Spoilers for quite a bit of Naruto :) Post-time skip.

HARUNO SAKURA VS GAARA

Sasuke stared at the electric scoreboard announcing the names of the first fight. Sakura was going to have to fight that red-head, the strong shinobi from Suna. Sakura, to her credit, looked absolutely terrified, but gritted her teeth and began to walk slowly towards the stairs. Naruto screwed up his face in worry and Kakashi sighed. Sakura went to walk past their sensei but he put a hand out to stop her. "Be careful with this one…" He warned, hand tight on her shoulder. Sakura swallowed, hard, and nodded.

Sabaku no Gaara was waiting.

His eyes were hungry, a green much paler than her own, Sakura thought wildly as she descended the stairs. That odd gourd of his was strapped to him, and whatever filled it must be his secret technique. Think Sakura, she urged herself, what secret techniques have been discovered in Suna shinobi bodies? She couldn't remember. She could remember what Sasuke's favourite food, when his birthday was and the day to avoid him. But this, no this was far too important to remember.

Sakura forced her legs to stop shaking as she stood opposite Gaara. Hayate, the jounin standing in as referee, asked her if she was ready to begin. She looked up at her team. Sasuke was as impassive as ever, though the mere fact that he was looking at her, right at her, with his sharingan activated showed just how much trouble she was in. Kakashi had pulled his mask down to show both eyes. Was he thinking about jumping in and saving her, even now, before the match had even begun? Naruto, however, beamed and jumped up and down, waving, shouting encouragements to her and threats to Gaara. One of Gaara's teammates, the boy with the painted face, he looked a little sick. The girl next to him was smirking. Lee, lovely chivalric Lee, looked so solemn and pale that Sakura's heart ached for him.

With a popping sound, the cork to Gaara's gourd fell out and with shocking speed flew towards Sakura's face.

Sasuke stood before her casually, the smoke from his jutsu curling around his legs. He held the cork with one hand. He looked at it for a moment before throwing it down in disgust.

"Hey, he's interfering!" The girl in Gaara's team said indignantly.

"The match hasn't started yet." Shikamaru yawned.

Hayate nodded. "Gaara, please refrain from attacking before the match has started. And you, get back up there before I'm forced to disqualify your teammate." He jerked his head up to the balcony.

Sasuke, too cool to walk, put his hands in the seal for instant transportation. Sakura grabbed his arm.

"Thank you." She said simply, hoping her voice didn't betray the terror she felt.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly. "Hm. You should forfeit."

How weak did you have to be to have everyone who knew you (and others that do not) expect you to lose? How pathetic she must look to them all. Match not even properly begun and already she had been protected by someone else.

"I didn't come all this way just to forfeit." Sakura said calmly, though the seething terror that swept through her threatened to dispel that calm.

Sasuke snorted and vanished into smoke beneath her fingers. As he always did.

Gaara was getting impatient. His eyes were fixed upon her.

Hayate asked them both if they were ready to start. Sakura said yes, numb with fear. Gaara nodded jerkily, his movements oddly disjointed, as though he was holding himself back.

And the match began.

Sakura flew back instantly, kunai between her fingers, various techniques flitting through her mind.

The gourd imploded into sand. Before Sakura could register this, the sand rushed towards her like a snake, writhing through the air. Her hair blew back before the force of it, and Sakura completed the Kawarimi faster than she had ever imagined. She replaced herself with her headband, the first thing she could think of, and transported herself behind Gaara.

Gaara whirled around and the sand attacked again. Sakura wasn't fast enough to dodge, so she summoned a tiny paper bomb and threw it at the sand approaching. As she did so, she focused chakra to her feet and exploded off the ground, coming to land in front of Gaara, leg already automatically snapping out to catch Gaara in the face. Her leg sank into sand. She jumped back and managed to throw herself out of the way of a fist of sand. The paper bomb was going off wildly, hissing and spitting sparks. The sand it struck reformed seconds later.

Have to incapacitate him. Need time to think, to plan.

While the sand whirled around her and stung her eyes, Sakura summoned a paper tag. She attached it to a kunai quickly, then summoned a few more tags. This had to be done swiftly, and in between evading the sand's attacks.

Sakura threw the paper-tagged kunai directly at Gaara's face. The sand rushed up to defend him from the explosion, whilst Sakura, her chakra running low, managed to transport herself to Gaara's unprotected back and fling another kunai. She activated both tags and somersaulted away.

Gaara exploded into a mess of sand and smoke. Sakura could sense raging blood thirst. She shuddered and tried to force her hands into picking up another kunai. The smoke cleared, and a monster was revealed.

Gaara's normally blank face was cracked in two ways, first with an insane, wide grin and second with a literal crack running down his cheek. Sand poured from his face as he stood there and grinned, his mouth a feral slash across his face.

Sakura barely raised her arms to protect herself when Gaara hurtled towards her. The sand was everywhere, jutsus were rushing through her head at an impossible pace and she was blind and gasping, on her knees, her arms covering her eyes.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted.

The sand tightened around her body, constricting and binding. Sakura, weak and dizzy from pain, released the paper tag she'd kept hidden in her hand the whole time and let it float between herself and the partially-obscured form of Gaara.

Seconds passed, and Sakura felt something snap in her arm. She ignited the tag.

She was thrown forcefully across the room, landing and skidding on the floor, every skid stinging her burnt skin. She coughed, hard, and blood spilt from her mouth wetly. The amount of pain in her body was sickening, overwhelming.

Sakura was grateful for the rushing darkness that welcomed her as she passed out.

Sasuke had been coolly dismissive of her after that, citing her refusal to forfeit as foolish and suicidal. Naruto had visited her in the hospital every day he could, and cried the first time he saw her. Kakashi-sensei visited infrequently, but when he did he always cheered her up.

Apparently, Kakashi had stopped Gaara from killing her. This meant that she had not lost. She had been disqualified.

Gaara had defeated her in the Chuunin exams, and thus went on to fight Rock Lee in the next round. Lee had fought against Ino previously, and had rather spectacularly defeated her, but when he went up against Gaara he was viciously and solidly beaten. He had been left with his dreams of becoming a shinobi destroyed, and Sakura had despised Gaara for it. But Naruto came back with reports of Gaara's new attitude, and Tsunade managed to heal Lee, so her hatred had been replaced by suspicion.

She'd first awoke, mad and delirious, feeling a horrible stinging feeling stretching across her entire body, plastic in her mouth, see-through tubes covering her, bile rushing up in her throat.

She'd been sedated, and woke up again much later, feeling the burnt skin and broken bones as keenly as she had when they had first happened.

She had turned her head and had seen a woman with blonde hair and kind hazel eyes. Sakura's own eyes had filled with tears and she could only mouth 'hurts.' The woman nodded and her hands glowed. Sakura's eyes rolled back into her head.

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And now, four years later, she had arrived in Suna to hear a proposal the Kazekage had for her.

Sakura's hair was covered by a pretty pale green headscarf she'd bought down in the Suna Market, her brow was lightly speckled with sweat and she carried a warm bottle of water at her side, the contents sloshing about as she walked. The sound gave her comfort, for some reason. She had changed over the years, both physically and emotionally. She was tanned and lightly-muscled. Her hair was still short and pale-pink, her eyes still apple green and too big for her face, giving her a child-like appearance. She had been taught the Yin Seal by Tsunade, and, as a result, had a purple diamond tattoo on her forehead. She was disfigured by her arm, the one that had been broken by Gaara. It hung a little loosely at her side, with burn scars shining white on her skin. She could still use it, but it was useless for complicated tasks.

She'd slipped a messenger some money to persuade him to let Gaara know she was here. It wouldn't do, however, to be a guest of the Kazekage and not go to meet him the moment she arrived, so Sakura washed her face and changed into some lighter clothing, a loose white dress and sandals. She kept the headscarf on since it kept her hair out of her face. She'd washed her feet slowly, using her nails to shift the black dirt that had stuck to the skin on her travels, watching the water drain away black.

She breathed in deeply. The smell of Suna was ultimately pleasant, but very different from home. It was the smell of the salt they coated all of their food with, the wind bringing the scent of sand into her room and the sweet dumplings cooking just underneath her window. It was midday, and the sun was shining down fiercely, meaning the village was now boiling hot.

Sakura left the cool, dark room reluctantly, and left to find Gaara's office.

She saw plenty of shinobi running around on her way there, many of them scarred and disfigured. Each one of them wore Suna's symbol proudly.

Her knuckles rapped the door firmly. Sakura scolded herself for wincing at the thought of meeting the Kazekage. It was four years ago, she was no longer twelve and, though he'd not exactly been good company, she'd already met him once after their fight, when he'd died and Chiyo-sama had sacrificed herself for him.

"Come in." His voice sounded hoarse, probably from lack of sleep. Tsunade often missed out on night's sleep, much to Sakura's chagrin.

She opened the door and stepped into the room with as much confidence as she could muster.

The Kazekage was sitting at a massive desk, papers stacked neatly and organised. A glass of water stood besides an important-looking memo and Sakura (used to Tsunade's cavalier attitude when it came to spills) itched to move it out of the way.

Gaara looked the same as he had back when they were kids (well, when she was a kid and he was still a brooding psychopath), same blood-red hair, pale skin and the kanji for 'love' tattooed on his forehead. It should have made him funny looking, geeky even, having a love tattoo on his face, but Sakura felt a twinge of fear in her stomach at the sight of him.

He put down the papers he'd been shuffling, and stared at her. Was it the hair, she wondered self-consciously. If it is, I'll shave it off. Anything to stop you looking at me like that.

"Take off your headscarf." He said softly. He still lacked inflection in his voice. It made him even more impossible to read.

Bemused but aware of her lowly foreigner chuunin state, she pulled the scarf out of her hair. She longed to shake her hair out of the tangled mess it was in, but Gaara's eyes kept her transfixed. They had grown wide.

"You are Haruno Sakura?" He asked, almost suspiciously.

"Yes, Kazekage-sama." She replied, resisting the urge to bow.

"I fought you." He said tonelessly, "In the chuunin exam, in Konoha. The one with all the exploding tags."

"Ah yes. That's me." She smiled weakly.

Gaara's eyes drifted down to her arm where it lay limply at her side. She could still use it, thanks to Tsunade's intensive healing and her own curious or frustrated attempts to straighten the limb out.

Had he been able to see her back, he would have seen the criss-crossing scars that covered it. Her arms were bare, and Sakura could the Kazekage's gaze tracing the scars stretching up from her wrists to her shoulders.

"And then again, in the forest. I used the sand coffin technique on you. I don't recall breaking anything…" A frown twisted his forehead as he continued to stare at her.

"Only a few ribs, they were quickly healed." Sakura supplied.

Sasuke lying face down, wracked by shudders and paralysed by pain, blood leaking from his mouth. Gaara, now twisted, barely recognisable as human, running towards him. The sensation of being gripped by an overwhelming determination to protect Sasuke, to save him. Standing in the way, gripping a kunai and staring down the monster from her nightmares.

Being knocked aside like she was nothing, feeling the sand stiffen around her again, then the sickening sensation of being squeezed. Feeling ribs crack and fracture, piercing her lung. Blood pooling in her lung, coughing red. Screaming. Hearing Naruto's desperate shouting. Seeing Sasuke staring at her, his mouth a furious open snarl, limbs twitching and shaking as he tried to get up.

Falling.

Her worst memories laid bare before her in the curious, clinical eyes of the Kazekage. Sakura's knees shook a little before she firmly quelled the shudders, standing up straight. She would not cower in fear. This man was not who he once was.

"You were one of the first to teach me about caring for others." Gaara commented.

Sakura was startled. When had she ever done that?

"When you tried to stop me killing your teammate, it made me remember… painful things. That is why I wanted to kill you. But you helped plant a seed of doubt in my mind that it was possible to care for others… Naruto, of course, finally changed me. I am grateful to him, and you." Gaara's pale fingers traced the rim of his glass, his eyes contemplative.

"Your actions and Naruto's words did not make sense to me. I thought I was alone in the world. That no one trusted anyone else, that the world was filled with betrayal and hatred. That is why I could not comprehend why you would face someone like me knowing it could kill you, why Naruto would not give up until I stopped hurting those he cared about. 'Care', 'love,' and 'trust' were foreign concepts to me. If not for Naruto and people like you, I would still be a monster."

Sakura smoothed her hair back nervously.

Gaara caught the reflexive movement. "You are afraid of me." There was no doubt in his voice, just a quiet kind of resignation and acceptance.

The heat was sweltering. Sakura felt sweat trickle down her spine. "Yes. But I do understand that you aren't a monster, I know you protected the whole village and that you care about others now. It's just…" Her voice cracked and she swallowed, "I fought you twice, and… I can't explain the fear I had for you. It's silly."

There was a moment of silence. Gaara closed his eyes and sat back in his chair. "It is not silly. The sand coffin was designed to kill, and if not, seriously wound. It is not silly to fear me. It is self-preservation. Not that you need fear myself now, of course. If I ever lost control, I am confident you could stop me."

Wow. If there were ever words to reassure her… those were not them.

"Lost control?"

There was the sound of muffled voices outside the room. Gaara's eyes snapped to the door for a moment, then snapped back to her when he was satisfied there was no threat. Even so, Sakura thought, even now, he looked a little on edge.

"I am still not completely stable and secure. There is a reason why I accepted the hokage's offer. I am in need of an assistant. Someone who is capable, has experience in the field, and can defend myself and others. You are trained in several areas of combat. Medical, short range, long range, chakra control… Not only that, but it is on your file that you are a teammate and close personal friend of Uzumaki Naruto. I was unaware that you were the girl I fought back in the invasion of Konoha, but, having personally witnessed your fighting style and researched your capability, I decided that Tsunade was correct in suggesting you were the perfect candidate. I ask that you perform the same duties as you did for the Godaime. Are you interested?" Gaara's expression still had not changed.

How could she say no, having come so far to face her fears?

"Kazekage-sama, I would be honoured to be your assistant." Sakura said resolutely.

"Excellent. This job will be beneficial to both of us. In the Godaime's own words, I gain an 'outstandingly determined and skilled assistant, often over-looked and underestimated, but with a fierce resolve and keen intelligence she will definitely use to assist Suna in every way.' You will gain the impressive title of former apprentice to the hokage and current assistant of the Kazekage." Gaara didn't look pleased exactly, but his frown had lessened the moment she accepted the offer.

Sakura's cheeks flooded pink with pleasure at the words of high praise from Tsunade. "I will try to be the best assistant you have ever had, Kazekage-sama."

"You would be the first." Gaara said dryly.

"So it shouldn't be too hard to accomplish." Sakura smiled a real smile for the first time, and saw something flicker in the Kazekage's eyes.

"Indeed. Sakura, I have received a thorough account of your needs from the hokage, and I shall endeavour to see they are met. It is mentioned here that you require a library to study in. There is one in this very building. Tsunade has added that she believes I should lend you to the Suna hospital when needed, and that, as a former resident of Konoha, you are unused to the heat and so –"

"Wait, former resident of Konoha?" She interrupted, too confused to remember her place.

Gaara seemed almost amused. "You won't be required to scratch your hitae-ate and become a missing-nin, but you are a resident of Suna now, for a year or more."

"Oh…" Sakura looked at her feet, embarrassed. "Do I get a headband?"

"No. As a former resident of Konoha, you will require more water and more protection from the sun than the average villager of Suna…"

Gaara went on to list her apparent requirements for over ten minutes, and Sakura felt her fear dissipate slowly as she spoke with the man from her nightmares.

"Oh and also," He said as she went to leave the room, "I hear you were the one that saved Kankuro from Sasori's poison and you were also the one that eventually killed Sasori with Chiyo. I cannot thank you enough for these actions." Gaara said seriously, his eyes fixed on hers.

Sakura could only nod.

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Sakura went back to her room with a list of tomorrow's duties. She was supposed to go through Suna's mission reports from shinobi, focusing on inaccuracies and discrepancies. Gaara cared about his people, but he did not trust them. Suna was in a weak political position, its nearest ally, Iwa, was a village they had warred with several times in the past, they had the lowest population of all the villages and their economic and military strength had suffered from the wars they had waged over the years, particularly the most recent war with Konoha, in which they lost many shinobi.

Then he wanted her to assess the situation of a poisoned sand nin, who was said to be a lost cause. He had three days left, at best.

Sakura put the list on her dresser and went out to stand on the balcony. The smell of dumplings had been replaced by some salty meat frying under her window. She rested her arms on the balcony and looked at the village. Her new home.

It had been difficult, leaving. Ino had cried. Kakashi-sensei looked sad to see her go, the last of his students leaving him. Lee had been on a mission, but she had left him a long, detailed letter outlining just how much she would miss him and how he was welcome to visit her at any moment. Her mother and her grandmother were encouraging. The thing that had pushed her to leave was the fact that both of her teammates had already done so.

Naruto was getting stronger by the day, she was sure of it.

Sasuke… the thought of what he was going through – what he'd put them all through – was enough to make her cry so easily. He'd always had a talent for making her cry. She covered her mouth and sobbed wretchedly. She was in an unfamiliar land, without friends or family. Her best friend was off training so hard to fulfil his promise to her.

And Sasuke had abandoned them all. Her love wasn't enough.

As she cried, she heard the softest sound. It was like footsteps stopping abruptly, and she looked down. Gaara was staring up at her from down in the village square, his face unreadable. She stared back, her tears glistening in the sun.

Neither of them spoke.

I figure Sakura is stronger than Kishimoto gives her credit for. She defeated a member of Akatsuki, she's the apprentice of one of the Sannin and she can obliterate the earth with a single punch… and yet rarely wins any fight she's in. There was the dreaded fight with Sasuke, in which she snivelled, cried a bit, and was rescued twice in one scene by two different people.

A warning now, this Sakura I will be writing about is not the same person. This fic starts pretty much after the Sasuke and Sai arc, so Sakura has met Sasuke once after his betrayal and she is aware that Naruto is a jinchuuriki. I feel that Kishimoto built her up to be a very strong female character, than dropped her back down to uselessness without warning. I don't want to write Sakura like that, I think she could be a hell of a lot stronger than she is portrayed in canon, and thus will be presented as such in this fic. Also, there WILL be Sasusaku undertones, lets face it, with Sakura there always will be. I'm going to have Sakura act as Gaara's assistant, bodyguard and, hopefully, confidante. I think Sakura (though she never fought Gaara in the chuunin exam in canon) has had a considerable impact on Gaara's life (her protection of Sasuke pushed him further over the edge of becoming more human, without her Kankuro would have died and she killed an important threat to Suna – Sasori), and their personalities are interesting when mixed.

Sakura is wracked with insecurity and doubt, her attempts to get Sasuke's attention only to be rejected over and over again cannot have helped her self-confidence. Not only that, but she declares her love for Sasuke and he once again rejects her and then betrays her. She appears to lose her temper easily, with little patience and restraint, just like Naruto. She's caring and kind, but often thoughtless in her words (shown when she told Sasuke, the orphan, that Naruto was lucky not to have parents).

Gaara is serious and business-like. He has a tragic past and a dark hidden nature. He is devoted to his village. He is close to his siblings after he once despised them. He has changed rapidly, and has to deal with the suspicion and fear he is faced with every day. Sakura is undoubtedly afraid of Gaara and this will impact their working lives quite severely.

How to get romance out of that? Wait and see. (I am new to GaaSaku, btw. Don't hold it against me)

P.S. if Sakura appeared over-powered in the fight with Gaara, I apologise, but I don't think I gave her any abilities beyond her canon level of ability. Also I couldn't have her be squashed by him in one hit. Boring to read. Any comments or critiques will be gladly received.