Yeah, I would have updated sooner but I was…grounded… *growls* My laptop got taken away so I lost my documents I was working on, and the computer downstairs had the password changed. My father is very THUROUGH in his punishment. I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE WITHOUT MY INTERNET! So, I'm also updating Life of an Oblivious Idiot today as well in repentance.

My favorite character EVER is in this chapter. Can you guess who he is? If not, you should seriously read some more of my stuff. *tsk tsk* I still can't believe that he's in like…every story I've written… Wait! Colored World doesn't have him! *growls* I'll have to fix that…

A loud pounding filled her ears, something steady, thick; the clanging of a monster. She tried to focus to find a way to escape the noise, the heavy painful noise, but she could not. Her body refused to move, her lips refused to speak, and her mind refused to think logically for her. She had been betrayed by her own self.

There were no lights to give her a view of her surroundings, everything was just black; a murky bluish black.

Is this…death? Sakura had thought in panic, not wanting to accept that she had failed once again to find her master in her lifetime.

The mere horror of the thought was enough to force her muscles to move, her eyes to open, and the light coming in through a window to come flooding in to her eyes, burning them with a painful sting.

She winced, slamming her eyes closed quickly in order to defend them; hesitantly opening them as soon as she felt it was safe. More light swam around her, but not offensively this time. She was able to get a clear view of the place she was in now, and it was not death, it wasn't even limbo, and if it was…it had not been what she expected.

Her small body had been placed on a large, queen sized, soft bed, tucked beneath warm cotton sheets, with her pink hair scattered about her as her head rested on a comfortable pillow. The sheets and blankets were a rich black color, with splatters of red decorating them.

Blood.

The design of it anyway…

She tried to keep from wrinkling her nose at the depicted gore, but halfway failed, a small grimace making its way on her lips.

Sakura looked around more, this time soaking up the room she was in as a whole.

The room was neat and tidy, with a wood floor that reflected like a mirror in the light. There was a desk shoved in the corner with a lamp and a laptop, as well as a pile of neatly arranged books and textbooks. The walls had posters of various famous metal rock bands, as well as pictures of some intimidating people, that were supposedly famous fighters by what the posters had written on them.

Well, she thought, whatever had taken her here was definitely human.

After looking around the room she had realized that the clanging noise was still being emitted, but there was something else too, something faded and in the background. A rhythmic thumping, with a steady beat, wavering every now and then only to return to the same beat.

It was music.

Curious, Sakura pulled back the covers keep in her in place, and stepped out of the bed.

She was startled at first, realizing that her skirt and long-sleeved sweater had been replaced with a lengthy, short sleeved black T-shirt, but for some reason, it didn't bother her. The fact that it had the musty yet spiced of scent of male and sweat did not make her feel fearful or violated either. In fact, she felt relaxed, but she didn't know why. Perhaps it was because who ever had changed her clothes had been considerate enough to give her something that would hang low enough in order to cover her thighs to where her fingertips were. She had felt that if the man who helped her was that considerate, then he couldn't possibly be a bad person.

That's when she saw it.

Her ivory skin -that had been wounded, dirty, and bleeding the last time she remembered- appeared to be washed and clean, with a cloth-like bandage wrapped around her upper leg and fastened together in a form of first-aid where the bullet had hit her. Down her legs, both appeared to have damage from the thorns and tree branches, there were bandages and a thin film of ointment covering the lesser of the wounds. Looking the rest of herself over, she saw that her arms had received the same treatment. Her wounded hands had been cared for with a thin material of cloth wrapped repeatedly around her palms and backhand, proof of when she braced herself when she fell. Even her face had been covered with a thick square of cloth that had been taped securely over an unseen wound on the right side of her jaw.

But who would have…?

Recovering from the surprise of being treated, Sakura proceeded to the door that lead to whoever had taken care of her, noticing that the horrible clanging noise had stopped, but the heavy beat of the music still remained.

The floor was cold against her feet, but not painfully so. Soon she reached the door, pressed against it, and walked to the other room where her savior awaited.

The room she walked in was extremely different from the other one.

This room was white. There was no furniture to relax on besides a single folding chair, and the only counter in the room had only a giant boom box planted on it. The walls were covered in mirrors, with a single, wide window opened fully in order to let the breeze of the evening come into the stale room. The space in the middle of the room had been taken up by an assortment of exercise machines.

On the far wall was a bench press, the bar located on the pegs had been loaded with weights on both ends. Next to it was a big metal pole like thing with many pegs, each peg holding an assortment of weights. The machines next to the bench press were a series of arm muscle enhancing devices, and on the opposite end was ones to enhance the muscles of the leg.

Sakura was slightly confused.

She was certain that there was a human in the room. It smelt of human, and human sweat. She could sense one, a very powerful aura belonged to this person. Perhaps he was the only person to ever come into this room…that would explain why there weren't any disturbances mixing in with the scent.

It came again, the clanging noise she had faintly heard before, only this time it was very near to her, but not beside her.

Up.

Following the direction of the noise, she let her green eyes wander to the ceiling by the far wall, and sure enough, there was the human.

A long metal bar was running all along the ceiling, about a foot down from the cemented surface, and about two feet away from the nearest wall. It was with this bar that the human had wrapped his legs around, the bending joints of his knees being the only thing holding him up. In his arms he was clutching a heavy looking circular, yet flat, weight. Judging by its size, Sakura estimated that it had to be at least fifty pounds. The weight seemed to be of no mind to the man, for he gripped it tight, and raised and lowered himself into perfectly executed sit ups with the slightest of ease, each time making sure the weight hit the bar so that it made a clanging noise to prove he had completed the exercise perfectly each time.

She awed at him for a moment, watching the way his muscles flexed with each movement, the way the beads of warm sweat trailed down his skin. It reminded her of what Kakashi looked like whenever he trained to get ready for the yearly search. Sure, they had never found him, but they needed to be prepared for the day they did, and Kakashi, being Blitzen, was always preparing the most out of everyone.

Her heart sank a little at the thought of her superior. She missed him. No doubt he would have been worried sick from the moment he sensed her immense fear. She needed to return to him as soon as possible, if only to tell him that she was alive and safe.

She had to leave.

"Thank you…for helping me." she said meekly, her voice barely audible, even to herself.

The muscular man immediately stopped with his sit ups, his body flipping into a perfectly executed penny-drop, the weight being placed carefully on a nearby rack. Now he faced toward her, a stoic look to his expression.

His attire consisted of only black sweatpants, the kind that tied around the ankles. He wore no shirt, his toned chest gleaming with sweat. The only thing else he wore was a dog-tag on a long silver chain, signaling that he had served in the army.

Most people would be slightly scared, if not terrified, yet Sakura remained calm. There was something so familiar about him, something… nostalgic.

She turned her gaze to his face now, his pale statue-like face. His hair was a shaggy and wet with sweat, causing the red locks to be plastered to his head. Some strands hung in his eyes, but he ignored them, not caring at their existence. Though his hair was indeed a strange color, it was not that that caught her attention.

It was his eyes.

Jaded green, a deep frozen sea in each eye, a beautiful, irreplaceable, gleaming in each one that was illuminated with a mysterious light. They were so breathtakingly stunning that Sakura forgot to breathe.

She knew those eyes.

She could never forget them.

They were her master's.

A strange feeling washed over her. She wasn't sure what it was. It was like a calm. She felt relaxed, safe… Peaceful. That was the word. Though it slightly scared her as the thought crossed her mind, but she realized… She no longer wished to go home.

The others would understand… she thought quietly, If he doesn't wish to return…I can't leave him. If he doesn't come with me, I will never go back…

But she was afraid to ask him to go home with her. She was afraid he would laugh at her, call her crazy. Maybe he would yell. Maybe this wasn't even her master and she was wrong!

Too fearful to ask her question, she stood there, the redhead watching her intently. His gaze pressuring, his aura smothering. It was as though he knew she wanted to ask something…

"Um…" her voice cracked, "Can I stay here…until tonight?" Her hands fidgeted at her sides, grabbing at the hem of the shirt covering her thighs, her eyes doubtful that he would say yes, much less answer. Yet when she looked at him she found that he wasn't appalled, he wasn't even angry. His eyes had widened slightly. He was confused.

"Don't you have a home?" he asked, his voice much softer than he had intended, but it was still void of emotion.

Sakura shook her head, the weight of her actions suffocating her, making her so dizzy with guilt that she wanted to cry. "I… ran away."

He uncrossed his arms, somewhat annoyed. "Now why the hell would you do something like that? Someone abused you?" he asked, almost immediately understanding that it made him look concerned, he added a quick "Not like I care though…" to cover his tracks.

Sakura sat down on the mat of a bench-press, her hand tracing along the cold metal bar, over the grooves and curves of the labeled weights.

"No, it was nothing like that. Everyone was nice. It's just… sometimes you can't live with people who have different ideas than you do." Her finger stopped tracing the metal weight, frozen on the first curve of the eight, almost surprised at how easy it was to talk to him. "You know?"

The redhead grabbed the foldable chair from his right, flipping it around so that he sat reversed on it, his legs stretching out in front of him, his folded arms resting on the rim.

He stared intently at her. Trying to figure her out.

"What's your name?"

"Da-" she quickly corrected herself, looking down at her feet. "My name is Sakura."

He quirked an eyebrow, thinking that she was too afraid of him to give him her real name. He shrugged it off. It didn't matter. He was only taking care of her because he was bored.

He sighed, combing through his drying sweaty hair with his fingers. "I have to go to the store quick. I'll be back in about fifteen minutes. Are you able to take care of yourself for that long?"

Sakura nodded.

The redhead got up and walked over to the door, grabbing a hooded sweatshirt, pulling it over his head as he prepared to exit the room.

"Wait!" Sakura shrieked, chasing after him until she caught the corner of his sweater as he finished pulling it into place. "You never told me your name." she said, slightly blushing.

He stared at her, feeling irritated by how close she had gotten to him. Yet he couldn't find it in him to shove her off. Instead he found himself answering her question.

"Gaara."

"Gaara." Sakura repeated, liking the sound it made as it rolled off her tongue. She smiled widely. "Have a safe trip, Gaara!"

The jaded eyed teen kept an eye on her, only slightly longer than he had intended, giving a small "Hn." before heading out the door.

DON'T WORRY PEOPLES! THERE WILL BE MORE! SORRY THIS WAS SO SHORT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!