Whirlwind

Chapter Twenty-one

-Turbulence-

It had been three days since Sakura had left his world dark and desolate. God how he hated her. He was comfortable with his mediocre happiness until she barged in with her smile and her…love. He sighed, sitting up in bed. He couldn't remember anything from the past three days. The time he spent in the office was only a change of scene for him to think about Sakura all the more. She had invaded his mind and heart…and he loathed her for it. He wished she was here so he could strangle her for doing this to him.

Finally getting himself out of bed, he sulked down the stairs and into the still destroyed kitchen. He had managed to repair the refrigerator somewhat so that he could store food. But when he opened it to see its contents, there was hardly anything left. The thought brought an immense sadness upon him. If Sakura were here she would have said something to him about going to the market and when he refused…she would make him go anyways. He grabbed an orange from the bottom drawer and began to peel the skin off.

He couldn't believe how much he missed that annoying, irritating, completely rude and rebellious, beautiful, caring woman. Taking the tangy fruit apart, he tossed a piece in his mouth, letting the tart juice fill his mouth. If Sakura were here, he would have something much more delicious to eat.

He grew angry then. Well Sakura wasn't here. She decided to leave without even so much as a goodbye. She had won her stupid little game. He felt his hatred rising again and then die down slowly. That was what pissed him off the most. He couldn't stay mad at her. He couldn't hate her, and he didn't know why!

"She used me!" he told himself, not even believing his own words. All he could picture was her gorgeous face, calm and asleep when he woke up.

"Knock! Knock!" A loud voice called out, coming from the living room. Gaara walked out of the kitchen and stared angrily at his sister.

"Why do you say knock, knock when you just walk in here whenever you want?" he asked, tossing another orange slice in his mouth.

"Because I can, baby brother." She snickered, poking him in the chest and knowing it would anger him. "So how's zombie life been treating you?" she stole a slice of orange from him and fell into one of the living room chairs.

He growled, not liking that his sister was being so invasive. "What do you mean zombie?"

She rolled her eyes, tossing her feet up and over the arm of the chair. "Exactly what it sounds like. You're like the walking dead Gaara, ever since Sakura left." She said bluntly.

His eye twitched at the mention of the pink one. "I don't know what you're talking about." Gaara said, crossing his arms in defiance.

"Pfft," Temari laughed. "Yeah right. I thought you were depressing before, but gosh you just set a new standard!" she got up and walked over to her brother, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Let me put it in terms that you can understand and your stubborn ass attitude will accept." She took in a deep breath and the looked at him seriously. "It's as if the light from your world has vanished."

He felt her words stab through him, and resisted the urge to hold his heart to try and ease the hollow pain. Sakura was gone…and she had left him in the dark.

"I'm just saying Gaara," Temari flashed him a smile. "Sometimes, you have to chase down what you want, it's not always going to present itself to you." She nodded and kissed her little brother on the forehead. "And it wouldn't hurt to speak your feelings more often either. I think when you bottle them all up, you start to act on them more physically than you might realize." She waved then and decided to leave the redhead with his thoughts.

After finishing his orange, Gaara headed upstairs to shower and get ready for the day. Once he was done washing he slipped into his clothes, fastening the buckles to his vest and pulling on his shoes. He was off to work in no time, and once again for the fourth day in a row, he had walked to the hospital first. He was furious when he saw the medical building, hurrying on his way to the Kazekage Tower. Maybe if he could finally get into his paperwork he could forget about the infuriating woman that he desperately needed.

He reached the tower and walked in, ignoring all the greetings from the other shinobi. Slamming the door to his office he went and sat down in his chair, staring at the mountains of untouched paperwork. He sighed. He really didn't want to do anything but go back to bed and die a slow and miserable death.

Laying his head down on the only available free space on his desk, he shut his eyes, unable to stop the images that came to his mind. Her flat on her back with nothing between them and their clothes almost completely ripped off each other. A small smile graced his features when he thought about how close he came to seeing Sakura's whole body, something he was sure he would have been the first to see. He opened his eyes slowly, staring at the wall now. The room was empty and lonely. There was no angry girl ready to try and pulverize him into nothing, while he simply got close to her body, making her face go red.

She really looked cute when she was red. His smile slowly faded. He would never see that smile ever again. He would never hear her laugh, or see her eyes sparkle when she saw him. Everything between them was destroyed by his idiocy. Why didn't he say anything? Anything at all! Even now he still didn't know what to say. Maybe he never would. Even if he knew, he would never get another chance. She probably hated him now and was flirting with that idiot Uchiha, who was most likely spouting on about how his clan needed to be revived and Sakura would be the one to do it. The thought made him sit up stiffly, glaring at the wall. That really bothered him.

He tried to shake the emotions from his head and rid himself of all these useless feelings. Deciding he was not going to get any work done at this rate, Gaara left the office and went to go try on his own the deadly and nearly impossible task of…grocery shopping.

It didn't take him long to reach the marketplace, even though he had been many times, he had never actually paid attention to what Sakura was doing. He never had really thought about her not doing these things for him. It had become his routine, their routine. Going to the fruits first, he attempted to get the ones Sakura had said were the ones to pick. It definitely took him much longer to shop than it would have if Sakura had been with him. He growled aloud, hating that nothing in his mind was too far from thoughts of the pink haired witch.

"Gaara!" a familiar voice called out from behind him. Turning, the redhead saw his elder brother making his way towards him. "Hiya Gaara, what's up…are you shopping?" he bellowed, holding his sides from his dying laughter.

The Kazekage took a deep breath, trying to control his anger. It was taking everything in his being not to kill the brunette right now. "What do you want?"

"Well Gaara, I heard, from a reliable source," Kankuro winked, a wide grin on his face. "That there was some naughty mischief going on in your office right before Sakura left." He nudged his dark red brother a couple times saying, "Huh, huh, huh!"

Gaara's eye twitched. Kankuro was dead now. Not only had he brought up memories of Sakura, but he had made him blush. Kankuro continued laughing and nudging his brother playfully, "Thata boy Gaara, show that medic who the Kazekage is! I bet you gave it to her good!"

After that comment left his mouth, sand slammed him against a nearby wall. Gaara glared threateningly up at him, "If you ever repeat that to anyone or talk of Sakura that way again, I will kill you! Do you understand, brother?"

Kankuro nodded to the best of his ability, and the sand slowly released him. He collapsed to the floor, shaking slightly. "Jeez Gaara, what's your problem!"

"What's my problem? My problem is that I have to deal with idiots like you who won't stop talking about Sakura! I'm trying to forget her and you're making it extremely difficult!" he yelled, walking away from his brother, already losing control.

Once he finally reached his home, he set the bags from the market on the counter. The village repairers were going to come tomorrow to fix his kitchen, so he wasn't too worried about the food. Putting what needed to be cold in the refrigerator, he made himself a simple sandwich and went to his room. He lay down on his bed and stared up at the ceiling, not knowing what to do. His life seemed so empty now, as if there was no meaning to it. Of course he wanted to protect his village, but there was something missing now. After laying there for hours, unable to go through with his plan of dying, he got up and headed out of his room, stopping unexpectedly at Sakura's door.

Hesitantly, he reached for the doorknob and walked in. It had been four days since he was last in this room. It felt worse being in her room. This had been a mistake, he thought, turning to leave just as something caught his eye. There on the vanity was a piece of paper, set there specifically for someone to see. He walked over and picked up the letter. It was from Sakura, and addressed to him:

Gaara,

I will never forget all the wonderful times we shared.

Love,

Sakura

He stared at the letter for a long while before crumpling it up angrily and tossing it to the side. Out of the corner of his eye he watched where it landed and saw something bulbous near it. Curiosity overrunning his fury, he went back to the bed and knelt down to the ground. There underneath the bed was the gift he had gotten Sakura for her birthday. Grabbing the letter and glass orb he stood and sat down breathlessly on her bed. He stared into the clear sphere at the petrified cherry blossoms.

All he could think of was Sakura. Her face, her legs, her hair, her eyes, her scent, her smile, everything that made her beautiful and wonderful. That insane power she used to obliterate the Uchiha. He felt his smile returning as he remembered the look on her face and the blood covering her body, blood that was not her own. Shopping together, sleeping in the same bed, and dancing together. All he could remember were all the good times that had come from all the bad things that had happened between them. Every time they fought something good had happened afterward, and it was actually worth the fight the closer they got each time.

Then the last night flashed into his head. Sakura had told him that she was in love with him. Something he didn't understand. Not until now. Love was not what Yashamaru had shown him. Love was the care his siblings gave him. Love was wanting to be near them, having every intention of protecting them, wanting to see their smile, and make sure they were happy.

Gaara closed his hand around the orb, looking up with a smile on his face. He finally found what he needed to say, and there was nothing that was going to stop him from saying it. He stuffed the gift into his pocket, intent on returning it to its owner, before folding the note and slipping it into his other pocket.

Without a moment to lose Gaara ran to his room and pulled out a blank scroll and a pen, hurriedly writing a letter to his sister. Finishing quickly, he let his sand take him away to the Kazekage Tower. He appeared in the front and handed the scroll to the woman at the desk. "Please give this to Temari," he said, almost sounding excited. And before she could even nod, he was gone.

A messenger ran towards the blonde woman, who was sitting on the edge of a building near the tower. She took a large bite out of the rice ball in her hand and smiled from the delicious flavor. "Temari-sama!" he called, holding out a scroll to her, panting as if he had been running all over the village to try and find her.

She took the parchment and unrolled it, reading the short, messy letter:

Temari,

Off to Konoha. Be back whenever the hell I feel like it. You're in charge. Oh and tell Kankuro…I hate him.

Gaara

A knowing smirk played across her face. "Well it's about time."