We apologise for the delay. A mix of busy schedules, bad timing for conversation, and real life... problems.

Enjoy. XD

Disclaimer: c.f. chapter 1.

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Chapter 10

Winter turned even the harshest desert landscape into a wonderland of rain-impacted swirls on clay-coloured sand; the simple colours created an artistic composite of sight and sound. He'd always preferred the heat of dry, desert areas, but there was something so magical about the rain. How it all mixed together. It was something he couldn't put into words. Even though Winter in the Land of Wind wasn't cold enough to produce snow, it certainly felt cold enough.

There was nothing he wanted more right now, than for this sporadic rainfall to turn into a storm.

Hugging himself gently, Gaara stared out over the semi-circular driveway, his eyes drifting out and along the private road as it curved away from his father's castle. The sounds of the débutante ball could be heard from all the way out here, and he had no doubt in his mind that the dinner his father had spoken of, was already underway.

It meant his time was running out.

Gaara felt the presence before he heard the scuffing of their shoes. Partially hidden under the porte-co chère, he was barely noticeable, but his contact was hidden in shadow; the redhead nodded to the figure behind him, waiting for the man to disappear before stepping out into the night air.

"The way is clear."

His contact within the hierarchy of Wind was the shy type, preferring to meet alone and keep their features covered – or bathed in shadow. They would not have appreciated the presence of a certain pink haired girl, if he'd brought Sakura along. Still, he knew she was going to berate him for leaving her in that room. She had both a demure side and stubborn side that were unusual in a high society girl but perfect in a ball of pink coloured femininity. He smirked at that comparison. Either way, Baki would've found her by now, and they should be on their way to the carriage house.

They just needed to get off the estate without being seen if they had any hopes of actually getting away, and no half-arsed conceived idea a pair of ladies of the court came up with, was going to work. It wasn't that Gaara doubted Sakura's intellect, but he didn't know this Ino person she put so much faith in. He had a lot of experience evading his father's eyes, and there was no-one he trusted more than himself to keep that winning streak going.

Their best bet was to head to Otaki first; a small village with a big secret, overlooked by the aristocracy as an inconsequential outlying village to the east. There, they could stock up and find the right trade route out of the country. It was a natural hub for the underground in the Land of Wind because of its size and position near the border. It would also be the best destination as it was in the opposite direction of the Land of Fire – the country his father knew Gaara always fled to, to lie low.

Gaara looked down at the note in his hand, again. Naruto's words ran through his head heavily.

Get her to the border and I can do the rest.

The mere idea of just handing her over to him didn't sit well with the redhead.

'I'll deal with that later.'

He stopped walking, realising he'd absentmindedly made it to his destination. Still dressed as the help, Gaara spoke softly to the footman standing outside the carriage house, keeping his eyes downcast. The man nodded and accepted his excuse, leaving the mews with a curt nod. If he suspected the hall boy wasn't who he said he was, the man gave no indication. With his hair covered, Gaara believed he was in the clear.

'Money talks, too,' he thought. And the higher in standing their boss was, the greedier the help became.

Gaara double-checked to make sure the area was empty and slipped into the Royal Mew; there was a single horse-drawn carriage waiting for him, as promised. He had no idea what that Ino person had had planned, but this was infinitely better.

Gaara quickly checked the outside, looking for movement, before settling on a bench outside the carriage house to wait for Sakura and Baki. Impatience weighed heavily on him and it gave him a few minutes to recap the conversation he'd had with his father, in his head.

Rasa's unspoken order to do something about Sasuke… it was both surprisingly ominous and telling. Gaara had indeed been with the Imperial Guard, but it had been so long ago. Yeah, he'd killed before. In the name of his father. In the name of his country. And before that, just to survive his father and country. But that hardly made him patriotic. Or stupid enough to believe his father would just accept him back.

Still, he didn't take King Rasa for a fool.

And, if Sasuke was smart, he already had other means to leave in a hurry.

Baki had thought the old man would be more open, more accepting – he was wrong. Gaara had humiliated him and King Rasa was not a forgiving man. The only thing the redhead could do now was get the hell out of here – some where the old man had no jurisdiction. Like the Land of Fire.

Gaara laughed out loud at the irony of it all.

"Gaara."

Gaara stood up sharply, spun around, and immediately scowled. He took a moment to calm his nerves and appreciate the cruel irony that now stood in front of him.

"Did he send you here?" He asked.

"No."

He watched his sister closely as Temari stepped toward him; seemingly not bothered by the rain, light as it was. She looked pained – not that he cared. Why should he? She'd stood by their father every time Rasa had ordered his quiet death. She and Kankuro, both. Neither had come to him before, looking to placate or reacquaint with their younger brother.

So, what the fuck did she want now? And how had she found him?

Despite the fact that she clearly hadn't wanted anything to do with Rasa's little speech earlier about honour to the family and blah, blah, blah, Gaara didn't care. They had never been much of a family, anyway. Growing up, he'd only known the multitude of nursemaids that came and went, not to mention that period of time his uncle looked after him; shortly before his death. During those months they spent together, Yashamaru was the only family member who would even speak to Gaara. Nobody knew more about the moody redhead than him.

Until Baki. But that was a whole other story.

Gaara watched Temari closely as she shifted her weight between her feet nervously. This woman was known far and wide as a force of nature. She was rarely overwhelmed. Her duty to her father, brother Kankuro had overridden her loyalty to her snotty husband on multiple occasions; she was ruthless.

"You need to leave."

Seriously?

Gaara glared at her. "You don't speak to me for months, nor return any communications for years, and that's all you have to say to me?"

"I was ordered–"

"Don't bother."

Her eye twitched, but she didn't call him out on his lack of respect for their father. Rasa had filled their head with the importance of family loyalty, duty, and appearances from childhood, but he rarely bothered with Gaara. He wasn't important until the day his existence had been seen as a good thing by the rest of the country. Temari didn't like that things had turned out that way, but she was tired of being lumped in the same boat as their father. Like she'd chosen to keep him at arm's length.

"Fine," she said, biting her tongue to keep from snapping at him. "I'll get straight to the point. You knew coming back here would just invoke his anger. You remember the last time you two spoke. How you both ended it. He wouldn't help you with that prison debacle, so what did you hope to accomplish by returning?"

He wanted to scoff, to let that roll off of him, but it bothered him. It made him so angry.

"If I'm so unwelcomed, what was the whole speech father made about? That pontification? And prince du sang? Why appear to welcome me back if he had no intention of doing so?"

Gaara's voice rose as his anger did. He struggled to maintain some semblance of calm in the face of her frustration. Her insinuation that he'd never belonged here to begin with. He didn't want to be doing this with her right now. He had a schedule to keep, and not a lot of time before Baki and Sakura were due to show up.

A niggling feeling told him they were overdue, even though he hadn't really paid attention to the time.

"I don't know. Maybe it's the same-old, same-old with you two. Maybe he really wanted to give you an opening to return to us."

Gaara scoffed, gripping the missive in his hand tighter.

"Maybe," Temari said. "Or maybe he's well aware of everything and everyone you've been doing and had a long, protracted plan to publicly accept you and then kill you."

"Had?"

"Things have changed."

Gaara thought of Sakura, then. Yes, things had changed. It was selfish of him to get involved with her. It was selfish of him to marry her, knowing he wasn't going to be executed – Baki wouldn't have let him go, regardless of King Rasa's orders. Many times, including his imprisonment in the Westward prison, the redhead had almost given up. He owed his old friend more than he could ever repay.

And Sakura...

He closed his eyes, picturing her. His life before her had been so hollow; the shallow sex, the empty sex. The dead-end attempts at a life he could be proud of. Surviving but not living.

How cliché.

"You should leave," Temari repeated.

He growled. "Why do you care?"

"You and that putain–"

"Temari," he warned.

"Fine." She snapped. "Take your…" She paused when he narrowed his eyes at her warningly. "Wife," she continued carefully, "and get out of here. If you don't do what he wants this time, that's it – he wants you to disappear, even if he has to kill you and pretend you died in the line of duty with the Imperial Guard. It's that Uchiha or yourself. And if you come back to us…" She inhaled deeply. "Come back alone."

She didn't wait for his retort, turning around and storming off. The rain did nothing to blur the outline of his sister as she left, but she faded into the background, nonetheless. Gaara stared after her, however, long after she'd gone. At least he got the truth. To some degree. He should be happy with that. But he wasn't.

No matter how many times he'd told himself they didn't matter to him anymore, it had only ever been a lie. A lie he had to tell himself, because that dream of a happy family was never going to happen.

A familiar presence; he hadn't noticed it in Temari's wake. Things were careening out of control.

Get her to the border and I can do the rest.

.

.

The cold had set in and precipitation fell in gentle, vaporous streaks over her head; not enough to warrant an umbrella, but enough that a thin filament of rain had begun to form over her maid uniform. Sakura didn't hesitate, however, as she broke into a run once she escaped out of the lower hallways used solely by servants, and into the open air. The night had never smelled so beautiful.

No-one had been able to tell her where a servant matching Gaara's disguised description was, but a few of the servants remembered seeing more traffic than usual in the eastern section of the castle, in the past ten minutes. Something about the head footman preparing horses and a carriage on the orders of one of the royal attendants. It was all hush-hush and last minute, and not a lot to go on, since it might have nothing to do with Gaara at all, but there was only a slim chance that it was anyone else in his family planning an early getaway. That dinner King Rasa had talked about was apparently in full swing, at this very second.

It never failed to surprise Sakura how easily servants took to changes in their orders. Illicit rendezvous and getaways must be more common than she thought.

The hairs on the back of her neck prickled; someone was watching her. As she ran along the outer curtain wall of the old castle, making a bee-line for the side gate nearest to where the carriages were prepared, she knew her flight was never going to go unnoticed. There were numerous points of exit to choose from, but all were guarded either by a burly guard or a watchman in his post in the pinnacle of the tower above it. She didn't care, as long as they couldn't be arsed to follow and stop her. They were sentries in name but glorified wet nurses when it came to true action.

Or so Ino had told her.

Also a point in her favour was that the white head cap on her head kept her pink hair hidden; no trumpet sounded as she fled down the footbridge, making her way toward the carriage house. The rain wasn't loud enough to hide the sounds of chatter that reached her ear a moment later. She slowed her stride; this was how she was going to run off eventually, with Ino's help, so it made sense that others had thought of this too. She decided to take a chance, since escape from this castle was paramount for both her and Gaara; there was something going on with Rasa, where Sasuke was concerned, and Sakura was no fool. During that exchange back in that library, there was a conversation going on in their silent stares that she wasn't privy to.

There was no distinct red hair from her vantage point, but that dilapidated uniform was familiar enough to send Sakura running toward the person wearing it.

He was standing next to someone, but she didn't care.

Sakura launched herself at him the moment he turned to face her, unleashing all her anger on him; pounding her fists on his chest. "Salaud!"

Gaara's eyes widened at her blatantly crude language. He grabbed her hands, but she twisted her wrists in an attempt to keep assaulting him. "Damn it, woman. Stop hitting me!"

"You bastard!"

"I assure you, my parents were–"

"Shut up."

"Tch. Annoying."

Sakura spun around, finally noticing who Gaara had been talking with. "Sasuke? What are you doing here?"

The raven-haired man inclined his head to her. "I promised Naruto. Now it seems I've been roped into getting you to the border."

If she knew him at all, she'd see through the calm façade to the frustration within.

Instead, her eyes widened, and she looked back at Gaara who was watching her closely. "You're coming too, right?"

She had every right to mistrust that he'd keep his promise. Her hands bunched his shirt and she stared into his eyes, uncertain. When he nodded, she exhaled deeply but didn't let go of him.

Gaara looked over her head to note their newcomer.

His old friend had the decency to look ashamed; Baki visibly wilted under that infamous glare.

"Sorry," he said. "She's a bit violent." He rubbed the back of his head for emphasis.

Gaara chuckled. "That she is."

Sakura growled at him. "Arsehole."

She felt her anger bubble, but when Sakura moved to slap his chest again, Gaara stopped her; clasping his hands over hers, he gave her an amused smile.

"Now, is that any way to treat your husband?"

"HUSBAND?"

The high-pitched squeal of indignation rang out in the open and seemed to continue echoing off into the distance.

Sakura groaned. "Ino."

That was going to attract attention.

"Well, this is annoying." Sasuke shook his head. "I've done my part. Don't make me look like a liar, Sabaku."

He disappeared into the mews, clearly making his own exit. Gaara didn't care. He groaned at the arrival of Sakura's friend. This was definitely annoying. Sakura stiffened, and he decided the best thing would be to give them a minute, so he and Baki both moved to speak with the driver, giving the girls their privacy.

Sakura laced her fingers together, watching her friend, nervously. Ino recovered quickly and smirked.

"So, this is who you've been moping over, forehead?" Ino raked Gaara over once with her eyes, lingering on his backside. "Isn't he supposed to be dead?"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"That he's the King's son?"

Sakura groaned, throwing a dirty look in Gaara's direction. "I didn't know that part."

"So, you fell in love with a stranger? Huh. How uncouth of you, my dear." Ino chuckled. "I can see why, though. Nice derrière."

Sakura blushed.

"Uh-huh. I take it from your blush he's nice all over?"

"Ino."

"But why tell me he was dead?"

"I thought he was." Sakura couldn't help but glare at Gaara again. As if sensing her ire, he turned to look at her, and blew a kiss. Her cheeks reddened even further. "The arse."

Ino chuckled but didn't comment. It was nice to see her little pinkie so welcomed and happy; even if she covered it in anger over whatever was going on between them, it was obvious to the blonde that Sakura was in love. This was all Ino had wanted for her best friend, so she decided to leave her alone about the lie. At least, for now.

Sakura sighed. "By the way, Ino, how did you find me out here?"

"I'll tell you when you blossom into womanhood."

Sakura frowned.

"It's not for the faint hearted." Ino stuck her tongue out and waggled it, making her friend blush. "I'm joking, of course. It's a lengthy tale of girl meets boy, boy is terrified of girl and tells her things that good girls aren't supposed to know, and finally, girl sees the one she's after and chases after her in a blaze of glory." She giggled. "Later, though."

"Ladies, it's time to go." Gaara called.

Ino looked up at the castle at the sound of a commotion. Something else was going on. "You can't tell me all about it some other time, forehead," she said quickly, as Sakura opened her mouth to say something. "Get going, my little mignon."

They hugged briefly; Sakura held on a little tightly, afraid to let go.

As Ino watched her being led into the carriage by her husband and rolled her eyes at his antics – hands cupping her arse, like a real douche – she had a horrible feeling she would never see her best friend again.

…

IridescentInTheDark: In the interest of consistency and because it would feel weird not to mention: FallenCrimsonStar is now FallenInDreams. I'll go over and change that in previous author note's so as to avoid confusion.

As usual, please review. XD