Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I really want you to know I appreciate it and I'm sorry if I didn't respond to your last one. I always like to thank you for reading, reviewing, story alerting, or favoring but sometimes I don't have the time when I get the review, story alert, ect. So I forget when I do have the time. So sorry.

A good song besides Should I Tell Her to listen to on repeat while reading this chapter is:

Believer- Kill Hannah

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and I don't own Should I Tell Her. All I own is Arina and that bug that just died on the floor… okay so I don't own it but really who will stop me?

Should Tell Her?

Chapter 6

(Where you were evilly left many weeks ago…)

It was so wrong, and he couldn't help his Satan forsaken emotions to feel it was wrong.

Yet again, Sakura's presence made Gaara learn something more about humanity. She taught him something more about people and the world around him. This lesson was simple, but significant:

Clichés are bitches.

Almost at sunrise, around five in the morning on the third day of the Konoha shinobis' stay, Gaara left his spot on the window sill and collected his sand, leaving Sakura to lie in the sun's warmth. He exited the room, with the sand slinking after him, and summoned his gourd as he walked toward his own room.

Sitting on his mostly neglected bed, Gaara opened a book that had been left there. The Kazekage knew he hadn't left it there, so he was inquisitive to see what it was. The cover was void of anything, just red with some gold swirls on the edges. Opening it, Gaara found strange symbols, looking like ancient jutsu art, which just looking at it he couldn't read.

Summoning his sand, four very old looking books were carried to him and set beside him on his burgundy bed. The books had codes in them in which he could use to decode the curious looking book in front of him. They were part of the large library collection the Kazekage had. Each Kazekage would add books during their time of office and the collection was rather massive now.

After much page flipping and brow furrowing, Gaara found he was missing one key decoding book. It wasn't stolen; he just had never obtained it, surprisingly. Shutting all the books, as he was unsuccessful at decoding the book, the redhead decided to go on the roof, his obvious favorite spot of the mansion, and watch the rest of the sunrise that had just begun. He could ask Arina is she knew anything of the book in his room later. Shukaku was strangely vacant in his conscience, strange but far from unwelcomed. For now, he would admire his city and think of something else he admired.

Should I let her know I'm really in love
And that she's the one I been thinking of
Women of my dreams ain't no one above her,
Should I tell her…?

Groaning, a mass under white blankets shifted as a rather hyper kunoichi awoke it. A pale arm left the warmth of the cotton and swatted the annoyance away. "Come on, Saku-chan, you have got to get up!" Arina sang, bouncing on her heels as she knowingly irritated the now groggily half-awake kunoichi.

A pink head pulled up from the blankets and faced the clock. At seeing the time, it fell back to the comfort of the pillow. "Arina," the annoyed Medic moaned, "its five-freakin' in the morning! I don't wake up for another hour."

"Yeah well you barely had time yesterday!" Arina argued, and then flipped the kunoichi out of her bed, sending her tumbling to the floor. She thudded on the floor and rolled heavily to the side. Groaning Sakura was ready to yell her hot tempered guts out when the door swung open.

"Arina, what the fuck are you do-?!" It was a very irritated Gaara, bothered from his peace on the roof from what he was sure to be Arina and her doings. What he didn't know was that Sakura would be tangled on the floor, limbs sprawled out and hair in her face. God, Kami, Moses, Buddha, Muhammad, and Allah were all laughing their celestial asses off at her right now.

Well damn.

"Ehehehe… um, early bird gets the worm, right Sakura?" Arina commented nervously, though neither shinobi could tell whose wrath she was worried about.

Sakura's eyes narrowed and she sprang from the floor, "Arina, I'm going to kick your ass!"

Apparently, as of now, it was Sakura's.

The white eyed kunoichi fled past Gaara and out of the room as Sakura pursued her up until she reached the doorway. There, Gaara grabbed her from behind around the waist and held her as she fought against him. She suddenly stopped after only seconds and turned, looking up at him through strands of her pink bangs, breathing more heavily than normal, but not quite panting.

"Don't try to get back at her through violence; you're better off waiting for the opportune moment." Gaara said in his normal empty voice, speaking more words in one sentence than Sakura thought she had ever heard from him.

"Right," Sakura sighed, then realized her situation, being held by the faded-scarlet-headed Kazekage, as she found herself several times in the past twenty hours, though this instance clad in her all too revealing night clothes with her hair sticking out at all odd angles. Blushing, Sakura began stuttering nervously.

How did she manage to constantly get herself into these awkward positions? She didn't know.

With covered reluctance, Gaara released the suddenly timid pink haired teen. She turned toward him to take a polite step away from him, only for her back to hit the other side of the doorway. There proximity between them was less then the length of her hand, making Sakura unsure that it was any better than him holding her.

Oh, hell.

Trying desperately to be polite, Sakura stayed in the doorway with him. "Uhm, sorry for disturbing you, Gaara…" She apologized, sincerely feeling bad about annoying him with her and Arina's morning antics.

Gaara shook his head slightly, speaking in short, to the point, sentences once again, "Don't apologize; it was not your fault." Sakura looked up at him through her pink bangs, waiting for him to say something, excuse himself, or give her a chance to do so. Gaara's hand twitched, wanting to brush the hair from her eyes.

As she just kept starring at him through her tangled hair, Gaara finally gave in and his hand slowly reached up and swept the hair from her eyes. Jade eyes widened at his action and black rimmed sea foam eyes narrowed as some hair fell back. His hand then brushed her bangs more carefully to the side, and then ran through the shoulder length pink hair, untangling it some. Gaara memorized the soft feel, even when unkempt, her hair held. Shukaku was quiet, something in which he found her contact, or his to her in some cases, to bring. Before he could smooth down the back or the other side, the faded-scarlet haired teen suddenly retracted his hand and abruptly turned away, leaving a now slightly heavier breathing pink haired teen leaning in the doorway.

'Why the hell did I just do that?!' It was only the third day she was there and already it was his own state of mind, not under the influence of the Sand Bijuu that was beginning to deceive him.

Should I really show my feelings inside?
Everyday, its getting harder to hide.

'Why… did he just do that?'

Sighing, the pink headed teen turned and walked back into the bedroom, deciding to figure out the nonchalant, elusive teen/Kazekage's actions when she had the time and peace of mind, or at least try to. She picked up the blankets and quickly made the bed. After grabbing some clothes, she walked into the bathroom to take her shower. As the warm water relaxed her tensed muscles and her exotic soap refreshed her skin, Sakura thought back to when she had originally met Arina (and the Sand Sibs), with Team Sand during her first Chuunin Exams…

Twelve year old Sakura raced after that brat, Konohamaru, ready to kill him for his big mouth. She stopped as he ran into a bigger guy, dressed in black with purple face paint and a cat like hood, not to mention the wrapped thing on his back. He growled and picked the kid up by the collar, "Hey brat, watch where you're going!" Sakura was immediately intimidated. Konohamaru squealed and thrashed.

"Kankurou," the girl standing behind him sighed. She wore a light purple dress with a slanted hem reaching her knees with a black mesh knee sock and the other a black mesh tight reaching her knee. Her dirty blond hair was up in four ponytails on each side of her head; and a big thing that looked like a closed fan was strapped to her back. "Stop wasting time."

Both wore Sand Village headbands, the girl's around her neck and the big guy's on his head, both obviously shinobi. "Gomen-nasai. It's my fault; I was supposed to be watching him." Sakura apologized, bowing to the foreign Nin slightly.

Kankurou snorted, only to be silenced as a girl appeared in a white flash and smacked him on the back of the head, though he still did not release the kid. "Baka," she muttered. Sakura stood straight, looking at the kunoichi. She wore a black shirt with grey long sleeves layered under it and long black pants. On her shirt was a black anarchy symbol outlined in white and under it was a design that looked like barbed wire around her abdomen. A Sand headband was wrapped around her waist. Her long black hair was in a high ponytail, and her eyes were strangely silver. "Put him down, he should be coming soon."

Kankurou snorted, "Iie, if he can have his fun, I can have mine."

"Who are you and what are you doing here in Konoha, you are not from here." Sakura asked professionally, referring to their headbands.

Before they could respond, a pebble hit Kankurou. "Put the kid down," an arrogant voice came from a tree beside the path they were on. Sakura gasped. Sasuke had good timing, apart from interrupting her finding out who they were.

"Hey-!" "Kankurou, shut up." The black haired kunoichi's voice was ice. Kankurou actually shut up, smart enough to realize when she said shut up not to argue.

The black haired kunoichi turned to Sakura, ignoring the Uchiha. Her voice was no longer icy, but professional and nicer, "I am Seishin no Arina, from Village Hidden in the Sand, these are my comrades. Th-,"

"Arina," a gravelly voice suddenly appeared, coming from up in the trees, again interrupting, "What are you doing?" Shivers were sent down Sakura's spine at the hate and malice that filled the indifferent voice.

Kankurou and the other kunoichi froze. Sasuke and Sakura looked up and in the same tree Sasuke was in, there was another Nin, standing upside down on a branch. Sasuke looked surprised by his presence, not realizing his chakra until that second and wondering how he had got there.

"Gaara," Arina said, her tone changing again, "I was just about to apologize for Kankurou's idiocy. He refuses to return this runt to this kunoichi."

Gaara's icy eyes travelled to Kankurou, who stuttered, "Kankurou, you are a disgrace to Sand." He appeared on the path, "Put him down."

"H-hai, Gaara" And Kankurou released the kid, who squealed and ran over to a newly arrived Naruto who stood next to Sakura. Both Kankurou and the blond kunoichi seemed terrified of the scarlet-headed shinobi, though Arina kept a cool but semi cautious demeanor to her.

"Gomen-nasai," Sakura spoke up and apologized again.

Arina shook her head, "Kankurou is a baka, ignore him. But may I ask who you are?" Arina asked, speaking directly to Sakura and blatantly ignoring the other two.

Then Sasuke jumped down, standing in front of his two other teammates. Before he could speak, Naruto shouted, "Tell us who you are!"

He was hit in the head by Sakura, who was harshly whispering, "Naruto, shut up! She already told us who she was!" She looked up at Arina, who was glaring at Sasuke for his disruption earlier. "I," Arina looked back over at her, "am Haruno Sakura."

Arina nodded. Then Sasuke spoke again, "Who are you?" He was referring to Gaara.

"Is it not common courtesy to introduce oneself before asking the name of another?" He didn't seem fazed by Gaara's naturally deadly aura, but let out an arrogant one himself.

Sasuke smirked, "Uchiha Sasuke"

"Sabaku no Gaara"

"Why are you here?" Sakura asked again.

"We are participating in the Chuunin Exams." Arina explained, and Kankuro and the other kunoichi pulled out their identification cards, the blonde's name was Temari.

"No one asked my name!" Naruto exclaimed feeling left out.

"That's because no one cares, dobe."

"Shut up, teme! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" He shouted, getting some rolling eyes and quirked eyebrows, though neither from the stoic Gaara and Arina.

"Anyway, we have better get going," Temari and Kankurou turned around as Arina began speaking, though she and Gaara stayed where they were, "I have to find my team and their sensei is waiting for them. Perhaps I'll see you at the Exams, Sakura." Arina purposely only spoke to Sakura, pissing off Sasuke, who was surprisingly showing emotion at all.. They turned and walked away, curious about the whole ordeal with the foreign Nin, and the Chuunin Exams.

Sakura remembered that wasn't the only time she saw Arina during the exams. She saw her and her team (the two bronze haired boys wore cloths over their faces, and wore the same outfit of a long sleeved shirt, layered with a loose sleeveless shirt loosely tucked into ninja pants, though one was brown and the other grey) in the room before the first exam, standing with Gaara's team, and she saw her during the first Exam. Then Sakura saw her and her team in the Forest of Death during the second Exam and during the preliminaries where she saw Arina fight for the first time and where her teammates were beat (presumably killed) and disqualified from the third Exam. And of course, Sakura saw her the last time the day of the third Exam, when Sand and Sound invaded and were defeated, and where the Third Hokage was killed by Orochimaru.

The pink haired teen stepped out of the shower and dried herself off. After getting dressed, she studied herself in the mirror. She wore faded black, with red seams, cargo capri pants with two layered belts; a gold belt hanging lazily off her waist and another red one crossing it in a different direction in the same loose manner. The cargos were fitting on the top but at knee length they loosened up. Her shirt was an off the shoulder white tank with a medieval goblet which had an intricately designed blood red cup and gold rims and stem, also intricately designed, printed on it, and under it was a black quarter sleeved shirt that covered her collar bone and shoulders from the sun, which the white shirt did not. Traditionally, she wore her Leaf headband, her Medic boots that reached just under her capri pants, and Medic gloves.

After accepting her outfit, she applied some black eyeliner, mascara, and a tinge of gold eye shadow under her brow and also a tinge of white eye shadow on her eyelids.

Walking back into the bedroom, she found two things. It was only quarter to six and Arina sitting crossed legged on her bed. "Oi, Arina."

"Good to see your head again, Sakura. I was worried that pink thing was eating you." Arina joked, receiving a dry look, then a smirk. "I'm glad you're wearing the stuff we got you. You look good. Feels nice to change your outfit sometimes, doesn't it?"

The pink haired teen sighed, gathering her medic stuff, "Hai, the clothes you got me aren't really my style but I really like them… but why don't you change your outfit if you think it 'feels nice'?"

"I like this 'style' on you," then Arina shrugged, "These are my training and mission clothes. You're not training and your mission requires you to be inside." Why did every time Sakura talked to Arina did it sound like she had time to think what she said through? It was annoying.

"Yeah, well I still don't see the point of you waking me up so early." Sure, she had to meet Gaara in his office every day before she went to the hospital for the rest of her mission, but Sakura was sure she could've made it if she woke up at an earthly hour of the morning… 'Okay, maybe not,' the kunoichi admitted to herself, 'But the rule that a visiting shinobi has to meet with the Kage when she is staying with him and his family, just to let him know that she hasn't been killed or whatever is defiantly a freakin' pointless rule!'

"Well, actually I wanted to talk to you about something." The white eyed kunoichi patted the spot on the bed next to her, holding a smirk after reading Sakura's last thought. Sakura obliged and sat next to the kunoichi.

"What do you wanna' talk about?" Sakura inquired, getting comfortable as she sensed this would be a long conversation.

"Did I ever tell you about how I knew Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou?" She asked, "Why I'm so close to them?"

"Iie, I just thought you were all from the same village and…" Sakura trailed off, now very curious as Arina shook her head. "Tell you the truth I was just thinking about when I first met you guys during the Chuunin Exams."

Arina smiled a bit in remembrance and nodded, "Hai, we are from the same village, but there is a reason the three most brutal shinobi in Suna didn't kill me every time I was with them- and it wasn't my good looks." Sakura laughed.

"I was born the daughter of two shinobi, orphaned in the first few weeks of my life, and bred to control jinchuuriku, in this case the One Tailed Shukaku, Gaara." Arina decided to leave out the part about the original decision about the stupid betrothal and leave it with the other reason.

"The Fourth Kazekage wanted to make sure there was someone who could control Gaara from his mind rather than physically, if ever he got out of control. That was probably the only smart thing he ever did in his life. However, my mind controlling powers worked minimally, though enough to watch him and sometimes stop him from killing, due to the state of mind Gaara was in, because of Shukaku and Yashamaru, his uncle. Not to mention Shukaku's undeniable thirst for blood."

The kunoichi telling her story then decided to change to a different part, not wanting to go too far into Shukaku, leaving him hopefully to his vessel, "I knew Gaara all my life, when we were little I used to talk to him sometimes, but only in his mind so he didn't know who I was and he never said anything back. I wasn't supposed to be in any contact with him, the Council of Old Bastards didn't want me to dull their weapon." She spat that part, "I was the only person, even if I was only in his mind, he didn't threaten or attack. Finally, when we started the Academy, the Council decided to introduce their weapon and his keeper."

Sakura could tell this was raising more anger from the kunoichi and she placed her hand on her knee comfortingly. Arina nodded to her and continued, "He realized I was the person who talked to him and, silently, accepted my presence, enough not to try and kill me, though he still didn't trust me fully.

"After we graduated from the Academy, I was placed on a team that often worked with the Sand Sibs, for obvious reasons. Slowly, I gained enough trust, though not all of it, to talk to him, only getting one word answers if any at all," Arina smiled, "and fight next to him. It wasn't until Naruto that I was fully trusted."

Sakura nodded and said quietly, "He has that affect on people." Arina smiled along and nodded as well. "Agriato, Arina, for telling me that."

Beaming, Arina wrapped an arm around her pink haired friend, "I'm glad I did!" She then checked the time, "Its twenty past six, what time do you have to get to the hospital?" As soon as she opened her mouth to answer, Arina had already read her mind, "Oh seven, you still have time. Let's go have some breakfast!" The black haired kunoichi jumped off the bed and left the room.

The Konoha Medic sighed, "That's something that will defiantly take some getting used to."

Arina popped her head in the doorway, "Come on Sakura, I'm cooking, I promise. It's obvious you know Temari can't cook for shit, you don't have to be so polite about it." By that she meant it was safe to enter the kitchen, because Temari wasn't holding the cooking ingredients, and knowing her, it would be the wrong ingredients anyway.

Sakura walked down the stairs, only to walk into Arina's back at the bottom step. "Arina…?" She peered around the frozen kunoichi's shoulder to see what she was staring at.

In the kitchen in Suna, the Kazekage and family's kitchen, stood the blonde haired Sand Sibling, wearing a "Bite Me, Or Bite My Cooking" apron which had, written in Sharpie, "before it bites you" written in muddled letters under it. Holding in one hand was a skillet and the other was a spatula. Truly, a sight one wished not to wake up to in the morning… or afternoon, or evening, or twilight, or dusk, or late at night, or endure during that that strange period in between the Twilight Zone and Hell.

And sitting the counter on a plate, oh the poor, tortured plates which had to hold the mutants which the Fan Wielding Kunoichi created, was a live looking… pitiful thing. What was that live looking scraggly, pitiful looking thingsitting on a plate in the kitchen in Suna, the Kazekage and family's kitchen, where stood the blonde haired Sand Sibling? The authoress didn't know… maybe Arina did?

Nope. Even the Mind Reading Kunoichi, Seishin no Arina, infamous for Mind Jumping and Mind Controlling, had absolutely no idea what the live looking scraggly, pitiful looking thingsitting on a plate in the kitchen in Suna, the Kazekage and family's kitchen, where stood the blonde haired Sand Sibling was.

"I thought you said you were cooking?" Sakura asked the black haired teen, deciding to stay behind her just in case the thing (the thing which has been established to be live looking, scraggly, and pitiful, sitting on a plate in the kitchen in Suna, the Kazekage and family's kitchen, where stood the blonde haired Sand Sibling) decided it was hungry for a snack and attacked. Who knew what powers it possessed…!

"I thought I was cooking too."

"Ohayo, I made breakfast! So eat it." Temari greeted; her face turning into a snarl for the last few words and her fist clenched, though both relaxed after and she resumed smiling.

"And to think, I knew Temari when she was once a crude, aggressive, cruel kunoichi. …. Oh how time changes people…" Arina whispered to Sakura, who tried to hold a giggle.

They both walked carefully to the left, side stepping and their eyes never leaving "breakfast." "Agriato, Temari, but… I'm just going to have some cereal… I don't want to over eat; I have a lot of work to do today." Sakura managed to get out of actually eating the pitiful thing.

Temari nodded and pointed which cabinet the cereals were in. The Medic cautiously walked around the counter and opened the cabinet, grabbing some cereal, successfully saving her breakfast, and potentially her life, or at least her appetite until she was forty.

Arina, who was normally quite crafty, however, had run out of excuses for not eating the crap Temari cooked the week before. "Yeah, and I had that for lunch."

After getting a bowl and spoon, Sakura leaned in the doorway to the hall leading to the dining room ((AN refer back to Chapter 2 if you don't remember what the kitchen looks like)) She poured her Cocoa Puffs and milk into said bowl, then placed the box and milk on the counter, and listened to said kunoichi try to get out of eating said pitiful thing.

"You haven't had lunch yet, its half six in the morning." Gaara's drawling voice came from behind Sakura, resulting in all occupancy of the kitchen to turn in his direction, except the pink haired girl herself. The Medic felt his breath blowing at the back of her head as he spoke, slowly and emptily as usual. She wordlessly stepped forward, allowing him to pass into the kitchen.

"I had it yesterday." Arina retorted, glaring at Gaara as he opened the refrigerator and grabbed an apple. "Hey Gaara, why don't you have some of this delicious looking breakfast." If she was going down, he was coming with her. "Your skinny, you need to eat more, and that's my word as a Medic." Arina smirked.

"I don't know why I'm gracing your stupidity with an answer, but I will anyway. I don't have enough time to eat a full breakfast, while you on the other hand have all the time you want considering you make your own schedule and don't listen to me." Gaara calmly took a bite out of his apple after cleaning it on a towel.

"I thought you were Kazekage, you let those Old Bastards walk all over you. I figured your man pride wouldn't allow you to take orders, or are you lacking in backbone and testosterone to butte?" Sakura managed to keep her facial expressions even as she had never heard someone insult Gaara so directly and of course so comically. If she had heard that before Arina told her that story of her past, she would have thought the kunoichi had finally lost whatever fragment of her mind she retained.

Gaara growled, pausing in the consumption of his delicious looking apple, and a shiver went down the Medic's spine with of the animal resemblance it held. "Arina, shut up." His tone reminded her of the ice that laced Arina's voice when she told the same thing to Kankurou the first day they had met those years ago. "You very well know they do not control or have any say in me or my actions. I go in at the time in which I do because I, unlike your lazy ass, have work to do which needs to be completed because I am Kazekage."

"Okay, okay, damn, no need to go all Cooco for Cocoa Puffs." Arina said defensively, and Sakura looked down at her convicted breakfast dejectedly. "You're already Cooco for one thing in this house, no need to add to the list." She mumbled, getting a muffled laugh from Temari, a quizzical look from Sakura, and a heated glare and a warning snarl of "Arina", as he crushed his apple in his hand, from the "Cooco" Kazekage himself ((AN I'm sorry, I had to)).

Placing her finger to her chin, she framed a thinking expression, "Well, I guess that answers the question of testosterone, doesn't it." Before her expression could be complete, before she could point to him, sand was shot at her from the stairs, obviously coming from Gaara's room, though Gaara's expression never really changed to that of anger, only slight annoyance.

The kunoichi fled from the kitchen as the sand pursued. She swiftly ran into the living room, dancing around the sand as she jumped about the room. It was quite a show until Arina disappeared in a white flash. She reappeared behind the now indifferent looking teen with faded scarlet messy hair. "I thought you had to get to your office, with your oh so busy schedule and all."

A soft clank and another more metallic clank was heard, followed by a "What the hell?!" and muffled giggles. Arina turned toward the two other kunoichi in the room. Temari had the side of her fist pressed against her mouth and Sakura was looking innocently guilty with her bowl of cereal in her hand. There was one thing missing to Sakura's innocent look, besides a pink flowery dress, with a matching bow, and a big ass lollipop: Her spoon. Said spoon was sitting on the floor, behind Arina.

"I'm sorry, Arina, I just had to." Sakura said, as if explaining why she had thrown her spoon and hit Arina in the head. In all fairness to Sakura, she had some nice aim, hitting Arina square in the back if the head.

Gaara turned towards the black haired kunoichi with a small smirk that she read as "Hah, she is on my side! I win, you lose." Though, only Arina would be able to pick up that much off of the small curve of the redhead's generally stoic expression. She returned with one "Well it doesn't matter because you're a big chicken!" look, that only Gaara could read. He frowned- bitch.

I imagine life with her by my side but,
Should I tell her…?

"I do have to get to the office; I do not know why I've wasted twenty minutes of my time with your stupid, childish games." He then disappeared in a swirl of sand, leaving Arina standing there.

"Big Dufe, just disappearing like that, that's mature! Not to mention what a way to waste a perfectly good apple!!" Being the "mature one", she stuck her tongue out, maturely, of course. "Oh, by the way, Sakura its ten to seven," Arina said, after the retrieval of her tongue from midair, with a sadistic looking smirk.

Her Cocoa Puffs were nearly sent on the journey of their short lived, convicted life out of her mouth, "Shit!" She yelled, after swallowing of course. Quickly pouring her milk down the sink and throwing out her leftover cereal, she was ready to run out the door when she ran into someone, a bigger someone.

"Running a bit late?" Kankurou asked cheekily. "A bit." She retorted, smiling, and then it was over when she quickly dashed around him, where Naruto stood.

"Sakura-chan, what are you doing?"

The Medic stopped short, "Wait, what the hell am I doing?"

"Running so you're not late," Arina suggested, smugly, with of course a cheeky smile.

"Iie, and you need to eat your breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day, and that's my word as a Medic." The pink haired kunoichi then shushined in a flurry of cherry blossoms, leaving smirking Puppet Master, a surprised blonde kunoichi, one angry kunoichi, and a poor, clueless, blonde baka…

"I'll get you Sakura, dammit!"

Temari then faced Arina, "Now eat it!" She said, pointing to the pitiful thing.

"Well, I don't want to be selfish… Kankurou will have to share it with me." Said shinobi turned a strange shade of green upon seeing his awaiting "breakfast" –impending doom-, contrasting with his purple face paint. 'Holy shit… is that the neighbor's gnome?! Temari always did say it gave her dirty looks. CRAP!' Thought the Puppet Master.

Again, if Arina was going down, one of those to egotistical morons was coming with her, even if it wasn't the egotistical part, but the moronic part.

Sakura shushined into the waiting room in the Kazekage office, but this secretary seemed indifferent. Reading a fashion magazine and leaning in her chair, obnoxiously chewing gum, it was apparent she impatiently waited for lunch break. With her long, dyed onyx hair, cold blue eyes surrounded by neon pink eye shadow, painted bright pink lips, and tanned complexion, Sakura figured the young secretary would much rather be repainting her matching, chipped neon pink nails and shopping than working in the Kazekage office.

"Ohayo, I am Haruno Sakura." The medic introduced, extending her hand for the teen to shake, getting an uninterested look and a gum's snapping in return. "I'm the Medic from Konoha…" She was hoping that she wouldn't have to go through this anymore, and the girls expression was grating on her nerves as the girl twirled her artificial colored hair and tapped around her unearthly large, again neon pink faux diamond earrings. 'At least she matches,' Sakura thought offhandedly, though she was quite annoyed. Withdrawing her unshaken hand, she finally got to the point. "I'm here to see Kazekage-sama."

Suddenly, the girl perked up with the mention of her teen leader. She straightened her posture and her glare changed from indifference to distaste as she finally answered, in an annoyingly slightly pitched, offending and defensive tone, "And why do you have to see Kazekage-sama?"

Her eyebrows rising and her expression turning amused, leaning back slightly, Sakura placed a hand on her hip and replied coolly, "I really wouldn't think that's any of your concern."

"And you would be right."

Both Medic and Bitc--Secretary turned to the hard voice of the Kazekage himself, standing in front of his office door with his arms crossed over his chest, as usual.

"K-k-k…"

"Kazekage-sama," Sakura said, finishing what the girl couldn't, bowing respectfully; knowing she should in front of the girl.

"Sakura, its five to seven, I expected you by at least eight to."

Sakura smiled a bit at the hidden humor. Then her eyes briefly flickered, meaningfully, to the now less confrontational secretary, and then back to Gaara, and smiled a bit sheepishly. "I had a little hold up, gomen-nasai."

Gaara nodded, also giving the secretary a flash of a look, before turning and proceeding into his office. "Sakura, I'm not very patient." He called over his shoulder, and Sakura smirked, following him into his office.

Closing the door behind her, Sakura turned to Gaara, who was sitting at his desk looking at her as he spoke, "Gomen, Sakura, she is obviously not my normal secretary, but a replacement. She is the normal secretary's daughter."

With a small laugh, Sakura replied, "I see you're not too fond of her."

Gaara gave his signature grunt and grumbled, "She is impossibly annoying; I can barely stand in the same room without trying to strangle her."

"Patience is a virtue, Gaara."

"Hn," he grunted, "A virtue in which I do not process."

Sakura smiled and replied, "But a virtue none the less."

"True, but punctuality is also a desirable quality." Gaara replied pointedly, his eyes turning down to a piece of paper on his desk and began to write on it. Sakura was beginning to enjoy witty banter with the Kazekage, though a small part of her, the more tempered side, felt a twinge of annoyance at his arrogance.

It may be easy to pretend that I don't care,
And maybe it wouldn't get no where (oh baby)

"I'm not even five minutes late, but early and you still bring up the topic of punctuality!" Sakura laughed as Gaara opted for indifference, still not looking at her. Keeping up good cheers with Sabaku no Gaara was imperative to not trying to throw him out a window. At times, his charming arrogant demeanor really grates one's nerves, especially one pink-haired, Konoha Medic kunoichi with a short fused temper.

"Anyway, you know your schedule for today?"

Sakura nodded, returning to professional mode, "Hai, seven to noon, hospital; and one to four, medic class."

"Very well," Gaara nodded, still writing, "You may go. Come back tomorrow morning, on time," Sakura smirked and shook her head at his impossibility, "as of now I have a lot of work to do." He dismissed, covering reluctance for the second time that day.

"Alright, but Gaara, I hardly think rewriting 'kumquat' all over than piece of paper qualifies as work." Seeing his pen stop suddenly stop, Sakura turned to leave and opening the door, she said, "Ja ne, Kazekage-sama."

'How the hell…?'

Chuckling to herself, Sakura closed the door to his office and walked past the secretary, surprisingly not getting any shit from her.

'Cha! Go Gaara, he totally tamed the beast!' Inner Sakura cheered, glaring at the girl.

'Yeah, really! But I defiantly agree with him, I'm sure I couldn't be in the same room with her either without an assault charge put to my name.'

'Cha, what a bitch! She is some kind of fan girl!'

'Fan girl?' Sakura asked, finding it very strange something that was in her mind knew about something she herself didn't

'Hai, the girls that follow them around, just because they are hot or powerful or something are fan-girls. That's what he meant when he said she was impossibly annoying,' Explained Inner Sakura, rolling her celestial eyes at "Outer Sakura's" ignorance.

'Oh, yeah… That's so kawaii! Not the fan girls part and the annoying part, but Gaara has fan girls!! He certainly has come far.' Sakura found her self thinking that very often about Gaara in the past three days.

'Well, he defiantly is worth fan girl-ism.' The figment said suggestively.

Disregarding the somewhat perverted statement by her Inner, Sakura shushined to the hospital upon arriving at the door, as she was walking painstakingly slow while conversing with her Inner, then at the hospital, walked over to check in with Uki. She smiled at the blond haired receptionist, "Ohayo, Uki-san, gomen if I'm late."

"Oh ohayo, Sakura-san," Uki smiled, "Iie, iie, you're right on time actually! I'll ring Tori."

"No need, I'm already here." Tori said, upon walking up to the desk, "Ohayo, Sakura, happy to see you again."

Sakura nodded, "Ohayo, Tori, likewise."

"Well, lets get to work before we're accused of slacking off." Tori suggested, obviously referring to Dr. Hitimata, or Dr. Old Bitch. Speaking of her, Sakura had yet to see her, though that was defiantly not a complaint.

"Alright then, ja ne Uki-san," the Konoha Medic said as she followed Tori down the hall.

"Ja ne!"

Tori and Sakura walked down the long hall, passing many doctors and nurses who greeted them. "Tori, how is Chitimata-san?" Sakura asked as she remembered the patient from the day before, though it hardly seemed like it was only the day before.

"He has made a full recovery and will be returned home tomorrow!" Tori replied happily.

Nodding, the pink headed kunoichi said, "Good, good. I'm glad to hear. That was quite an extensive list of ailments he had."

With a sigh, Tori replied, "And that isn't even our worst." Sakura's expression was shocked as they approached a door with a seal on it at the very end of the hallway, the only one at the end. It was different then the rest apart from having the seal, white with a very small window apposed to light brown with a large window. After making a few hand signs Sakura wasn't paying attention to, Tori held the door open for her and closed it quickly after they both had entered the room.

There was only one bed and no plants, or visitor chairs, or anything to make the room feel more comfortable. What was also strange was that the machines that would normally surround the patient's bed had been placed as far from the bed as possible. On the contrary, jutsu seals surrounded the bed.

"We have no idea what's wrong with him." Tori explained, standing a cautious ten feet from the patient, "Physically, he has nothing wrong with him, but his chakra is going mad." Sakura walked up to beside the bed, seeing that black straps restrained the man to the bed, and Tori quickly pulled her back, "Iie, iie, when you go too close he goes mad and your chakra gets depleted! That's why he's tied up and why no one is allowed in here!!"

"Don't worry, let me look at him."

Unsurely, Tori released Sakura's arm and she once again stepped forward, "Onegai… be careful." Sakura nodded and extended her hand above the patient. As her normal, blue healing chakra began flowing, the man jolted and began thrashing in his confinements.

Sakura felt her chakra being drained from her, so she activated her keki-genki to try and salvage what she could. Amethyst chakra wrapped the thrashing shinobi is tendrils and penetrated his system. In her mind, Sakura could see clearly a black and green swirly chakra flowing in his chakra streams and the rest of his body.

Suddenly, it jolted and she was forced to retrieve her chakra from his body and his thrashing ceased. Deactivating her keki-genki, Sakura walked over to the medicine cabinet and table at the other end of the room, sensing Tori cautiously hovering behind her, waiting for an explanation.

"What is in this patient," Sakura began, picking up vials and reading the descriptions and mixing some together, "is what I call a chakra bug. You may know of it in its normal terms: a soul parasite, what a huge difference from the name I came up with." The last part of her sentence was grumbled. She specifically remembered the scolding she got from her sensei for adapting from the name in which she created.

Tori gasped, though it wasn't at the other Medic's sarcasm, "What—that's, serious! How are we going to treat that?"

"Calm down. I think I can use a jutsu with my keki-genki… but I've never really tried it before…" Upon seeing the shocked expression on her comrade's expression, blatantly ignoring it, Sakura turned towards the patient. She began building up her chakra, readying it for her task.

'I hope I can do this.' Convincing Tori she was confident was one thing, but convincing herself another.

'You're not going to get anywhere with that attitude! Hell yeah you can do it!' Though Inner Sakura's optimism was a confidence booster, the Medic had to fight hard to keep the reality of which attempting performing this jutsu was. The rate in which the air was closing around her as her chakra was being rapidly pushed to the surface was raising her stress level, and she knew Tori could easily sense the change in her chakra.

In all blatant truth, only someone, who was of her own level, completely foolish or overly arrogant, would attempt the jutsu. It required an intensive knowledge of the way in which the chakra streams and blood streams and organs; not to mention faultless chakra control in which to weave chakra through said places. Sakura had to literally enter his body with her chakra, not just send some in as if she were healing a wound, keeping half her senses out of him incase she would have to retract herself immediately.

To cut a long story short, it was a fucking-tricky-piece-of-shit jutsu. She knew it, Tori knew it, and the air that was condensing around her lungs knew it.

Approaching the bed, the patient already thrashing, with activated keki-genki, Sakura took a deep, relaxing breath. If she fucked this up, the man in front of her could lose his life. If she managed to pull it off… well alright then. Her chakra was all ready, the only left in her would be enough to sustain her if something drastic were to happen. The jutsu was dangerous and difficult, but not to the patient in the same aspect as to the shinobi. If it didn't work, the patient would die in a matter of days with no further treatment. If it didn't work, the medic performing the jutsu would die in a matter of seconds.

The last thing she saw before amethyst took over her vision was sand whipping around the air, the last thing she felt before a numbing, tingling, high was sand sliding over her skin…

Gaara had felt it the second it began. He felt it quickly accumulating, getting stronger, all the way in his Kazekage office. He didn't know what was going on but he did know what it would take to rid himself of the annoyance in front of him in order to go find out what was going on. A simple flick of his wrist and a quick snap of the man's neck that was standing before him was all it took, as it always was. All it ever took was that flick of the wrist.

He hadn't given that flick, that life ending flick, though. Quickly leaving, without so much as an excuse for himself, Gaara transported to the hospital, picking up her scent and chakra like water was being poured over him. Again transporting, this time to the room in which she was in, Gaara saw her arms extend over a man lying, thrashing, on a hospital table and her eyes and chakra turn a mysterious amethyst. She was using her keki-genki, he figured, but this conclusion didn't stop his sand from nervously shifting about the room.

The other Medic, who wasn't important to him, was standing on the very other side of the room; her hands over her mouth and her eyes wide with shock. Only did she move when we started to walk around the bed to approach Sakura, "Iie! Kazekage-sama! Sakura is performing a very difficult, and dangerous, jutsu and it is vital you not approach either her or Yamuko-san, the patient!"

The Kazekage paused as directed; his eyes narrowed into angry slits, though nothing other than that signified his emotions to the Suna Medic. He would have to wait until Sakura had finished with her jutsu to speak with her. By the look of the Suna kunoichi and Sakura herself, the jutsu she was performing wasn't the normal Medic healing technique. This could be a while.

He growled lowly, settling himself leaning against the wall. Hell knew he wasn't keen with waiting.

The high feeling was positively exhilarating. Dividing her mind into chakra, separating in order to weave through the patients body harmlessly felt like flying without the constant pull of gravity one felt while running through the trees.

With the black mass before her, Sakura braced herself for the climax of her jutsu. The chakra that was readied before entering Yamuko's body slithered over his blood and chakra streams, forcing the black tendrils inside back to its core. Amethyst mixed with blue-green chakra surrounded the mass, and immediately the thing was threatened. It shot out against the walls surrounding it is a feral attempt to free itself. Focusing on fortifying her chakra as well as keeping herself in the half physical state she was is, Sakura struggled to close the chakra around the black mass. Shooting more chakra into the circle surrounding the parasite, Sakura was able to begin squeezing the parasite to non existence.

Finally, after much stressful concentration, the parasite was gone. With no time for celebration of the almost completion of her jutsu, Sakura felt her chakra begin to drastically weaken. If she didn't have enough chakra to pull out of Yamuko's body, her body would collapse from chakra depletion and it would kill both her and Yamuko. Her resolve was, no matter how hard or painful it was for her, pull out of Yamuko's body through his skin, making a small wound that could be easily healed up later. Not matter what, there was no way she was giving up and disappointing Tsunadae, Naruto, Kakashi, Arina, and even Gaara. She would prove she wasn't just the weak little girl that jumped in front of him on his rampage in the Chuunin Exams.

Finally, after much torturous waiting, the patient's pasty skin seemed to slowly become normal and he ceased thrashing. Gaara pushed himself off the wall and walked around the steel bed, standing a cautious five or six foot length away from the Medic. He saw the chakra flow in her hands stop and he wasn't sure if that was good or bad. The whole time he was against the wall waiting, he found himself feeling yet another foreign emotion: worry. Of course, he felt anxiety when his siblings or Arina was wounded or on a mission, but he found it incomparable with the unease that settled into his gut upon seeing Sakura standing in a comatose like state; performing a jutsu he knew nothing about when he was as helpless to help her as the patient she was healing. Perhaps he just had more confidence in Temari, Kankurou, and Arina's abilities as apposed to Sakura's. That didn't make much sense though, as he knew from Naruto she was strong, and the fact she was the Godaime Hokage's apprentice, the best Medic in the world. Again, he found any emotion she aroused from him confused him to no end. He was really beginning to miss his emotionless mind, though he was content it hadn't quite seemed to seep though his normal demeanor not including the random moments he lost control around the pastel pink haired teen.

Sakura's vision wavered, as did she, when she was finally out of Yamuko's body. Her vision was clouded with spots and the sides were slowly dimming, threatening to over take her whole vision. Subconsciously, she felt something shifting around her waist. Before she finally passes out from chakra depletion, Sakura failed to see the angry redhead at her side as she slumped into the sand.

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