"Pour me shum moure Sake, pleash..." Kankuro slurred before downing his cup of used-to-be-full Sake.

Temari eyed him and held the Sake bottle almost protectively. She either didn't want to share or she could see how overly intoxicated her brother was.

"Come on, Tem!" He whined in a way that reminded me of Naruto when he was hungry... or thirsty... or in pain... he whined like that a lot. All the time, in fact.

"Kankuro... No." She scolded him and hugged the Sake close.

"Tem, I want the Sake. Come on, Tem. Tem. Tem. The Sake. Give it to me." He told her more than he asked as he attempted to grab it out of her grasp. Every time he thought he would get it, she inched it further out of his reach. "The Sake. It's calling me, Tem. It wants me to drink it. Tem~. Give it to-"

Kankuro was interrupted by Gaara putting his hand on the table quite forcefully. It wasn't a slam, but it wasn't a placement. Gaara never got angry, he never got happy; he was just that awkward in-between: that itch that can't be scratched.

"Would you shut up?" With his entry to the conversation, Temari snorted and was about to hand Kankuro the Sake to appease his whining when her motion was also interrupted. "Do not give him that Sake, Tem." Gaara ordered as he downed his cup. "Give it to me."

Kankuro narrowed his eyes as Temari looked delighted to pass the Sake to Gaara. She was just happy because she didn't want to give into Kankuro. Typical sibling behaviour.

The clean-faced Kankuro then turned to me. He eyed my open bottle of Sake and then smiled. He half looked as if he was about to lunge for it until a waitress brought in a fresh batch of bottles and set one in front of him. He popped the cap and sniffed it before sighing.

"Ahh, nectar of the Gods," he muttered gratefully before downing it from the bottle. The waitress had done a full round of the table and was now behind Gaara. Kankuro stood up and leaped to the woman, who was bowing to leave, before enveloping her into a hug. She squeaked.

I felt bad for the poor woman. I could at least say I knew the feeling, the feeling of Kankuro and his little pervy tendencies, like hugging random people.

Some would argue it was because he was drunk and his inhibitions were low. I'd argue that it was because he was weird. Both arguments were pretty compelling.

"Bringer of the nectar of the Gods! Can we be friends?" He spoke into the small woman's hair. She looked extremely... uncomfortable, to say at the least. I decided to intervene just as Gaara's lips parted to speak.

"Geez Kankuro, let go of the woman, would you?"

He turned, in the process letting go of the little woman, who scuttled away quickly. He raised an eye brow while walking – more like stumbling – to stand in between Sasuke and me.

Feeling his drunken, hormonal, and idiotic presence behind me was more than shiver material. He stretched himself out and shoved his way into the gap between mine and Sasuke's chair, draping himself over the table to stare up at me like a pair of very unattractive curtains.

Then he said it, that two syllable word that personified the shiver material, that uncontrollable goose-bump ridden shiver. Smirking as he was, I glared. I could feel Itachi tense up beside me, even though we weren't touching. I could tell from the slight Chakra flare that no one caught a sniff of. Oh, wait, Gaara did. Gaara always "did".

"Jealous?" No, Kankuro. I am not jealous.

I pinched his cheek as a mother would do a child and gave it a friendly slap. A soft slap. Better than nothing.

He snorted and all I could smell was the alcohol on his breath.

"I think it's time we get little Kanky-kun to bed, hmm?" I said while looking up from his goofy smile.

Temari raised her eyebrows as if to say, 'feel free, but I ain't doin' nothing'. Gaara nodded but made no move to... remove him. I turned to Sasuke with pleading eyes and he sighed.

"Gaara-San, can we get someone that actually knows where his room is to, um, ah... put him to bed?" Sasuke questioned quite hesitantly. Where do you find the words for asking to put a "grown" – immature – man to bed?

You don't. It just isn't – it isn't a thing.

"Temari, put him to bed." Gaara seemed to order quite authoritatively, albeit slightly awkwardly.

Putting a "grown" man to bed is none the pleasant, as everyone could tell from Temari's pouting face.

"No fair. Why don't you do it?" She "hmphed" at the end, to prove her stubbornness.

"Temari, I-" Gaara started as he sighed, before being interrupted by a slurring Kankuro.

"I... will put myshelf to beed... Ish thish okay..." He paused, as if thinking about his next words, "with everyone...?" His eyes began drooping and saliva began to accumulate on the sides of his mouth, as he held that awful, idiotic, open - mouthed grin on his face.

Please Temari, put him to bed.

Something happened that would make Temari put the clown to bed.

Kankuro passing out in 3, 2, 1.

Ground zero, on the floor. Okay. It's cool. It's not like he banged his head and there was blood streaming out. No. Not at all.

I jumped up, and ran around the table, kneeling down beside him and his pool of blood. He probably had so much to drink that his blood would give someone alcohol poisoning.

My hands worked instinctively on the head wound, while a few impressed faces looked on.

Kankuro, you idiot.

"Ne, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked as I looked up to him, hands still glowing green, "Is Kankuro dead?"

And... That earned him a slap in the head from Sasuke.

"Thank you, Sasuke." I smiled with fake innocence to Naruto, as he rubbed his head and kept muttering "ittai" under his breath.

I looked down to Kankuro, who was cracking an eye open, and looking very much sober again.

The skin was patching itself up under the blue hue of my hands. Kankuro smiled. "This is the second time you've saved my life."

"It was a cut. A non-life threatening cut, but, you're welcome," I told him while the light dimmed.

He then puckered his lips together as if asking for a kiss just as I began accepting his sincerity. I simply rolled my eyes and stood.

"Would someone please take this idiot to bed?" I sighed.

"I can do it myself. For real this time, I think." He began to sit up and then felt his head for any signs of pain or a cut.

"It's gone. There's no cut or anything. There's usually at least a mark." Kankuro muttered while standing.

Gaara looked at me sceptically, before standing and scrutinising his brother's head. Non-existent eyebrows rose in pleasant surprise, he turned to me.

"I have to thank you for healing my... brother." It seemed to distress him to point out the fact that they were related: I probably would have been the same, as I was trying to disassociate himself from him already.

"I could direct you back to your room..." Kankuro said slyly to me. His invitation was quite tempting as I thought back to the winding, never ending corridors.

Itachi then spoke up as Temari giggled at his reply to Kankuro's seemingly sexual offer. "I think she can make her own way back." He said sternly. However, Kankuro bit back stubbornly.

"Who are you to judge that?" He folded his arms and Naruto crept out of the room, feeling an argument boiling.

"Her teammate, maybe?"

Wait, wait, wait... slow down. Let me assess this situation. Itachi is getting his protectiveness up in everyone's faces (e.g., not keeping it a secret) and being sarcastic?

What. The. Fudge.

"But you're not her, so how would you know what she wants?" Kankuro asked in triumph, feeling pretty mighty with his comeback. Sasuke, being the ever quiet one, grabbed Naruto's arm as he was escaping and whispered something like, "take me with you". Good ol' team mates.

All the while, Temari sighed as she didn't try to hide her exit and Gaara just looked on in amusement.

"I can tell when she's uncomfortable." Itachi told him, voice growing agitated.

"How do you do that? Are your Uchiha senses tingling?" Kankuro poked fun at the now agitated-by-showing-the-agitation-only-in-my-voice-because-what-are-emotions Itachi.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." He sighed at him.

"Well, geez, maybe Sakura doesn't want to be taken back to her room by me, but why should you get to take her back?" I sunk into the background, where the two imbeciles couldn't spot me, therefore, hopefully they wouldn't ask for my opinion on the matter.

In the heat of the "conversation", as Itachi would probably call it (he was Itachi, he never lost his cool, and arguing was beneath him, obviously) I felt someone brush their hand against mine. As I turned, I found Gaara.

Gaara's face to be exact, in all its smooth, alabaster glory: his eyes were the colour of the ocean, the perfect combination of lush green grass and an azure sky... I noticed that he'd hit another growth spurt in the year or so I hadn't seen him. He towered above me at about 5'9" now, about Sasuke's height, whereas I had stayed at a measly 5'5". Well, it's actually a little above average height for a woman, but I was always surrounded by men, not women, most of whom made the obvious height difference quite clear.

You notice these things about Gaara when he's standing so close you can feel his warm, peppermint breath tickling your face, and mingling with your own breath. I know that he used to have no social skills, but I thought he knew better now to get into someone's personal space.

But it's okay. I don't mind. He can stay... as long as... he wants.

How. Handsome. Can. You. Get.

Wait Sakura stop, you can't think this way. You can't do this. This is immoral.

No.

His breath once again tickled my now pink cheeks.

Yes.

He stood like this for what seemed like eternity, however was a mere few seconds in reality, before taking full hold of my hand and half leading me, half dragging me out.

I know he was never good at taijutsu, but he had to realise that he was actually quite strong, right? Didn't he know his own strength?

Strength... his masculine strength.

As he led me out of the room by the hand, Itachi and Kankuro didn't even bat an eyelid. You'd think they might notice the departure of the person they were "conversing" about, but no.

Gaara continued to hold my hand as he led me down the corridor in wordless silence; the only sound was his fast paced walking, and my stumbling, little legs trying to keep up.

As he led me down another corridor, it became clearer that this kid, as I used to refer to him, was no longer a kid. You could see his broad shoulders in his casual attire, and his quite clearly lean arms. I felt myself blushing about what I imagined to be lick-able abs around front.

Oh, stop it. You're such a school girl sometimes.

And then, I couldn't help but stumble in my dream like state, right into his solid back, and then right into the very much solid floor.

I mumbled a quick "ittai" into the floor, as I just lay there, too embarrassed – and slightly tipsy – to stand up.

I could feel his eyes on me, just lying there.

"I've just embarrassed myself, in front of the Kazekage... right. Ow." I said aloud, so he would know why I was just lying there like an idiot.

I felt his hands under my stomach and for a second I thought he'd pick me up, but instead, he turned me over. And for kami knows what reason. To examine my wounds?

I looked up at his face and then shut my eyes against the blaring light.

"Everybody falls." He said simply in that oh-so-smooth voice of his.

"I thought I'd hide the embarrassment by lying down, but let's be honest, I made it worse." I sighed.

"Don't feel embarrassed," he told me before he did pick me up, like as in, bridal-style-I-am-carrying-you-ha-ha picked me up.

What are you doing? Gaara, what... I was too chocked to say anything as he carried me with ease.

"Gaara-sama, what..." I managed to voice. Note the key word, "managed", yeah, just about.

"Carrying you." He replied simply, as if there was nothing wrong with a 20-something year old man carrying a 20-something year old woman. Yup, okay, uh-uh, loads.

"I can... I can walk." I squeaked out to him as he looked down at my face. Why was this journey so long anyway? Goddamn it.

"Haruno-San, you're blushing." He seemed to be smirking, a sign of emotion. But that was not the problem.

WAS HE DOING THIS ON GODDAMN PURPOSE?!

My eyes widened at the realisation.

"Are you... teasing me?" I asked in exasperation.

"Maybe," was his short answer that actually said a lot.

'Yeah, so maybe I am, I actually like to joke around with people sometimes. Is that okay?'

Yes, yes, fine, just peachy.

We had apparently arrived at my door, and so he faced his back towards it and opened the door by pushing down with his elbow, before pushing it in with his back.

"Drop me off here." I stated more than asked as he entered my room. But he continued ahead, somehow managing to pull back the covers and drop me politely into bed.

"I'm a big girl now, Gaara-sama, I can put myself to bed," I told him awkwardly as he began tucking me in.

"Please, just call me Gaara." He just really sounded... sensual. Oh my.

"Well then call me by my first name instead of," I attempted to mock his deep voice, "Haruno-san."

He looked slightly taken aback at the prospect of calling me by my first name, as if he didn't want to say it.

"Gaara-sama it is then." I filled in for him and he nodded slightly.

I had no idea why I was taking this situation so... casually.

To sum it up: Gaara had held my hand, carried me, and tucked me into goddamn bed, shown freaking emotion. And to top it all off, he was flirting/teasing. I could never tell with this man.

Then, the perfect freak-out opportunity arose.

As he tucked a piece of hair behind my ear (that's right, a piece of hair, and admittedly, it felt extremely nice) Kankuro burst into the room, with Itachi walking casually beside him. Because Itachi needs to be casual.

I wished Itachi would tuck hair behind my ear. I looked to Gaara. He would have to do, for now.

But seriously, yes please, and I'll take a second serving.

"Gaara! What the hell, man?" Kankuro shouted.

Gaara didn't even bat an eyelid. He saw nothing wrong with what he had done. Casual.

Itachi just glared at him with something in his eyes I've never seen before. He looked angry, not at me, but at Gaara. A few seconds later, the look subsided as he comprehended the situation and didn't jump to (slightly sexual, slightly I-am-jealous) conclusions like Kankuro.

"Putting Sakura to bed," he told him plainly, as he sat at the foot of my bed. It completely dawned on me that Gaara, with his slightly awful social skills, actually hadn't seen anything wrong, or non-platonic with what he had done.

It's okay Kankuro. It's okay. I really don't mind. Gaara isn't a hormone driven man. He's just nice. And I am a predator posing as a house pet.

In all actuality, I totally just wanted to tackle Gaara to the ground and strip him down. Who didn't? And it was, truthfully, quite funny to see men get protective over me. It made me believe that Itachi really did care.

Itachi was like that man who you knew you just wanted to spend the rest of your life with. Gaara was just like that celebrity who you look up shirtless pictures of and throw your underwear at.

Well, in my opinion. I knew fine rightly that some women thought visa-versa. Or men. They both had their fair share of male admirers.

And it was fair to say that I was a female admirer.

Gaara and Itachi both looked at me, like a duo of extreme hotness and I felt butterflies. They were literally too hot for their own good.

Maybe... admirer was an understatement.

I had fallen asleep sometime after the brother's argument, and Itachi had left with them.

And now, I was awake, due to the polite knocking on my door.

I sat up begrudgingly before rubbing my eyes and making a move to stand. Growing closer to the door, I could also hear a faint voice calling my name.

I opened my door; the knocking stopped and I was met with the face of the small woman who had showed me to my room upon arrival.

She bowed before addressing me. "Sakura-sama. Umm... Uchiha-sama and Gaara-sama wish to see you."

Through my sleepiness, I couldn't help but smile at her formal, respectful tone. "What, right now?" I replied, sleep still lacing my drawled out voice. "What time is it?"

"It is eight o'clock, Sakura-sama. And yes, they said they would like to see you now," she replied in a sweet, high-pitched voice. She almost reminded me of Hinata.

"...Right now-right now?" I drawled once more.

"Yes, they said immediately," The small woman replied timidly.

I groaned. "Is it urgent?" I asked, trying to gauge whether I'd have time at least to brush my teeth...

"I'm not sure, but I assume so. They said it was important." If the little woman was annoyed at my repetitive questions, she didn't show it. Polite little woman.

"Whisk me away," I told her, sighing through my words with mock enthusiasm.

I had noticed this woman about yesterday – she was serving and she showed me to my room, but I had yet to find out her name.

"What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?" I questioned through the silence of our feet going along.

The little scuffles of her sandals, the little white and blue-grey yukata almost slithering on the ground, the patterns on it made her look like a bird. A penguin.

She was a polite, little penguin woman, with her sandals scuffling along.

And then my feet – Feet.

I hadn't even put any slippers on. I was walking barefooted, in my pyjamas, with my hair not brushed, not showered, and basically shouldn't have even dreamed of speaking to a Kazekage in this state. Whatever they had to say better have been important, I silently fumed.

"My name is Jinchou." She replied after a while – it seemed as if she was gathering courage to speak or something... – ever the timid one.

Jinchou... Bird person? No... my mouth gaped. Penguin: her name meant penguin. I was dumbstruck. Who names their child "Penguin"? That's a form of abuse, per se.

I found my vocal chords after clearing my throat. "That's ahh– a very interesting name..." I mumbled and she gave no reaction apart from a slight nod of what looked like gratitude, or embarrassment. I'd be embarrassed at having a name like penguin.

Penguin Haruno.

Doesn't really have the same ring to it, does it?

She walked me down a few more corridors as I attempted to remember the way, but it seemed as if she took me a different way than Gaara had last night.

And that sounded sexual. Gaara had taken me to my room, goddamn it, to do platonic things, like brush my hair behind my ear...

She led me to a room with an open door which I realised wasn't even the same room as last night, therefore the reason she had taken me a different way. She bowed to me before scuttling off.

I realised I could handle this situation two ways: apologise for looking a mess, or tell them off for making me run to their needs. What could be that important anyway?

"You guys better have good cause to drag me out of bed like this..." I yawned to make a point as I walked in. Gaara motioned for me to sit. I did so.

Itachi and the Kazekage ended their conversation, which I was surprised they were having at all. I pictured the two stoic men's conversation to be something along the lines of:

"Uh."
"Tch."
"Hn."
"Uh-huh."
"Ah."

And various other grunting noises. But alas, they were deep in conversation before they had ended.

"Haruno- san," he greeted me and I smirked at his still formal formalities. Itachi nodded to me but didn't say anything.

"I was wondering when would be an okay time for you to take a look at this epidemic we've been suffering... I'm not putting you under pressure, in your own time, but I'll need to get things set up. Let me know when you're ready." He stated, and it seemed to hurt him to ask, as if he didn't want to depend on others for help.

"Sakura is a very talented medic, Gaara-san. You needn't even ask." He smiled to the man. It seemed as if they had something planned. It also looked as if Gaara duly noted the fact that Itachi didn't use an honorific with my name.

"Itachi-san has also informed me that you need to train. We have decided upon Wednesday, two days' time." He glanced to Itachi before continuing, "He says you should be ready. I'll have someone to escort you to the training grounds."

I almost pouted at his use of informality with Itachi. I didn't get it, last night he was sitting flirting and teasing and now he was the serious man who would probably never call me by my first name. I glanced to Itachi and he looked perfect, sitting there all angel-like with the sun streaming onto his pale face.

His eyes fell on me as I told Gaara I understood. He smirked, as if telling me he was going to beat my ass whilst training. I could only assume that Gaara would tag along to watch since he brought it up. So, correction: beat my ass in front of the Kazekage. At that moment, I just wished I wasn't so goddamn weak.

I had accepted long ago that I wasn't made to fight. I wasn't the kind of person who could go out and fuck shit up on the battlefield. Yes, I suppose that I was strong in my own right, but against people like Itachi, Gaara, my own squad... well, I didn't compare...

So I focused on healing. But being the medic of the team wasn't something that got you all the shining glory; not that I wanted it, but when you saved someone's life with healing hands, you didn't get a mighty thanks. Now when you saved someone's life with destructive hands, oh, then they would practically lick the crack of your ass.

But none of that really mattered to me. I didn't mind not having ultra-awesome-kill-shit-ninja-skills. I was the best in my own right. I could heal, I could save; I ran the freaking hospital, for goodness sake. And I was brilliant at evasion. I had everything an excellent, first class medic would need. So why, why had Tsunade signed me up for this? I didn't need to improve my Shinobi skills, because I wasn't a Shinobi. That was what all of my brooding boiled down to, after all.

The Kazekage was going to watch me get my ass handed to me because me and Itachi sparring was like asking an elephant to climb a tree. It wasn't my area.

I pushed the thoughts from my mind and smiled to Gaara, deciding to change the subject. "You should probably have told Naruto where to be fed and watered. He'll come looking everywhere for breakf- "

Everyone could hear Naruto's groans from down the corridor.

"Where is the food?! Food..."

I shut the door to my temporary room behind myself and the little Penguin-chan had appeared as I had informed her earlier I'd need 'assistance' in finding the Kazekage. After I was dressed and ready to head to him, she was just there, seemingly coming from nowhere. Maybe I was interpreting her clothing wrongly. Maybe she was a ghost, not a penguin. She hadn't even told me her second name; I didn't press the matter.

She led me through various corridors and finally she brought me outside and we walked across the way to where the office-y Kazekage tower was. I had realised that we were staying at the Kazekage/Sand siblings' house a few hours ago as I noticed Gaara walking across the way in his Kazekage attire to a building. He probably had a small council meeting later, I deduced.

Penguin-chan then led me onto the building and up a flight of stairs. The setup was close to that of the Hokage tower back in Konoha.

Konoha... I'd been in the sandbox about two days and was already dreaming of home. Apparently the Suna Shinobi hated Konoha weather, and needless to say, we weren't too fond of Suna weather.

As I knocked and Penguin-chan skittered away, I faintly heard laughter from the other side of the door. As I entered, I was met by Naruto and Gaara giggling over some personal joke and Itachi standing waiting. Skipping the formalities, a quick encounter led to Gaara telling me Itachi knew the way and we continued out.

"Did you enjoy yourself last night?" Itachi questioned once we were alone, to which I gave him a polite affirmative response. He continued, "I did try to warn you of Kankuro's ways."

I thought about it for a second, like really thought about it. Why did he even care? He still had not been outright about anything, making nothing straight forward, and so, without thinking, I blurted, "Why do you care anyway?" The fact I was met by silence from the Uchiha, him still skirting around everything, turned my slight contemplation into annoyance, anger even. I almost 'hmph'ed before picking up a pace.

"You know the way to the Hospital?" He quirked at me. I fell in beside him, giving him my answer, not speaking, in fear of my voice betraying me. We were in a desolate little corridor of the Kazekage tower and if I wanted to be angry here, I would be.

"You're angry." He had stopped, and therefore I stopped too. I didn't reply; I simply stared. Was he trying to be empathetic? After a few moments of uncomfortable staring on my part, I replied.

"Was that a question?" It was sharper that I had meant for it to come out, but I was angry.

"It was a statement. I state what I see." He said in quite a nonchalant manner.

"Are you expecting some sort of reaction from me, then?" He looked slightly taken aback, so I continued walking along, looking once over my shoulder. Not so much as to check if he was walking, more to prompt him.

We walked in silence over to the hospital. I entered the big building and nodded a quick farewell to Itachi. Now was not the time to be flipping my shit at him. I was meant to be strictly professional right now.

The woman at the desk seemed to recognise my face, as she stood when I entered and called out my name.

"Ah! Haruno-sama!" I glanced to the left of her, to find one of the hospital staff standing up. They welcomed me over and continued speaking when I was situated in front of them. "Kazekage-sama told me you would be coming... right this way."

I recognised this girl from somewhere... my last trip to Suna, maybe?

She led me to a white-washed lab and I looked around... it wasn't the best, most equipt lab in the world, but it would have to do.

"If you need anything, Haruno-sama, I'll be... ummm..." She positioned herself in a chair in the very corner of the room. She was trying to stay out of my way and it was admittedly quite cute. "I'll be in the corner..."

I nodded to her and took a seat in one of the chairs, spinning around once and preparing myself for a probable long day.

A/N

tbf this is a comparatively quick update considering on FF this looks like it's been updated 6 times in 7 years.

If you enjoy good writing, check out my other story, Our Understanding. Obviously it's another ItaSaku because I'm trash - and it's undergoing a massive overhaul atm so expect an update very soon!

-xl3utterflyx