Orochimaru had to admit that his interest was piqued. He'd come for Itachi's younger brother, and yet here sat a young man that seemed set to surpass Itachi himself. Whoever they were, they were no genin like they claimed to be. But that was okay; Orochimaru wouldn't tell. After all, he was pretending to be a genin too.

When the exam instructor walked in, all dark aura immediately faded from the room, and Orochimaru was duly impressed. To hide an aura of that scale was quite the feat; he'd know. He ran his tongue over his lips as he looked the boy up and down, admiring his body. Every visible muscle was perfect and the face was beautiful too. The attitude, the voice, the body… they all fit together so well. Too well, in fact. Orochimaru wanted to take them apart and see what made Kaze tick.

As if sensing Orochimaru's gaze, Kaze's head turned a fraction. The green eyes that wandered over him were lovely, but they were no Sharingan. No, even though this boy looked like he had insane amounts of power, Orochimaru was after a kekkai genkai. Perhaps Kaze had one, but taking a chance when he could only get a body every couple of years was too risky. Maybe if he took just a little piece for a clone though…

Ibiki had the papers passed out as he explained the rules, which were barely more than a little slap on the wrist. The Chuunin Exams were so soft and easy Orochimaru wanted to laugh out loud. A written exam with psychological components? If someone couldn't beat this part, they may as well throw themselves off a cliff like the useless trash they were. He couldn't believe this was one of the things Sarutobi had allowed to happen; the old man could be so much harsher when he wanted to be.

Nonetheless, it was nice to have a little ease once in a while. Orochimaru bent over his test, reading, and when he realized the entire point of this little exercise he actually did snicker. Oh, Sarutobi, encouraging things like cheating when he hated cheating. What a terrible Hokage he made. But that was okay; Orochimaru would put an end to that soon, and the Leaf Village wouldn't have to worry anymore. Not about the Hokage, or about anything else—they'd all be dead.

It was hard to keep his impatience reigned in, but Orochimaru somehow managed as he began writing. For now, he'd satisfy his boredom by watching Sasuke and Kaze, two genin who were far and away the most interesting people in the village. When the chance came, he'd take both of them. It would be so nice to have the pretty little redhead preserved behind glass until Orochimaru was ready to take that perfectly put together body of his.

Sasuke had to grab his wrist to keep it from trembling as he wrote. Sitting beside one of the strongest ninjas he'd ever met, it was hard to keep the pressure from getting to him. At one point, he even almost stabbed Kaze with his pen when the redhead moved towards him, but Kaze was only offering him a lollipop. Somehow, being offered a lollipop by a guy who could probably rip your head off if he decided he wanted to play soccer with it wasn't very comforting.

It didn't take more than a couple of tries for Sasuke to be able to use his Sharingan to cheat, and when he was done he watched the clock with obsessive interest, having no desire to sit beside a monster any longer than he had to. Kaze had somehow finished a while ago, and Sasuke was sort of curious how he'd cheated. He'd been hyperaware of the redheaded shinobi's presence, so he'd noticed every movement. Kaze had an annoying habit of tapping his fingers against the desk, but other than that he hadn't shown any signs of cheating. Was it that he was simply smart enough to know the answers already?

Sasuke was so curious he couldn't take it anymore, so he surreptitiously glanced at Kaze's paper out of the side of his eye. Then had to stifle a gasp. Kaze hadn't written any actual answers down. He'd only doodled on the math ones, drawing lines to show where the shurikens would end up and writing 'probably around here' under the lines. He hadn't even attempted the decoding one, and anything that didn't involve weapons was left blank. Was he that confident in his teammates' abilities? For that matter, who even were the teammates of this monster, who didn't openly display any headband?

"I have a few new rules to explain," Ibiki said as the clock came around, and Kaze jerked awake. For a second, he didn't seem to know where he was, and he dug his fingers into the desk, almost shaking as his head whipped back and forth. Then he relaxed a little, focusing on the Exam proctor as Ibiki explained what the tenth question would entail. Sasuke wondered what all that had been about.

"Man, this fuckin' sucks, like, he's basically invalidating all our questions," Kaze muttered to Sasuke as if they were best buddies. Sasuke sat ramrod straight, trying to ignore him. He felt Kaze lean closer, and he had to stifle a shiver as he felt hot breath against his neck. It felt like Kaze was preparing to sink his teeth into Sasuke's neck and tear the soft arteries and veins there open. Sasuke doubted he could stop him no matter how hard he tried.

"Woah, your answers are really detailed. Hey… is that how we're supposed to write them?"

Sasuke was more than a little surprised to hear real panic in Kaze's voice, as if he'd truly believed that what he'd written was fine.

"Yes," Sasuke whispered back, not able to relax even when Kaze leaned away. He risked a tiny glance over to Kaze, and his eyes widened. The redhead had his fingers knotted in his hair, and his breathing had sped up, as if he were freaking out. He was mumbling curse words under his breath so fast Sasuke could barely make them out, and that intense aura he'd been radiating started leaking out again.

"Calm down," Sasuke hissed, not wanting to have to suffer through the aura. "The tenth question is all that matters now."

"R-right," Kaze stammered, the aura disappearing. He gave Sasuke a grateful glance, as if Sasuke had done him a huge favour, and Sasuke was taken aback. This guy's strength was off the charts, yet here he was losing his mind over a little test. Sasuke had assumed that this guy was better than him in all categories, but right now it was Sasuke helping him instead of the other way around. It felt kind of good, to know that he had the upper hand in something with this guy.

When Ibiki finally finished the extremely harsh rules, people in the class started dropping out like flies, giving up completely so they could take the Exam next year. This would make it way harder to cheat, but Sasuke couldn't give up now. Even if his rival was genin age, he'd probably surpassed chuunin level a while ago, so Sasuke needed to do this now if he wanted to catch up within this decade. He risked a glance at Sakura and Sai, and was pleased to see that the two of them were just as set to finish this thing as he was.

"No fuckin' way," he heard from beside him, and he turned to see Kaze half standing. His eyes widened; was the guy going to give up? "No way am I dropping out, shitface! I'm not scared of some little piece of paper. Bring it the hell on!"

Ibiki's glare at being called shitface was like a kunai, and Kaze suddenly sunk shamefully into his seat, looking like a kid who had just been chastised. He unwrapped another lollipop from somewhere and put it in his mouth, avoiding Ibiki's eyes. Sasuke just couldn't get a hold on this guy. Sometimes it was like he was ready to destroy the entire world, and other times he was like a sulky child. He was at once far beyond his age and more immature than anyone his age.

"Sorry," Kaze muttered. To Sasuke. As if his cursing had somehow upset Sasuke and he felt the need to apologize even though he could break Sasuke with his pinkie finger. The fear and hatred Sasuke had been feeling towards the redhead suddenly loosened, and he decided he couldn't really hate someone so weird after all.

"What flavour is that lollipop?" Sasuke asked, his cheeks flushing at the stupid attempt to engage Kaze in conversation. But if someone like this was on their side during the Exams, their pass percentage could increase dramatically. Kaze's sharp, excited intake of breath was like a four-year-old's, as he fished another lollipop from his sleeve and offered it to Sasuke.

"It's strawberry! My favourite kind. It's really, really good, you should try it, I think you'll like it because it's super sweet and—"

"Yeah, thanks," Sasuke said to stop the blathering. He accepted it and unwrapped it, frowning and wondering if it was somehow poisoned. There didn't seem to be any point in poisoning it though. Why poison an enemy when you can obliterate them without even trying? As he put it in his mouth and sweetness flooded his senses, he realized why he'd been thinking the red looked familiar. It reminded him of the deep, mesmerizing red of Itachi's Mangekyou the last time they'd met.

Thinking of Itachi made him remember with sharp clarity the reason he'd began hating Kaze in the first place, and he spun to face Kaze, fury plain in his features.

"What you said earlier," Sasuke growled in a low voice. "You knowing me, and saying he was coming for me… You're talking about Itachi, aren't you? You know him?"

Kaze looked surprised, screwing up his face and thinking back. It was like what he'd said was so inconsequential that it didn't even matter anymore, so he'd totally forgotten it. Ibiki was saying something else now, about how they'd passed, but Sasuke was too focused on Kaze to care. Finally, Kaze snapped his fingers as if he'd remembered.

"Oh yeah. I can't believe you remember that!" As if those ominous words coming from a Hokage level ninja were as boring as the weather last year. "Right, well, I wasn't talking about Itachi. You I know because I've been to the Leaf before, and I saw you. The guy I was talking about… his name is Orochimaru. This has nothing to do with Itachi Uchiha."

Sasuke allowed himself a moment of disappointment—besides the lead with Naruto, he was back to square one—before stashing it away and trying to process the new information. He'd never even heard of Orochimaru before. He was about to ask Kaze more when there was suddenly a huge commotion and a woman appeared in front of the room. She spread her arms wide and announced that it was time to move on to part two of the Chuunin Exams.

Kaze turned his full attention back to the woman calling herself Anko, his fingers going back to tapping on the desk thoughtfully. When Anko was finished with her introductions and preparing to lead them to the Forty-Fourth Training Ground, Sakura and Sai came to stand protectively beside Sasuke, warily eyeing Kaze.

"Two little leaves," Kaze sneered, and all of his former childishness was gone, replaced with the cold arrogance he'd previously shown. Sasuke was floored; for a second, he'd thought he could ally with Kaze, but Kaze's personality had done a complete 180 again. "Come to be blown away in the wind? Pathetic."

Sakura took a step forward as if she were going to punch Kaze, but Sai gripped her arm, shaking his head once. It was way too dangerous to risk provoking him, even if he didn't seem to be in a killing mood now. Sasuke stood from his seat beside Kaze, taking the lollipop from his mouth and setting it on the desk with a sharp crack.

"These are my teammates," Sasuke snapped. "Show them some respect."

Kaze looked down at the rejected candy then back up at Sasuke, his face torn. He seemed unable to decide whether he wanted to be friendly or not. Sasuke found himself hoping the friendly part would win out, because Kaze didn't actually have a bad personality when he was nice, but Kaze's remorse was quickly replaced with cold indifference as he stood too.

"Hira, Hikami," he called, and two ninjas came to stand beside him. The girl looked harsh and severe, all hair scraped away from her face and wound up into a tight bun. She stared down the Leaf genin evenly, not even attempting to speak to them. The boy looked sorrowful—large, sweet doe eyes narrowed as if in pain and mouth turned down at the corners. He also didn't speak; his eyes seemed to look past them at some horror that wasn't there. Both had skin white as death, and Sasuke was disturbed to find that he couldn't feel anything coming from them. There was no aura, no emotion, no real life. If he hadn't been looking at them, it would be as if they didn't exist.

"These are my teammates," Kaze said, his face a cool mask. "Watch out for them."

Sasuke was about to ask why, when a low whimper sounded behind him. He turned to see another one of Konoha's rookie teams, the one with Kiba, Hinata, and Shino. The whimper was coming from Kiba's dog as it looked at Kaze and the other two shinobi, and it crawled into Kiba's shirt as if to hide.

"What is it, Akamaru?" Kiba asked, and when he managed to interpret the whimpers, his face paled. His eyes snapped up to Kaze and he clenched his fists, making his way over to the impassive redhead with a snarl.

"You're sick," Kiba growled, barely able to look at Hira and Hikami. "What kind of disgusting monster does something like that to his teammates?"

"What are you talking about?" Sai asked curiously, studying Hira and Hikami. The two didn't even seem to notice that they were being talked about; they were absolutely blank, as if they didn't even have souls. Kaze's smile was all teeth as he reached up and wrapped both arms around his teammates, drawing them close.

"None of you have any right to judge," Kaze said leaning his head on Hira's shoulder almost lovingly. The girl didn't react; her face remained stony and studiously blank. "These are my best friends in all the village. Are you going to insult them?"

"I'm going to kill you is what I'm going to do!" Kiba yelled, and Kaze's eyes sparkled as if that was exactly what he wanted to hear. He straightened up, cracking his knuckles, and his two companions stepped back.

"S-stop it! This isn't what we should be doing!"

Everyone was surprised to hear shy, quiet Hinata speak up, and though her face reddened from the attention, she forced herself between Kiba and Kaze.

"We shouldn't be fighting just for the sake of fighting. P-please don't."

Kiba looked like he'd calmed down a little, but Kaze looked even angrier than before. He chest heaved and his heavy-lidded eyes were wide. He clenched his fists, and directed a gaze of pure hatred towards Hinata, as if he wanted to destroy her for stopping the fight. Before anyone could react, Kaze had thrown his fist towards the tiny Hyuuga girl and both of his companions were lunging for her, as if all three of them were planning to kill her.

There was nothing anyone could do to stop speed like that, and Sasuke knew he'd be too late even after he'd lunged with everything he had in him. Until Kaze and his companions ran headfirst into a wall into of sand, and a raspy voice called out: "She's right."

Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari had all come up to see what was going on, and now Gaara was fixing Kaze with an intense stare, anger clear in his posture.

"You're looking for a fight, aren't you? You were clearly trying to provoke these Leaf shinobi to give yourself a reason to fight. But fighting for the sake of fighting is wrong. The only time we should fight is when it's for the sake of peace."

Hinata looked stunned, as if she couldn't believe her outburst had almost earned her a death. Sasuke wouldn't be surprised if she never spoke again, but apparently she was made of stronger material than he'd thought, because at Gaara's words she swallowed and then nodded shakily. Kaze cursed softly under his breath, his posture relaxing until he seemed more in control of himself. But his voice was still vicious and full of rage when he shouldered past Gaara and spoke, every word like a blow.

"Go fuck yourself, Gaara."

There was a long, stunned silence in the room before everyone finally breathed out, the air feeling lighter than it had in what seemed like days. The only one who still looked bothered was Gaara, as he turned and watched Kaze leave with a confused expression. Then his confusion faded away and was replaced with pain, as if someone had just gutted him with kunai. He drew in a sharp breath and reached up, clutching his chest like his heart had just been broken.

"Kaze, you…" he whispered, and Sasuke was the only one to catch the reaction as everyone else started leaving to go the training grounds. He watched in mute bewilderment as Gaara closed his eyes, shaking his head sadly and sipping in small breaths as if breathing hurt. The small redhead hunched his shoulders, following after their companions, but something had obviously gotten to him. Sasuke gritted his teeth, determined to find out the truth of this one thing. There were so many mysteries—Kaze, his trainer, Naruto Uzumaki—and he was going to figure them out, no matter what he had to do.

Sarutobi was still shaken by the news Jiraiya had delivered to him, but he didn't know what he could do about it. Risk drawing attention to the team, when the team could possibly have the power to destroy the entire Leaf Village? Risk not drawing attention to the team, when destroying the village could be their plan? He understood the message now, and it was indeed disturbing. However, he still didn't know why that was particular message that had been sent; was it a good omen or a bad one?

Hikami Noyo.

He picked up the sheet Jiraiya had given him, tracing the names written down on it. Whoever was behind this, they had knowledge beyond what anyone should have. This wasn't just the work of one person's knowledge—it was the work of an entire organization's knowledge.

Hira Ran.

But who? Everyone who had this much knowledge had either proven their loyalty or died, right? Himself, Kakashi, Jiraiya… how many other people knew all of these names as well as the three of them? Not even Orochimaru could know them all.

Kaze Naminato.

Because Jiraiya had seen that the names of this particular Sand Village team weren't true names after all. They were simply the letters of true names mixed up to create false ones. An anagram, with the true three names reading what Jiraiya had shakily written on the page:

Minato Namikaze. Rin Nohara. Yahiko.