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Que Sera Sera	By : Rockrgrl4 Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 5888 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of its characters. I will make no money by posting this.

Chapter List
- 5
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Chapter 6 is up! Enjoy!

-K.

When the first light broke through and shone through Sakura's bedroom window, the exhausted kunoichi merely groaned and turned her head further into her pillow, trying to drown out the sun's soft rays of light. 'I'm so tired,' she thought to herself over and over, 'can it really be morning already?'

She rolled out of bed after another minute or so of groaning and mumbling to herself, stretching her arms above her head and letting out a loud yawn. When she had planted securely on the ground, and the blood was now successfully starting to pump throughout her body and engage her brain, the memories of the night before came rushing back at her all at once. More than once, Kankuro's image flooded the forefront of her mind-his meeting her at the hospital, the restaurant, Gaara catching them in the basement, the kiss…

Sakura's eyes widened and she bit her lip, trying to keep her body from trembling. She couldn't have-they wouldn't have…

However, the vivid memories of the kiss they had shared outside her door lingered in her mind, revealing it to be-without a doubt-true. Her lips tingled slightly from the memory of the feel of his lips on hers, and while her body and (she grudgingly admitted) heart were pleased about the sudden turn of events, her more realistic mind was not. What if she got hurt again? What if he was just using her? What if this ruins their friendship? What if it ruins her ambassadorship to Suna?

…And most importantly, what if it meant nothing to him at all?

Sakura resisted the urge to whimper, but it was difficult because of the already clenching pain of her heart; she could plainly feel it blossoming throughout her chest. She brought her hand up to her bosom and gently placed it over her heart, taking a deep breath and sitting back on her bed. She kept taking deep breaths like that for a few minutes, trying to regain her calm and focus her thoughts. Inwardly, she was confused, terrified, and overall completely freaking out. Her feelings for the Sand jounin were apparently much, much stronger than she had originally anticipated, and she was genuinely pleased about their shared kiss, but she knew she wouldn't be able to take it if he was just playing around with her. Somewhere deep, deep down she didn't think that was the case, but the memory of Sasuke's rejection and defection was still fresh on her mind. It also didn't help that she was confused and upset at the moment, so she logically deduced it would be best to listen to her head.

After a few minutes of sitting on the bed and worriedly considering the position she was in, she was finally composed enough to ready herself for a day of work. While she got ready for work and dressed herself, she had come up with a "plan of action". While she was at work, she would ask some of the women she had befriended in the hospital about him, and she would see how likely it was that he would want a real relationship with her. Of course, that wasn't a very fair appraisal of his intent, but she did need to know what kind of a person he was with women. She had always refused to make a decision before without being fully informed, and she would be damned if she started now.

"Really?" Sakura's eyebrows rose, her expression portraying shock perfectly, even though it was a much different emotion than what she was currently feeling. Betrayal and extreme sadness were one of the top two, of course, but a feeling of bitter hurt and indignation at being used was the most prominent in her heart.

"Yes," the nurse she was talking to muttered disinterestedly, picking at the remains of her sandwich, "Kankuro-sama has been around with a lot of women in this village. He'll talk to them for a little while, testing out the waters, and then if he likes what he sees, he'll use them to get what he wants out of them. Then when they wake up the next morning, he'll be gone." The nurse took another bite of her sandwich, a blank look on her face, as she continued on, showing only the smallest amount of bitterness in her tone, "but of course, there are some of us who don't even deserve the time of day…" She stabbed the plastic fork to her salad into the remains of her sandwich with an almost bestial ferocity, and she stood up violently, nearly knocking her chair back onto the floor. Sakura jumped a little at the loud scraping noise of the chair, but quickly regained her senses when the nurse hastily gathered up the rest of her lunch and turned to Sakura, asking her if she had any more questions for her. Sakura stayed silent, merely shaking her head as an answer, and the nurse stalked off, throwing the remains of her lunch into the garbage can and pushed her way through the break room's door. Sakura's only thought, even through the intense hurt she was feeling at the moment, was, 'Oh wow. Someone's really bitter about being rejected, aren't they?' Fleetingly, the kunoichi allowed herself a very small, hardly amused smile.

For the next few days after her questioning of her nurse friend, Sakura had made it a point to remain busy in Suna's hospital. After all, she was still trying to teach their staff more advanced techniques. Several of the nin were showing promising talent, and Sakura was no less than ecstatic. It seemed that everyone was getting along with her well within the village, and she was enjoying her stay there immensely.

Kankuro was just…well, Kankuro.

He was still the same loud, brash, smart-ass jounin that he had always been, although in the past few weeks the few people who could call themselves close to the puppet master were observing subtle changes in his persona. For instance, usually the middle sand sibling would walk the around the village for a while after a long day of training, but he had been starting to head home immediately afterwards, and increasingly more often he had been leaving about 5 minutes early from his training sessions. There were also several drastic changes in his demeanor. Where he had used to be extremely gruff in his tone and stand-offish in appearance, lately he had been becoming less and less bitter. He was even smiling sometimes, and helping villagers whenever they asked for it-something he had rarely done before because of the often ridiculous nature of their requests. Most surprisingly of all-to not only his family, but the general community as well-he was being nice to his sister Temari's husband, Shikamaru Nara. While they were off duty they had often made it a point in the past not to look or speak at each other, but lately Kankuro had been tolerating his presence, and even nodding his acknowledgement to the Konoha native.

Naturally, Shikamaru was shocked and immediately ran home to notify his wife of her eldest's brother's sudden change in demeanor.

"He did what?" The blonde's mouth hung open, her eyes conveying pure shock. "He never congratulated you on any of your promotions, our becoming a couple and your moving here. He threatened to kill you when you told him of our engagement. Hell, he even sulked and glared at you during our wedding vows! Why would he acknowledge you now?" She finished, completely dumbfounded.

Shikamaru shook his head and replied, "I don't know," and almost immediately muttered under his breath, "troublesome."

"No," Temari corrected her husband, eyes narrowing, "You don't know yet." Already her strategist's mind was working frantically, the wheels clicking and turning at a rapid speed. "I know my brother," she spoke, only halfway paying attention to what she was saying, "and he wouldn't change so quickly unless something was going on to change him. The oaf's too stubborn to change on his own." She finished her thought process aloud, her eyes now showing the slightest bit of worry.

Shikamaru took not of this and sighed, dragging a hang over his face, "Don't worry about him, Temari. I'm sure he's fine." The lazy ninja yawned, stretching his arms behind his head as he settled onto the sill of the window behind him. He stretched his legs out the length of the sill, and settled himself into a comfortable position before continuing, "He can take care of himself, even if something is going on. We shouldn't have to get involved, even if I know you want to." He gave his wife a pointed look.

Temari huffed at him, and gave him a glare. "Of course I do, you idiot! He's my little brother, and I don't think you realize just how fragile those two still are from our childhood-at least emotionally. You have no idea what they went through, and my father-"

Shikamaru's arms slipped around her lithe frame at the same time his lips met hers, barely moving at all. Almost instantly he pulled away to see her face flushed with love and embarrassment. He couldn't resist the urge to smirk, and cockily replied, "Well, that shut you up."

Temari ordinarily would have glared and been absolutely outraged at anyone who had the audacity to make that remark and sent them flying back to where they had come from via air, but she only blushed and muttered a quick, barely audible apology. Shikamaru caught it and smiled nonetheless, and gave her a quick kiss on her forehead, still holding her.

Even with all of the changes taking place within Kankuro's family, Sakura was finding it incredibly difficult to pick up on the good mood and Kankuro was starting to take notice. She had been avoiding meals with both himself and Gaara at all costs, and working incredibly late shifts at the hospital so that she would not be able to accidentally run into them. At first, it could all have been easily explained, but after so long, even Kankuro had started to catch on.

Meanwhile, all Sakura could do was work herself to the bone, trying to keep the unshed tears that were so obviously willing to burst from within herself at bay. After the nurses had filled her in on the Kankuro situation, she felt like she was truly ready to die, leave, anything but stay here. She now knew that Kankuro was a playboy-and a rather substantial one at that-so she knew he wasn't serious about her. How could he have been, after she got a glimpse of some of his past flings that the nurses had inadvertently pointed out? They were gorgeous. What was she compared to them?

Even now, as Sakura was working in her office, she had trouble keeping back the tears that were threatening to spill. She couldn't stop thinking about either the kiss, Kankuro himself or wondering if she was just one of the girls he wanted in the sack. More importantly, though, she couldn't help but constantly hope besides the very slim chance she had that he actually had feelings for her. That was what hurt the worst-the constant hope in her heart and the logic that it would never happen. Even if she was frightened about giving her heart away to someone, she wouldn't mind taking the chance and giving it to Kankuro, even in her terrified state-as long as he loved her back. She had been through a one-sided love "relationship" once, and now she feared it was happening again with Kankuro and herself.

Talk about pathetic. What was she, twelve again?

She could only let out a tiny sob and bury her face in her hands, the tears she had so desperately been trying to hold back now cascading from her eyes. The intensity of the sobs now grew frantic, as her mind replayed images of him in the arms of a different woman every night. It was then that she realized she was in love with him.

How could she have been so stupid? She should have never bothered with him, talked to him, hell, even looked at him! Now she had to deal with all of this heartbreak and pain all over again, only of course now it was a hundred times worse. Why did God hate her so much as to make her fall for men that were horrible for her-why?

She could only cradle her pink locks in her fingers as her head slowly came to rest on her desk. She was too caught up in her thoughts of him and her own inner turmoil to notice her eyes drifting shut and her body growing weary. She was too immersed in her despair to realize that she was slowly crying herself to sleep, just as she had done every night since Sasuke had left when they were twelve.

Kankuro was walking the calm, empty streets of Suna at an unusually late hour, but it couldn't be helped. Ever since Sakura had started to ignore him, his own mind was entering a more and more distressed state. He was losing sleep and his own sanity, his thoughts only focused on her; in his profession, that was a horrible thing, but he could not bring himself to hate either himself or her for it. She wasn't a bad person, really, and it was his own damn fault that he was attracted to her.

Really, though, what was wrong with her? She had been avoiding him ever since they had shared that kiss. It honestly wasn't anything drastic-sure it was a big change in their acquaintanceship, but they would have worked that out long ago if she hadn't been avoiding him. It frustrated him to no end, knowing that this could be over with-that his mistake could have been remedied-if only she would be willing to listen to him.

He knew from experience, however, that Sakura Haruno was not hard-headed for just any reason. There was always a reason for her to intentionally change her demeanor towards someone so quickly, and-taking into account of their unexpected kiss-Kankuro logically deduced it was her way of rejecting him.

He froze in place in the middle of the alley of which he was currently walking. No…she wasn't rejecting him, was she?

Yes. Yes, she was!

What a cowardly thing to do, to hide away in an office like that because of one kiss, and to completely avoid him, her friend, after he took advantage of her faith. Yes, he deserved it, yes, he was an ass, but she should still be able to give him a straight response!

He gritted his teeth in annoyance, trying to tell himself that he was upset more about her lack of faith in him rather than the actual heart-wrenching pain of rejection. Who was he to care if someone rejected him? There was always someone else that he could find, someone who could replace her in his heart…

As if it heart that thought, a heavy pain blossomed from within the puppet master's chest, spreading its poison throughout every muscle and surface of his body. His whole frame shook with the pain of it, and he resisted the urge to fall on his knees.

However, he was not stupid-it was one thing that Kankuro of the sand was not-but this feeling, this intense pain, was making him so. She was the only thing causing it, and he had to get rid of it somehow.

What if…what if he got rid of her? Sent her back to Konoha…?

Yes, that could possibly work!

He instantly set off toward her office inside the hospital, already knowing that was where she would be at such a time of night-she was still trying to avoid him after all. Ignoring the lingering pain and protests from within his heart, his mind was frantically cheering, screaming and encouraging him to get rid of her once and for all.

Kankuro of the sand didn't fall in love. What was he, a sentimental fool?

No!

He continued on his way, his mind set and a new determination burning in his eyes. He would get rid of her, he would!

Finally he reached the hospital and made his way up the stairs into hospital's office area. He knew where Sakura's office was-he had been here before, when they weren't fighting. He navigated the twists and turns of the dark, dimly lit hallways and finally came to a stop at her door. After feeling one last twinge of pain from his chest, he hardened his resolve, jaw set, and opened the door only to find a sleeping Sakura, tears dried on her face, and resting on a mountain of paperwork.

Suddenly all of Kankuro's anger turned to naught, and the thought of "God dammit" was the last thought his sudden independent side had before he gathered his pink angel into his arms and took her home to her warm, soft bed.

Sound familiar? :3

Haha! Read on! xD

Btw, Kankuro? You fail at being angry at women. ^^

-K.
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Que Sera Sera