Bonds

The Chunnin Exams Begin!

Destruction.

Destroy them all.

They deserve it.

It's the only way you can grow stronger!

KILL THEM ALL!

Naruto shot up from his sleeping position. His breathing was uneven, and he was sweating terribly. What the hell was that? Naruto thought to himself as he made his way to his bathroom. After a quick shower, he threw on a plain white t-shirt with black shinobi pants and matching shinobi sandals. He tied his headband around his forehead and left his apartment.

Naruto noticed that Haku's door was open, so that meant Zabuza was over. Naruto quickly hopped over the railing and made his way to Team 7's training grounds. Today was the beginning of the Chunnin exams, so Naruto decided he was going to get a quick training session in before he met up with his team.

The blonde was about one block from the training grounds. Naruto suddenly felt uneasy, like someone was watching him. Naruto kept walking until all other civilians were completely out of his sight, though the feeling of him being watched never left him. He felt chakra to his left and on instinct threw a kunai at the chakra's location. Naruto followed where he threw the kunai and noticed that there was sand on the ground directly under the kunai's location.

Sand user? Naruto thought as he felt a large chakra source appear behind him. On instinct once again, he pulled out his sword (that hadn't been used since the Wave mission) and pointed it at the boy in front of him. The boy before him almost made Naruto laugh out loud, due to his appearance of course. He had auburn spiky hair, green eyes, no eyebrows, very dark bags under his eyes, and the kanji for "love" on the left side of his forehead.

"Oh, now I know that I gotta be dreaming!" Naruto exclaimed as he looked the boy deep in the eye.

"And why would that be?" the boy asked in a monotone voice. Naruto noticed the sand that was slowly surrounding the duo.

"Because you seem to be a villain in one of the many manga's that I have read." Naruto said while smirking, his smirk only increased once the boy's glare increased. Naruto's smirk fell once the boy's chakra flared. "You and I... we're similar, aren't we?"

"You listen to your mother's requests of killing the men and women that she wants dead or wants the blood of?" the boy asked in an almost hysterical way. Never mind then. Well, actually, that might not be it. When doing all my research on the tailed beasts, they say that the One Tails likes to drive their jailer insane by using someone that meant a lot to their jailer to their advantage. It seems in this case; the One Tails might be using his mother as the figure that he manipulates him with. The One Tails makes the most sense though, that explains how he can manipulate sand like that.

"Damn, that One Tails has really done a number on you, huh?" Naruto asked as the green-eyed boy gave him a slightly confused look. "I'm guessing that you're from the sand. The names Naruto Uzumaki, I wouldn't forget it."

"Naruto Uzumaki, eh?" the boy muttered. Naruto had placed his sword in its sheathe and was walking past the kid and was about to turn the corner and be on his way to the training grounds but was stopped by the boy once again. "Mother wants your blood Uzumaki... and I, Gaara of the Sand will be the one to spill it."

Gaara, hm. Naruto began to lose himself in his thoughts as he ended the conversation between the two by walking away towards his original destination.

*Sayu's Apartment*
"Gah, none of this is helping right now! Sayu, hand me the other book!" Sakura exclaimed as she reached out towards the Uchiha. The two teammates had decided to try and decipher the first round. Talking to many chunnin and jonin, they said that it would most likely be a written test. That was all the information that Sayu wanted, but Sakura wanted to go through all the books about shinobi that Sayu had and come up with what she thought would be in the test.