A/N: I am so sorry! Please forgive my last chapter…I didn't mean it to be so short >. . I'll try and make the future ones a tad bit longer….ok? Enjoy this one for now!

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Kita smirked. She had hoped that the boy, she now held the kunai to, would prove more of a challenge. 'It's been such a long time since I've been out, so I might as well give him a second chance.' She thought.

Raising the kunai from his neck, she quickly cut Gaara's right cheek, before jumping back a few feet. Staring at him from a good distance, she started to frown. 'Where is the reaction?' she thought. Instead of wincing or even touching the small wound, Gaara just turned to face her. He seemed unfazed and just stared back at her. Kita felt uneasy, as his dark eyes bore into hers. 'Did he let me get close to him?' she wondered. 'Ridiculous,' she thought, 'although he is no ordinary boy, everyone has faults.' Regaining her calm, she smiled and licked the blood on the kunai.

"Come on boy, let's see how long you can survive," she said, after putting her kunai back into its sheath.

Gaara merely stood; he didn't want to fight the girl, because Sunome might still be in there.

'Kuso!' he thought. After she had licked his own blood, Gaara had felt a rush of excitement.

'No…' he commanded himself, 'I cannot kill her if Sunome is still there.'

Closing his eyes, he calmed himself. He would have to dodge her attacks, and perhaps make small wounds, if necessary. Gaara growled; He needed to wake Sunome up, but didn't know how.

"Ok then," Kita said, in a singsong voice, "I'm coming for you."

Darting left from right; she took out four shurikens and threw them at Gaara. As the shurikens neared, Gaara realized that his sand wasn't rising. Having only a second, Gaara quickly ducked as the shurikens whizzed by. 'What the fuck! Why didn't the sand protect me?' Gaara thought, widening his eyes.

Kita gave a deep, throaty laughter again. "Did you think I would let you use your sand after you had survived one of my most gruesome attacks?" Kita asked.

"You see, the water has my chakra, and your sand is soaking with that water. Other than the weight of it all, my chakra is also holding it down," she said, as if knowing what he had asked himself.

Once again, she started darting, nearing him with every jump. When she got close enough, she punched him in the stomach. Gaara dodged it, and tried to counterattack. Although Gaara did use his sand as both offense and defense, he was not vulnerable without his sand. After the attacks, both of them were in a close fight of punching, kicking, and dodging each other.

'This will lead to nothing,' Kita finally thought, as she dodged Gaara's low punch. Returning the low punch, Gaara also dodged it, and Kita took the chance to back off. Although they both were in a distance to fight again, they decided to catch their breath instead. The small battle didn't last as long, but both had used their chakra in their match. Whereas Gaara had only put in a small amount, Kita had put in half, hoping Gaara would die a bloody pulp.

As Kita gulped as much air as she could, Gaara noticed a Hunter coughing a few yards away. He tried to get up, but later realized he couldn't. He was one of the Nins that Gaara had injured earlier.

'How did he survive Kita's attack?' Gaara thought. Since his legs were useless, it made it seem even more impossible that he had actually lived.

Too weak and injured to stand, the ninja turned his head to see the two opponents. He saw Gaara stare at him back and slowly unsheathed a kunai, hidden from Gaara's view. He knew he would not be able to kill Gaara with his sand, but he might be able to kill the Sunome girl. She had killed his teammates and though they would fail to annihilate Sabaku No Gaara, at least he could avenge their deaths. With the last of his strength, he threw the kunai toward Kita's neck, silently.

Seeing the kunai fly from the Hunter-nin, Gaara quickly ran toward Kita. Since his sand was useless, he had to protect Kita/Sunome from the kunai aiming for her neck. Kita, on the other hand, had thought Gaara was ready for another battle and gotten her own kunai out. As Gaara wrapped his arms around Kita, she dug her kunai into Gaara's stomach, surprised. Also surprised by the kunai now in his stomach, Gaara lost his footing and both began to fall onto the ground. The other kunai connected with his shoulder as they plummeted down back to the earth.

Sunome felt someone wrapping their warm arms around her. Snuggling closer to the warmth, she smiled. Snuggling the warm object, she started to frown.

'Wait...' she thought. Opening her eyes, she blinked a couple times to get her night vision on. Looking up, she found that it was Gaara's body she was curling up to.

"Ga-Ga-Gaara?" she asked, blushing. 'This is so sudden,' she thought. As she tried to get out from underneath him, she found her hand was holding a warm object.

'Hmmm…' she wondered, 'I wonder what this thingis….'

Without another thought, she pulled it out. Pulling the knife out, Gaara automatically cringed, then rolled away from Sunome, face up. Since he moved away, Sunome was able to see what she exactly she was holding. Squinting, she realized it was a bloody kunai, now covering her hand. She gasped, and then quickly looked to Gaara. A bloody wound was in his stomach, and another kunai was lodged in his shoulder.

'No…' she thought, 'No!'

Scrambling back up, she took several steps back from Gaara, who was about to sit up.

"Sunome?" he asked, sitting up and then quickly clutching his stomach.

"No…! I promised her…" she whispered, ignoring him. As tearsfell onto her cheeks, she covered her mouth and dropped the bloody kunai. Turning, she ran back to the direction of the village, never glancing back.

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A/N: Ah, sorry for another short chapter. Hopefully it'll be longer in the future….as I have the later chapters planned out. Still, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well. Thank you reviewers for reviewing…though it seemed I got less reviews on my birthday….ah well . Until the next chapter, ja nee!