Previously:

Previously:

He screamed out in agony as the pain was unbearable when the next set of claws came out of him, but gripped desperately around him to secure Shukaku to stay where he was.

Choking out blood was happening every 10 seconds and his body was shutting down rapidly. Would he even survive this? All he knew was that if death was to come at this point in his life, he would want it to come fast. Shukaku's jaws were being pressed against his skin, as if threateningly going to burst out of his stomach as well. He didn't even see how much blood was coming out of his new wound from Shukaku's fangs bearing out of him, as his mind became blank and his world around him blackened.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

I completely added that whole Shukaku and flashback thing from before at the very last second-it just kinda came to me out of the blue, so it threw off a little bit where I was aiming for, but I'll make a drawback to keep on track

Thx for the awesome reviews! Honestly, I'm so flattered. Like they got into GaaraxSakura with this fanfic or best fanfic in a while. You guys are awesome. Remember, flattery will get you EVERYWHERE! XDD Well, here it will, anyways. I love the shower of attention as well as constructive criticism. The more reviews, the faster I review.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sakura wasn't even sure if she was awake or possibly in a dream, but she kept her eyes shut. The pulsing in her mind was driving her crazy. It was growing stronger and every attempt at opening her eyes were pushed back as the white light from her surroundings made it impossible.

Groaning in half agony and half annoyance, she turned her body around so when she opened her eyes, they were at least enshrouded in the shadows, to make it less painful.

What happened…? Suddenly all events of yesterday pooled into her all at once. Gaara-Jin-healing-used waay too much chakra. All the thoughts pooling in her mind were giving her a headache.

Turning slowly while blinking to keep on adjusting her eyes at the brightness of the light, she realized just who was in front of her.

'Gaara….'

The pink haired woman scrunched her face up, not making sense of it. There seemed to be some dry blood coming out of his mouth. Gravity made it so it'd drip downwards, causing a straight line of dark red down his face.

Trying to remember back and think was hard because her brain was throbbing constantly still. Frowning even more so, she realized that yesterday, he wasn't bleeding from the mouth…was he? Perhaps when he got hit yesterday, he had spewed out some blood.

She came to the conclusion that it was better if she double checked his state again. Something could be wrong, anyways.

Running her hands over his head first, she drew faintly a bit of chakra through them to scan. His mind was fine. Though it seemed he was in an unconscious state. Maybe he was in some sort of coma…

Swiftly passing the head, she went to the neck she grimaced. It seemed like the case of throwing up constantly. The acid from people's stomachs caused the throat to be dry and slightly burned. She was surprised when looking around to find no traces of vomit. Now realizing that she couldn't even smell any vomit either. What on earth was going on?

Shaking her head slightly, she figured she'd repair the damage later, but from the case of how it got in that condition, she had thought it best to investigate further. Her face was etched with worry.

Drawing her hands to his chest she barely even made it halfway through when she gasped loudly.

"Oh my god…"

She didn't even have to be an expert medic to know that this wound was fatal. It was so violent and….abnormal. His lungs were punctured almost as if they had forcibly been ripped. What possible living thing could've done this? Rip internally and leave the outside unscathed?

The lower she checked, the worse it seemed to get. Gaara's stomach was completely torn and it seemed impossible that it could ever be fixed. Part of his liver was actually cut out, and the shred of it was roughly cut. The tears were not clean and precise like you'd normally have guessed. Sakura couldn't understand what had done this.

The bottom of her lip unconscious to her trembled in worry. This was definitely not in her league-more like Tsunade's. What was she to do? Resolving her worry slightly, she reprimanded herself by saying that there was no one else here to treat him. She was his only hope.

Drawing her chakra to her hand, she scrutinized her work carefully, making sure that no chakra escaped from her hands. If she was to be the only to heal Gaara, she'd need all the chakra she had. This wound was far too big.

Checking on her chakra reserves, she cursed out loud. She shouldn't have used so much of her chakra yesterday. That wound was much more unimportant than this one. Of course she didn't expect this to happen, but that was beside the point.

As expected, the aching of over-use on chakra was starting to tingle in her hands slightly. The wound was barely healed. Was this truly how it would end?

The pain from her hands were increasing and growing in heat, almost to a blazing degree. Though the intensity was scorching, it barely registered to her. She had no time to even think about her pain. It was proving most difficult, though, because the heat of forcing out her chakra to extremes wasn't like any type of physical pain, it was even worse than most internal pain as well.

She was panicking, no doubt about it. Her face only showed a fraction of her worry-far from it. She was down right freaking out. Sakura knew that she would not hold out that much more.

A thought quickly whizzed passed her mind. Rewind! She suddenly remembered. When the times were of her younger; back to her genin years, she remembered Naruto and Sasuke having so much more chakra capacity than her. She resolved this issue by storing a little bit of chakra everyday just in case of an emergency. Storing a little bit of chakra each day was so much of a habit built in, that she barely even realized it. Most of the time, she didn't even know she was doing it. Regardless, she knew this was probably the time to use it. Be damned it this wasn't an emergency.

Pooling new chakra from all those years, it soothed the pain that was building previously. It was like a splash of cool water dosing out the water. Comforting. Taking the task at hand to become more controlled and serious, she surveyed the injuries.

There was so much to fix, that just the thought of her having to secure it all already sent her head reeling. Could she do this? Even though she had this renewed chakra, she was far from professionally being able to pull it off. Her experience and abilities weren't higher than most average medics and she was exhausted from the fight as well as healing Gaara completely yesterday. She pushed the negative thoughts out of her mind, however. She would do whatever it took to get him back, emerald eyes shining with determination.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Gaara knew this must've been hell. Once he blacked out from before, god must've cursed him into waking up again in this demon pit.

Waking up was not the fondest of him memories. Well neither was what situation he was in now, which seemed to be maybe around an hour ago, but seemed like days ago.

When Gaara woke up, he was facing Shukaku's almost full face completely out of his stomach. Now, Gaara is fairly well known for his stoic behaviour as well as his ability to keep calm, but inside he was freaking out probably more so than he'd been in his whole life.

Waking up to see a pissed off Shukaku coming out of your stomach with blood, correction, his blood, splattered and pooling everywhere, was NOT something that happened quite often.

Regaining consciousness was like all that pain he had when he blacked out had gathered all in one and blasted him at that one moment. The searing pain of arteries, possibly even part of his heart, being torn up was truly unbearable.

At this point, which was 1 hour from then, it hurt to even breathe; before he'd blacked out, when his lung punctured, it had definitely caused an immediate effect now. It was at this point, that it seemed that he'd rather kill himself at any point. It sickened him-he had never felt this…pathetic…this hopeless, this weak and needing to rely on others.

He was supposed to be strong, the strongest in Suna, which damn straight he was, but was that just not enough?

Panting heavily, he got on all fours, and tried to crawl to that stupid kettle. Perhaps there was a way to destroy it. Highly improbable, but worth a shot. Crawling, he barely made it a couple of steps as either his blood or vomit made him lose his contact with firm grounding, falling on his side, grunting in pain at the blow. Quickly when he realized that he had lost balance, he moved to the side because Shukaku had emerged and was still, might I add, emerging from his stomach. Gaara was not in the mood of having to cope with an angry Shukaku.

Ahh, yes. How could've he forgotten to mention? The episode where half gagging on the smell of his own vomit and half gagging because you were spewing out so much vomit at a time, was not particularly a heart warming thought, he grimaced. There were so many times he had vomited, that he only could breathe by his nose, and somehow he was having issues on doing that as well.

'Just the time…' Gaara had thought bitterly. 'The one time I need to breathe by my nose, and it ends up I can't properly function. How ironic…'

So lying on his side, he was about to attempt getting up. The exploding sound of his back pieces of flesh thudding on the ground could be heard. He didn't even need to check behind him to know that Shukaku's spiky tail wreaked havoc on his back. It was truly lucky that he had missed his spine, but when his legs came out, he wasn't quite so sure about then. He'd just have to pray that it wouldn't hit that mark.

It was truly amazing that he hadn't died from blood loss. It was equally unfortunate that he couldn't simply just become unconscious like last time. He had literally been living these passed…who knows, he wasn't keeping track but estimating, around 6 hours? Of torture. He was being ripped apart, and that wasn't even a metaphor. It was reality, and it was happening right at that very moment.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Okay, now…Sakura was panicking. 'Oh my god! What the hell, no matter how much I try and repair it, it doesn't work! Not to mention his wounds are somehow getting worse…' a bad habit of biting her lower lip was coming in play at the moment.

If Naruto were here, he would comment on how cute she looked doing that. Naturally, a bop on the head was in order, but those happy times were really were a distraction. Pushing those thoughts away, she had healed the top of his heart, liver, as well as his lung puncture on the top enough to withstand it.

Flipping him over, would be a delicate job, so grabbing the upper bicep of Gaara's right hand, while resting her other hand on his chest, further away from him to support him from falling too quickly, she did the job hesitantly.

Once on his side, she got to work on the other side of him.

She was almost done, and it would only take a few minutes till he was fully stable. It was a good thing too, because her chakra supply was drawing to an end quickly.

Suddenly, something completely unexpected happened. Sakura didn't even know what hit her. One second, she was repairing Gaara's last injury, the next a spray of blood and flesh burst out and covered her vision. Shock was first to register, but realization hit not too long after.

The smell of the metallic liquid entered her nostrils. It was thick, warm, almost to the point that it felt like it was…living. Flesh that had just been attached to a living human, correction, a man she knew too well to be comfortable at this' flesh, was on her.

Quickly, a vile disturbance built up in her stomach. Turning her head quickly, she had no choice but to let the substance that was once in her stomach to be forced out. Her throat burned mildly of acid, but went unnoticed as she focused more of her energy to stop her head from spinning.

The smell infiltrated her surroundings and filled her nostril. The smell alone was making her nervous and light-headed. The taste of chunks of who know what she previously ate, were still in her mouth. Spitting them out desperately, she tried to keep her mind at ease; away from thinking of the blood sprayed everywhere and some partial chunks of flesh still clinging to her hair. Wiping the blood covering her vision messily with one of her hands, she smeared it off her eyes.

With shaking hands, she brought her chakra to her hands once more. The once almost-stable wounds were now wide open as well as his back, and they were freely seeping out blood.

Trying to keep her gagging reflexes down because of the messy area around her, she urged herself to continue adding chakra. The familiar searing pain occurred again, starting from the palms of her hands. Her chakra couldn't be depleting already, it was too early for that! Panicking was definitely an understatement at the moment. Gaara needed to live. That was what the goal was set on, and like hell it'd budge. Somehow, she felt as though she couldn't live without him. It was a shocking thought, but she was too nervous, too scared, too worried, and albeit, too weak to do anything about it. Would her determination be even able to even make a difference in the course of fate?

Her decision was final, however. She'd at least have to try. If it was destined that Gaara would die at this very moment, she'd do anything; anything in her willpower, whatever the costs to bring him back. Though she had decided on that, she couldn't help but worry…the odds, although she hated to admit it, were very slim. What would she ever do if this wasn't possible? The thought alone made her push more chakra out of her. She was desperate.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Gaara couldn't help but feel a little…carefree. Perhaps a more normal person would be freaking out that they were exploding every ten seconds, or so, but Gaara simply didn't mind dying. No one would miss him. He was sure of that. He had covered everyone. Thinking and reminiscing of things was all he could do at the moment; time was all he had. Temari and Kankuro were just merely his 'siblings'. The phrase 'brotherly love' or anything like that, made him laugh. Sure they were starting to get better with him, but there was still fear. No one in Suna cared; it was off the list less than a second right after it just got on the list. Naruto might miss him, but he'd move on. He had better things to do than mope over him being dead. The Uchiha… Gaara could feel his face forming into a sneer, but pressed it out of the way. Well one thing is for sure. He'd be more happy than sad at the mention of his death. The people of Konoha still probably didn't trust him, since he was part of the invasion of their once peaceful village. Sakura…she was the toughest one to think. He was starting to understand her; more predictable to him. But he had started observing her in a very short time period, so it was too early to know if she would. He took 'no' as the answer for the time being. So that left basically everyone.

He did agree with the fact that this was a pathetic and pitiful way to die. In some sort of room? With an evil kettle. It'd certainly be the talk of the town. The legendary Gaara got killed by a brass kettle. Of course it wasn't a normal one, but they didn't feel any need to say that in their rumors. Oh, Gaara knew rumors all too well, his features darkening at the thought.

He had heard most of the ones of him. 'He's a demon' 'keep the children away from him' and also, apparently he'd eat the kids after. It was a disgusting thought. Of course he'd never be as barbaric at that. They would think of the stupidest reasons to fill in the blank. The blank they were too cowardly to discover the truth behind.

If they had only known that he wasn't a monster. It was actually their fault. He turned out like this because of them, the elders, his mother…but they'd never know. They would always be the feeble humans they truly were. What gave them the right to assume such preposterous things? What gave them the right to treat him like a demon, not a human? One to be locked away?

Gaara was shocked at these thoughts running like a torrent through his mind. It aggravated him, made him want to kill everyone in Suna; a pathetic excuse of a village. Ordinarily he always thought in his mind that they were right. He was a monster. He went by with their words, their lies. But something triggered in his mind at this moment. He realized then that; they were wrong. They judged him and created lies about him. They even had the nerve to use him.

Anger was boiling and for some reason; he had the will to live again. He would teach them-he'd teach them all they were wrong. They were wrong about him, and THEY were the pitiful low lives they were. Weak, ingrates. He was better than them. He'd prove it to them. Rue the day they treated him so badly.

He had plans to keep on living.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sakura's mind was burning, but it wasn't as hot as her hands. They were literally being burnt. Blisters were forming and she knew it. Her veins felt like fire was being course through them as she worked overtime to find any remaining chakra in her whole system.

It was going for the worst when a major artery, she found, simply wouldn't become repaired.

Her vision was becoming blurry. Before she realized it, she was crying. Tsunade had accepted for her to be her apprentice and for what? For her to fail in healing the one person in the world? For saving that one person? If ever Tsunade was to hear of how Sakura tried and failed on her only time to become of use, she knew what she'd feel. Tsunade would feel disappointment for the fact that she had failed. Would she feel regret for even trying to train her? She certainly wasn't worth her effort and time, that's for sure. She really was too weak. If the almighty Tsunade who specialized in medics couldn't teach her to be strong…it really was useless.

She couldn't believe it. The light finally dawned on her. Realization, anyways. She was the burden for everyone around her. Like a plague that caused havoc around her. People were bound to die, bound to be hurt. She felt like a death carrier. She had never meant to, but perhaps she didn't have a say in any of these matters. No matter how hard she tried to become strong, it wasn't working.

Back in the day, Sakura remembered that she wanted to get strong so that she could protect the ones she cared about. It was truly a stupid wish, one that was in vain, an impossible task; one that could never be completed.

Why…what did she ever do to deserve this? To be one that carried black wings that no one could see. Tragedy would strike wherever she was and she, as always was…

Helpless.

Naruto…

Sasuke…

Kakashi…

Ino…

Tsunade…

Even her parents…

And now Gaara….

She had failed them. Tortured them without even knowing it. Why did it take so long for her to realize this? It was too late now, however. Gaara was about to die and it was all her fault, as it was her fault that everyone around her were suffering because…of her.

She always believed in Naruto, but look at how much help that did? She was weak when she was younger, and she was still weak now. Naruto was like her human shield. Protected her with his life and almost died a couple of times. If it wasn't for him, Sakura would've died a long time ago. She relied on him so much and what did Sakura offer him back? Not much. He was better off without her.

Sasuke…maybe it was all her fault he truly turned evil. He just needed a friend. One to help him, and what did she do? Become yet another one of his obsessive fan girls to constantly nag him. Luckily Naruto had saved him before it was too late.

Kakashi should've deserved a much better student than she. Sakura knew it, as well as he, that she could've cared less about training, and only cared about a fantasy with Sasuke that would never happen.

Ino was one that was born and would accomplish great things. One that would help the less fortunate, like herself. Why should she spend so much time helping someone as worthless as herself…Ino was so selfless and she was so…selfish.

She had failed Tsunade. Her mentor, her hokage, and her friend. She was someone she looked up to as well. Sakura had taken how much of her time to train her to what she was now. So what was she at now; meters away from where she used to stand? Or was it just a step away?

Her parents were probably disappointed in her…and they had every right to be. She was useless, not worth their time, their effort, anything. She had failed them and brought the Haruno name in shame. Why hadn't she realized this from before? Was she truly this blind, this selfish? To think the world revolved around herself. Become infatuated with Sasuke that it would lure her away from her purpose in life. She wanted to get stronger, needed to get stronger, and what did she do? She blew the chance.

She had failed Gaara the most. Not only was it Sakura's fault that he was injured, it was her fault that he was going to die. His life depended on her and she failed him utterly. Gaara was someone that she'd surprisingly gotten close to in such a short period of time. In just a matter of the past days, he meant so much to her. Gaara wasn't someone who could be replaced. Not a friend, nor a companion, but something…different. She had gotten him on the brink of death, failed at saving him and had failed him. If he truly died, it would be her blame entirely and she had no objections to that accusation.

She had killed him.

Sakura's eyes closed to blink but found herself unable to open them again. The chakra from her hands stopped coming. Sakura had no idea if she healed him enough to live, but at this point in life; all she could do was pray. Sakura never even felt herself hitting the ground unconscious.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

He was soaked in the familiar red liquid yet again in his life. He reeked of the metallic smelling substance. Half of the blood was dried already and making it a little more difficult to walk, but he could care less.

He was happy. For the rare moments in his life, he was happy.

Albeit, if someone was to look at him at this very moment, they'd see his crazed smile, malice and menacing. They'd see the blood. They'd most definitely smell it too. They'd hear his heavy panting. They'd see that gleam in his eyes. They'd probably think he was insane, and they'd probably be half right.

He was a form of righteousness, a form of justice and he was loving every second of it.

Jin replayed that moment that he'd stabbed Gaara over and over again in his mind. This wouldn't be the last time he'd see the shock in Gaara's eyes full of unbelief. It wouldn't be the last time he'd plunge his sword in his body, slicing it so many times he'd be unrecognizable. It wouldn't be. And he knew it. Why? Because of Sakura. She would rather die than give up Gaara's life. They had a bond, a weird one at that. He had no idea what to describe them as, but it didn't matter. He had faith in her.

Walking rather sluggishly because of the weight the dried blood was carrying; Jin kept on trudging through the forest until he hit his destination. Seeing a man through the clearing of the forest, Jin walked towards it, none too cautiously.

"Report."

"Failed." Jin replied airily.

The man glared at him, which Jin waved away submissively.

"The others?"

"Dead." Was his punctual report.

The angry look kept on getting heavier on the other man's face. To Jin's credit, he paid no attention to it and was remained unfazed.

"The boss won't be happy about this."

"Hey, I'm not the messenger here, you are. I'd be more worried about yourself, if I were you."

The words struck clear and fast. His glare was off in mere seconds and replaced agonized expression.

"…but to save your sorry ass, of which I hate to do. There's some good news. Gaara was almost killed. He was fairly injured."

"What do you mean 'almost'?" The report man asked suspiciously.

"His stupid partner got in the way." Jin lied unconvincingly.

The man seemed to catch it because he scanned Jin's body to realize it. "You don't seem to be in critical condition at all. In fact you walked across the clearing with a lot of ease. You couldn't have…" His eyes darkened as his mind comprehended it finally.

"You let him live, didn't you?"

"What if I did?"

The man shook his head incredulous at the turn of events. "You just will never know your place." He sneered.

Jin lazily drew out his sword and pointed it to his neck. "And you don't know yours."

The man continued to try and look defiant though his eyes showed he was truly terrified. A bead of sweat trickled slowly down his forehead.

"Just do your job and send the report. I'll do mine and kill Gaara and his partner all in good time, I promise."

The man wanted to scream at Jin that he was mad and a crazy sadist. He wanted to kill Jin for torturing everyone as well as himself, bossing them around like her was the one in control. He also wanted to scream out for help right after he said the other things because no doubt about it that Jin would slay him in a matter of seconds. Of course, he probably wouldn't even get to utter one word out of his mouth before Jin decapitated him.

So the man took the lesser of the two devils and kept his mouth shut, backing up and speeding his way to his boss. Between his boss' wrath and Jin's, his boss' seemed to be having a better chance of surviving in the end.

Sure it may look like he was running away from Jin at this moment, speeding across the forest like a bat out of hell, but he wasn't. Honest. Sure his legs were burning already and they were shaking from fear as well, but he wasn't running away from him…

The messenger sighed. Who was he trying to kid? Anyone in a 300 meter radius of Jin had a drop of life expectancy by probably more than half.

Jin was dangerous, unstable and crazy. He was vicious unmerciful and had the mind of a killer. No…worse than a killer. A killer may still have a bit of sanity left, but Jin? He had none left at all, anyone who opposed him, anyone in his path; were sure to be dead. He felt sorry for anyone who was on his 'kill list'. For everyone who was on there previously had died a slow, torturous and painful death. They always were pleading for their lives in the end.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Am I starting to suck more and more at writing? I don't like this chapter and I flat down agree that this is the worst one out of all the ones I wrote for this fanfic. I feel as though Sakura is turning too angst-y. I know this is a dark fanfic but it's going a little overboard. Maybe I just think so. Also, I'm too repetitive. I've been being a little hypocritical as well. Saying she isn't going to save Gaara, and then saying that she is after. I realize this, I know, you don't have to tell me…but I can't seem to help it because I need to keep on making each chapter at least 11 pages long. Originally, I wasn't going to have that Jin part in the end, but…I needed more pages ' I promise the next chapter will be better!! I was kind of dragging this one to get it to 11 pages.

Also, what's up with my reviews? I love my reviewers, but like…I have more alerters than reviews!! And this is chapter 6. LIKE DOES IT KILL YOU GUYZ TO REVIEW SOMETIMES?! It's really depressing, let me tell you that. When I get people that don't give feedback or anything. Sometimes they just 'alert' it or 'fav' it. I'm having difficulty enduring these things. How do you guys cope with it?

Like I know I at least review once if I'm going to fav or alert a fanfic. And my reviews really are from my heart. I write it personally, making them long and hopefully helpful. Maybe I'm just too paranoid about these lurkers…I think I should be more carefree about them, and I won't get all pissed off.