CHAPTER TWO: Blood.
The next day at lunch Sakura and Ino wound up hanging out with a girl, Tenten, they had met in their first class. She had brown hair, tied up in two buns on either side of her head, and brown eyes that danced with amusement as she told the girls all she knew about different people in the school.
Sakura couldn't pay attention enough to really comprehend what her new friend was saying. While Ino was completely engaged in the conversation, Sakura sat, staring off into wondered what had happened last night.
There were only two things she could remember. And they were: One, the stranger was telling her she should go home, and two, she remembered realizing that he was beautiful. How the snow fell around him in a manner that washed away the feeling of being scared that there was a perfect stranger standing in front of her, in the middle of the woods. How his dark rimmed eyes seemed to almost glow in the dark forest. And his significantly colored hair, which in that subject she had no room to talk of oddly colored hair. But his was brilliantly red.
Suddenly, the image of the gorgeous redhead was clear as day.
"He had red hair. I remember now." she murmured distantly to herself.
"Yes, they've been on and off. . ." Tenten trailed off as she turned to look at Sakura, her happy smile twisting into a look of awkward confusion, "Red hair?"
Ino turned to Sakura, one eyebrow raised, "Sakura noone was out there in the woods last night." she repeated for at least the tenth time in the past three hours.
Sakura stood, "I'm going to the bathroom." she lied and walked away.
As she was walking out of the lunchroom she slammed into something, knocking her backwards. She looked up to see the red head, staring down at her. Her eyes widened as she got to her feet, "Sorry." she managed after a moment.
He said nothing. His face remained emotionless and statue-like. Sakura wondered for a brief moment if he was even alive.
"Are you ok?" she prodded.
Still, nothing but a slight nod. At least she knew he was alright. Yet the aggravation still welled up inside her at the fact that he was literally acting like he was a statue. Was he doing this on purpose? Just to annoy her? He gave a slight departing bow and walked away. She blinked a few times, trying to figure out in her mind, just exactly what the hell just happened. Not coming to any legitimate conclusion, she continued on her way out of the lunchroom.
The rest of the day continued smoothly. Turns out Tenten, Ino, and Sakura were all miraculously in the same classes. When the last hour of school came around, Sakura was glad that none of her teachers made her stand up and introduce herself because she was the new kid. Well, not until now anyway.
The teacher pointed a withered finger at her, "You. Come up here. Introduce yourself." she croaked. Her white hair was pulled back into a tight bun on the back of her head, dark eyes fixed on the poor pink haired girl who's cheeks now burned with an embarrassed flush.
She stood and walked to the front of the room, staring at the ground. "Sakura Haruno." she murmured, barely loud enough for the class to hear. She looked up comforted to see Tenten and Ino grinning at her, and continued to look around the room. Her eyes caught red and widened.
There Gaara sat, at the back of the room, lounging back in his chair. His bored expression unchanged and his black combat boots propped up on his desk. He had his arms crossed tightly over his chest and for a moment, she was relieved to see he was looking out the window, until she saw his perfect lips move in the form of the word, 'Sakura.'
"Damn." she muttered and made her way back to her desk, the red in her cheeks looking like it would never go away.
She was glad the attention was off of her as her decrepit teacher called Ino up to the front.
Sakura walked home today, not feeling like being stuffed into the tiny cab of Ino's little car. The sun was setting slowly passed the snow covered hills in the distance, exploding the cloudy sky into various shades of pink, orange, yellow, and oddly, purple. White puffs of snow began to laze their way down from the sky slowly. While she was passing the small patch of woods, she couldn't help but feel a small urge to step in for another small look.
Without even realizing it her feet carried her down the little path. Another smile crept across her face as she passed the old tree she used to sit in when she was younger. She dropped her book bag and veered to the left, jumping up into the tree.
A sharp intake of breath hissed through her clenched teeth as she looked at her hand. As she was grabbing the branch the jagged stub of a broke off stick jabbed into her left hand. She watched as dark red oozed out of the wound and dripped to the ground.
Suddenly, something white wrapped tightly around her wrist, too fast for her to even comprehend. She was half yanked out of the tree and smacked into something that felt like a solid wall. She opened her eyes slowly to see him. She was leaning against him, he had his pale white hand clasped around her wrist and her wounded hand was pressed tightly, yet gently to his mouth.
She stood there staring at him for a moment, confused. Until she realized, he wasn't just holding her hand there, he was sucking on it. The urge to yank her hand away was too strong, she struggled to get it free at first, but when she did it immediately whipped back and lashed across his cheek, quick as a snake.
Gaara's eyes snapped open. He looked different, she couldn't put her finger on what it was about him. He looked. . . wild. She stumbled backwards a step, still staring at him. Not alot registered in her mind at the moment other than, a streak of panic crossed his face, being what she assumed was him realizing what he did, and she was actually afraid of him. She looked down at her hand, when she looked back up. . . just that fast. He was gone.
She picked her bag back up and continued home quickly home, still confused, watching as her hand continued to drip blood. She walked inside and wrapped it in a towel as she got the medical kit.
"Sakura. What are you doing?" Ino called from the doorway of her room. She looked up to see her leaning against the doorway, arms crossed, with a disapproving look on her face.
"I scraped my hand on the tree." she murmured while going back to wrapping her hand with gauze and lots of medical tape. How could she possibly explain to INo that the mysterious guy she'd seen in the woods. The same guy that goes to her school, was just sucking on her bleed hand like a juice box?
"Then why do you look like you just saw a ghost?" Ino criticized. Sakura glanced at her reflection in her mirror. He skin was pale, more than usual. And she did look a bit startled. She ran the fingertips of her good hand across her cheek.
"I don't think he's a ghost. . ." she whispered, too low for Ino to hear from all the way across the room. "Blood makes me uneasy." she lied, strapping the last strip of tape across the back of her hand to keep the bandage from falling off. She waved her newly bandaged hand dismissively at Ino.
"Well alright, but you've been acting strange lately. Like someone stole your personality or something." She stared at her for a moment, worry crossing her face slightly. She then shrugged it off and left the room.
Sakura looked at her hand and suddenly realized, Ino was right. Where had Sakura's outgoing, confident attitude been the past two days? Damn redhead.
With the new realization, thanks to the closest person to her. She went and took a hot shower, careful not to get her bandage wet. Afterwords, she brushed her teeth and combed her hair. She looked into the steamy mirror for a moment. The color had returned to her skin, and her eyes looked relaxed again. She grinned at herself and danced down the hallway.
"Sakura! Tenten's here!" Ino shouted from the kitchen.
'Tenten was supposed to be here tonight?' she wondered. Sakura could smell the pizza. Her empty stomach churned almost painfully as she loped down the stairs, taking them two at a time.
About an hour later they wound up sitting on the couch, watching a chik flick, and talking again.
"So Tenten. You've got to have a boyfriend." Ino pried, sending a slight flush across Tenten's cheeks as she smiled.
"As a matter of a fact, Yes. I am. His name is Neji." Tenten paused and stared off into space thoughtfully for a moment. "Did I tell you guys about the Demon brothers?"
Ino and Sakura gave her puzzled looks, and shook their heads. Now that Sakura could pay attention, she might actually learn something.
"How stupid am I?" Tenten laughed, "Ok. The Demon Brothers are the four kings of our school. They practically own it. . . Naruto is the oldest, and then Neji Kiba and Gaara fall in somewhere behind him. I'm not sure what order. All the girls love them. And I can see why, not to be boastful. But they are all extremely good looking. Even though he hates people, I think the key thing that lures girls to Gaara is his eyes. I've never seen eyes like his before. Or hair for that matter. . ." Tenten's voice trailed off as Sakura looked down at her hand.
'Hair and eyes? Could it be. . ?' she wondered as she pulled at a loose corner of the tape absentmindedly.
* * *
Gaara made his way through the dark past the old abandoned basketball court where his brothers leaned against the rusty chain-link fence. As he kept walking, they stood and followed.
"Gaara. What happened?" Naruto asked sternly. He didn't like being the leader. When something serious was the topic of conversation it brought out the 'leader' attitude from him that he didn't like.
"Nothing." he answered dryly. His voice monotone and bored.
"There's blood on your cheek." Naruto sped up a bit, taking longer strides to keep up with his aggitated brother.
Kiba and Neji kept up pace right behind him, wondering what was wrong with their brother.
"This girl." Gaara started, "No, the girl. The one from last night. She was in the woods again at the wrong time. She hurt her hand, and I lost it for a minute." he finally answered, wiping the blood off of his cheek.
"Did you kill her!?" Kiba blurted, his eyes widened.
"What!? No!" Gaara shouted. Agitated even further by his brother's immaturity. He rolled his eyes and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I didn't even hurt her. She hurt herself. It was her own damn fault."
"Well that's good." Naruto grinned.
"She saw me."
"Never mind. Not good." he corrected.
Neji smirked. "Don't worry, just seduce her Gaara. She'll forget all about it." he mocked, earning a low growl from Gaara.
"She's too stupid to put it together in her head anyway." he murmured quickening his pace, in hopes that they would -for once- leave him alone for a little while.
"So wait." Kiba cocked his head to the side. "Does that mean, a girl slapped you. And you let her get away with it?" he laughed.
Gaara said nothing.
"That's a yes." Naruto joked.
I'm assuming you know what they are. If not. You will soon find out. Sorry it's short. Longer than last chapter. But still short. I'll make them longer once it get in to the story a little more. Please, no harsh criticism. But help for my horrible writing and grammar and stuff is appreciated.