When Gaara had his fill of blood, he placed a gentle kiss over the cut. "Th-that's an interesting feeling...it's nice." "You like when I do that?" Xavyn nodded, and clutched at his boyfriend for support. "I hate to ask it of you...but can we stay here for a minute?" He asked, trying to keep from grinding against Gaara. "You want to stay? To get rid of this?" Gaara's hand slid down to cup Xavyn through his pants. "Y-yes. It would be really embarassing to walk back into town like this." "True. Should I take care of it for you?" He nipped Xavyn's jaw, and felt him go lax. "Yes please." After a quick handjob to rid him of his erection, they walked back to wait for the month to be over. Xavyn was allowed to train again, so he worked on his jutsus day, and night, becoming stronger as the days passed. The big day arrived, and Xavyn was walking between Gaara, and Temari, Kankuro on Temari's left, and Baki ahead of them. "I'll walk you to your seat, Xavyn." The teacher said over his shoulder, and they went through the arena doors. Xavyn found himself wanting to take the chance, and grab his boyfriend's hand, to take him away from what he knew lay ahead.

He shoved the feeling down, and squeezed Gaara's hand, not wanting to embarass him with a kiss. "We'll be fine, Xavyn. Don't get in any fights if people call us freaks, ok? Just let them talk." The youngest whined, and hugged Temari. "Don't lose, ok?" She hugged him back tightly, and rubbed his back. "We won't." He then tried to hug Kankuro, but the Puppeteer wouldn't let him. "See ya, Xav." He waved as he walked down to the ground level. Xavyn waved sadly at his back, and let Baki guide him to an empty seat where he would be close enough to the ground to get a decent view. "I'll get you when it's time to start the mission, until then, just enjoy the show." "Baki sensei...this is gonna get crazy, isn't it?" "Just stay as calm as you can, and focus on the mission." Xavyn was alone, and he felt distinctly claustrophobic as the onlookers around him grew in number. Someone plopped down beside him, it was a boy in a fur trimmed coat with a small white dog on his head, under the hood, and a girl sat on the other side of him.

The dog sniffed in his direction, and made a whining sound, burrowing himself further into the coat. "You smell like those sand ninjas." The boy said. "Um...sorry? It can't really be helped. I live with them." The boy leaned closer to Xavyn who raised his brow at the odd actions. He sniffed at Xavyn, trying to figure out if the other sand ninja was as dangerous as the ones he saw. Xavyn looked at the girl as his arm was raised, and sniffed. "Uh is this your dog-boy? Can you get him off me please?" "Kiba, he's not with the other sand ninja, s-so maybe he's not taking the exams." "I'm not-hey! That tickles!" Xavyn giggled as his ribs were nudged, and prodded. "St-stop!" Kiba pulled back, and sat back down. "Akamaru doesn't say you're dangerous, so I guess it's ok." The little dog barked, and Xavyn fought not to squeal. "Oh my gosh he is the smallest thing I've ever seen! Um...c-can I...can I pet him?" Kiba gave Xavyn a wary look, but didn't say no. Xavyn slowly raised his hand up to the small creature to let him sniff at him.

It kind of tickled, and he giggled, Akamaru licked at his hand, and his tail wagged happily in the hood of Kiba's coat, making a very funny looking image to anyone who couldn't see the little dog. "Well well, he likes you. You can pet him." Xavyn continued to move slowly, knowing what it's like to be a small, frightened animal meeting someone for the first time, and pet Akamaru's head gently. The puppy nudged his hand, and leaned into the pets before rolling over, and going belly up. "Why on Earth does he like you if you're with those sand ninja?" Kiba nearly went cross-eyed from looking up for so long. "I have a theory if you're really wondering." Kiba shrugged. "It's because I know how to treat new animals or people. I've been scared for so long, I can make myself approachable, and non-threatening." Hinata frowned sadly, knowing how Xavyn must have felt. "Hey, do either of you know someone named Lee?" The humans nodded. "I heard he whupped Gaara pretty bad..." Xavyn withdrew his hand from the puppy's belly, and rubbed at his own shoulder. "Yeah, I think we're all scared of Gaara, but the way Lee took him down was out of this world!"

Xavyn knew Gaara wasn't invincible but it was still hard to hear. Hinata took notice of the way Xavyn had hugged himself. "Are you ok?" She asked him. "Yeah just worried about Gaara. He's never been injured before, I don't think he'd be able to handle it if it happened again." That got Kiba's attention. "Really? Never?" "Really, the sand reacts to danger before he can even think about it. He's never known pain or fear, at least not personally." He reached up to hold the locket. The finals got started, and there had been a change to the matches because of Dosu's death, Shikamaru was now facing Temari instead of the deceased sound ninja, and since Sasuke hadn't shown up, fortunately or unfortunately, his match was postponed. That gave Xavyn a chance to take a deeper breath, and relax a little bit. "You weren't looking forward to Sasuke's match?" Kiba asked. "Of course not, that kid's stronger than he looks, and Gaara...might not win. Gaara has chakra, and powerful jutsus, but...like I said, he's never been hurt before. Anything could happen."

"That's a good point, being hurt for the first time can be scary. Especially if it happens later in life." The first two to fight were Naruto, and a boy who looked similar to Hinata, who was called Neji. It seemed that those in the audience didn't put too much faith in Naruto, and were starting to bet on his loss; the match hadn't even begun. "Who is Naruto? What kind of person is he?" "He's a Jinchuriki for the Nine Tailed Fox, he looks weak, and he's pretty stupid, but he's adaptable. He can get pretty creative in the middle of a fight." Xavyn winced, and held the locket. "I guess he was tossed aside by the village? Shunned, and rejected? Called a monster or freak, told he should just die." His other hand gripped the metal seat he was on. "How...how do you know that?" Hinata asked. "That happened to Gaara, and I too. We were the only one each other had, it was just us against the village hidden in the sand. He's so cruel, and heartless to others because...aside from me, he had no friends. Nobody understood then when he hurt people, it was an accident because the sand reacted first. They treated him so terribly, and he learned that killing was the only way...that he could be useful. It's heartbreaking to watch him struggle."

"If...if he's so cruel, why is he nice to you?" Xavyn bit his lip, and turned to face Hinata. "I was there to offer a hand, he saved my life. Give-and-take, and all that. He saved my from my father, and they trained me to get stronger so I could one day punish my father, and Gaara's. It was his father who gave him his cruel life, and it was mine who gave me my life." The Leaf Shinobi dropped the subject in favor of watching the matches. Neji was more powerful than Xavyn could have thought, and he watched as the boy spun around, and around in circles, preventing Naruto from getting anywhere near him. He attacked Naruto in a way that prevented chakra from flowing, and that should have been the end of it, but out of nowhere, Naruto pulled more chakra from his body. "Is that the power of his demon?" While Xavyn wasn't surprised at the amount of power, he was surprised Naruto could draw on its chakra without consequence.

Naruto ended up punching Neji from below the ground, he shot up from the ground, and took him by surprise, and won since Neji couldn't move anymore. The crowd was cheering so loud Xavyn had to cover his ears, and Naruto ran around the arena, but something he'd said early in the match still rang in Xavyn's ears; that a person can choose their own destiny, and doesn't have to live the way they were brought into this world. It immediately made him think of his boyfriend, and how badly he wanted to change Gaara's future, to help with his demon in any way. When Naruto went back to join the others, Kankuro was supposed to go against Shino but forfeited, and Xavyn deadpanned. "I'm gonna smack that boy." While Xavyn cursed out his brother figure, Shino was given the win, and Temari jumped down to get her match started, but her opponent wouldn't leave the area. Naruto ended up slapping him on the back so hard he fell into the arena, then he just laid there for a while. The angry crowd threw their food, and drinks at him.

Xavyn thought it would be over fast, nobody could avoid her gusts, but the boy was from the Nara clan; they used Shadow Posession jutsus. To say he was nervous was a bit of an understatement as Shikamaru proved to be the only opponent worthy of facing Temari. Xavyn could see the gears grinding in his sister's head as she remained a step ahead of the boy, when he squatted, and made a circle with his hands. Temari had been standing with her fan in front of her so she couldn't make a shadow, but she tried to back up, and found herself unable to move. She looked down, and the crowd could see that Shikamaru had sent his shadow through the hole Neji made when Naruto punched him down, then the shadow came up from the circle Naruto made from punching out of the ground, which had been behind Temari. She was between the holes in the ground, and Shikamaru effectively froze her in place. He closed the gap between them, and raised his hand, surrendering the rest of the fight because he had very little chakra left, and wasn't good in hand-to-hand. Temari was given the win, but Xavyn knew she wouldn't be satisfied with that kind of win, she liked to pummel her enemies.

Finally, the match everyone anticipated reached its arrival, only for Sasuke to still be gone. Gaara was called down, and Xavyn felt his heart leap into his throat. They waited ten more minutes, and Gaara's bloodlust began to make its presence known. Xavyn placed a gentle kiss to his locket, and whispered, "Please be careful" against it. Gaara secretly kissed the key he wore, and Xavyn could have sworn he heard him respond with, "I'll be fine. Be patient." He felt tears well up in his eyes, and it eased his racing mind a bit. Less than thirty seconds left, and still no Sasuke, they were about to declare Gaara the winner when he finally showed up with his Sensei. The match finally got started, and Xavyn had to hold his breath; Sasuke was too fast for the sand to shield Gaara. He was going to ask about the speed, but looked to his right only to notice the two Shinobi were gone, he had been so focused on the fights and his worries that he never noticed them leave.