Author's Note: A few people asked me to write some more for this story, and I did have some ideas for other chapters so... I hope I'm not spoiling the first chapter here :)
Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto, or the characters 'cause they still belong to the brilliant Masashi kishimoto ;)
His siblings kept a vigilant eye on the people milling around them, guarding their table courageously. They'd finally pulled into a service station half an hour ago and the place was so busy they'd had to hover around until they could finally grab a table. Of course, Gaara had no intention of joining in and making a fool of himself, so he'd leaned against a wall and watched until his siblings waved him over.
Now he was staring into the dark Coffee-To-Go cupped between his hands, his thoughts drifting to the kind blonde man he'd met fleetingly the night before. He'd wondered several times already if he'd simply dreamed up the entire encounter, it seemed so unreal, but… One finger traced the edge of a sleeve. This offensively orange jacket he wore, was definitely real.
Temari had been, quite honestly, dumbfounded when she'd seen what her youngest brother was wearing. Gaara had frowned at her stupid face as she blurted out something about the "dreadful cut" and the "horrid colour." He'd felt his anger curling around him in defence of his memento. He didn't care if the jacket was ugly, it proved that Naruto was real.
"Gaara, it's gonna go cold if all you're gonna do's stare at it." Kankuro said, nudging Gaara with an elbow. The red haired man immediately drew himself further away, recoiling from the touch.
"Alright, alright. Sheesh, no need to get so touchy." Kankuro scolded with a huff. "Just remember who paid for that coffee will ya?"
"Gaara?... Are you alright?" Temari asked, leaning towards him with a worried expression on her face. Gaara couldn't help but glare at her for looking like that, she didn't even know how little she truly cared.
"I'm fine." He said, bringing the coffee to his lips to avoid further conversation.
The look on Temari's face clearly said "Like hell, you are." But Gaara didn't care. He wasn't in the mood to indulge his siblings right now. They weren't in his good books.
He lazily observed the scene around him. It was chaos, to put it nicely. This wasn't even the nearest service station from where they'd started out that morning. The closest had had queues that stretched for miles and after over twelve hours stuck in traffic, the siblings had unanimously decided to try the next one. However, this one wasn't much better. There were more people crowded into this building than Gaara had ever experienced in one place before and he found himself feeling incredibly claustrophobic.
"I'm going outside." He said as he got up and walked away, ignoring his siblings' surprised objections.
Walking through the throng was even worse than he'd imagined. He was being pushed around like a helpless rag doll and this infuriated him. He fleetingly wished that Naruto was there to help him, but he pushed the thought away. He didn't need anyone's help, he wasn't as weak as that.
But after a couple of minutes and being no closer to the exit, he dropped his pride enough to admit that, yes, he could do with some help.
"Outta the way! Medic coming through!"
Gaara once again found himself flung into a wall of bodies as a pink haired woman dragging a tall, sick looking man barged through the crowd like a steamroller.
Wait, pink? Gaara knew enough about trends to know that pink was not a common hair colour, and he found himself blindly following in the woman's slipstream.
He was dazzled by the blindingly bright sunshine as soon as he stepped outside. With a little moan, he rubbed his pale, sensitive eyes and let them adjust to the dramatic increase in luminescence but in doing so, he lost sight of the pair. As he recovered, he scanned the crowd for even the merest flash of pink hair.
There! He thought, a little perturbed by his excitement as he spotted her ducking around a corner. He lightly trotted down the steps and followed, slowing down and leaning in what he hoped was an inconspicuous manner against a wall when he made out voices around the corner.
"Phew! It's lucky you're so pale Sai, I'll bet most of those people in there thought you were about to pass out on the spot."
"I was under the impression that they were frightened out of your way by your ugliness." Came the sweetly spoken reply.
"WHAT?" Gaara heard a loud thump followed by the infamous sound of a body hitting the floor. He assumed that the softly spoken man had been punched. Hard. He found himself irritatingly intrigued by the exchange and risked a peek over his shoulder.
Big mistake.
Gaara's eyes flew open as his feet left the ground, his body being dragged up into the air by the front of Naruto's jacket by an angry pink haired demon. At least, that was what she looked like. He glared at her for her insolence and growled,
"Unhand me."
"What're you doing eavesdropping on us?" She demanded, ignoring his mildly threatening tone.
"I'm doing no such thing. Now let go of me."
"You were hiding behind the corner, I saw you! Now spill!" She shook him slightly, glancing as she did so at the clothing she was grasping. With a shriek, she suddenly threw him to the floor and backed away.
"Are you stalking us?" She asked. Gaara couldn't answer, he had no idea what the crazy woman was talking about.
"What are you doing with Naruto's… Jack… et…" her voice trailed off as her memory seemed to catch up with her. She pointed a finger at him accusingly. "You're that guy from last night! I saw you with Naruto!"
"Naruto?" Gaara breathed the word, amazed that this was, indeed, the same pink haired girl. It had been a long shot to say the least. He felt his heartbeat stammer and hope welling into his voice as he insisted, "Is he here?"
"Sai, we're leaving. Now." She said, panic lacing her words as she grabbed the wrist of the hand that the deathly pale man had been about to hold out to Gaara in greeting and pulled him away from the confused red haired man on the ground at a rate of knots.
"Wait!" Gaara called, hastily pulling himself back onto his feet. But he was too late. They'd already ducked their heads and disappeared into the car park.
Author's Note: I've never written a Sakura before, so I'd like it if you let me know if you think I've written her alright? :) Thanks!