I wake up at a loud knock on the door. I wonder what time is it, and shame on me for actually falling asleep. I had only meant to rest a little before it was time to leave again.

And now I don't feel rested at all. In fact, I feel very tired, and sore on top of that.

I drag myself out of bed and to the door. Not that I have to unlock for whoever it is to come in. I guess it's a sort of trust thing they have going here, not to have any locks on the doors. Maybe it's supposed to make us feel safer.

It's an interesting thought anyway.

I'll admit to swearing when I see the man standing outside my door in a suit.

"I'm here to escort you to the banquet." he tells me, and all that swearing I had at first kept inside comes out my foul mouth. I'm so not ready, and I tell him so. He looks worried, but I assure him I can get ready in a very short time.

I let him in and then run back into the bedroom. Once in there I start to laugh at myself. Sure, I can get ready to go make an appearance at a banquet within a few minutes, but can I make a good impression with that appearance?

Probably not.

I wash my face in record time, and use a cloth to wipe the sweat off as much as my body as possible. I'm used to saving water by this time, so I've gotten quite good at taking a bath with a cloth.

I inspect my face in the mirror. I look rather awful. There are dark bags starting to form under my eyes and the right side of my face is still a little wrinkled from sleeping on it. Oh well. There's no time to do anything about that.

I throw open the doors of the closet. Luckily for me Temari has supplied me with some nicer clothing than what I have with me. I pick a dress out at random and put it on. The chest is a bit big, but it'll have to do.

I pull my hair back with one hand and look into the mirror again as I pass by it. I stop for a second, and then shake my head, letting my hair fall down again.

My escort looks surprised when I come back out. "That really was fast." he says. I roll my eyes and follow him out the door.

The party is on the second floor, just under our rooms. It's rather convenient. In fact, if I had known it was so close I might have spent more time making myself look presentable. As it is, not many people seem to notice our entrance, which is fine by me, as I look like I just rolled out of bed. It makes sense, considering it's the truth.

Temari somehow manages to find me right away, and my escort melts away into the crowd. I don't blame him for not wanting to be seen with me; everyone else in the room looks their best, if not stunning. Temari certainly looks stunning tonight.

"I see you've met Luo," she says as she walks up and grabs my elbow, guiding me into the fray, as it were. "Yummy, isn't he?"

I shrug. I hadn't really noticed. And with a name like Luo, I don't think I really want to notice him much more. Temari shakes her head at me and soon I find myself sitting at a table, between Watanabe and herself. Ito is sitting on the other side of Watanabe, and they're talking together as we sit. Watanabe looks up and smiles as I sit, and I manage a smile in return, although my head suddenly feels like it's going to split in half. Of all the times to get a migraine.

I use a little chakra to subdue the pain in my head and look up to see who else is here. Everyone has started to take their seats now. Of course, most of the faces are unfamiliar, but I recognize Kankuro nearby, and some faces I'm sure I've seen before.

And then of course, there's the Kazekage. Gaara. Even in my head, I'm not really sure what I should call him. And I think it's funny, how someone so short can still be so… impressive. He has a presence, that one, and it's not just leftover from the fear I used to have of him when we were younger.

Of course, there is still fear there too, but I'm sure not everyone in the room is afraid of him. At the moment I notice him, he's deep in conversation with a woman dressed in a slinky black dress. I look down at myself and grimace. How am I supposed to make a good first impression in an ill fitting dress and no makeup, hair accessories, or any such thing? I realize how badly prepared I am for this, and feel a gloom descending over my head.

I look up again when Temari nudges me. Everyone is seated and facing the same direction. I turn to follow their gazes, and am led to Gaara. He's standing now, facing the room. This should be good.

But as soon as he starts speaking my headache returns with a vengeance. My limbs, which until now had been sore and tired, start to feel like lead, and I have trouble keeping my eyes open. I hope no one is watching me, seeing the ninja from Konoha falling asleep during the Kazekage's speech. How shameful.

Gaara's speech doesn't last long at all, but then, I wouldn't have expected him to ever make long speeches. Just the fact that he made a speech at all is a little odd.

And while these thoughts are all very fascinating, I still have a hard time staying awake. I just want to go back to bed, but I force myself to stay awake, to at least try to pay attention.

Once the speech is over, everyone claps, and I obediently clap along with them, and then the food is served. I hardly manage to take two bites of it though, before my plate is taken away and the next course is served.

Temari looks over at me during the meal and asks what's wrong.

"Nothing," I tell her, "I'm just a little tired from the trip still. I'll be fine."

"Ok," she replies, "Just promise me you won't pass out in the dessert, or after the meal, or at any point while you're here please. If you really need to, you can go to bed; no one here will be very insulted."

I would roll my eyes if it wasn't too tiring. Not very insulted, she says, as if that's going to make me feel better. But what can I do? I try to sit up straighter and bear it with a smile.

If I thought that the meal was hard to get through, after the meal is even worse. It seems everyone in the room has something to say, and everyone stands up to make their speech. I know it's to be expected at these types of gatherings, and no doubt I'll have to sit through many more such scenes before I go home again, but tonight I find it especially difficult. I just wish it was over already.

And then it is over, but the night isn't over yet. Everyone moves into a big hall where there are drinks being served and everyone is talking around me. My head feels like a drum, and every word anyone speaks is one hit from a drumstick.

Is that too much metaphor?

I shake my head at myself, but I can't shake away my headache. I find myself being dragged around by Temari, being introduced to people whose names I will never remember. I try to be polite and make some sort of conversation, but I'm afraid that I've failed my country in that respect. This is so bad; hopefully the others are making a better impression.

When Temari is distracted for a moment, talking to a very interesting man (as she seems to think anyway) I manage to sneak away and find a little unnoticed balcony just off the hall. There are several of them, but as I look down the way I see that all the others are already occupied, most of them by couples. I found the only empty one.

Or so I thought.

"Am I that bad a speaker?" I hear a voice ask from behind me once I've sat down. I spin around quickly, stupidly expecting a fight, and to my horror Gaara is there, leaning against the wall regarding my coolly. "Although I should give you credit for at least clapping along with everyone else."

Of course, at this moment my mind decides to go blank. Well, not blank exactly, but it certainly isn't providing me with anything that would be useful to me at this time. I try to find words that won't insult him, but everything I can think of still doesn't sound great.

After a few moments of my awkward silence he speaks again, "I thought it was nice and short – I thought that's what people like, or the normal people anyway."

"Your speech was good." I say stupidly. I turn away quickly and mentally kick myself. Now he'll just think I'm a suck up. "It wasn't your speech putting me to sleep I mean." Agh, as if that sounds much better!

"Then what do you propose was putting you to sleep?" he asks, somehow still sounding uninterested, "Enemy ninja arts perhaps?"

I shake my head. I'm sure I'm quite safe here. Well, maybe not here, at this very moment, but in general, I'd like to think that political visitors to Sunakagure are safe enough. "I'm just tired from the journey. I haven't gotten much sleep in the past week."

He frowns, and I realize how weak that makes me sound. And how insensitive.

"If that's the case," he says, "Maybe you'd rather go back to your room for the night. After all, Seri will be expecting you to work hard tomorrow."

I sigh deeply and hunch my shoulders over tiredly. "I know." I moan, "She's already got a class ready for me to teach."

He's silent behind me. After a moment I turn around, thinking he might be gone, but he's still standing there, his face twisted into what I think might be a smile. Just a little one.

"That certainly sounds like Seri." he says. I turn back to stare at my knees. "Maybe you'd rather I leave." he says.

"Not at all," I say, turning back to him. I turn my whole body around this time, realizing that he might be offended by my not turning to face him properly before. "I'm actually starting to feel better." I lie.

He stares at me, clearly not believing me. But then he shrugs, and he doesn't leave me in any case.

We stay that way for a while, in a silence that I find nearly unbearable. Of course, whether it's because of the awkwardness of the situation, or my terrible headache is hard to tell, though I'm thinking it's a mix of the two.

"So… How's being Kazekage?" I ask after a while. I don't know what else to ask him. 'How are your murderous tendencies? Got that cleared up yet?' or why not, 'So just the other day I was thinking of that time you nearly killed me…'

Oh god, this is awkward.

"Its busy." he answers shortly. "It's hard to find moments to myself."

"And here I am, ruining one of those moments." I say, standing. "I should probably go."

He says nothing to stop me. I'm not surprised I guess; I know I should never have expected him to stop me. I'm surprised he even talked to me in the first place, and relieved to be leaving his company.

Once I get back into the party though, I nearly fall over with the sudden heat and noise from the people. A woman walks by and offers me a glass of champagne from a tray, and I take it gratefully. The liquid is nice and cool as it fizzes down my throat. I lean against the wall for support for a moment, and try to collect myself.

My eyes are closed and I'm leaning my head back against the wall when Watanabe finds me.

"Are you alright Sakura?" he asks, and I crack an eye open to look at him. He looks worried, so I push myself upright and attempt to show him I'm ok.

"I'll fine. It's just a little too hot in here for me."

He pulls at his collar. "I know how you feel. I'm sweating in this fancy suit. I didn't realize this was going to be part of the job, or I might have stayed home." He says and laughs.

I realize that what he's saying isn't very diplomatic, and anyone who heard him may possibly have been offended, but I just laugh weakly with him. I'm too tired to be a shrew.

"Are you sure you're ok?" he asks again, "You don't look fine to me."

I find myself swaying a little, and he puts out a hand to steady me. I push him away weakly. I feel awful, even a little nauseous now. I'm afraid what little I did manage to eat will come up on someone's beautiful gown or suit.

Then, without warning, Luo appears. "I'll bring her back to her room." he tells Watanabe, and takes my arm in his and leads me away despite my protestations. I quickly say goodnight to Watanabe when I realize I have no say in the matter and stagger out beside Luo.

When we reach the stairs I pull away. "Who do you think you are?" I ask angrily. "You can't treat me this way."

"You can hardly stand – right now I can treat you however I want. You're just lucky that I'm a gentleman, and I've been told to take care of you."

"What?" I ask, only vaguely understanding what he's talking about. My vision is starting to get fuzzy around the corners, and I know that's not good. My legs feel about ready to collapse at any moment. Not good.

He walks up to me and starts actually pulling me toward the stairs. I start to kick and fight back, not properly of course, but the way a child fights when they're throwing a tantrum. "Let me go!" I yell and beat him with my fist. He just keeps going, as though unaware of my struggle.

He stops at the bottom of the stairs though, and we both stare up them. I suppose I'm looking at them with more dread than he is, since I doubt I could make it up the stairs right now. It's while contemplating this that my legs decide they're too tired to hold out any longer and I fall to the ground. This is so embarrassing; it's not fair at all.

Luo looks down at me and smirks. I only glare at him through bleary eyes, and then he picks me up and carries me up the stairs to my room.

It might be almost romantic if I didn't hate him at the moment. What was Temari thinking, calling him yummy? And what was he talking about before, about taking care of me?

He somehow manages to open the door while holding me, and drops me on my bed. Before leaving he bows to me and before he even reaches the door I've fallen asleep.