A Bride From Konoha

15: New Life And Death

Sakura stirred from her sleep and opened her eyes tiredly. Her body felt boneless and sated and lay so limp on the top of Gaara's chest. She stretched languidly and lifted her head to see Gaara was staring at her.

"Hey, you are not sleeping."

"Yeah." He reached out to play the stand of her hair.

Sakura rolled onto her side and folded her arm behind her head to raise herself up. It was so nice lying on the warm bed with sheets tangled between their naked bodies. The light from the candles had been long extinguished. But the room was full of moonlight as the windows were wide opened. She smiled lazily at him.

"Hey, what are you thinking?" She asked softly.

"This and that." He drawled.

"Huh, figures," Sakura muttered. Sometimes he was so annoyingly arrogant. She rolled back to the other side to continue sleeping, but her shoulder was caught by his hand. He forced her down onto her back, pinning her to bed with his weight.

His face was so near as she could feel his warm breath. In the dark, she could see his eyes glittered as he was staring at her with an intense expression.

"Marry me."

Her eyes widened in surprise.

"What?"

He stared at her. "You heard me."

It took several minutes for his words to be registered in her mind. Sakura began to feel panic inside her.

"You can't possibly be serious!"

She pushed his chest and struggled to be out under his body. Gaara rolled to let her go and she took the opportunity to leap off from the bed as far as she could. She covered herself with the bedsheet and glared at him.

Gaara rose from the bed and strode nakedly toward her. His skin glowed as he was bathed in rich moonlight. Sakura moved backward desperately, accidentally hitting the edge of the table. Gaara took the opportunity to cage her between his arms, but she managed to duck and got away from him. Like a net, the sand was cast over her like a huge wave as he realized that she was determined to jump out through the window.

"This is completely out of blue! You can't possibly ask me so suddenly!" She said frantically while fighting to be freed from the sand.

"I've been waiting to ask you for a long time." He said calmly.

"Huh?" Her struggle ceased, and she stared at him in bewilderment.

But everything came back to her. The continuous rumors, the way villagers behaved toward her. This morning Temari had casually asked her to choose between two patterns of expensively silky cloths and how the seamstress had taken a measurement on her body. It was for a special occasion, Temari had told her, and she without a protest just played it along without any suspicion at all.

"They are wedding gifts, aren't they?" She asked incredulously, could not believe that she had been tricked. "I have been wondering why the elders were too kind lately."

His gaze fixed on her face. "Yeah."

She searched for his expression. He was always unreadable, but the way he parted his lips and breathed so painfully calmer than usual, he actually looked quite discomposed as waiting for her answer.

So he was nervous. Hope and joy soared inside her, with her heartfelt all warm and tender. But her feelings quickly changed into despair and regret.

"Gaara," she said softly. "I...I can't marry you."

A flicker of pain crossed his impassive face. "Give me a good reason."

She lowered her gaze. "I'm not what you think I am. I'm not a good person."