Years went past as knowledge was gained. The two youngsters were growing and were continuing to argue. The difference now: they found purpose for living this way. They saw the pleasure in the other's eyes when they were debating with each other. These events made them happy, but they did not recognize so until later.

Gaara and Hinata ended up trying to distance themselves to avoid the awkwardness from the emotional encounter from before, but avoidance was a mistake.

"Now what are you doing, White-Eyes!" Kega was at it again. Kega was one of their fellow classmates and he loved to tease her about everything: her hair, her eyes, her family, and her friends. He was about her height, one and a half meters, and had wild, jet-black hair that it itself looked like it would enjoy making people sad and upset. Whenever he talked, there was a taunt in his voice probably since he teased everyone and made him feel more over-powering, like in an authority. "Are you planning a get-together with all your buddies? Oh wait, you have no friends!" He and his four other friends laughed with him. He and his gang were cruel, to both her and Gaara.

It had become a habit as well as an amusement when he came across Gaara. He was rash and bold, so he was not scared of how Gaara's sand could possibly strangle him because if he did, he knew Gaara would get in trouble and start getting yelled at by everyone. That is what the found very amusing. That is what he saw as his village-wide joke.

"Crazy Sand! Hey why don't you go over there and do me a favor by strangling her! She's pathetic! Oh wait, you have a little crush on her," he sang saying in a mock sing-song voice.

Gaara had gotten better though. He was learning to control his sand so that it would not attack whenever he was insulted, as he was quite frequently. So he only turned his head to study his book on jutsu.

"Hey aren't you going to respond? It's rude to ignore someone."
"And it's mean to go insulting every single person on the planet that you see in sight. So go and leave. You won't be so much a ninja if you tear people down."
"Now doesn't someone sound like Mr. Wise-Guy. Well no one's going to listen to you anyhow, you freak!"

His fists were clenched on his book. How he so wanted to punch the guy in the face. 'I'd be doing everyone a favor, wouldn't I be? No one likes him but his gang. No wait, I can't. Calm... calm... that's what Yashimaru did...' He looked away to hide his wet eyes and instead got up and walked away.

Hinata was tired of it. She had watched the whole conversation and everyday, she would see them pick on everyone, including her, including Gaara. She was just about to walk up to Kega and give him a nice punch in the face when the instructor came in and told them they were sparring.

"Since we have an odd number of students, Gaara, you will not spar today." That's what he said every time they sparred and fought. So Gaara would just walk to the corner of the room and sit crunched in a ball.

"Hinata! You're up first. You'll have to fight Kega."

'Sweet! Now I can teach him a lesson.' She showed no outward emotion of this though.

As she went to take her position with Kega opposite of her, she passed him and whispered just loud enough for him to hear, "This for all the jeers you give to everyone else."

Kega went slightly wide-eyed at the shy girl acting brave. He gave a laughing huff and replied aloud so everyone could hear, "Good luck beating the best person in the class!"

Then it started. "Showering Dragon!" and something came showering down on Hinata, but when it hit her, it stung. 'Acid.' She dodged every single while trying to get outside the circle of acid rain. Turns out, he had only a three meter diameter with it.

It was Hinata's turn to strike. She wove a few signs before she shouted 'Fire-ball jutsu!' and fire shot from her hand tubed over her mouth like she was blowing the fire out of her lungs. The flaming ball hit Kega square on his left shoulder and he flew into the sand wall. He slumped as if he were exhausted.

The instructor had a quizzical look now. He was not used to seeing these types of jutsus in face to face combat, especially from a still beginner, but the timing was incredible that the fire wasn't extinguished by the acid rain. Impressive...

"Good job, Hinata," is all he acknowledged her with before he started calling out names for the next combatants.

Hinata went to stand behind the whole crowd so she could think of how to improve her fight. She did this after every sparing match to see what she could do and then once she was done analyzing herself, she would go to analyze the other fights to see if there were any hidden hints for her in their matches. 'I know my move was risky, but I did get a good shot to hit him right on, but what if he had known how to dodge it? How would I have recovered? Long-distance jutsu doesn't seem to suit me all that well but maybe I could try teaching myself this 'genjutsu' sensai mentioned once. Manipulating the mind...' Gaara came up behind her and gave her a small tap on the shoulder that made her jump a little. "Hey, nice fight out there," he whispered while two other students started fighting.

"Thanks, but you know it was a risky move with that specific jutsu he was using."

"Yes it was. You should have found some way to trap him while his focus was on that jutsu. Like using speed and knocking him to the ground."

"You really think so? I thought an attack might be better while he's getting weaker by the second using a jutsu like that."

"Yes, but if you had trapped him right after he released the jutsu, he would have already been very weak."

"An attack makes sure they stay down though."

And their bickering and arguing kept going on during the rest of the matches. Now, the two youngsters found a delight in their verbal arguments.

I know, it's not much of a chapter, but tell me if my descriptions are getting any better. I know that was one of the comments made so I've been trying to do more. Thanks to all those reading, commenting, following, and favoriting! Y'all are the best;D