Disclaimer: I own nothing
Gaara
Over the week Sakura has become fast friends with Naruto, even inviting him to train with her and the Uchiha boys. Sakura had asked Itachi beforehand if it would be ok for Naruto to train with them. Itachi had no problem with it; he wasn't very strict on the whole keep Uchiha techniques secret thing. His training lessons are for whoever wanted to improve and get better could. He would not discriminate the opportunity from anyone. Of course the clan wasn't too happy in the beginning, but slowly and surely they started warming up to many of Itachi's ideals.
As the four of them began to wrap up their training session in the Uchiha training grounds Sakura asked Itachi "Ne Itachi-san why doesn't my fireball seem as big as Sasuke-kun's?"
Sakura has been downgrading her skills significantly because of the threat of being discovered as the elder's murderer. She couldn't use any of her medical jutsus. She already knew most of the Uchiha techniques, but pretended they were brand new to her.
"Hm" Itachi said while bringing his hand up to his chin in a cool thinking pose "It could be because your natural chakra nature isn't fire, like Naruto's"
Itachi had used the special chakra paper on Naruto because he wasn't of the clan so his affinity probably wasn't fire. Itachi just wanted to make sure to help teach Naruto in his own personal way.
In a curious way Sakura asked Itachi, "Eh? Not fire? Then what element could I be Itachi-san?"
"I don't know, we'll find out after your trip," Itachi said, then put his hand on top of Sakura's head in an affectionate way
"Ne Suki-san your element could be something cool like me, BELIEVE IT!" Naruto said in his usual Naruto manner
"You're really annoying, believe it" Sasuke said in a mocking tone to Naruto
"TEME! What did you say!" Classic Naruto proceeded to ball his fists and puff up his chest, daring Sasuke to take a run at him, and Sasuke proceeded to ignore him.
The four of them began to make their way out of the training grounds and over to the Uchiha compound. Then Naruto bid Sakura goodbye
"Bye Suki-chan, I'll see you after the trip to Suna. Believe It!" then he gave her a peck on the cheek and ran off.
Sakura had been more affectionate in this time period than the previous one. If she wanted to hold someone's hand she usually did, if she wanted a hug she got one, and if she wanted to give a quick kiss on someone's cheek she did it, but it never went farther than that. She just wanted to make everyone feel loved, because this time she's not going to take them for granted.
"K, Naruto see you in one week!" she said while waving him goodbye.
Then totally out of nowhere Sasuke walked up to Sakura and took her hand while continuing to walk to the Uchiha manor.
"I can't believe you let him kiss you like that," Sasuke fussed. Sakura could clearly see irritation written all over his face, but to others they would think he kept his poker face throughout it all.
"Eh? What's wrong with a quick peck? I let you kiss me Sasuke." Sakura had a sudden urge to poke cute little Sasuke's cheeks. She really likes him like this.
He responded by turning his head away and blushing, "Yeah, but that's different." Sakura smiled a closed smile and responded by giving a quick assuring squeeze on his hand.
Sasuke turned his head back to look at her and returned the smile. Then he got all serious. "I'm going to miss you Suki-san."
Sakura met his eyes, and lost her smile. "Sasuke-kun…" she said in a quiet voice
He then stopped them in their tracks and bent down to kiss Sakura lightly on her lips. With that peck Sasuke had received his first kiss. He had been wanting to do that for a long time, at least one whole week. It was such an innocent sweet kiss, but Sasuke also meant to show that Sakura is his girl. When he pulled back there was a big prideful smile on his face.
'I'm so better than Naruto.' He thought
Sakura gave him a love pat on his upper arm and said in a playful scolding voice "Sasuke-kun it's not a competition"
He didn't care; he was happy with himself then continued to hold her hand on the way to the compound.
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Sakura was headed to Suna with Uruchi Uchiha, Sasuke's Auntie. Uruchi had to get some specific ingredients from Suna for her bakery shop and Sakura wanted to see her friend Gaara. By that I mean Sakura wanted to kill Yashamaru and make it look like an accident, so that Gaara doesn't become all traumatized. However, befriending Gaara was priority number one.
"Alright Suki-chan, you're all set" Mikoto Uchiha told Sakura while bending down and giving her a hug goodbye. "Take care, we'll be waiting for you when you get back"
"Hai" Sakura said
"You ladies be safe" Fugaku said as his parting words then started to wave them goodbye as Sakura climbed on top of the traveling cart.
Itachi went over to put his hand on top of Sakura's head and gave it a gentle rub before she left. It seemed to be his affectionate thing for Sakura.
"Send word when you get there" He said, giving her a barely noticeable smile goodbye.
"Hai, Itachi-san" Sakura happily said.
"Bye Suki-chan! Come back soon ok." Sasuke yelled out to her as their cart began to make its way toward Suna.
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It was a pleasant ride on their way to Suna. Auntie Uruchi was a great story teller, she would talk about the beginning of the Uchiha clan, how to bake good sweet bread, and how she hopes one day Suki will marry Sasuke, because she thinks they would make a great royal couple for the Uchiha. Other than that uncomfortable tidbit it was a pleasant ride.
While Uruchi checked into the suite and traveled to the market to begin looking for her ingredients, she gave Sakura permission to go and find her 'friend' Gaara.
It was hard, but Sakura found Gaara just in time. Some village kids had kicked the ball accidently too far up the wall and Gaara was going to return their ball. The village kids responded by turning their back and running away from Gaara in fear. He even began to use his sand on some girl. And that was Sakura's cue.
While running up to Gaara she yelled "Hey you have a ball! Can I play with you?" Sakura smiled, looked giddily, and pretended to completely ignore the fact that Gaara was about to kill someone.
Immediately Gaara stopped his attack on the girl. Sakura noted Yashamaru in the background as if he was about to intervene then decided he should wait and see what happened.
"Hm?" Gaara was thrilled! and clearly surprised someone wanted to play him. "Aa" he said
"But I usually end up hurting people" he warned
"Do you hurt them on purpose?" She asked; tossing the ball up in the air and catching it.
"No, but it always happens." His shoulders slumped, and his gaze drifted down to the ground.
Sakura walked over to him, put her hand under his chin, and lifted his face so that he could see her.
"Well I'm very fast and very strong, so I think we'll be ok" She told him while giving him an encouraging smile.
"Aa" he said with more confidence "I'm Gaara Sabaku"
"Nice to meet you Gaara, I'm Suki Uchiha, Let's be friends." Sakura said while shaking Gaara's hand and smiling at him.
He responded by simply nodding at her and throwing her the ball.
"Let's play soccer!" she told him
"Soccer?" clearly he didn't know what that was
"Yeah, come on I'll teach ya."
Gaara and Sakura spent their whole afternoon playing with each other and becoming good friends. While playing they would talk to each other to get to know the other better. Gaara opened up to her and told her he had a sister and a brother named, Temari and Kankuro. He also told her he was mainly raised by his uncle Yashamaru. When he spoke of Yashamaru it was clear he was very fond of him. Hearing Gaara's story saddened her; she remembered how difficult he had it. How unfair the treatment of the villages was always to their jinchurikis. He later confided one of his biggest secrets to her.
"My father usually sends people to hurt me." Gaara kicked the ball hard, scoring on a distracted Sakura. She was a bit stunned that he would reveal such information.
"Defend yourself Gaara. Don't to let him win." She angered by Gaara's father's cruelty toward his son. What kind of father would ever try to harm his own little boy? Especially a little boy that was Gaara. Sakura blocked Gaara's ball.
The corners of Gaara's mouth turned down slightly for a moment, before he turned away from the feeling and went back to the game. He grunted while throwing the ball with his head, then chasing after it.
"But don't hurt people just because your feelings get hurt, the only time you should ever use violence is if someone you love or something important is threatened." She told him while holding the ball with her hands. She was about to throw it into the field when Yashamaru started hollering for Gaara to come back home. It was now evening and time for both kids to go home. Sakura told Gaara to meet with her here the next day. She had to make him promise because Sakura knew that tomorrow was not going to be a good day for Gaara. He was going to lose his uncle, making it a difficult time when he was going to need a friend.
"I promise, Suki-san," Gaara smiled slightly, before taking his ball from her.
Sakura gave him a quick hug and a peck on the cheek in response. Leaving a stunned and blushing Gaara.
He put his hand up to his cheek where she kissed him as if it were a treasured spot he was protecting.
"K Gaara-san, see you tomorrow." She said while waving and began heading toward the hotel.
Gaara then began heading home with Yashamaru, a big smile evident on his face.
"It looks like you had a good day Gaara-kun" Yashamaru had a light knowing tone.
Gaara replied by shaking his head in agreement, and smiling a little. " I made a friend, her name is Suki"
"Oh well that's nice, now let's get you home for dinner." With the warm tone, one would have never known that Yashamaru was planning Gaara's death this very moment.
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Later that night Sakura knew Gaara was delivering an ointment to the girl he had hurt earlier. That was the moment to take down Yashamaru. Sakura used her medical and dark chakra to paralyze Yashamaru, so that the kill would be quiet. She then stuck one of her disintegrating needles in him and watched him disappear. She knew there would be more assassination attempts on Gaara, but the attempt done by Yashamaru would have cause irreversible damage to him.
Sakura then disposed of her disguise and caught up to Gaara. She knew that girl had hurt his feeling and it would be good if she stopped him from killing that drunken guy that had just bumped into him.
"Gaara-kun!" She said while waving hello and walking up to him.
You could see the malice in Gaara's eyes just melting away when he saw Sakura-san.
"Suki-san?" he said confused as to why she was here
"Hey I was just walking back to my hotel room, will you walk with me?" she asked.
He nodded in reply and intertwined his hand with hers then began walking her to her room.
"What's wrong Gaara-kun you seem sad?" She inquired
"Why are you friends with me Suki-san? Why don't you look at me like the others?" he blurted out
"Cause you're my friend" She said as if the answer was simple "and how to the others look at you?"
"Everyone looks at me as if their scared of me, as if… as if I'm a monster" he finished off quietly.
"Monster?"Sakura said "Gaara you are not a monster" she told him
He looked at her as if he didn't believe her.
"No Gaara" and she stopped him in his tracks "You are NOT a monster"
"A monster is someone who takes pleasure in other people's pain. Someone who doesn't care anymore about the feelings or well-being of others only his own selfish vengeance. Someone who is lost in darkness and has no desire to get out" she finished as if reminiscing on a bad memory.
"You are not any of those things, Gaara-kun" she firmly told him and gave him an encouraging smile.
"Thank you, Suki-san." he said now all happy. Then they continued to walk hand in hand to Sakura's hotel.