I know it's been a while since I last updated but I tried to make this chapter longer. Hope you enjoy! I should remind you that almost all of them are fifteen.

Italicsdream

pqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpq

Tenten, Temari, Hinata, and Ino all met outside after school. "Has anyone seen Leonie, Rebecca, or Sakura?" Tenten asked anxiously. "I heard rumors that one of the PE classes had a teamwork survival test thingy, and they're stuck in the forest next to the school until they can find their way out," Ino announced.

This announcement was met with dead silence. "Why didn't you tell us this sooner!" Temari exploded. "Yeah, we've been worried sick about them ever since lunch!" Tenten added.

Ino laughed nervously. "Um, well, I thought they'd be out by now…" Hinata restrained Temari when she tried to choke Ino. "I just h-hope t-they're okay," Hinata said.

With the Guys

"Damn it, where's Sasuke?" Naruto shouted as he paced underneath the trees where they usually met. "He was supposed to bring the tape so that we could blackmail the girls today!"

"Did you even notice that Kiba and Gaara are missing as well?" Neji asked Naruto. Looking around, Naruto finally noticed his other two friends' missing presence. "Where are they?" "At some teamwork training thing for PE," Shikamaru answered.

"Damn, I guess this means we'll have to blackmail the girls tomorrow," Naruto muttered. "Do you even care that three of your friends are in the forest and could possibly die?" Neji asked him curiously. "They'll be fine."

With Gaara and Rebecca

But Naruto's prediction was incorrect for Gaara and Rebecca. "Doesn't that tree look familiar?" Rebecca asked, pointing to a large oak tree. Gaara looked over, and his eyes widened in disbelief. "No way, we passed that tree ten minutes ago!"

"Could this get any worse?" Rebecca moaned. A cold wind started blowing as the sun started setting. "Did I ever mention I hate irony?" Rebecca yelled to the sky.

Gaara growled in frustration. "It's pointless to keep walking since we won't know where we're going." "Did you see anywhere we could sleep?" Gaara looked around. "I haven't seen any clearings…" he said slowly. "That's just perfect. Now we're going to have to sleep in a tree!" Rebecca sighed.

'Might as well sleep in a big tree,' Gaara thought as he started climbing up the oak tree. When he reached about thirty feet, he stopped. "Aren't you coming?" he called down to Rebecca. "Coming where? I need my own tree to sleep in!"

Smirking, Gaara shook his head. "It'd be stupid to sleep in separate trees. If something attacked one of us, we'd be too far away to help the other person." They argued for almost ten minutes straight before Gaara finally won.

The branch that Gaara had chosen was a huge branch that three people could easily sleep on. Rebecca slept on the part that was furthest away from the tree, and Gaara slept on the part that was closest to the tree.

Lulled by the gentle noises of nature, Rebecca fell asleep quickly. But Gaara had more trouble drifting into unconsciousness (no duh, he's an insomniac). However, his musings were cut short by Rebecca's tossing and turning. Frowning, Gaara thought, 'If she doesn't cut that out soon, she's going to fall.'

When he heard faint muttering coming from the sleeping girl, he crawled over to better hear what she was saying.

"No…mother can't be dead! Don't…leave me…like everyone else." A single tear traced its way down her dirt-smudged cheek. Gaara remembered what Rebecca had said during her interview. 'She must be having a nightmare about the night her mom was killed.'

"Rebecca, wake up. It's only a dream." Gaara gently shook the still fidgeting girl. But Rebecca just curled slightly into a ball and muttered with fear evident in her voice, "Don't father! I swear I didn't sneak out! Don't hurt me!"

With that last sentence, she suddenly shot up, but she knocked into Gaara which knocked her off balance and falling head first towards the forest floor. A strong hand that gripped her ankle prevented Rebecca from falling any further. Grunting with effort, Gaara managed to pull her back onto the branch.

"Thanks," Rebecca muttered, her eyes not meeting Gaara's. Her body still trembled from the reality of the dream, and her skin was clammy and sweaty.

Dream One

A ten-year-old Rebecca knelt next to a bloodied body, sobbing. "No! Mother, you can't die. I need you! Don't leave me like everyone else has!"

Breathing shallowly, the woman on the floor responded. "Don't hate your father for what he's done. But you should realize that you don't need me. You're strong and you have Leonie. I'm proud of you. Be brave."

The hand that had been gently stroking Rebecca's cheek slowly fell to the floor and lay still.

"MOTHER!" Rebecca screamed.

Dream Two

An eight-year-old Rebecca cowered before a strongly built man that had a leather belt raised above his head.

"I swear I didn't sneak out! Don't hurt me!" Rebecca yelled frantically. "Quit lying!" the man screamed as he smashed the belt on her delicate skin that was already marked with numerous bruises and cuts.

She cried out in pain.

"Jacob, stop it! She swears she didn't do anything!" her mother yelled. "Shut up, you fucking bitch!" he snarled.

Now that the initial shock had worn off, Rebecca felt burning anger instead of fear. Gaara could feel the anger seeping from her.

"Your parents beat you as a child, didn't they?" Gaara stated bluntly. "Just my father," Rebecca responded, surprising Gaara. Her voice trembled with rage, and her fists were clenched so tightly, her knuckles turned white.

"I'll show you how the memory of that bastard will haunt me forever," Rebecca snarled as she pulled up one of her pant legs to the knee. Just her shins had numerous scars criss-crossing all over the skin.

Suddenly, she punched the tree leaving a huge dent in the trunk.

Gaara's eyes widened slightly. 'She's a lot stronger than she looks.' "I've tried to forget about him and what he did to me and mother. But I can't. It's nothing but a burning pain inside of me. And I hate it!" She screamed the last part. Over and over Rebecca punched the tree until her knuckles were raw and bleeding.

Slowly, the anger faded from her eyes. "If you ever tell anyone about this," Rebecca threatened, looking directly at Gaara, "I will personally show the president of your fan club where you live." Gaara nodded. "Fair enough."

Rebecca sat on the now dented branch just thinking. 'What was I doing, revealing that much to him? I've never told anyone but Leonie about this. But, then again, it would be really hard not to tell Leonie since she lives with me.' Light from the rising sun interrupted her thoughts.

"Dawn, let's go," Gaara said as he began climbing down the tree. When both of them were back on solid ground, they continued walking towards the sun.

About thirty minutes later they emerged from the thick foliage. "What! If I had known we were this close to the end, I wouldn't have stopped walking! Rebecca yelled. "Well, I wouldn't have stopped of you hadn't been complaining so much," Gaara retorted.

"I wasn't the one who suggested we stop."

"You didn't complain when I told you we were stopping."

'Crap, I can't think of anything to say back,' Rebecca thought. Gaara smirked triumphantly. "Shut it, red head," Rebecca warned. "I didn't say anything," Gaara said innocently.

"You're thinking it."

"What, are you psychic now?"

"I can see it in your face!" Rebecca yelled, glaring at Gaara. He glared right back.

Their glaring match would have gone on far a long time if Gai hadn't appeared out of nowhere, freaking both of them out.

"My youthful students, you have finally finished!" "Don't appear out of nowhere like that!" Rebecca yelled, trying to calm her racing heartbeat. Gai just ignored her and continued with what he had been saying. "Congratulations! You are the very last team to finish. Since you only managed to find your way out of the forest now, I will give you these passes to come in at eleven o'clock, so you can go sleep!"

Gai handed each of them a slip of green paper and ran off muttering about their lack of youthfulness. The awkward moment was broken by Rebecca's growling stomach. Gaara smirked as she turned slightly red. "Gotta go, bye!" Rebecca yelled as she sped off towards her house.

Twelve Hours Earlier With Sasuke and Sakura

Sakura glanced worriedly at the rapidly darkening sky. "Shouldn't we stop?" Sasuke shook his head. "Look around you. The trees are thinning out, so we are obviously nearing the end." He ended up being right as twenty minutes later, they walked into the open.

Looking over to where Gai was standing, Sakura spotted Kiba and Leonie already over there.

"Congratulations! You are the second team to finish. The youthfulness is with you!" Gai yelled as Sakura and Sasuke ran up. "You mean Rebecca hasn't finished yet?" Sakura asked Leonie. She shook her head. "Knowing Rebecca, she's probably murdering him or something like that."

Suddenly Sakura's knees buckled as she started falling sideways. But a pair of strong arms grabbing her stopped the fall. Smirking, Sasuke pulled Sakura back into a standing position.

"Klutz." Glaring at Sasuke, Sakura retorted, "Am not! And our temporary truce is officially over now!" Still slightly smirking, Sasuke watched as Sakura stormed home.

The Next Day

Sakura was working on her math worksheet when the door opened. "Ahh! It's a zombie!" a random girl in the back screamed. The person who had just walked in, who happened to be Rebecca, glared at the girl.

When she sat down, Leonie passed her a folded piece of paper.

(a/n: this next part is the note. bold Leonie and underlined Rebecca)

Are you alright?

Yeah, just really tired.

What time did you finally finish the test? I tried to wait for you, but Gai sent me home at eight.

Six-fifteen this morning

This morning?!

Turns out that we were only thirty minutes away from finishing when Gaara made us stop

As if on cue, the boy that Rebecca had been writing about walked through the door. The rest of the morning was nothing but a sleepy haze for Rebecca.

Lunch, however, was the all-time low of the day. Or so Rebecca thought at that time.

"What happened during your test?" Ino pressed Leonie and Sakura for details. Sakura shrugged. "What about you, Rebecca?" Everyone at the table turned to her. "Huh?" "What happened during your test?" Ino repeated slowly. "Nothing," Rebecca replied, putting her head in her arms. "There's no way nothing happened! I mean, you two were in the forest together overnight!" Tenten exclaimed. "Absolutely nothing happened! Just drop it!" Rebecca yelled. They all moved back a little from the fuming girl.

"Someone's in a foul mood today," Gaara commented from behind Rebecca. The rest of the group of guys walked up. 'Why's Sasuke holding a tape recorder?' Leonie wondered.

"Since you embarrassed us in the middle of science class, we've come up with suitable pay back," Kiba informed the girls gleefully. "Wait, so why're you telling us that you're going to get back at us?" Tenten asked. Pretty much all the girls were wondering the same thing.

"Sasuke, will you do the honors of introducing your brilliant plan?" Neji smirked. Smirking as well, Sasuke stepped forward. "Each of you, except for Temari, will have to go on a date with one of us." Rebecca started choking on the milk she was drinking. It took several hard pats to the back before she could breathe normally.

"What kind of a brilliant plan is that? And what the hell makes you think that we'll even go with you?" Rebecca demanded. Naruto laughed evilly. "We already thought of that. We recorded your entire conversation yesterday." "So if you don't go," Sasuke cut in, "we'll show Anko who's really responsible for the explosion in the lab yesterday."

Dead silence from the girls.

"Who do we have to go with? And why is Temari exempt?" Ino demanded. "There wasn't enough of us for someone to go with Temari, so we decided to let her have a break," Neji admitted.

"The pairings are this: Rebecca and Gaara, Kiba and Leonie, Ino and Shikamaru, Naruto and Hinata, Tenten and Neji, and me and Sakura," Sasuke informed them. There were mixed reactions.

Rebecca crushed the empty milk carton still in her hand, Sakura looked like the Apocalypse had just come, Leonie's eyes widened, Hinata looked like she was going to faint, Tenten's mouth was hanging open, and Ino looked like she was actually kind of happy. "We'll let you know later where we're going to go!" Kiba called back to the stunned girls.

'Why am I not at least a little happy?' Rebecca asked herself over and over again. 'I've had a crush on Gaara practically since I first met him. So why do I feel so hollow inside? Probably because the only reason he's doing this is because he wants revenge.' Rebecca sighed.

When she got home, she left her back pack on the table. "Leonie, I'm going for a walk. I need to clear my head." Leonie looked at her friend with understanding. "Go ahead. I'll do your homework." "What?" "You've been really stressed out lately. Go relax." Rebecca smiled gratefully and left.

She went to the one place she could think in peace: the park.

She found the trail she was looking for and followed it for a little while. Then when she came to a stone shaped almost perfectly like a rectangle, she turned left and kept walking until she reached her clearing. Sighing in relief, she sat against a sakura tree, closed her eyes, and thought about everything that had been happening to her lately.

Lost in thought, Rebecca didn't notice how dark it was until the sun was almost gone. She stood up and prepared to leave until she sensed ten people completely surrounding the clearing. 'Crap,' was the only thing she had time to think before the presences revealed themselves. They were all boys about eighteen years old.

"What's a girl as pretty as you doing out here all alone this late?" the one who was obviously the leader purred. All the guys were staring at her body and not attempting to hide they liked what they saw.

Rebecca bared her teeth. "Get the fuck out of my way before I seriously hurt you," she hissed. The leader laughed. "You're a feisty one. I like the fiery ones more than the meek ones." He moved towards her. Shifting slightly so she had more balance, Rebecca punched him straight in the face. He flew back and smashed into a tree.

The lust was gone from his eyes now to be replaced by anger. "Pin her down!" he ordered. All of the guys, except for the leader, attacked at once. For the next thirty seconds, she dodged and blocked, kicked and punched, until she forced all of them back. They all had blood coming out of them from somewhere.

The nine in front of her… 'Wait a minute. There were ten just a minute ago. Oh crap!'

Before Rebecca had a chance to react, a rock hit her solidly on the back of her head. Her vision went blurry, and she stumbled and fell to her knees. Instantly, two of the guys ran at her. She tried to punch them, but they grabbed her arms and forced her down. She tried to kick the two holding her arms, but two more had pinned her legs.

"Let me go!" she hissed. The leader walked over, lust back in his eyes

With Gaara

Gaara walked aimlessly through the park. He desperately needed to clear his head. Normally, when he saw Rebecca, he felt his competitive side awaken. But lately, he had been feeling something different.

'There is no way I'm falling for her!' Gaara reassured himself. 'She's my arch rival.'

His thoughts were interrupted by something that sounded a lot like Rebecca's voice saying, "Let me go!" It didn't sound like she was playing, either. 'Might as well go take a look.'

He jumped into the trees and jumped from branch to branch so that no one would notice him. When he got to the clearing where he thought the voice had come from, he stopped. What he saw made him turn cold with rage.

Four boys pinned Rebecca down to the ground while six stood watching. One of the six walked up to Rebecca and talked to her. 'They're going to rape her!' A fury Gaara hadn't felt in a long time burned to the surface inside him.

With Rebecca

The leader walked up to Rebecca and moved his face so close to hers, she could smell the cigarette smoke on his breath. "We're going to teach you why you shouldn't be out so late alone," he whispered. Rebecca growled in response and slammed her forehead against his. She almost passed out but felt grim satisfaction when he stumbled back in pain.

"I'm done being nice! Time to start your lesson!" The leader stalked over and ordered one of the others watching to restrain her head. Rebecca's vision was going black. "Is this how it's going to end?' she wondered.

Suddenly the pressure her arms, legs, and head disappeared. She struggled to refocus her eyes when she heard Gaara's voice say coldly, "Get the fuck away from her." "Gaara?" she whispered disbelievingly.

Turning to face her, Gaara offered her a hand to help her up. Rebecca allowed herself to be pulled back to her feet where she resumed her fighting stance, swaying dangerously. The attackers could feel the raw rage pouring from Gaara and ran.

"Are you alright?" Gaara's answer was Rebecca passing out into his arms. 'Well, at least she doesn't live far,' he thought sighing. Then he noticed blood running from where she had been hit by the rock. His eyes widened. 'Shit, this is really bad.'

He picked her up bridal style and started running. When he reached her apartment door, he started banging. "No need to be so impatient," he heard Leonie grumble from the other side.

"Gaara, what happened?" Leonie asked when she saw Rebecca lying limply. "Some senior guys tried to rape her just now. But that's not that important right now. She needs to get to the hospital, fast. Her head is bleeding."

Leonie didn't ask anymore questions.

She waved him in and dashed for the phone. "An ambulance is on its way now," Leonie announced a minute later. Another minute later, the sirens from the ambulance could be heard. The two ran out as the ambulance pulled up. Gaara gently laid Rebecca on the stretcher and turned to leave. Leonie's hand on his elbow stopped him. "You have to come. You're the only one who knows what happened."

As Gaara thought about the past hour during the ride to the hospital, he realized something that made him sigh in defeat. He had fallen for his arch rival.

For the next hour and a half, Gaara answered questions about what happened. Finally, he and Leonie were standing in Rebecca's room listening to what the doctor said. "Young man, if you hadn't done anything, this girl could have died. But she's not out of trouble yet. She needs to stay home tomorrow and not move around much to give her body time to heal."

"So she can go home?" Leonie asked hopefully. "As soon as she wakes up." No sooner had the doctor said that then Rebecca began stirring. "Well, then in that case, she can go. But I strongly advise against letting her walk." The doctor left the room.

While Leonie went to her friend, Gaara called Kankuro. (Just pretend Kankuro can drive.) "Kankuro, I need you to come pick me up from the hospital. No, I'm not the one in trouble. Okay, I'll meet you outside in five minutes."

Gaara turned to the two girls who were staring at him. "What?" "You saved my life. If you hadn't been there, I more than likely would have died. Thank you." Gaara smirked. "Don't thank me yet. I still have to carry you outside."

Eventually, they all made it back to Rebecca and Leonie's apartment. Kankuro waited in the car while Gaara carried Rebecca inside and laid her down on her bed.

"Gaara, can I ask you a favor?" Rebecca asked. "Depends." "Please don't tell anyone about what happened today." Gaara nodded. "Don't worry." Then he left.

pqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpq

This chapter was more about Gaara and Rebecca but my next chapter will be more centered on Sasuke and Sakura. But I finally managed to make a long chapter! Yay! Please don't forget to review! I'll be updating my other story soon.