Elemental (Gaara Love Story) (Naruto Fanfiction)

Chapter 7: An Apology Turns into an Akatsuki Visit

Its been two days since my dinner with Gaara. The day after I went and explored Suna since I hadn't before. I only saw him that morning to say hello because I felt somewhat awkward after our exchange that night. I mean, we kissed how couldn't it be awkward? But today I decided I'd confront him about it, if not to settle the awkwardness between us, to give me a bit of comfort. I reached up and touched my lips imagining his lips on them again. It was my first kiss, and although it wasn't necessarily a real kiss, I felt a tingling sensation on my lips I could only dream of. I smiled happily sitting on my bed when I was interrupted from my fantasies by my rambunctious teammates. "Is Mariko-chan daydreaming about her boyfriend again?" Ren inquires with a wink.

"'Oh Gaara-sama kiss me, Gaara-sama!" Kenji exclaims mocking me while making a kissy face. I get angry and glare at them while throwing two kunai at them from my ninja pouch. They of course blocked them with ease, I wasn't intending to actually hurt them. "You guys are annoying, I have no such relationship with the Kazekage, okay?" I tell them hoping they'd drop it.

"Oh sure Mariko-chan we understand," Kenji replies teasingly with a wink. Ren laughs at him and probably the face I was making at them. "On a more serious note, what are you planning on doing today Mariko-chan? Kenji-kun and I are going to go train. We should only be in Suna for three more days," Ren asks me while Kenji nods next to him.

"Sure, I don't mind training with you today. In fact I kind of need it, I haven't trained in three days," I say seriously as I answer Ren.

"Oh Kami forbid you take a break training for a few days, Mariko-chan, the world as we know it could end!" Kenji exclaims sarcastically with a smirk.

"If you don't stop that sarcasm your end will come instead," I threaten with a menacing look. Kenji hides behind Ren afraid and Ren and I laugh. "You guys go ahead first though, I'll meet up with you later to train," I tell them and begin to leave the room.

"Oh got to handle some business Mariko? Would you be perhaps visiting Gaara?" Kenji asks me and waggles his eyebrows. I just roll my eyes and walk towards Gaara's office.

On my walk there, which is a fairly long walk by the way, I ran into Gaara's sister Temari. "Oh hello, Mariko Erementaru, right? I'm Gaara's sister Temari, I don't think we've properly met yet," she asks me with a welcoming smile.

"Yes, I'm Mariko and its an honor to meet you Temari-san," I say bowing to her respectfully.

"Please Mariko-san, the honor is mine to be standing in front of most likely one of the best kunoichi in the world, and the last Erementaru," she bows back to me and continues, "If you don't mind me asking Mariko-san, is it true that you've beat s-ranked criminals without using any chakra or a single jutsu?" she asks me, which was not unexpected. Because of my kekkai genkai, I can control elements without using chakra since it isn't a jutsu, the elements are simply just connected to me and do what I tell them to; and that is exactly what I tell her.

We talk for a little bit, her very curious of my battle strategy and how it felt to hold the pressure of possibly being the next kage. I don't feel any pressure honestly, its been expected of me since my family learned of my unique abilities. Soon we depart, and I head back into the direction of Gaara's office. 'Wow, Temari is very sweet, unlike Kankuro, how is he even related to them?' I think to myself but realize I might be being too judgmental and decide to wait until I speak with him again. I make it to Gaara's office and take a deep breath before knocking on the door. "Come in," a raspy voice says and I walk in to see him working on papers like always.

"Hello Gaara-kun," I say and he looks up at me with his cheeks tinted pink.

"M-mariko-san, how are you? Do you need something?" he asks me with an almost unnoticeable stutter. I smile and look at him trying to get the courage to say what I came to do. "I'm doing well Gaara-kun, and I came to, um, talk to you I guess," I say blushing madly unable to tell my full point.

"Of course, sit down," he tells me and I pull up a chair in front of him. He drops his pen down and gives me his full attention. 'Have I ever mentioned he's extremely attractive?' I think in my head but quickly snap out of it and turn my attention to Gaara. He looks at me expectantly and I take one last deep breath. "So you see Gaara-kun, I just wanted to talk about what happened two nights ago. I know we had a good time, or at least I did, I enjoyed getting to know you, but at the end I tripped and well..." I trailed off trying to gain my composure and looked Gaara right in the eyes, " Well, I know that we technically kissed and I later learned it wasn't my clumsiness that made me trip but my dumb teammate and I guess I just wanted to apologize for doing it. I should have been more careful and I just don't want it to be awkward between us anymore." Gaara looks at me and for the first time seems unsure of what to say and begins to turn red. "Thank you for approaching me, it was unnecessary but respectful, I don't think things are awkward between us and I hope we can continue the way we were headed," he tells me with a soft smile. I'm not exactly sure what he meant but I smiled back. "I'm glad, Gaara-kun, I consider you a friend and I hope that even after this mission we will still be friends for a long time," I tell him with a smile but also feeling pain knowing we can never be more than that.

"Right," he says in a lower and sadder tone but says it with a straight face. I wonder if he's thinking the same thing I was. Gaara then began to look out the window and I noticed it was already getting dark, which surprised me. I looked out the window too and saw a white bird-like thing soaring around the village. Gaara narrowed his eyes and I recognized the uniform of the person on top of the bird to be the Akatsuki's. "Oh no," I say. They came to Kiri a while back and I learned they were nothing but bad news. However, I also knew they never traveled alone, so where could the other one be? "Mariko-san," Gaara begins looking at me, "help find this one's partner and don't let them bring harm to the villagers, my people's safety is my main priority." I nod at him and teleport away outside the Kazekage's Mansion and began to jump from building to building looking for the man's partner. I looked behind me to see both a blonde Akatsuki member and Gaara face to face on the roof of the Kazekage building. I recognized him to be the one known as Deidara. "Please be safe Gaara-kun," I whisper to myself as I continue on my search.

I keep jumping buildings and realize what I'm doing is unproductive. I land on the ground and do a few hand signs, using one of my few jutsus to connect even closer with the earth. "Earth floor sensory jutsu!" I yell out and slam my palm to the ground to feel the area around me, of course since there was a lot of sand I could only see within the village borders and saw exactly what I needed, a figure in a cloak, and not too far from me. I quickly sprinted towards the person knowing this would be a hard fight, but nothing could of prepared me for what I saw.