A/N: This is set almost two years after Gaara raped Sakura.
Gaara won when Deidara tried to capture him. Suna was demolished and had to be rebuilt. Sakura was sent with others to help with the wounded and rebuilding efforts. Then she returned to the leaf. Sasuke Uchiha died trying to destroy Konoha, and Kakashi is Hokage.
And the most important detail… Gaara still has Shukaku. Second most important would have to be that over the last 2-4 years, joint operations between Konoha and Suna have wiped out the Akatsuki completely. Yes, that includes Madara.
In The Monster Within, Gaara and Sakura were 19, and here they are 21 years old… approximately.

Thanks to gunitatsuhiko, hyuugahinata247, StarKiss666, The Shadow Moon, RiverDarkness, Illusions11,miikodesu, pandaXcherry4real and Kaeri (ANON) for reviewing last chapter.

And to answer The Shadow Moon, yes, there is more to come after Sakura finds Gaara. Can't just end it there, right. ;)

Enjoy!

'Inner Sakura'

'SHUKAKU'

Chapter 11 – Awoken.

Ino Yamanaka woke groggily the next morning, both hazy and dizzy. She felt weird. It took her a moment, staring at the ceiling, to realise what had happened. It hit her on the back of the head with a dull thud, reminding her of the pain throbbing on her scalp. But there was no pain right now. Startled, she sat up quickly.

"Wait, what!"

She jumped out of bed, dressed into her full ninja clothes, and ran into the room next door without so much as knocking or worrying if Naruto or Shikamaru were even decent this time of the morning. Both were predictably still asleep, making her indifferent to waking them up at this hour. The sun was about to peek into the room, and most normal ninja were used to waking up before now anyway. Shikamaru was the laziest person she knew, and Naruto was just a knucklehead. That was the only cause for them sleeping so much.

Ino shook Shikamaru gently to wake him, then rougher and rougher until he gave up pretending to be asleep and then throttled Naruto for good measure. The cloud watcher just yawned at her from his horizontal position, not caring enough to sit up, but Naruto sat up and rubbed his eyes sleepily as he groaned. He was the one who spoke, seeing as though Shikamaru couldn't be bothered.

"Alright, alright, I'm up! What's your problem?"

"Oh, get out of it Naruto," she said, despite her sense of urgency. "Do you speak to Hinata like that in the morning?"

Naruto blushed slightly. "No. But she's my wife Ino. And usually in the morning we –"

"Don't want to know," she said. "Look, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sakura is gone."

"Explain 'gone'," Shikamaru yawned.

"I mean I woke up in the middle of the night and she was getting dressed to go somewhere and then she knocked me unconscious and wasn't there when I woke up."

Naruto jumped out of bed in his typical way and clenched his fists. "What?"

"Oh, that kind of 'gone'," the lazy ass cloud watcher said, looking frustrated now.

Ino groaned. "You could at least pretend to be concerned, Shikamaru."

"I am concerned Ino," he said. "It sounds like she's finally snapped. She's been even more troublesome for a while now."

Ino huffed. "I expected more from you. Okay, I'll go tell Temari. You two dress and pack. I'll be back."

She stormed out, leaving Naruto looking even more confused and Shikamaru contemplating the implications of Sakura's recent weird behaviour. Still laying back, his hands resting under the back of his head, he stared at the ceiling. He hoped Sakura was okay, despite Ino's belief he didn't care. He was surprised more than anything, that's all. No matter how strangely Sakura had been acting, he would never have predicted she would just fly the coop.

"What the hell are you doing Shikamaru?" Naruto asked. "Ino said to get up."

"Ino isn't the boss," Shikamaru said, sitting up and yawning. "And rushing will get us nowhere, Naruto. We don't even know if we'll actually be leaving now. Sakura has gone and disappeared, and we can't go back without her."

It was true that they had received orders to return to Konoha, but the scope of the mission could be changed if something drastic had happened, like say, a pink haired Kunoichi finally snapping and knocking Ino unconscious. Despite the gravity of the situation, Shikamaru smiled inwardly. He only hoped that when they finally caught up with her, that the two friends didn't go at it again. Naruto might get a kick out of it, but he had no intention of having to carry them all the way back to the leaf.

"Right," Naruto said, slowing himself down enough not to at least not panic anymore. "You're right."

Shikamaru swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stared at the blonde. His outburst last night had taken everyone by surprise. Who would've thought Naruto would say such a thing? But looking at him now, Shikamaru could've sworn it was a different Naruto, perhaps one with a split personality. He was genuinely worried over the pinkette, and if he had not been married to Hinata, Shikamaru would've accused the blonde of still being in love with Sakura.

"You miss her," he stated seriously.

Naruto finished packing, having found all his wayward possessions. "To who are you referring?"

"Sakura."

The blonde twitched slightly at the name, sitting on his rumpled bed. "You think I still like her that way?"

Shikamaru didn't respond. He just stared at him. Naruto smiled.

"I'll always love Sakura, but not the way I love Hinata. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if she had returned my feelings and we'd stayed together, but then I remember Hinata, and the way she makes me feel. There really is no comparison."

"Sometimes you say something so smart I wonder if you were kidnapped by the Akatsuki, cloned and left to die in some ditch somewhere, while we got stuck with a more mature version."

Naruto laughed. "I gotta grow up sometime."

"Just not fast enough."

The blonde groaned. "Shut up Shikamaru."

Shikamaru chuckled, stretched, and yawned again. He looked around, spotted his bag, and hefted it up onto his lap. He had packed last night, never one to ignore the smarter course of action. He considered having a shower, now that Sakura was M.I.A, but decided against it. He'd had one last night, and they could be sent off at any moment.

"What about you?" Naruto asked, as Shikamaru's attention drifted outside the window. He could see the low laying clouds from here.

"What about me?" He asked, not looking away from the sky.

"When are you going to settle down?"

Shikamaru glanced at the blonde and tugged his bag tighter to his chest. The truth was that there was someone he liked. But she wasn't the woman his mother and father were pestering him to spend more time with. He sighed, deciding to ignore the question until he knew how to answer it.

"We should go," he said, "find out if the council still wants us to leave or not."

'And find our missing team mate.'

Something other than finding Sakura and dragging her back to Konoha kicking and screaming had to be done. Perhaps it was time the Hokage took this as an excuse to demand to know what was wrong with her. She wouldn't refuse him if it was an order, right?

X X X

Temari was just getting ready to go see if the Konoha representatives were ready when she stopped herself and read the letter from the Hokage again. She had just finished re-reading it and wanted to look at it again. He had personally sent this letter to her and Kankuro to offer his condolences on Gaara and his well wishes for their continued search for their Kazekage. But it was just words; he had to have known there was nothing more they could do. She looked at herself in her full length mirror and scoffed at what she saw. A tall, imposing blonde Kunoichi with an iron fan strapped to her back. If she didn't know better, she'd swear that was a different person staring back at her.

And some ninja she was, not being able to find her brother. He was out there right now, in the desert she thought she knew well enough to find anyone who might be wandering through it. She had trained out in that hot sun and sand, she could navigate her way through it better than anyone she knew, except Gaara.

'Did he run away and evade the pursuit team?'

She shook her head. No, he wouldn't do that! There was no reason for this. She put the letter back in her drawer, but hesitated to close it. The Konoha representatives were heading back to the leaf this morning to brief the Hokage, so that Kakashi could decide what Konoha's next move would be.

The thought brought a tear to her eye and she wiped it away hastily as Ino knocked on her door. Yes, she knew who it was. She saw Ino as good as a best friend. At least, a long distance one. The two had kept in contact since Ino left after the fallout from their recovery four years ago. After the Akatsuki failed to capture Gaara, Ino had been one of the many medical ninja sent to help. She wasn't as skilled as Sakura, but was still more proficient than any medic in Suna. The three girls – Temari, Ino and Sakura – had spent their off hours together, every time.

'Except for when the insane pinkette refused to take a break.'

"Come in," she said, forcing strength into her voice.

Ino looked distressed and Temari walked up to her hastily. "What's wrong?"

Ino told her everything, from waking up in the middle of the night to find Sakura dressed as though ready to leave Suna, then her friend striking her in the back of the head to knock her unconscious. Temari's eyes widened. This was too much of a coincidence: first Gaara, and then Sakura. At least they had proof that the pinkette had gone willingly. But what had possessed her to attack her best friend?

"I'm worried what she's up to. This isn't like her," Ino was saying, as Temari continued to look stunned. "Okay, she left Konoha years ago to go try and kill Sasuke. But there's no reason for this."

"That we know of," Temari reminded her, recovering some of her sensibilities. "She hasn't been herself for a long while, remember?"

"Right." Ino nodded.

"I'll have the sentinels report to you about any suspicious activity last night. What time would you say she left?"

Ino thought about that. "After midnight; past that, I'm not sure."

"Okay." Temari moved to leave the room, but stopped to hug a distraught Ino. "We'll find her."

X X X

Knowing exactly where she was going, Sakura Haruno had taken no detours, and made no attempts to disguise her intentions (although she covered her tracks, not wanting any Suna pursuit squads to find her). Any ninja worth their salt knew how to travel without being tracked anyway. Only a high levelled tracker could follow her as she cast a strong genjutsu around herself.

She remembered heading this way less than a day ago, though right now the sun had barely started to show itself, and she'd been travelling in the dark all this time. From what she'd been told, that was actually the best time to travel in the desert. It was cooler, more difficult for enemy ninja to spot her, even with her pink hair, and was definitely safer. That alone would also make it faster: no impediments.

But now the sun was creeping up, and she glanced warily at it. She could feel the rise in temperature already, but it wasn't yet uncomfortable. She found her mind wandering, realising she was less than an hour from her destination. Somehow, in the distance, even though she couldn't see it yet, the presence of the Wind Shrine was overpowering for her. She had woken up in there after the trauma of being raped, her body sore, and bleeding. It had been a bad day for her, and she'd had plenty of them already.

– Flashback –

The world had hit her hard. She was certain for awhile there that she would die from the shock, pain, or the blood loss. But Sakura Haruno had survived; thank Kami. Yeah, this was called life. She was trembling, her muscles screaming at her, even though she had yet to move, and staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. It was like she had woken from a bad dream, only to be thrust head first into a nightmare.

But Sakura was awake and aware of her surroundings, even if she wasn't entirely aware of where she was. But it was clear in her mind. That was a door; this room was mostly dark, with only the light coming in from the other side of the door giving her a hint of what the ceiling looked like. Oh and look, that was a low table, upon which had been placed a water gourd and a packed Shinobi lunch bearing the insignia of the sand village.

'Sand.'

Sakura groaned and forced her body to roll over as she eyed off the food and water warily. Had Gaara left them here? Why would he rape her and then take care of her? Thinking back over it, she remembered the strange aura around him, those weird, Shukaku eyes, and the tenderness in the way he looked at her right before…

She forced those thoughts out of her head and gingerly probed her inner thighs. Her chakra reserves were still low, but she risked a little to check out the damage. There was a little abrasion, but no bleeding. You didn't have to be a virgin to bleed from non-consensual sex. So, other than the pain and chafing, everything seemed okay. She removed her hand and swallowed heavily, with nothing more to distract her from how she was feeling.

Sakura felt like crying, the weight of what had just happened to her suffocating, but the tears did not come. She felt a slight stinging in the corner of her eyes, but that was it. She dry sobbed into her hands however, trying to blot out the memory of the violent assault on her mind and body. But the images would not go away.

He had thrown her against a platform, held her tightly to him, ripped off her clothes, and raped her! She couldn't grasp this, shuddering as she lowered her hands to stare at the open door. Was he still out there, waiting for her, and ready to go again? The thought froze her in place and an involuntary whimper left her lips. No way, was she leaving this room to find out!

So Sakura stayed where she was, lying on her side and picturing worst case scenarios in which Gaara would take her beaten and bruised body, rape her over and over again, and then bury her in a ditch somewhere so no-one would ever know what he did.

'What the hell am I thinking?'

This was the Kazekage of the sand. There had to be a reason behind his actions. No, she would never forgive him, even if Shukaku did have something to do with this, but her desire to get to the bottom of this superseded her desire to not move from this spot until she was sure he wasn't waiting outside to ambush her.

A strange kind of warmth started to permeate her body, as she didn't have the energy to move anymore. It was coming from her stomach, and it preceded a low growl that told her to stop delaying the inevitable. Obediently, she pushed herself up into a seated position and reached out to take the packed lunch. What she wouldn't give to have some syrup-coated anko dumplings or pickled plums right now; well at least this vacuum sealed food wasn't spicy. She shivered at that.

'Gross.'

She could see a little better now, her eyes having adjusted to the darkness of the room, and she took in every inch she could as she wolfed down the Suna specialty rations like they were cuisine. She was hungrier than she'd realised. With the food gone, she moved on to the water. It was by far the best water she'd had in a long time.

'I'm losing my mind,' she thought, wiping her mouth.

Sakura placed the remains of her meal back on the low table and sighed deeply. A sharp stabbing pain in her abdomen drew her attention, but she dismissed it after checking it over with her chakra. There didn't seem to be anything amiss. So it was probably just a result of her battle with the rogue ninja, or the twisting knot of having the Kazekage climax inside of her. She shivered.

Well, there was nothing to be done about that by just sitting around in the dark. Fighting back her desire to dry sob again, she licked her lips tentatively, stunned by the broken skin (her mouth didn't hurt at all), and stood up. It actually took a few times before her disobedient legs started behaving and didn't buckle under her. She used the wall to get to the door, and let go of the support when she felt less confident of a relapse.

It wasn't long before, even in her weakened state, she realised that Gaara was still nearby. He was just outside the small temple, or shrine, or whatever it was called. She hesitated, leaning against the stone pedestal in the middle of central dais in the main room. Then she remembered it was here where he'd pinned her after telling her to go away and half jumped away from it, as though stung.

Oh well, nothing for it. She had to leave the temple at some point.

Sakura moved toward the door and opened it tentatively. Gaara had his back to her, and stood up lazily as she glared at him. His face was impassive as usual and that only angered her more. But the sound of his voice hinted to the remorse in his heart.

"Sakura…"

She stepped toward him, trying to summon chakra to her fist, but it wasn't coming. One of these days, she was going to hit him with it, she just knew it. And with that, Sakura's eyelashes fluttered. She fainted, falling forward and collapsing into the arms of the Kazekage… again.

– End Flashback –

Sakura had put that day behind her in one way, but not in others. She wasn't sure how to move on from it, even though she knew for sure now that she was in love with Gaara. She would never have thought that possible, but last night, talking with that guy in the bar, Orashi Marina, had made her realise she didn't want anyone else. She could've just tossed in the towel, forgotten all about the Kazekage, gone back to Orashi's place, lost herself in those unusual amber eyes, and just gone with the flow. Normally, she would've at least given him a go, not that she'd been dating much lately, but the whole set up with having one night left before she had to go back to Konoha was perfect. And she was suspicious of perfect things.

Sakura shook her head as she recognised the sound of fighting in the distance, noting also the familiar shape of the Wind Shrine. The form standing on the right was definitely Gaara. She hurried her pace at the sight of him and her heart hammered when more distinctive battle sounds reached her ears. The Ame rogues! She stopped short of the battle field, watching Gaara transforming.

'Kami,' she breathed.

Gaara had entered the first stage. She hadn't seen him this large since that day back at the Chunin exams. The Ame rogues screamed as jets of sand flew at them, crushing them out of existence. There was so much blood; Sakura could smell it from here. When Gaara turned around, having sensed she was there, the pinkette darted forward, toward him. The glint in his eyes looked murderous, but she didn't care. She had to stop Shukaku from taking Gaara over completely, even if it killed her.

X X X

A/N: Oh yeah! I was having more trouble writing this than I expected, but I'm happy with the result. And such a GOOD cliff hanger… ;)
Love it or not, please tell me!

R&R.