Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, obviously, or Sasuke would have been dragged back to Konoha by now and Lee and Gaara would be living together.

Spoilers for Shippuden

A/N : This piece of work was formerly titled "Understanding Dreams" and was going to be severely revised so that it would not have female-centric chapters for posting on y!gallery. I have recently decided screw the bastards, I'm reposting this as it was originally intended. This is slightly extended from the original chapter one, though not by much.

--

Gaara was as unused to dreams as he was to peaceful sleep. The first time he dreamed without Shukaku's influence, he found himself in waist-deep water with a strange pink tinged flower with a yellow core floating in front of him. He plucked the blossom only to have it blow away in the wind as he fell backwards into and through the water. Three hours after he had fallen asleep he woke and believed he had been attacked with a genjutsu. It took Temari, Kankuro, and three ANBU to coax him from his lookout perch atop the Kazekage mansion. Temari had spent the rest of the night explaining dreams and that it was normal during sleep. Even half a year after Shukaku's extraction, he continued to ask Temari what his dreams meant. As a result, Temari gave him a notebook to record his dreams as soon as he woke and they would discuss them whenever he had questions about them. The second time he dreamed of the pink flower, the petals fell from the blossom in his hand and wrapped around him in a cocoon. This time, Gaara woke to find himself on the floor tangled in his sheets. As he wrote down his dreams, he would sometimes mark his state of mind upon waking. Confusion, fear, serenity, comfort, and anger were the most common, using a simple "nothing" if he felt no reaction at all.

One night, Gaara found himself reliving an old memory underneath the trees.

"So you're another one, eh?" Gaara's voice whispered as Rock Lee looked at him in confusion. "You have someone in your life whom you honor and revere so much that every hurt inflicted on them is inflicted on you as well, and the closer they are to you, the greater the pain." Gaara paused in contemplation. "To feel so strongly for someone you would fight for them," Gaara's eyes raised towards the field of bones. "…and die for them. You and Naruto Uzumaki have that in common." Lee looked taken aback but said nothing. "However, what if this person you honor and would even die for is not a virtuous person?"

"Impossible!" Lee's voice rang out beside him. "Such a person…would—would be unworthy of honor or respect!"

"No. Perhaps the companionship of even an evil person…is preferable to loneliness." Gaara's eyes closed as Lee glanced skyward. "Even if this companionship exists only in your own mind, it is enough." The wind blew silently between them for several minutes.

"Gaara?" Lee moved from his tree closer to the redhead.

"…hm?" Gaara opened his eyes to find Lee in front of him.

"I only noticed today…just now, in fact. Your eyes are very much like mine were before I met Guy-sensei."

"Is that right..." Gaara droned.

"Is it…you do not have anyone to take the sadness from your eyes?" As Lee's fingers wiped away tears he was unaware of, Gaara jolted awake. He remembered the fight with the bone kekkei genkai user, but he knew that last part had been imagined. Lee had passed out not long after their talk from exhaustion and he had not been faring much better. Truthfully, he did not remember what exactly had happened after their conversation beneath the trees, too much time had passed. As he reached for his dream log, Gaara wrote a familiar emotion at the top: loneliness.

--

Temari and Kankuro followed behind Gaara as they traversed the desert.

"Why, exactly, are we going to Konoha again?" Kankuro muttered to his sister.

"Beats me. He just woke me up and said we were going to the Leaf Village. Do you actually think I was going to argue with him?" Temari shrugged.

"I was feeling lonely." Temari and Kankuro jumped at the sudden sound of Gaara's voice.

"Well if that's the case, why not just go for a walk around the village? Dozens of girls'd be glad to keep you company," Kankuro smirked as he pulled into step with his brother.

"They are not my friends. They did not want to be my friends until recently. In Konoha…we still owe them a lot. They have accepted us, despite what happened so long ago between our villages. They are…friends." Gaara nodded at his bewildered brother in a way he never would have thought possible more than three years before.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. They're not just allies anymore, they're also our pals. That's why you brought us along, right? We've got friends there too." Kankuro grinned.

"Yes, I know you do." Gaara stared out in front of them at the shifting dunes.

"Seriously, Gaara, what spurred on this sudden need of a vacation?" Kankuro rubbed his neck. This wasn't the old Gaara who would bite his head off without a thought and he didn't even have that monster inside him anymore. "You can tell us."

"Kankuro…I had a dream about the time we went to help them retrieve Sasuke Uchiha. I do not remember what happened after my fight, but I remember you helping me to the Leaf's hospital." Gaara paused. "I felt lonely and upset when I woke, but I do not understand why."

"Well, I'm not surprised you can't remember. You and Bushy-Brow were completely spent. I saw those huge fucking bones coming out of the field and I was surprised you two were even alive. When I found you guys you were almost unconscious and he was already out like a light."

"Did you bring your log book with you, Gaara?" Temari caught up to her brothers as they traveled in a straight line together. "They've got a good library in Konoha, so maybe we can translate your dreams easier."

"I have it."

"Is there anything about your dreams you want to discuss while we're on our way?" Temari asked.

"Except for this last one, I've been dreaming of a flower." Gaara turned his eyes slightly in her direction. "It was the same one, present in every other dream but that one."

"What kind of flower was it?"

"I am not certain. I would recognize it if I saw it."

"Gaara? Dreaming about flowers?" Kankuro frowned. "There's something really unsettling about that."

"What do you dream of?" Gaara turned his head towards his other sibling.

"Me?" Kankuro flushed under his face paint. "Er…animals, mostly. Hell, they're still manlier than flowers anyway."

"I could tell you what I dream about," Temari grinned darkly. "But I don't think you boys and your virgin ears could handle it."

"By all means, keep it to yourself," Kankuro snickered.

"Gaara, did you have this dream last night?" Temari frowned as she thought things over. "Did you at least tell the Hokage we were coming?" She raised an eyebrow at her youngest brother.

"She will find out as soon as we get there."

"Oh, she's gonna be real happy to see us." Kankuro rolled his eyes.

"A hawk is on its way and will arrive shortly before we do," Gaara explained. "This leaves her no room to argue or refuse us."

"You think it was okay to leave the old man in charge?" Kankuro glanced back towards the village.

"Baki is loyal and the most trustworthy jounin in Suna. He also knows what I could do to him even without the One-Tail." Gaara pulled forward and ran ahead of them.

"And what we could do to him." Temari smirked as she picked up the new pace.

"Heh. Good point." Kankuro bared his teeth as he sped up.

Gaara delved into his own thoughts again and frowned, unable to explain to them how exactly he felt. Yes, he had woken up feeling lonely, but also had a sense of disappointment he was unfamiliar with. He could only hope his trip to Konoha would yield the answers he sought.

--

Gaara watched his siblings as they slept in their makeshift sandstorm shelter. They were mere hours from Konoha, but the elder two decided they needed to "refresh" themselves before their arrival Gaara didn't quite understand what they meant, but he had never bothered to understand the rituals of his family before. He had watched as Temari painted her nails, something she would never do at home, something that was never mentioned at home.

--

"Kankuro," Gaara had pulled his brother aside while Temari was busy. "Why does she do that? What is the purpose?"

"It's a girl thing. She's doing it to look 'pretty' for her pet deer, not that he'll ever notice such an insignificant thing." Kankuro smirked. "She should work on that attitude instead."

"I heard that, Kankuro." Temari had growled in response.

"Do all females do such things, then?" Gaara had turned his questions to Temari.

"Well, some do, some don't. I used to think it was stupid too, but…you do strange things…when you're in love." An uncharacteristic flush crossed Temari's face. "Those girls that follow you…they do everything they can to get your attention. They dress how they think you'd like, paint their pretty faces up, douse themselves with imported perfumes. It's stupid, but we do it anyway." Temari had a glint in her eye as she lowered her voice. "Don't let your brother fool you; he wants to look his best just as much as I do."

"Why would those things attract anyone..?" Gaara frowned in confusion.

"Gaara, don't worry about it so much," Temari gave her brother a gentle hug. "Those idiot women have no idea that you hate perfume or that you could care less how much makeup they have on. They'll persist, and they might still try even if you were to pick a mate. It's a part of dealing with humanity. Nobody ever said it was easy."

"Or you could just take a few of them in a back alley…" Kankuro grinned lecherously.

"Not everyone is as perverted as you," Temari glared at him. "If Gaara isn't interested, encouraging them in any way—sexual or not—will only make it worse."

"Hey, I never said I'd do a thing like that, just throwing it out there." Kankuro shrugged.

--

For the first time since he started sleeping and dreaming, Gaara chose to remain awake of his own volition. No dreams were going to bother him until he could figure out why they were bothering him. He dug through Temari's bottles of polish until he came across a sparkling green one and closed his fingers around it.

"How foolish…" One by one, his nails became the color of summer leaves. Gaara's lips twisted into an amused smirk. "This color…does not suit me…at all…"

but I like it.