I re-edited this to the best of my abilities

Htugeilewrutgriuelg – inner Sakura

Gjfthrogiw;a - Sakura

Enjoy.

Sakura looked around the field anxiously, her eyes moved constantly, searching for Gaara. His words haunted her. He was a monster, and he wanted to show her how much of a beast he was. And to her astonishment, she wanted to see. He fascinated her; she never thought someone as callous and vile as Gaara could exist. He had torture written all over his face, and it drew her to him. She was afraid, but also pity. She didn't want to hate him, but understand why he acted the way he does. Maybe it was her motherly instinct, or her kind-hearted nature that made her want to help him. She wanted to sooth his twisted heart, and make him see through changed eyes that the world wasn't a cold, barren wasteland. The only problem was his ever changing mood swings. The more she discovered about him, the harder he pushed her away. But he'd always be watching her.

Naruto gave her a weird look, "You're acting strange."

"It's because this place is creepy, I just have a bad feeling about it."

"Don't worry; we're a team so we work together!"

They smiled at each other just as Anko showed up. She slithered up to the front and smirked, "I'd like to see how well you runts work together in this place. This here kiddies, is called the 'Forest of Death'."

Naruto waved it off pointed a challenging finger at the jonin, "Blah, blah! You think that'll scare us, you've got to do better than that! You're just trying to psych us out and I'm not falling for that!"

"You're a cocky one aren't you?" She picked up a kunai and threw it right at Naruto, grazing his cheek. Fresh blood began to seep out of his scare, "Spilling all that rich and luscious blood, I'd hate to see it all go to waste."

Just then, a woman appeared right behind Anko, holding the kunai with her long and disgusting tongue.

"I believe you dropped this?"

Anko looked up, "Gee thanks." She grabbed the kunai and pushed Naruto away, who went crawling back to Sakura and Sasuke.

"Way to go dope." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Naruto, do us all a favor and stop acting like an idiot!" Sakura seethed.

"That woman is a freak! Did you see that?" Naruto got up and tried to regain himself.

Sakura examined the woman from the grass village; she gave off an unusual feeling. Maybe it was just the tongue, but there was something formidable about her. She turned her eyes and caught Sakura looking, who quickly shifted her gaze elsewhere.

Anko disappeared behind a booth and came back with a bunch of papers in hand. They were consent forms and that they had to sign it just in case anyone dies, that way the conductors wouldn't be held liable.

Sakura grabbed one for Sasuke and Naruto, and went to sit behind a tree to sign hers. She grabbed a pen and began to sign when her leg started to itch. Every time she scratched it, the more it would itch until she couldn't take it anymore. Her whole leg was bothering her, but as she looked down, her jaw dropped. It was sand.

She immediately began to search for him. He was nowhere in sight, but she could feel him lurking somewhere in the shadows. Probably thinking up was to torture her in the Forest of Death. Suddenly, there was a heavy feeling in the air, pulling her head towards the left. He was there, standing against the fence looking right at her. No emotion on his face, nothing in his eyes; but she could feel his raging hunger and torment coming through his sand.

She was stuck once again, this time it was cage fight to the death. Anything goes, which meant this was his perfect chance to rip her heart out like he wanted too. Naruto and Sasuke would be at his mercy as well, if she could only find a way to be reasonable with him. But that was impossible; this is Gaara, the demon who killed with no remorse. She wanted to go to him, tell him it wasn't wrong to feel lonely, that it was natural and human. Maybe then he'd learn to make peace with himself and his inner turmoil.

Get a grip Sakura; I have to do something about it!

How about getting out of this mess?

And how should I do that?

Look, here comes Naruto!

Sakura turned her head and saw the blonde running to her, her face lightened up as she found her exit. She grabbed his wrist, to his surprise.

"Let's go turn in our paper's now."

She tried to move her legs, but they wouldn't budge. The sand pinned her foot to the ground.

"I know you can't resist me Sakura, but I think we should get going now."

"Do me a favor and run as fast as you can, that way."

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

The second he ran towards the signing booth, her feet were ripped away from Gaara's sand. It boiled in the spot before returning to its master. She checked back to see him walking towards his siblings. His eye slightly twitched, annoyed at the interruption. She couldn't rely on Naruto forever to be there to protect her, but she'd use the time she had with him to stay as far away from as possible Gaara.

Are you sure this is what you want?

What are you talking?

I think there's something going on between you too.

A game of cat and mouse, that's what

I don't know, you seem pretty intent on wanting to help him. That would require you getting closer to him.

I don't need this right now.

Sakura blocked out her inner self and stood alongside her team mates as they readied themselves for the second part of the exams. The Forest of Death, even more powerful shinobis, and many other terrifying waited for them beyond the protection of the steel fences. The task was simple, retrieve the second scroll opposite the ones they have. Her team had the heaven scroll and the objective was to find a team with the Earth scroll. Each group waited for the signal to begin as they stood in front of the gates blocking them from the forest. There were no rules, anything and everything could happen.

Anko looked around, smirking at the outcome. The teams doubled from last year to her satisfaction. She lifted a whistle to her mouth and blew.

The exams began.

Temari peeked over at Kankuro, then at Gaara. She was worried and knew he had something on his mind, not knowing what it was scared her. Kankuro took notice as well.

"Temari, do you know where we're going?" He tried to whisper as soflty as possible.

"No, but apparently Gaara does. I have a bad feeling about this. He seemed all flustered when he got back last night; I hope everything's alright."

"What if he's looking for someone?"

"Quiet! I think he's listening to us, no more talking." She turned away from him and kept her eyes ahead of her.

Gaara didn't even bother trying to guess at what they were talking about, it the end it was always about him. He hated those two, and he wanted to kill them. But he knew he couldn't, at least not at the moment. But there will be a time when he'll have the pleasure of crushing them. Right now though, they were only useful in helping him settle down into his normal state after every killing, that's why he kept them alive. They didn't look at him like he was their brother, just an assignment the Kazekage laid out for them. He didn't, hardly anything mattered to him.

His senses picked up the scent of prey not too far. He turned his body and headed in that direction.

Temari bravely spoke out, "Gaara, we should try to find the Earth-"

"Don't talk to me."

She closed her mouth and remained silent.

They stopped on the branch of a fairly large tree and looked down. Three bodies were on the ground, they seemed to be forming a plan.

Kankuro spoke, "Do they have the scroll we need?"

"Yes." Was all Gaara said before descending down, followed by his siblings.

The rain shinobis stood up and faced the ninjas from sand. The atmosphere grew thick with tension, and epic battle was about to take place. From the shadows, three leaf shinobis hid behind tall shrubs and watched. This could work out to their advantage.

"This is awesome; one of those shinobis must have the scroll we need." Kiba grinned.

"K-Kiba, I d-don't like this."

Akamaru whined in agreement.

"Stay silent, we don't want to give our position away." Shino warned.

Back onto the battlefield, the leader of the rain group huffed in defiance, "The nerve of those sand brats to challenge us, how foolish of them."

"Are you going to talk us to death or fight?" Gaara said.

"Prepare to meet your maker!"

"Hey Gaara, what if they really don't have the scroll we need?" Kankuro piped up, "I thought we weren't going to fight until-"

"Shut up Kankuro or I'll kill you too."

He backed away and stood beside Temari.

"Sabakukyu."

I used a quote from the manga, for some authenticity.

Ciao.