Tsuyoku: Hello all! Here's another installment. Most of your questions should be answered by the end of this long-awaited addition. I'll note that while it's obvious this isn't canon to the series, I've definitely taken some more liberties with the storyline than I had intended from the beginning, but despite that, I'm please with the outcome so far. It'll fit into the final chapter after this. Probably in epilogue form, but we'll see what it ends up like. Thanks for reading thus far!

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Chapter 20: Answers

Sakura felt the exhaustion through every muscle in her body. The walk from her psuedo-job to her pseudo-home seemed so vast as if she couldn't muster the energy to make it, but weighing the scenario of collapsing into a moderately comfortable bed against collapsing right onto the dusty earth beneath her feet, Sakura put one foot forth and went from there. The long days at the hospital were her own prerogative. Without an adequate pastime to fill the hours between her sleep and work, who was she to lie around in potential boredom when there was work to be done. She hadn't become the medic nin she was by keeping a nine-to-five work ethic.

Working with her hands again, working with other people, and imparting the knowledge that Tsunade once gave her was renewing a sense of invigoration she hadn't seen in herself in a while. She flexed her fingers against the thick air feeling the ache of her body with each movement of her healing hands.

And that made her realize, as she was contemplating the feeling of either a hot shower or the feel of her welcoming, scratchy comforter against her face, how little she recognized the Sakura she'd been the last few months. Gaara had taken and taken from her, helping himself to whatever about her that let him sleep and not giving her one chance to show him the real Konoha Kunoichi who held such a reputation back in the hidden leaf village. There wasn't a man in that town that would have taken advantage of her the way the Kazekage had, and possibly that was part of the appeal and attraction she felt to him.

She wasn't a delicate flower or some woman to be coddled. Although infuriating that he'd helped himself to the most private part of herself she kept hidden in the back of her mind where even Inner Sakura had never been able to reach, Gaara of the Sand had acted as no man she'd ever considered a friend had. Although the real question still lingered: were they friends? Lovers? Roommates?

The last struck a cord inside her small frame, and suddenly even the appeal of the hot shower or stale bedroom started to feel cold. Everything was his. She'd left the confines of her comfortable rooms upstairs, his rooms to be honest, when he'd tried to disregard her over a month ago. Yet she lingered in a small room on the first floor with as much distance as she could possibly place between them. And still she was well within the confines he'd set for her. She took a wide turn to the right and rounded the building to the private gardens in the back where she'd spent many of her days of imprisonment with Temari, even Taki, or alone.

With each step she felt herself drained further as if the very ground she walked on pulled the chakra from her body in a constant drip. She staggered to even reach the area she called her own, and Sakura admitted to herself that the shower probably wouldn't have been a great idea if her legs weren't even able to support her this far.

She was depleted. Her back hit the cool grass with more of a firm plop than she'd intended, and it knocked the breath from her for a moment before she stared at the fading daylight as the stars revealed themselves to the night. They blurred against the moisture wicking at her eyes. Her breath came in even gasps as she wavered with unshed tears.

This. This is what she was for the next few months. Then what? she would ask herself. What Sakura would she be when she packed up what little mattered and reunited with her home country? The truth hardly seemed appealing, and in the light dusk around her, its importance was fading against the burden of pressing matters. Her eyelids dropped, and her long lashes grazed the pale skin underneath. In and out. Just breathe in and out. Always breathing fully and deeply until all that was left was a black abyss and a sense of calm she hadn't felt since the night she last fell asleep wrapped in secure arms.

And that was how the Kazekage found her.

More often than late he'd taken to watching her when he knew she wouldn't notice. Even though he knew they couldn't fall for each other as Shukaku had always intended, it didn't stop him from taking the time to appreciate what he'd had for such a short time. The man inside of him couldn't keep from tracing with his eyes the gentle curve of her neck or the skin of an exposed leg and recalling memories from the night not long ago when they'd finally gone down a path they could never return from. Cruelly, Shukaku thought he was being clever by giving Gaara the chance to get close to her, to taste her body and develop a connection the Kazekage had sworn never to do.

However, from his contemplative perch on the roof of his home, something seemed wrong, out of place with the kunoichi. They way she was positioned in the grass, the unnatural form of her body was not her usual comfortable lounge in the garden. It didn't take two seconds for him to fall into the small oasis of green amongst the rest of the standard Suna environment, and within two more he was by her side, kneeling and hand hovering over the smooth skin of her cheek.

It was the first night he'd snuck into her room all over again, yet this time he couldn't criticize her for not rousing at his presence because there was a general unwellness about her. The relatively small chakra coming from inside her gave him enough guesswork for her state of health, and it was obvious she'd worked herself until the brink of exhaustion with his people.

Funny, take away his interference and it was surprising how much she was able to accomplish there in his land with his people, doing the job she'd been officially commissioned to do from the start.

Just a touch. Just a long stroke on her face and down to her collarbone and further down to her chest that rose infrequently with shallow breaths. Just a reminder of her. He couldn't guarantee he'd have another chance.

"I'm sorry." Gaara didn't think he'd whispered those words to anyone else. Never had the Gaara of the Sand felt the need to apologize for his actions. Everything was done with a purpose. Every action defendable, deliberate, until that moment when he knelt down next to the unconscious Sakura, who breathed in and out with a soft rhythm as if she were back in her bed in Konoha. It was as if none of it had ever happened. As if they could go back to the night Gaara strayed to her room to avoid detection from Leaf nins and instead choose a different apartment.

Although, Gaara wasn't sure he would change anything if given the choice.

Here he was leaning over a woman who put her whole self into everything she was passionate about. Helping people, teaching, caring. He'd once been on the receiving end of that spectrum but was unsure if he'd ever be welcomed back. He bent, hesitant, to touch his cheek to her own. As long as they were alone this was fine. As long as he could feel her warmth once more he was going to be able to survive the rest of her time there. His head turned, and their noses grazed against each other. He could feel her beneath him as her aura penetrated the layers of clothing separating their bodies, but he frowned at how unfamiliar she felt.

She was so weak and drained. So vulnerable at that moment, and Gaara didn't like it. She lacked a fire inside as Sakura lay depleted and recovering from a week of long days at their medical units and, much like himself, spending little to no time sleeping.

Not that'd he'd been keeping tabs on her at all.

He bent his head to feel once more the tingle of her lips on his. Just a sample of her skin before he took her back to her own room and let her sleep without interruption. Gaara almost groaned at the sensation because damn it felt good. He pressed into her and almost didn't feel her reacting to his sudden attentions.

She jolted out of sleep and made to push him away, but her hands hesitated as they hovered just beside his shoulders. Her eyes remained closed, but Gaara felt her arms snake around his back and neck. He'd been caught. Her moan staggered his kiss for a moment, but she pulled him back into her.

He tried to pull away. Something was wrong.

Sakura pushed toward him and continued to run her lips against his, tongue tousled into his mouth, and the Kazekage was stuck between her lust and the tug of Shukaku inside of him. From the middle of his body it was there. That desperate bloom of energy only for her. Within it was the beast rising from his momentary lull and fixating on the woman with whom both had become so enamored. He did his best to fight the feeling as his hands tried to peel her arms from his body where they left a scorching burn of lust and want.

"No," he gritted out. Gaara felt his chakra flare against her body, but Sakura refused to give up.

"I don't want to let go. You can't make me this time, Gaara."

She was looking into his eyes as he pulled back this time, but as he moved to sit up her grasp solidified and turned him to the ground.

Even a woman was able to get the jump on Gaara of the Sand after all.

"You have ruined me, Gaara." She straddled his waist as he lay beneath her and groaned again as his body felt hot and straining against the release of energy building beneath his skin. He didn't have long. "I'm not the kind of woman who sulks over men who ignore her anymore, and I refused to go back to it. You want me. Say it."

She bent down to kiss his cheek, soon turning her attentions to a sensitive part of his neck. The upper hand had never tasted to sweet.

"I will not let you brush me off like another one of your employees." Her words whispered into his ear made his arms clamp onto her waist like a tightened vice.

"We...we can't." She needed to move. He was about to lose. Lose to what he wasn't sure, but there was a boiling heat within him that turned his mind numb as something hazy took over his vision and his voice rumbled low and husky like gravel.

"Tell me, Gaara," she moaned and moved against him.

"No. No..." Another whispered plea. Another bargaining word for his release from whatever power was grasping him at that very moment.

"Tell me you love me." Her lips twitched against his as her mouth formed the demand.

Strong hands locked into the strands at the nape of her neck and pulled her into him. Lips collided with a fury of force and wanton need.

Yes, she thought. If he couldn't say it with words, actions were the next best.

"Sakura…" Gaara tried to say once more. His voice hitched in his throat, and he tumbled her onto the ground before covering her body with his own, not unlike their intimacy from what felt like ages ago.

His hands grabbed her wrists and slammed them next to her head, and his mouth covered hers again. Another moan from her lips but this time of surprise.

There it was again. Chakra.

It was an all too familiar moment, a reminder of what happened to them after their night together. It was the wedge Shukaku had become between them. It was the energy flowing into her that collided with her own, hinting toward something Sakura felt she should know by now.

She was drowning in his aura.

Her arms, no longer weak from overexhaustion with the energy spilled into her, forced him off of her. The push was backed with the renewed invigoration from their shared chakra. Sakura bounded upwards into a crouched position and stared at his unmoving body, which knelt on the ground a few feet from where she stood. A glance at his face as she jumped to put more distance between them reaffirmed what she knew. His eyes were gone and replaced with the darkness of Shukaku.

He was back.

The kiss was still burning hot on her lips. Chakra felt as if it were buzzing throughout her body. "Why are you doing this, demon?"

His eyes were such a deep plum they almost seemed black to Sakura. She was at least ten feet from him, yet it felt as if he could still swing an arm and take her into his grasp with ease. To her luck, she thought, the man remained as still as stone.

He hadn't even answered her question yet.

"Speak!"

Shukaku remained silent. He used Gaara's face like a mask, and though the Kazekage often wore a fierce expression, the distinctive drunken smirk crept up into his lazy mouth. She could see Shukaku's markings creeping up Gaara's neck, fading into the telltale signs that she was in the presence of power and infinite age.

"Why the hell are you doing this?!" Her hands punctuated the outrage with a swift clench of fists into her hairline and pulling as if the pain might shock her into reality. Exasperation overcame her in the form of stinging tears, and the man in front of her—truly just the outline of a man—jblurred against them. She could almost pretend it was Gaara again. "Why won't you leave me alone?"

Sakura turned away from the form and clenched her face in an attempt to save herself the embarrassment of having a breakdown in front of the beast. "This is what you're after. Just misery. That's been your whole existence from vessel to vessel, and you can't stand someone to be content with their existence let alone happy!"

A choked sob erupted from her throat, and Sakura's hands cupped over her face. No, this isn't happening right now.

Shukaku's unwavering gaze sharpened against her sobs. He felt the tug of Gaara's conscience against his will, and it was all he could do to hold back the change and maintain the control over the vessel, let alone try to speak against her rather logical accusations.

Fuck you-

Let me out-

You're not going to win-

Sakura won't be able to save me-

All the whispered yells from Gaara trapped deep inside echoed in the dark abyss where Shukaku spent his imprisonment. Their jumbled mass hit the beast among the tune of Sakura's desperate sobs, and even the one-tail wavered against the onslaught of the two souls racing toward each other with him in the middle.

Shukaku imagined it was close to what Gaara felt when the former pounded the bespelled walls that trapped him, linked him to the Kazekage for so long. Was this tug so easy for the young man to bear?

"Sakura…"

The kunoichi joined Shukaku in surprise as Gaara's voice broke through.

"You...have to leave…"

"I won't leave you when you're like this, Gaara!" She brushed the drops from her eyes and rushed toward Gaara, still painted like his internal beast. She grabbed his face and gripped it, staring into the eyes that were oscillating between the darkness of Shukaku and the bright green threatening to break through.

"You have to fight this! We'll figure it out!"

"Don't touch me!"

His arms tried to flail against her. Sakura still managed to hang on.

"You can't save me. Please…"

Sakura stopped short. "Save you?"

The purple took over once more, and once again she was within the sights of the feared beast. You can save him, it said in her head again.

"What are you talking about?"

He knocked her back into the grass again and settled his body over hers as if they'd resumed their positions after Sakura woke. The weight of Shukaku bore down on her small form, and his lips sought out her own again before they injected even more of the empowering chakra into her body.

It was a thunderous roll of energy inside her all at once, and the kunoichi felt her internals tremble at the shock of such pure power tousling inside her. It was a nauseating wave that caused her to convulse, go limp for a moment before recovering and pushing back again. Shukaku overpowered her, giving her energy, which in turn allowed her to fight against the stone wall he formed on top of her.

She managed to meet his gaze again, but the demon broke through again and bit her shoulder and pinned her wrists to the ground below. She screamed as the chakra continued to come into her.

Let her go-

I'll give in-

Just stop-

And the scream stopped. She was free. The weight atop her had lifted, settling in a kneeling position between her legs and looking toward the ever-darkening sky and howling a sound that shook the entire surrounding buildings.

Shukaku was awake. He was getting stronger.

A glow permeated the darkness settling around them, and Sakura watched in horror as she realized what was happening. An electricity sparked between her and the personified beast as his power signal strengthened and Gaara's began to fade.

This is your chance, the beast said.

She tore her eyes from the light and looked up toward those eyes. "Chance?" Her voice was light and unsure.

To save him.

"No!"

She leaped forward in an attempt to stall the change. The strength he'd shared made her body feel as weightless as the air around her, and with it, her courage raced against the little time she had to possibly stop what was happening so suddenly.

Shukaku was trying to break free from the bond.

And there was no doubt in her mind that this entire rouse had been to prepare for such a moment.

A strong nin with a prodigal healing ability.

Someone who could save Gaara from certain death as the beast ripped from their bond.

And it just had to be her.