AHH! Sorry guys! i know, i know, i keep telling you that i'm going to upload more chapters and then i don't. please don't hate me. a lot of stuff happens in this chapter, so i hope you won't be disappointed. the plot in this story is just starting to heat up, and i hope everone likes where it's going. thanks to all my readers! R&R please!

--Olly Baabaa-chan

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Disclaimer: Don't own naruto

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Gaara looked up from the sketch he was drawing and looked at the clock. 6:27. Time to get ready for school. He put away his drawing book and went to take a shower. When he got out and wiped the mirror clean it was clear he hadn't shaved in two days, and stubble was emerging. With a sigh he took care of the annoying addition to his morning routine and went to get dressed. After some sifting through the stuff on his floor Gaara found and pulled on some baggy black pants and a grey shirt with a red skull on it. It was a short jog downstairs to grab some breakfast. As usual, he was the only one up and awake. How surprising. With an orange and a bottle of grape juice in hand he walked outside and mounted his bike.

By now the route to Sakura's house was very much memorized and his arrival time had gotten quicker. This time he got there at 6:53. Heck yes!...But now what was he going to do for a whole seven minutes? He shrugged and started eating his orange. half of the fruit was gone by the time Sakura skipped out to meet him. He smirked when she got closer.

"Aww…no towel? And I was so looking forward to it." He made a fake pout face at his girlfriend, who in turn's cheeks grew red from embarrassment. She hit his arm. "That's not funny Gaara! And anyway, it'll be a long while before you see me in a towel again."

This time it was Gaara's turn to blush, but only slightly. "Fine whatever. Lets go." She giggled and climbed on behind him.

They pulled into the school lot and parked. Sakura led the way to the tree, while Gaara followed behind with his hands shoved in his pockets. As always, Gaara pulled himself into his favorite branch. Sakura did as before, pulling herself into the branch next to his.

…silence…

"I told my mom."

-blink- -blink- -blink- "…huh?"

"I told my mom…you know, about us."

"oh…"

"Oh? That's it?"

"That's what?"

"That's your only reaction?"

"Ok, sorry. What happened?"

"She wants to meet you."

"I see…"

"You're not being very loquacious today. What's wrong?" Sakura peeked her head up to look at Gaara. He only looked straight ahead. "Nothing's wrong."

"Liar. Are you angry that I told her?"

"No."

"Gaara!"

"What?"

"Please tell me!"

He rolled his eyes. Sakura leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "Are you feeling sick?" she asked. He smirked. "Not anymore."

Sakura didn't have time to be confused because Gaara pulled her into another, deeper kiss.

"That's was it? You were pouting because I didn't kiss you?" Sakura said when he pulled away.

Gaara crossed his arms defiantly. "I wasn't pouting." He argued.

Sakura smiled. "Idiot. I don't always have to be the one to kiss you first!" he shrugged and leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

"So your mom wants to meet me."

"Yup."

"Do I have to talk weird for her too?"

"I doubt it."

"What about your dad?"

"Dunno."

"Oh, so now who's not being loquacious? You little hypocrite."

Sakura giggled and playfully shoved him. The rest of the time they were together alone that morning was spent in silence. After a while their friends started showing up, one by one. They talked about Sakura's party and Sakura explained what happened when her parents found out. Soon the bell rang.

Sakura took her rightful place walking in between Gaara and Naruto. It had been designated her 'spot' when they walked in a line. Before Sakura came the line had gone: Kankuro, Temari, Shikamaru, Kiba (with Akamaru in tow in his jacket), Gaara, Naruto, Hinata, Neji, and then Ten Ten. Gaara, of course, was in the middle because he was pretty much the leader of all of them. However with her addition they were no longer an odd number of friends. Nowadays, it looked as though Gaara and Sakura were the 'leaders'. No one really seemed to notice though…ok, well, the other people around them noticed but psh! Who cared about them anyway?

Ever since Sakura had changed her wardrobe after her first week of school, people had stared at her, and she had eventually gotten used to it. But now with of all of the girls' hair (especially Sakura's) they were getting more stares than usual. The guys had a difficult time glaring down all the guys looking at them. Gaara glared at absolutely everyone that even dared to glance at Sakura, and it made her swell with pride to have a boyfriend who cared enough to protect her. Temari was positively beaming over the fact that Shikamaru was putting off his laziness to protect her at all. Hinata blushed bright red whenever Naruto growled at someone because of her and even put his arm around her shoulder to show she was off limits (that is, until Neji glared at Naruto, who in turn recoiled his arm with a nervous smile). Poor Neji seemed to be having the hardest time because he was trying to defend two girls at once: his cousin and his crush. However, it showed that he was somewhat more concerned with Ten Ten, considering he switched places with her in the line so that she wasn't on the outside. Ten Ten smiled shyly in thanks. Kiba obviously felt left out, so he just settled with glaring straight ahead while Akamaru growled at everyone around them. Kankuro didn't seem to care at all…but did send a warning glance here and there every now and again.

It was just like in a movie: when the group looks all bad-ass and they're all walking in synch. Everyone on either side of them is cowering and staring in awe. The girls smirk triumphantly while the guys glare in a completely intimidating but cool way. The light from the doors leading outside behind them emanate a glow around their whole figure as a one. Every step is timed perfectly, and their bodies bob up and down in direct time with each other. It was all so cool.

…until Sakura tripped…

The whole group was thrown off beat and seemed to be completely lost without their tenth person. Gaara rolled his eyes and helped her up. She smiled a small apology to everyone. Temari and Kankuro parted ways as they always did. The rest of the group shrugged and went to class.

All through the day, Sakura had to deal with stares, but there were two stares that particularly bothered her: Ino's stare of pure hatred and Sasuke's stare of utter desire. At lunch she was afraid that Sasuke would interrupt them again…or perhaps Ino would come along to ruin their day, but neither came over. Sakura did notice, however, that at one point Ino looked straight at her and then pulled out her phone to call someone.

Sakura glared at her for a moment but then turned back to her lunch in silence. Of course, her friends noticed, and they weren't about to just let her get away without explaining.

"What's wrong, Sakura?" Ten Ten asked. Akamaru whimpered from inside Kiba's jacket. Sakura sighed and looked at her friends. "I don't know. Usually Ino just ignores me but today she's been like…stalking me. I don't know if you guys have noticed, but every time I turn around it's like she's staring at me. And also Sasuke has been looking at me more than usual. It's really creepy."

Gaara snarled at the mention of Sasuke. If anyone was going to look at his Sakura it was going to be him, and when he didn't let anyone else near her what gave Sasuke the idea that he could even glance in her direction?

"Don't worry Sakura! As long as we're around you don't have anything to worry about!" Naruto chimed. Shikamaru, Kiba, and Neji all nodded. Gaara growled under his breath and stared down at his food.

Suddenly a boy with black hair in a bowl cut and huge eyebrows jumped up in front of the group. "Hi Neji! Hi Ten Ten!" he practically sang. The people in question groaned simultaneously and hid their faces.

"Bushy-Brows! What do you want?" Naruto demanded. Bushy-Brows started crying anime tears.

"I thought I asked you not to call me that Naruto! My name is Lee!" the boy said. Naruto snorted.

"Whatever. What are you over here for?"

Lee's eyes brightened and he blushed a bright pink. "Sakura-san," he started. Both Sakura and Gaara looked up at the same time. Sakura's face was filled with utter horror while Gaara looked murderous. "I wanted you to know that…" he took a deep breath and turned around. Their gym teacher Gai-sensei gave his favorite student a dramatic thumbs-up before Lee returned the gesture and continued speaking to Sakura. "I wanted you to know that I think you look beautiful and would you like to go to the dance with me?"

Shikamaru choked on the milk he was drinking. Naruto fell backwards in his chair laughing. Ten Ten and Hinata were biting their tongues to keep from saying anything. Kiba snorted and Akamaru started barking. Neji was staring blankly ahead regretting ever being acquainted to Lee. Gaara's face had drained of whatever color it had as he stared at the boy in front of him.

Sakura was…dumbstruck? No, not a good enough. Flabbergasted? Maybe…uhh…well anyway, she couldn't speak. The only word she was able to choke out was, "d-dance?"

Lee beamed. "Yes! The fall dance! Does this mean you'll go with me?" He started hopping up and down and Sakura almost fell backwards in fear.

"n-no! I…I mean…um, no. I'm sorry Lee but I can't go to the dance with you." Sakura forced out. She hated hurting the poor boy's feelings, but there was no way in hell she would go to a dance with him, considering she feared for her life from just being in his presence. Lee's whole figure seemed to droop, but out of no where he started crying majestic anime tears again and jumped up on the table. "I will find a way to make you like me Haruno Sakura! That's a promise! As long as there is a flow of youth within me I will never give up!"

Sakura: 0.0

There was a cry of, "GO LEE! I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!" from none other than Gai-sensei in the background. Lee saluted to Neji and Ten Ten and then spectacularly spun around and marched back to his teacher who gave him a hug.

Sakura: 0.0 "holy hell…what was that?"

"That was the infamous Rock Lee. I'm not particularly proud of the fact that he, Ten Ten, and I were all partners in a group project once. Ever since then he has pretty much considered us his best friends, except for the science teacher's pet squirrel." Neji explained.

"Oh," was all Sakura could manage.

The rest of the day Sakura stayed as close to whichever guy friend was around as she could. She didn't want any more Bushy-Brow incidents. Finally the last bell rang and Sakura joined her friends outside.

"Sorry, I have to leave early guys. I have to go to archery practice and then I have to help my parents clean house. Whoop-dee-do. When's the next practice?" Ten Ten asked while packing up her stuff and getting ready to leave.

Gaara shrugged. "Either tomorrow or the next day."

"Ok cool. I'll see ya later."

They waved Ten Ten goodbye. Neji made a point of waving to her car as it pulled away. Naruto whispered something to Hinata and she giggled. At this point Neji decided to leave and take his cousin with him.

"My mom'll kill me if I'm late getting home…god she's so annoying. Always such a drag." Shikamaru muttered. After he left Akamaru started getting restless so Kiba put him on a leash and started walking home. Naruto followed after him, hoping to get a free dinner out of him. Temari and Kankuro exchanged glances and left together.

Sakura looked over at Gaara. "Alone once again." she said crossing her arms. He nodded and put his arm around her shoulders. "How is it we're always the last two people on school grounds?" she continued. Gaara shrugged.

"Odd isn't it?" he muttered. Sakura nodded, but suddenly remembered what she had been wanting to ask him for a while. "Hey! What about this dance thing?"

"What about it?"

"Didn't you say we were gonna tell everybody at a dance?"

"Yeah."

"This dance?"

"Yup."

Sakura grinned. "I've never been to a dance before! Is it fun?"

"Only if you have a date. I usually avoid them."

"But I'll be your date this year right?"

"I suppose so…"

"Well ok. You better ask before anyone else does!"

Gaara cocked an eyebrow. "You're my girlfriend. Do I really have to ask you?"

"Yes! Nobody knows we're dating yet, and it would be special to me if you did." Sakura did a puppy-pout up into the black-ringed eyes of her boyfriend. He sighed and pulled her to stand up with him. They began walking.

"Sakura, will you—"

But his request remained unfinished. A sharp pain exploded through the back of Gaara's head. He fell to his knees and held his head. His eyes searched around, only to see Sakura being dragged backward by… "Ugh!" he cried in pain. Everything around him was muffled, and he only barely heard Sakura scream his name. His vision blurred, and his head was swimming. Whenever he moved he felt like he would be sick.

Sakura watched in horror as Gaara fell to the ground. She tried to scream but her mouth was covered. Tears started forming in her eyes, but she needed to get away. Whoever was covering her mouth also hand her hands held fast behind her, so she tried kicking free. It didn't work. She was being dragged around the corner of the school. She was choking from fear. Thoughts flooded her mind…about her mom and dad…and Gaara…and her friends. She'd never see them again. When this crossed her mind she started thrashing around again. Her strength threw her assaulter off guard.

"God stop it!" he demanded and kicked her in the leg.

"Hey let her go!"

Suddenly she was thrown to the ground. She turned to look at her rescuer.

Oh…my…god…

Sasuke was throwing punches everywhere at a second man who was wearing a mask. Sakura stood up and started running away. The masked man tried to push Sasuke off and follow her, but the raven haired boy refused to give up. He tackled the man, giving Sakura the chance she needed to get up, stumble, get up again, and run away. She rounded the corner and pulled out her cell phone…9…1…1

-ring-

-ring-

"Hello this is your 991 operator. What is your emergency?"

"Please!" Sakura screamed. "I was just attacked! My boyfriend was knocked unconscious and someone I knew attacked the guy who was after me and I'm running away, please help us!"

"Yes, ma'am. What is you're location?"

"1874 Ninja Way. Konoha High school. Hurry!"

"Alright. I'm sending police and an ambulance. Ma'am we'd like for you to stay on the line,"

But Sakura had already hung up and taken a quick glance behind her. There was no one there. She ran to the crumpled figure of Gaara on the ground. It turned out he was, in fact, conscious and was still holding his head. "Gaara!"

He groaned and tried to steady himself. "Sa—kura…"

"Oh my god, you're bleeding. There's an ambulance coming, ok?" she tried to look away from the back of his neck where little streams of blood were running down his back.

"Where…is he?" Gaara forced out, wincing in pain.

"Who?"

"The bastard who hurt you. Where is he? I'll…I'll kill him!" he gasped in pain when he made a sudden movement. Sakura looked all around them but there was no one. She wondered what had happened to Sasuke. The sound of police and ambulance sirens caught her attention. She saw them rounding the corner on the street and she ran out to flag them down. The ambulance pulled over and medics rushed out. Police started pouring out of their cars with guns in hand. Sakura pointed to behind the school. "There!" she yelled. "That's where my attacker is…or was! Hurry!" The police made no acknowledgement to her except for the fact that they ran in the direction she was pointing. The medics followed her over to Gaara, where the idiot was trying to stand on his own. He ended up crumpling back down on his knees. The medics told her to wait with the police cars so she wouldn't become upset. Hah! As if that was even possible. Sakura was already more upset than she had ever been in her life. However, she decided not to argue. To her surprise the police walked out with handcuffs on the masked man. Sasuke walked out behind them with handcuffs as well. Sakura ran out to the police.

"No! Don't take him too! He saved me!" she said going up to Sasuke. The boy in question gave a weak smirk through a bloody lip and a red swollen cheek. He also seemed to be limping.

"Standard procedure miss. We're taking them both in for questioning." One of the officers said. She nodded and another officer came up to her as the others walked away. "You were the girl who made the 911 call, right?" he asked. Sakura nodded. "Alright. We need you to tell us your whole story. Also you need to get checked over by the medics. Do you have any injuries?"

Sakura knew there was a bruise forming on her leg where she was kicked, but otherwise she was unharmed. "Only a bruise on my leg." She answered honestly. There was some yelling behind them, and Sakura turned around to see Gaara fighting off the medics. "No Gaara! Stop!" she cried and ran to them. Somehow he was standing on his own, which seemed to be a miracle considering moments ago he couldn't move without screaming in pain.

Gaara didn't like doctors. He hated being confined in hospital rooms and being poked with needles and things of the like. He had to find Sakura. A medic tried to grab his arm but he yanked it away. "Don't touch me!" he growled.

"No Gaara! Stop!"

He turned to see the blurry form of Sakura running to him. He tried blinking to make the image clearer but it wasn't working. Sakura ran and held him in a tight hug. "Gaara, please stop! You have to cooperate, please! You're hurt!"

"I'm fine." He argued. She pulled away and slapped him.

"Stop it! You're hurt, Gaara! You could die! You are NOT going to leave me here alone now get in the back of that ambulance now!"

Gaara tried to steady himself after her slap and almost raised his own hand to teach her a lesson about hitting him but stopped. Instead he sighed in defeat and kissed her forehead. He could tell she was crying and gave her a weak hug before letting some medics tie him to a stretcher and close the doors of the ambulance behind him. Being helpless was not something Gaara enjoyed. Not at all.

Mr. and Mrs. Haruno ran through the doors of the police department. The multicolored hair belonging to their daughter led them straight to her. "Mom? Dad?" she said turning around.

"Sakura!" they both exclaimed. Mrs. Haruno pulled Sakura into a hug and Mr. Haruno joined in.

"I didn't think you would be here until way later!" Sakura said when her parents pulled away.

"Oh no! I walked out of the office as soon as you called. Your father did too." Sakura's mom said.

"But I thought you guys couldn't just leave work like that though." Sakura wondered out loud.

"Honey, you think we would leave you like this. You are always more important than our jobs." Her dad explained. His statement left Sakura a little confused but she didn't question him. "Have you already told the police everything that happened?" he asked.

"Yeah. They're questioning Sasuke and the masked guy right now." Sakura confirmed.

"What about Gaara?" her mom asked. Sakura's breath caught. She hadn't seen Gaara since they took him in the ambulance.

"I don't know," she whispered with tears welling up again. Her parents gave sympathetic looks at her and hugged their daughter again.

It was two days after the attack. She had millions of messages left on her phone by her friends as to why she had missed school two days in a row and why Gaara wasn't there either. She hadn't felt like calling them back and explaining. She had gone through her story at least five times to the police. Sasuke's story had been that he was staying after school to finish a school project and that he had gone out the back door when he was finished, where he found the masked man dragging sakura around the building. It had gone along with Sakura's story, and the teacher he was working with agreed. With this alibi, Sasuke was allowed to go free.

The masked man had confessed to being hired by none other than Yamanaka Ino. He was paid to kidnap Sakura and was then supposed to take her to a wooded area to meet Ino. After that he said he had no other information.

That had also been mentioned on the messages left on her phone. Sakura! Why won't you answer your phone? You're really freaking us out. Anyway, you won't believe what happened today! Ino was arrested in the middle of class!

None of this information seemed to bother Sakura though, because her mind was occupied by one fact: She was finally able to go see Gaara in the hospital. Her parents went with her. Room 465. Sakura took a shaky breath and stepped inside. Gaara looked like he was glaring at the ceiling. He had a bandage around his head and his arms were crossed.

"Gaara?"

The man in question looked toward the source of the voice. "Sakura,"

Her eyes welled up with tears for the billionth time in two days. She walked around the side of the bed and took his hand.

With a grunt he sat up straight and used her hand to pull her into a kiss. He could feel her tears sliding down his face and his arms slid around her waist and into a hug. She hid her eyes on his shoulder. "Where were you?" he asked.

"I'm sorry; I couldn't leave the police station. They kept telling me that you were unfit for visitation."

"They're liars. I've been perfectly aware and awake and everything since yesterday morning. I can walk, but they won't let me out of this damn bed. I hate hospitals."

"I'm so sorry Gaara." He scooted to the far side of the little bed and she pulled herself up to sit beside him. "How's you head?" she asked, fingering a lock of his red hair. He shrugged.

"I'm fine with a little aspirin every two hours."

Sakura giggled and rested her head on his shoulder. Suddenly her cell rang. Gaara seemed a little annoyed with the high frequency sound, so for his sake she decided to finally answer it.

"Hello?"

"Sakura! Finally! Where are you?" It was Naruto. Sakura glanced at Gaara, who sort of nodded that it was alright with him.

"Look, I can't talk long, but I'm with Gaara. We're at the hospital and—"

"WHAT!? What the hell happened!?"

"Idiot! Don't scream into the phone." Gaara growled.

There was some muffled talking on the end, and then some arguing. Temari's voice was now on the line. "Gaara? Sakura? Where are you?"

"The hospital." Sakura answered again.

"What?! Why?!"

"Look, I can't really explain everything right now, but we'll be back at school soon, ok?"

"Wait! What room? We're coming to visit you!"

"No!" Gaara shouted. Visions of Naruto exploding into the room were already giving him a headache.

"Look I'm sorry Temari but you can't come visit. Like I said, we'll be back at school soon so don't worry about it."

"But we're family! Don't we need to sign papers or something?"

Oh…crap. They had Sakura there. "Umm…I'll get back to you on that. We'll talk to you later." Sakura hung up and turned her phone off. "Sorry about that." she apologized to Gaara. He stared at her hand in his.

"Sakura…" he squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you." He forced out. Sakura could tell it was hard for him to say something like that.

"No, don't say that. It's not your fault. Gaara, it's amazing that you were even able to stay awake after he hit you. That blow would've knocked any normal person out cold, if not killed. Your resilience is incredible. You don't know how proud of you I am." Sakura smiled and kissed his cheek, but she could tell her speech hadn't convinced him. She knew that if he heard any mention of Sasuke saving her life he would absolutely lose it.

About that time, Sakura's parents knocked on the door. Sakura climbed out of the bed and gave Gaara a small kiss goodbye. She waved to him then disappeared behind the door.

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again, sorry if it's not long enough to make up for what i've missed. I'll be waiting for reviews!...at least, i hope i will...

lata-gatas!

--Olly