Disclaimer: No...really...don't think about it.

Chapter 24: Daydreaming Morning

It had been three full days since the start of their mission. During that time Gaara had gotten more comfortable around Sakura. When he was alone with her, he would smile and talk almost as much as any other child his age. When he was with his siblings and thus her teammates, he smiled and talked some, but not a lot.

The problem of his shyness only reappeared when other children, or adults for that matter, came. When others appeared, Gaara would try to hide behind Sakura and the 'other people' who had frightened him would leave as quickly as possible; not wanting to be in the same vicinity as Gaara.

Sakura always did her best to cheer him up when this happened, but sadly it happened too often. On their second day 'babysitting', after about the twentieth person that day had skedaddled at the sight of Gaara, Sakura had tried to make him forget them. When she did that, however, Gaara had said sadly, "They always do that…Everyone hates me."

When Sakura had heard that, she had enveloped him in a hug, saying, "I don't hate you." She had then released him, but made him look into her eyes as she said gently, "If I don't hate you, and my teammates don't hate you and your siblings don't hate you," She didn't add that his uncle didn't hate him, because she knew otherwise, "then how can you say that everyone hates you? You're just different…but being different doesn't make you a monster, and it doesn't give others the right to be mean to you."

Gaara looked at her, then looked around to make sure that no one was nearby. Temari wasn't there because she was at dance lessons (which she had complained about very loudly), and Kankuro was making Kakashi watch his puppet show near by, under a tree that was out of hearing distance but within sight of where Sakura and Gaara were.

Once he was sure no one would overhear him, he whispered to Sakura, "I am too a monster…everyone says so and…I am a monster!" It sounded to Sakura as if he was about to cry, but she knew not to interrupt, he needed to get these sad feelings off his chest. He continued, "Everyone runs away from me…or they scream…or they throw things at me. Everyone's afraid of me…I think even I'm afraid of me."

He sounded so hurt that Sakura sat down on the ground and pulled him onto her lap. Just as she calmed Sasuke after a nightmare, she soothed Gaara's sadness. As she held him she whispered, "You are not a monster…and what did I say about that 'everyone' thing?" She had said it so gently though, that it didn't sound as if she was angry, or even really reprimanding him. "As to what those people say and do to you…you're not alone."

Gaara looked up at her confused, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I know what you're going through…at least somewhat. When I was young, many of the same things happened to me." Gaara's eyes opened wide, but Sakura continued without noticing, "People hated me…they said I was a freak, what with my hair color and my big forehead…oh, and because of my shyness."

Gaara interrupted, "You're not shy." Sakura had looked down at him and gave a small, feeble smile.

"I'm not shy now…but I was terrified of people when I was young. You know what it's like to have everyone being mean to you and not understanding why they're being mean to you. You start to withdraw within yourself, away from all the cruelty of the world…because it's the only thing you can think of to protect yourself from the pain." She then looked into his eyes and asked, "Am I right?"

Gaara had nodded his head yes, then asked, "Then how did you escape yourself?" The way he was looking at her, Sakura had known he was hoping she could tell him how to come out of the shell he had created without getting hurt.

"It wasn't easy." She had begun, "I probably never would have 'escaped myself', as you phrased it, if it hadn't been for the one person who forced herself through the walls I'd built around myself. She broke through my defenses, but she didn't hurt me. Instead she offered me something I desperately wanted, but that I could only have…if I came out."

Gaara asked in a small voice as he turned to watch her face, "What did she offer you?" When he had asked her that, she couldn't help but feel like a story teller who had finally captured her audience's attention.

She decided that this was the part of the story where she had best bring Gaara into it, so she asked, "You tell me. What is the one thing you want with all your hear that you can't get unless you venture out of yourself?"

Gaara looked like he was thinking hard, but finally he said, "I give up…it's too hard."

Sakura smiled at him as she gave the answer to her riddle, "Acceptance. You can't be accepted by the outside world if you don't leave your own world first. At least, that's the way I see it."

Gaara's small voice had then asked excitedly, "So she offered you acceptance? What's acceptance?"

"It means that others, I don't know…take you in and see you for yourself, I guess. What she offered me wasn't just acceptance though…what she offered me was much more valuable. She offered me friendship, but in order to get it I would have to lower my defenses, and let others in…because you can't be friends with someone if there's a wall between you."

She had then gone on to explain how her friendship had changed her. She had just been about to tell him about the ribbon when she heard Kakashi say that it was time to go back because the peace talks would soon be over for the day.

Sakura woke up on the fourth day with a start. She looked around the room, her heart beating fast. There was nothing out of place, her door was still locked and her windows were tightly closed. Her medical books were where she had left them as was everything else…so why did she feel so uneasy?

"It must have been the dream." Sakura whispered to herself, urging her heart to slow down. Once she had her heart under control she asked herself quietly, "What is it with these dreams? They make me so paranoid…but in the end they're just dreams! So why do they bother me so much?"

Sakura sighed, shook her head, then slipped out of bed. She looked at the mark on her arm and found that another mark had faded. She gave a small smile, then bandaged it, making sure that no part of the mark showed, because here in the desert it was too hot to wear long sleeves, so her bandage always showed.

Sakura got ready for the day, then settled down to read, she still had a half hour before the sun rose. But as had been happening lately, her thoughts wandered. When she noticed that she had read the same paragraph five times, she sighed and closed her book.

Her thoughts flooded her mind, now that she wasn't trying to concentrate on something else. The first thought in her head was about their mission. So far nothing had happened, and maybe nothing would…but Sakura had a bad feeling in her gut, and it was telling her that their luck was about to run out.

She moved from that thought to the next: Gaara. She was glad that he was now talking to her, but she was worried. The more open he was around her, the more she noticed his sand moving. It was almost as if the more he liked her, the more his sand became protective of her.

Her mind jumped to yet another subject, this time a memory. The first day she had been there, after the children had gone to dinner with their father, Kakashi had asked her a very blunt question, "You know something…what is it?" If it had only been Kakashi, she may have lied, but Itachi was watching her intently as well, waiting for her to answer. She wasn't sure what to say. She knew Kakashi was asking about why the people had been so afraid of Gaara, but…

For some reason, when Itachi watched her, she got nervous, and when she got nervous, she lost her ability to lie convincingly. She knew that with him watching her every move, she would be unable to lie, but she also knew that she couldn't tell them about Gaara's demon…it wasn't her secret to tell. Beyond that, she had a clue as to how they'd react if they found out that she was 'babysitting' someone who could kill her in a heartbeat.

She had finally decided to say, "Yes…I do know something…but I can't really tell you what it is…just that the people of Suna hate Gaara for something that's not his fault." She looked down at her feet, she could feel both boys' eyes on her. She had seen before she had looked down that Kakashi's gaze was angry while Itachi's gaze was…if she didn't know any better, she'd say it was amused.

Kakashi had glared at her and said "Fine…You've effectively worked your way out of that question, so how about this: Why did you want to guard Gaara before you'd even read the information on him?"

Sakura looked back up and said the only thing she could say, "Because of what I know that I can not tell you."

Kakashi was apparently fed up with her evasive answers, because he stomped off to his room and slammed the door without saying anything else. She watched him go, happy that in the months she had known him she had found that he hated being at a stand still; whether that be when he was on a mission, or when he was trying to get answers from someone. He didn't like it when things were going nowhere…and this conversation had definitely lead him nowhere.

She had been startled out of her thoughts when Itachi said, "You did that remarkably well…" she had been confused by that, but she was even more confused by what he said next, "That was a good choice for getting rid of Kouta…but you won't be able to get rid of me…especially not like that."

Sakura had of course asked, "What do you mean?"

Itachi's answer was to smirk and say casually, "I mean exactly what I've said."

She had been going to ask him again, but just then Noya came up the stairs, so Sakura had to leave things in the confusing state that they were in. And now that she was thinking about it…what had he meant? She was majorly confused!

Her mind skipped to thinking about all the things that had been confusing her lately. Mainly things to do with Itachi. She had caught him watching her many times in the past week, but he never seemed perturbed at being caught. If anything, he seemed to like it when their eyes met after she'd caught him staring.

That made her wonder why he was always watching her. She couldn't understand it, there was nothing interesting about her to watch, so why…? Why did he watch her, and why did it bother her so much? Why did she feel the need to blush when she was around him? There was nothing to blush about.

Gaara wasn't the only one who seemed to be getting more protective of her, Itachi was too…but why? Then a very sad thought hit her: What if he was starting to think she was weak? Was her time here going to be a repeat of her time on her team with Sasuke and Naruto? Was she going to be pushed to the side and protected all over again?

She didn't want to be protected. She didn't want to be weak. She wanted to be strong and worthy of respect, like Tsunade. She wanted-

A knock came at her door and she heard Noya say, "Kumiko! Hurry up, we're going to go eat breakfast."

Sakura gasped, "Just a moment!" She had daydreamed her morning away. When she stepped out of her room, she saw all three boys waiting for her. "Sorry, I lost track of time."

Kakashi scoffed, "She probably didn't wake up 'til just now." Sakura twitched…then she saw he was holding his orange book…she twitched again.

"Oh really…?" Sakura said dangerously as she took a few steps closer to Kakashi, who gulped, "Tell me Kouta…what have I said about that book?" He hesitated, and that was all the time it took for her to hit him over the head.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Itachi smirk at Kakashi's misfortune. She had begun to think that maybe she had been wrong about him watching her more than normal; but then he turned his gaze back to her, and his smirk turned into his smirk/smile. She fought yet another blush and looked at her feet.

Nope…she was right, he was watching her…and now she had something else to add to the 'odd' list, something she had just noticed: his smirk/smile seemed to be reserved for her, and her alone…but why?

I wrote this while I wasn't feeling good too (I wrote it the same day as I put up chapter 24, but I didn't have time to post it) You people must really like Gaara...almost everyone said somthing about him.

People asked about Kakashi's book, and how he got it...well, I think I'm going to bring that up in a later chapter...

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome. Flames I will sic my fat chiwawa on...deal with it. Here's the pretty list.

Thanks to: iccegoddess52, Dreamergirl92813, meisi, Sabaku no Hime, shadow miko. Chibi Kabuto, Challa, Leana Mee, SilverMononoke, LiTtLe PrInCeSs SaRaH, pinky101, Friesenator, xo Misunderstood kunoichi ox, bubleyum, Tsubasa-Angel, Devil-Speaker, SpeedDemon315, sakura-angel113 (I may bring up the Kakashi thing in a later chapter), Mistress Persephone, KunoichiruleAll, XxpinkCherryBlossoms4, dark Alley, Starlight - Wild Koneko, , Red Shagging Couch, CosenAngel, Flower of the Desert, Jester08, Gothic Saku-chan, Shadow Ninja, The Squabbit, xnarutoxrocksx, NARUTARDMJR14, fionfee, Sakimi1014, Inufolyf, Crazy Neko Girl, Blood Blossom, PhAnToM SpEaKeR, inn0centdr3ameR, Kakurine IL, Von von, oOfunkyrainbowOo, Nicolah2009, Ur-Bloody-Valentine, acechi-anghel, demon-lulu, & DeidaraAddiction for reviewing!