A routine had been set. Every night, Takara would come to the guest condominium where Gaara was staying and sit on the roof with him, talking nonstop.

He didn't mind her talking. He actually heard some things he didn't abhor, and though his mind didn't know it, in his heart of hearts, he enjoyed having the company of someone, specifically Takara.

But still, every night when Taka came to see him, he vowed throughout their one sided conversation that he'd kill her when she finished. Somehow, strangely, he never did. This confused and made him want to kill her more.

But he couldn't.

Neither of them noticed, but each night, Taka scooted closer and closer to Gaara. Sometimes she even got answers from him, though they were all monosyllabic.

On the fourth night, she fell asleep on the roof.

Gaara, concerned about what to do, returned her to the place she indicated as her house. And also, he did not kill her, though he told himself he would. He just laid her down on the bed he presumed to be hers, in the house that seemed to be hers, and watched her for a bit.

Takara was quite a gorgeous girl but not in a way that could be shown with her utter lack of grace.

Gaara was still drawn to her in a way that sickened him.

He watched her sleeping face, her mouth slightly ajar, her eyes closed, her ponytailed hair she let lose sprawled over the pillow, and she, lightly snoring.

It wasn't long into his gazing before Taka turned her head around. Clearly, as anyone could tell, she was a restless sleeper, tossing and turning about. Gaara didn't mind it, though.

One turn, however, and Takara flopped out of bed and onto the carpeted floor.

Gaara swore in his mind and picked up the groggy, stirring girl to put her back in her bed. She twisted and grunted a bit before returning to slumber.

Reluctantly, Gaara left, finding abnormality in his emotions.

"What is this feeling? . . ."

The Next Day

Takara stood, leaning on the concrete wall with her team, over aware of each and every one of her actions and movements. Team Ten found its place beside them, followed by Team Eight.

Taka would have gladly been chatting away with Ino and Hinata, but the dozens of eyes staring down the "rookies" made her fluster and shiver, though she didn't show it. They couldn't show weakness.

Abruptly, Naruto burst in, his team behind him. The rest of their previous classmates went to greet them(though admittedly, not in the kindest matter). Team Nine stood their ground.

After commotion with them that drew seething and unneeded attention from the more experienced shinobi, a man in an intimidating black cloak, obviously the proctor, came and orchestrated the class.

"Say what?! Written test?! I heard nothing about this!! I thought I was done with tests when I graduated!" Takara cursed all things intelligent in her mind and proceeded to the written exam.

In actuality, Taka was far from stupid at neared the top of class in intelligence. Not to mention, she spent hours studying before the Chunin Exam beginning to insure her success.

However, laziness topped with utter lack of common sense kept her far from ever being labeled as "smart girl".

The first few questions came easy, being just common ninja situations that required some strategy planning. The rest were harder and required some guessing because all things numerical made Taka's brain hurt.

Easy enough, though.

She could see also that Kichiro had gotten it, but Isao was struggling at the first question. Wait...

"Wait a minute, what is everyone doing?! They're all cheating!! He said clearly we're not supposed to cheat! We have to collect info and stuff... or something... wait, then wouldn't it be easier to cheat? Isn't that kind of what he told us to do?" Takara lingered ever so close to the truth. "Nah, couldn't be."

Every few moments a number was called out, pointing out the cheater.

"Time's up! Now, for number 10..." The proctor chuckled. "This is the final and most important question. If you don't answer it correctly, you fail. But not only to you fail, you're dropped from the program! Permanently! That you'll stay a genin forever."

Silent chaos immediately ensued. Well, not so silent. Mumbles of grief passed from shinobi to shinobi. Seats were shuffled in and eyes were filled with horror.

Figures flashed through Taka's thoughts: Isao, Kichiro, and everyone else she cared about. Was this a risk worth taking?

She looked back on Kichiro, who gave her a strong, reassuring nod. He gave Isao the same. Isao swallowed hard and nodded back.

Takara felt like crying tears of joy. Dramatic, yes, and of course she really wouldn't, but she knew she had her team mates to stand with and she knew she wouldn't back down.

"Love." That's what Taka decided it was. She couldn't love her friendsmore. Than she worried about her other loved ones: Hinata, Ino, Gaara, Sasuke, Naruto, and Neji. . . And that time she didn't bother to correct herself.

But Naruto-- he began to raise his hand.

"No, Naruto, don't!!" Taka fought him in her head. It wasn't like him-- he couldn't-- no-- he couldn't! "Oh, Naruto-kun, please! You can't! You just, can't! I don't want to be part of this if you're not here!"

Takara's eyes widened in horror as her latest thought came to her attention.

Naruto, thankfully, slammed his hand down onto the desk and made a speech about how he wouldn't give up(ever so like him), but the thought had been thought.

Taka forced herself to ignore it with all the force she could muster.

Other teams gave up, and the proctor revealed that the tenth question was the question of giving up or not. Then he gave a speech about how ninjas needed to collect information, but Taka wasn't listening to it at all.

Her thoughts were preoccupied with her emotions, a rather dangerous thing for a shinobi to do, especially in a room full of other shinobi.

But then again, she was too preoccupied to realize.

(And though she didn't know it, she wasn't the only one with her feelings on her mind. This was proved by the a pairs of deep ebony, pale white, ice blue, and honey brown eyes that carefully examined each of Taka's movements and guessed at her thoughts.)

And Naruto just cheered.

He's longed for years to feel people near.

In this, irony is bitter.

Because he's not alone in loving her!

But for sure, he isn't a quitter.

Author's Corner

My, the poems are getting worse and worse, aren't they? Review and help my poetic stump. :)

Shout Outs

Punk-chan: Let's hope Taka doesn't make Gaara mad. And Shika will be back. In fact, they're all here to stay. And der, this is an update. JK! : And thank you!