AN: Oh goodness. I'm so happy with this story. Having people read and enjoy my crap is so cool.

I'm getting the plot all worked out in my head, it is coming along pretty well. Right now I am just struggling with what will come after this chapter during the chunin exams. I want something interesting to happen so it's not super boring and filler-y D8. I know I want to get from 'a' to 'c', I'm just trying to figure out the 'b'!

This took me so long because I took a week break from writing when I was sick! ): I still kind of am sick, but, hey, here is the chapter anyways.

Chapter 4

Isago grumbled and rolled over onto his side. He could feel warm stone underneath his body, and he could hear whispering coming from above him. He slowly blinked his eyes open to be met with the sight his three students staring expectantly at him. He quickly sat up with a start and spoke groggily, "Wha…? Boys? Where are we? Weren't we in the River country?" He gazed around himself and observed that he was in some type of cave. He leaned his back against the wall behind him and stared at the boys sitting cross-legged in front of him.

After the battle had ended, the group had traveled to the village that had requested the mission. Karasu carried their unconscious Jounin and Jinin—the thug leader—the whole way. He left Abiru with Isago outside the village, and he and Tsuchino carried Jinin into the village. They turned the man in and Karasu told the village head that Isago was recovering from the battle, but was the one who defeated the man. He also said that Jinin probably would have an inaccurate recollection of the battle, because he had been affected by his own sleeping bomb. Hopefully this would cover his ass when the idiot started blabbing that a genin had defeated him, not the Jounin of the squad.

The three spent a night at their camp without any disturbances, but decided to start home when Isago still had not woken up the next morning. Karasu assured his teammates that their sensei was okay, and lugged Isago on his shoulder out of the Rain country and into the desert. A sandstorm forced them to take cover, and here they were now.

Karasu smiled widely at Isago, and the two genin on each of his flanks matched his expression. "Oh, we were! Remember the fight? Those crappy brutes had ambushed us—there were a lot more than in the reports. Their mega-stupid boss threw a sleeping-gas bomb right into the middle of the clearing. It knocked you right out, along with half his men! That leader was a big dumb thug, so us three together took him out easily. The rest of the rouges retreated. We figured that without their leader, they would disperse and no longer be a problem. We turned their leader into the village he was tormenting, so they should have taken care of him for us. You were out cold for two days now, so we carried you back halfway the distance home. A sandstorm hit, so now we are in this cave waiting it out." All the boys grinned so innocently at him it was almost suspicious.

Quietly, he mumbled to himself, "A sleeping bomb?...Oh Kami, how was I taken down so easily?"

Karasu started up again, "You might have had some memory loss from it. It was some pretty nasty stuff." He put a flat hand up to the side of his mouth in the manner that many officials do with their bosses when not wanting their lips to be read. Karasu dropped his voice down and squinted, and did it all rather comically. His teammates giggled—all three of them enjoyed picking on their dazed teacher. He continued, "Isago, you might want to make up a little fib for the mission report. Say something like…'We were ambushed and their leader was very skilled—the guy's name was Jinin Kurosuki, by the way. It ended up being a challenge, but I defeated him and saved my genin from harm!'" They all giggled again, but it seemed Isago didn't even notice.

He nodded in agreement and sniffed the air. He put his hand over his abdomen. "Food?"

The group laughed and grinned about his 'out-of-it' condition. Abiru chirped a response, "Ah, of course! We just made food." He turned around and quickly came back with a plate of warm curry, laying it in Isago's lap. The three faced their backs to Isago while he scarfed down the food and talked in a huddle.

Abiru spoke in a hushed voice to Karasu, "So, do you think he will buy it? The sleeping bomb thing?"

Karasu nodded in reply, "Yes. And he will obviously have to lie to the Kazekage that he wasn't taken down by a sleeping bomb. So he will tell him that he actually fought him. It should line up with the reports that the River country give—that the leader was actually that strong wanted bandit. We told the villagers our leader took him down, as well. Hopefully there will be no problems. That doesn't mean you can forget about keeping your faces shut, you hear me?"

They both nodded in agreement, and then all three turned back around to their teacher with big grins. After eating a whole plate of food and recovering for a few minutes, Isago was less disoriented. He looked towards the entrance of the stone cave. The wind had died down some, and the sandstorm was over. The sand grains on the dunes still blew around, but they only got a foot or so off the ground before their weight pulled them back to earth.

To reassert his authority, Isago took charge again, "Well, soon we should start on our way back to the village," he paused, grumbling a little when he next spoke, "And, uh…don't say anything about this to anyone, okay?"

Karasu patted both of the genin on their backs, grinning, "Of course, Isago! We won't say a word. But—eto…I think you owe these two that dinner you promised." He could feel his quirks wriggling in his throat—right now in particular, for whatever reason. It was sort of coming on like a sneeze.

The genin, who had previously forgotten about their dinner, squealed and wiggled on the ground. They whispered to each other behind Karasu about how much they will eat and what they will get. Isago knew he would be half broke afterwards, and sighed, but he still agreed, "Right. And you too, Karasu. Thank you for taking care of those troublemakers."

'Oh goodie, I get my dinner paid for!' His smile still plastered on his face, he chirped, "Oh, really, they were fine! Arigato Gozaimasu!" For emphasis of his thanks, his hands clapped together and he quickly bowed. Oops. There it was. Achoo?

For a moment it didn't occur to him what he just said. After a long pause, though, realization stabbed him in the face. 'FUCK! Kami, this is just too much!' His body instantly locked in place when his mind grasped his words, still bowed down, and he looked up at Isago with an expression something like: 'Heheh—Did you just hear that? Oops.'

"What?" Isago looked positively bewildered.

Karasu sat up quickly and waved Isago off with his hand in attempted dismissal of the situation. At the same time, he laughed nervously and his other hand scratched the back of his head. "Eh-heheh. Don't worry about it."

Isago still seemed to be a little dumbstruck, because he made no further attempts to question Karasu. That, or maybe he just didn't want to push on what he could tell Karasu didn't want to talk about—he did owe him now, after all. The genin made no inquiries either (maybe for the same reasons), and instead blabbed to Isago, while Karasu quietly scurried away from the scene—mentally slapping himself the whole way—to re-seal their dinner items.

He laid a scroll he pulled from one of his pants' pockets out on the ground and activated its jutsu. It was the same type of scroll he used to carry his other things around, so like them, all he had to do was merely drop the items into the head-sized, yawning, black hole that opened up on the paper. While he did this, the two genin amused themselves by bothering their Jounin—they asked him how many fingers they were holding up, and poked questions about his paled skin and dazed eyes.

Soon enough, they were ready to go. It was beginning to turn to dusk, though in the desert, traveling at night was much better and more convenient. It wasn't nearly as scorching warm, or bright. Karasu could keep his hood down as they made their way the last 2 hours of the walk to Suna.

The moon had risen in the sky when they made it back. All though most of the villagers were asleep, it wasn't uncommon for pods to get back from missions late at night. Since this was such a usual occurrence, it had a whole protocol associated with it. Unless urgent, the team should wait until morning to report. The Kazekage has to sleep too, after all.

The three boys escorted Isago to the center of town—they were still asking him how many fingers they were holding up—before they had to split their different ways to go home for the night. Though they were not assigned a mission, Isago told them all to meet here again at 3 PM tomorrow—presumably for the dinner he promised. Karasu flashed a large grin and waved to the group before he leaped to the nearest roof.

The two genin made their way home together with smiles on their faces. Neither of them ever remembered the meeting they had planned to assess the newcomer to their group. They accepted him—without question—to be their new Rain-ninja teammate.

Karasu stopped after jumping a few roofs away and out of sight of the others who were traveling home. The boy turned back to look at the Kazekage building that they had split up in front of. He was fairly tired, after his nightmare and all that fighting and traveling, some decent sleep in a bed would be nice. But, a thought occurred to him.

'Hmmm…I wonder…' Taking a quick detour, he quietly scaled the tall messenger bird building he had relaxed on a few nights before. He looked out over the village, peering at the rooftops. 'Oh! Sure enough…' A bright red dot caught his eye; just in the place it had been a few nights earlier. 'He needs to learn to change his hang out spot after he's been discovered!' He giggled audibly as he leaped to bother his unsuspecting prey, feeling suddenly awake.

The red-head obviously knew he was coming, because when Karasu had landed on the roof in front of him, the cork on his gourd was already off and the sand shifted around inside. He had a bit of a welcome, this time, now didn't he?

"You aren't happy to see me? That hurts me deeply, Gaara-kun!" Karasu spoke teasingly and with sarcasm, but still cheerily and with a smile. His only response in return was a cold glare. The sand began to crawl out of the small boy's gourd, and it slithered on the ground towards either side of Karasu.

With his arms crossed, the shorter boy took a few steps towards him. He stopped when only a couple feet from him. Icy eyes met cyan, the later flashing dangerously as the small jinjuriki spoke, "You are an assassin sent by my father." The amount of emotion coming off the small aggressor was astonishing to Karasu, despite knowing him so little. Even he could tell this sort of behavior was rare. Not a good sign.

'Assassin? By his father? His father is trying to kill him?' The older boy's face showed obvious confusion as he spoke, "Wha-? Who is your father?" As he asked the question, he could feel sand tickling at his ankles. Quickly, he suppressed his chakra further than it already was; if Shukaku recognized his chakra signature, he didn't know if he would try to kill him—even if it were against his host's will. He and Shukaku really never got along.

The red-head scowled, "The Kazekage. Do not play dumb. No one in this village approaches me on their own free will."

'The KAZEKAGE? Ugh, I should have asked more about this kid. I didn't know he was practically royalty. I must have picked a bad night to talk to him too, he is far angrier than the last time I talked to him. Though…' he looked up to the sky where the moon loomed back at him, 'It is a full moon tonight. And as long as I have been around, humans and demons alike get hot-blooded on full moon nights. That Shukaku must be reacting and riling up his poor host.' He looked back to the accusing glare of the smaller boy. "Well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble Gaara-kun, but I'm not any assassin. There is a first time for everything, right? I just wanted to say hi."

Gaara certainly did not seem convinced—his murderous gaze held strong. Sand began to tighten around Karasu's ankles, and then advance up his calves. 'Great. He is going to try to kill me. BOY…did I pick a bad night. I probably should have booked it before things got this far. I'm too bold for my own good…' He carefully attempted to reason with the demon container, "E-eh—Matte—Gaara, we don't want to do this. I'll leave if you like." He flinched when he slipped up in his speech. His quirks—as he called them—were very dangerous to his identity. But now wasn't the time to become unfocused over trivial matters.

The younger boys' eyes turned almost frantic with anger, and his voice rose louder than its usual low hum—it sounded strained. "Why are you not afraid? Everyone is afraid." He glared viciously.

Carefully, so that the red-head would not notice, he pushed his senses into the boy's mind. He only needed to listen for a moment; he could hear the problem for all of his agitation. The sand demon was screeching in his head, "-MUST DIE! MAKE HIM FEAR YOU, KILL HIM, KILL HIM! KILL! KILL! KILL! GIVE ME HIS BLOOD! DO IT NOW! NOW!" He quickly removed his conscious from the other's mind. The sound of that shrieking was almost deafening. Though, on the outside, the boy showed no signs of hearing anything. He had to have gained some kind of mental tolerance after years of that incessant screaming.

'Maybe if I shut this stupid Shukaku up…' He tried again to reason, "Ne, Gaara-sama…I can help you—really. Just hold still…" He reached out a hand towards Gaara's head. That was a terrible idea.

He felt a sudden overwhelming searing pain rush through every nerve of his body, and he let out a choked scream. Man did this kid sure jump the gun. All of the bone and flesh in his legs below his knees was crushed by sand. He would have fallen back had it not been for the sand around his legs locking him in place. Sweat began to bead up on his face from the effort it took to hold in the pained screams raking at his throat. His breath came as strangled, uneven gasps through his clenched teeth, and they were cut short every time by small grunts of agony. After a few seconds, when the shock of the sudden pain wore off, his eyes that were previously screwed shut opened slightly.

His squinted and his blurry eyes tried to focus so he could see his attacker. His vision wavered, but it was enough for him to catch a glimpse. The look he was receiving was cooler now that the demon's screams had to have been momentarily sedated.

At a certain time in his life, he could endure pain twice as bad as this without even flinching. But, this was the most physical pain he had felt in many years; he had defiantly grown soft to it. The world was fuzzy and all of his senses felt stuffy. He could feel a growing ache in his head as he tried to form a coherent scentence. His voice came out as a desperate chocked whimper, "G-gaara-sama—s-suimasen—onegai…I-" He abruptly clamped shut his jaw to halt the scream that threatened to rip out from his throat. He intended to ask to be let go, but he couldn't force out any more than that pitiful squeak. Even if he were able to finish his sentence, Gaara would not have understood what he was asking; his speech impediment would have prevented that. He seemed to slip at the most inconvenient times. He tried to look the red-head in the eyes, pleading through his vision rather through words to be released.

Sure, he could fight him. If he had to, he could. But he didn't want to have to go underground for another 7 years when he was discovered by the Suna ninja. And, he didn't want to hurt this boy. He has kill thousands of humans in the past, but he could feel that he would hesitate to hurt him in a battle. Somehow he just didn't have it in him—he was basically asking for this treatment, how could he punish the red-head for his reaction? He would try to go to easy; he wouldn't be able to use his full strength. Humans, why must they always inconvenience him so?

He heard no response, but the sand around his legs loosened and fell off. He would have been surprised if it wasn't for his condition; he expected to have the rest of his body crushed too. He didn't take Gaara to be a merciful kind of guy.

He fell backwards before knowing what was happening, and hit the roof before he could catch himself. When his back made contact with the hard sandstone building, he felt his legs to the same. His vision blurred and darkened from the sheer agony. He thought he heard himself scream. As the sand bindings left, the smell of his blood filled the air. He could feel it pouring from his legs. As a result of the massive nerve damage, his legs were constantly shivering, and they also twitched and spasmed occasionally.

He forced his eyes open again, though he could still see nothing, and all he could hear was the rushing of blood in his head. 'I can't pass out…' He struggled, and his vision and hearing began to slowly ease back to him. He could see someone bending over, gripping their head. He couldn't tell who, he couldn't remember who—it was too hard to remember. It hurt too much to think; his head felt like it was going to explode. He made his second mistake of the night and tried to sit up. Not only did the action of sitting up that small amount squeeze his blood pressure up high enough to make him pass out, but it also caused him massive pain. Despite all of his effort, the world faded to black again as he fell back on to the sandstone roof.

He felt weak; very weak. His eyes cracked open to see the sky. The moon had hardly moved. It could have been only 10 minutes since he passed out. But he was so weak. His head turned to the side, his cheek lying on the cold sandstone. Oh, Blood. He could see a lot of blood. That would sure do it. There wasn't a direction he could look where blood was not in his line of sight.

Pain—Oh Kami was there also a lot of pain. Very slowly, he strained to sit up. Thankfully, he had recovered enough that the rush of blood in his head didn't knock him out a second time. He placed his hands behind him to hold himself up as he looked at his legs. They had stopped bleeding, but just barely in time to keep him from dying. The only reason he had survived—unlike a human, who would have been stone-cold dead by now—was because his blood itself has healing properties. So, as he bled, the wounds that were bleeding healed. His body also made more blood, at a rate about 10 or 20 times faster than a human as he was bleeding—so as a result it was harder for him to bleed out. His shattered bones had also begun to heal, but very wrongly. He stretched an arm forward and very slowly pulled up each of his pant legs. He grunted and clenched his teeth again as the fabric rubbed against his marred skin.

After very painfully moving the clothing, he held a palm above his left calve. As it hovered there, cool green tinted chakra appeared in a halo around his hand. As he passed his hand over his leg, his skin began to patch together, and his muscles slithered under his skin. The bones, which were deeper in his leg than could be seen, were also moving and shifting, reconnecting and healing in their proper positions. He repeated this same process with his right leg, each leg taking three or four minutes to fully heal. As he watched, the movement of the flesh seemed somehow familiar. Like that nightmare, maybe? He wondered if this is what that dream foretold. Sometimes, though, his mind simply wishes to torture him with awful nightmares.

He stood slowly when he was healed, though his body was still involuntarily shivering in shock. His legs felt weak, as if he hadn't stood on them in months. His pant legs were ripped and torn, and covered in blood; overall, he looked like a shivering bloody mess.

His blood had been in such a massive pool that it had begun to drain off the side of the rounded roof–rounded roofs being common for Suna's architecture. Could he leave all of this blood here? He didn't think they would care a whole lot when no one turned up missing the next day to even try to find out whose blood it was. Plus, it would take quite a lot of effort to clean all of the blood. If it were a normal village, he would use a quick water jutsu to wash it off, but hell if he knew; water could make the whole building disintegrate. He made the decision to leave it.

He turned and jumped to the roof of the next nearest building. Just as he pushed off the building, thought, his legs unexpectedly gave out under him. He grunted in frustration and his mind began to whirr for a solution; he had already jumped, but he was undershooting the next roof terribly.

Time passed in an instant, and he ran out of options. He quickly twisted his body to the side, putting himself shoulder first before he ran right into the side of the building he was aiming for, bounced off and fell flat on his back, getting the wind knocked out of him. His face scrunched in pain an aggravation—he was unable to do anything but roll to the side and curl up in a pitiful ball. He laid that way until his body stopped clenching, and he could breathe.

He turned over onto his chest and lifted himself up with his hands. He glared at the ground beneath him as he stood on his hands and knees. "Kuso," he spat silently at his own stupidity and weakness, and scowled at the dirt.

He didn't lose that much blood, that injury should have been nothing, the pain should have been nothing—he should be able to take this. On top of that, he completely overestimated his strength and self-control. How weak has he really become? He bared his teeth in anger at his own feebleness and punched the ground. 'Stupid quirking. Stupid humans. Maybe deciding to stop eating and killing these pathetic beings all those years ago was a bad idea! They only try to kill me, catch me, use me, and hate me in return. And, I've gone completely weak and soft. I will not let this happen to myself.'

He pushed himself off the ground forcefully, and quickly stood. He ignored as his vision blackened around the edges from still having such a lack of blood, and jumped back up to the building. Pumping chakra into his legs, he leaped off, soaring over multiple buildings at once. Call it childish, but he did not want to believe he was weak. He fumbled as he landed, but did not pause to even catch his footing before he pushed off again.

At this pace, he made it to his apartment in under a minute. He pulled his hood over his head as he entered the building, refusing to make eye contact with the person waiting at the counter. He all but stormed to his room, but he kept his movement swift and quiet. Every step felt strange, because of the weakness of his legs. It felt reminiscent of walking on air, but it also had a very weak, pathetic, and venerable feeling to it. Quickly closing the door behind him after entering, he tumbled to the side and onto his bed, lying flat on his back. He lifted the pillow from under his head and stuffed it against his face, groaning loudly into it.

Through all of his grogginess and rage, Karasu never noticed he was being observed. From a distance, a pair of cyan eyes gazed at him until he was out of sight.

After sleeping, showering, and eating, Karasu felt somewhat better the next morning. He tried not to think about how weak he had become. In the back of his mind, he made a note to train soon. '…Use the time between missions to go blow off steam out in the desert, maybe. I mean, what else is that big expanse of nothing good for besides blowing things up and not needing to worry about damages?'

He sat on the roof of his apartment building amongst his brooding thoughts, and sighed. He wished it were night time, so there weren't so many people on the streets. He just wanted to be away from people for a while. 'I might have to go out into the desert earlier than I thought. Damn humans. There are too many of them. No wonder I was put on this planet to kill as many of them as I could.'

He glanced at the sun. It was about 2:30; near the time he needed to meet with the rest of his group. At least they were fairly bearable to be around. He stood and made his way roof by roof to the center of the village; he didn't use the streets whenever it was possible to avoid them. Those were the worst. It was far faster to travel by roof, but the best part was that he didn't get stared at. When he jumped above the streets he was only in view for about a half a second, most of the stupid villagers didn't even notice.

When he reached the center of the village, he perched himself on his favorite building—the messenger bird building. Maybe it was just his avian instincts, but he has always enjoyed heights and being able to see everything around from a high view. As he peered off the top of the building, he could see Isago waiting in the street. He decided against going down there early, he didn't want to talk with anyone he didn't need to at the moment.

His eyes drifted to the cloudless and dusty blue sky as his thoughts wandered aimlessly. This was kind of a depressing village. The desert outside of the village seemed to sap the life of everything was harbored in it. No one was very happy at all. Tsuchino and Abiru might be the only exceptions, along with some of the other hyper children. Was it the heat? Or was it the withering, unrelenting sun, and dryness? Maybe it was the fact that no new life enters here, and no life leaves—who in the right mind would want to move to a place like this anyways?

'Oh, right. Me.' He sighed aloud, and once again found himself questioning if coming here was the right decision. They never held festivals here, either, for as long as he knew—it was practically the opposite of the Leaf village, and every other major village around. The desert could be a nice place when there weren't humans in it, but it was almost like their presence angered the desert energy's wishes for solitude. So then, it retaliated and made their lives—and the area they lived in—as miserable as possible. Ugh, humans, just the thought of them...

Troubling pictures of his past floated across his mind's eye. Damn humans, they are a bunch of weasels. A frustrated sigh passed through his lips. 'Why must I be so unfortunate? Maybe this is just the life I was cursed with the day I came to be. I have so much shit to contemplate. But it is pissing me off to do it…tch. I've got to find my happy place, Kyuubi ka?'

He paused for a moment. Well, it had worked before hadn't it…? 'Ne, maybe that is a good idea? I could make a nice little spot for myself somewhere out in the desert. It could have a waterfall, be nice and cool, and I could get away from this horrible sunlight.' He sighed and mumbled airily, "So desu ne…"

His attention trailed back into reality as he saw his genin companions in the distance. He would have to go down to meet them all. Karasu stood on top of the building and placed his hands on his hips as he watched them greet each other. He waited until they had finished before making his quick descent. He jumped down to land on the next tallest building, and then leaped to the next, and so forth, like a set of steps, until he landed on the hard earth of the busy street.

As he approached the group, his grin wasn't quite as wide as it usually had been. His voice sounded more mellow as he spoke, compared to the perky tone his teammates had grown accustomed to. "Hey Isago-san, Abiru, Tsuchino," he addressed them all by name as greeting. Honestly, he was kind of pissy, and it was fairly obvious he wasn't in a normal mood.

The two younger boys seemed initially taken aback. That did not last for long, because Abiru quickly started up with a shout and an energetic smile, "Hey, Karasu-san! Did you hear about all that blood they found last night? They said it was enough for a man and a half to be killed, but no one has turned up missing or dead. I have been wondering what happened. Tsu' and I heard my dad talking about it. He was the one who found it early this morning on his way to the Kazekage tower! I wonder if there was a battle—do you think so? They are investigating the people near the site now to see if they saw anything. Maybe I can go ask my dad more about it when I get back from DINNER!" Abiru whipped his head and smirked at Isago on the word 'dinner'. Tsuchino was nodding during the whole monologue coming from Abiru, and his wide eyes showed his wonder over the topic.

Karasu forced himself to look slightly surprised, and he attempted to show some interest, as if he didn't already know this. His head cocked slightly to the side, and he made a thoughtful face before he responded, "Iie, I don't know what that could be. You would expect someone to at least be missing." He made no attempt to fight his quirking at the moment. Maybe they would just assume it was some random sound he made, rather than he was speaking a different language. He felt somewhat relieved when neither of the boys seemed to skip a beat.

Tsuchino jumped in right after his companion, "Yes! They are really suspicious for some reason; they won't let anyone on the scene! Isn't this so exciting?"

"A-ano, I suppose so–drama isn't my thing." He responded somewhat awkwardly and put his hands behind his head. He tagged on an apologetic smile, but his eye just barely twitched in annoyance at himself and his terrible speech impediment. 'I don't even know why I fight it. They don't seem to care. Maybe they will just leave it be, and not ask. Boy, would that be nice. …But what does he mean that they are 'really suspicious'? That doesn't sound good for me…' He tried not to worry himself over it.

"EHHH? Since when was drama not your thing?!"

Karasu merely rubbed the back of his head with one hand, using the other to wave the boy off. He continued to make a kind, 'sorry' smile.

"Geeze, your being so boring, Karasu-san!" Tsuchino loudly declared the obvious. Abiru nodded in agreement while crossing his arms, and then proceeded to stick his nose up into the air in a pout.

Isago shook his head and sighed, "Come on boys. I have to take you out to eat. There is an important conversation I need to have with you all when we sit down to eat."

Abiru forgot about his pouting to become excited about the prospect of food, and the apparent "surprise" to come. "OH! What is it? I want to knooowww! Tell us now!"

"Yeah, why do we have to wait? Is it something cool?"

"Tell us, Isago-sensei!"

Isago groaned loudly and face palmed.

After a hoard of excited complaining from the genin, they finally made it to a restaurant. They sat at a booth, with Isago on one side and the three boys on the other. Tsuchino was closest to the isle, and Karasu was against the 'privacy' wall with Abiru in the middle between them both. The isle that they sat by was one of the main ones, near the entrance to the restaurant; there was a fair amount of commotion by them—at least whenever a group arrived or left.

'Ew, you can see her butt her shorts are so tiny! Those are smaller than underwear. Is she going commando? I think I'm going to puke.' Karasu quickly averted his eyes from one of the horribly under-clothed waitresses in the restaurant. The two genin next to him seemed rather happy to openly stare, though. He shook his head and sighed at them both. They could stare as much at those nasty slutty women for all he cared. Her legs weren't even that nice…

As Isago chattered to the genin about food and whatnot, Karasu's head slunk down to the tabletop. He rested his chin on the wooden surface—his nose was almost buried in the menu he was holding it so closely, and let out a large sigh. Abiru glanced over at the sound of his sigh, and saw the scene just described. He giggled a little; the older boy had an expression of utmost boredom on his face. His eyes were almost past the half lidded mark as they lazily scanned the menu from his low position, and his lip was popped out in such a way that gave him a bored, annoyed, and pouty look all in one. The boy's oddly colored feathery hair was in his eyes like always, and added to the look.

Abiru nudged Tsuchino, who was at his side to get his attention, and pointed at Karasu while mumbling something about the face he was making. As the menu in Karasu's hands was standing straight up, Isago, who was sitting across from his genin, couldn't see Karasu's face. He looked up from his menu when he heard the genin making a quiet fit over—from his point of view—just Karasu.

This perked Isago's interest, who then asked, "What is it?"

Abiru giggled again, and with a little slap of the menu—which proceeded to fall forward and flop onto the table—revealed Karasu's face. Karasu's head had since fallen to the side, causing his cheek to squish and add extra lack-of-excitement to the bored/tired/lazy face he was making. The genin immediately burst out in small snorts and giggles, covering their faces to try and muffle the noises. Isago raised an eyebrow and blinked.

Karasu blinked as well, although very slowly. His now mildly annoyed gaze drifted over to the laughing genin. With a loud sigh, he lifted off the table and stretched, turning his head to the snickering boys to grace them with his unchanged bored face head-on. 'Those little craps want to pick on their Karasu-san, huh? Baka yarou.' His voice even sounded monotone in his head.

This only succeeded in getting them to laugh more loudly, doing some leg slapping, stomach grabbing, wheezing, and rolling around in their seats. They could almost see Karasu's annoyed thoughts through his mega-lidded eyes. Isago couldn't help his own small chuckle at the comical scene. Eventually Karasu's annoyed and lazy glare finally broke, and he let out a small amused scoff. He was surprised himself that these dorks managed to cheer him up.

Tsuchino reached over and roughly slapped Karasu on the back before he loudly proclaimed, "SUCCESS!"

'Hm. At least the food looks nice.' They had all ordered, and received their food after about a 15 minute wait. Fairly quick service, about the average; the food wasn't half bad either. He and Isago ate their food at a reasonable pace, but the other two ate as if they have never been fed in their entire lives. He was surprised they could eat and finish all of that food so fast, this restaurant wasn't greedy with portions either.

Abiru and Tsuchino babbled loudly when they were finished, sitting back to let their massive stomachs have room. Karasu was second to finish, and Isago was last, only a couple minuets short of him. When they were all done, Isago attempted to rein in the chattering teens. After many persistent attempts, he got their attention with, "HEY! Didn't you want to hear that super important thing? If you don't shut up you won't hear it!"

This snapped their rebellious attention into place, but their mouths did not cease, "OH, YES YES! I FORGOT!"

"WOOO! TELL US ISAGO!"

"YES!"

Isago nodded in thanks when Karasu gave both of the loud ninja each a slap on the back of their heads. They sat silently for a few seconds. It should be safe to talk. Isago opened his mouth to begin talking—but was interrupted as a loud comment flew from Abiru's mouth. "HEY ISAGO, are you going to tell us or what?"

There was a long pause…

"…YOU TWO HAVE THE MOST INCONCEIVIBLY MINUSCULE ATTENTION SPANS I HAVE EVER SEEN!" Karasu dramatically face-palmed, and then laughed loudly. The genin followed in giggles and snorts at Karasu's loud laughing, while Isago only pinched the bridge of his nose. The older boy calmed down quickly, wiping off the corners of his eyes, as they had wetted from laughter. All the near customers were staring at the group in confusion or annoyance. Karasu collected himself, "Eh-heh, sorry Isago-sensei! You twerps, shut your faces! I want to hear this too."

Isago sighed with a nod and began to speak while the genin wiggled in the booth with anticipation. "The chunin exams are in only a couple of months," Isago loudly continued over the boys' hoard of questions so they would shut up, "You both got out of the academy just this year. You're not ready."

Their excited faces dropped, and Abiru loudly whined, "AWWWWWW! Why are you even bothering telling us about it like this then?"

"Just listen. Someone has approached the Kazekage with a proposition—and I cannot speak much of it now—but, it would make the exams too dangerous for you anyways."

The genin continued to pout and whine at poor Isago, who attempted to ignore them, "But, Karasu," they abruptly stopped their complaining. Karasu looked more directly at Isago in attentive surprise, "I have yet to see your battle skills. If you are at chunin level already, I could recommend you to be automatically given the position. If so, you could then attend us to Kohona, and aid us in fulfilling this proposition, if it is indeed accepted. Soon after this meal, I will escort us all to the village gates. We will go into the desert to hold a mock life-or-death-scenario battle to test your strength. I will be your opponent."

The genin looked over at Karasu in wonder, the latter just blinked. There was a long gap before he spoke, "H-hai…if you really want, Isago-sensei." Again, his quirk went unnoticed and uncommented upon. 'Life or death scenario. He obviously didn't take in to account the possibility that I could be ridiculously stronger than him, and could destroy him in one attack. …Regardless, how strong should I make myself look? I could probably make myself look about a chunin level and not cause too much of a stir. Maybe I was just a mild genius back in the Rain village? I suppose if they do put surveillance on me, I can always just wait it out without looking suspicious…'

The sensei nodded in apparent approval, "Right. We should probably get going now."

They all began to shuffle plates and such about, and sort things into piles of trash or dishes—as courtesy, or just being plain nice—with Karasu deep in thought throughout. He suddenly paused, in thoughts and all, almost dropping the plate in his hand. He didn't move to look, he didn't dare. He had heard a voice he recognized. He could smell something familiar. Footsteps, three sets, they were walking down the main lane of the restaurant, which happened to intersect right at their table, so the sound was getting closer.

One of the sets stopped abruptly, the others followed suit. A low but young male's voice spoke, "Ne, Gaara, what's wrong?"

He could feel his heart skip in his chest; his eyes were still glued to the table in front of him in his frozen position. He could feel murderous eyes boring in to the side of his head, a very familiar sensation. 'SHIMATA! I am so stupid! I didn't even consider what would happen if I would run in to this guy again today! I DIDN'T EVEN CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY! What am I going to do if he says 'Why aren't you dead? I crushed your legs, why are you walking?' I will be so busted!' Sweat started to bead up on the side of his face in anxiousness, and his breath caught in his chest. He then realized it was very silent; everyone else had stopped moving as well. All of the other diners around were eating their meals in complete and utter silence; even taking care to make as little noise chewing as possible.

As he slowly turned his head, even the sound of his clothing shifting seemed deafening. His eyes locked with bright cyan. Karasu could feel how wide his eyes were, and how dumbfounded his expression was. He glanced to the right, across the table, and saw Isago was give a nervous sidelong glance to the ground of the isle. Abiru and Tsuchino were looking thoroughly horrified and shocked. Tsu' was especially so, as he was the closest to the isle and therefore the malice-filled red-head. Karasu's eyes then drifted back to the pale face of the small, glaring boy. 'Shit. Shit. Shit. Kuso. KUSO. AH, KAMI, BALLS! ...That glare is still so cute! ...NO, NO! I CAN'T GET DISTRACTED! FUCKING ASSLICKERS!'

After the long pause, the female spoke instead this time, "We can't waste time here. Who is that?...Isn't he that stupid kid from the village gates? Gaara, we really cannot afford you killing someone right now." She paused after her questions but continued when she got no response—she didn't seem like she expected one.

Karasu didn't dare retaliate the girls 'stupid' comment, he showed no signs he even heard it. Neither did the red-head. There was another long, rather awkward and uncomfortable pause void of almost any sound. Karasu bit his bottom lip as his chest began to flutter and his heartbeat sped up in the embarrassing and extremely pressing make-or-break silence. 'This is so embarrassing…I can't be getting like this now…' His face started to feel warm...odd…but…

'Agh, no!...KAMI, KUSO KURE NO SHINE, FACE!' He could see it; a light pink blush was turning red enough for him to see it on his own cheeks at the very bottom of his vision. He couldn't control himself. That adorable stare of that kid and all of this bothersome attention was too much to bear without blushing. On top of it, the stress of waiting for some sort of comment that would destroy his cover from the red-head was driving him insane.

Abiru looked uncertainly over to Isago, who only shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what to do, and obviously not ready to chance being killed. Likely in hopes that Karasu, A.K.A. the-super-cool-one-who-beat-up-all-of-those-bad-guys-and-could-protect-them-if-necessary, would know what to do, Abiru looked over his shoulder at the older boy.

Abiru's cheeks suddenly puffed up with air and he let out a small chocked sputter of a laugh. Super-cool-Karasu was BLUSHING! His face began to grow slightly red with the effort of holding in his laughter, and small wet marks appeared at the corners of his eyes.

'Double no. GAH, KUSOOOOO!'

Hearing the small noise, Tsuchino turned around to look as well, and then had a very similar reaction. Karasu stared at them both with an expression that read: don't-you-dare-make-a-big-deal-I'm-so-embaressed-right-now-I-will-kill-you-and-this-totally-is-not-an-okay-time-to-laugh. Abiru slapped a hand over his mouth and let out more choked sniggering, and Tsuchino threw his head back and began to silently wheeze. As Isago lifted his gaze from the floor to spot the source of all the commotion, his eyes momentarily got larger.

Now, this blushing situation wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for those two jerks' giggling. The giggles only infuriated the fire that was his face. The giggles, the staring, the impending disaster of his whole LIFE in Suna being destroyed, and on top of it, that cute little face staring at him, it was all like fuel on the fire. Like coals and GASOLINE. And…and EXPLOSIVES.

Because of this, his face was getting redder by the second—if that was possible—and the expression he was making was priceless. Like a kicked puppy that had wet the floor, who also looked ready to kill everyone. Gaara was the only one now without an expression. The woman, Temari, had an amused (but somehow still condescending) smile on her face, and the male, Kankuro, had a punkish smirk on his face.

After a very long moment of this, the genins' laughter apparently became uncontainable, as they burst out in loud hyena-laughs. Karasu scoffed in anger and annoyance, and face instantly darkened a few more shades; the redness proceeded to spread down his neck. He quickly jerked his hands up and pulled his hood over his head, and faced straight ahead at the table. The boys only laughed even louder, and proceeded to roll around in the booth in absolute bliss at the situation. All of the people around began to stare in partial-horror that Gaara may just destroy the whole restaurant in rage for the children's insolent laughter.

"Urusai, gaki! Neboken ja-neyo!" Karasu spat out in an angry whisper. Yet, the boys continued on with their laughter; they wouldn't have stopped even if they had understood him.

Abiru's hysterical laughter calmed just enough to pester the hell out of Karasu between laughs, poking him in the side and loudly commenting, "NE, NE! Why are you BLUSHINNG Karasu-saaann? Does someone have a cru-" The table jerked—simultaneously to a thump sound and the clinking of plates—and Abiru suddenly interrupted himself with a loud comical yell of pain.

The accusation registered in Karasu's head instantaneously as it was flowing from his teammate's mouth. His jaw had dropped to match his face of indignant shock, and he had promptly stomped on the younger boy's foot. He now whipped his head to bore an angry glare between the boy's eyes, who now had lifted his foot from under the table to rub it while he whined. "OWW, why did you have to do thhhaatt?"

This scene only caused Tsuchino to laugh and wheeze again. He put a hand on the table for support as doubled over to laugh in his seat. Between gasps and laughs, he began to make his own mistake of poking fun at his teammate, "SO IS THAT A YES, KARAS-"

Karasu reached past Abiru with a closed fist, and slammed it down on the fingers of the laughing boy. He followed the same pattern as Abiru: cutting off, whining, and cradling his respective injured appendage. After teaching his young companions a lesson, Karasu placed a hand over his nose and cheeks—which were still burning a bright red—and used the other hand to pull his hood further forward.

Temari became his saving grace, as she announced (though she seemed amused enough to otherwise let this continue), "I think it would be best if we were going. We are going to be late for our important meeting. Gaara, just ignore it." The red-head stood in place for a moment longer before silently turning and walking away. The siblings followed him, and when they were out of sight, Karasu sighed in relief.

He pulled his hood back down to his shoulders, and leaned into the booth in an attempt to relax. When he spoke, his blush had diminished, leaving an extremely annoyed glare in its place. "Ne, I didn't break anything, did I?" He looked at the genin next to him as he said this, who both responded with pouts.

"WELL, take a look!" Abiru retaliated, and shoved his injured foot in Karasu's face, stopping it an inch away from his nose. He had taken off his sandal by now when he was inspecting his foot.

The foot-violated boy made a 'grossed-out' face, "I didn't ask to smell your foot, gaki. Set that thing down."

Abiru huffed and plopped his foot on the booth. Karasu had to shift into a somewhat uncomfortable position to face Abiru's foot, because of the cramped conditions. He reached his right hand down, and the same chakra glow appeared in a halo around his hand. It dissipated after only a second, and Karasu used his other hand to pat Abiru on the shoulder with a smile. "Well, what do you know; I managed to break your foot!" The younger boy first looked comically angry, and as he stuck out his tongue; Karasu laughed loudly.

"FIX IT!"

"Ahhhh, hai, hai…" Karasu waved him off with his left hand. The glow around his right only re-appeared for a few seconds, before it again vanished. "There you go. It wasn't much, just a little chip off your bone. You deserved it, you're lucky I healed you! Next time, don't make an ass out of me." Karasu chuckled again as Abiru loudly huffed.

He then reached his hand to Tsuchino's, grinning a little, "I should check you too."

He repeated the process with Tsuchino, but found that he had avoided breaking anything. He only partially healed the bruising on both boys; he wanted these two to remember not to try this again.

"Karasu-saaan, my hand still hurts."

"My foot too!"

"Hey now, I'm not a miracle worker; I can't heal everything." 'Lies. You both will remember this for a few days! Muahahaha!' He grinned widely.

AN:

This chapter got long as piss, so I had to cut it short! Sorry not a whole lot happened in this one. I am probably going to do a small edit on my first chapter, change some dialogue and stuff; because now when I re-read it I see a lot of mistakes. It being the first chapter and all, it needs to be interesting to draw in viewers!

Don't forget to tell me what you thought of this chapter! I will upload if I get a couple of reviews on this chapter. Or when I darned feel like it otherwise 8(.

I know I used a ton of Japanese in this chapter, but probably won't use many full Japanese sentences in the near future. I would rather have it sound awkward than to do it wrong.

So, who's ready for a SUPER LONG DEFINITION LIST? 3! These are all Japanese terms. Please correct me if I make any mistakes. Also, please tell me if there is anything I missed or that's out of order. They should all be in order that they appeared in the story. I would hope you all know suffixes like "sama" or "san", but if a lot of you don't, tell me and I will define those here too. This is all done by my knowledge and research, no need to cook me if I make a mistake. :)

Eto: Eh, um, ah, uh, all of that stuff.

Arigato Gozaimasu: A very polite way to say 'Thank you very much.'

Suimasen: I'm sorry, basically. It can be used some other ways, but that is the most of it.

Onegai/ onegai shimasu: 'Please'/ the polite version of it. (Unlike kudasai, which can only be used at the end of a sentence, this can be used as a standalone thing. From what I've gathered.)

Kuso: Literally means, 'shit' (like poop shit), but it also is like damn it. :)

Ka: When Karasu says, "Kyuubi ka?" with the context of the sentence, it would mean something like, "right, Kyuubi?" 'Ka' is a particle of sorts put at the end of a sentence to insinuate a question. This use could be completely and utterly wrong, as I just pulled it out of my ass, so please, a professional preferably, tell me if that is an okay use?

So desu ne: "It is, isn't it?" is the most common translation. In this context, if I were to elaborate, it means something like, "Ahh, that is a good idea, isn't it?"

Iie: No. Not exclusively, but that's the concept.

Ano: Um, uh, well, eh; that sort of stuff. While on that topic, 'Ne' means something more like 'hey' (when used alone).

Baka yarou: Stupid bastard.

Hai: I have heard two things. One, that it just means 'yes.' But I have also heard that it actually means something more like, 'Right.' More specifically, like, 'I hear and understand what you're saying,' or, 'I get it.'

Shimata: Shit!

Kuso kure no shine (Koo-sou koo-rea no shii-nay): 'Eat shit and die.' 8D Not sure how reliable that phrase wording is, but from what I know, it's fairly accurate.

Neboken ja-neyo: Same as the previous, I'm not too sure how reliable this is, but it's supposed to be equivalent to, "Get your head out of your ass." Lulz.

Urusei: Shut up. It literally means, 'noisy,' but if you loudly exclaimed, "NOISY!" to someone who was talking too much, you can see how it could mean to shut up. Urusei and urusai are basically the same, but 'urusei' is the more male/tom-girl/less cute more serious way to say it. Both are correct.

Gaki: Brat. A gaki is literally a monster that never stops eating. But, a lot of parents call their kids 'gaki', so it ends up being used and meaning something similar to brat.

There you go! Long, right? Well, I am tired as shit, so I'm going to go to bed! Hope you like the chapter! Tell me if I made any mistakes :).