Papers rustled in the light breeze coming in from the open window. The Kazekage truly hated his job. He continued to work on signing papers upon papers. The menial task was something he'd prefer a secretary to do. But of course not, obviously this…Kokoshi…needed the direct opinion of the Kazekage himself on whether or not to paint her house.

Lucky, or maybe not so lucky, for Gaara he was interrupted from his paperwork. There was shouting out by the desk his secretary sat at and then stomping. His door burst open and there stood a distraught looking girl.

Her pink hair was disheveled from running and her face was red and blotchy along with puffy eyes, which most likely came from crying. She was clutching Hissori against her, cradling him and crying. Her clothes looked like she'd just thrown them on and not bothered to zip and button everything properly.

He looked to the boy again and noticed he was covered in blood, which had transferred to Sakura.

The sobbing girl walked up to Gaara's desk and looked him in the eyes.

His intense apathetic jade boring into her frantic confused emerald.

"We…need to talk. Now." She grated out trying not to sob.

"About what, Haruno."

"Hissori! You know something, I know you know something. Explain." She said.

"I know about Hissori, yes. What is it, you'd like to know?"

"Why is he murdering women in his sleep? What happened?" Sakura felt the tears roll down her cheeks again. "Please…" her voice ached with pain.

"Hissori and I are more alike than you think."

"What do you mean?" She said beginning to get ideas.

"Hissori was born in the Village Hidden in the Mist, a demon that had lain dormant in the great tree resurfaced about 5 or so years ago. The village didn't know what to do, so taking after Konoha, they did the only thing they thought would work. They sealed it inside a newborn."

Sakura was wide eyed, she looked horrified. Gaara knew what would come next. She would scream and leave the boy to run back to Konoha, or something along those lines. He was more and more convinced he was correct as she lowered her terror filled gaze to the boy.

Too bad Sakura was not one to do as expected. She clutched the boy in a nearly bone-crushing hug. She looked to Gaara with the tears still billowing out of her.

"Which one? Which demon was sealed within him?"

"…Houkou, the five tailed beast."

Sakura had the ghost of a smile on her face. "I knew you were strong." She lost her smile and cried more as she nuzzled her face into the child's neck.

Gaara was unsettled by her acceptance. The Shukaku was attempting to push thoughts and comments to him, but he was opting to ignore them.

Gaara felt pain rising in his chest. How could this child be so lucky, to have someone who accepted him, for everything.

"But…Gaara." She lifted her head up to the Kazekage's gaze. "What about the woman…the dead woman?"

"She'll be reported tomorrow I'm sure." He pushed the words through trying desperately to hold it together until she left. He didn't need her to see him break. He wouldn't break in front of anyone. Not anymore.

Maybe she would understand. Maybe she would give you the comfort you want. She understood for the child, she comforted the child. Why not you as well?

He shoved the voice into one corner of his mind; he could feel Shukaku laughing at the thought. The pain was still moving through him. Sakura stood there cooing to the boy and comforting him, unaware of the pain she was thrusting upon Gaara.

"Leave." Gaara grated as he gripped his head.

Sakura didn't move though, she stood and then set Hissori down. She slowly moved towards Gaara concerned.

"Haruno…" he warned but she just shuddered at the tone and continued. She got to him and reached a hand to his chest. Just before her hand reached him she was slammed into by sand.

"I…Said…LEAVE!" He shouted his eyes wide and crazed, inciting fear deep into Sakura's very core. This was normal, Gaara could handle this; he was used to the fear. He was finally back to common ground.

Too bad for him again, her fear was not for herself but for the boy.

"Hissori…Hissori, I need …you to run. Run away. …please." She rasped through her desperate struggles for air.

Hissori felt the flash of déjà vu.

"Run. Just run. Don't look back and run as far and as fast as you can."

"No!" Hissori felt chakra float around him. "Let go of Sakura-chan." The boy said. His tone managed to scare Sakura, but the familiar line struck a chord in Gaara.

Uzumaki, said the very same thing. What was it about this girl that was so worth risking death? What made her so different?

Surely you can figure it out. She is caring. She understands. She's accepted Uzumaki, and Hissori. I'm sure she'd accept you too. You'd finally have the love you crave.

HA! What are you blabbering about, you fool? That she would understand and not fear him. Not fear ME? Or even further, to LOVE him. To love a beast, a MONSTER! HA! You are truly insane.

Gaara clutched his skull and dropped the sand, releasing his hold on Sakura. Sakura wanted to go and see what was wrong with the older boy, but Hissori could be in danger, she needed to get him out of there. She rushed over to him and then they left the office through the open window.

AGHK

In the morning Sakura went to go talk to Hissori. They were sitting on the windowsill with their legs dangling off the edge and the breeze brushing across them.

"Hissori—"

"I understand if you don't want to adopt me now. It's ok."

"Hissori-kun, no. I love you. I've already made the arrangements. You are legally my son, and I refuse to neglect my child, or give him anything less than love."

Hissori looked over to Sakura and noticed her pained expression.

"What's wrong Sakura-chan?" Hissori asked as he looked back out to the town.

"It's nothing…I was just wondering about Kazekage-sama."

"Why?"

"I…he must be so lonely, you know. He grew up thinking he was a monster. Many were afraid of him; myself included, sadly. Now as the Kazekage he deserves respect and all he gets is more fear. I would assume that it's very lonely. I'd like to help, but he doesn't seem to like me much. Maybe he hates me, though I'm not sure what I did to deserve that."

"I don't think he hates you, I just think he doesn't want you to try and help. I think…maybe he's afraid that you'll change him. And he won't know what to do anymore. Gaara-san doesn't like to be in the dark about anything. He needs to understand everything around him. So…I don't know."

"Hmph. I've said it before, I'll say it again: you are a very intelligent little boy. You never cease to amaze me." She said standing from the sill to go inside then carefully pulling in Hissori as well.

AGHK

Later on that day Sakura decided to take Hissori around the village. She had yet to travel around the place yet, but now as the sun had dimmed and the temperature was safe, she felt it would be a good time.

She was currently walking through a crowded street holding her new son's hand and looking at the shops. She came to a shop that looked very interesting with many crystals. She picked up one crystal that was about the length and width of her pinky finger. The tips of it were bright oceanic blue which faded to white and in the very center of the crystal was a tiny bubble of green.

She walked to the shopkeeper and asked about the beautiful stone. The store owner spoke of the stone and that the bubble forms by a build up of gasses that is sometimes produced by the crystallization process. The colors come from the cave itself, depending upon the minerals in the cave that get in the water it changes the color of the crystal.

Sakura took the stone and also a small pink and white crystal. She asked the shopkeeper to turn them to necklaces, the larger blue crystal would be put on a silver chain, and the smaller pink and white crystal would be put on a green leather cord.

They took the necklaces happily and exited. She knelt down and unclasped the necklace. She reached forward and wrapped it around Hissori's slender neck. She re-clasped the necklace and the crystal sat right under his collarbone, hanging by the sturdy silver chain.

Sakura smiled and put the pink crystal on herself. She and Hissori then continued on their way. The temperature was still low, though higher than it was. So She and Hissori decided to go for some ice cream.

She ordered two cones and after they had gotten them Hissori asked if h could go and play on the playground that was surprisingly right in front of them. Sakura hadn't seen it when they were walking, but apparently Hissori had. She let the young boy go and play and took the time to rest on a bench.

Well, at least she would've had the bench not been extremely hot; the sun had apparently made the stone and metal a vicious temperature. While she was very tired, she decided resting on the bench was not burn worthy.

So she opted for the ground. The grass that she had figured wouldn't survive in Suna heat, was not as full as it was I Konoha. Still, it was grass. It was cool on the ground; a slight breeze could be felt. The wind tousled her hair, and she found she didn't quite mind it. Her eyes shifted closed and she could hear the children laughing and playing.

Laughing.

The laughter of the children made Sakura's eyes well with tears.

"That forehead of yours is pretty big."

"Yea, you should do something about it, it's disgusting."

A child laughed and added "Do everyone a favor, and don't come back here, you ugly girl."

Tears were freely falling down her face. Sakura had come over with a bouquet of freshly picked flowers from the field and was going to give them to the kids…she was just trying to make friends.

The flowers were sagging as she held her hands at her side, much in the same manner as her head sagged in dreary sadness.

The flowers dropped from her hand and Sakura let a sob break out of her. She felt her shoulders shaking, she felt her knees buckling, she felt the stabbing, searing pain in her heart. Yet she pulled herself up, and ran off. She had wanted so badly to just sob there, to fall to her knees and cry.

Sakura wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing that they had completely broken her.

A moral she still had. She would break, very easily in fact, but she would never let someone witness her fully tear down and wilt. Cherry blossoms are beautiful, they are fragile, it's a painful sight to see one wilting.

No one finds beauty in a wilting cherry blossom.

Sakura felt herself wake. It was extremely hot, the wind had completely disappeared and the streets were much less bustling than they were when she'd fallen asleep. She stood up from her spot and looked to the playground.

There was no one at the playground. No children, no people, no nothing, it was barren. She looked frantically around, and it just hit her that she was drenched it sweat. It was impossibly hot, she had to find Hissori.

She ran around the playground searching everywhere for the boy.

After about 5 minutes of searching she was frantically screaming out for the boy.

"Hissori?" She said as she looked up to the tree. She approached the large tree that was now the only sign of life outside that Sakura could see, besides herself. She looked up into the tree's branches.

"Hissori!" she exclaimed. But as the shadowed figure leaped from the shade of the tree towards her, she could only scream and think to herself that this was certainly not Hissori.

…TBC.

Authors note:

Alright so this is extremely short, but I'm sorry. I just wanted to put up another chapter and this was as much as I could come up with. I promise I'm not giving up on this story and once I get a secure hold on the plot it will be much easier to write the story and the chapters will come more often. Sorry for the wait, hope I'm not disappointing anyone.

Saayu-chan