Hiruzen Sarutobi looked over toward the Kazekage and couldn't miss the disappointment radiating off of the man as Sasuke was defeated after what was no doubt a spectacular match in which both participants revealed skills that had been an experimental project.

The Hokage supposed it was the fact that Gaara would now not be able to fight a match against Sasuke, but there was still something under it that irked him.

He set that aside for the moment as he turned toward his aide.

"Call for an intermission, Raido," he said. "We can get these last three fights out of the way and have two left for tomorrow."

The scarred man nodded and vanished down toward the arena floor to pass the information along.


"That foolish boy," Orochimaru thought. "Dabbling in such worthless and self-defeating arts. Kabuto should not have allowed his task to be interrupted so easily. If he had kidnapped the boy then."

The creature, not precisely human any longer, frowned quietly as he considered this situation.


Takeshi looked up as Nodoka returned to the box in an obvious state of anger before she sat down again.

"You have missed most of the fights," he said.

"I suddenly found that I had things to attend to," Nodoka said brusquely.

"This last fight featured a girl by the name of Saotome," her brother-in-law said.

"Certainly I would not allow any daughter of mine to take part in such a masculine and common affair," Nodoka protested.

"Common," Takeshi repeated with something of a laugh. "We've had two Hyugas, an Uchiha and two of the children of a Kage of one of the Great Villages. Nobility is very well represented."

Nodoka bridled in uncomfortable silence as her mind cast further back.


"I'm not sure what you mean," Nodoka said, sipping her tea.

"Our families our dying out, Auntie Saotome," her visitor said idly. "The Tendos are all women, the name will die when we marry, assuming we do."

"I understood that your step-mother was pregnant with a boy," Nodoka said with a frown.

"Yeah, if she survives long enough," her visitor noted, drinking a cup of sake down in a sophisticated manner, though not touching the tea. "Happosai shut her down pretty well, and I don't know that Daddy can finish curing her metabolism issues before they finish killing her...oh, and the baby of course."

She sounded as if she was discussing a unfortunate set back, as if the situations did not really concern her. She took another sip out of her sake bowl, coughing she did so such that her sip became a gulp. A frown covered her face then and she displayed a bit more emotion than she had in discussing her step-mother's plight.

"I can certainly understand the situation with your family," Nodoka said, sipping her tea as her visitor composed herself. "But I do not think that my own is in the same situation, Nabiki-chan."

"Really, Auntie?" Nabiki asked, taking a breath as she did so and straightening her posture. "Akane and Ranma have been married for four years, have they had any children yet?"

"I was given to understand..." Nodoka started to say, frowning.

"That they were waiting while this war with Happosai was finished?" Nabiki asked. "I find it more likely that one or both of them took one too many blows to the wrong pieces of anatomy."

"Really, to speak in such a vulgar manner, Nabiki-chan," Nodoka said, frowning, but it did make her worried.

"And if they are waiting," Nabiki said, ignoring the lecture. "What if one of them dies on this war?"

"That would ne..." she hesitated.

Nabiki shook her head and sipped her sake again.

"I had a remedy in mind for them," Nabiki said in exaggerated pity. "Something I picked up in recent business. But if it's an injury, I doubt a fertility remedy will work."

"What is this remedy?" Nodoka asked.

Nabiki smiled across at her.

"While we're at it, I do have some martial arts tomes that Genma might be interested in as well," Nabiki said.


She had gone to such expense and lengths to insure her family's continuation and not only had it proved to be unnecessary, but it had proven a failure.

Her daughter was clearly a disobedient and insolent ruffian. Not the refined lady she had tried to raise. Perhaps she should not have allowed the girl the conceit of martial training.

But then she was from a martial family.

It made her head hurt just trying to think it through.

No, she decided eventually, there was no mistake on her end, clearly all the fault had to lay with her husband and her disobedient daughter. And said daughter was shielded by that wandering old maid that had been adopted into the Tendos.

There couldn't be another explanation.


"Great job, Ryoko-chan!" Naruto declared as Ryoko came into the waiting area to join the others.

"Th...thank you," she said. "But I ma..made many mistakes."

"You still won," Hinata reminded her.

"Hai," Ryoko said before turning toward Kiba. "Our match is next, K...Inuzuka-san?"

"Yeah, they just announced it will be in fifteen minutes," he said before glancing to her bandaged hands. "Are you going to be okay to fight then?"

"H...hai," Ryoko agreed, bowing.

"Are you doing okay?" Hinata asked.

Ryoko blinked in confusion for a moment.

"Ano?"

"About your...mother," Hinata clarified.

"Oh..." Ryoko said, flushing. "Sh...she was not still upset...was she?"

"Who cares if she was upset?" Naruto snapped.

"Uzumaki-san!" Ryoko responded sharply. "I do...I do..."

She sighed and leaned on the railing, wondering what she should do from this point on. If Mother was faulty, how would she, Ryoko, be able to decide the direction of her life.

She couldn't spend her life just fighting all the time, however much fun it was. But the driving purpose of her life was something that she had practically just spat in the face of.

It was so confusing.

Shikamaru frowned as he watched the exchange.

"Is someone going to explain matters?" he asked, hated being left out of some of the information.

Though he'd figured out most of it. Ryoko's mother had appeared and done something that pissed off even Hinata, which made it unlikely to be something petty given Hinata's respect for elders. The end result had Ryoko feeling less certain than usual and being robbed of some of her normal friendly, if skittish, hyperness.

He just wished the "what" part of it was explained.


Ino was still staring in shock when Anko and Sakura returned from wherever they had been.

"So, the Saotome girl won?" Anko asked.

"Uh huh," Choji said. "That Saotome girl was a really strong opponent."

"You're kidding," Sakura said. "She's so easy to push around, you'd think she was made of air."

"I don't know, she struck me as something of a blood knight," Anko said, shrugging. "A rather nervous blood knight, but still."

"Blood knight?" Sakura asked.

"It's what you call people who fight for the thrill of fighting," Anko explained.

"She was a quite determined opponent," Lee confirmed.

"There has to have been a fluke," Sakura noted, sitting down.

"No way," Ino finally said.


"So," Kurumi asked Gai as the intermission was called. "Where do you want me to go?"

She looked around and spotted an Anbu sitting in the back of the stadium.

"Maybe we should go talk to him?" she suggested idly.

Gai glanced over and himself wondered what an Anbu was doing in such an open and clear place. Said Anbu turned to glance toward them briefly as they started to walk his direction and Gai thought he saw a hand sign made under the thick robes the man was wearing.

"Hey," Gai said coming up to the man's side. "We need to speak to..."

As Gai clapped a hand on the robe, it collapsed in on itself, as if empty of any sort of bearer.

"What is this?" Gai demanded, looking around and thinking ahead. "He used a body flicker technique to leave in a hurry, and left the robes and the mask floating behind as a decoy. Very skilled. Kabuto?"

"I didn't even feel a shift," Kurumi thought as the man's chi after-image slowly faded away. "This one is good."


Kabuto took in a deep sigh of relief. That had been close, and now, without a clear disguise, he was in something of a difficult position for laying out his genjutsu.


"Did you lose purposefully?" Kakashi asked casually as Sasuke came to his side.

"No," Sasuke said. "She beat me fairly. I made mistakes she took advantage of them."

It rankled to say that however.

"I assume you've already challenged her to a rematch," Kakashi noted.

"What do we need to look for?" Sasuke asked, putting that subject away.

Kakashi glanced down toward him curiously, but didn't press the issue.


"All right! Onechan kicked ass!" Joseibi called out loudly.

"She's a strong one indeed, kit," Tsume said approvingly. "Very strong indeed."

"I still need to talk to her about that notebook of hers," Hana noted.

"Which notebook?" Joseibi asked, curiously. "Because she's been saying one's missing but whenever I ask which one she just gets flustered and embarrassed."

"Never mind," Hana said, blushing slightly.

"Like that," Joseibi noted.


A man and woman walked up toward where Kinnosuke sat, a little out of the way of the normal crowd.

"Kurumi is here," one of them said. "If I hadn't seen her from a distance first she would have noticed us. You never said anything about trying to snatch someone out from under a Master's eyes."

"Little Mikado thinks she still holds a grudge," the woman said coquettishly.

"For the uninvited kiss," Kinnosuke asked knowingly. "Or for...hurting one of her students."

"Let's discuss such things later," Sanzenin said. "Is that girl we saw in the arena the target you're looking to catch?"

Kinnosuke smiled.


Baki held his breath as he glanced about. Konoha was getting more active and alert every moment. He and his team, as well as the other raiders, had very little time before they were finally noticed.

"Gaara's next match will have to be it," he decided.


Genma looked up and around before checking the time and nodding.

"All right, everybody return to your seats as you can, the intermission is done with," he shouted. "Kiba Inuzuka against Ryoko Saotome!"


Kiba looked towards Ryoko as their names were called.

"Are you sure you're ready to fight?" Kiba asked.

"Hai!" Ryoko said a bit too insistently. "I will n..not l...lose this time, Inuzuka-kun. Pl..please fight with all your might."

She nodded fiercely and turned about to head for the arena.

Kiba widened his eyes and took a deep breath before looking uncertainly toward the other Konoha genin in the room.

"Whatever happened with her mother, the fighting is keeping it off her mind," Shikamaru said idly, without prompting. "And it might just be too troublesome to deal with it right now, so for now just go and keep it off her mind."

"Umm, she looks like she has fun," Hinata said quietly by way of agreement.

"And there's no way you're putting her in the hospital again after that fight with Sasuke," Naruto said. "At worst you're just going to knock her out."

Kiba glared at Naruto.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata sighed.

"What?" he asked.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and turned to look toward the two Suna shinobi as they looked up toward the stands towards their jonin instructor and their brother.


Ryoko walked down to the floor of the arena thinking of her last two matches with Kiba.

He had to have somehow innately mastered the Haoto no Suzumebachi, only instead of trying to irritate his opponents so that they would make mistakes, he lulled them into a sense of boredom until they weren't paying the attention they should have been.

It was a very devious trap indeed, and maybe something she should look toward employing herself. Though she didn't think she would enjoy such a strategy.

Indeed, at first, she had just thought that she was that much better and faster than him. Enough so that she had felt safe in trying an experiment in the middle of the fight that had no bearing on the fight at hand.

As soon as she did, however, wham, she was concussed and it took her months and lots of help from Kodachi-sama and Ebisu-sensei to remember what she'd figured out in that moment.

The second fight was much the same, she'd told herself over and over that she couldn't be distracted. And then she'd seen...something, she still couldn't remember. The concussion that resulted that time had prevented whatever it was that had distracted her from reaching her long term memory.

Right now she was doing the same thing as she marched down toward where the referee was, this time reinforcing it vocally.

"Do not get distracted. Do not get distracted. Do not get distracted."

Genma Shuranai arched an eyebrow at her and then turned to look at where Kiba was approaching, Akamaru on his head.

"Don't send her to the hospital again. Don't send her to the hospital."

He arched the other eyebrow and looked between both Ryoko and Kiba.

"Are you two sure you're ready for this?" he asked.

"Hai!" Ryoko said firmly.

"Yeah," Kiba said, somewhat less assured.

Sakura looked down at the two fighters facing each other and frowned as she leaned forward.


Kiba Inuzuka and Ryoko Saotome.

Last time she'd seen these two anywhere near each other, Kiba had put Ryoko into the hospital when he'd knocked her unconscious some fifteen feet over the ground.

Never mind the question of how Ryoko had gotten that high, or the fact that she had gotten the second round of the final round of the Chunin Exam with Sasuke as her first fight.

Nope, what stuck in Sakura's mind was that Kiba had kicked the, to her mind, harmless Ryoko unconscious and put her into the hospital a second time in two days.

"Isn't anybody going to do something about this?" she muttered, aggression coming to the fore.

"I could say a prayer for Kiba's soul," Ino noted quietly.

"Certainly he has been training for this," Lee said. "And they have faced each other before right?"

"This sounds like it will be good," Anko said.


"That looks like a lot of tension down there," Asuma noted. "Didn't I overhear that girl complaining about being taken lightly at the preliminaries?"

"That's right," Kurenai said. "And she lost that fight. Apparently due to a moment of distraction. Same with the second fight they had the next day."

"She doesn't seem the type to be distracted in a fight," the older jonin noted. "So this is revenge?"

"From what I've heard," Kurenai said. "She talks like these rematches are a holiday. The first one was meant to cheer her up."

"So, you're saying third date then?" Asuma asked.

"That's about the size of it," the genjutsu expert noted with a smile.


"Go ahead and begin," Genma noted.

Ryoko didn't wait this time, but stepped forward immediately into an attack, swinging her bokken in a tight circle while she made the hand sign to stir her chakra in her free hand.

Akamaru leaped off of Kiba's head and bounded to the side as Kiba bent his back under the striking bokken and flipped over the kick that Ryoko followed up with.

"Gah," Kiba gasped as he stepped back to break contact wondering why Ryoko suddenly decided to go against her normal tactics of waiting for the opponent to come to her.

Akamaru leaped in from behind Ryoko though the dark haired girl ducked aside of the dog, feeling the approach of his chi. The distraction gave Kiba the chance to reach into his pocket for some food pills as he dodged out of the way.

One of those pills he swallowed, but the other he tossed across toward Akamaru.

Ryoko stepped forward immediately and snatched the food pill with her free hand before Akamaru could snag it out of the air and swallow it. She tossed it across the arena then, until it hit the far side of the field.

Akamaru and Kiba shared a look even as the girl turned toward him, swinging her bokken.

"Su...sumimasen, Inuzuka-san," Ryoko said with a slight smile. "I'm not losing this time."

Kiba swung up to divert the bokken away and slashed inward with one hand as another reached for his food pills.

Ryoko's free hand blocked the hand strike at the risk and then she intercept another tossed food-pill with her bokken. Akamaru darted in landing on her back briefly before she flipped backwards and sending him spilling to the ground below.

"I thought you wanted me to use the Gatsuga this time!" he snapped as he stepped forward past his friend in an attempt to push Ryoko backwards.

"H...hai, but, I shall not m...make it easy," Ryoko noted as she blocked one blow and slashed down with her bokken.

For the past month, Kiba had been faced with the possibility of facing either Sasuke or Ryoko in a fight. The problem had been that while both were stronger than him over all, they were stronger in different ways.

Sasuke was smarter, and had a better foundation in ninjutsu and genjutsu, though their taijutsu had been comparable and Kiba was physically stronger and faster than Sasuke.

Ryoko was a short range fighter, faster than Kiba and more skilled in what she called "kempo". But she hadn't had any real ninjutsu, still didn't. However, her reflexes were sharper, as if she was seeing and recognizing moves earlier.

Her sword skills were cleaner as well.

That was to say that she actually had sword skills now.

He reached into his pocket intending to drop food pills behind him for Akamaru to snatch up and start the Man-Beast Clone jutsu. Ryoko nodded as she recognized what was happening and twisted around behind him as he dropped the pills behind him.

Of course, instead of small crunchable pills, Kiba cursed as he found himself dropping a handful of smoke balls in his wake. Ryoko stepped forward, expecting the food pills and focused entirely on looking out for being distracted, failed to note the difference and as her foot came down on the larger orbs, two things happened.

First, the smoke bombs went off and, second, she felt herself hurtling forward into the arena ground.


Hinata, watching with her byakugan, winced as Ryoko essentially knocked herself unconscious in that trip, though most of the other people in the arena found themselves blocked by the cloud of smoke rising up around her and Kiba.

"Kiba-kun wins," Hinata said with a sigh.

"Did he really win or just sort of win?" Naruto ask.

"Sort of win," Hinata said.

"How can you sort of win?" Shikamaru asked as the smoke down blow cleared away to review Kiba in stance and looking confused moments before showing Akamaru sniffing at Ryoko's unconscious form.

"Ryoko-chan slipped on the smoke bombs," Hinata said.

"Your kidding," Shikamaru said.


"This girl beat that Uchiha kid?" Anko asked.

"Oh, I knew this was going to happen," Sakura said, narrowing her eyes under her sunglasses.


"Don't say it," Kurenai said. "They're twelve year old kids. Don't say it."

"Absolutely nothing out of my mouth about finishing early," Asuma noted.

Kurenai shook her head and glared at him.


"And that, Ryoko-chan," Kurumi said, wincing in sympathy. "Is karma for copying moves out of a manga."


Ryoko started to sit up, blinking and confused and found herself in the infirmary...again.

"Ano?" she said, looking around.

"See, Inuzuka-kun," one of the medics said. "She's perfectly fine, just a little dazed. If you hurry, in fact, you might still be able to catch most of the next fight."

"Kiba-kun?" she asked, showing that she was still a little dazed.

"Ah, Ryoko-chan," he said. "Are you okay?"

"Oh..." Ryoko said. "You dropped the smoke bombs in..instead of the food pills. I...I sh...shall not be so tr...tricked next time."

"Tricked?" Kiba said.

"I s..see why you have not used the complete Gatsuga ag..against me yet," she said, nodding. "I...I will train hard to match your skills Inuzuka-san!"

She declared it with something akin to a joyful glee that had the other people in the room staring at her.

"Umm, sure," Kiba said, wearily. "Whenever you want."

"Wai!" Ryoko said. "Thank you, Inuzuka-san! A...as s..soon as the chunin exam is finished an...and we ar..are both f..free of missions."

She clapped her hands together and hopped off the examination table.

"No, wait," the medical ninja called out just as Ryoko, balance still off, hit the ground and swayed forward into Kiba.

Immediately she pushed off, blushing.

"Su..sumimasen," she said. "I...I do n..not know what I was thinking, umm, I...I think Uzumaki-san is fighting after us."

And with that she hurried out of the room, balance fixing swiftly as she moved with the short shifting steps of a proper young lady.

Kiba gave the medics a slightly confused look.


"She looked happy," Kurenai said as Ryoko practically danced past her. "How's Neji?"

"He is still unconscious," Hiashi said. "But he is safe."

"Didn't she just lose?" Hanabi asked, pointing after Ryoko and changing the subject.

"Yeah," Kurenai said. "She did. Kiba said she slipped on some smoke bombs he dropped accidentally."

"And...she's happy?" Hanabi asked, confused.

"She's convinced that I'm some sort of super genius and she's bound and determined to train hard and beat me," Kiba said as he entered the hallway.

There was a distinct irritation to his statement.

"It wouldn't be so bad if I knew for sure all that training was enough to actually beat her," Kiba said. "But these accidental victories...are..."

A door slammed open down the hallway revealing an angry pink-haired girl.

"Oh hell," Kiba said rolling his eyes, unaware of just how dangerous Sakura could be now.

"Kiba," she said. "You did it again."

Kurenai, on the other hand was a bit more of the potential for trouble here, and stood up in between her student and the pink-haired girl.

"Haruno-san," Kurenai said soothingly. "You need to calm down."

"You're not going to defend him, are you?" Sakura asked. "She's harmless and..."

Anko stepped in and grabbed Sakura by the back of her collar, pulling her back.

"Sorry, Kurenai," she said with a weary sigh. "Sakura-chan here still seems to leap before she looks, I'll work it out of here, don't worry."

"But he..." Sakura protested as Anko dragged her out of the hallway.

Silence reigned for several seconds in the hall outside the infirmary.

"You have a weird love-life," Hanabi said to Kiba, drawing several looks toward her.

"I have a weird what!" Kiba demanded loudly.


"We're leaving," Anko said seriously to Sakura. "You're not keeping yourself together."

Sakura was sitting down in a seat nearby in one of the lesser used hallways.

"I'm sorry, I just..." Sakura started to say.

"Yeah, it was a bit too soon," Anko said. "You're too defensive and touchy right now. All we just did was add to the rumors that are going to be coming out of the hospital already."

"And then everyone is going to either hate me or be afraid of me," Sakura asked.

"I went through that," Anko said. "One of your classmates has too."

"You mean, Sasuke?" Sakura asked, sounding a bit bitter.

"I thought you liked the Uchiha kid," the examiner noted.

"I...I don't know anymore," Sakura said. "He's...cold. Last time he talked to me...it wasn't nice. And trying to prove myself...made this happen. But nobody hates him."

"I wasn't talking about him," Anko said. "And before you ask, I can't say anything more. We're going to say bye to your crazy little blonde friend, and then we're heading back home, got it? Maybe try some of those meditations I taught you."

Sakura sighed and nodded before standing up.

They walked a little ways down the corridor and turned a corner before finding themselves facing another man coming down the stairs. Sakura looked up and frowned as she tried to place the white-haired man in the glasses above them, but Anko recognized him immediately.

"Sakura," she said. "Change of plans. We're going to capture a traitor, then leave."

"Anko Mitarashi," Kabuto said. "It's interesting to officially meet the ex...apprentice."