Dawn was rising against the sky, streaks of red bleeding across the landscape.

Shikako shivered against a brisk blast of wind, listening to the sounds of camp breaking around her. Most of the rookies sat in a huddle, bags packed, waiting for the go ahead. The graduation ceremony had been days ago and nearly all of them had passed. The last two nights had been filled with a kind of celebratory revelry.

With so many nations and so many bored Jounin loitering, none of the newly minted Chunin felt the need to be guarded. Coupled with Grass Country's fabled entertainment, the group had been wild and happy. There was an unspoken acknowledgment in that air that the real world was looming and in true teenage rebellion her peers partied wilder than she thought entirely proper.

She knew they were experiencing that joy unique to children on the precipice of puberty, when internal and external forces finally agree that Yes, we are adults.

There are times in life when the innocence and safety of childhood is shaken, moments when you're thrust into adult shoes before you feel ready.

Then there are moments like this one. Like hurdles in a race, or mountains to be climbed. You reach the summit of these moments and look down at what lays before you and your heart sings in your chest and you race down the other side wiser and older and that much further away from the childish world of before.

Shikako had known both, before, yet it didn't make the journey any less wondrous the second time.

She was changing. So were her friends.

To her left, Kiba was grumbling into his hands, hood pulled up against the rising light. Maybe it was too early or maybe he'd drunk too much the night before. Beside him, Ino was leaning into Chouji as if he was a windbreak. Most of the others had huddled together in clumps, all within arms reach. Quiet voices lifted and Shikako let the soft conversation wash over her as she watched the dawning sun.

Today, soon, they'd be on their way back. She'd been excited as the rest of them about the promotion, but now her head was buzzing with a hundred potential tasks. There was so little time and so much yet to do. It needled at her, something she'd pushed to the background too often. Maybe it was the cool breeze foreshadowing the change in seasons, maybe it was the way everyone around her was instinctively whispering as if the quiet morning was a holy observance and their modest porch a pew in a church.

Maybe she was more tired than she realized.

But it was there, buzzing at her, an itch under her skin. Soon, soon, soon, it whispered. The inescapable pressure of a looming deadline.

For once, it wasn't her sensitivity that alerted her to his presence. It was the sudden halt of conversation around her and the collective awareness of her friends. Against her shoulder she felt Sasuke straighten and his chakra steadied, calm and ready somewhere in his chest.

Ten paces from their porch, waiting in the shade, the sand siblings stood.

There was an awkward standoff where everybody seemed to want someone else to break the silence.

"We came to say goodbye. We're leaving," Temari offered frankly.

"You did good, for Leaf-nin," Kankurou needled. Shikako half expected Kiba to protest, but he just grumbled into his hands without lifting his head. Kankurou noticeably did not look in Hinata's direction.

"Congratulations," this time from Tenten, polite but no less sincere. All three of the Sand siblings had made rank as well. There were a lot of notable promotions in this exam.

It took Shikako a moment to figure out what was off, then she realized that Gaara's gaze on their group wasn't broad and general. He was very pointedly staring at her.

Shikako's mind skipped through several possible scenarios before she took the prolonged eye contact as a signal and rose to her feet. Sasuke followed her, fluidly rising in sync, a steady presence at her side. Shikako put her hand out in a 'wait here' gesture and Sasuke lifted a single eyebrow, but he stayed in place as Shikako picked her way through the small crowd towards the Sand siblings.

Already the sky had darkened from red to an eye catching pink. It'd be daylight soon. On the edge of her senses she could feel Kurenai and Asuma looping back towards them in a slowly arching patrol. Somewhere over the grassy knoll to her left, the first field thrush of the morning started to sing. Away from the lee of the porch the wind was chilly and gusted with wintery intent.

Shikako stopped a few steps away from the three and tried to ignore how all of her friends were politely pretending not to listen at her back. She couldn't exactly wander off with foreign nin, so this was all the privacy they'd get. Even if Tsunade hadn't ordered them to stay in pairs, it would be suspicious to go off on her own with three such politically notable shinobi. If Gaara had something sensitive to communicate, he could signal it discreetly from here and that would have to be enough.

"Thank you for the match. You fought well," Gaara murmured. No matter how many times she heard it, Shikako always found herself a bit startled by the deepness of his voice. Judging by appearance, one would expect a higher, more childish tone. But his voice is deep and heavy and it always takes a second to mentally adjust.

"You're welcome. It was nice to be able to not hold back," Shikako smiled. She had no idea where he was going with this.

"That thing with the pillars was unreal, Sparky," Kankurou scratched the side of his nose and grinned when Shikako gave him a look. "Never knew you could do that with seals. Shit's something else."

"Typically, you wouldn't. It requires measurements of the soil composition that are tedious and exhaustive, and the chakra output and seal preparation are impractical in real-time battle conditions," Shikako slipped into lecture mode almost on accident.

"Huh," Kankurou's gaze was assessing. "Still, it was impressive. Never thought anyone could give Gaara a run like that, eh man?" He reached over and tapped Gaara on the shoulder.

"Your approach was well planned. I...appreciated the tactics you used," Gaara looked deeply thoughtful. "You were creative." Thank you for showing me my weaknesses.

"I learned a lot from it," Shikako replied honestly. You're welcome.

"Your teammate is a beast, too. And isn't Naruto on your team as well? That seems a bit much for one squad," Temari looked over her shoulder to where Sasuke was leaning against the porch railings.

"You'd be surprised," Shikako muttered.

"It's wise. Together, you are strong enough to face the challenges in your path," Gaara was staring at her, so he must have noticed her sharp look at that. "It has helped you in the past. I think it will continue to help you."

Shikako nodded slowly. He must have heard about Naruto leaving, somehow, and was referring to that. Gaara had been asking after Naruto at the start of these exams, maybe he'd discovered that Naruto'd left for training? But maybe Gaara was making an allusion to something else, something that would try to split her team up in the future?

Shikako looked back and forth between the three, trying to parse it out. Gaara frowned and made an aborted motion, as if to step closer or reach out to her.

"Your team," Gaara looked frustrated, like his thoughts were a struggle to voice. "They face things many don't. Things others will never face."

He glanced briefly at her chest, a quick flicker of his gaze, and she frowned.

"I thought once that the true measure of power was the ability to keep yourself alive. But sometimes, power isn't enough. True strength comes from those around us."

Oh.

Oh.

And then it clicked. Gaara was there, at Gelel, when the sword...

He'd seen her die. Sometimes the trauma of that moment, of Shikamaru and Naruto and the nine tailed fox and the stones and just all of it, it made her forget. Gaara had witnessed that too, him and both his siblings. She looked down and fidgeted, suddenly unsure how to feel about that.

Off in the distance, the field thrush stopped singing.

"You'll be strong," Gaara sounded so sure that Shikako looked up and met his gaze. The seafoam of his eyes burned with piercing intensity and he sounded like he was prophesying, like he could see into the future and knew.

Shikako suddenly doubted herself, thinking she misread this whole thing. She'd give anything not to be having such a personal conversation, especially one with so many spectators. The pause stretched just this side of polite before Shikako leaned into it. No way out but through.

"So will you. We both will be," She hoped her voice sounded normal.

"Because we have others," Gaara's voice was soft and deep.

"Yes, because we have others," Shikako viciously struck down a blush that threatened to bloom high across her cheeks.

"Ugh, we need to go," Temari was already looking away from them, like the sheer emotion on display was beneath her. Shikako glanced at Kankurou then, catching his eye on accident. He was staring at her with an odd look on his face.

"Thank you," Gaara said with a small bow of his head, shifting to turn and walk away.

"What are friends for?" Shikako sounded nervous, even to her own ears.

Gaara froze completely, mid step. Slowly, like a porcelain figure on top of a jewelry box, Gaara turned in place until he faced her again.

"Friends," Gaara put stress on the word and Shikako started to panic. This again? Oh god, she just wanted to go back to bed. What fresh hell is this.

"Uh," she stalled intelligently.

Behind her she heard something that sounded suspiciously like Ino smothering a laugh.

Slowly, like he wanted to telegraph his movements, Gaara reached down to the loose end of the red sash securing his robes. With one hand he grabbed the red fabric and with precise, methodical ease he slipped a blade out and cleanly sliced off the end of the sash.

The square of blood red fabric fluttered loosely into his fist and he held it out to Shikako. She grabbed it gingerly, surprised at the softness of it.

A glance down told her the fabric was silk, a fine example. At that distance she could see a daintily embroidered pattern depicting a spiky lizard. It faced a symbol that looked like the sun, then appeared to wrap around the sun, then swallowed it whole in the next scene. The final picture showed the lizard with the sun shining from it's belly. The pattern repeated in careful detail, the whole of it dyed a rich, vibrant red. It felt significant. When Shikako looked up, Temari was focused on the small patch of silk and Kankurou's eyebrows were somewhere in his hairline.

"Er," Shikako was just full of witty banter this morning.

"Proof," Gaara was unreadable. "That we are friends."

Then he turned and started to walk away. With one last look, his siblings left as well and it wasn't long before they passed over the grassy hill and out of sight. Shikako was fixed on the fabric in her hands, the only red left in the landscape.

When she turned around, all of her friends were staring at the cloth. Shikako knew she probably looked as confused as she felt. She drew near and gave Ino a look that must have screamed what the fuck just happened, because Ino burst out laughing.

There will be questions. She'll have to explain this somehow. Shikako sighed and looked up at the sky.

It was fully blue, no trace of pink left. Somewhere in the distance a field thrush bursts into song again.

A brand new day.

ooo

A/N

I'm a long time reader of Silver Queen's masterpiece "Dreaming of Sunshine". I guess it kind of goes without saying that I'm rooting for a Gaara and Shikako pairing. This fic will be a collection of "what if" scenes loosely based on DoS that fill my need for more scenes between the two of them.

Thanks for reading!

Edit 08/22/15

I no longer have plans to run this as a collection of one-shots, but as a cohesive story with continuing themes and a singular plot. Please disregard my previous statements about this being a collection of stand-alone scenes. Thank you.