the wall and it showed a quarter till six. “Good job Naruto, head on out I'm sure Sakura and Gaara won't mind finishing the last bit.”

This time two pairs of eyes promised him death and Jiraiya visibly swallowed. “Heh. Heh. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, I'll be more than happy to help,” he amended and the deadly waves seized. This time Naruto didn't even bother to hug his beloved Sakura-chan and instead just waved to them all before slamming the red door behind him.

“Idiot.” “Brat.” “Hn.”

Sighing Sakura looked over the drafts before handing them the pervert, “Here, we have it done we just need you to make sure everything we've promised can actually be followed through with.”

Reluctantly parting from his sake, which she snatched away immediately, he grabbed the scroll and began reading. “Whoa, you three did a really good job on this, if I didn't know that you'd beat my head in Sakura, I'd recommend you for the new council position that just opened.”

“Ha. Ha,” she said sarcastically. “We're done so we're outta here,” she said stretching in the same manner Naruto had and this time Jiraiya was positive he knew exactly what the look in Gaara's eyes meant. He chuckled inside, not stupid enough to do it out loud or face the wrath of two very strong and deadly-

“Take that leering grin off your face old man and don't put off finalizing the treaty. I want Gaara to have it as soon as possible,” she ordered walking around the table and linking her arm through Gaara's who was relatching the gourd, “Ja ne.”

“Right,” he agreed and returned the maroon haired man's nod before the door closed behind them.

Their steps echoed down the empty corridor as they made their way back out. Sensing a weird chakra Gaara quickly preformed his third eye jutsu and sent the eye on its way. The chakra source was coming from another hallway back and he concentrated on it. Finding the said person, they eye reported back the image; it was the same woman he'd seen at the flower shop. Shizune, he believed, was dressed in a black hooded cloak with another person walking next to her in the same attire. And together entered the same office they had just occupied.

Dispelling the image, he decided to not tell Sakura, but he would question the sennin later. It was already dark out and he wondered if she was going to make him stop to eat out again. They hadn't done so since the last incident, but she had a weird way of getting into `moods' and then following through with them. Thankfully, they made it back to the apartment without comment and she immediately began taking off her clothes and heading towards the kitchen.

“Damn, it looks like we're going to have to do take out, we're running low on groceries again,” she called out from the kitchen. Following suite, he too deposited the gourd near the recliner and pulled off the long sleeved shirt. The only thing constant in her apartment was the temperature of the rooms, all rooms but the bedroom were a warmer temperature, while the bedroom remained a bit cold. He suspected it had something to do with the fact that she liked sleeping under large overbearing comforters.

He could hear her dialing and placing a very large order, which made sense considering they'd skipped lunch, but he wasn't even close to being hungry. He leaned in the entryway watching her count off items of food with her fingers as she talked, “Oh yeah and could you add two orders of gizzard for me please?”

His eyes roamed over her exposed flesh, only covered by a lacy bra and black thong, a far cry from what she use to wear.

“Yes, gizzard,” she repeated into the phone.

“Yeah okay, thanks again!” Ending the phone call, she set the cordless on the counter before leaning against him.

“We have half an hour,” she raised her eyebrows suggestively, “Have anything in mind that we could do?” Her question may have been innocent, but her actions sure as hell weren't as they were currently undoing his pants and then kissing his neck.

Gaara wasn't one for playing games, or for being the submissive one, so he easily finished disposing her of her clothes, before lifting her up and sitting her up on the kitchen counter. It was a very good thing indeed that they didn't cook or things could get messy fast.

She pulled the fishnet shirt over his head before returning to kiss his jawbone. Before things could get any further, a large black hawk flew in through the open window in the living room. He chose to ignore it, but when Sakura saw it, she instantly paled and maneuvered her way down. She ran to the bird and took whatever was in its beak before turning around alarmed, “Gaara get dressed immediately we have to get to Hinata now.”

She petted the bird twice and then ran down the hallway towards her room pulling her hair down as she went. Begrudingly Gaara readjusted his pants and shot the hawk a dirty look before bending down to grab his shirt. He could distinctly hear lots of movement down the hall but put on his outer shirt and gourd before going to her.

Turning into the hallway, he could already see boxes and open ones with stuff coming out of them. The bedroom wasn't much better and he was positive she had dragged everything out of the black hole she liked to call her closet. He could barely see her over one of the boxes, but when he heard her victory `ah ha!' she popped up and smiled.

That damn smile of hers was having an interesting effect on him as of late, and he wasn't quite sure he wanted to interpret the meaning. “Find something?” he asked monotonously and she just nodded with more vigor.

“Come here,” she said looking around for a place to sit and then decided on the bed. “We don't have much time, but I need another favor to ask of you,” she placed a medium sized mahogany box in front of him.

“Whenever you decide to go back to Suna, I need you to stop by the monastery in River Country that Kakashi sensei and I stayed at and take them this box. Inside is a large portion of the money I've earned since coming here, and even though it isn't `pure' money, I wanted to repay them for everything they did for me,” he could tell she was troubled by the way she glanced more around the room that at him. “There's a map in there to help you.”

“Alright.”

“Really?” she asked disbelievingly before jumping over the box and hugging him. He was partially grateful she had on a shirt and real underwear. “Thank you so much.”

Remembering her earlier rush, she disengaged herself and began looking through the drawers for something before pulling out the rosary. She twirled the beads a few times in her hand before opening the box and placing them in it. “Heh, I've had these for far too long anyway,” she said to herself.

Breathing deeply she went back to the closet and pulled out shorts, shin guards, boots and a skirt that went over the shorts. Pulling out a worn bag, she loaded up most of the kunai, sebon, bandages and shuriken before putting it on. “Are you ready?” she asked over her shoulder as she pulled her hair into a high ponytail.

“Yes.”

“Great, lets' go,” she replied before going to the bedroom window and opening it and dropping down outside. Gaara followed suite and kept pace with her as she lead them deeper into Konoha. It was odd seeing her in this manner, it didn't help she was wearing an incredibly short skirt that showed her long ivory legs. As far as he knew she was warm natured and the chilly October winds showed no mercy. Her speed was ridiculous and he was actually having to put forth the effort to keep up.

“What's going on?” he asked after getting close enough to converse without drawing attention to the two figures flying by the city.

She looked surprised that he had spoken and blinked rapidly a few times before responding, “Oh; um…our flower shop isn't just a flower shop,” they landed on the rooftop of a pharmacy before jumping off again. “Few of the elite shinobi here in Konoha use an ancient language of flowers to communicate with each other without having to resort to code.”

That would explain the excessive amounts of freezers on the lowest floor…..

“It was very popular when Konoha was first established, but more sophisticated methods were developed and it took a long time to learn the language of flowers. So only a few actually know of it and even less know how to use it.”

Gaara observed that this part of the city, although deserted, looked more prosperous than the rest of it. “Anyway, it was a requirement when I started at Ivy's so everyone you've seen there uses it. It is a fairly simple method, all you have to do is tell one of the trained hawks which flower and they retrieve it. Neji gave us full permission to use his collection of hawks for these tasks and the one that visited us is only used by Hinata,” she said clenching her fist and increasing her speed.

“And the two flower petals that he held in its beak weren't good news.”

“What do they mean?”

“The first was from an achillea, which stands for war; and the other was a black rose petal that symbolizes………death or someone is in a lot of danger,” when they landed on a red roof toped house she stopped. “I'm glad you're with me Gaara,” she whispered before jumping down to the ground bellow.

The modest house was surrounded by gardens on all sides and the different fragrances assaulted his sensitive nose. How could Uzumaki stand such smell? The pink haired woman once again running full speed, slid the front door open, and ran inside. Gaara followed, only not as hasty and found Hinata sobbing miserably on the floor with the bun haired girl rubbing her back soothingly.

“Hinata! What's going on? Who's hurt?” Sakura continued her panicked babble while the indigo haired woman cried harder, he placed a hand on her shoulder and she slowed her questions finishing lastly with “Is it the baby?”

Hinata sniffed and wiped her eyes with her palms, “No…….sensei you have to help him,” she said shakily.

“Help who Hinata, tell me,” Sakura encouraged.

“It's Naruto sensei; Akatsuki's has Naruto.”

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BWAHAHAHAHA So how evil am I? Wasn't that a great cliff hanger? I like to think so.

SO before you kill me, let me go ahead and tell you WHY I did this….. You see from here on out it's going to be really `in your face, oh my god' and I wanted to take a breather before heading into it. As you can see I didn't follow through with my earlier claim that this chapter would be short, I added some fluff in there since people are about to die really fast. @___@ See you should be happy….. No? oops. Well it works in my head lol.

Gizzard and salted tongue are Gaara's fav foods according the data book, and sweet dumplings Sakura's.

Ja ne- goodbye

LoveShinobi4eva- lol your reviews always crack me up. Spanish can be fun, but Japanese is even better! I hope you're not too mad for this cliffhanger *dodges objects* he he, well, I'll try to have the next chapter up by the weekend k?

fLcL_FFx_lovr- thanks I was worried about that *__*

DarkAngel Rose XS- You're absolutely hilarious, I was lmao when I read your review. When I picture Kankuro I just see him as a dick, therefore, I write him as one =) And yes you are correct Gaara, was asked to become the Kazekage but he's like “no way I'm too hot to cover up this body!” lol. It's soooo true what you said about real life men compared to anime ones! *sobs* T - T Why oh why can't we have real life Gaaras and Itachis running around? WHY!!! *coughs* so yeah, I know I totally agree with this one, my significant other is like `you're living in a dream world, and I already know that you would choose your anime boys over me any day' lol Damn straight! Like he doesn't oogle Tsunade -_-