Let's see, this is the…14th chapter? Sure, let's go with that. Have fun.

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"GAARA! Let go of me!" Sakura yelled, squirming.

Gaara scowled, shifting her so he carried her against his chest, and kept going. He knew that Lee—and probably Naruto—would be chasing after him. Sakura instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck, but quickly pulled her arms away to push at his chest.

"Stop that," Gaara said sharply.

"I don't want you touching me!" Sakura snapped.

Gaara rolled his eyes and tightened his grip, so Sakura was pinned against him.

"Let go of me!"

"I'm kinda busy at the moment," he said.

"I'm not! Lee is going after you, not me!"

"Would you," Gaara dropped to the ground when he reached the trees, "be quiet?"

"No I w—"

Gaara suddenly set her down and shook her by the shoulders. "Look, I don't see why you are getting so angry."

"It's because you keep touching me!" Sakura shook off his hands and stepped back. Gaara grabbed her wrists and yanked her towards him, scowling at her.

"Sakura, before, you would let me touch you all the time. In fact, if I remember correctly, you would ask me to hold you at night," he said coldly.

Sakura repressed a shiver, his face was close enough to hers that she could feel his breath on her face. "That was different! That was before you—"

"Did this?"

Gaara pressed his mouth against hers, hard. He had had enough of her yapping away at him, and he knew this would shut her up. Sakura stiffened, then yanked away, "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She freed one hand and started rubbing her mouth with the back of it furiously, turning her head away. Gaara grabbed her chin and kissed her again. Sakura used her free hand to scrabble at his, so he pulled it down. But Sakura shook him off and tried to take a step back, so once again Gaara had to yank her back, this time holding her wrists behind his back.

He was angry at her for being angry at him. He was bothered that what he did that morning seemed to have no affect on her other than making her angry. Seeing Sakura try to wipe away his actions made him even angrier. He was angry at himself too, for even starting this, but wasn't ready to stop. He liked the feeling of her body held against his, his mouth on hers. It didn't help that she obviously did not share his opinion, and wanted exactly the opposite.

Sakura winced, "You're hurting me," against his lips, but he only muttered back, "Stop fighting and it won't hurt." Even as he said it, he softened his grip, but didn't make it any weaker.

Sakura scowled and tightened her lips, but stopped trying to pull away from him. She knew it was useless anyway, he was too strong. After a moment, Gaara pulled away. "There. Now see, was that so bad?" he demanded.

Sakura opened her mouth to respond yes, it was, when he saw her expression. "Sakura, before you answer, let me remind you of the little sound you made."

"What sound?" Sakura asked sharply.

"The sound you made when I ran my tongue over you're lips," he retorted, mouth pulled up in an irritated smirk.

"I did no such—"

Gaara kissed her again, and Sakura forgot to be angry when she felt his tongue in her mouth. Before she regained her senses Gaara had a hand in her hair, pulling her to him. He pulled away after a moment and watched as Sakura quickly ducked her head and wiped her mouth, face red. Gaara noted she made no move to show she protested his hands on her.

"Could you please stop doing that," she asked after gathering her thoughts, sounding rather irritated. She knew that after having that done to her she should be furious, she should want to kill him. So why didn't she? Where was the Sakura that could stand up to anyone?

"Why?"

"You—"

Sakura's words were cut out as a blur of green suddenly flashed in the corner of her eye. Gaara sensed it and dropped to the ground, dragging Sakura with him. Sakura landed on her back, Gaara on top of her, and as she cocked her head back to see what was going on she saw Lee land in the grass nearby.

"Get you're filthy hands off her!" Lee demanded, taking long strides forward.

Gaara got to his feet, still standing above Sakura. "Look, I don't know what you think happ—"

"You did it again, didn't you!" accused Lee, eyes on Sakura. "Her lips are swollen!"

Sakura quickly bit her lip and scrambled to her feet, but Lee had already launched himself at Gaara, and the two teens meet with a dull crunch. Lee nimbly leaped away before Gaara could land a hit, then attacked from another angle.

"Stop it, both of you!" Sakura yelled. She looked for an opening to separate them, but she knew they were both out of her league, jumping between them would be quite stupid.

Gaara managed to clip Lee in the cheek, but he responded with a crushing kick in the stomach that sent Gaara flying. He smashed into a tree and a grunt escaped him, but he was on his feet in seconds. Sakura quickly saw her chance and quickly jumped up to him, hands on his shoulders. Over her own shoulder she called to Lee, "Calm down, Lee. This is just a big—"

Gaara stepped around her and threw himself at the other man. Sakura stared at him, opened mouthed. She had just started to give him a chance to avoid a fight, and what does he do? Shove her out of the way? Was he stup—

Suddenly she was grabbed from behind. Sakura looked down and saw black-clothed arms wrapped around her middle, she quickly snapped her elbow back and it connected solidly with something hard—a cheek, perhaps. The resulting cry made Lee and Gaara turn around. "Sakura!" they yelled together, and quickly dropped their fight.

Sakura had already loosened the grip around her and saw the man behind her was dressed in the black uniform of the other ninjas that had attacked her and Gaara—and threw a first into his face. He dodged it, ducked as Lee kicked for his head. He leaped back a safe distance and three more identical men leaped down from the trees.

"The girl wasn't supposed to know how to fight," the man with a bruised cheek growled.

"There wasn't supposed to be another boy either, but we still have to get the job done," a second snapped.

Sakura silently cursed. She hadn't been carrying her weapon holder since she wasn't being assigned to any missions.

"Sakura, who are these people?" Lee asked, taking his place by her side.

"No friends of mine," she said quietly, her throat dry. They were outnumbered, and possibly out of their league—she didn't know what kind of level her attackers were. She summed up that the man that had grabbed her wasn't that good, if he gave up after just one blow to the face—but that didn't mean the others were as weak.

"I am so sick of these idiots," Gaara growled, fists clenching. "Sakura, watch yourself until we know their skills."

"I can take care of myself," she huffed, thought when she swallowed it felt like there was a lump in her throat. She knew her skills were rusty.

She saw two of the black dressed men shift, and the rest of it was a bit of a blur. She remembered punching, kicking, the sting in her knuckles supported that, but she felt like her mind had taken the backseat and her body took over. Her elbow crunched into a back, she was struck in the shoulder with something sharp and leaped back.

At first, since there were four attackers and only three defenders, Sakura was confronted by two men. But they quickly learned not to, that only made Gaara and Lee more vicious defending. She remembered seeing Lee just barely miss a kunai, Gaara tackling someone. She remembered falling hard on her back, but didn't remember getting up which was a little odd because then she was knocking against a tree.

When Sakura finally could remember each detail about what she was doing, Gaara was pulling her to her feet. She didn't have time to protest when he patted her down and looked her over. She looked around and saw two men tied to a tree (dully Sakura wondered where the rope had come from), another was dead, and that looked like someone had broken all of their limbs, Lee standing over him, panting. She was surprised that they weren't making any noises, when she realized that they were unconscious. And why did she feel so dizzy?

She tottered a bit and Gaara grabbed her elbow to steady her. Lee looked over his shoulder and protested, "Sakura-chan, you're bleeding!" He took a step forward, but Gaara scowled at him and ripped a piece of cloth from his own shirt, tying it securely around her upper arm.

"Why don't you go and get someone down here, like Kakashi," he said sharply. Lee glared at him.

"Don't think I haven't forgotten," Lee warned. "But this seems more urgent. I'll get to you later." Then he was gone.

A silent moment passed, and then Sakura asked, "Who are all these people?"

Gaara shook his head. "Trust me, I wish I knew. Maybe Kakashi could shed some light on this when he gets here."

Sakura noticed he hadn't removed his hand and shook it off, to his displeasure. But it proved to be a stupid move, because she teetered backwards and Gaara grabbed her again, this time on both arms. "Are you alright?"

"Blood loss," she muttered, stepping out of his grip—slowly, so she wouldn't get dizzy. She sat on the ground and looked at Gaara's feet. Her muscles were still tensed, she expected to have to leap into a fight. She slowly breathed out, calming herself.

Gaara glanced at the bodies, then back at Sakura. His lips tightened into a hard line and his fists clenched. Once again his thoughts returned to how fragile she seemed. She looked so weak, her shirt bloody, eyes closed. He thought back to what he did to her, and he looked away. If she could barely handle a simple fight, how would she deal with a psychotic partner?

Sakura looked up at that moment. She blinked, and then stared. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"What?"

"There's pity in your eyes," she said sharply.

"I don't kno—"

"Gaara, I've seen that look enough times to know what is. What, you don't think I can handle a little fist fight?" she demanded, standing. Sakura didn't know why seeing him look at her made her angry, but it did. "Well, I've got news for you. A little blood loss isn't going to slow me down."

Gaara took a step back, confused at where all of her hostility was coming from. "Are you still angry about what I did?"

"Yes, I am. But I don't want you thinking that I'm some kind of feeble girl that needs protecting!"

"Sakura…"

She clenched her jaw. She didn't want Gaara acting like her protector, especially after what he did to her. She felt that when she hadn't pulled away when Gaara had last kissed her she had only encouraged him. "We'll talk about it later. Right now we have much more important things to take care of," she said in a clipped tone.

As if on queue, Lee returned, jumping down to ground level, Kakashi and Gai behind him. Gai quickly began examining the men, while Kakashi walked over to Sakura and Gaara. "I'm honestly surprised. You three managed to do what I couldn't, and I had a team with me. Then again, certain circumstances might have helped…" he trailed off, eyes lingering on Sakura. She saw a crease in his mask and she recognized a frown. "Sakura, why are you lips swollen?"

Her face reddened with embarrassment and anger. Gaara looked away lazily and Sakura looked down. Lee's head snapped around and he glared with malice at Gaara. Kakashi saw all of this and he cocked his head, glancing between the three teens. Sakura mumbled, "I had an allergic reaction." Gaara turned to glare at her, and she stubbornly didn't meet his gaze.

"Right," Kakashi said quickly, deciding to ponder about this new development later.

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There. Now, I just want to mention, when Kakashi mentioned 'circumstances' he was thinking about Gaara and Lee fighting to protect Sakura. Just thought you should know. I know that my fighting scenes are vague, but that's how I wanted it. Please comment.