The days passed and everything was normal. Since I had arrived back in Konoha, I had spent everyday training with my team and Kakashi. I even took breaks when night fell and hung out with the other genins. I had to admit, they were sort of cool. I had even completely forgotten that I was supposed to be keeping my guard up in case someone called me out, but I was just too comfortable. Why didn't everyone live here? Konoha was awesome.

I walked a little behind the others as we headed over to the training area. Despite my previous claims, I still didn't talk up and act friendly like everyone else. It just wasn't in my nature.

Sasuke, Kiba, Naruto and Sakura was walking in front of me. Naruto and Kiba were arguing as they usually were. I had grown used to it by now. It was just how the communicated. Hinata was silent, but once in a while she would speak up and tell Kiba to stop. I had always wondered why she always took Naruto's side. At first I thought it was because she didn't like Kiba but I quickly ruled that one out. Sakura was jumping from hanging unto Sasuke, or trying to, and telling the two loudmouths to shut up.

Sasuke was silent, walking with his hands in his pocket. Since the day we had had our conversation in the forest at the hidden mist and he had ran off, Sasuke hadn't said a word to me. Now and then, when we were sparring or just training, I would touch him accidentally. He would immediately draw back and if I were at point A, he was at point Z.

"Lea-chan! Tell Kiba I'm a stronger fighter! Everyone knows it."

I sighed, knowing sooner or later they would drag me into it.

Kiba laughed. "Ha! Baka! Lea won't lie. C'mon Lea, tell him the truth. Break his little heart."

"I'd rather not, thank you very much."

"Ha! That meant she thought I was stronger."

Naruto crossed his arms. "No it doesn't! Lea-chan's my rival, of course she would say that."

"Then why bother drag me into this in the first place?"

"Well - You know ..."

"I don't know but luckily for you I don't care." I walked a little faster, intending to past them and go on my way. Unfortunately for me, Kiba wrapped his arm around my shoulders as I passed.

"Face it, Naruto," he said, turning back to look at him. "She practically said I was stronger. Not that I need her confirmation, but..."

He laughed and Akamaru yapped. As soon as I heard the wretched sound I jerked back, as if his hand had begun to burn. He looked at me weirdly.

"Keep that thing away from me," I said, pointing to Akamaru. Akamaru whimpered and Kiba rubbed him down, trying to console him.

"It's okay, boy. She doesn't know how to treat both people and dogs well, that's all. Don't take it personally."

"No, Akamaru," I said. "You should take it personally. I hate dogs."

"It's not like your allergic or anything," Kiba muttered under his breath.

I smiled a small smile. Hinata and Sakura giggled and I smiled at them. Hinata, surprisingly, smiled back. She was really nice, when you got past the 'barely talks and whispers everything when she does' part. She kept walking, her head down as usual and collided into something big.

I rushed to her. I didn't help her, Kiba and Naruto was already taking care of that. I just stood and asked, "Are you okay?"

She nodded, mute. The thing she collided into turn around.

"Oi! Watch where you're going, will ya?" I looked at him. He was tall, paint all over his face. He had a on a black shirt hoodie and his headband was attached to the top. I didn't recognize the symbol. Behind him, the thing Hinata had walked into, was bandaged wrapped, the only thing showing was what looked like a tuft of brown hair.

Hinata came to her feet, her face red. She bowed quickly. "I-I'm sorry!"

"You shouldn't be walking with your head down," the guy said, looking down at her. "Who does that anyway?"

"Hey, she already said she was sorry! You don't have to make her feel even worse!" Kiba came to her rescue.

The guy looked over at Kiba and smirked. "Did I command you to speak, mutt boy?"

I raised a brow in surprise. "I thought Naruto and I were the only ones to call him that," I said to myself.

Naruto's face became angry. He stepped up beside Kiba and, like that, they looked like two very angry friends against a common enemy. "Who the hell are you, you crossdresser?!"

The guy got just as angry. "Crossdresser?! I'm not a freaking crossdresser!"

"Hard to tell with all that paint all over your face!"

"Boys, boys," I spoke up. I had no problem if they argued. It was the shouting that irritated me. And the fact that we should be heading over to the training grounds and they were here wasting time. "Let's just stop all the petty shouting and leave." I grabbed Kiba's hand and Naruto's hand to pull them along.

"Let the little girl do your fights for you!" the guy said. I ignored him, but Kiba and Naruto would not take that and just walk away. They pulled away from me and charged back after him. Surprisingly, it was Sasuke who spoke.

"That little girl can probably kick your butt in two seconds."

My brows rose. That's the first time Sasuke even acknowledge me since we came back. I smirked and came up to the unknown guy. "But I'll let you off, for now."

The guy drew back, staring at me with a mixture of amusement and trepidation. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, he grabbed my hand. I gasped as he pulled me forward. As soon as that had happened a stone came flying from Sasuke's hand and it hit the guy in his forehead. He let me go immediately, rubbing his temple.

"Kankuro!" A girl came forward. "Stop playing with these children and let's go, we need to sign up." She had blond hair that was held in four and spiky. She had a large black thing on her back. She had her headband around her neck and it had the same unusual symbol.

Kankuro ignored her and glared at Sasuke. "Showoffs like you," he pulled the bandage package from his back, "is what I hate most."

The girl rushed forward. "You're going to use Karasu?! Kankuro, what the hell!?"

"Kankuro, stop it."

Everything and everyone stopped. We all turned to the owner of the voice. It was a boy, our age, and he was hanging upside down from the branch of the tree. He had red curly hair and it fell downwards, exposing a weird black tattoo on his temple. He had a large brown gourd on his back. It seems everyone from this place had something on his back.

"You're an embarrassment to our village."

Everyone looked shocked. I looked at them, wondering what the big deal was. So he showed up out of nowhere, who cares? I was completely used to it by now. What really confused me was why Kankuro and the girl looked so contrite.

"Picking a fight and losing your control. Why do you think we came to the Leaf village?"

Kankuro rubbed the back of his head. "But they started it-!"

"Shut up. I'll kill you."

I blinked. Wow, this guy was intense. Kankuro rubbed the back of his head and I could have sworn I saw him shaking.

"Sorry, Gaara. Real sorry..." He laughed awkwardly.

"Sorry you guys," Gaara said. A gust of sand surrounded him and he appeared on the ground near us. "We got here early, but we didn't come to play around."

"I know that ..." Kankuro said.

"Let's go," he said.

"Hey wait," Sakura called, finally speaking up. She had been silent this whole time. "Judging from your forehead protectors, you guys are from the sand village. You may be allies with the leaf but it's forbidden to enter this village without permission. State your purpose and depending on your answer we just might let it slide."

The boy didn't turn around. "Temari."

Temari held up something in her hand. "You guys really don't know anything at all, do you? Yes, we're genins from the sand village but we're here to take the chunin selection exams."

"Chunin selection exams?" Naruto asked, sounding dumb.

Temari sighed and began to explain what the chunin selection exams were. I blocked her out, having known about it a long time ago from the training sessions I had with Kakashi. I sighed and walked away, resting my body against the fence. I didn't know why but this whole ordeal was making me tired. And that redhead gave me the creeps and I didn't want to look at him anymore.

"Hey," I heard Sasuke say. "What's your name?"

"Me?" Temari asked, sounding perky.

"No, him."

"Gaara of the Desert." There were footsteps and I suddenly felt someone's gaze weighing me down. I opened my eyes. Gaara was staring at me intensely and I resisted the urge to shrink back.

"What's your name?" he asked me.

"Lea."

"And I'm Naruto!" Naruto said. I held back my smile. All I did was kept the gaze with Gaara. He was even more intense that Sasuke. Suddenly he turned away.

"I'm also interested in your name," he said to Sasuke.

Sasuke smirked. "Uchiha Sasuke."

They left after that, Gaara turning away without another word and Temari and Kankuro following behind him.

//

"Hey did you hear?" I heard Lee's voice as I neared the training area. A couple days had passed since we met the sand ninjas and it was still all any of them could talk about. I had quickly grown bored of the topic so, instead of training with my teammates as usual, I went off on my own.

"For the first time in five years, rookies are going to be in the chunin exams," he continued.

"No way!" I heard Tenten say. "It's probably just some jonins in competition or something."

"No the story is that the four of them are from Team Kakashi."

I heard Neji's voice after that. "That's all well, but you have to feel sorry for them."

I came into the clearing and Lee spotted me immediately, jumping up from the pushups he was doing. "Lea!" he said awkwardly. Tenten paused in the middle of throwing a kunai on the already full target board and smiled at me sheepishly. Neji still sat with his hands folded together, eyes closed.

I waved two fingers in greeting. I went off to my own section and cleared the target board of the kunais.

Tenten came up to me, still smiling. "Hey, Lea. You didn't happen to hear what we were just saying right?"

I aimed my kunai. "Every word." I let it fly and it embedded in the tree, missing the target entirely. I sighed. My aim was so bipolar. It seemed to only be on point whenever I was in battle or sparring but when I was just plain old practicing, my kunai acted as if they hated the board.

Tenten gave an awkward laugh. "Well, sorry if we offended you."

"She doesn't understand the meaning of the word, Tenten," Neji said.

I flew another kunai. This time it came a little closer. "Don't be petty just because I didn't think you were good enough to get an apology from me, Neji."

Lee laughed loudly. "She got you there, Neji."

I wasn't looking at Neji but I knew those words had made him annoyed. "Your apologies mean nothing to me," he said.

"Then why do you want one so badly?"

"Don't you have a meeting to go to or something?" This time the annoyance was evident in his voice.

I paused in the act of throwing another kunai. "As a matter of fact, I do." I actually do recall hearing Sakura saying something about a team meeting. I shrugged. "But I don't think I'm going."

"You might be missing out on something important. I suggest you hop to it." I raised a brow. Neji doesn't look like the sort of guy to tell someone to 'hop to it'. Apparently, he was just as surprised.

"It's most likely about the chunin exams which, thanks to you guys, I already know about."

Tenten sighed. "Again, we're sorry about that." Lee grunted his agreement, too caught up in his one hand pushups to say anything. I looked at her with a frown. Why was she apologizing? I hadn't found anything wrong with it.

"It's okay," I said and she relaxed. I threw another kunai and it grazed the target board. I almost groaned aloud in frustration. Somehow, I hated failing in front of Neji. I honestly didn't know why I cared. I usually didn't.

"Let me help you with that," Tenten said. She grabbed my hand before I could protest. "Your hand isn't straight. When you throw, make sure your eyes are leveled with the kunai, so wherever your eyes are looking your kunai would go there."

I nodded, seeing no harm in trying. I straightened my hand and positioned the kunai exactly where my eye was leveled. When I was sure it was on point, I threw. It landed dead the centre. I smiled and Tenten whooped.

"Youth at work again!" Lee shouted at me, grinning, his large eyes glistening.

"Not bad, rookie." Neji walked up to us and smirked. I flipped my hair, feeling accomplished. "Looks you're not as useless I thought you were."

"Looks like your still as stupid as I thought you were." His smirk fell and a vein pulsed in his temple. I laughed, feeling high off my accomplishment. "Loosen up," I told him, patting him on the shoulder.

He blinked and looked away, his face turning red. He walked away from me and sat back down, resuming his previous position. I frowned then shrugged. Everyone was weird here.

I threw kunai after kunai after that and soon my target board looked almost like Tenten's. Night had come down and we were working only on the light from the stars and the moon. She grinned at me and I nodded my head at her. We had gone at it together, but now we had to admit we were tired. I collected my kunai.

"See you later," I said.

"See ya, Lea-chan!" Tenten and Lee said in unison. I looked at Neji. I shrugged and was just about to walk away when he opened his eyes and looked at me. "See you another day, Lea," he said.

I lifted two fingers in farewell and walked away, looking forward to the bed that was waiting for me when I got home.