Hiya.

Okay, really nervous, here. Since I haven't started a multi-chaptered story in years. I know I've no business starting another, given my track record, but I'm doing this. There are 12 chapters in total and while they're not all written, they are all sorted out. And the chapters aren't going to be very long – compared to a certain other wip I have. So, it won't take me so long to do them.

This world is a ninja one that doesn't follow canon events, at all. And Gaara and Sakura are 19-20 years old.

Anyway. Hopefully, you guys will read and love. Enjoy. ^_^

…
Chapter One: Of Captors.
...

"In the desert, the line between life and death is sharp and quick." – Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson,The Butlerian Jihad.

.

The sun glared down on her and Sakura Haruno couldn't resist poking her tongue up at it, childishly.

The weight on her shoulder shifted awkwardly from her sudden movement and she groaned, channelling more chakra into keeping him from falling any further. It was just her luck that she was saddled with a desert wanderer, of all things. She hated sand. It was abrasive and invasive; she was going to need a serious scrubbing down to get it out of every crevasse it was currently imbedded in. It was nothing like the pleasant sand of beaches. Beaches, she could handle. Not this... smelly substitute.

Sakura turned her head sideways to look at the man slung over her shoulder; his face obscured by that ridiculous scarf he wore, she could almost believe that he was still awake, if not for those black rimmed eyes of his. If she decided to just leave him here, he would deserve it.

But her conscience had gotten the better of her. Her vow as a medic demanded her compassion, not to mention she would actually feel bad about it. She couldn't just abandon a helpless person, not in this heat, and not with those blood thirsty hunters they had barely escaped because of him. No matter that the redhead had planned to do the same to her hours ago.

'You just can't find good bounty hunters, these days.'

The increased aggression between the great nations was stirring up all kinds of riff-raff these days. That was how she found herself hauling his ungrateful arse through the blazing, searing heat of this god forsaken place. He was one of those riff-raff.

Sakura paused for a moment to catch her breath and wipe her brow again; she wasn't cut out for this. She had access to less than ten per cent of her chakra now, and was using it as sparingly as possible, but the super strength her shishou had taught her to hone would only go so far; it was draining, carrying this guy around. She'd considered just dragging him along the sandy floor, to conserve chakra, but then her conscience interceded again.

She sighed, again, and resumed walking.

There were still a good few hours left in the day and they say the best time to travel in a desert was night, but with a looming sand storm at her back, she couldn't afford to stop. The distant howl of sand and wind drove her forward.

Her captor had suppressed her chakra just enough that he could control her, but he underestimated her chakra control. She wasn't called the Hokage's prized apprentice for nothing; surely even if he lived under a rock, he'd have heard the stories, at least.

Not to toot her own horn, or anything.

But really, there was never a good time to be a hostage. She blamed herself for her capture. It had been completely unprofessional.

Sakura entertained herself by mentally counting all the ways she could beat up on a clone of herself without making it disperse – as punishment for letting this complete stranger get the drop on her – until something caught her eye.

Several small structures appeared in the haze of the hot air in the distance; she eyed them warily. None appeared to be habited, but they offered no shade from the burning sun, either. They looked like naturally occurring formations; she checked them quickly, but found no moisture, so Sakura pushed on. There weren't even any cacti nearby.

She groaned.

And they were definitely headed south, which meant that the chances of encountering civilisation was high. She just wished there were more of these towns she so desperately craved. Unlike the Land of Fire, the settlements in this country were more sparse. But she couldn't even see a road to indicate commerce in the area.

Not to mention her vision was starting to blur; she had more access to her chakra now, but Gaara was heavier than he looked.

'Just my luck.'

It was his fault she was in this predicament, to begin with.

...

Three hours ago.

No sane person ventured into the infamous Nara Desert in the middle of a storm. But her captor was hardly normal enough to be mistaken for sane.

They'd been travelling for days, but it felt like weeks. He seemed to have a keen sense for the weather in the desert, avoiding the worst of the storm; normal people had to stop and wait it out, but when she suggested this to him, Sakura felt the full weight of a stare more patronising than her shishou's when the pinkette missed a target in kunai training. Or when she felt frustrated that she couldn't heal everyone's wounds, no matter how severe or long lasting.

It was really freaky.

And not to mention, Sakura's subsequent questions of the redhead wanderer were greeted with either unenthusiastic grunts or tense silence and she was left to her own devices for the most part. She had no idea who he was, only that he was the strongest chakra user she'd ever encountered, outside of an affiliated village. And he was definitely not affiliated; there was no headband, of course, but the other proof was the fact that he bore the look of a desert wanderer. Dressed for travel and covered, he was most likely a sequestered bounty hunter for hire.

Which was both frustrating and intriguing when trying to figure him out.

But he knew what he was doing. The chakra suppressors on Sakura's wrists were well done, and since she'd been exhausted from her fight with those shinobi, her captor was in complete control of her; all he'd had to do was swoop in when she was done dispatching them and quite literally, tie her up.

Not to mention that other thing; that other reason she'd been caught so unaware.

Sakura glared in the redhead's direction; her heated stare didn't seem to affect him, but he wasn't her target.

The small creature tucked into his collar fixed its beady eyes on Sakura when the man wasn't watching her. It was an odd little thing that had taken her by surprise and distracted her long enough for the stranger to sneak up behind her. She still didn't know how he'd managed to do so quietly, but she remembered the way his eyes had penetrated her, and it still made her tremble.

The man had a gaze that could silence seasoned shinobi. She almost wanted to know what he looked like under that weird scarf. Almost; there was an arrogance in the way he walked, talked, and ignored her. Even if he turned out to be as handsome as her raven-haired teammate, she still wanted to kick his arse.

Sakura was so caught in her musings that she almost missed the fact that the gritty, dry heat had lessened; they were approaching a settlement, but she sensed no chakra from any of the people she assumed were up ahead. But it seemed to bother her captor.

He stopped walking, and his body stiffened.

Maybe all this time of walking behind him and only being addressed when he wanted to make sure she wasn't going to starve or die of dehydration had already driven Sakura mad, because she could've sworn that sudden shift in the sand around him wasn't normal desert sand behaviour.

The pinkette craned her neck to look past him, peeking at what had him so annoyed.

The small settlement she'd espied amounted to a pitched tent with six burly men; several still seated, the rest stood at their approach, like they'd been waiting for the desert wanderer and his captive.

The tallest one scoffed. "We not who you were expecting, boy?"

Several of the men laughed at that. The tall bounty hunter – Sakura assumed they were, from their garb – seemed to be the one in charge. He unsheathed a sword from his belt and swung it to rest on his shoulder. It was an impressive size; a broadsword. It looked heavy. She couldn't help but feel impressed. Especially since she wasn't sensing any active chakra from any of these guys.

"Not going to talk, boy?"

Obviously not.

"They call you the Desert Demon, don't they? You're an isolationist with a bitter streak."

The redhead continued to stare at the man in silence.

"I heard a disturbing rumour about you."

Sakura shifted slightly, an odd feeling jolting through her body. What was that?

"Your name is really Gaara of the Sand. Am I right?"

The redhead gave no outward indication that he'd heard the man, but Sakura could see the tension in his body stretching to its limits, like a coil ready to spring into action from a static, motionless stance. It had to be true.

'Gaara, huh?'

The name didn't ring a bell. But why would someone lie about their name? She found it hard to believe he was undercover, or anything like that. Maybe she was just being naïve.

And what the hell did this all mean for her if these guys weren't the ones Gaara had been planning to sell her to?

The rest of this hunter's men stood slowly, languidly even, and Sakura shifted again, ready to defend herself. The men were itching for a fight, their hands going to their weapons, grins plastered on their faces, and chuckling like they'd just hit pay dirt. But the leader seemed intent on continuing his monologue; Sakura thought he quite liked listening to the sound of his own voice.

"They say you're not an ordinary bounty hunter. That you're a wanted man. That you're a ninja of the great nations, and not just any ninja..."

He didn't get to finish his sentence.

What could only be described as a ball of fluff came flying out of Gaara's high collared jacket; that beady eyed beast that normally hid in the collar threw itself toward the redhead's attacker. The squeal that erupted from the tiny creature was not half as shocking as the high-pitched scream being emitted from the leader of these hunters.

"Get this fucking thing off of me!"

A few minutes passed in which Sakura dodged several flying kunai, caught one mid-flight to use for herself, and then lost sight of Gaara for a bit; he reappeared as if out of nowhere, having dispatched the bounty hunter lackeys, now panting slightly. A sudden spike in chakra indicated to Sakura that she had been wrong about the battle capabilities of their enemy. Not that it mattered anymore, though her captor would say otherwise, given the state of his breathing.

Was he sick or something?

The hunter leader finally extricated himself from the slashing, spitting rodent; to be fair, it was probably some obscure mammal, but Sakura was no expert on the fauna native to the Land of Wind. The leader pulled a dagger and made to slash at the creature as what looked like a shield made of sand came up to protect it; Sakura watched in horror, however, as the tiny body of the creature flew through the air from the force of the man's attack, despite being saved from his steel.

She didn't like the beady eyed thing, but she hated animal cruelty even more than she hated this stupid, gritty desert. Sakura tugged at the binds on her wrists, surprised to find a slack on the seal. She could access a small amount of her chakra!

Her smile faded as she sensed the rise in chakra. Gaara was furious and he was pouring everything he had into something. And as Gaara grew angrier, the wind and sand were picking up. That strange sand behaviour she had noted before intensified, and they were all plunged into the middle of a mini sand tornado that had built up out of nowhere.

Was it a natural storm? It had come out of nowhere! He couldn't have summoned it himself, surely? She'd never heard of anyone having control over desert storms.

Sakura tugged on the collar of the cloak Gaara had given her to shield her from the desert elements, eyes widening as she contemplated the idea.

No. Not possible.

She was drawn out of her musings at the screaming of Gaara's prey and the distant shouts of new arrivals.

"You think we're the only ones who heard about you?" The hunter leader yelled over the roaring of the sand. "There'll be more, boy. You're marked! You're fucking dead!"

His body disappeared in the sand; blood caked and crushing. Sakura could smell the death on the air. She was a ninja. She was used to death. But this was foul. The smell alone almost made her lose her stomach contents.

Without warning, strong arms circled her waist and held her to a hard, warm body; Gaara tightened his grip and Sakura's vision went blurry. Sand kicked up around them again, but this time, it didn't feel angry. Behind her, the redhead trembled and stumbled.

Funny. He didn't smell like blood or death.

When she opened her eyes, he was staring straight at her; Gaara was holding her underneath him, his body pining hers to the ground. Those strange, green eyes were unfocused however, and a few seconds later, they closed; Sakura let out a surprised, hiccupping noise when the full weight of his body settled on her.

Luckily, her chakra had already started to regenerate.

She checked his pulse. He was out like a light. Gaara had used the last of chakra to get them out of there; with the approaching chakra signals, she hadn't realised until it was too late that the bounty hunters weren't alone.

She wondered about the strain on Gaara, though. There was a direct conduit between emotions and over usage of chakra, and Sakura had no idea what his reserves were like to begin with. But she couldn't help but worry. It was surreal; he clearly had a substantial store of chakra, but whatever had caused that sudden storm had definitely contributed to his unconscious state.

Sakura pushed that out of her mind for now. There were more important things to worry about. The weird creature that Gaara had – a familiar of sorts, she supposed – had disappeared, and she was at a loss for what to do with her unconscious captor.

Sakura held a shaky hand up to touch the kanji on his forehead before removing her hand and wriggling to get out from underneath him. She turned her face away as he groaned and rolled away from her.

'What the hell is wrong with him?'

He was going to be no help. The sun was blaring down at them, and wherever he'd teleported them to, there was no sign of the bloodbath she'd just witnessed.

'I guess it's up to me.'

Huffing slightly, Sakura let her chakra trickle into Gaara; a mixture of her healing chakra and strength. She couldn't lift him on her own and without chakra, but lucky for him, Lady Tsunade had taught her a thing or two about overcoming her physical weaknesses.

Sakura looked out over the expanse of desert they'd found themselves in. Literally, in the middle of nowhere.

'Lucky for him.'

…

XXX

...

I realise elements of this chapter might be a little confusing. If they are: sorry. It'll all make sense eventually. :)

This was initially inspired by ideas I was going to incorporate into The Spoils of War when I first posted it back in 2011. (Just thinking about how long ago that was and my initial projections for it makes me slightly nauseated. Getting there.) Obviously, much has changed, especially after that loss of information a while back. So, that's where the "Gaara captured Sakura" part came from, at least. Still, this is a very different story. I view this as a short multi-chaptered slow burn story. Or a short multi-chaptered eventual GaaSaku story. Eh.

Anyway. Lotsa love. ^_^

R&R

...