Hey, everyone, sorry about the extremely late update. Luckily for ya'll I got all the way to chapter 16. So that means you guys get all the chapters to 14. Aren't ya'll happy about that :P

Chapter 10

Glowing red eyes stares down at Anko Mitarashi, sharp fangs bared in a savage snarl. Long ape like arms held up the wolf's large frame as she crouches - prepared to pounce in a second's notice. She couldn't help but notice the jagged silver streak along the wolf's head, about six inches long and half an inch wide. Recalling what the hanyou had said about the scars she glances at the tail to confirm that the jagged streak is still there before searching for any more. She found one more on the wolf's belly, starting at the right bottom most rib across to the navel.

Anko didn't know what to do except fall back on old instincts, slipping into a fighting stance that sparked something in the hanyou. The large head pulls up out of its threatening position, head tilted in a way that telegraphed puzzlement. The near perpetual growl eases up as the wolf looks questioningly at her.

Unsure what to make of this new development Anko stays in her fighting stance as the hanyou shifts the weight to circle her, moving with her to keep her in sight. However, Oretzi's movement has put her downwind of herself and the wind chose that moment to blast Anko's scent into her face. The scent of snakes caused the hackles to raise again and for the growl to return as the hanyou tensed.

Startled by the sudden change Anko jumps into one of the trees, running through them with Oretzi right behind her on the ground. A loud howl pierces the air behind her before there is a distinct crack of wood. A glance over her shoulder reveals that Oretzi had jumped and broke the branch she was just on. Cinching the fact that the girl she knows is not in control and her instincts - her demonic side? - is out for her blood. Oh kami, what did she get herself into?!

Reaching the clearing where she had left her other students she whirls around, quickly flying through the hand seals just as the large transformed hanyou tackles her down, large fangs bearing down upon her.

~Kazama~

Oretzi groans as she comes to, a wicked headache dancing over her brain as if someone with spikes attached to their sandals had decided to do some kind of routine inside her skull. She tries to move but once again finds herself restrained and… her brain takes a minute to take in the information her body is trying to tell her. She tilts her head back, dark brown eyes landing on the exhausted face of her sensei who is tightly holding her naked form in a grip that makes freedom a bit hard to achieve.

"Anko-sensei?" she mutters hoarsely, her voice cracking as if she had used it almost all night long. She pokes the woman's belly, unable to do anything else besides that, craning her head in an attempt to see where her clothes are. Even now she couldn't see where they are and the fact that she woke up with the woman twice in a row naked is beginning to worry her. She may not be self-conscious but it doesn't change the fact that it's pretty weird.

It takes more than a few pokes to get the exhausted woman to wake up and by that point Oretzi was desperate to find her clothes and her teammates. Not once had she heard their breathing or footsteps and was worried about what happened. The last thing she could remember was the infuriating itching just beneath her skin - as crazy as that sounds - and the increasing need to hunt something.

Within five minutes Oretzi was freed from her temporary restraints and Anko managed to gather up some of the discarded clothes. So the hanyou had her pants - a bit tattered but useable - and the fishnet that had been under her shirt. Everything else was missing and they couldn't afford to waste any more time searching for them. So Oretzi used a roll of bandages to secure her chest. She couldn't hide the markings because of a possible future need for bandages so after her chest was wrapped she stored them away and - since the snake mistress had no present clue as to where her other students are - uses her nose to find Hoshi.

Hoshi, her scent forever the scent of fresh apples and cinnamon - forever causing Oretzi to drool a little whenever she catches her scent, was easy for the hanyou to track compared to Tamashii. Simply because whenever she catches his scent she ends up sneezing at the burnt ozone smell that lingers around him ever so subtly and the hint of ashes - possibly a sign of his element's ability to set trees on fire with one strike. In either case, she can track them both but sneezing every two minutes was not an ideal for anyone so she rarely ever focuses on him.

It doesn't take her long to find them and Hoshi tosses the second knapsack to the hanyou with a happy smirk. "Great, lets' get going," her lookalike say cheerfully, dark brown eyes meeting dark brown eyes.

"Have I mentioned how creepy it is to be looking at you when you're me?" Oretzi questions the kunoichi.

"Every time," Hoshi retorts with a laugh, even her voice was of the same pitch as Oretzi's. No one except those with a keen sense of smell would be able to detect the difference between the two - which is Hoshi's intention.

"If I didn't know better I'd claim that you two are twins," Tamashii teases them with a smirk as they wait for their client to pack up his things.

"Considering she almost have every part of me mirrored I wouldn't be surprised if it did seem like it," Oretzi shakes her head, stretching her arms with a yawn.

"If only I was able to copy your demonic side,"Hoshi sighs, shaking her head while Oretzi just stares at her incredibly.

"Why would you want to be a hanyou like me?"

"The way I see it, Oretzi-chan, there are some benefits of being a hanyou," Hoshi smiles and ruffles the younger girl's hair - having to reach up a bit to do so since Oretzi is now three inches taller than her.

"Not really, Hoshi-chan," the hanyou mutters as she flattens her hair out. "Hanyous are rarely accepted by both worlds. Demons want to eat you, humans want to kill you, and other hanyous are either too feral or too timid to be around," she tells her bluntly as they finally start moving again.

"Do you really believe that?" Hoshi asks, her voice conveying a bit of hurt. "Do you think we want to kill you?"

Oretzi sighs as Tsukiko asks her about what happened the night before. "It's not about what I think, Hoshi-chan. The thing is, that's how most hanyous live. I probably wouldn't be who I am today if the Lunar Wolves hadn't gone out of their way to protect me from other demons…" Tsukiko starts to whines questions after questions at her so she drops the conversation to focus on the pup's curiosity.

~Kazama~

Two chunins at the gates frown when they notice a hazy speck on the horizon, their senses informing them that what they're seeing are not mirages. They quickly sent a message to a nearby shinobi before moving to intercept the group.

Leading point was Oretzi, the cloak whipping around her thin form - the hood sheltering both Tsukiko and her head, with a scarf across the lower half of her face. Her outfit, beneath the cloak, consisted of her pants and a tight fishnet shirt - her back up clothes destroyed as a result of the last few days.

Directly behind her walks their client and behind him Tamashii with Anko and Hoshi walking besides him. All of them shows signs of various stages of exhaustion and relief at arriving at Suna. Oretzi doubly so because her bare feet are simply unhappy with her at this point - even with her advanced regeneration abilities. Somehow - in the past three days - she lost her only pair of shoes and the group had not come across any villages for her to purchase another. Ironically enough it turns out that shoes are the last to be considered for backup when the others tried to supply her with a pair - discovering that they only brought the pair that they are wearing.

In any case, because Oretzi is leading she could see and scent the approaching of a shinobi and motioned for their sensei to come forward - sensing that the shinobi means them no harm. Just as Anko drew level with the hanyou the Suna-nin appears in front of them in a whirl of sand, hard eyes studying them.

Oretzi diverted half of her attention away from the man in front of them, to take in their surroundings. Wondering if the Arashi Ookami are based anywhere near the area or in the country. Always causing sandstorms to appear with the mere movement of their bodies, Stalks the Night has no love for any of the wolves in the Arashi pack. But they are the fastest wolves in the world, something the Prima has no choice but to admit and respect.

"C'mon, gaki, we're almost half way done," she hears Anko call out to them so once again they move on with the goal of dropping off Suterareta Hasha off before reporting to the Kazekage's office to make sure that he is aware of four Konoha-nins are in the village for the next week or so.

In the words of her old classmate, this is troublesome.

With the end goal in sight Anko took the point and Oretzi took her sensei's former position - keeping her body relaxed and yet at the same time ready for action - something not easily accomplished. Not even Tamashii and Hoshi are capable of such a feat and they've more experience than her.

The village is probably the same size as Konoha in terms of buildings and such but as she looks around she notices that there is a distinct lack of something. It isn't until they're close to the destination for Suterareta that she realizes it. People. The village lacked the number of people Konoha has. At that realization she looks at the streets with new eyes, noticing the disrepair the buildings have from a combination of sandstorms and neglect.

With that realization comes an estimate of their strength and the status of their economic. After all, you need people to fuel your ranks and to buy your supplies.

As she waits outside while Anko goes inside with Suterareta to make sure that the building's safe she scratches Tsukiko's head, her eyes narrowed and analyzing everything around her. That is, until Hoshi gives her a light shove to snap her out of it.

"Nani?" she questions her friend, rubbing the offended shoulder.

"Relax, Oretzi-chan," Hoshi teases her as she leans against a wall. Yet as she said this her eyes wondered over the scarce few people out and about, studying their threat level. Next to her stood Tamashii, the worst at being 'casual but alert' with his body as tense as a rod. Not even Hoshi could get him to chill out and she's one of the best at distraction techniques.

"Hey, Hoshi-chan," Oretzi calls to the other girl as her eyes scan their surroundings. "How come the village is like this?"

Hoshi sighs as she rubs her face. "Suna has probably fallen on hard times with Konoha retrieving most of the missions available. The best and well-paying jobs tend to go to the strongest shinobi village and well…" the older genin shrugs her shoulders, "After the war Suna sort of lost a lot of military strength and with it their ability to keep themselves afloat." She gestures to their surroundings, "As you can see they're probably up to their necks in sand."

Oretzi nods her head in understanding before moving when she senses Anko leave the store. "C'mon, gaki, time to report to the Kazekage," the woman says simply as she walks towards the dome shaped building at the center of the village.

Oretzi followed along behind Tamashii and Hoshi at a slower pace with Tsukiko - who had claimed she wanted to walk on her own - pouncing along besides her. With her legs too short to keep up with Oretzi's long strides the pup discovered that she can keep up if she runs or jumps.

"Nee-chan," Tsukiko calls to her, "Why are there no trees?"

"Sunagakure is in a desert. Do you know what a desert is?"

"We passed through one, didn't we?"

"Hai, we did," she smiles down at the pup. As she starts to look forward again she bumps into someone and a heavy hand lands on her shoulder, yanking her around.

"Watch where you're going, brat!" a young boy's voice snaps at her as the front of her cloak is seized and she finds herself looking at a face painted with purple lines in some special meaning that is lost to her.

"Nee-chan!" Tsukiko barks as she tries to come to Oretzi's rescue before being kicked away by the boy's leg.

Angered by the boy's disrespect for her companion Oretzi breaks free of his grip and with an open palm strike to the chest she pushes him away from her. She sees his outfit for the first time and is struck with the notion that he wants to be a cat - her eyes focusing mainly at the cat ear tips of the boy's hat. "Tsukiko, you okay?" she asks, not turning her eyes away from the boy in front of her.

"Hai."

"Go find the others, now," she tells her quickly, not bothering to look to see if her companion will follow the order. "I don't want any trouble," she tells the boy coldly.

"Too bad, you found it," he snaps as he stalks towards her, forcing her to shift her weight subtly into a stance she has seen Anko use a few times.

She readies herself for a strike, her eyes narrowed in distaste. "Kankuro!" she hears a slightly older voice snap before a dirty blonde girl shows up and hits the boy - Kankuro she reasons - on the head before he is within striking distance. "Do you want Gaara to get mad?!" she hisses at the boy, her voice too low for most people to hear but just right for the young hanyou. "Apologize!"

"Uh, that's really not-," Oretzi starts before she senses a presence behind her. A diluted power of a demon, similar to the effects of the demon attempting to hide their youki, causing her to disregard the two people in front of her in favor of focusing on the presence. Instead of finding some kind of demon like she expected she finds a red haired boy of her age with cold empty jade green eyes. The boy had to be at least a full feet shorter than her but she instinctively knew that underestimating him will lead to a world of trouble for her.

"Gaara!" the blonde girl exclaims nervously, causing Oretzi to tilt her head in confusion as she glances back at the pair. She could see that the redhead's presence scared them both like they expect him to kill them at any second. What she found worrying is that they are both older than this boy, what has this boy - someone who looks like he is her age or younger - done to be feared by the older children?

"Temari… Kankuro," the redhead starts in a monotone, causing Oretzi to flinch with the two. Though her reason for the instinctive reaction is far different from their fear filled one. Such a cold dead tone the boy has, it's enough to make even the oldest and wisest man on the world flinch with dread and for a demon to smile in pride. "Shut up."

Oretzi frowns at the boy's disrespect but chose to withhold her comments as she studies his eyes and the thick black raccoon-ish like circles around his eyes. The blood red kanji for love etched above his left eye. The sand that seems to move around his feet restlessly. His small… She does a double take when she realizes that the sand around his feet is moving at their own violation.

"Oretzi!" she hears Anko call out to her, prompting her to turn her head at least partially to acknowledge the woman. Unwilling to take her eyes off the boy in front of her.

"Mother… she wants your blood," is her only warning before the sand at his feet lashes out at her, forcing her to do several back flips to get out of harm's way. Her body moving instinctively as the sand beneath her attempts to hold her down so she takes to the top of a nearby building. From her perch she reviews the last minute, realizing that the sand around his feet reacts faster than the sand that had been beneath her.

Anko appears next to Oretzi, her hand resting at the spot between her shoulder blades. Comforting and at the same time restraining to the hanyou. "What did you do?" the woman questions her.

"Existed?" Oretzi replies, unsure of what provoked him in the first place.

"Oh, gaki," Anko sighs before the two are forced to separate by a fist of sand that attempts to hit them from behind. Oretzi lands at the edge of the roof and snarls at the indifferent boy below. "Gaki! Don't attack!" she hears her sensei call out from the other side of the roof just as she made to take the offense to him. "He's the Kazekage's son!"

Using the language she picked up from Tamashii, who has the foulest mouth aside from Anko, and Hoshi she dodges another fist of sand, landing on the ground close to Gaara. "This fight, Gaara-san, is not wholly fair," she growls at him and the sand wave that was about to crush her pauses. She sees this out of the corner of her eyes as she stares the boy down. She stands there, crouched on all fours, as he ponders something.

"Would you fight me, to prove my existence?" he questions her. Oretzi frowns just a margin at the question.

"Do you need blood to prove your sense of worth?" she asks instead.

"No." Oretzi wants to take a breath of relief at that but holds it back as she senses that he is not done. "Death to all who threatens my existence will prove that I am worthy." She sighs in dislike of this boy and his strange ideals.

"Worthy of what?"Gaara doesn't answer this question as the sand wave returns to the ground, smoothing out as if nothing ever called upon them. Oretzi frowns as she digs her partially transformed claws into the ground before sighing when the boy walks away with the blonde girl - Temari - and Kankuro trailing along behind him at a certain distance.

"Damn it, gaki, not even in Suna for an hour and you already made an enemy!" Anko gripes as she grabs the hanyou in a headlock and giving her a noogie.

"Anko-chan!" Oretzi protests as she tries to break free, semi-cautious of her transformed claws in an effort to not gouge into the woman's skin. As she struggles in the headlock Tsukiko runs into view, her tongue lolling out at the side as she pants.

"Nee-chan, nee-chan!" the pup barks happily as she jumps and puts her forepaws on Oretzi's legs, "Did I do ok?"

"Hai!" the hanyou gasps as she finally manages to break free, scooping up the pup while she puts some distance between her and Anko. She rubs her head for a second before attempting to flatten her wayward hair into some resemblance of order.

"C'mon, gaki, we still need to meet with the Kazekage and hopefully explain to him that you didn't start that fight," Anko calls over her shoulder as she heads for the dome again. When she doesn't sense Oretzi following her immediately she goes back and grabs the girl's cloak, proceeding to drag her away.

"Anko-chan!"

~Kazama~

Team 13 bow as one before the Kazekage upon being admitted into the office. The three genin stayed in the background as they let Anko handle the situation. Hoshi, with Oretzi standing between her and Tamashii, could sense the hanyou's restlessness as well as her aggravation but couldn't begin to fathom the reason behind it.

Oretzi can sense the redheaded boy nearby and the bloodlust radiating off of him was striking a chord deep inside. Waking the dormant demon within. She has to fight to keep her youki suppressed - thankful for the seals that has been placed on her because otherwise she'd be losing the fight with her youki, a dangerous thing to do in the presence of a Kage. She can feel his demon just beneath the surface, restrained by the human - by the boy that stands somewhere outside the office.

Unknown to the hanyou her body, after just recently experiencing the effects of the full moon, is flooded with hormones to instinctively attack any demons within the immediate area. And right now Gaara with his strange status of human with youki is provoking her instincts - setting a war within her slim form. Rationality against instincts in a free for all brawl - winner will determine the fate of the future. Her instincts, left uncheck, will possibly start a war should she attack the boy without restraint.

Soon the team is dismissed from the office and the genins follow Anko out, Oretzi tensing when she spies Gaara standing in the shadows of the waiting room. A low growl issues from the girl's throat, feral red eyes warning him to stay away from her, as she walks by him. She watch him, from the corner of her eye, smirk before he is behind her - forcing herself not to turn to keep him in her eyesight, her instincts clamoring at her to never offer her back to her enemies.

By the time they left the dome the hanyou was mentally exhausted from the struggle to not turn around and seek out the redhead. Tsukiko, held in the hood of the cloak, jumps up to put her forepaws on Oretzi's head, prompting the girl to make a questioning whine at the pup.

"Nee-chan," the pup starts.

"Hai?"

"I don't like that boy," the pup tells her, causing her to sigh.

"Which one? There's a lot of boys around here," Oretzi gestures around them to make her point.

"The one with red fur!" Tsukiko exclaims and Oretzi coughs to cover up her laugh.

"Tsukiko, what is fur for wolves is hair for humans," the girl tries to explain as she draws parallel with Hoshi, reaching over to lift up a lock of her hair. "What do you call this?" she questions the pup.

"Fur!" the pup exclaims and the hanyou face palms. Hoshi, having listened to Oretzi's side of the conversation, laughed at the girl's antics.

"What did she say?" she asks after beating down her amusement.

"She's insisting on calling hair, fur," Oretzi sighs.

"It does cover up areas like fur does," Tamashii volunteers from the other side.

"See?! Tamashii agrees with me!" Tsukiko exclaims, managing to say the Hyuuga's name in their language despite the fact that she is speaking wolf. This gets her an award in the form of an Inuzuka treat from Tamashii who has been trying to teach her how to say his name since it always come out as Tama.

"You're spoiling her," she complains to her teammate as the pup's crunching grates on her since the pup's muzzle is right next to her wolf ears.

"Hey, hey, Tsuki-chan, can you say my name?" Hoshi asks hopefully.

"Hoshi!" Tsukiko exclaims in wolf, causing the hanyou to laugh.

"She knows it but she's not saying it in the right language," she snickers at Hoshi's dismayed face.

"Mah, I thought you loved me, Tsuki-chan," Hoshi complains before Anko calls back to them to hurry up - having already found their hotel where they'd be staying for the duration of their mission.

The three genin hurry to catch up with their sensei and set up in their room. With an uneven male to female ratio it was decided that Anko and Tamashii would have their own room while Oretzi and Hoshi shared - adding to the illusion of being sisters. Tsukiko chose to sleep in Anko's room, preferring the older woman to Hoshi to Oretzi's amusement and Hoshi's dismay.

Tired from the long trip the girls prepared for bed, turning down the covers and - because of paranoia - checked the room for any trace of traps or something of the like. By the time they were ready to fall onto their beds and just sleep a knock came from the door, causing the older of the two to groan in dismay.

Fighting the giggles at Hoshi's reaction Oretzi goes to the door, her nose telling her that it's Anko. "Anko-chan," she greets, tilting her head slightly. The woman had a serious expression on her face and as such she shifted her weight to stand at her full height, adopting a more serious attitude as a response.

"We need to talk," the older woman tells her before moving aside for Oretzi to step out of the room. The young hanyou spares her sleepy teammate a look to make sure she overheard the exchange and when she gets a lazy wave she nods and closes the door behind her. She follows the woman to her bedroom.

Oretzi sits on the edge of the bed, her eyes intent on the purple haired woman. She could sense that the next five minutes are not going to be pleasant and instinctively flattens her ears against her head as she recalls the last time she retrieved the woman's ire. Her ears were aching and ringing with the pinching and scolding she had gotten and she is not looking forward to a possible replay.

"You want to explain to me what happened with the Kazekage's son?" Anko questions, pulling up a chair and sitting in it with the back to her chest.

Oretzi just shook her head. "I don't know what the story with him is. He has a bad case of something and whatever it is my death will reassure him of his sense of worth." She rubs her hand down Tsukiko's sleeping form.

"What about your reaction to him in the office?"

The hanyou sighs as she looks back at that. Her memory already fuzzy to her dislike. "I… I'm not sure. I just felt this irrational desire to put him down and show him who is boss." Anko rubs her hand across her face at the girl's explanation. "I… It felt like I was… Sort of like I wasn't exactly in control over my actions. Aware but at the same time not in control," Oretzi confesses. "Like there was this insane need to destroy anyone with youki."

Anko frowns at her, leaning on the back as her lavender eyes study her tired student. "Do you think it's because he's hostile towards you?" she questions, aware that she never behaved like this around Naruto - even before she knew about what happens under the full moon. She didn't think there was a coincidence to Oretzi's increased hostility and the full moon, not after she nearly had her throat torn out.

She shrugs her shoulders. "Maybe. It could be his demon though," she points out. She could recognize what he is after getting away from his presence and allowing herself to calm down. A human with youki not of his own? The answer is clear to her only after ridding herself of the instinctive reaction she has to him. She could still feel the grainy youki caressing her skin roughly, trying to rub her raw. Lessons with the Prima already told her which demon this one is and she was not impressed in the slightest bit.

Compared to Naruto, Gaara's demon rides closer to the surface and she can take a guess that 'Mother' is actually his demon, distorted and possibly taking advantage of the redhead's naivety. That or the boy just doesn't care and wants to do the demon's bidding. Whatever the reason is she knows that if she fights him for real she'll have to make sure that she doesn't give him a chance to allow his demon take over.

"Gaki…" she looks up from the ground which she had taken to staring at in her thoughts. "I think the kid, whatever is name is, may want to fight you. He sure as hell looked dead set on killing you." Oretzi tilts her head as she waits for the woman to make her point. "In any case he might be able to convince the Kazekage to allow you two to fight without taking retaliation on Konoha for the outcome."

It takes the hanyou a second to comprehend what Anko is telling her. But once she gets it she starts wishing she was still in the dark about her point. "I knew it," she whines grumpily.

"What?"

"Suterareta-san is bringing me nothing but headaches," she pouts at the woman who starts guffawing, unable to control her reaction at the girl's complaint. "Anko-chan!" she whines, crossing her arms as her tail thump on the mattress in a rhythm that spells her unhappiness at this situation.

Anko continues laughing to the point where her ribs are begging for her to stop and it only takes one look at Oretzi's unhappy face to nearly send her off into another bout. But she fought it in an effort to talk with the girl about this matter. Laughing every five second is not going to help.

She clears her throat after finally getting her amusement under control and once she has Oretzi's attention she leans against the back. "Tell me your assessment of the Kazekage's son," she tells the girl, prompting her to think back to the brief one-sided fight and the meeting before it.

"…Feared by everyone around him, probably despised as well," Oretzi starts, recalling the blonde girl and strange makeup boy's reaction to the presence of the boy. "He has no respect for his elders… actually, he might not have any respect for anyone except himself." She remembers his coldness. "…From what I can tell from that brief meeting is that he has a demon in him like Naruto."

She didn't have to look at Anko's face to know that she has a shocked expression on her face. "But his demon is closer to the surface than Naruto's. I think he's doing something to his vessel. Maybe he's partially to blame to for what's happening with Gaara or maybe something happened to him when he was younger. But whatever the case may be it doesn't change this one fact..." Dark brown eyes meet lavender and the hanyou sighs sadly as she considers her final piece to say. "He's an example of what Naruto could've been."

Anko has to resist shuddering as she accepts Oretzi's words regarding the boy. Her ability to notice things is top-notch despite her age. What little information she knows about the Bijuu Lords told her that the demon that may be inside the red haired boy may be Ichibi no Shukaku's vessel.

She leaves the chair and - shoving the flimsy furniture out of the way - kneels in front of her student. "Gaki… when the boy comes after you…" she takes the girl's hands in her own "promise me you'll play it safe."

All she gets is a sad smile that almost breaks her heart.

~Kazama~

I hope the transformation and the resulting chaos after it made sense to everyone. If not just lemme know and I'll try to clear it up. I don't have much to say except don't kill me later on when you get to chapter 12 or 13.