Chapter eleven: In waiting

Gaara and his team stayed for three more days before I found out they had to go. That day, I didn't know what to do.

Gaara walked up to my pained and confused face and raised my head with one of his fingers. I looked into his eyes and let some of my hair fall infront of my face "Rani…" he whispered my name as he always did to know he was thinking about me. I pushed away his hand and turned away.

"Gaara I don't know what to do... I want to stay and protect the forest, but I want to stay with you even more! What do I do Gaara-kun?!" I cried in confusion.

Gaara wrapped his arms around me and rested his head on my shoulder "Rani, Nekomata-sama can take care of the forest… she may be old but she's not weak, trust in her and she cannot fail" Gaara advised me quietly. I calmed down and I felt my heart slow back to its normal rate.

I looked across to see Gaara's head on my shoulder; he looked at me; examining my eyes and trying his best to see underneath them so he could see what was going on in my mind. I smiled sweetly "Thankyou Gaara… you always know how to make me feel better…" I thanked him lovingly and looked back to my spot.

I was in the building in the forest and I smiled lovingly, this forest was my home for when I was hiding from this cold world, I found it hard to survive there at first but over time I got better and better at hunting for food, I got faster on my feet, I trained my chakra control and learnt many other skills. This was the perfect training place… perhaps I will return but not now, right now I wish to be with Gaara.

"I will miss it here… but…" I started and turned around to look at Gaara. Gaara blinked and waited for an answer "…But as long as you're with me I will not suffer…" I whispered to him and he smiled and nuzzled the crook of my neck and I shivered as his scruffy hair tickled me slightly.

I felt his iron grip loosen and before I knew it we had left the forest of death and we were now entering a stadium. I looked left and right and saw that there was a balcony for those who were watching the fights, grey empty walls stretched across and dim green tiles stretched across the floor. I then saw a grey cement statue on the far right of the arena; it was in the shape of two arms that were brought together to make a handsign that shown tiger, and just to the far left corner of it there was a blank board that looked like a name generator. I had competed in these before, two would go down to ground level and one would win and advance to the next stage. The Hokage (the ruler, strongest of them all) and all of the sensei (teacher) would attend to this, expected to watch the matches closely unless any were capable of becoming Chuunin.

I watched in awe as I saw the third Hokage here in the stadium aswell as many Jonin were accompanying him. All of the Genin had left the balcony to stand infront of the Hokage and I accompanied them and stood next to Gaara and Kankuro.

The Hokage explained to Gaara and the other Genin the basic rules:

There will be two competitors in the ring at a time

One becomes the loser by falling unconscious, dies or by giving up.

There were others but I didn't take much notice, I was about to walk off with the rest of the Genin except for two that stayed here but I was stopped.

"Rani-sama are you competing this time?" I heard an old voice ask. I looked over my shoulder to see the old man Hokage, a simple old man who wore a red and white robe and who always seemed to smile to everyone, even me. I knew him though me always coming to see the matches and sometimes I helped get rid of any competitors by fighting them myself. I smiled warmly back at him, "Not this time lord Hokage… I came to support my friend," I explained. The Hokage chuckled lightly "Oh, and who might that be?" he asked still chuckling warmly. "Sabaku no Gaara is his name and I'd best be getting back to him" I said and ended the short conversation by walking off.

I rarely got to see the Hokage; he was the only one in this village other then Nekomata who knew I had a demon inside of me. I had always treated him with loving respect due to the fact he wasn't afraid of me or mocked me like some others. He treated me with respect and I remember when I told him the first time he put his hand on my shoulder saying "Having a demon isn't a disgrace… it makes you unique and will help you become a stronger kunoichi (female ninja)"

I jumped up to the railing and stood next to Gaara, waiting patiently until his name would come up on the computer. The more fights Gaara watched, the more I could sense another presence here, and I guessed it was his demon acting up.

Time passed and there were only four Genin left; a fat guy, a sound ninja, a guy in spandex (Tight body suit, it looks gross) and Gaara. I felt sorry for Gaara, I knew he had a passion for fighting, whether it was a friendly sparring match or an assassination. I heard a soft growl emit from Gaara's throat as he watched the computer go through the last names.

I looked at Temari and Kankuro; they had looks of worry written all over their faces. They could sense the bloodlust too… Gaara.

An interesting fight had just passed, the two competitors seemed to be related and one was from the main branch of the family tree, spoilt and given a good home. She was called 'Hinata Hyuuga' and then there was another called 'Neji Hyuuga' one from a branch of the family tree, never praised and been given a curse mark meaning he has to obey the main household. They seemed like their places should have been switched around, Neji was self-confident and believed in destiny and Hinata was shy and un determined. Hinata fought hard to get Neji's respect but Neji was too strong and she lost pretty bad as her heart was punctured by him. Gruesome and she was sent to the emergency room in the hospital with many medical ninja.

"I'm still curious about Neji… yeah, that might work…" I heard Kankuro mutter to himself looking across the room to a spiky haired blonde they called Naruto Uzumaki. I watched his fight closely; I had sensed during the fight that he had extraordinary strength deep within him. I was fairly interested in him myself; I wanted to find out more about him.

Kankuro then started to walk off, "Where are you going?" Temari questioned him suspiciously. Kankuro raised his hand as a goodbye "Just doing a little recon, I'll be back"

I watched Kankuro walk away to Naruto, I tried my best to listen in on their conversation but they were too far away to listen. I laughed lightly as it just ended in them having a glare-off and then Kankuro came back to join us once more. He noticed my light laughing, "What are you laughing about?" Kankuro asked me with a slightly annoyed tone. I stopped laughing "I'm guessing it ended badly then?" I mocked him playfully. Kankuro just glared at me and went back to his spot as he was before.

The computer finally stopped and I saw a small smirk of satisfaction appear on Gaara's face, as it was his turn to fight, he was fighting one called 'Rock Lee'.