Chapter 6: Sand or Fire?

Sakura was leisurely walking down random roads that were covered in new blankets of fresh snow. She had gotten up late that day after the sudden appearance of Kabuto the day before. Her arms were folded across her chest as she stared up at the cloudy sky with every step. Her eyes never left the bare tree tops of every street.

She was lost in her thoughts, recalling the recent event.

"You have something that my master wants. He says you have something that can grant him immortality and release his 'precious' one. I'm glad I'm not in your place."

She was still pondering on those few sentences. 'I have something that creep's boss wants?' she ran through all of her possessions in her head but couldn't find one of much importance. 'I could ask Wilson but, no I don't want to drag him into this.'

Christmas was nearing and Sakura still didn't have anything planned. She was so caught up in the accidents going on that she never had time to arrange anything. She walked passed couples who looked so happy together. Of course, flashbacks of Gaara came to mind again. She just sighed, she knew she could never let go of him; he was her first love.

Once again, her feet brought her to the very same park where everything in her life had happened. She reminisced through all those times and noticed that Sasuke was always there with her. "In fact," she said to herself, "he's always there, no matter what, no matter where."

As her eyes adjusted to the brightness of the snow, she saw a brilliant red colour in the distance. 'Quit thinking it Sakura, it can't be.' She couldn't get the thought out of her head. She had to be sure that it wasn't him. She ran.

The tears instantly poured out of her eyes as her eyes fell upon the face of her mysterious red mark.

He still hadn't noticed her there, but instead had a bird on his finger. He was watching it intently with a smile on his face. His elbow was propped up onto his knee with his head resting on his hand. The other hand was held out with a beautiful blue bird perched on his index finger.

"G-Gaara?" Sakura was amazed to see that Gaara was in the park sitting on the bench. She immediately ran and hugged him tightly. "Gaara, it can't really be you can it?"

She felt him return the hug. "Why Sakura, you came to Tokyo? What happened to you? When I woke up you weren't there, I got really worried." She pulled away from the hug and looked at him. She had tears in her eyes as she smiled brightly. She couldn't believe it at all.

"I really can't believe that you're here," Sakura said loudly.

In the bushes, Sasuke was spying, "Neither can I Sakura, neither can I." He whispered to himself and he watched the couple closely.

"What are you doing here? When did you get here? Wait how did you know I was here?" all of these questions empted out of Sakura at quite a speed.

"Wait wait," he got her to stop then there was silent for about two seconds then, "What?" he laughed. "You're going way too fast. Start over." He let her sit down beside him.

They talked for a little bit and all the while, Sasuke was still in the bushes trying to listen in on the conversation. Then, Sakura kissed Gaara quickly on the lips and smiled. Sasuke's heart sank. "Why am I watching this anyway? I know I have to watch over her but not while she's having alone time with her," he dared to say it. "boyfriend."

Sasuke got up, not wanting to see anymore and walked away, head slumped down and hands stuffed into his pockets. "I'll leave them alone for a while."

Orochimaru could see everything that went on in the park from his high perch atop a building. He saw from when Sakura hugged Gaara and when Sasuke left. "Aa…things are getting interesting. I should have put Gaara in from the beginning instead of letting that moron Kabuto do things."

He pounced off the building and onto the balcony of another building. "He's going to cause much more havoc than Kabuto will ever dream of although," he smirked and stretched his hand down to grab an apple from a by passer. "I do admit, his power solution is something I favour."

"I really hate the thought that I still can't control Gaara fully though. I should have really kept him at the lab for a few more days but this was turning into a disaster." He took a glance at the crimson haired boy. "If I don't get full control of him, he may cause so much chaos that even I won't be able to control."

He dropped the half eaten apple and hit someone on the head. "At least he doesn't know what he's doing right now. If he was always his evil form, he might not be of any use for much of the plan anyway. This way, things are much more fun."

Now Sakura and Gaara were walking through the park, hand in hand towards the café to get some hot cocoa.

"So, you're not sure how you got here?" Sakura asked. It was rather odd not knowing about things like that. "I mean, your parents never said anything?"

Gaara shook his head. "To be honest, I woke up at the hospital here. They told me I had an apartment in the town somewhere, I think it's near some Academy. They also told me it was paid for and all of my stuff was already there. I try to call my parents but no one's ever home." He replied.

"So," she thought for a moment. "I take that as a 'I don't remember a thing at all." She giggled as she saw Gaara's face. She couldn't believe it. It was like being back on cloud nine after so many months. No more cares in the world.

"You know what?" Gaara said picking up some snow and making it into a snowball. "I have never seen snow as fluffy as this." He said with a grin growing on his face.

"Really?" Sakura said, not noticing what he was doing as he scooped up some snow herself.

Gaara's grin grew to its widest. "It's a shame to waste it," then he threw it at her.

The snowball had hit her square in the back of the head sending snow down her back. "Gaara!" she spun around and threw a snowball at him too. They were laughing and playing around again, like old times.

Gaara didn't know how he found Sakura again or how he got to Tokyo, but he was thankful, at least for now.

Sasuke was walking down towards his house. He hadn't been there for quite a while and thought it appropriate to leave Sakura alone for a while. After all, she had just seen her boyfriend again and that's all that counted to Sasuke. As long as she was happy, he'd swallow his sadness.

"Wait, you don't care for her. You never have and you never will." He said to himself keeping the feeling in his chest controlled. "She was just the stupid target of the mission. Why did you have to fall for her! Stupid!" Sasuke walked down an alley that was a short cut to his place. It was still bright out so he didn't have to be worried in the allies.

His thoughts trailed back to when it was just Sakura and him; when he would comfort her, when she would take care of him if he was injured, when he made her blush and laugh. He held in the aching feeling in his chest and punched a dumpster. He left quite the dent with just human strength alone.

As much as he tried to prevent it, his eyes began to water but held back the tears. "You don't love her," he repeated to himself over and over. She was the only one that was kind to him, the only one who cared if he was injured or not besides the headquarters people and Naruto. She made him stay at her house, let him sleep next to her. He had never felt that kind of kindness from anyone, and the person who gave him that feeling was slowly slipping from his grasp.

"Damn it," he walked towards his apartment.

Gaara and Sakura were both standing before her apartment doors. They had just gotten back from the café after getting two hot chocolates. They deserved it too since they had been in the snow for more than an hour.

"Goodnight Sakura." A quick peck on the lips was Gaara's goodnight gift.

"You're positive you can't stay for a little bit?" she asked. "No it's okay. Tomorrow I will because I don't have my stuff with me." He gave a small smile and bade farewell.

When Sakura was out of sight, Gaara leaned onto the wall with pain, griping his head and panting heavily. "What the hell is going on!" Gaara fell to his knees and doubled over from the continuous throbbing of his head. He then blacked out but didn't fall, instead, he felt something else take over him.

His tattoo began to glow bright red. When he looked up his eyes were crimson coloured and an even grin was plastered onto his face. "Finally," he looked at his hands. "That took so much out of me. This boy really has quite the will power." The evil Gaara got up and walked back to the apartment. "Now all I have to do is get the girl and," he stopped in his tracks. He froze, not being able to move any part of his body. The good Gaara was fighting, from the inside out. He would never let Sakura get hurt and by this thing. The evil Gaara just chuckled and stepped back. "I guess Orochimaru found me a host that can't be controlled fully."

He then turned around and began to walk towards the more busy part of the city. "I'll just have my fun elsewhere. I'd like to see if I still have a good handle on my powers."

Kakashi had just woken up the next morning and did his usual routine. Got out of bed, grabbed some coffee and opened up the television. The channel that popped up was the news channel on a latest update of crime in Tokyo.

"Last night in downtown Tokyo, a young man of twenty-two accompanied by a group of men, were found dead in the alleyways. There were many signs of beatings such as bruises, broken bones, and cuts all over each of them. Here's a witness."

Kakashi heard this and didn't pay much attention to it. This kind of crime wasn't something he worried about too much.

"Y-yes, I d-did see a l-little b-bit of what h-happened." A middle aged man said, frightened to the core. "There was a man with a hooded cape that had his arms folded across his chest. I couldn't really see his face but his build was ordinary." The nervous man said with one breath. He sucked in again and said, "The other guys that are dead now were screaming after being whipped around by sand. Sand I tell yah sand!" the man's hands waved above his head. "It was the most unordinary thing I've ever seen! Hell, he was a mutant I tell you! He didn't take any mercy on those guys!"

Kakashi's head snapped towards his television set as he fumbled with his remote to turn the volume up. "Mutant manipulating sand? It can't be. The sand demon was sealed up long ago. My old boss told me himself!" he stared with disbelief at the video that replayed of what happened in the alleyway. The nervous man was a tourist in Tokyo all the way from Mexico. "Poor guy, I don't think he'll recommend Tokyo as a vacation spot anymore."

Kakashi took notice that it was a man who was controlling the sand and not a mutant-like being. "At least it hasn't fully revealed itself." He grabbed his jacket and headed for headquarters. "Uchiha, looks like you have yourself another mission."

Later that night, Sasuke agreed to his mission and was now patrolling downtown Tokyo. This time he was in his normal attire, no black suit, for he wanted to get the guy to come to him. He walked down a dark alley with only the street lights on the other end for light.

While walking, Sasuke heard a shifting of what sounded like sand. He slowed down and then stopped before a puddle. He listened closely to his surroundings and stared into the puddle, using it as a mirror. Again the sound of sand could be heard but a bit louder.

'Okay, I have two choices here.' Sasuke thought as he slowly put his hands to him side to the pouch on his lower back. 'Option A,' he began. 'Slice anything that moves.' He got a good grip on his kunai. 'Or option B,' he brought the kunai out of the pouch and put it into his sleeve. 'Calm down and slice anything,' he saw sand through the puddle rising slowly. 'That doesn't move.' He spun around quickly and threw the kunai.

Sakura and Hinata once again were together but at Sakura's apartment. They were flipping through photo albums. They were both sitting on the couch and giggling while looking at Sakura's baby photos.

"Aw Sakura!" Hinata pointed to a picture of Sakura holding a snowball in her tiny three-year-old hands. The snowball was quite large actually, almost one fourth of Sakura's height. "That's so cute!"

They laughed a little bit and went to the next album. Sakura chose at random so she didn't know what she was picking up.

The first pace was a kid Gaara and a small Sakura standing together. They were both smiling widely while hugging a golden retriever. They were in a large grassy area. "Wait, there weren't any grassy areas in New York, Sakura. Where is this?" Hinata asked.

"That's my backyard back when I used to live next to Gaara's family in Connecticut. Gaara and I moved to New York later on because of our parents' businesses but we always went back to our houses when we get the chance." She stared at the picture. Then she flipped the page and there was a copy of the one in her room, the piggyback ride.

She stared at it long and hard and noticed something that she really didn't think of much. He didn't have a tattoo on his forehead. She brought the picture closer to see if she could really be sure that was the place where the tattoo was when she saw him. She was positive.

"What the hell," she said out in a whisper. "He never really mentioned anything about the tattoo."

There was a sharp sound of metal hitting metal as the kunai struck the dumpster behind the person standing behind him. Sasuke's eyes widened at the mere thought of piercing the guy through the heart. 'I wish I could just kill him, but I don't have a logical reason,'

It was Gaara right behind Sasuke, only he looked different to Sasuke. He eyed the tattoo that was glowing red and his eyes were red as well. Last time he looked at a picture of him, he didn't have red eyes. He soon noticed that he didn't flinch at the dagger that nearly sliced him.

"Uh, sorry about that. I just bought a new knife and I wanted to try it out. You know how we tourists are." Sasuke said. He was lucky Gaara didn't know who he was yet. 'I better get out of here.' Sasuke pulled out the kunai from the dumpster and put it in his pouch and began to walk away. "Really sorry about that!" Sasuke waved back and continued out.

Gaara never said anything through the whole meeting. "So that was the assassin Orochimaru was talking about. And he knows Sakura as well. Hmm," he stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked away grinning. "I can't have any competition when it comes to Sakura, that'll make things too hard for me. I might as well release Sakura from her little friend."

Only the water that splashed at Gaara's footsteps could be heard in the alley.

Sasuke walked swiftly to Sakura's apartment the next morning, wanting to warn her about her boyfriend. He didn't seem like himself the day before and who wouldn't flinch at the sight of a knife almost killing them?

He knocked on her suit door and waited impatiently for the door to open. When it did he saw that the television was on and there was a movie playing in the DVD player. Sakura was standing right in front of him with a smile on her face. "Oh hi Sasuke! Wanna come in? We're just in the middle of a movie."

He wanted to say yes but when he looked at the couch, Gaara was there. "Hey, Sasuke right?" Gaara waved. 'Crap, he better not have said anything about the knife incident,' Sasuke thought and looked at him for a long time. His eyes were back to their natural gold colour and his tattoo was black. "What the hell," Sasuke whispered to himself.

"Hey Gaara come over here! I wanna introduce you two." Gaara got up and walked slowly over to the door.

"Hey, it's Gaara." He extended a hand to Sasuke. Sasuke couldn't put his mind on the dot but he seemed really gentle and kind, very different from the night before. "Hey, Sasuke." Sasuke took his hand and shook it.

"Dude, is there something on my face or," Gaara just looked at Sasuke weirdly. He's been staring at Gaara for sometime now. "Oh ah, no I was just wondering. I thought I saw you downtown last night that's all." Sasuke had to test it.

"Oh really? I don't really remember where I was yesterday to be honest, I blacked out at home." He answered with a sheepish smile. "I really don't know I should go to the doctors to ask why I keep blacking out."

'Blacking out?' then the DVD player started and the movie played. Sasuke knew that this was normal; some DVD players were like that. He didn't want to disturb them any longer so he said his goodbyes. "I'm uh; I just hope you guys enjoy yourselves tonight. Tomorrow is Christmas eve after all." Sasuke forced a small smile onto his face and walked away in the direction of the elevator.

Sakura saw the sad smile and something inside her clicked. She had never seen Sasuke like that before. Something must've been troubling him. She tried to brush it off though. "Let's get back to the movie, Sakura." 'It's okay, get a hold of yourself Sakura, he's probably just stressed out since its Christmas.'

She went back into the apartment with Gaara but her thoughts kept replaying Sasuke's sad smile over and over again, against her will.

Sasuke was sitting on the rooftops of Leaf Valley Academy, his back against a wall, staring at the many rooftops of other buildings. He got up there by asking the janitor who was there to do the weekly cleaning.

He continuously made snowballs and threw them at the railing, causing a slight wave of sounds. He was still trying to get his mind off of Sakura and Gaara being together.

"Damn it, why am I being like this. This isn't like me," he threw the snowball and missed, sending it to the grounds below. "That Gaara kid is really lucky," patted a new snowball. "And strange too." Then his thoughts went back to the tattoo.

He dropped the snowball and walked up to the railing that he was throwing at. He tried to remember what the symbol looked like. "I think I should ask Kakashi about that one," but then he remembered how Gaara had no clue what went on the night before. "I'm positive that was Gaara last night though," he leaned onto the railing and decided to clear his mind of all thoughts for the time being. He already had so much to worry about.

For a few minutes he closed his eyes and let the snow and the light breeze blow through his hair and face, trying to relax and forget his troublesome world. Then light crunching of footsteps were heard.

"Hey stranger." His ears perked up as he turned around, looking at a beautiful angel. "Sakura," he said trying to belief that that was her. "I thought you were with Gaara?" he was now standing up straight.

Sakura walked up next to him and leaned onto the railing. "Something you did really disturbed my thoughts." She said seriously but playfully at the same time as she stared over the city. "I just wanted the answer to why you did it." She faced him. "I've never seen you this sad before."

Sasuke didn't want to look at her; the concern in her eyes would make him spill everything. He kept his eyes glued to his hands which were hanging over the railing. 'I do care for her, I just knew I did.' Sasuke took a deep breath and started. "Did you see the news? About the murder of young men in downtown Tokyo?" he said.

Sakura shook her head in response. "What about it?"

"The man who killed them had powers, abilities that could cause havoc when wanted." He was still looking at his hands, not moving from his position as he continued to inform her of the crime scene. "I can't do anything against someone like that if they ever get to you. I would never forgive myself if you got hurt," he paused. "I don't want anyone to hurt you, physically or emotionally." He stopped and there was silence.

"I just feel so weak when I see you hurt Sakura," he stopped again when he felt his body move and two arms wrap around his torso. He was kind of shocked with the sudden gesture but gladly returned it.

"Just please promise me you're going to be careful with yourself? Now that your boyfriend's back, he can take over my job." He couldn't believe he was saying this to her. He was just giving her up just like that?

She pulled away and looked straight into his eyes. "No one could ever take your place, ever." She said it sincerely and it touched Sasuke. Sasuke gave her a tight hug, "Thank you."

'Things are really getting complicated. I can't choose between the two. I love them both and I can't bear to see either of them hurt. What am I going to do,' Sakura thought as Sasuke and her stood there embracing each other.

Preview for Chapter 7:

Gaara and Sakura were trapped like two mice in a maze. Orochimaru approached slowly with a sly grin. "Good work Gaara, I knew you could do it." They were all in a dead end alley way with no way out but up.

"I don't know you! What the hell are you talking about?" Gaara screamed stepping in front of Sakura protectively. "Step back, don't come any closer." Gaara gritted his teeth.

Orochimaru let out an evil chuckle and looked Gaara straight in the eye. "You may not know me but the one inside you knows me very well." Orochimaru began to glow black as he chanted something under his breath.

Gaara suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. "Gaara!" Sakura screamed.

So? How was that? I couldn't think of anything to write last night. Yes believe it or not I was already thinking of the next chapter after I uploaded the last one. Don't blame me, I have nothing to do at home. It really sucks actually haha I need to get a life. head hangs down and sighs

- --writingzeaL