Tsunade…Naruto….

We're here…

I can't see you…

Open your eyes!

Tsunade…

Sakura…

Naruto…

Sakura!

Don't leave me!

"Sakura!"

Sakura tossed and turned in her sleep, she was constantly haunted by the same dream over and over again. But it seemed that this time, someone had really called her name.

Sakura slowly opened her eyes to find the redhead staring down at her with worried eyes.

"Are you ok, Sakura?"

Sakura was about to reply when she froze.

"How do you know my name?"

The redhead smiled and sat back. "You told me once, eight years ago."

Sakura looked at the boy, eight years had past, yet he still remembered her name. Sakura couldn't believe that anyone had that kind of memory. She also couldn't believe that her family was gone. Everything that she ever cared for was gone.

She closed her eyes again and rubbed her face with her hands. She was so tired. Just then she realized that she was sleeping on a bed. She opened her eyes and looked around; they were in a nicely furnished room.

Sensing her confusion, the redhead explained that he had brought them to the inn, and that the maids here had changed her clothes. Sakura looked down to see a clean kimono on her. She didn't know why this boy was being so nice to her.

"Why are you doing this?" Sakura asked weakly.

The redhead didn't know what to say, so he just shrugged and decided not to answer. Sakura sighed.

"What am I going to do now?" She whispered sadly. There were five options for her: 1) get married. 2) become a maid. 3) Become a mountain bandit. 4) Become a prostitute. Or 5)… Sakura turned her head to look at the redhead. Follow him wherever he goes.

There was no reason for Sakura to get married, now that her family was gone. So she didn't want to do that. Besides, she could never lie to herself and pretend that she was still a noble.

Becoming a maid was out of the question, since she was raised as a noble, she would never be able to handle the chores a maid had. Also, Sakura knew that she had an attractive face and air about her, so she could easily fall prey to a master raping her.

Becoming a mountain bandit…Sakura chuckled at the thought of her becoming a mountain bandit, and moved on to the next option.

Becoming a prostitute… Sakura sighed; she had no intention of doing that.

So the only reasonable option Sakura had was to follow the redhead around, if he would let her of course.

"Let me get you something to eat." The redhead got up from his chair and walked to the door.

"Wait!"

The redhead turned around to face Sakura. "What is it?"

"Um…" Sakura seemed at a loss for words, she didn't why she had asked him to wait; just the thought of him leaving her side had brought a surge of distress upon her. "Could you get me something hot?"

The redhead smiled. "Sure."

Then he walked out, addressing the first maid he saw. Sakura had never really noticed before, but the redhead had a commanding air about him. Sure he was real polite and charming, and really kind to Sakura, but there was something about him that commanded respect…and fear.

After a few minutes, the redhead came back with a tray of food and set them down on Sakura's lap. Upon seeing the food, Sakura's stomach immediately growled painfully and her mouth watered like a river. The redhead chuckled when he saw Sakura's face.

"Go ahead, dig in."

"Oh I know that." Sakura replied. "I was just taking in the view of all these food." She sniffed the sweet aroma of the stewed soup and then dug in. She ate so fast that some of the food was sent flying onto the floor, and the redhead just ended up chuckling.

"You are such a child." He said, and then he brushed a piece of rice away from Sakura's cheeks. This action caused Sakura to blush slightly; she never realized the effect this man had on her.

"Well, once you're done with that, we can start getting on our way."

Sakura hesitated. "Getting on our way? What do you mean?"

The redhead stared emotionlessly at Sakura, but Sakura thought that she could make out a glimmer of sadness.

"You just need to get away from here."

The pink-haired girl blinked at the redhead. "You mean, leave town?"

The redhead nodded his head. "You can't stay."

Sakura frowned. "Why not?"

"You just can't."

"Why? Why can't I stay? I have to leave? This…this place is my home." Sakura pleaded, she felt a pang of sorrow hit her heart at the thought of her leaving this place.

"I don't understand why I have to leave…where would I go?" The sad girl whispered.

"Sakura, I…"

His sentence was cut short by a scream that came from the floor below. It was such a startling scream that it made Sakura gasp.

"What was that?"

More screams were followed moments later and soon, shouts and clashing objects could be heard throughout the inn. The redhead quickly poked his head out the window and looked down to see what the commotion was all about. Sakura couldn't make out what he saw, for he hid his emotions well, but she could still tell that the redhead had tensed up.

He turned around to face Sakura with a determined look on his face. "Stay here." With that, he sped out of the door, leaving Sakura speechless.

"What was that all about?" The pink head thought to herself. She got up and walked to the window, and wished she didn't.

Men were fighting everywhere in the streets, and they weren't fighting to stall or hurt, they were fighting to kill.

Sakura then caught the eye of a man in a black mask, his eyes narrowed before he dashed into the inn, slashing his way through innocent bystanders that happened to be in his way.

Sakura gasped and turned away from the window, she felt a sense of emergency; she knew that she was in trouble. Not waiting another moment, Sakura dashed for the door and flung it open. The moment she did, a kunai was thrown at her and just missed her face by inches; the blade was left stuck on the wall beside her.

With heart pounding and eyes widening with shock and disbelief, Sakura turned to look at her assaulter to find him, a masked man, struggling in the arms of the redhead. Sakura froze when she saw the redhead twist the man's neck mercilessly, a snap was heard, and he let the lifeless body drop to the floor. He looked up to see Sakura staring at him in disbelief and horror.

"The man's a murderer!" She screamed in her head. Never mind that the masked man had almost killed Sakura, and never mind that the redhead had probably saved her life.

Right now she was in shock that the redhead had actually killed a man.

The redhead's eyes flashed with a look that said 'I'm sorry you had to see that' and then jumped onto the balcony ledge, he took out one of his daggers and whipped it with incredible speed at another masked man below. It stabbed through the man's neck. He froze in mid-attack, and a moment later fell to the ground.

The innocent pink haired girl covered her mouth with her hand and muffled a scream. She watched two men die today in a most horrific way.

She glanced back up at the redhead, to find his eyes flashing again in her direction, and to Sakura's horror, he was advancing toward her. Sakura stumbled backwards into her room and tried to find a weapon to hit this crazy lunatic.

"He's going to kill me!"

Sakura saw that he was yet again taking out another kunai, and taking a stance of throwing it, he was now sprinting full speed toward Sakura.

The girl stumbled backwards and put her hands protectively up in front of her face. The redhead flung the kunai. Sakura squeezed her eyes shut. In that split moment, Sakura wondered if she was going to die painfully.

But the pain never came. It felt like hours before Sakura had the courage to open her eyes again. She heard a gurgling sound behind her, and when she turned around, she was too horrified to even scream.

Another masked man was standing right behind her, with an axe still held high in the air, ready to be brought down for a final blow. A single kunai protruded from his chest. The man gagged his final breaths and fell to the floor, unmoving.

A revelation dawned upon Sakura. The redhead hadn't been trying to kill her after all; he had been trying to protect her. The girl's eyes trailed from the dead man on the floor to the window, where what seemed like hundreds of masked ninjas flooded through, weapons in hand, blood thirst in their eyes.

The redhead came up behind Sakura and shoved her roughly behind him. There he stood protectively, blocking the ninjas from her.

"Get out of here." The redhead barked, while skillfully beating the attackers back with only his kunai, his fist, and his flying kicks. Yet no matter how much Sakura wanted to listen to her rescuer, her legs wouldn't move.

A man came at the redhead with a straight sword; the redhead ducked with lightening speed, sprung back up just inches from the man's face, and then slashed his throat diagonally with his kunai. Using his elbow, the redhead roughly shoved the man to the side and prepared himself for another ninja.

Two ninjas came at him this time, weapon in hand. They cornered the redhead and brought down their weapons for the fatal blow. He was quicker than them however, and reacted by kicking one of the men in the face, producing a crack, and then turned around to finish the other off.

But he was too late. While he was preoccupied with this ninja, the other ninja went to Sakura.

Sakura just stood there, cowering from the look in this man's eyes. She didn't know what to do. The only thing that rang through her mind was I don't want to die.

But before this ninja could do anything to hurt Sakura, a kunai pierced through the man's belly. His eyes widened when the dagger was pulled out of his body, and he fell to the floor, dead. The redhead stood there, panting.

"You idiot! I thought I told you to run!"

Sakura was scared. Her eyes called out to the redhead, and he seemed to hear. The redhead regained his composure and walked up to Sakura, and put both of his hands on her shoulders.

"Do you trust me?"

Sakura looked into his green eyes, they held no lie.

"Do you trust me?" He repeated again, this time softer.

The pair kept on holding each other's gaze, never turning away.

"With my life." Sakura whispered. She had never felt so at ease with a man before, she had never trusted anyone as much as he. Just then, at least ten ninjas burst through the doors, throwing daggers and shurikens.

The redhead acted quickly, but Sakura thought that she saw yet another glimmer of sadness in those eyes before he put on that unemotional mask of his.

He scooped Sakura up in his arms and charged toward the window. At the last moment, he stepped up onto the ledge and jumped.

During all this time, Sakura didn't feel scared at all. She felt so safe and warm in those strong arms of his. She trusted him, with her life.

No one really knows what happened next, because the next thing that everyone saw was a sudden whirlpool of sand that came up as high as the buildings, with the pair jumping into it.

In a split second, the whirlpool was gone, and so was the pair.

The rest of the ninjas crawled out into the sun and out of the inn, most were hurt, some were dead. The citizens got away as soon as they could, for fear they might be caught and killed later on.

But one ninja didn't care; he stood in the open street, took off his hood, and ruffled the sand out of his hair. He was pissed not because their objective escaped, but because they got sand in his hair…and other places. He stood there, cursing his butt off, not realizing that his superior was standing right behind him.

"What do you think you're doing?"

The man froze, and turned around swiftly to find Temari, the second in command for the secret police, staring him down with those piercing eyes of hers. The man sighed.

"Oh, it's only you, sis."

"You will address me as captain or ma'am." Temari ordered.

Kankuro crossed his arms across his chest and pouted. "Why should I? You're only higher in rank to me by one." Then he smiled mischievously. "And I heard that I was going to be promoted into your position as second in command."

Temari smacked Kankuro on the back of his head.

"You idiot, the only reason you're being promoted into my position is because I'm being promoted too!"

Kankuro rubbed his head.

"Guess I never really thought about it that way, sis."

Temari sighed and looked up at the sky as if she saw something there.

"Stupid little brother. What does he think he's doing?"

Kankuro nodded. "Maybe he's got the hots for that chick. She looked pretty cute."

Temari glared at her brother, and sighed.

"Our dear little brother isn't that kind of person. Besides, he's already seen his fair share of beautiful women."

Kankuro put on a serious face. "There must be some other reason he's acting this way."

Temari looked down and sighed again. "I hope you know what you're doing, little brother."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

"You can open your eyes now."

Sakura snapped open her eyes and looked around. They were in the middle of a lush, green forest. She turned around and saw that there was a single solitary horse chewing grass nearby. Sakura looked up and blushed profoundly.

She was still in the arms of the redhead. He was crouched on the floor, with Sakura in his lap, and he hands were under her knees and placed on her back. His handsome face was just inches from Sakura's own.

The pink haired girl squealed at their closeness and turned to hide her face from the probing eyes of the redhead. Her face felt like they were on fire, and her heart was pounding and racing in her chest so loud, that she was surprised that the redhead didn't hear it. Her head spun, probably from the ever constant pounding of her heart.

"You ok?"

Sakura managed to huff out. "Oh, I'm fine! Just a bit dizzy from the ordeal! But I'll be fine! If you could just let me down…"

The redhead blinked and stared at Sakura, unmoving.

"I would put you down, except…"

Sakura suddenly got a burst of courage. She turned around to face the redhead, her heart pounding ever so deeply.

"Except what?" Sakura whispered, hardly realizing how her face inched unconsciously closer and closer to the redhead's face.

She had a vague idea where this was going.

Sakura silently closed her eyes and puckered her lips.

She was ready!

"Can you let go of me?"

Sakura's eyes snapped open as she realized that her fantasy had been shattered into a million pieces…by the person she was fantasizing about!

"What?" Sakura asked, annoyed.

The redhead smiled the smile that always weakened Sakura's knees. "It's just that your arms are clamped tight around my neck so I can't really put you down anywhere."

Sakura trailed her arms with her eyes and realized that the redhead was right; her arms were clamped tight around his neck.

Embarrassed, Sakura quickly unlocked her arms, but the redhead wasn't prepared for this, and Sakura fell from his arms and dropped on her rump.

"Oof!"

The redhead gasp. "Oh! Sakura, are you alright?"

Sakura rubbed her behind. "Y-yeah, I'm fine."

The redhead tightened his lips and turned his face away Sakura, moments later she heard snickering. He was laughing at her!

Sakura frowned, "I'm glad you find my pain amusing." She huffed and stood up all too soon. Immediately, she got a head rush, her vision blurred and danced before her, she swayed from side to side and felt like she was going to puke at any second.

She brought her hands before her to steady herself on something, and that something just so happens to be the only boy with her.

"Whoa there, wouldn't want you hurt now, would we?"

Sakura felt the ground beneath her feet vanish as the redhead scooped her up without so much as an effort and dumped her in the saddle on one of the horses.

The pink haired girl sighed, the head rush had passed.

"Now," He said as he tugged on the horse's reins. "Shall we go on our way?"

Sakura knew the answer to that; she would follow him to the ends of the earth. She didn't know why she trusted him so; she didn't even know anything about him.

Sakura smiled, "I don't even know your name."

The girl knew that even though she didn't know his name, she would still go wherever he wanted her to go.

The redhead turned around to face Sakura.

He held a very polite and charming look, even though his eyes glimmered with amusement.

"Call me Gaara."

YAY! Chapter three! FINALLY!! Sorry for taking so long, but I wanted to do good in this chapter. Guess what? I got my own personal EDITOR!! She's the best! Anyways, got any questions, concerns, or comments, click the little button below!