Disclaimer/ No, I do not own Naruto and I never will. Go ahead and be mean about it. If I owned Naruto, you would know about it.

AN/I think I should just warn you now. All of these Sakura pairings are going to be pretty high up there on the crack scale. I really love crack. Sue me. A good dosage of Sakura crack is good for you. I'm sure of it.

Dedication:...All those who took part in my contest and Dieter Dengler. If you don't know who he is, look him up on youtube.

Please review, flames are ...I do not care.

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12th Night

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Conceal me what I am; and be my aid
For such disguise as, haply, shall become
The form of my intent.

Viola, scene ii

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Throughout the school year Sakura's friendship with Naruto and Kiba continued to grow. The same could be said for Shikamaru who would often go through the bother of dragging her out of the study halls to go cloud watching on the roof with him. Sometimes she would come up on her own, but most of the time he had to pry her away from her schoolwork-something he didn't do dispite his high IQ.

Through these friends of hers she met a boy named Gaara, who was anything but friendly to her at first. He said a total of two words for the entire first week of their meeting, though when it came to Naruto he seemed to open up a bit more. Sakura was okay with that, knowing that some people had their issues and needed to come out of their shells on their own time or at their own pace. Rushing it would only make things worse.

So she gave Gaara his room and continued to remain friendly and inviting whenever she greeted him in the early mornings. It wasn't until she caught him reading Princess Diaries in the back corner, (where no one ever went), that their relationship really took a turn for the better. Of course he threatened her at first and tried to deny it and claim it was the wrong book, but Sakura just laughed and told him she could keep a secret. She ended up lending him the ones the library didn't have and then that's when he really started to take off.

"I don't think so, that's way too complicated. I mean, didn't he already break up with her?" Sakura asked, working through a math problem while leaning up against a bookshelf, sprinkled in dust.

"Tenten doesn't like the reason he gave her and refuses to let go," said Gaara, playing with his shoelaces. He was sitting on the floor across from the pink haired girl who was still working on her math, her notebook spread out across her lap.

"But Lee is head over heels for her! Doesn't she care about him?"

"She's still in love with Neji, it seems."

"Why did Neji break up with her?" Sakura asked, looking up briefly.

Gaara shrugged, staring back with unblinking eyes. "That's the fuzzy part. He said it was because he was in love with someone else, but wouldn't give Tenten a name or even a clue. Rumor has it that he's just using that as an excuse to get rid of her. Dating her was making it difficult to be friends with Lee, it seems."

"Who do you think Neji is in love with?"

"Personally, I don't think he has feelings for anyone, male or female." He smiled at the disgusted face Sakura adapted and almost laughed when she pretended to gag. "I think he just made up that lie so he could dump Tenten, not because of Lee, but because he's doesn't want to be with someone who's been caught making out with Asuma."

"Asume?" Sakura exclaimed, looking up with surprise written all over her face. "But he's married and has a kid!"

"Yeah, but this was all ancient history, when she was just a freshmen, before he had his kid. He was still engaged, but that didn't make a difference to Neji, it seems. From the few times I've hung out with him, that came up once and I could see it really disgusted him. The incident with Ino and Ebisi really repulsed him, too. He's an old fashioned kind of guy, so I can see where he is coming from with this."

"Still...poor Tenten. Maybe she will have a change of heart and date Lee."

Gaara snorted and Sakura glared at him through her worn out glasses, before pushing them back up the bridge of her nose. He chuckled, earning for himself a pouting Sakura who was not enjoying being made fun of. At least with Gaara she knew he didn't mean anything cruel by it. "What? It could happen."

"Yeah, but I could get killed by falling coconuts too. Word has it, Tenten is going after Sasuke to get Neji jealous."

"Doesn't he have a fan club to stop that?"

"They know she isn't a real threat, so they leave her alone, plus she's friends with Ino so it's a like having a free pass there."

Sakura frowned at Ino's name, but didn't say anything, she just closed her binder and slipped her mechanical pencil back into it's place beside the other in her binder. Gaara noticed though, and it was enough to sap the lightness from his body and bring him back to earth.

"Is she bothering you again?"

Sakura wasn't looking at Gaara when she answered. She wasn't even looking in his general direction, since she had her back to him while she put away her binder in her messenger bag, making sure to take her time with zipping up the sides. "No, not really, just the usual stuff."

Gaara's eyes narrowed and his fingers curled into a fist. "Then that means she is bothering you."

"Didn't we tell you to speak up if your are getting bothered?" He saw her pause in her work for a while before she finally turned back around to face him-eyes downcast. "Why didn't you tell us anything Sakura?"

Her head was bent, and Gaara couldn't really see her eyes. "If I told you, you would do something wouldn't you?"

"Of course."

Her nose wrinkled, pushing up her glasses. "Gaara, have you not seen Grand Torino? Don't you know what happens when you instigate the bullies like that? Sure you think it's great you stopped me from getting shut in my locker, but that just means they get to toss me in the garbage dumpster next time they see me. If you really wanted to help me with this, call me something rude when Ino's in the hallway."

"I would rather stop you from being bullied at all."

"That's what I'm afraid of. If I let things stay they way they are, she gets bored of me and tends to leave me alone, but if you guys act up, that's just giving her what she wants. Nothing I can't handle will happen unless one of you guys steep in." She looked up real quick, her cheeks flushed. "T-th-that's not to say I'm not grateful to you guys for offer to help, because I am, really! I just..."

Gaara sighed, cutting her off with a pat to the head. "I understand. You don't have to get so worked up or flustered. If it ever gets to bad, though, you're not allowed to hesitate to tell me. If you do, I won't forgive you for a hundred years."

Sakura grinned, her ears turning red at her friend's words. "I'll make sure to live really long, then."

Gaara looked her over once more with soft eyes that recognized so much of himself and his childhood in her. A childhood of screams and emotional abuse as well as physical. Blood and bruises and words that would haunt longer than the scars that spread over her skin like a dusty cobweb. He could feel one right now, slithering along her scalp from broken glass, years and years ago.

"You had better." With his hand still on her head, he ruffled her hair, earning for himself a protest and slap to his wrist.

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'T is beauty truly blent, whose red and white
Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on:
Lady, you are the cruell'st she alive
If you will lead these graces to the grave,
And leave the world no copy.

Viola, scene v

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The late spring winds brought with it the scent of dying flowers and a promise of a burning summer. There were a few loose flower petals gathered in the corners of the street, turning frail and brown without the step to provide them with the nessiary life. Little things like this should have bothered her, but Sakura could help but turn her face away and adjust her glasses so that she couldn't see anything under the frame of her glasses.

A large building loomed in front of her.

Sakura looked down at the ticket in her hand, looking it over once more just to make sure she was reading it right.

MIZU AQUARIUM
Two Day Sale!

Admit One

Kisame had given her a ticket to the aquarium a few days ago and said he would try to go with her if he could get out of swim practice, but it looked like Zabuza was being a demon again with swim practice. So that's why Sakura was alone, standing in front of the doors with her wrinkled ticket in hand. She would have liked it more if Kisame was with her, but there are some things you really have no control over, and the demon of the mist swim instructor was one of them.

Walking in, she handed her ticket to the woman behind the glass and passed through the turning gates, hearing them slide and click back into place, locking behind her. In the front of the building there were some tanks set up with sand and a bit of water for a large family of hermit crabs and other such creatures. One had a turtle in it that looked up at her for a long time before sticking it's head back in it's shell once a group of kids ran over to it.

Smiling, Sakura decided to move away from the front and head towards where the fish were kept. Almost instantly, the reflected lights seemed to spill over her shoes in hues of watery blue and green. Sakura stepped under an arch and looked up as a rather large fish passed overhead, swimming as lazily as it could. There were others too. Angel fish and Bengal Loach swam by in mass and Sakura saw a few Congo Tetra dart around, looking for a place to hide.

There was a separate room to her right with benches in front of it, filled with regular koi and butterfly koi. The tanks weren't very high so most could stare down and look at the koi as the swam down and underneath the glass floor that many people stood upon.

"Wow... So cool," she breathed, watching as a rather orange 16'' kikushi koi passed beneath her stepped aside to watch it more closely, not taking notice of the other occupant in the room who had been reading up until she had walked in.

"S-Sakura san?!"

The called girl looked up quickly, her glasses falling down the bridge of her nose at the sudden motion. "Yes?"

Haku stood up quickly, dropping the book he had been reading when he heard his name being called in her voice. Seemingly oblivious to his discomfort, Sakura reached out for the book he had been holding and smiled slightly when she saw what it was.

"You dropped your Shakespeare," she said, holding it out to the feminine looking boy.

That seemed to snap him back to reality. "O-oh...th-thank you Sakura san," he replied, taking back his blue covered book.

Sakura's eyes lit up when she heard him call her b y her first name. True he had done this once before, but it was really hitting her now that she got to see his face. It was the face of a stranger for her, so of course she would be curious. "You know my name. Have we met before?"

His stomach did a flip flop when she met his eyes and he nodded, to try and hide that. "Sort of. We go to the same school and I see you sometimes in the hallways. W-we don't have any classes together because I'm a year above you, but a few of my friends know you and they sometimes mention you, so I feel a bit too familiar with you. I am sorry for that, if it makes you feel uncomfortable."

"Oh, no." She shook her head. "That's perfectly acceptable, I don't mind if you address me that way. Sorry if I gave off that impression. Will you tell me your name then?"

He offered his hand and Sakura took it, feeling a bit more at ease with someone who read twelfth Night. "Of course, my name is Haku. I'm on the swim team with Kisame. He talks about you sometimes."

Sakura's face lit up with recognition. "You know Kisame?"

"Yeah, he's the shark of our swim-team and I guess that's why my dad's so tough on him."

This caught Sakura by surprise. "You're dad is Zabuza Momochi, demon of the mist? The swim team captain?"

Haku laughed making Sakura feel a bit awkward. Maybe she shouldn't have called his dad a demon, since it's used as an insult most of the time. Perhaps it would be best if she just say sorry quickly before his good nature fades. She opened her mouth to utter an apology, but was cut off when he spoke up first.

"Yup, that's him and I can't deny his nature. It's okay if you call him a demon, since it pretty much true. You should see him when I forget to clean up my room."

"Is he really that bad?"

"No, not really, he only gets really worked up when sports are involved."

Sakura nodded, slowly, looking around her instead of at the taller male in front of her. He said it was okay, but she still felt weird for her earlier comment. Her eyes wandered back to the glass floor where more and more koi were gathering. Haku noticed her fixed gaze and followed it, trying to see where it landed. He smiled when he saw the brilliant display of Japanese fish. Of course someone beautifle like Sakura would be attracted to something like that.

"Do you like koi fish?" he asked, his voice still holding onto that note of hesitance that always seemed to jump up whenever Sakura was mentioned.

It wasn't as bad as when he had first seen her by the fountains right after she had transfered. She had been washing something off her face that looked like egg and her glasses were cracked. She should have looked sad or depressed, but she seemed so calm, doing what she needed to in order to get her face clean again. It was only when she was with other people was she shy and insecure. When she was alone she looked calm and serene.

That's what he saw in her when he first spotted her that day almost a year ago. And it didn't hurt that she had such an elegant face when it wasn't hidden by glasses and shadows. Plus it was when wet he first saw her! Droplets looked like diamonds in the right light, and they seemed to cling to her lashes like precious stones.

She nodded, frowning when they disappeared behind a rock formation. He frowned seeing her disappointment. He didn't like seeing that for some reason. Without thinking, he grabbed her hand and tugged her towards him, She tripped a bit, but he kept pulling her, guiding her out of the Koi room. She 'eeped' a little, but didn't say anything as he led her to another room in the aquarium. All the same, he found it in himself to explain.

"There's always fish in this room and they're really colorful. You'll like it in here."

Her face lit up as clown fish, regal blue tang, moorish idol, and damselfish. It was one of the more colorful rooms with a tank overhead instead of underfoot. A yellow tang zipped past her when she put her hand to the glass, like she had seen many others do.

"That's so cool," she exclaimed, looking over at him. "You seem to know a lot more about this place that a first timer like me. You come here often?"

He grinned bashfully, nodding. "Yeah, I have a year pass. It was a present from my dad for my birthday. I come here a lot and I know the whole place by heart, mostly. Would you like a grand tour?"

She grinned back. "Why not?"

And so he showed her the sharks, sea turtles, blowfish, lobsters,sea horses, lion fish and crabs. He took her outside where they had the dolfins and the smaller whales and showed her where they kept the baracodas, even though she told him she didn't like them and was happy with no seeing the fish that at Nemo's mother. The last place he had to take her was dimly lit, cut off from any light outside that the creatures in the tank produced for themselves.

In the darkness the luminescent forms of lazily floating jellyfish reflected off the glass and cast shadows over Sakura's face, no longer bright with joy.

Haku noticed this when she didn't say anything to him after they first came in. Normally she would comment on the room and then fall into conversation with him, but in this room she was silent. He looked over at her and saw that she had removed her glasses and was staring at the jellyfish with a seemingly drunken expression. She raised a pale hand to the glass and trailed her fingers after the venomous creature. She looked like she was somewhere else, calm yet not at ease.

"How beautifle..." she breathed, seeming to ignore everything and everyone around her. Something was different about her tone of voice. It was distant and... melancholy? Behind her fingers the fish floated on and upwards.

"Sakura?"

She didn't reply at first, but when she did, she didn't look at him. "You know what these remind me of, Haku?"

"If I say no, will you tell me?"

She stiffened and recoiled, as if she was just coming to her senses after a daze. Haku saw her eyes clear and grew curious as to what she was about to tell him. Her stunned expression melted away into a softer one. Fingering her glasses, she pushed them pack into place and looked away from the tanks. "Ah, it's nothing. I think I should get going, it's later than I though it was and I need to get home. I guess I lost track of time.

She moved past him, ready to leave when he grabbed her hand, stopping her. "Wait!" She turned back to look at him when setting off fireworks in his gut. "Won't you tell me what you were going to...about the jelly fish. What do they remind you of?"

She smiled at him briefly before moving her eyes back to the box jellyfish in their tanks. Her hand broke out of his and she took a step away from him, but he didn't chase her. Right before she had left, she had answered his question with something he didn't expect.

'Death'

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If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.

Fabian, scene iv

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So much blood...

"Muh-mom?!"

Too much blood...

"Dah-dad?"

It's her blood.

"S-some-one?"

All her blood...

"He-lp...meee."

Was covering her eyes.

"Please..."

"Till she couldn't see."

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A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain:
But that's all one, our play is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day.

Feste, scene i

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There you go. An update, sorry it took so long, I know I'm a bad person.

As always, I'm going to ask you to review, even though I know it's such a selfish thing to ask for after making you all wait so long. But I wanna see if you can tell me what the name of Nemo's mom is. Here's a hint, it stars with a C.

PLEASE REVIEW

Vesper chan