Language: English

Rating: T (For Language)

Genre: Angst/Drama/Romance

Pairing: GaaraSaku Minor SasuIno, NaruHin, NejTen and ShikaTem with one-sided SasuSaku (request for BipolarPenguins)

Summary: She had thrown away her friends, her strength and life but he never noticed, no one ever looked at her that was until he came along and gave her a second glance.

Thoughts

'Speech'

Second Glance

Sakura lied on her bed, maybe things would turn better, maybe he'd realize that Ino wasn't for him and she'd go to her. After all, she had always been with him, but that hope had been all shattered when they got together. She sighed as she looked outside the window, maybe she had to stop hoping, and start doing what she wanted, he had never encouraged her to be herself, she sighed, she needed a fresh start, she couldn't do this in Kohona, where she would she old faces, things she knew by heart, She needed to get out, even for a while, that's when she decided to go.

The honorable Hokage was currently glaring at the stack of paperwork in front of her when a knock interrupted her from the glare, saving the poor paper from burning

'Shisou?'

A quiet voice asked from behind the door, Tsunade instantly knew it was her student, Sakura, after all nobody else called her Shisou.

'Come in, Sakura.'

A girl with long pink pastel hair which now rested on her hips, no longer short, with dark emerald eyes, whose forehead was now a normal size walked in, her normally bright, happy emerald eyes were clouded with confusion, sadness, anxiety and anguish, causing Tsunade to instantly feel more awake, but before she could ask what was wrong Sakura quickly asked her

'Shisou, please give me a mission, any just as long as it's out of Kohona for a period of time.'

Tsunade looked at her and sighed as she looked through the missions, what sort of mission would be all right for Sakura? She was guessing she wanted to go solo, but what sort of ANBU would go on a solo mission? Tsunade glanced on the tattoo on Sakura's right arm and sighed. She guessed she could give her a Jounnin mission, she was guessing something was wrong, to ask for a mission so quickly, she flicked through the A rank missions when she came across one, she looked up and spoke to her.

'There's an A rank mission that requires you to get a highly classified scroll from Suna, It doesn't matter how long, as long as it arrives.'

Sakura nodded and walked up to take the scroll.

Sakura kept jumping from branch to branch until she could see Suna, she ran towards the village gates and showed her pass, the guards allowed her in, but not without a few catcalls though.

Sakura knocked on the house of the Kazekage, the secretary had said her was at home, the door opened but she stopped short of what she saw, Temari had opened the door with one hand while the other was around the famous lazy Chunnin's neck while lip locking with him. And uncertainly started

'Ano…is this…. Shikamaru?'

The two broke apart and she saw it was indeed Ino's former Genin team mate. Shikamaru's eyes widened but Temari just laughed,

'Yep Sakura-chan it is'

The sand kunochi had been pretty close to her after time had passed but she just shrieked and started screaming

'We're best friends and you didn't bother telling me, how long?'

Temari laughed

'2 months, I know,'

Temari kept talking to stop Sakura

'I haven't seen you and I was sort of…busy'

Sakura grinned slyly

'May I assume that it was with Shikamaru?'

Sakura's grin widened when she saw a bit of pink flush on both cheeks. But Temari quickly steered the topic away.

'What are you doing here? Saku-chan?'

Sakura smiled

'I need to see Kazekage-sama for the scroll, or something.'

Temari nodded

'He's upstairs, first door left'

Sakura nodded and walked upstairs and went to the first door and knocked

'Come-in'

Sakura mechanically walked towards the door, opened the door and went inside.

Gaara looked up surprised

'Can I help?'

Sakura nodded

'Can I get the scroll intended for Hokage-sama'

Gaara sighed

'It's at the office can I give it to you tomorrow?'

Sakura nodded and wordlessly walked outside that was very tense

Gaara was confused and as Temari came in he stopped her before she went outside, earning a questioning glance from Temari

'The girl who came in before she was Haruno Sakura, right?'

Temari nodded and went outside. Grinning.

Gaara wasn't even focused on his paperwork anymore, He had lied. The scroll was in his room, he knew precisely where it was. Second drawer, left side, unopened. But he needed to fin out something. The first time he looked into the pink haired girl's eyes he knew a part of him would always remember her for the happiness in her eyes, but her eyes were different, as he thought of it he shivered like the eyes I used to have

Sakura was growing irritated. Girls in Suna were glaring at her and whispering about her, Temari was urging her to ask Gaara out, Shikamaru was smirking every time she entered the room and that jerk of a Kazekage had been keeping her in Suna for a fortnight already, he kept making excuses about the scroll but she knew where it was, On him, in his front left pocket. She would've rudely pointed it out, snatched it, ran off and given it to Shisou and be done with. One major problem. He was Kazekage, it would be offensive and could lead to war, and apparently Gaara was using it to his advantage, she stormed of to a training area.

Gaara was now mystified and determined to find out what was wrong with the former go-lucky kunochi, he knew that she knew he had the scroll with him where ever he went, duh! Why else would it be an A-rank mission? But she hadn't said anything but she would've said something about it, she just totally ignored them and agreed to them. He heard a 'bam' and sighed, wondering who was deforesting the already deforested Suna. He walked to the noise only to see an angry pink haired, emerald-eyed kunochi furiously punching a log while yelling out

'Damn Kazekage'

'Stupid Red Hair!'

'Emotionless Freak!'

'Die Gaara!'

'Kankuro is way more social than you!'

Gaara twitched. There was no second-guessing who she was yelling about and imagining whom the log was. THAT was highly offensive he just walked up towards to kunochi and restraining her with sand, unfortunately the Hokage had been teaching her well, she broke free of the sand with her strength. In no regards she started yelling, without even looking or thinking who could wield sand

Sakura was pissed and now someone sent his or her stupid sand to stop her, she whirled around

'YOU STUPID PERSON, WHAT THE HELL? CAN'T YOU SEE I AM PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW? YOUR DAMN KAZEKAGE IS SUCH A BAD LIAR AND-'

She was cut off in mid-sentence as she saw red hair. Dammit. Only one person in the village had red hair. The Kazekage.

Sakura bowed down nervously

'Ano..Kazekage-sama, how long have you been here?'

Gaara looked down at her

'Long enough , you can cut off the "Kazekage-sama" '

Sakura winced

'Gomen..I haven't been feeling well for the past month..'

Gaara raised an eyebrow, now would be the perfect time

'Because….'

With little hesitation Sakura immediately lunched into her story with tears trailing her face as she buried her head into his chest, which greatly surprised him, he caught on

'He…going out…Ino'

He didn't have toabout thebroken sentence,he knew it must've been Uchiha seeing Yamanaka.

Gaara stepped into the house, only to be beaten to pulp by his older sister

'What did you do to Sakura! You bastard!'

Gaara quickly yelled, yes even Gaara was scared of his older sister's wrath

'She fainted by herself!'

Temari stopped and looked at him questionly but he just took her upstairs, Temari, being curious followed him, he lied Sakura down on her bed and walked out, closing the door, Temari smiled a bit

'You've grown soft, Gaara.'

Sakura finally was able to get the scroll , for some reason Gaara had decided to allow her to take it, thus she was able to go back home, but she was a little disappointed. As well, Suna had become home to her, she walked though the hall way to Tsunade's office and knocked

'Shisou?'

'Ah, come in Sakura'

Sakura stepped in and was surprised to see Sasuke and Ino but smiled and greeted them

'Ohayo, Yamanka-san, Uchiha-san'

All three in the room were surprised but Sakura just smiled and gave Tsunade the scroll.

'Gomen ne, Shisou demo Gaara-kun decided to keep me there for two weeks before he decided to give me the scroll.'

Now Tsunade was curious since when did Sakura start calling Sasuke 'Uchiha-san' and the Kazekage 'Gaara-kun?'

'Obviously you had a very good stay'

Sakura laughed at how real it was, especially about Shikamaru.

'Hai, Shika-kun was very…active in Suna'

She said trying to stifle her giggles. Tsunade looked even more curious while Ino looked almost…worried and Sasuke looked uninterested.

Tsunade nodded,

'You may go, training starts in an hour'

'What training?'

All three where a bit surprised when Sasuke talked, while Tsunade smirked NOW your interested in her? While Sakura just shrugged

'Tsunade-sensei teaches me.'

Then she walked out.

It had been a few months and Sakura had found herself begging Tsunade for every mission that had something to do with Suna and would often hang around 'Gaara-kun', but right now Sakura was walking down the street when Ino, Hinata, Sasuke and Naruto were, the walked up to her and Hinata asked her excitedly

'Is it true?'

'What?'

'Baka! That you and the Kazekage are going out!'

Ino yelled. Sakura blushed

'No, we're not.'

'There are rumors that you two are going out secretly'

Sakura smiled

'It's not true.'

'Well whom are you going with to the dance?'

Sakura shrugged and the other two looked scandalized

'WHAT? We need to get you a date!'

Sakura sighed

'Sorry, I've got my shift at the hospital soon, I have to go'

Before anyone could reply Sakura disappeared

Sakura was dressed in a dark crimson red halter dress that ended below her knees

She quickly rushed towards the door when it rang and saw Tenten with Neji, Tenten greeted her, they were going to the dance together because Sakura and Tenten had no one to go with and Neji somehow managed to bump into Tenten on the way, incidentally their houses were on the opposite side of Kohona. Sakura smirked Wonder if Neji is going to ask Tenten to dance?

They got to the dance and Sakura excused herself, saying that she was going to the refreshment table. She scanned the crowd for a certain red-head, she saw Temari and went up to her

'Hey, Temari where's Gaara?'

Temari looked worriedly behind her so Sakura instinctively turned and felt her heat drop as she saw a pretty brunette in a green dress hanging onto Gaara who didn't seem to mind. She saw Gaara look around and saw her, She broke eye contact and ran outside.

Sakura kept running, why was Gaara with that other woman? But then again, it's not like he wasn't allowed to hang around others, maybe she was just way too emotional. Maybe. Maybe she just had to leave her emotions behind. Because shinobi shouldn't show emotion, and with that she sealed her emotions inside her, refusing to let them know how hurt she was, and walked inside, her head held high.

Temari watched as Sakura came back in, her eyes different she sighed and when she saw Gaara look at her she glared stupid Gaara, he'll lose her,

Flashback

Hisano walked into the house while Temari was sitting on the couch, reading a magazine when she walked up to Temari

'Have you seen Gaara-kun?'

Temari was startled, Hisano was a great girl, but Gaara…she shook her head

'Sorry, he's out'

'Okay, tell him I dropped by to tell him I'm really excited about going to the dance with him'

Temari was really startled but smiled, as soon as Hisano left the house she rushed upstairs, and opened Gaara's room without knocking

'It's called knocking, Temari'

'Did you?'

She demanded 'What?'

'Don't lie, did you ask Hisano to the dance that's coming up in Kohona?

Gaara looked up

'Yes'

'Why?'

'I wanted to'

Temari twitched, this wasn't getting to the point

'What about Sakura?'

'What about her?'

'You bastard, you know what I mean!'

Gaara stood up, his eyes cold

'Temari, regardless of my relation to you I am Kazekage, you're not to talk to me like that and me and Sakura have nothing going on and I am entitled to ask out who ever I wish'

Temari glared at him but was surprised at his eyes

'You're scared'

'No I'm not'

And with that Gaara walked out of his room

End Flashback

Sakura took the scroll.

'Just curious, Sakura but why do you want to have a mission? I mean Gaara's at the dance'

'What has Gaara got to do with anything?'

Tsunade observed her eyes and was scared, they were…emotionless

'Are you sure you want this mission, Sakura? It's dangerous for you to go by yourself'

'It's not like it's actual fighting, it's just observation'

'But you may en-'

'Shisou, if I was any other ninja would you say this?'

Tsunade remained quiet

'Please, don't treat me differently form others, shinobis are nothing but tools to be used and thrown away.'

Tsunade examined Sakura's eyes between their last lesson and now Sakura had changed drastically, in only 4 hours, something must've happened. Before she could think anymore Sakura disappeared into the night

'Be careful, Sakura…he's dangerous'

Tsunade whispered.

Sakura looked around and was startled to see so many Akatsuki, why were they all here? Was Naruto worth all the trouble, she knew they wanted to Kyuubi but this was going to extreme measures and..

'My, my what a beautiful kunochi we have here'

Sakura turned around and cursed but glared at Deideria

'Didn't you self destruct yourself last time?'

Deideria looked surprised but regained his composure,

'Ahh, so you're the one who killed Sasori, my have you grown very beautifully, I'm impressed, second to only Tsunade herself, maybe even better.'

Sakura readied herself, this would be a long battle.

Tsunade herself was at the party, smiling and drinking…a lot of sake, okay that was a very big lie, everyone groaned as the music stopped, especially Tsunade who yelled

'Hey, why are you crashing the party?'

'Tsunade-sama!'

'What! I want to have fun!'

The Medic-nin's looked terrified but kept going for the shake of the girl who had given them so much strength.

'Tsunade-sama, It's urgent'

Tsunade regarded the Medic-nin's serious voice

'What's it about'

The Nin's sighed

'It's classified information'

'Not until you tell me! Your ruining my fun!'

Everyone watched the debate between the employee and employer

'Tsunade-sama!'

A new voice called out, everyone gasped at Shizune who had blood all over her, and was looking very tired, Tsunade instantly stopped fooling around

'What's wrong?'

And with no one knew that just a few words could bring down so many lives

'Sakura's in serious condition and might not make it through'

The hospital was in total chaos, not because of a village war, but because one of the most respected and loved kunochi was in critical condition, even if you were on the other side of Suna you could hear Tsunade's ringing voice

'What sort of Medic-nin are you!'

'Come on, Work harder!'

'GO!'

'What the hell are you doing just standing here!'

After an agonizing 18 hours Sakura was stabilized and hooked up to life support with multiple O blood packets flowing into her, Tsunade clenched her fists, as tears fell down her face

'Dammit, I shouldn't have sent her on that mission, if I'd only refused her this once'

Tsunade cursed. Naruto took a breath

'Baa-chan, how much damage has she got'

Tsunade closed her eyes.

'Do you want the truth a the sugar-coated truth?'

Everyone looked worriedly

'The truth'

Tenten whispered as she buried her head in Neji's chest, Tsunade nodded

'I won't lie that it's serious she's broken about half of her bones, deprived of all her Charka, has sever brain damage that may give her memory loss and….'

Tsunade hesitated but closed her eyes and whisper, her next words were haunting

'She was raped'

Everyone was had a look of horror, disgust and the girls were crying. Tsunade squeezed her eyes and walked towards to office.

'Sakura, Sakura, Sakura……'

A girl with pink hair shot out of bed and looked around, A medic-nin came in but dropped her board and ran out when she saw her, In a few seconds a woman with blonde hair came in and shrieked an hugged her

'Sakura, thank god your awake!'

'Err..Tsunade-sama, your crushing her'

'Oh'

The blonde woman laughed nervously but Sakura just looked confused

'Who are you?'

Their jaws dropped and as the Rookie Nine, Team Gai and the Sand siblings came in, When Sasuke arrived Sakura squealed

'Sasuke-kun!'

Everyone's jaw dropped. Tsunade sighed and sat down in front of Sakura

'Sakura, what's the last thing you can remember?'

Sakura looked questionly but shut her eyes and concentrated for a few minutes then opened her eyes

'I remember! Kakashi-sensei told us something about the Chunnin Exams and how they're in two weeks and we need to think about whether we want to go or not!'

She said brightly while everyone else was astonished

'Naruto, how long ago was that?'

The blonde woman asked. Naruto stuttered

'About seven years ago'

Everyone looked shocked while Sakura was confused

'Seven years ago? It only happened today'

The blonde spoke up

'Sakura, you have amnesia, that's why, we can prove it, look on your right arm'

Sakura looked at her right arm and was shocked to see the brand of ANBU

She sat up quickly but Tsunade stopped her

'You need to rest you've been through a lot.'

Sakura nodded. Everyone left, but they didn't notice a shadow in the corner, the shadow came out, it was a boy with red hair , he didn't show himself until Sakura fell asleep

'Please, don't forget about us, I'm so sorry but please don't forget.'

Then he left.

The whole town was in utter chaos, rumors were everywhere, Ino rushed towards her boyfriend's house

'Sasuke-kun!'

'What?'

Ino was on the verge of crying

'You and Sakura'

Sasuke shrugged

Ino burst out crying

'Why!'

'I need someone strong to restore my clan, Sakura's amnesia is the perfect chance to get her to love me and to use her, I only picked you over her because you were stronger, I would've gone for Tenten if it wasn't for Hyuuga'

Months passed and everyone in Kohona and Suna were invited to attend the wedding of the Godaime Hokage's Apprentice and The sole survivor of the Uchiha. Sakura was happily daydreaming when she felt something come back to her

Flashback

Gaara-kun, where are we going?

'…'

'Well?'

The red head didn't reply

Why does this seem so familiar?

'If you don't answer…. I'm going!'

The red head grabbed her arm

'We're going some where only I know where it is'

Flashback

'Yatta! Sakura-chan, you're an ANBU now!'

'S-Sakur-a- san—May-be we'l-l be in yo-ur- team.'

Sakura smiled

'We'll see, Maybe'

Flashback

'Happy 17th Birthday, Sakura-chan!'

'Yay! Sakura-chan'

'Gambette, Sakura, train hard'

Flashback

'Ino-pig! Get of Sasuke-kun!'

'Sakura, MY girlfriend is entitled to hang on to me if she wishes.'

End Flashback

Sakura woke up at the last memory

'T-that's right, Ino-pig is Sasuke's girlfriend so why am I marrying her?'

Sakura decided it was time to see her ex-best friend

Ino knew it was boring watching the shop but her anger grew as Sakura stepped in who the hell does she think she is? She stole my boyfriend, but At least I won't be used as a baby machine

'Ino-san'

Ino looked and was surprised to see Sakura, she hesitated but continues

'I-I recently had a few memories restored and- is it true you and Sasuke used to go out a few months back or something'

Ino stared, and decided to answer truthfully

'Yes'

Sakura looked down

'I didn't understand why'd he leave you then I remembered him saying back in his Genin days that he wanted to restore his clan, he's just using me, isn't he?'

Ino nodded mutely

Sakura smiled

'Arigatou, Ino-san'

Sakura sighed as she placed the letter on the desk with her ring and then picked up the bags she had packed and went outside, she was shocked to see Sasuke outside. Sasuke looked surprised but walked up to her.

'Why are you out here with so many bags'

Sakura took a deep breath

'I'm leaving'

Sasuke looked surprised

'Why?'

'You don't love me, I don't love you'

Sakura walked by Sasuke but he grabbed her wrist, twisted it and hissed

'What the hell, Sakura! You agreed to this'

Sakura struggled

'You don't care about me! You never did!'

'Then why did I propose to you?'

Sakura snorted

'It's no use Sasuke, I've regained a bit of my memory, a bit but enough to know your not the one I loved before I lost my memory, and that your only using me to restore the clan!'

Sasuke narrowed his eyes

'Well since you know, it's not about love then you can help me start rebuilding now'

He said and roughly dragged her back in the house

'Sasuke! Let go! HELP!'

Sakura knew it was no use, no one would be able to her hear from the Uchiha district, she tried to get out but he grabbed onto her tightly, as if a miricle, sand was able to attack Sasuke and caught her, before she knew it, she was in the arms of the Kazekage himself, looking very angry

'Don't you ever do that to Sakura!'

He then teleported away with her.

Sakura looked at the pond, she knew Gaara was still there but she ignored it, she kept staring at the water, after a while she grew tired of waiting

'Why'd you come here?'

Gaara shrugged

'Just about everyone was invitied to your wedding'

Sakura winced

'Are you happy with her?'

Gaara looked surprised

'Who?'

'That girl you were with at the dance'

'You remember?'

'A bit'

Silence followed until Gaara replied

'No'

Sakura looked up

'Hmm?'

'I'm not happy with her'

'Oh'

She didn't really say anything, she just continued skipping rocks

'I..I still like you, you know'

Sakura said, not daring to say love and get her heart crushed

Gaara looked over

'Sorry.'

Sakura was surprised

'What?'

'I'm sorry, like Temari said…I..was scared'

Sakura smiled as she stood up and walked towards him

'I'm scared…of getting hurt by you again'

He leaned down so their faces were only inches apart

'Let's not be scared, ever again'

Sakura smiled

'Lets'

And she closed the distance between them.

Perhaps if they hadn't given a second glance to their situation, they would've been with each other a long time ago, but sometimes, second glances were good, like how he remembered her from the Chuunin exams, because he had bothered to give her a Second Glance

Author's Note:

1. This was for BipolarPenguins so I hope you like this and I will be doing other requests soon.

2. Obviously, the 'they' in the first paragraph meant Sasuke and Ino

3. Did I mention time skip? They're all 20 now (Rookie Nine, Team Gai isn't included that much but they're 21 in this, sorry and Temari is 22)

4. I just couldn't resist putting a bit of a triangle.

5. Yes, Hinata got more confidence, the stuttering in the request was before she got more confidence 'cause she was around 16 then.

6. Hope you liked it!

7.Review! (and request)