Ayame's P.o.V.

"I'm not an idiot," I said to Kakashi when I stepped out to talk to him. Yuki was alone in Sasuke's room and I only spoke when I knew Lord Third and Iruka were out of earshot. "I know that if Sasuke had just lost all of his chakra, he'd be somewhat okay right now. I know you know about Orochimaru - I could sense it in the room. And," I looked over my shoulder and checked to make sure the door was closed, "don't think no one noticed the marks on his skin. Sakura and I both saw them."

"I know you're not dim," Kakashi said in his indifferent voice. He was leaning against the wall with his strong arms folded across his chest. "Sakura isn't either. I know you're both worried about him. I sealed his curse mark so he can't use Orochimaru's power."

"Oh," I sighed out a breath of relief and put a hand on my over my heart. It no longer felt like it was going to burst. "That's good."

"But there's a catch." Of course there was. "The seal is only as strong as he is. He can't let Orochimaru's power overwhelm him or the seal is useless. If he goes in search of that power, that's it. Orochimaru will find a way to get to Sasuke."

"But." I paused and looked to the ground. "Do you think he'll . . . succumb to his power?" Kakashi gave me a look. Like he wanted to say something, but couldn't. "Sensei?"

"Look," he sighed defeatedly, his shoulders hunching a little bit as he exhaled, "if you're asking what I hope, the answer is that I hope he doesn't. As his sensei, I think it's possible." I shook my head in disbelief.

"That can't happen! He can't leave me - the village." I caught myself mid-sentence and covered my mouth with my hand. My eyes were stinging, but I closed my eyes and collected my thoughts. "Orochimaru is a bad man. I don't have to know him to know that. When we were with him, I could sense the evil in him. I want to know who he is . . . But not right now." I looked at the door as if I could see through it. "Right now, Sasuke needs me." I turned to open the door, but Kakashi put a hand on my shoulder.

"Ayame, wait." He squatted down a bit to meet eyes with me. I stared into his eye and he did the same to me. "I know what you're thinking. You have a curse mark, too. Now there's someone like you. Someone that now carries the same burden you have. But, Ayame, there's so much you don't know."

"So tell me!" I demanded, turning back around and shoving his hand off of me. My eyes bruned with frustration. "All I've wanted for all these years was answers! And now, when they're the most important thing, you dangle them in front of my face - just out of arms' reach. If not for me, Sensei, please tell me for Sasuke's sake." Kakashi gave me this look. It was like pity and reluctance, but also recognition and acceptance. Finally, he sighed.

"After preliminaries I'll tell you everything I know." Thank Kami. That was all I wanted for almost my entire lfe.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei." I bowed and he patted my head.

"It's about time you know," he admitted. "I have to run for now, but I'll hold to my word. When Sauske wakes up . . . just be patient. He might be a little moody."

Before I could stand up straight and ask what that meant, he vanished in a puff of smoke. I rolled my eyes. That is so Jonin of him. Again, I put my hand on the doorknob, but hesitated. I had only seen him for a brief moment before I went in the hall. Did I want to see him so weak? In pain? I shook my head. He needed me.

"Uchiha Sasuke," I said to the door. "You will not leave me."

I opened the door of his room to see Yuki thouching his cheek. She looked up at me and watched as I shut the door behind me.

"Is everything all right?" She asked, standing up straight. I shrugged and feigned jest.

"There are kids killing each other in another room. So nothing's really okay."

"That's accurate," she replied.

Nodding, I walked over to sit on Sasuke's bed and hold his hand in mine. I used my other hand to touch his cheek. His flesh was unnaturally warm. I furrowed my brow in concern. "Kami, Sasuke." I muttered. The damn mark was making him sick. Was his body rejecting it? It wouldn't kill him, would it? Was this one of the things Kakashi was talking about that I didn't know? Feeling Yuki's eyes on me, I added, "He's so hot."

"When he wakes up make sure he drinks plenty of water," she advised. I nodded, but never took my eyes off of his face. Kami, how could this happen? Why Sasuke? I finally find something good in the world and fate wants to take it away from me - just like everything else in my life. "I'll give you some privacy then." Yuki turned around and headed towards the door, her midnight blue hair trailing behind her.

"Wait," I said suddenly. I knew if she left, I would probably start crying and I really didn't want that. "Don't go."

"Oh. Of course." She turned around and sat in a chair next to Sasuke's bed. I didn't speak to her, even though I asked her to stay. I was trying to think of something to say that would take my mind off of his condition when she said, "He'll be okay." I grimaced slightly before chuckling sharply.

"He's stubborn like that," I said in return. Seeing a strand of hair in his face, I tucked it back in place, gently stroking his face as I did so. Thinking on it, I decided to check his shoulder. After leaning forward, I saw his curse mark which was surrounded by intricate designs that formed a circle with a few rays sticking out of the sides. I cringed, thinking about how it must've felt. And how that could have happened to me.

"What is it?" Yuki asked, popping my thought bubble. I glanced over at her for a second and rolled my eyes.

"The medic-nins did a bad job with this wound," I explained the short lie briefly as I sat back, being sure to cover up any sign on his mark. Yuki looked at me inquisitively.

"I thought his chakra was just drained?" Shit.

"He had a minor injury from . . . " Kami dammit "that move he did. I forgot the name."

"Oh, all right." She knew I was lying. But she didn't call me out of question further. Either she didn't care or she would ask me about it more later.

We relapsed into silence. I kept my eyes on Sasuke's motionless face. Smiling in spite of myself, I was thinking back on how he only showed his emotions to me. How when we were together, he would laugh and be angry or sad and I was the only one who got to see it. And when people came up to us, he would stop whatever he was doing and put up his mask. More often than not, I would do the same.

Would he really leave in search of power? To follow this dark man and be condemned as bad himself? There was so much good in him and so much in the village that he would leave behind. I know that he wants to get rid of a certain someone, would he leave in order to gain the power require to eliminate the person? We never talked about it, so that could very well be the case. A life without Sasuke is like a life without air. A swordsman without his sword. A painter without a brush. If he left, I don't know what I'd do.

"How do you think the third part of the Exams will go?" Yuki asked, no doubt trying to take my mind off of Sasuke, and for that I was grateful. Keeping his hand in mine, I tore my gaze off of Sasuke and looked at her.

"I'm not quite sure," I answered honestly. I shrugged. "It does seem unfair, though. I realise that the proctors intend on having the best of the best in the final round, but it seems tedious for the time being."

"I understand," she nodded in agreement. I tilted my head to the side to how curiosity.

"I know that you didn't watch Sasuke's match," I recalled. "But I didn't notice you in the group of onlookers either." She gave me this look as if to tell me she didn't understand. "I didn't notice Sabaku no Gaara either." Yuki's usually fair visage gained a very pale and almost unnoticable pink tint.

"You got me," she said in monotone, like she had nothing to hide, though her face said otherwise. It was odd to see her this way. In the weeks I'd known her, her face had almost never faltered. Looks like Akio's going to strike out with this one. "I was talking to him instead of paying attention, something that may cost me dearly in the next round."

"May I ask what you two were talking about?" I inquired, sitting on Sasuke's bed with my legs crossed underneath me. I never removed his hands from my grip. Yuki had one leg crossed over the other and looked very mature in her posture, but I could see the hesitation in her expression.

"Nothing, really," she said with a small shrug. "Just about our homes I guess." She was censoring what she was saying to keep from revealing too much, bet I let it slide as she had let my white lie slide. So I just nodded.

"I knew him as a child, you know."

"Did you?" She said, her dark eye brows shooting up. Again I nodded.

"He doesn't remember me, though. As a child, he was . . . one could say he was bullied a lot. I was in Sunagakure with my mother and I had played with him the entire day. Before I left I promised him I would come back. But I never did. My mother was murdered soon after and I had completely lost all my memories, you see, so I forgot all about him until I saw him again. He probably forgot me because I let him down."

"Oh," she said, not knowing what else to say. "That's very sad. He still doesn't remember you?"

"I don't think so."

"Oh." She let out a light chuckle, but her face remained blank. "It's better than how me and my teammate met."

"How'd that go?" I asked, interested.

"We were young in the Academy, before we even began any training. Like you, I'm not native to my home village. I'm from Yukigakure, but . . . I live in Ame instead," she went on, waving a hand at her own hesitation as if telling herself to shut up. "Anyway, I was outside of the Academy, probably walking home but I don't really remember, and this girl approached me. Keep in mind, it's raining and we're both soaking wet and surrounded by mud. She said to me, 'Hey you. I'm going to fight you right now.' because she was so eager to train to be a Genin."

"Talk about subtle," I said and she nodded, a smile threatening to show itself.

"Exactly. I told her I wasn't interested but she came running at me top speed. All I did was step out of the way and she fell face first in the mud. She skidded a few feet before she came to a stop, the front of her outfit caked in mud. Admittedly, yes, I did trip her, but she had it coming."

"Oh, man," I said in airy chuckle form. "What happened after that?" Yuki sighed, relaxing into the back of her chair a little, getting comfortable.

"What else? I was punished. I was still a young child so all they could really do to me was make me clap erasers the next day after school." She paused and watched the ground with a fondness, as if savouring the memory as she recalled it. "But the same girl stayed in class after it was dismissed. I had not noticed her because I had already started airing out the erasers, but she came up to me, clothes fully clean and said, 'You're weird. We should be friends.' and I said 'Definitely.' From then on she's been my friend. I'm fortunate enough to Himeko and her brother Ryo as my teammates." She frowned. "I'm disappointed I won't see their matches."

"Oh, yeah," I said in sudden realisation. "I won't get to watch my team's fight either."

"Is there any reason you know of that they won't let us go back?" She asked. I shook my head.

"My guess is that they just don't want us going back when we aren't in good health. Either that or they don't want us to share any secrets or something. By that I mean, let's say you talked to the Tsuchi-nin you went against and managed to get some secret out of her. They wouldn't want to sharing your knowledge with anyone else, get it?" Yuki rolled her eyes a litle bit, a gesture I hadn't expected from her.

"That's a bit far-fetched, don't you think?" I just gave her a look.

"You're a ninja," I reminded her. "Just sneak back in." She blinked.

"Right."

"You forgot didn't you."

"No."

"Yuki."

"Fine." She stood up. "Does that mean you're all right now?" I looked at Sasuke then back up at her.

"We'll be fine. Thank you, Yuki. It means a lot to me that you stayed." I hesitated. "And for sharing your story with me. I'm glad you see me that way. Like a friend."

"Yes, well," she nodded, "I am glad I could help. See you, then." She waved and turned around. When she left, I felt so alone. Though I had wanted to see Naruto and Saruka's fights, I knew that if Sasuke woke up, I would have regretted not being the first face he saw.

A nurse had come in during one of mine and Yuki's silences to set a pitcher of water and two glasses down on the table along with some clean rags. I removed the cloth that was on Sasuke's head and dampened one of the new ones before replacing it on his burning skin. I also poured a glass of water and drank from it. How much longer would it be before he reopened those onyx eyes?

That curse mark. Damn that snake. Orochimaru. When I meet with Kakashi after the preliminaries, he has to tell me more about him, too. Just what the hell was his problem anyway? What made him so great? So powerful? So crazy? I can guarentee that if Sasuke goes to him, Orochimaru will die. I will kill him.

Just then, Sasuke started to stir. He groaned in pain and confusion. I knelt over him, gently holding his shoulders in place.

"Don't overwork yourself," I said softly. His eyes slowly batted open. He was searching for me.

"Ayame?" He called. I held his hand.

"I'm right here." His obsidian eyes found mine and he smiled weakly.

"Hello, beautiful," he said. He lifted his free hand and stroked the side of my face. "How long was I out?"

"A few hours," I said leaning forward and kissing his cheek. "But you're back with me now. Oh." I filled the other glass with water. "Sit up and drink this. You need fluids." Slowly, he lurched forward, hissing at the soarness of his newly sealed curse mark no doubt. I got a beter view of it when his back was to me. I cringed. As he took the cup and down its contents, I wondered why they had never bothered to seal mine. Did I already have control over it or had it just not bloomed by the time they found me? I took Sasuke's cup after he finished and gently pushed him back on the bed.

"Hop in," he said drowsily, patting the space to the left of him. I smiled warily.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Please?" He gave me that look he always gave me when he wanted something. It was a look that always melted my heart so I'd give in. I sighed and crawled over him, catiously laying next to him. I slowly rested my head against his chest and curled up to his side. "See? I'm fine. I'm a tough guy."

"I'm just worried . . . Does it hurt?" He sighed as he looked up at the ceiling.

"Yeah. Like a throbbing burn." I nodded against his chest.

"That's for me, too." I shivered at the thought.

"Cold?"

"I guess." Sasuke pulled up the blanket and covered me up with it. I snuggled into him more, consuming his body heat. "Yuki was in here earlier too. She was keeping me company when I was watching you." He tensed as soon as I said her name. I knew he wasn't completely lucid yet, but he still registered her.

"She was, huh? What did you talk about?"

"Not much, really. I got to know her a little better." He paused for a moment.

"You can't trust her."

"Sasuke - "

"She's up to something."

"No she isn't! She wanted an alliance during the Forest of Death - even I could tell that was her motive - but I think she really does want to be friends now that it's over."

"Ayame," Sasuke said with a hint of annoyance. "You're forgetting that the Exams aren't over yet. We still have the final round."

"And it's not like I'm telling her all of my secret ninjutsu, is it? I just had a conversation with her." He got quite then. I sighed. "I'm sorry. But you're wrong. She's my friend."

"I know you want to believe that," he said, sounding tired, "but please, please for me, be careful, Ayame. I care about you . . . too much to have anything happen to you." He was already drifting off into sleep. I couldn't blame him, he needed to rest anyway. But before he shut his eyes for the last time, I said one more thing.

"I like you, Sasuke." He chuckled once.

"I like you, too, Ayame."

. . .

Yuki's P.o.V.

I managed to sneak back into the arena through Ayame's advice, but it was too late. Himeko and Ryo had already finished their matches, but get this - they were pitted against each other. Which is unfortunate for them because they mostly have tag-team justu. Himeko has water-type chakra and Ryo has lightning-type, so one can figure out what happens when they're jutsu collide. Thankfully, I managed to catch the very tail-end of the fight - which was really just the siblings laying on the floor, twitching from the shocks. Both of their peircing blue eyes were packing loads of white-hot fury. You could melt the icecaps with the heat of the glares.

"Y-You idiot!" Himeko shouted at Ryo as she tried to stand up, which only made her fall back on her hands and knees. Her hair that was usually spiky at the neck flopped down from the weight of the water and was the perfect combination of frizzy and wet.

"I'm not the i-idiot here," Ryo argued, actually managing to get to his feet, though his knees shook violently beneath him. His spiked black hair was even more out of control with a stream of smoke billowing from the top of his head. "Y-You used your TidalWave when you kn-knew I was g-going to use Lightning Spears!"

"T-Teme! I'll kick your ass when we get home!"

"I declare this match over with no winners," the proctor said before adding a cough at the end. "Excuse me. Do, um, either of you want medical attention?"

"I'm fine!" They both yelled at the same time. That's my team.

I was still in the mouth of the doorway that led to the medical bay so I easily slipped back in to grab some warm blankets for my dripping wet team. Without anyone noticing me, I quickly tiptoed up the stairs to meet up with my friends. They were staggering back to Momo in a type of stupor that I would have loved to catch on film. I think I also heard a snarky Temari offering to dry them off with her fan. Himeko cringed away from them as Ryo rolled his eyes and threw some other remark back at her. Definitely my team.

"Nice." Was all I said before Himeko threw me a glare and snatched the blanket out of my hands.

"W-Whatever," she muttered as she wrapped the cloth around her shoulders. I shook my head and draped Ryo's blanket around his shoulders as well.

"Th-Thanks," he nodded. Though his knees were still wobbling furiously, he remained standing. "The match was g-going pretty good until l-little miss Lilo over here th-thought it was a g-good idea to surf."

"Well," I corrected. "The match was going well. Grammar is important."

"Whatever."

Ryo leaned against the wall next to Momo, who eyed her shocked students warily. It was like she'd known this was going to happen, but couldn't say anything about it. Looking into her distracted purple eyes, I saw that she wasn't wearing her signature silver lipstick and eyeliner. And what bothered me most was that she was sober.

"Your b-boyfriend's match was r-ridiculous," stammered Himeko from the floor. I turned in the direction of her voice. She was sitting down at our sensei's feet and her back was against the wall, but she was staring off into dead space. "So much blood."

"Himeko? What are you talking about?" I kneeled before her to hear what she had to say.

"He - He crushed the leg and the arm and - " she was sounding as if she had just recalled the memory. And she loked terrified. "The kid got back up, but his eyes were so empty. And all he had to do was squeeze. One little squeeze and the other kid's limbs were . . . "

"Himeko, you aren't making any sense. What are you saying?" Her previously maddened eyes had withered down to frightened orbs, a rare thing to happen to someone as fearless as my friend. That look alone startled me. "What happened?"

"Yuki," she finally lifted her eyes to meet mine. "Gaara is dangerous. He almost killed his opponent. And the look in his eyes . . . it was . . . "

"What, Himeko? What was it?" Her words sent a chill up my spine that I will have yet to feel again to this day.

"Evil."

. . .

Hey I actually read my character description this time! So, if the way I described characters in the chapter didn't match with previous chapters, that just means I'm a lazy piece of shit that didn't go back to read my profiles.

I realy hope you guys are enjoying it and I appreciate the follow/favourites! Love you guys!

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