Before the test, Naruto had debated whether he would intervene or not. In his mind, it always came down to whether sparing him some pain now will help his future, or hurt him in some way Naru-nii couldn''t predict. After all, Naru-nii exined that Lee eventually makes a full recovery. In the end, he decided to leave the choice with the person who knows him best; Guy-sensei.


    To everyone''s grand amazement and awe, Lee''s fight against Gaara was the most astonishing testament to guts they''ve ever seen.


    His disadvantages, the weights, the speed, the strength of the inner gates, it was pivotal; no moment more so than when Gaara''s sand seized Lee''s left arm and leg, however, before the future can repeat itself as Naru-nii had described, Guy-sensei leaps like a cannonball shot out of a cannon and blows away the crippling sand, staring menacingly at an unstable Gaara.


    The match is called in Gaara''s favor due to outside interference, and though Lee wanted to argue, he could hardly stand without great exertion. Naruto knows Lee feels deprived by his sensei''s intervention, but Guy whispers something to his student, who glumly nods before passing out.


    Gaara may have beaten Lee, but for his guts, inner gates, and raw tenacity, everyone gained a new appreciation for the ck bobbed genin.


    For thest match, Naruto thinks as he watches the boy struggle to get up, ''what''s important is you tried your best, Chōji.''


    "If you look at the scoreboard," Hayate begins to exin to the remaining genin. "You will see your match in the final task of the exam."


    The board reads Naruto and his opponent Gaara, Neji and his opponent Hinata, Shino and his opponent Kankurō, Temari and her opponent Shikamaru, andstly, Dosu and his opponent Kiba.


    With the Hokage and the Jōnin-sensei behind the sickly proctor, he announces, to the candidates, "you all have a month to prepare as best you can for your matches. Good luck," he finishes before Ji-chan dismisses them.


    GAARA


    After being dismissed, Gaara watches the blond try to approach him with a smile that eerily reminds him of Yashamura, to which he feels a searing pain on his forehead. Rather than face him, rather than kill him, Gaara''s sand flows around him before he shunshins away and the voice in his headughs at his weakness; that he would flee rather than kill. Gaara bes more agitated with every second.


    ''Heeeheeeheehehehe,'' an errant voice screams more thanughs… ''or is it my voice,'' Gaara asks himself as he flies through the air and out of the training ground on his sand. ''You run, but where''s your fight!''


    Never quite asleep nor awake, Gaara struggles with his thoughts throughout his return to the main populous of the vige. His loopy logic eventually offers a debilitated sense for why he would run rather than kill the blue-eyed leaf-nin.


    His tired and strained mind easily realized the blond shinobi was special, more so than that Uchiha, which clearly meant he needed to die in the most singr manner. This blond, like his uncle''s explosive demise, needed to die with a smile on his face. This leaf-nin''s death needed to be significant to truly exemplify his existence in this cold and spiteful world.


    ''Your existence will be erased,'' a grueling and exhaustive thought gripped his worn pale body. ''You will not survive him! Heeeheeeheeeheeheeheehehehe!''


    Looking out the window of their domicile into a very bright day, onto a picturesque vige, and down on all of the viger''s content faces, Gaara''s worn and warped mind ns how topletely destroy the smiling, lying, blond as he waits for his siblings to return to their assigned vi.


    ''He smiles just like Yashamura,'' the voice probes… or Gaara thinks. He can''t be sure, but he''s long past caring. Gaara needs quiet, but he can''t rest, not until he kills him. When his blood-sacks finally enter the vi, Gaara immediately calls, "Temari," making her and the others tense.


    Disgusted by such a carefree vige, Gaara asserts without actually looking at them, "a quick death will not be enough for him."


    Temari looks from her distant youngest brother to the others before asking, "enough for who?"


    Without rifying, Gaara answers, "I want to see him suffer before I kill him. He must suffer, as I have suffered."


    "Okay," Temari tentatively agrees before calmly asking again, "who?"


    Gaara turns to them, and at the thought of the smiling blond liar, his cold eyes widen madly as he exhales an unsettling, "Himmmmmm." He''s practically ring at them when he specifies, "that blond."


    Kankurō, Temari, and Baki all grow more tense, dreading the possibility of another one of Gaara''s manic episodes. They''ve gone through this before, but unlike being in Suna, they can''t send him on a mission to sate his blood-lust, and so, they try their best to amodate their homicidal little brother; their vige''s weapon.


    Kankurō swallows audibly before asking, "uh, what did you have in mind?"


    Recalling an unsavoryment she made earlier, Gaara eyes his eldest blood-sack like a tool rather than a human being—much less family—and demands of her, "you will gain his loyalty andplete trust."


    She''s unsure of what her little brother means, but rather than question the directive, she assures him, "…he won''t trust me."


    "We only have a month before the third test," Kankurō remarks. "That''s not enough time to establish that level of trust-"


    "Don''t bother me with how you do it. Your only value is to see this done," Gaara coldly tells her. "Use your heart, your mind, your body to manipte him. I don''t care what you do or how degrading it is, so long as hepletely trusts you."


    Aghast by what he was asking, Temari couldn''t keep her silence and questions, "why?"


    Recalling images of Yashamaru looking at him, smiling at him, as he conveys how his mother always hated him sparks a pang of pain in Gaara''s head. Wincing as he grips at his love-tattooed skull, the huffing redhead deres, "the moment his trust—his heart—shatters upon witnessing your betrayal, I will kill him. And with his dying breath, he will know love is the worst death of all."


    "You can''t make her do this," Kankurō yells.


    "I don''t think anything of either of you," Gaara coldly informs them. "If you get in my way, I will kill you."


    "Gaara, stop this," Temari tries. "We''re family-"


    From within the gourd, they can hear the sand whirling around, as if agitated, and his cold blue eyes say as much as his voice rys. "Family? You''re just lumps of meat linked by hatred and murderous intent. I am alone. I won''t believe in anyone, I won''t love anyone, and you will do this or you have no further value to me...