Gaara was never a happy person, and he certainly never thought he'd find love. But when he attends the next Chuunin exams he finds a girl who might just change all that. (Several small OC's and a couple big ones.)

Gaara stood watching the preliminary matches of the Chuunin exam. There hadn't been this good of an outcome for the second exam since he first took it. But here they were, holding a preliminary exam to cut the number of passing Genin by at least half.

This go round 8 teams had managed to get through, which was a major feet by any means. (For those of you bad a math that's 24 genin :-P) Two teams from the sand, one from the grass, and the last five from Konoha.

Gaara walked up to his brother, who was watching with pride at his team as they stood listening to Konoha's hokage giving her speech.

"How do you think they'll do?" Gaara asked.

"They're my team. They'll destroy everything that gets in their way," Kankurou answered with his usual cockiness.

"Not if they're in my team's way!" Temari interjected.

"We'll see about that," Kankurou argued back at her.

Gaara didn't say anything. He didn't feel it was his place to get in the middle of their quarrels. It was their business, not his. He was simply here because he had to be, as the sands Kazekage.

"Alright. Lets get the matches started!" The examiner said with no enthusiasm in his voice what so ever.

The screen above hummed as it sorted through names. Everyone waited anxiously as they watched the yellow letters buzz by. Finally they stopped.

"Right then. The first match, Thanos Persephone vs. Yokimu Ewina." The examiner called out, again with zero passion.

"Well look at that. Are girls get to fight after all." Kankurou said to his sister.

"Hmph, that little cat girl stands no chance against my Persephone!" Temari assured her little brother.

"We'll see. That little cat girl can be pretty vicious!"

While his siblings argued, Gaara stood watching unmoved by the selection. He wasn't meaning to be sexist (And neither is the author. I'm a girl for god's sake! So don't pester me about it!) but the fights with two girls were never as good. According to him girls didn't fight with the same intensity that boys did. There was far too much emotion when girls fought.

Before they knew it the fight had started. The girls were going at each other like Cats in an ally. Ewina, a little blonde with cat like eyes, started by pulling off a little backpack that she always carried. And, as expected, a small cat jumped out to aid her in battle. Although it looked pointless, Gaara was sure it was effective.

Persephone was a genin that people had named the death bringer. She looked the part as well. Her hair was pitch black and fell in front of her face. She never wore her forehead protector because she felt it was unnecessary. Much like Gaara when he was a genin, this girl had been on several high ranked missions and always came back unscathed. When you did get a glimpse of her eyes, they were pure blue like ice. And her expression was always frightening.

It was her families wicked bloodline limit that made her so strong. It let her use a special dark chakra. (Haha…when I first thought this it reminded me of special dark chocolate. Can't you picture a ninja's secret jutsu being throwing special, chakra infused, dark chocolate bars at their opponent. Lol. Ok sorry…back to the story.) It protected her from any kind of attack that involved chakra hitting her. And since most ninja used chakra to enhance their attacks, they become completely nullified.

The jounin teachers all stood and watched as the fight commenced. Ewina used her cat like jutsu to hold her own. But the moment Persephone used that strange dark chakra is was all over. The out come was rather predictable. Ewina didn't stand a chance.

The examiner called the match when Ewina was down and unconscious. Persephone stood there panting with a wicked smile on her face. She was very strong. It was a simple misfortune that Kankurou's team member had to be paired up with her.

More matches went on, and all were interesting. But there was one match in particular that Gaara was curious to see.

Once again the screen stopped and landed on two names. Hamanate Kyoshi and Ikio Nikomi. This was the match Gaara wanted to see.

Kyoshi, a young boy about 12 years old, stepped into the ring. He had short blueish black hair and eyes the color of smoke. He was known as the silent wind, another one of Temari's team members. His clothes were as subtle as his quiet personality. Simple black pants and a mesh top to match. His forehead protector was hanging around his neck showing that he obviously didn't need it.

He stood in the ring arms crossed not saying a word waiting for his opponent. Gaara was also waiting patiently to see who it was he would be fighting. Who ever it was, was certainly unlucky to be paired up with him.

Another minute passed by and finally from the steps a tapping could be heard. Gaara turned his attention over to the stairs where a girl was gingerly walking down the steps into the ring. She had a long, brown, wooden walking stick which she was tapping back and forth, guiding her way.

Her clothing was very odd. She had on a deep red lace up bodice that cut off inches above her belly button. To match it, she wore a long flowing red and beige skirt and under it reddish brown pantaloons. She too wore her forehead protector not on her forehead, but neatly around her waist. But that wasn't the odd part. What was strange was that her whole body, anywhere you would have seen skin from the neck down, was wrapped up in bandages.

Kyoshi turned towards the girl walking down the stairs. She looked frail and weak. Her short brown hair framed her face and her eyes had no pigment at all. Where there should have been color there was simply a light shade of gray that was almost white. Her pupils were fogged over as well. What could this mean?

"Wait…She's blind! I can't fight her!" Kyoshi yelled out.

The girl finally made it down the steps and was heading towards Kyoshi. She didn't say anything until she was face to face with him. "Don't underestimate me!" She told him, poking him hard in the chest.

Kyoshi looked at her appalled. He was this year's number one rookie and he had to fight a blind girl! This was an outrage.

Kyoshi's teammates stood staring in shock. There was no doubt he would win no matter who he was paired up with, but this was going to be too easy.

"Temari-sensei, you can't allow this!" Persephone demanded.

"There's nothing I can do. He has to fight her." Temari told the girl. "But think of it this way. He'll get to save his best jutsu for the finals."

"True," Temari's youngest student, Keeran, agreed. "This way we'll all go to the finals having not shown any of our best techniques."

Temari nodded, in accord with the young red head boy.

"Well then…let's get this fight started." The examiner stated as dull as ever. "Ok…go."

"Tch…I can't believe I have to fight a blind girl." Kyoshi complained once again.

"Oh don't get so upset. I promise I'll give a good fight!" The blind girl responded.

"Whatever!" At that Kyoshi went in for his first attack.

Everyone but her sensei, Neji, and Gaara, who hardly ever reacts to anything, cringed. Kyoshi was confident he would hit her.

Without any effort at all the blind girl dodged his attack.

Everyone watching gasped. None of them knew how she had managed that. It was almost as if she could see him.

Gaara glanced over at Neji, who was standing arms crossed watching his student with the utmost confidence. Like Gaara, it didn't take Neji very long to become a jounin. They were both very young still, but it seemed that despite his being so close in age to his students he managed to teach them well.

Kyoshi looked at the girl, who like her sensei, was standing confidently with her arms crossed. "How did you do that?" He demanded.

"Hah! Like I'd tell you. You see I'm not one of those stupid people who right away goes and tells all their secrets!" The girl declared with a sort of cockiness in her voice. "Come on…is that all you got?"

Kyoshi growled then again came at her with a solid punch. But again, as easily as ever, she dodged it.

"Boy…you sure are repetitive. Don't you have anything else? I thought you were this year's number one rookie!" Now she was just taunting him.

"Fine then!" At that, Kyoshi made three seals with his hands then threw them forward yelling out his jutsu's name. Out of no where a huge gust of wind came blowing out from between his hands.

When the wind dispersed the whole place was a wreck. Amongst the wreckage was a lump of red clothes lying lifeless.

"Heh. After all that talk she didn't even last five minutes." Kyoshi said, lowering his hands, letting his guard down.

As he started to walk toward the body laying there he felt a thud on his back and suddenly he could no longer move.

"Gotcha," He heard whispered in his ear. He stood there, paralyzed. The body that had been laying there was gone and he had a bad feeling it was behind him.

He struggled to crane his neck to look around. There, not three feet behind him, stood the frail blind girl, the end of her walking stick stuck right in the middle of his back. After he examined it for a moment, he realized chakra was flowing through it. But why couldn't he move?

That's when he saw it. There was more then just chakra moving through it. Flowing out of his body was the familiar blue glow of chakra and flowing back into him was something else. Some kind of strange purple energy.

"I guess now I can reveal my little trick. You see…I was born blind, this is true. But for some reason I could see chakra." She explained.

Everyone in the room perked up, and was completely taken aback after hearing this. Gaara looked over to Neji, still not phased by this statement, and realized why he had been made this girls sensei. Her eyes were much like his byakugan.

"I pinpointed one of your chakra points, and with this handy little walking stick I'm able to hit it directly and absorb your chakra. But you see…that's not all." She explained with an evil grin across her face.

Kyoshi grunted a little then managed to get out, "What…are you putting in me?"

"I was just getting to that. That strange purple substance is a negative chakra that only I carry in my body. When other people get touched by it their bodies start to betray them. In other words, if I let this go much longer your body will begin to attack itself from the inside. In fact…right now you're probably starting to feel a little light headed and dizzy, aren't you? Like the walls are morphing around you."

Kyoshi knew exactly what she was talking about. The faces watching from above were completely unrecognizable. The walls around him seemed like they were melting and swirling into something else. He couldn't focus anymore. It was becoming hard to breath. He didn't know how much more he could take.

The blind girl lowered her walking stick and without fail Kyoshi collapsed to the floor, still conscious, but unable to move.

"The winner…Ikio Nikomi." The examiner stated flatly.

The blind girl again searched her way back up the steps, nice and slowly, just like she had come down. She was blind after all.

Gaara watched her the whole way, and as she walked by the other two sand siblings looked at her completely speechless. She had taken the number one rookie down in a matter of minutes.

Ikio Nikomi huh? Gaara said to himself. Very interesting.