I got the last chapter done! Um… some people seemed to be confused about what happened last chapter. What happened was that when Gaara meditated, it opened the way for his memories to return, but also allowed Shukaku to have his own say as well. I probably should have said this, but I got the idea from a Stargate episode where this girl named Anna was a genetic hybrid clone thing that rogue NID agents created, and when she meditated, her Goa'uld DNA caused her to freak out.

Anyway, weird explanations aside, I hope you enjoy the last chapter!

I don't own Naruto.

Chapter Nine

"Gaara!!"

Sakura screamed his name out, but it was no good, he was gone. She couldn't even sense the slightest trace of the chakra that had flared moments before he'd vanished. So what was she going to do? Hugging her arms to her side, she fell to her knees and wept. She wept for Gaara, for everything he'd been through. She wept for Temari and Kankurou, what the hell was she going to tell them? And she wept for herself.

Collapsing against the spot Gaara had been sitting before he'd taken off, Sakura let all her tears out, howling out her anguish. Normally she wouldn't allow herself to become so affected by another, especially not after all that had happened to her, but somehow she'd broken her own rules. And it hadn't been unintentional. She'd done it deliberately. What the hell had she been thinking?

Once her tears were spent, she stood shakily on her feet. Maybe she was overreacting, maybe he was going to come back? Where else would he go? To Suna? Suddenly Sakura realised that that was a real possibility. It occurred to her that maybe he freaked out because he remembered. Was that what had happened? But then again, maybe Shukaku was in control. Gaara's last words came back to haunt her, I hate you for this.

Would Gaara have said that? Maybe, there was no way for her to know. She hadn't lied when she'd told him that they hadn't known each other well before all this. All that Sakura had known about the red head was second hand knowledge from Naruto and Temari, and very little from her own few encounters with him. In fact, if it weren't for the recent events, Sakura would probably still not know him very well.

With tears still in her eyes, Sakura stood and walked back to the camp. Two days. She'd wait here two days, and if Gaara still didn't come back by then, then she would go to Suna and tell his siblings that she'd failed them.

The gates of Suna came into sight, and Sakura breathed a sigh of relief. Gaara hadn't shown, so she had left. The guards on duty saw her and waved her through, and she wondered if they'd been given orders to let her through by Temari and Kankurou. In any case, when she reached the Kazekage building, they already knew she was here.

"Sakura! You're back!" Temari exclaimed, rushing forward to hug her.

"Where's Gaara?" Kankurou asked, and Temari pulled away, looking around expectantly.

"I-I'm sorry," Sakura stuttered out, and tears welled in her eyes, falling down her cheeks.

"What happened?" Temari asked. "Is Gaara alright?"

"I-I don't k-know where he is!" the pinkette said, hiccupping a little. "I was trying to get him t-to m-meditate, b-but he panicked a-and took off!"

"Panicked?"

Sakura nodded. "I'm s-sorry."

Temari sighed and stepped back. "So he's gone again?" she asked, and Sakura nodded once more.

"It's alright," Kankurou reassured her, awkwardly patting her back. "You did your best. No one's going to blame you."

But she did blame herself. It was her fault, after all, since she was the one who'd gotten him to meditate in the first place. If it hadn't been for her insistence, then Gaara wouldn't have freaked out the way he had and run off. But it was still bugging her as to why he'd run. Was it because he'd remembered? Had the meditation sparked his memories and that was why he'd done a runner? In any case, Sakura was going to remain miserable about it, no matter what anyone said.

"I think we should tell the elders now," Temari suggested.

"Why?" Kankurou asked. "There's really no point. He's gone, so there's nothing to tell."

"But if they find out, they'll be pissed."

"Who's going to tell them?"

"You should tell them."

The two siblings stopped their little banter to look at Sakura. She was staring out towards the desert, a slightly far-off look in her eyes. She continued to stare a moment then turned to them, her tone and gaze serious.

"Temari's right, you have to tell them," she said. "If only to let them know that he's still alive, still able to be saved."

The look in her eyes had both of their heart-strings being played like violins, and that was when understanding dawned in Temari's eyes. "You love him," she said, earning a slight gasp from her brother as he also searched Sakura's eyes.

The pinkette simply nodded and looked away again. There was silence for awhile, then Kankurou said, "Alright, we'll tell them. But you're coming too, Sakura."

The circle of elders was slightly intimidating to Sakura, and sitting at the side while Temari explained everything that had happened, she felt a renewed sense of loss. Gaara should be here to take his rightful place, and it was wrong that he wasn't. She'd failed to bring him back, and that was something that was going to haunt her for a long time. In the meantime, though, the elders had finished listening and had decided to have their say.

"You should have told us!" one of them said.

"We needed to make sure that he could be brought back," Kankurou said. "If we'd told you, you would have rushed in and scared him off! Unless that's what you wanted, of course?"

"Do not speak to us like that!" one of them snapped. "We would not have rushed in! However, we also would not have sent one medic in with just the hope of retrieving him! What the two of you allowed to happen may put us all in danger! We do not know how stable his mind is with the Shukaku inside him!"

That really caught Sakura's attention and her head shot up as her brain tried to reconcile the image of the sweet, innocent Gaara with the unstable menace they were suddenly trying to paint him as. They really had no idea just what that demon had done to his mind…

"You should know better than to keep something like this from us! You know very well that the Shukaku's return is a threat to all of us!"

A threat? They seriously saw their former Kazekage as a threat?

"He's not a threat!" Temari yelled. "Sakura spent all that time with him trying to get him to remember, and he didn't attack her! She even said that he slept, which means that the demon doesn't have control!"

"But she said he went crazy and attacked her!"

"No she didn't! She said he panicked and fled! Are you just looking for an excuse to hunt him down and contain him?"

There was silence and it became apparent that that was what they really wanted. "I don't believe this," Kankurou muttered. "You really do just want to string him up without a second thought!"

"You have no idea what you're saying, boy!" another elder sneered. "That demon is a menace! A threat to us all!"

"Shut up!"

Everyone stared at the person who'd snapped at the elder like that. It was Sakura, and she looked livid.

"How dare you talk about Gaara like that!" she raged. "After all he's done for this village, how dare you? He's not a threat to your stupid hides! Shukaku can't take control of him, ok?! You have no right to speak about him like that!"

Standing up rather suddenly and knocking over the chair she'd been sitting in, Sakura stormed out of the room, desperately trying to stop the tears that were already falling. Temari glared at the assembled elders before rushing out to her friend.

"You guys really don't know how to move on, do you?" Kankurou asked with a resigned sigh. "You still see him as a threat, even when he's proven not to be. The lot of you should be tried for treason with the way you've talked about him this whole time, and I'm not just talking about today."

"Is that a threat, Kankurou-sama?" one of them asked.

"It's a simple fact," he told them. "Any other village would hang you out to dry. I don't know why the hell Gaara never did, but he should have."

With that, he too stood and made his way out of there, leaving the elders to mutter and mumble over all that had happened.

Sakura was in the room she'd been assigned, packing the clothes that had been unpacked once already. Sure, Temari and Kankurou had said that she could stay for awhile, but there was no point, and the sooner she got out of here, the better. Everything just made her think of Gaara, and she was so heartbroken that it was killing her inside. Sniffling a little, she folded her shirt and carefully placed it in her bag.

She knew the moment that Temari got there because the woman wasn't hiding her chakra signature, and before she could help herself, she was flinging herself into the older woman's arms and sobbing hysterically. The blond woman patted her back reassuringly and made little 'there-there' sounds.

"It's alright," she soothed.

"It's not alright," Sakura mumbled.

"Hey!" Temari asked jokingly. "Are you disagreeing with me? Because let me tell you, I know what I'm talking about!"

"Really?"

"Really."

Once she was sure the younger woman had calmed down enough, Temari pulled away and said, "You know, maybe Gaara did remember, and he'll come back. That could happen, you know."

"I don't know," Sakura mumbled. "He told me he hates me. Why would he care? Even if he does come back, he won't want to see me."

"How could you say that?" Temari demanded. "He obviously wasn't thinking straight when he said those words. Trust me, Gaara doesn't actually hate you."

"If you say so," Sakura mumbled, slinging her finally packed bag over her shoulder.

Temari gave her another reassuring hug and the two of them walked out of there. As they walked through the streets, Sakura thought over all that had happened with her and Gaara, and she sincerely hoped that he would come home, if only for his sibling's sakes.

Temari and Kankurou had said goodbye to her at the gates then left, knowing that she wanted a moment to compose herself before she actually left. Sakura sighed as she stared out at the vast expanse of the desert, Suna at her back. This was really it, she was really leaving. One day she hoped to once again see Gaara, even if he didn't love her the way she'd accepted that she loved him. It had been hard for her to admit to herself to loving anyone, but she'd done it. And now she was alone again.

She sighed once more. Losing people she loved, and she meant love, not friend or family love, was something that was getting to be a habit for her. She'd loved Sasuke, or at least thought she had, and he'd walked out and abandoned her and Konoha. And then during the war… Sakura caught herself up on her thoughts, stiffening her spine. Her first two loves were lost to her, both of them made their choices that led to their inevitable deaths. She didn't want to think about it.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, counted to ten, then opened them. About to take her first step away from here, she froze when something caught her gaze. Someone was coming. She could see a figure walking towards Suna's gates making no attempt to hide themselves. Sakura's breath caught in her throat when she realised that she recognised the way this person was walking, the shape and the build of their silhouette. Indeed, when they got even closer, she could make out the red tint of their hair.

Gaara. It was Gaara. The guards on duty obviously recognised him too, because one of them whispered to another and Sakura was sure she heard the words 'Temari' and 'Kankurou'. But that didn't matter to her. All that mattered was that he was coming. She stood there, unable to move as he eventually stood before her, close enough for her to reach out and touch him. But she didn't.

"Sakura," he murmured, then his gaze flickered to her bag briefly. "You're leaving."

"I-I thought…" Sakura stammered slightly, then took in a shaky breath before continuing, "You took off. I waited, but then I had to come here. I couldn't stay after what you said…"

Gaara's eyes closed briefly, but then he opened them and told her, "I'm sorry. It was his words, not mine."

The two of them stood there staring at one another, giving their audience, which was steadily growing, the impression that they were drinking in the sight of one another. Then Temari and Kankurou arrived, and the tension increased as Gaara seemed to drag his eyes away from Sakura to meet that of his siblings. There was only the briefest pause, then the eldest flung herself at her returned sibling and a moment later there was a rather furious three-way group hug going on.

"I missed you so much!" Temari wailed as she hugged Gaara tightly.

He simply grunted, his gaze moving over to Sakura. The pinkette looked distinctly uncomfortable, and he pulled himself away from his siblings to pull her into a hug. Her eyes widened slightly and she hesitated, but a moment later she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back.

"I love you," Gaara whispered in her ear. "Please don't leave."

"I won't leave," Sakura whispered back. "I love you too."

The four of them walked back into Suna, a parade of people following them. Sakura just knew that this was the beginning of a happy ending.

So, textbook happy ending, and make sure you review, ok?