This chapter is going to consist of a long entrance to the main event of it all, and don't worry, ill up date more frequently during the holiday. I have no school, so I can write all I want! It kind of makes you think I have no life. But when I write, its continuous, so I get a lot done in a short amount of time. I'm going to begin with a little story to get rid of the heat from the last chapter. It's long. Enjoy while I put the muffins in to bake.

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Let me describe the scenery, or else people may start to get confused. The Festival was a truly spectacular sight. Everywhere you turned there was a different and uniquely styled booth. Different patterned wood designs and ornaments of every color and shape hung from the thoughtfully decorated sighs on top of them. The fluorescent red looking pumpkin shaped lanterns were truly breath taking. When the wind blew, it made them look like they were talking. Different ninja skill challenges awaited any young or old person who dared to try them. There was what seemed like 200 different stands. But, they needed them all, there were a lot of people there. All of them together created a small village looking shape , and it was truly inviting. There was an opened circle in the middle for performances and any one who wanted to challenge another ninja. If you wanted to test you strength, verse a friend, or just plane out have a grudge, that was your place. (But I'll get to that later.) Sakura, Gaara and Ino stood out side the inside entrance to all the fun and games. The festival was filled with gates. It was Amazing how much would these people were willing to take from there forests every year. Ino eagerly awaited the guard to let them in. The guard seemed to be only 12 or 13 years of age. Dressed in what seemed to be a bright yellow jump suit! He had a round face and dark brown skin. He had a very Naruto like mood to him. The young boy approached the group. He seemed very stuck up and just looking for trouble. He kicked a bit of dirt in Sakura's direction. It didn't quit reach Sakura though, but it still got her annoyed.

Ok, keep it, calm, I can handle this. If I kill some one here, then there is no way I can get a promotion. Breathe in breathe out.

The little brat stopped two feet in front of Ino and planted his feet firmly in the ground, This was very amusing for Gaara.

What does this little squirt think he can do.

Gaara could just imagine using sand coffin on him. The way his blood would ripple to the ground made him cringe in excitement.

Shukaku: You make me sick.

"You cant come through here, no stupid people allowed!", the young child yelled at Ino and sticking out his tongue. The child looked very annoyed and playful. But, Ino didn't think it was very funny. She was supper pissed. Sakura and Gaara stepped back a bit when they saw Ino's vein turn red on her forehead.

Inner Sakura: Oh crap!

Shukaku: She's gonna blow!

"You little brat. Where the hell do you get off calling me, me, the prettiest kunoichi in Konoha stupid! You little Naruto impersonating short, smelly, snot nosed brat!", Ino screamed at the top of her lungs. She was bright red from lack of oxygen, she didn't even take a breath before she cussed out the little kid.

The little kid stood there blank faced for a moment Then started to cry. Ino was stricken. She just stared at the child cry. Her face slowly changed from its red color to its original color as she finally realized the severity of she he had just done.

"You made a kid cry?" Gaara's deep voice sounded from behind Ino. He wasn't one to ask questions, let alone speak. He had his arms crossed in an obviously aggravated pose. This stupid kid wouldn't let them in. He looked rugged and hard(no , not in that sense) but, he was really thinking about the previous event. The kiss. So, once again he wasn't sane enough to restrain his natural instincts.

Any way…….

Ino quickly kneeled down , to Sakura's surprise.

No freakin way, Ino got her kimono dirty!

"The Sukage is my mother, and your gonna pay big time", the child said in between sobs. Ino's face turned into a canvas of sheer panic.

"I'm so sorry, please forgive me!" She was so stupid at times. "Do you like candy? Is there anything I can get you?" Ino rubbed his dark brown hair to try to sooth him. Sakura was the first one to notice, the fatal error in this little kids speech.

Sakura slowly walked up to the kid , and put her hand onto his small shoulders. She stared into his eyes, and through the tears she noticed a very familiar sparkle in them.

She took her first and pounded the kid in the back of the head really hard. All she had to do was see the familiar glint of mischief in the kids eyes to come to her final conclusion. Gaara and Ino's eyes opened wide with surprise , shock, and what the hellness. (It may not be a word, but it makes sense)

I just kissed a crazy person. Gaara hung his internal head in shame. Damn.

Shukaku: the crazier they are in the head, the better they are in….

Don't even finish that last word. I don't want to hear it!

"Quit it Naruto!" Sakura's loud annoyed voice boomed through the air. A small cloud of smoke appeared where the small child had been standing and , in the his place sat Naruto. Laughing, and rubbing his head, sat the very angelic Naruto.

"What the heck . You really ticked me off Naruto, Now …." This last part of Ino sentence dragged as she calmed her self. Ino was about to get really ghetto. First she removed her left earring, then her right, one.

"Sakura, hold these for me." She removed her heels and took a giant breath. Sakura backed away slowly after taking the earrings and heels. Sakura looked from Ino to where Gaara was standing. She calculated distance and speed, If Gaara kept on standing there, and Ino was going to do what she thinks she was, then , Gaara better move.

"Now its time to die!" The split second Sakura saw Ino move, she pulled Gaara out of the way. Off course the sand came up to protect him from her touch, but a scratch was better than having him trampled by Ino. Ino ran after Naruto , Gaara and Sakura stared in awe, and Hinata just sat back watching from the tree top near by. It was all her plan to have Naruto act as a child and make a fool of him self. . Who knew Hinata was such a little bastard?

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Now back to the plot……

It was five minutes later…..

Every thing was fine, except for Naruto, he was a bit, disfigured, but he'll live with it.

"Welcome to the festival!", a rather tall dark haired man smiled cheerfully at them. He was dressed in red , and seemed evil inside. His smile was hallow and void of emotions even though it looked so inviting. Hinata stood next to Naruto, Ino had left to go find Sasuke. This meant that Gaara and Sakura had to share a map.

"Try not to get lost. You have two hours before the ninja call outs matches start." The man quieted down and stared at Sakura. "Make sure you don't get hurt." His eyes narrowed at her.

Sakura had felt this before, the same menacing feeling as she felt when she sat down at the table before the speech had started . Some thing was going to happen. However, this time, they were right in the middle of it.

"Thank you", Sakura slowly and cautiously said as she grabbed the map from the man. There was defiantly something wrong here.

I knew I should have been checking this out instead of making out with Gaara.

Gaara………………

Sakura looked over at him with intrigued eyes. What's going to happen with them. They weren't a couple, far from it in fact. Were they just both in the mood at the same time, caught up in the moment. But, once again , now wasn't the time.

Gaara grunted instead of saying thank you. He didn't show respect or try to be courteous. He just sat back and tried not to kill people. He gently took the map from Sakura. He wanted to see how she reacted to him. She flinch upon contact with his warm skin.

Still on edge I see.

Nothing on the map seemed to interest him. It was the same as life, he was similar to Shikamaru in some ways. Nothing was really worth his time. But, there was one thing on the map that caught his eye , the same thing went for Sakura as well.

"Knife throwing?" , Sakura and Gaara both suggested this to each other in unison. They looked at each other for a moment , and realized that the tension between them had been so high, that all they needed to do was talk, and they would be fine . All of a sudden the atmosphere around them wasn't so thick.

So on ward they went……

They walked slowly on the paths that let to there choice booth. Little children, and old ninja alike passed them, saluting the Kazekage and his very hot date as they walked by. Gaara's hands were folded, and Sakura gently hummed to some unknown rhythm.

Gaara listened to the sound of her hum, it was very soothing. He had never paid attention to this stuff in any person before. He loved it. Nothing seemed as sinister and cold as it used to. It was all just one night. Seemingly time less.

Sakura decided to break the silence, it wasn't awkward, it was just very eerie to her.

"So, what are your hobbies? I know you're the Kazekage and all, but you have to find some free time." Sakura asked this question just to get a little glimpse of what Gaara was really like. She didn't want to delve to far into his soul, yet. She knew he was a very disturbed person and needed time to heal from his scarred past. (And since when were her thoughts so poetic?)

Gaara was caught a bit off guard by this question. No one, not even his brother nor, his sister had ever thought to ask him any real personal questions. They feared him. Every one feared him. It's not like it bothered him, he didn't want to talk to them either. They screwed up his life.

"I kill people in my spare time" LOL just kidding(I asked people in my school to look me straight in the face and tell me that they killed people in their spare time . They either laughed or actually seemed serious, but I laughed either way.)

"I read." Gaara stated. He wasn't that much of a talker. What a surprise. He was one of those people that if they ever tried to start a conversation, he would probably ask " How much do you weigh?", or some other awkward question. .

"Really," Sakura used this a pick up sentence to retrieve any extra info, but he just looked a head as they came to another corner. Bland and emotionless as ever. Sakura sighed to her self.

"Have you read Mirage by Kibadelagenshin?" She inquired. Maybe if she started to give some information to him, maybe he would be more opened. He might know that she was interested in him.

"Actually I have," His deep voice was now filled with interest. Some one actually wanted to talk to him, and read fan fiction, and other novels like he did. There was some one else with his interests.

Thus for the rest of the 10 minute walk they engaged in a very active conversation. It turns out they had the map upside down. They had taken twists and turns but, they had circled the booth quit a few times.

It was a shabby little booth. Light grey, and filled with targets of all colors, size and shape. Surprisingly enough , Gaara and Sakura were the only ones that were at the booth. It was vacant other wise. Well, if you didn't count the obese man wearing bright blue that kept trying to wink at her while he handed them the throwing knives.

"Welcome young lady, to needles knives and can't throw for you lives shop. Do you know how to do it" His extremely high pitched voice made Sakura twitch at the sound.

Gaara stared at the knife , then at Sakura, he was contemplating which way to cut her to make her bleed the most. He loved blood.

What am I doing. I cant have the knife. I might hurt some one. Specifically her.

Shukaku: Very nice job. You resisted temptation

Shukaku's thoughts: Damn.

I heard that.

"Actually, I don't think I'll play, I'll just watch." Gaara handed the knife back to the man with shaking fingers. Sakura could see some restraint in Gaara. That was good.

Sakura took the knife from the man as he winked at he again. His eyes traveled from her shirt to her waist, then to her lips and back to her eyes again. Then he winked at her. Sakura couldn't stand it anymore. She hurled the knife at the target right next to his head, and guess what, she got a bulls eye.

"May I have another knife please", Sakura flicked him an angry smile and took the knives. Gaara stood for a half an hour. Content on just watching Sakura . She was so beautiful at times. It was just amazing. He was entrance, yes him the mighty Gaara was fixated on a girl.

But his fun was stopped when he felt a cold hand on his shoulder. Slender fingers gently slide to his chin and made him look into the strangers eyes. It was that girl that had been at the table. Her white blonde hair, and dark purple kimono were unmistaken able. He jerked his head out of her hands and grunted.

"What?" Gaara asked harshly . He didn't like people touching him. All he received was a very sadistic grin and slightly girly giggle. She walked past him and up to the booth where Sakura had been standing.

"Id like to verse this girl to see who's better." This strange girl spat these words with hatred and pure sting." The sexy blonde or, the way to skin bubble gum haired maniac." Sakura was slightly shocked that any one but her and Gaara was here.

Once again Gaara judged Sakura and thought she would cave in and back down. He could just picture her hanging her head in shame.

"Bring it !" Sakura retorted "Hey you, creepy guy, bring us a challenge round on knives." Sakura stared the girl in the eyes. Her purple eye liner was obviously cheep so she already felt confident.

"The first one to hit all targets wins. But the targets are going to be moving" The large man announced this. He was obviously aroused by two hot chicks on the verge of a fight. What a shame he hadn't brought his video camera. He wasn't really concentrating on the game. But with in five second all the targets hand been full. Gaara stared in disbelief and , he actually felt kind of proud.

Sakura turned to the girl and stared her straight in the eyes again. This was a great act of intimidation. But the girl just did it right back.

"Ok, I don't know what you problem is, but we tied fare and square, so get lost ,buzz off , or jump in a lake. Your choice." Sakura cocked her head in an 'get the hell away' type of way. Sakura didn't see what was coming next. ( But I could, I caught it in slow motion)

Slow motion

The girl stared at the knife for a moment. She devilishly contemplated her next move. Eyes flicking back and forth. How to best keep her cover while still following the intended plan. Sasuke had to have his fun too. She stared at Sakura's head , right before she lunged with all her force, the knife intended to stab Sakura's eye. But before the intended impact, all Sakura saw was sand. She slowly fell backwards as Gaara came towards her, he was pissed off and wanted some answers. But the knife didn't just land next to the blond girls head, it slid side ways. IT fell around the barrier and by all twists of faith pushed through Sakura's bun, slicing off a large portion of her hair.

Reality …

The scene you ask?

Sakura lay on the ground covered in sand, and pink strands of her own hair lay next to her head and every where. She was pissed. The Purple kimono wearing bitch was next to her. Face first in the sand, quickly recovering from the event. Gaara was quick to encase her in the sand that had just been covering Sakura.

Right before Gaara squeezed the sand, the girl spoke out a few words to Sakura.

"Oh, I'm sorry about your hair." Her voice was very threatening now. " But there is only on way to fix this matter. I'm calling you out. Beet me in a match, and I'll pay for hair extensions, lose, and I get Sasuke." At this point Gaara squeezed her. But all that was left on the ground was sand intertwined with black petals. It was a very disturbing sight. Gaara looked over to Sakura, he had no sympathy what so ever. He expected her to cry . She had just lost more than half of her hair, again. She had taken a lot of time into regrowing it, after the Chunin exam event. Her hair wasn't the fastest growing.

Gaara slowly moved over to Sakura and stared at her. She seemed to be unconscious.

So she didn't here any of that?

Shukaku: Gaara, Gaara, Gaara……….

What ?

Shukaku: Your doing it again …

Doing what?

Sakura opened her eyes and sat up. "Bring it on Bitch. "

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Thank you for reading through the whole thing. I worked really hard on this. I can see the muffins browning, and if you review ill give you one( insert smile here). I kept you waiting till the end. Review and tell me what you thought. Love kiba. Read Mirage and also tell me what you think. Ill make cookies for that one!