Kiyo leaned up against the tree as she finished creating the barrier. If anything passed through it, she would be alerted if she or Kanemaru didn't sniff them out first. Kabuto was sleeping normally inside the tent, the scroll tucked underneath his pillow. She had the contact in her left eye again, but it was closed for now. She didn't want a headache from searching through two different perspectives at once.

It's been about an hour sense Kabuto fell asleep. It's been pretty quiet. The shadows were shrinking as the sun reached it's peek. Kiyo shook her head, pulling out one of her scrolls. Her water canteen appeared and she took a quick drink out of it before sealing it back into the scroll.

Her mind began to wander as she looked up past the trees and at the clear sky. The memory that her mind chose to look at was conveniently, the first time she had met Kabuto. It was after Kiroichi's first mission as a squad leader. It went as smoothly as one could hope. Kabuto was on his team, and the two of them became good comrades. They fought well together, yet they also fought a lot. Kiyo would find them talking a lot, but she was pretty shy and didn't want to introduce herself.

"I was thinking you weren't gonna show up." Michio said.

I looked over my shoulder to see a boy about the same age as Michio and Kiroichi walk in. We were having a meal at Ichiraku Ramen's while Cho-Sensei was out on a mission. He had the shinobi leaf on his forehead.

"Yeah. Sorry for being so late guys." He said as he sat down next to Kiroichi. "Had to run an errand for my sensei." Then he turned his gaze to me. "You must be Kiyo." He said kindly. "I've heard so much about you from your teammates."

I had ducked behind Michio for a bit, composing myself, before looking back at him and nodded. "Hai. Kiyo Inuzuka."

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi." He smiled. "It's nice to finally meet you."

I felt my face flush and I hid behind Michio again. This resulted in hearing his laugh for the first time.

Kiyo was pulled off memory lane when she felt something cross the barrier. She looked around, listening for whatever it was. Then there was a soft rustle in the tree above her. She looked up to see it was a snake. A small snake, though. So it was fine. She stood up and jumped to the net tree. Problem solved.

She relaxed again, listening for something else. She heard Kabuto's deep breathing and Kanemaru's soft padding across the ground on the other side of camp. The soft hissing of the snake was there to. Kind of hard to forget that. Another sound was birds flying. One bird flew into the barrier, then out. Then in again, then out. Kiyo looked up, finding where it is. Once she did, she watched it. For a whole minute.

After this minute, she took a kunai and threw it. The bird stopped annoying her after that. It would probably become a meal for the snake instead. It was a win-win situation for Kiyo and the snake.

Kiyo opened her left eye to check in on Kanemaru. It was black. She began to panic as she shot to the other side of the campsite. Her didn't hear the soft padding of paws anymore either.

"Kanemaru?" She called softly as she landed on the ground. "Kanema-Oh." Kiyo closed her eyes and sighed.

Up against a tree was a curled up ball of black fur.

"You fell asleep, silly puppy." Kiyo said softly, picking him up. "It's okay. Just me. Go back to sleep." She said as she walked back towards the tent and crouched down, making sure she wouldn't get a kunai in the face as she set the sleepy puppy down inside.

Kakashi waved a hand as the three Genin ran of in their own directions. He probably should have told them about the exams earlier, but it took a lot of convincing to get the application papers. And he also had to come to an agreement about what Kiyo could do. The teams were made of three people, and three people only. And Kiyo was a Jonin. So she couldn't participate anyway. Not legally, at least. The Hokage had a talk with Ibiki, and the solution became Kiyo would help out during the first exam. She would know all the answers and she would have to ignore people cheating off of her.

One problem. Kiyo wasn't here. She hasn't shown up to any of the team meetings. When Naruto went to her apartment it was completely locked up. Kakashi locked up his apartment whenever he was pulled off on a mission. Was Kiyo pulled off on an emergency mission?

Kakashi was going to the Hokage to find out.

"Come in, Kakashi." Hiruzen said as he felt the familiar chakra outside his window. He had been talking to the proctors about a few things. Letting them get an insight on who was participating and what to expect.

"Good afternoon." Kakashi said politely.

"Good afternoon to you to. How's your team doing? Did they take the news well?"

Kakashi nodded as he closed the window behind him. "They're just fine. They ran off to go start studying right after I told them it was in four days."

Hiruzen chuckled. "Well, they do have a lot to catch up on in four days. And Kiyo? She hasn't come in asking questions so I assume you told her?"

Kakashi frowned. "No..." He said slowly. "I actually haven't told her yet."

"Oh?" Hiruzen questioned.

"I actually came here concerning Kiyo. She hasn't shown up to any of our team meetings. And her apartment is locked up. I believed she was on a mission." Kakashi said, his voiced laced with worry.

Hiruzen frowned as well. "I haven't sent her out on any mission. And she hasn't come to me, saying she's been invited on a mission."

"So she's missing." Kakashi stated bluntly.

Hiruzen nodded. "It appears so."

Kakashi sighed, closing his eye.

"I'm going to send a team out to find her. You stay here and not make their job harder. Understood?" Hiruzen said, knowing what the silver-haired Jonin was thinking.

"...Hai...Kakashi said calmly.

"We'll find her. And you'll be the first to know." Hiruzen said with a small smile. "Now, you go have a good night's rest. I have do look through all these reports before I get to retire." He added with a light chuckle.

Kakashi nodded with a small smile, now back to his usual self. "I would say I wish I could help you, but I'm afraid you'll take me up on that offer."

"Get out of here before I decide you can help me." Hiruzen said jokingly and the Jonin was off. Out the door this time. He turned his attention to the ANBU standing off to the side. "You know what to do."

"Hai."