Chapter THIRTEEN

Gaara noticed the slight shift in Sakura's stance. They had been walking around for the last half an hour, with Sakura saying neither yes or no to each restaurant they passed.

He looked up, following her gaze. A ramen stand stood there. Now what he focused, Gaara could hear Naruto's loud voice coming from inside. "How about there?" He asked.

Maybe he sounded too eager, for Sakura quickly nodded. "That would be nice." Gaara knew that she had said that simply because he had shown interest, and Sakura knew that too. Still, neither of them said anything as they entered the store.

"Gaara! Sakura-chan!" Naruto's words were muffled by the mouthful of ramen in his mouth. Sasuke glanced between Gaara and Sakura, before looking away. Ami smiled sweetly while Kakashi offered them both an eye smile.

"Naruto." Gaara took a seat in the open chair at the corner. He tugged on Sakura's wrist and after a moment of hesitation, the girl sat on the chair beside his. Gaara picked up the menu, absentmindedly noting that he had never actually eaten ramen before. Maybe Sakura had, seeing that she's been out of Suna several times, and her missions sometimes took her to Konoha. Then again, the missions she had that took places in villages were usually accompaniment missions and Sakura only ever ate what she was offered.

"So, what are you going to get, Gaara?" Naruto asked, leaning over towards him.

Gaara scrunched up his face. "I've never had ramen before."

Naruto gasped, horror filling his eyes. "What?" He quickly recovered, though. "So, what are you going to get?"

Gaara quickly scanned over the menu, pointing out what first caught his eye.

Naruto grinned. "You have good Ramen eyes, Gaara!" He turned to Sakura, who was still sitting on her chair, not looking at anything in particular. "What 'bout you, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura stiffened, glancing slowly up at Gaara, looking at him from between her bangs. Gaara met her gaze, and Sakura quickly looked down like she had been burned. Gaara bit his lip. "The same as me, I guess." He trailed off, glancing away.

Naruto blinked, a confused look on his face, like he knew that something had just happened, but he didn't know what it exactly was. "Okay."

"Two Tonkotsu Ramen! Actually, make that three!" He called out.

"Coming right up!"

Gaara lifted up the pair of chopsticks placing in front of him by Ayame, then snapped them apart. Sakura, who had been looking at his hands from the corner of her eye, did the same.

Soon, three bowls of ramen had arrived. Naruto took the third bowl, and immediately dug in. Sasuke shook his head in exasperation, leaning away to avoid being splattered by soup. Kakashi just smiled, and Ami...just sat there, staring at Naruto in a dreamy way. Who knew what she was thinking?

Gaara followed Naruto's example, hissing just slightly when the soup was hotter than he had thought. Sakura was instantly glancing him over, looking for an injury, or whatever was the source of his discomfort. Gaara shook her away, indicating towards her bowl of untouched ramen.

At Gaara's silent shove, Sakura hesitantly began to eat. Still, she slowed down around halfway through the bowl, looking more and more uncomfortable.

Gaara finally paused in his meal. He was almost done anyways. He glanced at Sakura, who noticed his gaze just from the intensity of it.

"What..." Gaara trialed off, unsure.

"I...I've never eaten so much at once before." Sakura murmured, not meeting his gaze. "I..."

Gaara's gourd popped open, sand slithering out to drag Sakura's bowl away from her. "If you're full, you don't have to eat." He quickly finished his bowl, then started on Sakura's.

"I-I'm sorry, Gaara-sama. Next time-"

"Next time, you don't have to force yourself so much." Gaara managed to get out, before he clamped down on his own tongue out of embarrassment. He'd never said something like that to Sakura before. Had he said it correctly? Did it come out like an order, which he didn't want?

Sakura glanced down. "My apologies, Gaara-sama."

By the time he was finished, he was more full that what was comfortable, but when he glanced over at Sakura, who had a rare ghost of a smile on her lips, he got a bubbly feeling in his chest that seemed to push his discomfort away.

He decided that he quite liked the feeling.

It was decided that they would leave for Suna in a week. Well, the original plan had been in a day, but things had come up.

Tsunade was also interested in Sakura's skills as a medic. The moment she learned that Chiyo had been the one to teach Sakura, she had gotten it into her head that she had to 'teach Sakura her skills too'. Sakura had glanced at Gaara, who had accompanied her to the hospital for her checkup, with well concealed hope.

Well concealed, but he could still see them. Gaara noticed, for the first time, how much Sakura's eyes actually told him. How Sakura betrayed almost nothing, apart from the slight shift in her eyes, before they vanished just as quickly.

He could see the way her eyes darkened, already preparing herself for rejection.

At that moment, Gaara saw how much Sakura expected, well, didn't expect, from him.

So he agreed, and the look of pure shock and a hint of happiness Sakura had given him made up for the stern lecture he got from Sasori about how they couldn't impose in Konoha forever.

Gaara had solemnly apologized after Sasori had gotten his part out, something that had surprised Sasori to no end.

He had gotten a glimpse of Sakura could have been like, and he wasn't going to take back the close to nothing he had done.

Sakura was often absent during the next week, as she was over at the hospital, training with Tsunade, who insisted on teaching her everything with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

Sasori had finally folded when Sakura had jumped to Gaara's defense, stating how she wanted to learn under Tsunade, something she had never said before, and it was decided. Sakura was to spend the next week training with Tsunade at the Hospital.

This arrangement gave Gaara a lot of time to think, and he used it. Well, he tried to. Whenever he was alone, all he could think of was how Sakura had taken the Chidori meant for him, and had still stood up to try and defend him from Naruto.

He clenched his fist, and tried to change his train of thoughts. Instead, he thought back to the time he had spent with Sakura, before...his uncle had betrayed him.

The happiness and the smiles had overwhelmed his mind for a second, and he decided that he wanted to feel like that more often.

Guys? So...we're still looking for that fanfic. We're kind of getting desperate now.

We'll thank the person who finds it/knows it/ tells us the title by writing a one-shot with the pairing/story line/plot of their choice. (Really.)

Sakura is in Ame (Maybe she grew up there? We don't remember)

When they (Sakura, Nagato, Yahiko and Konan) are captured by Hanzo, Konan dies instead of Yahiko. (Something about one female in the Akatsuki?)

Before death at Hanzo's hands, Konan made her promise that she would take care of Yahiko and Nagato. However, later on, they just forget about their friendship with her and just used her.

Sakura killed the Amekage (or Hanzo, some one in power) to save Nagato and Yahiko, who in turn took the 'blame' and became the new Amekage.

Sakura feels lonely and discarded, but still helps Yahiko and Nagato them because of her promise to Konan.

Sakura was the one to 'invite' most of the Akatsuki members into the organization.

There was something about a cave...(We don't think it was very important, but just saying.)

There's an exam of sorts (Probably Chunin?) and while Konan, Yahiko and Nagato are participating, Sakura finds and recruits Zetsu into the Akatsuki.

Woz rushed warning. Please ignore any errors unless they are so bad that you cannot understand what we are trying to say. (In that case, PM us.)

So, two, maybe three chapters left. (There is a possibility that a fourth chapter will be added, but probably unlikely).

Darque: I'm sitting at my desk at around 12:30 am, switching through twelve or so different tabs, cause there are so many things I want to do.

Raven:...

Darque: My sister is asleep on the bunk bed behind me, and I'm trying to no awaken her by laughing or crying or anything.

Raven:...

Darque: I'm also very hungry, because I was on my laptop the whole day, and only ate seven packets of oreo put together for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Raven:...You woke me up at one in the morning to complain about this?

Darque: I wanted to update early. Besides, you're also holiday tomorrow, so why not?

DARQUE: HONG KONG TIME

RAVEN: JAPAN TIME

Read and Review!