An interesting story available to read! Well, I like it, anyway. I've been working on this for absolutely ages, and finally I got the first chapter finished! I really hope you like it.

I don't own Naruto.

Cherry Sand

Chapter One

She woke slowly, not really registering what was around her. Her brain felt fuzzy, like she'd been drugged or something, and Sakura instinctively searched inwardly with her chakra, but discovered to her horror that she couldn't access it. What had happened? And why did her brain feel so heavy? With much difficulty, she opened her eyes and saw that she was in the last place she would have expected.

It was a bedroom, one she was not familiar with. Racking her brain, all Sakura could remember was a massive fight that she had lost rather painfully, and a lot of feet kicking her while she was down. Yet despite her rather groggy state, there didn't seem to be any pain accompanying it. It was rather mysterious, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Sitting up with a lot of difficulty, she looked around and saw that the bedroom she occupied was rather bland, and the walls were made of rather grainy stone. The only place she knew of that had their buildings done in such a way was Suna, and figured that was probably where she was. Wind country was the last place she remembered being, after all. There had been a client, one who'd run off and left her to deal with the enemies that had appeared out of nowhere. Sakura cursed him and hoped they'd gotten him good. Little coward.

She figured that her lack of chakra was contributing to the way her head was pounding, and as she continued to stare around the room, Sakura wondered if it was some kind of poison. Or maybe her chakra was simply depleted. In any case, she really needed to get her hands on something that would help her to recover. Right now, she felt weak and helpless, and that was a sensation that she'd promised herself long ago that she would never find herself in again if she could help it.

Standing up on very shaky legs, Sakura limped her way over to the window and looked out. It was pretty much as she'd guessed, she was in Suna. And she gathered from what she remembered of the geography of the village that she was in Gaara, Temari and Kankurou's home. Well, that was something at least. She had been worried that someone she didn't know and trust had found her, but the sand siblings finding her were like a blessing from kami.

Almost as if thinking of them had conjured them up, the door behind her opened and Sakura turned to see Temari walk into the room. The older kunoichi immediately noticed that their 'guest' was no longer in bed and her gaze zeroed in on the pinkette that was standing by the window.

"Hello Sakura," she greeted as she entered the room. "You really shouldn't be up. The medics said that you need rest after the beating you took."

It was true, she probably should be resting, but Sakura had never been good at taking advice from other medics, even her shishou's. Inactivity was an anathema to her. But one look at Temari's stern face had her sighing. Considering that she was as weak as a kitten right now, it probably wouldn't hurt to rest a little while longer. And knowing the other woman like she did, it probably would hurt not to.

As she was settled into the bed once more, Sakura asked, "What happened?"

Temari's brow rose. "We were hoping you could tell us," she remarked.

"I was ambushed," Sakura said. "I was on a mission to escort someone to a small village on Wind's coast, and we were ambushed. My client ran off while I was fighting, and I don't know what happened to him."

She fixed Temari with a determined look. "When I asked what happened, I meant, who found me? Where was I found? Those kinds of things."

Temari sighed. "Gaara and a team of jounin found you," she said. "They were out scouting for some missing nin, and found you in a bloody mess in the middle of the east sector. I think that Gaara thinks that maybe the ones he was looking for did this to you. Plus, they also found your client, I assume, a certain distance from you and dead. It's going to have a lot of backlash, because he was an important person, where trade is concerned."

Now Sakura felt bad for calling him a coward, even though he had been. But now that she knew he was dead, it just seemed to be in poor taste. And then a question occurred to her.

"How long have I been here?" she asked.

"Just over two weeks," Temari told her. "Our medics had quite a challenge keeping you alive for awhile there. It seemed that everything they tried, you just got worse. Apparently the poison you were injected with caused your own chakra to turn on you and attack you, and in the end, they had to drain everything you had to keep you alive."

That explained the lack of chakra inside her. But then, Sakura realised that that kind of poison had probably done more damage than anyone realised, and she knew that she was going to have to have a look at the results for the poison herself. And it sounded a little similar to something that she knew the Hyuuga clan had dealt with before. Maybe she could get her shishou to look into it.

"While you were out," Temari went on, "we notified Konoha. They sent someone to help, as well as an idiot who refused to stay away once he knew what was going on."

She'd said that last bit with a wry smile, and Sakura just knew that she meant Naruto. Temari moved over to a closet and opened it, rummaging around a bit before pulling out some clothes.

"I suppose you could actually get up for a little bit," she admitted, "as long as you don't overdo it. There's a shower you can use, directly across the hall from you. I'm sure you'll appreciate being clean."

Sakura smiled gratefully, and when Temari left the room, she stood rather gingerly and grabbed the clothes, again limping as she made her way to the door. Once it was open, she was about to take the few steps necessary to reach the bathroom when another door opened and someone stepped into the hall. Looking over, she saw that it was Gaara, and he had a concerned look on his face.

"Should you be up?" he asked.

"Temari thought I might like a shower," was Sakura's answer, and for some reason, it sounded pretty lame to her ears.

But Gaara nodded and turned away, walking along the hall until he was out of sight. Sakura then limped forward and entered the bathroom, looking forward to cleaning herself off. As soon as she got in there, she started up the shower, then removed her clothes. It was slow going, as she still felt weak as shit, and it was taking a lot of energy to even get under the water. But once she did, Sakura simply stood there a moment and let the water wash over her.

This poison that Temari had mentioned had really caught her interest. Something that could do that kind of damage was no ordinary poison. The ones the Hyuuga had encountered did something similar, but also drained away the chakra instead of just turning it on the victim, making their death slow and extremely painful. The pink haired medic was intensely grateful that that hadn't happened to her.

After standing there for who knew how long, Sakura decided that her time in the shower was up, and she quickly washed herself and got out of there. There were a few big fluffy towels just lying there, and she dried herself with one of them, noting that it smelled of sandalwood and something else she couldn't identify. Once she was dry, she wrapped the towel around her and moved towards where she'd put the clothes, then cried out as pain shot up her leg. In an instant, she'd fallen to the floor, and Sakura gasped as the pain intensified before subsiding to a dull ache. Unfortunately, she discovered that her leg was now useless, and she couldn't get herself off the floor.

The door burst open suddenly and Sakura looked up to see Gaara standing there, staring at her. "What happened?" he demanded, coming forward and gathering her up in his arms.

Sakura was about to answer, but then Temari appeared as well. "What happened?" she also exclaimed.

"I have pain in my leg," Sakura told them, tears pricking in her eyes, though she refused to let them fall. "I can't move it now."

"Go get a medic, Tem," Gaara commanded. "I'll get Sakura back into bed."

Temari nodded and took off, leaving Gaara and Sakura alone. Suddenly Sakura felt self-conscious in his arms, but he didn't seem to notice as he carried her back to her room, laying her down gently on the sheets. It was then that he seemed to realise that she was in nothing but a towel.

"I'll go get your clothes," he said, vanished for a few moments before returning with the dress that Temari had picked out for her.

He helped her get the dress on over her head, without the towel falling down. Once the garment was on, Sakura reached down and wriggled a bit until the towel came off underneath the dress.

"Do you want something to eat or drink?" Gaara asked, and Sakura nodded, not really wanting to speak at the moment.

Gaara left, and Sakura was alone with her thoughts. How on earth was she supposed to recover from this? First, she was out for two weeks, then the chakra loss, the pain and the suddenly useless limb. As soon as possible, she was going to send a message to her shishou and demand that she requisition the Hyuuga records on the poison. They were incredibly tight-lipped on the damned thing! In any case, there was little time to mull over it as Temari returned with a medic.

"This is Ume," Temari introduced the medic to Sakura. "She's the one who's done most of the healing on you. Tell her what happened."

Sakura repeated the earlier events for the Suna medic, who frowned when she heard this. "That's a problem," she stated obviously. "We already can't figure out the poison, which is still in you, by the way. We couldn't completely purge it."

Sakura's eyebrow rose. "That's probably what happened, then," she said. "The poison is still there, and still doing damage. You didn't happen to bring my charts, did you?"

"Yes, I did," Ume said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a folder. "I also brought you all the information we've gathered so far, including what methods failed to work and what ones nearly worked."

Grateful, Sakura took the information in hand and began to read through it just as her door opened once again and Gaara appeared with food on a tray. "We'll leave you be," Temari said, dragging Ume out of there.

Gaara set the tray on the bed, and sat down on the bed as well. "Are those your medical reports?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Maybe I can figure out what's going on," she said, then looked up. "Temari said Naruto is here."

Gaara nodded. "He's asleep, though," he told her. "He was up all last night and the night before, and just crashed earlier today."

Sakura sighed. Stupid Naruto. She'd told him not to push himself for any reason, and not sleeping for that long was just stupid! But then she looked up again and her eyes met Gaara's.

"How have you been sleeping, Gaara?" she asked.

"Well," he told her. "Thanks to you."

A couple of years ago Sakura had helped him to be able to sleep better, and she knew he was grateful for it. The rings around his eyes were slightly fainter, but she knew that even if he got a good night's sleep every day for the rest of his life, he probably wouldn't be able to get rid of the rings completely. Her visit was one of the reason she knew Suna so well.

As she read through her files, Sakura also ate, conscious of the fact that Gaara was watching over her every move. Was he waiting to see if she needed help again? In any case, his staring was making her more than a little uncomfortable. She was about to say something when pain suddenly gripped her chest.

"What is it?" Gaara asked, immediately moving forward to help her sit back against the pillows.

"Chest… pain…" Sakura wheezed, not liking the way she was breathing.

"Do you want me to get Temari?" he asked, and she nodded.

It was agony waiting, but when Gaara came back with Temari, Sakura discovered that Ume was still here. The medic came forward, hands glowing, as she searched her patient for the cause of the pain. The frown that graced her features a moment later did not sit too well with Sakura.

"What…?" she gasped.

"The poison has spread to your lungs," Ume said as she worked to get the poison out of said area. "I'm sorry, I thought I had it blocked from your vital organs yesterday."

Sakura nodded, every gasping breath an agony. "Is there anything you need?" Temari asked Ume.

"Can you get me the large purple bag I brought with me?" the medic asked. "There are herbs in there, including ones that will hopefully soothe the pain, if only for a little while."

Temari was off in a flash, and back only moments later with the bag. Ume immediately retracted her chakra from Sakura, causing the pain to increase slightly as she rummaged around in the bag before pulling out a vial with some kind of black liquid in it.

"You have to drink this," Ume said. "It will reduce the pain, though I don't know how long for, alright?"

Sakura nodded and reached out for the vial, which Ume helped bring to her lips. It was absolutely disgusting and foul, but Sakura determinedly drank every last drop. After what seemed an eternity, the pain faded to almost nothing, and that was when she became aware of a most peculiar thing.

Gaara was sitting beside her, his arms around her in a supportive manner, and Sakura realised that he must have been holding her during her painful tremors. One of his hands was even in her hair, stroking slightly. What the heck was that all about? In any case, there was no time to ponder over the strange actions.

"You need to get some sleep," Ume commanded, and Gaara stood, leaving Sakura on the bed alone. "If it's alright, I'll stay here tonight so I can be on hand in case you wake up and need medical attention."

Sakura nodded and Temari said, "I'll go get a cot, you can sleep in here."

The two women left, leaving Sakura alone with Gaara, but he didn't stay long either. "I'll see you in the morning," he told her, then left the room.

Temari and Ume returned a few moments later, and the two of them set up the cot before Ume gave Sakura a sleeping draught. As Sakura lay back, allowing the herbs to lull her into sleep, she thought over how strange it was that all this was happening, and determined that, when she woke up, she was going to get started on figuring out a cure for the poison.

So what did you think? Review and let me know.