When Sakura woke up she was on a rocky mountain cliff. The first thing she noticed was the absence of sand.

"No!" she jumped up and spun around, distraught at the lack of sand. Gaara was nowhere to be found either. What if he had left while she was unconscious? What if he had never really been up here in the first place? She fell back on the ground and put her head in her hands. "No… Just think. You're good at thinking."

But she couldn't think over the sound of the river. 'Wait, river? There was no river at the peak.'

She stood up and looked around again, this time noticing more than the fact that there was no sand. She was by a river, which meant that she wasn't where she had passed out, which meant that someone had to have taken her here.

'At least he cares that much.' She thought, and the thought comforted her enough to let her realize just how thirsty she was.

She was drinking when she heard another noise over the sound of the river. Her instincts and old habits took over for a moment and she hid herself in the trees to watch what was going on.

Gaara appeared right behind where she had been sitting moments ago, holding a dead rabbit in his hands. He didn't even look around before looking right at where she was hiding in the trees. And still he said nothing. He just put the rabbit down and started to back away. Because if she really hated him he wasn't going to stay near her any more than he had to.

"Wait." Sakura whispered when she saw him leaving, then yelled, "Wait!" and ran out to him. "You can't leave!"

He turned to look at her and she stopped in her tracks. The distance between them might have been only some feet, but it felt like miles. It felt like forever.

"I came all the way out here. I traveled this far; I even closed the shop for this long, just to find you. Do you know how much I can't afford this? I'm going to be even poorer when we get home, and it's all your fault. We're going to have to move back into that crappy old apartment, and all for you."

"I…"

"Ah, yes, I did say when we get home, because you had better be coming back! For Benji if not for me. If you hate me now, if you never want to see me again-and I wouldn't blame you- you can just avoid me, but Benji is all alone, and you know, I'm not like you are with him. I know he'd miss you too much for you to never come back."

"Look, I…"

"And that too, that's your fault! Benji's been all alone for however long it's taken me to find you. Geez, how long has it been? And it would be nice if you still want to live with us, with me. I know I said I wouldn't blame you for hating me, but that doesn't mean I want you to."

"Hey! Would you shut up for one second?" Gaara yelled.

Sakura shook her head, "No. If I stop talking then you'll talk and I'm… I'm afraid."

Gaara took two steps toward her, crossing the miles between them, and still there were miles left to go. "Of what?"

Sakura looked at his face and did her best not to cry. "I don't want you to hate me!"

Gaara took two more steps toward her. She felt kind of bad, making him do all the walking. She found she couldn't meet his eyes anymore, so she settled on watching his chest as he crossed the distance between them until they were finally standing close to each other. Close enoughthat she could feel hisbreath on the top of her head.

"Ok."

She looked up at his face, "Ok?" She was disgusted to hear herself hiccup.

"That's what I said."

She frowned, "Yeah, but what the hell is that supposed to mean?" she asked angrily. "Why can't you just talk in normal people's terms?"

Gaara snorted, "I wasn't aware 'ok' is no longer a normal person's term. I must've have been away from civilization for longer than I thought."

"Hey, speaking of which, why didn't you tell me you've been going to see Temari?"

"You never asked."

Sakura followed Gaara as he started down the mountain. "Don't you walk away from me!" she yelled, "You always walk first! Do you think you're better than me? I'll fight you for it!"

She almost ran into his back when he stopped suddenly and turned around. "Ok."

"Stop saying that! 'Ok' what now?"

Gaara looked at her with the faintest trace of a smile. She wasn't even sure it was there, really. "I'll fight you for it. If you win, you can walk ahead of me."

Sakura shook her head, "You're crazy."

"Tell me something I don't know." He said. "Come on, we'll fight. No weapons, including my sand. Just you and me, hand to hand."

"Fine!" Sakura grinned, "But you have to promise not to stare at my butt when you're walking behind me."

Gaara started regretting his decision about halfway through their fight. He really wasn't used to hand to hand combat, and on top of that he had been just sitting on top of a mountain for months. And Sakura was way better than she let herself believe.

He dodged a punch only to be grabbed from behind in a headlock and attacked with a vicious noogie.

"It's no fun if you let me win!" Sakura said into his ear, tickling his cheek with her breath.

He flipped her over his shoulder and chased after her as she flipped backwards onto her feet. Given the chance to be on the offensive he found he just couldn't bring himself to kick her like he meant it.

"Pfft." Sakura grabbed his ankle and smacked him on the head, just as he had seen her do to Benji time after time. "You're pathetic. I quit." She turned her back to him and started walking back down the mountain.

Gaara launched himself at her back, ready to beat her now that she had insulted him so. But when he landed on her she didn't slip him over her shoulder as she should have, she toppled forward with him. Suddenly aware of how close they were to a cliff, and how easily her body would be broken by the fall Gaara enveloped them in a cloud of sand and brought them to the bottom of the mountain.

When they were back on the ground he let go of Sakura and stood back. She sat on the ground, looking at her hands in her lap. Her shoulders weren't shaking were they? The trembling was all in his imagination, wasn't it?

She looked up at him, and she was laughing. "You broke the rules! That means I win! Nyah!" She stood up and brushed off her clothes. "That'll teach you to be a nice guy."

Gaara glared at her, realizing how she had planned for this to happen. "I should've learned from the first time I saved you."

"Yup, you should've." She smiled at him strangely then, and for a long while, making him a little nervous.

"What?"

She shrugged, "You could have let me fall alone." She continued smiling. "But you didn't."

"Thanks for reminding me what I did a few seconds ago. I almost forgot." Gaara said sarcastically, but she just kept smiling that strange smile. He turned to leave when she just wouldn't stop.

"Hey! I get to walk first!" she yelled, and jogged up to walk beside him, "But I guess I'll let you walk with me, just this once."

"You're happy today." She said while they sat together eating lunch. The way she said it didn't really invite an explanation and it wasn't really a question. She had such a strange way of saying things. Maybe it was because her voice was so quiet; it had no room for feeling in it.

Gin looked up at her for a moment, but went back to ignoring her when he saw she wasn't talking to him.

Benji nodded, and she smiled. She didn't say anything more, but then, he didn't really expect her to. She hardly ever spoke a word, and when she did, she said strange things that might make more sense if she explained them, but she never explained herself.

The night before when he had gone home to check for postcards he had received another postcard from Sakura. This one saying that it would be the last one. 'They're coming home.' He thought again, for the hundredth time that day. He had checked a map, and asked his sensei and figured that at the longest they would take a few weeks to get back.

That night he and Ino had a special dinner.

"To the return of our family!" She said as they clinked their glasses together in celebration. And Benji liked that thought. 'Our family.'