Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Spilt Blood of the Crazed ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Thanks to all those who reviewed, I do appreciate your insight or just support for writing ^_^.

I had just gotten home from school when the urge to write struck me hard. So here's chapter two, I'm no exactly pleased with Gaara's section…But it will do.

And I'm sorry the story is starting out slow, I'm very picky and I'm not a fan of the stories where the two in the story fall head over heels for each other in the first 5 minutes of meeting O_o

 

Anyway, please enjoy. Any and all Criticism is welcome!

R&R!

 

 

 

Sakura Haruno had reached Naruto's small single bedroom apartment in less then 15 minutes, having rushed through non-existent traffic easily. The new apartment complex was well lit, the brick side of the building absorbing the light from the street lamps and almost flowing with a red haze.

 

The always excited adult lived on the third floor, his lower story neighbor being an odd old cat lady who seemed to always have an album with pictures of her cats always with her, and then his next door neighbor who was a miserable looking balding man who looked around the age of 25ish despite loosing his hair.

 

Upon walking up the horrible 3 flights of stairs, Sakura finally reached his door once again juggling clipboards and other odd items. A swift knock on the door and she was left standing patiently for her friend to open the door, chewing on her bottom lip in a nervous manner.

 

The door was thrown open, and there greeting her was what would have been extremely sexy picture had it not been Naruto. His shirt was missing, leaving him dressed in only a pair of loose black sweatpants, his white with small red hearts boxers poking up slightly. The blond was completely drenched in sweat, the almost 12 pack of abs shining nicely in the lighting coming from outside.

 

“Sakura! About damn time! I've been sitting here waiting!” He had stepped out, hugging her tightly, his sweat staining the simple white t-shirt she wore. The look in her face instantly switched from calm to annoyed, if she was a cartoon character, she would clearly have a vein sticking out of her head.

 

“Naruto…”

 

He must have immediately noticed what he had done because he had let her go, stepping back and his hand traveling up to scratch the back of his head cutely.

 

“Sorry Sakura, I should have noticed.” A nervous smile spread over his face, his hand leaving his head and reaching for Sakura's shoulder, wrapping around it softly and pulling her inside.

 

“We'll find you another shirt, I just did laundry…Ehh…Actually, Hinata just did my laundry, but it's all the same thing!” He turned, dragging the poor girl into his apartment, closing the door behind them. He didn't bother locking the door, because if you think about it, who would want to break into an apartment that belonged to someone with the violent reputation of Naruto?

 

Sakura glanced around quickly, the first thing she wanted to find was a place to just drop all her things and forget about them for the night. As if reading her mind Naruto turned them around quickly, pointing to the closet hidden away in the entry way next to the front door.

 

“You can just throw your things in there, I never use it. So it should be empty.”

 

The blond then left her there, walking down the small hallway and disappearing around the corner into the living room. The sounds of two people talking echoed her direction, but Sakura paid little mind to them. She easily opened the closet door, finding that was indeed empty. A small voice in the back of her mind, telling her that if she had found anything it would have been the sweater she had gotten the boy last year for Christmas.

 

Surprisingly there was a few hangers hanging from the bar, one on which she hung her once pristine coat. Small flecks of blood on the sleeves, a smear on the bottom, and an odd out of place blue stain on the bottom of the left pocket. Green eyes rolled, that stain would be the hardest to get out, damn cheap pens. They couldn't be chewed on properly at all.

 

Her worn flat loafers kicked into a corner. Maybe if someone decided to break in, they would steal those and she would be able to wear tennis shoes to work, because those things where absolutely dreadful.

 

With her purse and clipboards still in hand, Sakura finally ventured farther into the home. When she reached the living room, what must have been the bathroom door shut as Naruto reached her vision. He was pushing a simple black leather sofa against the wall. Now that she looked around, it was the only piece of furniture that seemed to be in the right place. Everything was pushed, stacked or half-hazardly leaning against something along the wall. A small poor wooden old table had what looked to be a 100 pound shelf standing proudly upon it, the legs looking as if they would give out any moment.

 

The room smelled of sweat, so who ever had disappeared into the bathroom while she had walked in must have been who ever Naruto had been sparring with. A second glance around, Sakura instantly noticed that not a single electronic was littered among the things along the wall except for a lamp, and not a single picture of anything dotted the walls. His apartment was very bare for someone with such personality and someone who was known for doing things his way.

 

“Hey! You thirsty Sakura?

 

Naruto's voice pulled Sakura out of her mind wandering, she shook her head no. More then likely all he would have was some kind of sports drink, and tap water was out of the question when it was from a place she wasn't in charge of the tap filter herself.

 

“Alright, suit yourself, go ahead and make your self comfortable my buddy should be out here soon.” A smile spread across the blonds' face, “He said something about not wanting to smell like me in front of a woman…Whatever that meant…”

 

A small smile found its way on the rosettes' lips, a small sigh rolling past them as she flopped down lazily on the new smelling leather couch, her purse and work forgotten at her feet. It was so nice to just flop down and relax once in a while, something she never had the opportunity to do at work. She lounged lazily; the sounds of Naruto muttering swear words at something he couldn't open in the kitchen just barely grabbing her attention. She was almost too comfortable to notice when the bathroom door opened and who ever was in there had made their way into the kitchen.

 

“Hey! Can you open this for me, it's the last one I have and of fucking course it won't open!” Naruto always resorted to swearing loudly when things didn't go his way.

 

A simple “Hnn” was the response, and then an excited holler, obviously Naruto had gotten what he wanted.

 

“Hey Sakura! Wake up for me for a second! I want you to meet someone.”

 

One sea foam green eye opened, glancing towards Naruto, he was chugging the orange bottle of sports drink, no more like inhaling it. He pulled it away from his mouth, a loud belch wrenching its way free from his stomach.

 

“I want you to meet Gaara. Sakura Gaara, Gaara Sakura.”

 

Sakura almost jumped at the intensity of the look she was receiving from the man standing behind her friend. His arms crossed tightly over his chest. His almost unnatural dark red hair lying as it wished upon his head, if it could talk, it would more then likely tell everyone to “Fuck off”. The odd tattoo on his forehead is what drew her eyes down, an odd place to have a tattoo that said “Love”. But it did add to the rebel aura that seemed to just radiate off of him. His jade eyes seemed to bore holes into her, even if he meant to or not, it was causing goose bumps to erupt all over her pale flesh, the thick dark rings around his eyes only adding to the effect.

 

“Hnn.”

 

Sakura stood up, a smile spreading over her face, a small blush staining her cheeks. He was shirtless, his washboard like abs just screaming at her, but somehow the doctor was able to keep her composer and not let the man in front of her know the reaction she was having.

 

“Nice to meet you.” Her hand stretched forward, and she held it out for him to shake. When he simply looked at it, like it was offending him in someway, Sakura instantly wanted to pull her hand back. She was stopped when he reached out quickly and shook her hand once, his hand snaking back to his chest where it was soon folded again with the other.

 

“I should've warned you, Gaara's not exactly a people person.” Naruto was scratching the back of his head, something he did quite often. The red head looked down at Naruto, being that he was at least a head taller then the blond and about 2 heads taller then the young Doctor he just met. The look he gave the boy was one that if he could melt things with his eyes, Naruto would be goo staining the dirty looking gray carpet.

 

“We're about to start up again…You don't mind do you Sakura?”

 

“Not at all Naruto, it gives me a chance to get my work done before I go in tomorrow night.” As Sakura spoke she reached down grabbing a clipboard from her feet and digging through her purse and pulling out a thoroughly chewed pen, more then likely it was also be staining one of her coat pockets.

 

~~~~~~~******

 

Sakura found herself more watching the two men wrestle then doing her work, who wouldn't? When you have to right a summary on someone who had gotten a quarter stuck up his nose, wouldn't you rather watch two extremely manly bodies's covered in sweat? She was a woman with hormones after all.

 

It was more then obviously that Gaara was faster and more skilled Naruto, he continued to pin the blond easily, causing said blond to curse and cry like a child.

 

“I thought you guys would be sparring, not wrestling?” Sakura asked while they were both drinking water. They both jumped as if they had forgotten her, Naruto smiling widely at her, as if the answer was simple.

 

“We are in a tiny apartment, if we were really going to spar, someone would end up out the window or through a wall. All we have room for here is just some body training.”

 

Sakura nodded turning back to her work, she scolded herself, she should have known as much as it was obvious. Averting her eyes back to her work, she quickly wrote a summary on the quarter man, flipping through the pages afterwards to make sure everything was filled in, and then tossing in the growing pile on the cushion next to her on the couch.

 

As it turned out, she managed to finish her work quicker then she expected. Surprisingly the nurses had managed to do a few things right, not that nurses didn't do their job right. Just that they were horribly underpaid and it showed how aggravating it was in their work.

 

The men had finished what they were doing, busying themselves in the kitchen with something that Naruto found fascinating. Sakura sat there a second, just letting her mind slow down. It was if a ton of bricks had hit her, she had to attend a meeting with the board next week, and she hadn't even begun the presentation that she was supposed to get ready.

 

A groan and a slumped shoulder later, Sakura found herself getting up, leaving her things near the couch and wandering towards the bedroom. More then likely Naruto wouldn't care if she took his bed, he probably would have made her sleep in it anyway.

 

The young tired Doctor poked her head into the kitchen, glancing at the two leaning against the counter, drinking ice water. They were talking about another fighter from the sounds of it, and Sakura didn't want to intrude too much. So, she quickly said good night, earning a nod from Gaara, and Naruto smiling and saying goodnight and that he would see her in the morning.

 

When she entered the small bedroom, Sakura found herself almost drooling at the site of a bed. It looked so comfortable, a nice big comforter and tons of pillows. It was as if Naruto had bought all these things with her in mind. Little did she know that he had spent all of 10 minutes finding every pillow that he owned and making sure that it was clean for her, which was after he found the best blanket that he owned.

 

She rummaged around Naruto's small dresser, passing over the condoms, underwear, and magazines as she tried to find a shirt and pants she could wear to bed. The last thing she needed was to sleep in her work pants. Five minutes later she was changed into a pair of plaid brown pajama pants and a loose white t-shirt. Then not even three minutes later, she softly snored in the bed, surrounded by pillows and covered in a large fluffy blanket.

 

~~~~~~****

 

Gaara listened as Naruto continued to talk, and boy did he like to talk. Though the red head did throw his opinion or thought in every now and then, Naruto tended to lead the conversation. That was the way their friendship worked.

 

“But if I pull that move on him next week, oh man! I'll own him!”

 

The red head nodded, taking a sip of his water, dropping the glass away from his lips when a sudden torrent of ice hit his lips, crushing them against his teeth. Setting the glass down on the counter, he watched for a second as the condensation dripped onto the counter, adding to the countless water stains blistering the plastic.

 

“It's getting late, I need to head out. Do you need my help fixing the living room?” His voice was deep, and almost scratchy, it was a voice that he used to get into many a girls pants.

 

Naruto shook his head, “Nah, I got it. I don't want to wake Sakura up. She's hell when she's cranky.”

 

Gaara nodded, reaching towards the counter, grabbing the simple black T-shirt that he had laid there. He tossed it over his shoulder, not wanting to get sweat stains on his clothing. With a small “Later” he was out the door, closing it softly and heading down the flights of stairs.

 

The young man soon found himself at the driver side of his car, clicking the button that unlocked his car and climbing in. The laser red Aston Martin sports car growling as he turned the keys, the CD player kicking on and his headlights coming to life.

 

Tomorrow was going to be a long day, it was nearly morning and he had a business meeting at 12. He made himself comfortable, the black leather squealing as he scooted around on it. The e-brake was soon down, and he was moving the shifter knob into reverse. Gaara soon found himself driving towards the condo that he resided at, his mind wandering to the meeting he would soon be having.

 

The young red head was the sole owner of Suna Electronics, you know, the electronic company that has its hand in everything, ranging from ballpoint pens, to computer chips. He would be going over the current costs of something. It obviously wasn't a big deal; otherwise he would have remembered was it was.

 

~~~******

 

He rubbed his temples, the meeting was horribly slow. When he had said no to what they were asking, immediately things had gone flying, chairs over turned, and the women in the room left almost screaming. Gaara had to have two of his body guards come and remove a certain gentleman who was waving around a pair of scissors at everyone.

 

The poor red head still have 5 hours to look forward to, and more then likely it would be him telling people no, they couldn't have millions of dollars to spend on company candy or something along those lines. He needed some way to release his stress, and suddenly the idea struck him. Why not call up Naruto and have him meet him at his home? They could easily spar there.

 

So he did as he wanted and called the blond man. The plans had been set; the oddly colored pink haired woman from last night would be joining them. It appeared that Naruto was nervous about something when it came to her, as if something horrible could happen, and he was trying his best to keep her with him at all times. It would have almost seemed as if Naruto had more then brotherly feelings towards the girl if he had not known any better.

 

~~**

 

Work had gone so slowly that Gaara was more then positive that he would have just flopped over on his desk and started drooling if he had to take any more of it. It wasn't that he hated his job, he just hated days like this. It was thoughts like this that ran through his head as he drove home, taking longer then expected because of a horrible traffic jam caused by some idiot talking on his phone.

 

Upon arriving home, Gaara found his door unlocked and could already hear Naruto shouting something happily. Opening the door, the smell of something cooking reached his nose. Naruto couldn't cook, and it didn't smell like anything was burnt, so it must have been, what's her name? Oh yes, Sakura.

 

The door closed behind him with a click, and Gaara locked it, only out of habit. A cough rumbling from his chest, grabbing the blonds' attention, he was smiling about something.

 

“Sakura's cooking!” His arms in the air, as if it was the greatest thing in the world. “I convinced her to convince someone else to take her shift for tonight, and she cooking!” Naruto had obviously noticed the motion the red head made, raising a non-existent eyebrow.

 

“She the greatest cooker I know!”

 

As if on cue, said girl had walked into the room, a small stained white apron over a pair of flared blue jeans and a simple red thin strapped shirt. She was molding something in her hands carefully, as if trying to not get any on the flawless looking white carpet.

 

Gaara looked at the woman, a strange thought of that she looked like she belonged popping into his head. It was quickly over looked though, and wasn't something that he would remember in a few minutes.

 

“I trust that you found everything ok?”

 

The pink haired woman nodded an odd twinkle in her green eyes.

 

“Yes, thank you Gaara. Don't worry, I won't make too much of a mess, and everything I manage to dirty up, I'll clean.”

 

Gaara nodded, it didn't really matter to him. He never cooked for himself; he had people to do it for him, so no need for the actual equipment in there. Now that he thought about it, he really only had it to fill the space. He hated empty space.

 

“So when are we going to start?”

 

Naruto was obviously excited, and was almost bouncing up and down on the brown leather sofa that he had taken a seat upon.

 

“Now if you want. Let me change and I'll meet you in the other room.”

 

The excited man was up and out of the room, almost jumping over the glass coffee table sitting in the expensive looking living room. Gaara followed shortly after, leaving the small woman in the kitchen and Naruto in one of the extra rooms to go change.

 

~~**

 

Sakura hummed happily as she molded the meat, it oozed from between her fingers, dropping onto the wax paper she had placed on the black marble counter. The last thing she wanted to do was ruin something. Everything in the apartment looked expensive, from the flat screen mounted above the fireplace to the set of cutting knifes next to the steel stove that sat upon the top of the fine counter.

 

When Naruto had showed up at her work earlier, he had almost resorted to bribing someone to take her shift, telling everyone that he needed to spend quality time with his friend. Somehow, his puppy dog eyes worked, and one of the new doctors took her shift, saying that she owed them.

 

So here she was, having time to run to her shabby apartment in downtown and change into something more comfortable. Naruto had even been kind enough to let her drop of her coat at the dry cleaners, it was just her luck that a black pen had busted open in her other pocket.

 

The pink haired woman had suggested cooking to Naruto and he was more then thrilled, claiming that he would have her come over and cook for him is he didn't have Hinata.

 

Sakura squeezed the meat through her fingers again, strangely finding the feeling almost stress relieving. A little bit of this and a little bit of that, and the meat was thrown into a pan, to be seared to a brown.

 

~~**

 

Somehow the meal had turned out wonderfully, and due to a lack of room to eat at the bar, Sakura opted for standing near the counter top. Gaara and Naruto both immediately had a problem with this, stating that she cooked, therefore she should at least relax. This did little to persuade her, eventually both men gave up. The red head occasionally glanced her way while listening to Naruto talk about something or another.

 

Sakura didn't seem to take notice of it and just continued to eat her meal, savoring the food. She hadn't eaten like this in a long time, not having the money for it, so she would have to enjoy it while she could.

 

It took about 30 minutes for the boys to finish their food; both of them said their thanks and headed back towards the room that they had occupied before. Sakura left to her own devices in the kitchen. Beginning with the silver pan that had been stained black, she tossed it into the sink, turned on the hot water and began to scrub with a metal pad she found underneath the sink.

 

Next a pot that had been used to boil rice, it was soon sitting next to plates, forks, knifes, and the other kitchenware that was used to cook. Immediately she found herself bored, and let her self wander to the room that she could hear noises coming from.

 

As soon as she walked through the door, she was shocked at the scene in front of her. Naruto was on a knee panting, holding his side, glaring up at Gaara who had, in Sakura's opinion, an extremely sexy smile. The corners of his mouth perked upwards, his eyes slightly crinkled.

 

“You bastard! You didn't have to hit me so fucking hard!”

 

“Hnn.”

 

“You don't mind that I come in here and-“ There was a buzzing noise, it was coming from the living room. Instantly Sakura knew it was her phone and turned on her bare heels, heading towards the kitchen counter that he had stashed her purse on.

 

Reaching it fairly quickly, she reaching into the small black bag, fished around for a moment before she pulled out a small silver cheap looking flip phone. Instantly she paled, her breath catching in her throat.

 

Naruto had for some odd reason followed her, and when he saw he reaction he moved immediately. Grabbing the phone from her hand he turned red, stopping himself from throwing the phone against the wall. His blue eyes ran over the offending text again before they darted up to Gaara who had just walked out of the room, a brow raised.

 

Naruto read the text, inhaling heavily through his nose,

 

“Why didn't you wear an apron for me? Love Sasuke.”