"Then what the hell does that mean?" asked Kirema, pointing at the blank where a word appeared to be missing. Rikou read the message over again. They had just arrived inside, to find the place empty, the only thing being a notice on the wall.

"I think we should open the scrolls," she said, scanning the massage thoroughly.

"We'll be disqualified, won't we?"

"If you have a better idea, then go ahead," said Rikou, pulling out the two scrolls.

"You'd better be right about this, Rikou," warned Ken, looking at her aprehensively.

She unrolled the scrolls, revealing two words surrounded by symbols. "Hito... Jin? 'Person'? What does that-"

She suddenly dropped the scrolls as they began to smoke and fizz loudly. "A summoning scroll?"

There was a poof of smoke, and a chuunin appeared before them, his arms crossed casually. The smoke slowly drifted away.

"Team 2? Congradulations on passing the second part of the Chuunin exam," he said, smiling. "My name is Izumo, I'll be giving you your next instructions. You passed a fairly good time, only two days, and you're the third team to pass out of the remaining eleven."

"What does that mean?" asked Rikou quietly, pointing up at the message. Izumo turned to her and looked her over once.

"You're Hayate's younger sister, right? He'll be happy to hear you passed. The message is from the Hokage, I'm also here to explain that to you guys. It is the motto of chuunin. The 'Heaven' in this paragraph is talking about the shinobi's mind, while the 'Earht' is speaking of the shinobi's body.

"If a ninja does not posess 'Heaven' then they will not be able to succeed, and if they don't have 'Earth' then they will also fail. But if they have both, then they will be able to do anything."

Izumo picked up the scroll off the ground, holding it up for them to read the word 'person' that had confused Rikou earlier. "On the scroll, the 'person' refers to chuunin, and it goes here," he pointed up to the missing characters in the message. "With that word, it means 'These rules will guide a person's extremes.'"

Izumo rolled up the scroll. "Chuunins are at the rank of a military captain. You have the responsibility of leading a team, using the knowledge, stamina and inner wisdom that are required to preform your duties. I want you three to take on the third part of the exam with this Hokage's message in mind. That's all, the third part will be explained to you on the fifth day, until then you may stay in one of the rooms in this tower."

"Wait," said Kirema. "What would have happened if we opened the scroll during the exam? What would you have done to us?"

Izumo turned to face him, smiling again. "My orders were to put the exam participants into a state of unconciousness until the end of the exam if they opened the scrolls. You see, when on a mission, a shinobi might need to be trusted with important or confidential information, so it was testing your reliability. If you know the information and are captured by an enemy, they might interrogate you, and you might give away answers, so it is important that you learn to follow orders."

Izumo pocketed the two scrolls and turned to face one of the doors. "Follow me to you room," he said, walking away towards the door.

The three gennin followed him up a few flights of stairs, passing a number of closed doors as they reached the third floor of the tower and were shown to their room. Before Izumo left, Rikou piped up again.

"Excuse me, Izumo-san, but who were the other two teams that passed?"

"Let's see... I belive that it was the Sand team, and team eight of the Leaf. The Sand... they arrived only an hour and thiry-seven minutes into the exam, which is almost impossible. The old record was four hours."

"Oh, and is my brother here right now? I need to speak with him."

Izumo paused for a moment. "Yes, I think he's on the top floor. Just head up the stair until you reach the top and turn to the left, the first door. If he's not there, then try the room across."

"Thanks," she said as he turned and left. She looked around the room, there were three beds, one on each wall except for the wall with the door. There was a large window on the wall beside one of the beds from which the whole forest could be seen, and Konoha itself beyond that.

Rikou took the bed by the window, pulling her kamas from her coat and placing it carefully on the neatly made bed before turning around again and leaving her team-mates to themselves.

She began climbing the rest of the stairs, breathing heavily by the time she reached the top, on the seventh floor. She paused for a moment at the top, before following Izumo's instructions and turning to the door on her left.

She knocked lightly, waiting for an answer, before knocking again. No answer. She gently pushed the door open, but her brother wasn't there. His ninja-to, a family heirloom, was propped up agains the dresser at the foot of the neatly-made bed. On top of the dresser was a small bottle of pills like hers, the same type of medicine as hers. If the view from their room was amazing, she didn't know what to call this view. It almost made her feel sick as she looked out the window, looking seven stories down.

She turned and headed out of the room, closing the door lightly behind her and turning to the door across from it, knocking quietly again. She heard a cough from the other side that she knew was her brother, before she heard his voice, almost as quiet as her own.

"Come in," he said. She opened the door, peeking around the corner and looking in, stopping with one foot in the room.

The room was full of jounin, chuunin and the Hokage himself, all of whom were staring right at her. Her brother, Hayate, was sitting on the other side of the room beside the Sandaime. He coughed again. She swallowed hard.

"Go-gomen, Hokage-sama..." she said quietly, unsure whether or not to leave immediately or wait to be dismissed.

Hayate smiled. "You're here already, Rikou-chan? Just wait in your room and I'll come down later, alright?" he asked quietly.

Rikou nodded nervously, the eyes of the jounin all upon her. She slowly backed out of the room and gently closed the door behind her, sighing in relief. Izumo should have told me what was in this room beforehand, she thought, turning back down the hall and slowly descending the stairs.

Passing one of the windows on the sixth floor, she saw three forms sitting on the roof around the corner as their shadows were cast on the roof. She stopped her descent and opened the window, looking out onto the roof before stepping out fully. She swallowed hard as she looked down six stories and a small wind kicked up, blowing her short hair into her face and almost throwing her off balance.

She carefully stepped along the roof tiles, peeking around the corner and seeing the three Sand gennin speaking quietly.

"C'mon Gaara, listen to your older brother," said Kankuro, his face slightly beaded with sweat.

"I've never thought of myself as being related to you," said Gaara quietly. Temari shifted uncomfortably.

"But if we get disqualified now, the-"

"Shut up or I'll kill you," said Gaara. Kankuro stood angrily and walked quickly towards where Rikou was standing, hugging the wall for support. As he came around the corner, he almost kncked her over, but she grabbed the wall to avoid falling.

"Rikou! What-?"

"What is it Kankuro?" asked Gaara, turning his head slightly. Kankuro shoved Rikou behind the wall and out of sight.

"I-it's nothing, Gaara."

Gaara looked at him for a few moments, narrowing his eyes before turning back to the view. Kankuro let out his breath and moved behind the wall as well.

"Geez, you shouldn't go near that guy," he whispered, leading her back along the roof and inside. "He'll kill you if he gets half the chance."

Kankuro closed the window behind him, walking beside Rikou as they headed downstairs to the fifth floor. Kankuro led her into his room, removing his wrapped up Karasu and sitting on the bed, unwrapping it.

"You guys passed pretty quickly, your team must be pretty good to get past the second part so easily. And you don't even have a scratch on you. But I guess you never get hurt anyways, huh."

Rikou sat down beside him as he began going over the large puppet, checking the parts by removing each in turn and cleaning them.

"I heard your team got here in only an hour and a half," she said, picking up one of the parts of the Karasu and examining it, before replacing it.

"Well, we have Gaara," he said, as if it answered everything. Which it did.

"He... he really scares me, you know," she said quitly, remembering their first meeting. Gaara had wanted to kill her, he had said it so simply, as if it were obvious. 'I'm going to kill you.'

"And his eyes are so cold and dark. He always wants to see blood and kill."

"Well, at least you don't have to be around him twenty-four seven. I can't get over the fact that he even wants to kill me and Temari, we're his own siblings. It's like everyone's the same in his mind. And he never listens to us. Please don't go near him, he'd kill you."

Rikou looked up at him, grinning slightly. "I'm not that stupid. I don't want to die yet," she said quietly.

"Oh yeah. I brought you your birthday present. It's a bit late, but oh well," he said. He opened a compartment on Karasu and pulled out a small, black box, handing it to her.

She flicked the latch open and opened it, smiling at what was inside and lifting it. It was beautiful. It was a necklace with a small, blood red jewel on the end that was shaped like a tear and had thin rivulets of gold wrapped around it, the whole thing on a thin gold chain.

"Oh... It's beautiful, Kankuro!" she gasped, smiling.

Kankuro blushed slightly, turning back to his puppet and fiddling with one onf the smaller pieces. "It used to belong to my dad, the Kazekage, but he gave it to me and told me to give it to someone special, so I decided to give it to you."

Rikou attatched it around her neck, letting the delicate jewel fall onto her chest. She shifted slightly and hugged the Sand-nin, kissing him lightly on the cheek. "Thanks," she whispered into his ear. "And take off your hat sometimes," she added as an afterthought, pulling away his hat and revealing his short, brownish-red hair.

"Hey!" he said, abandoning the Karasu and trying to snatch the hat back. "Give it back!"
Rikou moved it out of his reach by falling back on his bed, stretching out her arms. Kankuro almost fell of the bed as he tried to grab it, causing the loose pieces of his puppet to fall onto the floor. Rikou laughed quietly, something she hadn't done in quite awhile as Kankuro swore quietly and picked them up. She leaned forwards, sitting up again, and put his hat back in, pulling it over his eyes.

"Hey," he said, pushing it back up. He sat up again and faced her.

But Rikou stopped laughing as she felt something odd crawl up her ankles, sliding up her legs. She stood and tried to move, but her feet were frozen to the spot. She looked down, shifting her trenchcoat slightly and looking down.

"Sand?" she whispered, and started to pannick.

"What!?" yelled Kankuro, standing and looking at her feet, which were now completely engulfed in sand. Her eyes shifted to the door slowly and she saw a single form standing there with his arms crossed and his dark eyes staring her down. Gaara.

"What are you doing, Gaara!?" asked Kankuro. "Stop it!"

"Who is this? You're... that girl. What are you doing here?" whispered Gaara. The sand moved up her body, over her trenchcoat and she whimpered quietly, swallowing hard. Temari stepped up behind Gaara, reaching out a hand, but stopping, thinking of the consequences.

"Gaara! Don't! If we get disqualified now, the..." Temari trailed off.

"Why should I listen to you? I need more..."

"Listen to your sister!" she tried. Kankuro tried to pull Rikou away, but she was stuck to the floor.

"Don't do it Gaara!" hissed Kankuro.

"Shut up, I'll kill you too."

Rikou felt the sand crawl up her chest and she froze in fear as it slowly advanced past her collarbone, towards her neck.

There were footsteps coming from outside, three or four pairs, people were coming down the stair towards the room. The sand momentarily stopped inches from her neck as Gaara turned his attention away as three Leaf-nin, gennin, passed the door and froze in mid-step, each turning thier heads in silence and shock.

"What the-?" said one of them, the one with two identical red tatoos under each eye. There was a moment of silence as the Sand and the Leafs stared at eachother. Gaara slowly let the Sand fall as another pair of footsteps was heard coming down the hall.

A Leaf jounin stepped right past the door and out of sight, but doubled back and peeked around the corner just as Gaara let the rest of the sand fall from her body.

"Rikou-chan? What are you doing in here?" asked Hayate, stopping outside the door. Rikou glanced at Kankuro before quickly moving out of the room, past Gaara and the three Leaf genning towards her brother.

"Nothing," she whispered. Hayate paused for a moment before continuing down the hall beside her. She followed him back to his room, back up the stairs in complete silence. She looked out the window, the sun was setting.

She followed her brother into his room and closed the door lightly behind her. Hayate flopped back on his bed, sighing in exaughstion.

"So, you made it past the second part? Dad'll be proud of you when he finds out," Hayate coughed lightly, sitting up and massaging his face. "So, what did you want to see me for?"

"I need to refill my perscription, I didn't bring enough for this whole thing, I expected the seperate parts of the exam to have enough time in between for me to refill it myself, but everything is happening so quickly..."

Hayate paused for a moment. "You can take one of mine tonight, and tomorrow I'll head back to town with the next group and pick it up." He coughed lightly. "You should get some sleep. Is there anything else you want me to pick up?"

Rikou paused at the door, turning and facing him. "Umm... Can you get dad to fix my normal kama's? The old ones that i'm using are so unbalanced, they're really hard to fight with and they throw me off."

Hayate nodded and she turned around, exiting as he pulled out a large stack of paperwork and moved over to his desk, coughing quietly as she closed the door behind her. She leaned back against it, taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, remember her encounter with Gaara.

She slowly descended the stairs back to her room, pausing outside the door before pushing it open and stepping in.

"Where'd you run off to?" asked Ken. He was cleaning his katana on his bed, an empty cup of ramen on the bedside table. Kirema was nowhere in the room.

"Did you go see your boyfriend again? You shouldn't go near those three, especially not that Gaara.kid, he's nothing but trouble."

She moved over to her bed, lifting her kamas off and placing them on her own table.

"If you go downstairs you can get some dinner," said Ken, turning back to his sword and working out a smudge with a white cloth.

"I've lost my appetite," she said. Ken looked up at her.

"Umm... maybe you should at least try to eat, you haven't eaten at all for two days now."

Rikou fell face down on her bed, burying her face in her pillows. "I feel sick, I think I have a fever. I should take this off and cool down," she muttered, her voice muffled by the pillows. A moment later, she forced herself up. She felt Ken watching her closely as she removed her trenchcoat, but didn't care. She had been cutting back on taking her medicine, and it was starting to affect her.

She pulled her coat off and threw it at the foot of her bed, taking a deep breath and sitting down, looking over her arms and frowning. So many scars, she thought, looking at the white marks covering her skin. They'll be there forever.

She felt the slightly cooler air cause every mark on her body to burn slightly, across her shoulders, over her arms, up her neck, and it felt good to let the cool air caress her for the first time in a long while.

"That's what they did to you?" asked Ken, staring at her arms.

"Yeah," she whispered, lifting an arm and examining it in the light. "I really feel sick, I'm going to try and get some sleep tonight. I"m getting my perscription refilled tomorrow, so I'll feel better then. I think I got too much sun."

"Why does your body react like that to sunlight anyways?" asked Ken, sheathing his katana and resting it on his table.

"I'm not sure. Everyone in my family has the disease. Or sickness. Whatever it is. It really hit mum hard last year, that's how she died, in a hospital bed. Gekkou's just can't take the sun, it does things to our bodies. We never get much sleep, and eat poorly, but it's not like I'm trying to, my body just does it on it's own. If I could, I obviously wouldn't be doing things like that. I'm just not sure why it happened in the first place. Every generation the sickness get's stronger, right now there are only three Gekkou's left. Me, dad, and Hayate. Our family is already doomed. Even if we pass the title to the next generation, the sickness will kill them before they reach the age of fifteen. The doctors said I'd die at eighteen. Five years left. They said my brother has until twenty-five, and dad has a few more years to go."

Rikou slid under the covers, rolling over to face the wall and leaving Ken to his own thoughts.

" 'Night," she whispered, closing her eyes and returning to the nightmares.