The Lost Shinobi

Chuunin Exams? I'm In?

I woke up with messy scarlet hair in the morning. I could hear Naruto in the kitchen, supposingly making breakfast. I combed my hair by ruffling it and got in the kitchen. Naruto was looking glum and tired. He had the milk, which was so spoiled and a piece of bread. I smiled, "You call that breakfast?" He looked back at me and had a sloppy smile.

I grabbed some stuff and made an actual breakfast. "Aki-chan! This is actually good!" cried Naruto between chomps. I smiled and finished my food. We changed into our clothes, I changed in the bathroom, and we left to the bridge in which Kakashi-sensei had told us to wait at. "Last one there cleans the apartment!" I yelled. We ran, not only to win, but to get there quick. Our apartment really is dirty.

We had reached the bridge just in time to see only Sasuke and Sakura waiting for us. Naruto was the second to arrive and he didn't really mind. He walked up to them and said, "Good morning Sakura-chan!" He and Sasuke looked at each other and then looked away in disgust. All I did was say, "Mornin'!" Sakura smiled and said, "Good morning Akiko!" Sasuke muttered, "Hi..." We waited a long while for Kakashi-sensei to arrive. When he did, he just claimed that he was lost.

Naruto kept asking if there were any harder missions for us and Kakashi-sensei just put his hands in front of him to stop him from anything. He just looked at Sasuke and Naruto looked at his rival with the same glare he always gave him. Unfortunately, we got easier missions for the day. Naruto looked like a obsessed freak, trying to win a trophy, but ended up failing, badly. He nearly went off a waterfall and had to be saved by Sasuke. Not that I'm becoming a Sasuke fangirl. That would be terrifying.

Naruto also went over to the trap field. It was awful. When we walked home, Sakura and Sasuke had to carry Naruto. As usual, Sasuke said something to make Naruto mad. He was stopped by Sakura, but Sasuke had claimed that he was stronger than Naruto. Of course, it was just a staring contest, but Sasuke was more edgy. Sensei dismissed us, and as soon as Sasuke turned and walked away.

I let my foot go slightly sideways, and the might Uchiha....tripped. Naruto went from serious to dying with laughter. Sakura was blushing. Uchiha looked at me with a ferocious scowl, but I just held out my hand to help him up. He sighed, but took my hand anyway.

We went our seperate ways, I went with Naruto, but was stopped by a movement. I sighed and threw my kunai behind me. There were three shrieks and I sighed. "Konohamaru! You're not trying to fight me again are you?" squealed Naruto. "Konohamaru" appeared with two other lil' kids. They made the most ridiculous introductions, and Naruto wasn't impressed. That was, until Sakura appeared. He was blushing even more than ever.

Konohamaru began teasing him about how he thought she was his girlfriend. I laughed a bit and then muttered, "As if." Then, the little twerp raised the pinky, and that ticked Sakura off, a lot. To prove herself, she punched Naruto in the cheek, narrowly missing me. He went flying, and got knocked into a fence. For being rude, she punched Konohamaru in the head too. It took them a while to get better, until Konohamaru let the one thing Sakura had only expected Ino to say, "broad-foreheaded."

She got all mad and charged at all of them. I just ran after them. Unfortunately, Konohamaru ran into something. Well, someone who had something. I looked to see a girl with blonde hair in four ponytails and a boy with paint on his face. He grabbed Konohamaru by the neck and rose him up.

The others were alerted, and out of nothing, my Aniran appeared. "Put.Him.Down!" I growled. "Hmmph, Leaf Village Genin are weaker than I thought, " he responded. He looked at me and I was in a full-blown stare. I forced myself to speak, "You're from the Sand aren't you?"

I looked at his headband and saw the sign. I looked into his eyes and I forced him to see cold and cruel eyes, not the helpful and nice eyes I had. He looked freaked out. Out of nowhere a stone passed in front of me and hit the boy directly on the arm. The blow made him drop Konohamaru and look at the attacker. It was Sasuke.

Sasuke was twirling another rock in between his fingers. He smashed the rock and warned them to get lost. I had forgotten that I still had my Aniran on and when I looked at him, he jumped a little with surprise. Sakura and Moegi were all fangirling. Naruto was trying to apologize with Konohamaru. I rolled my eyes and the boy seemed to growl. He grabbed the puppet and I noticed the puppet. Crow. He was threatning to use it, if he had the chance. Then, I remembered the people's names.

Temari and Kankuro. But if they were here, where's.... "Kankuro...stop that." The voice made me jump, I even saw Sasuke's eyes glow with fright. "You're an embarrassment to our village." The voice was so cold, yet so familiar. I turned to see a boy with crimson red hair, and icy blue eyes. Eyes surrounded by black circles that resembled the loss of sleep. It was my old childhood friend, Gaara of the Desert.

I hadn't seen Gaara since before the massacre, but he looked dangerous. I had my Aniran on so I turned it off. I noticed that Kankuro and Temari were terrified of him, and I knew why. Gaara had the One-Tailed beast in him, a "terrifying" bijuii that was in the Sand. "I'm sorry about that...." They were both looking at each other with interested gazes. Gaara climbed (teleported) from the tree to the ground, a few feet in front of me.

He looked at me, seeming a little interested, then turned away. "Wait.." Sakura's voice trembled. "What is it?" asked Temari. "Judging by the headbands, you're Ninja from the Village Hidden in Sand, right?" she asked. Thank you Sakura for barely noticing that. She made a lot of questions, until I remembered about what a few jounin were once saying. "You came to participate in the Chunin Exam, right?" Temari looked at me and nodded.

I explained to Naruto that if you pass the exams, you go from Genin to Chunin. The Sand siblings were about to leave when Sasuke came down and looked at them. "Hey you! What's your name?" he asked. Temari turned, blushing, and asked, "Who? M-me?" Sasuke showed no expression, "No! The gourd next to you!"

Gaara turned and replied with no expression, "I'm Gaara of the desert. What's your name?" Sasuke smirked, "Sasuke Uchiha." Then, Gaara turned to me, "And you, you have a great power with those hidden eyes. What's your name?" I was surprised that he didn't remember me, but I tried not to show it. "Akiko Akuma." He moved a little closer and I saw into his light sky blue eyes. Gaara looked at Sasuke, "You're advanced, but you're my prey."

Sasuke looked creeped out, but then Gaara looked back at me. "You have something else, something just like me, and you're...." Sasuke finished for him, "None of your business." He pulled me away from Gaara and with the rest. What's up with him?

Third person P.O.V

After Gaara and his siblings left, Akiko stood behind Sasuke and said cooly, "What's with all the protection Uchiha?" Sasuke had responded, "Well, he doesn't deserve to know about you." She snapped back, "And what, do you?" He was a little shocked but tried to mask it, "No." Akiko's eyes turned to Aniran, "Don't you ever try to stand in front of me when there's people. Got it?" Sasuke didn't agree, but found himself in a Sharingan. "Maybe I should let you stand alone then? Is that what you want?" Akiko growled, "That's exactly what I want." Sasuke let the Sharingan go and headed back home, with hands stuffed in his pockets. Naruto went up to Akiko and searched her like an older brother. Sakura and the others left out of weird experience. In the trees, a group of Sound ninja were looking at everything. None of them looked interesting enough, but the two red-heads and the raven-haired genin looked interesting enough.

Akiko's P.O.V

We were waiting once again at the bridge, for the second time. I had been hearing whispers about three genin form each Team were submitted. I didn't believe such thing, but after re-meeting Gaara and the whispers, I had to know. I was clean, but Naruto hadn't washed his face or cleaned his teeth. I wasn't hyper but Uchiha and I weren't on the right foot since yesterday's mysterious protection. Kakashi-sensei appeared, claiming that he got lost on the path of life, but before Saskura and Naruto could yell at him, I whined, "Sensei! Just get your butt down here and tell us why we're here!" He sighed but he came down. "This is sudden, but I recommended you four for the Chunin Exam." The three looked shock, well I don't know about Sasuke. I took my ticket and looked at it for a long time. Naruto went crazy and hugged Sensei. I thought I looked at my ticket for a long time, I could tell that he was daydreaming. I noticed that Sakura was holding back and so I went up to her. She was doubting herself, and she should be proud of being a Ninja. I put an arm around her and claimed, "You're the smarty-pants kunoichi in this Team, nothin' to be distressed about!" I saw her smile and then her eyes turned to concern. I felt a sharp tap on my shoulder and it was Kakashi-sensei. He pulled me away from Sakura and gestured them to move along.