The man felt mercy for his prisoner after he had heard the roar of an icy cold wind coming from outside knowing that he had left Sakura in a heatless room at minus 15 degrees Celsius. He didn't want her dead. He only meant to teach her respect and stop pushing him away. He slowly cracked the door open to peek inside. She was trembling; her body shook violently from the cold chills. He entered faster than one could say 'fish' and ran towards the bed with a thick blanket in his arms. When the back of his hand touched her cheek, it felt as cold as ice. First, he helped her sit up with her knees to her chest. Her wrists still tied to the sides of the bed. Then, he wrapped her body in blanket before sitting next to her to squeeze her in his arms in tries to warm her.

"I'm sorry, my dear. I am such an idiot! You could have died. Forgive me. I'll go make the fire right away."

Sakura looked at him with disgust and anger as he hurried to bring dry wood and light it in the fireplace. Why can't I use chakra like I should? The little green light that shone around her hands was being used for healing the baby. It's not normal for my body to feel this weak. He must have given me something: drugs or maybe poison. Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes at the thought that the man could have poisoned her, but then she remembered her body is immune to almost any poison. But is the baby immune? She used all her healing powers on the baby to keep him/her alive. The baby was the most important.

The man sat next to Sakura once more. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders through the blanket and pulled her weak icy body closer to his. He placed a kiss on top of her head while whispering sweet words into her ear.

"Please, let me go."

"Where do you want to go? You can't go anywhere on this wind."

"You have to understand I am not your wife."

"Again with this attitude? What did I do to deserve to be treated this coldly?"

"I am married and I have a child."

"We have no children, dear. You fell and hit your head." His fingers caressed her pink hair with kindness, but in a possessive way.

Sakura was frustrated to find herself in a hopeless situation. The flow of her tears wasn't interrupted. At least she started getting warm.

"I need to go to the bathroom."

The man was skeptical. He had already anticipated this move. For that reason, he blocked all of the windows in the house so she couldn't get out. He wasn't too concerned that she will leave anytime soon because she had nowhere to go. She didn't have her winter coat, hat of gloves. Plus, that house was km away from the closest house on that mountain.

"I'll allow you to go to the bathroom if you promise you won't try to hit me again once I uncuff your wrists."

Sakura wasn't stupid. She was aware there was nowhere to run to. The wisest move was to wait for Gaara. Whatever circulated into her body would definitely affect her if she made sudden moves or if her adrenaline level rose. She nodded. The man looked at her for a few seconds, then kept his promise and untied her from the bed. He took her bleeding bruised hand in his and gently traced the marks around her wrist with a finger. Sakura frowned, but didn't pull away. The man bent to kiss her hand, then searched her eyes.

"It wasn't my intention to hurt you. I hope you can move past the desperate actions of a forlorn man."

Sakura didn't say anything. She turned her head to look away so he wouldn't see the disgust in her eyes. He accompanied her to the bathroom door and waited for her to go inside. It was so frustrating that he wouldn't leave her alone not even for a second! She stayed in the bathroom for as long as she could, prolonging the wait to see that man's face again. My love, come quickly please! She whispered while looking at the moon between the wooden planks nailed on the window. She asked the wind to bring the words of her sweet mouth to the ear of her true husband.

"My lovely wife, are you alright? It's taking you too long."

"I'm fine. I'll be out in a minute." She didn't even get to finish her sentence before that man entered the bathroom without warning.

The panic in his eyes dissipated when his eyes met Sakura's figure. He wrapped an arm around her waist to bring her into the house again. Sakura held her upper arms with her hands in a defensive position, her head down, looking at the floor. She tried to think of something to distract this man until Gaara came so this man wouldn't get any ideas into his head, such as groping or rape.

She saw a deck of cards on the cupboard to her right, next to the window. She stopped walking and placed two fingers on the cards.

"Do you want to play cards?" She asked without looking at him.

"I will do anything my darling asks of me."

"Then let me go."

"Anything except that."

"I was joking." Sakura said with a fake smile on her lips.

She could use a distraction, too. She wanted to get her mind off of things so she wouldn't stress herself as much because her stress would transfer to the baby in her womb. Mom will take care of you, my precious child. She thought as she touched her tummy with one hand.

"Let's play." She continued.

They sat across each other. Sakura shuffled the deck, split them to each player and the game began. The cards were very strange to Sakura. Each card had the image of a woman on it and a date underneath. They couldn't be celebrities because Sakura knew them all. It wasn't anything perverted, either because none of the women were naked. They looked like photos from an ID card. The man noticed Sakura was curious to know who those women were. He saddened and lowered his head. To Sakura's amazement, he started talking about it:

"I didn't cheat on you."

Sakura was surprised.

"On the day you disappeared, I knew you didn't simply leave me because when I came to look for you, I found your bag thrown into the snow. Your wallet was in it. At home, there was nothing missing of your things. All of your clothes were there, all of your jewels, your shoes, everything. Somebody stole you from me and I swore to myself I will take you back no matter what. After a yearlong of searches, I realized the chances to find you were very slim. I am not the only one whose life was stolen. I and the other husbands came up with the idea to put the faces of all of the missing wives on each card along with the date of their disappearance and give everyone in the city a deck of cards. In case anyone saw one of our wives, he would notice us and we would come to save her and bring her to her husband. Only 2 of them were found until now. You're the third, my two of clubs. You have no idea how much I've suffered while you were gone."

Sakura searched the deck and found the 2 of clubs. A brown haired woman with brown eyes stared back at Sakura from her hand. We have a similar face, but the colors are wrong. My hair is pink and my eyes green.

"Now that I found you, you will never leave the house again. I can't risk anything happening to you again."

Sakura placed a hand on her belly because the stranger's words unsettled her. Poor man. The suffering blinded him. He was probably afraid he will be alone for the rest of his life and convinced himself I am his wife.

"Why do you keep touching your stomach? Are you hungry?"

"No." She lied. She couldn't risk eating more drugs. Who knew what that kidnapper put into her food?

"You must be, otherwise why would you protect your stomach like that?" His face suddenly darkened and Sakura became scared. A cold chill ran down her spine.

The man slapped the small table between them so hard that it hit the wall with a thump, making the cards fly in all directions. A frightened fear escaped Sakura's lips.

"You're pregnant. YOU'RE PREGNANT! You cheated on me, you filthy woman!" He got closer to her with his fist ready to hit her. Sakura used her feet to push his body back.

"You promised not to hit me. That's it! From now on, you will live your life tied to that bed! That's what you deserve! Troublesome woman! You sleep with men and then you come back to me?"

He grabbed her ankle and pulled harsh, causing her to lose balance and fall back. The man tried to hit her in the stomach to trigger an abortion, but Sakura shifted her body so the blow landed on the floor, next to her side. One of his hands squeezed Sakura's neck while he tried to defend himself from Sakura's desperate hits. His body hovered over hers. With the little chakra she had left, Sakura activated her purple seal on the forehead. Black stripes graced her face and her body. At least she made sure the bastard won't kill her or the baby.

"I've been looking for you all this time and what do I get in return?"

"Get off of me! Leave me alone! GAARA! Sakura screamed from the top of her lungs. Her nails relentlessly scratched the skin on the hand that kept pushing into her neck.

Gaara's ears filled with the desperate scream of his wife and he ran to where he had heard it. Turquoise eyes looked between the wooden planks nails on the window and saw a man on top of his wife, who was struggling to get free. He suddenly saw red before his eyes. Rage unleashed and sand bullets mixed with sand kunais broke through the window and the wood, hitting the aggressor so hard, his body flew towards the wall. The moment his back hit the wall, sand kunais stabbed him in the stomach, in his left shoulder, in the side of his neck and in the right leg. Sakura cried and screamed in despair. Cold flooded the room. Gaara ran to his wife and helped her stand up. Sakura threw herself to his chest and kept crying frantically. Gaara shielded her from the cold with the help of his sand. One of his hands caressed the back of her head. His other hand was stretched to its full length towards the aggressor.

"Did he touch you?" Gaara whispered into Sakura's ear.

"No." She replied through sobs and hiccups.

"Our baby?"

"The baby is fine. I protected him."

Gaara kissed her hair and calmed down. The kidnapper spat out blood and threw dangerous looks at Gaara, but he couldn't speak because of the pain.

"Sakura, go take your coat and boots. It's cold and I don't want you to catch a cold. We have a long way to go from here."

Sakura's hands clutched Gaara's coat. It triggered such mercy in Gaara's heart...

"You're with me now. Nothing can happen to you now. I will protect you, ok?"

"Ok."

"Go now. When you finish, light this kunai and throw it to the sky so Shinki knows where we are."

"Yes."

Sakura raised her head from Gaara's chest and brought her hand to her eyes to wipe her tears. That was when Gaara noticed Sakura's injured wrists which lit a new load of anger inside him. Sakura went to look for her clothes, protected by the sand that felt so familiar and close to her heart. Gaara waited until Sakura was out of ear shot to talk to the enemy.

"What gave you the right to lay your hand on my wife?"

"What are you talking about? She belongs to me. This is my house, so that is my wife you're ordering around."

"Normally, I would torture you so you understand why kidnapping a woman is not a good idea. But your screams of agony would only trouble Sakura more and I want her suffering to end."

"Hmpf."

"Killing you will have to suffice."

Gaara got closer to the wall and used his right hand to sever the man's neck from one side to the other in one move. The prisoner had no time to say anything else. He just drowned in thick black blood. A tragic fate.

Shinki entered through the window seconds after Sakura lit the explosive paper. He was so happy to see her that he jumped on her. His small hands wrapped around Sakura's body in a hug.

"I am so happy to see you! What took you so long to find me?"

"Sorry, but this place is not exactly easy to find. You'll see what I mean when we go outside. We're in the middle of nowhere."

Sakura hugged Gaara once again.

"Mom, how did you leave so fast? I and dad waited for you forever."

Sakura caressed the boy's smooth cheek.

"Mom didn't leave because she wanted to." Sakura replied.

Gaara stared at something behind the boy, so naturally the boy turned his head to take a look. Shinki saw the dead body of a tall, well-built middle aged man with brown hair. His body was covered in blood. The kid understood everything without any further explanations.

"He deserved it. He's lucky I didn't get here first. I would have crashed his head!" Shinki said.

Sakura smiled, but Gaara remained just as serious.

"I am lucky to have my 2 powerful boys next to me."

"Mom, did he do anything to you? Did he hit you?"

"Of course not. Your father got here on time. I'm fine, don't worry."

Shinki sighed in relief, then looked proudly at his father.

"Wait here a second." Sakura said before she headed towards the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Gaara asked.

The boys looked perplexedly at Sakura's back, waiting for an answer.

"Just wait here for a second. I'll be right back."

Gaara gestured to his son to stay put. Then, Gaara went after his wife. Was she hurt and she was trying to hide from him?

He found Sakura looking through some cupboards.

"What are you doing?"

Sakura whispered to him, so Shinki wouldn't hear:

"That man put something in the water I drank. I want to see if they were drugs or something else."

"He did what?" Gaara's fists balled at his sides in fury.

"I think he wanted to keep me weak enough so I wouldn't try to escape or fight back. Otherwise, I would have killed him myself."

Gaara swallowed air.

"Here it is." Sakura said when she found a small bag which contained some white powder that she spilled on the table to sniff it. She wanted to see if it was anything she had previously seen. Gaara saw her calm down.

"Thnak God! It's not poison!"

Gaara's stomach flipped upside down.

"It's exactly what I thought: some cheap drug with no side effects, which means our baby is healthy." Sakura took Gaara's hand and happily placed it on top of her stomach.

"Mom, dad, can we leave now?"

"We're coming, son." Gaara answered still a little troubled. If Sakura or the baby would have been injured, Gaara would never forgive himself. In conclusion, he couldn't let Sakura wander unattended and risk some other lunatic steal her again. No! It was already too shameful for Gaara that it had happened once. He felt useless. What kind of husband can't protect his wife?

"Gaara, are you alright?"

"Yes, don't worry. Let's go."

Note: You were right! The baby is alive and well. I couldn't do this to them and kill the baby. I would have cried if the baby died. I plan a happy future ahead. Sakura will have to work on lifting Gaara's moral this time as he thinks he is useless to her. What is your opinion on the kidnapper? What do you think about this chapter? Was it satisfying?

I will post a new chapter from my other story in a few days. Sorry, I try to hurry as much as I can, but I can't risk releasing a weak chapter. I do my best so you have a great experience reading.