Chapter 4

I love this chapter

it makes me laugh:)

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It had been a long but productive morning. I had managed to completely mentally map out the entire building while still keeping tabs on Sakura. So far I hadn't found any immediate threats to her safety but I was still tensed for action, waiting for something to happen.

Now though, instead of being within a few feet of her like I had been since I had first met her, I was going to leave her for a few minutes, a thought that made me very edgy.

Looking over at her from my slouched position against the wall I saw her animatedly conversing with a taller girl with buns on her head.

I straightened and casually stretched out, letting my fingers gently brush against her arm, planting a tiny shielding device on her skin. Now, she would be relatively safe from any physical harm for about 10 minutes, enough time to run an errand.

I also noticed, with a twinge of unexpected pleasure, how her skin rose and her cheeks flushed when I touched her arm.

"I left something in the art room. Where can I find you?" I asked lazily.

Sakura waved goodbye to the girl Tenten and walked towards me. "Oh, I'll come with you Gaara."

"No." My voice was too sharp and I saw her cringe at it.

"Well, ok then," she turned down another hall, walking away from me. "I guess I'll see you outside."

I made my way down to the art room and focused on not visualizing her dejected face.

When I got to the art room it was empty. Of course, Kakashi was guaranteed to not be there when I needed him to be, but I had to talk to him, so I settled myself on a desk, intent on waiting for him as long as I possibly could.

After an age of sitting, he walked in.

"Kakashi," I said, casually extending my arms up before bringing them to rest behind my head, "Why are you here? Or rather," my vice turned menacing. "what are you doing on my mission you aggravatingly ever present old man?"

"Haha, Gaara. Good to see you son! What's it been, a month since we last trained together? Have you been getting lazy in my absence?" Kakashi's eyes crinkled in mocking laughter but I could tell he was just as glad to see me as I was to see him. To tell the truth I had missed the old man, he was the only person outside of Temari and Kankuro that I actually had a relationship with. Those two didn't know about Kakashi because of the line of work we were in together but he was almost a surrogate father to me and I had been hoping that once I was out of the Striker unit I could introduce my siblings to my mentor.

Not that any of my happiness at seeing him made any difference in my plan to violently strangle the living daylights out of him. I still fully intended to see that through.

"You avoided my question," I said in a dark voice, "what are you doing here?"

"Do I need a reason to visit my favorite student?" Kakashi said airily, "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

I groaned, "Don't lie to me old man, you're here to babysit me aren't you? Did the council send you or are you here on your own?"

"Oh, I came on my own; but I'm not here to babysit you." Kakashi said hastily when he saw my glare, "I was reading the research files on the girl and I thought what the research labs have found was fascinating and I wanted to look into it myself. I guess you could say I'm doing some field research of my own."

I hadn't seen the files yet, what was so interesting about her? "Well," "I huffed, my plans to strangle him deflating, "Just stay out of my way, but" I relented, "If I find anything interesting I'll let you know."

"That's my boy!" Kakashi said cheerily, he looked up at the clock, "You better hurry, that shield I'm sure you put on her ran out about 2 minutes ago.

I looked up at the clock in a panic

OH SHIT!

Run you fool!

I sprinted out the door and dashed down the hall and around the corner. I turned left and burst through the door into the streaming sunshine.

My head whipped from side to side, trying to find a flash of pink.

There!

I looked and saw her standing in the middle of street with a crowd of running boys. She was standing in front of a boy holding a ball and was looking around at two other boys, a big fat one and one with a spiky ponytail on the top of his head, who were edging at her from either side. I breathed a sigh of relief and started slowly walking towards her when suddenly, they ran at her!

In a single second my horrified brain registered that two boys, with the combined weight of over three hundred and fifty pounds, were running full tilt at my charge who, for some reason, showed no intent of getting out of their way.

Two seconds later I was standing beside some cars on the far side of the street with Sakura cradled in my arms.

I glared down at her, "What do you think you're doing?" I growled furiously.

"Gaara where did you, how did you," She said, looking around disorientated. Then she realized I was holding her, "put me down!"

"Not until you tell me what the hell you were doing just now, were you trying to get yourself killed?" I asked incredulously.

"I think she told you to put her down." Someone said.

I looked over to see the source of the voice. Standing about two yards away was a pale boy with spiky raven colored hair. His arms were crossed and he was staring at me icily. Behind him was the fat boy, the wiry boy, and four others who were all glaring at me as well.

I carefully set Sakura back on the ground and directed my glare at the assembled boys. "What were you doing? You could have hurt her! And you!" I said, turning back to her, "What were you thinking? You could have been flattened!

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Sakura POV

"Gaara calm down." I said, laying my hand on his arm, "we were just playing football. I play lineman. Blocking them," I said, indicating the two boys who had run at me before Gaara had swept me up, "is my job."

"Sakura who the hell is this guy?"

"Sasuke, this is Gaara." I said, looking nervously back and forth between the two glaring boys, "Gaara, this Sasuke, Kiba, Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, Lee, and Chouji."

I settled my gaze back on Gaara, "Would you like to play Gaara? You were pretty fast just now, I'm sure you'd make a good receiver."

He looked at me and then back at the others. Then he nodded, "I'll play, on your team."

I beamed at him, "Ok!"

The other guys all looked at me skeptically; Gaara seems to evoke that emotion in a lot of people I guess. I just nodded encouragingly at them; I knew they would like Gaara if they just got to know him a little better.

"Alright," Neji said, "let's play then. Sasuke," he threw him the ball, "It's your kickoff."

I turned with my team and ran to the end of the street with Gaara following me closely. We all turned together and Sasuke threw the ball down to the end of the street where the other team scrambled to pick it up and then started to run with it.

I grinned in enthusiasm and ran out to catch Lee who was barreling down the street, skipping around the hands that reached out to tag him. Suddenly Neji was between me and Lee and I ran at him with the intention of hitting him and using his body to bounce off of and grab Lee. I was two feet away when I leaped...but…I didn't hit Neji. I looked around perplexedly, what had happened?

Guess where I was.

In Gaara's arms again.

How the hell did he do that?

I don't know. It's so annoying but so hot at the same time!

How is this hot? He's picking me up like a child and he's not letting me play!(stomp my foot inside my head)

But look at his muscles!...

I looked fiercely up at Gaara, "Put me down right now Gaara."

He did, looking at me warily, trying to gauge my reaction.

I drew a deep breath. "Gaara, do not pick me up again understand? I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself and I do not need protecting while playing football. Promise me you won't pick me up again?" I said, staring into his eyes.

His eyes thought it over for a second, "All right," he consented, "I won't pick you up again."

"Good," I said satisfied, "let's try this again then."

We walked over to where the other boys were standing, watching Gaara with narrow eyes. I put my hands out in a question, "So we gonna play or what?"

Sasuke nodded grimly and the rest of the boys followed. I got in my position, ready to rush Neji, Gaara at my side.

"Ok Gaara, you take the left and I'll take the right ok?" He didn't answer and I looked over at him briefly, curious as to why he didn't answer.

"Set HIKE!"

Oh well, no time to bother with it now.

1 2 3 4 5

GO!!!!

I ran at Neji, herding him left, expecting Gaara to come at him from the side. He did and I yelled at him, "Get him Gaara!"

"Ahhhhhhh!!!!" out of the blue, there was Chouji running straight at me, red faced and yelling at the top of his lungs. I didn't have time to dodge so I ran at him head on, planning to juke him and then shove him to the side so I could go help Gaara.

There was a blur.

I blinked and there was Gaara, holding Chouji back from me. And guess what? Neji was running down the field.

And then he made a touchdown.

"Gaara, what are you doing?" I said, irritation thick in my voice, "Why are you blocking Chouji for me when you're supposed to be chasing Neji?"

"Oh, my mistake. I thought this," he said jerking his thumb back at a disgruntled Chouji, totally straight faced and innocent looking, "was Neji."

I buried my face in my hands. "No," I groaned, "that is not Neji Gaara. That" I said pointing at Chouji's retreating back, "is Chouji."

I sat out with him during the next kickoff, pointing out each person and making sure he knew who they were.

When the next play started I was ready and I bounded up in front of Sasuke, my sights set on Chouji, who was readying himself to barrel down the street.

"Set...HIKE!"

Everyone ran out, weaving in between each other all trying to catch or intercept the ball. Gaara stood to my left and Shikamaru eyed him as he tried to calculate a way around. I watched Chouji, waiting for the charge.

"Rrroarr!" Chouji ran at Sasuke and I ran up to block him.

There was a blur.

Standing in front of me, once again, was Gaara, with one hand holding Chouji back and the other wrapped firmly around my waist holding me as far away from Chouji as possible.

And then guess what happened?

Shikamaru sacked Sasuke.

"Gaara," I said slowly, furiously, "Get. Off. My. Field."

He looked at me perplexedly. "What?"

"Get off my field now." I stepped away from him and pointed him off the street.

Sasuke came and stood behind me, "You heard her, if she says get off you better get the hell off."

Gaara looked at me, then back up at Sasuke, then back at me. He frowned and then turned around and walked off the street and up to the building. He sat on the sidewalk and leaned back against the wall. He looked at me, frowned again and closed his eyes.

I scowled and walked back to the game where we continued playing without Gaara.

So what, you're just going to leave him there? You know he was just trying to protect you

Yea so? I made it as clear as it could possibly be that I didn't want him to and he didn't listen. So yea I'm gonna leave him there, what else can I do? I'm supposed to be protecting Sasuke, not being protected...

Wait...you thinking what I'm thinking?

Yup, I think I am

Oh goody

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Gaara's POV

I walked off the street and sat down on the sidewalk, leaning against the building. I looked up at Sakura and saw she was looking over angrily at me. I frowned and shut my eyes.

Once my eyes were closed I slowed my breathing and tried to clear my thoughts. I focused on the point of light in my abdomen and then expanded it outward.

This only took three seconds to do and then, my whole vision was changed.

With my eyes still closed I could see everything in faintly colored chakra with glowing outlines. The building and cars were a fuzzy blue and the trees gave of a murky green light. I could see all the people inside and outside the building, all of them brighter and more solid than the inanimate objects and all of them in different colors. Some people were brighter than others however and my eye was drawn to three brilliant figures on the field.

One figure glowed blue, like lightning or the base of a flame. Another figure was something I'd never seen before, a body with two different colors of chakra, orange and pale blue and was crackling with energy. The third figure was the most shocking and it took me a moment to register what I was seeing.

Tongues of green fire licked out of her skin and she radiated energy, the flaming green chakra was Sakura!

I stared (with my eyes closed of course), I had never seen so much chakra in one person before! It almost seemed as if her body couldn't contain it. When I looked closer however I saw something concerning.

All over her body there were sickly looking black vines. They weaved around her body and clung to her like chains. I knew what they were but it was concerning to see them in such a multitude on her.

The black vines were pain. Everyone has them, including me, but some of us have more than others. They could be from an illness in body or mind or they could be the negative effects that were still clinging to a person from bad events in their life. Whatever the cause of them they hung in a depressing mass over Sakura's skin and I felt my face furrow in worry, why was my charge in so much pain?

I watched her for a while longer, cringing every time she collided with another body. It was taking every ounce of my self control not to move to her defense. As I watched I saw her turn towards me and I was puzzled over how long she stared at me. And then, to my great surprise, she started walking over to me.

I opened my eyes and looked up at her as she approached me. She stopped a few feet away and looked down at her hands which she had clasped before her.

"Gaara." She said hesitantly, "I'm sorry I yelled at you." Sakura sighed and looked up at me, "would you came back and play?"

I raised my eyes at her; she wanted me to come back?

Sakura waved her hands about, "Don't worry," she reassured me, "I have an idea."

I still felt a little cynical but I followed her back out onto the street anyway.

When we approached, the boys all stopped and looked from me to Sakura, all clearly thinking along the same lines as I was.

"Hey Sasuke," Sakura called, "toss me the ball."

He looked at her confused but then threw the ball to her. She walked back behind everyone, stopped, then turned around.

"Seeeeeet HIKE!"

They all looked at her surprised. "Wait," the one called Kiba said slowly, "You're QB?"

"Yes indeedy," Sakura said in a chipper voice. They all continued to stare at her, unmoving.

Sakura grinned back at them, "Trust me, I have an idea."

The boys still looked dubious but they all ran out anyway.

The two boys who I had earlier protected Sakura from approached her slowly from both sides. They leaned forward tensely for a moment and then burst forward in unison.

I didn't have to think, my body reacted on its own. I intercepted the fat one and sent him flying into the boy named Shikamaru. They both scrambled to their feet and again dashed at Sakura, who was looking around casually for an open receiver. I ducked down in between the twos flailing arms, rested my hands on their ribcages and shoved, sending them staggering to the ground.

I growled at them when they both struggled back upright. It looked as if they were preparing to rush me another time when out of the corner of my eye I saw Sakura throw the ball she was holding. I smirked when I saw Chouji and Shikamaru deflate in defeat, they were so naive thinking they could get past me. As if I would let them even touch my charge. It was almost laughable.

The boy called Naruto had caught the ball that Sakura had thrown and had made his way down to the end of the field and was now dancing around the ball. The group dispersed, laughing and clapping one another on the back as they rowdily headed back inside.

I registered a blur of pink and then I was hit forcefully from the side and I found Sakura's arms wrapped around my torso in a tight hug.

"Gaara you were great!" she squealed into my chest. I looked down at her and my heart fluttered at her joyful smile.

"Of course I was." I said stiffly, detangling myself from her arms. Her eyes crinkled sadly in confusion at the rejection but a second later she was smiling again and skipping over to her stuff that was lying on the pavement.

I waited for her to come back and we headed inside together.

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