A/n: Yeah chapter two! I am so proud of myself, my first update in a very long time. So Gaara and Naruto are off and since the journey there isn't interesting were just going to skip it to the part where they arrive at the Haruno estate. Well I worked pretty hard on this chapter so I really hope you all like it. Please review.
Gaara glanced up at the large doors, the only entrance to the Haruno mansion. "This place almost looks bigger than the Uchiha mansion," he stated simply, raising his fist and knocking as loudly as he could on the thick wood. After only a minute the door began to open slowly and a guard came out, eyeing the two of them suspiciously.
"Who are you and state your business." He ordered, he was a tall man with dark brown hair, built with muscle hidden under his clothes.
Naruto sighed while Gaara stepped forward and cleared his throat, "I am Gaara and this is Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke sent us to bring Haruno Sakura to the Uchiha clan to marry. We are Sasuke's personal guards."
The guard nodded, his look showed recognition as if they had been waiting for them to come and get the Haruno princess. "Please come in." he gestured for them to go ahead of him and once they were inside he shut the door to the estate. "Follow me," he ordered, stepping ahead of them and leading through the beautiful garden in the front of the mansion. There were cherry blossoms everywhere in sight, the ground and trees were both covered in the light pink petals.
"You sure have a lot of cherry blossoms," Naruto laughed, looking around and noticing the same thing as Gaara.
"Of course we have many cherry blossom trees. It is out clan's symbol and for what Sakura-sama is named after, her beauty ensures the bloom of every blossom. When she is gone, we will only have these trees to bring us that beauty." The guard said sadly, lowing his head in defeat. He opened the front door and let them in before himself, "Please remove your waraji there and proceed into the main house." He scorned the two, pointing towards the lowered area right before the shined wood floor. Both Gaara and Naruto leaned over and untied their shoes and set them aside, stepping onto the raised level in only their socks. The guard did the same and went ahead of them once more, leading the way down the long halls. He led them to a set of doors, lined with rice paper, he slide one open and stood to the side. "I will go tell the princess you have arrived, please make yourselves comfortable in this room while you wait." He bowed respectfully, now that these two were honored guests in the household.
The guard started down the hallway and Naruto took the liberty to walk into the room and make himself comfortable on an available zabuton. Gaara followed him in and took one as well, sitting next to Naruto and remaining silent. "I wonder what Sakura-sama looks like to be praised so highly," Naruto laughed and looked over at Gaara who had a very serious expression. "Gaara what's wrong?" he asked.
"This place," Gaara began, his gaze turning to concern. "It seems so familiar to me and I don't know why." He finally admitted, gripping tightly on his pants.
Naruto opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by the sound of footsteps. The two looked forward as the door opened revealing a long, pale blonde haired woman dressed in a beautiful purple kimono. "Hello, my name is Ino. I am Sakura-sama's personal maid, she will be with us in just a short moment." She smiled sweetly and sat down across from Naruto, her hair was fine just like a noble but she was a servant. Gaara stared at the blonde curiously, was it only the Uchiha clan who treated their servants as dirt? Itachi treated them well but Sasuke on the other hand. His thoughts were disrupted by the sound of a sliding door, when he looked up he went into shock. There stood the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his entire life, she was dressed in a soft pink kimono made of silk that was decorated with red flower petals. She held an open fan in her hand, hiding most of her face from all except her gorgeous green eyes. Her soft pink hair was up in fine silver hair chop sticks and looked short since it stuck out in the back. Her bangs went off to the right of her face, only shadowing one of her eyes, she was sheer perfection. Her name surely suited her for she was as beautiful as the cherry blossoms and looked just as delicate.
"Sakura-sama these are the two samurai from the Uchiha clan, Naruto and Gaara." Ino said politely, smiling at the princess. One of the names made Sakura look up instantly and her eyes went wide at the sight.
"Gaara-sama?!" she called out, closing the decretive fan quickly revealing her flawless face to the two. Gaara stared back in surprise but he was more confused than in recognition. "Gaara-sama?! Is that truly you?" she asked again, walking towards him and dropping to her knees in front of him. Ino seemed panicked by these actions and got up to try and settle the situation.
"Sakura-sama I don't-" Ino began.
"Silence!" Sakura ordered and reached her hand toward Gaara's face. He should have been alarmed but his body stayed in place, almost longing for her touch. She brushed his dark red bangs from his forehead and he could feel her fingertips on his scar. Her gaze softened and lowered from his scar to his eyes, which were filled with confusion. "It is you…" she breathed out, smiling as if he meant the world to her.
Gaara could do nothing but blink, he had no idea what was going on. This princess was acting as if she knew him but he had never met her before. He had never even been to this area before, only the Uchiha province. "I'm truly sorry but…" he started, pulling away from the princess and looking into her piercing green eyes. "I think you have me confused with someone else," he told her.
Now it was Sakura's turn to look confused, "What are you talking about Gaara-sama? It's you, you're alive and I can't believe it. My heart is overjoyed to see you, I thought you were dead. When you went missing everyone searched for you but everyone assumed…" she stopped in mid-sentence and pain washed over her face. "We thought you had died, but your alive and you can go back to the Sabaku clan!" she cheered happily.
Alarm shot through Gaara, he got up and glared down at this girl who was talking nonsense. "I am sorry but you are mistaken!" he yelled, losing his temper with every word spoken. "I have no idea what you are talking about. I am a samurai dedicated to the Uchiha clan and nothing else. Now stop your lies and stop whatever it is you are doing!" he demanded and turned around leaving the room in a fury.
Sakura reached after him, but he was gone before she could even get a word in to stop him. "But I…" she trailed off, staring after him, tears filling her eyes. "But I know it's him, Sabaku no Gaara, it's him." She told Naruto and Ino with a pleading look in her eyes. Naruto looked down at the princess and then at the empty doorway.
"Sakura-sama, why don't you tell just exactly what happened to this Sabaku no Gaara." Naruto urged to the pink haired woman, who looked lost without Gaara with her. She looked over to the blonde and nodded slowly.
She turned to face Naruto, sitting where Gaara had just been. "You see the Haruno clan and the Sabaku clan are very close with one another and we have been the neutral party between the Sabaku clan and the Uchiha clan. I assume you already knew this though," Sakura said, looking more professional now that she had composed herself. Naruto nodded to her statement, everyone knew the Uchiha clan and the Sabaku clan were enemies. The Haruno clan has always been the third party to all squabbles, the Hyuuga clan always kept to itself. But of the four noble clans the Sabaku clan and Uchiha clan were the most powerful. "The current leader of the Sabaku clan had three children, the eldest was a daughter, the middle was a boy with brown hair, and the youngest was the son chosen to be the next leader and this boy had brilliant red hair. The Sabaku clan sees red hair as a gift from the heavens, blessing their clan with fiery passion."
"Yes everyone knows that, but the second son went missing when he was just a child." Naruto spoke up, not wanting a history lesson, but not knowing that was the key to this mystery.
"Do not interrupt the princess," Ino hissed, glaring the energetic boy down. He bowed his head in apology and mumbled something that sounded like a pardon.
Sakura gave him a comforting smile and continued on, "Well the Sabaku clan would always send Temari-sama and her younger brother, Gaara-sama, to this mansion to visit the Haruno clan. The Gaara I remember from my childhood had red hair just like your Gaara and one time when he came he had a fresh scar of the kanji for love engraved in his forehead." Sakura said sadly, pointing to her own forehead at the exact mark where Gaara's scar was. "Temari-sama told me that he had done it to himself when his uncle told him no one would ever love him because he was the death of his late mother. I was filled with sorrow and I tried to make him smile whenever I could, we were so young but not so young that he would not remember." Sakura glanced down towards the floor and Naruto could see the tears filling her eyes.
"I tried so hard to make him smile and I did…at least once. I told him I was in love with him because it was true and he smiled at me. He told me that he would always protect me, from all danger that may come my way." Sakura smiled sadly, lifting her sleeve to her face and trying to wipe away her tears. "But that was the last time I ever saw him, on their journey home they were attacked and Gaara was kidnapped and no one ever found him. But now he comes to my very home as a samurai from Uchiha and remembers nothing of his past, I don't understand how this can be." She shook her head, another stream of tears falling down her face.
Naruto looked sullen, sad just from this pure girl's tears. "Sakura-sama…I am desperately sorry but Gaara doesn't remember anything and you saying all this to him was a bit much for his already agitated spirit. Uchiha Itachi passed away and Sasuke-sama did not seem to care and this upset Gaara very much. Now if your story is true or not, I do not know but I know Gaara could remember nothing when I first met him as a boy. Forcing him to remember will do no good either and even if he were to remember, you are pledged to marry Uchiha Sasuke." He sighed, letting out a soft and tired breath, this situation had just gotten extremely complicated.
Sakura nodded, Naruto could see she was trembling slightly from the state she was in. But when she spoke her voice was strong and filled with authority, "Your right. I made a promise to marry and I should keep my word. I guess…I am glad to see him once more. I missed him so much." Sakura smiled, her smile was filled with sadness though. Naruto nodded in agreement and so did Ino, Sakura looked back to the door and sighed. "But please you must rest tonight we will leave tomorrow. My things will be ready by then, I promise. I would just like one more night with my family." She asked kindly, Naruto quickly agreed, he was tired and he could not refuse such a request either.
"Of course princess, we will leave tomorrow. Please rest and spend as much time with your family as you need until then." He bowed down and gave her an encouraging smile. With that Sakura got to her feet and headed for the doorway.
"Ino, please show Naruto to a room so he may rest. Thank you," she whispered and left the room without another word. Sakura walked down the open hallways, that looked out onto the inner garden that was filled with all kinds of flowers and a pond loaded with coy fish. She took out her artful fan and opened it up, giving her face a cool breeze. She glanced up and felt her heart nearly skip a beat from the sight approaching her, Gaara was walking towards her staring down at the ground and clearly not paying attention to his surroundings. She began to slow her pace and finally stopped, as she did Gaara looked up and saw her staring at him. He gazed back with his sleep deprived eyes, questions swimming at the edge. She smiled behind her fan, the same eyes he had as a child, she thought.
"Forgive me princess for earlier," Gaara finally spoke, paying his respects.
"Please call me Sakura, Gaara-sama." She answered back, he stiffened at the suffix she added his look of confusion only worsened as he looked more lost than he was just a moment ago. His confusion disappeared and was replaced by determination as he walked boldly up to her and grabbed her wrist, pulling her closer to him. She stared up at him, wide eyed, questions swimming around her own head now. "Gaara-sama?" she questioned, staring straight into his eyes. They stayed like that as he stared into the forest that was her eyes, it felt comfortable and safe, things he shouldn't be feeling for the woman who was about to marry his master. But this feeling, the feeling of belonging and of possession was all too real, but a samurai could never possess a princess of one of the four noble clans. A prince from another clan could though, her words were running around his head now, but that was impossible he told himself. There was no way he could be anything but a loyal samurai it was how he was raised. Gaara released Sakura and walked past her without another word. She turned around and looked after him, her heart dropping like a rock in her chest. She thought for sure he might have been remembering something that would help him. She sighed and opened her fan once more, giving herself a cold air from her nervous state.
-
"Thank you," Gaara nodded to Ino who had just shown him to the room him and Naruto would be staying in. He walked in and saw Naruto unarmed which was unusual for either of them while they were awake.
Naruto turned and saw his friend and smiled happily, "You ready for dinner?"
Gaara thought about his encounter with Sakura just a brief time ago and shook his head in decline, "I think I will go to sleep early tonight and just get breakfast in the morning."
Naruto crossed his arms and stared at Gaara in wonder. "How can you sleep so much yet you have such tired eyes? It just doesn't make sense." He huffed and shrugged walking past the red head and into the hallway. "Well I will bring something back to you just in case, see you in the morning." Naruto waved and closed the door, sealing Gaara in the room alone.
"Finally." Gaara let out a deep breath and took off his swords along with his kimono shirt and set them both aside. He was tired of being awake and it was better to pretend to be asleep than deal with this weird problem. He laid down on the futon and closed his eyes wishing for once he could actually sleep, but sleep did not take him and he heard when Naruto returned later that night and then when the snores started. This was going to be a long night.