I wake the next morning, knowing that I have to put my mask back on. I can't bring my team down with my emotions. I get out of bed realizing that in my haste to get home yesterday, we left our shirts at the lake.

I meet my team at the forest where the 2nd phase will take place. I look around at all the ninja that will enter at the same spot. Sasuke's team is here. He looks determined, good. That way, he will be a nice opponent.

We get our scroll. It's an earth scroll. We run into the forest.

"Phase two is gonna be fun," I say to myself.

The boys nod, and we head in a random direction.

We run into a Sound village team. One of them gets annoying and uses his chimes to deafen me and Gontei. I crumble to my knees clutching my hands over my ears in an attempt to block out the sound. The ringing is so deafening its painful.

Thank god for Shoji. He used his chakra as a shield around his own ears, and when he saw that we needed help, he put it around Gontei's and my ears.

I stand, wanting to beat the crap out of that guy. He looks confused as to why I am able to stand. I smirk, and then perform some hand signs. My hands instantly light up with electricity. I send a bolt of lightning sailing into his stomach. Gontei sends a poison needle into the girl's throat and heart. The poison spreads quickly and she falls, dead. Shoji drains the chakra of the remaining opponent. He distributes it between all of us equally.

Yeah, we are so badass. We gain a heaven scroll. Cool, we're practically already done.

"This is bullshit!" I yell.

I'm cutting myself down from some primal trap. Some Grass thought is would be funny to get their scrolls this way. We were running this way when all of our feet flew out from underneath us. Soon after Grass ninja came out and stole our scrolls, and left us. I'm hanging upside down from a tree. We all have ropes around our ankles. I cut myself down, then land on one of my hands and then put my feet down. Gontei cuts Shoji down, making him fall on his face.

"Someone is so going to pay for this," I growl. My team agrees with me.

We run in a random direction again. Hey, it worked for us the first time. We need to find a team to steal from.

We hear screams of pain and the aroma of blood fills the air. I head in that direction. I want a tough team, so they don't wimp out on me after the first punch.

It's the Sand siblings. Gaara has just killed a full team by himself. We crouch down in the bushes, hiding from them.

"His sand is amazing! This is his power? It's magnificent. . ." I mutter, marveling at the red head.

The boys look sickened. I turn and whisper to them my plan. Gontei fades into the shadows. Shoji turns and sprints where we just were, and I jump into a tree and wait.

Gaara is obviously aware of my presence. He stares at the spot where I am. Before I know it, he has me in the grip of his sand, dragging me into view. I'm clearly enjoying myself. I'm smiling like a crazy person.

"Hey, Gaara. Having as much fun as I am?" I ask smirking. He only glares at me in response.

Kunkuro and Temari are shocked. "What the hell are you doing, Popori?" Kunkuro growls at me. Temari looks petrified.

"I'm participating in the exams, what the helldo you think I'm doing?" I shoot at him. "Don't be stupid." I look Gaara in the eye and smile again. "I'd like to finish them as well. You can injure me if you want. I'll bleed happily. But if you can, let me move to the next round, Gaara."

He lets his sand slide down a little. Its only wrapped around my ankles now.

"Thanks Gaara-kun. If I could, I'd hug you."

"Popori are you insane?!!" Kunkuro yells at me. He looks like the one who is about to fall off the deep end.

I glare at him, "No, are you? How could you treat Gaara so poorly all your life? He's blood thirsty now because of you! He needs love, and I'm obviously the only one who is going to supply him with it!" I'm extremely angry right now.

They all stare at me. Gaara is the most surprised. His eyebrows are even slightly raised. The sand falls off me completely. I smile at Gaara.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that no one has had the guts to show you love. I'm here for you Gaara. I'll be your first and, if no one decides to follow me, your only friend. I will do everything I can to get you to feel happiness in your life."

Temari's mouth is hung agape. Kunkuro's fists and jaw are clenched. He looks pissed, and I can't figure out why. Gaara's arms hang at his side as he stares softly at me.

I take a slow step towards him, "May I?"

He doesn't tense, so I proceed to slowly walk up to him. I smile as I say, "You're my friend, Gaara. I hope you'll let me be yours." I put my arms around his neck and hug him.

He tenses at my touch, and then says in his cold voice, "I've seen you do this before. In the Sand. . ." he stares at Kunkuro, who winces and looks down.

"Yes. The day I left. I saw you watching in that tree. What were you doing?" I ask.

He looks at me blankly. "I'd seen you that day at the hotel, when he took you away. You looked like you had wanted to talk to me. Then you tried so hard everyday after that, only to be taken away each time. You were trying to communicate." He looks away from me, into nothingness. "I was curious as to why you bothered."

I smile, "I bothered because I wanted to see you smile. I wanted to be your friend."

Gaara looks at me, "How can you be trying to make others happy . . . when you can't even manage to keep yourself in one piece?"

I'm speechless. How does he know? Did Kunkuro tell him? That's highly unlikely. How does he know?

"I agree with him, Popori," Kunkuro speaks up. "You can't push your own emotions away and then try to fix other people. You'll loose yourself."

"Shut up," I say, trying to make him stop.

"I promised you. That promise is forever."

I look at him. He's trying to make me feel better. I vowed to myself damn it. I vowed I'd make Gaara happy. It's just coincidence that when I finally get to try, my own emotions are spiraled out of control.

Even so, Kunkuro is putting me before anyone else. What a hypocrite. But . . . he's so sweet about it. I . . .

"Kunkuro . . ." I whisper, turning to face him.

He looks me in the eye. A single tear tracks down my face. He walks up to me and cradles my head in his chest. I wrap my arms around him. I look up at him, and he's looking down at me. I smile then get on my tippy toes and press my lips against his.

At first, he's surprised. He definitely didn't expect this. But then he starts to get greedy, like this will be our only kiss. He licks my bottom lip for entrance, and I give it to him. He's exploring my mouth like a mad man. I don't even notice that his hands are resting on my butt until he slips one of them up the back of my shirt.

I pull away from him and smirk. He looks like he wasn't done and really wants to finish. I giggle then somersault backwards for distance. He's going to be very upset with me.

I hold up two scrolls for them to see – one heaven, the other earth. "I win."

That's why he was feeling free to explore my backside. I was doing the same to him, but for a whole different reason.

His mouth hangs open. "What the hell, Popori?!?!?!"

I giggle, then turn away, but stop when I hear Gaara mutter something. "Good strategy. I'll be looking forward to fighting you in the next phase, Popori Ikame."

I glance back at him and grin crookedly. They have more scrolls, I know they do. They don't need these two. I turn back to them, wink at Kunkuro, and laugh at Temari's expression. She is totally torn between being pissed at her brother for being so stupid and wanting to laugh in his face because he was so stupid.

"You-you-you . . . POPORI!!! THAT WAS THE WORST FIRST KISS EVER!!" Kunkuro yells after me.

I laugh then say over my shoulder, "That's only because I totally just out strategized your ass. Keep complaining and I'll have to kick it even harder!"

I know he enjoyed our kiss. He was being way too enthusiastic about it not to be. And in a way, I enjoyed it too. I really did want to kiss him just to make him shut up. But I also, just wanted to kiss him. Maybe if he's lucky, he'll get a rematch one of these days. He won't stay mad at me. He loves me too much.

I meet back up with my team a few hundred yards away from the crime scene. I show them the scrolls I was able to steal and smiled triumphantly.

"You got them, nice!" Shoji complimented me.

"It wasn't without difficulty though, but I've been issued harder missions." I say smirking.

All of our heads snap in the same direction. A huge wave of chakra has just blasted from there, and it's a familiar one, too. I stand then sprint in the way I felt the chakra wave.

"Sasuke . . .Orochimaru!" I growl to myself.

AN: omgeez, what's going on? Kunkuro and Popori just made out! But Kunkuro thinks it was just to get the scrolls, Popori knows differently. Is he gonna stay mad at her?