Disclaimer: Don't own these characters, only using them to tell a tale.
Warning For This Chapter: Same. Just re-written and split in to two. Missed out the scene I was going to write!
--
'Gaara,what are you doing here this early?' Sakura stared at the already awake Gaara through blurry eyes, as he was lifting the covers of the bed to join her in the comfortable cocoon of blankets. He slipped into the bed behind her and slid his arms around her. 'It's five am. I need to sleep.' She groaned, realising that Gaara was only wearing his boxers. A blush spread across her cheeks.
'I couldn't sleep. You calm me down.' He snuggled even tighter into her, his hot breath fanning on her T shirt covered shoulder. 'I like lying in bed with you. Warm.' His arms tightened around her waist. Her blush grew as much as Hinata's when she was around Naruto. She let herself relax into his embrace since she figured his intention really was sleeping; she was not ready for ... that.
--
Hazily, she woke up again, with someone's lips pressed gently to hers. 'Gaara?' She opened her eyes to see his face not so far away from hers, eyes affixed to her lips. The hunger in his stare was enough to make her blush. 'What time is it?' She didn't want to be caught in the act by waking her mother, whose bedroom was across the hall from hers, so she tried to get him distracted.
He looked at the alarm clock for a second, but his eye's hunger had not died down when they returned to her. 'Oh-seven-hundred.' He leant down to delicately place pecks against her jawline and nuzzle his head into her neck; his blood red spikes tickling against her skin, making her giggle lightly. He shifted his position slowly, so that his entire body was pressed into Sakura's. She gasped at his erect appendage sticking into her belly. She began to recoil, fear striking her.
'Gaara, I'm not ...'
The door flung wide open, bouncing off the adjacent wall, leaving a fresh crack in the wall. Sakura's mother appeared in the door frame, her normally pretty face distorted with anger. Gaara didn't move, even when Sakura squealed and attempted to shove him off. He just stared at her mother.
'Mum?! Wha-,' she was cut off by her mother's yell.
'Listen, Goth-Boy. It was you who made my daughter dress up like a little slut for your stupid little "art project", wasn't it? You have been changing her, I can tell. She is beginning to listen to that noise she did before ... she got attacked. You'll make it happen to her again. She will die because of you! Perhaps even from your own hands, like you did those innocent people; I know your past and I'm not going to let you taint my little girl with your evil -.' She stopped abruptly. Her hardened features fell into fear. Gaara had stepped out of the bed, and towered over her, forcing the headstrong woman to shrink back, if only slightly.
'I do not wish to hurt Sakura. I want to protect her. She is mine. I do not wish to taint her.' His stone-cold voice did not lessen the effect those words had on Sakura's heart, as it fluttered. She bit back an admiring smile at him, choosing to glare at her mother instead. 'I want her to be happy with who she is. She should be comfortable in her own skin, not being forced to live a lie for the rest of her life. I will help her do that.'
Sakura's mother simply huffed and stalked back out of the room. 'Gaara?' Sakura slipped from the snug blankets and wrapped her arms around his soft, smooth chiselled stomach. He tensed on impact of her touch. As she leant her head against his shoulder, he relaxed, leaning into the caress of their skin melded together. 'I think ... I love you.' It was her turn to tense, as she awaited his response.
He turned in the embrace to face her. For a few seconds that seemed like hours to her, Gaara stared almost softly at her. A tiny smile flickered at the corner of his lips and he leant down to take hers in to a sweet kiss. 'I ... love ... you too.'
--
'Are you sure it's OK?' Sakura stared at her attire, running her sweaty palms down it, as if to smooth down the slightly crinkled, rich red, velvet jacket and black laced skirt. She looked to a still half naked Gaara for approval.
'You look beautiful. Like an angel.' He ruffled through the bag he had brought with him and produced a thin strip of black velvet and his black pin striped trousers.
'Wear this.' He dumped the trousers on the bright pink bed and paced towards Sakura. The velvet was brought over her head and tied with a bow at the side of her neck. She smiled at his reflection, fingering the soft velvet with her right hand.
'Thank you.'
--
Hand in hand, they gently strolled their way to school, ignoring the averted eyes and contemptuous glares that flew their way. A scraping of skateboard wheels against the concrete pavement bored into their brains as Naruto, in his usual rush, caught up with them. 'Hey, Sakura! You look very pretty today!' he yelled at her, jumping off the board to walk with them.
'Thank you, Naru.' she replicated his mile wide grin as he flung an arm around her shoulders in a quick hug. 'You do the home work for English?'
'Nope he he. That old bastard gives us too much home work! You done it Gaara?'
'I did.' Sakura barely missed the wink from Gaara to Naruto as she looked down in time to dodge some dog poo that was still steaming on the ground.
--
'Hi Hinata! How you doing?' Naruto went to sit next to her around the gang tree, but was kicked in the butt by Kiba, sending him flying into Hinata's chest, knocking her onto her back. Her face flushed scarlet, when she realised that the man she fancies currently has his head right in between her breasts. She didn't want him to move, strangely enough, but he got off her. 'Sorry! It was the bastard. Are you OK?'
He scrambled up and playfully punched Kiba, who was doubled up. 'Say sorry to Hinata! Now, you bastard!' He was about to lay another punch on him, but was distracted by a piece of paper shoved in front of his face. 'What's this?' He grabbed the paper and read it:
Attention all burgeoning bands of Konoha!
The Battle of the Konoha Bands is coming soon to a school hall near you!
Hosted by Ichiraku Ramen, the prize will be a year's worth of Ramen
and a recording contract from Lumpy Zombie records.
Apply by Friday 13th of March, to win the most fabulous prize.
'We are going to be entering this contest.' Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at Naruto's wide-eyed whimpering at the mention of Ramen. 'As we have no songs yet, we will hold a no doubt long-winded and troublesome meeting in the drum room this lunch time. Is that OK with you?'
'Ramen. A year ...' was all Naruto could say, drool sliding rapidly from the corner of his open mouth.
'Troublesome.' Shikamaru shook his head and flopped his self next to the newly arrived Neji.
From the corner of Gaara's eye, the enemy was sighted. Walking at a leisurely pace, Sasuke, Ino and Karin beelined towards the motley crew, pushing the unfortunate enough to get in their way to the ground recklessly. 'Guys. The Mafia are coming.' he nodded in their direction. A collective shudder ran through the group at the most popular boy in the school, exercising his 'power'.
--
Slowly, the sun that had been shining merrily was hidden behind huge grey clouds and every person in the group felt an odd chill in the smalls of their backs. Sasuke drew to a close around 4 metres away from the almost cowering already group of friends. He smirked at them, snaking his slimy arms around the girls at his sides.
'We seem to have a huge problem here, don't we? Three Goths, three Rockers and four Prep wannabes all conglomerating around this miserable tree. Don't you guys know that my clique system is being jeopardised and I do wish for this school to have some kind of order about it. Otherwise, how would crowd control and revenge be even possible? I have let you guys off very lightly for some time now, because of Ino, but with the recent additions,' he nodded at Naruto and Gaara, 'and the very interesting transformation of a certain Miss Haruno, you have made my blood boil that you can take liberties from my control so far.' The smug look on his face made even Hinata punch his lights out.
By now a rather large crowd had gathered around to see the potential conflict. And defeat of the arsehole of the year. 'I will ask you once and once only; separate and join the appropriate cliques or I will force your demise in an ugly direction.'
'BASTARD!' Naruto launched from beside Hinata and threw his fist into Sasuke's face, forcing him and the girls to crash on the floor. 'You make me sick!' he yelled as he spat at the ground. 'You remind me of the sick bastard who made these cuts into my face. The same person nearly killed Sakura at the same time. I will not let a petty bastard like you ruin her life for the second time, believe it!'
Sensing that he was going to do something stupid, Hinata ran at Naruto and held him back from kicking Sasuke whilst he was on the floor. She gripped as hard as she could, pulling him backwards. 'Naruto! Let us deal with him. I don't want you to be hurt,' almost sobbing, she managed to get him away from their tyrant.
'Hinata. I have to protect-.'
'No, I do.' Gaara stepped up. 'I've spent years alone because of his pathetic methods of propaganda against me. I wish to deal with this.' He kissed Sakura on the cheek and took a few paces towards the now standing Sasuke.
'OK. It's your fight.' Naruto fell limp against Hinata, who was peculiarly red faced.
Before Gaara could even do any thing, Sasuke ranged an unexpected punch. Gaara only fell back a couple of paces, a creepy glare transformed his face into something from a nightmare. Another punch, this time a left hook, was blocked, the offending arm twisted into an iron grip with Gaara's opposite hand. He was flipped over on to the ground again; a sick crack from his back on impact, just from the flick of a wrist. 'I will not stop hurting you if you dare touch any one again.'The old feelings were coming back, he could feel it. Kill. Murder. Blood. DEATH. Those words swirled in his head. Taking a swift glance at the pitiful tears that had sprung from his victim's eyes. I have to go, before I kill him. He swiftly turned on his heel and nearly ran off, pushing through the jeering crowd.
'Gaara? Are you OK?' Sakura came running after him, brow furrowed in concern. He ignored her, just raced off faster. 'Gaara. Stop now. Tell me what's wrong. I want to know. I want to be able to make it better.' He stopped. She caught up and wrapped her arms around him, head resting on his heaving chest.
'My old feelings came back. I wanted to kill him. Don't make me kill for you.' he rasped into her ear, enveloping her with his iron grip. She looked up and kissed him deeply with lips bonding properly, not just an innocent peck.
'I don't want you to kill for me either. Keeping them or him alive would be better punishment than dying. It almost lets them off. You should know that, Gaara. I want you to have confidence in the power of others, especially me. We don't have to fight with punches and kicks. Violence and death do not always mean victory, especially if you are taken away from the people you love for it.' She looked deep into his still-contorted eyes, rubbing the small of his back in an attempt of calming him down.
'You're ... right. He will live.' He smashed his lips into hers.
--
'Come on, Sasuke! Get up and fight.' Ino and Karin were trying to pull the hapless boy from the ground. He was crying from the back pain. And the loss of his reputation. The crowd was laughing heartily at him, pointing. Humiliation had finally bitten him in the ass and now all of his control and years of work and manipulation was lost all in two minutes.
'Tch, fighting with you would be worthless, you pathetic freak. Troublesome, that a weak person like you can have power over everyone.' Shikamaru relaxed at the tree, smirking at the crying ex leader of the school.
'What is going on here?' Mr Hatake meandered through the crowd to raise his free eyebrow at Sasuke. 'Finally gotten your comeuppance, eh? Who did it?' He didn't try to help him up.
'Gaara. Flipped me on my back. I can't move.' Tears were still falling down his pathetic face.
Mr Hatake suddenly picked the boy up in his arms. He never liked Sasuke, he just wanted the crowd to disappear. 'Out of the way, out of the way!' He disappeared into the building with the two whores trailing after him like a funeral procession.
'That bastard! He deserves everything he got.' Naruto still hadn't managed to calm down quite, not realising that Hinata was still hanging on to him for grim death. When he tried to sit down again, but was restricted, he realised that some one was holding him. 'Eh? Hinata, why are you still holding me?' She immediately let go, fiddling with her fingers, as she blushed an impossible red. Her lavender eyes filled with fear and suddenly, she keeled over.
A/N: Redeyedgreenie is a very over-dramatic person. She takes back putting this up for adoption, as she is a retard. Please, don't let that get in the way of reading this. She will finish it!
I got rid of the NaruHina fluff, so I can develop it :) Tell me if you don't want it!
Let's get interactive! I want you guys to vote for your favourite track for the guys to perform at the Battle of the Konoha Bands!
The options are:
Triple Corpse Hammer Blow by Children of Bodom (w/some one on keyboards)
Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden
Sorgens Kammer Dell 2 by Dimmu Borgir (again, w/some one on keyboards)
Cassius by Foals
Just a Song About Ping Pong by Operator Please
The Running Free by Coheed and Cambria
Glamorous Sky by Hyde
Hand in Glove by The Smiths
Tears Don't Fall by Bullet For My Valentine
Or .. one made up by me ... most likely would be utter tosh.
Go youtube the songs you haven't heard (if you have time) and vote like crazy! GO GO GO!
Review thanks to: Ashleigh, Bethany (also thanks for the Beta-ing), AlaskenWildFlower, Cherry Blossom Sweetheart, Daria, Mystic-Panda, XxvampfreakxX, ShadowFoxAngel, Soccercrazyfreak, UchihaSakura2007 and ! Your support means so much to me! Remember to vote for a song!