Disclaimer: I don't own 'Naruto' or any of its characters, only my own OCs, this goes for the whole story.

Hopefully her sensei wouldn't find her here.

Mai was sitting comfortable at the top of some mountain with a bunch of faces on it. It must have some significance to the people in this village but being an outsider she didn't know or really care about it. The view was nice nonetheless. So long as sensei didn't track her down and appear out of nowhere again it would stay that way as well, maybe she would even be able to watch the sunset as well.

"What do we have here?"

Maybe.

Mai was currently lying on her back with arms behind her head and eyes closed. At the sound of the unfamiliar male voice she opened one eye but since she still couldn't see who the person was and it wasn't her sensei or teammates she went back to both of her eyes being closed and mostly ignoring the world but for the feel of the sun on her face.

"It's rude to ignore people child,"

"It's rude to not introduce yourself. Why should I talk to you if I don't even know who you are? My mum always said not to talk to strangers anyway,"

There was a deep, gentle chuckle from above her head and when she opened her eye again she got a clear view of who could only be the Hokage of this village. She didn't even blink.

Noticing that the young girl was now looking at him he felt it unnecessary to introduce himself but after a few silent seconds of the girl clearly still wanting a proper introduction he obliged.

"Hiruzen Sarutobi. Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves,"

"Mai Yukimura. Genin of the Village Hidden in the Clouds,"

After this Mai proceeded too close her eye again and wait for another question from the old man. Before she closed her eye fully she caught sight of a smile on the Hokage's face. Obviously she wasn't going to get into trouble for being up here or he would have said something by now and wouldn't be smiling.

"What are you doing up here child?"

"Just relaxing and hiding from my sensei,"

"Why would you be doing that?"

"I need to relax every once and awhile,"

After a bit more silence Mai relented and answered the main question.

"My team is here for the Chunin Exam and our sensei wants us to train but I don't want to,"

"Why is that? You shouldn't slack off on your training, especially with something that big coming up,"

"We've been travelling for days and only got here a few hours ago. I apologise if wanting some rest is a crime here. It always has been for my sensei,"

"No, no, nothing like that,"

"Cool,"

The two went back into more silence that was, to Mai's surprise, not uncomfortable. It wasn't until the sun started to set that the Hokage gently nudged the young girl's shoulder with his foot so that she would open her eyes and be able to enjoy the array of colours cast by the changing light in the sky from her very advantageous position atop the mountain. Still no words needed to be said but once the sun was only a sliver above the village Mai was politely asked to return to her temporary accommodation for the night. She said her farewell and went without any hassle. The shinobi and villagers of Konoha probably wouldn't want shinobi, even genin, from other villages, especially those more enemy then friend, to be wandering around after dark. Mai understood this and didn't mind being told to go by the polite old man. The only thing she was reluctant about was getting another lecture from her sensei about avoiding training and being lazy and being a disappointment to the village and so on and so forth.

Fun.

Another reason she had to leave soon was that her oh so 'beloved' sensei also had imposed a curfew on his oh so 'lovely' students, Mai in particular. She knew that if she was even a second later then the complete darkness of night then she would be forced to do a whole lot more training then what she had skipped today. With this in mind Mai got to her feet, bowed to the elderly Sarutobi and then ran off the top of the mountain into the air above the village. Without blinking, flinching or missing a beat from her action she then proceeded to gather chakra all around her body which then started forming into specifically lightning chakra. Once her figure was completely encased in blue crackling light Mai disappeared in a flash of light to suddenly find herself in the living room of the apartment that was allocated to her team. The rest of her team was gathered in the room but one look at her sensei and she was once again gathering her lightning chakra, but this time in only in her legs, so that she could quickly escape the wrath of her volatile teacher.

"Mai!"

She knew it was childish and not the most intelligent thing she could have done in that situation but with her speed enhanced she bolted for the bathroom and put her back against the door once she had slammed it shut. She vainly hoped that her sensei wouldn't enter purely because it's a rude thing to do. However it was obvious what she was doing and that she wasn't in the bathroom for privacy and so with an effortless push from the adult he was able to easily make his way into the bathroom to find his troublesome student sitting on the floor after being thrown there from the force of him opening the door.

"Where were you?!"

"Sightseeing,"

"Don't give me that attitude Yukimura!"

"Make me Fujita,"

This then turned into a game of 'catch me if you can' and smart remarks while the two teammates correctly decided from experience that the safest thing for them to do in these situations was to stay as far away and out of it as possible. After harsh words and promises to make training hell for the girl the next day the dangerous game ended. Mai quickly ate and went to sleep so as not to be forced to spend any more time with her despicable sensei. Her two teammates Kazuki and Honoka were less hated by their sensei, Hiroto. Mai purposefully caused and took the anger and wrath of the loathed teacher so as to spare her teammates. If Hiroto Sensei spent most of his time hating her then he wouldn't have much time remaining to go after Kazuki and Honoka. It wasn't perfect but she felt it was her responsibility as she had been the one to request Hiroto as their sensei anyway. That was another story. It was involved with what she felt was one of her only goals and reasons in life. Another long and tedious backstory. That would just have to wait until later.

The next morning came with the dreadful prospect of having to face whatever torture Hiroto Sensei had dreamt up the night before as punishment. He may not have counted on the fact that he would have to spend most of the day tracking down and capturing the troublesome girl first. When the team had first woken up it was a docile morning with both students and teacher playing nicely and so breakfast went by with no problems. It wasn't until everyone had eaten, showered, gotten changed and all round gotten ready for the day that Mai started another game of 'catch me if you can and good luck trying to find me'. This game had almost become a routine back home between Mai and Hiroto with the other two sometimes joining in as well. Basically Mai, Kazuki and Honoka didn't want to be around their sensei. They hated him and he hated them. He barely even taught them anything and so they often had to research things for themselves and go through the painful process of trial and error with any new jutsu they chose to learn. The children hardly even exchanged words with the adult and if it wasn't for this inter-village exam they would have continued in this manner.

Anyway, a new village meant new surroundings and new surroundings meant a change-up from the usual game which was always fun.

Hiroto had just entered the dining room of the small apartment after getting ready for the day of punishment when he was notified of the commencement of the game.

A smoke bomb.

"See ya Sensei!"

With that Mai jumped out of the pre-opened window and began racing across the unfamiliar village in search of another hiding place to spend the day doing nothing. Her affinity for lightning would give her a speed advantage against most but given that her sensei was also from the Village Hidden in the Clouds he also had the same affinity. The advantage usually only worked from shinobi from other villages which explained the frightened, curious and confused expressions she received from this village's inhabitants as she gathered lightning in her legs and sped as fast as she could away from her sensei. Mai knew that she would have a little bit of a head start on her sensei with the smoke bomb and the small trap she set up with ninja wire, and her teammates' help, but he was still a Jonin compared to her Genin. Even if she was hopeful to make Chunin it was still a large difference in power.

She had to outsmart her sensei if she had any chance of avoiding her punishment for yesterday. Yes this stunt would most likely get her an even greater and far worse punishment if she was caught but that was only if she was caught and that was not part of any of her numerous plans. Concerning her teammates she had convinced them to stay out of the game this time, mainly because of the new and unfamiliar surroundings as well as their sensei's increased anger because of being in an enemy village. The trap back at the apartment was rigged to slightly injure Kazuki and Honoka, just cuts and bruises, so that Hiroto Sensei would tell them to stay at the apartment as he wouldn't want them to slow him down as he desperately wanted to catch Mai and teach her a lesson. Mai made sure that both her friends were slightly competent in medicine and healing so they wouldn't have any problems if anything happened to her, as she was the team's expert in this area, so she wasn't concerned about their small cuts and injuries. Also without her teammates Hiroto Sensei wouldn't be able to interrogate them about where they may think she would hide. Not that they knew anyway as she was still trying to figure it out herself.

During the fight the previous night Mai had told her sensei that she had been sitting on top of the mountain and so she would have to be very careful and vigilant if she was to go there again. Either way she knew that shouldn't be the first place she went to so she was back to trying to double or triple bluff her sensei by thinking about where she thought he would think she would hide. Yes it is as confusing as it sounds. Back in Kumo Mai would often hide in the environment surrounding the village so that Hiroto couldn't ask the other shinobi for help or information on if they had seen her. Being a different village Mai didn't have to worry about this as it seemed less likely that the shinobi of the Village Hidden in the Leaves would help a shinobi of the Village Hidden in the Clouds. Her sensei would probably still search for her in the surrounding forest as her village affiliation would make the shinobi of this village suspicious if they saw her running around and hiding too much. This wouldn't be a problem if she just found a quiet spot to lie down that wasn't completely hidden so as not to create unease. There was a lot of forest so Mai could realistically spend most of the day doing nothing before visiting the mountain again or going back to the apartment to see what Kazuki and Honoka were doing. Either way Mai was confident she had this game won. Stay hidden until Hiroto goes into the forest and then find a tree to sleep under for the day. Simple but still produced a headache.

And so Mai Yukimura sped off to the edge of the forest to ensure her sensei would follow her there before finding a hollow trunk, which she had noticed the day before when her team had entered the village but had not told them about the discovery, where she crept inside to wait out her sensei for a short time. In short the idiot fell for the trap and Mai was soon spending her morning beneath a tree in what appeared to be a park. It was enjoyable and relaxing. Just how Mai liked it.

Mai would have been a lot more comfortable if her clothes allowed her to blend in a bit better to her surroundings. Her usual attire consisted of black pants and a grey long sleeved shirt. It was simple and that was the idea. In Kumogakure there was a lot of mountains and so her plain coloured clothing allowed her to almost blend in to the environment. Unless someone was intensively looking for her they were likely to be oblivious to her existence and, more importantly, location. In Konoha the environment was a lot different with the village filled with grass, trees and green. If anything her clothes made her stand out more here if her head band, that she wore around her neck, didn't already do that in the foreign village. It still wasn't much to worry about though, if someone noticed her than the most they would do would be to ask for her reason being in the village and her id. Both of those were simple and given that most of the shinobi in Konoha would be aware of the Chunin Exam they may not even be bothered asking if she wasn't doing anything suspicious or violent. With this train of thought over Mai proceeded to close her eyes and try to find sleep. If the Exam was anything like what she suspected then she would definitely need all the rest she could get.

It was getting to about midmorning when Mai was woken from her sleep as something else demanded her attention. She felt another presence approaching. Given that she wanted to sleep and still avoid her sensei, Mai used her sensory skills to pick up any advancing chakra signatures. Even if it was her teammates she would still wake up. It was a defence mechanism and worked almost one hundred percent of the time. Mai had yet to enhance her skills to be able to pick up whether the chakra signature was friendly or aggressive while she was asleep but in a foreign village the difference didn't really matter anyway, she had to be on alert around everyone. You would be surprised how many genin tried to sabotage the exam before it began. When the stranger got to the edge of the park and kept closing the distance between them Mai then opened her eye closest to the direction of the other person. As usual she wasn't going to react to anything and show little interest in everything. She would save all of her energy and keep the element of surprise if the stranger suddenly became a threat. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that, Mai quite enjoyed this spot and the sleep she was having before.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was sleeping,"

The stranger spoke once they had reached her side. Their shadow feel across Mai's face but they stayed far enough away to be respectful and not be viewed as a threat at the moment. Mai was able to get a decent look at the person, even if the sun behind them partially blinded her.

It was a boy about her age and given that there was a head band around his left arm most likely a genin from his village here for the Chunin Exam. On closer inspection Mai deduced that this was his village. His chakra wasn't on edge and felt safe and stable in these surroundings, not skittish or uneasy about being in 'enemy territory'. His question also confirmed this as it would be unusual for an outsider to care about what other outsiders did in a village that wasn't their own.

"You here for the Chunin Exam?"

"Obviously,"

Mai decided to close her eye as the conversation should have been over at this but after a couple of seconds with the shadow still blocking the sun from reaching her face she decided to give in to a little bit of curiosity.

"Am I in your spot?"

"Something like that,"

"Unlucky. I don't plan on moving for a while,"

"How long have you been here?"

"A bit past dawn,"

"Why?"

At this particular question Mai opened her eye again and just looked at the black haired boy beside her. Well she was assuming his hair was a dark colour but the sun was making it a little difficult to be sure at the moment.

"Yeah. None of my business I guess. Do you mind if I join you? This is one of the places I go to relax. I have a feeling my team is at the other one and my mum kicked me out of the house,"

The boy moved his arm to rub the back of his head and Mai noticed that his other hand stayed in his pocket.

"You didn't need to explain why you know,"

Mai closed her eye again and the boy took this as an invitation to lie down next to her. He usually would have leant against the trunk of the tree but didn't want to be perceived as a threat by placing himself behind her head and putting the foreign girl in a vulnerable position. He laid down over an arm's length away from the girl so that if either of them tried they would have to move to be able to reach the other person with their outstretched arm. The silence they fell into was more or less bearable, definitely not uncomfortable but not altogether pleasant. They were each wary of the other but made no outward indication of this. They both merely let the soft breeze move their hair and the bright sun to warm their faces. The only sound was that made by the wind in the leaves of the tree they sheltered under and the gentle and slow breathing of both people present.

Mai was not able to go back to sleep knowing that a stranger was next to her but at least she was still able to rest. Every now and then she would expand her senses and try to see if she could sense her sensei in the forest that surrounded this village. There was nothing. Either her sensei was hiding his chakra really well or he had gone so far into the forest that he was out of her range. She hoped and guessed that it was the latter but it still put her even more on edge. This only grew as the day got to its peak and more chakra signatures could be sensed coming towards the estranged pair. So much so that Mai opened both of her eyes and actually turned her head to see who was approaching. With any luck they were the team the boy had mentioned and were coming to take him away for something and would ultimately leave her in peace.

"Shikamaru!"

Mai openly cringed at the loud, feminine voice that screamed at an alarmingly high volume and pitch but she still wasn't about to get up from her spot. The unfamiliar name also meant that her assumption and hope was true and that the three people she could sense coming were indeed the team of the boy next to her, who had rolled onto his side away from the direction of the voice after hearing it. She couldn't blame him.

"Shikamaru!"

There it was again and it was getting louder.

"Shut up Ino,"

The boy, who was obviously called Shikamaru, mumbled this under his breath and it was only just loud enough for the cloud genin to hear. Not long after a blonde haired girl came marching over to the pair who were still lying on the ground. Mai had kept her eyes open while Shikamaru had his eyes closed and back to his teammate. The girl, who was most likely called Ino, did not look very happy. Her hands were bunched as fists at her sides and the look on her face was demonic with anger. She was definitely not happy. With all the grace of a raging bull Ino approached her unfortunate teammate and looked to be about to kick him in the back when she suddenly noticed the stranger lying next to Shikamaru. Her expression quickly changed from anger to surprise and confusion. Lowering her raised leg that was prepared to kick Shikamaru Ino then turned around and walked back the way she had come, looking back constantly at Mai who still had her eyes open and fixed on the retreating back of the blonde.

"She gone?"

Shortly after Mai lost sight of Ino Shikamaru asked his question with hope clear in his voice.

"Yeah, I think I scared her off,"

"Thanks, probably saved my ass,"

"Well she was about to kick it when she noticed me,"

Shikamaru gave a bit of a chuckle at this and thanked Mai again for her help with his annoying teammate. The silence they then went back into was a lot more comfortable than the one last time but this one didn't last for nearly as long as three people soon stood looming over them. Mai had closed her eyes again after she had finished talking to Shikamaru but was forced to open them again when Ino returned with, who Mai guessed as, their other teammate and sensei.

"Shikamaru. Who's your friend?"

The adult of the group, obviously their sensei, spoke to his lazy student but was not expecting the answer to come from the girl in question.

"What is it with everyone asking questions?"

This earned another quiet and short chuckle from Shikamaru who was the only one who understood what she was talking about. The two of them had basically only communicated with questions and he was the one who did all the asking. Mai's question also earned the attention of the adult who then reworded his previous question to aim it at her.

"Who are you?"

Mai went back to only having one eye open.

"Blunt. Nice. Mai Yukimura,"

"Asuma Sarutobi. You know Shikamaru and you've seen Ino before. This is Choji,"

The last part was referring to the stocky boy who stood next to Asuma who currently had his hand in a packet of chips but had yet to take one out and eat it, instead he seemed focused on Mai. With that everyone knew each other's name but Mai wasn't fazed about knowing them or not. It just meant that she could stop referring to them in her head by generic titles.

"I met another Sarutobi yesterday,"

"Really?"

"What?!"

Asuma and Ino both had a verbal response to this while Shikamaru, who was facing Mai with his back still to his team, opened his eyes and raised his eyebrow and Choji finally started eating his chips. Mai was prepared to admit that she had a bit of a sadistic and troublemaking streak in her that was more of a complete coating then a streak. This was just too easy and too much fun and no effort required. Perfect.