One Hundred Weeks

by Aaron Nowack

In less than two years, Orochimaru will have what he desires, and Uchiha Sasuke will be lost forever. In less than two years, Naruto and Sakura will have to be ready to save him. Sequel to One Hundred Days.

3. Chapter 2: The Games Begin

One Hundred Weeks
A Naruto Fanfic
By: Aaron Nowack

Chapter 2: The Games Begin

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Disclaimer: Contrary to its status in several improbable alternate universes, Naruto does not belong to me. It belongs to Kishimoto Masashi; I'm just borrowing it without permission. However, the blame for the actual text of this fanfiction is mine. Also, avocados.

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Week Four

The full moon hung low and bloated over the Sand Village. The bright moonlight reflected off of the still surface of the pair of extravagant ornamental ponds near the well-guarded entrance to the Sand's underground reservoir, leaving the area as brightly lit as though the noonday sun was in the sky. A chill winter wind blew thin, high clouds across the sky, visible only when they passed in front of the moon, momentarily darkening the area.

In one such moment, Otokaze of the Explosion, despite his young age a member of the Sand's Council of Elders, and at least in his own mind the leading candidate for the vacant position of Kazekage, slipped past the guards and into the reservoir cavern. He had all the necessary privileges and clearances to gain access legitimately, of course. The meeting he meant to attend, however, was not one meant for lower-ranking ninja to know and speculate about.

A more sensible, less secure location might have been chosen, but if any of the three attending were unable to make their way there without attracting attention, that would merely prove their unworthiness to attend. Otokaze made his way around the walkway about the reservoir to his destination, a point where a set of sandstone stairs led down to a wooden jetty.

Satetsu of the Bleeding Crow was already there, staring out over the precious water. "Otokaze," he said, none of the anger or distaste either man's followers might have expected present in the hulking man's greeting. Here, in private, there was no need for such theatrics.

"Satetsu," Otokaze returned as he walked to stand beside his rival. "Good evening."

"Evening," Satetsu said with a grunt. The two men waited in companionable silence for a few moments, and then Satetsu continued, "Kanon asked me to invite you to the celebration she's planning for Matsuri's promotion after the exams."

Otokaze laughed. "What a scandal that would be," he said, "but I learned not to disobey her when we were genin," he said. "I guess we'll have to ensure this is settled before then."

"This has gone on quite long enough," Satetsu agreed. "I don't suppose you'd be inclined to back down and support me?"

"Why shouldn't you back down instead?" Otokaze asked lightly, but the next silence to pass between the men was less comfortable.

Both men turned in unison as a small figure appeared perched on the railing of the walkway overhead, then leapt down to join them with a smoothness that belied her ancient appearance. Chiyo of the Red Sand cackled briefly as she studied her two rivals. "Clearly," she said, "I am the compromise candidate you should both agree on."

"We're on the verge of a new Great War," Satetsu said seriously.

"If not already into it," Otokaze agreed. "The Sand Village cannot stand against this storm alone. We need to stand with our allies."

"We need to be on the winning side," Satetsu countered. "The Leaf are withering away. Their days are numbered."

"Do you wish to hand Orochimaru that victory?" Otokaze said, the anger that had been absent from their conversation to this point appearing as it went down familiar paths. "After what he did?"

"No!" Satetsu said fiercely. "But we cannot bleed ourselves dry fighting the Leaf's wars for no gain. The Rock are also Orochimaru's foe -"

"And will be happy to turn us into their puppet," Chiyo interrupted. "If I knew that the next generations would only argue over whether we should be ruled from the east or the north, I would not have fought so hard to save this village."

"The Rock will crush the Leaf between them and the Mist," Satetsu said. "It is inevitable. If we strike in unison with them, we can seize the River Country. We can reinstall a friendly regime in the Rain Village. We can secure a peace for this generation."

"And be crushed by the Rock in the next," Otokaze said. "We've been down this route before. I assume you didn't call this meeting to rehash old debates."

Satetsu sighed. "This impasse has gone on long enough. We've all cooperated to keep word of our internal matters from leaking to the other villages, but we can't hope for it to escape notice any more. We should have settled this before the exams."

Chiyo let out a bark of laughter. "And how were we to do that, when Otokaze-kun went chasing after that fantasy of Yuura-kun's?"

"Not a fantasy," Otokaze said grimly. "I met a member of this Akatsuki."

"So be it," Satetsu said, "but you were still needed here. We should have sent Gaara instead like Yuura suggested, gotten him out of the village. It might have prevented some embarrassments." He glared at Chiyo for a moment. "How many birds did you and Ebizou plan to kill with that stone, hmm?"

Chiyo just laughed.

"You would have cast suspicion on me," Satetsu said, "wrecked relations with the Leaf beyond anything Otokaze could hope to repair, killed Tsunade's apprentice, and given yourself the excuse you've been looking for to perform the extraction." He bowed deeply and mockingly. "A master stroke, and the false trails were elegantly laid - I was almost forced to conclude that I was behind the attempt when I investigated."

Chiyo's mouth twitched. "You'll find no evidence I had anything to do with any unpleasantness between Gaara-kun and the slug woman's girl."

"Not that we can use to prove it," Otokaze said dryly. "Neither of us would expect to find any." He sighed. "What is your proposal, Satetsu?"

"We need to end this." He let out a sigh of his own. "I propose this. Following the exams, we together push through a motion forbidding abstaining from a vote to appoint a Kazekage." He waited to see if there would be any objections. "We then each in turn put forward our name. If none of us can win enough votes, whichever of us three has the least support will drop out. We then repeat with the last two, and then all three of us vote for whoever is left. That should be enough to put someone on the Kazekage's throne, even if we can't get the rest to play along."

Chiyo snorted. "There's no disadvantage to agreeing tonight," she said, "but you can't be so naive as to expect any of us to actually drop out and hand the position to one of the other two."

"We'll see," Satetsu said. "We all want what's best for this village. We all know that this has gone on far too long. We all know this plan will end this, one way or another." There was a dangerous glint in his eyes for a moment, as though he considered saying something else, but he fell silent instead.

"Very well," Otokaze said. "We'll see what changes the exams bring, then."

---

The two-story guest house that had seemed absurdly spacious when Sakura and Asuma had moved into it on their arrival at the Sand Village now seemed almost cramped. The bulk of the Leaf's delegation was staying not far away in dormitories alongside the other foreign ninja, but it would have been absurd to expect Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin or his nomad guests to bunk with them or provide their own lodging. Then there were eminently practical reasons why Jiraiya shouldn't be separated from Naruto, so Sakura had taken it upon herself to invite that particular team to stay in the guest house instead.

Asuma's noises about the appearance of bias had been deftly countered by Jiraiya. "Anyone," the legendary ninja had said, "who would be fooled into thinking Sakura-chan wasn't biased if she hadn't invited them over, is too dumb to be a chuunin anyway. So their opinions don't count."

Of course, he might be wishing he hadn't argued in favor now, as he say across the kitchen table from Sakura rubbing a red mark on his cheek, a legacy of an… encounter between himself and Kurenai in the bathroom earlier this morning.

"Technically," Sakura said tentatively as she studied him, "I think I'm supposed to punish you." Which was… absurd, even if he deserved it. "Since I'm the Hokage's representative, and you're a ninja of the Leaf."

"Sure," Jiraiya said dryly. "It's always the man's fault." A put-upon, absolutely innocent expression appeared on his face. "I was merely going about my morning routine when she walked in on me."

"Your morning routine involves cloaking genjutsu?" Sakura asked.

"Indeed!" Jiraiya declared. "A valuable habit, handed down to me from the Third Hokage -"

"If you don't shut Ero-sennin up, Sakura-chan," Naruto called from the sitting room where he was not so surreptitiously eavesdropping on the conversation, "he'll go on like that for hours."

"I don't want to know," Sakura decided. "I think I'll just include this in my next report for Tsunade-shishou, and let her decide what to do with you."

Jiraiya winced. "Naruto, your girlfriend is developing into a cruel, cruel woman."

Sakura flushed. "I'm not -"

"Ero-sennin!" Naruto's growl cut her off. "Shut up!"

"Have fun, kids," Jiraiya said with a chuckle as he stood up. "I need to go talk to a hateful old crone, so I'll see you later." He formed a seal with one hand, and he was gone.

Sakura sighed. "The rest of you can come out now," she said.

Kurenai detached herself from the wall, the genjutsu hiding her presence discarded. "Morning routine, my ass," she said crudely, her crimson eyes still angry. "Filthy pervert is lucky I didn't neuter him or stick something unpleasant up his -"

The force of Hinata's blush could almost be felt downstairs from where she crouched behind the railing at the top of the stairs. "Kurenai-sensei!"

Chouji walked into the sitting room through the front door and Asuma was right behind him. "Well done, Sakura-taichou," the jounin said, a smirk on his face that faded as Kurenai turned her gaze on him.

Sakura sighed again. "I'm glad my pretending to be in charge is such an entertaining spectator sport," she said.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan." Asuma didn't sound particularly penitent, but he never did.

Sakura stared up at the ceiling for a moment. "I actually don't have anything I have to do today, do I?"

Asuma shrugged. "Unless one of the teams has a crisis."

"The rest of you aren't so lucky," Kurenai said sternly to the three genin. "There's not a lot of time to turn you three into a real team. I want to meet you out in the training ground in twenty minutes, so get ready."

"Understood," the three responded, and Kurenai nodded in satisfaction before heading for the door.

Asuma plopped down in the chair Jiraiya had vacated. "Chouji, Hinata-chan, scram," he said. "There's something I need to talk about with Naruto and Sakura privately."

Naruto came over and took a seat next to Sakura as the other two genin left. "What is it?" he asked seriously.

"Hmm," Asuma said. "I think maybe you should tell him, Sakura-chan." He smirked briefly.

"What?" Sakura asked.

"About you and Gaara." Asuma's face was serious.

"Oh," Sakura said weakly.

"Eh?" Naruto asked.

"Okay." Sakura took a deep breath. "At the Chuunin Exams back home, when I passed, there were some things said that… well… argh, it isn't important how it happened. But the Sand teams somehow convinced themselves that I was the one who beat Gaara during the invasion." She paused, waiting for an outburst.

When one didn't come, Asuma picked up the thread. "We think someone wants to assassinate Sakura-chan," he said, "since she is acting as Hokage-sama's representative. We've been using that story to ward whoever it is off, make them think it's too dangerous to attack her. Gaara is playing along, acting like he's scared of her."

Naruto burst out laughing, and Sakura stared at the table. "I guess it is kind of funny to think of me beating someone like Gaara," she said weakly.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan," Naruto said, struggling to control himself. "It's not that. Just the idea of Gaara acting scared of anyone."

Sakura wasn't able to stop herself from snorting at that. "I suppose he isn't very good at it," she said.

"Will you play along too, Naruto?" Asuma asked seriously. "If they don't know already, the Sand teams taking the exam will find out you were here teammate soon enough. They'll probably ask questions about her, since the story's been spreading around the past few weeks."

Naruto grinned. "An excuse to talk about how awesome Sakura-chan is? I think I can do that!"

Sakura's face turned red hot. "Naruto," she snarled. "Don't be embarrassing."

---

After - mostly - defusing Sakura's wrath, Naruto made his way to the training ground behind the guest house, a small field of sand and gravel studded with a handful of large boulders. He was still several minutes early by his reckoning, and neither Kurenai nor his teammates for the exams had made it to the grounds yet.

The training ground wasn't empty, however. Aya and Hiroto sat cross-legged facing each other in the center of the field, meditating. As Naruto drew near, he saw patterns forming and erasing themselves in the sand between them. Neither nomad, nor their teacher Nori, had explained this morning ritual to Naruto, but he knew enough to wait respectfully off to the side for one of the pair to notice him, rather than interrupting.

That only took a few moments. The rapidly shifting sand stilled, and Aya lifted her head, eyes opening. "Naruto-kun," she said in greeting. Hiroto grunted, but didn't look at Naruto.

"Good morning, Aya-chan," Naruto said. "We're going to be using the training ground in a few minutes." He grinned. "You might want to get out of the way."

Aya sprang to her feet. "Thanks," she said, starting toward the edge of the training ground.

Hiroto slowly stood and started to follow, but he hesitated. "Do… you think we could watch, Naruto-san?"

"I don't see why not." All three teenagers started in surprise, then turned to see Yuuhi Kurenai perched atop the largest boulder.

"How long have you been there?" Naruto asked.

Kurenai smiled slightly. "Almost twenty minutes." She looked past Naruto. "Ah, here come Hinata-chan and Chouji-kun."

A few minutes later, the ninja were alone in the center of the field, the nomads safely on a boulder near the edge which Kurenai had declared off limits. "I'd been trying without success all morning," the jounin said, "to come up with some clever twist or gimmick to this. since it's traditional." She shrugged. "That's not really my style, though, and I don't really think one is necessary. None of you are new to this, you all know that teamwork is important and that you need to figure out how you mesh as a team."

"Yes, Kurenai-sensei," Hinata murmured when the woman paused. Naruto and Chouji echoed her a moment later.

"Good," Kurenai said. She smiled. "Then there's no need for further talking. Come at me like you want to kill." She smirked. "I'll only be coming at you like I want to tickle." Her form wavered, and then she was gone.

In less than an instant, the three genin were back-to-back in a rough defensive formation. "Where is she, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked.

"I'm s-sorry," the kunoichi answered quietly. "But I can't -"

She was interrupted by light, feminine laughter. "One of the advantages to having Hinata-chan on my team," Kurenai's bodiless voice stated, "is that I have had plenty of opportunity to practice defeating the Byakugan with genjutsu."

"Katon: Fireball Technique!" Chouji roared, spitting up a globe of fire at the source of the voice.

Hinata shook her head. "She can cast her voice," she said. Then she snapped with uncharacteristic firmness, "Move!"

The three genin broke formation, scattering less than a second before a series of small fireballs erupted from the ground under where they'd been standing. "Katon: Fire Blossom Technique," Kurenai proclaimed.

Naruto's hands raced through seals. "Shadow Replication Technique!" he called out, summoning a half dozen clones. He sent one each to join up with Hinata and Chouji, and the other four scattered to the edges of the field. "You seem to know what you're doing, Hinata-chan," he called out. "Tell us what to do!"

"M-me?" Hinata stammered, but she recovered by the time Naruto's clone reached her. "She's using genjutsu to hide herself. She's too good at that to break it easily. We need area attacks."

"Understood," Chouji rumbled, pressing both hands to the ground. "Katon: Scorching Wave." A small semi-circle of flame rose up in front of his hands, then traveled outward, gaining height as it moved. It made it five feet before collapsing, but didn't hit anything.

Then Chouji stumbled forward under a strike from an unseen assailant as the clone beside him turned to smoke. "Behind me!" he shouted.

"Move!" the real Naruto snapped. The rotund boy didn't hesitate, melting into the ground. Naruto doubled-checked the position of Hinata and the nomads. "Fuuton: Gale Palm!"

The roaring wind picked up sand and small rocks, slamming into the back wall of the training ground with enough force to dent it and disrupting the clone Naruto had left at that edge of the field. "I suppose I did say to try to kill me," Kurenai's voice said, seeming amused.

"She was never there," Hinata said, her eyes relaxed. "I would have been able to see her if she was attacking."

"More genjutsu?" Chouji asked as he emerged beside her. "I felt her hit me!"

The eyes of the Naruto next to Hinata narrowed. "Genjutsu couldn't have gotten my replication," he said.

"Then what?" Chouji asked.

"She's underground! That's why you aren't seeing her even when she attacks!" the real Naruto shouted. His clones melted into the earth.

Hinata frowned as she reactivated her Byakugan, then jumped into the air. "R-right," she said. She threw an explosive kunai into the center of the training ground, near where they'd all started.

When the smoke died down, Kurenai was standing in the center of a small crater. Instants later, Naruto's clones erupted upward around her. She smiled, forming seals. "Fuuton: Eye of the Storm," she stated. A circle of wind surrounded her, tossing the clones aside to perish in small puffs of smoke.

"Human Bullet Tank!" Kurenai had to use the Replacement Technique to avoid Chouji's massive, rotating form.

She reappeared atop a boulder. "All right," she said. "That's enough to start." She jumped down to the ground, and the three genin reassembled in front of her.

"So, how'd we do?" Naruto asked.

"Pretty good," Kurenai allowed, "given that you haven't been a team before." She smiled. "And what do our guests think?"

Aya shuddered. "That was scary," she said.

"Second thoughts about becoming a ninja?" Hiroto said sourly.

Whatever response the older nomad might have given was never heard, as someone knocked loudly on the side of the wall by the entrance to attract attention.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto greeted her with a wave. She wasn't still mad, was she? Then he saw Otokaze standing behind her.

"Aya-san," the Sand ninja said. "I've come to take you to see our ninja academy, like we discussed." Hiroto jumped down from the boulder, and Otokaze laughed. "Interested also, Hiroto-san?" he asked the young boy.

"O-of course not," Hiroto said. "I just want to see what lies you'll fill Aya-chan's head with."

Aya sighed as she landed beside Hiroto, then turned to bow to Kurenai. "Thank you for allowing us to watch," she said.

"It wasn't a problem," the Leaf jounin said.

"If you'll follow me," Otokaze prompted the two nomads, and they made their way over to him. He turned to Sakura briefly. "We have much to discuss, Haruno-san," he said quietly, but not quietly enough for Naruto not to hear. "I'll return later."

They left, and Sakura lingered for a moment, but left without saying anything. Kurenai clapped her hands, drawing the attention of the genin back to her. "All right. Here's what we're going to do. Naruto-kun, I'd like you to make some more shadow replications and put them underground. Hinata-chan, you can practice penetrating the ground with her vision on them.

"Are you any good with fire element, Naruto-kun?" she asked.

The boy shook his head. "Earth and wind are probably my best," he said. "Although I have problems with control for wind."

"I saw," Kurenai said.

"Earth and fire for me," Chouji stated.

"That's what I figured." Kurenai nodded to herself. "Chouji-kun, I'll be teaching you the Fire Blossom Technique." She glanced at Naruto. "Ordinarily, I might teach you an earth element replication technique, but you don't need that."

Naruto nodded. "Wind control practice?" he asked with a sigh.

Kurenai laughed. "That might be a plan."

---

Sakura's meeting with Otokaze of the Explosion proved to be disappointing. Beyond the usual empty pleasantries that Sakura could recite in her sleep after the past couple weeks, he had passed along precisely two pieces of information. The first was a vague, plausibly deniable indication that it would politically useful for the Leaf to eliminate the Rock team during the second exam. Sakura had just passed that suggestion on to Asuma, and much to her relief if the jounin had chosen to do anything about that, he hadn't seen fit to inform her.

The second piece of information was an invitation to the party Sakura was now attending, an apparently traditional event the night before the first exam for the exam staff and the jounin of the participating teams. The Sand's council was hosting the event in a shockingly lush garden on the grounds of the empty Kazekage's residence, a decision Sakura was sure was fraught with symbolism that escaped her.

After spending most of the afternoon helping the late arriving teams - a motley mixture of teams that shouldn't be taking the exam with only two jounin between them - Sakura only wanted to relax, but it would have been impolite for her to miss this. She felt even more out of place than usual, being reasonably sure that she was the youngest person at the party by several years. She had just managed to escape the attentions of a Waterfall kunoichi with entirely too much interest in what it was like to work for Tsunade of the legendary Sannin by and was making her way over to the obligatory punch bowl to refill her drink when someone deliberately stepped into her way.

"Ah," Sakura said to cover her surprise as she looked down at the much older woman. "Chiyo-dono, was it?" she asked.

"Of the Red Sand," the crone answered. "Do they still teach my name in your academy?"

Sakura pondered lying but figured an experienced ninja like Chiyo would see through it. "No," she answered, "but I know of the Sand's Honored Siblings." It had taken her an hour or so lying awake in bed after her meeting with the Sand's council to remember why the names Ebizou and Chiyo were familiar. Embarrassingly enough, her knowledge of that fact didn't even come from a history, but rather from a fairly bad romance set on the western front in the early years of the Great War.

The old woman grunted, apparently not pleased. "You're the slug woman's apprentice, are you?"

Sakura recalled that Chiyo had actually been the villain of that novel. "I have the honor of being Hokage-sama's student," she said carefully.

"Night lotus extract," the woman snapped.

"Excuse me?"

"What's the treatment?" Chiyo elaborated.

This was some sort of test? "I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that poison," Sakura said after a moment.

Chiyo let out a dissatisfied grunt, but before she could say anything Sakura felt a familiar presence approaching from behind. "Ah, Sakura-taichou," Asuma said, laying a hand on her shoulder. "I need to borrow you a moment."

Sakura nodded politely to Chiyo and turned to follow Asuma away. Once they were a safe distance away, she whispered, "Thank you," to the jounin.

Asuma nodded. "Did you figure out what she wanted?"

"Have you ever heard of night lotus extract?" Sakura asked him quietly.

"Hmm." Asuma paused in thought for a moment. "That takes me back," he said. "It's an old contact poison we used to use," he said. "I think Hokage-sama developed it during the Great War. It was phased out back when I was a kid, though."

"She asked me what the treatment was," Sakura said. "I don't know if she was testing me or genuinely wanted to know."

"Curious," Asuma said.

"There you are! I've been meaning to say hello to you all evening." Sakura turned to the new voice, which was revealed to belong to Kitakami Ichizo, the young man acting as jounin for the team from the Snow Country.

Sakura gave him a shallow bow. "Kitakami-san, good evening," she said. She couldn't say she knew the man well, but he and his sister had spent several months in the Leaf Village. "I trust you've fully recovered from your injuries?" Sakura didn't know the details, but he had been crippled at the hands of an Akatsuki member hunting Naruto.

"Thanks to your Hokage," Ichizo said. "I've been able to return to active duty."

"How are things up there?" Asuma prompted after a moment.

"The clans are still arguing over the details," Ichizo said, "the daimyo is still skeptical, and the… there's some tricky negotiations that haven't finished, but there might be a Hidden Village of Snow again by the end of the year." He pointed at the forehead protector he wore. "It was a minor breakthrough when my sister convinced them to authorize us to wear these."

"Is Rui-san here?" Sakura asked, glancing about.

"No," Ichizo said with a shake of his head. "Genin weren't invited to this."

Sakura frowned. "If I recall correctly from Naruto's story," she said, "your sister wasn't genin level." Sakura had offered to spar with the Snow kunoichi a few times while she'd been in the Leaf Village, but Rui had always demurred, so Sakura didn't have any direct knowledge of her skills.

Ichizo's face fell. "It's… complicated," he said. The he sighed. "I won't go into the details here, but Rui lost the ability to use ice element techniques."

"Oh," Sakura said quietly, trying to imagine what it would be like to suddenly lose the techniques her fighting style depended on.

Asuma grunted. "Curious," was all he said.

"I suppose," Ichizo said. "I've heard that Naruto-san is taking the exams?" Sakura nodded. "Is Jiraiya-sama here?"

"Not at this party," Sakura said, "but he is in the village."

"Please tell him that I need to speak with him concerning… an organization of mutual interest," Ichizo said.

"We'll let him know," Asuma said, clearly giving the Snow ninja a reappraising look.

Ichizo bowed and made his excuses, leaving the two Leaf ninja alone for the moment. Sakura let Asuma lead her off to a bench in a quiet corner of the garden. "I'm not sure I can let you out of my sight anymore," the jounin said once they sat down. "That Chiyo might look like just an old woman, but she's dangerous."

"I know," Sakura said. "She and Hokage-sama fought during the war, didn't they?"

Asuma shrugged his shoulders. "They did, I believe," he said, then paused to light a cigarette. "But if I recall correctly the physical battle between them was only a footnote in their rivalry."

"Poisons and antidotes?" Sakura guessed.

"Got it in one," Asuma replied.

Before he could say anything else, they both sensed someone approaching, deliberately not hiding herself. "Temari-san," Sakura said in greeting. "I didn't know you were here."

"My job's to watch you," she said, "and you're here, so I am." She smirked. "At least I'm getting paid for this nonsense."

"What do you want?" Asuma asked.

"Thought you'd appreciate a warning," Temari said. "Kankuro says that Rock jounin is looking for you, Sakura-san. It's only a matter of time before she finds you here."

Asuma snuffed out his cigarette on the bench. "Troublesome," he remarked. "What do you want to do, Sakura-chan?"

"You're asking me?" Sakura said, but then she sighed. "We might as well let her find me. I can't hide from her for the next month, and if she tried something stupid this publicly it would only hurt her."

Asuma smirked. "All right, then."

Temari nodded. "I'll tell Kankuro," she said, departing.

"I'll be watching," Asuma said, standing. Sakura nodded, and he disappeared.

Five minutes later, the Rock jounin plopped herself down on the bench next to Sakura without waiting for an invitation. "Haruno Sakura-san, right?" she asked.

"Kazu Kurotsuchi-san," Sakura replied. She debated trying small talk, but decided that was pointless. "What do you want?"

"To the point," Kurotsuchi replied. "I like that." She reached into her uniform jacket, and Sakura tensed, but rather than a weapon it was a slim, black book the older kunoichi pulled out.

"Bingo book?" Sakura asked.

Kurotsuchi smirked, flipping through the book and casually ripping out a page. "I'll show you yours if you show me mine," she said lightly. "I'm curious what you Leaf know about me."

That was damnably little, Sakura knew. Kurotsuchi hadn't been in the book Asuma had originally brought along, as they hadn't anticipated meeting Rock ninja on this mission. Tsunade had sent a copy of the entry back with her response to Sakura's message. The woman was the old Tsuchikage's granddaughter, possibly a user of lava techniques, and rumored to desire the position of Tsuchikage herself. That was about it.

There was nothing worth hiding in that entry, and Sakura was curious what the paper Kurotsuchi held said. She'd known that the other villages might have added her to the books, simply because she was the Hokage's apprentice, but it was another thing entirely to be directly confronted with it. "I'm not carrying yours with me," Sakura said, a little regretfully. She didn't have permission to be sharing that information anyway.

"I am, though," Asuma said as he stepped out of the shadows behind the bench.

"Ah, I was wondering when you'd show yourself, Bodyguard-san," Kurotsuchi said.

"Your call, Sakura-taichou," Asuma said, reaching into his own vest.

Sakura decided that counted as permission. "All right," she said. Asuma handed her Kurotsuchi's entry, and she exchanged pages with the Rock woman.

Then she paled as she studied her own entry. The first few lines of the entry were right - name, gender, her affiliation with the Leaf Village, and a photograph of her she guessed had been taken during the finals of the Chuunin Exam, possibly before her semifinal fight with Neji. It was all downhill from there, though.

The first oddity was her status as an "A-rank Threat, Engage With Caution." The next line, although it acknowledged that her "public rank" was chuunin, declared her to be a jounin. The couple lines of biographical data confidently declared her academy records to be obvious forgeries - wasn't that a creepy thought, that foreign spies had been studying her grades - and identified her as a likely graduate of the ANBU Root Program, whatever that was. Kakashi's Team Seven was mentioned, but as an ANBU special operations squad masquerading as an ordinary genin team. Apparently their mission to Wave Country had been a targeted assassination of Gatou and Zabuza, which Sakura had to admit was probably more believable than the real story.

The list of her known abilities was mostly accurate, based on what she had shown in the Chuunin Exam finals, but whoever had reported on those assumed that she'd been holding back in those fights. It also speculated that she might be a doujutsu user, probably due to the same source witnessing her cousin Midori's techniques, but at least acknowledged that she hadn't displayed any such abilities publicly.

"That's it?" Kurotsuchi said irritably, crumpling up her paper in one hand. "I need to take more missions in the south." She glanced at Sakura, and suddenly laughed. "I guess there's something in there we're not supposed to know," she said happily.

Sakura could feel Asuma's curiosity, and she handed the page back to him. After a moment he grunted. "Hokage-sama will want to see this," he said seriously, and Sakura had to keep herself from groaning.

Kurotsuchi did groan. "Man," she said, "if it turns out I've given away an intelligence source, that bastard Hojo will have my head." She grinned. "I guess I can at least tell him we're getting the good stuff. Although I've picked up a few more details here." Sakura couldn't tell if the woman was mocking her, having guessed that her inflated reputation was fraudulent from observing her, or whether she'd been taken in by the stories about her defeating Gaara.

She could only pray that Tsunade didn't share that ridiculous bingo book entry with Anko.

---

Week Five

Naruto, Hinata, and Chouji arrived at the location for the first exam close to an hour early. They found themselves joining what looked like more than a dozen genin milling around outside the closed gates of the Sand's ninja academy ground. Two grim-faced, uniformed Sand ninja stood on either side of the entrance, silently discouraging any attempt to pass.

There were a couple teams each from Waterfall and Grass, and one team of older genin from the Leaf, but Naruto didn't recognize any of them. "No one from the Sand," Chouji commented quietly.

Naruto frowned, remembering the start of the chuunin exams he had participated in. "You think this is part of the test?" he asked.

Hinata formed a seal. "Byakugan!" She relaxed her eyes after a moment. "There's already a lot of people inside," she whispered quietly. "It looks like there's a back entrance we're supposed to use." She lead the way down a side street and around the academy grounds to a smaller, open gate. Inside, a desk was set up, and the three of them were able to hand in their final application forms and get directions to the classroom where the exam would be given. As they were doing so, one of the Grass teams from out front showed up.

"Followed us?" Naruto asked Hinata quietly as they headed inside. She nodded.

"That counts," Chouji commented.

When they neared the exam room, they were greeted by the sound of weapons clashing. After an exchange of glances, Naruto sent a shadow replication to open the door, which disrupted itself as soon as its mission was done. As though that was an invitation, a boy flew backward through the open door, slamming against the opposite wall.

He was followed by a furious Leaf kunoichi, who looked no younger than twenty-five years old. "You Sound bastards have a lot of nerve showing up here," she said, ignoring Naruto's team as she stalked over to the stunned boy. He shook his head, starting to rise, and the woman picked him up by the neck, slamming him against the wall a second time.

"S-should we," Hinata began, but Naruto was already moving.

"Hey, lady," he said, grasping her arm. "I think that's enough, huh?"

The woman glared at him. "You," she snarled, but before she could say anything more she stiffened and toppled over, releasing her grip on the boy. Naruto moved to support him before he could fall.

Standing behind the fallen Leaf kunoichi was a younger, redheaded girl, probably the same age as Naruto. She held a senbon in one hand, and used the other to adjust her glasses. "Thanks for the distraction," she said.

Naruto glanced at her forehead protector, which he didn't recognize. "Hidden Music?" Chouji asked as he walked up, followed by Hinata a moment later.

The boy Naruto was supporting nodded weakly. "Yeah," he said shakily, stepping away from Naruto. "Thanks," he told him.

Hinata knelt down beside the fallen woman. "Poison?" she asked.

"Yeah," the redhead answered distractedly, her eyes still focused on Naruto. "Won't kill her, honest." She paused. "Your chakra is… weird," she said to Naruto. "Cool, but weird."

Another Music kunoichi ran up. "Karin-chan, Juichiro-kun, are you… Naruto-san?"

It took Naruto a moment to recognize her. "Sasame-chan!" he exclaimed in greeting. The Fuuma Clan girl had cut her red-orange hair shorter and had acquired a nasty-looking scar on one cheek since he'd met her in Rice Field Country when searching for Orochimaru's hideout.

They were interrupted by a new voice. "What the hell? Karin? You're dead!"

The first Music kunoichi shuddered, tearing her eyes away from Naruto and groaning as she looked over his shoulder. "Of all the," she muttered.

Naruto turned to look behind him, and saw the Grass team that had been following his team. Hinata suddenly stood, interposing herself between Naruto and Karin. "W-what's going on?" she asked.

Sasame glanced between her female teammate and the Grass team, who were looking more upset by the moment. "You should tell them, Karin-chan," she said softly.

Karin groaned again. "Okay, look," she said loudly, stepping past Naruto and Hinata to face the Grass genin. "I was an infiltrator, a spy for… for the Hidden Sound, from the start," she continued. "I faked my death once my mission was done."

"You… we were teammates for two years," one of the Grass ninja said, his face moving between disbelief and betrayal. "I… I thought we were -"

"Friends?" Karin asked coldly. "I'd be a poor spy if you didn't think that."

"You don't need to be so cruel, Karin-chan," Sasame said.

A loud cough interrupted the conversation, and everyone looked up to see a uniformed Sand ninja. "You lot loiter out here long enough, and you'll be late," he said, gesturing at the doors. "And if any of these idiots who've already gotten themselves knocked out of the exams are dead, I'll disqualify you all also." Naruto followed the gesture and saw two slumped-over forms by the door, likely the fallen Leaf kunoichi's teammates. "Now, get inside."

"They'll be awake in an hour," Karin said calmly, already turning away to go back inside the classroom.

"You," one of the Grass snarled.

"Fighting in front of the examiner," the Sand ninja said, "is a stupid way to get disqualified."

That shut everyone up long enough for them to get inside the classroom. The room was quiet, and every eye was on the three teams, no doubt attracted by the sounds of fighting from outside. Naruto snorted. He wasn't scared of any of these people.

"There's some seats by the front," Hinata said, and the three Leaf ninja parted ways from the other two teams, making their way through the rows of desks to the front. Once they were seated, a few more teams filed in quietly, and apparently had difficulty finding seats, as they wound up standing near the back of the room.

"This is the part I'm nervous about," Naruto admitted to his teammates as they waited.

"You, nervous?" Chouji asked. "I don't think I've ever seen that." He pulled out a bag of potato chips from somewhere and started to eat them.

"Well, Ero-sennin hasn't exactly been giving me a lot of written tests," Naruto replied.

"There's… always a trick," Hinata offered. "You figured it out the first time."

The low buzz of conversation suddenly hushed. Naruto turned around in his seat to look for the cause, and saw that a trio he recognized standing just inside the doorway. The three of them were dressed in almost uniform brown shirts and pants, and their forehead protectors were not shared by anyone else in the exams.

"The Hidden Rock team," Chouji stated. He carefully folded over the open top of his half-finished bag of chips and stashed it away somewhere.

"I know them," Naruto said. "They're all right."

"Hey, what are you idiots staring at, huh?" the lead member of the three Rock, a boy with short black hair, asked loudly. "We ain't scared of any of you, so find something else to look at!"

Chouji chuckled. "That's a little familiar," he said.

Naruto sighed. "That's Akira," he said. "He's… annoying."

Chouji chuckled again. "Chouji-kun!" Hinata protested.

The girl at Akira's back - Mako - giggled nervously. Naruto was pretty sure when they'd met before her dark hair had been shorter and worn in a ponytail rather than loose, and definitely not dyed with streaks of red. "Yeah!" she said after a moment.

The third member of the team, Gonkuro, didn't seem to have changed much to Naruto's eyes, and he briefly buried his face in one hand before grabbing both of his teammates by the back of their shirts. His hissed something quietly to them that Naruto couldn't make out, and without further incident the Rock team faded away to the back of the room.

Then all attention refocused on the front, as the Sand ninja who had interrupted the brewing fight outside appeared behind the teacher's desk. "All right, listen up!" he shouted, pounding the desk with one fist. "I am Shirou of the Ash Waste, and I am the examiner for the first exam of these Chuunin Selection Exams, which begins now. From now until you fail or the second exam begins, you are under my authority. There is only one rule: do anything stupid, and I will fail you immediately!"

"What the hell does that mean?" a genin from Grass asked. "How are we supposed to know what's 'stupid'?"

"If you can't figure that out on your own," Shirou said dryly, "you're stupid and don't deserve to be a chuunin. You and your team fail."

A girl sitting next to the protestor stood up, slamming her hands onto her desk. "What? You can't do that! It's not fair to fail all three of us just because -"

The examiner burst into laughter. "I love it when I'm proven right." He pointed at the two Grass ninja, and then at a third sitting next to them. "Fail, fail, and fail." He pointed at the door. "Get out of here and go home to your mothers."

"Asshole," the third member of the team muttered as he stood, provoking another laugh from the examiner, and the Grass team slowly made its way out of the room. None of the other genin dared to laugh.

Once the door shut behind them, Shirou spoke once more. "Are there any other questions?" he asked. There was silence for a moment, and then he pointed toward the back of the room. "You!" he snapped.

Naruto turned to see that a Leaf ninja standing near the rear wall had raised his hand. "Umm… sir," he began, "There… ah… don't seem to be enough seats for everyone. What should we do?"

Shirou clapped once. "Good question. I am about to go round up my lazy assistants. Everyone still standing when I return fails!" He vanished in a puff of smoke.

"This guy's crazy," Naruto said as the rear of the room descended into chaos. "Worse than the crazy examiner lady from our exams."

Hinata had activated her Bloodline Limit. "Watch out!" she shouted, moments before a large, rotund Sand ninja landed on the floor in front of their desks. "Get up, kids," he proclaimed. "Babies like you don't need to be taking this exam." Two more Sand ninja appeared behind him.

Chouji reacted before Naruto could, one arm swelling to gargantuan proportions before he backhanded the first Sand ninja into one of his teammates. Both went flying into a chalkboard at the front of the room. The third member of their team reached for a weapon.

Naruto summoned a shadow replication that appeared on top of his desk and instantly moved into a flying kick. The third Sand ninja landed on top of his teammates just as they were starting to rise. Naruto's replication disrupted itself.

Then there was the sound of a series of small detonations, and the walls of the room were suddenly lined by uniformed Sand chuunin. The fighting ended instantly and the examiner reappeared at the front of the room. He gave the three ninja who had attacked Naruto's team a disgusted glance and kicked the one on top. "You three fail," he said calmly. "And so does everyone who doesn't have a seat."

There were murmurs of discontent but no open protests as at least eight teams started trooping toward the exit. One Waterfall team hesitated, two standing ninja clustering around their fallen teammate. One of the chuunin detached himself from the wall and joined them. "Sir, we have a casualty!"

"Dead?" Shirou asked, sounding angry.

"Not yet," one of the Waterfall said, glaring at a seated Sand ninja, who smirked.

"Kunai to the gut," the Sand chuunin diagnosed calmly. "She'll live with medical attention."

"Then stop wasting time," Shirou commanded, and another chuunin joined the first, the two of them carefully lifting the fallen Waterfall and escorting her team to the exit.

Meanwhile, Shirou stalked over to the Sand genin who was apparently responsible, roughly lifting him out of his seat and depositing him on the ground. He glanced about, then grabbed two more Sand and plopped them down next to their teammate. "Using deadly force on an allied ninja without explicit instruction," he proclaimed, "is stupid. Fail, fail, and fail."

"You can't prove anything," the first Sand genin said smugly. He rose and started to head back to his desk.

Shirou kicked his legs out from under him. "I don't have to." He picked the genin up with one arm and threw him all the way across the room and out the back door. "Fail," he repeated calmly. The other two ninja on the floor exchanged glances and left in more orderly fashion.

The examiner nodded in satisfaction, then marched to the back of the room. Naruto blinked, noticing one three-man team calmly sitting on the floor and making no move to leave. "This should be good," Shirou said loudly.

"You said," one of the genin on the floor said, "that everyone still standing would fail. We aren't standing."

Shirou spun about to face the genin seated in their desks. "Do any of you honestly think that was what I meant?" he asked. No one answered. He turned back to the team on the floor. "Playing clever word games with orders instead of actually completing your mission is stupid. Fail, fail, and fail."

The failed team chose not to argue, and Shirou returned to the front of the room. While no one was looking, three large stacks of papers had appeared on the teacher's desk. "This will be a written examination," Shirou proclaimed. "If you are surprised by that, you're stupid and should fail, but I won't bother because you probably will anyway."

Three chuunin went to the front and each picked up one of the stacks of tests. "Each time I call," Shirou said. "One member from each team will rise and line up in an orderly fashion by the door. You will be led to where you will take the exam." He smiled. "Please try to be clever about this," he said. "The fewer exams I have to grade, the better."

---

Naruto was doing better on the written exam than he had expected. The two history questions - one about the establishment of the Leaf-Sand Alliance and another about a famous battle between the Cloud and Rock during the Great War - he'd remembered from Jiraiya's stories. Of the remaining questions, there were only two of them where he hadn't been able to put anything down. The rest, although he wasn't confident on them, he'd at least been able to work something out.

He was pretty sure these questions were a lot easier than the last time he'd taken the exam, but he was also pretty sure he wouldn't had done as well on these same questions back then, either. Maybe Jiraiya really did know what he was doing… sometimes, anyway. Or maybe Naruto was just inherently awesome. That was probably more likely, he thought as he wondered what Jiraiya was up to right now - almost certainly something perverted.

Throughout the test, there had been a steady stream of genin being failed, either for cheating directly or because one of their teammates in the other rooms had been caught. "Getting caught cheating is stupid," one of the exam proctors had declared after the first one, no doubt quoting the lead examiner. There had been a flurry of failures after that statement, leading the same proctor to declare, "Thinking you can get away with cheating is also stupid." Almost half of the people in the exam room with Naruto had been failed by now.

Now, a warning of five minutes remaining had been given, and Naruto was alternating between the two questions he'd left blank, hoping to remember something that would help him. There was some sort of rule about angles and triangles that would help with the third question, wasn't there? And he was pretty sure there was some sort of simple trick to deciphering that coded message in the ninth question that he was just missing.

"Time," a proctor seated at the teacher's desk called out. Naruto set down his pencil instantly. The proctor seemed disappointed as her gaze swept the room. "I guess we weeded out everyone stupid enough to keep working," she said. The rest of the proctors gathered everyone's papers in silence.

Another proctor moved to the front of the room. "We will now begin the tenth and final question of this exam," he stated calmly. Murmurs filled the and Naruto leaned forward in his seat. All the exam veterans knew that the real exam began now.

"From this point forward," the proctor continued, "this is no longer a team examination. If your teammates fail, you will still be allowed to proceed to the second exam." The proctor pointed at someone behind Naruto. "You have a question?"

"Yes, sir," a girl said. "How can someone proceed without their team in the second exam? It's always a -"

The proctor cut her off. "You might or might not be at a disadvantage in the second exam without a full team," he said. "Every time the Chuunin Selection Exams are held, the rules are different."

The other proctors started handing out papers, and Naruto looked at his curiously when he received it. There was no question printed on it, only a space for his own name, then two lines. Next to each line was two boxes, labeled "Take" and "Don't Take."

"Write your own name at the top," the lead proctor said, "then the names of each of your teammates on the lines." Briefly, the room was filled with the scratching of pencils on paper, and Naruto followed the instructions as quickly as he could.

"I will now explain the rules," the proctor said, reading from a piece of paper. "There will be no questions taken. For each of your teammates, you have a choice. You can choose to take points from that teammate or not to take points.

"If neither of you choose to take points, your score will remain unchanged. If you choose to take points and your teammate does not, five points will be taken from your teammate and given to you. If your teammate takes points and you do not, the reverse. If both of you choose to take points, one point will be deducted from both of your scores. Your choice with each teammate is independent of your choice with the other.

"Those are the rules. You have five minutes to decide, beginning now."

Naruto stared at the paper for only a moment before deciding that this was a stupid question, and quickly marked the "Don't Take" box next to both Hinata's name and Chouji's. What kind of asshole would steal points from their own teammates?

Then he had to impatiently wait five minutes for the proctor seated at the teacher's desk to announce that time was up again, and a couple minutes more for the proctors to collect the papers. Then they were ordered to line up again and led back to the classroom where the exam had started. Silent proctors lined the walls of the room, and the ones who had led Naruto's group back joined them, but the examiner was nowhere to be found.

With the room much emptier after so many teams had failed - Naruto guessed that there were around thirty teams left - it was easy to see Chouji and Hinata seated in their old seats at the front, and Naruto quickly joined them.

"Hey, Naruto," Chouji greeted him.

Naruto nodded, then glanced at Hinata, who looked away from him. "What's wrong, Hinata-chan?"

She seemed to curl in on herself. "N-nothing," she stammered.

Chouji grunted. "You didn't take our points, did you?" he asked.

"Hinata-chan wouldn't do that!" Naruto protested angrily.

Hinata let out a quiet whimper. "I didn't," she said softly. "But I almost did. I'm sorry."

"Why?" Chouji asked.

"I-it's… so important that I pass this time," Hinata said. "I can't -"

"It's fine," Naruto said, clapping her on the back. He ignored her quiet protest. "You did the right thing in the end."

"R-right," Hinata said, not sounding totally convinced, but any more conversation was cut off as a shadow fell over their desks.

Naruto looked up at the dark-haired girl in a white kimono. "Rui-san!" he said happily.

The Snow kunoichi smiled slightly. "Naruto-san," she said. "I thought I saw you before the exam, but there wasn't a chance to come over and talk."

"W-who's this?" Hinata asked.

"I'm Kitakami Rui, from Snow Country," the girl introduced herself. "I'm a friend of Naruto's. You two are?"

"Hyuuga Hinata."

"Akimichi Chouji."

"A pleasure to meet you," Rui said. "I should get back to my team, I just wanted to say hello… and my brother told me to say hello to you to, Naru-chan." She smiled and walked away. Naruto's face fell.

"N-Naru-chan?" Hinata asked weakly. Chouji snorted.

"It's a… it's a very long, boring story." Naruto forced a laugh. "It's not important."

"Is… is… she…" Whatever Hinata was intending to ask was lost as the examiner appeared at the front of the classroom in a burst of smoke.

"Those of you who took points from your teammates," Shirou of the Ash Waste said without any introduction, "are worse than stupid, and you and your teams fail." He pounded the teacher's desk with one hand. "To betray your teammates for personal gain is unforgivable! If you did that on a real mission, you would be betraying not only your team, but your client and your village. Scum like you not only don't deserve to be chuunin, you don't deserve to live."

"Wait!" a boy from Grass protested. "I knew Kei-chan wasn't good at written tests, and she knew I was really good at them, so I deliberately let her take my points! It's a legitimate strategy to ensure the whole team passes!"

"No, it isn't," Shirou said calmly, clearly having expected this. "None of you knew whether the others' tests were the same difficultly. None of you were told what the point scale was on this test, or what a passing score was. That makes your choice a stupid strategy." He smiled coldly. "You might deserve to live, but you still don't deserve to be chuunin."

A young boy from Leaf Naruto didn't recognize stood. "Why does the whole team fail? We were told this was no longer a team exam."

"If you try to take the second exam without a full team," Shirou said, not unkindly, "you will probably die."

The Leaf genin swallowed loudly and sat down without any further protest. Six proctors stepped away from the wall and over to genin teams, escorting them to the exit. When they were gone, the examiner nodded firmly. "Those of you who are still here," he said, "pass the first exam of these Chuunin Selection Exams. Congratulations, you aren't too stupid to be a chuunin."

There was a brief outpouring of excitement, and then another Sand ninja appeared next to Shirou in a puff of smoke. "Be silent," he said in a soft voice that still carried over the sound. "The second exam of the Chuunin Selection Exams begins immediately.

"I am Reki of the White Stone, and I will be the examiner. You are all now under my authority." The proctors began to hand out forms, and when he got his Naruto saw that it was a liability form, much like the one he'd signed before the second exam the first time. Reki continued, "From this point on, there is a risk of injury or death. You will have precisely two hours to gather supplies for a week-long journey through the desert. You will reconvene here at that time with your signed forms. If you do not, or choose not to sign the form, you and your team will be failed. Are there any questions?"

There weren't any, and the new examiner nodded once. "You are dismissed."

---

Sakura sighed as she watched the backs of the Leaf teams that failed the first exam disappear down the narrow pass that led out of the Sand Village. Of the eighteen teams the Leaf had fielded, only six remained for the second exam, and only one of those was from the eight extra teams Tsunade had sent. Sakura wasn't sure whether all of that added up to a good performance or not.

"That was a cute little speech," Temari said. "All that encouraging bullcrap about how failing doesn't make you a failure. Nothing like what we tell ours. Is that what you wished your teacher had said to you after you got knocked out?"

Actually, after she'd been knocked out, her teacher had ignored her existence for the next thirty days. The situation had been unusual, and Kakashi hadn't had any reason to expect that after that month everything would start going to hell and not let up for the next year, but it still irked her a little when she thought of it. "What do you tell yours?" she asked her escort after a moment as they turned to leave the inner courtyard and head into the village proper.

Temari snorted. "You screwed up, and we're going to beat the failure out of you over the next six months so you won't screw up next time."

"That's awful," Sakura said.

"It's a kick in the pants," Temari replied with a shrug. "That's what most of them need. Probably what you needed."

She couldn't really say the older girl was wrong. "Is that what you needed?" Sakura asked. As they passed through the gates, Asuma detached himself from the wall and moved to shadow them. With all the other jounin accompanying their teams to the second exam or back to the Leaf village, he had once again appointed himself Sakura's perpetual bodyguard.

"Me?" Temari laughed. "Of course I didn't. Unlike you, the only reason I didn't pass the first time was because of… well, circumstances," she finished lamely.

Sakura wasn't able to stop herself from snorting, although she refrained from commenting. The other girl would probably not react well to her opinion that she had been completely humiliated by Shikamaru in their fight, even if she'd technically won. Over the past weeks, she'd grown used enough to the sense of Asuma's presence that she thought she could feel his amusement also.

"Are you laughing at me?" Temari asked. "That's rich, coming from you. How'd you pass, anyway? Get a strong team to carry you through the second exam, and luck out on your first round opponent?"

Sakura's face hardened. Was Temari stupid enough to really think that? "That's rich," she said without thinking, "coming from you. At least I earned my promotion."

Temari stopped dead in the middle of the street. "What do you mean?" she asked calmly.

"Well," Sakura said, "'circumstances' or not, you didn't pass that first time, and you weren't there when I passed or at Grass last time," she said. She smiled wickedly. "We heard all about how you got promoted." Specifically, her youngest brother had declared all three siblings to be chuunin, and no one had been brave enough to argue with Gaara of the Desert.

Temari twitched, expressions passing over her face before finally settling on amusement. "What do you know? Kick you enough and you have a decent bite, Pink." Asuma snorted. "We'll have to have that spar sometime."

"Sometime, maybe," Sakura said, but she doubted it. She couldn't afford to lose, or even almost lose, to Temari when she was supposed to be strong enough to make Gaara scared.

The rest of the journey back to their guest house passed without incident, and Temari left Asuma and Sakura at the entrance, pleading the need to go put the fear of her back into her genin team. Inside, Jiraiya was waiting for them. "Everyone safely on their way home?"

Sakura plopped herself down on the seat across from him. "Yes, Jiraiya-sama."

Asuma started to head upstairs, but the Sannin waved him over to the table. When the jounin had taken a seat, Jiraiya spoke. "You've been charting out the political situation here, right Sarutobi-kun?"

"Yes, sir." Asuma glanced at Sakura. "Do it."

She nodded, and formed seals. "Done," she said, once the anti-eavesdropping genjutsu was in place.

Jiraiya nodded. "Not bad, kid." His attention returned to Asuma. "That old crone, Chiyo of the Red Sand. How trustworthy is she?"

Asuma sighed, taking out a cigarette and lighting it. "To be honest, I'd rather have Satetsu as the next Kazekage," he said. "He's in favor of allying with the Rock, but only as a matter of practicality, not one of principle. We'd only have to convince him that we're still more useful allies than they would be.

"Chiyo's not like that. She's still holding grudges from the Great War and hates the Leaf. We'd never get her to budge an inch on anything."

Jiraiya snorted. "I knew that much," he said. "But if she gave her word, do you think she could be trusted?"

"Maybe," Asuma said after a moment, "but I wouldn't trust her without a backup plan."

"Figures," Jiraiya said.

"What do you need her help for?" Sakura asked.

Jiraiya glanced at her, clearly debating what to say, then sighed. "She's the last person I know how to get in touch with," he said, "with any experience with a seal like Naruto's."

"Problems?" Asuma asked seriously, snuffing out his cigarette.

Jiraiya waved a hand. "Yes, but no worse than they've been for a year or so."

"Speaking of… that," Sakura said. She still wasn't comfortable talking about this, particularly without Naruto here. "Is it… wise, Jiraiya-sama, for you to let Naruto go off for the second exam? You said you ran into one of those Akatsuki on the way here."

"Otokaze has the Sand on full alert," Jiraiya said, "and he's got six Leaf jounin near him until the exam starts."

"That kind of thing didn't stop Orochimaru," Sakura said bitterly.

"I know," Jiraiya said, almost as bitter. "That's why as soon as I'm done putting in a few more public appearance here, I'll be heading to catch up with them on the way to the exam site. I'll be shadowing Naruto the whole way through the exam. If Akatsuki is dumb enough to try anything…" The Sannin made a fist and caught it in his other hand. "I'll get a chance to thin their numbers."

"Good luck," Asuma said. "Kurenai's been itching for a rematch with that Itachi."

Jiraiya winced. "I didn't think Yuuhi-san was that stupid. If he's there, I'm going to take Naruto and run."

"He's that strong?" Sakura asked. If Jiraiya was scared, how could she even hope to help protect Naruto from him?

"I scared him off the last time we fought," Jiraiya said, "but I don't know if I could kill him without dying myself." He sighed. "And on that morbid note, I'm heading out. Enjoy your quiet week until I come back with the brat, and keep an eye out on Aya-chan and Hiroto-kun for me."

Sakura dropped her genjutsu, and Jiraiya vanished in a puff of smoke. Asuma stared at his unfinished cigarette. "Lovely," he said.

"I guess it's just the two of us again, then," Sakura said. Aya and Hiroto were currently out somewhere; Sakura honestly hadn't been paying too much attention to the pair of nomads.

Asuma grunted. "We have to be on guard, then."

The next hours passed quietly, though, until Aya and Hiroto returned. Sakura opened the door for them, and vaguely recognized the Sand ninja escorting it from the Sand's council. "Yuura-san, was it?" she asked politely.

The young, bearded man nodded. "That's correct, Haruno-dono."

Sakura barely kept her face from flushing. "There's no need to be so formal," she said.

Asuma approached her from behind. "Do you need something, Yuura-san?" he asked.

"No," the Sand councilor replied, "I'm just escorting Aya-chan and Hiroto-kun back from the academy." He smiled. "They've both agreed to give our students a demonstration of their abilities later this week. I think either of them would make us proud as ninja."

"You're too kind," Aya murmured. Hiroto just grunted.

"Good evening, then," Asuma said firmly.

Yuura nodded, seemingly not offended. "Good evening." He turned to leave, only to stop when Hiroto spoke suddenly.

"Gaara of the Desert," he said. "I want to meet him."

Sakura blinked. That was… unexpected.

Yuura turned back, a thoughtful frown on his face. "I suppose that could be arranged," he said, then he gave Sakura a glance. "Haruno-san?"

Sakura looked at Asuma, but the jounin was impassive. "I'm not their commander or mother," she said after a moment, trying to project the nonchalance of someone with no reason to be concerned by the mention of the Gaara.

"As you say," Yuura replied. He bowed slightly. "By your leave, then."

---

"I will now explain the rules of the second exam," Reki of the White Stone said, sounding bored, after he halted the procession of genin and chuunin proctors in front of a stone wall in the middle of the desert. He laid one hand on the wall. "This is the edge of the Hidden Sand's twelfth large scale training arena."

Hyuuga Hinata smiled as she watched Naruto grin widely out of the corner of her eye. She didn't need to use her Byakugan to tell that the blond was glad that the first exam was over and the second was about to begin.

Reki stifled a yawn before continuing, pulling out a several-inch long fang. "This is the tooth of a sand dragon. Several are available inside the arena." Two brown, hollow ceramic half-cylinders fell out of Reki's loose sleeve into his other hand. "Each team will be provided one of these." Casually, he placed the fang inside of one half-cylinder, then put the other on top, sealing the cylinder around the sand dragon tooth. Green lines glowed briefly on the object, then twisted to form the characters for chuunin.

Hinata activated her eyes too late, and caught only the last movements of chakra running along hidden seals. The glow faded, and even the Byakugan could detect no sign of a seam where the halves of the cylinder had met. A little disappointed to have missed the real action, she let her eyesight return to normal.

Reki continued, "Your mission is to make one of these and turn it in at the tower located at the far end of the this training ground within five days. If you do not do so with all of your team intact, you will be failed. If you attempt to leave the training arena at any time, you will be failed. Other than that there are no rules." Reki yawned once, tossed the cylinder in the air, and caught it with his other hand. It broke in half, and he tossed one half at each of the two closest teams. The fang he held on to. "Proctors, take your assigned teams to their starting locations. I'm done here." A brief, warm breeze kicked up sand, and Reki was gone.

Hinata frowned as she considered the rules and the objectives. The half-cylinders were basically another form of the Heaven and Earth scrolls that had been used for the second exams at Leaf and Grass. It was slightly more lenient even, given that they were all identical, so any two would do. The tooth was worrisome, though. There were several available, but Reki had not said anything about how many or how they were to be attained. There was probably going to be some sort of trick to that.

Naruto didn't seem concerned. "This'll be a piece of cake," he proclaimed.

"Who wants this?"

The whole team turned to see a short Sand kunoichi standing behind them. She held out one of the brown half-cylinders, and when neither Chouji nor Naruto moved to take it, Hinata accepted it, quickly secreting it away. Without another word the Sand ninja turned and started walking away. Naruto grinned. "Let's go!" he almost shouted as he started to trail her.

"Right," Hinata said quietly, and she and Chouji followed.

The proctor led them at a quick pace for almost an hour, following the wall. They finally stopped in front of a chain link gate. "Only a few minutes until you start," the woman said, taking a position in front of the door.

Chouji pulled out a ration bar and devoured it. "Plans?" he asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Go in, get a tooth, get one of those funky cylinder things, head for the tower. What more do we need?"

"Is there anything you can tell us about the layout of the arena?" Hinata asked the woman. "Or how we're supposed to get a sand dragon fang?"

She pointed in the direction they'd been heading. "Tower is that way. Nothing else I can say." She opened the gate and stepped aside. "Your five days start now."

Naruto ran inside, and after a moment Hinata followed him somewhat more slowly. Chouji trailed her, and the gate clanged shut behind them. Naruto was waiting, looking about as though in realization that he had no idea where to go.

"Lovely country, isn't this?" Chouji asked as they studied the terrain in front of them. It was a desolate, rough badland. Rocky ridge followed ridge, separated by deep gorges. The only sign of life was a handful of hardy plants, small wisps of green sheltered by cracks in the rock.

Naruto scratched one of his arms. "It's worse further west," he commented. "Nothing but sand for miles and miles." So was that where he had been training with Jiraiya? It would explain those sand priests that had showed up with him.

Hinata formed a seal and the veins around her eyes bulged. She allowed herself just a moment to focus her attention on Naruto - although his chakra coils were less comforting to watch now that she knew why they were so different from everyone else's. Then she widened her focus. "There's no one around," she said. Except for the Sand proctor, still standing outside the gate, but she didn't count.

"If this is anything like the other exams, all the entrance points are evenly spread out," Chouji said.

Naruto looked thoughtful. "Then I guess we just head for the middle?" he asked.

"Sounds like a plan," Chouji agreed, and without further discussion the three started on their way. Not wanting to waste chakra, Hinata relaxed her Byakugan, but she kept reactivating it and checking for potential enemies every few minutes. She wasn't with Shino and Kiba anymore. Shino's insect scouts or Kiba and Akamaru's noses weren't going to pick up the slack while she rested her eyes.

Despite all the advantages they had as ninja, the three Leaf genin made slow progress across the wasteland. Many of the valleys were too wide to leap, and even though they could walk up and down rather than having to climb, it still took time and energy. The sun climbed in the sky and the temperature rose, and Hinata was glad that they'd brought as much water as they had. They'd have to find more somewhere if they were going to be out here for five days, but they had enough for at least the first couple.

They had paused after climbing up a ridge to rest and drink when Hinata finally found something when she checked the surrounding area. "I think I know how we're supposed to get a sand dragon fang," she said, a sinking feeling in her gut as she let her eyes relax.

Chouji swallowed the last of another ration bar. "What is it, Hinata-san?" ha asked.

She pointed. "A couple of valleys over that way is what I'm pretty sure is a sand dragon, sleeping in a boulder's shadow."

Naruto cracked his knuckles. "So we just have to kill it?" he asked. "Easy."

"Um," Hinata began, "it's… maybe twenty feet long?" The massive lizard also had a more active chakra system, even asleep, then any animal she'd ever observed, other than summons and the Inuzuka's dogs. That meant it was dangerous.

Naruto grinned. "Don't worry, Hinata-chan! I've got some cool techniques that'll kill any dumb animal easily."

Hinata flushed. Of course Naruto did. "S-sorry," she said. "This way."

A few minutes later, they were on top of another ridge, staring down at the dozing, brown-scaled reptile. "You weren't kidding," Chouji said. "How does something that big find enough to eat out here?" He sounded vaguely horrified at the concept.

"It doesn't matter," Naruto said firmly as he formed seals. "Fuuton: Gale Palm!"

The raging windstorm slammed into the sleeping sand dragon, hurling it backward into the boulder it was sleeping beneath. It shuddered once, and for just an instant Hinata thought it was dead. Then its eyes opened, and it roared.

It was fast, powerful legs racing up the cliff face toward the ninja in a matter of seconds. Chakra coursed up and down its coils, enhancing its strength. Its fanged maw gaped open, large enough to swallow one of the genin whole.

Naruto jumped back as it crested the ridge, but the reptile lunged forward at him. With no time to think, Hinata acted. "Piercing Heavenly Spin!" she shouted, her body twisting into motion as she hurled herself at the lizard. She was a tornado of chakra when she hit its lower jaw, knocking it off course. It landed with a tremendous thud.

As Hinata spun passed it, the sand dragon's monstrous tail whipped around at her. She saw it coming, but it didn't do her any good. Even with the Heavenly Spin protecting her, the strike packed an enormous punch, enough to make her lose control of the technique. Chakra flew wildly around her before flickering out, and she plummeted toward the rocky ground.

Then Naruto was there, catching her in midair. Dazed and disoriented, she almost didn't have the self-awareness to become embarrassed, but she could feel herself flush as they landed safely away from the dragon. Behind them, Chouji had swelled in size and was wrestling with the monster. Another Naruto darted in, hitting the dragon's flank with a Rasengan without appreciable effect. The sand dragon's tail whipped around again, but that Naruto used the Replacement Technique to escape.

"Are you okay?" the Naruto by Hinata asked.

She nodded weakly, then paled. "Its chakra… it looks like it's going to use a technique!" Was that even possible?

At Hinata's warning, Chouji tried to disengage, but too late. Lightning flickered between the horns on the dragon's head, then erupted into a powerful bolt. Chouji flew backward, shrinking back to normal size.

"Got to go," Naruto told Hinata, leaping away to catch Chouji. Another bolt of lightning caught him in midair, and he vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Hinata turned around to face the fight, taking a soldier pill. She winced as Chouji landed heavily, but with her eyes she could see that he was only stunned. Her hands raced through a familiar set of seals. "Shadow Replication Technique," she breathed, and a perfect copy of herself appeared beside her. Ignoring the wave of weakness, both of them charged the monster. "Cover us!" the clone shouted. Hinata hoped Naruto heard

Lightning flickered on the monster's head, and then Naruto appeared out of the earth ahead of Hinata. "Doton: Mud Wall Technique!" he shouted, and a massive slab of earth shoved out of the ground in front of them, catching the bolt of lightning. Instants later, Naruto let the wall fall.

Hinata and her replication didn't even have to slow their charge. The dragon reared up, and the two spun into motion. "Dual Piercing Heavenly Spin!" They slammed into the monster's head from opposite directions. The clone kept going, trying to keep the dragon's attention, as the real Hinata landed on the head, between the two horns.

Electricity flickered around her, but she ignored it, taking a moment to confirm that she'd located the tenketsu correctly before striking once directly between the horns. The lightning bolt died unformed as the flow of chakra abruptly cut off. Hinata's clone disrupted itself, and she jumped off the lizard's head.

Exhaustion ran through her as she landed, the soldier pill already starting to wear off. "Get it now," she croaked out. Roaring, the dragon lunged for her, and she realized she couldn't dodge fast enough.

A recovered Chouji answered with a roar of his own. "Human Bullet Tank!" He slammed into the monster's side, knocking it away from Hinata.

Naruto emerged from the ground again and raced toward them. "Chouji, get its mouth open!" The oversized ninja nodded and wordlessly pried its jaws apart. Naruto darted between his teammate's legs, forming seals. "Fuuton: Gale Palm," he said again, but this time he thrust his open hand into the sand dragon's mouth.

The monster rippled, and Hinata could see the windstorm ripping through the reptile's insides. It shuddered once, then twice, and then finally was still.

Hinata relaxed her eyes and sat down, breathing heavily. An animal that could use its chakra to perform elemental ninjutsu? No wonder the massive reptile had been named after the mythical dragons. Did the Sand really expect more ordinary genin to kill such a beast? She didn't think they could have done it as they'd been when they'd been given the name "Rookie Nine."

Chouji had returned to ordinary size and was rapping the dead dragon's scales with his fist. "I wonder if you could make armor out of this," he wondered out loud.

Naruto had pulled out a kunai and was busy harvesting the fangs - at least forty of them, if Hinata remembered correctly. "We can always skin part of it and take them," he said. "Ero-sennin might know if there's something we can do with it."

"And the horns," Hinata offered quietly. They were clearly capable of channeling lightning-natured chakra. She was no artificer or seal expert, but that would almost certainly be of use in making a weapon of some kind.

Naruto glanced back, as though he had almost forgotten she was there. "Are you okay, Hinata-chan?"

She could feel her cheeks heat. "I… I'm fine, Naruto-kun."

The blond boy smiled, then briefly diverted his attention to pry another fang out of the dragon's mouth. "Ah, I'm sorry about that first attack," he said awkwardly after a moment. "I didn't think this thing would have scales strong enough to survive my wind technique."

"It's fine," Hinata said. Chouji grunted, and wandered away from the dead beast toward where they'd stowed their packs.

"What was that attack you used?" Naruto asked, his momentary guilt clearly vanished at Hinata's reassurance. "It was awesome! Reminded me of Kiba's move!"

"We… worked on it together," Hinata said, he voice squeaking on the last word a little. Surely Naruto wouldn't think that they were… more than teammates, would he?

Chouji walked over to her, carrying his pack. He sat down next to her and opened it, pulling out a ration bar and wordlessly offering it to her. Hinata took it and started to unwrap it. "Thank you," she said quietly.

"You used a soldier pill, right?" Chouji asked. When she nodded, he continued, "Give me your canteen." She handed it over, and Chouji retrieved a small packet from the depths of his pack, ripping it open and dumping the powder inside into Hinata's water. He carefully closed her canteen and shook it to dissolve the powder. "This will help restore your physical energy from the strain of the soldier pill," he explained.

"Thank you," Hinata said again as she took back her canteen, then opened it and took a careful sip. The water tasted slightly sweet - sugar was part of the powder, either to hide the taste of the medicinal ingredients or to help boost her energy levels.

In the end, it took them almost an hour to harvest what they thought would be useful from the sand dragon's corpse. Naruto handed Hinata the largest of the fangs to keep with their half-cylinder, and they prepared to set out toward the center of the training ground in search of other teams. Then Hinata activated her Byakugan to scout the surrounding area and motioned for her teammates to halt.

"You might as well come out now," she said, pointing unerringly at a cluster of boulders behind her and slightly to her right.

A few moments later, three male Sand genin emerged from concealment, arms in the air. "Look, we don't want any trouble," one of them said. He gave the giant corpse a nervous glance, then slowly reached into his pack and pulled out his team's half-cylinder. He carefully placed it on the ground in front of them, then raised his hands again.

"Smart move," Chouji rumbled ominously. "Now get out of our sight."

"Yes, sir!" another of the Sand replied, and they began to back away.

"Wait!" Naruto said suddenly, and he tossed something at them.

One of the Sand caught it reflexively, then stared at the sand dragon fang. "Really?" he asked.

"Really," Chouji said. "Now scram before we change our minds!" The Sand all nodded nervously, and only managed to back away a few steps before their nerve broke and they turned and ran. As soon as they were gone, Chouji laughed. "We didn't even have to actually threaten them this time."

"This time?" Hinata asked.

"Sakura, Ino, and I fought those three a little in the last exams at home," he explained. "They'd heard those stories about Sakura, and well…" He trailed off, shrugging. "The fight went out of them pretty quickly."

"Oh," Hinata said, then she walked up to the half-cylinder the Sand had left behind. After using her Byakugan to double-check for traps, she picked it out and took out their own half-cylinder and the sand dragon tooth Naruto had given her. She quickly assembled the full cylinder around the fang, and watched in fascination as chakra churned inside the object. The word chuunin shone brightly for a moment on the far side of the cylinder, and then it was sealed.

"I guess we're done then," Chouji said.

Naruto grinned. "I guess we go to that tower now," he said. He scratched the back of his head. "Which way was it?"

Hinata pointed, and the three of them set off. The going was still slow, but Hinata's heart was light. Perhaps the second exam going so easily was an omen. She could only hope so. If she could pass this time, the status quo could be preserved a while longer, but if she failed a third time… the consequences hadn't been spelled out, but Hinata was more than capable of seeing the meanings hidden in her father's comments.

They were perhaps halfway to the tower when Hinata's routine check of their surroundings found another team. She started to signal Chouji and Naruto in the custom sign language her Team Eight had developed, then spoke in clipped, rapid tones. "Three ninja, incoming. Waterfall. The younger female has a lot of chakra. Dangerous." The small girl's coils were twisted in a way that she'd never seen before, but reminded her of two other, very different ninja with strange coils. One of those two stood beside her right now.

Naruto and Chouji took up defensive positions, and a few minutes later the three Waterfall came into view. The younger, green-haired girl hung back, and the other girl held out open hands. "We're not looking for trouble," she said, and two empty half-cylinders appeared in her hands, then vanished again. Hinata idly noted the sealing scroll on her hip. A weapons user?

Naruto relaxed. "I think I remember you," he said. "We met in that fort in Waterfall Country?"

"Uzumaki-san, was it?" the lone male Waterfall on the team asked.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

"You were in the finals at Leaf, weren't you?" Chouji asked. He paused a moment, perhaps searching his memory. "Yuhara Maya and Chiba Ikkei." The names rang a faint bell in Hinata's mind, but she couldn't quite recall where she might have met the two before.

"Akimichi Chouji," Ikkei returned. "Who's your other teammate?"

Hinata didn't say anything, all her attention focused on the younger, quiet girl who stood behind her teammates, eyes on the ground. Naruto introduced her, then asked, "What about yours?"

"She's Fuu," Maya said, glancing backwards almost nervously. The younger girl didn't react.

"If you already have both halves of a cylinder, what do you want with us?" Chouji asked.

"You looked like you were heading for the tower," Maya said. "How did you get your fang? We found one, but it was guarded by a couple of Sand jounin, and we didn't think we could get it without killing someone."

That was an interesting statement, and Hinata redoubled her study of Fuu. If she was like Naruto or Gaara…

"We killed a sand dragon," Naruto said simply. He dug around in his pockets. "You want one of our teeth?" he asked.

Maya blinked. "Huh?"

Ikkei laughed. "I guess we can't say no to that." Naruto tossed him a fang, and he handed it to Maya, who assembled the cylinder. This time Hinata didn't spare any attention to watching the seals on it activate.

"I guess we can travel together?" Maya asked.

"Sure," Naruto said cheerfully, and started walking toward the tower again. Hinata forced herself to relax her eyes, and the six ninja headed on their way. There were a few attempts at conversation, mostly originating from Naruto, but no one else seemed in the mood to talk. Hinata carefully kept an eye on Fuu, but the young girl just stayed silent, keeping her teammates between herself and the Leaf ninja. Even Naruto only tried to talk with her once.

When they reached the tower, two proctors were waiting outside the gates and demanded to see their cylinders. They seemed surprised when Hinata and Maya produced them, and more surprised when whatever checking they did for fakes found nothing wrong.

"Congratulations," Reki of the White Stone said as he appeared from inside the tower. "I wasn't expecting anyone to show up this soon," he said, actually not sounding bored for once, as he gestured for them to follow him inside.

It was only five hours after the second exam had started.

---

Fuuma Sasame let out a nervous gulp. The ten teams who had successfully completed the second exam were lined up before the examiners in a small arena that lay just outside the training ground where the second exam had taken place. Bleachers were set up along one side of the arena, and in them were sitting men and women who she guessed were the jounin teachers of all the passing teams. She located her own teacher, her cousin Kotohime, out of the corner of her eye. Sasame had a bad feeling that passing the first two exams might have been the easy part.

"Don't be so nervous, Sasame-chan," Karin said from behind her. "We'll be fine."

Sasame glanced backward and forced a weak smile. "I'm sure," she agreed, but she knew she didn't sound certain. They'd only barely passed the exam. She suspected they'd only succeeded because the Sand jounin guarding one of the sand dragon fangs had taken pity on them. After a day of staking them out, one had commented loudly that he doubted any of the genin were smart enough to figure out how to activate the cylinders without a fang. That had been all the clue Karin had needed, and after a hour of playing with the half-cylinders she had successfully merged them. They'd arrived at the tower with minutes to spare.

"All right," Reki of White Stone said quietly, but this was enough to bring all the murmured conversations among the genin to a halt. "The second exam of these Chuunin Selection Exams has been completed. I'm done." He stepped backward.

The first examiner pushed him forward. "You've got to say more than that," Shirou said.

Reki stepped backward again. "No, I don't."

An unfamiliar woman with purple stripes tattooed on her face stepped forward. "You two incompetents just shut up," she said. "I am Maki of the Wolf. I am the third and final examiner, and you are all now under my authority." She turned to an older ninja who stood behind the three examiners. "Ebizou-sama will now explain the purpose of the third exam."

Sasame listened attentively as Ebizou discussed the history of the exam system - except for the single exam the Sound had participated in at Leaf, the ninja of the Rice Field Country had never been part of the exam system of any of the great powers. There was a lot of uncomfortable shifting among the genin, and Sasame guessed that most of them had heard a version of this speech before.

When Ebizou was done, Maki spoke again. "Unfortunately," she said, "someone managed to actually kill a sand dragon, and then sent out his replications to hand out fangs like candy so almost no one needed to figure out one of the ways to get one or the other methods to pass, and a record number of teams have completed the second exam."

There was an awkward, familiar laugh from several teams over. "Ah, no one said not to," Uzumaki Naruto said loudly. Sasame stifled a chuckle. For someone who had such a large impact on her, she couldn't say she knew Naruto well, but somehow she wasn't surprised he was responsible.

"It looks like we wasted a lot of effort," Sasame's male teammate, Juichiro, said.

"Because we don't want to waste anyone's time at the finals," Maki said, "we will now begin a preliminary round to thin out the numbers." She smiled, baring her teeth. "Half of you will fail here and have no chance to become a chuunin."

Sasame's heart sank. They had to win here then. The other team from Music hadn't made it past the first exam, and it would be a great victory for the new village to be able to display its strength in the finals. "Don't worry," Juichiro said, "we won't let Guren-sama down."

"Or she'll kill us," Karin finished cheerfully, and Sasame couldn't help but smile. She hadn't liked the other girl when they'd first teamed up, and had almost started to hate her when she'd learned that she had worked with her cousin Arashi under Orochimaru. Now, though, after months of working together, she thought she could call the spectacled girl a friend.

"So what are we to do, then?" a short girl in a white kimono standing next to Sasame asked, her hand on the hilt of a katana sheathed at her hip. Sasame glanced at her forehead protector, worn on her sleeve, but didn't recognize the symbol. Sasame had heard there were ninja from the distant Snow Country attending, was this girl one of them?

"There will be a series of elimination matches," Maki said. A chuunin proctor removed a cloth covering a large wooden drum on a stand next to the bleachers. Maki walked over and grasped a metal handle on one side of the drum. "Teams will be randomly selected and face each other in combat. Only three from each match will advance to the finals.

"These will be the rules of engagement. You will fight until you choose to yield or are ruled unable to fight by me. When a fighter has been ruled as defeated, they are out of the match. Attempting to interfere after defeat will result in your team being disqualified. Attempting to further attack a defeated opponent will result in your team being disqualified. Endangering anyone outside the match will result in your team being disqualified. Pissing me off will result in your team being disqualified." Maki's eyes traveled down the lines of genin. "That means you, Uzumaki."

The blond boy gave another laugh. "Understood."

Maki started to rotate the drum with the handle, and after a few moments a wooden rectangle fell out of a small opening. The chuunin proctor took it and examined the writing on one side. "From the Hidden Music: Fuuma Sasame, Zaku Juichiro, Karin." Sasame flinched. There would be absolutely no time for them to rest, then.

The drum made a few more rotations, and another wooden plaque fell out. "From the Hidden Leaf," the proctor announced. "Akimichi Chouji, Hyuuga Hinata, Uzumaki Naruto." What were the odds that they would have to fight one of the few people at the exam Sasame knew?

"Everyone else go sit down," Maki commanded. "S… Music, over there," she said, pointing at one end of the arena. Sasame grimaced at the woman's slip of the tongue. The examiner pointed at the other end of the arena. "Leaf, over there."

A few minutes later, the other teams had joined their teachers in the stands, and Sasame's team faced Naruto's across the arena. Maki stood in between them, her attention moving between one team and the other. "Are you ready?" she asked.

Naruto cracked his knuckles. "Let's have a nice fun match," he said.

Sasame smiled faintly. "Let's," she agreed. She wanted to show the boy how far she'd come since their brief acquaintance a year ago.

Karin clapped her on the back. "Aw, are you soft on cool chakra guy?" she asked. "Where's that remorseless killer I know and love?"

"We're not going to kill anyone here," Sasame reminded her teammate.

Maki was apparently satisfied, and brought her arm down in a quick chop. "Begin!" she proclaimed, and she vanished in a swirl of sand to reappear on the edge of the arena.

Juichiro partially unrolled the scroll he kept strapped to one leg, summoning his weapon, a metal guitar. "Keep me covered to set this up," he promised, strumming the strings, "and I'll end this fast."

Senbon filled Karin's hands. "No problem," she said.

Sasame let a kunai fall out of her sleeve into her right hand. "Let's go," she said, and the two Music kunoichi charged their opponents.

The stocky boy on Naruto's team - Chouji - inhaled deeply as he formed seals. "Katon: Fireball Technique!" He breathed out a massive ball of flame.

Karin broke to their left, and Sasame to their right to avoid the fireball. As she rolled away from a second blast of fire, Sasame loosed her kunai at the silver-eyed girl. Hinata smacked it out of the air, then caught the second kunai hidden in the first's shadow. She sent it back at Sasame, who dodged.

Karin hurled her senbon at all three opponents, but Sasame didn't notice any hits, and none of them toppled over, paralyzed.

Naruto formed seals. "Shadow Replication Technique," he proclaimed, and suddenly there was a dozen of him. Half of those charged directly for Juichiro in the back. Sasame jumped into air and dove at them, a kunai in each hand. She disrupted two clones with a swipe of each weapon as she landed in a roll. Karin would probably be starting her genjutsu about now.

There. Karin began to sing wordlessly, and Sasame started to join in harmony when Karin's voice suddenly fell silent, and the gathering illusion shattered. The examiner proclaimed, "Karin of the Hidden Music, eliminated." Shocked, Sasame looked back for her teammate, and found that Chouji had swelled to enormous size and pinned Karin to the ground with one massive hand. How had he gotten to her so fast?

Suddenly Sasame felt hands around her ankles. "Sorry, Sasame-chan," one of the Naruto surrounding her said, and she was pulled into the earth up to her shoulders. Another Naruto placed a kunai at her throat.

"Fuuma Sasame of the Hidden Music, eliminated." Sasame flushed, embarrassed by her novice mistake.

Behind her, Juichiro played a loud chord, and she knew that they had at least given their teammate the time to finish his technique. "Raiton," he announced, "Electric Guitar." He strummed the strings once more, and lightning danced around Sasame, striking out of the clear sky to disrupt all of the clones surrounding her. Sasame opened her mouth to warn him that the real Naruto was underground and probably heading for him, but then remembered that her interfering now would disqualify their team.

Juichiro continued to play, and lightning kept dancing across the arena. Hinata spun in place, forming a shield of chakra to protect her, but Chouji had no such defense. A bolt of lightning struck the oversized ninja, but he still stood. Then there was the sound of fighting behind Sasame, and it was over.

"Zaku Juichiro of the Hidden Music, eliminated," Maki said. "Winners: Akimichi Chouji, Hyuuga Hinata, and Uzumaki Naruto of the Hidden Leaf."

A Naruto wandered into Sasame's view and offered her a hand. She accepted it, and he hauled her out of the ground like it was water. She stood on unsteady feet. Naruto smiled, and she looked away. She was still so weak.

"If we hadn't gotten the other girl before the song started," Naruto observed, "I bet that would have been bad." Sasame shrugged awkwardly. "Don't worry about it," Naruto said. "Hinata-chan and Chouji failed in the preliminaries their first time through too."

"And you?" Sasame asked weakly.

"Eh, I won." Naruto scratched the back of his head and laughed. "With a fart."

Sasame blinked, but she couldn't help but join in his laughter.

---

"Good job, you three," Yuuhi Kurenai told her temporary team as they joined her in the stands. Down below in the arena, the two Sand teams that had drawn the next fight were waiting for the signal to start. Naruto thought that he recognized one of the teams as the team that had given up their half-cylinder to his team without a fight. Facing them was a trio of younger ninja, possibly rookies. Naruto couldn't remember whether one of his clones had given them a tooth or not.

Seated a few feet away from the female jounin was Jiraiya. "What are you doing here, Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked as he plopped himself down next to his teacher.

"Keeping an eye on you, brat," Jiraiya said. "Sounds like you broke their exam." He ruffled Naruto's hair fondly, drawing a protest from the boy.

Once he had wrestled Jiraiya's hand away from his head, Naruto glanced down at the fight that had just begun. It didn't look like it was going to last much longer. One of the genin he had met during the exam was trying some sort of attack with metal chains, but a fan user on the younger team kept battering them with wind attacks, driving them across the arena.

"So what are you going to train me in for the finals?" Naruto asked Jiraiya.

"Hmm," Jiraiya said. "I was thinking of taking a break to do some research."

"Ero-sennin!"

"If that research is what I think it is," Kurenai said, "I'll make sure Sakura-chan tells Hokage-sama." Hinata, who Naruto suddenly realized had seated herself between him and Kurenai, looked puzzled for a moment before turning bright red. Chouji, sitting on Kurenai's other side, just snorted.

Jiraiya laughed. "I'm already in enough trouble," he said lightly. "I guess we'll wait to see who you're fighting to decide what I'll teach you, Naruto." He smirked. "You shouldn't need any more training to wipe the floor with whatever poor genin gets matched with you, though."

"Winners: Kashike, Tomari of the Sandy Hills, and Yahiko of the White Stone, from the Hidden Sand," Maki proclaimed from the arena floor. A pair of medics were attending one of the members of the losing team, but he was able to stand on his own after a few minutes.

The chuunin proctor had already drawn two more plaques from the wooden drum, and handed them to Maki as the last fighters made their way out of the arena. "From the Hidden Sand: Ittetsu of the East Wind, Matsuri of the Bleeding Crow, Nejiri of the Stony Waste. From the Hidden Rock: Akiyama Mako, Matsuoka Gonkuro, Yamakita Akira."

"Hojo's kids?" Jiraiya commented. "This should be a little more entertaining at least."

"The Rock genin are the Tsuchikage's students?" Kurenai asked.

"They were when we were up there last year," Jiraiya said.

"How'd you meet the Tsuchikage's students?" Chouji asked Naruto.

"Eh," Naruto said, "Ero-sennin had Hojo-sensei give me some training in earth techniques. He wasn't Tsuchikage yet then."

"I won't ask how you managed that," Kurenai told Jiraiya. There was something funny in her voice, but Naruto couldn't figure out what it was. It probably wasn't important.

The match began with Akira charging headlong at the Sand team. Jiraiya chuckled, and Naruto glared at his teacher. "I'm not that stupid," he complained. "That would be a shadow replication if it was me."

"Just watch," Jiraiya said.

One of the two male Sand moved to intercept, forming seals. "Fuuton: Storm Wall!" He thrust both hands forward, a wave of wind kicking up sand as it streamed toward Akira, blowing him backward. Then his form dissolved into a pile of dirt.

"Earth Replication," Kurenai commented.

Mako, who had been advancing behind Akira's replication, attacked. "Katon: Flame Dagger Technique!" Three tiny bolts of fire flung from one of her hands. When the firebolts hit the Sand genin's wall of wind, they exploded into a sudden, chaotic firestorm. The wild fire extended across the center of the arena, blocking the two teams from each other.

An instant later, Akira erupted from the earth underneath the Sand genin who had summoned the wind, uppercutting him on the chin with a fist that looked metallic. The Sand landed heavily and did not rise. Almost instantly, the firestorm started to fade as the winds that fed it died.

"Ittetsu of the East Wind, eliminated," the examiner announced.

The female Sand genin - Matsuri, Naruto guessed - didn't hesitate, throwing a strange weapon that seemed to consist of hooked dart on the end of a metal-braided rope at Akira. The Rock boy dodged, but Matsuri's weapon changed directions in midair, wrapping itself around him. Matsuri formed a seal with one hand, but Mako hurled more fire bolts at her. The Sand kunoichi rolled out of the way, breaking her seal but keeping hold of her weapon. This gave Akira time to melt back into the ground, leaving Matsuri's rope in coils on the sandy arena floor. With a snarl she pulled the weapon back to her, the rope vanishing up her sleeve.

"We need to take the offensive," the other Sand - Nejiri - shouted, and the two of them charged Mako.

In the rear of the arena, Gonkuro was ready for them, both hands pressed on the ground. "Doton: Striking Hand Technique!" Fists of sand and dirt erupted out of the ground in front of the two Sand ninja.

Matsuri's weapon flew out again, striking the hand in front of her twice before retracting. Naruto's eyes narrowed. What had she just done? An instant later he got his answer. The two explosive tags detonated and shattering the fist before it could hit her. Her teammate wasn't as lucky, failing to dodge and taking a heavy blow.

"Nejiri of the Stony Waste, eliminated." Maki sounded annoyed.

The last Sand standing jumped into the air instants before Akira struck again, dodging his uppercut. She tossed her weapon at him in midair, but Akira batted it aside with his metallic hand. The rope snaked around, and suddenly the metal hook flew at Gonkuro with surprising speed. He tried to dodge, but hook struck his shoulder, digging into his flesh.

Matsuri formed her one-handed seal again as she landed. "Raiton: Electric Cord Technique." Lighting crackled up and down the rope and Gonkuro screamed once before falling over.

"Matsuoka Gonkuro of the Hidden Rock, eliminated," the examiner proclaimed. "Winners -" She cut off as Akira moved to attack Matsuri from behind and appeared between them, catching Akira's metal fist in one hand.

"What the hell?" Akira asked, chakra shining around his arm for a moment before it became ordinary flesh.

"Three fighters were eliminated," the examiner explained. "The match is ended. Winners are Matsuri of the Bleeding Crow from the Hidden Sand, and Akiyama Mako and Yamakita Akira from the Hidden Rock."

"Advancement isn't by team?" Hinata asked quietly. There were similar expressions of confusion from the other genin in the stands.

"She never said it was," Jiraiya said amusedly, "just that three fighters would be eliminated from each match."

A short while later, the next team to fight was drawn. "From the Hidden Leaf: Inuzuka Shinta, Mitokado Fuki, Uzuki Ami," the examiner proclaimed as she read the first wooden plaque. Then Maki accepted the second from her chuunin assistant. "From the Hidden Leaf: Hijiri Eiji, Namiashi Honzo, Toriichi Kasumi."

Naruto grimaced as the second team was named, glancing down the stands at them. One of his clones had found them this morning and given them the tooth they'd needed, but they'd been badly beat up. The Sand medics didn't think any of them were in serious danger, but Honzo was still out of it in the infirmary, and neither of the other two were in fighting shape at the moment.

The purple-haired woman sitting by Eiji and Kasumi who Naruto supposed must be their teacher stood. "Maki-san, my team chooses to forfeit the match."

"Understood, Uzuki-san," the examiner replied. "Inuzuka Shinta, Mitokado Fuki, and Uzuki Ami will advance to the finals." She paused. "I guess there's no need to draw the final two teams. From the Hidden Waterfall: Chiba Ikkei, Fuu, Yuhara Maya. From the Snow Country: Kakyuyoku Ryouta, Kitakami Rui, Rouga Katsu."

Jiraiya snorted. "I can't believe they're pretending Rui-chan is a genin," he said. "Even with what happened to her." Naruto blinked. Had something happened to Rui?

"Um."

Naruto turned to Hinata. "What is it, Hinata-chan?"

"Y-you and Jiraiya-sama… should pay attention to this fight," Hinata said. "To the younger girl, Fuu."

Naruto blinked. "Why?" He'd tried to talk with Fuu a little, but she'd been anti-social, and had spent the past five days secluded in the Waterfall team's private quarters in the tower.

"I… ah…" Hinata played nervously with her hands.

Kurenai laid a hand on her student's shoulder. "What is it, Hinata?"

"I… think Fuu-san might be…" Hinata trailed off again, glancing over Naruto's shoulder at Jiraiya and then back at Naruto. "Maybe I shouldn't say that here."

"Huh?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya blinked once. "I think I understand, Hinata-chan. I assume her chakra coils are distorted in your eyes? Similar to a certain other ninja of our mutual acquaintance?"

"Huh?" Naruto said again when Hinata nodded. What was… "Oh." Naruto swallowed once as he finally guessed what Hinata was hinting at. "Oh."

The last two teams had arrived on the arena floor. Maya unrolled a scroll at her hip and summoned a naginata. "Stay back and out of the fight, Fuu," she ordered the younger Waterfall kunoichi. "You won't be needed."

"Understood, Yuhara-sama," the green-haired girl replied, taking a deliberate step back.

"Hey, hey," an older-looking, heavyset man on the Snow team said. "Don't be so arrogant."

"Don't worry about it, Katsu," the other man, a short blond - presumably Ryouta, said. "If they want to give us an advantage, we'll take it." Rui just drew her katana from its sheath, taking up a two-handed sword stance.

"Begin!" Maki shouted.

Before the word had faded, Maya brought down her polearm. "The Third Stance: Calling The Wind!" A blast of wind blew at Ryouta, who used the Replacement Technique to dodge. The small boulder he left behind was hurled out of the arena.

Katsu thrust one arm out, revealing a mechanical senbon launcher and launching its payload at Ikkei. The Waterfall boy just smiled, and the needles passed through him. Fuu ignored the weapons as they flew by her.

Hinata activated her eyes. "Genjutsu?" she asked,

"No," Chouji answered. "He has a Bloodline Limit that lets him transform himself into water." As though he had heard Chouji, Ikkei melted into a puddle that was quickly absorbed by the thirsty ground.

Maya struck again, swinging her naginata at the air. "Calling the Wind," she repeated.

This time Rui stepped forward, cutting the air with her own weapon. "Fuuton: Wind Strike!" The two wind attacks canceled each other out, but a slight breeze stirred Maya's ponytail.

"Not bad," the Waterfall girl said with a grin.

Ryouta circled around to try to attack Maya from another angle, forming seals. "Hyouton: Snow Storm Swallow!" he announced.

Jiraiya shook his head. "It isn't going to work in this environment," he said, half-groaning. "Idiot kid."

Slowly, painstakingly, a bird of ice started to take shape in the air in front of Ryouta. Before it could finish, a pillar of water erupted out of the ground behind him. Tendrils of water whipped at him, knocking him to the ground. In a burst of speed, Maya reached him, placing her polearm at his neck. Maki announced Ryouta's elimination a second later.

Still in liquid form, Ikkei became a wave to crash down on Rui. The Snow kunoichi shifted her sword to one hand, rapidly forming seals with the other. "Fuuton: Winter's Grasp!" she shouted, clenching her free hand into a fist. In an instant, Ikkei froze, wave of water turning into a still wall of ice.

"Ikkei?" Maya asked, sounding worried.

Rui's remaining teammate landed on top of Ikkei's frozen form, touching one hand to the ice. "Hyouton: Icebreaker Technique," Katsu proclaimed, and Ikkei shattered.

"I have absolutely no idea whether he's eliminated," Maki announced sourly.

"Hinata?" Kurenai asked, half-standing.

"He's alive, I think," Hinata answered. "His chakra is still there, but I think it'll take him a while to get back together."

There was a low growl, and surprised, Naruto looked down at Fuu. "You hurt Chiba-sama," the young girl said. "Die." A wave of killing intent swept the arena. Beside Naruto, Hinata paled.

Fuu moved, and was suddenly in front of Katsu. Naruto thought he caught a flicker of orange light, and then Fuu's arm was shoved through the Snow ninja's guts and out his back. A wet gurgle escaped Katsu's throat as the young girl withdrew her hand, and he collapsed.

Everyone was still for a moment. Then Rui took a nervous step backward, sword raised in a shaky guard position. Fuu slowly turned to her, and Naruto realized that the young girl's orange eyes were glowing. The killing intent hadn't let up one bit.

Maya jumped over her teammate's head, landing between Fuu and Rui. She pointed her naginata at Fuu. "Fuu," she said. "Stop. That's an order. Ikkei will be fine." Fuu took a step forward. "Stand down!" Maya ordered again, her voice almost cracking.

There was a puff of smoke, and man with a Waterfall forehead protector appeared next to her. "Fuu," he said warningly. After a tense moment, Fuu's killing intent vanished, and she lowered her head.

Sand medics swarmed the arena floor, racing for Katsu's still form. Hinata breathed a sigh of relief. "He's alive," she said quietly.

Unnoticed by anyone, the shards of ice left of Ikkei had already melted into a puddle. It slowly formed into human shape and solidified. "That was a trip," Ikkei said. "Did I miss… oh, crap."

"All right," Maki said loudly. "Advancing to the next round: Fuu and Yuhara Maya from the Hidden Waterfall. Kitakami Rui from the Snow Country." The medics finished loading Katsu on a stretcher and started heading to the tower. Ryouta and Rui made to follow, but Maki snagged Rui's shoulder with one hand. "We need you a moment longer," she said, not unkindly. "Winners," she shouted, "get down here! We need to draw your opponents for the next round!"

A few minutes later Naruto was down on the arena floor once more, standing in a line with the other genin, next to Chouji and Hinata. He noticed Fuu the far end, staring at her still-bloody hand. Naruto winced. Was he imagining that the little girl looked remorseful? He resolved to find a way to have a talk with her. If she was really like Gaara and him… well, he could have used someone like him to talk to.

A chuunin proctor was walking down the line of genin with a wooden box, and when he stood in front of Naruto reached into it and pulled out a slip of paper labeled "Fifteen." The proctor moved on, and a few moments later Maki stood in front of the genin with a clipboard.

"Call out your numbers in order," Maki commanded.

There was silence for a long moment, and then Fuu whispered, "One." Maki made a mark on her clipboard.

The roll call proceeded quickly, and Naruto called out, "Fifteen," moments after Hinata revealed her number was fourteen.

"All right then," Maki said. "The preliminary round of the third exam is now completed. The third exam proper will commence in thirty days. These are your opponents." She flipped the clipboard around.

Naruto started to search for his own name. Then Hinata let out a quiet whimper and collapsed. Instantly Naruto was kneeling over her. "Are you okay, Hinata-chan?" he asked. "What's wrong?" Why would she just suddenly faint like that? He managed to shake Hinata awake. "What's wrong?" he repeated.

"Look at the bracket," Chouji answered him, pointing.

Naruto looked up and found his name on the far right, directly next to Hinata's. "Oh," he said. Why would that make her faint, though? He smiled down at her. "Let's have a fun match," he said.

She whimpered and fainted again. Naruto blinked. There was just something weird about Hinata sometimes, and he didn't mean her eyes.

---

Sakura ultimately decided to go watch the two apprentice sand priests' demonstration for the Sand's academy students. She told herself that it was intellectual curiosity, but she knew that her real reason was that it was an excuse to get out of the guest house. Asuma, nervous with all the other Leaf ninja away attending the second exam until tomorrow, had vetoed any purposeless excursions. Sakura had needed to use Jiraiya's request for them to keep an eye on Aya and Hiroto to convince Asuma to allow this one, but now she was sitting on the sidelines of a sandy training ground, enjoying the fresh air.

It hadn't been that impressive a show, really, though the academy students seemed entertained. Aya and Hiroto had demonstrated their ability to manipulate sand, and were currently engaged in mock spar that was too obviously choreographed to be interesting, even if Sakura hadn't heard them arguing over who would 'win' last night.

So instead of watching them, Sakura studied the other non-student spectators. She recognized a few members of the Sand's council - Yuura was present, since he seemed to have taken the two nomads under his wing, and a couple of the older members of the council were with him. None of the three faction leaders were attending, which wasn't surprising as they probably had more important things to do with their time. Temari was standing a dozen of so paces to Sakura's left, looking incredibly bored. Given that she was used to watching Gaara, that wasn't a terribly unexpected reaction.

Her other brother, Kankuro, was seated beside her, and wasn't maintaining any pretense of watching the show, instead tinkering with the insides of a small puppet. Past him was… Sakura elbowed Asuma, who was seated on her right, contentedly enjoying a smoke.

"What is it, Sakura?" the jounin asked.

"To our left, past Temari-san and her brother," Sakura whispered. "Shouldn't she be with her team at the exam?"

Asuma turned to look over Sakura, and grimaced when he saw the Rock jounin Kurotsuchi. "Well," he said after a moment, "that could be good news or bad news."

Sakura thought about that for a moment. "It could mean that her mission here is in such trouble that she can't afford to take time to attend the exam," she concluded, "or that it is going so well that she doesn't want to lose momentum."

"Pretty much," Asuma asked. "Either way, we can't do much about it without risking playing into the Rock's hands."

Sakura nodded, and tried to return her attention to the show, which seemed to be coming to a close. Aya and Hiroto simultaneously struck 'killing' blows on the other, then bowed to each other to end the match. Sakura hadn't thought they'd actually use that suggestion when she'd thrown it out to try and stop their argument, and they'd certainly kept bickering until she'd gone to bed.

One of the Sand academy teachers thanked the two nomads for their demonstration while the others busied themselves lining up the students to head back to class. The rest of the spectators started to disperse on their own. Sakura decided that it would be appropriate for her to compliment Aya and Hiroto on their performance, so she stood and walked over to where the two stood, Asuma as ever trailing behind her.

Hiroto was waving his arm in the air excitedly, apparently upset over something Aya had done or not done during their demonstration, when Sakura reached them. "Impressive show," Sakura lied.

"Thank you, Sakura-san," Aya returned.

Hiroto opened his mouth, but before he could say anything there was a swirl of sand beside Sakura. She tensed, but didn't let her fear show as Gaara of the Desert emerged from the whirlwind. The sand fell back to the ground as Gaara studied the nomads with dispassionate eyes. "Hiroto of the Howling Moon," he said.

The boy swallowed. "Yes." Asuma drew closer to Sakura.

"Yuura-sama told me that you wished to meet with me," Gaara stated. "Why?"

"Your sand techniques," Hiroto said, his voice a little nervous at first, but gaining strength as he continued, "I'm told they are very powerful. I would like to see them."

Gaara didn't blink, and his face didn't shift expressions at all, but Sakura thought he somehow looked surprised. "No," he said, turning to leave.

"Hey!" Hiroto protested. "Why not?"

"Hiroto-san," Sakura murmured, "let it be. Please." The last thing she needed was for Gaara to decide to give a demonstration of his techniques. That was likely to end… poorly.

Gaara glanced back at them, grunted, and took another step away. Aya frowned. "That gourd on his back is sand," she said distractedly, as though not aware she spoke aloud. "But it feels weird." Gaara stopped moving.

Hiroto blinked. "You're right." His eyes narrowed.

"Hiroto-san, whatever you're doing," Sakura began, but it was too late. The cork on the top of the gourd popped open, falling to the ground with a loud thud. Sand started to creep out of the opening.

Gaara whirled around. "Stop. Now," he commanded.

"Hiroto," Asuma said seriously. "Aya. Do as he says." Some of the Sand ninja on the training ground floor had noticed the confrontation and were backing away rapidly.

The female nomad backed away herself, but Hiroto just stared at the tendril of sand, seemingly entranced. Sakura tried to think of what she could do, but there way no time. The tendril became a torrent of sand, flying at Hiroto with deadly force. As it hit, sand flew everywhere, and Sakura raised one arm to protect her eyes, using the Replacement Technique to gain distance from Gaara.

When the sand settled, Hiroto had fallen over backwards, but was unhurt. Aya stood protectively over him, both hands outstretched and breathing heavily. Gaara's eyes narrowed, and more sand poured from his gourd, flowing around him. "Run," he warned.

Asuma stepped between him and the nomads, one of his knives in his hand. "Don't be foolish, boy." Sakura fumbled for a kunai herself, sparing a glance around. The spectators were panicking, stumbling over themselves to flee. No one seemed to be coming to stop Gaara.

Gaara grimaced. "Don't," he said, but even before the sound of the word faded the sand under Asuma's feet boiled upward. The jounin was in the air in an instant, flying at Gaara. A shield of sand intercepted him, but then Asuma was behind the boy, so fast Sakura barely saw him move. More sand blocked the second attack, then suddenly grew in volume, engulfing Asuma. A puff of smoke escaped from the cocoon.

"Shadow Replication?" Sakura asked. Where was the real Asuma then? There was no time to wonder, though, as Gaara's sand hungrily streamed toward Aya and Hiroto. Sakura moved without thinking, hurling kunai with powerful explosive tags dangling from the hilts. The gathering sand shattered, flying in all directions as the tags detonated. "Get out of here!" she shouted at the two nomads. Damn it, what were the Sand doing? This was their village and their ninja, it should be their responsibility to stop him from going crazy and killing someone!

As the sand priests fled, Sakura returned her attention to Gaara. The boy was almost doubled over, hand covering one eye. "That's enough, Mother," he said to himself, seemingly not even noticing Sakura's intervention. "You scared them off. Go back to sleep." The sand floating through the air wavered, almost falling back to the ground. Sakura started to back away, hoping to get out of here before Gaara noticed her. "No!" Gaara snapped suddenly as the sand raced into motion again, flying at Sakura.

A lance of rock flew through the air, splitting the oncoming sand, then detonated. "Doton: Shattering Rock Spear," Kurotsuchi remarked as she landed lightly beside Sakura. "This looks like a fun fight," she said. "I hope you don't mind my joining in. Maybe if both the Leaf and the Rock ambassadors are involved these Sand cowards will get their act together and do something."

"Thanks," Sakura said weakly, and then the sand was flowing back together, building into a massive wave.

"Idiots," Gaara snarled. The sand hung still, looming over the two kunoichi.

"So," the Rock jounin said. "They say you've beaten him before. What's the trick?"

Sakura grimaced. Damn it. "There were… circumstances. That can't be replicated here." Like having Naruto around, specifically.

"Well, crap." Kurotsuchi frowned herself. "Guess we'll have to improvise, then." The wave of sand started to descend.

"Great Cutting Whirlwind!" Blades of wind sliced through the sand breaking it up and diverting it from its target. "Idiots," Temari growled as she landed beside the two foreign ninja. "Come on, stop provoking him. We've got to get out of here before he totally loses control."

"And what will he do then, hmm?" Kurotsuchi asked.

"Probably go after those idiot nomads," Temari said. "Unless you two have already pissed him off enough that he'll go after you instead."

"That's not a great bet," Kurotsuchi replied.

"Sister," Gaara said, his voice breaking. "Run." Sakura realized that one of his eyes had turned monstrous and yellow, and she swallowed nervously. That was probably bad.

"Shit," Temari breathed. "If it's this out of control… I'm going to kill those nomad brats."

Another wave of sand descended, and the rock jounin pressed one hand to the ground. A half-dome of rock sprung up, shielding the trio of kunoichi. "Let's focus on not dying ourselves first," Kurotsuchi replied, the dome of rock expanding to surround them

"Right," Temari said. "Look, whatever you do, we can't knock him out. If Gaara loses consciousness we're all dead."

"Great," Sakura muttered, not even bothering to wonder at the oddity of that. "Paralytic poison?" she asked more loudly. A loud thud made the rock walls enclosing them vibrate, and Kurotsuchi winced, pressing her other hand to the ground.

"Won't do any good," Temari said. "The sand's the problem, not his body."

"Chakra disruptor, then," Sakura replied, searching her pack for the right vial. She hadn't thought to prepare poison weapons this morning. The poison was a mild sedative, too. Not enough to put Gaara to sleep, but maybe enough to calm him down some.

"Maybe," Temari said dubiously. "I guess it's worth a shot. How are you going to deliver it?"

There was another thud. "I'm not going to be able to hold this much longer," Kurotsuchi warned.

Sakura took a deep breath as she finished readying three kunai and resheathed them. She wasn't Lee, but she had trained with him and Gai. She could move fast if she had to, and unlike Lee she had backup in this fight. "Cover me, distract the sand shield," she said. "I might be able to get in one strike."

A hole opened in the back of the rock dome. "Out the rear, now!" Kurotsuchi ordered, and the other two obeyed without questioning. The dome collapsed under the weight of another sand attack as they escaped, and when the dust settled there was no sign of Kurotsuchi.

Uniformed Sand ninja had surrounded the training ground, but they looked disinclined to intervene so long as Gaara's attention was focused elsewhere. The boy's face was twisted into a grimace. His inhuman eye stared balefully at Sakura and his sister, but his other was closed as if in concentration. Jerkily he held out one hand, and sand began to gather around the pair.

"Try not to die," Temari advised as she readied her fan. "I'll keep his attention on his front. Go!" Sakura broke away as Temari shouted, "Great Cutting Whirlwind!"

This wasn't the time to try and save stamina, and Sakura channeled chakra to increase her speed, looking to circle around behind Gaara. There was a roar of wind as Temari attacked again, and sand spun around Gaara, forming a solid barrier. Now! A poisoned blade in hand, Sakura pushed her already aching muscles past their limit, becoming a blur of motion darting toward Gaara. Sand raced to block her, but too slowly, and she thrust her kunai into the boy's side.

The tip of the kunai bent and broke, and then sand slammed into Sakura, sending her flying. More sand began to wrap around her. "No!" Gaara shouted, and the sand dissolved away. Sakura landed heavily, and her head swam. Why hadn't… damn it, she should have remembered. The sand shield wasn't Gaara's only defense. There was a second layer, an armor of sand. She'd need something more powerful than an ordinary kunai to penetrate that.

She would need to be able to move first, though. Sakura was pretty sure that strike had broken something and could almost hear her teacher's chiding voice. "The medical ninja should never be hit by the enemy's attacks."

"I never… said I wanted to be a medical ninja, Shishou," Sakura muttered to herself. There were shouts all around her as the gathering Sand finally joined the fight, but Sakura didn't pay attention. She formed seals, then pressed one hand to her wounded side. Green chakra flared as she numbed the pain, the limit of what she could do for broken ribs.

Sand flew around the training ground, blocking dozens of attacks from all directions. "Don't fight me!" Gaara roared. "You'll all die!"

Temari suddenly screamed, and Sakura looked up to see the other girl seized around her neck by a hand of sand. Her fan lay uselessly on the ground next to her. One of Gaara's hands twitched, and for a moment all the sand stilled. Was he actually fighting to stop the sand? Then… they weren't really fighting Gaara at all, really, but the demon inside of him. Would her poison… no, Temari had thought it was worth trying.

Kurotsuchi slipped out of the earth beside Sakura. "You look like you have a plan," she said.

Sakura nodded weakly. "Same as before," she said. "Can you cover me? I'm… not going to be as fast."

Kurotsuchi nodded, hands racing through seals. The ground in front of her began to liquify. "Doton: Earth Dragon Barrage." A draconic head began to form, rising from the earth.

Gaara's… or the demon's attention was still on Temari, and Sakura didn't have to push herself as she moved into position. Kurotsuchi's dragon head roared, and mud bullets began to pour out from its jaws, flying at Gaara. He spun about, the sand hand dropping Temari as sand raced to shield him. A Sand ninja risked a strike from behind with a lightning technique, but more sand rose out of the ground to shield the boy and counterattack.

Sakura formed seals. "Fire Dragon Fist," she breathed, naming the family style Anko had taught her. Her hands separated, wreathed in flame. She couldn't keep this going for long. She'd have to end this with one strike. She took a deep breath, wincing at the pain she felt even through her numbing technique. Now or never.

Kurotsuchi kept up her attack, and Sakura charged. Sand flew at her, striking at her injured side. There was a brief shimmer as her illusion faltered, and the real Sakura appeared a foot to the right and several steps ahead of where her image had been. Sand moved to stop her, and she struck out with one hand. "Katon: Claw of the Fire Dragon!" Talons of fire leapt from the aura of fire around her fists, cutting through the sand and almost reaching Gaara himself. The boy turned to her, yellow eye glaring. Sakura jumped through the reforming sand, retracting her technique. This was going to hurt.

With one final burst of speed she closed with the boy and channeled all her chakra into her right arm, screaming in pain as the flames turned white hot. She punched straight through the sand that moved to block her, hitting Gaara in the gut. She felt the sand armor crack under the force of the blow, and with the last of her strength the struck again, the poisoned kunai in her other hand jabbing at the weak point. Gaara caught the blade in one hand, wrenching it from her grasp.

For a moment everything was still. Then Sakura collapsed, her flames evaporating. Gaara looked at the stolen weapon, then pressed it against his own chest, where Sakura had hit. "Enough, Mother," he said, almost softly, closing his eyes. When he reopened them, both were human. Sand began to stream back slowly into his gourd.

The last thing Sakura saw was a furious Asuma landing between her and Gaara, weapons out, and then darkness claimed her.

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Author's Random Ramblings

1) Chapter number two! Which is way too long for something that only covers one-fiftieth of the story. Trying to do a chuunin exam in this format may have been a mistake.

2) I believe this chapter may have the only Fuuma Sasame point of view scene in all of Naruto fanfiction. I'm certainly not aware of any others.

3) Thanks go again to everyone at The Fanfiction Forum who commented on the first draft of this story.

4) Next time, in One Hundred Weeks, Chapter Three: The Invisible Hand, the Chuunin Exam finals are only a month away, but there are more important things to worry about as tensions in the Sand Village reach the boiling point and Akatsuki makes its move.

Draft Started: May 13, 2011
Draft Finished: June 03, 2011
Draft Released: June 04, 2011
Final Released: Jun1 12, 2011