A/N: I will make the note that this doesn't follow exact true form with the anime/manga. But that's what fanfiction's about right?

Summary: He needs something. She has that something that he wants. When he gets it, will he leave her to the rest of the world or take her for himself...

Chapter Two: Paranoia

Just before dawn, Gaara took in his first deep breath after rousing himself from sleep. He'd developed an inner alarm clock over the last couple of weeks, though he'd be loathe to admit how long he'd been taking nights off from work and sleeping at the girl's apartment. He couldn't even bring himself to say her name, which possibly stemmed from that fact that his actions were already too personal without getting quite involved.

His nostrils flared open and inhaled the fresh Konoha air along with another sweet scent that was... Oh, it was her. He pushed off the wall when he realized she stirred. Her breath shifted for a brief moment, but he was out of the window (and closed it) before she rolled over and faced the wall with intent to go back to sleep. He shook his head. Not even the sound of his footsteps against her hard floor were enough to signal an intruder. If he'd been hell-bent on killing, she'd have been dead instead of snoring slightly.

When she did roll over and look at the clock, the sun was shining full-force into the window. There was something to be said about doing most of her work with the perpetual drinker that was her boss. Mornings weren't quite as productive as the afternoons were, and Sakura never felt obligated to roll into work at the peak of dawn. This was fortunate especially on this particular morning when her eyes focused on the pool of sand sitting across the room as if placed there with a delicate hand.

She sat upright in an instant. Her feet hit the floor quickly, and she forced the window down further as if there were some minuscule crack she'd missed up until now.

"Maybe I should start locking this..."

Not that anyone is coming in here at night, she laughed in her head. I'd see that coming a mile away.

Sakura swept the sand out and readied herself for the day, although she was hoping the day's work wouldn't be too physically exhausting. She hadn't slept well the night before, which was unlike her. In the last few weeks, her room felt smaller, unnerving even. She'd had nightmares worse than ever and tossed and turned so much she'd woken up the night before, and the odd thing was that Sakura almost felt as if someone was in the room with her but dismissed it as remnants of a dream.

…

The feeling of the dream hadn't gone all day, however, and by the time she'd gotten home that night, Sakura was almost timid about going into her own room. She ended up locking the window and her door as if that were going to keep anything out, but it gave her piece of mind at least.

Sure enough that in the middle of the night, Sakura rolled onto her side and sat up in her bed, back against the wall and panting. Her lungs gasped for air as if deprived. Damn her dreams and her imagination messing with her head. Sakura grasped a hand to her chest and looked around her room thinking if she could only get a sense of her bearings and recognize her own room, there was a chance she would be able to calm down enough to go back to sleep. The clock beside her bed announced that it was the small hours of the morning, and her room was nothing but shadows against the tendrils of moonlight sneaking in past the tree outside.

It was a full moon that night, and Sakura approached the window to stare at it's enormous offering.

"Perhaps that's why I've felt on edge lately?" Her form retreated to the front of the apartment. "No use in even trying to go back to sleep," she said as she prepared some tea in the small kitchen and grabbed a scroll she'd intended to read for work.

Gaara was livid.

He'd been in the middle of a dream when she suddenly woke up. A dream. He'd been plagued with nightmares in his meditations all his life. Reenactments of past fights and the deaths he'd caused. Yet there in that small apartment, he'd experienced the bliss a dream could offer. To be someone else and not even realize who you were for even a small portion of time. It was intoxicating. And she just had to wake him up from that.

He'd detected her change in breathing and was alert in an instant. She made a short of gurgled plea for help, not unlike that of his past victims, and it had taken every amount of stealth he had to make it out of the room before she was sitting up in bed. He was thankful for the backlight of the moon that she didn't spot him hiding in the mask of the tree, though for the first time in a while, he'd gotten a good look at her face when he eyes were open.

And if that weren't a strange thought, he didn't know what was. Gaara shook his head. He was starting to sound like some obsessive. Taken with some girl when it had absolutely nothing to do with love or, forbid it all, lust as he'd heard countless times from his brother. She was even walking around her house preparing a drink in the kitchen, all sleep gone from her eyes. Might as well call it a night.

He jumped out of the tree and made his way back to Sunagakure without hesitation all the while remembering her face as she stared at the moon.

…

After the fourth night of waking up in a dreamy daze (and sometimes in a nightmare-fueled panic attack) and always aware of a familiar and foreboding chakra signature close to her home, Sakura decided that living alone was finally getting to her and that she might just need more of a social life, which would effectively cure the paranoia that she was obviously experiencing.

Sakura found it hard to believe that she was even having a problem with being alone in her house at all. She'd lived alone for longer, it seemed, than she cared to remember, and being out and about people had never been her calling. But the thought of mingling with others, not being alone and feeling that deafening silence of an empty house (or possible not empty, she wasn't even sure these days) was more appealing than any other scenario and would hopefully put her mind to ease.

Probably.

Most likely.

She was counting on it, really.

Sakura swiveled on her heel on her way home and turned instead toward the person she knew to have the best social agenda out there.

"We should meet at the bar tonight," Sakura said as Ino walked out of the training grounds. Her lungs were still puffing air, and she had a layer of glistening sweat on her brow. The blonde couldn't help her eyebrows from shooting upwards at the comment from possibly the most hermit-like girl she knew. Sakura wasn't exactly known for partying. She wasn't known for much of anything...except the pink hair. And possibly she was cute. Not that cute, Ino added.

"Any occasion?"

"I can practically see the doubt on your face, you know. I mean, I don't usually want to go out and party or anything, but can't a girl get a little lonely every now and then?"

"I guess it's just that you usually take work with Tsunade very seriously and don't allot time for friends..."

Sakura practically felt that remark.

Even Tenten was pleasantly surprised to hear of the invite. Sakura hadn't made time to get to know the girl well, if nothing else for the fact that most of their conversations revolved around Rock Lee, but in the end they made plans to meet up within the hour once they'd cleaned up from practice.

That was easy, Sakura pursed her lips and started a slow walk toward town that would give her time to think and, most important of all, time to waste instead of going home.

…

The Kazekage's desk was littered with papers and scrolls. There was nothing exciting about being the leader of a village anymore. Far too much pen to paper.

Although the idea of burning the midnight oil to complete said paperwork had never bothered Gaara, as he'd complete most of it at night when no one was awake to disturb him, he could judge from the amount of buildup just how much his secret nights in Konoha were infringing on his normal system. His fingers drummed upon the glossy exterior of his desk as he eyed his next stack to his left while listening to the slow drawl of a man in front of him. Inconsequential was the word that came to mind. He was forced, now, to answer messages and ready heavy chunks of texts during the day when he was constantly pestered by annoying people and problems that could be fixed much lower down the government ladder.

Some had noticed his change in schedule, it seemed, though they took it as an invitation to bother him more than anything else. It didn't help that his siblings were included in such group of people and the other poor people who had to live with them in the administration building of Suna.

Being siblings didn't count for much on Gaara's part as he'd never really embraced the whole "cherish your family" ideal, and for that he had to thank his late father. It was much easier not to care when you had siblings who were, under casual exteriors, quite frightened of you.

Mind you, the casual side was more frequent these days, and Kankuro and Temari might actual be realizing he wasn't quite the monster everyone assumed he was. Gaara scowled briefly as he turned it over in his head and wondered whether that could be a tick in their favor. The man in front of him mistook the bored scowl for some dismissive motion, and despite it not being purposeful, it served to get the man out of his office, and Gaara felt for a second that he could take a sigh of relief if it hadn't been for Kankuro's frame filling up the doorway in such a way that the younger guy had trouble squeezing around him and out of his office.

Good thing, too, as nothing truly good ever came from having any combination of those siblings in tight quarters.

The painted man's lips curled as if to imitate a smile, but the gesture made Gaara tingle with discomfort and turn to the next stack and away from his brother.

"Hn," he offered. It was recognition enough without encouraging him to actually talk.

"Well, this isn't like you. Locking yourself up in here, doing paperwork in the middle of a work day?"

Gaara spared him a glance. "It's responsibility. No wonder you don't recognize it."

"I recognize a change in behavior. That ain't like you, Gaara. The term "creature of habit" comes closer to the truth."

"Is there a reason we're having this discussion when I'm obviously busy?" The kage didn't bother to look up from signing a form. "Was there a reason for your visit, or are you just bored and taking it out on me?"

"Nothing at all, dear brother. Just wondering where you'd been getting off to in the nights when you're not being a workaholic up here." The tone was casual enough, but Kankuro did his best to level a stare toward the younger as if prodding for more information, but all he could feel was silence as the Kazekage did his best to ignore him for the time being.

…

The sake cup touched her lips, and its contents slid down her throat like a pearl of warmth against the chill inside her. She hadn't bothered to touch alcohol in ages, and what reason would she have? She was now well aware that her friends never expected her to attend these social do's, and as Ino filled up her cup, Sakura frowned. It was difficult to know that so little was expected of you by other people. She'd had more experience with the opposite.

Yet there she sat that night with Lee on one side and Ino on the other in the their group of friends who had all managed to cram into one of the large booths and its satellite tables. The bar had been filled with the heavy scraping of chairs across the worn wooden floor as people filtered in and grouped all to one side of the bar. The small outing she'd been promised had evolved into a massive gathering of people she hadn't had much interaction with in years save the occasional nod across training grounds or as she passed through the kage's office.

There were missing people, of course. Neji hadn't bothered, not that she expected it of him. Shino was barely included as he'd moved down the bar just enough to still claim socialization while still being able to nurse a bottle of something in seclusion. She escaped the madness of Lee and Ino fighting for the attention of those at the table and tossed down the remaining alcohol in her cup in hand. She walked hazily, not trusting herself to make it too far without consequence, but she managed to snag one of the empty chairs next to Shino despite the fact that she knew he valued his peace and solitude.

"Shino," Sakura smiled. She paused for a moment. What was the last time she even talked to him or said his name? "Don't you know you're not supposed to drink alone?"

He turned his head to her, and even though she couldn't see his eyes, she could feel them trained on her face before he returned his stare to the bar ahead.

"I don't even know why I'm here."

It might have been the longest string of words he'd ever said to her. The pinkette smiled. It was encouraging not to just be met with silence. "You know," she began. "You've broken the rule. Drinking alone might just be a foul, but good thing I know the remedy." She raised her hand to catch the bartender's attention. "Another round should do it."

Her eyes shone with a casualness that could only come from imbibing alcohol, and she relaxed on the stool. She didn't have much in common with the man at her side, but the basics for conversation were there. They were fellow ninjas, were they not? On paper, at least. And they were obviously both out of their comfort zones sitting there in the bar.

"Thanks," he said as the barman delivered.

Sakura swiveled ninety-degrees to fully face him and smiled. "Cheers."

…

She opened her eyes to the full midday sun coming in right through the sole window of her room. She groaned as the true after effects of the night before hit her, and her body was languid and difficult to move. She wasn't quite sure how she got back to her place the night before, but there was one aspect she could be quite certain of. The idea to socialize had backfired.

Shino was proof of that as he was currently lying half-under her in her small bed. They were clothed, thank goodness, and hadn't even bothered to get under the covers rather than just fall into her bed in a mess of limbs tangled around each other. Not waking up from a drunken one night stand was as relieved as she could get at that moment.

His glasses were laying on the side table, and Sakura rolled even more to stare at her bedmate. She didn't think she'd really looked at him with his glasses off. He'd taken them off during matches and battles for more demonstrative attacks, but that was neither here or there because she was currently a foot away from Shino's very calm and content features as he slept. And it was even more surprising to see his eyes as they opened so suddenly.

He squinted in adjustment to the light and rolled them so he could reach past her figure for his glasses but not before she stilled his arm and took a good look at him.

"Cute." She smiled in approval, wishing he'd show those soft, dark eyes more often.

Once his glasses were perched back on his nose, he looked up and down their still-tangled bodies. They were clothed; that was good. Still, he couldn't help but grasp for confirmation.

"We didn't..." Sakura, seeing where he was leading that statement, shook her head. "Good," he sighed.

She smirked and sat up. She couldn't take offense or anything. It's not like she hadn't been thinking that very thing two minutes before.

Shino rose from her bed, which was just barely big enough to hold the two of them, and stilled himself with back against the wall.

"Now I'm reminded of why I never drink."

She nodded in agreement, lost for words as an awkward moment passed between them. For all her headache and body aches and the suddenly quiet man in her bed, Sakura couldn't pass the night off as a huge failure. She'd had fun.

Shino had refused her offer of a strong cup of coffee and instead braved the sunny walk to his own place to rest for the next week, as he'd put it. He wasn't a lazy nin, per say, just a lightweight. Sakura watched him walk off the side of her building from the window in her bedroom as she held a steaming mug under her nose in hopes the fumes of coffee would be enough to kick her body into gear before she ventured out of the house.

As his form disappeared from sight, she put her hands on the window and opened it slightly so the room would air out and possibly let the breeze float in while she got more rest. Or so she'd hoped.

She stared outside. Her mouth fell and eyes widened. She used to love that tree and the shade it gave in the summer. Now it was half gone.

Two large branches were laying on the ground below the window. It was almost difficult to see unless she stuck her head outside, but when inspected closer, Sakura saw other smaller branches cracked, split, barely hanging onto the tree. Large chunks of bark were gone.

"Who the hell would have done that?" Despite her lingering headache, she jumped right out the window to the dirt floor below and took a look at the damage from below. "How did I not hear this last night?"

She stopped as she asked the question. Well, that was obvious. Now to the tree. What was all her training on logs for if she couldn't even bother to heal an actual tree? She placed her hands over a patch of missing bark, and her hands glowed the medical green. It brought back memories of training with Tsunade as she carefully pieced back the split wood. The branches would just have to be left, but the bark was back on the tree. Presumably, despite the missing shade, the tree would live. Sakura didn't feel like she would, though.

Note to self: never try to heal to this extent when experiencing even the slightest hangover. Exhaustion from the night before was amplified. She jumped back up to her bedroom, tossed back the rest of her now tepid coffee, and fell into bed where the smell of Shino was lingering on her pillow.

…

Gaara had been the only person on the streets of Konoha that wasn't in a great mood. The previous night's passersby had been so fueled into an alcoholic stupor that Gaara hadn't even bothered to hide his signature from some of the low-level nins or citizens of Leaf who were loudly laughing and either happy, bubbly, or even horny,

He didn't expect this kind of behavior to extend into his nightly visitations, however. It'd been a few days since he'd made it the distance from Suna because of business. And his return just had to fall on a weekend...when the woman who'd been unknowingly harboring him at night had suddenly decided to become like her simple-minded peers and bring home another man.

A man. Not another man. It's not like he'd staked claim to her or anything. It was just the simple, not-simple, fact of using her for his own benefit. Regardless, if it ruined his schedule—and one he'd been very keen to keep on this night of all nights—there might just be hell to pay.

To his great relief, they collapsed and hadn't done anything sexual while he was still watching from the tree. It'd been his hiding place from the outside world and from her. Watching, waiting for her lights to finally go off at night. They never came on when the door burst open that night. It was unlike her, and Gaara knew something was off.

Sakura, for the past month, hadn't stepped foot into her dark apartment. She turn the lights on as she stepped in, she'd survey the apartment for anything, and then she'd take her shoes off and relax into her routine. Not this night. The door rocked open, from what he heard through the thin walls. He could tell in an instant she wasn't alone. The signature of another person, grunts and groans mixed in with hers as they made their way back to their room. Gaara had told himself to avert his eyes. To leave. There wasn't a chance he was going to comfortably get sleep that night, but that was the thought with the most hit.

Wasn't he entitled to a good night's sleep like everyone else?

And who the hell was she to take it away from him?

So he watched in wonder and curiosity toward the person she brought home. They were kissing when she followed through the door to her room and came into view. He might have recognized the man as one of Leaf's nins, but to be honest nothing was entirely clicking with him in that moment. He attempted to relax in his position on the tree as if there was a chance in hell that was going to happen.

And all the while, Shukaku stirred, unhappy with the other presence in the room. So he'd taken it out on the tree. Gaara couldn't bring himself to bestow sympathy on anything, but if he were to, that tree might get first dibs. But he couldn't even feel sorry for himself over his lack of sleep.

He sure was mad, though. His brother was once again asking him where he'd been out to once Gaara arrived home. It wasn't exactly like Kankuro to be up that late, let alone meet him on his way up to his office, but there was no having that behavior tonight.

The Kazekage bent for no one. Kankuro was lucky to only receive a growl, and the brother knew not to press it at that moment, filing it away for further teasing and inspection later.

Gaara sat in the chair behind his desk and forced himself to focus on the work before him. It was better than letting himself get upset about a woman of all things. And romance wasn't even involved in this! He hadn't been able to experience the feeling of waking up rested and still high on the rush of dreams. Doing it all in secret was half the fun, and there was no one who was going to deny him of that any longer, especially the little wannabe kunoichi who was powerless to stop him when he was determined.

…

TYK: Call him a demon with a plan, haha. Tell me what you think. I'd love to hear feedback, especially as the story progresses. R&R.