Author's Note: WOW! That was a lot of reviews for the second chapter. I could not believe it when I read them all. I'm really sorry that I bailed like that for a while there. Some things came up. I'm not going to explain what but let's just say that for two weeks I was in a motel with no computer. I had already finished this chapter but we had to leave so suddenly that I didn't really get the chance to upload this. But thank you so much you guys! I really appreciated all the reviews.

NOTE: I'm not sure if any of you have seen my new GaaSaku fanfic that I posted. It's called Enchanted Hatred and Love and I'm using a concept in there that I'm also going to be applying to this story. So don't go thinking this is going to be lovey dovey between Gaara and Sakura any time soon. I've got some major plot twists in mind. One that's going to be happening next chapter in fact.

Disclaimer: Nothing that is mentioned in the Naruto world belongs to me beyond the plot line of this story.

Intoxicating Desert Rose

By Ryaka

Chapter Three

Tension clung to the shoulders of the pink haired kuonichi that was currently staring down an armed dummy as if thrown into thought suddenly before from seemingly nowhere, five shuriken were delivered into the five targets that had been pasted onto the dummy. In the glimmering of the moonlight, though, a sparkling could be seen and if a person looked close enough, they would see five lines that had been attached to the shuriken. Another blink of her eyes passed and they were suddenly gone as Sakura spun about and they appeared in another armed dummy further down the line.

Tenten had long ago taught her the trick and they both practiced daily with it, sometime even against each other, but using the dulled edge shuriken and kunai as to not severely injure one another. It was something that Sakura had grown to love in the days, something that was not part of her every day routine that she had seemingly fallen into since being barred from missions. At the thought of her stationary presence, a growl let loose from her throat and she spun about, the shuriken once again disappearing and a whistling sound split the night as they became lodged in a tree, shaking it slightly and causing leaves to fall in a rain to the forest floor.

She hated these nights, these nights where she couldn't sleep. It was during this time she was left to her thoughts and at times she wondered if maybe her sanity was slipping. So much pain, so many memories, so much angst that filled her and reminded her of the agony that her life had become. At times, it was too much and so she would train to distract herself but with the presence of the Kazekage in her village, the person that could change her entire life and future with one decision over the next ten months, her mind would not rest and let her slip into the void that she called training.

A growl escaped her lips as her free hand dipped to her shuriken pouch and slipped easily into the wire loops that she had positioned there. With five more shuriken in hand, she began to twirl and dip onto her legs, jumping back and working her body as if she were dancing. The entire time, the shuriken were moving, digging into the dummies about her and staying there before being ripped from their new homes and being lodged into another. This was the part of her routine that she loved the most, acting as if she were doing a dance, a beautiful but deadly one as he had described it far too often.

Just the thought of him caused her to smile as she shut her eyes and continued to twirl, this time jumping to the side and rebounding off a tree, twisting her body and her legs opening as she landed on one and then came to a stand on the other. For some time, she continued like this, her thoughts occupied with the thought of the next time she would see him.

He was the only one out of all of them that could make her heart pound and soar with just one look. They never met under company but rather in secret and even though she knew that it was nothing more then what they did, it was something she looked forward to. They would train together and then... Her smile turned to that of a grin as she remembered the last time and as she let her mind bring the memories back to life, her foot slipped from beneath her and before she could regain her balance, she was falling to the ground.

A groan passed her lips as she lay on the ground, the shuriken stuck in the dummies that they had dug into right before she had fallen. Now she glared upward at the gleaming metal before sighing and letting her head fall backward and she became wrapped up in the memory of what occurred whenever they were together alone. It was an amazing experience but beyond what they had, there was nothing there, no romantic feelings or any of that type. They needed one another after the pain that they had both suffered and so they had become each other's solutions to the problem.

Even now, she knew he would come. He wouldn't be able to stay from her on a night like this, where the air clung to her skin and dampened her clothes with the sweat it brought to her flesh. He would know she was out here training and that she would be waiting for him to show his face, waiting and watching.

It wouldn't shock me if he were already here, waiting and watching until I call for him

Pushing herself up from the ground, Sakura let out a sigh before pulling the strings once again and catching the shuriken between her fingers. She tucked them away back into her bags and shut her eyes, manipulating her chakra with her mind and pushing it outward to touch upon any other chakras that would be near by. It was a technique that Tsunade had taught her how to do and the woman was still teaching her how to hide it while doing so. The only time another shinobi would be alerted was if her chakra touched theirs.

Almost immediately after doing so, her chakra alerted her that there was another there and by the caress of theirs against hers, she knew it was him.

"I knew you would come..."

Her words resonated through the night as she looked upward into the trees, her eyes meeting another gaze as she did so and latching onto it, never straying as she smirked upward at him. A soft hum seemed to come from the male that they belonged to and suddenly he was before her, grasping her chin between strong fingers as both gazes softened toward one another. As they stood there, looking through one another and into each other's souls, they seemed to communicate silently.

This will be the last time.

'I know.'

With what's going on, we can't...we can't do this anymore.

'Hn. I realize.'

Then why did you come?

'I had to...I need you.'

Oh...

'Yeah.'

I wish...I wish this wasn't happening. I can't survive without this.

'Then why do we have to stop?'

They'll figure it out if we don't.

'Tch. Not if we meet in the dark. No one knows when we meet in the dark.'

'I'm right and you know it...do you want it to stop?'

You know the answer already.

'Fine. If you so believe they want it to stop...I'll make you scream it.'

As if the words had been said, Sakura jerked away from the wrapped hand and stared to the side, her eyes bright and swirling with confusion as she stared at the swaying grass in the wind. He had been the reason why she was able to continue. Their arrangement had caused her sanity to stay in grip, to not slip like it had wanted to do so many times before. Each time he had saved her. And now...now she would not have that savior due to what had happened. She would be vulnerable and open.

Suddenly she was enveloped in an embrace and clutched to a hardened, masculine chest. It was almost tentatively she reached up and embraced him back, her fingers curling into the cloth of his vest as she buried her face against his chest. As he began to speak, she felt the rumbling of his deep voice in his chest and she sighed. "You're scared, Sakura-chan. You're frightened to death of the unknown..."

"Yes...I am."

"You don't have to be...there can be some form of familiarity if you let it."

At his statement, there was silence but with a fierceness she wrenched herself away from him and shoved him backwards. His back met with the bark of the tree and then, there were no words exchanged as lips met lips in a fiery battle of wills.

For the night, their conversation was shut.

What happened next needed no words.

It was with a silence of stone that he watched from the tree that he lay perched in, his eyes drawn and attached to that of two people, one female and another male consumed within their passion. It was too often that he had watched such scenes back in his home. Never before had it angered him but yet...yet there was something rising within him that he did not understand.

Anger.

Jealousy.

Hate.

Three emotions that he had once been so familiar with, had come to acknowledge as parts of him that would never go away but yet...now...he did not understand. They came differently then before.

A small tsk escaped his lips as he watched, his eyes narrowing as he observed the way the male's hands roamed over the petite and curvaceous body of the one that writhed in pleasure beneath him. How was it that they could perform such an act out here in the woods? The thought came unbidden to his mind and before the small part of him that was still claimed by that Shukaku could come alive, he shoved it away.

For the last four years, he had not told anyone of the small portion of the demon that still resided within him. It was very small but until the demon was released from the vessel that the Akatsuki kept hold of it in, the rest of it would not be restored. The thought angered him slightly. For four years, he had thought he was free but then, a night two weeks ago whilst he had been sleeping, the demon had eaten away a portion of his mind and grown stronger. Grown strong enough for him to acknowledge the fact that he was still there but before, it had been too weak for him to notice the presence.

The sudden scent of the female's arousal filled his nostrils and he shut his eyes, breathing in deeply as he inhaled the aroma deeply. It smelled like cherry blossoms, like flowers about to bloom but yet had not reached their peak in growth.

It was the scent of Sakura.

A deep seated growl escaped the male as his eyes narrowed one last time upon the scene, the female's moans spiking in his ears as he watched her body arch against the male that loomed over her, before with a whirl of sand, he was gone.

"Shizune-chan, what is the status on the potentials?"

The morning had seemed to drag on for both females that sat in the office of the Hokage Tower and now, as the afternoon was coming to a close, it seemed as if time had slowed further. Throughout the day, there had been a constant stream of complaints from the women that had been told they were not allowed to leave the village until the Kazekage had chosen his bride and it was quickly growing old. One in particular had continued to lodge complaints and so had her friends due to the emotional state she had been thrown into.

A cough echoed through the room as the brown haired medical nin jonin straightened her desk as if stalling for time. The last thing she wanted to do was report on the latest document that had come into their office that had held yet another complaint.

"Shizune! I do not have all afternoon to dawdle on this. I want to know now!" Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, was fed up with everything that was happening. If she had known how many complaints, and how many sake bottles, she would have coming to her, and she would be going through, she would have found another way to solve the alliance problem. The blonde haired older woman sighed as she let her head rest upon her hand, shutting her eyes as she tried to clear her muddled thoughts.

I need to stop drinking...

A sigh could be heard as Shizune finished straightening and then pulled a document to sit in front of her, staring down at it hard. It was the tapping of a heeled foot that finally convinced her that she should start speaking now. "In the case of Haruno Sakura...she's been sighted recently with a male and seems to be having liaisons of some sort with him but no one is quite sure. Ino Yamanaka appears to have been involved with a male and from what the rumors are saying, she is distraught over the fact that due to recent events he has broken off their relationship. He was apparently about ready to pop the question to her. Tenten -" a sudden buzzing of a fly distracted Tsunade briefly as she swatted at it and drove it away, temporarily missing the reciting of Tenten's last name.

"- is apparently quite taken with Hyuuga Neji but the feelings are not reciprocated and so she has no problem with the current arrangement. Uzumaki Naruto has voiced on several occasions his argument on why Hyuuga Hinata should not be involved but as they have never really stated that they are together, she has not voiced a problem with it herself. Meanwhile..."

Tsunade slammed her fist down on the table suddenly, jarring Shizune and causing her to squeak as she halted her reading. "This is getting out of control! I realize they have a problem with what we must do, but this has to be done. We do not have any...there is no other solution. With a kuonichi of respectable standing married to the Kazekage, we could avoid war. We would be strong and there would be no standing against us with that alliance with Wind in our hands."

A silence filled the office as both females sat in contemplative thought over what could happen if this did not go through the way it was meant to. They both knew the consequences if such a thing occurred. Especially with the information that had just come in that morning that could mean a full blown war between all the Hidden Villages.

"Shizune...get me another bottle of sake, please."

"Don't do this! I can't help the fact that I like him! And you should know that!" Her voice rose to a crescendo as a small tear slid from her eye and down the curvature of her cheek. As she said the words, staring deep into a set of deep brown almost black eyes, her chin began to quiver slightly at the intense amount of emotions she felt. The one she had liked for over seven years had already refused her, saying that fraternization between teammates would only interfere with the team dynamics and the way they worked together.

Now, the only one she had to turn to as part of her old team was abandoning her as well and as a choked sob escaped her throat, she wondered how they would work together now.

"For seven years you've chased after him. The power of love and youth is worth that chase, yes, but his eyes are set on someone else that holds the gracefulness of youth different from yours, Tenten!" His words were barely growled out at the female as he turned his back on her, placing a palm against the tree that he had trained against for years whilst he was younger. How was it that they had ended up here, at his cherished place, arguing? He didn't know. She had sought him out and he had brought her here a year ago to confess to her...to finally say what he had wanted to say but she had...

As he thought of the incident that had occurred a year ago, his free hand clenched and his eyes shut in anger at himself for once again falling for one that did not love him back. How many paths of love and youth would he travel down before he found the one who could love him with all their heart like he would with them? He didn't know and if it weren't for his way of the ninja, he was sure he would have given up by now. It was tearing him apart even now to listen to what she was saying.

"I love Neji! He's been my everything next to my friends for the last seven years and you're asking me to throw that away or else you'll leave our friendship in the dirt. I can't do that... I can't..." Her eyes were downcast as she spoke the words. A wind blew against her skin, caressing it in the manner a lover would to another. It reminded her of the soft moments that she had shared with both males of her team, soft moments that would not be happening again if they parted ways over the feelings that she held for one.

Suddenly she was jerking away from the man before her, staring at him with wide eyes as she wondered what it was she had done wrong. His fist was embedded within the center of the tree that bore the scars of his younger training days as a genin and academy student. Was he angered?

Angry puffs of breath blew from his lips as he glared at the bark before him, staring at the splinters that resembled the bonds of their friendship right then shattering before his eyes. He could easily fix the friendship if he wanted, turn around to her and embrace her and whisper that it was all right, nothing was wrong, within her ear and go on as if this had never happened. But he couldn't bring himself to do what he didn't want to do anymore. He was tired of being walked over constantly.

He refused to have it happen any longer, not after Sakura.

"Then this is it...Tenten... I've seen you cry too many times, heard you whisper his name in your sleep in agony too many times. I can't handle it anymore. I have stood by for three years now and watched it happen with a slowly breaking heart. It's..." The words were difficult to say and even as he began to speak, he could already feel the courage that had built inside him due to anger fading. How did he tell someone that he loved he could not be near them anymore without his own heart being torn to pieces because the heart of the one he loved was breaking?

"Don't..."

"No! Don't say don't! I have to do this! I cannot stand by anymore and watch you throw away your life for someone who will never care about you!" With the sudden outburst of anger, his voice rising in volume and pitch as he spun about, the second man of her team glared daggers at her. "I'm sick of waiting for you, sick of waiting for you to come cry on my shoulder because of the cruel truth. I'm sick and tired of being secondary. Don't you realize that!?"

A muffled name came from her lips as she pressed her hands against her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut as she did and letting her sobs come out full force against her flesh. This wasn't happening. She couldn't bear to lose him as well...not when...

"I love you, Tenten. I've loved you for three years. Three years in which I've watched you cry, being broken, and re-mended over and over as if it were a bad opera that would not end. My youth...my patience can only take so much... Just like my heart. I can't handle this any longer. Not until you realize that...that he will never love you and I always will." His voice had softened as if he were tired. As she opened her eyes and removed her hands to speak, she took in his appearance and another sob strangled her voice once more. She had done this to him. She was to blame for his loss of vigor and the sparkle of happiness in his soulful eyes.

His entire appearance spoke of being drained as if he were weary from travel. Normally he stood with a confidence and pride that resonated from him in waves and gave that confidence to any around him. But now...now he resembled an old man as if he had aged years over the past thirty minutes they had stood arguing. His gaze was dull and lifeless, no longer glinting or sparkling like it had done before their meeting, before he had blown up at her finally for talking of Neji again.

How could she have not noticed the toll that her words and actions had upon the friend before her?

"I'm sorry, Tenten. But...until you realize...I can't...I can't handle this..."

And with those final words, he was gone and the female responsible for it fell to her knees and sobbed.

How has it come to this? I don't understand...

The thoughts had filled her mind for hours upon hours now. What had happened was not supposed to turn out this way. Somewhere along the line of the last year since his death, when she had turned to the only other who sought comfort like she did, her heart had betrayed her vow to never love again. Now her heart belonged to him and she couldn't have that.

Since it had happened, she had wasted hours of her time that could have been spent training, working, doing anything but think about the current situation doing exactly what she did not wanted to do: think upon the occurrence that had turned her world upside down. There were so many times that she wished she could go back in time and redo what had happened, make sure that it never happened in any way. But she knew now that there was no going back. That was why she had tried to break off what they had.

And had failed miserably because of her own weakness – no, her addiction – for what they had.

Why him? He was supposed to be nothing more then comfort.

And now it was more complicated then ever.

With a marriage that she might be forced into thrown her way, she had to break it off or else there could be consequences if anyone was to discover the secret that they had held precious for a year now. The last thing that Sakura needed was for anyone to discover what was going on between her and him. Especially Tsunade, the Hokage, and the one who had adopted her into her clan after her own parents had been assassinated on a mission three years ago.

A hand came up to cradle her head as she bowed it, her thoughts causing a small ache to pound through her head. The metal grating of the table she sat at dug deep into the tender skin of her elbow as she sat outside the small cafe that was hidden away in the busy streets of Konoha. Before her sat a cup of steaming coffee that she had ordered a half hour ago, growing colder as she continued to be lost within her mind. As if sensing her aggravation, a small wind blew through the city as she released a sigh from her lips.

I don't understand...

For the entirety that she had known him, not once had she ever felt more then annoyance and attraction toward him. And the attraction had been purely physical based but somewhere along the line, they had become friends, getting to know one another as Naruto knew her. When they met in the dark of the night or for their own private training sessions, he could tell what her mood was and read what was going on, or a smidgeon of it, between the lines just by watching her. It annoyed and amazed her at the same time, leaving her smiling and comforted with the thought that someone knew and cared for her that much to get to know her that well.

Now it just left her wondering why she had let him in when she had closed so many out.

Even when she had become involved with him, she had known that he held more then just sexual attraction for her. She had known but yet she had still proceeded to commence the compromise that they now had between each other. And now things had changed.

Now I love him...and I can't do anything about it because of Gaara...

Her fist slammed down onto the table in anger and growl tore from her thought as she stood up, her face set in determination as she pushed the chair away and without bothering to grab her coffee, she stalked away from the table. Sakura was angry, hurt, confused, and frustrated to a degree that only one another person had ever caused her to feel.

Sasuke.

It had been so long since she had held so many negative emotions within her. It had been year since she had felt like this and that was only when she had been...

No.

She wouldn't allow her thoughts to traipse down that long, painful road that would leave her in even more pain. There was no time for such emotions within her life where she stood now. There was no time for emotions that she had deemed worthless long ago when she had become an ANBU tracker and had learned the lessons of pain and how to inflict it upon others.

I need to escape.

Suffocation had set in upon her mind and she felt as if the very air around her was closing in upon her, trying to break her and trap her within the barrage that had become her thoughts. Too many times had it happened before and, like before, she needed to escape before it became too much for her to bare and she broke down. It was time to push herself to the limit.

As she thought of it, a small smirk tilted her lips upward and she quickened her pace.

It was time to train.

It had been five days time since he had found her with him in the woods, performing an act of love that he had never seen done before but had heard of through the overheard conversations shared between Temari and those around her.

It had been five days time since he had begun to think on what he would do in order to retrieve her attention and capture her as his.

It had been five days time since she had filled his mind and taken hold of everything, consuming him and causing him to obsess over her.

Her.

Nothing more then a once upon a time weak kuonichi who's goal in life had been to capture the attention of someone that was not worthy of her, a kuonichi that had been a waste of breathing space.

Her.

Now she was so much more then that, but yet she wasted her time on the likes of him, who could have been an exact replica of the Uchiha in every way except with more emotion and less power.

It disgusted him.

She could achieve so much more then what she already had but yet she settled for less and it baffled him and the mere shadow of the demon that he held inside. It was almost as if she didn't realize that she could do better then what she had done.

A small tisk escaped his lips as his sea green gaze focused upon the night sky above him, his sand wrapping in tendrils about his figure as if to comfort the traitorous thoughts that whirled through his mind. Why did he worry about it so? It was her choice to do what she wanted but yet he felt compelled to make her realize that she was worthy. That she was a goddess in her own right.

A deep growl escaped from his throat and unknowingly, he resembled the same kuonichi that was wrapped within his thoughts as his hand came to pressed against his forehead.

I need her out of my thoughts.

I need to escape.

But how?

Suddenly he was upon his feet and away into the night sky, his sand carrying him as he rode on it through the night sky toward the Forest of Death. The area where he had gone though the trials when he had first come to Konoha. He needed to train and escape what had corrupted and consumed him before it was too late and right then, the only solution was training.

It would have been perfect had he not felt the familiar chakra that greeted him and the cry of a warrior striving to push themselves to the limit when he arrived there.

Kami had a sick way of answering people was his only thought before he was lost in the sight of the blossom haired beauty that was Sakura twirling with a katana in her hands as she fought against imaginary enemies.

Time had become a blur for the female known as Sakura as she continuously trained the different techniques that she had learned, her senses alert and her body slowing falling into a sense of exhaustion that seemed to have become part of her. But yet she stilled pushed onward. If she stopped, her thoughts would once more turn to him and she could not allow that to happen. She needed to focus and to keep training, to hone her skills constantly and be on the very top of her game when she hit the missions field again.

Now as she continuously swung and parried the weapons the imaginary fighters before her, she almost swore when she felt another chakra enter the area. If it was him, she would be angry. He had been the one that she was trying to escape and if he found her...

But even as she let out a cry and swung viciously at a tree, digging the blade deep within the bark before tearing it away and sending chunks of the wood flying into the air, she wrenched her mind away from that path. As she ran one handed at a wide oak that stood near by, her hand slipped into her kunai holster and out came four shuriken held between her fingers. Sending them flying before she struck, as she danced backward she yanked her hand back and from where the shuriken had landed, they tore free from the bark and back around to wrap about her wrist before he flung them outward once again.

With a rueful laugh she watched as the strings they were attached to wrapped about the trunk and then she had lunged forward, the blade stabbing straight into the bark. If the tree had been another ninja, they would have been gutted and killed as she snapped the blade upward and left a trailing mark deep upon the wood of the tree. It was she moved backward to attack another opposing thing of wooden nature that she halted upon her back touching something hard that was warm and...

Alive.

Suddenly she was tense and her breath hitched entirely as she realized that she had let her guard down. If it had been an enemy ninja, if it was an enemy ninja, then she was screwed. They could easily kill her right then but even as she closed her eyes and tensed further, waiting for the blow to come, she was shocked when she heard the deep rumbles of a chuckle behind her.

Spinning about, her eyes widened as she realized that the man she stood staring up at was none other then Sabaku no Gaara.

"You yield the blade wrong but I'm sure you know that. Let me show you the correct way." Without even waiting for her acceptance of his offer, she was turned back around and his arms were wrapped around her.

His breath was hot on her ear and her eyes were widening with every moment as she felt his hands scorching their imprint into her hips. Long ago, the function of breathing had halted and she found herself frightened, sweat slowly sprouting upon her skin and sliding down the alabaster flesh. He shouldn't be able to do this to her. She was his and his alone.

"You hold it like this..." Moving his hands up over her sides, caressing the clothing she wore as if it were the softest of things, letting his fingers linger in sensitive spots that only caused her breath to hitch once again and her eyes to widen further. They trailed over her arms, touching on the extremely sensitive underskin as he finally came to grasp her wrists, bending them slightly and then moving his hands back down to her elbows, bending them again further. "Like this...you see the way the blade curves...that is the way the katana are meant to be wielded."

She was not meant to lose control like this; she should be focusing on her training and focusing on what he was saying! This was vital to her survival on her missions but yet she couldn't. She couldn't focus on anything that he was doing, teaching her. Instead, all she could focus on was the heat of his chest pressed against her back, the way it felt to have his arms around her, the breath that caressed her ear and left shivers rolling down her back, how every touch seemed to inspire flames within her. She should have felt guilty!

She was betraying him.

And she was enjoying it.

Shaky breaths left her lips as her eyes remained wide. Betrayal and confusion lacerated her heart and mind as she tried to figure out why her body was turning traitor upon her. It was not supposed to happen like this! The one that she was meant to turn against her so she could be with him, the one who owned her heart, was not the one that she was meant to be attracted to. But yet as she felt his hands continue to linger on her wrists, his breath to quicken in her ear, she knew that it was futile.

Something had happened between the two of them within the space of a mere three minutes and there was no going back. The voice in her mind whispered that she was doomed. Doomed to what? The question was left unanswered as she heard his intake of breath before she felt the whoosh and the sound of him disappearing in the whirl of sand that was his trademark.

For how long she stood there frozen and shaking, still able to feel the heat of his body against hers and where he had touched her, she did not know. But when her knees finally gave way, she fell to the ground and she sat there until the sun's fingers stretched lazily upward to grip the sky and chase away the darkness of the night. It was only then that she could move again willingly.

It was only then that she realized she had to make Gaara hate her in any way possible.

Author's Note: Bwahaha, there you go! End of the chapter and the next one will be coming soon. I promise this to you and it has some rather interesting things. I hope you guys enjoyed it and to recieve as many reviews as I did last time. Oh, and thank you for the advice on the chapter any that gave it, I'm going through and editing the chapters. At times I miss things though. Anyways, here is the preview and after that, I bid you adieu!

Chapter Four Preview

He needed away from this female that stood before him with flashing indignant eyes at the way he had treated he; he needed to escape the emotions she riled within him. It took every ounce of self control he held within him to stop himself from launching at her and showing her exactly how he wished to treat her. But that would spoil the plan he had crafted and would ruin everything that he had already achieved, everything he had discovered. All he had to do was remain in control.

If only the woman before him didn't have such control over the buttons that caused his anger.

"I can't believe you! What the hell have I done to you, huh? NOTHING! And you treat me like this!? Well, here's something for you. I hate you! I never want to be near you but I'm forced to be by this damned marriage thing. Congratulations, you've caused one of the candidates to hate you!"

Her words were stinging in the essence of tone they held behind them and once again, he felt the urge to wince as her grating voice echoed through his head. It was like a chastising mother, not that he had ever had one. Temari could take over the role quite well when she wanted to though. A shudder rolled over him as he imagined her as Temari, causing bile to rise in his throat and disgust to shift over him.

That was it.

He needed to get laid.

And quick.

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