Gaara x Sakura fic for my good friend, Hikari.
During the Chunin exams, while Naruto and Sasuke are injured and sleeping, it is up to Sakura to protect them. When Gaara suddenly enters the clearing, she fears for her life, but he seems different as he watches her, before finally deciding to speak.
Deep inside the Forest of Death, a pink haired kunoichi sits beneath the trees, tears in her eyes, watching over two boys, one with blond hair and an orange jumpsuit, the other with black hair and a navy outfit. The boys are injured and unconcious, the girl not in much better shape. She's holding a kunai in her hand, her eyes shifting, looking everywhere. Every few seconds, her eyelids start to drift, and she has to jolt herself awake. The forest around her is filled with the sounds of wildlife, of predators and prey and death, and hiding beneath the sounds of the forest is something else. Footsteps.
Utterly silent, a young male ninja steps out, a gourd of sand on his back, eyes scanning the clearing. The female ninja starts at the sight of him, fear filling her eyes. She locks up, unable to move as he steps closer and closer. He stops outside a certain point, simply watching her, an odd look on his face. A cracking twig in the forest wakes them both from their stupor as three shadowy shapes come flying out of the woods. Sakura reacts, throwing her kunai at a nearly invisible wire close to the ground, causing a log to swing out from the canopy and sweep away one of them. Another is caught by a blast of sand, the mass of particles surrounding and crushing their legs, making them scream. The last one lands, distracted by their team mates' being hit, giving Gaara a chance to wrap them up in sand. With a malicious grin, he starts to constrict it, making the ninja scream.
"Stop!" Oddly enough, he does. Gaara turns to Sakura, who's reaching a hand out. "You don't have to kill them." Tears dance at her eyes, and Gaara lets his hand drop, the sand releasing the ninja. They gather up their allies and run into the forest. Gaara turns toward Sakura, that odd look in her eyes again.
"Why?" he asks, his voice gravelly but...curious? Intrigued? "They would not have hesitated to kill you." He steps closer. She tries to stop him, but the wire trips, sending spikes flying at him. He doesn't even flinch as his sand rushes to block the projectiles. "And why do you fight so hard to protect those two?" He nods at where Naruto and Sasuke lie on the ground.
Sakura looks down a moment before taking a deep breath, looking back up at the sand ninja with a determined gleam in her eyes. "Because I care for my camrades, and so did they. When you let them go, they got their team and left. In the end, the lives of my team mates are more important than taking the lives of others."
Gaara watches her a moment, his eyes odd. He walks forward, the traps falling short at his sand shield. Sakura scoots back, afraid as he steps into the area she made. She desperately grasps a kunai in her hand, her body shaking in fear. But instead of attacking, he merely sits against the tree, watching her, giving her a good look at his face.
She sits back, looking across at him, the hand with the kunai settling upon the ground. The pair sit in utter silence, Gaara's gaze steady while Sakura can only hold his stare for a moent at the time. Finally, unable to sit silent any longer, Sakura speaks. "Why do you have that tatooed on your forehead?"
Gaara stares at her silently for a moment, his hand straying to the symbol on his forehead. "My sand gave it to me," he explains to her quizzical glance. "The night I killed the closest thing I had to a friend...or a mother..." Sakura gasps, her hand straying again to the kunai on the ground. "After she tried to kill me, all on my father's orders." Her hand stops, instead moving to reach out toward the ninja before her. "'Love'... Such a pitiful concept... That night reminded me of that."
Before she can stop herself, she steps forward as if to hold him. The sand surges out, and Gaara reaches out, surprised, unable to stop it. But instead of hitting her, the sand curls around her, blocking kunai that flew out of the forest. Gaara turns to see the intruder, one of the ninja from before, the one hit by the log, left side broken. The third ninja comes running up, trying to pull them back, yelling at them that it's suicide.
Sakura flinches at the sand, her gaze darting over to Gaara. His face is a mask of rage, the sand swirling angrily around him. The ninjas run into the forest, chased by sand. Sakura lunges forward, throwing her arms around the sand ninja. "It's okay," she whispers, as the sand settles, returning to the gourd. "You don't have to be a monster... Not anymore..."
Gaara's body slumps, the sand moving to enclose the pair in a sand sphere. Sakura looks up into his face, and what she sees shocks her more than anything else: he's crying, silently. His arms raise up to hold her, uncertain, and he just cries. Sakura holds onto him, helping him ride through the emotions. After a few minutes, the sand recedes, and Gaara steps back. His eyes are dry now, but a different look is on his face. He turns, walking back the way he came. As he reaches the egde, he turns just slightly. "Thank you." And he's gone...
Years later, Gaara stands in the palace of the Kazekage. He had just been sworn in as the Kazekage, and he stands looking out on his village, HIS home. As he looks upon the landscape, he finds his hand drifting up to his forehead, his memories drifting back to that day in the forest. "'You don't have to be a monster... Not anymore...'" He remembers muttering that to himself at least once a day over the past couple years, a reminder of why he fought to change. As much as he must thank Naruto, he knows he must thank Sakura Haruno. Naruto showed he wasn't alone. But before even that, Sakura showed him he didn't have to be what the world expected of him. And for that, he will always remember her...