CHAPTER 13

It was quite early in the morning as Sakura and Keita trudged down a not too lonely lane, they passed by some early morning regulars; some ninjas returning from missions, some on their way going, Occasionally they passed by a resident drunk lagging about and muttering. A lot of the shops were still closed but a few were starting to open.

A chilly breeze blew past her sending a small shiver through her small frame, sometimes Suna could be so cold especially in the evenings and early hours of the morning. The afternoons on the other hand was blazing hot, the contrast was intriguing.

The smell of freshly baked bread hit her nose , her eyes peered toward the direction of the smell, that smells so good , she made a note to get some bread on her way back.

A sandwich would be really good right now, she mused. She had unfortunately missed breakfast albeit not intentionally. She wasn't avoiding Gaara, she had just really needed to leave the house in order to clear her head a bit.

It was a Saturday, the laziest day of the week, she should be sleeping in, maybe wake-up sometime during the afternoon and make a mean sandwich with that freshly baked bread, but no, instead she was here with Keita on a self imposed investigation.

They had been walking for quite sometime now, but she hardly noticed with her thoughts somewhere else. Yesterday had been very eventful to say the least, so much so that she had been unable to get a lick of sleep in the night, anytime she would close her eyes, as if on cue a reenactment of the whole steamy make-out sesh with Gaara would start playing in her mind. She began to wonder if he used some type of genjutsu on her to make her unable to forget. Nothing she had done worked and yes she had tried counting sheeps.

Try as she may to put all the blame on Gaara and his surprisingly stellar seduction skills, she couldn't help but also contemplate her actions. Why didn't she push him away? why had she wanted it?

It terrified her that she had been damn near ready to let him do anything with her just with one touch from him, how far she would have let him go if he himself didn't stop. She sighed internally. Maybe this was one of the consequences from being single for too long. She should have listened to Ino and dated as many men as possible then maybe she wouldn't be acting like a touch starved woman in heat.

She'll admit she didn't have much experience in stuff like that. This is what pining over one man for several years does to you ,still, none of the few men she had made out with in Konoha had made her feel the way Gaara did when he kissed her. A delicious spark spread through her body as she recalled the events in the librar- No not thinking about it again. She admonished herself. Ughh why couldn't she stop thinking about it.

She couldn't possibly like-like him right? She mentally derided herself as soon as the thought came, Of-course it had to be lust, they were two consenting adults with raging hormones, this was normal. She needed to stop being childish and attaching emotions to everything.

Gaara probably did things like this all the time, I mean he looks like he fell from the sky, strong and not to mention rich, extra perks for being Kazekage. He probably has girls all over him, constantly. This was nothing but fun for him. It was necessary to keep reminding herself that.

Now she had that birthday party to attend as well , the only reason she had decided to go was because she had needed a distraction from Gaara ,well look at her now, not only was she distracted, she was confused as well.

"You're quiet today" Keita finally spoke drawing her attention from her thoughts to real life, he looked at her from the side of his eye. This was the first time he had spoken since she showed up at his door this morning requesting they meet the survivors husband like they said they would. He had simply nodded his head, went inside to change and they were on their way. He didn't even question how she knew his home.

"I'm just tired, couldn't sleep last night." Technically it was the truth, he didn't have to know the details. She added a small smile to reassure him but he seemed to not be convinced.

"How are things with Gaara?" he suddenly asked his tone indifferent, it seemed like a perfectly harmless question but Sakura knew different, Keita was oddly very perceptive.

At the mention of his name Sakura had stiffened but quickly regained composure, silently praying Keita didn't notice . The question had taken her by surprise , because frankly, she had been asking herself the same question.

Her life had suddenly taken a spin since she came to Suna. The Gaara she thought she knew had been her imagination, but maybe he had always been like this, he used to strike her as a reserved and conservative person but now…

"What do you mean, how are things?" she replied finally

He looked at her with an amused expression on his face like she couldn't possibly be asking him that.

"I mean are you still fighting him?"

Sakura rolled her eyes "I was never 'fighting' him" she mumbled loud enough for Keita to hear.

Yes…yes you were. Inner supplied.

"Righttt…you were just keeping your distance" Keita said mirth playing on his lips.

Sakura nudged him playfully with her elbow, "Shut up" a small smile playing on her face. "Well since you asked, things with Gaara are okay… I think"

"Really?" Sakura almost chuckled, he seemed genuinely surprised. "I'm glad, Kankuro will be very relieved, poor dude was absolutely sick of being in between your 'lovers spat' with Gaara" He continued, his voice dripping with jest.

"L-lovers w-what?!" she sputtered her cheeks flushing red. Oh she was so going to punch him.

But it seemed Keita had already read her mind because he swiftly dodged, a laugh reverberating through him. As funny as it was, he really didn't want to be on the receiving end of her famous punch.

"We are almost there" Keita muttered a few minutes later, just as they took their left into what seemed to be another residential area.

"Finally" Sakura breathed out, she really hadn't planned to do a whole cardio this morning.

Sakura decided to go over her surroundings. This neighborhood seemed different from the ones they had previously passed by. The houses were all built with the same stucco and with very similar modern designs, each house had a well groomed garden porch and stone designed pathways leading the front door. "The streets are sparkly clean". She noted. They must have a strong sense of community here. It was all very organized, maybe too organized for Sakura.

Sakura wondered which subset of people lived here. The modern design definitely ruled out any noble clan.

Maybe because it was still early in the morning but Sakura could count the number of people she could see outside.

"They sure do take Lazy Saturday seriously" She thought humorously

Sakura's eyes drifted till she made eye contact with a woman who was tending to her garden. She smiled and raised her hand to greet but to Sakura's confusion the woman immediately glanced away a cold look in her gaze.

"That was weird" thought Sakura.

"We're here" Keita said to her.

Sakura hadn't been paying attention, her mind pondering on the weird behavior of that woman earlier. But she shook it off to focus on the task at hand.

They had finally reached the home of Mr Elma, husband of Mrs Rie Elma, the only survivor and lead they had right now on the case. They had to confirm details with her husband and hopefully get some more information from him. Sakura wanted to know the type of person she was before she got infected. It would help to confirm the symptoms.

They also planned to visit the husbands of the two victims that weren't fortunate enough to make it. Apart from being women, what else did all the cases have in common?

That remained to be unanswered, hopefully they would get a good lead here.

As they walked the pathway to his door, Sakura couldn't help but notice the forlorn gardens, a stark difference to the well tended gardens she had seen in front of the other houses. Maybe tending the gardens had been something his wife loved to do and now she was no longer here.

Sakura felt her chest tighten in empathy, it was an entirely different type of loss knowing that they were here but not really here.

Keita knocked on the door , three soft knocks after which they waited and waited. Just as Keita raised his hand to knock again, the door slowly opened.

"What do you want" A gruff looking man whom Sakura could only assume was Mr Elma spoke from behind the slightly opened door, key-chain still in place.

His eyes looked tired, engulfed by pools of dark circles and harsh lines , he looked like he hadn't shaved in months, his voice didn't seem too welcoming either. Sakura could imagine what he was going through. She could only hope he would be willing to talk to them.

"Mr Elma?, We are here about your wife." Sakura said resolutely. It was best to not beat around the bush.

"Leave me alone" he said , moving to shut the door.

Frankly, Sakura had been expecting a worse reaction. She was quick to hold the door, stopping him. His eyes widened in surprise then panic, he tried to force the door closed, but his strength was no match for hers.

"We are from the hospital, we just want to help" Keita said with his all too diplomatic voice.

Sakura watched as the man gave them an skeptical once-over, Sakura sighed and showed him her hospital Id, Keita did the same. His animosity dropped considerably after that.

"Just 10minutes" Sakura pleaded.

The man sighed in resignation before unlocking the key-chain and opening the door fully.

"You are sure you're not just reporters trying to get a story"

"Nope, definitely not reporters" Keita replied

The man nodded before inviting them in.

Sakura sat beside Keita nursing her steaming hot of hibiscus tea in her hand, the heat seeped into her hand warming her of the early morning chill. Mr Elma sat opposite them..

Sakura blew gingerly on her tea before taking a sip. She placed the cup gently back on the wooden table and then looked to the man across from her.

"You have a nice home" She said, starting conversation and also because his home was indeed pretty nice. His wife must have loved decorating.

"It used to be nicer when my wife was here" he replied wearily.

"I'm so sorry about your wife" Sakura said, it was clear he loved his wife very much.

He nodded "So what do you want to know?" He asked after a short moment

"What was your wife like?" Keita who had been silent the whole time asked.

As usual Keita had to be very direct, Sakura pinched him from under the table. He was going to end up scaring their only source of info if he continued like this.

The man seemed taken aback by the strange question but surprisingly answered anyways.

"My wife- she was the kindest person I know, she wouldn't hurt a fly you know" he said so brokenly that Sakura thought he may not be able to continue.

"She was a civilian like me , we both worked at Satoh Corps , I work as a Scientist, she worked in marketing. We have been married for three years. He paused to take a shaky breath.

"So a working class couple huh, maybe the residents of this area are the would explain the snobbish behavior from earlier."Sakura reasoned

"She was the sweetest person you'll ever meet, until we got back from our vacation tour ,earlier this year"

"Vacation tour?" Sakura had never heard of that

"My wife loves to travel, we'd travel to the various villages for a short period of time" he explained

Sakura nodded "So when you got back from the vacation you started noticing a different behaviour?"

He nodded "Everything changed when we got back. It started slowly, she would get angry at unnecessary things, at first I thought she was just stressed but she kept getting worse. It didn't make sense."

"Was she stressing over something from work or home?" Keita questioned

The man shook his head slowly "None that I know of"

"Soon after, the paranoia started. She thought everyone was out to get her, that-that I was out to get her" He paused running his hand roughly through his hair.

Sakura and Keita kept quiet waiting for him to continue.

"She got fired from work soon after, she had became violent with her co-workers as well. That's when everything got out of control, We would fight all the time , I'm ashamed to say it got physical sometimes and she was strong, very strong, there was no deescalating with her. I be-I became scared of her"

"What do you mean strong?" Sakura asked

"Uhmm physically strong, even more than me, I tried explaining this to the hospital back then but they looked at me like I was stupid, but I know that what happened to her isn't ordinary, something happened to her. She's not some psycho, my wife is kind, she-she doesn't deserve this, please help her…" he trailed off, the tears started spilling out.

All Sakura could do was hold his hand and watch as he wept, they couldn't tell him that his wife was not the only victim at least for now, it needed to be secret till they found out more.

Sakura took a steady breath, she was resolved to find out the cause of whatever this was and put a stop to it.

By the time Sakura and Keita said their goodbyes to Mr Elma, it was almost afternoon, they had ended up spending more time than intended but she was glad they did. The investigation had been fruitful indeed. She was sure of one thing, this was no virus, this was man-made.

"The other two victims that didn't make it…" Sakura started to say.

"Don't worry about it, I'll check in with their husbands and let you know what I find" Keita said

Sakura smiled appreciatively at him "Are you sure?, I can join you-"

He waved his hand dismissively "Just focus on the science stuff, I got this"

"Okay… if you say so"

Just then her stomach growled loudly, well this was embarrassing. She had forgotten to eat breakfast and didn't have dinner last night as well.

"Someone is hungry" Keita said

"Yeah I didn't have breakfast this morning"

"You're a doctor you should know better,well… good thing I know this restaurant" he said

"Ahhh, what would I do without you, my saving grace"

"Absolutely nothing"

They both chuckled, Sakura trailing after Keita as he led the way.


"So what will you get Gaara san, the food here is really great."

"I'll have whatever" he replied disinterested, glancing outside through the glass window, he tuned out Matsuri as she placed their orders for them while yapping about how exclusive the restaurant was. His discomfort at this situation was beginning to turn into annoyance.

He didn't know why he had allowed Matsuri drag him out for lunch. Okay he'll admit he had felt a little guilty after breaking things off with her finally, but it needed to be done. Surprisingly, she had taken it better than he thought she would. He had chosen to do it at her place just in case.

"Can we still be friends" she had said softly and it brought back memories of the Matsuri who used to admire him as a mentor and a friend. She had changed a lot since then, he had cared about her then, he still did, just not in the way she wanted.

He did hold responsibility for accepting her advances and letting things get this far, so had he nodded his head and accepted her invite to lunch, "as friends", She said. Whatever that meant.

He wasn't sure he liked this place, it wasn't crowded at all but it was definitely more vibrant than he was used to. Luckily, Matsuri was smart enough to get a booth and banquette seating, he appreciated the privacy it provided. The view outside was nice too…

His eyes were on the flower shop just opposite the restaurant, as he regarded the number of men there, obviously to get flowers for their significant others, his mind shifted to thoughts of Sakura as they did more often recently. He wondered what type of flowers she liked.

On second thought, where had she ran off to so early on a Saturday morning. Her chakra signature had been missing this morning and he knew she didn't work on Saturdays , unless she changed that. He hoped she wasn't avoiding him again.

He hadn't planned to kiss her yesterday but there was just something about her that made him unable to control himself. Maybe it was the fact that she resisted him for this long, or maybe it was the stubbornness. She had ignored him for days because she felt disrespected, he had to say that was a first for him. Most of the women he had been with were docile and always apologized first out of fear, but Sakura wasn't scared of him, if she was, she didn't show it. An imperceptible smile spread on his face at the memory of her kissing him back. And Kami the sounds she was making, he had never heard anything more arousing. Fuck he could feel his pants tightening. At least he could be sure of one thing, she wanted him too. Kissing her wasn't going to be enough, he wanted to-

"Uhmm Gaara?"

Gaara snapped out of his less than honourable thoughts about Sakura to the woman across from him

"Hmm?"

"Ren Satoh sent you his birthday invite like he usually does, do I throw it away? I know you never attend." Matsuri giggled as she spoke.

He thought for a while. It was true that every year, Ren Satoh invited him to his birthday party and every year, he threw the invite away. He couldn't stand the cocky piece of shit. There was nothing he wanted more than to throw the invite away as usual but Ren had gone and invited Sakura, his Sakura and she had agreed to attend.

He was in a bit of a pickle, he absolutely hated Ren and his obnoxious parties but he couldn't very well leave Sakura to fall prey to types of Ren and yes, there would be a lot of devious men there with lecherous intentions, just the thought of them looking or worse touching her was making his blood simmer. The choice was quite obvious.

"Keep the invite this year" He said with finality ignoring the look of shock on Matsuri's face, she dared not question him though.

"Such possessiveness" the beast in him mocked.

He ignored it, he wasn't possessive, he didn't-

Just then, the restaurant door chimed and a flash of pink and red entered his vision. Well Isn't this a pleasant surprise. She looked beautiful as usual in her casual outfit that consisted of a green wool knit sweater that matched her eyes and shorts that stopped at the knee.

She seemed to be laughing at something, then the laugh died down and her jade eyes began to scan the restaurant, taking in her environment.

Gaara waited 1,2,3- and then her eyes met his, her expression shifted to surprised then nervous, then she was blushing. He loved when she blushed for him.

"Gaara san?" Matsuri called out, when he didn't answer, she traced his eyeline, turning back to see who or what had his attention.

"Oh It's Sakura san … and Keita" she said out loud, annoyance laced her voice.

His attention had been on Sakura he hadn't even noticed Keita come in after her. His mood dampened instantly.

She had been with Keita the whole morning? Doing what?

His gaze went back to Sakura but she was no longer looking at him and she wore a sullen? Expression.

He frowned, he couldn't tell what that last expression was or why...

Keita waved to their table , then continued chatting with Sakura much to Gaara's annoyance.


To say she was surprised to see Gaara here would be an understatement, her eyes had met his to see that he had already been watching her. She wanted to look away but she couldn't bring herself to, his eyes were like magnets pulling hers in.

What was it about him? He could unnerve her completely with just a glance. He had his hand under his chin while he stared at her unabashedly.

She couldn't tell if it was the vibrant ambience from the restaurant but his hair seemed a bit more brighter and unruly than usual, could he be anymore good looking.

The trance broke when she caught sight of the blob of brown hair peeking from the booth to stare at her. He wasn't alone.

"Matsuri?" She heard Keita mutter in question as he waved to their table.

Just awesome, he is here with his assistant, Matsuri, who she was sure hates her for some reason. An unwelcome feeling of bitterness spread through her even though she tried to stop it.

Keita was able to get another seating away from Gaara's, thankfully… at least that what's she thought. As long as she couldn't see him… and his date or whatever.

She let Keita pick a meal for her since her brain was currently occupied with the several questions running through it.

Why was he here with her on a Saturday? Could there something going on between them? She chided herself as soon as the thoughts came. It could simply be platonic and she was overreacting but even if it wasn't platonic, why did she fucking care?

Her time in Suna was fixed, it's not like anything serious could ever happen between them. She sighed internally, suddenly feeling despondent and less hungry.

"You're jealous" she heard inner Sakura say.

"I'm not" She wanted to deny but she knew deep inside that it was true. She couldn't shake off the feeling of being used… At least she knew where she stood with him now.

"So what do you think of the place?" Keita said cutting her thoughts short, thankfully.

"Hmmm, It's very vibrant…I like it" She responded trying to shake off the feeling of hurt. The last thing she wanted was for Keita to notice something was up.

"Wait till you taste the food" He replied calmly but she knew he was happy she liked the place.

"Can't wait…I'm drooling already" Sakura joked with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, don't get drool on your shirt" He retorted, chuckling.

Sakura gasped at his clever comeback while laughing as well . Trust Keita to joke her out of a bad mood. Temari was one lucky woman.

The whole time unbeknownst to the two of them a pair of jade eyes followed their every movement, Jaw tightened in annoyance.


A/N: Wish I didn't have ADHD so I could drop chapters every week….sigh, sorry guys.