When Sakura woke up she had one of the worst headaches of her life. 'Definitely among the top three…' she thought disgustedly and got up to get some tea. Or rathershe tried to. She realized her hands were chained behind her back and looked around at her surroundings. She was in a forest with four, five…six men, and one woman, all well armed.

The woman walked up and nudged Sakura with her foot, despite her attempts to appear unconscious still. "Hey you, just who's side are you on?"

Sakura remained silent.

The woman knelt in front of her, "We're on your side. We're going to getthe bastard for what he did. Those were good people he killed." Sakura looked at the woman's face. She looked like any normal person, not hostile at all. Sakura felt so sad, realizing that these were the people she had so looked up to, the people at whose side she used to fight, would have. And she knew they were good people who had died, but Gaara didn't do it. She was getting sick of people blaming him for everything.

'Leave me alone. Please leave me alone, before I try to kill you again,' Sakura willed the woman.

"You had better be good bait," a man spoke up, "I don't think Auris' face will ever be the same again. Not that it was pretty in the first place."

Sakura looked over to a bloody faced man, 'Ha.' She thought smugly.

"Bait?" she asked mock innocently.

"Don't act like you don't know. I'm sure even you could figure out why you're here."

Yes, she could figure it out. They thought Gaara would come for her. She tried not to laugh. He was far away now, in the desert and he would stay there until she went to him. They were wasting their time with her.

'So, what to do now? Gaara isn't coming, so you'll have to get yourself out of this mess.' She already knew she wasn't much of a match for these seven, even if she wasn't caught by surprise, as she had been that night. She was going to have to think her way out of this.

First, she wanted to know more about these people, so she sat back and waited.

Her smell was everywhere. She was bleeding after all. The scent as good as pointed the way for Gaara. Obviously whoever had taken her didn't know how to hide, or they didn't want to.

Gaara spread out into sand particles as her scent grew stronger. He could count six people around her; she herself was tied up.

He dropped the man standing furthest away before drifting into the camp. "I expect better from you." He whispered into Sakura's ear before materializing and grabbing the men nearest her by the throat.

One of them disappeared from his grip and reappeared inches away, but Gaara was prepared for such a move and lashed out at him, knocking him back into a tree. He spread his body out as the remaining three aimed shuriken at his heart.

He dropped the man he held in his grip as he passed out from lack of oxygen and jumped into the trees, pulling his sand back into his gourd.

The last three smiled, thinking they had him trapped. He was about to grab them when Sakura yelled at him, apparently finally rising out of her surprise.

"What are you doing? Untie me already!" she yelled hoarsely.

Gaara rolled his eyes and allowed himself a small smirk. She was still the same, even when held as a hostage. His smirk worried the men standing around him, so he smiled even wider.

Sakura sat still as her chains were unlocked from the inside and Gaara jumped down to meet his attackers.

Seeing that they were all occupied Sakura crawled over to a fallen man and checked his pulse. He was still alive, she saw with relief. She had been a little worried when she saw the crazed expression on Gaara's face, but he had actually listened to her.

She counted the men, one, two , three, and Gaara was fighting three, so where was the woman? Sakura looked around, but she couldn't see her anywhere, so she closed her eyes and concentrated.

The quietest rustle in the leaves above the fight alerted Sakura to the woman's position. Sakura had no time to be proud of herself for hearing her, and having no weapons, she launched herself at the woman.

She obviously had not been expecting an attack from her bait as she fell right out of the tree with Sakura on top. Sakura realized why she hadn't seen the woman before; she was invisible.

She may not have been able to see her but she could still feel the woman. Sakura quickly landed a punch on her nose and felt it break before she was thrown back. Sakura flipped as she flew through the air so instead of crashing into the tree behind her she landed neatly on it.

She closed her eyes, "You might as well drop the invisibility spell, you're just wasting your chakra." She taunted the woman, hoping she would take the bait and Sakura would be able to fight with her eyes open.

The womansaid nothing, tried to sneak up on Sakura, butSakura let herself fall forward and around the tree to hit her from behind.

"You could never sneak up on me," Sakura laughed, "You breathe as loudly as a pig."

She heard a light thump as the woman landed on the tree across from her. Sakura was about to follow when she heard the woman's strangled scream.

She opened her eyes to see Gaara's sand wrapped around an invisible body. Gaara stood down the ground, watching it with that insane grin.

Sakura jumped down to stand beside him, "You didn't kill them," she said offhandedly, pretending it meant nothing.

Gaara let the woman drop to the ground with a much more audible thump. He had stopped smiling, "No I didn't."

"Seems you fell right into their trap," Sakura looked around with her fingers to her lips, realizing she was smiling slightly. She really shouldn't have been considering who these people were, but she kept thinking, 'I hope you wake up with a headache.'

"Your friends were worried." Gaara said.

Sakura nodded. 'Of course, my friends. Not you.' She laughed a little at herself, 'You think Gaara was worried about you? Ha!' but a small part of her asked, 'If he didn't care, then why did he come for you? He's not afraid of Naruto.'

"And angry." Gaara added, remembering their pitiful attacks. These seven were pitiful as well, to think they could get rid of him so easily.

"I don't think I can just go back home," Sakura said, scratching her head, "I'll just be taken as bait again."

"You could live with your friend." Gaara suggested. Then at least it would be their fault if she went missing again and they wouldn't be able to blame him. 'Of course, they would anyway.'

Sakura nodded, "That's actually a good idea."

'What, you think I never have good ideas?' Gaara thought, though completely unaffected by her comment. Sakura smirked."I'll go back with you."

"Ok."

They weren't really very far away from Konoha village. It might have taken a day to walk back, but Sakura wanted to run anyway.

"I missed my daily run." She said and they ran back within the afternoon.

Gaara left her at the gate, but he followed her secretly as she went to Sasuke and Naruto's apartment. Naruto tackled her as soon as he saw her but Sasuke held back. 'Strange,' Gaara thought, 'He wasn't so reserved about his concern with me.'

He shrugged and left then. He had more important things to do.

'Running away again?' a voice said in his head, and it was not his own, nor was it the demon.

He turned to see Ino grinning smugly at him from her perch on a roof. How he wanted to knock that grin off her face, and her into the dust.

"Hey, I'm just trying to give you some friendly advice!" Ino exclaimed, "But if you don't want it…"

"I don't." Gaara said, completely uninterested and turned to leave.

"Hey wait!" Ino called, "You like her, don't you?"

'I don't like you.' He thought.

'Well if that's how you want to be,' she sent back, 'then you don't deserve her anyway. Sakura needs someone better than you.'

'Sakura doesn't need anyone!' he thought angrily and forced her out of his head. If Sakura hadn't already told Ino what had happened three years ago then he wouldn't be the one to tell her. So he left.

"You can sleep in my room!" Naruto said, bouncing up and down.

"Do you really want to subject her to that?" Sasuke asked, "Your room is disgusting."

'If it's anything like their apartment…' Sakura thought. Their apartment was a mess. She had never really been over here before, so she hadn't known. If she had known she would have gone to stay with Ino. 'But that would be gross, with her and Mark…' she cut off her thought and forced a smile for Sasuke, who offered her his room.

"It's a lot cleaner."

"That would be great!" she said cheerily and followed him to his room. "I don't mean to be a burden…" 'I never mean to, but I always am. What's the point in talking about it?'

"It's no trouble." Sasuke said and patted her shoulder awkwardly.

Sakura dumped her bag in the corner of his room. It really was cleaner. It was bare actually. Nothing more than a bed and a dresser that was probably empty.

'Does he even sleep in here?' she wondered. 'Of course. Everyone needs to sleep sometime. Well, except Gaara, but he's an exception in everything.'

"Thank you guys so much." She said later as they were eating dinner at the ramen stand.

"Like I said…" Sasuke started but he was interrupted by Naruto.

"Are you kidding? This is great! The three of us, just like old times. I'll be kind of disappointed when Gaara is caught and you go back home."

'Such tact.' Sakura thought and stuffed her mouth to cover her smile and her anger.

Tomorrow she would go visit Tsunade and ask about possible suspects. Anyone who could have killed those men and who would want Gaara framed for it.

Gaara raced through the desert, chasing down his prey.

He knew who the murderer was. He would catch him and bring him to Sakura and she would get him locked away, or whatever they wanted to do with him. Then they could forget about the whole thing and he could get back to his life. And she could go back to hers.

'On her own,' the demon taunted him, 'You don't want her living with those two idiots. But you know… it would be so much easier to just kill them and take her.'

'Go away.'

'What do you want with her anyway? Do you want to-' Gaara closed his mind to the demon before it could continue. He didn't want anything from her, except the end of this murderer issue. He just wanted to be left alone.

Sakura had narrowed it down to six men. 'Six men that I know of. It could really be anyone; someone I've never even heard of before.' Before she could get any more depressed about the hopelessness of her task she concentrated on the necklace she was making.

She was only now getting around to making something with the charms leftover from the bracelet Gaara had smashed. This necklace was one of those things. She had also made a pair of earrings. She wanted to give them to Temari, as thanks for her hospitality. Gaara had told her Temari liked jewelry.

But she was afraid that if Gaara saw these he would recognize the scarlet birds and be angry. She reassured herself, thinking he would never remember them, and put the earrings in her office for later.

"Four years ago, I would never have believed you'd end up doing this," Sasuke said, breaking the long silence that had fallen between them. He and Naruto had insisted on at least one them being with her at all times, just in case. Sakura had at first been annoyed, but now she was glad for the company, if not for the protection and small feeling she got.

'As if I were still a child,' Sakura snorted, both at herself and Sasuke's comment.

"I guess that came out differently then I wanted." Sasuke went on, "I meant, this is good, it's just not what we had always planned."

"If things had gone as I planned years ago…" Sakura said. 'If things had gone as planned, we'd be together and I would be a mother. If things had gone as planned, I would be a completely different person, and so would you.'

"Yeah, I guess sometimes it's better that our plans fail." Sasuke said, guessing at her thoughts. "We wouldn't be here now."

"Your plans sure were different." Sakura commented lightly. She enjoyed talking with Sasuke, and tried to encourage him to talk more.

"Yes…" he fell silent. It seemed that was the wrong thing to say.

Sakura held up the finished piece, "There! What do you think?"

"Beautiful."

She smiled and put it in the box with the earrings. When she went to give them to Temari she would find Gaara too and give him her list of suspects. Hopefully between the two of them they could narrow it down to one man.

She paused. She would have to bring Narutoor Sasuke along too. Or maybe Ino…

"Hey Sasuke…" she said as she rejoined him at the front, "How would you feel about going on a little trip?"

"Where to?"

"The Hidden Sand Village."

His eyes narrowed, "Why?"

Sakura fidgeted a little. She hadn't told anyone where she had really gone when she went to find Gaara. She had told them she was visiting a relative. "Here's the thing. I didn't go visit my aunt."

"Was it Gaara?" Sasuke asked sharply. She looked up at him; his hands were clenched.

"Well, kind of. I went to find him and tell him about the murders."

"Sakura-"

"It wasn't him Sasuke!" she argued before he could say anything. "He was meditating the whole time! For eight months, actually," she stopped, wondering for the first time why he had gone into such a state. She quickly continued though, "Anyway, we're going to find the real killer."

"I-"

"But all that's beside the point. While I was looking for him I went to Temari and she was nice to me, so I made her these earrings and I want to give them to her."

"You could just get a messenger."

Sakura was kind of surprised at his reaction. She had expected, if not hoped for, flat out rejection. "Thank you Sasuke!" she squealed, hugging him in her relief. She quickly stepped away and he coughed, embarrassed.

"We should leave pretty soon then."

Malitia: Thanks for your nice review. I hope to keep you all in suspense with many more twists and turns in the future plot. But I'll probably end up confusing everyone.

nishasha: I'm so happy that you called my story odd. It's probably among the top 5 compliments I've ever received on any of my writing. I love odd stories.

thaisha:Yar!

Doopy doop. I'm away!