Shattered Ice

Chapter Twenty-One

A/N: Don't be surprised if most of these Chunin Exams chapters have pics of Gaara. A lot of the conflict in this arc revolves around him. And he's Panda-kun! You can't NOT have a picture of him somewhere!

Amara quickly dodged out of the way as a wave of sand rammed into the spot she was just at, almost immediately swerving after her. It didn't give her any opportunity for pause, each time she landed somewhere safe the sand was hot on her tail.

She didn't know what would happen if the sand caught up with her, but she had a feeling she didn't want to find out.

She let out a loud yelp as the sand barreled into the tree she was just on, wincing at the painful sounding crack of the bark under the extreme pressure. She quickly darted away, taking a moment to glance back towards the redhead, her orange eye flickering with both annoyance and slight panic.

That was her mistake. The moment she took her attention away from the sand, it lunged towards her. She only had a split second to react, quickly scrambling to dodge once more, but her delayed reaction gave the sand enough time to painfully wrap around her leg, slamming her into the ground with a large thud, before slowly lifting her up off of it.

Amara winced in slight pain, glaring at the male as the sand lifted her off the ground, where she dangled upside down. Thankfully, her bangs somehow managed to stay in place, as they always did. That twas a secret she would never reveal >.<.

"Put me down." She ground out, glaring at him heatedly through her visible orange eye. He stared at her blankly, and the sand's grip on her foot became increasingly tight, which caused her to wince.

She could feel the ice building up around her foot, slowly pushing the sand away from the limb, thought the sand merely meshed around the ice, instead gripping that. Either way, she continued to dangle off of the ground, and eventually Amara sighed.

"If I tell you my name, will you put me down?" She offered reluctantly, and he continued staring at her, offering no confirmation whatsoever. She bared her teeth at him, and the sand crept upwards slightly.

"Fine!! My name is Amara Nii!! Happy now?!" She spat, and in response the sand slowly, almost reluctantly released her, dropping her unceremoniously to the ground. Luckily before she could hit it, snow rose up from the ground catching her.

Gaara suddenly tensed, and her eyes flickered over to him anxiously, watching as he clutched his head in pain. She could feel Tenshi beginning to stir in the back of her mind, and she once again backed away from the redhead, snow swirling around her protectively.

'He's communicating with the Tanuki... Amara you need to get out of there.' Amara nodded as she continued to back away, only for the sand to lunge towards her once more. Luckily, her snow rose up to meet it, blocking it from reaching her.

Oh so now this stupid defense of mine starts to kick in... She thought annoyedly, watching as the snow formed a protective barrier around her, keeping the sand away. Still, you could say Gaara's defense was more experienced than her own, the sand pushing through the snow easily in order to get to her.

Amara panicked slightly, quickly preforming hand signs. "Ice Style: Ice Leopard!" Paticles of ice began forming around her, quickly clumping together as they shaped into a majestic feline. The ice leopard let out a roar, quickly darting forward towards the redhead.

A tendril of sand shot out from the gourd, quickly smashing into the leopard, but the creature exploded into shards of ice that flew out in every direction. Gaara's defense kicked in, forming a slight dome around him, protecting him from the shards.