This is my second real fic and is probably a far greater improvement than the first, hope you like it :)
Disclaimer - No, sadly I do not own Naruto.
Chapter One - Odd Beginings
Truly, she didn't know what she had gotten herself into. She had always been just that little bit too nice, just too kind hearted, and now it was biting her back in the ass.
Sakura had had a rather normal, if not slightly busy day, at the hospital she worked at. She had been headed home at a rather brisk pace due to the rain and had wanted nothing more than to get in, take a nice hot shower and settle down with her loveable cat, Sweetheart. Sadly the fates had something else in mind.
Truthfully she could have just walked on by and ignored his exsistent but the medic in her would never have allowed it and niether would her consiounce.
As she had been walking past a rather dark, if not dangerous looking alley she had paused only briefly at the sound of what she could only assume was heavy, laboured breathing. Sakura due to her profesion and over all nature was nothing if not inquisitive and couldn't help but find the source of the noise. Imagine her suprise when the plain awful breathing she had assumed would belong to an injured dog or some type animal, had belonged to that of a boy, a rather young one at that.
He was unconsiouse and sprawled on the ground in an awkward fashion, as if having been dumped there, which judging by the circumstances she wouldn't be suprised if he had been.
Had she been an average passer by she probably would have left the boy or possibly tryed to wake him, how ever Sakura knew that she should most definitly assess the damage he had sustained before doing anything.
She bent down warily as if she feared he may awake at any moment despite his clearly phsycally exhausted state. She lifted his large hood and froze slightly and gave a slight gasp at the shock of red hair that faced her.
'How unusual' she thought to herself, she then gave her head a slight shake 'Says the girl with pink hair'
She finnally shook her head and focused on the young male before her, she gave him a quick assesment and a frown adourned her pretty features. Things were not looking good. She couldn't be completley sure but from what she'd discovered, he was covered in severe bruising, had a fractured arm, two broken ribs - at least, and if his breathing was anything to go by, she suspected he had a collapsed lung.
She shook her head somenly.
"What am I going to do about you." Not much too her suprise, he didn't answer.
Sakura paused and tryed to think of a plan, the most logical thing to do would be to take him too a hospital but Sakura knew better than that. Sakura maybe rather innocent but she wasn't stupid, his hair, his clothes, his tattoo screamed trouble. She knew what the hospital would do, they'd treat him and call the police, it was as simple as that.
She was strapped for options. Sakura was brought abruptly out of her thoughts as his body began to shake, her eyes widened.
"Oh no you don't" She wasted no time in hoisting him up, which was quite remarkable due to her petite form. "Your condition is bad enough, we can't have you catching hypothermia."
It was his unconsious grunt of pain that alerted her to his ankle. 'Great looks like hes sprained that as well.'
She then procceeded to take him back to her apartment, luckily they were only one block away so she got them there reasonobly fast.
The minute she got him into her apartment, she went through to her bedroom and she placed him on her bed. She took in his still trembeling form and came to an awful conclusion, she had to get him out of his wet clothes.
'Come on Sakura, what are you doing? You look at naked males at the hospital every single day, whatss so different about this one?"
Sakura gave a firm nod, yet dispite this she could'nt bring herself to remove his boxers. Luckily her friend, Deidara, was a common vistor of hers and always had a spare pare of clothers stored at her place. She changed him into some grey contton sleeping pants and moved him into a suitable position.
She grabbed a few towels and medical supplies she would be needing and set to work. She washed off the blood and dried him off as quickly as possible and set to work on some of his more serious injuries. She had to repair his lung.
She may be a doctor but her house wasn't a hospital, she didn't have everything. How ever she was smart woman and it didn't take her long to find the nessacary things to fashion a make shift chest tube.
It was hardly perfect but it should work well enough. She procceeded in relieving the pressure and fully repairing his lung. She took his now slower surer breathing as good sign and continued on with her treatment. The rest she finished rather quickly, she sowed up his wounds to prevent infection and bandaged up his torso and and arm. She decided to leave his ankle.
After a gruelling four hours of labour, Sakura finished. She slumped tiredly against the side of her now occupied bed.
She turned tired, curious eyes too her little invalid and took him in fully for the first time. She realised he was not as young as she first thought but was still younger than herself, most likely four or five years younger than herself.
He had enticingly dark red hair, which by her guess was natural. She couldn't help but wonder if it was a s soft as it looked. She shook that thought from her head as quickly as it came.
'Have you no shame Sakura? He's at least a good three years younger. Now focus.'
She instead turned her attention to his forehead, what she had orginally thought was tattoo had later been revealed to be a scar. It seemed old and was not likley to have been from tonight, but she couldn't help but find it fasinating.
It was the kanji for love, which she had found odd. Most males she knew wouldn't want such a soft word on thier foreheads and as she looked at his harsh troubled features, she couldn't imagine him wanting it either.
A small knit formed in her eyebrows as she tried to assess the strange creature before her. Eventually she felt her eyelids grow tired and heavy, and she found she couldn't bring herself to resist the temptation known as sleep.
So with final glance at the slumbering male and a quick brush of her fingers across his forehead, she closed her eys.
'Rest well my little invalid, I'll see you in the morning.'
A ferocious snarl and heavy weight on her chest was what Sakura awoke to the next morning. Her shocked emerald eyes opened and stared into angry jade ones.
To say she was suprised was an understatment, yet as she stared up at the clearly angry male she couldn't help but think how beautiful his eyes were. Another snarl snapped her out of her trance, as she realised that he was straddeling her and clutching her arms in a most painful fashion.
"Where am I?" it was more of a demand then a question but Sakura answered all the same.
"My apartment." She felt her voice shake slightly and she berated herself inwardly, he was never going to let her help him if he thought she was scared of him.
She was about to ask him to get off her but she suddenly noticed a trickle of blood slide down his arm from one of his now open stitches.
Eyes narrowed she turned angry eyes to the boy and gave a growl good enough to match his own.
"What do you think you doing?" he didn't visibly show it but she saw suprise flicker across his eyes "Your still injured, your bound to be putting too much pressure on your ribs right now, which won't speed up the healing process at all. And look! You've also gone on tore open some of your stitches. Now sit back down on the bed and let me stitch up your arm, again."
He stared at the small woman beneath him as if she was crazy. He was holding her down and threatening her and she was worried about him. As if coming to some realisation that he was quite badly injured, he winced slightly and held his good arm to his ribs.
She gave him a half hearted glare and began to move from beneath him, he flashed her a warning glare but she merely rolled her eyes.
"Relax, I'm just gonna help get you onto the bed." She began to help him but he tried to push her away.
"I don't need your help." he spat at her, she seemed uncaring and procceeded in helping him.
"For starters, yes, you do. And for seconds." She gave him a quick meaningful glance. "I want to help you."
She placed him gently on the bed but he just let out a mocking laugh and turned dull untrusting eyes upon her.
"You don't know me." She seemed once again unnaffected by his cold demeanor and began to get out the tools needed. She was used to it afterall.
"No, no I don't." She admited unashamedly "So therefore I have no reason not to help you."
He gave her a disbelieving glance, before turning blank eyes to the wall before him.
"You logic makes no sense, if you don't know me you have no reason to help me, stupid woman." he gave a brief glance to her almost as if waiting for her answer but she didn't look in his eyes, she instead focused on fixing his arm.
"Relax your arm, it'll hurt more if you tense it." He looked at her again, almost as if assessing if he could trust her simple words. She was begginning to grow impatient with his constant wariness.
"Jeeze, seriously! Whats the worst that could happen from relaxing your arm." She snapped at him. "I mean honestly, why would I go through all the trouble of patching you up just to hurt you."
He stared at her angrily and she saw him clench his fist, she watched as his anger escalated as he knew he couldn't say anything. She noticed, at long last, that he slowly relaxed his arm, just his arm.
She smiled softly and began to dab it with alcohol. She felt him flinch but she didn't waver under his glare. She should have warned him it would sting.
He watched her after that, the gracefull way her dainty fingers slowly drew out the old stitches and began on the new ones. The small crease that formed in her brow as she concentrated on her work. He didn't know when it happened but slowly he found himself completley relaxing. He concentrated on the way the cold needle slipped through his skin and was followed by the light press of her much warmer fingers.
He was brought out of his musings as he heard her voice.
"Sakura." he shot her a questioning look and she smiled at him. "My name. It's Sakura. Not stupid woman."
He thought back to there brief conversation from earlier and gave her a short simple.
"Hn." He noticed that she froze slightly, as if his word made her think of something. She merely smiled at him again and began to put away her medical supplies.
"And yours." She asked as she stood from her kneeling postion and felt the blood flow back into her numb apendeges. He didn't answer so she asked again. "Your name?"
He simply looked at her and then back in front of him. She gave an indignant huff and crossed her arms.
"Fine mr. secretive I'll just think of a name for you." He growled at her and shot her a look.
"I'm not some pet you picked up." She was about to retort when realisation flashed in her eyes and she gasped.
"Crap!" She then shot out the room. "Sweetheart!" She called. She dashed into the kitchen to find a rather angry looking cat staring at his food bowl and then at her. He gave a her a grumpy hiss and bit he lip.
"Oh I'm so sorry baby."
'Great Sakura you can't even remember to feed you cat, and you want to look after a guy?"
She then stepped around the moody feline and shuffeled through her cupboards for the cat food, after finding it she gave him rest of the entire box to make up for forgetting his supper the following night. She slipped in some tuna as well.
The cat seemed to appreciate the apologetic gesture and began to purr and nuzzle her legs. She smiled and gave him an affectionate ear rub.
After doing so she realised that the so far nameless boy must be hungry as well.
'Hm, mabey if he has something to eat he'll be less grumpy' She turned her eyes to the cat now happily laping up it's late breakfast. 'It worked for the cat.'
She procceeded in makeing a quick simple breakfast of fish and rice with some peaches and a glass of orange juice.
She slowly made her way back to her room and opened the door and crept in. The second she did a pair of angry eyes turned to her.
She inwardly sighed.
"I made you some breakfast." she said warily. Sadly Gaara, unlike her cat, didn't appreciate the gesture as much.
"Hmm, let me guess your gonna feed get me cleaned up and send me on my way eh? Thats your good deed for the week done. After all can't have your precious sweetheart coming in and finding a strange unknown male in your bed right?"
She had listened to his rant with wide eyes and as he finished, she found a small mischevious smile light up her face. He seemed to grow more frustrated with her carless attitude and she decided to put him out of his misery.
She sat the tray down before him and flicked him on the nose. His mouth dropped open and he stared infornt of him with widened eyes.
"I can assure you I have no plans of throwing you out anytime soon and I'd just like you to know Sweetheart, is my cat. I forgot to feed him last night so I was in a rush too this morning." She shook her head as she laughed lightly. "Your so silly love."
His eyes widened even further to her disbelief and turned to her abruptly. Sakura couldn't believe the previously rather blank male was looking at her so shocked.
Gaara was having a hard time trying not to hyperventilate. In all his life, Gaara had never been touched so casually by anyone and here this overly familiar female was not only endearing him but calling him, quite fondly, by pet names.
"Love?" Sakura was suprised as she looked at his eyes. Before where they had previously only held either shock and anger they now shone with childlike innocent. Sakura couldn't help but notice how much younger he looked like this.
"You wouldn't tell me you name." she said in an affectionate tone. "I said I'd give you one and since I don't know much about you I decided I'd call you by what your scar says." she shrugged as if talking casually about the weather.
Gaara was confused by this odd suprising woman. He felt almost vunerable around her, something Gaara never felt around anyone. He hated it. Yet at the same time he felt her bright and caring nature was interesting. No one had ever spoke or acted so fondly to him, not even his siblings.
Sakura took his silence as anger and began to fidget under his intense gaze.
"If you dislike it so much I can call you something else, or better yet you could tell me your name?" She sounded hopefull, he raised an non exsistent eyebrow at the childlike curiosity in her gaze and turned his eyes forwards again.
"Do what you like." She seemed put out for a second but the emotion left as soon as it came and she shrugged and smiled once again.
"Okay I'll call you love from now on then." She then sat down at the edge of the bed.
Gaara tried to ingnore the fluttery feeling in his chest at there brief contact.
"So love, how old are you anyway?" He didn't seem suprised by her abrupt question and gave her a short glance.
"Nineteen."
Her eyes widened slightly.
"That young? I had thought you were at least 21, your a good six years younger than me." He seemed taken back by that. This petite woman was 25?
She laughed at his shocked expression and continued.
"Hmm, what was kid like you doing stuck in the middle of an alley left for dead?" He didn't seem to appreciate the jab at his age and growled at her.
She raised an eye brow at him and shook her head at his antics. 'Jesus his mood changes faster than pregnant womans.'
"Well?" she pushed. He relented.
"I was beaten up." Now she was getting angry.
"Care to put empthasis on that." He was about to shake his head when he noticed the slight twitch in her brow he thought against, as amusing as her anger was Gaara was too tired to listen to it.
"I'm not very well liked by most people. Everyone either fears me or hates me, I've made alot of enemies, one of them decided to get even."
She gave him a sympathetic smile. She may not no much about him but she could tell with one glance he hadn't had an easy life so far. She reached out and pushed as stray bit of hair
from his eyes, he tensed as she made contact but then found himself relaxing as her soft fingers fingers glided across his forehead.
He found himself close his eyes as he began to listen to the gentle thrum of her heartbeat. Gaara couldn't believ how, comfortable he was around this strange pink haired woman, a sudden knot formed in his stomache, what would he do when he had to leave.
He grabed her wrist abruptly and she looked down at him and saw the turmoil in his eyes. She didn't know what was troubling him but she decided not to ask, she retracted her hand and gave him a soft smile.
"Eat your breakfast before it gets cold, I'll be back in a minute." He gave a glum nod and began to eat the food with his good arm. "Call if you need me."
She closed the door gently behind him and went to her kitchen. First things first, she had to call her work.
She picked up her phone and dialled the hospital she worked at.
"Hello, Mitsuken hospital please state your emergency."
"Hey Mai, It's Sakura could you get Tsunade for me." she asked calmly as she twiddeled with the phone wire.
"Oh! Hey Sakura, sure just a sec, I'll put you through."
"Thanks." she waited patiently until she heard the harsh voice of her boss.
"Hello?"
"Tsunsade-sama It's me Sakura, I was just wondering if I could take a day or two off? I'm sorry for the inconvinience and such short notice but an emergency came up." It was silent for a minute and Sakura almost feared the woman was about to scream profanities at her, she was most suprised by the delightful and cheery tone of the woman.
"Of course Sakura, in fact I insist you take a week off, you need the rest, I'm afraid your going to overwork yourself at the rate you were going."
"What? Tsunsade thats really not nessacary I -
"Sakura I insist! Now I'll see you in a weeks time, bye."
"What!" Sakura stared at the phone in disbelief for a moment. "Geeze I should of know she'd do something like this!" She procceeded by slamming the phone down none to lightly. She paused when she heard the sound of laboured breathing behind her, she swiveled round and saw Gaara stuggeling to walk.
"What are you doing!" she snapped irritably as she went to assist him. "Geeze Love, your gonna tear open your stitches again."
He looked uncaringly in her worried eyes and tried to shrug her off him.
"Thank you, for your help and the clothes."
With that he began to walk towards her front door again. Sakura wasn't having it.
"Oh no you don't" She stood in front of him, arms across her chest. "Who do you think you are! I helped you, fed you, clothed you, took time off work to care for you and you decide to just up and leave?"
He seemed taken back by her want to help him but schooled his features into an emotionless mask. "Theres no point me staying and getting used to things here if I'll just need to eventually leave. It'll make things harder."
She didn't understand his words but she did understand that he was going to leve unless she gave him some sense of security. She placed her hands on either side of his face and gave him a reasurring smile. She didn't wuite know what she was getting herself into, but she did know she didn't want this boy to leave, most likley to end up hurt again.
"Love, you can stay here as long as you like." He froze, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. This odd woman had esentually just offered to let him live there, as long as he wanted to.
Truthfully Gaara didn't know what to think, but he knew he had two options, leave and most likely be found by the people from last time and be killed for sure, or stay here with a kind, caring, beautiful - wait, beautiful? Gaara shook his head and looked down into her hopeful eyes and a tad reluctently, he nodded.
Here eyes brightened and her smiled widened at the news. "Good. Now go back to bed and rest!"
With a glare and an angry mumble he complied. Sakura smiled to herself and watched the irritable male go back to her bedroom.
'Well' she thought amusedly 'This will be interesting.'
First chapter is done, don't know how I'll update this, probably at least once a week.