Title: Quintessence
Chapter: Six
Rating: T, Offensive language, content
Summary: "The line that seemed to have been drawn between them was suddenly all that much broader, and she dreaded the thought of attempting to repair their previously good natured repartee."

Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me!

Chapter Six: Resignation

She looked like she should have been spitting fire. Shukaku was sending him mental images of something vaguely resembling a rather vicious looking scaled green beast, then tacking on a shock of fluffy, short pink hair creating a rather humorous visual. He wondered if it was even an actual creature that existed in the known world, minus the hair. Probably. And probably something as cantankerous, and, well, demonic as Shukaku was too. Though a mouthy captive, the tanuki was fond of imagery as well. And, for some reason unknown to Gaara, the demon seemed to have been imbued with the humanistic trait of humor, albeit generally on the twisted side of the spectrum.

It also helped that the beast was literally raving with madness. After multiple discussions with Naruto, it had been determined that apparently his demon really was just certifiably insane. At least compared to Kyuubi (who wasn't, however, anything to be trifled with however flattering the comparison between the two). The nine tailed bane of Konoha had apparently helped Naruto out on numerous occasions with verbal information. If only his resident headache was that useful, besides the obvious advantages with sand.

Luckily, his demon's near extraction had seemed to tighten at least a few screws. He thought. Maybe. At the very least the beast was easier to silence, for which he was oddly grateful to the Akatsuki. The link that had so bound the two fiercely as one had weakened, and now he was left to sift through thoughts wondering if the rather socially unacceptable prompts were his own or his captives. Oftentimes the end results of such mental inquiries were rather unsettling. Gaara was startled out of his train of thought by the loud clapping sound created as Sakura stomped a foot in exasperation.

He was a bit confused as to the source of her objection, as it wasn't as if she had never been in the same situation before. It was a fairly common cover, and he'd requested clearance to look at her file after being informed that they were being assigned together, though unaware of any further details pertaining to the back story for the upcoming mission. She'd been fraudulently married off to the Hyuuga branch prodigy, Naruto, and even her own sensei on occasion.

Gaara also didn't understand the rationale of her anger on the issue. As though getting up in arms was going to solve anything. However, with the prior information taken into account it did seem that she was very capable of being irrational. He'd been somewhat taken aback after the announcement of the mission details, but no discomfort he had inadvertently revealed even remotely compared to the woman's furious outburst. Shocked emerald green eyes filled his vision, and once again he could almost feel his hands tightening around her lithe neck. Mentally shaking himself, he tried to put the earlier incident out of his mind.

Control around the woman had gone the way of his gourd, behind him. Something about her seemed to reach inwards to mangle his emotional wiring and inevitably wreaked havoc on his system. Personally, he couldn't care less about their current dispute as long as it didn't disrupt in the mission. And as long as the assignment got him far, far away from a certain meeting room, treaty, and both parties of delegates. Contrary to her previously stated beliefs, his own included.

It seemed that she had finally exhausted all viable avenues of maneuvering her way around the cover, running through the list of alternate back stories (shunted aside due to the possibility of civilian interference), personal objection and faked illness. Her complete lack of shame in attempting to extract herself from the situation was vaguely insulting. The fact that he still hadn't quite assimilated her previous outburst from earlier that morning didn't help his growing discomfort at breathing the same air as his soon to be partner. Walls shoved against his consciousness, and it suddenly grew harder to breathe. Forcing himself to regulate his bodies intake of air, nails dug into his pant legs as he rallied his hold against his baser instincts.

"That's enough Sakura. You're going. Unless you want me to bust you down from your current position and pile on the appropriately ranked missions. Your comfort level shouldn't be even an issue in this discussion, and I do seem to remember you nattering on the other day about some ridiculous plumbing bill currently pending."

She'd had her boys over for dinner one night, which, after a few rounds of sake or so, had rapidly turned into a strong man competition on her dining room table. Kakashi had the won the last bout of arm wrestling, tossing Naruto end over head into her sink, and subsequently mangling the pipes and flooding the apartment beneath her. Her Super had not been happy with her that week. After some arm twisting (literally), she'd wrangled the money out of Naruto to pay for her apartment buildings repair fee, but not the astronomical bill she'd received from the plumber. It was business as per usual.

Which meant Kakashi-sensei screwing her over with another bill. Damn that man! She sighed, stomaching any further complaint. She turned for the first time since entering the room to take into view the Kazekage as he lingered near the window, staring out into space. She winced, internally, reviewing her behavior. Even If he had been in a forgiving mood before, who knew what the man thought of her now after her vehement objections. The line that seemed to have been drawn between them was suddenly all that much broader, and she dreaded the thought of attempting to repair their previously good natured repartee.

But now it was more than just their tentative friendship. A mission, no matter how seemingly insignificant, could easily turn into a life or death situation. Their teamwork could mean the difference between a little boys survival or his father's anguish. It was not a burden to be carried lightly, or to allow personal disputes to interfere with.

"When do we leave?" Defeated, she moved on to acceptance, turning back to her mentor.

Tsunade considered for a moment, pulling at a lip with a contemplative finger. "As soon as possible, I recommend-"

"Tomorrow. We will leave tomorrow. First light." Gaara's voice cut through, drowning out the rest of the Hokage's response. It was an adamant statement, not a request.

Sakura locked eyes with his for a tense moment, before turning them down once again to the floorboards. "Fine."

"We'll discuss any further details en route." Steeling his new partner with one last calculatingly heavy glance, Gaara uncustomarily exited out the door, slowly making his way past her instantaneously frozen form into the deserted hallway.

---

Last minute shopping was always trying. It never failed, whatever travel sized amenities she had, supplies that she needed for the road, they were always found M.I.A. or completely used up on the evenings when she was assigned early morning missions the following day. Luckily for her, and many other shinobi, there was a twenty four hour grocers that had established their business hours with ninja in mind. But god, was she tired.

"Yo." The male voice came directly behind her left ear, and would have startled her if she hadn't been aware of his presence long beforehand. Without missing a beat or dropping a shopping bag, Sakura reached out, aiming a deliberately savage punch at his sternum. He dodged, shimmying backwards as she clipped his vest.

"Hello Kakashi-sensei." Her voice was weary, and she decided that she didn't have the energy to pursue an invigorated copy-nin. By the look of his dirty clothing, he'd just gotten back from a rather heavy round of training, and he was always weirdly energetic after even the hardest of sessions. Sometimes she wondered if he poured on the extra pep just to spite them with his revoltingly long burning stamina.

"Well, your speed is up to par, but we need to work on your sensory awareness." The critique was accompanied by a large grin, squinting his eyes in typical Kakashi style.

"My awareness is perfectly fine," she hissed back, "I just don't consider you a threat to anything besides the lingerie in my panty drawer."

Kakashi lazily raised one silver eyebrow, "You have lingerie? I'll have to remember that the next time I water the plants at your apartment."

"Kakashi-sensei!"

A certain book was swiftly pulled from a leg pouch, and he was off, pottering leisurely down the street with a quick glance back at Naruto, who trailed behind him exhaustedly.

"I see you limping, you great doofus! Let me fix it or you had better get that fixed at the hospital-"

At the vocalization of the "H" word, he promptly waggled his fingers without even turning back to look at her, tauntingly, and then dissolved into thin air leaving behind a grey plume of smoke. Typical.

"Where the hell does that old man get the energy?" The bedraggled looking blond promptly flopped underneath a shady tree into a rather inviting piece of grass.

Heaving a sigh, she sat down beside him after depositing her shopping bags in a heap, stretching her legs out as she half reclined on her elbows in the small glade. The lushly carpeted, green patch of earth had a long history for the two, and many other Konoha ninja. Across from the academy, it had become one of her favorite spots to slum with her team. And their sensei.

"Porn. And saury."

"That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever." Naruto grinned, trying to imagine the man on an all saury diet.

"Yeah. I know."

Silence stretched out between them until he shifted, propping himself on the trunk of the tree from his sprawled, sleepy abandon. "So, I heard that Tsunade-baa-sama pulled the 'you've got bills' card on you today."

"It worked." Her frustration was apparent as she fisted handfuls of grass, then began pulling it out of the ground, blade by blade. It wasn't his fault. Technically. Kakashi. You bastard. I hope you get gangrene. "Who did you hear the story from?"

"Kotetsu. That man gossips almost as much as Ino." Naruto smile turned wry at the comparison. The similarity between the two, at times, was just plain unnatural.

Sakura nodded in agreement to the observation, lost in thought.

"Sakura?" Naruto hedged, gently. "Is there something going on between you and Gaara? Or am I reading too much into this? I know how the village gets..." Here he shrugged, turning a questioning gaze towards her.

Groaning, she leaned back and covered her face with crossed arms. "I don't know Naruto. Romantically? No. but these past couple of weeks... I just don't know. Things have just been weird between us."

"What do you mean?" Peaking past her hands to look at him as he spoke, his nose was upturned, lip twisted in childish incomprehension. She couldn't help but grin a little at the reassurance in that expression. If there was one constant in her life, it was Naruto's ability to project a complete air of having never been jaded by life. It was probably erroneous, most likely a coping mechanism, and completely at odds with both his life experiences and profession. But she depended on it all the same.

"I guess I've started to see him more as a person?" She paused, rethinking her words and their possible connotative impact on her friend. "Sometimes it's easy to just see the status of someone, or your past dealings with them. It's hard to look past that and not let it taint what they've become in the now. But... I think that maybe... Maybe I got too close. Too close while learning too little, too fast."

Studying, intently, the almost trapped looking expression on Sakura's face, Naruto asked the only question he could. "Are you going to be alright with this?"

"Yeah." Sakura turned a resigned smile towards him in reassurance. "I'll be fine." Rolling to stare up at the night sky, she exhaled, starting anew. "It'll be awkward for a while. He's not a bad person. Just... difficult? I'll manage." Sometimes she just needed to say it out loud for it to be true, and after all their years as friends, she wondered if Naruto had somehow picked up on her emotional quirk. Though they bickered, teased, and tormented each other, he was still one of the few people she could count on as a true friend. No matter what, he would be there for her. "Thank you, Naruto."

Standing up, abruptly, she walked over to his perch against the tree. Swooping him into a quick embrace, she hastily gathered her things before heading in the direction of her apartment as Naruto gaped at her in delighted surprise. Never let it be said that she wasn't affectionate. Once in a while. She could hear the blond nearly fall over his own feet in his rush to catch up with her, his sandals fumbling against each other as she made her way out of the park and out into the street.

"Oi! I'll carry those for you, Sakura-chan!"

She batted at his hands as he tried to relieve her of her baggage, walking a fast as she could without sprinting. "Get away, idiot, you'll just drop them!" As the words exited her mouth, a brand new bottle of expensive perfume was dislodged from one of the bags due to all the jostling. As it hit the ground with a distinct shattering of glass, Naruto whimpered.

"Nar...ru...TO!"

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Author's Note: This chapter stumped me for the longest time, due to actual life. All was sorted out when I put on some techno and buckled down. Music can be a great motivator, and I find that it helps me sorting out the tone of the story. To other authors: Why is it that you get the brilliant plot ideas while in the shower? The one place where you're completely unable to write anything down in any way shape or form? What's up with that?

DJ Tiesto - In The Dark: You tube it. It was the song for me while writing this and brainstorming for the next chapter.