The Heart of the Demon

Chapter 12

The Preliminaries

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters

Sasuke sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked around the room. Sakura was sitting at the table reading something but Naruto was nowhere to be found "Where's Naruto" he thought out loud.

"I don't know, I don't think she ever came back last night." Sakura stated nonchalantly

"She never came back?" was she really so mad at him? Where could she be, did she spend the whole night with him?

"Not that I know of but she might have come in late and left early, her bed is messy."

"Maybe I should go look for her." He stated almost absent mindedly

"Isn't that why she's mad at you in the first place?"

He hung his head, she was right, Naruto would probably just get even angrier with him if he went searching again. "She's probably still with him, the bastard"

"Who?" Sakura asked hopeful that this might give her a chance with Sasuke.

"The stupid sand bastard with the gourd, she was with him when I found her last night and after yelling at me to give her space she left with him."

Sakura hid her happiness "I'm sure if you give some time everything will be fine"

"I guess you're right" he sighed

"You want to get some breakfast?"

"Sure" his reply was less than enthusiastic but Sakura would take what she could get.

"Where could he be?" Temari asked frantically

"How should I know?!" Kankuro replied just as frantically

"God how could we have lost him, he's probably gone and killed someone!" they went through the halls searching for Gaara who had never come back to the room the night before.

After another few minutes frantically searching they came upon team 8 heading to breakfast and quickly did their best to hide their anxiousness as they passed.

Kankuro whispered to Temari after passing them "we should ask if they have seen him."

Temari thought about it for a second "Hey" she called after team 8 who stopped and looked to them "have any of you seen our brother?"

Kiba smirked "why, did you lose him?"

Temari stopped herself from yelling "As a matter of fact, he didn't come back to our room last night."

"Yeah I saw him last night, he was with Naruto."

That sent a chill down Temari and Kankuro's spines "Naruto, the crazy blond chick?" Kankuro asked already knowing the answer.

"If anyone's crazy it's your brother." Kiba said annoyed "but, yeah that's her."

Temari hated it but it looked like talking to that crazy bitch was their best clue to finding Gaara "Do you know where we could find Naruto then?"

"She's probably eating" Kiba said

"Or training" Hinata added

"Thanks for the help" Temari said turning and walking away with Kankuro

"Nothing good can happen if Gaara is with Naruto, for all we know they've killed each other by now."

"Someone probably would have noticed if they had, neither are exactly push overs, the fight probably would have leveled half the forest." Temari assured both herself and Kankuro

"I hope you're right sis"

Naruto and Gaara sat at a table in the Towers dining hall, Naruto picked at the remains of a bird carcass while Gaara ate some rice balls. They had been with each other since their encounter in the training room getting to know each other better. The topics of their early life were not pleasant for either so they had mostly been trading stories about people they had killed between make out sessions.

Hinata, Kiba, and Shino walked into the room and took the table next to the two after getting some food.

"Well there they are, still together." Kiba said with an annoyed undertone.

"Don't worry Kiba, I'm sure they're just friends." Hinata said with a halfhearted smile knowing it was already more than that.

"They do share a connection that seems strange for two have just met." Shino added

"I'll be right back, I have to talk to Naruto about something." Hinata got up and went to Naruto without giving Kiba a chance to ask about what she wanted to talk to Naruto about.

Naruto looked to Hinata as she approached "Hey Hinata, you need something?"

"Yes, if it is alright I would like to talk to you, alone." She said looking at Gaara

Naruto looked to Gaara "I'll be right back" she said with a smile and got up and walked away with Hinata. Gaara nodded to her as she left and continued eating without saying a word.

They walked to the edge of the room "So, what did you want to talk to me about that can't be said in front of Gaara?" Naruto prodded

"Gaara is what I wanted to talk to about, I saw you two last night, kissing"

"You were spying on me?"

"No no! I was helping Sasuke look for you, he was really worried so I helped look around for you with my Byakugan and saw you."

"Of course, Sasuke has really been getting on my nerves, he's all over me all the time, it's suffocating."

"Yes, so I saw you and Gaara"

Naruto interrupted her "I thought you said you were fine if I chose to see Gaara?"

"Yes it's not that you're seeing him I'm fine with that, it's just I don't know what to tell Sasuke or Kiba, whenever their around now I get panicky and nervous when you come up, which is pretty often."

"Oh, well you don't have to worry about that, tell Kiba I'm seeing Gaara next time it comes up, I'll deal with Sasuke."

Hinata nodded "alright, thanks it's a weight off my shoulders."

"No problem, you can ask me anything" she hugged Hinata who returned the embrace.

During their conversation Sasuke and Sakura had come into the room and not long after Temari and Kankuro had as well.

"There's Naruto" Sasuke brightened up a bit upon seeing her and started moving toward her but was stopped when Sakura grabbed his arm.

"You said she was mad at you, for suffocating her, it will only make it worse if you try to push close to her again so soon, give her some space."

Sasuke opened his mouth to protest but conceded that Sakura was right "I guess you're right."

Sakura smiled "come on, there is a table over here we can sit at."

Temari stormed toward Gaara with Kankuro walking cautiously behind her, he didn't see this going well, and angry Temari wasn't something fun to deal with but that anger sent directly at Gaara was liable to get them killed.

"There you are! Do you have any idea how worried we were! You can't just leave like that and not come back!"

"Temari, calm down, he's here, he's fine, and there hasn't been an international incident yet"

Temari threw an angry look and Kankuro and he promptly shut up. She turned her glare to Gaara and looked into his cold unwavering eyes and before long her anger started to transform into fear, did she really yell at him? Oh god she was going to die!

Gaara stared unrelentingly at her for half a minute, until he was sure she had been completely overtaken by her fear of him "Go away" he said it emotionlessly "or she'll kill you" with that Naruto clamped her clawed gauntlets onto either of their shoulders. They both yelped and dove away seeing Naruto laughing when recovered.

"Ha, you didn't piss yourself did you?" she laughed at Kankuro who didn't retaliate against the insult for fear of his life. "Come on Gaara let's go"

Gaara stepped beside Naruto and they shunshined out of the room leaving Naruto's laugh echoing in the room.

The room was silent for a moment before Temari regained her composure and she and Kankuro left not wanting to stay in the room after that humiliation.

"You didn't piss yourself right?" she prodded as they went back to their room

"No I didn't piss my pants!" he grumbled a bit "I'll get that bitch back for that."

Temari grimaced "You'd just end up dead, that girl, she's as bad as Gaara, if not worse."

Kankuro frowned "You could have let me pretend for a second."

Naruto and Gaara shunshined to the roof of the tower, they had spent the night up here, Naruto had commented on how she liked the stars at dinner and Gaara had brought her up here afterword. The night sky was pretty here but not like in Suna, there were too many clouds here.

Naruto sat down and Gaara sat next to her, he didn't really understand her, he had never felt closer to anyone before, she was like him in so many ways, but then she was different, she had friends and people who didn't seem to fear her at all. He had seen her at work and knew that she was every bit as terrifying as him on the battlefield but she somehow wasn't the same when she was around these people.

"Tell me, you say we're the same, but you have people, friends. I've been alone my entire life, I've never had a friend, my family were as much strangers to me as everyone else. How are you able to be who you are and still have friends?"

Naruto's face saddened a bit, she took Gaara's hand in hers "I've had it better and worse than you in a lot of ways." She paused and looked at the sky before turning to look Gaara in the eye "Has anyone ever tried to kill you, for what you are?"

Gaara frowned thinking about the many assassination attempts his father had tried against him "Yes"

"And you're sand killed the attackers right?"

"Yes"

She gave a sad smile "You're sand is a blessing and a curse. People tried to kill me just like they did you, the difference is I don't have living sand to protect me. When I was six it wasn't just an attempt to kill me, it was a success. I was alone, an orphan on the streets, no one cared about me and at times mobs would chase and beat me. One time they did more that beat me, they killed me, they stabbed me over and over."

Naruto paused and looked away out over the forest "The feeling you have when you die, it's like nothing else in this world. Feeling your life slip away and being powerless to stop it…" she drifted off. She stayed silent for a few minutes before continuing "Anyway, that's when I met Kurama, he healed me, brought me back after I was gone and slaughtered the bastards who stabbed me. He protected me and taught me everything I know. He taught me that it was important to have people on my side and so I formed bonds with people and they made life much more bearable."

She played with his hand, messing with the sand encasing it "I didn't have sand to protect me from the people trying to kill me, but I didn't have it scaring away the people who weren't either."

Gaara stayed silent though her story, he could feel her pain as she told it and wished he could kill the bastards that had dared to touch her. He had never felt like this before, he hadn't cared about another person since his uncle Yashamaru had betrayed him. He held her hand in his and he laid her head on his shoulder and for a while they just sat there, together.

The next few days went by similarly with Naruto and Gaara spending all their time together. Naruto had yet to even talk to Sasuke since that first night in the tower, much to his distress. The five days were up and seven teams had managed to pass. The teams gathered after time was called to wait for information on the next exam.

The teams set up in lines and waited for the Hokage to begin explain the next exam, him and all the jonin sensei were gathered around in front of them. After a minute the Hokage stood up and started on a speech about the real meaning of the exams.

Sasuke couldn't wait for the speech to be over, this was the closest he had been to Naruto in days "Naruto" he whispered, she stood in front of him with Sakura behind him.

Naruto tried to ignore Sasuke but he was being very insistent and after his third or fourth try she gave up "What" she quietly hissed back at him.

"I just want to talk"

"Wait till after the speech at least"

Sasuke smiled slightly; at least she had acknowledged him, which was more than she had done in days.

Hiruzen finished his speech a little sad by the lack of attention most of the genin had given during it. Hayate stepped in afterword to explain that there were too many people for the third exam and there would have to be preliminary fights to determine who went on to the third exam. After a short explanation of the rules the board started spinning to determine who would be fighting first.

Sasuke was happy the long speech and explanations were finally over; he wanted to talk to Naruto already. The board clicked to a stop revealing the first contenders, just his luck, his name had come up. He sighed, well better make this quick he thought turning to face his opponent as the rest of the genin moved to the observation catwalks.

Sasuke's opponent was Yoroi Akado one of Kabuto's teammates, he had been so caught up in his thoughts he had barley even noticed when Kabuto quit, he thought it an odd choice but didn't care enough to give it any further thought. Yoroi had the unique ability to drain chakra with his hands, too bad for him Sasuke was far too fast for him to touch and Sasuke quickly hit him with a fireball jutsu. Yoroi was carried off on a stretcher after less than 20 seconds of fighting. Sasuke quickly went up to join his team after the easy win and was met with cheers from Sakura and Ino.

"You were awesome! That guy didn't stand a chance against you." Sakura cheered

"You've only gotten better since the academy! No one could hold a candle to you!" Ino called

Kakashi gave him a smile with the smallest hint of pride "Good job Sasuke"

Sasuke barely acknowledged them as he went to Naruto who was leaning against the wall a little farther down, Sakura and Ino were both crestfallen from being ignored.

Naruto gave a halfhearted smile as he approached "Beat his ass quickly; I hardly even got to settle in before the fight was over."

Sasuke smiled back "He was hardly worth the effort, he didn't belong here if he would go down in one jutsu."

Naruto chuckled for a second before her face hardened a bit "So, what did you want to talk about."

Sasuke's smile shorted a bit "I'm sorry Naruto, I've been way to protective of you. You know what you're doing and I shouldn't have been so crazy" he paused for a moment and took a deep breath "but when I see you with him, I just can't help myself because, because I love you Naruto."

Naruto's eye's widened and she tried to find words but couldn't make any come, she hadn't expected Sasuke to even be able to feel that about her after everything he'd seen her do, for him to say it here in front of everyone, it had caught her off guard.

She finally found words "Sasuke" she said it softly "I, I" she straightened up and regained her composure "I'm with Gaara"

It was like a slap in the face, his heart felt like it was being crushed by a thousand weights, he pushed her to hard and know even after admitting his love she rejected him, he had never felt pain worse than the pain in that moment.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry, really. There was a time when I felt the same, but the bond Gaara and I share is greater than I could ever explain." She put her hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes "You've been my best friend for years, I hope at least we can still be friends." She hugged him but he was unresponsive. She pulled away looking him in the eyes again, tears were welling in her eyes, she hated hurting him like this but Gaara and her belonged together, there was no other way this could end.

Shino's match against Zaku had been going on in the background while this was going on, he had won with a spectacular strategy using his opponent's weapons against him, but of course no one had even been paying attention to it because of what was going on with Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto's match came next and she was forced to get into the arena under threat of disqualification. She took one more moment to look Sasuke in the eyes "I'm sorry Sasuke" after that she jumped into the arena to face her opponent.

Sasuke composed himself after she left, pushing all his emotions as far down as he could "If it's okay I'm going to go now" he told more than asked Kakashi.

Kakashi nodded "yeah it's fine" he had been afraid something like this was going to happen and it pained him to see Sasuke like this.

Naruto watched Sasuke leave; she could hardly blame him after what just happened. After he was gone she turned to her opponent, Neji Hyuga.

Neji smirked at her "You might as well go after him, destiny has already determined me the winner of this fight."

Naruto was hardly in the mood for Neji's bullshit, she never liked him, they had only met a few times and he had always been an annoying prick, time to vent some emotions on him. "You really are full of yourself Neji"

"You're petty comments don't matter, fate has already decided this match, if you insist on going through this pointless exercise let us start."

Hinata was worried about Neji, he had never take Naruto or what she could do seriously, to the point where he was near oblivious to how strong Naruto really was. Hinata was not the only one worried either, Kakashi was on edge ready to jump in at a moment's notice to keep Naruto from killing Neji.

Guy seemed completely confident in Neji, as did Neji's teammates Tenten and Lee who cheered for him in the weird way only Guy and Lee could.

Naruto smirked, forcing her thoughts on Sasuke back to focus on Neji. "I'm ready if you are"

Neji activated his Byakugan, Naruto's chakra was like none he'd seen before; instead of the regular blue color her chakra was a twisted dark purple and she had more of it than anyone he'd ever seen. He nodded and Hayate started the match, half a second later Naruto and Neji were in a fierce taijutsu battle. Both were masters of their styles and they weaved through each other's attacks with the precision that came with being such. Their speed was unbelievable and only a few genin in the audience were capable of following the fight.

After a while they broke apart and stared each other down from across the arena, Neji was panting and his clothes had a few cuts in them but hadn't been hit. Naruto on the other hand looked like the fight hadn't even started, her breathing was normal and she didn't have a scratch on her.

"Are we finally going to start this?" Naruto asked in a condescending tone. Neji just glared at her, catching his breath.

Naruto gave a sly smile as she put her hands in the familiar cross seal and two clones appeared to either side of her. The clones started doing hand seals immediately going through them impossibly fast using a fire and wind combination jutsu that sent a massive column of searing flame toward Neji.

Neji quickly formed his stance "Rotation!" he called as he spun around in place and created a protective dome of chakra around himself that warded him from the flames.

Naruto smiled at Neji when his rotation ended "That's a neat trick"

Neji panted a little harder than before "It's a special jutsu only passed down within the main house of the Hyuga, I mastered it through sheer force of will, you will never defeat it"

"looks tiring, can you keep it up?" she grinned and started an unrelenting attack with clones jumping in to attack in taijutsu while more clones continuously threw jutsu at him. Every time he stopped his rotation he would have to immediately start again.

Neji had to find a way out of this, she was right, the jutsu was very tiring and he wouldn't be able to last much longer, he needed an opening so he could end this. Then he found his opening, a break between jutsu, he suddenly stopped his rotation and leaped toward Naruto landing a few feet from her and entering the stance for the eight trigrams sixty-four palms.

Naruto smirked, he fell for it, a special clone that had been waiting on the ceiling launched itself toward Neji. Neji ignored it, he needed to finish this attack, but something was different about this one, its chakra wasn't quite right. His eyes widened as he realized what was different and jumped away right as it landed and exploded propelling him farther into the air.

Naruto shot into the air at breakneck speed and then used a clone to launch herself at Neji with massive speed and force. Neji put his arms up to block, not being able to do the rotation midair. Naruto's foot came crashing down on Neji's left arm with so much force it pulverized the bone and implanted him in the floor. Naruto landed gracefully next to the crater Neji had made when he impacted.

Lee was awestruck how could someone be beating Neji so handedly? She hadn't even broken a sweat and yet she had broken Neji, was she truly so far above them?

Neji slowly pushed himself back to his feet, he was bruised and bloody and his left arm was completely limp. He glared at Naruto breathing heavily; it felt like there was a massive weight on his chest, there was so much pain everywhere, standing was the hardest thing he had ever done.

"And what did you're destiny say about this Neji? Did it say I killed you today?"

"I" he winced and coughed up some blood "I, will not die today"

Immediately after saying that Naruto launched forward and kneed him hard in the sternum sending him flying back into the wall where Naruto then pinned him against it holding his one good arm tight with her left claw while the other was clamped hard around his neck, small droplets of blood flowed out from where the points of her claw dug into the skin. Her eyes were dark red and her smile was truly that of a demon as she whispered "are you sure?"

"Call the match!" Kakashi yelled before springing into action quickly reaching Naruto and ripping her away from Neji who fell to the floor and crumpled like a sack of bricks. Naruto snarled at Kakashi with dark red eyes for a second before she returned to normal. He defiantly saw it that time, it wasn't in his head, her eyes were red.

Hayate called the match a second later "Winner Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto composed herself and glared at Kakashi for a moment before shunshining back up to the rest of the leaf genin.

Guy went down to Neji and the medics were there soon after to rush him away. "These wounds are severe, how was the fight allowed to progress to this?"

"The fight ended, abruptly, and most the injuries didn't happen until the end." Kakashi offered

Guy looked solemnly as they carried his unconscious student away "Will he be alright?"

"We can't be sure here, but bone in his arm has been nearly turned to dust, it is unlikely he will be able to continue as a ninja even if he does survive." The medic then quickly followed the rest to help with Neji.

After they took Neji away Guy and Kakashi returned to their teams so the matches could continue. Next up were Sakura and Ino, the match was a long time coming and they spent several minutes talking before the fight actually started. It was a bit of a disappointment how easily Sakura beat Ino; Ino had tried to catch Sakura with her mind transfer jutsu but had been caught under Sakura's genjutsu and completely missed leaving her defenseless. Sakura simply walked up and held a kunai to Ino's throat and the match was called.

During the match Hinata confronted Naruto "Naruto"

Naruto came out of her daydream "oh Hinata, what's up?"

"Neji, were you going to kill him?"

Naruto wasn't surprised she was confronting her, she always had a soft heart, despite Neji always having been a complete asshole to her he was family and she cared for him. "Of course not Hinata, I would never do that to you."

"It's just that, it really looked like you were going to kill him."

Naruto put her hand on Hinata's shoulder "I was just teaching him a lesson Hinata, he needed to learn that fate doesn't determine everything, we make our own destiny. Even if he is an asshole I know you care about him and I would never hurt you."

Hinata smiled slightly "Thank you Naruto, you've always been such a good friend." They hugged and Hinata went back to her team. Truth be told Naruto was absolutely going to kill Neji but she supposed it was good it ended the way it did.

Sakura rejoined them and Naruto gave a smile "Good job Sakura"

Sakura gave her a short glare before walking past her and standing next to Kakashi. She was still mad at how Naruto had treated Sasuke, sure she was glad that she now had a chance with him but the pain in Sasuke's face, she doubted she would ever forgive Naruto.

"Bitch" Naruto said under her breath leaning against the wall, this was taking forever.

Next up were Hinata and Choji. The battle was relatively short, Choji put up a good fight using his clan expansion jutsu and even forced Hinata to do nothing but avoid his massive rolling form for a while. Ultimately though Hinata was able to get him with her gentle fist and won the fight.

Hinata came up the stairs and Naruto greeted her with a big hug "You were awesome Hinata! And we're both going to the final exam!"

Hinata returned the hug "Yes it is wonderful"

Choji came up after her holding his stomach where Hinata had hit him with her gentle fist. Naruto smiled at him "You did great too Choji, it was very impressive"

Choji gave a small smile "Thanks" he rubbed his stomach "This won't make it so I can't eat right Hinata?"

Hinata giggled "No you should be fine."

"Good" he smiled, pulled out a bag of chips, and started eating, Naruto and Hinata laughed.

Shikamaru and Kin were the next to fight. The fight was relatively uneventful as neither opponent was a very active fighter. Shikamaru won using his shadow possession jutsu to slam kin's head against the wall and knock her out.

Shikamaru lazily walked up the stairs and was greeted by Naruto and Choji. "You were awesome Shikamaru!" Choji cheered when Shikamaru got to the top of the stairs.

"Congrats Shikamaru that fight was very, you." Naruto commented

"Yeah well I'm just glad it's over that was a drag."

Naruto laughed "It's good to see you haven't changed"

"Next up Tenten vs Temari" Hayate called

Shikamaru and Choji went back to stand with Asuma.

Naruto sighed still 4 matches to go, this was taking forever.

The fight was short at least, despite Tenten's impressive weapon skills she couldn't stand up to Temari's wind jutsu.

Only three fights left and they could get out of here, Naruto was getting antsy.

The Next fight was Kiba and Dosu. Despite being cheered for by Hinata and Naruto Dosu was able to beat Kiba with his sound jutsu. Kiba was disorientated and ultimately defeated because of it.

The next fight was Lee vs Kankuro, personally Naruto wanted to see Kankuro get his ass beat a bit but she had no idea what Lee could do, so she wasn't holding high hopes for it. She was pleasantly surprised as Lee's amazing speed and powerful taijutsu outdid Kankuro's puppetry. After Kankuro's abilities were reviled Lee was able to smash his puppet to pieces and Kankuro surrendered shortly after.

Finally the last fight, and it was Gaara's Naruto couldn't wait and he was fighting someone she didn't give a shit about, hopefully there would be some blood.

"The final fight will be Gaara vs Misumi" Hayate called

Naruto gave Gaara an excited look and he couldn't help but smile at her before shunshining down to the arena. Gaara toyed with Misumi for a bit for Naruto's sake; Misumi slithered around trying to get close but was knocked away by Gaara's sand every time. Misumi charged again but instead of simply being knocked away the sand instead formed spikes and impaled him in several places, quickly and painfully killing him.

A lot of the people there were shocked of angry by Gaara killing Misumi but ultimately it was within the rules and allowed. Kakashi was the only one who seemed to notice how excited Naruto was as Misumi died, he was worried that these two spending time together would not help the situation with Naruto.

After Misumi was taken away the winners took their places in front of the Hokage. Naruto couldn't stand still, she held Gaara's hand and fidgeted constantly. Hiruzen stood to address them, noticing Naruto holding Gaara's hand, so is this the boy she had been spending so much time with? Kakashi had told him that Naruto had been spending a lot of time with one of the sand genin, by the looks of it she really liked him but the callous way he killed Misumi had Hiruzen worried.

"Congratulations are due to all of you, you are all moving on to the final exam which will be held in one month time."

"A month? Why so long?" Sakura asked

"Preparations must be made, the daimios must be informed, and the month will give you genin time to prepare for your fights."

Hayate walked up with a bowl that had ten pieces of paper in it "each of you will draw a piece of paper that will determine who you will be matched against in the finals." Hiruzen explained "the remaining piece of paper will be Sasuke's number."

Hayate held the bowl out to each of them and they each took a piece of paper from the bowl.

"Now read out your numbers"

"One" Lee called

"Five" Sakura said

"Seven" Temari said

"Eight" said Shikamaru

"Nine" Dosu said

"Three" Gaara said

"Four" Naruto said

"Six" Hinata said

"Ten" said Shino

"And that means Sasuke is two" Hayate said taking the final piece of paper

"So the matches will be Lee vs Sasuke in round one, Naruto vs Gaara in round two, Sakura vs Hinata in round three, Shikamaru vs Temari in round four, and Dosu vs Shino in round five. The winners of round one and two will be round six and the winners of round three and four will be round seven the winner of round five will then face the winner of round six in round eight with the winners of round seven and eight fighting in the final round." Hiruzen explained

"It is important you all understand that winning the competition doesn't guarantee you will become a chunin neither does losing mean you won't become chunin. Each round is a chance for you to show you skill which will be evaluated by a group of judges who will determine if you will be promoted or not. The more rounds you are in the more chances you have to show off your skills. It is possible for every one of you to become chunin; it is equally possible for none of you to be promoted." Hiruzen looked at them after finishing "If there are no questions then you are all dismissed, and may return to the village."

Naruto needed no more conformation than that and quickly shunshined away with Gaara. They arrived at her apartment and Naruto immediately jumped onto Gaara, wrapping her legs around him and passionately kissing him. She had never felt like this before, she needed to be closer to him but no matter how close she got it wasn't enough.

She pulled away and whispered into his ear "I need you, now."

Gaara was feeling the same way and couldn't remember a time he had ever been nearly as excited as he was in this moment. Naruto let go of Gaara and pushed open the door of her apartment as fast as possible before grabbing Gaara's arm and leading him to the bedroom. She threw off her gauntlets and Gaara's sand armor broke apart and returned to his gourd. Gaara set his gourd down and Naruto pulled him onto the bed tearing off his shirt before aggressively kissing him.

[Lemon]

Naruto straddled Gaara leaning over to kiss him for a few seconds before sitting up to remove her shirt. She pulled off her headband and hair ties before taking off her shirt, Gaara sat up and passionately kissed her before pulling her mesh armor off. He then wrapped his arms around her and flipped her so he was on top kissing her again he pulled her skirt off and she fumbled trying to pull down his pants. He finished taking her skirt off and pulled away so he get his pants off, she laid back and gave him a foxy grin her eyes red as roses as she watched him strip off his pants.

Gaara finished removing his pants and was quickly back on top his beautiful demon lover. Naruto pulled Gaara to her again locking her lips to his as he poised himself to enter her. Gaara started to push in slowly eliciting a moan from Naruto as she wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him in farther. Gaara soon started pumping faster making Naruto dig her claw like fingers into Gaara's back but he hardly noticed. This was the closeness Naruto had needed, they were no longer two people but one inter joined person.

Gaara continued to pump causing Naruto to arch her back and bite down on his bottom lip. Gaara pulled away touched his lip, there was blood dripping from the bite, he looked at Naruto who gave him sheepish smile and he couldn't help but smile back. He wrapped his hands in Naruto's hair and pulled hard before furiously pumping into her. Naruto moaned loudly and started quivering with pleasure. Gaara couldn't hold it any longer and with a few more pumps they climaxed together, he shot his load deep into as she pulled him a close as she possible could.

They panted and stared into each other's eyes, neither of them could imagine life without the other, they were like two pieces of the same puzzle fitting perfectly together. Naruto wasn't ready for it to end yet luckily for her massive endurance was something shared by all jinchuriki. Naruto wrapped her arms around Gaara's chest and flipped over, it was her turn to be on top.

They continued their passionate love making long into the night, completely enveloped with one another.

[End Lemon]

Gaara laid there admiring Naruto and playing with her hair as she slept, her head rested on his chest right above his heart and her arms were wrapped around him. Gaara had never even considered the notion of sex before, Naruto had changed everything, she was his world now, his reason for living, he would do anything for her, she was the only thing that mattered.

Sasuke entered his home and Itachi quickly greeted him "Sasuke, welcome home, how did the exam go?"

Sasuke just walked past him and into his room where he sat on the bed and stared at the wall with a blank face, Itachi followed him in and sat next him.

"Sasuke, what happened?"

Sasuke sat silent for a couple minutes before finally responding "I told Naruto I loved her."

Itachi was surprised, of all the things he thought might have happened that wasn't one of them. Something must have happened for Sasuke to have confessed his love to her "What did she say?"

"She rejected me, for a guy she met less than a week ago."

Itachi put his arm around Sasuke "I'm sorry Sasuke. Everything will be alright, she'll see she was wrong and come running to you, just give her time."

The Jonin sensei met up at the jonin lounge after the preliminaries were over.

"I see what you were worried about Kakashi, that Naruto is a dangerous one." Asuma commented

"For her to able to beat Neji so thoroughly, she truly is far above genin level ninja." Guy added much quieter and less enthusiastic then he usually was.

"That was what I was afraid of, I'm glad I was able to stop her from killing him but she may well have ended his ninja career." Kakashi said solemnly.

"She does seem to lack restraint, you were right to worry about nominating her." Kuranai said

"Yes well, she won't be my student much longer, she is very powerful and like a granddaughter to the Hokage, there is no way she doesn't get promoted."

After that conversation moved to their other students and how they were going to train them for the finals.