Chapter 14

Uchiha Sasuke stood in the middle of the arena. A faint breeze ruffled his hair and the collar of his shirt. His eyes were narrowed and his mouth was set into an arrogant grin. Directly across from him stood a red haired Sand Nin, a small tattoo on his forehead. It was, of course, Sabaku no Gaara. Despite the mist that seemed to seep into everyone's cloths and soak them to the bone, Gaara seemed perfectly dry. A very faint cloud of sand floated around him, slightly obscuring his vision. A near mirror image of Sasuke's smirk played across Gaara's lips, but his eyes… his eyes were full of bloodlust. He had an aura of death and destruction, one that made you cringe and unconsciously scoot away from him.

"Begin" the examiner said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Sasuke smirked before activating his Sharingan, still with only two marks instead of the fully developed three. Reaching into his kunai pouch, he jumped into the air. With a small blast of chakra, he forced himself to spin in mid air, using the added speed from the spin to increase the punching power of his thrown kunai. Despite the sand that rose to defend its master, the kunai nearly hit the sand Genin. However, the Jinchuuriki was lucky enough that his sand was able to slow them down enough so that they dropped at his feet.

Sasuke landed and charged at his foe, performing a few hand seals as he ran, yelling "Katon! Goukakyuu no jutsu!"

A large fireball flew towards Gaara, but a wave of sand smothered it before it had a chance to hit him. However, a large portion of the sand was sent to stop it. Sasuke took advantage of this and got behind the boy, dodging a small wave of sand and bringing his fist into contact with the back of Gaara's head.

Gaara stumbled forward from the force of the blow before whipping around. He stretched his hands out and twin arms of sand formed and attempted to grab the Leaf Genin. The movements of the sand arms were in exact synchronization with Gaara's arms as he reached out to grab Sasuke. The Sharingan user kept dodging, weaving in and out, throwing an occasional shuriken hoping to distract the boy. Jumping back a large way, Sasuke again performed some hand seals.

'Time to test my new jutsu…'

Instead of concentrating the chakra in his lungs, as one would usually do for a Katon jutsu, Sasuke concentrated it in his feet. He slammed his foot into the ground, and a wave of flame, less than a foot high and three feet wide, rushed along the ground towards Gaara, who stepped back, slightly off balance, hoping to avoid it. Sasuke brought his other leg around in a low sweep that sent another wave along the ground, further throwing off Gaara's balance. Pumping even more chakra to his legs, Sasuke shot forward, slipping past the sand defense, and executed a sickening flurry of blows. A swift jab to the jaw, a knee to the stomach, an uppercut, a haymaker, a leg sweep, and a two-handed open palm thrust that hit the falling boy in the chest made up the combo. Gaara flew back and impacted with the wall. He fell off, stumbling and falling to his knees.

Feeling something strange, Gaara put his fingers to his lips. Drawing them away, he saw… red.

'Blood…my own blood…Not since THEN have I seen my own blood… I'll kill him for that!'

Gaara stood up. The sand that was previously swirling around him lowered. Thinking back, Gaara remembered the first time he had ever bled…

(Flashback…. Yes, it's another one.)

His first C-ranked mission went sour… so much so that it made a lemon taste sweet. The 'bandits' they were supposed to clear out of an area were, in fact, Stone Nin in disguise. Gaara and his team had walked into a literal death trap.

Gaara stood looking down at the stone spike sticking out of his chest. It was connected to a man's arm in place of a hand. The Stone Nin was grinning at the boy. Wrenching the spike out, as painfully as he could, the Nin turned around and started walking away.

Gaara fell to his knees, his hands covered in blood, but for the first time, it was his own. Looking over, he found his brother on his back, unconscious, and another Nin held a kunai over his prone form, ready to strike the killing blow. His sister was pinned to the wall, a kunai stuck through her shoulder.

Memories flashed through his head. Memories of pain, of fear, of the many assassination attempts… yet through it all, his sibling had been there for him, albeit fearfully, and had given him some small degree of comfort… and he had treated them with indifference, hate, and threats.

'I… I will not let them die. I… I'll make it up to them… somehow…'

'You seek power… I can give you that power… but you must give me BLOOD!'

'Shukaku… give me your chakra…now.'

The Jounin stopped. He turned to see the boy that, just a second ago, had a stone spike sticking through his chest stand up and challenge him. The man stood there, locking gazes with the sand Genin, not noticing the sand creeping up his legs.

Gaara reached out his hands, one towards the Stone Jounin, and one towards the Nin that threatened his siblings. His hands spread, fingers pointing towards the Nin.

"Sabaku Kyuu…" the sand engulfed their bodies. He clenched his fists, yelling "Sabaku Sousou."

Blood dripped down from the twin cocoons of sand as they slowly sand to the earth, then into it, forever buying the mangled corpses of the former Nin.

Gaara slowly fell to his knees. Using the last of his strength, he crawled over to his siblings. Temari, despite the kunai embedded in her shoulder, could only stare in fear, hoping her brother didn't plan to carry out the many threats he'd given them.

"Temari…" she jumped and flinched, closing her eyes, waiting for the pain.

"Gomen…" her eyes snapped open to see her brother's slowly close as he slipped into unconsciousness…

"Gaara… I forgive you…"

When they finally returned to the village, they went to train, after giving their report to the Kazekage. Usually, only Kankuro and Temari trained with Baki, but for some reason, Gaara decided to show up.

"Baki-sensei…" The Sand Jounin froze up. Gaara had never called him that before.

"Train me… in Taijutsu."

(End Flashback)

Gaara's sand slowly crept back into the gourd and the cap replaced itself. Reaching up to his shoulder, Gaara undid a clasp.

BOOM!

The gourd fell off his back, imbedding itself at least a foot into the ground. Gaara took a few steps forward, and settled into a Taijutsu stance.

"Bring it…"

Sasuke smirked before charging in. Flurries of blows were rained down upon Gaara. What Sasuke didn't expect was for each and every one of them to be blocked. The two Genin danced back and forth across the arena, trading blows, grabs, throws, even an occasional kunai or shuriken. Before long, the prolonged use of the Sharingan was really beginning to show on Sasuke. His moves became slower, his blocks less effective, and his mind started working more sluggishly than usual. Before long, he found himself on his back, looking up through the mist towards the obscured sky.

Gaara slowly walked forward, his features set into a serious expression. Slowly, Sasuke stood, testing his shaking legs.

"Uchiha Sasuke… its time to end this."

Gaara brought his thumb to his mouth and he bit it.

'Shit! A summoning!'

Sasuke whipped out a kunai and held it in a defensive position, looking around warily.

Gaara swiped his blood covered thumb over the tattoo on his forehead, and then performed several hand seals

Sasuke looked up and saw…

"Sasuke-chan…"

"Kaa-san!"

Sasuke could only stare in amazement as his mother appeared out of no where. He took a step forward, then another. His mother closed the distance. He reached out and pulled her into an embrace. He started crying into her shoulder, saying "Kaa-san! You're alive! I...I...I missed you… so much…"

"Shh, Sasuke-chan… it's ok…just let it all out…"

Sasuke continued to cry. After a moment, he stopped and looked up at her again. She put her hand on his shoulders and looked him in the eyes.

"Sasuke-chan… I'm sorry... but…" her features started blurring, and her voice started changing "It's time…" they took on a much darker form. "to accept your fate… foolish little brother…" Sasuke's eyes widened, and he took a step back. Uchiha Itachi stood there, exactly like he was on THAT night…

"Goodbye… brother…Sabaku Sousou."

The Genjutsu dissolved as the sand that had covered Sasuke's body imploded, spraying copious amounts of blood all around the arena. Gaara's gourd picked itself up off the ground and floated onto his back. Gaara reached back around and re connected the strap. He calmly walked out of the arena, leaving the battered and broken body of Uchiha Sasuke laying on the ground, as the medic nin frantically tried to heal him.

(Time Skip)

Hinata slowly woke from her dreams. As vivid as they were, she forgot them the moment she awoke, only left with a feeling, a vague imprint as to what they once were. Her arm felt warm and she looked over to see… Naruto.

He was sleeping on the chair next to the bed, holding her arm to his chest almost as if it was his lifeline and he would die if he let it go.

Slowly, Hinata sat up. Her slight movement woke Naruto from his fitful sleep. He blinked a couple of times before he realized where he was.

"Hina-chan… how're you feeling?"

"I'm fine… Naru-chan."

He smiled. His hand found hers and they fingers intertwined. He gave her hand a small squeeze, hoping to reassure not only her, but himself as well. Their eyes met and they stared into their eyes, so similar yet so different. The distance between their lips started shrinking. They came closer and closer. The scent of the other was heavy, making each lightheaded. Just as their lips were about to meet, the door to the hospital room opened and a nurse walked in. She looked up to see the betrothed couple break apart, blushing deeply.

"Oh, deary me! I'm so sorry, I hope I didn't interrupt!"

"No… we're quite… unoccupied…" growled Naruto, managing to mix both anger and sarcasm, quite a feat.

"Oh, well in that case, Hyuuga-sama, you're doing fine, and the doctor has given his okay for you to leave. Then, you can go back to being… ahem… unoccupied."

The two love struck teens blushed, almost competing with each other, seeing who can make the most unrealistic red.

Halo here. Ah…. I know you're prolly all pissed at me cuz I haven't updated in quite a while, but… well… (insert generic excuse here). Lolz. No, I've just been playin Eve online a lot recently. Just got my battleship. Anyways, enough free advertising. . I'm shocked. The ratio of hits to reviews is just atrocious! Over 100,000 hits and only 500 reviews! I'm shocked! REVIEW! The less reviews I get, the less inclined I am to write! Yes, I know I'm digging for reviews to use as bragging writes, but come on! You do want to see more chapters out, don't you! Oh, and on a side note, the real reason I'm late with this chapter, and that it's kinda short, is that I've been playing around with yet another story concept, and I'll post it as a one shot. If people like it, I'll continue it. If not… well…. No biggie. I'll just take it down. Anyway, I'm off to write it now! Laters!