After Seri's check up, after which she declared me to be fine, only not getting enough sleep (go figure) Luo and I walk back to the embassy.

"Look Luo…" I start on the way there, determined to at last make peace with him.

"Hm?"

"There's no way I'm getting rid of you while you're here, so we might as well be friends right?"

He glances at me, his eyebrow raised. "You don't like me?"

"I like you fine. We just didn't get off on a very good foot."

"Ah yes. The feet." He says, nodding knowingly. I roll my eyes at him. I don't think he could be serious if his life depended on it. And in our line of work our lives do depend on it.

"I'm trying to be nice. You should maybe stop making fun of me for at least a little while."

He makes a face. "I'm sorry. It's hard for me you know. It's second nature by now."

I glare at him a bit, but he just shrugs. "Ok, so maybe you should just be quiet for a little while."

He shrugs. "Ah. So you do like the strong silent type then?"

I sigh. This is so much harder than I wanted it to be. I stop talking and we walk in silence for a while.

"So are you attracted to me yet?" he asks after a while, and I elbow him in the gut. We walk along in silence again until we reach my room.

We stop outside the door.

"You know Sakura; you never asked me if I like you at lunch today."

"I guess I just got distracted." I say with a shrug. I turn to open my door.

"Aren't you going to ask me now?"

I turn back to him slowly. "You want me to ask you." I say slyly.

He shrugs.

I laugh quietly. "You want me to ask! You feel left out?" I smile wickedly at him. "In that case… I'm not going to ask you anymore. Goodnight Luo." I open the door and close it behind me.

I stand inside the door for a little while, thinking. Then I open the door again and peer out.

"Luo?" I call down the hall.

"What is it?" he asks, appearing almost mysteriously while my head is turned.

"You want to come in for noodles?"

"This is a dream in which the dead speak."

This is a dream I really don't want to be having. I turn my head away, screw my eyes shut, but I can't block them out. My old team. And there's Lee, and Kakashi and all the others I've lost. Everyone anyone has ever lost surrounds me now, and I can't get away.

"We don't blame you." Someone says. It's the forgiveness of the dead. It's easy to forgive when you're dead.

"But we miss you."

"I miss you."

"I loved you in life, as well as I love you in death."

"We thought you were coming."

"Why did you leave us?"

I shake my head, crouch on the ground. I try to keep them out, not to hear them, see them, but even with my eyes closed I can see them, silhouettes burning brightly against my eyelids. Even with my ears plugged I can hear them, their voices inside my head.

"Please come back to us."

"No."

I look up. I know that voice, screaming no in my brain. I know it and yet…

I stand and try to move towards it. The only one I can't see is the only one I want to see.

"She has more to do."

I open my mouth, try to call out to them, but no sounds will come. I try to push my way towards the voice, but the others all hold me back, telling me they love me. They remind me that it was easy when I was dead, that life is hard.

And I hate them because I know they're right.

I come awake all at once, suddenly reaching full awareness. And I am aware all of a sudden that something is not right.

There's someone in my room.

"I have a favor to ask." he says, and I'm sure I've heard that voice before, just recently, but it escapes me. And then I realize who it is, standing in the shadows at the end of my bed.

Gaara of the Desert is in my bedroom.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I came to ask you to do something for me." he says calmly, as though this is perfectly normal.

I sit up. "What is it?" I ask, trying to play along.

"I need you to watch the wounded nin you saved. Make friends with them if you can, or only one even."

"You want me to expose them?"

"If you can. If you could just keep them quiet somehow, that would be enough."

"Any one in particular?"

He shrugs. "It doesn't matter. I would suggest the man now in intensive care though. Asano Takeo. But really, it doesn't matter."

"Alright." I sigh quietly. Here's one more thing for me to worry about. One more responsibility, one more something to avoid screwing up.

"I know we ask a lot of you." he says, as though he's read my mind. "But it's only because we know you can handle it."

"You're the same age as me," I grumble, "so you can spare me the pep talk."

"Does it bother you?" he asks.

"No," I answer, surprised that he would even ask such a thing. "It's just weird, coming from you especially. You never seemed like the type."

He nods and then falls silent for a long time. I wonder what he's doing, or if he's left already and I missed it, but sure enough he speaks again.

"Were you dreaming?" he asks.

"Um… why do you ask?"

"You were talking in your sleep."

I blush in the darkness. Please let him not see. "Oh well, yes actually I was dreaming."

"Hn."

I wait for him to say something else, but he just stands there, scaring me, though I'm sure he doesn't mean to. I hope he doesn't mean to.

"So do you often visit ambassadors in the middle of the night like this?" I ask, unable to bear the silence anymore.

"No. Just you."

I suppress a nervous giggle at his comment. Too funny, especially if taken in the wrong context. "And why did you come here at this hour?" I ask, to cover my nervousness. "Couldn't you have asked me during daylight hours?"

He cocks his head to the side, as if I've said something very strange. "I was busy before." he says simply. How can he make this situation seem so rational, when everything about it is crazy?

"Oh ok…" I say, and, unable to think of anything else to say, I join in on his silence again.

"Thank you for doing this." he says at last. His eyes seem to glow in the darkness as he talks. "There must not be war between us." He says quietly, and then disappears, leaving me in the dark room, alone at last.

I sigh deeply, relieving even more tension then I had realized from inside of me. I lie back on my bed and stare at the roof for a while, unable to sleep. Seri told me today I needed more sleep, but how can she expect me to sleep with everything that's going on?

'War between us.' he said. For some reason there's this small part of me that has taken that comment so personally. She smiles, and tells me he likes me, but I tell her to shut up.