So... I had a great idea, and so, am updating sooner than planned. What to say about this chapter... well, it doesn't really follow the storyline, that's for sure. An unexpected appearance from someone to save Sachiko from danger... I wonder who it could be... ho ho ho... (no, it's not Santa, or Tanaka from Kuroshitsuji)

Also, the first part involving 'huggy time' is a dream, though it did happen. Just way back before the first exam.

Well, I've kept you in suspense long enough! Onto the chapter!

- - -

"Lee! That technique is forbidden! How dare you use it!" I watched with mild confusion as the jumpsuited man punched Lee in the face, sending him flying. The younger bowl-cut person got to his feet, wiping his cheek.

"I'm sorry Gai-sensei! Please forgive me!" Lee wailed.

"Oh Lee you know I will always forgive you my beautiful student!" Gai cried, and the pair sobbed in each others arms, sparkling and hugging. I blinked at them.

'Oh jeez, Moe...' Izanami muttered.

I pouted, "Hug! I want in! Kakashi-sensei never gives hugs!" hearing my plea, Lee and Gai scooped me up in a hug full of bushy eyebrows and green jumpsuits, and we span in circles, laughing and crying and sparkling.

"Huggy time..." I was steadily awoken to the sounds of a battle, metallic clashes and fleshy thuds making my eyes snap open and my body jerk upright. A flare of pain made me cry out, clutching at myself and tensing in a futile attempt to quell some of the damage.

It calmed enough for me to painstakingly rise to my feet, leaning heavily against a tree. The three sound ninja that were pummelling Sakura and Lee into the ground looked over at me, noticing that I was awake. I glared at them, furious at how the girl was holding Sakura by her hair.

With much effort, I stood straight, pushing the pain to the back of my mind, along with the agonising fear I felt. I wasn't going to shake at the sidelines and watch a teammate get hurt again. "Let her go!"

"Are you gonna make me?" the sound girl mocked, and my fists clenched. I dove at her with a punch, sending her back into a tree- but I noticed that Sakura's long hair went with her.

I gasped and glanced back at my female teammate, seeing her shorter style. She had cut her hair. I knew how much it meant to her, too...

Before I could even react, a kunai was to my neck and my wrists were pulled together behind my back. My spine throbbed in protest as the spikey haired sound nin laughed.

"Make one move, and this'll be through her neck." to show that he wasn't bluffing, he slit across my neck. I could feel the warm liquid roll down my neck. I quivered in fear, and Sakura froze.

"Careful, Zaku." the hedgehog guy from before called, "Boss wants her alive, too."

I heard a chilling chuckle from my captor, "Don't worry, this won't kill her."

My eyes widened as he held my arms back and planted his foot on my back, my spine screaming in agony. This move was usually to dislocate people's arms, because arms would usually give out before the back. But...

He pushed his foot down hard, and a shuddering snap rang through my body. I screamed, shrill, as my body fell limp.

- Elsewhere -

Silence reigned over the only team so far to complete the exam. The Sand siblings sat in a loose formation, ever prepared to face an attack, though Gaara's sand could easily incapacitate any attacker.

Temari was doodling in the dust on the floor with her finger when a sudden movement from Gaara sent her into red-alert. His head had snapped upright, his back ramrod straight and his eyes wide.

"Gaara?" she asked tentatively, causing Kankuro to look up. The redhead suddenly leapt up with a hiss, upon hearing something that the other two did not. His sand enveloped him, "Gaara! Stop!"

But the boy was gone before his siblings could stop him.

Gaara was distraught, urgent. That scream had made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, and the raging presence inside him growl. Despite being barely aware of his actions, his teleportation found himself before a girl with grey-blonde hair, and hazy red eyes, watering from the pain that had made her scream. The presence that Gaara had sensed inside her before pushed to the surface, and her hair bled black as her eyes gleamed.

"Kill them!" Sachiko ordered in a double-timbred voice, and for some reason, Gaara had no choice but to obey. He could feel the sand brown leaching away the teal in his irises, as the sand from his guord struck out and crushed the man that held the girl with the character of a woman. Once the enemy was done with, the sand cushioned the girl's fall, resting her gently against a tree. The redheaded jinchuuriki positioned himself swiftly between the injured girl and the threat, snarling at the two remaining sound-nin. But before his sand could target them, they fled, disappearing into the trees and leaving their scroll behind.

Without a word, Gaara picked the girl up in his arms, freezing as she hissed in pain.

"Stop! What are you doing with Sachi?!" a vaguely familiar voice shouted, and the sand nin turned his head slightly, gaze resting on the girl's teammates for a second, before he started to walk again. "I said stop!"

"Sasuke..." the voice of the girl croaked, and it was obvious to Gaara that she was clinging to consciousness by her fingernails, "It's fine... he's helping..."

The black haired boy had caught up by that point, strange markings seeming to pull back from his skin; Gaara glared at him menacingly as he moved close- the boy, Sasuke Uchiha, glared right back.

"Don't fight..." a hoarse voice broke their contest, and both boys looked down at the limp girl before them. "Just finish this God damn exam... while I... sleep a little..."

With that, Sachi, delusional from the pain, turned her head into Gaara's chest and shut her eyes, falling asleep instantly. The two boys glared at each other some more, before setting off. With both scrolls pocketed, they need only get to the tower.

Neither of them noticed the red-orange glow of Naruto's eyes...

-*-*-

Temari and Kankuro were surprised, to say the least, to see their younger sibling enter the hall carrying a girl. But he said nothing to anyone, even ignoring her teammate's angry shout to leave her alone.

"If he hands her to you she will be in even more pain, Sasuke." Naruto spoke up in a rough, strained voice, sweat beading on his brow as he brought one hand to grasp his head, exchanging stares with his fellow jinchuuriki. He then mumbled, under his breath, "And oh, God, how it hurts."

Gaara nodded slightly, causing incredulity to leak into the blonde's pained expression, stunned. He couldn't believe that Gaara felt the pain that he felt and still remained so stoic, especially when so close to Sachi. The blonde found that the closer he was to the girl, the more intense their shared pain, and the harder the beast inside him struggled.

The final days of the exam passed slowly, the remaining teams slowly trickling into the hall in dribs and drabs. Gaara didn't set the girl down once, carefully supporting her with sand when his arms grew tired. And the whole time, Sasuke had scrutinised the redhead intensely, a range of emotions flitting through his mind, from sadness and worry to the extremest of jealousies. He wanted to be the one to hold and nurse the poor girl, but daren't move her in case he caused her even more pain.

But... he couldn't help thinking that this was somehow for the better...

-Sachi's POV-

I felt.. blind.

Something was weighing down on me, keeping my eyes closed, and pushing down on my chest, stopping me breathing. The world was black, my world was black, and it scared me.

I winced as a flash of red pricked in the darkness, suddenly burning away they black weight in a wave of white-hot agony. I cried out, eyes opening and lungs working now that the weight was gone, and I instantly regretted wishing the blackness away. I wanted it back.

"Sachi! Sachi, can you hear me?!" I wanted very much to answer Sasuke's worried exclamation, but I couldn't, the screams- my screams- were too loud.

I curled in on myself, too much in pain to become aware that I was being held, even when my forehead came into contact with someone's chest.

"S-Sasuke!" I managed to force out, breathing heavily, "M-my kunai pouch..."

The was a short pause, perforated only by the sounds of the Uchiha carefully rummaging in the pouch strapped to my thigh. I heard a sharp intake of breath and hoped he realised what I wanted him to do, and shortly after felt a slight pinch that was quickly overridden by my previous agony. I clenched my jaw shut as I beared with the last of the pain, until the injection of anaesthetic kicked in. God, I was glad I remembered to bring that.

'Before you open your eyes,' Izanami finally decided to speak up, 'Know that the jinchuuriki- you know him as Gaara- helped us. Don't scream.'

The pain faded away in small increments, and I slowly opened my eyes, to see a black shirt. I slowly looked up, and gasped.

Gaara stared down at me, his gaze indifferent. I forced a smile on my face; Izanami had said he had helped me (and why would she lie? She'd gain nothing from it), so he at least deserved my gratitude.

"Uh, thanks... but could you put me down now?" I mumbled, blushing. He merely nodded and set me down on my feet, holding onto me until I was stable. My back felt weird- along with my legs, but since I could use them fine I assumed that my spine wasn't broken. I was glad for the numbness from the painkillers, it was better than the pain from before.

He let go as I moved away, and I stammered a goodbye, before walking over to my anxious team. I avoided eye contact with all of them, unsure of the reason but unable to meet their eyes. Especially the two boys, though each for a completely different reason.

"How... how are you standing?!" Sakura was first to break the fragile silence, "I heard your screams... you were in so much pain! There's no way that with an injury so painful you could be walking around!"

I shrugged passively, "I'm fine now."

"But-"

"I don't want to talk about it, okay?" I snapped, cutting her off, suppressing the shudder that wanted to wrack my bones. The pain was something I did not want to remember. She seemed too shocked to reply.

"Sachi!" I turned and grinned as I saw Kiba running toward me, Akamaru hot at his heels and Shino and Hinata lagging behind.

"Heeyyy Kiba-kun!" I called, drawing the attention of several teams around us. I stuck my tongue out at them.

"Oh thank God!" he panted as he finally reached us, bent at the knees, "I thought you were never gonna wake up, you were in really bad shape when we got here!" he exclaimed, hugging me gently. I hugged him back with a giggle.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. If it hurt that bad I would have been swearing, you know I would." he let go of me and laughed.

"Yeah, I know." his face morphed into a frown, "But I was really worried. And you were being carried by that Gaara kid, what's up with that?!"

"Gaara-san helped." I mumbled, still slightly confused.

"He helped you?! But-" his voice dropped to a whisper, "Earlier, when we were in the forest, he killed some guys, just because they looked at him funny! Why would he help you?!"

I frowned, "I don't know..."

Kiba suddenly snickered, "You don't think he has a crush on you, do you?"

I flushed bright peony, "W-what?! N-no, why w-would he-"

"They only just met. Don't be an idiot, Kiba." I blinked at Sasuke, and he had a murderous glare on his face. But when I followed his gaze, it wasn't aimed at Kiba like I thought. It was at Gaara.

"Jeez, what crawled up your butt and died?" Kiba scowled. Sasuke's eyes flashed to meet mine, and I immediately dropped my gaze, face flushing, but not before I caught his smirk.

I crossed my arms tightly over my chest, bangs falling over my eyes. I needed to get my hair cut soon, my fringe was getting way too long.

To my utter relief, it was minutes until the second exam's proctor shouted "Shut the hell up! Hokage-sama wants to speak to you! Line up in columns of your teams!"

I started to walk after my teammates, noticing that there were people limping or cradling various limbs. This exam had taken it's toll.

Before I could catch myself, my legs suddenly buckled, folding beneath me with a burning jolt. I gasped in surprise, but someone deftly caught me around the waist before I could fall.

"Be careful, baka." Sasuke said gruffly, supporting me as I got my balance. I avoided his gaze and he avoided mine (strange, I know) each of us with a flush of red over our cheeks. I clung to him, however, my legs feeling weak.

"Um, thanks..." I mumbled, as he secured his arm round my waist and mine around his neck, helping me walk. We slowly crossed the hall, coming to stand in a line with our team, though Sasuke still didn't stop supporting me, making our line a little weirdly shaped.

The Hokage came to stand before a giant statue of two hands in a ninjutsu seal, in the middle of a long line of Jounin, including Kakashi-sensei. I focused on him to distract myself from the distraction keeping me on my feet.

"Congratulations to all of you on passing the second stage of the Chunin exams..."

- - -

Shtopping it here :3

Sorry for not updating in such a long while, my TARDIS ran away with me x3

Fan, vote, comment, blah. :D