***Sakura and the gourd***

 

The house was filthy. Completely filthy.

 

The genin assigned to clean the Kazekage’s home had fallen sick this past week and had, for obvious reasons, not be been able to complete his tasks.

 

Sakura hadn’t noticed the layer of grime on the floor, kitchen and bathroom for the first few days, since she had been busy and had only been home long enough to sleep at night, have a quick breakfast and then go off to work again.

 

Now, the weekend had arrived and the desert dust had made its way into every single corner of the house. If there was something she hated, it was living in a dirty environment. She wasn’t obsessive with having things spotless and shiny, but there was a point when it suddenly became too much. Hence, when Sakura woke up that Saturday morning, she knew she would have to tackle the cleaning all by herself.

 

Gaara was supervising some training and wouldn’t be home for hours. Therefore, the pink haired kunoichi took up a broom, a mop and a bucket full of cleaning products and commenced with the tedious task of house cleaning.

 

Having lived by herself for a few years now, she was actually extremely efficient when it came to this type of work and she found she had finished with the bathroom and the kitchen extremely quickly. Now, all she needed to do was mop the floor, since it was utterly grimy from the dirt which came in through the windows.

 

Covering most of the living room fairly quickly, the pink haired medic found a slight obstacle in the way of her mopping. The Kazekage had decided he didn’t need his gourd for the activities he was going to partake in and had left it leaning casually against one of the walls. Now, it was in the middle of Sakura’s cleaning and there was nothing else to do but to move it out of the way.

 

Approaching it in resignation, Sakura suddenly realized how truly big it was. Gaara’s gourd was basically an extension of his being, an intrinsic part of the person he was, therefore, the pink haired kunoichi hadn’t really paid much attention to it. It was always just there. Sure, he carried it almost everywhere with him and it didn’t seem so imposing when it was tied to his back. But now that she found herself face to face with it, she realized that it was daunting indeed.

 

She was sure that the darned thing, when standing upright, reached almost to her shoulder and it was evidently twice as thick as she was. She was also sure that it had grown bigger over time, since as Gaara grew, his strength and chakra control did too, therefore, his gourd would have to accommodate to the increasing amounts of sand he would be able to carry. Hence, this wasn’t the gourd he had been carrying around during the chuunin exams and if it was able to grow, then this thing surely possessed some sort of sentient life.

 

The pink haired medic was suddenly extremely apprehensive about the whole situation.

 

But there was nothing to it. She had to move it out of the way to get her job done.

 

Approaching it carefully, she thought about the best way to hold it so she could lift it. The vest the Kazekage used to tie it to his back was nowhere to be seen, therefore, she would have to lift it with her bare hands. She kneeled in front of it and put her arms around its middle, which was conveniently the thinnest part of the gourd, and tried to lift it.

 

Grunting in effort, she was surprised to find how really heavy it was.

 

‘How the hell does he carry this freaking thing around with him all the time?’ she thought in aggravation.

 

She managed to move it just a little bit off the ground, but consequently lost her balance and she tumbled backwards… the gourd still in her arms.

 

Groaning in pain as the air from her lungs was stolen by the weight of the damned thing, Sakura thought of what Gaara would say if he walked in through the door at the moment and found her lying on her back, on the floor, with his cursed recipient on top of her.

 

It was time to bring in the big guns.

 

Summoning her chakra, Sakura called on her notorious strength. She gripped the gourd tightly and lifted it along with herself from the ground, standing while holding it with ease.

 

‘Huh, you thought you could best me?’ she mentally asked the sand container, a smirk on her face. She walked over to a place on the floor which she had already cleaned and proceeded to put the gourd carefully on the ground, leaning it against the wall once more.

 

Hands on her hips, she looked over it triumphantly and as she turned round, she swatted it playfully near the middle… forgetting that she still had her chakra activated.

 

A loud clash sounded as the clay from the gourd came off in a big chunk and sand started pouring all over the living room.

 

“SHIT!” Sakura exclaimed as she brought her hands to the hole, trying to cover it and to prevent the sand from coming out.

 

But the treacherous grains found all the openings between her hands and try as she might, the torrent didn’t stop in the least. It was until the level of sand became lower than that of the hole that the flow stopped, leaving Sakura completely covered in it.

 

She looked around desperately only to find the damned sand spread all over the floor she had just cleaned and the piece of clay that had broken from the gourd stared mockingly at her from somewhere near her feet.

 

‘He’s going to kill me!’ she thought frantically. ‘Alright Haruno, don’t panic. There’s a solution to everything in life, so start thinking.’

 

What she needed to do first was to repair the container. She was sure that Gaara used his chakra in some sort of jutsu to create his gourd but how exactly did he go about doing it was beyond her. It would take her hours to figure it out and she didn’t have that kind of time. She needed to turn to more practical methods… what did you do when you broke one of you mother’s vases? You put it back together with glue, of course!

 

Thinking this was the best option she had at the moment, she grabbed her wallet and ran out the door in a blink of an eye, leaving the mess she had just made unattended for the time being. She was back in less than 10 minutes after having purchased the strongest glue the closest convenient store had to offer.

 

Kneeling down before the gourd, she picked up the chunk which had fallen off. It was slightly bigger than her palm and she proceeded to smear glue all over its edges. Once this was done, she spread some more glue around the border of the hole. Taking off the large cork from the top, she put one her hands in and with the other, she started fitting the piece of clay into place. She managed to finally put it in using both her hands and once it stayed put, she stepped back to observe her handiwork.

 

It looked awful.

 

Anyone with eyes would notice the freaking spot she had glued back together. But there was nothing she could do about it now. Maybe she should turn the gourd around and so that the ‘repaired’ part faced the wall and then pray for Gaara not to notice anything.

 

Are you insane? Inner Sakura asked. You know as well as I do that he notices everything.

 

‘Shut up!’ the pink haired kunoichi replied. ‘It’s the only thing I can do now.’

 

Maybe you should just tell him.

 

‘Now you’re the one that’s crazy!’

 

Ignoring any other remarks her inner persona had to offer, Sakura grabbed the broom and arranged the spilt sand into a neat pile… a large neat pile at that. It was amazing how much sand Gaara’s gourd actually carried and she was once more astonished at his ability to fight while carrying it around.

 

Grabbing a large piece of cardboard she had stashed somewhere for her classes, she put some of the sand on it and folding it into a cylinder shape, proceeded to pour the sand carefully back into the gourd.

 

Her technique was really effective and the pile was reduced by half in no time. This activity required large amounts of concentration however, and she failed to hear anything when the sliding glass door of the living room leading to the garden opened up slowly.

 

“What are you doing?” a deep baritone voice asked from somewhere nearby.

 

Sakura froze, the piece of cardboard carefully in her hands, and swallowed visibly. She had come so close to putting all the sand back in, damn it! Turning slowly, she looked towards the speaker with open guilt in her eyes.

 

The Kazekage stood near one of the couches, wearing a sleeveless shirt, muscular arms crossed in front of him as he stood there watching his lover with an amused expression in his jade eyes. It was clear that he had been exercising, since his hair was damp with sweat.

 

“Funny you should ask…” Sakura said, standing abruptly and covering the gourd with her body. She needed to turn the damned thing around so he wouldn’t see where it had broken and she needed to stall while she did this.

 

But Gaara’s mind was quicker. He clearly saw the broom, the mop and the bucket standing nearby.

 

“Too heavy for you?” he asked teasingly, an arrogant grin on his lips.

 

Sakura’s jaw dropped in outrage. “Why listen here you little…” she started to say as her temper kicked in. But as she talked, she stepped unconsciously forwards, leaving the gourd completely exposed.

 

“What’s that?” Gaara interrupted, pointing towards his container.

 

The patch Sakura had carefully tried to hide was now completely evident and the glue surrounding the broken piece had dripped down the side of the gourd.

 

“Damn it,” Sakura murmured under her breath as she turned round to see. Kneeling down in front of the large thing, she tried to clean the drips of the glue using the cardboard.

 

Gaara was beside her in a second, looking over her attempt at repairing his sand vessel. As he realized what had happened, at least to some extent, he couldn’t avoid letting out a loud snigger.

 

Grinding her teeth, Sakura turned to look at him with the most threatening stare she could manage.

 

But he was far from being intimidated. Lifting his hand, he placed it over the gourd with a smug look on his face. He let his chakra flow softly over the broken spot and the clay started to ripple until it was mended completely, no trace of the cracks anywhere. He then brought the sand still on the ground back into the vessel with merely a thought.

 

Steam was coming out of Sakura’s ears by then. ‘This is the last time I worry over this jerk’s things!’ she thought furiously.

 

Standing up and turning around in violent movements, she started making her way hurriedly towards the bedroom. She kicked the bucket in Gaara’s direction as she passed it. “Next time, you clean!” she shouted angrily.

 

But she had once more forgotten a small detail… her clothes were still full of sand.

 

Gaara stopped her in her tracks after she had only covered a small distance. The sand on her garments started forming tendrils around her arms and legs, lifting her slightly and carrying her over to the red head standing nearby.

 

Smirking at her, he put her down in front of him and as her feet touched the floor, he stepped in to embrace her and kissed her softly on the lips.

 

It was completely unfair. Gaara was aware of the effect his kisses had on her and he was exploiting her weakness. Sakura tried to put up a fight, tried to ignite her temper even further, but it was too late. His tongue was brushing against her lips by then and she couldn’t prevent herself from opening her mouth and allowing him to kiss her breathless. As she stood there in the embrace of his strong arms, his mouth wrecking havoc on her senses, the pink haired medic felt the sand leave her appendages as it rustled its way back to the gourd. After all of it was safely back inside the container, she heard the cork fall into place.

 

She knew she should be upset with the fact that he could still control his sand while kissing her, but as his hands kneaded into her hair, she found her mind turning to other things.

 

“You need a shower”, she told him once they had both come up for air.

 

He grunted in agreement as he started kissing his way down her neck.

 

As she rested her chin on his shoulder, Sakura couldn’t avoid looking at the offending gourd standing behind him. Before she could help herself, she had stuck her tongue out at the container in a mocking gesture.

 

“I saw that,” he told her as he came up to look her in the face.

 

“Well excuse me, Kazekage-sama,” she said teasingly. “I’d like to see you try to close a bleeding wound or to mend a broken bone.”

 

“I can tell you one thing,” he replied, that annoying smirk on his face again, “I would definitely not attempt to use glue.”

Chuckling despite herself at his statement, she hit him playfully on the arm as he picked her up and carried her towards the bedroom.


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