CHAPTER ONE
Hey! It's been a while, but as I promised, the sequel to 'Bound to Love?' is finally out. Hope your summer is going well…I've basically just been blobbing around, then realized I completely forgot that I promised a sequel (sorry about that). But here it is!
(If any of you are reading this before you've checked out 'Bound to Love', the fact this is a sequel shouldn't be too much of a problem, I'm not planning on making many references to it. But I still encourage you to read it to see how Sakura and Gaara's relationship developed.)
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Sakura drummed her fingers against the armrest on her chair. She had been waiting in the Hokage's office for well over half an hour, and still Tsunade was nowhere to be seen. Letting out a deep breath, Sakura told herself sternly that the Hokage had many duties…
To keep from getting angry, she let her mind wander. Had she remembered to take out the trash this morning? A rumble in her stomach told her she had skipped breakfast, and she frowned. Maybe after her talk with the Hokage she could go get some food…yeah, that sounded good. Duly she thought back to when she would always make a big, home cooked breakfast every morning, and her stomach grumbled even louder. Then again, she figured that spending all that time cooking for just one person was silly, now that Gaara had…
Sakura sighed. Thinking about Gaara wasn't exactly the best thing for her mood. He had left for Suna three months ago. Three months! And she hadn't heard a peep from him.
Sakura rolled her eyes. It wasn't as if she had been expecting him to write her long love letters filled with romantic vows (come on, this was Gaara we're about, Sakura reminded herself), but still. She…
Sakura shook her head and forcefully stopped thinking about that. Wallowing in self pity wasn't on her to do list.
Glancing at the clock, she saw that she had been here for forty-five minutes, and her patience was spent. She had better things to do than wait around here mulling over stupid things. Standing up, Sakura turned to the door—just as it opened.
Tsunade walked in, being scolded by Shizune. When they saw Sakura, they both stopped. "Oh, you're here already?" Tsunade asked.
Sakura bit back a remark and nodded, waiting for Tsunade to walk around and sit at her desk before she sat down. Shizune took her position by the side. "What is it that you wanted me for?"
"I wanted you to know that I will be leaving tomorrow."
"Oh?" Sakura wasn't too excited. Usually that meant that Shizune was going along with her, which left most of the paperwork Tsunade left behind to Sakura. "Alright then." She noticed Shizune give a small smile before she turned away. Confused, she glanced at Tsunade, who was looking at her with a smirk. "What…what is it?"
"Aren't you curious about where I'm going to?"
Sakura blinked, and then an idea clicked into her head. Trying not to sound too hopeful, she asked, "Not…not to Suna?"
Tsunade grinned at her and nodded. "Yup."
Sakura hesitated, then grabbed a pen from the Hokage's desk, along with a sheet of paper. "Could you give Gaara this letter for me?" she asked, trying to figure out what she was going to write. She got as far as 'Gaara', deciding to forsake the 'dear,' when she got stuck. What exactly was she gong to write? What did she want to write?
Tsunade gave her a look. "Sakura—"
"It's just a letter!" Sakura protested, tapping the pen against her armrest. What could she write without feeling like an idiot? She wasn't good at expressing her feelings in words in the first place, but knowing that Gaara was going to read it only made it worse.
"Sakura, you're coming with me," Tsunade stated.
Sakura's head jerked up, the pen freezing in her hand. "What?" she asked stupidly.
"You're coming with me," she repeated.
"You mean it?" Sakura asked.
"Of course. I can tell how much you miss him, and I thought it would be a nice break for you."
Sakura took a few moments to process this. She was going to see Gaara. Excitement started to bubble up in her, and she smiled, knowing that she must look foolish. But what did that matter? She was going to see him!
"We're going to leave early in the morning, and I plan to stay for about a week. Well?" Tsunade asked. "What are you waiting for? Go pack!"
"Yes ma'am!" Sakura jumped to her feet and rushed out.
Once Sakura had shut the door behind her, Shizune smiled. "It's nice of you to invite her along."
Tsunade smiled. "I can tell she misses him. And just the other day I got a letter from Temari, Gaara's sister. Do you remember her?"
"Uh-huh. What did the letter say?"
"Well, there were two. The first one was formal, asking that I, the Hokage, come over to Suna for a visit and have a meeting with their kage to help strengthen our alliance…along with some other boring stuff. The other one was just a plain letter from Temari. She said she hoped that we would bring along Sakura, saying that she hoped it would help her brother's mood. From what she wrote, it seems as if he's been a little grumpy lately, and she thinks that it's because he hasn't been able to see Sakura."
Shizune covered a giggle with her hands. "He's grumpy because he can't see her? He sounds like a lovesick teenager."
Tsunade couldn't help but smile. "Aw, it wasn't too long since you were that young. Don't you remember feeling the same way? And besides, Gaara's not the only one who's been moody, you can see Sakura's been getting depressed."
"I dunno if depressed is the right word, she seems more aggravated than anything. Then again, she's always like that…"
Tsunade grinned again. "You're right." She shuffled some papers together and tapped them against her desk. "If all goes well, think about what might happen in the long run? Should Gaara's and Sakura's relationship go well, it can only help the alliance."
"They'll be a force to be reckoned with, that's for sure," Shizune added.
--
The rest of the day was a blur for Sakura. She didn't remember dashing home or throwing her clothes in a bag. She didn't remember running around the village saying goodbye to everyone, and by the time Sakura had gotten back home, it was dark. Plopping down on her bed next to her bag, she wondered where the day had gone.
A meow and a sudden thump announced the appearance of her newly acquired cat, Kit. Sakura smiled at the short-furred cat and rubbed its head, earning a rumbling purr from her.
When Sakura's next door neighbor in the apartment had moved out of the village, the woman couldn't take the cat with her, and Sakura had offered to find it a new home for it. The following weeks had been so busy with missions that Sakura didn't have time to do that, and she had just gotten used to its presence, and didn't have the heart to give it away. Since she hadn't been expected to keep it, she had just called it Kit whenever it was around, refusing to use the name its owner had given her (it was Dexter. Who names a girl cat Dexter?), and by the time she realized it wasn't going anywhere, the name had stuck.
"Guess what, Kit? I'm going to be gone for the next few weeks, so asked my friend Ino to look after you."
The cat flicked its tail, pushing its head against Sakura. She smiled, she knew that Kit didn't care too much for her friend. "It won't be that bad. Ino promised to be nice."
Her cat meowed in response, and Sakura caught herself from rolling her eyes. Lately she had been worried about her habit of talking to her cat like it could understand her—that had to be a sign she was losing her mind, right?
Deciding to ignore that for the moment, Sakura took a quick shower and changed into pajamas, then hopped under the covers of her bed. She felt really silly about it, but all she could think about was that she was going to see Gaara soon. Pondering over this, she fell asleep.
--
Sakura woke up the next morning with a lovely smell of the cat's putrid breath huffing in her face. Scrunching her face in disgust, she pushed herself up, deciding that when she got back she would stop feeding Kit the fish-brand of cat food.
"Come on, you're not supposed to be on the bed," she said, nudging the cat. It grumbled and just curled up into a ball. Annoyed, Sakura picked it up and deposited it on the floor, making it meow in protest. "Oh, be quiet. You know you're not supposed to be on the furniture."
As the day's agenda wafted into her head, Sakura couldn't help but smile. She glanced at the clock, grabbed her bag, and headed for the gate. On her way there she grabbed a bagel, and was still munching on it when she saw Tsunade and Shizune waiting for her.
"You got everything you need?" Tsunade asked. Sakura nodded. "Alright, then let's go."
As they set out, Shizune fell in step with Sakura. "You excited to see your lover boy?" she asked with a teasing smirk.
Sakura blushed and glared at her. "He's not my 'lover boy.'" When Shizune kept watching her expectantly, Sakura rolled her eyes. "And yeah, I'm excited," she admitted, blushing even more.
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After months of not writing anything, I fell like I'm out of shape. I'm not sure if I captured Sakura's personalitly the way it was in BTL (…that sounds like a Burger King item…sigh), and sorry if you felt the same way. I'm afraid that they won't be the same as they were before…but part of that is due to the time Sakura and Gaara have spent apart, I guess. As always, please review!