The LAST PART.
As such I tried to give it a sense of closure. Dunno. I think they'll be happy. I mean, I really didn't think they'd work out in a modern setting and yet they continued to surprise me by being utterly sweet to one another.
This is me waving my GaaSaku flag. Yay for shipping things that will never happen in canon.
Hope everyone enjoyed the jaunt through my mind's version of their personalities. Thanks for reading.
Big heart to all you reviewers. You really embraced this fic for reasons unknown to me. "Teh luv" to you.
Disclaimer: See Part 1
Sakura was normally a very reasonable person. Her friends were willing to admit without any prompting or covert elbow jabbing that she was a kind person, smart and conscientious. She always remembered birthdays, she liked to visit sick friends, and she could always be counted on if one was in a bind and needed a favor. Sakura would go the extra mile for anyone.
But. . .
In a way there were two Sakura's. Her dual personality often confused people at first if they were unlucky enough to see her other side. When that fearsome concentration and intellect was being turned to something like blind anger or suspicion then Sakura could seem like a she-demon. The single-minded ability of hers to study seemed admirable until it was suddenly an angry obsessive force over whatever was bothering her. Her delicate features would distort and twitch with the strength of her feeling.
Naruto was well acquainted with both Sakuras. He had been on the receiving end of her childhood ire, when the less idyllic side had been able to roam more freely. It had been years since he had seen her this bad. Hinata had left to get some snacks for them, but in reality his girlfriend had escaped because Sakura's malevolence was almost palpable in the room like a black cloud radiating from her seat on the couch.
"You've got to be kidding me." Naruto stared at her with his scrunched up old man face, the one he put on when he was trying to look serious and concerned.
"Oh no. I think I'm pretty sure." Sakura clenched a fist and looked to the window as if the object of her rage was right outside. "Gaara is cheating on me. And I'm going to kill him. Both of them."
Naruto, who was no expert on the angry goth boy but who had come to a sort of understanding with him after months of mutual aggression didn't think that Gaara would be the sort of guy to do that. He was way too wrapped up in Sakura to seem to care about other chicks. Then again, Sakura wasn't the sort who leaped to conclusions. Or at least, not usually the sort.
"You're sure?"
"Positive."
He hummed and tilted his head to the side. "What evidence do you have?"
She faltered a little on that, which only served to make her face look more biliously aggravated. "Nothing concrete yet, but it's the only answer that makes sense. It's not like I have photos!"
"I'm going to need more information than that, Sakura." Naruto snorted.
She crossed her legs one way, then the other. Finally, with a huff, she launched into her story.
It was a month before their one year anniversary. Sakura was excited about this for several reasons. The first was that it was probably the longest relationship she had managed in a while. The second reason was because Gaara had promised to take some time out for a real vacation, or mini-vacation really, so they could relax. He had been busy ever since the weather got nice again and the clubs did brisk business. The main reason she was happy, however, was just to be around him. She was worried about her next approaching semester and somehow he always managed to calm her by being a regular emotional vacuum. He was her emotional sponge, and Sakura needed that to temper her tendency to overreact.
Then one by one the bombs began to drop. "We can't go on vacation."
"What! Why?" Sakura had been looking over hotels near the seaside area they had discussed visiting. Gaara's rather pointed dislike of water was one of those things she was hoping she could change by some good associations with it. After all, he seemed to like beaches well enough. "We can go somewhere else if you're that set against—"
"That's not it. I'm busy."
Sakura put her pen down with a smack that probably could be heard across the room before she sweetly asked. "Busy?"
"Kankuro needs me that weekend. He booked a new death metal band to play. He wanted some extra insurance."
This sounded a little bit like an excuse. True Kankuro had been on better terms with his brother since she had come to know the whole family, but Gaara could have said no to what seemed more like a favor than an absolute need for Gaara's presence as security.
"You could tell him no, couldn't you?"
Gaara just stared at her and then slowly shook his head. Sakura had laughed, a slight edge to it, as she crumpled up the list of hotels and threw it in the trash. That had just been the start of his strange distancing.
There was the way he was avoiding her, or seeming to, and his unwillingness to discuss his days or how his work was going. She used to coax whole sentences out of him, but now she was lucky if she managed an expressive grunt as he collapsed onto her sofa. Always face first too. She was thinking of buying a black sofa before hers became one by default from all the makeup he was smudging into it.
He could sleep at his own apartment. He was just visiting her out of obligation, it seemed. They weren't really spending time together. She would watch him hit her couch, sleep for a while, then stagger back out to do who knows what.
Then there was the final straw that moved her from worried observation into raging anger. She was moving his limbs around on the couch so that he wouldn't wake up with cramps and she noticed something scrawled on his arm. It was a number. It looked like it had been written in eyeliner, but it must be important if he had bothered to protect it from the moshing and brawling that seemed to follow Gaara whenever he worked at clubs. It was only a little smudged, so she wrote it down on a piece of paper and basically forgot about it.
It was only when Gaara woke up and pointedly tried to keep her from seeing his arm that Sakura had gotten suspicious. He didn't have any sleeves on his shirt after all, so he had gone to great lengths to hide it. The next day, when she was by herself she had called the number. . . and some girl named "Yuuki" had answered. Sakura hadn't said a thing to her. She had ground her teeth and hung up quickly.
So that's the way it was.
The next day she couldn't even be frosty at him because he didn't show up. Or even the day after that. His reluctance to get a cell phone was only aiding Sakura's frustration.
She didn't know what she would do if he ended this relationship. The idea of him cheating sent her into a frenzy, but the idea of him leaving altogether paralyzed her heart. It was easier to just get mad at him for the one thing and confront things from there.
"You could be, uhhh, a little hasty on this. . ." Naruto thought that things looked pretty bad for Gaara right now. He knew that Gaara was well trained in self defense, and for that goth boy's sake he was glad because Sakura was a fearsome enemy when she got riled. He remembered that black eye in the second grade still. Damn if he hadn't been made fun of for years for that one. While he didn't think she'd resort to violence these days, the possibility still lingered. The threat, rather.
"What else could it be?" She practically wailed it. The glistening in her eyes was suspicious but no tears fell so Naruto was willing to ignore it. Crying women weren't his thing.
Oh man, Gaara was an idiot. He had Sakura. Sakura. Naruto would have given anything before the age of eighteen to have claimed the same. Now he had Hinata and it was a moot point, but damn, for her to find someone she really liked and for him to have the gall to cheat on her. Naruto knew Lee would back him up. Between the two of them they could definitely take down that brat. They could take turns holding him down while the other punched.
Scratch that. Lee would hold him down for Naruto, but would probably want to fight him fair on his own turn. It would take some negotiation.
Oh shit. Sakura had been talking again. Hm.
"You're probably right." Agreeing with her was always a safe bet at any time.
"Of course I am." Sakura was sniffing hard now. Naruto got up to grab some tissue from the bathroom when the door opened and Hinata walked in with wild eyes. Honestly, she often looked a little scared, but she looked worse than usual.
Behind her was the man of the hour, Gaara, looking worse for wear. Naruto rushed past Hinata, pushing Gaara back into the hallway even as he closed the door quickly behind him.
"You do not want to be here right now. Get out." Naruto, who didn't know the truth of the matter, still felt like beating his pale face into a bloody mess.
"I will see her." Gaara said, swaying a little on his feet. He blinked hard and scowled at Naruto, meeting him glare for glare.
Over his dead body. "I don't know what you've been doing to her, but she's pretty pissed off and I'm not far behind. Get out of here before I have to make you."
Gaara snorted. "You can't stop me from seeing my girlfriend."
"Oh? Why not go see Yuuki then if Sakura isn't available?" Naruto was proud he had remembered the name.
He couldn't be sure if the color had drained from Gaara's face because the boy was so white where he wasn't black to begin with, but the smirk had dissolved. "Yuuki. . .?" He ran a hand through his hair. "You're going to let me in to see her right now, or I am going to break your arm."
"Ha! I'd like to see you—OW OW OW BASTARD!" The man was fast, Naruto had to admit that. And his arm really wasn't used to being bent like that.
It was a sort of relief, really, when Sakura pulled open the door forcefully. She was an avenging goddess, wild eyed and beautiful, and Naruto was so happy to see her he almost cried a little. Of course that reaction was mostly prompted by the amazing pain his arm was in.
"Sakura. . ."
"If I wanted to see you, Gaara, I would go look under a rock somewhere. Get. Out."
She was in fine form, her brought up to its full height, back stiff, her cheeks pink and glowing. The battle aura around her was enough to even make Gaara cringe a bit.
"You have things wrong."
"Oh? Do I? Maybe I should call Yuuki and see what's right then?" The wetness was reappearing as she ranted. That was no good, if she lost it then either she would rain blows of the both of them or she would huddle up and cry pitifully. Rock and a hard place. "Why have you been avoiding me?"
Gaara pushed Naruto away and the blond boy rotated his sore arm while he dubiously watched Gaara dig in a pocket. He was still swaying, blinking furiously, and seemed to catch himself before he fell over.
"For you." Gaara held up something that glinted green in the dim fluorescent light of the apartment's hallway.
And with that he fell down face first onto the cheap carpeting, passed out, dead to the world. Sakura picked up the ring which had rolled next to one wall and blew on it before sliding it onto her right ring finger.
The tears finally began, much to Naruto's chagrin, and she sniffled as she added with a petulant grimace. "It's too small."
Gaara awoke to find himself on an unfamiliar couch. Sakura watched him look around, eyes still unfocused, as everything in him tensed. There was no rest for this boy. He went from unconscious to paranoid in less time than it took most people to realize their alarm was going off. She had only seen him relax a few times, and most of those times had been after hard workouts located in her bedroom for their mutual good health.
He started up, scanning the room, when he spotted her on a stool near the kitchen counter. Whatever he saw in her face it seemed to put him at ease enough to walk over, but not even a smirk cracked his lips. He stopped about an arms length away from her. If she was going to punch him, he would have enough time to get out of the way. Sakura had calmed down enough to not feel like doing something that rash.
"You thought I was cheating on you."
"Things were looking that way."
She felt his disappointment in her. Maybe she was projecting the disappointment she felt within herself. Whatever it was, she was feeling like crap. She lifted up the stone to catch the light from the overhead kitchen lamps.
"This is a real emerald, isn't it?" He nodded. "And all the carving on the setting was commissioned right?" He nodded again.
"Yuuki Ishikawa. She also does tattoos." His eyes were fixed on the stone as Sakura turned it about to catch the light. "I thought about offering to get you a tattoo, too. . ."
That at least was funny enough to make her laugh, even thought she knew it wasn't a joke. "I'm not a tattoo sort of person, Gaara."
"I know."
The ring looked more than expensive. He must have been putting in overtime, any work he could get, losing sleep and picking up money wherever he could to afford this. No wonder no trips. This was better than a trip. While Sakura was just starting to feel bad, Gaara managed to make it a thousand times worse.
"You should put it on."
"It doesn't fit," She shoved it back down to the base of her finger, where it was indeed just a little too tight. "See?"
He took it off of her right ring finger and slipped it onto the left, where it did fit. "I measured it in your sleep one night. Your left hand is smaller, a little."
All she could do was stare at her hand. The slight creepiness of his statement was forgotten as she realized what this ring really was.
"You don't have to give me an answer right now. Give it a few months." He looked at the clock in the kitchen. "We need to get back to your place so I can get some sleep before my next job. I can't seem to sleep at my own place anymore. It isn't right."
Sakura's heart was just shattering. She mistrusted him and he was here proposing to her anyway? (Well, in the least romantic way ever, with a non traditional ring, but was any of that surprising in the least?)
"Wait, I think we need to talk about some things first. . ."
He turned and looked at her, now he was smiling. "What's there to talk about? I wasn't cheating, you were jealous, and I need to get sleep. I've been awake for 50 hours. I'm going to pass out again in another few minutes."
"Jealous!" She was grabbing her keys as she huffed, but she didn't like the implication that she had thrown a hissy fit at him in the hallway twenty minutes ago just because of something so simple as mere jealousy! "I was indignant, maybe. And I suppose if you want to think that my constant fantasies about boiling you in oil was a part of. . . oh would you stop laughing!"
It was a sudden, rusty noise that grated out of his throat. Sakura locked the door behind her to Naruto's apartment and dropped the key in the mailbox for when Hinata and Naruto got back from dinner. They had figured Sakura and Gaara needed some time alone. They walked to his car, Gaara leaning on her when he needed to so as to remain upright. He folded into the passenger seat and handed Sakura his keys.
"Tell me, were you going to break up with me if I had been cheating on you?" He didn't need to ask her to be honest. This was the million dollar question.
Sakura searched her heart for the answer, but already knew it. "No. I would have beat you to a pulp, probably made that girl's life a misery, and driven myself mad in the process. . . but I can't let you go. I think I've developed a rather unhealthy attachment to you."
That's it. She had probably freaked him out. He would bolt as soon as he was no longer a narcoleptic. Men and commitment.
"Good."
"What!"
"A year from today. I'd prefer we go see a judge, but I suppose you want a church or something." His voice was fading out.
This was too much. She started up the car while she continued to argue with the nearly sleeping form of her boyfriend. "You had better not be referring to our wedding. I don't think I gave you an answer yet. You're pretty cocky for a guy who almost just got a fist in his eye about half an hour ago."
Before she could put the car in reverse, Gaara surged up and grabbed her arm, forcing her to look at him. That strange intensity was in his eyes and it scared her a little. He would probably always have moments that frightened her, but the grip he had on her arm wasn't painful even if it was tight. Gaara may look threatening, but she knew he would never hurt her.
"I would never cheat on you." The insecurity, the need to hear reassuring words, it all wrote itself out in his tensed form. But before she could get any out, he went limp again, curling over near the window.
Sakura was backing out of the parking space when she heard one last sleepy sentence from her boyfriend and (probable) fiancé.
"One year from today, and nothing in pink."
She smiled to herself and looked over at the emerald sitting on her finger. "We'll see about that."
It was love, she knew that. But there was something desperate to it too, some need each had for the other. Sakura wasn't sure when it had gotten to the point where she couldn't imagine Gaara not beingin her life, but it had happened along the way. It wasn't going to be fun sometimes, but that's the way all relationships were. If it was all peaches and cream then she wouldn't trust it.
A fairy princess and a demon, who would have thought. Then again, the princess had some demon in her too and the demon showed a princely side every now and then. Well, rarely.
Some year it had been.
She would have a pink wedding yet, no matter what he said, just to spite him.