A/N: Well whoopie, I manged to update before Cuba (:
Sorry the chapter's kind of short, and I won't be able to update untill the New Year, gomen.
Thanks a million to my reviewers,
Enjoy chapter twenty-one :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, if I did Sasuke's hair wouldn't look like a black chicken ass.

The sight of the village was almost too much to bear. Layuki had hoped to be able to walk around without anyone noticing her, invisible, and she succeeded. Everyone was apparently too busy fixing up something or gathering his or her own things to notice her. She stopped when she reached her apartment, or the remains of it at least.

The building in which she had resided on her own for the past year had been burned to the ground. Layuki didn't mind that particularly much, she didn't even worry about the money she needed to pay for another rent. Though something in her room was incredibly valuable to her.

When she ran into the debris, no one stopped her. People just looked up and smiled sadly, then they continued their own work. When she reached the place around where her things should be, she got on her knees. She winced slightly at the pain to her injuries, and began to dig, getting soot all over herself. Finally she spotted it, the glint of the silver frame that held the picture of her squad.

At first Layuki didn't know whether to laugh or to cry or do something in between. The picture itself was fine, except for the bottom left corner in which Karin's picture had burned away. She gave a sad, sad smile. Her friend really had left this world for good. Then she realised the pitying looks people were getting from her. Who wouldn't give a pitying look to a young girl who was looking at a picture and realising her teammate was deceased? After a couple seconds those looks were too much to handle, she pocketed the picture and ran into the forest with no intention of stopping.

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Layuki ran with her eyes closed, not caring if she crashed into a tree or not, but running was second nature to her, she didn't even need to think about it. When she finally thought she was isolated from the world enough to stop, she tripped over a tree root; making herself fall face first into some mud by a small pond.

She brought her hand off to wipe all the grime off of her face. Then she realised that her face was wet wish something else too: tears. She slammed her fist down into the mud and swore loudly with all the words she knew.

"Damn it all," Her voice was beginning to crack and she feared that she was going to break into sobs. "Kami! Why the bloody hell are you doing this to me? What the fuck have I done to deserve all this misery?" She began yelling to the sky, hitting her fists in the ground over and over again like a misbehaving child. "Why is it always me who gets this shit thrown at them? Haven't I suffered enough this lifetime? Damn these tears, why won't they go away. I don't want to cry!"

Before she got these words out of her mouth, tears started streaming down her cheeks. She didn't want to cry, a year ago she had promised herself she would never cry again and this was the first time she had ever broken a promise. With effort she stood up and began to walk shakily further away from the village. She didn't want anyone to see her like this, all vulnerable. Before she got more than a few steps she collapsed again, this time on drier ground at least. She lay on her side and rolled herself into a ball, attempting to hide herself from the world that seemed to hate her so much.

She didn't know how long it had been, but soon after she collapsed she heard a rustling of bushes and saw two feet step in front of her. Layuki's face was still wet and she refused to let anyone see. When she heard the person sit down next to her she risked taking a peek.

Gaara was sitting cross-legged and staring at her with an expressionless face. To her, he looked as much like a God sitting in front of the trees as he did the day she saw him on sitting on the rooftop just a few weeks ago. To add to her misery, Layuki felt her cheeks heat up and she hid her face once again, with questions racing through her mind. Wasn't everyone from the sand supposed to be gone by now? If someone from her village saw him here surely he would be attacked, right?

"You should be resting to heal your wounds." Great, so now she couldn't pretend to be unconscious. She didn't want to answer him, but she couldn't help it. She kept her face hidden nonetheless.

"I couldn't care less about the state I'm in right now. I'm starting to wish I died like all those other people. You bastard, you shouldn't saved me, you should have left me there to die." She knew her words were harsh, and at any other time she wouldn't have spoken them. But now she didn't care anymore.

"I can kill you now, if you wish."

This made Layuki shut up. She never knew how to talk to Gaara. "No, I'm sorry. I don't want to die." Then she wiped her face and glared at him with as much hate as she could muster: not much. "Why are you here?"

"I was just leaving. I could ask you though, you're no longer in your village." Layuki gaped. Now that she mentioned it, it was possible that she ran out of the gates without noticing. But when she thought of her village, she began sobbing again and trying to hide her face once more. "Should I ask why you are crying?"

She supposed she should hate him, for being part of the attack, but she couldn't find the will in her heart to. Instead, she let out a quiet laugh. "I should be blaming you, shouldn't I? I should try to be killing you right now, yelling 'it's all your fault' but I hate myself too much. Everything was my fault. All my fault!" She thought it would feel better when she started talking about it, but it was driving her crazy, and yet she couldn't stop speaking. "I knew what was going to happen. But I was stupid and arrogant and desperate to prove my point. I was such a fool, such a stupid bloody fool!

"Something of this scale, even Naruto-kun would have been smart enough to tell some people about it. I didn't even tell the other genin, I just kept it to myself telling myself everything would be all right. But nothing is right. The whole village is screwed and it's all my fault." All my fault, all my fault, all my fault! Her mind was replaying those three words were playing in her head over and over again. "Damn it! I change my mind. Gaara please, please kill me!"

She had grabbed on to his collar and his sand had begun swirling around to protect him at any given moment. She was losing her head. All this guilt and sadness was beginning to make her go insane. He looked down at her, his aquamarine eyes still expressionless.

"You're standing on the fine line between bravery and idiocy. Your village can't afford to lose another ninja." He began prying her hands away from his shirt, never breaking eye contact.

"The fine line between protectiveness and selfishness, between prodological and egotistic, between genius and luck, and now bravery and idiocy! I'm standing on more fine lines than is mentally healthy for a person. I can't afford to lose my sanity!" Her eyes were begging. "Kaoru-kun lost his sister, countless citizens lost family members, and my whole village lost its leader. Do you think I'm mentally capable of walking around and looking into people's eyes just to see sadness for years to come? The guilt will devour me; I'm beginning to lose my mind just thinking about it!" Then she heard voices calling Gaara's name. She began feeling thankful that she didn't have enough chakra for anybody to sense.

"I have to leave now." He pushed her off of him and stood up, but she grabbed onto his shirt, tugging like a small child.

"No, don't leave. I don't want to be alone, not again." Layuki felt light-headed, as if the mind inside it had already left. She knew before long the tears would come back, and she couldn't go back to the village while she was teary. "To think, in less than twenty-four hours I've gone from masterminded to mentalminded. I might as well say something before I really lose it." Then she looked up at him again with eyes full of sadness and misery. "I think…" She went silent, trying to understand the unexpected urge to tell the truth. She looked up to him one more, this time with confused eyes. "I think…I love you."

Gaara was speechless, but he didn't show his surprise; he was very good at hiding his emotions. But he let out a small smile that Layuki didn't notice because she was still staring into the distance with unfocused eyes. He once again pried his fingers away, his hands lingering longer than was necessary on her cold skin. Then he walked away without looking back and she didn't protest.

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After Gaara was out of hearing distance from Layuki, he stopped. "You can come down now, I won't kill you."

The figure in the tree froze up for a second, and after a moment's hesitation it jumped down, obviously trying to keep its distance away from Gaara. "Sorry, I couldn't be sure. You tried to kill me once before."

Gaara looked over at the boy with a bored expression, but he was beginning to get irritated. "What do you want?"

Inuzuka Kiba grinned, showing all his white fanged teeth, even though Akamaru was whimpering in his coat. "I just had to make sure that she wouldn't die."

A/N: Ohh, what's Kiba doing there? Is it ROMANTIC INTERFERENCE? Yes, I believe it is, I have to have it in this fic somewhere ;)
Oh, and, LOPE,a wonderful reviewer, takes credit for the 'masterminded to mentalminded' part. :D
Thanks for reading! People who review get cookies (:
(btw, how did I do on the breakdown? I didn't like it too much..)
fanny-kun