Chapter 12

"Speaking in Japanese"

Thoughts

[Speaking in English]

Inner Sakura/Gaara/Sasuke/Pein

Sakura woke up the next morning to her alarm clock, and as per usual she hit snooze until Kakashi came in and told her she only had 10 minutes to get ready. In her usual frantic scramble about her room the rosette haphazardly threw on her uniform blouse and skirt, brushed her teeth, yanked on a pair of black knee high socks and tried to tame the wreck that was her hair.

Her once chin length hair now swept against her collarbones. She opted to tie up the pink locks into a bun, leaving her bangs out to cover the scar on her forehead. She hurriedly put on some dark purple lipstick and headed down the stairs.

She called a goodbye to her Uncle in the kitchen and raced down the driveway on her board.

Kakashi sighed as he heard the loud slam of the front door. "Perhaps I should invest in an alarm clock without the snooze button for that kid." He mumbled.

Gaara's eyes shot open when he heard the door to his room open. Deidara stood there munching on a piece of toast. "Sasori and Itachi already left, you're gonna be late." He said around his mouthful of food.

Gaara nodded and rolled out of his bed, it wasn't like he was actually sleeping anyway. His mind refused to shut down last night, adding a pounding headache over his already bad mood from the previous day.

He brushed his teeth and got dressed and walked out the door with the blond.

"You look like a wreck, didn't have a good sleep yeah?" Gaara hated how much of a morning person Deidara was. His only reply was a curt nod.

Deidara was used to Gaara's usual stoicism, and continued to hatter on as the two made their way to school.

"You shoulda seen Pein yesterday man, he practically looked like a mummy with all those bandages!" The older teen snickered "You're girlfriend really did a number on that one."

"She's not my girlfriend." Gaara grumbled trying to squelch the blush that threatened to mar his porcelain skin.

"Oho but you want her to be~" Deidara teased "Don't think I haven't noticed how you act around her, and I can't blame you she's a total babe, man I could just picture grabbing her b-"

"Shutup" Gaara growled throwing Deidara a death glare.

Deidara took three steps away from Gaara in case he decided to punch him. They continued on their way to school in silence.

Sakura arrived in the courtyard and went to her group of friends that were sitting on the front steps. Ino and Shikamaru seemed to be bickering over something, Naruto was telling Hinata about a new flavour of ramen he discovered, Kiba was playing fetch with Akamaru, Neji was ignoring Ten Ten to read a book and said girl was sulking.

"Hey guys," Sakura waved as she hopped off her board and put it down on the steps as she took a seat next to Ten Ten

"Sakura!" Ino screeched when she noticed the blonde. The entire group flinched at the shrill noise. "I heard what you freaking did yesterday!"

She practically jumped on the pink haired girl and dragged her away along with Ten Ten and Hinata in their wake.

Once they were out of the boys' earshot Ino spoke. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Don't you know that guy you jumped is the Pein?! The Akatsuki Leader?" Ino's eyes looked as though they would pop out of her skull.

Sakura paled. So that's it, Yahiko- er, Pein is the leader of the Akatsuki. That's why Gaara was acting like that.

But that means Gaara will defend Pein over you.

No! I mean well-

That's what he did before.

Sakura shook her head to silence her Inner.

"I didn't know that!" Sakura replied as her girlfriends looked at her with a mixture of pity and awe.

"You should be careful man, people that get on Pein's bad side usually end up in the hospital." Ten Ten warned. "Or the bottom of a ditch," she shuddered along with the rest of the girls.

Hinata nodded in agreement with the brunette "She's right S-Sakura-chan, m-maybe you should apologize to P-Pein," she added.

Sakura felt a fire flare up within her. "No way in hell. She said firmly. Her voice startled her friends. A menacing aura seemed to grow around their pink haired friend.

"Okay, okay, just don't pull anymore stunts like that got it?" Ino scolded.

What was up with her? She was worse than Tsunade.

"Alright I'll try. It's not like I want to get suspended anyway." Sakura grumbled.

"So what made you do that anyway Sakura?" Tenten asked

"Well you see-" Sakura felt the words she was about to say stutter to a halt when she saw Gaara walk into the schoolyard with Deidara beside him.

Her emerald eyes locked onto his jade ones. Everyone in the area could feel the tension rise. Everything became silent.

Gaara walked up to Sakura and continued to look into her eyes for a moment or two, when they both spoke at the same time.

"We need to talk"

The whole student body watched with anticipation as the most popular objects of gossip, Sakura and Gaara walked into the school together.

Sakura was walking ahead at a clipped pace, her shoes barely made noise on the tiles as she led the red head to her locker. She put in her combinations and started shoving her books into her bag.

What happened to the whole talking part? Gaara thought to himself

I think you should start the conversation then, His inner advised.

"Care to tell me what that was all about yesterday?" Gaara didn't mean for his voice to sound so sharp, but he was beyond annoyed. He hated that there was something he didn't know about between Pein and Sakura.

"What happened yesterday… was a mistake." Sakura replied still glaring at the shelf in her locker. She didn't want to meet Gaara's eyes right then, not with that tone of voice he had.

The boy couldn't help but scoff at her words.

"A mistake huh? Dialling the wrong phone number is a mistake, getting on the wrong bus is a mistake, but picking a fight with the fucking leader of the Akatsuki- the gang that runs this part of town- Sakura… that just insane!"

Sakura slammed her locker shut and turned to glare at Gaara.

"Maybe I am insane then," she said softly. Gaara could see her eyes become glassy with unshed tears.

"Maybe everything I do is a mistake, maybe this" she gestured to the both of them "is a mistake Gaara."

Gaara felt something in is chest clench. He stood there like he was made of stone. Was she rejecting him? There's no way…

"What are you saying?" He asked, his voice losing its edge.

Sakura's head was now bowed, looking down at the ground.

"I don't know,"

Her voice was barely audible.

"I don't now Gaara… I barely know who you are… or what we are…"

Gaara took a step closer to the girl and put his hand under her chin, making her look up at him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered "I'm sorry I got you involved with the Akatsuki-"

"No," Sakura interrupted

"It's not your fault Gaara, Yah- I mean, Pein is my ex boyfriend."

Gaara felt his body go slack. His arm dropped from her face and dangled by his side.

He's her what?!

I guess we're going to have more competition than we thought eh boy? His inner chimed in.

The bell rang for class and people began flooding into the hallways.

"Gaara, we should go to class now." Sakura said.

The red headed delinquent snapped out of his shock, "Go ahead without me," he said coldly before he turned around an became lost in the crowd of students.

Does he not like me anymore? Sakura thought