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Gaara was four when she met her soulmate. Well, the voice in her head (who she privately thought of as Mother) laughed and said there was no such thing, and that no one would love a monster like her, but Gaara knew better. Even if everyone around her was afraid and called her names and ran away whenever they saw her, she knew Sakura wouldn't. Because Sakura had already proven it.
Evening is the best time to play in Suna, every child knows that, because the sun isn't so high in the sky but the cold night air hasn't started creeping in. But not even the desire to play keeps the other children in the park when they see Gaara approaching, her uncle trailing behind her as always.
Only, that day, someone does stay behind.
Gaara notices her immediately, not just because of her candy pink hair and sunburnt skin, but because the kids that had just run away had been circled around her, jeering. When they scattered, running away (like cowards, kill them all! the voice in her head screeched), they leave the strange girl curled protectively in on herself, hands over her head.
She waits a few moments, but when it registers that no one is hurting her, she slowly peeks out. Immediately, her eyes land on Gaara, who braces herself for the inevitable way she'll scramble away or scream in fear or—
"Did you make those kids leave? Thank you!"
Gaara doesn't anticipate the girl sitting up and thanking her, but it's… Gaara doesn't hate it. Even when Mother mocks her, she can't help but feel a flutter of hope in her chest.
"What's your name?" She asks. And then follows it up by the most important question, "Why were those kids hurting you?" Was she a monster like Gaara?
Her eyes are pretty, she thinks as the girl scrambles to stand up and introduce herself.
"I'm Haruno Sakura, please treat me well," she bows low, more than ninety degrees, and it's clear she's nervous. She doesn't seem scared, though, which confuses Gaara until she asks, "What's your name?"
Gaara should have guessed from her coloring, but the question makes her even more sure: Haruno Sakura is not from Suna.
Her heart leaps at the possibility of a fresh start. Of a friend.
"I'm Gaara," she tries to keep her tone even, to not let any of her excitement show (she couldn't scare her new friend away!). Then, to redirect the attention away from herself again, she asks a second time. "Why were they picking on you, Sakura-san?"
Sakura giggles at the formal address, and Gaara's heart soars, but then she sobers.
"I don't know. They just… they said I have a big forehead and I'm ugly and should go back to Fire. But Mama said we can't," she sighs and looks down at her feet, scuffing the bottoms with the sand beneath them. "I didn't like it in Konoha, though. The kids picked on me there, too. No one ever wants to be my friend. I guess I'm too ugly."
She lets out a big sigh that makes Gaara's heart clench (and Mother mocks her for her softness). Gaara also sees the opportunity for what it is, and leaps at the chance.
"I'll be your friend," she says, feeling heat rise up to her cheeks. She clutches her work stuffed rabbit tightly to her chest—it's a luxury Yashamaru allows her, but one that would be taken should father ever find out. "If you—"
"Yes!" Sakura rushes over, and Gaara braces herself to have to apologize for her sand attacking, but then Sakura is grabbing her hands and talking about how she promises to be the best friend ever and will try to be less ugly and—
"You're not ugly?" If anything, Sakura was the prettiest girl she's ever seen. Mostly, Gaara is concerned about the fact her sand is letting Sakura through.
She can feel Yashamaru's amazement (and worry) without having to look back, but it doesn't matter.
Gaara thinks she's found the girl she's going to be with forever. As a friend or even a wife, Gaara won't let Haruno Sakura go.
Gaara was five when her uncle Yashamaru tried to kill her.
She was five when Sakura nearly died trying to get in the way.
They're tucked away in a corner of one of the big rooms of Kazekage mansion that Gaara and Sakura like to play in when there's a sandstorm cutting off their playground access. Sakura is talking about how she wishes Gaara could join her at the Academy, because the other kids are dumb and mean and she has to hide her lunch to keep them from stealing it.
The last part makes Gaara angry.
"Mother says I should kill people that are mean to us." Mother says she should kill people that are mean to her mate, but Gaara doesn't know how Sakura feels about getting married one day and is too afraid to bring it up.
"I don't think that's your mama, Gaara-chan," Sakura says, blinking over at her with those big, pretty eyes and interrupting her spiraling thoughts about how to make sure Sakura becomes her bride when they're grown ups.
From across the room, Gaara watches Uncle Yashamaru perk up, but he doesn't look happy.
"Who could they be, then?"
"Well," Sakura says the word slowly, rolling it around on her tongue. Gaara, even in suspense, can't help but admire how cute she is. "I was reading one of Sasori-sensei's books," that made sense, because Sakura was so smart she could already read grown up books about science and art and math, "and it said something about jinchuuriki, when they seal a tailed beast inside—"
There's a flash of metal and suddenly Sakura is on top of her and there's blood in the air and Sakura lets out a little gasp that makes Gaara's heart stutter in panic, even as her sand crushes the threat.
Uncle Yashamaru only has time to scream a few insults before he devolves into wordless howls of pain and someone bursts into the room.
Gaara's other uncle, Sasori, has little patience for the scene before him. Even if he says he hates children, he has a soft spot for Sakura, who's curious and bright and probably going to be his apprentice once she makes chuunin, and after his cold eyes take in the scene before him, he nods at Gaara, and watches with a detached interest as the sand envelops Yashamaru and squeezes.
With the threat gone, Gaara is able to focus on what matters. Sakura is badly hurt, the jagged gash in her arm so messy that Gaara worries if she has enough blood in her body to live, but luckily, the best medic in the family is there.
Uncle Sasori hates imperfections, and Gaara has never been so thankful for it, because it means Sakura wakes up a few hours later, tucked in Gaara's bed and without a missing limb, and uses both of her healthy arms to hug Gaara so tightly that she finds it hard to breathe. Gaara's sand never so much as twitches—it knows Sakura is safe. Sakura is the only person Gaara can trust with her whole being, even when Shukaku (the voice in his head that turned out to be a tailed beast and not his mother, just like Sakura tried to tell him before the attack) complains that it makes her too soft.
Unfortunately, that connection makes Sakura a target, even by her own parents' greed.
Gaara is lucky that Sakura loves her enough to not be upset when she wakes in the middle of the night to Gaara releasing her parents from a Sand Coffin, though her face turns a little green from the way their bodies look after being crushed by all the sand. She knows Sakura has never really liked her parents, and to be honest, Gaara has wanted to kill them for a long time, from some of the things she mentioned about her home life.
"They were going to hurt you," Gaara offers, creeping towards her bed and hoping she won't flinch away. "There was a man downstairs…" Also dead, of course. Gaara is a child, but she's been exposed to enough to understand what was happening. What would have been done to Sakura once she was sold to the highest bidder.
Sakura gets tangled in the covers as she leans over to wrap Gaara in a hug, tumbling out of bed and taking Gaara down with her.
"Does this mean I get to live with you now?"
Gaara never trusted her father, not after she learned what really happened on the night of her birth (thanks to Uncle Sasori). How her mother died not as a natural casualty of childbirth or Gaara's own monstrous nature, but because Rasa sealed a monster inside of Gaara, through the very skin and muscle separating her fetus self from the outside world.
Rasa hated her for killing Karura, but Gaara knew she wasn't the one at fault. She also knew not to leave Sakura alone around him, even when he granted Gaara's request to move her into the Kazekage manor in the wake of the Harunos mysterious deaths. The bodies disappeared, but the rumors stayed.
Sakura flourished in her new environment, and Gaara got to see her soulmate every morning, afternoon, and night—Sakura hadn't needed to attend the academy after that night, because she received the same tutoring as Gaara and his siblings, under a man named Baki. It was unusual, having a team of four instead of the standard three, but Sakura helped bridge the chasm between Gaara and her older siblings with her bright smile and quick mind. Even Baki seemed quick to approve of her, because he could see how much effort she put into training and how she was willing to get up and try again and again until she perfected something.
Gaara was thankful her siblings and teacher didn't cower in fear around her as much anymore, but she also hated Sakura paying attention to others. Her smile was for Gaara.
Sakura takes her first life to protect Gaara. They're eight and Uncle Sasori has taken them along to the border of Wind to gather some kind of flower that only grows two weeks a year. Gaara doesn't particularly care about it, but it makes Sakura excited, so she tags along despite her father trying to order her to stay home. Gaara just knows she'll kill him one day, and doesn't mind how excited Shukaku gets at the prospect.
Her uncle has turned to haggle with a vendor (in other words, intimidate the man into giving him what he wants at a low price), so Gaara wanders off with Sakura so she can look at glittering hair trinkets a few stalls down. An emerald one catches her eye, and as she reaches out to pick it up and tell Sakura how pretty it would look in her pink hair, she catches a flash of steel and the smell of blood.
Her vision is full of pink for a moment, and then Gaara is enveloped by her sand. She fights against it, because Sakura is out there and she has to protect her, but it takes a moment to get it to cooperate with her.
When the grains fall away, she sees the crumpled body of a dead man, his white clothing stained with blood, and Sakura, pale and clutching the little dagger Gaara bought her for her birthday earlier that year.
She looks too pale, though, paler than even when she'd first moved to Suna years ago, and Gaara knows something is wrong.
"Poison," Uncle Sasori spits out, and then he kneels down, his knee crushing the corpse's windpipe into a pancake, and jabs something into Sakura. Gaara barely manages to restrain her sand because she knows, of course, that it's an antidote. But her body is overtaken by the need to protect.
The need to avenge.
Gaara levels the village in her blind rage, taken over by Shukaku. Yet, despite it all, Sakura remains unharmed. Uncle Sasori, too, but that was more to do with the fact her uncle had hidden himself.
She confesses to Sakura, later that night as they hunker down in a cave to sleep, that she hates losing control. That she would rather work with Shukaku but the seal on her stomach is an irritant, rubbing both her and the tailed beast raw, and it doesn't leave much room for fond feelings.
Sakura wraps her arms around Gaara and kisses the top of her messy red locks, and she promises to help.
Gaara believes her, because if anyone can help, it's Sakura.
After they made it back to Suna, Sakura began spending more time in the library, holed up with books that she refused to show Gaara—at least, for a few days, until Gaara couldn't help but start to let her worry show outwardly. (Was Sakura going to leave her? Had Gaara been a bad friend? Was it because of the assassin?)
"I'm trying to learn how to fix your seal," Sakura whispered to her after sneaking into Gaara's room two weeks after their return to Suna. "Sasori-sensei told me what books to read to learn about sealing, and once I'm good enough, he'll give me one on jinchuuriki seals that he got from Konoha." Stole from Konoha, it went without saying. But shinobi didn't have the luxury of morals when it came to things like thievery.
Shukaku harrumphed inside of her, but didn't do nearly as much protesting as Gaara thought he might at the prospect.
You've got a clever little mate, he grumbled to Gaara as she drifted off later, curled around Sakura like a fussy kitten. Don't screw it up, brat.
Gaara didn't need to be told that—she loved Sakura so much, so fiercely, that she knew she would kill anyone who tried to get in the way. Her future bride, her soulmate.
Four years later, after Sakura and Uncle Sasori fixed Shukaku's seal (without Rasa's knowledge—all three of them agreed that the less he knew, the better), Temari gets a hasty field promotion to chuunin in order to make sure Gaara's team can enter the chuunin exams in Konoha. Their alleged ally won't permit a team of four, and adjustments need to be made. Still, Temari is good, and at fifteen is more than ready to be a chuunin—in fact, Gaara thinks privately that her sister should have been made a jounin, but Rasa holds on to the stupid notions about women and power that were around during the founding of the village and so she knows it will be some time before that happens.
Temari is like a real sister now, and she gives Gaara and Sakura and Kankuro a wave as they depart through the village gates with their retinue. Uncle Sasori is staying behind, too, to run the village in Rasa's place, and he nods in Gaara and Sakura's direction, but mainly keeps his focus on Rasa.
Gaara knows the look, can feel the suspicion, the anticipation. Rasa has done something, or is planning to do something. If he does it in Konoha, it could get them all killed, or even start a war. Sakura picks up on it, too, because no one is allowed to spend as much time with Uncle Sasori as her (even though he denies doting on her, and poisoned the last man who teased him about it so badly that he was pulled off active duty for months).
Sakura stays close to Gaara for the entire trip, and eventually, Kankuro picks up on it. He teases them about being sweet on each other, but Gaara knows her brother isn't as stupid as he likes to make people think.
The three of them observe, but they don't discuss it—even after a few years, none of them is sure whether they can trust Baki. Would his loyalties be to Suna, to prevent them from getting into a catastrophe… or would they be with Rasa?
They reach Konoha with only one assassination attempt under their belts, which Gaara's sand took care of swiftly. But being in the host village presents new problems, onces that Gaara doesn't knows how to fully handle and Shukaku laughs at her for.
Their team, minus Baki, keep to themselves and don't make waves, even when some little brat with snot dripping from his nose and the world's most hideous headpiece tries to fight Kankuro. They keep their heads down, avoid confrontation for the rest of the day, and make it to the building where the first round of exams is being held. That's when trouble starts.
Gaara spots the first threat immediately.
The boy is pretty, dark hair and pale skin and a pout that more than a few girls are mooning over. Gaara sees the haughty way he looks at her, and then the way his eyes immediately slide over Sakura, as if dismissing the two of them altogether.
It fills Gaara with rage.
Her irritation isn't soothed when they're separated for the start of the exam, though she uses her sand to form a little eye and copy all the answers from Sakura's paper, just as they'd planned. Of course she and Kankuro would want her answers, because Sakura is the smartest genin in whole village—Uncle Sasori isn't as subtle as he usually is in his impatience for her to receive chuunin promotion so he can snatch her up as an apprentice. The questions, while hard for Gaara, would be laughably easy for Sakura.
They finish in good time, making sure not to go too fast as to raise suspicion. It gives them time to scope out the competition. Kankuro pulls some ludicrous stunt in swapping with his puppet on a bathroom break (Gaara would call him an idiot, but the proctors fall for it) and Sakura's shoulders are tense as she feels the eyes of some blonde Leaf-nin lock onto her.
A Yamanaka.
Gaara has to fight against her instinct to kill the girl when she decides to try and use her clan jutsu (the mind transfer technique, Uncle called it) on Sakura. She has to take deep breaths as she remembers that yes, Sakura can take care of herself, and Gaara should trust her with this.
Shukaku is still calling for blood from his newer, more comfortable cage (they're hurting your mate, killkillkill!) when Sakura's head twitches upward, just the slightest tick, and the Yamanaka girl lets out a gasp and slumps forward in her chair.
The proctor twitches more visibly than Sakura just did, and looks like he wants to disqualify the cheating girl, but doesn't. Gaara assumes there's some kind of nepotism involved, and doesn't dwell on it. Leaf nin always look out for themselves first, even if they try to act as though they're the good, moral village. They seem to have already forgotten the way their own Fourth Hokage slaughtered an entire platoon of Iwa nin in the blink of an eye just fourteen years before.
The second round was uneventful, all things considered. All three of them took more than one life, all out of defense… Well, Gaara considered offense when she felt the Yamanaka girl hovering nearby for a few moments, but when she leveled a look at the bushes the girl had been hiding in, it took care of the problem.
"She's not very stealthy," Sakura murmured, failing to keep laughter out of her voice. "Is their teacher hoping to get out of their job if they all get killed?"
Kankuro snorted, and Gaara felt her lips twitch upwards.
They sensed some commotion closer towards the middle of the forest as they approached the tower, but they didn't stop to investigate. That was the kind of thing that stupid, soft-hearted shinobis did. It was what dead shinobis had done.
They heard later, in the privacy of their team room as they wait for the second round's official end in two days, that it was Orochimaru. Baki said the Uchiha boy (the pretty one Gaara was wary of), had been attacked and his whole team had been quietly passed through to the next round because of something Orochimaru had done to him. A mark or some kind of experimental jutsu.
"Whatever you do, engage carefully," their teacher warned before disappearing once more.
They waited a few moments, quietly rechecking the privacy seals Sakura had made for their room, then Kankuro spoke.
"He knows something. About what dad's up to, and probably about that kid getting attacked."
Gaara and Sakura nodded silently, sharply, and the three of them started to put their heads together about how to get out of Konoha alive, if necessary.
"Sasori-sensei—" Sakura started, and while Kankuro rolled his eyes, Gaara's exaperation was out of pure fondness. Before either of them could say anything, or Sakura could finish her thought, a tiny displacement of air shifted right in front of Sakura.
Gaara started to spring into action, but realized a moment later that it was a scorpion. One of her uncle's.
"Konomi!" Sakura greeted the little creature enthusiastically, and from the way the scorpion, Konomi, cozied up to her in return, Gaara knew a summoning contract signing was in Sakura's future.
"Sasori-sama asked me to be a liason," Konomi chittered.
"Does he know what's really happening?" Sakura asked, brow creased. Gaara scooted closer to her, their arms brushing and filling her with warmth.
"He's—" The scorpion didn't finish her sentence, but skittered up Sakura's arm and onto the nape of her neck, hidden by the long braid Sakura wore.
Then, Baki was there, and he looked more ragged than ever before.
"You need to know a few things before the second round ends. To protect yourselves."
Gaara plays her part of would-be weapon like a proper actress. After Baki told them what he's supposed to have looped them in on weeks ago—attacking Konoha alongside the new Sound village, which was apparently under Orochimaru's control, there was a new sense of trust between students and teacher. They formed a plan, which was mainly to act like nothing was wrong, and while Gaara did have to almost kill someone in the first preliminary round to make it look convincing… Well, the overly enthusiastic target had called Sakura a beautiful blossom and thrown kisses at her (which Sakura dodged easily, of course).
So really, it was Rock Lee's own fault. Besides, the blood kept Shukaku happy, and it made the other Leaf nin think twice about trying to get close to Sakura.
Sakura, who solidified their fear by slamming the Yamanaka girl into unconsciousness a split second into their match.
Gaara hovers around her for the rest of the day, even as they're dismissed with their first match-ups for the final round in a month. Gaara is more than a little pleased that she gets to test her strength against the Uchiha boy, and that pleasure doubles when she catches Sakura glaring daggers at said opponent as they all leave the forest.
Even Kankuro can sense her jealousy, and teases her about it all night.
"You can't ruin Gaara's fun by killing that kid before the match, Sakura-chan!"
Sakura pouts, but her body melts in relaxation when Gaara sneaks into her bed that night and wraps her arms around her. The scent of standard-issue soap can't fully hide Sakura's natural jasmine smell, and between that small comfort and Konomi's little chitters of reassurance, Gaara sleeps soundly. (After a few years of getting to sleep, with her fixed seal, the sensation isn't as foreign anymore—in fact, Gaara finds she likes sleep, especially when she can use Sakura as her personal teddy bear.)
They walk into the final round of the exams a month later, after many such nights and lots of training and, to Gaara's delight, her first kiss.
Sakura had gotten the upper hand in a taijutsu-only spar, and it was there, with no one but whatever ANBU were tailing them to watch, that she pinned Gaara to the ground and dove in with bright pink cheeks. Sakura's lips are soft and only a little chapped, and Gaara lays there and lets Shukaku laugh at her for the starstuck, open-mouthed awe she's displaying.
It's only after Shukaku calms down that he makes an excellent suggestion.
Kiss her back, fool! She's your mate!
For once, Gaara has no concerns about following her companion's suggestions.
Of course, it's not all fun—they have to work out a plan as a team for how to make it out of Konoha alive while Uncle Sasori makes his way to the village. They'll let Rasa hang himself with the rope he borrowed from Orochimaru, they decide (even Baki, who looks more furious with each passing meeting he returns from—Gaara knows there are things being said about her, about her use as a weapon and not as a human, but she's used to her father and doesn't take offense. Still, it's nice to feel cared for.)
On the day of the third exam (of the planned invasion), Sakura's match is with a Nara. Gaara isn't worried that much, because while the Nara clan are full of geniuses, Sakura is a genius in her own right. And, while this Nara might have a motivation getting revenge for his Yamanaka teammate, he lacks one thing Sakura has in spades: passion and dedication.
To ignorant onlookers, Gaara knows the match is uneventful—boring, even. They're glad when Shikamaru finally raises his hand up and forfeits, despite the fact Sakura has just been caught in his shadow manipulation despite her best efforts to avoid it. But Gaara knows.
She can see from a distance how the boy's eyes are sharp and hungry as they follow Sakura back to the competitors' box. Gaara sees, and she feels jealousy burn hot in her veins… Until Sakura makes a beeline for her and immediately snatches her hand, in full view of the onlooking Nara.
Jealousy quickly turns to smug satisfaction, and she lets herself forget everything but Sakura for a few moments.
The arrival of her opponent drags her back into reality, though, and Gaara fixes her mask firmly back onto her face. If Rasa thinks her to be a monster, she'll play one. Just not in the way he's expecting.
Sasuke is fast, and unfortunately his elemental affinity seems to be lightning, which isn't a great combination with Gaara's sand defenses. However, his attempts to try and get a rise out of Gaara are mostly laughable. It would have worked unfailingly before Shukaku's seal had been fixed, but despite the rumors that still dog her to this day, she's not the crazed, bloodthirsty killing machine people expect her to be.
Except when one of the lightning attacks (chidori, just like the Copy-nin used) goes astray and the Uchiha is flying towards the competitors' box.
Gaara is there in an instant, teleporting with her sand, and then she's snatching Sakura and Kankuro and they're gone again in the blink of an eye. They make it to the forest just outside the village gates, just as something explodes in the arena they'd fled.
Gaara hopes Rasa is one of the casualties.
Of course, Konoha gave chase. Or rather, they let their genin give chase. Gaara thinks it's incredibly short-sighted for the adults to let a bunch of twelve- and thirteen-year-olds chase after her if they really think Gaara is such a monster. They may have produced some monsters of their own, like the Sannin and the Yellow Flash, but in peace time they'd clearly become reckless. Kankuro decided to hang back to deal with the majority of them single-handedly, but he wasn't able to prevent all of them from getting past him.
The Yellow Flash's son (because that is the only person he could be, looking like that) was the one who tracked them down in the end, alongside the detestably smug Uchiha and a boy who was paler than the moon and suspicious in a way that set Gaara and Shukaku both on edge.
But more than that?
"Shukaku wants me to tell your companion a few things," she starts out slowly as she focuses on the bright orange boy's (Naruto, as he's loudly proclaimed many times over) stomach, filtering through the grumbles and uncouth language that made up the tailed beast's usual speech. "They aren't very complimentary, thought."
Naruto's eyes widened, and Gaara entertains a thought that maybe, in another time, she could have been friends with him. He was cute, in a too-loud, overly chummy kind of way. Sakura could have helped bridge the gap, probably. Maybe she still could.
"You have one, too?!"
Gaara nodded and her eyes slid to the pale boy, who was looking at her with his unsettling dead-eyed stare. She took a step closer to Sakura out of habit, so she was in close range for protection purposes.
"Wait," Naruto, who'd been in the middle of bounding over to Gaara, stopped and tilted his head thoughtfully. "Yours has a name?"
Sakura tensed, just as Gaara did (because they were in sync more often than not).
"Do you… do you not talk to Kurama?" Gaara ventured carefully thankful she'd been able to pick a name out of Shukaku's swearing at the impromptu reunion.
"His name's Kurama?"
The pale boy chose that moment to lash out, in a scene eerily mirroring Yashamaru's last act. But Uncle Sasori was still en route from Suna, as far as Gaara knew, so they had no one to depend on but themselves. It was lucky that Gaara wasn't trustful of the pale boy like she had been Yashamaru, because it meant Sakura didn't get another knife in her arm.
Luckily for Naruto, he'd been close enough to Gaara at that point the sand provided him a residual barrier of protection, because it turned out their attacker had been aiming for him instead of Gaara.
"Sai! Why?" Naruto sounded pained, and while Gaara felt a little twinge and witnessing someone experience betrayal like she had all those years ago, it didn't stop her from being pleased at seeing Sakura land a strike on Sai's exposed midriff.
It didn't matter that she didn't hit a vital organ or artery—in fact, Gaara could tell she'd swung that way to ensure he would let his guard down. If he thought all she would do was slice his stomach a bit, well…
Luckily, whatever intel he'd gotten on Sakura hadn't mentioned her bond with Sasori, or he'd chosen to ignore it. Not like it mattered, because the poison she always coated her blades in would kill him quickly enough.
"You're a real piece of work, hurting someone that trusted you," she spat at him as she leapt back to settle beside Gaara on a tree branch. "I hate traitors."
Shukaku purred inside of Gaara, content and chuckling about how her little mate had claws, and they watched with mild interest as the boy's eyes widened and he toppled back from the tree.
There is chaos after that, mainly because the Uchiha decides only after his teammate's death to intervene, and he and Gaara are still fighting when suddenly the copy nin is there and he has Sakura and Gaara immediately loses focus and tries to kill the man where he stands.
Then Sakura and Hatake are gone and Gaara lets out a howl.
It's how Uncle Sasori finds her—Naruto and the Uchiha, too, because they're standing there just as shocked as Gaara is.
"If you're finished looking like incompetent buffoons," her uncle snarks, and Gaara can tell there's an edge there that probably wouldn't have been if he'd been able to lay eyes on Sakura. "I believe we all have business in Konoha."
Uncle Sasori glides into the village and single-handedly kills Orochimaru right after the sannin had taken out the Third Hokage. Konoha isn't sure what to make of the mess, both the half-destroyed village itself and the political system that's in shambles. Luckily, Uncle Sasori is competent enough for two villages, and alongside the proof he and Baki had been storing, manages to get Suna out of a war and any sort of reparations to Konoha.
It's then, as they head towards the administrative building being co-opted for untangling the threads of international relations, that they catch their first glimpse of Sakura after her removal.
From across the room and with her arms pinned to her sides by two ANBU agents, she grins, all sharpness and malice, and Gaara falls a little more in love with her.
Since she doesn't have diplomatic immunity like Gaara and Kankuro and Sasori, Konoha wants to haul her off to an interrogation cell. Unfortunately for them, Sasori is made Kazekage immediately after Rasa's death is confirmed (he wasn't father, not to Gaara, not ever) and Sakura is as close to a daughter as Sasori will ever get.
She all but flounces back to Suna beside Gaara, proud not just of the promotions they've received, but of her new apprenticeship under Uncle Sasori.
Gaara sees her determination and formulates a goal of her own, because Sakura will be so fierce that there is no way she won't be slotted for the next Kazehime position.
So Gaara will just have to become the next Kazekage.