NOTE: This is in the Shippuden period, so if you haven't seen it, I'd ADVISE you not to read this, (to my sadness) because I don't want to give anyone any unwanted spoilers.

Let's just say that Sakura has never met Gaara and Gaara hasn't met Sakura. They all have attended the Chuunin exams, but they took it at the different seasons. (I can't remember, but I think they said that you can take one in the early year or again in autumn or something like that ;)

Disclaimer: yeah…I don't own Naruto.

Sakura sighed as she walked through the harsh climate of the desert. The heat was almost unbearable.

They were on a mission to Suna, as the Kazekage was to have more protection because there were many threats to him, and increased by a great number this month. Tsunade, since the alliance of Leaf and Suna had doubled and were quite good neighbouring villages now, suggested she give the Kazekage some body guards. Much to the Kazekage's refusal, (Tsunade had muttered under her breath of something around the lines of him being too confident in himself) finally gave in and allowed only one team to go. Which turned out to be team 7, but Kakashi was on another mission, and would be late.

Sakura looked to the right to see the two guys that meant the world to her.

There was the obnoxious blond, with vibrant blue eyes, whose name was Naruto. Over the passed years, he started to develop a crush on a certain silver eyed girl with dark raven blue coloured hair. Her name was Hinata.

The other guy was Sasuke, he was cold, egotistic, and mean, yet she couldn't stop loving him, as a friend, and more than that. She had desperately tried to get his attention, of any way, trying to be braver on missions, trying to ask him out, she'd do ANYTHING. Though she'd give her life gladly for him, his heart hadn't melted by even a little bit.

Once, he came so close to leaving Konoha that she cried so much. Just before he left, she begged him to stay. Amazingly, he complied, but saying it wasn't for her, it was because he would 'get stronger the harder way', saying something about wanting to beat Itachi as an avenger, not as a beggar for power, because he valued his pride.

After that, she had tried to ask him out even MORE, refusing to believe the fact that he just did it because he didn't want to be a beggar for power, and wanted to be partial of the reason as well. But, Sakura should've known, as she soon realized, that, that wasn't true.

Sighing again at that, she suddenly became depressed. If she could see in the future, of whom the man she'd fall in love with or who she'd turn out to be with, it would make things a lot easier, but unfortunately, life wasn't always that easy.

Naruto had seemed to notice that Sakura was feeling down because he slowly edged his way to her, trying to start up a conversation, thinking that the cause of her depression was because of the lack of a conversation.

"So…"

"Yes, Naruto?"

"Um…Hinata is really awesome."

"I know that, Naruto."

Poor Sakura, Naruto not knowing that the cause of her pain was because of the lack of a guy, not the fact of not having a conversation. But, even though it would be blindly obvious, it wouldn't seem as Naruto would notice because he seemed oblivious of these things (I mean, he didn't even know that Hinata liked him…that was pretty obvious…)

"So, I've been thinking of asking Hinata in marriage." Naruto continued.

"Really!?!!?!?" Sakura excitedly said, she couldn't wait to go to their wedding, her depressive state dissipating at this news.

"Yeah! It'd be so awesome, but now the only problem is if her parents would accept."

"Well, how about going over to the Hyuga's later, and show them how responsible you are." Sakura suggested.

"Sasuke immediately interjected, by snorting at that comment. "Naruto is the LEAST responsible person I know, he'd probably make things worse."

Although it was unbelievably blunt and mean, Sakura had to kind of agree, I mean, let's all face it, Naruto was like a magnet when it came to unexpected bad things. But there was one thing that she had to disagree of Sasuke about, if there was ONE person who had the worst luck, but could turn it around, it was him. Naruto had made it through thick and thin, even in the worst situations.

"I think it'll turn out great in the end," Sakura supported Naruto. "The Hyuga's will see how talented you are, you've already proven to me how much you are a long time ago."

Naruto's sad face was replaced so quickly with a happy one, that if you blinked, you would've missed the change.

"Yeah!!! I'll do that! I can't fail Hinata." Naruto shouted, using the signature Lee pose. (Guess it wore off to him…) and made a grin from ear to ear.

Sakura giggled at that, but went serious and asked, "Does Hinata know about this?"

Naruto thought long and hard, at which Sakura had to sweat drop about. He didn't remember? But then Naruto exclaimed and said "Oh yeah! I remember!!! Yeah, she doesn't know…"

Sakura said as she suggested an idea to Naruto "Well you have to tell her eventually, so why don't you do it when Hinata comes over to Suna."

Tsunade had originally planned on sending only team 7, but hearing from the council members that apparently the Akatsuki were involved, she sent more backup, which would come later on. Of course, she didn't tell the Kazekage that, for he would flat out refuse, so she decided to make it a…surprise…

The "surprise" people would consist of Hinata, Shikamaru, and Neji.

As they headed to Suna, a sandstorm suddenly appeared out of no where.

Sakura turned a little frantic, but pushed the fear out of her face. "What should we do?" She yelled over the raging storm.

She couldn't even see any of them anymore. "Naruto?!?!?!" Screaming over the howling winds while the sand whipped through her hair, scraping over her skin.

Someone grabbed her waist and pulled closer to her. She squeaked at surprise, tensing at the touch of his arm wrapped around her waist. She was about to yell at that person, demanding why he was doing that, so she whipped around to only come face to face with non other than Sasuke.

What the hell? Sasuke?!?!?! He made it perfectly clear from before that he wanted nothing to do with me 'in that sort of way'.

Sasuke, noticing the dumbness written on her face, pointed out for her like it was a state of the obvious for him. "I'm anchoring you to the floor; you were going to be swept away from the storm.

Sakura blushed at the encounter, not only because of the fact that she was so stupid to misunderstand the situation, but because he was practically hugging her. So, to 'anchor' herself easier, she latched her arms around him.

At that point, inner Sakura let out a dog call, laughing with mass hysteria.

This made Sakura blush, 'What? I'm using him as an anchor, so I don't get lost in the storm'

Inner Sakura snorted at this comment, 'you except me to BELIEVE that? Ahem, it's obviously more than that.' Saying this while grinning maliciously.

Sakura ignored this comment, with much difficulty though, and buried her head in Sasuke's chest because she was blushing so much, which resulted with Inner Sakura to start bugging her even more about that.

Sasuke looked with mild interest to see Sakura buried in his chest. It was kind of comforting but annoying at the same time.

The closest girl that Sasuke would remotely come close to dating would be Sakura. But he knew that he had a goal far more important than things such as 'dating' and 'falling in love', he had to defeat and restore the pride in the Uchiha clan.

So with that, he refused to notice Sakura and fight down the blush that was rising in his face.

Once the storm died down, they looked for Naruto, since it would've been useless actually trying to find him when the storm was still raging. They found him, surprisingly fine. Turns out he had tried to walk out of the storm, and did. Then there was this oasis, which he marked on a tree with a kunai on a lone tree next to the water with a 'NarutoxHinata' in the trunk. He proudly said that he would show that oasis to Hinata and propose to her

Sakura thought that was the cutest thing ever, and very original. No one would've ever thought of that. "I think that's a great way to propose to her."

"Yep!" Naruto beamed "and I'm going to call this oasis the proposing oasis. Whoever doesn't propose here will…" he thought, looking around and finally got an idea. "Get crushed by a boulder!" (like one of those places that say if you don't do something, you get crushed or something, yeah, I just picked up the idea ; )

Sakura and Sasuke sweat-dropped at this. "Um, Naruto, there aren't any boulders here, that would be impossible." Sakura told him.

"Oh yeah…okay, how about this, if you DON'T propose to that person here, you will get…hit in the head with a coconut?" Naruto suggested.

Sasuke noticed it was getting late, so quickly gave an agreement with his new idea thing, and said we should make camp for today.

Sakura looked up in the night sky. It was beautiful, full of stars and gracefulness. She sighed, but was quickly replaced with a shiver. Darn cold temperature at night…pulling her sleeping bag closer to her.

She saw a shooting star fly across the night, and wished 'I hope that I will find true love in the future.'

And falling asleep. Sasuke, seeing her sleeping, and her shivering, put his extra blanket sheet over her, and fell asleep as well.

Meanwhile, in Suna, a tired Kazekage peeled his eyes off his paperwork. He knew that the title of Kazekage was a tough one, but he ALSO knew that this would please the people of Suna.

Over the years of his childhood, he started to go from an innocent child, to a sadistic killer at the age of 13. Now, looking back, her realized his mistakes and was trying to make it up. Unfortunately, this was a problem, because 'bad habits die harder'. He had a tendency of loosing his temper and killing a few people. He knew it wasn't his fault, it was Shukaku's, but the villagers didn't. They blamed him, called him a monster, called him names, said he'd never be loved, which in part, he knew was true. It was a fantasy to want to be loved, it would never happen.

Looking out at the star filled night, he noticed a shooting star. 'I hope that, one day, I will feel loved.' Thinking back of what he said, he snorted. It would never happen. Turning his head from the window of the Kazekage tower and going back to his paperwork.

If only he knew that hope is sometimes answered…

Like it so far? I really hope you do Yeah, sasusaku a little bit, but if you don't like it, well, tough luck, sorry, just try and live with it. The ending result will be gaarasaku, I know that for a fact. Tell me if I should improve in any way and if the chapters are too long, too short, just right, you know.