Sooo Sorry for the long wait, for a month my internet was cut off thanks to my provider not doing their job (im talking to you Rodgers!) and in that long span i started reading Hetalia and quickly became obsessed. let me tell you have any trouble with history just watch Hetalia, it's not completely acurate due to its tendency to parody events but it really makes the class interesting/funny/depressing just imagining all the characters doing those things. anyways enjoy this long awaited chapter.
As they walked down the hall Gaara couldn't help but notice all the glares they were on the receiving end of, though when he paid more attention he noticed they weren't directed at him for once.
"hehe, sorry about all the stares, people tend not to like me" Naruto said rubbing the back of her head.
Naruto sighed when all she got in reply was a grunt.
'even Sasuke's more talkative than this…'
Opening the doors to the cafeteria Naruto noticed it was completely deserted. Walking over to where the food was served Naruto and Gaara grabbed a tray.
"excuse me but do you have ramen?" Naruto asked hopefully. Since they weren't allowed to leave the tower she couldn't just go to Ichiraku's much to her disappointment.
"yes but-" the server didn't even get the chance to finish when Naruto cut in.
"I'll take it! I don't care what flavor! I need ramen stat!" Naruto demanded, slamming her tray down.
"…and what about you?" he asked Gaara, pretending he didn't just see a deeper crack form in the girl's sanity.
"I'll have miso soup" Gaara said in his usual monotone voice.
"one moment please" the server said before turning around to submit the order. 'I swear the kids in these exams are getting more unstable…' he thought as he handed them their meals "enjoy" he said with a smile.
Naruto thanked him before heading for the table in the back corner, Gaara silently walking behind her. Taking their seats from across each other, Naruto took the initiative to start the conversation to break the silence.
"so…have you decided if you want to be friends and stuff?" Naruto asked unsurely. 'stupid! If he says no it'll be even more awkward!' Naruto mentally berated herself.
Giving it a few moments consideration Gaara replied "…sure"
Blinking Naruto gave him a dazzling smile before holding her hand out in offer and excitedly said "then let's shake on it!"
Slowly Gaara reached out to grab her hand, using a loose grip they shook hands quickly.
"so its official!" Naruto said grinning.
"so, what now?" Gaara asked, unsure if there were any more steps.
"dunno, friends hang out and talk and stuff, so we've already gotten started I guess" Naruto said absently as she poked at her food.
"hm…" uninterested Gaara thought 'what's so great about friends…'
"ack! My ramen's getting cold!" Naruto yelped as realized she forgot about her meal. Talking around her mouth full she mumbled disappointedly "...vegetable flavor. Why couldn't they have pork?" Despite the less than preferable flavor, Gaara watched in veiled disgust as Naruto wolfed down her meal. "come on eat up! Oh and you'll never believe how my team got our scrolls!"
Gaara listened to her non-stop chatter as he slowly ate his soup.
"it was crazy, we were just running through the trees and suddenly we were hit by this wind jutsu-I think it was great breakthrough-and I was separated from my team after I got blown away. Then out of nowhere this giant snake comes and swallows me-turns out it was the guys summon-it was sooo gross in there, I had to take, like four showers before I felt clean again" she had to stop to give a shiver. Shaking her head naruto continued "anyways to escape I had to use shadow clones to make it explode from the inside out, and low and behold smack dab in the middle of all the snake guts were a pair of scrolls as convenient as that was. I guess the snake stopped for a snack before me…"
"continuing, when I got back to my team I saw Sasuke-teme about to give this creepy guy from kusa our scroll-not that it really mattered anymore-and I had to get it through that moron's head that even if he gave that guy our scroll there was still a good chance he would kill us"
Gaara darkly chuckled in memory of using same trick earlier in the forest of death, ignoring Naruto's curious and slightly worried look.
"so then after a bit of fighting that guy gave Sasuke some kind of hickey-seal after he bit him on the neck and he was unconscious. Soon I was too after he punched me in the gut and put some seal on me. Then when I woke up it was already night and that's when Sakura-chan told me I was asleep for three days. After she rested we decided to carry Sasuke to the tower after I showed her the scrolls I found. Even with shadow clones it was still tiring to drag Sasuke all the way here…lazy bastard" Naruto grumbled the last part.
"so I had to continue carrying him till we got to the tower, where I showered vigorously then went to the medical ward to get this seal taken off, which sadly they couldn't remove. They said I either had to get the old man to remove it or this Jiraiya guy, I would ask the old man but he's too busy and I have no idea where to find that other guy. Then I saw you on my way out…what happened to you in the forest?"
When Gaara noticed she was looking at him expectantly he realized she asked him a question. He stared back at her hoping she would just repeat the question rather than make him admit he stopped paying attention mid-story.
"well? I don't think you just waltzed in here" Naruto said still waiting.
Managing to put together the question she asked earlier, Gaara summarized his stroll in the forest with a bored tone "we found some teams fighting, one gave us their stroll then I killed the other team that resisted. Killed the remaining team then got the scroll from the corpses and headed to the tower where some idiot threw steel toothpicks at me, quickly killed him and finished the exam"
Naruto didn't quite know what to say to that, so she simply watched Gaara calmly finish his soup as if he didn't just nonchalantly describe how he just killed seven people in less than two hours without batting an eyelash.
"…a-anyways, I saw team eight and team ten in the tower as well"
"All chuunin exam participants please come down to the basement arena in ten minutes"
Looking up to see where the voice came from, Naruto saw there was a P.A. system built into the ceiling.
"looks like it's time for the third exam…" Naruto muttered to herself before picking up her tray and empty bowl.
'when did she finish eating that?' Gaara wondered, since from what he could tell she spent the whole time talking his ears off.
Walking out the door and into the hallway, Gaara silently followed Naruto to the final exam, their footsteps echoing though the deserted hallways.
"I think I saw an elevator this way…" Naruto almost whispered. It just felt wrong to speak any louder in the tense silence. Giving Naruto no sign that he heard her, she merely sighed as she turned down the next hallway to the left.
After pressing the button the doors almost opened immediately since the elevator was already sitting on their floor. Waiting until Gaara came inside Naruto pressed the button to close the thick metal doors, now trapping herself in a small enclosed space with a homicidal maniac.
Nothing but the typical elevator music filled the heavy silence weighing down on both of them.
Naruto flinched at the sudden ding signaling the doors were about to slid open, she quickly rushed out for the elevator as she took deep breaths. As she looked around the room she could see all of the other chuunin exam contestants were there, walking to their respective teams Naruto greeted her teammates, unaware of the questioning stares she was receiving from afar.
"the hell? Why was he with her?" Kankuro quietly asked Temari before Gaara was close enough to hear.
"how should I know? As far as I'm aware they didn't have any meetings scheduled so maybe they just happened to meet on the way here" Temari reasoned. She didn't think either of them would willingly spend time together more than they had to.
"whatever, later, he coming" Kankuro said, ending the conversation.
Once he saw that all the participants were present, the hokage began to explain the third test. "since more teams that expected passed we'll now be have a preliminary round. If you'll look to the large screen across from you, you'll see-"
"-excuse me hokage-sama, I can take over from here" Hayate said from his spot down in the arena.
"oh, sorry Hayate please continue" the third said as he stepped back.
"thank you. As he was saying on that screen your names will be shuffled and the screen with display your opponent. Killing is allowed but it is frowned upon and we will step in before you die, it shouldn't come to that though since we'll call the match if there's a clear winner. Any questions?" he asked as he looked around for anyone who was unsure.
"are there any other rules?" Zaku asked from his spot in the back.
"besides avoid purposely killing someone, no" Hayate answered. He quickly noticed the amount of dread and malice in the atmosphere increased. 'who's genius idea was it to cut the contestants down to the children who were close enough to Anko's level of insanity and pit them against each other? Just thinking about it those rules left a lot of room for them to play' he thought worriedly. "alright, lets get started" he said as the screen flickered to life.
"ouch" Asuma said with a cringe as they listened to Kiba howl in pain.
"th-that can't be allowed! That's not even a ninja technique or-or a battle weapon really! I knew those crappy rules gave too much leg room!" Kiba yelled as he rubbed his eyes furiously, unknowingly making it worse.
"sorry Kiba" Naruto said with a smile as she gave him one last punch to the jaw, taking him out and winning her the battle.
"I'm the one who gave her that mace" Kakashi said, sounding awfully smug.
"oh shut up, my student still totally would have beat her if she didn't use that pepper spray" said Kurenai, a little miffed her pupil lost to his after all her boasting.
"nice save dobe, are you sure you don't want me to file a police report after that assault?" Sasuke said mockingly as Naruto walked back to her place beside him.
"shut up jack ass, it was all I could come up with and he put his face so close to mine so I freaked" Naruto said with an angry pout.
Sasuke merely chuckled in response and turned his face back to the screen to see who the next two combatants were going to be. They watched as the first screen stopped "yosh! I knew if I wished to go last I would be picked next! Who is my opponent!" Lee yelled as he flipped down to into the ring, landing in a fighting stance. Yet Lee's contagious aurora of excitement quickly dried up in the stands when the second reel came to a halt. His opponent was Sabaku No Gaara.
Omake!
As gaara and lee were locked in an intense battle, the mood was completely destroyed when the laughter of two people came bubbling out "pffft-haha-snort-ha hahaha!"
everyone in the room was staring at sakura and sasuke.
"i-im sorry haha but this is too funny!" sakura managed to choke out. By now even the fighters took a mutual pause to hear the explanation of this, the proctor hayate also wanting an explanation said "would you mind letting us all in on the joke that's, oh so hilarious"
once sakura had enough air in her lungs, she explained while sasuke chuckled on. Clearing her throat she said "well as some of us know naruto is a bit of a sadist"
"I am not!" came the indignant cry of naruto.
"let her finish naru chan" kakashi said ruffling her hair while wearing his patented eye smile.
"as I was saying she's a bit of a sadist and when I heard gaara say the pain made him feel alive I just couldn't help myself" the adults that already caught on burst out laughing.
"what!? I don't get it" cried poor naïve nauto.
"And then I just couldn't keep it all in and started laughing and sasuke asked what I was laughing about. And I said if naruto is a sadist and gaara is a masochist then I could only imagine they're going to have one hell of a sex life!"
naruto's face lit on fire with a crimson blush as she sputtered incoherently, even Baki couldn't help but laugh. Down in the arena gaara was standing there mouth agape, his face matching his hair colour ignoring his opponent who was ranting about the dirty joke being "most hip and cool"
think of this as an apology. yeah, this too way too long to get out. but i havent been idle in my absence, ive been writing things for other stories i plan to post as well as finishing my exams today! (woot long weekend!) and i have a question for you guys, whats the weirdest Naruto pairing you ship and why. some pairing like Nejigaara i just dont understand, have they even talked? anywho the next chapter shouldnt take nearly that long (that what i said last time...)
