Author's Note: Here you go! ^_^ The second phase of the chunin exams has begun!

Sandstorms and Falling Leaves

Chapter 9: Scrolls and Skirmishes

Naruto yawned and rubbed his eyes. The incident in the night had resulted in a restless sleep for Gaara, not even his presence had been able to quell all the nightmares. Still, the redhead had gone back to sleep quickly enough each time she thrashed herself awake. The blonde only wished he had been able to do the same, but his mind was overwhelmed, between the upcoming portion of the chunin exam and the fact that someone had just tried to kill his...Gaara. He wasn't sure at first, why the assassination attempt bothered him so much. Such things came with being a ninja, especially one as high profile as the Kazekage.

It was only after the problem had rolled around in his tousled blonde head for a few hours that he realized what bothered him wasn't that the attempt had happened, it was how close it had come to succeeding.

'If the assassin had had a bit more time for reconnaissance...' Naruto shuddered at the idea, pushing it away.

"Morning." Gaara's voice intruded as Naruto found his thoughts wandering back into unproductive worry once more.

"Yeah." He answered absently. "Guess I should get ready, ne?"

A nod and a chaste kiss on his cheek were all the answer he got as the redhead extricated herself from the tangle of sheets. Gaara put on her coat but hesitated, hovering and looking everywhere but at the blonde as he rummaged through drawers for clean clothes for the day. Finally, he noticed her nervousness.

"You okay?" He asked, eying her curiously.

"Yes." The sand ninja seemed to steel herself before she dug into her pocket and produced a tiny vial strung on a leather cord. "Here." She said simply, holding it out to the leaf genin. "For luck."

Naruto took the vial and held it up to the light. "Sand?"

Gaara nodded. "From home..." She seemed reluctant to continue but she took the vial from him and removed the cork, grabbing the canteen he had filled the night before. She trickled a few drops of water into the opening and, a moment later, half a dozen tiny red flowers bloomed from the vial like a miniature vase. She handed it to him along with the cork as she returned the canteen to it's place among his gear.

Naruto's eyes lit up at the sight of the familiar blossoms. "Sand flowers." He mumbled. "Thanks Gaara. They're just as pretty as I remember." The tiny flowers were already wilting, even without the sun shining on them. He waited until they had crumbled before closing the container and hanging the cord around his neck. "This way I'll have a part of you with me the whole time, ne?"

He wrapped his arms around the petite redhead and found the embrace returned with strength that would have probably broken a rib or two if he hadn't been ninja trained. Before either could say anything else, Gaara slipped from his arms and vanished out the window into the slowly waking village.

"Be careful." Naruto's words were just a few moments too late for the sand ninja to hear, but he knew they were probably unnecessary. Gaara could take care of herself. She'd been doing it for years. 'And she has a family almost as scary as she is, if she needs backup.' He thought with a smirk.

The blonde grinned and ran his fingers over the cool glass vial resting against his chest alongside Tsunade's necklace.

"Yosh! Time to get ready!" He crowed to himself. He had people counting on him today, and he wasn't about to disappoint them by being late.

The fenced in section of forest reserved for this stage of the exam was much like Naruto remembered it, but he knew that new obstacles and diversions were routinely added each time. Still, he had a general idea of how to progress through the area and that could prove very valuable to his team.

The five squads that had passed the first test were soon assembled and Ino stepped forward, having been chosen to proctor this section of the exam.

"Listen closely. In these woods are eight shrines. In each shrine is a single scroll. The objective is for each squad to acquire two scrolls and make it to the building in the center of the area. For those of you who can't do simple math, that means at least one squad WILL NOT PASS. You have three days to accomplish this mission." She placed her hands on her hips and glared at them all. "If you open the scrolls before arriving at the mission destination, you will be disqualified. If you arrive with less than two scrolls, you will be disqualified. If you kill anyone, you will be disqualified. If you try to leave the testing area without completing your mission, you will be disqualified. Do I make myself clear?"

Most of the genins nodded quickly enough, though a couple of people looked frighteningly disappointed about the new 'no killing the opposition' rule.

"Okay. You are to disperse to your assigned gates and wait for them to open. Wouldn't want to have a free for all as soon as you start, ne?"

Naruto looked at his teammates and grinned. "Let's go." He crowed excitedly, darting off towards the gate Ino pointed them to.

Manabu and Matsuri followed him with only slightly less enthusiasm.

They spotted the first shrine almost immediately. It was just a little hut really, nothing fancy.

"Alright! I'll get it!" Naruto started forward.

"Wait! It could be booby trapped." Matsuri grabbed at his arm to hold him back.

"Oh. Yeah, I hadn't thought of that." The leaf ninja fidgeted sheepishly as Matsuri checked the wooden building for traps before she suggested using a shadow clone to open the small door and reach in for the scroll.

A moment later the clone slumped and vanished as a dart shot out and dosed it with enough sedative to knock a ninja out for hours. Naruto quickly sent in another clone and was pleased when that one was able to grab the scroll off the stand in the center of the gloomy little shack. A flash was all the warning they got and Naruto's clone barely managed to toss the scroll out through the open door before the shack exploded.

Choking smoke and large chunks of the building raining down on them made Naruto miss catching the scroll his double had tossed his way. There were a few frantic moments while he searched for it on the ground.

"Got it!" He announced happily, holding it up for Matsuri and Manabu to see. He could just make them out through the haze.

"Great. Let's get away from here before someone comes to investigate that noise." Manabu suggested, still coughing a little.

"Too late." A new voice cut in. "Hand over the scroll."

The smoke was clearing slowly, and Naruto realized they weren't alone in the little clearing. One of the rival squads had found them. Their hitae-ate bore the symbol of the village hidden in the mists.

"No." He said sharply. "Get you own."

"This is easier, Leaf." The speaker laughed and charged at him, a kunai in his hand.

Naruto easily dodged the feeble attack, knowing his opponent was gauging his strength. "We'll see about that." He tucked the scroll into an inner pocket of his jacket and made some lightning fast hand signs. "Shadow clone jutsu." Where there had been one Naruto, now there were a dozen.

Matsuri performed a similar jutsu, creating half a dozen ordinary image clones of herself, just to add to the chaos they were creating.

The mist ninjas quickly formed a defensive triangle, guarding each others' backs as they tried to sort out which enemies were the real ones. One of them poured out a canteen of water and formed it into a sort of whip, lashing at the many Narutos, but each swipe produced only puffs of smoke as Naruto let the clones fail. Meanwhile, Naruto and his squad were able to slip away while the clones had the enemy pinned down and surrounded.

They ran through the woods, moving stealthily but trying to put as much distance between themselves and the rival squad as they could. Finally, Naruto slowed to a walk.

He had spotted a small cave, beneath the roots of a massive tree, and the three of them crawled into it to rest and reconnoiter. It was just large enough for them to sit comfortably with a small amount of personal space.

"So we've got one scroll. Now we either have to find another shrine and take our chances with the traps, or try to find another squad and take a scroll from them." Naruto laid out the options so they could decide.

"If we want to find a shrine, we need to move fast before the others take the scrolls out of all of them." Matsuri pointed out.

"On the other hand, if we want to try to get one from an opposing squad, we should save our strength for now and attempt something tonight while we might have a better chance of surprising them while they sleep." Manabu added thoughtfully. "Also, waiting will make it more likely that any team we target will have at least one scroll already."

"Yeah...so what do we want to try?" Naruto wondered out loud.

"Well...I think..." Matsuri trailed off, squinting in the dim light filtering into their temporary hiding place. "Naruto, you're bleeding." She pointed out.

"I am?" The yellow haired genin blinked and only then registered an annoying stinging in his leg. A shard of wood about half an inch wide and a couple of inches long had imbedded itself into his thigh. "Hn."

"Must have happened in the explosion." Manabu frowned, digging through his pouches for a bandage and a small bottle of antiseptic.

Naruto gritted his teeth and pulled the offending splinter from his leg, grimacing as previously adrenalin-numbed nerves made their displeasure known. The antiseptic liquid burned like acid in the wound a moment later and then Manabu was efficiently wrapping bandages around the blonde's thigh.

A distant blast resounded across the forest arena, letting them know at least one other scroll had been found.

The elder genin sat back to inspect his handiwork. "I'm no mednin, but that should hold up well enough. It isn't too deep and you can obviously still run on it since you made it this far."

Naruto nodded. "It'll be fine. I've had worse."

"I think we should wait." Matsuri spoke up quietly. "Rest here until nightfall and then try to find either a squad we can steal a scroll from or an untouched shrine. Either way we'll be safer traveling at night because most of our enemies will likely be camped by then."

Naruto nodded. It did sound like a good plan. "If we keep track of how many explosions we hear, it'll give us a rough idea of how many scrolls have been found...at least how many have been found by people who don't catch the traps."

"We should conceal the opening to this cave if we are going to stay here that long." Manabu spoke up, crawling to the entrance and peering out cautiously. "I'll be right back with some camouflage." He announced brightly as he slipped silently from the small space.

The older ninja returned with an armful of fern fronds, some dead branches, and a pile of pine straw. He began arranging the camouflage to conceal the opening to the small cave, crawling inside once he had it mostly covered and then filling in the hole he had used to enter.

"That's the best I can do. As long as no one is looking too hard for us, it should be good enough." Manabu shrugged. "I thought it best to have it done quickly, rather than perfectly. Less chance of being spotted coming and going."

Matsuri nodded. "We should rest. I'll take the first watch."

Though it was early in the day, Naruto found himself very tired as the adrenalin from the morning's activities wore off and the previous night's lack of anything resembling real rest caught up to him. He leaned back against the dirt wall and stretched his legs out in front of him, closing his eyes. He was asleep in minutes.

"Naruto-kun." Manabu's voice brought the jinchuriki out of a deep sleep. "It's your watch. We have about three hours before sun down. So far nobody's paid any attention to us. We've heard three more shrines blow up, so that makes at least five scrolls found."

"Okay. I'm up." The blonde sat up and stretched, rubbing his leg absently.

The wound was tender but not unbearably sore. The abused muscles had stiffened while he slept but he figured they would loosen up once he got moving again.

Matsuri was asleep, curled in a ball with her head on her knees. Manabu settled down quickly, adopting a meditative pose that really didn't look comfortable to Naruto but he let it go.

'To each their own.' He sat back to listen to the forest around them for signs of trouble. It wasn't like he could watch much with the cave entrance covered but they'd sacrificed that in favor of better concealment from their enemies. 'A ninja is most effective when he remains unseen.' Something a teacher at the academy once told him, probably Iruka-sensei since he was about the only one Naruto had really listened to.

The hyperactive blonde found his mind wandering as he waited for the tell tale signs of night to set in around them. 'I wonder what Gaara is doing right now.'

Gaara arrived at her apartment just before dawn. The assassin's corpse had been cleared away and her siblings were sitting at the kitchen table, pouring over diagrams and plans for increased security.

Both of them glanced up as she entered and the redhead offered them a nod in greeting before heading to her room to get clothes so she could shower and get ready to face the day. She had the feeling that she wouldn't be getting much time alone until they were sure the threat of attack had passed, so she savored a few extra minutes under the warm spray and then dressed leisurely before returning to the apartment's living area to face her family.

"What were you going to do today, Sis?" Temari asked tiredly.

"Training with Hinata this morning."

"You mind having company?"

"I assumed as much, after last night." Gaara shrugged.

"Smart girl." The wind user grinned. "Do you have time to make something for breakfast before we go?"

"Sure."

The redhead soon had rice-filled omelets sitting in front of each of her siblings. Hinata had taught her to make the dish a few days earlier and Gaara wasn't certain she'd done it exactly right. She sat down with her own plate, pouring ketchup over her eggs as she surreptitiously watched Temari and Kankuro for their reactions to her cooking.

"Wow!" Kankuro grinned as he chewed his first bite. "You're getting good at this, Gaara. Guess living with Temari you had to learn to cook for self-preservation."

"Shut it twerp. At least I can cook rice without burning it."

"Yeah, well at least I never set the kitchen on fire!" Her brother shot back.

"Oh yeah?! Well..."

Gaara tuned the bickering out, letting the normalcy of Temari and Kankuro picking on each other soothe her nerves.

'Listening to them argue makes me feel safe.' She mused. 'How messed up is that...' Still, she couldn't stifle a smirk that crept onto her face. She hid the telltale sign of amusement by taking a big bite of her breakfast, watching the argument like a tennis match.

Finally, the combative pair huffed and simultaneously turned their attention to their cooling meals. As far as the redhead could tell, both parties had been insulted about equally. After a few minutes they shook off the lingering anger, and by the time breakfast was finished and Kankuro had washed the few dishes, the pair was back to plotting new security measures like nothing ever happened.

"Time to go." Gaara pointed out flatly.

"Sure, Sis." Temari nodded. "Just let me grab my other fan."

The blonde was back in seconds, her enormous war fan slung across her back. She headed straight for the door without further discussion. The redhead started to follow her when Kankuro reached out a hand to stop her.

"Gaara...be careful. Okay?" He said, the words slightly strained as if he had seriously considered holding them in.

"Always." She assured him with a nod, shrugging off his hand so she could follow their eldest sibling from the apartment.

Hinata was waiting in the usual place with Shino. The pair had their heads together, deep in discussion about something. They sprang apart as the Suna ninjas approached.

Gaara might have found their behavior suspicious, except for the fact that the blue haired girl turned crimson and stammered uncontrollably in her greeting.

"G-Gaara. I-I w-wasn't sure you'd b-be c-coming today." Violet eyes flicked towards the insect user a few times as the Hyuuga girl spoke.

"Did we interrupt something?" Temari smirked, one eyebrow raised at the guilty-looking pair.

This only served to render the already flustered girl completely unable to speak a full word.

"Temari." There was a hint of a command in Gaara's tone. It wasn't a threat really, especially considering the redhead still wasn't up to a fraction of her old strength, but old habits died hard and Temari backed down with a huff.

Shino stood back, outwardly impassive. "Hinata and I were discussing a personal matter." He said simply.

"Uh huh..." The blonde had to bite her tongue as her little sister glared daggers at her. "So...right, training. Anything I can help with?" She asked with a grin.

Hinata seemed to find her voice. "Not really, Temari-san." She squeaked out sheepishly.

"Okay then. Come on Bug Boy." She walked over and threw her arm around Shino's shoulders companionably as she spoke, to take the sting out of the insulting nickname. "You and I can train on the other side of the field. I wonder how your critters stand up in a high wind..."

The Aburame heir tensed at the contact but allowed himself to be drawn away from his teammate. The blue haired girl fidgeted nervously until she was certain he was out of earshot.

"Shinokunaskedmeout." She mumbled.

"What?" Gaara raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side, trying to decipher the garbled sentence.

"Shino-kun...he asked me on a date." The girl blushed even darker as she forced herself to speak up.

"Oh." Gaara wasn't sure how to respond. Her entire frame of reference for dating consisted of her sister's dysfunctional relationship with Shikamaru and the total of two dates she had managed with Naruto. "Is that good?"

"I'm n-not sure...I mean...maybe...y-yes?" Hinata cast furtive glances at the insect user as she seemed to roll the idea around in her head. "I like Shino...it's just...I never thought about him as more than a f-friend before."

"Ah, I see." Gaara wasn't actually certain she did but it seemed like a good noncommittal response.

"What if it doesn't work out?"

Gaara shrugged. "You'll go back to being teammates...friends. Neither of you seem to be the type to hold a grudge."

"Oh...I guess not." Hinata toyed with the end of her ponytail thoughtfully. "I think I'm going to say yes." She finally whispered, more to herself than the redhead in front of her.

Gaara had no response to that so she simply patted the other girl awkwardly on the arm before turning the conversation towards chakra and jutsus and away from the minefield that was teenage life.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: Okay folks, next chapter will conclude this segment of the chunin exams. Will our international squad succeed? How will they get that second scroll? Will there be a further attempt on Gaara's life? Find out...as soon as I get five reviews. Yes, I'm holding the chapter hostage. Mwahahaha! I have the next five chapters all ready to go up (except for a bit of proofreading), but I'm ransoming them for five reviews per chapter. If I don't get the ransom I'll put the next chapter up on Friday.