New Revelations Chapter 7

First of all uber thank yous to everyone who gave me such nice reviews! I mean they were really nice reviews! Personally I really don't think this is the best fan fic in the world, but I'm glad some of you think so! I've updated/edited my summary for you non-manga readers, or people that haven't caught up with the manga as of yet. Apparently someone pointed out there was a huge spoiler in the summary that I mindlessly overlooked. GOMEN! Well on with the chapter!

Gaara looked on at Sakura, pondering the deeper meanings in her last statement. He had been given a second chance hadn't he? He had friends now, something he thought he would always be denied.

She smiled at him before flopping on her back and staring up into the sky. The grass was soft and comfortable here, not itchy or prickly at all. She sighed contently watching the few patches of clouds float soundlessly by. "Do you ever just stare up at the sky?" She asked; her green eyes focused entirely on the blue until she could see nothing else.

Gaara tilted his head to look, "Yes, usually at night. The sky is a lot different at night. It's calmer, more serene."

"I see." Sakura thought. "It probably helps that there's no one around to bother him either." 'Except for you of course.' Inner Sakura added.

"You look like that Nara guy." Gaara said studying her and breaking her concentration.

"Shikamaru?" She sat up and turned to face him. It wasn't that Shikamaru was a bad guy, but he was considered to be one of the laziest ninjas in the entire world.

Gaara smirked, thoroughly enjoying the reaction he was getting. "Yeah him, that night when I first ran into you here, I saw him laying like that staring up at the sky."

Sakura's face softened. Shikamaru had suffered as well. No one thought Chouji would make it after taking the red pill, but thankfully Tsunade was able to make an antidote to cure him. She remembered seeing him sitting outside the intensive care unit with Chouji's father on her way to see Naruto. Up until then she had never seen Shikamaru look so worried.

She snapped back to attention when Gaara sat down next to her. "I heard my sister say he was really shaken after what happened. She couldn't understand why he wasn't given emotion training."

"Emotion training?" She thought staring at Gaara. What kind of instruction were ninja given in Sunakagure? "We were given rules as academy students." Sakura began. "The twenty-fifth rule was that Shinobi, under no circumstances are to show emotion." She stiffened, remembering the mission in the Wave country and Sasuke's limp body, punctured by Haku's needles. She had cried then too.

"It is important for Shinobi to remain a tool, however, most struggle with the thought of that." Kakashi-sensei had said at the time.

Sasuke was struggling with something very similar to that when he left Konoha. He saw himself only as an instrument for revenge, and didn't care whom he had to go through to get it.

Gaara remained silent. Sakura's face had changed, she looked grim now and her bottom lip was quivering slightly. Obviously something had happened to make her doubt the logicality of such a rule. "It's true though isn't it? We shinobi are tools, tools do not show emotion." He stated. Gaara knew ninja were a tool more than anyone else; he himself still was considered a "tool."

Sakura turned to him, eyes full of tears, her voice shaky "Do you honestly believe that?" She had heard stories about his ruthless killings and the crude smile on his face when he crushed his victims to death while they screamed for mercy. He had been raised a tool, and yet he longed to feel.

He stared at her overwhelmed at her display of emotion. He had never seen anyone cry, not like this. He had seen Yashamaru look sadly at the picture of his sister, the one Gaara would have called mother, he had seen people beg for him to spare their lives, but he had never seen tears of true sadness. Her tears were quite like his own had been when he discovered he was nothing but his village's secret weapon. Trying to come to grips with the frustration, the loneliness, and the futility of the reality before him; she was like him in that sense. "I'm not so sure now." He answered her.

Her eyes widened at his response and she smiled weakly before deciding to hug him. He jerked a little in surprise to her actions, but he made no move to stop her. Her head rested on his shoulder again like it had the night of the kiss.

"I'm glad." She said. He could tell she was smiling. Not knowing exactly what else to do, he awkwardly put an arm around her. Seconds, then minutes went by until he could no longer keep track of how long they remained this way, but he dared not move.

"He's uneasy." She noticed. Was he afraid? It seemed reasonable. No one ever reached out to him, they secluded him and he mentally boxed himself in to avoid being hurt in such a way ever again. She thought for a moment. "You know Naruto never told us where to meet him."

"It hasn't been that long, he's probably still eating that ramen crap." He answered, his posture finally relaxing.

Sakura smiled, once again diffusing the tension for him. "More than likely he's on his seventh bowl already."

Gaara made a face, "How much of that stuff can he take?"

She laughed, "Shall we find out?"

Gaara smirked in return. "I guess."

"Let's go then!" she shouted grabbing his hand and pulling him up with her, still smiling. The look of surprise on his face was just priceless. "I'll pull you out of that little shell of yours, just you wait!" She thought with newfound determination.

Suddenly Sakura's legs were stuck fast. "What the…" She looked down to find herself up to her knees in sand. She turned to Gaara, perplexed.

"You were hurting my arm." He answered. "I had to stop you."

"I see…you could have said something though." Sakura teased.

"Yes, but would you have listened?" He retorted.

She fumbled for a moment, much to his delight, "N-no probably not."

"Then it was necessary." He said smugly and called the sand back to him.

Sakura shrugged and they began their walk to Ichiraku.

"SECONDS!" Naruto shouted with glee over to the ramen chef, a small limp noodle still hanging from the corner of his mouth. The blonde haired Genin placed his third empty bowl on top of the stack next to him on his right.

The chef laughed, "What would you like on it this time?"

Naruto slurped the loose noodle from the corner of his mouth and grinned. "Miso please!" He smiled cheerfully and leaned back a bit on his stool. He straightened once he became aware of a strong presence behind him…with the intent to kill.

"…. Naruto…." The strangely familiar voice shook with anger and annoyance.

He turned around just in time to receive a blow to the face. "YOU BAKA!" The person screamed. He shook off the punch and looked up at his attacker.

Sakura stood in front of him practically glowing with fury.

Gaara lifted the curtain to the stand from behind Sakura, face completely expressionless. "So he really was still here after all."

"Sakura-chan," Naruto stumbled over his words due to the immense swelling of one of his cheeks. He looked over at Gaara, "And Sand-man too? So you guys changed your minds then?" He asked hopefully.

Sakura glared at him and judging from the sudden look of disgust from Gaara after seeing his stack of bowls, this was certainly not the case.

"Kyah! Naruto, you never told us where you wanted to meet up later, in fact you never told us when either!" She snarled as Gaara looked on transfixed by this side of her personality. "Even Kakashi-sensei has the decency to do that!" She finished pointing her index finger at Naruto just inches away from his forehead.

"She's a very angry individual, there just might be hope for her yet." Gaara thought. Sakura seemed to have dynamic reactions to certain behaviors, and Naruto seemed to embody all those of which would invoke her wrath. She was comforting one moment, and rampaging the next. He couldn't deny this made her entirely more interesting to be around and it was rare for him to be so fascinated by another person.

"Here you go kid!" The ramen chef said with a smile, completely ignoring the chaos that had just taken place.

Naruto whirled around and whipped out a pair of chopsticks, "Itadakimasu!" He shouted and began slurping the noodles at an alarming rate.

Gaara's eye twitched.

Sakura stared at Naruto, frozen with her finger still pointing in the same position. "This guy!" Inner Sakura growled. She gathered herself, taking a deep breath, "That is your last bowl right?" She asked, half demanding. Just watching him eat like that made her nauseous.

Naruto looked over his shoulder, noodles hanging from his mouth in mid slurp, "Uh huh." He finished slurping and chugged the remaining broth in mere seconds.

"YOSH! That was great!" He smiled and paid Ayame the ramen girl before turning to join Sakura and Gaara. "So where to?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Honestly Naruto, you said you wanted to meet us, didn't you at least have something in mind?"

The blonde giggled with one hand behind his head, "O-of course Sakura-chan….um I was hoping….we could…GO SEE FUZZY EYEBROWS! He was released today you know!" His response was met by another smack by Sakura.

"NARUTO DON'T CALL LEE-SAN NAMES LIKE THAT!" She scolded.

Outside the quarrel, Gaara wondered if things were always like this between them. He raised his eyebrows at the mention of Lee's name. He hadn't seen him since he had brought him to the hospital. Somehow, he wasn't sure if he wanted to see Lee, whose happy-go-lucky attitude served both as a relief and a bother. On one hand it was nice to have someone not be terrified of him and treat him like a normal person, on the other hand, Lee was, well, kind of weird, especially if his teacher was with him. However, he had no time to sit and dwell on these things because while he was deep in thought, Naruto and Sakura had decided to go and see Lee, and were already dragging him along. Dragging him along? He couldn't believe he hadn't been paying attention like that. Normally if anyone so much as brushed past him he reacted. There was something about those two that made him abandon his predisposed way of thinking. No, it wasn't just them; many people in this village didn't seem to mind his presence. Shikamaru had greeted him as if he spoke with him all the time, Gai had thanked him, and even the Hokage wasn't worried about having him around. Maybe this was just the way of the village of Konoha?

"Oi, Sand-man you're lagging behind!" Naruto called to him.

Sakura smiled, "Don't make us carry you!"

Whatever the reason, he wasn't going to complain. "I'm coming."

END OF CHAPTER 7

Whew! This chapter took me forever! Someone suggested that I select a time frame for this story to take place. After reading ch. 245 of the manga I've decided to change some things around for future events. It's not going to ruin what I have already done here though, and it's not going to be a rewrite of the manga, which is good seeing as this is a work of fiction, i.e. from my demented brain. This will actually work out pretty well for this story because I don't want Gaara and Sakura's relationship to evolve too quickly. Also in case no one else has noticed this also focuses on what's going on around them, hence all the Naruto dialogue. You know Gaara and Naruto would become great friends if given the chance. Well I hope you likes and read and review!

Gaara: This is the worst fanfic ever.

Lizzy-kun: Shut up or I won't tell you where I hid your gourd.

Gaara: Phooey!

Lizzy-kun: phooey? O.O;

Gaara:looks taken off guard: Shut up or I'll kill you!

Lizzy-kun:snickers: phooey!

Gaara: I hate you.