The road before her was long, but Sakura hadn't felt closer to herself in the last few weeks than at this moment.

"Are you sure about this? This isn't anything like what we're used to. This is the city, a big one," Ino warns and eyes Sakura from where she was driving. Currently they were heading down to where Ino has been going to school in her lavender convertible. The top was down and Sakura relished in the feeling of the wind flowing through her hair. It was so different compared to the way water flowed through it.

It was liberating and not holding her down.

"I'm more sure about this than I have been about anything in my life," Sakura reassures her and Ino gives her a smile that quickly turns devilish. "Lay back then," Ino warns and they take off. They were definitely speeding, but Sakura couldn't find it in herself to care.

The small town and mini city that she had grown up in by the ocean was long gone at this point. It was like a weight had finally been lifted from her shoulders. She was finally out on her own, with Ino but that's beside the point, and she had no one but herself to look to as far as rules go. No expectations, no gossip. She was there for herself and only herself.

As they rolled into the city it was dark outside. The stars she was used to seeing weren't viewable, but the lights that lit up the world around her made up for it. The buildings were tall, much taller compared to the ones where she grew up seeing. Though it was late, people were still out and about. Sakura could only stare in wonder as she saw couples chase after one another and groups of friends laugh. If she weren't listening for sounds of life, she could almost assume the city was asleep. She didn't realize that it could actually be quiet and a part of her almost missed home.

Almost.

Pulling into the parking area for the apartment Ino and she would be living in, Sakura's heartbeat picked up. The apartments weren't luxury by any means, but they weren't shabby either. Ino's dad certainly set them up with the best. Anything for his babygirl, she supposed, and Sakura's heart squeezed at the thought of her own dad. She would be seeing him even less now, though Sakura had to remind herself that it was for the better. All of it.

Stepping into the downstairs area, Sakura takes in the cream color of the walls and the rows of mail containers. She smiles, excitement abuzz as she and Ino head up the stairs. They only lived on the second floor, so why not walk? With her overnight bag in hand, she steps through the front door and lets out a breath she hadn't known she was holding.

This was it.

This was real. She is really here and she is really doing this. Sakura almost couldn't believe it, so she wasn't surprised when Ino was shocked beyond belief when she brought it up to her. It was surprising. Sakura doesn't make last minute decisions, especially not decisions that can easily disrupt her entire life. It was almost taboo to even think that she could be spontaneous. It was laughable how planned out Sakura was when it came to her future but now it was all out of the window.

"You good?" Ino teases and the pinkette shakes her head.

"More than good."

The first few weeks of living there had gone by smoothly for the two girls. Their apartment was all decked out and school was in full spring for them. Despite the busy life they both had, Sakura found solace in late night conversations with Ino and, sometimes, Sai.

Sai lived a few apartments down from them and during these few weeks, Sakura had came to know him a lot better. She could admit that he and Ino were meant for one another. They couldn't have been more different, but they still compliment one another perfectly. She was glad her best friend had finally found someone.

Today Sakura was home alone and she was returning from her morning jog. It was rare that she ever left the apartment by herself. She wasn't stupid, she knew the city was dangerous for girls when they were alone. Just like how it was dangerous in her own hometown. But, she wasn't alone. She had found a friend in a girl named Temari who lived upstairs and they often went jogging together.

Just as she was turning the door to her apartment she hears a heavy thud. Looking over, a couple of doors down, she takes in the view of a man with shaggy red hair and seafoam green eyes. He would have been handsome if it weren't for the fact that he had circles and bags under his eyes that could rival a raccoon. His skin was sickly pale and concern flashed in her mind before reasoning kicked into her mind as he made eye contact with her. He smirks, still practically laying ontop of his door. In that moment he kind of resembled Sasori and Sakura's mind momentarily flits to Itachi.

"Stop making such a ruckus," the door opens and Sakura looks away just in time to miss the man falling forward. "God you stink. Have you been out drinking?" The other person, another man, groans out. Sakura decides to stop eavesdropping and steps inside her own apartment. She looks at her watch and it reads seven-thirty. He was just now getting back to his own home this late in the morning? She raises her eyebrows in surprise.

That was crazy.

Sitting on the couch, Sakura opens up her binder that is filled with her homework. She immediately sets to work. Time passes by relatively fast and she is so caught up in what she was reading that when the door was knocked on loudly, she jumped. Sakura eyes the door warily as she nears it and she debates opening it or not. As another set of impatient knocks happens she opens the door in a hurry, about to give the impatient intruder a piece of her mind, before stopping.

The guy from this morning was standing in front of her. His hands were stuffed in his pockets and his messy hair from this morning was combed through partially. He didn't look nearly as worn out nor tired. He almost looked like a different person.

"I wanted to apologize for this morning."

"What for?" She asks, suspiciously.

"For staring at you and also for making alot of noise."

"You didn't need to apologize for the noise, but thank you. Apology accepted."

"I had to or he," the man flicks his eyes down the hall to where a shorter man stands, "would be pissed." The tone of his voice is bitter but Sakura's heart nearly falters when she notices how familiar the man down the hall looked. This other man looking similar to Sasori suddenly made sense when it was, indeed, Sasori down the hall.

Ino was going to freak. The Puppeteer was one of her favorite Akatsuki band members outside of The Crow and here he was, living a couple doors down from them. Sakura purposely ignored the fact that Sasori was still close with Itachi. She wouldn't pay it mind. She couldn't.

"Oh, I see." Sakura says and crosses her arms. Of course the apology wasn't genuine. Why would it be? "If that's all then.." she trails off and is about to shut her door when his foot catches in her door.

"My name is Gaara, what's yours?" He asks smoothly and Sakura has to stop herself from huffing. Ever since moving here, she hasn't really been a people person. She loved it here, but at the same time, she wasn't too keen on loving the people here.

"Sakura," she answers shortly and he gives her a smile. Not a smirk, but a smile, and Sakura falters for a moment.

"I'll see you around then, Sakura," Gaara says and he removes his foot from the doorway. He saunters off down the hall to where Sakura could hear Sasori asking him what took so long. She was thankful it didn't seem like he had noticed or recognized her. She didn't want him to.

Closing the door, Sakura ponders over Gaara's words. They were neighbors, she was sure they would see one another, but she doubted it would be out of any other circumstance. Sakura wasn't interested in dating. She wanted to focus on school and get that over with. The prospect of dying alone didn't seem too bad of an idea at this point of time. She had enough of love.

Letting out a sigh, she sits on her couch once more and looks out of the giant window that was in the living room. If they were higher up in the building, Sakura was sure she would have been able to see the sun but she supposed the little tiny park area that was located right outside would suffice. She almost missed her window from back home but the thought of being able to see the taunting sea made her forget that notion all together.

She was here now, not there.

"I'm going out tonight, do you want to join?" Ino asks, flinging her magenta purse over onto her shoulder. Sai was right next to her, hand in hand, and all dressed up in a matching outfit with Ino's own sleek violet dress that hugged her body in all of the right waves. Sakura was almost envious, but she knew not to be. Everyone is built differently.

"I don't know.." Sakura starts but is caught off by Temari swinging the door open. Sakura grimaces, spotting the shit eating grin on the older blonde's face. Temari was four years older than them and was studying to be a social worker. Sakura could almost see it if it weren't for the fact that she saw her get frustrated with her three year old nephew at the park last week or if it weren't for the fact that she always talked about her brothers negatively. However, Sakura also hadn't met her brothers so she had no idea how they actually were or how old they were.

"Of course she's coming," Temari singsons and Ino cackles delightfully. Sakura regretted introducing them to one another. At first, she was scared Ino would be jealous but she had been wrong. Very, very wrong. "Now go get dressed!"

Grumbling, Sakura shut her book and pouted all the way to her room. Crossing her arms she glared at her tiny closet that was full of clothes. Ninety-percent of these clothes were gifts from Temari and Ino in a persuasion to go clubbing with them but they had yet to succeed in getting her to go. It would seem they weren't taking a no today and Sakura was not happy about it.

"I'll just dress so boring that they don't want to be seen with me, yes. That's the way to go," Sakura mumbles to herself and picks out a plain beige sweater and tan capris. Putting them on and then slipping a light pink cardigan over it, Sakura figured it was safer to do layers than risk catching a cold so close to finals. It was much colder here than it ever got in her hometown. She didn't appreciate it that much, but she kind of enjoyed the snow. It was a semi-nice change.

"Are you ready yet," Ino says before her eyes narrow on her. "Oh hell no, you are not going out there like that." She huffs and puts her hands on her hips before hollering over her shoulder, "Temari! Get your ass in here."

"What's wrong with the way I'm dressed?" Sakura pouts and she almost laughed at the way Ino rolled her eyes. The blonde was too used to her tricks in getting out of things.

"We're going to a club, not a library," Temari says as she starts going through the closet for the right outfit for the occasion. Meanwhile, Ino is rushing to her room to pull out her makeup bag. Sakura had a bad feeling about all of it but she didn't get too much input because pretty soon she was their barbie doll.

"There," Ino says, satisfied, and Temari gives Sakura a big smile before turning her around to look into the mirror on the back of her bedroom door.

In the turquoise mirror, Sakura almost didn't recognize herself. It had been awhile since she had gotten all dolled up and honestly, Sakura wasn't sure if she had ever even been this dolled up. She had two long strands of her bangs curled and framing her face while the rest of her hair was pulled up into a braid. It was loose and slightly wild, letting onlookers know that it had been curled slightly and styled to look this way. Moving to her face, Sakura could see glimpses of an off-white glittery eyeshadow and sharp winged liner accompanied with tinted lip gloss that made her lips shiny and even more pink. She looked pretty, but she wasn't too sure on the outfit. A part of her was scared she was going to get cold.

The red romper made her legs look long and if they didn't look long enough, the white wedges on her feet enhanced the look even more. Eyeing her pink cardigan, she figured it wouldn't match as well, so she grabs a light white jacket instead. She had to admit that they did a number on her. She looked beautiful.

"Alright!" Temari claps her hands together and loops her arms through the other two women's, "Lets go!"

Sakura was right.

It was chilly and she felt cold. She was regretting picking the light jacket. She shouldn't have let herself be influenced by the two blondes sitting to her right at their table. They were sitting in a corner, perhaps the darker of the corners, and away from the music. Sakura sipped on her water as the designated driver by choice and eyed the way that Ino was flirtatiously looking at Sai. Sakura wished that they would just go off and dance or something already. It was starting to feel torturous with all of the flirting.

"Hey, what took you guys so long?" Sakura looks up at Temari's words. She hadn't realized that others would be joining them as no one had told her. "These are my brothers," Temari answers the question already forming on Sakura's lips but even if she hadn't answered her, it died on the tip of her tongue once her emerald eyes met Gaara's own seafoam.

"We've met," Gaara answers smoothly and slides in beside Sakura. She, in turn, scooted closer to Temari.

"What, that's not fair!" Whines the other brother. He was tall with shaggy brown hair and dark brown eyes that complimented his sun-kissed skin. "You always get to meet the pretty girls.."

"Oh put a pipe in it, Kankuro," Temari scowls before quirking an eyebrow at Gaara and Sakura. She didn't know that they had met already but Sakura just shrugged in response. Sakura didn't know they were related.

"Well.." Ino trails off and eyes the dance floor. "We're going to go dance, anyone want to join?"

Temari grins before standing up with them and even Kankuro saunters off after them in pursuit of a brunette across the bar. Sakura curses to herself mentally and looks anywhere but Gaara. A tense silence settles over them, but Gaara never looks away.

"Are you seeing anyone?" He ends up asking and Sakura wants to hit her head against the table. She begins to really wish that the water in her hand was vodka or something.

"No," she answers curtly and crosses her leg over the other, facing her body away from him and instead on the dance floor. She vaguely notes a stage that had people setting up to perform.

"Would you like to?"

"No thank you."

"Suit yourself then." Gaara says and just like that, he didn't pursue the topic of dating anymore. Sakura was relieved. A part of her was scared he was going to be persistent. "Doesn't mean I can't still get to know you, though. What brings you to the city?"

Sakura eyes him suspiciously. He held his hands up in innocence and only gave her a small smile.

"I'm not trying to pull anything, I'm just curious about you. Not very many new tenants come to that apartment complex. Just family and, well, band members or close friends."

"Band members?" Sakura asks and then it makes sense as to why Sasori would have been there, outside of possibly being related to one another. She supposed she would have to ask Temari about it.

Gaara nods and leans into the seat, moving his eyes to the dance floor. "You still didn't answer my question though."

"I needed a change of scenery," Sakura answers simply.

"I can respect that. Are you planning on staying long?"

"We'll see," she answers.

They talked well into the night. They hadn't left each other's sides and Sakura felt like she had found in him an unlikely friend. Ino had teased her about it, but she didn't do it much for Sakura had shut down any insinuation immediately.

Sakura wasn't ready for a relationship nor did she particularly want one.

As she laid in her bed that night after her shower, she stared up at her ceiling. Sometimes it still felt surreal to her that she had actually left. Her mother was upset but also understanding. She knew that Sakura needed this. They talked almost every day, whenever they could, and the same for her dad. She was very lucky to have such kind and supportive parents.

Sakura didn't know what she would do without them.

Finals were in full swing and more often than not, she found herself at the library with Gaara, Ino, Sai, and Temari. They were all cramming for the end of the term. Well, almost all. Gaara could care less to study. He found more joy in tormenting everyone else. Honestly, Sakura didn't know how he passed with the way that he handled his schoolwork.

He reminded her of Naruto almost. It made her heart ache at the thought of her friends back home. She knew that winter break was coming up, but she wasn't sure who all would actually be home as vacations were so cheap to book right now. She missed them all dearly.

"So, what are y'all doing for winter break?" Temari asks after giving up on understanding the vocab list of words in front of her. The books littered around all of them with notes were chaotic. Sakura was almost positive that some of everyone's notes were all mixed up.

"I'm going on vacation with Sai and my family for one week and then we'll be in Konoha for the rest of the break," Ino says and smiles at Sai happily.

"She is going to be meeting my parents and her parents wanted to come along because they wanted to see the snow," Sai says and Sakura smiles at Ino. She was so happy for her. She also knew that Sai had a surprise planned for that trip and Sakura couldn't wait for it.

"We're going to Konoha with our cousin Sasori to see our Grandma, she isn't doing too hot," Temari says and Sakura's heart does weird palpitations. She had found out a bit ago that they were cousins but now Sakura couldn't help but try and think if she had ever seen any of the three siblings in Konoha before. She came short.

"What about you, Sakura?"

All eyes turned on Sakura and she cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Probably just going home."

"Probably?" Ino questions and Sakura shrugs.

"I just don't know.."

"Well, if you do, you'll have to show us around. We haven't been there since we were young!" Temari says and hooks her arm around Sakura's shoulder, pulling her into a tight hug.

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Sakura laughs softly.

Gaara just looks at her knowingly. He knows everything. Sakura had confided in him over it all. She didn't know what it was about him, but he was easy to talk to. Maybe it was just because he reminded her of Naruto, maybe even some similarity to Itachi though she would never voice it.

Finals were over and Sakura made her first 'B' in a class, putting her in a sour mood. She throws her clothes in her suitcase before letting out a dramatic sigh and folding them neatly. She secretly wished she could just throw things around and not have to worry about it, but instead it just stresses her out. She hated messes as much as she hated cleaning them.

Sitting on her bed she runs her fingers through her hair, fingering the long hair. Lately she had felt like cutting her hair but she wasn't sure. She enjoyed her long hair but at the same time, it was a lot of work and she wasn't blessed with a lot of extra time. She really didn't understand how Ino did it.

"Are you ready to go?" Sakura hollers out to Ino in the room over.

"Almost!"

Sakura sighs.

They were supposed to leave an hour ago. Just another thing to add to the list of things annoying Sakura today.

Once they were on the road, Sakura immediately wanted it to be over.

She could feel pent up energy strumming through her veins and she just felt all around antsy. She needed to get out and do something, but she wasn't sure what. A part of her didn't want to return to Konoha, maybe that was it.

Sighing, she lets her head fall back into the seat and she closes her eyes.

Her hair dances in the wind and the wind in turn caresses her face. Taking deep breaths, she readies herself and pushes the thought of Konoha out of her mind. At least, the negatives of it. Instead, she focused on her friends and her parents. Her father was going to be home for all of her winter break and she was excited.

There, that's something she could look forward to.

She smiled to herself and if Ino noted her odd behavior, she didn't comment on it.

The ride back to Konoha felt much shorter than the drive away from it.

Sakura unpacked her suitcase in her old bedroom. Literally nothing had been touched since she had left. Her dream journal was still on her bed where she had left it and her heart twinges at it. The window was still closed, the blinds pulled, and the curtain was in the way of seeing anything out of it if the blinds weren't there. Sighing, she walks over to it and touches the lace curtains. She momentarily considers opening the window.

Sakura loved having windows open. To be able to feel the gentle breeze come through and hear nature outside.

But the thought of catching sight of Itachi or catching a whiff of salt in the air made her stop her train of thoughts.

Sakura would rather see nothing at all.