Big shout out to Nom de Plume who wrote me some extremely detailed (and frankly flattering) reviews. I read everything anyone sends me and I do consider the praise and constructive criticism with a mind to improvement, so thank you for helping me improve the idea spew that is my writing. I had some honest reservations with entering this because the ending could go either way believably from Sakura's point of view. ;) I don't think many of you are guessing wrong how it goes here, though. Warning for slightly salty language from the menfolk! (Did you know the most commonly used word by men in social media posts is the f-bomb? I'm unsurprised.)

Disclaimer: See Part I

"In his tent, Sakura!? What were you thinking!" Naruto, for all his affection for her and somewhat progressive ideas about women, still knew what her decisions might cost her in the eyes of other people.

"Nothing happened. I'm still intact." Naruto blushed immediately at her words but he was in the middle of a concerned rant, since he obviously thought that having a lack of near male blood relations had somehow left her care to him in an oblique way. She appreciated the sentiment, but she was too old to be lectured as if he knew better.

He sat, head in one hand, chunk of dried fish in the other, and scowled at her while they watched the training grounds swept of debris. "People don't care what happened, Sakura, they just need to think that something happened or else you'll never, uh—"

"I'll never what? Never find a man who would marry a 'used' woman? No one will know unless you tell them, and I know you'd go to your grave before you broke a promise." She picked at some of the new grass that was creating a fresh spring smell around them. "You make me wish I had done something just so I deserve listening to you whine about it."

She poked at his shoulder with one finger, "And what happened to all that 'Gaara is a great guy' talk?"

"That's before I knew you slept in his tent with him."

"Near him."

"Sakura," Naruto wasn't used to being the responsible one in a conversation and he didn't wear it well. "Gaara is my friend, a superior officer, and a great fighter. He's wealthy, he's powerful, and unless something changed since this morning he can't stand the sight of you. He would never spread rumors himself, but I don't know if he can stop all his men from saying something to someone else. I can't protect you from hundreds of big mouthed assholes."

It would just be a matter of time, she knew, between when she returned home and when the tale of her life here returned as well. It might be a year, or less even, but things had a way of catching up to people. Cavalry worked with various infantry units and even if they only told one or two men every unit… well Sakura had watched colds pass among her friends less quickly than juicy gossip.

"Is it that bad?" She leaned back, looking up the trunk of the tree. There was warmth in the afternoon air, wrapping her skin like a reassuring hug.

Naruto, unable to lie but optimistic enough to be unsure of the truth, leaned into her and chewed his fish. His cheesy grin made her smile in answer. Ino would have asked her how she felt, she thought. Then she would have refused to say anything and Ino would have been so tormented by not knowing she would have drawn the whole torrid tale from her and Sakura would have come to some amazing realization. By the end it would be like one of those romantic tales where the heroine tragically puts aside her feelings and the hero goes off to war… but there was always some sort of divine intervention after that. Minerva would give him great wisdom, or Venus would inspire him to return right as the heroine was about to expire from her own misery.

"Augh, but they always both die anyway!" She said the last part aloud, totally confusing Naruto. She wasn't even entirely sure of her feelings, other than anger at being practically run out of the village and an abiding curiosity about the feeling Gaara had sparked in her with that second kiss. Just the thought of it set her heart racing.

"You look sweaty, too hot in those black robes?"

"You look sweaty, too hot in that thick skull?"

Naruto snorted a laugh and slid down into a napping position, leaving Sakura to continue to stew in her own thoughts.

"How long are you staying?" Gaara had invited Naruto to eat the evening meal with him, and it had all been cheerful talk of dismemberment, bravery, and imperial politics until Naruto had started in on thinking about Hinata. Conversation had gotten a little soppy on his end, something Gaara didn't deal well with at the best of times.

"What's happened? This isn't like you." Naruto had never felt unwelcome around Gaara, but he was getting the distinct feeling that his friend wanted him gone. In a rare moment of personal insight he put two and two together. "You want Sakura to stay don't you? She's a little stubborn and a little violent, but she isn't totally unreasonable."

Gaara looked like he was going to crush his cup in his hand, and he stared daggers at Naruto. "Take her back to Rome and leave her there."

"She said nothing happened, but the way you're both acting that doesn't seem exactly, you know, TRUE." Naruto leaned in, serious. "Sakura is like a sister to me, and I mean to look out for her. If you did something to her, superior officer or no, I will beat the shit out of you."

"I didn't harm her."

Naruto was unrelenting. "I didn't say you harmed her, but something happened because you both are obviously telling me half the story, or less. I expect that from you, but not from her."

"So why don't you ask her?"

Laughing at that, Naruto still could not shake the tension from his shoulders. "Have you ever tried getting something out of Sakura she didn't want to say? Maybe if I forced a pitcher of wine down her throat, or three, and even then I'm not sure."

They both paused as they each imagined Sakura drunk. Naruto was sure he almost saw a smile on his friend's face before the usual dour expression returned.

Gaara, who couldn't ultimately deny his best and possibly only friend, conceded a little. "She distracts me from my purpose."

"That doesn't sound all bad."

"I'm miserable all the time."

Naruto was starting to get an inkling of what was up. "That sounds familiar…"

"I want to tear off her clothes and devour her."

Naruto made a face like he had just bit into a lemon. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

"It's better if she leaves me to get back to my life."

Looking around at the utilitarian surroundings, Naruto shrugged and picked up his drink again. "You're lucky that your life is so perfect that you don't need someone as great as Sakura in it. It's your decision, I guess." He thought about it for a minute. "I don't think I'd lie down and die if I didn't have Hinata to go home to after all this is done and I'm a famous general and everything. But knowing she's there makes me feel stronger."

"This isn't the same situation at all, Uzumaki."

"Right." Naruto gave his biggest smile. "Just out of curiosity, say I take Sakura home and she gets married right away." Already a dangerous aura seemed to be emanating from Gaara. He'd have to drop this before his friend exploded. "Don't think, just tell me: what's your first reaction?"

"Find the man, cut off his head, eat his heart." It might have been hyperbole, but with Gaara there was always room for doubt.

"You're both hopeless then. I'm not getting in the middle of it all but I'll say that you're both acting like idiots."

Sakura had a lot to think about on the journey to Rome. It was beautiful and bright every day, tanning her fair skin everywhere she was exposed giving her the strangest tan lines and bleaching out her already faded pink hair even further. Naruto loved having her along for the journey and his easy way with people had Sakura welcomed everywhere they stopped even if their travelling situation was at best unconventional. What had taken months for a large caravan did not take nearly as long returning with good weather on horseback, but it felt just as long to her aching muscles. At rest points she read her medical text first from cover to cover, but eventually just the pieces she couldn't already recite from memory. Naruto was always willing to chat, if she felt like talking, but she stayed away from the other people travelling near and with the mail wagons. It felt like if she started to talk to people she would give away something, though she didn't have any information anyone would want, and they stayed away from the girl in black assuming her haste in returning home had to do with a death in the family. Ultimately, they would have been right as none of this would have happened if her father had still been alive.

People started to visit her when the inevitable happened and injuries occurred on the road. The only significant incident was a man who fell off his horse when a snake slid across the road and broke his arm badly. Luckily Sakura had seen her father handle those enough times that she didn't even need to think to begin to treat him, but her easy command of the situation and quick thinking resulted in more attention on the way in to Rome than she wanted or expected. Gifts of food, people coming by to chat (often starting out as a consultation of health and ending in random topics), and suddenly Sakura found she didn't have time to read let alone dwell on the village that had been her home in spring.

It was very nearly the ides of August when they were in sight of Rome and she knew that her friends would be preparing for the Nemoralia celebration, most not in town by the time she arrived. No triumphant return, but a quiet slink back into her empty home seemed fitting. The place inside of her where hope for the future was supposed to be seemed to be mostly filled with doubts and questions.

The empty store fronts greeting her upon arriving at her home in the city were bleak enough that Naruto actually paused and waited to see if she was ok to go in alone. Sakura waved him away as he was leading her horse to be stabled with his, and he kept looking back until he had to turn a corner as if she were going to bolt or fall apart. All she did was look from the left where he father's medical practice had been to the right where her mother's servant had sold extra garden herbs and her mother had run an informal centralized gossip location for the ladies of the neighborhood. Memories of rich green odors and the strange medicinal wafts from next door actually brought tears to her eyes, and she stifled them by sweeping her way past into the atrium of the house proper.

Her room was immediately to the right, but Sakura didn't go there first. Her father's office was directly ahead and that was the only place she wanted to be. It was small, smelled of medicine and parchment, and there were good memories here of learning all sorts of useful things playing with medical tools he had discarded and hearing her mother's voice in the background. She missed those days when he was at war, and it was easy to pretend he was on a trip rather than cremated on foreign soil. She'd have to purchase a cenotaph and have it placed next to her mother's tomb.

Feeling more alone than she ever had been in living memory she let exhaustion overtake her. Among the dust and cobwebs, she fell asleep in her father's study and dreamed of spinning wool in a dark place.

"It's your party and you look miserable." Ino plopped down beside Sakura who had hidden away under a low tree in the grove where all her friends were picnicking in honor of her being alive and among them again. The cenotaph had been erected and the appropriate funerary rites had been performed a week ago. With some of the money she had inherited, Sakura had purchased new clothes and had taken the time to dye her hair again though she allowed it to be lighter red than usual hoping secretly it would fade to the petal pink shade she had grown used to after a time.

"I do not look—" Seeing the arch look Ino was giving her she didn't even pretend to argue. "Ok, I'm miserable."

"You don't look like you're about to cry so you probably aren't thinking of your family," Ino didn't pull punches around Sakura, which was a reason she both liked and disliked her longtime friend. "So this must be the only other reason you look sad these days, and I know you won't talk about him anymore to me so you can stop that scathing comment about to escape your lips."

Anger was replacing sadness, and that was probably exactly as Ino had calculated. "I wasn't going to say anything."

"Please, Sakura, I've known you too long." Raucous laughter focused both of their attentions over to where Naruto and Lee were arm wrestling. Naruto was losing again and again, but he refused to admit defeat. Hinata was very nearly glued to his side, twisting her iron engagement band around one finger. It would be a few more years until Naruto had completed his military service and that promise was realized but she didn't seem to care.

"They look happy."

"You can behappy, but you aren't letting yourself!" Ino, whose engagement to Chouji would be out of negotiation and into reality within days had decided that now that her own future was secure was charged with making sure all her friends were taken care of similarly. "It's a beautiful day, all your friends are here, and you're sitting in a dark place looking like you want to drown yourself during dessert. You could at least go sit by Shikamaru and pretend like you're talking while he sleeps if you want to be such a downer."

That actually made her giggle a little when she looked over to see that their notoriously lazy friend was getting a sunburn on his legs due to the light's movement since he began sleeping.

"You're right I've got to snap out of it. It's just, I don't know, hard to explain why it's hard to explain."

"Well, if you don't get it together the only man who will want you is Lee." They both shuddered.

Sakura waved her away. "Ok ok, I'll come over and smile and talk but only so long as you stop harassing me over the whole marriage thing."

"I just don't get what you're waiting for; it's not as if you're getting any younger."

"Love you too, Ino."

It was the time of the October Horse but Sakura didn't have the stomach to see either sacrifices or chariot races and was instead looking over the household accounts. Until the special taxes went into effect on her twentieth birthday next March (as penalty for being single) then she would easily have enough to support her small household. If she could put together some sort of quiet medical practice then perhaps she could bring in some income and the tax wouldn't matter. Usually people had whole families to help them with these sorts of decisions. The nearest Haruno relatives were all far away, farming their land, and wanted no piece of the city life. The idea of moving to live with distant cousins out of necessity made her sigh deeply. Lee's formal marriage proposal was still sitting on her father's desk, sealed, and would remain that way. So many choices and none of them good.

Not that she had rosy memories of her time in Gaara's village, but she didn't feel like forces greater than one person were out to get her. This empty house, all her friends who were marrying and starting families, they all felt suddenly foreign. Before she had forced his hand, she'd been basically happy. When she imagined marriage, a family, it wasn't that far off from what she had had there.

The soldiers had returned for winter and Sakura was reasonably sure that with their return even Lee's proposal would be retracted. Lee himself wouldn't care, and if Sakura claimed purity then her word would be enough for him, but his parents wouldn't see things the same way. Lee really was a good man, and it was too bad he was probably going to be teased for offering for her once the rumors began.

When the loud knock came, Sakura assumed it was Naruto trying (vainly) to get her to come see the races. She loved chariot races as a kid, and they used to pretend they were charioteers when they were very little. Naruto had been the horse.

"I told you, there's no way that I'm going to fight my way through all your smelly military friends so I can sit and watch horses go around in circles today!"

The man at the entrance, decorative helmet in hand, was not Naruto. It wasn't Lee, or the mailman, or even the cook she had hired to deliver meals every few days. Gaara stood there looking uncomfortable but somehow completely self-possessed like whatever was inconveniencing him was someone else's fault. The streets were empty so Sakura briefly thought there was a possibility that he was a ghost.

"Gaara." Shivers ran down her spine as she examined him in full ceremonial uniform. Shining metals, oiled leather, and fine cloth couldn't hide those sleeplessly bruised eyes or his tight lipped expression like the world wasn't passing an inspection. She thought he looked unexpectedly handsome in his uniform, and hated herself for thinking it because it created a pit of longing in her stomach.

He didn't say anything, so she invited him in and they walked together through the atrium to the garden where Sakura had chairs set up since harvest season began. It was unconventional to sit near the household garden, but she didn't want to be in a more enclosed space with him, knowing she was already here in the house alone.

"Can I offer you anything to eat or drink?" He shook his head, and Sakura only just realized he was not attempting to meet her eyes.

"Naruto says you live here alone."

No social graces at all; she had almost missed that. "Yes. The rest of my family owns land far from here. My father was the second son of his father as well as the second surgeon. He wanted to strike out on his own. The military was always generous to him. But he was also very good at what he did."

"I had thought you had family here."

"I have friends, that's almost the same to me."

They sat in awkward silence for a bit. He didn't seem angry, exactly, but he seemed nervous and impatient. "Temari doesn't say she misses you, but she has been much harder on my troops when we practice. She has injured a few of them quite badly."

"I'm sorry?" Sakura didn't know if he was saying that to make her feel good or bad about the situation.

"Have you had… ?" Whatever this was, it was totally out of his comfort zone and his accent was thick as he formed the Latin. "With your suitors. Have men been bothering you?"

"I don't have any 'suitors.' And if I did they would be none of your business." This was so weird and awkward; she wanted to go hide somewhere he couldn't follow.

Gaara cleared his throat. "Naruto told me you were unwell. I see that's not the case, so I'll leave."

"No…" She had felt like things had fallen in place with her life somehow when she had opened the door to see him standing there. Staying aloof didn't seem important when real alarm spread through at the thought of him leaving. "I want you to stay with me."

Already to the edge of the garden, Gaara halted and turned with military precision. The vague expression he had entered with now had changed to something determined. He had entered into this with no plan, originally, she thought, and now he could see his objective.

"Stay and visit, I mean." Sakura finished weakly.

"Is that what you want?" It was a loaded question and she saw implications spreading out from it the way water leaks from a crack in a dam.

She had had nearly half a year to think about what she wanted. "Yes."

He walked over to her, and lifted her hand to slide an iron ring onto it. He had to try a few fingers before he found one that it fit. She stood there, shocked. "If you don't like it, you don't need to wear it."

"I think you skipped a few things here," Sakura began, finding her voice at last. "Written offers? Talking things over with me? Maybe even, I don't know, saying something nice to me?!" Her voice had been rising in pitch and tone as she tried to pull back from hysteria.

"Were you going to say no?"

"I don't know! No?! I wanted to be asked!"

"Your friend Ino seemed to think asking you would not be as successful."

"That traitor!" She felt like a conspiracy was unfolding before her. Naruto, Ino, who knows who else had been involved or what they had told him "I'm going to sneak into her house and, and, burn her hair!" She took a deep breath, realizing he hadn't let go of her hand yet. "What else did they tell you?" Unnatural calm had overtaken her, but Gaara wasn't cowed by her dangerous mood swing.

"They wrote to me," Gaara said, "And your Ino was very insistent that you were going to die of grief at my rejection. I've many people, but this one would be new for me." It seemed like he was making a joke but there was no indication that it might be one from his body language.

Fires lit behind her eyes, as she imagined the terrible things she was going to do to her friend for spreading vicious lies. Die of grief indeed!

"At first I thought it was some sort of trick, but then Naruto wrote me and said you were turning away all reasonable marriage offers so I needed to do the honorable thing and at least give you the option. He seems to think we were dishonest about our involvement." Gaara actually smiled for a moment, letting it fade away to a shadow. "Your friend Ino suggested I just abduct you."

"You already tried that once."

"As I explained to her."

Reluctantly letting go of her hand, Gaara sat again. "I'll take that drink now." Whatever had fueled his journey here to her seemed to have exhausted him.

"Hospitality or no, I have some questions first. Sappy letters wouldn't bring you here. Tell me why you're here, and this had better be both accurate and satisfying or I am going to throw this ring over the garden wall and send you on your way."

His fingers formed a steeple and he closed his eyes briefly, as she had seen him do when he was thinking particularly hard over maps of enemy terrain. This looked like it would take a while so Sakura gave it a minute and went to fetch a cup of fresh pear juice. She almost thought he had fallen asleep when she return, but he opened his eyes and regarded her oddly coolly before taking the cup.

"My life is empty." These words were not practiced or put in his mouth by other people, and she tried to force herself to be patient as his low voice carried truth to her at last. "I am a weapon for the empire. I will never have, and probably don't deserve, peace. But you let me taste it, when you're with me."

And he would give her purpose, a place to be herself, someone to love. She never could have said no, even if she despised how her emotions and needs had cornered her neatly. He didn't need an answer from her, possibly didn't care what it was so long as she came with him, but of her own volition she found herself bending down to plant a soft kiss on his lips. He tasted of pears.

It almost broke her heart how relieved he looked when she pulled back, like he had just taken a huge risk.

"I suppose I should actually learn your language now, properly." Sakura tried to sound like it didn't intimidate her. Gaara said something to her she couldn't understand, and she wondered how long before he couldn't pull that trick on her ever again.

"I said your hair looks different." He examined her up and down, his expression changing subtly as his gaze lingered certain areas. "And that I liked it better when you wore black."

Sakura pushed aside a prickle of annoyance as she allowed herself to feel happy about whatever this was. (Her engagement?) Normally there would be a party, and instead they were in an empty house while the rest of Rome celebrated crops, death, and the violence of the race.

Turning around, she began to walk into the house. "There's food in the kitchen, let me go and—" A whoosh of air left her lungs as he pulled her against his chest. There was a clatter as she heard the cup drop to the ground. Somehow he had stood up and moved over to her so silently she hadn't sensed him until he was practically on top of her.

"That can wait." There was a something feral in the way he dug his hands into her shoulders, holding her in place with more force than he probably knew he was exerting. He wasn't hurting her, but it almost seemed like he wanted to, just a little.

"Gaara," She said, feeling her body temperature rise as he stirred feelings in her she last remembered experiencing when he kissed her that day in the tent, months ago. "We waited this long, we can wait a little longer."

He had more self-control than people gave him credit for, she thought, as he took a shaky breath and let her go. "Is that what you want?"

So many choices had been made for her until recently. Where she was going to live, who she could spend time with, how her days played out, but since she had met Gaara she realized that the moment he had taken her captive she had been given more choices about her life than she had ever expected she'd have. This was how she knew she loved him: that he knew to offer her a choice even when he knew he wouldn't like the answer. Well, she wasn't feeling as predictable as all that today. And she had had months to think of this meeting, just as he had.

"No, it isn't."

She managed to surprise him. Everyone thought she was despoiled, so she decided to prove them all right, but on her terms.

The clatter of armor hitting stone filled the hallways, a trail of leather and cloth neatly ending in front of Sakura's room. From now on, as it had been from the start, if he was going to be considered a monster he would be her monster.

Thanks for reading my ficlet turned fic. 3 Epilogue if I'm inspired, but otherwise we've reached a good point. I'd forgotten how much I love Sasori though so Epilogue may rear its ugly head.

~AOD(10)