Chapter 3 – Dead Like Me

Gaara simply stood in compete silence in what was once Sakura's hospital room, and blankly stared out the open window in which she had fled from. His mission had only started this morning and already he was having problems executing it. He did not know what to do with the pink haired woman who was his target.

Should he go after her and drag her back to her hospital bed until she was fully recovered, or should he just go and talk to her before she arrived at the Copy-nin's house? He wanted to accomplish both of those objectives in one strike, but he did not know how to do that now that she had already left the hospital without permission.

He had to think this through...she was not an ordinary opponent. She was smart, that much was obvious because he had seen her ANBU profile. She had passed every area with outstanding markings, but her stealth and intelligence levels were above everything else. Playing mind games was something he himself was never good at, so getting himself into a situation that required immense thinking and planning was not something that he wanted to do. He wanted to avoid that as much as possible.

Considering the weakened state in which she left the hospital, she could not have gotten very far in her condition. The way in which she had jumped out of the window had not been very graceful in the least, and secondly, there was just no way that she could have recovered that fast from her wounds and blood loss. He was certain that she was still very close nearby because he could still sense her chakra.

Sakura was not even trying to mask her chakra...either she was over confident that he would just let her be or she was too tired and fatigued to even try to hide her chakra level. However...either way she had just made his mission all the more complicated. She was unstable, that was for sure, and she had changed a lot more than he had first thought.

Deciding that he had given Sakura enough time to think that he was not going to go after her, he calmly walked out of the hospital and in the direction in which he sensed Sakura's chakra coming from. He was not a brilliant person when it came to analyzing people and he was even worse at comforting people. He had no idea how he was going to go about completing his mission without giving her any suspicions or hurting her.

As Gaara analyzed everything about Sakura, and what little interaction he had with her in the past, he wondered if there was just an easy way to do his mission. 'I say just kill the girl and say that it was an accident, ku ku ku!'

Gaara inwardly sighed with agitation and jumped from the main street of Kanoha to the rooftops. 'And here I thought I wasn't going to be hearing from you until we got back to Suna.'

'Ku ku ku! I don't like you that much, you know. Besides, you haven't been killing anyone in a long time. I want some blood; and that pink haired girl...she was the one we tried to kill in the chunnin exams.'

Gaara wanted to say, 'you mean you almost killed', but he knew that was not entirely true. He hated when Shukaku was right, and this was one of those situations where he was right. 'Yes, she is. Her name is Haruno Sakura, and I am not going to kill her. I already told you that I was not going to go around killing people for no reason like I use to.'

Shukaku sounded disappointed, 'Feh, you're going soft on me! Don't tell me that that weak little creature calls your interest?'

Gaara stopped jumping from rooftop to rooftop when his eyes spotted pink hair moving slowly through the busy street. A frown that almost appeared like a scowl appeared on his face, 'I am not attracted to her. She is my mission, and I shall compete that mission. Besides, she is Naruto's friend.'

Without giving Shukaku the chance to come up with a smart remark, Gaara locked him up in a corner of his mind. Though Gaara had changed over the years, his feelings had not changed completely, and he still did not like the unavoidable conversations with the Shukaku in his head.

Aside from the annoying conversations that Shukaku would start, Gaara was reminded of what he really was when he could hear Shukaku. He was just the Shukaku's container and nothing more. The damn thing had been behaving itself as of late too, seems ironic that good things never last for very long.

The only other person he knew who had a similar problem was Uzumaki Naruto, but the Kyubi – unlike the Shukaku- did not thirst for blood. Speaking of people...he was slightly thankful for her state of fatigue and for the slow pace in which she was walking in between the crowd of people because in his short rambling through his thoughts, he had lost sight of her. Then again, her pink hair was easy to spot, wasn't it?

He watched as she made a right and walked into an empty ally. He assumed that she was taking the 'back route' so as not to get caught by someone who knew her. After all, she had left the hospital without the Hokage or Shizune's permission or dismissal. He stared at her as she slowly, yet hurriedly, made her way through the alley.

He jumped off of the roof and landed on her right side as gracefully and quietly as he could. He became slightly agitated when she did not tense or react in any way to his presence. She merely kept walking forward as if he was not right there beside her. He fell into step beside her and crossed his arms over his chest as he glared at her out of the corner of his eyes. "I nee-"

"Why are you here, Gaara? You have no business with me anymore, so why are you following me?"

She was rude today, wasn't she? "Well, if you had let me finish my sentence before you cut me off, you would have found out," he said smartly. Gaara chose to ignore her snort and continue talking, "I need to talk to you...alone. Now."

Sakura looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He was only in Kanoha two days and already he thought he could just bark out orders at her? Well, he had another thing coming. "No. If you need to talk with me then you will do so after I have taken care of my own business, Kazekage-sama."

"With Hatake Kakashi?" he asked, trying to get a start on his information gathering.

"Yes, with Kakashi. Is there something wrong with that?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

'She's acting like I am offending her...' "What is Hatake to you?"

What was he, her father? God, he was getting annoying with his questions. What did he care what Kakashi was to her? She was not going to tell Gaara anything else. "What do you care? It's none of your business."

Gaara inwardly growled in irritation. Why could she not just tell him the truth? Why was she making this more complicated than it really was or had to be? "Are you always so rude to rulers of other countries?" he asked, not even noticing the cork to his gourd pop off and fall to the ground behind him.

Obviously, Sakura did not notice the small cork either, and she continued on with her rudeness, not caring in the least that Gaara had a very short temper on him at all times. "No, just those who think they could boss others who do not belong to their country. I understand that you are the Kazekage of Suna, Gaara, but you are not in Suna, so you should not talk to me as if I were one of your secretaries or something."

...Did he sound like that? If he did, he did not mean to sound so demanding, but he was not going to tell her that. He would just prove her right. "I am simply trying to make conversation with you, kunoichi."

'You'd think he would at least call you by your name.'

'Feh, that's what I was thinking,' Sakura told her inner self as she inwardly rolled her eyes. "I do not want to converse with you, Kazekage-sama. I have to get to Kakashi's house to talk to him about something important to me. You are just delaying me."

Gaara grabbed her wrist and stopped her from walking as he stood still and glared at her. "Do not address me with such mild interest, kunoichi. Although I am not in my country, you must still respect me."

Sakura stared at her hand and then up at Gaara with what seemed to be an irritated expression- that or she was slightly angry. "When you treat me with respect, then I shall also treat you with respect, Kazekage-sama. We are in my country, and even if we were in yours, I would not allow you to treat me as you would a secretary."

As an attempt to change the subject, and avoid apologizing to her, he looked into her fiery green eyes. "What is he to you?"

Again with the same question? "It's none of your business," she snapped.

Gaara misread her little outburst; "So he is your lover then?"

Sakura looked at Gaara with disbelief. "Are you f-ing crazy? He's twelve years older than I am! Besides that, he was my sensei for heaven's sake."

How utterly frustrating, he had just been pushed back to square one in figuring out her new personality and who she was dating. So the copy ninja was not her lover, and something was clearly wrong to have her acting the way she was. If he wanted answers from her then he should try to be nicer and perhaps more polite, because as she had already pointed out to him, he was in Kanoha, not Suna. However, being polite and 'nice' was never something he was good at.

"So...what about the Uchiha?"

'Ah, there you go. At least it seems you got a reaction out of her this time,' Shukaku stated.

Sakura had seemingly stopped breathing and for the first time, he could see that the mention of the Uchiha stirred many emotions within her. He watched as she clenched and unclenched her fists until she looked back up at him with an unreadable expression and spoke.

"I have no more relation with the Uchiha. Do not mention him to me in any way. Now, if you are through asking me questions, I need to get going." Sakura attempted to start walking again, but she found herself going no where as Gaara still had a firm hold on her slender wrist.

The sand around her small right ankle tightened its hold to the point that it was painful, but Sakura said nothing to Gaara nor did she show any signs of pain. Why, she did not know, but for some reason, she knew that he was not aware of what his sand was doing to her. If the sand tightened any more, it might break her ankle. "Gaara, you are waisting my time," she said casually.

Gaara stared hard at her as he held her small wrist in his hand tightly. "Actually, I had only begun to ask you questions. I have plenty more to ask you, Haruno," he replied, his light blue eyes narrowing slightly. The sand around her ankle tightened and she tried not to flinch, but it was far too painful to keep from flinching. He seemed to finally realize what his sand was doing and he called it back into his gourd.

He did not apologizing to her, nor was there any sign of sympathy in his eyes even after the sand was no longer gripping her ankle, but maybe that was due to the fact that he was not staring at her ankle, thus, not seeing the crimson blood staining her percilain skin where his sand used to be.

Sakura got angry and as she fought to calm herself down; she also fought to stop her inner self's chakra from flowing throughout her body and taking control of her body all together. This man standing in front of her, this man, Sabaku no Gaara, was infuriating! What was more...the part that confused Sakura to no limits...was the fact that he could annoy her so easily when no one else could make her feel like that anymore. The hard mask, the emotionless mask that she has developed seemed to fail when Sabaku no Gaara was around her.

"What do you want from me?" Sakura hissed through gritted teeth, her green eyes like a blazing fire, as she gave one last yank on her wrist, but could not get it free.

What did he want from her? Why could he not just make it easier for himself, as well as for her, and tell Tsunade that he did not want to do this mission? Why could he not just go home to Suna and make up some far fetched tale and say he finished the mission? And why in the seven hells...did he have to see her that night two days ago standing in the middle of the street as the rain fell on top of her?

Why could he not have just left her unconscious form lying there in the dirt until Naruto or someone else came for her...or stumbled across her by pure luck? These questions, and so many others, had been running through his head since the moment he accepted Tsunade's damnable mission regarding Sakura. He was beyond frustrated because he did not have very good answers for any of these questions roaming through his head...and he hated not knowing. "I want...to know you, Haruno." Her expression was one of shock and surprise.

Sakura stared at Gaara with wide green eyes and she felt a small flickering flame slowly being lit in the back of her mind. 'He...wants to...know me?' She looked into his eyes with that same expression on her face. "You want to...know me?" she asked slowly, almost distantly. She did not want to say the words too loudly for fear that it was not true, and fear that what he had said had not really left his mouth and she was just imagining it.

Her expression reminded him of the time when she had been placed on a mission in Suna. He remembered that day so clearly that it sometimes scared him. Then again...he was meant to remember that day in Suna with her.

The Kazekage was sitting in his chair as he continued to sign the mountainous amount of paper work on his desk. He felt as if his hand was going to fall off if he signed just one more paper. He had been signing papers and reading through mission reports since this morning, and he was getting tired of it. After all, there was only a certain amount of time that he could stand staying in his room while doing the boring task of paper signing.

Just as he achieved the end of his patience, he hurled the retched pen across the room and sighed in boredom, his door was knocked on lightly. He blinked a few times and stared at the door as if it were a foreign object he had never seen. He heard the knocking again and knew that his mind was not playing tricks on him. He straightened up on his chair and used his sand to bring him back the pen he had tossed across his office. He pretended to still be signing paper work as he addressed the person who was knocking on his door. "You may come in."

He looked up from his stack of papers as the door slowly opened. He stayed silent as he saw the pink haired jounin standing in the door way. "Erm...I hope I am not disturbing you, Kazekage-sama," Sakura said as she still stood in the doorway.

Gaara shook his head, relieved to be doing something other than signing paper work. "No, you are not disturbing me. Come in Haruno-san."

Sakura nodded once and closed the door behind her when she was inside of his office. "My squad just finished the mission for you...and I came to give you the mission report."

He watched with a blank expression as Sakura stretched out her arm to him to hand him the pieces of paper. 'Great,' he thought, 'more damn paper.' He took it from her and opened the offending manila folder to briefly skim through its continents. He looked up at her, "There were no casualties?"

Sakura smiled and shook her head, "Nope. Not a one!"

He nodded and continued skimming through report. "...Umm...you seem really bored, Kazekage-sama," he heard her say.

"Is it that obvious?" he asked without taking his attention from the mission report.

"Well, no...but I thought that you might get bored or lonely being in this office of yours all day long; day in and day out. I mean, no one really comes to your office unless it's about a mission or something right; just to hand you more and more work? I just thought...that maybe sometimes you wished...not to be alone all the time? To have some company every now and then...some to talk to about any thing you want?"

'Keh, if you only knew how right you were, kunoichi.' Gaara looked up at her slowly, "I am the Kazekage. Being alone in this office every single day of my life comes with the job in case you were not aware of it."

Sakura contemplated replying to that. Would he kill her if she kept talking? Probably not. "Well... you want to know what I think, Kazekage-sama?" When she got no answer from him, she took it as an 'I-don't-care' reply or a 'No-I-don't-want-to-know-what-you-think' answer. Either way, she was still going to tell him what she thought. That was why she was still inside if his office, and not walking down the long row of stairs, right?

"I think that the being alone part does not come with the job of being Kazekage. I think that you choose to be alone up here in your office...because it's easier than to try and deal with other people. I mean, either Konkuro or Temari could come up and keep you company for a while."

"Temari teaches classes at the Ninja Academy. Konkuro is always out on missions," he replied right after she finished her sentence.

Sakura bit her lip at that. What was she going to say to that now? "Well...you could always call Naruto when you don't feel like being alone." After a few moments of silence she added, "Or even me. You could call me when you have no one to talk to."

At the sight of his perplexed face, Sakura wondered if she had maybe gone too far in saying things that were none of her business...but then he blinked and he was calm and professional again. This time she was the one who made the perplexed expression. He could be so weird sometimes. "D-did I say something I should not have?"

Gaara looked up at Sakura and shook his head, but said nothing more to her. She felt uncomfortable just standing in his office, so she began to slowly shift from foot to foot as she waited for him to dismiss her. He looked over the report Sakura had handed him one last time, and then placed it on the desk in front of him as he stood up from his comfortable black leather chair. "Thank you for your help, Haruno-san."

Sakura gave him a smile as she tilted her head to the side. "No problem. We are allies, right? So we need to help each other out every once in a while when we need the help."

Gaara frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "The only reason why Kanoha chooses to help Suna is because of the alliance treaty between the two counties. With out that, Kanoha would not have bothered to help us out."

Sakura tried not to take offense to his blunt declaration, and frowned at him. "That is not true Gaara. Even without the treaty, Kanoha would have still come to help you and Suna. A treaty is just a piece of paper with writing on it...it can easily be violated and destroyed; but, the bonds and what it means cannot be burned or forgotten."

"Why?" he asked, looking slightly confused...or maybe it was curiosity.

She smiled brightly at him, "Because we're friends, Gaara! Well, at least I hope that we are friends. I would really like to get to know you better. I would like to be your friend."

'My...friend?' Gaara had very little friends to speak of and was very cautious about letting people get to know him. "Why do you want to be my friend?"

'Hmm, what kind of an answer can I give him that won't make it seem like I want something from him?' Sakura smiled at Gaara; "Well, because I want to be your friend. You don't need a reason to want to make a friend, you're usually friends when you tell each other your name."

Giving the word friend more meaning, Sakura continued on with her explanation, her voice reflecting on one of her own close friends. "A friend is not someone that you just share happy times with, a real friend is someone who will be there for you through the hardships in life too. Someone who will lend you a shoulder to cry on when you are upset, someone who will let you sleep at their house when you have no where else to go, and someone that you can always come to for help no matter what the problem is. That is a real friend, Gaara-sama."

Gaara thought over her answer for a moment, that was what his sister had told him as well; but no one really wanted to be his friend. No one wanted to do all the things she had said a friend should do to him, because although he was Kazekage of Suna, most every one was still afraid of him. Well, he could not entirely say everyone because Naruto Uzumaki was his friend, and now she wanted to be his friend, too. Gaara's self defense mechanism kicked in for a second. 'She could be lying to me,' he thought half heartedly.

Searching her bright green eyes for any sign of deceit, but he could find none. She was as truthful and sincere as anyone could be- unless you were a saint- and she had never lied to him either. "Kunoichi, you may get to know me better."

Sure, his answer might have been professional, and his expression was one that looked like he did not care in the least if she really got to know him or not, but Sakura knew better. Her smile became so much brighter and her joy radiated like the rays from the sun. "Awesome! Next time I'm in Suna, you and I can hang out, right?"

Gaara blinked; "Hang out?"

"Yeah, you know. It's like another word for spending time together," she said sheepishly.

Gaara nodded his approval, "Next time you are in Suna, we may 'hang out,' kunoichi."

"It's Sakura. Haruno Sakura, not kunoichi," she replied with a serious expression.

Gaara looked at her strangely, "I am the Kazekage, I may call you anything I wish."

"Yeah, okay, whatever," she said as she crossed her arms behind her head. "Listen, I got to get going, but with any luck, I'll be back in Suna sometime soon."

At that time, he had been the one to have had that surprised look on his face, but now their places had seemed to be turned. She seemed to look like a small child, and he assumed that he had looked the same way when she had asked him to be her friend. "Yes, I do want to know you. You are the one who offered me your friendship in the first place."

She seemed to be at a lost for words, and did not know how to react to the situation before her. 'Just take him up on his offer, stupid! You do need the company, it isn't healthy to always be by yourself, you know.'

She was right, but Sakura was afraid to get involved with anyone. She was afraid to get close to anyone because she might unintentionally hurt them. She was sure that Gaara would be able to defend himself against her; however, she did not want to risk him looking at her differently than before. Yet, despite all of that, she wanted to let him be here friend.

It had been a long time since she heard the words, "I want to know you." Although she felt cautious, she also felt anxious. Should she just go with it? Well, he was right, she had been the one to offer in the first place, and she was not one to go back on her word. She looked Gaara straight in the eyes and nodded once, "Alright. But it works both ways, Gaara," she stated seriously.

This time, he was the one to nod, "Fine. We have both agreed. I will see you soon," he said as he disappeared, leaving behind some floating sand in his place.

She smiled ever so slightly while shaking her head at his departure. 'What have I gotten myself into?' She continued on her way to Kakashi's apartment, her mind going over what Gaara had offered her. Friendship was such an estranged word to her now, she had not gone out with friends for the longest time, she was certain that she no longer had any friends to speak of.

She found herself thinking that she should keep it that way, no friends period; but, although she would never admit it out loud, she really wanted a friend. Someone to be around when no one else was there for her, that was all she really wanted anyway-not to feel so lonely.

True, she feared hurting Gaara, but what she really feared was getting hurt by him. She did not care that he was once a ruthless murderer whom only felt alive, only felt like he existed, when he killed other people. She did not care that he had Shukaku trapped within him, and she did not care that he was once mentally unstable. That was all in the past for him. The moment he became Kazekage of Suna, he had started out with a clean slate. What she did care about was if he was trust worthy; he really wanted to be her friend. She would not stand to be stabbed in the back or thrown to the side the way Sasuke did.

Her slender hand reached out and grasped Kakashi's door knob as she shook her head. It did not matter any way she looked at it, did it? It was not as if Sabaku no Gaara would ever talk to her the way Naruto used to talk to her. It was not like Sabaku no Gaara would talk to her about his past, his childhood or his feelings. Maybe the only reason why he offered her his friendship was because he took pity on her and her recent loss. She hated when people pitied her. Absolutely hated it.

She turned the knob slowly, the gold metal shining lightly from the afternoon sun. She closed the door behind her once she had stepped inside the familiar aura that was Kakashi's sent, but she had expected to be alone in the apartment, and Kakashi and Genma were sitting on the black couch in the living room. It had seemed that the two men had been in deep conversation before she had unknowingly interrupted them. Both men gave her happy smiles. They were both happy that she was back in the apartment, safe and unharmed...and still herself.

Maybe, just maybe, this was all she would ever need. Perhaps all she really needed was Kakashi. She always felt safe and protected in his strong arms, even when she was but a little girl. He had always been there for her, no matter what. However, Kakashi knew she could handle herself, knew she did not need to be protected from enemy ninjas because she could deal with them herself, but he did protect her from everything else around her. He was always there when she had nightmares, offering to sleep with her for the night because he knew she needed it. She loved him deeply for that.

Never again would she allow herself to be protected when she went out on missions, nor did she ever let anyone look down at her as if they were superior than her. When Sasuke had left Kanoha, he had shattered her heart, and left her crying by herself. He had been so damn selfish by leaving her and everyone else that cared about him behind. Luckily enough for Sasuke, she and Naruto, along with Kakashi, were able to bring him back from Orochimaru's hands before it was too late.

She had stopped loving him the day he had broken her heart. She had stopped believing in fairy tales the day he left her behind, and the day she became ANBU. There were no happy endings in the world she lived in, the life she lived...but...she was slowly starting to believe...that not everything was completely wrong.

END for now. lol

I am so sorry that I have not updated this story in such a long time. It's not that I lost interest in it all; in fact, I am still trying to finish writing this story. It's just that a lot of stuff happened all at once and it threw me and my writing way back there. I have been reading all the reviews that I have and I really REALLY want to thank my readers from the bottom of my heart. You guys really are amazing and keep me wanting to write this story just so you can read it. Keep an eye out for the next chapter and please don't forget to review. I LOVE reviews :)