Nearly an hour after Sakura had arrived at Turtle Rock, an explosion of sand behind her tent caught her attention. Upon further inspection, she found Gaara and Taiyo hovering on a sand platform within the sandy cloud.

"Taiyo-sama," Sakura said, noticing the man's shocked expression and the trembling of his fingers. She reached out a hand to assist him off the platform. The man squinted in the bright sunlight, using his hands to shield his eyes from the rays. "Come with me, Taiyo-sama," she continued, leading him toward her tent. "Let me give you something to help with the sun."

She cast Gaara a glance as she led Taiyo away, wondering what his plan was now. He followed Sakura and Taiyo to the medical tent and watched as Sakura gave Taiyo some sunblock and a fresh canteen of water.

"I don't understand," Taiyo muttered. "I saw what the sunlight did to my people. How is this possible?"

"That beast was no goddess, Taiyo-sama," Gaara answered. "That creature was the reason the sun was hurting your people. But you won't need to rely on it for sustenance anymore, so the sun will not hurt you."

Taiyo's eyes widened as he glanced between Gaara and Sakura. He seemed shaken up – his hands still trembled as they fisted in the fabric of his robe. Gaara caught Sakura's eye and cocked his head toward the tent's opening.

Sakura reached into her pack and pulled out a few more of the protein bars like the one she had given Sarabi. "Here, Taiyo-sama," she said, pressing one of the bars into his hand. "Eat this. We'll give you some privacy while you adjust to being on the surface."

Taiyo nodded mutely, giving him the strange appearance of docility. She soundlessly exited the tent, Gaara following close behind her.

"I don't trust him," Gaara murmured to her after they were safely out of earshot. "But I wanted to get him away from the catacombs so the others would feel comfortable following him. There are easily two hundred people down there."

"Two hundred?" Sakura asked, surprised by the large number. "How are we going to get them all out?"

Gaara leapt up onto Turtle Rock where Temari was gazing off toward Suna. He moved to stand beside her while Sakura watched from the sand below.

"We're going to move the monolith first," he said to Sakura, though he was looking at Temari. "Sarabi is standing near it now so I'll be able to find it quickly using her chakra as a guide. You'll help me move it up to the surface and then we'll create another tunnel – one we can use to help the others get to the surface."

Sakura nodded in understanding and then leapt up to join the others on top of the rock.

"Temari, I need you to keep an eye on Taiyo while we're in the catacombs," Gaara said, his voice hushed in case Taiyo tried to listen in on their conversation. "I don't trust him, but he's their leader and they'll follow him wherever he goes. Make sure he stays here at Turtle Rock until all of the others have been evacuated from the catacombs."

"Yes, Gaara," Temari said with a curt nod. "Kankuro and his team are standing by at the guard tower to come retrieve the first wave of rescues."

Gaara gave her a quick nod of acknowledgement before extending his hand to Sakura. "Ready?" he asked. Sakura looked down at his hand skeptically, unsure of whether or not he wanted her to take it. It seemed like a strange way to get her to come along with him, especially in front of Temari who was already skeptical of their relationship.

But she reached out and took his hand anyway, avoiding Temari's gaze as she did so. Gaara's fingers wrapped around her palm tightly and jerked her upward with him as he leapt up onto a materializing sand platform.

He flew them a safe distance away from Turtle Rock and then lowered them back down to the dunes. "This should go much more quickly than last time," he said. "I already know where Sarabi and the monolith are. Just punch where I show you."

Sakura nodded and punched the ground where Gaara indicated with a pointed finger.

Gaara was right – it took less than half an hour for them to locate the monolith under the surface. Sarabi was there waiting for them beside the base of the monolith. Upon seeing Sakura and Gaara, she rushed toward them, wringing her hands together nervously.

"How is Taiyo-sama?" she asked. "Did he make it to the surface okay? Is he safe?"

"He's fine," Gaara assured her. "Thank you for waiting here for us. Now, if you don't mind helping out some more, we could really use your assistance."

Sarabi glanced over at Sakura, who gave the most encouraging smile she could. Sarabi seemed appeased by this. She turned back to Gaara and nodded.

"I need you to go back to the catacombs and stay with the others until we can come back and get you," he instructed. "We're going to remove the monolith, dig a tunnel, and come back to rescue all of you."

"Okay," she agreed. "I can do that."

"Good," Gaara said, giving her a small, but warm smile. "Now go on. Help them pack up their belongings. And be careful."

Sarabi bowed her head to him and then backed away into The Cage obediently. Sakura watched her figure recede, suddenly feeling apprehensive about the whole situation.

"Should we maybe pull everyone out of the catacombs first?" she asked. "Moving the monolith can wait, can't it?"

"Actually, that's one of the reasons I needed your expertise," he said. "There is no open connection to the surface from the catacombs, so we'll have to create one. Given how cramped our past method was, I was hoping we could create a wider tunnel that would allow us to take the rescues at least part of the way up to the surface."

"I'm not sure I could create a tunnel that big," Sakura admitted.

Gaara shook his head. "That's not what I meant," he said. "I know you're capable of moving the monolith. Do you think you could tilt it until it formed a sort of bridge? I prodded around the sand above it and it seems to be at least a hundred feet tall."

"What about all the sand in the way?" Sakura asked.

"I can shift it around so you can move the monolith."

Sakura turned back to look at the monolith, the way it towered above them, its top disappearing into the sand ceiling above. She pressed a palm to it, sending a surge of chakra inside. She could feel the minute pulse of a dead chakra inside. It gave her an odd feeling.

"There's three more of these, right?" she asked. "Perhaps we can use all four to create a large enough bridge to take everyone to the surface."

"Maybe," Gaara agreed. "Let's start with this one."

Sakura watched as the sands above the monolith began to move, acquiescing to Gaara's command. Sakura wrapped her arms around the monolith, curling her fingers against the reddened stone, and began to lift.

It had taken a good deal of teamwork to move the monolith into a position where it could be walked on. Sakura was constantly hefting and adjusting the monolith while Gaara moved the sands to accommodate her. But after a while they had been able to easily walk the length of the monolith without the aid of chakra.

So the pair of them headed back toward The Cage to locate the other monoliths. Gaara had come prepared with a couple of headlamps, one of which he passed to Sakura while they ambled through the darkness.

"The chakra that the monolith holds seems to flit between them," Gaara said as they walked. "I spoke to Sarabi about this and she seemed to think that the chakra was some kind of will that was guiding her and the others. Like it's sentient or something."

"Maybe it belongs to someone," Sakura suggested. "Maybe a person."

"Maybe," Gaara said. "Sarabi also said that the monoliths are direction markers, so there is one for north, south, east, and west. The monolith we just moved was the west one."

"Which one next?" she asked.

"North," he responded. "It's difficult to tell what direction we're going down here, but I believe we're heading toward the north one now."

Sakura nodded and kept close on Gaara's heels. Something about being so deep underground, surrounded by sand and darkness and emptiness really skeeved her out. She followed his path through The Cage, trying to pay close attention to her location, remembering any significant detail they passed. But there was hardly anything but sand and darkness. If Gaara hadn't been leading her, she would be hopelessly lost.

She also didn't care for the way the vast boringness of the catacombs let her mind wander too much. She wanted to stay focused, to think only of Sarabi and her people, the plan for their assimilation. Hell, even thinking about the monoliths would be a better option than the current topic her brain was stuck on.

A topic that she had realized by now was completely inappropriate. Sakura gritted her teeth and dragged her eyes away from the back of Gaara's head. For some reason, she was having trouble reigning in her hormones and she couldn't stop fixating on the back of Gaara's neck – the pale, smooth skin, the little red baby hairs and clung to his nape. She felt an urge to touch him there just to test the softness of those features, those captivatingly mundane features.

Not just touch, though. No, her thoughts were far more lecherous than that. With cheeks so hot they rivaled the sun, Sakura ducked her head, grateful that Gaara was facing away from her. She wanted to press her lips squarely against the back of his neck and breath in his skin, his hair, that smell of the desert that clung to him – a smell she didn't even care for unless it was attached to him.

Sakura was well aware that these were just her hormones acting up. After all, she was still a teenager – an inexperienced one at that. It was natural for her mind to wander to those places, even if it was inappropriate. Even Gaara had succumbed to those thoughts, staring at Sarabi and even Sakura a few times in a way more blatant than Sakura thought was acceptable.

Unfortunately everyone had to deal with these thoughts and urges, but that didn't mean Sakura had to ogle quite as openly as Gaara had. She was a kunoichi, after all, with plenty of self-control. With Sasuke gone for so long, it was normal that she would begin to find other men attractive.

Gaara is the first in the line of many, Sakura thought to herself. There was no need to get hung up on her weird attraction to him. It was purely hormonal.

Gaara stopped suddenly, his heels digging into the sand beneath him. Sakura bumped into his back, her face coming dangerously close to a place she had just imagined it being.

Sakura fought to regain her composure as Gaara turned around to face her. "Something's wrong," he murmured to her, his voice tight. "I've lost track of all the monoliths. I can't feel any chakra – not even Sarabi's."

Sakura reached out with her own chakra, searching for anything capable of creating a chakra signature. But she, too, found nothing. The space was too vast, too empty. She felt incredibly small suddenly, as if she had been launched into space and was floating among the gas giants instead of rooted safely on the planet with a warm body next to her.

"What's happening?" she asked in a hushed whisper. "Can you sense Temari or Hideki?"

Gaara shook his head. "No."

Sakura chewed her lower lips and took a step closer to Gaara. She really, really did not like being down here anymore.

A low rumbling in the sand beneath them caught her by surprise. The sand began to quake and vibrate and a droning hum filled the air. She could feel it like a slow pulse in the sand, as if there was a massive beating heart just under their feet.

"Gaara," Sakura squeaked. "What the hell is that?"

Before he could answer her, both of their headlamps flickered and then shut off, casting them in total darkness. Sakura let out another frightened squeak and reached out to grab onto Gaara's arm so she didn't lose him in the darkness. She latched onto Gaara's wrist before he moved to grasp her hand, entwining their fingers together.

"Don't let go of me, Sakura," he said, his voice smooth like he was totally unbothered by what was happening. Sakura gritted her teeth in annoyance.

But she clung tighter to his hand anyway, because being lost in the pulsing darkness was definitely not something she wanted.

The pulse grew faster, more frantic. Again Sakura reached out with her chakra, desperate for anything that would give her some sense of what was going on. But even the vibrations below them weren't accompanied by any chakra she could feel. She could feel bits of sand coming up around her ankles, her feet nearly covered in the grit. She shook her feet to get the sand out of her sandals.

Then the hum in the air intensified, growing louder and louder as the sand around their feet jolted and vibrated against the ground. Sakura winced against the sound, plugging one finger into her ear.

She felt Gaara's free arm snake around her waist as he lifted her up off the ground. She dug her fingers into his tunic, clinging to him, unsure of what he was doing. But when he set her back down on her feet, she realized he had formed a sand platform underneath them and lifted them up off the turbulent sand below.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, his voice far too close to her ear for comfort.

"Yes, I'm fine," she replied with a shiver. "Gaara, I think we should get out of here."

He was silent for a moment. She could feel his fingers curl tighter around hers as he deliberated their next move.

"I think that's a good idea," he said softly, "but I'm not sure how to get us back to the surface right now."

Sakura swallowed. "What?"

"I can't feel chakra in any direction," he continued, though it sounded more like he was thinking aloud than explaining the situation to Sakura. "I have no idea where we are right now. Something is wrong."

"But can't you sense through the sand?" she asked, annoyed by the tremor in her own voice. "Can't you just, like, move a bunch of sand around until we find the surface?"

"I don't want to cave this place in," Gaara answered, his voice steel and iron. "But don't worry, Sakura, everything will be fine."

Sakura recognized that as a lie immediately, because she was a kunoichi and she could feel that everything was not fine. Something was very wrong, and if they stuck around for much longer they would figure out what it was.

She wanted to call him out on it, but decided against it. "So what should we do?" she asked, this time steeling her own voice to sound as steady as his.

He didn't have a chance to answer her. The quaking grew even rougher. Sand began to fall from the ceiling onto the heads before Gaara's personal sand shield enveloped them. Within the confines of his shield, Sakura could feel the rumbling sand pelting them from every direction. Nervously, she clung tighter to Gaara's hand.

Beside her, she felt Gaara's sharp intake of breath. Cautiously, she sent a surge of chakra into him through their linked hands, checking to make sure he was okay.

"What's wrong?" she asked when she found nothing of note. "What's happening?"

Again, Gaara's answer was cut short as the two of them were jolted roughly to the side. Gaara fell into her, pressing her against the walls of his sand shield. She grunted and attempted to help him off of her, but then suddenly they were rolling, tumbling along the deluge of sand. Sakura shrieked as they bounced around inside the shield like candy in a piñata.

They continued to roll, swept away by waves of sand. They were a jumble of arms and legs, flailing about as they tried to regain a sense of control over the situation.

When they came to a stop, Sakura groaned and pulled herself up onto her knees. Beside her she felt Gaara do the same. The rumbling had stopped, leaving a void of silence behind.

"Are you injured?" she asked softly, pressing cool fingers to the skin of his arm, another burst of chakra already coursing through his system.

"I'm fine," he said, his voice gravel rather than steel now.

They were silent for a moment, each unsure of what to do next. The walls of Gaara's sand shield still enclosed them, sealing them away from the rest of the world.

"Gaara?"

She heard him draw in a breath and hold it, before he released it with a sigh. "The Cage just caved in," he said slowly. "It's gone."

Sakura blinked, dispelling the sudden nausea she felt. Did that mean they were trapped down here under the sand with nothing but Gaara's sand shield between them and an entire desert's worth of sand?

"Gone?" she choked.

There was a tense moment of silence.

"Gaara?"

She was met with silence again. She could feel Gaara beside her, his body rigid. She wished she could see his face – she hated how much she had to rely on him right now. She reached up to turn on her headlamp, but the audible click shed no light. She could feel herself beginning to panic again. She was not a fan of the small, cramped space – the darkness, the cave-in. It was all too much for her.

Before she could let that anxiety bloom into a full blown panic attack, Gaara sucked in a shaky breath of his own and reached for her hand again, slipping his fingers between hers and squeezing tightly.

"Sakura, the entire catacomb caved in," he said, his voice just barely above a whisper. "It's all gone."

Sakura gripped his hand tighter. "Sarabi?"

"I don't know," he said. "I don't know. I can't feel anything, anyone. It's just nothing down here. Nothing but sand."

She sensed that Gaara was also on the verge of a freak out, so she sent a surge of calming chakra into him. She felt him tense up even more if that were possible, but after a moment he allowed her to keep funneling chakra into him, relaxing into her care.

"Thank you," he said softly after her chakra had receded.

The act of helping him out had calmed her down as well, and now she felt a little numb and more than a little confused.

"So can you get us back to the surface?" she asked.

Again, he was silent in response.

"You can't?" she whispered.

"I don't know," he said again. "I can't move any sand but my own. It just doesn't move. I could try to slingshot us up like I did before, but I have no clue where we are. We might be too far down for that to work. Or we might be directly underneath Turtle Rock."

"But that's your thing!" Sakura exclaimed. "You're Gaara of the Sand, and now that we're buried under an entire desert's worth of it, you can't move it anymore?"

"It's not my fault," he said stonily. She could hear the way his teeth gritted together. She waited patiently for him to say something else, to explain to her what was happening or why he couldn't move the sand anymore.

But he said nothing else. Sakura hoped he was thinking of a way to get out of this mess. A little uncomfortably, Sakura shifted until she was sitting down. There was so little room in Gaara's shield – it was only meant for him. She crossed her legs underneath her, feeling her knees brush against Gaara's. It wouldn't do to panic right now, so Sakura focused on steadying her breathing as she tried to think of a way to get back to the surface.

Temari and Hideki were still at Turtle Rock – they must have felt the quaking and the cave-in. They knew Sakura and Gaara were still beneath the surface. They wouldn't just leave them out here to die. That thought gave Sakura little comfort as she wracked her brain for a solution.

"Can I just punch tunnels back up to the surface like I did before?" Sakura asked.

"I can't control the sand around us," Gaara explained. "If I let my shield down, we'll be crushed."

"Oh," Sakura said lamely. "Well I'm going to send a pulse of chakra up to the surface so at least Temari and Hideki know we're still alive."

Gaara didn't respond as Sakura sent out her pulse of chakra. A moment later she felt another pulse of chakra responding to hers.

"Temari," Gaara murmured as he recognized his sister's chakra.

Silence settled over them. It was eerie just how quiet it was. There was no light and no sound. It was like being in a void, a black hole, pure nothingness. The only sensations Sakura could feel were the painful grit of sand against her skin and the aching of her bones as they contorted to fit in the small space.

She sucked in a deep breath, holding onto it for a little longer than necessary before releasing it. Then she instantly regretted it. She swallowed hard, listening to Gaara's breaths.

"Gaara, I don't mean to freak you out, but you should try to be a bit more conservative with your breathing," Sakura said. "There's s limited supply of oxygen down here."

Gaara grunted his acknowledgement of this and a moment later Sakura heard his breathing slow down.

"I'm sorry I got you into this mess, Sakura," Gaara said.

"Oh, please," Sakura joked. "Like you didn't intentionally trap the both of us down here just so you could spend some time with me."

She heard Gaara's short huff of amusement. "I'm not sure I could tolerate being trapped down here with anyone but you."

That caught Sakura a little off guard. "What?"

"If I have to be trapped in close quarters down here, at least it's with someone who smells like vanilla and has magical calming down powers."

Sakura was grateful for the darkness that hid her blush, though perhaps Gaara could hear how her heart seemed to skip a beat. It was silly, really, her attraction to the young Kazekage. Undeniable, but silly. It wasn't her first time being attracted to someone other than Sasuke and it undoubtedly would not be the last. If anything, it was only a testament to her perfectly healthy teenage girl brain.

But still, he liked her company and the way she smelled like vanilla, and the butterflies those thoughts kicked up in her stomach were a welcome distraction from their current predicament.

"You forgot to mention my witty humor and stunning good looks," she replied, shoving down the butterflies to lighten the mood with another joke.

"It's too dark to enjoy your stunning good looks," Gaara replied dryly. "And the jury's still out on your witty humor."

Sakura reached across the darkness that separated them and shoved his chest playfully. "Don't deny it, Gaara. You think I'm funny."

"I think you're a lot of things, Sakura."

She didn't know what to say to that. She wanted to ask him what things he thought of her, but it didn't seem appropriate to do while they were trapped and running out of oxygen.

"I wish I could see you."

Sakura blinked, gazing blindly in his direction. "Why?"

Gaara didn't answer and suddenly she wished she could see him, too.

"I'm sorry I gave you such a hard time this week," she said once it was clear he didn't plan to respond. "I wasn't trying to annoy you."

"You weren't?"

"Well, not every time, anyway."

Gaara chuckled and the sound was much closer to her face than she had anticipated. "It's refreshing, actually," he said, "to be annoyed."

"Really?" she asked. "I assumed being the Kazekage and all that you'd be annoyed quite a bit. Tsunade-sama certainly is…"

"I feel annoyed plenty," Gaara responded. "But never from someone who intends to annoy me. You're breaking ground on that front."

"You may be the Kazekage, but you're also still a teenager," Sakura said. "I have to annoy you to make sure you're still aware of that."

"Oh, is that what you're doing?"

"Yep."

"Well, mission accomplished, Sakura," he replied. "I never feel more like a teenager than I do when I'm around you."

Again, Sakura found she didn't know what to say to that and she really wished she could see his face. She had a sneaking suspicion that Gaara was attracted to her, too, and even though she certainly wasn't going to act on that knowledge, she wanted to flirt with him and tease him and make him blush.

She was well aware of how inappropriate that was, and how cruel it would be to do such a thing to Gaara – a man who had been deprived of love and touch and affection. But it wasn't out of spite that she wanted to do those things. She was curious. How would he react if she were to lean forward right now and kiss him squarely on the mouth?

Feeling uncomfortable, both physically, and with her intrusive thoughts, Sakura shifted her legs underneath her. Her knees were pressed hard against Gaara's – she could feel that they would be bruised later. She dug her fingers into the sand, trying to shift herself into a better position.

"Here," Gaara said, latching his fingers around her elbow and twisting her around until her back was facing him. He uncrossed his legs and pulled her back until her back was pressed against his chest and their legs were as stretched out as they could be in the small space. "Better?" he asked.

Sakura unwittingly shivered, feeling his breath against the shell of her ear. It was better, but it was also worse.

"You're a lot comfier than the sand, Gaara," Sakura said, trying to keep her tone light so as not to betray the fact that her hormones were now acting up like crazy. "But is this really appropriate?"

Gaara didn't respond immediately, but Sakura felt his hands retreat away from her, moving back to his sides. "Sorry," he said softly. "I was trying to give you leg room."

Instead of answering with words, Sakura leaned back into him, letting the back of her head fall against his collarbone. She would like to have seen his face then, to know what he thought of this position, this physical contact that was so unlike what he was used to.

"Are we going to die down here, Gaara?"

"Of course not," he said so matter-of-factly that Sakura felt completely unable to disagree with him. She had to admit that their situation looked grim, but she couldn't help but feel comforted by his words. "Temari knows we're down here. She'll get us back up to the surface."

Sakura trusted Gaara's judgment, but for a moment she felt his trust in his sister was a little much. How could Temari possibly help them now?

"So we're just going to sit here and wait for her?"

"Unless you can come up with another plan."

Sakura was quick witted and resourceful, but she could come up with no other plan. So she let out a small sigh and turned her head to rest her cheek against Gaara's shoulder.