New Revelations Chapter 3

EDIT: 10/19/05, Fixed some grammatical errors, and made some minor revisions.

Sakura couldn't sleep that night, she kept tossing and turning, but she couldn't get the days events from playing over and over in her head. Gaara's little epiphany was the most persistent. The fact that he had saved her, and made friends with Naruto was so drastically out of character.

"What am I doing? I never really knew him from the start." She thought as she stared up at her ceiling. How would she know what was in and out of character for him? "Duh Sakura! HE'S KILLED PEOPLE THAT'S HOW!" Inner Sakura argued.

She shifted her head on her pillow. It could have been an elaborate put on, but why would he even bother? She analyzed the entire scene over in her mind looking for answers, his body language, actions, and even facial expressions, or lack there of. Then she recalled those eyes…those deep, sad eyes full of hurt and pain; almost as if they yearned to tell a story all their own.

"Baka." She said out loud to herself. It was obvious Gaara had probably lived a very lonely existence, far more lonely than hers ever was. He had never known love of any kind. If anything what he needed most were friends, people who would listen to him, maybe even understand him. She glanced over at her alarm clock. She needed to get some sleep before her first day as Tsunade's apprentice. She rolled over on her side and tried clearing her mind. Two hours and several self-reprimands later, she finally fell asleep.

Back at the inn, the sound of a door sliding open pulled Gaara out of his thoughts. Temari peeked her head in nervously, obviously checking on him. When his eyes met hers she was visibly uncomfortable, but tried to play it off.

"Just checking to see if you were back yet." She smiled a nervous smile.

Gaara was tired of her phoniness. He was always handled with care, but did they really care? Or were they just worried about being punished if something were to happen to him? Perhaps they were even more afraid of him. The only time they had ever seemed to like him was in battle. He was the ultimate weapon, a sure thing. He had realized this long ago and had learned to live with it, but now things had changed.

"Temari." She paused in the doorway; a strange look came over her face. "Do you honestly care about me, or am I just an unwanted responsibility?" He had definitely hit a weak spot.

Temari looked uneasy, "What's this all of a sudden?" She said with that unnatural grin on her face. She didn't want to say the wrong thing and have him snap on her.

She had said all that he needed to know. "Never mind, it's nothing." He rested his chin on his knees and looked away from her. This was going to be a long night.

"Ah…O-okay…goodnight." Temari slid his door shut. She sighed in relief. She wasn't sure how she should react to him anymore. It was true Gaara was used as the hidden village of the Sand's trump card, and they were responsible to keep him under control if the demon Shukaku got restless. "Do you honestly care about me, or am I just an unwanted responsibility?" These words from Gaara? What answer was he hoping for? He had been so cold and distant to them all these years they had been together that she and Kankurou feared him. He hadn't allowed them to become close. She did care though; he was her little brother and if something was to go wrong she wanted to be able to help him. They were a family. She looked back at his door before continuing down to hers.

Kankurou was waiting for her. "Was he there?"

"Yeah he's back." She said. "I'm beat I'm going to turn in." She didn't bother telling him what Gaara had asked her.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

"URESAI!" Sakura threw a kunai at her alarm clock sleepily. The beeping promptly stopped. She lay there for a few seconds before sitting straight up. Today was her first day as Tsunade's apprentice! She instantly made her bed, took a quick shower, ate breakfast, and zoomed out the door hoping to be early and look dependable.

Tsunade was waiting for her when she arrived and presented Sakura with her first lesson. She placed a ripped piece of cloth before her. "This first lesson Sakura-chan, is to teach you how to efficiently focus your chakra and use it to mend the fabric. This usually takes a few tries before you actually succeed so don't worry if it doesn't come to you right away."

Sakura nodded and began to concentrate on moving the chakra into her hand. A few minutes later she could feel it pulsing through her fingers. She held her hand over the piece of cloth and released her chakra into it. A few threads twitched slightly and fused together, but this effect ceased in seconds.

"Not bad for your first try Sakura-chan." Tsunade smiled. "Keep at it and you should have this mastered in no time."

Sakura nodded and tried again. This time a section of the cloth had repaired itself. She looked to Tsunade with a huge grin.

Tsunade smiled at her protégé. "She's as good as I was at her age. This girl has obvious talent!" Sakura was already showing signs of becoming a great future medical ninja. In time she might even be able to replace Tsunade.

Hours later, Tsunade told Sakura they would stop for the day and continue tomorrow. Sakura was overjoyed at her progress. She always felt like the weak one when she was with Naruto and Sasuke, but now she felt as though she had gotten stronger.

"This calls for ice cream!" She thought still smiling as she made her way to the ice cream shop. Once there she ordered her favorite flavor, mint chocolate chip. She sat down on a bench enjoying her treat when she caught sight of Gaara, who was wandering down the road. He was so stiff when he walked; it was like he was zombified or something. He noticed her and she waved. To her surprise he paused and then came over to her.

"I thought you were training with Hokage-sama today." He said stiffly.

"He really needs to loosen up." Sakura thought. She expected his joints to creak if he moved. "We're finished for today." She said with a smile.

"What's that?" He stared at her ice cream.

Sakura looked at him dumbfounded. "It's ice cream, haven't you had ice cream before?"

"No I have not."

"Really?"

He stared at her. He didn't like repeating himself.

"Try some of mine." She held her cone out to him.

He hesitated for a moment before he slowly took the cone from her and took a lick cautiously as if he expected it to be poisoned.

Sakura watched him with mild amusement. He looked almost innocent and child-like when holding that ice cream cone.

He made a face. "It's cold."

Sakura smiled, "Do you like it?"

He handed her the cone. "Yeah it's not bad." Still stone serious.

"Want one? Think of it as my thanks for saving me yesterday." She offered.

His eyes widened slightly. Her smile wasn't fake like Temari's. Her's was real. No one wanted anything to do with him when he was a child, and yet she was practically tugging on his arm to take him with her. He was intrigued. "Okay."

A few moments later they were both sitting on the bench with ice cream cones. Gaara was staring at his, not quite sure what to make of it. He took a bite of it, swallowed, and made a face as a headache hit him full force.

"What is this?" He asked massaging his forehead.

"Gomenasi! I should have warned you! If you eat it too fast the cold will give you a headache, but don't worry it goes away in a few seconds." She said hoping he wouldn't kill her due to an ice cream headache.

As Sakura had said the pain ceased. He realized there were some things that the sand could not protect him from. He noticed Sakura staring at him, concerned. "Did it go away?" She asked.

He noticed her ice cream was dripping down her hand, a sure sign that she was more concerned about him than her ice cream. A strange feeling came over him, he couldn't recognize it, but it felt good. "Yeah." He finally answered. She was still looking at him. "Your hand." He gestured to the ice cream migrating down her wrist.

"Ehh? That was careless of me." She laughed as she corrected herself, obviously embarrassed. She was still nervous around him. He probably thought she was annoying.

She finished her ice cream and stood up. "I'm going to visit Lee-san, I'll see you around then I guess." She smiled at him and left feeling less than sure of herself. "What's this feeling?" She wondered, but quickly shook it off.

Her words reminded him of Naruto's. "See you around then Sand-man." She was strange and she made him feel even stranger. It was almost exciting. He glanced down at his ice cream and threw the rest out. If Temari or Kankurou had seen him with it they would probably have him committed. No, they would be too scared to. He began to walk to the park where he had met with Sakura the other day. He had the whole day to kill; he might as well spend it in solitude.

"Lee-san, are you feeling better?" Sakura called out as she entered the ninja's room carrying a lily flower like she had always done.

Lee looked up. "Sakura-san?" His eyes teared up. "YOU MUSTN'T SEE ME LIKE THIS IN SUCH A WEAKEND STATE!" He threw his arms over his face.

Sakura stared at him. "You're overdramatic. A friend of yours comes to visit you and you hide." He was really hopeless sometimes. She supposed he got these weird reactions from Gai, who always acted out in front of Kakashi-sensei.

Lee stopped and peered out from under one arm, "Sakura-san," He dropped both arms to his lap with tears streaming down his face, "YOU'RE RIGHT! A MAN SHOULD BE STRONG IN THE PRESENCE OF A WOMAN!" "Isn't that right Gai-sensei?" He thought to himself.

Sakura sighed as she replaced the flowers in his vase with new ones. "I see you can move around all right, it's a good thing you didn't get hurt as badly as before, though I still don't think Tsunade-sama is going to be very happy with you." Tsunade had only just treated Lee the other day before he ran off to help the others with the mission.

Lee hung his head, "Tsunade-sama already lectured me, and I should be ashamed of taking her kindness and good treatment for granted. After all, because of her I can still defend my way of the ninja."

Sakura smiled at him, "I won't keep you then, get some rest so you can finally get out of here for a change!" She waved, "See you later!" And walked out the door.

She peeked into Naruto's room before she left. "The baka!" She thought, "He's asleep!" There was no use bothering him then. She had wanted to know the details of his battle with Sasuke, when it suddenly occurred to her that perhaps Naruto wouldn't want to talk about it. He had looked so depressed when she had seen him the day he was brought back to the village. It was better not to remind him. She left the hospital with the night once again beginning to set in on Konoha. She stopped for a bite of Takoyaki, and then decided to go to the park like she had the night before.

Just like last night she climbed her favorite tree, but this time the lulling of the branches and the sounds of the night, as well as her lack of energy due to her training earlier, put Sakura to sleep.

"Back again I see." Gaara's voice broke Sakura out of her nap ten minutes later.

"AIEEE!" She had once again fallen off the tree branch. o.O;

Gaara, who had been standing upside down under the very branch where she had been sleeping, caught her around the waist. "You're rather careless." He said to her.

Sakura realized she was clinging to him for dear life. "I'm sorry." She said stupidly, they were forehead to forehead. She stared into his eyes.

He stared back into hers, the strange feeling coming over him again. He noticed that they hadn't moved, and he didn't want to. Something about holding her like this was oddly satisfying. "There is only one thing that can stop heartache…it's love." Yashamaru's words echoed through his head. "Love." He pulled Sakura closer and pressed his lips to hers.

End of Chapter 3

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