Gaara paced back and forth in his room restless after dinner. It had taken more than a little control to keep from taking her hand or brushing the hair back from her face. He had stopped himself from grabbing her and pulling her into a kiss as they said goodnight to one another outside her bedchamber. He had wanted to follow her into her room and kiss her again as they had in that other life, the one Shukaku tormented him with, the one where he was happy.
She, didn't flinch when he looked at her, she didn't look at him with eyes of fear like all the others, she was different. Shukaku whispered to him over and over that he needed to claim her, there was no one else for them, that she was their mate and that if he passed this opportunity up he would regret it. Gaara tried to reason with the beast, telling him in this life they were little more than strangers, that they hadn't kissed and she would get frightened if he tried to be too forceful.
Shukaku had laughed at him, shown him images of their kiss in her other life, how she had clung to him when he teleported them using his sand, how they would eat together, talk for hours together, but mostly, how she wasn't afraid of him, like everyone else, like his siblings still were. He wanted that connection desperately, he craved it and so did Shukaku.
Gaara stopped to look out his window to the room she occupied. He could see her standing by the sliding glass door window in her nightgown, the moon casting her in an eerie glow. He could see the outline of her figure in the light and he swallowed. She was more beautiful than the images Shukaku had tormented him with before her team's arrival. He had known for weeks before they came by missive of the Hokage. Shukaku had practically started dancing in his skin with excitement at seeing her again. If the Akatsuki hadn't attacked him right before they came he might have done something foolish like jump on her and kiss her by way of a greeting.
She had been so tantalizing in battle. Weaving in and out of Sasori's chakra threads with such grace and skill, her monstrous strength, her hair flying in the hot sun. Her deadly precision...she had killed a S-rank missing nin, Akasuna no Sasori with one hit. Yes, he was enthralled by her. He continued to watch her through his window as she turned around back into her room. He saw her shoulder stiffen, was someone in there with her? Shukaku immediately urged him to go find out and dispel anyone that dare to be in the same room at night alone with their mate.
Sakura isn't our mate yet Shukaku,he scolded the beast, she doesn't feel the same about us I don't think. Gaara's mind went to the Uchiha, one Uchiha in particular. He had felt Shisui in her room and had gotten a basket together for the purpose of interrupting them. The only Uchiha in their other life hadn't wanted anything to do with her or was a S-rank missing nin, he hadn't had any worthwhile competition. This time he did. He reached his senses out, he could feel something in her room with her but not a man, nothing living. How odd he thought.
Before his rational mind could stop him he teleported into her room as a shadow faded from her bed.
"Sakura, sorry for disturbing you but, was there...was there something in here a moment ago with you?" Gaara asked her looking around her room for the Shadow he had seen a moment after his arrival.
"No, nothing is here Gaara." Nothing was there, Madara had gone the moment he sensed Gaara's approach apparently. She moved and sat down on her bed.
Gaara stood by her bed not moving, his face steady but drawn in on itself.
"Shukaku is talking to you isn't he?" She asked him, he had always had this look in his eyes when the beast used to talk to him, she had noticed it before, at the Chunin exams.
"Yes, it is difficult around you, I have control around everyone else but he seems to be pushing me more forcefully around you, he wants to reestablish the bond you had with your Gaara, from your time. He has shown me the images of before, of your other life with the other, me." Gaara hesitated, should he tell her he saw the kiss, that he knew it wasn't just a light touch of lips, that it would have been much more if Naruto hadn't burst through the door interrupting them to announce his arrival to take her home?
Yes! Shukaku urged him, Yes! Tell her you know, tell her you know she had deep feelings for you before and she will again, just remind her what you mean to her, our mate, we need our mate!
Gaara shook his head, he couldn't concentrate when Shukaku yelled in his head like that.
"Gaara? Are you okay?" Sakura looked at him with worried eyes biting her bottom lip.
Please, thought Gaara, stop, I'm not in control, I don't want to hurt you.
Sakura infused her hands with green chakra and slid her small deft fingers over his temples and closed her eyes pushing the chakra into his head easing his torment...a flash of teeth! A massive body, huge tail swishing back and forth! Dark black and yellow eyes stared back at her in her mind!
"Hey! Sweetheart!" Shukaku crowed at her
"Shukaku!" She scooted back up the bed to get away from him, not Gaara, but Shukaku, the lust the danger, it was palatable. It made her shiver.
"Sakura, I'm sorry, he, he is hard to control when you are near me and when you touched me, he tried to reach out to you, through your chakra." Gaara felt guilty, he hadn't meant to scare her. She had looked at him with fear in her eyes, just like everyone else.
Sakura saw the dejection in his face, "I am not scared of you Gaara, only the beast inside of you, he tried to kill me once remember?"
Gaara nodded, he knew, Shukaku had told him. "I know." He said quietly. "I'm sorry Sakura, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I'll go now, sleep well." He got up to leave, Shukaku yelling at him in his head, telling him he was a fool, that now was his chance, they were alone and a bed was right there, he needed to claim her. Gaara shook his head to clear his mind. The worst part was, Gaara did like her, he did want her, but he knew the beast was being too bold, it was too soon. Gaara wanted a relationship, not to slack his lust.
"Gaara, please, I'm sorry, it isn't your fault, it is Shukaku's. I didn't really get to know you till he had been pulled from you. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to react like that." She smiled at him, biting her lip a bit nervously and placing her hand on his arm, looking up at him with those beautiful green eyes, sparkling in the moonlight.
"I have to go before." He brought a hand to his head as if in pain, "Before I can't. Goodnight Sakura." He used his sand to teleport back to his room.
Sakura walked to the window and looked out across the way to the Kazekage's bedroom. She saw him run his hands through his hair and fall back onto his bed. Turning back to her bed she lay down and closed her eyes, thinking of her other life. There was nothing to go back to even if she could, all her loved ones were dead.
Sleep finaly found her. The faces of her past flittered through her dreams. Moments of her life flashed in and out of her feild of vision, when one was gone another took it's place. She could feel herself waking, someone was calling her name. A vision of Madara and Hashirama flashed before her eyes, they were on the Hokage cliffs facing the village, she was behind them. They turned and both of them smiled at her each holding out a hand. "Thank you for looking out for us Sakura."
Her eyes snapped open. "Madara."
Ghost Madara sat ont he corner of her bed looking back over his shoulder at her.
"They are coming, be careful love."
It was early, Sakura had left her room at dawn and gone to the market for breakfast. She sat outside of a little market stand drinking coffee and picking at her oats and dates when Shisui plopped down beside her grinning.
"Morning little enigma, sleep well?" He ordered some oatmeal and coffee for himself.
"No, Madara came to see me last night when I was alone." She told him.
"I'm not surprised, I thought he might. It is the first time you have been alone in almost two years. How did it go?" He asked curious.
"He told me he wasn't a ghost but he wasn't a man, that the Curse of Hatred had been broken when Kaguya felt remorse and her black will subsided. He said we are bound to one another for eternity, that he can't leave because the seal Kaguya put on the back of my neck, is his chakra. I asked if he could ever be whole again and he said he could but at a great cost and that it wasn't his to pay." She told him everything.
"Wow, you have Madara Uchiha's chakra in a seal on the back of your neck? Incredible." he said.
"Where are Sasuke and Itachi?" She asked him.
"Itachi is probably in your room eating your pudding and Sasuke is training in the training grounds. I came to find you to ask you if you wanted to train after breakfast." He smiled at her.
"That is a great idea! I have a lot of stress to get off my chest." She spooned a bite of oatmeal into her mouth and ate with more enthusiasm.
They met Itachi on the way to the training field and they walked down the side street of the Suna's main office building on the way to the training grounds.
Gaara stood by his window in his office and saw that they were headed to the training grounds. He disappeared in a whirls of sand and set down not far from Sasuke Uchiha who had been there training since dawn.
"Good morning Uchiha." Gaara greeted Sasuke politely but was ignored as the others walked up.
There were smudges under her eyes, she hadn't slept well, he could tell. Shisui greeted him with a wave and Itachi with a nod of the head.
"We have come for a little training, Sakura needs some stress relief. Nothing like a good workout to get rid of stress." Shisui smiled at them.
"Come." Itachi took Sakura by the hand and they made their way to the center field. He called forth his crows and she dodged them per their usually work out for the last two years. Eventually the crows turned into senbon and they swarmed her in streams of flying black, she dodged and wove and jumped to avoid them.
Itachi walked off the field and Shisui took his place. He and Sakura smiled at one another, this was a new game for training they had come up with in the last few months. Shisui pulled a small red ball out of his pocket and threw it in the air. Sakura flickered to the ball threw it and Shisui flickered caught it, threw it. Within five minutes of the start they were passing over 15 little red balls back and forth between their flickering bodies all over the field. It was amazing to watch.
Sasuke had stopped to watch them but as they came to a stop he pulled out his katana and walked out onto the field to join Sakura as Shisui walked back to stand by Gaara and Itachi.
Sakura drew her sword and without warning ran and slid around Sasuke coming up behind him thrusting her left arm out, sword straight, he sidestepped and swung back around with his right hand, sword bent and she blocked it with a chakra infused hand. He turned parried, ducked thrust and back again dodging her blow to the arm.
They danced around the field back and forth up and down for an hour before she called it quits. She was tired from lack of sleep but she felt good. She sheathed her sword and walked with Sasuke back to the others.
"I'm tired, I'm going to get cleaned up and take a small nap. I'll see you guys later ok, thanks for the work out." She smiled .
"Perhaps after you get some rest or maybe after dinner tonight you would consider sparing with me Sakura." The Kazekage said in his low deep voice.
Sakura smiled, "I would like that Gaara." She waved goodbye and walked back to her room.
Shisui turned to Gaara after Itachi and Sasuke had started back for their room, "I know you were in her room last night."
"I know you kissed her." Gaara said not looking at him but in the direction of Sakura's room.
"This is a different time, she doesn't know you here, now." Shisui said kindly.
"Do you think love carries an expiration date? Love transcends time." Gaara said quietly.
"You think you love her?" Shisui said with surprise.
"I don't think, I know." Gaara countered.
"Well get in line, you're not the only one." Shisui laughed.
Gaara smiled at him then, "I noticed."
"Is she different, this time, than before?" Shisui had wondered that before but , before the only person he could ask was Sakura.
"Yes, she is stronger, more confident, wiser...but she was always remarkable." Gaara smiled to himself, "and beautiful."
Shisui and Gaara walked back to the Suna offices. Shisui stopped with Gaara before he left to meet the others in their room.
"Was Sasuke like she said, was he, did he lose his way? Last time?" Shsisui asked Gaara slowly.
"The Uchiha had a loneliness, a deep hatred in his eyes, the need to prove himself consumed him and took him to some very dark places, that even a tailed beast would not want to go." Gaara told him.
Shisui nodded his thanks and left.
Sakura sat on the wall of the East Gate eating her market food. She had given strict orders this time around that she was not to be followed under any circumstances, that she wanted to be alone. It was so peaceful here, she looked out to the sand shifting in the desert and sighed.
"Back again I see." Gaara said as he sat down beside her ont he wall.
"Did you know how much he admired you, how much he loved you, the other me of your time. You were the first to trust him after Naruto, the first non jinchuriki to look at him without fear, to smile a real smile at him." He stroked her hair back from her face and let his hand fall to her neck, moving slowly behind her head playing with her hair.
"You look at me the same way, without fear of the beast and see the man before you. Did you love him Sakura? Did you lie to me when you said there was nothing between you? You forget, Shukaku showed me all the memories you shared with him, then." He ran his fingers through her hair and brought his hand back up around the back of her neck, waiting for her to answer, waiting for her to pull away. She closed her eyes.
Sakura opened her eyes to see Madara standing over them, she screamed. Gaara leapt up, his sand arcing around them in defense but he didn't see anything.
Sakura and Madara were looking directly at one another
"Sakura, what is it?" Gaara was talking to her but she only had eyes for Madara who stood beside the kazekage smirking at her with his arms crossed across his chest.
"Having fun my dear?" He said in is low sultry voice. "Why waste your time with this boy, you need a man." and he faded away out of sight.
Gaara was at her side,trying to get her to focus on him . Her eyes were blown wide in shock and she seemed to be staring over his shoulder at something he couldn't see.
"Sakura!" Gaara gripped her arm then, and she turned to him.
"Ga...Gaara, I'm so sorry. I ...I saw a ghost. I, I'm sorry." She stammered. Madara had never come to her when anyone else had been around, why now?
As if his presence hadn't been ominous enough a flock of perfectly white birds flew over head, the strangest birds she had ever seen.
"Gaara, what kind of birds are those?" She pointed to the sky.
He looked up over his shoulder to where she had pointed, "Those aren't birds, we need to get back to Suna, those are the Akatsuki bombers birds!" She stepped up into his arms and he teleported them back to her room just as dawn broke over the sand.
Alarms started going off all over Suna.
"I have to go, meet me by the market with your team." He said as he disapeared in a cloud of sand.
Shisui broke in through her door a moment later, he gave her an odd look as he took in her messy hair and wrinkled clothes. "Suna is under attack, it looks like the Akatsuki are back, come on!" and he pulled her out of her bedroom door.
Itachi and Sasuke were waiting for them in the main hall.
"Gaara said to meet him in the market." Sakura told them and teleported to the market, Shisui right behind her, then Itachi, Sasuke, who couldn't teleport showed up a few moments later.
Gaara was commanding his Anbu to protect different parts of the village and to make sure the civilians were safely hidden underground. His brother and sister took their teams to the front gate to minimize the attack if possible.
Sakura and her team stood by the Kazekage knowing their best chance to take down the Akatsuki was to stand by their target.
"Sakura, I want you to go with the civilians, protect their escape, and see them safe into the caves, you know where they are. Let your team and I handle the Akatsuki." Gaara said without looking at her, his eyes following the birds that were quickly approaching his village.
"What? No way, my place is here with my team!" She planted her feet firmly on the ground , she wasn't going anywhere.
"Sakura please, I can't bear to lose you." He was begging her.
Shisui's head whipped around to look at Sakura, "What happened last night?"
Itachi and Sasuke were looking from her to Gaara, their looks growing darker by the moment.
"Not now! We have other things to worry about idiots!" She snapped her head to the sky, "Here they come!"
Gaara flew up into the air on a sand tornado and spread his sand wide over as much of his village as he could and hardened it with his chakra as the birds began to dive bomb into buildings and schools.
Sand nin jumped into the rising sun deflecting the remaining birds as best they could only to have them blow up in their faces, falling back to the ground bloody or dead.
"Deidara." Sakura whispered, looking for his signature big white bird, there, it was coming from the gates of the city, where were the other two sand siblings? Were they hurt?
A thunderous rushing sound filled their ears. Sakura and Shisui turned to the other side of the village opposite the gate and their eyes went wide.
Kisame Hoshigaki, had used his Water style, Exploding water shockwave,where the user spits out a great volume of water from their mouth, swallowing up and crushing the enemy with the advancing surge, and it was coming straight for them.
Gaara used his sand to lift him to the top of his office building in the middle of Suna, Shisui and Sakura had teleported away and Itachi disapeared in a murder of crows presumably to some where safe. Where was Sasuke.
Shisui saw him first, clinging like mad to a low level building, trying to fight against the impossible current. His one hand gripping the roof with a chakra infused fist. Shisui teleported to him and tried to help pull him out of the rapidly growing mass of water threatening to engulf them both, when Deidara seeing their struggle swooped in and let drop hundreds of little clay spiders that exploded all around them.
"NOOOOO!" Sakura screamed and teleported to the nearby roof she had last seen Shisui and Sasuke at, she clung to the roof with chakra to her feet and scanned the area frantically, they were nowhere to be seen.
Itachi was on one side of the village fighting Kisame Hoshigaki, and looked to be handling the shark man with ease, it was only a matter of time. Gaara was flying through the air with his sand from rooftop to rooftop, not able to use his and in the ocean that was now his village.
Sakura teleported to the only opening in the village where the current flowed out into the desert, the main gate. She scanned the bodies of the dead that floated by searching for their chakra signatures.
There! She saw them Shisui had Sasuke in his arm, holding him against his chest, trying to ride out the current. Sakura teleported to them and used her Earth style earth rampart and they flew into the air on a mountain out of the ocean. Sakura bend over Sasuke, he wasn't breathing. She focused the chakra to her hands and drew out the water in his lungs. He still wasn't breathing. She reached into his chest with her healing chakra and tried to stimulate his heart to beat and his lungs to draw air.
A pulse, rapid and faint. She pulsed her chakra into his heart with every beat until they came stronger and stronger.
Shisui knelt beside her emotion cast upon his face, terror, guilt, and fear.
Itachi was by their sides, he fell upon his little brother, "Sasuke! SASUKE!" she had never heard Itachi scream before. It was horrible.
"Sakura help him, you have to save him...Sakura!" Itachi was begging her, tears ran down her face as she stared at him dumbly shaking her head.
"I'm trying, let me concentrate!" She snapped at him.
Itachi's eyes flashed red, "Isn't it your job, wasn't he why you came back?!" He was screaming at her, his eyes started to bleed and his tomes spun. Mangekyo sharingan.
A high pitched cackling could be heard as Deidara looked down on them. Itachi rose to his feet, and disappeared in a murder of crows and reappeared on the back of Deidara's flying white bird.
Two jumping spiders flew from the bombers hands at Itachi's face, Itachi send his murder to meet them head on. Smoke engulfed them and they couldn't be seen for a moment. The wind changed whipping the smoke to the side.
Itachi's hands moved faster than Sakura had ever seen them move, Deidera took a two palmed hit to the chest and went flying off his bird.
"Amaterasu." Itachi whispered and teleported away, back to Shisui and Sakura.
Deidara screamed above them falling to the desert, they watched as he fell outside of the city, nothing would be left, not even ash.
"His heart is beating, but he hasn't woken up. He might have sustained a head injury. I need to check him more thoroughly but I am low on chakra. We can't stay here. If they come back, if the village is attacked again, he might not make it." She told them
Gaara dropped down beside them, fists clenched at his side. "I'm sorry." Was all he could get out.
"We need to take him home, to Konoha." Itachi picked his little brother up.
"Itachi, be careful with him!" Sakura began
"Do not talk to me." Itachi said and disappeared.
Her eyes opened wide in shock, "He blames me."
"He will come around, knowing Itachi, he blames himself." Shisui put his hand on her shoulder. "I'll see you by the gate, he will want to leave immediately."
"Sakura." Gaara reached out for her hand but she drew back from him.
"I have to go." and she teleported to her room to pack.
They met at the gate 30 minutes later. Gaara was waiting for them.
It was a somber goodbye. Sakura gave Gaara a quick hug and stepped back and away from him. He didn't pressure her but told her he would write, she had nodded, and her team turned and left Suna, left the sand to go home, to the forests of Konoha.