Kankurou, Akina, and Temari were in Gaara's room, trying to help comfort him from another nightmare. It had been 3 days since Gaara had gotten ill and he hadn't gotten any better. Akina brought some medicine along with her, hoping that it would help speed his recovery.

Temari sat on the edge of the bed, laying her upset brother back down. Gaara's face glistened with sweat and his hair was drenched with it. Tears slowly trickled down his cheeks as he looked up at the people who cared about him.

"I…. can't be….. the Kazekage," Gaara told them softly. Everyone but Akina looked at him in shock.

"Why the hell not?!" Temari gasped.

"I can't protect the village anymore." Kankurou narrowed his eyes at his brother.

"Don't say that," Kankurou told him, his voice low.

"Just look at me. I'm a pathetic excuse for a Kazekage."

"You're right!" Akina agreed, looking at him with a blank face. The three of them looked at her in complete surprise.

"Shut up!" Kankurou snapped. "You're not helping!"

"And neither is he," Akina pointed out. She looked at Gaara with her intense green eyes. "The reason you are so weak is exactly what you have been doing ever since the kidnapping. You keep surrounding yourself with darkness and negative thoughts. All you have been doing is bringing yourself down. I think you are a great Kazekage Gaara. I wish you could think it too." Gaara looked at her with blank eyes before closing them.

"I'm sorry," he apologized softly.

"Don't apologize to me. Change and free yourself from this dark prison. I will always be here to talk, and you know that. I have always cared about you, ever since the first day we met. I still care about you and I don't want to see you doing this to yourself." Gaara sighed and nodded.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Another 3 days went by and Gaara had recovered from his illness, mostly anyways. Akina and Gaara were sitting in his room, staring blankly at the floor.

"Talk to me Gaara," Akina told her friend, her voice soft. Gaara looked at her with sad eyes and sighed.

"Where should I start?" he asked.

"Why don't you think you should be Kazekage anymore? It's not like you haven't done anything to deserve it."

"The main reason I became Kazekage was because of Shuukaku. Without that, I'm not as strong as I was before." Akina tilted her head to the side.

"Maybe not physically, but you are mentally. Either way, you are still very strong. I don't see how you can say that you're not."

"In my nightmares, I would fail to protect the village," he told her. "Everyone would shun me, and you said that you hated me."

"Really?" she asked, kind of surprised. Gaara nodded.

"You killed me in several of them." Akina looked at him in shock. "Would you ever do that to me, even if I couldn't protect village." Akina frowned and shook her head. She took his hand in hers and gave it a small squeeze.

"Do you remember what happened on my birthday two years ago?" she asked. Gaara thought for a moment before nodding.

"We….. kissed," he answered, looking away from her when he said it.

"Ever since then, my feelings for you have grown stronger. I love you and always will, even if you don't love me back." Gaara looked up at her in slight surprise.

"Why would you do that?" he asked, slightly confused.

"Because I care deeply about you." She gave him a simple smile before looking back down at the floor.

"I had better be going," she told him softly. Gaara nodded. "Get some rest, and take it easy tomorrow. It'll be your first day back on the job, and you need to take it slow." Gaara smirked and nodded again.

Gaara watched as she left. He deeply cared about her as well, but wasn't quite sure how to go about expressing it. Sometimes he would get wrapped up in everything else that it would make him act bitterly towards Akina. Her birthday was coming up soon and he wanted to do something for her, but he didn't exactly know what. He would be visiting Konoha in a week, and he was hoping that he would be able to talk to Naruto.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"If Akina's birthday is coming up, then that means yours is coming up as well!" Naruto exclaimed. Gaara smirked at his friend and nodded.

The two of them were sitting in the Ichiraku ramen shop, eating ramen of course. Naruto was already on his second bowl while Gaara hadn't even finished his first. Gaara had told Naruto about his dilemma, and about other things between Akina and him. He hoped that Naruto would be able to give him some kind of advice.

"I just don't know what to do," Gaara sighed, picking at the noodles in his ramen bowl.

"Do you love her?" Naruto asked, tilting his head to the side in curiosity. Gaara shrugged.

"I'm not really sure. I don't really know much about love." Naruto chuckled and nodded understandingly.

"I can't really tell you what love is either," Naruto told him with a grin. "It's something that can't really be explained with words I guess. It kind of happens on its own. When you're in love, I guess you kind of just know. It's more of a gut feeling type of thing. You could probably tell with a kiss, but I'm not exactly sure."

"We've kissed already," Gaara told him softly, looking down at the ground in slight embarrassment. Naruto stared at him with wide eyes, and his mouth wide open.

"Then why are you asking me!? You should know!" Gaara shook his head in disappointment.

"That was over almost 2 years ago. She said that she loves me, but I'm not sure. I have no idea what to do anymore."

"Try kissing her again," Naruto suggested. Gaara gave him an unsure look. "Why not? She said that she loves you, so why don't you try and return the favor. I can already tell that you really like her, possibly even love her."

"How do you know?"

"How about I ask you a couple of questions, and I'll show you." Gaara sighed, but nodded. "Alright, question number one……. Do you care about her?" Gaara nodded. "Would you risk your life for her?" Gaara thought for a minute.

"I guess so, if there was no other choice."

"Do you like being around her?" Gaara thought about this again before nodding.

"She can be annoying at times, but I'd rather her be there than not." Naruto chuckled and nodded.

"Do you trust her?" Gaara nodded and Naruto grinned. "Then I think you love her. Just try to spend more time with her, if you can that is. I'm sure you'll see what I'm talking about." Gaara smirked.

"What about you Naruto?" he asked cunningly. "Do you have anyone in particular that you really like?" Naruto blushed and slowly nodded his head.

"Yes," he answered with a smile. "I really like Sakura-chan, but she still has a crush on Sasuke." Naruto's eyes saddened at the mention of Sasuke's name, but immediately brightened up again. "But Sakura-chan told me that I had a secret admirer! I don't know who, but I am going to find out!" Gaara smirked at him, and shook his head in disappointment. He doesn't even live in the village and he already had an idea about who it was. Gaara didn't know much about love, but every time this certain girl was around Naruto, she would blush so much. She also stared at him all the time, and stared at him with this lust. Not like blood lust or anything like that, but like when you really wanted something that you knew you would probably never get.

"When you get Akina-chan back, you had better be good to her!" Naruto warned him, grinning. Gaara raised an eyebrow at him, not really understanding what he was talking about.

"What do you mean Naruto?" he asked. Naruto looked at Gaara as if he were hopeless. He sighed and shook his head.

"Are you doing anything tonight?" Gaara shook his head.

"Not that I know of. Why?" Naruto grinned evilly, giving Gaara a bad feeling about what he had planned.

"Good, then you are staying over at my house tonight." Gaara gave him a hard stare.

"Aren't we a little old to be having sleepovers?"

"Kind of, but I need to show you something, since you are clueless about romance."

"Like you have any better ideas than I do," Gaara sneered. Naruto rolled his eyes at him and chuckled.

"I may not have the real experience, but I definitely have the books and comics that will show you what I mean." Gaara gave him a weird look and shrugged.

"Whatever," he sighed, pushing his bowl of ramen away from him.

"I have one more meeting with Tsunade, and then I'm done for the night. I'll come over after I'm finished." Naruto grinned and nodded happily.

"Sounds great! I'll see you then!"

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I will leave what Naruto shows Gaara up to all of your imaginations. Lol. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. I'm so happy! My b-day is tomorrow and I got a whole bunch of Naruto gear from my friends. I feel so special!

Anyway, I guess that I am kind of making Gaara kind of OOC. Oh well. He has to break out of that sand shell sooner or later. Please review! It would make me so happy! It would make me even happier if you would give me more detail and tell me why you liked it or what I could do better. You all know the drill. R&R PLEASE!!!! WOOT WOOT!!! C-YA (8P