8th chapter, hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters.

Both Sakura and Gaara walked through the busy streets of Suna with the intent of getting ice-cream. Although with the villages most dangerous and unpredictable ultimate defence walking and engaging with the young Konoha girl raised many eye-brows and whispers, they were both otherwise left alone for the most part.

Sakura engaged Gaara with as much talk as she could, asking few questions here and there about the village and its past, he even asked her quite a number of questions, himself, on Konoha's history and past. Although, Gaara wasn't so much as a talking man as someone such as Naruto, he did at least put as much detail as he was allowed.

However, once they made it to the ice-cream parlour, which Sakura was actually surprised Suna had such luxury, there wasn't much Sakura could ask or even elaborate on. Awkwardly, they both walked in to the parlour, the bell on the doorway jiggled to let the employees know a customer was waiting to be served.

"Oh, it certainly is a warm day to have some ice-cream!" A large man with the signature style of clothing for Suna's people wore with an blue apron on the front. He was smiling brightly and eyes tightly closed. However, once he opened his eyes, the otherwise tan face, suddenly became quite pale in colour.

"O-Oh..." The old man gulped, "Gaara..." He looked to the pink-haired girl beside him, giving her a sorrowful look of understanding. Swallowing and clearing his throat, he addressed the two in front of him. "So... What I-is it I can do for yours... two today..." He asked nervously.

Gaara sighed, "My companion would like some ice cream." He gestured to Sakura, then looked at the scared old man, "Please." He bowed his head in respect.

"Ah." The old man sighed in relive. Walking to the bench, he address Sakura with a bright smile and gestured to the many different colours of ice-cream, "Come on, take your pick."

"Oh." Sakura blinked, looking down to the wide range of ice-cream behind the glass cabinet, "I had no idea Suna would have so many different flavours... And so many different varieties, too."

The old man swallowed, "Yes, well we aren't open very often, only during the evenings when it is less hot. It is expensive to run the cooler for the ice cream all day."

"Yes, it would be so..." Sakura narrowed her eyes to look closer behind the glass, widen them when she saw something of particular interest, "Would I please be able to have the cherry and mint ice cream?" She asked, pointing at the two flavours next to each other.

"Why, of course." The man nervously laughed, looking at Gaara from the corner of his eyes.

"Aren't you going to choose some flavours as well, Gaara?" Sakura turned away from the ice-cream flavours to turn to Gaara.

Gaara looked stunned for a slipt second, he regained his composure immediately and cleared his throat, "No... I am not a very big fan of... Sweets..." He crossed his arms over his chest, as if to make a point.

"Have you... tried ice-cream?" She asked.

"...No..." Gaara sighed.

"Then how do you know if you haven't tried it?" She giggled a little before turning to the frighten old man behind the counter, "Would you please make that two cones of the same thing?" She smiled brightly at the old man.

What on earth at you doing? Inner Sakura screamed.

What? I am just getting ice cream. Sakura retorted back.

Ice cream? Ice cream! Why on earth would you be offering this sociopath anything? That is what he is remember! A sociopath! Inner Sakura growled.

Weren't you the one not long ago who wanted to show Gaara whose 'boss'? Sakura raised an inner brow.

That was completely different! She crossed her arms over her chest.

Oh yeah? How so? She snorted.

I was only just meeting him for the first time since the accident of us nearly getting killed! Hanging with him as made me think twice before under minding him... Inner Sakura narrowed her eyes, This guy has something completely different and sinister inside him, we only saw a glimpse of him in his half demon form, but we haven't seen anything yet...

Stop being silly! I get it, Gaara is dangerous and I don't really want to be in his presence even more than you do, but I don't want to give him a reason for him to convert in his demon form. However, that doesn't give you a reason to completely rude and ignorant! Sakura huffed.

Be careful at the very less! Cha! Inner Sakura raised a fist in the air.

Okay, Okay. Sakura sighed.

Gaara's eyes widen momentarily, before, once again, he regained his composure. This girl was certainty a strange one. She made him feel... less on edge, he didn't feel like he had to be careful of what he had to say or how to address her. He didn't fear that she would run away if he slipped just once. That is what scared him.

He watched the man over the counter shakily nod his head and gulped. He reached beside him for the scoops and opened the door of the counter to where the desired ice cream was and first plopped two decent scoops of cherry on the ice-cream cones he held on the cone stand, he watched the man do the same with the mint ice-cream.

You are weak, boy. Weak! You're not able to say no to this pink-haired freak! Shukaku chanted.

Gaara ignored the demon.

Sakura reached up to grab the cones from the old man, his hands were shaking so much she feared he would of dropped them without her assistance.

"H-Here y-you g-go." The man gave her a nervous laugh.

"Thank you!" Sakura smiled, "How much do I own you?"

Gaara reached into his trouser pockets to fiddle with the few notes he kept on himself. The old man watched Gaara from the corner of his eyes, widen them when he saw the demon boy reached into his pockets.

"No!" The old man shouted, stunning Gaara from his task of finding the money and frightening Sakura from the sudden change of tone that she nearly dropped the ice-cream, nearly.

"Oh, I mean..." The man smiled nervously, "I meant it is on the house, today." He laughed lightly.

"Oh..." Sakura looked down, It's just like the girl in the clothes shop. She looked towards Gaara, who had gotten his hands out of his pockets to then cross his arms and looked outside, It really must be so hard for him.

What do you expect his a god damn demon for Christ sake! Cha! Inner Sakura retorted.

Sakura ignored her inner and smiled brightly at the frighten old man, "Well, thank you very much then." She turned away from the counter and walked over to Gaara, tenderly handing out his ice-cream.

He gave her a light nod and moved out the way so Sakura could walk out first.

"That demon." The old man shook his head in dismay.

"Pops..." A young woman stepped out of the same doorway the man had entered previously.

"Mai..." The man gave his daughter a sadden look.

"She couldn't possibly survive if the demon is in charge of her safety... If anything was to happen to her, it could start a war between two villagers..." The young woman ran to her father's open arms. "I couldn't loss Haru, too."

"I will speak with someone tomorrow of this decision." He sighed.

"Hai..." The young girl cried.

"So..." Sakura began, they were walking down the streets of Suna. They sun was just setting and everyone was packing up and leaving to go inside. Although it was the evening, it was still quite warm outside, Sakura was quite glade they got ice-cream. Turning to look at Gaara, "Do you know a place to go and eat these ice-creams?" She indicated to the cones in their hands.

Gaara looked absent for a moment, looking up to the sky above them. He was quiet for quite sometime before he answered her, "I know one place... It is very quiet and you can clearly see the stars."

Sakura smiled brightly, "Sounds wonderful."

Gaara looked at her, her face shining from the setting sun. She looked to good to be in the harsh desert. Her skin wouldn't be able to handle such harsh storms Suna often had, it was only the evening and it was still too hot for her. And most of all, her hair. She stood out even more so then the rest of the people... Just like him. Her colour wasn't something found in the desert. She was a rare thing to be found.

Sakura shifted under his gaze, fidgeting with her cone. "Is there... Is there something on my face." Absently she reach up to cover her forehead with her pink bangs. After all this time, she still felt low self-esteem when it came to her big forehead.

"No... No it's nothing." He shook his head and looked forward.

Sakura gave him a confused look before she, too, look straight ahead.

Sakura and Gaara both sat on top of the Kazekage tower eating their ice-cream. Gaara was right, you really could see the stars so much better up here. It made Sakura wonder of how he knew such a place like this existed. Granted, his father was the fourth Kazekage, but if he didn't have a bond with either his siblings or his father, then why come up here at all?

"Gaara..." Sakura asked, unsure if she should make known her thoughts. They had been sitting in relatively silence till this point, neither of the two had said anything since Gaara had suggested coming up to the Kazekage tower.

"Hm." Gaara nodded his head and looked at the pink-haired girl beside him. He had been tenderly licking the cherry and mint ice-cream, unsure if he quite liked the two.

"How... How did you come to this place?" She quickly brought the ice-cream to her lips and quickly licked the mint ice-cream on top.

"Hm..." Gaara looked away from her, his ice-cream securely held in his hands on his lap, he looked up to the sky once again, his face absent and yet thoughtful.

Sakura looked down on the ground, with the series of silence that followed since asking, she thought she had asked the wrong question and shouldn't of asked at all.

Me and my big mouth. Sakura shook her head.

"Its because I was lonely..." Gaara said after a long while of silence.

"Ah." Sakura's head shot up, surprised he answered her at all.

He nodded his head, "I was a very lonely child, even at such a young age. Even though I was spoiled as a child, the one thing I had desperately wanted, I couldn't have."

"And that was?..." She lend further towards him, intrigued.

"Friends..." He closed his eyes, "You know what I am? Suna's ultimate weapon or defence, depending on whose telling you. Not only that but I am a... monster too. Of course..." He opened his eyes and looked towards her once again. "You already knew that."

Sakura looked away, unable to meet his eyes.

He looked away from her, "When I was younger, no one wanted to play with me nor did they even want anything to do with me. My father shielded my siblings away from me, so I wasn't able to even engage with them either. Of course, father never really did want anything to do with me either, I suppose."

Sakura was still glancing down to the ground, compherehending the information Gaara was sharing with her. She wasn't sure that she was the right person he should be talking to about his life, but he was still telling her nonetheless.

She felt quite privileged.

"Whenever I felt lonely or needed some timeout, I would often come up to this very spot. Of course, whenever my father attempted to assassinate me, he didn't want to course a scene on top of the Kazekage building; So I suppose it was also something of a... Safe place for me..." He looked down at his cone in thought once again, he found out that he quite liked the flavour cherry.

Just like her hair.

"Well..." Sakura began, "That certainly is... Quite a story. You know I have a place, myself, back at home. Although it really isn't so much as a safe place, more like a... place to get away from family and friends." She gave a light chuckle.

"You want to get away from... Family and friends?" He questioned.

"Well yeah, sometimes having your mum yell at you to do things or even your friends constantly on your back, it can ger pretty tiresome." She smiled, looking at Gaara. His face was filled with confusion.

"I don't... Understand..." He shook his head.

"You don't understand why I go to my own place?"

"No..." He shook his head, "I don't understand why you would leave your family or friends."

I suppose when you've been alone for your entire life, you don't understand what others go through if you've never had it. Sakura thought.

"Sometimes having family isn't as it is all cracked up to be." She shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh..." Gaara looked at her, frowning his brows.

He reached a tender hand outwards towards her face, cupping her chin; he brought her closer.

Oh my god what is he doing, what is he doing? Sakura thought, panic racing across her features.

You're about to lose your first kiss you nitwit! Stop him! Inner Sakura screamed. Sasuke is meant to be your first kiss not him!

Sakura, without noticing, lend into his touch. Reluctantly, she closed her eyes as she felt his breath on her lips. They were just inching apart.

She lend in closer.

So sorry for the long wait but here is the 8th chapter and I hope you have enjoyed it! R/R