Yeah! Chapter 2 is UP! YEAHOO! (does a happy dance) Okay, I need to explain a few things: yes, the summary in the first chapter is different than the one on the actual summary, because it wouldn't let me put a stupid ';' thing in it, and I had to change it so it was still grammar-correct. I mean, I AM obsessed with making sure I spell things right; typos drive me CRAZY! X3

Also, this is not the 'ninja school academy' thing; notice how it's called 'Sharingan High'! They are regular human beings, not crazed ninja people with super powers. I hope I made that clear in the first chapter, what with Gaara not using his sand to kill the Uchiha brothers, but…well, I've seen the extent of stupid people. Anyways, on with the fic!

Summary: That girl suddenly popped up into his life. And she piqued his curiosity, too; she held a secret, and he wanted to find out what it was.

Sharingan High

'1419 Cranberry Way…'

He looked up from the slip of paper he had in his hands, and, sure enough, he was at the right place. 'Now I can return that girl – Aoki her stuff. And a chance to talk to her more.' He grinned at the prospect of her blushing when he smirked. 'After all, I do want to win that bet.'

Crash!

He sweatdropped, glancing at the house cautiously. 'What the hell is going on in there?'

"Ki-chan, you're going to miss your lessons!"

Bang!

He sweatdropped again, but he walked up to the front door anyways and eavesdropped – err, happened to listen as he steeled himself to knock on the door. (Yeah, that's it…)

"Dammit, Aoki, if you can't go down the stairs without falling at least one time – and you spilled my coffee all over your brand new shoes! What'll I drink now? And what do you mean, 'you can't find your homework'? Gah!"

For some reason, that female voice sounded familiar as well. The image of cherry blossoms came to mind. It seemed the girl knew many people he did.

There was another crash, followed by a howl and a 'my flower case!' from the angry woman. He began to have second thoughts about his plan, but he cast them aside and held up his arm to knock.

Knock, knock, knock…

The silence that followed afterwards unnerved him nearly to the point of nervousness.

"Aoki, get the door!"

"But, Sakura –"

"Now!"

"Alright, geez! 'Get the door, Aoki', 'do the dishes, Aoki', 'clean your room, Aoki'…" The grumbled continued as footsteps came closer to the door. "Stupid pinky with her bossy attitude problems and mood swings and –"

The door opened, and it was silent once more.

Gaara stood there, holding her things in his arms as he blinked expectantly. Aoki blinked back, her surprise evident on her face. She was frozen with her hand on the doorknob, like a deer in headlights. They both stood there a while, staring at each other like the most normal thing to do in the world was to stand on the front porch and have a staring contest. Gaara won, of course, because she looked down and put her hands behind her back. He could swear he heard her gulp nervously. "Umm…hey?"

"Aoki? Hey, Ki-chan, who is it?"

"Uhh!" She looked around anxiously, as if hoping the woman wouldn't come. "N-Nothing! Just, uhh…a cat! Yeah, it's a cat!"

"…A cat? Okaaaay…"

"What are you doing here?" She hissed out quietly, trying not to alert the woman inside of the new visitor. Gaara blinked. "You forgot a few things." He shifted his arms so that his cargo was more noticeable. "I came to return them."

"Shh!"

He frowned slightly. 'Did she just shush me? The nerve…'

"Why?"

"I don't want Sakura coming over and seeing you and getting the wrong ideas!" Here, as she become to whisper loudly (the quiet equivalent of shouting), her face turned a bit red, especially near her ears. He now noticed that, whenever she blushed, her ears would also become a bit red.

"'Wrong ideas'?"

"Wait!" She snapped her fingers as a smile lit up her face. "I have an idea! Come with me!" She grabbed his arm and closed the door behind her as she snuck around the house, dragging him to a spot underneath the second-story window that belonged to (he guessed) her room. She then turned and tapped the trunk of a tree for a moment, before her finger found a knot in the bark that sunk in with a 'click!' which was responded with the unlocking and opening of her window before she climbed up a (conveniently placed) trellis with vines for handholds and pulled herself up and in, motioning for him to do the same.

Gaara had to give her credit; the girl had skills, style, and game.

"You're just a little rascal, aren't you?"

He was rewarded to see her blush again as she mumbled something about 'being a genius with misunderstood intentions'. He climbed in after her, and he eyed her as she quickly closed the window and then proceeded to do the same to the door. Then, she turned to the wall beside it and flicked up a switch, but instead of a light coming on, the television on the other side of the room flickered to life, showing a detailed view of the hallway in front of the door, as well as several other strategic places throughout the house.

Oh, yeah; the girl definitely had game.

"Aoki."

"…Hm?" She tilted her head slightly, her hair spilling over one shoulder, as she reminded him of a curious puppy. "Yes, Gaara?"

"Why is it that you like the color black so much?"

Indeed, the reason he asked this was because black was virtually the only theme there; the bed only had two red pillows to break the wave of darkness, and it was only the paint on the walls, a burgundy that reminded him of dried blood, that made it looked anything other than a black hole.

"Umm…" It seemed he had caught her red-handed with something, for she looked away nervously and stuttered, "…N-No reason!" Her hair covered her face, and he noted that in certain lights it seemed iridescent, as it seemed to shine a bit red from the walls around them. It was as if it mirrored the mood she was in, in this case being embarrassment.

She jumped when he handed her the things left forgotten in his arms, and she barely got a grip of them before he let go, causing her to fumble and dump it onto her bed and straighten it in an attempt to not make the room any messier than it already was (unless papers all over the room and old pizza boxes didn't count as making the room dirty). At Gaara's questioning stare, she sighed and shook her head. "Sakura's always getting on my case; 'Aoki, you need to clean better!', 'Aoki, you can't possibly live in this filth!'. Grr…" She rolled her eyes. "You know, she's my roommate, and yet she acts like she's my mother."

Gaara nodded, understanding how she felt immediately. "Temari is the same way."

"Roommate?"

"No, try 'older sister'."

"Ah." She nodded, as if that made the most logical sense in the world. Then, "Do you have any brothers?"

"One. Kankuro."

"What's he like?"

"Annoying." She laughed. "I'm serious."

"I know! It's just – you looked so sour when you said that!" She put a hand over her mouth as if to hide the giggles escaping it.

He rolled his eyes and responded in kind, "So did you when speaking of your roommate."

She just shrugged. "Eh, I know that she's really doing it for my own good."

He didn't comment on that, instead choosing to let his gaze wander around the room. His eyes caught on the TV, and, oh-so-calmly, he told her, "The pink-head is coming."

"Who, Sasuke?" She grinned, and then she looked at the screen. She cursed under her breath, "Shit…dammit! I don't want to resort to pushing you out of a two-story window…kidding!" She held up her hands in defense at his glare. "Geez, take a joke…ooh!" She snapped her fingers and smiled once more. "I have another idea!"

He decided not to make a wise-crack about 'her and her wonderful ideas' that seemed to get her into trouble (although the result was quite hilarious) as he watched her run over to the closet. After moving some things out of the way of the door, she turned to him and motioned towards the now open closet. "Closet!"

"Yes, I know it's a closet."

"No, I mean – get in there!"

He finally complied (after getting a rough shove in the right direction) and walked into the fairly large closet, turning around just in time to see Aoki close the door behind him. She left it open just enough, however, that he could see her whirl around as her bedroom door swung open. Aoki was in front of the crack in the door, however, so he could not get a glimpse of her roommate. Instead, he listened to the voices:

"…Aoki? Ki-chan, what are you doing?"

Gaara was aware that Aoki had turned around guiltily deer-in-headlights-like, looking like a little kid that had her hand halfway in the cookie jar.

His stomach growled at the thought, reminding him he hadn't had breakfast that morning. 'Cookies…'

"I was…oh, I found my homework!" Gaara saw her wave a paper in the air, which reminded him of the slip safe in his pocket. He smirked and patted the hidden paper, as if to reassure himself that he still had her schedule.

"Oh, really?" A pause… "Wait, when did you get up here?"

"Silly! I walked up the stairs! Didn't you see me?"

Okay, maybe she didn't have any style…

Another pause. "No, actually…how did you get up here?"

"Oh, come on, Sakura! I walked! How else did I get in? Through the window?"

Gaara willed himself to not laugh at that by biting his tongue.

"Okay…just…hurry up! You have to get there for your lessons!"

"Okay!" Aoki laughed and waved. "Bye, Sakura-chan!"

"Yeah, yeah – have a good day!"

As soon as the door closed behind her roommate, Aoki's shoulders slumped in weariness. "Oi…it's getting harder and harder to get past her nowadays! Maybe I should rethink my technique…"

She was definitely different from other girls.

There was a sigh, before the midnight-haired teenager opened the closet door completely, greeting him with a small smile. "You can come out now," she said quietly, as if she thought Sakura would be at the door listening.

"I rather like it in here."

"Wha?" She blinked. "But, it's…you…" She sighed. "Never mind…" He heard her mutter something along the lines of 'odd males' with their 'strange tendencies'.

"What are these 'lessons' your roommate keeps talking about?"

Her ears were red once more, making him smirk slightly as he was amused by her embarrassment. He waited as patiently as possible before she finally told him, "Sakura forced me to…learn how to defend myself, and she teaches me herself, so…" She trailed off as she looked down and twiddled with her thumbs. 'She's really a nervous creature, isn't she?'

"I take it that you're learning martial arts?"

Nod.

"What type?"

"Tae-Quon-Do." (Yes, I KNOW that's misspelled; sue me for not remembering after a few years!)

He raised an eyebrow at her in doubt. "Really?"

"Yeah!" She gave him a firm glare as she put her hands on her hips to confront him. "I can do a few things to defend myself in extreme situations!"

Doubt turned into interest, and maybe a bit of impishness. "Really?"

"Yeah, rea – why are you looking at me like that?"

"Any situation?"

"Umm…I guess…but why –"

He was in front of her before she could even 'know what hit her' (another quote from the annoying blonde boy), and he grabbed her wrists quickly before forcing her down onto the ground. She gave a small yelp as she lay on her back with him on top of her, pinning her down. She looked up at him in surprise, a blush growing on her face as he smirked down at her.

"You can defend yourself, huh?"

"I…I…uhh…"

"While we are like this," he grinned, having more fun than he's had in years, "I should do this before you can hit me for it…" He leaned in closer, his grin getting bigger as she grew more nervous.

"Do wha –"

Ring-ring-ring, ring-ring-ring, phone call, phone call!

(DL: Yes, I totally jacked it from the Pokemon series! MUAHAHA!)

They both froze, their ears perked up for the phone. Caught off guard, Aoki quickly rolled over so that he wasn't on top anymore and leapt to her feet, dashing over to the phone while Gaara scowled. 'Damn! Almost had her…'

(DL: Ha ha! Poor Gaara was having fun! (gets hit by Gaara) OWW!)

"Hello?"

He sat up and watched her as she listened to whoever it was on the other line. She bit her lower lip, looking a bit anxious while she waited for her turn to speak.

"…Uhh…yeah…yeah, I did it. Why do…again? But I thought you…grrr…" She huffed and glowered at the phone. "Uzumaki Naruto, I told you I wouldn't do your homework for you!"

'She knows Naruto? Hmm…' He pondered while absentmindedly listening to Aoki. 'I thought the name 'Sakura' sounded familiar…'

"No! And if you ask Sakura-chan, it'll be the same thing!" She stomped her foot down, and then she continued listening. "But, Naruto – yes, I know you're having trouble in World History, but – yes, you are my roommate-turned-friend's-best-friend, ultimately being my friend, but…"

'And I thought she was clever. She obviously can't get rid of him.' Then, he remembered how he had to save her from the Uchiha brothers' wrath. 'She can't get out of anything at all.' Smirking, he stood up and crept over to stand behind her and, unexpectedly, hugged her from behind.

He really was having fun with this.

"Eek! Gaara!"

He smirked as she quickly pushed him away, stammering, "Uhh, no! I didn't say that! Uhh, listen, I gotta go! See-you-later-love-ya-bye!" She barely choked out a 'good-bye' before slamming the phone down, panting as if she had just gotten the crap scared out of her. She glared at the smirking redhead as she hissed, "What was that for?"

"You needed help."

"Help? Help wha –"

"You needed to get rid of him," he stated simply, shrugging as if it was completely normal to hug someone. "I helped you do that."

"But, I – I didn't – he's my – argh!" She held her head and mumbled, "My head hurts…"

"Aren't you supposed to be leaving?" Gaara asked calmly as he examined the sand beneath his fingernails. He smirked to himself as she straightened up and gulped. "Uh-oh!" She began to run to the door, then thought better of it and went to the window. Gaara stopped her, however, by grabbing her by her waist and jumping down with a startled Aoki in his arms. He looked at her and shrugged once more. "I thought that you would need help getting there in time."

"But, I can walk to the park – Gaara, not in public – gaaaaah! Not so fast!"