I forgot to make a little note of this before. 1. I couldn't find Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari's last name anywhere so I made one up. 2. This is my first fanfic and any constructive critisim is greatly appreciated. 3. I don't own Naruto.

'Inner Sakura'

'Sakura'

Sakura hurried to get to school on time. Not that she really cared about her lateness. She cared more about the fact that if she was late one more time she would be suspended for a week. As a result her grades would lower, and it would take more effort than it was worth to bring them back up.

As she walked, she caught sight of a crimson head gracefully emerge from a front door. It was quickly followed by a brown head that was scrambling to catch up with his shorter companion. She unconsciously walked faster, her legs knowing that they wanted to catch up to the mismatched pair even if she didn't.

Soon, without realizing it, she had caught up to them. She walked about ten feet behind them. They weren't speaking to one another.

Suddenly, the one with brown hair turned to look at her.

"What are you doing?" His voice indicated that he was unsurprised to see her following them.

"I'm walking to school."

"Really? So are we. We just moved here." His eye showed a friendly glint coming into existence.

"I'm Sakura Haruno. Nice to meet you."

"My name's Kankuro Kaze."

Sakura waited for his companion's name. When no form of comprehension crossed Kankuro's face, she asked, "What's your friend's name?"

Kankuro froze and looked at the shorter teen.

The moment her question was uttered, the redhead stopped in his tracks and turned around slowly.

Although he was shorter than Kankuro, he was still taller than her. He walked back to where she stood. As he came closer, Sakura saw that he had his eyes were misty green, sharp and analytical with a hint of something dangerous, they watched her. They were surrounded by dark circles that looked like makeup, but she could tell that it was caused by a lack of sleep. The paleness of his skin contrasted the darkness around his eyes and the violent red hair that twisted itself in the breeze. But the feature that stood out most on his face was a peculiar tattoo on the right side of his forehead. It was just as red his hair, and all the more menacing looking because of it.

His sharp gaze looked her in the eyes, analyzing, scrutinizing, and judging her. She did not look away. She refused to be intimidated so easily.

"I am Gaara." His voice was low and raspy, quiet and rumbling.

He turned around and continued walking.

"Wow." Kankuro murmured once he was far enough away.

"What?"

"He usually isn't that friendly. He must be having a good day today." Kankuro was still speaking too quietly for Gaara to hear him.

"That was friendly?"

"It was for him." Kankuro was still staring at his companion with a lingering expression of shock.

"So...are you two brothers?" They certainly didn't look like it.

"Yeah." His tone was hesitant, as though he weren't sure that the answer he gave her was entirely true.

They walked in silence. Gaara kept distance between them-Kankuro and Sakura.

It did not take them very long to reach the school. They parted ways and the oddly-haired girl only gave a word or two of goodbye. She felt a little rude, but it wasn't exactly as if they knew each other.

First period was ridiculously easy for Sakura. Biology just came naturally to her.

Second period was always entertaining. Geometry was a subject that no one but Sakura and a few others seemed to really understand.

However, today received a variation in the normal routine. About halfway into class, twenty minutes or so, there was a knock on the door.

The teacher answered and stepped out into the hall while they class silently- actually, the moment she left the classroom there was a lot of talking- completed their assignment.

The girl with the pink hair had already finished the worksheet when the door was knocked upon, so she was looking over at the clock above the door, measuring the amount of time left until she could leave. To tell you the truth, she didn't like being in this class. It was great and all that she completely understood the material, but because of that it was boring the living crap out of her.

"Hey Sakura, can you help me with question four?" A pair of bright blue eyes suddenly right in front of her.

She just sighed. The blonde hadn't changed in all the years she'd known him. He was still as impulsive and loud as ever.

Hinata had managed to remain conscious this time. Just as Sakura had thought, putting her closer to the object of her admiration had desensitized her a little to his presence. It had taken a lot of convincing to persuade the shy girl to sit behind him as Sakura's partner and she was glad it was paying off for the pearl eyed girl.

She basically did the question for Naruto as he nodded along; acting like he understood what the heck she was talking about.

The teacher walked back in two minutes and fourteen seconds later with someone behind her. Someone Sakura had met that morning.

Oh the irony.

Well, at least things were going to get interesting, if only for a short while.

"Everyone, this is the new student I told you about a few weeks ago." Her voice shook a little as she spoke.

Of course, as she'd thought, Gaara had walked in silently behind her.

"Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?"

"I am Gaara." He said this simple sentence with contempt for all of us. His tone discouraged friendly advances with a casual death threat implied.

And this was supposed to be him in a good mood. Sakura would hate seeing him in a bad one.

He looked at the teacher as if to say 'can I sit down now?' The green eyed girl was beginning to realize that Gaara was not a very talkative person.

The teacher was a little taken aback by his bluntness, but she nodded in consent.

'Oh, Kami, how could you forsake me? I do not want to have to deal with this!' Sakura thought as he sat down in the large desk that rested right behind her at the back of the class.

"Aww, come on. He's hot stuff and you know it."

'What the-I thought I got rid of you!'

'When are you gonna learn that I'm here to stay? You're stuck with me!'

Sakura sighed irritably at Inner Sakura's rambunctious attitude. She was even worse then Naruto on a ramen high.

Staying in character, Gaara did not acknowledge that he was sitting down behind the girl who he had met this morning.

'Well fine, if that's how he wants to be.' She thought, only taking slight offense because that seemed to just be the way he was naturally. She could hear Inner grumbling for her not talking to her newest infatuation.

The teacher continued class for the next twenty minutes uninterrupted. Her teachings were mind-numbingly, agonizingly slow. It wasn't helping that she kept on checking the clock every few seconds. It wasn't her fault really. She had nothing to do.

The day continued in a similar fashion; Sakura continued to be bored out of her mind without a break. However, found that she had two other classes with Mr. Sunshine: Gym and English. And a more welcome surprise came with a friendlier sibling. Kankuro and she had Study Hall and Art together.

They chatted during the classes they had with each other, and Sakura was pleased to find that Kankuro was quite nice. A little opinionated, sure, but anyone who wasn't meant that they were either indecisive or they did have an opinion but were too big of cowards to admit it. Neither of those were types of people that Sakura wasted her time with.

He was quite mellow, despite being a little prideful at times, about most things unless you deliberately tried to pick a bone with him. His temper did ignite a little when she questioned his use of a certain paint, but he calmed down quickly when she showed him the color that the paint really dried as, being quite different than the color it so falsely advertised. Other than that, he was pleasant company to keep, she thought.

During her last period, Global Studies, something occurred to her. If they had arrived at school at about the same time as she had that morning, then why had it taken so long for Gaara to get to class? It shouldn't have taken a period and a half. Even if the trip to check in with the office had taken a little longer than usual, it couldn't have taken more than thirty minutes to do, which left forty five minutes unaccounted for. What had he been doing? Possible answers swarmed through her head and each was quickly dismissed one by one as improbable.

She decided to ask Kankuro if she caught him while she walked home after school. She felt that she and the older boy were on good enough terms for that.

These thoughts occupied her through the rest of the class. She was still in a bit of a trance when the bell rang and therefore a bit delayed in collecting her things. She hurried to get her bag packed; she didn't want to miss them. If she had, she might have forgotten about her question for Kankuro by tomorrow morning.

As she exited the building that had imprisoned her for the last seven hours, she caught the sight of a redhead in the corner of her vision.

Not wanting to appear like she was in a hurry to reach them to the other students, she only walked at a pace slightly faster than she normally would've taken.

She and Kankuro exchanged their friendly greetings while Gaara looked at her for a moment and proceeded to ignore her presence for the most part.

"So, Kankuro…I have a question. I hope you don't think it's rude. But the curiosity is killing me."

'No, no, no! Go ask him! Quit talking to this weirdo!'

'And what, pray tell, makes Kankuro a weirdo?'

'Well, for one thing, he was stupid enough to talk to you for more than two seconds.'

Sakura couldn't justifiably argue with her there.

'Shut up! I'm trying to have a conversation.'

Inner quieted down and Sakura glanced over at the older brother to see if he had noticed how she had been having an internal conversation.

One of Kankuro's dark eyebrows lifted, a gesture indicating that she should continue and reassuring her that he had missed the whole exchange that just happened in the conines of her mind.

"Did the orientation meeting in the office take a long time?"

There was small hesitation before he answered. "No. Why would you ask that?"

"Well…I don't mean to be nosy, but your brother was a little later to Geometry class than I would expect if that were true. What was the delay?"

Her question went unanswered as Kankuro glanced at Gaara nervously. Gaara turned his pale face slowly to face her.

"I don't see how that's any of your damn business." He said coldly.

'He's so hot!'

'Shut the hell up! Being an ass is not hot!

Returning to the real world, she was a little surprised. Her question was, admittedly, prying and rude, especially since she hardly knew either of them, but she'd thought she made it clear that she wasn't trying to be.

The redhead returned to steadily ignoring her as if nothing had even happened.

"Did I say something wrong?" She looked to Kankuro, attempting to gauge if this was normal behavior for him.

He was watching Gaara like he could explode at any moment. And that was when she figured it out. Kankuro was afraid of Gaara. His nervous demeanor from this morning and now his watchfulness only served to confirm her suspicions.

She decided against confronting the older boy about it. Knowing what she did of his character, he would most likely become angry at her accusation of being afraid of his little brother and leave her behind with his pride wounded. She settled for walking in silence for the rest of their time. She had already pushed the line enough today.

But there was something different about the Kazes. She planned on waiting to gather the puzzle pieces until she had the whole thing.

As soon as the brothers' house was in sight, Sakura noticed someone waiting in the driveway. The dirty blonde woman waiting noticed them and proceeded to get up and walk over.

"Hey, Kankuro. How was school?" The woman's sharp green eyes honed in on the girl standing next to the teenager. "Who's this?"

"Hey, Temari. It was fine. This is Sakura."

Temari raised her eyebrows, "You already trying to bring her home, Kankuro? I thought I taught you better. You always take a girl to dinner before you take her to your place." There was a hint of a smile playing around the corners of her mouth.

Kankuro, however, didn't see it. "No, Temari, she lives a little way down from us. I wasn't doing anything!"

"Oh, is that so? Gaara, what's the matter?" Her tone altered slightly as she spoke to the redhead.

There was no verbal answer, only the action of passing the woman with a cold glare and entering their house.

As she turned to face Sakura and Kankuro again, her eyes were slightly wider than they were before. Something clicked in Sakura's mind. This woman feared Gaara too.

"Well, Sakura, I'm Temari Kaze, Kankuro and Gaara's big sister." Her voice was sounding a false bravado.

"I'm Sakura Haruno, pleased to meet you."

"Well, Miss Haruno, since Kankuro seems to have taken such a liking to you, how about you come over for dinner?"

"I really would want to impose. You must be still unpacking from your move here."

"Actually, we had the movers unload our stuff for us. We're already almost all the way settled."

"I guess that's okay. But are you sure you wouldn't mind?"

"No, not at all. In fact, I insist. Your folks can come too if they can make it."

"It's just my mom and I. and I don't think she'll be up for it. But, sure, I'd love to."

Temari didn't press any information out of her, for which she was grateful.

"Then I'll see you tonight. Feel free to come over whenever."

After saying goodbye and Temari telling her to come over as soon as she could, Sakura left the two siblings. As she left, she saw a curtain in one of the windows shift.

Her mother was home.

"Hi Mom."

"Hey, honey." Her response was delayed, showing that she was not quite all there.

"Our new neighbors invited us over for dinner. Do you wanna go?"

She looked at her daughter with a vacant look in her eyes.

"No, honey. I'm busy tonight. You can go if you want." Her voice lacked inflection, as usual.

"Okay. Thanks Mom."

Sakura didn't want to deal with her today. She dropped her bag off in her room and quickly left the place she had once called home.

Throwing on a jacket, she knew it would be a lot colder when she returned, she left her house and walked down the street, knocking on their front door nervously.

This chapter is only setting up some groundwork. It gets better in the next chapter, I promise!