Kankuro woke up barely being able to recognize it was almost dawn in the chunin exams. He sat up and remembered the argument last night as he saw his brother leaning against the tree with arms crossed. He pretended not to have seen him and turned his head right to look at his sister still snoozing a few feet away. He did not want to take any chance of upsetting his younger brother again.

"Kankuro," Gaara said in his low, soft voice as he looked outside their hiding place.

"Yes, brother?"
"I apologize for my rudeness and short temper. I'll control it better next time." He still spoke in his monotone voice, staring off in the distance of the slowly rising sun.

"Hey, it's no problem, bro!" Kankuro tried being his usual relaxed self, but he had to control his slowly growing fear of his younger brother, much less trying to hide his suspicion of his brother's 'honesty.' He had to show who was boss if something ended up happening again. "We should probably grab a few roots and berries so that when Tem wakes up, she can eat and we can leave for the tower."

Gaara nodded in agreement. "I'll go find the food. You guard her." And he took off.

He had to roam around for a little bit, but after passing few mice and snacks, he found a bush of good raspberries. But he was in for a surprise behind that bush. As he looked over it, he saw a certain someone fending off his enemies. The long haired boy was alone, but Gaara assumed his team divided up to search for an opponent with the scroll they needed.

His jutsu looked brutal. He kept spinning around and, so it looked, barely touching the earth ninja. It was incredible, like a gentle fist going for the kill. "36 Plams!" Gaara heard him him shot as the final blow landed hear the ninja's chest. 'Incredible.'

'Yeah, so what. Don't bother with him unless you want his blood. That Hyuga's blood must be delicious.'

'Shut up Shukaku.' He stood there and thought. Then, he finally decided his move: approach. He stood straight with a grim look as he started walking toward the Hyuga.

"Who goes there?" Neji shouted as he heard a rumble in the leaves.

Gaara said nothing. He only kept walking toward him until he was face-to-face with him, only about four meters in between them. "What is your name."

"Uh... Neji Hyuga. Why are you talking to me. Is this a trap to get my scroll?" He raised his arms in front of him as raising his defensives.

"No such thing. I was just curious in your jutsu. Special kekkei genkai indeed. May I see another technique?"
"Of course not! I only use my eyes when necessary."
"Then your eyes should've seen me coming from the distance."
"I did."
"Then why did you let me approach."
"Because... I had heard rumors and I was curious to meet you. Also your chakra seemed slightly odd."
"Are you so sure about that."

Now the Hyuga got a bit curious. He closed his eyes and made what originally looked like the hand sign for snake, except with his right index finger up to his lips. After doing so, he reopened his eyes and webbed like veins appeared around his eyes. 'Gaara, what are you doing?'
'Shut it Shukaku.'
"Your chakra!... What are you?" He looked amazed and taken aback. His eyes had turned back to normal but on his face was now a mouth slightly open in amazement.
"I'm a monster. Don't mess with me." With that, the Sand ninja turned around and walked away, just as he did when talking to the younger Hyuga.

"You can't do anything. Why don't you die, bitch." Another training session, and indeed a hard one. She couldn't have found practice worse than now, but it was. It was dark, and her soul could not find her heart because of the taunts and jeers that barricaded the way. She now only wished she would die. So alone, with no one to help her. 'Why don't I die? I'd be so much easier than this...'

"Hey Baka, get back up and finish training. We still have another half hour," Kega shouted to her.

"I'll have to lengthen it however if some of your teammates don't get up and try," Riko addressed Kega while glaring at Hinata. The death glare. 'Just let me die. Please just kill me sensai.' Her bruises from Itami started to burn as she laid on her side against the hard dirt. Her arms, her legs, then she felt it. It happened again for the first time today and hopefully the only time that day. She felt the burning sensation of an angry ninja kilometers away on her neck. It really started two weeks ago, he must've been using it to torture her. 'You normally wouldn't have gotten this, but your lack of determination and skill brings me to do this. Seek me out if you really wish to become stronger and use the gift you were born with, Hyuga.' What did they mean.

"Stop squirming, Baka! Back to work!" Riko consistently yelled at her for five whole minutes before he grabbed her by the collar and above the ground. The pain increased as his hands seemed to have a connection to the mark on her neck. The burning that seemed to go through her skin to her airway, making it even harder to breath. She choked, trying to grab his shoulders for a type of support as he had pulled her off the ground, but he threw her to the ground where sand blew upward around her. "Fine, be that way. If you don't return in a week, you're off the squad, permanently." And Riko guided Itami and Kega away from their training area, most likely taking them for some sort of delicacy.

'Oh Kami, just let me die...' The pain on her neck finally stopped, but her bruises and scars from forehead to feet continually made her want to scream and die. She tried to sit up slowly and see which wounds she might be able to heal, but as she looked at her legs alone, the cuts and slashes looked deep as blood still oozed out a few of them.

It seared. She was weak. 'Lay down...' she told herself and she fell back with a thud as another surge of pain swept through her body. A moan finally escaped through her open lips.

She could feel some of the blood on the ground now as her index finger made a circle in the grass. She wanted to turn her head to at least see the wounds on her arm, but the world only faded darker as she attempted doing it. Eventually, she only closed her eyes, waiting for her beat to slow.

"Hinata!"

No reply came to her ears.

"You cannot defeat Shukaku. Ninja Art of Fake Sleep." The last thing Gaara saw before pretend rest was a determined, furious, blond knucklehead on top of a giant frog.

"I'm free at last!" Shukaku hollered out.

'Gaara, what are you doing?' W-what? What is this? Why do I hear a voice? Is this what people call a dream? Where am I? This damp, dark tunnel. What's that light down there? Is that where the voice came from? 'Gaara...' I am here, mysterious voice!
'You were never loved...' Yashimaru appeared before him, looking down at Gaara's tiny, teenage form on the thin water. His eyes emotionless, but his posture with hands on his hips made it seem like Yashimaru was mad at him. Y-Yashimaru! What's going on?! I'm so confused! What's going on here?! Tears started streaming down his eyes. Then, all of a sudden, his uncle began to shrink down, his hair getting longer and the eyes... now full of concern? 'Gaara, my child...' The figure in front of him smiled kindly at him, something he had not seen in about six years. Gaara stared straight into the foreign eyes, somehow looking oddly familiar...

Wham! Naruto came flying in and slapping Gaara awake. He was shocked, nearly struck dumb as he was brought back from the foreign activity. He quickly looked around to observe his surroundings and saw the blond-hosted nuisance standing not far in front of him, with furiously determined eyes. He glared back in hate. He summoned his sand to entrap the boy. I've almost won... Bonk! He felt a throbbing sensation on his forehead, like it hit his brain. He opened his eyes to see red and nothing else as he felt his last bit of chakra leave while controlling his trap of sand.

He was falling, from higher to lower, quick and quicker until he felt his back slam into the hardness of the ground. He could not move a muscle. No. I can't lose. I have to... He turned his head to see which direct nye should send his final attack, the attack to finish this fight once and for all, the attack that would leave Konaha in ruins. As he tilted the heavy boulder called his head, he saw something, vaguely, inching toward him! "What..." he could not help but hear the word come from his lips as he perceived the outline of a blond with a red face. "D-don't come closer!" He yelled at the monster. His anger coming over... no, it was not the usual anger he felt when he beat up the black-haired nuisance called a ninja. It was a worse feeling... 'Fear...'

"Being alone... being incomplete... what you must feel... what your pain must be, I understand that." Gaara was shocked. There is someone like me in this world? "They... They rescued me from the hell of being alone... They acknowledge my existence... That's why they are all the most important... And you know someone too..."

What? How could this be? The demon of the sand has a rescuer? No, he was the one saving the people of this world from the stupidity, the idiocy, the dirty world of humanity. It was his job and what could anyone do to get him out of it?

"The Hyuuga..." Gaara's eyes shot wide at hearing the family name. "H-how do you..."
"Naruto," he heard a voice from his old opponent's direction. "Sakura has been saved from the sand. Let's get you out of here." He got a glare from the guy, but that expression softened quickly to see an awestruck face on Konoha's attacker.

"Stop it..." He felt the presence of his siblings blocking his way now from the connection that could have killed him, could have slayed him...

He was picked up and felt the thin black cloth that his older brother always wore. They left quickly, jumping back to the Sunagakure with ease until they got to the rough dunes of the Land of Sand. Still under the canopy of green, Gaara felt the urge to tell his siblings something that I had never said before. "Temari... Kankuro... I'm... sorry..." before he quickly fell weak, unable to a single muscle that was had been beaten from the fall.

Temari passed it by as if it was another threat, but Kankuro heard sincerity for the first time from his brother. "We'll always be there for you."