Peace lovely readers! Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I had so much work to do! Argh!

Anyway, here's the new chappie, hope it's good XD. Features a time skip so please don't hate (on my knees begging)


Chapter 3 – Assassination On the Banks

Three years later:

The whole class shivered as Gaara and Mizune entered the classroom. They occupied their usual places, at the very back of the room. Naturally everyone else gave them a wide berth. Everyone feared Gaara and ever since the two had become best buds, they had feared Mizune too. Her obsession with reading and her calm ways with Gaara made everyone regard her as a creep. Not to mention in practicals in class, she had an uncanny knack of vanishing and appearing right beside you when you least expected it. Also, her underground network allowed her to know nearly every secret/crush/weakness a person had and she was never hesitant with blackmail either, if it got her where she wanted. No one knew why they even came. Gaara considered it to be unbearably dull and spent the whole lesson glaring at the back wall, probably contemplating the next person he was going to kill. She spent her entire lesson with her head in some book, occasionally murmuring things to Gaara, most which made him smile in a very sinister way. This time it was slightly different though. She fished around in her bag and chucked a book at Gaara. He caught it and opened it curiously. Eyes widening ever so slightly he turned to his friend. She grinned, and murmured something in his ear. He nodded. The rest of the class and their teacher turned to the front and commenced the lesson.

Up the back Mizune hissed in Gaara's ear.

"It's all there. The tests, expectations and what they assess you on."

Gaara chewed his lip. "You sure these are the real thing?"
"Positive. And think what this could be mean! If we attend the examinations meant for testing you for becoming genin, then they have to acknowledge you!" Gaara scowled. "I've managed that already."
Mizune bit her lip, but didn't comment and continued on. It made Gaara feel a bit guilty since he knew that the girl was strongly opposed to killing and hatred and death. But whenever it came to him, she always turned a blind eye and tried to make light of it. She was better with it now then she used to be, willing to kill if it served her purposes or Gaara's pleasure, but she was highly opposed to pointless deaths. She had a hard spot in her heart for the Kazekage, who sent ninjas after Gaara, year after year, to be slaughtered.

"If we show them how much practise we've put in, then they'll have to accept you. You'll also have the opportunity to leave Suna and pit yourself against differently trained opponents." Now she had his attention. Although he still focused on the wall, his body tensed and went taught.

"Serious?"

"When have I ever got a research question wrong? And hadn't you already agreed to this two weeks ago and you're arguing merely for the sake of it? "

Gaara pondered the plan for a while. "Okay. I'm in. And I'm not going to ask where in Suna you got the scroll in the first place."
Mizune simply smiled her mischievous smile.

~()~

As the two came to the Kazekage's home, they overheard his conversation.

"-both of you are to enter." He said seriously.

Temari and Kankuro looked at each other before sighing. They nodded their consent. Gaara and Mizune peered in the room.

"What's going on?" Mizune asked curiously. The three stiffened and turned around. The kazekage stood up straighter.

"Genin test." He said stiffly. "Temari and Kankuro are planning to enter it. It's in three days." The two ten-year-olds shared a glance.

"Can we enter?" Mizune asked, eyes bright with interest.

"Maybe in a couple of years. It takes years of training to build up the technique endurance to work the tests." Gaara stared at him coldly.

"That wasn't a question. We're entering." The Kazekage shifted his weight.

"It takes to time to prepare to become a genin." Gaara face went from contemptuous to mad in a rate of seconds.

"We are going to enter." And then the two flounced from the room.

Temari breathed a sigh of relief.

"Dad, is there any chance Gaara will become a genin?" Kankuro asked, nervously.

The Kazekage stared at the doorway. "I hope not."

~()~

In Gaara's bedroom, Mizune fished the scroll out of her bag.
"So the first test is a questions test. Quite long but pretty standard questions. If you activate your third eye, then you can just browse my answers."
Gaara nodded.

"The second test is trickier, but easy to pass if you have practise. It's called an anti-climate test, but I'm presuming that means that they going to make us swim, since that is pretty anti-desert. I'm going to teach myself how to swim tomorrow but I'll need transport across the desert." Gaara shrugged.

"I threw myself in to this. I may as well do it thoroughly."

She grinned, and then gestured to the next passage. "Then we need to present our skills. You can do it individually or in pairs." They looked at each other.

"Individually." They both chorused. Mizune laughed. Gaara smirked, then sighed and clutched at his legs. The laughter vanished.

"It's been about a year now, hasn't it?" he asked, excitedly. Mizune bit her lip.

"Yeah, probably." She brightened. "Maybe they won't be bothered this year."

Gaara snorted. "You kidding? After three years of annual assassination attempts, you'd think that they would do year number 4."
"Maybe they don't want to risk any more lives." Mizune said quietly. Gaara made a face.

"No way. Lord Kazekage doesn't care how many people he sacrifices as long as it ends with me dead and the Shukaku once again in their possession."

"I know." Mizune whispered, even quieter. There was a strained silence in which Gaara regretted bringing up the topic and Mizune regretted arguing about it with him. Eventually, she rummaged through her bag and emerged with two thin bracelets. She chucked one to Gaara, who grabbed it and inspected it curiously.
"What is it?"

"A flotation band." She told him, smiling. "You tie it on and then if you are sinking beneath water you can activate it and it shoots to the surface." Gaara smiled slightly.

"I'm not going to ask you how you got them."
"I wasn't going to tell you anyway."

~()~

As the Kazekage watched the two kids travelling away from Suna, he called up a servant.

"What is it, Lord Kazekage?"
"Send two men to kill him."

"Yes, lord."

~()~

Gaara stared enviously as Mizune splashed and dived. Unlike him, she'd picked up swimming in two flicks of her legs. He'd spent the morning realising that trying to swim with two tonnes of sand on himself was hard, and then that drenched chakra-and-blood-infused sand takes a long time to dry. Mizune surfaced and paddled over to the edge of the cove they had been practising in. Stretching, she sighed.

"It's nice in there." She told him cheerfully. He grunted. Sighing (and carefully making sure that there wasn't any sand nearby) she shoved him into the water. He surfaced, spluttering. She dove in beside him.

"Now are you going to learn how to swim or what?"
The stayed in for a couple of hours until Gaara got the hang of it, then they came out and started to brainstorm how they could properly show off their abilities.

"As long as we can show that you can fully manipulate the sand, they don't have any excuse to not allow you to pass." Mizune commented thoughtfully, before giggling. "Honestly though, if you show that you can control the sand at all they'll be absolutely gobsmacked." Gaara grunted. Seeing, that he was starting to lose interest, Mizune sighed and stood up.

"I'm going to go practise my new move. Give a shout if inspiration hits." She trotted off into the woods surrounding the oasis the two had located. Then Gaara's nerves tightened. He leapt up, catching the kunai in his hands. The Suna assassin stared at him coolly. Gaara didn't give a fig that he had just been attacked anymore. Instead, he channelled his power and felt the blood rush to his face. Laughter that was part his and part Shukaku's coming out maniacally, as the blood rushed in the air. Gaara sniffed. It was standard blood. The assassin hadn't even put up a fight.z He went over to the body. Then a scream shattered the air.

What are you waiting for boy? Shukaku demanded. That's the girl. And where there's danger, that means that there's a second one here too.

Gaara started and ran through the trees towards the sound of Mizune's scream. He arrived at a clearing where another assassin was swinging his kunai all around him desperately. Mizune was nowhere to be seen.

"Now come on, girly." He yelled, nervously. "I don't want to do this, but you've left the Kazekage with little choice."
"I don't agree." Mizune's voice drifted from behind the man. He spun around in fear. Gaara's eyes widened. She was invisible! The man gave a yelp as some branches off a tree broke off near him. He turned and ran for the edge of the clearing, but then dropped down dead, the knife Mizune had kept since that incident when they were seven appearing in his back. She materialised right next to Gaara making him jump. She beamed.

"I didn't think I could do that. But when he jumped out screaming bloody murder, I got the motivation I needed. And I think I'll be fine for the demonstration tomorrow in the tests." She said happily putting her arms behind her head. Gaara scowled.

"I don't want to do it." He snarled. Mizune lowered her arms and looked at her in confusion.

"Why not?"
"I don't want to do it anymore. I won't be able to bear being an official citizen and follower of the Kazekage." Gaara was starting to shake with rage. Black veins were starting to appear at the corner of his eyes. Mizune crossed her arms.

"If you do that, you're only doing what that Lord Kazekage wants you to do."

Gaara turned his enraged gaze to her. She didn't flinch but looked him squarely in the eye. She knew she had to cool him off, but she didn't want to make it to obvious. That wasn't her way.

"You saw that look on his face yesterday. He clearly doesn't want you to become a genin. I bet that he sent those assassins just to put you off the whole idea. By now, he would have realised trying to kill you is a pointless ideal." She shrugged at him. "But hey, if you want to do what your father wants, that's fine by me."
Gaara stopped shaking, the veins disappeared and he folded his arms across his chest.

"I'll never do what the Kazekage wants. And he isn't my father."
Mizune shrugged. "Whatever, you don't mean that. I bet tomorrow you'll chicken out and run off."
Gaara glared at her. "No way! I'm taking that test tomorrow even if I have to murder the entire village to do it."

Mizune beamed at him, her fake contempt vanished. "Excellent."