Sakura's footsteps echoed in the dark street. She had just finished working with Gaara, and was heading home for the night. She was amazed at how much progress he was making. He was no longer asking her to leave, and he was talking a lot more. Sakura was still puzzled, about why he got admitted. She knew the story and everything, but she didn't think it was likely that Gaara would hurt anybody. Especially when he was only three.
Sakura stopped walking. She turned around and walked down a side street that she knew well. After about thirty minutes of walking, she reached her destination. The hospital.
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She opened the entrance, and shuffled down the hallway. She tried to remain as quiet as possible. She wasn't aloud in the hospital unless she worked here. She stopped in front of a door. The bronze plaque on the door read: 'Patient Files Room'. She pulled out her old set of keys that Shizune gave her for trips to this place, and unlocked the steel door. She walked through the entrance and searched among the many filing cabinets. She decided that she would find out the whole story about Gaara. Not just the small bits that the nurses told her.
She searched for ten long minutes before she found it. She pulled the heavy door open, and studied the files one by one. She finally came upon a file with the name Gaara on it, but the words stamped on the front were what caught her eye the most. TOP SECRET, DO NOT OPEN, and CONFIDENTIAL blazed across the tan envelope in bright red lettering. Sakura's eyes widened as she stared at the envelope before her. Her hand tentatively moved forward and-
"Hello? Who's in here?" Sakura's hand snapped back from the packet, and she reeled around. Crud. She left the door cracked open.
"Who's in there?" The masculine voice rang out again. Sakura quickly shut the iron cabinet door behind her and made a mad scramble for the Janitor's closet. Luckily, it was in the same room, and she pushed the rusty tin buckets out of the way and scrunched down.
Heavy footsteps thunked against the ground. Sakura held her breath as the man's flashlight passed in front of the closet door.
"Huh. Maybe Haru left the door open on accident." The footsteps receded and the light from the flashlight disappeared. Sakura sat there silently for a few moments then opened the door slightly and peered around. Seeing no one, she stood up and brushed a few pink locks out of her face. She quickly and quietly made her exit out of the room, through the exit, and out into the chilly night. She once more grasped the folder close to her, and sprinted toward her house.
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Sakura's eyes traveled over the open envelope. The Pictures that were sprawled out on her mahogany table were gruesome to say the least. There were numerous pictures of bright red splattered floors, and other scarlet objects. She looked through the pile of photographs until she found one that caught her attention. There, sitting on the scarlet floor, sat a three-year-old boy. His eyes were scared and he looked like he was crying. But the nurses said that he didn't cry at all. Sakura thought suspiciously as the picture was held firmly in her grip. She carefully placed the photo in her pocket, and then searched over the case files. There were pictures of what Sakura believed to be Gaara's family. There was a boy and a girl who looked to be about the same age, although the girl was a bit taller. The next picture showed a man. He looked around thirty five, and his spiky hair resembled Gaara's. The man was frowning in the picture and his arms were folded over his chest. Wow. That has to be Gaara's father. He even has the same frown. She looked through the pages until she found a picture of a woman. She looked a bit younger than Gaara's father, but not much. Sakura looked at the date of how old she was when the picture was taken, and saw in bold lettering. Deceased. November 24, 1965 to January 19, 1995. Sakura blinked. Gaara's birthday was January 19, 1995. She looked down the page to Cause of Death and read it silently: 'Childbirth.' Sakura felt a pang of sadness for her red-haired comrade. He never knew his mother. Instantly, she flipped back to the pages where the other children's pictures were. Cause of Death: Murder. The words stung. Sakura wasn't willing to believe that Gaara killed anyone yet. She turned back to his father's page. She scanned the page three times, but was un-able to find the cause of death. Sakura blinked again. What did it mean? Was the man murdered? Or is he still out there? Sakura decided that she would ask the one person that was most likely to know. The one person whose page they left out of the folder. Gaara. She was placing the files back into the envelope, when a voice came from behind her.
"So it was you."
Oooooo! Cliffhanger. Tune in to find out what happens next!