Chapter 8

Sakura and Matsuri had been traveling for two days without being attacked. Sakura made sure to maintain her food and water stores by rationing it between the two of them. Water was the most valuable item they needed. Matsuri had suggested that if they defeated an opponent, they should take their canteens. Sakura was set against this as she felt their opponents would still need the water if they were left to wander the desert. Matsuri had explained to her that their opponents would not need the water after they been knocked unconscious. Everyone was being tracked and if someone was knocked unconscious, they were removed immediately from the competition.

With that in mind, Sakura asked Matsuri how they were being tracked. Matsuri told her the device she was wearing was a tracker. Sakura looked down to the device she was wearing and remembered it being slapped on her chest right before she was transported out into the desert. "Matsuri, where is your device?" Sakura asked.

"I have mine hidden," she responded. "I put it in a place, so it cannot be damaged during an attack." Matsuri hoped that Sakura bought her lie. She couldn't really let her know that she had not gotten one as she wasn't even supposed to be in this competition. She hadn't signed up for it and she hadn't been invited. If Sakura figured out that she was not a valid participant, then she would report her to Temari and she would be disqualified from the competition and her chance to prove herself to Gaara would be taken away from her.

Matsuri made up her mind that she would have to be careful of what she told Sakura in the future. Her future with Gaara depended on it. She also wondered what Sakura's feelings were towards Gaara. She would have to try to ask Sakura in a round-about way without drawing suspicion on herself. The brunette didn't want Sakura to know the true reason behind the trials. She would do whatever it took to make sure she won this competition.

After listening to Matsuri's explanation of the tracking device, she decided that if they knocked their opponents out, they would take some of their canteens, but not all of them. Hopefully, they would come across an oasis on their way back to Suna. As far as food went, they could always kill a scorpion or a lizard. Sakura wasn't too worried, but she made up her mind to be wary of Matsuri for now. Matsuri was an opponent and she didn't know when the girl would turn on her.

"Ok. Matsuri, I think it would be ok to take some of the canteens, but we will not take all of them. I don't feel comfortable leaving an opponent without any water."

Matsuri noticed that Sakura had bought her lie and decided to continue walking.

The next day after they had rested from the noon day sun, they saw their next opponents approaching in the distance. Two girls who were also traveling together. They both had brown hair. The first girl had blue eyes while the other one had hazel eyes. Matsuri knew who both of the girls were, Himura Mariko and Wa Noriko. They were only friends to each other and had never been friendly to her. Matsuri hoped that Sakura would be able to take both girls down. She was going to go and hide. She knew if the two girls saw her they would take her out first instead of Sakura.

Sakura saw Matsuri running away from their opponents and wondered why she wouldn't stay and fight. That was the objective of this competition, wasn't it? Why would Matsuri leave her to fight two opponents by herself? It would be easier for them to each take on an opponent.

"Well, what do we have here," Mariko said with a good deal of condesension. "It looks like a leaf kinouchi has blown her way into our competition."

"Hmm. Looks like we will have to make sure she knows she is not welcome in our competition and blow her back to Fire," Noriko scoffed.

Sakura just rolled her eyes at both girls and glared at them. "If you're looking for a fight, then I'm your girl," she said preparing herself for the oncoming battle. Two against one didn't seem too hard for her, especially after having to fight Madara and the clones from the ten tails. "Don't expect me to give in too easy to you," she snarled at the girls.

"Oh. We know who you are and we aren't going to let you win. This is a competition for Suna kunoichis and you don't belong here," Mariko bit back.

The two girls looked at each other and decided they would both attack Sakura at the same time.

Mariko plunged her hand into the sand and drew out some of it in order to form a sand whip. She waved the whip over her head in order to show her strength and skill behind using it. Immediately after that, Noriko lifted a considerable amount of sand, preparing to throw it in the air to start her sand shower jutsu.

Sakura stood in a defensive position readying herself for their attack. She was going to let them attack first in order to find out how strong they were. After reading their skill level, she would then decide which jutsus to use against the two girls.

Noriko threw the sand in the air and it started to rain down in clumps like hailstones. While the sand was falling, Mariko swung her whip towards Sakura, aiming at her chest. Sakura blocked both attacks by forming a barrier with the sand from her earth release jutsu. She then jumped back letting the barrier fall.

Using the water that was in her canteen, she formed the hand signs to create her own water whip. She ran at both girls and swung her whip toward Mariko. Mariko swung her whip at the same time as Sakura. The whips entangled themselves, but due to the water mixing with the sand, it became too heavy for Mariko to keep ahold of. She let go of her whip just as Sakura slammed her fist into her chest. The rosette didn't put any chakra into the punch. She only wanted to throw the girl off.

Noriko watched as her best friend was thrown back. She turned towards Sakura and growled out, "I'm not letting you get away with that." She performed the hand signs and called out, "Suna Tsue (sand staff)." As Noriko was holding her hands above the desert floor, large amounts of sand clumped together to form the shape of a staff. Using chakra, she formed spikes on the staff.

Sakura stepped back and started to pool chakra into her fist. She watched as Noriko formed her sand staff and saw the spikes on it. Sakura, thinking it best to take Mariko out first, started running towards her. The pinkette jumped in the air with her right leg extended and brought it down on Mariko's shoulder. Mariko didn't have time to defend herself and was knocked back onto the desert floor. She grabbed for her shoulder and tried to stand, but fell back down.

Noriko took her staff and held it in the air. She lunged toward Sakura while her back was toward her and tried to swing it to hit Sakura, but the leaf kinouchi heard her coming and dodged the attack. She turned back to Noriko and with a chakra laden fist, hit the ground with it ‑ sending a spray of sand into the air. With Noriko's vision blocked, Sakura threw herself at the girl and punched her in the abdomen. Noriko was thrown back and lost her grip on the staff. She landed next to Mariko. Mariko was still struggling to get to her feet.

Noriko climbed back to her feet and started channeling chakra into her throat, forming it into her mouth. She expelled the chakra from her mouth, forming a sand cannon and shot the chakra laden sand toward Sakura. Sakura tried to dodge the oncoming attack, but was hit in her left shoulder. She quickly healed her shoulder and then ran at Noriko. Right before Sakura reached the girl, she fell and slid toward Noriko. Then, Sakura kicked the legs out from under her.

When Noriko fell to the ground, she grabbed a fist full of sand and threw it at Sakura's eyes. A dirty trick, but it seemed to do the job. Sakura rubbed the sand from her eyes. She stood up and tried to look around herself with bleary eyes. Noriko jumped behind Sakura and threw a punch to Sakura's neck hoping to knock her out. As if on cue, Sakura heard the punch coming again and she ducked just as it narrowly missed smashing her skull by less than an inch. Before Niroko realized what happened, Sakura had landed a roundhouse kick to her chest.

Noriko grabbed her chest and fell almost doubled over to the ground. Sakura walked up to the girl and with chakra in her finger, she knocked the girl out. She then walked over to Mariko who was just getting to her feet. "I can't believe you just knocked Noriko out with just your finger!" she exclaimed. "I'm not going to let you get away with that."

Mariko performed the hand signs and called out "Kaze no Tsume (wind claws)" which activated the genjutsu. Sakura started feeling as if the wind had turned into claws and they were tearing at her skin. She fell to the ground holding her chest. Mariko smiled to herself. Finally, she was getting somewhere. Sakura noticed that no blood was falling from her wounds when the claws ripped open her skin. This must be a genjutsu, she told herself. "Kai," she yelled breaking the genjutsu.

Mariko was surprised to see Sakura break her genjutsu in a matter of moments. How? How could she have broken through so fast? No one has ever done that to me before.

Sakura climbed to her feet and pooled chakra to her feet and and her fists. She ran towards Mariko as fast as she could and then jumped with her fist extended. She landed in front of Mariko and punched the girl in her chest. Mariko flew back towards a dune and was knocked unconscious.

Sakura knelt to the ground panting. She checked her chakra stores and found she was low. She looked around to make sure no one else was waiting to pounce on her. When she gained her breath, she stood up and walked over to her bag. She pulled her food storage scroll out and reached for one of the canteens. She took small sips of water while she sat on her cloak. After resting for a bit, she walked over to the two unconscious girls and took one of each of their canteens and stored it in her scroll. She rolled up the scroll and put it back in her pack.

Checking the compass as she went, Sakura started walking north toward Suna.

XXX

Gaara was sitting in his office trying to get some of his work done. After signing a few scrolls, he turned in his chair to look out the window behind his desk. He looked down on the village below and thought about each person who lived there. He sighed softly remembering the times he was hated and the time he protected his home and then how he had become loved. He was grateful for his run-in with Naruto at the Chunin exams. The words that Naruto had used had stuck with him. He had found a brother-in-arms and would always be grateful that he would never have to be alone again. It was those words that had helped to set him on this new path.

As much as he tried to forget Sakura, he couldn't help but think of her. His crush on her had started near the end of the fourth shinobi war. When he had seen the determination in her face. Sakura had sliced open Naruto's chest with her chakra scalpel and hand-pumped his heart. Gaara saw the steel in her eyes as she breathed the breath of life into his lips. Not once did she give up on Naruto. Her fierce loyalty to her friend proved what kind of person she was. He wanted to share in that, but with what the council was forcing on him, it looked like he would have to give that up.

Again, he sighed. Just when he thought he could have something good in his life, he was being forced to give it up. He turned back to his scroll and started reading it.

The scroll he was reading had to do with the council requesting Temari to take on a genin team. He would need to have his sister look over this before he signed off on it. Thinking about his sister reminded him that he had not seen her for the past couple of days. She must still be busy with the trials, he thought to himself.

Even though the scroll could wait until the trials were finished, he missed seeing his sister and thought maybe he could take the scroll to her. He just needed to find out where she was.

Gaara left his office in hopes of finding Kankuro. His brother should be able to tell him where Temari was hiding herself.

Kankuro was just about to enter the building containing Gaara's office when he saw his brother. "Hello, Gaara," Kankuro called out to him.

"Good. I'm glad you're here. Do you know where Temari is? I need to speak with her," Gaara asked.

"Um, I think she is at the arena. That is the base for the trials, but I don't think you are allowed there per the council."

"I don't care what the council says," Gaara spat out. "I have business to take care of and there are answers that Temari needs to provide me with." He didn't want to start a fight with his brother, but ever since he had come back from Konoha he had been in a disagreeable mood. Every time he heard something about his council it just threw him in a worse mood. He looked at his brother and shook his head. "I'm going to find Temari. I'll see you later."

Gaara left his brother outside in the Suna sun as he headed towards the arena. It was about a 15-minute walk to the arena.

Temari was standing behind Shikamaru watching the monitors and the computer screens. The monitors tracked each person's heart rate and the computer screens showed each participant's location in the desert. Already twenty people had been eliminated from the competition. The latest kunoichis to be returned to the arena were the two that had battled Sakura. Noriko and Mariko had been placed in one of the medical rooms and were having their injuries healed.

She could see that Sakura was on the move; the only thing that concerned her was that a sandstorm had been predicted for the area that Sakura was located in. She hoped Sakura would be able to predict the storm before it hit her. The last thing she wanted was for the rosette to be hurt during a sandstorm.

One of the guards who had been placed outside the arena walked up to Temari and informed her that her brother was on his way to the arena. Rubbing her forehead, Temari sighed and asked, "which brother are you talking about?"

"The Kazekage is headed in this direction," he told her. Then he quickly turned on his heels and walked away not wanting to get caught in the crossfire.

"Alright. I'll deal with it," she half-yelled after the man. Why is he coming here, she grumbled to herself. He knows the rules. He should not be coming here. The council will have his head if he got wind of who any of the participants were. Temari walked out of the arena and met Gaara before he could get too close.

"What are you doing here, Gaara?" Temari questioned with an exasperated sigh.

"I missed you and I wanted to talk to you," he said. "Plus, I have a scroll you need to look over before I can sign off on it."

"Gaara, you didn't need to come all this way for that. Are you really here to find out how the trials are progressing? If so, then you'd better turn yourself around, because I am not telling you anything." She knew that her brother was not in a good mood by the way he was glaring at her, but she had to protect the trials and him. The council did not want him to know who the participants were. She didn't even want him to know who they were either. This was for his own good and for the good of Suna.

"I am not here for you to tell me anything about the trials," Gaara defended himself. "I came to see how you were. Plus, the council wants you take on a genin team after the trials are finished. I wanted you to look over the scroll," he repeated in frustration. "Is it so wrong for a brother to want to see his sister?"

"Gaara you know that scroll could have waited. Don't try to bullshit me. I really don't have time for you and your tricks. I need to get back. I'll talk to you later." With that she turned her back on her brother and walked back into the arena.

He balled his hands into fists at the obvious dismissal and stalked back to his office. The redhead could not wait for this stupid trial to be finished.

###

It took Sakura about a day and half before she caught up to Matsuri. When she did, she noticed that Matsuri was injured once again. This time though, Matsuri had been poisoned by a scorpion. Apparently, she had attempted to catch one in order to eat it. The scorpion had stung her before she could kill it.

Matsuri looked at Sakura with sheepish eyes. She now felt guilty for running away from that battle. It was stupid of her to do that. Especially since Sakura was the one who had all the food and water. She should of thought about stealing Sakura's pack before running off. Well, she wouldn't make the same mistake again. If those two girls couldn't take Sakura down, she would just have to continue to follow her and hope someone would come along and take her out.

Sakura gave Matsuri a glare. "I should just leave you here and suffer, but then I wouldn't make a good medic if I did," she snarled at Matsuri. She took out her supplies and started to heal the brunette. When she finished, she put her things away and started walking away.

When she didn't hear Matsuri following her, she turned around and said, "Well, are you coming or not? We still have a long way to go until we reach Suna."

Matsuri grinned at Sakura and got to feet. She ran over to the rosette and started following her.

About two hours later Sakura felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle. She looked down to the desert floor and noticed that the sand was picking up and flowing past her at a faster rate. "Matsuri, I think we better pick up the pace and look for some place to set up shelter. I think we might have a sandstorm on our trail."

Matsuri looked at her with a surprise look on her face. "What makes you so sure that a sandstorm is headed in our direction?"

Sakura rolled her eyes at the girl. How could she not tell if a sandstorm was coming? She was the one that lived in a desert village. "Just look at the sand around you," she told the girl.

They kept walking, but at a faster pace. The sandstorm was getting closer. Sakura was having a harder time seeing what was in front of her. She thought she saw what looked like an abandoned outpost. She grabbed Matsuri's shoulder and pointed her finger in the direction of the shed. "The storm is going to get worse. Let's head to that shelter over there. It should offer us some level of protection until the storm passes by."

Matsuri agreed and started running towards the shelter. She reached the shelter first and opened the door with a jerk. She ducked inside just as Sakura slammed the door shut behind herself. The girls looked around the small room and decided to sit in the middle of the small building. They could hear the wind howling outside and the sand slamming into the building. Sakura pulled a lantern out of one of her scrolls and lit it. It offered up just enough light so they could see each other's faces.

Sakura offered Matsuri a granola bar and one of the canteens. After Matsuri had drank from the canteen, she offered it back to Sakura so she could drink from it as well. "Thanks for sharing your food and water with me," Matsuri said while wiping her mouth.

"Your welcome, Matsuri," Sakura responded, "but if we are going to travel together, then you will need to help me with some of these battles. It will benefit us both if we work together."

Matsuri just nodded her head. She didn't know how long they would be trapped in this poor excuse of a building. It looked like it would collapse at any moment. She wondered if this would be the right time to find out how Sakura felt about Gaara.

"Gaara is a great guy. He always smiles at me when I bring him some coffee," Matsuri started. Let's see how Sakura reacts when I tell her how Gaara acts around me, she thought to herself. "He is always sending me on errands for him and I'm usually the last person he sees when he leaves his office." Matsuri sighed at this point of her tale. Sakura noticed Matsuri blush when the brunette continued. "He is so strong and handsome. He once patted my head after I had completed a successful mission. One time when I was hurt, he came and visited me in the hospital."

"Matsuri, why are you telling me these things?" Sakura interrupted the girl's speech.

"Huh? What do you mean? I thought we were friends and I thought I should let you know how I felt about Gaara. Don't you like him?" Matsuri asked.

"Well Gaara is a great Kazekage, but my feelings toward him are my own and I don't feel comfortable sharing them, " Sakura told her.

Matsuri turned her head at that. Great. Now, how am I going to find out how she feels about him. I'll just have to let it go for now. "Well you don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she told Sakura.

"Do you have a crush on Gaara?" Sakura asked Matsuri.

"What if I do? What are you going to do about it?" she answered back.

"It's ok if you have a crush on him, but has he ever returned your feelings?" Sakura asked. Sakura, of course, was not jealous of Matsuri. If Gaara had feelings for Matsuri, it didn't bother her. She was only asking, because she understood what it was like to have feelings for someone and not have those feelings returned.

"Of course he has. I just told you he did," Matsuri loudly exclaimed. "Why are you asking? Does it bother you that he might have feelings for me?"

"No. It does not bother me, but I know what it means to have a one-sided crush," Sakura started to explain. "When I was younger, I had a crush on a boy, but he never returned my feelings. I even confessed to him that I loved him. He still never returned my feelings. I held onto those feelings for years. I chased after him hoping he would return those feelings, but he never did. Everyone around me was worried about me."

Matsuri didn't want to listen to her words. She was wrong on so many levels. Sakura didn't understand anything about her relationship with Gaara. The brunette didn't want to offend Sakura, so she made it look like she was listening. "So what did you do?" Matsuri questioned.

"I finally had to make a decision to either live in despair of my unrequited love or let the love for my crush go," Sakura continued. "I chose to let it go. I was able to talk to my crush and find out how he felt. I found out that he was not ready for a relationship. He may never be ready for a romantic relationship. I discovered that I only wanted his happiness. We both decided to just stay as friends."

When Sakura had finished, Matsuri just stared at her taking in everything she had just been told. When Matsuri didn't say anything, Sakura decided to ask her, "So, Matsuri what are you going to do if Gaara doesn't return your feelings? What are you going to do if the council chooses someone for Gaara to marry and that person is not you?"

Matsuri's jaw dropped and she glared at Sakura trying to hold back her tears. "What do you know? Just because that happened to you, doesn't mean that will happen to me. YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ME OR GAARA," she yelled out to Sakura. "Don't talk to me anymore. I don't like you," the brunette said as she got up and moved to a different location in the shed. She sat down with her back turned towards Sakura.

Sakura sighed. She had not wanted to make Matsuri angry with her. She just wanted the girl to think about her future. Gaara was the Kazekage; Matsuri was just a Suna native. There was a high probability that Gaara would not be allowed to have a romantic relationship with her. She didn't want the girl to get her hopes up. She knew all about unrequited love. She didn't want Matsuri to suffer the same despair she had felt.

She felt she had wasted too many years crushing on Sasuke. If she had not kept chasing after him, she could have found someone who would have loved her with a true love. Sakura felt that crushes can be dangerous things. Even though Matsuri was angry with her words, she hoped that maybe some of them would sink in and just maybe Matsuri wouldn't suffer the same fate that she had suffered from.

Sakura could see between the slats in the wall that the storm still had not abated and that it was getting dark. "I'm going to get some sleep," she told Matsuri. The brunette didn't move to acknowledge her, so Sakura laid her cloak on the floor and laid down on it. She fell into a restless sleep hoping that the next day would be better.

Author Notes

Sorry for the late posting of this chapter. On the evening of Saturday, June 16th, my husband and I had to rush our eight year old yorkie to the vet. We had to make that awful decision to put our baby to sleep. The vet told us that our yorkie (Neon) had a big tumor in between his spleen and liver and that the tumor was bleeding. Late in the evening, on June 16, 2018, Neon crossed the rainbow bridge and we went home grieving.

My husband was the one to encouraged me to keep working on my story. He knows that I am enjoying writing this and that it would be a good outlet for me. Going back to work and continuing this story has been a great help.

Thanks for the reviews, the favorites, and the follows. I enjoy reading your feedback.

I feel I may have taken liberties with Sakura's jutsus. I could not find out what her nature type was, but found that she could do earth release and water release. I hope I used those appropriately. I want Sakura to be strong, but not too strong. She has to take a couple of hits sometimes.

Again, if you are interested in being a Beta, please PM me.