"Hiya Sasuke!" you say, flirting as usual. "The chunin exams take place tomorow! Please be careful!"
He looks up at you, smiling. "But remember; you are in this too, _____, you have to be careful aswell...I hear this year it's going to be preeeetty tough. This will be my first time, so I don't know what to expect."
"Well... great then! This is my second time taking the exam! We should hang around together, that way we won't get hurt so easily..."
Sasuke looks into your eyes. "You really mean it?"
"Yeah... Sasuke, I love you."
"_____, I love you much more than you love me and you know that!" says Sasuke, hugging you tightly. "I would never let you get hurt-"
"HEY CUTIE!" says a girl you know as Ino, literally pulling Sasuke away from you.
"Hey! He's mine!" says Sakura, the girl with a big forhead and pink hair.
They drag him off before he can say a thing and you are left alone again. No parents, no sasuke, no friends, no Sasuke, and no boyfriends - (did I forget to mention no Sasuke?)
But for some weird reason, a guy about a year older than you comes over to you. You can't see him, but you can hear his voice. "My name is Lee. Find me and you will be saved from your eternal loneliness..."

You wake up with a jump. It was just a dream...Sasuke hadn't really said that he loved you at all...
You get ready for the chunin exams.
"Today's the day I show Ino and Sakura that I belong to Sasuke!" you say, tightening your leaf-village headband. "Bring on the Chunin exams!"
You wave goodbye to your carers and begin walking to where the exam is being held.

On the way, strange things start happening... you see some people from another village and run over to say hi, but the eldest member throws a Kunai knife at you. You dodge it, but you are still mad at them. "Hey! Cut it out! What was that for!?" you scream at them. Their headbands have a little music symbol on them. "The hidden sound village? I don't remember you guys from last year...."
Your sensei had decided at the age of 11 last year, you would go through with the chunin exams early. You failed, quitting with fear at the first part of the exam...
"That's because we weren't there last time..." says the creepy guy, who seems to be the leader of the squad. "We weren't expecting our opponents to be so weak...maybe we should just put you out of your pain and get rid of you now instead of in the exams..."
He comes at you with his fist, but to your suprise, you are protected by a sheild made of sand. Then the boy who made it apears in front of you, his arms in a defensive stance.
"Leave her alone," says the boy. "Or go through me."
He is keeping his cool very well - everyone entering the exams know that the sound village members are tougher than any genin. This boy is genin - so he shouldn't stand a chance...
But as soon as the sound village members see how serious his eyes are, they walk off.
"T-thanks...ummm...-"
"Gaara, of the desert." He says, not looking at you once. "Do not thank me...I am only delaying your death. When the chunin exams start there will be much fighting, killing..." then he turns around to look at you, and you see his face. "I want to be the one to bring down you."
His eyes are cold with some kind of thick black eye make-up around them. To say the least, at first sight, this guy looks like a goth or emo. You shiver - his face gives you the chills.
"What's so special a-about me?" you say. He touches the mark on your stomache.
"That scar is what's special about you. I heard that this is the only mark you were left with from that c-rank mission you went on. I have, not one scratch from my missions," he says, showing you his arms. "And I am a year older than you."
"But that doesn't make me all that special..."
"You have as much potential as me - I hope I can see you at your best in our battle," he says. "I usually don't talk to people or protect them. But for you, I make an exception."
Then he dissaperes...just like that...

"Kenshu! Louise!" you say, running up to your team-mates. "I saw this guy and-"
"You are late," says Kenshu, a serious tone to his voice. "No more chit-chat. On to the Chunin exams!"
Kenshu is a very mysterious boy, who is the same age as you. He uses Jutsu's of his own, but mostly works with tricking the opponent with substitution jutsus. Louise, the squad leader and believe it or not - your sensei - is 16 and she specialises in summoning Jutsus, anything to do with snakes. She has a pet boa called Shiny, that is always twisted around her arm. Shiny has a special defence of her own - when the sun shines on her scales, she can blind the opponent temporarily. Louise is filling in for a lost team member and your old sensei - Yumai. He died just a few weeks ago...
"You don't want me to set Shiny on you, do you Kenshu!? She's a little hungry right now...-"
"Shut up and let's go."
*****

You see Sasuke on the way in. You and Louise both squeal and blush, saying a little "Hi..." at exactly the same time. Though to your suprise, he actually comes up to you both. But then you realise... he only has means to talk with Louise...
"Hello. Hey, I heard you are sensei of the squad now..."
"Yup! That's me! Only Genin, but a very strong one and qualified teacher, Sasuke!" She says, bowing to him. "I have heard good things about the Uchiha clan!"
"Let's hope we find out which matters most in the chunin exam - age and experience, or bloodline and will-power. But I don't have any more time to talk about this. I will prove my point in the exam," and with that, Sasuke walks off, totally ignoring you. Why doesn't he think you are powerful? That Gaara guy seemed impressed...
"Ahhh... I think he likes me..." she says, dreaming.
"Wake up, Louise and lets go," says Kenshu.
"Please, refer to me as Sensei."

You stop and look at the entrance to the waiting room, and the start of the exam.
"Ok Team," says Louise, stroking Shiny. "We are in this together! All for one..."
"And one for all!" you say, smiling.
"Oh boy, this will be just great," says Kenshu, sarcastically. "Come on, lets go in."

As you walk into the waiting room a cold wind blows over you... a deadly silence following. This group of people look tough... the compertition is harder than last time.
Suddenley, a dog runs up to Louise and jumps into her arms. She blinks twice, shocked by it's action. But as the animal lover she is, she begins to stroke it.
"Awwww! What an adorable puppy!" She says, burrying her head in it's fur. But then a boy a little less taller than her runs up to her and stands by her, looking at the dog.
"Thats no puppy! That is my brother Akamaru!" He says, stroking it and smiling at Louise. "Or at least, I see him as my brother... you probably think that's real stupid, don't ya?"
Louise laughs and continues to stroke the dog. "No... that is not stupid of you at all!" She holds her arm out and Shiny slides out of her sleeve. Kiba jumps a bit. "Meet my sister - Shiny."
Kiba pauses... then very reluctantly forces himself to stroke Shiny, his eye twitching with fear that he is trying not to show. "Shiny huh? W-what a cute boa!"
Louise stares at him, looking confused. "Boa? How could you tell?"
Kiba grins, tapping his nose. "By the shape of the head - easy."
"Most people-"
"Most people can't tell? Peh! Well most people aren't animal lovers like me!"
Louises' eyes sparkle with delight. "You are an animal lover too?" She says, squeezing Akamaru. "That is sooo sweet!!!"
You leave her and Kiba to talk, walking around to see everyone. You think about that Gaara guy... you wanted to ask him a few things...
But as you are thinking you absent mindedly bump into somebody and fall over. You open your eyes to see a boy about a year older than you leaning over you, and looking at you worridly. Man, he is scary!
"I'm sorry," He begins. "Are you ok..-"
"GAH! GET OFF ME YOU PERVERT!" you scream and everyone stares at you and this boy who is literally kneeling over you. You spot Sasuke in the crowd, looking at you like the rest. The boy gets up and lends you his hand, blushing.
"I am very sorry that I scared you. Please let me help you up..."
He pulls you to your feet and you sigh.
"No, I'm sorry I just mistook you for something you weren't... *thinks: after all, he was only trying to help...*" You say, avoiding his eyes.
"Well... anyway. My name is Rock Lee! Pleased to meet you...?"

"_____," you say. "_____ of the village hidden in the leaves."
But then a brunette girl runs up to Lee an slaps him. "LEE! I TOLD YOU! YOU CANNOT USE THE CHUNIN EXAMS AS AN EXCUSE TO CHAT UP GIRLS!"
He laughs with embaracment and shrugs. "I'm noooot Tenten!"
"Oh yes you are! Now lets go find Neji and get prepared! We must be ready for the exam, must we not?" says Tenten, walking off.
"Yes ma'am!" Says Rock Lee. He puts his hands on your shoulders and you tense up. "Good luck at the chunin exams..." He winks at you. "I'll be cheering you on!"
Tenten swivels round on her heel and grabs Rock Lee by the ear, pulling him away from you. "I told you that you were flirting! Now get girls outta your head and put your brain in there!"
Weeell... that was... weird to say the least. You decide to stop looking for Gaara and run back to Louise and her newly found friend Kiba.
They are still talking, as if they had known eachother before now and had been re-united after several years or something.
"Well, yeah. I like reptiles, but not as much as dogs... Snakes are cool though!" He says.
"Aww! CUUUTE!"
"....*blush*...."
"Naw, not you. Akamaru!"
"Oooooh..."
Kenshu is off socialising with Shino - a weird guy who is probably just as strange as Kenshu himself. You are not sure who to talk to... they all look...weird. You knew Kiba and Shino, but had never spoken to them or noticed them in your class. You decide it is best to hang around with yourself (ie: alone) because all these people will just end up being your enemys anyway. It's like Gaara said:
"In the exam there will be fighting. Killing."
And you didn't want to have to kill a friend.

****
When the time comes for the exam to start, you and Kenshu get back to Louise, who is still with Kiba, holding Akamaru.
"Time to say goodbye to Louise Akamaru..." Says Kiba. He looks at Louise. "See ya in the exam!"
"Lemme give ya a goodbye kiss!" Says Louise. Kiba blushes and falls silent again, not knowing what to say. Louise notices his expression. "The dog."
"Hehe...ok...umm..." He lets Louise kiss Akamaru on the nose, then takes Akamaru out of her arms and lets him sit on his head.

***
Very soon you go into the exam room. You had expected a little more of an exciting start... you were each given a written test. Examiners are sitting at the edge of the room, and the basic rule is (in case you haven't seen the episode yet) no cheating. If you are caught 5 times cheating, you and your team are sent out and disqualified. Louise and Kenshu smirk because they are really good with written tests. But you are alone on this one.
You are placed next to a boy called Kankuro - who resembles Gaara slightly...
When the test begins, everyone starts scribbling down their names as fast as they can, but then there is a silence as everyone tries to figure out the questions. A long silence. It doesn't seem like anybody has got at answer to write down... You manage to answer the first one, but you weren't to sure about your answer...
Kankuro puts his head in his hands.
"Gaara...what would Gaara do...?" you hear him whisper to himself.
You look at him and frown. "What does Gaara know?" you think. "This guy is waaay older than him and looks stronger too... why is he thinking about what Gaara would do...?"
Then you are sure you feel sand passing your eyes, forcing tears out of them. "Ahh!" you mutter, rubbing your eyes vigerously. Kankuro notices this and whispers hurridly; "Don't take your eyes off your work!"
So you do as he says and the sand goes away. Suspicious... what was this guy trying to pull?

You look over at Louise and she is biting her lip, shaking her head. Kenshu is just staring blankley at his sheet of paper like you. How... these questions are impossible. But you see Louise perk up, realising something. You see Shiny slither away and Louise flop in her seat. They had swopped bodies... you reconised this jutsu as one of Louise's favourites. She manages to get up on Sakura's desk, then she makes the light's beams hit her scales and reach Sakura's eyes. This gives her a chance to memorise everything that Sakura has written, then she switches back.
Kenshu had noticed this too. Then he realised how he could cheat without anyone noticing... he is a master in substitutions and swiching his weapons with his opponent's ones.
"Then maybe," he thinks. "Just maybe...it works with paper too..."
The boy on the desk behind him closes his eyes and puts his hands on his head. Kenshu sees his chance! He quickly switches the exam papers - (the boy gets his, and he gets the boy's one) then scribbles out the boys name and replaces it for his own. Cleverly, he hadn't written his name on the one that the boy behind him recieved...

Kankuro get's up and says that he needs to go use the bathroom, so somebody follows him out. Now it is your turn. You look over at Kankuro's work, but there was no point because you discover that it is blank. One of the staff catches you and notes something down in their notebook, smirking up at you.
"I can't do this," you think. "I specialise in taijutsu, and that will get me no-where."
Then some sand comes close to your eyes again. "Whoever is doing this - lay off me! I have no work for you to copy off anyway!" you hiss, stressed. But then you are sure you hear the sand whisper to you. It tells you the answers... whether you should write down what it's telling you or not, you can't decide... but it is a last resort. You have to - even if the answers aren't right and you are just hearing things...then at the end it says:
"Find your powers before they find you..." and the sand falls onto your work just as Kankuro comes back. He starts scribbling down all the answers at once so he must have found a way to cheat.
"TIME UP!" says the main guy at the front of the room. "Put your pencils down! It's time for the final question! You may leave now if you think you can't answer it, for if you can't, you will never be able to enter the chunin exams again!"
There is a murmer in the crowd and alot of people leave. But then a boy you had met at the achademy - Naruto Uzumaki stands up and says that he will stay in for his dream - all or nothing!
His words stimulate you, and you decide to stay in, nodding at Louise and Kenshu. They nod back, so you sit and wait. When the last of them had left, the man at the front simply said: "Congratulations! You all pass."
He went on to explain that it was because you were all brave and determined.
As you all get out of your seats to follow a lady to the next test, Rock Lee comes over to you and looks at your work. He frowns.
"You...you love somebody..._____?"
You glance down at your work and notice that the sand has taken the formation of the Kanji for "Love".
"Ack! No!" You look behind you and Gaara is there, looking straight at you, with exactly the same kanji symbol on his forehead. "Umm... sorry Lee!" you say, blushing as you push past him and join the others. Poor Rock Lee looks heart-broken...
You all arrive at a forest with high fences around it.
"I like to call this..." says the lady in charge. "The forest...of DEATH!"

"Sooo... the forest of death eh?" says Kankuro, coming up to you as you sit dazed under a tree, thinking about what had just been announced.

~ "I need you all to sign this paper. It insures that; if you die in this stage of the exam, then it isn't our fault!" ~

"Hey, you! I was talking to you!" snaps Kankuro. You look up at him, tears in your eyes.
"Hey, back off you bully!" Says the brunette girl you saw before, coming your way. 'Tenten was it?' you remember. Kankuro insists that it isn't his fault that you started to cry, he had just come to say hello to the girl he sat next to in the first exam - you. Tenten narrows her eyes. "This guy is creeping on you if you ask me, girl. I could reconise a flirt anywhere,"
Kankuro turns to walk away, but you stop him by saying: "No, wait. It isn't fault I'm crying sir-"
"Yeah, whatever!" He says, storming off. Tenten looks at you, confused.
"Then what is the reason?" she asks. You sigh. You don't want to tell this girl, but you are so scared of this part of the exam.
"What can I say?" you sniff. "I'm really bad at everything. I'll never pass..." She laughs and calls Rock Lee over.
"He's just like that too! Taijutsu... I don't think he has ever had a stroke of Ninjutsu in him!"
You perk up. He sounds just like you... But you tense up when he comes up to you. He notices that you have been crying and he kneels down, his head level with yours. You can't look him directly in the eyes, but you are sure that he is giving you that look...
"Whats wrong?" he says, wiping the tears off your cheek. Tenten grabs his shoulder and squeezes it in that "I-don't-think-thats-the-right-thing-to-says!" way. "Oh! Ummm... anyway, umm... I just wanted to wish you good luck out there... you could die and well, I just wanted to tell you that...-"
"Well, thats not very encouraging, Lee!" says Tenten, smacking him over the head in a playful manner. But he doesn't flinch or laugh. He just can't stop looking at you... as if he is thinking: "This may be the last time I ever see her..."
But suddenly, you don't know why you do it, but you throw your arms around him and cry even more... maybe this is because you are just dying for comfort and your team members are busy getting their scroll, and signing their papers...
Rock Lee looks embarrassed and pushes you off him. "...Do not make it this hard to say goodbye to you _____!" He sniffs, and hugs you again, before getting up and lining up to go into the forest with Tenten and Neji. You get up feeling slightly worse than you had before, but hey. At least he tried to make you feel better...
You look over at Gaara, who is standing with Kankuro and another girl. Temari... you knew her's and Kankuro's names just by looking at them which is... strange. Gaara looks back at you with dead eyes, then you turn away quickly, running back to Louise and Kenshu. Sasuke is lined up with them, beside his team. Naruto spots you and smiles. "Your team will be easy to beat, Louise. We're going to go after your team first!"
Sasuke twitches, telling Naruto that it is best not to mess with a team that Louise is in. Louise blushes and you sigh, loudly. Why doesn't anybody ever mention you!?
"What do you want?" says Sasuke, looking at you.
"Well, um... I was just hoping that... you know... we could... umm... spend some time to get to know eachother-"
"In a forest where you could die the moment you step into it!? No way!"
"GO!"
You enter the forest with your team-mates, gaining distance from the other ninja. You feel terrible after what Sasuke has just said...
"Let's split up," Says Louise. "We need to get a head start before everyone already has both scrolls. Kenshu, _____, stay together. You two take care of our earth scroll while I go to find a heaven one!" She hands the scroll to you.
"Right!" says Kenshu. "____, you better keep up with me..."
He sprints off and you follow close behind him.
Hours pass, and still no sign of any other ninja. But then you hear something... someone behind you.
"Kenshu?" you say. "Somebody is following us-"
Just then, somebody grabs you and takes you out of sight.
"Don't be stupid," says Kenshu, still thinking that you are behind him.

You open your eyes... rubbing them, then looking at the boy who had kidnapped you. He is standing over you, just staring at you.
"Gaara...?" you say, looking him right in the eyes. Kankuro rushes along, looking from Gaara, to you.
"Stay away from her Gaara, please..." he says, obiously scared of his team-mate but seeing that you are uncomfortable.
"I don't want her scroll," says Gaara. "I just want..." He closes his eyes, smirking. "Her blood!" but then he puts his hand on his head like he didn't mean to say it. You are scared out of your skin, crawling away. But suprisingly, Gaara offers you his hand, helping you up.
You run for the clearing, but then you feel sand wrapping around your waist and stopping you. "You're not going anywhere..." Says Gaara, controlling the sand from his gourd.
But then you hear, somewhere distant, a boys voice shouting: "Byakugan!" then you have a weird feeling that you are being watched...
Gaara must have felt it too, for he turns around, staring in the direction of the voice. Then you feel hands grab you, pulling you into the safety of the dense part of the forest. You see that it is Neji, the boy who was standing with Rock Lee and Tenten before. But thinking that he is after the scroll, you kick him high into the air, sending him flying into a tree. His nose starts to bleed and he holds it, growling.
"You IDIOT! I JUST SAVED YOUR LIFE AND THAT IS THE THANKS I GET!!??"
You tell him you are sorry and you dab his nose with a tissue. He sniffs and gets up, looking around.
"I haven't seen Lee for ages. Me and Tenten are on the lookout for him..."
You look at Neji sympathetically. "I lost my team too... is there... any way you can help me find them...?"
He sighs heavily. "I suppose I can help, but just for a while. If we haven't found them by 5am then I'll abandon you. After all..." He looks at his feet. "You look as if you have people following you, and you need somebody to protect you...when it get's dark, all the bad guys come out..."
You can't decide whether this is:
A) A show of affection.
B) Him hinting that you are weak.
C) Something other than the reasons above.
But whatever he is telling you, you stick by his side like glue.
After a while, you both get sick of running and sit down. It's getting late and Neji looks really tired. He keeps drifting off to sleep. His head accidently slides onto your shoulder, then he wakes up and springs off you. This keeps on happening, until you say: "Neji, you can sleep for a bit if you want..."
He flatly refuses. "Not until I get you safely back with your team!"
You yawn and nod. "Ok, but promise me something."
He looks at you with blood-shot eyes. "What...?"
"Promise me that you will look after Rock Lee, Neji. He is like me in so many ways... he needs as much help as I do."
He nods, getting up and rubbing his eyes. "Byakugan..." He calls weakly and veins show up around his eyes. You figure out that he can see through things using this move, because he then says: "I've seen Lee. Sasuke is...ahh...umm...He and Lee are hurt, so I'm going to get him. Please, stay here..."
'Sasuke is hurt?!' you think, as you watch Neji jump off. 'Oh Sasuke! Please be ok!'