Elemental (Gaara Love Story) (Naruto Fanfiction)

Chapter 6: The Kazekage's Helper

I woke up bright and early the next morning and looked out the window of Gaara's room to see the beautiful sunrise. I quickly got dressed and sat outside the window looking at Suna while deciding what to do today. I quickly decided I wasn't going to train today since I was very tired. My first idea was to explore Suna. 'Maybe Gaara-kun can have someone show me around,' I think to myself as I walk in the direction of his office.

"Gaara, at this rate you'll be up all night with all of that work. Are you sure you don't want me to help you?" I hear a girly voice say from inside his office when I got there. I stopped to listen before I walked in so to see if I should come back later. "It's fine, Temari. It'd be more helpful for you and Kankuro to help at the academy today, besides I don't sleep anyways," I hear Gaara respond and I am surprised. I didn't know he didn't sleep at night. 'No wonder he said he didn't use his room!' I think to myself. I was so deep in thought I didn't notice that Gaara-kun got up from his desk and walked to the door. He opens it obviously knowing of my presence. "Well good morning Mariko," he says to me. I blush madly realizing how dumb I was to just stand there. "Uh, good morning Gaara-kun, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to eavesdrop I just wanted to ask you a question and I didn't know if it was the best time..." I trailed of whole rambling. Temari giggled in the background. "Well okay Gaara, I'll get Kankuro and head to the academy. Bye!" Temari says with a smile and walks past me through the door. Gaara gives her a nod and walks back inside to his desk and begins working while I stay in my spot. "You can come in Mariko," he tells me not looking up from his papers. I walk in and look at all the work he's doing and begin to feel bad. 'This must be the worst part about being a kage,' I think.

"So what was it you needed to ask me?" He inquires still working rapidly on his work. His desk was filled with stacks and stacks of paper, even the floor had stacks! "Well..." I trailed off thinking of an idea, "I was going to ask if I could help you today."

Gaara stops working and looks up at me and let's out a small laugh. "Thank you Mariko, but I know that isn't what you came to ask," he tells me and looks back at his work.

"Okay you're right, but if you'd let me, I'd be more than happy to help you," I tell him with a pleading look.

He looks back up at me and nods. "Very well Mariko," he begins, "Pull up that chair in the corner and begin reading the stacks on the floor. Those are reports that have been approved that need to be sent off, make sure to keep the second copy to sort it in the files."

"Okay." I pull up the chair quickly and begin looking through the papers and learning how they already have been sorted and putting them in envelopes to be returned to the ones who requested an approval. Not a word was exchanged between us for three hours. There was occasionally people coming to report to Gaara from missions and other ninja walking in and out (all of them would look at me strangely, I suppose not a lot of people help Gaara work) but otherwise it was very uneventful. I decided to take a break from all the stuff Id been doing to look at Gaara still working intently. I stood up and stretched and Gaara glanced at me for a moment. "Gaara-kun you should stand up and stretch," I tell him.

"I'm alright Mariko," he says to me and I look at him with arms crossed. I tend to be stubborn at times. "No Gaara-kun you've been siting like that for Kami knows how long take a moment to walk around and take a break," I tell him in a kind of demanding tone, but not so to be disrespectful.

He gave me a slight smile and got up and stood up straight. I smiled at him brightly and laughed. "Feels good doesn't it?" I ask him jokingly.

"Very."

"That's good Gaara-kun." We do that for a few more minutes and get right back to work. Nearly an hour or so later I finish sorting and mailing things out. "What else do you need me to do Gaara-kun?" I ask him standing up in front of his desk.

"Well Mariko, honestly that's all you can do to help, the rest is just legal work only I can do. I thank you so much for your help it decreased the time tremendously," he tells me genuinely thankful.

"It was a pleasure Gaara-kun," I tell him with a smile and my stomach growls. I blush while he looks at me amused. "Someone's hungry," he jokes and I blush again.

'Kami, I need to stop blushing like this around him, but I really can't help it,' I think in my head while I look at him and nod. "You must be hungry too Gaara-kun, neither of us have eaten all day," I tell him.

"I suppose you're right, I'm almost done here, maybe we should go to dinner afterwards, it's starting to get late," he tells me slightly blushing and I match his face color.

"I would love that."

I sat next to him in the chair I was using while I waited. He said it would be about an hour but I didn't mind. I saw him tensing up a little bit so I did what I normally do for Mei-sensei when she's stressed or any of my other teammates. I got up behind him and gave him a sort of shoulder massage that releases stress through certain parts of your body. My mother was an incredible medical ninja and learned to do this when my father became Mizukage. As soon as my hands made contact with his shoulders he tensed up and blushed furiously. I blushed also but began massaging him. "Mariko, you don't need to-" I interrupted him.

"I know this is kinda weird but I noticed you looked stressed and my mother taught me a form of massage that releases stress she used on my father. I don't know, it looked like you needed it," I said very unsure of myself knowing I was being very awkward. "If you want me to stop-" I began but this time Gaara interrupted me.

"No-o please, it feels really good," he said stuttering a little and still blushing.

"Alright," I said with a small smile and massaged him as he finished his work.

Less than an hour later he put his pen down and got up. "Finally, done," he says to me. "Well, Lady Erementaru, shall we go eat?" He asks me kindly. I laugh a little and we walked together into the village. We stopped at a little restaurant where people looked at Gaara and I with curiosity and some girls with jealousy. I looked down embarrassed by the attention and looked around. Gaara was no longer in his Kazekage uniform and wore his normal ninja attire he had underneath it. He guided me to the table and we sat down.

"This is a cute restaurant Gaara-kun, do you come here often?" I ask him trying to make conversation.

"Honestly I don't, I've never been here before. I normally eat at home but I thought you'd want to explore a little. Get to know Suna better," he tells me softly even with that scratchy voice of his.

"Oh, well I like it, it's very beautiful at night."

"I agree."

The waiter came by and took our orders while we talked and talked and talked. For a somewhat quieter person, Gaara was very comfortable making conversation. I laughed at one of the comments he made as we were waiting for the bill and I felt a butterfly sensation in my stomach. 'Oh not again! Stop Mariko you can't like the Kazekage, he's well, a kage! And besides you don't live in Suna, get over it!' I think to myself while blushing a little. After Gaara kindly took the check (although I kept insisting I pay) we walked back to the Kazekage's mansion and he walked me to my room. Just as we were about to part I tripped on something and fell right on top of Gaara, strangely his sand didn't come to protect him and we fell down together. And for the slightest of seconds our lips touched. I blushed like crazy. 'Oh my Kami I just kissed Gaara-kun! That was my first kiss!' I thought frantically. "Gaara-kun I'm so sorry I don't know why I tripped that was so inappropriate I'm so sorry," I said in a frantic tone while I looked at Gaara who was spaced out and holding his chest. He snapped out of it and looked at me. "Mariko it's alright. I'll see you tomorrow. I had a good night, thank you," he tells me beet red (not that I had a place to say anything).

"Me too, goodnight Gaara-kun," I tell him as I walk in the room. I hear snickering underneath the bed and look under to find my two annoying teammates. "That was great!" Yelled Kenji, "Good job Ren!" I was so furious. I knew then I didn't trip over thin air. "I'm going to kill you!" I yell and lets just say they didn't sleep peacefully that night.