A/N: Happy two days after Halloween! Hope you all enjoyed your candy, I certainly did :D. Anyways I'd like to say thanks so much to my wonderful reviewers. Here's Chapter 10.

Disclaimer: I did not own Naruto when I started this fic, nor do I own it now.

The thing in front of her was so deformed that Layuki actually found herself staring at it in awe, despite the fear that she felt in the pit of her stomach. Half of the figure was in the shape of a normal person, but the other half…

Layuki shivered and moved a hand to the sand around her mouth, that's when she discovered it wasn't just her mouth that was covered in sand; her whole body was too. She felt the panic begin to rise and the same time she felt the sand begin to squeeze tightly until it was almost too hard to breathe. She tried to scream, despite the sand, and she was quite surprised when she heard a groan. Until she discovered that the sound didn't come from her.

The human half of the thing raised its hand to its face and ducked its head. The monster part stopped moving for a second. To Layuki it seemed like the two halves were having some sort of argument.

In that moment, she realised that if she didn't do something, fast, she would die. If she could of, she would have screamed in frustration. Lately, it seemed like the world had suddenly turned on her and everyone she met was trying to kill her. She used her remaining energy to attack while the thing was debating what to do.

Gathering strength she forced her right hand to do hand signs while she focused chakra into her left hand to try to sweep the sand away. Managing her hand signs she smiled underneath her sand mask as she felt the electricity run through her body. She forced it out experimentally and felt hope when she saw that the sand lifted a centimetre off her skin when it came in contact with the lightning. Layuki concentrated hard and let all of it out. The sand bounced off her skin a whole foot and it quickly shot back, only to grasp onto nothing.

Layuki had managed to gather enough chakra at that time to help her jump to the ceiling. Now, she used chakra in her hands and feet to hold her up there. She was surprised when she found out that the thing didn't even know she had left. But as soon as she thought that, the monster looked up. Slowly the thing morphed back into the shape of a boy. Layuki gasped as she recognised Gaara's red hair. Her gasp quickly turned into a stream of profanities as sand shot upwards at her. Jumped down and landed behind Gaara and she ran as fast as her feet would take her.

She could hear the sand following her and she couldn't help but wonder why he wanted to kill her so much. Suddenly she tripped and almost fell flat or her face. Swearing even more she dodged the sand, got up, and continued running. Now she was holding the bottom her hospital robe up so she wouldn't fall over it again. This was why she hated wearing dresses or skirts. She kept running through the maze of walls and doors. To her, the tower never looked so big on the outside. Once or twice she tried screaming for help, but her voice couldn't take it and soon she couldn't make a sound at all.

All of a sudden pain exploded through her body. The pain that she must have not noticed because of her fear was suddenly so strong that she could barely move. And when she fell this time, she really did fall flat on her face. She tried with all her strength to stand up so she could keep running, but her legs were limp and her arms weren't strong enough to support her little weight. She gave up and let herself fall to the floor. She rolled to her side, ignoring the pain, and forced herself into a ball. She closed her eyes tight and prepared to feel the sand envelop her.

But nothing happened. She opened her eyes and blinked in surprise. Why wasn't anything happening? She lifted her head, not knowing what she was going to see.

A man stood in front of Gaara, he seemed like he was a sensei of some sort from Sunagakure, his head was bandaged and half his face was hidden behind a curtain.

"That's enough Gaara. Do not lose control." The man emphasized the last four words and glared at his pupil. Gaara merely looked at him and walked away.

"That was close Baki," Kankorou's voice made Layuki sit up and look at him in surprise. Temari was standing next to him. Layuki noticed that she didn't feel any pain again, though she wasn't sure why this time. "What are we going to do about the girl though?"

"Leave her here Kankorou," The man named Baki replied, beginning to walk away. "Knock her out first, though. When they find her they won't believe her, they'll just think she needs treatment." With that, he was gone.

Kankorou grinned and walked over to Layuki smirking. He was about to hit her in the back of her head when Temari's voice interrupted. "You're really lucky, you know. You're probably the first person that's survived Gaara twice, in two days. I don't get why he can't kill you, or won't kill you for that matter. But don't count on surviving a third time." Then she too disappeared like her sensei did.

Before Layuki could even blink Kankorou's fist hit her head and she was out cold. Lying in the middle of the hall until someone found her.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"I'm not crazy. I'm telling the truth!" Layuki said to her teammates through clenched teeth. She had been found where she had been knocked out last night and now she was trying to believe her story. Unfortunately for her, the only thing she got people to believe was that something was wrong with her head.

"Layuki calm down. There's something wrong with your head. There is no evidence that someone tried to kill you last night, it was just a hallucination." Karin said calmly.

"It was not a hallucination. I am perfectly sane, thank you very much!" Layuki was almost yelling now. She somehow resisted the urge to hit someone near her.

"Do you think she can take the preliminaries?" Layuki heard a quiet voice behind her and she turned around to see a nurse talking to a pale man that would not stop coughing.

"She will take the preliminaries, unless - cough, cough - she forfeits of course. But she doesn't seem like the kind - cough - of person to do that." The man replied, coughing between words. Layuki heard her teammates talk to her but she wasn't listening.

"Where is my stuff?" She asked her friends gravely. Karin pointed to the closet. Layuki walked over and grabbed her things. "How many more days are there left for the exam?"

"Today's the last day. Why?" Kaoru answered.

Layuki shrugged. "I want to get out of here soon. I want to go somewhere where people won't think I'm insane,"

"Oh no! Don't do that Layuki, stop trying to make us feel guilty!" Karin whined.

"I'm not, I'm going for a walk." Layuki said, throwing on her clothes. She hadn't felt any pain since she had woken up. She wasn't sure, but she had a feeling that it wasn't because of the drugs the nurses gave her. Turning on her heel she walked out the infirmary doors, leaving her teammates behind.

She didn't have any particular place in mind, but seeing as today was the last day for the exams, she realized that she hadn't seen the sun for a while. So she made up her mind and walked outside with the intention of soaking up on some vitamin D.

After a couple minutes of waking she began to get irritated. She had walked past many staircases, but she couldn't seem to find the door to go outside. Settling for a window, she walked over to an open one and sat on the ledge.

"How's your head?" Layuki whipped around to look at the person talking. When she saw who it was she gave a huge smile.

"Ohayo Shikamaru. Or would ohayo not be the right word, because it doesn't seem like it's morning anymore," Layuki said, looking out the window once more. She knew that he noticed she avoided his question.

"Does it really matter? If it's morning to you then you say 'good morning' whether it's afternoon or not doesn't matter. Don't worry about such troublesome things, ohayo works perfectly fine."

Layuki grinned. This was one reason she loved talking to Shikamaru, he hardly ever changed the subject. "So you didn't answer my question, how's your head?" Layuki frowned. Well he hardly ever changed the subject.

"It's fine," She growled, "but you probably think I have a concussion, don't you? Everyone else thinks so. Where's your team anyways?"

"No I think you're telling the truth. Ino and Chouji are asleep. Unlike you, we just finished." He said tiredly. This actually surprised Layuki.

"You just got in? But didn't I give you and earth scroll a couple days ago? And why aren't you sleeping, it's so unlike you."

"Some other group nicked that scroll, so we needed a new one," He yawned, "and for not being asleep, I'm going now. Try not to be troublesome," And he turned around and walked away. Layuki smiled after him and turned to the window once more.

Four. She counted four times that she had almost been killed in the last couple days. Four times by two people. She groaned, and wondered if she would ever be able to live life without always looking over her shoulder.

A/N: Hope you liked it. Thanks for taking the time to read. Reviews are appreciated ;). Thanks again! (:
fanny-kun