A/N: Woohoo, really short chapter! Because I don't feel like writing more! Because Gaara's in the next one, and I didn't want to bring him in and cut him off! Or something! Why am I using all these exclamation points! GAH!

Thanks eternally to Kankuro's Puppet and Element Girls!!

-o-

"Guess what, people," declared Chie-sensei cheerfully. "I recommended you for the Chūnin Exams."

"Whaaaaaaat? Chūnin Exams?" repeated Eiri, giving me an odd case of déjà vu. "But we decided we weren't ready!"

"Cheh, Eiri-kun, only you decided that," contradicted Abura. "Although," he added, "I tend to agree in this case."

I did, too, but I wasn't about to say that, seeing as I was the one who brought up the Exams in the first place.

"You'renot ready, people," responded Chie-sensei brightly. "But it will help you see where you need to improve. We leave for Konoha in a week."

"Yah!" Eiri cried, panicked. "A week! I gotta train! See ya!" With that, he dashed off, careening around corners at top speed.

Abura laughed. "For someone who doesn't think he's going to pass, he's sure going to try hard. But I might as well do the same." Smiling slightly, he head off.

Guessing that Chie-sensei wanted to talk to me, I stayed behind.

"The Council decided that a little extra distraction to draw attention away from the mission couldn't hurt." She grimaced as she spoke, and I knew she didn't think much of using children for—well, cannon fodder. Even if we were much older than the average twelve-year-old, we were still… children.

"So I got you in. But I had to tell them your reasons."

I smiled thinly and sighed inwardly. Practically all the genin knew already, and now all the jōnin would know, too: Everybody talked.

"They were quite surprised to hear about your…"

"Obsession?" I supplied before I realized what had slipped out. I clapped my hand over my mouth while Chie-sensei smiled in amusement.

"Obsession?" she repeated.

"Eheh," I said nervously. "Not really. It just—" She raised an eyebrow and I trailed off.

"Nevermind. May I go train as well?"

The jōnin nodded, but as I turned away, she called, "Takara-chan." I looked back.

"If you get yourself killed—especially by Gaara—know that I will wring that monster's neck. Myself."

"Good luck with that, Sensei." I smiled wanly. "He'll probably crush yours first."

-o-

"We," said Chie-sensei a week later, "are not traveling with Gaara's squad."

Whaaaat? I wanted to cry, but I decided I would sound too much like Eiri, so I kept my mouth shut. It helped that Abura was looking sideways at me, waiting for a reaction; I remained calm and collected, even though I didn't want to.

"Well, yah, duh!" shouted Eiri, sounding relieved.

"Cheh, it's better that we don't travel with that monster, he might kill us as we sleep."

"We're his backup," I said hotly, burning with fury.

"Whaaaaaaat?"

"Takara-chan, what are you talking about?" asked Chie-sensei, raising an eyebrow. "Backup?"

I realized that Eiri and Abura probably had no idea we were distractions part of a bigger plan. I didn't really think that was fair to them, but I wasn't in charge.

I hung my head. "Sorry," I lied smoothly, sounding perfectly contrite. "I just… wanted them to lay off him."

"And what did you mean by 'backup'?" Chie-sensei pushed. I hesitated for a moment before realizing two things:

One, she was pushing my lie to the limits to see if I could support it. She was teaching me even now, when the lie mattered, and I couldn't let it break.

Two, we really weren't backup at all. We could never support—help—a team with someone as powerful as Gaara. What could we do?

We really were just cannon fodder.

"I meant nothing," I mumbled, seemingly in shame. "It was a lie. I tell them often enough."

Too late, I realized that a liar is never supposed to tell the truth when it counts.

-o-

We trailed behind the Sand Sibs, always at least half a mile back. Only Baki, the jōnin of the group, knew that we followed.

At night, I had last watch, so I could hide in the dawn and the rising sun while everyone else could cloak themselves in the true shadows of the night. It worked well, and no one snuck up on us.

It was only the third—and final—night when I snuck up on someone instead.

-o-

Glancing quickly about the camp, checking for signs of anything unusual, I crept through the shadows cast by the rising sun. As usual, there was nothing. Nothing that might attack—or wake—my sleeping squad.

A half a mile, I reflected, wasn't too far for a ninja.

Forcing chakra into my feet, I leapt forward silently. No leaves crunched beneath my feet when I landed; no twigs snapped. I was almost invisible.

And suddenly, I knew that this was what I was meant to do.

And this was what being a ninja was really about.

-o-

A/N: Anyone who can't figure out who she's sneaking up on needs to, to quote KP-san, go back to preschool. XD Please forgive the really short chapter, I promise the next one will be longer…