A slither of sand alerted Sakura to his presence. She had slipped out of bed for just this reason, hoping that her unusual appearance in a village he knew so well would make him curious enough to investigate, but not enough to immediately kill her. She was taking an extreme risk being out here by herself, knowing exactly how powerful and unstable Gaara was before he had the sense beaten into him by Naruto.

This time, Sakura didn't have the luxury of waiting for her teammate to perform his unique brand of therapy and excessive violence on Shukaku's jinchuriki. Team 7 was attending the Chunin Exams now, at the age of eleven, where Gaara would only be an observer.

When she had heard that the Exams were going to be held in Suna, she had pushed Kakashi as subtly as she dared to enter their team. The boys were thrilled at the chance and she used that to her advantage to convince their reluctant leader. Sakura honestly did not care about her promotion; Gaara ascending as Kazekage and becoming a strong ally of Konoha was her ultimate goal. To achieve that, he needed to change his entire worldview. It was a tall order, but Sakura knew she at least had to try. She know that her Naruto would have wanted it for Gaara, who had been like a mirror of "what could have been" for him.

He appeared in a swirl of sand, looking much like he had when Sakura had first encountered him. "What are you doing here?" His voice was still unusually deep for a child, something she had initially found extremely off-putting.

"Couldn't sleep." This was certainly the truth. "Who are you?"

"I could ask the same, Leaf." He held himself very still. "This is my village."

Yep, still testy. "My name is Sakura. I'm here for the Chunin Exams, obviously. Now can I have your name, mysterious stranger?"

He didn't react to her sarcasm. "Sabaku no Gaara. You should not be out here."

Sakura pretended to be confused. "No one mentioned anything against it."

"I am mentioning it."

"Wow, cranky much? Sounds like someone needs a nap." Prior to coming to Suna, she had decided to approach Gaara as if he were a normal person rather than a young child with a frankly terrifying aura. Sakura wasn't sure if it would work or just get her killed faster.

"You are out of bounds. Leave this area now or I will remove you." She held up her hands in supplication and jumped down from the outer wall of the village, where she had been waiting for him. She landed quietly on the sand and in a moment, he materialized next to her, still staring.

"Off the wall now, Gaara-sama. Are you satisifed?"

"I would more satisfied if you were dead."

"Ouch. You don't even know me. I could be a good person."

"What does that matter?" The fact that he was still standing with her and speaking without making any threatening motions was encouraging. She had thought long and hard about how Naruto had approached Gaara's problems and tried to adapt it into a method that she thought might work coming from her.

She shrugged. "Fair enough. I'm sure at least one of the shinobi I've had to kill was probably a good person." Sakura looked up at the night sky, the stars shining brighter in the desert than they ever had in Konoha. She could feel Gaara twitch at her last statement.

"Had to kill?"

"Sometimes we have to make choices we don't like, especially as part our village's military structure. It's hard to be a good person in this world. I struggle with it."

He was silent for several moments while she star-gazed. "Why bother?"

"What?"

He sounded frustrated. "Why bother be a good person when it brings you such hardship?"

"That's a hard question to answer, Gaara." He made a dismissive noise and she continued. "But, I think being a good person means that you're a benefit to those around you, to your family, your friends, your village. If you care for those people … the joy you feel around them is worth anything bad that came before."

"Can you not find joy in yourself?" He really asks the tough questions. How did Naruto manage this?

"That is a pretty personal question. I can't answer that for you."

He was silent again, but she only felt his baseline level of malice that she attributed to Shukaku's badly sealed form. She itched to take a look at Gaara's seal, sure that if she were able to study it, she might even be able to help him control the bijou without losing out on sleep. She still hadn't found a way to extract them without killing the vessel, but she wanted him to be as prepared for the Akatsuki as possible. With the changes she had made already, Sakura had no way of knowing when they would approach him this time.

"You should return to your lodgings. It is almost dawn."

Sakura smiled. "So it is." She stuck out her hand. "It was certainly interesting meeting you, Sabaku no Gaara." He stared down at it with a strange expression and hesitantly took her forearm in a firm grip. She knew this was how they exchanged greetings in Suna. He was obviously just copying the motions he had seen. Possibly his first ever handshake. The idea made her sad beyond measure. "I'll be here for another four days before the Exams even start. Maybe I'll see you around."

He stared at her expressionlessly and as close as they were, she noticed that instead of no eyebrows, his were just an exceptionally fine blonde. Gaara eventually nodded. "It is possible. I live here." Sakura snorted and let go of his arm. She had to get back before Kakashi realized that she left. He would be merciless about her "sneaking out to meet a boy!"

The next day she had her hands full keeping Naruto and Sasuke from killing each other. They had an excess of energy because Kakashi had banned them from training, not wanting to give any information to their opponents prematurely. She had approved of this plan until she realized that he was leaving it up to her to entertain the boys without letting them beat each other senseless or blow things up or set them on fire. Really, it was like asking the sky not to be blue.

"Kakashi-sensei. I am begging you. Please take them off my hands. I will buy you tickets to the Icha Icha premiere. I will give all your ninken baths. Please."

Her sensei looked at her pleading eyes with amusement. "Didn't you want them by your side? I remember a cute little genin team so long ago who refused to be parted."

"Ugh." She flopped down on the futon he was reading on and heavily laid her head on his left thigh, gesticulating her general disapproval to the air. "I would happily send them both to Snow Country right now." Naruto and Sasuke were wrestling on the floor over some imagined insult, but paused when her comment floated over to them. She summarily ignored their protests.

Kakashi patted her head. "It's only for a few more days, Sakura-chan. Weren't you the one who wanted to be here?"

"Not like this! I thought it would be come in, beat some faces, get our vests and go. I didn't realize we would have wait forever for the exam to even start!"

He shrugged and turned a page. She wiggled around and tried to crane her neck to read the book, more to annoy him than any interest in the subject. She had already read this one, after all. Kakashi closed the book and gave her a stern look, tapping at the "over 18" label on the front.

"A little hypocritical, don't you think, Kakashi-sensei? I'm allowed to kill people but not read your porn?"

"It is adult literature, Sakura-chan. I am a classy man, I do not read porn."

"Semantics, sensei. You can't fool me, I'm practically a genius." Kakashi muttered to himself, but Sakura caught the words "menace is more like it" and grinned. Her smile faded when she caught an elbow to the face courtesy of Naruto, who had flailed his way onto the futon in an effort to escape Sasuke's glowing hand.

Her eyes widened and her voice became very, very quiet. "Sasuke. Is that lightning chakra I see in your hand? In our room? That you both promised not to destroy?"

The chakra immediately dissipated and he looked anywhere but Sakura's face, choosing the coward's way out. "Naruto started it!"

She rubbed a hand over her face in exhaustion. "I'm not saying I doubt that-," she cut off Naruto's protesting "hey!", "but need I remind you that we will have to pay for damages? If I have spend any more of my mission pay on another broken room, I am not making any more tomatoes or ramen." She glanced at Kakashi. "Or eggplant."

Naruto and Sasuke had twin expressions of horror on their faces and Kakashi was surely pouting under his mask. "I need some air. Sensei, I'm leaving them in your care."

"Technically, they're always in my care, because you're eleven and not actually their mother, Sakura-chan."

"Sure, whatever works. Just make sure there's a room to come back to."

He waved. "Don't go too far. Be alert. This isn't Konoha."

She left the small inn and happily breathed in the clean, dry air of the late afternoon. She headed toward the middle of Suna, knowing from past experiences in her version that they had clustered their restaurants into one district.

Sakura was surprised to see Temari, Kankuro and Gaara sitting stiffly with one another in at an outdoor table of a seemingly empty restaurant. She paused mid-stride, wondering if she should approach and her sudden cessation of movement caught Gaara's eye. He turned and stared directly at her and she figured that constituted an invitation in his mind. She smiled and waved at him, to his siblings' obvious surprise.

"Hi, Gaara! Who are your friends?" Their eyes were wide with shock and if she hadn't been on a mission to rescue their brother from his literal and metaphorical internal demons, she would have been highly amused.

He nodded at them. "These are my siblings, Temari and Kankuro."

"Hello! I'm Sakura, from Konoha. I met your brother last night."

Kankuro squinted at her suspiciously through his heavy makeup. "What were you doing last night?"

She shrugged. "I guess it's against the rules to hang out on the outer wall. No one said so, but Gaara was kind enough to inform me." She inclined her head. "I don't want to interrupt your meal. It was nice to meet you!"

Before she could leave, Gaara said, "Join us."

"Is that a demand or a request?" she said, challengingly.

"Both." Temari's eyebrows couldn't travel any higher up on her forehead as Sakura just laughed at Gaara's flat statement.

"Sure, stopping here for dinner won't kill me," she said, looking Gaara in the eye and after a moment, he nodded.

"True."

She grabbed a chair from one of the empty tables around them and pulled it up next to Temari so she was directly across from Gaara. She waved at the empty table. "Looks like I have good timing, you guys haven't even ordered yet."

Temari nervously shot a look at Gaara, who was just sitting there calmly. "Yes, we were just discussing the menu when you showed up."

Sakura smiled at her encouragingly. "So what's good here in Suna? This is my first time to the village."

Kankuro perked up. "This place has great hamburgers!"

Temari sighed, "She can get hamburgers in Konoha. You should try the kenshin soup, we make it differently here."

Sakura fanned herself and whined, "Soup on a day like this? Temari-san, are you trying to get rid of Suna's competition through food?"

Kankuro laughed, "No, she's more likely to whack you with that thing." He motioned toward Temari's fan where it was leaning against the back of her chair.

"Oh, are you a wind user?"

Temari smirked at her. "Like I would tell you before the exams."

Sakura held up her hands in false surrender. "Can't blame a girl for trying. At least now I know you're a violent offender with an enormous weapon." She picked up the menu. "What about you, Gaara? What food do you like?"

Sakura pretended not to notice the chilly silence that permeated the group when she addressed her question toward him. Really, this poor family. They never had a chance to grow up normally.

"Tanshio."

She brightened. "Really? If you're ever in Konoha, I should take you to my favorite barbecue restaurant. They do the best tanshio there!" His siblings seemed to be holding their breath at her simple invitation, but he inclined his head a fraction and Sakura went back to reading the menu happily.

"Sakura-chan." She craned her neck backwards to see Kakashi standing behind her, looking overly relaxed.

"Ah, Kakashi-sensei! I made some new friends on my walk. Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, this is my jonin-sensei, Hatake Kakashi." She saw that Temari openly recognized his name, but they all nodded at him in greeting.

"I see that. I need you to come back to the room now, unfortunately."

She pouted and then a terrible thought came to her. "The boys didn't break anything, did they? I told you that you were responsible for them!"

"Maa, Sakura-chan. They're still alive."

She huffed and placed the menu down. "That's not saying much." Sakura smiled apologetically at the group. "Sorry, guys. It was nice to meet you. Maybe we can try for lunch again later this week before the exams!" She waved and was off with Kakashi in a flash, peppering him with questions about Naruto and Sasuke and the state of their room.

As soon as he determined they were far enough away, he grabbed her by the arms, startling her into to silence. "Sakura! Do you know who they were?"

"Uh, I'm pretty sure I just introduced you to them, so yes?"

"Did they happen to mention that they're the Kazekage's children?"

"No, but I already knew that."

"Of course they-what?" Kakashi stopped, perplexed. He had gone looking for his errant student, only to see her gleefully sitting with the Suna leader's brood, one of which was a boy with such cold eyes that it made him shudder. To think she wanted him to keep Naruto and Sasuke out of trouble when she was out cavorting with the enemy.

"Politics are a hobby of mine, remember? I'm not an idiot."

"So what was your goal?"

"Actually, it was to really just to get to know them. They are no doubt going to be important in the future."

Kakashi drooped and sighed, something he never did as much as when Sarutobi had assigned him Team 7. "Sakura-chan, please try to keep your political machinations to a minimum until the Chunin Exams are over."

She smiled at him and winked. "I make no promises, Kakashi-sensei."

That night she slipped away from the room again, deciding to take a walk around Suna instead of perching herself on the highest point. She had made herself as approachable as possible for Gaara; now she just had to wait and see if he would take the bait.

After twenty minutes of aimless wandering, she felt him fall into step with her. She waited for him to speak. If they spent the entire night in silence, she felt it would be worth the knowledge that he had chosen to seek her out for the purpose of company, rather than bloodlust.

"The people around me do not bring me joy."

What? Oh, we're playing that game again.

"Do you care for them?"

"No?"

"There's no one you love, at all? What about Temari and Kankuro?"

"They exist around me, but I love only myself."

"But is that enough for you, Gaara? Are you living?" He looked at her with the slightest hint of confusion, indicating that, yes, obviously, he was alive. "We can survive alone, Gaara. But without others to share with, even just one other, we fail to live."

"An empty existence is still preferable to a shortened one."

"Perhaps. Look, I understand the fear of emotional pain, the need to take care of your own well-being before others. Ultimately, people are pretty selfish. But we can be so much more when he strive for happiness."

"Why? What is happiness like?"

God, if that isn't the most depressing thing I have ever heard.

"I think that's different for everyone, but for me, I feel happiest when I accomplish something I worked for. Nearly everything I work on is for other people and therefore they also benefit from it. It's a way to satisfy a natural selfish urge to do something for yourself while also being good. Think of it as a cheat."

"And if I feel accomplished when I kill?"

"Do you kill in service to Suna or for your own pleasure?"

Gaara looked straight ahead. "Sometimes I'm not sure."

Sakura shrugged. "Like I said, I don't think it's the same for everyone. But I also find happiness is just being in the same company as my loved ones. The joy they bring can help erase that intrinsic feeling of loneliness that can creep into me during the darkest hours of the night."

"Why aren't you with them now, during these darkest hours?"

"I carry them with me, in my mind and my heart. Plus, I now have a new friend to talk to." She turned to smile at him.

"Perhaps the companionship of an evil person is better than loneliness."

"Are you evil, Gaara? I haven't seen it in you."

"You would be the only one."

On impulse, she touched his arm lightly and said, "I'm sorry." She meant I'm sorry this happened to you and I'm sorry I can't help more, but mostly I'm sorry that life will continue to be difficult for you, even past this. His sand defense reacted automatically, covering his skin before her fingertips touched him, but it didn't lash out at her.

"Why?"

"There's something about you. It's like a weight of sadness that drags you down. I can see it in your eyes."

"My eyes?"

"I see the sadness most when you talk about killing."

He jerked away, reacting more to her words than he had to her touch. "You have no idea what you're speaking of. That is not the emotion you see."

Sakura just dropped her hand casually. "You can't be the judge of what I assume, Gaara. Are you saying beneath the anger and the bloodlust, there's nothing else?"

His hands were shaking. "Yes, exactly! There's nothing!"

"I don't believe it." She locked her hands behind her head and looked up at the sky, giving him time to calm. It was nearing dawn again.

He whispered to her. "You should go." Sakura touched his arm again, gently. The ever-present sand still prevented her from reaching him completely, but he didn't move away.

She smiled at him. "I'll see you tomorrow, Gaara."

The next night, he sought her out. She was barely twenty feet from their lodgings when she felt his presence.

"Good evening, Gaara."

"Sakura."

A greeting! This is an improvement, surely.

She nodded toward the village gates and they left Suna past the wide-eyed guards, with her leading him toward a large dune. Sakura flopped down on her back to look at the stars and patted the sand next to her invitingly. He hesitantly sat, spine stiff. "So tell me more about yourself, Sabaku no Gaara. All I really know is that you like tanshio and late nights."

"I don't sleep."

"At all? Ever? That sounds like a medical condition."

"You could call it that."

Not exactly a nickname I would ever give to Shukaku, but fair enough.

"So you just wander around all night, every night?"

"I could ask you the same."

Sakura laughed. "Fair enough. Back in Konoha I could at least train or study. I'm restricted to simply wandering here."

Gaara tilted his head. "Study?"

"I will pretty much read anything I can get my hands on, but lately I have been into poisons. You know, Suna is pretty renown for them."

"You are interested in poisoning people?"

"Well, no. Maybe. Mostly I'm interested in how to heal them. I have medical training." She laughed to herself. "Oops, don't tell your sister that."

"I will keep your secret."

"Thanks. So what do you do for fun?"

"I cultivate cactuses."

Sakura sat up on her elbows. "Really? That's so cute. I never would have guessed." His brow furrowed at her phrasing and the sand around him stirred uneasily. She looked at him for a moment and decided to ask. "So what's with the giant gourd?"

"It carries my sand."

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, obviously. I meant, what can you do with it?"

Gaara's eyes widened slightly. "I kill people with it."

Sakura flopped back onto the sand with a sigh. "Again, obviously. What else can you do with it, though?"

He stared at her, startled as always by her nonchalance at his killing. It was not a reaction that happened often. "I don't do anything else with it."

"That seems like a waste of a good skill, Gaara. I bet you could do anything! Can you make shapes with it?"

"Yes."

"Good. Make me a kitty." He turned his head slowly to look at her and she frowned. "What? I love my cat, even though he's a big jerk."

"… what does he look like?" Sakura grinned, excited beyond measure that he was going along with her idea. She described Yasutomo to him, fondly reminiscing about how twitchy he was.

Gaara lifted his hand and sand swirled around it, twisting and molding itself to his unspoken direction. Sakura watched with fascination as a small form took shape in front of them, looking more and more like the cat she described. She jumped slightly when it opened its eyes and stared at her unwaveringly.

"Oh, wow! Gaara, that's amazing!" Sakura reached a hand forward and touched its head, stroking the grainy texture behind its ears. It yawned and stretched and then started washing its paws with a useless tongue. "It's so lifelike. Do you have a pet as well?"

"No. There are many strays." He paused, watching her play with the sand cat. "Does it look like your Yasutomo?"

"It is a pretty uncanny likeness, actually." It curled up into her lap, purring. "Except for the eyes. They look like yours." He shifted his hand, looking like he was about to change it. "No, no. Keep them."

They sat in silence for a long moment while she stroked the cat's back, its gritty texture tickling her palm.

"Why aren't you afraid of me?"

I wish he would stop springing these questions on me.

"You haven't given me reason to be scared."

"I have mentioned killing many people. Without reason."

Sakura shrugged, tickling the cat's belly and laughing inappropriately when it swatted at her. "We're shinobi, Gaara. Death and killing come with the territory. I'm not so naïve as to believe otherwise."

"Everyone I know is a shinobi, but they do not react to me as you do."

She turned to him, careful not to dislodge the cat and grinned at him obnoxiously. "I'm just special like that." Gaara was silent and Sakura worried that she had made a mistake retreating back to her usual personality quirks. He was sensitive, just as Sasuke had been in the wake of his brother's betrayal, but so much more volatile.

"Perhaps that is it."

"Hmm?"

"You are unique."

"Well, I'm not going to object to that." She said it teasingly, hopeful at his tone and his words, hopeful that this hadn't been a huge waste, that Gaara wasn't a lost cause. He didn't respond, so she attempted a new topic. "It's so beautiful here at night. I love looking at the stars."

"You say that a lot. Love." The cat woke up and stretched again, disturbed by its creator's roiling chakra.

"It's a big part of my life."

"What do you do with it?"

She shrugged, unsure of how to describe her feelings for her team, her friends, her village. It was what drove her to use the sealed scrolls she had found in Orochimaru's lair, it was the basis upon which she lived every day in her second life.

"Love is powerful, Gaara. It gives you strength when you had previously felt as if you could not move one more step. It's like being infused with a chakra boost, warm and tingly and exciting. Though that's only how I feel about love as I have experienced it." Sakura smiled at him. "Romantic love is not my forte."

"You rely on others for this."

It was a statement, but she answered as if it were a question. "It would have no meaning if I kept it to myself."

"Others can make you vulnerable. Anything that can be taken from you so easily is a weakness, not a strength."

"Nothing worth having comes easily, Gaara. Those I love are worth it to me. I will fight anyone who tries to take them from me and that gives me strength as well." She stood and yawned, looking at the sun just barely attempting to peek over the horizon. "It's time for me to head back. Kakashi-sensei will worry if I'm not there when he wakes up."

Gaara followed her back into the village, where a shift change had taken place. She waved her traffic pass at another set of wide-eyed guards cheerfully, though she doubted they would have stopped her while in Gaara's company. He followed her directly to her door, sand cat in tow.

She nodded to him and smiled. "Good night, Gaara. Or maybe good morning, at this point."

He inclined his head slightly. "I will see you tonight." He left in a swirl of sand, but the cat remained, staring at her unblinkingly. Sakura opened the door to the inn and it followed her in naturally.

Sakura looked at it in disbelief. "Oh, Kakashi is going to have a fit."

She was right. Kakashi was not happy to wake up and see his student cuddling with a chakra construction that resembled an unpleasant Siamese cat, brimming over with the same dangerous energy that he had felt from the Kazekage's boy.

The boys, however, were fascinated by it.

"Sakura-chan! Where did you get it" Naruto's bright eyes were filled with curiosity as he reached out a hand to the cat, which hissed and swatted at him angrily. He pouted and withdrew his scratched hand while Sasuke laughed at him.

"He's a gift from a friend that I met here in Suna."

Naruto jumped on that. "Who? When did you meet someone? Do we know them?"

"Yes, I met him days ago when I left you two to Kakashi-sensei's tender mercies."

Sasuke looked skeptical. "And he just gave you this? It looks very complex for someone you just met."

Sakura fluttered her eyelashes at him coquettishly. "Why, Sasuke-kun! Don't you think I deserve nice things?" He grumbled, but didn't say anything more. Kakashi cleared his throat behind them.

"Sakura-chan, that boy is from Suna. He could have given you this to spy on our team." The boys immediately drew away from the cat and Sakura huffed, cradling it in her arms.

"Gaara doesn't need a cat to spy on anyone if he wanted to, I'm sure." Kakashi looked at her narrowly and she regretted her words. "He's just powerful enough not to need to!" That wasn't any better. "He wouldn't?"

"None of that is reassuring, Sakura-chan. The cat has to go." She felt a slight hint of panic. If she abandoned this gift that Gaara had made for her, would he just take it as another betrayal? Sakura couldn't let that happen.

"Fine, fine. I'll return it. Let me go out and find him." She slipped out of the room before they could protest, not wanting to belabor the point. She placed the cat on the ground and it followed her sedately as she considered where to go. How in the world was she going to find him instead of the other way around? Sakura stopped and looked down at her erstwhile companion and squatted down to eyelevel.

"Say, Yasu. You wouldn't happen to know where Gaara is, would you?" It regarded her with curious eyes and abruptly turned around, heading south. She followed it slowly, realizing that they were headed toward the restaurant district once more. Sakura saw Gaara sitting with Temari and Kankuro again, his two siblings looking no less bewildered than they had the first time.

She snuck up behind the two older nin and tapped Kankuro on the shoulder, laughing delightedly when he jumped and nearly fell out of his chair. She grinned as he grumbled to himself like an old man. Temari looked vaguely happy to see her and Gaara's face had twitched, so Sakura took that as a win.

"Hello again!"

Temari nodded to her. "Sakura, was it? You have a knack for disturbing our meals."

She pouted and looked down at the menus. "You don't even have food yet! Plus, I'm here on a mission." She motioned to the cat, which jumped on their table nonchalantly, to the surprise of Temari and Kankuro. "Kakashi-sensei won't let me keep it with the team, because he's a paranoid old man. Can you keep Yasu with you during the day, Gaara?"

"What the hell is that?" Kankuro was pointing at it in horror.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Surely you've seen a cat before, Kankuro-san."

"Not a cat made out of sand!"

"You live in Suna and your brother has the most amazing techniques with sand. I can't believe this is such a strange thing for you." The group was went quiet when she brought up Gaara's abilities, but Sakura didn't let that phase her. She was a kunoichi, if a little awkward silence was the worst thing that happened today, she'd count herself lucky.

Unbelievably, Gaara was the one to break the silence. "Yasu will be fine here."

She smiled at him brightly, happy he didn't seem offended. "Thanks! I'll see you tonight." He nodded and she waved goodbye to his flabbergasted siblings.

Sakura decided to bring back some treats for the boys on her way back to the inn, in an attempt to forestall awkward questions that she couldn't answer. She still harbored suspicions that Kakashi wasn't as unaware of her nightly excursions as he played, but the fact that he still let her go was all that mattered right now.

Yasu met her at the door when she opened it quietly later that night. Gaara was nowhere to be found, so she followed the cat. It led her right back to the same area they had been the night before, on a high dune surrounded by nothing but cool sand and an open starry sky. The redhead materialized there once she settled down next to Yasu and sat next to her without prompting.

Sakura tickled under the cat's chin and said, "Tonight's the last night before the exams. Are you excited?"

"I'm not participating."

She cocked her head. "Oh? Why not?"

"I don't want to."

"Good reason. I had to threaten my boys into sleeping tonight, they were so wound up."

"Your boys?"

Sakura smiled. "My teammates. They're my best friends, but sometimes they're very hyperactive. Comes with being an eleven year old boy, I guess." She looked at him, still and placid. "Or maybe it's just them."

"They are the ones you love?"

"Some of them, yes. There's also my sensei and my other friends back home too. I love my village, even if I don't know everyone in it." She sighed. "It's nice to have a sense of community."

"I wonder." Gaara sounded almost wistful and her heart ached for him.

"Well, no matter what happens in the exams tomorrow, we can still be friends."

"We're in different villages."

"So? I'm a great penpal. Plus, Konoha and Suna have an alliance. We should preserve that for a new generation!" She dramatically spread her arms wide and Yasu growled at her playfully. Sakura laughed and fell backwards onto the dune behind her.

"Why are you laughing?"

"I just reminded myself of someone I know. He's very dynamic."

He made the sand twitch beneath Yasu's feet, causing the cat to jump and look at him balefully. "You seem to have a lot of friends."

"I'm pretty good at getting to know people. Most can be pretty interesting if you give them a chance." She looked at him. "So? If I write you a letter, will you send me one back?"

"I've never written a letter before."

"Then I get the honor of being your very first letter receiver!" She saw the corner of his mouth tip up in the slightest of slight smiles and crowed inwardly.

Yes!

"Aa. That sounds acceptable. I do not know what I will write."

She shrugged, still smug with her emotional victory. "Whatever you want, I'm pretty open-minded. Tell me about your cactuses or your siblings or how you feel about the color orange."

"Orange?"

Sakura made a face. "My teammate is obsessed with wearing it. I try to tell him that it's not very discrete for a shinobi, but then he gets all uppity about my hair." She waved at her own head.

Gaara nodded. "Yes, you have a very conspicuous color." He regarded her carefully for a moment. "It suits you. You are a very conspicuous person."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment."

"You should."

They sat together, the silence now a little more comfortable, and looked at the stars.

Note: How do you convince a traumatized little boy that the world is not actually terrible and filled with people who will only hurt him? The power of love and cats, maybe.