What we will do for our villages ...

Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. For if I did, Naruto Holiday cookies would be real!

It's called Guilt ...

"Naruto!" Sasuke cried out to his friend as he quickly stepped forward to catch his him. He looked up at Gaara, and saw the horror in the red heads eyes. Sasuke inhaled deeply as he shifted Naruto in his arms, keeping his eyes on Gaara the whole time, making sure that if he was going to do anything, he was ready for it.

Gaara made no move. He saw everything for what it was. He was a monster still ... the only thing that had changed over the years was that he let himself believe otherwise. He watched silently as Sasuke carried Naruto over to where Kankuro laid. His eyes traveled sluggishly from the four forms over to his sister.

Temari was laying on her side, a fear that she had never felt before lay deep within her. 'I was going to die.' her mind spoke, it's words doing little to comfort her. She now knew the fear that each person had felt when Gaara had killed them with his sand, and that knowlege as well, did little to comfort her. She started to cry.

Gaara looked at Temari as she started to cry. The events of a few days ago rising up in his mind. 'I'm sorry.' his inner voice reminded him, had made things better. Slowly he walked over to her and knelt where he would be in her view. "T-Temari ..." his chest was hurting, with a pain somehow worse than any he had ever felt before. It was the same feeling that he had when he had looked at Sakura after he had kissed her, and knew that he had frightened her. "Tem-ari ..."

Temari looked at her little brother. Fear having gripped her so quickly that she was numb. She looked at his face, it being no longer distorted by a crule smile and his eyes were no longer narrowed. She was looking at the face of a child, who was as scared as everybody else was.

"Temari ... I'm ..." the words, wern't coming out easily. He looked at Temari's face, at her eyes as the rest of the world seemed to drop off. He could feel his breathing starting to come out in heaves, and was aware of a burning sensation in his chest. He hardly noticed as Temari sat up, but he did notice the feeling of warm arms around him.
"I, I know your sorry Gaara." Temari said sadly. She knew, and could tell that he was as much a victim as anybody else. Only then as she hugged her brother, did she start to register feeling again. She could feel the cramp working it's way into her leg, and a pain on the side of her head that she had been laying on. Then she could feel the tear streaks on her face. She hugged Gaara tighter, trying to not cry harder.
Sasuke looked at the scene, making sure that he kept an eye on Gaara. If something was going to happen, he's the only one at the moment that would be able to. Sakura had to watch over Kankuro and Naruto was unconcious.

"Sasuke, hold this down." Sakura instructed, as she placed a peice of material over over Kankuro's wound.

He did as he was instructed and watched as she checked over Naruto quickly.
'Aah, thank goodness.' Sakura thought noticeing that Naruto's wound had already begun to heal. "All we have to do is worry about Kankuro."

Sakura had managed to get him stable, and she had helped the wound along with it's healing. She sat back on her haunches between Naruto and Kankuro. She rubbed her forhead tiredly.

"The type of healing we need now ... I can't do. Only time can." Sakura said as she looked over at Sasuke. She looked at his eyes, they were narrow and she could tell that he was concentrating. "Sasuke what is it?"

"I'm watching him." Sasuke said as he kept the pressure on Kankuro's wound.
Sakura knew who he was talking about. "It's my fault Sasuke. He hasn't been the same since he saw the movie. I shouldn't have-"

"I shouldn't have let you go with him." Sasuke said quickly. "I'm just happy nothing happened when you were there."

"Yeah ..." 'Way to go Sakura!' her mind screamed at her, as she turned to look at Naruto's wound again. 'BAH! Now he's going to know for SURE that something happened!'
"Sakura." Sasuke begain. "Did something happen."

Sakura closed her eyes, clearly hearing the worry in his voice. 'He's blowing this totaly out of proportion. Sure something happened but, it's not like ... it was bad...'.
"Sakura?" 'What did he do to her?' Sasuke thought as he looked at his friend. 'She's not even looking at me'. Anger started to rise inside of him. He wanted to know if Gaara had done something to hurt Sakura. She hadn't been the same either since she saw the movie. She had been more shy, and quiet. "Did he 'hurt' you?"

"What!?" Sakura couldn't believe the dark tone that Sasuke was using. "What do you ..." It all coming together. "NO! Sasuke, I would have said someting."

"Well something's been bothering you since you came back. Something must have happened." Sasuke challenged.

"Well maybe I'm homesick already! We're going to be here for months, I've never been away from the village -"

"STOP LIEING TO ME!"

"IF SOMETHING HAD HAPPEND I WOULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING!"

"Would you Sakura? You've not said things before!"

"How ... HOW DARE YOU!" Tears of anger started to stream down her face. "HOW DARE YOU BRING THAT UP!"

"It's the truth isn't it?"

"WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BRING UP MY FATHER'S DEATH!"

"We are your Family too, why didn't you say anything then!" Sasuke said. "We would have been there for you! Instead I ended up hearing it from Kakashi!"

"Becasue you lost your ENTIRE CLAN Sasuke! And Naruto was always shunned, and didn't even HAVE A FAMILY! I - I ..."

"WHAT!"

"I - I didn't want to say anything. I didn't want you two to see me cry. I still had a parent, I was afraid, I was afraid that... that you would get mad."

"Why would I have gotten mad Sakura? And you didn't tell us anything becasue you couldn't compete with Naruto and I's loss?"

"No. Becasue, when we were younger, no matter what I did it always annoyed you. And the harder I tried the more unimpressed you'd be." Sakura said sadly. "I was afraid that if you saw me cry over loosing one parent, that you would see me as ... you would view me even weaker than you already knew I was."

Silence came over the two. Sasuke really hadn't ment for it to come out that way. Really hadn't ment to open that old wound. 'Great, good job Sasuke.' he scolded himself. 'Well at least I know now, one mystery solved.' 'Oh, do not try to make this out as if your a hero, your nothing but a jerk.'. "I'm sorry Sakura."

"It's." a small smile. "It's okay Sasuke."

* * *

It was late into the night by the time everybody was once again well off. It had been pretty quiet. Temari was making dinner by herself. Kankuro was resting on the couch next to Sakura and Gaara, as they together watched Naruto and Sasuke play chess.
"Check mate in 5 moves Dobe." Sasuke teased.

"WHAT!?" Naruto narrowed his eyes as he looked at Sasuke. "Hmmm, your using Sharingan when I'm not looking at you aren't you."

"Huh?" Kankuro and Sakura start laughing. "Baka." Sasuke said as he shook his head while moving his Knight.

It was pretty much a silently spoken truce that all of them were just going to not speak about what had happened last night. But if anybody needed to talk about it, they would be there for each other.

"Sakura."

"Hmn?" looks at Kankuro.

"Huh, wasn't me."

"Gaara?" Sakura asked turning to face him.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure what is it?"

"I felt something after I kissed you. Can you tell me what it was?"
Everybody stopped.

All Sakura could do was sigh as she heard Sasuke.

"So SOMETHING DID HAPPEN."

"YOU KISSED SAKURA - CHAN!"

"Hey, way to go lil'bro."

"Oh, my god."