Ok wonderful readers, sooooo sorry that I was gone for so long. As I said in the Author's note, things got really hectic at home and I couldn't get any work done for the longest time. But hopefully all that crazyness is done and I will be able to keep posting regularly. So please enjoy chapter six!

Kasami's POV

The second test was over now. Seven teams had passed and were now lined up in a large room. The Hokage and, and a number of Jounin, including the teams' instructors, were present as well. They were going over the rules to the preliminary matches that would be held before the third exam began.

I was up on one of the platforms overlooking the room. Below me I could see Naruto's group. They looked no different from the last time I saw them. Sakura had cut her hair, Sauske had a weird mark on his neck, and Naruto was… Naruto. The knucklehead ninja noticed me watching him and gave me a quick wave. He was proud of himself for making it through the last exam but he knew that there was still more to come. I waved back, smiling until I noticed the other genin that was watching me; glaring at me.

The memory of the Gaara I had faced in the forest made me shiver with fear. The way he had looked at me; hatred and cruelty the things she saw in those cold blue eyes. Still, that wasn't him right? He must have been influenced by Shukaku. I wasn't sure exactly how things worked between jinchuuriki and the monsters sealed within them but the little boy she had known so long ago couldn't have become so…so evil without Shukaku's help.

Gaara turned his attention back to Hayate, the examiner overseeing the preliminary matches. He had just instructed everyone besides the first two combatants, Sauske and another leaf genin named Yoroi Akado. I met Hinata as she came up. I could tell she was worried and so was I. I knew she had potential, but I still didn't want her to get hurt and a lot of the genin here looked pretty tough. I took a deep breath to calm myself and patted her shoulder. She would be fine; as long as she wasn't paired with any of the sound ninja, Neji… or Gaara. Anyone but Gaara. His siblings seemed decent enough to me; at least decent enough not to try and kill Hinata, but Gaara would. Even now he was watching as I comforted my friend and that wicked look in his eyes chilled me to the bone. I tried not to think about what would happen and focused on the fight going on below me.

Sauske seemed to be in trouble. It seemed that Yoroi's main ability was draining an opponent's chakra and it was making it difficult for Sauske to fight. He managed though, kicking Yoroi away from him then continuing to copy a move I had never seen him use before that he called 'Lion Combo'. He won his match with that move but something was wrong. Sauske didn't seem to be injured; at least not seriously, but Kakashi had gone down to him and was escorting him out of the arena. I glanced questioningly at Naruto and Sakura. Naruto just shrugged, not sure what was going on either, but Sakura didn't respond at all, she just seemed worried. I left a mental note for myself to question Kakashi later. He probably wouldn't tell me anything but it was worth a shot. I pushed the incident to the back of my mind and returned to observing the matches.

Six more matches have passed. Naruto just won his. I had to admit that his skills had improved greatly though, like all of the Genin here, he still had a long way to go. His battle with Kiba had definitely been an interesting one but I had known all along that Naruto would win. He had a dream to protect and he couldn't lose here. Despite being happy for his victory, I was terrified for Hinata. The only people left for her to fight were Rock Lee, Neji, one of the Sound ninja, Choji, and Gaara. I didn't know what I would do if she got paired with anyone but Lee and Choji. From what I had seen and heard of Lee, he wouldn't hurt Hinata too seriously and neither would Choji, but the other three would be merciless. I watched anxiously as the computer screen on the wall shuffled through the remaining names to pick the next match.

Neji Hyuga vs Hinata Hyuga.

My heart almost stopped. An optimist would say that at least she wasn't facing Gaara but to me things were looking bad. I forced myself to smile at Hinata but as she passed me, I caught her arm.

"Please don't push yourself. You and Neji aren't exactly friends."

She gave a shaky laugh. "It…it will be fine Kasami. Watching Naruto's fight…inspired me. I'll give it my best shot."

She pulled my hand off her arm and gave it a squeeze before releasing it and continuing down to the stage. As the match began, I gripped the railing, desperately hoping that she would be ok.

"If you match up with him, beat him to a pulp Naruto; for Hinata." I wasn't usually very aggressive toward my own comrades but the way Neji had treated Hinata made my blood boil. He had knocked her down, physically and mentally attacked her. He had tried to KILL her! His own cousin! I understood how he felt about the head family, but Hinata had never done anything to him and it wasn't fair to take out all his pent up feelings on her. Four Jounin had stepped in to keep him from killing Hinata, but he had still done some serious damage. As the medics carried her away, I had to fight from jumping down and trying to kill Neji. As long as I kept my distance so he couldn't break anything, I would have been ok.

The only things that pulled my mind off of Hinata were the two names that showed up on the computer next.

Gaara vs Rock Lee

Everything froze. I could hear my heart beating louder and louder, until it drowned out any other noise. My eyes flicked to Gaara, catching the tiniest smirk on his face before he disappeared in a whirlwind of sand, reappearing a moment later on the ground floor. Slowly sound came back to me and I could hear Lee, shouting something about not wanting to be last and tricking the computer. I could hear Guy Sensei telling his pupil that something was suspicious about Gaara's gourd; as if that weren't obvious from the start.

Lee was excited to begin his match and quickly joined Gaara. Hayate began the match and moved to a safe distance. Lee took a breath, and then commenced his attack. He sped around Gaara throwing punches and kicking out at him, but Gaara's sand had poured out of the gourd and was protecting him just like it had in the Forest of Death. Lee couldn't stand a chance; he wasn't fast enough. Gaara attacked him with waves of sand, but Lee dodged, jumping out of the way and landing on top of the large sculpture on the far side of the room.

Guy called out to his student, giving him permission to remove the weights Lee wore around his legs. Everyone including myself watched as Lee dropped the weights to the ground where they landed heavily, cracking the cement floor. Suddenly, Lee vanished, reappearing next to Gaara and aiming a punch for his head. The sand was able to block, but just barely. Lee was moving too fast for me to see and too fast for the sand to catch up so it wasn't long before he finally landed a hit, kicking Gaara in the top of the head. Lee darted around some more before throwing a punch that connected with Gaara's cheek, sending him flying backward.

As Gaara pulled himself back onto his feet, I could see something on his face; a crack. Pieces of his face began crumbling, turning to dust as they fell to the ground. Not only did Gaara have the sand in the gourd to protect him, he had a layer of sand coating his skin as well.

I watched him as he repaired his armor. His expression was frightening; an evil grin accented by murderous eyes. Gaara was becoming more and more unstable and there was nothing I could do right now but watch.

The fight was beginning again. Lee knew that he had to finish this match quickly so he began unwinding the bandages from around his arms. When he finished, he dashed at Gaara, darting around the sand shield and kicking him up into the air. When they were high enough I noticed that particles of sand were floating in a cloud around Gaara. He was doing something but I couldn't quite see what it was. Lee wrapped the loosed bandages around Gaara and proceeded to spin him around as they descended, slamming him into the floor.

For a moment, it seemed like Lee had done it. Gaara was completely still, his eyes wide. For a moment, I thought he was dead, and my heart ached for the monster that, for some reason, I still wanted to call my friend. After a minute, Gaara's sand armor began to crack and fall away revealing…nothing. Lee had used the lotus on an empty shell. Gaara appeared behind Lee, looking completely unharmed. The next round of attacks was brutal. Gaara kept sending his sand at Lee, tossing him around like a doll. Using the Lotus had taken quite a toll on Lee's body and he wasn't fast enough to dodge the attacks. But he still had one more move to try; The Primary Lotus.

I could hear Guy Sensei explaining the Lotus to Sakura and I didn't like what he had to say. I wanted Lee to win; because he deserved it but as selfish as it seemed, I wanted him to win for me as well. We were kind of the same, in a way. No one believed in us because we were lacking in certain skills, but if he won, he would be proving to everyone that even without Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, he could be a great ninja. Maybe that would make people see me differently as well. But these exams weren't worth his life. Even if he failed here, he would live to fight another day. But if he finished the battle with Gaara and used the Primary Lotus, there was no way for him to come out of this alright.

But I had no right to tell him to stop. This was his fight and he didn't know me. He was strong enough to have graduated from the academy and enter the Chunin exams while I was stuck on the sidelines. Who was I to stand in his way? Lee began to prepare for the Lotus, opening up the chakra control gates inside his body. When he had opened four gates, he began. He kicked Gaara up into the air like before, only this time he continued to attack him from all sides and wearing down the sand armor. Eventually Lee kicked Gaara with such force that he rocketed toward the ground faster than I could see. The floor shattered, chunks of concrete flying everywhere. The resulting cloud of dust enveloped everything and everyone was quiet as we waited for the dust to settle. When it did, my heart sank. The gourd on Gaara's back had turned into sand and kept him from hitting the ground. Lee was on his back, completely exhausted and unable to move. Gaara held his hand out toward Lee and the sand crept toward him, wrapping around his left arm and leg. Gaara spoke; just two words, but those two words would give me nightmares for years to come.

"Sand Burial."

Lee screamed as his limbs were crushed; not to the point of nonexistence, like the shinobi in the forest, but the bones in his arm and leg were definitely shattered. Lee passed out from the pain and Gaara sent out one last wave of sand to finish him off, but it was deflected by Guy Sensei, who had jumped down from the balcony to protect Lee.

"Why did you help him?" Gaara sounded genuinely confused.

"Because he is an important subordinate I love." Guy answered simply.

That answer didn't seem to satisfy Gaara, but he didn't press the issue. He reached a hand up and touched the symbol painted on his forehead. Love. I wasn't entirely sure, but I thought I saw him glance up at me. Lee was taken away and Gaara rejoined his brother and sister. There was only one match left and it was a short one.

The remaining sound ninja won his match against Choji and the Hokage informed all of the winners that the main matches would begin in exactly one month and that, in that month, the combatants should work hard to improve their skills. With that, everyone was dismissed.

I immediately went to the hospital to check on Hinata but I wasn't allowed in, so stepped out of the receptionist's sight and activated my invisible light jutsu. Working my way around the front desk, I took a peek in the hospital's log book to find Hinata's room number. Getting to her was no problem. I had pretty much figured that she would be asleep and I was right, but I just wanted to make sure she was ok. There were all sorts of machines hooked up to her and a good number of needles sticking out from her arms. Seeing her like that made me want to cry, but I held the tears back; they wouldn't help her. Nothing I could do would help her. Waiting was my only option. Her condition was stable and that brought me a little comfort, so I left her in the hands of the doctors.

On my way out, I ran into Kakashi, who so far I hadn't been able to fool with my stealth skills. He didn't rat me out though, just winked and continued on his way. I left the hospital and, not knowing what else to do, I went home.

Naomi wasn't there. I found a note on the kitchen counter.

Kasami,

I've been sent to the Village of the Sand. I have a mission to take care of there, and then I will be escorting the Kazekage back to Konoha, so I'll be gone for about a month. I left this in case I don't see you before I leave. I didn't like letting you go into that forest alone but I know how stubborn you can be sometimes. Please take care of the house until I get back. And Kasami, I know I have told you before but please be careful around Gaara. I'm sure you know by now that even though he and Naruto are similar, there are many ways in which they are different. Gaara can potentially become unstable and if that happens, it won't be safe around him. I can't stop you from trying to befriend him, just keep an eye on him.

Naomi.

P.S. I like that painting on your dresser. The one of Gaara on the swing. He seems kind of lonely though.

Lonely? I went to my room and examined the painting, expecting to see Gaara on the swing with me standing next to him and a cloud of darkness creeping toward us, but when I looked at it, I was filled with dread. The painting was almost entirely black now. The little boy was alone again, his companion having been swallowed up by the approaching darkness. The girl who was supposed to be protecting him from his demons had been destroyed by them instead.

Wasn't there anything I could do?

As always, reviews are great. It helps a lot to know that there are people who want me to continue writing. Also suggestions are welcome as well. I am here to improve my writing so if you find something wrong, let me know. Thanks!