Disclaimer: So, I'm redoing everything that I don't like. 'I'm in the Band' and 'When' are now gone. Farewell! The SasuSaku fans are so going to kill me… First GaaSaku and the mystery of Gaara's eyebrows is solved, in my mind! Don't own Naruto.
"Mom! Hurry, Kakashi-sensei said if I'm late again, he might actually report me, and I know he won't, but for the love of God, just go faster!" In the front seat, Mrs. Haruno rolled her eyes, ignoring her daughter's pleas. She turned on the icy road into the slippery parking lot, and Sakura bounced in the back of the truck.
As the car only began to slow, Sakura jumped out of the car, and started to dash towards the front door of the school, when her feet shot out from under her on the ice. Mrs. Haruno blinked in surprise as her daughter suddenly disappeared from her view. Within seconds, she bounced back up, blushing, and trying to wipe all the partially melted grey slush off her back. Her mother shook her head good naturedly, and shifted into drive, pulling away slowly with a smile and a wave.
Hoping that no one had seen her humiliating fall, Sakura walked stiff-legged to the school doors, and pulled them open, only to find most of the lights off and the main office completely devoid of people. A redheaded boy with pale green eyes sat on one side of the only bench, the cold metal apparently not bothering him, even though those pants looked very, very, skimpy. Oh dear, she did not just think that.
The boy eyed her with a cool apathy. "School's closed today. Too cold and the roads are shit." Sakura blinked and spun wildly to see that her mother was long gone. She was stuck. The boy on the bench smirked at her obvious panic, and patted the bench as a way of invitation.
"You're gonna hyperventilate in a minute. Come sit, I don't bite. Much." Sakura rolled her jade eyes, and gingerly sat next to the boy. She eyed him with mild displeasure.
"Honestly, I've never heard that line before. You are just, like, so original!" The sarcasm was practically tangible. There was eye roll from the green eyed boy.
"Shut up Pinky. I'm Gaara. And unlike you, I actually have a way to get out of here, besides walking." Sakura pouted. Pinky, how very creative. This guy was just a well of individuality.
"Do you actually go to this school? You look a bit too old to be a senior…" Gaara shook his head amusedly.
"I'm nineteen. This used to be my school last year, but I think I've seen you before. You're-you're"-he snapped his fingers, searching for the name-"you're Naruto's girlfriend!" Sakura looked almost insulted.
"Naruto is engaged. To Hinata Hyuuga, the little girl, the really quiet one? And no, we never went out, but I think he had a crush on me all through middle school." Gaara seemed to be mentally dissecting her every word. It was something about those eyes, so blank and pensive.
It was only then did she notice the startling fact that he had no eyebrows whatsoever. No trace of hairs or anything. It was like he was born without them.
"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but you're-um- why don't you have any eyebrows?" Sakura blushed and looked away. Gaara raised nonexistent eyebrows in amusement. It was obvious this question had come up before.
"I was in a fire when I was a kid, and my face got burned really bad, especially my forehead, and they just got burned off and I had to get a skin graft, so the new skin smothered the hair, I guess. That's what the doctors said." He shrugged offhandedly, like everyone walked around without eyebrows. There was an uncomfortable silence.
"Hey, Gaara, did you put your name on the Wall?" He looked puzzled. Sakura smiled, emerald eyes twinkling, and dragged him by the hand to a giant wall at the back of the auto shop room. Thousands of names covered the huge wall, stretching from the very ceiling to written in the tightest corner. Sakura poked close to the very center.
"This one's mine and here's Ino, and TenTen, and Naruto, and Hinata, and everybody. Didn't you put your name down?" Gaara shook his head again, and continued to stare at all the names scribbled in different color Sharpies, markers, and nail polish. He spotted his sister's name, next to her boyfriend's, with a black heart encircling them. Almost directly under them, was his old math teacher, who went on to marry the principal, and even have a little boy with dark red eyes.
Sakura rummaged ferociously through her pockets, and pulled out a Sharpie after a few minutes of searching. She thrust it into Gaara's face, wiggling it under his nose.
"Come on, sign the wall, silly! It doesn't bite. Much." She laughed, delighted to use his own words against him. Gaara rolled his eyes for what seemed like the thousandth time that morning, and snatched the Sharpie, hastily scribbling his name and the date on a blank patch of concrete. This happened to be right between the name Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura's own. Her smile shattered into a million pieces.
Gaara looked faintly concerned with her sudden mood shift. "Who's Sasuke Uchiha? The name sounds familiar, but I can't remember…" Sakura shook her pink hair, brushing away the unshed tears with the back of her hand. She sniffed hard.
"He was my boyfriend, until-sniff- he went to military school, and then he-hard swallow-committed suicide. His entire family died in a plane crash, and he just couldn't take it. He left me a note, saying sorry, and that he would miss me. No I love you. And I, I haven't been able to find his name on the wall since, since…" She burst into tears and slumped against the wall, legs drawn tight to her body.
It would have been a horrible time to mention he could her tiny green boxer short panties. A horrible time, indeed.
Gaara scrunched down next to her, and awkwardly patted her on the shoulder, smoothing her static hair. He continued to move his arm, until it fully circled her tiny shoulders and leaned down slowly, eyes closed, lips puckered…
And his cell phone went off, screaming Yellowcard from his pocket. It was Temari, and she was oddly furious.
"Gaara!" she seethed, "I have been waiting for you for like, twenty minutes! Get your ass out here, me and Shika are cold!" He completely ignored her ravings and dragged Sakura to her feet, brushing away a trickling tear roughly with the pad of his thumb.
"Stop it. My sister is here, and I'm taking you home, and she brought her boyfriend, and neither of them can stand tears, so stop it." She hiccupped several times and swallowed repeatedly, until he was satisfied that she was going to be alright for now. "And give me your Sharpie. You go the front desk and tell my sister I'm coming, she's the blonde girl in the Mazda. Now go." And he flicked her gently in the forehead.
She pouted and spun away, stepping lightly between the drills and broken cars towards the door. At the last second, she turned, just for a moment, and the sunshine in her smile seemed to light up the dark hallway, then disappearing as she sprinted off.
Gaara sighed, and jotted down a plus sign, then turned to leave. Gaara Sakura, that seemed alright.