The Written Exam…
The past 27 days, Mayonaka, Naruto and Sasuke had been training intensely to prepare for the exams. Even the smallest mission turned into a training session. It was only during the last week that Mayonaka finally woke up and was able to move without being in pain due to how sore she was. She was still gloomy though, about not being able to have Gaara. She had wanted him so badly. But she put on a happy face for her friends. They suspected nothing.
It was finally the day for the first exam. Mayonaka was due to start her period again. She could tell; her breasts were sore and swollen, she was cold, tired, and she had no appetite. A week before her actual period week, Mayonaka's appetite would always disappear. When her period week came, her appetite came back with a vengeance.
Mayonaka met Naruto and Sasuke at the academy where the exam was to take place. All three went into a room where all the genin were being kept until they had the classroom prepared. Immediately, Naruto did something incredibly stupid and shouted, "My name is Uzumaki, Naruto and I won't lose to any of you!" Every person in the room, and there were a lot, looked his way. Mayonaka edged to the side unnoticed and began to search for Shikamaru. She found him napping near the rest of his team.
"Hey Chouji. Hey Ino. How long has Shikamaru been asleep?"
"Since we got here. Wait…if you're here, that means…. Sasuke-kun I'm coming!"
Mayonaka watched Ino speed off and glomp Sasuke. Mayonaka sat on the desk where Ino had been and kicked Shikamaru's foot to wake him up. He groaned, opened his eyes, saw Mayonaka and sat up.
"I hate it when you wake me up from my naps for no apparent reason."
"And you still love me anyway." Mayonaka pulled a box of pocky out of her bag and began munching. Seeing Chouji eating his chips had made her hungry. "So what's new?"
"Nothing really. I see Naruto's done something stupid already."
Mayonaka looked over her shoulder and saw Ino strangling Naruto for something he said. "Yeah. The dumbass always finds a new way to prove he's more of an idiot than I already thought by doing something stupid. But ya gotta love him." mayonaka leaned back against the wall behind the desk she was sitting on and closed her eyes. She was so tired. She had already downed an energy drink and drinking another would just be too much. Mayonaka stuck another piece of pocky in her mouth and began falling asleep. Apparently she had a thoughtful expression on her face because as soon as she was about to fall asleep, Shikamaru asked, "What are you thinking? You're not usually this quiet."
Mayonaka quickly thought of something to say to satisfy Shikamaru. "I was just thinking, if we could harness the power of stupid, and use it to power the world, we'd be able to blow our asses to the next 300 galaxies and 400 dimensions. I mean, think about how many stupid people are out there and just how incredibly stupid they are."
"Where the hell did that come from?"
"I don't know. Besides, you should know by now how utterly random I am." Suddenly, a giant puff of smoke announced the arrival of the instructor for the first exam. He announced the rules for the written exam; if you are caught cheating for the third time, you fail. There will be ten questions and the tenth will be given 15 minutes before the end of the hour and the questions will become harder as they progressed. The person who gets the lowest score of the three-man squad will not only fail, but never be able to become a chuunin. After the instructor announced the rules, he showed everyone the seating chart. Mayonaka found her seat, sat down and placed her head in her arms, waiting for the exam to be handed out.
She lifted her head when she was handed a test by one of the guards who would be stationed around the perimeter of the room to watch for cheaters. She looked around to see who was sitting by her. To her right was a silver haired boy who wore glasses and tied his hair up in a ponytail. In front of her was Ino. Behind her was Sasuke. To her left was Gaara.
A blush threatened to creep up Mayonaka's neck but she was able to keep it at bay. He would be sure to notice it at such close quarters. On his back was a gourd exactly like the pendant on her necklace, only bigger and not made of silver. Mayonaka had failed to notice it before. 'How the hell did I miss that before?! I am so stupid!' Mayonaka felt incredibly giddy now that she had realized that Gaara did have something relating him to her necklace. Her daydreams were interrupted by the instructor shouting, "Begin!" and the shuffle of paper as tests were turned over.
Mayonaka finished within the first half-hour finding only the final few questions to be difficult. During the test, Mayonaka carefully watched the people around her for cheating. At one point she saw Ino's body slump against the desk as she used her jutsu to possess to body of the person in front of her and steal their answers. Gaara had made some subtle hand signs and produced an eye made from the sand he used. He used the eye to look at the answers of the person in front of him while they rubbed their own eyes. Mayonaka saw many people cheating, but only a few got caught. She was thankful she didn't have to take the risk.
During training, Mayonaka had trained with Sasuke and Naruto on telepathic communication. Of course, they couldn't establish the contact, but they could recognized it and respond to Mayonaka through thought if needed. After the 27 days, Mayonaka could have a conversation with the two without ever opening their mouths.
After completing the first 9 questions of her test, Mayonaka flipped it over, rested her elbow on her desk and placed her chin on her hand, pretending to take a nap. She made contact with Sasuke and asked if he needed any help with his answers.
'I'm good. I copied your answers with my sharingan. I think Naruto may need help though.'
As soon as Mayonaka made contact with Naruto, she leapt back from the noise level of his incoherent scream of, 'I DON'T NEED ANY HELP! I'M FINE!' She immediately cut off contact but not because she didn't want to hear anymore; she was preoccupied with trying to keep her composure. Upon leaping back she had slipped off her chair, crashed to the floor, her head hitting Sasuke's desk behind her, and let out a small yelp of pain. All eyes were on her as she climbed back into the chair. The instructor stared at her for a moment before asking what happened.
"Fell asleep. Slipped off chair. Okay now." Mayonaka's face had gone bright red. When the instructor turned around again, Mayonaka rested her forehead on her hands so that they hid her face. She tried to bury her head between her shoulders and slouch down in her chair as far as she would go to see if she might just disappear. It didn't work…at all. She ended up looking like a really short, red-faced hunchback whose arms were too long. After sitting like this for a full five minutes, she finally relaxed. She placed her head in her arms over her test and immediately fell asleep.
Mayonaka awoke to the sound of Naruto's shrill voice shouting something at the front of the room. 'What the hell is that idiot doing now? My head's still pounding from the first time he yelled.' It was obviously time for the tenth question. When Naruto stopped yelling and sat down, Mayonaka lifted her head to listen to the question. She was surprised when the instructor told everyone they passed. Mayonaka assumed they were free to go when everyone stood up to leave. Suddenly, a purple haired woman jumped into the room through the closed window showering everyone with glass.
"Not yet maggots. You still got your second exam." The first instructor spoke up.
"Anko, you're early. The second exam is tomorrow."
"I know that. I'm just handing out the consent forms now." While Mayonaka waited to receive her form she watched the second instructor. Her most noticeable feature was that she wore a mesh shirt…with no bra. After receiving her form, Mayonaka looked up at the instructor.
"Freedom?" The instructor nodded. "FREEDOM!" Mayonaka leapt over the desks and ran out the door screaming, "PAINKILLERS!" leaving everyone flabbergasted. She had a massive headache from all of Naruto's yelling. She ran home, downed some painkillers, and ran to Ichiraku's where she knew she'd find Naruto. She found him and instantly put him in a headlock. She then began talking in his ear as he struggled to free himself. "Next time…DON'T FUCKING SCREAM IN MY HEAD DAMN IT!"
Naruto slumped, unconscious, into his chair like a dead bag of potatoes. Mayonaka sat down next to him and ordered some ramen as Naruto's arrived. The smell of freshly made ramen was able to get Naruto out of his blackout and he immediately chowed down. Surprisingly, Sasuke showed up and also ordered a bowl of ramen. Even more surprisingly, Mayonaka didn't care.
Her mind was currently elsewhere; thinking about Gaara. She was absolutely ecstatic about finding out he was her true love. Mayonaka's ramen arrived at the same time as Sasuke's. She scarfed it down, her appetite finally having returned. Sasuke, being a total retard, asked Naruto how his own exam went. Sometimes Mayonaka couldn't believe how stupid he could be.
"Oh, mine went fine. How about you?"
"Naruto, don't lie damn it." Mayonaka couldn't stand it when he lied and did things that he wouldn't normally do to prove that he was better that Sasuke. Naruto glared at Mayonaka and began wolfing down his ramen again, stopping only to breathe. Sasuke looked at Mayonaka expecting her to explain. "I'll let Naruto tell you what happened if he wants to. Just don't pester him." Sasuke shrugged and slowly started on his ramen, very unlike Naruto and Mayonaka who merely scarfed down bowl after bowl.
Mayonaka slurped up the last bit of her broth, paid and set off to see if Shikamaru had done all right, and she wanted to see if she could catch a glimpse of Gaara again. She found Shikamaru lying on a bench on a rooftop next to Chouji, who was sitting. "Mind if I join you?" Shikamaru grunted, which Mayonaka assumed meant, "Go ahead." She laid down on her back with her hands behind her head next to Shikamaru. He was obviously trying to nap. "So, Chouji, how'd your exam go?"
"It went pretty well. I did have to cheat a little though."
"That doesn't matter. We were supposed to cheat. I wish Naruto had known that."
"Yeah. Shikamaru told me that after the exam."
"Hey Shikamaru, how'd your exam go?" Shikamaru lazily gave Mayonaka a thumbs-up. Mayonaka giggled and looked at the clouds, which were turning a lovely pink color as the sun fell. Shikamaru's laziness always amused her. Mayonaka closed her eyes and saw Gaara's face; another daydream. She finally noticed that whenever she had seen Gaara, his features were always arranged in a scowl. She wanted so badly to find out what went on behind those hate-filled eyes. Last she had checked, all the screaming had drowned out the thoughts.
Mayonaka eventually fell asleep on the rooftop. When she awoke, Shikamaru and Chouji had left and the full moon was directly above her. She checked her watch to find that it was five to midnight. Mayonaka sat up, stretched, and yawned before sprouting wings to fly home; she was too tired to walk and flying would be faster.
Mayonaka was about 15 feet over the rooftops, riding a warm breeze and gliding without a sound. She peered down at the rooftops flashing by and opened her mind to the dreams of the sleeping villagers; it was always interesting to watch another person's dreams. Most of the dreams tonight were very peaceful and helped make Mayonaka relax and feel serene.
As she passed over one rooftop, she encountered an incredibly vivid and horrible nightmare. A familiar sort of screaming erupted in her skull as the nightmare this person was having flooded her mind. She cringed from the pain because the dream was so vivid, so incredibly vivid that there was no way someone was dreaming this; these were remembered memories of a boy she felt she must have met before, but couldn't quite remember. Mayonaka's thoughts were muddled and confused. She couldn't think very clearly while in so much pain. A new wave of pain washed over her and, forgetting she was 15 feet in the air, she cringed and tried to use her wings to protect her from the invisible force.
As Mayonaka realized she was plummeting towards the rooftops, she tried to re-open her wings and catch a breeze. All she had really done was take away the armor-like protection that would have prevented any damage to her body when she reached the ground. Mayonaka naturally put her arms out in front of her to break her fall. She heard a sickening snap by her right ear as she caught all her weight on her right arm. She didn't feel anything as she slipped into unconsciousness. The problem was, her mind was still open to the thoughts of those around her; the memories of the boy tortured her, even when she was unconscious. It was only then that Mayonaka recognized that it was Gaara; he had finally let down his barriers and was thinking about his past. Mayonaka's brain was too scrambled and too close to unconsciousness to register any more than that.
Gaara's Past…
Mayonaka watched as Gaara's troubled childhood unfolded before her. She saw and felt things as he remembered, through his eyes. She felt the cool breeze ruffling his gorgeous, red, tangled locks and the soft sand shifting beneath his sandals as he walked through the village of Suna. He sat down on a swing and hugged a stuffed animal to his chest. Mayonaka didn't know how, but she knew the stuffed animal was Gaara's favorite teddy bear. She figured he must've been much younger when this took place.
Mayonaka watched a group of kids playing a game of kickball in the distance through Gaara's eyes. She felt how alone he had felt as he watched them running and laughing. He hugged his bear closer to his chest for comfort. They kept watching the game. At one point, the ball soared high into the air and landed in a puff of sand on the roof of a nearby building. Gaara got up, abandoned his bear by the swing, and walked, unnoticed by the other children, over to the building.
The other children stared at the ball as it was suddenly lifted by the sand, and carried down to Gaara's waiting hands. The children looked absolutely horrified; as if Gaara had just whipped out a chainsaw with an attached flamethrower and began charging while laughing maniacly. Mayonaka was confused because Gaara had just rescued their ball. Shouldn't they be thanking him?
Instead of thanking Gaara, the children began shouting things like, "Hey! It's that Gaara kid! Everybody run!" As the children began running, the memory got slightly blurry; not like Gaara was crying, but more like he couldn't remember it very well. Suddenly, Mayonaka felt incredibly alone and neglected, reminding her of her time with Lucifer. She felt unwanted, unneeded, and uncared for. Mayonaka felt the years of built up rage finally burst inside Gaara and the memory blurred further. Mayonaka could barely make out a girl being grabbed by the sand and dragged back by the ankle before a wave of sand rose into the air to crush her.
The memory suddenly became incredibly vivid again as a young, rather feminine looking man stepped in the path of the sand and yelled in a pleading voice to stop. Mayonaka felt the affection Gaara had for this man, apparently his uncle, and the agony he felt when he saw the blood gushing forth from the gashes along the man's right forearm and forehead, left by the sand.
The memory then quickly changed. Gaara was now in a room with a large window offering Mayonaka a gorgeous view of the village. She also saw Gaara's reflection in the window. He appeared to be about 6 years old and wearing a sand-colored shawl. Everything seemed almost the same except that he had no gourd on his back. There seemed to be something else missing though, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Mayonaka went back to the memory after a while of trying to figure it out.
Gaara was holding a medical scalpel in his right hand and was pointing it at his left. He was staring at a picture of a brown-haired woman who looked very much like Gaara's uncle had. Mayonaka registered from the memory that this was Gaara's deceased mother. Gaara turned his attention to the scalpel in his hand. He quickly raised the scalpel and swiftly brought it down as if to stab his left hand. Before the blade could make contact, however, a small amount of sand blocked its path, shielding Gaara's hand from injury. It was obvious that Gaara was not the one controlling the sand this time.
Gaara was muttering something about the sand always interfering when his uncle came in the room and saw Gaara's attempt to hurt himself. Gaara's uncle took away the scalpel and the memory went blurry again. Mayonaka could tell how ashamed Gaara felt but she couldn't make out what he, or his uncle, Yashamaru, were saying. She could make out the words "love" and "pain" but nothing else.
Suddenly, Gaara grabbed Yashamaru's hand. Mayonaka could only tell because she felt it; the memory had gotten too blurry to make anything out. Gaara brought the hand to his mouth and began sucking on one of Yashamaru's fingers. Mayonaka was utterly confused until she tasted blood. She finally understood that Yashamaru had been trying to explain what pain felt like to Gaara. He must have cut his finger as a demonstration…or something like that. The memory suddenly cleared as Yashamaru quietly whispered, "Gaara, you are very precious to me. I don't know what I would do if something were to happen to you."
The memory suddenly switched again and Gaara was running through the streets of Suna with a small paper bag in his hands and a smile on his lips. Mayonaka could tell that in the bag was medicine, and he was bringing it to the girl who had gotten hurt when his sand got out of control. Gaara reached the girl's house and knocked on the door. He felt so happy that he was doing something good for someone else.
When the girl answered the door, the memory blurred severely. Mayonaka couldn't tell what was going on. She could only feel Gaara's emotions. Mayonaka heard a door slam in the distance and assumed it was the girl, slamming the door in Gaara's face. Gaara was absolutely devastated and confused. He had thought he was doing something good, but something had gone horribly awry. He seemed to believe that he was just a monster and that is the only thing that had gone wrong.
The memory jumped again and Gaara was sitting on a rooftop, staring at his hands. He was trying to figure out why he was acting this way; why he was such a monster. Apparently, he had just killed a man for looking at him the wrong way. Suddenly, a wall of sand shot up behind Gaara, snapping him out of his stupor. He turned to see a masked ninja with kunai knives hovering in the air, ready to hurtle them at Gaara.
Gaara then shouted something that Mayonaka couldn't make out before burying the ninja in sand and lifting him into the air. Gaara performed a jutsu that began crushing the ninja before dropping him on the ground. As Gaara saw the ninja's bandaged finger, the blood fled from his cheeks, leaving his face even more unnaturally pale. Gaara walked over to the ninja, knelt down beside him, and removed his mask.
Tears welled up in Gaara's eyes when he saw the face of the man who had tried to kill him. The man was his uncle, Yashamaru. He was badly injured and blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth. Gaara felt horrible at what he'd done and confused as to why Yashamaru would do something like this. Tears began rolling down Gaara's cheeks as he questioned his uncle's motives. Yashamaru replied in a hoarse voice, just above a whisper.
"I was ordered to kill you Gaara, by the Kazekage, your father."
Gaara felt slightly nauseous when he found out his father had tried to get him killed, but a grain of hope remained embedded in his heart. "You mean…you didn't have a choice. You had to follow orders." Gaara turned his face to look back at Yashamaru hopefully, only for that hope to be disintegrated by Yashamaru's reply.
"No. I had a choice. I could have refused, but I didn't want to Gaara. You see, I hated you." It felt like Gaara's heart had stopped beating for a moment and fallen into his stomach. "I always hated you Gaara. You are the reason my sister is dead. I tried to convince myself that she lived on in you, but I couldn't bring myself to loving a monster. But I'm not alone Gaara, because no on loves you, has ever loved you, and no one ever will love you. The sand demon Shukaku is sealed within you. You are only an experimental and dangerous weapon. Fight only for yourself, love only yourself, and you will survive. Goodbye Gaara; this is the end, for both of us."
Yashamaru pulled down the zipper on his jacket, revealing a layer of explosive seals. Gaara saw the first one ignite before a shell of sand surrounded him to protect him from the explosion.
Gaara's ears were ringing slightly as the sand slowly sifted to the ground. Yashamaru's words kept whirling about in Gaara's head as he watched the grains of sand bounce and hit each other. 'Love only myself, fight only for myself…' Gaara was in tremendous pain; his heart actually physically ached because of it. The one person Gaara had thought was his friend had just killed himself in an attempt to murder Gaara.
Suddenly, the image blacked out. Mayonaka figured the memory was too painful for Gaara. She could still hear and feel what was happening, although, it was very faint. She could barely hear Gaara's screams; she wanted to know what was going on.
When Gaara's screaming ceased, the image returned, along with a searing pain above Gaara's left eye. He was muttering something that Mayonaka couldn't really understand. She assumed it was Yashamaru's words again. She saw out of the corner of Gaara's eye, a nearby window. She caught Gaara's reflection and realized what had been missing earlier; the kanji for love. She felt the sting of salt in the wound and realized he must have done it with his sand.
The memory stopped abruptly as pain erupted in her shoulder near the nape of her neck. Mayonaka instinctively grabbed her shoulder where the pain was and felt something hard and sharp poking out of the skin along with warm, sticky liquid. She opened her eyes and strained to see what was causing the pain. She removed her hand and saw out of the very corner of her eye, a white object sticking out of where her collarbone was. She also saw a large bloodstain forming on her shirt. She then realized the she had a compound fracture in her collarbone.
Mayonaka sat up and pushed the bone back in place with her thumb. When it was aligned, she healed the hole in her skin and refused the bone. The area was still raw and throbbing with pain, but she could move her shoulder again. Mayonaka lapped up some of the blood out of habit and tasted salt.
Mayonaka quickly stood up and turned around at the sound of something shifting around. She followed trails of sand as they flowed into the gourd tied to Gaara's back. Mayonaka wished the moon wasn't so bright, but she was sure Gaara would've noticed her practically glowing blush even if it was pitch black.
But her heart ached as her sympathy went out to him. His past was just as bad, maybe even more so, as hers. Her maternal instinct told her to go to him and comfort him, but her survival instinct told her to run away…quickly. She took a cautious step forward, unsure of what to do. Gaara sat there, waiting for her to make the first move. Mayonaka glanced at her watch to find that it was exactly midnight; she had been out for about 3 minutes with a broken collarbone and he hadn't done a thing to help her. She decided to leave and let him sulk, figuring her survival instinct knew best.
Mayonaka turned around and unfurled her crumpled wings, ready to take off. When she took to the skies she chanced one final look back at Gaara. He was still watching her. She was surprised when she looked into his eyes. She could've sworn she saw the faintest glimpse of pure curiosity shimmering behind his impassive expression. She paid attention to where she was going again, just in time to avoid a tall building in front of her. Her face flushed again as she realized Gaara must've seen this.
As she flew, Mayonaka realized her face was a lot colder than it should have been. When she reached up to touch her cheek, she found it wet. She licked her lips and found them salty. She concluded that she had been crying from the pain, not only in her shoulder, but also from Gaara's memories. The pain had been enough to make her cry, even in unconsciousness.
When Mayonaka reached her apartment she let herself in via the window. As she prepared for bed, Mayonaka ran over Gaara's memories in her head. One thing stood out in particular; Yashamaru had mentioned the one-tailed demon, Shukaku. He had said that it was sealed within Gaara. He had a demon as well. Mayonaka had found another jinchuuriki. Mayonaka smiled as she went to bed; she had found one more, besides Naruto, like herself.