"...Wow..." for once our whole team was speechless. Even me.

Shinobi of all shapes, sizes, and varying shades of ugly decorated the room, like a mad tapestry of wild colours. Certain people stood out as strong- specifically Gaara, and I positioned myself partially behind the others, my gaze fixed on him. I felt like a rabbit in headlights- just his presence was enough to suffocate me. No prey species would ever feel strong in the face of a predator.

Seeming to sense my nerves, my teammates sent me looks of concern, and I tried to pull courage from the confidence and eagerness in Naruto and Sasuke's eyes, but each time my thoughts were dragged, kicking and screaming, back to Gaara's turquoise eyes and chilling words.

"You and I are the same."

Just what the hell did he mean by that?

"There you are, Sasuke-kun!!" a truly recognisable voice sang, someone suddenly wrapping her arms around the boy's neck from behind. Sakura growled.

"Ino-pig! Get your mits off of my Sasuke-kun!!" she yelled. I looked away from the scene and placed a hand on my stomach as it gave a strange, sour ache, a frown on my face. I wasn't sure what this feeling was, but I knew that it was something similar to dislike. But dislike for what?

For Ino? For my sister? After all, the feeling only started when she appeared... but there was no way I could dislike my sister!

Maybe... I disliked what she was doing?

But why would I dislike that she was hugging Sasuke? She had hugged him before in front of me, on that day when we were at the Yamanaka household drying off after the rain. I hadn't cared then. So what had changed between then and now?

In the back of my mind, Izanami snorted rudely. I scowled.

'What's funny?'

'That some find naiveté endearing.'

Fucking cryptic goddess.

"Listen up! My name's Naruto Uzumaki and I won't lose to any of you bastards!" Naruto suddenly shouted, pulling me from my reverie. I frowned. I'd like to believe it to be true, but... I'd met Gaara.

"You rookies might want to quieten down a bit. You're only making things worse for yourself." some silver haired guy said with a smirk, coming over. I scowled. I hate know-it-alls. Who the hell did he think he was, telling us what to do?

"Shut the fuck up." I snapped, folding my arms, cranky because Ino still hadn't let go of Sasuke, ergo the nasty feeling was still there. Silver-hair glared at me, some sort of realisation in his eyes, then pointedly ignored me while talking to the others, making me grind my teeth.

"There are some pretty dangerous people in this exam, so I'll be the good guy and give you cute rookies some tips." um, ew?

"So if you're able to give us tips, this must be at least your second time taking this exam, right?" Sakura asked, and for once I felt like I didn't want to smack her. She was on the same page as me.

"Seventh. Fourth year." He said, and my jaw dropped a little. I expected Sakura to say something like: "You must be really weak then." except in kinder words, since she's only really nasty to me and Ino. But no.

"Wow! So you must be an expert at these exams, then!" she exclaimed, and I facepalmed angrily.

"Well, no, obviously not if he's failed them six times!!" I yelled, but once again, I was ignored. Charming.

I spent the next half hour sulking in the corner, only stopping to cheer on the sound ninja that tried to beat up nerdy-glasses-know-it-all guy. Unfortunately, he got stopped by the proctor.

"Sound ninjas! No fighting without the permission of an exam proctor, unless you want to be disqualified! You got that?!" Ibiki yelled after introducing himself and calling us maggots and other assorted derogatory terms.

"Yes, sorry sir. It's our first time, I got a little... excited." the Sound guy said. He reminded me of a hedgehog.

"Right, well, grab a number and go to your assigned seat to start..."

- - -

I hummed to myself as we all ran through the Forest of Death, weaving between the oversized trees with ease. I didn't know where exactly we were running to, since we only had one scroll, a Heaven scroll.

We were running for a little over half an hour, when we stopped by a river for a short break. So far, we hadn't run into any other teams, but by the sound of the screams earlier, our fellow genin weren't the only thing to look out for in this forest.

"I can't take it anymore, I gotta go!" Naruto exclaimed, unzipping his pants. A hand suddenly covered my eyes.

"Dobe, what the hell are you doing?!" Sasuke's voice growled from next to me, and then a strange thump sounded.

"Not in front of us you don't, baka!!" Sakura screamed, and then it clicked. The thump sound was Sakura hitting Naruto.

When I could finally see again, Naruto was out of sight, and I blinked.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked Sasuke, and he just turned away.

"...you're a whole year younger than us..." he mumbled, folding his arms and hunching his shoulders. I cocked my head to one side; what's his problem?

"Man, that was a lot! I wrote my whole name!" Naruto exclaimed as he came back from behind a tree.

"Eeww..." I muttered, Naruto sure could be disgusting...

"Ah, Sasuke-kun, it wasn't that bad!" Sakura cried as Sasuke punched Naruto in the face. But wait...

That was no longer Naruto...?

'Transformation jutsu, kid.'

'Ohh.'

I quickly jumped in and pinned the already dazed mist ninja against the grass, pummelling him. I slammed my fists into him again and again, surprising myself with the height of my anger.

"What the hell did you do with Naruto?!" I hissed, and the ninja looked scared out of his mind.

"H-h-he's tied up behind th-that tree!" he yelled, and I struggled against Sasuke's grip as he pulled me away. The mist ninja quickly got to his feet.

"You're crazy!!" he shouted, running away. I growled after him.

"Remind me never to make you angry..." Sasuke murmured, still not letting go of my arms. I struggled some more to break his hold. "Are you calm?"

"Yesss.." I hissed, twisting round in an attempt to bite him. He finally let go, and I shot off around the tree in search of the blonde baka.

And I found him, bound in ropes on the ground. Pulling out a kunai, I sliced the ropes and pulled him to his feet.

"Thanks, Sachi-chan." he said shortly, looking annoyed. "That guy snuck up on me, 'ttebayo."

"Mhm." I glanced behind us, where Sasuke and Sakura were rushing to catch up.

Later that night, we were all sat in a small group by a stream. We didn't dare create a fire, in case the light attracted foes, so were using the light of the moon to see.

"Just in case what happened earlier happens again, we should make a password. If we get seperated, one of us will ask the question 'When does a ninja strike?'." Sasuke sent a look around us. I beamed.

"A ninja waits until the time is right. When the enemy sleeps and his guard is down; that is the time for a ninja to strike." my teammates blinked at me, stunned. I frowned, "What?"

"How... how did you remember the seventh shinobi rule? (Lol I can't remember the details, so I'm just makin' this shiz up)" Sakura asked, shock clear in her features. I pouted.

"Hey! I did pay attention in class sometimes, y'know!" I exclaimed, folding my arms. They just stared at me.

Sasuke recovered first. "Well, Sachi was right. That's the password."

"Got it." Sakura chimed. Naruto scratched his head.

"Thought you said password, not pass-speech.." he grumbled, and Sakura sighed.

"How can you not remember it? It's easy!" she scorned.

"Never mind. Let's all just get some sleep." Sasuke advised, "I'll take first watch, then Naruto, then Sachi, then Sakura."

"Wait, I'll take first watch." I said quickly. "You go to sleep, Sasuke."

He frowned at me, "Are you sure-"

"Yes!" I cut him off, "I'm not even tired yet, and anyway, once I fall asleep, you aren't going to be able to wake me up until morning."

"Well okay..." Sasuke said, still sounding unsure, but nonetheless did as I said. "Wake me up in three hours."

I just nodded, parking my butt on a large tree stump. It was rather comfortable, old and smoothed from harsh winds, and over the years, another tree had grown large behind it, so I had something to lean on.

After two hours of staring at trees within trees within shadows of trees that looked like what could possibly be enemy shinobi, my eyelids were starting to droop. I rested my chin on my palm and my elbow on my knee, then jumped up and slapped myself.

"Must not fall asleep!" I hissed quietly, pinching my stomach hard. It throbbed "Ow ow ow ow!!"

"...stop it..." I blinked, freezing where I stood. I straightened and glanced around, that sounded like...

"Nii-san, don't..." Sasuke.

Carefully, I tiptoed over to his sleeping form, watching as an agonised frown worked it's way onto his face, "Don't hurt them... Itachi..."

I frowned, who was this Itachi person, and who was he hurting?

"Don't hurt her.. stop it!!" His eyes screwed up and his muffled voice thickened with pain, and suddenly I couldn't take it anymore. Before I could stop myself, my arms reached out and shook him.

"Sasuke! Sasuke, wake up!" he sat up fast, staring at me in confusion, the sadness and pain of the nightmare slowly draining from his eyes with awareness.

"Sachi...?" he frowned hard, and I half thought that he was angry with me, but I was suddenly grasped and pulled into a tight hug. He spoke some words that I couldn't make out into my neck, his breath tickling the skin there. I was just frozen in shock, unable to say or do anything except let him hold me.

After a moment, I pulled myself together enough to wrap my arms around him carefully. If he needed comfort, I would give it to him. I was touched that he trusted me enough to allow me to.

"Are you okay?" I whispered, trying to force down the heat that was creeping up my neck, and slow my heart that thought it was running a marathon. His grip on my waist loosened, and he leaned back, just staring at me. My heartbeat then really kicked into gear, but despite the awkwardness I felt, I couldn't seem to break away from his gaze.

"I'll have miso pork to go, old man..." Naruto said loudly, making both of us jump. The spell was broken, and Sasuke let go of me completely as I stood off of my knees, blushing furiously. I was glad that the darkness of the night hid it, although Sasuke had turned his head away so wouldn't have seen it anyway.

I ran a hand through my bangs self consciously, "U-um, so you're okay now?"

"How much did you hear?" he asked, his voice stiff. I blinked in confusion. I saw his fists clench, and he turned back to face me, eyes blazing. He was mad. "How much of my nightmare did you hear?"

"I-I..." I was speechless. I'd never seen him so angry at me before. Why was he so upset about it? It was only a stupid nightmare! I frowned back at him. "I only heard a little, and what does it matter anyway? It's not like I'm going to tell anybody!"

"That's not the point here!" I frowned at his words.

"Then what are you worried about?!" I whisper-yelled.

"What you think!" after realising his words, Sasuke immediately blushed, then turned his head away. "I'm not weak." he mumbled.

My eyes immediately softened, and I placed my hand on his shoulder. He refused to look at me. "Having nightmares doesn't make you weak. Everybody has them." I chewed on my lip for a moment, before deciding 'to hell with it' and saying what I felt like saying, "And... I won't ask what it was about, but if you ever need to talk.. I'm happy to listen."

Sasuke finally turned to look at me, and his gaze was surprised, confused, but pleasantly so.

"But why would you do that?" he asked, and I smiled.

"Because you're my friend!" I said, and Sasuke hesitated, before a tentative, yet earnest smile stretched his lips slightly. Just like before when he smiled, it stole my breath away. I couldn't remember anything more beautiful, and my heart quickened at the sight.

I blinked myself out of my daze, blushing some more. Stupid blood, "Anyway, you've still got about half an hour before your shift. You can go back to sleep if you want."

"There's really no point." Sasuke said, standing up and stretching out his -granted, pretty well-defined, for a thirteen year old- muscles, working the lethargy from them. Although he was trying to put a strong front on, I could tell that he was still shaken.

"Y'know, whenever bad things happen to me," I mused aloud, gazing to what little patch of stars showed through the trees canopy, "I always remind myself that people I have lost are still with me. That makes the pain bearable."

"Like your mother." Sasuke said quietly. I looked to him, surprised, as I sat back down on the tree stump. I was surprised that he could remember that, I told him at least four months ago.

I looked down at my lap. "Yes, like my mother. She wouldn't want me to waste my life wallowing. She would want me to move on, make a new life." feeling brave, I looked back up at him, "I think that your clan would feel the same, Sasuke." he was speechless, so I continued. "Good things came of my moving on. That's the whole reason I came here, to Konoha. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have met you, Naruto, Kiba, Kakashi-sensei, Ino..."

Silence reigned for a moment, as I smiled at the ground, and Sasuke -hopefully- thought over what I'd said.

"But... what about your Father?" Sasuke asked, and my smile faded slowly.

"He committed suicide, shortly after my Mother was killed." I said, and Sasuke gazed at me, shocked, before coming to sit down beside me on the stump.

"My older brother is the one that killed my clan." he said into the night. I just glanced at him; what could I say? 'It's going to be all right.'? I couldn't make promises like that.

"I'm sorry." I said, half wondering if his brother is the 'Itachi' that he was mumbling about.

"Don't be. It's not your fault." we sat in a comfortable silence for a while after that, just listening to the sounds of the crickets. My exhaustion was slowly creeping up on me; I was leaning heavily against the back of the tree trunk-seat thing.

"Sachi, your shift's over. Go get some sleep." Sasuke's voice penetrated the fog that had invaded my mind, and I sighed dreamily.

"Mmkay..." but, instead of getting up and climbing into my own bed like Sasuke expected, I merely grabbed hold of his arm and leaned across to cuddle into his side.

"S-Sachi?! W-w-what are you d-doing?!" aw, cute flustered Sasu-kun.

"Sssleep." I muffled against his shirt, and he wriggled slightly, earning a garbled complaint from me.

"G-go to your bed to s-sleep!" he exclaimed, and I tried to shake my head, but it didn't want to move.

"Too tired..." he started to move, and tuck his arms under me to pick me up, but I squirmed and made a loud "Nuuuhhh!!!" noise of complaint. He immediately froze, no doubt making sure that Naruto and Sakura were still asleep, and then sighed.

"Fine. You can sleep on me, but only tonight." he said, his voice sounded strained. I snuggled further into his side.

"Fankoo, Sasuke..." I mumbled, falling into a deep sleep.

- - -

N'aww :3 finally we're getting somewhere with the lovey-dovey stuff! Fifteen chapters in, not bad! I'm always very conscious that I'm making these things move too fast when I write about them getting together. XD

Well, fan, vote, and comment, and I may just manage to update again before I go on holiday next week!