The Naruto Boyfriend Quiz Results (3/6).
Quiz here.
Others: (1/6) ; (2/6) ; (3/6) ; (4/6) ; (5/6) ; (6/6) .
Characters: Sai, Yamato, Gaara, Kankuro.
────» Sai.
You're happily working your way through a table laden with sweets. Konoha's festival may not be your favorite place to spend an afternoon. The crowds, the noise, the endless lines… but you can certainly appreciate one thing. Free desserts: rice cakes, sweet bean buns, dango. If there's one thing capable of convincing you to brave a crowd, it's an unlimited assortment of confectionery.
You become so engrossed in sampling everything that you almost fail to notice someone quietly joining you. Then again… Sai would be easier to notice if he announced his presence instead of quietly materializing beside people. You glance at him, cheeks still full of soft rice cake. He smiles at you. It doesn't mean anything, he does that a lot.
"You look very nice," he finally says.
You hurriedly chew. "Th-thank you."
Unfortunately, the three seconds it takes you to respond are more than enough time for Sai to continue.
"I like that there is potato starch on the tip of your nose." He thinks for a moment, hoping to draw the perfect parallel and impress you with his awesome verbal skills. "It makes it look like you were snorting—"
"Okay, that's enough, Sai," you interrupt.
He obediently falls silent. You glare at him for a second, but his soft facial expression gets in the way of you getting mad. With a small sigh, you wipe the dusting of starch from your nose.
Sai's shoulders sink ever so slightly and he frowns.
"I was going to draw you like that… I thought it looked cute."
You raise an eyebrow. "…Cute?"
You glance at him and realize he's completely sincere. Now /both/ of you are smiling like two idiots. But, well. You can't lie. He's pretty cute himself. Without warning, you reach up and gently boop his nose with your fingertip, still lightly dusted with potato starch.
"There. Now you can look cute too."
Sai blinks. His hand instinctively rises toward his nose before stopping halfway, as though he isn't sure whether removing it would be socially appropriate.
You grin, but it falters after taking a longer look at him.
"Hmph. Your skin's too pale," you grumble, disappointed. "You can barely even see the starch."
"…I see." He considers this very seriously. "I suppose I'll need more."
Before you can stop him, he's already reaching toward one of the trays of rice cakes. You burst into laughter.
"…Sai. I was just joking around. You don't need to do that."
"Oh."
This idiot. You're definitely taking him on a date.
────» Yamato.
The gently sloping hill is blanketed in wildflowers. Yamato sits beside you on the outdoor blanket, enjoying the quiet afternoon as a warm summer breeze rolls lazily across the field. The grass sways in soft waves, carrying with it the scent of earth and blossoms. It's peaceful. Exactly the kind of day the two of you rarely get to share. Yamato doesn't have many days off, after all, so you intend to make the most of this one.
"I like those," you say, pointing toward a distant patch of your favorite flowers growing farther up the hill.
Yamato follows your gesture.
"I see." He studies them for a moment. "They're beautiful."
His gaze lingers there a little longer, quietly thoughtful. You don't mind the silence, it's not awkward with him. The breeze, the chirping of birds, and simply having him beside you are more than enough.
After another moment, he speaks. "Give me a minute."
Curious, you watch as he places one hand against the ground. You feel the flow of chakra, and almost immediately, see the meadow respond to his touch. The thin leaves of grass around you stretch upward as though an entire week has passed in the blink of an eye. Tiny buds emerge from the earth and unfurl, until bright blossoms bloom in every direction. They form a neat circle around your blanket. You reach down and carefully pick one of the flowers. It looks perfect, indistinguishable from the ones growing naturally farther up the hill.
"…Yamato."
He smiles sheepishly before you can thank him. "I'm glad you like them."
Then his expression changes. His eyes dart around the suddenly much more colorful meadow, and he rubs the back of his neck.
"Do you… Do you think this upsets the ecological equilibrium?" he suddenly asks. Truly a man of concerns.
You blink. Of course that's where his mind went. You take a moment to genuinely consider it: a small patch of extra wildflowers, not invasive species, no trees bursting through the blanket, no forest swallowing the hill.
"…Nope. If anything, I think the bees are going to have a fantastic day."
Yamato looks around at the blossoms once more. The worry leaves his face, replaced by a smile again. Satisfied that he hasn't accidentally committed ecological sabotage, he leans back beside you.
The two of you spend the rest of the afternoon watching the flowers sway gently in the summer breeze. One more little patch of color in the meadow will remain for the entire summer as a little landmark of your date.
────» Gaara.
The room is so peaceful that you don't even realize you've fallen asleep.
When you finally wake, the golden light streaming through the windows has shifted across the floor, painting circles over the tatami. It's no longer as warm as it was during daytime.
You blink away the last traces of sleep. Then you notice that a blanket has been draped neatly over your legs. You smell something pleasant lingering in the air: a cup of tea sits nearby, still warm.
Across the room, Gaara sits with a book in his hands. He's reading quietly, slowly turning one page after another.
For a moment, you simply watch him. You almost don't want to break the silence. But eventually, he notices your gaze. He gives you a gentle smile. The sort of smile that he rarely wore years ago, but now seems to come naturally whenever you're around.
Staring at him a moment too long, your face suddenly grows warm. …Wait. You'd fallen asleep. In the Kazekage's personal chambers. On his bed. And the first thing you'd done after waking up was ogle him. You're not entirely familiar with the etiquette in Suna, but you're pretty sure that this is very, very, very rude.
"You should've woken me," you mumble, unsure how to apologize for… all of that.
Gaara closes his book. His gaze is soft, and so are his words. "I couldn't. You looked too comfortable."
A soft sigh escapes you before you even realize it. He's always so serene that it's contagious, and you can't help but relax as well. You only hope, perhaps a bit selfishly, that he enjoys your company half as much as you enjoy his.
As though hearing the thought before you've spoken it aloud, he soothes your worry: "I like having you here. So… Stay as long as you want."
His sentence ends a bit too abruptly, almost like he wanted to add a 'please' at the end, but hesitated. You smile anyway. The bed is, admittedly, far too comfortable to abandon just yet. Certainly more comfortable than the futon waiting for you at home. Rolling onto your side, you reach for the teddy bear resting beside the pillow and pull it into your arms. It smells faintly of clean linen… and of Gaara. More than any other object in the room.
You peek over the plush's head. He's pretending to have resumed reading. Pretending, because every now and then, you catch the corner of another tiny smile before he lowers his eyes back to the page.
Maybe staying a little longer isn't a bad idea after all.
────» Kankuro.
Ahh, the searing desert sun is going to drive you insane. The shadows cast by Suna's rounded buildings aren't enough to hide you from the heat, and staying cooped up indoors all day sounds like a different kind of torture. Kankuro told you to wait on a bench while he went to buy ice cream. Unfortunately, the bench feels about as cool as sitting on the surface of the sun.
"There was a long line," he sighs, breaking your inner monologue of a barrage of complaints. He hands you your favorite flavor. It's nice of him to remember that. "Apparently every idiot in Suna decided they wanted ice cream today."
You can't possibly imagine why. But you don't sass him, and graciously accept his offering. Finally! But before either of you can enjoy the summer delight, a small voice chimes beside you. A little boy, no older than six, runs over with an enthusiasm that only a child would have in this unbearable heat. Kankuro frowns.
"Oh, it's you."
The kid nods and beams, oblivious to the fact that he's impeding on a very important date of a very important guy. "You said you were gonna show me Crow again!"
With a dramatic sigh, Kankuro hands you his ice cream for safekeeping. He unfastens the scroll strapped to his back. With a puff of smoke, Crow appears. The child gasps, in awe. You look it over as well, not that you hadn't seen it before, but in the daylight outside of Kankuro's workshop, that thing looks even more terrifying. The boy doesn't seem to mind though, and asks Kankuro if Crow can wave. So Crow waves. Then he asks if Crow can spin. Crow spins. You diligently finish your ice cream as you watch the performance. Just when you're done with yours, a chunk of Kankuro's scoop slides down the side of the cone and drops on your hand. Hmph. Well, there's only way to solve this problem, you think.
"Dance! Can you make Crow dance?" the kid asks after having witnessed thirty perfect twirls. Yeah, you counted.
Kankuro's eye twitches. "Crow doesn't dance. He's a war machine built for battle, not a geisha."
The boy pouts. A moment after, his mother calls out to him, and he runs off with a short 'bye-bye'. Kankuro exhales. If the mother hadn't called out to him, you have a feeling the kid would've learnt a new swear word.
"Finally," Kankuro mutters, turning to you and reaching for his ice-cream. His ice-cream… that is not there anymore. He slowly looks from your empty cone to your lips, still glistening in the sun. It is such a mystery, he thinks, where his ice cream could have disappeared to. "I can't believe you couldn't wait five minutes."
You think five minutes is unreasonable. This was a lesson Kankuro had to learn the hard way. "Nope, the sun wasn't gonna wait. It was basically melting already, so technically I didn't even do anything wrong. I didn't let it go to waste."
Kankuro rolls his eyes. "Was it at least good?"
You look at your hand, which still has the little bit of ice-cream that drooped earlier.
"Try it," you joke, extending your hand towards Kankuro.
To your surprise, he leans down and actually licks it.
"Eh, it's alright."
You stand still for a moment, astounded. Kankuro is so down-to-earth and goofy that it's easy to forget he's basically Suna royalty. You look away. You're pretty sure any second now your cheeks will flush a darker shade, and you're not giving him the satisfaction.
Manga edits and writing are mine. Please don't repost the writing.
