"Mal! Over here!" Sakura stood up, waving him over. He saw Hinata was with her, Hiashi and Ko accompanying the young Hyuga. Malkeru gave a hopeful look to Hinata, hoping her father wouldn't object to him being that close to her.

"Hey Sakura." Malkeru took a seat and much to his delight, Hiashi completely ignored the boy. His feigned Hyuga pride had worked in Malkeru's advantage, even if it was a slight one.

"Mal, your match was amazing! The way you countered his sound gauntlet was brilliant!" Sakura beamed at him, she really seem impressed by something Malkeru had completely winged.

"Thanks Sakura..." Malkeru faked a smile, but on the inside he was torn. His Genjutsu was too powerful for him to break, did that make him a murderer? Or did it simply make him a boy who had gone too far in over his head? His head ached, as if two entities were having a death match over who was right.

"Inuzuka." Malkeru was surprised to see Hiashi talking to him. The man's cold, gray eyes piercing his own. "There is no need to attack yourself for what happened down there. That sound ninja would have killed you for no reason. Do not let your kind heart die because of him." Malkeru stared at the man. Why was he helping Malkeru? "Hinata, I am going to get a better view of Neji's fight. Don't talk to the Inuzuka while I'm gone." Malkeru thought for even a fraction of a second his Sharingan had caught a slight smirk rise from the mouth of the Hyuga clan head. "Ko, would you like to join me?" Ko gave Malkeru a final smile, not even attempting to hide it, before her joined his leader as his duty as a branch member dictated. Hinata had barely waited for her father to be out of earshot before she began quickly assaulting Malkeru with her opinions on the match, he enthusiasm brought a smile to Malkeru's face.

"Your match was amazing, like Sakura said. I didn't know your Sharingan Genjutsu was good enough to suggest moves to people yet!" Hinata smiled at him and Malkeru found himself smiling even harder, he couldn't be sad around this girl, no matter how hard he tried.

"Er, thanks. I'll be honest, I didn't either. I was just hoping for the best." Malkeru said as he gave he scratched the back of his head, a trait he had picked up from months of being a teammate of Naruto's. The noise level of the stadium began to take leaps and bounds as Malkeru saw his favorite orange clad shinobi entering the arena. Already standing in the middle of the giant area was Neji, who Malkeru had knocked down in his anger. When the announcer finally decided that the crows mirth was not going to die down, he decided to begin the match.

Naruto began the match quickly by tossing a few Kunai at Neji, which the Hyuga genius easily dodged. Neji had even managed to pluck one of the air before sending it into one of the clones Naruto had summoned. Malkeru tried desperately to pay attention, but his inner turmoil was still getting the best of him. His view of the match drifted in and out as he watched his friend get pulverized by Neji, his strikes becoming quicker and quicker as the match progressed. Malkeru finally noticed him switching into a stance he recognized instantly from many duels with Hinata. Malkeru's face grew into a mask of shock, he wouldn't really use that Taijutsu this early in the competition would he?

"Shit." Malkeru muttered without realizing. He reactivated his Sharingan, nudging Hinata to activate her Byukugan so they could watch Naruto's chakra levels. He wasn't going to let the dobe's 'never give up' attitude get him killed.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, sensing her friends unease.

"It's Neji." Malkeru explained. "He just dropped into the 'Eight Trigrams' stance, and Naruto is in his area of divination.

"His what?" Saukra asked, confused.

"His area of divination." Malkeru continued to explain. "The Hyuga style of Taijutsu, also called the Jyuuken, is a style that relies on sending chakra into key areas of the body that channel chakra. I think we learned about them in the academy, also called Tenketsu."

"The 'Eight Trigrams' is our most powerful ability." Hinata added in. "It is a quick set and precise set of attacks that target the eight, sixteen, thirty-two, or sixty-four most essential Tenketsu in the body."

"Why the varying degree of strikes?" Sakura asked.

"The 'Eight Trigrams' is the most graceful of Hyuga attacks, it takes years of training and practice to quickly close just the eight most essential Tenketsu. Hinata has been studying her whole life and can only close thirty-two before she loses balance and is forced to withdraw." Malkeru said.

"Correct." Hinata added. "It's said that the most powerful and gifted of Hyugas could even use the 'Eight Trigrams: One-hundred-twenty-eight palms'"

"Seeing as there are only three-hundred-sixty-one Tenketsu in the body, being hit with a full One-hundred-twenty-eight palm attack could be very deadly in a battle." Malkeru said with finality teeming in his voice.

"Well, Mal, you and Hinata spar all the time don't you? How do you combat her thirty-two palms?" Sakura asked.

"I don't. If I get in her area of divination it's pretty much an end to the match. Even with my Sharingan I can barely dodge one or two of the strikes, they are very quick and deadly precise." Malkeru said.

"Then how do you beat her?"

"I've taught myself to force open the Tenketsu in my body over the months, I'm still not very good at it and it takes a lot of chakra to accomplish. Not to mention the amount of chakra control it takes. For you and I, it's really not a problem, but Naruto.." Malkeru let his sentence trail off, the entire group nodding as they recognized Naruto's one major flaw. It wasn't really his fault, the pure amount of Chakra he had would have been near impossible for even a Jonin to have control over.

"It's true." Hinata added in. "My gentle style has little to no effect on him, I can only beat him by sealing multiple Tenketsu at once, or within a few seconds."

"Why all at once?"

"If she closes a lot of my tenketsu at once, it will take too much chakra to open them and I can't use Sharingan to dodge future attacks."

"Wow. That's quite an impressive ability for one clan to have." Sakura commented.

"It's the only ability in Konoha capable of besting the Sharingan as far as I know." Malkeru said.

The group watched as Neji struck out at Naruto, his hands a shapeless blur as he assaulted the boy's body. Naruto jerked around like a rag doll under the impact of Neji Jyuuken infused strikes. Sharingan activated, Malkeru watched as Naruto's flow of Chakra slowly diminshed until nothing poured out of his core. His body seemed to just stop moving and his breath increased, Malkeru knew that if a miracle didn't happen he had lost this match.

"Neji closed off most of Naruto's Tenketsu." Hinata said. "At this point, even the basic Taijutsu would be too much strain on his body."

"So you're saying Naruto has no chance?" Sakura seemed to fall at this, did she care about Naruto all of a sudden?"

Malkeru smiled. "Not at all. After all, Naruto is the number one unpredictable Ninj-" Malkeru stopped, something in Naruto had changed. His chakra morphed from the calming blue sea that usually radiated within him, to a demonic cesspool of red energy that seemed to radiate from every pore in his body. 'Red Chakra..? What is this? The Kyuubi?'

"N-n-Naruto has..he opened every single Tenketsu in his body!" Hinata nearly shouted, her pale gray Byukugan were wide in shock and her mouth lay gaped open.

"This..chakra..it's visible!" Sakura said with fear in her voice as she pointed at Naruto. Sharingan still activated, Malkeru hadn't even noticed that the Chakra he had seen was actually visible to everyone. He had just assumed only Hinata and he could see it.

"His power...it's unbelievable!" Malkeru said. The ground beneath the blonde boy began to crack as his chakra leaked even further out of his body. Adjusting one foot Naruto seemed to disappear, his speed had increased to unbelievable heights. Even Malkeru was having trouble tracking him with his Sharingan.

"H-how is he doing that?!" Hinata was standing just like everyone else in the audience.

"I..I don't..I don't know." Sakura looked almost scared of Naruto, his chakra was amazing! Naruto ran in, ready to end it with a final punch! Allowing chakra to pour from every Tenketsu in his body, Neji span, creating a dome of chakra around him for protection. Kunai drawn, Naruto's monstrous strength met with the wall creating a radiating light from the source of contact.

"Gah!" Malkeru screamed, covering his eyes with one arm. With Sharingan active, he was hyper-sensitive to bright light sources causing his head to pound in agony if he stared too long.

When the light cleared, Neji and Naruto were on separate ends of the field. Each laid in a crater they had created, their bodies seemingly lifeless as they lay motionless inside. After much time Naruto slowly rose himself up, using all of the strength he could muster to combat the blow he had just taken. He had begun to speak but Malkeru couldn't hear a word he said, no matter how hard he strained his sensitive hearing. Over a crowd of this size, it was useless to out of nowhere Naruto burst up form underneath where Neji stood, breaking the ground beneath him and knocking the genius out cold. The Naruto in the crater vanished in a puff of smoke, it's job as a distraction finished.

"Winner..Naruto Uzumaki." Everyone in the crowd cheered. Malkeru and company were all silent with shock.

"Nar..uto...beat...Neji.." Malkeru managed to sound out. "He beat...the genius Hyuga.."

"That's Naruto for you!" Sakura was cheering now, and even Hinata was dancing around with the pink haired girl. Malkeru just sat there, completely awestruck. The idiot shinobi who finished dead last in their class beat the genius Hyuga who was said to be the one to definitely make Chunin this year.

As Malkeru sat there, he felt a pair of eyes on him. A normal person would have just been able to shake this feeling off and continue the celebration, but shinobi were not normal people. As Malkeru stole a few glances around him he noticed several ANBU black ops around him, but one of them seemed off to him. He had been extensively keeping track of every ANBU in an attempt to somehow win the favor of them. He had never seen this ANBU before and he knew he wasn't a new guy, ANBU were appointed at the same time as new Chunin to save the Hokage paperwork. Malkeru raised himself from his chair to investigate, but Hinata grabbed his arm. She had a worried look on her face, as if she didn't want him to leave.

"Where are you going Mal?" She asked, a tone of curiosity in her voice.

"Just..need a second to clear my head. Got a headache." Hinata let him go and he headed off toward the ANBU that had made the alarms in his head sound off.

"Hello!" Malkeru said, smiling. "How are you today?" The ANBU looked at him and although Malkeru couldn't read his face through the mask, he had a feeling that the ANBU wasn't all that happy about a kid bothering him.

"What do you need child?" The ANBU was short, nearly the same height as Malkeru. His white hair showed through the back of his mask and was pulled back into a pony tail.

"Oh, not much. I was just wondering something, and I thought you might be the perfect person to help me out. Someday I hope to become strong enough to become ANBU just like you, and I was hoping you could tell me what the first step is?" Malkeru faked his innocence the best he could, hoping to get the man to bite.

"Erm, sure kid." The masked man said. "The first step is to master one thousand jutsu, after that it's easy sailing."

'Got him' Malkeru thought to himself. As a child Malkeru had been even more intent on joining the ranks of ANBU, to the point he had spied on the Hokage as a personal mission to find out to become a member of the elite squad. Naruto had showed him the finer points of sneaking into the Hokage's office, as the blonde boy had been doing it most of his life to pull pranks on the man he called "Jiji".

Luckily for Malkeru, the one time he had actually been able to spy on the old mans office by crawling through the ventilation shaft, he had struck gold. He had stumbled onto a meeting the third Hokage was having with Danzo, the head of the ANBU black ops himself. The two men discussed many things, one of which was a list of new candidates for ANBU. Though no one knew exactly how the Hokage decided who he would nominate, Malkeru knew for a fact some of the people nominated barely knew ten jutsu let alone a thousand.

"Wow! One thousand Jutsu? That's incredible! You must know the Gokakyu no jutsu then if you know that many!" Malkeru said, again faking innocence and excitement.

"Er, ya, sure kid."

"Could you show me the hand signs for it? It's the one fire Jutsu I'm really struggling with, and no one will take the time to help me."

"What?"

"Please? I wanna be ANBU someday and if I need to learn one thousand Jutsu this is a good palce to start isn't it?!" Malkeru faked innocence, he doubted the faker knew much about him aside from what he had just demonstrated in the exam.

"Er sure. I'll show you the hand signs, but I can't do any jutsu here in a crowded place."

"Of course." Malkeru raised his hands below his eyes as if he was watching close, hiding his Sharingan. After all, he didn't know how fast the man could fake his way through hand signs. The Anbu performed a few hand signs before Malkeru stopped him.

"Those aren't the hand signs for Gokakyu no Jutsu." Malkeru said, performing the real hand signs. "These are. Just who are yo-" Before Malkeru could finish his accusation the masked man had hit him over the head, effectively knocking him unconscious. When Malkeru finally came to, his head throbbing, he found himself seated next to Hinata. Malkeru quickly looked around to get a bearing on his surroundings.

Kakashi had appeared next to Sakura, presumably returning Sasuke from his training. In the main area, Sasuke had his hand deep inside a large ball of what appeared to be sand. Blood trickled from a small cut in his arm, but it didn't look too bad.

"Oh, Mal! You're awake." Hinata said as she took notice of the stirring form next to her. "A nice Anbu agent brought you over, He said that you were complaining about being sick, then passed out while in front of him. We were going to take you to a hospital, but Kakashi said you'd be fine."

"And it appears I was right." The white haired Sensei said from his perch next to Sakura. "Besides, I really didn't want to miss Sasuke's match."

"Ya Mal, you even missed the best part! Sasuke learned Kakashi's raikiri! Although..he called his Chidori."

"Ya..where is the Anbu agent?" Malkeru said, trying to hide the obvious tone of worry in his voice."

"Uhhhh, I don't know." Hinata answered. "Why?"

"Because I don't think he's really AN-" As Malkeru spoke he became distracted by what appeared to be feathers falling down from the heavens. As Malkeru continued to watch he felt a weight gain on his shoulder, looking down to see Hinata had fallen asleep on his arm. Sakura rested her head on Kakashi's shoulders. Both shinobi looked at each other before realizing what was happening. "Genjutsu?" Malkeru asked his sensei. "But who has the skill to do one of this magnitude."

"I don't know Kakashi said, that's what worries me."

From behind them Malkeru the sound of an explosion ravaged Malkeru's ears, causing him to cover them to keep his ear drums from bursting any worse than they already were form his fight with Dosu.

"Operation Start!" a voice rang out from behind Malkeru as several shinobi jumped into action. They all wore the haite-ate of the sand village around their bodies, and the appeared to be dangerous.

"Damnit!" Malkeru said as he tried to compose himself. His ears were still ringing and his body was weak from his fight earlier. Kakashi and Gai Sensei appeared in front of Malkeru, successfully blocking the three shinobi that had tried to kill him while had had been distracted by his own injuries.

"Well my youthful rival, it appeared as if we have been tricked by ones who we called our allies. How unyouthful of them!"

"It would appear so Gai. Mal, it's genjutsu, so please dispel Hinata, Sakura, Naruto and Shikamaru." Malkeru looked behind him and noticed that two boys laid unconscious on the ground behind them. He hadn't even noticed them joining the group in his stupor from being knocked out.

"Yes sensei." Malkeru moved to each person, touching them and channeling chakra into them to disrupt the chakra flow on their brain caused by Genjutsu. "Kai!" he repeated as he reached each person, releasing them from the confines of the Genjutsu. When he got to Shikamaru his face drew into a scowl as he realized the boy hadn't been under a Genjutsu, just laying there the whole time.

"You lazy bastard..you've been free this entire time.."

Shikamaru just moaned "I didn't wanna be bothered...I don't give a damn about fighting.." Behind him Malkeru heard Kakashi mutter something about Orochimaru and his skin crawled.

'That crazy snake sanin? What the hell...'

"Malkeru. You are to help the Jonin rescue the villagers, kill any sand nin you see." Kakashi was still mid fight while telling all of this, but that didn't stop the precision and power of his strikes as he fell sand shinobi one after the other. "Sakura, Naruto, Shikamaru, hunt down Gaara and help Sasuke." As Kakashi finished killing another of what appeared to be a seemingly endless sea of shinobi, he bit his thumb and made a few quick hand signs saying: "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" (summoning technique) a small dog appeared, Malkeru instantly recognized him as one of Kakashi's nin-kin that he had summoned during the fight with Zabuza. "Pakkun will go with you."

"But Kakashi!" Malkeru protested. "I should be going with them to save Sasuke! He's my teammate!" Malkeru didn't feel it necessary to mention that Sasuke was also his twin brother, a fact Malkeru often wished he himself could forget.

"Malkeru, Orochimaru is after the Sharingan. If I sent you, I would be sentencing you to go through the same things Sasuke is right now. Trust me when I say this Malkeru, I am doing this out of my selfishness as a teacher not to want to see my students hurt. Now all of you, go!"

"Damnit." Malkeru said as he ran off. From the corner of his eyes he noticed two sand nin chasing a pair of little children, the eyes of the shinobi told Malkeru all he needed to know. They were going to kill those kids they caught him. Malkeru quickly body flickered in front of the two kids, pulling them out of harms reach as the two shinobi released a earth style jutsu where they had been.

Setting the kids down, Malkeru made the hand signs of his new favorite jutsu, the adrenaline coursing through his body pushing his speed to a level comparable to Kakashi. As lightning filled one of his hands, he quickly clapped them together, converting some of the chakra into both of his palms. As both of the men got into striking distance he launched himself, hands ready to strike.

"Daburu Rakiri!" (Double Lightning Blade) Malkeru roared as both of his hands found allowance in the chest of the two men. Malkeru let out a devilish smile as the familiar sound of a dead body hitting the ground filled his ears. Turning to face the children, he didn't even realize what a terrifying sight he was to the two civilians.

His blood red Sharingan seemed to glow with a demonic power, his frustration and anger channeling through them. His hands were now blood soaked and covered in various bodily gore that came with stabbing them through another human being. Malkeru quickly gave them an innocent smile in his best attempt to calm them. "Hey guys, I'm Malkeru." He said, holding out a blood soaked hand that the children unsurprisingly avoided.

As another shinobi charged them Malkeru dug into the pouch that lay on the side of his leg, digging out a kunai. Quickly he slashed upwards, causing crimson red gushes of blood to pour of the man's jugular veins. His limp body fell forward in front of the kids, possibly scaring them for the rest of their lives.

"Kids. It's okay." Malkeru said as he quickly carried the two small bundles away from the scene of carnage. They couldn't have been older than four or five and already they had seen their first death, it was something Malkeru wouldn't have wished upon his worst enemies. Yet, he had to cause his own villagers to go through it to save their life. When they were finally a safe distance away Malkeru set them down. He could see that they feared him, and he didn't blame them, they had just watched him kill three men with little effort after all.

"Guys. Look at me." Malkeru said as he deactivated his Sharingan. "I'm a normal person just like you, okay? Not all shinobi are like the bad man in there." Malkeru gestured to the bloodstained haite-ate that lay resting on his arm. "You see this? It's called a haite-ate, the symbol on it is the very symbol of our village. When I put this on, I swore I would die to protect the life of the people of this village if it came to it. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes m-m-mister" one of the kids said, his eyes were soaked with tears and he was sniffling pretty terribly. "But what should we do? We can't find our mommy or daddy anywhere."

Malkeru pointed at the Hokage statue. "The villagers are all going to be headed there, if your mom or dad made it out of the arena already that's where they'll be waiting." He gave them each a warming hand on the shoulder before continuing. "I need you guys to be brave now, okay. I have to stay here and help more people, so you're going to have to head there alone. You guys are small, so use that to your advantage. Stay low and keep in the shadows. If you see a leaf shinobi out there have them guide you the rest of the way. Remember, if they don't have the same symbol as me their bad guys and you need to avoid them. Got it?"

The two children nodded as they ran down the long hallway that led out of the arena. Malkeru took a deep breath before he continued into the fray that the chunin exams had turned into. Using a fire style jutsu, he managed to burn four more sand shinobi badly, bad enough that they would have to get a skin graft if they ever wanted to use their legs again without excruciating pain. To his left, Kakashi and Gai were both fighting harder than he thought was possible for two human beings.

"Yosh! My youthful rival, I have taken down fourteen sand shinobi! It appears so far I am winning our battle of eternal youth!" Gai called as he finished another shinobi with a flourish of kicks.

"...I'm sorry, did you say something Gai?" Kakashi said in his usual cool demeanor.

"Gah! Darn your cool and hip attitude Kakashi!"

"Malkeru!" Kakashi called to him, ushering him over.

"Yes sensei?" Malkeru called as he finished striking at the chest of a sand shinobi that was attempting to grab a woman escaping.

"Come and join my and Gai's contest, I'm interested to see how much you've grown during these exams." Kakashi gave Malkeru his signature 'eye smile' and sliced down two more sand nin, making it look like child's play.

"Hai sensei!" Malkeru called. Malkeru did his best to keep up with the speed and ferocity at which the two Jonin fought, even using his Sharingan to copy a few of their Taijutsu and Ninjutsu for later use. He soon found out though, there was a reason they were Jonin and he was only a Genin. By the time Malkeru had managed to strike down his twentieth opponent, Gai was already on his thirty-first, and Kakashi his thirty-fourth.

Every now and again Malkeru was able to spare a moment to cast a glance over at the Hokage's private booth, to check the progress on that front. Ever since the battle started, four sound nin had made a large black flame barrier around the Hokage, keeping ANBU from getting in. Malkeru silently prayed for the Hokage, someone strong and smart enough to deceive the entire village must truly be a terrifying foe.

After what seemed like hours, Malkeru stood panting and covered in blood from head to toe. Kakashi and Gai seemed to be equally tired, but at least they were all alive. Not as much could be said for the sea of corpses the three shinobi had created around them. Malkeru cast a nervous smile at his sensei as he tried to catch his breath, who returned it with his signature eye smile.

"You did good Malkeru, you really have grown." As Kakashi uttered those words the massive flame barrier dropped, and Malkeru and Kakashi noticed five blurs escaping from the midst of it. Malkeru doubted anyone without the fully matured Sharingan would have even noticed it, the speed behind whatever it could be was incredible.

Quickly and without pause the three men dashed for the Hokage's private booth, terror gripping at their heart. As they reached the large platform their eyes widened and their moods sunk and became somber. There, laying on the ground with a snake like sword protruding from his back, was the third Hokage. Malkeru wished he had never activated his Sharingan before jumping over here, he wished he could still have hope, but with his eyes he knew that their was no life beating within the chest of the man who had been like a kind old grandfather to everyone in the village.

"No.." Malkeru muttered. "It can't be.."

"How..can the old man be dead?" Kakashi asked seemingly no one and everyone. As a crowd began to gather, Malkeru felt himself becoming more and more distant with reality. The cold realization was finally hitting him. The Hokage was dead.