A/N – My Gaara is dedicated to Kiba-and-Sakura-4ever. Thank you for giving me some ideas :)

Chapter 8 - Gaara

"How come nobody told us."

"Because it was a secret."

"But we deserved to know," she insisted.

"What difference would it make, anyways?"

"I don't know… Still, I would've wanted to know."

Sakura was having a heated conversation with her inner. While she was sleeping, she had made more stuff clear for herself and now, when everybody else was sleeping, she made things even clearer. It was the early morning. She didn't know the clock, but sun was beginning to rise soon.

She had woken up about half an hour age. She had been dreaming of things Sachiko knew about and the bijuu were one of them. And the Kyuubi was a bijuu... and Naruto was a vessel for a bijuu. She never knew. She didn't even guess. Nine beasts with mythological powers and one of them was inside her team mate. Inside her friend.

She stared at the ceiling some more, trying to figure out how to approach this. Actually many things were explained. Like why people treated Naruto like they did. It made Sakura a bit angry. She had always believed the villagers treated Naruto like that because of the stunts he pulled. He was responsible for those and it was fair. But he wasn't responsible for having a demon fox stuck inside him!

The nine tailed fox. Sakura took a deep breath. She'd do nothing. Just act normal. Naruto had been through a lot, just because the 4th chose him as a vessel. It's stupid and she didn't care.

While Sachiko had collected chakra to make himself visible for people, he had still been able to tap into the real world and gather information about what was going on. That's how he knew. That's how Sakura knew.

And that panda boy.

"No wonder he looks freaky."

"Oh, shut up, will you," Sakura snapped mentally. Her head was starting to ache because all of the thinking.

"Come on," her inner urged, "I know that you think he looks like a panda with a flat face."

Sakura was suffering under some serious inner-issues here. Anyways, Sachiko didn't know much about what had happened with the village hidden in the sand, but in his memory was a small conversation between the kazekage and some jounins.

Bastards, all of them. That's all Sakura could think of. Forcing a demon inside an unborn child, without even sealing it, is unforgivable. The effects it could have on that guy…

Sakura pulled the covers off herself. She knew where the bathroom was on the second floor. The one near the hospital wing meant she had to go past the office near it. She didn't want to wake Kakashi or Chie. So she pulled on her clothes, took her bag and walked out of the hospital wing.

As soon as she reached the second floor, she saw a huge clock. It was a bit past 8am. She yawned slightly, before moving on. Everybody was probably resting so they'd be ready for the afternoon.

Finally making it, she stepped into the bathroom, closed the door behind herself and turned around.

"Waah!"

"Oh, it's you," she said, blinking. The panda-guy.

"Don't call him that, he looks hot."

"SHUT UP! PLEASE!"

She had turned around to see the son of the kazekage. The second vessel she knew about and well, the guy was half naked. He had pants on, but that was about it. His red hair was dripping a bit and his green eyes were narrowed at her.

"Great," her inner moaned, "You managed to make a vessel of a demon dislike you."

Sakura ignored the voice in her head. Instead she was thinking about different things. From what she had heard in that dream, that boy had it as bad as Naruto or even worse. People running from him, ignoring him, hating him…

Taking a deep breath, Sakura decided to act like she knew nothing. It usually worked anyways. He's just a regular cute guy, with a bare chest.

"Sorry," she said, "I didn't know anyone was here."

The boy made no move to respond. "Mind if I use the sink?"

No response again.

Sakura grinned, "I'll take that as a yes." She strode right past him and next to the sink. She pulled a toothbrush and toothpaste out of her bag. While she washed her teeth, she could feel the redheaded boy staring at her. She ignored it. After she rinsed her toothbrush and put it back into the bag, she started to remove the hairband from her hair. It was stuck. She cursed quietly, trying to tug it free. It didn't budge.

The redheaded boy was still staring.

Sakura, already a bit pissed at the boy as well as the hairband, got tired of it and asked, "What? Do I have toothpaste on my face or something?"

The boy slowly shook his head, indicating no, but he still wasn't saying a word.

"Good," Sakura said, "Now, could you help me get this hairband out?"

The look she gained from the boy said one thing and one thing only. Are you completely crazy?

"Come on," Sakura asked. "It's stuck and I can't get it out."

Silence ensued.

"Do you have a name?"

More silence.

"Okay, let me get this straight. You won't speak to me, you won't help me, but yet you won't leave. Why?"

The boy merely shrugged.

Sakura grumbled something about brats as she tried to untangle the hairband she had worn to bed the night before.

"Could you just disentangle my hair from the band?"

She looked at the boy, who was doing what he seemed to do rather often. Staring.

"Come on, what's the big deal? Haven't you touched a girl before?" she asked, jokingly. But then, by the look on his face, she started to believe that that might've been the case here. He was a fifteen year old boy for Christ's sake.

"Oh come on," Sakura finally said, "It's not that hard. I'd do it myself, but unluckily I do not have eyes in the back of my head." When he didn't react, she sighed and was about to give up, when Gaara stepped closer.

Sakura looked at the reflection at the steel sink to see him closing in slowly, as afraid that her hair could eat him if he touched it. He didn't look like the tough sand genin Kiba had told her about. More like a scared kid. She didn't say that out loud of course.

He inched a bit closer until he was standing behind her. His hands went to her hairband slowly. Sakura could barely feel it. She stood there patiently for about minute, when the guy behind her growled.

"They're stuck."

Sakura was about to say, 'Hey, it speaks,' but she kept herself at bay. "I thought so," she said instead, "Can you get them loose."

"Hm," she got a response.

It took about two more minutes of fumbling and quiet breathing until Sakura felt the hairband loosen.

"Finally," she breathed, "Thanks… um…"

"Gaara," he spoke. His voice was deep, but it wasn't dangerous, like Kiba had said it would be. It was just serious.

"Well, thanks Gaara," Sakura said, "I'm Sakura by the way."

Gaara nodded and took his shirt and his gourd of sand and left without a word. Sakura looked after him and wondered if he was as tough as he looked. Probably tougher.

Oh well. Sakura locked the door, wanting to make sure, that she didn't end up sharing the bathroom with someone again.

She took a nice shower, while thinking. She seemed to do that a lot lately. She had been right, Gaara was even worse off than Naruto. He seemed so awkward back then. Maybe he really didn't have any friends. Is that even possible? Surely his team mates would be his friends or something.

Sighing, she turned off the taps. About ten minutes later, she was walking back towards the staircase to first floor for some breakfast in the 'huge' cafeteria, when one of the doors opened. As soon as it did, Sakura heard a loud snoring noise. She looked quizzically at the boy who stepped out. He ignored her.

Sakura started to walk. Gaara walked right next to her. She turned to walk downstairs. He did the same.

Sakura turned left. Gaara turned left. They walked straight and then turned right.

"Breakfast?" Sakura finally asked.

"Yes."

"Mm," Sakura replied.

They walked in silence until they reached the cafeteria. It was a small room, with two long tables in it. There was a small stall in front of the room, where food was being served already. Different sleeping habits mean different breakfast times.

Wordlessly the two genins walked to the front and were given their trays. Like always it had a small selection of food on it. Today it was roasted beef, potatoes and sauce. They were also given some tea, three slices of bread, two bananas and two oranges.

Sakura sat down and glared at the bananas. She hated bananas. She scooted them to the edge of the tray and took her fork, ready to dig in, when someone sat across her. Considering that there were only three people in the cafeteria, if you count the cook, there wasn't much guessing who it was.

Sakura raised one of her eyebrows in a questioning manner. He didn't see it though, he was already eating.

"Is it possible that he's actually seeking some contact here?" Sakura wondered, "Maybe people aren't nice with him everyday?"

"Nice? When were we nice?" Her inner asked.

"We treated him like normal person. That's nice. Naruto says so and now we know that Naruto knows more about that than us, so SHUT UP!"

"Jeez, I was just asking…"

Sakura looked across the table. His face didn't show many emotions as he ate quietly, but Sakura knew better. If this boy really didn't have any friends, then she'll take it as her mission. She'll become his friend just like she became Naruto's. Because just like her energetic friend, Gaara hadn't had a say in the demon business. Someone had made the decision for him. Someone had made him go through this. Maybe it was worse for Gaara since it had been his father who did so and his demon wasn't sealed, but other than that, the two of them were the same.

"So let me guess, you don't like oranges," Sakura said, between bites. She had noticed that similar to what she had done, Gaara had pushed away the oranges.

Gaara shrugged.

Sakura munched on the potatoes, while looking at the oranges on Gaara's tray. She loved oranges.

As her eyes started to travel from there, she saw Gaara looking at the bananas on her tray in a similar way.

He looked up suddenly, but Sakura didn't avert her eyes. Instead she narrowed them and said,

"I want to make a deal with you." Her voice was deadly serious and her expression grave.

"What?" Gaara impatiently asked when about twenty seconds had passed and Sakura hadn't continued.

"A trade," Sakura continued. Then she fell silent again.

"What trade?" Gaara demanded. He hated waiting.

"My bananas for your oranges," Sakura declared, looking as solemn as they were talking about trading universes.

Gaara blinked. "Fine." He finally said, throwing the two oranges. Sakura caught them perfectly. Grinning she gave him her two bananas.

"Your team mates are asleep?" Sakura asked.

Gaara nodded.

"Sounded like that alright."

For a moment it looked like amusement flickered across his features, but then again, it could've been a trick of light.

"He's a loud sleeper," he said quietly, as he continued to eat. Sakura mm-ed as she drank some of the tea. She put the cup down and asked, "Who was that anyways?"

"Kankuro."

"Kankuro who?"

"Kankuro."

"…"

"Uh, I figured that," Sakura said, "but does he have a last name?"

Gaara shook his head.

"You don't talk much, do you?" Sakura asked.

Gaara shook his head slightly again.

Sakura took a deep breath and continued eating. Suddenly a small bowl of grapes was put in front of her.

"Vitamins for the upcoming battles," the cook said smiling. He also gave one to Gaara. Then he left.

The teens looked at the bowls and together they said, "More fruits."

Sakura grinned at him, while he just looked down again.

"Why are you like this?" he finally asked.

Sakura looked up in confusion. "Like what?"

"You don't know do you," he continued, not paying any attention to her reply.

Sakura finally realized what he was about. "I know enough," she said dismissively. "You ever played throw the grapes?"

Gaara had the look on his face again. The one that said, you're crazy.

"Throw the grapes," he said.

"Exactly. You throw the grape and catch it in your mouth. My grandpa used to play it with me."

Sakura demonstrated by throwing a grape high into the air and catching it with her mouth. She needed to get his mind off stuff like that. She didn't know how it felt to be rejected for things you had no control over, but she doubted it was a good feeling.

She threw another grape and caught it. "Come on, your turn."

For a moment Sakura thought he wasn't going to do it, but then he threw it. It went much higher than Sakura's. She was sure he'd never catch it, but he proved her wrong. He caught it with ease and Sakura stared.

"You've never done stuff like that before?"

"No."

"Beginner's luck," Sakura then said. "I bet you can't do that again."

He did.

Sakura threw her own grape as high as Gaara had. When it came down, she opened her mouth, but instead of falling there, the grape hit her straight into her eye.

Sakura cursed a bit and Gaara smirked.

"Oh, don't you give me that look," Sakura snapped, "I just… miscalculated."

She tried again and once more she miscalculated. In the meanwhile, Gaara was throwing grapes like an expert.

After about five more minutes, Sakura gave up. "Fine, you can catch grapes better than I. Big deal."

"Hm," Gaara said, looking Sakura with mixed emotions.

Sakura glanced at the clock and her empty tray. "Got to go, I guess. I'll see you at the third exam, right?"

She dropped her tray near the counter and when walking past Gaara's seat, messed up his hair affectionately and walked out the cafeteria.

Gaara stared at the door for several minutes, before he took his gourd off and knocked on it. The sand spun around it for a second. So the gourd was still working. He was shocked beyond belief. People weren't usually able to even bump against him without sand interfering. So what was that about?

Wordlessly he got rid of his tray and walked out of the cafeteria, intending to find a quiet place to think. He needed to think. Did she even know? Not likely or she would've run like the rest of them. She'd have ignored his existence until the very last moment…

As he walked out of the halls, the tiny voice in the back of his head started to wake up again. For one morning, he hadn't even felt his presence in his head. One morning full of blissful quietness.

He silently left the hall, secretly hoping that there were more mornings like that to come.

Sakura went back to the hospital wing and was greeted by Sasuke, who was sitting by the windowsill.

"Morning," Sakura greeted him.

"Hn," he replied.

"You've had breakfast yet?"

"Yeah," Sasuke said. "When Naruto wakes up, we should go check out the competition."

"Sure," Sakura agreed. "When Naruto wakes up…"

Sasuke and Sakura shared a look.

"We'll wake him up," Sasuke finally said, as they looked at their friend, who was snoring almost as loudly as that Kankuro guy.

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A/N – I wrote it tonight. I only have five minutes left until my mom murders me, so I'm posting this fast, since I can't write for days now. Love you! Read and REVIEW!