Flowers smell sweeter the closer I get to you. Gaara said while looking at the pink and red wild flowers that adorned the edge of the road. His team, his sensei and his father were travelling together to Konoha for the chuunin exams. I wouldn't have noticed them before, but now, every time I look at them, I think about you.

I am a flower in your eyes, and you are the gardener who digs the ground around me, who waters me and takes care of me so I rise beautifully, protected by your big warm hands that prevent the wind from bending me.

I am sure you've become even more beautiful since the last time I saw you.

I am dying to know if I am taller than you.

Of course you aren't. He was cocky as he said it.

I was joking. Anyway, even if I was taller than you, you would surpass me in a few months for sure.

Sakura, don't worry. I am sure you are shorter than me. You are a little doll. A crybaby!

Hey!

You are. I like the way you are.

Sakura sighed.

Come on, don't get upset now.

You always play with my feelings.

What? No, never. He took a deep breath and continued. What do you want to do when I get there?

Hmm. I was waiting for you to tell me where you want to go considering you can't come to Konoha often.

I want anything you want.

Sakura smiled and began to play with a strand of hair between her fingers.

When Gaara and the others arrived at the village gates, Sakura followed them from the trees, waiting for the moment Gaara's father and his sensei disappeared so she could be herself around the redhead. She was better at hiding her chakra than before, so it wasn't obvious that she was following them. Of course, Rasa and Baki knew what she was doing, but decided to ignore it. After the Suna team signed the forms in the Hokage's office, they were free to go. Rasa and Baki went out to have a drink with the Hokage.

I am coming.

Sakura giggled. She was waiting for him on a branch. Gaara's sand swirled around him and enveloped him whole before he teleported himself on the same branch Sakura was standing on. She immediately felt his presence. She turned around and jumped to hug him before he got the chance to open his mouth to speak. Her arms wrapped around his neck. Gaara's eyes grew in size at the same time as the branch broke beneath them. Sakura's scream of happiness turned into a shout of fear and she shut her eyes tight. She clung onto him desperately. All of her muscles were tense. Gaara didn't lose himself not even for a second, but he wrapped his arms tight around her, to keep her close to his chest as he was falling with his back to the ground. He gritted his teeth and braced himself for the impact. His sand formed a shield that mitigated the fall. Still, Gaara couldn't interpose the sand between him and her because he feared it would have hurt her. He preferred to endure the pain of being crushed by her without complaining. Even more, after he connected with the ground with Sakura on top of him, he was the one to ask:

"Are you ok? Are you hurt?"

Sakura stood up on her feet quickly, not without shame. She offered him her hand, but he was already pushing into the ground to stand up next to her, so Sakura retracted her hand.

"I am sorry. I couldn't stop myself from jumping on you. I am so happy you are here!" She offered him a big bright smile before she started dusting his clothes. He followed suit a little perplexedly.

"You are very beautiful!"

"Eh?" Sakura was suddenly embarrassed and took a step back, holding her arms with her hands, in a defensive manner. Her cheek was the same color as her hair.

Before his tongue untangled, Gaara coughed. Sakura became instantly worried. She got closer to him once again to ask:

"Gaara-kun, are you alright? Does anything hurt?"

"No, I am fine."

"It's my fault, isn't it? I fell on you and maybe your internal organs suffer. We have to go to the hospital, quick!"

Gaara caught her gently by the wrist and stopped her rant.

"It's not like that, my flower. You know I caught a cold a week before I left Suna. You have no blame. I think a cup of tea would do me good."

His last sentence cheered her up.

"Fine, come with me."

Gaara let go of her wrist and both of them headed towards a teashop that was very familiar to Sakura. They walked next to each other. Sakura did the talking while Gaara listened happily. His ears didn't catch the meaning of her words, but the melody and harmony of her voice. How pretty her voice was in reality! It was truly a blessing to be able to look at her when she talked! His hard facial features softened whenever he was with her, so that she never saw the dark side of him.

As they were walking, Gaara sent his sand to pick a flower from a bush he had spotted near them. Then, the thin string of sand curled around Sakura's right hand and the flower popped in front of her eyes. Sakura stopped in her tracks, took the flower between her 2 fingers and giggled. Gaara smiled and continued to walk towards the teashop, thinking Sakura would follow him. He was surprised when she curled her fingers around his forearm. He stopped walking to look at her.

"Thank you." Sakura said after kissing his cheek.

Sakura lifted the white cloth that was hanging from the top of the entrance to the teashop with her left hand and stepped inside. Gaara followed her closely.

"Let's sit by the window." She happily said.

"Ok."

The sat across each other and peaked into the menu.

"What do you want?"

"Peppermint tea."

When the waiter came, Gaara ordered tea for the both of them. Then, when the waiter bowed and left, Gaara turned back to looking at her face.

"Do you feel ready for the chuunin exams?"

"Well...I don't really know."

"Why? Even if you don't get good results, it's a good opportunity to see your level. You've trained a lot. I am sure you will be surprised of how much you can do."

"Thank you. I am afraid I will have to fight against somebody from my team or yours. What will I do if I have to fight you?"

Gaara laughed.

"We'll think about it then if we ever get to that point."

"If you hadn't told me that only a complete team can sign up for the exams, I wouldn't have participated. But I was afraid that Naruto and Sasuke will blame me for not being able to advance in their career. I didn't want to be the boulder that held them back."

"Doesn't matter what they think. Stop thinking about it."

"But..."

"Sakura, everything will be fine. Trust me. I will be there for you no matter what."

Right at that moment, the waiter came to the table with a big silver tray. He placed a small plate on top of which there was a cup with a teapot on top, covering the cup. There was a packet of sugar, a tea bag and a small spoon on the plate. The teapot was filled with hot water. The waiter placed the same items in front of Sakura as well, before he bowed to leave them alone. Sakura became nervous all of a sudden and kept staring at Gaara's teapot.

"Go ahead." Gaara encouraged her.

"You first."

"Are you feeling ok? Everything was fine until a minute ago."

"Yes, well..." She bit her lip.

I don't know the order they're supposed to be used.

Excuse me?

I mean, what do you put first in the cup? The sugar, the tea bag or the water?

It doesn't matter. You worry over nothing, really.

But what if people laugh at me?

Gaara started laughing softly.

Stop it.

Sorry. Nobody will laugh at you because nobody cares what you put first.

How about you start and I copy what you do?

Ok.

Gaara snickered, took the teapot by the handle and poured water into the cup. Sakura did the same. Then, he put the sugar and used the spoon to stir and help the sugar melt. Sakura copied even his hitting the spoon twice against the cup. In the end, they both placed the tea bags into the cups and waited for it to infuse. Sakura nervously looked around at the other people in the store to see if anybody was judging her.

"Stop looking. They will think you're suspicious and you'll make them look at you."

Sakura laughed and looked back into her cup.

Good luck!

You too. Call me if you need help.

Gaara, I will manage.

I know, but I don't want you to get hurt. The exam supervisor said we could die in this forest.

The forest is my domain. I have lived in a forest my whole life.

We're going in!

All teams entered the forest through their own gates as soon as the supervisor shouted the start of the second phase of the chuunin exams. The beginning seemed promising. Gaara's team had the earth parchment while team 7 had the sky parchment. Each team needed both parchments to win. Sakura and Gaara decided from the beginning to find other teams to fight and get the missing parchments instead of fighting between themselves. Gaara's sand protected not only himself, but his brother and sister as well of all the traps that were set in the forest. Sakura and Sasuke successfully ducked the traps while also taking care of Naruto, because he wasn't experienced in that domain. By the afternoon of the second day, Orochimaru had already bit Sasuke by the neck with his poisoned fangs before they hardly managed to escape with the help of another team and Naruto's. Unfortunately, Naruto was also put down by that Orochimaru, who put another seal on top of the old one on the boy's belly. He was left with just enough chakra to live. Sasuke was rolling on the floor, screaming in pain when he didn't faint. Sakura managed to carry both of them from the battle field to the shelter of a big tree trunk that was hollow inside. She dipped a cloth in the nearby stream and wiped the boys' foreheads of the beads of sweat. She set some traps, but they weren't very elaborate, so the ninja from the Land of Sound easily got through them without even a scratch. Not only they weren't harmed, but they even laughed at her for her weakness. Sakura refused to hand them her team's parchment, so the 3 of them jumped onto her to forcibly take it. Sakura jumped high in the air and landed a frontal blow with her fist, that the ninja easily blocked before Sakura disappeared into a puff of smoke and a log replaced her. The true Sakura came from the left side ready to punch the enemy in his side, but the sound this villain channeled through his arm, hit her ears with sounds 100 times greater than the normal human ear can handle. Sakura screamed, lost her balance and fell to her knees while holding her ears in pain and horror. The sand from her neck and hand couldn't help her against a sound attack. So she screamed and squirmed on the ground.

Help!

Sakura! I am coming!

His face became tough as he ordered his team to go back. The 2 followed him without a word because they knew not to mess with him when he was like that. While Gaara was running at full speed, Sakura received fists in her stomach, in her face. The ninja hit her with his legs and all she managed to do was bite the hand of the ninja who made her deaf for the moment. Blood was flowing from her ears and nose. Her body was covered in bruises and scratches and one of her eyes turned blue. The woman from the Land of Sound caught Sakura by the hair while Sakura was sitting on her behind on the ground, emaciated. She did the best she could in protecting the 2 boys on her team.

From behind the bushes, Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji had been watching the whole scene for some time.

"Ino, are you ok with this? Shouldn't we intervene? Isn't Sakura your friend?" Shikamaru asked.

"I know."

"So, what do we do? Do we go in and fight or not?"

"Wait a little longer."

"There is no time. They're going to kill her."

Meanwhile Sakura took all the hits and blows. Ino and Shikamaru were still bickering while Chouji curled into a ball on the ground in fear, covering his eyes. He prayed for the cruelty to be over with soon and his wish was granted.

Right after Sakura cut her own hair with the kunai to get away from the ninja woman, before that woman's leg connected with Sakura's back, sand wrapped around it tightly, lifted the woman into the air and threw her against a tree. Kankurou and Temari shielded Sakura, facing the enemy with their weapons in hand. Gaara stepped slowly onto the grass that was mixed with hundreds of shiny pink hairs.

When he was next to Sakura, she raised her head to look at him. Gaara felt emptiness in his stomach and a lot of hate, seeing how she looked. He lowered to the ground and tried to brush the back of his fingers against her cheek, but she flinched in pain at the contact. Flames burned in Gaara's eyes; he got up on his feet and his voice cut through the forest like thunder.

"Who did this to you? Tell me."

Before she even had time to respond, the idiot admitted to it.

"Me! Do you have a problem with that, kid?"

"Hm. You don't know who you're messing with." Temari retorted.

Gaara raised his hand and sand swallowed the sound ninja whole.

"Sand coffin!"

Screams of pain and wails broke everyone's eardrums, but Gaara was unwavering. Eventually, Sakura felt mercy for the poor man. She tugged on Gaara's robe and looked at him with her teary eyes.

"Please, don't kill him!"

Temari looked at her oddly, as if she didn't understand why Sakura didn't want the people who had hurt her to die in agony. Gaara looked down at Sakura and he couldn't find it in himself to say no. He opened his fist slowly and the sand moved away from the sound ninja, letting him fall to the ground covered in blood.

"You're lucky my girlfriend is merciful. Otherwise, I would have killed you by now. Get out of my sight before I change my mind."

The third member of the sound ninja team carried his 2 comrades out of Gaara's sight right away. Gaara felt the weak and bruised hand of Sakura let go of his robe and he looked at her again. She tried to stand and Gaara bent to help her. But Temari came to them both and said:

"Don't stand up. I will fix your hair."

They both looked at the blonde a little surprised, but complied without any further comments. Temari kneeled behind Sakura and took out her kunai. The truth was Sakura's hair looked terrible after she had cut it in a desperate attempt to get away from the sound ninja woman.

"I am sorry. I got here too late." Gaara apologized.

"It's not your fault."

Temari raised her brows in amazement.

"Where are your colleagues? Why didn't they help you?"

Sakura used her finger to point to the place she had carried the boys and everyone noticed then the drawn bodies of Naruto and Sasuke. Gaara sighed and swallowed the lump in his throat. He was furious because Sakura was hurt badly and then he remembered the 3 cowards who were hiding behind bushes.

That girl, Ino. She is not your friend. She watched the whole scene from there without intervening in either way.

Sakura didn't say anything; she only saddened.

"Ready." Temari said after she gave Sakura a new haircut.

Sakura looked down at the grass in front of her with sadness and then she remembered her manners.

"Thank you for helping me. If it weren't for you..."

I will always be by your side, my dear. Please forgive me for letting this happen to you.

ℬ

Notes: Thank you very much for taking the time to write comments. You always make me want to write more and better. What do you think will happen later in the chuunin exams?