Naruto 1. Chapter 1

Hey guys, please do not hate for not updating the other stories. I've been extremely busy studying for exams and practicals. I have my final exams next week and after that I'm off for a month and a half so I'll be updating frequently. I'm making this story to make it solid and not just a thought. It came to me while listening to Arianna Grande's song _Love Me Harder. _I'm not a fan of her music but I stumbled upon it through Spotify commercials and my head came up with a story of Sasuke and Sakura based on this song. Listen to it to see what I mean or don't. Thank you for everybody's comment on my other stories and worry updating for those stories will come soon. Alright on to it then.

I do not own Naruto but I do own most of episode on DVD if anybody wants to watch them with me. Lol.

You're leaving

Sasuke sat in the living room loveseat with his feet placed on the footstool and watched the television. Well he wasn't really watching the television, he was watching Sakura hover over the kitchen stove looking down and stirring at the pot that was blowing steam in her face.

She had just came home from the hospital. She was in a calm mood. She had a decent day at work and she was just content to be home especially since he was home from his travels. When she walked through the door she saw the dark haired man with spiky hair sitting on the sofa.

" Are you hungry, Sasuke?" She asked placing her medical coat on the coat hook by the door.

"I'm fine." He replied in monotonic tone.

"Alright." She softly smiled. She was walking to their bedroom to change into her comfortable clothing when she stopped in her tracks when she heard a noise. That noise was Sasuke's stomach. It was pretty loud considering how far she was from him and how loud it still sounded considering the distance.

"I'll get started on dinner once I change." She smiled and continued on her way to change her clothing.

He had a soft barely visible smile place on his lips.

He looked at how she was dressed. She was wearing her short shorts and yellow spaghetti strap tank top. He would never say it out loud but he loved it when she wore those two pieces of tight clothing. He loved the way the clothing would hug her curves. If he wasn't and Uchiha with a lot of restraint and discipline he would succumbed to his manly urges and ravaged her body like savage. He saw the apron tied around her waist. She usually forgot to put that on during her cooking sessions and get stains on her clothing which he would laugh at silently but today she remember to put it on.

Sakura looked back and he quickly placed his eyes back on the television screen. He rather do this than to get caught staring at her and explain himself. Sakura looked back down at the pot. Sasuke switched his eyes back over to his pink haired woman. Sasuke saw her struggling to reach at something in the spice cabinet. He smiled at her inability to reach due to her height. He got up and walked behind her. He extended his hand and grab the object she was desperately trying to reach. It was pepper. He placed the pepper in her hands while still behind her short form. Her head looked up at him.

"Thank you." She smiled.

"Hn." He replied with a small crook of his lips indicating a halted smile that was in progress.

She looked back down and shook the pepper into the pan next to the pot. She placed it on the counter.

Sasuke had not yet left from behind her. Heat rose to her cheeks due to his close proximity. She didn't want him to back away from her. She liked the warmth that was radiating off of him. It made her relaxed. Happy. Sasuke liked the close proximity of their bodies. He also enjoyed the warmth her body gave him. He got even closer to her not leaving any space for air to escape. He wrapped his arms around her waist and then placed his head at the crook of her neck.

This sudden actions made Sakura panic internally.

_He's so close what do I do? I want to squeal in happiness. No don't do that. That'll scare him off. Just relax. _

She exhaled slowly and smiled. She looked down at the food. It was ready. Sasuke began to tighten his grip on her small waist making it seem that if he were to let go her body would fly away from him.

_I need to tell her that I'm leaving tomorrow. I hate to tell her. She always tells me she's lonely when I leave. She hates being alone. …..but I leave for her. I'm going to miss this. _

"foods ready." She said in a low soft tone since the one that she was talking to was behind her.

He hesitantly but slowly released his grip on her waist and lifted his head off of her shoulder and walked to the kitchen sink to wash his hands. While he washed his hands Sakura served the meal of lemon pepper fish and white rice on the table. She sat at the small round table waiting for the Uchiha to sit across from her. He dried his hands on the dry kitchen towel hanging from the handle of the oven. He walked and sat down at the round table.

"The food looks good." He said breaking his chopsticks.

"Thank you." She replied with small pinkish circles placed on her cheekbones.

The looked at eat other and said "Itadakimasu" in unison and began to eat their delicious meal.

Sasuke picked up the empty bowls and placed them into the kitchen sink. Sakura was saving the leftovers and placing them into the fridge. Then she stood at his side washing the dishes together silently. He liked doing small things like this with her. They were both doing something together without speaking a word to ruin the moment. He had a look of content on his face but that look faded away. He remembered that he had to tell her about his leave. He already had his bag packed for the morning. It was hidden from her sight and placed behind the loveseat that he was seated at before dinner. They finished washing the dishes and they both walked away from the kitchen Sakura a little father ahead of him. He reached out and softly grasped her wrist. She looked back at him. She knew that from the look on his face he had something serious to say.

"Sasuke…what's"

" Sakura…" He trailed off.

"Tomorrow… I'm"

Her stomach dropped. She knew the words that were going to be said.

"You're leaving again…" Tears were beginning to form at the bottoms of her eyelid.

"I need to go." He said looking away. He disliked seeing her tear up. It made him feel worthless.

"No, you don't. You can stay. You can stay here with me. Sasuke every time you leave a piece of my heart dies. I cry because I constantly miss you. This house doesn't feel like a home when you aren't here. It's just a place to sleep and eat in. I worry for your health when you're away and in the process mine starts to deteriorate. Why do you have to leave so soon? You came home 2 weeks ago. Don't go. Stay. Please for me."

Her words made his emotions falter. He didn't want to leave. If things were different he would be here with her in this home all of his days but he had to make everything right to make him worthy of her. He got his grip.

"Sakura please try to understand." Sasuke told her.

"What is there to understand? You know you are able to make yourself stay but yet you still want to leave. I'll keep wasting my breath trying to make you stay but won't care for it because you'll leave anyways." She pulled away her hand from his grasp.

When she pulled her hand away it hurt Sasuke. He looked at her. She saw anger and hurt portrayed in her eyes. Small tears ran down her face. He wanted to embrace the few hours he had with her. He got her wrist softly once again then quickly entwined his fingers with hers. And began to slowly walk towards their bedroom. Sakura knew why he was leading her to their bedroom. He wanted to lay with her and comfort her since she was upset and crying. He was consoling for something he could prevent. Thinking that thought made her a little angrier. She pulled away.

"Go yourself. I don't want to go." She said in an angry/upset tone.

Sasuke was hurt by this action but. He continued to walk into the bedroom by himself. He lied on the side of his bed. He looked outside the window and saw how the sky was pink. The sun was leaving the sky to rest for the next day. Sasuke looked back at the ceiling. He lied there deep in thought and drifted to sleep with his stomach tied in knots.

Sakura sat on the loveseat. She was angry, sad, and lonely. A few hours had passed by she had calmed herself. She told herself how she wasn't going to stop him so might as well just accept it. She sighed and flopped herself over and saw his bag. She picked it up and looked inside. She saw how he was already packed to leave. She shook her head at how he was missing important items in his bag. She got off of the loveseat and placed the bag there in her absence. She walked into her restroom and got a couple of items from under the kitchen sink. She got gauzes, Band-Aids, healing ointment. She then walked to the kitchen and placed the medical items on the round table. She then turned on the stove and began to cook. She made him tomato soup for him to eat the first day of his journey. She placed it in a container and placed it on the table. She then look through one of the kitchen cabinets and brought out a bottle of food fills. She walked to the loveseat got the bag and placed it on the kitchen table then packed everything into the bag and placed the bag back behind the loveseat. She then sat on the comfy loveseat and fell asleep while watching the television.

Sasuke woke and looked out the window. He saw how the moon was in the middle of the sky which meant that it wasn't past midnight. He got up and walked out into the living room where he saw Sakura sleeping on the loveseat. He admired her sleeping form and walked towards it. He picked her up and walked towards their bedroom. He plead her on her side of the bed then went around to his and lied next to her. He scooted close to her body and then place an arm on around her. He loved listening to her breathing. It was so calm the slow intake and outtake of breath made his mind at ease. He loved the way her body shared warmth with his. He loved the way she sometimes would murmur in her sleep. He tightened his grip on her. Holding her as close as he could for he would not be able to feel the feeling of content in his life for a while. He fell asleep holding her body.

Sakura dreamt that she had convinced Sasuke to stay with her powerful meaningful words on how she felt when he left. Her mind was set on one last attempt to make him stay with her. She wanted him to stay for their bond of love to grow into something bigger than what it was. She wanted to make happy but he always seemed to be running away from her love.

Sasuke woke once again he looked out the window. The moon was not visible in his window but he knew it was still night due to the darkness that wrapped around the village. He sat up in his bed he looked over at Sakura's form

_I need to leave. I can't let her see me leave because she'll cry and beg to me like the last time. I almost caved. I can't let that happen I don't have enough strength to deny her anymore. _

He left the room and came back several minutes later and placed a note on his side of his bed. He then leaned over and kissed Sakura's forehead.

"Goodbye." He walked out of the room place his bag on his back and walked out of the close and closed the door.

Sakura wasn't a light sleeper but for some reason she awoke with the closing of the front door. She was confused on why she was in her bed. She looked around and saw no one. She saw the note placed on Sasuke side of the bed. She got out of her bed turned on the light from the room and got the note.

_Sakura, I have the left the village early to get this journey over with as soon as possible. I'll communicate to you with my taka. I'll be home in 9 months. I'll see you later. _

Sakura slipped on some clothes and shoes quickly and zoomed out the door to catch up to him.

Sakura ran as fast as her feet could take her. She passed the gates of the village and continued to run as fast as she could and yelled when she saw his figure in her sight of vision.

"SASUKE!"

He was startled to hear her voice. He halted his steps.

She was a few feet behind his frozen form.

"Please don't leave me again." She said trying to choke back tears.

"I have to."

"Sasuke please. I'm begging you. I don't want to be lonely anymore. I need to be loved. I just feel like an object to you. Why won't you return the love I give to you? I need more from you."

He stood there facing forward. He wanted to turn around and run to her and tell her that she would never be lonely because he would always be there for her and give her all the love she wanted but he couldn't. He had to fix all the bad and come back a little more saved from darkness than the time before. It's because of her that he wanted to be a better man. She had always been the best for him and now it was his turn to try and make himself be the best for her. This line of reasoning went through his mind. It took all his strength to walk one step.

Sakura saw him take a step and anger fed into her being. "Sasuke if you leave. Just know that I won't be here waiting for you when you get back."

Her words cut him deep. His soul felt like deteriorating at the words that were just said. She had said this once before but she continued to stay because of her love for him. It hurt him that time when she told him too. He took a deep breath and then jumped into the trees and disappeared from her sight.

Sakura stayed there on her knees on the dirty forest floor. Crying.

_Stop crying. _Her subconscious told her.

_This time don't leave the threat empty. Go away. And give him what he wants. Solitude. _

She stood up stronger. She wasn't going to cry anymore. She was going to take control of her life.

_I'm leaving. _

She looked at the sky beginning to get brighter from the suns return. The birds had begun to chirp. She walked back to the village but instead of going to her home she walked to the Hokage's tower.

She knocked on the Hokage's door.

"Come in." A male voice from the other side of the door said.

"Kakashi, I need to leave the village."

"Why?" He questioned her.

He looked at her. She saw the mud on her legs and clothing. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying.

_Sasuke. _He mentally thought.

"I don't want to be in this village anymore. Is there any kind of arrangement, mission, or anything that could station me to another village for a long while?" She asked.

Kakashi thought it was a coincidence how yesterday the Kazekage asked for a nurse from Konoha to teach medicine to the women of suna since they lacked medical knowledge. Kakashi reached into his desk drawer and pulled out the scroll.

"Suna needs you. Kazekage needs a nurse to teach about medicine. The mission is as long as you need it to be."

"Thank you, sensei." She walked away.

"Tell Naruto you're leaving I don't want him to bust in here and yell my head off because he thinks you're missing." Kakashi said bringing out his ichicha book.

"Yeah, I'll do that."

"See you soon Sakura."

She nodded her head and went on her way.

"Sakura, teme is just difficult don't go."

"Naruto, I'm tired. I feel so lonely we I see you with Hinata or Ino with Sai or Shikamaru with Temari. I need love in my life. I want to be loved the way you love Hinata. I need something. I give, give, and give and in the end he can't even stay when I beg him with all the strength I have. I can't take this anymore. I can't" Tears were beginning to fall. She realized it then choked them back.

Naruto understood what she was feeling. He nodded his head.

"I need you to hold your tongue and not tell him where I left to when he gets back. "

"Sakura I can't keep that from teme."

"Naruto please, I'm begging you. I need to do this to make myself stronger. I need to get away and have a chance to move on and find someone else. I want happiness in my life. Please."

"O…okay."

"Goodbye Naruto, I'll miss you." She gave her blonde friend a hug.

"I'll miss you too."

Sakura stood at the gates of Konoha and looked back.

"Goodbye."

That was chapter one. Please tell me if you liked it, hated it, if you wanna scalp me…etc.

In two weeks I'll start posting up frequently. Until then bye guys.

-Saiduck


	2. Progression From The Old

Hey guys I was supposed to have an update yesterday for My little miracle but my computer died out of nowhere I wasn't able to save the progress. I didn't feel like retyping the same thing two days in a row so I'm updating on this story. I'll update on my little miracle and the others in the days to come. Thank you guys for commenting/reviewing. It keeps me writing. I'll find time to individually thank each and every one of you when time allows me. Thank you again. And here is your treat for waiting so patiently.

Have you heard of our lord and savior Masashi Kishimoto? He is the one that owns Naruto not I.

* * *

Progression from the old

Sakura had beads of sweat running down her face. Her hair was up but this heat still got to her most likely because of her clothes and how they were composed of thick material adjusted for the warm weather in Konoha but she was now in wind country where the sun dries up and eliminates water out of everything. Throughout her three day journey she reflected on her life up to that point and what she was doing. She thought of the man she loved since she was young and how even though she had him but I actuality still never really did. He never opened up to her. Never said more than a couple of words every time they spoke. What they had was simple but in her eyes was empty. He would come and leave before she got any time to know the real him. It wasn't enough for her to know that he cared for her. She needed more in her life after all the things that she had suffer to love him. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life feeling empty inside from not having the love that she always gave to him but never received back. She wanted more than he gave her and the day that he left to leave on his journey again she knew how much she meant to him in his list of priorities. To him she was always last. She would always be last. And she was done with being last. She wanted to be first for once. She longed for that kind of interaction with another human being. And hopefully she would one day get it. But first she had to forget about the feelings that she tied her emotionally with Sasuke. The next time she would see him would be as a comrade and that only. She exhaled and looked up at the sky.

_Things are going to change for the better. _She said to herself while wiping the beads of sweat placed on her forehead with the back of her hand.

She was relieved to see the entrance barrier to the village. She quickened her pace. The faster she got there the faster she could get a drink of water since her canteen ran out a few hours ago. A couple of guards posted along the barrier saw the kunoichi and chatted within themselves.

"Did the Kazekage say anything about having a visitor from the leaf?" One of them asked.

"I'm not sure. We need to ask Akihiro." The second one responded pulling out a walkie-talkie.

"Akihiro we have a Konoha Kunoichi coming towards the entrance of the village. Has the Kazekage mentioned of a Konoha visitor arriving today?"

Akihiro the boss of the other guards stationed on the barrier appeared before the group observing the Kunoichi. He looked at her. Gaara never mentioned anything about a leaf visitor. He then points at two of the men.

"You two. Join her to the Kazekage's tower."

"Yes sir."

* * *

Sakura was kind of annoyed by being accompanied by two guards when she stated to the two that she was indeed requested by the Kazekage to come to the village. They just ignored her and continued to walk alongside her. She and the two shinobi walked into the Kazekage's tower. They walked up the stairs to go towards their Destination Sakura turned the corner and saw and Shikamaru. Sakura's annoyed expression turned into one of surprise. She walked up to the dark haired man that was leaning against the hallway wall staring out the window on the other side of the hall, he seemed to be deep in thought. Sakura picked up her pace and called out to him.

"Shikamaru!"

He looked to the side and saw Sakura.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" He asked puzzled.

"I came here as a request from the Kazekage to teach medicine and healing to the shinobi of Suna. Why are you here?"

"Temari wanted to stay here to plan for some stuff that will happen in the upcoming future."

"What kind of stuff, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Our wedding." Temari said walking out into the hallway from the Kazekage's office.

"Congratulations! I didn't know about this."

"Nobody knows. We were planning on going to Konoha and telling everyone over dinner." Temari said.

_You were planning. I'm just going along with all this. It's such a pain. _Shikamaru looked back out the window dis interested in the whole thing.

"Wait, are you here to take the position as the medical instructor for the shinobi of Suna?" Temari asked.

Sakura nodded her head. "Yes Kakashi sensei sent me to do the job."

"It looks like Konoha wants it allies to be taught exceptionally well from the disciple of Tsunade."

Sakura had a slight blush at Temari's appraisal of her skills.

Temari grabbed Sakura's hand and rushed into the Kazekage's office.

"Gaara the nurse that the Hokage sent is here."

Gaara was looking out the window to overview his village.

"Thank you Temari, leave us be." He said still facing away from the two.

"I'll catch up with you in a while." Temari said before leaving the room. Sakura just smiled and silently nodded. When Temari closed the door Gaara turned around and walk to his chair without looking at the woman's presence.

"I hope the Hokage told you all the details of arrangement" He looked up with slightly cold eyes then when he saw the complete figure of who it was his eyes softened and became more friendly.

"Haruno-san?"

Sakura blushed slightly. "Kazekage-sama it's okay if you call me Sakura. I like it better that way. But if you prefer to call me Haruno-san its okay."

"I see that since we know eachother to a certain extent we should drop the formalities. It sounds strange for you to call me Kazekage-sama." He had a small smirk on his face.

"Okay." She nodded her head slowly.

"So why is it that Kakashi sent you?"

Sakura was silent thinking of what made her travel away from Konoha. She had a slight pained expression on her face and then it went back to being calm. "I need to get away from Konoha for a while. I needed some new fresh air in a different place." She smiled.

_I wonder what made her leave. _

"So did the Hokage tell you the details?"

"No not really. He was rushed."

"You will be provided with an apartment in the center of the village. We will cover the expense of uniform for the hospital here in Suna. You will be paid for your services as well as the payment at the end of the arrangement. The arrangement is at least six months after that it is your choice to stay here or go back to Konoha." He said.

She nodded her head.

"I'll come and give you a tour of the village for you to familiarize."

"That's not necessary Gaara you must be busy, you are the Kazekage after all."

He ignored her and walked out the door with her tagging behind.

* * *

Both of them walked through the streets of sunakagure with Gaara showing her where everything was from the convenience stores to the bars. Sakura was beginning to sweat and pant in her thick material clothing because of her movement and intensity of the hot sun.

"Are you alright?" Gaara asked.

"Yeah, I just need clothing with less thickness. My clothes are thick due to the cool-ish weather of Konoha. I'm also really thirsty from my trip." She said with laughter in her voice.

"Follow me."

"Okay."

They walked for about 3 minutes then Gaara halted his steps in front of a shop. Gaara held the door open for Sakura and went inside after her. It was a female clothing store with both regular and intimate clothing inside the division of the clothing scattered randomly throughout the store. She began looking at the shirts and skirts of the store with Gaara close behind her looking away. The woman that owned the store came up to them. "Hi, is there anything that you and your boyfriend need help with? If you need assistance with finding the right type of intimate clothing I'm here to help."

Gaara turned his head to face the woman quickly after hearing those words. Both he and Sakura stayed silent. A small blush appeared on both of their faces but it suddenly darkened in color as the woman's words hit them.

_Intimate clothing? Boyfriend? _

She saw the blushing youngsters and took a good hard look at Gaara. She then finally realized the red headed male was the Kazekage.

"Kazekage-sama, you have a girlfriend?" Gaara was still stunned but Sakura ended her silence to clear things out.

"We're not dating. He's just helping me get situated from the village. I'm going to be in this village for a while teaching shinobi about medicine and healing. I'm from Konohagakure."

The old lady looked at Sakura and noticed her rare pink hair.

"Haruno, Sakura the student of Tsunade, you will be teaching my daughter Emiko?" The woman of the shop asked.

"Yes, I am happy to share the knowledge that shishou gave me." She said smiling.

"Thank you so very much. I also want to thank you for saving all of our lives during the four war. You and your teammates saved this world from Kaguya."

Gaara was back to normal and now quietly listening to the conversation between the young medic and the old woman.

"You're welcome." She smiled.

"You'll get a discount on the clothing you buy today."

"No, its fine really. I'm okay with paying full price." Sakura said in a cheery voice.

"You can try and talk me out of it but I won't budge. I'm a stubborn old woman." She smiled at Sakura.

Sakura laughed and smiled back. The old woman went back to her post at the register and Sakura continued to shop for clothing. Gaara sat on a bench next to the dressing rooms to wait for Sakura.

She walked by him with a bundle of clothing and opened the dressing room stall entered it and closed the door. Gaara could hear her rustling to take off her clothing to try on the new ones she chose from the store. He felt strange listening to these noises. She was then ready to come out of the stall and see her outfit. It seemed strange from her point of view but she wanted the second opinion of the mirror on the door of the dressing room. She opened the door and that broke Gaara from his deep thoughts. She looked at the mirror. She wore a skirt similar to her on from konoha but it had darker tint of gray to it she had on a mesh top that showed the skin underneath except for the cleavage area where a thin tan colored silk strip was. The back of the mesh shirt had hole designs where you could see her porcelain skin without interruptions of mesh. Gaara looked at her and felt heat rise to his cheeks for some reason that was even unknown to himself. She looked at herself and realized it wasn't like her conservative style like at Konoha but Suna's clothing differed and were more exposed than the clothing from Konohagakure so she accepted the look and actually liked how it looked on her.

She went back into the stall and gathered the clothing she changed out of as well as the other clothing she picked up as well and walked up to the counter. The old woman bagged her old clothing in one bag and then began to scan the other clothing she was buying. Sakura took the tags off of the items she was wearing and gave for the shopkeeper to charge.

"Have a good day!" The store keeper waved off as Sakura walked away from the register and toward Gaara.

"Gaara, shall we get moving?"

Gaara stared at her silently.

_He keeps staring. _She began to blush.

"Lets go." Gaara stood up and walked out of the store.

Gaara led her to their next destination. A Restauraunt.

"Why are where here?" She asked out of curiosity.

"You said you had thirst for water." He said sitting into the booth.

"Oh, yeah. I did say that didn't I?" She laughed softly and rubbed the back of her neck.

Gaara nodded.

They both ordered and silence was bestowed between the both. Sakura was used to men that had a way of not having meaningless conversations so she didn't even try to start one if she knew it would only last at most two minutes. Temari sat down next to her younger brother.

"Hey pinky I told you I would catch up with you." Temari told her as Shikamaru sat next to the pinkette.

"So what have you guys been doing?" The blonde woman asked trying to catch the attention of her sibling that was staring out the window. He was admiring the sun starting to set the way the sky turned a burnt orange always caught his sight no matter where he was in the village he would always stop to admire the orange sky. It was one of those things the calmed every part of him.

"Gaara was showing me around the village and I also got a change of clothes since mine were not the best suited for this village." She smiled.

Sakura after smiling looked off to the side to see Gaara watching the sky. She observed how his facial features seemed more relaxed his eyes seemed calm more than she has ever seen them. She continued to observe him as Temari and Shikamaru were busy talking on what they were going to order the restaurant. Sakura saw how his jaw bone was more prominent and his skin seemed slightly darker than the last time that she saw him which was more than two years ago on a mission. Gaara felt that he was being observed and turned to see Sakura gazing at him. When his eyes met the apple green color of hers they both blushed and looked away. Sakura looked back at him. "I'm sorry."

He looked at her. "It's okay."

Temari pretended not to notice what happened between the two but had a slight smile as she continued to talk to Shikamaru.

They all ate and talked about events that were going to happen between the villages. Gaara mentioned that Suna was going to be the next village where the Chunin exams would take place. They also talked about their days as genin and how they had made the transition from genin to chunin. Temari and Shikamaru paid their bill and left the restaurant. Gaara brought out his money.

"I'll pay for this."

"Oh on, it's okay. You've already done enough for m today."

"Nonsense. Let's leave so that I can show you to your living quarters."

* * *

Sakura walked behind Gaara carrying her bags in her right hand. They both walked along the darkened streets of the village the only light source being scattered lamp post and the lighting of the fully opened bars that were beginning to get busy due to the night traffic of drinkers. There were a few drunk men that were outside of the bar drinking their own alcohol. Gaara and Sakura walked by these drunks. They walked under the street light post and the one of the bum drunks catches sight of the young woman hat he would like to have for himself. The man groggily walked behind the two and the both didn't think anything of it. He came closer and latched himself onto Sakura his left hand holding her breast and the other around her neck, she gasped innocently and his touch then anger came to her eyes. Her bags feel at the jerking moment the drunk caused and the items fell out of the bags and onto the floor. Gaara saw the two in front of him and he step closer his face had anger portrayed in it. He was angry that this scum was trying to take advantage of a woman. If there was one thing that he hated it would be this, seeing men trying to take advantage of women.

"Let her go." He said.

He then saw Sakura step on his foot and flipping him onto his back and placing a foot on his chest.

"Don't. Touch. Me." She said with a dark tone.

Gaara came to them and looked down at the man. Sakura drew back her foot and looked at the unconscious man. Sand began to appear and he made a little casing over the man that was lying on the floor.

"What an idiot." Sakura grumbled. She began to pick up her clothing she was just outside the circle of light that the streetlamp provided. Gaara helped her and picked up the clothing without looking at them. He then looked at what he picked up. He felt the material while walking to take it to her, the material felt strange so he looked down at it. They were pairs of lacy underwear that she must've got when he wasn't walking alongside her in the store. He quickly stuffed them in the bag that she held. She didn't notice what he had and he wanted it to be like that. He didn't want to embarrass her.

* * *

He showed Sakura her home she opened the door with the key that he gave her and placed her items inside. Gaara waited outside since he wasn't invited in which he didn't mind since he was going to be on his way to take care of the hoodlum. Sakura noticed that he didn't enter behind her. She walked to the open front door.

"Why didn't you come in Gaara?" She said cheerily.

"I wasn't invited inside."

"Oh, I'm so sorry I'm used to Naruto just trailing behind me where invited or not." She laughed.

"It's fine, I just needed to tell you that tomorrow you report to my office in the morning show I can show you where and what you will do as a medical instructor here." He said.

"Okay. And by the way. I'm sorry if my staring at the diner made you feel uncomfortable. I'm not a creep or anything. I just saw how calm you looked while watching the sunset and I have never seen that from you." She said softly with small traces of blush on her cheeks. The lighting made it so that Gaara couldn't see.

His heart began to beat faster for some unknown reason. He put it under control.

"It's fine. I'll see you tomorrow morning Sakura." He said walking away from her door.

"Yes, I'll see you." She then closed the door.

* * *

He walked by the body lying on the floor and with a movement of his hand he had the unconscious man floating in the air with sand wrapped around him. He walked to the police station and threw him into the cell. He walked into his home and began to undress. He threw off his shirt exposing his toned midsection.

"So Gaara, your aura seemed different today, what was up with that?" Temari appeared behind him out of nowhere and freaked the redhead out. He kept his cool.

"You're reading too much into to it." He stated.

"I saw you blush. I have never seen you do that. That's not reading too much into it."

"Teamari. Stop."

"She left the village because she had enough of the Uchiha. They had a falling out of some sorts and now she wants to forget him. Ino sent me a letter after Sakura arrived and told me everything."

Gaara stood quiet to seem disinterested in the topic. He felt nothing for the girl and his sister was just trying to get him a wife since her and Kankuro already had someone in their lives. There was a long silence, Temari sighed and left.

* * *

Sakura lied in her bed. She was thinking of him. She hated the way that no matter what she tried to do he would always come back into her thoughts. It was as if she was a part of him. She didn't want for it to be like that. For more than half of her life everything she ever did revolved around him whether he was present for the things she did or not. She heard that he liked girls with long hair so she grew her hair to at least get a glimpse of his attention. She compared herself to him and saw herself as weak, she took in his words of training harder on her ninja skills rather than her skills of vanity and became a strong woman that took down a member of the Akatsuki. This hold that he had on her had to be let go because even though now he showed little signs that he indeed care for her it wasn't enough. She needed all of him because of how long she waited how much she changed how much she had suffered. She didn't want to be at his beck and call she wanted to the whole essence of a relationship. She wanted to be happily married and have children and she realized that it would never happen like that because of the way he was. He always seemed distant and she never got to see who he completely was behind his façade she always got glimpses and now her will had weakened and did not have the strength to keep on fighting. That morning in the forest made her head clear that he wasn't what she needed because he only thought of himself and for her to be happy in a relationship both of them had to give and she only found herself selflessly giving. She closed her eyes and in her dreams her emotions took hold. She cried in her sleep with silent tear sliding down her cheek.

* * *

Sasuke walked through the country side. He walked through towns and volunteered his body to any manual labor ask that was asked of him. He enjoyed the feeling of hearing someone thank him for his services. It made his existence feel valued. Today the village he had walked through had nothing to offer so it was a day off to him. He rented himself a room at a small inn. There he lay there with his thoughts.

He thought of Sakura who he has not seen in weeks now. He remembered the words she said to him. _"Sasuke if you leave. Just know that I won't be here when you get back." _He turned in his bed.

_She wouldn't I know her. _

_**Are you so weak that her leaving you will leave you worrying? Ties make you weak. **_

It would always be like this. Remnants of his old self would seep into his thoughts and there putting its input and telling him that ties made him weaker. His old self is the one that kept him closed in from everyone else. The thoughts of his old self would convince his body to shy away from Sakura's affection and freaked him out on commitment to her. Whenever his guard began to drop and he became comfortable around Sakura he would come and tell him to stop and fill his head with insecurities, and fears and he would have his guard up once more. His old self was also a reason he left Konoha and left Sakura crying on the forest floor, he was the one that didn't give Sakura the affection and love she craved from him. He was the one who took hold of his thoughts and actions and drove him away from her and convinced him that this was the best course of action. Sasuke was getting used to being around Sakura ant the last time is when his guard dropped the most. He wanted her. He didn't want to leave, he want to stay and he had the thoughts of being with her for the rest of his life and having children. Those thoughts made the old Sasuke appear and after his work was done it left him with fears that made him want to get away. When Sasuke said he left to make himself better for her was true but that was the thoughts of that changed when the old him appeared in his thoughts. He was always weak and easily consumed by his old self. He wanted to get rid of his old self and his thoughts that made everything difficult.

_**You don't need anybody.**_

_**You are stronger alone.**_

_**She makes you weak.**_

_**What if someone kills her, it'll be the same pain as when you're family was slaut-**_

"SHUT UP!" He shouted. He picked his head up to respond in case someone asked him what was wrong since his shout was pretty loud. He placed his head back down and thought of her this time without interference of him to question his own thoughts.

He smiled at the remembrance of looking inside of his bag the day he left Konoha and how she made him lunch for him and how she also put the medicine in there as well. These small things she did for him never went unnoticed. Her caring motherly nature was one of the things that he loved about her. He continued to think about the qualities in her that made him care for her as much as he did and slowly drifted to sleep. That night he dreamt of her and her piercing bright green eyes. He lied in the bed body relaxed at every muscle and joint a soft smile placed upon his lips.

* * *

Don't hate me. I want them to develop independently that way when the come together things happen. lol. There will be some GaaraSaku because I'm evil. But this is for sure a SasuSaku so don't be dis interested. If you were confused or had questions feel free to ask. Like/Follow/Reveiw.

I'll be updating the others in the coming then!


	3. Kiss The Sand

An update for you!

* * *

Kiss The Sand

* * *

Sakura had just finished another day of work in Suna. She had been in Suna for a month and a half and she was liking it. Sure she missed Ino, Naruto and the rest of them but she needed to get away from the things that reminded her of him. She could only imagine the stress and emotional pain she would go through walking home from training to see the bench he left her at years ago when he first hurt her deeply. Or to think of him as soon as she would walk into her apartment which he made his home. It would've been torture to make herself stay in Konoha. She said she would forget about him in that manner and find someone who could match the love that she would give. If she were in konoha her heart would just make her think of him when it wasn't necessary which, would make it difficult to forget him romantically. In Suna, she had nothing that reminded her of him so it would let her mind rest from time to time and concentrate on her work or training whenever she would have a day off. He would cross her mind as she would lay before bed but it was always the same thoughts circling through. She knew that soon those circling thoughts will soon die as time passes and she makes herself know why those memories should be let go. Since her arrival she and Temari had become closer. She had also seen a lot of Gaara since she always reported the progression of the medic program. She would let him in on lesson plans and things like that. They sometimes would go off topic and talk about random events in the village or talk about Naruto. Today she didn't get to report at scheduled time since his advisors were having a meeting with him. He said he would see her afterward but said if it got too dark out to make her way home. And she waited for a while to report to him but the Sun began to go down. She was also a little tired and wanted to head out. She got off of the red colored bench that was placed a few feet away from the entrance office. She began to walk down the hallway to the stairs that led out the building.

"Did I make you wait too long?"

Sakura halted her steps and turned to the side and saw Gaara leaning against the hallway wall. She kind of freaked out at the sudden appearance of him.

"No, no. You're fine." She moved her arms around frantically.

He smiled at her reaction.

It was the first time Sakura saw some kind of a smile on his face.

_He looks so handsome. _She thought as she saw his smile. She noticed too late but she was blushing. She felt heat accumulating on her cheeks and she looked away.

He saw her cheek redden before she turned away. He felt his heart beat quicken. He noticed that it had been doing that a lot lately. Most of the time it would happen around Sakura, the other times he would just be thinking about how she would laugh at the funny stories she would tell him about Naruto from time to time. He wanted to deny that he felt this. At some point in the beginning of when these feeling began to surface he thought about talking to is sister about it. He then thought against it but he because that would only worsen her talks with him because since the pinkette arrived Temari would tell him that he should ask her out, make a move but, he wanted the relationship between him and Sakura platonic. Besides, he had never been in relationship before. He was clueless at that.

"Are you heading home?" He said as he used his shoulder to push himself off of the wall.

"Well, I was but if you still wanted me to report the events of today I could stay a little while longer." She smiled but he could tell she was tired.

"You can tell me while I walk you home. It's dark out." He said.

"Oh, alright." She looked out the window for a couple of seconds and then looked back at him.

"But, don't you think you should change out of your kage robe first? You'll probably get it all dirty and dusty."

He looked down and noticed he still had it on.

"I didn't even notice that I had it on still." He was serious, he usually takes it off as soon as he finishes his meetings. He was confused on why he still had it on.

Sakura found it funny how he forgot that he was wearing it. He had a lost puppy look as he wondered how he still had it on. She couldn't hold in her laughter and began to laugh at his confused facial expression. She looked away to avoid him from seeing her ace while she laughed. She never thought she would never laugh around Gaara due to the serious aura that he always had around him but there she was laughing as if Naruto had said a bad pun. She was a sucker for puns.

"Are you okay Sakura?" He asked worried because she was laughing more that he used to hearing from her.

"I'm fine. Go change, I'll wait for you here." She said still chuckling in between phrases.

"Okay." He walked off.

She leaned against the wall while waiting for him. He walked back wearing his usual clothes. He wore his maroon colored button up shirt and pants with a belt around the waist where his small sand gourd hung from. Sakura pondered on how such an odd color worked on him fashion wise.

_Most likely because his hair. _

She looked at his hair as he walked towards her. She liked the color of it. It was an abnormal color of hair like hers. His hair was more common though since she had never seen another soul with pink hair like hers. She had the urge to touch it. Gaara noticed how she was staring at him.

"What is it?" Gaara said interested in why she was looking at him.

"Umm….nothing!" She turned around embarrassed.

"Are you sure." He said.

"Yes, I'm sure." She nodded her head fast and smiled.

* * *

"Then the fish flopped into his shirt and the fish's tail continued to slap him in his face." Sakura was chuckling.

Gaara contained his laughter but he smirked. Sakura then made the reenactment in front of him using her hand as the fish's tail and she made funny faces. Gaara couldn't keep it in. He begin to laugh loudly. He tried to stop but couldn't. Sakura saw as he laughed uncontrollably and how his cheeks had a tinge of pink on them as he laughed. Today was a day of firsts for her. She saw his first smile and he heard his laughter which sounded warm and welcoming. She smiled hearing his laugh. His laughter soon died out. He cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry." He said apologizing for his laughter.

"It's fine. I liked that I got to hear you laugh. I've never heard you laugh before." She continued walking.

She couldn't see due to the fact that she wasn't walking beside him but his blush deepened.

"Oh." Was all he managed to say.

They walked in silence for a few seconds.

"Thank you for walking me home Gaara." Sakura said as she reach into her pocket and brought out her apartment key. She opened the door and turned on the porch light.

"The walk seemed shorter than the last time I walked you home."

"Yeah, I kept talking a lot. Sorry. Some people find it annoying." She said then laughed as she rubbed the back of her neck with her hand and smiled a cheeky smile.

"I don't seem to mind it. It's better than having silence."

Her eyes went wide at his response which caught her off guard.

"Oh. Thanks."

"I don't think there was a need to thank me for that." He said.

"Oh right, sorry." She laughed a little.

"I'll be on my way back then." He said referring to the Tower.

"I'll see you tomorrow Gaara."

Gaara nodded his head. "Rest well, Sakura."

She watched as he went out of sight.

* * *

He was standing in front of his office and saw his sister standing there waiting for him.

"Did you invite her to dinner?" Temari asked her redheaded brother.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I forgot."  
"No you didn't." She smirked. "Were you too nervous to ask her?"

Gaara glared at her.

"Temari. It's not my place to invite her. You're throwing the dinner. You ask her." He said

"You like her."

"I do not." He glared at her but that didn't get the smirk off of her face. Sometimes his wished that she was still scared of him because he deadly glares don't work the same as they used to..

"If you aren't then invite her to dinner. If you don't like her, it shouldn't be such a hassle. It shouldn't even be a hassle either way. You're not asking her to a solo dinner with you anyways."

"Fine. I'll ask her tomorrow." He walked into his office.

Temari walked away with a sly grin, knowing that he was just playing into her matchmaking hands.

* * *

Sakura got ready for bed after her shower. She pulled the comforter and slipped into bed. She laid there and her mind began to wander. She smiled at the thought of seeing a new side of Gaara today. She had never expected him to be so comfortable around. He always saw him as serious and tense and sure she saw that in him still but it was nice of her to see those small instances where he would make contribution to the conversation. It felt nice to not be the only one talking, she never got that with Sasuke. He would listen and sometimes contribute but even at that it was a couple of words. Sasuke preferred silence to anything and she knew that. But she liked to talk, it made her unwind to talk about her day. Gaara had told her that he preferred her talking than to silence. She didn't know why those words that he said had such an impact on her. Maybe it was because she didn't expect him to say anything after she apologized for talking too much. She remembers how his response made her heart beat a little faster.

_Am I falling for Gaara? _

Suddenly at the thought of feeling something for Gaara her stomach began to churn. She knew that her body reacting this way to her thinking of him only validated her guess.

_I can't do that. He doesn't have time for me. He's the Kazekage. I'll only distract him. I need to keep these feelings to myself besides what if I get hurt again. _She nodded her head.

She then yawned and closed her eyes and drifted to sleep.

* * *

"Sakura before you go." She halted her steps.

Sakura had just given the information of what happened throughout the day to Gaara. She avoided all funny detail or conversation detours that she usually too and kept their conversation strictly work related. Gaara sensed the different and didn't know what to feel about it. When he would talk to others he would be serious and tense but with Sakura he had loosened up a little but sine he saw how she was acting differently he went back to his complete serious self.

"Yes?" She said as she turned to look at him.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked wondering if there was something that happened to her to make her act so unlike herself.

"No, I'm fine." She said as she laughed off the question.

He got up from his desk and walked closer to her.

"You seemed unlike yourself. You usually have short commentaries or a side story that relates to what you telling me about."

She softly smiled at the thought of him noticing the difference in her communication skills today.

"I thought that my commentaries and side stories would take up too much of your time. So I didn't say them."

"I like it when you do that. No other tries to make casual conversation with me. They only give me the facts and leave. It's good once in a while to have someone to give me a funny story once in a while to forget the stress of having this job." His voice seemed softer than usual.

Ba-thump.

Sakura's eyes widened at she felt her heart beat loudly.

He didn't know how but his body was now intimately close to hers. He realized it and moved away from her. She could see that he was blushing. She thought that he looked adorable the way he was acting so soft and unlike the way he usually is. She blushed and looked away from him.

Temari that had been watching them silently huffed and face palmed. "It's like I'm dealing with innocent 14 year olds. I guess I've gotta do everything myself." She mumbled to herself. The other two didn't hear her.

"Sakura." Temari said.

Sakura turned to look at her. Her blush immediately disappeared. Gaara looked at his sister too.

"Would you like to come over to dinner today? I asked him to ask you two days ago but, he failed at that." She said looking at her younger brother. He glared at her

"Uh…." She looked at Gaara who was glaring at Temari then looked at Temari.

"I'm not giving you the option of saying no." Temari said smiling at her.

"I guess I have no choice then." She laughed. Temari saw how Gaara's glare disappeared as she heard her laugh.

_Yup, my idiot brother likes her. _She smiled.

She looked at Sakura. "Alright. Gaara will pick you up from your home around 6pm, be ready." The blonde smiled as she walked out the door.

She left awkwardness between the two.

"OkaythenI'llSeeyouInABitBye." Sakura said waving her hand back and forth as she exited the room quickly.

"Yes." He waved his hand back and forth slowly.

* * *

Gaara stood in front of Sakura's apartment door. He raised his closed fist to knock and hesitated. His fist was also shaking.

_Why has my body acting so weird lately?_

Gaara was kind of irritated with all this. Especially when his heart that was rapidly pumping. He huffed and knocked on the door and turned away from the house to look at the street.

He heard the door open behind him. He waited a couple of seconds before turning around.

"Hey Gaara." Sakura said waving her hand.

He looked at what she was wearing. It was a dress a black thigh high dress with a red cardigan with white trimming. He had never seen her wear anything like this before. He's only seen her in her shinobi clothing so seeing her in a dress was new for him. He thought that she looked pretty attractive in in it. He felt his heart rate quicken once again.

"You look very nice Sakura." He said to her. "Would you like to get going? Temari is not the one to have patience." He shoved down all the weird feeling he was feeling to not blush.

Sakura blushed as soon as he heard his compliment. "Uhh…thank you. And yeah, we should get going."

After a few moments of silence. Sakura began to speak.

"I really like it here." She said as she walked alongside Gaara.

"Why?" He asked turning to look at her as they continued to walk.

"The people I meet whether in the hospital or out in public are really nice." She said looking forward then turned to see him.

They both looked at each other. "Oh." Gaara responded. "Do you miss your friends in Konoha?"

She faced the road again. "I do. It's the first time I've been away from all my friends like this." There was a hint of sadness in her tone. " Ino pig has been sending me letters telling me how everyone is and how they miss me. She said that she would ask Tsunade to let her and Sai go for a while to visit me. Naruto also said he would visit me in the letters Ino sent me. I could tell it was him because of his terrible handwriting." She laughed.

"Ino pig." Gaara said confused.

"That's the nickname I have for Ino. She calls me billboard brow for my giant forehead."

"I didn't think you had a big forehead though." Gaara said.

"Ohh…" She blushed for a microsecond. "Thanks."

"So Naruto has terrible handwriting?" Gaara asked.

"Yes, that kid can do amazing jutsu's with those hands of his but it's disappointing how terrible his handwriting is. I'm not sure how he does it but he makes his "o's" look like "e's". I'm pretty sure that Kakashi's hounds could write better than him."

Gaara chuckled.

"Hey guys, we've been waiting for you." Temari said standing in front of the house to the right of them. They entered into the small front yard and walked up to the blonde.

Temari opened the door and held it open for them.

"I like your dress Sakura, it looks nice on you." Temari said as she walked by her.

"Thank you. I bought it on my way home today. " She smiled and waked towards Shikamaru since he was waving for her to come that way. Temari seeing that Sakura wasn't looking Temari slightly nudged Gaara.

"What?" He said in an annoyed tone.

The blonde ignored his tone and continued to smile and nudge him.

"You're so annoying." He said as he walked towards the kitchen with Temari still nudging him with her should every few seconds.

Gaara looked done with his sister. He looked at his brother that sitting off to the side of him sitting next to his girlfriend. He pulled out a chair and sat down across from Shikamaru who was in a conversation with Sakura at the moment.

"Ino said to not blow it with Temari since she approves of her."

"Since when do I have to run the women I'm with by her?"

"She knew you would say that and told me to tell you "since you became her lazy ass brother."" Sakura chuckled.

Shikamaru smiled. "Dumb Woman."

"Sakura should I assist you in where you should sit." Kankuro said as he stood up and walked towards her.

She looked away from Shikamaru and nodded her head.

Kankuro walked over to her and grabbed her wrist to lead her to her seat. She saw he nodded his head when he looked at Temari. He led to the seat next to Gaara. Gaara also saw him make eye contact with his sister and nod.

_Kankuro is in on this too. _He sighed.

"Thank you." Sakura said as she sat down next to the red head. Kankuro went back to sit next to his girlfriend and they both smiled at her.

Shikamaru sighed when Gaara looked at him.

Temari served everyone and they began to eat.

"Sakura." Temari called her as she wiped her mouth with her napkin.

"Yes." She answered.

"Would you like to come with us when we go to the leaf?"

"I'm not sure." She looked at Gaara who was eating his food silently. "I have work to do, and I don't have permission to leave."

Temari laughed. "You never had to ask to leave. The mission was for it to take as long as you wanted it to. I know. I made it."

"But, I just barely began to teach my students."

"You can take a break for a while right?" she laughed.

"I guess so."

"Good. Now there will be four of us."

"Four?" Sakura asked.

"Gaara is coming as well." Shikamaru said. Then sighed at his fiancé's scheming.

Gaara had been ignoring them the whole dinner and concentrated on eating his meal because that's what you do at meals. You eat. Not do whatever this is.

Sakura looked at him. "You're going?" She asked looking at him.

"Yes, it's been a while since I've seen Naruto."

"Oh yeah, that's right." She smiled.

* * *

They finished eating and Sakura said she'd be on her way home. They all told her goodnight except for Gaara who was upstairs. She began her walk home viewing the sky. It had just began to get a hint of orange. Soon the whole sky will give off an orange glow as the sun said it's goodbyes for the day.

"Now you're looking at the sunset."

She looked to see Gaara beside her.

"Yeah, it looks nice."

"Follow me." Gaara said and took off. She went after him. They hopped on rooftops for a couple of minutes and then they stopped on the wall that separated the village from the dessert.

He stood and looked straight ahead. She was going to open her mouth to ask why he wanted to come here but she looked at the sky as it answered her question.

They had just arrived to see the sky in front of them shrouded in the color orange. There were different hues of the color orange. The darker orange being surrounding the sun and the hues began to become a pastel orange as they furthered away from the sun. The orange pastel color changed into a pink hue along the edges of the sky. The pastel blue could have been seen if you were to intensely gaze at the pink sky. This view of the sky was like one she had never seen before. This spot had the perfect broad view to look at all of the sunset without interferences of buildings or trees since past the wall was nothing but bare desert. Sakura stood there silent. The view had taken her words away. She glanced over to see that calm look on Gaara's face that she saw when she first arrive here. She smiled and then looked forward and felt the warm light rays hit against her skin. She opened all her senses to take in the view. They both stood there silently enjoying the beauty which was the sunset. The sun soon disappeared and then the sky was shrouded in darkness.

Gaara looked at her. "Would you like to head home now?" He asked.

Sakura sat on the edge of the wall and swayed her legs back and forth.

"My home can wait. I want to sit here and unwind for a while." She patted the spot next to her. "Wanna join me?"

Gaara sat next to her.

"That sunset was perfect." She said smiling.

Gaara was only able to see a part of her smile since she was staring into desert that was no covered in darkness.

"I like coming here from time to time. I haven't had time lately since I've had a lot to do."

"oh." She was quiet for a few seconds and began to speak again. "So when are we going to Konoha?" She asked.

"Temari told me that we'd be leaving in three weeks." He said in his soft voice that made Sakura's beat a little faster.

She kept herself from looking at him. She knew that if she did her stomach would begin to churn.

"When I was younger. I would come here whenever I wanted to find peace within myself. When everybody in the village wanted me dead I came here to medicate my head. To keep myself sane."

Sakura's heart felt as it stopped when she heard his words. She looked at the calm expression on his face.

_How could he say something like that so calmly?_

"Gaara, I'm sorry."

He looked at her with soft features on his face.

"It's not your fault."

_It is. I was like those people. Ignorant and thought of jinchuriki as worthless beings. _Her heart clenched. She felt guilty because she used to be the same way.

"I used to be like those people. Before I got to know Naruto I called him a pest and treated him so badly because that's how others treated him because of his Jinchuriki." She recalled all the times she saw him on the swing with a lonely expression on her face. A tear ran down her face and she brought her knees to her chest.

Gaara was caught off guard by her words, He stayed quiet.

"He never deserved to be treated that way. You never deserved to be treated that way too. I'm sorry."

"Sakura, it's okay. You're not like that anymore… I saw the way you looked when Naruto almost died on the battlefield. I felt the pain that you were going through because you thought that he would leave you. I know that you and his other friends had made an impact on his life because of the bond of friendship that you have with him and that's the best thing you could give a person like us, who has suffered loneliness." She looked up at him. He had a soft smile placed on his lips.

She looked forward and looked at the desert which was more visible now since the moon had begun to set its light throughout the land.

"Gaara..." She said softly.

"Yes." He said looking at her.

She turned to see him.

"I'm glad you're alive." She looked into his eyes.

The proximity between them was close.

"Thank you."

He smiled at her and it made her stomach churn. She looked at his hair which she had wanted to touch yesterday. Her hand came up and reach over to touch the hair in the back of his head and twirled the short strand in between her fingers.

At first Gaara was alarmed by her touch but then it calmed him in a way. Then came the fast beating heart that he'd experience almost always around her. She kept looking into his eyes and he did the same to her. It was if a gravitational force slowly pushed them towards each other because their bodies continued to become closer and closer. Gaara could feel as if his heart was going to give out from such fast paced beating. He saw how beautiful her features looked in the moonlight and saw her pink lips. She was driving his heart crazy. He couldn't stop himself, he lowered his head and pressed his lips against hers. Sakura closed her eyes and all she could hear was the loud thumping of her heart. She kept her hand in the back of his head. After a few seconds they pulled back and looked into each other's eyes. They both looked confused but said nothing. They both looked forward and looked at the desert. They sat there in silence for a while.

"What do we do now?" Sakura asked softly then turned to see Gaara looking straight ahead.

He turned to face her. "I don't know." He said.

"Gaara do you feel something for me?" Sakura asked.

He was quiet for a few seconds. "Yes. Every time I think of you, my heart pace picks up in ' strange, I've never felt this before."

Sakura went wide eyed. "Do we keep this thing between us going?" She asked. This was freaking her out since she felt it was so sudden. She also didn't want to end up in the same kind of relationship she was in with Sasuke. She didn't want to be hurt anymore. "Or do we end it now to prevent us from getting hurt?"

Gaara slowly brought his hands to cup her smaller ones. He knew what she meant by getting hurt. Temari had been gossiping to him whenever he would tell him to make a move on Sakura. Temari told him how The Uchiha wasn't capable of giving her the amount of love he gave her. Gaara didn't know what it was like to be in a relationship much less deal with these specific feelings of love but, if she showed him, he would do the best to make her happy. "Sakura, I won't hurt you…"

He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. "I don't know how… but if you show me, I'll try my best to make you happy."

Sakura took in his words. She was shocked by his words. She never thought that Gaara would ever say the things he said to her just now. Maybe it's because he and Sasuke were once the same. They had that look of hatred in their eyes when they were younger. Sakura shook that thought off. Gaara was different from Sasuke. Gaara told her he would actually try, Sasuke had his time to try and he spent it leaving her in the solace of their home waiting months for his arrival to have something of affection to ease her heart that ached to be loved. Sakura was silent. Gaara was beginning to feel as if she didn't want to go on. He pulled his hand away slowly and began to stand up then Sakura grasped his wrist. They made eye contact.

"Gaara, please don't leave me. I don't want to be alone anymore." She said as one tear rolled down her cheek.

He wrapped his arms around her, she had her head against his chest.

She felt at ease as the warmth of his body surrounded her.

"Thank you." She said softly.

He said nothing but made it known that he heard her by bringing one of his hands on top of hers and weaved his long thin fingers in between her fingers.

Being at ease in his arms Sakura soon fell asleep. Gaara heard as her breathing began softer. He carried her sleeping form in her arms. He still didn't know how he would bring her into her home searching through her pockets to get her keys. He felt that it wasn't right to his hands around her like that since she was asleep. While landing on the roof of the vacant apartment next to her he saw that her window was open. He leaped through it and it happened to be her bedroom. He placed her into her bed and covered her up. He stood there for a couple of seconds to admire the how her peaceful sleeping form looked in the moonlight. After those few seconds he figured it would be his time to leave. He wanted to give her a kiss on the forehead but thought against it. He didn't want to run the risk of waking her up from her slumber. He jumped out her window. He looked at the open window and though that he would have to tell her to be more careful and close it to keep her safe from danger.

* * *

Sasuke woke up from his nap suddenly, he felt a strange feeling in his stomach. He had fallen asleep earlier that afternoon after he had finished the duties that were offered to him that day. He looked out the window and saw that it was now dark outside. He then held his prosthetic hand to his stomach. He had a worried look on his face.

"Sakura." He said almost breathlessly.

"Please be waiting for me."

* * *

Sorry there wasn't that much on Sasuke's end. I'll make it up. I swear. So I updated on my b-day since I'm soooooo nice. Let me know what you think. I think I'll update Children of Business next (SasuSaku AU) check it out!

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	4. Back In Konoha

**Here is your update! Check out my other stories please! :)**

* * *

It was the day before their departure to Konoha and Sakura was watching Gaara spar with a close friends of his. Sakura recognized him from her chunin exams. His blue dragon tattoo on his right shoulder was something she had never seen in Konoha. She saw as Gaara found an opening the Taijustu users attack and sent his fist flying at him. With fast agility, the Taijustu user caught it then sent his own attack which Gaara was too slow to catch. The sparring partner's fist sent him fly a few feet back and slid on his back. He sat up and spit to the left side of his body. He Sakura running towards him at a fast speed.

"Are you okay?" She asked as she kneeled down to his height. She brought her hand to his cheek. At first surprised by her actions his eyes then softened. He brought up his hand up to her that was currently placed on his injured cheek.

"I'm fine." He said with the edges of his lips showing a faint smile.

His finger melded with hers and he brought her hand down rom his cheek.

"Are you sure?" She asked with her eyes still filled with worry.

"Yes, I'm fine." He then let her arm go and stood up. Sakura did the same.

"That's it for today Shira."

Shira nodded his head and walked towards the couple.

"Gaara could I ask you something." Shira said looking at the red head and his pink headed girlfriend.

Gaara nodded his head and so Shira began to speak.

"Could you give this to Rock Lee since you'll be visiting the leaf." Shira said bringing out a small bag.

"They're dried leaves from the cactus flower. They give you lots of energy when consumed as a tea."

Sakura smiled at his gift for Lee.

Gaara nodded. And picked it up from Shira's hands.

A man busted into the training room.

"Kazekage-sama, there's an emergency!"

All three were caught off guard but Gaara looked at Sakura who nodded and with that he and the messenger disappeared.

It was only Shira and Sakura in the training room now. Sakura thought that she should start a conversation to avoid silence.

"Lee is going to love your gift."

Shira noded. There was silence for a few seconds.

"Sakura." Shira said.

"Yes?"

"I want to thank you for making Gaara happy."

Surprised at first she then gave a light laugh.

"It's not me. He is a ver-"

"No, it's you that brought out a different side of him. Throughout these past few weeks I have never sensed such a warm inviting vibe from him. It doesn't matter what we're talking about, your name always seems to come up and when that happens, I see the soft caring expression on his face. Thank you for giving Gaara happiness."

Her cheeks had a pink tint to them

* * *

It had been a few hours since her talk with Shira. She was in her home making preparations for dinner. She heard a knock at her door. She went up to her door and opened. Her eyes interlocked with Gaara's.

"Hi."

"Hey." He said in his deep voice. "The situation from earlier blew over and I wanted to see you."

She smiled and got his wrist and ran off into her kitchen with him being pulled inches behind her. His face was full of panic but then slowly faded into a smile.

"I'm making curry for dinner." Sakura said letting go of him while he stood in front of the kitchen counter where she was chopping vegetable.

"That sound good." He said scooting a tad bit closer to her. He body was slow on reacting though which Sakura noticed and figured that he was tired.

"You can relax in front of the television while I make food. You need to relax from a long day of work and training. You must be tired." Sakura said while pushing towards the soft looking sofa a few feet away from the kitchen. She sat him down stiff as he was and sat on the edge of the seat. "We have a long journey tomorrow. You need as much rest as you can get."

"You need to rest too." Gaara said holding her forearm as she turned to leave back to the kitchen.

"I left a day early from work to not stress my body when it was time to travel to Konoha, you on the other hand sir," she got near and touched the tip of his nose with her index finger "have been working all day and will be tired if you don't rest a little. The last thing I want to happen is for you to pass out from body exhaustion." Sakura said looking him in the eyes.

Gaara displayed a soft smile and didn't have anything to say about her statement.

"That's what I thought. Hmmph." She said in childish tone and walked away with her hips swaying back and forth.

Gaara's grin only grew as he saw her curvy sway mere feet away from him. He looked away as he felt heat rise up to his cheeks. He then looked down at the clothes he was wearing which was, his shinobi clothing. His arms reached up into the belted beige vest that wrapped around his back and chest. He loosened the buckles and slipped it off. He then unbuttoned the top three buttons of his maroon shirt. He then sat there staring around her apartment living room wall until the sound of her humming caught his attention. He had never been around when she would be preparing dinner for the both of them. She would have it ready by the time he would arrive to her house after finishing the paperwork for the day.

Gaara looked over to the pinkette that was melodically humming while she began to pour the chopped vegetables into the pot on the stove.

He saw how concentrated she looked while staring into her pot, eyebrows creased then relaxing when she walked to the other pot that was filled with boiling white rice. Gaara didn't know it but he found himself behind her. He then threw his arms around her and pulled her away from the stove with her maid looking apron tied around her waist. At first startled Sakura looked back and saw the warm look in Gaara's eyes and made her body follow his lead. He sat on the edge of the kitchen table with Sakura's small form in between his thighs. She turned around fully to face him. She then noticed how his beige vest was off and how a few of his shirt buttons. In a way he seemed a little disheveled to her, since she was used to seeing him dress so ideally. It felt taboo to seeing him like this and knowing this her heartbeat began to quicken and the rapid blood flow painted a light shade of pink across her cheeks.

Her hands fell on his lower abdomen and she could feel his toned midsection. This only deepened the shade of blush. Her eyes fell on Gaara's and she saw a look in his eyes that she's never seen before. His gazed felt moving. If felt as if his eyes were gently stroking her soul beckoning her to come closer. She felt in a trance and didn't notice as she lips began to draw closer to him. He began to advance towards her as well but his advance ended up with his breath falling upon the crook of her neck. His lips lowered on to her light skin and gave a quick kiss to it. He heard her react to his action so he kept on going making a trail of kisses up to her lips. He retracted his head to look at her. Her eyes seemed needy. Sakura crashed her lips onto his. Now connected their lips didn't break contact. Both of their bodies began to increase in temperature as their flight or flight began to kick in and speed up their heart rate. Their lips broke apart. Both of them were gasping for air.

"Hey Sakura, sorry for barging in." Temari opened and closed the door without looking at the both of them. "I wanted to ask where we should go to…" She saw her younger brother sitting on the table shirt partially unbuttoned with Sakura practically on his lap.

"I'll just come back later."

"No, no no no. Please stay." In a matter of seconds she appeared next to Temari.

Gaara began to walk towards his sister as he buttoned up his shirt while avoiding eye contact.

"Alright. Once I leave you guys can pick up where you left off."

Sakura reddened with embarrassment and Gaara then shot a glare at his sister.

Temari just laughed.

* * *

A warm feeling began to surge through Sakura as she saw the gates of her hometown. The four of them were walking as they neared the gates since they had been jumping amongst the trees since daybreak. Sakura and Gaara were a few feet behind Shikamaru and Temari. Sakura looked at Gaara.

"What is it?" He said noticing the concern in her eyes.

"Gaara I don't want to hurt your feelings but could we not let the others know about us. I don't want to take the spotlight away from Shikamaru and Temari."

"It's fine. As long as we can spend time together at some point."

"I would really want that." She said and reached for his hand. Gaara held her hand.

"SAKURA!" A voice yelled out and then she felt someone tackle her into a hug. All Sakura saw was a flash of blonde hair. Temari and Shikamaru turned around to find the source of the loud voice.

She and Gaara ceased their hand holding as Naruto hugged her.

"I missed you so much. Sai isn't as fun to be around as you. He's always talking about Ino." Naruto said increasing the pressure of his hug.

"I missed you too but c-can you not squeeze the life out of me." Sakura said in pain while having a faint smile on her face.

"Right, sorry." He said. Temari and Shikamaru walked to the other three ninjas.

"So why were you out here?" Sakura asked.

"Sai and I were sparring. We were making our way back home but I pulled up ahead of him. He should be catching up with us any second now."

"Oh." She said.

Naruto looked over to the couple walking towards them.

"Hey guys, I haven't seen you in a long time. Shikamaru Ino is complaining that you don't reply fast enough to her letters or Sai tells me. Man all that guy talks about is her." Naruto laughed as he said that.

"Tch. I've been busy." He replied. "So how is life with Hinata?" Shikamaru asked.

"Good. We just finished moving into our house a couple weeks ago. She also made me homemade ramen. I thought I died and went to heaven when I tasted it. She has the cooking skills to put Teuchi out of business." He grinned from ear to hear and threw in a chuckle.

Naruto looked at Gaara and with the contact of their eyes they exchanged greetings.

"Ugly, you're back home." Sai said appearing behind Gaara and walked over to Sakura's left side.

Sakura didn't react sourly to the name he called her since she knew that he didn't mean to hurt her feelings. That was his way of showing his comradery with her: by having a term of endearment for her. He rarely said after the war and called her by her name instead but today he seemed that it was too long unsaid and said it.

Gaara realized that Sai called her this and in a way became upset. He didn't know that this was his way to show endearment and just thought he was being rude. He thought that what Sai called her was not accurate at all since Sakura was beautiful to him. For a second he shot Sai a glare.

"Hey Sai. I've been go from the village so long that I even miss you."

"I would say I miss your clobbering but someone took that job up from you." Sai said referring to his girlfriend.

"Maybe if you didn't tick her off. She wouldn't knock the daylights out of you."

"I'm still new to this relationship thing."

"That isn't an excuse to be tactless sometimes."

"She took offense for saying that she had a big ass." Sai said blatantly.

Everyone felt that the conversation took a weird turn.

"Sai she thinks you're calling her fat."

"Where did she get that from having a big ass?"

"It's a woman thing. We misconstrue what people say sometimes."

"I agree to that." Shikamaru said. Temari shot him quick glare. He forced a smile.

They made their way into the village. Shikamaru and Temari were ahead by a few feet and were speaking to each other as team Kakashi caught up with Sakura and asked her about her stay in Suna and also talk about what has happened during her leave. Naruto and Sai had a minifight over a simple thing as what they ate on their double date with their partners. This pointless fight between her teammates made her laugh. While she laughed she caught Gaara looking at her. He gave her a faint smile and looked away to not cause any suspicion between them. She had a gentle smile as she looked at him for a few more seconds.

"Sakura, who do you believe here?" Naruto asked her opinion.

"I would say Sai because he's not as goofy as you."

"I'm not goofy."

"I've seen the picture that you wanted to use as your genin profile picture. If that pictures doesn't say I'm goofy, I honestly don't know what will." Sai stated.

"How did you see that?" He said surprised.

"Kakashi had to reorganize some files and so I helped him since mission requests were slow."

Naruto squinted at the artist.

They began to walk up the stairs of the Hokage's tower. They walked down the hallway and that's when Naruto pulled ahead and busted into Kakashi's office.

"Sai saw my genin profile picture!"

Kakashi who was reclined in his chair relaxing reading his IchaIcha sighed and put his book down.

"You should've done something so stupid if you were going to regret it." He said nonchalantly and was about to pick up his book when the rest of them walked in.

Naruto said nothing with his squinted eyes fixated on his sensei.

"Sakura how have you've been?" Kakashi asked his former student. Kakashi felt a strong connection with his students that only became stronger after the war. He felt as if his students were his children and so he felt that it his duty to help them in their times of trouble whether it be combat or emotional trouble.

"I've been good. Sensei." She smiled vibrantly.

Kakashi saw as the Kazekage had a soft smile form as he watched Sakura smile brightly.

"Good. I hoped that your journey here was trouble free?"

The ones that traveled nodded their head. He nodded in response.

"Sakura. Shizune needs your help in the hospital tomorrow if you wouldn't mind going."

"I was going to go there anyways. I can't have a day wasted."

"Shikamaru, Temari, and Gaara we will be discussing the upcoming event between our villages in a few days."

"Yes." They all said in unison.

"Okay, you guys can be on your way now."

They all said goodbye to Kakashi and walked out of his office.

The six of them stood in front of the Hokage's tower as that would be their site of departure.

"Sakura do you need me to walk you home?" Naruto asked. "It's getting dark out here."

"I'm fine. Go to Hinata." She smiled.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes you blonde dork. Get out of here." She reassured him.

"Alright." He began to walk away and then turned back and waved to all of them.

"Shikamaru and I should be leaving. I said to his mother we'd be there before the sun went down completely." Temari said. "Gaara will you be staying with Sak-"

"Setsuna inn. Where service is instant." Sakura cut in. Sai felt suspicion for Sakura's action.

Temari looked at Sakura confused since she wasn't let in on the conversation that Gaara and her had earlier about keeping their relationship quiet.

"Right." She said and looked at her brother for his response.

"I'll go to the inn after you guys take off." He said.

"Okay. I'll come looking for you in the morning." She said and with that the engaged couple took off.

"I should be leaving as well. Ino would want me to give her the news that you're back as soon as possible. I should've left earlier. Goodbye." Sai took off.

Now it was just Gaara and Sakura.

"Would you like me to walk you home? Or would that seem a little off?" Gaara asked.

"No that would be fine." She smiled at him and the smile was she gave was then reciprocated.

They walked side by side talking of menial things having Sakura have laugh at a funny thing he would say but wasn't meant to be funny ad so he was confused but at soon as he saw her face as she laughed his thoughts would disappear and he felt a warm feeling surge through him. Oh how he wanted to grab her hand and hold it in his as they walked. But they were trying to keep their relationship away from the public's eye. The sun had disappeared and darkness overcame the lands as they walked to their destination. Sakura walked closer to him as she saw that there was rarely any people in the street as they were all retiring to their homes. Her fingertips brushed against his hand. This made Gaara blush. She then interlaced her fingers with his. Surprised by her actions he looked at her. She brought her free hand up and put her index finger to her lips.

"Shhhh…."

"What if someone sees us?"

"It's dark. We're fine." She said.

He faced forward and he squeezed her hand gently and rubbed his thumb over hers.

They arrived at her apartment.

"Do you want to come in?" Sakura asked.

"No." He said softly seeing the reflection of the moon in her viridian eyes. "You need to go to sleep. You have to go to the hospital tomorrow morning."

She slumped her shoulders childishly which Gaara found cute. He smiled.

"I'll see you tomorrow." He said closing in on her. Looking deep into her eyes. His eyes then wandered to her pink luscious lips.

"Yeah." She walked back ad her back hit against the wall outside her door. His closeness was beginning to pick up her heart rate.

"I'm going to miss kissing you whenever I want." Gaara said uncharacteristically. But it was his thoughts. He had gotten used to be affectionate with Sakura since they started being a couple. Still shy at his actions from time to time he took advantage of their time alone together. He felt comfortable as he stood in front of her, her viridian eyes glistening as he looked into them. This comfort is what made him say what was on his mind.

Sakura shocked by his words said nothing. His profile began to lower itself directly above hers as he did placed the palms of his hands on the wall Sakura was leaning on. He caught her there. His actions were making her mind work a mile an minute. His pale green eyes felt calming but at the same time made her heart increase in speed. He slowly leaned in and his lips made contact with hers. The kiss was soft but it evolved to more than that as he placed his palm on her hip. The intensity only increase as seconds went by. Sakura's hand traveled to the back of his neck and dropped slowly against chest. Tongues began to gain comfort in a mouth that was not their own and hands glided against the curves of bodies. Gaara's hand wandered to her back a drifted down slowly until it was under it was over her lower backside. He body was overstimulated and acted on it own. He squeezed her backside in which she responded by moaning into his mouth. A primitive feeling surge through him. He grew the want to hear moan once again. He wanted to go further than that. He wanted her body to please.

They were both startled when they heard rustling in the bushes close to them. They looked at the bush intently and a cat jumped out of it. They looked at each other.

"I'm sorry. My hand it –"

"It's fine." She smiled softly. Gaara could feel himself blushing.

"Goodnight Gaara." She said gently. She then placed a chaste kiss on his lips.

"Goodnight Sakura." He smiled faintly.

Sasuke sat on the edge of the motel's bed. He was currently in the land of iron. He was there to face the Samurai and give his apologies for killing and injuring a lot of its men. He was having a difficult time having trust come between them and him. At first they didn't want to let him enter their building but he then sent a letter to the leader. In the letter he wrote down all of his sins and explained how he wanted to make them right. Even though that had happened all of the leaders subordinates made their thoughts be known to Sasuke. One called him and inhuman demon incapable of feeling things such as guilt or compassion. One said he should've been executed along with the rest of kin a long time ago. This boiled his blood at first but then he accepted it because these men had a friend that was killed by his hands. He understood how they would feel because he would act the same if not more volatile if anyone were to harm Naruto or Sakura. Even with understanding helping him. The words they would say would stick to his soul and lie dormant there and resurface when he would be alone. At one point harmful words would never hurt him but that was when he was the monster that took away life without even thinking. Now he was different he opened his eyes to see all the destruction he had caused in his life. All the wrong choices he made all the wrong paths he took. He was there to fix it. Sure he could've just forgot of all the things he had caused and continued to live under the protection of the hidden leaf but it was his pride that got him to leave the village to clean the destruction he had caused. He realized that he took lives away and those lives had someone who cared for them, loved them just like he loved his blonde hair friend that he considered his brother and the pink haired woman that loved him endlessly.

Sasuke lied on the bed. Today a woman a wife of a Samurai he killed lashed out at him saying that she hopes that he finds love and then haves that person taken away from him and suffer as she did. He sighed and had a frown. Sakura was worrying him. I had been several weeks and she had yet to reply to any of the letters he sent her. He was worried that something might've happened to her. That thought was then counteracted by the fact that Naruto would protect her for him.

_Then why hasn't she sent letters back._ He put his hands over his eyes as he lied on the inn bed. I was not only that but when they would write to each other Sasuke would tell her on how people would ridicule him. When he was in the land of lightning trying to make amends with the Raikage and his village they threw objects at him food, empty cans and rocks at times. They would throw these objects and yell obscenities. At one point he felt so much pain inside from being treated inhumanely that he told Sakura he wanted to just give up and for a while he stayed in the inn he was staying in not leaving or making any attempts to make amends with the people. He then received Sakura's letter a few days later. She told him not to give up.

_Nobody said forgiveness was easy to gain Sasuke. I know you can get trough this. Don't listen to the things that they say. You aren't worthless and people do love you. I love you. I love you so much so please don't be upset because if you're upset then I feel like I haven't done my job and make you happy like I promised. I want you to be happy. I like it when you're in a calm state. And I sometimes get to see your smile. It makes me cry of happiness. Sasuke, I want you to be worry free when we start our lives together. This is why I want you to accomplish what you set out to do. Please don't give up on yourself._

Her letter made him continue and within a few weeks the people that once ridiculed him accepted his apology. Everything had been made better and he would've never continued if it wasn't for Sakura's encouragement giving him the little emotional push he needed to continue.

Sasuke didn't have her letters this time. And it was making him feel anxiety. He just wanted to have some type of contact with her. He needed her in her life.

_**She gave up on you. **_A voice in his head said. His stomach twisted.

_No. __**Yes. She said she was done with you and this time she meant it. **__She would never do that. __**She did. This works out in our favor. Without her we won't have leverage. It'll be just you. Solidarity is what you've had all your life. You're used to it. **__I don't want it anymore. I don't want to be alone. I want her. I want to love her. __**Weakness. Weakness. **__You're wrong. __**You're wrong.**__ Leave me alone. Leave me alone. _

"Leave me alone." Sasuke whispered repeatedly as he continued to lie on his back.

* * *

Ino was lying down on the couch parallel to the television set eating cubed fruit. Sai sat on the other couch which was perpendicular to the t.v. drawing in his sketchpad.

"Ino. I think Sakura and the Kazekage are intimate with each other."

Ino sucked in the cubed fruit and began coughing Sai looked worriedly at her then she coughed out the piece of fruit. Her eyes were wide.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!"

* * *

**It ended on a light note. I needed to do that. I also wanted to see Ino an Sai interact because they are my babies too. I hoped you liked this chapter. I'm debating on which one of my stories to update next. Maybe the gap. my tumblr is Uchihabunz if you have questions or just want to to talk. I'm a decent person. **

**Fave/Follow/Review Thank yewwwwww!**


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Naruto, Hurt-Comfort, Romance