The entire town was crazy.

How did he know?

It was simple, really. When he'd gone to retrieve his supposed family for a meeting that Baki insisted they go on he had come upon an interesting sight. Namely, Kakuro trying to scramble away from a girl his age with bright pink hair while Temari talked to a girl that looked more related to him than his own father did.

"I'm not going to a hospital and I'm not letting some pink haired brat grope me!" he shouted, curiously staying on the ground with one hand between his legs. Gaara was aware when another boy landed in the same tree as he did but didn't bother acknowledging him. There wouldn't be much point.

Instead he watched the other girl, the one by Temari, scoff.

"S'not like you've got much down there anyway."

Under the purple paint Gaara could see Kankuro's face turn bright red.

"Say that to my face you soulless little brat!" he shrieked. Not shouted. Shrieked.

The girls arms crossed over her chest.

"If you what whatever I left behind smashed again sure, bring it on. I'm right though. I mean, look at that weapon on your back. Compensating?"

Kankuro's retaliation of, "You little bitch!" was cut off by Gaara. He had lost interest in the argument. Just more pathetic people who would soon feed his sand with their blood. Mother would be pleased. The girls hair was so red, surely her blood would be too, and then he might be praised.

"Enough."

The red vanished entirely from Kankuro's face, replaced by a sick shade of white. His anger vanished. Gaara could feel the fear replace it.

Every eye turned to where he stood, upside down on the tree branch. Blue, green, purple, brown, black. All of them. He met none save his brothers, to which he showed utter indifference.

"Huh," he heard, drawing his eyes to meet purple. The girl was watching him, her head tilted to the side. The next time he met them they were wide with surprise while sand settled in the ground around him.

"What?" Kankuro snapped, showing aggression towards the girl again. There was the smallest hint of flinch.

"It's just odd that the Kazekage would send all of his kids here. It seems kinda risky…" her shoulders rolled in a shrug before she turned to the others from her village, all of them but the smallest marked by headbands.

Gaara narrowed his eyes. If he had been going to say something he was interrupted be the boy who had stayed in the tree.

"Kakashi and Tenzo want us," he said suddenly, dropping down. He was eyeing Gaara, clearly weary. The young jinchuriki met his eyes without hesitation. He could feel the girl still staring at him. At last the pink girl started ushering them away. As they left and Gaara turned his siblings the opposite direction he heard something that made Mother hiss.

"Five," she said suddenly, barely audible, "There have been five red haired jinchuriki. Three now live."


"We aren't ready," I said the minute the question left Tenzo's mouth. Shino and Hinata looked at me before the girl turned back to our teacher.

Now that she was more comfortable with him she stopped stuttering, even met his eyes most of the time.

"Rin is right. We've only been genin for a little while, and Shino and I are still recovering," she said.

"I disagree," Shino announced, "Why? Our teamwork is good, we get along and we have been in one of the most difficult training grounds in the village. We are smart and each one of us can work to cover the weaknesses of another. Inexperienced as we are I believe it would be a good opportunity."

"Yeah, but we aren't entirely used to each other and we haven't been in enough fights to know when to cover each other," I pointed out. "We have the potential but no experience in field work past our test and various D-ranks. I think that it's a bad idea. "

Shino was squinting at me from behind his glasses. I had finally figured out how to read him better.

"You're taking the test," Tenzo said suddenly. All three of us looked at him in surprise. Despite being our superior he rarely used orders on us. Not like that. Not when we were seriously objecting.

I straightened up, eyes locking on him. "Why?" I demanded.

He didn't say anything for a moment, so long I thought he wouldn't answer at all. I saw his eyes dart around before he said something that made my blood boil.

"The council decided you would."


"It's not fair."

Jiraiya nodded absently, agreeing whole heartedly. Bellow them the women in the bath house chattered on, sliding around the water. Rin was sitting to one of his sides, Naruto to the other, both of them working on seals that were several times more advanced than any other genin he had ever seen. They were both good at it, just differently. While Rin had quieter, more deadly seals. Ones that created heated barriers or sucked away life. Naruto, by comparison, seemed to focus more on the world around him. He created explosions and liquefied stone, locked water into steel and collected lightning in paper. Both were heavily inclined to traps, though Rin had a habit of avoiding any direct confrontation he brother did the exact opposite unless he was planning something.

"You'll do fine. Pass me my notebook?" it came from the right, from Naruto, along with a mutter of 'pervert'. "Don't worry so much. "

"Well sorry if I don't want to die," she grumbled.

"The exams are here, not in Kiri, you won't die," he told her with exaggerated patience. Then, because he could, "Probably."

A fist connected with his knee. "You're not funny."

"I dunno why you're so worried," Naruto said, "You'll totally kick ass. And if you won't, Hinata can."

"Gee, thanks," Rin muttered sarcastically. Jiraiya shook his head, going back to his research.

What weird kids. They didn't even balk when he went to peep on the women's bath.

"Hey, hey, super pervert," Naruto called him again, "Teach us something before the exams!"

Jiraiya rolled his eyes. Why didn't this one have common sense?

"You can't learn anything in one night," he stated flatly.

A horrified whine came from his side, causing him to turn to see Rin staring up at him with wide, horrified eyes.

"It's tomorrow?!"


When we reached the gathering of children we didn't even bother with them. Instead Hinata found us a good way around them, up a spare stair case that was more well hidden than the other one. We ended up being some of the first people in the wide room. I couldn't recognize many of the there. Gaara's team, Kabuto and his lot, and the girl that would soon loose her face to Orochimaru, laughing cheerfully with her friends.

My stomach clenched in something the mixed together fear, guilt, and pity. I wasn't ready for this. I was going to end up getting hurt, I might have changed too much, they might end up being dead.

Shino must have noticed my panic because for once he initiated physical contact, brushing the back of his hand against mine. I took that as permission to discreetly take it, and Hinata's, holding onto them like a child even thought I was the oldest one. Shino's eyes touched my skin, surprise tinged his skin. An insect, curious, crawled up my arm.

You're pathetic. Stop being such a coward.

I cringed at Kurama's demand. He had nothing against me normally, but when I started getting scared, when I flinched away from a fight, he decided that I was pitiful. I wanted to disagree with him but he was adamant that you should be able to face a fight without fear.

Since that wasn't happening any time soon I never tried to change his mind.

I dropped Shino and Hinata's hands, transferring the small insect from my elbow to my hand before offering them to my teammate.

He accepted, letting it disappear back into a hole that appeared in his skin.

I withheld a shiver, turning my eyes to Kabuto instead. That was one thing that still creeped the shit out of me about Shino.

Kabuto kept glancing at me out of the corner of his eye until he realized I was staring right at him. At that point he seemed to decide that bothering me was a good idea and ambled over, hands in his pockets and an admittedly charming smile on his face. The kid was a good actor, even his eyes were as at ease as the rest of him.

To either side of me I felt my teammates shift, waiting. His forehead bore the mark we all shared, a supposed comfort.

"Hello," he greeted amiably, "Was there something you needed? I couldn't help noticing you were staring."

I half expected the little snake wannabe to tack on something about a cute girl not often doing that. Maybe I was being narcissistic but most boys were sure that compliments were the way to a girls heart, especially true ones. If he wasn't going with the traditional buttering up then he definitely knew what he was doing. Damn.

"You would stare two if someone so much older than you was at the same exams," I explained, playing at intimidation.

Kabuto was a good actor.

So was I.

His smile tilted his glasses enough that they caught the light, obscuring part of his face. I tilted my head, issuing a challenge with my wide eyes.

Our little staring contest was interrupted when the door was opened by my still very loud little brother.

I withheld a sigh, turning to herd Hinata and Shino over to Team 7.

I sent a long look to the cuff on Sasuke's shoulder. Off to the side I noticed that Tenten and her team had entered while I had busy with Kabuto. So Sasuke had gotten into that fight after all?

My hand brushed Naruto's briefly before I left our group, sweeping over to see Tenten. The girl smiled when she saw me coming, turning her back on Neji and Lee, who had never really talked to me before, for one reason or another. It was probably a good thing. Lee was sweet but I would have ended up trying to kill Neji if I had to listen to him.

"Hey! You guys made it into the exams in your first year?" she asked, eyes darting over my new clothes.

I puffed up under the gaze, nodding. It would have been self conscious to tug at the sleeve of my green shirt so I didn't, instead tapping my fingers against the custom made holster strapped to my thigh. It was the only thing on me that betrayed an weaponry, everything else sealed away into various pocket dimensions. Thanks to Tenzo placing the order for it I wasn't worried about it falling and spilling my cards (all personally crafted and sharp as a tack) all over the place.

"Yeah. I'm a little nervous. Have you guys been here before?" I asked, once more inquiring about something I already knew the answer of.

Tenten shook her head. "Nah, Gai-sensei thought we weren't ready yet last year so he had us put it off till now."

I nodded to show I understood. "Do you think you'll pass?"

"Of course!" Lee's sudden interjection made me jump back and away, staring wide eyed at him. "We will become chunin, and if not I will run one hundred, no, one thousand laps around the village!"

I sent Tenten a frightened, pleading look, mostly play acting. Lee was harmless I knew. He was just loud. And his eye brows needed wax.

Lots of wax.

"Alright, enough of your chatter!" shouted a voice from the front of the room. I turned with everyone else to look that way, finding Ibiki standing there in his overcoat and bandana. He gave us all a feral grin.

"Get to your assigned seats and don't move your ass from there," he ordered, taking far too much glee from the fearful looks teenagers kept tossing his way. We did as we were told, everyone exchanging looks with everyone they knew, and some that they didn't.

I sat down next to one nervous looking boy with bandages crossing his face on my left and, look at that! Gaara on my right.

I sunk into my seat, glaring furiously at the paper in the table in front of me. I hated tests with a fire passion. On the bright side, all I had to do was be present for this one.

Maybe I should just drop out the first chance I got?

Yeah, that sounded good.

Ibiki finished instructions the same time I finished deciding to walk out when he went to ask the tenth question. I leaned back in my chair, crossed my arms and fell into pseudo-sleep, ignoring the disbelieving stare Unknown kept throwing at me.

Let him look. I wasn't doing this.

Ten minutes in I got so bored with sleeping on high alert I gave up and started drawing on the desk, a comic strip of shitty stick people figuring out how stupid their lives were and going on to turn themselves into various shapes once they realized that they could.

The boy next to me choked when I wrote a particularly bad joke on the wood, giving away that he was watching me.

Twenty minutes in and I was busily scratching down a caricature Kakashi and Ibiki.

With ten minutes left I drew a picture of me, than of my name sake, with the name Rin drawn above it. As intricately as I could manage.

"Time's up! Pencils down, get ready for the last question!"

I looked up at last, nearly sagging with relief. Good, good. I just had to leave now.

It occurred to me right then that if I had been cheating outrageously on Gaara or Uknown's tests I could have already failed. Very colorfully, very quietly, a cursed a blue streak to Suna and back.

"Since forty five minutes have passed I will now ask the tenth question," he declared, looking predatory in his smile out to the hopefuls, "But before that, there's one thing I must tell you. There will be one special rule for this last question. "

The look on his face was one that very few could pull off. It said 'mindfuck', 'failure' and 'children at Christmas' all in one go.

It made me nervous.

He was interrupted from his sadism by Kankuro's sudden appearance.

"You're lucky," he said offhandedly, "You got back just in time for your little puppet show not to go to waste."

I snickered, feeling Kankuro's anger all the way across the room.

"You're brother sucks at cheating," I told Gaara. Predictably he said nothing.

Ibiki was talking again. "-opeless situation. First, you're going to choose if you take the tenth problem or not."

I very nearly grinned. I was almost home free!

Except it occurred to me then, at that exact moment, that if I did leave 7 would be alone in the forest of death. With Orochimaru. Who I did most certainly not want to face, but who I wanted my brother around even less. And Sasuke. If he got Sasuke, if he gave him the curse seal…

I started cussing again, louder this time.

Why didn't I think of this before?

Because you're an idiot.

You couldn't have said something?!

No. I will not have a weak container, alliance or no. Become a chunin. Figure out how to avoid dying. Do something that isn't completely useless.

I whined, lowering my head to the desk. I was just a genin. I wasn't old enough for this.

I worse came to worse I suppose I could just run and take them all with me.

Except I wasn't sure if I could teleport other people yet or not.

God damn it.

"I forfeit!" Uknown shouted from beside me, his hand shooting into the air with more speed than I put into running.

Ibiki grinned, his scars pulling with it, He looked like a wolf. More and more dropped, walked away, apologized. A few were even crying. There was one boy from Ame with a very nice face that had his eyes hidden in shame for his cowardice.

A resounding crack echoed through the room. I jerked, head snapping not towards my brother, but to Sakura, who was glowering darkly at Ibiki.

"Screw you. We got this far, you think we're backing down now?"

"Sakura's right!" There was Naruto,"Even if I fail and stay a genin forever I'll find a way to become Hokage no matter what anyway! I'm not leaving this test! Not until it's over!"

I sighed heavily. "Damn it. Now I can't drop out."

Gaara tossed me half a glance. He'd been doing that since I first encountered him. It would have made me nervous if I didn't think I could teleport faster than his sand could move.

Ibiki looked between the children, then out at the rest of us. At last he sighed. I couldn't tell if he was amused or annoyed. I was banking to the former.

"Nice determination. Very well. Everyone still in here… passes."

There was a beat of silence before the outraged cries started. I just sighed, looking at Gaara.

"Freaking ninja. 'Underneath the underneath'. Blah. You wanna grab lunch after this?" I asked, figuring that starting a friendship (or at least an acquaintance) would be a good idea.

I could see the surprise flash in his eyes. Before he could respond we were interrupted (why does that always happen?) by the shattering of a window.

"Crazy," I muttered, "Ninja are always crazy."