Chapter 1

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What Its About: A young teenage genin finds herself strained between her love for a ninja she is supposed to call "enemy" and discovering the truth about a highly coveted demon that resides within her.

Rating: Implied rape -- Rated M (Just to be safe)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or it's original characters. There...I said it.

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It was absolutely unheard of. After all, there were rumors of a war fixing to break even still, he was from another village. He was from the Land of Wind and she from theLand of Fire; but it couldn't be helped...

...for she was in love.

Jade Lalanii, a girl of bronze, thigh-length hair and bright green eyes, gazed down at him from the railing.

His bout with Rock Lee had just started.

She studied his features: burnt reddish-brown hair almost the color of rust, mysterious black-rimmed aqua eyes that always seemed to look through you, and a fairly lean yet strong stature.

She watched as he stood with his arms crossed, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

Jade felt a surge of energy run down her spine making her shudder; but not of fear.

Excitement.

It was a month before the final part of the chunin exams, yet they all had to go through this stupid elimination round to thin the crowd. Too many shinobi had survived the Forest of Death. There were twenty-five of them, but two genin and some guy named Kabuto dropped out making it aneven twenty-two.

There were seven groups of three shinobi along with their sensei.

Jade, however, was by herself.

Her sensei was probably off gambling somewhere again.

Ah-well.

It was probably for the best anyway. She didn't want her sensei to see her oogling at boys. She'd hear about it for weeks.

Jade leaned on the rail and watched the fight below.

She watched in interest as Lee dashed around the waiting Gaara; kicking here and punching there, but it was no use. The sand protected Gaara without him even lifting a finger.

The kid was fast, but it did him no good.

That is, until he took the weights off his legs.

As he dropped them, they crashed to the floor, making two very large craters.

His speed nearly tripled!

Jade watched in amazement and horror as the battle went on. Gaara's super strong defenses were literally chipping away!

Finally, Lee hit him with his best move, kicking him high into the air and slamming him back down. Somehow though, to Jade's relief, Gaara recovered and retaliated, knocking him into the wall. Lee seemed to be down for the count, but he was soon back on his feet.

This time, however, he was mad.

Oh so terribly mad.

His skin was a deep red.

Then, all of a sudden, Lee screamed and his chakara level flew off the charts!

It was so powerful, the ground shook tremendously. Bits of rock and dust flew everywhere...

...some right into her eyes.

Jade winced in pain as the sand stung her eyes. Momentarily blinded, she focused her chakara to her ears so to at least hear what was going on as she rubbed her eyes.

She could hear Jonin Gai and Kakashi mention something about "gates" over the crashes.

It was loud and energetic, but was soon over quickly.

...Almost too quickly.

By the time Jade got the sand out of her eyes, Gaara was already walking away from the motionless Lee.

"Aw, man! Dammit. I missed it," she complained out loud, hanging her head.

Gaara was announced as the winner and paramedics were on the way.

He emerged back on the balcony in a swirl of sand.

Jade stared at him in amazement.

He glanced over at her.

She flinched in surprise, but recovered and flashed him a smile.

He looked away.

Jade turned her gaze to the screen. Only four people were left and her name was bound to show up sometime.

And so it was.

Jade was paired up with another Konoha shinobi, but she didn't know him. It didn't really matter though.

As she went down into the arena, she thought to herself, 'Man, I don't know what went on here, but it'll be a hard act to follow by the looks of it.' The place was a wreck. There was hardly any solid ground left, but it didn't bother her.

She cleared her head of everything as she lifted her heels, putting all of her weight onslightly bent knees. She stood at an angle facing away from Gaara and the other spectators;a pretty basic martial arts stance.

However, she twisted her body to face her opponent, lowered her arms, and bent her elbows at the sides, making the unusual stance all her own.

She was ready.

Jade immediately clicked into action as soon as jonin Hayate said, "Begin." She caught her opponent off guard by her instantaneousness.

So far, all the other genin had waited a moment or so before attacking; sizing each other up.

Jade refused to give her opponent this luxury.

It didn't take long at all. It was actually the quickest match so far.

All Jade needed was two roundhouse kicks, and a right hook followed by a left whip kick to send him into the wall and knock him out.

Tsunade sensei had trained her well.

If only she were here to see this.

Jade didn't have to use her jutsu; she really didn't want didn't want the others to see it yet. Not until the real exam started wanted to keep them guessing.

Jonin Hayate, stunned by her swiftness, declared her the winner and called down the last two genin to battle.

She walked back up the stairs.

It was a shame.

Jade hadn't even lost her breath yet.

When she reached the top, she was greeted by surprised stares. Hardly anyone won a fight that fast, even with jutsu.

"What?" Jade raised an eyebrow questioningly.

They just either shrugged or shook their heads in innocence and tried to focus their attention on the battle.

She got a thumbs up from the masked Kakashi who, she guessed, was smiling.

Jade flashed a smile in return.

Naruto ran up to her.

"Wow, Jade! That was so awesome!"

She smiled at him as he continued to rave.

She looked past him at Gaara.

He stared at her for a moment or two, then looked back down at the fight.

Her heart fluttered as she leaned onto the railing and watched the final fight too.

--

WW's Box

-slowly side-steps in- ... -blinks twice and shifts eyes nervously- ...uh...hi..? -waves- As you can prolly tell, this my first semi-published fan fiction. Hope you enjoy it so far. I'm pretty comfortable with it. I've been working on this story since the beginning of the school year, and have just now decided to post it. I know I sound like a complete and total noob, but hey, we all gotta start somewhere, don't we?

I'd like to thank Suko-chan for helping me out with research and posting this. waves spastically: Arigato, Suko-chan! (Be sure to read her fan fic, Red Angel if you haven't already.

All right! Enough with the yammering. On to the next chapter! -valiantly marches ahead-