Hello! I'm back! Sorry it has been sooo long, but I moved again and got a job. It would have been sooner had it not been for the fact that I'm pregnant.

I know this chapter is short, but it was pretty hard to write (which is a rather long story itself).

I hope you enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters.


Chapter Eight:

Never Enough

Pain…it was all he could feel. All he could ever remembering feeling. Every inch of his body was in agony, inside and out. It didn't matter, however, it never did; the people around him were aware of it, but ignored it like everything else. Even his siblings acted as if nothing had ever happened, but he could see it in their eyes…they despised him.

Gaara looked around the destruction before him. Citizens were either on the ground dead or wounded, running around screaming, or crying. He had been safe from the attacks, having slipped away from his brother, Naruto, and Sasuke nearly an hour before hand. They were all most likely dead, not that he cared, but it could cause a stir between his country and this one…especially if anything did happen to his siblings.

He sighed heavily and closed his jade eyes. He should have just stayed home, but he was ordered by his father to accompany Temari and Kankurō to this festival. That would have been easy had it not been for their "bodyguards". He certainly didn't like the Uchiha and that Naruto was just annoying. He held indifference to Sakura, but the ring she wore on her finger intrigued him; Gaara was more than sure his sister had noticed it as well. There was only one way she could have gotten it…

"Gaara!" He heard his sister scream as she ran to him from the destruction and to his spot on the bench in the cemetery. She was covered in dirt and there was a small amount of blood trickling down the side of her face and staining her blond hair. "You're safe…"

He didn't answer; he merely waited for her to reach his side.

Temari grabbed her phone from her pocket and tried to call Kankurō, he suspected, but to avail. She sighed and sank onto the bench in defeat.

"It wasn't supposed to happen this way," she choked. "Not here. Not this much death…"

Temari started crying, making Gaara even more uncomfortable. He scanned the area again and saw Kankurō coming towards them, limping and holding his arm close to his chest. Temari gasped and ran to him, embracing him in what appeared to be a rib-crushing hug. Gaara could hear her sobbing over Kankurō's groans of pain as the emotional blond pulled him to the bench for him to sit down.

As soon as he sat down, Kankurō dropped his head and fell unconscious. Temari panicked and whipped out her phone again, but dropped it as she looked up. Gaara didn't have time to look around when he heard the harsh labored breathing and the click of a gun ready to be fired from behind him.


She panicked, neither Naruto nor Sasuke were answering their phones and Sakura was left pacing beside one of the many ambulances surrounding the festival area. Back up was on the way, but not soon enough. Sakura looked down at her splinted arm and adjusted it before sneaking away from the crowd and bolting through a nearby alley, gun in hand and ignoring her minor concussion.

She needed to make sure the siblings were safe and unharmed before her personal needs were met. Sakura jumped over a low fence of the local cemetery, pausing momentarily as she jarred her broken arm. She looked over the area quickly before continuing on; she felt all the blood drain from her face as she spotted the siblings not too far off, with Sasuke standing over an unconscious Temari and pointing his gun at Gaara. Red flags were waving in her mind, but she bolted forward until she was in firing range and raised her gun at Sasuke.

"Drop it, Sasuke," her voice shook slightly, but could easily be mistaken for exhaustion.

The dark haired Uchiha turned his head to look at her, his eyebrows raised while Gaara's eyes were still trained on Sasuke. Sakura slowly moved forward, her heart hammering in her chest and her eyes burning with the threat of tears.

"I said drop it, Uchiha," she repeated with venom in her voice.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, but still he didn't move.

"No." His voice was rough and sounded more like a snarl as his eyes went back to Gaara. "These three are suspects in the attack."

Sakura gaped, not believing a word he said. "Sasuke, that's ridiculous. They couldn't possibly…"

"Gaara was gone right before the bombs went off," he tightened his grip on the gun. "And I heard her mention something about it." Sasuke gestured to Temari's unconscious body on the ground as he spoke.

Sakura sighed and dropped her gun. She carefully approached Sasuke and stood between him and Gaara, not missing the heavily injured Kankurō beside the redhead. Sasuke's eyes widened and he lowered his gun, Sakura felt relief wash over as he did so, but kept a firm grip on her own gun. That is, until a pair of arms wrapped around her and pulled her back, a hand placed firmly around her throat.

She heard a dark chuckle emit from behind her and the hand around her throat tightened, causing her to drop her gun and rake at the hand. Sasuke raised his gun, but kept his finger behind the trigger, worry obviously etched into his charcoal eyes.

"Gaara…please…" Sakura managed to choke out, but was only slammed hard against his chest.

The tension spiked when Gaara laughed again; he slowly released Sakura's neck, but it was instantly replaced by a sharp knife. Sakura whimpered as it cut into her skin and she felt warm droplets of blood trickle down her throat.

"Let her go," Sasuke growled.

Gaara didn't reply, he only cut Sakura deeper causing her to cry out and her knees to buckle. Her body pushed against Gaara's and the two fell to the ground; Sakura landed on her broken arm and she cradled it against her chest, praying she didn't damage it further.

As soon as Sakura shifted away, Sasuke tossed his gun away and was instantly on Gaara. She heard them struggle for a moment, but was too busy resetting her arm to see who had the upper hand. Her entire arm was just screaming in one of the worst pains she had ever felt and she began seeing double as her head throbbed, but Sakura held back from crying out and shedding any tears. Instead, she locked her jaw and turned just in time to see Sasuke pull Gaara to his feet and land a bone shattering hit to his chin, causing him to stagger backwards.

Sakura's heart sank when she saw the twisted grin on Gaara's bloodied face. His chuckle quickly rose into a demented laughter that carried into the air, his gaze shifted from Sasuke to Sakura and the dark shimmer in his jade eyes sent a chill down her spine, her skin began to crawl, and her heart skipped a beat in sheer terror. When his laughter died, he was on Sasuke in a split second, both on the ground and the sickening sound of bones breaking with every hit, though Sakura was sure the sound was from Gaara's own hand, tore through the air.

Sasuke pushed Gaara off him and launched himself at him, knocking him off his feet. Sakura began looking around for her gun and found it under the bench; just as she touched the handle of her gun, she heard Sasuke groan in pain. Sakura whipped around in time to see Gaara stand up and immediately her eyes spotted the worn brown handle of a knife sticking out of Sasuke's chest.

Sakura gasped and tried to call to him, but her voice caught in her throat when Gaara turned slowly and his eyes collided with hers. He approached her slowly and looked down at her, his gaze unreadable as he lifted Sakura to her feet, by her hair.

Sakura dared a glance at Sasuke and saw that he was still breathing, but it was shallow and uneven. Anger and worry flared within her and she met Gaara's intense gaze with one of her own and stood her ground despite her body's painful protest. He chuckled as he ran a hand through her rosette locks and gripped it firmly to bring her face mere inches from his own.

"I want you to scream," he whispered harshly.

Sakura bit the inside of her cheek to keep from whimpering, but responded in kind. "Never."

Gaara smirked and took his hand from her hair, only to raise it and slap her hard across the face. Still, Sakura held her ground, despite the sudden failure in her eye sight and intense headache.

She spat blood at his feet and smiled sickly, "is that the best you've got?"


Kakashi leapt from the helicopter and moved quickly away from the strong wind from the blades. He saw the destruction from the ride here and was devastated by what he saw; buildings were partially destroyed and bodies, either dead or alive, littered the ground. There were ambulances at every turn and the lights from every emergency vehicle lit up surrounding area in an eerie glow. Not even Sakura's call could have prepared him for this.

The thought of Sakura made him run to the door to get off the roof. As he reached it, it opened slowly and an elderly man stood on the other side, a look of bewilderment upon his aging face. He led Kakashi, Genma, Anko, and Shizune down a long flight of stairs until they reached the bottom floor. Once they entered the lobby of the old hotel, Kakashi bolted out the door and instantly began looking for Sakura's pink head; when he didn't find her, he began asking emergency personnel if they had treated an agent with pink hair and green eyes.

One of the paramedics recalled treating her for a broken arm and a minor concussion and said she tore off down an alley nearby. Kakashi instantly looked for an alley that wasn't a dead end and ran into Shikamaru, who was holding something in his hands that was heavily charred and sporting a troubled look. When he raised his eyes to meet Kakashi's, he saw worry and fear lurking behind the genius' gaze.

"Is that the bomb?" Kakashi asked, already knowing it was.

Shikamaru rubbed the back of his neck. "Not just that, but on some of the buildings near the blast area is the same red cloud we found at the last murder case."

Kakashi sucked in a breath and looked around. "Any word from Naruto, Sakura, or Sasuke?"

Just before Shikamaru could respond, they heard two loud shots fired from a gun fairly close by. Panic began to ripple through the crowd and screams were drowning any other sounds that would have followed. Kakashi and Shikamaru looked down the alley that led to the cemetery and both carefully made their way down it until they leaned against the low fence.

On the other side was a grim scene that made Kakashi's heart sink; lying motionless on the ground near a bench in the middle of the cemetery was four bodies, one with unmistakable pink hair. There were two figures standing, one looked like Naruto hunched over and holding a gun and the other was a redheaded male, equally beaten and inching towards Sakura's body.

"Sakura…" Kakashi whispered as he hopped over the fence and ran as quickly as he could to Naruto's side. He began to recognize the other bodies on the ground the closer he got; he saw a blond female unconscious on the ground in front of the bench, another male unconscious on the bench, and Sasuke was on his back not too far off with a knife lodged in his chest. Looking down at Sakura, he saw how horribly beaten she looked and instantly saw the black bruises on her neck and a nasty cut that looked as if it would get infected if left untreated.

Naruto didn't seem to notice Kakashi's arrival; he was focused on the demonic looking redhead standing across them, who seemed more interested in Sakura's unconscious form…looking at her with a dangerously dark gleam in his eyes. Slowly, he raised his eyes to Kakashi's gaze, a bloodthirsty smirk on his face.

"Naruto," Kakashi spoke calmly and quietly. "Lower your gun."

Naruto didn't budge, but he responded with a harsh voice. "You're just going to let him get away with what he did?"

"Lower your weapon, Naruto." Kakashi repeated.

He still didn't make any movement.

Kakashi sighed and squared his shoulders. "That's an order, Uzumaki."

Naruto's eye twitched, but he slowly lowered his weapon.

The redhead across them only smiled wider and before they could react, he bolted to the woods behind the cemetery and was out of sight. Naruto ran after him, leaving Kakashi to deal with the unconscious bodies on the ground.

"Damn kids," Kakashi cursed as he knelt beside the blond close by to check her pulse, then moved on to each of the others. All of them appeared to be alive, but in serious need of medical attention. He moved to Sasuke and had to turn away for a second before making sure he was alive; he had seen Sasuke get beaten within a mere inch of his life on many occasions, but nothing ever quite like this…

Before he could check Sakura, Shikamaru came running over with a group of paramedics trailing behind him, along with Kiba and his giant white dog, Shino, and Choji. As they reached Kakashi and the others, Kiba groaned and Choji choked. The paramedics went to each of the people unconscious and instantly began to do what they could to help.

Shikamaru shook his head as he looked at each of them. "Can we ever find these two when they aren't in bad shape?"

Kakashi knew he meant Sakura and Sasuke and silently agreed as his gaze shifted to Sakura as one of the paramedics was trying to bring her back to consciousness. He saw blood smearing her face and neck and the splint on her broken arm was cracked in several places.

"Where did Naruto go?" Shikamaru asked, his eyes on the blond who was already beginning to sit up on her own.

"He went into the woods, following the redhead." Kakashi replied as he shook his head. "Kiba. Choji. Do you think you could track Naruto and bring both him and that redhead back here?"

Kiba nodded and bolted off to the woods with Choji mumbling close behind him.


Three days later…

Sasuke paced in the hospital room, pausing every so often to glare at the bouquet of various roses and other flowers on the stand beside the bed. There were other bouquets and balloons in the room as well, but this particular one was from Kakashi. Sasuke felt his eye twitch and cleared his mind of those thoughts, for now.

He stopped his pacing and turned to look at Sakura sleeping in the hospital bed. Sasuke knew he had been hurt pretty bad, but the knife in his chest hadn't hit anything vital making it an easy fix. Naruto was still being held under heavy watch do to his own injuries, much like Sakura. Sasuke sat in the chair beside the bed and slipped her small hand into his own; he brought her delicate hand to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss to it.

Sasuke had already read her medical report, having sneaking a peak at it when the nurse walked out. Sakura had a more serious concussion, after it had been noted that she had already been treated for a minor one, her broken arm had been cracked in three other places surrounding the break, two broken ribs, and three cracked ribs. She had been badly beaten, but it looked as if she had stood her ground. Sasuke had never been so worried, proud, and angry at someone at the same time in his life.

He moved her pink hair away from her face and caressed her check. There were no traces of tear stains upon her face, even over the slight bruising. His gaze fell to her swollen lips and he brushed over them lightly with his thumb, the urge to kiss her was too great for his own good…

As he leaned forward, Sakura's eyes fluttered open and met his gaze. She didn't seem to see him right away, but she squeezed his hand and whispered his name, sending his heart soaring. He slowly backed away from her and waited for her to look over to him; she groaned loudly in pain as she tried to sit up and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Where am I?" She spoke barely above a whisper.

"Tonomachi Matsue city," he answered softly, running his thumb in circles over her hand. "You and Naruto were in too bad condition to move."

Sakura coughed, followed by a whimper. "What about Gaara and the others?"

He sighed. "They were treated for their wounds and are currently being questioned back at headquarters. Gaara, however, is still here under heavy surveillance."

Her beautiful emerald eyes sparkled and Sasuke had to suck in a sharp breath of air. Even when she looked as fragile and broken, she was still breathtakingly beautiful. He reached up and ran a hand over her pink tresses, memorizing the feel of how soft it was.

"Sakura," Sasuke leaned forward, "I…"

"Sakura!" Sasuke looked up and saw Ino at the doorway, tears running down her face.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the interruption and quickly backed away from Sakura. He supposed it could wait until he was sure they were alone…

"Oh Sakura!" Ino ran into the room and went to throw her arms around her friend's neck, but stopped short at the death glare Sasuke gave her. "Every time I get a call about you, you're in the hospital."

Sakura smiled weakly at Ino, but it didn't last. Sasuke saw the exhaustion on her face and new she needed more rest, but he also knew her well enough that she would rather be checking up on Naruto. He squeezed her hand gently, letting her know that he knew what she was thinking.

Ino stood there, looking between the two of them with a smirk on her face.

Sasuke stood and cleared his throat; he decided it would be best if he left. He gave one more reassuring look to Sakura before he left the room and walked down the depressing hallway. He ignored the nurses and patients as he maneuvered through the crowd and made his way to Naruto's room.

As he made his way to the other end of the hospital, he thought of the fire that had sparked in Sakura's eyes as she defended Gaara and it was at that moment that he realized how close alike those two really looked. Sasuke knew Sakura never knew who her father was, but he never saw her dig to find out who he was…

His thoughts were cut short as he reached Naruto's room; through the window, he saw his blond friend unconscious and surrounded by monitors. There was a breathing machine attached to his face and quite a few nurses hovering over him, fussing over anything and everything. Down the hall, there were policemen guarding a door and Sasuke knew Gaara was being held in there with more cops, machines, and nurses.

No one really knew what had happened between Gaara and Naruto. By the time Kiba and Choji had gotten there, they said that both of them were already knocked out and in rough shape. Both of them had been put into a medically induced coma to help the healing process and wouldn't be released for at least another two weeks.

Sasuke was more than positive he wouldn't be allowed in the room, so he just made his way out of the hospital and to the nearest bar.


So...was it any good? The next chapter several chapters are going to be a-m-a-z-i-n-g (now that the boring stuff is out of the way). However, there is still a lot of the emotional turmoil going on.

With love and gratitude,

~Ell