Later that night, Sakura was in bed scrolling through social media. Even though she didn't interact with any of them, this made her feel a little more connected to the friends she had been ignoring for the last couple of months. Her inbox was flooded with messages asking if she was alright, but she didn't have the energy to respond to any of them. She knew it wasn't healthy, but she felt secure in her bubble of isolation.

She paused her scrolling on a picture of Ino, who was holding her hand up to show off a large diamond on her ring finger.

'Ino and Sai are engaged…' she thought.

Her relationship with Ino had always revolved around competitive races to accomplish any life goal the two of them had in common. When Sakura was the one to wind up dating the boy that both of them liked, she gloated about it and felt as if Ino could never surpass her after that. But when that same boy dumped her a few months ago, she swore she could see a glimmer of joy in Ino's eyes. Ino had enough sense to keep her mouth shut, at least. Sakura couldn't help but roll her eyes. She was sure her blonde friend would rub this in her face the next time she saw her.

As she continued scrolling, a notification from Naruto popped up on the screen.

Is this really what you want? he wrote.

Sakura sighed and glanced up at her dresser where the tiny cactus Gaara had given her was. Honestly, she didn't know what she wanted. Her future was no longer clear. Regardless of that and how things would turn out with Gaara, she knew she didn't want to cause any issues for him or his family.

Another text message brought her attention back to her phone.

Hi :)

"...Huh?" She was expecting it to be another message from Naruto, but instead, it was an unknown number with a Suna area code.

Is this Sakura? asked a second incoming message.

Who is this? she responded.

A third response came quickly. I want to talk to you.

Sakura raised a brow.

About Gaara, another message followed.

She stared at her phone, unsure if she should respond.

This is his girlfriend.

Sakura silenced her phone and slammed it face down on the nightstand.

Did she just read that correctly?

She reached for her phone to reread the message.

"Girlfriend?! What the fuck?!"

After slamming her phone back down again, she grabbed the pillow next to her, covered her face with it, and proceeded to scream as loud as she could. Once she had released all the air in her lungs, she whipped the pillow across the room.

How could she be so fucking stupid? Why was she even shocked by this? She barely knew anything about him. He could very well have a whole family in Suna.

Sakura clutched her blankets close to her chest and glared at the ceiling. How many more red flags did she need before she finally realized the depth of the hole she was digging herself into? She wouldn't be able to climb out of it unscathed at this point.

Naruto and Sasuke's efforts to get her to speak played over in her mind.

A long, shaken sigh escaped her lips.

She was in for another sleepless night.

xxx

The sun had long set by the time Gaara arrived in Konoha a few days later. He had only made a few quick stops to change his bandages along the way. His arm was swollen and throbbing in pain; an infection was settling in.

In desperate need of medical attention, he went straight to Sakura's apartment building. Sluggishly, he made his way inside with Hoshi in his arms. Even though his pace was slow, he was out of breath by the time he reached her door, weak and exhausted from lack of sleep and blood loss.

Fortunately for Gaara, Sakura had fallen asleep on the couch tonight. She wouldn't have heard his weak knocks had she been in her bedroom. Upon seeing him through the cracked door, Sakura swung it open all the way, ready to confront him about the messages she received a few nights prior. She quickly bit her tongue and stifled a gasp after getting a good look at the state he was in. He was pale, sweaty and the bandage around his arm was soaked in blood. The tiny feline he held stared back at her with large, frightened eyes. The cat, somehow, was the strangest thing about the sight before her.

'A cat?'

Sakura moved to the side to let Gaara in and closed the door. She would push all thoughts of those weird messages to the back of her mind for now. He needed her help. Hoshi leaped out of Gaara's arms and ran off to hide somewhere.

"Sit," Sakura said, pulling out one of the kitchen chairs.

Sakura carefully began unwrapping the bandage around his arm. The areas where the blood had dried caused the bandage to stick like duct tape to his skin. She pulled quickly when she felt the resistance, trying her best to make it fast and painless. Some of the wounds were still bleeding, others had begun to scab. The skin surrounding some of these spots was red and irritated. Sakura immediately got to work on cleaning and stitching him up.

They didn't speak during this process. At one point, Sakura glanced at the expression on Gaara's face. He looked so… sad. Exhausted. She wondered what happened to him, but now wasn't the time to ask.

Once she finished wrapping his arm with a fresh bandage, Sakura helped him to her bedroom so he could lie down. She disappeared for a moment, returning with a cup of water and some over-the-counter medicine.

"For the fever and pain," she told him. "Take two more when you wake up tomorrow." She set the bottle of pills on the nightstand. As soon as he swallowed the medication, he fell against the pillows and shut his eyes. Sakura watched as sleep took him quickly and peacefully.

She gently swept his hair from his forehead. What a mysterious, chaotic mess of a person he was. What happened in his life that brought him to this point?

The sound of loud meowing stole her attention. She had forgotten that Gaara brought a cat in with him. In the kitchen, she found Hoshi pacing around. When he spotted Sakura, he jumped up on the table and meowed in her direction.

"You must be hungry," Sakura said as if she could decipher the cat's language.

She grabbed a leftover chicken breast from the fridge and shredded it up on a plate. Too impatient to wait, the cat jumped from the table to the counter and began devouring what she had shredded so far. He finished what was there quickly and started gnawing at the chunk that was left in Sakura's hand. She set it down on the plate and let him have it.

Watching as the cat scarfed down the rest of the food, Sakura put her hands on her hips and sighed.

"You better not pee in my house," she frowned, realizing there was no litter box for him to use.

That, along with those messages she received, would be issues to address tomorrow.

xxx

The warm sunlight shining on Sakura's face gently woke her. She stirred and rolled her head to the side. As her vision adjusted, she saw that the other half of her bed was empty. Groggy from the very little sleep she managed to get, Sakura wandered out of her bedroom rubbing her eyes with one hand and feeling around for any obstacles in her way with the other.

In the kitchen, Gaara was standing at the window looking out at the city below him. Hearing the shuffling from Sakura's feet, he turned his head to look at her.

"You're up early," she stated. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," he said.

"You didn't seem very fine last night,"

"I was… tired."

"You don't get a fever from being tired," she replied. Sakura approached him and placed a hand over his forehead. His skin was clammy, but he didn't feel as warm as he was yesterday. "Did you take more of that medicine?"

"Yes," he said.

Sakura reached for the bandages on his arm. "May I?"

He nodded.

Since the deeper wounds had been sewn, they had not bled through and the bandage was easier to remove this time. Sakura retrieved a washcloth from one of the kitchen drawers, wet it with warm water, and gently cleaned around his stitches.

"Keep it covered for a couple more days, but change the bandage once a day," she told him, "make sure you don't get this arm wet. If there's any bleeding, only clean the area around the stitches. They're dissolvable, by the way. So you won't have to get them removed… And avoid doing anything that would tear them open."

With gentle fingers, Sakura began wrapping his arm back up with a fresh bandage. From her peripherals, she could see Gaara gazing at her pensively. She made eye contact with him only briefly, yet it was still enough to cast a faint blush over her face.

"S-so…" she spoke with a bit of apprehension in her voice, "...you have a girlfriend." It came out more like a statement rather than a question. She finished wrapping his arm and looked into his eyes again.

Her words had caught him off guard, and he looked surprised- who told her about Matsuri?

'She looked through my phone…' he presumed. He parted his lips to speak but didn't know what to say yet.

"It's… it's okay," said Sakura. Her eyes were saying the opposite, however. "We can't pretend like nothing happened…" She clasped her hands together beneath the tiny bump that her stomach had become and averted her gaze to the floor. "...But we shouldn't continue… seeing each other the way we have been."

"No," he finally said, "I don't have a girlfriend. And I don't want one."

Sakura's brow creased and she scowled at him. Based on her expression, Gaara could tell he said something wrong but was not socially aware enough to identify what he said that was wrong.

It was okay if he didn't want a girlfriend. She couldn't deny that it stung to hear that, but she had to be okay with it. They were tied to each other now and the only thing that mattered was that their relationship- romantic or not, wasn't toxic.

However, how was she supposed to know for sure if he didn't already have a girlfriend? She couldn't feel right about carrying on with any physical relations until she knew the truth, and she certainly wouldn't be fine with being someone's side-piece. Knowing that it was a possibility that he could've been cheating on someone else with her this whole time made her feel sick.

"I… I think you should go," she said, reluctantly.

"I can explain," he retorted.

An explanation would only be necessary if this other girl did exist. In what aspect she existed in Gaara's life, Sakura couldn't be sure yet. But if Sasuke could lie to her and brush it off as 'protecting' her, then she'd be deranged to believe a man she'd only known for a few months.

It hurt to even look at him right now.

Sakura sighed, "Please. Just… go."

Gaara hesitated. For once, he had more to say, but he decided to respect her wishes. He scooped Hoshi up and made his way to the front door.

"...If you have any problems with your stitches, you can call me."

With his hand on the door handle, he paused to look at her.

"...If she tries to contact you again, don't respond to her," he warned, "there's something… very wrong with that girl." His tone matched his serious expression. Sakura wasn't sure what he meant exactly, but she gave him an understanding nod. With that, he exited the apartment.

The very moment he was on the other side of the door, Sakura released the tears she had been restraining in his presence. She slid down the wall until she was sitting with her knees against her chest.

She couldn't deny that her heart had developed an attachment to him, but she wondered now if this attachment was sparked by her fear of being alone and her dream to have a family when she was still with Sasuke. If she hadn't gotten pregnant, her last interaction with Gaara would've been the day he showed up to deliver those flowers and it most likely would have never gone further than that.

She now felt that keeping her distance was in her own best interest not only for the sake of her sanity but especially considering she had learned that the snitch in the Akatsuki was Sasuke's brother. This knowledge, coupled with the potential that Gaara could be the opposite of how he portrayed himself, was encouraging a strong desire to stay neutral. Besides, by keeping her distance, she wouldn't have the opportunity to learn more about Gaara's illegal affairs, and therefore, Naruto and Sasuke couldn't pin anything on her.

It was silly of her to think, even for a moment, she'd be able to achieve her dream of having a family with a man she barely knew.

But all logic aside, it hurt to make him leave. She was so tired of hurting.

xxx

Temari let out a loud, long yawn as she made her way to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. Upon entering, she spotted Gaara kneeling on the floor filling up a new litter box with cat litter.

"Oh hey Gaara, I didn't know you'd be back so soon," she said, "did you uh… get a cat?"

"Oh my god!" came Kankuro's voice from his bedroom. He came walking out with his new prosthetic leg that he was able to handcraft himself thanks to his puppetry hobby. "Who is this little angel?!" He held Hoshi in his arms as if he were cradling a newborn baby, gently stroking his face with his fingers.

"His name is Hoshi," Gaara said, "he lived with me in Suna. But now he's going to live here with me."

"Live here with you?" Temari asked, "what do you mean by that? You're moving here?"

Gaara finished setting up the litter box and turned his attention to the briefcase Madara had given him sitting on the kitchen table. Temari and Kankuro watched as he opened it up, catching sight of the stacks of cash and gun.

"Why do you have a gun?!" Temari asked. Then, she noticed one of his arms was completely bandaged up. "And what happened to your arm?"

After retrieving the set of keys inside the briefcase, he closed it back up and turned to face his siblings.

"There's a lot I need to fill you two in on, but I'll tell you on the way to the new house," said Gaara.

"New house?" Kankuro and Temari said simultaneously.

Gaara started for the front door. "Let's go," he said, "we've got a lot of work to do today, I don't want to waste any time."

As expected, Temari nearly had a full-on meltdown hearing about how Madara wants to use the flower shop to launder money for now. As for Kankuro, he worried about what exactly "taking over the entire operation" entailed. All of their concerns would be forced to the backs of their minds as they finally pulled up to the house that Madara instructed Gaara to utilize. It was located on a tall hill on the outskirts of the city.

Isolated from neighbors by the many surrounding trees, there stood an enormous, beautiful modern home. The exterior emphasized clean lines and geometric shapes, paired with a neutral color palette. Many large windows celebrated the natural light that penetrated the glass and provided a striking view of the city below from the inside. The landscape was well-manicured and the sidewalk leading up to the front door was lined with various bushes of flowers and other colorful plants.

Temari was quick to hop out of the car and race to the front door. She peered in through the distorted glass on the main entrance, trying to see what the inside looked like. Kankuro and Gaara made their way up to her at a slower pace.

"Hurry up!" she nagged them, "I wanna see what it looks like!"

Gaara unlocked the door and Temari was instantly floored. She looked around in every direction that her neck would allow her to bend. In contrast to the modern exterior, the interior was a traditional Japanese Minka. With tatami floors, all the doorways were either wide open or equipped with sliding screens. The rooms were wide, and the ceilings were so tall, making the home feel even larger than it truly was. The kitchen was also large and full of many new appliances, much to Temari's satisfaction. The one back at her home was tiny, and she'd get mad any time she tried to make dinner with both of her brothers in the room due to the lack of space.

"Wow, this place is… beautiful," Temari said in awe. "So we can just…live here?"

When no response came, she turned around to see that both Gaara and Kankuro weren't with her.

Upstairs, Gaara stood outside of one of the bedrooms. There were four in total, but this one was slightly smaller than the rest. Kankuro came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Maybe this could be the baby's room," Kankuro teased.

Gaara's reply was a short hum. Even though his brother's tone was sarcastic, that's exactly what he was thinking.

"So what's the catch?" Kankuro asked. "You said we need to take over the whole operation while the Akatsuki's gone, but what does that mean?"

"We continue what we've been doing before," said Gaara, referring to growing marijuana, "but we also have to get rid of larger quantities of other drugs."

"How are we going to do that? We've been supplying the Akatsuki with weed for years now. They've always been the ones who distributed it. How are we supposed to sell anything, let alone large quantities, when our clients have only ever been the Akatsuki?"

"They've had me selling other narcotics to their own clients for several weeks now," Gaara explained, "looking back, I think it was a trial run to see how I'd do… I'm sure that through these clients, I can find new ones that are willing to buy more."

"It sounds… risky," said Kankuro. "So if we're any good at this, what's in it for us besides this house?"

"Money. And we won't have to answer to Deidara and Sasori anymore,"

"That sounds like a dream come true," Kankuro replied, knocking on his wooden prosthetic. For years now, the three of them were forced to work under those two and deal with their extreme threats and childish taunting.

"There's a security door in the basement," Temari said as she climbed the stairs to find her brothers. "I looked around for a code but couldn't find one."

Gaara reached into his pocket to pull out the house keys. Written on the other side of the tag attached to them was a series of numbers. "That's probably what these numbers are for on the other side of this tag," he said, flipping the tag over. He'd go investigate the basement later, assuming now that it must be where their new grow room would end up and where they'd store the other drugs.

"So, is this where the bedrooms are?" Temari asked.

"There's four in total," Kankuro informed her, "but I get the one at the end of the hall. It's the biggest and the quietest because of its location."

"Nice of you to wait for me to see all the rooms," Temari said, frowning and placing her hands on her hips.

"I've got a lot of stuff! And I'm a very light sleeper. My old room was too close to the kitchen and you've woken me up nearly every morning for years during your cleaning frenzies."

"Speaking of stuff," Temari sighed, "Our furniture is going to clash with this place. It's just so… fancy."

"If you absolutely need to, you can replace all the furniture eventually," Gaara sighed. He couldn't care less about interior design. As long as his living space was clean and organized, that's all that mattered.

Gaara walked away as his siblings discussed, or argued rather, about future plans with the new house. At the end of the upstairs hallway was a sliding glass door that led to a balcony. He stepped outside and walked to the edge, placing his hands on the railing.

Even though he could see nearly every inch of the large city at the bottom of the hill, it was so quiet here. Peaceful, as if this plot of land was a part of an isolated island. There was nothing but the sounds of birds chirping and insects singing- and the sounds of Temari and Kankuro arguing from inside the house. Fortunately, Gaara had spent all his life learning how to block them out. He could get used to this.

xxx

A few days later, Matsuri stepped off of a bus somewhere in the center of Konoha. She was equipped with only a backpack of necessities and a piece of paper in her hand. Thanks to the internet, she was able to find out that someone named Sakura Haruno worked as a nurse at the local hospital here. She glanced down at the paper she held to read the address she had written on it.

'First stop, the local hospital… I'm gonna find you, Sakura.'