I re-edit this to the best of my abilities

Enjoy


She was too afraid to go back to sleep, he left the minute their lips parted, disappearing in a puff of sand. She hid under the covers of her blanket and watched as the sun began to rise over the village. She pulled the covers over her head with shaky hands and got off the bed, then walked to the bathroom.

Today was a big day and she had to be focused.

She looked at herself in the mirror; there were dark bags under her red eyes and her skin was ghastly pale. The things he said were still swimming around in her mind, he made her feel vulnerable.

"I won't let you stop me."

She forced herself to clear her mind, vowing never to let anything like that happen again. She'll make sure that the next time he showed up, she'd be ready for his attack. Sakura ran down stairs and jumped out the door, only to run into Naruto, and feel to the ground. He grinned down on her as she glared at him.

"Hey Sakura!"

"Naruto, what are you doing here?"

"Ramen shop remember!" He held his hand out for her.

She smiled up at him and took his hand, pulling him in the direction of a bakery instead. They took off a couple minutes later, each holding a pastry in their handa and found Sasuke waiting for them at the bridge. Sakura threw one at him and walked to other side, not bothering to greet him, to both the boys' utter surprise.

"Its breakfast, so eat up before the exams."

"Sakura are you feeling alright?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"Because you usually flirt with him," Naruto glared at Sasuke, "every morning."

"Shut up, I'm tired ok? I didn't get that much sleep last night," Her eyes grew distant.

"Did something happen to you?" Sasuke asked, actually worried.

"Nothing to be concerned about just excited is all." She faked a smiled.

"Why don't you want to talk to us?" Naruto walked over to her and tried to look her in the face.

She felt guilty for being reclusive, but didn't feel like bringing anyone else into her problems, she quickly changed the subject, "Where's Kakashi? I can't believe he's going to be late on such an important day!"

"Yeah! unbelievable!"

Sakura sighed in relief, but noticed that Sasuke hadn't stopped looking at her, which made it more uncomfortable. She smiled again before turning away, her face might reveal something. After about an hour later, Kakashi popped up right behind Sakura, she jumped down and the boys gathered around her.

"Alright everyone, it's a big day, probably one of the biggest days of your puny little lives," Kakashi jumped down, "I won't be able to attend the exams, but my thoughts are with you. I've trained and watched you guys grow from the very beginning, now it's your time to step through those doors without me and show the world what you've learned."

Sakura looked at him with a new perspective, all the cockiness her teacher was famous for was washed away. Instead a new kind of admiration began to grow; his words and wisdom would stick with her for all of her life. She was proud to be his student and would always remember his teachings.

He put a hand on Sakura's head, "Watch over the boys will you?"

"I promise,"

"Now get out of my sight and go make me proud." He waved good bye and walked in the opposite direction.

"Alright this is going to be awesome!" Naruto ran ahead in excitement.

Just before Sasuke could walk away, she grabbed the sleeve of his shirt, "Sasuke,"

"What?"

"Can I ask you a favor?"

"Depends on what it is."

"Can you…stay close to be until we take the exams?"

He gave her a weird look, but saw the seriousness in her eyes and nodded.

"Just at by my side."

She smiled a little at him and they walked together into the exam building. Once they entered, they were greeted by a crowd of angry shinobis. There were two boys blocking the entrance way to the main exam room, but Sasuke and Sakura easily showed them off and forced them to leave. Naruto burst into the room and screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Naruto shut up or you'll get us killed!" Sakura growled.

"Sasuke!" Ino jumped on his back, "How I've missed you! I've been thinking about you all day you know."

"Hey Ino-pig, get the hell off him!"

"Why? Are you jealous your big forehead is no match for my beauty?"

"My ass, have you looked in a mirror lately?"

"Why yes I have and I still look more gorgeous than you."

"In your dreams little miss porker!"

The two kunoichis battled it out with each other until familiar faces started to appear, "Man women are so troublesome." Shikamaru groaned.

"Stay out of this!" The two girls screamed at him.

As continued to bicker, other familiar cells gathered round. Naruto was chatting with Hinata for a while before getting bored and turned his attention to yelling at the people already sitting down, proclaiming statements like 'I'm gonna kick you asses!'

"Could you say that louder? I don't think they heard you all the way in Mist." Kiba said.

"Hey forehead, tell your boyfriend to shut up!"

"He's not my boyfriend! Naruto, stop it!" she looked over at the angry crowed and grinned nervously, but stopped suddenly.

He was looking at her, with callous eyes. Sakura stopped breathing for a second and backed up behind Sasuke. He gave her a curious look, arching his eye brow.

"Are you alright?"

"Fine,"

It went on like this until a boy with silver hair, came up to them and introduced himself. Kabuto, was taking the chuunin exams for the seventh time. He showed them special cards that looked into the abilities of opposing shinobis, Sasuke asked for two specific ones, one of the names made Sakura's skin crawl.

"Rock lee and Gaara of the Sand."

"Well that's not fun, you already know their names."

Sakura looked more closely at Gaara's profile and to her surprise; there was nothing about him except that he had already gone on two level B missions. He was more powerful than she anticipated; now she was really on guard. Suddenly a sound shinobi attacked Kabuto with sound waves from his arm. But before the battle could be carried out, the instructor arrived and ended it. To Sakura's dismay, this meant she had to leave Sasuke's security. She could feel him watching her go to her seat as he took his. The written portion of the exams began, to Naruto's dismay.

Their instructor was followed by many chuunins and jonins. Ibiki, the instructor, explained all the rules and asked if anyone wished to leave before taking it. A couple people left, too afraid to try. After that, he passed out the hardest written exams, giving everyone a smug look. It was longer than expected, and it very difficult. So hard actually that someone would probably have to…cheat to get the answers.

She looked ahead and noticed Naruto shaking, feeling bad that he had to go through this ordeal. She couldn't stand it anymore; he probably hadn't written anything down since the exams started. She was about to raise her hand to call it all off, when all of a sudden he raised his own hand and slammed it down.

"I'm not afraid of you or your stupid exam! I'll pass this with flying colors!"

She smiled and shook her head, continuing with the exam.


Gaara looked at the blonde undaunted by crude and idiotic remarks. He noticed the bond between him and Sakura, assuming they were closer than the thought. Only another nuisance he would have to get rid of. He started feeling possessive ever since last night, greedy emotions swerved in and out of him.

He looked over at her and saw her slump over for a second before coming back to life. He summoned sand into his palm and created his infamous third eye, sending it over to the person in front, copying down all his answers.

He wanted to pay her another visit, again and again until it was written clear in blood that he would be the only person in her life. Like a child with his favorite toy, no one was allowed to touch it; no one was allowed to see it. It was his alone.

It was bothering him that she stayed particularly closer to Uchiha. Still after the way he treated her, she lingered at his side. If Sasuke could get away with being cruel, why couldn't he?

What will happen after this?

The world was still shrouded in mist, and as he finished copying the answers, he set his pencil down and thought about everything; his past, the present, and what would happen in the future. He never thought about this things so thoroughly before, until Sakura entered his life and soon she became the center of his mind. She had a life while he didn't, she had friends while he had none, and she knew about love while he knew nothing. Would she be willing to teach him? Would she be willing to show him? His head throbbed, it was working too fast and too much. Then from the corner of his eye, he saw Sakura peeking at him but quickly turned back around. He smirked and pretended not to notice.


Great, he caught me looking. What now?

She looked up at the clock, the exam would end in five minutes and hopefully, Naruto would be done by then. She didn't worry about Sasuke, knowing him, he probably figured out a way to get the answers. Finally, time was up and Ibiki hit the table, scaring some runts. He laughed in a creepy manner before explaining the process of the test, gaining a few crude remarks and laughs. Naruto started fuming, before crushing it off like it was no big deal.

But before Ibiki could continue on, a ball popped into the room and exploded. A woman, unraveled herself and enthusiastically revealed what the next exam was, to everyone's dismay.

Are all the teacher here freaks?

After everyone had left the room, Sakura waited for Naruto and Sasuke at the entrance, excited to hear their thoughts. Naruto spent the entire time venting while Sasuke kept to himself, still staying close to Sakura.

"Hello once again my beloved Sakura!" Rock lee bounced up to her and grabbed her hand, kissing it.

She quickly pulled her hand away and made ready to smack him, but stopped herself, "Rock lee, nice to see you again. Now I must leave." She grabbed Sasuke and Naruto by the collar and pulled them away. The sun was beginning to set, but no one was tired enough to go home.

"When do we leave for the next exam?" Naruto asked.

"They said tomorrow morning, they wanted to give us time to pack as much supplies as we can." Sakura responded.

"Then I should be on my way," Sasuke was about to leave, but Sakura held onto him.

"Wait, but don't you want to, uh, go get some supplies with us?"

"No, I'm equipped enough."

"But don't you at least want to have one last dinner with us; we could all go to the Ramen shop?"

"Yeah! Come on! This could be our last meal together as a squad!" Naruto became too excited

Sasuke looked at the Naruto, and then to Sakura, who seemed to be beginning him with her eyes. She was worried and he needed to figure out what was causing this.

"Fine,"

She sighed in relief and let go of his arm, he followed them over to the Ramen shack, "I thought you said we were going to go get weapons first."

Gaara watched from a distant as rage filled him, he hated how close she always was with the Uchiha and how he couldn't do anything about it.

The Uchiha didn't deserve someone like her; he was a spoiled brat that didn't appreciate what he had. He could have any girl in the village and when the perfect one was throwing herself at him, he didn't want it. It was more than he could take, he wasn't used to not getting what he wanted

You belong to me.


I cut a lot of stuff out, to spare everyone and myself the agony of writing and reading the same things over again.

Ciao