Xavyn's hand twitched with the effort of not accidentally squeezing Gaara's hand. When they stopped walking to take a pee break, Xavyn splashed cold water on his face, and left the bathroom to lean against the outside wall of the building. He was having trouble calming down, and turned, resting his forehead, and forearms on the wall. He was trying to breathe slow, and steady, willing his anger to leave with every exhale. He felt soft hands slide up his shirt a bit, and rest on his hips, Gaara's body pressing against his in a hug. "Why are you so mad, Xavyn?" How he wanted to lean back, against his boyfriend, seek comfort in his physical presence, but he resisted. "It's not fair. Using you as a weapon like this, it's...it just-" He bit his tongue, and growled, a sound that Gaara found himself wanting to hear again at a later time. Xavyn tasted blood, and his mouth was suddenly full of it. "S-son of a bitch." He turned around, Gaara's hands staying on his hips, and he groaned, sticking his tongue out. Gaara's eyes immediately landed on the bleeding muscle, watching a blood drop collect, and roll off, onto Xavyn's lip. "I appreciate your concern, but orders are orders."

Xavyn scowled, and went to wipe away the blood, only to be stopped, and Gaara leaned forward to lick the blood from his partner's lip. "Your blood tastes different than Yashamaru's." Xavyn squeaked when Gaara's tongue swiped across his own to lick at the blood still pooling from the bite. "I-i-is that good?" He had to push Gaara back before things got too intense. "It tastes good, so yes. Anyway, we do have to follow orders, and I...have to do this." A pained expression crossed Xavyn's face, and Gaara pulled him in for a hug, holding Xavyn's head against his shoulder. He played with his hair, and rubbed his back. Xavyn caved, and relaxed against Gaara's body, letting all of his weight fall onto him. "You still don't weigh enough. Do I have to force feed you?" "One problem at a time, Gaara." "Xavyn come here." He nearly jumped at the sound of Baki's voice behind him, and he turned, seeing their teacher with Temari, and Kankuro on either side of him. Xavyn held Gaara's hands, and stepped as forward as he could without letting go of Gaara. "I said come here." With some struggle, and shaking limbs, Xavyn let go of the hands he held, and stepped up to Baki.

He couldn't help but flinch as Baki closed the space between them, and gently grabbed Xavyn at the waist. The youngest closed his eyes, and let himself be picked up. "Jesus Christ you're seriously underweight. You've been training with my students while weighing so little?" He set Xavyn back down, and turned to the oldest two, an accusing glare in his eyes. "You let him do that? And on top of that, his Jutsu uses blood?" Xavyn heard the anger lacing Baki's voice, and stumbled back, being caught by Gaara. "We couldn't exactly force feed him, he would have thrown it up." "Fine, we'll deal with this once we're settled in. Let's go." They started walking again, Xavyn stuck so deep in thought he couldn't talk. Baki talked to his students about the teen, his past, and his anorexia. "We don't really know why it started, but I think he even did it as a kid." "His dad's Thiago, right?" At the sound of his father's name, Xavyn cringed, and rubbed his left shoulder; a nervous habit he'd picked up since Thiago nearly shattered it. "Lousy drunken bastard. He used to be a great Shinobi until he underestimated an opponent, and got hurt so bad he almost died. He's been a grouch ever since."

Xavyn remembered the scar of the wound being talked about, and he bit at the top of his shirt. "Xavyn...your dad is the reason your mom is dead." The more Baki talked about his father, the more numb Xavyn became until he could barely walk. "Baki Sensei, did you have to do that?" "Better sooner than later, especially since you told me he wants revenge." The siblings told Baki about the last two public incidents with Thiago, and how proud they were of Xavyn for overcoming his fears. "I would have liked to have seen it with my own eyes, but I saw the wound Xavyn gave him." It warmed Baki's heart to know that someone in the village didn't hate or fear Gaara, he was surprised to find out the two were together, and he was wary of bringing the youngest because of his protective nature toward Gaara. "Will he get in the way? Will he prevent us, by that I mean Gaara, from completing the mission?" Even Temari didn't know the answer.

Gaara pulled Xavyn close,  and picked him up, carrying him with his partner's legs around his waist. "He won't get in the way." Gaara ran his hand down Xavyn's cheek, and took a moment to admire how peaceful he looked, even though he was still numb from the conversation about his father. "I trust your judgement of him, but how do you know he won't?" Baki kept his gaze forward, not letting Gaara see his smile. "Won't get in the way...I stay away...from Gaara. Won't stop him..." Xavyn sounded like he was half-asleep with the way he slurred, and mumbled his words. By the time they arrived in Konoha, night had fallen, so they found a place to sleep, and would register for the exams in the morning. Gaara, and Xavyn were sitting on the roof, and all of a sudden, the reality of the situation hit Xavyn. He squeezed his eyes shut, and dug his nails in his legs, biting his tongue in an effort to calm down. "You really should try to sleep." Gaara slipped his hand between Xavyn's hand, and his leg. "I don't think I can." "Do you want to spar? Or work on your Jutsu?"

Xavyn took a slow, and deep breath, leaning against Gaara. "Promise you'll be ok." Gaara didn't know how to respond, nobody had worried over his safety so much. Xavyn's needy whimpers, and crawling on his lap to seek comfort made him answer before he even thought about it. "I promise. It'll be ok." It almost frightened him how scared another person got when the monster everyone feared was in potential danger. It contradicted Yashamaru's last words to him, and all he could do was hold his partner close, and do his best to assure him of his safety. "Come on, Xavyn. Come to bed." Kankuro's voice came from the room beneath them, and the younger looked up from Gaara's shoulder. He kissed Gaara's cheek, missing the blush on his partner's face, and went inside with the oldest brother. Xavyn hopped in bed, and waited for Kankuro to climb in next to him. "You, and Gaara...you fit together pretty good." Kankuro crawled in next to his friend, but kept a space between them for Xavyn's comfort. "I'm sorry for being so clingy. I'll stop." "No, no. I don't want you to stop, I think it's good for him. Now turn your damn brain off, and go to sleep."

It took a while, but Xavyn finally fell asleep, and Gaara went inside to find Baki awake, but Temari had fallen asleep on the couch. "Gaara, do you trust your friend?" Taken aback by the sudden question, Gaara didn't know how to respond. He sighed, and rubbed his eyes. "He's my boyfriend. What is this? Why have you taken a sudden interest in his loyalty? Why not bring it up when you met him?" Baki stepped up to him, and went to put a hand on Gaara's shoulder, but changed his mind at the last second; his hand hovering above his student's shoulder. "Because I want to make sure he won't ruin this." Gaara smacked Baki's hand away from his body with a glare. "I'm not going to talk about this with you. I trust him with my life, that is all you need to know." "Fine. Just keep him out of trouble." Gaara bit his tongue to prevent himself from starting an argument, and crept into the room his brother, and boyfriend were. He noticed the space between them, and how much Xavyn was squishing himself against the wall; almost as if he were trying to get away from Kankuro. He stepped inside, and carefully moved to get to Xavyn; bending down to kiss his forehead just to see a small smile pull at his lips.

The next morning, everyone got up at the crack of dawn to get some extra training in before the exams. Xavyn hadn't seen Kankuro's puppet, but knew he had a fascination with them, and was eager to see what he could do. Baki had gotten another animal for Xavyn to use his Jutsu on, and told him to show him how it worked. Xavyn looked at the large animal, and briefly wondered where Baki had gotten it. "What do you want me to do?" "You said you can manipulate blood, so make this things's blood move." Xavyn took a deep breath, and made the hand sign, putting both hands on the unconscious canine. A few seconds passed before the creature wiggled, and writhed, its limbs, and torso bulging before shrinking to bone thin, and they could see the blood's movement to the creature's head before it got so full of blood, it popped like a balloon. Xavyn shot back, blood barely missing his eye, and he sought safety in his boyfriend's arms. "Ew, ew, ew. Get it off, get it off!" Gaara held him still, and licked up every drop of blood from his face while Temari, and Kankuro couldn't bear to look at the gruesome sight; the neck hole poured blood onto the ground like a never-ending waterfall.

The skull had shattered during the explosion, and was laying in pieces all around them, the creature was bloated in the neck area where the blood had moved the fastest. "That's...incredible." Baki understood the danger in such a Jutsu, and wondered how it could be put to use for their mission, or any other battle. They talked about what they'd witnessed, and sparred the entire way to the registration area they were supposed to go. Kankuro scooped Xavyn up, and carried him on his shoulders, much to Xavyn's surprise. "Whoa-holy crap!" Kankuro chuckled, and held on tight, easing Xavyn's fears of falling off. The others didn't comment on it, and Baki left them to do something with other Jonin of the Hidden Leaf. "There's so much green here! You could get lost in this dang place." "It's pretty." "It's full of shade." Xavyn peeked down where Gaara was, only to find him gone, and assumed he went with Baki. He shrugged, and snuggled against Kankuro as they turned down a street where a teen girl with pink hair, a teen boy with blonde hair, and three children were; one was a girl with light hair in two pig-tails, the other two were boys, and one had glasses, his hair was flat against his head, and brown, the other had a gap in his teeth, and his hair was straight up. The boy with spiked hair was running from the girl with pink hair, and ran right into Kankuro's leg. Xavyn blinked down at the kid as Kankuro asked, "Do you need something?" The blonde boy called out a name, Konohamaru, and Xavyn connected the dots that the one Kankuro had a grip on was the owner of the name. The blonde, and pink haired people, Xavyn noticed, were the same age as he, and Gaara.

Kankuro had picked him up by the scarf he was wearing. "So, does this hurt, punk?" Kankuro never liked kids, he'd even shown a somewhat sadistic feeling towards them in the past. "Put him down, Kankuro. You know you'll have to pay for it later." "Aw come on, the kid ran into him, the least he can do is apologize for it." Xavyn took Kankuro's side, and watched Temari frown. "Hey I'm sorry, the whole thing was my fault." The pink haired girl said, trying to diffuse the situation. "You better take your hands off him right now!" The blonde yelled, hands clenched into fists. "We got a few minutes before he gets here, let's mess with these punks, huh?" "Let go of me, you jerk!" Konohamaru kicked at Kankuro's stomach, and Xavyn tried not to let his anger show. He'd become protective of Gaara's siblings over the years as he got closer to them, he got mad whenever anyone outside the family touched them. "You're a feisty one, but not for long." The blonde ran at Kankuro, but was knocked back by a chakra string, and he fell, hitting his head on the ground. "What the heck was that?" He asked, rubbing his head. "You're a Leaf Genin too? It looks like you're all a bunch of wimps." Xavyn noticed the leaf shape in the kids' forehead protectors, and could only assume they were Ninja. Konohamaru's friends called out for him, while the blonde told Kankuro to drop him, and threatened to tear him apart.

"Don't you touch them, you weak little brat!" Xavyn eased off Kankuro's shoulders, and stood between the people he considered his own siblings, ready to fight if any of them so much as breathed wrong. The pink haired girl had the blonde in a chokehold, and told him to stop making it worse, calling him Naruto. "You're annoying, all of you. I don't like runts or any other scrawny weaklings, so when a wimp like this starts shooting his mouth, all I wanna do is break 'em in half." Temari sighed, and gave up, letting Kankuro have his way. "Fine. I'm not involved in any of this, ok?" "First, I'll take care of this little squirt. Then I'll waste the other one." Kankuro pulled his arm back, to punch Konohamaru, and Naruto ran at them. Something hit Kankuro in the wrist, and made him drop Konohamaru, to hold the injured area. "Kankuro!" Xavyn gently held his hand, and went to lift the sleeve up but Kankuro wouldn't move his hand away. Another kid with black hair was now sitting in the tree above them, tossing a pebble up, and down.

"You're a long way from home, and you're way out of your league." He said it like he was confident in his own strength. Xavyn let go of Kankuro, and forced himself to calm down, realizing it would do no good to let his anger get the best of him, like Naruto did. The pink haired girl cried the name Sasuke. "Oh great, another wimp to tick me off." The boy, Sasuke, crushed the pebble, and let the dust blow away. It seemed everyone had an eye out for the boy, even Temari had a light blush. "Hey punk, get down here. You're the kind of pesky little snot I hate the most. All attitude, and nothing to back it up." Kankuro started to unravel his puppet, and Temari asked if he was going to use it for the situation. Xavyn wanted to smack the cocky look out of the Sasuke's eyes. "Kankuro, back off." Xavyn looked up next to Sasuke, and found Gaara upside down on the branch next to him. Xavyn wondered how long he'd been there. "You're an embarassment to our village." "Uh, hey Gaara." Kankuro's attitude changed once Gaara showed up, and the other kids seemed surprised at his words; Konohamaru had scampered off to his friends at some point. "Gaara!" Xavyn managed to restrain himself from running to his boyfriend, he didn't want to embarass him by being overly clingy during the important mission, but he didn't bother hiding his smile.