yay! another chapter story!
all thanks to Sakuradeathblossom who saved me from the fiery pits of cliche-dum.

hope you all like it... it's AU in case you didn't already know.

a new chapter will hopefully be written soon.

:-)


It was pouring rain that cold November day when Sakura first started her volunteer job at Konoha's mental institution.

Nerves and excitement were built up inside of her chest as she rushed through the heavy wooden doors to the main part of the building.
Escaping the wet smell of dying leaves, she was greeted by the strangling smell of mildew, bleach, medication, and the decaying smell of the insane and heavily medicated.

Making a violent churn, Sakura's stomach kicked up some bile.
Cursing at her luck for getting assigned to this place, she took a brave step toward the caged off area and barred doors.
It looked more like a prison then a place where the mentally ill were supposed to be rehabilitated…

"Can I help you?" asked the indifferent receptionist behind the bars of the window.
She was filing down her nails with a nail file and looking completely bored and a little angry at the fact that she was being disturbed.

"I'm Sakura Haruno." Sakura said introducing herself. "I'm the volunteer from The University that was assigned here. I'm supposed to complete my internship here before I graduate…"

"Oh yeah. I was told that you were coming today. Come on in." the lady said as she pushed a button near her hand and a loud buzzing noise echoed down the halls as the door unlocked itself.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura opened the door and walked behind the caged area.
She jumped slightly as the heavy door was slammed behind her by a big gorilla looking man who's job it obviously was to rough up anyone who got out of control.

Sakura couldn't help but feel as the walls closed in on her as she started to think that she was now trapped, just like all of the residents admitted into the institution.

"Tsunade will be with you in a minute." the receptionist said, returning to her nails once again.

Sakura nodded at her and looked around at her surroundings.

Above her head a light bulb blinked and buzzed unsteadily. It needed to be replaced, but yet it added to the oppressive and depressing atmosphere that emanated from the entire building.
The colors of the building were very hospital like: mostly white, maybe some beige, possibly a mix of light yellow as well…but Sakura couldn't tell if those colors were supposed to be mixed in there since it looked like the building hadn't been properly cleaned for at least a few years...or decades.
There was at least an inch of dust on the few picture frames that were nailed to the walls sparingly.
Most of them were crooked, and all of the frames were broken in some way. Probably from an angry resident throwing something at them…or maybe even crashing some part of the body against it.
Sakura shuddered at the mental image that was brought up of a mangy looking man crashing his head against the glass of the frame, cutting his head open and laughing witlessly.

As if on cue, Sakura heard mumbling and shuffling from around the corner of the hallway.
Sakura always envisioned mental patients to look like zombies.
All of them crazy and most of them drugged to the point of being undead; only aware enough to function on the most basic levels.
She never liked mental hospitals, and this place was not improving her thoughts on them.

But she had to stick it out.
Only six months here and she would be graduating and on her way to becoming one of the best doctors in Konoha and would never have to set foot in here ever again.
Taking another deep breath to calm her increasingly jumpy nerves, Sakura gave the gorilla man a sideways glance and smile.

I wish this Tsunade woman would hurry up. Sakura thought to herself.

Suddenly a loud crashing echoed down the hall and it sounded like something had just been shattered beyond repairing.

"Get away from me!" a deep voice yelled at someone.
Sakura heard a calm voice say something to assumingly the person yelling, but it only elicited another crashing noise.

The gorilla man besides Sakura shuffled into action and Sakura followed him.
If she was going to work here, she might as well get used to all of the events that happened as well; but she made sure to keep a safe distance from the man since he looked like he could break just about anything in half.

The hallway opened up into a much larger room, furnished with barely padded chairs, ancient dusty lamps, small scuffed coffee tables, and an undersized TV that was propped up on stilts and still had bunny-eared antennas in order to get a fuzzy channel or two.
The rug was a sickly vomit color and Sakura silently hoped that that was the color it was supposed to be and wasn't that color due to the residents actually vomiting on it…

The room was surprisingly full of patients, but Sakura drew her attention to the scene in front of her.

The gorilla man walked over to an older lady who had long blonde hair and was wearing a white lab coat.

She was talking to someone, but the view was blocked by the massive primate man.
Whoever she was talking to had obviously been the one yelling and breaking stuff before.

"Don't touch me!" the deep voice yelled again and Sakura tried to peak at the owner of the voice, but failed.

"We're not going to hurt you." the blonde woman said calmly, making reassuring gestures with her hands. "Just put down the glass and we can go into my office and talk…"

"NO! Just leave me alone!"

The woman extended her hand asking for the glass with it and said, "Please…"

"Stop looking at me like that!" the voice yelled.
Sakura could feel the situation spinning out of control quickly.

"If you would give me the glass then I could leave you alone and I won't have to look at you…" the woman said as soothingly as she could.

"STOP STARING AT ME!" the man's voice cracked.

Sakura watched as the woman made the mistake of taking a step forward and the still invisible man struck out like a viper and slashed the woman's hand with the glass that they were trying to get away from him.

Blood flowed out quickly, and Sakura stared at it in shock as the red liquid dripped to the grotesque carpet.

Sakura didn't notice that the gorilla man had rushed forward until she heard a loud crunch and a thud as the man punched the attacker and pinned him against the floor.

"Chikusho! Stop it! Just get the glass out of his hand and restrain him!" The woman yelled at the guard as she held her hand to her chest, staining her white coat with blood.

Smiling to herself at how perfectly the gorilla man's name matched him, Sakura turned her gaze to the floor and got her first view of the attacker.
His red hair drew her attention first, then it drifted down to the blood red kanji tattoo on his forehead.
Sakura gasped at the fact that the man on the floor couldn't possibly be much older then she was.

The hairs on her arms stood up and her skin pricked at the look of pure malice shown brightly on the young man's face. Although Chikusho clearly outweighed him by at least 200 pounds, and he was also being strangled and pinned by the ape, he was straining against him with his teeth bared and was snarling.
Blood leaked from his nose and his cheek was already swelling at the area that Chikusho had punched him.

The offending glass was still being grasped tightly by the red-head and was making a deep cut into his hand.
Sakura rushed over and snatched it before the cut went too deep and cut ligaments and tendons.

The redhead moved to lash out at her, but Chikusho hit him once again.

"I said stop it!" the woman yelled again.
She produced a needle and waved it in front of the pinned red-head's face. "Now behave or I will give you this." she hissed at him.

The red-head hissed right back at her and spit on her and the needle.
The woman doctor sighed as Chikusho made another devastating blow to the red-head's face.

"Stop!" Sakura yelled at him, barely registering the words that were coming out of her mouth.

"I got the glass away from him, now just leave him alone!"
Turning to the woman doctor, Sakura introduced herself and offered to look at her hand.
Waving her good hand and shaking her head, the older woman introduced herself as Tsunade and instructed Sakura to look at the patient's injuries first.

Sakura felt her stomach drop once again when she realized that she was expected to take care of the man whom she had just taken a weapon away from…

Tsunade interrupted her thoughts by adding, "When you're done, see me in my office and I'll show you around…I'm sorry that this had to be your first experience here…but Gaara is always giving us problems."

Gaara? Sakura thought as she watched both Tsunade and Chikusho exit the room.

Sakura turned stiffly to look at Gaara who was now squatting against the wall, sizing her up.
He sat on the backs of his heels, resting an arm on each leg and staring at her intently.
Sakura felt his eyes travel up her body, causing her breath to hitch when his gaze finally reached hers and she was staring at the brightest colored eyes she had ever seen.

Sakura tore her gaze away and focused on the various swollen areas on his face that had blood leaking from them.
She then moved her gaze over to his hand and saw that the blood had traveled down his arm slightly, but was now dripping onto the carpet.

Taking a deep breath Sakura extended her hand and said, "Hello Gaara. I'm Sakura. I'll be…"

She trailed off as he stood up from where he was sitting.
He silently turned his back on her and walked down the hallways to what Sakura assumed were the examination rooms.

I sure have my work cut out for me…Sakura thought as she followed a distance behind him.
"Welcome to Hell, Day 1..." Sakura muttered to herself before entering the room with possibly one of the most dangerous men she had ever been in the vicinity of…