Gaara's POV
Worry coursed through Gaara's body, worry for Sakana. She still hadn't awoken and the medics were baffled by her condition. That night he was once again sitting up on the roof of the tower, watching the sky, the moon a shining crescent high above him. Suddenly a piercing scream split the night, one that was horribly familiar. Reacting quickly, Gaara teleported down to Sakana's hospital room, and was shocked by what he saw.
She was sitting upright, but her head was clenched tightly in her hands, deep blue eyes glazed over with fear and confusion. Not exactly knowing what to do, he cautiously approached the bed and began to rub her back in soft, circular motions, trying to calm her down. A couple of minutes passed when suddenly Sakana turned and wrapped her arms desperately around his waist, her tears staining his shirt and sash.
"Holy…Shukaku… Why is she hugging me?" he asked himself. Delicately, he wrapped his arms around Sakana's shoulders, holding her close as urgent footsteps arrived. Gaara looked up to see his sister enter with a medic following quickly behind – the same one who'd helped Sakana in the forest – he couldn't' remember her name. She hurried over, motioning to him as she went, and Gaara lightly pushed Sakana back into the medic's waiting arms as she rested his teammate gently back onto the bed and began using her healing arts to subdue the fever. Temari raised an eyebrow at him quizzically before turning around to direct her attention to Sakana. Gaara backed away into a corner of the room and watched from there.
"Sakana-chan, can you hear me?" Temari asked the seemingly unconscious girl.
Slowly Sakana's eyes opened and looked up at Temari. "T-Temari-chan? What happened?" he heard her say faintly.
Temari turned her head to look at him and Sakana's gaze followed her friend's. His icy sea-green eyes met her bottomless blue ones and he recognized a tumult of emotions in them - worry, confusion, but above all fear. However, when she realized what had occurred between them only moments before he saw shock, too, before a slight blush dusted her cheeks.
After asking far too many questions, the medic, whose name he'd learned was Emiko, gave Sakana the okay to leave the next morning and left to take care of other patients coming in from the Forest of Death. Temari left too, but not before giving Gaara a curious, yet appraising glance.
Sakana had avoided his gaze the whole time. However, for some unknown reason, he couldn't stop looking at her. Taking a deep, yet inaudible breath, he walked slowly over to her bedside.
"Are you going to be alright?" he asked, concern pitching his voice even deeper than normal. He didn't know what had ensued before she grabbed onto him earlier, but one thing was certain - he had never seen her that frightened, not even on one of their B-rank missions.
"Y-yes, I'll be fine," she said, a blush once again highlighting her pale skin. Nodding, unsure what else to say, he turned to exit, but then paused in the doorway.
"I'm glad you're ok. I was…worried," he told her. Then Gaara left, so abruptly that he never saw Sakana's shocked face behind him.
Sakana's POV
When she was released from the hospital the next morning, Sakana was still contemplating what had taken place the night before with Gaara. The fact that they had hugged still made her blush, and he had seemed genuinely concerned about her well-being, too.
Temari met her in the main hall to guide her to the room they would be sharing until the next round of exams began.
"Sakana-chan, are you doing okay?" Temari asked.
Sakana nodded, but it wasn't the complete truth. Her visions still troubled her greatly. Were they glimpses of the future or the past? Had they been happening somewhere as she watched from afar? Why had she seen them at all? All those questions and more were running and raging through her brain like wild horses in a closed corral.
She kept an eye out that day for Sasuke and his team but there was no sign. The next day however, the sound ninja whom Sasuke had fought in her vision arrived, both of his arms bound up in slings. Proof that there was at least some truth to her visions! But with still no sign at all of Team 7, Sakana had to resist the uncanny urge to go find them herself.
The last day of the exam she found herself sitting at the window of the room she shared with Temari, watching the forest with a mixture of anticipation and fear. She was searching for any sign of movement, but whenever she got her hopes up it was usually nothing more than the wind or some small forest creature. Then suddenly from out of the gloom Sasuke and his team finally emerged! They were accompanied by an older boy with a long silver ponytail and round glasses whom she vaguely recognized from the written exam. Sakana could tell, even from her second story view, that they were all in pretty bad shape. However, Sasuke was the worst off by far, forced to lean on Sakura just to stay standing.
Her head turned when she heard the door open. Temari was standing in the doorway, her fan on her back.
"Hey, Sakana-chan, we have to go. All the remaining Genin have been summoned. They told us to bring our combat equipment," Temari said to her.
Nodding, Sakana rose from her seat and grabbed her kunai and shuriken box from where it lay on her bedside table. After strapping it to her right thigh she walked with Temari down to the main hallway to where Baki, Kankuro and Gaara were already standing. Sakana flashed a small smile at Gaara before following Baki into an enormous room. There were balconies lining the side walls and taking up the entire far wall was a sculpture of two enormous hands forming the "ram" sign. It appeared that all of the other remaining teams and teachers were there as well.
Sakana quickly spotted Sasuke between a brunette girl and a tall boy with a long grey coat. He looked even worse up close and was grasping almost unconsciously at his neck. It didn't take her long to realize that his hand was in the exact spot where her own body now sported a mark no one could explain. At first she dismissed this as a coincidence, but when he moved his hand Sakana was shocked and a little scared by what she saw. On his neck was a mark almost identical to hers; but instead of looking pale and scar-like, his was pure black.
She took her place behind Temari in a line with Gaara at the head. They were standing between a Konoha team and the Sound team. The silver-haired boy that had been with Team 7 was standing on Gaara's left. Although she kept her body still, questions spiraled through her mind. "Why does Sasuke have a mark that looks so much like mine? Was he the one I heard screaming in the forest? Why did I have a vision of him? Does it have something to do with the reason he seems so familiar? What's the connection?!" With each question Sakana asked herself her frustrations grew. She tried to place them aside, to focus on the challenges that lay before her, but a powerful, unfamiliar feeling continued to draw her towards Sasuke in a way she couldn't fully explain.