Stumbling through the forest, my body felt heavy and difficult to move, worse than whenever the wolf tried something like that. I glanced around, "t-this is familiar..." I mumbled lightly, looking at the tree I had sat in on the 28th, the day that I had been captured.

"Zaiaku!" a male's voice shouted.

I couldn't see anything. Everything was becoming extremely blurry, but the voice was familiar, "N-Naruto..." I mumbled lightly, but fell, since I had used all my energy earlier to prevent the gobi's control. I felt hands catch me, but everything began to go black.

It only took me a few minutes, or what seemed it, to shift some. My eyes slowly fluttered open, and I looked up to see Naruto holding onto me. It didn't faze me at all. I didn't blush, didn't move, didn't speak.

"Are you okay?" He blinked some.

"Yeah," I shut my eyes for a moment, wanting to wake up from this nightmare called life. After a minute, I opened them again and sat up, rubbing my eyes and standing. For only a second. Then I stumbled back slightly, and fell onto my knees.

"I found you falling, and caught you! You've been missing for a while now! I found you! Beleive it!" Naruto smiled, with pride in his voice.

"My hero," I mumbled, sarcastically, attempting to stand again. This time, he grabbed my arm to help my balance. "Thanks," I sighed lightly, and began walking.

"Any time!" He smiled. It seemed he was pretty happy with being a 'hero' and 'finding' me.

I leaned lightly on him as we walked, since I couldn't quite keep my balance. But he wasn't Gaara. No, nobody was. Only Gaara could have that name and position. I sighed lightly, walking to my house, and leaning on the door, "thanks Naruto. Now do me a favor. Leave me alone," I sighed lightly, not trying to be mean, "I just need some alone time, to think, you know?"

"Yeah..." Naruto nodded and began to walk away, "where'd you go, anyways?"

"I went on a trip. Where I was isn't any of your business," I shut my eyes, "now, go away."

I walked into my house, and cleaned up, then changed my clothing for a more night-time apparel. "Lady of Anei for not even a day, and I almost destroyed the village," I sighed, "fun, fun," I shook my head. I then fell onto the bed, shutting my eyes slowly.

Next thing I knew, I was slowly opening my eyes to the morning sunlight, and shifted out of bed. I changed into black clothing, like usual, and walked outside to see Sasuke standing in front of my door, cooly.

"Naruto told everyone that you returned," he muttered.

"Hn... not surprising," I shrugged some, leaning back on the doorframe.

"Where were you?" He looked at me calmly.

"Someplace that doesn't consern you," I sighed lightly, walking past him.

It seemed to go on like this each day. Somebody would show up on my doorstep, asking where I had gone. And of course, if Naruto's little story was true. It wasn't. He made up a story about being all heroic and saving my life from renagade shinobi. Revenge time!

I walked up to Naruto, and smiled some, "hey, Naruto!" I shouted, we were in a crowd of people, "I forgot, how many shinobi were after me?"

"Hey...uh...what?" Naruto looked at me confused.

"You said shinobi were after me. How many was it again?"

"Uhh..." Naruto looked embarassed, and his cheeks tinted pink, "...eight? No, nine."

"Nine shinobi! You saved my life!" I smirked. Then I heard what I had been hoping for.

"Nine shinobi? You told me it was fifteen!" A man shouted.

"Fifteen? He told me eighteen!" a woman responded.

"No. Where did the twenty come from!" Another shouted at the woman.

"There weren't that many! It was only twelve!" somebody else shouted.

"Who's right?" somebody asked.

"Yes, I'm curious too, Naruto," I tapped my foot on the ground, "are you sure you weren't just imagining them?"

The next second, Naruto was running away from the crowd of people.

I smirked, jumping onto a few roofs, and followed him. Then I froze, just as I heard an 'oof' from Naruto.

"Watch it!" He shouted angrily at a boy in black, with facepaint.

"Who's this punk?" the boy smirked.

"Watch it, we don't know when He's coming," a girl with blonde hair told him.

The girl. The boy. A week already! He. I'm going through a nightmare. It's a nightmare, I say. The girl: Temari. Boy: Kankuro. Surely, the one Temari referred to as 'He' was Gaara.

They seemed to be in a fight now, as Kankuro was talking to Naruto rudely, while he seemed to have no idea what to do.

"Kankuro," a males voice interrupted, "back off."

Gaara. He was here.

Curse words ran through my mind like water fell down a waterfall. Then I remembered something. The chuunin exams were starting soon! Yes! I have a chance to become a chuunin! But.. Gaara...

Slowly, I began to back away, before turning on my heel and running away from the area, jumping from building ot building, until I was near my house.

Panting, I stopped, near my door.

"Hi!" a voice suddenly shouted, causing me to fall backwards.

"Jeeze, calm down," a woman smiled at me, taking out a slip of paper, "I thought you may like to be in the chuunin exams this year, so I got you a form to fill out," she held it out for me to take.

"T-thanks," I took the slip of paper, and looked over it.

"Fill it out for tomorrow, don't forget!" She smiled, before disspearing in a swirl of leaves.

I sighed lightly, walking into the house and filling out the form. My eyes stared at the paper, though my mind was wandering. The sand siblings were in Konoha. I couldn't enjoy the exams knowing they were here, and would surely aknowlege that I was as well. This was bad. Terribly bad. There wasn't a word that could describe how bad it was. I sighed lightly, dropping the pencil and holding my head in my hands. Tommorrow. Tommorrow the exams. Tomorrow, I'd see the sand siblings again. How could I live through these exams knowing I had to go through them with Gaara there? What would Kankuro and Temari do? Would they just keep away from me? What about during the exams? Would they try to kill or capture me?

"I can't handle this pressure!" I shouted suddenly. I felt like running. Running away from this place. This life. But I couldn't. I wasn't a coward. The gobi wasn't either. My mind and the gobi would never allow me to do such a thing. This seemed to be all about me now. And unlike some, I absolutely hated it...