Two days have passed for our struggling pink and hopeful hero, and it hasn't gotten any better. He had camped outside the mission center, bright and early to get first dibs on any D-ranks that were unreserved. He tried to take out more than three, but the rule states that three at one time without a team or sensei is the max. After all, there had to be scraps for everyone on the reserves.

The first mission was cleaning the Inuzuka kennels and while he liked dogs well enough, he most definitely didn't like that they were intelligent enough to intentionally make the job as hard as possible. Halfway through it one large dog bowled his ass right over and into a rather fresh pile of shit that he had purposely ignored. After that the little fucker, Kiba, came over and spent the entire time laughing and/or bragging about how strong he was. Apparently he had the day off from the academy and figured his entertainment was more important than his training.

The next mission was for an old ass lady who wanted him to paint her fence. No big deal, but this woman calls for a D-rank mission every week to have the fence painted a different colour. He's painted this fucking fence enough times that by now he should've just inhaled the fumes and end all his misery right there. Also, every time he came over, the lady would bake some cookies that he just knew were laced with something. Then she would ask if he would come in and crawl inside her oven to clean it. Today, however, she decided to just watch him from her window; occasionally muttering to herself and licking her lips.

Kouken Izoumaru, fearless and highly intelligent shinobi, wanted to vine-whip right the fuck outta there; which is exactly what he did the moment money exchanged hands.

His last mission was supposed to be an easy one, clean up a training ground. He liked these, because sometimes he would get some equipment that was still usable and he would just train there himself when he was done. But by the way his day had been going the narrator could already tell that this was going to suck Tailed-Beast ass.

Apparently the training ground was still in use when he got there and he met two of the weirdest ninja possible with the biggest eyebrows he had ever seen. One was Might Guy, Beast of Konoha or something and his mini me, Rock Lee. And then there was the teammates! One was practically a priest who was chosen to be the messiah of his god, going by his fate talk and "holier than thou" attitude. Makes perfect sense for a Hyuga if you ask him. The last teammate was supposedly the normal one, Tenten, a girl whom he had known from the orphanage. Sadly, these three must've gotten to her and her already somewhat alarming kink for anything sharp and pointy evolved into full-blown devotion. Now, that wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for her damn near-perfect accuracy.

So, to make a long and insufferable story short, the two clones made him run laps with weights on in their ridiculous outfit, while Miss Stabby-Stabby motivated him with a vengeance when she found out he was here to take away all the wayward weapons to the scrapyard. During all this, their emo priest/messiah spent the entire time glaring at nothing and going on about fate and how all this "work" he was putting in to getting better wouldn't do jack.

A mission that was supposed to take an hour at most took three, and when they left, the place was in an even worse state than when he got there. The same could be said for Kouken too; his body was caked with dirt, his body ached, he was littered with cut and puncture wounds, and to top it all off, somehow…Some fucking way, they made off with his original clothes and was stuck in the green leotard.

On the plus side, they let him keep the weights, which he was more than ecstatic for.

But that was how his last two days have gone after being told he would be homeless within eight days.

"Unbelievable. It's…just…un-freaking-believable. I am, literally, karma's bitch." Kouken groaned to himself, "Shouldn't my luck be the devil's at this point? I mean c'mon! I'm eight days from rock bottom!" Well, the narrator had to admit, Kouken made a fine point in a not-too-bitchy kind of way. He was indeed heading for the pit, no reason for him to hit every jagged edge on the way down.

At some point Kouken managed to limp his way out of the training ground and back towards his apartment. As he ditched his new outfit in the trash, Kouken made the rest of his trek to his home clad only in his boxers and sandals. Not that odd of a sight in the Red Light District. Not that he was holding out or expecting for his lucky break, he sure as hell hoped that something would come soon.

~~~~~~~~With Anko~~~~~~~

Anko was sitting at home with some sake and a box of dangos with her. That alone is enough to put her in a good mood, so why was she making a face like she had just eaten some military rations? Well, that was probably due to the roster that the Hokage had put together for her. Apparently, the wise and powerful Hokage saw through her ingenious plan as none of the genin's were close to chunin level. In fact, it was almost all too obvious as to why they were on the reserves list in the first place.

The list contained twenty names of young boys and girls, oldest being fourteen, with a summary of their skills at the time of their failure. It wasn't updated because they're reserve members, no need to create more paperwork. Also, she admitted it was a fair point that there wouldn't be much improvement since they were placed into the reserves; it was the place where skills and dreams decayed.

'They all equally suck, and would take forever to get up to chunin level.' Taking a bite out of her dango she groaned and threw the file back on the table. At this point, she figured she would get to jonin rank quicker if she just failed them all at once and went back to her daily grind. It sucked really, this whole plan would've fast tracked her career and break through all the circumstances preventing her advancement within six months. Still, these brats would need far more than six months to get to a chunin level.

"Only one thing left to do then, I'm just gonna have them all take my test at once. They ought to make each other fail and I won't have to do a thing." Anko felt a little bad about it, she was killing their dreams for hers, but it's not like they'll quit being a shinobi altogether. At least, that's what she told herself; however, her somewhat desperate consumption of her sake proved that even she didn't believe it all that much.

Through the numerous pages strewn about the table one could see just a bit of pink from a ninja registration photo sticking out from under all the other files…

XXX

The next day, began with a mild hangover for Anko; not enough to make her proud of what a great time she had, but just enough to give her a lingering headache. After downing her breakfast and all that good stuff she made her way to the Hokage's tower to inform him of her decision. Normally, such a conversation would take no more than five minutes, but Sarutobi didn't get to the grandfatherly age that he is now without picking up all its mannerisms. She was sure that it would be an hour or two of him trying to persuade her otherwise and making her feel bad and how she would be denying a potentially strong shinobi a second chance. After all, she knew quite a lot about second chances.

'ugh! I'm going to need more booze after this is over…and some dango.' She closed her eyes picturing it in her head before nodding to herself. She made the best plans if she said so herself, and if anyone said otherwise…well persuasion was her forte. Smirking cruelly at the thought Anko ignored all the stares directed towards her. She was clearly not well liked among the civilians or her fellow peers. It came from a wide range of things: the way she dressed, acted in public, past associations, her job, and how she didn't bother to hide the dark side of it. But that was all they did, stare and mutter to each other. They knew better than to say or do anything because of how much trouble it would bring. Also there was the small fact that she scared the piss outta them.

Anko huffed to herself and leapt to the rooftops, opting to move at a much quicker and less populated route. 'Man, and I was wondering why Konoha never had a zoo. Guess I give enough to stare at.' Man, the narrator liked this one. She was funny and enough crazy to make it interesting to narrate. He was hoping that he could just follow her around instead of that bitchy, pink haired spider-man that was always getting the shaft. Shame that people cared less about the narrator's opinion then they did terms & conditions.

Reaching the tower she went in and walked past the secretary, she knew when her appointment was and she sure as hell knew that the Hokage was aware too. Unfortunately, that always got the dyke's panties in a twist and never failed to scowl at her as she walked by.

'Man, talk about a person in need of a good dicking!' She thought as she stuffed her hands in her trench coat's pockets and continued up the stairs. Knocking on the door, Anko heard the invitation and walked in to find the old man, sure enough, swarmed with paperwork. Poor bastard. The reserves may be where dreams go to die, but it was the Hokage's chair where legends withered away.

She noticed he wasn't the only one there, as a mummy/fossil was sitting right next to the door on the couch. She suppressed a scowl as she recognized Danzou Shimura, a dark and dangerous man whom she saw as another Orochimaru. Unfortunately, he was the Hokage's childhood friend and rival, as well as, advisor and that meant she had to deal.

"Welcome Anko. As you can see, our resident cripple is joining us for this meeting." Hiruzen said barely looking up from his papers as he waved a hand in Danzou's direction. Ahh it seems the two were at odds again if the name-calling was anything to go by.

"Yes, this experiment that decides what we do with the Reserve's forces have piqued my interest and I figured somebody other than a monkey should oversee it." The cripple said, pointing a glare at the hunched and working form of the Hokage.

"Even when said monkey devised the plan? Besides, who's overseeing you? Don't tell me you escaped the elderly's home? Isn't it bingo and pudding night?"

"The only one who belongs in a home is you, considering you're deciding the fate of the entirety of the Reserve Forces on the performance of twenty randomly picked candidates."

"Hmm, when you put it like that, it does sound rather alarming, doesn't it? You should file a concerned report, here's the bin for them." The Hokage then kicked the trash bin towards him and Anko couldn't help but snicker. The two of them may be insanely powerful and equally old, but put the two of them together and it was like two boys on the same genin team.

"Anyways, Anko, tell us of your decision." Hiruzen said, getting serious and giving her his full attention. Truthfully that always made her a little nervous, that stare was so…potent.

"I have decided that since all of them are around the same level and don't have any noteworthy skills that make them stand-out I will test all twenty of them at once. The goal will be for someone to land a single hit on me." She finished and maintained her formal stance and look.

The two elderly ninja looked at each other and began talking as if she wasn't even in the room. How rude of them.

"A hard test to be sure, Anko isn't a jonin candidate for nothing and her taijutsu makes it very hard for even a fellow jonin to land a blow." Hiruzen said.

"Indeed, but to test them all at once will surely decrease performance as majority of them will be fighting each other more than her." Danzou admitted.

"Agreed, but if they can't work with each other than there is a reason for them being in the Reserve Forces."

"Not every situation in combat will emulate the bell test, dobe, individual strength is just as important as your teamwork. After all, you know what they say about the weakest link."

"Yes, but a genin team functions like a bell test, and I believe you would know better about the weakest link than I."

"She won't be taking on a genin team though, she's apprenticing one of them." Danzou let the jibe go by, he would pay him back when they didn't have company.

"Regardless, the agreement was that we would pick the candidates and she would get to decide on how she wanted to test them. If this is your final decision, Anko, then we will follow it." He said, turning his attention back to the hopeful jonin in front of him.

"Hai, it is as you say, Hokage-Sama." She said crisply.

"Very well, the test will be next week. You are dismissed." He said as he turned back to his paperwork. Anko snapped a sharp salute and bailed, hoping to get away from him before he went all "Grandfatherly" on her. As she was closing the door she heard the two going back at it.

"Bitch," the cripple said.

"Pussy," the monkey retorted.

Anko was cut off from the rest of it as the door clicked shut and she couldn't shake the grin on her face. Those two fossils might slip a disk with verbal sparring like that.

~~~~~~~~With Pinkie~~~~~~

And so the narrator finds himself once again stuck with Pinkie. Sigh, maybe we'll find his rotting corpse and we can go back to Anko.

"Watch it asshole!"

Guess not…

Kouken was walking through the markets in the Red Light District (RDL) looking for odds and ends that were either worth stealing and keeping, selling, or getting into a fight if caught. Usually anything someone will fight you for is valuable, and then you can take all the guy's money when you knock him out.

He moseyed his way through the stalls, picking up items and inspecting them and either putting it back where he got or into his pocket when he someone roughly gripped his shoulder and spun him around.

"Watch it asshole!" Kouken yelled as he roughed his shoulder out of the man's grip. Looking at the man he noticed that it was the drunk who vomited on his shoes a while ago and he was not alone. With him were three other men who looked right at home in the RDL.

'Thugs huh? Wonder if they got any money on them…' Kouken idly thought as the man who was now sober was yelling at him.

"Hey! Punk! Are you even listening to me?!" He asked as he jabbed a finger into his chest.

Kouken looked lazily at the finger that stayed on his chest before looking up at the man, "Honestly…Not really." The man looked irate and Kouken just shrugged as the man floundered for a response.

Failing to articulate what he meant with words, how utterly surprising, the thug balled his fist and gripped Kouken's collar bringing them face to face. "I said, the lady who I was with told me you're the reason that I woke up in a dumpster."

Kouken's eyes narrowed as onlookers were giving them space, but clearly wanted some action. He wasn't their damn entertainment, go to a fucking zoo if they wanna stare. Returning his glare to the man who hadn't let go of him still Kouken spoke venomously, "Actually, the reason you woke up in a dumpster is because you puked all over my feet with your dick out." That last part wasn't true, but Kouken continued, "I almost missed it and not because you had just threw up all over my feet. I don't see how you could have any trouble trying to put that back in your pants."

The man's eyes widened as he once again floundered for a response, but all of his thinking, which I'm sure was a significant amount, was halted by the sound of laughter in the crowd. Looking back at the brat who was now smiling smugly, the thug snapped.

'This..little cum-stain. I'll gut him!' The thug thought viciously as he pulled out a dirty shiv from his back pocket. Smiling maliciously, the thug failed to understand a few things that lead to what happened next.

1st: How could a child, fourteen years old or not, manage to throw a man his size, which was around 6' 195 lbs. off a second story walkway into a dumpster, regardless of how drunk he was?

2nd: Why would any child who lived in the RDL give a man like him cheek, being this old meant he had to know the rules that only the strong could be so brazen?

3rd: Said child was actually a shinobi, or at least in the Reserve Forces, and has a habit of taking people like him to the cleaners.

4th: Finally, the shinobi/child had saw the flash, more like glint considering how dirty and disgusting it was, of the shiv almost immediately.

So when you add all those up, it easily answers the question of how our dear pinkie managed to do what he did.

Kouken's smile which was smug turned downright vicious as his head surged forward and cracked the man's teeth with a headbutt.

Letting go of the boy and stumbling back holding his bleeding mouth, he looked with wide eyes and pointed at him. "Get that little fucker!" His screaming seemed to snap his three other friends out of their shock and they rushed the boy who slid into a slightly different version of the academy taijutsu style.

The first one to reach him was this lanky thing, wearing raggedy pants and a sleeveless shirt, and was covered in tattoos. 'Looks like Ink is going first.' He smirked as the man threw a wild punch at his head at a ridiculously slow speed. Kouken tilted his head to the left letting it pass by and grabbed the man's over-extended arm pulling him into a savage knee that folded the man like a chair. Holding on to the man's arm still he spun on his heel and with a burst of chakra he threw him at the second closest man, toppling the both of them.

The third one was a chubby man who was taller than all of them and by the cocky look on his face he thought he would crush the little boy like an ant. Clasping both his hands together he charged and attempted to land a hammer fist on the boys head only for him to take a small step back and miss him by centimeters. Kouken smirked as the man couldn't stop his momentum and his fingers smashed painfully into the sidewalk. Bring his leg as far back as he could he launched a kick that hit the man so hard in the jaw everyone could hear, and cringe, at the sound of the man's teeth clacking shut. His eyes went wide for a second before he crumpled to the ground yelling in a garbled tone. Apparently the man must've bit his tongue pretty bad judging by all the blood coming out of his mouth.

The other two finally untangled themselves but didn't get very far as several vines came out from his sleeves and threw them into the alley behind him clearing a straight path to their boss who was frantically looking around for an exit. From the wince and "euuu" from the crowd the two he had thrown must've hit something pretty hard. Kouken smirked evilly as he took a step towards him, walking right on the downed form of fatty. The man took two steps back before turning on heel and trying to run through the crowd.

"Get the fuck outta the way! Move you stupid bitches!" His voice was pathetic and from the weird sound, his mouth must've gotten fucked up by his headbutt like Fatty's did. He didn't even get through the first ring of people before a vine shot out and wrapped around his leg, yanking the poor sod back into the fray.

Or at least it would've had he not grabbed onto a street sign. Kouken sighed exasperatedly…why do the boss guys always take the longest? Sending out more vines that wrapped around the man's torso, Kouken tugged hard. Uncaring of the man screaming, "NOOO!" as he was dislodged and flying at the pink street-fighter, Kouken readied his fist and rammed it forward to meet the guys face.

His screaming died down after he was knocked out, obviously, and Kouken went about searching their pockets. Between the four of them he got about $5,000 ryo and he took the boss's gold chains which he was sure he could sell for a good sum. Overall, he was pleased with himself and it turned out to be worth the effort. Although he hated being entertainment for the public; he wasn't a fucking monkey!

His happiness and uhh…annoyance? The narrator wasn't sure, I mean he did just get a good sum of money so he should be happy, but Pinkie always finds a way to bitch about something he supposes. Anyway, Kouken's happiness was short-lived as a whoosh behind him made him come face to face with a porcelain mask depicting a cat.

ANBU. 'Well…fuck.'

"Hey Anbu-san! You're just in time to arrest these guys!" Kouken said merrily slapping a hand on the…female? He wasn't sure, the uniform was kinda obscuring his/her/its form. Silence reigned between the two as Kouken sweat dropped and slide his hand off its arm. Yeah, definitely an "it".

"Kouken Izoumaru, you are to report to the Hokage tower two hours from now. Do not make us come collect you." It said rather menacingly before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Kouken let loose a breath and swore. He was only defending himself! Who cares if he decided to rob them afterwards? He won, his spoils! Now he was going to get chewed out by the Hokage! Tugging on his hair as he left the scene, Kouken was mentally lamenting. Again.

'Goddammit! Of all the things to go fucking wrong, it decided to happen in the same fucking week!' He kicked a can out of his way and accidently nailed a store's window and broke it. Wincing he disappeared in a burst of speed with shouting fading away, 'My luck has gone to absolute and total shit! I bet I'm going to lose even my Reserved position!...All for some pocket change.' Man what a dismal yet completely accurate way to address the situation the narrator thought. 'If I make it out of this, I promise to never steal again!' Kouken vowed internally while forming a fist in front of him.

Ah well, two hours to kill before he gets killed? This was one short and confusing narration, but hey, if the kid got the axe then he could do some real narration!

XXX

Two hours went by agonizingly slowly, but as sure as he heard the death bells tolling, he arrived at the Hokage's Tower. Stepping inside he realized that he had no clue what to say to the receptionist so that he may go in, "Hey! I was kicking the shit out of some street thugs and robbing them blind when an ANBU dropped by and told me to come here?" Yeah, right, what a great idea.

The receptionist looked up to see a strange pink-haired boy who looked completely lost standing in front of her desk. "Are you part of the Reserves Forces?" She asked bluntly.

A blush of embarrassment coated his face as he tugged his ear and looked away. "Well..yeah, but not for long, it's more of a.." He was cut off by the secretary jabbing her thumb to her left by the stairs.

"Third door on your right, head right on in."

"O-okay..thanks?" He said dumbly and turned towards the stairs. He could feel his back coated in sweat as his hands began to shake. 'Oh man, what if I go to prison?!' he thought in a panic. 'I'm far too young for shinobi prison! I'm downright delicious! I'll never survive the first shower!' His train of thought continued along that path until he found himself at the door.

It took a while, but he opened the door and walked right on in, "Hokage-sama, first I would like to say that it wasn't what it..looked…like…" He trailed off as he noticed the room was filled with around nineteen other kids his age and the Hokage, an elder, and a smoking hot older woman and all of them were staring at him.

Looking dumbly around the room he found what looked like a twelve-year-old kid who hadn't even gotten his first morning wood. Like, really, this kid looked like he still believed that babies come from mummy's tummy. This kid didn't look like he would even steal from the cookie jar, much less mug some street thugs. But he had to give it a shot.

"Hey kid." He said grabbing the kid's attention who looked at him curiously. "Are you here for mugging some thugs too?" He didn't even get a verbal response just a horrified and utterly confused look. "Thought so. Nevermind man." He folded his arms and leaned against the back wall closest to the door when he noticed a good seven people around him were staring. Irritated he glared at them and asked, "The fuck ya'll lookin at?" It seemed to do the trick and they all quickly looked away and that's when he got a snort from the hot lady and a raised eyebrow from the hokage.

Eyes going wide and realizing his error, he shoved off the wall and bowed deeply, "Apologies Hokage-Sama! Please forgive my interruption!" His face was covered and sweat and he was pretty sure that back sweat he had now elevated to swamp-ass. Not only was he the last to arrive, he interrupted Hokage-sama, the fucking god of shinobi, with practically a confession of his crime. Death would be very good right now. Yeah, maybe a good ole fashion beheading! No reason for his delicious and, undoubtedly, taut ass to become some ones property in prison! So deep inside his own mind he completely missed that the Hokage chuckled and went back to the meeting at hand…and that this pink haired retard was still bowing.

Snapping back to reality, Kouken peeked up and noticed no firing squad heading his way so he hesitantly went back to his leaning position ready to plead the Konoha fifth at any second.

"Welcome all of you, and forgive me for issuing such short notice for this meeting. I'm sure you're all busy with your training and I am taking precious time away from it so I will make things brief." Kouken nodded sagely. There was a reason this man was Hokage, and respecting training time was definitely one of them.

"We have realized the swelling size of the Reserved Forces and the apparent lack of available Jonin to take on students…" Hiruzen watched as many of the young shinobi nodded, even the weird pink-haired kid in the back. "We have selected twenty of you to run a small experiment, in which we will assign you to take a test similar to the genin test under Miss Anko Mitarashi here," He waved towards the smoking hot lady who completely ruined her image by smiling evilly and project a very uneasy arura. "Should one of you succeed, and only one, then you will be placed into apprenticeship under her. Currently she is a tokubetsu Jonin seeking promotion and like the Reserved Ranks, the Tokubetsu Jonin rank is engorged as well. Should she be able to produce a student to chunin level within a year then she will gain her promotion as well as the student placed into active duty effective immediately."

By now there was a murmuring going through the ranks and even the cookie jar kid looked ready to shiv a bitch to gain the spot. Kouken pushed off the wall and became stone faced the moment Hokage-sama mentioned the current state of the Reserved Forces. He didn't want to hope, but his gut instinct was telling him that this was the break he was looking for. Staring hard at the woman in question, he ingrained her appearance into his mind for he would be asking around the RDL about her later.

The Hokage let the whispering continue for a little while longer before he raised his hands for quiet. "Should this one student achieve chunin level by years end then we will begin implementing this practice throughout the ranks. The test is in one week, and will take place at training ground 34. You are all dismissed." With that the room exploded into conversations, everyone happily talking about being rid of their stupid Reserve-badge; something Kouken agreed wholeheartedly, but he didn't move from his position. While everyone was filing out the door Kouken stayed right where he was, staring hard into the frame of the proctor. After a moment later he disappeared into the crowd.

Once all the kids had left the room, Hiruzen, Danzou, and Anko remained talking.

"They all seem weak to me, Hokage-sama." Anko said dismissively while searching her pockets for some dango.

"Yes, I have to agree with Mitarashi-san, the crop did seem to be of lesser grain." Danzou said as he eyed his long time rival. He knew him long enough the recognize that look in his eye…he was up to something…

"Perhaps, we will find out soon enough anyways." He said succinctly before turning slightly and calling one of his personal ANBU to appear, "Neko."

With a silent whoosh the figure known as "Cat" appeared before the aged hokage kneeling. "How may I serve, Hokage-Sama?" Said a flat voice.

"I want you and whomever is on leave right now to trail every participant of the test. I want to know exactly what they'll do to prepare." He said in a firm tone that brokered nothing short of a salute from his ANBU.

He could see the questioning looks of his two compatriots, but simply made his way out of the room. He would find out with them if this gut feeling he had held any merit.

XXX

Kouken dashed along the rooftops, intent on making it to his home and begin his information gathering project. If life finally decided to cut him a break then he was going to ensure he went for it with every advantage he could get his hands on. Speaking of getting his hands on things, Kouken's pockets seemed much larger than before. The narrator couldn't help but sigh. Gone for five minutes and the boy had already stolen something, if this shinobi biz doesn't work out for him he would make a killing as a thief.

'Finally, a chance! If I get this spot then I won't fade away! I'll be able to become somebody…I'll be remembered.' Kouken didn't mention or think of it much, but his fear of "Fading Away" or becoming just another face in the RDL worsened since the eviction notice. He went to bed having unpleasant thoughts and in the morning, he was greeted with an unpleasant reality. To escape it, he poured all his energy in accumulating funds. His methods ranged from D-ranks, fencing stolen goods, mugging street thugs as we had seen, and pickpocketing people in some of the nicer districts. Since then he managed to acquire almost seven grand, most amount of money he's ever seen at one time. But even with the seven grand and his meager savings he knew he would still never be able to afford a new place. Purchase one, sure, but to be able to stay there? Never.

But the time for money grabbing is finally over. Now it's time to train harder than he had ever trained before. He had to give this everything he had, because should he fail then he would have nothing to go back too.

Finally arriving at his apartment he burst through the door and quickly shut it behind him, unaware of the shadow that came in with him and settling himself in a dark corner.

Walking to his kitchen table, Kouken deposited the contents of his pockets and spread them out. It turns out he had taken everyone's Reserve-badge, a form of identification easily replaced and little value to nearly anyone. So why did he take them? Kouken went through each one, reading the name and memorizing the picture before copying it all to a sheet of paper that he folded up into his pocket. The shadow would get his answer some other time it seems. Pinkie then shoved all the badges into a small metal trash can and with a tiny ball of flame taught by the academy to start campfires, he removed all trace of his doings. Then he took out a kunai and began walking towards the corner the unknown guest hid.

The shadow began to channel miniscule amounts of chakra to its fingertips and feet and began climbing up the wall silently. Never taking its eyes off the boy and never letting even a single loose breath, the shadow watched as the boy crouched just inches below him and used the kunai to pick at a loose floorboard. Craning its neck so that it may see, the shadow watched as the boy flipped the board up to reveal numerous bags of cash, most likely his emergency funds.

Kouken rifled through it for a moment before finding the most recent addition to his savings, the $5,000 ryo he had sto-err…acquired from the thugs he ran into just this morning. Picking up the sack and putting it into his pouch, Kouken replaced the board and began walking towards his door. With a quick look at the trash-bin to ensure the flames didn't burn anything it wasn't meant too and was indeed out, Kouken left the apartment with his recently acquired shadow.

Deciding time was of the essence as he really wanted to get on to his training, Kouken let his vines fly and began swinging through the air and back-alleys to his destination. Pinkie let a smile slip through his determined mask as he had thought once again, that vine was the best way to travel.

His actions had caught the shadow by surprise as it was more than accustomed to the quick methods of travel by shinobi, but it had yet to see vine swinging as one of them. Following at a more sedate pace, the shadow saw the boy land in front of what was probably one of the worst bars in the RDL. The place smelled terrible even from the roof across the street where it was watching, and the boy seemed to completely ignore the front door and opted to go down the disgusting and dark alley-way next to it. Following on the rooftop it saw Kouken pound on a metal door only to get small slot to open up where a pair of addled and twitchy eyes looked out of.

Kouken hated going here, and a large part of it was due to the actions that went on here, but he needed the services provided inside. He pounded on the door and a pair of twitchy and discolored eyes appeared.

"G-go away b-b-brat! We-We're bu-busy." The voice sounded nasally and jumpy; how very fitting for the eyes.

Kouken rolled his eyes and stuffed 500 ryo's through the slot, uncaring if he poked the man's eyes. "I'm not here for that, I need information." He said before the eye-slot slammed close and silence returned to the alley. After a few moments of waiting Kouken began to tap his shoes impatiently before deciding to just break the door down and get his information by force…and the $500 ryo.

Going through a small set of handseals, three at most and at a pretty impressive pace by the shadow's standards Kouken whispered, "Ninpo: Gori-" Just then a series of clacks and jiggling could be heard and the door opened just enough for Kouken to squeeze by. Cancelling his jutsu he tore his blue bandana around his head off and tied it around his mouth, an action that alerted the now closer shadow.

By seeing the nature of their interaction, the location of the place, and everything else about the ordeal the shadow could get a grasp at where they were going. Once the door opened up and an almost purple haze billowed out the doorway the shadow's guess was confirmed. The child was heading into an opium den.

One would think such a place wouldn't exist in the peaceful and bright village of Konohagakure, but the truth was quite the opposite. Every village had its bad places and with the Uchiha massacre, and by proxy, the collapse of the Police Force, places like these were never shut down.

The shadow, however, followed all the same. It was on a job currently, but it couldn't help but feel incredibly curious. Why would a child go to such a place, and how did he know where it even was?

Kouken scowled behind his bandana as he took in the numerous occupants of the room. There was raggedy pillows everywhere and the people laying on them looked like shit. Eyes were unfocused and glazed, defenses as low as their morals and some were even engaging in various disgusting sexual acts. The last part seemed rather impressive since they were all moving at a speed where world peace would prevail before they even made contact. Kouken ignored all this and shouldered his way through the numerous hands that grazed and tugged at him.

'Fucking pathetic.' A short and contrite thought by our pink-haired hero and the narrator couldn't have said it better himself. These people were indeed pathetic and contributed in no positive way to society or those around them. They were the result of those who fade away.

He made his way over to the only normal and somewhat healthy looking person there, a woman who had some nasty scars on her face and a body that was beaten by the harsh livings she was subjugated to. She was smoking a cigarette, and was wiping a dirty counter with an equally dirty towel when Kouken sat himself down.

The woman paid him no mind, ignoring him as if he wasn't there, until she could no longer avoid the narrowed, dark blue eyes boring into her. "We don't service kids here. Get lost, and make something of yourself." She said bitterly as shit spat into a cup before wiping it down.

"I don't want your shit. What I want, is information." He threw down $1,000 ryo on the counter and the woman's demeanor quickly shifted; suddenly the mugs didn't seem to need all that cleaning anyways.

Looking left and right, the woman took the money and stuffed it into her bosom before turning back to the kid. Info was something she was happy to provide and the kid seemed to have the money for it. "What and/or who?" She asked leaning over the counter on her arms.

"Tokubetsu jonin, Anko Mitarashi." He replied.

This shocked the shadow greatly. A child, a child who wasn't even a fully-fledged genin, was doing something even chunin's don't do. Information gathering. He was in a shithole, where all info flows, and was acting with an accordance that showed he knew how the whole thing worked. It was glad it picked the pink kid; originally it did it just because his hair would make it easy to follow him, but now this was getting interesting.

The woman leaned back and went back to cleaning mugs, "Not a chance kid. Crossing crazy like that isn't something even crazy people do." She didn't seem to be giving back the money either.

Kouken gritted his teeth before grabbing more money out of the pouch. "You may be right, but it's something a greedy, reasonable, and smart person would do. Do you honestly believe that a Tokubetsu jonin like herself would know of this shithole and any of the roaches infesting it? Don't give yourself all that credit." He threw another $1,500 ryo on the table and stared at the woman who seemed to be weighing his words in her mind.

Judging by the scowl on her face, her greed was beating back her better judgement…Good. She sighed and swiped the money before leaning back in again and whispering to the pink-haired boy, "Anko Mitarashi is some big shot in the T&I Division, she's all kinds of crazy and even some you never met before. Apparently, she was the apprentice to Orochimaru before he went all bat shit. They didn't part well and she came back twice as crazy and three times stronger. She's one bad bitch." She leaned back and went back to cleaning mugs, it was obvious to Kouken that the conversation was over and he couldn't be happier.

Nodding a thanks to the bar lady, he walked away and shouldered past all the rising and grabby hands once more. Making it to the exit as quick as possible once he was back into the alley he scaled the wall and sat on the roof inhaling huge gulps of air. Ripping away the bandana he let clean, fresh air filter through his body for a little as he stewed in the information.

'T&I and ex-apprentice to Orochimaru…I always hated snakes. Whatever this test will be, I can't go in with just my jutsu and balls or I'll be losing them there. I'm going to need a back-up plan.' Mulling the thoughts over some more he decided to do one thing at a time and got up from his position and began "vining" back towards the central part of Konoha.

The shadow continued to follow and at this point it was beginning to get an idea of what he would do next. It had a feeling that those stolen badges and the list the boy made is the next thing on the to-do list.

Short time later, Kouken and the shadow found themselves outside the Konoha shinobi academy. Kouken sat on a roof opposite of the building and waited watching people go in and out. Obviously, the boy seemed to be waiting for an opportunity to enact whatever plan he concocted. Fifteen minutes went by like this until a man, obviously a chunin by his dressing, exited out the main doors laughing and yelling a goodbye to some people inside. Kouken memorized every aspect about the man, from his shaggy brown hair that draped slightly over his left eye to the small scar he had going vertically from the right corner of his right eye. He put his fingers into a cross-guard and created a perfect henge of the man. Then the boy began testing his vocals trying to match the man's somewhat raspy tone by using various levels of chakra to his voice box. A neat little trick he had learned from reading an old school seduction book for kunochi when they had to pose as performers or geishas.

Once again the shadow was colored impressed by the pink-hair kid. He seemed to be a well-tuned machine when it came to the whole information and sneaking thing. Some ANBU shit right there.

Kouken jumped off the building and walked through the academy doors, moving as if he had dropped something and was looking for it. A great ploy since he was actually trying to find a room by the shadows assumption. After some walking he came to the end of a hall with one door ahead.

'Genin files, bingo!' he thought victoriously but before he could open the door a voice from behind stopped him.

"Takashi? I thought you went to lunch?" said a man that looked to be around his age with black hair that was held into a small ponytail.

Turning on his heel, Kouken/Takashi, adopted a sheepish expression, "I was, but I think I left my wallet in the genin file room."

The man in question sighed and shook his head, "Honestly man, you forget nearly everything that's important."

"Yeah, well I remember what's important! And that's my lunch!" Kouken let out a laugh as he turned back towards the door and began reaching for the doorknob. He halted just centimeters from it and his eyes went wide, 'Any physical contact and my henge will break!'

Sending a quick glance, Takashi/Kouken found that the man was still standing there and looking questioningly at him.

The shadow kept his eyes trained on the situation at hand, waiting to see how it played out for the boy. This was the thing about undercover and infiltration, often times it was the smallest thing that threw the entire thing off kilter. It was anxious to see if the boy would pull through.

"Hey, what's the matter Takashi? Wait…don't tell me you forgot your keys too?!" The man said incredulously with wide eyes.

"Ehhh…hehehe I was in a rush out the door today. It wasn't my fault! Honest!" Kouken/Takashi thanked sweet kami that this guy had a rep for forgetting things. The man sighed exasperatedly and moved to open the door for him.

"You know that Iruka is anal about these things, so you gotta remember next time! You already got chewed out twice last week!" The man chided his friend as the door clicked open and he stepped away.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll remember them next time." Kouken/Takashi said nonchalantly while waving a hand in the air dismissively. The man sighed and chuckled a bit as he began walking away, once he was out of sight Kouken pushed open the door and his henge broke on contact.

Taking a deep breath and sighing, Kouken leaned against the door. 'Man that was too fucking close! Add to the list of projects: Find a way to create a henge that won't shatter by opening a door.'

Kouken retrieved the list he made earlier and began murmuring to himself, Going through file cabinets and searching for the names and pictures. It didn't take him that long since the place was perfectly organized, whomever was to thank for that was a beautiful human being, and he went through the files. They contained skills and notes about the student at the time of their graduation and although some might be outdated like his are he had to admit that save for some jutsu he… liberated from stall owners nothing changed from his file. He also read the room back in the meeting, when the hokage brought up interrupting training only a few of them actually looked like they agreed with him and just from sizing them up, Kouken knew that they weren't completely in it.

The shadow felt itself smirk from behind his mask, this boy was indeed a fun thing to follow. He gathered info on his proctor from an opium den, info he had to bribe out, and had snuck into the genin file room so he could find out about his competitors. This was information gathering, thorough and quiet. It's a shame that such skills don't really factor into passing the second genin exam otherwise the boy would've had no problem passing. The shadow watched as the boy put all the files back where he got them and made sure to erase all evidence of him being there. He even went as far to re-henge himself into Takashi and create a bushin to walk down the hallway and out the door while the real him went out the window. The shadow knew that it would be a rather interesting week.

XXX

Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and just wanted to say/clarify a few things. First manner of business was the money he had acquired. I just wanted to let you know in case some of you didn't that the ryo system is obviously different from our American dollar system. $5,000 ryo is around $500 for us and 500 ryo is actually only $50 bucks for us. Second is that small joke about him pleading the Konoha Fifth, is about in our court system where if you plead the fifth you mean you can neither confirm nor deny this. Yeah, well anyways the final thing is the bushin and henge at the end where he was leaving, I just wanted to let you all know, again in case some of you didn't, that regular bushin can't do any jutsu except just move like an illusion. So the user would have to re-henge himself and then cast the bushin if he wanted it to come out looking like the henge'd version of himself. Alright, that's it. Hope you all enjoyed this and lemme know what ya'll think!