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"I forfeit."

"Very well," said the proctor, almost reaching out to grab the hand of the boy's opponent before hesitating. "Kankuro of the Sand has forfeited, so Gaara of the Sand will be advancing on to the next round."

Gaara nodded, looking at the crowd with a blank expression as he kept his thoughts to himself. He had been unsure of how the fight would have actually played out with his chakra as messed up as it was; Kankuro wasn't the biggest pushover after all.

"Alright, you two can return to the box," said Genma as he pointed towards the viewing box which contained all the other participantsbefore using his voice enhancing Jutsu. "Would Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Tenten of the Leaf please report to the arena?"

Gaara shot a small look to his brother as he turned to the stairwell, pushing open the door which separated it from the arena without much thought. He took slow but deliberate steps towards the box from which the Genin were spectating, watching his brother behind him from the corner of his eyes. Ever since he had finally started getting some sleep he'd been a little more wary about the people around him, his siblings having been no exception.

Temari, he'd found, wasn't nearly as annoying as he had previously thought. In the few days they had spent together prior to the exams, he'd found that though she was overprotective, she also seemed to care deeply about him. While Gaara was far from being at the stage where he could reciprocate such a feeling, the knowledge that he mattered to someone was quite comforting.

He did not know what to make of Kankuro though. He hadn't talked to his brother much since that old man had released him from his "captivity" but he had realised a few things about the puppeteer. Firstly, he was scared of him; the look of fear in his eyes when Gaara found himself glaring at his older brother was evidence enough. Second, he didn't really seem to care about him as much as Temari did; there were angry looks shot Gaara's way when Kankuro believed he wasn't looking, but Kankuro didn't seem to outrightly resent him. Whether that was because of the fact that Kankuro feared him or because he didn't hate him, Gaara couldn't say.

He made his way towards the edge of the box without bothering to acknowledge his fellow competitors. Even with his chakra in its current state, he was sure he would be able to defeat most if not all of the competitors who stood in his path towards victory. However, he knew that it wasn't victory that his father desired from him, but rather the destruction of Konoha.

This was something he knew he couldn't do by himself.

In order to distract himself from what lay ahead, Gaara turned his attention to the battlefield where he watched the three-way battle taking place. From what he could figure, the two males were part of the same team - their teamwork seemed relatively flawless considering the level of strength these mere Genin had. Compared to their opponent, however, they were little more than flies. The weapons mistress kept both opponents at bay with what seemed like an unlimited supply of throwing stars and kunai. While it didn't seem like the two boys had noticed, Gaara could see the small flicker of sunlight reflecting off of the wires that had been attached to the weapons, connecting them still to Tenten's fingers.

Despite the two-on-one disadvantage, it looked as if this battle truly fell in Tenten's favor.

As he had predicted, when the two fighters had gotten within the female's comfort zone, she had pulled back in a sweeping motion, the weapons upon the ground wrenching forward and finding themselves lodged within the backs of the two boys. The crowd cheered for whom they deemed to be the underdog in the situation, chanting Tenten's name in a bid to try and help her against the numbers disadvantage.

Both boys yelled out in, uncharacteristic - if one knew the Aburame - pain. The Inuzuka's dog attempted to attack the bun-haired girl, barking rather loudly as it did so, but was quickly silenced by a shuriken to its front right leg. Gaara couldn't help but nod in appreciation of the technique that the weapon mistress had used against the two teammates; it seemed rather ruthless, and he was sure that it would inflict just as much pain if he were to replicate it by using sand to craft the weapons. It wasn't a bad thing to consider when he - assuming he ever did - manage to sort out the whole chakra issue he was currently having.

While it took a while for Gaara to fully register it, he found himself even more enthralled in the fight when he witnessed the next move. The boy with sunglasses faded into what seemed like thousands of bugs, while the dog boy performed some strange Jutsu before consuming a pill and pulling out a few of the weapons lodged in his back. The red colouring of the pill indicated that it was a blood pill, but it was possible that Konoha had a different colour code than Suna. The Aburame reappeared next to the Inuzuka, who seemed to be wincing in pain but still handling the damage inflicted upon him relatively well.

The two boys exchanged banter for a while before the girl seemed to abruptly drop to the stadium floor. Gaara's eyebrows narrowed - having been taken in as much surprise as any other member of the crowd - as he attempted to listen in on the dialogue occurring on the arena floor in order to understand what had just happened.

"Heh, those damn bugs of yours," the Inuzuka chuckled before smirking slightly. He presented an enclosed fist to his teammate, ignoring his animal companion who was licking the wound inflicted upon its leg in pain.

Though the Aburame's face was barely visible, and what parts of it could be seen barely twitched, Gaara could tell that the boy was curious. For some reason, he found himself being just as curious; normally he would have thought a fight between two weaklings to be rather insignificant, but for some reason he found it… interesting? There wasn't anything particularly special about the fight except for the fact that it was - or at least, formerly was, given that one opponent was lying face down on the stadium floor - a three-way fight.

As if to answer everyone's unasked questions, the Inuzuka slowly opened his fist to reveal almost two dozen different bugs lying in his palm.

"Your little chakra-draining trick might have worked on Tenten, but did you really expect for me to fall for it to?" asked the boy as he rotated his palm, allowing the carcasses of several bugs to drop to the floor.

A shuriken to what would have been his face was the boy's answer, but the Inuzuka was ready for it and managed to deflect it harmlessly with a kunai.

"I must admit," confessed Shino, "I am fairly surprised that you are able to fight so well without being accompanied by Akamaru."

Kiba spared his best friend a pitying glance, almost as if to tell the dog that he would finish the match soon. "I love the tyke to death but, you and I, because we both come from clans which use animals to fight, we become really predictable. Kurenai-sensei helped me brush up a few of my other ninja skills… I reckon it paid off."

As he said that, the boy flashed through the hand seals of a Jutsu and dropped onto four legs in an instant. Somehow, Gaara wouldn't have been too surprised if the Inuzuka were to sprout a wagging tail at that moment, but he watched with anticipation as the boy smashed a fist into his sunglass-wearing teammate's head.

What happened next, however, was something that Gaara had absolutely not expected. He would have even gone so far as to call it the most surprising moment of the entire day. The girl lying on the floor sprung upwards and extended both arms to the throats of her two opponents, a kunai drawn in each arm.

"I win," she smirked proudly. "You may have drained a lot of my chakra, but I didn't need it to do that."

"Winner… Tenten of the Leaf!"

…

Naruto could feel himself becoming impatient as they waited for the others to recover. He had always had massive stamina, and right now that worked in his favor. Unfortunately, because of the forced stop, that now meant he had time to think; something he had been trying to avoid for as long as possible. While they were on the move, he focused all his energy on that, but now…

Now he had to own up to what he had done.

He knew what he was getting into when he had decided to become a ninja. He knew that it wasn't all glamor and glory, even if he liked to believe that he could achieve that. He knew that he'd have to kill. What he hadn't been expecting, was the rage that flowed through him as he used the powers of the Kyuubi. He hadn't expected it to feel so good.

Of course, as soon as the battle was over and he had come off of his adrenaline rush, he had hurt all over, but physical pain was something he could deal with. What he couldn't deal with was the fact that he had lost himself to his burden and he had killed those shinobi in such a brutal way. Every time he looked at his hands he thought he saw stains of red, when he closed his eyes he could hear the frightened screams, and he still couldn't seem to get the smell to go away.

He knew that a lot of the Suna shinobi were now terrified of him in a way that they had never been terrified of Gaara. If he was being honest with himself, he deserved their fear. Gaara was something that they were comfortable with, but he was a whole new breed of demon.

"Yo!" a voice called out right beside him.

He had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't heard the familiar footsteps of his sensei approaching behind him, although that might also be attributed to the fact that Kakashi was a Jounin.

Naruto nearly fell over at the sound of his sensei's voice. He clutched his heart and glared at the man. "Don't do that!" he said, a tad belligerently.

However, he soon had to avert his gaze. He didn't want to look at his sensei, not when he was feeling like a monster. He was still unsurprised when the man decided to take a seat next to him.

For a moment there was silence as the two just watched as the sun set over the desert, painting the sky an interesting hue of red. A red that reminded Naruto far too much of what he'd done.

"You know," Kakashi began, "I was about six when I had my first kill, but that wasn't my first experience with death."

Naruto glanced sidelong at his sensei to see that the man was looking out at the sunset with his hands casually in his pockets.

"My father took his life before I could even really understand the concept of death, and from there it's just been one battle after another for me," he continued. "I understand some of what you're feeling right now, Naruto."

Naruto couldn't stop the snort at that, and Kakashi merely did his strange eye smile.

"I won't pretend to know exactly how you feel - after all every person is different - and I don't have the Kyuubi stuck inside me. What I do have, is a lot more experience at this shinobi business than you do."

Naruto was definitely paying attention to his sensei at this point, even if he tried to keep his gaze locked on the desert sands.

"Jinchuuriki are sacrifices for the village they hail from; that's something that you've only now begun to experience. It's not just the fact that you have a Bijuu sealed inside you, it's also the idea that you become a weapon for the village. However, no matter how badly we want to just be tools, don't forget what Haku and Zabuza taught you. At the end, we're only human. We're allowed to feel these emotions. As you get older you'll deal with various other trials. I won't say that what's happened today will never happen again."

Naruto flinched at that. He sure as hell didn't want to lose himself like that ever again, but Kakashi either didn't notice or just plain ignored his reaction. Knowing him it was most likely the latter.

"You have the Kyuubi, and you will use it again if there's a situation that calls for it, one that means you'll have to use it in order to survive. Right now you feel guilty, but remember that you had to do what you did. In time, you might even be able to control it better than what you have so far so that you don't lose yourself to pure instinct."

At this Kakashi fell silent, and Naruto just let the man's words sink in. The sun was disappearing behind the last dune and night was fast approaching.

"Does the guilt ever really go away?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi was silent for a moment more before he answered, "I hope not, especially for your sake. If it does leave, then you've probably lost the battle to the Kyuubi. Your emotions make you human, and to be human means to deal with both the good and the bad."

Naruto nodded in acceptance of his sensei's advice. He would remember what he'd learned from Haku and Zabuza. Even though they were shinobi, they were still human. As long as he remembered that, he would be able to keep himself from falling too far in using the Kyuubi.

At least he hoped so.

…

Sakura Haruno was not feeling particularly well. She did not have a medical certificate, but she was almost completely positive that she had overdosed on soldier pills. It felt unlike anything else she had ever felt before, her insides feeling akin to what could only be described as watery jelly while everything else had the queasiest numbness about it.

The intense heat of the desert did not help any of that at all.

She felt incredibly dizzy, and while she wanted nothing more than to scour all the land for Sasuke, or at least talk to Naruto and Kakashi, her body didn't seem to want to do anything of the sort. Gagging slightly as fluid suddenly rose through her chest, she made sure to turn away from any surviving Suna nin before she vomited her guts out onto the sand.

"I take it you're not feeling too well?" the voice of a nearby Suna kunoichi asked. "I feel pretty horrible too."

While she couldn't actually say anything, Sakura was sure that the continuous vomiting was all the response she needed to give the kunoichi from Suna.

"I suppose I should probably help you out before I go check on my sister," the girl mused. "That Uchiha kid hit her with a shuriken, but she's fresh out of the academy so she probably doesn't know how to take a hit."

"You're…" Sakura gagged once more, pleased to notice that she didn't vomit this time around, "awfully tal-talkative for someone who was my enemy half an hour ago."

"Well when you learn that you were tricked into fighting you tend to want to reconcile with those you tried to slaughter. I'd ask you to apologise for killing our people, but to be honest, considering we had been the ones to attack you, we don't really expect too much from you," she said as Sakura held her stomach, trying to hold in the nauseous sensation.

"Thank you, I don't think I'd be ready for such a thing," said Sakura as she turned away hoping that the conversation would have finished. Sadly, it wasn't.

"We've sent some of our fastest message hawks towards Konoha to let our forces know of the betrayal, but we don't know if they'll be quick enough," she said.

"Quick enough… quick enough for what?" asked Sakura, not sure if she would like the answer she would hear.

…

Genma once more used the voice enhancing Jutsu as he looked to the competitor's box. "The next match will be between Gaara of the Sand and Rock Lee. Please make your way to the arena floor."

Gaara nodded as he disappeared in a Sand Shunshin. He reappeared in the arena, and if he was surprised that he landed five metres to the right of where he had intended to go, he didn't let it show as he looked patiently towards his opponent. The boy in the green spandex let out a roar of anticipation and somersaulted down from the box to land gracefully in the arena.

Gaara waited as the boy walked towards the middle of the arena before coming to a stop a decent distance away. Genma looked at the two Genin before asking the standard question, "Are both fighters ready?"

Gaara gave an almost imperceptible nod while the Konoha Genin gave a thumbs up and a brilliant smile. The proctor nodded before lifting his hand. He shouted a, "Begin!" and jumped back to give the two fighters room.

Gaara watched on as Rock Lee slid into the stance that he seemed to favor. Even though his chakra system was ruined, he was confident that he would be able to shut this particular Genin down. The earlier match he'd fought against the girl showed that though he was powerful, he still had not scratched the surface of Gaara's league. The two stood apart from each other for another second before Lee made his move.

'Fast!' The first thing that Gaara was surprised at was the speed with which the boy moved. He had appeared on his right in an instant and was already in the motion of a punch. Luckily, Gaara's sand - shaky as it might have been - was still a bit faster. With a resounding smash, the Konoha Genin's fist slammed into his sand shield.

However, it appeared this wouldn't deter the boy as he merely grinned and flipped out of the way of Gaara's follow up sand wave attack. Lee landed, but then once more sprang into an attack.

This continued on for a few minutes, but it was soon becoming apparent that Lee was unable to break through Gaara's shield. Even though the Genin was fast, Gaara's own reaction time was just barely faster, and he wasn't hindered by the effort of jumping around the arena looking for an opening. If this was all that the green clad Genin had to offer, then Gaara would simply wait him out.

Once more, Lee came close to getting a hit on Gaara, but he was able to deflect the kick at the last second. Another sand wave, and the Konoha Genin was once more flipping out of the way, but this time he didn't stop his retreat. Instead he kept on flipping backwards until there was a decent amount of distance between him and Gaara.

Gaara was trying to figure out why the boy - who had only used Taijutsu so far - would decide to back off at this juncture. He then heard a booming voice from the audience. "LEE!"

Gaara looked quizzically up to the spectator's area, and saw what was no doubt the boy's sensei, giving a thumbs up and a blinding smile.

"TAKE THEM OFF!"

Gaara was puzzled by this declaration, but focusing on the boy in the arena showed that he seemed shocked by his sensei's declaration. However, Gaara felt a sense of foreboding as that shock slowly transformed into jubilance. Whatever was about to happen, he had to stop it.

Unfortunately, the boy was out of his range due to his messed up chakra control, so he had to move fast. For the first time in the entire match, Gaara was moving from his starting position. He watched on in dawning horror as the green Genin took his orange leg warmers off and revealed massive looking weights with the word "guts" written on them.

The boy unstrapped them and laughed delightedly as he stood up once more, the weights in his hands.

"I feel so much lighter with these off!" Lee proclaimed as he let the weights fall to the ground, where Gaara was horrified to see they caused two miniature explosions of rubble and dust where they hit. How heavy were those things?

"GO LEE! SHOW HIM THE POWER OF YOUTH!"

The boy gave a salute and answered his sensei in kind. "YOSH!"

Then Gaara completely lost sight of the spandex clad Genin. That was until he felt something smash into his face, and then proceeded to fly across the arena. He was able to recover, but it seemed that his reaction time wasn't enough to keep up with the insane speed that Lee was moving at. What kind of Genin was able to move this fast? He was fairly certain that even if his Ultimate Defense had been working perfectly, he would still be on the ropes. He desperately tried to get his defense going again, but the boy smashed straight through the sand this time, before once more disappearing in a blur.

For the first time in his entire shinobi career, Gaara was completely helpless against an enemy. If it hadn't been for his caution at the beginning of the match, he was fairly certain he would already be unconscious. Thankfully, he had encased himself in his Sand Armor at the beginning of the match. However, it looked like even that wouldn't be enough to stop the boy.

"I am truly sorry that I was unable to hold back against you, Gaara! I believe it is time I end this match!"

For a second Gaara wondered what the boy was talking about, just before he disappeared from his sight once more, though he didn't have to wait long as he felt a massive hit under his chin. He was shocked as he actually became airborne with that attack, despite the fact that he was so heavy in his armor. Luckily, the blow didn't manage to crack his armour as the boy didn't seem to put in as much force as he needed.

"I'm not done yet!" Another kick and he was sent higher and higher, until they were fairly high off the ground. Gaara was then wrapped in the bandages that were on the boy's arms.

"Take this! Primary Lotus!" Lee shouted before he began to twirl headfirst toward the ground.

Gaara had no time before they smashed into the ground with excessive force, sending up an explosion of dust and debris.

He could only lay there dazed for a second. Even though he had his Sand Armor activated at the time, he had been unable to do anything other than take the hit. He was fairly certain that he was slightly concussed at the moment, and he also hurt in pretty much every part of his body. Amazingly, he was still conscious.

For a moment, there was no movement from either competitor, but the moment passed as Gaara struggled to his feet.

"It seems that attack is a double edged sword," he said as he looked over to the fallen form of the other Genin.

Lee merely chuckled at that as he struggled to sit up.

"I'll have you know, Gaara, the Lotus of Konoha always blooms twice!" the boy said. Suddenly he was once more on his feet and surging for Gaara, who was completely unprepared for the flying kick that was sent his way.

"Dynamic Entry!" Lee exclaimed as he smashed his foot into the Ichibi Jinchuuriki's nose.

Gaara felt the hit rattle his already concussed brain and his armor had taken too much damage from the previous attack to really protect him. He felt his nose crunch beneath the force from the kick and he was once more sent flying. This time his body refused to listen to him when he came to a stop; he was unable to get up. The last thing he heard before slipping into unconsciousness was Genma.

"Winner: Rock Lee of the Leaf!"

…

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