Ascending (Sequel to Rock Bottom)

Chapter 18 - Maybe That Raccoon Is Good For Something

Gaara couldn't sleep.

Sure, it wasn't the first time he grappled with insomnia, (Shukaku's dark phase was a force to be reckoned with) but he had grown so accustomed to actually sleeping at night and didn't want to go back to staring at the moon for hours on end. It got extremely dull and one time he resorted to pulling out his hair strand by strand to alleviate the mind-numbing boringness.

The lack of regrowth of his facial hair was a constant reminder to never do that again. (THINK: Eyebrows)

At least tonight, he wasn't alone. Gaara smiled softly to himself as he gazed at the sleeping goddess next to him. She was perfect in every sense of the word. And he wanted to protect her, all of her, from the way she held herself to that little glint in her eyes while laughing with her team. She was like a star-filled night sky, and he wanted to memorize each and every constellation.

Gaara's gaze dropped to Sakura's lips and he stared for a few seconds, only coming to his senses when she began tossing and turning. Her face scrunched up in anguish and tears emerged from her closed eyes as she muttered incoherent things.

Gaara froze for a second, before snapping out of his sleepy daze and trying to make sense of her mumbles.

"Sasuke...not weak." Was what he heard over and over again. But what did it mean? She thought Sasuke was weak? No, that didn't make sense, why would Sakura call any of her teammates weak...if anything it should've been the other way around. Which meant that the cause for his girlfriend's tears was none other than Sasuke.

His initial plan would either be to walk up to Sasuke tomorrow and beat the living daylights out of him or do that now, while he was sleeping.

But then he acknowledged the nagging question in the back of his mind. Why didn't Sakura come to him in the first place? Did she not trust him?

"And I'll stop you right there, idiot Jinchuuriki!" Shukaku's raspy voice rang through the redhead's head, but by now he was used to it. "I would normally find the fact that I know more about human romance than an actual human extremely amusing. But since it's you we're talking about I am now embarrassed to be stuck with you."

"Hey!"

"You were just about to doubt your GIRLFRIEND. That's like willingly feeding yourself to a thousand piranhas...or being buried next to the remains of Kurama's 'mysterious-puddle no jutsu' ... It's a big no-no, especially when it's Sakura we're talking about. "

"But why didn't she tell me about this?"

"You don't even know what really happened. I think it's best you don't jump to conclusions and just talk to her tomorrow." After a moment's hesitation, Gaara sighed but eventually complied with the Ichibi's suggestion (ooh that rhymes).

.

.

.

"Sakura...Sakura wake up!" Said pinkette groaned and rolled over stubbornly, away from the hand that was shaking her shoulder incessantly. She assumed it was Gaara from the deepness of the voice, and he wouldn't mind if she slept in a bit.

"Sakura I swear to Kami if you don't get up this very second I'll get Shukaku and Kurama to have a brawl on your face." Now that woke her up.

Hearing this, Sakura immediately sat up and came face to face with a face that was definitely not Gaara's.

Turns out, her rude awakening was from none other than Sasuke. "Took you long enough," he stated, not bothering to conceal his annoyance. "We're leaving Kumo, and going straight to Konoha, apparently there's something going on in Kiri at the moment that Gaara wants to avoid. He won't tell us what it is though." Sakura only shrugged, not thinking much of their lack of information,

"He probably caught wind of a giant ramen sale going on and didn't want Naruto to hear about it." Before Sasuke could reply to her assumption, a third person decided to butt in.

"Or maybe he heard about the rather large war going on between Kiri and Uzu and didn't want us to get caught in the crossfire." Both Sakura and Sasuke's heads whipped to the new voice, only to find Kakashi standing at the entrance to the room with his nose buried in a paper, "But don't take my word for it, I only read it in a newspaper, and you know how inaccurate those damn things can-Hey!"

The jounin was snapped out of his information-induced daze when Sakura promptly snatched the paper from his hands and began scanning the print. And a moment later she loosened her hold on the paper and let it drop to the floor, revealing some drawings and writing that were undoubtedly NSFW. And with a slight blush, she glanced up at her two teammates, trying to look threatening.

"Kakashi, I thought you were reading a newspaper!" She yelled, now covering her face with her hands.

"I was reading a newspaper. The artwork you just snatched from my hand just happened to not be it." Her sensei replied matter-of-factly as if Sakura's reaction to his reading material did not bother him in the slightest. And it probably didn't.

"Kakashi?" Sakura asked. Her face was still covered with her hands which made her voice slightly muffled.

"Yes?"

"Your grammar sucks," Well that definitely wasn't the comment he anticipated. He was expecting something more along the lines of "grey-haired perv", but he wasn't complaining.

"So I've been told,"

"...And Sasuke?"

"Hn,"

"Burn that abomination Kakashi calls art,"

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I'll help burn it Sasuke 😂😂😂

Unrelated Note:

I need your opinions again!! Would you like me to write some filler chapters?

I'm thinking ramen-shurikens, Orochimaru's diet, and the place where Sasuke hid that Sharingan scroll? Maybe some more scenes from the training from the chunin exams and SasuNaru fluff?

I'll probably post these chapters in Rock Bottom, and not in this book.

So Whaddaya think?