Hey there! Happy new year and I hope you enjoyed your holidays!

Some might have noticed that some chapters ago I stopped thanking everyone who was so kind to review at the beginning of a new chapter. That's because I was afraid that some might don't want to be especially mentioned, so I decided to just leave it be. But I'm still grateful for every review that I get from you lovely people and still jump of joy every time I get one. If my wonderful reviewers are actually okay with getting mentioned in this lovely space on the top off my stories, just tell me and I'll start again doing so. If you don't want to or simply don't care I'll leave it as it is.

I also decided that I 'll stop promise you guys anything anymore regarding updates since I seem to fail every-frigging-time to keep my promises. Stupid life getting in my way..

I stalled you guys long enough, so here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Gods' Game

Chapter 10: Stop laughing, that's not funny!

„Here are your dango, Anko-san." i mumbled slightly irritated while giving the plate with Japanese sweets to the jonin. The second test of the chunin exams just started and I was already used as an errand boy/girl and had to run through the whole village getting some juice, mangas or like this time her favorite sweets, dango.

I was aware that on the first day I didn't have much work as a helper but for almost an hour I did nothing but running through Konoha while getting bawled at for being oh so slow. It was only thanks to Asuma's harsh training that I was even able to run that much in such little time and she dared to insult me for that? Oh how I loathed her...

"Finally! What took you so long?" Anko barked at me while she practically tore the junk food from my hands and shoved the first dango in her mouth.

"Then get it yourself." I mumbled surly. Unfortunately she heard me and drew a kunai which she pointed to my throat.

"Watch your mouth, brat. I could kill you before you even had the chance to beg for forgiveness." she threatened and then smirked at me sadistically. "Or I could talk to Ibiki. I'm sure he'll teach you some respect for your superiors."

A shiver ran down my spine. She knew how frightened I was of that man. And I had all reason to. After all he was the leader of the Department for torture and interrogation.

So all I could do was to make a sullen face and glare at the patch of grass to my feet. Oh how much I loathed that woman!

Since Anko started to ignore me and continued shoving all those sweets in her mouth I strolled to the stall where the scrolls had been distributed earlier and sat down on the table. Anko sat on its roof, how that could be in any way comfortable, I don't have a clue.

After a few minutes in silence – and the loud chewing noises coming from the woman above me – I decided to try and start a conversation.

"Uh, Anko-san?"

"Whaff fo wou wanf?" she asked, not even caring to swallow the half chowed sweets in her mouth before replying.

"Will I have any other tasks in this test beside getting you... stuff?" I asked hesitantly, mustering all my self-control to sound somewhat polite. Not an easy task if you have to drown noises that sounded like a starving pack of wolves feasting on a small rabbit.

I heard her gulping down the mass in her mouth and humming while in thoughts.

"I guess you'll have the same task as the other chunin. That is congratulating the teams that made it with both scrolls to the tower, then explaining the motto of the exams to them. But the first ones shouldn't be there before tomorrow."

I jumped off the table and stepped forward to be able to look her sceptically in the eyes.

"But how should I do that? Since I'm here and not at the tower." I asked questioning her explanation.

"With transportation jutsu, of course. What do you think the seal is for, that they handed out to you? Didn't Iruka and Ibiki teach you anything?" she retorted and gave me an are-you-an-idiot-look.

I clutched the piece of paper in my pocket. Some random guy shoved it in my hand when the second test started, not explaining anything. It had a strange seal on it, one that Iruka-sensei didn't teach me yet.

How I'd love to smack that expression out of her face. Transportation Jutsu, my bum. I came from a world of technology without those Chakra-magic-stuff. Not that they knew, of course. But how in the world could teleportation ever be so self-explanatory?

Anko on the other hand just theatrically sighted and facepalmed as if I was the one not making any sense.

"You really don't know anything, do you?"

"That's because no one tells me anything." I mumbled with a sour face. That expression threatened to get permanent if it went on like that.

"We'll head for the tower in a few minutes anyway. The staffroom's at the highest floor. You can stay there with the other chunin and wait for orders, understood?"

I suppressed a growl from her degrading tone and just nodded instead.

The next minutes Anko spent eating the remaining dango and throwing toothpicks at a tree, forming the symbol of Konoha with them. Meanwhile I sat in the grass leaning against the stall and watched the clouds. One of my favorite hobbies since I stranded in this world.

Just as the woman threw the last toothpick I felt a gust of wind picking up and mere seconds later a chuning appeared out of thin air. At least it seemed that way for the normal eye. This technique was called Shunshin no Jutsu and was a D Rank jutsu. Iruka told me in one of his lessons. You canalize chakra to travel at a speed invisible for the human eye covering a certain distance. This distance can be increased with years of training.

Said chuunin turned to Anko.

"Big trouble, Anko-sama!" he shouted agitatedly but the kunoishi didn't share his excitement.

The only thing that made me wonder in that situation was that man's choice of suffix for his superior. I always thought -sama was used for high ranking persons like the hokage or the feudal lord to show one's respect. And here he was, using it for a jonin. Anko at that! But maybe the use of honorifics varied for every person's own point of view. At least no one ever complained about me using -san.

So this guy reported about a corpse discovery which still wasn't interesting enough for the kunoishi to wipe that bored expression off her face. Only when he said that there was something off with the corpses she started to show interest and vanished together with the chunin, using the sae jutsu the man used earlier to appear.

I was left behind and shook my head in resignation. What a cold world, where a corpse discovery wasn't even enough to create a frown on one's face not to mention to cause horror. I for my part have never seen a dead body in my whole life and I'm not planning to change that fact any time soon. But maybe that would get harder than expected in this ninja world full of violence and death.

Letting out a sigh I watched the blue sky. Judging by the position of the sun it was afternoon and it was not even two hours into the second test.

If Anko was held back by those "strange" corpses for some more time, then I'd finally have some spare time all to myself.

A smile grazed my lips. I lay down in the grass to watch the clouds and dozed off. The last weeks were tiring after all, so I couldn't let this rare chance of a break slip my fingers.

Unfortunately not even three minutes later a cold shiver ran down my spine. I didn't even have the time to wonder where this feeling came from when some sort of inhuman force started to tear on my body and sucked me into the seal in my pocket.

Next thing I knew was that the same force restored my body. I found myself in a cloud of smoke but unfortunately I couldn't feel the floor under my feet. This resulted in me dropping down and painfully landing on my butt.

"Those dumb ninjas with their dumb techniques!" I cursed and coughed the remaining smoke out of my lungs. But three familiar chakra signatures let the alarm bells in my head ring and my head snapped up with nervousness.

'These signatures. It couldn't be...' I thought as I used my enhanced eyesight to watch the three figures in front of me through the smoke. And what I saw didn't please me one bit.

I was sitting on concrete floor between two spread out scrolls that were seemingly the tools for the summoning jutsu that brought me in this situation. And with this situation I didn't mean me sitting on the floor in front of a ninja trio. I meant sitting on the floor in front of the three persons I wanted to meet the least in this damned test: the three genin from Suna!

The last smoke clouds were gone together with the shelter they provided me and now I fell victim to their intense stares. What a great turn of events. Not. But somehow I couldn't get myself to be surprised. Of course something like this would happen to me!

"Seriously? Konoha really must be one load of crap village if even weaklings like this brat get admitted as examiners." the big one scoffed haughtily.

A vein popped on my forehead. Angrily I got up and batted the dust off my clothes as I shot him a glare.

"And that comes from some guy that still wears rompers and plays with make-up."

That hit him unprepared and he blankly stared at me with a bewildered look and a slightly opened mouth.

"Well, Kankuro, I have to agree with her there." the only girl of the team said while laughing and playfully hit the boy's side with her elbow.

The large boy cleared his throat to get back his composure but irritation of the humiliation was still evident on his face.

"So what exactly do you want?" he questioned.

"Well I'm here to congratulate you for passing the second test of the chunin examination and I.. uh.. should explain the motto of the exams to you I guess." I said glancing at the huge scroll on the wall behind me when I said the last sentence. So in short I explained about the heaven being wisdom and the earth being strength and one should train whatever it is that they lack of. And neither me nor them were really interested in whatever I had to say that's why I made it short and after I finished I told them that they could do whatever they wanted till the five days were up.

But as the two older members of the team turned to leave and I, too, wondered where exactly I could find the staffroom I noticed that the shortest of the trio, the redhead, still hadn't moved an inch.

"Is something the matter?" I asked hesitantly and the other two also noticed that their partner wasn't following them.

The boy stared at me with a seemingly calm expression on his emotionless face, but that didn't hide the dark aura that the boy was emitting. A cold and foreboding aura that sent shivers down my spine.

I gulped and wanted to say something but found myself being unable to. As if the tension in the air was so thick that it tried suffocate me.

"G-Gaara, don't you think that we should go now?" the blonde girl hesitantly asked, not liking the silence of her little brother.

"So we can do whatever we want?" he finally spoke up, his question directed to me. The question seemed harmless but his looks said something completely different. As if he tried to dagger me with only his glares.

My hands trembled and as I spoke up I found my voice slightly shaking.

"Y-Yes. There are several lounges that provide you with books and means of entertainment." I explained with a nervous smile, but unable to steady my voice.

"So if I want to see blood?" he continued, a crazy smirk creeping on his face.

My forced smile fell. Forget politeness, I was on the verge to hyperventilation.

In horror I watched as he crept closer, his bloodthirsty aura transforming to a deadly shadow hovering over the boy whose facial expression kept turning more and more maniacal.

"Y-You know. E-Even if I'm no ninja, I'm still an examiner of this test. S-So if you even lay a finger on me not mention kill me, you'll definitely get disqualified. And you've come too far to risk that, don't you?" I managed to say after getting out of my stupor.

"She's right Gaara. We can't fail now." The girl agreed with me, cold sweat on her forehead.

"Y-Yeah, don't forget our mission." Her teammate confirmed. At least I wasn't the only one afraid of that boy. A small comfort for being about to be killed, but better than getting cheered on by some sadists that enjoy watching me getting slaughtered. Like some good-for-nothing-God whose name I don't want to mention here. But you know who I speak of, you stupid God!

Seconds felt like years as the tension silenced even the birds outside the tower. You could have heard a pin dropping. My heartbeat raced and throbbed in my ears, but I could see the same happening with the other two in the room, my vision allowing me to see the violently throbbing aorta of the girl and the sweat gathering on the older boy's forehead.

After this agonizing moment of silence the redhead let out a grunt and turned his back on me, breaking the tension that threatened to suffocate me. The two teens let out a sight of relief and I also released the breath that I had held unconsciously.

Then things started to happened really fast.

I watched his chakra react and sand grains gather and dived to the side, dodging the mass of sand that lunged at the spot I occupied just a moment ago.

I rolled over the ground and used the remaining momentum of my evasive manoeuvre to jump back to my feet, holding my right shoulder that got hurt from the impact when it hit the ground.

"No Gaara!" I heard the girl scream but didn't pay too much attention to her since all my senses right now were too occupied right now with foretelling his moves and letting my body evade the sand pillars he shot at me. But my body was still too sluggish and slow to keep up with my sight. So every jump and every dive made it barely out of the way. But with every dodge I made him more aggressive and and his attacks became faster. Simultanously my stamina depleted and I got slower and slower. Adrenaline raced through my body as I ran for my life but to no avail. After merely two minutes of evading the pillars of sand I made my biggest mistake. While I resorted to running up the high wall of the building a sandpillar lunged at me and my only way to dodge was to jump. And that's where I sealed my fate. In mid air I was unable to act and as the sand flashed towards me all I could do was to roll my body over and let the sand clutch my right leg and pin me against the wall behind me. My skull impacted on the hard concrete and a sharp pain shot through my head which clouded my vision and made me see stars.

I felt sand moving me away from the wall and after I managed to open my eyes again I found myself floating head down above the ground just in front of the redheadded boy.

With the sand clutching only my right leg, the left one was folded and my arms dangled down helplessly while my oversized vest slid down my torso revealing my bellybutton, making me look like The Hanged Man of some tarot cards set. I felt so powerless. So vulnerable.

With a demonic smirk on his face he eyed me like a predator its prey. His eyes reminded me of a cat that watched the mouse it held between its claws. A low chuckle escaped his throat.

"Stop laughing, that's not funny!" I screamed out of frustration, interpreting his actions as a sadistic form of amusement about humiliating me.

That seemed to break the trance of bloodlust he was in. He blinked two times as if he wondered where he was and what happened but quickly found back to his old emotionless self.

The sand around my leg dissolved and I let out a short scream as I painfully collided with the ground. Thanks goodness I wasn't floating too high.

"You're lucky that you're an examiner. So I won't kill you. Yet." he stated and turned making his way to the stairs where he passed his teammates. There he turned to them and glanced at them indifferently.

"What are you waiting for?" he growled and waked them from their stupor. They quickly followed him, not daring to lose another word about what had happened just now.

I watched them leave and after I sensed enough distance between their chakra and myself I finally dared to relax and slowly got up, standing on shaking feet and holding my hurting head.

Spending the next 20 minutes with wandering around the maze-like corridors I finally arrived at the staffroom.

Entering the room and closing the door behind me I found two chunin relaxing on the couches that were standing in the center of the room right in the front of an old TV. Behind them were big windows with heavy dark green curtains drawn closed to block out the sunlight. Bookshelves ranged along the walls that were packed with books, scrolls and video tapes for the old recorder that was placed in the board the TV was standing on. One of the ninjas was lying on the couch while reading a magizine – Shinobi Daily judging by the cover. The other one sat on the second sofa, hunched over with a remote in his hand fast-forwarding a video, his other hand supporting his head boredly.

'Tube television but no cars... Strange world...' I thought while I sat down on the end of the couch the one with the magazine was lying on. Said guy lowered the publication to pierce me with suspicious looks.

"What does some brat want here? Are you a genin?"

"Hey, that's the girl that was chosen by the Third to help out with the chunin exams." the other one exclaimed, rudely pointing a finger at me.

"And as if some genin would have already made it that far." the first one added laughing, the other man joining in the laughter of his partner.

"What are you two talking about? The reason why I'm here is because I was summoned by the scrolls when a genin team arrived."

"What?!" both shouted in unison.

"Uh yeah. You can go and check for yourselves if you don't believe me. Those guys should be somewhere in this tower."

I hardly ended my sentence when the two men stormed out of the room leaving only a dustcloud behind.

I shrugged and stripped off my ninja sandals to lie down on the couch and stared at the ceiling.

I thought about the Suna boy and what had happened. I thought about the fear of death I felt when his attacks chased me, the horrendous feeling his murderous aura inflicted in me. But mostly I thought about his eyes. Those deep, teal eyes.

"They are just like hers." I mumbled and again sorrow and frustration flooded my mind while I thought about Sam.

What was it that his eyes held the same expression as hers. It wasn't the bloodlust and hatred in them. It was something else. But I just couldn't place my finger on it.

Letting out a frustrated sight I turned to my side and noticed the magazine that the chunin had read before throwing it on the ground when running off with his friend. I lazily picked it up and a second magazine slipped out of it from lifting it. I glanced at the cover and a grin spread across my face while shaking my head at the man. Porn. Of course.