The promised eighteenth chapter. Enjoy! and Thank you to those of you who have just reviewed for the first time! This chapter will amaze you, for sure!

Recommended Song: Trapt - Headstrong

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its characters. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

-Home Life-

-18-

"Don't worry Sakura, I won't rough you up too bad" Came the inevitable provocation from Saki, who stood across from Sakura, hands already resting on her waist in victory. Smug bitch.

"Oh? I can't say I'm not going to rough you up though" She countered pissing off the brunette.

Gaara had just sat down nearby and shook his head at their taunts. Saki could still say that even though she only joined to spy like a pitiful rat. Casually, he looked over to Sakura and then to Tsunade. They had the same smirk, as if they knew something.

Carefully, Sakura's hand disappeared into her back pouch to retrieve something. Saki spotted this and immediately tried to pull something on her, even though the match hadn't begun yet. "Sensei! She's cheating already! Look!" She pointed to Sakura who gave her a clearly unimpressed stare as she pulled her leather gloves over her small hands.

Kakashi looked to Saki with an 'interrupt-again-and-I'll-personally-execute-you' expression. Gaara looked keenly at the gloves and remembered when she had received them two weeks ago. She was so happy about it; tomboy. He blamed his sister.

"Okay guy, use everything you know, including your expertise in other subjects, to fight. Sakura VS Saki…" Kakashi lazily announced, watching some of the students sit and begin to talk, not finding the fight of any interest. "…Begin!"

Sakura stayed still, allowing Saki to make the first move, who happily obliged. She charged at Sakura and punched the air where her face should have been, only Sakura ducked and took out her legs from beneath her. Standing up again, Sakura looked down at Saki, her face never failed to suggest the boredom it expressed.

"Should we even continue?" She taunted looking down to the angry girl. Ino, who had also joined the class after getting closer to Kiba, sat down next to her boyfriend and watched the fight. Who should she be cheering on? Saki, her supposed friend of five years, or Sakura, her friend of two weeks, who already made a better impression? Ah fuck it!

"Go Sakura!" She cheered earning a 'calm-down-woman' from Kiba.

Saki kicked her legs out trying to remove Sakura's feet from beneath her. Not expecting this, she didn't have enough time to jump out of the way, so instead, she chose a funnier tactic which would leave everyone confused. Concentrating her chakra, she strengthened her legs making Saki squeal in pain and rub her shin. Sakura snorted and took two steps back, cancelling out her strengthened leg. Tsunade simply smiled and hid her own laugh.

From the sidelines, the spectators, who partially became interested, didn't know what had happened. Why would she be in pain from her own kick and why didn't Sakura move or even flinch. Gaara was mostly confused. Sure, he had seen Sakura improving from afar, but hadn't witnessed this in her training.

Neji, who had taken a seat beside Naruto, was closer to Gaara, so when he started up his Byakugan suspiciously, Gaara looked over to witness a shocked expression.

"She's using Chakra… but I don't know how until she makes a move" He noticed before the focused chakra built in the pinkette's leg disappeared. He decided on keeping his trait activated to spot anything abnormal.

Stumbling to her feet Saki looked over to Sakura with a distasteful look. She let out a war cry as she advanced for Sakura once more, arms flailing around her in no particular organisation. Sakura dodged and blocked her messy attack then quickly got sick of her endless tirade and decided to settle it with her strength.

Pushing her backwards, Saki quickly regained her footing, prepared to attack once more, but Sakura gathered her chakra in her fist ready for her attack.

Neji's eyes narrowed as he inspected the chakra carefully, just before she hit the floor. After realising the threat of the chakra, which should have been obvious since she trained under Tsunade. Remembering the devastation the chakra could unleash, he had time to warn those close by with one word.

"Move!" He ordered standing and jumping backwards. Gaara and Naruto didn't need a further warning and jumped backwards in time to miss a devastating blow to the earth beneath them.

The onlookers who had been seated on level with the three, didn't move in time and only managed to jump upwards or fall into a crevasse made by her strength.

"I've figured out what her chakra is used for…" Stated Neji with his arms crossed and eyes closed.

"NO SHIT!" Kiba yelled emerging from one of the holes, pushing Ino up to the level ground above them.

Neji smirked as Naruto laughed out loud at Kiba's misfortune. Gaara was still watching Sakura amazed. She had obviously failed to mention this little ability. At seeing her amazing strength, he had the urge to dominate and feel her beneath him.

"Sakura!" Tsunade yelled angrily after jumping away from the destruction. The whole class stopped to listen to the angry Tsunade ordering the pinkette around. "…You're leaning into the punch too much. Straighten up a bit"

The whole class fell on the spot, some falling back into the hole they managed to escape from. Naruto continued to laugh along with the smirking Sakura.

Saki crawled out of a particularly large hole with difficulty before standing up and looking at Sakura in terror. She clearly couldn't win with close distance. She wasn't in mind arts for nothing. A loud, distinctive laugh escaped Sakura, while she watched the brunette struggle to climb over the mountain of dirty surrounding her.

Closing her hands together and of course after climbing out of the ditch, Saki began a pattern formation. She looked up at Sakura, words forming on her smug lips, "Mind Substitution!" She yelled making both Sakura and Saki fall backwards and hit the floor.

The gathered students of the martial arts class all watched curiously. Things had become interesting, and they had only heard rumours of Saki's technique.

"Oh no!" Ino said sitting up onto her knees, watching the fight anxiously.

Gaara looked over to Sakura. What had just happened? Suddenly they just fell to the floor and none were making a move.

Sakura's body began to twitch and then slowly, a hand was raised to her head as she sat up and then raised herself to her feet. Then, she did what nobody expected; she let out a loud, girlish laugh of victory. "Silly Sakura! Didn't dodge that one did you?!" She squealed over to Saki who was slowly sitting up, eyes wide with shock.

She looked down at her hands, not believing they were real, before looking over to Ino who nodded gravely. Then, her expression turned hard as she stood up, "Cute trick Saki… only now what?" She asked looking over to the smirk emerald eyes.

Gaara looked back and forth between the two before shutting his eyes tightly. If this was permanent, he would not be likely to go after Sakura… either of them… if that made sense.

"I don't know…" Saki answered playfully, looking over Sakura's body. She suddenly grabbed her boobs and a look of anger crossed her face as she looked over to her own body.

"Hey! Don't grab my breasts!" Sakura shouted angrily in Saki's body.

Gaara moved his hand over his eyes; this was wrong on so many levels. The class began to laugh at the show including Ino who tried to resist laughing at her friend when it was that bitch doing this.

Kakashi had long since fainted and Gai was staring wide-eyed at the girls.

"How about I dish out some dirt on you" Saki grinned crossing Sakura's hands and closing her eyes.

Brown eyes widened in horror. She was going to look into her past; find out her secrets. Tell the world… "No! Stop it!" Sakura yelled from within Saki's body. The whole class looked to her as if she were over reacting.

Gaara looked over to Sakura and felt himself growing angry and anxious. What didn't she want everybody to know? Not only that, their kiss would be revealed to the whole class, but it didn't seem like that was what Sakura was worried about.

"Now you're worried? Well you should be!" Saki shouted back.

"Do it… and your pretty little face becomes unrecognisable!" Sakura shouted taking out a kunai and holding it to her face. The whole class felt like this fight was becoming more and more serious with each new threat made. Saki gasped and unfolded her hands.

The red-head in the front row looked over to Naruto and Neji who were exchanging worried glances, unsure of what was happening. He then looked over to Ino who was wide-eyed at the show, which had taken a turn for the worst.

"Then yours will too!" Saki answered back holding up a kunai to Sakura's cheek.

The brown eyes Sakura currently possessed narrowed. "I'm not playing Saki!" She yelled holding the Kunai closer to her cheek and dashing a thick, red mark across to her ear.

Gaara's eyes widened. "Haruno!" He warned looking at Saki's body. She didn't even flinch at the pain which made him wonder if she couldn't feel the body's pain, being of a separate mind.

"Me neither!" Saki answered in horror, seeing her face becoming marred. She dug her own kunai into the flesh and tears flowed from her emerald eyes in pain. The whole class looked to Sakura to see she hadn't even winced at the pain; she had felt worse after all.

"Switch us back now and I'll heal your cut" She shouted hoping she would fall for the trap.

"Tsunade will heal me!" Saki answered making Tsunade raise an eyebrow.

"I will?" She asked making Saki worry. She began to contemplate Sakura's proposal.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"I keep my promises Saki!"

"I don't believe you…" She seethed dropping the kunai to the floor and crossing her hands once more. "…let's see what you're hiding" She said with narrowed, green eyes before shutting them.

"NO!" Sakura yelled making a run for Saki only to find her whole body had been frozen. It felt as if she were in two places at once. Part of her was with Saki in her own mind, while the other was frozen across from her body, in Saki's still.

"Let's see what you've been up to lately!" Saki said aloud taking Sakura back to recent memory.

In the school gym, one figure had another pushed against the wall as he fought her mouth for dominance. In a flash, he leaned in and too possession of her lips with his own. Sakura gasped against his mouth before closing her eyes and allowing him to kiss her. She gasped and allowed his tongue entrance with a soft moan.

Saki opened her eyes in a glare and looked over to Gaara who was watching Sakura wobble. It was her mind she was messing with. He looked over to her and glared.

"Oh I see… you're a couple now?" Saki asked Sakura who couldn't understand what she was saying. She finally straightened up and looked over to Saki who had stopped messing with her head. Gaara blushed and looked to Sakura, who hadn't heard a word of it. "You don't seem to be bothered I just looked into your little kiss, what is it you don't want me to see?" She asked full of venom, bent on revenge.

"Saki, stop now! It's none of your business!"

"I'll make it my business!" She screamed interlinking her fingers once more and closing her eyes. Sakura moaned in pain and clutched the head of Saki, where she was currently residing still.

"Sana!" Young Sakura asked aloud after waking up. She moved out the bed and walked over to the adjacent bed to find it empty. "Sana? Where are you?" She whispered looking around the room.

Carefully, she moved to the window after hearing strange metallic sound outside. Once she was there she narrowed her eyes to see through the darkness of the night. In the far corner of the large garden, where the orphanage's children weren't allowed to play, Sakura briefly made out two tall figures digging something.

Then, one of the figures turned around and picked up what looked like a rag-doll of sorts. From the distance, the figure was tiny and darkened, but after further inspection, she recognised the messy brown hair of this so called 'doll' they threw into the shallow hole. The soil began to be placed over the figures head and Sakura found herself ducking and curling into a ball.

"Sana!" She wailed into her knees, as tears escaped her eyes. "Why did you! Sana! Sana! Sana!" She chanted continuously.

Opening her eyes calmer this time, Sakura, who still remained in Saki's body, looked over to said brunette in her own body. Her eyes were wide and tears trickled down her cheeks.

"S-Sana?" Saki asked Sakura earning a glare.

"Shut up!" She screamed at Saki who flinched and rubbed her cheeks.

Curiosity getting the better of her, Saki pressed her hands together to further explore Sakura's life. Sakura clenched her eyes shut being forcefully shown another painful memory of her past.

Gaara looked over to Saki who cried in his friend's body. Who was Sana? Why was Saki crying at a memory? What was the memory? Most of the class and all of the teachers looked on curiously, wishing they could see what Saki was witnessing. Naruto looked over Sakura in worry. He knew she was orphaned and couldn't have had any good memories from it, unlike him. Her attitude towards orphanages was cold and ruthless.

Gaara transported behind Sakura's body , right next to Tsunade who looked on with her mouth agape. "End this now!" He ordered snapping Tsunade out of her trance.

"I can't! They can't hear me right now!" She barked not liking the tone of Gaara's voice.

Running out of options, he turned in time to see Sakura's body fall to the floor, eyes still closed. Her legs and arms would spasm occasionally and a moan would pass her lips. Looking over at Saki's body, Sakura was now looking at Saki, having forced herself from the terrifying memory of Osamu's first attack.

She remembered that one the most. Although it wasn't the worst he had done, it was the most frightening. After beating her, he forced himself inside her mouth where she almost choked. After that day, she became a pitiful, broken mess, but she didn't like to relive that particular memory and with all her might, she broke from the image leaving Saki to fend for herself.

Her spasms hadn't stopped and Sakura looked over to Tsunade. "Shishou, call this match already!" She said desperately. Looking over to Ino, who was looking on in fright at the fallen body of her friend, she ordered, "Ino! Get her out of me!"

Ino nodded and ran over to Saki, ready to pull their minds back into the right body. As she approaching, emerald eyes opened wide and Saki let out a loud, ear piercing scream. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Everyone looked to Saki in horror. She clenched her hands to Sakura's pink hair and continued to scream, before releasing them to kick off an assailant who wasn't there.

"No! Let go of me!" She continued to scream, pushing her arms out. Ino, Tsunade, Gai and two of Saki's friends ran over trying to calm the shaken girl.

Sakura stood watching Saki scream just like she had that time. Gaara ran over to her along with Naruto, Neji and Kiba. "You alright?" Naruto asked.

"I'm fine Naruto" She said taking note of his strange behaviour. "Wait by me… I'll be back to my usual self soon"

The guys nodded and walked over to Sakura's body in time to find Ino performing a series of hand signs which made Sakura's body lift from the floor and then remain still.

The group looked over their shoulder when they heard the screams continue from Saki's true body and Gai, along with her friends, ran over to calm her down.

Sakura lifted her body from the hard ground and coughed violently. "Sakura-chan? You okay?!" Naruto asked once more patting her back.

Gaara grabbed her hand and lifted her up, refusing to let go of her hand while Kakashi, who had just arrived over to the group, and Tsunade, stood not knowing what to do. Sakura stopped her coughing and rubbed her cheeks, removing the tears Saki had cried.

"I'm fine guys… it's Saki who isn't right now" She laughed dryly. "Damn, why'd she have to scream so much?" She lightly joked feeling her throat becoming dry.

"Yes, why did she?" Tsunade asked looking sternly at Sakura who tensed and held Gaara's hand a little tighter.

Neji, sensing the tense air and understanding how annoying and personal it is to have someone pry, interrupted the silence, "I think it's safe to say you won" He commented with a smirk.

Sakura returned the victory smile with a thumb's up and dusted her clothes off. She felt her cheek stinging and winced at the tears which had leaked into the cut. Gaara spotted this and let a small amount of emotion tell her he was worried.

Refusing to blush under the circumstances, she lifted her hand to the cut and enveloped it in a light green chakra, which had all, except Tsunade amazed. Once the cut was no more, she rubbed the skin to show nothing more than a thin line of blood which had dried to her cheeks.

Gaara took this chance to run his thumb along the line, to make sure there was nothing there and relaxed when her cheek was as good as new. Sakura blushed and grabbed his lifted hand with her own, bringing it down by their sides.

"Tsunade… I still didn't get a chance to fight properly" She pleaded with her Shishou, who pulled her a stern look.

"I don't care, everybody go home. Today's lesson is over" She announced before whispering in Sakura's ear "I will know what happened back there Sakura" Then she left to attend to Saki.

Sakura looked to the still screaming Saki with annoyance. She had to live some painful moments in Sakura's life in the space of ten minutes. She felt pity for her, but it wasn't her own life she was crying about and had no right. Tsunade, who was trying to calm Saki down with difficulty, even jumped when Sakura shouted at the brunette. "Get over it Saki! I warned you and even bargained with you; but like the selfish cow you are, you ignored that warning. Now, you need to live with it" She bit before turning away angrily and storming off to grab his bag.

Her friends looked to each other in shock and then to Saki, who had shut up at Sakura's yell, before heading off after Sakura.

They found her shoving a towel into her bag roughly and zipping it up to throw over her shoulder. "What?" She asked feeling bothered by the incident.

"What… what happened?" Naruto asked cautiously.

"Nothing"

"Sakura… if you ever need to ta-." Naruto began only to get cut of by his pink-haired friend.

"Naruto…" She interjected looking over to her friend with a smile. "Thanks Naru" She walked off through the door leaving the four guys and Ino.

"Now what?" She asked aloud, hoping for some advice from one of the silent boys.

"We wait" Neji said earning a glare.

"Wait while something is happening to her?" Ino asked sourly.

"What do you propose we do?" He asked mockingly. "Force her into submission. Pry into her mind like Saki did?"

Ino became quiet and looked to the floor angrily. She hated feeling this useless when her friend needed help.

"There's nothing we can do" Naruto added, "Like Neji said, we just gotta wait until she's ready to tell us" Naruto, feeling the most pain of all of them for not being able to help a friend, walked off through the doors dejectedly.

Gaara, who was most likely to be in pain from her hidden secrets, was actually quite calm. As much as he wanted her to tell him, he knew he would find out eventually. Now, as patient as that sounded of Gaara, it was actually quite the opposite.

He would give her until Monday, seen as thought it was Friday now. If not, he would force his way into her life and make her tell him. Not through force; he would investigate without her consent then confront her about it if he had to. Not to satisfy his own curiosity, but to keep her from caving in. This way, she wouldn't feel alone with her secret.

oOo

Frustration had never hit Sakura as hard as it had when she walked home. She had warned her nosy classmate against prying into her life, and now she would most likely be scarred.

Making her way down the curved path, she entered the house quietly and began to make her way towards the stairs.

"…won't be enough. You must raise your bet by at least one thousand before I can mark your offer down." The unmistakable voice of Yoko ordered from the kitchen.

Sakura found her feet leading her closer to the kitchen doorway. The sickly sweet tone the blonde was using told Sakura she was scheming and using her high pitched voice against somebody's delicate ear drums.

"I do apologise Zaku, but you understand why I have to use these terms. After all, she's sought after by other bidders too"

Sakura's forest green eyes narrowed. Who was Saki talking to? Heck, who was she talking about? Bidders; they were auctioning somebody? Perhaps a newbie at one of their more popular brothels? Sick bastards.

Ignoring the conversation, feeling most disgusted, she turned around and continued up the stairs. "I'll right your bid down right now. Thank you!"

With a quick roll of her eyes, Sakura continued up to the first floor.

oOo

'Great… now, not only will Osamu hate her, he'll have no use for her. His love for the filth will vanish once her virginity is taken; we'll also get some cash from the sale. I should have thought of this a long time ago…'

'Once she's out of the picture, Osamu will have eyes only for me. Not another soul will want used baggage like her, once the winner is done with her… and I'll make sure to choose the roughest, biggest asshole of the lot.'

'Osamu leaves tonight for his on-week business trip. I'll plan it for this weekend. It's the prefect time'

'Sakura won't know what hit her'

oOo

A loud crash resonated the walls of the house, waking up the medic-in-training, who had fallen asleep on her wooden desk. With a jump, she rubbed her eyes and began to tune into her surroundings, trying to find out what had happened. She had immediately crashed on her desk from exhaustion after her battle with Saki. In searching her memories three times with an unknown jutsu and after using her strength and medical jutsu's, her chakra levels were dangerously low making her curse the brunette who had used her own chakra against her.

The crash continued, followed by the sound of smashing glass. Groggily, she stood up and headed for her bed until she heard heavy footsteps against the stairs of the second floor… and fast approaching.

Looking over to the door, it was thrown open to reveal a pissed off Osamu. "Yoko tells me you had friends over… again!" He growled approaching her.

"What? No I didn't!" She defended turning to face him head on. Yoko always did this when he was pissed about something. Blamed Sakura for something or lied about an event taking place.

"That's.Not.What.I.Heard!" He yelled as he grabbed her arm, pulling her close enough for him to backhand across the face.

She held her breath after hitting the floor, determined not to show pain or weakness to this man. Apparently, he didn't like this and would pro-long her torture.

He kicked her in the stomach sending her off the floor and rolling across the floor. Damn he hit hard. The pain in her stomach was especially hurting her. She suspected she had a cracked rib and worked immediately to heal the setback. After two seconds of healing, she fell to the floor once more, exhausted. She had completed used up her chakra and was in no way capable of healing the oncoming bruises.

"Why Sakura…" He began with a taunting voice. "…you look tense. How about a massage?"

Before she could look up, he sent his foot down on her back four times, blind rage controlling him now. He hooked his foot under her stomach and turned her over to see her eyes scrunched up in pain, while she tried to regain her breath from being winded.

Slowly, she felt her eyes begging to shut out the world. "Wake up!" He demanded clenching and then unclenched his fists.

His hand reached down and grabbed her arms to lift her up. Once she was stood, she fell back against her bed post thanks to her shaking knees. He grabbed his hair and threw her head down into the lifted knees, making her head pound and fall to the floor.

Once her eyes were closed and a small breath was released from her lips, he sneered down at her before looking to his own hands. "Too soft? Getting weaker? Change of position? Bring it on!" He cursed before storming out of the room, still livid.

To Be Continued…

What did you think?! This has been one of my favourite chapters so far!

Next Chapter: How will Sakura get by with no chakra to heal herself? Maybe she should take up Temari's offer? They could keep a secret… right? "G-Gaara?!"