The Unforeseen Heir

by Viraqua

An incident at birth leaves Naruto's real parents to believe he's dead until events start popping up that make it obvious he is more than he seems. Slow yet psychotic. Mokuton/Naruto, Naru/Ino/Tema/Ten. M for language, kinkyness, and gore.

12. The Deep Breath

(February 26th)

Rin squirmed in her bed. HER BED. After the incident, she bought a new bed and stuffed the romantic monstrosity into the attic, which Kurenai had refitted into her own bedroom seeing as Asuma "stayed overnight" alot. Her new bed was a nice, comfy one-up, but right now it wasn't giving her comfort. Something was off, like she was being watched. She cracked open her eyes to see three sets staring back at her. Her vision went to her alarm clock, which read 6:30, then shifted back.

"Do I have to?", she whined. All three nodded with determined looks.

"Uugh", she groaned as she reluctantly got out of bed and headed to Naruto's room.

*An hour later*

"Breakfast is ready. Enjoy it 'cause it'll be a cold day in hell before I do it again." She proclaimed as she set the food between the three, who were eyeing it like predators watching prey come into range.

"Itadakimasu!", was heard before the carnage set in. It sounded demonic...and legion. Rin backed up quickly. 'Honestly, it's just breakfast for heaven's sake' she thought as she started on her own plate while simultaneously feeding Naruto.

"Morning guys", Asuma proclaimed as he burst through the front door, then stopped and sniffed the air. " BREAKFAST!", he bellowed as he went supersonic and nabbed up a plate full before the ravenous trio could react. They counted their losses and grabbed up what was left.

"Honestly, you're all nuts. It's just food", Rin compained.

Asuma shot up from glomming down his plate, " Hardly! Your food is the best I've ever tasted. The world's strongest would get on their knees and beg for such delicacies. YOU RIN-CHAN! You are a godess of cooking!", he proclaimed on one knee, holding an empty plate towards Rin.

"No time for seconds", she answered as she quietly basked in the compliment.

Asuma did a shocked facefault, " Failure!"

Rin shook her head, " If you have time for theatrics, you have time to check our packs. I don't want anything forgotten that we might need 'cause it'll be a month before we come back.

Asuma got to business, " So we're staying in Suna for the entire event? I'd think we'd come back here for training before the third exam", he asked.

"Before, we could. Then various villages started complaining that they should stay in the sponsoring village for security reasons. I think they just want the home advantage when training their finalists", she stated with a sour face. She shook it off.

"Alright, clean up and get ready. We have to meet the other teams in an hour...don't...don't expect to much", she finished. The team looked at her quizically before cleaning up and getting ready.

* An hour later*

Naruto looked around happily at the early morning, his limb tubes flailing around as he hung suspended in the harness from a sulking chunin.

" Honestly, why do I have to carry him?", Asuma whined through the gurggles and sounds Naruto was making.

" Because I can't look professional with a baby flailing between my breasts", Rin countered.

" How am I supposed to look professional?¡", he cried out indignantly. Rin held up a finger.

"One, you're a chunin, so nobody EXPECTS you to look professional, and two, you don't have breasts!", she exclaimed

"Damn right I don't. And who the fuck expects a jounin to look professional?", he grumbled, only briefly registering that the genin were walking past them at a faster pace. They were obviously excited about the Chunin Exams, but they were also hoping to see all their friend from the academy.

Their dispositions quickly changed to confusion when the other teams came into view. There were only a small number of faces that they even recognized, but what truly confused them were the other teams' conditions. They were ragged, weary, on edge, some even looked shell shocked. All in all, they all looked like shit. 7 other teams and they all looked like they just got off the worst mission of their lives.

They hadn't realized it, but they had stepped back in pace with Rin and Asuma.

" I told you not to expect much", Rin said to them quietly as they approached the other teams. She wished she had followed her own advice as well because as far as the senseis for the teams went, they looked just as bad as, if not worse than, their charges.

She spied the two jounin the Hokage had told her about. She picked the female out of the two, who seemed to be watching her team intently.

" Um, excuse me", Rin called to the woman. When the woman turned around, Rin involuntarily took a step back. The jounin's unkempt hair was a dull brown, like it had been uncared for in weeks, but that wasn't what shocked Rin. It was her eyes. Dull, crazed looking green eyes stared back at her. Dark circles hung underneath her eyes, like she hadn't slept in days.

"Yes! How can I help you?", the jounin asked with a smile that did little to assure and just made Rin shudder.

" Uh...yeah, my... team is participating in the exams, so I... was wondering who I was supposed to... check in with", Rin asked uncomfortably. She had to force herself not to reach for her kunai holster.

The crazed looking jounin seemed to go off in a daze before snapping back to reality.

" Oh! I see! Heh. Umm, the Hokage told us Inuzuka Rin was in charge", she stated.

Rin's eyebrows shot up. " I'm in charge?".

The crazed woman regarded Rin again, which caused Rin to shudder again. Then another smile that made it a double.

" You're Inuzuka Rin? Huh, then I should be checking in with you, hahahaha. Um, I'm Ishimura Miyuki, the sensei of the new new new new...new...team 7", she proclaimed. Rin didn't find it encouraging how accurate Miyuki had to be with how "new" her team was. Rin looked down at the genin she had been watchin over. Two boys and a girl, all sat quietly with dull, weary eyes, one of the boys looked worse than the other two. Rin could only guess what kind of hell they've seen.

" This is Toyo", Miyuki stated pointing at the worst looking genin, " This is Renji, and this is Kagura-"

"Yukari", the genin kunoichi corrected her.

Miyuki's eyes widened, " W-what?".

"My name is Yukari, Miyuki-sensei", the girl answered quietly.

"R-right...Yukari...gomen", Miyuki apologized quietly. The silence was deafening until a loud shout stole everyone's attention.

*With the Rin Brigade*

As soon as Rin had approached the creepy Jounin, Hiroshi and Nanami had broken off from the team and started looking for familiar faces. So far, what they were seeing was depressing them.

"Hiroshi, would this have happened to us if we didn't get stuck with Rin-sensei?", Nanami asked quietly. Hiroshi was watching as two, obviously, mismatched teammates glared daggers at eachother while a meek chunin tried to calm them down.

" Yeah, we would have", he finally replied in a sombre tone. Then, he perked up, " Hey! It's Kouta!", he proclaimed before darting off, Nanami following behind. Hiroshi stopped in front of a male genin with black hair and the telltale eyes of a Hyuuga with his headband covering his forehead. He looked up from checking his pack and his eyes widened.

" H-Hiroshi, Nan-ami. I haven't seen you guys i-in months. I...t-though you guys...were...a-anyways, where have you guys been?", he asked in a quiet voice, nothing like he used to. Hell, Kouta used to be known as the loudest Hyuuga to grace the Konoha Academy. This quiet, stuttering version didn't sit well with the two. Nanami was the first to find her voice.

" Uh...we were regrouped with another team on a long term assignment. What happened to the rest of your team Kouta? I remember you being with Mikan", Nanami asked. Hell if she remembered correctly, the disshelved looking jounin Rin-sensei was talking to was the sensei for Team 7, yet none of the genin she was near were familiar except one, and only because she remembered seeing him in the class before hers while in the academy.

"She's dead"

The pairs eyes widened as their breath caught in their throats. Meanwhile, Kouta continued.

" M-Mikan, Shinji, R-roshi, Sanya, all of them, from the Kyubi attack, or the "Missions" they send us on", he finished, gritting his teeth at the end, before regaining his composure.

Hiroshi, trying to get rid of the lead feeling in his stomach, focused on something else, like the bruise on the side of Kouta's face, " D-did you get in a fight in your last mission?", he asked distractingly, until he noticed the rest of Kouta's team seemed to have bruises as well, and in different places. All three of them looked like they were trying to hide them.

" Uh...yeah. It was a tough one", Kouta answered as he brushed his long hair over the bruise. Nanami, still trying to cope with the idea that almost all of her graduating class was dead, quietly offered her skills.

" I can heal that bruise...if you want me to that is". He looked at her with an unknown look before shaking his head.

" No..that's fine Nanami. I get them all the time, so it's not like-"

"OY! STOP TALKING AND GET YOUR FRAIL ASSES READY!"

*With Rin*

Miyuki and Rin turned to see a chunin shouting obscenities and orders at his team. Miyuki stayed quiet while Rin could see Hiroshi and Nanami backing away.

" If you has so much energy to talk, then you can carry my fucking pack!", the chunin yelled, throwing a large pack at Kouta none-too-gently, which knocked the boy on his ass, causing the asenine chunin to laugh. Rin grit her teeth. She would love to put the ugly skinhead in his place, but she doubted she would make a good impression with the rest of the group by wiping the floor with one of the team leaders. She would wait for now.

" A-ano Rin-san. I-is there some reason you're glaring at me?", Miyuki asked uncomfortably. Rin came out of her thoughts to see she was facing the disturbed kunoichi.

" Ah! Gomen Miyuki-san. I got lost in my thoughts", she excuses herself.

" I-it happens to the best of us", Miyuki replied with a less than reassuring smile, but then anything on her face in her present state was anything but reassuring.

Rin finally decided to get the show on the road before her mood deteriorated any worse.

" Alright! Since the Hokage put me in charge of this party, I want all the team leaders to sound off their numbers!", she ordered.

"Team 2", the meek chunin barely called.

"Team 8"

"Tch...Team 9", the skinhead chunin growled out in annoyance.

"Team 5"

" T-team 7", Miyuki proclaimed, looking back at her team to make sure it was still there.

"Team 3", the other jounin proclaimed

"Team 4", the last team leader called out

Rin looked over to Nanami and Hiroshi, who had slunk back to where Asuma and Kurenai were, with a questioning look. Hiroshi caught on and held up six fingers.

" My team is Team 6. With such a large group, it's going to take seven or eight days to get to Suna. Every team is to stay in sight of the group, so no wandering off. If everyone is ready, let's move out!", she exclaimed. With that, the eight teams started their trek towards Suna.

*Two days later*

Rin had been studying the other teams intently while keeping herself behind them. What she saw was disheartening to say the least. Team 2 was a cluster fuck. Two boys, that obviously wanted to see the others guts spilled, fought constantly, while the third boy just kept to himself. The Chunin in charge of the "team" was so non confrontational that he never raised his voice to get them to stop. Rin had to wonder how such a meek person made it to chunin to begin with.

Team 7 was a mess to say the least. Their sensei, Miyuki, watched over her team fanatically, like they were going to disappear right in front of her. It was obvious she had PTSD bad, along with 2 of the 3 genin, the ones who had just been transfered to Miyuki from a defunct team. The longest serving genin, Toyo, just looked broken. Rin could guess that the only reason Miyuki didn't have the same condition was her amount of experience as a jounin, which means she would likely crash worse if she finally went over the edge. Altogether, a very fragile team.

Team 3 was only a team in the academic sense. The jounin sensei seemed to keep himself disconnected from the genin he led, most likely a deffense mechanism to avoid any heartache if any of the genin in his group died. While it may keep him sane, it did nothing for the genin, who seemed like they hadn't learned much of anythng from him and didn't radiate much self esteem either. The girl in the team seemed to try to get his attention through various means, but with little luck. Rin had talked to the girl the day before and the girl gabbed her hear off. It was obvious she was attention starved. Her teammates sure as hell didn't talk much, like they had adopted their sensei's attitude. It would piss Rin off if her anger wasn't all used up on something else.

Team 9

The jackass in charge of the team constantly berated the genin, yelled at them, and worse...they had bruises. To a regular person, this might appear normal for the profession they were in, but to a medical professional like Rin, there were three things wrong. One, if it was a fight, they should have a hell of alot more than just a couple, taijutsu attacks alone would bruise their limbs greatly. Two, they were untreated, and three, they were trying to hide them. Hell one of the girls in the team had a bruise from a dislocated shoulder.

It could only be from abuse, which just added to the fire that was Rin's anger towards their leader. He had beed contradictive to every one of Rin's descisions, and was starting to level glares at Naruto. She was one argument away from sending the asshole through a tree, image be damned.

Her team didn't socialize much with the other teams anyways, opting just to walk alongside of her. Most likely this was because of alienation due to their sheltered lives in comparison to the other teams. Rin didn't know if she should feel sorry or relieved.

Seeing the sun ready to set, she pulled herself from her thoughts and called out to the rest of the party, " Alright, setup camp for the night".

With that, the group started pitching tents. Rin watched her group until she noticed something strange as hell.

" Hiroshi, why the hell are you setting up a teepee? I thought you had a regular tent", she asked with a quirked eyebrow.

He scratched the side of his head as he answered," The key word is HAD, which didn't last two days! So, I made it into a teepee", he finished as Nanami crawled out of the teepee.

" Why did you stop? We almost have it up", she asked with her hands on her hips.

" Where the hell is your tent Nanami?" Rin asked while pinching the bridge of her nose. Nanami sheepishly stuck her thumb towards the teepee. Whatever explanation she was going to give was cut off by the scream of a girl. When they looked, said girl was just landing from a vicious kick.

"You stupid bitch! You put a hole in my tent! Can't you do one fucking thing right?¡", the skinheaded chunin snarled as he shunshinned behind her, grabbed one of her arms, and twisted it behind her.

" I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please stop!", she cried out as the strain on her shoulder became more and more painful. Rin had already started moving towards them, her muscles tense, yet with a total lack of killer intent.

" Why the hell should I do that?¡ It's not like you'll miss them with how fucking clumsy you are!", he bellowed, cruelly tightening the hold until a crack was heard and the girl screamed. Before he could go on any further, her heard a low, farrel voice behind him.

"Let her go"

He turned to see the darkened face of the bitch that he got stuck following. He sneered in contempt at her, " This has nothing to do with a demon lover lik-". The next thing he knew, he was slammed against a tree by his throat with a tanto shaking millimeters away from his left eye. The only reason the tanto didn't find purchase was the smoking chunin holding the arm fast.

Many believe that there is a certain expression a person makes just before commiting murder. An expression of resolution, hate, malice, and a dozen different emotions man has not even labelled yet. Rin's was frozen in time, just like the tanto she had been attempting to plunge into the skinhead's brain. Such a face would make a kage cringe by staring at it.

For the chunin, he shit himself.

Rin's expression turned to confusion for only a fraction of a second, before KI flooded the area and her face took on a look of rage, " Get out of here. You no longer have a team you piece of shit", she spat out drenched in venom as she dropped him to the ground.

He spent a second too long scrambling to get up as a kick landed to his side, " I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!¡", Rin roared, sending the man 30 feet away before he scrambled up and ran off.

Rin was still pissed, and turned it on the leaders that were in the clearing, " Why the hell didn't any of you step in?¡ DO YOU LIKE SEEING KIDS GET ABUSED?¡ If I see ANY of you pull something like that I will END YOU!¡", she spat. Most of them just bunched into themselves, looking like they wanted to disappear.

By this time the rest of Team 9 and all of Team 7 (Miyuki insisting on keeping her team in sight) came back to the clearing from gathering wood, to see what the comotion was about. Upon seeing what happened to their purple haired comrade, Kouta and the other teammate dropped their wood and ran over to help the girl, who was nursing her dislocated shoulder.

The girl flinched when Rin kneeled beside her and started inspect the injury.

" He did the same thing to your other shoulder as well, right?" she asked the girl, gaining a shaky nod. Rin's hands started to shake from the loss of adrenaline as the situation hit her full force.

" Nanami, can you take over for me?", she croaked out. Nanami quietly switched over for her as she got up to go collect herself back at the campsite. Nanami knew what to do.

" What happened?", Miyuki asked Asuma, who was still in the place he intercepted Rin's murder attempt. He listened to Nanami telling the girl she needed to relocate the joint before he answered with a sigh, " An abusive team leader".

"Oh, I see", she whispered as she seemed to shrink in on herself.

"1..2..3! *CRUNCH*", " AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!¡!¡"

Everybody shuddered hearing that. Miyuki perked back up, " Umm, let's set up camp guys", she stated with a forced smile.

Asuma shuddered before sighing to himself and making his way over to Rin.

"...I'm making you the temporary leader of Team 9', she stated in a shaky voice as she built a fire. Asuma grunted an affirmation but stayed right behind Rin.

The crackle of the fire dominated until Rin spoke again, " Thanks...If you didn't stop me...", she trailed off. Asuma put his hands on her shoulders.

" What are lovers for? Besides, I don't like conjugal visists all that much, " he joked, gaining a shaky laugh out of Rin.

" I don't know what the hell came over me", she replied with sadness. Asuma had an idea.

" It's like I told Pops, you picked up more of the Inuzuka traits than you think", he . Inuzukas were infamous for deffending children, even if they weren't their own. Almost as infamous as their blatant perversity. Many a child beaters found their end at the hands of an Inuzuka, which didn't bother the Uchihas too much since it meant less red tape and paperwork at the station. Killing a child abuser and having the KPF label it as self deffense was one thing, killing a leaf shinobi in plain sight of a group of jounin, chunin, and genin was another.

" You make it sound like a bad thing Asuma", she retorted hysterically, thinking again how close she was to screwing up her life again.

" What? Hell no...well in some situations...but in the big picture, no. It's a damn good trait to have. Hell, if you go that length for a kid you don't know, think how far you'll go for our-", he immediately shut up and looked away from Rin who was now staring a hole through his head, the curiosity burning off whatever shock she was in.

" What were you going to say?", she prodded the chunin.

" Well, I better see to my temporary team", he excused himself obviously. Rin pointed at the retreating chain-smoker.

" OI! Don't ignore me! I know what you were going to say! You're as bad as your old man! DON'T JUST WAVE ME OFF! HMPF!", she huffed as she sat back down with her arms crossed and a pout on her face.

'Honestly, you let them into your pants and they're already jumping for the next step. Typical man...wait...that doesn't sound right...nevermind. What were we talking about before?'

Before she could remember, her three charges walked up before her with stern faces...well, except for Kurenai, who couldn't quite pull it off with Naruto attached to her.

" Inuzuka Rin", Nanami started.

'Uh Oh' Rin thought as she shrunk down. What followed was a strange scene of a Jounin-sensei being chewed out by her genin. Asuma was too preoccupied with other things to enjoy the show, mainly gaining the trust of a girl who was just assaulted by her last sensei. His first attempt made her back 10 feet away and press up against a tree, looking like a cornered animal.

" Just how many times has she been abused?", he asked more to himself than anyone around him, yet Kouta answered.

" She got it more than either of us. It wasn't as bad before one night she clawed him and ran out of her...tent", he trailed off as a severed cigarette fell from Asuma's teeth. ' If that son of a bitch was still here, I'd kill him myself", he thought darkly. He calmed his expression moments later and looked at the girl. ' She can't be more than ten'.

" He didn't do anything to you that time did he?", he asked evenly. The girl slowly shook her head in response. Asuma smiled at her.

" Did you attack him before he could?" he asked, gaining a slow nod a while later. He nodded as well, " Good girl", he praised her as he sat down facing her ten feet away. She had a look of surprise on her face.

" I won't lie to you or try to sugar coat it. What he did...everything he did...was wrong. And it's not what I'm going to do..",

" How do I know that?", the girl snapped deffensively. Asuma took it in stride and smirked. ' It's a start' he thought as he pointed behind himself.

" You see the team behind me?".

The girl looked to see the woman who almost killed the team leader, apologizing over and over again to a trio of older kids who seemed to be chastizing her about her actions. The girl looked back at Asuma.

" I personally helped train them. Do any of them look hurt or afraid?", he asked. The girl looked back to see the genin hugging the woman after scolding her. They looked more like a family than a team. She turned back to Asuma and shook her head.

" You can count on exactly the same treatment from me. I don't know how much I can help you before the first and second parts of the exam, but if you make it to the third, I'll make sure you're ready for it", he stated to all three, but mostly the girl who seemed to be calming down. He shifted so he was sitting on the ground before pulling out a cigarette.

" So, what's your name?", he asked the purple haired girl. She seemed to contemplate whether she should tell him before casting her eyes down to the ground.

" Yugao", she answered with reservation.

" Yugao huh, that's a very pretty name", he responded with a smile, which surprisingly gained a blush from the girl.

" So, Yugao-chan, how old are you?", he asked as he lit up the cigarette.

" Um, I'm 9", she answered hesitantly. Asuma's eyebrows rose at this.

" You graduated from the academy at the age of 9? You must be very skilled. Under the right jounin sensei, you could be in Anbu in no time". he proclaimed with amazement. Though, it was more for her benefit since he actually graduated at the same age, yet his was more under the pretenses of the Third shinobi war while hers was under peace time. Yet, apparently, something he said confused her.

" Jounin sensei?", she asked. Asuma quirked an eyebrow at this.

" You never had a jounin sensei?", he asked already knowing half the answer. She shook her head and looked to Kouta to explain, which he did.

" A week after the Kyuubi attack, the teachers came in with some higher ranking officials and made us do a test that looked like it was made for "special" people. Then they had us fight eachother a bit then made us do Kawarimi, Henge, and the Bushin. Then after that, the teachers and officals argued, and EVERYBODY passed. Then they gave us chunins and told us they'd be our instructors.", he finished while Asuma looked like he just took a bite out of a lemon. He wasn't expecting ALL of that.

' Dammit Pops, how the hell is this HELPING the situation. Taking the potential of the village and throwing it at the wolves' he mentaly growled, before a sense of commitment seemed to take him.

" We'll just have to fix that when we get back now won't we. First off, I want a demonstration of what the hell you three know*GRUMBLE*...after dinner." he finished holding out a hand for Yugao, which she hesitantly took moments later.

" Can we stop the group hug now? I think my utter humiliation is complete", Rin complained. The genin sweatdropped.

" You almost commit murder and you're worried about humility?", Kurenai spoke unbelievingly.

A flash of regret played across Rin's face before it turned to annoyance, " Half our lives are almost's and what if's Kurenai. WHAT IF I hadn't been there to swoop in and get you when the Kyuubi lunged", she said looking to Hiroshi and Nanami, who looked like they were going to be sick. " Naruto ALMOST got killed by my ex-teammate-", she looked at Naruto, who was dead asleep inside the carrier. " WHAT IF you hadn't stopped to perform that genjutsu" she looked at Kurenai whose features told she was thinking about it, and didn't like the outcome. " The answer is, it DIDN'T. Be thankful, learn from it, and move on. That's all you can really do. Now get get get!", she shooed them away, " I still have to pitch my damn tent", she grumbled.

The warm fuzzy feeling was starting to get annoying. She made her way over to her splayed out tent and started setting up.

" Honestly this is easer than pie. How the hell did *RRIIIIPP"". Rin stared at the ripped tent with a disgruntled look. Minutes went by before Asuma, with company quietly in tow, walked up behind her.

" Hey Rin-chan! I brought company to taste...what the hell happened to your tent?", Asuma asked crassly. Rin's head slowly seemed to do a 180 with her body staying put. Team 9 convieniently moved itself behind Asuma as a shield from the scary woman, but Asuma always knew how to diffuse her...and spot an opportunity.

" Alright. You make dinner for 8, and I'll try fixing your tent. Now let's just set this down and make our way over to the campfire", he gently ordered as he lead the contorted woman to the campfire. One he had her head back on straight, he made his way back over to the malfed up tent and stared at it along with Team 9. Yugao picked it up with her fingers, before letting it drop to the ground like a dead animal.

" Well...this thing is FUBAR"

Hearing that from a 9 year old was cute to Asuma in some warped way. Yet it was the truth.

' How the hell am I going to fix this?' He told her the 4 for 100ryou was a crappy deal.

" Is she always like that?", Kouta piped in, gaining confusion from Asuma until he pointed to Rin.

" Nah, only when she's stressed out or hungry...or tired...or it's that time of the month. Other than that she's usually coolheaded. She's been through alot in the last year. We all have really.", he explained while watching Rin shanghai Nanami out of her teepee to help cook dinner. '...a teepee'. But that was two tents in one. Perking up he laid eyes on Kurenai, who was setting up her boondoggle tent. A smirk played on his face.

A scare, a rip, a mad girl, and a lost personal tent later, Asuma looked to his squad, " Any of you know how to sew?". Kouta raised his hand which surprised Asuma.

"What? My mom taught me. ", Kouta replied deffensively.

" Nothing wrong with that. Alright, you get to help me".

(An hour later)

Rin sipped the stew that she made over the impromtu stove. It was almost ready.

" Rin! Check out our new dwelling!", she heard from Asuma behind her.

'Our?' she managed to think before turning around and promptly dropping the ladel as she gawked at the teepee clone.

" Hey! You stole our idea Asuma-sensei!", Hiroshi accused the grinning chunin.

"No patent, no foul Hiroshi", he retorted, still beaming.

" You expect me to sleep in that thing?", Rin asked, pointing incredulously.

" No, I expect US to sleep in this thing, since I gave Kurenai my tent, and as soon as possible, we're getting you guys all tents that ARE NOT from the bargain bin, and DON'T have "Made In Tsuchi No Kuni" tags on them", he chided her as he held up the tags. Rin had the decency to look sheepish. "W-well dinner is almost ready so get your squad over here", she spoke humbly.

Dinner was on, and aparently Team 7 thought so as well. Luckily, Rin always made more than needed. They weren't what had Rin's interest though. It was the little purple haired girl named Yugao. She had been closely following Asuma like a lost puppy, ever since Asuma took over Team 9. Currently, she was sitting right next to Asuma on the log that had been commissioned as a seat. Asuma was not oblivious to this, as he seemed to fidget every now and then to try gaining some space, yet the girl would move down with him every time. Asuma had finally run out of log and resigned himself to the situation. Rin chuckled as she sat on the other side of Yugao. Asuma chose to ignore it but Yugao didn't as she looked at Rin with a calculating glare and defiantly scooted closer to Asuma. The stare off was cut short when Asuma fell off the end of the log. He embarassingly rubbed the back of his head and excused himself. Yugao put on a pout and kept eating while Rin held in her laughter.

As day turned into night, dinner turned into small talk between the three teams as the others kept to themselves. For the first time in a long time, team 7 was able to talk with another team. Asuma lectured team 9 on some of the basics of elemental manipulation. He had very little time to hone them before the chunin exams, and nothing would up their chances in such a short time as giving them some offensive and deffensive jutsus.

The first thing he did was check their elemental affinities. Three pieces of chakra paper later ( Rin honestly wanted to know what it was with Sarutobis and being prepared) and he had a firm idea of what to teach them. For two of them, it was fire, including a Hyuga that he shockingly found out, had never been taught Juken. That was about as surprising as his little shadow, who he had found out was a wind user.

A 27 year old Asuma would be thrilled to have a wind user as a student. A 14 year old one, not so much.

He had just begun learning it a year ago, so teaching it would be difficult, especially due to him lacking any jutsus for it yet, just his elemental manipulation and his trench knives.

Rin watched as he gave the girl a spare trench knife. She looked like she was just given a priceless family heirloom. As he started teaching her the basics, Miyuki spoke up alongside Rin.

" That's so cute! They look just like a parent and daughter. I hope I can have the same with my daughter", she said in a hopeful tone as she pulled out a picture wallet and showed it to Rin. In it was a little girl who looked to be a year old or more, with brown eyes and her brown hair up in pigtails, looking with an awe on her face at the camera with a much saner and happier looking Miyuki with her arms wrapped around her from above.

Rin would have commented on the cute pic had she not seen a glimpse of the photo underneath. Before she could discern what it was, Miyuki put the wallet back in her pack.

"It's a little old, since I haven't seen her in a few months", she further explained, causing Rin's curiosity to shift.

" A few months? Where has she been staying? With her father?", she asked in confusion.

" Umm, no. He...he died a month before the attack so...she...I had to give her up to the orphanage", she answered as her eyes dulled even more, something Rin thought impossible before.

Rin's eyes widened, " Why? Isn't there anybody you could have left her with?", she asked desperately. She never had to stay at an orphanage, but she knew enough kids in the academy who did. The orphanages were a crappy thing for a kid to go through. Overfilled, underfunded, and nothing a child needed growing up in the ways of attention or affection.

Miyuki shook her head, " Ishimura is just a pretty name on a piece of paper...I was an orphan...her father was an orphan, and she...well...who knows what tommorow might bring haha", she tried ending cheerfully. It just made it worse in Rin's ears.

"You shouldn't talk like that. Of course you'll get to see her again. This nightmare can't last forever".

Miyuki's eyes shaded over, " It lasted long enough for them...anyways! I better check on my team. Gotta make sure they don't get lost...or walk into a mine field...or get abducted...or burned alive", she trailed down to a whisper before getting up and going to where her team was practicing. Rin could only look on after her descriptive ways for a person to die.

She wanted to see what that picture was now. Before she could ponder the matter anymore, Asuma walked up with a sheepish smile,

"Um, Rin-chan. Remember when I said we would be sleeping in the same tent? Well..."

Rin stared at the ceiling of the teepee with a disgruntled face. She then looked to the side of her to see a purple haired girl snoring away like a buzzsaw and Asuma on the other side of her snoring just as loud. Apparently Yugao lost her tent in, as Asuma put it, " Some spat with her teacher". He was vague on the details, but Rin didn't press the matter lest she find out then try hunting him down and killing him slowly.

The problem now was that Rin couldn't sleep. Usually, she fell asleep before Asuma turned on the sawmill, but with Yugao, who was a restless sleeper, it added a whole new level of difficulty.

Though Rin was almsot sure some of those kicks to the leg were intentional. The pint sized ninja was obviously crushing hard on Asuma and saw her as "competition".

Well, the little brat was months too late for that. Asuma was already hers.

Finishing her thoughts, she got out of the teepee and headed for the campfire to where Hiroshi was on his shift. Approaching him, she could see him staring across the fire. She looked in the direction he was staring to see Miyuki crouched over on a log, obviously asleep.

" How long has she been out here?",

To his credit, Hiroshi didn't seem startled by her sudden presence.

" She's been out here the whole time. She dozed off about 10 minutes ago", he answered quietly.

Rin nodded, knowing how Miyuki looked on a daily basis. The body would force sleep on a person if they didn't do so themselves. The creepy jounin had obviously been trying not to get any at all.

Rin's previous curiosities came to the forefront once again. She crept over to Miyuki's bag and stealthily rifled though it before finding the picture wallet Miyuki had shown her earlier. Making her way back over to Hiroshi, the genin gave her and incredulous stare.

" Isn't that stealing?", he whispered harshly.

Rin waved him off as she sat down next to him.

" Reconaisance", she quipped. Contrary to his previous argument, Hiroshi leaned in as well to look.

1st picture: A younger, healthier looking Miyuki in the arms of a brown haired man

2nd picture: A wedding photo of the couple

3rd picture: A pregnant Miyuki and the man holding her stomach from behind

4th picture: A photo of the girl in Miyuki's arms right after being born.

5th pictue: The photo that she saw earlier.

"Did she loser her kid or something? Is that why she's crazy?", Hiroshi asked. Rin shook her head

" No. The kid's alive, the husband isn't, but I doubt that alone would be enough", she replied quietly. With that, she started thumbing through the rest.

6th picture: Miyuki with Team 7...at least she thought...none of the faces were familiar.

" Hey, those are kids from our graduating class", Hiroshi realized. Rin quirked an eyebrow at that.

7th picture: Miyuki with a solemn look and three other students, including Toyo. Only the orange haired girl in the picture looked cheerful..yet there were small signs that she was "trying".

" Th-that's Mikan. But...she was on Team 3", Hiroshi mumbled in confusion. Rin started to get a bad feeling in her stomach.

8th picture: The orange haired girl was gone, replaced by an obviously Uchiha male. Miyuki had a plastered on smile.

"W-what"

9th picture: Only Toyo and Miyuki were left. Two girls filled the spots where the Uchiha and the other boy weren't. Toyo looked broken, and Miyuki's smile did nothing for her dead eyes.

10th picture: Rin felt like shuddering like Hiroshi had just done. If not for her experience, she would have. Mikyuki's crazed expression was fully bloomed, pinpoint pupils and all. Toyo looked as if he turned off his emotions all together. Yukari looked uncomfortable as hell and Renji looked worryingly at Miyuki.

It had to be the creepiest picture Rin had ever seen, yet obviously the woman's desperate attempt to cling onto something to keep herself from going off the deep end.

"They're all dead aren't they?", It was more of a statement than a question, but Rin nodded regardless.

Hiroshi went quiet until he spoke up again, " So that leaves..how many teams left?".

Rin figured he already knew most of the situation, there was no point in keeping it from him, " Twelve. Eleven of them multiply cannibalised like Miyuki's".

"...I can't even imagine losing one student after all that's happened",

Neither could Rin. Another name to add to the list of dead friends, teammates, senseis. She'd be a mess.

"Maybe we can help her out or something", HIroshi pondered, which put Rin's full attention back on him. She quickly bashed the idea

" No, keep your distance from her. She's a jounin afterall".

Hiroshi gave her an admonishing look, " You're not going to start that whole, " Jounin can control thier emotions" crap are-"

" NO, Hiroshi. She's a jounin in skill and combat, so do you really think you could hold your own against her if she did snap? If it was a civilian, you could try all you want, but when it's a person that can twist your head in the opposite direction faster than you can blink it's a different story. I don't think this trip is helping her at all either", she reasoned with a stern look. Hiroshi paled at the thought and shuddered.

" Just leave anything to do with her to me-", Before she could finish the rest of her sentence, Miyuki began to stir. Rin realized she was still holding the wallet. With quick thinking and precision aim...she threw the wallet at the bag, tipping it over and spilling it's contents, the wallet laying with it.

" Smooth" Hiroshi deadpanned sarcastically, gaining a bulging vein from Rin.

" The firelight threw me off", she countered in a huff. Once Miyuki completely woke up, her expression went from dazed to horrified. She shot up from her seat and bolted for her students tents. She yanked open each entrance, as if she was making sure they were still there. Once she checked all three tents, she visibly relaxed and walked back to her seat. Rin thought about speaking up, but before she could, she watched as Miyuki's face grew angry, and in the next moment, she raised her hand and smacked herself across the cheek.

Both Hiroshi and Rin flinched when she did. Considering the resounding *CRACK*, it had to have hurt. When tears started running down her face, they knew they were right. Miyuki refocused, and it was only then she noticed the faces of Rin and her student staring at her from across the fire. Her face turned red as the embarassement set in.

"U-umm. Just trying to stay awake you know hahahahaha", she nervously laughed, or at least they thought it was nervous laughter. Hiroshi seemed to find his voice first.

" Uh, maybe you should just get some sleep-"

"NO!"

Hiroshi shut up right there and then.

" Uh-hahah I mean what if something happens? I can't save them if they get abducted if I'm asleep...get abducted and..."

"Like Mikan?", Rin asked.

Whatever sort of appeasing...gentle..face Miyuki was trying to pull off disappeared in an instant, leaving her with a look a professional killer gave their enemy.

" How did you know that?", she cut out, her voice cold and sharp, nothing like the bumbling speech they heard from her before.

" The Hokage left me in charge Miyuki-san, He gave me most of the details-"

" Then keep it to yourself", Miyuki cut her off in a steely tone before getting up and heading off into the woods.

"W-why did you do that?", asked Hiroshi in a trembling voice. That little exchange scared the piss out of him.

She regarded her scared-shitless student, " One, to prove a point to you. Two, to see how bad she really is. I don't want you or the other two anywhere near her...in fact...stay away from her team alltogether."

" Kinda hard when they invite themselves over for dinner", Hiroshi retorted.

"...That can't be helped...in fact it might be a good oportunity. Just stay near me or Asuma", Rin compromised.

" Asuma's only a chunin", Hiroshi countered.

" So he says he is. But then how did he intercept me from killing that other chunin?", Rin smirked. Asuma was stronger than he let people think he was. " Anyways, go back to bed. I don't want you out here alone with her so I'll stay up",

Hiroshi nodded and started making his way back to his teepee, but then paused and looked back at Rin.

" Hey Kaa-sensei..", he started, then stared at her as she stared back.

He blinked.

Then next thing he knew, his vision was fuzzy and Rin was standing in front of his with his glasses on her face.

" Woah...I have a ways to go", Hiroshi mumbled in shock and awe.

" Yes you do", Rin agreed as she pulled Hiroshi's glasses off and stuck them back on his face," But you'll get there eventually".

Hiroshi nooded dumbly before continuing his trek back to his teepee.

The trip dragged on. Luckily, Miyuki slipped her thin layer of sanity back on but it was obvious Rin had struck a chord in the woman because it had more holes in it than swiss cheese.

*flashback*

Miyuki helped her students pack up their tents the morning after Rin's small confrontation. Rin was a ways away bickering with her group about how the hell to pack up the two teepees.

" There! Haha. Good to go Renji. Now I can help you out Kagura"

"Sensei. My name's Yukar-"

" I know what your fucking name is!", Miyuki snapped at the girl.

"h-hai s-sensei", the girl trembled out as tears from fearful eyes ran down her cheeks.

Everyone in teams six and nine besides Hiroshi and Rin stared in shock at what just happened. They looked to Rin, but she shook her head.

Luckily, Mikyuki regained herself and apologised to Kagura...which is what the poor girl would be called for the rest of the time, never having the courage to try and correct the woman again.

*flashback end*

All in all, a very fucked up trip. Since then, Rin has drugged Miyuki's food with "happy medicine", leaving her more..stable. She has also found out a very intriguing fact.

*Yes another one.*

" -should send you back to preschool! If I catch you two fighting again, I'll make you walk the rest of the way to Suna NAKED! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?¡", Rin roared at the shivering, and nodding "genin" that had been fighting all the time in Team 2. Once she had instilled her fear into them, she cocked her sights towards the chunin " leader".

" And you! Why the hell are you letting this crap take place?¡ You're supposed to be leading them dammit! How the hell did you make chunin if you have no leadership skills?¡"

The chunin nervously scratched his cheek, " Umm, m-mostly my accounting skills"

Rin's face went blank, " ...your...accounting skills..."

The chunin finally cracked, " Look, I don't know what to do! I haven't even touched a kunai since I became a clerk for Administrations! Then Hokage-sama gives me this bunch of genin and tells me to "do my best", and that's what I've been doing, but it's really hard!", he whined.

"You're...you're a desk ninja..."

"Yes!", he cried.

Everything fell silent as Rin stared at...through the man, then she started walking towards a dense patch of trees until she disappeared into the thick.

" MOTHER FUCKING HORSE SHIT!¡ OF ALL THE RETARDED FUCKING COCK SUCKING ASS LICKING-"

It went on like this for a while as the entire group watched in morbid fascination as a thick tree in the middle took the brunt of whatever she was dishing out, until it started groaning and then fell into the woods. The string of vile tounge ceased and Rin walked back out of the underbrush with a look of dark resolve. She stopped right where she was in front of the clerk ninja.

" ALL CHUNIN TEAM LEADERS FRONT AND CENTER NOW!¡"

They were in front of her in an instant.

" NOT YOU ASUMA!"

He sighed in relief and then ran away.

Two females and two males were in front of her looking like a cadet review in Anbu.

Rin took a breath, " Who here...has been promoted to chunin through the exams?", she asked with underlying threat.

Only one hand went up. The other male, who still looked like he was in his teens.

" And who here, has taught their team anything USEFUL since they had them?"

Again, only one hand went up, that of one of the females.

Rin grit her teeth, " I see. And what was it?"

" U-um...s-sticking a leaf to..your forehead"

"...that's an excercise for first year academy students!", Rin growled out inches from the woman's face.

"w-w-well I am a first year academy instructor", the chunin squeaked.

A crow flew by-

"Aho! Aho! Ahgck!"

And fell feet away with a kunai sticking out of it.

Rin's head creaked and screeched as it turned to the other female.

" And WHAT are you?"

She was scared shitless, " I-I'm from the decryption core".

It did the same when she turned to the last male.

" 'You a desk ninja too?", she asked gutterally.

The chunin shook his head.

" So why haven't you taught them anything?", she growled out.

" Unless you want me to teach them seduction skills, I'm at a loss", he shrugged.

Rin looked about ready to blow up...and then she went still, looked up...and smiled.

" You know what? YES. I do want you to teach them seduction skills. All of them. EVERYTHING YOU KNOW."

The chunin gawked at her, " But they can't be any older than 12!"

"THAT'S AN ORDER, AND YOU START NOW!", Rin roared. The chunin shut up, saluted, and ran off towards his group. She then cocked her head towards the rest of the chunin.

" As for you three! Starting now you are under my command! You are my bitches! If I ask you to sit on a fence pole, you ask how deep! You're not in your cozy desk chairs anymore! I am going to train your ass to the ground until the chunin exams, and my genin, MY REAL GENIN, are going to train yours, because any one of them could kick all your asses at the same time! Hiroshi! Nanami! Kurenai!"

All three were there in an instant

"Hai Kaa-sensei!"

" Pick a team and start them on tree climbing! You are in command so keep them motivated!"

The three's eyes went wide before snapping a mock salute and taking off towards the groups.

"B-but they're just genin!", the academy teacher cried out. Rin was staring at her heatedly.

" And what does that say about you?", Rin retorted. The woman couldn't even look at Rin after thinking about it.

Rin's face turned into a twisted smile as she clapped her hands together, " Now, my little bitches, we are going to start off with some laps".

The teacher's face turned white, " W-what"

"NOW! *SMACK*", Rin smacked her on the ass hard which ellicited a shriek from the woman and compliance and instant later, the other two following suit at the same instant. Rin barked at them as she ran behind them.

The two other Jounin gawked at what she had just done...until Rin stopped running, and turned her very menacing face towards them.

" And what are you two doing?", she asked menacingly calm.

Even Miyuki felt like wetting her pants.

" Uh, teaching, Yes, we're going to teach our students things!", Miyuki answered smartly and ran away, the other Jounin feeling like he should do the same.

With that, Rin started back at running behind her bitches.

*Stop scrolling, it's over*

" You know, you should be a teacher", Asuma commented to Rin as they walked.

" Pfft. I already am one. Honestly, first three genin, then three chunin. What next, three tokubetsu jounin?", she groaned as she stared at the chunin dragging their feet in front of her, who she had yet to learn the names of and just named Bitch numbers one two and three. Three being her favorite academy teacher.

" I doubt a tokubetsu jounin would let you get away with smacking her ass to motivate her", Asuma joked.

" Meh, whatever keeps her "motivated", Rin shrugged.

" I'm starting to think you like it", Asuma accused.

"..."

Asuma turned to Rin, whose face was turning into a smirk.

" Kinky"

" Don't even think about it"

" But I am"

" Watch it or I'll start calling you Bitch number four"

" Watch it or I'll start calling you Kaa-chan"

" Pah! And you call me kinky!"

" So that makes us both kinky"

" And what does that leave us with"

"...thoughts of a mother who is a bisexual dominatrix?"

Everything stopped.

As Rin treats massive blood loss and tries to smooth over mental trauma throughout the ranks...

In the last couple days, Rin and her genin had done a number with their respective groups.

...It wasn't hard. Hell, when Hiroshi showed his group how to do tree climbing, they looked at him like he was a superhero.

Then he showed them water walking, and they thought he was some self sacrificing holy martyr descended from the heavens to pay for all their sins.

He had to politely refuse when the female member begged to have his baby.

All of Team 6 had to show their charges how to do both exercises, even Rin, which was pitiful. She had to wonder how the hell they had survived for as long as they did. She knew they have done missions. They looked like it when she first saw them. So...ooooh. Desk ninja. Of course they would have skills in something useful. That being how to get the drop on the good missions, leaving the combat oriented team leaders with whatever was left.

So she drilled them harder.

By the end of the trip, she could safely say she still wouldn't take them on anything bigger than a D-rank, but at least they weren't as pathetic as before.

I mean, how bad is it when your charges can do things you can't.?

Unfortunately, they crossed into the desert and it became too hot and treacherous to be training someone to exhaustion. So she made them practice handsigns for hours on end.

The trip through the desert was monotonous and boring. What made it at least bearable for Rin while her victims "twiddled" their hands was watchin Asuma try to shake his new purple shadow. She had intentionally tripped a while ago, and after Asuma helped her up, she wouldn't let go. Despite her childish crush, the girl was, surprisingly, a quick study. This could be because it was her crush teaching her, but Rin had a hunch it wasn't the case. The girl could already cut a quarter of the way through the leaf exercise that Asuma had taught her and was skillfully learning how to fight with the trench knife Asuma had given her. The fact that she graduated at the age of nine showed talent.

Rin had some serious suggestion for the Hokage when these exams were done.

And when she meant suggestions, she meant ass chewing if it came down to it.

One was that Miyuki be taken off the active duty roster until she was mentally sound. Considering how long that might take, it might be the end of her career, but the alternatives weren't pretty.

Two was that Team 9 specifically be given a jounin sensei, a REAL jounin sensei. There was too much latent potential for that team to be thrown to the wolves like so many others had been. But then, they all needed proper instructors, even the ones with jounin. Miyuki might have been a good sensei when she was sane, but now all her energy was spent shielding her genin in paranoia, and the other didn't give a shit about his team. And the bitche..."chunin", had nothing to instruct.

What a clusterfuck.

So it was with a sigh of relief, that the plateu walls of Suna came into view from atop the dune they were crossing.

" Listen up! Once we're in Suna, we will be representing Konoha's...finest. Therefore, I expect you be on your BEST behavior, because if you act poorly in Suna, it reflects badly on Konoha, which could jeopardize our alliance, or even start a war. No, I am not exagerating. That aside, use what you have learned in your time as a student, and you will have a better chance of getting out of the exams alive".

Funnily, the teams under her bitches glared heatedly at their "leaders", who seemed to whither under the pressure.

" Now that that's out of the way, let's get the hell out of this giant sand trap, I think my feet are one big friction burn", she stated crassly, though every one of them could relate.

Sure, you could use chakra to walk on top of the majority of it, but it still didn't help the fact that sand could and did get ANYWHERE.

Gust of wind

Sand

Pick up your feet the wrong way

Sand

Pitch a tent

Sand

Try to get rid of the sand

More sand

It all came down to adaptation. Suna nins were used to the heat, so they sweat less, which meant less sand clung to them. They knew how to wear clothes that kept sand out. How to keep it out of their food ( Rin had to crack Hiroshi over the head for his jibe at her sandwhiches), and generally keeping the shit from ruining their day.

Konoha nins...not so much. Though, they got some twisted retribution at seeing visiting Suna "virgin" nin TRY to weave their ways through tree branches. Kinda hard to do at shinobi speeds while watching for your next leap point, keeping your chakra control at the right level, keeping an eye out for enemies or traps, and trying to coordinate with team members leaps if you were in a group.

Yes, many a visiting Suna nin's first view of the village is waking up in the fine accomodations of Konoha Hospital, and leaving with some broken appendage and a concussion from the resulting meeting with the ground. Honestly, did they think every tree in Hi no Kuni had a perfectly horizontal branch with no obstacles? That was just silly. After all, trees have a tendency to want to grow UP, not out.

They were more tourists than shinobi if you asked Rin.

The Suna chunin watched as a large group of Konoha ninja left the last dune of the desert and walked towards the gates. Guaging by how many genin there were, it was obviously the teams participating in the chunin exams. As they grew closer, he looked for familiar faces. He quickly spotted Sarutobi Asuma, the youngest son of the Sandaime Hokage. He seemed to be leading a genin team, but if he remembered correctly, he was only a chunin.

He put those thoughts aside and scanned the rest of the crowd. Seeing a bunch of uninteresting faces, until he saw a reknowned jounin with a baby shaded in a basket. He gawked at her before pulling out a bingo book. This one was different from regular bingo books in that it was a result of the Konoha/Suna alliance to identify allied shinobi, with general information and rumors to go with it. Anybody above the regular chunin were in there, especially if they made it past C-rank skill. This woman was easily in the top twenty five. Inuzuka Rin was not as well known as her former teammate, but she was known. One of the late Yondaime Hokage's students, well versed in medical jutsu, Jounin rank and rumored to have been in Anbu. She had just appeared out of thin air a few months ago with a newborn, and had attracted Kumo's interest to the point of giving her the moniker "Mother Goose".

Seeing her now with the baby and her genin team, another thing that had appeared out of thin air, she really did fit the name. He grew tense as she grew closer. There was no telling her personality, so anything could be taboo. He was not ready for what was to come

"Halt! State your busi-"

"Whoa! A real Suna nin!...How the hell do you live out here?!", she whined.

The guards jaw dropped while she ranted on about what she had sand in...

" And this sun is giving me a farmer's tan! Now I'm going to have to tan the rest of it"

He was down. And so was Asuma.

It was 5 minutes later that they came to.

" Anyways, we're the Konoha teams participating in the chunin exams", she stated to the chunin stuffing tissue up his nose.

" Ugh, dravlgh mpampers?".

Rin's eyes widened before she started patting herself down.

" Where the hell did I put those things?", she complained to herself in frustration as she took off her jacket and shook it upside down. But she wasn't wearing the mesh due to the heat, and only the tubetop.

But it was just a tubetop.

And Rin was shaking her coat up and down.

PHYSICS

*THUD* There went the chunin again...and Asuma...and Hiroshi...and every male in their vicinity...and even some females.

" Ah! Here they are!", she shouted out as she pulled them out of her cargo pocket of her shorts.

10 minutes later.

The chunin was rushed to the hospital for blood transfusion as a female chunin took his place.

" A liason will be inside waiting for you. Welcome to Sunagakure...and please try to keep your shirt on", the chunin jabbed through a faux smile.

Rin put her hands on her hips as she huffed.

" Well if you excited them, I wouldn't need to"

The chunin's eye twitched as the group meandered past the entrance.

She was wearing what most Suna kunoichi wore.

Once they were gone, she shot a look up at the steps of the plateu face.

" Am I pretty?¡ TELL ME I'M PRETTY!¡"

The steps just sweatdropped in various places.

*An Hour later*

After going through the usual bureaucratic bullshit with the liason, the teams were finally shown to the hotel that they would be staying for the next month in. The innkeeper was a little overly eager that he was getting this much business. From the state of the inn, it looked like Suna didn't get much business. Considering the location and the lack of export, she could easily imagine why.

Many of the other hidden villages wondered, jealously, why Konoha's economy was so stalwart and large. The reason was very simple. Along with Konoha's greater military force (previously and hopefully again), it wasn't as hidden as the other villages were.

Take waterfall for instance. It was very, very , very well hidden. In fact, it was so well hidden that if you asked a merchant where it was, he would probably laugh at you, then kick you in the leg for being a smart ass.

Waterfalll was so remote and hidden that their economy was almost nil. Suna was the same way. They had built their village in the middle of the desert for protection. Merchants couldn't get their carts past the dunes of sand and there were very few paths that were rocky desert, so few merchants bothered trying to get to the village, more relying on trading their goods to merchants on the bordertowns that did go into Suna.

Konoha, on the other hand, had major roads leading to it through forested countryside. The only other village that had more economic potential was Kiri due to Mizu's bustling shipping industry and trade routes with the foreign continents. The only reason this potential wasn't truly realized was the isolationist view of the land and the totalitarian rule of the Yondaime Mizukage, which put a stanglehold on the country.

But other than that, it was all location. Of course, easy access also meant easier invasion, so you had to have the military force to back it up. A very vicious cycle.

The previous thoughts were also seen when they went to a local equipment store to buy new tents. As soon as the group entered-

" Welcome!", the storekeeper shouted in excitement...and watched as the customers dove for cover.

Realizing he had startled the foreign shinobi, he bowed.

"Gomen-nasai. Welcome to Yoshi's Last Stand weapon and equipment emporium. The best shinobi equipment supplier in Suna", the salesman pitched to the shinobi, who were peaking out of their cover.

Seeing the coast was clear, they finally relaxed.

" Uh, yeah. we're here to buy some tents", Rin responded.

" Preferably one's that weren't made in Rock country", Asuma added dryly, causing Rin's eye to twitch.

Yoshi raised and eyebrow, "You're Leaf nin, so why did you buy something from Rock country? Heck, the war was only a few years ago".

Rin looked away, apparently finding interest on a wall as the rest of the group looked at her. Asuma felt it would be wise for a time fo amnesty.

" You didn't get anything else for a "bargain", did you guys?".

The three peered harder at Rin, who was scratching her cheek nervously.

" Umm...kunai", she stated quietly.

The genin looked confused before they came to a realization. Nanami pulled out one of her newer kunai. The salesman took it and weighed it in his hand. A look of confusion appeared on his face before he held it by the ring and dropped it straight down towards the floor. As soon as it left his fingers, it did a 180 and hit the floor, ring first.

Rin laughed hysterically.

"Hahahah, that's...that's not so bad..", she stated unconvincingly. The rest of them stared holes into her until she finally caved.

" Alright! It was totally horrible! They wre a dozen for 299 ryou. So sue me!", she proclaimed haughtily.

" You're arming shinobi Rin, not school supply shopping", Asuma grumbled.

The shopkeeper grabbed at the opportunity.

" Well, there's no way you can take the chunin exams with faulty equipment. It might cost you your chances before even getting through the second stage. But, you're just in luck. I just happen to have recieved a smuggled supply of kunai from Rock country", he stated while grabbing a crate of kunai.

Rin's eyes narrowed," How are they different from the ones we have already?", she asked skeptically.

The salesman smirked, " Because I said smuggled, and unlike those...things...which were probably made in some small town in Rock country, these were made in Iwagakure-", he finished by turning the open crate upside down. 24 kunai fell out at different angles, yet all of them embedded into the floor, tip first.

" Aren't they supposed to be evenly balanced?", Kurenai asked, pointing at the kunai.

" If you were throwing them like a boot knife, then yes. But ninja tend to throw them straight, like an arrow. So you want the weight at the front, like a lawn dart, with the back of the weapon acting as a tail, being the lightest part. These have perfect weight distribution, graduating from heaviest to lightest, tip to tail, something few blacksmiths outside of Iwa are able to do. Also-", he paused to pluck one from the floor and present it, "-they are water folded. Not as well as a katana mind you, but they will seldom loose an edge. These are weapons that will serve you a lifetime should you not lose them".

The genin were drooling

" How much do they cost?", Rin asked, dreading the answer.

"You're in luck, I have three dozen left. I'll sell them to you for 7,000 ryou ( roughly 700 bucks)", he stated, making Rin weak in the knees.

Before she could voice her thoughts, the genin started pulling out their wallets.

" That's only 1,750 for 9 a piece. That's definitely worth the price, right Kaa-sensei?", Hiroshi asked while pulling out he money needed to buy his quarter of the kunai.

It seemed they had been saving up their paychecks. But then, when they didn't have to pay for housing or food, you can do it pretty easily. Seeing as how the three of them had already commited, she didn't want to look like a skin flint. She went for her wallet but they stopped her.

" Don't worry, well pay for your set", Nanami replied.

Rin looked surprised, " Uh, really?", she asked incredulously.

Hiroshi nodded," Yeah. After all, you're buying the tents", he stated with a grin.

Rin's shoulders slumped, " Oh. Right. Those. ".

The salesman walked up after selling the kunai, " Not to worry Miss. Suna makes some of the most weather and nature resistant shelters in the shinobi nations...for a price, of course", he stated, causing Rin's shoulders to slump even more.

" Well, we'll need four-"

" Two", Asuma cut her off. She turned to him with confusion on her face.

" Huh?"

" Two double tents. It'll be cheaper than four individual ones. Hiroshi and Nanami are obviously a couple, minus the wedding bands, and then us" he ended with a smirk. Hiroshi and Nanami were too busy fondling their new toys to listen, leaving Rin the only one with a blush.

Rin perked up as she remembered something.

" Three tents. Two double, and a single for your little purple haired tick".

" She is not a tick", Asuma argued indignantly. Rin just pointed to his leg. He quirked and eyebrow and looked down, only to see Yugao wrapped around it.

" What the...when?¡", he cried out hysterically.

Kurenai shrugged, " She latched on when you and Kaa-sensei were having that argument about giving the hotel maid a tip for more complimentary toiletries", she stated nonchalantly. Asuma choked.

" She's been on my leg for fifteen minutes and none of you saw it fit to tell me?¡", he shouted at the genin. Hiroshi answered this time.

" I think the real question is how she's been on your leg for fifteen minutes and you never noticed Asuma-sensei", he retorted with a smug grin. Asuma flinched at that. How the hell didn't he know? ' She must be stealthier than a cat' he thought.

" Come on Yugao-chan, this is too much. Get off"

" Yadda!", she refused.

" Come on kid, get off!", Hiroshi exclaimed while he started trying to pull her off.

" Yadda!Yadda!Yadda!", she cried out, holding on with an iron grip. Kurenai decided to help for the fun of it, causing Asuma to hop around on one foot.

" It's not working so stop pulling before I crack my head open!"

" Yadda!Yadda!Yadda!", all three exclaimed as they kept pulling on the runt, causing Asuma to yell at them as he flailed his arms to keep balance.

Nanami finally had enough amusement and walked up, then dug her fingers into Yugao's sides and tickled her mercilessly. It did the trick as Yugao let go, laughing like a hyena...causing Asuma to fly one way and the three genin to fly another way into a heap on the floor.

All while this was happening, Rin was with the salesman, buying the tents. The salesman looked at the group making a ruckus.

" I'm confused, is this your team or your family?".

Rin looked back at them to see Nanami with a Yugao, sporting an angry pout, tucked under her arm, and Asuma with Hiroshi and Kurenai in headlocks, trying to break free. She turned back to the salesman.

" Both...without a doubt in my mind", she sighed as she exchanged the money for the tents. With that, she grabbed them up and headed out, her horde following albeit in a less than orderly fashion.

* Three days later*

Rin and Team 6 stood in front of the exams building. Rin turned to her team, hands on her hips out of habit...even though Naruto wasn't with her.

" Alright guys. Asuma and I have trained you to the best of our abilities in the time we had, which makes you the best in your league. The Hokage has shared this view as well, going as far as to put the reputation of Konoha itself in your hands. A failure would put the strength of our forces into question, leading our enemies to risk war and possibly wipe us off the face of the earth...", she stated, looking at the three blanching, gawking, nervous wrecks in front of her.

"...but I don't expect that to happen. You've taken missions genin would normally never get. C-ranks, B-ranks, even that A-rank. You've fought against opponents far above your pay grade, escaped dangers that would kill lesser ninja...like the weasles *shudder*..., and your skills and experience already label you as a chunin. So don't you feel unnerved, don't feel scared, just get in there and kick some foreign ninja ass and before you know it, you'll have a chunin vest thrown at you. So give it the old Rin Brigade wreckless abandon!", she cried out, raising her fist in the air. The genin mock saluted.

" Can do Kaa-sensei!", they shouted and charged the building, forms in hand.

Asuma was busy talking to his own temporary team.

" I'm not going to lie to you, these exams are going to be tough on you guys. It's tough for any genin team, but because of your previous "leader's" neglect, it's going to be even harder for you. In the last week, we have fixed some of what he has done, but these trials are fierce, and could cost you your lives, but if you have the will to overcome that bastard's wrongdoings, rely on eachother, and remember the training I have managed to give you, you might make it through to the finals, where I can train you more than I have been able to. But one thing has been proven through the years...cheating", he stated before pointing at Kouta.

" Kouta! Cut you hair to a boy's length".

Kouta looked horrified. Like most Hyugas, he had long silky black hair that most women would kill for. And his sensei wanted him to cut it?¡ Asuma sensed his shock.

" Do you want to be a chunin?", he asked as he peered at him. Kouta churned his words through in thought. Finally, he pulled off his headband and turned away from Asuma.

" Just make it quick", he stated as his teammates watched a single tear roll down his cheek. Asuma quickly produced a kunai and sliced his hair off. With a quick ruffling of his hair, what was once shiny, silky, and long, was now unkempt, shaggy, but most of all, hung over his pupiless eyes. If Asuma wasn't a man, and a manly man at that, he would have to say the kid looked cuter than before.

" Use it to your advantage. The rest of you use your skills to your advantage as well. I'll see you on the other side", he said, giving them a thumbs up. With that, team 9 made their way into the building. Asuma made his way over to Rin as he watched the other Konoha teams and other village teams getting words of encouragement, apology, and in some cases, threat from their senseis. In the case of team 7, it was the genin reassuring a very apprehensive and disshelved Miyuki, even when she was unknowingly on her happy medicine.

Rin turned to Asuma

" You think they'll make it?"

Asuma quirked an eyebrow

" Yours? Without a doubt in my mind. Mine, I'm not to sure about. Even if they don't, it will be good practice for them...well..if they don't get killed, god forbid.", he replied. He then realized something. Something awesome.

" The hotel room is empty", he stated as he stared at Rin, who stared right back. A moment later, they both bolted for the hotel room as the rest of the team leaders made for the lounge.

*Inside the exams building*

Since teams 9 and 6 were basically under the same two senseis, they decided to stick together. This proved to be a blessing after they handed in their forms and entered the room. Every team turned and glared at them, leaking what little KI they could produce. For team 6, who had faced down the KI of a bijuu, it was a mere annoyance. For two of three members of Team 9, who were freshly graduated not even a month ago, it was enough to make them sweat. Seeing the two girls discomfort, Hiroshi decided to take the rooms ire off of them.

Snapping his head up to the ceiling and pointing with a shocked face-

"LOOK!"

Everybody looked...there was nothing there...they looked back at Hiroshi.

" A ceiling!", he proclaimed proudly.

Everybody facefaulted causing a huge ruckus.

Teams 6 and 9 settled in as the grumbling at Hiroshi continued, Nanami shielding her face due to Hiroshi's stupid scene. The words retarded and helmet came up multiple times.

Regardless, team 6 started scanning the other teams, They could see the expected Suna headbands that made up almost half of the teams. They could also see Taki, Kusa, Kumo, Ame...and Iwa!

Their faces hardened when they met the glares of the Iwa teams.

Considering their ages, one would think Nanami and Hiroshi wouldn't have had anything to do with the Third Shinobi war, as they were still in the Academy at the time. But with genin in the rear lines of the war, Academy students were used in the homefront. To help out the hospital, to help out widows or disabled veterans, and one they absolutely despised, to console and help new orphans at the orphanage, ones because of the war with Iwa. Even when they were in the Academy, it was a sickeningly common thing to see one of their classmates pulled from the room during class and hear screaming or crying a while later, confirming everyone's fears.

Many of the kids with shinobi parents would tense up every time the door opened during the middle of class.

For Kurenai, it was more personal, she was unlucky enough to see the tail end of the war. Albeit as border guard, just like Asuma. Her first kill was an Iwa shinobi when they tried to pincer off the main fighting force.

As the teams glared at eachother, they didn't realize they were emiting more KI than the whole class had been earlier. The tense atmosphere was broken as a mountain of a Suna nin, sporting a blad head and classic mustache (think a turkish body builder) poofed into the room.

" Oi! Pipsqueaks! The war is over! Now break it up or I'll kick your asses out of this room the easy way", he all but bellowed while cracking his knuckles. Both teams got the hint as they shuffled away from eachother while still staring at the hulk of a jounin.

Satisfied, he stuck his fingers in his mouth a whistled loudly. 8 chunin appeared out of nowhere.

" Welcome to the Suna chunin exams. I am Tora, the proctor of the first exam. Remember this well you little fairies! You are here because we allow it, and you will follow the rules given to you because we demand it. Fail to comply, and I will chase you out of Suna myself. Before I get to them, every team pick a table and SIT THE FUCK DOWN!", Every team did just that, very hastily, not wanting to incur the man's wrath. Once everyone was situated, he tarted back up again.

" The first part will be a written exam", with that the chunin behind him started handing out tests to every table. " You will have one hour to complete the test. During this time, there will be no talking amongst yourselves. There will be no arguing, fighting, or killing of any kind. If anyone is caught cheating during this test, you automatically fail. This test starts...NOW!".

And with that, every team dove into their test booklets. As soon as Hiroshi saw the questions, a grin came to his face, which Nanami and Kurenai saw, elliciting a sigh of relief from them. Most of the questions were geared towards desert warfare, tactics, and survival, somthing the girls handn't been trained in by Rin. But Asuma had with Hiroshi, seeing as how he was the team's strategist.

He quickly grabbed up the pencil and started on the questions.

Team 9 wasn't as well off as team 6 was. None of them had been trained in this shit, so when Kouta saw the questions, he silently thanked Asuma for what he had done. With his eyes shaded, he channeled small amounts of chakra to his eyes. Very, very, very, very, very few people know that there are smaller levels to the Byakugan than just full activation. The reason why few people knew this was because of the implications of these smaller levels. After all, if it was found out that the Byakugan could see bones, muscle, nerves, the bloodstream, or...skin...well, everyone would assume the Hyugas were all perverts, even though the view would look like a film negative The advantages though were many. 360° vision with a more limited range was given, very little chakra, no handseals or verbal announcement, and the girl from Ame had nipple piercings...heh...but back on the task at hand!

So with the risk of failure, team 9 cheated craftily through the first exam.

As the test went on, more than a few teams had been caught cheating and had been kicked out. Two of the Konoha teams failed in this manner, and one of the teams decided to bitch.

A kunai flew across the room, grazing Kurenai's hair and embedding into the table behind her, " Konoha Team 5! You were caught cheating! Take your teammates and get out!",

One of the genin at the got up, " What?¡ That's bullshit! We weren't cheating!", before he could say another sylable, the huk of a jounin was standing in front of him, glaring death at the genin.

" Are you calling me a liar? the jounin known as Tora growled dangerously. Whatever balls the genin had shriveled up and died right there.

" I am calling you a sharp eyed jounin, and that we were caught fair and square, and we will be leaving now", with that the genin bolted out the door, his teammates right behind him.

" Peh! Figures thos tree hugging leaf nin wouldn't have any-"

"I believe you dropped this", he heard from behind him. He turned around to see Kurenai glaring fire at him, minus a lock of hair. She was holding the kunai out for him...but it was glowing red and the bandages around the handle were just smoldering char.

" Umm, keep it", he replied with a sweatdrop. She narrowed her eyes at him before she turned around and dropped it on top of the desk, which promptly burst into flames where the kunai layed. Hiroshi quickly got his canteen and doused it.

Meanwhile, the chunin observers were making mental notes not to go against her in the second exams.

Before they knew it, the hour was up.

" Time's Up! Put your papers face down and wait for them to be graded"

The chunin walked to each table and picked up the test, then went to the front of the room and sat to grade the papers. As each paper was graded, a result would be proclaimed.

" Iwa Team 3, 70%, Pass", the Iwa genin team 6 had been glaring at let a sigh of relief.

" Suna Team 10...40%...fail!", Tora exclaimed harshly at the shamed team. Being from Suna, and failing a test basically made for knowledge of the desert was pathetic. They left with no pride left in them.

" Konoha Team 9, 82%, Pass", Kouta slumped in his chair. His caution had paid off. Originally, he was going to copy off of team 6's paper, but after seeing Hiroshi's paper, he knew enough to copy enough to pass and fudge the rest. It would have been obvious if he had copied the whole thing.

After all, there was no way two teams could get that high of a score.

"Konoha Team 6...100%...uh, Pass", the chunin fumbled dumfoundedly while gawking at where team 6 was sitting. No one had gotten 100% on the test in almost two decades, and certainly not a Konoha team. Hiroshi was too busy giving the peace sign...consisting of his middle finger, to the Iwa team, to notice the chunins' stares, but Nanami did, and it made her fidget in her chair.

Tora shook his head. That team was more and more trouble. He cleared his throat signalling for the chunin to continue. As they went through the tests, the rest of the teams were either passed or failed. All in all, 18 teams were left after the results were finished. Tora spoke once again.

" Congratulations on passing the first exam. It proves that you came prepared...or that you were good enough to cheat and not get caught", he stated with a glare around the room.

" The purpose of this test was to see how much you had prepared to enter a foreign country. Say you were part of a mission to Yuki no Kuni. Obviously, you wouldn't use the same combat and survival tactics as you would if you were going to Mizu no Kuni. Cheating wasn't allowed since it would serve no purpose in this test. This test also served to weed out the teams who wouldn't have had a chance of surviving the next exam", he stated right before a mousy looking woman in thick glasses and a Suna vest came into the room.

" Umm, I'm not early am I?", she asked almost inaudibly. Tora shook his head.

" No, you're just in time, I'm just wrapping up. They're all yours", he stated while stepping aside. She took center stage and put on a stern face...which just mader her look like a pouting child.

" I am the Jounin-"

" We can't hear you!", the class of genin shouted almost in unison.

She got a tick mark on her forehead and reached behind her and pulled out a megaphone.

":*SQUELCH* I AM THE JOUNIN FOR THE SECOND EXAM. AYANAMI USAGI", she blared across the squelch the megaphone gave off, causing the genin, and even Tora, to cover their ears, " NOW. IF YOU WOULD FOLLOW ME, WE WILL GO TO THE NEXT EXAM GROUNDS", she blared again as she marched out the door, the teams quickly following so she didn't use her megaphone again in closed quarters.

* In the waiting lounge for the Jounin senseis*

Rin and Asuma walked in 15 minutes before the end of the first exam, looking a little more disshelved than they did at the start of it. They looked around the room to see most of the other jounin senseis grouped up by village and talking amongst eachother. Rin stopped when she saw Iwa forehead protectors.

' Iwa. The war was only a couple of years ago. You'd think they wouldn't bother to send any teams, especially to the country that instigated the war' she thought to herself. If they saw Naruto, they might put two and two together...whether that be that she was taking care of her late sensei's son or had an illicit affair with her sensei and Naruto was the result, was up in the air...both were plausible she guessed...*shiver*.Luckily, Asuma had convinced her to put Naruto in a day care while they were waiting for their teams. Iwa or not, ally or not, it would have been absolutely stupid to bring Naruto into this room with so many jounin from other villages. Asuma assured her that the day care was the safest in Suna.

* Suna Daycare*

The Young Breeze day care was only a day care in the sense that they cared for kids. In reality, it was a temporary stronghold for VIP children during the time of the exams. This was only examplified by the two Suna Anbu keeping watch over them and that the children were being tended to by chunin kunoichi. It kept the children of elite ninjas, political figures, and even the Kazekage out of the eyes of foreign ninja that might find the possibility of kidnapping them too irresistable. Most of the children were from Suna, but since the " day care" was funded from the money given to them from Konoha, it was only fair that they be able to use the service as well, as little chance there was that someone would bring their child from Konoha. Imagine their surprise when someone not only brought a child, but a baby to boot.

A small blond three year old sedately played with some blocks on the ground. She hasn't been excited or even smiled since her youngest brother was born, taking the life of her mother in the same day. Her father was a cold man who cared more about the strength of his village than the wellbeing of his family. Add to that, the fact few other kids approached her, seeing as she was the Kazekage's daughter, and you have a lonely and depressed Temari.

Hell, the staff even treated her like a crystal vase...speaking of mentioned people, where were they? Temari stopped to look around the room. She finally spotted them, huddled around something, cooing and gabbing amongst themselves. Temari clumsily picked herself off the floor and went over to them.

" Aww, he's sooo cuuute! Those whisker marks make him look like a little fox!", one kunoichi cooed.

" I wonder if he's related to that dog clan in Konoha?", another asked.

" The Inuzuka", a mousey one with the appearance of a nerd supplied.

" Well, the Kunoichi that brought him was named Inuzuka Rin", the tallest one added.

" Whadare you aul lookin at?", the three year old Temari asked with curiosity.

The chunin closest to her turned and answered, " A really cute baby from Konoha Temari-sama. Would you like to see?", the kunoichi asked politely.

Gaining a nod from the girl, she picked her up and held her towards the crib. Temari blinked as the baby came into view. His blue eyes sparkled as he stared back at Temari. His nose scrunched up before his whisker marked cheeks turned up as he started laughing and clapping at the funny girl.

" Kawaii...", the young girl said quietly amongst the coos and baby talk of the kunoichi as he continued laughing and wriggling around. She stared for a while longer before looking up at the kunoichi still looking at the baby.

" Can I hold him?"

*With Rin*

With the assurance that Naruto was out of sight for now, she made her way into the room towards the area where the Konoha team leaders had bunched up. Most of them were chunin...roughly, so being in a room full of jonin, regular and elite, would definitely put them on edge. As Rin made her way through the room, she felt the eyes of the other jounin focus on her. the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.

If they didn't stop, she might have to do something drastic.

Luckily, something took most of the attention off of her.

" Well, well, well. It seems the "Mother Goose" has let her gaggle out to play"

The voice caused Rin's eye to twitch, as irritating to her as nails on a chalkboard. Rin turned to give a venemous glare to the silver haired, grey eyed Iwa jounin sitting beside the few other Iwa team leaders.

" Yuna...what an...unexpected surprise. How are the knees treating you?", Rin asked through a fake smile that looked more like a snarl and a smirk fucked and it was the result, especially with her eyes glaring at the woman.

" Hmph. They're perfectly fine, no thanks to you Dr. Frankenfurter", the woman shot accusingly. The last time Rin saw the kunoichi during the war, she landed dual blows on her knees with her chakra scalpels, severing the ligaments and sending her down into the lake she was on like a ton of bricks. She would have drowned if her team hadn't shown up...Rin would have made sure of it, but her priorities changed to getting her shredded ass out of there as quick as possible. She wasn't seen by any forces for the rest of the war.

Considering her deadly proficiency in her Steel Release, they were lucky, also taking into account her tendency to be as cold and mercilous as the steel she killed people with.

" That's...good...to hear. So they have you training Iwa's future dark and dingy now, do they?", she bit back, causing the woman's frown to deepen.

" You might think you're hot shit for getting a genin team at your age, but I've been training mine for the past two years", Yuna growled.

Rin gave an evil smirk, " Oh, then they must be about even then", she said beore turning her back on the jounin and walking over to where Asuma had saved her a seat. Yuna shivered with rage, ready to lunge at Rin, but she held that idea back. She was in a village full of shinobi who would love to kill the " Steel Mistress" that had killed Suna and Konoha nin alike in the last war.

" Hmph! We'll see Mother Goose", she harumphed with venom at the end, more to herself than Rin.

10 minutes after she sat down, Tora entered the lounge to announce, to the different groups, the passing and failing teams. He first met with the Suna group. Rin observed as a couple of the team leaders got up with angry scowls and left to go retrieve their failed teams, obviously ready to give them an ass chewing about it. He kept going around the room and reporting, many more jounin senseis getting up to collect their teams.

"-passed at 90%", Rin heard the proctor announce to Yuna, the steel wielding jounin smirking and looking at Rin with smugness. Rin ruffled a bit before quickly shaking it off. Soon enough, Tora was in front of the Konoha group.

" Teams 8 and 3 failed. Pick up your teams and depart", he stated. The crypto-chunin and the negligent Jounin got up, one with a look of guilt and another with a look of...well, nothing. The other chunin were surprised as hell, but Rin shot them a look that made them remember they didn't contribute to "their" teams' sucsesses.

" Team 2 passed at 66%, Team 4 at 70%, Team 7 at 80%, Team 5 at 68%, Team 9 at 82%...and Team 6...", he paused as he stared at Rin, who looked up at the proctor.

" What the hell have you been teaching those kids?", he asked crassly, causing Rin to sweatdrop.

" Plenty of stuff", she replied aloofly.

" Obviously...100%", he stated, much to the surprise and dismay of the other jounin in the room.

Rin smirked, " I have my second in command to thank for that", she replied humbly while looking at Asuma.

" So where does your training come in?" the hulking proctor asked with a bit of dread.

" In combat", she answered simply. The proctor could only imagine.

" Anyways, if you would all follow me, I will lead you to the finish line of the second exam".

*Kazekage Tower...Ball...thing*

Rin wasn't the only one hearing about the stellar performance of Team 6. The Kazekage had also been relayed the results of the first exam. He glared at the paper on his desk. It was bad enough that Suna couldn't solely fund the chunin exams. It was bad enough they had to accept Konoha's offer, but apparently that wasn't enough humility.

No, they had apparently sent a trump car team to further humiliate them. Well, he would turn the tables then.

" Baki", he called. Instantly, a man with a curtain covering half his face appeared before him.

" Yes Kazekage-sama", the man answered. The Kazekage pushed the paer in front of the man.

" I want you to make sure Team 6 from Konoha fails the next part of the exam. They will be travelling west towards Chitsu for the second half of the exam".

Baki had just read the last of the report and understood why he was needed for this.

He bowed," Hai, Kazekage-sama", and then disappeared.

* With the chunin hopefulls*

Usagi had actually lead them outside the gates of Suna, to what looked like a starting line. Tents were set up along side the line as well.

" WELCOME TO THE SECOND PART OF THE CHUNIN EXAMS. THE RULES ARE SIMPLE. YOU WILL BE GIVEN AN ITEM. YOUR GOAL IS TO GET THAT ITEM FROM POINT A TO PONT B", Usagi blared over her megaphone.

" Sounds easy enough", Kurenai commented.

" THE GOAL IS 60 MILES TO THE WEST", Usagi continued. Nanami and Hiroshi glared at Kurenai as she chuckled nervously.

" EACH OF YOU WILL BE GIVEN A MAP AND A CANTEEN OF WATER, NOTHING ELSE. YOU WILL HAVE UNTIL SUNSET TOMMOROW TO REACH THAT GOAL BEFORE YOU FAIL. THERE WILL ALSO BE "ENEMY NINJA" RUNNING INTERFERENCE ALONG THE WAY. SHOULD YOU LOSE YOUR ITEM TO THEM, YOU WILL FAIL AS WELL", she called out on the horn while the genin were signing waivers and receiving the items in question, which happened to be scrolls.

"ONCE YOU HAVE RECEIVED YOUR ITEMS, WAIT BY THE STARTING LINE. WE WILL BE SENDING TEAMS OUT IN TIMED INCREMENTS SO WE DON'T HAVE ONE GIANT CLUSTERFUCK TEN FEET AFTER THE STARTING LINE. 5 MINUTES UNTIL START!", she finished. Team 6 looked at the map. Their goal was a small, sandy town, 50 miles in the opposite direction they had come from to get to Suna, and Hiroshi figured that was intentional.

" They're sending us away from any established trade routes with the other countries". Kurenai looked at Hiroshi curiously.

" Why would they do that?"

" So none of the teams have an advantage if the goal was near a trade route that they've travelled over before to get here. It's also very sparsely populated with few landmarks, a perfect place to throw us into."

With their destination set, they got theirselves ready for their starting window.

" IWA, TEAM 3. APPROACH THE STARTING LINE!", Usagi's megaphone piped in. The team from earlier walked past them smuggly.

" I guess they know talent when they see it, seeing as they let us go before the drabble", the girl on the team stated condescendingly. Nanami narrowed her eyes before a cruel smirk came across her face.

" Or they firgured the team of "special people" needed a head start", she commented, causing the girl to stop in her tracks before whipping around and setting a death glare on Nanami.

"IWA, TEAM 3, GET YOUR ASSES UP HERE!", Usagi blared again, cutting the glare-off short.

" This isn't over", the girl warned venemously before catching up with her teammates. Nanami huffed.

" There woudn't have been a start if you learned to close that gaping cock hole in your face you stupid bitch", she grumbled out, causing her teammates..and everyone around her to chuckle nervously or agreeingly.

"HAJIME!", they heard seconds later and watched the Iwa team barrel out of the starting line, causing Hiroshi to snort mysteriously. This continued in three minute increments until only a few teams were waiting.

" KONOHA, TEAM 9, APPROACH THE STARTING LINE!"

Yugao and her team appproached the starting line. Usagi did a double take when she saw Yugao, " AREN'T YOU A LITTLE YOUNG TO EVEN BE A GENIN?", she asked incredulously.

Yugao pouted, " Aren't you a little OLD to be surprised by my age?", she retorted. Usagi's forehead gained a bulged vein.

" Don't go crying to mommy if you can't keep up with your teammates!", she sniped, thankfully forgetting to pull the trigger on the megaphone. Steam came off of the purple haired girl's head before she faced the starting line. Usagi put the megaphone to her face.

" HAJI-"

*FOOM* Yugao shot off like a rocket, a wake of sand behind her.

"...ME" Usage finished lamely.

" Gee, thanks for riling her up", Kouta shot at Usagi with sarcasm as he and his teammate made to catch up with the dust devil.

Usagi grumbled to herself some more before the three minute window was up.

" KONOHA, TEAM 6, APPROACH THE DAMN STARTING LINE!", she blared crassly. Team 6 took their place at the starting line, yet they weren't pointing straight out like the other teams. They were pointing 40° to the west.

" WHAT ARE YOU THREE DOING?", she asked exhasperatingly.

" Making a B-line for the goal", Hiroshi answered with a push-up of his glasses.

" You think I wouldn't point the starting line in the right direction", she asked, sounding put off as her hands went to her hips. Funny she could talk without the megaphone just fine now. Maybe she just liked annoying them.

Nanami answered for the team," You're a proctor, so, yes".

Usagi chuckled, " Always has to be a smart team. HAJIME!", she finished on her megaphone, and the genin shot off towards the real goal. Usagi looked at the remaining teams, who had all heard the conversation, 'Well, at least they didn't go as one of the first teams and blow all my fun' she thought before glancing at them again, and then gaining an evil smirk. She put her megaphone up to her lips.

" ALL REMAINING TEAMS, GO!GO!GO!GO!", she yelled. They all confusingly ran through the starting line, tripping over themselves and eachother, and turned into one giant clusterfuck ten feet out of the gates. Usagi cackled evilly before turning in the direction of Chitsu and showing the pile-o-teams why she was called the "Dessert Hare", as she took off in much the same way Yugao did.

*With Team 9 ( 15 minutes after start)*

Yugao was moving at a more leisurely pace...with swirls in her eyes...on the back of Kouta.

"Honestly, all this hassle over the comments of one proctor", the Hyuga complained as he carried her piggie-back.

"I think I'm going to be sick", she groaned out, making Kouta tense.

" Not on MY back you're not!"

*With a single Suna jounin out in the desert*

Baki kept hidden as another team passed his location. He had set up various traps in the area to incapacitate Team 6 once they passed. With the patience of a jounin, he waited for his targets to run past.

*With Team 6, nowhere near where the other teams were traversing*

Hiroshi eyed the target lines of the compass to the outcropping on the horizon.

" We're a little ways off course, but still heading in the general direction of the finish line", he stated as he started plotting on the map.

Nanami cast hand shaded eyes on the dunes behind them.

" I figured the other teams would have done the same thing"

" Maybe the proctor just let them go all at once. I thought I saw a sand trail going past us", Kurenai shrugged.

" Mana. I don't think the proctor counted on a team actually checking their maps before they were away from the finish line, which is why we haven't seen any "interference" yet.", Hiroshi added as he drew on the map. "If they all went straight out of the finish line, they wouldn't see a landmark to gain their bearings for fifteen miles, which means...", he trailed off as he calculated in his head before looking ahead and pointing , "..we'll start seeing interference past that rocky outcropping.

" Then lets stop there for the night. It's better concealment and I can use doton in case we're attacked", Nanami added, gaining nods from the other two.

" Alright, let's get going. We should make it there by sunset", Hiroshi stated as they started down the dune.

*Baki*

Okaaay. Something was fucking wrong. He hadn't seen any teams pass him for an hour, which was a gagglefuck of growling, irritated, mismatched teams, and team 6 wasn't among them. Fumbling with his map, the jounin started asking himself where the hell they could have went. "They must have went straight. Great, they're ahead of me", he grumbled as he came out of cover. He was a jounin, he knew how to be patient. He would not fail-

*FWOOMP*

"PFT. PFT. Who the fuck put this pitfall here?¡"

*20 miles outside of Suna*

Chunin Team 12 had spotted a team about a mile away and decided to intercept them. But when they finally made it to the location, all they found was a sole member of Konoha, Team 2, slumped to his knees and staring at what the chunin could see was quicksand. The chunin, seeing he wasn't in any condition to fight, relaxed their stances

"Oi. Kid. What the hell happened?", one of the chunin asked. The genin turned to him with a look of disbelief still frozen on his face.

" Th-they were fighting again. They rolled down the dune and...just disappeared...I didn't even have enough time to make it to the bottom of the dune...", he stopped and stared off into nowhere. The two chunin were quiet until one spoke up.

" Where's your scroll?", he asked. The genin didn't speak, opting to thumb back at the quicksand.

The chunin sighed, " Alright, you're done. Come on", he waved, which the genin followed wordlessly.

*With Team 9*

"-and now we have to trek ten miles THAT WAY because you didn't check the damn map!", shouted Yugao, pointing at an outcropping in the distance. Kouta's cheek twitched as he glared at her.

" I would have if I didn't have to carry some BRAT on my back because she had to snark some proctor!", he shouted back.

"Can we get going now?"

They tensed up and started looking for the owner of the voice. It wasn't too long before they noticed their teammate with a vein popping out of her head.

" Holy shit you scared me!", Kouta cursed.

" I don't think I've ever heard you talk before", Yugao stated in awe before continuing, " What's your name anyways?", she asked, causing the girl to facefault and Kouta to look sheepish. He didn't know her name either.

"You're kidding me. I've been with you guys for two months now an you don't even know my name is-"

"Chunin attack!", two Suna chunin shouted out as they lunged at the group. Team 9 spent the next 15 minutes fending them off, with the genin kunoichi never getting to tell her name. She blamed some unseen force.

*Then next morning*

Team 6 poked their heads out of the cramped little crevice they had found in the outcropping after they had learned someone was after them. When they saw him heading towards the weathered down plateau, it wasn't at chunin speed. And he was alone. Maybe they shouldn't have shown off in the first exam. Breathing a sigh when she didn't sense anyone, Kurenai pulled herself out.

" Looks cle-EAR!", she cried out as she tripped over a snoring body behind a rock. Nanami blinked owlishly as she stared at the waking forms of Team 9.

"What the hell are you guys doing out here? I figured we left you in the dust after we went straight and you guys didn't".

It was Kouta who spoke up, seeing as Yugao was somehow sleeping standing up.

" You did. It took us until way after sunset to get here thanks to some thrice-damned chunin that went for us. By the time we got here, we were dead tired", he finished while looking at Team 6, who looked like they got as much sleep as his team.

"Well. I don't know if it's a good thing to team up or not...there's someone looking specifically for us", Hiroshi explained while rubbing the back of his head.

Kouta's eyebrows rose but Yugao had other ideas, " Pft! Yeah right! We know we stand a better chance with you than without you and you just don't want to help out", Yugao pouted while crossing her arms.

" U-um", Hiroshi didn't know what to say to that.

" Well too bad. We're practically your teammates too so we're sticking to you like glue. Then we'll see just how strong your stalker is!", Yugao declared in bravado and stubornness...though she knew they wouldn't stand a chance if they had to go the last 30 miles alone. Hell, they hardly got past those last two!

" Umm...okay", Hiroshi sweatdropped as the girls chuckled nervously.

*20 miles from the finish line*

" That was a jonin! Why the hell is there a jonin following you?¡", Yugao cried out as she waved her arms, shredded sleeves and all.

" Probably because we pissed off the Kazekage by doing the best on the test", Nanami groaned out.

" Obviously you don't know the word, " deception", Kouta grumbled out as he squatted down from unloading his breakfast on the ground. They had run miles off course just to get away from him.

" I know it very well, but what kind of plan is "Look Weak", during an exam to see how strong we are?", Hiroshi shot back after unloading his breakfast as well.

Kouta could argue that point...and he would have if they hadn't heard something.

"rrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-"

" What the hell is that?", Nanami asked as she got up.

" aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAA"

All their eyes went wide when it started getting closer.

And then it popped up and grew out of the sand right in the middle of them

" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!¡" was the war cry of Baki as he literally grew straight up out of the ground with a killer face.

" HOLY FUCKING SHIT!¡", Hiroshi screamed in horror before everybody took off from the nightmare scene.

Baki made to go after him, but had cut his jutsu short with his feet still buried in the sand and took a nose dive instead.

" FUCK!"

* 4 hours before the end of the exam*

Rin was worried sick. Many of the teams had already finished. At first she was just disappointed that her team didn't finish first. Now she feared that they might not show up at all. She looked back to the sole genin of Team 2, who's idiot teammates got swallowed up by quicksand.

While she had alot more faith in her team than to fall into some quicksand, the idea that they suffered the same end result came to mind. An overzealous chunin, an Iwa team with a grudge, hell, a rogue S-class missing nin that had wandered into the testing course..as silly as that sounded.

" Looks like your team was all brains and no braunse", she heard behind her, causing her to clench her teeth. Yuna's team had finished hours ago.

" There's still time left Steely Girl", Rin retorted roughly.

Yuna harumphed, " Not that it matters. The fact that my team made it here before yours or your boyfriend's is a testament to how weak Konoha has become. When that overgrown fox died, it must have taken your best and brightest with it", she spat. Rin was about to snap back, when she spotted a dust cloud in the distance.

Usagi, who had gotten there a day ago with her speed, peered at the dust cloud.

" Konoha Teams 6 and 9 incoming...sort of", she finished unsurely. Once the dust cloud got bigger, Rin could see why.

*Team 6*

They were running as fast as they could. They were ragged, injured, desperate, and scared as hell.

Who wouldn't be

The reason they were running was only 9 feet behind them and slowly closing.

"RAWR!", Baki let out a battle cry as a purple haired girl hung from his neck and flapped like a banner behind him. Her two teammates were hanging on his legs trying to weight him down and he didn't have time to kick them off. Teams 6 and 9 had no chance of attacking him head on. They learned that the first time they tried. They immediately switched to delay and diversion tactics. Veering off course, traps, feints, genjutsus, and blockades. It's like they had done this before, and they worked well if Baki's haggard appearance was anything to go by.

But a few hours ago, they had run out of tricks, run out of landscape, and most importantly, run out of chakra. The two teams decided to just bolt for the finish line. Baki soon caught up.

Instead of just leaving Team 6 to their fate, Team 9 tried tackling Baki, leading them to their current predicament.

" OH GOD, HE'S RIGHT BEHIND US!", screamed Nanami between pants.

" Keep running! We're almost to the finish line!", hollered a very haggard Hiroshi. Running was Nanami's shit, not his. Regardless, he pushed what was left of his energy into his legs.

" YOU! SHALL NOT! PASS!", Baki roared as he lunged at Team 6, tackling them all. As they screeched to a halt, the scroll flew out of Kurenai's dress, somersaulted through the air, and landed right into Rin's hand. Usagi started to announce the disqualification when Rin brashly cut her off.

" Why was there a jounin going after my team?", she asked with underlying anger. This caused the proctor to pause and Baki to go wideeyed and look up..seeing a bunch of foreign jounin staring at him. Why the hell WAS there a jounin in the testing area? Usagi looked through the list of interference and quickly surmised that he wasn't supposed to be there.

" Baki-san, you weren't part of the exams, care to explain?", she asked unsurely. Baki looked like a deer in headlights, knowing he was balls deep in a possible diplomatic incidents, especially with a village that helped fund this exam. Therefore, he had no choice but to swallow his pride.

" Um, yes! Kazekage-sama decided to test them differently than the rest of the teams due to the promise they had shown in the first exam. So it was decided they automatically passed and that this exam was to purely test the peak of their abilities. So they pass with flying colors!", he proclaimed as he let them go.

"They do?", Usagi asked incredulously.

" Of course they do! It wouldn't be fair since they were testing under a jounin, while the rest of the teams were merely evading and fighting chunin now would it?", Baki didn't notice alot of the other jounin sensei's feathers getting ruffled by the statements he was spitting out, especially with Rin's still gullible ego inflating.

Asuma kept his comments to himself as he quietly stared at his team, still hanging off the jounin, before they all fell off. Yugao stumbled over to the proctor with swirls in her eyes and mindlessly handed her their scroll, then promptly fell flat on her back.

" Umm, they pass too...ANYWAYS! Goodteamgoodluckandgoodbye!", he blurted out as he ran back into the desert.

" Umm", Usagi mumbled as she wondered what the hell she was supposed to do. The awkward situation was cut short as she felt something tugging on her flack jacket. She turned to see Nanami bonelessly standing up, barely handing out...their scroll?

Rin saw this and looked down to the scroll still in her hand. She peered at it before putting her other hand in half ram.

" Kai!", The scroll poofed into smoke to reveal..a light pink vibrator. She was too triumphant to feel emparassed as she pointed it at Yuna.

" Ha!¡ Not only was my team pitted against a jounin, they passed fairly with 3 hours and 40 minutes to spare! Take that Steely Girl!",

Yuna's eye was twitching as the obscene toy was pointed inches from her face. Finally having enough, she swiped the thing out of Rin's hand.

"Who cares?¡ What the hell are you teaching them anyways?¡ Hengeing that THING into a scroll!", she argued until she realised she was holding it.

" ACK!", she screamed while tossing it into the air like it was a bomb. It landed into the crowd of jounins and genins. Shouts and shrieks were abound as they panicked and fended themselves from it. It could be seen flying into the air above them before landing on someone else. Finally it flew out of the crowd for the final time and disappeared somewhere into the small dusty town.

Usagi finally grabbed up Team 6's scroll, after which Nanami promptly fell in a heap. "Well, with that, I announce the second part of the exams, over. Since the amount of teams are under quota, we won't have to hold preliminaries. The third exam will begin in one month. Take the time to rest and train. Opponents will be decided during the tournament, and then singled out from there. Meet at the Suna stadium on April 17th at 8:00 a.m. Until then, good luck and congratulations on passing", Usagi finished.

Rin grinned down at her students, " 100% on the test and beat a jounin...sorta. You guys should be proud of yourselves...guys?", all she got in response was twitching and groans.

Meanwhile, Asuma was beaming at his students. Not only had they totally surpassed his expectations, they had risked their chances of success to help out another team.

" You guys did damn good. Now that you've gotten through the first and second parts, I can train your asses off for the finals!", He proclaimed. He only received gurggling sounds from them.

Asuma looked at Rin, who looked back. " Maybe we should give them the day off to recover", he suggested, to which Rin nodded. Everything went quiet until they both held their fists out.

" Jan"

"Ken"

"Pon!"

"Fuck!", Rin cursed, before popping a few shadow clones and picking up the two teams and heading back to Suna.

*The next day*

Teams 6 and 9 basked in the heat of the hot tub. Thank the sweet merciful gods this hotel had a hot tub. Kaa-chan could heal injuries, but sore muscles were too numerous and insignificant to heal. the heat was doing the job well enough though.

" Why the hell would they risk a diplomatic incident to fail us?", Kurenai groaned as she laid back against the jets.

" They know you're going to cream them in the finals, so the Kazekage wanted you gone to make his genin look better", Asuma piped in, starling the genin. How the hell did he get into the tub without them noticing?

" He did?¡", Rin cried out indignantly, equally startling the genin.

" How the hell did you two do that?¡", Nanami demanded.

Asuma quirked an eyebrow, " Do what?"

" Appear in the hot tub without us seeing you!", she elaborated.

" All part of the perks of being a chunin or jounin Nanami-chan", Rin answered with a smirk.

" So what are you going to teach us?" was the question that the two senior ninja found themselves assaulted with next. Kinda creepy how they did it all at once.

" That's where it gets tricky. Since we're not allowed to go back to Konoha, it's not like we can blatantly start teaching you jutsu or original techniques, since if you can learn it, an observer could as well. Though, you didn't have any preliminaries, so unless you were spamming that jounin with every technique you know, you should be able to hold your own against any competition you come up against. Mostly what we'll be doing is physical training, taijutsu, and anything we can teach you that can't be copied from observing alone. Asuma will be busy trying to get Team 9 up to snuff, since I'm sure the shithead chunin didn't even teach them tree walking",

She looked to the genin for confirmation.

" What's tree walking?", Yugao asked...from Asuma's lap. Rin choked and so did Asuma. How the hell did she do that?

" How the hell did you do that?¡" Indeed.

Yugao shrugged, " The perks of being a genin?",

"Or a cat", Asuma grumbled.

" Nya?"

" Anyways! We'll take the next couple days off to recuperate, and then it will be training for the rest of the month. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to pick up Naruto", she stated, getting out of the tub and walking to the changing room. Everybody else was staring, redder than lobsters.

" Why was she naked?", Kurenai asked for both teams.

" Errm one of the...prices of slipping into the hot tub undetected"

" *fidget* *fidget* Something's poking me"

" Yugao get off my lap"

* A while later*

Rin strolled down the streets with a blush still on her face. Honestly, between the erotic cake and now her ignorant exhibition, it was a wonder the whole of Konoha hadn't seen her naked. She pushed down those thoughts as she reached the "day care".

"I'm here to pick up Uzumaki Naruto", she stated to the receptionist/Suna Anbu. The receptionist nodded.

" Name, Retinal scan, verification code"

Rin quirked an eyebrow at that, which the Anbu used to flash a scroll in front of her with a picture of an eye on it. A flash of light later and the image turned green. Remembering the rest of the procedure, Rin spoke up.

" Uh, Inuzuka Rin. Ich, Ich, Shi, Kyu, San, Kyu, Nii"

The receptionist nodded as he got up and opened the door to let Rin through. She walked through and met with the head caretaker. " Um, I'm here to pick up Naruto?", she asked. The caretaker's eyes lit up

" Oh! Yes, he's with Temari right now", she answered.

" Temari?", Rin repeated in question.

" Yes, one of the other charges. It seems some of the other caretakers let her play with the baby a few days ago. They've been inseperable since", she explained as they walked across the playroom and into the nursery. Rin didn't like the idea of a child caring for a child, but when she finally saw the two, her eyes widened and she held out an arm to stop the other woman. She quickly started rummaging around in her coat for something.

Temari watched the baby in her lap with awe as he finished off ANOTHER bottle of formula.

" Boy, you soure eat alot Narudo-chan", she fumbled out as any three year old would as she rested the baby against her shoulder and patted his back like the caretakers showed her. Luckily, he was past the baby goo stage, so all she got was a burp, the set him down in her small lap and played with him.

" I wish I haud you for a barother. I don't evun get to see my new one-"

*click*

She was cut off by a flash of light and a click. She looked up curiously to see a woman with rectangles on her face holding a camera. " Aww! That's so cute! Hold that pose!",

*click*

After Rin was done, Temari spoke up.

" Who aure you?"

" I'm Naruto's Mother", she supplied as she put away the camera, " Thank you for watching Naruto, but I have to take him with me", she broke to the little girl.

"...oh", replied a glum Temari

The visage tore at Rin's heart, " Err, don't feel sad...I'll bring him back to visit in a few days...I promise", she pleaded. Temari's sad face perked up.

" Okay! A'll see you reeally soon Narudo-chan!", she chirped before waddling over to Rin with Naruto, which she happily took. With a few goodbyes and reassurances to bring him back, Rin finally departed with a happily giggling Naruto in her arms. She could see adoring looks cast his way from almost every woman on the street.

" Why do I have a feeling you're going to be a ladykiller when you grow up?", she asked the infant, only to get excited baby noises and the clapping of his small hands. Rin sweatdropped. that was never a good sign...for women anyways.

* One month later*

The crowds gathered into the stadium. People from Tsuchi, Hi, Kaze, and numerous other countries sat amongst eachother as they conversed, laughed, bickered, argued, and mainly, betted with eachother. To say that these exams brought in much needed revenue would be an understatement. Hell, Suna had people hidden in the crowds raising bets just to add to the pile.

Rin looked over the crowds from her reserved seat above the contestant box. The last month, she had been training her team in speed, response time, stamina, taijutsu, and chakra capacity. In other words, things that didn't warrant secrecy. It was a good thing too, since an unexpected addition popped up. She looked over at the three year old currently feeding Naruto. She knew the Kazekage didn't just entrust his daughter to a foreign jounin, even one of an allied village. Asuma told her as much.

From what she could surmise, especially with the very familiar caretaker that accompanied her everywhere, in the form of the jounin that was chasing her team through the desert, it was to get a one up on her squad...and probably punish him for fucking up.

She looked back down to Temari, who looked happy as could be, then shrugged to herself. ' How do I keep attracting kids? People are going to start thinking I'm some kinda pedophile or something', she thought to herself. Before she could contemplate further, the signal was given for the exams.

*In the Kage Box*

Hiruzen glared off into space as his pipe smoldered.

It was fucking hot!

Too hot!

It was bad enough fighting a war in this god forsaken desert. Now, decades later, they expected him to sit out here for hours on end in these stupid robes and, of course, the fugly hat.

He had no friggin clue what the Shodaime was smoking when he thought up the design, but aparently he shared the wealth cause he convinced all the other Kages that it was a good idea.

At least he could take solace in the fact there were four other people out there as ridiculous looking as him.

" Is everything alright Hokage-dono?", the Kazekage asked with a questioning stare.

'Shit', Hiruzen thought before he used the tried and true lie, " Just contemplating the paperwork that will be on my desk once I return". He knew it worked when he saw the Kazekage involuntarily shudder.

" Ah...I do not evny you", he replied before looking forward.

'Of course you don't Kage of the weakest village in the major five', Hiruzen grumbled in his head.

Now where was he?

Oh...that's right.

'Damn it's hot'. Honestly, he gave them enough money, couldn't the idiot have splurged on some air conditioning? Or, you know, a couple shinobi to fan them?¡ Like Suna's reknowned battle maidens...clad in bikinis...oh yes.

The Kazekage's guard fidgited uncomfortably for some reason.

The Kazekage quickly got around to announcing the start of the Chunin Exams after the Hokage started giggling like a pervert.

*With Rin*

"Damn, it hot!", Rin whined, " I can only imagine how the Hokage is doing up there", she mused as she kept an umbrella over the two youths.

" Probably putting in a tough act or oggling the Kazekage's bodyguards.."

Rin looked curiously at Asuma, " Those kunoichi with the huge fans? What, he doesn't get enough oggling done with leaf kunoichi that he has to with foreign ones as well?", she griped, ignoring the fact they were talking about the Hokage in such a way right in the middle of a crowd.

Asuma chuckled," He's had a thing for them for decades. Probably why he caught mom during the Second Shinobi War"

Rin nodded until what he said registered, then her jaw dropped, " He married a Suna fan maiden during the Second Shinobi War?¡". Two pairs of wide eyes, and a pair of curious eyes were on him...at least that was what he thought.

" No, he CAUGHT her during the war"

*flashback*

A woman with long brown hair tied into a ponytail, and vicious brown eyes, glared death at the man that had separated her from her squad. None other than the Sandaime Hokage, The Professor, The God of Shinobi himself.

Biwako was confident in her ablilities, ans was also confident that they didn't hold a candle to the skills of the man in front of her. Didn't mean she would surrender without a fight though.

" Sarutobi Hiruzen. The Professer himself. To what do I owe the honor of you singling me out from my team?", she grit out, as her grip on her battle fan tightened.

" Biwako of the Sandstorms, my purpose for specifically setting my sights on you is simple"...she tensed up, waiting for his reason.

" To defeat you", she facefaulted before jumping up and glaring daggers at Saurtobi

" OBVIOUSLY!", she roared.

"Then let's get to it!", Hiruzen shot back as his personal summon poofed into exsistence before turning into the famous diamond hard staff a moment later, Hiruzen spinning it around into a fighting stance. Biwako answered back by throwing open her fan and sending a vicious sandstorm at the man.

An hour. She managed to last an hour. "Damn you!", she growled out as she shakily tried standing only to fall back on her ass. The God of Shinobi smiled like a fiend, despite looking like he just wrestled a couple Iwa hookers.

" Just kill me already!", she yelled, to which Hiruzen just shook his head.

" To kill you was never my intent. I'm here to capture you. I have a question though...".

She glared as he paused.

" How do you feel about kids?"

Her jaw dropped before the only conclusion came to her.

She found enough energy to last another fifteen minutes.

But, eventually, she found herself on the ground again.

Then her arms tied up.

" I'M NOT GOING TO BE YOUR WAR PRIZE!í!", she roared as she used her free legs to try and kick the man as he attempted to tie them too.

" Dammit, hold still!", he shouted in frustration, getting a foot in the face for his effort.

In the end, she lost that fight too.

*End of the war*

The Sandaime Kazekage and Hokage were cutting the final peace treaty when the issue of prisoner release came up.

" While I agree with most of the details. there was one name that wasn't on the prisoner roster", the Kazekage informed.

" Oh?", Hiruzen played dumb.

" Yes, on of our Jonin, Biwako of the Sandstorms, was not on there, even though it's reported that you yourself separated her from the rest of her squad"

Hiruzen sighed, " Ah yes, about that-"

" Hiruzen!", a female belowed from down the hall. Then stomping could be heard, then his guards being tossed around, before the doors finally blew off the hinges, showing an irate Biwako who either let herself go, or was expecting soon.

" We're out of horseradish and I need my damn ice cream". Okay, obviously the later.

She then saw the Kazekage, " YOU'RE LATE! Look what this bastard did to me!", she roared as she displayed her oversized belly.

Both men sweatdropped before Hiruzen spoke up again.

"Uh, yes. Biwako has been taken as a war prize-"

" Fuck you!"

" -and will be staying as my wife-"

" I'm going to tear your manhood off while you sleep!"

The Kazekage's deadpan expression was fitting, " You make a perfect couple", he stated with sarcasm.

" Wait! You're not going to leave me here!", she growled with narrowed eyes.

" He claimed you as a war prize and we're on the losing side. You're not my ninja anymore so there's nothing I can do", the Kazekage stated simply, with Hiruzen grinning in victory.

" You...YOU'RE BOTH BASTARDS!¡!", she roared once again.

The two Kages spent the next ten minutes dodging whatever Biwako's hands found purchase on. Chairs, mugs, scrolls, chunin, the Daimiyo's wife's cat...

Pregnant women could be scary...pregnant fan maidens could be scarier.

Fortunately, she calmed down after there was a baby to tie her to the village, and by the time Asuma was born and the alliance went into effect, she was just grouchy alot.

*dne kcabhsalf*

Asuma blinked after finishing the tale, and looked aroundhim. Everyone was gawking at him in the immediate vicinity, to the point they all missed a few fights between genin they didn't know.

" What?", he huffed.

" You mean to tell me the Sandaime captured, knocked up, and claimed a Suna wind mistress when we were enemies?", Rin surmised incredulously.

" Where do you think I got my wind affinity from?", he asked rhetorically.

The Suna residents were still trying to process everything. Not so much that he did it, as it wasn't unheard of back then, but WHO he went after. Suna Fan Maidens were usually tough as nails, and ended up as old maids. It was much more common to go after Suna's kunoichi puppeteers, who tended to be major bondage and sexual objectification nymphos. Why would a man, the Sandaime Hokage no less, claim a woman, that could be called an icy dominatrix ON A GOOD DAY, as his wife?

Maybe the Hokage was a masochist...

" Why didn't he just marry a kunoichi from the Konoha? It would have been safer then, oh, I don't know, marrying your, at the time, enemy?", Rin argued.

" I asked him that too. His reply was that he wanted a woman that didn't take shit, and that all the Inuzuka femailes were taken at the time"

Rin shook her head as she looked back to the matches...then realized what he said. She whipped a stare back at Asuma.

" What?", he asked in confusion.

Rin sighed, " Nothing...You have a thing for fan maidens?"

" Hell no. Mom scared the crap out of me. My sister is just as bad. I'd pick an Inuzuka any day of the week. Less grumpy, more wild", he replied with a knowing grin.

" You flatterer you", Rin deadpanned as she elbowed him, which he took in stride.

" I aim to please"

Unknown to them, a little girl holding a baby was listening to the whole story.

" I wanna be a fan maid! Then I can get marrieded like that!",

All heads shot to the three year old Temari to see her eyes glistening. Baki facefaulted. Asuma shook his head with his hand on it, and Rin chuckled nervously.

" You don't really want that Temari-chan. It's not a very romantinc way to get married"

The quad-tailed girl looked undetered.

" Yah it is! Yue'll see! I'll do it and...um..Narudo-chan will marry me!", she proclaimed at the infant. "Yue'll fight me and marry me righet Narudo-chan?",

The infant's response was to giggle and clap. Rin was too busy containing herself to discourage the girl anymore. She had images of a chibi Naruto battling a chibi Temari, then whisking her away to mak her his wife.

Many kunoichi had romantic fantasies about being carried off against their will by a handsome, stronger shinobi. It came with the career. But that's what they remained, fantasies. In reality, there's no happy ending to being " whisked" away to an enemy village. Usually a very long T&I session, rape, torture, leverage for prisoner exchange, or things much much worse.

Rin even had such fantasies, up until she was tortured by Iwa nin and watched her teammate die in front of her. Her dreams and fantasies went away real fast after that, replaced by something more realistic and insidious.

Her thoughts were cut off as Hiroshi took to the field against a Kumo nin. The kumo nin pulled a sword and Hiroshi pulled his batons in counter. As soon as the proctor yelled start, they both jumped towards eachother, thinking they had enough to pull off a frontal attack. With a clang, the opponents met, with smirks, both opponents channeled chakra into their weapons in different ways...with confusion, both wondered why the other wasn't human toast. They both realized the electricity sparking off their opponents weapons wasn't their own, and cursed their damn luck before turning into a regular weapon on weapon fight.

It was a few minutes of clashing that Hiroshi came up with an idea in mind, he jumped away from his opponent and released his leg weights. With two times the force, he jumped at his opponent, causing him to deffend. He was damn good with that sword because he was keeping both of Hiroshi's batons at bay. A swiped came that nearly took Hiroshi's head off, but he leaned way back and then started back flipping away from his opponent. Something that was more Nanami's style but it worked for what he needed to do.

After regaining his footing, the Kumo genin shot after Hiroshi, who was still back flipping, and discretely brushing his weights with chakra on the way. Without thinking, the Kumo genin attempted to take the same route to cut him off in an awkward position, and had no time to stop as he barreled into a giant tangled bush of barbed wire that poofed out of the weights. He tried struggling free until he saw Hiroshi with his crackling baton a foot away from the bush.

Well...shit.

Rin watched the commotion as Hiroshi was declared the winner...then told to cut his opponent out. Bickering ensued.

It took him, the proctor, and the medics to pull the pissed genin out of it, leaving his clothes shredded in the process.

The fights were being randomly drawn, which was a good tactic. You would never know who your next opponent, with a month of notification, would be on the battlefield. Konoha did it to put on a grand spectacle for their clients. Suna, on the other hand, was doing what actually happens in a shinobi fight. They weren't worrying about style, teamwork, form, or leadership skills. They were focusing on if you could survive in one-on-one random fights, multiple engagements, and adapt to them.

You know, crap that usually happens on missions and in wars.

If you won against your opponent, and aren't dead or close to it at the end. Who cares how you do it?

Rin's musings ceased as she watched Nanami's fight start...with one of Yuna's students...and neither looked kindly to the other.

Rin watched the Iwa girl smirk as she fired off a doton jutsu, and then surprise as Nanami countered with the same element, then shock as Nanami apparently phased through the earthen wall she erected and engaged the genin with glowing blue hands. Rin looked over to where Yuna was sitting to see her glaring death lasers back at Rin for teaching her student THAT.

Rin guessed she couldn't blame her considering the last time Yuna was on the end of that technique. Yuna's genin at least knew enough to avoid the glowing blue hands. She doged instead of blocking Nanami's strikes, then jumped back to fire off a Mud Dragon at Nanami, who used her ejection seat on herself to jump above it and dive at the girl, who quickly got out of there and started another jutsu in the form of Rising Stone Spears which Nanami landed right into. Rin's heart stopped for an instant as she saw Nanami impaled on the stony spikes, before the body melted into mud.

'Mud clone? When the hell did she learn that?¿'

Apparently, it surprised the genin too as her eyes started sweeping the arena.

Then Rin went into an episode of nostalgia as she watched two arms come up from the ground underneath the Iwa kunoichi.

Her eyes widened and snapped a look at Yuna to see her biting her tongue to stop from blurting out a warning, which would disqualify her whole team.

The nostalgia continued as the hands snapped blue and grabbed the Iwa genin's knees. With a start, the genin jumped to the side. Rin winced, knowing was was going to happen when she landed.

*Pop-Pop* was heard audibly as the kunoichi's knees buckled visibly. She landed on her ass in confusion until the nerves she smashed in her knees started gradually registering pain.

Intense Pain

The girl curled up and fruitlessly grabbed her knees as she screamed out in agony.

Nanami had cut her cruxiate ligaments in her knes, and when the girl landed, the only things reliably keeping her knee joints in alignment weren't there.

Torn cartilage, pinched nerves, bone bruising, ruptured tissue, and swelling. A kunai wound was a cakewalk compared to it. The girl wasn't getting up under her own power.

The proctor figured that out quick and named Nanami the winner. The medics got out there and moved the bawling girl onto a stretcher. Rin secretly flashed a glance at Yuna to see her murderously staring back.

Of all the contestants and all the techniques and hits Nanami could have gone with, Nanami just had to align those three. The least the girl was getting out of this was a bingo book entry.

Why had she thought of that move anyways? She was still an addict back then so her memories were pretty hazy. All she could really remember was shooting up under Yuna in the water and doing the exact same thing.

God, why couldn't she have gotten addicted to something that didn't make her forget?...Anyways-

" Oi. Rin. You're missing Kurenai's fight", Asuma interupted, seeing the play of emotions on Rin's face when she was thinking to herself.

Rin blinked in surprise and looked to see Kurenai going to to to with on of the more promising Suna genin. Another wind user with a strange fetish for straws. Rin found out why as he cut a swathe in the ground with the damned thing and Fuuton.

She watched with pride as Kurenai analyzed her opoonent and came to the conclusion that fire jutsu would probably be a bad idea against him, especially with his attacks. She still remembered the TRUE affinity lesson she gave to them.

*Flash-*

"So, who can tell me about elemental affinities?", Rin asked her genin during a cooldown in one of Suna's shady spots. Hiroshi was the first to answer.

" they're the elements that a person is naturally attuned to, from one to, in legendary cases, all five"

Rin nodded at the answer, " Good, and what about the opposing balance of these natures?". This time, Kurenai spoke up.

" Each element is strong against another element and weak against another element. Earth is strong against water, but weak against lightning. Fire is week against water but strong against wind. Water is strong againstgire but weak against earth. Wind is strong against lightning but weak against fire. And lightning is strong against earth but weak against wind", Kurenai stated in textbook perfection.

Rin nooded again, " Good. Then you know the bullshit version".

The genin stared at her in confusion before Kurenai spoke back up, " W-what do you mean Kaa-sensei?".

Rin went into lecture mode.

" The version at the Academy is a very vague version meant to be learned quickly and remembered easily. The truth though is that the elements aren't that cut and dry. Let's start with fire. If two attacks, say the Grand Fireball and the Air Bullet were shot at eachother with equal strength and speed, which would win?", she asked, eyeing up the three. Instead of answering with the obvious cookie cutter answer that " the fire would", they actually thought about it, until they came to an answer.

" They would cancel eachother out", Nanami answered for the group.

" Partly, yes, they would expend eachother's momentum between the two opponents leaving a fireball and a ball of condensed air to...", she led on, and Hiroshi picked up on it immediately.

" Explode!"

" Bingo. That what a fire technique would do when put against a wind jutsu of the same type and strength. Now, if you put a wide range jutsu...say..Great Breakthrough, against a pinpoint jutsu like Karyu Endan, fire would win, since it's concentrated but the wind isn't, leaving if just fueling the attack. But there are also some wind attacks that I've heard off that can still the air, or even move it away from the attacks, limiting or even taking away the oxygen the fire attack needs to burn, which would expel it. Then you have lightning, who's " strength" is against earth. If that were the case, Lightning country wouldn't be mountainous now would it? If an earth jutsu is grounded, nothing short of a piercing lightning strike is going to trump it. It's only when a Doton technique is either made of mud instead of rock, or it's either separated or has limited connection to the ground, that Raiton can trump Doton. But, it can trump suiton by going through the jutsu and turning it into steam, or grounding in the water and electrocuting the opponent if they're connected, BUT, if it's a large scale jutsu with no connection to the user, or going to hit you regardless, it will either ground out harmlessly or possibly even fry YOUR ass. I can explain better with this easy to read chart", she stated, before pulling out a chart that made the Shiki Fujin look understandable.

All three twitched before getting a 5 hour lesson in the intricacies of the elements.

*-back*

'Dammit. Stay focused!", she mentally admonished herself for thinking through Kurenai's match. The girl had won somehow. Rin was confident she would.

Rin's concentration wavered again when the woman in front of her shot up and held her stomach before making a mad dash for the bathroom.

The moment Rin saw Miyuki order those damned nachos, she knew it would happen. Those things EMITTED evil.

Rin looked down to the arena to see one of Miyuki's students...Kagura?...no, Yukari...enter the ring. Miyuki was going to miss her student's match...*flinch**wince**grimace*...but that might not be a bad thing as Rin watched the one sided fight between her and the Kumo nin that was throroughly handing her her ass.. Luckily, the Kumo genin wasn't going for killing blows, so the girl ended up with a few bruises, a bloody nose, and a very hurt pride bone. The wobbling girl was led to the infirmary.

Rin looked to the new contestants that entered the arena and slumped. Apparently it was Toyo's turn against a confident looking Suna kunoichi.

She stared down...up..her opponent with confidence. She was going to be Suna's greatest Fuinjutsu master..even if they said she didn't have the raw talent for it.

They wanted her to be a fan maiden! Bah! She didn't wat to be some front line brutess, swinging a fan around at enemies. Her intelligence was far beyond such primitive things.

" Get ready to be amazed and defeated by Suna's premier fuinjutsu expert you tree hopper!", she declared, pointing at Toyo. It would have been more dramatic if her oponent actually reacted instead of continuing to look at her with those dead eyes. This guy gave her the creeps.

" Tree hopper?¿", Rin repeated with confusion as she watched the fight start.

Asuma shrugged, " Maybe "tree hugger" was getting boring?", he guessed as they watched the girl pop a scroll open and shoot a lightning jutsu at Toyo.

What an innovative little twerp. She was probably going to hear about this from Hiroshi. Luckily, Toyo dodged and attacked, putting the girl on the deffense, which she quite literally formed from a scroll to which Toyo's attacks bounced off.

Yikes, a chakra shield? Maybe she wasn't full of hot air.

"Ha! Try all you want, baka! None of your attacks will get through my chakra shiel-Itai!", she yelped as she let go of the scroll when it burst into flames.

" Okay, maybe she's not as talented as I thought", Rin mumbled as Toyo started shooting water bullets at her, which she had to physically dodge. Looks like he didn't want her pulling out anymore seals.

Rin had to agree. It's obvious the girl screwed up somewhere on the last one, who knows what might happen with the next.

The girl didn't like this apparently, as she shot off a wind jutsu that made Toyo dodge while she pulled out a tag with a seal on it...and explosive note?

She was getting mad. He was trying to soak her masterpieces! She shot off a well placed Fūton: Reppūshō (Wind Release: Gale Palm) that made him dodge the rocks and debris it picked up and threw at him while she pulled out one of her trump cards.

He wouldn't be shooting off water jutsus after she supressed his chakra.

Toyo started going through handseals again as she charged him. She fented left as he called out more water bullets then came in from the right, sending a kick at his head. He quickly blocked it, giving her the window to throw the tage at his stomach, and them flip back as the idiot grabbed at the stuck seal.

" Hah! I just cut off your chakra! Let's see you do those stupid water-"

*BOOM*

Rin's mouth hung in horror. Everybody's was. That moronic little girl tried to make a chakra supression seal, something even she would have a hell of a time making!

And she fucked up, because the abdomen Toyo's hara used to be in was just an empty cavity now.

The seal "master" stared blankly and numbly at where her opponent used to be...she could feel stuff sliding down her face. Her gaze shifted to the ground where the boy now laid, a giant hole where she had applied the tag, and the resulting trail of...him...leading right back to her.

She was just coming out of the shock when Toyo woke back up. Her bloodied hands flew to her moth in horror as Toyo gurggled ans wheezed, trying to breath through shredded lungs.

She never heard the proctor call her win, or the quick shout for the medics.

Instead, she turned a bad shade of blue as Toyo stared at her in horror before the life finally left his eys.

She crumpled to the ground and screamed the next moment.

Rin had watched the whole scene. Asuma had watched the whole scene. Temari had her eyes covered by Baki, much to her displeasure, as the medics cleaned up what was left of Youo and helped up the very shaken "fuinjutsu expert", who had obviously experienced her first kill in one of the worst ways imaginable.

An unintended one who didn't die instantly.

She'd be lucky if she wasn't traumatized for life. Rin couldn't demonize the girl, but now Rin had to break the news to Miyuki. Most likely, she would need to knock out the woman right afterwards.

That plan went right out the window when she turned to get up.

Miyuki was staring wideeyed at the arena, standing right near the entrance to the innards of the stadium. She must have seen it. A moment later, she blolted back down the stairs.

" Asuma! Watch Naruto!", she blurted out before jumping up and trying to weasle her way through the throngs of spectators that needed to "freshen up" after the gore of the last fight. She finally made it down the stairs and to the branch off between the restrooms and the infirmaries.

Infirmaries

There were more than one according to the sign, divided by village affiliation, which meant Yukari would be there too.

Why did they put Konoha's all the way in the back?¡

She started hearing screaming coming from one of the corridors, she dashed down it as she heard a younger voice trying to placate the owner of the first. She burst through the doors-

Yukari was a girl with little self confidence. This wasn't always the case. In the academy, she was one of the most outspoken girls in the class...even if it was mostly about the cutest and coolest guy there.

Then she was put on Team 7. The minute she saw her sensei, she wished she could go back to the academy.

The constant watch over her and her fellow "teammates" by their sensei, the maniacal mutterings, being told the ways she could die in detail, and being forced to take on a dead girl's name had stripped any fire at all out of the girl, which was examplified, along with other things, in her match. She was utterly humiliated out there, but when the medics brought in what was left of her teammate, she knew she got off lucky.

Then her sensei burst through the doors, and she sort of envied Toyo right now.

It was just her, Miyuki, and Toyo's body in the infirmary, the medics having left after dropping off the corpse of her teammate, which meant she was the only one there when Miyuki started mumbling, the laughing, then screaming and shaking Toyo's body as she spit the most awful things about genin that were no more.

Then, in a moment of compassion or stupidity, Yukari tried getting Miyuki to stop, pleading with her while pulling on her arm.

Yukari realised her mistake when Miyuki finally directed her attention to the girl. With a look that screamed murder.

Time slowed down for Yukari as she let go og Miyuki in fear, watched as the jounin grabbed a scalpel off the medical cart next to them, felt the pull on the collar of her shirt and the resulting backwards acceleration...and a pull of something through her neck.

Rin spared a glance at Yukari, who grabbed at her throat as soon as she hit the floor. Not a good sign. Unfortunately, she was dodging slashes from a crazed jounin. One which had opened up her face right across her whole left cheekbone, to rush to the girl.

Why the hell did they forbid weapons in the stadium, but leave SCALPELS LYING AROUND?¡.

All other thoughts were distracted as Miyuki continued screaming bloddy murder while also trying to commit it.

Rin finally was able to grab up an empty instrument tray, deflect one of Miyuki's mindless strikes causing the woman to fumble, which Rin used to bring the steel tray hard across Miyuki's face, sending the Jounin into a wall before she slid down to the floor. It seemed to knock some lucidity into Miyuki as she stared out in space with a horrified look before jumping up and out another exit.

Rin wasted no time. Diving down right next to Yukari she started healing as fast as she choked on her blood, which ran down the wound, but was bleeding worse internally.

It looked like Rin got her out in the knick of time. Miyuki only knicked her jugular instead of cutting it clean open. The girl was damn lucky, Rin could fix this, but not if Yukari drowned in her own blood in the meantime.

Rin grabbed the thrashing girl by the cheeks and forced Yukari to look at her. " Yukari! Calm down and swallow it!".

The girls tear filled eyes stared at Rin before she heard a gulp, and then a gasp of breath.

" Keep swallowing, I have to close off the artery", Rin commanded the girl.

It took two more minutes for Rin to close off the flow of blood and close the wheezing hole in the girl's windpipe. Surprisingly, the strike didn't damage the girl's vocal cords, which Rin found out when the girl spoke up.

" I w-wanna go home. I don't want to do this anymore!", the girl sobbed in half conciousness as Rin finished up.

Rin sighed, " You will...you will...I have to find your sensei-"

" What the hell happened in here?" a familiar voice called out. Rin looked up to see Kurenai gawking at the two of them, which turned to shock when she saw Rin's face.

" Sensei! You're cheek is bleeding...alot!"

Rin touched her cheek and winced when pain shot through her face.

" Kami! I can see bone!-"

" Sshhh!", Rin shushed the girl as she started healing it. Rin continued as she looked back at Kurenai to see her sporting a black eye, some bruises, and favoring her right leg.

" Did you lose your match?", Rin asked distractingly.

Kurenai nodded, " I was winning until I stepped on some damn makibishi spikes, but what-"

" A medic isn't coming?"

"..he said he's be here in 10 minute-"

" Good, stay here with Yukari, I have to go find her sensei".

Kurenai looked down at the sobbing girl with a fresh pink scar across her neck, and back at Rin.

"...o-oooh...hai", she stated quietly, " how do I explain this mess?".

"Grieving sensei vented on it and cut herself before running out", Rin supplied solemnly as she walked out of the room with a grim face, leaving Kurenai to console the crying girl.

Rin have been searching high and low for Miyuki for the past half an hour. The woman could have massacred a quarter of Suna by now. Thoug, Rin doubted the Anbu, that were watching Rin like hawks, would have let that happen. The village was pretty much empty thanks to the finals, so they were probably bored out of their skulls...so they might have tailed Miyuki as well.

It was worth a shot.

She looked up at a bunch of rooftops, " Did you see where a distraught Konoha kunoichi with crazy eyes went?"

She waited a few moments before a *ping* directed her attention to a hotel district sign that was hit with a rock.

The hotel, of course.

" Thank you!", she called out while waving, then ran back to the hotel.

Hiroshi smirked to himself with his split lip stinging in the process. He had the perfect trap set up for this haughty little bitch from Taki, who had taken out Kurenai with makibishi spikes and a large amount of water blobs...which felt like a punch from a jounin.

It kept him from going at her with his batons, but he would get her, OH, would he get her. The blue haired girl started lobbing off more of those fucking water blobs at him, which would probably hit if he actually fell for the spikes.

He dodged all of them, landing into a rocky part of the arena.

She actually pursued him

Hiroshi calculated which path she would take through them for the most cover. As she tred quickly through the path, she came to a sudden stop as her feet stuck to the ground by some sticky trap made up to look like sand. No matter how she tugged, she was stuck.

Then, the face of a boulder started sizzling at her.

Her eyes widened in horror before she expectedly shielded her face.

*POOF*

The crowd started cheering.

Well...the male portion anyways.

Hiroshi pulled out a camera and started snapping pictures as the girl opened her eyes in confusion, thinking that the tag failed or something. Then a stray wind went by and something felt way off.

She looked down and went blue before innevitably wrapping one arm around her chest and using the other hand to shield her decency...or what was left of it.

"YYAAAAAHH!"

Rin covered her mouth with her hand as she stared into the room. She mustered up the will to get in and close the door, the ceiling fan creaking from the shift in pressure. The room grew dark wihtout the light coming from the hall.

Rin flipped a switch and heard a hum, looked back and quickly shut the switch back off as she berated herself for her mistake while the fan winded down. She grabbed a kunai off of the nightstand and, with hesitance, got up on the bed and proceeded to cut Miyuki down.

'I-it would ha-ave been easier if...she had used rope inst-stead of ninja wire' Rin thought to distract herself as, with a final *ting*, she cut the last wire while holding Miyuki for the innevitable drop.

Rin might have been a little more hasty if there was even the slightest chance of saving her, but she knew she was dead as soon as she opened the door. Maybe if she didn't take so fucking long finding her, she could have cut her down before...but then what, she would have probably snapped again, with Rin inches away from her.

Maybe if she had incapacitated her at the stadium...it would have taken too long and Yukari would be dead.

She could sit here and think of a thousand different ways it could have went...but it was already past tense. It was no use dwelling on it. She at least saved Yukari's life, that's what the sane Miyuki would have wanted.

She pulled open the covers of the bed, and layed Miyuki in before covering her back up again. She opened the door and went outside, putting the "do not disturb" sign on the knob before leaving to inform the Hokage that they had an extra body to take back to Konoha.

Hiroshi looked up to the stands just in time to see Rin retake her seat. His gaze became nervous as he turned back to his opponent, who had been glaring death lasers at him since his fight with the Taki kunoichi.

" Admit it! You just wanted to see her naked didn't you?¡ What, I don't turn you on anymore?¡"

" Oh come on! It's not like that at all! I just did it to get back at her for Kurenai!"

" Oh, so Kurenai gains special attention, that you have to deffend her honor?¡ Hoping to get in her pants too?¡"

God, Nanami could be jealous.

" Maybe I should too! Is that what you want¡? A big flesh sandwhich for Hiroshi the Manwhore?¡"

"Manwhore?¡ Awww that did it! I'm gonna shove my batons so far up your ass your teeth will tingle!"

Nanami's hands flashed blue.

" You'd love that wouldn't you?¡"

" Damn straight I would!"

"Bring it on!"

Rin half watched as her two students battled eachother in a grand finale. Asuma knew something was very wrong. Her two students were the contestants and the only emotion on her face looked like depression.

" Trouble?" he asked.

" Miyuki. We need to pick up her students once the exams are done." she replied vaguely. Asuma didn't fail to notice the freshly healed gash across Rin's face, hardly noticeable when the puffiness would die down, but something that wasn't there when she left.

The two were quiet...as explosive notes went off, stone pillars shot from the ground, a lightning dragon smashed against a stone dragon, and the crowds cheered at the battle royale.

They were both running low on chakra. Hiroshi's batons were scattered on the battlefield. It turned into a straight taijutsu fight. Nanami was the best taijutsu user on the team, but Hiroshi knew her, now, backup style all too well. She had been using it since they graduated afterall.

So with a little on the fly improvisation, and the fact he was the best donkijutsu user in the lands, because noone else stepped up for the title, Hiroshi was keeping up. Nanami was frustrated that all her attacks were getting literally beaten off with a stick.

This was Suna for kami's sake, where the hell did he even find a stick?¡

The fight went on until Nanami purposely overextended to break the thrice damned stick, and succeeded, while Hiroshi grabbed at her arm. The two fell to the ground. It turned into a stand off as they both grappled eachother and fought for dominance.

Rin's attention went to the arena when confused yells were directed at the opponents. Her eyes widened before she covered her face in embarassement as Hiroshi and Nanami tried to eat eachother's face after grappling eachother.

" Umm...with this...it's a tie", the proctor declared as the two kept going at it.

Disappointment was abound as people complained at the two.

" It's a sign! Make love, not war!", someone yelled, then murmers of inpiration started up, before it turned into mass cheering. Rin just grabbbed up Naruto and disappeared while the proctor tried prying her two students apart before they started ripping their clothes off. Rin's little entourage decided to follow her as well, seeing as the exams were done.

Hiruzen laughed like a madman, at the ending of the last fight, while the Kazekage twitched irritably. A perfect way to lighten the old Kage's mood, especially after hearing that one of his jounins had snapped and then hung herself. Right after he had bolstered Konoha's forces with hired reinforcements to boot.

If she hadn't killed herself, she and her team would have gone through recovery like he had sent the rest.

Why was any team labeled 7 doomed to a horrific fate? Especially this one. This one consisted of 12 dead members and 2 traumatized survivors.

And then Team 9 was being led by Asuma. What the fuck?

And one of them impressed him in their fights. What the double fuck?

He would need a written report for this from Rin. And this wasn't even a mission!

One of their mind fuckery missions where they led swordsmen screaming around the countryside, or mutated weasles pop out of nowhere and start killing animal rights activists.

You know, shit he would expect from a Team 7, not a Team 6!

Luckily, he wouldn't have to send her on anymore missions. All her students had their promotions in the bag. Now, she could concentrate on her primary mission while her students set out for themselves.

With that in mind, he got ready to leave.

Afterall, the excuse about paperwork...*shudder* wasn't an excuse.

(April 26th)

Rin was at the table in the kitchen of their house. They just got back to Konoha that morning. The trip back was a hell of alot quieter than the trip there, considering all she had were a couple of chunin led teams following her. The others went back when they had failed during the first and second exams. So, she only had one chunin to vent her frustration on. She had tried to be upbeat on the way back, but she was never good at hiding her emotions, especially when Temari asked when they would be back.

That was a heart tear right there.

And now she was writing down what had happened.

Everything that had happened.

She looked down at the almost finished report as she took a sip of tea, then started writing down her recommendations that she had come up with. She didn't want anymore deaths, even if the Hokage had lessened the burden on all the genin, they still needed proper instruction.

Rin made her way through a quieter part of Konoha, pushing Naruto in his stroller in front of her. The glares had started as soon as she had gotten through the gates, which were being guarded by warrior priestesses from the souther Fire Temple by the way. She really didn't want to start killing civilians like her mood was telling her to, so she avoided them.

Asuma was god knows where and her team was helping the other teams out. This is how she came across an amusing, yet concerning sight.

"Ugh! I swear Kiba, you get heavier every day!", her 6 year old niece, Hana, complained as she tried getting Kiba back into his stroller after he aparently escaped.

Naruto learned how to crawl during their time in Suna, and damn could he be stealthy about it. If it wasn't for Temari, Rin was sure she would have spent more time looking for him than trainging her team.

It was strange how the little ball of energy could stick to the three year old girl.

" Oi. Hana. Taking Kiba for a walk?"

The little girl perked up at the familiar voice and turned around.

" Rin Obaa-san! You're back!", the little girl exclaime with a smile as Rin walked up to her.

" Yeah. I just got back today", she asnwered before the girl started firing off questions excitedly. Rin tried answering them with as much energy as she could. Hana had always been kind of the oddity in the clan, seeing as she was calmer than most Inuzuka, and didn't give into baser instincts on a whim...so far. She lacked the feral eyes and elongated teeth that most Inuzuka had as well.

It had been joked about that if the ages had been farther apart, Hana could pass as Rin's daughter.

They had never stopped to think that MAYBE "two sisters" would have been a better comparison, Noo! Kami forbid they thing something like that!

Speaking of sisters.

" So, how's your mommy doing?", 'And why the hell did she let her two children walk around Konoha unescorted?'

Hana's face became sullen

" She's still sad after daddy went to sleep"

Rin's eyes widened

" Wh-what? He did?", Rin's voice shaked.

Hana nodded sadly, " Uhuh. He went to sleep while you were gone. I really wish he would wake up so I can play with him, but mommy says he has to sleep for a really long time".

He may have been just Rin's brother-in-law, but he was still family, and a huge part of Tsume's life. Hell, they had been harassing and embarassing eachother since they were teenagers. What the hell happened? She planned to find out, but first-

" Hana, I'm going to see the Hokage, and I want you and Kiba to come with me"

She wasn't going to leave her niece and nephew alone out in Konoha.

Hana's eyes lit up, " Sugoi! Come on Kiba! We're going to see the Hogage!", the child proclaimed to the infant, who just gurgled in response. With that, the small group made thair way to the tower.

Hiruzen's eye twitched. Not so much from the report, since he had already braced himself for that. No, the problem was the two babies chewing on the ends of his robe and the little girl who was jumping up and down behind him, trying to see what he was reading.

Rin seemed to have her mind on other things, not noticing the scene, which is why she jumped when the Hokage cleared his throat.

" Is there something else Rin, or can you get you assault squad off of me?", he grumbled.

Totally missing the hint, Rin spoke up, " Actually, there is. Hana, take your brother out to the hall please"

" Aww", Hana complained as she grabbed up Kiba, who was still attached to Hiruzen's robe, and pulled him off before going out to the hall.

Rin looked back at the Hokage, " What happened to Inuzuka Kenta Hokage-sama?"

The old man sighed and slumped in his chair, " Something none of my shinobi should have to face. He was the only survivor in a team that went on an A-rank. Even though he looked like he went through hell, many had suspicions that he purposely got his team killed, even after confirming his story. It apparently got so bad after I left for Suna, that he commited suicide last week."

"Oh god", Rin blurted out as she started feeling numb.

" I...I have to go Hokage-sama. Could you watch Naruto thanks.", she blurted out as she walked out of the room. Hiruzen stared at her back as she left.

Sure, he could watch a baby for a while, since he would have to drop something on her that would probably depress her worse. He looked down to see that Naruto wasn't there. He wtarted scanning the room until he hour him chewing on something else

An explosive tag.

Rin poked her head into Tsume's house and looked around. Seeing noone, she started searching the house. Low and behold, she finally found her in the bathroom, the smell of blood clung to the air.

To Rin's grim relief, it wasn't Tsume's, which meant it was where Kenta...

Tsume was sitting up against the wall with her face tucked into her knees. Rin quietly sat along side her, letting to woman feel her presence so as not to startle her.

" When did you get back?", the Matriarch mumbled, not moving to even look at her.

" Just this morning", Rin replied back quietly. She waited a while for a response before continuing.

" I found Hana walking Kiba around alone by the park near the Hokage Tower". That got a reaction out of the woman as she flinched visibly.

" Th-they're safe right?"

" Yeah, They're in the courtyard."

" A-arigatou...I doubt anybody else would lift a finger for them", the woman ground out.

" Tsume-"

" Did you hear what they called him? A spy! A traitor! I even heard one inventive son of a bitch call him a "team killing fucktard" before I smashed his face in! He was as loyal as any Inuzuka and they spit on him after what he went through! He didn't need that! He lost an arm in that skirmish for god's sake! What was he supposed to do?¡ Die like the rest of his team just because they didn't make it?¡ He's the only reason those other fucking families know what happened at all!¡", she screamed as she slammed a fist against the wall with enough force to crack the tile. " I don't see why I should bother protecting these idiots anymore..."

Rin stayed quiet through the whole thing, waiting for Tsume to lose steam, as she had done a few times before.

" So, the Aburame were disparaging him?".

Tsume's anger seemed to start deflating," ...no"

" The Hyuuga?"

"...no"

" The Sarutobi? The Yamanaka? Hell, the Uchiha?"

"...none of them"

" Then who?"

"...the families of the deceased...and then the civilians when they picked up on it"

" So you want to stop defending your home because the grieving families and some stupid civilians caused it?"

"They may be stupid, but they outnumber us 4 to 1, especially now", Tsume ground out.

Rin sighed, " That's true, like a bunch of fucking cattle...but there's still plenty of people worth protecting here Nee-san...people who didn't turn their backs on your husband".

Rin got up and extended a hand to Tsume, " ...and don't see Naru-chan as a giant demon fox..they're the ones we protect", she stated as Tsume grabbed her hand and she pulled her up.

" What about the civilians that do?"

Rin quirked an eyebrow, " Well, if it ever comes down to an invasion of the actual village, I'm not gonna jump in front of any kunai for them. I'm no fucking martyr. After all, we can always get more civilians", Rin supplied with a smirk, which caused Tsume to chuckle hysterically. It was true afterall.

They walked through the house to the coutyard in silence until Tsume spoke up again, trying to change the subject.

" So...how did the chunin exams go?"

Rin semed to deflate a bit, " Oh, stuff happened. Almost murdered a child abusing chunin, trained desk ninja, had a jonin sensei crack and try to kill her student before hanging herself..."

Tsume flinched. Her and her big mouth.

*Timeskip July*

Rin was chopping up vegetables quietly in her kitchen, making dinner for...herself. It had been 3 months since the Sandaime promoted her whole team, along with...that one girl from Asuma's team and, surprisingly, one of the kunoichi from that seduction chunin.

2 months after their promotions, Hiroshi and Nanami moved out, with tearful embraces and words of thanks. It made sense, having two sexually active couples in the same house became awkward afterall.

And here Rin thought it would be Kurenai who would move out first. But it was her that was left. Asuma had hung around one of the Twelve Guardians when they got back, and impressed him with his skill set. So much so that they asked him to join.

*Flashback*

" So...you want to leave Konoha for the next eight years to play bodyguard for the Daimiyo...did I get that right?", Rin asked quietly, but Asuma could feel the anger rolling off of her in waves.

" I want to reach jounin, Rin, just like you did, and this is a perfect opportunity to do that. Plus, I want to get out from under my old man's thumb for a while-"

" Eight years?¡"

*Flinch*, " That was the shortest term of service they had".

" We'd both be in our twenties before you're done! And what do you expect me to do in the meantime? Long at a crappy photo of you and masturbate for close to a decade?¡"

Asuma cringed. This was going to take alot of convincing.

*End flashback*

The argument went on for an hour or so, but the result was the same as before they started it. Asuma had left yesterday, promising to visit the minute he got time off, which wouldn't happen until his initial training was done. And with Kurenai on a mission in River Country, the house was empty.

It was a depressing thing seeing something that used to feel so full of life was now stunted to one and a half occupant. Tsume was still recovering from the suicide of her husband. Hiroshi and Nanami were on missions more often than not.

It was just her and Naruto...'crap', she thought as she spied the empty high chair. She set down the knife to begin another search for the crawling nightmare.

She didn't have to go far, as she found him using the table leg to stand. Which was in it's own right amazing. When he started lifting his foot, Rin stopped dead in her tracks and sat down on the floor. " He couldn't be...could he?".

Her question was answered as one of his little feet plopped down in front of him, then the same thing happened with his other foot.

"He is!", she squealed as he started plodding across the rug. Rin held out her arms excitedly.

" Come on Naru-chan! You can do it!", she encouraged as the tyke got closer and closer. Finally, the toddler made it to her arms-

" You did it! I'm so proud of-ugh",

-and grabbed her boobs.

"...Ah"

*Timeskip September*

Rin walked slowly as she held Naruto's toddler harness. He was a little walking maniac, and would last hours beofre he tuckered out.

'Deffinitely going to be a shinobi with those motor skills'

So, it wasn't him she was slowing down for. Behind her, the thumps of crutches padded through the street as Kurenai hobbled to the next prospective property on her list.

She had broken her leg in the last mission she was on, and would be laid up for the next few months, so she decided to do apartment shopping in the meantime. Unlike Nanami and Hiroshi, who had bought and entire house for any "future expansions" as they put it, Kurenai didn't need all that space, so apartments were her main pursuit.

" The next one should just be a few more blocks away", Rin informed her, getting a groan from the girl.

"My armpits will be raw by then", the girl complained, earning a chuckle from Rin.

"They'll toughen up soon enough. I went through the same thing when I was on crutches. Give it a month and you'll be able to walk on the crutches without your legs at all"

Kurenai looked at her with an incredulous stare.

" That's kind of a useless skill to learn"

" There's plenty of useless skills to learn while you're inured...like using a deck of cards as weapons, or how to stick yourself along with your hospital bed to the ceiling with chakra, or how to pause your heart to scare the shit out of the nurses, or how to use the bedpan without getting up, and the many individually unique ways to escape the hospital". She proclaimed proudly. Kurenai was still trying to figure out the bedpan trick as they continued on...and why Rin escaped from the hospital. Wasn't she a medic nin?¿

As much as it pained Rin to think about living alone with Naruto in the house after everything that had happened, it's not like she could hold onto them forever. Kurenai wanted to get on with her life. Rin should be happy for her.

" So when we finally find one you like, when are you going to move in?", Rin prodded at the girl's indecision, earning a roll of the eyes from Kurenai.

"Well, first I want it repainted. Then appliances if need be. Then pick out furniture and stuff. So probably not until after Naruto's birthday", the chunin supplied. Rin's eyes widened.

" That's coming up already?¡", she shrieked in surprise. Kurenai nodded agreeingly.

" I can't believe it either. What a chaotic year it was too. Luckily things have gotten better since then". And they truly had. The last KIA was back in August, and the suicide rate had gone to almost pre-kyuubi attack levels. Pregnancies between team memebers (and in some cases, sensei and student) had gone down as well. With the influx of outside help, it allowed their forces a very much needed reprieve. The bitch chunins went back to their jobs, and the genin were given jounin and tokubetsu jounin ( which was alot more acceptable).

Team 9 was given an actual jounin sensei, even if she had been retired for a number of years beforehand. It was odd how Uchiha Mikoto would take a genin team this late in her life, but it was probably more for public relations than anything.

There have been rumors about the Uchiha controlling the Kyuubi that night, which Rin thought was utter nonsense. But the civilians, and even some of the shinobi, believed it could be true. All that suspicion and resentment had caused the Uchiha Clan's image to faulter. It looks like they were trying to build it back up.

"So, what are you doing for his birthday anyways?", Kurenai piped up as they rested on a bench after looking through another apartment.

" I'm not sure. Keep away from that "Kyuubi Festival" for sure", Rin replied with a scowl. Kurenai nodded agreeingly.

" I don't blame you. I mean, who the hell has a festival celebrating a day where half our forces were slaughtered and our Hokage gave up his life? I sure as hell never saw one for the ends of any of the shinobi wars. Or hell, where's the festival celebrating the founding of the village?",

Rin nodded, " I don't want to know what their reasons or motives are, I'm just going to avoid it alltogether. As for his birthday, I'm not entirely sure. I haven't seen the

"odd coulple" for a few months now, and Asuma was still going through training the last I "heard" from him".

Kurenai snorted at that. The last letter she got from him was when he split his leg open during practice and was highly doped up on pain killers. On of the other Guardians wrote as much underneath Asuma's "message", cuase there was no way in hell she could understand what the hell he wrote.

" What about your sister? She could use a little distraction". She could, really. She clung onto her kids, like they would disappear too, or to make Hana forget about her father, "Sleeping", but Rin hadn't seen her out of the clan compound in over a month. Rin could only hope it was another phase to recovery.

Rin and Kurenai decided to talk it over during lunch and made their way to a familiar little ramen stand, which had a familiar blonde sitting at the counter, or two if you count the little blonde girl "sitting" next to him.

" Inoichi! I haven't seen you in a while", Rin exclaimed, causing said blonde to look up from his food.

" Ah! Rin-san. It has been a while hasn't it? Though, I heard of your team's domination in the chunin exams. Quite a feat to have all three promoted on your first try".

Rin rubbed the back of her head in embarassement. " Well, Asuma and I only gave them the tools. They're the ones that made it hapen...", Rin's attention was directed to the little blonde girl sitting/fidgeting in Ichiraku's one and only high chair.

" Ara? Is this Ino?¿ My god how she's grown!", Rin exclaimed in surprise as she examined her more closely. Rin's face became perplexed.

" She looks a little malnourished though. Are you feeding her properly?".

She didn't notice Inoichi's pause. " She can be a picky eater. I hope it's not a sign of being an obsessive dieter like her mother used to be", he joked. Rin looked back down at the baby, but her attention was on Naruto, who was currently walking around Rin, wrapping her up in the tether as Kurenai coaxed him to keep going. Rin put a stop to that.

" Hey Inoichi-san, you don't mind if I introduce them do you?"

5 minutes later found a chibified Rin happily playing referee between two blonde's playing fun games like bump of war, baby on the mountain, and capture the pacifier, where they were currently at a stalemate.

" Is she going to eat, or just sit on the floor?", Teuchi grumbled to himself, yet Kurenai chuckled nervously. Ayame was content with just watching the cute babies trying to steal eachother's pacifiers at the same time.

Inoichi looke at the scene with a hint of sadness.

" Awww, you're so cute together!", Rin chirped, much to Kurenai's surprise. She hadn't seen Rin that happy since Naruto learned how to walk.

" Hey Kaa-chan, maybe you should invite them to the party",

Rin perked up, " You're right! Hey Inoichi, we're having a small party for Naruto. Would you and your family like to come over to the house for it?".

Inoichi pondered this, " When is it going to be?".

"On his birthday, of course", Rin answered with a hint of incredulity.

" Uh, the tenth? Well, I was thinking of going to that Kyuubi Festival they've been talking about-"

" Really?", Rin cut off as she seemed to get closer.

" W-well, I was thinking of it-",

" Really?", she was standing next to him.

" W-well, ummm.."

" Really?", Rin was making the perfect impression of a ghost right in front of his face.

" Alright! Alright!, we'll be there", he conceded. Rin changed from gloom and doom to cheerful as a pixie in an instant.

" Awesome! Though I'll make the cake this time, so, no naked pictures on it"

Rin's faced screwed up in annoyance and embarassement when she heard three groans of disappointment. Rin then heard some grunts of frustration from Naruto and looked down to see Ino dogpiled on top of him as he struggled to get away.

" ~Aww! That's sooo cute!", Rin cooed and pulled out a camera.

*Flash*

Rin looked at the crowd singing happy birthday to the highly amazed infant looking at the cake with a burning candle on it. Kurenai was there, obviously, along with Inoichi and Ino. Rin couldn't remember ever meeting Inoichi's wife. Maybe she was a recluse. Oh well. The Hokage had popped in as well, probably thanking Kami for the excuse to get away from the office for a while.

Tsume didn't come, which upset Rin a bit seeing as how she could have used the distraction, but it was understandable. It took a while to recover from that kind of tragedy and betrayal.

Then, to her surprise, the "odd couple" showed upp. they had been on an A-rank for the past few months and had just gotten back a day ago. Asuma sent his regards via a COHERENT message, and she had shanghaied Tenzou to help eat cake.

After the song ended, she "helped" him blow out the candle and then his cake, which she didn't really need to seeing as he had no problem finding the piece of cake with his hands and shovelling it in his mouth. Neither did Ino, who didn't seem to have any trouble eating the cake except for how to aim for her mouth.

It was a lively scene that Rin had missed badly. It had been way too quiet the last few months, but she knew it wouldn't last. After the party, everybody would go back to their lives, and Kurenai would move out in a couple days.

" Oi! Kaa-chan. Why do you look so glum?", Hiroshi piped up. Rin tried to shrug it off.

" Nothing really. Just thinking how time flies"

Hiroshi nodded mock sagely and then perked up," I know what you need! GROUP HUG!"

The trio was on her faster than flies on shit.

" Oi! I don't need a hug! What are you, a bunch of special people?¡". The others looke on in amusement.

" Feel the love Kaa-chan!"

" I don't want to!"

"Kaa-chan!"

"Kaa-chan!"

"Kaa-cha!"

Everything paused, especially Rin, who snapped her attention to Naruto. His mouth opened again, " Kaa-cha!".

Rin's face blew up in excitement. He was supposed to start saying words a month ago but chalked up his lack of progress to his faster motor development. Not anymore apparently.

" His first word!", Rin practically danced around Naruto as he kept repeating the word at her.

'and he's associating it to me!'

Inoichi looked on jealously. He wished Ino's first word was that cute, instead of "Teme".

Hiruzen looked on with a mix of happiness and sadness. Next year, he would have to separate this duo. It was lucky enough nobody thought of the links between them, but some of Konoha was starting to think Naruto might be an illegitimate child between Rin and her late sensei. It was close enough for Hiruzen to get concerned. They weren't supposed to clue in on his heritage for, at least, another decade. The last war was still too fresh. The next abductor might not be as sloppy as the last. Still, he knew he would be arguing with Rin before the end. She had every right to.

Afterall, Naruto was HER child in her eyes.

He should have made Tenzo watch over him.

"Kaa-cha!"

"That's right Naru-chan! I'm your Kaa-chan!"

*Grab*

"Booboo!"

"Eh-heh...that's right Naru-chan...that's my booboo.."

*Timeskip* February

Rin sat out on the front steps of the house as she watched the rain drip off the overhang, a lit cigarette hanging from her lips.

She blamed Asuma's second hand smoke, but it was also from the stress. Two months left until the assignment ended...before...

Hiruzen was right, she had come into the office on the warpath with the goal of keeping Naruto. She left a defeated woman. It was like he had the argument memorized before she even got there.

It all boiled down to four very bitter truths.

One. She was single and couldn't watch him while earning money at the same time. She had countered she could get support from the Inuzuka, but that brought up his second truth.

Two. She was tied to the Inuzuka's. As much as he was loathe to admit it, Naruto had a bijuu sealed in him, which made him a jinchuruki, and the biggest one to boot. Tying him to any one of Konoha's clans would be seen as a powerplay by the others, something that would rile them up in conspiracy theories and discontent for decades to come. It was the reason he didn't let Uchiha Mikoto adopt him either, not counting the suspicions going around the Uchiha clan already. Them adopting Naruto would add an explosive note to the fire.

Three. The Hokage told Rin about the rumors he had heard, about Naruto being the love child between her and Minato. She tried to argue this but he wasn't the one that needed convincing, it was Konoha, and that was near impossible without treading on deep secrets, one of which was a major reason adoption was out of the question.

Four. Kushina was still alive. Rin was shocked silent with this, before scrambling for anwers as to why she wasn't watching over Naruto, which led her to see the woman in person. She wasn't very talkative. A coma tend to do that to a person. Of course Rin did a diagnostic on her, figuring out quickly that there wasn't anything she could do (or possibly "would" do) to wake her up. She tried countering that she might not wake up after so long, but coma patients were a touchy issue, especially ninjas. Some woke up in weeks, others in years. Very few patients in a ninja billage never woke up, and Kushina was more stubborn than the lot of them.

For now, it was pretty much a matter of when, not if. And when she did, she would wanter her son. The same son Rin wanted to adopt.

Would Rin give him up if she did? Would he accept her as his mother, or cling to Rin, shattering the woman's sure-to-be frail heart?

Hiruzen's mind was already made up. He was already setting up the orphanage that would receive Naruto and Rin hat to concede.

She took a drag off the cigarette as the downpour intensified. then she was a figure dashing through the rain towards her. It was only when the figure got to the overhang that Rin identified them as Tsume.

" You're smoking now? Talk about an ironic habit for a medic-nin to pick up", the woman prodded. Rin just shook her head as she continued with stress playing through her features.

This wasn't the time for laughing or jokes.

Tsume sad down next to her, " Sorry I missed his birthday", the elder sister apologized.

Rin shook her head, " It's alright, you were still recovering. You didn't miss too much...he said his first words though...he called me kaa-cha". Tsume smiled. It was alot better than Kiba's "hora" (here). Tsume blushed for the first time in years when he said it.

" Really? So then why do you look like you lost him?"

" I...am about to lose him. The mission duration was one and a half years...in April, it's done. He goes to an orphanage, I go back to Anbu, and the house gets vacated...like nothing ever happened", Rin's voice became shaky at the end.

" Didn't you try arguing about it?"

Rin nodded, " He knew I would. He had every reason ready and waiting. Short of kidnapping him and becoming a missing-nin, there's nothing I can do"

She had thought about it, which would never be uttered outside of her head. In the end, she'd be putting him in more danger for her own selfish reasons.

"...Is he at least going to a good orphanage?", Tsume asked.

Rin nodded, " The matron is one of the Hokage's personal friends".

" Then don't worry. He'll be fine, and in a decade or so, you can be his jounin-sensei or something. It's not like you'll never see him again. Until then, maybe you should start working on making your own pups".

That did it, as Rin's face turned cherry red, " I'm not ready for THAT type of motherhood!".

"Sure you are! Just poke a hole in one of Asuma's condoms next time he comes around".

"Tsume!"

Said woman chuckled, something she hadn't done in a while.

" Do you think he'll be alright?", Rin asked, her worry still there. Tsume nodded.

"The Hokage will watch over him. Otherwise you can kick his ass. Afterall, a mother's wrath trumps all".

" Kaa-chan! Kaa-chan!", the muffled shouts of a toddler came from inside the house.

" Ah, he's up again...probably tearing around the house", Rin predicted. Tsume looked at her with confusion.

" His room is on the second floor...", she tried clarifying.

Rin nodded tiredly, " AND there's a baby gate at the top of the stairs. He's smarter than he should be and his motor skills are advancing at an impressive rate. I'd be shocked if he was a civilian baby, but I have seen it in shinobi children before...not at this rate though. I guess I shouldn't be surprised though. BUT, it is making for an interesting new game of "Find Naruto"...Better go find him", Rin stated, flicking the cigarette all the way out into the road before they both went in.

Muffled sounds came from inside the house.

" So where's Naru-chan this time. Is he in...THE CUPBOARDS...nope...Is he in..THE FIREPLACE...nothankgod..."

" Here he is!"

"Where?"

" In a basket full of your dirty underwear!"

" Kaa-chan!"

"...Ah"

*April*

Rin pulled the last of her things out of her room and down near the door. It didn't take too long, seeing as she was the only one left, and sealing scrolls made it even easier. Naruto was playing downstairs with his stuffed animals in an empty living room. The Hokage was expecting them a little later that afternoon, to get Naruto situated into the orphanage.

The mission was over.

As much as Rin tried to prepare for this, the pit in her stomach wouldn't go away.

And why should it? She didn't want this. Instead of being under her care, Naruto would grow up in an orphanage. Her sensei's son...Kushina's son...

HER son.

They didn't raise him. She did. They just gave him life, then went into a coma or sealed a bijuu into him. She was the one who changed his diapers, fed him, helped him grow, took him on dangerous missions, and cherished every day that he was alive.

This was a horrible mission. To give her a baby to raise, only to take him away at the end. She could barely restrain her tears.

With one final check of the house, which just brought more depression, Rin made a clone and handed the scrolls to it to take to her apartment. Once the clone left, with the same expression Rin had, she picked up Naruto's things, and led him out the door with his little stuffed friends. They would go to wast here anyways, so might as well let him keep them.

With a final click of the lock, the house became as empty as it had been one and a half years ago.

The walk to the orphanage was painfully short. Before Rin knew it, she was walking up to the Hokage, and a woman that looked to be just as old as him. She and the tike stopped in front of the elderly pair.

"M-mission...completed Hokage-sama", Rin's voice trembled, which made the matron stare at Hiruzen, who was feeling like a heel all over again.

" Good work Rin. Rest assured that he will be in good hands here", he tired assuring the trembling woman, with the matron agreeing.

" I have been informed about him and hold no bias. He will be treated just like any other child here", the woman declared. Rin nodded hesitantly and crouched down to Naruto who was crashing the slug and the toad together like they were fighting.

" Hey Naru-chan...this is where we go our own separate ways...b-..be good for the caretaker alright, and I'll see you when you grow up a little".

" Kaa-chan"

Rin hugged the little toddler as a few loose tears rolled down her face, " That's right Naru-chan. I'm still your Kaa-chan...mmm...m-make me proud alr-ight? "

With that, she shakily handed him to the matron who smiled down at him.

" Come now Naru-chan. Let's introduce you to the other kids", she stated cheerfully as the two walked towards the orphanage and out of Rin's sight. Rin's shoulders trembled as he Hokage turned to her.

" I'll keep an eye on him as well, Rin, he'll be perfectly fine".

" It doesn't help me out though Hokage-sama", The jounin mumbled as she tried to keep from sobbing, before quickly walking away.

The Hokage sighed, where the hell was Asuma when you needed him? He was better at handling the girl than he was.

Inside, Naruto was already playing with another child, her hair up in brown pigtails. The matron smiled at the sight, ' I haven't seen Tenten that happy in a while'

Meanwhile, in a park, a female jounin cried to herself, feeling like she had lost a part of herself.