Yes an update! Sorry to all of you who had to wait so long for his I am really, really, really sorry. I've been busy with my other life off the internet, Oooo scary I know. I've been working on making the chapters longer yet still interesting so tell me if it's working.

I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters…so I stole them and placed them in this fic. Read enjoy and review. Flames are welcome to keep me warm in the cod winter months as I sit typing in my dark cellar.

Too Cold

Sakura growled in her sleep as her fangs flashed fiercely in her sleep as she tossed and turned. Her eyebrows were knitted together in and expression of pain as her eyes remained shut tightly. He back arched and she turned slightly to the left. Her hands reached out and clawed at her sheets strangling them in her death grip. Beads of sweet rolled down her forehead and her breath became irregular.

"…No…no….no…." She whispered in a pained tone.

Shadows and scenes flashed behind closed eyes as her heartbeat hitched speeding faster then the flutter of a dying bird. Her head thrashed slightly to the side as the movie rolled through her mind over and over.

"No….NO!" She screamed as her upper body snapped forwards, her dawn tinted locks sticking to her sweet covered face. Her breathing came out in gasps as her body trembled with the forbidden emotion…fear.

She clutched her head and groaned swinging her small pale legs over the edge of her bed and hopped off. Grabbing the sheet off her bed she wrapped it around her and waddled out into the living room and snuggled into the deep cushions of her big leather armchair.

She was having another one of her nightmares about her father. She had so many of them so many ties she should have been use to them but it was a sore nerve she didn't want to pick at. Sometimes they were about him coming back into her life and hurting her again. Others were just flashback from when he beat her as a child.

A small green eyed child no older than her fifth year peeked her head around the edge of the screen door looking at her father shyly. She was wearing a pale pink yuka and her hair was tied up in a bun. Her father was slouched over in his chair, a sake bottle, hanging from his fingertips. As he right hand was draped over his eyes trying to push down the growing handover that was making it's way through his mind.

Sensing her a few feet away he let his hand fall from his eyes and glared at the pale trembling girl. "What do you want now tramp?" He snarled his saffron yellow eyes menacing.

Sakura ducked her head down and trembled her voice shaking. "Um the…water, it's too cold. There is still frost in it and it numbs my hands whenever I try to touch it."

"What? That's it? You came in here and bothered me about that?" He snapped standing up quickly angered. His empty sake bottle falling from his fingertips and rolling out of the way.

"I…I'm s…sorry daddy. I'm sorry."

"You better be…" He growled drawing closer and closer to the terrified little girl.

"N…no daddy, please no I'm sorry daddy."

Sakura growled grabbing her head remembering the beginning of her dream. It was a flashback of the time they were staying at a hotel and he told her to wash her face with the rain water outside. Being in the dead middle of winter and dawn of night the water was freezing cold with frost and all. Naturally she couldn't use the water and tiptoed towards their room to tell her father.

Her father was drunk and sick from so much sake, a sinful pleasure he drowned himself in more then he should have. When he heard the voice of his only daughter that had brought so much trouble to his life he wanted to kill something, namely her.

Sakura pulled the white sheet up closer to her body pulling it up over her exposed shoulders and tucking it under her chin. Her gray tank top and shorts did little to keep out the uncaring cold that nipped at her exposed skin. Letting her long dawn tinted locks fall around her she remembered the rest of that little incident so many long years ago.

His hand reached out and grabbed her by the hair yanking her up and dragging her outdoors. Sakura tried to stand up and walk with him but being dragged so roughly made that difficult.

"Daddy I'm sorry please don't do this I promise I won't complain anymore. Please daddy…" The small girl sobbed her voice hitching through her tears.

"Your such a whiny little piece of filthy trash not worth of spit! You little tramp I'll teach you not to complain." He hissed his dark red hair reminding her too much of dried blood at that moment.

"No, no please daddy…"

He yanked her sharply silencing her pleas dragging her over to two different basins filled with water. He made a hand seal and touched the top of the water. Soon the still waters began to quiver and churn now boiling at a high temperature.

"So the waters are too cold for you eh princess?" He asked, his words heavily laced with sarcasm that scared her. "Let's see how you like the water now you Kyojakuji."He finished thrusting her headfast first into the boiling water.

She screamed and trashed as the waters burned her skin. Her lungs began to soon burn as well due to lack of oxygen. "please…" She thought praying to God. "Please just let it end I'm sorry."

"That's right you Baita. That'll teach you to complain to me. What is it too hot for you? Oh I'm sorry let's fix than shall we?" He taunted yanking her back out of the water for a brief moment allowing her enough time to briefly catch her breath before he slammed her face down into the freeing cold waters. The waters around her hissed as her warm face hit it's icy surface before submerging.

Her legs and arms kicked and thrashed violently as she tried to pull her head up out of the waters. Even through the waters she could hear her father's taunting laughter.

He pulled her head up out of the cold basin and dunked it into the boiling water again. After holding her under for a while he pulled her out and dunked her under the cold then the hot water over and over again. He grew tired of the torture.

"Let this be a lesson to you tramp. Don't you dare come to me and complain about all your crap. You hear me you little baita?" He asked kicking her side as she lay curled up on the ground.

"I'm a sorry sap that can't get to sleep how much more pathetic can you get?" She thought pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her chin in between her knees.

"Not very much." Someone said from behind her startling her. She had been so caught up in her memories she didn't even notice him sneak up on her.

She squeaked startled, falling out of her chair in a rushed attempt to cover her exposed face. "G…Gaara san hat are you doing here and so late at night? Shouldn't you be asleep?"

The red haired sandman scoffed and looked away. "…I don't sleep." Was all he said after a brief pause of silence.

Sakura raised an eyebrow and brought the blanket up covering most of her hair at the bottom of her face. The top part was resting just above her eyes leaving little exposed. 'I guess he doesn't talk much,' she though. He blinked slowly and turned to look at her curiously. She shrank under his gaze and shivered. He was looking at her and she found it very uncomfortable. "What are you looking at?"

"…why do you cover yourself so much? What are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid!…I just don't like people…looking…seeing me. It feels so wrong. I have always concealed myself it would be weird if I were to just stop now. My body is precious to me and I treasure it." Sakura replied softly looking down. Unknowingly she pulled the sheets around her body closer.

"…I see." He then looked away so Sakura's relief letting her relax a little. "Why aren't you asleep?"

"Hmm? Me, I just was…umm well you first! You tell me first why you are awake then I'll tell you why I can't sleep."

"…I can't sleep. It's not like I could if I wanted to I have Insomnia and have never left the conscious state. So like I said before It's not like I could if I wanted to." Gaara replied coolly without looking at her until after he finished his sentence.

'Is the insomnia caused by Shukaku?' Sakura asked Okami frowning when her mother like wolf nodded in reply.

"Now it's your turn, why are you awake?"

"Heh I don't have an excuses like you do, just some nightmares. Nothing real bad."

"…I always envied everyone else for being able to sleep. Since I never could…"

"I understand what you mean but sometimes it's better your way. You can't sleep you can't dream. Dreams don't always bring visions of sugarplums and candy canes, sometimes they bring things you wished were never there. Some things you wish to never see."

"…What do you dream about?" Garra asked blinking slowly again.

Sakura frowned when he asked about her nightmare. From what she remembered Naruto telling her about his friend at the ramen bar Gaara wasn't one to talk that much or at lease not this much. "It was just a little something about my past I'd rather not re-live. But tell me, from what I've heard you don't talk that much, why are you talking to me?"

Gaara closed his eyes and looked away. The truth was that being around her Shukaku quitted down, it wasn't a coincident. She really did quite the monster within him. He fidgeted debating whether to tell her or not.

"How much did Naruto tell you about me?"

"Not much, why?" Sakura asked already knowing where he was going with this.

"…Shukaku." With that said he disappeared in a whirlwind of his trademark sand.

"Dang I need to learn how to do that only with leaves or no wait ,Sakura petals yeah Sakura petals would be perfect. Hey Okami you think you could teach me that? Okami…?"

The eight tailed white wolf sat silently with her fluffy snow white tales swirling behind her. Her head was bent downward concealing her eyes in shadow. "Shukaku kun…,"she murmured with a slight growl.

Naruto was sitting on the railing of team seven's bridge waiting for Sakura chan to arrive. He was looking forward to surprising her with his new strength in their spar. He smiled to himself when he remembered last night's strange yet blessed events.

"Dobe…" Sasuke muttered coming up and leaning against the opposite railing with a grunt.

Naruto glared but remained silent, controlling his emotions. Screw his spar with Sakura chan he would impress her while beating the teme's butt. A vision of Sakura chan running up to him and hugging him after he defeated Sasuke played through his mind calming him down.

Speaking of the pink haired beauty her footsteps sounded pulling both boys eyes' towards her. She held her hands in her pockets and she carried her head low in a sleepy manner. She mumbled a hello before leaning her back against the railing. Grumbling to herself she rubbed her eyes in an attempt to rub off her sleepiness but it was useless.

Naruto bent down to Sakura's level and smiled. "Ohayo-gozaimasu Sakura chan!" Did you sleep well?"

Sakura slowly lifted her head and stared at the hyper blue eyed ninja in front of her. She swore it was a sin to be too hyper in the morning. Naruto cringed slightly under her harsh gaze but continued to smile. "No." Naruto blinked confused. "…No Naruto I did not sleep well last night. How long until Kakashi sensei gets here?"

"Uh not for another two hours why?" Naruto replied happily.

"Would you like to train with me Naruto? I'm still half asleep so I think a work out would do me good." She replied standing up and heading towards the training fields.

Naruto blinked confused a bit before breaking into a foxy grin and shooting a taunting face towards Sasuke who was grumbling about not being asked to train with Sakura. Sasuke only replied with a cold Uchiha glare.

Sakura stretched her arms and bent down to touch her toes without bending her knees in a warm up exercise. Naruto bounced up to her as well and mirrored her exercises.

"Ready?" She called, smiling when Naruto nodded. "Good 'cause I won't go easy on you like I did yesterday."

Sakura bent her knees and jumped up spinning while throwing a few senbon needles. Naruto jumped out of the way and created a few clones of himself. Sakura jumped down and ran towards one of the clones. Up, down, left, down, right, up, left, down. She blocked his attacks. She jumped back creating some distance between the two as a few more colons charged at her. She bent back onto her hands and spun her legs around her body taking out a few clones. One more came at her and she kicked it in the neck breaking it instantly. With a poof it was gone. One more jumped into the air and she jumped up behind him grabbing his arms and crossing them behind his back. She pulled her knees up to her chest and dug the into the clones back ramming it's body into the ground. When the dust cleared she found herself standing in the middle of a large crater alone.

"Nice job on conserving your chakra Naruto, but I want to fight you not your clones." she called walking out of the huge ditch.

"Then let's fight." Naruto whispered in a deep voice appearing behind her with a kunai at her neck.

Sakura smirked when Naruto was shoved back from her body landing with a dull thud. "What was that?" He asked

"That's for me to know and for you to find out." She purred pulling up a kunai as well and slashing at his chest only to meet the cold steel of his weapon.

Up, left, down, right, left, right, down, up, left. Naruto blocked trying to edge in an attack every now and then. Smirking he draped one of his legs around one of hers and pulled it out from underneath her making her lose balance and fall on to her back.

She grunted when she fell and then cursed when she felt his cold steel at her neck. He was using on f his hands to hold both of her arms above her head and was sitting on her waist. His face was inches above her own and she could see his dark whisker grow even darker as he smirked.

"I got 'ya." He whispered, his breath tickling her ear. She could see his eyes take on a crimson shade as his whisker marks grew more defined.

"Do you?" She asked smiling deviously as her body turned completely pink before cracking a bit under his weight. He growled a little seeing this. The cracks ran all over her body as they began to burst into Sakura petals dancing in the wind.

'Thanks for teaching me that last night Okami.' Sakura thought as she charged Naruto from behind.

Sasuke was having a hard time controlling his anger as he watched the two spar. Naruto was way to close to Sakura for his liking and with that little stunt he just pulled pinning her down oh he was real close to being dead. Sasuke gripped the he of his shirt and growled.

'The dobe is dead,' he thought counting off all the ways he could kill the poor boy.

Kakashi poofed upon the team of now three, since Sai was release to a higher level, and saw something he thought he would never see. Sasuke was jealous of Naruto. And what he was jealous of made him chuckle even more. It was Sakura, a girl. The day Sasuke got jealous of Naruto over a girl was the day Kakashi swore off his treasured 'books'. He never thought it would happen.

"Okay team listen up!" He called gathering the attention of all three hoping to relieve some of the tension.

Sakura pulled her body out of a defensive position and started to trot over to her teacher. Naruto pouted returning to his normal hyper self. He was having so much fun with Sakura chan and Kakashi had to come in and ruin it. He smirked seeing Sasuke's relieved expression he wasn't completely stupid of course he knew the teme liked Sakura and seeing them fight so close tighter had really ticked him off.

"The chunin exams are starting soon so today we're going to work on teamwork since it's something you all need help in." The silver haired jonin said muttering the last part to himself.

Sakura and Naruto jogged up to the two catching Kakashi's announcement wit Sakura standing between the two. "Kakashi sensei, will I be taking Sai's place for the exams?" Sakura asked

"Yeah since Sai has already passed you will be taking his place. Now sharpen up training begins now!"

Sakura closed her eyes loosing herself deep in thought. 'The exams are coming up soon…I have a feeling this is going to be interesting.'

Next Chapter is the beginning of the exam! I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while but I had mid terms and all but they are over so I can concentrate on my stories once more! Once again so very sorry. Review please!