Two years later…

His body hit her hard and they both went flying, landing in a heap covered in falling sand.

"Gaara!" Sakura screamed for him but he couldn't hear, his sand whipping around him carrying him away from her.

Sasuke lay at her feet, the impact must have knocked him out in his already weakened state.

"He's coming back" Shisui yelled to her and Itachi as they stood ready for the onslaught of puppets and explosives headed their way.

"I told you little girl, I would see you again." Drawled the familiar voice of Akasuna no Sasori.

Sand flew at Sakura knocking her out of the way of two puppets that were flying down on her head , swords drawn.

"Damn it Gaara! Let me fight!" Sakura yelled at the annoying Kazekage. "Stop protecting me!" She roared.

"Are you ready to see true art?" Deidara 's big white bird flies over head round and round dropping little spiders made of clay on them.

"Don't let them touch you!" Sakura yells picking Sasuke's unconscious form up and pushing chakra to her feet trying to run out of range.

"Tsk tsk little girl, where do you think you're going?" Sasori jeers.

Itachi's murder of crows flys at the puppet master and Shisui flickers to Deidara's bird cutting it's head off with his sword.

Clay spiders start to erupt all around them, sand rushes over their heads hardening to form a shield, they hear multiple little explosions over head but they are safe under Garaa's sand.

"Happy for my protection now Sakura?" Gaara smirks at her.

"Show off." She mumbles under her breath.

"Kazekage Sama! Kazekage Sama!" Baki and several other sand nin who were on patrol at the gate were running in their direction.

"Ants! The lot of you, mere ants!" Sasori un rolls three more scrolls and puppets fly from his fingertips toward advancing sand nin.

Gaara sends a wave of sand up to the sky to meet the new army of puppets as Sakura is thrown into the air by Shisui coming down with several well placed chakra infused kicks. Puppet parts go flying.

"Sasori! I'm coming for your heart!" She flys at him head first, arms twisting in the wind to her back ,flipping herself over two puppets he sent to meet her attack, she draws her katana and stabs him straight, right through the core.

Puppets fall all around them, lifeless now that their master is dead.

Sakura pulls the core from his fake body and cuts it in half with her sword for good measure.

Deidara flees, seeing his partner taken down by the little pink haired medic nin, knowing he can't win against her and her team of Anbu Konoha nin and the Kazekage, let alone the reinforcements that have just ran up to meet them.

Sakura kneels beside Sasuke and her hands glowed as she slid them up inside his shirt to check his heart and lungs. Some internal bruising but not bad. She runs her hands over his head and reduces the swelling from the blow he received from one of Deidara's explosions. His eyes flutter open and he sits up straight, turns his head and throws up.

"Nice cuz." Shsisui laughs at him.

"Shut the fuck up Shisui." Sasuke wipes his mouth on his sleeve and apologized to Sakura who shrugs, not like she hasn't seen him throw up before.

"Sakura, why don't you and your team follow us back to Suna, and allow me to give you a proper greeting." Gaara smiled at her, a very small smile on his ever placid face.

Sasuke narrows his eyes at the Kazekage but pushes himself to his feet. Sakura put his arm over her shoulder to brace him, he smiles at her, he doesn't need her help but he likes her this close to him. Sasuke looks to see if the Kazekage is watching, he is. Sasuke smirked at him.

Gaara's eye twitches slightly and he inclines his head to Sakura. The small group make their way to the gates of Suna.

After they had put their packs in their rooms they met in the office of the Kazekage for a briefing of the mission that met them as they approached Suna. No one had been expecting the Akatsuki duo so soon. They had heard rumours of the Akatsuki heading to Suna to take the One tail, in Gaara, the Kazekage but rumors said it would be a few more months, not hours after they entered the Suna desert. They had sent word ahead to the Kazekage of course as well as letters of correspondence from the Lord Third from Konoha.

The alliance between Sand and Konoha had been reestablished due to the many efforts of Gaara and Hiruzen, and after a year of negotiations, trips back and forth they had come to a good agreement for both villages. Part of the agreement was that should any mission bring them close to or into one another's village they would be allowed board and certain freedoms in the villages, as well as any deemable assistance by the Kage of said village.

It had been two years since the four of them had set out. Sakura, Itachi, Shisui and Sasuke had left one week after the Hokage had told Sakura who could accompany her. At first Fugaku was furious that all three of the nin accompanying her would be Uchiha and not just any Uchiha but both of his sons and the two strongest Uchiha currently in the clan, Shisui and Itachi. The fact that Itachi was the Heir to the clan hadn't even come up in comparison.

In the end it was Itachi himself that made the difference, telling Fugaku what Sakura had done for their clan and pointing out if not for her there wouldn't even be an Uchiha clan. Fugaku gave in eventually and with bad grace, but here they were two years later and two Akatsuki members down. Hidan had been rather easy to take down because Sakura knew how to best him due to the fight with Shikamaru of her time and Kakuzu, though much more difficult than Hidan was much easier to defeat than when Kakashi and Naruto had fought him. Shisui had been elemental in that fight with his body flicker.

Now they could add Sasori to the list of the defeated thanks to Sakura and her team's efforts.

Sakura stood before the Kazekage's unwavering gaze with her boys and bowed accordingly.

"You, Sakura, do not have to bow to me, of all people, I owe you much it seems, or have, in another life?' He smiles a most charming smile at her.

"Uh, I'm sorry Kazekage, I do not know what you mean." She replies hesitantly.

"Shukaku tells me you have saved me before, in another time against those same Akatsuki members but the outcome was far worse last time, I died." His look was kind but mild as he continued to look at her.

"Your hair, it is longer now, much more beautiful, and your eyes, they sparkle with life that was not there before...Shukaku tells me. I have to agree with him, you are very beautiful, much more beautiful than I would have thought with such an outstanding reputation and your picture in the Bingo book does not do you justice...Sakura." His deep voice said her name with such blatant intent that her boys shifted in their stances behind her.

"Forgive me Kazekage, you take me at a disadvantage, I was unaware the tailed beasts memories transcended time and space." She bowed correctly , as befitting for a Kage.

"Come Sakura, " Gaara moved from behind his desk to stand directly before her," do not stand on ceremony, call me Gaara, as you used to, in your other life, let us resume our relationship now, that we had before?" Gaara, takes her hand in his and kisses it.

Sasuke steps forward but Sakura stops him with her arm.

"Gaara, yes we were good friends in my old life but we were not as close as Shukaku may be telling you. Forgive my rudeness but I am not interested in you romantically, and never have been." Sakura smiles at him.

"Ah, I wondered, Shukaku seems to like you a great deal, and from what I saw today, you do not disappoint. I invite you and your team to have dinner with me this evening at my house, nothing formal I assure you. Until then, please rest, enjoy my city and call upon me if you need anything." Gaara kissed her hand, the last sentence obviously meant only for Sakura.

They bowed and left the office, Sasuke turning as he shut the door to glare at Gaara one last time.

Sakura laid down on her bed in the room provided, enjoying the feel of the soft cool coverings. She had a room to herself while the boys shared a room. She could almost hear them complaining about it still. Well, not Itachi, Itachi rarely ever complained about anything. She was happy with the progress they had made but was also wary because it hadn't seemed like anything had changed.

Ghost Madara as Sakura had taken to call him hadn't been back to watch or speak with her for the last two years. She thought this was mostly because she was never alone. She was alone now though and she couldn't help but wonder if he would show himself. She had felt eyes on her off and on the past two years and she assumed it was Ghost Madara but she couldn't be sure. An uneasiness passed over her as she felt someone looking at her again. She looked around and saw nothing.

Sakura walked to the large window of her room and opened the sliding door to the balcony. Suna looked just as she remembered it from her other life and wondered if the little curry stand was somewhere out there still. Old Gaara as she decided to call him used to take her there to eat a lot, it was his favorite place. Thinking back, she had spent a lot of time with the Kazekage but to her they had just been friends. Not for the first time in this life did she realize how naive her old self used to be. Maybe he had thought they were more.

Sakura sent out her chakra and found all three of her boys were in their room lounging around so she hopped onto the rail of her balcony and jumped down onto the second story roof then the 1st story and then the street. It was around lunch time, she would go see if her favorite curry stand was in this Suna.

It was! She smiled as she stood in line waiting her turn. Her mouth watered as she placed her order, the little old crone behind the counter giving her an odd look. Sakura was used to it, not only was she a foreigner but she had pink hair and green eyes. Gaara had green eyes but they were used to him...well, more used to him than to her.

The woman handed Sakura her food and she did a little hop of excitement only to turn around to find the amused face of the Kazekage looking at her. She blushed, it was very embarrassing.

"Uh, this is my favorite place to eat, I was just um, excited." She blushed deeper at his growing smile.

"It is my favorite place as well, allow me a moment to get food for myself and I will join you, if you have no objections?" Gaara moved past her before she could reply and placed his order.

He turned back to her while he waited for his food to be prepared and smiled at her again.

This Gaara smiles a lot more, is much more expressive. I wonder what changed to make this change, she thought to herself as she watched him. She blushed again as she realized she had been staring at him...but he had been staring at her too so it wasn't rude, was it?

The old lady called to Gaara and handed him his food in a bag just like Sakura and Gaara stepped up close to her, taking her arm in his and flickered them away to the Old East Gate, looking out over the desert. She hadn't realized she had expected him to do that, like the Old Gaara used to do until he gave her a wide smile at her lack of reaction.

"Uh, in my other life you um, used to do that a lot." She was blushing again.

"It seems we did used to be close then, I would not do that with someone I didn't trust, and I trust very few." He told her.

"But, you don't know me here, I mean in this time, how can you trust me?" She protested.

"Shukaku tells me we have a close history, that we were very close, I trust him." Gaara said simply.

"You trust Shukaku?" She said stupidly, obviously he did, the way he talked.

"Is the Gaara of your time not in cooperation with his tailed beast?" Gaara asked curiously.

"Uh no, not at all in fact, he often lost control and almost killed me once. Before I left, he seemed to be in more control but then the Akatsuki dragged the Shukaku out of him and that's how he died. You know all of this though don't you?" She raised an eyebrow at him...he was teasing her!

"Yes, but I like hearing you speak, you have such a lovely voice Sakura." He patted the top of the wall beside him.

She sat down and opened her food bag pulling out her fried liver and curry sauce, the same as him.

"I see you have good taste." he pointed to her dish.

"You knew we would get the same thing, we always did." she smiled at him, it was almost like having the Gaara of her own time there with her, it was familiar, and comforting.

"So we did. Do you find it hard to live this life when you have had the other, does it not blend together sometimes?" He asked her.

She smiled at him, she had forgotten how much she enjoyed talking to him, he was so intelligent, it made for good conversation.

"Sometimes, if the people are too similar, it hurts, I remember them as they were and if they died in my time, it hurts to be reminded of them, if we were close. Sometimes though, the differences are too great. People who are dead and gone and have been since I was a child the first time are alive and well here and it makes me happy. Others, well, that chose a dark path in my time, are now in the light here and it makes me very happy to see it, to see them happy." She turned to him then. "Like you, it is good to see you whole and smiling."

"Thank you Sakura. I know we are strangers in this life but because of Shukaku, I feel as though I know you, and that were are already close." He put down his chop stick and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand leaning forward.

Her eyes went wide when she realized what he was about to do and she stood up, almost spilling her dish over the wall of the gate.

"Gaara, you mustn't." She looked at the ground in front of them.

"Why? You kissed me once before , remember? Then." He stood and stepped to her.

When did Gaara get so bold! Her thoughts were racing. When had she kissed him...oh! That was , well...a mistake!

"Kazekage, you were never so forward, you used to be so shy." She argued.

"Shukaku told me, I am aware. I knew I had to be bold this time, and when I saw you, you were as beautiful as Shukaku described, more so." He reached for her but she stepped back and in her haste fell off the wall.

"I got you." Shisui caught her before she hit the ground, her dish and her lunch falling past them hitting the sand below.

He jumped back up onto the wall where Itachi and Sasuke were glaring at the Kazekage.

"What the hell were you going to do to Sakura?" Sasuke was asking the Kazekage angrily.

"Sasuke, stop, it isn't a big deal." Sakura tried to calm him down.

"I was going to kiss her." Gaara said much to Sakura's annoyance.

"Like hell you were!" Sasuke was yelling now and Itachi looked like he agreed.

"Hey, you are speaking to the Kazekage, do you want to start a war?" She was getting angry.

"Easy guys, nothing happened right flower?" Shisui looked at Sakura who nodded. "See, nothing to worry about guys come on let's calm down." He cast the Kazekage a warning look and Gaara nodded.

"Fine but Sakura is coming with us, she doesn't need to be alone with you." Sasuke said loudly.

"I see you are just as much as a spoiled little brat as you were in Sakura's other time Uchiha." Gaara laughed at Sasuke.

"What?" Asked Itachi.

"Shukaku, his tailed beast, remembers me, and both lives and interactions." Sakura explained.

"I don't want him to touch you!" Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her now.

"So this time around it is him who loves you and you do not love him? Interesting." Gaara was taunting Sasuke.

"You are more devious than I remember you being in my time Gaara, what else about you has changed I wonder." She said not in a flattering way.

"Care to find out?" Gaara gave her a once over with his eyes and grinned at her looking much like the crazed maniac she once feared.