Chapter 3: first exam

"It's not cheating unless you get caught and if you get caught lie through your teeth."

As Gaara fell back behind her siblings to let them lead her to where Baki said they were to meet up, she pondered the blonde boy Naruto.

Why is it that when our eyes connected it was like we had a bond, something similar, yet different?

She looked up when she realized her siblings had stopped and were now looking at her with cautious yet worried glances.

With a brave run of courage Temari asked, her being the oldest and a girl she felt the most connection to her little sister, enough that she was the one to always try and be nice to Gaara, "why do you seem so… distracted? Is it that blonde boy? Because if it is we can always just kill hi-"

At her words Gaara felt rage well up in her chest. She didn't want Naruto dead… she wanted to… know more of him.

"Neither of you will lay a finger on him!" she said in sudden venom. Her siblings looked at her in shock, never had she ever try and defend someone other than herself. They quickly came to the assumption that she just wanted her prey all to herself and let it go.

As the days passed Gaara got ready for the exams, trying and failing miserably to forget all about the loud blonde.

~Day of exam

When the first exam comes along he just needs to make his presence known and gain a classroom full of enemies. Great. Gaara thought sarcastically; now I need to protect him from all these pe- What am I thinking! I don't need to protect anyone! She thought trying to reassert her lifelong promise to only love herself.

Gaara shook her head as if to shake the thoughts off of her like a dog shaking off water.

"Hey Gaara are you okay?" Temari asked sounding genuinely worried for her. In response Gaara 'hnmed' and crossed her arms looking away from the commotion the leaf Genin were causing. Trying to avoid looking at the odd blonde boy, Naruto.

If she were anyone else she would've jumped when a loud voice bellowed out "That's enough brats! Take your seat and get ready to take the written part of the exam!" she heard many people grumble about how this was unfair that it was supposed to be a test of power not intellect.

As Gaara listened to the man explain the rules she realized he was telling them to cheat; just not get caught. Gaara smirked this is easy; too easy.

"BEGIN!" Shouted the instructor. As soon as that word left the examiner's mouth Gaara quickly and silently formed the correct hand signs for her jutsu. Third eye! She covered her left eye with her fingers and held out her other hand, soon a brown eye formed in her palm and when she was sure the connection was secure to her sense of sightshe crushed the eye letting the particles drift to the Genin in front of her who was busy scribbling away on the paper. Some of the sand drifted into his eye creating a distraction so her third eye could form and quickly scan over the answers he had already written.

Ten minutes into the exam her pencil was put down; she was finished. She scanned the room spotting many unique cheating techniques. But when her eyes landed on the one boy she was looking for she realized something; he wasn't going to pass. The only thing on his test paper other than the questions was his name; Naruto Uzumaki. Baka she thought scornfully, if you don't cheat you won't pass! And then I won't… won't what? Why don't I want him to fail? She was quickly brought out of her musings at the sound of a kunai sinking into wood very close to Naruto. Before she could even think her sand was floating around in invisible particles ready to stop anything that got too close to her… or Naruto.

She was confused when she felt the sand's intentions, never had it wanted to protect anything other than herself. What was it about this blonde baka? She looked back at the blonde boy wishing for the first time in a long time she could do something to help another. She looked at her answers then her sand then his blank exam paper. She sighed realizing it was the only way to help him.

She sent a strand of sand towards him, hoping it would work.

Naruto's POV

At first he thought it was nothing more than dust and so he brushed it off, or tried to, no matter how hard he tried to get it off his paper the sand stayed firmly in place. He almost considered prying it off with a Kunai when it finally got through to his thick skull that it wasn't going anywhere. He decided to look at it carefully and he realized it was the answers engraved in sand on his paper. He looked behind him to seek out the only person he knew that could control the sand. When he spotted the beautiful red headed girl he had no way of telling if she was giving him the answers or not for she had her arms crossed and her head turned away from him as if she were a child that was refusing to look at someone when embarassed.

When they had first locked eyes he knew there was something different about that girl, she was full of pain and hate and yet she had the innocence of a six year old, like she stopped maturing at that age, her emotions locked up and frozen in place by a terrible traumatizing event. He felt a connection to the girl even if they had just met.

Not wanting to seem rude he quickly wrote the answers down on his paper. He sighed and cracked his knuckles when he finished, he looked down at the pile of sand and suddenly got an idea. He flattened the pile out and wrote thank you into the sand, he looked at the redhead to see her reaction. For the fraction of a second her eyes flashed to him, she seemed surprised that he would thank her. For a second the sand tightened around his finger, not a bone crushing tight, but like a comforting hug; then it floated back to its master looking very unhappy about having to leave him. He smiled at the girl who was still stoically looking away from him, her head turned the other way; but he could've sworn he saw the flash of a smile in her reflection on the window.

Gaara's POV

She felt pleased that was the first time in her life that she could remember that someone had actually thanked her. All her life all she had ever received was either fear or hatred. When Naruto had written thank you into the sand it had come as a surprise to her seeing as she had never expected a reply. She felt him slowly worm his way through her stone cold heart; she needed to get away from him, and fast before she grew attached to him and became distracted from her promise to herself. I'll just have to kill him in the next exam.

No! Don't kill him! If you do you'll never know hap- Just as quickly as it had come the demon inside of her clamped its mouth shut as if trying to stop itself from spilling too much information.

What were you going to say? Questioned Gaara. She received no answer just tight lipped silence from the demon. Tell me! What won't I get if I kill him?

Like I said kid, you need to figure it out for yourself. Gaara felt anger boil inside of her at the elusive answer; she never liked being kept in the dark.

Look kid, even though I may seem like a heartless, bloodthirsty demon, I still care for my host and one day I'll make it up to you for ruining your life. And with that the demon fell silent, leaving many more questions unanswered.

"Pencils down!" ordered the examiner. "It's time for the tenth question." At that point in walked her brother Kankuro; she hadn't even noticed his absence. "Nice timing, was your doll playing spy?" She smirked when she realized Kankuro had been caught using his puppets to cheat. He looked shocked but sat down at his seat anyways. "Okay; but before we start the last question I need to explain the rules of desperation. First off you need to choose whether or not you want to take the last question…" He paused when people started to ask why they would need a choice. The examiner grinned maliciously at them and explained. "If you decide the take the question and get it incorrect you will lose the right to take the Chunin exams ever again, and will be a Genin for the rest of your life!" he finished menacingly. "But…" he continued on a lighter tone. "If you don't take the question you can always try the next Chunin exam." He let everyone digest these words and one by one people raised their hands, numbers were called, not wanting to take the risk many Genins left.

Gaara never even considered leaving; she and her siblings were on a mission, and it could not be ruined by someone being a coward. She knew that if one of her siblings raised their hands she would not hesitate to either cut the hand off or kill the person. But something completely unexpected happened, Naruto raised his hand.

I knew it his bark was bigger than his bite. He really is a- Gaara's trail of thoughts are cut off when Naruto slams his hand down onto his desk.

"Don't underestimate me! I won't run! I'll take it! Even if I'm a Genin forever I'll will myself to become Hokage! I an not afraid!" Naruto finished, he looked determined ready to take on anything that they threw at him. Gaara had to admit his speech was a bit inspiring she felt as if nothing could stand in her way as long as she had Naruto by her si- Not again! She quickly shut out any thoughts about the blonde baka. It was very confusing for her; she had never felt these feelings before; they scared her.

The examiner paused once more to see if anyone else would leave "This is your last chance, your life is depending on this." Naruto took this as a challenge and replied "I never go back on my word; that's my ninja way." and when no one left he said something nobody was expecting… "You all passed."

"What do you mean we pass? What about the tenth question?" asked a random Genin.

"You already answered it, it was a do or don't question and all of you answered it correctly by not leaving even though you were uncertain of the outcome. You cannot always avoid the uncertain and dangerous."

"Then what about the first nine questions?" Temari questioned, frustrated that she had been tricked.

"No those were to test your ability to gather information, the purpose was to cheat and not get caught." Replied the examiner.

Naruto, trying not to look foolish, and failing miserably, laughed and rubbed the back of his head "I knew that! You'd have to be a moron not to notice it!" he exclaimed. A few people chucked at his reply, seeing as they all knew full well that he hadn't had a clue.

"Sometimes information is more important than your life." He said gruffly pulling his Konoha headband that had been covering his head. Some of the Genin gasped at the sight of his bare head. It was covered with gruesome scars and holes. No wonder he covers his head! Oh I wish I was the one able to do that torture, the screams and blood, oh what music. Gaara ignored the demon. She looked at the examiner's head and shrugged she had seen worse.

"If you don't have the ability to be courageous, and ready to face hardships, then you'll never be a Chunin. That's how I feel! But you answered it correctly; I wish you luck for the rest of the exam." The examiner looked at them proudly as if they were his own students.

Gaara heard a whooshing sound come from outside the window seconds before it shattered and a bundle flew through it. The bundle unwrapped and four kunai were thrown to the walls to support the banner that the bundle was revealed to be. It said 'second examiner Anko Mitarashi!'

A woman with purple hair yelled out "Alright maggots! This is no time to be celebrating! Let's go! Follow me!"

Is it just me or does this examiner seems to have the same personality of Naruto? Gaara questioned to herself, not asking it aloud.

You can say that again, though she seems more… sadistic. Shukaku replies.

"Bad timing." Says the first examiner peeking past the banner that had blocked him from sight. Anko, the second examiner scanned the room. "26 teams?!" she exclaimed incredulously. "You let 26 teams pass? You've been too easy on them." She says scolding the second examiner.

"There are lots of outstanding Genins in this group." He retorts.

"Ah; that's fine. I'll cut them in half in the second exam." She says nonchalantly, smiling cruelly at the confused Genin.

Great. Gaara thought. The next test seems very interesting.

Gaaraaaaaa! Sang a sickly sweet voice in her head. I'm hungry. The demon said sadistically. Gaara felt a sliver of blood lust work its way into her mind. The demon was influencing her feelings again. She'd need to kill soon.

Sorry for the wait. Something was wrong with my computer and I couldn't get on the internet.

~Tigerlily