Hey all! This is my first GaaraxSakura fanfiction, so I hope you'll like it! Just a few warnings: this is AU, and the characters may feel slightly OOC at times. This being said, I am trying to keep everyone as in character as possible, but since they aren't in the Naruto universe, things are bound to be a little different. Secondly, this story contains themes of ABUSE, sexual situations, and language. The abuse is not glorified and most of the times I skim over the actually scene of abuse, skipping to the after effects, but I just want to warn you so no one is taken off guard. This chapter does include some short scenes/descriptions of abuse, although it is not very intense.

I hope you will enjoy this first chapter! I have the first couple of chapters written and I'm hoping to update every week-ish. The semester is almost over, and once it's done I will hopefully update even faster! (ps. I try to include some "Japanese" speech, using suffixes like "san" and "chan", I apologize if I ever incorrectly use a term, and I mean no offense to anyone).

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters associated with Naruto.

ONE

Haruno Sakura swallowed noisily. It was her first day at a new job, a job she didn't exactly want. She had been hired as a sort of assistant/secretary to some bigwig corporation executive. She sighed dramatically, this is not what she had planned for her life. She wanted to go to school to be a doctor, not run around filing papers and getting coffee for some narcissistic millionaire. Still, she smiled. Sakura was relentlessly optimistic, she always had been. One day, she'd save up enough money to get to school, she'd be top of her class and happy and –

"Who the fuck are you?" a bored, gravelly voice interrupted Sakura's thoughts.

Sakura momentarily forgot her name. In front of her was standing one of the most attractive men she had ever seen in her entire life. He stood several inches taller than her with a lean, wiry, muscular frame. His skin was pale, but he had a shock of messy red hair that contrasted his complexion like a drop of blood in a glass of milk. On his forehead was some sort of marking, it looked like a burn or a scar, and Sakura discerned that it was the Kanji symbol for "love". How strange. His eyes were a ridiculously bright shade of jade green and the lashes that rimmed them were impossibly dark. He was a walking contradiction.

"Are you deaf? I asked you a question," the man's cold voice brought Sakura back to reality, and she subsequently blushed to the roots of her pink hair.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, my name is Haruno Sakura," Sakura explained, bowing slightly and continuing to smile, "This is my first day here, and I'm not really sure where –"

The man held up a hand to stop her. Sabaku Gaara had a bad feeling he knew exactly who this girl was. His stupid older sister, Temari, had told him that she was hiring him an assistant. "You can't do everything on your own, Gaara. I know you're a perfectionist, but it's just not possible." He had just hoped that she wouldn't go through with it. Gaara wasn't good with people, especially people that he didn't know, so this was bound to be trouble. And now, here he was, standing outside his office, face to face with a little, pink haired, overly-smiley woman. Her dress was printed with wildflowers. He shuddered.

"Ah! I see you've met your lovely new assistant!" Temari's trademark loud voice boomed. "Wonderful!" The extroverted blonde woman swept into the lobby area looking at Sakura, the woman she had hired a few days earlier. She said a silent prayer that the girl would be able to handle Gaara and his moodiness.

Saura felt her cheeks get even redder and she groaned internally. She probably looked like an absolute idiot. "Temari-san," Sakura bowed again, "it's a pleasure to see you again."

"The pleasure's all mine, kid," Temari grinned. She didn't feel bad calling the girl a kid, she was only twenty-one or so, and she had a ridiculously youthful glow to her. She sure did smile a lot. "I'm sure my charming brother hasn't bothered to tell you anything about what you're supposed to be doing, so I'll give you a quick run-down. This is where you'll sit," Temari motioned to a small desk with a computer and a plant on it. "Gaara here will be able to buzz you via the phone in his office when he needs something, or he'll email you. All of his calls will come to you first, so that way you can decide if he even needs to be bothered by the caller. Other than that, you'll mostly just be doing busywork on the computer, stuff that he doesn't have time to get to."

Sakura's head was spinning, but she continued to smile widely. She felt the split on her lip widen a bit and she fought hard not to grimace at the sting. "Thank you Temari-san, I really appreciate it."

Temari beamed at the girl. She liked this pink haired girl already. Her littlest brother could surely benefit from a bright little flower like her. She just hoped he wouldn't stomp that optimism out of her… "Well, I've got to be going, this business won't run itself. Until later, Sakura-san!" She shot a pointed glare at Gaara that clearly said "be nice" and took her leave.

Gaara scowled at the pink haired girl in front of him. "You've got blood on your lip."

"Oh, I do?" he saw his new assistant blush bright red, for what seemed to be the thousandth time that morning.

"Yes, you do," Gaara was getting impatient with this already. "There's a bathroom down that hallway. You can go clean yourself up. After that, just sit at your desk and I'll probably email you something to do."

Before the confused girl could say anything, her new boss turned and closed himself inside his office. Sakura had no idea what to do. She looked around anxiously, afraid to move. Come on, Sakura. She coaxed herself to start walking towards the bathroom Sabaku-san had pointed her towards. The room was furnished beautifully, nicer than the average person's living room. There were pink couches and chairs with fluffy, floral pillows. Everything looked very expensive.

Walking hesitantly over to the large mirror, Sakura assessed her lip. The wound had healed up quickly, but it still split open whenever she smiled too much – which was unfortunately always. Damn her incessant cheeriness. She blotted the blood with a piece of toilet paper and waited for the bleeding to stop.

Meanwhile, Gaara was fuming in his office. Stupid, stupid Temari. She had hired him some dimwitted-little-optimist-tree-hugger for an assistant. Her clothes and been much too bright for the business world and her expression was much too…happy. It was disgusting. Not to mention the spontaneous busting of her lip. Did the girl smile so much that the stress cracked her lips? The redhead's head fell into his hands and he let himself dissolve into self-pity.

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Once settled at her desk, Sakura decided that she had better figure out how to check her email, just in case she had received any instructions. It didn't take her long to figure out how to access her emails, she was something of a computer whiz. However, she was disappointed to find that there was nothing in her inbox.

"Oh well," she thought to herself, "I'm sure he'll send something soon."

But as the hours ticked by, Sakura realized that she had been wrong. She had diverted a few calls, mostly telemarketers, and had transferred a few important sounding calls to him, but that had been all. After three hours of sitting at her desk, watching the screensaver on her computer, Sakura decided to ask her employer what she ought to do. Summoning all of her courage and putting on her bravest face, she marched to the door with purpose. She knocked three times and waited for a response.

Nothing.

Furrowing her brow, she tried again.

And again she was met with silence.

"Hn," she said out loud.

She returned to her desk and was shocked to see her computer screen had lit up. Quickly she sat down and saw that she had received an email. It was from Sabaku Gaara. There was no subject line, so Sakura opened it completely unaware of what it may contain.

It read simply: "your task for the day: do not ever knock on my fucking door."

Sakura's shoulders slumped. She sure was making a good impression on her new boss. Her tall, intriguing, handsome, new boss…Sakura shook herself out of that line of thinking. She didn't even want to think about what he would do if he found out she was having such thoughts about Gaara.

She gulped as she typed a response. "My most sincere apologies, Sabaku-san."

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"So?" the blonde girl prompted, "you promised you'd tell me all about your first day over dinner and you're barely talking! Spill!"

Sakura sighed. "Oh, Ino, it was…awful."

"What? Why?!" her best friend cried in dismay.

"Well to start off, my boss is absolutely effing gorgeous," Sakura rolled her eyes.

"And that's bad because?" Ino prompted.

"He's a total asshole! He's so good-looking I can barely think straight when I look at him, but he's a jerk and he probably thinks I'm the world's biggest dummy. I knocked on his door today because he hadn't given me anything to do and he emailed me and told me not to knock on his door," Sakura grimaced at the memory.

"You're kidding! He emailed you?" Ino asked, her mouth open wide with shock. She couldn't believe her poor friend's luck. Sakura deserved so much better.

"I know," Sakura groaned. "I can only hope it will get better. His sister, the Head of Sabaku Incorporated, is very nice. I think she at least likes me."

Ino smiled at her pink haired companion. Sakura was always so optimistic, so trusting of people, and this worried Ino relentlessly. The happy girl never thought ill of anyone, not really anyway. That was her greatest downfall, especially in terms of a certain man that Ino wished she would just get the hell away from.

"So how's the home life?" the blonde asked innocently.

Sakura felt her face pale. Ino had been digging around too much lately and she was afraid that her nosy friend suspected something. "Oh, it's fine, we're thinking of getting another cat."

"Sakura, are you sure you're –" Ino began.

"Oh my god, it's already seven?" Sakura jumped to her feet, panic rising in her throat. Shit. She'd told him that she'd be home at six thirty. She was dead. "I'm so sorry Ino, I've got to run!" She threw some cash down on the table to cover her part of the meal and practically sprinted for the door, not hearing her friend when she stood up asking if Sakura at least wanted a ride.

The blonde cursed under her breath. She did not like the look of what had just happened. She also didn't like the look of the split on Sakura's lip. The rosy cheeked girl had actually seemed to think that Ino believed her when she lied through her teeth and told her that her cat scratched her while they were playing. It was awfully deep for a cat scratch and it had been a week and half since she'd gotten it and it still wasn't healed.

It was at that moment that Ino decided it was time to do some real detective work. Sakura wasn't going to get away with her secrecy any more. Ino had tried to give her some space, but she was now too concerned for her friend's safety.

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Sakura tripped over her own feet twice in her attempt to get to the apartment quickly. She was so stupid. How could she even be this stupid? She had let time get away from her when she had been with Ino and now she was going to pay for it. Fucking shit. She groaned.

It was a fifteen minute walk home and Sakura began to wonder why she hadn't asked Ino to drive her. Because Ino would have asked way too many questions. The voice in Sakura's head quickly reminded her of the reason that she had to get home on her own.

Sometimes she had a car to drive, other times not. It depended on whether or not the pile of junk was actually running and whether or not he said she could use it. More often than not, he said no. It didn't matter anyway, driving the beat up car scared her a little bit, and it wasn't exactly reliable transportation. She'd broken down in it more than once and had been forced to call Naruto to help her get the car home. Secretly, of course.

She neared their building and took a deep, shaky breath. Everything was going to be fine. He wouldn't be angry, he wouldn't even notice that she was late. He'd probably be passed out on the couch with the TV on. Sakura plastered on her first fake smile of the day as she climbed the steps to the apartment they shared. Hands shaking lightly, Sakura attempted to fit her key into the lock. This, however, proved unnecessary, because as soon as her metal key made a sound against the metal doorknob, the door was thrown open by someone on the other side.

"Where. The fuck. Were you?"

Sakura swallowed heavily as she found herself face to face with her worst nightmare. The drunken and raging eyes of her boyfriend.

Sasuke.

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Sakura had been dragged inside by her hair and was now quietly sitting on the floor, back against the wall and knees to her chest. She knew the best way to calm him down was to not fight back and just let his anger burn out. Fighting only riled him up more. She knew this from experience.

Unfortunately for Sakura, this would not be one of those days where his anger died quickly and he apologized to her immediately, she could just tell. Today would be bad. He absolutely reeked of alcohol and cigarettes and his eyes were blazing with a barely controlled fury.

That was the first time Sasuke really beat the shit out of her.

After the ordeal was over and the dark haired man had stomped outside to cool off, Sakura didn't think she could move. She was lying on her left side in the middle of their living room, wheezing as she tried hard to breathe. If he had broken one of her ribs she would be royally pissed, she didn't have time or money for that.

Rolling onto her back with a wince, Sakura was greeted by her feline friend. "Haruki-chan," Sakura mumbled to her kitty. The cat meowed in return, and the pink haired girl swore she sounded worried. "It's okay girl, I'm fine." As if to prove this to the cat, Sakura forced herself to sit up. "See?" she winced slightly. "Just fine."

Sakura looked around the sad little apartment. It was incredibly small and there wasn't much inside it. Sasuke's family was very wealthy, but this didn't matter because at this point in his life, Sasuke had removed himself from them entirely. Never able to cope with the success of his older brother Itachi, Sasuke had "rebelled" by taking off on his own to "make his own way", dragging Sakura along with him. Apparently, to Sasuke, making your own way meant not having a job and spending all your girlfriend's cash on booze and tobacco.

If Sakura's parents knew how bad her life was currently, they would have immediately done something to help her. But Sakura would be damned if she ever let her parents find out what was really going on. All they knew what that their baby girl was living "happily" with her boyfriend and that she had just gotten a great new job. They were so proud. And Sakura would make sure that they stayed that way, no matter what.

Taking as deep a breath as she could with the ache in her chest, Sakura stood slowly. Clumsily, she ambled to the bathroom, wary to assess the damage. When she flipped the light on in the bathroom, she couldn't stop the horrified gasp that escaped her lips. Sasuke you idiot. She wasn't going to be able to come up with a good story to mask these injuries. She looked truly and thoroughly beaten to a pulp. One of her eyes was very swollen and starting to turn blue around the edge, and the split on her lip and reopened with a new fury. She brought her fingers up to her face, and this action brought another injury to her attention. Her pinky finger was pointing in an absolutely bizarre direction, obviously broken. The sight of her finger caused Sakura's stomach to turn over and she quickly lost her lunch into the toilet beside her. She was going to have to try to set her finger back in place. Bracing herself, Sakura popped her finger back to its natural position, unable to keep herself from crying out. She heaved several deep breaths, very aware of the pain in her chest as she did so. Reaching into the bathroom cupboard, she pulled out some prescription painkillers she had been prescribed for her "chronic pain." Sakura had felt bad lying to the doctor about this condition, but she just had to get some sort of relief for the pain that was inflicted upon her. Swallowing just one pill, she placed the bottle back in the cabinet where she hid it behind some lotion. It would be just her luck for Sasuke to find it. He'd probably try to sell it.

A few deep breaths later and Sakura was ready to start patching herself up. She started with her finger. She had some medical supplies lying around for scenarios like this, and now she was ridiculously thankful. She splinted her finger quickly and then moved on to her face. She applied some soothing gel to the skin around her eye and immediately felt the pain decrease slightly. Lastly, she debated what to do about her possibly broken rib. She lifted her shirt up and assessed her sore chest. She was badly bruised all along her right side, but she decided she didn't think anything was broken, thankfully. Lowering her shirt, she decided all she could do for her sore chest was let it heal on its own and soothe the pain with her medication. She started to think of an excuse for her injuries. She frowned as she decided she was probably going to have to tell people that she got mugged. She hated lying to people.

"Sakura."

The battered girl jumped in fright, causing a small yelp to escape her lips.

"Sakura," Sasuke repeated, "Sakura, baby, I'm so sorry."

Sakura's racing heart refused to slow as Sasuke approached her, slowly wrapping his long arms around her. "I love you, Sakura."

Sakura sighed, hating that she suddenly felt comfortable in his arms. "I love you too."

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Sakura had been obsessed with Sasuke as a child. She had trailed after the boy like a lost puppy all through their school years and was more than thrilled when he had finally decided to let her be his girlfriend. The time before Sasuke had abandoned his family had been wonderful. He had been a relatively good boyfriend and she had eaten up every minute of their time together. Things had gone downhill very quickly from there. After Sasuke's falling out with his family, he had become hostile. He started drinking almost daily and took up the horrible habit of smoking, which Sakura hated vehemently. He started hitting her soon after they had moved into this apartment, about six months ago.

Sakura wasn't an idiot, she knew this wasn't healthy and that she needed to get out, but she just couldn't bring herself to leave him. She convinced herself that things would get better. Things had to get better. Before she knew it, things would be like they were in the beginning. She still loved him. She worried every day that this fact made her crazy, it had to be some sort of sickness to be in love with your abuser. Sakura hoped she wasn't losing her grip on sanity.

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Gaara tossed and turned in bed that night. Why Temari seemed intent on torturing him, he had no idea. Leave it to that bossy blonde woman to go meddling in his business. He decided that he was going to fire that new assistant girl the next day. What the hell did she think she was doing? Knocking on his door like that.

The thought of firing her had brought some peace to Gaara, and he was finally starting to feel more relaxed. After tomorrow, he would be rid of the little pink haired nuisance and free to get back to business as usual.

Yikes! I hope you liked this first chapter. Leave me a review and let me know! If enough of you seem interested in this I may just go ahead and put up the second chapter since it's already written. Thanks for reading!