A/N: 'Sup!

This story started as a chapter of The Will of Fire Continues, but it turned out to have a plot of its own, so I decided to make it a new story. Also, there's references to the chapter 19 of TWoFC, if you haven't read it, it might be good to take a look to understand what "fake mistress" means ;)

R&R.

Gaara looked closely at his chopsticks and wondered why had he placed them sticking upward in the bowl of his morning gohan. He was pretty sure that it was a bad omen.

Now, the Fifth Kazekage wasn't a superstitious man, not at all. Still, the fact that he had made such unusual move in such an important day did bother him.

It was the very first day of Chunin Exams, that would be held in Sunagakure. That day they were expecting the other villages delegations to arrive. Gaara had personally checked and double checked everything to be sure that the incomers would be well accommodated and to demonstrate Suna's hospitality. But that was such a major event - not just for the villages, but for the young ninjas that would be participating on it - that even that little bad omen made him want to go through all the details again.

He didn't have the time to do that himself, though.

Gaara immediately texted one of his advisors and asked him to make sure that everything was in order for the exams. After that, he whispered a quiet "gochisousama" and went to his office.

There were already two people waiting for him.

"Kazekage-sama, Kumo's and Kiri's delegations are already here." Matsuri said with a mild blush.

"Iwa's delegation is here as well." Mikoshi also informed.

"Oh, that's good. How many of the smaller villages confirmed their participation?"

"Three. Hoshi, Shimo and Yu." He answered. "They are already here as well."

"Yu? That's rare… Everything's going smoothly so far?" Gaara asked, sitting behind his table.

"Perfectly, Kazekage-sama." The kunoichi answered. "We are just waiting for Konoha's delegation and we will take the examinees to the first phase."

"How many people from Konoha we are expecting?" The Fifth asked, steepling his fingers.

"Twelve examinees, four teachers and the Hokage's representative." Mikoshi told him, reading his clipboard.

"Right. They must be here anytime now. Please, go back to the venue and wait for them. Beware any black cats in the way." He instructed.

The two teammates exchanged a look but answered "Hai" and flew.

Gaara sighed and looked at the clock on the wall. 8:00 AM. Konoha still had one hour to the official beginning of the exams. He was wondering if Shikamaru was planning to arrive there just in time when he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in."

A masked person walked in. He identified Konoha's ANBU's uniform. The ANBU bowed.

"Kazekage-sama, it's an honor." Said a female voice. "I'm here as a representative of the Hokage."

That surprised him. "I was sure Naruto would send Shikamaru-nii… I mean, Shikamaru-san."

"He didn't." She answered laconically. Well, of course. An ANBU wouldn't give details about their mission to anyone except their Kage. "I have two messages to deliver to you, Kazekage-sama." She handed him two envelopes. "The red one is from Temari-san and it's to be shared with Kankurou-san. The white one is from Hokage-sama and I'm supposed to wait here until you have read it."
Gaara blinked. That kunoichi surely talked like an ANBU. He opened Naruto's envelope.

Gaara, hey!
This is Ki. She will be my eyes and ears of the exams till finals. Any issues regarding Konoha's examinees can be settled by her.
See you in the finals,
Naruto

Gaara was just thinking that it was an obvious letter when he saw the PS.

P.S.: Look, Ki has been going through a very baleful phase, to the point she's compromising her position as a Konoha kunoichi. We thought that placing her closely to youngsters that are just starting their ninja paths might help her lift her spirits. Warn me if it backfires.

He looked up to her mask-covered face. "Ki, is that right?" She nodded. "I'm counting on you, then, Ki. Tell me if you need anything."
"Same here, Kazekage-sama." Ki bowed. "May I go, Kazekage-sama?"
"Sure."
She bowed lower this time and vanished.
Gaara sighed and a mix of floral and fruity aroma invaded his nostrils, but it faded away before he could identify the source. Hoping that it wasn't also a bad omen, he opened Temari's envelope to find a flash drive inside of it. Frowning, Gaara plugged it on his laptop and opened the only file inside the device: a video.
"Hey, Gaara! Hi, Kankurou!" Greeted a 2D Temari. "How are you? We are doing good here. I heard that a few people from Konoha would be going to Suna so I thought I should send you a message..." Temari's smiling face disappeared from the video as she turned the camera away, pointing the lens to Nara's living room.
He heard her footsteps and the image shook, showing now Temari's way to the veranda. There were Shikamaru and Shikadai, playing shogi and completely oblivious to their wife's/mother's presence.
"Guys, say something to Gaara and Kankurou!" She said. Father and son stared at her. "Come on! I will send this video through Konoha's delegation to the Chunin Exams!"
"That's power abuse." The boy stated.
"It's not me who is going to Suna." Her husband informed.
"I know, I will ask Harumi."
Shikamaru's look turned into a judgmental gaze. A mute conversation seemed to go on between the couple then Shikamaru sighed and turned back to the shogi board.
"Shikadai, say hi to uncle Gaara and Kankurou!"
Gaara saw his nephew blink and heard him say: "Hi."
He could imagine Temari rolling her eyes to that sentence as his sister turned the camera back to her face. She had an apologetic - but amused - face.
"As you can see, things are the same as always here... Drop by whenever you can! Love you guys!"
The image turned black.
Feelings the corners of his mouth to curl up, he clicked the button to watch the video all over again. Seeing Temari's happy face on the 15 inches screen warmed his heart. Gaara missed her.
Even now he still remembered the time she told her brothers that she and Shikamaru Nara, from Konoha, were dating. He remembered how shocked he was and how Kankurou answered with a excited: "Finally! It was obvious you two are into each other since ever."
Then Gaara had smiled awkwardly and had said: "Yeah. Obvious."
That had caused Temari and Kankurou to laugh silently.
"Don't worry, Gaara." It were his sister's words to him. "You'll get it someday."
He still hadn't. Romantic love still was a big mystery to him, especially because - as far as he was concerned - that kind of love seemed to be different to every person. And a not so very good experience a few years ago had taught him the people could be a little crazy about their loved ones.
Last but not the least, Gaara didn't feel the need to fall in love. He was happy with the life he was living and couldn't even imagine how to fall in love with someone would be like.
I can't even imagine someone falling for me. He thought to himself.
On the third time he watched the video, he realized something: Temari said she would ask "Harumi" to hand him the message and that had caused Shikamaru to be wrathful.
From that, he could deduce two things: first, Ki's true name was Harumi; second, both Shikamaru and Temari knew what happened to Harumi. Gaara also guessed from his brother-in-law's expression that his sister was somewhat involved.

Weird. As weird as the fact that he was giving this stranger's problem so much thought.

"Gaara-sama. Every village we were expecting got here. We will begin the first stage." Yukata announced after knocking on the door. "Are you going to examination center, Kazekage-sama?"

"Yeah. Thank you. Every village leader representative is already there?"

"Yes. And Kankurou-sama already called every examinee inside the room."

"I better hurry, then. Thanks, Yukata." Gaara moved his head in appreciation then ran to the Academy.

As Yukata had said, representatives of all the leaders were already in the waiting room. There were couches and chairs to sit and a table with snacks but no one was sitting or eating. Harumi was staring at a piece of paper, completely oblivious to the dirty looks that were directed to her from time to time.

"Say, you there!" Omoi - as the Raikage's representative - called suddenly. "You're from Konoha, right?"

Harumi didn't look up, but nodded.

"I thought that that shadow guy would come as the Seventh Hokage's representative."

She didn't answer. Mizura - Hoshigakure's representative - pointed at Harumi.

"Could you at least take that mask off?" He asked. "I don't care if you're antipathetic presence, but I don't feel safe not knowing if you're friend or a foe in disguise."

There was a general humming of agreement.

She finally looked up and turned her gaze to Gaara, who gave an apologetic smile. He didn't bother the mask but he also didn't want it to cause a ruckus among the guests. If Harumi's mask was giving the people the butthurt…

The Kazekage thought he heard her sigh as she took of the maks. When it was completely off, she smiled sarcastically to Mizura and Omoi. Weird enough, after that, almost everyone turned their eyes away from her. Gaara didn't. He hadn't pictured her like that.

Knowing that she and Temari were close enough to ask for favors, he had imagined someone who would look like his sister: a pretty, but tough woman with a sassy smile and sparkling eyes. Harumi wasn't nothing like that.

Harumi had a past-waist long ginger hair framing her creamy, delicate face. And those eyes: because the gods couldn't decide which color was the prettiest, they colored her left eye like an emerald and the right one like a caramel.
She was the most beautiful woman that Gaara had ever seen.
No. That was not true.

She could've been the most beautiful woman he had ever seen if her face wasn't so expressionless. Somehow, he could easily visualize how Harumi would look like if she smiled: the rosy lips opening up to show the white teeth, her smooth hair falling over her shoulder as she tilted her head to the side, the eyes sparkling with happiness... A memorable smile indeed.
"You're Shikamaru-nii's fake mistress!" Gaara remembered.
Harumi raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"
The Kazekage felt his face blush. He didn't plan to say that out loud. "Oh, no... It's just that... I remembered I've seen you before. You were on that mission, that one the Fire Daimyo requested."
Harumi nodded once, but of course Gaara's explanation didn't answer it all. Knowing that, he continued:
"Have you ever checked on the report of that mission?"
"No."
"Don't. It's very misleading."
For a second, it seemed like she would smile but then an even more stern expression showed up on her face. She turned back to the piece of paper. Because it felt awkward just stand by her without doing something, Gaara leaned to check on the paper as well.
"Oh, it's the puzzle of the Exam." He realized.
It was a rectangle divided in several smaller rectangles. Each examinee received a paper sheet with that picture and was told to cross all the sides of all rectangles with one single line without taking their pen off the paper, the line couldn't cross the same side two times nor cross itself. They had two hours to figure it out and could take as long as they'd like to start but they only got one shot.
The thing was that puzzle was unsolvable. That's why the true point of that phase was to see if the examinee was persistent enough to keep trying to the end or if he or she was able to find out that the puzzle was unsolvable.
"I'm checking if the puzzle really has no answer." Harumi explained.
"I think so. Shikamaru-n...san said so himself."
She froze for a second then said: "Shikamaru-sama is a very kind man. He and Temari-san are... amazing."
"Are they?" Gaara asked, not because he didn't agree, but because he just wanted her to keep talking.
She did open her mouth to say something but she was interrupted by a messenger.
"Are you Ki-san, who's here representing the Hokage?" The Suna shinobi asked.
Harumi showed up the perfectly expressionless face again and nodded once.
"We have an examinee from Konoha who gave up. We need you to witness his interrogatory."
That's right. Those who gave up because they figured the test out also needed to be confident enough to defend themselves against an interrogatory.

"Okay." She answered.

She followed the messenger to a narrow, plain room, that only had a chair, where a light haired boy was sitting.

"So," Harumi asked "why did you give up?"

"That test is unsolvable." The kid answered quickly.

"You were told that if you fail all your team would fail, right?"

"The test was unsolvable." He repeated.

She stared at him for a moment. "If you are so sure about it, why didn't you use the time you had left to convince your teammates about it?"

The boy shrugged. "I knew for sure that the test was unsolvable, not that I could make them believe me. Why should I risk my chances of getting it right?"

"You won't pass the test without your teammates." Harumi reminded him.

"I'm the only one who figured it out, you'll have to let me pass." He argued.

The kunoichi narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. "You don't know that."

"No one else gave up, ergo…"

"That only means that no one else figured it out and let their friends behind, you idiot! Don't think so highly of yourself!" She looked at the messenger. "Go and tell Kankurou-san he failed. You can go and tell your sensei yourself that you are a shame for the genins of Konoha."

Harumi turned to the door and left without looking back.

"Ha… Ki-san, don't you think you were too hard on him? He did figured the test out." Gaara asked.

She looked at him seeming a bit surprised. She hadn't noticed the Kazekage had followed her since the waiting room.

"I just told him the truth." Harumi answered.

"He's just a kid. If you decided to make him fail on the test, I won't argue, but that boy is smart: you shouldn't smash his dreams just because he made a mistake."

"He's too calculating for a chunin. No, a person who would leave his friends behind without thinking twice like that shouldn't even be a genin on a team."

Gaara was shocked. Of course teamwork was important, but failing with your friends once on a test wasn't something he would consider a deadly sin like that, especially when the "sinner" was 12 years old. He must have showed some of his inner conflict on his face because Harumi sighed.

"It's like I'm saying the kid is useless, on the contrary, we could always use someone clever and knavish on ANBU." She spoke. "I will talk to my boss and to the Hokage-sama about it."

That was even more confusing. "I thought you said those were bad things."

"Not for an ANBU."

"Why is that?"

Harumi tilted her head to the side once before saying: "We're different for regular shinobi: the ANBU must finish its missions takes whatever it takes."

"But Konohagakure's ANBU is different now, isn't it?" Gaara asked.

It was a fact known by everyone that, under the command of the Sixth Hokage, their ANBU started to change: they didn't have to hide their identity all the time, they got their own commander which made them a serious institution, ending the idea of "secret service"... Naruto kept on the changes started by his predecessor and all the kages were considering to adopt the same system to their ANBU.

It was disappointing to see a capable ANBU kunoichi to talk like that.

But the worst was yet to come: Harumi chuckled darkly and watched him with the corners of her eyes.

"Kazekage-sama, even if we dropped the eery atmosphere, we're still killing people."

She walked back inside the waiting room.

Gaara stayed back for a while, trying to remember how to make his limbs move.

This woman is different from Shikamaru-nii's fake mistress. He thought to himself. This Harumi would never be able to smile so brightly and memorably.

This Harumi was so close to being happy as Gaara was when he first took the chunin shiken.