Chapter 14

Her emerald eyes traced the bruise on her wrist thoughtfully, not fully comprehending why it was there. Of course she realized that Gaara had made it, but she could only think of the fact that she had gotten a reaction from him.

Even if the reaction had been harmful, she couldn't really blame him. Considering the past he had, she had gotten of lightly.

Sakura ran the fingers of her uninjured hand over the quickly darkening bruise. She wondered why her silence had affected him so. He had never acted so brazen before.

It didn't change much of anything, though. She hadn't spoken mostly because she didn't know what to say. He had been through things that people had no right to be put through. Situations that should have killed him, yet... he was alive.

His past was a festering wound, one he didn't know how to heal, so he left it and snapped at anyone that tried to help. He had snapped at her, but she didn't run like the others. The young woman was dangerously drawn to him.

It was terrifying... but oddly enough, excited her none the less.

The rush she got while around him. The sudden energy that seeped into her skin when he was nearby. It all gave her hope that she could help him. She wanted to.

She just needed to make him see that she could help him, and was not going to abandon him like so many others.

"Sakura?"

The young woman effectively slid her bruised arm behind her back and turned to face the extra person with a questioning gaze. It was Tsunade.

"You got what you wanted, yes?" she inquired.

Sakura nodded and let a convincing smile graze her lips. "I did. It shed some much needed light on Gaara, and I feel that I can be of more help to him now."

"That's good, I'm glad you got the information. You have finished your session with Gaara I presume?"

Sakura's smile faltered slightly, but not enough for the older woman to notice. "Yes, I have. I was just about to head home... " she trailed off and then asked on impulse. "Tsunade, can I take the file home with me again? To fill in the blank spots?"

The blonde blinked her hazel eyes at the pink-haired woman before smiling and giving a quick nod. "Of course. I'm sure that will help much, won't it?"

"Hai. I'm positive it will." she agreed.

Tsunade gave an answering smile to Sakura before she turned away and took a step back into the hall.

However, before she could walk back to her waiting office, she tilted her head to the side and fixed the younger woman with one of her piercing hazel eyes.

Sakura stared back at her.

"Gaara is different since you came here, Sakura." She said calmly in a low voice. "He used to resemble a caged animal that was so dangerous... " a sad smile made it's way onto her lips and she looked at the ground. "Now though, he seems calmer. Definatly still the caged animal, but more... approachable."

"Tsunade..." Sakura whispered, not knowing what she was wanting to say but wanting to say something.

"A request from an old woman?" her hazel eyes focused back on Sakura and watched as she nodded slowly. "Don't leave him behind like the others. You have something they didn't, Sakura. You have compassion, something that Gaara needs to recieve from someone."

Tsunade turned her head back around and began to walk slowly back to her office. Before she completely disappeared from Sakura's view, she called back over he shoulder just loud enough for her to catch it. "You're the only one that can help him now." And then, she was gone.

Sakura stared at the empty space for a long while, going over what Tsunade had told her.

She didn't understand how others could leave him behind, it just seemed immoral to her. As for her compassion, she guessed she could be grateful for it. If it was going to help her save Gaara then she had to embrace it. Recognize it.

Her gem colored eyes slid to the window to gaze at the outside world. For a fleeting moment, she tried to imagine what it would feel like to be a patient at the asylum. To sit in the bare, whitewashed rooms and stare at the world going on outside. To see people moving on with their lives and be stuck, frozen, in the facility, forced to see how things go on but unable to move on yourself.

She flinched back from the thought, and moved away from the window. Her hands at her sides trembled slightly, and she took a deep breath to calm her frayed nerves.

It didn't take very long for her to leave the building, and once outside she welcomed the chilled, frosty air with a shaky smile. It was a bit of relief to get out of the suddenly stuffy air in that room.

The wind blew past her in a rush, whipping her cropped, pastel colored hair around her face and causing her to pull tighter on her thin jacket in a feeble attempt to gather warmth.

Once on the slick pavement of the parking lot, she slowed her steps a bit. A prickling feeling was going up her spine, and her head itched to turn around. The sensation of being watched overran her system, and her fingers twitched against the fabric of her coat.

Just like in the horror movies when the victim is finally cornered, she turned her face slowly around to gaze behind her. The institution loomed over her, casting an intimidating shadow over the grounds. But that is not what immediatly caught and held her attention.

Her emerald eyes flashed up to one of the windows, effectively clashing with a pair of piercing jade hues. Gaara lounged against the wall next to the window with his arms folded over his chest, and his upper body resting against the glasspane casually.

His hair that resembled dried blood fell in wisps about his bright, gleaming eyes. Predator eyes. As she stared at him, he grinned down at her. Not a friendly, greeting one. A mocking, dangerous, hungry one. One that made shudders of fear and something else ...anticipation?... race up and down her spine.

'With just a look, they shook, and heavens bowed before him.'

She turned quickly away from him and walked to her car, fighting the red that wanted to rise to her pale cheeks and battling the uncertainty flashing across her features.

Sakura didn't see the grin on the male's face grow into a smile of mocking accomplishement. She had twisted the game to fit herself, and made her first move. Now, he had made his. He could see how she was unbalanced and confused.

He even caught the slight color on her cheeks as she turned from him. It made his sadistic smile grow even more, exposing his unnaturally sharp teeth. It was a game that tested the very soul of who they were, what they wanted, and how they were to obtain it.

He knew what he wanted. He wanted her to break. He wanted to cause her to break.

As for her, her intentions and wants on winning the little game that they had begun, was up to her. It didn't matter though, because he was going to win anyway. She was putting herself in a situation that resembled the wolf hunting the prey.

It made his blood rush at the thought of catching her, breaking her, shattering what she thought was true and right and thrusting upon her what really was. What really is. The absolute reality of things.

It was an enticing game, one that excited him and made him eager to play. He wouldn't let her slip by him like she had in their session together. That was the only time she would ever get past his defenses and still breathe.

She had started this game, and now he was molding it into his own. And he wouldn't give her the chance of escape. She was in his world now, and sanity had no meaning there.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O

-One Month Later-

This was insane! No, it wasn't insane. Because in order for it to be insane it would've had to have been sane at one point, and there was no sanity here. There was no reason and no meanings, as far as she could tell. No rationality existed.

Maybe there had been at one point, but now it was just one big mess of confusion. A maze that had no beginning and no ending. She had just been thrown into the middle of it without a clue as to what her purpose was and where she was heading.

Sakura narrowed her eyes to slits as she glared at the male currently standing in her path with his arms crossed over his chest and a deadly smirk on his lips.

Her hand twitched with the urge to hit him, and his sharp eyes sparked with amusement when she clenched it into a fist. They both knew she couldn't hit him.

Grinding her teeth together, she backed up a step. He retaliated with two steps closer.

Over the past month, to an outsider, it would appear that Sakura was making exceptional progress with her patient, Gaara. And she was... in a way.

He was taking his medication without much of a fuss. Was sleeping occasionally - occasionally being a loose term - and was on a healthy eating schedule as well as exercising schedule.

Great, right? He was getting better, right?

Wrong.

Of course to anyone that would be true. But to Sakura, the one that was dragging him through it all, it was completely false. It was hard as hell to get him to stay still so she could give him the injection of Triazolam, and had on more than one occasion resorted to hand-feeding him his meals. At which point he would smack her hand and the tray away before sneering at her.

The exercising would have to be the easiest. Since the asylum didn't have a workout room, she would walk him around the perimeter of the building. Sometimes she could actually get him to do a few push-ups if he was in a neutral mood.

And then there came the moments in his schedule, his free time, that he would drive her mad. He would pick at her nerves, tick her off, walk circles around her, confuse her, and reduce her to a head-clutching heap on the floor, growling and seething at him from brutal headaches.

He would just stand there, staring at her slumped form, either smirking in accomplishment or just looking at her with those predator eyes. It never failed to raise goosebumbs on her pale skin, or send shivers up her spine.

"Damn it, Gaara!" she snarled at him as she took a side-step to her right, only to be immediatly forced another step back as he followed, placing him closer.

His smirk only widened.

This was one of his 'games', as she refered to them. He would toy with her relentlessly until she gave up and ignored him. And most of the time that didn't work, it only made it worse. It was as if he resented her silence, and he would pick at her until she gave some kind of noise.

It seemed to please him most when she played back. When she would follow his steps and jeers and snap at him just as he did her. But then, she only resorted to that when she got to fed up with his little game and felt like giving him a taste of his own medicine.

In the back of her mind, the warning signals were beginning to go off. She would have brushed it off normally, but... it was different this time.

His little game was getting more intense. Sakura became more aware of the fact that he was getting to close. Of the fact that they were in a room alone... together. That he was blocking her only escape from his room.

The rosette was immediatly bombarded with the remembrance that she had been in a situation like this before. And she had come out not completely okay.

The way Gaara had pinned her beneath him and whispered in her ear, questioning her sanity. The cold fear that had melted in her very bones, and the desire that burned her blood even then. Which is what had caused her to whimper at him like a helpless puppy.

It sickened her that he could reduce her to that. That he could reduce her to anything made her frustrated beyond reason.

And he was doing it again.

The heat coming from him made her skin flush, and she took a desperate step back. He followed again, and her body bumped against the wall.

He could see the panic rising in her eyes, and he wondered why. Just seconds ago they were alight with aggrivation and anger at him, and he had thought what an interesting little game that was awaiting to be played.

He had looked foreward to watching her fall before him again. One step closer to breaking her completely. But now, she was doing something he hadn't expected. Her form shook, and her breathing had quickened.

She had reacted in other ways before, but all had to do with anger. Now... now she was playing the part of the cornered prey so perfectly that he almost caused him to step back. Almost.

The urge to press closer was stronger.

It hardly registered that him wanting to get closer to her was not just the predatory urge, but the human one as well. In fact, he didn't really pay attention to that at all.

A turmoil of emotion was swirling and knotting in on each other in Sakura's body, and she couldn't stop the shaking. If he would just back up a step, she would be able to breathe. She craved for open space... but she craved for him to come closer more.

Sakura violently shook her head in a futile attempt to gather some logical thought. It was useless though, the urge to feel his touch was quickly becoming the only thing she was aware of.

Dangerous.

Why couldn't that word make any sense now? She didn't know.

He watched as her eyes flicked around the room quickly. Was she looking for an escape? He wouldn't let her go anyway. She was still in his world, his game... his move.

He placed himself directly in front of her, and grinned dangerously when she pressed herself tightly against the wall. The game had just been upped a level, and it made it all the more exciting.... and interesting, he decided as he watched her pink face go red from an intense blush.

Swiftly, he placed his hands on the wall on either side of her head above her shoulders. Her head snapped up and stared at him. Her eyes resembled those of a deer staring into the barrel of a gun. She was trapped.

Her body stopped shaking, only to tremble every few seconds. A warmth was coiling at the bottom of her stomach, and it made her knees weak. What was happening? Why was he doing this?

She froze as he leveled his gaze with hers, placing his lips barely a millimeter from her own. She knew she would have fallen down, if not for the wall's support behind her, the moment she felt his hot breath wash over her own lips.

It was getting to be to much. Everything was becoming a raging battle in her mind and body. The craving for his touch versus the logical and practical thoughts of knowing this was wrong.

But if it was so wrong, why did it feel so right?

Her person actually ached for him to press closer. Why? Why, why, why why!? Why couldn't she get grip on things!? Why was it so damn hard to breathe with him so close?! Why did she allow herself to be put in a situation where she was again seen as the weak female?!

Again.

It was all happening again. Everything was happening again. Again and again and again. No. It couldn't. Because he wasn't here, with her. He was out of her life. Wasn't he?

This wasn't him, this was Gaara. She wasn't at a house, cowering on the floor, trying desperatly to get away from the beatings. No. She was pressed against a wall, pinned by Gaara, a patient emitted into the Konoha Mental Institution. She worked as Gaara's doctor.

That was a different time. A different place. A different life altogether.

If that was true, then why was her vision clouded by those memories. Why did it feel so real? Why could she smell him, and the blood, and the fear, and the hate? If it wasn't real, why was it so vivid?

The thrashing. The screams. The panic. The pain.

He stared intently at her. Gaara sensed the change immediatly and had paused in his advances to watch her.

She was trembling fiercly and her teeth were chattering. Her emerald eyes were dazed, like she was staring at something he couldn't see.

At first he had thought he had succeeded in breaking her, but this was... different somehow. She wasn't acting like this because of him. Or maybe she was, but he knew he couldn't have caused this... this panic rising in her eyes.

It would be pleasant to think so, but at the same time... the thought that he could make her feel this much fear and panic made his stomach coil in the slightest discomfort...

Her vision was blurring. Red was turning to Raven. Jade was melting to onyx.

The form that had once been Gaara was no warping into a nightmare she had thought herself done with. A shadow that she had hoped disappeared when the light was found.

His figure, the nightmare, continued to flick in and out of focus. Gaara ceased to be himself, and became something --someone-- new. A different person. Somone from the past.

Gaara pulled back and away from her and watched intently as she shook and mumbled broken words under her breath. It was confusing to see her react this way. Was he the cause of it?

And if not him, then what?

His frustration mounted when she continued to act like a helpless animal. It was aggrivating... and unnerving.

As she trembled against the wall, breathing like she had never tasted air before, he reached his hand out and gripped her shoulder.

Her reaction was surprising. He had not counted on her flinching back from him.

When he made contact with her, she immediatly jerked back so fast and hard she hit the wall. Her wide eyes flicked around wildly, panic shining clearly in the twin hues.

"Sakura." He commanded her attention in a dark voice.

Her eyes locked with his as she glanced up at him, keeping her still and in place. He noted that the trembles stopped, her teeth ceased to clack together, and her eyes cleared.

His voice broke through the memories that were building in her, and brought her back to her senses. As she gazed back at him, the panic lessened, though still resided.

Vaguely she wondered if that is what it felt like to have a panic attack.

Her body became cool, as if her body temperature had dropped suddenly, and as she shivered once before stepping shakily from the wall.

Gaara's sharp eyes followed her movements as she walked around him slowly to make her way towards the door. Once there, she paused as her hand rested on the doorknob.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Gaara. But I think I need to go home. I will see you tomorrow."

He stared at her back as she left, closing the door behind and cutting off his sight of her.

To his mild surprise and frustration, the room became oddly silent as she left.

Once out of the room and gone from the building, Sakura gasped in fresh breaths of air. She knew she shouldn't be overreacting like she was --like she had-- but, it was still to fresh a wound. Who could get over it, anyway?

It was a problem that was supposed to be fixed, but it seemed a handful of therapy sessions could only go so far. She couldn't let this get in her way of her job, but... something felt off.

It was the same feeling she got before she was beaten those years ago. The same feeling of dread and helplessness. The nagging, cautioning warning.

Sakura shut her eyes tight and gritted her teeth. Please, please. Don't let it happen again.

Where her wishes in vain? Was he going to come back? Could she handle it if she was met with the fierce, deadly stare of onyx eyes? The smirk of superiority and power that made her feel weak and hopeless?

And if he did return, could she stand up to Sasuke this time and not let him break her heart?