Karena's Story...

Stolen Past

Part One: The Exams

When I woke the room was uncomfortably warm. I pushed the covers off of me and stretched out, slightly smiling about the dream I had. Knowing something that great would never happened to me. I brushed it off as I stood up, making my way across the room to dig through my little pantry.

My home wasn't very big but I didn't mind. The pallet on the floor was my bed, above was a curtainless window, then a couple of feet away was a round table where I ate meals. There was no refrigerator but plenty of cabinet space where I store food. Lastly, in the far corner were sliding doors that opened up to a bathroom. This small place was my home and my only home.

I grabbed the apple I had bought the other day, fruit here was scarce and I made sure to buy some when I had the money. Taking a large bite out of it, I then set it down on the table, and quickly changed into my normal clothing. Being a simple long sleeved shirt and little black shorts that my top almost covered. Picking the apple back off the table and walking outside, I sat on the steps leading up to the door to await my friend, Temari. She and I go back to when we were both at the academy here in the Sand Village. The only one there that would give me the time of day, not the students, teachers, or anyone would. The funny thing was she was older than me, but she would always wait up for school to let out and then walk me home. She didn't like the fact that I lived by myself.

"Hey Karena!" Temari calls out.

I tossed the last of my apple to the side as she approached me, "Good morning!" I say.

She held a hand out and I gladly accepted it as she helped me up to my feet. She was pretty much a head taller compared to me.

"Ready to head out? Kankuro and Gaara are waiting at the gate." She told me as she led the way down the sandy road.

I followed behind wearing a huge smile. Today is the day we take the Chunin Exams in the Leaf Village, but I'm really excited because of the future invasion that will be taking place later on. Someone like me being chosen to take part in the invasion let alone the exams was an honor, or so my sensei told me.

I pulled my long brown hair back in a low ponytail, forgetting to earlier, as we got to the front gate of the village. Now my team was in my sight including commander Baki, making it a team of four. Which isn't the normal number but I guess it can allowed.

"You know Karena. I like it when your hair is down, its pretty that way," says Temari.

I adjusted the headband around my arm, "Well it always gets in my way!"

She lightly laughed at me as we stood now in front of everyone, "All here." Temari tells the group.

"Well its about time," Kankuro says with a sarcastic smirk.

Grinning back at him before leading the way, "Well come on."

I've known Kankuro just about as long as his sister. I could always joke around with him when I never could Temari, who was more serious, but I guess that's expected with her being the older one.

Kankuro and Temari also know what kind of person I am, meaning I don't discourage easily and to me, everything is a laugh. I feel like they accept me as part of their family and trust me, their younger brother Gaara is who I was unsure about. He was the same age as me and I have always tried to talk to him. His older siblings are terrified of him, and I couldn't blame them. They always get upset at the way I talk to him, saying I need to watch the way I worded things so I don't anger him. But Gaara has never given me a reason to be afraid. Why should I be?

Glancing back I noticed he was walking by Temari's side staring at the ground ahead of him, sporting that same emotionless face. Gaara looked up and our eyes met and instead of turning away I smiled at him. He just stared back at me with the same expression. I opened my mouth to say something to him, but since my eyes were on Gaara's, I clumsily fell backwards.

Luckily Kankuro caught me before I met the sandy ground. Glancing up at his smirking face and awkwardly laughing, "Sorry." I tell him.

He rolled his eyes and push me back up so I was standing again. "How about keeping your eyes on the road."

"I am!" I continued walking but decided I shouldn't be ahead of everyone so I just walked beside Temari and Gaara.

After an awkward silence I spoke up, "So how was everyone's morning?" Well that sounded dumb.

"Why you wanna know?" Kankuro asked sarcastically.

"Nevermind you jerk, I was just trying to make conversation." I snapped at him jokingly. He was always that way to me.

A quiet voice spoke up, "It was fine."

I looked over at Gaara who was staring back at me. Surprise he answered and couldn't help but smile, maybe he was finally warming up to me after all these years. Opening my mouth to ask him another question, a hand came to my shoulder and squeezed. I turned to see it was Temari, shaking her head at me. "He killed two Chunins this morning." She whispered for me just to hear.

My eyes widened as I stared back into Gaara's. Sure, it frightened me but I wasn't going to let it keep me from talking. In all honestly I hate it how Temari tries to keep me from talking to him. In the past she told me it was to protect me but I wasn't so sure about that anymore. I looked away from Gaara and fix my gaze at the ground ahead. Deciding against saying anything else.

…..

When we finally arrived at the front gate of the Leaf Village we separated with commander Baki and later with Gaara as well. But Temari, Kankuro, and I continued to walk the village. "It's so cool! I wanna live here!"

Temari smiled at me, "Maybe you can someday!"

Admiring the village I stopped when Kankuro suddenly paused in front of us. "What's wrong?"

Feeling concerned as I walked around him to see a little boy on the ground, a red scarf around his neck. It looked like he had ran into Kankuro by accident. Following the boy were two small kids that looks like his age, a blonde haired kid that was at least my age, and a pink haired girl who was the same age as the blonde. The last two were obviously Genin, who had the leaf symbol on their headbands.

"You need something?" Kankuro questions the boy on the ground. His next actions shocked me, he picked the boy up by his scarf! "Does this hurt?" He questions the preschool boy.

I couldn't just sit back and watch, "Kankuro put him down. Why are you being like that?"

"You know you'll pay for it later." Temari says to him.

I can't believe Kankuro was acting this way, he was always a little harsh to people, but now he was being ridiculous. I hope he doesn't make a scene when Gaara gets back, but knowing Kankuro for about as long as I have, he won't let up so easily.

"Hey look, I'm sorry. It was my fault anyways!" The pink haired Genin calls out. Although I don't understand why she is apologizing, its pointless.

"Get your hands off of him now!" The blonde Genin shouts at Kankuro, looking angry. And to me, very annoying.

But Kankuro just smirked, "We have a few minutes before he gets here. Lets mess with them."

The little boy struggled in Kankuro's hand, even tried to kick him, but Kankuro just tightened his grip. I wasn't going to let this go on longer, this was cruel. And I didn't want Gaara to see him acting this dumb in front of others. But I didn't get the chance to act before the blonde boy charged Kankuro, "Put him down!" He yelled.

Kankuro's smirk just got wider as he used his chakra strings to trip the blonde, making him land flat on his back. The boy sat up looking very confuse, "What was that?"

"Cut it out! It hurts!" The kid cried out almost in tears.

The blonde Genin jumped back to his feet, "That's it! Let him go or I'll mess you up!"

Kankuro just scoffed, "You're annoying. And what I like to do to annoying wimps is break them in half."

Temari sighed, "I warned you." She said flatly.

But no way was I going to sit back and let this go on any longer. I began to quickly build up chakra into my fingertips, and as I lifted my hand I was again cut off. That was getting kind of irritating.

Kankuro suddenly dropped the kid and growled as he gripped his hand. A rock fell to the ground with blood on it. I immediately thought the worse, Gaara must have thrown the rock! Kankuro is in so much trouble! But to my surprise I looked up to see a raven haired boy around my age sitting in a tree, he had another rock in his hand and was tossing it in the air then catching it as it fell. "You're a long way from home. And way out of your league." He said cockily.

"Sasuke!" The pink haired girl squealed.

I covered my mouth to keep from laughing, this girl was obviously all about this new guy, "Sasuke" that just showed up. I glanced over at Temari to see a blush on her face and couldn't help but laugh even more, but quit when she shot me a glare.

"Great! Another person to piss me off." Kankuro mutters loudly.

Sasuke responded by crushing the rock in his hand, "Get lost." Then letting the dust fall to the ground.

This guy I can tell is a little too full of himself, and it will just make Kankuro even more angry. He started reaching from his back the wrapped up puppet, Crow, that he was carrying. Then I knew that I had proving myself right.

"What? You're going to use Crow for this?" Temari asked dumbfounded.

I put my hand on Kankuro's shoulder, "Hey why don't we just leave before Gaara gets back. You know he won't-."

Kankuro roughly shoved me back. I couldn't believe he would get this angry. What was his deal? He needs to walk away and drop this whole thing.

"Kankuro. Back off."

I froze, not needing to look to know who that voice belong to. Gaara is back. Using his chakra, he was hanging upside down on a tree branch with his feet. Sasuke and everyone else looked startled by his sudden and silent appearance, but I wasn't.

"You're an embarrassment." Gaara tells him darkly.

Kankuro immediately tried to act innocent, "Oh hey Gaara!"

But Gaara still didn't look pleased, he had the same blank look, "Have you forgotten why we are here?"

"I know. But they challenged us!" He tries to reassure.

I couldn't help but chuckle at that lie, "Yeah right." I said out loud.

"Here's what happened," Kankuro continued as he shoved me again, saying to be quiet. But he didn't get a chance to finish.

"Shut up." Gaara cut him off. "Or I'll kill you."

This isn't good.

"Yeah I was out of line. Sorry." Kankuro quickly apologized.

Before things got worse I turned to the Leaf Genins, "We're sorry for challenging you. We didn't mean to hurt anyone." The flashing a wide smile at them. I could be nice when I wanted to.

Gaara came down from the tree and glanced at me, and in return I gave him my usual smile. He was quick to looked away. "Lets go."

"Wait! Why are you here?" The pink haired demanded from us.

We are trying to leave you guys alone and walk away. Be best if you didn't ask questions... "We are here for the Chunin Exams of course. Haven't you heard about them?" My face probably looked annoyed. I don't think I'm going to like her much.

"But there's four of you." The blonde stated. "Are you guys so bad you needed a fourth person?"

I glared at him which made him look nervous and the girl Genin practically strangled him. "Naruto...shut up! I wouldn't want to mess with her either," she hissed at him.

"Sakura! I was just asking!" The blonde pulled himself from her, "How come I haven't heard of this exam?"

So its Naruto and Sakura I'm assuming. I laughed at him, "You're stupid aren't you?" Then laughing more when the preschooler boy had to explain to Naruto about these exams. We started to walk away once again when we were called out by Sasuke, "Identify yourself."

"Me?" Temari asked blushing.

Snickered at her, "Looks like you got a crush." I sanged.

Surprisingly the boy ignored Temari, "You. With the gourd on your back."

I knew it was Gaara he was asking, he was the only one here to be afraid of.

"Gaara of the Desert." he tells the boy, "You?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

They had a little stare off and I decided to interrupt, "Come on, let's get going."

Gaara turned back around and we all took off, leaving the Leaf Genins behind us. And for good this time.

"Are we getting food?" I asked desperately, "I want barbeque!"

Temari laughed at my eagerness, "Karena, we need to first see where we're staying."

*PLEASE READ*

Thank you for reading the first chapter to my Karena's Story fanfic!

Not much in this chapter because I was setting the scene BUT this story won't be a complete copy off of naruto!

It's about MY character Karena and her relationships with the canon characters around her. So execpt to learn more about her and her story!

And YES this is GaaraXOC but don't execpt them to be together in the first 10 chapters... sooo not realistic! It will be a build up!

I've already got chapters done and ready to publish! I will publish weekly depending on the support I get! I mean... why would I keep uploading chapters to a story no one is even reading?

Thanks again for reading and please Follow, Review, and Favorite. Makes my day if you do!

Until next time

MarMar