Yo. I'm watching Obama giving a speech in Baltimore and let me tell you, I like to stay away from politics it scares me, but listening to this man speak is amazing. I'm really looking forward to the inauguration.

ANYWAYS. I hope you guys like this chapter. Its kind of weird but its long too, so enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Sakura almost chocked. That would explain the swollen knuckles. Oh God Gaara, so much for being discreet. She closed her eyes put a hand on her forehead. "Please tell me you're joking."

"It was right after sixth period. Sasuke and some guys from the team were just standing in the hallway talking when out of nowhere Gaara jumped on him." Said Ino sounding genuinely baffled. "I was standing on the other side of the hall and even I don't know how it happened.

"How badly was Sasuke hurt?" Sakura asked. She kind of liked the idea of Gaara beating the crap out of Sasuke in a couple of ways it was actually pretty hot. But the kind of trouble Gaara was exposing himself to by going after Sasuke was daunting to say the least.

"I think it was just surface damage." Ino said with a shrug. "He could still walk when they pulled Gaara off of him. So I'm assuming he wasn't really all that hurt."

"Did Gaara get in trouble?"

"No, not at school at least. Sasuke looked really pissed though. I can't imagine him not doing something to fight back. You went out with the guy, do you think he would take that lying down?"

No, no of course not. Sasuke had an ego twice the size of Texas. There was no way in hell he would let Gaara get away with it. Why didn't Gaara tell her what he had done? The sooner he told her these things the better. How could she fix this if he never even told her what was going on? "Sasuke is a jerk."

"And Gaara is just plain scary." Ino laughed.

That wasn't all he was. Sakura tried to laugh too. "Yeah, he's something else alright."

A silence followed. Neither Sakura nor Ino spoke again until after they had ordered and received their coffees. Sakura could tell Ino was deep in thought, and it made her nervous.

"Sakura?" Ino asked.

"Yeah?" she answered already knowing what Ino's question would be.

"You were serious last week when you said you were hooking up with him, weren't you?" The blond said in a tone suggesting she really didn't want to hear Sakura's answer.

There was no point in denying it, she never could hide anything from Ino."Yes." Sakura exhaled.

"And you're probably the reason the fight started, aren't you."

She winced. "Probably… yes."

"Oh god." Ino threw her head back. "Seriously, Sakura?" she groaned. "You could have any guy you want! What the hell are you doing?"

"I like him." Sakura said simply. "No, I don't regret it. And yes, I know what I'm doing." It was true too, she was really excited about her new relationship.

"This is a bad idea. You have to know how bad of an idea this is." Ino said looking stricken. "Haven't you heard the stuff people say about him?"

"Have you heard the stuff people say about me?" Sakura shook her head. "You can't believe everything you hear Ino."

"Well then I'll believe what I see. I've seen Gaara beat people within an inch of their lives. How do I know he won't flip out and do the same to you? I've seen him lying to teachers, skipping school, smoking pot, he is a bad guy."

"Stop. Seriously, just stop. I'm not saying he's a man of the year or anything like that and he has already assured me that he wouldn't hit me even if he really really wanted to."

"Oh god, I really don't want to hear this."

But the pink haired girl continued. "Plus he's hot and a really good kisser."

"Two excellent traits in a psychopathic killer." Said Ino sarcastically. "Ew, and no Sakura, he is so not hot… Ugh! I can't believe you're sleeping with him. I can't believe we're even having this conversation."

"Did I mention this is an absolute secret? And actually, we've only slept together in the literal sense, no sex." Sakura said lightly.

"Wait…he's your secret lover but you aren't having sex?" The blond made a face. "I don't get it."

"Secret lover?" she echoed. "You're making it sound all… weird. We're not keeping it a secret because I'm afraid of what people might think, We're keeping a secret it a secret because Mayor Sabaku is not a nice man. He's freak if he knew we were seeing each other."

"For good reason! Are you sure this isn't just your way of acting out against your mother and Tsunade? You're just trying to freak them out by going out with the scariest guy in school."

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Well if it was a cry for attention don't you think I would be spreading the news instead of trying to hush things up?"

"Hey don't get pissed," Ino replied on the defensive, " I just don't want to have to give a eulogy at your funeral.

Sakura never used to mind hearing bad things about Gaara. A couple of weeks ago she herself had many unpleasant words for him, in fact at that very moment she was ready to tear him apart for his recklessness. But for some reason it made her feel a little sick to hear Ino say and imply bad things about him. He wasn't good… he wasn't bad…he was just Gaara. Ino didn't know him, how could she possibly make judgments about their relationship?

"Please don't say that. I spent long enough convincing him and myself that this wasn't the stupidest idea on earth; I don't have the patience or the will to convince you too. You're my best friend; I shouldn't have to convince you of anything. You're just supposed to support me, unconditionally might I add. I always have your back."

Ino didn't answer; she just sat there chewing on her fingernails.

"I'm not asking for your permission or approval."

"Well you're not going to get it." Ino snapped.

Sakura put her hands on the table and stood upright. "Well, I guess I'm done here." She waited for Ino to stop her, when she didn't Sakura sighed. "I cannot believe you're letting me walk away like this."

"You're not really giving me any other choice. You're not acting like yourself." Ino reasoned. " You're not concentrating in class, you haven't been to any games or parties and please, don't get me started on how you've let your appearance go down the drain. What the hell are you even wearing?"

Sakura glanced down. Ok, so maybe she was in sweat pants and a no name brand waffle shirt, but she really had just rolled out of bed and gotten dressed in the dark. She had been tired and slept later than usual and then kept all the lights down as not to wake her mother or Johnny. Plus, its not like Gaara cared what she wore or how much make up she put on, so why should she bother with all that stuff? At least this way she got an extra hour and a half of sleep in the mornings.

"Does that stuff even matter?" The pink haired girl asked suddenly feeling very tired.

"Apparently not." Ino replied snidely.

"Fuck yourself Ino." Said Sakura letting the words out before she could think. When she realized what she had done she slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Excuse me?"

"I didn't mean-"

"I think you did." The blond cut her off. "He's already having a bad influence."

Now that wasn't exactly fair. Sakura knew how to be a bitch long before she had even met Gaara Sabaku. If she had been violent then maybe they could blame it on his influence… but truth be told Sakura was just getting really sick of people passing judgment over her and Gaara. People sucked.

"Yeah actually, I did mean it." Sakura picked up her school bag off the floor. "God Ino, there are more important things then reputations and fashion." She said hurling the bag over her shoulder. "When your finally get that…well you'll know where to find me."

Even though she said that…on her way out Sakura still couldn't decided just who turned their back on who.

In just three short days it became another one of those secrets everyone knew, but everyone was also to chicken shit to talk about openly. Sakura Haruno and Gaara Sabaku were together, together, together.

No one had actually seen the two do anything other than glance at one another, but they didn't need to really see anything to know what was going on. Sasuke had opened up his mouth of course, and a whole bunch of nonsense was circulating about Sakura, Gaara, and his non-existent meth lab. Ino, for better or for worse, tried to clear up the rumors but in the end she only served to muddy the waters. Apparently Sakura, after having a psychotic break with reality, got hooked on Gaara and his magic shrooms. God what is it with teenagers and drugs?

Anyways, as luck would have it, the rumor was well contained within the walls of Konoha Senior High School. If Mayor Sabaku had found out that Gaara was going against his orders he hadn't done anything about it yet. Sakura's family sure hadn't said anything about it either. But then again, they were pretty consumed in their own pile of lunacy.

Tsunade was helping her daughter and future son in law (?) pick out a home in New York on the Internet. Eventually the three of them would be traveling up there together to actually purchase one.

It was weird, everyone in the house kept going on and on about the move to New York. Sakura listened, nodded, shook her head, but it never mattered. Her mother seemed so certain that Sakura would be moving with them, while Sakura herself didn't even consider it a possibility. There was no way she was leaving Konoha. No way.

"Not being able to face reality is not something you should be marveling over." Gaara said giving Sakura an annoyed look. "You are setting yourself up for a mental breakdown."

"Is this some backward way of you telling me you want me out of Konoha?" Sakura said staring at his knee. They were sitting on the bus on their way to his doctor's appointment. Their knees were almost touching, so close to touching. She shouldn't have been so excited by this, but their knees were almost touching.

"Did your mom do drugs when she was pregnant with you or something? Because you are the single stupidest person I've ever met." He said his look turning into a glare. "What the hell are you staring at?" He asked inching away from her.

"Nothing." Sakura sighed dejected. "Nothing at all."

A silence over took them making the pink haired teen very nervous. Silences were no good for them. She reached into her backpack and pulled out their English project. "We can work on this if you want." She said waving the papers in his face.

"You're kidding." He said waving the papers away. "Get rid of those."

Sakura felt something in her whistle. Without so much as a thought she slid the bus window open and tossed the papers outside. It was liberating and terrifying at the same time. She watched the papers escape into the wintry breeze and she was filled with envy. Why could she throw the rest of her problems out the window so easily?

Gaara yanked on her arms tightly almost harshly and pulled her so she faced him. "What did you just do?" he demanded. "What did you just do?"

She wouldn't admit it but he was scaring her just a bit. People on the bus were staring at them, looking at them like they were nuts. Sakura was throwing things out the window and Gaara was emanating raw irritation in all directions.

"Oh relax…I've got copies of everything saved on my computer at home." Sakura said like it was no big deal. It kind of was a little bit of a deal though. None of her home copies had all their editing on them. Hopefully Gaara wouldn't realize this piece of information.

"What's going on with you?" He asked in a worried tone.

She should have been overjoyed that he was worrying for her, but she wasn't. She was pissed. "Nothing is going on with me!" she said through gritted teeth. "Why does everyone keep assuming there is something wrong with me?"

"You need to calm down." He said softly but his grip on her arms tightened.

"Oh fuck you." She spat at him.

Gaara dropped her arms but took one of her hand and placed it on top of her heart. He pressed gently and then looked up at her face. "Do you feel that? Your heart is racing. It means what you are doing, saying, feeling right now is not really you. You need to calm down."

His hand was so cold on top of her warms one. He was right though, her heart was beating fast, and it wasn't just because he was touching her. Sakura guessed she really did need to calm down. "I guess I am a little wild right now, just give me a minute." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Ok."

He let go of her hand. "Ok?"

"Ok."

"Good." Gaara said closing his mouth and crossing his arms.

Sakura guessed he wasn't in the mood to talk anymore. The two sat for a while watching as people got on and off the bus and listening to bits and pieces of the conversations going on around them. Who knew public transportation could be so interesting.

When the bus became more crowded and the conversations too tangled to continue listening to, Sakura let her mind wander. Both Ino and Gaara had commented on how she seemed unlike herself lately. At first she thought it was just a load of garbage, but now she wasn't so sure. Normal Sakura would never in a million trillion years throw a homework assignment out the window of a moving bus.

She was scared that her relationship with Gaara was just another mistake in the string of reckless acts she had been committing since her break up with Sasuke and her mother's arrival. If that were the case then there was no way things between them could actually go anywhere. Sakura was putting Gaara in harms way because she felt like trying him out on a whim. What would happen if that was the truth?

She didn't want to hurt him.

When they got off the bus and started walking toward the hospital Sakura wondered if Gaara knew how intimate it was for two people to go to a doctor's appointment together. "What kind of doctor are you going to see." She asked already knowing the answer.

"Psychiatrist." He answered indifferently. "I go every three weeks."

She could have gathered that much from what she read in his notebook. "Oh." She debated over asking this next question. "Do you have a disorder or something?"

Gaara took a moment to answer. "I guess it depends on who you ask."

"Oh." Sakura said again, not really knowing what else to do or say.

The red head stared at the ground. "This one doctor…a friend of my father's…he thought I might have something called Conduct Disorder."

"Is that something bad?" She asked. Sakura really didn't know much about mental health disorders.

"Yeah." Gaara said. He shrugged his shoulders. "But the doctor I see now, she did all sorts of brain scans, MRI kind of stuff, and she asked me a whole bunch of questions. She doesn't think I have Conduct Disorder. She thinks I've got a mood disorder."

"That's a better diagnosis right? I mean, lots of people have mood disorders."

"I guess. I had to try lots of different medicines. Some of them made me sick."

She had read about that too. It was a cruel joke that sometimes medicines made people sick. Medicine was supposed to make you feel better, not worse. She wondered what Gaara had to have been taking to feel so miserable. It just wasn't fair.

They walked into the building together and took the elevator up to the fifth floor. The elevators in hospitals were so roomy, Sakura mused. There was probably room for fifteen other people inside, but Sakura and Gaara rode up alone.

The waiting room was also relatively empty which came as sort of a relief to Sakura. She liked Gaara enough, but she wasn't sure how she would feel in a room full of other psych patients. You never know when you're sitting next to the next Ted Bundy.

When Gaara went in for his appointment Sakura amused herself by counting the squares on the ugly pink carpet. She would have read one of the magazines but none of the titles really appealed to her. It was safe to say Sakura didn't subscribe to Backyard Living or Bow Hunting Digest. She was starting to wish she hadn't thrown their project out the window, at least then she would have something productive to do while she waited.

It was safe to say that this had to be the weirdest date she had ever been on. If you could even call it a date. She was just supposed to wait outside while he was talking to a doctor about his mental problems…and then what? It was likely Gaara had anything planned.

She wasn't sure how she felt about Gaara's apparent disorders. She didn't know enough about psychology to make any decisions just yet. She could at the very least respect that he was getting help for whatever problem he might have. As long as he was actively trying to fix his problems she could handle it too.

Sakura started to notice that the short brown haired girl across the room had been starting at her for quite some time. She didn't recognized the brown haired girl so she couldn't imagine what reason this girl would have for staring at her like that. It was starting to make her a little uncomfortable. Finally the girl stood up and walked up to where Sakura sat.

"Um, are you here with Gaara?" the girl asked unsure.

Sakura was caught completely off guard. "Yeah actually… are you a friend of his?"

The girl shook her head. "Not really, we're just on the same appointment schedule. We've only talked a couple of times."

Gaara had never mentioned anything about being friends with a waiting room girl. But Sakura really didn't know all that much about him, so she couldn't be confident that there was nothing between them. Still, that didn't give her a reason not to be polite to the girl. "I'm Sakura." She said offering her hand.

"Hi, I'm Matsuri." The brown girl said timidly shaking Sakura's hand.

"Are you from Suna?" Sakura asked. It might create a problem if the girl was from Konoha and saw her and Gaara together in public.

"Yes, are you?"

"No." Sakura said shaking her head. "Gaara and I are both from Konoha."

Matsuri took the seat next to Sakura. "You guys go to school together?"

"You bet, Konoha Senior High. We're juniors." She looked at the girl next to her thoughtfully. "Are you in high school yet?" she asked noticing how young her companion looked.

"I'm a freshman but I should be a sophomore. I was held back in middle school."

"High School years really just fly by, before you know it you'll be graduating. Or so I've been told." Sakura said. She was uncertain about what kind of answer Matsuri was looking for, or why she had struck up conversation in the first place.

Matsuri nodded distractedly. "Are you Gaara's girlfriend?" She blurted out before blushing bright pink.

Ok, obviously Matsuri has some sort of crush on Gaara. Her bashful behavior was leading Sakura to believe that the crush had never been reciprocated, at least not to Matsuri's knowledge. Sakura wasn't sure how to answer this one either. She wasn't really his girlfriend, except she kind of was… and she really didn't want to hurt nice little Matsuri.

"We're seeing each other… exclusively I hope." She said smiling kindly. "We haven't been together very long so I'm not really sure where things stand. He's kind of an enigma, that Gaara Sabaku."

"You just don't really seem like his type." Matsuri said acrimoniously.

Sakura hid her indignation with a soft laugh. "Well, you know what they say, opposites attract…"

"Its probably just a fling though…right?"

"I don't know." She said honestly, because she really didn't know. Things were still so new between them. "We both really like each other, so we're just going to see where it goes from there."

Matsuri looked troubled. Sakura inwardly hoped that Gaara hadn't done anything to encourage her admiration. If Matsuri was visiting a psychiatrist once a month, then there was a chance that she wasn't the most mentally stable crayon in the box. The last thing that Sakura wanted or needed was the attention of Gaara's overzealous admirer. Hopefully Matsuri was just a sweet girl with a crush and not some sort of psychopath.

"There are a lot of good guys out there though. I'm sure there are tons of cute guys in Suna." The pink haired girl said trying to cheer the other girl up.

"Do you want me to introduce you to some?" Matsuri asked with what Sakura read as an alarming amount of sincerity.

"Uh…well-"

"Matsuri…" A deep voice called saving Sakura from having to answer.

Both girls turned to stare at the source of the voice, a doctor in a white lab coat waiting for Matsuri in the doorway. He couldn't have had better timing. The brown haired girl got up to leave.

"It was very nice to meet you Matsuri, I hope we can see each other again in three weeks.

"Mmmm." The girl said nodding without much enthusiasm. It was clear she didn't want to see Sakura again ever.

Matsuri followed the doctor back through the door and out of Sakura's view. The pink haired girl was left to wait for Gaara by herself. None of the room's other occupants took it upon themselves to introduce themselves to her, although she was positive they had all been listening to her conversation with Matsuri.

She didn't have to wait too long before Gaara strolled out through that same doorway hands in his pockets as casual as can be. "Lets go." He said stopping in front of her.

"Where to?" Sakura asked letting her face light up with a smile. She was always happy to see him.

"Anywhere."

"I've never actually been to a bar before." Sakura sat on a stool next to the redhead and did her best to look inconspicuous.

"There aren't any bars in Konoha. Besides, you don't drink right?" Gaara asked flagging down the bar tender.

Of course she didn't drink, and if she did, she would hardly need a bar to do it. There was always a healthy supply of alcohol in her house. She hoped that Gaara himself wasn't thinking of drinking. Sakura didn't want to think about what a drunk Gaara would be like.

The bar tender came over to where the couple was sitting and smirked at them. "You aren't even close to twenty-one." He said to Gaara. He squinted his eyes and stared at Sakura. "You on the other hand…you're pretty cute." He pointed to her "Your drinks are on the house."

Ah! Free drinks! Success! "Thanks, if I could just get a coke that'd be really nice." Sakura smiled sweetly. Who knew bars could be so much fun?

It must have been happy hour or something because the bar was pretty full. Sakura wondered if it were one of those places young professionals went to have drunken anonymous sex. It looked to her like she had walked into a yuppie playground. She couldn't figure out why Gaara had taken her to such a place.

"Stay here." The boy next to her said. He slid off his stool and brushed non-existent dirt off of his black pants. "Try not to get hit on. I'll be right back."

Sakura realized he was getting up to go so she indulged in a little bit of panic. She did not want to be the girl alone at the bar. "Wait!" she shouted. "Don't leave me here alone. You can't just take me to a bar and then split." She all but anchored him to stool with her body. "This is a bar! I'm only seventeen!"

"I told you not to get hit on… just sit tight for two minutes." Gaara rolled his eyes. Apparently he thought her distress was unfounded. "There is just a guy I need to talk to." He said. "Wait for me…please?"

Sakura let him go only because she was curious. Who could Gaara possibly know in this bar? And he was so cute when he said 'please' like that.

She watched him walk over to some white-collar twenty-something year old with rolled up sleeves and a flashy haircut. His smirk was positively oozing off his smug face. Sakura couldn't see Gaara's face, but she could imagine the glare he was wearing. It made her quite proud.

Gaara and The Sleazy Jerk walked outside the bar together. Sakura wasn't worried for even a second that he might not have be coming back. Gaara was a lot of things, but he wasn't the guy who would do that to a girl, not to her. His character in mind though, she hoped he wasn't going outside to start a fight. She was stilled pretty pissed off about that whole business with Sasuke.

They were literally gone for two minutes before both Gaara and The Sleazy Jerk reemerged through the door, doing a good job of acting like they didn't know each other. The Sleazy Jerk returned to his table where another sleazy jerk and a girl with fake pearls and an orange tan were waiting. Gaara didn't even look in their direction as he made his way back to Sakura. As expected, he returned to her side quietly and didn't make an effort to explain what that whole thing had been about. Sakura sipped her coke quietly and Gaara stared at his hands. The minutes ticked by.

If he wasn't going to say anything then she certainly wasn't going to ask. If he wanted to be a secretive bastard then she was going to be an uncaring bitch.

"I met your friend Matsuri today." She said finally. "What's up with her? She's got like, this massive crush on you."

"Her parents were murdered." Gaara replied flatly.

Sakura choked on her soda and spent the next minute coughing to clear her chest. "Her parents were murdered? How the hell was I supposed to know that?"

The boy shrugged. "Its not your problem."

"You're not interested in her…are you?" Sakura asked studying his face carefully.

"Yeah, I'm interested in her. That's why I'm with you right now…" he rolled his eyes again.

She froze. "Wait does mean that you do like her or do-"

"Idiot." He interrupted. "You are an idiot."

"Well have you ever looked in a mirror? You've got one expression! And your voice, you've got to tones…angry and angrier. So how am I supposed to know when you're being sarcastic?"

And Gaara Sabaku had the audacity to smile. That asshole.

"Well its nice to see you're still full of surprises." Sakura said darkly, but she was beginning to smile too.

"I didn't think you were the type of girl who liked surprises."

The pink haired girl leaned in. "This is the kind of surprise I welcome."

Gaara looked away. "We should get going." He took her drink away and slid it down the bar. "We don't want to get back too late."

Sakura could have banged her head on the table. They had almost had actual flirting going on! Was he completely allergic to romance? He didn't so much as look at her fondly. What the hell was he even doing? She didn't want to play games with him, but anything too direct would drive him away. She didn't know what to do.

"Right." She said. "We should get going."

The walk to the bus stop was long, cold and quiet, kind of reminding Sakura of their last date. She couldn't decide if it was one of those nice peaceful silences, or one of those tense uncomfortable ones. Her mouth became desperate to say something.

"I stole one of your notebooks." She blurted out.

The second the words left her mouth was the second she knew she had just made and egregious mistake.

Gaara stopped in his tracks. "What did you just say?"

Sakura was horrified, horrified with herself and horrified with the mess she had just dumped on herself. There was absolutely no reason why she needed to tell him about her sticky fingers. He had every right to be furious with her.

"That time you were eating pancakes… well I went downstairs and took one of your notebooks." She had never felt more ashamed in her entire life than she felt at that very moment.

"Seriously? You read my notebook…I don't understand…" Gaara said. He sat down on the curb and put his head in his hands. "Why would you do that?"

"Well Temari said a lot of freaky stuff." Sakura said in an effort to apologize. She was a little confused as to why he wasn't livid. "I just wanted to know more about you. I didn't read the whole thing, just a couple of pages! I've felt terrible about it ever since. I know I should never have taken it but I just…I just…" She sighed and sat down next to him on the street.

"Its not a big deal Sakura." He said calmly. "If Temari said something that bothered you then you should have just asked me about it."

It turned out that the things Gaara got angry over weren't as unbelievable as the things he didn't get angry over. Its like someone had screwed his brain in backwards. "No! Absolutely not!" she shouted. "You're not allowed to be rational and understanding about this. I took something that belonged to you…without asking! I invaded your privacy and violated your trust. I did a bad thing!"

"I know all of that. Yeah Sakura, it was a bitch move." He stretched out his legs into the street. "What do you want me to do, punch you?"

Sakura glanced at his fists and saw that they were loosed and unclenched. There was no danger there. But when she looked up at his face she realized he was bothered by her actions. "No." she said in a wobbly voice. Her eyes were filling up with tears. "Of course not. I just want you to know how sorry I am. I really regret it."

"Just explain to me why you thought taking one of my journals was a good idea because really, it's a stupid, stupid, stupid idea."

Sakura shrugged and then sniffled. "I thought it was the only way to safely assess whether or not you were a manipulative psychopath who was just messing with me for kicks."

"That's actually not that bad of a reason." Gaara said thoughtfully.

Sakura wanted to smack him. "Yes it is! I should have just risked it. You're already risking it, so wouldn't it be fairer?" Sakura hugged her knees. "And besides, I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know."

"What did you read?"

"Temari and your dad are both assholes, you don't eat or sleep, you've got quite the dark side…and oh yeah, there was this whole entry dedicated to how ugly I am."

Gaara groaned. "Don't worry, I marvel at your stupidity now. I haven't thought about how ugly you are in a while."

Sakura wanted to cry again. She didn't know if he was being sarcastic or if he was just saying something just plain disturbing. Either way she totally deserved it.

Gaara reached into his pocket and pulled out a clear Ziploc bag. Inside the bag Sakura could see about a dozen or so fat white-

"Are those what I think they are?" Sakura asked in disbelief.

"That depends on what you think they are." He said pulling one out of the bag.

"You were buying drugs? You were buying drugs! What the hell Gaara!"

"What did you think I was out there doing?"

"I don't know! Not buying drugs though." Sakura's eyes widened. "I'm an accessory! I was your accomplice! Oh god, this is the worst night ever! Accidental confessions and drugs…Gaara I'm sorry!"

"You're kind of high strung you know that?" Gaara said taking his Bic out his pocket and lighting the joint. "I didn't think this night was so bad, especially compared to last week."

"Would I just be wasting breath if I explained to you how highly I disapprove of your illegal smoking of marijuana? Because I really disapprove." Sakura said testily. "This is so much worse than cigarettes."

"Its just pot…" he said. He held the joint between his pointer finger and thumb, brought it to his lips, and took a long drag. When he was finished he spoke again. "It calms me, it helps me eat, and it helps me sleep."

Sakura figured it was kind of like medical marijuana. She found she didn't object to it so much if she thought he was using it for legit purposes, and not just because he wanted to get high. Still she frowned. Illegal drugs were illegal drugs not matter how you looked at it. She was a little paranoid about sitting on a public street. Sure it was dark out and the street was practically deserted save for themselves, but they would be in so much trouble if a cop or some nosy old person walked by. She couldn't get over the fact he was actually sitting next to her all casual like and smoking pot.

"That guy back there, he is a giant asshole. He works for some international banking company that sends him all over the world. He's an asshole, but he gets really good stuff." Gaara explained.

"Isn't it dangerous for you to be smoking those with out knowing what's inside." She said looking at them with a fair amount of suspicion. "Isn't that just asking for trouble?"

Gaara took another drag. "No. He knows I'd kill him if he put anything funny inside. I'd buy the weed by itself but I'm not good at rolling these things."

He probably would kill the guy. He said it so seriously.

The redhead blew a ring of smoke into the air. "So am I going to get this notebook back?"

"Yes! Of course! I hid it in my closet but I'll give it back to you whenever you want. I'm really, really sorry." She said feeling miserable all over again.

Sakura was shocked when Gaara put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. "I'm not that mad about it so don't go all crazy."

It felt really unbelievably nice to be that close to him, but seeing is how he was smoking up a storm she wriggled out of his grasp. She didn't want to go home reeking of pot because if she did, Tsunade would probably murder her. The last thing she need was her family thinking she was a drug fiend in addition to being a sex fiend.

But she didn't want Gaara to get the wrong idea so she leaned over and kissed his cold cheek. "I'm still really sorry." She thought for a moment. "And tonight wasn't bad at all, I'm having a good time. You're a lot of fun Gaara Sabaku I'll give you that."

"Glad I could be of some entertainment for you." He answered wryly. "You're not so bad yourself."

"Really? Are you sure I don't repulse you?"

Gaara snickered. "I really have to tell you how hot you are?"

"I guess not." She said smiling slightly.

"Hey you want…?" he asked offering the joint to her. "You're not actually going to get high if it's your first time, which I'm assuming it is."

"Maybe next time." Sakura said, her smile widening. "Thanks for the offer though. You're a real gentleman."

He bumped his shoulder into hers. "You're the epitome of ladylike."

High Gaara was kind of sweet.

Sakura hopped to her feet. "Lets get out of here." She said offering her hand to pull him up. "We've got to go catch a bus."

Gaara licked his fingers, put out the joint, and stuffed it back into the Ziploc bag. "Lets get hamburgers."

"Hamburgers?"

"Yeah there's a place up the street." He pointed his finger out into the distance. "You're buying though."

"I'm what?"

"You're paying for my notebook."

Not having to feel guilty about the whole debacle was priceless if you asked her, but Sakura was also pretty hungry. What kind of luck did she have that he didn't even blink and eye when she had admitted what she had done. She would have never expected him to take the news well. She would have blown a gasket if she found out he had read something of hers that was that personal. She was unworthy of his kindness.

"These better be good hamburgers."

Yeah. So I'm not really sure what the rule is about writing about drugs. If anyone is offended by this chapter, I'm sorry. Its rated M so you've got to beware right?

THANKS GUYS for the reviews. I really really really appreciate them. So leave some more...k?