Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto but I do own the character Mayume Uchiha!

Author's Note: Hey guys! I'm back from Blue Mountain and I hope that you guys enjoyed your March break as much as I did (and I did a lot!). Well I hope that you liked the last chapter… here's the next one. Guys…is brother Aniki or Onii-chan? Please someone message me about that. Please tell me if I get some of Gaara's past wrong…enjoy :D!

XOXOXOXO

Mayume stayed behind at the training fields until dark, practicing the exercise that Naruto had taught her even though she had practically mastered it. 'Maybe I should go home it's getting late.' She looked at the stars and felt strangely calm. She lay down on the ground just looking up at the sky when she heard rustling in the bushes.

'Oh no it's the scary man-eating squirrels of doom!' but all she saw was a wooden puppet just standing there and the boy with the purple face paint from Sunagakure was standing there.

"Puppet!" She ran over to the Karasu and went to touch it but pulled back quickly. "Will it bite?" Kankuro just sighed. "You're that Uchiha girl from before. Aren't you scared of me?" He looked at her and she replied cheerfully. "Nope! Because if you hurt me you'll have all of the Konoha ANBU on your back." She stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry.

"Man you're one hyper little girl, and no Karasu doesn't bite… unless I want him to." Mayume slowly reached to touch the puppet and poked it. "It's so hard and cold! And it didn't bite me…YAY!".

XOXOXOXO

Somehow, the two found themselves sitting in a tree talking and laughing about their lives a few minutes later.

"Hey! Why don't you tell me about yourself?" Kankuro looked over at the Uchiha while trying to start a conversation.

"Well…I like food…a lot…um…Sasuke is my cousin thrice removed on my mom's side…I think…um…and…ya…"she smiled at Kankuro who just anime fell out of the tree. He eventually climbed back up after a few moments of rubbing his back.

"What about your family?" he just looked at her, expecting another stupid answer, but all she did was look down at the branch as she hugged her knees harder.

"I'm sure that you've heard of the Uchiha massacre." She looked at him and he nodded 'yes'. "Well…the man who killed everyone, the man who was never caught, was one of my best friends…Uchiha Itachi. He is Sasuke's older brother."

"I had been out picking flowers for my mom and it was one of the few times that Sasuke hadn't come with me. When I came back, the whole town was quiet and everyone was lying on the road in their own blood. I raced home only to find both my parents dead with Itachi watching from the shadows. I was able to get away from him and run to Konoha and Kakashi found me and took me in."

"So now that I've told you about my life, tell me about yours… Kankuro wasn't it?" she looked up at him with a smile as she wiped tears from her eyes.

'Shit! How can this girl stand to live after all she's been through?' "Ya…well, you saw the 2 people that are on my team right? The girl, Temari, is my older sister, and the boy, Gaara, is my younger brother."

"He's younger than you yet he holds total control over your actions? What's up with that?" Mayume looked at him curiously as he shifted uneasily on the branch. After a moment of silence he sighed then continued his story.

"When Gaara was born, our mom died in order for a fearsome sand, racoon demon, Shukaku to be sealed properly inside him. His caretaker, our Uncle Yashamaru, hated Gaara for it since he and his sister were very close. He was later on sent by our father, the Kazekage to go and assassinate Gaara because he had become too much of a threat to the people of the village."

"I don't exactly know what happened that night, but most sources said that Yashamaru had tons of exploding notes on him and was going to commit suicide and take Gaara with him, but the sand protected Gaara and gave him the kanji on his forehead…love."

"People have been scared of him forever and he's always been alone because people, even me and Temari have treated him like a monster…" He trailed off and looked down as tears streamed down his face.

'OK! Talk about freaky. This guy's life sounds just like Naruto's…except that he has 2 siblings, a dad, a murderous personality and the right to become the next Kazekage.' She looked at him than gave him a hug.'

"I'm glad that you've finally come out and said that you thought that I was a monster older brother. That girl there, why are you two talking? Kankuro I told you to get to bed early so that you wouldn't mess up our chances of failing the test tomorrow, not that it will make a difference." Both Kankuro and Mayume turned around to face the new comer. Kankuro looked like he was about to wet himself and Mayume just put on a brave face and stood up.

"Don't be so mean to Kankuro Gaara!" She said pointing a finger at him.

"You know what I am and yet you still back-sass me. I could kill you right now and not have second thoughts about it." He stared coolly at her and she shivered but still kept her position.

"Then why don't you? Are you scared of me or something?" she laughed a bit and Gaara got really mad. Sand started to crawl up the tree and wrap itself around Mayume.

She jumped back before it could immobilize her and got out a kunai and started to swing it at the on coming sand, but after a few moments her fatigue from training caught up with her and she was caught in a cocoon.

"No," Gaara disappeared from his spot on the ground and reappeared right in front of Mayume. "I just don't want to get disqualified from the chunnin exams. Any other time and you would have been dead long ago."

He gave a smirk as his sand tightened its grip on her. He only stopped after he heard a sickening crack and saw the Uchiha girl slump unconscious. The sand surrounding her crawled back into the gourd on the sand nin's back and she fell to the floor. Kankuro caught her and held her in his arms.

"Gaara, you didn't have to go that far." He got up from his crouching position as Gaara transported himself to the ground beside him.

"Shut up Kankuro, or I'll kill you after the exams are done," He started to walk away but stopped "and leave that girl behind. I'm sure she can take care of herself." "But she's uncon…" "Shut up." Kankuro gave a sigh and lay Mayume on the ground gently "I'm sorry." He whispered gently and he ran to catch up with Gaara.

XOXOXOXO (Mayume's POV)

I woke up from a sharp, throbbing pain on my forehead and arm. The tweeting close to my ear told me that the pain on my forehead was a bird. I tried to shoe it away with my left arm but found that I couldn't move it and that there was major pain in my left shoulder. I pushed myself up with my other arm, which seemed to be fine and the bird flew away.

'Oh man…I'm so tired. What happened last night?' short flashbacks of Gaara, Kankuro and sand enveloping me played through my head and I remembered feeling my arm break in 2 places and excruciating pain coming from the left side of my body before I fell unconscious.

'That Gaara kid is seriously gonna pay for what he did to me.' I suddenly remembered what today was and checked my watch. I still had about an hour before the deadline. I quickly checked to see if my application was in my pocket and ran as fast as I could towards the academy.

Man was I tired! I trained too hard yesterday and now I reached the academy in 20 minutes running the whole way! I pulled up in front of Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto. Sakura looked a bit depressed but I seriously was not too concerned. She was helping Naruto find the line to write his name.

"Morning guys…and Sakura 'yawn' man Naruto that was some great training yesterday. Thanks a lot!" I gave Naruto a friendly hug with my good arm but I think he took it the wrong way. Sasuke looked a bit angry and Sakura was still looking sad.

"Mayume what's wrong with your left arm? Can't you use it?" Naruto looked a bit worried as he poked her arm. It just swung back and forth. "Huh? Oh ya. I broke it while training after you left. I better get it checked." I let go of the hug and went back to my spot in between Naruto and Sasuke. Stretching the truth never hurt anyone…well not really.

"We better get inside guys and hand in our applications. We only have about 35 minutes until the deadline and there's bound to be line-ups. And Mayume, get Kakashi to look at your arm." Sasuke led the way in side the building.

XOXOXOXO (Regular POV)

The first floor was very calm and quiet. Thankfully team 7 had not met anyone on the way up to the 2nd floor, but when they did reach the next floor they encountered a huge crowd and a fight. Lee was getting beat up by two genins from Konoha and Tenten was trying to talk there way through to the applications room but she just got a slap in the face. Some of the bystanders were whispering things like "Horrible" and "How cruel".

"Hey that wasn't nice you assholes!" Mayume stepped into the ring and the two bullies seemed taken aback.

"What did you say? Listen we're being nice. The chunnin exams aren't easy…even we've failed it 3 times straight. People quit being shinobi after because of the stress and some die during the exam. We've seen it all!"

"Chunnins usually become military captains for teams and any deaths or failures are blamed on them. You think that you snot nosed kids can pass?" Both of the genins had their arms crossed and were smirking.

"Are you finished yet? We are all aware of that, and could you do us all a favour and move so we can pass onto the 3rd floor? And remove that genjutsu while you're at it!" Sasuke chuckled as the illusion faded and the sign above the door changed from 301 to 201.

"So you noticed huh? Smartass." The other genin unfolded his arms and leaned against the wall.

"Sakura you must have noticed first right? Your analytical ability and genjutsu know-how are the most improved on our team." Sakura just blushed and looked at her feet.

"Of course I noticed a while ago, we only walked up one set of stairs." She smiled at her accomplishment. Mayume just sighed and Naruto was mumbling about how he was the first one to notice. One of the bullies shifted his weight a bit.

"Hmm…not bad, but all you did was see through it!" He lunged at Sasuke and the Uchiha kicked back to try and stop him. There was a blur and a few seconds later, Lee stood in between the two boys and was blocking their kicks with his hands. After the two boys calmed down, he released their legs and went back to stand beside his teammates.

"Hey! What happened to the plan? You're the one who said that we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves." Lee looked over at Sakura, his face getting red. "Well…" Tenten just shook her head disapprovingly as Lee walked over to Sakura.

"Hi, my name is Rock Lee. Yours is Sakura right? Let's go out together! I'll protect you until I die!" he gave her 'the smile' and made the 'OK' sign with his hand.

"No…way…you're lame!" Lee hung his head low in a depressed way. Neji and Sasuke were now having a staring contest against one another.

"What's your name?" Neji's question was directed at one person… Sasuke.

"When you want to learn someone's name, you should gives yours first!" Sasuke grinned, as Neji got mad. Naruto looked like he was going to murder Sasuke and Sakura was still trying to fend off Lee. Mayume went over to Naruto and shook him.

"Snap out of it baka! You know that Sasuke is just doing that to make you mad!" Mayume had a knack of yelling at everyone now, but in a nice way. "Come on guys we have to go and hand in the application forms before we're late! And you two, the bullies," she pointed to the two who were now standing at the sides of the door with their arms crossed, "You aren't even genins are you?"

They looked at her with surprised faces then smirked and made the chakra flow sign and transformed into their actual selves. They now looked about 3 years older then they had before and were wearing chunnin vests.

"It seems that we underestimated you kids! We're gonna have some fun this year." One of the chunnins said then chuckled to himself. Everyone looked like this O.o and was very confused. Sakura took hold of her teammates' arms and dragged them through the door and down some stairs. Little did team 7 know that they were getting quite a few threatening glares from people and that someone followed them out.