Chapter One
The ninja trio walked into the central room of the tower. It held several chairs, two tables and three couches. The high ceiling had multiple rafters concealed in shadows stretching across it.
"Looks like we're the first!" the tall boy in black whispered.
"We might be the first," the short boy with red hair growled, "but we aren't alone."
"What do you mean?" the girl asked.
In response, the red-head flicked his hand up toward the shadowy rafters which caused sand to fly up and surround something, which let out a startled yelp of surprise. In less than half of a second, held aloft by sand covering her from her knees to her ankles, was a very angry girl, arms folded across her chest, glaring down at her attacker. Who glared right back.
"Who are you?" he asked, "What are you doing here?"
Her gaze flickered to the other two, then back. After a long silence, she said, "Kankuro, Temari. How are things in the Sand Village?"
"Have we met before? Do we know you?" Kankuro asked suspiciously.
"Met? No. Know? Not personally." Then, pain clouded her eyes, and she said in a taut voice, she asked, "Could one of you get him to drop me? He is unnecessarily crushing my legs, which I use quite often."
The red-head snorted and released the sand. The girl flipped in midair and landed on the floor with a mutter of "Looks like someone needs to learn some manners!"
Now the sand siblings could get a gook look at this stranger. She had shoulder length black hair, her left eye was a deep blue, her right, a pale green. She wore a leaf forehead protector around her neck, and was clad in a dark blue tunic, light weight armor going from her shoulders to her elbows, fingerless black gloves, black leggings, and the same armor was going from her knees to her ankles.
After giving Gaara another hate filled look, which he gladly returned, she lept back up to the rafters. As she did, something black and silver clattered to the floor. Kankuro used chakara strings to pick it up. It looked like a sand village head band, but it was too scratched up to tell.
He looked up at the rafters and said, "Ummmmm... leaf ninja? You dropped this?"
A few seconds passed, and he felt a warm breath brush his cheek. "You can call me Ōkami."
He felt something brush his hand, and suddenly, both headband and Ōkami were gone.
"She's fast," Gaara muttered, "Could be a threat."
"I'm not a threat," Ōkami suddenly appeared reclining in a chair, "I got assigned to this room against my will by the Hokage. This part of the exams last five days," She jumped up to hang upside down by her feet on a rafter, "and I have to keep you all in here until the second test is over."
Now Gaara spoke: "So you're saying we will be stuck, for five days, here with YOU?"
"I highly doubt that you could keep me in here for very long. I can leave whenever I want."
The next thing he knew, his face impacted the floor and Ōkami was sitting on his back casually examining her nails. "I don't think so. Never underestimate an opponent you know nothing about. You don' know what I'm capable of."
She stood, and Kankuro stood as well. "So," he said, looking her over, "You're pretty feisty."
"No."
"WH-what? Why not?"
Temari came over and whacked his head. "We're here on a mission, not to flirt. Got it?"
Gaara approached. "You should know better. You could ruin everything."
The two older siblings began to bicker, and Ōkami began to back away. The only thing that stopped her was an angry wall of pulsating wall of sand.
"Running away, are you?" Gaara rasped.
"It's called a 'Tactical Military Retreat,' for your information," she said sarcastically.
Angry, Gaara pulled his sand back to his gourd. When she was back in the rafters, the sand ninja heard her say, "Sand ninja in summary: demonic, quick to anger and insane!"
All through the first night, the sand trio could hear Ōkami pacing and muttering in the rafters above them, and they saw very little of her over the next three days.
