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“Is that the Kazekage?”
There’s a three step process to confirming Gaara is in town, in Sakura’s experience. Step one is the whispering, all the villagers (and some shinobi) chattering amongst themselves, the rumours swirling all the way through the streets.
Naruto’s ears prick up. That’s step two. If Sakura has a radar for Naruto and Sasuke, then Naruto has a radar for – well, them too, but also Gaara. Sakura gives him a minute before he starts getting twitchy and cracks out the puppy dog eyes on her to try make an escape.
And step three…
“Ah, Naruto,” comes a familiar voice.
Step three, without fail, is that Gaara comes to make himself known to Naruto.
“Gaara!” Naruto exclaims. “I didn’t know you were coming! You… Buh…”
Sakura looks up, frowning. While it’s not uncommon for Naruto to make strange noises, it’s rare for them to occur at the expense of his usual hyper-verbosity. She half-expects to see someone shoving a hand over Naruto’s mouth to try silence him, but what she finds is even stranger.
It’s like he’s buffering. Mouth slack, eyes wide, cheeks flushing as bad as the time Kiba beat him in an arm wrestling competition and Ino then wrangled Naruto into a skirt as punishment.
Sakura follows his gaze to Gaara, then blinks.
“Oh,” she says. “Gaara, you look…”
There’s an iridescent, shimmery blue on Gaara’s cheeks, sweeping from the jut of his cheekbones downwards. Someone has painted tiny silver lines in the style of scales: bright when they catch the light, but fading into the general sheen of his face when angled towards you.
Naruto can’t stop staring at Gaara’s mouth, of all things, so Sakura looks closer at it. Oh. He has – a snaggletooth? A little fang? Something peeking over the edge of his lower lip, sharp and pale against his skin.
“Oh,” Gaara says. He then does something even more unexpected, and pulls his hands up towards his chest, allowing them to flop down at the wrists, like when Iruka-sensei’s students play at being a bunny. He tilts his head towards the side with the fang, and says, “Trick or treat.”
Um.
Okay, Naruto is way past buffering now. Sakura suspects he may be having an Out Of Body Experience. In order to buy him some time to pull himself together, she says, “Uh… treat?”
Gaara blinks at her, then nods thoughtfully. He returns to his normal posture then flattens his palm. Sand swirls from his gourd, finally solidifying in –
A sakura bloom, held out to her.
Sakura claps, charmed. Naruto finally becomes a real boy again, and says, “Gaara! You’re so pretty! What!”
Good grief.
Gaara goes a little pink beneath the shimmer, but looks unoffended. Admittedly, Sakura is deciding this based on his lack of retribution against Naruto, but she thinks it works.
“Thank you,” he says. “It’s a tradition from the Mist; the Mizukage invited me to partake in their celebrations when I was just there.”
Sakura does the math. Even considering Gaara’s ability to travel faster than most and his enhanced stamina, it’s still a ways away. Either Gaara asked the Mizukage to teach him how to reapply it himself, or he carefully protected his visage from the elements; regardless, the only answer she can come up with involves wanting to show Naruto, and that –
She hides a smile.
“When I’m Hokage, maybe we can go to the Mist and celebrate it together!” Naruto is prattling on when she tunes back in. “Except I don’t think I’d be as good at being, like—are you a mermaid?”
Gaara nods. “Their sea spirits are quite dangerous,” he says. “The Mizukage said it would be an apt thing to guise myself as.”
Naruto scrunches up his nose. “Eh? I mean, you are pretty tough…” he muses. “But you’re not really scary anymore!”
Sakura thinks Gaara’s eyes are shining. Look at you, Naruto, she thinks wryly. Unexpected charmer.
“Maybe I could be a dragon,” Naruto suggests. “Or a lion!”
“I don’t think the Mist has lions,” Gaara says. “There are sea serpents, though.”
Naruto makes a face. Then he brightens. “Wait, so we could match?”
“I could ride you,” Gaara agrees. Naruto squawks, then goes scarlet.
“Gaara!” he complains, flushing. “You can’t just say that!”
Gaara tilts his head. “Say what?” he asks, furrowing his brow.
Naruto shoots Sakura a desperate look for help. She raises her hands up, like, you’re on your own for this one, bud. His pleading expression intensifies.
Sighing, she gives in. “Is the ‘trick or treat’ part of the tradition too, Gaara?” she asks politely.
“Yes,” he says, nodding as he finally tears his gaze from Naruto to look at her. “Children ask it of you. As best as I can determine, it’s a type of barter system.”
Sakura frowns. “Oh,” she says. “But you just gave me a flower.”
Gaara shrugs. “The friendship of the Leaf is already all the gift I need,” he says, which – really. He’s so sincere sometimes, but in such a frank way, it sets her off-kilter sometimes. She’s not entirely sure how Naruto handles it, seeing as he’s so much more susceptible to Gaara’s little quirks than anyone else in their village.
Naruto puts it together faster than she expects. “Wait, so we’re meant to give you a treat?” he asks.
“No,” Gaara says patiently. “I don’t need one.”
“I mean, how it usually works,” Naruto clarifies.
“Oh. Yes,” Gaara says. “Or I believe the asker plays a trick on you.” He hums. “Kankurou’s feet were painted blue.”
Sakura blinks, then exchanges a glance with Naruto.
“Oh,” Naruto says, then squeezes his eyes, twisting his lips to the side. This one is the latest iteration of his thinking face. “Ask again?”
Gaara tilts his head again. The light catches on his silver scales, the iridescent shimmer, the little fang.
“Okay,” he says slowly. “Trick or treat?”
“Treat!” Naruto says boldly. Gaara opens his palm, but before he can swirl any sand, Naruto clasps his hand in his own.
Gaara stares down at their joined hands, apparently shell-shocked.
“Gotcha!” Naruto says gleefully. “C’mon, I’m gonna treat you to ramen!”
“You don’t have t—” Gaara is saying as Naruto drags him away, but Naruto makes a shushing sound at him.
“Shh! I won’t have the Mist saying that the Leaf don’t know how to treat the Kazekage,” Naruto says, which is terribly unconvincing as far as Naruto’s excuses go, but maybe Sakura’s biased. She’s seen for herself, after all, the way Naruto leans forward when watching Gaara fight, halfway to tipping into the arena himself because of how avidly he’s tracking each of Gaara’s movements. It’s there in the way Naruto sneaks sidelong glances at him when they’re walking together, or how quick he is to accuse the rest of them of ‘monopolising’ (Sakura’s going to punch Shikamaru for teaching him that word) Gaara when they distract his attention for more than a few minutes.
“Sakura-chan!” Naruto calls out over his shoulder. He’s got Gaara dragged halfway up the street. “Ichiraku Ramen! Are you coming? My treat!”
She almost follows. She is hungry, after all. But –
It’s the way Gaara’s looking at Naruto. He wouldn’t mind her coming, she knows that, but it’s like – he’s so fond. Such a small, quiet smile on his face. Sakura has spent a lot of her life looking at Sasuke, and she knows how much even a slight curve can mean on lips that haven’t had much reason to laugh in their life.
“Nah,” she says, shaking her head. “Go ahead, have fun! I’ve gotta find Sasuke-kun! He promised to help me with one of the chakra exercises!”
He did no such thing, of course, but she’ll convince him to, somehow.
Naruto’s happy, see. That’s what counts.