After work I stop by Temari's office again, but again she is busy and I'm turned away. This rather sucks. I ask the man in the housing building where the nearest market is, and after cleaning up a bit in my room I head out to buy groceries. Luo appears as soon as I leave my room and follows me through my shopping. I'm tempted to buy some tampons or something, to try and embarrass him, but decide against it, since there's really no need to buy them. I do walk down the aisle though, just for fun, but he doesn't react or look uncomfortable at all. It's too bad; most of the boys back home would have been squirming just thinking about it. It makes me miss them.

"You don't have to buy groceries you know." Luo tells me as I'm picking out vegetables. "All your meals will be provided for you."

"Oh I'm sure," I say, "but I like cooking for myself. And besides," I add, "I eat a lot more food than you'd care to serve me."

He snorts and I finish shopping quietly, handing him a bag to carry back to my room. Outside my room I take it back and thank him shortly then go into my room and close the door tightly behind me. I put all the food I just bought away and take a little nap. When I'm woken later by a knock on the door I feel wonderfully refreshed, and open the door with a smile on my face. Of course, it's Luo at the door, and my smile fades right away.

"What now?" I ask.

"Its supper time." he answers with a fake smile. I return his smile with a like one, and close the door again.

"Give me a second!" I yell through the door, then unhurriedly go to the bathroom and wash my face, and tie back my hair. I look at myself in the mirror, and see how much nicer I look than I did at the last dinner, despite not having a nice dress. I sigh deeply, and go back to Luo.

"Ok let's go." I say flatly and we walk to another dinner hall. This one is much smaller, and it has more tables than the last one. It more closely resembles a restaurant than the big hall we ate in that first night. I like this one much better.

"This is where you would usually eat." Luo tells me quietly, as he guides me towards a table where Watanabe and Ito are sitting with two women. "Dinner is served here every night except for big banquets and the like. Yesterday we were told to let you sleep; otherwise you could have eaten here."

I nod, and wave to the others. As soon as I sit down a man comes around and puts a glass of water and a goblet of wine on the table in front of me. I notice that everyone else already has their drinks.

"So how's work been going for you?" Watanabe asks me.

"Fine. I'm kept very busy, that's for sure." I answer.

He smiles. "Yeah, we heard about Seri Darmali. She sounds like quite the slave driver."

I shrug noncommittally. "What's Sakamoto like?"

"He's a good man." Watanabe answers. "Fair, you know."

I nod. Waiters come around again and serve everyone. The food looks plain, but much better than the cafeteria food I had for breakfast. I dig in happily, and it proves to be delicious.

Watanabe talks most all through dinner. Ito hardly says anything, and Luo and the two women who were already sitting at our table are so quiet as to be almost unnoticeable. I soon realize that the women have the exact same 'mission' as Luo, to protect the others from Konoha. I wonder if everyone who visits from another country is given such protection, or is it just us.

When dinner is over I'm relieved, and very ready to go back to my room. I get there though, and realize that there isn't much to do. I look outside and see that it's dark, and for a while I wait, considering. I go outside and stand on the balcony for a little while, looking out over the city at night. It looks different than Konoha at night. Both cities are lit up, true, but Sunakagure's lights seem much more demure, almost shy.

I shake my head at myself. How silly, to imagine that lights are shy. And in a city like this, I don't know that anything could afford to be shy. I've turned back to my room, but at this thought I turn back to the city. Its lights shine back at me innocently, noises of a city rising from it to reach my ears. It's such a normal sound, a normal sight.

"I'm sorry," I whisper, "I may have misjudged you."

I had planned on sneaking out and going for a walk or a run, but I suddenly don't want to anymore, and I sit out on the balcony until my body tells me it's time to go to sleep. Another day tomorrow, full of the same little worries and tasks.

The night is cool, a soft wind blowing through the desert. The sand feels soft and cool under my bare feet, and the wind feels pleasant on my bare stomach.

Bare stomach?

I look down at my body, and realize that I'm naked. So it's going to be one of those dreams, is it?

I look around me, waiting for someone to appear so I can be properly embarrassed. That's how it works in these dreams isn't it? I know well, I used to have embarrassing dreams like this all the time when I was a girl.

But there's no one around. I am truly alone. There's not even a mysterious voice, guiding me towards something.

So I walk. It feels nice. If I remember this in the morning, I might think to go walking barefoot in the desert a night. I wonder if it would actually feel like this.

I'm walking this way, not really paying attention to where I'm walking, looking up at the moon, when suddenly I step down and my foot sinks right down into water. I lean back quickly to keep myself from falling forward, and stumble back.

Sand sticks to my wet foot as I step to the edge of a huge lake, sitting in the middle of the desert. This is not an oasis; it's unnatural.

The edges of the lake fall straight down, who knows how deep. I try to peer down into it, but it's too dark. It's all very dark all of a sudden.

I wake up and panic, for a moment forgetting where I am. It takes a while for my heart to calm down again when I remember. I repeat facts to myself to help calm down.

My name is Haruno Sakura. I come from Konoha. I'm in Sunakagure, on a peace keeping mission for my country. Sasuke still doesn't love me, and just recently I failed my team, and we all died. I work in a hospital here, for a woman named Seri.

I look at the door. And I have a bodyguard named Luo. There's one fact I can't really forget.

I get out of bed and ready to go, taking my time this morning. I know now that there's no rush, and it's probably better not to get going too early. Seri might find me and give me more work to do.

I peek out the door to see if Luo is there. He isn't, but as soon as I reach the top of the stairs he's appeared and fallen into step next to me silently. I just find it so very strange. A little scary really, to have a bodyguard.

I knock on the door of Temari's office, since there is no secretary present today. Luo raises his eyebrows at me, and I know he doesn't think she'll be there; he thinks I'm wasting my time, so I'm very gratified to hear her voice call me in. Take that Luo!

I tell him to wait outside please, and enter Temari's office.

"Sakura? What are you doing here so early?" she asks. She looks like she's been at work for hours already.

"I figured this would be the only time I could actually get through to you." I answer, and take the seat she gestures at.

"So what brings you to my humble office?" she asks, right down to business.

"I don't want a bodyguard." I say flatly.

She makes a face and sighs loudly. "I was afraid that was it. I figured you wouldn't like being followed around, but I'm sorry, we have no choice. Lately, there's been a lot of unrest in the city, a lot of bad politics."

I frown. I wasn't aware there was such a problem in Sunakagure.

"I probably shouldn't be telling you this," she goes on, "but there are groups who don't want Gaara in power. They're afraid of him, they still think of him as the demon child."

I blink and say nothing, inviting her to go on.

She rubs her eyes tiredly. "I'm sorry Sakura, but we need to make sure you're safe. The last thing we want is for a visitor to be injured in our city, under our protection. It would be just one more excuse for them to use against Gaara." She looks up at me and smiles, "And, of course, it would be awful if anything were to happen to you, not just politically you understand. So I'm afraid you're just going to have to put up with Luo until the situation is resolved. Or until you go home, whichever happens first."

I nod, my shoulders slumping a little in defeat. It makes too much sense for me to argue with. I guess I really do have no other choice than the one I've been given. There's nothing else for me to do but try and make the best of it.

"Ok. Thank you Temari." I say and make to stand, but she holds me back.

"Why don't you stay and keep me company a little while? I could use the break from work. Better yet, let's go get breakfast; I'm starved."