The Life and Times of the Kazekage's Assistant

Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto. This story is inspired by a novel by Lauren Weisberger. I do own Tsubasa Imamura, any other Ocs in the story, the designer labels and names of the magazines/newspapers, and the plot.

Author's Note:Enjoy and prepare for a flurry of emotions. ;)

Chapter Thirteen: I Threw The Party, I'll Cry If I Want To

Today was a very big day in Suna. It was January 19th. Today was Gaara's 19th. I had been given strict orders from Temari and Kankuro to keep Gaara's surprise party under wraps. It would be a difficult job with the pesky Uzumaki Naruto buzzing around. No doubt he would spoil everything if I didn't keep him under control. But I was Imamura Tsubasa; I did the impossible.

There was a knock on my door at around five in the morning. I was just getting ready for all the work I'd have to do that day. If Matsuri was ding-dong ditching again I would have her head. I was surprised to see that it was one of the maids that had knocked. She stood in the doorway with a stunning and very flirty cocktail dress. She also had the heels to match it. The dress sparkled like a dazzling array of blue hues. It was a short tulle skirt and sequence bodice. It was sure to bring out of my eyes. I thanked the maid and also gave her a nice tip, and then sent her on her way. A yellow sticky note was attached. It read:

Tsubie-chan,

Was out shopping. Saw this and immediately thought of you. Hope Gaara likes it on you as much as you'll like it on yourself! Seeya tonight at Block 23!

Love ya hotness babeh,

-Tazuna

I smiled to myself as I set the note down. I placed the hanger of the dress over my head and swirled around my room, already pretending I was wearing it at the party and was dancing with Gaara. Tazuna was like my fairy godmother, Temari my stepmother, Matsuri and Kanoka my evil stepsisters. I was amazed at how Cinderella-like I really was. Placing the dress down on my bed and letting my fantasies seek another, I sighed. There was no time to waste. Putting Gaara's surprise birthday party together would be no easy task.

"Uzumaki Naruto, reporting for duty," said the orange jumpsuit wearing twerp as he saluted me proudly.

I sighed. I had asked for a crew to help me but apparently I hadn't gotten one. I suppose Naruto as my help was better than having no help (or asking Matsuri and Kanoka for help). "Alright Naruto," I said to him, "I need you to get all these decorations up…" I had no idea how he was going to pull it off but Naruto was good about doing his best and putting forth all his effort when needed.

"Piece of cake," said he with a wide grin. He placed his hands together and performed some hand seals. "Kage bunshin no jutsu." A dozen Naruto Uzumakis appeared. And I thought one Naruto was bad. They all set off to work with the decorations. The real Naruto hung by me. "Anything else Tsubasa-chan?"

"That should be all for now… Thank you, Naruto." I smiled at him. I meant it, after all. No one else had offered to help. I'm surprised that Temari had handled the guest list but if she would handle anything it would be the guest list. "I have to set things up for the caterer, the music, the presents, and all that." He gave me a nod and followed one of his clones to give him a hand with some techno lights. I glanced at the watch on my wrist. The deejay should be there be now. It was five and I had told him to be there no later. I headed outside and found the deejay unloading his equipment. "Set it up next to the bar," I instructed him. The caterer had pulled up behind him. Perfect. With any luck, I could pull this shindig off. "Let me show you the kitchen," I said to Mr. Kuragawa, the head chef.

It was about an hour later and everything was set up. The guests had arrived and I was very pleased with how things were turning out. All that was left was to retrieve Gaara and then the big surprise. I walked over to Naruto, feeling a little more comfortable with being around him and allowing bygones to be bygones.

"Tsubasa-chan… I invited Dog Breath," he said as my face turned into a scowl of disgust. Just when I was beginning to like him… He did shit like this. I knew he was lying but still it was completely uncalled for. "Look." He gestured to his right and there was Kiba. How could I have missed him? I was staring straight over in Naruto's direction. Why hadn't I caught a glimpse of Kiba? If I had, I could have quickly avoided the situation entirely.

"Hey," he breathed out in his husky voice. I used to think that voice was so amazing. I looked Kiba over. He looked good, I couldn't lie. Something was off about him that I couldn't put my finger on. He had his nice brown hair that I had often run my fingers through. He had his teasing and playful eyes staring over at me. He still had his cute nose and his mischievous grin but something was definitely not right with this picture. He really had no reason to be there at Block 23. He wasn't invited to Gaara's party and there was no way he could have gotten in. Temari had hired some ninjas to be the bouncers. They would have escorted him out or Temari would have done it herself. Something just was not right.

"Hi," I said to Kiba. "How's life? Does your mom still have that scarf I made her?" It was a test to see if it was really him. If he had the right answer he was Kiba. If he had the wrong one, I knew exactly what Naruto was up to.

He seemed a bit nervous to reply at first. "Life's good… Yeah she does. I saw her wearing it before I left." Another flaw was that Akamaru was nowhere to be found. Kiba never went anywhere without the pup.

"Oh did you?" I asked as I raised an eyebrow. My hand slid behind my back and pulled out one of my fans. A small blade slipped from one of its folds. I plunged it into the so called Kiba. As soon as my fan made contact Kiba had disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Naruto… you're an asshole," I choked out as I put my fan back into my belt with its twin. "That's low even for you." I could feel tears beginning to fall from my eyes and I could have sworn a million times that I was over Kiba and over stupid crap like this. I could hear Naruto yelling at me that he was only joking and he hadn't meant for it to affect me so much as I bolted out the back door but I wasn't listening. His apologies didn't matter to me at the moment. The hurt was already there and the cut that I had thought had healed felt like it was an open wound all over again.

I rounded the corner once I got out into the open. I let my lungs breathe in some fresh air to simmer down my emotions. I pressed my hands to my eyes, just wiping tears that wouldn't stop falling. I sucked in so much air I could have flown up to the sky like a balloon. Still, I kept walking. I was maybe about half a block away when I collided into someone. Great. To top off my shitty night, I had to be clumsy and bump into some innocent bystander.

"Excuse me," I muttered as I tried to walk around the person but whoever it was had grabbed hold of me by my shoulders. The feeling was slightly familiar but I ignored the thought.

"Imamura-san." I looked up, horrified. I felt so embarrassed. I just ran into the birthday boy himself.

"Kaze… Kazekage-sama," I mumbled, utterly confused. What the hell was he doing out there by Block 23? Then I remembered that he had asked me to oversee the place. It was a new club in Suna and I was supposedly scoping it out. In fact… I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be my alibi or my story or whatever to get him into the building.

"Are you okay?" His voice was filled with concern. He was being so gentle with me. I couldn't ruin his birthday with my silly drama. His happiness mattered more than mine and I would see to it that it was treated as the more important factor, if not the most important factor.

"I'm fine," I replied to him with a small smile as I rubbed at my eyes again, attempting to rid myself of tearstained cheeks.

"You look like you've been… crying." A frown crossed his face. I was going to have to think of something not so clichéd to tell him.

Instead of denying it, I admitted it. "I was… A guy at the club upset me," I said to him in a convincing tone of voice.

"He did?" He turned me around gently and began to lead me back to Block 23. "I'm going to have a word with him." He seemed so determined to rescue me from this fake villain I had conjured up. "I'll make him apologize to you," he continued. I nodded to him, grateful even though it was a farce. He wanted to protect me. It was very sweet of him and added to the list of reasons why I was so in love with him. He opened the door to Block 23 for me like any gentleman would. It put on a smile on my face and suddenly thoughts of Kiba and Naruto were out of my mind. Gaara immediately became defensive as soon as he entered the building. "It's dark and too quiet," he murmured to me as he stepped in front of me as if to shield me from some sort of attack. "An ambush…" He was sort of right.

"SURPRISE!" shouted all of the guests as the lights flickered on.

Temari, dressed in a stylish red halter dress that hugged every single one of her devilish curves, came over and greeted Gaara. "Happy birthday little brother," she said to him with a smirk.

"Happy nineteenth birthday," yelled Kankuro as he came over as well. "That means you're going to have nineteen shots of Sapporo."

Gaara frowned. "I don't think so."

"Loosen up little bro," purred Temari as she gave him a bump with her hip. "Have some fun… Tsubasa didn't go through all the trouble of putting this together just so you could chicken out."

He looked over to me. "You did all this for me?"

I nodded but knew to give the credit to Temari. "It was your sister's idea."

Gaara's attention was soon taken over by a swarm of Temari's skankishly dressed models. They always wanted to flirt with Gaara and though it did bother me, I saw it as an opportunity to get dressed. I had my stuff locked up in the private bathrooms at the back of the club. I scurried over and found that Tazuna was waiting for me. She had a curling iron and a makeup kit in hand. "Shall we get you ready so you can give those flirty slut models a run for their money?"

I laughed. She was always boosting up my ego with nice comments like that. She truly was something else and at times I felt ashamed to know that I had once thought of her differently. Never again would I judge someone based off of appearance. "I don't know about that," I replied modestly as she whisked me off into the bathroom.

She rolled her eyes as she plugged in the curling iron. "Put your dress and heels on," she told me as she unzipped her makeup bag. I nodded and changed quickly. I had gotten used to making fast dress changes because I often was a sub/alternate in Temari's runway shows (against my will, I might add). "There's no way they'll be able to compete with you… It just so happens that Higuchi-kun is changing Gaara into a matching tuxedo right now."

"What?" I asked her, clearly shocked. She hadn't mentioned this earlier. No one had. "Higuchi-kun is what?"

"You thought I didn't have a trick up my sleeve for tonight?" She asked me as she carefully brushed her finger against the curling iron to check the temperature. It must have been all heated up because she started brushing my hair and then curling pieces of it. "I think you know me a little better than that Miss Imamura."

"You're right," I agreed as I glanced over at her. "I do but you never cease to amaze me."

"I'm nervous," I declared as my nails gripped the edges of the door that Tazuna was attempting to shove me out of. She gave up on pushing me and began to pry my fingers from the door.

"Really?" she asked with gritted teeth. "I couldn't tell… from the way… you're just… clinging… to the… door… Ahah!" She had cried out excitedly once she gotten my fingers loose and I could feel my heart beating wildly inside my chest. Every beat was just more reason for me to run home, lock my door, and never open it again. Tazuna began to push me out and I felt guilty for putting strain on her black lace one-shoulder bow dress. I sighed, giving up.

Unlucky for me, I had done so just as Tazuna gave a heavy push and flew out from the back of the club and straight into the crowded room. Everyone had been chattering but they all went dead silent as soon as I came out. It was so embarrassing. I hated it. I felt someone step up and stand next to me. At first, I thought it was Tazuna but as I turned to verify who it was I saw that it was him. It was Sabaku no Gaara dressed up so very handsomely in a tuxedo to match mine. He even had a hint of green in it like my dress.

"I see we match," he said, his eyes seemed to be dancing with playfulness. He'd been playful with me before many times but that's when we were stuck in the office and playfulness was all he could offer to me at times when everything was so extremely boring. Now, he was different. Now, we were out of the office. Why would he want to be playful now? And why with me?

I nodded to him shyly. I felt incredibly giddy but suppressed it. I wasn't going to embarrass myself. Everything was going too nicely for me to just go and screw it up. The deejay had just been playing the latest pop hit when the music stopped.

"The birthday boy and his date are going to share a dance," I heard him announce to the room. I could have pissed my pants. Thank Kami, I didn't. "Everyone needs to stand back. This dance is just for Kazekage-sama and his lovely date."

I know I was tomato red as Gaara smiled at me and offered his hand. I know I was beet red as I accepted it and we swept across the dance floor the way a romantic couple would. He had one hand on my waist, one in mine. I had one hand on his shoulder, the other in his. He twirled me and I was surprised that he danced so well. It was something I pictured him being awkward at but I was glad that he wasn't. The rest of the room had disappeared with another twirl. It was just me and him now.

"Happy birthday," I said to him because I had just remembered to.

"Arigato," he replied back as his hand that had been holding mine slid nonchalantly to my waist. I instinctively placed my free one on his other shoulder. "You look very nice tonight."

"Arigato… Tazuna did it all for me… she's been very kind," I said to him with a smile. "You look really handsome."

He gave me a nod and said, "I wonder if she planned for us to match… I think so."

"It seems that way," I murmured to him even though I knew the truth. Tazuna had planned this evening it seemed. I noticed the lights had dimmed when we began dancing and a spotlight fell on us as we danced. I had seen Tazuna sneaking over to the lighting. She had more than one ace up her sleeve apparently.

"Well if she had then I'm glad," he suddenly said after being quiet for so long.

"Why would you be?" I felt myself become brave for a moment.

He gave a small shrug as he pulled me slightly closer to him. He had tried to be subtle about it but at the moment my senses had all been heightened by the adrenaline rush. "It's just nice to not be so alone this evening."

"Alone? That's kind of hard with a good hundred party guests or so," I said to him with a laugh. It was actually one hundred and thirty six guests. I knew the count by heart.

"Yes, but they're not my friends," he said to me with only a hint of sadness in his voice. "They're mostly Temari's friends or Kankuro's."

"Temari was in charge of the guest list." I nervously brushed a curly away from my face. It was tickling my nose.

"Tazuna seems to have made you my date for the evening," Gaara said to me as he prepared me for another twirl. "I'm glad that it's you and not one of the models Temari usually throws me with."

"What's so bad about that?" There was the twirl. "They're all much prettier than me… Any guy would be happy to have a model as his date."

He gave a hard sigh as I fell back in his arms. "You don't get it," he murmured. "I told you before that I admire women from a distance but never allow myself to become infatuated." I gave a nod to let him know I followed what he was saying so far. "You're just different than many people I've met… you try to understand me and I'm not sure why… You interest and confuse me at the same time." That's when the song ended. The party guests were clapping furiously and I noticed even a particularly sour looking Matsuri giving a light clap.

Gaara's words kept repeating in my head as he and Temari shared a small dance. She was chatting away vigorously with her brother about how well the evening was going. I even heard her compliment him on what a great couple we made. Yes, I did blush when I heard. Yes, I was still a nice red hue. I noticed Gaara's eyes travel to mine much of the time and I smiled over at him. I wasn't really sure of what else I should do. I was lost and confused. I wasn't exactly sure what Gaara had meant by his earlier comment. What was he trying to say to me?

I was a little sad to see the evening end so soon but relieved. To apologize, Naruto had offered to clean up the mess and let me rest. He said he was going to bring me breakfast in bed the next morning but that wasn't something I was thrilled over. Something I was thrilled over was the fact that Gaara had mentioned that he wanted to walk me back to Sand Castle as soon as he said his goodbyes to all the guests. The last guest had just left when he motioned me over.

"I didn't think this would be that great of an evening," he said to me as we walked into Sand Castle. "I never really had an enjoyable birthday."

"Tonight was pretty nice," I commented as we strolled down the long corridor.

Oh no, I thought to myself as we began to approach our rooms, the evening is ending now…

"I guess it's time to call it a night," I said aloud, not really meaning to. I gave him a timid smile as I fiddled with one of my curls. I looked up at Gaara nervously. I doubted he was the type to give a goodnight kiss but still I had hoped. "I'll see you tomorrow, Kazekage-sama."

"I don't mind if you call me by my name," he said to me, his teal eyes boring into mine. They were absolutely breathtaking.

"Gaara-sama then," I replied with a nervous laugh. He gave a short nod of approval. I began to stick my keys into the lock of my door to undo it. The door opened softly. I turned back around to get a good look at him again. "Goodnight, Gaara-sama."

"Hey, Romeo," I heard Kankuro's voice call. I glanced over to see that he and Kanoka were going into his room. "Stay away from Juliet."

"Goodnight Kankuro," Gaara said to him as his drunken brother gave a wave. Kankuro and Kanoka disappeared into his room. Gaara noticeably rolled his eyes and sighed. Turning to me he said, "Goodnight Tsubasa-san. I'll see you tomorrow." He turned to walk away and I felt myself grab his hand. I must have startled him because he jumped a little before turning back around. "Yes?"

I looked down at my feet for a moment. Why had I grabbed his hand? I knew the answer but I didn't want to admit. And there I was in the hallway, holding Sabaku no Gaara's hand like an idiot while he was just waiting for an explanation. "I… uh… don't want to complicate things at work… but it's your birthday and…" Get on with it, I screamed at myself. I got on my tiptoes and gave him a small peck on the cheek, hoping that I wouldn't just ruin everything right then and there with a stupid decision. "Goodnight," I said again as I went into my room, locked the door. I'd never open it again the next morning once I woke up and realized what I did.

Words couldn't describe just how angry and homicidal I was at that moment. Just one sentence was all I could screech as the fermenting anger within me reached its peak and began to boil over like hot wax ready to melt skin from the bones of those that opposed me.

"Uzumaki Naruto I'm going to kill you!"

I threw open the door of my bedroom. I couldn't understand how he had managed to get into my room but it didn't matter. He had gotten in like a little rat that slips in and out of the smallest of cracks in search of food. As the door slammed against the hallway's wall, I could hear others stirring awake. I cursed at myself out loud for my stupidity. I shouldn't have woken everyone up, especially when I was in my furious state of being. My eyes scanned any signs of orange jumpsuit wearing shinobi that they could find. I spotted a blonde head at the end of the hallway near the stairs. Naruto's tongue was sticking out at me and he was laughing. I was going to kill him. I lunged forward, Akomeogi in hand, and sped off toward him.

As I chased after Naruto a recollection of what had occurred flowed through my mind, ever fueling my hatred and loathing for that little asshole.

I had woken up that morning after a wonderful night of sleep. I had dreamt of Gaara all night long and things were very… heated you could say. Of course, waking up and realizing it was all a dream hits you a bit hard at times. My eyes had slowly fluttered open like a butterfly barely figuring out how to use its wings. When my eyes had finally focused in on the scene that played before me I was incredibly startled. Naruto was sitting on the bed next to me, staring at me with a wide goofy grin.

My first thought had been that I slept in my underwear and that little booger was peaking so I slapped him. Unfortunately he dodged it. I ended up slapping him on the ass instead of the face. He had jumped out of my range after that. I flew out of bed, angry like Temari when she had a model down in her runway show with no replacements. Naruto must have set up some sort of trap because I slipped on something that had me sliding all the way into my desk on the other side of my room. I had tripped over some silver thread and a bucket of strawberry syrup (with real strawberries in it) crashed down on my head. I turned around, screaming obviously, and faced a laughing Naruto. I was about to kick him in his little nutters when he pulled out two cans of whip cream from behind his back. He shot me with the contents of the whip cream canisters. My entire head was covered in that crap. My vision was gone due to the fluffy white cream in my face and so I quickly tried to rub it out of my eyes. When I did restore my own vision I found Naruto with a new bucket in his hands; sprinkles. He tossed them in my direction and I threw my hands up as if to block them. That's when I regained control of the situation and began to chase after him.

So there I was chasing him, waking all of Sand Castle up. I was a sticky strawberry mess with whip cream on my ass (It didn't help that I was wearing the very frilly panty and bra from Harem's Secret that Tazuna had convinced me to sleep in at night because it made me a sexier woman over night or some ridiculous tall model tales shit like that). Naruto was mocking me by running slowly. The reason why I couldn't go very fast was due to the fact that my feet were so sticky. Every step I took I had to pry my foot back from the floor and keep running. It was frustratingly irritating as I ran after Naruto. It seems that Kankuro had woken up and was attempting to sedate me with Karasu. That damn puppet didn't know what was coming to it. I head butted Karasu so hard that it even sent Kankuro flying into the opposite side of Sand Castle. I almost felt guilty. Almost.

"What's the matter Tsubasa-san," taunted Naruto as he climbed up to the roof. "It seems like you're stuck back there!" That was the lamest thing for him to say; a stupid and corny joke.

"I'm gonna huuuuuurt you Narutoooooo," I screeched into the day sky, "So bad that you won't everrr haaave childreeeennnnn!" Yes, it was embarrassing (now that I look back) for me to have said those things.

"What's going on?" I heard Matsuri and Kanoka both ask in unison from ground level as I toppled over the roof like a drunken chimpanzee.

I was hot on Naruto's tail now. I had found a puddle on the floor a while ago. I had plunged my feet in it quickly so that I could remove the stickiness from my feet and was cautious enough as not to slip. My plan had worked because I was now running at full throttle, causing Naruto to pick up speed. I was so close to Naruto now. I was breathing hot and angry breath upon his neck so he knew that his life would be coming to an end. And though Naruto ran fast, I pushed myself to run faster. My hands reached out for his neck ready to break it because strangling took too long (yes, I had forgotten that I had my Akomeogi due to my blind anger; what a shame). The quicker he died; the better. Just as my nails had grazed his neck something huge hit me. It was a massive sand hand and I knew that Gaara had caught me. "Noooooooooooooooo!" I shrieked into the air as I flung around in the hand made of sandy grains. "Let me go! Let me kill him! Let me kill him!" I was flailing like a fish out of water. The hand had set me gently on the ground but had not yet freed me from its grasp. "Let me kiiiilll hiiiiim!"

Naruto hopped down next to me and said, "Aw, Gaara you saved me! She almost had me!"

"What do you mean almost?" I snarled at him like a ferocious wolf asserting its dominance, "I'm still going to kill you!"

I heard Gaara sigh as he walked over to us. I immediately felt ashamed. This had to top all of my embarrassing moments in front of him; all of them. I was covered in strawberry syrup, whip cream, sprinkles, and I was in my underwear… Yes, it was definitely my most thwarting display.

"One more thing Tsubasa-chan," giggled Naruto as he shoved his hands in his pockets, looking for something. He pulled something red out from his pocket and my jaw dropped as he placed it on my head. "A cherry to top it off!" I roared like a lion going for the kill and lunged but was stopped by Gaara yet again. Naruto threw his arms up in mock defense. "I know you're angry Tsubasa-chan but you ruined the surprise. You would have been breakfast in bed if you wouldn't have left your room!"

"You disgusting little pervert," I snarled at him, bearing my teeth like the same ferocious lion from before.

I thought the whole breakfast in bed thing had been pretty embarrassing… That is until Naruto made one last comment before his immediate death. "I told you I'd get you a birthday present Gaara! It was just a little late."

Then I ripped free from Gaara's grasp and killed Naruto. I pulled out all of his vital organs and stomped on them like a thrashing gorilla. Okay, okay. So that's a huge lie… I didn't kill Naruto (I wanted to with every fiber in my being). I probably would have killed Naruto but instead Gaara handled the situation before I could react.

Gaara gave a very light and soft chuckle. How could I be amusing to him so often? Was there just a flashing neon sign over my head that said "I'm a Clown so Laugh at me by All Means!" that everyone could see except for me? "It's probably the best of the gifts I received."

What the—?

"I knew you'd like it," Naruto replied back. He was laughing as well. Just wonderful!

I wanted to shout at them and say, "I'm still here you know," but I was too much in shock for that. I wasn't sure if I should take what Gaara had said as a compliment or an insult. Was he being a pervert too? I shook my head. Gaara wasn't a pervert… He was Kazekage. It just wasn't in his genetic makeup. So what exactly was going on?

"I bet we could get her to do tricks," Naruto said with a pair of obnoxiously wiggling eyebrows. I could just imagine what kind of sick pervert teenage boy stuff he was thinking about.

"I'll do no such thing!" I hollered at them. I couldn't believe what was going on. Even more unbelievable was the fact that Gaara was going along with it all!

"Well… I'd like to be with Tsubasa-san alone…" Gaara was up to something. I wasn't sure if it was good or bad.

"Not going to share, huh?" Naruto gave a shrug and added, "Well it's your present." Naruto put his hands behind his head and casually walked away. That nonchalant bastard.

Matsuri and Kanoka came running up to see what was the matter. I'm sure they were both wishing they had their cameras but it wouldn't matter if they did. I'd have gotten a hold of those cameras and I'd have broken them into a thousand little piece of nothingness.

"Nothing to see here," Gaara told them, "Go back to your rooms… I don't want to hear a single peep about this matter. I don't want to know that you two will spread gossip around because I will know it was you two… If you defy me there will be grave consequences for you both. Now hurry along." They both nodded and gave him their word that they wouldn't say anything. I was grateful he had done that because if he hadn't I was certain somehow the Suna newspaper would have had a lovely front page story the next morning. "Now," Gaara said as he turned to me, "I'd like you to come to my room with me." I nodded, unsure of what was going to happen.

Once in Gaara's room (and I can't believe I was actually in there breathing in the scent of all that was Gaara's room) he sighed deeply and handed me a towel to cover myself. I could tell he was slightly irked by the whole incident. I saw him shake his head disapprovingly as he looked over the messy shit I was in. I couldn't tell if he was upset with me or Naruto… or the both of us. Again, he shook his head again. That wasn't very promising to me.

"I'm sorry for my behavior… I dishonored you by acting that way," I murmured, feeling that it was my entire fault and that I should have handled the situation more responsibly.

"Tsubasa-san… that's not why I'm frustrated," he said to me. He looked over me again. "Go ahead and go to your room and get yourself cleaned up. Then come back here and see me."

"Hai," I said to him sadly. I wanted to say a million 'gomen nasais' but refrained because it would only make him more upset. "I'll try not to take long."

"Take all the time you need," he told me, "I can wait."

I gave him a nod to let him know I understood. I clutched the towel even closer to me as I exited his room and then entered mine. I felt myself shaking as I allowed myself to cry for a moment. Why was it that all these bad things happened to me? I just wanted to be Imamura Tsubasa, strong and independent councilwoman. I wanted to be taken serious and I wanted to be treated with the respect I deserved (but never received).

"Well Tsubie," I told myself once I got myself into a nice and warm bath, "You can cry if you want to." And I did.

Author's Note: What is it you think that Gaara wants to talk to Tsubasa about? I'm curious as to your thoughts on that. I'm hoping it's something good. I say that like I'm a part of the audience and not the author. Sometimes I like to be spontaneous and surprise myself as I write the story, making things up as I go along.

Or perhaps, I really do know it all… ;) Let me know what you think in a review please!