Walk right into it [GaaSaku]
Title: Walk right into it
Fandom: Naruto
Prompt: #14 - Sweeten 100_prompts
Character/Pairing: Sabaku no Gaara/Haruno Sakura
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2903
Summary: "The pink haired kunoichi swallowed. She was certain she would hate where her shishou was leading her. Curse her fellow Konoha nin and their efficiency when gathering information!"
Authors Notes: Continuation of Nearest Exit; third installment in the Partners-in-shadow series. Ain't done with this yet!
~~xxx~~
14. Sweeten
If she thought about it with hindsight, approaching him hadn’t actually been a choice. Once she spotted him, barking out orders and giving last minute instructions to his team, her feet were moving of their own accord while her lips curled up in an anticipating smile. The bustling nin camp was full of activity, people coming and going all around her, but this didn’t prevent her from easily spotting him on Suna’s side of the encampment.
This had been her first mistake; seeking him out openly and letting the world know she could handle a man such as him. That she didn’t mind being associated with the likes of Suna no Akaoni spoke volumes and to be honest, Sakura had never really given a damn about what others might think. The man was unpredictable and famous for his ruthlessness but as it was wont to happen in the ninja world they lived in, he really couldn’t be blamed for it. All of them, including the youngest apprentice, had been trained to be proficient killers since the very first days of their education. Learning, during the formative years of your life, how to end someone’s life in the most efficient way without thinking twice about it did things to you.
When it came down to it, all of them had more than a few loose screws.
So who was she to judge? Besides, you had to give Gaara credit; the man didn’t hide his twisted nature. He proclaimed it openly to the four winds and whoever didn’t like it be damned. Utterly unlike others who outwardly seemed to be the epitome of propriety but in truth only festered a writhing pit of malice on the inside. Those were the psychos one should steer clear from. Smiles and charm on the outside, sick sadists within. They were the ones a girl shouldn’t let through her door no matter how well-trained as a kunoichi she might be. Gaara on the other hand was honest in his perversity; predictable in his unpredictability.
If you saw a raging red demon wrecking havoc, then a raging red demon was what you got. It was straightforward. He wasn’t out to trick anyone.
This, Sakura admitted, was what had sparked her interest in him in the first place. The blatant way he’d behaved towards her had been, albeit somewhat upsetting at first, oddly refreshing. Suna no Akaoni expressed what he thought, not caring if his words or acts hurt the sensibilities of whoever he was dealing with. After spending an entire life filled with hidden intents and at all times looking ‘underneath the underneath’, Sakura had to confess that meeting someone who stuck to the policy of truth was greatly uplifting. It was a welcomed break in the often tiring routine of her life as a nin.
This was the reason why she didn’t hesitate in engaging him.
She caught up to him as he was giving final orders to a pair of young kunoichi who, to tell the truth, looked rather pale and were nodding fervently at whatever he was saying. Sakura chuckled, knowing very well that dealing with him as a superior while you were still in the lower nin ranks couldn’t be easy. It took a lot of backbone to deal with Suna no Akaoni; something she thankfully didn’t lack.
“So early in the morning and you’re already harassing the female population,” she said by way of greeting, “how very typical of you.”
His head whipped around at the sound of her voice. Jade eyes looked her over for a moment before his lips curved upwards. “If they did what they were told they wouldn’t need to be harassed.”
Sakura snorted. “If they didn’t have a tyrant for a captain, I’m sure they’d be perfectly fine.”
The girls in front of Gaara seemed to have completely lost the blood flow to their faces. They stood there, eyes wide with fear, looking like a pair of ghosts. One of them tried to lift her hand as if to warn Sakura but couldn’t find enough courage to complete the act. It was evident they thought the pink haired woman wouldn’t survive the encounter.
But instead of decapitating her, Suna no Akaoni merely looked amused. “That’s a matter of opinion, I’m afraid,” he replied, “if they didn’t have me they wouldn’t have made it this far.”
“I see you’ve had your dose of arrogance for breakfast,” Sakura answered. “Just make sure you don’t have another dose for lunch or else your ego won’t be able to walk out the door.”
That’s when she made her second mistake: she made him laugh. Haruno Sakura made Suna no Akaoni bark out with laughter.
The two girls couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was as if their taichou had transformed into a normal human being, something so unlikely it provoked trepidation in their hearts. Of course, it didn’t last long. He turned to them in the next instant, jade eyes hard, and dismissed them with a final cutting order. They didn’t miss their chance to escape and departed hurriedly to tell their companions about the uncanny event they’d just witnessed.
With his subordinates gone, Gaara turned towards Sakura to face her fully.
It was then that she realized she was looking at him during daylight hours for the very first time. His hair was a darker shade of crimson than she’d initially thought. It was the colour of blood, streaked through with tints of lighter red only revealed by the sun. The shade of his eyes was another revelation, an opaque viridian that made her think of crystals. In a parallel universe, one where he wasn’t a frenzied sand demon vent on destruction, he would have been a strikingly handsome man.
She caught herself staring when she realized he was doing exactly the same. His jade eyes had turned thoughtful as he glanced at her appreciatively, the ever-present devious glint in his orbs momentarily replaced by something else. Sakura caught herself wondering what he was thinking but self-preservation stopped her from asking.
Instead, she arched an eyebrow at him.
That wicked grin of his flashed in response. “I told you we would meet again.”
“Hmm, yes,” she conceded, “would you like your fortune teller tip for predicting the obvious?” She signalled with her hands to the congregated ninja forces all around them.
The encampment held the nin armies of several nations who had allied to fight Iwagakure, Suna and Konoha included. The rising Shogun’s attempt to control the continent had been predictably met with resistance on all fronts.
“If I remember correctly, you weren’t exactly concurring with my prediction,” Gaara replied.
“Can’t blame a girl for hanging on to the last hope of avoiding her harasser,” she said with an exaggerated sigh. “One can always dream.”
“Harasser?” the redhead asked arrogantly. “I think the term saviour is more apt.”
Sakura let out a loud, dry laugh. “He would naturally think I wouldn’t have been able to escape without his help. How could I have thought otherwise?”
“It shows just how poor your perception is,” he countered. “You should be thankful I came running along.”
“If my memory serves me right,” she replied, snickering softly, “it was my kunai that was almost buried in your throat.”
“And it was my sand strangling your neck.”
Sakura sighed. “An instance that should have forewarned me of your groping tendencies.”
“I do make an effort to be honest in my dealings,” the redhead replied, his grin widening.
She had to laugh at that, shoulders shaking with mirth. This inevitably caught the attention of some of the nin around them who turned to survey the couple with intriguing eyes. Becoming aware of this, Sakura cleared her throat and strove for sobriety. They were in a war camp after all.
A change of subject was in order. “When did you arrive?” she asked.
“Last night,” he replied, very much aware of prying eyes. If he’d had his way he would’ve preferred for their verbal sparring to take place somewhere private. Unfortunately this wasn’t an option; not with conflict brewing on the horizon. “We were slightly delayed because of the weather. But at least we managed to get here for the first council this afternoon.”
“From what I saw you’re already sending out teams,” Sakura replied, nodding towards the group he’d been addressing before. They were several feet away preparing for departure, checking supplies and readying their weapons.
“We can’t afford not to have any surveillance,” the redhead said, a grim look in his eyes. “I’ll be leading a reconnaissance team to see what our enemy is up to. If this alliance is going to work, we need to catch Iwagakure off guard to be able to topple their Shogun. For that we need the exact location of his troops and information on their activities.”
She nodded solemnly, agreeing wholeheartedly.
Gaara decided then and there that he didn’t like it when she was serious. He much preferred her expression when she was slashing out with her sharp tongue at him or when she was irritated by his words or, better yet, when she was laughing. Her laughter had a rather peculiar effect on him, he had to admit. It was akin to the sensation he’d experienced when he’d managed to get his sand to carry him through the air for the first time. A strange association in his way of thinking but he couldn’t avoid making it.
As such, he decided to cure her of her solemn look before he departed. “Try not to miss me too much at the council.”
His words had the desired effect: she sniggered.
“I think I’ll go about and ease the minds of whoever is attending by informing them beforehand that you’ll be absent,” she countered with a look of contentment, “it’ll be a load off all our minds.”
He chuckled. “With the long hours it’ll take for them to agree on anything thanks to all that diplomatic gibberish, you’ll be bored to death without me. Admit it.”
“Better bored than groped, I always say,” Sakura replied with a sweet smile. “You know, I might take advantage of the council to let your sister know about your atrocious behaviour towards me during your Iwagakure infiltration mission.”
Gaara shook his head in silent laughter. If she’d recognized him as Suna no Akaoni, then it was evident for her to know who his sister was. “It’s one of the benefits of being a Shogun’s brother: I can get away with anything.”
This elicited a fit of laughter from her. She recognized his bluff for what it was; Suna’s Shogun was famous for ruling with a firm hand. With her being the eldest, it wasn’t likely for her brothers to be exempt from such treatment.
“It must be so nice to live in a world of psychotic delusion such as yours,” she told him with a shake of her head.
“You should try it sometime,” he told her with a wolfish grin, “I guarantee it’s much more enjoyable.”
As he spoke, he signalled towards the ninja team awaiting orders some distance way. At Gaara’s summons, they stood and formed ranks, ready to depart.
Sakura tsked. “Such despotism.”
“Some call it efficiency,” he replied, turning around and starting to walk towards his squad.
It was then that she made her third and final mistake:
“Good luck and make it back safely!” she called out.
It was a simple farewell, more a reflex action than anything else. It was the goodbye one said to fellow ninja whenever they departed on a mission where there was a high degree of danger involved; a sincere and genuine leave-taking. The words left her mouth without her even thinking about it.
Gaara took it as such too. He turned to look at her over his shoulder before nodding and lifting his hand in silent farewell.
Therefore, when she finished the errands she had to run and made her way back to Konoha’s side of the encampment, Sakura approached the tent of her own Shogun without a sliver of suspicion on her mind.
Nothing could have forewarned her of her errors. In her mind she’d done nothing wrong. Her conscience was clear.
It was until she entered the tent and found Tsunade-shishou sitting there behind her desk, a sly devilish smile on her face, that the pink haired kunoichi felt a shiver of foreboding crawl its way up her spine.
Fighting it back, she nodded in greeting and reported for duty.
“From what I hear,” Konoha’s Shogun commented casually, “you’re on rather friendly terms with Suna no Akaoni.”
Sakura knew better than to trust that nonchalant tone of hers. “Yes, I am. You know very well we helped each other escape Iwagakure. There’s no surprise there.”
Tsunade kept in grinning. “True. But in your report you didn’t mention the amazingly congenial relationship the two of you seem to have”.
Emerald eyes narrowed at her.
“I mean,” the Shogun continued, “you did approach the man and engaged him in conversation, making him laugh in the process. Even though hearing him laugh scared the hell out of the people around you, it makes your accomplishment all the more commendable.”
The pink haired kunoichi swallowed. She was certain she would hate where her shishou was leading her. Curse her fellow Konoha nin and their efficiency when gathering information!
“You were also rather concerned with his wellbeing just before he departed for his mission,” Tsunade finished, “you parted ways as if you’d known each other for years.”
Sakura’s expression turned grim; her self-preservation instincts were telling her she should be running for the door.
“Shishou, what are you implying?” she asked, knowing she wouldn’t like the answer.
Impossibly, Tsunade’s grin intensified. “What I’m trying to say, my dear deshi, is that you get along with Suna no Akaoni very well. You’ve sweetened him up, as they say.”
Sakura felt her mouth go dry.
She never would’ve termed it in such a way; Gaara, after all, was famous for his demonic tendencies. It would take more than that to sweeten him up in any way. Nonetheless, she had to admit her shishou had a point: no other person had ever approached Suna no Akaoni the way she inadvertently had. If she thought about it, the event could be considered rather unusual. If she’d been an outside witness to her exchange with the redhead, she would’ve been pretty shocked, not to say incredulous.
But this didn’t explain her shishou’s suspiciously enthusiastic reaction.
“Fine,” Sakura conceded, “I may be on good terms with him. But it doesn’t mean anything.”
“On the contrary, deshi,” Tsunade replied happily, “it means everything. You’ve gained a very powerful ally, one we can use. Do you know why the Red Demon is never included in teams that involve members from outside of Suna?”
“Because he’s famous for his impulsiveness, his lack of patience and his tendency to kill allies along with enemies,” Sakura answered. “He only works with people he knows.”
“Exactly!” her shishou exclaimed, standing up from her seat. “But the situation has now changed, thanks to you. Since you’re friendly with him, you’ll be able to work with him. You said so yourself in your report, the two of you worked really well together on that last mission of yours.”
The pink haired kunoichi paled. “I don’t th-“
But Tsunade cut her off. “Remember the ‘deliberate capture’ mission we were discussing on the way here? The one we could use to get Iwagakure’s most confidential information?”
Sakura rolled her eyes. “Of course I remember. I was the one who came up with the plan.”
“And why was it that we decided we couldn’t pull it off?”
“Because no one would be able to get me out of Iwagakure’s main headquarters without getting killed,” she replied, “and risking an elite team is out of the question. There would be too many lives at stake.”
“Well, “Tsunade remarked, her smile wide, “what happens when you add a sand demon to the mix?”
Horrified emerald eyes widened when she finally caught up with what her shishou was telling her. “If you do that, then you get me killed!”
The older woman threw her head back and laughed. “True, he might get a little carried away. But I think it’s worth the chance.”
“That’s because it won’t be you on the receiving end of his sand!” Sakura exclaimed. “I think I prefer to take my chances with the Iwagakure jailers.”
Tsunade thoroughly ignored her complaints. “You have to admit that you befriending him was a great stroke of luck. We wouldn’t have been able to pull this off otherwise.”
“I haven’t agreed to the mission!” Emerald eyes grew more anxious by the second.
“I’ll be informing Temari about our plan right after the council,” Konoha’s Shogun continued as if she hadn’t heard her pupil. “I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to lend us her demonic brother for this enterprise of ours. After all, she must be aware already of the way your charm has worked on him.”
“It’s likely Gaara won’t agree either!” Sakura exclaimed, trying desperately to get out of this mess.
“Maybe he won’t but that’s what we’ve got you for,” Tsunade remarked with a laugh, “you can sweet talk him into it.”
Falling into the nearest chair with a groan, Sakura buried her face in her hands.
~~xxx~~
Fandom: Naruto
Prompt: #14 - Sweeten 100_prompts
Character/Pairing: Sabaku no Gaara/Haruno Sakura
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2903
Summary: "The pink haired kunoichi swallowed. She was certain she would hate where her shishou was leading her. Curse her fellow Konoha nin and their efficiency when gathering information!"
Authors Notes: Continuation of Nearest Exit; third installment in the Partners-in-shadow series. Ain't done with this yet!
~~xxx~~
14. Sweeten
If she thought about it with hindsight, approaching him hadn’t actually been a choice. Once she spotted him, barking out orders and giving last minute instructions to his team, her feet were moving of their own accord while her lips curled up in an anticipating smile. The bustling nin camp was full of activity, people coming and going all around her, but this didn’t prevent her from easily spotting him on Suna’s side of the encampment.
This had been her first mistake; seeking him out openly and letting the world know she could handle a man such as him. That she didn’t mind being associated with the likes of Suna no Akaoni spoke volumes and to be honest, Sakura had never really given a damn about what others might think. The man was unpredictable and famous for his ruthlessness but as it was wont to happen in the ninja world they lived in, he really couldn’t be blamed for it. All of them, including the youngest apprentice, had been trained to be proficient killers since the very first days of their education. Learning, during the formative years of your life, how to end someone’s life in the most efficient way without thinking twice about it did things to you.
When it came down to it, all of them had more than a few loose screws.
So who was she to judge? Besides, you had to give Gaara credit; the man didn’t hide his twisted nature. He proclaimed it openly to the four winds and whoever didn’t like it be damned. Utterly unlike others who outwardly seemed to be the epitome of propriety but in truth only festered a writhing pit of malice on the inside. Those were the psychos one should steer clear from. Smiles and charm on the outside, sick sadists within. They were the ones a girl shouldn’t let through her door no matter how well-trained as a kunoichi she might be. Gaara on the other hand was honest in his perversity; predictable in his unpredictability.
If you saw a raging red demon wrecking havoc, then a raging red demon was what you got. It was straightforward. He wasn’t out to trick anyone.
This, Sakura admitted, was what had sparked her interest in him in the first place. The blatant way he’d behaved towards her had been, albeit somewhat upsetting at first, oddly refreshing. Suna no Akaoni expressed what he thought, not caring if his words or acts hurt the sensibilities of whoever he was dealing with. After spending an entire life filled with hidden intents and at all times looking ‘underneath the underneath’, Sakura had to confess that meeting someone who stuck to the policy of truth was greatly uplifting. It was a welcomed break in the often tiring routine of her life as a nin.
This was the reason why she didn’t hesitate in engaging him.
She caught up to him as he was giving final orders to a pair of young kunoichi who, to tell the truth, looked rather pale and were nodding fervently at whatever he was saying. Sakura chuckled, knowing very well that dealing with him as a superior while you were still in the lower nin ranks couldn’t be easy. It took a lot of backbone to deal with Suna no Akaoni; something she thankfully didn’t lack.
“So early in the morning and you’re already harassing the female population,” she said by way of greeting, “how very typical of you.”
His head whipped around at the sound of her voice. Jade eyes looked her over for a moment before his lips curved upwards. “If they did what they were told they wouldn’t need to be harassed.”
Sakura snorted. “If they didn’t have a tyrant for a captain, I’m sure they’d be perfectly fine.”
The girls in front of Gaara seemed to have completely lost the blood flow to their faces. They stood there, eyes wide with fear, looking like a pair of ghosts. One of them tried to lift her hand as if to warn Sakura but couldn’t find enough courage to complete the act. It was evident they thought the pink haired woman wouldn’t survive the encounter.
But instead of decapitating her, Suna no Akaoni merely looked amused. “That’s a matter of opinion, I’m afraid,” he replied, “if they didn’t have me they wouldn’t have made it this far.”
“I see you’ve had your dose of arrogance for breakfast,” Sakura answered. “Just make sure you don’t have another dose for lunch or else your ego won’t be able to walk out the door.”
That’s when she made her second mistake: she made him laugh. Haruno Sakura made Suna no Akaoni bark out with laughter.
The two girls couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was as if their taichou had transformed into a normal human being, something so unlikely it provoked trepidation in their hearts. Of course, it didn’t last long. He turned to them in the next instant, jade eyes hard, and dismissed them with a final cutting order. They didn’t miss their chance to escape and departed hurriedly to tell their companions about the uncanny event they’d just witnessed.
With his subordinates gone, Gaara turned towards Sakura to face her fully.
It was then that she realized she was looking at him during daylight hours for the very first time. His hair was a darker shade of crimson than she’d initially thought. It was the colour of blood, streaked through with tints of lighter red only revealed by the sun. The shade of his eyes was another revelation, an opaque viridian that made her think of crystals. In a parallel universe, one where he wasn’t a frenzied sand demon vent on destruction, he would have been a strikingly handsome man.
She caught herself staring when she realized he was doing exactly the same. His jade eyes had turned thoughtful as he glanced at her appreciatively, the ever-present devious glint in his orbs momentarily replaced by something else. Sakura caught herself wondering what he was thinking but self-preservation stopped her from asking.
Instead, she arched an eyebrow at him.
That wicked grin of his flashed in response. “I told you we would meet again.”
“Hmm, yes,” she conceded, “would you like your fortune teller tip for predicting the obvious?” She signalled with her hands to the congregated ninja forces all around them.
The encampment held the nin armies of several nations who had allied to fight Iwagakure, Suna and Konoha included. The rising Shogun’s attempt to control the continent had been predictably met with resistance on all fronts.
“If I remember correctly, you weren’t exactly concurring with my prediction,” Gaara replied.
“Can’t blame a girl for hanging on to the last hope of avoiding her harasser,” she said with an exaggerated sigh. “One can always dream.”
“Harasser?” the redhead asked arrogantly. “I think the term saviour is more apt.”
Sakura let out a loud, dry laugh. “He would naturally think I wouldn’t have been able to escape without his help. How could I have thought otherwise?”
“It shows just how poor your perception is,” he countered. “You should be thankful I came running along.”
“If my memory serves me right,” she replied, snickering softly, “it was my kunai that was almost buried in your throat.”
“And it was my sand strangling your neck.”
Sakura sighed. “An instance that should have forewarned me of your groping tendencies.”
“I do make an effort to be honest in my dealings,” the redhead replied, his grin widening.
She had to laugh at that, shoulders shaking with mirth. This inevitably caught the attention of some of the nin around them who turned to survey the couple with intriguing eyes. Becoming aware of this, Sakura cleared her throat and strove for sobriety. They were in a war camp after all.
A change of subject was in order. “When did you arrive?” she asked.
“Last night,” he replied, very much aware of prying eyes. If he’d had his way he would’ve preferred for their verbal sparring to take place somewhere private. Unfortunately this wasn’t an option; not with conflict brewing on the horizon. “We were slightly delayed because of the weather. But at least we managed to get here for the first council this afternoon.”
“From what I saw you’re already sending out teams,” Sakura replied, nodding towards the group he’d been addressing before. They were several feet away preparing for departure, checking supplies and readying their weapons.
“We can’t afford not to have any surveillance,” the redhead said, a grim look in his eyes. “I’ll be leading a reconnaissance team to see what our enemy is up to. If this alliance is going to work, we need to catch Iwagakure off guard to be able to topple their Shogun. For that we need the exact location of his troops and information on their activities.”
She nodded solemnly, agreeing wholeheartedly.
Gaara decided then and there that he didn’t like it when she was serious. He much preferred her expression when she was slashing out with her sharp tongue at him or when she was irritated by his words or, better yet, when she was laughing. Her laughter had a rather peculiar effect on him, he had to admit. It was akin to the sensation he’d experienced when he’d managed to get his sand to carry him through the air for the first time. A strange association in his way of thinking but he couldn’t avoid making it.
As such, he decided to cure her of her solemn look before he departed. “Try not to miss me too much at the council.”
His words had the desired effect: she sniggered.
“I think I’ll go about and ease the minds of whoever is attending by informing them beforehand that you’ll be absent,” she countered with a look of contentment, “it’ll be a load off all our minds.”
He chuckled. “With the long hours it’ll take for them to agree on anything thanks to all that diplomatic gibberish, you’ll be bored to death without me. Admit it.”
“Better bored than groped, I always say,” Sakura replied with a sweet smile. “You know, I might take advantage of the council to let your sister know about your atrocious behaviour towards me during your Iwagakure infiltration mission.”
Gaara shook his head in silent laughter. If she’d recognized him as Suna no Akaoni, then it was evident for her to know who his sister was. “It’s one of the benefits of being a Shogun’s brother: I can get away with anything.”
This elicited a fit of laughter from her. She recognized his bluff for what it was; Suna’s Shogun was famous for ruling with a firm hand. With her being the eldest, it wasn’t likely for her brothers to be exempt from such treatment.
“It must be so nice to live in a world of psychotic delusion such as yours,” she told him with a shake of her head.
“You should try it sometime,” he told her with a wolfish grin, “I guarantee it’s much more enjoyable.”
As he spoke, he signalled towards the ninja team awaiting orders some distance way. At Gaara’s summons, they stood and formed ranks, ready to depart.
Sakura tsked. “Such despotism.”
“Some call it efficiency,” he replied, turning around and starting to walk towards his squad.
It was then that she made her third and final mistake:
“Good luck and make it back safely!” she called out.
It was a simple farewell, more a reflex action than anything else. It was the goodbye one said to fellow ninja whenever they departed on a mission where there was a high degree of danger involved; a sincere and genuine leave-taking. The words left her mouth without her even thinking about it.
Gaara took it as such too. He turned to look at her over his shoulder before nodding and lifting his hand in silent farewell.
Therefore, when she finished the errands she had to run and made her way back to Konoha’s side of the encampment, Sakura approached the tent of her own Shogun without a sliver of suspicion on her mind.
Nothing could have forewarned her of her errors. In her mind she’d done nothing wrong. Her conscience was clear.
It was until she entered the tent and found Tsunade-shishou sitting there behind her desk, a sly devilish smile on her face, that the pink haired kunoichi felt a shiver of foreboding crawl its way up her spine.
Fighting it back, she nodded in greeting and reported for duty.
“From what I hear,” Konoha’s Shogun commented casually, “you’re on rather friendly terms with Suna no Akaoni.”
Sakura knew better than to trust that nonchalant tone of hers. “Yes, I am. You know very well we helped each other escape Iwagakure. There’s no surprise there.”
Tsunade kept in grinning. “True. But in your report you didn’t mention the amazingly congenial relationship the two of you seem to have”.
Emerald eyes narrowed at her.
“I mean,” the Shogun continued, “you did approach the man and engaged him in conversation, making him laugh in the process. Even though hearing him laugh scared the hell out of the people around you, it makes your accomplishment all the more commendable.”
The pink haired kunoichi swallowed. She was certain she would hate where her shishou was leading her. Curse her fellow Konoha nin and their efficiency when gathering information!
“You were also rather concerned with his wellbeing just before he departed for his mission,” Tsunade finished, “you parted ways as if you’d known each other for years.”
Sakura’s expression turned grim; her self-preservation instincts were telling her she should be running for the door.
“Shishou, what are you implying?” she asked, knowing she wouldn’t like the answer.
Impossibly, Tsunade’s grin intensified. “What I’m trying to say, my dear deshi, is that you get along with Suna no Akaoni very well. You’ve sweetened him up, as they say.”
Sakura felt her mouth go dry.
She never would’ve termed it in such a way; Gaara, after all, was famous for his demonic tendencies. It would take more than that to sweeten him up in any way. Nonetheless, she had to admit her shishou had a point: no other person had ever approached Suna no Akaoni the way she inadvertently had. If she thought about it, the event could be considered rather unusual. If she’d been an outside witness to her exchange with the redhead, she would’ve been pretty shocked, not to say incredulous.
But this didn’t explain her shishou’s suspiciously enthusiastic reaction.
“Fine,” Sakura conceded, “I may be on good terms with him. But it doesn’t mean anything.”
“On the contrary, deshi,” Tsunade replied happily, “it means everything. You’ve gained a very powerful ally, one we can use. Do you know why the Red Demon is never included in teams that involve members from outside of Suna?”
“Because he’s famous for his impulsiveness, his lack of patience and his tendency to kill allies along with enemies,” Sakura answered. “He only works with people he knows.”
“Exactly!” her shishou exclaimed, standing up from her seat. “But the situation has now changed, thanks to you. Since you’re friendly with him, you’ll be able to work with him. You said so yourself in your report, the two of you worked really well together on that last mission of yours.”
The pink haired kunoichi paled. “I don’t th-“
But Tsunade cut her off. “Remember the ‘deliberate capture’ mission we were discussing on the way here? The one we could use to get Iwagakure’s most confidential information?”
Sakura rolled her eyes. “Of course I remember. I was the one who came up with the plan.”
“And why was it that we decided we couldn’t pull it off?”
“Because no one would be able to get me out of Iwagakure’s main headquarters without getting killed,” she replied, “and risking an elite team is out of the question. There would be too many lives at stake.”
“Well, “Tsunade remarked, her smile wide, “what happens when you add a sand demon to the mix?”
Horrified emerald eyes widened when she finally caught up with what her shishou was telling her. “If you do that, then you get me killed!”
The older woman threw her head back and laughed. “True, he might get a little carried away. But I think it’s worth the chance.”
“That’s because it won’t be you on the receiving end of his sand!” Sakura exclaimed. “I think I prefer to take my chances with the Iwagakure jailers.”
Tsunade thoroughly ignored her complaints. “You have to admit that you befriending him was a great stroke of luck. We wouldn’t have been able to pull this off otherwise.”
“I haven’t agreed to the mission!” Emerald eyes grew more anxious by the second.
“I’ll be informing Temari about our plan right after the council,” Konoha’s Shogun continued as if she hadn’t heard her pupil. “I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to lend us her demonic brother for this enterprise of ours. After all, she must be aware already of the way your charm has worked on him.”
“It’s likely Gaara won’t agree either!” Sakura exclaimed, trying desperately to get out of this mess.
“Maybe he won’t but that’s what we’ve got you for,” Tsunade remarked with a laugh, “you can sweet talk him into it.”
Falling into the nearest chair with a groan, Sakura buried her face in her hands.
~~xxx~~